Escape

I’m going to Bali on a annually company trip. Another trip. Another famous beach. I’m excited!

Yet these occasions always remind me of one of my favorite quotes from Jim Rohn:

“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.” – Jim Rohn

He’s absolutely right. It’s always easier to escape than change! I see it happening all around my life…

Bro

It seems too early for me to credit someone for something. I’m still young. Real life’s seemingly just started.. But if there is anyone who I should be deeply grateful for so far, it must be my bro.

Though perhaps we’re so different now – in almost everything, I can’t hide the fact that he has made a very positive impact on me since young. He has guided and inspired me so much & despite all the differences I’ve still learned from him a lot.

To be honest, like many others (the averages), he seemed to underrate if not look down on me. He did doubt if I could find a job here. Even when things change, we still can’t work out together…
I did compare & had a shallow thought that if I were him, I would have done a lot better as a bro.
But then I realise we don’t need to be a best-fit to learn from each other. I know many are jealous of me when I posted on FB as they haven’t & may never find someone like that in their entire lives.

I’m lucky! Damn lucky!

…

He gave me some hopes & optimism at home though it turned out to be just diplomatic & might not even be true.

–

He bought then carried some heavy dumbbells from very far away for me to work out at home.

He bought me the widely considered “best business & personal development” book of all time.
He introduced me the guy whose philosophy changed my life over & over again.
My greatest achievement so far – the 100 consecutive push-ups was also introduced by him.

Those are just to name a few…

When I just came to SGP, he told me sth that I’m still & gonna remember for times to come:

I’ve been here for almost 4 years but I’m still studying English almost everyday. So I can’t find any reasons for you not to do the same.

One time, he took me to a restaurant in Bugis & said:

If you wanna date any Singaporean girls, you have to take them here (good restaurants) very often!

And yup, I did 🙂 But of course not that often

One of a few times he complimented me:

Your character, appearance,… If you succeed too, it’d be almost perfect!

I was actually preparing to stand on my own 1 year ago. I took her there & told her the story… Things became even clearer during the last summer. And now it becomes reality. As I told my colleague, we hardly talk since then. But at least I know I’ve still got someone “there”…

I’m totally ready to stand on my own. Be strong & succeed!

We may go in totally different roads but our destinations seems exactly the same. We’ll reach there for sure. See you there, bro! 🙂

4 Types of People

Robert Kiyosaki has his own 4 types of people. You probably have your own too. So do I. I’ve found out there are 4 types of people in the world:

– the stupid

– the rather stupid

– the very stupid

& the completely stupid people

Yes, you see it right. People are stupid (that’s why Jim Rohn asked us to walk away from the 97%). We were all born smart but then taught and trained to be stupid. Of course we are not all the same. And since stupidity is just a temporary state of mind, every single one of us can change and eventually live very different lives. We’ve seen many “stupid” people who remains poor while a lot become the middle class, a few become rich and one or two join the billionaire club.

So what are the differences?

Well, the very and rather stupid people are often strongly influenced by their family & environment. The completely stupid people are interestingly those who actually know they’re stupid while the stupid people are those “know-it-all” kinds of people who think & behave as they already know everything (In Vietnamese, we call them “da ngu ma con to ra nguy hiem” lol – I’ve seen a few and personally interviewed one – talk about that later :d ).

As a result, the completely stupid are eager to learn and keep improving themselves because they know they’re not perfect. The very and rather stupid work pretty hard to earn a living because they’re weak and don’t know what else they could do. The stupid people are often smart and happen to be in the right environments. However, because they don’t work as hard as the very and rather stupid and due to their special “know-it-all” characteristics, they live wasteful lives between doing & not doing anything.

For me, I’m lucky enough to be in the last cat. In fact, I’ve “advanced” from the stupid to become the completely stupid person 😀 Since I can advance “backward”, I’m really happy and blessed 🙂

What’s Personal Development?

Congratulation! I don’t know what brings you here. But if you’re just ever interested in personal development, you’re way ahead of most people in this planet. Most people don’t even give just a passing thought to the subject. So again congratulation, as I completely agree with Steve Pavlina’s idea for his famous book, personal development is only for smart people.

What’s Personal Development?

Have you ever wondered why there are more poor and failed than rich and successful people? Why the richest 2 percent of adults in the world own more than half the world’s wealth? Or more personally, why you live? what you live for?… Your personal development journey probably starts when you ask yourselves such questions. Personal development or self development is basically the study and practice of changing and improving not somebody else but YOURSELF. It involves personal change, growth, progress, advancement and improvement. It’s a personal pursuit of excellence as opposed to settling for mediocrity. Sometimes personal development is simply the process of asking and answering by yourselves some questions which you have never ever done before such as “Why should I go to college?” and “Why should I work 8 hours a day?”.

Personal development is not something that can be learned and absorbed over night. In my mind, it is a never-ending process but it can be LEARNED by anyone at any ages, not matter what gender, race and where you come from.

Why is Personal Development?

