« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
December 31, 2005
Why do New Year’s Resolutions fail?
Ah - this is the time of the year again, when everybody becomes melancholic. Another year past. Time for a new resolution. But stop! Do you remember those resolutions from last year? Did you succeed? If not, read on. May be there is a way to succeed and 2006 will be the year when you follow through on your resolutions.
Statements abound about this day, the 31st of December: “Another year has past.” “Now it is already 2006/” (no, another couple of hours to go!). “I am getting older, wiser, more matured.” “Nothing has changed.” “I will always be the same.” “Will something ever change?”
Does this sound familiar to you? How come we carry those beliefs? How come some things never change? Oh – this is wrong. This change, but are you a part of it? This sounds better!
Let’s see, where we can start?
Let’s start with January 1st, 2005. Have you taken a look back at the beginning of 2005? With what kind of goals did you set out to “conquer” this year? Stop smoking? Lose weight? Change job? Fall in love? Get married? Get divorced? Get a better life?
How much have you achieved? How long did the resolution last? Till the end of January? February? When did you give up and why?
Oh, so many questions!
There is however, a way to make those solutions last. Really, believe me! It is easy to just say the sentence “I want to …” (fill in the blanks with whatever your goal is). Things then change already – a tiny little bit. Because, you create awareness in your mind that you want to change, but oh, oh, oh, old habits die hard.
So more is needed. Writing down the goal is another possibility. You need to know that problems cannot be solved, if there is no outcome!
Ah – there it is - your goal. Nicely written. But hey – write it in positive words, since the mind doesn't understand negatively formulated statements.
Don’t write: “I want to lose weight” or “I want to stop smoking”. Write, for example: "I want to live a healthier and happy life.” This may sound funny, but is needed.
What else to do? Well, the easiest way to start is actually to start with the end in mind – sounds like Steven Covey and the 7 Habits, right?
And right he is. Start imagining, as vividly as possible, what will happen with your goal achieved. Really, as vividly as possible. Where do you want to be in the end of 2006, what you want to do, how you will look like with your goal in mind. In which environment do you operate, what behaviours will you exhibit. How you want to be like. See, what kind of capabilities you need to do so. Play a movie in your mind! What kind of person will you be, when you achieved the goal, what is the effect on you, your environment – yeah, think of this as well! If you want this promotion and you finally reached the goal, what will it do to your personal life, to your family? To you? Write it down, if you want. Your very own script!
Another very short example: You want to lose weight? See yourself in the slim body. Go into this body (associate with it – this is important!)! See yourself buying different type of clothes. Hear how people compliment you. Feel great inside. Wow, this can feel good, really.
Now, the harder part is coming. You need to work on the behaviour. Write down, what you need to do – going to the gym, eating lesser and so on. Write a program, month by month - milestones. Write a goal, for every month, how much you want to get your weight down. Don’t forget to celebrate yourself – the rewards. What will you get, when you achieved or exceeded your milestones. Be aware that you won’t always achieve them, because your body also need adjustment, your mind needs adjustment. That then is the time when you can get back to your script, to your written down goal as well - to reconfirm.
And while you write down those actionsteps, be as specific as possible. Yeah, I know, it is work, but hey – you want to change, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have read so far down already?
Now, a tougher part. Everything we currently do is a habit, a program, running in our mind. So we eat too much because somehow, we have conditioned us to do so. Like, for example, cigarette smoking. You smoke, because …. you believe it looks cool, makes you confident, makes it easier to approach the opposite sex. Like that. You need to work on this. What else can you do to become more confident, instead of smoking? How else can you approach this beautiful girl over there? These are the substituting capabilities that are needed in order break this habit of smoking, eating and so on. Ask your friends, to help you. Check with your family, as support. You will need them anyway, because along the year, there will be a time when you want to give up, when nothing moves in the direction, so then you need support (you can also send an e-mail to me, by the way, and we work on it!). And, again, read your script.
Are you ready to go for it? Really? Tell me about it, I would be honoured. Or, otherwise, I see you in December 2006.
Happy and Prosperous New Year 2006
Posted by Andreas at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)
December 29, 2005
Pegawai tidak ada and the ease of doing business
Great article in the NST today - and exactly the reason why I dread to deal with anything government.
How often do we stand in line, sit around to get things done, waiting patiently. Any number called, we give a sigh of relief - one more down, and so and so many to go!
