Microbes Project. Microbes Lab Report. Solids Project. Wastewater test. Presentations.

5 major deadlines within the span of a week. I thought I was dead. I seriously thought I was going to suffer from a bout of depression. I went to school daily literally stoned and all my friends were asking if I was ok. My eyebags started to grow even larger than my eyes! (trust me, I have BIG eyes)

Well, that was one week ago. Today, almost 1 week later, and I’m still here! Alive, kicking and happier than ever! I managed to stay alive! I survived! I managed not to fall into depression! In fact, a couple of my friends even complimented that I was looking sharper than ever! At this point, I’m pretty sure you’re wondering, how on earth did he do it?

I guess one of the things that kept me going was support from my friends. Their constant care and love really made me realise how lucky I was! Another factor that might have been the fact that I’ve actually started jogging! Yes! After countless ‘Jeremy I think you’ve grown chubbier’ I’ve finally decided to do something about it.

But, I think the strategy that benefited me the most was planning out my work. Now, as simple as this may sound, not many people actually plan their work! Ok, maybe they do. But I’ve noticed that majority of my friends only do it very last minute! They only begin to plan when the exams are approaching or when something huge comes up.

By writing down a detailed schedule, I was able to step out of my mind full of cluttered thoughts and look at the big picture! Guess what? When I took that step back, I actually saw that I didnt have THAT much to do! I mean it was a mouthful but it was manageable!

I hope that this little snippet of my life has managed to show you that no matter how much work you think you might have, you’ll live through it. Trust me. As the Chinese saying goes, ‘The bridge will automatically be in place when the boat arrives’ (Haha.. My translation does need abit of work)

If you’ve read the papers in Singapore recently, you might have noticed this huge article on personal motivators, NLP trainers and public speakers in Singapore. Some of them command fees of up to $15,000 while others about $2,000. Before I even start to comment on whether or not these people know their stuff, isn’t it interesting to note that even between these ‘great’ speakers, the price range is a whopping $13,000?

How is it some people are able to command such high prices and still conduct sell-out seminars while others are only able to command a much less fee? While the marketing tactics and strategies may play a role in the prices, wouldn’t you also agree that the way the speakers speak also does play a part?

Good speakers have known how to successfully use NLP, neurolinguistic programming, to direct their energy to propel them into super resourceful states. In addition, they also know how to control the states of the audience.

A great technique I’ve found out is varying the speed of your speech. In case you haven’t noticed, people who speak faster and which more expressions in their voices tend to be able to generate large amounts of energy in the room. In addition, through the use of gestures, body language and tonality, speakers have been able to engage the audience more fully!

These trainers rarely are born talents. They usually are very hardworking people who go through intensive training before even achieving a fraction of what they are today. What I hope to put across is this. If you want to be a great speaker, you have to start practising today. Put yourself in situations where you will be forced to speak. Train yourself daily and I guarantee you, one day you will find yourself speaking almost like them.

How many of us actually have the oppotunity to go through life twice?
I think none. Unless you’re Adam Sandler and you’re the lead actor in the show ‘Click’.

Under the sad and touching story line, I feel that this show teaches us a very important lesson - Life isn’t so much about who or how we end, but it’s more about the journey and the experiences that take us there. Can you imagine how it would feel to wake up rich, successful and old one day? Before you answer the question, here’s the catch : you don’t remember what happened to you, how you got there, what happened to your loved ones around you etc. Would that put you on the top of the moon? I doubt it!

As I mentioned in the title, always begin with the end in mind! It’s the same whether you’re building a house, planning your career or even planning your family. If you do not know where you want to go, things can get pretty messy!

Let’s imagine for a moment here that you’re a contractor building a house. You get all your material ready, your workers are present and ready to start and you’ve done all the necessary paper work. The only thing is, you DON”T HAVE the floorplan. How do you think the house will emerge? Would you dare to live in a house like that? I know I wouldn’t.

Now do you see the importance of planning ahead and having the end/result/goal in mind? Similarly, if you’re stuck in a dilemma right now, unsure of what path you must take in life, sit back and carry out this little activity with me. I guarantee you that it will give you some light!

Close your eyes and allow yourself to relax. Allow yourself to be transported 5 years into the future. I want you to see yourself. See what you’re doing, see how people around you are treating you, see what kind of an apartment you’re living in, see the kind of salary you’re drawing. With that picture in mind, allow yourself to come back to present time.

What must you do now to reach what you saw in 5 years time?

Do you have the answer to that question? If you have a clear picture of what you have to do now, good for you! If you only have a rough idea, give yourself more time to think about it. It is afterall a decision that will impact your life forever!

I hope this post gave you some light on what to do and how to do it. If you ever find yourself stuck, smile and enjoy the process of thinking and pondering because remember, its the journey that counts!

“We leave everything behind when we finally leave.”

Written yet again by Jeremy Neo

I’m going to begin this post with a question.

How many of you notice that you get into different moods when you listen to different kinds of music?

For instance, do you realise that when you’re feeling heartbroken and happen to listen to a love song, the feeling of depression just multiplies a 100 fold? Also, when you’re feeling sleepy, you might listen to loud music with strong, heavy beats to get that additional rush?

That is the power of music, the power of sound.

Sound has been used in many different instances to control the mood of an audience. Music is used in movies to swing the audience between states. The classic example of successful use of sound was in the movie ‘Jaws’. Everytime a shark was about to appear, the same music would play and then ‘wham!’ the shark would appear!

