How happy are you at the moment?

I was reading a book about developing happiness in daily living and found this simple scale interesting. It was devised by psychologist Edward Diener, the founding father of happiness research in the 1980s. The scale has been widely used by researchers.

Read the following five statements. Then used a 1 - 7 scale to rate your level of agreement. I found the same scale on Oprah.com, go to the link below if you wish to do it on Oprah's website.

Scale:
Not at all true (choose either 1 or 2)
Moderately true (choose 3, 4 or 5)
Absolutely ture (choose 6 or 7)


Statements:
1. in most way my life is close to my ideal ( )

2. the conditions of my life are excellent ( )

3. I am satisfied with my life ( )

4. so far, I have gotten the important things I want in life ( )

5. if I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing ( )


Scoring:
31 to 35 - you are extremely satisfied with your life
26 to 30 - very satisfied
21 to 25 - slightly sattisfied
20 - neutral point
15 to 19 - slightly dissatisfied
10 to 14 - dissatisfied
5 to 9 - extremely dissatisfied


I do not have anger in my life at the moment but a little dissatisfaction to iron out. Am working on it and hope my dissatisfaction will decrease :))

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Satisfaction-with-Life-Scale

A friend in need

New entry, 8 May 2011:

Last month, I was asked by a friend to read: 'Secrets of the millionaire mind' by T. Harv Eker. I have not been reading any motivational book for the past 15 years - especially books on how to be rich! I don't buy the stuff they wrote and actually kept my distance from such books. However, since I am not reading any book in particular at the moment, I decided to give the book a try.

Wow, I was in for a surprise ~ he is one provocative speaker! His first chapter, 'Your Money Blueprint', had me saying to myself, "He is right, it does make sense." I was thinking of Pavlov's and Skinner's human conditioning and behavioural reinforcement theories. Most of the stuff he wrote, does indeed make sense and I am thinking of re-reading it.

Now, the reason I added this new entry here is to stress a point that Harv Eker has made, ie. "rich people are excellent receivers, poor people are poor receivers." Frankly speaking, I don't want to be rich for the sake of being rich, but I want to live a life that enable me to help people unconditionally. I can't be there if I don't have financial freedom :(

Relating to the last entry in this post, in the last paragraph, I wrote: "I am humbled to have them as my friends." Now, if I were to apply what Harv Eker said ~ I am not a good receiver. I should instead say to myself, "I am glad there are such good people around me and I need more good people." It is true that what you focus on expands, thus if I say that, I am placing focus on more good people coming to help me, hence the law of the universe will make it happen.

Reading this book got me thinking of my definition of authentic person/authentic living. If you noticed, since my first post (4 Jan 2010), I did not give a description on what I think authentic person/authentic living is all about. Honestly, I had felt that it is very individualised and subjective, ie. you live on what you think is true not based on what others think you should be like. I have given this some thought and may come up with my own definition some time soon :)
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Entry on 6 May 2011:

I am thankful to have a staff who has turned into a very good friend ~ if I were to say in so much as I need something or missed eating something - she will get it for me in a day or two or cook/buy for me; and most recently I was looking for a place to relocate my centre - she (together with her husband) went round the neighbour hood and immediately let me know where there are houses for rent, even get the hp numbers for me. The relocation had troubled me because I was only given a month to vacate due to the change of my business status.

Being my staff, one may say that she did those things to gain my favour, but truthfully speaking, she didn't even ask for any special favours and declined my offer to promote her (she doesn't fancy dealing with too many people).

I don't wish to say that I am blessed to have such good people around me, but I want to say that I admire their goodness and truly bless them and I will return their good in my own way. I am humbled to have them as my friends :))
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Number 9

Have you ever been told that you have an affinity to a certain number?

When I was 9 years old, I was told that the number 9 would be a very special number for me. At that young age, I don't know anything about numerology, did not pay any attention to it.

Then, when I was 15yo, I obtained a total aggregate of 9 for a major exam and at 17yo, an aggregate of 18 for another major exam. Looking at my results, it struck me that I do have some sort of relationship with the number 9! I do not know how the relationship works, but I have since taken number 9 as my lucky number ~ any major event in my life, after that realisation, would be planned on th 9th or 18th day of the month (the two most favourite numbers) and to a lesser degree, on the 27th. By far, 18 is my most favourite number ~ my handphone number ends with 1800 :)

When I went looking to purchase a house, I bought one next to a number 18. Most recently, I found a rented place which faces house number 18 and beside house number 9. I am now living in this rented place and is trying to understand more deeply the extend of my relationship with number 9.

Btw, as I write this post, my visitor counter stands at 1080 :))