Category: AHAS

What are the steps to success?

• Have a compelling reason. Checked.
• Have a vision that is made more real than fear. Checked.
• Take massive action. No time.
• Burn all bridges, and don’t look back. Er… Don’t dare to.

It is what Robert T. Kiyosaki said. Robert G. Allen talked about burning bridges.

All those years of what I’m sure some people will say is brainwashing and I am following that advice.

I am quitting my safe secure programming job, and taking up something that is as different as possible, real estate sales.

Will I succeed? I am certain of it.

(I am fully aware that I am accountable for everything I say in this entry, on public domain, in fact, that is partially why I am saying it. Burn another bridge. You being my witness, there’s no going back now.)

To me, it’s a massive change.

I have friends who tell me I am crazy. Our wedding is coming in little more than half a year’s time. Wedding package, actual day photography, house renovations… Things will get pretty tight very soon.

Of course, it’s not as bad as I make it out to be. I have a supportive partner, surprisingly supportive parents and very empowering friends. We have enough savings for the wedding, and a lttle more to last me three months without a paycheck. I have a house that is paying itself, more or less.

But why now?

It gave me goose pimples when I read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” again recently. Robert T. Kiyosaki said to “work to learn and not work for money.”

Rich Dad also said that being broke is a temporary condition, but being poor is a mindset. If I am to become broke, doing so before 30 would be best because I will still have time to catch up,

Amazingly… I am following Robert’s footsteps, maybe consciously at the start, but now semi consciously now because I am who I wanted to be now, and that person finds what I am doing perfectly reasonable.

I sure don’t want to be broke, but in quitting, I am saying I don’t mind being broke in order to achieve freedom.

Had a huge aha today as a couple of things i’ve learnt over the past weeks seem to line up to give me the same insight. All of this is triggered because I observed my friend Hoe Swee when we were in office today. I was sharing with him the power of Tony Robbin’s Personal Power program and how I felt a change in me. I asked that he tried the first of the whole series of tapes, and see if it worked for him. “If it works for you, it could well change your life” was what I said.

Well, he did try listening. He switched it on quite softly (understandable, since we were in office), and he was doing his coding at the same time. After a while, I heard the track repeating from the very beginning again. He was multi-tasking.

Zig Ziglar mentioned in his tapes how some of us do not have goals for the things we are working on now. Some think about their families when working. They lament about missing out on spending time with our loved ones when they are in office. When they are at home, however, they wil start thinking of what they have to do when they get back to office! No wonder they always claim to have no time!

Well, this ties in nicely with what Rich Schefren shared in his preview about the tasks we are doing and how much they are really worth. Basically, if something can be done while ‘multi-tasking’, it is not worth your doing them in the first place.

How much are we guilty of this? I know I am. I’ll be staring at Hwei Min while she is talking, and my mind would wonder off. Otherwise, I’ll be staring at my computer screen while listening to something Hwei Min is saying, and not really concentrating on either. I can accomplish so much more if I gave my 100 percent to each task at one time, and ironically, multi-tasking accomplishes less.

So, reminder to self:-

Regardless of whether for work or for play, concentrate on what I am doing, until that thing is done.

We had a great ‘aha’ today about financial education.

I was just thinking about my kid’s education. Hwei Min and I were discussing on when we should teach our kids to pick up academic skills.

I talked about making learning interesting. We thought about it and realized that maybe the reward system most parents practise (“You get 90 out of hundred for 3 subjects and you will get the latest Superman figurine”) is a way to create short term goals for kids to aim for. In a sick kind of way, it makes learning a little more ‘fun’.

Then I said that I wanted to train our children to like passive income, and we should make the reward passive instead of one off reward.

Suddenly, I realised, isn’t child’s allowance something like an adult’s paycheck? We go to school to get an allowance. Some kids are not given allowances during school holidays. We go to work to get a paycheck!

If in primary school, we get 5 dollars a week, in secondary school we will get 10 dollars a week. What has changed? Did we study harder? No. We just got older! Now what does that do to our mindset when we start working? We get “greedy”! (Go read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for the Rich Dad’s definition of greedy)

So here lies a very important lesson which we have yet to grasp. We must really rethink the system in which we teach our kids about life, and about money! Maybe we pay allowance based on performance? Maybe the allowance comes in the form of passive income?

I have started listening to Deepak Chopra, and he was talking about the close relationship between mind and body. Basically, our external reality is affected by our internal representation. So I thought I had it. I am enjoying myself tremendously!

I am learning so much every night. Watching videos online, writing my ebook, writing our story for the video on our wedding, getting regular exercise. I am having fun!

However, I have been pushing my body too hard. For the past week, my body had been showing signals. I had very bad eyebags. My eyes were swollen. It usually doesn’t bother me. I don’t care so much about how I look, but this time my eyes hurt.

I think I can only say that I have been trying to do too much, too fast. I am cutting on my sleep. I always wondered how successful people can stay awake for 20 hours a day. I guess I’v ebeen trying to accomplish that myself.

Unconsciously, I am walking faster, I am eating faster. I am filling up every second of my time I can fill with something useful. When I walk from Bukit Merah to my office, I am listening to an audio book. In bed, I am reading a book until I can’t read any more. Every single moment, I must be hearing, watching or at least thinking something. Unconsciously, I think I must have been breathing faster, my heart must have been beating faster too.

So yesterday, my body finally gave in, and I felt a cold and sore throat developing. Went to see a doctor, infected sinus and throat.

Working at a faster rhythm is great, but I think we have to bear in mind our Human Dynamics too. I am a PE, and I need my natural rhythm. I do not think that increasing my rhythm is a problem, but I guess I need a slow acceleration, rather than a sudden spurt. So when I am home, what did I work on straight away? Slowing my breathing, taking a long rest in bed. My body deserves it. 🙂

Phew… It’s been a tough week.

Been going down to site almost every single day last week, and OT almost every other day, hence too tired to do anything.

Good thing is that I have more time to read, and I have been reading mainly Isaac Asimov last week. Read Magic, a collection of fantasy short stories as well as articles by him on fantasy as a genre, and I found my inspiration in his writing.

Isaac Asimov? Fantasy? He talks mainly about the structure and idea of magic in stories, and explore that genre with a few formulaic shorts.

So it is quite interesting that the two movies I’ve watched for the past two weeks were Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Illusionist. Both on fantasy. Reviews coming soon… I hope.

But anyway, I have gotten inspired to write. I shall be coming up with some soon. I hope this is the right place to share them.

Oh… just for fun, take a look at these videos. Incidentally, they are all from the same genre of fantasy. Please, take everything with a pinch of salt, especially my Christian friends. 😛