5 things to do, to change your life

Be warned, it is not shortcut! Found reading the following (which I was reading off Facebook) very true and can't find the original owner to link it with, but, I am putting the content here just to really remind myself we cannot waste any time. If it is 2 or 3 hours of productive time in a very tired evening, I'll have to utilize that to make myself better. Funnily enough the use of word cultivation and yes, it is so true. And keeping the momentum and motivation is important as well. Without further delay, here is the long interesting passage that will inspire you....

You finish work at 6 pm, go to bed at 12 midnight. Within these six hours, how do you spend them? Watching TV? In fact, the activities you do between 6 am and 12 midnight, the importance of it is beyond your imagination.

Too many people believe that, your career is determined by the 8 hours of hard work and effort you put at work, and your future and career progression depend on the boss and the company. But the reality is that for most people, the company is leveraging your effort to make big money and you could be on your own, depending on the work you do and the value you provide. “Cultivation”, is our personal responsibility. If you found yourself not progressing in life, you cannot blame and put the responsibility on your company for not spoon feeding you.

1. What you do every night is important
2. Read more, anything will do!
3. Do some projects
4. Actively build your connections (contact smart friends, and learn their opinions, get information and knowledge that are difficult to obtain, help the company look for more potential partners, or income generating opportunities)
5. The CHANGE of your LIFE starts TONIGHT

My major in college was marketing, but I expect to become a designer. So I practiced day and night, picking up some freelance work to improve my design skills. It took me a long time. When I became a boss, I no longer need to involve myself in design work, So I went back to the Marketing field.

Every day, when my children are sleeping, I began learning to gain more knowledge, this again took me a long time, But I begin to realize my returns. If I rely on my working hours to gain skills, then I will never have become a creative director and a product manager, or like today, teaching MBA students on Marketing. What I rely on, is myself giving myself “lessons”. And the most successful people I knew, walked the same path as I am.

I have a friend who is a History graduate, but he is interested in technical sales, In the day, he does telemarketing, at night he learns how to code, Finally, he became the vice president of sales in a startup company. Now, he’s a CTO. 

I have another friend, he received a degree in political science. But he’s very interested in entrepreneurship. he learnt a lot of knowledge on how to start up a company, eventually, he founded a company and sold it, Now he has reaped the rewards.

 For them, what they do between 6 pm till 12 midnight, is what determined their future. Clearly, we need to balance life and work. If you have a wife and children, every night, you have to stay with them. Even if you are single, you also need a reasonable allocation of time to go to the gym, to meet with friends, or be alone to meditate and so on.

Of course, watching movies, playing games is good. But there are things you do not need to do. For example, watching the new season of a Netflix drama, 14 hours per week watching television (This is the average amount of time watching television). The time spent playing the game Candy Crush.Or spending time stalking your high school alumni on Facebook, it does not seem to be good. So what should you do?

 My college mentor was born in Alabama, A poor African family. He was admitted to West Point Military Academy, and he became the first person in the family to go college. Before going to Harvard for his MBA, he’s a trained officer. When I met him, he has already developed his career in the city of Colorado Springs. I asked him, what’s his biggest success? He replied, because he kept the habit of reading, and he never stopped. He believed that if you want to get what you want in life, knowledge is the key. He often asked his interviewees what book are they reading now, the excellent ones can give an answer immediately. Reading can give you a good headstart, this is often what your peers cannot obtain. Compared to others, you are more likely to know other industries strategies and tactics, and that may be helpful to your company.

 You can transfer your knowledge within the organization, create new possibilities for your company. Moreover, your conversation topics will become more interesting. Anthony Robbins said: “If you spend one hour a day to learn about a topic, a year later, in this regard, the knowledge you gain will be more than 99.999% of the world’s people.”Even if you have 30 minutes every night, each week you can easily read a book. You may not be an expert, but I promise, you’ll know more than what your peers know.

You can apply the knowledge learnt to real work scenario, this is only an ideal state. If your company did not give you this opportunity, create opportunities for yourself. You can do some volunteer projects. They can bring you fame. Working with a team, you’ll understand how things work. In the practical application of the industry, and how it ultimately affect actual customers. You’ll learn how to perform the task and meet deadlines, and get feedbacks on what you are doing, and benefit from it.

 When you are not strong enough, these experience may not have any value to you. But you are still a novice. these experiences are far more valuable than the miserable pay you are getting. If you can really convince others of your pockets of fruits of labour, Then go try it. But do not let these private jobs affect your work.

