Quirkbag

Author: zacyeohs@gmail.com

  • Trying Something New Is Scary

    Trying Something New Is Scary

    Quirkbag Collection #41 – 24.04.26

    Today was my last day at Ya Kun. I resigned due to a new job that required more time commitment. It’s been 4 months since I began working at Ya Kun, and albeit being a part-timer, it feels like a tiny lifetime. The journey has been bitter then sweet.  

    A Toast To The Toast 

    Most of the time, I toasted bread for the afternoon crowd till closing time. It’s not particularly glamorous. It’s certainly not a technically difficult task. But it takes patience and a ridiculous amount of practice to master quality and efficiency. I could never handle the morning crowd. Seeing order slips printed moment over moment made me shudder. Nonetheless, it’s a skill. A life experience. 

    Like everything we do, deep down we always know that there’s a day when it comes to an end. Today is that day for my time at Ya Kun. I remember my very first day learning to toast bread. Zero experience and no knowledge, but passable under no pressure. Even of late, my hands still shake occasionally. Anxiety is a lifelong, seasonal beast. 

    It’s comforting to know that growth and improvement do occur, even when it’s slow and negligible day-to-day. But it’s there, a tiny bit adding on to another bit. We have to trust that deliberate actions in favour of improvement add to the growing reservoir of expertise. 

    Every Beginning Is Another Learning Curve

    It’s tough to accept failure and defeat. Anyone who tries anything new knows it. Failure in private feels better, especially if there’s a fragile ego present. But maybe the more you fail, the more that your ego and skill may be strengthened which will make future learning easier. 

    The learning curve is always there for anyone with a new beginning. Even toasting bread (professionally). There was definitely a unique learning curve initially, even if it flattens out over time. But the experience builds calluses for the ego and the ability to learn.

    It’s inevitable that once you experience enough learning curves, you eventually know how to navigate the challenges of picking up the next new thing. You just know what to expect. 

    Every endeavour in your life, every adventure, every chapter, every experience that becomes your story exists because you took the plunge and went through the curve. That environment forced you to adapt and grow. Now you live to tell the tale. 

    Experience is itself the feather in your cap. Isn’t that awesome? 

    Excellence Is Beautiful 

    Some people look down on ‘simple’ jobs that are mostly repetitive, uninspiring and boring. It is boring once the learning curve is maxed out. But when it does, you are presented with a choice. Keep doing the same thing several thousand times in a row, or turn your skill into art. 

    One day I watched one of the aunties toasting bread at Ya Kun. I saw just how exceptional and smooth the whole process was. Zero wasted energy, just pure rhythm from one action to the next. This was not mere “experience”. People often miss the forest for the tree: the skill of bread toasting was elevated to art. 

    Honestly, it was gratifying to watch a master at work. More importantly, there is an indescribable beauty in excellence in general. Excellence at toasting bread, juggling, surfing, bartending, pottery and more. They all have the same charm, but we don’t notice it. 

    We are too distracted. We are bugged by unfinished work or difficult tasks. You have to be present in the moment, to see it for what it is without letting those 14 different random thoughts floating in your mind interfere. I wonder, how much do we truly appreciate the skillsets and art which others quietly give in service to us? 

    Disclaimer: this is not an excuse to use familiarity and comfort as a disguise for fear of new beginnings to avoid change. 

    A New Beginning Is Another Learning Curve

    As I soon embark on a new beginning in a new job, I know there will be yet another learning curve lying in wait. The thing about trying new things and having new beginnings is that we always try to make it perfect.

    We want to be “perfect amateurs”. But amateurs are flawed.

    We crave control and design the ideal circumstances to learn the skill or experience the thing. In truth, neither of them is ever perfect. They just are. It’s the fear of letting go, relinquishing our comfort and becoming absolutely terrible at something again that stops us. And it’s a very gripping fear. One that goes stronger every time I give in to it. 

    It’s tempting to simply stay in the comfort zone, especially if we navigated the old learning curve already. Being uncomfortable again feels most unappealing. 

    A new beginning is another learning curve. It implies failure, uncertainty and discomfort. But, all the things we have done prior to right now were once new and involved a learning curve. We did them anyway, so we have more adaptability than we think. Our minds are too engulfed in fear and anxiety. 

    If you have been wanting to close a chapter in your life, whether it is to quit an old routine, start a new one, try yoga, practice calisthenics, learn surfing or anything in the world, embrace the inevitable learning curve and just suck at it for a while. 

    A new beginning, toward anything better or worth pursuing, is just another learning curve. 

    Progress Is Not Linear – It’s Randomly Upwards

    I come across this quite often – “progress is not linear.” 

    What people mean to say is that visual metrics of improvement fluctuate on a small timescale. Over a long enough time horizon (weeks, months, years, decades), just like a stock market chart, the line goes up (most times). You can’t feel progress in the moment unless you see it. That’s why it feels like forever. 

    If you can’t predict it, it feels like randomness. And it is. It might take longer or shorter than you think. 

    I did not learn to pour a reasonably shaped latte-art heart or flower in a month. In fact, it took me almost a year to pour it consistently. Somewhere along the way my performance dropped, and I thought I lost it. In reality, it’s just one of those times when it gets worse before it gets better. 

    It Took Me Almost A Year

    Most of what I write seems like a reminder to myself to keep hanging in there. And I hope you will too. 

    Here’s a quote that might lower the stakes for you (and me):

    Everything is a win if the goal is to experience. 

    Experience the new beginning. Embrace the learning curve after.  

    Go ahead, read my other posts!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • You Can’t Chase Happiness In Life

    You Can’t Chase Happiness In Life

    Quirkbag Collection #40 – 17.04.26

    We like to say that our life goal is to be happy. With children, we not only wish for their happiness, but we do things to try and create it in their childhood. In adulthood, it seems to just be something people say; then it’s back to work. 

    Over the past months, I have been trying to pursue and understand that elusive state of being known as happiness. 

    Happiness can be simple. For some people, it does not take much. A decent lifestyle, comfort food and a not-so-boring job. Fair enough. When I was in the army, I loved a simple cup of tea on the weekend afternoon with zero agenda for the day. That was happiness in hindsight. 

    But the thing about happiness, like every other emotion, is that it cannot be defined with metrics. It’s a feeling you get when you look back but one you don’t feel in the moment. 

    Key Factors For Happiness 

    Based on a Yale Course about the Science of Well-Being which I took, the two most important factors that affect your mood directly are exercise and sleep. Yes, no surprises there. And it’s research-based! Once you have a healthy amount of both in your lifestyle, happiness starts to reach a baseline. It helps to build the foundation with rest and exercise. 

    Certainly, money plays a part. Happiness levels rise with income as per the World Happiness Report. Beyond a threshold however, money starts having a diminishing impact on happiness. Money can buy most of your way toward happiness in terms of needs and experiences. But to be ap, it seems money has limited utility. 

    Just think, the best presents you have received are probably not $50 cheques (they are nice, yes, but not necessarily totems of happiness.) 

    On The Common Fallacy

    In the book ‘The Courage To Be Disliked’, we learn that we may expect too much of ourselves. Not that it’s wrong to try and reach Mars, but maybe we’re just too hard on ourselves all the time.

    Of course, it is not always due to our own ambition, but in part the tidal push that is the accelerating pace of life in modern society. We’re influenced to want more, to do more, and achieve more. But it does not really add to our ‘happiness rating’, does it? 

    We’re unconsciously raised to buy into the belief that ‘I’ll be happy when I (insert achievement)’. It’s the arrival fallacy. 

    We won’t be exactly as we imagine ourselves to be when a particular event happens. We won’t feel exactly as we think we might. Ali Abdaal mentions this too. The arrival fallacy tricks us into thinking happiness is around the corner of our milestone, after the next exam, the next promotion, the next something. It’s not.

    It never will be.

    And as any hard-working student will say, the emotion is more relief than joy, more liberation than excitement.  

