Are You HUNGRY & STARVING For SUCCESS?

Are You HUNGRY & STARVING For SUCCESS?

Yes folks, let me borrow this chirping bird's one-liner:  Are You HUNGRY & STARVING For SUCCESS?  We really hope so because success itself can't be added to cart and checked out.  And if you're NOT that HUNGRY & STARVING for SUCCESS, then I am afraid and seriously doubtful that you can make any headway in whatever endeavor you are trying to push for.  Swing back to our daily lives.  When you had taken some snacks then here comes the regular meal, do you see yourself really gobbling up the food on the table?  Or would you give it a pass instead?

Or maybe, are you enjoying life so much, with all the perks and benefits around you such that it becomes so far fetched that you would ever get to be HUNGRY & STARVING, not when you have all the goodies and the freebies.  That's the mother of all ironies in life where we end getting caught up in that vicious cycle because after achieving a milestone of success, our HUNGER FOR SUCCESS just dissipates in thin air.

Looking back. how many times in the past were we like this ambitious guy who would risk his limb and even life just to go across that huge gap via a very fragile wooden plank?  I myself, I would admit that the milestone successes I did achieve in the past were the fruits of my being HUNGRY & STARVING.  With all humility, I realized that if I were not that HUNGRY & STARVING, I would not be what I am now✅✅✅

What Is More Convincing Than The 'TRUTH'

 What Is More Convincing Than The 'TRUTH'

We all want the truth.  We just hunger for the truth and no less than that.  Unfortunately, anything that presents itself as truth cannot just be accepted hook, line and sinker.  It has to go through the gauntlet, through the eye of the needle, so to speak.  Why?  It's because what is more convincing than the 'TRUTH' itself because anything and everything will emanate out of such purported truth although a big bulk of all those stuff will end up rubbished and/or less than truth.  BTW, some are simply optical illusions, whew.

Truth is, we should all cling back to the books because supposedly, they are the very repository of everything that can be tagged as 'gospel truth'.  But alas, as we speak now, even books CANNOT be deemed as the archives and repository of all the 'gospel truth' because half-truths and even the 'false truths' have littered the grounds all over us.  What does this mean?  We got to be ten times more discerning, more suspecting, more validating and less trusting till it's time to

Grabbing this poster from Netflix, this says all that has to be heard that THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH. What today's piece tells us is that each of us are all expected to carry that mantle of responsibility to help that TRUTH that is less than 100% can never claim to be the TRUTH itself because it is just simply irreplaceable.  Try looking at the possibilities when someone attempts to put up a farcical facade, let's ask ourselves, HOW FAR CAN THEY GO and peddle the half-truths or worst, the 'UN-TRUTHS' ?

Oh, I love this poster.  For those less cynical than me, you could be more likely and inclined to embrace 'half truths' but hey, this poster is alarming, saying:  BEWARE OF THE HALF TRUTH.  YOU MAY HAVE GOTTEN HOLD OF THE WRONG HALF.  Scary indeed, there may be some ounce of truth in a version of a story but WHAT IF, WHAT IF you ended up getting hold of the 'WRONG HALF'?  So, this just tells us that there are NO gray areas when it comes to TRUTH.  It's either a white or black, either it is here or there and worst, even neither nor.

For those frank and blunt enough, this poster should merit your thumbs up because this becomes akin to a 'winner take all', no quarters given or surrendered.  Lesson here is that if there is anyone else who should convince you with the validity of truth, you got to be your own man in CONVINCING yourself for the TRUTH✅✅✅

Keep Anticipating !

Keep Anticipating ! 

Happy Monday folks.  Let me start the week with a seemingly hollowed question.  When do you feel that adrenalin rush, that fidgety feeling of being unable to wait for the next day, next hour.  And BTW, what keeps you going on your feet?  Of course you got your reservoir of energy but is that what keeps you going?  I doubt it.  Instead, I'll confide with you what keeps me going, whether it is a Monday morning because what really ensures the locomotive train to keep going is that it Keeps Anticipating !