In your career path, a strong network of connections will make everything accelerate. If you have not set up your own personal connections, you’ll need to divide a portion of your time to do this. A strong network of relationships, can enable you: Go get to know your work colleague or boss….. If you are an entrepreneur, your network connections will be your early customers, your staffs are a source of capital rather than go home, or going to a bar, you should find some inner circles. There are many small groups which are highly relevant to your career. You should try to integrate into these circles. Every week, you can drink coffee together with new friends, go drinking or have breakfast.

 You can also look into everyone’s career developments on LinkedIn. And establish a network with mentors in those professional industries. They may be your next job employer, who knows? Your connections will be your most powerful asset in the workplace. Since you have time to watch “The Voice of China”, you have time to build a social network.

 6 pm to 12 am, you go home, though physically and mentally tired, you are free to do anything and do not have to take orders from others. During this time, you can switch off like switching off your computer at your workplace, switch off your brain. But you can also do something, make you smarter, stronger, have a wider network of people. From the start tonight, take an hour a day to do these things, I guarantee that after a year, your career, and life will change.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Being mindful of what is happening, but not getting affected

Honestly, the one thing I don't like being adult is reading news about world events, the conflicts, the unnecessary blood shed, accidents, terrorism and the impact of all those things on human life (possibly far away from us). Sometimes we read of scenarios where major accident or 'Act of God' disaster everywhere. It is simply so depressing.

And amid all this, my prayer goes to those affected and their family members. There is only so much of this news I can take daily. And I have to put on a positive spin for my family and my kid. It is definitely not easy. But we have to, with all the uncertain, we have God which is certain (at least for me) and with him as the foundation, we just have to provide the love and the truth to people around us. Let's not let the mood of things around us affect us, let the strength of God flow through us.

I look forward to the next meeting with friends, the next moment I have playing with my kids, the next football match (go Manchester United) and the next basketball game I have with my friend (while I still can jump, a little)...

Give me some good news, news editors.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Handling exhibition booth

I got my first taste of standing in front of an exhibition booth and promoting for one day, recently. It was fun but definitely tiring. I have learned from this one day experience and I am about to put it down in writing before I forget any of this valuable experience that I have had the chance to experience.

1. Drink a lot of fluid
By the end of the day, I was really tired and exhausted. I dreaded drinking too much because I do not want to be walking in and out of the wash room  However, by the end of the day, I felt dehydrated, tired and really don't feel like even eating. I suspect that breath can smell as well, if dehydrated. Given that if I have to do this again, I would really bring myself a big water tumbler just to ensure that I can have fluid all day long.

2. Understand the material and be prepared
I was rehearsing in my mind several key items that I am going to share with people who visits my booth. Truth to be told, rehearsing in my mind is not the same as rehearsing out loud. I find myself tonque-tied for the first several attempts. I am not sure I understand myself too well during the first few conversations. I am going to do a bit more rehearsal of the material and several intro-line to the exhibition objective, and then open the floor to questions. It is not about repeating the same story to everyone who visits, but it is really to ensure that everyone gets the same story when they visit, and of course they are more then welcome with questions after the sales pitch :)

3. Look at the mirror
This is not something I like to do. I don't feel the need to look myself in the mirror because I always have the impression that what we know matters. But really, after going out often on social events and functions, I do need to confirm that I am well shaved, nothing sticking out of my nose, black patches on my teeth, tie not properly kept or dirty patches on my coat. Yes, what we know matters but, if our first impression is not there, the conversation wouldn't even happen in the first place. And nowadays, people look for imperfections, and the mind could well start with distrust like the following, "How could I trust this guy and what he said if he cannot even take care of himself properly".

4. Smile
The innovation and the creativity of the 21st century is not about the abundance of knowledge, but the way that we could connect the dots from our experience and look into implementing it in our everyday challenge. Every facet of our everyday activity boils down to having good communication, teamwork, collaboration, openness, acceptance etc. Smile, and we may have the better opportunity in connecting to people that visits the booth. The eye contact goes hand in hand with a gentle and sincere smile.

5. Listen
I learned not to blab the entire script I have without looking at the facial expression of the person I am talking to. Do take time to get feedback and response from the person we are communicating with. Blabbing the entire script of what we want to say isn't the objective, having the person understand what our message is, takes precedence.