    The Open Secret – Gratitude

    Self-help has made gratitude the go-to practice for increasing positivity and happiness. In fact, a similar practice was also mentioned in the Yale course I took. What’s the deal with gratitude? Is that truly the key to being so happy everyday?

    Well, the practice of gratitude only became self-help advice in the modern era. But the root concept may be far older. Stoicism offers the advice of “negative visualisation” – picturing how your reality would be without certain objects, privileges, opportunities or even people. In perceiving an alternate reality where we are definitively “worse off”, it puts what we actually do have into a more pleasant frame. 

    An extreme example involves imagining a sad (but inevitable) scenario in which your loved ones no longer exist – how you would feel, act, behave and think in that moment. Then, as a soothing reminder, you remember and notice that you live in a reality in which they do exist. That sense of relief and “thank god” is likely the point of “gratitude” in self-help. How’s that for reframing? 

    But the idea of gratitude is less about forcing yourself to thank something or someone. It’s a trigger to reflect about the way things panned out, perhaps to realise that while it may not be ideal, it is not all that bad either. And considering the possibilities, our circumstances might have been a steal. 

    I tested this gratitude journalling idea by reflecting about the things I am grateful for each day. To truly reap the benefits of this gratitude practice, I think it is less about having tokenistic acknowledgements of random events but the realisation that not all is lost. 

    Comparison Is A Thief

    In the pursuit to be happier, comparison is not helpful. In fact, most comparisons here end poorly, an outcome easily exacerbated by social media today. 

    The World Happiness Report 2026 had a tighter focus on the impacts social media usage has on happiness and well-being. The result is almost predictable. 

    A Chapter Summary, World Happiness Report 2026

    Happiness Is Fleeting

    Happiness is fleeting. You can’t really define or predict when happiness occurs. It’s not a particular event with fixed time markers. 

    Happiness exists in moments. Overthink and you’ll miss it. 

    If you recall the last time you felt truly happy, even though it is sort of a vague feeling to describe, I will bet it’s not really a thing that made you happy. The Science of Well-Being course from Yale reveals that experiences have greater impact on happiness levels than objects do when measured over a period of time. 

    For me, the happy moments exist as a period or an experience in my memory. It’s hard to create these moments because they just…happen. The moments are not forced. They are lived. It’s when you are truly in the moment – without thinking about what the moment means, or when it will end, or what comes after. It’s what people might call “the good old days”.

    And delivered in a dramatically astute fashion, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” 

    Chasing the moment to ‘find’ happiness is like a dog chasing its tail. You won’t find ‘happiness’ by wondering why you aren’t happy when you are in the middle of a vacation. It seems to not be something you can “manifest”. 

    The Pursuit Of Happiness

    I saw this video by YouTuber Lindsiann on the distinction between existing and living. It illuminates that dull, numb underlying feeling I get sometimes when there is no big reason for unhappiness. 

    The crux lies in the spark in certain moments. The feeling of being alive. Indeed, feeling alive for a moment in your day spikes all your emotions at once. 

    It’s that fear before doing something new or wild, that thrill of trying it, that courage of actually even being there, the openness to your life’s possibilities in that moment. The video offers the advice of ‘saying yes’ to new experiences more often to combat a monotonous existence. 

    As far as advice goes, it’s not half bad to seek new adventures every so often. It surely helps broaden your experiences and staves off the boredom of routines. 

    The pursuit of happiness is certainly not a short one. I often wonder if there are those who spend their lifetime searching and never knowing what true peace and happiness in their life feels like. Ironically, the harder we try to find happiness, the more it evades us. 

    And perhaps, upon accepting that fact, we. the overthinkers, can finally put to rest the endless quest for a formula to reliably create happiness. 

    Conclusion

    You may not be happy for a multitude of reasons. But most likely, it’s because you pine too much over something beyond your control or over-attribute your happiness to material items. You may also be a victim of insufficient rest, exercise, nutrition. Most importantly, you can’t find happiness by just chasing it like a to-do goal. It’s an elusive shadow that appears, then you realise.

    The world is not optimised for happiness. It’s optimised for collective progress and productivity. I find myself inching closer to the uncomfortable conclusion that happiness is something you live towards. There is no universal formula. You can’t buy it. And it means you cannot control it.

    But you can tweak your life to increase your chances of meeting it. Much like a sunrise, happiness is fleeting and uncontrollable, but you can catch it if you are present in the moment.

    Go ahead, read my other posts!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Why An Intentional Life Is Your Answer To Today’s Chaos

    Why An Intentional Life Is Your Answer To Today’s Chaos

    Quirkbag Collection #39 – 10.04.26

    The Modern Existential Overwhelm 

    Around 392 billion emails are sent daily in 2026 worldwide. That’s more emails sent per day than in the whole of 1995. 

    We live in a world with unprecedented speed. Everything is fast and it must be faster. Slow is seen as the dearth of intelligence and modernity. Slow is an anathema.

    “How can anything be this (insert your favourite frustration here) in 2026?”

    We’re so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that exists in our lives. The trends and fads we’re fed subconsciously from social media and the toxic comparisons we make to judge our own “success”. We neglect to fully consider the value and meaning in these things we do. We just…do it. 

    Unsurprisingly, the ‘slow life’ movement was born in part as a means to combat the intoxicating effects of our modern pace of life. But more than that, the ‘slow life’ gives us a chance at really aligning our lifestyles to who we are and what we want to do – to lead an intentional life. 

    Designing An Intentional Life 

    After reading an indulgent number of productivity, business and self-help books, I found that an intentional lifestyle is a great step toward finding ‘meaning’ and ‘happiness’. Of course, this does not come naturally. 

    An intentional life requires you to think deeply about what aligns with your core values. Deciding what kind of lifestyle suits you best in this stage of life is probably one of the best steps forward. We all know how easy it is to fall into the abyss of social media, to want what others boast, to have what others don’t. 

    But it feels hollow. It doesn’t feel like you. 

    We often do the things other people do. Most of it comes from the societal pressure to fit in, to be accepted, to make friends. We’re led to believe that if they are looking ‘happy’ doing it, then we would be too. 

    Unfortunately, copying others is not a wise strategy here. 

    Choosing to shift towards a lifestyle which reflects your real priorities and values would bring you closer to feeling more fulfilled. And yes, it requires design and lots of trial and error. 

    Again, this does not come naturally. As Alex Hormozi sharply says, ‘it’s hard to have dreams when you have bills to pay.’ It won’t be achievable overnight. You just need to start simple. 

    Maybe wake up at 8am for one day. Spend more of the morning doing your favourite ritual and it could give you more energy. 

    It could be a new hobby like painting on the weekends. Perhaps night journalling before bed is something to help relax and unwind. 

    Rather than building habits, trying out new things can help you find out what tiny additions help make you feel more aligned with yourself. It’s the intention to experiment and try that matter. 

    Intentional vs Controlling – A Big Difference

    But what if life gets in the way? 

    It is bound to happen. Indeed, just because you intend to do something does not mean your schedule will allow you to. Maybe not this week, but some day next week. 

    It’s doing the task when the opportunity arises. 

    Having an experimental mindset toward the tasks is key because you are not building a habit. Skipping it here and there is fine, as long as you are intentional about doing it again. 

    There is a big difference between controlling – forcing changes in lifestyle choices upon yourself because you want to redesign your life – and intentional choices which are about making decisions with purpose. 

    Being intentional about waking up at 8am is not about a success metric. It’s not ‘did I or did I not?’ but rather ‘how does it feel to do it?’ If you’re not a morning person, at least you know. Or maybe you are a morning person, and you get to be intentional about how you spend your morning instead of rushing for the next commitment.  

    I read the book “Time Anxiety” which offered really practical tips for how to use your time while feeling more grounded. They can complement the intentional choices you make. 

    Being Intentional Makes You Different, So What?

    I realised making choices for myself may imply mismatches with other people’s choices. 

    You might schedule more gym sessions or night runs because you are intentional about your exercise. But it might mean giving up some ‘chill time’ with friends or roommates. And sometimes, people won’t understand it. 