Personal Development is essentially important. Many of us have already known perfectly that we need to stop eating junk food, stop smoking, exercise frequently and sleep early; some even know that they should quit their jobs and should never have a religion. But at the end of the day, most of us don’t bother to do anything. This is when Personal Development comes in to help.

From the inside, personal development helps you change your bad habits and thinking; improve your awareness, identify your values and belief, foster your natural abilities, build and enhance your self-discipline. Personal development is self-actualization. What’s more, personal development leads you to the greatest life philosophies that have ever existed such as “Success is something you attract by the person you become” (Jim Rohn) or “You are what you think about all day long” (Earl Nightingale). Through personal Development, you have the ability to access and learn outstanding lessons which you were and would never be taught anywhere else. Ultimately, personal development grows you to become the best person you could possibly be – the person who could help you overcome any problems and difficulties you would encounter in your life journey. That person helps you make the right choices; take decisive and effective actions and eventually succeed in any fields you want no matter it’s health, career, finances, relationship or spirituality.

You don’t need to be better anyone else but yourself!” – Rexy

From the outside, your attraction acquired by personal development will help you attract more attractive people to your life. Together with making your life more fun and interesting, the results of surrounding yourself with outstanding people are unbelievable.

When you are already there, you cannot fail to get rich or whatever you want in life. You’d probably find yourself lose the initial interest in the material side of life like money, fame or power. You would, instead, look for more love, contributions and such. The power and importance of personal development is unquestionable and that’s why every serious student of life should learn Personal Development more than any other subjects.

How to start

This is the hardest and most important part. At the end of the day, no matter how much you read; how interesting you feel, unless you take immediate action, you won’t get anywhere further. Mere and random reading doesn’t work! In fact, as you dilly-dally, the whiny and mediocre voice on you takes over, telling you to remain complacent and unchanged. But on the other hand, if you take action and your actions are consistent with what you read and want to do, there wouldn’t be any more room for that voice. And it turns out not be that hard as it seems to be. As Jim Rohn once said, success is easy; do the easy things, you can quickly start your PC journey by doing anything in this list:

– Start a blog of any kind about what you already like and wish to write. Even if you don’t know what to write about, just promise yourself to jot down something –  it may be your daily experience, feelings and such like a journal or diary, at least once a week and don’t let your blog idle for so long, you would already get a promising start. I offer free service of setting up and hosting a FREE blog at my domain for anyone who wish to start a blog but don’t have a capability to do so. As in my own experience, it’s better if you start to blog using WordPress instead of free blogging services like Blogger.

– Read a book! To be honest, I’m really lazy in reading. I wouldn’t read any random books. All the books I’ve read are highly recommended by highly successful people. So my book library may be a good start for you. From which you would know what interests you and where you should go next.

– Do some little thing that you’ve never ever tried before such as go out and talk to a stranger, say thank you to your mum, etc. Remember, the key is to do small, “easy” things consistently every day.

To conclude,

When somebody ridicules that you are very lousy and stupid, you reply nothing but a pitiful smile.

When you worry others’ rights and profits more than yours.

When you help others without any personal calculations.

When you give more than you receive.

That what personal Development is all about.

Life is fun and Success is easy

Success is easy, do the easy things

Jim Rohn – the American’s foremost business philosopher, gives us a naked truth concisely: success is easy; do the easy things and do it everyday. Why is it easy? Well, it’s easy because almost all of us basically know what we should do and if we actually do it, it’s not hard at all. First, we know we should keep improving our skills and abilities; we know we should learn to communicate well; we know we should excercise regularly to keep healthy. Second, we also know we should stop eating fast food, junk food and smoking as they are harmful to our health in the long run. Don’t neglect to do the easy things is the advice he want us to really master. Here comes another great saying about life and success:

If you do what’s easy, your life will be hard; if you do what’s hard, your life will be easy

Does the famous “hard – life” Les Brown’s saying contradict with the “easy – sucess” Jim Rohn’s? The answer is not at all. Let’s first find out what he means by “easy”? Easy things here means the jobs and tasks that are simple, fun and irrelavent to our works and goals such as watching funny videos on Youtube, go Facebook, Twitter and reading news. It’s relaxing to watch videos. It’s fun to chit chat with friends. It’s conformtable to read news. Everyone can and wants to do those. Those time wasting activities contribute nothing to your skill improvement and goals at all, that’s why if you keeping doing what’s easy, your life will be hard. But did Jim Rohn just say, success is easy, just do the easy things? Well, Les Brown also clarifies what he means by hard? He said, we must try to do the hard things; make tough decisions. Tough decisions are tough not because we don’t know the answers. It’s tough because most of us don’t have the courage to do what we know.

Tough times never last but tough people do. Say, I’m tough! – Dr. Robert Schuller

Back to Jim, when being asked, if success is easy, why aren’t more people become successful? He said, what’s easy to do is also easy not to. He told us, the things he found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. He found it easy to read the books that could affect his thinking and ideas. They found that easy not to do. He found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn’t matter. Six years later, as a result, He became a millionaire while they were all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In summary, let me give you some other words of Jim Rohn to conclude the article, when giving the choice of “easy to” and “easy not to”, do not neglect to do the simple, basic, “easy,” but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines. Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not. Be successful, do the easy things.

