Flowers make my day a great day!

Ah! Beautiful Roses!

The beauty of Roses make my day a great day!

:) 

Busy April

Ah! The Month of April is a busy, busy month for me. I've signed up myself in three courses in this month:
(1) Adult Public Speaking Course (lasted for two months)
(2) Basic Sign Language Class (lasted for three months)
(3) Basic Graphic Animation (lasted for three months) 


Upcoming Activities:
(1) Preparing Club Account Statement (to be submitted end of this month)
(2) Swimming Course (in consideration - month proposed - Jul)
(3) KL Trip (6 - 9 May '10)


What I've learned so far in the course attended above:

Public Speaking Class:
I attend the course at Lighthouse Education together with my little brother, Justin and it's been an enjoyable study during the whole session. So far, i have attended two session and during the last session, we were asked to do an Ice Breaker Speech. Through the Ice Breaker Speech, I found out one greatest secret of my little brother, he actually did very well in his public speaking! Go! Go! Justin!

Sign Language Class:
I attend the course at my church together with my big brother, Ken Yong and some friends. I'm also being with the lesson two times. The tutor, Mr. Victor is a great teacher, he simplifies and teaches us the easy way to memorize and learn the signs. So far, we have learned numbers, letter A - Z, some basic form of communication and some sign language related to family. The purpose of the class is so that one day, we can use the sign language learned to spread gospel.

Figure 1: I Love You in sign language letters

Figure 2: Sign Letter of My Name

Figure 3: I Love You in sign language (one sign to express all)

Graphic Animation Class:
I also attend the course at church. We are taught some of the history of graphics and some of the ways to do basic graphic. For the previous three lesson attended, we are exposed to graphic drawing and how to make a movement to a graphic. Quite an interesting course, hmm.... but i'm quite slow in catching up with this. Guess that i need to spend some time to study more on this when free.

Basically, these are what i'm up to within this month and the following months. Gotta go to have my lunch now! See you in next blog!  =)

The Sandwich Principle

Last week i learned about 'The Sandwich Principle' in public speaking class. This principle is inspired by Mary Kay 's famous quote "Sandwich every bit of criticism between 2 heavy layers of praise". So, what is 'The Sandwich Principle' about?

When we look at the sandwich itself,

The sandwich consists of two layers of bread - top and bottom and in between the bread, there are fillings. Now, let me ask you, what is the most important of the sandwich? Is it the top layer of bread, the bottom layer of bread or the fillings of bread?

Aha! The fillings! We all like to know the fillings of the bread before we purchase, aren't we? The fillings are the main part to determine the overall taste of the sandwich. And without the fillings or rather say that if the sandwich is a 'kosong' sandwich, the sandwich won't be whole, right?

Actually, what I'm trying to link here is in our real life, sometimes, we are required to EVALUATE' or to give some comments to people ideas, proposals or speech presentation. In this, comments should be encouraging and helping people to improve.  The connections of sandwich to comments goes like this:

Top Layer = Positive Acknowledgement
Fillings = Areas for Improvement
Bottom Layer = Positive Acknowledgment

You got the idea now? It is important to start a comment by praising or giving positive acknowledgment so that the person know what are their strengths and to continue motivate them in related task. After that, we go for the areas for improvement and give our best suggestion to the person on how he or she can improve by suggesting constructive ideas.  After giving the suggestions, end by telling the person his/ her greatest strengths and summarize the overall ideas.

For my case, being a Toastmasters, giving evaluation to other members' speech is one of our roles and things learned. I found out that giving evaluation is a useful technique, not only helping others to improve, but also can let us have clearer view on our own strengths/ weakness and improve our speech too.

The Climb

This song is released in March last year, 2009 and sung by Miley Cyrus. I've been listening to this song quite lots of times but have not actually pay attention on the lyrics of the song. Few days ago, i heard another version of this song, which have actually captured my whole mind for the song. The song is just too amazing, meaningful, and catchy to listen. I like the lyrics very much; feel calm and relax when listening to the song. And the song particular reminds me on a friend who is a very optimistic person and encourages me a lot through words. "Keep on moving; keep on Climbing; it's all about the Climb!"

Click for the song "The Climb"

Lyrics:

I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreamin' but
There's a voice inside my head sayin'
You'll never reach it

Every step I'm takin'
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shakin'

But I
Gotta keep tryin'
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facin'
The chances I'm takin'
Sometimes might knock me down but
No, I'm not breakin'

And I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep goin' and I

I gotta be strong
Just keep pushin' on 'cause

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes you're gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeah, yeah

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Keep on movin'
Keep climbin'
Keep the faith
Baby, yeah

It's all about
It's all about the climb

Keep the faith
Keep your faith
Woah, woah

(The red-colored words are my favourite part of the whole lyrics.)

