Nightmare by ~kalessaradan on deviantART

Nightmares. We have them when we sleep once in a while. I usually have them when I ate too much before sleeping or starved before I slept. You will know when you have a nightmare from the feeling after you had one. You will perspire all over and feel slightly groggy and slightly/mega pissed when you wake up. The first few thoughts that come to your mind will be the scary incidents that just played out in your mind that might feel and seem so real and terrifying. Then, you realized that it was all just a nightmare, nothing more nothing less. The recollection of the scary incidents scare you even more because some of it are your fears, doubts and troubles you encountered or experienced in life. All just blatantly magnified and exaggerated in a playback called a nightmare.

Honestly speaking, I don’t like nightmares, who does? However, there is a learning point behind each nightmare and that is learning more about yourself. More specifically the fears, doubts and troubles that you think about in your mind. That’s because nightmares represent the psychological imbalances that we have. Nightmares indirectly warn and remind us about the unpleasant stuff that could be happening in our lives and provides a way for a “pressure release” of the psyche imbalances. So even if you don’t like them, there’s no need to fear them really. In fact, it is somehow good to have nightmares because they provide opportunities for change in our lives as they are the signals that we need to change something. It could be our thinking, behaviour towards ourselves and others (esteem issues maybe) or other external factors that happened and affected us negatively, emotionally and psychologically. You can end those dreaded nightmares by changing things that actually happen in real life.

To give a clearer explanation. Here are some scenarios and representations about what certain feeling/instances that you might have when you are having a nightmare or two.

1. Falling down in a dream – Am I feeling heavy, unsupported, worried about something? How can I feel freer, lighter? Also: do I need to be more grounded?
2. Stuck in slow motion, unable to move or make any noise : Where am I feeling stuck in life, like I’m getting nowhere or unable to voice my true feelings? What can I do to change it?
3. Being chased or attacked : The pursuer usually represents a fearful aspect of our shadow, and hence an exaggerated version of a denied or inhibited portion of our own personality that would benefit us if integrated and appropriately expressed.

More here: Nightmares and what they mean

Sound familiar? I for one have experienced such instances while having nightmares. They are more elaborate though, having a timeline and story of events. Most of the time, the characters are people I either don’t like or have issues with. They can range from someone close to animals even (maybe another type of representation?). I feel a certain sense of hate and spite when I have those nightmares, sometimes they are pretty overwhelming feelings that I control myself not to feel even in real life. I guess in real life it’s easier to control your emotions but while tapping into the subconscious during sleep, the nightmare just triggers a stronger emotional response.

As I have said before, you can control and remedy those imbalances when you are awake. Don’t let the nightmare wear you out and spoil your day. Have a nice bathe, go for an exercise, eat a nice meal and start your day right. If the nightmares are persistent (happening more often than ever), observe your eating habits and sleeping habits. Are they regular or irregular. Perhaps you are eating too much before you sleep. These are usually the main reasons. Most of the time it’s the lack of inner peace that triggers those nightmares. We often think too much and drive ourselves into worry which gets “expressed” through nightmares. Reflect upon life and see what’s out of line and try to perceive things differently.  Change your perception of reality and reality itself and you might have a more peaceful sleep.

Regards,
Kelvin “Kaizen” Koh

Problems. It is something we deal with everyday or almost everyday. It’s the time whereby we scratch our heads and try to come up with solutions and try to problem solve. Most of the time we scratch our heads too hard for too long and end up asking others for help. Nothing wrong with that, considering the fact that problems come in all shapes and sizes and different levels of difficulty. Googling things has become the norm. Yes, embracing Google’s search engine and utilizing it does yield solutions to many problems but it is just a tool for solutions to be delivered by people. The creation of solutions definitely lie in the minds of the people and many times, you spend more time googling for a solution than thinking it up yourself because you need to sieve through the surplus of information that google provides and get the useful bits to solve your problem. In other cases like “everyday problems” that happen from time to time like misplacing your keys or losing a file in the office, you can’t really google “where are my keys” and get the answer. You have to think about your past actions (where you could have put it), reflect and then act on looking for it before the problem is actually solved (if you do find it, if not, make new keys!). Nothing really beats our own mind in solving problems and let’s explore why it is so.

