Archive for category Journal

When it comes to keeping promises to myself, I’ve found that one of the most powerful things that I have done to myself is to actually verbalize and write whatever goals I’ve set for myself out.

For the past week, I found myself constantly ending up doing things that were a big drain on my time and energy. I found myself playing addictive flash games online, watching episodes of “How I Met Your Mother“, as well as playing games with my cousins and friends.

Then I just decided that it all had to stop.

So I made my promises to myself crystal clear, and for that added effect, I said them out loud to myself.

“I WILL NOT watch another episode of “How I Met Your Mother” till Thursday.”

“I WILL NOT touch any more flash games until after the exams.”

“I WILL NOT play Heroes of Newearth until after Thursday.”

Mysteriously, I feel that verbalizing your promises to yourself and sharing them with the people around me helped stave of the temptation to do all those things!

I’m going to keep these little promises I’ve made for myself and work on some larger, world changing, power-packed promises for myself later! Hope this little lifehack helps you guys out there keep your self-promises too!

Kaizen - Continuous improvement.

I’ve been wanting to update for quite some time now but somehow things around me just seem to get out of hand and I find it difficult to find quiet time by myself, settle down and listen to my own, innermost thoughts.

I just need to find that balance, but it’s like the waves of life keeps pushing me away, and I keep ending up fumbling off balance. As I struggle to get back on solid footing, another one comes crashing down on me again. This has to stop.

I was reading through my Integrated Marketing Communications textbook when I chanced upon this passage which really made a whole lot of sense to me with regards to self development. Here it is:

“If you want your brand to be fit, it’s got to exercise regularly. When you get the opportunity to  go to the movies or do something else instead of working out, you can do that once in a while – that’s [equivalent to] shifting funds [from advertising] into [sales] promotion. But it’s not a good thing to do. If you get off the regimen, you will pay for it later.”

According to the author, advertising momentum is just like exercise – stop advertising and building your brand equity, and your sales will suffer; stop exercising and you will lose conditioning and you will probably lose some weight.

One key takeaway concept here is the whole idea of momentum – it is vitally important to be consistent in life. If you allow life’s distractions to push you away from your goals, to keep you away from your habits, you’re going to find it so, so difficult to get on track.

What happened to me was that during the pre-exam period, I was so bogged down with assignments and deadlines that I slept at really odd hours – I ended up going to bed at 5-6am just trying to get things done. This screwed up sleep schedule made me feel tired and sluggish all the time and then things just went in a downward spiral. I found myself being consistently late for dinner dates with friends and and this led to a whole slippery slope of broken promises.

It led to missed lunch dates and worst still, a set of broken promises to myself.

I told myself that I wouldn’t touch an Armorgames.com flash game after spending a whole night staying up infecting the world with a zombie plague, but lo and behold, I found myself popping balloons with a flying monkey the following afternoon.

I told myself that I would watch no more than two episodes of How I Met Your Mother, but I ended up watching a third right after I told myself that.

I believe that promises to yourself are the most important promises ever. And as shit has hit the fan, things have to change.

I need a clean start.

I need to put all the negative, misdirected momentum of bad choices and decisions behind me and start afresh.

I’m going to be strong, disciplined and focused. I’m going to sleep earlier, by no later than 3am, and wake up by 11am. I’m going to voice out the promises I make to myself, and keep them, one small promise at a time.

Willpower is just like any other muscle in your body – if you don’t use it, you lose it. I really need to rehabilitate my willpower muscle. One small promise at a time.

Kevin Chan, you have so many big, big dreams you’ve set for yourself – so many mindblowingly awesome things to do. Don’t let a lack of discipline or weak willpower get you down. You’ve overcome way tougher challenges than this before. Go do this.

God, friends, family. Wish me luck.

P.S. Serendipity. Found this awesome article on how you can change your future by changing your past. This could be the key.

I’ve been feeling pretty out of balance lately.

The past week has been a pretty hectic one for me, with late nights and hurried, fast paced work being the norm. My body and mind took on quite a bit, and when the weekends hit, when the heavy burden of work was suddenly lifted – it only seemed natural to do the exact opposite – completely nothing and just “relax”.

Somehow, my sleep schedule just got thrown even more off balance and productivity just grinded to a screeching halt.

I realised that something really dear to me is the ability to inspire, motivate and share the wisdom I’ve learnt with the people around me. I really love the feeling of helping the people around me and helping change their lives for the better with better mental and life habits. But it’s always like this – I manage to get things nice and balanced, and suddenly life throws a wrench in my plans and I turn out to be the very exact opposite of all that I espouse.

I think the key to balance in life is routine – they help bring some certainty into the chaos of life. A cup of warm tea in the morning followed by some physical activity gives me a space in which I can comfortably plan my day and end up even more productive. But those late nights have been robbing these pleasures from me.

I’m going to be productive and finish what I have to finish, and then sleep early.

To do so, I will:

1. Clean up my working area – your desk is a representation of your inner world. Cluttered desk = cluttered, unfocused mind.
2. Take half an hour to exercise – human brains function better with increased blood flow
3. Take time out before I begin my work to relax and clearly visualize my desired end results of the day’s work – art is always first produced in the master workshop of one’s mind

I need to right this imbalance.

Indomitable will, perfect focus.

Pushing against the resistance.

When you know that you should be doing something, but you just don’t feel like it. Just push through the resistance and do it.

Go step outside and take a jog even though you feel really comfortable sitting down typing a blog post on your computer.

Go talk to that girl even though it’s really comfortable just sitting down, slowly sipping your beer at your table.

Go start on that assignment even though you’re really comfortable reading humour articles on Cracked.com.

Go against the resistance while you can, because if you don’t, you lose your freedom a little bit at a time.

Being comfortable is the worst thing you can do for yourself.

Time to put on those running shoes and to get un-comfortable.