Let's just picture out that l'il girl who's looking forward for her birthday come next day.  What keeps  her anticipating !  Hmmm, it's that never-ending anticipation of all the possible gifts she will receive come next day.  Back to myself, what's my trick for maintaining that momentum and adrenalin rush?  It's simply to keep anticipating! And when do I start anticipating? I do start that anticipation as early as Sunday evening!

Here's the key, though.  What will you be Anticipating?  Ok, anticipate the do-good stuff, the positives and not the negatives  You DON'T anticipate FEARS and WORRIES.  It has to be your probable higher academic grades in school, that possibility of you receiving a customer commendation,.  It has to be your 1-on-1 with your team members who'll get promoted with your approval.

As American Author Iris Johansen says, ANTICIPATION MAKES PLEASURE MORE INTENSE.  That PLEASURE of promoting your team member, that PLEASURE of helping the needy, that PLEASURE of surprising your partner/spouse on his/her birthday come next day, that PLEASURE of breaking your daily revenues as you kickoff promoting new restaurant menus

In the midst of your travails, you would need any drop of anticipation, in whatever form and shape it may be.  Now, let's play devil's advocate.  WHAT IF we stop anticipating?  Oh ok, that's not a crime but do you know that that deprives you of starting things with the right foot?  Imagine your Monday list of appointments and deliverables start off on a placid Sunday night when you start to psyche up yourself because to KEEP ANTICIPATING is all that will keep you going, your energy pumping, your motivation would have reached a ceiling that keeps going up for you to realize that your ceiling is higher than expected✅✅✅

That 'HAIL MARY' Shot

That 'HAIL MARY' Shot

No sirs, today's piece is NOT about religion at all.  Instead, we'd like to spend a bit of our Sunday time to look back at those times when we were in a such state of DESPERATION such that we'll do anything including throwing desperately That 'HAIL MARY' Shot regardless of the probability you making the shot or not.  BTW, such is life, there were times in the past [and even possibly in the future] where everything will be DEJA VU for you.  But c'mon, let's take a step back for now and ask ourselves, do we really need to take that DESPERATION 'HAIL MARY' Shot?

We DON'T need to look far.  When this more than two-year pandemic struck us hard, many of us, especially the lower strata of society, were the hardest hit of its impact.  And both in the media and surely within your communities, we heard or read very 'desperate' situations especially in early 2020 when the pharma companies had yet to complete their R&D and successful production of vaccines.  How many lives were lost.  As of last count, we did witness 6.4 million deaths across, a number that was depressing enough to trigger DESPERATION.

Allow me to even borrow this poster from CBN Asia because obviously DESPERATE times would tend to lead us to DESPERATE moves, and of course, with prayers as the very last straw we tend to cling, hoping that while clutching that very last straw, it won't snap and cause us to drop dead in that abyss. Now, let's clear up the mixed up air.  Do we really need to take that 'HAIL MARY' Shot when we are in that desperate situation?  The answer is a clear and loud YES but with a qualifier though.  Ensure that you are into that precipice of failing.

Ensure though that 'HAIL MARY' Shot you're about to take is your LIFESAVER no less and NOT something that will push you deeper in that deep morass.  It is a a huge blunder if that 'HAIL MARY' Shot you're about to take will push you from worse to worst.  Remember that if you're successful with that 'HAIL MARY' Shot, that should be the ultimate 'GAME-CHANGER'.

On a lighter note, we got to take this poster seriously.  Taking a deep breath and grabbing a cup of coffee will do wonders to snap the 'vicious streak'. streak'. And whether you are at the workplace or in your entrepreneurial activities, when you are in an extreme situation that approximates a desperate scenario, consider taking a SABBATICAL and you can take that respite for a year or more.  Bottom-line is you're able to rise up and recover even if it will take you to go for a  'HAIL MARY' Shot❗❗❗

Teaching The 'UNTEACHABLES'

Teaching The 'UNTEACHABLES'

Hey, as we speak today, L&D [Learning and Development] is everywhere.  And many of those L&D stuff are literally right on our very finger tips.  Get to the web and even if you search for 'FREE' L&D resources, there are zillions of it.  But the biggest question still confronting us is whether there are still stuff that are 'UNTEACHABLES'?  Or maybe, they are still 'TEACHABLE'?  But the most common shortfall of most of us is the perception that 'UNTEACHABLES' will remain as NOT TEACHABLE at all?  This fallacy can be effortlessly shot down.  This is untrue.  Not all 'UNTEACHABLES' are NOT TEACHABLE.

