What do you look for in your partner?

Day 71

October 10 marks a big day in my life. On 10/10/10 I dared to walk out of my bachelor life and ask a girl at my favorite spot in Baltimore at around 10:00 pm “Will you marry me?” To my surprise, she just smiled and said “Yes”. I am dedicating this blog to this girl who brought an end to my reign of bachelor life. We got married a month from that and shared ours fights and laughter. Two years have passed by but I am happy that I dared to ask her the question that changed my life. One of the toughest decisions of our lives is choosing the right partner to spend the rest of our lives together. Finding the person is only part of the battle but having the courage to express the feelings and getting back a mutual sentiment is another portion of the battle. The ability to remind yourself in times of happiness and sorrow that your partner completes your world - completes the battle.

So here is my question: What do you look for in your partner?

I sometimes wished finding the right partner was as simple like the poetic words that propose “A strike of lightening and weakening knees.” The theory of an ideal partner is finding a person that does not have the same personality like you to complete your completeness. The challenge of this theory is finding the common conjunction in the person whose personality is not the same as yours. There is another theory about choosing the ideal partner, the theory of love. This theory dictates on the measurement of love and that your partner must reciprocate the equal amount of love and feelings that your share with the person. Another interesting theory would be the theory of purpose, why do you want the other person in your life?

Do all humans look for the same characteristics in their partner? Does the perspective of choosing a partner depend on the gender, age, culture, value, etc. of the person? What are the implications of chemistry for choosing the right partner? Is there a dedicated or accepted time-frame with respect to analyzing a human for partnership? At what point do you decide to pursue the bond of friendship to a bond of partnership?  

Does a successful partnership guaranty a smooth sail? Do you think partners don’t fight or argue? In a partnership there will be times when we agree but there will be times when we don’t agree. Even though not a 100 percent successful, two of the biggest lessons I have learned to balance my partnership during times of dispute are the ability to focus the energy on understanding your partner and focusing the energy towards listening to encourage support to your partner. 

“I can only be a truthful storyteller about our love-hate relationship with you on-my-side forever to catch my lies” 

~Lenji Jacob

What is your take on public restrooms?

Day 70

I had witnessed many a friends speeding home to use their restroom at home. People tend to hold their bowel or urination until they reached home because they don’t like the idea of using a public restroom. The concept of public restroom is a big taboo for some of my friends because they refuse to use a restroom that is publicly accessible. I always ask them this question “how do you perform when you are traveling or at work?” Some of the friends respond they would avoid public restroom as much as they can. The idea of using a restroom utilized by strangers is an extreme hard cookie to digest.  

So here is my question: What is your take on public restrooms?

I have worked in the Airline industry for a period of eight years, and I have observed hundreds of travelers passing by the airport every day. With volume of travelers present one of the most use utility is the restrooms. I have seen the airport housekeeping crew providing sanitation standards every 45 minutes to an hour. How often do we sanitize our restroom at home, Is it every hour, or every day, or every week? What could be the possible sanitation complain for a restroom getting sanitized every 45 minutes to an hour?

Is the resistance of using a public restroom an actual sanitation fear or a phobia created by our minds? Which gender has a higher statistics of resistance of using a public restroom? What is the biggest fear that causes the resistance in the use of public restroom? Can this phobia of the fear or anxiety of public restroom be classified as Agoraphobia? Does the restroom phobia only affect people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?  

People having resistance with public resistance create patterns of avoidance behavior. Do the high number of avoidance behavior start damaging human health and livelihood? Do people avoid eating or reducing liquid intake to avoid the use of public restrooms?

“Our phobias should not take control of our health and our livelihood”

~Lenji Jacob

Reference

1. Picture: http://www.nycgo.com/images/uploadedimages/nycgocom/articles/plan_your_visit_contene/restroom_v1_460x285.jpg

Have you ever witnessed an eye-opening episode that has changed the way you think?

Day 69

An eyeopener moment

This weekend Dominican Republic student had requested to teach a lesson on small business concepts. As the initial process of teaching the concept, every student was asked what are the requirements to start a business? As an answer to the question every student agreed that capital must be raised to start a business. I further asked them what are methods they are going to use to start a business capital? Almost every one responded they will pray to god, they will beg or borrow money for initial capital, save a little money to start a small business, etc. All the responses concluded to the theory “they are poor and it is hard to start a business, and it is not possible to start a business without begging or borrowing.” I further asked them if they have heard of the saying that “you can break one stick easily but it is hard to break to a bunch of sticks together.” I asked them is it possible to start a small business if all the members present in the class contributed a small share into the project. There was a big uproar in the class and all the members said that they had never thought about joining hands to start a project. This concept was an eye opener in the lives of the Dominican Republic students?

So here is my question: Have you ever witnessed an eye-opening episode that has changed the way you think?

