10 Mantras To Age Gracefully

10 Mantras To Age Gracefully

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*1. *Never say ‘I am aged': There are three ages, chronological, biological, and psychological. The first is calculated based on our date of birth ; the second is determined by the health conditions and the third is how old you feel you are. While we don't have control over the first, we can take care of our health with good diet, exercise and a cheerful attitude. A positive attitude and optimistic thinking can reverse the third age.

*2. *Health is wealth : If you really love your kith and kin, taking care of your health should be your priority. Thus, you will not be a burden to them. Have an annual health check-up and take the prescribed medicines regularly. Do take health insurance cover.

*3.* Money is important : Money is essential for meeting the basic necessities of life, keeping good health and earning family respect and security. Don't spend beyond your means even for your children. You have lived for them all through and it is time you enjoyed a harmonious life. If your children are grateful and they take care of you, you are blessed. But never take it for granted.

*4. *Relaxation and recreation : The most relaxing and recreating forces are a healthy religious attitude, good sleep, music and laughter. Have faith in you, learn to sleep well, love good music and see the funny side of life.

*5. *Time is precious : It is almost like holding a horse's reins. When they are in your hands, you can control them. Imagine that everyday you are born again. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is ready cash — use it profitably. Live this moment.

*6. *Change is the only permanent thing : We should accept change — it is inevitable. The only way to make sense out of change is to join the dance. Change has brought about many pleasant things. We should be happy that our children are blessed.

*7. *Enlightened selfishness : All of us are basically selfish. Whatever we do, we expect something in return. We should definitely be grateful to those who stood by us. But our focus should be on the internal satisfaction and happiness we derive by doing good to others, without expecting anything in return.

*8. *Forget and Forgive : Don't be bothered too much about others' mistakes. We are not spiritual enough to show our other cheek when we are slapped in one. But for the sake of our own health and happiness, let us forgive and forget them. Otherwise, we will be only increasing our BP.

*9. *Everything has a purpose : Take life as it comes. Accept yourself as you are and also accept others for what they are. Everybody is unique and right in his own way.

*10. *Overcome the fear of death : We all know that one day we have to leave this world. Still we are afraid of death. We think that our spouse and children will be unable to withstand our loss. But the truth is no one is going to die for you ; they may be depressed for some time. Time heals everything and they will carry on.

One Simple Secret to Managing Work Stress

One Simple Secret to Managing Work Stress
Rusty Rueff, On Saturday 18 December 2010, 0:17 SGT


More books have been written about stress management than any of us could ever read. Consultants, psychologists and psychiatrists have made their living on helping others deal with stress. While a myriad of tactics and tricks can help us manage stress at our jobs, one simple action is often overlooked:

Arriving early.

There's no stress in being early. This small yet important tip can significantly reduce your own stress, and it also shows those around you how to act when work heats up.

Think about these scenarios and see if you can apply them when it comes to managing the stress in your job:

-- If your schedule requires you to be in the office at 8:00 a.m., show up at 7:40 a.m. Those extra 20 minutes will give you time to settle in and get organized before the pressure really heats up.

[See 10 Ways to Make Any Job Healthier.]

-- If the meeting starts at 10:00 a.m., arrive at 9:50 a.m. Use those extra ten minutes in the meeting room to collect your thoughts, get in the right frame of mind, or take a moment to check your Blackberry.

-- If your one-on-one with your boss is scheduled at a regular time each week, show up five minutes early so you're already there and ready to go when her door opens. Consider using your extra five minutes to talk to the boss's assistant, creating a relationship that pays dividends.

-- If your presentation is due on Thursday morning, organize your workload so you can deliver it the evening before, eliminating loss of sleep and anxiety on Wednesday night.

-- If you're responsible for providing end-of-year performance reviews, don't wait until the week right before the review to get started. The last week will always be the most stressful, and your feedback won't be nearly as constructive if you rush to provide it. Set a plan ahead of time for how you'll tackle the written reviews. For example, if you need to review 10 employees and you have four weeks before in-person reviews, aim to complete two to three written reviews each week. A bit of planning and organization can go a long way when it comes to reducing your stress levels.

[See The Value of a True Lunch Break.]

-- If you're faced with a meeting across town that starts at 4:00 p.m., think ahead about your commute time. Without traffic, you could make it in half an hour, but who knows how long it will take when a lot of vehicles are on the road. Give yourself plenty of time to reach your destination, even if you risk arriving earlier than necessary. It's worth the time you'd otherwise spend fretting about arriving late. While most of us despise sitting in traffic, in this case, it can be turned into time to think, relax, or catch up on a few phone calls.

[For more career advice, visit U.S. News Careers, or find us on Facebook or Twitter.]

Combined with other stress management tricks that work for you, looking for opportunities to be early is an effective way to keep your cool. And don't forget that the people around you--your colleagues, staff, and maybe even your boss--look to you as an example of how to handle moments of pressure. By incorporating the "there's no stress in being early" approach, you'll help your workdays move more smoothly, both for you and for everyone else.

Rusty Rueff, director and career expert for jobs and career website Glassdoor.com has been a CEO, led HR in global companies and is co-author of Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business.