Problem Solving is a Skill to be learnt and learnt well

I recently had a few problems with my blog and due to my lack of IT skills, I spent a lot of time looking around for the answer to the problems. It was frustrating and I did not manage to solve it despite the many answers presented online, none of them seemed to help. Then I went to look for my good friend Jeremy who is an IT pro and a simple 5 min analysis and troubleshoot from him and voila, the solution pops up in his brain to his fingers and into our chatbox. I started calling him “Mr Troubleshoot” from then on. In this case, what he did was used his IT knowledge and skill and problem solved, something which I didn’t have. Of course, other than me, a lot of other people do ask him for help and like what he says, “the more I help others, the more I learn and am able to solve more problems”. Kudos to him and his IT problem solving skills

I have been reading up a little on problem solving techniques and ways to problem solve and realised that it is indeed a great skill to have regardless of your profession or industry. Other people who are not in your industry will require your problem solving skill in your industry anyway. This can be seen with the above example. Of course, the stuff I read up on are mainly about business but most of them can be applied in other industries as well. It makes one more street-wise and people will like you much better because you are a solution provider and not just someone who ignores or complains about problems. In actual fact, problem solving is not just one skill but a collection of skills many of which I will touch on in the future.

Problem Solving is Adaptable

I did mention being more street-wise if you did learn how to problem solve and this brings in the next point about the adaptability of problem solving. With problem solving, being adaptable could mean that it can be transcendent and suite a different set of instances with the same set of knowledge or skill. Take being street-wise for example. You are lost in a foreign land w/o a map but with the skill of language and have to get to another place. Not having a map presents a problem but being street-wise and having the skill of language makes you problem solve by asking others for directions and reconfirming the directions with more than 1 party. This can be applied anywhere in the world and it is very likely you get the same result, which is the correct direction to move to in order to get to your intended place, thus the adaptability of this solution. This is problem solving’s adaptability on an individual’s basis.

In the workplace while working as a team, you can problem solve by adapting your knowledge with others. Who knows, it might lead to better discoveries than what was done before and trickle down to the motive called innovation. Take 3M’s widely acclaimed and used Post-it notes for example. The polymer or “glue” behind the post-its were previously meant to be put on cork boards for documents to be stuck on temporarily, instead of using thumbtacks, it was a commercial failure. Though figuring out how to make this adhesive a commercial success was a problem, it became an opportunity to explore other ways to use it. The chemist, Spence Silver, created the adhesive but it was a scientist by the name of Art Fry who accidentally chanced up the idea of putting the adhesive behind small papers like the post-its because he wanted to use to bookmark some hymn sheets during choir. Even then it led to other problems like manufacturing and production challenges which they eventually overcame and gave the world their famously successful Post-its. To read the whole story, go to 3M story. As we can see, professionals who use their minds, get inspired and adapted their individual knoweldge and skills to transform a problem to a successful product.

Problem Solving makes you an Asset

This point pisses me off sometimes but yet it makes me understand why I treasure the skill of problem solving so much. Where ever I go, be it an organization or school, I promise that I will be some sort of an asset to the place and people. To try my best in things and contribute fully to the progress of these places. Sadly, not everyone shares the same views and in fact most people just want to get by the easy way. Through experience, the easy way doesn’t yield much progress or success in most situations. When there are problems, these people either ignore or throw the problems to someone else, dragging their teammates down most of the time. That’s one point that pisses me off, they are liabilities. The ability to solve this problem along with the other problems with the work needed to be done is highly valued both by your peers and superiors. Problems and other challenges that don’t go in your favour might help you become an asset in the organisation because you rise to the occasion and solve them with your awesome problem solving skills. People recognize that and treasure you even more. However, be careful about this point because your problem solving skills and attitude might be taken for granted or taken too much of an advantage of and cause you other headaches. Now that’s another problem to deal with. Warning to all, learn to protect yourself whilst being an asset.