There you have it, my 5 things I will ensure that I will be doing if I have the chance to stand in front of an exhibition booth again. Have a magnificent week ahead.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

How to take on the World!! A Collection of Wisdom and Guides

At times when I feel burned out and asked the question like, why is this happening to me, why ONLY me, does this happen to other people, why it doesn't happen in their lives, why God is so unfair, why, why, why. All this questions enclosed myself in a situation of self doubt, self limiting and self defeating rant to myself (at least in my own head), and discourage me until I lose my way.

Well I was thinking this has to stop, especially now that I am playing many roles, not just as a friend, a colleague, more importantly a father, a husband, a son, a leader etc. It not only dis-empower me but also the people around me and the people who look up to me when they are in situations. I am quite sure I am mature enough not to do a scene in public, but those thought in my mind will eventually be sensed by those around me.

True enough, some people do ask if anything was wrong with me, especially closer friends. Well I try to tell them what the problem is but I cannot pin point the problem. That leads me to begin to think, what is wrong in my head... Well there is no real problem actually, but the combination of repeating the same things day in and out as well as negative thoughts being repeated in my head causes me to not see the richness of life which I already enjoy on a daily basis. It is time I wake up and take on the world, as the title of this post says it.

Here are a few lines I'm sure I will take a look every morning from now on to ensure that the negative thoughts will not distract me off my awesome life.
1. God made me special and awesome :) Stop comparing my life with others. They're probably not as awesome. (By no means I am putting anyone down, it is just something to appease my competitive spirit inside so that I feel better than others, haha, no friends or family are hurt in the process)
2. Misfits will do what misfits do best - Not try to fit in with the rest of the world. This one is from a friend, I read it and liked it immediately.
3. I decided that my life IS extraordinary. Therefore I have extraordinary problems as well, don't look at others and say 'why it happens to me'. My reaction to problems in life will be extraordinary. Bring it on!!
4. Problems are my best opportunities.
5. For anything to happen, I have to take action, not anyone else.

Well that is at least how I motivate myself. I hope you guys have your own ways as well. Have an awesome life, friends.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Innovation put into Focus

Last few months to almost a year now has been somewhat challenging for many people ( I was referring to 2009). The economic slowdown inflicted directly or indirectly from the collapse of loan system and ultimately the banking system slowly sink in to almost every industry and alerted an immediate caution in all organization and individuals alike. Given the gloom outlook, people stop buying, organization produce less, less worker needed, subsequently retrenchment is a continuous and vicious cycle that affect worldwide economy almost every 10 year cycle.

My thought would be to save up for the rainy days ahead and caution on spending my pocket money. Is there more to it? No.... wait.... What happen 5 years from now and during that time, can I or the organization I work in continue to challenge the market space and market segment we are in? Why I ask this question is because every economic downturn, and its eventual recovery (it will always recover), and at that time, where am I or my organization?

Innovation is never a one time thing, it should be ingrained in the K-economy. In the K-economy, people contribute best by inter-mixing and sharing knowledge to be put to innovative use. Knowledge on its own is of not much use, knowledge overloading would be the same as well, meaning if you do buy 1000 books and not reading it at all, is no use. Now knowledge shared and applied is the key to opening up the k-economy. The best way I can think of is then by applying and using Internet sharing and collaboration tools which by the day is increasingly entrenched into our every day life, that innovation begins to flourish. By sharing and tossing ideas with almost anyone connected to the Internet in this planet, we have a platform for success.

With the technology, we are continuously being challenged, in terms of producing our work the most efficient and effective way. We continuously improve on the things we work on and perhaps to a certain extend revolutionize the way we work. Of course the pressure on workers or entrepreneurs of our time increases as well, as more people are being enabled, those of us who did not keep striving and improving will then fall behind, especially those involved in the Internet businesses.

Perhaps it is time to move a gear and ask what can we Evolutionize in our organization today. The challenge to do so has never been stronger. And the need to do so has never been more urgent. It is interesting to see the rise of Samsung and Apple iPhone to topple Nokia and Sony Ericsson almost out of existence as far as I am concerned. Success today just takes a matter of months to be toppled, evidently from what we see with Nokia and Sony.

