【心】的力量。

【心】的力量。

我们华人传统上说的心，和西方解剖学的心有天渊之别。

对于我们来说，心，时情志的活动。我们并不说：“我脑想”；而说：“我心想”。我们不说：“我脑里觉得不对劲”；我 们说：“我心里觉得不对劲”。

在黄帝内经中，心位君主之官。所谓君主，就是至高无上的统治者。心主宰着其余的五脏六腑。

我们传统概念的心，是一种非常具体功能性的概念。我们的祖宗在解剖学不发达的年代，以宏观看宇宙，微观看人 体，把人体看为一个小宇宙，注重的是功能性的关系和相互的影响，而不拘泥于解剖上的局限，的确是一门大智慧。

那么心有什么神奇的地方呢？为什么古人说要修”心“养性？

哲学家对世界观大致上分成两种观点 :
1) 唯物主义 - 长话短说，就是物质决定现实。物质是宇宙的根本。

2）唯心主义- 以心为宇宙存在的根本。以观察者的思维活动为宇宙存在的根基。

在这里我们尚且不争辩到底是物质衬托着现实呢，还是心灵精神活动创造了现实。今天不管唯物主义还是唯心主义 ，都比能否定一个事实——一个人掌控了自己的心，就掌控了他生命的主导权，成为自己现实的创造者。即使一个 人的心不能把物质的本质改变，但是通过操控心对世界万象的诠释，能为观察者带来比一样的定义，进而引向不同 的决定和行动，以至于影响观察者一生的命运。

打个比方，一个人心里面已经认定自己一生应当平凡的过日子，那么他一生的日子也肯定少有波折。一个人心里面 认为自己是当世界首富的料，他一生大起大落，也是必然的。因为心在哪里，专注力就在那里。前者下班后，会专 注着回家的路，和他面子书上最新的动态。后者下班后可能专注着寻找能够赚钱的机会。两个人去同一个油站加油 ，加同一个价格的油，前者心里面可能是“油又涨价了，好无奈！”， 后者心里则是：“是时候买一买着家油站公司的 股票了！”同样的物质，同样的事件，却引导两个人走向不同的命运。

【心】这门东西，不好控制。如果人们不能控制心，那么人们只能被其所制。贪心、伤心、妒忌心、疑心、憎恨心 、狭窄的心、这些心都是以无形的绳索将人紧紧地捆绑辖制着。

很多人尝试了很多方法，甚至通过苦行，希望能够寻找到自己的心。

有些人，求神拜佛，乞求能够安自己的心。

那么，心在哪里找？心要如何安？

大道至简，愈简愈难。

有没有人尝试过翻遍了整个家来寻找他的眼镜，然后越是找不到，越是急躁，先是无助，然后沮丧，然后坐了下来 ，想想放弃了，对着镜子一看，原来眼睛在自己的鼻梁上？很多人找心也是如此。你越找它，就越难找到它。你不 找费神它的时候，它就明明地在你眼前。原来，【心】不是靠找来的，是靠体会而出现的。
生命的意义在哪里？

人们都在问生命的意义在哪里，都认为人活着，就一定要有意思。

这是人类有史以来最大的矛盾。

这是命定论。命定论是一种假设。它假设了人类以外，还有一种力量以有意识的形式来取决着每一个人未来的方向 和遭遇。这种力量被如何称呼并不重要。重要的是，人们在接受这种假设的前提下，应当自觉的意识到未来既然已 经有股强大的力量掌控着，并不可改变。既然无法改变，那么顺也好逆也好，就当着是体验一个超真实的电影，以 一个观察者的态度去过一生。在这种情况下，问自己生命的意义在哪里，是没有意义的。因为你只是你人生的观众 ，导演是掌控命运的那位，那你生命的意义，也在那位手中。

那么如果跳出命定论假设的框架，那么你的命运是由此时此刻的你来决定。你在当下认为你生命的意义在哪里，那 你生命的意义就在哪里。在这种情况下，问自己生命的意义在哪里，也是毫无意义的。因为你应该做的，是为自己 设下一个生命的意义。因为你的命运不在别人手中，只在你手中。

那么“生命的意义在哪里”，本身就是人们思维上的一个BUG。

如果你此时觉得做人毫无意义，那么你就得为自己设下人生的意义。去尝试新的事物，你很快就会找回对生命的 热诚，新的目标。对着目标坚持，那就是你生命的意义！我们活着，是因为爱和热诚！心如果冷了，那是死的心。 唯有火热，才是真正的活着！

No More Procrastination in 2017!

