Highly successful people

Science says: Willpower is highest in the morning, so start strong

You’ve maybe heard the advice that your first work of the day should be something meaningful and significant, a task that might take a lot of focus, will, and determination to accomplish. The reason: We’re limited with our self-control.

That’s the idea purported by the strength model. Self-control draws from a common resource that gets depleted over time. You can think of self-control as a muscle–fatigue sets in after exertion.
For those scoring at home, that’s both a psychological and physiological effect on your ability to get work done.

The longer the day goes on, the more fatigue your self-control experiences, the more important it is to make those early morning hours count.

 

Steve Jobs’s morning routine: One simple question

In a commencement address he gave at Stanford back in 2005, Steve Jobs revealed the motivational tactic that he used to start each and every day.

– For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Ron Friedman, founder and author

An inspiring morning reminder is one shared by founder and author Ron Friedman. It goes like this:

“Ask yourself this question the moment you sit at your desk: The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved?”

Gratitude

The grateful mind continually expects good things, expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one’s own mind produces faith, and every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. He who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method.

Thus, it is necessary to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.

Because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

 

How can we improve our conversations?

To become better in our conversations, first we have to be a very good listener. Below are some 6 ways that could help you become an awesome listener and able to hear what others are trying to say to you rather than what you think they might be saying or what you want to hear.

1. Don’t change or interrupt the subject.
Many times, we tend to interrupt with the burning questions popped out before the other party actually finishes what the full story is all about. By interrupting, it prevents him or her to fully express his or her thoughts. Though the intention might be good, the person may think you are trying to put words in his or her mouth. Always allow the other person to finish his or her speech before you respond.

2. Say out the other person’s name.
Everybody will be flattered and impressed by your memory of their names. Practise as frequently as possible if you have difficulty in remembering names. One way is to say the person’s name immediately after meeting for the first time. Eg. “It’s great meeting you, John.” End the conversation with his or her name.

3. Express a real interest.
Especially when speaking in a loud or busy environment, give him or her full attention. If distracted, move to a quieter place and practise empathetic listening. Try sharing a personal story about a time you feel similarly and put yourself in his or her shoes.

4. Agree heartily; disagree softly.
It is always when someone agrees with you that establishes an instant bond. Exhibit mutual respect and admiration through a professional relationship even when in disagreements. It is vital for successful networking. If you strongly disagree, softly sound off that you do not see it in the same way. Ask some questions to allow the person to express his or her reasoning.

5. Use magic words: Tell me.
To start a conversation, use two most powerful words: “Tell Me”. Ask them an open ended question and then listen.

6. Listen more, talk less.
Listen with your whole body when someone speaks to you. Your body language gives you away almost instantly if you are not listening to the conversation or disinterested. Attentive listening will build up the trust between your relationship with him or her. Only given opportunity, ask some pertinent questions that will help to demonstrate your sincere interest.

The Ripple Effect

We have got a winner for our mini contest to win a pair of NDP preview tickets this Saturday!

A little background to how we actually managed to get these tickets on hand is because we came upon an article in The Straits Times, SPH giving away tickets for any photo that best described this year’s theme, “Our People, Our Home”. We sent in our cover photo and we got a surprise message that we won earlier this week!

As its a combined effort through this initiative, we thought we want to continue giving! Here comes this mini contest on who can do a best write up on the following topic, “How do you think by creating a greeting culture in Singapore can bring us closer together?”

We have found a winner and congratulations to Hweemay Kaye Ng!
Her write up was chosen because it has well aligned to what The Morning Greeters is all about.

Start with greeting to build the trust and explore into the community which then bring each other closer to help one another!

We hope through this little movement, we have demonstrated a little example of ripple effect! It starts from ONE! YOU AND I!

Ps: enjoy your show tomorrow!

8 Steps to Make your Mornings Wildly Productive

Do you know that we will wake up for about 24,000 mornings in our adult life?

By using an average life expectancy number, we assume that our adult life starts at 21 years old (more to Singaporeans turnkey age), then we got about 65 years as an adult (86-21 = 65) plus minus.

65 years as an adult x 365 days = 23,725 days

Once we realised such numbered days, we tend to be more mindful about making each day a more fruitful and wonderful one. Therefore, we need to come up with some strategies on making the best out of everyday especially gearing a good kickstart to the day!