You should have a blog!

A summary of why you should have a blog:

• Don’t ever trust your mind
  10 or even just 5 years from now, you likely won’t remember even your most memorable moments today.
• Who were you yesterday?
  Time’s flying. As time goes by, you’re also likely to lose track of yourself. Jotting something down is one of the best ways to keep track of your progress.
• Your stories (experiences) are your life
  If you have a lot to say but nothing to write down. Do worry!
• Your experiences are invaluable! (even though you may think they’re not) So write them down & share with us. I’d love to read your blog

My Story

Many of my friends find it weird when I put a pocket pen inside my wallet. So do they feel when seeing me carry some “funny” notepapers…

You’ve got to write things down!

Don’t ever trust your mind

I and she – we had a great trip in Thailand. At the end of the trip, I asked if she will remember this trip. Un-reluctantly she said no, no, never, how would I forget these wonderful memory?

[keep things/events in perspective – what & who you love now may not last forever]

Well, our memory is certainly not as reliable as we may think it is. Write things down and you will know how much our memory can leak. This is even more important:

“Every time we remember something we recreate what happened rather than just replay a film from our mental archives. The recreation is directed by a number of things such our beliefs, our emotional state at the time and our self-image. What you remember about an event may differ quite a bit from what someone else remembers.” – Henrik Edberg

One year later for some reason we broke up. Now every time she thinks about the trip, she says it’s really bad and that she just wanna forget it all. Unsurprisingly, the trip now becomes a forgettable experience simply because it reminds her of our broken relationship.

By writing things down, you are not only able to remember it longer but also keep its perspective.

Keep track of your progress

If I’m this positive person, who would know & imagine that I was a completely negative person not long ago? No one maybe not even myself. By writing things down, you can track your progress. When realising that you’re improving, you will become more appreciated of what you’re having and that keeps you moving forward.

By keeping a written record of your life, you’ll be more accountable. By putting into writing the action steps that you’ve planned; you will easily see what works and what doesn’t.
Most people just try to get through the day; never writing anything down; never keeping track of their progress along the way…” – Jim Rohn

Also, you don’t have to occupy your mind by remembering every little thing. By writing them down and clearing them out, you will become less stressed and it will become easier for you to remember and think clearly.

So first, you’ve got to write things down. Second and probably one of the most important things I would ever say in my blog: you should have a blog.

Don’t over-think it BLOG

I know, many of you’ve already used some kind of the so-called “blog”. Journal, diary, notebook, phone tracking notes – whatever you want to name it. The interesting thing is when it comes to blog, many would think that it’s a super hard thing that only writers would use. Only those who have outstanding writing skill should have a blog. Or it’s meant for businesses, etc. The truth is:

You don’t need to have a flair in writing to write.

You don’t need to have a business to have a blog.

You don’t even need to spend a buck to have a blog of your own…

Blog is just a tool that helps you keep your journals easier.

Just do it

Your blog’s design may be ugly but who cares, it’s yours.

Your ideas may be ridiculous; your thoughts may be random but who cares, they are yours.

Your blog would suck but who cares, it’s yours.

I remember that awkward moment when I admitted I loved a girl in my class and my friends kept laughing at me when they read it. But… So what?

Now how about:

Someone gets useful information when reading your personal trip’s experience with your girl/boyfriend in Vietnam?

Someone gets inspired when reading some of your “nonsense” ideas?

Your stories are your life

Your experience is invaluable – which you may not realise until you look back on it. So don’t let those experience be just a topic of your daily gossip or chit chat. Save it for others. If you meet a weird strange person and find him interesting, jot it down. If you have a chance to go to Africa, jot down your experience there.

You may not realise. But… Your opinions count. Your ideas are original. Your stories are unique. Your journey is a wonderful lesson. And they are all interesting. So Keep them. Write them down & share them with us. I’d love to read your blog!

Updated on October 5th, 2013

Jim Rohn

Beware: This man may change your life around!

I’ve seen quite a lot of motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins, Les Brown or Steve Jobs but no one is like this great man. His unique words, voice, tone and sense of humour are so inspiring. I don’t think there are exact words to describe how wonderful he and his speeches truly are. We can just watch & feel it by ourselves. In brief, he’s just simply phenomenal! There are not so many videos of his available online quite a lot of his videos available on YouTube.  But just from those available, which I’ve been listening everyday, I’ve learned lots of fantastic lessons – which would change everyone’s life! One of them is the short video above about 4 questions everyone should ponder: Why? Why not? Why not me? and Why not now? It seems too soon to say that he – his speeches, has turned my life around but he does make a dramatic impact on me right now. Thank you, great man!

I recommend you to go to his official website to get more information about his tapes and videos. You may also follow the facebook pageabout him to receive his wisdoms daily.

ps: Thanks my bro for letting me know this great man.

http://www.jimrohn.com/