A lot of people ask me, “Grace, how are you so happy all the time?” Well, guess what? I’m not. In fact, sometimes I am very moody, emotional, and angry. I just tend to shut off all communication when I’m in a bad mood (that’s why you don’t know! :p)
Negative emotions affect us so much more than positive emotions. It seems like we get stuck and our minds just can’t seem to see anything else. So today, I feel like I should write about things I feel grateful for.
1. I’m grateful that I have a home to live in.
2. I’m grateful that I do not have to starve and wonder when my next meal will be.
3. I’m grateful that I have a family.
4. I’m grateful that my parents have invested so much in me (although we disagree on many things).
5. I’m grateful that I have so many friends who care for me (thank you for all your love and support).
6. I’m grateful that internet is readily accessible to me.
7. I’m grateful that I work with people who have the same dreams and visions as I do.
8. I’m grateful that people still invite me to events despite the fact I have barely attended anything in the past 6 months (I’m sorry, I promise I will see you when I am ok)
9. I’m grateful that I got to visit and travel to quite a number of countries.
10. I am grateful that I can play the pipa (even though I disliked it as a child).
11. I’m grateful that my 5 senses are working ok.
12. I’m grateful that you are reading my blog (REVEAL YOURSELF!! lol).
13. I’m grateful that some people look forward to reading my posts. :’)
14. I’m grateful that I inspire some people.
15. I’m grateful for being alive.
So whenever you feel down, ask yourself what you are grateful for. Try not to take what you have for granted.
Grow with me 
I’m grateful to have a great friend called Grace!
I’m grateful to have a great friend like you too, Orlando! 🙂 Thank you for reading all my posts. ❤
Wow, a blog! I read through your posts it made me reflect a lot. It also reminded me of highschool and the first few years of college where everyone was still making blogposts. I realized I felt informed and in touch with everyone and always up to date. I feel like now that nobody ever makes blog posts I have to put so much effort into even keeping up with some of my closest friends. I’m glad to have come across your blog it’s very uplifting and positive (as you always were)
I have so much to respond to, and figured I’d stick it all here rather than sprinkle it through your blog. How should I tie everything all together in one single neat post without referring to all your posts individually? Well, I’ll take your first post where you Quoted Karen:
“I create my own luck.”
Oddly enough, I’ve heard this before, but not from karen. Poker used to be a pretty big hobby of mine. (You can ask some of my friends why I no longer play poker with them lol) And I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve heard the term “creating luck”
As much of a negative stigma that passtime may have, It did teach me quite a few lessons. One of which is creating your own luck and it’s not something you conciously make a decision to do (whether applying this to life decisions or poker), but rather the effect of all your decisions up to the point which you got “lucky”. I do consider myself very lucky. I feel like I can market myself for almost any job position right now. But having the skillset and resume to be able to do this has been a result of a series of circumstanes and decisions I have made since highschool. I could not have possibly controlled everything that has affected my skillset from then until now. and I certainly could not have predicted what would happen over the next… 8 years? (I don’t remember the year which we graduated, it was 07 or 08 right?) So in that since, I am very lucky.
What people don’t realize is that many decisions that you make, which often seem trivial do eventually add up, and can combine together to affect your future significantly, and also, your “luck”. Giving you more or less opportunites for success or failure. Make every decision you have the opportunity to the best you can, having trust that your knowledge and experience will lead you toward your goal. All while learning from the mistakes you make from these decisions (or learning from other’s mistakes and successes which is also another reason why I value other people’s anecdotes, stories and blogs). and eventually you will see success.
I have a new hobby now and it’s very community driven. Unfortunately, the community was pretty much dead when I started and only got worse. I have spent the past couple of years doing things to revive the community. Which was always considered impossible by the few people remaining that participated. Just a few weeks ago I proved them wrong. It took a few years but gradually the community kept growing, and just last week I was able to hold a major tournament with many entrants where the major prize was a plane ticket to vegas and back (to participate in another tournament) With sponsors because they saw how large the community is and saw value in sponsoring it. Why couldn’t the previous existing community do this? They basically gave up and kept bringing each other down. While I kept saying positive, Kept making my decisions to grow the community where others have conceded that the community is dead and had no chance of reviving. I kept going even though my actions appeared to have little effect (and often it did). I am now in the process of possibly leveraging this community following to start a business of my own within the next few years, if my contacts pan out.
Really I never framed this “make your own luck” outside of poker until now, but really it’s the same difference, People who don’t understand will always think better poker players get lucky more often than other people. But with anything regarding statistics and luck, it’s a numbers game and as long as you keep continuing when your situation is good, and bailing out when most outcomes are bad you’ll come out ahead. You often don’t see the results (a string of bad luck, not winning any hands even though you’ve made the correct decisions) but if you keep continuing the same way, You’ll hit the higher hands more often than your opponents, and win those bigger pots. simply because the decisions you make statistically puts you into favor take into account those situations which independently have almost no chance of appearing but because they are pooled together with other situations which have little chance of appearing (royal flush, four of a kind, etc…) as well as the common situations which you win (having a high pair and noone else hits)
But just like every other decision you make in life, you learn from your own and other’s experiences to be able to make these informed decisions.
Hey Kenny! Sorry it took me a month to reply. I haven’t been in the greatest mood and I didn’t want to write a line in response to your essay. 😛
Thank you so much for reading all my posts. I really do appreciate it. I started the blog because I wanted to share with others my experience and knowledge? I want people to realize they have more power than they think. Like you said, a lot of the times our actions seem to have to no effect…but it really does add up! For example, doing 5 pushups a day might seem like nothing, but if you continue doing it every single day for a year, that’s 365 x 5!!! Btw, I’m happy you didn’t give up and manage to revive the community. 🙂
Kenny, if you like reading blogs, you should start your own as well!! I hope you continue doing what you enjoy and creating your own luck. 😉 When I’m better, let’s meet up for a coffee or something. I haven’t seen you in ages!
Btw, we graduated in 06. lol
Grace, you’re one of the most positive people I know. ❤
Thank you, Jennifer! You’re one of the best bloggers I know. ❤ I miss you. Let's meet up soon. I should be much better in a week or two (hopefully)
We should definitely meet up soon! I very much miss you too!
Grace, you’re the best! To have a pure heart and mind, I commend you.
I can’t say I have a pure heart. 😛 But I always try my best to be sincere. Thanks, Bond!
Grace, more people should be grateful like you. It would make the world a much better and happy place to live in. 🙂
Thanks, Karen. Sometimes, we have to suffer a bit to realize how lucky we truly are.
I’m grateful for your promoted post!!!
Aww, thank you for reading, Enrico!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing!