How To See Your True Color From Your Habits

Opening

Once there was an old noble man in southern China who held a competition to find a good young man to marry of his only daughter, and also to be the successor of his silk-business. Hearing that the noble man was very rich and his daughter was really beautiful, many noble scholars applied for the vacancy. However, the noble man did not clarify how was his system of judging for the winner, he only said that the best men will win. He would send one of his men to spend a night in the applicant's house to check their address and feng shui, before he announced the real test. In total, there were 49 noble scholars and 1 young farmer who applied. After one month, the noble man invited all applicants to a meeting. There, everybody were wondering what was the real test would be, but surprisingly, the noble man already announced the winner of the competition, which is the only young farmer. Then a noble scholar protested:

"How can this farmer be the winner?? He cannot possibly be better than us, we are highly educated noble scholars! How was the judgment??"

Then the noble man wisely answered:

"Such behavior is one of the reasons. I do not interested in nobility's proud. I built my business through hard working and discipline, so I want a successor who is hardworking and discipline. Actually, I sent my men to each of your home to record your habits, from which I can know which one of you who fulfill my demand best. I did not explain this, since I was afraid that if I did, you will pretend to be someone different than you truly are. This young farmer, which comes from a poor family, has the best habits among all of you. I will read the record for you: He manage his small house very neatly, he eats regularly, he exercise every morning, he sleep regularly, he dress very neatly though his clothes is not as good as noble scholars, he knows all his neighbors well and they like and respect him, he is also very punctual in doing things, he read some books at night and works hard at day, he shows respect for everyone, and last, he never shows any proud. I do not care if he comes from a poor family, with his habits, soon or later he will be a successful rich man, rich enough to deserve nobility. So is there any of you noble scholars who has better habits than his?"

All the scholars were quiet, as none had better habits. So, the young farmer became the successor of the noble man's silk-business. At the same tine, he married the beautiful daughter, continuing the noble man's heir, in a tasty way.

As we understand well, mankind posses the ability of being deceptive. We can see the example in job interviews, people often offer a very good personal quality, though they do not really posses it. These act is sometimes called as an art of selling one self. However the border between the area of self-selling and deceiving others is a foggy blur. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate the two, as hard as to judge between the right or wrong of their mix. The noble man in the story knew this well, that's why he did not announce his method's of judging the competitors. If the competitors knew this, they would have been changing their daily habits just to win the competition. Once someone win it, he would be back to his original habits. I don't mean to satirize you here, I swear :p

Our true quality is actually reflected from our daily habits. Try to look at our room or house. Is it neat? Is it messy as if a hurricane have just pour its hellish anger there? Do we care enough to manage it? Can we manage it well? Please imagine this: if our room is really messy and dirty, it reflects ourself; our quality. We are persons who don't care about cleanness, no matter how neat our working desk in our office is. We tidy our working desk because we afraid of our supervisor. This fright is an external factor, not a internal one which comes from ourselves. In another word, we are tidy not because we are tidy, but something forces us to be tidy. That is not our true quality on cleanness. If we said that we liked tidiness in job interviews, it means we are deceiving the interviewer. And deception will not bring any improvement on our selves. So let's ask ourselves, do we want to lie about our bad side, or we want to work on that bad side step by step to eliminate it, and become someone better? If you don't want to be better, you are reading the wrong article ;p

Now please think on our daily meals. How many times do we eat a day? Eating provide our body with energy. Normally people eats 3 times a day, but this number is closely related to our daily activities. The more and heavier the activity, the more energy it needs. Being over-eating and under-eating reflects our true care and consciousness toward our body, which is certainly not good. To become a better person we need to be balanced on many aspects, such as psychical aspect and psychological aspect. How would we expect to improve ourselves if our mind does not care enough to supply the energy which is needed for our daily activity. Also, none will be better if his/her reasoning can not control his animal instinct. We will be better persons if we have the ability to balance this aspects. Becoming a circus rope walker does not guarantee your mastery of this ability :]

Punctuality is also a very important factor in determining someone's quality. When someone said to his friend that he will come at 9 o'clock, but then he came on 9.10 then he is not a punctual man. Moreover if he did not inform his lateness. However the most punctual person can also be delayed accidentally. None can do anything if his flight is delayed due to a bad weather or such. Of course he must inform his lateness and its cause. In this case, there's no better thing to do. Please remember that acts of punctuality need to be applied on any part of our life, not just in business. If we said to our closest family that we will come at certain time, yet we are not care enough to come at said time, then surely we are not a punctual persons in original. Of course in business, we can cover and polish that bad habit into a shiny one if we want. Heaven or hell, it's our choice. I prefer earth actually :p

Daily appearance is also a good description of the personality of someone. Please imagine if we have a friend of male supermodel, who is contracted to be the star of masculine clothing advertisements, yet in his room he always wears pink clothes and reads Cosmo, then there is some possibility that he's some kind of orange eating orange (you know what I mean, right? ). However it's just a possibility that he shows his true colors, we may not judge him based on one point of view. If you have more than three reasons, feel free to judge ;) . Appearance is very important, as Will Smith said "if you wear a shirt full of paint and you go to a big saving company and you want to be accepted, you must wear a really nice pants"(in the film Pursuit of Happiness). Here is another example: we can't possibly ask someone whose appearance freak us out to a date, right? This point shows that appearance influences human's first psychological perception, which will influence all the perception which will come to understanding in the future. However, we have to balance between good public appearance and our original style of dressing. If we wear clothes only based on what public think good, we will be a robot. If we wear clothes based on our own style without considering what other people think and the particular situation, we will be an animal. It is better to stay in between, such as having original but adaptive appearance. A species of color changing lizard does this really well :p

Having regular physical exercises is also a key to determine someone's quality. How? Well, most people know that exercising is very good for health. But not every body is having regular exercises. This reality shows that having knowledge with applying it is something different. It is much better to apply the knowledge rather than keeping it for our selves. This is a symbol, meaning that the point does not apply only in having physical exercises. It applies in every knowledge. We have much knowledge, but have we applied all of them? Having much knowledge is easy, but can we apply all of them? It is harder to apply a knowledge rather than to get one. A great person is not someone who has the most knowledge, great person is the one who can apply most of his knowledge.

Daily habits are often considered a small un-important thing. But actually, these small details prove the true quality of someone. This daily activity is actually a fundamental part of further pattern of acts, which functions like the foundation of a building, the stronger the better. If we expect to be successful in managing big and important thing, we must be able to deal with these small things well first. If we can't deal with small things well, how would we expect to deal with bigger things well? However, we must be wise in developing ourselves. None can be a hero from zero in a blink of eye. We must plan well, and do it step by step. A journey of thousands miles starts with a single step. Actually, a journey of a mile also starts with a single step :D

Wise word said that talent can only be obtained from birth, but any skills can be sharpened from the habits of day to day practice and learning. Have a nice day.