Picture of Trees

A couple of hours help

I have recently caught up with Amy (yes.... I know I know,  finally).   As usual, we talked about everything, and of course, whinging about work.

She works 4 days a week.  Sometimes, she could be contacted on her day off, which is all good.  However, she finds it really frustrating at times when she was told her assistance Might Be needed for a couple of hours by logging on remotely to her office, without telling her the estimated schedule, not even morning or afternoon.

Firstly, it is her day off. 
Secondly, she believes that to be a supportive team member, she should help.  However, it is really hard to plan her day, when she does not know whether her help will Really be required.  If so, when.

Well, if she is going to stays at home waiting, might as well not having the day off.  It is bearable for such situation once or twice but definitely not constantly.

So, if you are in her situation, what would you do?
Or, have you put someone into that situation without knowing it?

We are all so busy with our life and the majority of us wants things done NOW, NOW and NOW.......

It may be the time  to:
- start planning, get things done earlier and leave some buffer time
- plan with others' schedule, availability and commitment in mind.
- stop feeling guilty for saying No, worrying that you will offend your colleagues/friends.
- to let others know your reason of saying No

If you are in Amy's situation and have brought up the problem but yet nothing works out, it is not your problem anymore.

You might be twisting and turnig in bed feeling sorry for yourself, but the person who causes it doesn't even care.
It is simply not worth it.

Are you struggling with Money? You are not alone.

Money, Money, Money..............

Money does not always solve the problem, but without it, we will all be struggling.

(a) Lodging
Just imagine walking on the street with thin cotton summer clothes, surrounded by strong wind, and have no idea where to spend the night.
That is real life for some low income earners or the unemployed.  With long waiting list of public housing and booming house price, some ends up sleeping in cars.

(b) Clothing
How about walking on the street, pass by a shop with clothes that you love?  You will probably be in a dilemma whether to settle the credit card bills or pay of the clothes.

(c) Food
How about following all the tips you gather from websites, tv shows to shop with a list, at a best discount time, but yet, don't seem to save enough for a holiday?

Well........  you are not alone and hope you find the following website helps.

101 Ways to Make Money : http://www.101waystomakemoney.com/page/1/
It talks about ways to make money with ClickBank, become virtual assistant, with Youtube, writing poetry.  The list goes on and on. 
Have a look at it and you might find something interesting that you are not currently aware of.

Remember that there is no free lunch in this world.  If you need to make money successfully, you need to process the information you read and use it to work for you.
Example: Never throw a big junk of your savings into stock market blindly.  Simon says..............  BAD BAD BAD idea............

It does not have to be logical

(A) Moth

One groomy friday, as usual, I went back to office for our weekly meeting.  In our meeting room, there were more than 10 moths flying in the room.  Some colleagues were really hesistate to go into the room.  I found it really funny seeing some of their reactions when they got scared by the moth that just stop by the side of the table. 
When I shared with my housemate my funny story, she said: "If you are scared of something, the size does not matter.  Eg:, It does not mean you will not be scared of little tiger just because it is little."

You Cannot Explain Fear Logically.

(B) Complement
In a gathering,  a Mummy in her forties was chatting with her Son (age 15)  as usual.  A nice complement came for the mum: "You look very young and you both look like sister and brother.  You look as if you are aged 30."
Like every women who receives the complement, Mummy was very happy.

If you think of it logically, if Mummy looks like 30, the Son must look slightly mature than his age.  After all, he is only 15.  So, while Mummy enjoys the complement, don't forget what it reflects on the Son.

It is just a complement, it is not supposed to be explained logically.  I think the whole complement fails when a specific age was referred.

Anyway, I was laughing my head off while teasing the Mummy that when she enjoys her nice complement, don't forget that may not be a complement for the Son.

You Cannot Explain Complement Logically.

Right decisions

We make decisions every day.  How do you know whether you are making the right decision?
It is right when it works.  After all, a bad decisions is always better than no decisions.

