15%

Based on observation it was revealed that most of us used only 15% of our potentials. Even those people who were successful in various sports and in any other fields were predicted using only between 25% - 35% of their full potentials. The difference was only 10% - 20%! So with only using the 10% - 20% more from our unused potentials we would simply be able to achieve more than double of what we had reached so far. Start tapping those potentials and uncover hidden talents in you and be more successful.

DEDICATION and DETERMINATION

Hopeless – all of us most probably had experienced it. Famous and successful people also had gone through that dreaded situation.  They might have experienced it many times even after they have achieved their status. But they have the dedication and determination required in their effort to achieve their life’s goals. Remembering a thirty something years back when I was coaching younger schoolmates start practicing badminton after school on how to make good services, my memory brings me back to one of them who really diligently and tirelessly practiced doing the short and long services over and over again every time we had the practice sessions until she got it right. Though sometimes she was seemingly disappointed with her progress but she was dedicated and determined in all the practice sessions. Just recently I learned about her being a successful doctor with a specialization in children care and I am sure that those traits she had demonstrated in the sport are also the foundation of her success as a doctor.

In any situation when you couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, review your life’s goals and have the dedication and determination required to pursue those goals.

SECRET TO SUCCESS

There was actually no secret to success; it is simply a result of having the right attitude, continuous learning, preparation and hardwork.

[Ding Dong]2

Only just a year or two ago almost other people at my age, the ‘ABG’, stands for “Aku Baru Gocap” or in the English language means just turned fifty years old, did not use e-mails for correspondence so often. Many even did not have e-mail addresses at all. Ten or fifteen years ago, most people used smart phone full of advanced features at that time only for making phone calls. We thought, what a waste, right?

Nowadays the prices of the various handset models as well as the charges for using mobile phones services became relatively a lot cheaper so the number of people carrying and using cell phones everywhere they go is increased dramatically. In the crowd we could see people chit-chat and text messaging with their cell phones as they walk. Quite often, you thought a colleague standing or sitting near you in the office talked to you whilst actually that person was talking over the phone using the blue tooth device plugged in the ear. You might also have probably read or heard a joke about a funny conversation in a toilet where the person in the other side always responded to the conversation that was actually not intended to that person. The person in the next toilet block was actually talking to other people over the phone (^ u ^)

Then just a few years ago Blackberry device was introduced. The device makes the push mail and instant interactive messaging, the blackberry messenger available 24 by 7, every where you go. It makes communication really in real time even when you are separated by oceans and in different time zones. Not only e-mail accounts but also Facebook, Twitter, etc. have been made available wherever you go as long as you carry your mobile device with you. Do you realize how much your time spent in a day on reading and responding to inbound messages?  Pinging, being pinged, updating, downloading, uploading pictures, etc. Do you realize the distractions in your life because of the sheer temptation to read and reply all the incoming messages when you heard that [Ding Dong}2 sound? How many incoming and outgoing e-mails and messages do you have in a month? How many in an hour? What happens to your productivity, your other activities, your life?

What will actually happen when you turn it off for a while?

As a lecture and coach, I feel relieve because I can leave those devices in silent mode and forget them between 1 to 3 hours when I was giving lecture, training or coaching sessions. I can focus on what I need to deliver and escape from the temptation to check the e-mail accounts or the instant messages received when that [Ding Dong]2 or other alerting sounds is heard. At the office, when I was having meeting, I normally left my cell phone with the secretary just in case there will be an important calls from the regional, head office or customers. For those gentlemen who want to follow similar practice, please do remember to first let the spouses or girlfriends to know it before hand about this practice (^ u ^), to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

We shouldn't text messaging while driving - we [hopefully] all knew that very well. But what do you think about text messaging while working? There's nothing wrong when you moderately doing all that at work, but I think that you should not do it while you're working. The advancement in technology has provided us with better connectivity in our social life. However, the habit of responding immediately to the never ending non-stop ‘pleasant’ distractions will prevent us from being productive because we will only give continuous partial attention to all what we do. This habit would cause disturbances and conflicts in the other areas of life.

What do you think?

Slow down to speed up

I got the sentence that is used for the title of this article a couple of months back in “Become the Coach You Were Meant to be”, one of Paul J. Meyer’s many books. You might also have heard or read that sentence. Often than not in our life, the only way to speed up is to first slow down. The statement has made me think again about the importance of balance in successful living.