    Being intentional about your own life, and by extension the way you spend your time and money, can make you seem aloof. It’s normal because your priorities or intentional choices in life don’t align with that of others’. 

    The fear associated with being different can be paralysing. The urge to just ‘go with the flow’ can be irresistible. But that’s always the case with change. We simply want the comfort of external acceptance. 

    I spent years in school just doing what I felt best for me, whether that’s eating alone to fit my schedule, or studying alone for maximum productivity. At times I felt completely detached. But eventually, I just came to terms that my plan was different from others and wanting to follow through meant doing it my way, intentionally. Accepting that was a relief because I no longer struggled to achieve both simultaneously.

    Nonetheless, it’s still beneficial to do social activities occasionally. In fact, you can even broaden your range of social interactions if you meet new people through, say, a pottery class. Intentional lifestyle choices need not be isolating, but it surely feels that way initially. 

    We’re used to doing what has been conditioned and ‘acceptable’. Being intentional is unusual (unless you’ve been doing that all your life) and new. That makes it different from what others are doing. But we have to accept that we’ll be different. 

    We’re growing into a version of us which we feel most aligned with. 

    Receiving People’s “Advice” 

    It’s not always a good idea to share your intentional lifestyle choices with everyone. Yes, people are supportive of self-improvement and betterment. But they aren’t always supportive of change, especially if it involves risk or a chance of failure. 

    As an example, if you’ve ever read any content related to the support from friends and family when becoming an entrepreneur, you’ll know that they don’t always give the best advice. They mean the best, but they aren’t entrepreneurs. 

    Hearing people’s reasons why your new intentional lifestyle choices are ‘not ideal’ or ‘bad ideas’ can be discouraging. But you’re choosing your intentional life, not theirs. One quote I remember hearing is that ‘everyone can have an opinion, but not everyone has a say.’ Jim Rohn similarly made the point that we should “stand guard” at the doors of our mind, lest any undesirable influences get in. 

    It’s important to choose who influences your choices and why. There could be good reasons to change your mind. Of course, your intentional choice can be small: a new hobby, a night-cycle, regular runs at East Coast Park. But it can be huge too, like quitting a job for freelancing, entrepreneurship or moving countries. 

    The bigger the intentional change, the more likely you’ll get pushback from people. Understandably, you have to consider the impact on your current life, and those who might rely on you. People’s advice is sometimes just their longer way of telling you ‘be careful’. 

    The Resistance Will Strike

    One of the bigger external obstacles to living a truly intentional life is that the world does not embrace your lifestyle choice. If daily cups of Earl Grey at 10am in a cottage with a view of nature is your intentional lifestyle goal, it might be hard to hold a full-time corporate office job concurrently. 

    Resistance occurs because your new and modified intentional life requires adding new tasks and subtracting old ones. But having a full-time job with uncompromising requirements can mean a whole lot of rigidity in your lifestyle. There might not be enough flexibility in your schedule to fit new hobbies or routines or tasks. It might be too difficult to negotiate work demands with the boss. Whatever the reason, just like playing Tetris, some things simply won’t fit neatly. 

    Then what? 

    Well…this is where we tell ourselves “I’ll try it later”, “maybe next time when things are less busy” and “that’s for the lull season”. And then it’ll never happen. These justifications become habits.  

    The Next Step Is Also The First Step

    The world is not incentivised to accommodate your change in lifestyle. It’s a machine that keeps chugging along. You have to find a way to serve your own intentional life. Because until you do, your life will be dictated by the demands of your previous commitments and be gripped by old unconscious routines that no longer serve you.

    That said, this is not a sign that you should quit your day-job and move to a sub-urban cottage for tea at 10am (unless that’s actually your ideal intentional life). I mean, with all the romanticised van-life and cottage-life these days, maybe they are on to something. 

    Instead, you could try tea sessions over the weekends, or a tea break at work on days without meetings, or take a slow morning for one day and see how it feels. 

    Before any huge swings in your lifestyle, it might be beneficial to consider the small steps to take toward a more intentional life. Like Tetris, play the small blocks first, then make space for the big ones. 

    Eventually, you nudge yourself towards an intentional life. From tea-breaks to slow mornings, your trade-offs might slowly start looking like a career change. Suddenly, moving across the world to experience the Californian sun or Italian wine is not so scary or crazy anymore. 

    But it starts somewhere. It starts with one tiny first step in your daily life. And the longer you wait to start, the longer it’ll be before you discover the right direction or intention for your life. 

    Key Ingredients: Time And Trust

    Taking the first step toward change will feel weird and scary, even if it’s the smallest task you add to a routine. Whether it’s stretching in the morning or moisturising your hands at night, it’s important to try not to let that discomfort or – as I like to say, “inertia” – override your choice to do the task. 

    There’s definitely some adjustments to be embraced. The awkward transition period is inevitable. No doubt it is partly due to the deeply ingrained old routines and lifestyles, especially if we have not changed the ones we grew up with. 

    It takes an average of 66 days (of doing the thing consistently) to build a new habit. That’s about 2 months. So use 2 months to experiment a new habit or lifestyle choice to see if that aligns with your intentional life. And hey, it’s always easier to quit doing something after a while than keep going, especially if it proved to be tedious or draining. 

    A Cup of Coffee with A Flower Pattern Latte Art
    Latte Art Was An Intentional Hobby I Started While Having My Morning Coffees

    It’s good advice to start small when implementing change toward an intentional lifestyle. Afterall, you might not survive a complete overhaul overnight. 

    Leading an intentional life is the first step towards taking back some control of your life’s direction. There’s nothing wrong with following the flow once in a while. But to really seek something deeply meaningful and aligned, making more intentional lifestyle choices is the way to start, especially in the excessively rapid pace of modern society.

    There’s no better time to start than now.

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Turning 21: Learning How To Start Adulting

    Turning 21: Learning How To Start Adulting

    Quirkbag Collection #38 – 03.04.26

    I recently turned 21. What a magic number that is. That one day in someone’s lifetime is probably the biggest age milestone that humans celebrate. But just imagine the disappointment being number 22 (then again, 22 is the title of a song by Taylor Swift).

    Apart from marking the start of adulthood, whether we like it or not, perhaps it also symbolises the beginning of one’s adventure in life, as intended by society. 

    What Does Adulting Even Mean?

    Turning 21 can bring the epitome of joy and celebration. But no one really tells you “then what?”. What comes after turning into an adult? 

    Most romanticised answers are “freedom”, “love”, “adventure”, “independence”. But really, the average person older than 21 might say “stress”, “work”, “responsibility”, “tired”.  

    Reality sets in for all of us somehow. And sure, life can become far better over the years with nicer jobs and lifestyles. Maybe that’s nearer to 41. 

    I met a young adult at work recently and on becoming an adult having to work, the response was indeed “yea it sucks”. But of course, it’s just one opinion. 

    It’s stressful to think about adulthood being linked with independence, especially as a switch that we can just ‘turn on’. Nothing in life is really like that. 

    Independence is inculcated and nurtured rather than ‘awarded’ by virtue of age. We learn as we go, independence comes when we learn to manage ourselves. And that can be really scary.

    One day you’re taking the bus home when you’re 12 and now you have to learn how to file taxes before you end up like Al Capone. (We don’t learn either after blowing the candles on our cake.) 

    If adulting means being completely responsible and independent and mature, there is probably no shortage of those older than 21 but aren’t actually adulting yet.

    Growing Into An Adult

    I used to think that age was like an adventure video game. Every year is like a quest chapter that unlocks once you complete the previous one and the game awards you new stuff. Age and adulting do not work like that. Many can attest that life rewards you with lessons after beating you down. 

    If you’re waiting for something magical to just happen in life at 18, or 21, or any age, it’s probably not happening. It’ll definitely not happen just because your birthday passed. Nothing just happens because of age. Maybe except chronic knee pain. 

    My Birthday Balloon

    Adulting can be so hard because our lives drastically change before we’re prepared. We’re not seen as young students anymore, not given as much benefit of doubt and everyone seems to expect more. Our problems change, life circumstances change, our friends change, our lifestyle changes. But what about us? You. 

