Constant Improvement on a daily basis? Why not.

"We place the highest value on actual implementation and taking action. There are many things which one does not understand and therefore, we ask them why dont you just go ahead and take action; try to do something?. You realize how little you know and you face your own failures and you simply can correct those failures and redo it again and at the second trial you realize another mistake or another thing you did not like so you can redo it once again. So by constant improvement based upon action, one can rise to the higher level of practice and knowledge” - Fujio Cho, President, Toyota Motor Corporation, 2002

The quote above made by Fujio Cho really sums up the essence of Kaizen, a Japanese Management philosophy. The spirit behind kaizen is making changes in incremental way that will eventually in time creates big changes. The key factor here is very simple... Action! Just act and do something whether it is the wrong way or right way is much better from not doing anything at all. Either way, you definitely will learn something and in the process makes you a better and stronger person than yesterday.

The Man who shape his destiny

Besides many admiration for his powerful martial arts, Bruce Lee is also admired by the principles that he holds and the belief that he controls his destiny. Therefore, he have become a legend in his own rights. Below are some quotes made by him during his lifetime that we can reflect and learn.

"I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee

"To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities." - Bruce Lee

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made of." - Bruce Lee

" Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind" - Bruce Lee

Tend your Mind

Everyday our mind will filter an enormous amount of information from getting through to our mind. Just imagine if we start to focus on everything that we see, hear or feel at every moment of the time. Even the buzzing of mosquitoes or the beat of your heart sometimes are filtered by your brain so that you can focus on more important matters. Therefore, it is important that we select appropriately what we focus everyday in our life. Focus on negative things, magically or by coincidence, bad things keeps on happening around us. Because the mind will delete the positive things happening around you and therefore amplified the bad things that is happening. And you keep wondering what has happened to the world? Actually is not the world that have gone bad, but it is more of your perception of the world. Clean your mind and the world will become a better place for you.

Pain and Pleasure

For programmers, they know that behind all the complexity of the software and hardware of a computer, the most fundamental and basic of computer programming is the binary code, 1 and 0. Put it together like 1011, 0011, 0011, it can perform multiple functions. Suprisingly, the human brain also has this most basic and fundamental program imprinted in our brain. The binary code for our brain are pain and pleasure. Combine it together, it forms the very basis of judgement and action that we take in our daily lives. For every reality that we are facing, our brain quickly compute whether the activity is for pain or pleasure. Facing any danger situation, the brain will automatically know that this will lead to pain and we will either run away or face head on. We will always try to stay away from pain and moving towards pleasure and therefore making the basis of our own personality. For example, people who link pleasure with playing sports, will always move towards sports. But there will also be people who link pain with sports and therefore avoid sports. This judgement forms the personality of the person. By knowing and be aware of this basic programming of our mind, we can actually manipulate and create the action that we desire in life and fully achieved the life that we want.

Morning Wakeup

Do you want to start developing more enthusiasm into your life? Do you want to get the right mental attitude and high spirited to start your day? Why not start at your own bed. Wake up early and with enthusiastically. Do not get up with moaning and hoping to get another minute of sleep. Many people start off their day just like any other day and because of that, the day will become the same day as they have already visioned.

Try this procedure for 21 days. Everytime you wake up, immediately sit straight and shout 'Woohooo!! It's another good day for me." I know it sounds silly and maybe you will feel not in the mood of doing it early in the morning, but whether you are in the mood or not, just do it. You will noticed a slight change of emotion for you in starting the day. Instead of feeling sluggish to go to work, you will feel more vibrant and this will lead to positive day ahead. While you at it, try to sing a little. This simple procedure will bring huge differences into your life.

Self-Discipline

Elbert Hubbard once defined self-discipline as the "ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

If passion can be define as the fuel for any person to succeed, self discipline is the engine that maximise the fuel to gear towards success. A passion without self discipline is like a car running wild without any self control. A person who have self discipline will be more productive and will not let any distraction hampers his way to success. They tend to be more organised and more proactive in handling things that matters the most.

Continuous learning

"Continuous learning is the absolute requirement for success in any field." The reason I say this is because the only moment in time when you are not learning is when you are dead. We start learning the moment we are born into this world. Everything that we venture for the first time has a learning curve. Whether they are playing sports, learning musical instruments or starting in a new job has its own learning curve. Successful people will always try to learn as much as they could in their new field and speed up their learning curve in order to become competent. While, people who fails usually has less patient and tend to quit early. By staying focus and adopting a continuous learning attitude, you can excel in any field you choose as long as you can withstand the learning curve barrier.

