• Robert A.
• 33 Comments
• 12 Nov 2008

Thank you for a year of smile!

original photo credit: Swamibu

Today is the one year of smile, one year of Reason-4-Smile Weblog. One year ago, I posted my first article in this blog. I got into the corridor when I’m moving from reason2smile.wordpress.com to this blog. And it has been a year of new and exciting experience to me.

I’m really thankful for all the friends that I have met in blogosphere. So I really hope that this will be an opportunity for me to give back and share some thankful notes. Especially to the following people, that in one moment or so has contributed to this blog, through comments, links, and friendship.

And here is the list…

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Popularity: 32% [?]

• Robert A.
• 5 Comments
• 7 Nov 2008

Running with Team Hoyt

Who is Team Hoyt? It’s a team of a father (Dick Hoyt) and a son (Rick Hoyt). And here is some introduction of them, taken from Wikipedia.

Team Hoyt is a father (Dick Hoyt) and son (Rick Hoyt, b. 1962) in Massachusetts who compete together in marathons, triathlons, and other athletic endeavors. Rick has cerebral palsy, caused by loss of oxygen to his brain at birth because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. Dick pulls him in a special boat as they swim, carries him in a special seat up front as they bike, and pushes him in a special wheelchair as they run.
~Team Hoyt @ Wikipedia

If the story is not touching enough, you may want to watch the video below.

What is your first impression you have after watching the video? Are you inspired by their courage, persistence, belief, or love?

It was envy for me.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

• Robert A.
• 20 Comments
• 20 Oct 2008

How losing readers can make you smile…

photo credit: wilhei55

One of the sad experience in blogging is the time we lose our readers. Seasons come and go, and sadly readers come and go as well. This blog has the same experience, but the art is really how we can stay positive when that happens. Losing readers is unavoidable as a part of your growth as a blogger or a people of influence. You can take it as a failure, or you can take it as a success. It’s really about perspective.

If you ask me, then these are some of the reasons why you can smile and stay positive, even when you lose readership…

1. Your readers are growing…

Scott H. Young recently wrote a mind-boggling article in his blog, The Purpose of This Website is to Lose Its Readers. It really opened my eyes on the experience, more than a reason to smile, he put losing his readers as a goal or purpose to achieve. Isn’t that like school graduation? Imagine what will happen if school doesn’t want to lose its students. The students will never be graduated and they will never step into another phase of their life.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

• Robert A.
• 11 Comments
• 15 Oct 2008

The “cycling” poverty: The lessons to live your life

photo credit: andy_c

Have you learned cycling when you are below 15 years old?

If you do, then you are very fortunate. As I shared earlier I learned cycling only about few weeks ago, and I still need to improve my cycling a lot. But the lesson taught me something, the lesson taught me to start living my life.

Today is the Blog Action Day, the day where a lot of bloggers and podcasters around the world talk about the same topic, and it’s all about Poverty this year. I won’t share with you about physical poverty, but I want to share about mental poverty, the poverty mindset, one that often steals your reasons for smile.

The first lesson: Riding BMW

Yes, I got poverty, it’s the poverty of confidence, and the very first reason I can remember is because of the fact that I could not cycle. For some it might not be a big deal, but I was growing up in the place where many people are cycling, and it’s kind of awkward for not being able to cycle. While I couldn’t cycle, I was commuting with my BMW. And no, it’s not the rich man’s BMW; it was the poverty’s BMW: bitching, moaning and whining.

Have you have ever been caned when you were small before?

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Popularity: 22% [?]