Success Tip #5 For 2007: Read & Listen More Often , And More Effectively

January 3, 2007

Success Tip #5 is rather straightforward. Read & Listen More Often, And More Effectively.

I shall start of with reading. I believe most people read an average of only one book per year. By reading I’m not referring to novels or fiction books. Rather, I’m referring to books that will help you to improve and grow in areas which you desire.

Also, self-improvement books on time management, leadership etc are all extremely useful to us.

If you really want to be successful, you’ve got to constantly seek ways to increase your knowledge. We’ve got to constantly improve our thinking in order to keep up with the competition around us.

You see, you may be the best in your industry today. However, your competitors will soon improve and leap frog you. Hence, in order to remain competitive, we simply cannot remain  our ground or we will soon lag behind.

In school, we are forced to take several compulsory subjects. But we were never really taught on the life’s most essential skills, such as time management, leadership, presentation skills and interpersonal skills.

Failure to be equipped with such skills will only result in us struggling in our future career. Certainly, your success will depend little on the grades you’ve managed to obtain in school. Rather, it’s these essential life skills that will determine your success.

Hence, we ought to seek to improve in these areas and by reading these related books is one of the best ways to grow.

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Success Tip #4 For 2007 – Stay Positive Always

January 2, 2007

Happy New Yr to Everyone!

Feels so good to make the first post of the new yr.. Anyway, I shall continue with my success tips series.

Success Tip #4: Stay Positive Always

I believe many people would argue that it is difficult to stay positive always. As we encounter various setbacks in life, I fully understand that it’s normal to feel down and even self-pitying, However, I strongly feel that it by being negative to all that happens to you is definitely not going to help things.

‘It’s not what happens to you that determine how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.’ – Zig Ziglar.

Hence, if you want positive things to happen to you, you’ve simply got to think positive all the time.

To illustrate this, i shall use the scenario of two soccer players preparing to take a penalty kick.

Now just imagine if before player A kicks the ball, he keeps thinking that he’s going to miss it. In his mind, images of him not scoring keep flashing and he actually feels the disappointment mentally.

Now what are the chances of him really missing?

On the other hand, what if player B actually visualizes himself scoring and all his team mates embracing him. He actually could feel the happiness mentally even before the kick.

Which player do you think stands a higher chance of scoring a goal?

If you were to ask me, I would say that player A has already missed the goal even before he has even attempted the kick. The battle was already half lost.

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Success Tip #2 & #3 For 2007 – Overcome the Fear Of Failure & Avoid Procrastination

December 30, 2006

Today, we shall look at two more success tips for 2007. The second tip for success in the year 2007 is to overcome the fear of failure.

Anthony Robbins once said ‘I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I enjoy’.

I believe that most people have the impression that successful people never fail. Hence, most people condemn failure and fail to pick themselves up after they have failed. They simply lose faith in life once they fail and stop fighting.

This is a huge misconception which have ended many people’s dreams and stopped many from driving forward. The truth is, everybody fails at one point or another. In fact, the more successful you are, the more likely you would have failed many times in your life.

There’s a difference between the highly successful individuals and underachievers. Those who have managed to achieve high level of success are able to turn failure into success.

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Success Tip For 2007 – Set Empowering & Clearly Defined Goals

December 28, 2006

Year 2006 is coming to an end soon. To me, it has been a great year for me as I’ve managed to bring myself out of my comfort zone and take massive actions towards my dreams and goals.

It has been a great year of learning and growth for me and I certainly look forward to another year of purpose in year 2007. I’ve picked up several success tips from severaly self-improvement books I’ve read and I would like to share with everyone.

Hence, in this success tips series, I’m going to share with everyone some success tips which I feel everyone should adopt in order to make 2007 a year to remember for all of us.

1. Set Empowering & Clearly Defined Goals

There’s this famous example about a research done at Yale University in 1952. In the research study, it was found out that only 3% of the graduating batch of students had set for themselves clearly defined goals. On the other hand, the remaining 97% had no idea what they really wanted in life.

Twenty years later, a follow up study was done and a shocking truth was revealed: The combined income of the 3% of students who had clearly defined goals was actually more than the combined income of the remaining 97% of students.

This is by no means coincidental. I’ve gone through several stories of the most successful people in the world and they all knew exactly what they wanted since a young age. Tiger Woods made a bold statement when he was only eight years old that he was going to become the world no.1 golfer. And look where is he now?

There are tons of other examples of similar success stories like his, and the similarity is these people all set clearly defined goals. Now by this I’m not referring to your normal new year resolutions. I myself have set tons of those only for them to be forgotten.