So, what exactly are our shortfalls?  We have seen students who are struggling in Calculus and Math Subjects. And what's their final word?  Those subjects are 'UNTEACHABLES'.  At work, when we're struggling, some would tend to pass the buck to either his colleague or worst, to his bosses, alleging that the management style is the root cause.  When someone's relationship flounders, he/she claims there is nothing he/she can do because those are 'UNTEACHABLES', hence that relationship continues to skid till it finally collapses.  For entrepreneurs, when there are fumbling acts in managing the business, instead of improving his soft skills in managing the business, he'll just shrug off his shoulders because those are just 'UNTEACHABLES'.

Let's face it.  It's tough to crack a tough nut.  Tough indeed because many of us tend to be just damn stubborn.  Once our perception has been set, that's it, it is cast in stone.  So, overcoming that 'hard core' stubborn' could be one of the steepest mountains to climb.  So, how can we overcome that dilemma?  It's all about accepting that not all  'UNTEACHABLES' are 'UNTEACHABLES'.

So, what's the most common refrain we hear? Oh, it's this poster screaming 'I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING',  Why?  Because their mindset tells them that they have 'HIT THE WALL' and there's nothing else to do because those stuff are 'UNTEACHABLES'.  Unless we really REBOOT and RESET, admittedly it will be realistically a very long shot for 'UNTEACHABLES' to be 'TEACHABLE'.  Indeed, let's REBOOT and RESET❗❗❗

What's Your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move ?

What's Your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move ?

Let's all align with NEEDLE-Moving. It means taking an action that leads you to an IMPACTFUL result.  And for the NBA hoopsters, that means your action could have been a GAME-CHANGER   And surely, many of us did get into that 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move.  But the bigger question is, What's Your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move ?

Oh, let's cite a very common scene.  We all have seen ferris wheels everyone.   In the U.K., it is the LONDON EYE.  In Singapore, it's the SINGAPORE FLYER and in the U.S., nothing beats the HIGH ROLLER which is the very landmark along Las Vegas Strip.  So, the question is, how can ferris wheels remain an attraction anywhere everywhere ?

Oh, if there is a commonality amongst all these famous ferris wheels, it is the fact that each of them did MOVE the NEEDLE when each of them were launched for operations.  And they had to infuse tens of million USDs for them to lure its target market, the travelers, the revelers.  Swinging back to our life, I'm quite cocksure that somehow, you did MOVE the NEEDLE at least once in your lifetime.  But that's not our biggest confrontational question now.  Instead, we wanna know as to What's Your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move ?

Now, let's swing over to the movie industry.  What explains the unabated successes of animated movies, to name a few, these all romp away with the biggest box-office hits, name it. TOY STORY. LION KING.  SPIDER MAN.  COCO  YOUR NAME.  So these are concrete tidbits of bonafide 'NEEDLE-Moving' Moves.

So, swinging back to our life, What's Your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move?  Be it in school, at the workplace, at your home, within your relationship or even in your business forays.  But if you'll now admit that it may take 'donkey years' for your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move,  then that is just pitiful.  Why?  Because TIME is never on our side.  TIME fleets even much faster than light.  BTW, our unseen nemesis is TIME itself.  We CAN'T buy TIME.  Neither can we lease it.  It just breezes past you, past me, damn fast.  Gotta scribble fast, write down in no mean terms your game plan for your Next 'NEEDLE-Moving' Move✅✅✅

Have You Built A 'HOUSE of CARDS' ?

Have You Built A 'HOUSE of CARDS' ?

Yes, this is non-debatable.  We all want to have our own house, who does not want it as human nature tells us that to have a house is one of the barometers of success. Take away the house in the equation, you are likely touted to have secured a victory that is no more than pyrrhic.  So, how about if we have built a 'HOUSE of CARDS' ?  Will that give us that stamp of approval, those bragging rights that indeed we have finally etched our mark in terms of SUCCESS?  Not to fast, dude.