It takes way too long to get things done - complacency all around. There are proposals to formulate guidelines or principles to improve the efficiency. But are guidelines, principles or rules enough to change?
Isn't it all about trust and empowerment for your employees? Only when there is the employee who is empowered to step up to the task when things need to be done, only when there is a general ability to multi-task and openness, only if working is not about protecting your turf against the one on the next desk, only then will efficiency be improved.
How many hours are lost in waiting for your number to be called? How much productivity is lost? How many millions or billions of Ringgits, gone down the drain while waiting?
Malaysia was recently ranked low on ease of doing business. I see the relation - do you?
Posted by Andreas at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
Market research positions
I am aware of research positions in the industry. These are specifically for those with experience, however, anybody with university has experience in research anyway.
If you are interested, or think you got it in a highly demanding industry with long working hours, little pleasure (just kidding) and lots of learning, please send me CV or resume to my "e-mail address and I am happy to forward it to the "authorities in charge".
However, please send me those documents in presentable form, otherwise, I won't be able to forward. And hey - you must be in Malaysia, be Malaysian, breathe Malaysian air.
No promise made, but feel free to give it a trial.
Posted by Andreas at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
Feeling uncomfortable
I realised this recently. If there is stress in my workplace - either too many e-mails demanding my attention immediately, my client constantly checking for report delivery, my boss coming in to ask something deemed important.
When is this happening? Mostly on Monday's - when there are an accummulated 300 new emails in my inbox when I arrive in the office at 8.00 AM. That is a lot, it feels like a huge tidal wave. On a normal day, there are "only" about 70 new e-mails in the in-box in the morning. And they keep coming in.
Usually, the only break without new e-mails is from about 12.00 noon to about 3.00 PM, when the flood of e-mails returns.
What is happening is that there is this growing feeling of discomfort in me.
Somewhere inside my stomach. It causes my work gringe to a hold. I want to run away, and most of the time, I do this by making a coffee. One more coffee on top of the many that I drink anyway, but this is a different story.
To give the feeling a name, you can call it panic, stress, distress and I believe that many of my readers are aware of this.
After the coffee has been done, the world comes back to normal and I work the work, run the treadmill, respond, write and be cool.
Recently, I was in this Indian foodstall close to The Curve. The place was packed with patrons, but the stall was undermanned. Shouts from everywhere for drinks, food, cleaning the table etc.
Some of the waiters working there looked stressed and acted stressful. No place to run there. Others were cool, just working the tables.
I saw the similarities - between them and me and realised that things don't change.
Wherever you are, whatever you do - there are situations that causes a feeling of discomfort, make your feel uncomfortable. Be it a waiter in a restaurant who is called on many duties at once, or the knowledge worker (yours Truly), whose attention is demanding from many different sources at once as well.
That is when I realised something.
I realised that every time our world is stretched, change is ongoing, we are growing into zones that are new to us, we are feeling this feeling. It is a scream to a world of "normality".
That easy. Something is pullinng you back to your own zone, the one you know, you can handle, no stress.
That was a great realisation because now, with this new learning, I can enjoy the stress better. And every time I feel stressed, and this feeling of discomfort comes, I know that my world is expanding, I am learning, I am growing mentally. In fact, it makes me feel alive.
Isn't this what counts?
And off I go, since I have to finish this report today, otherwise, my client is very angry, very worried, very stressed. What could be his learning?
Posted by Andreas at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2005
Business success with coaching
I just found these data:
"In a study by Manchester Consulting in 2002, year-long Executive Business Coaching had a 5.7 times Return on Investment (ROI). After receiving Executive Coaching, business executives, each were surveyed about the benefits they believe resulted from Coaching. Executives reported increased satisfaction in the following areas:
-- Working relationships with direct reports (77%)
-- Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%)
-- Teamwork (67%)
-- Working relationships with peers (63%)
-- Job satisfaction (61%)
-- Conflict reduction (52%)
-- Organizational commitment (44%)
-- Working relationships with clients (37%)"
Do you believe that coaching works? At all levels? In every part of your life? If you don't believe in it, why is this so? And, why shouldn't it work? It works in sport, right? So it can work in companies and in personal life as well!
Posted by Andreas at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)
December 24, 2005
Merry Christmas
Merry XMas to all my readers and friends and friendly readers. Be good and have fun :)
Posted by Andreas at 08:04 PM | Comments (4)
December 22, 2005
Different point of views or, the breakdown of communication
Found it John's blog, and it originates from Scary Ideas.
