Today the subject of formatting a text message was raised and debated. The writer said it is the content of the message that is most important and the format of the message is of little significance. I agreed on the importance of the message content but disagreed on his point regarding formatting.  It is because actually if the message is not formatted and outlined in a user-friendly way, it is difficult to read and may be conveniently ignored given we are in the age of “information overload”.

There is definitely a difference between sending out a message and aiming at a message being read and then understood by a reader.

As a result of quite a heated discussion with a friend over the weekend, we finally agreed that there is difference between making a judgement and passing a judgement.
Making a judgement is usually a necessity in life as it is part of a decision-making process.
On the other hand, passing a judgement onto others (imposing your view or taking action that affects others) is a much more delicate and socially-sensitive matter.

Feedback is a double-edged sword in the sense that it must be utilized with caution; otherwise it may be backfired with undesirable results.
A few initial thoughts on this subject:
• Try to find someone as objective as possible when you seek feedback.
• Differentiate if the person is giving you “expert” feedback (meaning the person is knowledgeable in that area) or as a friend. Understand the perspective of the person.
• Avoid “selective” listening but at the same time, don’t take all feedback at face value. Analyze it when you are objective and calm.
• It is not a debate. It is alright to clarify the feedback received but leave it as that. “Sleep” on it and you don’t have to agree or disagree on the spot.

Some people were wondering how I looked like when I was young(er).

I made a somewhat “fatal” mistake of showing an old picture of me to some colleagues. They cracked up and laughed so hard that I was “slightly” annoyed.

So I won’t repeat that mistake, but for the record, it is not far from this image.

Good Friday and this Monday were holidays in the U.K., so this week is a short week.
But like a few other people, I feel like this has been “a long short week” (it happened before as well).
I can think of a few reasons below:
1) Expectation: We expected a short week and that put us in a different mind-set.
2) Contrast: Our body and mind probably adopted to the holiday mode during the long weekend and it might be a shock to the system returning back to work (despite the short week).
3) Residual impact: Some might be doing too much (traveling, partying and the like) during the holiday and thus started the week a bit tired.

Congratulations to my executive assistant/friend Gary who found a new permanent in no time!

It was very kind as well as “wise” of him to purchase an extra copy of my book as a farewell gift to a colleague at his current workplace (as gently suggested by me “in passing”).  I then suggested to him that my book can also be an excellent gift to his NEW colleagues when he lands on the new place of employment. He replied “Don’t push your luck, my friend!”.

Though I did not believe luck has anything to do with my book, I took the not-so-subtle hint and retreated to quietly scheming for another occasion of book sales.

Today I was notified that I had sold one copy of e-book in Canada last month. I was so happy that I told my colleague sitting next to me about it. He was surprised by my excitement because the profit was less than the price of an espresso. I explained to him that since I am the only person promoting the book, it is really hard to sell and thus every copy counts. In addition, it goes far beyond the financial benefit (to be honest, not really my main goal). I am happy that someone is interested in reading my book and sharing my experience to help others is indeed my main goal.

Yes, the “cat is out of the bag”. I am roughly half way through my training to be a qualified life coach.

My main goals are to deepen my knowledge in adult learning as well as to be better equipped to develop my interest in coaching and mentoring. I am currently supervised and coached by an experienced coach. At the same time, I am coaching 3 individual coachees as volunteers.

Last night I watched the special edition of 25th anniversary of Les Miserables in concert live at the O2 Arena, London (dvd made in 2010). Even though I have seen the musical 8 times in both New York and London, it never failed to touch me each time I watched it.

The main character Jean Valijean went through a transformation from being bitter about life into being sacrificial for others. One huge sacrifice he made towards the end of his age (in his 60’s) was risking his own life to rescue the boyfriend of his surrogate daughter Cosette during the French revolution. That reminded me that we can make a difference in other people’s life regardless of our own age and physical condition.

Daniel Goleman quoted American Psychologist David McClelland “McClelland argued that once you were in a given job, specific competencies like self-discipline, empathy, and persuasion were far stronger forces in success than a person’s ranking in academics. He proposed the methodology that has become competence modeling — now common in world-class organizations — for identifying the key abilities that made someone a star performer in a specific organization.” (p.234, Focus – The Hidden Driver of Excellence)