低成本女人。 Low Cost Woman 。

Low cost woman is also a way of fashion.

While I was browsing through the South Africa Chinese newspaper last Friday, this article immediately caught my attention.  In the world today, many people have been blindly going after endless material fulfillment.  We are never satisfied because our wish lists will only ever expanding.  In the end, we suffer when our wish list is not attained.  It is sad to see that how many people have given up their health, their quality time with family in order to pursue after money, flame and power.

I thought that this article is a great one.  It brought up the message that one happiness has nothing to do with how many things you owned, but rather relate to how you live your life.  Another article that delivered a similar message is the “Top Five Regrets of Dying“.  It is a record of an Australian nurse serving the patients in their last 12 weeks of their lives.

When asked, many regretted the following –

(Quote extracted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying.)

1.  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

“When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.”

2.  I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

“This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”

3.  I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

“Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”

4.  I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

“Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.”

5.  I wish that I had let myself be happier.

“Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.”

They will serve as a reminder to me how I would want to live my life.

低成本是一種理智成熟的生活方式。對一個女人而言，不見得揮霍了最大限額的金錢，就一定能換來最高額度的生活質量，錢和生活質量之間，往往是畫不上等號的。

許多人錯把高欲望和高消費當成高品質生活。“如果所有的東西都得用錢去換，那當你都用錢去換的時候，你用什麽去換錢？”（朱德庸語）若用理想、原則、閒暇、自我、愛好、自由、家庭去換，你換回來的錢也買不到生活品質和幸福。

低成本生活不等于生活在低處。