Here are some 8 strategies that we found to be most effective for making each morning the best out of its best:

1. Energy booster with time
You will realise that at certain point of day you are best at certain tasks. One simple example, we feel that by doing a run early in the morning beautifully set the body engine warmed up for the first task of the day. Greeting people along our way gives us that energy boost that many people are supporting or giving you a pat to celebrate this new morning.

Once this is set, we reach home or go to work and pick out one of the most difficult task to accomplish which probably requires the most brain juices to complete and that’s how we managed our time into rearranging the best tasks for the best times.

What type of energy do you have in the morning or what energy giver task you are suited for?

2. Prepare for your new day tomorrow.
We do not do this so often as we should but if you think about it, by doing one thing a day comparing to spending a few minutes each night to organise a to-do list for tomorrow. We know we can kickstart for the day immediately when we open our eyes without getting lost because there is an accomplishment list set out there.

10 minutes a night can save 3 hours the next day.

3. Don’t open your email the first thing in the morning.
As much as we have the urge to check our phones or emails first thing in the morning, say thanks to our beautiful day ahead. By putting the grateful thought the moment we set out, we have already set the tone right because it just signalled to our body that we are appreciative of this new day and never going to take it for granted.

4. Technology changes our lives somehow.
We should put our phones or any communicative devices out of sight from us. It will eliminate the urge to check Facebook, messages, What’sApp messages and so on. Sometimes, going back to old-school kampong methods actually help us to get into more productive actions! This way, we have put ourselves wholeheartedly into the focus of the current task.

5. Change your environment.
We always get bored with similar places if we keep going back. Re-arrange the organisation of your desk, direction you are facing everytime or adjust the room temperature cooler to bring your mind to a calm and cooling state.

6. Keep moving.
Our mind tends to work best with more oxygen. Our lungs requires to expand and contract everytime we fill them with oxygen. Surely it sounds simple but usually, when we are working on something, we will keep still sitting for hours staring at screen or typing away.

Stand up for a stretch and watch your posture by sitting up straight again. Keep reminding yourself to do that. Try it out! We get more oxygen by doing this simple exercise.

7. Give a pat on somebody’s back.
We all love to receive freebies so give your friends, colleagues or loved ones a pat on the back. Guess what he or she will give you a free smile!

It is as simple as that and we save that money to buy that energy bar or Red Bull drink to move on!

8. Have a morning ritual.
Do a pre-game routine in the morning. Something that requires least effort but we can feel motivated at the same time! One simple example we have mentioned above, do a run or some static exercises or make sure we read at least an article every morning and so on!

When we get motivated, we just move on into the high mood without realising.

Of course there are 101 ways to make our mornings right.

You have got 24,000 mornings. What will you want to do with each of them?

5 things I gained from joining TheMorningGreeters

I am a regular with TheMorningGreeters and a question I get very often is what keeps me going back for more. I thought about it and came up with five reasons.

1. Discovering the goodness of mornings

Need I say more with this post? There’s so much to make of your mornings!

2. Friendships

I look forward to seeing this bunch of people each weekend. They are a group of the most positive people I know and you know what they say? In life, we must move away from negativity and always surround yourself with positive people. That’s exactly what I am doing, absorbing all the positive vibes from these incredibly happy people.

3. I observed gratitude

If there is one common thing I learnt from these peers, it has got to be them being grateful. I discovered showing your gratitude, even for the littlest thing in life, is what contributes to your happiness.

Appreciating the unsung heroes – janitors in parks and public washrooms, the bus drivers, the train service crew to name a few. Appreciating just being able to see. We have the visually challenged joined us a couple times. Vision is often something most people including myself take for granted but I have since grown to feel blessed just having sight. Thank you.

4. The essence of greeting

Some people ridicule the idea of TheMorningGreeters and are skeptical of the initiative. But the essence of greeting is the message behind the smile, the ‘hi’ and the ‘great morning!’. It symbolizes your acknowledgement of presence of the other party and that I want to strike a cordial relationship with you.

Greeting is the possibly the oldest form of initiating a conversation and that’s why my family inculcates the habit of addressing the elderly/seniors in the morning when I wake up. Joining TMG reinforces this value.

5. Yummilicious breakfast

It’s not just the intangibles that I have gained. The breakfast after the weekly session is our common interest. We hop around different areas in Singapore and we get to try the food there. In the above photo, we were enjoying fantastic crispy pratas at Upper Thomson road.