    Did you change as fast as everything else? 

    Probably not. 

    It’s easy to pass casual judgement “how is he so childish when he’s 21?” based on sporadic observations, however compelling they may be. But as if maturity, or independence, or anything, just comes naturally to the birthday boy when the sun rises on his birthday. 

    Sunrise Behind My Silhouette On My Birthday Morning

    Maturing, growing, becoming independent, and adulting in general takes time. Some of us take decades, as insane as it might sound. I remember peers who were miles ahead in adulting even in JC, making their own life decisions, taking charge of the direction of their lives and surfing the tides of life. 

    I was not like them. Nor were most of us at 18. I was busy figuring out how to do better in the system while they unwittingly figured out how to do better in their life. 

    The exceptions are rare. That’s why they are exceptions. 

    Making Friends As A New Adult?

    Adulthood is a broad period of our lifetime. Spanning basically from 21 till death, adulthood is a one-way street. 

    As I grow older, I realise that relationships aren’t so easily labelled anymore. The people you know cannot comfortably be grouped as “friends”. In pre-school or kindergarten, everyone had to be friends. Everyone was referred to as each other’s friends, as the environment intended. 

    But as far as I’ve heard, that’s not the workplace. No, the workplace is serious business. It’s meant for work. We must all sit in front of computers and be busy for 8 hours a day unless we get chosen to sit at a bigger desk with other people for a few of the 8 hours. 

    At work, the assumption is that you don’t need friends to do the job. You don’t need the environment to make friends, because you should automatically take care of that as part of adulting. But we all know friendships can be seasonal. 

    I doubt anyone finds friendships easier in adulthood. Having to ‘manage them’ as though they are work appointments because our time is too preciously dedicated to work, that’s a little sad. Without intentionally drawing lines to design our lives to fully be ourselves, it’s truly so easy to fall into the trappings of a conventional, mediocre, boring version of life.

    If your life were a painting, the saddest part is when everyone who you have ever met, stranger or otherwise, gets a single brush stroke in it, and your entire painting is a mess created by others rather than by your own vision. 

    Better to make your own messy painting than accept that of others, right?

    Dealing With Adulting

    With university starting soon, I can’t help but think it’s the last checkpoint before the vast ocean of work ahead, whatever form that might take. 

    It remains scary, as it is to many others (perhaps including the reader, you), to think that beyond university, from the point of graduation to your death, you are going to be alone in your “adulting”. There’s communities of people with similar pursuits, clubs of those with common interests, but it’s not the same as that “school” environment anymore. There aren’t the same people who would stay in your class till the end of the year. 

    “We are in the same boat”, but it seems that the boat has somehow shrunk down so much. 

    It is unsurprising that most work relationships stay work-related. Maybe because it is easier to maintain that hierarchy. To keep the “professionalism”. The focus is after all on the work, and not the people in the workplace. Unlike school, people would rather keep their jobs to sustain a lifestyle than to treat it as a place for fun and bonding and disregard the stakes. 

    Embracing An Irreversible Change

    The most important aspect of being an adult is probably self-awareness. Being aware of the ugly mess that is some of our mental states, the randomness of our lives’ daily circumstances, the impact that we have on others and vice versa. We carry a lot of what we learnt and grew up with in school with us into this realm of adulthood. But the game has changed. 

    No one taught us that life is now completely in your hands, to do as you wish, as you can, once you graduate from the system’s game. Everything in adulting is for you to find out – and there’s a lot – none of which is quite covered as a subject in school. It’s just too hard.

    Adulting is new to me, as it once was to everyone. With blogs like this and the proliferation of media and content, it’s getting easier to learn the hard-won life lessons in this age than it was for the previous generation. Just think of all the perspectives, ideas, advice and regrets people share online and how you can seek wisdom from them. Here’s some.

    Figuring out what to do in adulthood is probably the single most recurring topic for those who are adulting. And I guess I am figuring that out for myself too, alongside this blog.  

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • The Forgotten But Valuable Trait Of Meticulousness Today

    The Forgotten But Valuable Trait Of Meticulousness Today

    Quirkbag Collection #37 – 27.03.26

    We exist in an excessively rapid modern society, where knowledge work is so obsessed about speedy results. Because if Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do it and you can’t, then you aren’t needed right? But there’s an underrated skill that enhances your human presence at work. That’s the skill of being meticulous.

    Speed kills meticulousness. Machines can’t be meticulous (yet) unless you force it with prompts. Why else do you think students who copy-paste AI responses get in trouble? 

    Speed in tasks manifests like the pinball in a machine, always knocking and crashing between sides of the wall. Sometimes employers like speed for trial and error, but likely not always.

    Prioritising speed often comes with low quality output. Meticulousness requires your deliberation, your pause to consider the nuances and maybe derive a better alternative. You can deliver better human results by being meticulous than by being fast. 

    What Is Meticulousness? 

    You can easily find the dictionary definition. But more than just a description of a person, meticulousness is the difference between a scrappily completed task and a well completed one. And sometimes that directly impacts your impression on others, superiors or not. 

    Meticulousness is a skill you can build, a habit you can cultivate and a mindset you can adopt. It’s just something you apply to elevate the work you do. You could start with additional thorough vetting of your work; ponder and refine the tiny details of a report; or perhaps take time to be precise and clear in the presentation as a form of meticulousness.

    Most importantly, meticulousness is a choice. You can choose to be meticulous by putting in extra effort or energy to check, improve, test and simplify your work. Or you can just churn low-quality passable results.

    How To Be Meticulous? 

    Pay attention to the work you do. You know that phrase ‘going through the motion’? It’s a description of apathetic compliance. To become more meticulous, try doing the opposite. A good guiding phrase would be to put your heart into it and to do it to the best it possibly can. It’s almost like you are creating art. 

    Tip: Read Seth Godin’s book ‘Linchpin’ which discusses this concept of creating your art by putting your human touch into your work. 

    Borrowed “Linchpin” From The Library A While Ago

    If you have worked in F&B business outlets, it’s incredibly easy to see how standards and quality can falter due to lack of meticulousness. If anything, the reputation and brand of the business depend on the level of meticulousness the staff has to maintain the quality standards. 

    When I work at Ya Kun, there’s plenty of things to do before closing up, and sometimes, forgetting to do them means burdening others with extra tasks. Here, meticulousness makes the difference between being responsible and careless or shoddy. Being meticulous also forces the quality of toast served to be the best it can be, rather than chase speed at the demise of quality. 

    Ultimate meticulousness comes from genuine passion and care for the impact the outcome creates on others. That’s the kind of meticulousness that has been elevated to a dedication to the craft.

    I doubt you’ll get a fantastic cup of coffee if the barista paid zero attention to brew it. Same for food at any given stall. Same for any set of presentations, or any task you do. It takes intentional effort to do something well, effort that seeks to take care of even the smallest details to raise the overall quality. 

    Watch Where The Line Blurs With Meticulousness

    Being intentional, quality-driven and detail-oriented is not the process of chasing perfection. There’s a clear distinction between perfectionism and meticulousness. Perfectionism is an ideal, the vanishing point which cannot be reached. It’s a concept. 

    Meticulousness has an imperfect beauty to it. You can sense meticulousness, albeit its existence on a spectrum. It’s an homage to our human flaws because being meticulous in any task implies your desire to deliver high quality output and maintain high standards. On the contrary, being careless, haphazard and shoddy reflects apathy and indifference toward the task and outcome, which then highlights your character flaws. 

    While perfectionism is indeed the enemy in most cases, it’s not necessarily a bad springboard to develop meticulousness. Provided that you remember the goal is to be meticulous, rather than perfect, perfectionism can help you spot areas to improve, details to tweak and pushes you toward higher quality work or output. 

    Striving To Become (More) Meticulous 

    It’s incredibly hard to be meticulous under pressure, especially if everything needs to be fast. 

    Quality drops easily when there is a rush to complete tasks, especially if there are many of them. That could explain the off-standard coffee you get sometimes. 

