But have you ever considered how many abilities you need in order to live a decent life?

The answer is simple. I don't know. How would I know?

But I have heard in a speech that a person can and should acquire up to a thousand abilities in a lifetime.

Including your specialties, your professions, languages, music, arts, sports and so on.

I've done the counting myself and I'm pretty sure that I'm less than halfway there.

The good thing is learning is a lifelong journey and as the old Chinese saying goes

which actually means “you're never too old to learn.”

And we're not old yet.

I wanna share with you a metaphorical story about learning.

Once upon a time, there was a prince in a prosperous kingdom.

Now the prince was very handsome, versatile, and moreover rich as…

very rich.

The prince was looking for someone to share and spend the rest of his life with.

So one day, he disguised himself and walked into the civilian world.

Eventually he met a village girl who was young, beautiful and sweet.

And they fell in love with each other at first sight.

However, days and weeks went by,

and liking each other was somewhat different from living with each other.

Seeing her as the future queen, the prince wanted to share every aspect of his life with the village girl.

Hey, sweetheart. You know what. The other day I found a beautiful valley in the mountains.

I wanna take you there. Let's go hiking today.

Mmm… hiking is tiring, I don't wanna exhaust myself.

Then how about let's go to the beach? We can swim in the ocean together. That would be romantic!

Hm… I can't swim, I might drown. Nah…

Mmm… ok, let me think. Yesterday I wrote a song, I'll sing it to you and afterwards we can sing it together!

Mmmm… I really don't understand music.

Let's go horseback riding!

Dangerous.

Let's go pick flowers!

Allergic.

Let's go skiing!

Then we'd have to walk up the mountain top, same thing as hiking, honey. Besides I don't ski.

In the end, the prince found out that he couldn't share his life with the girl

'cos she never took the time to invest in herself.

So, sadly the prince left.

As for the village girl, she missed out on her once in a lifetime chance to change her life forever.

How many opportunities have we lost?

And how many times have we didn't get to enjoy something because we weren't prepared beforehand?

In other words, not having the relevant skills in advance.

When you and your friends go out to play basketball, the more you've got game, the more you can enjoy it.

It's really hard to enjoy something when you suck at it, right?

Like I never get to enjoy basketball. Really!

When you're at an art gallery, the more you've learned about art, the more you can understand and appreciate the artwork.

The more languages you speak, the better the chance of you meeting more people, making new friends, having access to more information.

In order to master our lives, make it easy, and enjoy it to the fullest, we need to keep on building ourselves by learning skills, knowledge, ways of living.

And the most important of all, it's about living life itself and that is something they don't teach you at school.

You are like a car. Upgrading your engine system to drive faster and safer.

You're like building a house.

You'll be living in either a hut, a detached house, a mansion, skyscraper or castle,

depending how much effort you've put into it in the first place.

Make yourself. Make yourself so that you can live life to the fullest.

Simply put. If you know how to sail, then the wind and waves are your best friends. If not, they'll consume you.

The more we don't learn, the more we get cold feet engaging the world.

The more we do, the more we enjoy.

Peace!

[Music]