Daily Wisdom Notes

Courage After the Journey Has Begun One Saturday evening, I drove on the expressway to Sihanoukville for the first time. After entering, I became aware that I could not simply reverse my decision whenever uncertainty appeared. I was already on the road, and leaving it would require an appropriate opportunity. Then the questions began. What if a tire became flat? What if the engine overheated? What would I do if the car developed a problem in this unfamiliar situation? Nothing appeared to be wrong with the car. It was moving normally, and the road ahead was open. Yet knowing that I could not immediately return to where I had started made the possibilities feel more serious. The experience brought me to a question that reaches beyond driving: how do we respond when a decision has already become a commitment? The Moment After We Have Said Yes Before entering the expressway, I could consider whether to take it. Once I was driving on it, my immediate responsibility had cha...

Start by Starting When I first realized that I loved writing, I hesitated. I believed I needed to become a better writer before I had the right to call myself one. I thought confidence should come first. Once I felt prepared and capable, then I would begin writing seriously. An American friend noticed my hesitation and offered four simple words: “Start by starting, Sinin.” His advice did not remove my uncertainty. It gave me a way to act while uncertainty was still present. So I began. In the early days, I wrote and deleted. Then I wrote again and deleted again. I revised the same ideas many times. The weaknesses I noticed made me question whether I had begun too soon. Yet those attempts also gave me something to practise. I could examine an unclear sentence, revise an explanation, and try again. If I had waited to feel like a writer before writing, I might still be waiting. What Was I Waiting to Feel? My hesitation contained a wish that many beginne...

Give “Later” an Honest Answer Some questions ask us for information. Others ask us to examine a choice we have left unsettled. “If not now, when?” belongs to the second kind. We may carry an intention for a long time: learn a skill, write an article, contact someone, or consider a change in our work. The intention remains important in our thoughts. Yet we have not decided when it belongs in our lives. The question does not require every intention to become an immediate action. It asks us to give the timing more thought than “someday.” We can begin now, prepare first, schedule a later beginning, or decide not to proceed. Each answer is clearer than leaving the intention indefinitely unresolved. What Will Be Different Later? For many years, I wanted to write. I believed I needed more knowledge, experience, confidence, and time. Some of those needs were real. I still had much to learn. But I also wanted to avoid seeing the distance between the writer I ho...