Here’s a thought to think about.

You most probably know that different sounds can put you in different states. How do you think you will benefit if you used sound to constantly keep yourself in your most resourceful state?

Let’s do a quick activity to determine the kinds of sounds that will put you in your best state for peak performance!

1) Think of 4 different resourceful states you must have to perform at your peak.
Eg. For me, I have

i)    feeling powerful
ii)    feeling happy
iii)   feeling loved
iv)   feeling motivated

Quick, do step 1 now! Once you have your 4 states, you are ready to move on to step 2.
2) I need you to think of different sounds to represent the 4 different states listed. In other words, what kind of sound do you listen to, to get yourself motivated, to get yourself to feel powerful, etc.
Eg. For me,
i)    people clapping
ii)    listening to the song ‘Be my girl’ by Jet
iii)    listening to the song ‘Have yourself a merry lil christmas’
iv)    having a crowd of 1000 people saying ‘COME ON!!’

Once you’re done with step 2, give yourself a pat on the back! You are halfway through the process!

3) Once you have all the different sounds, you need to know where these sounds originate from. Are they coming from the top? Is it a kind of surround sound? Are the people shouting at you straight in the face?

In short, you can place your sounds in 6 positions. Front, back, left, right, top and/or bottom.

4) The last thing you need to do is imagine all these sounds coming at you - all at once! Then slowly increase the volume until it becomes deafening and then tadaa! You will suddenly find yourself in a super resourceful state with all the drive and motivation.

Let me know what this does for you! OUT!

All of us have only 24 hours a day. While some people seem to be able to accomplish feats in the span of a day, many of us struggle by finding it almost impossible to even starting our tasks.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to function like the first group of people? Wouldn’t it be great if you could stop procrastinating and start working on things now?

Well, I have great news for you! Met up with a couple of friends last night and they shared with me steps or things I could do to prioritise my time and to start the ball rolling!

Step one : Plan the night before.
Plan, plan, plan, for if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail. Sounds familiar? While this step sounds trivial and unimportant, I have found that planning and working towards a goal actually serves to provide a source of motivation and energy! You will also find that you will be able to accomplish more in a day because you already know what you want!

Do not fall into the group of people who always ask themselves ‘So what should I do next…’ because by the time you think of something and sit down to actually doing it, a day might have passed!

Step 2 - Prioritise
We all have important things to do in life. To some it might be replying hundreds of emails, to others it might be sitting down and watching that t.v. show and yet to others, it might be spending time with your family. Given that we have so many ‘important’ things to accomplish in life, it is little wonder why many people, myself included, complain about the lack of time!

Therefore, in order to achieve the most out of your time, you have to prioritise! How do you do it? Let’s group our daily activities into 4 main groups.

Group 1 : Create value and urgent
Eg. An assignment or project that is due for submission very soon,
These are the things that create the most value for us (monetary) and are the most urgent hence require the most attention. Failure to produce would result in suicide.

Group 2 : Create value non urgent
Eg. Self improvement, reading books to increase personal value, studying, exercising,
These are the things in life that help increase our value but are not due in the near future. In my opinion, this is the 2nd most important group and more time has to be allocated to this group.
Group 3 : Urgent
Eg. Replying emails, returning smses, returning phone calls,
These are the things that many people mistake for top priority and do them instead of their jobs. As these activities do not create any value, I feel that emphasis on them has to decrease and the time allocated has to be less.

Group 4 : No value and non urgent
Eg. Watching t.v., surfing the internet for fun, playing computer games,
These are the activities that do not add value to our lives and are things I feel we can do without.
In sum, 80% of our time should be devoted to the groups 1 and 2 and 20% of our time to groups 3 and 4. That way, more things will be accomplished and you will feel a greater sense of achievement at the end of the day!

Just for laughs : Can you imagine what it’d feel like if someone came along and asked ’so what did you do today’ and you went ‘I cleared 200 emails!’

See my point?

Step 3 - The most important question of all
Before you begin any assignment, ask yourself this.

‘If I had only half an hour to do this, what would I do?’

This question will help your brain focus and zoom in with laser accuracy on things that are important and need to be accomplished.

Hope you’ve found this post useful. Drop me a comment!

Never ever stop believing!

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt-

How many times have you met with a downfall, a failure or a setback? Once? Twice? Chances are, you’d most probably have met with alot of obstacles in life! The most important question here is:

“what do you do about it?”

So many people in life have fallen only to rise to greater heights! People like Steve Jobs of Apple, Sim Wong Hoo of Creative Tech., Soichiro Honda of Honda and so many more!

Did they ever give up? Did they ever stop believing in themselves? I think not! And guess what, if they managed to do it, so can you! Think about it. They are humans, just like you! And being part of the same human race, we have almost 99% of the same genes! So what sets them apart from us? What sets them apart from you?

I believe that everything we do in life is governed by a single principle. Not the supernatural law of nature, but the ‘ultimate success formula’! All I can tell you is this. If you take this formula and apply it to ANYTHING you do in life, you will succeed! It’s that simple but it’s never going to be easy.

Ultimate Success Formula

Beliefs + Goals + Plan/Strategy + Take Action = Result (good or not)

The main difference between success and mediocrity is what we do with the result! We could take that ‘failure’ and treat it as feedback or we could let it consume and destroy us! The choice is yours! If you recieved an undesirable result, you have to re-visit your strategy, change it and then take action again!

This my friends is the power of belief.

“People fall so that they may rise to greater heights”