Actions Is The Best Way of Learning....

It have been two months time since my last entry and finally i get back to share something here. Recently, i did invest a lot of time to read a few interesting and informative books related to financial and business knowledge. It really opened up my mind and change my thinking and mindset. Until now, i think it is time for me to take action... because the best way of learning is by taking action, which is doing the real thing and simulating the real experience. We only can go ahead toward any goals if determined to take action after acquiring the required knowledge and information by reading, consultation by others, mentoring or any others method.

According to a study by Arizona State University (2005) which introduced the Cone of Learning and it emphasized that after two weeks, we tend to remember :
a) 90% of what we say and do
b) 70% of what we say
c) 50% of what we hear and see
d) 30% of what we see
e) 20% of what we hear
f) 10% of what we read

So, it is time to get started to act upon your plan.. whether your business plan, study plan, travelling plan and so on. How about me? It is my Goal Achievement Plan planned since a long time ago :)

Happy New Year !!!

Today is the first day of the year of 2009 or can be a new starting line for anything u wish or want to do. I just want to take the opportunity to wish all my friends a healthy, peaceful and joyful moment ahead.

Look back and review what have been done by you, learn from all the experiences in 2008 and finally it is time to set the goal and planning for the right strategies toward success.

Most importantly, act upon your plan is the key of success. Happy New Year :)

It's About Beauty...

What is your definition of beauty or pretty?? I am sure that most of you all want to look beautiful from others eyes... I read about a comment from The Star (Starmag) about the beauty issue. Just like to post it here for you to think about it..

It's all a beauty trap....

We've heard the word "beauty" all the time, regardless of which culture we are from. What is the definition of beauty?

I say beauty is actually beyond appearances and being fashionable. Being beautiful is all about being yourself, having self-esteem and loving oneself, regardless of being not-so-perfect.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, our women and girls resort to starving, waxing, dyeing, plucking, tanning, whitening and even going under the knife just to look like an A-list celebrity or be able to wear something in the name of fashion and beauty rather than for comfort and durability.

It is no surprise that women and girls have low self-esteem. They believe that they do not fulfill the alleged standards of beauty.

Beauty does not have any criteria and anyone can be beautiful, regardless the shape of her figure, her skin tone, or her dress size.

Unfortunately, the media and fashion industry tell our womenfolk that they need the latest look, lose a few kilos or puchase the most expensive narrow high heeled Manolo Blahniks in order to be beautiful.

Unless we tackle this issue, we are going to witness a future generation of women and girls who believe that one needs to look like celebrities in order to be beautiful.
(S.Yin, Auckland, New Zealand)

MEETING NEW AND OLD FRIENDS….AND THEIR PROBLEMS

Recently, I spent a lot of time in meeting new and old friends around the town. Besides got to keep contact again with my old friends, I got to extend my circle of friends by meeting some interesting people around. Meanwhile, I came to discover the dilemmas faced by the people in this modern society.

Some of them just complained that money is not enough and they struggle hard earn more money in order to make end meet. Consequently, they just blamed that their current job can’t earn enough and looking for better job with higher pay. THIS IS MONEY PROBLEMS OF NOT ENOUGH MONEY…

Some of them who did well in their career and doing great in business, however just did not have enough time for their family and themselves. They earned a lot of money but sacrificed their quality time with their family and also their health. In the end, they were facing with family problems, and health problems. Most interestingly, some of them have the money problems of too much money. They may not have the time to spend the money earned; they may worry how to keep it safe and invested. They may not know whether people like them, or their money. AGAIN, THIS IS MONEY PROBLEMS OF TOO MUCH MONEY…

However, some people have problem with the people around them. They do not know how to maintain a good relationship with their family and friends. They are not popular in their office or home as well. So, they are always alone wherever they go. They just feel lonely and need someone to talk to sometime. They need the care and love of friends and family members.