Everybody for sure wants to be successful in life and time management is one of the defining factors for successful living. Success is not a matter of luck. Success is not also coming as a random chance. Success is also not only for a fortunate few. Every one has the ability to be a successful person. As often said, success is a journey and not a destination. The journey needs time and the fact that we only have 24-hour a day so effective time usage is very important. Hence, the only way for effective time management is through creating plan of action in achieving goals in all the six areas of life.

We know that the use of period in any article enables easier understanding of what the writer would like the readers to grab from the sentences. The various plots and paragraphs in the article would be easier to follow then. Similar to that in our life, there will be time required to review all the actions taken. A break from all the routine activities is necessary to set plan of action. Unfortunately, quite often many people feel that they did not have enough time to do so. Many people feel that they have always been chased by deadlines to complete their tasks so they even considered break as wasting of their valuable time. Break or time-off that actually can be used to recover the energy required for next activities is often considered a waste of time. A simple analogy is about how good carpenters would always take time to sharpen the saws that they use. A sharp saw would not only make the cutting of woods easier. It would shorten the time required. It would also require less energy. It would also produce better quality result.

Being truly successful and being a real champion is through achieving balance in all the six areas of life. Many people would say that they were all too busy to take the break required even just to review their achievements in all the six areas of their life. It seemed impossible for them to stop from their routine activities to make goals in all those areas. During lunch time a couple weeks ago, at one of my clients office, the successful owner that has been living outside Indonesia was there for a visit. His appearance is much younger than his 80 years age. He shared us a story about the importance of an appropriate break. He said that once he told about this time off matter to one of his business colleagues because he saw that person gave no attention to his health. As expected, the answer given to him was that there will be not enough time to take that time off. Who will manage the business activities while he is away for that break was the rhetoric answer from his colleague. That wise man reminded that should a hospitalization be required some day because of ignorance of the required time off, the time needed for medical treatment will better be planned ahead as time off because by doing so it would actually prevent the hospitalization. Besides the medical treatment would probably require higher cost than a short break from business routines, diseases especially those that could reduce the ability of our body organs should be avoided. Health is one of the six areas of life that is defined by Paul J. Meyer in the Wheel of Life® Financial & Career, Mental & Educational, Family & Home, Physical & Health, Social & Cultural, and Spiritual & Ethical.

We need to be aware that the balance in all the six areas of life could not be achieved instantly. Balance would be achieved through a chain of repetitive some time painful processes. We need to constantly adjust but that is the reality in our journey of success to achieve balance in all six areas of life. Many people hope for instant success. There was no sustainable success from instant process. We could read and learn from the life of many people with true successful life that they have been through many ups and downs in their life, again and again, but they always rose again. If we carefully examine the journeys in their life, we can see that they did not focus only to certain areas of their life. They also have burning desire in achieving what they want. Though that burning desire is not the only factor in achieving their successful life but it is the most important one. That burning desire has made possible all the achievements in their life. Oprah Winfrey is one example of a truly successful person. From her life journey we could see how her successful life has not only through the repeatedly painful experiences and the test of time but also the fact that Oprah Winfrey has a burning desire. Difficulties and adversities in her childhood were not hindering factors at all. The Oprah Winfrey Show became the number one talk-show in 1986. Actually she started her career as a news reader at a radio station in Nashville in 1971. then as co-host at Baltimore Show from 1978 until 1984 when then she went to Chicago to host a struggling show named "AM Chicago." It was really not a short period of time, 15 years but with a progressive realization of goals that she wants to achieve. Oprah Winfrey is truly among the most remarkable personalities of this age. She was also aware that capability is important so she took Speech Communications and Performing Arts at Tennessee State University. She also has attention on education and social matters and in 2007 she accomplished a long-held goal, The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

There are many other examples of truly successful people and all of them have similar burning desire and went through same long process before they have successful life. As what Helen Keller said, "We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough", they all have spent some long years and learnt in the School of Hard Knocks during their journey of success.

In order to retain that burning desire in the journey of success, we can do the following steps, anticipate rewards, learn everything you can about your goals, observe professionals, identify with an achiever, and constantly remind yourself of your dreams. The usage of period in both written and verbal sentences is common. It enables the readers besides have better understanding of what is written. It will also give chances to other people to give responses. Time off in the slow down to speed up is a period of time where we can sharpen our knowledge and know how through continuous learning and setting action plan for important steps required to ensure the journey of success.