Beware of the Text Neck

I read an article in The Star's Fit4life section today, and tracked down its original source, titled "Texting Becoming a Pain in the Neck" by UNMC Physicians.

Link: http://www.unmcphysicians.com/whats-new/2012/november/texting%20becoming%20a%20pain%20in%20the%20neck.aspx

Here are some extracts from the article to give you a glimpse of what's this all about:

An excessive amount of leaning your head forward and down, while looking at a phone or other mobile device could result in what some people call “text neck.”

The term, “text neck,” was first coined by a chiropractor in Florida. “Text neck” is defined as overuse syndrome involving the head, neck and shoulders, usually resulting from excessive strain on the spine from looking in a downward position at hand held devices such as cell phones, mp3 players, e-readers, computer tablets, etc.

“When you hold your body in an abnormal position, it can increase stress on the muscles, cause fatigue, muscle spasms and even stress headaches,” Cornett said. “With every degree of motion to the front or side that you move your head, the stress on your neck is magnified beyond just the weight of the head.”

Do read the article for suggestions on how you can avoid this potential health issue.

Focus on Your Core Genius

Principle #24 - Stay Focused on Your Core Genius

Is there anything thing that you love to do and do so well that you don't even want to charge people for it?

That's your core genius.

Successful people always focus on their core genius, and delegate everything else to other people on their team.

"If you're a professional earning $75 per hour and you pay a neighbourhood kid $10 an hour to cut the grass, you save the effort of doing it yourself on the weekend and gain 1 extra hour when you could profit by $65...multiply that by at least 20 weekends in th spring and summer and you discover you've gained 20 hours a year at $65 per hour - or an extra $1,300 in potential earnings."

Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan once stated that all entrepreneurs are really con artists. They get other people to pay them to practice getting better at what they love to do.

"Anthony Robbins is a speaker and a trainer. He loves speaking and training. He has arranged his life so that people are constantly paying him large sums of money to do what he loves to do."

Do what you love, or love what you do, and the money will come to you when you become good enough at it.

Focus on your core genius!

How to be an INFLUENCER?

Last Friday I attended a training offered by my company, on "Influencing Skills". It was quite a good training as I took 3 pages of notes.  :)

Here are the highlights of what I have learned from the training:

• When it comes to influencing people, we need to understand these 3 important aspects:
• What - traits for influencing people
• Who - identify the stakeholders
• How - skills and strategies
• Small children are very good at influencing people, because they truly mastered the 3 aspects above  :)
• The level of influence that successful people have on the general public does not necessarily have anything to do with their background, age, money or academic performance.
• Underlying principles:
• Influencers tend to be "experts" in a specific domain.
• Influencers tend to be "early adopters" or know how to build relationship with early adopters to move change through.
• Influencing is NOT bullying, dictating, forcing or manipulating.
• Influencing skills involve
• Social skills - ability to interact with others successfully.
• Information gathering skills - ability to have relevant information in the right context.
• Judgement - ability to assess all aspects of a situation and have the experience to choose how to communicate appropriately.
• The 4 levels of influence
• Model - people follow what they see you do.
• Motivate - encourage or communicate at an emotional level.
• Mentoring - pour your life into others' and help them achieve their potential.
• Multiply - duplicate more influencers.
• Use RAPID to indentify the stakeholders
• Recommend - person who recommends.
• Approver - person who approves; the gatekeeper.
• Perform - person who helps to implement.
• Inform - person who will be impacted by the implementation.
• Decision - person who makes the decision to implement.
• Influence without authority (the Cohen-Bradford model)
• Assume all are potential allies - make yourself likeable
• Clarify your goals and priorities
• Diagnose the world of the other person - understand your potential ally's world
• Identify the relevant "currencies" - what truly matters to your potential ally
• Deal with relationships - trust, good relationship, active listening, emotional intelligence
• Influence through give and take - negotiate win-win

Here are the traits of a person of influence:

• I ntegrity with people
• N urtures other people
• F aith in peole
• L istens to People
• U nderstands people
• E nlarges people
• N avigates for other people
• C onnects with people
• E mpowers people
• R eproduces other influencers

And I had just found out that the above traits are actually taken from this book "Becoming a Person of Influence" by John C. Maxwell and Jim Dornan. You may get it for further reading.

Sadly, I noticed that not many people in the class actually appreciated it.

• 5 out of the 6 fellow engineers sitting on the same table with me were drawing cartoons on paper.
• 3 out of the 5 took some notes, but the length was not more than half an A4-size paper.

The fact that my company's management has taken the initiave to offer this course as one of the "essential" courses for engineers, actually shows that they do see the lacking of "influencing skills" among engineers as a major gap in the organization's efficacy. Perhaps the management has to figure out why people are feeling indifferent about this topic.

Persistence

Every living soul on this planet faces challenges every day. And how well a person responds against challenges will determine how far he can move on in life.

"In the Orient young bulls are tested for the fight arena in a certain manner. Each is brought to the ring and allowed to attack a picador who pricks them with a lance. The bravery of each bull is then rated with care according to the number of times he demonstrates his willingness to charge in spite of the sting of the blade. Henceforth will I recognize that each day I am tested by life in like manner. If I persist, if I continue to try, if I continue to charge forward, I will succeed."

Life is full of mysteries. You'll never know what you're going to get, until you've got it. You'll never know when you're going to succeed, until you've succeeded. Thus the strategy is to keep taking the next step until you've reached your goal.

"The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner.

Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult."