I can only conclude that the opportunity is great, and the challenge seems greater. Hitting success may just be a start, and if not maintained will go the very next day. We have to be on our feet, whatever we do, to ensure that we stay at the top of our game. The tools available to us today, is helping us and also putting pressure on us to buck up, as we can be easily overtaken if we do not concentrate on the tasks at hand.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

2012 A New Lean & Agile Year

Every new year I sort of take stock what happened last year, what were the achievements and what I could have done better. Overall, we see a trending towards a leaner and more efficient way of doing things. Agile concepts and Scrum methodology flourished. A few years back, we were looking for that perfect foundation or framework to be the overarching framework of how things to be done, sort of like a unified theory of the perfect testing framework. Only for the recent trend of Agile tells us that, the only best way to get something done is to do it in small repeatable yet emphasize on transparency and openness. This is the way to go...

I personally have seen the successes in Scrum and Agile methodology in organizations. To this I would like to add, how is the software testing world adapting or taking part in Scrum or Agile. Some Scrum still leaves testing out of the sprint, some adopt testing into the sprint but seems isolated in the way testing work is done and most have no ideas. A have seen a book or 2 on how agile testing is supposed to be but to bluntly put it, it is still not very commonly practiced, at least, not in Asia Pacific.

The ever changing software industry required us to move with the pace, and I believe that software testers have to keep up with the methodology and concept and learn how to work with the agile developers now. This is the best way I know of how to provide good value to our organizations.

I wish all of you a great New Year and happy 2012: the New Lean And Agile Year.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Guerrilla Business Intensive

Studying the online information that I can find and also having attended MMI myself, I find that this is an interesting training worth exploring.

Through high-impact processes, exercises, games, and case studies participants will learn:
    * How to earn a million dollars a year in any business you choose!
    * How to generate million-dollar ideas every 60 seconds.
    * How to make or save a fortune using guerrilla negotiation tactics.
    * How to start any business or division with little or no money down.
    * How to raise $10,000 to 1/2 a million dollars without asking anyone to finance anything.
    * How to set up your business for massive passive income or (sell it for millions if you choose to!)

The Guerrilla Business Intensive with T Harv Eker is not for everybody because you will have to work incredibly hard during the five day program and many people will not be up to it or don't want to succeed enough. I think the intensity and the activity through out will be pushing the participants to the limit and making it worth every penny.

Harv Eker shares eight wealth tactics in Guerilla Business Intensive Seminar

1. Results Lead To Strategy
The lesson here: don’t think conventionally. Think outside the box. For example, if you are a cab driver, and you earn 1000 per month on an 8-hour shift, if you want to double your salary, you could work 16-hour shifts everyday to achieve your goal. If you wanted to triple your salary, you could– by working 24 hours a day. But if you wanted to quadruple your income, it would be almost impossible.

Don’t limit your capacity by thinking in terms of using your resources, but set a goal and then find ways to achieve it.

2. Business Is As Simple As To ‘K.I.S.S.’
Business, according to Harv Eker, is as easy as KISS.
In other words, Keep It Short & Simple. You can break it down into 3 components:
- produce/buy/create (content/product) Piggy Backing
- sell
- operations/admin

How much time do you spend on each of these things – how much time do you spend on what brings results? The ideal breakdown of your resource and time allocation should be:
- create - 20%
- sell - 60%
- admin - 20%

If you are not selling, you won't make money. If this means that you have to reduce your operations, or outsource, then you should because you only get paid when you sell, not before.

3. The Rich Are Experts
Like Chet Holmes and Joel Roberts have said, find one area of specialty and focus on it. Find one thing and become really good at it. For example, not every project manager should have to spend time figuring out the site structure, setting up an email auto responder, and writing copy. You should professionals for each area of expertise. This way, your company can get more done, in a shorter time, with better quality.

Many of the richest and most successful people started out by making it big in one industry or by becoming an expert in one area, and after their success, they branch out.

4. Create High Price Ticket Items
Let me give an example. Take John and Peter, who are in the same industry. John has 100 customers per day, he makes 30 sales per day, and he has a 30% conversion rate. Peter, on the other hand, has 10 customers per day; Peter makes 2 sales per day, and his conversion rate is 20%.

Yet, Peter is richer and happier than John. Why? Because Peter has chosen to supply good to a market with low competition and more money. If John is selling a standard iPod, and Peter is selling a diamond-plated iPod shuffle, then Peter has a far better deal because even if he sells very little to a few people, he still makes enough to

What expensive products are you selling? You can give an exclusive seminar or a personal coaching program, and use these as your high price ticket items.

