A friend of mine who has recently started a new job and is very kind to share his experience with me to form the base for this mini-series of my blogs on adaptability.
First of all, it is important to acknowledge the changes that one is going through with a new job and the need to make necessary adjustments in order to adapt to it. With such awareness, one can make a conscious effort to adapt as well as monitor the progress. It will help to speed up the adaptation process.

FT columnist Simon Kuper wrote an article this weekend titled “How to live to 100 and be happy”. He emphasized that the important of life-long learning is the key which I can’t agree more.
“Future careers will contain many transformations. Lives will have fourth, fifth even sixth acts. People will have to make more choices: next year, should you flat-out in your job, return to education to learn new skills, or transition to an entirely new sector? There will be time to achieve mastery in multiple domains.”
“Older people, especially, will develop portfolio careers”
“You might also need to spend much of your non-working time re-skilling or exercising to maintain your body and brain for those extra decades.”

Well, I think there will be demand for life coaches specializing in adult learning and personal development. :>

Feedback from others is only feedback. It is not the truth nor the next step that you have to take. It is not the truth until you have verified the fact objectively. It is not the next step until you have decided so.

Your feedback-givers like all mortals have preconception, assumptions and subconscious that may “color” their feedback to you. Step up your objectivity to filter the feedback while keeping an open mind for good advice and suggestions.

Good things come in pairs perhaps :>

On my second business trip to Amsterdam in the past 3 weeks, I had a different but equally “memorable” experience like the first time. This time I arrived safely in Amsterdam (instead of Rotterdam last time). I had the very good “fortune” to stay at a hotel next to a night club and I would hear as well as FEEL (from the walls) of the music till 1 am (or whenever it was). Not to mention that there was NO window in my room at a so-called Waterfront Hotel (I think the name Prison Break hotel may be a better fit). I spoke to the hotel manager and he said the hotel was fully booked.

To save the “best” for last. My return flight to London was at 7pm. I left the office at 5:15pm. After arriving at the tram station, I realized that I had left my mobile phone in the office. I rushed back and the reception was gone (Did I say it was after 5pm?). I ended up asking a “friendly-looking” stranger in the building to let me enter the 2nd floor (security access by employee badges only) after waiting in front of the elevator for 5 minutes. I knocked heavily at the door and finally my colleague opened the office door.

After “reuinted” with my mobile phone, I jumped on the tram to the train station for the train to the airport. Unfortunately, it was stuck in a traffic jam (5:40pm). The tram driver finally opened the door to let a pretty young lady off the tram between stations, I managed to rush out after her with the door closing against my elbows. I then dashed to the train station in 5 minutes completely disoriented. I grabbed a station staff who was chatting with his colleague and asked for the train to the Schiphol airport. Afterwards, I ran to the platform and asked another staff who was “chilling out” at the platform to confirm the train. He said yes but it will leave at 6:10pm (current time was 5:50pm vs. the flight departure time of 7pm). I asked him if there was an EARLIER one, he pointed to other platform in a distance. I continued my “one-person running relay” and get on the train departing at 5:55pm. I arrived at the Schiphol airport at 6:10pm.

When I got to the boarding gate, I had 5 minutes to spare but ZERO time (I repeat zero time) to shop. Well, I was overjoyed that I made it.

A free new magazine in the UK called Balance offer some good advice on better skin.
They called it “Three Steps To Better Skin” as quoted below
1) Cool the heat: Hot water dries out the skin, and causes redness and the breakdown of collagen – so lower the temperature of your shower or bath.
2) Shun the sun: Sunlight is essential for healthy bones (vitamin D), but protect your by wearing an SPF, even on cloudy days.
3) Five-a-day: Eat plently of fruit and veg as they contain antioxidants that help to protect skin from cellular damage caused by free radicals, which are smoking, pollution and sunlight.
I would like to add 3 more steps (and 2 cents)
4) Sleep longer: Have sufficient sleep and hide those eye bags.
5) Moisturize your way: Don’t forget to moisturize your face and your body every day (if it is dry)
6) Drink more water: Increase the flow of body fluid by simply drinking more water

This is the second/last part of Financial Time columnist David Tang’s reply to the question below.
“How should one dress for a job interview? What hints are there for creating a good impression in order to get the job?”
Some key points:
5) Offer dedication, hard work and good with people
6) Make one or two specific (good) suggestions
7) Be polite throughout and never raise your voice and listen carefully before you talk
8) Never brag nor tell a joke.
9) Make the interview feel important

Excellent advice indeed.