Well Well Well.  Per se, no house structure is inherently flawed as long as you have combed your structure with a fine tooth comb to figure out for the 'weak links', find out if you ended up with a SPOF [single point of failure] such that when everything in your planned house crumbles down, it goes down very much like the way a 'HOUSE of CARDS' get built.

And when our 'HOUSE of CARDS' crumbles down, do you recall you would end up 'IN FITS'?  Very much befuddled why, after all the years of real damn 'hard work', everything in life just crumbles down like a 'HOUSE of CARDS'?  Well, the answer to this is NOT hidden up in the clouds.  Instead, let us [literally] LOOK DOWN, down there at the very foundations of what we built.  How was that foundation of your relationship?  Or over there at work?  Or it could be your very own persona.  How could be someone raised so well by well-meaning parents could end up in a total, ugly mess?

This is all what matters.  No matter how grandiose-looking is your facade because if that seems farcical, look no farther than this gif with the collapsing building.  How did things end up this way?  Oh that's one of the toughest questions to dissect and drill down because I am absolutely sure the answer is not in one sentence.

So, the HARD LESSON here is that there will be no easy answers for difficult questions.  BUT there is a way out of this quagmire.  When we do a post-mortem as to how things ended up so badly, relook and revisit how you built and created that FOUNDATION of that crumbling relationship.  Most common causes of a crumbling 'HOUSE of CARDS' is that it was built IN A RUSH or it was built NOT with QUALITY.  Think about it, those reasons seem to be no-brainers✅✅✅

Be A VALUE-ADD and Not a VALUE-LOST

Be A VALUE-ADD and Not a VALUE-LOST

Life is all about VALUE.  When your VALUE increases, your STOCK goes up.  And when your STOCK goes up, your guess is as good as mine.  The domino effect follows when the good tidings will get into your doorstep, when nothing goes wrong but instead, you add VALUE and NOT loose VALUE.

So, if there is a variable in life which we should never relegate to the backdrop, it is our VALUE whether as a student, as a worker at the workplace, a partner or spouse in a relationship or as an entrepreneur.  Let's see when your VALUE goes down on a spiral spin, what will happen next?  You can be looked down as a non-entity in school, or just another robot at the workplace, a partner/spouse who may just get walked off and abandoned by the partner or an entrepreneur who would see his revenues taking a nosedive and his cash register clanking less and less often.  So, why can't we Be A VALUE-ADD and Not a VALUE-LOST

Heard this before?  The older I get, the more I see how relationships are what matters in this life.  Our relationship with God, our relationships with our family, relationships with everyone else, we come in contact with.  When life progresses, it's NOT going to matter what our collections looked like, what furniture we had in our home, or what style of clothing we wore that may not be 'in sync' with fashion.  What will matter is the people we knew and the bondwe had with them.

Social scientists did run studies showing that minimalism brings a beautiful balance in life as it eliminates all the excess that would otherwise occupy our time and energy, opening so many more opportunities to bring value into our own life and the lives of others around us.  Certainly, we need to 'simplify' our calendar and strep away from the 'obligations' that are a drain and fill our lives with 'busyness'.

Just like when we 'declutter' our home and decide what items you love and use, you need to look through your calendar and let go of things that do not ADD VALUE.  So many things on the calendar are superfluous, let those items go and when you have freed up time and have some breathing room, you then ADD VALUE back in✅✅✅

The Negative Aspect of Being Positive

The Negative Aspect of Being Positive

All along, we have been harping, promoting and egging everyone to be POSITIVE POSITIVE POSITVE.  Now,  here I am, bannering the negative aspect of being Positive.  Oooops, am I turning around and eating up my very own words?  Not really.  In fact, NOT AT ALL.  Instead, we want to reinforce the fact that we should not take everything to the letter, hook, line and sinker because such is life, it can never be perfect, it would never give us the blanket guarantee to be always on the safe side if we follow general principles.  Instead, there are "WHAT IFs' which we need to be wary of.