What I’ve shared here is only the very tip of the “Problem-Solving” Iceberg. These are the main reasons WHY I dig problem solving and encourage all to dig it too. There are still many things to share about problem solving especially about how to develop it as a skill and it will be in future posts. I would recommend the resources and things that I’ve personally learnt about this skill, hopefully to spark interest and passion to problem solve and make your life and the world a better place. Problems are all over the place, learn how to solve them and act on solving them.

Cheers,
Kelvin “Kaizen” Koh

I came across this interesting concept on Trendwatching.com a few months ago and noted it down in my handy notebook of ideas. I am a big fan of trends and following them because knowing about them is important especially in business. By knowing what’s “in” and popular that exist throughout the many industries in business makes sure that we are kept up-to-date and follow the right path to success.

Just a short introduction to this concept of “Nowism”. It can be defined using many words, ranging from instant, real-time, live, speed, what I feel right now etc. It is an expression of what’s current and what the current is worth in terms of time, products, services and people. For a clear business definition, here’s the link “Nowism defined”.

This concept of Nowism isn’t really new, it just got more popular due to the ever changing landscape of business and interactions in the world. In the more developed countries, people lead fast paced lives. In turn, people are more concerned about what they can have at this instance, in other words, now. People are also mainly motivated by instant gratification, that is to be satisfied quickly by obtaining something right away. With the rise of the internet, Web 2.0 and social networking, companies like Facebook and twitter thrive on real-time, instant updates about life. Take a closer look at products or inventions that did become popular. The polaroid was an “instant” (pun intended) hit when it came into the market but became a miss when digital camera technologies were introduced. Digital cameras did not only provide instant review of photos but also gave the photographer the privilege to edit photos conveniently using the computer. This is Nowism stretched beyond just being instant and fast. As we can see, Nowism has indeed permeated our lives and businesses worked them to their advantage.

The concept of Nowism is attractive because it brings us into experiences that are up-to-date and current. Being and feeling reality is important to us human beings. I guess through Nowism, each of these experiences brings us back to reality and sometimes we yearn to celebrate the uncertainties in our lives. For example, we tweet about our current feelings and mood when we spot something interesting in our lives. Being in the “now” made us feel more alive and reporting it sort of celebrates live in a way.

Despite all the benefits that Nowism has brought about, materialized through products and services, to me, the concept serves as a reminder for us to slow down and enjoy now for what it is, not just for what we want. Also, I would like to share some other drawbacks that we ought to be careful of while exploring Nowism. It is true that it feels great to be gratified and satisfied instantly, but just like an orgasm, it doesn’t really last too long. Like the above example about tweeting, it is great to feel to share your amusement with the world, but sometimes it can go overboard and tweeting becomes an obsession that takes up too much of your valuable time. This “online (im)pulse” as described by trendwatching is what we ought to be careful of. Live and reality shows often provide entertainment and more realistic experiences through videos and images. These can be toxic to the mind too if taken to the extreme. Though entertaining, there have been cases whereby people followed the risky and extreme “stunts” shown in reality shows and gotten injured or even died. Like I said, these are extreme cases but they do happen.

Just want to make things clear. This isn’t a comprehensive report that elaborates much about Nowism. What I hope to convey is that Nowism was part of our lives and it has become not just about experiences and enjoying them but also mediums and tools of influence. Humans yearn for what’s real, what’s current and especially in our times, what can make me do things faster. Yes, we can enjoy the benefits of what we created through Nowism. However, we must be aware of the pitfalls and extreme behaviour that might arise by following it.

Well, thanks to Nowism, by blogging (a method to assimilate of opinions and views to the world instantly), I am advocating it and sharing it.

With love,
Kelvin

Been a long time coming.