My First Trip to Japan 17 - 29 Nov 2010

MY FIRST TRIP TO JAPAN 17 - 29 NOV 2010

Japan is a country that I am dreaming to go for a long time. Maybe the time is not right yet for me to go. Could be also due to the cost that my dream did not come true. But in Jun 10 when my friends from the Bucky Group told me that they are making a trip to Japan in Nov 10, my first question I asked them was "Is it going to be expensive ?". The answer I got was "No, because we are going on back-pack and we will be staying at guesthouses.". My next question then was "Can we still join ?". The answer I got was "Yes, but need to decide fast as we are going to do the booking for air-tickets and guesthouses soon. There are 7 people confirmed going." I must thank our leader, June San, for being so helpful and kind to plan the trip for us, do the necessary bookings, lead us while we were there and also help us to save a lot of money for this trip. All in for the 12 days in Japan including air-ticket, I spent about S$2,500. And that include shopping for things I like and things to give my neighbours, colleagues and friends. June was so kind to take us round the places even she had been there before, I am really touched.

I have heard a lot from friends about their trip to Japan. All said it was very good. For me, I must said it was lucky for me to choose Japan as the last country to travel in Asia. Because I have been to Taiwan, China, South Korea, HK, Macau, Thailand, Loas, Myanmar, Vietman and Cambodia, Japan to me is the best. Why I say it is the best, below are my sharing :

People

People in Japan are so friendly and courteous. If you ask for direction, they will be happy to help you and some even come forward to help without you asking. I remember I was at a medicine shop one evening. All the staff there are so happy working at the store. They are full of energy until the store closed. When you make your payment, they will greet you and show their appreciation. Every restaurants we went, the customer service is excellent.

I also do not have the feeling that the Japanese are trying to make money from us because no one will come to you to sell thing. If you like to buy any thing, just ask, they will be happy to serve you. Unlike so country, everywhere you go, there will be people trying to sell something to you. 

Scenary

My trip was mainly to see the autumn of Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. The autumn there is so colourful. Every spot you go, you can spend time taking photo just at one spot. Every step you make, the view is different and you can continue to take more photos.

Cleanliness of Environment

Everywhere we go, it is so clean, so neat and so tidy. As for the streams we saw, all the water are so clean and crystal clear. It is part of their culture.

Social Security

Everywhere we went, we felt so safe. I can see people there generally have their own job, the crime there is very low. Even in a city or at the market, I can see people just park their bicyle and go and do their own things. No one will steal their bicycle.

Food

Being an asian, we are use to eat Chinese food. I must say I fall in love with the Japanese food when I was in Japan, it just taste very good. I also find that Japanese food is actually healthy food. They hardly use oil to do the cooking other than deep fried stuff like prawn. 

Finally, I enjoyed very much while I was in Japan. It was a totally new experience for me. The culture there is so different for us. I find that we have a lot to learn from them.

The Man of Perfect Virtue

The man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.

   --  Confucius (Analects 6.28.2)

Who to Appreciate, When and How

Appreciation : What to appreciate, When and How: an Important Lesson!

One young academically excellent person went for an interview for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview; BUT in that Company, the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result was excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never was there a year he did not score. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "no".

The director asked, " Did your father pay your school fees?". The youth answered, "my father passed away when I was one year old and it was my mother who paid my school fees".

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" the youth answered, "my mother worked as cloth cleaner." The director requested the youth to show his hands and the youth showed a pair of hands that was smooth and perfect to the director.

The director asked, " Did you ever help your mother wash clothes before?" The youth answered, "never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother could wash clothes faster than I could"

The director said, I have a request, when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that the chance of landing the job was high and when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. His mother felt strange. With happiness mixed with fear, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's ha! nds slowl! y and his tears fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and that there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that she shuddered when his mother's hands were cleaned with water.

This is the first time that the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to earn him the school fees and that the bruises in the mother's hand were the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, the mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye and asked: "Can you tell what you did and learnt yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, "I cleaned my mother's hands and also finished washing all the remaining clothes".

The director asked, "Please tell me what you felt"

The youth said:

"Number 1 , I know what appreciation is now'. Without my mother, I would not be successful today.

Number 2, Now I know how to work together with my mother. Only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.

Number 3, I know the importance and value of family relationship."

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employee worked diligently and as a team and the company improved tremendously.

The Lessons from this an ecdote:

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he needs, develops "entitlement mentality"and always puts himself first. He is ignorant of his parents' efforts. When he starts work, he assumes every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the suffering of his employees and always blame others. These kinds of people, may/will achieve good results and may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel a sense of achievement or satisfaction.

If we happen to be this kind of (protective) parent, this is the time to ask the question

- whether we did/do love our kids or destroy them.

-You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn to play the piano, watch a big screen TV but when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it.

-After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl together with their brothers and sisters.

-It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love and show them the correct way.

-You want them to understand that no matter how rich their parent are, one day they will grow old, become weak and that their hair too will grow grey!

-The most important thing is for your kid to learn how to appreciate, experience and learn the effort and ability needed to work with others to get things done. They should also value, appreciate what the parents have done and love them for who they are!

"Every sunrise delivers opportunities, While every sunset asks what we did with opportunities."