Yesterday morning I went to my weekly Pilates class and spotted a classmate who did not come to the class for a long time. I caught up with him after class and mentioned to him about my book.

He said he needed to leave the gym soon and I urged him to wait for me at the locker room upstairs (there are 2 in this particular gym and I happened to “settle” down at the one downstairs). I then ran as fast as I could and returned with the promotional postcard of my book in my hand. He was already stripped down to only towel on his waist and ready to take a shower. I quickly handed over to him my postcard firmly yet politely and made sure that he reopened his locker and put it in before I waved goodbye saying “See you next week.” He replied, “I am not sure if I will come back (to the class).”

A few suggestons to politely remind someone who has forgotten to do something for you without coming across as a pain in the neck.
1) “As a gentle reminder, ..” or “As a kind reminder, ..”
2) “As a quick follow-up, …”
3) “As a positive confirmation, …”

In order to transform negative energy into a positive one, we must practise speaking in a positive tone. To start, we can avoid using the word NOT.
For example:-
1) Replace “It is not my job” with “My job is actually…”
2) Replace “It is not my problem” with “Perhaps someone else can help you on that.”
3) Replace “Don’t speak to me” with “I need a quiet moment to myself”.
4) Replace “It is not too bad” with “Good”.

A few people told me that they felt that January was the toughest month of the year.

There are numerous reasons why one would think that way, but let us focus on some simple ways to counter that.
1) Light at the end of the tunnel: Based on the time line, we are actually at the midpoint of January today. By tomorrow it will be more than half way through the month!
2) Forget about December or “dilute” the December effect: Drop the “baggage” of over-spending and/or over-eating in Dec (sorry that I might have just reminded you of that). Treat January as a regular month and try to mitigate the effect “coming down from high” which makes things feel more difficult than they should be.
3) Catch up with friends and family that you might not have time to see during the busy December.
4) The year 2015 is still fresh, so let us look forward to all the possibilities ahead of us :>

Earlier this week, I went to see my physiotherapist due to the pain from my right arm. While she was twisting my arm to loosen the muscle, she asked me what the cause was.  I replied it was because I was carrying too many books to Canada during Christmas and “naturally” told her a little bit about my book. I was this close to selling one copy of my book because the sharp pain of arm took over the discussion. Such a pain! Sadly the pain was real :>

One hard lesson that I learned in the recent years as part of maturing process is to accept that “I HAD the moment and move on”.   In other words, accept your moment of doing certain things has passed and moved onto the next stage of life. Lingering on will only cause disappointment and frustration.   There are different things to experience in the next phase of life that can be equally interesting and exciting if not more. It is part of life’s nature. We should embrace and go with it.
For example, the things that I considered I HAD the moment and moved on.
1) I don’t eat as much as I want to anymore. My metabolism has slowed down and I need to moderate my diet if I want to keep my weight (and waist for that matter).
2) I don’t burn the midnight oil anymore. My general energy level has gradually dropped. It will affect my general health adversely more than before if I do so.
3) I don’t sunbath at the beach anymore. Enough sun damage done already :<

Hit: So far, the feedback in particular the actions that some of the readers had taken were really encouraging such as taking classes that they always wanted to. As I mentioned before, I think it is the best feedback a self-help writer can ever get :>

Miss: Getting readers to write Amazon reviews was more challenging than I had thought.

Hit: Restaurant, café and hair saloon managers were very supportive allowing me to put my promotional posters and postcards there.

Miss: Promotional posters were too costly and not very effective on generating sales of my book as the audience were too diverse and might not be interested in the subject of my book.

I read a book today that offered an excellent elaboration on my point mentioned in my book (p.25) on ”training your emotional muscle to deal with down moment and negative energy”.

The book titled “The Coaching Manual – The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching” by Julie Starr (p.150) suggests a three-step process:
1. Awareness: You notice that you’re doing or thinking something that is not working (negative energy).
2. Acknowledgement: You acknowledge that – and give it up (let the thought go).
3. Refocus: You shift your attention to a more effective thought or behavior (positive energy).

A great and concrete advice that I was compelled to share with all. It will be included in the next edition of my book.

Hit:  Branding was lot of fun.  With the help of my art director Damian, we came up with a series of promotional items under the same theme of “hour glass”. That included posters, promotional postcards, business cards, stickers and letter papers with logo.  Even the staff at the post office noticed the special sticker I used on the parcel.

Miss:  Too much thinking on the “bells and whistles” trying to enhance the current book cover.  At some point, I was thinking of adding a wire to “highlight” the moustache on the book cover. Fortunately, the idea was not materialized.  Nevertheless, time was not well-spent.