Image courtesy of Rockie Nolan

Recently, I have a talk with my girlfriend regarding a few things about our future. She mentioned something that I feel is very important about treating everyday like a brand new day. Personally, I was hit by her words straight in the head as I have read about this theory before in some self-help books but I did not really apply it in my daily routines.

What do I mean about treating your everyday like a brand new day? Everyday is actually a brand new day as the sun rise and set daily but do we actually treat our everyday like a brand new day? Most people will think that everyday is just another day in their lives but what we shouldn’t really do is bring our past experiences to the future which is the next day. Example like keep on thinking about the bad things that happened yesterday or even a few years ago and get affected by feeling depressed or low due to it.

Personally, I have been putting a lot of mental weight on myself through the past bad experiences and I am feeling guilty about it too. Therefore, I have decided to learn to treat my everyday as a brand new day. Let me bring you to a situation where you will see a clearer picture of what I am talking about. Imagine you are a basketball player, if you keep on thinking about why you miss the shot previously in the first half, will you able to focus on the game in the second half and make a comeback? The answer will be no unless your opponent is not doing a good job. Therefore, we have to learn to turn our mindset around by focusing our energy in the right direction.

I have given this method a try on a mahjong game last weekend and it seems to work for me. I have lost in the first few round of the game but the game has not ended yet as it is still quite early in the game. I change my mindset and stop focusing my mind about the games I have lost in the first few round. I focused all my energy on the next few games and the overall game results turned out to be me as the overall winner.

I think that all of us should focus our mind in the right direction and stop letting those negative thoughts from bringing us down. I will start implementing this findings and will update again if I do see a big change in my life in the upcoming future.

Cheers
Javier
P.S. Do remember to remind yourself today is a brand new day!!

Image courtesy of magda.indigo

Do you know that the first hour of the day is considered one of the most important part of the day? Or have you heard that breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day? Today I am going to share with you why is it important for you to master your first hour of the day over here in this blog post.

Few month ago, I read a blog post by Affilorama about motivation to start your day and I can say that the blog post has actually motivated me to move myself to start my engine to work on myself. To summarize the best part I got from the blog itself is

“Whenever you feel too tired to go out and train, just get off the couch and run the first 500 meters, then if you’re still too tired, go back home and rest”

That paragraph of words is really kicking myself in the ass as sometimes I am reluctant to do what I am suppose to do and procrastinate so much that make me very unproductive. I have put up the above paragraph as my desktop wallpaper to remind myself to just start doing something and it really helps as it kick start my whole momentum to do more.

Ok let’s get back to the topic of why mastering your first hour is very important as recently I read this book called Personal Development For Smart People by Steve Pavlina and inside the book, there’s a portion where he mentioned the importance of master the first hour.

Here’s the abstract from the book itself:

It’s been said that the first hour is the rudder of the day, meaning that the way you start your day will tend to set the tone for the rest of it. If you adopt a disciplined routine for your first waking hour, you’ll probably enjoy a higer productive day. But if you squander that first hour, it’s likely the rest of the day will be equally unspectacular. Conquer that first hour by exercising, reading, cleaning, writing, or doing other productive tasks.

Many people have told me that whenever they complete an important task first thing in the morning, they gain a tremendous feeling of well-being and energy that lasts for hours. I’ve experienced this as well. Finishing an important task early in the day is motivating and energizing. When you conquer that first hour, you feel that no matter what else happens, your day is already a success.

Personally, I totally agree to what Steve Pavlina said in his book regarding about mastering your first hour of the day as I feel it’s the same theory of eating your most important meal of the day which is your breakfast. I have read before that in order for you to do more in the day, you must actually have your breakfast as it boost your power and provide the energy you need to start your day well. It is also healthy for you to take your breakfast as it helps to kick start your body system by providing the energy to start it well.

Cheers
Javier

P.S. Hope this post has inspired you to learn more about the importance of your own time and body. Make sure you check out on Steve Pavlina’s book at any bookstore or library near you as there’s a lot of insides about personal development that I felt are useful to all of us.

Image courtesy of Mr-Wild

Recently, I have managed to win a swatch watch through the card limit that hit a certain amount. I have won 2 of those lucky draw swatch watches a few months ago and I was quite surprised that I have managed to win another one. On the first two watches I got, I have tried putting the swatch watch on an online free classified website to sell and there were quite a few responses but I did not try to push the price higher as I was quite lazy to bargain the price. In the end, I got my friend to sell it for me at a local cash converter shop.

Fast forward a few months, I got another swatch watch for free and I decided to sell it at the cash converter shop near my girlfriend place. After spending some time at the cash converter waiting for my queue, I realized this business is quite good as quite a lot of people is selling and buying stuff over there. However, I did not sell my swatch watch as the amount they give is lower than the previous round that my friend sold for me. The person at the counter feedback to me that different branch price different items differently and it is really depending on the demand of the locations. In the end, I chose to go somewhere near my house outlet to give it a try. The price they gave me was slightly lower than the price I got at my girlfriend’s location.

To cut long story short, I chose not to sell the swatch watch to the cash converter company and wanted to do an experiment by selling it online instead. To most of the general public, they will usually perceive the value of a swatch watch at a higher value compared to company. The result of my experiment was positive and I managed to sell my free swatch watch at a higher price which is even higher than the price I got throughout the whole process.

What I’m trying to get to you is sometimes you have to put your items or product that you want to sell at a different locations where the perceived value is higher. I think this is a good lesson learnt for myself as I believe I can apply this knowledge in the future for whatever thing I come across with.