Yes. It’s been more than 2 months, almost 3 since my last post. I have been reminded time and again to update by those who are really close. I really want to thank those who urged me to update (Josh, Tricia and gang). Thou shall not deny, I was indeed lazy to write. I shall not dwell in that laziness any more. I was thinking too much about what to type, but thinking too much hindered me from writing anything at all. Soon enough, everything stagnated. My life currently feels like that also. Stalled, Stopped and not moving forth. At least not fast enough.

It’s fast approaching the mid year and I am feeling indifferent from the beginning of the year. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been doing much. Truth be told, I haven’t really achieve much and that’s a fact. It’s getting really uncomfortable. It isn’t me. I know I am better than this. This is starting to sound cynical, maybe it is, but I feel better just typing and getting things moving again.

I wasted a lot of time dilly dallying, watching things go by, coping with information overload by not being organized and many other time wasters. I fully blame myself for not plucking up any confidence to just take action and execute things in order to get things flowing and progressing. I’ve really been digressing a lot and yes, I know a lot of my peers do that too.

With all that being said, I am still lucky to have certain “reminders” about how well or out of place I feel in life. A few examples.

1. My uncle constantly reminds me to do something to add value in my life, learn something new or start making money after work.
2. My dad’s inefficient ways and laid back attitude reminds me that I have to work hard to not only myself but for him as well. I think he’s passed the stage whereby he wants to work super hard just for money. Now he just works hard because he is a hard worker.
3. My close poly friends (my small social circle) who I hang out with at least once a month. For those in army, most of the time they talk about their ups and downs. For those studying, they sometimes don’t realize that they are lucky to be moving forth but I try to remind them and encourage them. I am glad to be connected to them and exchange discoveries or resources we do find that furthers our learning in business or life or just simply sharing our happy or sad moments
4. People in my workplace. When I look at those who are leaving or left, I imagine being in their position and how am I going to move ahead in life from then on. It is more of a scary thought to me now because I don’t want to be like them for many unfulfilling reasons. I am secretly glad that some are leaving soon though, for it will not drain me mentally and emotionally just by dealing with them. Mainly because I can’t change them and won’t bother to since their not exactly friends who I want to make. Well, on the bright side, there are some who I won’t mind keeping in contact with.

Notice, these “reminders” are all about people.  There was a cool quote used by personal development gurus that remind me about how important people are in influencing you in you life. It goes something like this, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read”. In fact, the people you meet and books you read do have an influence about how well you do in life. Of course, it takes the application about what you learnt from people and books to do well. With that being said, I am glad to have gone through this thought process about who cares about me and who wants me to do well and do well for myself, not just for them.

I haven’t gotten to any crisis stage yet whereby I am not thinking clearly or being deluded. In fact, through reading, I have been more clear about certain things, just that I’ve gotten back into the “thinking too much mode”. I think I should just break down what I want to do in the next 3 months, plan it out, do it and move from there on. Trial and succeed. Trial and fail and change. I will move forward with a purpose and yes, this piece of online real estate does need some design and life. More to come, one step at a time. This is just a booster to get me blogging again.

Comments or suggestions anyone?

With Love,
Kelvin Kaizen Koh

Happy CNY to one and all, well wishes to all. Good Health, Luck and Prosperity. To the Chinese, the start of the lunar new year is a refreshing start and time for renewal. It is indeed a wonderful time to celebrate and usher in new times and an even better future in the year ahead.

CNY is another occasion to follow the cultures and traditions of the chinese to bring good luck and happiness for the year. We do the normal stuff like visiting relatives and friends (whom we mostly don’t during the course of the year), having reunion meals and eating symbolic food, and of course, collecting money-full red packets for good luck. In Singapore, we get 2 public holidays in order to do all the above. In China, it’s 15 days, mainly because there will be a mad migration within the country during this period for families rushing back to their homes. Whatever it is, CNY is suppose to be a super happy occasion for all.