For the first time when the students were exposed to the idea of opening a business as a joint venture rather than opening the business individually. I could sense the feeling of hope within the students. I asked the students if they felt they need to beg or borrow to start a new business, and the students responded “NO” in a very positive attitude. I almost felt like I have a new batch of student sitting in the class.

How do you react when you are exposed to an idea that you never thought was possible?  Do you start thinking how to further conceive on the idea or do you just dismiss it thinking that it was a momentary bubble of excitement? Either way you decide to pursue it, the seed of starting a business and enhancing your life has taken a tiny root in your brain. If the students in the Dominican Republic can get excited and build on the idea of starting a business together, then why can’t anyone who wants to?

“When the impossible becomes possible, the biggest adjustment is adjusting to the possible”

~Lenji Jacob

Reference:

1. Picture: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcs5rZ5rYfoMsgKItEbvlw6KqWKsKBx3Ut7ToN5cYGQ5EUx-CRPw

Are you an organic shopper or non-organic regular food shopper?

Day 68

Price Comparison

Ironically recently I had read an article that said poor people had to walk miles to buy their food on the other hand the wealthy had to walk miles to digest their food. Talking about food recently in this decade we have observed a growing trend of customers that are interested in the organic market in comparison to the inorganic foods. The prices of the organic food are much higher in comparison to the inorganic foods. Because of the high demand in the organic market, the organic foods are made available at local grocery stores rather than specialized organic stores. 

So here is my question: Are you an organic shopper or non-organic regular food shopper?

There has been an ongoing debate about the topics on organic versus the non-organic. Is the organic food better with respect to vitamins and minerals in comparison to non-organic food? According to a study forwarded by the Stanford School of Medicine, the study did not find many differences in the quality of vitamins and minerals between both the organic food and the conventional food. If there is not much difference between the foods then why did the organic food sale grow from 3.6 billion dollars to 24.4 billion dollars? Why are the consumers spending extra money in organic foods when they can buy the conventional food at a lower price?

The primary argument about the conventional food was the presence of pesticides and growth promoting feeds. The primary argument on the organic food market is the manure contamination originating the presence of E-Coli bacteria causing toxins in food and another small argument enrolls that “the organic foods might not be 100 percent pesticide free”. Many consumers have started farming their produce to create a healthier life style and reduce the pinch in the high cost of the organic products. 

Another concept in the food market is the difference between organic foods and natural foods. Organic foods are certified by the United States Department of Agriculture, while the natural foods are just certified by the vendors of the product. Have you paid extra because the product read “All Natural?” Have you paid extra of “Organic Seafood” because USDA are still working on the guidelines of organic seafood, so the current organic seafood claims is vendor based.

The biggest question for this blog would be “Can organic food feed us all?” With organic cultivation how can we maintain a balance between supply and demand? Because organic farmers cannot use pesticides, how many continuous farming is possible because the infection of bugs and insects? What is the designed resting period for the organic soils to eliminate contamination of bacteria?

“We cannot love well, live well, or last well if we cannot nutrient well to enhance our mind and our body”

~Lenji Jacob

Reference:

1. BRANDT, M (2012, September 3) Little evidence of health benefits from organic foods, Stanford study finds - Office of Communications & Public Affairs - Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine Retrieved October 7, 2012, from http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/september/organic.html
2. Picture: http://lifeissavage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/organic-vs-conventional.jpg

Does diverse culture play an important role in developing a solution?

Day 67

Diversity

Today in our class with Dominican Republic we had an interesting conversation on the topic about “what can a poor do to become rich?” I asked every member present for the class this question and recorded their response. Everyone said “they will pray to god”, some solutions included answers about begging for money, avoid eating a meal and saving money, saving and investing money on business, etc. But the strongest response was “praying to god’ and my colleague advised me in Haitian culture they pray to God for all their solutions. In the class session I asked forty students one question that had the potential to having forty different solutions. Because of all the members present in the classroom were culturally monolithic, the responses from the students had “thinking inside the box” effect. 

So here is my question: Does diverse culture play an important role in developing a solution?

In a corporate culture group formation are diversified with all elements like age, experience, culture, values, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. This formation of the diverse group helps the corporate find a solution minimizing the thinking inside the box effect. The coalition of the heterogeneous group will initiate higher awareness, reduced conventional solutions, culture sensitivity, enhance collection of knowledge and skills, higher innovative concepts, and many more aspects of the similar trait. 

What are the drawbacks when every members of the group thinks identical about a problem? Does an effective solution recommend uniformity in the solution or diversity in the solutions? How do you weigh a better solution if all the solutions are the same? What is the quality of the solution offered by non-homogenous group versus homogenous group? How do you measure the quality of the solution if all the members of the group had a carpel thought process? 

“The strength of the solutions is capitalized from the differences rather than the similarities”

~Lenji Jacob 

Reference:

1. Picture: http://www.cci.utk.edu/sites/default/files/docs/diversity_0.jpg