5. Piggy Backing Concept
Find someone in your field (or in a similar field) who is willing to buy a large volume of your product at one time, minimizing your marketing efforts and maximizing your income in a short time. They can sell your product in large volumes, for example, if they sell yours complementary with theirs. You can ask them to give away your free samples, and when these customers visit your site, you can up-sell them on the back end.

6. Sell Them Before They Buy
By building a list of interested people, you have higher negotiation power when looking for partners/affiliates. It also means that you can move faster because you can go straight into creating a squeeze page for your already existent and interested list. This is similar to Bob Serling’s Tollgate Method and uses similar advanced JV tactics. By connecting your list to the products they are interested in, you act as a broker.

Harv Eker, for example, offers and charges for seminars a year in advance – a form of ‘selling’ without products, and using the revenue to create/fund products.

7. Focus vs. Scatter
Focus on completing one task at a time. This is not rocket science, but you’ll find that successful and rich people focus on completing one task at a time, then expanding and moving on to the next project. Idea evaluation is very important because without it, opportunities can become obstacles. Every morning, choose to accomplish 3 main goals that will contribute most to your revenue.

8. Processes and Automation
Systematize things and emphasize on processes and automation. Find all the repetitive tasks that take up your time and find a way to automate or outsource them. The definition of a successful business is one that can run without you.

The only drawback is that this opportunity is not for everyone as it costs a lot of money and it is an extremely intensive experience, but life changing some say.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Tony Robbin's Unleash The Power Within (UPW) - An Interpretation of a Participant

The Top 10 Secrets of Success from Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within. I have the great honor to have someone share it with me. In any case, it does sound interesting, so I am going to post it up here to share with everyone.

1. YOUR POTENTIAL IS DETERMINED (OR LIMITED) BY YOUR SELF-BELIEF.

As the promotional material says the event was 'about creating breakthroughs, moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs, accomplishing goals and realizing true desires, turning dreams into reality, creating fulfilling relationships, and modeling the strategies of peak performers to produce a quantum difference in your life.'

If you cut out the hype, the simple message is if you believe in yourself enough you can achieve anything. A memorable one-liner was "the only thing that's keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself".

2. MOST PEOPLE HAVE SELF-DOUBT AROUND UNIVERSAL THEMES.

Ask anyone and most people will admit they lack confidence in some areas of their life. The interesting thing I learn from this seminar is that this self-doubt is around universal themes. These themes cross age, gender, religious, cultural and language barriers.

Common doubts include 'I am not good enough', 'I am lazy' and 'No-one loves me'.

3. YOU CAN LEARN MECHANISMS TO ELIMINATE SELF-DOUBT.

Robbins calls it 'immersion' where you break old patterns and build new ones by repetition. He uses a lot of Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques to achieve this with his audiences.

He says "progress is not automatic". A memorable moment in the seminar was when we had to visualize ourselves inside a bubble and inside that bubble was a series of videotapes neatly arranged in a time-line that represented all our memories in our lives so far. We had to pull out the negative videotapes and destroy them. This was followed by time spent visualizing the future and how your life will look 10 and 20 years from now.

4. BELIEF IMPACTS ON MANY LEVELS.

The Robbins message was that 3 things shape our self-belief. He calls them the Triad. These are our patterns of physiology, focus and language or meaning.

He highlighted this with the quote: "where focus goes energy flows".

5. OUR VALUES AND BELIEFS SHAPE OUR ACTIONS.

Robbins believes you can "vanquish whatever is holding you back from taking action".

Walking barefoot across a bed of glowing coals is the physical metaphor he uses in his seminars to prove this point to the skeptics. Eliminate negative self-belief and take massive action are his keys to success.

6. TO CREATE POSITIVE OUTCOMES YOU MUST TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.

"Where focus goes energy flows" is a quote used by Robbins in his presentation to highlight why you need to know your outcome and why achieving this is a must.

But many people fail to take the next step. They delay, put off and find many reasons or excuses not to act. Robbins believes "progress is not automatic" and "action is power". Take action, even if it is the wrong action. He says it is "never a failure if you learn something".

7. MATCHING & MIRRORING CREATES CONNECTION, TRUST & EMPATHY.

Robbins spent a fair amount of time in the seminar talking about and demonstrating interpersonal communication skills.

