As the month of December have already embarked, we have officially entered the holiday period.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle during this time of the year, a relevant question popped up in my mind: How do we enjoy the holiday season without being carried away by the increased social activities which are meant to be festive?
Thought #1: Spacing them out into next year. Not all the gatherings needed to be organized before the end of the year. We can carry some of them into next year. It is probably better and more enjoyable than “cramming “ them all into Dec.

Back in London, in the midst of fighting against jetlag from my trip to Hong Kong and catching up with work and house chore (yes, I do have to do it), I am battling with the responsibility of a blogger. As a matter of fact, I was being chased after by a couple of loyal blog readers last week in Hong Kong for missing blogs. Well – I will get my act together very soon and live up to the expectation of a blogger.

I have brainstormed with a few friends about the prospects of life coaching in Hong Kong. A couple of interesting points:
1) Though the concept is taking shape, it is not yet popular.
2) As the pace/rhythm of the city is quite rapid, I may have to speed up the frequency of coaching sessions from once a month to once every 2-3 weeks to adopt to the ‘local’ favor.

I asked a friend of mine who is teaching at one of the major universities in Hong Kong what is the most important factor that differentiates a top student from the “crowd”. He replied with confidence that it is the ability to withstand tough times, learn from it and excel at the end.

I can’t agree more. We, more mature people, know very well that there are bound to be both good and tough times in life. The key is not to avoid difficult times (I am not advocating self-inflicted suffering) but to stand firm and become stronger.

I had lunch with a friend in Hong Kong last week and the subject of Emotional Intelligence/EQ came up. My friend said, in his opinion, one important lesson is to pause for one second and avoid making any actions based on impulse. He added that many accidents and tragedies would have been avoided if the split-second rule had been applied. Good point indeed.

Not everything in the world is binary, meaning having only 2 possibilities. Similarly, not everything should be viewed as black and white. For example, it is easy and “convenient” to categorize something or someone as good or bad. However, there is a wide range between good and bad. There are different extents of being good and by the same token, various degrees of being bad.

One needs to be careful and not overly-simplify the world around us by only allowing our mind to have 2 options.

Thirdly, what are the benefits of life coaching? I would like to use the acronyms CAFES to illustrate my points.
C = Care and challenge. I will be there to provide support as well as challenge to push you forward, but the ultimate decision to do it or not is always yours.
A = Awareness and blind spots. Everyone has his/her blind spots and I am here to increase your awareness of them.
F = Feedback will be given by me, letting you know what you have done well and what needs more work.
E = Execution and review. I will help you track your progress.
S = Sounding board. I will be your sounding board as well as providing an objective framework for ideas and suggestions.

Secondly, what is my philosophy of life coaching?
I believe in two key elements of life coaching. The first one is equality, meaning coach and client are of the same status. The coach is not more superior than the client. Guidance and help will be provided by the coach but it is not a transfer of expert knowledge in coaching. The second element ownership which is closely related to the first one. The client should be the one making all the decisions for himself/herself and the coach is there to provide support and guidance. Thus the client should have full ownership of the whole progress.

I would like to devote the next few blogs on introducing life coaching.
First of all, what is the definition of life coaching? There are many different definitions, but my own definition is as follows.
A life coach is someone that walks or runs alongside you offering help on your journey of progression on the goals set forth by you.

I had a bit of a debate with some friends yesterday over my likening of the new James Bond movie.
To set the record straight, I do agree that the plot is not complicated and there could be more room for the excellent cast of actors/actresses to shine. However, my perspective is to view it as an atmospheric movie with style and class (mostly in the use of camera and scenery of interesting places). Enough said about the movie, we can agree to disagree and there are many different ways to view a movie.