Life

A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on it’s own wings. Always believe in yourself.

Why we should start an “I’ll ride with you” day

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It has been an emotional time for Australians recently with the siege in Sydney . I’m deeply affected by what has happened (as I am sure others are too). I cried reading an article about Katrina Dawson, her life was just beginning with a young family and a beautiful career ahead of her. Goosebumps are crawling on my skin as I write this. I am moved by the unity and am very proud to be an Australian.

It makes me sad and angry that there are people who feel compelled to do this to each other. Why and where does this come from? There must be story behind all of this, something must have happened in their lives to cause this to occur. You’re not born hating another… they must have learnt it from someone, somewhere, somehow. If you can learn to hate, you can learn to love.

Love is in all of us. We all need love in our lives, why not give love first? You can’t control another persons reaction but you can control your actions. If you want love, then give love. If each of us showed a bit of compassion and give, may be another persons perception of the world changes that little bit too. It might give them a glimmer of hope that there is love in the world and they are worthy of it.

Love is powerful. It overcomes fear. Everyone wants to be loved, wants to belong. People seek out people, groups, places where they can belong and it may be misdirected. We are all humans at the end of the day. We all need to eat, sleep, breathe. May be, just may be, if we all opened our hearts, give a little, love each other this may change the world slowly. There is more courage and strength in vulnerability. We will be making ourselves vulnerable but remember it will make us stronger.

Why not start today? Just a simple hello or smile, talk to someone on the bus, train or on the street. This might have a huge impact on their lives. You never know. If we have a day dedicated to this, perhaps more people will be open and receptive of this idea. It wouldn’t be so scary for everyone to try it. We would make it easier for each other to reach out and help one another. Share some love and perhaps be that glimmer of hope to someone.

By the way, I’m not justifying their actions what happen was horrific and unacceptable. I’m just figuring out how we can become stronger and commemorate the lives that have been lost. Their courage and lives will be remembered and have a positive affect on the world, rather than being a victim. I hope people see it that way. I didn’t mean to start the idea to ride a wave or gain any publicity. I want to do it to help others find a positive way forward from this.

Let’s use this to strengthen us as a nation and humanity. That’s why we should commemorate this day – share the love and compassion.

 

For my birthday

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Hey beautiful family and friends,

I’m so excited about my upcoming Superhero Birthday party. Thank you to my wonderful girlfriends – Elise, Sanu, Sarah, Helen and J (Elise’s gem of a husband) for organising the whole thing for me.

It’s a surprise in a non-surprise party! I have no idea what to expect and feel like a little kid going to a candy store. 🙂

For birthday presents, I would love either a donation to Aid Asia Initiative or contribution on my amazing climb and holiday.

>> For Aid Asia Initiative Donations, an automated receipt will be sent to you.

>> For my trip, click here.

 

You’re more beautiful than you think.

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I almost cried watching this video, watching the women’s emotion on their faces and in their body language when they saw how they viewed themselves compared to how others saw them.

It made me realise how critical we are of ourselves. Not just women but men as well and the impact on our self-esteem. Each and everyone one of us has so much to offer to this world. We need only look past ourselves to realise this. I say this with a heavy heart, because I know I get trapped in to this black hole too and don’t realise it.

Remind others how special they are

That’s why I have added this clip to my blog, hopefully in days, months and years to come I will continue to remember how beautiful I am (even writing that feels weird) and to remind other people around me how special they are.

Don’t judge, your words are powerful. It could change the course of someone’s life.

Someone dear in my life pulled out a cube wrapped in paper with a poem stuck on top and placed it in my hand.  From memory the poem read: “Whenever you’re feeling lonely or ever feeling blue, you only have to hold this rock and know I think of you.”.

He said “This got me through the tough times and gave me hope. It was something you gave me 10 years ago.” I didn’t realise how something so small could have such a huge impact, but it did. This changed me and from that day onwards, everyone I met – good or bad – I try to make their day a little brighter.

If anyone is reading this, I would love to read about your experiences.

 

Finding my strengths – Part 3

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>> Finding my strengths Part 2: Achiever

Strength #2: Strategic

What does it mean?

People with a ‘Strategic’ strength create alternative ways to proceed, according to Gallup Strengths Finders. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Specifically to my assessment, the following traits makes me stand out:

  • Viewed to be an innovative and original thinker.
  • Fixing people and things ranks in my top half of favourite activities.
  • Identify problems that people fail to see.
  • You study everything involved in a situation and conceive entirely new ways of seeing or doing things.
  • Your inventive mind generates more possibilities that you can handle or fund.