These are what keep me going back for more.

Things happened in Little India

Little India has always been a place with rich culture with mix spices and sari shops.

Let’s take in the sound, sight and smell to explore the wonders of our Little India town.

 

1) Tekka Centre has always been a place that most Indians hang out. There were many brotherly talk going on at the bus stop too.

2) A Chinese tradition building was seen in the middle of the streets. It’s pretty unique to witness the contrast there.

3) The smell and  the decoration in the shops will be the main iconic factor when we visited Little India. Many would stop by and enjoy the peaceful window shopping.

4) Within the alley of the famous Little India, we can see people resting over a hard day at work. It might be a famous tourist spot, but the usual routine of resting could still be spotted.

Little India is a special place in our little red dot. With the rich culture happening, it will certainly will be an iconic value to our Singapore culture. Do share your thoughts on the Little India town! =)

5 Success Factors On Why Greeting Makes One Successful In Life?

Many times we always think that the other stranger next to us is unfriendly, gloomy or unapproachable based on our very trust-able judgement. From that first look on their face which all of us also called the first impression is what it has to tell about a person. However, sometimes, our feelings and judgement might have gone wrong. Is this a kind of stereotyping or just our sixth sense?

Having been through this initiative for more than one year, we have talked to not only a group of people who came to join us or people whom we met along the way. We actually applied our greetings in the parks into our daily lives. We have to tell you the truth is through experiencing it and not just by hearing from others to deduce a conclusion.

Putting these experiences into 5 main points that greeting has impacted to make our lives more successful,

1. You can get freebies!
As seen from our display photo, Ben who is one of our regular greeter, brought greeting to his office! He did nothing much more than just making small talk with his office colleague and it turned out that his office colleague offered him a little cake!
Many times, we can make little small talks with our food hawkers and vendors such as asking how’s their day etc. Surprises might come thereafter when they might offer you an extra topping or a discounted rate simply just because they felt connected with you.

2. Greet your way to a job!
There was one conversation back then when we were running to one of the parks, one young lady was telling us how lucky she was when she started off saying “Hello, Good Morning” to someone in a park which turned into a conversation. At that time, she was looking for a job and it happened that the person whom she was talking to was a business owner. You must have guessed what happened next. You are right, this young lady earned a job out of a casual talk.

3. You want things into your way?!
Going to somewhere where there is limited parking lots and you forgot to booked your tickets? Present your most sincere smile and make some good comments about the person in charge of the car park or ticket booth. You might get your way through just because he or she actually has got a handful of not attending invitees or extra parking spaces. The only reason that the person is gonna give to you is because you are the nicest person whom he or she is speaking to on that day.

4. Make new valuable networking contacts
Most of the time, we tend to get shunned off by strangers because either one of us is carrying an unpleasant face without realising it because of work or school stress. Now, go up to any stranger in an event, introduce yourself and ask about how’s that person doing or felt about the event. You will realise that you have found yourself another friend or have just wronged what your thoughts about the person were.

5. Your energy level will be raised to a level that you never expected!
We believe that human energy is a shared energy that cannot be destroyed! Say when you are entering a party room, the feeling in the party room will be tremendous and high if everyone is engaging with one another. However, if you entered a room where a couple just finished a quarrel, you are able to feel that tension.
Get recharged! Be the kickstarter to a boring scene or a quiet environment and experience a whole lot of difference in the energy level after that. Not for the faint-hearted.

Share with us your thoughts and maybe you have got similar thoughts about what we have just mentioned.

What do you find in Singapore Chinatown?

Chinatown has always been a famous place for tourist to hang out in Singapore. However, do you know that there are many locals who love to hang out there as well? It happened that we were exploring our little island one day and these were what we found.

1) No doubt, the truth is, there are more tourists than Singaporeans walking down the streets of Chinatown. We wondered where are all the Singaporeans hidden when we first combed the streets. One thing interesting, we know who is Singaporean over there. THOSE WHO STUCK THEIR EYES ON YOU.

2) Chinese culture? Calligraphy is definitely an identity for the Chinese and surely it has to be saturated in this part of Singapore. We saw many beautiful art works and our foreign friends were amazed of the rich diversity of culture in Singapore. Something that we Singaporeans are very proud of! Aren’t you? Racial Harmony!

