Will Power

Will Power is limited. Be mindful if you think you need to use it to achieve anything. It will be depleted if it has been used too much. Aviod doing important task if you had used too much of your will power. It will negatively affect the performance of your next task. 

Replace will power with rituals, habit. Make the activities you want to do as  a ritual, habit, automatic. Then you will be less reliance on the Will Power because  it already became habits.

Less engage your brain with unimportant task...so that you do not use your will power on unimportant tasks. Reserve it for high value tasks.

Some tips to boost your Will Power...

1. Exercise

2. Pray

3. Start with small wins every morning

4. Do Feared Things First (FTF ) daily

Book Review : The Happiness Advantage

Being happy has its advantanges! It is a fact! Success comes after Happiness and not the other way around. This time, as the book suggests, I will share with you one of my favourite books written by an authority in this subject matter. A few months back, I had finished reading his second book:  Before Happiness.

This time, I would like to points some of great points he highlighted in his book that are very practical. Find ways to put these points on your life...and start reaping the happiness advantage....

1. Meditate. If you are a Muslim, this is your 5 times daily prayer. Nothing new!. So, prayers do really help us become happier. The author said " ....research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness, lower stress, even improve immune function."

2. Find something to look forward to. Eg, people who just thought about watching their favourite movie actually raised their endorphin level by 27 per cent wrote the author. In the morning, plan yourself on how to reward yourself after office hours. Anticipating future rewards help to light up the pleasure centre in our brain.

3. Commit Conscious acts of kindness. It is about consciously do kind things to others. Eg by the author ; paying the toll of someone behind him on the highway. Cool. Find one or two kindness act
that you can do tomorrow. Do it everyday. See the impact on your level of happiness.

4. Exercise. I remember, one brain expert told, if your are in any of "F" states ; frustrated, fear, freaking, fatigue, etc...go for an exercise. The harder the exercise, the better. It helps to reboot your brain. I found it so true for myself.

5. Exercise a signature strength. What it means is do your level best to do things you are excellent at. Eg, for me, inspiring others is one of my strength. So, if i feel down, I will find way to motivate others or read inspiring books, or write something like this blog. It helps me to regain my positivity.

There you go, 5 ideas you can do immediately to boost your positivity and happiness.

As usual, your get the copy of this book Here

Passion : How To Discover Yours

What is passion? My own simple definition is the basically thing or whatever that you really enjoy doing..something that your were born with...something that your are gifted with or talented at...some people say it is your cup of tea. Something that comes very easy or natural to you. When you are at it, times seems to fly...you are really good at it. Just put small effort, it shines. You feel so energized when doing it. Sometimes you even shy to ask for money on the thing that you produce out of that passion ; coz is seems so easy...no need to pay...you just do it for free :) I hope you can understand by now, what I mean by Passion.

Next question : How do you discover you passion? May you can try some of these ideas ;  

1. If you go to bookstore or just newspaper stand, see what kind of reading materials that normally capture your attention? If you pick a newspaper or magazine, which section excites you the most? What kind of articles you like to read? So, if like entertainment / gossip, should you become a singer / artist? Ha, ha ...maybe. But you need to look deeper...may be you can be TV personality for entertaiment plot. Love sports ; maybe be a sport commentator  :).

2. What are your hobbies? What are the activities that reenegize you ? Things that you like to spend more time on? When thinking about, you just feel excited? What is it? Some people say watching TV. Hows that can be my passion? Interesting, that was the passion of Oprah Winfrey too and she made that passion to help her becoming rich !

3. If money is not an issue, what will you do everyday just to fill up your daily life?

4. Any events or past activities that you had done that you really enjoyed and feel so excited and fulfilled?

Next question : what so great about living your passion?

It has been proven that successful people are living there life based on their passions. It has been said that, chase you passion, money will follow! When you do what love / passionate about...you no longer working...you having fun! Passions are contagious. Because of your passion, others will get excited to be around you. 

Best of all, you may not need to quit your current job to pursue your passion. In stead, you can use
your current job / position as a platform for your to live your passion !

Here are some books to help discover your passions:
Finding Your Elements
Passion Test

Book Review : Focal Point ( Part 2)

Did you miss the Part One ? There are many great ideas in this book, but I just wanna share the few points here. Lets explore the gist of this about. Actually it is about asking these four critical questions ;

1. What are the things you should do more?

2. What are the things you should do less?

3. What are the things you should start doing?

4. What are the things you should stop doing ?

So, how to implement this idea in our life? Pick any area of your life , eg career. The more specific , the better the result would be. Example, in  your career, let say it is about your daily job functions. Start answering the questions. 

Question 1.

These are the things that will give more value to you..if you do much / many of these things, your career sure soar! What are those things? If you do not the answers, look at the people that considered successful in that job function. What she / he  does? Copy cat them.

Question 2.

The things that you do , but you must reduce them maybe the value created not much. List them out. 

Question 3

This is about acquiring new skills, knowledge or behaviors in line with you answers for no 1 above. 

Question 4.

About getting rid of all useless activities. Eliminate them. 

To do this exercise / questions, you need to spend quiet time to reflect about ypur current situation. To relook back at your typical day. 

For a start, each question pick only 3 main answers and start doing / tracking on one of the answer first. When you start doing it, you  soon will experience the result. That what "x"  factor all about ; know  what is focal / important.

Other important questions you need to regularly ask yourself;

1. What are my highest value activities?

2. Wh am i on pay roll?

3. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

Ask these question every moment. They will help you to focus on high value things ; the x thing!

