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Monthly Archives: November 2011

Living in the Present!

29 Nov

Living in the present is a skill. Even if you train all your life for this skill, you will still not truly master it, however it is worth a try. To live outside off the body with the mind off the present or thinking the reality is not to live at all, it’s all very exhausting. Some people get crushed living today whilst trying to carry yesterday and be worried about tomorrow. They become powerless, always catching up with the back logs, demotivated to take actions and whirl-pooled into these repeated vicious circles.

The only way to avoid this is by fully engaging and living in the present. It can sound quite cheesy, but how many are you really living in the present? How many are you really enjoying your holiday without thinking about work or other matters? Some even bring their work, work cell phone, laptops to holiday. Perhaps you are not like this, I truly hope so. Take me as an example, as much as I try to focus on one thing at a time, sometimes I still fall into thinking about work while having dinner and thinking about dinner while doing work. Isn’t it sad that we can’t even fully enjoy one simple thing like eating?


The frog is so right!

It is impossible to fully enjoying and mastering our life without living in the present.

You will probably wonder how to acquire the skill of living in the present. The answer is quite simple, perhaps too simple: make sure always in control of your wandering mind and have a powerful attention focusing on the present activity that you are doing, on the person you are talking to or listening to, then just practising staying present! Each time your mind wanders against your own will, practice holding it firmly back into the present! See developing this skill like developing your muscle; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. There are also other special exercises to help you staying in focus. Just like the one exercise we have selected below.

Seated Meditation:

Here are some basic explanations about seated meditation. Let’s keep it simple.

  • Find a quiet place and be sure nothing will interrupt or bother you, so your body can be relaxed and your mind can be in peace. Switch off your cellphone for the time will help too.
  • Sit on a flat surface with your legs crossed and back straight. Try to relax your crossed legs as much as possible, so that your knee is closer to the ground as possible. You may use cushion to make yourself more comfortable on the floor.
  • Now, close your eyes. If you want, place your eye sight on the tip of your nose (eyes are still closed) and follow your breathing. Focus totally on only on your breathing. Follow you breath and when your mind starts to wander off, bring it back again and again.
  •  Do this exercise for about 20 minutes on a daily basis as a start.

    Last two points before finishing the article:

    At the beginning, there will be lots of trivial thoughts on pending tasks coming in and going out. Let them be and take them down in a paper. Better yet, list out the pending tasks before starting the meditation. Thereafter you may fully focus on the meditation itself. Additional benefit by doing this is that now you may prioritize the pending tasks and begin with your day with the most important tasks first. You will feel much more efficient in completing tasks.

    Meditation is a tool to practise focusing and controlling your mind, it doesnt apply to a seated position only. It can be applied in everything you do. Focus yourself totally in what you are doing. Your productivity will rise and your stress level will drop. Try it out yourself!

    Join us for the weekly chanllenge on Living in the Present!

    Other Websites
    Embrace the Moment

     
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    Posted by on November 29, 2011 in Thoughts

     

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    2012 Count Down Week 5 – Living in the Present!

    28 Nov

    Bucket Challenge: Let go the Past, Stop thinking about the Future and Start living in the Present!

    (Ending Sunday 4th December 2011)

    This week’s challenge requires us to be very aware of our thoughts and be strongly self-disciplined in controlling our mind. Ever notice how much time we spending on missing the past, holding on to the memories we once had or dreaming about the future, but not living in the present?

    How about try living in the full Present starting from this week? Take this week’s challenge as short-term goal to start with!

    Challenge: Living in the Present
    Not to gossip or laundry list daily activities; and not to talk or think about the past and future for a week. Additionally do an activity which requires great concentration.

    Extra Challenge:

    		 Practise seated meditation (and let the mind go blank)
    Click here for some more tips

    Goals:

    		 Be aware of how often our mind wanders out of the present, at the same time develop a skill and habit living in the present.
    Time required: 3 hours or a whole week (3 hours for the selected activity and whole week for self-awareness and controlling your mind).
    Energy level: Medium to Strong (can greatly vary).
    Preparation: (1) Find and enroll yourself right now to an activity which requires great concentration, i.e. archery, golf or just learn how to juggle;
    (2) No preparation required for the whole week. Just be aware and have your mind focus on the present time. Don’t feel bad if you can’t stay all time in the present. Just give it a good try and see if there are any good outcome!



     
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    Posted by on November 28, 2011 in Weekly

     

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    How We Presenting Ourselves to the world in 5 Strokes!

    27 Nov

    2012 Count Down Week 6 – Presenting Ourselves to the world in 5 Strokes

    Introducing ourselves in 5 strokes, telling the world who we are in a creative way and use one metaphor best describing and presenting ourselves!