Think, for a second. How much difference would you make in a year's time if you just make yourselves 1% better in a day?

Everyday, upon waking up, allocate time to learn new things, tell yourselves, that you will improve yourselves by just 1%. It could be improving your vocabulary, meeting new people, learning new skill set, reading a good book, working out your body. All you need to do in that day is just achieve 1% better than you were yesterday.

By simple calculation, you will have 365% improvement by the end of the year. That would means that you are 3.65 times better than you were by end of the year! what about if you insisted that 1% improvement on a single thing? It would follow a totally different equation then, as the effect would be COMPOUNDING.

1.01^365= 37.78 times.

if you could just run 1km by day one, Just by running 10 meter extra everyday, you will be able to run 37.78km by the end of the year!

Now, what would happen if you tell yourselves, " com'on, it's still early, i can always start next month, or two months later. By procrastinating for 60 days, you would think that you would be able to cover at least 30km? Nope, you are wrong. Look at the equation below.

1.01^305= 20.79 times

The consequence is , you would be able to cover almost half less by procrastinating for two months in a year. Now we are just taking running as an example. Now imagine in all other things that you do, what would be the difference when you tell yourselves "I would do it when I am free", "I am too busy for this", or "just tomorrow/next week/next month". How much progress you would miss?

Another example. Your friend has shown you a good business opportunity/investment with good track record of, let's say ROI of 10% a month. If you start right away with capital of 100,000 dollar, after 5 years, your net worth would be:

100,000 x 1.1^60 = 30.448 million

Imagine the scenario if you hesitated even after verified that all the details in the business proposal, and come back a year later. by the time of maturity, your worth will be

100,000 x 1.1^48= 9.7 million

Your difference for one year procrastination will be 30.448 million - 9.7 million = 20.748 million.

Look at the difference. even though this is just an example to illustrate the effect of procrastination, It may happen to your lives in many other aspects. Do not underestimate the damage of procrastination. You must know that, tomorrow vs disaster, which one will come to us first. Take every day as a blessing. Appreciate every second that we are given and make the best use of it. Do not take for granted and procrastinate when you ought to do something.

Wishing you a Happy and Effective New Year!

The Power of WORD

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."  ~ John 1:1-5, KJV


The above is a quote from the bible, Gospel according to John. John mentioned about the word, GOD, creation, and mankind.

In many Abrahamic religions, GOD is the creator. In the above scripture, if we substitute GOD with "creator" & "creation", it will sound like this:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Creator, and the Word was Creator. The same was in the beginning with Creation.All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."


In modern language, word, is a message, spoken or written. Each word carries a message. For example, when I say stop thinking of a purple apple, your mind already created the image of an apple in purple color, no matter you want it or not. That is the power of word, the power of creation. Every single word carries a message, and the massage creates an image/idea/concept in our mind, and thus creates the reality.

Our brain never process thoughts in words. We process thoughts by senses. For instance,

"Taking a sip of hot chocolate out of a yellow mug" will reminds you of the image of a yellow mug, the sweet and bitter taste of Chocolate, and also the feeling of the heat from chocolate touching your lips and radiating to your face, and the fragrance of cocoa.

Reality starts from IMAGINATION and VISUALIZATION.

Wright Brother imagined human flying on the sky like birds, that's how we have planes today.

Albert Einstein visualized himself travelling at the speed of light, and he discovered the General Relativity Theory.

" Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. " - Albert Einstein

You may be thinking, in that case, then imagination and visualization is the more powerful than word in this case, isn't it?  Why are you saying WORD is powerful?

Well, in this case, WORD and IMAGINATION are not a comparison, rather they are complementary. The result of imagination is IMAGE. We convey image through WORDS. Word is the medium of message conveyance, at the same time being a trigger of imagination. Word is the spark of flame, which the power to imagine being the fuel.

Therefore, watch the WORDS that come out from our mouth. Every word we say is a drop of water creating a ripple in the universe, first we suggested to ourselves of what we said, and then we suggested to the people around.