What can I do to leverage this?

  • Take time to reflect about a goal until all the related patterns and issues emerge. This is essential for my strategic thinking.
  • I love to find solutions when others are convinced there is no other way. I should try to become known as someone to consult with when stumped by a particular problem, issue or obstacle.
  • Get involved at the front end of new initiatives or enterprises. I am innovative yet procedural which are critical to the genesis of a new venture, keeping out of the tunnel vision.
  • Trust my intuitive insights as often as possible. I may not be able to explain them rationally but my intuitions are created by a brain that instinctively anticipates and projects. Have confidence in these perceptions.

Don’t forget to:

  • Help others  understand that my strategic thinking is not to belittle others, rather it’s a natural propensity to all facets to consider all options objectively.

My commitment

It’s taken me months to really understand this about myself. Reflecting and observing my behaviours in the work place after reading this has helped me identify how this has played out for me.

  • I always wondered why I was always put in to a role or area that was relatively undefined. My last 3 jobs have been offered to me, and each time my mandate has been very broad with minimal existing infrastructure e.g digital marketing for a financial advice business, where there was no email platform, online tracking, SEO, SEM for our campaigns! Actually I am 7 weeks in to a new role now with a goal to ‘improve the client experience’ with the service and operational capacity of the business.

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 11.30.45 PM

  • Take the time to fully reflect or muse about a goal that you want to achieve until the related patterns and issues emerge for you. Remember that this musing time is essential to strategic thinking.
  • I am extremely thorough with my approach to everything. Planning and thinking about all the possible outcomes, issues, risks and mitigations. This could be a good or bad thing. Good to be prepared. Bad when it turns in to analysis paralysis.

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 11.32.54 PM

So what does this mean for me now and in future…I’m not 100% sure yet, but I will start to:

  • Share my ability to seek solutions in challenging situations.
  • Establish my identity as the person to get involved at the start of an initiative or when there are any obstacles or even in planning.
  • Refine my strategic thinking capabilities at work and for Aid Asia Initiative (a charity I have co-founded)

One clear thing I am taking from this is to help others understand my strategic thinking and that it’s not an attempt to belittle them.  My demeanour and approach is very humble most people have not taken offence to my comments, but I can now see how one could.

It’s exciting to  be able to understand the reasons behind my actions and how I can harness this more effectively in future. Finally, it all makes sense now. My best discovery yet! 🙂

Finding my strengths – Part 2

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>> Finding my strengths

Results are in. I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 online test, it took 30minutes and it is ridiculously accurate!

My top 5 strengths

From the 34 attributes, the below came out as my top 5:

  • Achiever – great deal of stamina and hard worker (below).
  • Strategic – especially talented in creating alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
  • Learner – great desire to learn and want to continuously improve.
  • Restorative – adept and dealing with problems. Good at finding out what is wrong and fixing them.
  • Belief – have certain core values that are unchanging. These define the purpose of life.

So what does that mean and how do I harness these strengths? I’m not quite sure yet but I will share with you my journey of discovery, trials and insights.

Strength #1: Achiever

What does it mean? 

According to Clifton StrengthsFinder, “people strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.”

What can I do to leverage this?

  • Pick a job where I can work as hard as I want and measure my productivity. I will feel alive in these environments.
  • List of tangible outcomes and being able to make them as ‘done’.
  • Continue my education and attain certifications – giving me more goals to achieve.
  • Set more demanding goals every time I finish a project. Take advantage of my self-motiviation. Partner with other hard workers. They can help me get more done.
  • More work excites me. Launch initiatives and new projects. My endless reserve of energy will create enthusiasm and momentum.

Don’t forget to:

  • Celebrate achievements. I tend to move to the next thing quickly.
  • Add personal achievements i.e. goals for family and friends, this will help me direct my talents accordingly

My Commitment

It took me a while to get my head around adding a personal goal in to my ‘to do’ list. I always thought I do this naturally and it shouldn’t be just another thing to do, but on reflection I need to get better at this.

Every day I have a list of  things to complete, and I make sure I get them all done. Most of the time this leaves little to no room for personal things such as calling my parents, seeing my family and friends.

In the 7 Habits of Highly, Stephen R. Covey made me paint such a vivid image of my funeral that always appears when I reflect on my decisions. The fond memories and relationships with my family and friends are the most important things in my life. I always think they will always be there and will be understanding… I need to keep remembering to appreciate. They may not be here tomorrow.

My commitment going forward is to include at least 1 personal activity in my list every day. Yes, EVERY DAY! I want to let everyone close to me know just how much I love them.

