About Me

I find it interesting how few "About me" blogs there are out there that admit things like, "I am a self-absorbed person" or "I prefer to run away from my problems" or "I deceive people to get what I want." However, from many of our personal experiences, the world has quite a few of these kinds of people. It is clear that these people might not make as many friends, if they were to post such descriptions of themselves. In light of this, I suppose a more fitting name for this blog entry would be, "What I Want You to Know About Me". But I guess that might be a little too long, huh?

That said, you probably don't want to know anything about me now, since I take that long just to get to the real point. :) I am a person that feels that important things should be explained with great care. I also feel that explaining who I am to another person is an important thing, so I take great care in doing it. I could tell you a great deal that is not true about myself, and, on the short-term, I might gain something. For example, I could make it seem that I am a genius with an incredibly high IQ. By hinting at this, I *might* gain your respect and admiration, but the day always comes when the Truth about what I am becomes apparent. The Truth about what is can be hidden, but not forever. The saying goes that we can only accept the Truth or break ourselves upon it. At some point I would be held responsible for my lie, and my credibility would be forever tarnished. It is interesting that not only do I lose the trust from having lied, but I also lose the time and energy required to sustain the lie. In short, it is not an effective choice to falsely misrepresent oneself to others, if you seek to maintain long-term relationships.

So, in an attempt to correctly communicate what kind of person I am, I will list the qualities that I think are most important in a person, qualities I hope will illuminate the core values of my character. Note, however, that I make no assertion about whether I possess these qualities. I'll leave that judgment up to those who know me. Also note, the majority of what is below are some of the main points of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Dr. Stephen Covey, so if you like what you read, you will definitely like that book!

First, and perhaps most importantly, is 'responsibility'. When I say responsibility, I mean the fact that each of us has the response-ability to choose our response to the things that happen to us. When the owner of a bar in Tokyo closed the doors in my face, I was faced with the opportunity to choose what action I would take. I could choose to be angry and resentful and let that experience affect my opinion of Japanese people as a whole, or I could choose to try to understand why the owner did that and what I could do, if anything, to change her opinion. I cannot blame my anger on that person, because she only closed the doors on me. If I am angry about that, it is because I choose to empower her opinion to anger me. To take the lesson one step further, if I have a miserable life, it is because I have chosen to empower the things in my life to make me miserable. You may say, "But there are lots of bad things that happen which are not my fault! What about earthquakes? What about when a loved one passes away?" True, we have no control over many things in life, but we do have control over our response to them. The power to choose is ours. Until we accept this responsibility, we cannot focus our efforts on effectively improving our lives. (For a more complete discussion of this concept, please refer to the chapter on Habit 1 of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Dr. Stephen Covey.)

The next quality I feel is very important is 'introspection', or the ability to think deeply about the choices one has made and judge whether those choices are in harmony with our values. In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it is often difficult to stop ourselves and think about whether our choices are leading us toward our end goal in life. However, if we never stop to think, we will not know if our choices are leading us in the wrong direction. If we are going in the wrong direction, then working harder will not help because we will only get to the wrong place faster! By introspecting, we can take immediate actions to correct our past mistakes and keep ourselves on the right path that is in harmony with our values.

The next quality is 'mindfulness', and is a big concept in Buddhist philosphy. Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of our actions through deliberate mental effort. Such effort allows us to immediately notice when we stray from the correct path of living in harmony with our values. Someone who is mindful notices immediately when he or she is getting angry and takes action to correct this before the anger escalates. Conversely, those who are weak in mindfulness feel that they have no control over their actions and that they just happen. The truth is they choose to not expend the mental effort necessary to control their actions, but everyone has the power to do so.

I feel the last few qualities are important because they greatly increase our effectiveness at building lasting relationships with others. These qualities are: 'tolerance', 'patience', 'honesty', 'compassion', 'empathy', 'reciprocation', 'humility', and 'open-mindedness'. I could go on for hours about these (and I may in a future blog), but the meaning and value of most of these qualities are commonly understood. Unfortunately, however, so many people do not adhere to them. I believe that the root reason is that people allow themselves to become so focused on short-term gains, that they neglect these qualities/principles that lead to long-term gains. None of these qualities are easy to practice, but they fertlize the soil of relationships, providing the nourishment necessary for long-lasting success.

In the spirit of the last quality mentioned, I encourage anyone to post comments with their opinions about anything I have said here. Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my statements and definitely explain why. Also, let me know if I missed any good qualities. Thanks for your time in reading this (I know it was long)!

ブログを始めましょう！(o^-')b （添削）

皆さん、ようこそ！

まずは自己紹介をします。ええと…僕のことをどう説明したらいいかなぁ？殆どの人は僕の日本語文を読んだら、日本人じゃないって分かるかもしれない。僕は日本が大好きなアメリカ人だよ。だけど、僕は大体のアメリカ人が日本と聞いてイメージする、アニメやマンガ、電化製品以外に日本のよさや、素晴らしさを知っているからアメリカ人だけど他のアメリカ人とはちょっと違うかもしれない。

まず、日本人は世界一番優しいと思う。なんで分かるかって言うと、僕が約１年間、日本の会社でインターンとして過ごした時、色々困ったことがあったけど、その都度親切な人が助けてくれたから。例えば、僕は自分のせいですっごい体調を崩した時、日本人のおじさんとおばさんが家に招いてくれ、健康に気を使った食事(しかも美味しい！)をごちそうしてくれたんだ。そして、僕をその家に泊まらせてくれたんだ。すごいよね！アメリカではこんなに親切にしてくれる人に会うのは珍しいんだ。

あと、やっぱり日本食！僕の日本語じゃ、日本料理の美味しさを伝えきれないからこの写真を見て。うまそうでしょう！

[ See pictures in previous post ]

決めた！今日日本料理を食べるぞ！

僕の日本語のジャーナルを読んでくれて、ありがとう！良かったら、コメントして下さい。それに、日本語が間違ってたら、添削してもらえますか？お願いします。m(_ _)m

ジャスティン

P.S.次のトピックは「僕と日本のやさしいお祖母様」です！

ブログを始めましょう！(o^-')b

皆さん、ようこそ！

ええと．．．僕は誰と説明した方がいいだろうな？僕の日本語を読んだら、やっぱり日本人じゃないと知れろかもしれな い。僕は日本が大好きなアメリカ人だよ。それに、僕は日本がアニメとマンガと電気製品以外に、もっと素晴らしいことがあると信じられるから、殆どのアメリ カ人と違うと言えるだろう。

まず、日本の人々は世界に一番親切な人だと思います。僕は一年間位日本でインターンした。その時、色々な困っ たことがあったけど、毎度親切な日本人が助けてくれたんだ。例えば、僕は自分の所為ですげぇ～病気になった時、日本人のおじさんとおばさんが家で泊ませて、美味 しくて体に良いご飯を食べさせていただきました。とても親切だな～！アメリカでは、こんなことは珍しいだよな。

次の素晴らしいことはやっぱり日本料理です！僕は日本料理の美味しさを伝えるために、たくさんナイスな言葉を書けることが出来るけど、僕の文法が下手だから．．．この写真を見て。


　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　お寿司

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ラーメン

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　焼肉
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　すき焼き


　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　鮭丼


うまそうでしょう！決めた。今日日本料理を食べるぞ！

僕の日本語のジャーナルを読んでくれ、ありがとう！良かったら、コメントして下さい。それに、日本語が間違ったら、添削してくれない？ありがとう。
m(_ _)m

ジャスティン

P.S.
次のトピックは「僕と日本のやさしいお祖母様」です！