I used to tweet a lot, perhaps thinking that my every thought is so important, it needs to be recorded and shared. I felt compelled to document everything. In a way, everyday in life is worth living and should be remembered through the experiences and memories. Yet at the same time, it need not be written down and shared all the time. Anyway, I found some golden lessons on my old Twitter page from 2015.
Authenticity with Social Media
I used twitter a lot from 2012-2014. Then I deleted it. I delete my social media accounts often as a reminder to myself that nothing is permanent, social media does not reflect who I truly am.
- There is no need to constantly share the things going on in my head with the world. Unless it is value-adding, keep it to yourself.
- The endorphins when you get a notification can be addictive. And this slowly alters the content that I want to publish, so as to increase the notifications and the high on social-media endorphins.
- Social media only shows the best chapters. It is not a true reflection of who I am, the values I stand for and the failures that made me who I am today.
Authenticity is one of the most important values I have, as a person. Once I noticed the change in my behaviours and value system, I knew this had to stop. I want to become the real authentic Lisa, not just someone on the Internet, scoring useless Internet points and addicted to short-term endorphins.
卧薪尝胆
When life is going too great, I am reminded to this Chinese proverb, 卧薪尝胆. It tells a story of a leader that won the war, yet he still sleeps on a stack of hay and tastes bitter gall bladder to remind himself of the suffering. It reminds the leader to keep pushing and fighting.
To me, that means to never forget where you came from (the hardship, failures) and to give up pleasure so as not to be complacent. I have to admit that I am an incredibly lucky person and rather spoilt. Hence, I do what I can to put myself out of the comfort zone and seek validation only from within.
That means removing things that fuel external validation like social media.
So I delete my social media accounts all the time to restart life. Today, I don’t use social media anymore, except for LinkedIn (value-add in terms of short lectures) & Twitter (fascinating articles, short value-adding observations & thoughts).
And perhaps in the same vein, me moving to various countries and restarting my (social) life and network has been a great life lesson!
Golden Tweets
So here are the golden tweets that I really enjoyed, before I deleted my account in 2015. These make up less than 1% of the total tweets. As you can imagine, I used to tweet a bunch of non-value adding opinions. But hey, we all make mistakes and we learn from them.
Main bullet point = my tweet
Secondary bullet point = my thoughts today
About Life
- It’s really the experience of learning that is more important than anything else
- Sometimes, we get too caught up with success metrics and KPIs. We focus on the destination instead of the journey. But really, the journey is the most important thing. The process that can be replicated, the joy of the experience and the learnings along the learning journey.
- ** Life is all about finding people of your kind of crazy
- It was a time in my life where I finally found my people. My type of crazy, my kind of insanity, my favourite type of people. It is the most beautiful random encounter that I still thank my lucky stars for.
- I think if you’re afraid of something it probably means you should do it.
- Sometimes, I get afraid. But it is then, where you take that leap.
- This was inspired by the day I had to jump on rocks by the cliffs. I was so afraid. But I saw what it was on the other side (my friends were already there) and I knew I had to take that leap of faith. I did it, and I found courage from inside. Since then, I acknowledged the courage and made leaps
- Beauty is nothing, beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, cos if ppl like you, you know it’s for something else
- Just general annoyance that people just conventionally attractive people as if they only have the physical appearance that is value-adding. It’s important to be more than just a pretty face.
- But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.
- Time flows fast, like a mountain river in the spring, and if you want to benefit from its passing, you have to move fast with it.
- Time reveals you or exposes you.
- The past is over, but the present you can seize, parcel and package and make it work for you in the immediate future.
- You got to succeed as much as you want to live
About Love
- The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return.
- By that, it is not just romantic love. Love in all forms like family, friends and love to the universe.
- Airports are the happiest and saddest place on earth
- Of reunions and goodbyes, I shed too many tears in airports around the world.
- It’s much easier to stop when something is due than to stop when it’s good
- I’m always leaving, always saying my farewells. Things always end on a high, and I’m glad for the memories. Makes me wonder how different life would have been. And again, when we are in the state of euphoria, the inertia makes it really tough to stop.
- How wonderful life is now you’re in love.
- Find someone who makes you feel drunk when you’re sober
- When you lose someone you love, they never really leave you. They move into a special place in your heart. –Mrs. Frankenstein
- Once you love someone, they stay in your heart forever. –Nita
- It’s those kind of friendship where yes we do see each other occasionally and when we meet again again, it’s like we never said goodbye. And we never did say goodbye
It has been a wonderful life. And the future has nowhere to go but up. I’m really glad that I managed to stay as the same Lisa as I was in 2015. The only difference is stronger stance in my values, better insights to life and more experience badges in my pocket.
Love,
L