developing

My female owner has a big bias, an intellectual bias. She enjoys interacting or engaging in intellectual exchanges with people who are smarter, more perceptive or philosophical than her. She doesn’t like arguing for arguments’ sake (you know, just to win the war of words). Rather, she values debating over ideas, concepts and opinions in order to broaden one’s perspective. Because she is underexposed to different philosophies, my female owner thinks this is one of the best (and fastest) ways to learn and open up her often narrow mindset – learning from people smarter than her. Such exchanges tend to encourage her to live better, shed negative mindsets and aim for greater things. Here’s a recent example.

Best Fern and my female owner, being in the helping profession, share similar values despite their different upbringing. One day, Best Fern was telling her about his plans to develop himself further in the helping profession. My female owner was struck by his passion and desire to continually hone his skills and knowledge (coz he is already very effective in his work). She couldn’t help but comment “wah, you are really into developing yourself professionally!”

Best Fern (note: smarter and wiser) retorted: “Of course! Who else would develop me if I don’t?”

Ah, a lesson learnt through that short exchange. Developing and upgrading yourself, is really, at the end of the day, something that only you yourself can undertake. If self-improvement is a priority, you need to have a mindset change, look for opportunities and creative ways to work around your constraints and other practical considerations. Otherwise, just be contented to stay where you are, and quit complaining about going nowhere.

So there, my female owner learnt the concept of personal accountability and ownership.