Change

.

How we change things that we’re unhappy of? Something we’re not satisfied of?

Do we just complain? Or just pray? Or just wake up the next morning and things will be better?

Most probably not.

Someone need to do something, and it starts from ourselves.

is a 3 stage process. It sounds easy, but achieving it is far from easy.

1. Acceptance of

This is the preparation stage and the most important of all. Before we can change anything, we need to accept that the change we want could really happen. Our minds need to be conditioned that this can really happen.

We should see in our minds the final picture; the images, the voices and imagine us being there. Otherwise, how could we know what sort of change we would want?

We all know the mind is the most powerful tool we could ever have. Like Napoleon Hill once said, for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

If our minds are not ready for change, change will never come to us. Period.

Now, ever wondered why Barack Obama’s campaign phrase is, ‘, Yes We Can!‘?

2. Feedback & Comments

Why do we need change? Isn’t the answer obvious?

No one would ask for a change if things are perfect. But the reality is, we never stop to look for perfection. We want the best of things for ourselves. That’s just basic human behavior.

We can see a difference between what is good and what is bad and we all want to be at the good side. We say to ourselves that we need a change.

Therefore, we come up with lots of feedback and comments to those people who can influence change. Read : Obama.

3. - Acting On It

First, there are people who, on the surface screamed together with us that they wanted a change. But deep down they’re not even ready to change. Maybe they’re afraid of change, or they just a bunch of hypocrites. They themselves know best.

Second, there are people who are ready for change. But when they’re given the chance to influence the change or make the change happen, they simply backed away.

The thing that really irritates me is that when the change don’t happen, they start screaming again.

Complaining..moaning..grumbling..

And then, there are people who wanted change and act on it, and done it when history shows it’s impossible.

Barack Obama’s monumental rise to become the first black and 44th President of the was truly inspirational, not only within the USA but worldwide.

I followed the campaign trail on CNN every night for the pasy 2.5 months and most of his speeches were truly inspirational and motivational.

He spreads a very clear and simple message throughout the whole country regardless of one’s skin color, religion and ethnicity that change can happen if you believe in it happening.

I know he hasn’t take office so we won’t have any idea of what he’s made of yet until January. But I’m very sure his rise to become the first black president will inspire change in a lot of countries and organizations a like.

And finally, change has gone to America. Will make a stop here in ?

November 8, 2008 | Filed Under Life, Opinions | Leave a Comment 

On Daylight Saving Time

When I was a kid, I didn’t  know what was .

I always see the word daylight saving time printed on my old Casio digital watch. But I have no idea what it was. All I knew was that there would be time differences during the summer and such. Still I didn’t get it.

Then there was Champions League football. I would wake up in the middle of the night just to watch Man United play. I noticed how the kickoff times started to change from 2.45am to 3.45am towards the end of October. Not forgetting also the usual EPL kickoffs time from 7.45pm to 8.45pm.

I started to get a grasp of what is all about.

So, one day I looked up the Internet, asked Google and it replied with a simple phrase about .

Spring forward, fall back.

In simple terms, countries that observe will shift their clocks 1 hour forward during the spring so the sun appears to rise 1 hour later and sets 1 hour later thus making the day longer. And vice versa during the fall.

Therefore, I’m now 7 hours behind .

Most of central Europe countries turned their clocks 1 hour backwards after daylight saving time has ended. I remember that will end sometime towards the end of October but I didn’t know it was on October. As far as my memory can recall, it’s on this coming weekend.

And when I checked again on Saturday night only did I realize that I had to turn my clock 1 hour backwards on Sunday 3.00 am to 2.00 am.

It suddenly appeared to me that winter is really coming. The sun used to set about 630pm last week. This week it’s 530pm.

The cloudy and rainy weather didn’t help either.

When I was here in December last year, the sun rose at 8.30am and set at 4.30pm.

Now, I really feel winter is coming real soon…

October 28, 2008 | Filed Under Events, Life, Travels | Leave a Comment 

3 Years of Traveling

It’s now late at night. And I had nothing better to do.

So, instead of going to bed, I took out my passports (old and current) and started to flip it over to check out my new, spanking German visa for my upcoming trip later this week.

When I first got my passport (the old one) back in 2004, I thought that I would never utilize half of it, leave alone finishing all 32 pages of it. My mum once said that it’s a waste of money paying RM300 for a passport when you only stamp it once or twice in it’s entire 5 years of validity.

True to what she said, the only stamp I got was to Singapore.

That was before I started to work.

Little did I know that this would change until I landed my first job in mid 2005. Somehow, I managed to get not only half, but all 32 pages of this old passport filled up nicely and neatly in the next 2.5 years.

During the job interview, they told me to prepare myself to travel up to 75% of the time. Otherwise, it’s not advisable for me to accept the job offer as I would resign sooner or later.

and being away from for long period is the challenge. Not the job itself.

But, they didn’t keep their promise.

I didn’t travel up to 75% for my entire time when I was there. When I flipped through my old passport, I realized that I only traveled 60% (18 out of 30 weeks) in 2005 and 71% (34 out of 48 weeks) in 2006

It looked something like this :

2005
China - 6 weeks
Indonesia - 5 weeks
Pakistan - 4 weeks
Sri Lanka - 3 weeks

2006
Sri Lanka - 3 weeks
Thailand - 28 weeks
Vietnam - 2 weeks
Indonesia - 1 week

Then I changed my job towards the end of 2006. Since I loved to travel in my previous company, I’d make sure that I’ll get to do the same in my new company. But, it wasn’t really heavy traveling back in 2007. It was only about 31% of the time (15 out of 52 weeks) that I was out of .

This was how 2007 went by for myself.

2007
Bangladesh - 1 week
Finland - 6 weeks
Hong Kong - 1 week
India - 4 weeks
- 1 week
Japan - 2 weeks
Singapore - 1 week

By the end of 2007, the passport I was holding was already fully stamped. There isn’t any more room for new stamps and I had to make a new one. This time, it’ll be 64 pages.

I know it would get full before it’s 5 years validity period ends.

I thought 2008 would be a year where I would be out of the country most of the time, and it happened to go this way. This is how 2008 will look like.

2008
Japan - 2 weeks
Egypt - 6 weeks
India - 9 weeks
- 19 weeks

By the end of the year, I would have been out of the country for 70% (34 out of 52 weeks) of the time.

My next trip will take me to and various parts of Europe for 19 weeks and it’ll last until next year at least.

So which is the best place that I’ve ever been to date?

A few, actually.

I’ll keep that for later and off to bed for now.

August 19, 2008 | Filed Under Life, Travels | Leave a Comment 

Next Page →