Integrity and character

This boy was smart.

He was more clever than the kids in his village, as all the old villagers said. He believed that too and was proud of himself for that.

He got bored from time to time, as there was not much to play in the village.

One day, he shouted that a wolf came to the village. All villagers came out to kill the wolf. But there was no wolf.

He liked the attention he got from this fun play.

He played this game again one day. Villagers came out to kill the wolf. There was no wolf. So they went home.

The boy was played outside of his yard one late evening. He saw a wolf walked towards him. He shorted, cried for help.

But no villagers came.

You can fool people once, twice, but not three times.

Erne a trust takes a while. Destroy a trust takes one second. Maintain a trust needs life time practice.

Integrity and character are not associated with one’s smartness and success. However, without integrity and character it negates everything.

A shortcut

The sales guy approached the financial controller to sign off the balance sheet, so that he can take out a product pulled out of market for free to a customer.

He wants to do it this way by not telling his marketing manager, not obeying the rules of the wearhouse bookkeeping. In a word, he wants get it done under the radar of his boss and the company’s policy, send the product to the customer quickly, hassle free.

He thinks if he tells his boss, it will cost his emotional labor to explain, to justify, to persuade, to make change of the system… too much work!

Therefore, he chooses a shortcut, for sake of the company’s development – to keep a customer happy.

However, he did not think the potential cost to the company. What if the customer tells others about how he got the product? What if the product pulled off the market for a reason that it could be potentially not good to consumers? What might be the cost to the company’s reputation if the product has defect?

A shortcut is costly.

You can take a shortcut on the basis that you have the intelligence and wisdom and good estimation.

Taking a shortcut is based on high investment.

What are you searching?

You made New Year’s resolutions. You have planned your goals for the next 3, 6, 12 months, or even next 3 to 5 years.

Then during your journey pursuing your goals, you change and modify them. You abandon some goals, pick up new initiatives.

You want to make a lot of money and follow those successful “get rich schemes” training courses to find your happiness. You find these are not totally what you look for. You feel that you need to learn so much before you can have confidence to get where you want to go… you really get frustrated on many spins you’ve entered…

And you are not alone.

Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without realizing the underlying purpose of our search.

“Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now.” – Sam Harris

What are you search?

What do you want now from the bottom of your heart?

When you begin to pay attention to the present moment: what do you feel? why do you feel the way you feel?

Then you start to raise your awareness about the quality of your life.

A new trip

You get excited before a new trip.

You get worried about the new trip

You get overworked preparing for the new trip.

You get anxious before the new trip.

You also get comrades going with you. This changes everything how you feel about the trip.

Now you get people understand you, your worried, and your ambitions.

Take a trip less traveled with like minded people makes things much bearable during tough times. It makes a trip much more excited and encouraging at the same time. And the best of all, you will finish the trip.

Find your comrades before a new trip can make a difference.

When you grow up…

What do you want to become when you group up?

You must have figured this out when you were a kid…

Are you who you wanted to be? If, it’s a Yes, how did you get here? If it’s a No, how did you get here?

I wanted to be a weather woman when I grow up – but, I become an engineer, a researcher, a manager, trainer, coach… a life- long learner.

My motivation to become a weather woman is to have freedom, explore many places, being curious. And this motivation has driving me to learn different fields, to be curious about people’s potentials, to be permanent learner.

Conquer

It is not the mountain we want to conquer, it is ourself.

It is the world we want to conquer, it is ourself.

when we change, the world around us cannot stay the same.

Change ourself, the world around us changes.

When we conquer ourself, we become the change we want to see.

Cleaning up day

When season changes, we use a day or two to organize our clothes, bedding according to the weather. We have the spring cleaning day when winter is over. We roll out our thick blankets in the fall preparing for cold winter.

We use these days to prepare, sort out stuff, refresh ourselves.

How often do you check on your files to clean your documents? How often do you check your personal inventory to see if you have prepared for your next goal?

You could choose one day a month or every two weeks or every week to tie up your loose ends, such as chat with a few close friends, arrange meetings, reply insignificant messages, make personal appointments, check on your favorite sites or celebrities…

You need a day or two to refresh, recharge, prepare for your next action and future.

When you pause, you create a gap for you to grow, to see opportunity, to breath deeply and move forward with more clear thinking and determination.

Mark your calendar for your cleaning up day.

Abundance

When you have sands in your hand, the more tightly you grab the sands, the less sands you can hold in your palm.

Sometimes, your opportunities and your abundance need you to loose up, embrace whatever comes to your way.

You are born as a complete, whole and resourceful person. The abundance is all around you and in you.

You are your master, the captain of your life. You control your life and therefore your abundance by making your choices.

Any progress, one step, a mistake and wrong choice all make your life richer, more colorful and interesting. You can test all possibilities, only the sky is your limit – as a matter of fact, this is my limited statement. You certainly are not limited even by the sky!

There is no small step. There is no small stretch. There is no limit, if you can let it go.

Abundance is sense of mind without limitation.

Concentration

Focus on contribution makes an effective you as a person, it also makes a CEO runs an effective company.

The key to focus is the concentration.

You will need concentrate to be able to deliver and contribute.

You can build blocks of time focusing on particular topic, project of your priority. During these blocks, turn off your phone, close your email alerts, close your office door. Get yourself clear from noise and be effective.

With the increased constant disruption, concentration is the way leading to your focus, your effectiveness.

Know yourself

Know yourself is the first key step to become more effective, more mature, and gain more emotional and social intelligence.

To know yourself, you can try the two areas first:

Learn and know your inclination and propensity of doing things. Notice those things you can do without “too much effort”, those things that seem coming to you naturally. These are likely your borne talent, strength.

Loosen and stretch your mind muscle. Your mind is made of muscle. To grow your mind grow, you need soften and loosen it. In reality, you do not need to form any judgement quickly. Take your time and consider a wide range of possibilities before forming a judgement.

I have noticed that I form my opinion quickly very often. Study has shown that many of us do this all the time to seek for internal safety. This is also called negative capability, which means we are all capable to do this.

This negative capability is actually an advantage for our development. Be aware of your negative capability when it happens, observe it, and it can open other possibility – for us. It provide us the opportunity to consider other wide range of possibilities.

Practice your mind for reflection, observation, and reflection, think, re-think what happens to you.

This can make your mind flow, become more fluid, and prepare your mind for all possibility.

You know this: Chance only favors the prepared minds.

Know yourself first is to know others better.