A Chinese proverb says, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." A small simple effort, repeated over time, will eventually lead to a huge achievement. When you start losing patience, remember that Rome wasn't built in a day.

"Henceforth, I will consider each day's effort as but one blow of my blade against a mighty oak. The first blow may cause not a tremor in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each blow, of itself, may be triffling, and seem of no consequence. Yet from childish swipes the oak will eventually tumble. So it will be with my efforts of today.

I will be liken to the raindrop which washes away the mountain; the ant who devours a tiger; the star which brightens the earth; the slave who builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking."

Persist, and you will succeed.

Are You Confused?

I remember since I was small, I have been taught moral values such as diligence, determination and courage - values which are crucial in helping us achieve what we want in life.

At the same time, I have also been taught moral values such as moderation, gratefulness and appreciativeness - values which are crucial in keeping us in check of our behaviours, and helping us secure the things which we have achieved in life.

But nowadays, I'm getting more and more confused with the behaviour of people.

Many people that I know, they contemplate achieving better things in life. So they would go out seeking for ways to achieve them. When they have finally found a way, they would put in their whole-hearted effort to work it out.

As we know, life is not a bed of roses. Everyone is bound to face challenges. The bigger the goal, the bigger the challenges. These challenges are designed by life to test our resolve. And that is when things get interesting with most people.

Lets call them the chasing pack - people who are going after their dreams and goals.

A minority of these people whom I know, they would persevere and get over the challenges, and eventually enjoy the taste of success. They are grateful for the challenges thrown at them, and thus are very appreciative of the things that they have attained. Mostly, they have also grown to be more humble and generous, because they understand that whatever they have achieved, they could not have done it alone. Many people have helped and encouraged them along the way.

On the other side of the spectrum, a majority of these people that I know, they would give in to the challenges, and eventually fail in their pursuit of the things that they contemplate on achieving. Some would blame their failures on life's circumstances. Some would lament their lack of luck. Some would indulge themselves in various "what-ifs". But most of them would end up consoling themselves by saying things like:

"Well, I should be happy with the things that I have now. Let's not be greedy."

"Moderation is a good virtue. I should live moderately and should not dream of the extraordinary."

"Chasing after  money is bad. It makes me forget about my principles. I should not be tempted by any desires or lust."

In my opinion, humans are born with the desire to achieve better things in life.

Babies desire to become better by learning how to crawl. Then they learn how to walk. As their legs become stronger, they learn how to run and chase after their friends. Along the journey, they would fall and cry. But that doesn't stop them from getting up every time they fall.

Imagine this. What would your response be when your children tell you:

"Mom, it's so hard to learn how to walk. I tried my very best but keep falling all the time and it really hurts. I think I'm just not meant to walk. After all, I still know how to crawl, and this should be enough to get me to the places that I want to go. Even if I can't walk, I can still crawl. I should be happy and thankful for that. Lets just forget about walking."

Would you call this as an act of contentment and moderation? Or would you consider this as an act of giving up?

My message here is simple: Most people do crave for better things in life, but they fear the obstacles and rejections. Don't try to mess up the good virtue of "contentment" with your giving up.

To me, the same words "I should be grateful for the things that I have now" bear two different meanings:

• After you have fought hard and achieved your goals --> contentment
• After you have given up your goals --> excuse

If you agree with me, please stop "endorsing" failures in the name of "contentment". Giving up is not a virtue to be encouraged.

Greet Your Day with Love

One of the most important traits that great leaders have is that they are full of compassion for their people. Compassion is a form of love. In other words, great leaders are well respected by their people, because they love their people.

"Compassion is the understanding or empathy for the suffering of others. It is regarded as a fundamental part of human love, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism - foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood." ~ Wikipedia

In the context of compassion, love is our strongest shield against adversity and negativity. I particularly love this two parts of the sacred scroll in this book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino:

I will greet this day with love in my heart.

For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle and split a shield and even destroy life but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men and until I master this art I will remain no more than a peddler in the market place. I will make love my greatest weapon and none on whom I call can defend against its force.

I will greet this day with love in my heart.

But how will I react to the actions of others? With love. For just as love is my weapon to open the hearts of men, love is also my shield to repulse the arrows of hate and the spears of anger. Adversity and discouragement will beat against my new shield and become as the softest of rains. My shield will protect me in the market place and sustain me when I am alone. It will uplift me in moments of despair yet it will calm me in time of exultation. It will become stronger and more protective with use until one day I will cast it aside and walk unencumbered among all manners of men and, when I do, my name will be raised high on the pyramid of life.

Start greeting your day with love, and you will succeed against the adversity and negativity surrounding you.  :)

Habits

Psychologist say that 90% of our behaviour is habitual. The way we think and the things that we do over a period of time will develop into our habits, and subsequently, these habits will determine how well every area of our life works. In other words, whatever habits we currently have established are producing our current level of results. If we want to create higher levels of success, we will have to drop some of our old habits and replace them with more productive habits.

Good or bad, habits always deliver results.

"Principle #23 - Develop Four New Success Habits A Year"

Think about this, if we apply this principle over a 5-year period, we would have 20 new success habits that could bring us the level of success and achievement that we desire.

• Start by listing four new habits you would like to establish in the next year.
• Work on one new habit every quarter.
• Research shows that if you repeat a behaviour for 13 weeks, it will develop into a habit for life.
• One powerful technique is to partner up with someone, keep score and hold each other accountable. This will keep you right on track.

"In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which preceedeth all others is - I will form good habits and become their slaves." ~ Og Mandino