For example, when you say "I'm fat", you are convincing yourselves unconsciously that fat is what you are, and what you should be. Then it reaffirms yourselves that whenever you come across little decisions in your lives unconsciously, such as whether to eat that cookies or not, whether you should take the fitness course, should you skip that beer.

Change the word, to "I am getting fitter day by day", then you will unconsciously remind yourselves about your new identity When you come across that cookies, that fitness course, that beer, likely that you will make a different decision based on how you label yourselves.

Be mindful of our thoughts, because that's what creates the reality. Think of the things that we want in our lives, and less of the things we dislike.

Be thankful of what we have at the present moment, so it helps to attract the better things into our lives. Be grumpy of the shortcomings, then more undesired encounter will come to you. Always guard our thoughts, over anything on earth. Be alert and be mindful of what we suggest to ourselves, and the people around us. If we can master our thoughts and our words, then we will be wielding a powerful sword by it's grip; otherwise, we would be holding the blade against ourselves. Be wise!

Proactive - A Life Changer

Today I'm gonna talk about a secret. A secret that lies within every single one of you who are reading this article.

Can you recall how you wake up from your bed today? Did you wake up and have the immediate idea of what you are going to do next and how you plan to complete your day? Or did you wake up and allowed your feeling to tell you that you should tug yourselves into the bed for another 10 minutes?

If you wake up with a plan, then congratulations! You are probably a proactive person. How you started your day will be very likely to decide how you are going to finish the rest of your day.

To be proactive means you are in charge of your own life. You make decisions for yourselves, and you take 100% responsibility for the decision. Reactive person is taking a passive stance. They wait for things to happen and response to it with limited choice. Reactive person dislike taking responsibility and they tend to put the blame on others. While reactive people see choices, proactive people create alternatives.

What differentiate proactive people from the rest is the self-awareness they possesses. Proactive people are aware of their feelings and aware of their identity, aware of their stances and positions in all circumstances. Proactive people have principle they hold on to. They have a standard in their heart, what is to be done and what is to be avoided at all costs.

On the contrary, reactive people do not have a target, neither they have a grounded values or principle as an anchor in their lives. They float , they sway from one point to another. They have no picture of who they are, and what they want. They face their lives with limited choices. They act based on how they feel, and their feeling is pretty much depends on how they are treated.

Proactive people are inside-out. They act, present and carry themselves based on their thoughts from within. They are confident but not arrogant. Reactive people are outside-in. What they do depends on how they are treated. For example, when criticized, proactive people will reflect and make correction if necessary or otherwise explain why the critic is untrue, while the reactive people will either label themselves with the criticism and do nothing to improve it, or react violently by raising their voices and shredding tears.

Now, comes to an important point that we all must realize. We are independent. Whether you show more characteristics on the proactive or on the reactive side, everyone of you can choose mindfully to be a proactive person. The first step is to remove the negative from yourselves. Get to know yourselves well so the next time when someone is trying to put a label on you, you have to know who you are. People can hurl all things at you, but you have the definite power to choose your response. They next time someone tries to shout at you, or putting insulting labels on you, instead of feeling sad or angry, remember you have other alternatives. You can choose to be unaffected. Remember: "No one can hurt you unless you consent the person to do so. "

The next time you are in a difficult situation, do not despair. Remember that the key to change the situation is in your hand. You are the center of your world, and the change of your world starts from you. You cannot change how the world is treating you, but you can change how you treat the world. Take immense action, be proactive. Do not wait for things to happen. Instead, make things happen!

Why You Should Never Stop Learning

Knowledge makes a humble person. The more a person knows, the more humble he is.

The more we learn, the better we understand the world. The better we understand the world, we will realize we actually know nothing about the world.

Fool thinks that he knows everything, the wise understand that he knows nothing.

Intelligent people speak, while wise people listen.

It is important that we must be humble and be ready to learn. Whenever we want to speak, give ourselves a good 3 seconds to observe what the other people have to say. Always let people finish their sentence before posting objection.

Steven Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says that in order to be an effective person, we must seek to understand first, then to be understood.

Look at the cup below: 

How much more can you pour into the glass?

We must always empty ourselves everyday we wake up, no matter how much we learn the day before. We digest the knowledge and when we open our eyes the next day, we are hunger for new knowledge and keen to know and learn new things.