For piano lovers who are interested to learn to play this song, please click the link below for the music sheet link:

Taken from www.ahdoe.com on "The Climb" Music Sheet

Friends, there are always ups and downs in our lives. No matter how is it, remember to look upon the bright side of the whole situation. We can always earn new skills and experience from our ups and downs. Never give up on the things you want; keep on moving and we will reach our dreams!

A Straight Line Upon Reaching Your Goal

First, let us use a pencil to put two dots on a white paper, the A dot on the left side and the B dot on the right side. After that, draw a straight line using the ruler from A to B. What do you think of the straight line? Does it appear to you as a 'short distance'? Do you find out that when you have two points written down, it is easier for you to draw the line?

"Yes!"

I hear your answer. "Yes!" A straight line is actually reflects to our line, our journey life. Similarly, A is your stand point and B is your goal. A goal is something you want to be - your dreams and your ambition. It is important that we have a clear goal to reach out along the journey to the goal (the drawing of straight line) is to focus; to understand; to passion, to be patient, consistency, and put words into action.

How do we know that if the goal set is correct? In this case, this question might be popped out in your mind.

"Will i change my goal after i proceed on with some actions?"

Before i answer this question, let us look at the story below:

A young man, aged 24 has a goal to slim down by 10kg in three months. His current weight is 110kg. So he started to write out his schedule: 5.30am wake up and go for jogging for 30 minutes. Breakfast: 2 pieces of bread with mayonnaise (no butter or margarine). Lunch: Skip and replaced with fibre drink/ fruits Dinner: vegetables with rice. He succeeded follow the schedule in the first week. And he is happy for the result that he found out that he has successfully lost 2kg in that particular week. "Wow, i have lost 2kg! That's great! hmmm.... perhaps jogging for three times affect still okay as long as i reduce my meal should be no problem." The man told himself in his heart, cheerfully. Slowly, his schedule was not followed orientedly and day by day..... the next morning, "well me just have longer sleep.... the next morning i shall exercise more to replace yesterday exercise".

You got my points here? Many of us will start bargaining when we move on with our steps to reach our goals. We tend to give less focus after weeks by weeks. Or best say our focus being distracted by other temporarily goals? or attraction? or people words?

A line shouldn't being crooked. Similarly to our path to goal (A --> B), the path shouldn't be crooked. It should IN LINE with our missions and ways to reach the goal.

How can we make sure that we do not get lost along our path to our goal? Here are some suggestions:

(1) Write it out big and clear enough in a piece of paper/ whiteboard and place it at anyplace that easier for you to see to remind you on your goal that you need to achieve.
(2) Motivation. Reading motivation books, talking with entrepreneurs/ successful person to increase your motive to success and also attend required course to widen our knowledge and get to know how other people reach their goals.
(3) Visualisation. Dare to visualize yourself in your current goal now. It will trigger you more to reach your goal. Imagine what will you feel when you reach your goal.
(4) Action. Put on actions when you have set the missions.
(5) Focus. Do not get distract by other unnecessarily or temporarily attraction.
(6) Clear. Be sure what you want to do. List out your hobbies, dreams, expected future.
(7) Checklist. Write down what you have done so far and what other things needed to be done to reach your goal.

Be sure of you have the right feelings, thoughts, ideas to reach your goal!

And most importantly "Never Give Up in anything you do!"

*** The writing of this title is specially dedicated to all my friends who are on their path in searching goals of life. Best wishes for you all in journey.***

Keluang Gal?

I got a new nickname called "Keluang Gal". If you still remember, few years back, there was a local cartoon called "Keluang Man" (Click for "Keluang Man" brief history) . The nickname is given for (1) fun (2) encouragement to be positive minded and be dare and strong in every circumstances.

Okay, now.... i'm the Keluang Gal. I will conquer the fear in me (fear of speaking in front of crowd? fear of being leaders of a team? fear of doing something wrong? ) Alright..... i am gonna to conquer the FEAR! hehehehe!

Lagging

'LAGGING', 'LAG' .....
often we hear people say:
"Argh, my pc is lagging!"
"My streamyx line is very lag, argh..... "
"Issh... Those people so lagging in doing their works... just can't stand it"

A very optimistic friend has inspired me by saying that:

"Lagging is simply another way to train our patience." 

Can't help to agree that as this is just too beautiful for me to learn.

At the same time, we can learn to control our frustration too!

Hope it applies to you too!

Cheers!