    About Hsing/Cindy

    The 5 strokes in the picture have highlighted my strong personal traits of being creative/imaginative, sexy, a lady, in control/feminist, in love with music and having double personalities.

    The metaphor best describes me will be, I am aurora borealis (northern lights) which are always changeable, astonishing and a bit mysterious! An aurora, by Wikipedia definition, is a natural light display in the sky caused by the collision of energetic charged particles. Like me, I am full of energy and unrest thoughts charging within my mind and body to go forward toward my goals.
    Just like the lights appearing all over the places with different colors, my creative thoughts are flying all over the places and jumping from one end to another. The light can only be observed in the high altitude atmosphere, guess only close friends can see this side of me.

    About Thandor/Loic

    The five strokes in the picture show that I’m always wondering how thing works, but also about their connections, relations, implications. I’m a very curious person from my youngest age. I still don’t know if it’s a good thing to be curious, but I’m always thrilled to make new discovery or experience.

    The metaphor

    The metaphor best describes me will be Water. I just love water. Water is formless, shapeless and it just flows. But water can also crush and take the shape of wherever it goes. Last but not least, like in the picture below water have the prefect proportional reaction to perturbation. No more no less. In life, anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.  So, I’m a person who adapt quite fast to new environment or situation and always try to react rationally.

    water drop
     
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    Posted by on November 27, 2011 in Thoughts, Weekly

     

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    Feedback on Participating Global Entrepreneurship Week

    23 Nov

    Let me begin with a great video which describes the Start-Up Weekend workshop.
    The meaning of being an entrenpreneur.

    During the Global Entrepreneuship Week, there were more than 60 Start-Up Weekend workshops and activities taking place in different cities all around the world. I have chosen the closest workshop to attend – Start-Up Weekend Genève!

    All the people participated in Geneva session were gathered to an auditorium and given one-minute to present their ideas. 40 people presented their ideas out of a total 140 participants. I have to say all of ideas were well delivered.

    I also gave my one-minute speech and it was quite a challenge for me. To clearly explain why my idea was the best simply in one minute and in front of 140 participants when my hands were shaking and words were running in and out of my mouth disorderly, and yet I survived. They got the message.

    After everyone has taken the turn, it was time to vote for the best 15 ideas. I felt like as if spending 30 minutes in a busy fish market. See for yourself in the pictures below (notice the wrong picture yet?).

    Each participant was given 3 Steve Job Bill to give to (vote for) the idea(s) they like the most. After 30 crazy minutes, the judge counted the bills per idea/project and the top 15 ideas were announced. Luckily my idea was in the best top 15 :)

    All participants were divided into the 15 groups and from this point onward, all teams went mad and hit on full power to realize their group ideas! Just to give you an idea on how crazy and intensive we were:

    Teams were grouped around 19pm Friday and worked until 2am in the morning. On Saturday, teams started at 8am and continued until 2am again. On Sunday, teams worked from 8am until 5pm when the first final presentation started. Depending on the team strategies and workload allocation, some of us worked around 34 hours in a single weekend, but most people preferred to have a good night sleep and allowed more time to sleep. It was a good thing we had unlimited energy drink supply! :P

    In these three days, we had 16 coaches with all different background giving us guidance and advises. They did a great job at helping the teams. However, some participiants followed coaches’ directions without thinking it through themselves.

    My idea went through various build, challenge, break down and rebuild phases. At each iteration, the idea was evolving, changing, transforming until something wonderful has appeared! At the end, only few original elements was incorporated in the final product. The product has evolved to something quite different and in fact even better!

    This is the beauty of a Start-Up Weekend workshop where ideas were challenged, transformed and evolved with a group of amazing diversified individuals, coaches together with their expertise, visions and solutions.

    Then I realized at that moment, what most important here is not the development of the idea, but the learning and the development of the team itself.

    Following 3 days of hard work came the final presentation. It was a 4 minutes long presentation and 7 minutes for jury’s open questions.

    Unfortunately our idea did not win the top best 3 ideas, but we will continue. Last year winning team did no further improvement nor implementation, despite the fact that they won and they had adequate resources and qualification needed in their team.

    In fact, 30% of the projects developed in the entrepreneurship weekend workshop continue after the workshop. Only with continuous actions and efforts, things will then happen, irrespective winning the project or not. If nothing is done, nothing will happened!

    Bellow is the final speech from the winning team:

     
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    Posted by on November 23, 2011 in Weekly

     

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    2012 Count Down Week 6 – Presenting Ourselves to the world in 5 Strokes

    21 Nov

    Bucket Challenge: Introducing ourselves in 5 strokes!