I treasure the experiences and meaning that CNY brings into our lives but during these few years, I feel especially empty during this period of the year. Certain things that hold meaning feel meaningless. Sometimes, I feel as though I am just going through the motion of it all for the sake of tradition. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t enjoy CNY, it’s just that I love to question things and derive meaning from them. A few of them made me feel empty. A few questions about CNY popped up in my mind and I find myself thinking too much but essentially, maybe I was just being too practical. Take a few examples below…

1. Ang Bao Dilemma

What do kids do when they get their red packets full of money? Most of them keep it, some don’t. The more filial ones will voluntarily give it back to their parents, whilst others are “forced” to give them back. Those who keep them, what do they do with them? I used to keep the money and buy some toys during the course of the year, should have bought books instead =X. Most kids do the same I guess, unless they are guided by their teachers or parents to at least save up for the future. To those who give them back to their parents, kudos to you because at least you have lighten to load of the output ang bao money of your parents. For those who are “forced” to give them back, I am sorry for you because you don’t have a choice and all I can say is that your parents are rather nasty. Well my take is on this is that the Ang Baos are given for symbolic good luck and the kids ought to have the freedom to use their money at their own discretion. They ought to be guided on how to spend this money or even invest it, but still, it should be up to the kid to decide. Tradition such as these do need to have practicality and courtesy.

2. The Political Visits

Visiting, a chore to some, great happiness to many. I think it’s the elders that are most happy when they have visitors during CNY. There is this air or respect and pride amongst them as they see people whom they occasionally see or not see at all come and wish them good luck and good health for the year ahead. It’s true that for the kids, the things that they look forward to is the ang baos and playing with their cousins or friends, thus they have simple minded happiness that they derive from the visits. Those that are in between the elders and kids, the young adults or even adults don’t really have much to look forward to during such visits. I am currently caught in that phase and have started to feel the effects of visits being a chore. You visit a house, sit inside, talk a bit to your relatives, sit aside and wait for your parents to finish talking and decide to leave, sounds mundane right? Not only is it a chore, it’s a political issue among the family as well. For example, when your family visits another, your aunts and uncles will definitely ask about your progress in life amongst other things that they would find interesting. Then they will compare it to their own children’s progress. If you do well in life or studies, it reflects well on your parents, if you don’t it doesn’t. This is the added pressure of CNY visitings and I am sure a lot of my peers are very familiar with such scenarios and sort of dislike them. Especially those with bigger families. Not all families are like that though, thank god mine isn’t and I like it to remain that way.

Despite saying the above, I still enjoy CNY on the whole. However, I think it is important to bring such issues up because we live through them and there are ways to make experiences better, especially celebrations. During CNY we are high strung about the pressures of visiting, preparing for the meals and other inconveniences that might come along the way of celebrating. Celebrations ought to be stress free, relaxing, happy experiences. So I hope to appeal to our generations and future, maybe we can make CNY sexy and cool. Really cool and even fun. Instead of holding it at home, maybe elsewhere like a beach front or something. Shape it up to have a different experience altogether. Include everyone by having uni-age games instead of segregating the family into young and old and mix. I think these are a few things that can be done to make CNY a livelier, more fun experience. Other Ideas anyone?

When it’s my turn to plan for CNY, I hope to make every year a lovely experience for my family and friends, something special and awesome for all to Enjoy.

Enjoy your CNY everyone. Overeat and burn it off by exercising thereafter =X.

Love,
Kelvin “Kaizen” Koh

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t want to make my “About Me” page too long to read, thus I am creating this long overdue post that will allow readers to know more about my family and me. 1 more step for me being transparent about myself for all to get to know me better.

I am glad to use my Toastmaster Ice Breaker speech because it gives a short and concise overview about what my life has been like. I decided to use the Timeline format to draft my first Toastmaster speech as I found it easier to think and introduce my life since birth in a sequential manner. It was pretty tough to squeeze 19 years of happenings into a 6 minutes speech but I guess I had to cut to the chase and give a rough overview of my life. I tried hard to fuse humour with certain facts by using visuals and anecdotes carefully and casually prompting some laughs once in a while. All these made the speech less dry and more interesting and memorable. By doing so, I received good reviews by the evaluator that day. Well, I shall let the video speak for itself. Do comment if you like it or not or things that I can improve on.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYkVcZ0xH2c

How was it? Sorry if the sound quality isn’t top notch, I was quite far away from the camera and refrained from shouting. Hopefully it’s audible enough for you guys to catch the words though. Still, I hope you all enjoyed it and have gotten to know me a little better at least.

