Jonathan Lai

One of the reasons I love New York

So. Freaking. Excited!

With every passing day my excitement levels are increasing with the thought of flying back to New York. From this moment of time I believe it will be between 4 to 6 weeks before I touch down in New York again, this time for at least 12 months!

Scotch, to me, is the tailored suit of alcoholic beverages. Classic, simple and timelessly masculine. What a man’s drink should be.

A single dram at the end of the day is a beautiful thing. Ask Dr. Oz (see #5).

For my birthday, I ordered two makes of Scotch I’ve recently fallen in…

Neat, the only way!

An oldie but a goodie!

livinglovinglaughingtoday:

(:

I saw energy today. It was awesome!

After 16 weeks of not drinking which included three months in New York I have made the decision to stop my Hello Sunday Morning. My head, heart, and gut have been at war with one another and in a very analytical and reflective state on my progress to date the decision to end this challenge. Upon reflection I believe this experience has taught me a few key points which are:

1. I can do all alcohol friendly activities without drinking and feel entirely comfortable about it
2. I understand my relationships with alcohol; the harmful and the positive and appreciate these relationships
3. I prefer to be in control and a sharp state of mind
4. Drinking can be bloody expensive!

The key moment when I felt it was time and where HSM did not serve me any more was two Sundays ago when I was at a family dinner. My dad opened a bottle of ten year old wine and offered me a glass. It seemed like half an hour before I responded because my head was madly balancing the pros and the cons and deciding whether or not to accept his offer. I declined. That was the moment where I knew to call it a day.

I had my first drink last Thursday. The occasion – celebrating with my brother Simon. The drink – scotch, neat. The sensation – crazy. My taste buds went wild.

Moving on I will still be contributing to this blog through the eyes of a post-HSMer and will tracking my progress of reintegration. I feel humbled to be part of this movement and have huge respect for Chris and the team. I am open to answer any questions you may have so please comment below if you do!

I’ve been back in Brisbane for nearly two weeks now taking it slow and reflecting on my journey to date. What comes to me is the feeling of enormous gratitude and the serendipitous moments which made it all possible. Readjusting back to Brisbane has been a difficult task. I have enjoyed seeing my friends and family and hearing their stories as well as sharing mine however I have an itch deep down that wants to jump on the next plane back to New York. An itch I am furiously scratching.

Once again I’m at a crossroad in my life. In one hand I am eligible to go back to the states on the J1 visa (growusa.com.au) for a year without a sponsor and in the other I am in the position to really work at my consulting business. I think I already know the answer. New York, New York! As much as I love my home town of Brisbane I can almost guarantee every time I come back it will be the same. Except for my little brother - he’s growing every day!

This music video reminds me of New York! Thanks @CalebKramer

 Although I am not drinking any alcohol; I am working 70 hours a week, I am not exercising, and I am eating really unhealthy food. I am a little confused as to why I am making these lifestyle choices surrounding health and fitness without acknowledging the impact it has on me. I no longer think my original HSM “yes” is driving my decisions around alcohol. I still continue to not drink and I don’t really care if I do or not.

Looking at it from a meta level I see alcohol as only one piece of this puzzle I call life. The more I focus on the decision making process around saying “no” to alcohol the more I see alcohol as a substance which changes my behavioural state, good as well as bad, and results in undesirable actions. This part of the puzzle is clear to me and HSM has allowed this. The rest of the puzzle though, not so much.

I feel a little lost and out of balance in this moment.

I have committed to HSM for 12 months but I don’t know if I want to continue after 3. Can fellow HSM’ers offer me some insight/feedback? Have you been through what I am currently experiencing?

Live in the moment.

The current exhibition at MoMA is awesome! Her work really focuses on human behaviour, psychology, presence and the moment!

This is how I feel in this moment. Sad to be going home. Excited about the possibilities of coming back!

Success is relative.

It would be easy for me to be jealous of my friend’s who work in finance, who make more money in one month than I do in a year.

They have more money than to know what to do with, which is perfect because they don’t have the time to enjoy it.

My success derives from the fact…

I do have to say if a finance person was smart they would work their ass off for 10 years and invest / save / start a business with it. It would be a great starting point for them.

theessentialman:

According to about 10 of my close female friends, this is eerily correct.

Inspiration.

Can you believe I have been here two months and come May 27 I’ll be on my way back home? Crazy, huh?!

It makes me think how often people live their life and watch the years go by never appreciating the moments that make for an incredible life. Why are we alive? And what is it you are here on this planet to do - our purpose?

I thought my life to date and have had a few realisations during my time in New York that I would love to share..

1. I will always be associated with start-ups. It is a passion. Either in a start-up of my own, working at a start-up, or working in a field which supports the growth of start-up companies. Writing this gets me excited!

