Goals and Sense of Urgency

An engineer was on his way walking back home after staying back late at work. As he entered a dark path near the cemetery leading towards his house, he fell into a huge deep hole leftover by road maintenance workers.

Feeling creepy, he tried many many times to jump and climb out from the hole, but to no avail. There's no point shouting for help, he thought, as this area would normally be deserted during this hour of the night. So he decided to give up trying and wait till sunrise, where the road maintenance workers would be back.

Just as he was about to sit down to get some rest, a faint voice came from his side, saying "Hello..."

(Apparently another man had also fallen into the hole, tried and gave up climbing out from the hole as well.) 

Feeling terrified, he got up frantically and by the next moment, he's already climbed out from the hole running back home.

The moral of the story?

We need an URGENT goal/dream to spur and motivate us to reach for greater heights in life.

When the goal/dream is not urgent enough, procrastination would soon kick in and detract us from our plans.

Laugh at the World

Happiness attracts success. Success breeds happiness. It's a positive cycle  :)

This month, I'm going to remind myself to fill up my day with laughter, lots of them. I want to attract success!

I find these excerpts from Chapter Fourteen very very inspiring:

"I will laugh at the world.

For all worldly things shall indeed pass. When I am heavy with heartache I shall console myself that this too shall pass; when I am puffed with success I shall warn myself that this too shall pass. When I am strangled in poverty I shall tell myself that this too shall pass; when I am burdened with wealth I shall tell myself that this too shall pass. Yea, verily, where is he who built the pyramid? Is he not buried within its stone? And will the pyramid, one day, not also be buried under sand? If all things shall pass why should I be of concern for today?

I will laugh at the world.

And with my laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size. I will laugh at my failures and they will vanish in clouds of new dreams; I will laugh at my success and they will shrink to their true value. I will laugh at evil and it will die untasted; I will laugh at goodness and it will thrive and abound. Each day will be triumphant only when my smiles bring forth smiles from others and this I do in selfishness, for those on whom I frown are those who purchase not my goods.

Never will I allow myself to become so important, so wise, so dignified, so powerful that I forget how to laugh at myself and my world. In this matter I will always remain as a child, for only as a child am I given the ability to look up to others; and so long as I look up to another I will never grow too long for my cot."

~ Og Mandino

I will laugh. I will succeed! Hahaha!!!

Mastering Emotions

Finally I'm back!

It has been a challenging 2 months for me in terms of managing time and emotions. But thankfully, I had the company of this very special book, which had pulled me through these awful challenges.

Coincidentally, for the past whole month I had been reading Chapter Thirteen of this book, which aptly tackled the problem that I had with mood swings and attitude attack.

Here are my favourite excerpts taken from this chapter:

"Today I will be master of my emotions.

And how will I master my emotions so that every day is a happy day, and a productive one? I will learn this secret of the ages: Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.

Each day, when I awake, I will follow this plan of battle before I am capture by the forces of sadness, self-pity and failure --

If I feel depressed, I will sing. 

If I feel sad, I will laugh.

If I feel ill, I will double my labor.

If I feel fear, I will plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior, I will wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain, I will raise my voice.

If I feel poverty, I will think of wealth to come.

If I feel incompetent, I will remember past success.

If I feel insignificant, I will remember my goals.

Today I will be master of my emotions.

Henceforth, I will know that only those with inferior ability can always be at their best, and I am not inferior. There will be days when I must constantly struggle against forces which would tear me down. Those such as despair and sadness are simple to recognize but there are others which approach with a smile and the hand of friendship and they can also destroy me. Against them, too, I must never relinquish control.

And with this new knowledge, I will also understand and recognize the moods of he on whom I call. I will make allowances for his anger and irritation of today for he knows not the secret of controlling his mind. I can withstand his arrows and insults for now I know that tomorrow he will change and be a joy to approach.

Today I will be master of my emotions.

Henceforth I will recognize and identify the mystery of moods in all mankind, and in me. From this moment I am prepared to control whatever personality awakes in me each day. I will master my moods through positive action and when I master my moods I will control my destiny."

~ Og Mandino

Learn how to master your emotions, good or bad, and you'll gain control of your destiny!

The Success Cycle

Some of you may be familiar with the following process:

I'm ready...set goal...take action...wrong results...nevermind, learn from mistakes, let's do it again...

It's going to work this time...reset goal...reset action...wrong results...erm, maybe the timing is not right...

Blah blah blah...

Alright, last try...reset goal...reset action...still wrong results??? I guess it's just not meant to be...Quit...

A lot have been said about the importance of goal-setting in life, but have you wondered why for most people, goal-setting just seem to fail in delivering success?

In his book "What to Say When You Talk to Yourself", Shad Helmstetter explained about "The Self Management Sequence: The Five Steps That Control Our Success or Failure".

