A dash of this, a pinch of that...

It’s amazing how stubbornly people hold onto their perceptions without even making the effort of finding out for themselves whether it’s true. If the sibling thinks this is directed at her, then she can rest assured: not everything is about her. This observation holds true for me as much as for others.

I try not to dismiss something totally if I have not tried it out. Which probably explains why I tried to indoctrinate myself into church at various parts of my growing life before I decided, no, organized religion is not for me. Noticed I said “at various parts of my life”. Yes, I even gave it a few tries, not only one before I decided it’s not for me. That fact with religion may hold true now but I do know that the fact may change in the future. After all, in life the only certainty is change.

I try not to organize my conclusions around assumptions and from what I hear from people. After all, everyone has their own perception of an event. There is no one perception that is alike and no one’s perception is 100% the same as mine. I am aware of that.

And I don’t understand how people can dismiss something entirely from what they think they feel about something, take Asiaworks for example. I wouldn’t know what it actually is, even though my friend might be gushing about it and I may totally hate it because I think it is a form of brainwashing. I won’t know till I try it out for myself. And I’ll reserve the harshest judgment till I’ve actually tried it myself.

Since I’m on the subject of Asiaworks, I might as well talk about it. Yes, I’m a recent graduate of the training course. And yes, I think it was helpful to me in certain ways. But I also do know that it is just a training course and I didn’t expect a “breakthrough” like some people feel it is or say it is. My “breakthroughs” came earlier and through different methods via different people while going through different events in life. So no, it didn’t make such a big difference to me. But it did help me see certain things and I can see where I can use some of it’s methodology in parts of my life. Yes, certain parts of the course were really corny and I know that the lights are dimmed, a certain kind of music is played and certain things are said to evoke emotion from people. It is all part of the training and the course structure. And yes, I do feel that some people read too much into the whole thing or are overzealous. But then again, we are all different and we take different things out of the course that we feel we can use or that apply to us.

There was a bit too much emotion being emoted at certain times. And I only emoted because of the stimulus around me. I didn’t have to but like I said, certain things are done to generate certain emotions which translate into results. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be a training course.

Contrary to what’s been written about the training, I think the trainer we had was very professional and effective. No, he wasn’t rude but he did force us to confront what was uncomfortable to us. He even mentioned at the beginning of the course that it is his job to do that, not to be nice to us. And that whatever he is doing is part of the course structure and the way it is designed to effect maximum results. So we go into the whole thing with that knowledge.

And contrary to what’s been told, we are not restricted from leaving the room to go pee or cater to whatever important bodily functions that we need to do. But there was one request from the trainer during one of the exercises where he asked us to respect the person on the mike and to try not to leave the room while they were speaking. After all, he reasoned, if you can hold your bladder during a movie, you should be able to hold your bladder while someone is telling you something that is important to them. Which made total sense to me. And no, there was no admonishment when someone really had to go cater to their bladder.

Oh, and the handphone thing? It’s only reasonable that you switch off your handphone when you’re in a course, meeting, seminar or movie, right? How many times have you been annoyed by some idiot’s handphone going off in the middle of a movie or a seminar even though right in the beginning before the movie starts, that ad comes on and tells you to switch off the phone? I’ve never been to a movie without having a handphone go off on me. So I think it’s only a fitting response that when someone’s handphone goes off during the course, the trainer zooms in on the person, asks him/her to acknowledge the fact and to reassure everyone else there that it will not happen again. If that is not a reasonable request, what is? Because we all know, that if the trainer doesn’t do it (and probably embarrasses or scare the shit out of whoever whose handphone rang) another person’s handphone will probably go off. People who couldn’t be bothered to turn off or slience their handphones before a course, movie or an event that requires the handphone to stay silent, deserve to be treated like scum. Because it just shows they have no respect for others. So every time the trainer singled out someone when their handphone rang, inside I was cheering, “Serve them right!!”

I found the whole emotion thing a bit overboard for me. Like when people started getting weepy when we were acknowledging the “staff” for volunteering. Didn’t sound like a big deal to me. And I found the enthusiasm before the course rather grating and annoying. But then again, that’s me. Soppiness just makes me go “iieerrrr” or “bah”. I feel stuff like that is pretentious but the reverse may be true for other people.

Like I’ve said before, what you take out of it is what you put into it. I went in with reservations and without expectations. But overall, I think I’ve come out a better person because I am treating my parents better and am more patient. It’s not that I didn’t know that I should before I did the course, it’s just that I’ve re-prioritised the importance of my parents in my life. And that was the main area that I wanted to work on anyway.

It’s not like I didn’t know about myself what the course taught me. I knew that the trainer was telling me what I already knew. And I knew what were the changes that I needed to make. All this I knew. And yes, I had to be RM1700 shorter. I’m not any different essentially, I still think some of the stuff at Asiaworks is corny and that some of the people there are scary. So what? At the end of the day, I take away what I want to and apply in my life what I feel is right and good. If it means that my mom is happier because of it (because I’m more patient with her now), then it’s worth it.

When is the last time you hugged your mom and why haven’t you?