Today is Aidilfitri here in Malaysia. I am now in Kedah with my family for the celebration. Again, Aidilfitri is all about celebrating the successful one-month fasting for muslims. In other words, we are celebrating for winning the battle against desire all month long.

I’m sure you too have your moment of being a winner in your own battle. It can be –

• Successfully finished up all your work for the week beating that procrastination to the floor

• Overcame your mental block to create and deliver one of the best presentation ever.

• Walked away from a shopping sale when your desire was screaming at you with 100 plus reasons why buying makes sense.

Everyone has their own battle to win. As long as there are choices to make, there will always be a battle in our head, between reason and logic, the greater good or the immediate result.

It is a nice thing to win a battle. However there are 3 facts that you should know about winning. And you may be surprise that you never realized these before.

1) The battle starts 10 seconds after you win.

Yes, you may be doing your victory dance, but the truth is immediately after about 10 second you have been declared a winner, the war restarts.

If you just won over that procrastination instinct and finished up all your work, rest assured that you will start procrastinating other work that comes after that. You may be given another assignment, and you’re putting that off to another time in the future since you just won that war. As a matter of fact, the war against procrastination just restarted with that decision. It is really a never ending battle.

2) The battle will be harder.

I’m sure you will agree with me. Once you become number one, you will see that the work to maintain being number one is usually harder than the work to get to number one. It may be due to the pressure, the expectation or maybe the higher standard you just raised.

The same goes to your recent success. If you manage to deliver powerful presentation and your boss loves it, he will expect better performance from you. Of course delivering creative presentation is a piece of cake for you, but when pressure and high expectation is involved, you may not be able to outdo your previous self.

Still, this doesn’t mean that you should only deliver moderate quality performance in your work. You just need to know the fact that success comes with the element of pressure and expectation. Knowing this beforehand will help you cope with it better.

3) The enemy might have learnt from their mistake.

Things that don’t kill you will only make you stronger. This applies just the same to the elements you just beat. Let say, you just walked away from the shopping sale with excuses like “I will buy them some other time”. The time will come when such excuse will no longer works. You just don’t feel the excuse as effective as previously used.

Conclusion – You may ask, how then can we make the next battle easier? Unfortunately, the next battle will always be harder, and all we can do is to realize this as early as possible. This way, we can be more prepared.

– I Wonder –
How do you celebrate your victory?

———– Personal Note ————-
I don’t know about you, but everytime I manage to achieve my small victory of the day, I will treat myself to a cup of hot chocolate. That is my luxury of the day. 🙂

Photo Credit – Notsogoodphotography

Good news to everyone in Penang, Malaysia. It turns out Penang is the next area in Malaysia to be covered by wimax. Apparently P1W1max is given the green light to building the infrastructure, including base stations to provide the wimax services.

I am no where near Penang, but from the way I see it, it shows that nationwide coverage may not just be an empty promise.

You do remember the promise right? 25% of Malaysia covered by year end.

Quoting – “P1 commercially launched its WiMAX services in mid-August, the first operator to do so in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific region. The company has said it plans to extend coverage to major cities in Johor, Penang, Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca by year-end, in line with its mandate to cover 25% of the peninsula’s population. Its services are currently available in selected areas in the Klang Valley.”

Can’t wait

Source – TheEdgeDaily

One of the biggest problem for working people is that they always bring back work home. I used to think that this is nonsense. Who would want to bring work back home? But when I started working, the habit comes naturally and without even realizing it, I’m already doing it.

The worst case scenario would be when you bring back your problem from your workplace. The problem is in your head, and it will haunt you the rest of your day at home. If you bring back only paperwork, you will be able to finish it and you’re done. But if you bring back your problem which is in your head, it will always be there. And this will have more negative effect on your life.

• You will have no mood to have fun.
• You may accidentally channel your anger and frustration to your family.
• You will suffer stress and your work is becoming more of a burden to you.
• In short.. nothing good can come with bringing work back home.

How to leave work at work

If you are suffering from the above symptoms, and you know it is because you are bringing work back home, you may want to try these tips :

1) Create parting ritual
Create a parting ritual everytime you finish your work at your office. I personally clear up everything on my table and put it in one tray. I imagine that that is my black hole tray, where no work will be able to break free until 8am tomorrow morning.

You can create your own ritual like consciously locking the door of your office and saying goodbye to your work. This may sound silly but it has a great impact on your subconcious mind. You are making a closure.

