how to
Care, but not t-h-a-t much
Sunday, September 9th, 2007“Whenever a social interaction looms so large in your mind that you view it as watershed event in Western Civilization, you are in trouble. You’re caring too much and with that you lose the requisite detachment necessary for success.
There’s a prosaic saying that whenever a person is overcome with feelings, be it anger or desire, he or she “can’t see the forest for the trees”. Oddly, or maybe fittingly, when that happens you move in close that you might even swear, “There is no tree, only a knothole right here.”
In other words, what you must do is to train yourself to step back, so that you can see the pattern, relationships and interconnection of things.”
Excerpt taken from Negotiate This!: By Caring, but Not T-H-A-T Much
This not only applies in negotiation, but also in the endeavours we undertake. Do you sometimes suffer from mental blocks in your work, or the things you do ? I do. Besides the occasional perfectionism bout, I think one other reason is that I care too much for the outcome of my efforts. This excerpt is a stark reminder to me to care, but not that much.
Caring too much about the outcome will only impede progress because we are too afraid to try. We are forever aiming and aiming but never firing.
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How To Get A Breakthrough And End Procrastination ?
Friday, August 10th, 2007
How often do we catch ourselves saying “Wait…”, “Not today”, “Maybe tomorrow” to the things which we know we should be doing ?
Procrastination is a time thief - it steals from us our most precious resource, time. The longer we delay doing the things which will benefit us, the further we push back the success which we desire.
So how do we get out of our comfort zone, get a breakthrough and end procrastination ? What we need is an inspiration to action, and then carrying it through with action.
Asking ourselves the two questions below can help us gain much inspiration to action, produce a much needed mental push and a change of perspective. However, inspiration remains a thought until it is acted upon by doing it right away. Acting on it and keeping up the sustained effort will build a habit.
Keep focused on the reward, not the process.
1. What is the one thing I don’t want to do today, but if I did it, will change my life and/or business ?
2. How will I benefit from doing the thing which I don’t want to do, but if I did, will change my life and/or business ?
3. Do it now. If logistically impossible to do it now, schedule in writing a time to do it.
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How to do more with less
Friday, July 27th, 2007
Do you catch yourself saying “I’m busy” often ?
I do. Sometimes, I set targets at the beginning of the day on what I want to accomplish for the day. However, as I get through the day, I find my attention distracted by numerous things unrelated to my targets.
An afternoon on a precious weekend can get burnt away quickly just by sitting in front of the computer, surfing mindlessly site after site. The visual stimulation of the internet world is easy to make one think that he has done much intellectual activity. But at the end of the afternoon, what has he gained, truly ?
On one of these afternoons, I came across this article by Willie Crawford on how he manages to get it all done. I think they are good tips, especially these ones which I find pretty useful.
5) Specific times for most routine tasks
6) Set time limits for many tasks.
9) Only “touch” each email once… if possible. When you open
an email, decide right then and there what needs to be done
with it and take care of it.10) Learn to say no…
11) See each project through to completion before starting
the next… Pick a project to focus on, and then work on ONLY that project
for an allocated amount of time, or until completion.14) Finally, know the value of your time. Perhaps the simplest
way to “value” your time is to set an income goal for yourself.
Ultimately, good mental discipline and self-control are the keys to personal effectiveness.
For the full article, click here
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Translation Tool
Saturday, February 24th, 2007I find this quite a useful tool for translating text and even web page.
But as always have a qualified human being verify the translation results. You don’t want to trust a software completely.
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How to unleash your creativity
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
We all have tremendous creativity within us. In fact, we are born creative and spontaneous - just look at kids and you see how many crazy ways they can think up just to get what they want. A kid laughs, talks and behaves spontaneously as he wishes without feeling any inhibition or caring about “should-do’s” and “should-not-do’s” like adults.
As we grow older, we are tainted by social programming and lose the creativity and spontaneity that belongs to us all. How do we reclaim and rediscover our inborn genius ?
Firstly, you have to immerse yourself totally in your area of interest. Secondly, you have to read as widely as possible on all other topics which are not within your area of interest.
I learnt this from Jay Abraham, one of the top marketing gurus in the States. I heard him speak at a seminar and was impressed. He was focused and intense, apparently in a state of flow. Although he claimed that he suffers from attention deficit, I guess it was meant to be a joke. If you have experienced “flow”, you will know that it is a highly focused state of mind. The person is so focused on the topic at hand that he will sometimes forget the less important things. It is the state of optimum performance where one immerses totally in the topic. Most people don’t experience flow, because their minds are often scattered and distracted.
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