Renowned journalist William Wong explores solutions to curbing the Black-Asian street crimes in Oakland & SF in this third of a three part series.
The
Black-on-Chinese-street-crime
story
in
Oakland
and
San
Francisco
has
generated
a
lot
of
heat,
anger,
fear,
frustration,
and
searches
for
solutions.
In this third of a three part series, renowned journalist and author William Wong explores solutions to curbing the racially-tinged street crimes.
The
recent
death
of
Steve
Jobs,
a
man
who
dared
to
dream
and
create
beyond
the
constraints
of
the
prevailing
consciousness,
brought
many
people
including
me
to
a
place
of
deeper
reflection.
What
does
it
mean
to
be
really
alive?
How
do
I
make
sure
that
I
am
living
my
highest
potential
every
day?
How
do
I
ensure
that
I
will
feel
at
peace
when
it
is
my
time
to
leave
this
planet?
“Your
time
is
limited,
so
don’t
waste
it
living
someone
else’s
life.
Don’t
be
trapped
by
dogma
—
which
is
living
with
the
results
of
other
people’s
thinking.
Don’t
let
the
noise
of
others’
opinions
drown
out
your
own
inner
voice.
And
most
important,
have
the
courage
to
follow
your
heart
and
intuition.
They
somehow
already
know
what
you
truly
want
to
become.
Everything
else
is
secondary.”
--- Steve
Jobs
Five Secrets to a Happy, Healthy & Successful Life By Marilyn Tam
You make well-meaning resolutions to improve your life. But your resolutions fade under the stress of multiple demands on your time and attention. Oftentimes the resolutions are history before the month is done. How can we ensure that we actually benefit from the good intentions that we made with such conviction?
Many years ago I made an earnest resolution to work less and to spend more time on my personal life, family and health.
Being a type A personality, it was easier to say that than to follow through. By late in the same month, as I am running through another airport, I realized that I am already back to my old pattern of working seven days a week.
On the next plane ride I took the time to ask myself a few hard questions. From that experience I developed these Five Guidelines to have a Happier, Healthier and more Successful Life. Isn't that what we are ultimately after?
1. Make resolutions that you can manage. Specify your desired end result and make the goals measureable. For example, instead of saying that you want to lose weight, give yourself a specific time frame for a number of pounds or inches broken down into smaller pieces so that you have incremental targets to meet. Make the objectives a slight stretch but achievable. You are more likely to continue once you see positive progress towards your ultimate goal.
Have you heard this before? “Love or Business, you have to choose.” The message is direct - you have to decide what you value more, something/one you love or your work/business. Actually, there is a more factual statement – Love is Good Business.
February is the month of love. A great deal of thought and energy will be spent on expressions of love, usually for a romantic partner. The truth in the old axiom, Love makes the World Go Round, applies to all aspects of life, not only to romantic love. When you are doing what you love, you are going to be more successful in it, and you will also be happier and at peace. It’s only natural.
“I don’t think I have ever worked in my life, because work to me means that you are really doing something you don’t like.”
Business and Heartbreak
By Marilyn Tam
“Violence is what happens when we don’t know what to do with our heartbreak… learn how to allow your heart to break open to embrace the lessons with compassion, not broken into sharp shards that hurt others as well as yourself”
- Parker J Palmer, author, educator, and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal.
Dr. Palmer directed the above quotation at leadership and democracy, but I think it applies to how you should manage your business and life too. Violence in business and life thankfully does not usually degenerate into physical force, but the above concept is instructive in how we deal with all our challenges.
When we have a life or business challenge, do we narrow our focus to how we can get out of the immediate circumstance, or do we expand our vision and strategy to learn how we can improve the results for this and other situations?
With a challenge is looming in front of us, it is easy to fall back into a reflexive mode. We want to make the problem go away immediately, but a decision made in haste or from anger is less than ideal. The flight or fight instinct is activated and to respond aggressively or retreat without full consideration of the options, often prove to be worse than the initial situation.