    You’re likely to overlook details or neglect something. But meticulousness is key to excellence, even if you aren’t the smartest, finest or best at any given task. Cultivating or adopting meticulousness as a habit would benefit you over a lifetime. While you can’t be meticulous at every single task every single time, training the skill can breed proficiency at reducing errors and giving higher-quality output more often.

    Maybe it’s the dreary job, the stale office, the boring dynamics or the toxic culture that drives out the desire to be meticulous. But in an environment where most people aren’t meticulous, being meticulous makes you different. It makes you more valuable.

    So if you want to be more meticulous, pay more attention to the work you actually do, all the tiny details. Think about any mistakes or areas for improvement. You can elevate your work quality by doing it with all your heart. Meticulousness takes energy, effort, patience and is best nurtured out of care; genuine care for the outcome. The result is felt by those who see the work or output.

    It’s tedious and draining. And that’s why people don’t do it much anymore. 

    But you can.

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • 3 Lessons After Writing My Blog For 1 Year

    3 Lessons After Writing My Blog For 1 Year

    Quirkbag Collection #36 – 21.03.26

    Happy Birthday Quirkbag! Quirkbag is 1 year old now!

    I still cannot believe I committed myself to writing a blog for 1 year. That’s 52 weeks or 365 days of weekly (-ish) blog posts about my little random life in a bustling world (that almost no one reads).

    If for some reason, years from 2026, that future Zac is still writing Quirkbag and people revisit this post…say on 8 December 2032, welcome and thank you very much, sincerely.

    One year of writing comes with its fair share of ups and downs. There are weeks where I have been extremely motivated to write because I am excited to share my thoughts and ideas, and other times it has been a slump. 

    If you think a year of writing (in a rather informal, casual and borderline humorous tone) has made me far more proficient, think again. Imposter syndrome is still real and alive, but that’s for later. 

    As I look back on the year now, I realise that my endeavour to document, share and connect our lives with others through media is not new. Many teenagers, college students and 20+ year old youths started their own journey like me on YouTube. Some of the more popular youth lifestyle YouTubers started vlogging 5, 6 even 10 years ago before they grew into their current self. If you want examples: Ali Abdaal, Jesse James West. Even Casey Neistat started somewhere on YouTube.

    Everyone is afraid, shy and awkward at first. But eventually, some of us decide to take the first step. In that spirit, it seems apt to share some lessons to encourage more of you to do the thing that makes you a little afraid, from my experiences over 1 year of writing. 

    1: Do The Thing, No One Will Care

    When I published my first post on Quirkbag on 21 March 2025, nothing happened. It was just a blip on my screen. I (and most of you) always imagine something crazy would happen if you make something public. 

    (Consider how plenty of people post haphazardly on social media…zero hesitation there.)

    I had a quick spike of fear when I clicked “publish”, followed by a sense of satisfaction that I took a step out of my comfort zone. The fear of posting content like blogs and short articles will always be there. It’s precisely why it’s out of your comfort zone. And from that, you’ll grow.

    Even today, I still feel slightly anxious when I write something more personal or unconventional because of my societal conditioning. We’re so afraid some random stranger will think poorly of us when it shouldn’t affect you. We’re too afraid to deviate and try something different. 

    But I knew I wanted to try something else, something for fun, for myself. Starting a blog is just my way of aligning myself towards a more intentional and genuine lifestyle. 

    An image of my shadow on the ground as I walk along the street at night
    Walking Along The Street At Night After Work

    One of the reasons I finally stopped procrastinating trying to blog is a line I heard: “You can do it and not tell any friend or family about it.” I liked the “lower risk” it implied. No one has to know that you took a leap of faith to try something “cringey”. But starting something new is always “cringey” and nerve-wrecking because it’s new and foreign. There’s also the irrational fear of failure and embarrassment. But you can eliminate it by just doing it quietly. 

    So do that thing, and tell no one until you are comfortable with it. And when you do, shockingly and funnily, no one will care (yet). 

    2: Start A Project For Yourself

    Starting your small project forces self-growth and a discovery of who you can be. 

    I started writing Quirkbag because I thought it was a cool and unconventional way of articulating and sharing ideas. Without specific ideas, plans or goals, I started just wanting to see if I can go a year writing without quitting. I wanted to be “adventurous”. 

    Here we are. 

    With our lives overwhelmed by social media, we don’t need more fads, trends or dances. And that wasn’t me anyways. I am the introverted one who isn’t conventional or popular. The blog (I hope) reflects that.

    More specifically, starting your project for yourself means reflecting your true authentic self in it, in all aspects. 

    Standing along a cliff edge in Phuket with the background being an ocean
    Standing Along A Cliff’s Edge In Phuket

    Writing a blog was my way of trying to develop myself, to build courage in self-expression and grow beyond who I was. And that’s a liberating reason to start any self-growth project. You can do something for you, without needing to tell anyone. 

    Of course, maintaining the weekly schedule I committed myself to is challenging. There were weeks I skipped posting. Knowing that I wanted to write, that I wanted this project pushed me to get back on schedule. 

    That’s the single most powerful aspect of self-initiated projects: in wanting to do it, you’ll always find a way back to doing it. 

    Sure, motivation and inspiration ran low most weeks, but I always resolved to write because it’s a commitment to myself. Secretly committing yourself to your project without telling anyone relieves external pressure and gives you freedom to create. It’s your life, your experimental project. And so far, I discovered I can stay consistent, more than I expected. 

    That means you can too, if you truly care enough to commit to something for yourself.

    3. Writing Forces Reflection; Trying Forces Intention

    Behind any good blog post or article is a tedious and energy-intensive amount of research. That or the writer is some wizarding genius with words. Seriously, I can’t just make a post out of nothing. Sentences don’t just string themselves. Paragraphs don’t form in an instant. Writing requires thinking and forces original ideas that feel random and offbeat. 

    But that’s the art behind human-generated posts; the struggle to create something real and genuine based on human thoughts. 

    Writing for Quirkbag forces me to reflect on the content I have consumed, the videos, books, articles or events that have happened. There are hundreds of edits and re-writes that happen before the final piece is posted. You don’t see it. Just as I didn’t understand until I started writing. But if you find Quirkbag chunky, messy and unpolished…well, only the last one is intentional. 

    I find myself asking: 

    “Why is this sentence awkward?” 

    “What is this saying?” 

    “Am I even making sense here?” 

    “What am I writing?” 

    Questioning myself is 90% of my editing process. The rest is spotting grammar mistakes, paragraphing and reducing sentence lengths. 

    In some ways, writing-induced reflection here is similar to the effects of journalling. Putting words to vague ideas and emotions can create room for self-exploration of why and how you feel or think the way you do. Forcing yourself to phrase it makes you think deeper and more intentionally rather than settling for verbal nonsense. 

    And yes, imposter syndrome is very real. Being a novice blogger and writer, feeling weird is a routine. Yet, a tip I learnt is simply describing and reflecting on your genuine thoughts, ideas and experiences. That alleviates the sense of pretentiousness. Anything you reflect on is original and sometimes there’s value to be gained. 

    Other Miscellaneous Discoveries From Writing

    There are other experiences from writing, but not all of them are as important. For the curious ones, here are some others. 

    • It’s harder than I thought to find suitable stock images that fit some posts. It used to be one of the hardest things to do before I hit “publish”. Nowadays, I just try to take more photos personally and save it for future posts. 
    • Finding ideas can be tough amid boring weeks. Sometimes nothing interesting happens. That’s just life. But there’s the crux of serendipity. Nothing is planned and everything is natural. Having no ideas can mean the most unexpected topic, or literally the one where I said I am lost. Because I am. 
    • “Document rather than create” is something else I remind myself of whenever I face writer’s block. Remembering even the smallest details in experiences can sometimes trigger more serendipity. 
    An Archway In A Fortress In Oslo

    Writing this blog has been a secret project of mine for the last year. It has been a personal thrill. I really didn’t think I would make it this far, and now that I have, maybe I’ll keep writing for another year. 

    I hope you, as the reader, will find some value and meaning in my posts.

