Do take this holiday period to clarify your goals, dreams and needs. Spend some time by yourself for yourself to rejuvenate your mind, body and spirit. Spend quality time with your family and friends, cherish the times you have with them, for one full year has passed since your last Christmas holidays. Time flies. We are all one year older since last Christmas.
What have we done? What have we achived? For me, its not so much about what I have achieved. I look at what action I have taken. Whether I achieve my goals is immaterial, as long as I continue to take action and learn from mistakes. I know that I will surely achieve my goals this way with less stress. Achieving my goals is not an end point, its a journey and I intend to enjoy it.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
How to Rescue Failing Software Projects: Practical Proven Methods That Work
My book is finally available as an eBook, on Amazon Kindle and on Amazon. I wrote this book to share my experience in how to rescue failing software projects. When I was going through such a situation, I had no one to turn to. My hope is that the information in this book will be useful to those in similar situations. Although the information in the book pertains to software projects, I have come to realize that the techniques can be used in many other situations. I have personally used these techniques in business and technical projects.
You can read more about it here.
My book can be purchased here at Amazon.com.
Amazon Kindle version is available here at Amazon.com
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Enjoy the ride of life
I just came back from a wonderful vacation in a neighbouring country with very cool weather. There was a theme park with several roller coaster rides. I'm really not one for roller coaster, but after riding on one, I was eager to go onto another ride!
My first ride was filled with fear and apprehension. Lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, positive and negative G-force.
I noticed something about myself. I need control over the environment to stay secure and safe. When the roller coaster dropped like a rock, my heart felt like it was going to come out of my mouth! After a while, I got used to the sensation of falling and began to enjoy the rides tremendously. I began to let go (not literally), site tight, go with the flow and enjoy the ride.
Isn't this true in life? We all go through ups and downs. Going up, we can take. Downs, we can't. Same in the roller coaster example. WHen we get used to going down, we begin to take it in our stride.
If we take action, there is always a result, either positive (up) or negative (down). After taking action several times, we will get used to such results, whether up or down, modify our strategy and move on. The point is that we have taken action and achieved a result to know our limitations or limitation of our strategy. This is feedback for us to modify our strategy and take action again until we achieve success.
Enjoy the ride. Ups and downs are part and parcel of life. The only time we do not have ups and downs is when we are dead! Take life and its results in our stride. Learn to live life, do not squander our time. Plan your life, plan your month, plan your day and have a wonderful life!
Just a note to those I have not replied to your comments or emails. I have received emails in my Bulk folder and removed them. If I had missed your email, I do apologise. I do appreciate your feedback and will reply. Better if you leave a comment to my posts. Any which way, comments always appreciated.
Thanks
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
My first ride was filled with fear and apprehension. Lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, positive and negative G-force.
I noticed something about myself. I need control over the environment to stay secure and safe. When the roller coaster dropped like a rock, my heart felt like it was going to come out of my mouth! After a while, I got used to the sensation of falling and began to enjoy the rides tremendously. I began to let go (not literally), site tight, go with the flow and enjoy the ride.
Isn't this true in life? We all go through ups and downs. Going up, we can take. Downs, we can't. Same in the roller coaster example. WHen we get used to going down, we begin to take it in our stride.
If we take action, there is always a result, either positive (up) or negative (down). After taking action several times, we will get used to such results, whether up or down, modify our strategy and move on. The point is that we have taken action and achieved a result to know our limitations or limitation of our strategy. This is feedback for us to modify our strategy and take action again until we achieve success.
Enjoy the ride. Ups and downs are part and parcel of life. The only time we do not have ups and downs is when we are dead! Take life and its results in our stride. Learn to live life, do not squander our time. Plan your life, plan your month, plan your day and have a wonderful life!
Just a note to those I have not replied to your comments or emails. I have received emails in my Bulk folder and removed them. If I had missed your email, I do apologise. I do appreciate your feedback and will reply. Better if you leave a comment to my posts. Any which way, comments always appreciated.
Thanks
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Focus your thoughts and enjoy your journey
I recently went to a water theme park where there were different water slides of different heights. The ride on each slide was exhilarating. I learnt something during this trip.
On my first trip down a water slide, I was tense and adjusted myself as much as I could in order to relieve my fear. The more I attempted to adjust, the more tense I became, the worse my trip down the slide became. I didn't enjoy my first ride down.
On my second ride, I decided to relax. It worked. Instead of adjusting myself for perfection, I simply went with the flow of the water and I thoroughly enjoyed my journey on the slide.
I realized that in life, we tend to be very tense and plan to perfection before we execute. Perfection will never be achieved for one simple reason: We are only human. However, we can adjust our positions during our execution to move towards our goal. Relax during the journey and enjoy it you will experience this journey only once. When we look back, the memorable experiences we have are the ones that required our inner strengths to be tested. This is how we grow and become better each and every single day.
Enjoy your journey towards your goals.
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
On my first trip down a water slide, I was tense and adjusted myself as much as I could in order to relieve my fear. The more I attempted to adjust, the more tense I became, the worse my trip down the slide became. I didn't enjoy my first ride down.
On my second ride, I decided to relax. It worked. Instead of adjusting myself for perfection, I simply went with the flow of the water and I thoroughly enjoyed my journey on the slide.
I realized that in life, we tend to be very tense and plan to perfection before we execute. Perfection will never be achieved for one simple reason: We are only human. However, we can adjust our positions during our execution to move towards our goal. Relax during the journey and enjoy it you will experience this journey only once. When we look back, the memorable experiences we have are the ones that required our inner strengths to be tested. This is how we grow and become better each and every single day.