Thanks for investing your time here. See you in next book review.

Motivasi Pagi @ IKim (91.5FM for KL)

Being a "student" to the subject matter of personal developement, I am always looking for a reliable source of such knowledge. One of that sources is radio ikim. There are a lot of good segments that this radio station offers and one of my favourite is "Motivasi Pagi" usually aired daily at 7:30 am. Just that it is my commute time to office. 
Almost every morning I will listen to this segment and it just for 15 minutes. The speaker and the knowledge are good in which the topics discussed are very useful and practical. In fact, not to exaggerate to mention that this program has help to elevate my mood every morning. 

My intentions  to listen to this program among others are ; to get motivation, to learn two to three tips that will be useful for me, to share the knowledge and to stay close to my Creator. 

Every time, I try to get three useful points from the program and when  reach at my parkng lot, I will write them down in my " Knowledge Bank " in my ipad for my future use. 

Here are some of the few wisdoms / ideas that I had collected / generated. They are just pointers that are enough for me do some self reflections;

"Dengar CD Yasin every morning on way to office for the purpose of hafazan"

"Selawat 10x every time after all prayers"

" Tiga amalan syurga ; zikir, sayangi parents and cinta untuk beribadah"

"Tanda-tanda hati dah mati ; buat maksiat tak rasa bersalah, tinggal perintah Allah tak kisah aje..."

"Satu dosa, satu titik hitam melekat di hati...Gilap kembali dengan bertaubat dan berbuat baik."

"Formula hati tenang; 1. Cinta Allah dan Rasul 2. Sayang insan lain kerana Allah. 3. Benci kekufuran 

" Hati adalah seperti kolam dan terdapat 7 saluran yang mengalir kepadanya ; 

Mata, telinga, lidah, perut, kemaluan, tangan, kaki."

" Untuk Hidup Gemilang

1. Jaga Solat. 2. Hidupkan Masjid . 3. Cintakan Ilmu"

There are many more on my knowledge bank :). Maybe I will share some other times.

I hope the above stories will inspire you to also listen to this great radio station. For more info, please drop by at its website : Here

Book Review : Focal Point ( Part One )

To encourage you to read this book, let me start this book review with the story that the author used in his introduction for this book. The story went like this;

"  Once upon a time, the was a major technical problem at a nuclear power plant. This malfunction was slowing energy generation and reducing the efficiency of the entire operation.

    As much as they tried, the plant's engineers could not identify and solve the problem. So they brought in one of the nations top consultants on nuclear power plant construction and engineering to see whether he could determine what was wrong. The consultant arrived, put on a white coat, tookhis clipboard, and went to work. For the next two days, he walked around studying the hundreds of dials and gauge in the control room, taking notes and making calculations

    At the end ofthe second day, he took a black felt marker out of his pocket, climbed up on the ladder, and put a large black "X" on one of the gauges.

    "This is the problem," he explained. "Repair and replace the apparatus connected to this meter, and the problem will be solved."

     He then took off his white smock, drove back to airport and flew home. The engineers disassembled the apparatus and discovered that, sure enough, thiswas the cause of the problem. It was soon repaired, and the plant was back up to full capacity.

     About a week later the plant manager recieved a bill from the consultant for $10,000 for "services rendered."

      The plant manager was suprised at the size of the bill, even though this was a multibillion-dollar facility and the problem had been costing an enormous amount of money in lost generating capacity. After all, he reasoned, the consultant had come in, stood around for a couple of days, written a black "X" on one of the gauges, and then returned home. Ten thousand dollars seemed like a high fee for such a simple job.

       The plant manager wrote back to the consultant, "We have recieved a bill. Could you please break down and itemize your charges? It seems that all you did was writeone "X" on a single gauge. Ten thousand dollars appears to be excessive for this amount of work."

       Some days later, the plant manager recieved a new invoice from the consultant. It said "for placing "X" on gauge: $1.00. For knowing which gauge to place "X" on $9,999."

       This simple story illustrates the most important single principle of success, achievement, and happiness in life. Knowing where to put the "X" in each part of your life is the critical determinant of everything you accomplish.

       This "X" is your focal point."

Well, I know, that is a long story but it is good example of indentifing a focal point in my life. In the next part of this review, I will share with you some critical questions in determining your life focal points.

Meanwhile, to learn more about this book, click here

     

    

Create Your Knowledge Bank

Some of you maybe confuse with the title of this article. Actually it is about accumulating knowledge. You know, bank normally means a place to keep something ; money / valueables etc. So knowledge bank therefore is a place to keep your knowledge :) . You may say then the place to store the knowledge should be your head or brain.
You may be right to some extent. But, I am talking about recording, keeping your knowledge in a journal or notebooks or file.

Many of successful people that I read about have systematic ways of accumulating or keeping their knowledge. Many of us read books, articles, listen to talks in radios, seminars etc. some of us, take notes while listenening to this events. If you are, your are one step ahead of majority of people. Some people just listen. When the events finish, so do the information shared. All the ideas or information do not really stick in their minds. But if you take notes, most probably the ideas will stick with you longer. But, the question is, where do you keep that notes? Do you keep it in a systematic place where you can refer it in the future? Or just let them loose?

To take a full advantage of great ideas and knowledge, we must keep this knowledge or ideas well organized. Have a system ; file accoding to subject...if digital...use many apps such evernote, etc....file accoding to catagery...kuliah, books, quotes, you can also post it in your blog.

So, it is time to create and increase your knowledge bank...and this will one day increase your savings in your bank acconts!