The answer is inside you all along

According to an ancient legend, there was a time when ordinary people had access to all the knowledge of the gods. Yet time and again, they ingnored this wisdom. One day, the gods grew tired of so freely giving a gift the people didnt use, so they decided to hide this precious wisdom where only the most committed of seeker would discover it. They believed that if people had to work to find this wisdom, they would use it more carefully.

One of the gods suggested that they bury it deep in the earth.

No, the other said. Too many people could easily dig down and find it.

"Let's put it in the deepest ocean" suggested another. But that idea was also rejected. They knew that people would one day learn to dive and thus would find it too easily.

One of the gods suggested hiding it on the highest mountain top, bu tit was quickly agreed that people would climb mountains.

Finally, one of the wisest gods suggested, "Let's hide it deep inside the people themselves. They'll never think to look in there." And so it came to be - and so it continues today.

Extracted from Success Principles Page 314, Jack Canfield

Travel and humble lemon water

  There are signs that one grows in wisdom. I think mine comes from learning from my travels. 

In the past when I travel, all I seem to care about is what I see. The buildings, the landscape, the souvenir shops. The more I see, the better. And oh, of course, how many photos I take WITH these sights. It also matters the quantity of souvenirs lugged home (the bigger, heavier, more, the better).

Slowly, after becoming more of a seasoned traveller, a curious thing happened. Quality started to take over quantity. Quality mattered more than quantity. It is not how MANY sights, but how MUCH pleasure these sights give me. And how much inner joy I get when I draw them, colour them. Then, it is not just about the buildings, but the food, the sound, the smell. And most of all, the people.  The conversations around the streets, the gesture, the look. The smile. The twinkle in the eye. Suddenly everything comes alive, everything interacts with one another. Everything has meaning.

In fact, funnily enough, once I learnt to appreciate quality during my travel, I started to appreciate other little things in my life. Like the humble Lemon Water. We always had lemon water, I just never appreciated them fully for what they are. Reminds you of the old way which I used to travel. I can only see. But I seldom feel, sense, smell, taste.

Back to lemon water. Waiters in posh restaurants wait upon tables with a glass jug of water, slices of lemon fashionably added - perhaps for colour? I just never thought too much about them, except that the lemon slices looked kind of nice and adds a touch of glamour to what is plain tap water. Then as I grow (wiser, I hope) I see beyond the superficial addition of lemon slices and grasp the underlying goodness of lemon in water. The wholesome health benefits, the alkaline qualities that lemon brings to plain water. That drinking lemon water can be a source to promote good well-being. 

Signs of wisdom? Appreciate more would be mine.

1,000 year of annoying the French

We had our annual Hong Kong bookfair over the weekend (july 24), an event I look forward to with much eagerness each year. So do 1,000,000 other HK people, judging from the armpit to armpit crowds each year. Thankfully we see as much books as we do people's armpits! Gross.

I bought enough books to bend double my husband's and my back, carrying them home. Not unlike ancient soldiers returning home from pillaging, ladened with battle spoils. One book that I never even knew about, let alone scheme to buy it, was this book called 1,000 years of annoying the French. Obviously written by an Englishman/ Stephen Clarke faithfully used up 600 over pages to minutely record the countless things that Britain has done to snub at the haughty French darlings. I am laughing all the way, because it is so entertainingly humourous. Anytime I would replace my Sejarah textbooks with this wicked book.

The other books in the sack are my usual thoroughfare of "How to....." this or that. I am not sure what really is my life long passion for How to books. Is it because subconsciously I feel like an unfinished masterpiece and therefore constantly reading up on "how to...." in an attempt to finish the unfinish myself. Or it is because my (work)life is enough of a drama/adventure/terror that all other fictions, including Harry Potter is bland in comparison, and therefore I only read "how to..." books to escape the humdrum of corporate life, and act like a messiah of change at work. Whatever is the cause, I have now a few dozen books that boast of its capability to "develop self confidence & Influence People", "Lead a new Generation (steve jobs)", Innovation Secrets (still Steve Jobs), the Richest Man in Babylon, Tuesdays with Morie, sun tzu the Art of War etc etc.

funny enough, the book I am reading most is the 1,000 year of annoying the French book. Bet this is annoying my subconscience!

Cooperation is the key to success

Story by Jean Xujing of SHU MBA

Have you been to the temples? When we enter one temple, we will see the Maitreya Buddha, who is always kind and smiling. On the north of him sited a black guy who is Veda. But according to the legend a long time ago, they were not in the same temple, but were in charge of different temple separately. 

 

Buddha is warm hearted, happy and optimistic man, so he attracted many people to come to the temple for worship and pray. He therefore earned so much incense and money for his temple. But he is not a careful man and not good at managing the money and accounts.  As a result, he still made the ends meet. 

 

However, Veda is a master of accounts management but he is too serious and never being smile. Few people likes him. So his temple was nearly always empty, without people and without incense. 

 

Kwan-yin found this problem in his investigation. So he arranged Buddha and Veda into one temple. The Buddha was charge of the public relations and he stand at the front of the temple, smiling to welcome the people praying.  The Veda was charge of financial, He isstrict and serious, and good at accounting. As a result, the incense of the temple got more and more prosperous!  

 

So co-operation is the foundation of success. The ability of single people is so limited, but if many people cooperate together, the power will be tremendous!

Chopsticks - the art of simplicity

The humble chopsticks is a very simple thing, just two longish straight sticks, held together in one hand. It can help pick food up accurately and deftly, shovel rice into mouth, stab at fishballs, flick away unwanted bits of food from the bowl, stir soup, etc. And it is easy to clean, even easier to carry around. The entire 10 course dinner (except soup!) can be eaten or slurped up with a pair of chopsticks. Contrast this with eating a full course of Western meal. How much silver lines up around and above our plate? Imagine the washing after that. Or try carrying it all in your handbag.


