Purpose is the intent behind an action being done – it can be synonymous with the goal or intended result of an action.

Many of us have a wrong idea of what constitutes  to their true happiness. Success and happiness are not matters of chance but choice. It is not attained through self-gratification, but rather through fidelity to a worthy purpose – or the singleness of purpose. Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear. One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have whole-hearted enthusiasm. One needs to feel one’s life has meaning – that one is needed in the world.

Success is not built on success. It is built on failure. It is built on frustration. Sometimes, it is built on a catastrophe. Most people give up just when they are about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touch down.

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.

Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success. Some people are destroyed by their first failure. While others are destroyed by their first major success. So let’s have successes in small amounts, leading up to being successful.

Perhaps, successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers. As for me, success means different things in different parts of my life. But overall if I have to define ultimately what success means – the bottom line – then for me is if I am healthy and happy. Remember when you dance? Your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the dance floor. It is to enjoy each step along the way.

The starting point of any great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have ane do.

Hooray Christmas is finally here. !!!

As I conclude my year with this light-hearted post, I stand amazed at how my last twelve months have flown by and I am indeed grateful to God for each experience I went through.

The most shocking encounter by far would have been how my fate could be changed by a pair of hands extending out to save me in my hour of need. (For more on this, please refer to my post ”An Unselfish Act Of Love” dated on the 1st of December, 2009).

The most painful would have to be seeing those close and around me departing and suffering in pain due to various health conditions.

As for my happiest, it is to see the younger ones working successfully. Some as young legal eagles, Nightingales and others studying hard to fulfill their aspirations.

My most enriching experience would have to be blogging with WordPress – this has enlarged and broadened my imagination of the internet and the world.

All other experiences in between the above would not have been possible without the support of my loved ones, my family, friends and of course you as well. !!!

Thank You:

God for watching over me and for being the reason I wake up each day.

My loved ones for faithfully standing by me at all times.

My friends for their support and never saying “no” whenever we had to go the extra mile.

And, “You” for cheering me on …………. here in “Straight Talking.com”

My parting words ………….., let us be ready early as we embrace 2010 and all its challenges ahead.

Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. !!!

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold,
everything is softer and more beautiful.”
- Norman Vincent Peale.

Christmas is near. December has always been the best of all months to me. Not only would this be Christmas season, but also a month ending the year. Most of us will also head home to celebrate Christmas with our loved ones.

I think Christmas is just that. A celebration to be shared with families and loved ones. The season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

The year 2009 has been an eventful year to me personally. From hindsight, it is not difficult to say that I truly enjoyed and count the blessings what the year has unraveled for me. I do look beyond my horizons for the next year.

Let us celebrate Christmas this year with a prayer for those who are weak  to gain strength. May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessings all year through.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year 2010. !!!

“What really matters for success,
character, happiness and life long achievements
is a definite set of emotional skills  - your EQ
- not just purely cognitive abilities
that are measured by conventional IQ tests.”

As the nature of the doing business and work has changed, the skill set required of us has changed accordingly. The rules for succeeding in business are changing every day. Yet many of us are still asking for the magic formula that contributes to a successful organisation – is it talented, knowledgeable people plus innovative product?

With the traditional paternalistic style of leadership being passe, soft skills has become necessary and is an important core in today’s businesses. Our soft skills are essentially people skills – the non-technical, intangible, personality specific skills that determines our strength at work.

For instance, are you an agreeable person? Conscientious? Do you communicate effectively? Solve problems efficiently? I mean, questions aimed at uncovering the strength of your soft skills. The hard skills are the technical expertise you need to get the job done.

Your soft skills are really everything else – competencies that go from self-awareness to one’s attitude to managing one’s career to handling critics, not taking things personally, taking risks, getting along with people and many, many more.

What really keep people from getting where they want to go at work is rarely a shortfall in technical expertise that limit them; but rather a shortcoming of their social communication skills, and self-management behaviors. Thus, soft skills are now deemed as necessary and important in any change initiative. This will more likely become even more important in boosting the performance levels of the younger generation – particularly those just entering the workforce.

So how do you uncover and sharpen some of your soft skills, and get the most out of them?

1. Have a “winner’s ” attitude – The key to having a winning attitude is in how you tackle challenges and obstacles that come your way.

2. Be a team player – Meaning not  only being cooperative, but also displaying leadership ability when it is appropriate.

3. Step out of the box (Both physically and mentally) – Spending an entire day in your cubicle or office is easy, but not your best career move. Begin by expanding your working relationship and understanding the company’s mission.

4. Actively listen – Involves focusing on the moment, participating in the conversation, waiting your turn to speak and asking for clarification when necessary.

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may be better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge now exist to make things better. As for me, I sense any effort to maximize your potential and ability is certainly a good thing. !!!

