Inspiration for today...

LOST TRAVELER OR ACCIDENTAL TOURIST

By Shazneen Pathak 

Life has been like a road, some roads are big, and some are small. Some are straight and some are topsy turvey. As roads would have it, there are crossroads in life as well. The most confusing, baffling, difficult whatever you call it, is the crossroad in life.

When we face a crossroad, the mind comes to a standstill as to which road to take? Which road is going to take us where! There are few roads, which will lead you to happiness, fame, glory, and fortune, but on the other hand there are few which would take you towards sadness, failure, defeat, disappointments.

We have to decide which road we would take with completely no clue where we going to land at the end! No assurances No guarantees! Since life offers us no guarantees and assurances, it's better to take that risk and make that decisions because unless we don't decide, and go that way we will never know whether the decision was right or wrong.

Instead of standing on the crossroad better to move forward. It's not always that the road, which we think is right for us, is going to give us happiness, there are certainly going to be heartbreaks. You might not achieve what you had thought, but at least you tried. We really do not have power on the outcome but we definitely have the power of our decisions. Taking risks, does not mean to decide in the spur of a moment! Think and then move forward.

If we had known that the road we are choosing is a wrong one and it can make us lost, or the outcome is going to be bad, we would have never decided to go that way. We will only know about the outcome once we walk that road, whether the decision was correct or worthless.

When we have to choose, we need to analyze the options we have, sometimes the options are many, sometimes very few and sometimes none at all. We need to weigh the pros and cons, make option of our own if we don't have any! But at no point take decision haphazardly.

We cannot find that confidence to decide at times, especially when we have no idea what the consequences are going to be. Trust yourself and think that it's the best decision at that point of time. Do not regret it whatever the outcome, learn from it and make better decisions in future. Always remember life will give us more chances to make right decisions.

And after all, I believe it's all the matter of perspective, as to what you want to be a lost traveller or accidental tourist, because you never know which road opens which new horizon!

Relationship building in Leadership

From my favourite leadership thinker, John C Maxwell

I think a lot of the time we take relationships for granted. Because of that, we don’t always give them the attention they deserve or require. But good relationships require a lot of effort. To keep me on track in my relationships so that I’m investing in them as I must to make them successful, I practice this discipline: Every day I make the conscious effort to deposit good will into my relationships with others.

That means I give more than I expect to receive, love others unconditionally, look for ways to add value to others, and bring joy to the relationships I hold dear. Every evening, I evaluate this area of my life by asking myself, “Have I been thoughtful toward people today? Would they express joy that they have spent time with me?” If the answer is yes, then I’ve done my part.

If you want to improve your relationships through your everyday actions, then do the following:

Put Others First

The best way to start off on the right foot is to put others first. The most basic way to do that is to practice the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you take that mindset into all your interactions with others, you can’t go wrong. But there are also other ways to show people they matter and that you are interested in their well-being: Walk slowly through the crowd, remember people’s names, smile at everyone, and be quick to offer help. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Don’t Carry Emotional Baggage
Few things weigh as much as old hurts and offenses carried day after day in a person’s life. If you want to enjoy your time with other people, you’ve got to get rid of that kind of stuff. You can’t keep score of old wrongs and expect to make relationships right. If someone has hurt you and you need ot address it and get it out onto the table, then do it right away. Resolve it and get beyond it. if it’s not worth bringing up, forget about it and move on.

Give Time to Your Most Valuable Relationships
Most people give away their relational energy on a first-come, first-served basis. Whoever gets their attention first gobbles up their time and relational energy. That’s why the squeaky wheels instead of the high producers at work consume so much attention and why so many people have nothing left to give when they get home from work. Your family provides the most valuable relationships in your life. They should come first as you plan how to spend your time. After that should come your next most important relationships. It’s a matter of practicing good priorities.

Serve Others Gladly
I once heard an airline executive explain how difficult it is to hire and train people for his industry. He said that service is the only thing they have to sell, but it is the toughest thing to teach because nobody wants to be thought of as a servant.

Helen Keller said, “Life is an exciting business and most exciting when lived for others.” I think that’s true. The longer I live, the more convinced I am that adding value to others is the greatest thing we can do in this life. Because of that, when I serve, I try to do so cheerfully and with the greatest impact.

Express Love and Appreciation Often
After I had my heart attack, a lot of people asked me, “What was your dominant emotion? Was it fear, panic, questions?” My answer surprised many of them. In fact, it really surprised me. It was love. More than anything else in those moments of pain when I wasn’t sure whether I would live or die, I wanted to tell the people closest to me how much I loved them – my family, the people who work with me, longtime friends. I learned that you can’t tell the people you love how much you love them too often.

