Strange Happenings

Something strange happened yesterday. I had a conversation with someone I made - the keeper of my idea journal. It was weird. I have never done something like this at all. Well, yes I have had conversations with myself but not consciously hold a conversation with someone I know who doesn't exist and it's someone I just made up. Well, to be honest we didn't have a very civil conversation. She went away angry at me for neglecting her of all things. Of course, she had reason to be angry because I neglected her for the whole half year of 2010.

Anyway, she is still staying away. I wonder whether I'll be able to draw her back to talk to me. Maybe.

Eleven Steps To Success

This is a very good way to begin the year. I wish you all a very successful and productive 2011 and the following will, indeed, help all of us achieve our success, whatever that might be.

A Little-Known, Yet Powerful 11-Step Action Plan for Leading a Successful, Happy Life
By John Wood

What I'm about to share with you today has the potential to change your life forever for the better.

A bold statement, I know.

But I wouldn't make that claim if I wasn't sure I could deliver the goods.

Because every so often you come across something in life where you say to yourself …

"Wow this is good stuff, I wish I'd read this years ago."

In my opinion, what I'm about to share with you today should be displayed behind every computer screen and tacked up on every bulletin board, blackboard and fridge in the world.

Because the ideas it communicates cut to the very core of what all success in life springs from.

I stumbled upon them a few years ago. They were included in a Brian Tracy program I was studying, and I've kept them close by ever since.

(Surprisingly, they are no where to be found on the Internet. Tracy indicates they were taken from something called "Wisdom of the Ages" which I can't find anywhere either.)

They were written by Max Lincoln Schuster.

Never heard of him?

In 1924, he co-founded the Simon and Schuster publishing house – today one of the top four English publishers in the world.

Schuster was an accomplished thinker and a relentless collector of ideas. One of his most inventive ideas was “The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature.” It made the Bible easier to read and understand.

In 1939, he helped create “Pocket Books” which was responsible for bringing the paperback into general circulation. In 1940, he edited the popular “Treasury of the World's Great Letters.”

Along the way, he took the time to list the guidelines he used in his life that made him successful. He titled his mini-essay “Success Is Yours”. Here are his 11 success tips:

1. Become the world's supreme expert in something – Schuster advises to "begin at once, at this precise moment to choose some subject, some concept, some great name or idea or event in history on which you can eventually make yourself the world's supreme expert."

   He urges us to start a crash program immediately using the three R's of modern education, reading, research and reflection – with the goal of establishing yourself as "one who has the most knowledge, the deepest insight and the most audacious willingness to break new ground by defining your terms and actually examining all the alternatives and consequences."

2. Master the art and technique not merely of rapid reading, but creative reading and creative research – Schuster says it's important to "learn how to use a library and how to build a home library of your own."

   He reflects how "back in 1913, high school graduates were singing the old refrain: "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's saucy looks." He points out that they were throwing away their books and saving their diplomas.

   He urges us to do the opposite, "Forget your diploma, or throw it away, but save your books and use them day and night."

3. Learn the supreme art of getting sixty seconds out of a minute, sixty minutes out of an hour, twenty four out of a day – He reminds us that we have as much time as everyone else our age.

   He says to "Save it, hoard it, plug up all the leaks. If necessary, stand on the street corner, cap in hand like a mendicant, and beg all the passers-by for the seconds and minutes and hours and days they waste."

4. Master the art of preparation – Do your homework (especially after your formal education). Remember the words of French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) who said “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

5. Begin now to learn the art and science of preventative medicine – In other words, take care of yourself. Exercise and eat healthy. He says we should prepare now to out-perform and outlive our doctors. He says Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: "Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous."

6. Work hard, think big, and always have a dream beginning with a detailed blueprint and plan for your agenda, your priorities, your first things first – Schuster encourages us to put a firm foundation under our "castles in Spain, in the form of these step-by-step, play-by-play specifics and make your dream come true."

7. Remember the following three questions: "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am not for others, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"These three questions were first asked by renowned Jewish religious leader Hillel the Elder.

8. Work hard and opportunities will come – Schuster advises us to remember the words of noted American journalist H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) who said, “Most people don’t recognize opportunity when it comes along, because usually it is disguised as hard work.”

9. Don’t try to please everyone – Schuster counsels us to always keep in mind the maxim of U.S. editor and journalist (and the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for reporting), Herbert Bayard Swope (1882-1958) who said, “I can’t give you any formula for success, but I can give you a sure formula for failure – try to please everybody.”