Enjoy your journey towards your goals.
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Everyone has a story to tell
Do you like stories? Stories of strengh, stories of triumph, stories of good over evil, stories that warm your heart?
We all do. We all love to listen to stories. Believe it or not, we all also love to tell stories, especially when the stories belong to us. Ask anyone a simple question, " How did you have fun when you were a child?". You will hear endless stories of happy, sad, angry, disappointing childhood. THese are all stories.
Do you have a story to tell? Our story is being writen every single minute in the pages of time. Do you notice it? What's your story going to be at the end of today? Have you done a random act of kindness, helped someone, helped yourself to improve and move towards your goals, or done a small kind deed that help light up the eyes of a child?
As our story is being written, I'm sure you would want to be the author of your own story. Do not allow your story to be written by others. This is where goals and time management become critical. Without clear goals and action that follow, we drift and our story is written by circumstances.
So, take charge of your life now. Write your goals down and make good use of your time to create the greatest story you can ever tell to others...your very own story that you are proud of.
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
We all do. We all love to listen to stories. Believe it or not, we all also love to tell stories, especially when the stories belong to us. Ask anyone a simple question, " How did you have fun when you were a child?". You will hear endless stories of happy, sad, angry, disappointing childhood. THese are all stories.
Do you have a story to tell? Our story is being writen every single minute in the pages of time. Do you notice it? What's your story going to be at the end of today? Have you done a random act of kindness, helped someone, helped yourself to improve and move towards your goals, or done a small kind deed that help light up the eyes of a child?
As our story is being written, I'm sure you would want to be the author of your own story. Do not allow your story to be written by others. This is where goals and time management become critical. Without clear goals and action that follow, we drift and our story is written by circumstances.
So, take charge of your life now. Write your goals down and make good use of your time to create the greatest story you can ever tell to others...your very own story that you are proud of.
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
Friday, June 01, 2007
Grow Up!
A few days ago, I watched a group of ladies playing with a baby. The baby was only a couple of months old and could not crawl nor do much by itself. As I watched, I was reminded of noneother than ... myself!
No, I'm not saying I am a baby. I was reminded of how I used to be. I was reminded of my childhood days at the age of 5, 9 years old, 11 years old, 12 years old etc. Talk about your life flashing right before your eyes! :-)
I realised how much I had grown physically. I tower over the baby in height. I then asked myself a question, "Had I grown in wisdom and capability?"
Boy, that was a scary question. I would have liked to say "YES!" immediately. However, I paused and reflected before I answered "YES!". Why the pause?
I just wanted to be sure. We read so much bad news in newspapers today and I can't help but wonder whether we have really grown up at all.
As the baby grows, we see so many physical changes in height and size. We see changes in attitude and capabilities such as speech and thinking/reasoning capabilities. Up to a certain point (like when a person reaches the age of 21 or 31 or 41), this growth somehow doesn't seem that apparent anymore.
We see limited physical growth or if we do notice, its called aging. It is the inner-self that we do not notice. While we grow physically, it is imperative that we continue to also grow mentally and in our capabilities to make ourselves whole.
How do we grow our capabilities?
Reading a book helps. Taking action and doing something that takes you closer to what you want or want to be, is a definitely a surefire way of growing capabilities. As I had written earlier, taking action will produce a result. If its the result you want, great. If its not, chalk it up as a learning experience. You will be richer with the experience and continue to move on, take the next step. This is how we grow.
What can we do now?
Well, take the first step. For example, as you read this message, pick up a piece of paper and pen now, and write 3 things you need to do today and go do it. This is a simple first step to help you cultivate the habit of writing things down. If you can't do a simple step like this, how do you expect to take on the world?
So continue to learn, continue to have experential learning, GROW!
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
No, I'm not saying I am a baby. I was reminded of how I used to be. I was reminded of my childhood days at the age of 5, 9 years old, 11 years old, 12 years old etc. Talk about your life flashing right before your eyes! :-)
I realised how much I had grown physically. I tower over the baby in height. I then asked myself a question, "Had I grown in wisdom and capability?"
Boy, that was a scary question. I would have liked to say "YES!" immediately. However, I paused and reflected before I answered "YES!". Why the pause?
I just wanted to be sure. We read so much bad news in newspapers today and I can't help but wonder whether we have really grown up at all.
As the baby grows, we see so many physical changes in height and size. We see changes in attitude and capabilities such as speech and thinking/reasoning capabilities. Up to a certain point (like when a person reaches the age of 21 or 31 or 41), this growth somehow doesn't seem that apparent anymore.
We see limited physical growth or if we do notice, its called aging. It is the inner-self that we do not notice. While we grow physically, it is imperative that we continue to also grow mentally and in our capabilities to make ourselves whole.
How do we grow our capabilities?
Reading a book helps. Taking action and doing something that takes you closer to what you want or want to be, is a definitely a surefire way of growing capabilities. As I had written earlier, taking action will produce a result. If its the result you want, great. If its not, chalk it up as a learning experience. You will be richer with the experience and continue to move on, take the next step. This is how we grow.
What can we do now?
Well, take the first step. For example, as you read this message, pick up a piece of paper and pen now, and write 3 things you need to do today and go do it. This is a simple first step to help you cultivate the habit of writing things down. If you can't do a simple step like this, how do you expect to take on the world?
So continue to learn, continue to have experential learning, GROW!
Bernard
---------------------------
Copyright © Bernard Ong, 2006,2007.
All Rights Reserved
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