It's important to have a mission

My friend emailed me this inspiring story, which tells us how having and believing in a mission can change us.

I'd like to share the story with you. It's titled "Ducks quack, Eagles soar" and you can read it here. The copyright belongs to the author of this story.


Enjoy!

I learn from the program, too

Another fantastic week ended. This time the program was brought back to Casa Rachado, Port Dickson from 30 June to 4 July 2008.

Every time I facilitate a program, I learn a lot of new things from you, the students. All the stories you share are learnings that enrich me. That is one of the motivating factors that makes me continue facilitating the program whenever there is opportunity.

A more important factor that motivates me is when I see that you have learned something; or when you have discovered something new; or when you decide to do something better in your life, no matter how big or small.

And not least, when you show your appreciation to the facilitators at the end of the five-day program. It makes us feel that the energy given is all worth it. For all the 'thank yous' that we get, we thank you back.


Here's a picture of some of the students admiring their own artwork. From left En Zulhilmi, En Zulkhairi, En Faiz, En Faiz, Cik Aisyah, En Akiri, En Asyraf, Cik Goay, En Arshad and En Zuhairi.

Please visit this blog again for more pictures of the 30 June program.

Something to remember in Agrotek

A Second Life

A poem by Lee YH, participant of Soaring The Eagle, 15 to 20 June at Agrotek Langat.

A Second Life

I rise from the dead,
I rise renewed,
I rise, filled with hope,
I rise atop this world,
I rise as what I am, myself,
CHANGED.

Thank you Lee!

Facilitators undergoing upskilling

From Wednesday 21 May to Friday 23 May, we (some Eagle facilitators) are learning how to be better at engaging with participants during the program. We are being facilitated by

Watch out this space for pictures of us enjoying ourselves!

Having a clear vision to achieve success

Google is a successful company which is worth a few billion dollars after being in business for just over a decade. I believe that the success is contributed also by Google having a clear vision statement.

The vision statement reads:

The perfect search engine that would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.

The clear vision statement has influenced how Google behaves as an organization or a body; for example, the business it focuses on, the priorities that it wants to achieve, even the kinds of people they hire.

As we learned from the Eagle program, it is important for individuals like us to have a clear vision, too. When we have a clear vision, our mind, body and soul will be directed to achieve that vision.


Do you still remember your vision? Is it still vivid (clear) in your mind? Is it interesting enough to make you really crave for it?

Seize the day

Yesterday is already in the past. We can never get it back.

Tomorrow is in the future. The future is always uncertain.

What we have is today. Therefore, seize the day. Make full use of today to improve ourselves so that we get closer to our vision.

Making progress is easy

As each day passes by, we are either

1. getting closer to our vision, or
2. not making any progress at all.

Of course we all hope to be in the first category.

How do we know whether we are getting closer to our vision? In my opinion, for as long as we do a little bit better than yesterday, than we are making good progress. If we are the same today as we were yesterday, then we are not making any progress.

It may sound difficult to make progress every day; actually, it is easy. As we have learned in Total Well Being, there are 6 areas that we need to be excellent at. In each area, there are a lot of improvements that we need to do. If yesterday we did a little improvement in building relationship with others, today we can do a little improvement in finance or other areas.

There are a lot of improvements that we need to do to achieve our vision. Since we are taking small steps to improve ourselves, that leaves us with a lot more improvements that we can do today. If we choose not to do any improvement at all, we do not progress at all.

So, for as long as we do something better today (even a little baby step), we are getting closer to our vision.

One baby step at a time

Some of you may be very excited to change your behaviors immediately. You looked at the areas that you needed to improve. You listed down all the things that you must do differently. You set high targets. You started to implement them all at one go. You got tired. Frustrated, you dumped them all. That is the typical cycle when you start your change in a big way.

Alternatively, you may change a little bit at a time. For example, rise in the morning 5 minutes earlier. Do this consistently. Once it has become a habit, you realize that you have achieved change. You have won. You find that you can change, and you are motivated to do better. So you begin to set a higher target; rise another 5 minutes earlier. Do this consistently ... and the loop continues.

The most important thing about change is to start small and be consistent.

Seeing opportunities in problems or difficulties

The recent Soaring the Eagle program started from Sunday 9 March and ended Friday 13 March. Sameer informed me that the bus which had been scheduled to pick up students at 6pm Friday showed up at Casa Rachado only at 9pm. Students finally arrived UTP 3am Saturday. Anyway, I am glad that you guys got back safely.

I hope you saw those extra 3 hours at Casa Rachado Resort as an opportunity and made good use of the full "extra" 3 hours.

How did you use the time?