Lastly, some of them around the age of 20 something to 30 something (young adults), they may not have money problem and may did well in their career. But, they feel lonely deep in their hearth because short of love and caring from someone they long awaited. They may look for life partner, love partner or sex partner. But, they just do not meet their Mr. Right or Ms. Right yet.
Lately, my interest in study human character, lifestyle and problems faced by them were grown deeper. At the same time, I came to understand and know more about myself and solve the problems toward a better quality life ahead.

Whatever the problems, I still believed that there will be a solution which guide us towards betterment of life and finally acquire the life’s riches.

Can I Borrow $25 ???

A good and meaningful story to share with everyone :)

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated to find his 5 years old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: Daddy, may I ask you a question?

DAD: Yeah sure, what it is?

SON: Daddy, how much do you make an hour?

DAD: That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?, the man said angrily.

SON: I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?

DAD: If you must know, I make $50 an hour.

SON: "Oh" The little boy replied, with his head down. "Daddy, may I please borrow $25?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

“Are you asleep, son?”, he asked.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on your earlier,” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the $25 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy,” he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.

The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and the looked up at his father.
“Why do you want more money if you already have some?”, the father grumbled.

“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied. “Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love. Have we forgotten what is really important in life? Too caught up in money, personal ambitious, and forgot how to enjoy and appreciate the sweet simplicities in life?

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

MAKING & KEEPING PROMISES

Everyday, we tend to make a lot of promises. During working hours, we have to promise our clients on the services or products delivery due date. Even in our personal life, we have to promise our loved one, family members and friends to help them to do whatever things requested. However, how often we can keep our promises and make our clients, friends or whoever concern happy and satisfy with the realization of our promise? I believe that, sometime we keep our promises and sometime tends to broke our promises because certain circumtances. For instance, you may promise to help your wife on the gardening works in your house's garden. She will definitely feels happy if you really can make it. On the other hand, if you can't keep your promise and delay your work again and again, the amount of trust on you will decrease from time to time. Do you have the same experience on this? I think it should be normal life experience :) Do you have any idea to increase other's confidence and trust on us by keeping promises?

In my opinion, how about we start it by making and keeping promises to ourselves ??? When we really can make and keep a promise to ourself first, then only we can promises others people and make it happen all the time. Are you agree on this??

Stephen Covey said in "First Things First"....

Making and keeping promises is one of the best ways to strengthen our independent will. Each time we do, we make deposits in our Personal Integrity Account. This is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust we have in ourselves, in our ability to walk our talk.

It is important to start small, make and keep a promise, even if it means you're going to get up in the morning a little earlier and exercise. Be sure you don't violate that commitment and be sure you don't overpromise and underdeliver. Don't risk making a withdrawal from the Personal Integrity Account. Build slowly until yoursense of honor becomes greater than your moods.

Our lives are the results of our choices. We choose either to live our lives or to let others live them for us. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and to others, little by little we increase our strength until our ability to act is more powerful than any of the factors that act upon us.

Just look back on some of our personal experience, we promises to..
a) wake up a bit earlier for morning jog...
b) finish some houseworks after a tiring working days...
c) and so on...

TO some of us, we really can't keep our promises even it is just a small matter. So learn to make and keep small promises by today before going for the big one..

Have a nice day :)

IT'S NOT A SPRINT, IT’S A MARATHON !!!!

If you’d never run a mile and I told you to run a marathon today, that would seem impossible, wouldn’t it?

But you know how all long-distance runners start?

They start by running just a block or two their first day of training. Actually, most don’t run. They just jog. And some don’t even jog. They just sort of walk first.

The point is, they start off going maybe two blocks, then three blocks, then a half-mile, then a mile, then a couple of miles.

And before they know it, several months have passed and they’ve gone from being out of shape to being able to run a marathon. (Source: Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach)

“I have run in marathons. To prepare for a marathon, I would practice running 8 km daily for three months before the event. Two weeks before the marathon, I would practice at least one 21 km trial run.”

