How to make work-life balance work for you?

Some key learning/reflections:

• You don't need to make a lot of $, to buy things, to impress people that you don't like!

• Stop looking outside. Others are not going to solve this problem for you. It is up to us to take control and responsibility to determine the type of life we want to lead. We are responsible in setting the boundaries we want in our life! If you don't design your life, someone else will design it for you! So, be aware and be proactive. You have a CHOICE. If you are not making a choice, society and people around you will make it for you! YOu may not like it...

• We need to approach balance in a balanced way...don't let your work dominate your life! To be balanced, you need to look into the physical, mental, social and spiritual side of life. You need to attend to all of them!

• When it comes to people and relationships, the small things matter! It's the little things you do to others that can really transform the quality of your relationships and life. It's all about the people. The quality of your relationship will determine the quality of your life.

• We need to change our definition of success in life. The person with the most money when he dies is not the winner, it's not SUCCESS! It's all about a life well lived. My personal definition of success is...

          a. Knowing my purpose in life;

          b. Sowing seeds that benefit others; and

          c. Growing to my maximum potential.

Inspiration for your day...

pic source: http://brandstrategy.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/what-are-we-going-to-do-tomorrow-google/

“We can choose to be affected by the world or we can choose to affect the world. ”

Heidi Wills

Bukit Timah Railway Station (Part II) - Aftermath...

Took a 4 hour walk along the railway track a month later after the closure of this historical site. This is what I saw through my lenses...

Body: Panasonic G3 & GF1

Lenses: 7-14mm f4, 14-45mm f3.5-4, 20mm f1.7

Think Tank Modular Belt System for ease of movement

It was a good walk...4 hours in total! I enjoyed myself.

The remains of the railway tracks...sad

The mean excavating machine 

All gone...

There is always light at the end of the tunnel. I gathered that the authorities will be preserving part of this historical site.

I wonder who was sitting on that chair watching me along this deserted track...

Work of Art...but illegal!

Reminds me of the EYE in Lord of the Rings!

Unchain Melody...or Unchain the track?

I shall not be moved!

The old and the new...

Inspiration for your day...

pic source: http://find-love.org/

“If you want trust, trust others. If you want respect, respect others. If you want help, help others. If you want love and peace in your life, give them away. If you want great friends, be one.

That’s how it works. ”

Dan Zadra - Businessman, inspirational writer

My Childhood Playground

I am always ever curious and excited about things and places in Singapore that I can capture or document down with my camera. I believe that little things counts and we must not take the good things around us for granted. As such, I don’t have to travel overseas to take good pictures. There are many wonderful places in Singapore photographers can capture. All we need is to put in some effort to discover where are these places.

When I was conducting my regular Internet search to look for places in Singapore for me to shoot, I chanced upon this interesting website http://rediscover.sg. Rediscover.sg chronicles the adventures of a group of young Singaporean dreamers as they traipse around their island home (Singapore), wandering the streets and doing little things to remind themselves, why they call this place home.

As I was browsing through this interesting website, one particular video clip caught my attention. It was the Unseen/Unsaid “Mosaic Story” (episode 4) It was a story of a playground – a magical place for any child. As I watched the video clip, I realised that this was the playground I used to visit when I was a little boy. That was more than 30 years ago and the playground is still there! The “Mosaic Story” on Rediscover.sg inspired me to locate this playground in front of Block 28, Toa Payoh Lorong 6 and capture it down with my camera on an early Monday morning just before I go to work. I had a great time “playing” on this playground of mine.

I hope you will enjoy these pictures. This playground certainly brought back wonderful memories for me. That morning, I was a child once again!

p/s: They don’t construct playgrounds like this in Singapore anymore. 

When I post process these pictures, I realised that I tend to gravitate towards strong and dynamic colours creation. I wanted the textures to stand out and I played with the dynamic range a lot. Dynamic range in photography describes the ratio between the maximum and minimum measurable light intensities (white and black, respectively). 

Somehow, I find distortion worked better for me in some pictures. I guess when you are emotionally charged,  you will not be logical in your creation. As such, distortion and horizon misalignment were left alone.

 

As I was going about capturing this wonderful structure, the sun started to reveal itself. A decisive moment for me. A Dragon with a glowing eye...Priceless! 