You’ve got to set goals that will truly stretch your limits and empower yourself towards attaining huge success. And you have to review and evaluate your goals constantly to ensure you remain on track towards achieving them.

One good formula I’ve learnt is the S-M-A-R-T Goals Formula:

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Show Your Gratitude This Christmas!

December 23, 2006

Dec 25th is coming.. Christmas that is.. The day which celebrates the birth of our Saviour.

For this year’s xmas, things may not be so well as we wld all like. With the increasing risk of terrorist threats and other tragedies striking, it makes one wonder abt the significance of this yr’s xmas.

Nonetheless, X’mas is still a day to mark the birth of our Saviour. In the midst of all e tragedies and confusion that is going around, we still have alot of things we should be thankful for.

I understand it can be hard to appreciate what we have when we’re not happy with our lives, but once again, it’s all about what we focus on and what we attract. The more appreciative we can be about our existing circumstances, the more we will attract things to appreciate.

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Who Is Adam Khoo?

November 3, 2006

If you haven’t heard of Adam Khoo, he’s one of the youngest self-made millionaires in Singapore at the age of 26. Even when he was doing his undergraduate studies at the NUS Business School, he ran his own motivational speaking business and was earning up to $2000 a day. Today at age 32, Adam owns and runs three businesses, with a combined annual turnover of $20 million. Quite impressive if you were to ask me. I also found it coincidental that he’s also an alumni of VJC and NUS Business School.

Now I first picked up the idea of NLP after reading Adam Khoo’s “Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny” quite some time back. NLP refers to Neuro Linguistic Programming and it is “the technology of the mind that teaches you to use the language of the mind in order to program and reprogram your nervous system to consistently achieve a particular desirable result.”

Adam mentioned in his book that when we believe we can do something, we virtually tap into our brain’s resources. And we will summon all our internal resources to find a way to support that belief. But if we believe that something is impossible, we shut out the possibility altogether. Thus, it instilled in me the power of our beliefs and how our limiting beliefs can stifle our potential.

It is also vital that we live out of our comfort zone and take massive action everyday. Regardless of which area of our life you want to improve, we’ve got to lead each day with a clear purpose.

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How to Find Your Driving Force?

November 1, 2006

Well, I mentioned in my last post that different people have definitions of success. So once you have identified your own definition of success, the next natural step is to work towards it.

But why is it that so few people ever manage to achieve their goals and dreams? I’m sure all of us have dreams. Haven’t you had these thoughts surface in your mind ‘If only I could…’ and ‘How I wish….’ We dream and aspire to do something or to be like someone everyday.

So what is stopping you from achieving what you’ve always dreamt of? What separates those who have managed to achieve what you wanted and yourself?

Well I may be wrong, but it’s probably because those people bothered to take action. Procrastination is the number one obstacle we must overcome if we are serious about achieving success. So why do people procrastinate if they know its hindering their success?

Simple: Because your driving factor is not strong enough! So what’s a driving factor? It is simply a reason which drives you automatically to achieve whatever you want to achieve. It is the driving force which acts as a motivation tool. It is something which I feel is severely lacking in many people.

So what is my driving force to achieve wealth and success? If you’ve read my book, you’ll know it’s from the fact that I want my parents to retire as soon as possible. As I did not come from a well-to-do family, my parents are still working very hard at this time. Thus, I told myself I cannot sit back and just watch them work so hard. Every morning, I wake up and ask myself this question, ‘How long more do you intend to let your parents continue working?’

I found out that really drives me to achieve wealth. As I now know that every minute I procrastinate, I’m effectively delaying the time they can retire. You see, I did some simple calculations. If I were to wait till I graduate and find a job like most people do, they probably have to wait for at least 10 years before they can retire.

Why is that so? Because lets say I graduate 2 years later and manage to find an average paying job of $2000 salary. Take away the CPF, I should be able to take home $1600. As I still have to finance my laptop and tuition loan, I should have around $1000 left. Minus away my expenses, I can possibly have around $500 left. So of course, I want to save up for a car or other luxuries, so I’m left with $200 left to present to my parents.

Yes, that’s right. Just $200! So I wondered to myself, if this were to happen, when will they ever get a chance to retire? And I have plans to buy a car after graduation. Even a house. How are all these ever going to be realized if I were to graduate and get a job and rely it as my only source of income?

Hence, whenever the thought of my parents having to suffer as a result of my procrastination surfaces, that really drove me to seek resources on self- improvement and methods on wealth creation.