“During the actual marathon, I remember that after the first half of the run, that is, the first 21 km, I would be exhausted. I would ask myself at that point: Why am I doing this? Still, if I had given up the race then and walked back, I would still have to travel 21 km to the starting point, just as if I continued, I would have 21 km ahead of me to the finish line. I had no choice but to complete the whole 42 km run.”

“The second half of the run is harder; it took all of my mind to push my tired legs to move forward one step at a time. Life is a lot like running a marathon. You can achieve anything extraordinary by firstly, being prepared for it, and secondly, by persisting at it”, said Dr. Peter Yee ( author of The Certain Way to Life’s Riches).

The Clock And The Compass In Our Life....

What is the CLOCK AND COMPASS in our life???? I started to read The First Things First by Stephen Covey recently and read about the clock and compass in life.

The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities - what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction - what we feel is important and how we lead our lives. The struggle comes when we sense a gap between the clock and the compass - when what we do doesn't contribute to what is most important in our lives.

For some of us, the pain of the gap is intense. We can't seem to walk our talk. We feel trapped, controlled by other people or situations. We're always responding to crises. We're constantly caught up in "the thick of thin things" - putting out fires and never making time to do what we know would make a difference. We feel as though our lives are being lived for us.

For others of us, the pain is vague discomfort. We just can't get what we feel we should do, what we want to do, and what we actually do all together. We're caught in dilemmas. We feel so guilty over what we're not doing. We can't enjoy what we do.

Some of us feel empty. We've defined happiness solely in terms of professional or financial achievement, and we find that our "success" did not bring us the satisfaction we thought it would. We've painstakingly climbed the "ladder of success" rung by rung - the diploma, the late nights, the promotions - only to discover as we reached the top rung that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. Absorbed in the ascent, we've left a trail of shattered relationships or missed moments of deep, rich living in the wake of the intense, overfocused effort. In our race up the rungs, we simply did not take the time to do what really mattered most.

Others of us feel disoriented or confused. We have no real sense of what "first things" are. We move from one activitiy to another on automatic. Life is mechanical. Once in a while, we wonder if there's any meaning in our doing.

Some of us know we're out of balance, but we don't have confidence in other alternatives. Or we feel the cost of change is too high. Or we're afraid to try. It's easier to just live with the imbalance.

(Source: First Things First by Stephen R. Covey)

So, are you falling in one of the dillemas as stated??? How to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our life?? If you have any opinions, please leave a comments here :)

1st of October... My Special Day !!!

30th of September... the few hours, few minutes and few seconds before the arriving of 1st of October of every year marks a special moment to me because the first day of the month of October is my BIRTHDAY !! The moment i am typing for this paragraph of words to post on my blog... is just the important moment for me to look back at what i have done for the last whole year, reassess my personal development and achievement and refresh myself to move towards my life's dreams and riches. Time never wait for me... i will be 26 years old in the next 10 minutes later. I am just alone for this special night since my loved one is away and cant celebrate with me. However, it is just good enough to be alone to think of my life, dreams, targets in the next 26 years maybe :)

In this special nights, i will never forget to share a meaningful article which i read recently and brought me to know who is Adam Khoo. Adam Khoo is a self-made millionaire in Singapore by the age of 26, and is now "the Executive Chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd and a director of seven other private companies. Adam is also a director of the Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB)."

I did read a posting from his blog entiled "Are You Living Like A Prostitute?" which is really inspired me. I have repusblihed some of the inspiring workds as below...

Then some people ask me, ‘What is the point in making so much money if you don’t enjoy it?’ The thing is that I don’t really find happiness in buying branded clothes, jewellery or sitting first class. Even if buying something makes me happy it is only for a while…it does not last. Material happiness never lasts, it just give you a quick fix. After a while you feel lousy again and have to buy the next thing which you think will make you happy. I always think that if you need material things to make you happy, then you live a pretty sad and unfulfilled life.