3) Looking at the buildings highlight the essence of Chinatown. It resemblances the look and feel of the past of Singapore. Reminiscence of the Kampong Spirit? It’s a mixed feeling as in the present moment, it is modern concept in an old revamped shophouses. These streets of shophouses used to be buzzing and noisy with swarms of Chinese and now, it has changed but few things were kept such as the windows and the architectural works.

4) Loving how the stall owner lepak and rest in broad daylight. They are dedicated folks who work 7 days a week. We felt for her. 

5) Moving further into the heart of Chinatown called the Chinatown Complex, we heard many loud cheers and jeers from these bunch of elders playing chess. Somehow, they are the ones who created the atmosphere for the life of Chinatown than the usual touristy sights all around. Spend some time longer here, you are in for some grandfather’s stories! Believe it not, just throw them a simple question to ask about their life. Get ready a minimum of an hour.  

6) Even though the sun is burning at 39 Degree Celsius, everyone seems to enjoy sunbathing while soaking themselves in these Chinese cultural products that every Singaporean will know that this is the place for the hunt. 

Chinatown is definitely a place full of rich culture and interesting spirit of the community. By walking in the streets, it’s definitely heartwarming and the energy over there are just overwhelming.

 

Share with us your thoughts on this lovely place in Singapore whether you shared the same sentiments as us or there’s more to be discovered. Tell us and we will like to know more from the fellow Singaporeans.

5 Things that Every Singaporeans Encountered Before

1) Singaporeans love to paste flyers, posters, on the wall to promote their business. Is it vandalism? We developed this culture ever since the era before internet, direct marketing was the best way to capture clients. But now, it’s different. Nobody noticed the existent of this advertisement. However, it has slowly become a dead culture that Singaporeans are used to. 

2) Singaporeans loves to LEPAK at one corner. Yes, it’s a culture that Singaporeans have while we are going through a long day working.

3) Singaporeans love something different. Regardless whether is it just a furniture, or a design in the restaurant. Anything different will capture the eyes of the Singaporeans. Maybe because we are ‘One Red Dot’, there’s nothing much in the island except food? =)

4) Singaporeans encountered many noticeboards. Singaporeans have developed this mentality that whenever they see a noticeboard, it means “DANGER”.

5) Singaporeans encountered these gentlemen before. 20 years ago, I am curious about what he was doing. 20 years later, his outfit and equipment is still the same. Thumbs up for his professionalism there!

Do you agree this is what Singaporeans encountered before? Do share your thoughts and we hope it will serve as a reminder of how simple actions and objects signified our culture.  

“Go to work or to school with an improved attitude”

Article by guest writer Crysta Khurana (girl in yellow) together with handful of other girls from CHIJ St. Theresa’s Convent and their teacher Mr. Stephen Ng who brought them to represent TMG in this shoot for the upcoming kindness day 2014 music video.

A few days prior to the shoot of a music video by the Singapore Kindness Movement, my fellow councilors and I were informed of what we were supposed to do.

It was simple really, an energetic ‘hello!’ or a cheerful ‘good morning!’ to any person we passed that day. It struck us as a rather queer thing to do as, in my opinion, Singaporeans aren’t exactly known as the most open or friendliest people out there. Nonetheless, we were all eager to greet people and spread smiles at 8 in the morning.

Fast forward to the day of the shoot and we were there bright and early, our energy levels sky high and we were greeting people even before the shoot.

Our efforts were rewarded most of the time with a bright smile or a ‘hello, how are you today?’. The feeling was invigorating and it spurred us on to greet with even more enthusiasm than before.

Smiles were permanently plastered on our faces throughout the shoot despite the sweltering heat. After the entire shoot, we sat down as a group and discussed the day’s events.

While we might have not been entirely sure of our purpose before, we emerged much more knowledgeable than ever. Through a simple act of greeting or a wide smile, someone’s day could have been made ten times better than it was before.

The kindness movement was all about, bringing joy and happiness daily to those around us. That person would go to work or to school with an improved attitude that would in turn lead to the happiness of others.

We learned that kindness can be shown even through something as small as a smile or a gesture that may have seemed insignificant to us, but could actually mean the world to someone else. The smallest things matter and the world would be so much happier if we all simply took the time to smile or greet someone along the street, and it doesn’t take much at all.

All we need is you, me and a bright smile.