If you had to summarise your life using only three key words what would they be and why?
THIS IS SO TOUGH! But of course, I am up for this challenge. So after spending a couple of minutes running through my mind and reflecting on all 30 years of ups and downs, here's the three key words that I have chosen!
CONTENTED
According to the dictionary, this means "feeling or expressing happiness or satisfaction". I was contemplating between choosing happy and contented but I opted for the latter because happy felt more generic. In fact, contented would have been the choice if I could pick just one word.
I chose contented because that's a feeling that I have always resonated with my entire life. I always believe we should be contented with what we have, and to count our blessings. And I would like to think that I am quite easily contented. I live a simple and prudent life and I am grateful with what I have and always remind myself to not take things for granted.
Sometimes, it's not easy as well. I have been labelled by others as "unambitious" or "lack of drive or hungry", as people feel that they should never settle or be satisfied with what they have. These people go all out to chase for progression in the career ladder, and strive to upgrade their current housing to a bigger one, you get what I mean. By being contented with an average pay, an average and simple life, they feel that I am losing out in an aspect of the luxurious lifestyle. But like it or not, that's me. I know what's important to me in my life and I focus on what I want to achieve in life.
INTROVERTED
This has to be appear somewhere for sure. All my life, I knew I was quite an introvert and always like to be in own bubble and dislike big social settings. And when I entered the workforce, I recalled they made all the newcomers do the Myler Briggs Personality Test, or more commonly known as the MBTI type, the test result showed that I was all the way on the extreme end of the Introvert-Extrovert scale. This means that I am not just an average introvert, I am probably more introverted than most of the introverts. Haha. But of course, it was no surprise and I didn't need a test to tell me that.
The reason being introverted is a big part of my life is because I was constantly evolving over the years to accept and manage my introversion. It was only until the recent years where I knew introverts like me needed time to recharge and I would make sure I set aside "me time" after social settings because I knew I would be tired after all the meetups. I have learnt to also cope with solitude, which meant doing many things on my own and enjoying the process, just like how I am writing this entry on Hive.
Same with the earlier word, I also faced challenges earlier in my life. I was always deemed as the "anti-social" person who would be quiet and not a "fun" person to hang out with. When I meet people, especially new ones, I had to cope with a lot of awkwardness and some people thought I was weird. But it got better over the years as I grew up, it's definitely easier to strike up conversations with people now.
FUTURISTIC
It's not a common word, but I chose this word because I would always remember the circumstances that led to my self discovery of my "hidden" attribute of myself.
It was during a work retreat when we were tasked to do the Clifton Strengths assessment so that "colleagues will know one another better". Yes, another personality test. Basically, they have 34 attributes and they would provide each person his/her top 5 attributes.
And Futuristic was my 2nd highest attribute in my report. Why was this memorable? This was because in my entire department of about 30 people, I was the only person with this attribute in my top 5. I remembered one colleague exclaimed in surprise, and it was a surprise to many, that this quiet and responsible worker had a Futuristic attribute. Have extracted the summary online on what it means to have a Futuristic attribute.
Source: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252248/futuristic-theme.aspx
This assessment was done in 2018, and to be honest, I didn't think too much of it. But looking back now, everything seemed to make sense now. Maybe that's why I always plan for my future, and in fact, I enjoy it very much. Maybe that's why I believe in crypto, and am interested to learn more about it, while most people don't. Looking at this assessment, it seemed very accurate indeed, and I must say they discovered a part of me which I didn't realise until several years later. So it's an amazing self discovery (and if not for this Weekend Engagement series, I might not have reflected so much and realised this, hehe!).
I snapped this photo when I was lazing at the pool earlier and it started to drizzle. I feel like this is so apt for the post, because just like how the sky is mysterious to us, and the weather is unpredictable, life is not too different. There will always ups and downs, but I will always stay contented and have a sense of gratitude, be an independent and confident introvert, and have optimism that things will be turn out better in the future. Thanks for reading!