 

Finding my strengths.

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Be confident in yourself. Play at your strengths and continue to refine them. Don’t always focus on your weaknesses. 

I hated maths as a child. I absolutely dreaded it. Why? Because I wasn’t good at it. My dad used to tell me, but if you become good at it, you will love it. So, I made it my mission to love it!

Dad took me to yearly second hand book store to find cheap maths text books. We never had enough money to buy new books, $3 was the limit. I used to come home with 5 maths books every year. Every year, I had a goal to complete as much of my next year text book during my school holidays as possible. Dad used to tutor me on new techniques, mum fuelled my energy.
After years of doing this, I was one of the top students. What I learnt was hard work, determination and focus can change any weakness. However, this made me focus on improving my weaknesses rather than my strengths.
It didn’t even occur to me to refine my strengths until recently. There were so many things I needed to improve on and things I didn’t know to learn! The list was getting longer and longer. Then I read an article about focussing on your strengths not just your weakness. This has completely change my perspective.
I’ve only just started to try and find my strengths. Identify ways to improve them and spend a bit more time on these. I have found a Strengths Finder tool that I will try, but before I ‘find my strengths’, below is a summary of what I think I am good at:
  • Influential skills
  • Passionate about my work and charity
  • Compassion, caring nature and empathy
  • Easy to talk to, trust worthy
  • Hard working, loyal and reliable. Strong work ethic.
  • Truthful and honest
  • Couple technology with business. Clearly articulating the problem and solutions.
  • Find solutions for business and technical problems. Ability to bridge the gap between them.
  • Communication
  • Thinking outside the square. Innovative.

Let’s see if my results come out the same way… Have you been on a similar journey, I’d love to hear what worked for you.

Bucketing my list…

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Reflecting on my life so far – what I’ve done, what I have planned and what I intend to leave behind. There are too many amazing experiences life has to offer us, I’m not sure whether I’ll get to them all, but I’ll give it a shot.

This is my attempt to start a list and share my experiences, and I hope you will share yours with me too.

Goals

  1. Establish a charity to give back as much as I possibly can. I am so grateful for my life,  the current and future opportunities and I only hope to provide the same to as many people as I can.
  2. Reach my full potential at work. Execution. Deliver a business outcome, always. Push hard but never at the expense of my family or friends.
  3. Become the most caring, thoughtful and insightful person to my family and friends.

What do I want to do before the end is near…

  • Summit Mont Blanc and experience Europe from the top.
  • Conquer Mount Kilimanjaro – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kilimanjaro.
  • Complete a marathon and raise money for my own charity.
  • ….to be continued…

Things I can only dream of….

Ok, so this list of things may seem crazy or even unimaginable, but I can always dream…

  • My number 1 of all time is to be in Man vs Wild and face obstacles in the wilderness with Bear Grylls!
  • ….to be continued…

Heartful of grace and a soul generated by love.

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Oprah’s Stanford commencement speech 2008.

Lesson 1:

Harness your power to your passion. Let internal motivation be the driver. What will set you apart will be our hearts and brains, when you do what you love you will bloom. If you don’t know what you are doing or where you are going, get still. Listen to yourself – only your inner-self knows more.

Lesson 2:

If  you fail, it’s your cue and time to change course. If you don’t learn from your failures, it will come back in a different form. What ever you resist persists.

Ask yourself: What is here to teach me? Merge with the situation and act with responsibility.

Lesson 3:

Happiness. Live and be in the moment. Whatever has happened in your past can’t control what you do now. Stand for something grater than yourself. To move forward, give something back.

Martin Luther King: “Not everyone can be famous. But everyone can be great, because greatness can be determined by service. You only need a heartful of grace and a soul generated by love.”

 

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

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Steve Jobs’ Stanford Address 2005 has 3 key learnings:

Lesson 1

Follow your curiosity, whatever you do will be the best decision. You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. Trust that the dots will connect down the road. Follow your heart and that will make all the difference.

SJ example: Calligraphy courses to understand what makes typography great. Future: Designed it in to Macintosh.

Lesson 2

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t let it get you down. You have to find what you love. Do what you believe what is great work. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle.

SJ example:  Fired from his own company. Started Next and Pixar

Lesson 3

“If you live each day like it’s your last, some day you will most certainly be right”   Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap you have something to lose. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No-one wants to die. Death is the destination we all share.  Death is lifes change agent. Your time is limited, don’t let the noise of others drown our yours.  Listen to  yourself – your intuition already knows what you want, everything else is secondary.

SJ example: Face with cancer – having live through it. Stay hungry, stay foolish.