I think many people believe that the best way they can help others is to criticize them, to give them the benefit of their “wisdom.” I disagree. The best way to help people is to see the best in them. I want to encourage every person I meet. I want them to know the good I see in them. I practice the 101% Principle. I look for the 1 thing I admire in them and give them 100% encouragement for it. It helps me to like them. It helps them to like me. And what else could be better for starting – and continuing – a relationship?

Source: http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com

LIFE IS LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY

Life is like photography. 

You use the negatives to develop. 

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Marina Abramović's trust exercise

A friend forwarded this to me and read this on the internet as well. Interesting experiment.

Marina Abramović, “Rhythm 0,” 1974

Marina Abramović is best known for her performance pieces, in which she tries to explore what is possible for an artist to do in the name of art. Her best known piece was the recent “The Artist Is Present,” in which she sat motionless for 736.5 hours over the course of three months, inviting visitors to sit opposite her and make eye contact for as long as they wanted. So many people began spontaneously crying across from her that blogs and Facebook groups were set up for those people. 

Her bravest piece, however, is my favorite. This piece was primarily a trust exercise, in which she told viewers she would not move for six hours no matter what they did to her. She placed 72 objects one could use in pleasing or destructive ways, ranging from flowers and a feather boa to a knife and a loaded pistol, on a table near her and invited the viewers to use them on her however they wanted.

Initially, Abramović said, viewers were peaceful and timid, but it escalated to violence quickly. “The experience I learned was that … if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed… I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.”

This piece revealed something terrible about humanity, similar to what Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment or Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, both of which also proved how readily people will harm one another under unusual circumstances.

This performance showed just how easy it is to dehumanize a person who doesn’t fight back, and is particularly powerful because it defies what we think we know about ourselves. I’m certain the no one reading this believes the people around him/her capable of doing such things to another human being, but this performance proves otherwise.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=543221975709034&set=a.463525983678634.112932.100000637089787&type=1&theater

Jim's Reflections:

How can we (in our various capacities and roles) create the structure/atmosphere that brings the best and not the worst out of the people we work with and care about.

As we progress, our values will be challenged. Reading all the comments and posts on both social and traditional media for the past few month made me reflect a lot about our world and country. esp. in Singapore. Our country will be going through a lot of changes for the next few years and the problem your kids and mine will face are:

A. finding good jobs - there will be 40% graduates. I hope there are enough graduate jobs to go around for both our kids and foreigners;

B. affordable housing - land cost will be so high that housing will be very expensive for our kids to own. We will go the way of Hong Kong and Tokyo where the next generation may have to pay for the housing of this generation;

C. Cosmopolitan society - we will go the way of London and New York and become very cosmopolitan. If we integrate well, then no issue. If we do not, then life in spore will be fractured and unfamiliar.


The only thing that will anchor our kids are values, and not knowledge and information.


Question is: What are we going to do about this and how can we value add to make things better in this country we love? We should not just complain and do nothing. Not productive. We should focus on areas we have control and work proactively and positively.

-----------------------------

Also check out this YouTube vid – there’s some nudity, so only view if you’re comfortable.
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present trailer HBO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY3VwmiT3j4

Inspirational Quote

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

Nelson Henderson

Leadership Lessons

Learnt something about leadership today. Leaders must care...you as a leader must be present during your staff happy and sad moments.

Inspiration for today...

GRATITUDE IS THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

As I read the newspaper and forums daily, it seems that the majority of comments and news I read about is negative. People tend to spend more of their time complaining about how bad things are and focusing on what they don't have rather than focusing on their blessings.

What many of these people do not realize is that they are actually sabotaging their happiness, health and future success. There is a powerful universal law in life that says that we attract whatever we focus on. By complaining and focusing on everything that is wrong (e.g. lousy government, too many foreigners, not enough money etc..), these people are actually attracting more poverty, ill health and unhappiness into their life.

When you don’t feel grateful for what you have, you are sending a message to God that you don’t deserve to get more of what life has to offer. When you are in a negative emotional and physical state, you will not have the passion and physical energy to notice and pursue the abundance of opportunities around you.

“Nothing new can come into your life until you are grateful for what you have.”

Besides just making us feel good and positively improving our health, having an attitude of gratitude actually attracts greater success and abundance into our life. How does this work?

