LIFE MANAGEMENT: Kicking Bad Habits and forming Good Habits

Human is a creature of habits. We all unknowingly develop habits, some good and some bad. Sometimes we try to justify that its ok to have some bad habits. If that bad habit does not cause any damage to your daily life, den it is ok. But some bad habits can go out of control and create havoc to your life. For example, gambling. Its ok if you gamble occasionally with small bets like 4D or TOTO. But when you start to borrow heavily from loansharks or friends and have problem paying back, then that is considered damaging. If you can one of those person and wish to get out of this downward spiral, den this article is for you. Please read on.



According to experts, a habit approximately takes 30 days to form or kick away. So if you want to kick a bad habit, you also need 30 days to kick it away. Each time you can only FOCUS on 1 habit. You can't have too many habits to change because it will only works if you focus or entire mental energy on the habit you want to change.



I have successfully kick away SMOKING for 10 yrs since 20 DEC 1999. I also also successfully kick away the bad habit of drinking CAFFEINATED BEVERAGES since 24 JULY 2010. I picked up a good habit EXERCISING 3x/WEEK since MAR 2002, and taking COLD SHOWER DAILY since 1 JUN 2010. And the list goes on. I thought that it will be good to share my techniques to people out there who may need them.



First, you need to draw out a list of all your bad habits and good habits that you want to kick or form. You will list them in order of difficulty. Do the easy one first so that when you succeed, you will feel more confident and in control to tackle the next one.



For example, on the month of OCT, i have decided to stop being late for work and appointments. After that, write down what are the remedy actions you need to do to make sure you won't be late.



Month: OCT Habit: LATE
Remedy Actions:

1) Target to reach the place 15mins early.
2) Leave house early.

3) Pack your bag the night before, so you won't panick in the morning.

4) Plan ahead what you want to do for the next day, so you won't need to rush and end up late for appointments. Give yourself sufficient time between appointments, so you won't be stuck at one appointment and get late for the next one.

5) Do not procrastinate. There is a time for everything. Time for work, time for play, and time for rest. Let go of what you are working on when its time to rest, let go of play when its time to work. Be in the present moment.

6) Print this out in a form and paste on it the wall or office cubicle, so you will get to see it and always be reminded of it.

7) Declare this target to the people that matters to you. Eg. Friends, family, colleagues. When there are people to monitor and remind you, you will have less chance to give up or forget about it!

8) Lastly, reward yourself at the end of the month when you have succeeded!



By end of OCT, if you have maintain the good habit of being punctual, then you can move on the the next habit on NOV. But in the month of NOV, you still have to be consistent in being punctual, not that you can go back to your usual ways. But you will find that by NOV, it will be much easier to be punctual, den it is in the beginning of OCT.



I wish you the best of luck kicking bad habits!!! Cheers!

Life Management: How can we become someone great?

All of us wanted to be someone great once in our lifetime. Sometimes we will dream about doing this, or doing that. Maybe? Some of us wish to be a champion golfer, a prized F1 driver, a sensational superstar, or a millionaire businessman. Somehow as we grow up, some will achieve, some will not. WHat is it that really set apart this difference in the level of success? Now this article would tell you in clear simple language about how to achieve success and be someone great.

First of all, how do we define success? According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, it is defined as "To achieve a favourable or desired outcome." That means success differ from person to person. Its about achieving what we have planned from the beginning. Success is achieving your own target you have set for yourself. Success is individual. Success is about what makes you happy after achieving it.

So how do we achieve success? Experts and books have told us that we need FOCUS, HARDWORK, DISCIPLINE, ENERGY, NETWORK, and so on.... All these we already know. But knowing is different from doing. What we know, we may not do them. WHY? Why don't we all do what is good for us? Some of us may have this problem. The purpose of this article will address this issue about how we can do everything good for us without losing focus and confidence.

My great Yoga Master once told me this. "ONE MAN; ONE MISSION." All the people who achieve great things can only have one mission in his life. He will dedicate all his time, life energy and focus into this mission and therefore excel in it. So the word is FOCUS. But we all have this same problem. We always tend to lose interest after a while and end up doing something else. For example, a student knows he have to study hard to excel in his exams. But an interesting TV program can easily capture his attention for the whole night. Or it could be a interesting PS3 game. Or hanging out with friends at shopping mall. Whatever is interesting and makes him happy for the moment. So its not surprising the exam result is not ideal. The student who achieve the best result is often the one that is more focus on his studies.

There is just so many examples. Successful sportsman such as Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Pele, Diego Maradona, Michael Schumacher, and Mohd Ali spends their entire lifetime polishing their skills. They put in extra time in their training to make sure they surpass their competitors. Successful artistes like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley all spent their entire lifetime just doing what they do best. That is how they become good at what they do. SInce we all know FOCUS is so important, than what is holding us back? Why are the rest of us not as successsful as them?

This bring us to the concept of HEART vs MIND. I realise all of us are capable of becoming great. Deep in our HEART, we all know what is good for us and the environment. But somehow there is often a voice in our head that tells us to do otherwise. This voice will tell you to do something that makes YOU FEEL SO GOOD for the moment. This voice most often will succeed in changing your original course of action. This voice is your MIND. These conflicting thoughts will harm you in the long run although it can give you instant gratification. For example, a diabetes patient was told by his doctor to stay away from CAKES and SOFT DRINKS, and deep in his HEART, he knows and fully understands the consequences. But somehow when he goes to a birthday party, there is so much temptation. Even his friends will offer him. He starts to salivate and his mind will tell him that " A little bit of soft drinks is ok. Life is so boring to just eat plain and tasteless stuffs. Once a while should be ok..." In the end, he unknowing took a few sips of it and soon his condition starts deteriorating...and they day his leg is to be amputated, he crys in deep sorrow and regrets. In another example, a smoker knows that smoking is harmful for the body. But somehow, he just have to smoke. His MIND starts to justify that it is cool and macho. Its manly to smoke. The voice will say "Only real man smokes. A few sticks can't kill you. I know what I'm doing..." But is it really true?? If smoking is not healthy for him, then why can't he just stop it?

And there is many many more examples like Gambling, Sex... and many more bad habits that people do and just can't get out of them. Why are human so helpless when it comes to MIND v HEART. But what I do know is that successful people normally listen more to his HEART den his MIND. So the answer is "LISTEN TO YOUR HEART". But how do we make sure we always listen to our heart?

There must be many ways, but one of the way I know is Yoga, an ancient technique that originates from India with a history of around 5000 yrs. Yoga is a sanskrit word that means "To UNITE, to YOKE" It means to unite your MIND, BODY and SPIRIT. The asanas of yoga are postures that helps to limber up your physical body and enhance your awareness, so as to prepare you for MEDITATION. Meditation is a technique that quietens the MIND. To stop all those confilcting thoughts in the head. Meditation is to help you align your MIND with your HEART and your body. In deep meditaion, we learn to control our mind so as not to succumb to those temptations that is only good for the moment. DEEP SILENCE is a blissful state where you are at peace with yourself, and where great inspirations comes from.

So listen to your HEART, not your MIND if you wish to become someone great. Before you do something you will regret, always ask yourself this, "Is the person making this choice, or the choice making the person?" Finally, I wish you all the best in your pursue of success. Namaste.