Brienne writes

If you don't time block it or put it in your calendar, it'll probably be forgotten. That's what happened to me. Said I'll do something.  Clean forgotten about it. Only now do I remember because I looked at my calendar and I have set an appointment with this person. And there's something I need to do. Taking time now to go and get it done. To me: Time block it.  Put it in your calendar!

If you're not happy where you are now, wherever you go, you won't be happy. My current state is bliss. A roof over my head. Enough money to spend. Doing what I love teaching children. Weekday mornings for hiking, bouldering, working out and improving my physical health. I have clean water to drink too. And healthy food is easy to find.  It's sure nice over here. I know I'm more fortunate than many others.  Because of my mental headspace. Because of gratitude.  It sure will be nice over there too.  Are you happy with your current place? What can you be grateful for? What's nicer over there that you have here now?

Ali Abdaal have been talking about finding your niche before expanding into other areas.  I didn't listen. So many folks on Twitter are singing the same tune. Nah, I don't want to. I read Purple Cow today. And the message I got is... In order to be seen, you need to be different. You need to make a remarkable product in your given niche. Okay, I'm listening now. 

You say you want things but how much do you want it? Do you really want it enough to put in the work? I remember wanting a degree but not wanting to put in the work. I wanted it to magically fall into my lap with hard work, but not that much hard work iykwim. I complained to my parents whenever I had assignment due dates on festivities. I remember feeling fomo one time and tried to have the best of both worlds by having a glass of wine in one hand and my psychology textbook in another. Obviously, you know what happened. I'll miss deadlines or be so overwhelmed with the assignments and whine to Mom.  "Who asked you to get the degree?" she'll ask.  "Who's forcing you to do it?"  "No one. No one is forcing me.. But it's hard. I can't do it." Eventually, it came to a point where I either gave up or keep going. Did I want the degree? Yes.  If I gave up now, will I want to pursue the degree in the future?  Yes I would. So I pulled up my big ...

for the girls who never feel like they're good enough give this a watch. In fact, I'm just going to embed the video from my favourite portion.   But please watch the full video for full effect. . . . . Her words made tears well up in my eyes. I'm a project.  Day 1? Yes. I'm doing it all over again because I'm still not where I want to be.  The perfect body? Yes, tell me about it. I haven't gotten it and I'm putting off holidays, time for suntanning (my favourite actually), time for doing a whole load of stuff because I haven't achieved the body that I want ): Which reminds me of all the times I stopped myself from going for a tan during a staycation because I don't have the perfect body yet ):  Bad memories.  I'm not worthy of love, admiration, praise, friendship because I'm not beautiful.  Like Linda , I always bring gifts to my friends because I feel like showing up is just not good enough ): My presence is never good enough. I'm abou...

How would you treat your best friend if she was stuck in a slump and you wanted to help her? Would you talk to her positively everyday? Sit with her, listen to her, make sure she has her basic needs met.  Start a workout routine with her.  Get her to do things she enjoy.  Dance around with her.  Lay in bed and do masks together. Just chill and ask her what she likes to do and do them. You would? Yeah, she's you. You're your own best friend.  Ask her what she likes and treat her nice but motivate her to live her life to the fullest.  Go get it Bree. 

A friend XY said today, "You're meeting the whole world huh" and it got me thinking. Just a few days ago, I was telling my partner that I felt like I didn't have any friends.  How do you define friends? To me, friends are people you want to keep close by. People who matter. People who you wish would flourish and be happy. People who you'd want to help out when they are in trouble.  Is this your definition of friends too? How do you define friends? 

What's one thing I learnt today? Time is fleeting. Time waits for no one. Treasure the time you have with friends and family. 

It's 196 days till the end of the year. What do you want to achieve?  Will you change or remain the same? Thinking about wanting to make a change makes me think of so many other things.  If I wrote every day from today, I will only have 196 more posts.  That's the maximum I can go for this year. That's 196 more times to practice writing and be better with it until the end of the year comes. I would love to start having clients for copywriting/ coaching. Hoping to get 15 clients working with me for the next 196 days.  That's 29 weeks or 6 months to bring value to people.  If I want to work out thrice a week (minimum), I can only work out 29 x 3 (87 times) more this year.  Seems very little, how about 29 x 4 (116 times). Looks better. If I visit my family once every 3 weeks, that's about 9 more times of meeting till the end of the year.  Got me thinking, what do you want to do in the time left for this year? 196 days. 