Every thought we have is a quantum of energy that vibrates at a particular frequency. Negative, pessimistic and unhappy thoughts vibrate at a much lower frequency as compared to positive, happy and optimistic thoughts.

Since all matter in the universe is actually made up of vibrating atoms at the quantum mechanical level, our thoughts actually attract and shape the kind of people, object and events we experience in our lives.

We tend to attract events and people that vibrate at the same frequency as our dominant thoughts. Simply put, if you constantly have positive, happy and grateful thoughts, you tend to attract even more happiness, abundance and positive circumstances into your life. You get more of what you focus on.

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/AKLTGseminars

Inspirational Quote

“Thanks for showing me that even on the darkest, rainiest days the sun is still there, just behind the clouds, waiting to shine again.”

Lisa Harlow

To be loved by the one you love, that is EVERYTHING

Beautiful story.....A very poor man lived with his wife.

One day, his wife, who had very long hair asked him to buy her a comb for her hair to grow well and to be well-groomed.

The man felt very sorry and said no. He explained that he did not even have enough money to fix the strap of his watch he had just broken.

She did not insist on her request.

The man went to work and passed by a watch shop, sold his damaged watch at a low price and went to buy a comb for his wife.

He came home in the evening with the comb in his hand ready to give to his wife.

He was surprised when he saw his wife with a very short hair cut.

She had sold her hair and was holding a new watch band.

Tears flowed simultaneously from their eyes, not for the futility of their actions, but for the reciprocity of their love.

MORAL: To love is nothing, to be loved is something but to love and to be loved by the one you love,that is EVERYTHING. Never take love for granted.

Inspirational Quote

“Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.”

Christopher Reeve (1952-2004);

actor, producer, director, and writer; 

best known for his role as Superman

Opportunity comes to those who are able, ready and prepared

One of the old guards and builder of Singapore whom I respect a lot. What he says makes a lot of sense. We should not be complacent and seek to be the best that we can be every day!

Mr Lim Siong Guan's keynote address at University of Adelaide Graduation Ceremony

May 1st, 2012


UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE GRADUATION CEREMONY
28 April 2012
KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Lim Siong Guan

May I first offer my congratulations to all who are graduating today from one of Australia’s oldest and finest universities. It is not an event to be taken lightly, and it is not an end, only just a beginning. May you find purpose in life and work, and find worthy opportunities to contribute to society and pass on happiness to family, friends and colleagues. 

I wish especially to thank the University of Adelaide for honouring me with the Distinguished Alumni Award. It is recognition I very much appreciate, less for what I have been able to accomplish than as testimony of the many opportunities that had come to me to make a difference. I thank God for the many openings I have had to live out in real life what the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, Singapore's First Deputy Prime Minister had said: "The only way to avoid making mistakes is not to do anything, and that, in the final analysis, will be the ultimate mistake."

It is very much a privilege for me to be invited to make this short address. I graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1969. That is practically a different world from today where things move so fast, the future appears more unpredictable and uncertain than ever, and life is a continuous push to stay ahead. But it is an illusion to think that today is more difficult than the past – it is simply different. Life moves on with all its ebbs and flows, and the key to happiness and success lies with those who are able to live with the ambiguous and the unexpected and the uncomfortable and continuous change. When I left for Adelaide in 1965, Singapore had merged into Malaysia for just over a year. But only months later, Singapore was out of Malaysia. Things could not have been less uncertain and unexpected and uncomfortable. But it is a world which the young people today cannot be blamed for not being able to feel or sense.

My father was a taxi driver, my mother a teacher. It was clear to me there was no way I was going to get to university without a scholarship. Certainly scholarships and bursaries and loans were a lot scarcer then. I applied for several scholarships and landed one under the Colombo Plan generously donated by the Australian Government and awarded by the Singapore Public Service Commission. I was prepared to do any course they were prepared to give me a scholarship for. They were not days like today where young people can pick and choose and demand what they want to study. 

My flight to Australia was the first time ever I was in a plane. I remember when the plane first broke through the clouds: the sight was so exhilarating, a new world of adventure and hope. I studied mechanical engineering because, truth be told, that was the offer for a scholarship. They were still the early days of industrialization in Singapore.

