16 January, 2008 - Discouragement

Disclaimer:
Any offence is never intended for what's gonna be written in this entry.

Today, there was a mini discussion between Edwin, Sarah and me about how the word "nah beh" came about. According to Edwin, "nah beh" means your father. "Nah bu" means your mother, "ning bei" means my father and "ning bu" means my mother. Went home did some research with "who else"..

The evolution of the hokkien word "nah beh"...
KNnBCcB -> KNnB -> KNn -> nB ...the word gets shorter and shorter and became NAH BEH hahaha

Legend:
K-Kan

N-Neh

n-na

B-Bu

C-Chao

c-chee

B-Bye

That's hokkien vulgarities for ya.

Went to Mum-In-Law's place for dinner after work today. So good to have home cooked food :) Then there is "Deal or No Deal on TV" and it was time to drool over Adrian Pang and 26 hunks tonight hahaha

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Here is something i read in a book this evening...to all those who are tired and discouraged with what life has got to offer...for now.

Why is discouragement such a dreaded disease? First, because it is universal. All of us get discouraged. I do, you do, we all do. Discouragement is common. Even Christians get discouraged. Second, because it's recurring. You can get discouragement a number of times. It's not just a one-time thing. Third, because it is highly contagious. Other people can get discouraged because you are discouraged. But the good news is discouragement is also curable.

Why do people get discouraged? The first reason is fatigue. The people in Judah said,"The strength of the laborers is giving out." In other words, they had worked a long time and were just plain worn out-physically and emotionally drained.

There is a second reason why people get discouraged. The people said,"There is so much rubble that we cannot build the wall." That's frustration. They were discouraged and frustrated. What's rubble? They were building a new wall, but old broken rocks were everywhere, along with dirt and dried out mortar. When they looked at the rubble and the debris they got discouraged. They lost sight of their goal because there was so much junk in their lives that they didn't know how to get to the real business of living.

You can't avoid the rubbish in life, but you can learn to recognise it and you can learn what to do with it so that you don't give up on your original plan. Why do fatigue and discouragement come about? Look at verse six:"So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height." Do you know when you're apt to get discouraged the most? When you are halfway through a project. Everybody works hard at first. These people "worked with all their heart". Why? Because of the newness of the project. It was novel at first, but after awhile the newness wore off and the work got boring. Life settled down into a rut, then a routine, then a ritual.

Here is the 80/20 principle: About 80% of our time is usually spent on the 20% of our activities that are not productive. As a result, we are frustrated. What we need to do instead is to spend 80% of our time on the 20% of our job that produces the most results. Managers call this ROI time - "Return On Investment" time. In other words, use the maximum time on those few things that get the greatest results.

When you get discouraged, get your mind off your circumstances and on the Lord. For circumstances depress and discourage. Don't yield to discouragement without a fight. Resist discouragement. Fight it. Don't give in to it, but resist it.

You do not have to be discouraged in life. It's your choice. You may choose to give in to it. But great people simply refuse to be discouraged. They don't know how to quit. They never give up even when they're fatigued and frustrated and have failed and are fearful. Great people are ordinary people with extraordinary amounts of persistence. They just hang in there and never give up.

Never lose sight of your goal. :)