Cheers
Javier
P.S. Something I hate about doing this experiment is that I have put in too much time and effort traveling around to sell a swatch watch as I realized I can use that time more effectively in other areas instead of going for a few dollars more for just one unit item. However, I am glad to learn something great through this process and I will definitely remember this.

Image courtesy of gingerpig2000

Do you have tasks on hand that you are reluctant to do or it took a lot of your time before it is completed? Recently, I have been listening to an audio book called The Power of Less by Leo Babauta which teaches how to use the method of focusing on one goal to be more effective in achieving our goals.

One of the techniques called breaking down your task into simplest form which I have tried personally is quite useful for me. I have been trying to complete a task that I have been dragging for quite some time to finish in order to achieve my 1 year goal of creating a 4 figure online monthly income this year. Sometimes, although you know the importance of the tasks, you will still feel intimidated or relunctant to complete the tasks due to a cut in motivation when the task process takes a long time and lots of things to do in order to complete. However, after listening to the audio book, I have realized the real problem is the motivation and momentum of completing the task in order to achieve the goal. What is suggested by the author of The Power of Less is to try to figure out what is needed in order for us to achieve our goal or complete our task by listing them down one by one. After that, we have to start choosing the simplest thing on the list to do to get ourselves more motivated to do more as we have the tendency to continue our task once we start to build the momentum from the first step we took.

I have realized personally that once we start something small, we start to slowly build a habit once we consistently repeat the process. From my personal experience, few months ago, I have started the habit of buying fruits from my workplace to eat during lunch time and slowly I start to bring my own fruits to work which then formed my habit of eating fruits during my lunch time hours. Personally, I feel that this method of starting small and consistent do help me to build a healthy diet and I can feel my body is in a better condition compared to a few years ago.

I do recommend you to check out The Power of Less by Leo Babauta if you want to build a good habit to avoid procrastination. Personally, I think I have to spend some time replanning my whole mastermind of health habits, exercise schedule and wealth creation to see how I can relate and implement the steps provided in the program of The Power of Less to cut down on the clutter and use the power of focus to achieve my goals and dreams.

Cheers
Javier

Image courtesy of Sicilian Italiano

Today’ s post is considered a very special one as I’m going to write about a real life case study of what you can achieve when you go for your dreams. Recently, I met up with one of my ex colleagues who opened a snack stall in one of the primary school. When I first saw her in her newly open stall, I nearly cannot recognise her as she has put on her contact lens instead of her usual spectacles. Personally, I felt that she has seemed to look much younger and liver compared to the last time that I met her.

To cut long story short, my ex colleague had ventured out to become her own boss after quitting her job. She went ahead to become a snack stall owner in the primary school. While eating the food that she had prepared for us and sitting down to chat, I went ahead and asked her a few questions about whether she liked her current position as her own boss. She gave a immediate answer back that she loved what she is doing now as she enjoyed lesser stress and higher income compared to her previous job. The most important part is she is able to knock off earlier at 3pm as the school she’s in is a single session one and she is even able to go shopping or catch a movie without having to go at the time where there’s a lot of crowd. Can you believe it as she even told us that there’s a lot of weekdays promotional sale or meal offer that she can enjoy now compared to last time where she was tied to a 8-5pm job.

Through the chat I had with her, I realized that she was really enjoying herself now as she get to make more money compared to the fixed income she can earn from a job. I could still remember the time when she was preparing to leave her job, she had told me before that becoming an entrepreneur was her dream and she did not dare to venture out as she had a family. However, the reason why she made the move this time round was because she had finally managed to find a low rental fees’ stall in a primary school through her friend’s recommendation and this was the first move towards her dream as an entrepreneur.

I was very happy to see the bright smile on the face of my ex colleague and was glad that she had made the right move towards her dreams. It is very important that we should all go for our dreams and live life with no regrets. Hope this real case study has inspired you to go for your dreams and make sure you live your life with no regrets like what my friend did. No matter how small the step can be, make sure you take the faith and courage to move towards your dreams.

Cheers

Javier

Image courtesy of Blue Dreams

This is going to be the first post for my own personal blog on JavierChua.com. As you can see the title of this blog is named as Journey to Success – What you can CONCEIVE, it can be ACHIEVED, it is going to be the place where I am going to share with everyone my success journey and this will let me keep track of what I have learned and achieved so far in my entire life. I believe that the more you give, the more you will receive along the way so I have decided to create this personal blog to write down the journey I have travelled so far and maybe as a reader, you may be able to avoid the mistakes I have made previously and progress faster along your own journey towards success.

What I have discovered during the past few years of reading & self-discovery, the first and most important step towards success or financial freedom is to find out the reason “why” you want the change. Is it because you are sicked and tired about your current busy lifestyle or is it because you want to proof to everyone that you are capable of making a different in other people lives. No matter what your reason is, make sure that your reason “why” is strong enough to support you throughout the journey to success as you will definitely face a lot of ups and lows during the process of achieving what you want in life.

Personally, my own “Why” is to be able to create my desired lifestyle of having more personal time for myself and my future own family without having to work so hard in a JOB. The reason why I want this lifestyle so much as I have seen my dad working so hard almost every single day (only off on public holiday) for our family and there were a lot of family quarrels revolving around money. As my dad is working almost every single day, the relationship between him and us (children) is not that close and this is not what I want to have in my future own family. Therefore, I have chosen the route to financial freedom and I believe everything will change once I get to where I want to be in the near future.

Cheers
Javier