Misunderstanding each other, not getting one another's point of view, pushing your own point, forgetting to reconfirm your understanding... Many times a break down in communication is the reason why things go wrong.
And don't forget - you always talk from your own map of the world. But please remember, there are as many maps as there are people in the world - because we are all different, think differently, perceive differently, process differently, operate differently, express differently, feel differently, smell differently, hear differently, taste differently and so on. All I can do is to really try really hard to get your point of view.
Got it?
Posted by Andreas at 02:26 PM | Comments (2)
Anchoring for better preparation for an interview
One of my colleagues is an Indian national. As part of his job, he is now going to the US to work in a different office of my employer.
In order to do so, he needs to have a visa for the US, and the visa is only granted after an interview with the US embassy. The objective of the interview is to see if he is a "suitable candidate" for the US, and to determine that he doesn't want to stay (he doesn't, but he needs to convey that message).
The "scary part" is that they might send him back to India to apply with the embassy in his hometown. There is a huge waiting list in India for this interview and we are working on the premises that he goes to the US in early January.
So yeah, he is nervous, very nervous. And he wants to be calm and confident. NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is very much made for this "kind of things" (or any other "state). It helps you to develop a great mindset, a State, that allows one to be calm and confident at the time when it is required.
I had a coaching session with him yesterday. Something very easy, and it only took 45 minutes. It is called resource anchoring in NLP, but whatever it is, the work is done by him. He needed to find the resources inside of him to know that he is confident and calm. All I have to do is leading the process, asking the questions and be there.
It is all inside of us, remember? It doesn't bring you much to hear a lecture from others on how they would do it!)
My boss, just before we went for the session, saw him and also talked to him - about being calm and confident. She said, there is nothing to worry about (already the wrong words), that he is calm and confident anyway (but well, that is in "normal situations") and all. It is easy to talk to people like this, but how many can hold onto this when it is required? That is the downside of motivational talks - it only holds for so long, until you are in the situation.
So yes - we went through the process. As said, it took 45 minutes. he anchored the feelings in his fiest, and now, repeats the feeling or state of confidence and calmness every now and then.
Today, we are going for the next session - to set the state even deeper into him - to enable him to carry the feeling with him, and get it, whenever he needs it. And tomorrow we have another session. And before he goes for the interview, I just use hypnosis to really push it down into his subconsciousness.
This is fun!
Posted by Andreas at 10:57 AM | Comments (1)
December 20, 2005
17 hour days and no slacking
Currently, I am probably working 17 hour days - of which about 13-14 hours are spend in the office. This is the hardest part of my current life and I am really proud of how I manage it.
Long streneous days and evenings. The longing to go home, when it gets dark out there, and the lights of KLCC shine. To see the traffic on the road and know that there are people who are ready to go home.
Sighing and back to the computer in front of me. But, and that is great, I am not tired. We, my team and I battle deadlines. Face challenges from my demanding client.
Still, the concentration is there and the unbeatable confidence that all will be okay!
This is my current WoW factor. Nothing slacks at work, no reduction in the energy level - I am simply not tired. Going, going, on, on - the team and I need to finish a LOT before Christmas.
Coming home, I am still able to read my books, play with my kid (if he didn't fall asleep in the car or is asleep at home already) and even watch a movie every now and then.
Then I sleep like a stone, for a couple of hours, before the day starts again.
What is the great part?
It works - the energy is there, the power to make things happen, the concentration, the mood change to positive when I am down, tired and frustrated.
It is called state management in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). This simply is a process (learnt in my courses) to generate the resources needed whenever I need them. I am utilising this to the fullest. Powerful and fun, because I never knew that it is there!!
Posted by Andreas at 12:57 PM | Comments (2)
December 13, 2005
Our building in downtown KL is shaking
We are leaving the office. Our building in downtown KL, opposite of KLCC is shaking. A couple of tremors were felt
Anybody knows if something's happening?
Okay : We have decided to stay a while longer, but I feel, a bit strange. If there is one more shaking, we leave.
Posted by Andreas at 03:59 PM | Comments (2)
The Secret of happiness and limited beliefs
Wow, this one blows me away - it is the introduction to the book "Seven Secrets of the Millionaires"!!!