    And go start your own project.

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • The Process Of Becoming

    The Process Of Becoming

    Quirkbag Collection #35 – 13.03.26

    It’s been 51 weeks since I launched my website and started writing my blog, Quirkbag, this very thing you are reading now. 51 weeks. There’s plenty that has happened in this time, but most of all, it has given me a chance at seeing who I am. My thoughts, my reflection, my influences, my experiences and my lessons written into words here.

    Throughout the weeks, I think I have grown (albeit slightly) from just a soldier, or former student into someone who has tried to think deeply and experience more of life. So I thought it’s a great time to reflect on the process of becoming, becoming me.  

    The Goal In Mind

    We live in a very goal-centric world today. That’s a good place to deposit your focus, but cautiously, because it might end up being a black hole for your focus. Whether it’s personal to-dos, that desired exam score, that next cool thing to try or the dreary project task at work, external goals govern our daily lives. We live to complete checklists, often without believing in them. Yet, without completing them, we feel empty, as though the day was merely wasted. 

    I have experienced plenty of this feeling. From my schooling years to my army days and even now, when far detached from both, the residual effects of a goal-driven, outcome-driven life continue to linger. Keeping the goal in mind can be very frustrating because it forces us to regard any non-related injections or events as distractions. But that’s precisely when life happens. 

    If going to the gym 3 times a week is a goal that falls under the North Star of becoming healthier, does going to the gym twice a week make you an outright lazy failure? Objectively, no (but your mind screams ‘yes’ if you’re like me, blaming yourself to hit a higher standard). I should emphasize, the North Star is becoming healthier, not gym 3x a week or you lose a limb. Our obsession with sticking to goals, ironically, seems to work against the process of becoming better. 

    It’s not that skipping gym sessions every so often is encouraged, (you should avoid that, obviously), but that doing so sometimes does not diminish your North Star. The process of becoming (healthier, or otherwise) takes time, and no one is perfect. Blame won’t bring back that third gym session. 

    Goal-Driven Guilt vs Process-Driven Empathy

    Yes, we love to blame ourselves for not sticking to the to-dos or the arbitrary goals. And for a valid reason. We have to do the work to become better or different. The dopamine hit associated with completing ‘goals’ is strongly tied to our self-worth. It feels ‘productive’ when we check things off a list, but who are we truly becoming? 

    To build a new habit, or train discipline, there’s every reason to stick to a plan or regime and possibly move heaven and earth to complete the tasks. But if there is a North Star, being aligned to it matters more than forcing every task to completion. 

    Goal-driven guilt is our own reminder to ‘be better’ and ‘do more’ in future. But in the last 51 weeks, missing a few Quirkbag posts has not steered me away from the North Star of documenting and sharing my thoughts and experiences. 

    I offer the idea of process-driven empathy. We are all in our timelines where we grow and learn in our lives at our own pace. Fundamentally, we’re different people. So why should we all use the same boring goal metrics to judge ourselves? Empathising with my own schedule constraints allowed me to understand why I skipped Quirkbag posts. Knowing that my North Star shined brightly nonetheless helps keep me grounded, even if I occasionally broke from the routine or the goal. 

    Clearly, we are in our process of growing and becoming ourselves. We have to embrace this process, our own progress, because a purely goal-driven life is a binary life.

    It’s yes OR no. There’s no in-between. It’s absolute and dull. And that’s not life because we know life is a journey. Part of that journey is our process of becoming; our finding who we are. 

    Embracing The Process Of Becoming

    We live also in a success-driven world, regardless of age, gender, race or background. We are taught to grow up and be ‘successful’, we are told that we should strive for ‘success’. 

    What does that mean? 

    It’s easy to be clouded by conventional markers of success. Money, fame, the vague ‘happiness’, health and whatever is trending on popular social media. 

    We forget that we are all on a journey, albeit a very slow one when judged from a day-to-day basis. String the years together and I think it becomes scary. You see if you really lived, if you really tried, if you really kept going despite hardship toward your North Star. 

    Embracing the process of becoming means accepting that it takes time to grow, to learn, to cope with the struggle and to step into the shoes of your better self. It might be years, even decades, but it’s your journey from one era of life to the next. And hopefully that’s someone you want to be, aligned with the North Star you chose to follow. 

    My Process Of Becoming? 

    I never considered myself a writer or blogger. But I thought it would be fun to try and see how far I can take it. Quirkbag has allowed me to imprint my steps of becoming over 51 weeks. Of course, not every new endeavour has been included. But for the most part, from books read, to vacations and random thoughts, I feel my own growth has been a slow burn. The process of becoming is slow, but it is shaping this chapter of my life. And I can see it has been marked by plenty of introspection and thoughts I share with you. 

    Here’s some of the unexpected reels: 

    At The Airport Ready For Departure

    I had the chance to travel with friends overseas for the first time.

    Practicing My Latte Art Is Now A Routine For My Morning Coffees

    I never thought I would dabble in latte art as an interest.

    The People Who Play Here Truly Need No Rest But I Do

    Never thought I would join random frisbee games for the fun of it either.

    Sitting With The Sunset Along A Busy Street; People Really Love To Run

    Sitting alone in the busy streets with the sunset really forces you to think about where your life is headed. It brings tranquility and a yearning for clarity.

    Regardless of where Quirkbag goes, I am excited to see where my process of becoming will take me. And I hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me. 

    The one-year milestone post shall come next week…:)

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Struggling to Become A Better Person

    Struggling to Become A Better Person

    Quirkbag Collection #34 – 06.03.26

    There’s a line which Jim Rohn shared in his lectures – ‘set a goal to be a millionaire for what it’ll make of you to achieve it.’ You don’t need to be wise to know that he wants you to develop yourself, to become better. In that process, maybe you’ll become a millionaire. I mean, it’s really hard for the average person to simply make a million dollars. It could take decades, if at all. But that struggle to become a better person is not any easier. 

    As an individual, becoming someone better means turning yourself into a different version of yourself. Someone you currently are not. That’s incredibly hard, notwithstanding all the self-help advice. It takes fundamentally changing your behaviours and mindsets to shift your actions toward that of a better person. 

    That means a lot of hard work and discomfort. It’s plenty of forcing yourself to do things you would not normally do.

    As I navigate this phase of my life, a lot of attention has fallen to the self-development sphere – from exercising to reading and learning skills for my own betterment. It remains extremely hard to tell where you’re headed in terms of self-growth because there’s this cloud of fog that impairs your clarity when you’re in the midst of it all. 

    Much like that line from Steve Jobs, you cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. You just have to trust your own growth. 

    What Is A Better Person? 

    The struggle to become a better person is a multi-causal problem, but nonetheless (I think) a benign problem to have as far as problems go. (Debt, for instance, seems way worse as a problem.) It implies a willingness to improve both intrinsically (yourself) and extrinsically (for others). Don’t worry, you’re probably a good person already for wanting to be better. 

    One likely reason is the lack of a clear definition for ‘better person’. I don’t even know what that means. So how do I achieve that? 

    ‘Better’ is such a vague term that you have to define it more tangibly – be fluent in Mandarin, freelance as graphic design from scratch or volunteer twice a week. There are various tools for goal-setting online. Defining your own ‘better’, as simply as possible, helps push yourself towards that end goal – aka that next version of yourself.  

    So if my ‘better’ means going to the gym twice a week, why does it suck so much to stick to it? There’s still resistance when it comes to doing the thing to make you better. You find it hard to wake up early, you feel too tired to exercise or the weather feels too cold. 

    There’s infinite excuses to avoid ‘becoming that better person’. 

    How does that make sense? We should technically want to do the thing, because we want to be that ‘better’ person. Or do we?

    The Pursuit of ‘Better’ 

    Chasing self-improvement is not a bug but a feature of simply wanting to grow and explore. Every time we learn something new, see something different and explore something else, we are better because our horizons are broadened. We gain knowledge, experience and even skills from the encounters. 

    But contrary to passive cumulations, our active pursuit of betterment can prove arduous. Therein lies the struggle. 