Prioritizing our tasks effectively …………….

Personally, one of my biggest frustration is that  there is never enough time to get to the important things I want to do. It is easy to let our lives run by things that are “urgent  but not important.”

I find that little things that helped me effectively keep my “important but not urgent” tasks in the forefront and let th0se tasks that are “urgent but not important” slide. And block off time for my long-term projects so that I can spend part of every day to focus on these projects with a long-term payoff.

By closing off channels through which my “urgent but not important” tasks that can interrupt my “important but not urgent” tasks, does goes a long way toward maintaining my focus in the right areas – if it is not important, it can wait. At times, I drop my “not important but urgent” tasks if they are getting in the way.

I am now acutely aware of what is truly important to me. I realize that it is easy to substitute  urgency for importance – things that often leave us putting out fires and not really accomplishing anything. Thus, it is best to ignore the fires and focus on the important tasks.

If you want to make good use of your time, you have got to know what is most important and then give it all what you have got. Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate  what they can achieve in a decade.

“Love is missing someone whenever you are apart,
but somehow feeling warm inside because you are close in heart.”

Love is like any choice which we have to make from moment to moment. And it involves a peculiar, unfathomable combination of both understanding and misunderstanding.

In love, the paradox occurs when two beings become one and yet remain two. Anyone can catch your eye, but don’t you think it takes someone special to catch your heart? You know you are in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams …………..

At times, our hearts could see what is invincible to our eyes. Some are convinced that love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. The fact is if you have love in your life, it could make up for a great many things you lack. If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is, there is not enough.

A life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruits. To some people, life only begin when they fall in love or when love is in action – sometimes a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love  in our dreams. I reckon love is to allow those we love to be perfectly themselves and not to twist them to fit our image …… otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our soul to dance. They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for a while; leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same again.

Life is a lesson you will learn it when you are through. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift – perhaps that is why we call it the present. Hence, experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you. Just learn to leave the past behind us, love is in front and all around us ………………….

There is a wonderful  mythical law of nature
that three things we crave most in life;
happiness, freedom and peace of mind
- are always attained by giving them to someone else.

When we give more we are actually communicating wholeheartedly; we feel less insecure – both emotionally and physically. Think of stored grain. If we stored grain in a godown, eventually it will rot. But plant the grain in the ground, and it will multiply. Like love which increase with exchange, generosity is something only if we give it away.

You have two hands: one for yourself, the other to help others.

Giving something to others is so much easier than trying to get it first.   Those who give more of their; time, money,  kindness, love and ideas, have more of these things because that is the balance – and balance is the natural law of life.

Besides, think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege. We often feel the real joy of giving when we are doing something for others knowing very well that we are simply doing it for ourselves – essentially doing it for our own joy ……….. Perhaps, such is human psychology that if we don’t express our joy, we soon cease to feel it.

Remember the old adage; “We make a living by what we get. but we make a life by what we give?”   The spirit of giving is always one of personal fulfillment. It matters not the value of the gift, it is the thought of giving that provides the fulfillment. Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a great deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

Finally, life is an echo. What you send always come back. Hence goes the saying; “It is in giving that we receive.” In the long run, you get no more than what you have been willing to risk giving. Help make a difference and change the world. No one has ever become poor by giving.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you plant. !!!

Life is like a garden. When we plant bananas we will reap bananas. When we plant apples, we will reap apples. When others sow the seeds of discord; they will reap discord in their lives as well.

This immutable law has not change and will not change. It has existed since the dawning of time and has stood the test of time. I call it, “YOGO WUPI” which stands for “You Only Get Out What You Put In.” Plant love, Reap Love. !!!

I believe what we plant into other people’s life you will someday, somehow reap in our own life. The thing is;

If you want trust, you must trust others.
If you want respect, you must treat others with respect.
If you want teamwork, you must work as a part of the team.
If you want to have self-esteem, do not yell or be little others
If you want to work hard, then you shoud not relax and loaf all day.
If you want others to be proud of their achivements, then praise them openly in public.

Be mindful that in life, you cannot continue to hold on to anything good. You must be continually giving – and getting. You cannot hold on to your seed. You must plant your seed and reap anew.

I love the man that can smile in trouble; that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflections. We are what we are today because of what we had planted into our lives all these years. The cold truth is plant big dreams and you will reap your aspirations. Put in the necessary labor and you reap success one day. !!!

Life is like a boomerang. Our thoughts, deeds and words would return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy. Look into equipping yourself with the right set of skills to perform far better than your peers. Enrich yourself with a suite of personal and interpersonal skills so that living, working and socializing becomes a joy everyday instead. Empower yourself to live your life to the fullest – learn to gain the maximum value from your career and fulfill your dreams.

YOGO WUPI. !!!