Do Your Read Newspapers?

Wow! This must be the silliest question you have ever heard. Well, you may think that I am nuts. But, I am not. Here is the reason for bringing up this issue. I had read quite a number of books about how our behaviours are affected by the things we see or hear. There is a belief that you mind, your subconscious mind can be affected by constant brainwashing to do certain things. That is the reason many psychologist are so strongly fighting against violence in TV, Movie etc. People, especially children who watches these TV or movies many subconsciously accepting the various thing shown and starting to do what is done in the TV or movies.

Now, come back to the question about reading newspaper. If the newspaper is always filled negative news, your subconscious mind will be influenced by it and you will become negative. When I told my friend about this. He was surprised that I said that because his pastor said the same thing to his church. I am not a Christain but my friend is. Not trying to talk about religion here, but, I just want to say that I am not the only person who thinks likewise.

So, the point really is that we must be careful to Prevent Negative Thoughts Controlling Our Mind. I am not telling you not to read newspaper. The media industry is going to hate me. But, I want to make the point that we don't get too engrossed into reading the news. We need to keep our minds clear and not to be influenced.

Remember, we are facing challenging time and we need to keep our spirit up. We cannot afford to be negative. So, one of the key survival skill that I am talking about is to Fend Off Negative Thoughts.

Survival Skill #19 Fend Off Negative Thoughts

Should I Sell My Car?

I am taking a train to work nowadays. The cost of driving is too high for me. The parking will cost me about $21. The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP - First in the world) will cost me about $5-6 (depending on the time I go home), and the gasoline will cost me about $9-10 depending on traffic condition. That is about $36 per day. My train fare is about $3 per day. I figure that if I can save $33 per day, I can have extra $660 per month. The main reason is that I don't save much time driving. The train ride is about 35 minutes. Walking is about 25 minutes. If I drive, I still have to walk about 5-10 minutes (up and down the office & home). Journey time is about 35 minutes, total time is about 40-45 minutes. So, I save 10-15 minutes per trip. So, in one day I may save 25-30 minutes which will cost me $33. That will convert to $66-80 per hour. Do I earn that much now? Ops! I have a PDA that I loaded with some e-Books that I purchased. I can read them on the train.

My car cost me $101,000 when I purchased it. In Singapore, you can use the car for 10 years. After which you will get be about 15% of the purchase price. That will be about $85,000 over 10 years. That is about $700 per month. Road Tax, Insurance, parking etc will cost around $300 per month. So, the car cost me about $1000 whether I drive it or not. Since I am not driving it to work, I think I should sell my car. It makes a lot of business sense. I guess I have to live with the inconveniences of weekends.

Saving $1,600 a month is quite a lot of money even if you are earning $10,000 per month. I think I will go a put an ad to sell it.

Survival Skill #18: Do Your Sums Right!

Do You Have Self Doubt?

Sometimes, things just hit us without us knowing it. One such thing is the feeling of self doubt. This is specially true when you are faced with some challenges and not able to find any solution quickly. For example, you are in a new job and this is some area of work that you had never attempted. You are at a lost of what to do. You search for various place to find some hints. Nothing! You start to have some self doubt as to whether you are able to handle this job.

This is most crucial time of your life. You had been retrenched for nearly one year and you finally found a job. You want to make it successful. You have no choice. Remember, you are over 45 and it is extremely difficult to land you another job. I am talking about average 45ers. Not those high flyers who are in the top management league. I am talking about people who had been in the mid level management. As you know that the current market is flooded with mid level management, the late babyboomers (those who were born between 1955-1965). The
early babyboomers (1945-1955) are mostly luckier. They had mostly escape the great squeeze and ran off with sufficient amount to retire.

Now, there is no other time that is worse than now to have self-doubt. My dear friend, this is certainly not the time for this. But we always get hit at the worst time. This always happens. Take a break and start thinking, not panicking. This is the worst time to panic. This is the time that calls for great concentration and calmness. Learn to do deep and slow breathing. Do it at
least 3 times a day. Each time, lasting for 3-5 minutes. Try to practise that 5 times a day and after each practice, start to think about solutions. If you can force yourself to do this, you will get great results. I had been through this before. It takes a lot of nerves to stay focus and quit panicking. Learning deep breathing really helps.

Stay calm and survive the most difficult period in your life.

Lookig forward to your success.

Survival Skill #17 Taking Deep and Slow Breathings

Big Challenges ahead...

The world economy is at its peak now. What makes me say that? My observation is based on how the major stock markets are performing. With major stock exchanges indices at it peak now, I am little concern that in the next few months, things will start to change direction.

So, what so you be doing? If you are not into the stock market, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you are heavily invested in stock market, you need to be more alert. The reason being these are very fragile times of stock market. With some economic indicators showing weak signs, the market players are most sensitive now. Any small event may trigger major panic.

My advice is to try to cash out of the market now. Build up more cash and wait for the right time to move in. With interest rate getting higher, it may be more prudent to have a better cash position.

It Is All About Common Sense!

What I had been talking about are mostly common sense, some people said. Well, sometimes, common sense can be quite uncommon.

If you think that these are common sense, then, ask yourself how "common" you apply your "common sense"? If you don't constantly applying those tactics in your life, you can qualify to call them common sense. The key is to implement. The Key is Taking Action. In life, everything is about taking action. Not taking any action itself is also taking an action. What am I talking about? What I mean is that you are making a decision by taking an action call WAIT! Waiting itself is an action. Sometimes in life, we need to be patient. That is different from Procrastination. Procrastination is bad taking quick action is good. But again, it is not always the case.

We all need to learn to make mistake. Learn to act fast and change fast and move fast. Knowing what we are doing and what we really want to do helps us to chart our course and stay in control of our own life.

Are You Concentrating Enough?

Here is the top secret of success. What makes people success is concentration power. Majority of us, including myself, lack concentration power. Most of us are easily distracted by any slightest noice. Ever heard of the story of a greedy tiger who caught a rabbit. Then he saw a deer which is bigger, he put down his rabbit and chase after the deer. In the end he ended up nothing. This is precisely what happens to most of us.

Most of us are Greedy. Short-sighted. We can't focus on something for too long. These are all killer bad habbits. We must change it in order to achieve something. Most successful people are able to keep their focus on the goal for a long time until they hit their goal. Nothing comes with luck.

Try this new strategy:
Choose a target. Keep focusing and staring on the Target. Keep hiting at the target until you finally reach it.

This is a simple strategy that was mentioned here can bring you life long benefits.

Survival Skill #16 : Concentration

Are You Near The End of The Road?

When you are really down, have you ever thought that you are nearing the end of the road? Sometimes, you think that the perfect solution for you is to just jump down (assuming you are staying in a high apartment).

Hold it. It cannot be that bad. Maybe, the opportunity is just round the corner. Have you heard of a story about a man who was searching for gold? He got money from his relatives and friends to purchase equipments etc exploring gold. After digging and digging, at the end, he has no more funding to carry on. He sold all his equipment to another person at very cheap price. This other person is no fool. He actually engaged a geologist to do some investigation before he bought over from the first man. Guess what, he hit gold after digging another 3 feet!

The moral of the story is: when you are about to give up, the real opportunity maybe just 3 feet away!

While we should constantly take a step back and look at the big picture. We should also evaluate our opportunities more objectively. Sometimes, we should even get expert's view of certain subject. It may be worthwhile to consult someone else. By simply giving up without carefully examining the opportunity maybe mssing the gold 3 feet away!

Moral of the Story: Don't Miss Your Pot of Gold 3 Feet Away!