And how true is its contents. Aren't we all haunted by "spirits from the past", imprinted on us when we were small kids, without power to push back to those imprinting those limited beliefs on us? Those spirits, that follow us in the form of embarrassments, fear, anxiety, feeling of worthlessness, panic attacks, impatience and so on?
Remember, that when you think now that it is only you who feels this way, you are not alone. All of us feel the same. Only some of us can handle it better than others but these "others" (whoever they are and you know them) are also haunted by limited beliefs.
All of those happen, when we were small, innocent, didn't know about the world, felt powerless. One sharp word from someone close to us - father, mother, aunty, uncle or teacher, friend and so on - said something and we believed it - something that hurt us then and still hurts us now, and limits us in moving forward.
Something was said a long time back that we would now reject. Only at that time, well, there was not much we could do. Who would say "no, I am not like that" to those you are dependent on?
So here we are, often scared to death in the face of challenges, freezing over, when we need to face up to problems. Stumpling into presentations, conferences, examinations, fearing to speak when we are in a group, and many, many more ghosts from the past. All you can do now is to get over with it, move on, work it out, get stronger, and free the energy that is tied down in this limited belief to face a better future.
It's easy - you just have to do it!
The Secret of Happiness in 8 Words
To Allow Yourself to Be Happy is the Greatest Wisdom There Is
By Stuart Goldsmith,
Excerpt from Seven Secrets of the Millionaires
You might like to know that the secret of happiness can be explained in just eight words and is, in fact, quite mundane. It does not involve meditation, drugs or self-flagellation. Each of the eight words is worth one million dollars, but here they are, free:
Tomorrow - Today - Live - For - Better - Working - A - While
What? You can't make sense of that? I gave you the words for free, but the correct order is going to cost you plenty...
Pause, while the anagram-freaks try to work it out themselves...
Got it? No? Okay, you'll have to read on...
Now, the price for my arranging the words for you is about ten minutes of your time to read this article carefully, because it has important implications for your happiness.
The first thing I want to say is that the human psyche - your psyche - is a very delicate thing indeed - and can be badly damaged, particularly during your early years, by what would outwardly seem to be "not very much."
Put another way, your mind is an incredibly delicate and subtle mechanism - a finely tuned and highly sensitive instrument. So delicate is this wonderful apparatus, that it is flat-out impossible to grow up without some damage to its mechanism.
Moderate damage is normal and severe damage is common.
Please read that last sentence again.
I would say that 100% of people - that's everyone - has moderate damage to their psyche, and about one in three have severe damage. I am talking about damage caused by a normal upbringing, not an abused upbringing. Thankfully abuse is not the norm, but more importantly, the psyche is damaged by numerous small incidents throughout your childhood where you didn't get exactly what you needed, exactly when you needed it.
Parents are, after all, people. They are neither omniscient nor telepathic. They do their absolute best, working from the basis of their own damaged psyches.
And so the cycle continues...
Now the point here is that because everyone is damaged, this means that everyone exhibits symptoms of "mental disturbance" during, and often throughout, their lives. I'm talking 100% of people here. Such symptoms include:
Anxiety
Depression
Sleeplessness
Irrational Fear / Panic Attacks
Feelings of Worthlessness, Insecurity, Pointlessness
Suicidal Thoughts
Substance Abuse (particularly alcohol which is a wonderful anesthetic for the harshness of life)
Irrational Anger / Impatience / Irritation
Worry
Because everyone experiences some or all of these on a scale of mild to severe, everyone pretends that they don't experience these things and we all play this ridiculous game in which we pretend it's just other people who have problems, not us.
I have talked to hundreds of people from paupers to billionaires. Scratch the surface and what do you get? The same old human-being we all are. The damaged psyche resulting in some or all of the negative symptoms I have listed.
I find this immensely comforting. The real problem about feeling down on life is when you think it's only you who feels like this, and that everyone else is having a great time counting their loot. If you can really take on board what I am telling you here, that everyone is a seething mass of insecurity, angst, unfinished business and emotional turmoil, then I think that helps a great deal.
It's called "the human condition" and comes about as a result of us all having such an immensely delicate psychology. We are about as equipped psychologically to handle the "slings and arrows" of life as a butterfly is to handle a force ten storm.
Every human on the planet is brave beyond measure. Forget "bravery in the face of enemy fire." That's just one sort of bravery and anyway, most soldiers didn't have a choice about going over the top. I'm talking real bravery of the sort you show every morning. You get up and face the world again. You against the world. And it's as much a battle today as it ever was. Labor-saving devices make very little difference. Do you have lots and lots of leisure time because you own a fridge, a washing machine, and a dishwasher? No? I thought not. It's the same old struggle by the same old human beings.