He used people from the audience to show how the process of "matching and mirroring" the non-verbal communication and body language of others can be a very powerful way to connect with people. In essence, you create rapport by adopting the body language of the person you are communicating with.

He believes "rapport is power" and "total responsiveness is created by a feeling of commonality". If you have learn these techniques before and haven't used them for a while, I suggest it is time to dust them off and put them into action next time you are communicating with someone on a one-to-one basis.

8. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU FOCUS ON PASSION AND PURPOSE.

Robbins believes that "to have an extraordinary quality of life you need two skills: the science of achievement (the ability to take anything you envision and make it real) and the art of fulfillment (this allows you to enjoy every moment of it)."

He says "success without fulfillment is failure". Find your passion and purpose in life. My purpose is to make a difference in people's lives and use my gift as a speaker.

9. MODEL YOURSELF ON OTHER ACHIEVERS.

To gain improvements quickly and step up to a new level of achievement, Robbins believes learning from others who are the best in their field is the fastest way to achieve success.

He told the story of how he wanted to improve his tennis game and so employed Andre Agassi, the then number one ranked player to help him achieve this. Who could you model yourself on? "People's lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group," according to Robbins.

10. SUCCESS IS BUILT ON A HEALTHY, HIGH ENERGY BODY, HEART AND MIND

If you are not healthy - all of the above points are a waste of time.

Your health is determined and influenced by your lifestyle. One major change I've made since the seminar is to eat a healthier diet and exercise more regularly.

As a speaker, my whole business depends on my ability to perform at a peak state. Like any professional athlete, the success of business is directly linked to my diet and health. Take care of yourself, your body is ultimately your most important asset.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

SCRUM

Recently, I attended a workshop discussing about an interesting framework of software development. It injects a rather new taste into traditional waterfall software development that I know of. It is called Scrum. Scrum is one of the many Agile methodology founded upon or built up from the Agile Manifesto. The manifesto concentrates on areas that my generation of IT professionals tried to move away from.
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

The catch is items listed on the right is important, Agile adopters 'value' more, the items on the left.

Interestingly enough, a very loosely defined Agile Manifesto now has several framework that is designed based on this manifesto. Some of the more famous ones are: Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean, Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD) and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM).

Scrum in a nutshell is quick shot of software development, that attempts to produce working software within a period of about every 2 - 4 weeks. One period of 2 - 4 weeks is known as a sprint and every sprint produces a working product. Team works things out among themselves and they produce what Product Owner wants with the facilitation of a Scrum Master. The team is independent and the core of how this works is that, the team has to be protected and trusted to get the work done.

The traditional Gantt Chart that serves us so well with a lot of other tracking tools are thrown out if you decide to use Agile. In place of that, we have burndown chart and product/sprint backlog. Though a lot of tracking tools are thrown out, we have to follow a few Scrum rules closely, meaning, it should not be skipped to ensure success.

Of course there is a lot of debate on whether it works, it is not difficult to understand, but it may be difficult to implement and blended into our traditional environment. It may seem that a lot more issues will crop out as it is implemented, but then again, nothing good comes easy. Anyone who has implemented Scrum, do share your experience with me. I am all ready in reading your experience :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

T. Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive

I have been invited once again by a good friend of mine to a seminar that features Kieron Sweeney, a Canadian guy and Adam from New York. Both of them leads the entire event and Harv wasn't here though :(

Anyway, all was not gloomy or bad. In fact, both of them did a good job I think. It happen early February 2010 in PWTC. Getting food was a bit difficult, to an otherwise OK event. Of course the place was jam packed with about 800 to 900 people.

Learning:
Harv's Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI), is trying to make simple the get rich process by first focusing on our mindset. The thing is that having the mindset right is crucial in being rich and stay rich. Several methods used on providing a solution of money spending, known as the JAR system, which helps different types of personality to plan their saving. This alone is already good stuff and of course there is a lot of other teaching which when put together, really make me thing that I can do a lot more.

MMI also set the record straight once and for all about being rich, if you want to be rich, go do your OWN business. Or something sales related that, does not limit your income ability.

Interesting:
In the midst of teaching, we witness how they SELL and I am not kidding, some of their courses worth a fortune, ranging from 4 digits to 5 digits. But with their skill and experience, they seem to be able to make the sale pretty easily. I am not going to say more, but, you should see it for yourself to be fair :)

Networking:
Plenty of opportunity to mix and mingle with a wide variety of people. Most of them comes from sales background, network marketing and business owner. If you plan to come to one of this MMI, bring plenty of name cards.