Creating or Uncreating Habits

"The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, thought and act." - Orison Swett Marden

Our mind is a very powerful supercomputer. It will detect things that we do repeatedly either we aware of it or not, and programmed it into our subconcious mind and set it as autopilot every time we encounter the same experience. For example, if you start a new habit of waking up late and consistently doing it for 21 days, your mind will accept it as a habit and therefore you will have hard time to woke up early after that as the habit has been programmed to your brain. Habits are not borned in us but created by us. The way we do things in our daily routines will become habits as our mind wants to ease the operation of the brain and therefore it can make room for other new input and tasks. Knowing the power of the brain and the way it works can help us to develop the character that we want.

Sunken Ship

How to know that you are already in heavy debt? These are some indicators stated on the book by Azizi Ali, Millionaires are from a different planet!

1) Missing payments
2) Paying less than the agreed amount
3) Paying the minimum due
4) Busting your credit limit on the credit card
5) Having to borrow more money to settle old debt commitments
6) Not able to handle minor financial emergencies
7) Avoiding calls of creditors
8) Wondering how on earth are you going to get out of this mess

So, if you are having some or all of the symptoms as stated above, you are in big trouble. Having debt is like cruising the sea in a sunken ship. The more holes the ship have, the more deeper the ship will sank. Therefore, the first immediate step you should do is to try to find the biggest hole in the ship and plug it quickly. In the financial world, it means try to identify which debt carries the highest interest and eliminate it quickly.

The 80/20 Rule

"The first law of success is concentration - to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right nor to the left." - William Mathews

The power of effective action is by knowing what to focus on and making it happen fast. By applying the universal law known as Pareto rule, 80/20, we can be certain that in order to successfully complete a task efficiently is by focusing on the 20%, or the most critical part of the task. By tackling the 20%, the rest 80% will follow suit. We are bounded by time and therefore this law will be helpful in reducing the amount of time and work required in our journey to success.

Characteristics of Successful People

There is no one sure way of path to becoming rich. But there are certain characters and attributes of people that give them an advantage and the ability to create wealth. These people usually have these following characteristics:-
1) They are dilligent people.
2) They do not waste time, they do not procrastinate and work hard in everything they do
3) They will always try to be good and efficient in whatever they do
4) They have multiple streams of income
5) They control their spendings and moderate in living
6) They pay themselves first
7) They save more and spend less
8) They rise early in the morning

The Money Trap

The major reason why so many people are struggling financially is because when every time they get an increase in their salary or making more money, they also increase their spending habits. These includes getting into a larger debt, buying more items that are not a necessity in the first place. As I can quote from a book entitled Cashflow Quadrant by Robert T. Kiyosaki
"It's not how much you make, but it's how much you keep, how hard it work for you, and how many generations you keep it for."

Success Quotes

"Most people live - whether physically, intellectually or morally - in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon of which we do not dream." - William James

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action." - Thomas Henry Huxley

Habits of success : Act now, Do it now

"Do not wait; the time will never be "just right". Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." - Napoleon Hill

Do you know what is the major obstacle for a person to achieve success? It's called PROCRASTINATION. Some people will always be waiting for the right time to do something significant in their life. The problem is that there is no such thing as the right time. Want to open a business? Do it now. Want to quit smoking? Do it now. Why wait? An action is far more better than sitting still and doing nothing.

Monday Blues

“The man who does not work for the love of work, but only for money is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.” - Charles M. Schwab

Ask any ordinary people why they wake up in the morning and go to work diligently and they will tell you that they work for “a living”. How can I suppose to feed my family if I don’t work? I prefer to spend more time with my family but that won’t pay the bills. That’s why there is a term called “Monday Blues”. God gave us seven days a week to enjoy, but we choose to enjoy just two of the seven days given; Saturday and Sunday. Isn’t that a waste?

We should always keep our thoughts in a positive mode to any thing that we do in our daily life and that includes working. We should live our life with passion. The right spirit and attitudes can make any necessary work pleasant. If we enjoy our work, everyday will be a Saturday and Sunday. The attitude that we bring to our work has everything to do with the quality and outcome of the work produce and the influence it brings to our character.

Strategy for Financial Freedom

1. Start a side business as soon as possible.
The strategy is to create as many sources of income as possible. If you depend on just one stream of income only, the possibility of reaching financial freedom will not be as quickly as you want. Making money out of your hobby is the best way to start.

2. Buy at least one property.
Peter Lynch once stated in his book One Up on Wall Street "Before you do invest anything in stocks, you ought to consider buying a house, since a house, after all, is the one good investment that almost everyone manages to make. I'm sure there are exceptions, such as houses built over sinkholes and houses in fancy neighbourhood that takes a dive, but in 99 cases out of 100, a house will be a money-maker."

