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)

Happy Easter to ALL.

May the spirit of Easter bring you hope, revivial and triumph :>

Yesterday I ran into a colleague who heard about my book. When I “naturally” prompted him to purchase a copy, he replied “I am quite motivated myself already, so I don’t think I needyour book.”. I explained to him (and to all blog readers) that my book is not just about motivation. The book focuses on the psychological aspect of an adult learner as well as suggestions/examples/exercises on the practical side of learning.

Today I asked a colleague if he had read my book. When “push came to shove”, he said he has it next to his bed and will read it when he has problem falling asleep. I explained to him that he might be disappointed (not the content of my book). It is because another colleague “confessed” that he did exactly that and read four chapters before concluding that it was not a function of my book.

Well, my book can be used in many different ways but I am afraid putting people to sleep is not one of them (as far as I know).

Daniel Goleman has given the following advice on how to be good leaders? (p.238, Focus – The Hidden Driver of Excellence)
“* Listening within, to articulate an authentic vision of overall direction that energizes others even as it sets clear expectations.
* Coaching, based on listening to what people want from their life, career and current job. Paying attention to people’s feelings and needs, and showing concern.
* Listening to advice and expertise; being collaborative and making decisions by consensus when appropriate.”
Well said and I can’t agree more.

SEL is an educational program that promotes emotional intelligence at school. Singapore has become the first country that made it mandatory for students.

The 5 key competences of SEL are: Self-awarness, Self-management, Social awareness, Relationship skills and Responsible decision making.

In his book “Focus – The Hidden Driver of Excellence”, Daniel Goleman quoted an example based on Susan Butcher who reinvented the Iditarod (a race that sled dogs compete over a distance of more than 1,100 miles of Arctic ice for over a week). Her method is running and resting alternately in 4-to-6-hour periods around the clock instead of 12 hours on and 12 hours off which give her very time to sleep as she needs to prepare for the next move as her dogs sleep. Her husband David Monson explained “Keeping your attention up during a highly exhausting and stressful time means you have to methodical and well practiced, so you make the right decisions under duress” (p. 163)

This point echoes with the 2 main sections of my book on psychological preparation and practice.

With a 12-month sales target of 300 copies of my book, it means 32 copies (268 copies sold so far) need to be sold by the end of Sep, which is approx. 5 months away. I have a plan :>

I will target 50% of sales, 16 copies, by asking friends and family to ponder if they need more copies. My executive assistant/friend Gary is already in “consideration” mode (perhaps it is what I called a “British no”) upon my request. For the other 50%, I will target at new readers myself. In other words, I need to sell roughly 1 copy per week myself.

Game on and let us stay focused.

I have been battling with the recovery of my shoulder/arm injury for 5 months. Besides inconvenience and physical discomfort, something else actually bothered me as well. As I don’t want to jeopardize my recovery, I am not able to offer a helping hand to my fellow commuters who are in need (with luggage and strollers up the stairs). I feel bad for my incapability to help, but that has given me an additional source of motivation to restore to a position that I can help others.