Instead, what makes ME happy is when I see my children laughing and playing and learning so fast. What makes me happy is when I see by companies and trainers reaching more and more people every year in so many more countries. What makes me really happy is when I read all the emails about how my books and seminars have touched and inspired someone’s life. What makes me really happy is reading all your wonderful posts about how this BLOG is inspiring you. This happiness makes me feel really good for a long time, much much more than what a Rolex would do for me.

I think the point I want to put across is that happiness must come from doing your life’s work (be in teaching, building homes, designing, trading, winning tournaments etc…) and the money that comes is only a by-product. If you hate what you are doing and rely on the money you earn to make you happy by buying stuff, then I think that you are living a life no better than a prostitute.
(Source: http://www.adam-khoo.com/?s=travelling+economy)

Until this moment, i am extremely confident that i never live like a postitute and i did achieve a lots in this 26 years (although i am not a self-made millionaire like Adam Khoo.. haha) which was full of challenges, hopes and struggles, that finally brought me the true happiness i am enjoying with my loved ones all this while which i am always looking for :)

Together we moving towards achieving our life's riches.... Happy Birthday to Myself :)

WORLD HEART DAY '08

I just read an informative articles on newspaper which brought me to the National Heart Institute website at http://www.ijn.com.my/ which published the article about the World Hearth Day 2008 - 'Know Your Rish'. I had published here for your information and knowledge...

Which is why the call to action for World Heart Day 2008 is ‘Know Your Risk’ – a worldwide campaign to get people to become better educated and aware of the many personal threats for cardiovascular disease and what they can do to prevent it.

Although heart disease primarily affects middle-age men, and women over the age of 60, people from as young as 20 should know their risk factors. Particularly preventable ones such as smoking, high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and physical inactivity, amongst others.

CHANGE YOUR HABIT, REDUCE YOUR RISK
Heart, or cardiovascular disease is mostly caused by what we do, or don’t do on a daily basis. Thus, it is up to us to change and improve our habits and lifestyle to reduce the risk of getting coronary heart conditions and maintain a healthy heart.

EATING HABIT
What, and how much you eat have a direct impact on the health of your heart. Studies have shown that the higher your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for heart disease. A diet low in saturated fat can reduce your cholesterol levels. To incorporate a leaner, healthier eating habit, you should eat more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, starchy vegetables, lean meat and seafood. These foods have been found to be effective in preventing heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and obesity. It is important not just to eat the right stuff but also to watch the amount of food you take. It is common knowledge that obesity increases the risk of heart disease so maintaining a healthy weight is very important to achieving a healthy heart.

SMOKING HABIT
Many studies have shown that cigarette smoking is a major cause of coronary heart disease which leads to heart attack. Smokers have a higher risk of developing several chronic disorders including atherosclerosis, or buildup of fatty substances in the arteries, decreasing oxygen-rich blood supply to the heart. Smokers continue to increase their risk of heart attack the longer they smoke but quitting can reduce the risk of repeat heart attacks and death by 50% or more.

EXERCISING HABIT
An inactive lifestyle with complete physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Simple and fun aerobic exercises such as brisk walking, jogging, skipping rope, bicycling and dancing can help reduce blood pressure and are good for your heart when done regularly for 30 minutes or longer every day or on most days. Even moderately intense physical activity such as walking for pleasure and gardening are beneficial for the heart when done regularly on a daily basis.

BEHAVIOURAL HABIT
Anger and uncontrolled stress can lead to high blood pressure which in turn increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke. Anger and stress management techniques can be helpful in reducing your stress level, and therefore, your risk factor for heart disease. Some examples of reducing your stress level are practicing yoga, meditation and laughter therapy.

Prevention is definitely better, and much less expensive than cure. It takes a lot of courage, perseverance, patience, time and discipline to change your habits, but nothing is impossible. Know your risk, and adopt a healthier lifestyle today.

Please visit http://www.ijn.com.my/images/stories/WHD.pdf for the PDF files for your distribution or sharing with your loved one :)