There were other ideas that I thought about for giving a Ice Breaking Speech, especially for Toastmasters. If you happen to chance upon my blog because you were searching how to write a Toastmaster Ice Breaking Speech, here are some ideas in addition to the Timeline idea that I used for mine. Great ideas to jolt your mind to brainstorm on how to write a ice breaking speech. Here goes…

1. What’s current? -- You can speak about what your current situation is right now in life. You could include things like your current favourite hobby (which might be the same as before), your current job (since job hopping is in fashion nowadays), your relationships, your financial health etc.
2. Strengths, Weaknesses and Improvements -- Typically, one can assess and reflect about him or herself with a speech. By reflecting, one will let others know more about thyself. Why not share your strengths, weaknesses and things you think you can improve on?
3. What’s your passion? -- Have you found your passion yet? If you have, how did you find it and how did it develop to become a real passion? Outlining and creating a story out of what you love most will be interesting and heartfelt. You are talking about your passion after all.
4. What’s Next? -- Besides talking about what’s current, you can also add on with “What’s Next”. Any plans for the future? What do you intend to do? You can create a speech outlining your aspirations, goals and inspirations that drive you to have a vision of your future.
5. Learning from Experience -- Are there any experiences that have shaped your life? What have you experienced that made you who you are today? What influence has your experiences from studying, working, coping with stress, family, growing up etc have on you? Ponder Ponder, reflect.

These are a few out of the many ideas that you can use for an Ice Breaker Speech. Hope it helps. Wishing you all the best in sharing more about yourself. Do it and do it well. Make it fun!

With Love,
Kelvin

Interested to know me more or discuss anything on my blog…? Do not hesitate to contact me at these various mediums…

Email: kohkoh17@gmail.com

Msn: kohkoh17@hotmail.com

Skype: kohkoh17

Facebook: Kelvin Koh Tong Weng

Twitter: Kaizenkoh

Hello all once again,

I kicked off 2010 by bringing excitement back into my life! For 3 days in a row, I had outings, met new people as well as reminisce old times with close friends whom I have not met for a long while. These 2 weeks have been great. I took the chance to clear my remaining leaves (5 days). I treasured and made use of the freedom to wake up slightly later, go where ever I wanted to go, do the things I wanted to do during day time. It really feels good not to be tied to the chains under the employment of the army which unfortunately I am tied to for another 21 months or so. Never mind about that, it is just one of the very few things in life I cannot choose not to do. I am glad and fortunate enough to have the time to do whatever I want to in the night and weekend though. I call these my “precious time”. Limited but very valuable and must be spent carefully. About 7 hours each day on weekdays and 2 full weekend days. To me, I find that this year is very crucial for my growth. Why? Because with those limited time that I have compared to many of my peers (who are still in army) who don’t, I can either use it to do things that do not contribute in anyway to my wellness, both present or future, or I can use it to relax, shake my leg and slack it all away. Of course, me being me, I fully understand that I cannot afford to waste “precious time” as once it is lost, I will only end up living in regret and not fulfillment. I hate that feeling which I had at the end of 2009. I was totally disappointed with the quality and amount of things I learnt, done and try to grow as a person. Not a big concern now because I am glad that it’s the beginning of 2010 and I can renew, re-plan, re-focus and actually take certain and positive action for growth. New beginnings can bring new opportunities which can bring renewed faith and great success.