Imagine that you have a very precious experience that you want to share with a person, and he keeps on thinking that he has known it all. Whatever you tell him, he keeps on giving you objections before you even get to finish. He heard you but he never listened.

Imagine a millionaire has packed 3 gold bar in a box for his good friend who is poor as his birthday present. Unfortunately the friend told him that his house is already full and there is no more room to keep gifts. Without even opening the gift, he returned it to the millionaire friend. Would he enjoy the wealth his best friend has decided to share with him?

No matter how precious is the advise experienced veteran has to share with us, if we cannot humble ourselves, we gain nothing at the end of the day.

Knowledge is what transform the humanity and civilization. Knowledge is what changes a nation from third world country to a first world country,

The know-how of the manufacturing in the 1700s has brought transformations to the western countries including America and Europe. The economic underwent a huge boom and suddenly the western countries overtook China as the leading influential nations in the world.

Through the efforts of the early government post independents' effort to ensure every single Malaysian receive appropriate education, the newer generations now have better life than the baby boomers.

What do we attend the school for? Are we there to get a good grades and graduate with a good grade so that we can get a good, stable job until we retire?

Well that may be a remedy for some young people but definitely not me. I attend school and course to learn knowledge. I understand that knowledge has magical power to transform a person's life. When you are attending school, given homework, assignment or project at work, appreciate that opportunity to learn, opportunity to trial and error, opportunity to make mistake. Because that is how we learn.

It is impossible that we learn all the knowledge in the world. Not even genious like Albert Einstein can do that. But the more we know, the less we do not know.

This is an encouragement to all people, young and old, no matter what stage you are in your life, never stop learning!

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8 Things You Need to Know When You Hit 21

Once we hit 21,

1.  We need to learn to take up responsibility. As a kid we didn't bother mess up things. We always have our adult behind our back. Now, you are an adult. You should learn to solve your own problem before seeking your parent's help. You need to understand as you are growing up, your parents are growing old. That means, you need to start to plan your own expenses. You need to start making you own money, and stop asking money from your parents. If you are still studying, you can take up part time job. Our parents may be our support, but not excuse for not trying and be in charge of our own life.

2. You should not spend beyond your means. If you have 1000 bucks, spend less than that. Many youngster today are left broke before the next payday. Worst is that they do not even work and spend lavishly. You should learn to manage the balance between you earning and your spending, especially when you are not born with a silver spoon. Even if your family is well to do, you still need to learn to manage the wealth pass down to you one day, or the wealth will perish.

3. Treasure the friends you made when you are in school. You spent 6-7 hours of your lift grow up with them. After you graduate, you may be busy with your further study and career, but do not give up contacting them.

4. It's time for us to be humble.  This is the time you learn about society. The school is a tutorial, the game of life just started the moment you leave school. The real world is like the ocean, and you were swimming in a pond when you were in school. Having a higher education does not mean you are better than others. There are still many life lessons to be learnt through life experiences. Be humble and take advise whenever you have adult who is willing to share their precious life experience with you.

5. Do not take social media too seriously. Live in the real world and not trapping yourselves in the virtual world. It does not matter how many "friends" you have in your Facebook account. What you need is real friend who you engage with personally. Adding your friend in your social media account is not an excuse not to asking him/her out and speak to him/her. Social media is a platform where most people share the best part of their lives. When you see people posting pictures of their cool rides nice watches, beautiful holiday and hi-tea, do not forget there are another side of their lives they did not show you -  the argument with their superiors, their ugly breakups, their credit card accounts, the sleepless nights they gone through to earn these, Don't use social media to compare lives. When you take it too seriously, you will live with bitterness. If you want to have a good life, work hard and earn it.

6. Call instead of SMS/Whatsapp. Compare how much message you can convey through calling vs when you send messages. No matter how fast you can type, you can't be faster than when you are speaking. On top of that, when you engage in verbal conversation, you are conveying emotions in your tone that texts lacks. How many people are actually laughing when you send "LOL" and actually rolling on the floor  when you send "ROFL"?