3. Knowledge is everything.
To win a war, you must know the enemy inside out. To win a game, you must know the rules of the game inside out. To win the game of life, you must know the rules that govern our everday life. By reading books, and I mean real books, not newspaper, magazines and etc. you will gain the advantage of shortcutting your life experience by learning other people's experience who have gone through life before us. By knowing and learning other people's success and mistakes, we can make the right judgement beforehand and therefore leaping ahead successfully.

Building up financial intelligence

1. Don't get into large debt positions that you have to pay for. Keep your expenses low. Build up assets first. Then, buy the big house or nice car. Being stuck in the rat race is not intelligent.

2. When you come up short, let the pressure build and don't dip into your savings or investments. Use the pressure to inspire your financial genius to come up with new ways of making more money and then pay your bills. You will have increased your ability to make more money as well as your financial intelligence.

Excerpt from Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

How do you eat an Elephant?

"People who write their financial goals get rich. It's a fact." - David Bach, The Automatic Millionaire

I once have been asked this riddle, "How do you eat an Elephant?'. After pondering it for five seconds and thinking that it might be a trick question, I answered, "Eat it with your mouth, of course." It's a nice try but it turns out it was not the answer. The answer to the riddle was a very simple one "Eat the elephant piece by piece."

Eventhough the riddle is just for fun, the answer for the riddle have made me thinking in terms of financial perspective. I change the question and ask to myself "How can you get a million dollars?".. and the answer to that of course, similar to the eating the elephant's riddle, is "small step at a time". Your goal can be as large as an elephant, but the step towards it can be one step at a time. The trick is to keep on moving and never stop. Slow and steady progress is better that a stagnant position. Do not feel dwarf by your ambition and goals. With PATIENCE, you can achieve impossible dreams.

Your Boss is the last person who wants you to be rich

There are many path for us to achieve financial freedom, but the majority of us choose the path of job security. How can we blame them. The education system was shaped to produce workers and not entrepreneurs. Many people realised that as the company their working with starts to prosper, the owner of the company is the one who eventually benefits and the employees usually are not much richer compared to the first day they started working there. The reality is that the boss is not responsible to make you rich, but their responsibility is just to make sure you got your paycheck by the end of the month. It is your responsibility to make sure that you will end up rich and not somebody else.

Quotes of success

The essence of any plan for financing old age is saving - to put aside some part of today's earnings for the future. Anything that saps the value of savings - and inflation is the worst single threat - is the enemy of the aged and of those who exect to grow old. Bernard M. Baruch

Men never plan to be failure; they simply fail to plan to be successful. William A. Ward

I can give you a six-word formula for success: 'Think things through - then follow through.' Edward Rickenbacker

The Millionaire Mind

Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people. - Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

If you read some of the self-help and the 'how to get rich' books, they tend to point to one same point and that is if you want to be rich or successful, think like a rich person or successful person. But how on earth that we can think like a rich person if we ourselves are broke all the time. The secret to that is just by looking around you. Look who are your friends. Look who is in your social circle and you will found out that mostly the income bracket of people close to you is on average networth as same as you. Associate with positive, rich and successful people as many as you can get and therefore it will create a new pathway for a new and exciting life.

Visualise your dream and goals

"Imagination is very important. It's a preview of life's coming attraction" - Albert Einstein

In order for you to achieve a goal, the first step is to visualise the goal wholeheartedly. Dream it, feel it, absorb it, obsess about it and the universe will conspire to get what you want. But the FIRST step, is that you have to ask and visualise as if you have already receive it. If you want a dream car, feel as if you are riding right now and be confident that you will receive it in the future. The universe in one way or another will deliver it to you. Always be confident and positive thinking when dreaming your goals.

Are you a saver or a spender?

..the wealth-seeking world is divided into two camps. In one, you have the wealth accumulators: men and women who are cautious about spending but eager to save and invest. The other camp is populated with spenders; men and women who are obsessed with things. They spend all their spare money, and often much more than that, buying things that say "rich" but actually impoverish them. ....
Excerpt from "Automatic Wealth: The six steps to financial independence" by Michael Masterson

Success breeds success, failure breeds failure

"The real horror of ghetto life is not the daily frustrations and deprivations. People can overcome those. The real nightmare is the effect the environment has on beliefs and dreams. If all you see is failure, if all you see is despair, it's very hard for you to form the internal representations that will foster success."