I titled this post New Year Intentions instead of just New Year Resolutions because I prefer to use something more generic, adaptable and flexible to me. The word Resolution seems too fixed, stale and inflexible which is not aligned to the world we live in. We are in a world of constant change, doesn’t matter whether it is fast or slow, but things will change. The fact that things change, I changed, but my resolutions did not change resulted in me not achieving them. I changed my mind about what to pursue and how to pursue it, but my resolutions and goals were not kept real (many times overambitious) and I ended up putting too much pressure on myself resulting in the lack of achievement. A very trivial way of putting it is that I was too narrow minded and hard headed not to look beyond results only. So, likewise in my previous post, I will take a different approach to goal setting this year and instead call it New Year Intentions, not just Resolutions. On a side note, I will still have goals or resolutions but having Intentions supports these resolutions better. I will explain more.

Why intentions? I’ve always been a big fan of intentions. To me, it’s a term that describes a cause for action. By cause I mean a forethought or purpose behind action. It encompasses the spirit of purpose and motivations behind doing something rather than focusing on the result alone. Though it might seem like a “weaker” word than resolutions or goals which are more absolute and firm terms for achievement, I find that it suites me well because I realise that it’s always better to look beyond just results only. Good Intention behind great results is very important. I think there is a big difference when we have bad intentions and still get great results. I mistook or did not even consider the intentions behind my resolutions and goals last year and was aiming with an unloaded gun. Hack, even if I had a gun, having no clear intentions was like not knowing what kind of gun I was using to hit the right target. It’s like holding a pistol to shoot a tank not knowing that the pistol doesn’t work. The purpose was to penetrate and blow up the tank (goal), not just leave scratches (wrong purpose/cause). Having the right intentions is like the qualitative aspect of achieving (often described as the “why”), the goals are the measurable aspect, quantitative (the “what”), if you want to compare it another way. With intentions which are usually flexible, you can use it to ensure that you are onto the right path to achieving a goal. You can change your intention behind the the goal you want to achieve earlier. This allows you to rethink through your set goal and consider changing it also. I will give examples with regards to this approach when I name my intentions for the year below.

List of Intentions (in no particular order):

1. Market or introduce products and services of value to others and let them reap the benefits of these products.
2. Be a better planner and organizer of information in order to be more systematic, clear minded and line myself up for ultra productivity
3. Be sincere and honest in the way I communicate and do things with others for they will do the same back.
4. Be financially free by building a few passive income streams, making my money work for me and my worth work the money I get
5. Attract people and make friends who are sociable, understanding and empowered to achieve and strive for excellence in all areas of their lives. They may also be great people to work with in the many projects that I have installed for in 2010. Reconnect frequently with current friends as well.
6. Raise my energy and motivation levels to a level whereby I feel that I can overcome all odds and push through to success. Focus these energies on productive activities.
7. Carpe Diem! every moment, every day. Take consistent action and leverage and build on my strengths.
8. Skills-wise: Be proactive in my learning. Learn fast, enjoy learning and apply what I’ve learnt to yield the results I want
9. Be socially responsible and give back. Whatever I do earn, I give some back to society, especially those who really needs it. Whatever I do have but don’t need, give it away to someone or somewhere that can be reused or recycled to something for future use.
10.  Harbour less on the negatives, more on the positives and always be a possibilist for it will open my mind, enrich my soul and I will feel great!

So with the above intentions in mind… I will list a few goals that I want to achieve in 2010. This time round, hopefully I won’t spread myself out too thin.

1. Build a successful, valuable and profitable blog. Kaizenkoh.com. Though I will blog about my personal progress, I will muse about other interests that can relate to personal development and growth which is the main focus of the blog. Other interests being Public Speaking, Design, Business and Marketing, Thinking and other general stuff. Still a few loose ends to tighten and I will be ready. I won’t name a target number of subscribers or page views to hit but I am sure my blog will garner interest of those people who want to achieve and seek excellence in their lives especially in the areas that I have interests in too.

2. Start my internet marketing journey and direct it to success. This shall be my focus on building passive income. My blog will be one form of getting income (perpetually) but I will also put my focus on other means. Currently focusing on affiliate marketing and Ebay. Affiliate marketing because I feel that I want to leverage on the products and direct my energies on learning the marketing aspect of internet marketing. Ebay because I have loads of stuff in my room to clear as well as my other house. Target Income will be around $2000 per months passive by the end of this year.