What we DON'T encourage is TOXIC POSITIVITY as it becomes an obsession with positive thinking.  It is the belief that people should put a positive spin on all experiences even for those instances that are extremely tragic.  TOXIC POSITIVITY can silence negative emotions and make people feel under undue pressure to pretend to be happy EVEN WHEN they are struggling.  In some cases, it may even be self-imposed.  A typical example is a person may try to appear happy all the time by presenting everything in a positive light.  However, it can also be an external pressure such as when people tell a person who is grieving to move on or to look for a positive in their loss.

Unfortunately, TOXIC POSITIVITY can come in various shapes and forms.  Asserting after a catastrophe that 'everything happens for a reason"?  Urging someone to focus on the positive aspects of a devastating loss?  Telling someone tp get over their grief or suffering and focus on the good things in their life.  Labelling people who always appear positive or do not share their emotions as being stronger  or more likable than others.

Generally, POSITIVITY is NOT harmful.  However, a person who believes that they must only be positive may ignore serious problems or not address underlying mental health issues, if any.  On the same breadth, people who demand positivity from others may offer insufficient support or make loved ones feel stigmatized and judged.  And the risks of TOXIC POSITIVITY is dangerous no less.  HOW and WHY?  We could be IGNORING REAL HARM and that's very risky.  Unfortunately, optimism, hope and forgiveness increased the risk of people staying with their abusers.

Demeaning a loss is a NO-NO as well.  Grief and sadness are normal in the face of loss.  A person who repeatedly hears messages to MOVE ON or be happy might feel as though others do NOT care about their loss.  A parent who lost a child, for example, might feel that their child was unimportant to others and that will only compound their grief.  And our fix?  Balance things out❗❗❗

Always [as in ALWAYS] Practice the Shots You Need to Shoot

Always [as in ALWAYS] Practice the Shots You Need to Shoot 

Oh no, many of us tend to shoot down when this topic surfaces.  OH, WE KNOW THAT.  THAT'S A GIVEN.  THAT'S A NO-BRAINER.  All the stuff you can hear from a devil's advocate.  Our dilemma is, in real life, we really end up spending LESS TIME to improve our craft.  Why that disconnect?  When in truth, we should Always [as in ALWAYS] Practice the Shots You Need to Shoot !

DON'T look far.  How come those medical frontliners have been DAMN SO GOOD when administering those Covid jabs and shots?  Simple.  They always [as in ALWAYS] practice the shots they need to shoot  So, what's our shortfall here?  Often times, we [wrongly] thought that being in our 'comfort zones' give us that mantle of expertise with a 'DO NO WRONG' mark which, at the very least, is a FALLACY.

Over in the NBA, there's that 'PAVED ROAD' that will lead you to BIGTIME SUCCESS but what does it take to end up with millions of $$$$ way more than you would need in your lifetime?  From the time a budding player straight from college [e.g. from Duke U, Michigan State, name it], then they get picked in the NBA Draft, then they start off their NBA career at the 'ROOKIE PAY'.  Give it 2-3 years, they could be extended a 'MAX ROOKIE' pay that could start somewhere $100 million whew!   

BTW, these are NOT outlier stories.  For the less than 500-strong NBA players active in the rosters, the 1st and 2nd quadrant of players have inked huge mind-boggling multi-year contracts.  What led these players to one success story to another?  Now this is the worst ever secret we can spill.  They always [as in ALWAYS] practice the shots they need to shoot  When do they practice? NOT JUST during mandated ballclub trainings but even during the NBA Offseason, they have plotted their individual intensive trainings, with a retinue of trainers on hand.  In short, they invest in $$$$ to improve their craft.

The hard lesson for us all is this.  You can be at your peak now.  You may feel that you're on top Mount Rushmore now.  BUT here's the serious BUT.  There is simply NO guarantee that you'll remain atop come next day or even in the short or long term.  That explains why these highly paid NBA players are really hardworking dogs in the kernel, never stopping to ALWAYS PRACTICE THE SHOTS THEY NEED TO SHOOT✅✅✅