Chopsticks are the most visible and practical essence of practising the Art of Simplicity.

Clean questions

1. And is there anything else about (coachee's words - cw)?

2. And what kind of (cw) is that (cw)?

3. And that's (cw) like what?

4. And where is (cw)?

5. And whereabouts (cw)

6. And then what happens?

7. And what happens next?

8. And what happens just before (cw)?

9. And where could (cw) come from?

Example: M - manager, C - coachee

M: And what you like to have happen?

C: I want to understand why our organisation is not more successful

M: And when (you want to understand why our organisation is not more successful), your organisation is like what?

C: You could say its like a machine

M: and what kind (of machine)?

C: (Pause) It is like a combine harvester, I suppose

M: And is there anything else about that (combine harvester that your organisation is like?)

C: Its flexible with interchangeable parts depending on the type of crop

M: And is there anything else about (it being flexible with interchangeable parts?)

C: Timing is so important. too early or too late and you will miss the opportunity

M: And then what happens?

C: We go through the cycle again

M: and where could that cycle come from?

C: It is the natural order of thins (Pause). That's it. We have to educate the new recruits on the naure of the cycle. They try to rush things or they give up too quickly. If they knew about the cycle......

Presentation skills

One of the most painful things in corporate life is to sit through presentations that are dull and long winded, and worse, have no inkling what the presenter is rambling on and on about. Not too long ago, I was right in the realm of one of the worst presenters. Perhaps not dull nor long winded, but definitely rambling far too quickly since I was very nervous to present. The faster I got over it, the better. So, once I get to the podium, the goal was to rush through the slides as quickly as I can (as if I was in an Olympic sprinting competition!). Not surprisingly, I left the podium feeling breathless and almost weak at the knees. And my audience, I wonder, through my hurried ramblings, clouded thoughts, if they understood anything, let alone understood it all.

Thankfully, I came to my senses, dug deep into my pockets, cough up more money that I could afford and enrolled for a one-to-one presentation course. My coach was really strict with me - almost like a drill sergeant. Often I would describe our coaching relationship as "love-hate". He made me go up to the podium as many times as I could muster, videotaped parts of my presentation and Lord forbid, show it back to me, pointing out the flaws! That part I hate. But then again, I could slowly see improvements, a little bit here, a little bit there. This part, I love and revel in.

I once described to my coach that having no slide (or a blackened slide) is like standing without clothes in front of my audience. Without the PPT, I felt stripped of my thoughts and my words. My mind would be as blanks as the slide. Slowly slowly, I started to rely less on the presentation slides which were either cramped full with words or with pictures, to no slides even.

Now, I love presenting.

 Each slide is clean, with either one thought, one photo or a few words. Not only did this improve my rapport with the audience, the most wonderful thing of it all is that I no longer spend hours after hours on preparing my PPT slides. With the saved time, I could spend more time making the presentation impact more powerful, the idea transmission clearer and I could sleep easier the night before the presentation.

One clear benefit of improved presentation skills is that I could reach a wider audience with my ideas, with my thoughts and my sharing. Sometimes 20 to 40, even occasions of a few hundred. And because I am at ease with presentations, my ideas come shining through - point by point, my story rings loud and clear, enabling others to be inspired or to take action; and even not, as least, I dont think they were bored silly. 

Take heart, if I can learn to present, so can any one. What's more, one can surely learn to enjoy presenting like I do. All the best!

Once you see it, you can be it

Three steps to be what you want to be

1. See yourself enjoying the fruits of your success

2. Walk yourself backward to your current situation, and note each step along the way

3. Move forward by taking your first step

The key to your journey is feeling in your heart you have already arrived before you started

Extracted from Doug Hall's Maverick Mindset

The journey begins － A Lasallian Brother in China

I first met Brother David when I was about 12 (and that, for the records, was a looooong time ago). Brother D is the younger brother of my ku-cheung, husband of my ku-mah. Ku-mah in turn is my father's elder sister. And Brother D is a Catholic priest of the La Salle order. In other words, I am sort-of like his niece.


Always with a quick smile, a kind word and a hearty laugh, every one warms up to dear Brother D easily. 


What seems like a thousand years have passed since that childhood memory of him, and suddenly, I heard news that he has retired a few years back and now lives in a remote Chinese hamlet in China, teaching English for free. Records of his teaching, his travails and joys of a simple life in the heartland of his ancestors can be found on www.lasallechina.com


His writing style is light and warm (like the real person) and quite often, with a touch of humour. 


A sample of his writing (and also shows his popularity)


"At lunch on Thursday, one of the ladies in Baijiang made the remark that it was hard to invite me over for a meal.  I assured everyone that I always accept the first invitation and will not change, no matter who invites me later on.  It was then someone suggested that in order to avoid the discomfort of “failing to invite laoshi” that I fly a red flag on top of my house so that villagers will know that I already have an invitation for a meal.  One villager even suggested that I fly a green flag when I need a meal! "

Gratefulness....

Gratefulness is the trait of a great person.

On the flip side of the coin, ungratefulness must be the trait of a little person. And it hurts, and is unsettling to be working together with people who are ungrateful. And the funny thing about ungrateful people, they are also spiteful, with lots of bitter things to say about you, and about the team, and the world around them.

Thankfully in my work life, I have only met two of such people, colleagues that you have made an effort to help develop their skills to enable them to grow in their roles; and when they have what they want, they not only push you away but say a lot of "things". Well - only two in my entire career. Thats really not much, I guess.

Perhaps ungrateful people are rare in this world.

Thank God for that!