(a) What to study for a degree.
When I finished high school, I wasn't sure what to study for a degree.  I only knew I like mathematics and psychology.   My aim was to get a degree as soon as possible and get a job.
Unfortunately, psychology wasn't popular back in my country 15 years ago.   I didn't think I like to be a mathematicians.  So, I chose accounting.  That's right, the boring accounting. 
My reasoning is, knowing accounting can set a strong foundation if I ever choose to be in business, be manager , sales, etc etc.
I worked in auditing and accounting, and now I implement accounting systems.  I knew I made the right decision as I applied the knowledge I learnt to my work successfully.

When I don't know what to choose, I use the elimination method, just like doing multiple choice.
When I don't know what is best, I make a decision that will give me the best return.

(b) Manage or be managed
I used to work in a big accounting team with a multinational company with staffs reporting to me.  It was a good pay job but extremely long hours. While I enjoyed leading and working in a team, I hate dealing with politics among managers. 
Anyway, one day, I decided to change my career path to IT and chose to work in a smaller company. 
In big company, there is very clear definition of reponsibilities for each role.
In a smaller company, you will need to be more flexible.  Unavoidably, I am asked to work on things which is beyond my technical knowledge.  Sometimes it is ok, sometimes I hate it. 

The change has brought me:
Good thing:
- a good leader, who I consistently enjoy learning technical stuffs from him;
- less politics and my leader will have to handle it and I just need to focus on my work

Bad things:
- someone else is making decisions for me and I have less say in it.
- less negotiation power to employer as a manager can possibly ask for higher pay
- I am working in a project with a project manager who has very different ways of thinkings from me.  I am at a dilemma to make specific request to my boss for not involve in projects managed by him/her.  At one hand, I know I should behave and handle it professionally.  On the other hand, my frustration is building up.   Instead of repeating  the cycle of  frustration every time we are in the same project, why not just be upfront and get the hit?

There is no right or wrong decision here.  It is just a matter of what carry more weights.

How have you been

I have to admit I am not good in keeping contact with friends.  Sometimes, my friend never hear from me for a couple of months and then I resurface.

Having said that,  I was reading an email from a friend that read:
"I am sending you an email just to check you are still alive, although it is very normal that you disappear a few months."

I do wonder:
1. If I am no longer alive, how will the email tell?
2. Isn't it better to pick up the phone and ask "hi, how have you been?  I have not heard from you for a long time and I want to make sure you are fine."

I wonder how the world has changed the way we communicate. 
Instead of meeting up and express ourselves directly, we write.
Instead of showing our care in a direct and loving manner, we use negative words in our communication.

Then..........  we all complain "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, YOU DON'T CARE"

Greeting

I grow up being taught that when we see someone, we say:
"How are you?"
"Good morning", "Good Afternoon", "Good Evening"
"Long time no see, how have you been?"

Nice greeting with real care to people around us.

However, the world has changed, I find :

1. Greeting with no feelings
Mr A goes to office, see his collegue, saying "Good morning" with his heads down, no smile, nothing. 

What a mechanic greeting.  What is the point when you greet someone with no feelings?

2. Greeting with expecation
John goes to office, see Mr A, says "Good morning".  Mr A continues working with his head down with no response.
John says: "Aren't you are going to say Good morning?" Fine, I will ignore you next time.

We should greet because we care and we wish someone has a good day, not expecting any return. What is the point of greeting when it becomes a standard procedure?

I heard a story before, I can't really remember the source.
Lisa has a flower shop.  Every morning, Mr Brumpy passes by her shop.  She always greet him, "Good morning, Mr Brumpy, have a nice day".  Unfortunately, Mr Brumpy never response.  However, Lisa keeps doing it.

One day, Lisa's brother asks: "Why do you keep greeting him when he doesn't bother to response?  That is very rude of him."

Lisa replies, I greet because I would like to wish Mr Brumpy a good day.  It does not matter whether he responses.

That's right.  We greet because we want to.  If we always do things with expectation of return, it probably means we all are so busy with our life, we learn to be so self-focus and we forget the greatness of sharing, giving and loving.