    We struggle – procrastinate, delay, postpone, dread, abhor – to do different things because that is just not who we are. Passive cumulation from general life or formal schooling is beyond our control, we just live through it. But active pursuit requires the voluntary action of taking on extra work, tasks and worries instead of the bare minimum. 

    So to answer that question on why we find it so hard to do something we should technically want to do, it’s probably because we know we don’t have to do it, we can skip it and continue lingering in our comfort zone until life forces change. If that sounds familiar, it’s what I described as passive cumulation of experience. 

    You don’t have to exercise.

    You don’t have to volunteer.

    You don’t have to change…yet

    But we would like to. 

    That’s why those goals loiter in our heads.

    “I should go to the gym this week” or “I’ll try meal prepping this weekend”. 

    The only way to be ‘better’ is to put in the work, actions and behaviours of your desirable self. So how do we bring ourselves to do all the things we need to do to be ‘better’? 

    Fortunately for us, there’s a whole industry of self-help ready to dish out advice from habits to productivity to memory and more. You just have to pick one method to help you work towards that ‘better’ self. 

    Am I A Better Self Today? 

    If becoming a better self were that simple, won’t we all be saints? Considering the news still reports all kinds of debauchery, we’re not all ‘better’ versions of ourselves. And maybe not all of us want to be. We could just embrace the person we currently are. Would that be so bad?

    Maybe not. Not until life forces change upon us. 

    We are, or at least I think we can be, better people today than we used to be simply by virtue of choice. In choosing to learn from our experiences, our struggles and our old problems, we can be better by being kinder to our present self and others who may be going through something similar. (Being kinder to ourselves might be the hardest problem yet.

    There’s something reassuring about becoming better: the tasks don’t get easier, the goal of a ‘better’ self is not changing, but you are getting stronger and closer to being that ‘better’ self. Going to the gym is not easier, you’ve become stronger. 

    When the struggle starts easing, that’s because you likely shifted part of your identity to embrace the habits or tasks done by that ‘better’ self. 

    But the journey is rough. These tasks compete with our current lifestyle for our finite time and energy. Amid the self-doubt and lack of consistency in our efforts to be better, we face the fact that maybe we just don’t want that “better self” as badly or urgently. 

    It’s not as important as whatever is the worry of the day. 

    And that’s normal. That’s why there is the struggle to become better, we fundamentally have to squeeze changes into our lives. 

    Living With The Struggle 

    As we grow older, we inevitably grow into ourselves as individuals. We have a firmer identity of who we are. It is also true that as we grow, we continue to struggle because we face new situations, problems and people in life. Perhaps the struggle of becoming a better person never ends because the person we are today is insufficient for our lives in future. 

    In other words, life forces us to grow, or we’ll never adapt. 

    Choosing to become a better self is hard because consistency in doing the tasks required to become that version of yourself is immensely difficult. The struggle is to be expected. That’s the process. And sometimes I do wish it were easier to become a better person. 

    I’ve committed myself to going to the gym at least 4 times a week and the only reason it has become less dreary is the change in my mindset. 

    I used to see it as an obstacle in my day. It was not part of my life back then; going to the gym was not part of my identity. So I struggled to bring myself there. It always felt weird being that newbie. But now, I enjoy the process of becoming. Not the end goal of having some physique or muscle mass. But the act of going to the gym; the act of completing part of my life’s routine. 

    Embrace the Mindset

    Becoming better feels partly enjoyable once you begin to embrace the process of becoming a better self, the process of growth. Building the new routine is easier with a mindset that does not see tasks as “obstacles”. Embracing this change in your identity and self is what would propel you to sit through the tasks and minimise your struggle. 

    With Jim Rohn’s advice, the million dollars merely motivates you. To be a millionaire, you have to become a person who earns a million dollars.

    You first become the person, then you get the outcome. We struggle from one point to the next, but we make it anyway. Mostly.

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Letter To My 18-Year-Old Self In JC

    Letter To My 18-Year-Old Self In JC

    Quirkbag Collection #33 – 27.02.26

    The 2025 A-Level results are released today. Literally every single JC student can feel the anxiety overflowing from the school hall. I remember exactly how it felt when I collected my own results 2 years ago, so nervous that I chose to arrive late intentionally to avoid the crowd and the unnerving probes from classmates. 

    I stood outside the hall while the crowd dissipated, entering only when there was no queue left. There was no mental capacity for conversation as I could only think about the results in my hand once I had collected it. I had this palpable anxiety and fear that rivalled my inner composure. 

    But that’s all history now, and you can easily find my academic background on LinkedIn. 

    A Reflection Inspired By Pete Sampras

    It felt an apt time to reflect on my own JC journey now that there is some distance between me and my old self. And yes, it does seem true that growing older and finishing NS have granted some clarity. 

    I read the letter Pete Sampras wrote to his younger self and felt encouraged to be kinder to my past self. So what better way to reflect than through a letter to my old self; a younger Zac who had more naivety, endurance and stress than the current one. 

    The Letter

    Hey dude, 

    I’m you, but older. 

    In 2023 your life is going to pivot greatly, but the impact is felt afterwards.

    As you celebrate your 18th birthday, when the skies are still clear and your mind less cluttered by school, you should take more time to enjoy that day. It’s a day you won’t get back. 

    You will enjoy Mediterranean cuisine for lunch, but the exact food and taste you won’t remember very clearly in the coming years. But it was the experience you remember and hold dear, just like many others. 

    A classmate will wish you well, but that friendship will end abruptly in several months. You will not know why, and you’ll keep wondering until you enlist in the army. Eventually, you’ll move on; so will they (at least that’s what I think). 

    This will teach you to hold your closest friends tightly and choose carefully the ones you wish to keep investing in. Your singular focus on individual excellence, consistency and commitment to yourself will be isolating. You will have meals alone, walk alone, study alone, but that’s because you know what you need to do.

    Deep down, you know what it takes. Don’t let people confuse you. 

    More and More Of The Same – Mundane

    From April to June, your life will be incredibly mundane and repetitive. The days blur into one. But even you can foresee it now. 

    You will conclude your time in the school’s Air Rifle/Pistol Shooting Club with an unremarkable and arguably tragic performance in the final competition in which you will ever partake. The night before, you and 2 other team mates will each give a parting speech. 

    It’s important you don’t hide what you feel and tell them the truth, because the next day, you will not make the cut to the Shooting Finals and as you struggle to accept it, the parting speeches remind you of the journey you’ve been on. 

    Eventually, you’ll learn to accept it. Trust me, even though it’s a very bitter pill to take. 

    Farewell Scribbles on the Whiteboard Before We Left

    Your volunteering project will end in April, with a rather well-received Easter Egg Hunt which you will plan and organise. In May, more juniors than you expected will apply to take over this project from you, from whom you will select 5 that you will be proud of. They all want the same thing – to run the project.

    It’s critical that you stick to your intuition for which junior suits the project best when making your choice of successors, because that’s as good as you’ll do. That’s as good as your senior did when he chose you. The rest will take care of itself. 

    It will not be the last time you cross paths with your senior, though you’ll never see him again until Nov 2024. 

    Studying And More…Studying

    In June, you will have a first taste of what grinding for the A Level exams feels like. You will make a revision plan for your 5 subjects that seems wholly impossible to complete, and your instinct is correct. You don’t end up finishing the plan. 

    Instead, you adapt it based on your progress and areas for improvements. It ends fairly well. But it won’t be important because you won’t remember the results. 

    In August, you will study for the prelims of 5 subjects without many breaks. When you feel out of gas, you must remember to hang in there. It’s only the prelims.  

    After the prelims, you will serendipitously reconnect with an old friend and find yourself enjoying lunch with him after revision classes. It’s a rare chance for you to feel at ease again as you genuinely bond over the shared struggles of the exams, the difficulty of the papers, the unrelenting stress and the mutual answers to “so what are you going to do later when you go home?”

    Like mirror images, your answers are usually mutual – study, albeit for a different topic. 

