>>Begin with the end in mind

Just a little update after MIA-ing for the past week. Right, I was busy crossing hurdles and today, I just had my last seminar class for the semester and I did a presentation on Sports Performance Anxiety (which is my last assignment for the semester).  Brought in the case study of Liu Xiang and used that as a lead-in for my presentation.  Seriously, I was a little nervous prior to presentation because my seminar lecturer is a sports psychologist for the australian men’s hockey team, so I had to be clear and know what I was presenting. Well, all is good! phew…

I came back home for lunch and I thought it would be great idea to catch up with my reading (haha, definitely not textbooks and academic journal articles!).  Anyone can make a smart guess the book I read just now, with the title of this entry provided?

BINGO!!

Yep, it’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Actually, this is my second time reading that book but I really like this book because it highlights the principles that one’s must possess as HABITS in order to achieve true interdependent effectiveness; meaning aligning one’s needs and desires with those of other people and create effective relationships.

But today, I’m just going to talk about what I feel, personally, a principle that strikes me a great deal and that’s Habit 2: BEGIN WITH THE END STATE IN MIND.

In his book, Stephen R. Covey captures the essence of strategic thinking and with that, it all boils down to being absolutely clear minded of what you really want in life.  He illustrated this concept with a visualisation exercise…. (Touchwood, it’s just a visualisation exercise) Imagine that at the end of your life, you were able to listen what was being said during your funeral, what would you like people to say about you, as a father, as a life partner, or as a colleague? And in this principle, whatever it is that you would like to hear, you are now in the position to start living the life and establishing the relationships that you want to make it happen.

Personally, I think that is a really power and good personal development advice. By being clear of what you want in life, you increase the chances of achieving it.

So now, how do you actually achieve it?

Covey recommends formulating a personal vision statement to document one’s perception of one’s own vision in life. In the process of developing your personal vision statement, you can use your creative imagination to visualise milstones of your career, your family, or your accomplishments. Visualise what you are going to achieve in great detail.

That’s powerful, eh? so what are you waiting for? Start writing a vision statement work towards it!

Have a great week ahead! =)

>>Catching a breather

Wow! Finally, I’m done with my research presentation to the year 2s! together with my psyc buddies, I thought we put up a really good show! And of course, we managed to put our points across and made the year 2s understood what we presented, which was really good! Oh! We made it engaging as well! hahaha.. Seriously, I am proud of you guys!

Alright, now that this is over, I am now catching a slight breather before I continue on conquering my other hurdles! By the way, I have 100% worth of assignments to hand in on this coming Monday.. and yes, that’s a nightmare. Well, i think it should be manageable.

“Come on! Come on! This is going to end really really soon and you are going home!”

To end off, I have three reasons to be happy today…

….. 1st, presentation’s over!

……….. 2nd, won money in 1/2 round mahjong just now!

……………… 3rd, bought a crate of mangoes!

Alrightys! Time to work on my research report!

Just some random pics with the psyc buddies…

The 4 of us… starting from the left, skye my housemate, then lynette the skinny, then jane the sleepyhead and lastly, me! Now I know why jane didn’t want to stand on the right, because it will make the your face looks damn big…. just like this one…

This was taken before the above. Seriously… lynette, you are really good at photography. But seriously, no matter how good your photographic skills are, without nice-looking people like us… the picture will still not look nice. =P whahahaha!!

Embracing the world of psychology! with jane trying to steal my plastic bag!

Some random pics..

Alrightys! More photos to come when I dedicate a tribute entry to my psyc mates! Stay tuned! =D

>>Life is simple

Sometimes life is so simple that a small lollipop can make your day.

Have a great weekend!

Ta!

>>Hurdles for the month ahead! Crunch Time!!

I will be home in exactly a month’s time! I am really looking forward to it. Back home with my family, back to work, back to friends!

However, there are quite a number of hurdles to clear before that day eventually arrives.  2 Assignments (1 60% weightage research report and 1 25% lab assignment), 2 presentations, 1 Lab exam and of course, the 3 end of semester examinations (10, 13 & 15 Nov respectively) are waiting for me, like hurdles on the 110m running track.

Right, gotta clear them ALL without toppling them or falling over before I sprint with all my might towards my home sweet home!

Time really flies in this semester. Well, as compared to the other semesters, I have my psyc buddies this time round! Really gotta give tribute to all of them for their companionship, for their advice and the times we spent together mugging, doing projects and the list just goes on and on……………..

Seriously, you guys have made my life in Year 3 much easier.  I really look forward to the day that the four of us will be able to do honours together, become housemates and bitch about our supervisors. Hahaha..

The journey to our honours programme starts right now. Let’s finish this race victoriously!

Alrightys! Gotta take a nap.  Haha.. so anti-climax (an inspirational speech followed by a nap… how nice…)

Well well, 休息是为了要爬更高的山，走更长远的路！

Oh, before I go, my psyc buddies are Skye my housemate, Jane the sleepyhead and Lynette the skinny.

Haha.. I promise to dedicate an entry for the 3 of you when this semester ends, alright?  Now, leave a comment and go back to your developmental psychology essay.

Ta!

>>What a sporty day!

Thank God it’s Friday!

Since friday is my rest day, so I am fully utilising the time by NOT staying at home! Haha…

I went to the golf complex for a lunchtime practise, whacked about 200 balls in the driving range! Okie, to be exact, it’s 207. Then came back home to rest a while before continuing my next activity.  While resting, I ate my daily dosage.. Guess what’s that? Yes! It’s bloomberg, CNN Money and Forbes! That’s how I got my last entry.