There is a danger in writing (and reading) a motivational, go-get-em, kick-ass "secrets of the millionaires" book because it encourages the sort of polarization I was talking about earlier. You can easily think something like: "Yeah, it's as I suspected, everyone else is happy and making great money, it's only me who cannot achieve anything of note. I'm all alone. Everyone else is so happy and well adjusted..."
I'm telling you now, in as plain a way as I can say, that everyone on the planet is more or less screwed up because of the way we are, and the way the world is. You just cannot avoid the damage.
You have to accept it, patch up what you can and live with the rest. So what can you do to increase your chance of happiness?
Live Today
The first part of the key to happiness is to live today.
That means you must try to live in the present moment, experiencing what is happening right now to you, good or bad.
This is it. This is your life. This is not a dress-rehearsal. But the twist here is to set this in the context of everything I have just said. Recognize that angst and upset are part of the human condition, experienced by everyone. This is just what it is to be a human being. We are all like this.
Why? Because from baby to teenager we had thousands of needs, most of which were met, many of which were not. Each time a need was met (particularly from early childhood)it caused psychological damage, sometimes mild, sometimes serious.
The brain is a highly adaptive and most damage can be routed around in order to allow the organism to continue functioning, albeit at a slightly reduced capacity. We develop coping strategies - the most effective of which is just good old-fashioned avoidance - we simply avoid the people and situations which cause the emotional pain and this stops us living life in all of its full colour.
When I say "live today" I'm not talking about some blissed-out, tree-hugging hippie who tries to permanently empty his mind in order to contact the "now." I'm talking about experiencing today with all of its upsets, angers, joys and sorrows. Just riding the wild bronco of life and not letting that sucker kick you off.
And when, as I often do, you experience a moment of intense pleasure, I want you to think to yourself: "This is as good as it gets." And it's true. These moments are as good as it gets.
Life is hard. Just as hard today, in its own way, as it ever was. Perhaps not as hard on us physically, but a lot harder on us mentally. That's why we're not a lot happier now than in in 1400 - to pick a year at random.
So I want you to snatch happiness when it comes to you, like a drowning man or woman seizing a life preserver. This is what it means to "live today."
The alternative is to ignore the minor day-to-day happiness and always be thinking some version of: "I'll be happy tomorrow, when..." (I have money, I get a girlfriend, I move from this bad area, I get myself a new car...)
You won't.
Or to think: "How can I possibly be happy now when..." and then insert your own unique bit of current misery, angst, depression, anxiety, panic or fear. The error here is to think that one day you'll be totally free of these things, and then you can be happy.
You won't. It's how we all are - riddled with this stuff. It's what makes us all human. It's what it means to be human. I'd go so far as to say that a person without a smattering of these things would be a flat, lifeless and intensely boring automaton. It is the degree of your angst which is important.
Zero makes you dull as dishwater.
A sprinkling makes you human and still allows for a lot of happiness. A moderate lever makes you interesting, quirky and able to cope mostly with life, but like a semi-active volcano, side-shoots of lava keep erupting and causing turmoil in your life - you need to spend some time fixing the damage, otherwise you may erupt one day.
A lot, and you are mostly immobilized in life and unable to function. Happiness is denied to you and all of your efforts should be expended in therapy to repair the worst of the damage, before you can go on. You are constantly depressed, frightened and anxious.
As an analogy, imagine a football team in immaculate, Percil-white strip, nancying around the field avoiding getting grass stains on their clean white socks. They would be a bit of a disappointment, really. They don't want to get too involved in the game in case they get mud on their shorts or bruise from that big, nasty old ball. Who wants to watch them? Who cares? They are not fully engaged with the game.
A football team whose players are muddied, bruised and riled are an altogether more interesting spectacle. They'll be fighting with passion and determination, taking daring risks, sometimes winning some ground, sometimes losing some ground, but always entirely absorbed in the game and playing right now in the present moment.
But a team which is injured, demoralized, cold and wet needs to do one thing - retire from the field, get some serious rest, bandage their cuts and recuperate. There is no point in their playing any longer. In fact they can't play. Their minds are not on the game, but fully absorbed with their pain and humiliation.
So, you see, the trick is to grab the happiness, now, in spite of any current misery from your worry list.