2) Put up the sign – Do Not Disturb
Even when we successfully leave the work at work, the work sometimes manage to find you. Your colleague may call you during your off day to help him with something. What you should do, is to formally inform everyone that you are not to be disturbed unless it is a matter of life and death. A bit harsh, I know, but works like a charm.

I however am working as a maintenance engineer. And I almost always will be called to work if there’s any major breakdown. In my case, I can’t really turn down any call for help even when it is 3 in the morning.

If you are in other line of work, you should put up the sign. It’ll help.

3) Remind yourself in black and white
Take a piece of paper, and write these sentence on it. Whenever you are returning from work, read them out loud.

• My family is the most important thing to me.
• The time with my family is precious. I don’t want to miss a single thing.
• My family deserve the best from me, the best attention, the best conversation, the best treatment.

After a week or two reading them, you will memorize the sentence and it will be permanently written in your subconcious mind.

I’m sure there are many other methods we can do to keep work from following us home, but these three are the best way to do it. Try it.. You’ll see.

– I wonder –
How do you leave work at work?

——– Personal Note ———-
In two more days Muslims around the world will celebrate Aidilfitri (It is pronounced Eye – Deal – Fit – Ree). Just a brief explanation of the day, it is to celebrate the victory of successfully completing the one month of fasting. It is a joyous holiday here in Malaysia, where everyone will take this opportunity to be with family.

“Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin”

Photo Credit – JCardinal18

Close your eyes

This is an imagination exercise. Of course in order for you to read this you will have to open your eyes. My mistake.. Imagine you are a bank robber and you are planning to rob a bank this afternoon.

The bank has the most sophisticated security in the world. The vault is about a meter thick, the security guards are experienced marines, Safe to say that if there is one bank in the world which is the most secured, this would be it.

How do you plan to empty the vault?

(I’m going to assume you are taking 5 minutes of your time thinking about a plan)

This is what I will do. I will attack the weakest link of the security defense, which is the manager of the bank. Easy, just kidnap his family and demand him to clear the vault for you. He will be able to bypass any security and even come up with a solution to how you can escape. Why? Because he is the weakest link. He will do anything to keep his family safe. Mission accomplished.

Now whether or not you will successfully enjoy the money is a different thing. I just want you to empty the vault. And that’s the best and easiest way to do it. I must put a disclaimer that this article is never intended to promote bank robbery.

The Actual Message of the Article

In everything you do, always address the weakest link. You fortify this link, you are actually fortifying the whole system.

The Application in Security

1) Car
The easiest method to steal a car is to grab the key from the driver while he is trying to open the door.

• When you are walking towards your parked car, look around for suspicious people walking.
• Only use your key when you are very near to the car and are sure nobody else is around.

2) Pin number or password
Your computer maybe password protected, but it will be of no use if your password is actually written on the monitor.

• Use three passwords your entire life. One super password for anything related to money, another is for your other important matters (email on the business card etc), and another for everything else.
• Don’t use password that is related to you (your name, DOB etc), or in the dictionary. This should already be the one universal advice when it comes to choice of password.

3) Online banking
Believe it or not, your bank actually has geniuses on their payroll to ensure the bank’s online security is top notch. This will all be useless if you have no idea what is phishing and believe an email that looks like they are sent from your bank is from your bank.

• Never click on links in an email. It is always better to type in your bank url on your browser.
• If you are unsure of the email, just call your bank’s call center and ask. That’s why they are there.

Conclusion – Any system is usually solidly secured. However, there will always be the weakest link in the system. Determine this first and act accordingly, you may have avoided becoming another victim in the local newspaper.

p.s. This doesn’t only apply to security. You can also use the same concept to fortify your human resources, your business etc.

– I wonder –
Any other security tips you might want to share?

———— Personal Note ————
I remember the night my mother was robbed back in 2002. She was waiting for the bus alone when two guys on a motorcycle approached her asking for direction. She knew something was wrong and tried to avoid them. Suddenly one of the guys snatched her handbag and when she didn’t let go, he hit her with his helmet. She was bleeding and was sent to the hospital by a passerby.

Everytime I think of this incident, only one thing comes to mind – “How grateful I am that she is safe.” Remember guys.. when you are robbed and all they want is the wallet, give it to them. Nothing worth risking your life.

Photo Credit – Richt