Up next, I went for a 15KM run to Cottesloe Beach. It was not a nice run at all. I had to run along Stirling Highway and that road is very undulating. After that, I had to turn in at Eric Street, where that’s the route to hit the beach.  The only nice thing for the run was the ‘going-to’ sunset. I ran along the beach for about 3KM before I turned back to run along the same route again.

I round my sporty day up with a ‘home-made’ workout. It’s just some weights and stuffs.

Well, I reckon that I will be able to sleep well tonight!

Have a great weekend, friends!  …. and sis! Hahahaa

Alright, gotta go… needa rush my Korean Drama!

Ta!

>>Singapore falls into technical recession

Yes, the word is TECHNICAL recession. Not Recession.  According to textbook definition (as far as I could remember from my JC Econs stuffs, haha…), it means that the economy is experiencing a two consecutive quarters of contractions in the real national output.

So as mentioned, Singapore, being a trade-sensitive economy, falls into a technical recession since 2002 ( full recession during 2001) as manufacturing sector slump and experiencing negative growth for the last two quarters.  Haiz…..

Since opening, STI was down about 7%. Our dear good friend, Dow Jones in New York, experienced the 6th consecutive triple digit plunge, closing at region slightly above 8,500 points after a registering a 679 points (7.7%) fall last night. Our brother Japan, fell more than 10%, and another khaki of ours, Hong Kong Hang Seng, fell 7.7%.

We have come to a stage where fundamentals of companies are no longer taken into the picture. Basically at this stage, the market is just in panic and when will this panic end? Nobody knows….

So what is Monetary Authority of Singapore (our central bank) doing? 

With the top central banks cutting interest rates during the week, Singapore too, followed suit by announcing to loosen the monetary policy for the first time in four years (last time was during SARS period).  MAS shifted its currency policy to seek ZERO appreciation in the trade-weighted band for the our dollar. It retained the band in which the currency is allowed to trade and will intervene if necessary.

Well, you may ask why the monetary policy for Singapore is so special? Instead of relying on short-term interest rates, conducts policy by managing trade-weighted enchange rate index.

Let’s see, we need to bear in mind that Singapore economy is a small but yet open economy, where it centers on imports and exports. With that, managing the SGD against a basket of currencies of the country’s major trading partners and competitors will make our export prices competitive. The central bank will not reveal the band, and they will be able to appreciate or depreciate our currency based on the world’s situation like inflation and other economic deteminants.  With this system, it will also allow the central bank to intervene in the forex market to prevent too much fluctuations in the Singapore Dollar.

Hope my 5 cents worth of stuff is able to explain things…

Right… time to go for a run!

Ta!

(References: Bloomberg, my home page… CNN Money… CNA Business)

>>My room b4 and after assignments!

Some random images of my room……….

Assignment Time…..

Taken when I was doing my Abnormal Psychology Essay on Anorexia… The night before submission!

–++–

After submission of assignment!!!

Looks neat!

But It will be messy in a few days time…. 4 more assignments in the span of two weeks!

Oh by the way, I’m going home on the 15th Nov!!! Hooray!!!

Ta!

>>What truly are our priorities in life?

To me, I believe this is, without a doubt, one of the most important questions that we have to ask as we go through our life. Personally, I feel that it is critical for each of us to clarify about our own priorities, because I believe the once we are clear about our priorities, it can help us to make better decisions and more importantly, more conscious about ourselves and our loved ones.

Well, I came out with this question when I just signed on as SAF Officer Army Regular. At that point of time, I knew that this is my career and it’s going to be a new priority in my life.

With that, it intiated a change in my priorities for my life.

Since then, my priorities have not changed a bit.  So what is your order of priorities?

The priorities for my life are the following:

- Self

- Family

- Work (Career + Studies)

- Relationship (Partner)

I put myself first simply because I cannot truly love my family, excel in my career and studies and love my partner or any other thing unless I love and give to myself first. Family comes before Work simply because my love for them are far more important than work and any amount of material reward. Work comes before Relationship simply because at this point of time, I just want to concentrate in getting good grades in my studies and establishing myself in my career.  I feel that this is not the time to get into relationships.

Well, this order of priorities will stay maybe for the next 3-5 years? Hahaha, definitely, I will change them in future. If not, my parents will kill me.

Agree, that along the way, there would be a lot of ‘What if?’ questions that would pop up daily in our lives, but what I truly believe is that, we need to give serious considerations to the order of our priorities.  The order of our priorities is what our makes the difference between struggling in life and loving life.

Let me round this up with thought of the day….

>> The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. (Stephen R. Covey)

>>US House of Reps approved $700Bn Rescue Package

The time now is 3.07am. Don’t ask me why I’m still up at this hour.  Took a nap and woke up just now. Right now, I am just montitoring the US market and at the same time, constantly refreshing Bloomberg on the update of the House of Reps voting on the revised $700Bn Rescue Package Plan.

The market went into a dramatic turmoil when the House of Representatives rejected the bailout package on Monday by 228 votes to 205.

As of 3.04am (Sat, Perth Time), the house voted 263 in favor to 171 against in favor of the revised rescue package, which is the largest US government economic intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hopefully, this huge intervention will restore the confidence the US banking system and sort out the troubled financial institutions…

Alright… hope this is the beginning of the end… for a better outlook… Cheers!

(Info extracted from Bloomberg and CNN Money)

This was taken in Year 2006 X’mas Eve along Wall Street.

Those were the days that the economy was doing so well!

Another random pic… Close-up on New York Stock Exchange..

…Alright, time to go back to lala-land. Ta! =)