A Brighter Future
The final part of the key to happiness is: "While Working For a Better Tomorrow." So the whole secret is:
"Live Today While Working For a Better Tomorrow."
Why not write this out on a 3" x 5" card and put it somewhere you will see it each day? It's not a bad idea.
First, you grab every single morsel of happiness which comes your way, despite your perfectly normal negative feelings which you now know are part of the human condition and which everyone experiences.
Next, you must realize that everything you are today and everything you own today is a direct result of your past decisions. Decisions which you took, either consciously, or by default. Nobody else is to blame here. But once again I find this immensely comforting, because the power is in your hands to change the future, you don't have to wait for someone else to change it for you.
If your present life is a result of your past decisions, then the future is created by your present decisions, and boy is that true!
So you should be constantly working and scheming so that your future (which will come around soon enough) will be even better than your present. And you do this in spite of any angst and turmoil you might be feeling, just as you do it in spite of the fact that you have to breathe air and sleep seven hours each night.
Now if you recognize yourself in the "moderate" or "severe" category of emotional turmoil, then part of the process of planning for a better tomorrow involves working on yourself, perhaps, through therapy, counseling or talking to trusted friends. By the way, you cannot do this alone or through introspection.
Think of this as urgent repairs to the ship's hull, without which the boat is in danger of going down. Only a fool would try to sail in such a boat without spending some time in dock to patch things up. Perhaps you've been in denial about the condition of this leaky old tub? Have you been bailing like a demon for the last few years while battling on through stormy seas, just about keeping afloat? This is a judgment only you can make.
But apart fro the psychological work, there remains the real down and dirty work required right now, today, to make your future better for you and your family. I guess this is what separates the winners from the losers. Winners know they have to work now in order to get "lucky" several years down the line and reap the rewards. Losers want the rewards right now and cannot make the link between now and the future. They have what I have often described as a "Bunteresque" view of life (from Billy Bunter), hoping that something will turn up.
You can't live like that and be successful. You have to live your life on purpose, not by random chance. I cannot stress enough the importance of working for a better tomorrow despite ay strong reason why you feel you can't, such as:
The terrible state of the world
Your deep emotional scars
Your age (you feel it's too late)
Work gives direction, meaning and engages the brain. Idleness rots you from deep within.
I feel this is one of the most important issues and one of the hardest for me to write about. I guess the reason you bought this book [Editor's note: this article is an excerpt from the book Seven Secrets of the Millionaires] is because I'm just a few steps ahead of you on the path to wealth, happiness and freedom, and through my writings, I pass along my views of the scenery, what you can expect and how to negotiate the obstacles you are about to meet.
The final thing in Pandora's box was... hope. And when you are working for a better tomorrow, you are reaching into that box for that last, most precious gift.
The is no point in being wealthy if you are not happy
Immense wealth is within your grasp - but it won't be a simple ride.
Millions of people are wealthy and although it isn't an easy thing to get rich it is far from impossible.
Many chatter that they want to be rich, but few people have researched the factors required to achieve this. There are, indeed, several "secrets" known to those who have fought their own way to the top of the mountain. If you have some aptitude and are willing to listen, you can learn these secrets for yourself and follow those "lucky" ones to dizzying heights.
The first thing you must have is a firm belief that being rich is okay. If you harbor any opposing beliefs, then these will eventually sabotage your wealth-creating efforts, ensuring that you remain poor.
You must have a dream to act as a guiding beacon to lure you on when the going gets tough and the way ahead is dark. You cannot get rich by randomly selecting a field of endeavor for which you have no aptitude and even less interest. This is a ten or twenty year project; it cannot and must not be a ten or twenty year prison sentence. So you must do whatever it takes to unlock your secret dreams and passions. Hopefully others will share your passion and you can engage in commerce with them and make your fortune while having the time of your life.
One little trick used by all highly successful people is to have a battle-plan, sometimes called an action list or goal list. Life dreams are usually large and unwieldy and so the wise person knows how to break up these dreams into bite-sized chunks of a suitable size for our limited minds. Winners set goals, losers never set goals. It's that simple. Despite reading this advice fifty or a hundred times, still some people will not write down their goals.
Having written your goals and broken the large tasks down into simpler steps, now you require the discipline to keep you on track, working through the list. Winners have this discipline. Losers wander aimlessly, become bored or distracted, have low frustration tolerance, give up easily and drift away. If I had to pick one single secret as the most important, it would be to cultivate a sense of discipline because from this, many other things follow.