When it's tough and you feel alone. Full benefit . Thank you Teddy Mitrosilis for this.  Navy SEALs have a saying. When something sucks, they say: "Full benefit." Instant mindset shift. • Hiking + it pours rain? Full benefit. • Lose a draft of a project? Full benefit. • Driving + car breaks down? Full benefit. Adversity makes us better if we let it. — Teddy Mitrosilis (@TMitrosilis) May 29, 2022

'The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place' by George Bernard Shaw.  I am today years old when I heard this quote shared by Kim Pong during a Chasing Horizons LinkedIn Live session hosted by Sau-yong .  Communication.  From the first day we breathe till the last day we take our last breath, we are in communication.  With the people around us, with living things like the pets we have or the whales in the ocean.  We communicate to get our needs met, our point across, to express frustration, excitement, eagerness or to persuade, negotiate and manipulate.  If we learn to become better communicators, the world will be a better place.  How have you become a better communicator?  Share your ideas with me in the comment box below. 

Isn't it Sunday?  Why is she in a meeting on a weekend?  S he must be a really busy businesswoman.  That's what I thought when my tutee's mom texted me to tell me she won't be able to speak to me before the lesson today. Only after I was on the way home did I realise. It's not a Sunday, it's Tuesday. When you love your job ( I know, controversial ), everyday feels like a weekend.  I haven't felt this much joy and eagerness for life.  (Don't get me wrong) I'm always excited for my life.  I find little pockets of time to be grateful. When I'm on the way home, when I'm on my jogs, I'm thankful I get to choose what I want to do with my time.  9-5? I've done it once more than 10 years ago. The question that got me out.   Is this what you want to do for the rest of your life? Every. Single. Day. Is this what you want to do for the rest of your life? No.  But I didn't know what to do for a while. But quietly, I hear her whisper.  Is this...

So many things to do but I'm always choosing the easy tasks. Are you the same? Thank goodness I put copywriting in my Manifest the Day time block schedule. And I studied for a total of an hour and a half.  Then the whole schedule was gone to waste.  Doing the hard things is difficult. It's no surprise not many get to do them right? Like climbing 14 Peaks like Nirmal Purja . Or going Free Solo on El Capitan like Alex Honnold . These men inspire me so much. What happened to the dreams of doing a marathon at 30? I don't want to reveal my age. So many of my dreams... are still dreams. I've been postponing the stuff I want to do.  Travel the world, or at least a month away alone. Work out every single day for the next 365 days. Skydive, climb the mountains of different continents. Are they still dreams I want to accomplish? What dreams have you been putting off? Are they still your dreams? What dreams have you achieved? What dreams are you the proudest of? Share them wi...

Wrote for the first time in my journal in a long time. The last time it was 9 February 2023 where I sat down to pen my overdue New Year's resolution. Wow. My left wrist was aching after less than a page.  My left arm, forearm, wrist have been aching since I hanged on the bar for 20 seconds.  I wrote at the shorter side of my 'work desk'. The foldable table that is present in every Chinese home. (I'll show mine when I take a picture tomorrow) We pull that out from the storeroom whenever there's a big reunion dinner. Usually during Chinese New Year. It'll be the extra side table with all the ingredients that can't find a place on the main table. Because the main table is where we put the steamboat pot. I digress. I think I've typed a lot that my words flow exactly how they do when I write too.  No complaints with that. I started with clearing the space on top of my drawers. Now it looks like a mini art gallery with carefully selected items to be placed on ...

0730 woke up, brushed my teeth, meditate 0830 - 0908 used twitter 0908 went for a jog/ run and it was hot (reminding myself to run earlier next time) wanted to get a soy milk from the market but it was closed for washing ): did a 20 seconds hang at the playground 1000 came home, had scrambled eggs for breakfast and read 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins Read more after breakfast Partner came home with fish soup for lunch at noon Had lunch, read more, rolled out the yoga mat at 1 plus and slept at the living room in the sun had an hour and a half nap woke up and read, tweeted, searched for assignments finally showered and decided to paint my nails of my left hand (I painted the right yesterday) Searched for podcasts to watch. Diary of a CEO just came out with 1 with Nicola Kilner. Decided to watch my copywriting course instead.  1930 got bored and was no longer paying attention Told myself 5 more minutes. Did 5 and another 10 minutes more. Got back on the Diary of a CEO podcast.  Wa...

I've been on this self-help journey for the longest time. I wanted to be a psychologist when I was younger.  Why? To help myself get out of the darkness. Today, I'm here. Better than ever. (sounds very cliche eww) But I still have so much to learn. How to get up early, how to write everyday.  How to stop going on social media.  I know just delete the app.  But I want to learn to exercise self-control! How to just be human. How to just be a better human. Am I the only one that thinks that way? 

Watched  The Social Dilemma   and I have mixed feelings about it.  First, I agree with what they said.  AI is already all around us, the big tech companies are manipulating us, our behaviours and selling our attention to advertisers. We're what they need, we're an individual data point, civil wars can happen in ten or twenty years time and we'll be finished. But, I also think. We created these stuff. We're human, we're kind, loving, there are as many people who are as aware of what is going on and we're going to make it all okay at the end.  I don't know. What do you think?