When I returned, under bond to the Singapore Government, I was posted to the Sewerage Branch of the Public Works Department. This function is now undertaken by the Public Utilities Board. I can tell you it was not the most pleasant of assignments, breathing and managing the systems that allow your toilet and bathrooms to work in what you may call a “more civilised” way. You might think I would have been miserable. I was not, because it was a whole new world of new experience. The moral of my story: there is always something new to learn in every situation. Some things you can master in 3 months, other things you cannot master in 3 years, and a few things you can keep reinventing and renewing such that they never get done even in 30 years. If you keep choosing what you want to do, you will be confining yourself to the world you know, and miss the opportunity to learn things you never knew about.

When I reported for my first day of work at the Kim Chuan Sewage Treatment Works, I noticed a couple of men painting a road roller which obviously had not been used for some time. Once in the office I asked why the road roller was being painted the normal grey of such equipment. I was told it was because the road roller was being "condemned", a term used to describe the retirement of the equipment so a replacement could be bought. The answer, of course, deepened the mystery. Why spend the effort to paint a piece of equipment which was being discarded? "Oh," the answer came, "the ‘certificate of condemnation’ has to be signed by an engineer from the mechanical engineering branch. If he saw the rusting equipment, he would say we caused the equipment's sorry state because we did not take care of it." In other words, it was a hopeless piece of equipment. So they had left it in the rain unused and rusting. Then after a decent interval, they painted it up so they would not get blamed for the state of disrepair. This way, everyone wins. The engineer would feel fine to issue the "condemnation certificate”. The workers were happy they could now look forward to a good machine. The moral of this story: the people on the ground are much smarter than you think. So walk the ground. Don't stay in the office without knowing the true situation. If your people see you willing to get your hands dirty, they will respect you for caring and understanding.

I was in the Sewerage Branch for only a year before being transferred to the Ministry of Defence. No one asked me whether I wanted to go. Dr Goh Keng Swee simply decided that should be. The Singapore Armed Forces was on an accelerated growth path. I was appointed project director to coordinate the establishment of the first anti-aircraft gun battalion. What did I know about anti-aircraft guns? Nothing. But I was prepared to learn. Next I was made project director of the Junior Flying Club, now known as the Youth Flying Club. What did I know about planes and flying? Nothing. But I was willing to learn. And I was able to gain the confidence of the people involved that I had no desire to take away their credits: I was there purely to facilitate their work and coordinate their efforts. The moral of the story: help others succeed. Continually ask the question: How can I help you do your job better?

I was made General Manager of Singapore Automotive Engineering, now a division of ST Kinetics, at the age of 24. Energy and curiosity and a desire to learn and to contribute made up for my lack of specific skills and industrial knowledge. And ignorance and naiveté helped make the difficult, achievable. A string of appointments followed. As Director Logistics, then Director Finance in Mindef; then the first Principal Private Secretary for then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew; then Permanent Secretary successively in the Ministry of Defence, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Education and finally the Ministry of Finance from which I retired from the Civil Service in 2006. I also served 5 years as the Head of the Civil Service. The moral of my story: integrity, trustworthiness, reliability, energy, imagination and a continuous drive for excellence attract to you opportunities to learn, to serve and to contribute. Don’t chase the rewards; chase the opportunities.

When I retired from the Civil Service, I was asked first to chair the Economic Development Board and then to be Group President of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. Each has been a wonderful opportunity to lead, to help people grow to their potential, to help organizations become more than they ever imagined themselves possible. To be able to garner together the energy and creativity of everyone is to never focus on oneself but to always look out for the good of others. Leadership requires knowledge andexperience but, most of all, it requires an other-centredness that comes from the inside of you. Lao Tze, the ancient Chinese philosopher, is reputed to have said, “As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate…When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’”

As I wish you, the new graduates, the very best for your journey of life, may I simply say, “Seek to be the best you can be.” Anything less is less than fair to yourself and to your capacity to contribute to the well-being of the people around you. Build a reputation for hard work, integrity, trustworthiness and reliability. Opportunity comes to those who are able, ready and prepared. Use your brain, use your hands, use your heart. Your degree today is not the end of your hard work. Your degree gives you a new starting point to apply hard work to bigger ends and higher ends. Enjoy today. Tomorrow brings you new possibilities and more work. Good luck and God bless you.

Source: http://thepotatotimes.livejournal.com/23285.html

Inaugural Civil Service College & NTL Institute OD Practitioner Certification Programme Module 2_4-7 Feb 2013

Inspiration today

Inspirational Quote

“If you pay attention at every moment, 

you form a new relationship to time. 

In some magical way, by slowing down, 

you become more efficient, productive, and energetic, 

focusing without distraction directly on the task in front of you. Not only do you become immersed in the moment, 

you become that moment. ”

Michael Ray -