5 before 5

It sounds like a productivity listicle and yes, it is. The unique thing about it is, it's inspired by my favourite hadith (sayings) of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The kind of universal wisdom that transcends demo and psychographics.

Undoubtedly, a large chunk of my worldview is shaped by my religion and I'm putting this down on screen simply to serve as a reminder to myself and to anyone of you who can benefit. My goal is neither preaching nor (God forbid) coming off as pious.

Before we go deeper, let me lay down the hadith in its entirety:

[It was narrated by Ibnu Abbas, a companion of the Prophet and was reported through chains of validated Imams and Muslim scholars.]

I will elaborate further by putting my life into perspective.

1. Our youth before we become old

They say that age is just a number. I agree with the statement only if I can acknowledge the fact that I fully optimised the age I'm blessed with. For now, I can't. I'm a contemporary of the 40's club and besides being blessed with that number, I'm not optimising it to the fullest. At least not yet. I believe that opportunity is like a river, it flows around me consistently. It's up to me to choose it, seize it and have fun with it one handful at a time. Good or bad, who knows? Just don't look back in regret when you waste the chance that you've been given. (cue 'Careless Whisper').

2. Our health before we become sick

Unfortunately, well-being is such a natural state to a lot of us, we fail to appreciate its splendour. As age ascends, health descends. What are we doing while health is still on our side? That's up to you to answer. If we wait until drips are administered and our pantang lists surpass our edibles, it might be too late by then. I'm no health freak but I keep the basics in check; eat your greens and fruits, lower the sugar and salt intakes, get sufficient slumber and break some sweat. All this for the sake of my wife and kids. If I'm being selfish about health, I'm not going to be the slender and awet-muda looking person that I am now. I will be a self indulging-chain smoking-fat prick I'm destined to be.

3. Our fortunes before we become poor

I never experienced being dirt poor or filthy rich. Not in financial terms at least. In this day and age, we are overwhelmed with news streams about the dorm-room startup turned billion-dollar unicorn and the insta-celeb lifestyle. I pity myself for self-sabotaging. So now, what I chose to envy are those who, with or without wealth, create meaningful impacts to change the world for the better in their own terms. It hits me that I've been doing good (in a minuscule scale) all this while but I failed to recognise just because it's not the kind of community changing impact I'm so hoping to contribute. In short, compounded goodwill works just like interest. You are in it for the long run.

4. Our free time before we become busy

After the imminent death of my fintech startup 6 months ago, I'm left with no money and no prospect. What's left is time. Sending and picking up my kids, doing laundry and the dishes, type up some translation work here, there and everywhere, constantly tweaking my resume whilst applying for jobs, fine tuning my website and services, figuring out the next best business options, reading across genres, indulging in monologues, forging interesting connections, enjoying a home-cooked dinner with the family followed by Korean drama sessions. In micro-perspective, it seems like I've wasted a lot of time doing nothing solid but I learned to I enjoy every moment of it. I know I'm going to get busy eventually. No matter how petty or small I think I am now, at the moment it is the best thing that happened to me. In other words, enjoy the moment you're in because it never lasts.

5. Our life before our death

I'm sure some of you have experienced a great loss. I lost my father 20 years ago. Nobody saw it coming and it changed my life and death perspective for better or worst. It made me realise that we can be well-prepared for our last day of living but nothing can prepare the living for our demise. It sounds morbid, but I told my eldest about my passing one day. I want him to experience that sensation of not having me around for good. It may or may not be a wise thing to do but, who knows? I might not live long to achieve my retirement dream but I will never regret my shortcomings. Stay grateful with the simplest of things around you. Your ability to shit, pee, speak, think, breath, see, hear, fart, yawn, burp and all of that. My grand vision surely won't be worth a dime if not for these silly little things.

Youthfulness, Well-being, Fortune, Spare time and Life.

After putting these elements into context, they somehow are connected to our own worldly journey. Defining our personal success, live life in our own terms, and enjoy the moment are important themes for us to implement. Let's take for example; my aspiration to become the world's greatest slacker. So, I'll design my life around the theme, create habits around it, ignore the naysayers, propel that lifestyle further and enjoy the process of slacker-hood one step at a time and voila! I'm a made man.