    (Ending Sunday 27th November 2011)

    This week’s challenge requires us to take a more creative outlook about ourselves. It’s not too difficult to describe ourselves to others through words, adjectives, facts about our heights, weights, colors of our hair…and so on. How about trying to describe with simple 5 strokes?
    Challenge: Presenting Ourselves to the world in 5 Strokes
    in 5 strokes, telling the world who you are in a creative way

    Extra Challenge:

    		 Use one metaphor best describing/presenting yourself!

    Goals:

    		 Increasing self-understanding; exploring and stimulating creativity
    Time required: 3 hours or less
    Energy level: Easy-Medium
    Preparation: (1) Find out your strong personal traits that you would like to share with others; (2) Design a creative way to present them, i.e. 5 strokes of self-portrait with various colors, shapes, thickness.



    Click here to see how we did it!

     
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    Posted by on November 21, 2011 in Weekly

     

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    Challenges – Gifts in Disguises

    20 Nov


    Challenges in general are associated with negative feelings and unpleasant confrontations, especially when being challenged by others or defeated in competitions involving others.
    The word “Challenge”, as per one of dictionary definitions, is defined as ”A test of one’s abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking”*.

    A challenge is more intimidating when we realize there is inadequacy in our abilities or resources. It takes courage and honesty, which we often take for granted, to face our own shortcoming and to do something about it. When we set a goal to achieve, but failed, instead of focusing on the negative feelings and inferiority, it is better we appreciate our own courage and honesty for accepting own shortcomings, declaring goal to enhance ourselves, embracing failures and coming up with solutions.

    When a challenge is successfully completed, it often brings us more than what we originally expected. We have not only accomplished the challenge itself, but also we become more confident, self-assured and encouraged to the next challenges.

    Bucket List Challenges are goals we both set for ourselves as individuals and as a team. We see challenges in a positive way where we may enjoy and benefit from them.

    We invite your joining with us to see challenges as gifts in disguises, and start your own challenges or join our challenges where possible.

    Looking forward seeing you!

    *Dictionary definition from The Free Dictionary

     
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    Posted by on November 20, 2011 in Thoughts

     

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    Becoming an Entrepreneur, Turning Passion and Dreams into Reality!

    15 Nov

    passion-for-lifeThe coming week, from 14th to 20th November, is the Global Entrepreneurship Week, celebrating entrepreneurship and creativity. Perhaps you are already a successful entrepreneur or on the way becoming one or just starting, no matter which stage you are in, there is always room to challenge yourself and take another big step in your progress/career.

    Below table illustrates the proposed potential challenges linked to various stages of entrepreneurship, find your stages and the corresponding challenges, create one challenge that is most relevant for yourself to achieve by the end of the Global Entrepreneurship Week!

    One sharing point, especially for the starter :) is that once it is clear that your ideas are turning into business opportunities and action plans, all you need is a leap of faith! Go ahead and hold your breath, just register your company or even a domain name for your business website. I assure, actions will just be taking place one after another! And your brain will not rest :)

    Becoming a successful entrepreneur is a life-time journey, irrespectively which stage we are in, continuous self-enhancement, learning and networking are inevitable! Let’s take a big leap together!

     
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    Posted by on November 15, 2011 in Thoughts

     

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    2012 Count Down Week 7 – Participating Global Entrepreneurship Week

    14 Nov

    Bucket Challenge: Exploring entrepreneurial spirit, potential and creativity!

    (Ending Sunday 20th November 2011)

    From 14 to 20 November 2011, it’s a world week dedicated to entrepreneurship and creativity. During this week, millions of people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Various countries are jointly to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire people, especially young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect people everywhere through local, national and global activities which designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities, from online to face-to-face, and from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings.

    Check out the below websites ~

    Global Entrepreneurship Week Switzerland
    Global Entrepreneurship Week UK
    Global Entrepreneurship Week USA
    Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia
    YoungUpStarts

    (search “Global Entrepreneurship Week” to find out more)Both of us are new entrepreneures in the progress of turning our passion and ideas into reality. We are still learning and exploring the world of enterpreneurship. Join us and let’s start-up our business together!

    Challenge: Participating Global Entrepreneurship Week
    turning passion and ideas into reality, making impressive progress in starting own business

    Extra Challenge:

    		 Business Kick-Off!

    Goals:

    		 One big step closer becoming an Entrepreneure!
    Time required: at least 1 day (dedicate 8 hours in Saturday)
    Energy level: High (both physically and mentally)
    Preparation: Project ideas, Business Plans, Business Enhancements, Attending Meetings, Networking and Sharing (if you just begin to explore the idea, don’t worry. Read here on how you may approach)



     
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    Posted by on November 14, 2011 in Weekly

     

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