Wednesday, August 17, 2011

On career move: Where to and why cross over?


Nature of work vary in time. It can be a change that is something related to your current job or a totally different one.

The beauty of these changes: you acquire more skills.

The problem: you do not develop expertise, which is critical as you grow old.

Jack of all trades, master of none, as the saying goes.

The former requires some sort of interest and commitment to do.

The latter, a strong reason, i.e. passion, and great leap of faith to cross over.

In your next career move, what wil be the push factor?



Sunday, August 14, 2011

Why YOUr cause SUCKs?


You force it.

You rush for it.

Therefore, you have a cause NOT worth doing.

The first one makes your audience dislike you. Thus causes disengagement.

The second one results in a cause full of loopholes. Thus your audience tend to not want and trust your cause.

The third one is the sum of types 1 and 2.

It is simply NOT worth your while.

*Thanks for the inspiration, Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment, The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Turning around a rather boring day at work


Bored in office? Turn it around with these simple steps!

When serving an organization for a long time, there are times you feel stuck with routine, task lists and targets. You are caught up motionless in the middle of projects and processes, while the rest are too busy meeting their targets. This is when you start noticing the next person in the conference room or the meeting chairperson as objects of envy; and wonder how they stand the rigours of 8-to-5 office work, doing the same thing, ticking items off their task lists.

If you start feeling stuck and having bad days at work, take action. Turn it around and spice up your boring routine with the following:

  1. Detour. Yes! Taking detours on your way to office break your routine and give you a different and yet refreshing perspective. Detours may also lead you to discovery of things: less traffic, shortcuts and nicer ambience.

  2. Walk it out. Trivia: For every minute of brisk walking, as much as 6 calories can be burned. That means a 15-minute tea break spent on walking will get rid of 90 calories you gained from 7 hours of slacking. If done in the morning and afternoon tea breaks, that's a whopping 180 calories burned! That is equivalent to two cups of coffee!*

    Imagine the benefits: you kill boredom and get fit.

  3. Get out of the box. Literally. Retreat to your creative spaces to be able to think out-of-the-box. Be it in a nearby library, coffee shop or park, find this place where you can complete quality work in an unbelievable pace. It is where your ideas run wild, concepts take form and manifest themselves in your proposals, ready to be rolled out. When boredom strikes, retreat to that place and get your muse do the rest.

*Based on the calorie count of an instant coffe brand.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Feeling good after saying thank you twice


"I like your perfume," the 7-year old Aaron told me suddenly when we were chatting about his scouts and cleaning duties this morning.

I was surprised and felt some kind of stirrings women feel when given a compliment.

I only had these words for him, "Thank you," and that really kicked off my day.

And just when I thought that was all it, two gentlemen joined me in the lift. I smiled at them and said the casual hello to each other. They stood closer to the lift door, talking about office shirts and where to find good ones.

Eavesdropping, the older man told the younger man, "You can get free alteration from there (referring to a supplier) and the fabric is better than this (touching his shirt)."

"Oh, it's thicker," said the younger man.

The lift stopped on ground level. The door opened. As I waited for them to make a move, they both looked back at me and together, they made the hand gesture offering me the door first.

I only had these words for them, "Thank you," and that really made my morning so good.

Thank you, gentlemen!


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Hey, single ladies! No date on February 14?


Hey, single ladies! No date on February 14?

Go, bring yourself out.

Crazy?

Nah. You owe it to yourself and you need not wait for somebody to do this pampering.

When most ladies go gaga over flowers and gifts and dinner dates on Valetine's Day, go out and throw yourself in:

  1. A Spa treatment. There's no better gift on Valentine's Day than a full body massage after a stressful Valentine's Monday. A refreshed mind and body is something you owe to yourself, after all.
  2. A Hair treatment. Go and prep yourself up on V-day. This may not be necessary on February 14, but there are more days beyond V-day that your do may come in handy.
  3. A Shopping spree. Drooling on the latest top collection of your clothing brand? Get it on Valentine's. You may not have Mr. Right now, but you are in the right purchasing position to get that top.

Keep this in mind: Single is sexy, as Bench highlighted in their Bench Body campaign a few years back.

Celebrate being single and the opportunity that comes with it this Valentine's!