7. Your social media account is not your diary. You do not need to post everything you do and everywhere you go on your Facebook. You are making yourselves exposed and vulnerable.  If you really want to write a diary, keep it to yourselves. If you have something memorable, you can always document it on Facebook, but pay attention to your privacy setting. Beware of who you add on your social media. Stalkers and conman are everywhere nowadays. If you have something exciting to share or if you are having a bad day, speak to a real person. Do not take the "like" button to seriously. Do not be upset when people do not like your status or photo. It is not that you have 1000 people liking you even you have 1000 like clicks.  after all, it is just a click on the mouse, real friends will spend time and effort to talk to you instead.


8. It is time for you to start to plan for your future. Set a target for your life, and plan your way to achieve it. The target has to be measurable, attainable and with a time frame. Dream for a goal and then stop day dreaming. Start to execute your plan and progress towards your goal. "If you have no dream, your are no different from a salted fish"~ Stephen Chow, actor.

Work for Money or Work for Passion?

Work for Money or Work for Passion?

When we were in primary education, the most common essay exercise title would be "my ambition", "my dream", or something similar. As a kid, we were taught to dream and let our imagination run wild. We were taught by the teachers and parents about different occupations - teacher, postman, singer, fire fighter, doctor, artist, musician, astronomer, pilot, and many more different occupations. Life was full of possibilities.

Then, as we grow older, we were told that we should be working hard to achieve our dreams. We were told to study hard so that we could get a good grade. Schools taught us that we can only achieve our dreams by getting a good grade and get into the university and the course that we want. Make a living through working on things that you really love, your passion, so that you can be happy working and not feeling miserable, they said.

Everything was all so promising and exhilarating, that we could not wait to grow up and finish whatever academic study required to be the person that we dreamed to become as a kid, until the reality kicks in. When we were kids, we had the freedom to involve in whatever we like to do, because we do not have to worry about paying rents, our hire purchases, our credit card bills, our meals, telephone bills, and the list go on. As we grow up, commitments and responsibility comes to us gradually. We have a life to sustain, and bills to pay. With ever increasing living costs, it seems that the dreams we had could not provide us a living. This is especially true for those with family. It is no longer the issue of living a simple life. We have dependents to take care. We need to keep them warm, keep them comfortable, to pave road for our kid's future. Then we lost our direction.

Should we work for money or work for passion? Dreams appeared to be so far away. Is it still reachable?

Know Yourself
We are not born to just pay bills and die. We are all born with a purpose. Did you dream to be a doctor, or a fire fighter? What was your motive? to save lives? Now you are neither of both, but is there any other ways that you can save lives?

Find a quiet place, take 10 minutes to ask yourselves these questions, "all of us is going to perish one day, what would be my legacy? What would people associate me to after I die? If I have all the time and resources in this world to achieve one thing, what would it be?" Know your talents, know your strength and weakness, what you can do and what you cannot do.

Is There a Cheaper Alternative?For example, a person who wished to be a doctor to save lives, but he did not make it to medical school due to his results. He can save lives through other alternatives. He could be a counselor for suicide prevention. He could be a volunteer social worker to take care of the drug addicts, raise awareness campaign and donate syringe and condoms to them. Is he not saving lives? It may not be as direct as doctors saving patients, but he is preventing the spread of AIDS and it leads to the same results.

Set for Yourselves a Time Frame
Rome was not built in a day. It takes time to realize our dreams. We need planning and execution. and we need time. No matter how talented a person may be, the law of nature must be obeyed. All things in this world take time to grow, so as our plans. Focus on your talents and what you can do. Plan in stages and do things progressively, and soon you will be there.

But I am not making enough to sustain a living...
Then do something. We cannot be repeating the same thing day in and day out in our lives and expect different result. If you are thinking that working hard for a pay raise is going to change the situation, no that will not happen. Here is why. You need to learn how to allocate your income. You need a strategy for your financial planning. A good financial planning should involves saving, risk management, and investment. If you are waiting for a paycheck end of the month until you retire, you will be working for money all your life, like a rat racing in the rat wheel, it is a race of never ending. Without dream and life purposes, your will be a walking zombie, a cold machine work up to your last day. Please, do not let that happen. We are all born with a great purpose!

Learn to manage your money, then you can have the freedom to chase after your dream. None of us should work for money all our lives, once we make enough for living, it should be all about achieving dreams and making impact in the society. If you wish to learn how to invest and financial management knowledge, Follow and subscribe to us and we will share more knowledge in future!

