The "Basics" Letter

Procrastination

“How to overcome Procrastination and get going on that goal you are working on"

Today's post is a bit long but I feel it is one of my best advice I have given...

“If I told you that for every step you made towards the goal you have set out to achieve, I would give you $1000.00, will you be motivated to get off your comfort zone and start working?”
I am amazed that every time I had asked this question to my training class, every hand will shoot up with an emphatic “YES!”.

Then, I say, “You do not have a big enough WHY behind what you need to do” The idea therefore is to understand the whys of the goals you are embarking on and make it so damn important or attractive that you are driven to get started and keep moving.

In a nutshell, this force will keep the evil “Procrastination” demon away.

My father-in-law suffered a heart attack about 13 years ago…looking at him today, you wouldn’t know that he has a heart condition. He looks very different from his tubby frame, chain smoking days before the attack. Now he runs at a pace better that many people half his age and has a killer golf swing. What happened to lead him into such a drastic change and achieving his personal goal to quit smoking and lose weight? He had tremendous leverage – the heart attack. He had a big enough “WHY” that motivated him to cut smoking and to exercise. He wanted to live as he still had a full life ahead of him.

However, do not think it was an instant process, many people forget the road towards worthwhile goals is paved with sweat, tears and sacrifice. He kept on pursuing his goals because the wanted to live. That strong desire drove the procrastination demon away and kept him on the road to recovery a year later.

All over the world, everyday, there are individuals who have this kind of leverage and get their goals kick started because something significant happened, but I say, we don’t have to wait for such drastic events to happen, all we need is the employ the power we already have in us: Choice

As human beings, we have the capability to make choices everyday:

    * Do I eat that extra helping of dessert my mom is urging me to help clear the plate
    * Do I make that extra phone call to the prospect
    * Do I apologise for the hurtful words I made in the fit of anger
    * Do I take the stairs or use the escalator
    * Do I watch TV or take out that correspondence course on Management
    * Do I give or do I take?
    * Do I gossip or do I continue to put the effort on the project?

Everyday we have that choice to either take another step or to go back another step. I would even go further to say that almost every hour or minute we have that choice to make…yes or no. I used to like the Star Wars movie and absolutely love Master Yoda’s advice to Luke Skywalker :

“Do or Do not, there is no try”

Do you do it or not do it? Will it help me move towards my goals or throw me into despair?

Here’s the thing, lasting success is not about taking the giant leap into your dreams but the constant step by step up the stairs towards your dreams. Step by step because you can see where you are going and adjust if things go wrong. It also builds upon the foundations and layer on strength with every step. This builds lasting change and gives you greater confidence towards other goals. Taking giant leaps will not give you the opportunity to change course if you need and you could end up at a place you hate.

So start by making the choice, small ones at first, never mind if it takes a long time, but the process of making small but deliberate steps gives you momentum and it will propel you towards your goals.

I simply love this quote by Gothe, which goes like:

“Riches amassed in haste will diminish, but those collected by little and little will multiply”

Also, a word of caution, do not think that by being busy you are making positive steps – many of us get caught up in the daily chores that deceive ourselves that we are doing great…

It's been said that most of us living in the twentieth century are not human beings but "human doings." We spend so much time DOING that we don't have much time left for just BEING.

Many of us suffer from a fatal disease called "busyitis."

Can you see yourself in this poem ???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He never had time to pen a note.

He never had time to cast a vote.

He never had time to sing a song.

And he never had time to right a wrong.

He never had time to love or give.

He never had time to really live.

But from now on, he had time on end...

He died today my busy friend."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t be busy, be fixed on what you need to do, the small but significant steps to achieve your goals. It will come true, if day by day you just DO.

Here are the steps:

   1. Select worthwhile, goals that excite and motivate you
   2. Breakdown the goals into significant steps and know what you need to do
   3. Make a CHOICE everyday, to progress by doing the steps (at whatever time you agree you will do it. Eg, evenings at 9pm for 30mins everyday)
   4. Take note of progress and look back to see how much you have progressed. Feel good.
   5. Continue with consistency until you get the goal.

So here is my parting shot. Try not to look at a huge goal and sigh. Think of the small achievable ones and smile. There is something about beginning a project – the hardest is to start, but the 2, 3, 4 or 5 years you expect to complete the goals usually do not come true. You will get to it much faster than you expected.

With gratitude,
bruce

Decide...and get a move on!

The well dressed lady had a stressed look on her face...in front of her was easily 10 - 15 different flavours of doughnuts. I can see her agonised demeanour shout out to all of us (some 20 odd) behind her...

They all look so good...I CAN'T DECIDE !!!

Well the rest of us in the queue probably shouted back in our minds : "Just take the ^%$!@#* sampler pack!"

Sometimes, standing in line I practice a lot of personal observation just to while my time away so that the wait seemed shorter. I must have been in the queue for over 45 mins but it seemed like 10.

