Weekend Engagement - Counting Chickens

What things have you done to continually improve yourself as a person and why? Explain.

Hmm I think this is a quite broad interpretation since there is no hard definition on what counts as improving myself as a person. So I thought I would approach this from a macro perspective, i.e. some guiding principles that I live by.

Staying Curious

I think being curious about things in life has helped me along the way, be it learning new skills, seeing new perspectives, and broadening my horizons. In some way, it's similar to what people would say as "lifelong learning".

Of course, I am not interested in every single subject or curious about every single idea that pops up, but I think I have a good amount of curiosity in me, especially when it comes to stuff like personal finance and investments, or gaming.

One example would be that I actually self-learnt/self-taught myself about managing my finances, like what are the different financial instruments in the market, how do I read financial statements (I had no accounting background at all!), and then in the recent years, what cryptocurrencies are, and the list goes on.

Another example that is more relatable would be my journey on Hive. I was curious enough to spend time figuring how things work in this community, and time flies, it's been more than 3 years since my first post here.

Being Open-Minded

I am not sure how people around me think, but I personally feel that I am quite open-minded. In the sense that I am able to accept unconventional views, and am okay to agree to disagree with people.

For me, being open-minded has allowed me to question myself why other people have a different view from me, and I think this allows for some reflection. Most things in life are not always black and white, and I think being to appreciate what others think (even though I might not agree), has allowed me to stay more balanced in my views.

Since we are on Hive, I guess one example is the society's take on cryptocurrencies. While there has been a gradual shift over the years, I think most people either are not aware or interested to explore this area, or some are still skeptical about it. For me, I think it's sometimes fruitless trying to convince people about these stuff because money is always a very personal and sensitive topic. I guess time will tell.

Being Contented

Hmm this is a tricky one. I do have friends who actually feel that being contented is not really a good thing, because it means that one is not being ambitious or hungry enough to strive for new successes or scale new heights in life, be it career or what not.

But I feel the definition of success is different to each person. Some do chase for fame and wealth, but there are others who have different passions in life which might not be as mainstream.

For me, being contented has helped me to improve as a person because it gives me feelings of happiness, gratitude, and with all that, it makes me a more cheerful and positive person. I mean, who doesn't like to be around cheerful and positive people? Or from another angle, who likes to be around unhappy and negative people? I wasn't always cheerful when I was growing up but I think it's really a mindset change as I grew older. I mean, I do agree with the part that I am not super ambitious about stuff in life, but I do have my personal goals that I work hard towards and I have my dreams and aspirations that I am chasing too.

Alright, ending the post with a homework assignment for everyone. Count how many chickens there are in this photo! I am just kidding. Some people probably who have been to the CBD (Central Business District) would probably notice these animals roaming the area, and the population is growing exponentially. I guess in a way, there's some link to the post because it's not always we expect to see chickens on the streets, but if we can be curious and open-minded about these not-so-natural occurrences, it's actually kind of interesting and fun to watch them roam around (and they do fight with each other sometimes, lol!).