When setting your goals, make sure you keep firmly in mind that everything you obtain in this world has a price tag attached. You must be willing to pay the price, otherwise you are only window-shopping and this means you are not serious about life, just browsing.
Until this point, mostly this is theory. Now it is time for action. Above all, successful people are men and women of action. They get their sleeves rolled up and get on with the task at hand. Unsuccessful people procrastinate and always want to do it "tomorrow." Of course, tomorrow never comes. The two main reasons for non-action are laziness and fear. The fear is usually fear of success or fear of change. We are all lazy, we all fear change. Winners are able to push through these negatives. Losers succumb to them.
Before you start out on this journey, you need to have a clear idea about how much is enough, otherwise you have no destination and your search becomes an endless quest. If you are not clear about your destination, how can you ever know when you have arrived? Also, making money, no matter how enjoyable, has a price tag associated with it. Ideally you want to minimize the time you spend doing this and so you must have a clear idea of how much you want. There is no point whatsoever in amassing riches, never enjoying the fruits of your labors, and dying a wealthy man or woman. Money is an enabling force, not an end in itself.
Finally, the journey is everything as there is only one, macabre destination which we all share. The last stop on the line is Grim Reaper Halt. Life is a process, not a product. So no matter what your current level of wealth, it is time for you to start mastering one of life's most difficult lessons and that is to be happy right here, right now, while working towards a better tomorrow.
Posted by Andreas at 01:58 PM | Comments (2)
December 10, 2005
Pictures from a party and an update from me
Well, not my party but there are pictures of me - my kid is also there (can see him?) and so is my wife (tougher to see, because, well, there are plenty of adults but only one big boy :) A party by a friend of mine from the former company. This is the nice part of a great company. You connect to the employees, and build friendships over time. Friendships that last and go through thick and thin.
Everybody in Malaysia works so hard and it is so easy to lose sight of friends. Time flies, when you work from 8 in the morning to 8 or nine in the evening. I like to rest over the weekend, sleep or better, get my energy levels back up, read and play with my kid and talk to my wife. Then, Monday starts again, and once again, I didn't manage to catch up with friends.
That is why blogging, the internet, SMS, IM, Skype and so on comes in handy, but how long can a friendship last with only technology to support it?
Well, a party or meet up every now and then is so incredibly important.
It was nice to meet my former colleagues again. I heard about a lot of changes my former employer goes through - others have left after me. For better or worse, but I am happy that I have a new job. I am not quite sure if I thrive in the new job, so - the extreme passion is missing. My readers will recognise that the amount of postings dropped dramatically. I am working too damn much, it is draining, and the client is not always supportive. That is life! But may be this is not the life that I want. I am now sitting in the office, and preparing for workshops that will take place in the US next January. I am planning for studies to be conducted next year, throughout the year.
I realise that I grow, and this is the good part. One of my executives told me yesterday, that I am a great guy, a great teamleader. This keeps me going. But I am not sure, how much I am going to give up of myself in the process. In my connection with my kid and my wife. Both supportive, both great. But later, looking back, I might regret. So there is a lot of thinking that needs to be done.
Until then, I am glad that I have a great family, great friends, a challenging job, and enough spirit, confidence and strength to keep going!
Posted by Andreas at 09:38 AM | Comments (3)
December 04, 2005
Brain drain and brain gain in Malaysia
The New Sunday Times today laments that Malaysian students overseas stay overseas after their studies. But actually, what is the matter with it? Isn't it natural that someone wants to stay where they like to stay?
Look at me, as a foreigner in Malaysia. I came to Asia 12 years back. It was suppose to be a 2 years contract with the United Nations. After the contract expired, I intended to stay - first, I worked in Indonesia, then in Singapore, followed by Malaysia again.
I never looked back to Germany and cannot foresee myself going back for the next couple of years or even decades. Why? Because I love this place. I am living here, have my own condominium, send my kid to school, am married to a Malaysian, enjoy my work, have friends here, blog about the country - for better or worse, speak better English than German (despite mistakes here and there), go for training in Singapore and Malaysia, buy local products (hey, I drive a Proton and love the car!) and foreign products and so on.
Am I a brain gain for Malaysia? I sure hope so. I know that those that work and worked with me benefit from my knowledge. Am I a brain drain for Germany? I don't know. Seriously. I think, I found my "mission and vision" in Malaysia. I am really uncertain how much I could have contributed to Germany.