3. Toastmasters Competent Communicator and beyond. I remember that it was one of my goals last year which I did not achieve but I will do so this year. Public speaking has always been an interest of mine and a skill which I love building upon. It is close to a passion but not quite there yet. I have about 7 projects left for CC which I want to complete by June 2010. What goes beyond? Competent leader, but let’s take one step at a time. Another goal is to network and make new friends by visiting the various clubs and learn from them.

4. House Renovation. This shall be one of the things I need to manage after Chinese New Year with my Dad. I figured that it’s worth renovating the house for $10k maybe $20k to reap higher rental returns than what we are earning now. Doubt my dad wants to sell the house any time soon so might as well sqeeze more profit juice out of it. Target Date is June 2010 but I expect it to be finished earlier. Target Rental is $2.5k per month.
 
5. Develop Design Thinking and Learn Design Skills. This is one of the skill sets that I think business people should have. I will develop this through reading and doing. Read books related to design thinking and thinking creatively. Observe my surroundings and build a swipe file worth of wonderful design stuff. Do by learning and applying the technical skills of programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign. Though all these don’t seem measurable, my goal is to simply be proficient in the basic functions of these programs first and then move on to doing really cool and serious stuff with them.

6. Learn a new sport and continue with Qigong. I wanted to learn Archery last year but did not manage to get a coach or attend a class. This year, I will be proactive again and ask around to join a class. For Qigong, I will need to draw up a schedule and dedicate myself to doing it and make it a habit, from 2 times to 3 times or more a week at least.

7. Learn Basic Piano. I’ve bought a course, downloaded my favourite scores and continue to be in love with the sound of music especially jazz. I want to reconnect with my musical roots and learn an instrument all over again. I won’t be able to dedicate myself to playing it everyday but I will try my best to learn a few songs by the end of this year.

8. Read more books. Cut down on passive activities such as shows or just stoning around and actually pick up a book, flip the pages and read. I will usually read on various topics ranging from business to thinking to psychology and world issues. Not really a fiction fan but maybe I will read a few great novels just to have variety and maybe pick up ideas from them too. At least 1 book a week, if not 2. Which makes it 52 to 104 books this year. I will keep a list =).

9. Exercise 2 to 3 times a week. Strength, Cardio and Flexibility. Swimming, Body weight training and maybe pilates? These are the few things I am looking to to keep not only healthy but fit and energized to carry out other activities.

 10. Learn about investing and grow my family’s wealth safely and carefully. I will be reading books and playing games on investing. Haven’t really focused on this in the previous years but I guess it’s a good time to focus on it especially when my family has some money lying around uninvested. Achieve at least 10-20% gains in whatever amount I can invest and will invest during the course of the year.
 
Learning will be my main focus this year because I realise by not going to school, I have free time to focus on things that truly do matter in life and are of big interests and passions to me. I am also fortunate enough not to be slogging away at work till I am dead tired with no energy to do anything else after work. Thankfully, my family is quite self sufficient financially because we do have good spending habits. My dad and I have good control of our expenditures and so far we are making ends meet very well while still getting to enjoy certain simple pleasure in life e.g. good food.

With the right intentions, I am more grounded and clear about the “Why” (purpose and cause) of achieving on top of just the “What” (goals). This can relate back to deriving a stronger sense of fulfillment instead of just aiming for one off short term successes. From how I see it, the journey to many achievements to come can be purposeful and more meaningful while the results of the journey will be super fulfilling thereafter. I also feel that I will enjoy most of the things I set myself out to do this year because there’s a drive to succeed and learn. Most probably things might affect my goals and I will affect my goals to change. What would remain the same will be the intentions driving the goals. I am sure it will be the fuel for the fire to learn =).

At the end of each day, I will ask myself : “Was I better today than yesterday?”. At the end of the year, : “Was I better this year than previous years?”. =)

Love,
Kelvin