2. I am not one to follow tradition. After consistently speaking with people I can safely say people don’t do what I so frequently do. Call me naive or brave or whatever, I think of it as an adventure and life experience. I also tend to gravitate to similar people to who further inspire me.

3. I am more caring and compassionate than I thought I was. It irks me deep inside when I see people being treated like slaves in a situation that cannot be improved. Ah the exploitation sucks.

4. I am destined to live in New York City. It is a place like no other and I just feel “right” when I’m here and there is no explanation for it.

Learning from sober karaoke, who would of known?!

heyamberrae:

the best thing we can do in life is to keep going. no matter what happens, keep going. no matter how uncertain, exhausted or overwhelmed we feel, keep going. our emotions will change when we think not about the past or future and instead focus on this exact moment. all we have is right now. pay attention to it. slow down and keep going.

I gave Mum a call yesterday for her birthday.. Happy Birthday Mum, I love you!

So this is my situation here in New York.

My internship has finished with Mona Lisa Style. Cha came back from Barcelona and put a hold to her company. You may remember I mentioned that I was going to approach her and get further involved with it but it backfired on me, big time! This meant that because I had no internship, I had no accommodation.

I was left with three options:

1. Bite the bullet and work for Hotel Toshi. Grin and bear it while getting free accommodation and getting paid cash in hand. I will be able to save a little money.

2. Find a place to live and a new job. I would have to find a cash in hand job and be paying for accommodation as well. Not such a good idea.

3. Find free accommodation and find another internship. This was my ideal situation but the reality hasn’t been the case.

I chose the first option. I am now working for Hotel Toshi saving some cash and expenses are low-ish. I have Saturday and Tuesday off and the rest of the time I’m slaving away! It isn’t really what I wanted to do as I’m not focusing on their social media or marketing but doing a little bit of everything because the structure of this business is a mess.

Fortunately I have been putting myself out there and have met a lot of cool people in the digital and entrepreneurial scene here in New York City. I have a lot of decisions to make post my trip on whether or not I want to pursue employment here in New York or focus on business back in Brisbane. It’s going to be tough.

I also met up with a friend Rich who is in the process of his second start-up, indexf.com and I will be helping him where I can mainly adding content to the site. Yes, a data monkey. The idea is cool and simple. I get excited about start-ups, they’re awesome!

My good friend Chris Raine gave birth to Hello Sunday Morning in 2009. I’m now taking the challenge.. check out my progress!

I am coming for you!

1. To do everything whole heartedly and at 100%
2. Live in the moment and enjoy the journey
3. Live in New York City for a minimum of 3 months with the intention of relocating in the future
4. Place top 3 in the PolyU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Global Student Challenge in Hong Kong
5. Set up my business to allow me to work from anywhere in the world
6. Start my men’s skin care blog
7. Exercise daily and maintain this consistency
8. Connect with people on a deeper emotional level
9. Have at least 5 clients on a monthly retainer for threepointzero
10. Have reviewbrisbane earn $1000/wk from advertising
11. Reviewbrisbane to have 5000 Facebook fans and 5000 Twitter followers
12. Learn a new healthy recipe every fortnight
13. Record my daily intake of food an drink
14. Dedicate time to myself
15. Read 1 book per month
16. Do a wine appreciation course
17. Do a scotch appreciation course
18. Go out more without drinking alcohol
19. Drink less alcohol
20. Start an indoor soccer team
21. Learn how to make awesome coffee
22. Go on 11 photography adventures
23. Go skydiving
24. Get back into Martial Art – Muay Thai or Kung Fu
25. Meditate daily
26. Hold the Youth Think Tank for the Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Round Table and develop collaborative initiatives post event
27. Expand my networks in all areas of my life
28. Continue my personal growth journey
29. Join a men’s circle
30. Get on Logistics for REAL EDUCATION
31. Save 20% of income for first investment property
32. Invest 20% of income in the share market
33. Spend more time with my family and friends
34. Curb unnecessary spending and stick to my budget
35. Donate money consistently to Kiva.org
36. HAVE FUN

This morning I experienced cubicle farm which reminded me of the matrix.

It was a small office with around 20 staff separated by shapley purple dividers. Blue cables extended from the ceiling wrapped in a hard plastic membrane and fed to the middle of the pods. It resembled an umbilical cord of data feeding the low level hum of machinery with working drones buzzing around the space tending to the beast’s every need.

I am grateful that I unplugged.

As midday closes in on another warm summers day, I can definitely say morning exercise gets my endorphins running and my energy levels very high! It is awesome to be this aware in my body and to compare how I feel right now to how I was feeling yesterday. Productivity, focus, and happiness have increased and now my only challenge is to be consistent and maintain this level of energy - and to eat lunch!