UnSolicited Renewal Reminders...

I subscribe to three magazines, one on business, another on health and also one on food.  While these magazines are from different publishers, I observe a consistent theme–they send out the renewal notices 6 months before the expiry either via email or via mail. Ostensibly, these maybe friendly reminders, they are actually unsolicited probes to buy more.


To whom it may concern,

I resent your proactivity. You have shrouded me from the actual expiry date of my subscriptions, spam my email box and fill my letterbox with unnecessary waste.

I am a loyal subscriber and instead of differentiating me as your regular subscriber, you treat me like any other prospect. Because of your proactivity, I have to track the real expiry dates on my own or renew way earlier than expected. I cannot trust your email notices and am forced to treat your emails as spam. I also have more waste in my home because of the home expiry notices. You have wasted my time in housekeeping my emails and letters for at least 5 months prior to the actual expiry. Do you know that you have inconvenient your loyal fan base?

My wish that you would treat your loyal subscribers differently. Give us the option to opt out of early notifications and honor our choices. We are not going anywhere so let us be. Focus your creativity on acquiring new prospects and let us be.

Yours sincerely,
A loyal subscriber

A Meaningful Christmas gift

I have a long distance relationship where my boyfriend is in Europe while I am in the States. He makes an appoint to text me daily before he goes to bed. At times, I don't respond to him when I am occupied with work. He is an avid reader and he is also my wikipedia.  We talked about authors and movies, though our preferred genre is quite different, we appreciate each other's insights. He is a fan of Jacque Brel and will soon start a blog about this singer. I am looking forward to read his first blog.

This Christmas, we had planned to open our gifts to each other on FaceTime on Christmas eve.
The gift from me to him did arrive way ahead of time but it was mistakenly returned to sender for some unforeseen reason which I will not delve into today. We got over it and he had made plans to deliver to him once the package was returned to me.

We had our FaceTime today where we were supposed to open each other's gift.  I am the fortunate one where I get to open my gifts and tell him what is he getting too. Have I mentioned that he is my romanticism savor ?

He brings romanticism to life for me. Before him, I find dating a hassle and looking for the someone special has little or no return of investment. I stopped looking for love. He had shaken my beliefs in the love department. When one finds their someone special, there is a lot of happiness and joy to go around. I appreciate the close emotional bond between us. Nothing is easy but it is worth it. He is a keeper :)

His gave me 5 books for Christmas. Each book has a special significant to him. These are books that had read when he was younger and/or  his favorite authors.  Each book includes an inscription about the significants to him. I will share the title and author here:

1. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
2. The Unbearable lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
3. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
4. The Tea Lords by Hella S. Haasse
5. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

This is a special gift to me because he is sharing something about himself and an opportunity for me to get to understand him at a deeper level. It is a timeless gift and I can see us reading books together in our golden years.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

A dash of humor is good for the soul

I am suffering from pain from my left shoulder to my wrist. The constant soreness and numbness is just annoying and restricts my regular fun activities.  Since the pain lingered for over a week, I started seeing a chiropractor. The doctor was confident that he can fix me in 6 sessions. I am counting on him. To keep the pain at bay, I wear a wrist brace.

I conjured stories to respond to my friends about my injury. I thought I will share these stories here.

Story 1:
Back in my varsity days, I had a crush on a very charming either Finnish or Norwegian guy. The facts are blur to me since this happened so long ago. He is absolutely good looking with a very nice smile. We attended the same security class every Tuesday afternoon. He was working on his Masters while I was working on my Bachelor degree. When he smiled at me, I felt like I was in heaven. Somehow at that time, he had the uncanny ability to brighten my day. I saw him recently in a crowded space and the happy feeling of seeing him just came back to me. He was about 30 feet away from me. I tried to push myself through the crowd to get closer to him. I hurt my shoulder and lost sight of him. Sigh... I will have to content with the fact that Igor will only be a figment of my imagination.

Story 2:
There was a very cute guy at yoga and he was practicing next to me on my left side. Instead of practicing self awareness and concentrate on my practice, I was constantly stealing a glance at him from time to time. I am being punished for lack of concentration at yoga. Gosh... cute guys are so distracting.

Story 3:
T'is the season to shop and contribute to the economy. Shopping is a wonderful sport that requires money, time and stamina. While shopping over the weekend, I saw this gorgeous cobalt colored dress. Guess what, a lady was also eyeing for the same dress. We both grabbed it at the same time and both would not let go. It was a tub-of-war and we gave each other the evil eye too. Alas, I let her have the dress. The next day, I noticed pain on my shoulder which I attribute to the tug-of-war. It sure didn't pay to be kind.

It donned to me that I have changed. Let me explain why. If this incident were to happen to me when I first moved to the States a decade ago, I would provide the explanation. Also, I would be bewildered why one would respond with humor on such serious matter. At least, I have learnt to chill on some occasions which is good.

Preparation, Anticipation and Trust

Being prepared is good practice. Able to anticipate the next move is smart. Trusting oneself is key for success. Ever since I resurrected this blog, I take the time to reflect and understand myself a little better. At least,this is my current focus for this blog.

I must learn to let go and trust myself a little bit more. This is a cyclical exercise that I will have to remind myself whenever I can. There were 3 events that drew my attention to my desire to be more trusting and confident about myself.

The first was my major presentation to extravert audience, second was my one-on-one session with my yoga teacher and lastly, an epiphany while practicing on my piano.

 

I presented at 2 sales breakout session and each group has 30 sales people. I pitched to the sales representatives about a pilot financing program. I don't think I connected with the audience during the first session.  Before my second session, I told myself to relax, just let go and get through it. The second presentation was definitely better than the first. I had 2 person walking up to tell me the presentation was great.  I have to learn to trust myself more and let go when presenting.

I had two dry runs with my boss. My first dry run was dreadful despite all my preparation leading up to the first dry run. I wrote up the script then rehearse, rehearse and rehearse. 

My boss advised me to tell a story and get people excited about the pilot. He also pointed out that I was reading the slides. I got his points and at first, I was not convinced that I was reading the slides. I recorded my presentation and listen to it.  I was rigid and lack excitement. If I am not excited about what I am presenting why should others? I was determine to suck less at this opportunity. I went on YouTube to look at videos about "Steve Jobs Presentation" and tried to internalize the tips that I had accumulated through books and training. I rewrote my script ,injected enthusiasm when presenting and projected my voice. My second dry run went well and I also drew strength from my female colleagues. They listened to my presentation and gave me  good advise.  The point I want to get through to myself is that I have prepared and am ready. I seriously need to trust myself that I will come through.

Secondly, I am struggling with backbend at Yoga. My teacher pointed out that I flexed my hands too early while I was getting into the pose. I was in a hurry to get myself ready for the next sequence and inevitability put myself in a precarious position. Instead of letting my body naturally go into the position, I restricted my arm movement when I flexed my hands too early then I had to bend deeper and lowered my body more than required. I know the steps and yet for the fear of failing and getting ahead of myself are not helping at all. Again, I must remind myself that I know what I am doing and let nature takes its course.  

Lastly, finger position is important in transitioning from my keystroke to another while playing the piano and perhaps any musical instrument. I realized that I stiffened up many times while transition from keystrokes to another. I consciously reminded myself to relax and that I know my stuff, it was much easier to play afterwards.

Things would be so much easier and fun if I don't take things so seriously. A dash of trust and self confidence go a long way especially knowing that I am prepared for the challenges ahead. Sometimes, I make my life miserable for nothing.