I always find the weekend Financial Time columnist David Tang funny and insightful. Two weekends ago, he wrote an excellent reply to the question below.
“How should one dress for a job interview? What hints are there for creating a good impression in order to get the job?”
Some key points:
1) Never be late for the appointment.
2) Dress appropriately (and professionally).
3) When you enter the room, approach with calmness and a slight smile.
4) Homework, homework and homework is essential beforehand. What you know about the interviewer (as much as possible) or company offering you the job is important.

I will share the second part of his reply in the next blog. Watch this space.

Last weekend I was in Paris, my favorite city in the whole wide world. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon with unusual amount of sunshine, I strolled around a street market with much excitement. I found an item from a stall that cost 8 Euros. I gave the vendor a 10-Euro note and she gave me back a 2-Euro coin for my exchange (10-8=2!)
I later found out, to my sheer horror, that the 2-Euro coin was a fake (a lookalike coin from an emerging country). It was far too late for me to “claim” back my precious 2 Euros :< It took me a few minutes (4 1/2 minutes to be precise) to calm myself down and accept it as a lesson for the cost of 2 Euros. I decided to keep that fake coin as a REMINDER that I should always check my change (100%) everywhere I go. If I am not vigilant, I can lose much more than 2 Euros. After such a resolution, I proceeded to enjoy a lovely time at a contemporary art fair, shopping and dinner for the rest of my stay in Paris. Well, I didn’t let the loss of 2 Euros “ruin” my weekend away in Paris plus it was an important lesson learned to be vigilant and an exercise for my ability to control my own emotion.

Earlier this week I went to Amsterdam for business. It turned out to be quite an adventure.
First of all, British Airways cancelled the flight and the staff suggested us to take a later flight to Rotterdam instead which is an adjacent city approximately an hour train ride away. She later announced that only the first 17 passengers could get on that flight which caused a bit of a commotion. Fortunately for someone grew up in a big city like Hong Kong, I was able to “position” myself at the number 14 on the queue, to be exact.
The Rotterdam flight was delayed for an hour. When I got out of the Rotterdam airport, it was 10:30pm local time. There was a long queue for taxi with no taxi in sight. I noticed that a few fellow passengers heading to a bus stop to the Rotterdam train station and followed them. I ran for my life to get on the last train to Amsterdam train station with 2 minutes to spare :s. To make the long story short (or short story long), I got to the hotel at 12:30am and the hotel reception was shocked to see me arrive at such an “early” hour. She said you had been upgraded to a bigger room and I later found out that it was a big “ex-smoking” room with strong residual smell of cigarette.
Well, life is filled with adventure, big or small and this is one of those :>

I have read a good article from the Coach Magazine (UK) which is an interview of Dr. Dave Alred MBE, a rugby kicking coach turned pressure specialist who Johnny Wilkinson calls “The best in the world”, on keeping a cool head.
The second question to Dr. Dave Alred: So the pressure is placed on ourselves rather than from outside?
“I was a schoolteacher before going into elite coaching, and worked out that one of the biggest blocks to a child committing themselves to anything – academic work, PE, whatever – was their self-image. Watch a five-year-old trying to hit a golf ball. They’ll swing and miss and finally hit one, and they’re riveted with excitement. They’ve done it, they’re a golfer! The adult side of us goes “one in four?” but the child isn’t interested in failure, he’s interested in achieving. As adults we spend all our time reinforcing what we can’t do, and I’m trying to readdress that.”