10. Always remember, the time to be happy is now – The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

11. Remember what people really want – Schuster’s last point is extremely applicable to writers who promote products and services. He says to "never forget that people never buy things or services … they buy solutions, for their problems. Your job is to help them find solutions."

Not bad advice huh?

But don't just read them and forget them.

Keep them near and use them to guide your actions and I'm confident you'll be more successful in every area of your life.

This article appears courtesy of American Writers & Artists Inc.’s (AWAI) The Writer’s Life, a free newsletter that gives you opportunities that enable you to live life on your own terms. Whether you’re looking for a new career, looking to make some extra money on the side, or looking for an easy work-at-home career, there is an opportunity at AWAI that’s right for you. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/signup/the-writers-life/.

2011 Resolutions

My priority for 2011 is to doing "first things first" and not to sweat the small stuff. No doubt there are things I wish more time on especially things that I'm interested in but they are not on my top 3 priority list. Ok, here goes ...

1. Better use of time (time management)
2. Spend more time reading learning materials and finish first reading well before third month.
3. Spend time on leisure reading; finish reading one book in one and half months.
4. Tidy your computer desk; never have or leave papers there for too long. Clear them as soon as possible. File them away as soon as possible.
5. Store away the newspaper clipping collected.
6. Reflect and think on Turncoat and others.
7. Reflect and think of The Gift, The Voice
8. Look into your the cupboards every now and then to check on the things there.
9. Make a list of all the books in your bookshelf.
10. Give yourself two hours of happiness each day in the things that releases your mind from stress and routine.
11. Journal as frequently as you can if not every day.
12. Check this blog every other day.
13. Check the blogs I'm following on this blog every other day.
14. Learn a new word.
15. Learn how to use a new word.
16. Update on Deadly Plot on new developments.
17. Get some exercise every day if possible.
18. Get enough sleep every day.
19. Finish what I started.
20. Learn something new every day.
21. Think and reflect on all the projects on my plate.

Twenty-one is actually not bad. I'm not looking for numbers anyway just workable and doable resolutions. I suspect some will be easy to fulfill and then I can cross them out come this year end and there will be some that will be really touch and go, not too certain whether they'll get done. I'm looking for high percentages of fulfillment and not sweat the small stuff. Reflection is reserved for the year end annual prelude to the next year's resolution.

In the meantime, I'll let this year's resolution stay at twenty-one and not promised to add more but not fulfilling it like last year. Live and learn.

So, that's it. May all your 2011 resolutions be fulfilled. A little too unbelievable, I know but then, you can't fault a person for wishing, could you?

Happy 2011 and have a great time going through it.

Prelude to 2011 Resolutions

I can't believe it. I just reviewed my 2010 resolutions. I did not fulfill even one of those resolutions I made. Well... maybe the last one I was able to do. I can't say I did not reflect and think because I must have done some of those throughout the year. I can safely say I did do some reflection and thinking for "I think, therefore I am" and "I am, therefore I think".

Then, what did I do throughout 2010?

I have done things that were totally different from what I have written down that day. For instance, I have enrolled myself into a Masters programme and was busy with that. I changed my hard disk. I was busy with teaching, preparing lessons, marking assignments. You can see they were everything I needed to do but not what I put down as my resolution to do.

I also went back to review 2009 resolutions. I remember simply working on that one. Just putting down whatever that came to my mind, on a wimp, just for fun and without thinking. I got 15 down promising to add more but did not get round to doing it. So, it stayed at 15 only but I fulfilled more items in 2009 resolutions than 2010 resolutions. I had silly and easy items so it was relatively not difficult to fulfill the majority of it as compared to 2010 Resolutions. All of those in 2010 were serious business and tough to work through.

So, with that said. I'm going to approach 2011 with what I've learnt in 2009 and 2010. Balancing and moderation and not be too perfect or over ambitious. On with it then....

2011 resolutions here I come......

That Time Of The Year Again

It's that time of the year again where planning and resolutions are made and written down. It's a ritual with me every year to have one and this year is no different. In fact, I feel I need to do this more this year than any other year as I'm committed to keeping it more than any other year.

There are plans I have in mind and reviews I plan to make for this year on last year's planning and accomplishments. I feel strongly that resolutions are good and one should not be overly guilty or depressed about not keep all of it. They are meant to be made and it's human to break some of them but statistically strive and challenges to keeping them ought to viewed as such - a challenge. It's human to fail and there's more good with than without one.

Therefore, I'll be back to make one as usual but if you look at my blog I've also experienced despondency about resolutions in the past but since then I've reconciled resolutions to being there to guide and motivate us not to put us down even when we couldn't make it.

I'm resolved to make one no matter what.