So, what is your driving force? Do you even have one in the first place? Without first establishing one for yourself, you are going to find it really difficult to motivate yourself when the going gets tough. We’re bound to face obstacles and failures in your quest for success. Without a strong driving force, we’ll never have the will and determination to push forward when we encounter failures.

Hence, ask yourself what is the one thing which really drives you to achieve your dreams and goals. Write it down, and use it as a reminder everyday and I’m sure you will be on your way to success.

The Power Of Beliefs

October 31, 2006

There’s one book which really inspired me about 2 years ago and is still has its influence on me and is by our very own local writer and motivational speaker, Adam Khoo and that is “Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny”.

I was just browsing the book today to just refresh my mind about the tips that Adam Khoo offers and it really sets me thinking about the beliefs that I have about myself and others.

Well, beliefs can influence and empower people to achieve greater things and though these beliefs normally do motivate us towards our goals but there are limiting beliefs that hinder our success.

Limiting beliefs, for example “I’m stupid”, “I can’t score good results so why bother?”, cause us to belittle our strengths and ability. These limiting beliefs are created by our experiences and even by the people around us. Friends or parents who pass comments like, “Why can’t you be smarter?” or “Why can’t you be like your capable brother?” are what spark off the development of such limiting beliefs and there may be evidences such as poorer academic results that reinforce these comments

Beware my friend, if you are often thinking negative thoughts about yourself, or even your family because when it becomes worse, you may develop negative schemas or views of this world and this can result in depression in the long run.

Ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecies? Beliefs can cause us to live lives that we do not desire. Well, erroneous beliefs that we may have about ourselves can cause us to behave in a certain way and because we behave in a certain way, it results in a certain outcome which we may initially have feared of.

So don’t forget this, beliefs are what we think and feel about ourselves and the world we live in and they determine what we expect from ourselves and ultimately how we perform. If you wish to be someone great, successful, capable, smart and creative, think that you are and believe that you are! Once you start thinking that you are a successful, capable and smart man/woman, you will think and behave like one and before you know it, you are one!

So change the way you think and let it be your first step to becoming the person you truly desire!

How To Stop Procrastinating

October 29, 2006

Have you ever had this guilty feeling when you are enjoying yourself and pushing back things you have to do? I have.

I think we are all guilty of procrastination. We keep finding other things to do and avoid completing things that are more important and urgent and leaving them to the very last minute.

I am always trying to complete my assignments on time and always seem to only do them 1 day before or just the night before. I’ll burn the midnight oil and complete them. The funny thing is, I was given the assignment 1 month ago? Why did I choose to leave it to the night before?

That’s the power of procrastination. The art of finding other more enjoyable things to do, rather than completing something we have to do as soon as possible. The human nature is like that, we like to do, eat, experience things that we like and try to avoid something we don’t like as quick as we can. And procrastination hinders our success because it prevents us from doing the things that may ensure or result in our success.

Hence, I began to think and decided to change my ways where I did those pressing and important assignments first before indulging in a night out with my friends. I realized that I’d rather enjoy my favorite activities guilt-free after completing those assignments that I have to do than to rush them the night before and surprisingly it’s more gratifying.

So I’d recommend that you try it too and change.

Here are some ways which motivated me:

  1. Writing a To Do list every morning and sticking it somewhere prominent.
  2. Getting friends to join me in completing the important assignment together. It’s more enjoyable!
  3. Writing a rewards list à compiling of things to do after completing the assignment
  4. Coming up with a day schedule of what to do, at what time.
  5. Try to get people around you to NAG at you to complete your assignment.

I bet you can come up with better ways to counter procrastination. Why don’t share it with me by leaving your comments in the blog? Hear from you!

Remember to stop procrastinating and get down to doing the things that you have to do! Because procrastination hinders your success!

10 Skills for Getting the SUCCESS YOU WANT! (Part 4)

October 27, 2006

Today is the final part of 10 Skills For Getting the Success You Want! And I hope that the past few blog posts have been good and you have started applying the skills already.

We’ll continue with skill 8.

# 8 Shielding Your Dream

Just like where we left off from skill 7 yesterday, you have to make sure that you remain committed to your outcome. You are bound to face cynics, criticism or even backlashes but no matter what, you have to shield your dream. You need to keep your dream alive and not be influenced by negative comments or even people around you.

Remember your co-dreamers or people you get to dream with you? You need to continually support each other and back each other. As you may likely shield them from other people’s criticisms and comments, your dream team will be shielded by your dream.

Your dream will keep you afloat and push you on to greater heights.

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