May 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
The Simplest Things
I received this e-mail some time ago, and I felt it’s good to share.
—–Original Message—–
From: AW
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 12:22 PM
To: Gina
Subject: depression
Dear Gina,
A good friend of mine committed suicide on last Monday. She hung herself in her bedroom.
A few years ago she attended a motivational course and after that she was besides herself. Staring into space, talking nonsense at times but she recovered after a few months.
After this incident, she did fall into bouts of depression at times but she always managed to pull herself up.
An aggressive lady (she is in the advertising line), bubbly and also one who speaks her mind, we still do not know what were the reasons for her depression. Come from a good family background, close knit family and financials are not the problem either. Family is well-to-do.
Blame it on the motivational course? You know some of these courses will really make you feel rotten, pull you real down and they will slowly pull you up and you are supposed to feel really positive and supposedly found the real meaning of life, blah blah. Do think twice before you attend all these courses. They could have failed to pull her out of the pit.
But we as friends and the family will never know. She did not even leave behind any last message.
What was she thinking of when she decided to take that ‘route’? She has so much going for her. It is just not worth it. Easier said than done.
Anyway I hope that she would have a happy life in another world.
AW
I myself have been to numerous motivational camps. Some were from my ex church, from offices I worked with, from college and there was one from direct selling.
I could remember vividly a particular one from direct selling seminars. Don’t ask me what has gone into my head for agreeing to attend such seminars – but I did, maybe out of boredom.
I was pretty relieved that I came out of it alive. During the seminar, they had us do some pretty ridiculous stuff but somehow not entirely impossible to foster mind over matters and team spirit. There was one where they told us to convince them to let us through, with barriers acting as check points in our lives. With tears and courage, I fought on. It was some 8 years ago that I went to this seminar. It didn’t make me rich like I hope to, but at least, it changed my perception that everything is possible, even if sometimes, in certain areas, I do remain cynical.
If you have read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, you would probably know what I am trying to say. Not everyone would be suited for the Business Owner Quadrant. That explains, there are only 3% super duper rich people in this world, in the likes of Bill Gates and Tiger Woods. If everyone could be strictly disciplined, work extra hard and focus, there would be more people contributing the Business Owner Quadrant in this world.
With all due respect, these seminars do teach you to know what you want in life and work hard to strive for it. But sometimes, it doesn’t suit your purpose or couldn’t work the way you wanted it to be, so you would have to learn to let go.
My friend who died a few years ago due to depression because she set unrealistic goals for herself was one good example, as well as AW’s friend who committed suicide two years ago.
It was also sad to read about some direct marketing companies caused rift among family members with children disowning their parents because they did not want to give them the money they wanted to start their own “business”.
I do hope people who are attending such courses would exercise their rationale and discernment on how it might impact their lives.
It’s not wrong to pursue our dreams and goals with hard work, discipline and a little luck. But bear in mind, we are also merely mortals, and being human is to err.
What I am trying to say is, we sometimes have to learn to live a little and appreciate the simplest things in this life. After all, with all the riches and material wealth, how are you going to bring it with you when you pass on?