7 Tips To Improve Your Productivity

Today, most people are struggling through the day in the office. It feels as if 24 hours per day is not enough for them to finish their work. They feel busy all day but at the end of the day, accomplish less than they thought. At the end of the day, they realized that they are not closer to their objective.

If you think that the above description is talking about you, the tips below are for you.

7 Tips to Improve Productivity

1. Sleep early. Staying up late will cost your your cognitive power the next day and leave you lethargic all day. When your brain cannot work fast, it is basically impossible for you to be productive.

2. Understand your goals. Without a proper goal, you will have no direction and take whatever task thrown at you. Learn to identify what is important to you and what is not. Always engage in activity that is related to your goal.

3. Plan your day ahead. List down  important tasks early in the morning, and reserve the best time of the day for these tasks when your are at your best condition. Many people spend their best time attending to unimportant errands and by the time they attend to what really matters, they are either out of time or gotten too tired to handle the real issues.

4. Learn to say No.  It is good to be kind and helpful. But you have to be able to help yourselves first before helping others. Know what you are capable of and the resources your have. If helping others would cause you deep trouble, maybe someone out there could help them better.

5. Schedule your time for social media. Social media can be very addictive. Once you start, you can never stop. Always schedule your time for social media and stop when the time is up. If you find yourselves totally unable to discipline yourselves, we recommend you to uninstall the social media apps on your phone. Without the logo and notifications to remind you every time you unlock your phone screen, you can be more focus to your task in hand and less time is wasted.

6. Take plenty of action. Some people just find it hard to start a new task or a project. Before starting a project, these people will be thinking all kind of possibilities and spend more time thinking whether to start this project or to do something else first. This is pure procrastination. A thousand miles starts with one step. Whatever you have to do, start first, and you will find ways to overcome the challenges arise.

7. Invest in a watch.  You need to keep yourself timed. There is no point making a schedule when you have no watch to ensure you complete your task in time. Making schedule is planning, completing your task in time is execution. A plan without execution is just a piece of paper.

Wealth or Health?

Wealth or Health?

Some people says the answer is so straight forward - Health. But, remember, none of us want to come to this world to suffer. Living with a sick body is not pleasant, living a poor life where you are forced to work like a machine for the rest of your life, and not getting a chance to enjoy the abundant beauty of the world is not pleasant either.

Many young people striving for their own dreams are faced with this dilemma today. We work hard and get ourselves involved in so many things - work, networking, investment, society, clubs, relationships, part-time jobs, and worst of all, we only have 24 hours/ 7 days a week to do all those. It seems like time is never enough.

As young entrepreneurs today, there are so many competitions around us (this is especially true when you are not born with silver spoon), and the reality is shouting at us : " rest is a privilege, not an entitlement. If you want to be rich, you must offer something to the society. In this case, your have to give up your health." , "if you are born poor it is not your fault, but if you die poor, it is."

Now, you are being confronted by reality. "Yes, I know health is the most important, but i'm starving. I want to be successful. I want to make the most out of this world before I die. If i die mediocre, i might as well never born."

I believe many have come across this crossroad. Health vs Wealth.

Here is the idea, "why not both?"

Without health, you do not own wealth. Without wealth, you can't sustain health. Too much of wealth is bad for your health, and extremely health-concerned will discourage you from pursuing wealth too. There is a point called balancing both.

This, is why Bread and Butter is here today. We share ideas and tips to balance the both elements. We learn and we grow together. While you are learning about financial knowledge, we are sharing health related knowledge with you, reminding you remain healthy is the only way to create sustainable health. Your net worth is your score board, but don't forget your intangible assets as well. Your wisdom, health, goodwill etc counts too.

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Achieve More by Doing Less

Achieve More by Doing Less

Doubted if you have read the title correctly? Do not worry, you've got it right. You can actually achieve more by doing less. The question is, how? 

First, we need to master the art of doing nothing. By doing nothing, it means rest. Many people are deprived of sleep nowadays. We work day and night under pressure to meet demanding deadlines. We are tensed up, and so stressed that we often failed to notice what we are in a viscous self-defeating cycle. Nowadays we are playing multiple roles in our daily lives. To live up to other’s expectation and to avoid disappointing the people around us, we are taught to never say NO when people make requests.