1. Programming creates beliefs.
• We believe what we are programmed (conditioned) to believe.
2. Beliefs create attitudes.
• What we believe about anything will determine our attitudes about it.
3. Attitudes create feelings.
• Your attitudes are the perspectives from which you view life.
• Whatever attitude we have about anything will affect how we feel about it.
4. Feelings determine actions.
• How we feel about something will always determine or affect what we do and how well we do it.
5. Actions create results.
• In most cases, if you do the right thing, you're going to achieve the right results.

If you're still not getting the right results, stop looking or blaming the external factors. Instead, look inside yourself. Look at what sort of programming have you been through. Look at what sort of inputs you have allowed into your conscious mind. Look at what sort of words you have used to say to yourself. Look at your mental picture, is it describing what you really want to see in the physical world, or is it just a wishful thought with lots of brakes applied to it?

If you want to achieve the right results, work on your programming first, and particularly your subconscious mind. Deliberately affirm your goals. Visualize your success everyday. Change the music in your mind, say positive things to yourself.

Try it. It has worked for me.  :)

The Problem with Positive Thinking

If you were to ask people, "Do you believe in positive thinking?"

Most people would say, "Yes."

Some honest souls would say, "I think it's a great idea! It doesn't work for me, but I know it works for other people."

Logically, positive thinking should work for everyone. But if it should, why doesn't it?

In this book "What to Say When You Talk to Yourself", Shad Helmstetter explained why.

Imagine your mind is like an apartment, with old "furniture" (negative thinking) handed down to you from your parents, friends, teachers and everyone else who has helped programmed your subconscious mind.

Now let's say some motivation guru comes to your mental apartment, and offers to help you get rid of all the old "furniture". He starts moving all your old "furniture" outside and store it in your garage.

The next thing you know, you're standing in the middle of your mental apartment, empty and spotless. You look around and say, "Great! I've gotten rid of all my old negative thinking. Now I can be a positive thinker!"

After spending some time in your empty mental apartment, you start wondering what should you be doing. So you go out into the garage and pull out your old trusty chair to sit. Next you'll bring back the table. And so on so forth.

One by one, you will begin to bring your old trusted and time-worn negative thoughts back into your mental apartment!

Why? Because the motivation guru helped you remove the old furniture, but did not give you any new positive thoughts to replace the old negative thoughts.

Therefore, if you want to replace the old negative thoughts with new positive thoughts, you need to give your subconscious mind new inputs by using Self-Talk.

The right kind of Self-Talk is the key to making all the positive thinking work. Without it, for most of us, positive thinking becomes "wishful thinking". And wishful thinking is nothing more than saying to yourself, "I wish I could...but I can't".

Beware of the things that you say to yourself when you're all alone. Your self-talk programs your subconscious mind in ways that you can never imagine.  :)

I Will Live This Day As If It Is My Last...

"I will live this day as if it is my last.

And what shall I do with this last precious day which remains in my keeping? First, I will seal up its container of life so that not one drop spills itself upon the sand. It will waste not a moment mourning yesterday's misfortunes, yesterday's defeats, yesterday's aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad?

Can sand flow upward in the hourglass? Will the sun rise where it sets and set where it rises? Can I relive the errors of yesterday and right them? Can I call back yesterday's wounds and make them whole? Can I become younger than yesterday? Can I take back the evil that was spoken, the blows that were struck, the pain that was caused? No. Yesterday is buried forever and I will think of it no more.

I will live this day as if it is my last.

I will avoid with fury the killers of time. Procrastination I will destroy with action; doubt I will bury under faith; fear I will dismember with confidence. Where there are idle mouths I will listen not; where there are idle hands I will linger not; where there are idle bodies I will visit not. Henceforth I know that to court idleness is to steal food, clothing, and warmth from those I love. I am not a thief. I am a man of love and today is my last chance to prove my love and my greatness." ~ Og Mandino

Whatever you wish to accomplish, stop wasting your time, start taking action today!

It could be your last day, thus make every second count.

The Two Pillars of Morality

I was browsing through Youtube in search of something related to "morality", and guess what I've found?

Watch this video to find out more about the Two Pillars of Morality.

Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals

"If you ask anyone what is morality based on, these are the two factors that always come out: One is RECIPROCITY and is associated with justice and a sense of fairness; and the other one is EMPAHTY and compassion. Human morality is more than these, but if you remove these two pillars, there would be not much remaining. They are both essential."    ~ Frans de Waal

Reciprocity is basically about the spirit of give and take, and returning favours, which give us a sense of fairness.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and basically has two channels:

• Emotional (body) channel -- you feel sad when you see another person having a sad appearance.
• Cognitive channel -- you feel sad when you adopt the perspective of the person going through a sad experience.

The two areas of empathy are:

• Synchronization -- you start to yawn when you see others yawn.
• Consolation -- you extend your care or concern for someone who's seemingly in pain or suffering.

These researches show that all of us are born with these two very noble traits. Let us preserve and not lose them. Stand up for your morality!