Basic Principle Of Being Effective

In life, we all know that things don't always go our way and we tend to be really frustrated about it. To name a few examples, we tend to get angry when our desktop breaks down when we are writing our report, or we get frustrated when our car stalled when we driving to work or when our children don't listen to us when we tell them to perform certain task and we have to nag at them. All these are the things which we will feel frustrated and angry about, but how do we actually prevent all these problems from happening?

Yes, a lot of people may argue that it's not their fault when their desktop breaks down or that their car stalled. While understanding this perspective, let's look at another perspective from another angle. What would have happened if there was a regular maintenance check on the car? Would that have prevented the car from stalling while driving? Or, does a regular check on the desktop would have prevented the problem? Many a times, we are looking at the problem itself without realizing what causes the problem.

In Stephen Covey's book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", it mentioned a principle called the "P/PC Balance". The P stands for production and PC stands for production capability. This principle is the basic principle of effectiveness. We cannot only focus on just the production and neglect the production capability and vice verse.

Let me illustrate this basic principle of effectiveness with a simple example. For example if you were to buy a desktop a couple of years ago for work purposes. And it has been serving you well for the past few years without any form of maintenance and servicing. And for a couple of years later, you start to realize that the computer is not functioning to its original capacity anymore and you went to service it. You realize that the hardware in your system is obsolete and has lost much of its capability that you will need to to purchase a new desktop. The time and money spent on replacing a new desktop was much more then you maintained the original desktop. This was simply not effective.

The Production in the example was the worked produced by the desktop and to enjoy Production Capability was to maintain the desktop and to take care of it well. If we just focus on the Production, we would have neglected the well-being of the desktop thus breaking down in time to come, and at the same time, if we focus too much on the Production Capability, we would have not gotten any results out from the desktop. Thus it is important that we actually balance both.

This is just one of the basic principle of being effective and it has already pointed out to me that i should strike a balance between the Production and the Production Capability of any situations to be very effective.

There are many more principles being written in Stephen Covey's book and i urge anyone who has the desire to make changes in their life to pick up the book and to read it. If you have never picked up a book and read before, let this be the first. Start changing your actions and you will see results changing.

"We must be the change we wish to see." - Gandhi

It all started from...

Dreams.

Ever since we were young, we have always been dreaming about the things that we wanted and we would always HOPED or WISHED that it will come true. Sometimes it does happen, sometimes it doesn't. It is not so important whether have we got what we wanted, it is a matter of having the courage to dream!

Today, as we grow up, we might already forgotten or lost our courage to dream. When we start to dream about our future, people around us will advise us to stop dreaming and get back to reality. This has definitely not helped anyone because all that we have and took for granted now, was just a dream in the past. For example, no one in the past would have imagined that today, we human beings are able to fly higher than birds, if not for the Wright brothers. All they had was a dream, and when everyone laughed at their dreams, they continued to work hard at it and eventually they made it happen.

Someone once told me, "If you have a dream and you don't act on it, you are daydreaming!" It's always important to have dreams in life and to start working on it. It may even be a small dream to always provide the best for your family. It may seem insignificant to someone, but it is of utmost importance to you.

Our dreams gives us direction in life. It is our job to make sure we move towards the direction and to lead the life we want. At certain point of time, although we may lose our direction and got lost, it is important that we get back on track and start moving towards it again.

Dream of the life you wanted & Start taking action towards it!

What is Right and What is Wrong ?

Someone once asked me this question a few years ago, "Do you think there is right and wrong or is there only perception?" I once thought hard about this question and my answer was, "Perception."

Let us just do a simple experiment. What do we see on picture to the left? Is it a half-filled glass or a half-empty glass? Some will say its half-filled and some may argue its half-empty. Whichever answer that you provide, you are right about it! It is what you tell yourself!

Anywhere in the world, we tend to see plenty of disagreements everywhere. Why is that so? It is because of our perception towards a certain idea or situation. We tend to have different perceptions towards a certain idea or situation and when we hear others saying their point of view, which is different from ours, we tend to disagree and defend our point of view. At this point of time, someone may disagree with what i said due to the different perceptions that we all have.

How do perceptions actually come about? We form our perceptions through the values and beliefs we personally have. As mentioned by Adam Khoo in his best-selling book, our brain are always deleting and distorting what we see, hear and feel based on our beliefs. For example, both parties were being reprimanded by their superior and person A, who always believed that his/her superior is mean, will perceive the session as a chance to find fault with person A whereas person B might perceive the whole situation differently due to different beliefs about the superior.

We have always heard that we should empathize others. It means we should understand their perception towards the situation and understand how they feel. The next time when something happens, take a step back and understand the different perceptions everyone has when it comes to a similar situation.

It will be a very interesting.
Trust me.
=)

Nick Vujicic - Life Without Limbs

Spend some time on this video and it will definitely change your life as it did for mine.





His name is Nick Vujicic. He was born in Australia to a Serbian Christian family. He was born limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, and having one small foot with two toes from his left thigh.

Whenever i feel that something is holding me back to achieve my goals, i will be reminded of Nick. He may have physical limitations but it didn't stop him to achieve his goals. It will serve as a big reminder to me.

Despite his disabilities, he has graduated with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. He is now a motivational speaker and has even spoken to over two million people across 4 continents.

He has taught me a very important lesson in life. No matter what happens in life, it is how we respond to the situation that will affect the quality of our life. We all have a choice in our daily life to what has happened to us. It is the choices that we make that will eventually make a difference in our lives.

Nick could have chose to live in despair for the rest of his life and be a nobody but he did not. Instead, he chose to live his life positively and to make a difference in his own life and to others as well.

Everyday, we are bound to make decisions in our lives. The decisions that we make daily, are they helping us to move forward in life or to remain at where we are right now.

I hope everyone can remember Nick whenever there are times that you feel depressed. He has shown us that anyone can start to make a difference in their own lives just by making the right decisions in life.

My 1st Self-Improvement Book - Rich Dad Poor Dad

Recently, while packing my cupboard, i found this familiar book which has changed my life, Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book has always been very inspirational for me. It is my first ever self-improvement book that i ever bought for myself. I have personally read through this book 4 times. This book has been with me through the toughest time of my life up till now. This book has practically changed my life.

I vividly remember the first time when i read this book. It catches my attention at the very first moment and i can go on and on reading the book without feeling bored or tired. The concepts in the book is very intriguing and exciting as i never knew anything about money.

Have you ever read a book before and felt so motivated, so empowered by the knowledge that you could go out and change your life with it? And this book has engulfed such emotions in me whenever i read it. And i could feel the excitement in me knowing that with this knowledge, i am able to change my whole life!

Nevertheless, reading the book does not empower you with the knowledge, it only enriches your mind with information. Only by taking action with the necessary information, it will become a powerful knowledge to have.

I am constantly reminding myself to always be aware of the teachings of Robert Kiyosaki. For he, has definitely left a huge imprint in my life.

Remember, taking action NOW is of utmost importance in your journey of success!