    As October comes, you will be the most stressed and mentally torn you have ever been. And you will not feel ready to take on the pressure. It’s the most mentally gruelling and exhausting experience you will have, where every single day is a fight for productivity and revision. You will never have felt more alone. 

    There will be so many mornings spent sitting at the same table outside the offices studying for General Paper (GP) while waiting for revision classes, sometimes in the company of another classmate. It will be extremely slow and boring. You won’t even feel like you are progressing.

    Nonetheless, never quit, remind yourself often. 

    The End Draws Closer

    Before the end, you will be asked to attend your graduation ceremony. You will be very tempted to skip it because you find it a waste of time. You would rather spend it at home studying. 

    That would be a mistake. 

    Promise me that you will still go for it, even to just sit and walk across the stage for your 20 seconds of fame. It is closure for you, and you deserve to walk that stage after everything that you went through. 

    Enjoy that last moment before you leave, holding that bouquet of flowers in the warm afternoon sun. You will do well to take that photo with your family, even if you feel reluctant at the moment thinking about the upcoming exams. You have now graduated. 

    Graduating From School;
    Sweeter Than Bitter, At Long Last

    Once A-Levels begin, time will fly by faster than you think. The first week is the worst. You will be stunned and shocked. But you roll with it. You just have to remember to take it one paper at a time. The weeks begin to pass faster and it gets far easier towards the end because all your toughest papers are at the start. 

    When it does end, please indulge in that moment a little more. You will remember taking one last walk along the overhead corridor above the canteen toward the gate, as you tell yourself that at long last, it is over and you never have to go through it again. 

    At home, you finally relish in disposing of all the newly irrelevant papers, notes and practices. You’re free from school. 

    This Is Your Life Now

    At the end of it all, your future is changed because you will have chosen to devote an enormous amount of time and life into studying. You will keep asking yourself whether all that sacrifice was worth it.

    Sometimes I’ll say “yes”, and other times, “no”. But you will do well. 

    Your life is now yours again, briefly, and you will benefit from cherishing the time spent with your family. There is no next exam to shift your focus to anymore. This is literally your life now. 

    I only wish that you found more joy and enjoyment in your JC journey, because it was one that very few get to go through. Oh and, say thank you to your closest friend who went through it all with you, day by day, because he did not have it any easier.

    He’ll continue to be your best friend. 

    He still is. 

    Yours truly, 

    Zac

    No number of words will ever come close to describing the brutal and tumultuous studying that some JC students do. There are very few people who can relate and empathise with this unique kind of struggle and pain. And sometimes we forget that we’re only 18. 

    The hard work can go unrecognised.

    It’s true that the world does not reward effort. Universities don’t do charity under the disguise of someone’s “effort”. But we should never forget about “effort”, especially the relentless kind by those around us. 

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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  • Why Seeking Novelty Becomes Frustrating

    Why Seeking Novelty Becomes Frustrating

    Quirkbag Collection #32 – 20.02.26

    There are few things like seeking novelty that make you feel refreshed and energised. Besides a cold shower and skydiving, seeking novelty is the easiest way to thrill yourself in your days. So that seems like a decent place to move towards adventure.  

    Seeking novelty has been my motto for the past few months as I navigate my “gap year”. But recently, this idea of seeking novelty has brought some frustration.

    But it’s probably a “user problem” rather than a flaw in the idea of seeking novelty. 

    “Seeking Novelty” As A Motto So Far

    To pump more novelty into my otherwise boring life, I started (then closed) a tiramisu business for fun, worked freelance in F&B, applied and got 2 part-time jobs and attended an enrichment course out of curiosity. And I also write the weekly blog posts. 

    It’s a fairly hectic schedule, with a decent chunk of novelty.

    So has novelty really lived up to the hype? 

    Yes…initially. 

    And that’s expected, if you understand “novelty” literally. Whatever I do stops being new once I do it for the first time. It becomes familiar as I learn to adapt. 

    But doing anything for the first time makes you feel that adrenaline and anxiety, which is a tell-tale sign of novelty. It’s the fear that comes with unfamiliarity and discomfort. Perhaps even the fear of embarrassment or failure. 

    Seeking novelty goes hand-in-hand with forcing yourself to sit with mild (or moderate) discomfort. Novelty forced me to work in a new environment filled with strangers to gain the experience. It also led me to independently choose to attend a (wine) course in which I was the youngest and least experienced. 

    Committing to novelty brought me to sit with more discomfort and anxiety than I was used to, and that I find is a skill on its own. Pushing yourself into discomfort and anxiety but doing the thing anyways. 

    Novelty Evolves…And You Can’t Control It 

    Novelty likely either ends in a new routine, or fades into a one-off distant memory. 

    When I first started at one of the part-time jobs, I had no skill in the position. It was painful to suck. But there was grace in embracing the “suck”, in accepting the feeling of being a beginner again. Voluntarily. 

    This is novelty at its prime – something so new and foreign that you could not do. In this case of novelty, there was thrill from learning and doing. But there was also anxiety and discomfort in whatever I tried to do. 

    Now, I am slightly better at the job. The novelty has mostly worn off, and going to work now feels more like a routine than an adventure. That’s the result of time and intentional exposure. And therein lies an underlying frustration – the routinisation of our endeavours. 

    The more you do a task or experience something, the less novelty you feel. It leads to frustration because novelty was your goal, so now you need to find something else. 

    I guess the question I ask myself is, “without novelty, is this something still worth pursuing in the near future?” (Who knows?? We’ll see…)

    You could choose to control this “novelty” by pursuing a ridiculous number of things. But eventually, seeking novelty is just a tool to jolt you. I really doubt it brings life-long satisfaction. You could also choose never to engage in that activity again, because maybe it sucked, but novelty evolves either ways and it never stays the same for that particular thing.  

    Novelty is a one-time punch card for most experiences – it’s the “first time” that hits the hardest, then wanes with subsequent tries. 

    Of course, skydiving is probably still a novelty after 10 jumps for the average person. 

    Will You Stop Seeking Novelty? 

    I doubt so, at least in general. Life is full of novelty. Seeking it just makes life more interesting sometimes.

    Novelty is just a word to describe change, albeit with a more positive tone. From a new apartment to an unexpected health diagnosis, novelty springs from time to time. What you call it depends on whether you like it or not. But the issue, or experience, is nonetheless new. 

    Seeking novelty hints at a more optimistic approach towards life – one that you are steering and actively navigating. Conversely, novelty that strikes you off guard and leaves you hanging turns out to be curveballs – like a cancer diagnosis. 

    We seek novelty as a means of shaking up the routine. But seeking novelty stops being fun and exciting when we are no longer in control. When we experience novelty in a way that shakes our boat a bit too hard, we retreat into anxiety and frustration. 

    Regardless of whether anxiety and frustration arise, novelty is just life exerting itself. How we perceive it dictates whether you call it “novelty” or “life sucks”. And so seeking novelty, in the conventional thrill-seeking sense, is really a search for meaningful experiences to enjoy.   

    Solution: Should I Seek Novelty?

    Honestly, the answer depends on your present phase in life. But novelty will never substitute fulfilment.

    If you think about novelty like the gas pedal in a car, flooring the pedal as you are nearing the speed limit is foolish. If your life is already zooming up and down with your emotions oozing out the window, my humble suggestion is to tone down the novelty and excitement. You could use a slower pace and some tranquility. 

    Yet, if you’re like me, and you could use a jolt regularly to explore your world, seeking novelty is a practical way to open new doors. I never started a business until I sold tiramisu. I’ve never voluntarily attended a course before, until recently. 

    Wine Course

    It takes effort to force yourself into doing something new, especially if you’re an introvert that prefers comfort and no limelight. This blog was my novelty in Mar 2025.

    Seek novelty knowing that life has its own bucket of it. You never know when you will be splashed. In a dilemma, I often ask myself, if the worst-case scenario here occurred, is this still an experience worth embracing and having 50 years from now? 

    Or…if you prefer a more drastic, cinematic version: Get in the car.

    Thanks For Reading. Click The Arrows For More!

    Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

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