Energy:
Another thing that is interesting is that, Kieron talks a lot about energy and that everything is energy and also a lot about the Law of Attraction. I don't buy the law of attraction thing, but, the energy in the room is kept high all day. They are very good in using the volume of their voice, like suddenly loud, to asking you to do something (like, giving a High 5), to getting the audience attention.

Train the Trainer Course:
This is something I really wanted, but for the price, I figured I could get a better deal somewhere. Well however they sell it, they are right, I used another principle that they taught me. I am in control of money and I can find my way, one way or another.

Challenges:
You ought to try every challenge they put you through. All I can say is that you wouldn't regret it. You will reap more than you sow. And you have to listen to them at least once, why, because they really achieve success in life. They do not only speak about money only, but also on happiness and the ability to give back and the satisfaction they gain out of it.

Conclusion:
If you have not gone for an MMI, go for it. If you have read his book or you have not, still, go for it :) At least once, I am already planning to go for the next one for a recharge :)



~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Maintaining Motivation to stay in Healthy Good Shape

Exercise is always a do-it-yourself (DIY) venture. No other person and no machine can do it for you. Hence, it is important to have those motivating factors so that a person who is into exercise in order to lose weight will hang about. This is what people who are overweight should learn to understand. However, even if it so easy to set for instructions and easy to follow, this is not the same case for almost 35% of Americans who are unable to prevent being overweight. And elsewhere all over the world, the number is increasing because of the type of food and lifestyle that we are in. Of course, once we are overweight, we usually want to trim down for a whole lot of reasons, some related to physical condition and fitness, while others would want to enhance their physique and appearance. And it is never too late to be fit.

In the past 50 to 75 years, physical activity has become the exception rather than the rule, both at home and on the job. People tend to drive where others once walked. People tend to flick a switch and machines do the hauling, lifting, pushing, and pulling for them. However, people who try to lose weight tend to believe that weight gain is likely to happen if they will not take forward-looking steps to stop it. The point here is that health experts believe that people lose their way, especially when it comes to dieting. They tend to go back to their old eating habits even after they learn to enjoy low-fat eating. They tend to return to sedentary ways even though they enjoy exercising.

Despite the momentum toward weight gain, you can stop it from happening, experts say. And there are plenty of good reasons to avoid excess pounds, reasons that go beyond vanity or social appearance. There are many reasons in order to keep you motivated to exercise and stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Ways to Lose Weight and Maintaining Motivation to Exercise

1. Have an explicit goal

A simple statement like, “I want to lose some weight,” is an ambiguous and an indefinite statement. It will not the least motivate you to start doing exercises right away. What is important is to be precise on your goals. It would be better if you will set some detailed amount of pounds that you really want to lose. Envisage yourself what you will look like after reaching your desired weight. Doing this will inspire you to lose weight. In fact, maybe even more than what you have planned in mind. The idea is to use that figure to assist you to remain resilient and dedicated.

2. Develop a strategy

Strength of will does not work alone! To lose weight and stay with it, your strategy must comprise of both exercise and diet, and not either of the two. Try to start motivating yourself by throwing away your clothes that have bigger sizes. This will put you in a situation where you only have your sexy clothes and that you have to make a choice by staying motivated to exercise or not wear any clothes at all. Which do you prefer?

3. Make out little, calculable measures

Put into practice actions that will suit your lifestyle. This means you have to implement moves that you and you alone will benefit from it and not somebody else. The idea here is to opt for a more positive and attainable goal and not just to shun away from being plump and chubby.

4. Produce monitoring that has an important effect

It would be better to have somebody willing to take note of your progress or development. This will inspire you to keep on doing what you have started. Having somebody to listen to your achievements is definitely a better prize than just achieving your goal alone. Besides, having an extra hand to support you and cheer for you when things start to fall short. It is that simple way of hearing somebody believing on what you do is one of the greatest motivations to keep you exercising for more.

5. Construct a vigorous, sensible time-line

What do you plan to achieve in a year? Try to suit your objectives to your calendar, and do not look forward to see the results in just a snap. The bottom line is that in order to stay motivated to exercise entails a lot of hard work, which is contrary to what most people tend to think. The main idea is to let people change their lifestyle because it is only through this way that they will absolutely change their weight for the better.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.