Many times, we are made into believing that we can achieve batter result by doing more. Therefore, we keep our schedule as tight as possible, end to end. We have become so blinded by the secular value and the expectation from the external environment; eg. from our superior, from our spouses, from the school, etc.

We have always been told that the most successful people are the most hardworking people in the world. We read motivational articles citing successful figures and described how those people worked until late night every day and wake up next day early morning before dawn to achieve who they are today. However, is that really the truth? Is that the best way to be successful?

Robert Kwok, the richest man in Malaysia, during his interview in 2011 with CNTV, said that one of his secret of success is that he has a simple night life. He rest early at night, to ensure that he can be at tip top condition the next day.

 Li Ka-Shing, the richest Chinese entrepreneur in the world, keeps his work desk clean all the time. He is known as Superman because of his great success in managing his mammoth corporation. Contrary to common belief, he do not do many things at once; he only selectively attend to important things, and he makes sure he completes what he started.

1. It is not how many things we have done but how many important things we have completed that counts.

2. Without proper sleep, our cognitive function may not perform best when we needed it most.

3. When we make mistake, we actually spend more time to correct it than to avoid the mistake. Sleeping an hour earlier may avoid blunder that would take a few hours to rectify.

4. Sometimes good opportunities are hard to come by. We miss it, that’s it. It cannot be compensated with extra efforts. We are losing more opportunities than we know when we failed to stay alert due to lethargy, a result of overwork and sleep deprivation.

5. When we are reluctant to decide what to attend to and what to reject, it could mean that we are not confident. People tend to make themselves feel good/important by appearing busy and attending to many tasks. These are the people who are inferior in nature. To cover their inferiority, people tend to act the opposite way, to convince themselves of their importance by “accumulating” tasks.

6. Human body is the most delicate and complicated machine in the world, that even the most knowledgeable medical practitioners has yet to fully understand how our body works. Worse of all, we do not have spare part for our vital organs. Once our body start to fail, all is over.

7. A healthy body is our biggest capital. We can only achieve more when our mind and body operate at optimal condition. Resting is a vital process which our body heals itself. By resting properly, we can achieve more by doing less.

Efficiency VS Effectiveness - Are you effective?

Efficiency VS Effectiveness

1. Efficiency and effectiveness may sound the same but they mean so much different.

2  The first one is quantifying, whereas the later one is qualifying.

3. Efficiency is about how many tasks one can finish within a stipulated time frame.Effectiveness is how close a person towards his objective.

4. For instance in a restaurant, if chef A can fry 100 eggs in 30 minutes while chef B can only fry 80 eggs in 30 minutes, chef A is considered more efficient than chef B. However, when chef B gets 70 happy customer after eating the eggs while chef A only get 60 happy customers, chef B is said to be more effective than chef A.

5. Nowadays many people are working under extreme pressure and forced to meet strict deadlines. We are consorted to achieving high efficiency the great amount of stress, which in turns sacrifices effectiveness.

6. But without a firm awareness and clear direction of where we are heading, we are doing nothing but like a blindfolded bull trampling around- a waste of our energy and resources.

7. Many of us gotten ourselves busy by taking up a lot of tasks and responsibilities, believing that the more we do, the better we gain. But is this always true? A bull plowed all his life, but he never get a single pence from the paddy field. Many people kept themselves busy, ended up building other people's dream.

8. The key to effectiveness here is being selective. Successful people learn how to say NO. While it can be true that by getting our selves involves in many activities and challenges may opens up a door to more opportunities, but one must always remember that everyone of us has a very limited resources. Time is our limiting factor.

9. How to select? Before we make decision, we must know very clearly what we want in life. setting a lifetime TARGET is like setting an anchor in life. We must know ourselves, and what we want so we have a direction in life.  From there we decide when to say yes and no to the opportunities offered to us.

10. The next key word is RELEVANCE. Commit only on things that is relevant the target we set. Many people are feeling lost in modern days because we have been doing too many things that are irrelevant in our lives, which con-sequent into losing focus in life. We become lost in life and do not know what we want anymore. To avoid that, we must learn to say no to things that is irrelevant to our goals.

11. Remember, a busy person may not be a productive person. Our sense of fulfillment in life come from achieving what we want; and we must know what we want before we can achieve it. Be effective and do relevant things so we can progress in our life.