I sometimes cannot blame the customers; retail shops try their darnedest to provide the widest  range of choice, but this creates  another set of problems - INDECISION...

Have you ever had the situation above? Frustrating isn't it? I sometime think that maybe it is better that people do not have many choices. It makes the decisions easier and better still if it was only one choice and the Decision was only to make or not make it. As the famed Jedi master, Yoda said so beautifully before: do or do not, there is no try.

The point that I am making today is that we are constantly faced with thousands of decisions everyday and we make them very quickly and unconsciously. This allowed us to get through the day easily. Imagine if we had to make a decision with some deliberation for all the choices, we will take a long time to get through our day!!! That would be crazy.

With choices and decisions, the important thing we must embrace is not the decision itself. Deliberating on it too much lead to paralysis by analysis...the point is about MOVING FORWARD. Making quality decisions is the missing link between Attitude and Actions.

Quoting General George S Patton: " The best decision is the Right one, the second best decision is the Wrong one, the worst is no decision.."

Make a Decison, move forward. Take our best shot and run!

With Gratitude,
bruce

PS. No matter how long the queue is, it really is not  worth the  calories eating doughnuts!! Why was I in the queue? Ask my mother...she HAD to try them...sigh!

Persistence

I bought my son a XBox 360 recently. It wasn't an impluse buy. In fact it was a fantastic deal...we got the whole set, along with 12 original games and a three year warranty to boot! The only snag...it was four months old. But, it looked brand new and it played like a charm! The total cost would have cost me easily SGD$1200...but we paid SGD$650. We are all thrilled and save a heck of a lot of money along the way...how did we do it?

Persistence...You must Never Give Up!!

Both my son and I applied the principle and got a fantastic deal out of it. Let me explain.

It took him 1 year to get his Xbox. I had resisted it at first as I felt that it would distract him from his schoolwork. He was disappointed, but he had persistence. He started to NAG me...daddy this, look daddy that, daddy wouldn't it be nice if YOU played this shooting game...

Then he was always on the lookout for demo sets at the malls and often dragged me into the game to play with him. He engaged me with the sales people and he asked about prices...but I said no way! Next he spoke to his grandparents about the game and his mother, then he asked what would he have to do to to "earn" a set, then he planned small chores to do to get some money, next he saved the monetary gifts he got, then he counted his  savings with me  to see how it grew...I said no. The money will go into his bank account. But the kid  -  Never Gave Up!

Our neighbour got a Nintendo Wii...he was there playing and got us interested in the interaction as well. Then the neighbours got into the act..."Oh, it's quite a family game...lots of fun...blah, blah"  I then said maybe...at that moment, I knew my son had succeeded and  quite  the same time, he stopped nagging. He somehow knew my "maybe" was already a yes. During the course of the year, I kept rationalising "maybe" he deserved an Xbox. So I started to search and ask around for one. Being a frugal guy meant that I did not intend to get one without a massive discount and to get the BEST deal, so I went to work sourcing out deals, asking friends and all sources just to find the best deal. After exhausting all that I could find, one came up with the deal that I could not say no to...the total package was at 50% off!!! Obviously,  we bought it...

Now, what basics did I learn?

Persistence is the vital key which can get you the breakthroughs that you need. it does not mean for you to keep at it every minute of the day, it just mean that you...Never Give Up! It may take a while, like in the case of my son, it took him a year, my case it took me 5 months to search...but we got it eventually.

It's the same with our dreams...it may take longer, but we will reach it as long as we don't give up.

with gratitude,
bruce

PS. I found out playing the Xbox is super addictive...so my advice, keep the controllers or power adapter away and restrict play to once a month or two. It's a great treat to reward  my son for doing a good job!

Basic Instinct

I have come full circle. After recently quitting a job that almost ruined myself, I took time off to seriously look at my journey so far and to set my compass again for my next lap of my life.

As far as I can remember, there had been three turning points in my life:

• When my dad died when I was 10 yrs old
• When I was arrested for stealing
• When I was first fired from a job I held dearly

Each of these points I felt like to wanted to to give up and end my life. However I never did. Why? My Basic instinct kicked in and I continued to face my music and turn my adversity into success. What was that BASIC?

The need to live...to survive

My mind did not allow me to end my life; difficult and tough as it is, I had to endure the issues and problems and find solutions to triumph over the challenges. At each turning point, I grew stronger. Now I looked back and realised that who and want I am today was because I stuck to the basics. Building on the fundamentals on a consistent basis gave me success. This is what this blog is about.

The Basics...in everything and it all starts with our need to survive.

We do not have to go far, search high and wide - the wisdom and knowledge is everywhere. All we have to do is see better. I saw better and continue to see even better.

I hope you will benefit from my experiences.

with gratitude,
bruce