- Excerpt from Unlimited Power, Anthony Robbins

This vicious cycle effect can be seen in every society around the world. The rich become richer and the poor become poorer. The glass ceiling that separates this both societies are only a mere different mindset of how they perceived the world. The rich will always look at the world in a positive manner and how to capture opportunities so they can become even richer. As the poor societies, they wll always look into the world in a negative mindset. They always consider themselves as victims of the environments and can never change even opportunities are laid down just in front of their face.

Birth of Excellence

"The birth of excellence begins with our awareness that our beliefs are a choice..... The trick is to choose the beliefs that are conducive to success and the results you want and to discard the ones that hold you back" - Excerpt from Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins

The statement that we choose our belief is very true. We choose consciously or sub-consciously to be afraid of speaking in public, we choose to be afraid of trying something new, we choose to not achieve financial freedom and we choose a lot of things that seems to be protecting ourselves from danger in the short term but actually is detrimental to us in the long run. Therefore in being aware that we can choose our beliefs, we can then determine our destiny and not depended on the pre-programmed subconcious beliefs that has been implemented in us by our parents and the environment.

The Story of the Frogs Race

There’s a story about a group of frogs that arranged a running competition. The ultimate goal is that whoever reaches the top of a very high tower first wins. So, on the day of the competition, a big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheered for their favorite runners. As the race began, the groups of frogs immediately hop their way into the race.

As they were hoping their way to the finish line, they could hear the rumbling and mumbling of the crowds. The heard statements such as “Oh, the race is way too difficult!!”.. “They will never make it”…”Not a chance a frog would be able to finish this race. The tower is too high!!”.. As the race pursued, the tiny frogs began collapsing, one by one, leaving several frogs that were very determined to finish the race. The crowd continued to mumble “This race is way too difficult!!”..”It is impossible for any frog to finish this race!!”..

More and more frogs get tired and gave up.. But strangely, only one frog was left in the race who continued higher and higher and even higher. At the end, the crowd who was following the frog gave up as the frog continued to reach to the top of the tower.

Finally, that one frog managed to reach the top of the tower and win the race. All the other contestants was amazed by the frog and naturally wanted to know how the frog managed to do it. A contestant asked the tiny frog. It turned out that....

The winner frog is deaf

The moral of this story is:

• Never be influenced by people’s negative and pessimistic attitude
• Words have powers, so always beware of what words that enters your head because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!
  
• Therefore:
  ALWAYS be… POSITIVE!
• And above all:
  When people say you can’t do it, be deaf and ignore completely the statement
  Always think:
  I can do this!
  

What to do with $1,000?

Once you start earning a living,you quickly learn that you always seem to need more money, no matter how much you make. You can easily spend $1,000 in a day, perhaps to update your wardrobe, book a holiday or buy the latest iPod.

However, the money can be wisely invested in your future. As a young adult, you know it is time to get serious about money, especially if you have been living from pay cheque to pay cheque. You may be keen to start investing but do you have a rainy day fund to see you through the unexpected? Here are a few things to consider

1. Start paying off your debts
2. Cultivate a saving habit
3. Invest in a growth fund
4. Build a cash cushion
5. Buy peace of mind
6. Get financially savvy
7. Enhance your earning power
8. Invest in a hobby

Article excerpted from Personal Money, November 2006 issue

Solving Problems

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." - Albert Einstein

We face problems in our everday life. The only difference is the magnitude of the problem. The only time that we are not burden with problems are when we are dead. So, it is imperative that we should learn on how to tackle our problems than just to avoid it. As Albert Einstein once quoted that we should not solve problems based on the mindset and level of thinking when the problem occurs. You must be ahead one level as to know what exactly the possible solutions that can be. Be above your problem. Be ahead of your problem. Break out of the box. You will tackle your problems more efficiently as ever before.

What is defeat?

"What is defeat? Nothing but the first steps to something higher." - Wendell Phillips

Failure or defeat has no meaning unless it is define by us as something negative and destructive to ourselves. For a man whose spirit is high as the mountain, failure is just things that happens for him to go even higher. The larger the failure, the larger the lessons he learns and therefore the larger the improvement that he will make to improve further. He knows that for every hardships, dissappointment, obstacles and roadblocks will only brings him closer to success.

Either you control money, or it will control you

Actually, it does not matter how much you own, but it is really on how much do you spend. One critical step in your journey to financial freedom is to know your current status of money spending. How much do you pay yourself and how much do you pay others? How much do you save and how much do you spend it on debts? You can only know these information if you track your spending daily and summarise it all monthly. By doing this, you will have greater control on your money and be more alert on where did your money go. Get control of your money first before you can even think of becoming financially free.