I kept telling myself not to take this childhood place for granted because I know deep down inside that this playground will be "trashed" one day to make way for a more modern structure for the kids today.

It was a fun morning with lots of wonderful memories. If I don't have to go to work, I would have probably hang around this playground for the whole day. I was a child all over again!

Hope you enjoyed these pics!

To see the video that inspired me. Please click the link below.

Video mosaic-story-episode

Photographic Gear:

Body:       Panasonic GF1 & G3 Micro 4/3 system

Lenses:    Panasonic 7-14mm f4, 20mm f1.7 & 14-45mm f3.5-5.6

Inspiration for your day...

pic source:https://speeches2go.com/Change_Your_Thinking.html


What you thought before has led to every choice you have made, and this adds up to you at this moment. If you want to change who you are physically, mentally, and spiritually, you will have to change what you think.

Dr. Patrick Gentem

Leadership Moments 1/2011

There must be a purpose in everything we do as a leader. 

We must always know WHY.

Because…

Effective leaders do not act or do things at random. Every action you take as a leader must lead you closer to your objective, purpose or vision.

Sharing…

Currently I am leading a team in the Corporate Comms Department. One of the first few things I immediately did when I took over as the leader is to ask my team and bosses the communication objectives/purpose of the organisation. I needed to clarify the objectives/purpose right from the start before I plan my strategies. Without a clear purpose, I know that my work as a leader will not be focused and the results I want to achieve will be unclear. I always need to “begin with the end in mind”.

Once the purpose is clarified, the job of a leader will be clearer. You will know what you need to do. All your key decisions will be guided by the objectives/ purpose. It makes it easier for you to say ‘No’ to other distractions or “noise”. With a clear purpose, all the actions you take as a leader will be intentional.

So?

What are you going to do to clarify the objectives/purpose

of your work as a leader?

What are the results you want to achieve as a leader?

What are you going to do to communicate your objectives/purpose

to the team you are leading?

Please share with me your thinking or comments...

_________________________________________

Why Am I doing this?

Leadership is a journey for me. I was exposed to various leadership roles at a very young age when I joined the uniformed group during my secondary school days. Over the years, I’ve learnt quite a bit about leadership from reading, observations and experimentation.

As the saying goes, nothing beats doing it! My career in a uniformed organisation for the past 15 years provided me with ample opportunities to hone my leadership skills. I am very thankful that my organisation has a very strong culture of leadership. My organisation pays attention to develop people, they tolerate mistakes and they genuinely cares. Much of my learning and reflections on leadership are from the excellent leaders I have worked with over the years. These wonderful leaders shape the leader I am today.

Leadership is something that is learned. No one is born a leader. We are all capable of being a good leader. Of course, not everyone can be the top leader. However, everyone does have the capacity to lead in some way—but ACTION is required! While all of us are born with many different abilities, but if we do not harness and develop them, those abilities will never come to fruition. Leadership is one such ability.

I hope to share some of my learning and experiences on leadership in bite size in my blog. I hope “Leadership Moments” will help you in your journey towards becoming a great leader in your own right. Remember, knowing is not good enough, you have to take ACTION if you want your leadership potential and abilities to be developed.

All the best in your leadership journey.

Jim

John Maxwell's 3 Characteristics of a Leader

Leadership expert John Maxwell told SUCCESS in April 2009, "Ego and insecurity are the two greatest land mines of leadership. Ego creeps in when you start not to value other people—when you begin to look at people as what can they do for you instead of what you can do for them." He says there are three characteristics needed to become a successful leader.

1. Build consensus. Abraham Lincoln was great at bringing together the people around him to help make up for his weaknesses. "The fallacy of leadership is thinking if you can lead in one area, you can lead in all areas," Maxwell says. Value the opinion of others before making a decision.

2. Practice humility. Instead of talking about their own accomplishments, leaders look to give the team the credit.

3. Take risks. Leaders are not afraid to step out and say this is what needs to be done. Winston Churchill, for example, stood alone against Parliament in his opposition to Nazism. "Churchill had the courage to do what he felt was right even in the midst of severe opposition," Maxwell says.

Source: http://www.success.com/newsletter_archive/2011/march/V4_I4.html?utm_source=sos-2011-03-29&utm_medium=email&utm_content=formatting&utm_campaign=ezines

pic source: http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/2010/01/28/on-success-and-stupidity-take-two/