May be there is also a need for Malaysia to look at their foreigners. Those like me - and I really don't want to blow my trumpet but I really want to stay here, despite our "troubles" with renewal of work permits, spouse passes and so on. May be it is time to go the Singaporean way, if I may call it like this, and ease the procedures to get a PR. In Singapore, it is fast and efficient to get a PR. In fact, foreigners in Singapore are invited to become permanent citizens. Here, it takes years and years and years and .... to even be considered to become a permanent citizen. I heard of foreigners whose application was lost and had to be resubmitted. How is that? My application is running for about 4 years now. A former colleague of mine submitted hers about six or seven years back. Years! How serious is that? When people ask me, why I do it, I say, that I love the country, its people, my work, the weather (yeah, I do!) and the food.
So, Malaysia, look at your foreigners, and check what they contribute. Because, believe it or not - there is brain gain on that side of the world as well!
Posted by Andreas at 10:57 AM | Comments (5)
December 01, 2005
When values become too earthly
The linked article is actually quite sad.
A young guy defends his girlfriend and is slashed by two attackers. He dies in the hospital and late treatment of his wounds might have contributed a lot to his early death.
Hospitals in Malaysia frequently demand payments before treatment and this was the case here. Rules were followed, and only after intervention of the father was the youth treated. He died because this treatment came too late.
If values would have been in place, monetary considerations would have taken a backseat. It didn't happen and this is the sad part of the story.
Posted by Andreas at 07:40 PM | Comments (1)
Malaysian Airlines System continues to lose money
This is frustrating for the Malaysian government. The flagship, Malaysian Airlines, or MAS, continues to lose money. Months, after months, quarter, after quarter, and year after year. Hardly any quarter passes without articles in the newspapers decrying the fact that once again, the company lost money.
Sure, there was the oilprice increase and may be the company didn't hedge their funds earlier. Sure, there is the hope that a new boss, Mr. Idris Jala, will manage a turnaround.
Still, there is one thing that needs to be considered. The morale of the employees is down. How would anybody feel, if their company loses money, again and again, is battered in the newspapers, and blamed for bad policies in the public. Their morale is down and their value system, their alignment to the corporate vision is damaged. They don't belief in the company anymore and what the company was standing for earlier.
What is needed is a major work on their beliefs, to reinstate their values and align their own identity with the mission of the carrier.
Is leadership enough? Sure, it is a start, but what is needed is the buy-in from many, many corporate chieftains to carry the mission and assist their "boss" to recreate the values and beliefs. Only then, I believe, will MAS have a worthwhile future.
A challenge ahead, but this is what is needed!
Posted by Andreas at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)
Good bye to Fast Company
I am, or better, I was an avid reader of Fast Company. I loved the magazine for its style, its reporting, the out-of-the-box thinking ability, the way it challenged my own thinking. In short, I loved it because it was different.
So different that I subscribed to it last December. But already then did I have the feeling that something had changed in their style.
Nevermind.
After I submitted my subscription online, I received one magazine, pretty early on. Then, I waited and waited. I send a mail to them, and we confirmed my address. However, this was already tough, because their online address bar was pretty cramped, didn't leave much space for the long addresses that are so prevalent in Malaysia.
Still, nothing came and after inquiry again, I just received a mail that said that they have sent the magazine to the provided address. In fact, their e-mail sounded to me as I would have been at fault.
Sometimes in April or May or so, I started to buy the magazine again in the retail shops - even so my subscription was still on - bad enough.
I wouldn't mind buying it, but somehow, the drive is gone. My personal motivation isn't there anymore - the magazine doesn't touch me anymore in contents and style.
The contents doesn't sound right to me anymore. It is getting more and more boring. A lot of the articles are now related to smaller companies and I don't have any relation to them, I don't feel inspired by their actions.
Last week, I bought their latest edition, and boy - to me, it is a boring issue. I didn't find anything that drives me to a WoW, that imparts learning on me. Okay, this is me, and I give credit to Fast Company that they are a company in change. A lot of change but with this kind of direction, well, I am no longer on board. May be I check the December edition as well, but will I buy it? I doubt it.
As such, sorry, Fast Company. You did good to me for a long time, but may be it is time to part. Fair well, and I wish you well!
Posted by Andreas at 11:30 AM | Comments (1)