Rich people constantly learn and grow, Poor people think they already know

One thing that I learn from observing the lifestyle of the riches are that their house is usually full of books. Tons of them. These groups of people usually love to read. But, in the other hand if you go to a 'not so rich' people, you can hardly find any books. So, I think the statement 'Rich people or success people constantly learn grow, poor people think they know it all' is quite true. The more you read books, the more you know how limited knowledge you have and therefore the more hungrier you become for acquiring knowledge. This is a pattern that will lead you to the key of success.

The Roots Create the Fruits

Imagine a tree. Let's suppose this tree represents the tree of life. On this tree there are fruits. In life, our fruits are called results. So we look at the fruits (our result) and we don't like them; there aren't enough of them, they're too small, or they don't taste good.

So what do we tend to do? Most of us put even more attention and focus on the fruits, our results. But what is it that actually creates those particular fruits? It's the seeds and the roots that create those fruits.

It's what under the ground that creates what's above the ground. It's what invisible that creates what's visible. If yu want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.

Excerpt from "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

How to get chaming personalities

Found this article by Dr Sidney Newton Bremer on how to build attractiveness and charm personalities. Interesting perspective on life..

"If we want to add power to our automobile, we do not wax and polish the body, do we? We go directly to the inside of the engine, we go to the source of the automobile's power. It works the same way with individuals. We can not gain a charming personality merely by putting on the mask of charm. We must work on the source of our personality. We must work on the within of us. ....... The greatest thing in life should be to develop ourselves into fullness by calling out all the hidden beauties of our being. In so doing, we attract others to us and become useful beings for the social order of man. It is not enough to build piles of money. We should build a life in the process."

Happiness... A state of mind?

"It has been my observation that people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be" - Abraham Lincoln

Happiness, as often presumed by people is the state they want to be in everyday life. To some, they spend a lifetime chasing for happiness. They presume that happiness could be gained from outside factors. They thought it can be found in material things. Owning a brand new car, new house, glamourous life even is some of the factors they thought might bring happiness. They might as well chase the shadows as happiness can only be generated from within. You can be as happy as you want to be. It depends on you.

Happiness is in the journey, not in the destination... Happiness is just a state of mind.

How to Eliminate Debt - the Art of War

I have just finished reading an article on Alexander the Great. It mention that Alexander doesn't have a huge army when he started his conquest to rule the known world. But, strategically he has a very diversified and well skilled army.

When confronted with a huge army, one strategy that he used is by attacking the smallest unit but yet he found most threatening first. In one case, it is the archery unit. And then he will use his mighty army to defeat the heavier unit.

I like to make the same comparison with how we can eliminate debt by using the same strategy. We can use all the resources that we have to eliminate the smallest debt but with the highest interest first. After we eliminated that debt, we can then use the resources we have to start attacking other debt is not critical. Just a thought.

Do It Now

Most desires for improvements and alternatives for action are relegated to tomorrow - and tomorrow never comes. If you want success, you must act. Success will not just happen. An excellent definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and somehow expecting a different outcome. To get off the path has never provided happiness, harmony, prosperity, success, peace, or balance, you must get off the path. You must do something different. Not to do is insane.

Excerpt from "Wellness Just a State of Mind?" by Eldon Taylor

Forgive and let go

Do you consider yourself to be a victim? A victim of your circumstances? Or are you willing to assume responsibility for who you are? There are two ways to be tied up. One is to be tied, literally, by someone else, and the other is to tie yourself, figuratively, by refusing to let go of beliefs that limit your expression of the whole and complete being you are. In other words, as long as you shift resonsibility by blaming someone or something for who and what you are, you remove from yourself the power to be anything other than partial and incomplete.

In fact, as long as we blame, we effectively eliminate our ability to grow, to be in control, or to experience peace, balance, and harmony. Power to grow resides in forgiveness. Forgiving and letting go will set us free. Forgiving everyone, including ourselves, provides the opportunity to become more than we have been, which for many is but a mere shadow of our real selves.

Excerpt from "Wellness Just a State of Mind?" by Eldon Taylor

Compounding Knowledge

Everyone knows the magic of compounding.Even Albert Einstein was once amazed by the power of compounding and label it as the eighth wonder of the world. But do you know that not just money but knowledge also can be compounded over time. Try gathering as much knowledge as possible in your early years. In time, your knowledge on a particular area will grow as you grow old.

For example, if you know a thing or two about computers when you are young, the knowledge will start to grow as you start to read here and there. You will also start to notice things related to computer even without hardly trying. This is human nature that psychologist called Reticular Activating System or short 'RAS'.