Kenny Talks About : Making Plans for Your Life

We all go through life in many different ways. We are all just very different people. We each have different aspirations, goals and ways of doing the things we do. But, yet, in my opinion, we would probably be the same in one aspect. That is, each of us, by our own thoughts and motivations decides about how and where we end up.

You may say that there are people who do not have a freedom to decide, but making decisions no matter how small it may be is what makes us human. We each have a conscious mind to think about our actions and even the consequences of each of those.

And we all make plans in our very own way. There will be those that say, they don't make plans, and that they would just go with the flow of life, let things happen as they may be. But, I don't believe that to be true. Honestly, plans does not have a statute of timing or period. It could be as short as making plans to have a meal within the next hour or planning for your retirement in 30 years time. All of us think about a sequence of events that will ultimately lead us to the objectives of the plans.

Am I wasting time....?

Since young, I was taught to think about my actions and how it would help with what I would do in the future. Mom and Dad would say, "Don't spend time doing useless things. Don't waste time doing something you did not plan. Don't waste time with petty tasks... Don't waste time... "

Can anyone honestly say what is useless and what is not? Though we are smart enough to identify with certain things that is either wrong or right, black or white, but there are a lot of things in our lives that would consists of grey areas.

It's subjective and it really depends on what your personal goals are.

Personal goals...

Sounds like a big subject.... or perhaps a popular phrase that is coined in a whole list of cliches by motivators and self-development Gurus. But, you know what? Don't look at it that way. Think of it as part of the task of making personal plans for your life. And never treat it like a tangible thing! Personal goals should be close to your heart and it's about feelings rather than words in your head.

If you treat it as a tangible achievement, you will always be looking for a physical proofs. We are human, and when we don't see these physical proofs, (ie. cars, money, house...) we get demotivated all too easily.

So, if you think about it, it's something that should be of your heart and feeling.

Not too short and not too long...

Make plans... Some of you may sigh. "Oh no, another tedious task to think about what I will do and the hard part is sticking to it... "

Well, don't plan like you are thinking of an invasion. Keep your plans short enough so they will be practical, achiveable and you can see the results in a relatively short period.

On the other end of the spectrum, don't make it too short that you don't have enough time to execute the thoughts or that the end result is not justifiable in the amount of work needed to e put into it.

Perhaps the best length would be 3-years. Decide what you will do within this 3 years and what you hope to achieve at the end of this period (remember, it doesn't have to be tangible).

Here's an example of a young high school graduate's plans in both personal and career development:

Start : 17 years old

3 years - Higher Education (17 yrs old)
3 years - Permanent posts in the hotel line (21 yrs old)
3 years - Escale to managerial role (24 yrs old)
3 years - Career development or post-graduate education (27 yrs old)
3 years - Settle down and get married (30 yrs old)
3 years - Own your own business or become a young director (33 yrs old)

Though is not a hard and steadfast timeline, but it gives one a guide of the different stages in our lives that we should take note of.

Plans can change...

Yes, plans do change. But, if you do not think about it and make plans in the first place, what do you refer to when making this change? Is there even a basis for a change? There simply isn't any direction to follow.

We can't tell the future and how things will change.

Just like a train heading towards its destination... You cannot forsee a truck that is stuck on the track a few miles ahead of the track because its still too far, but no matter what, you still need the train tracks to lead you on. And when you get near enough to that obstruction, you will see it with just enough time to stop the train and work on getting the tracks cleared.

That's just like our lives.

Winnie's Birthday - 8 Nov

Winnie had her birthday a couple of days ago. Coincidently it was a public holiday, Deepavali. So it was a nice little celebration for her. Unfortunately, she was not feeling too well because of a cold, and a slight fever due to bad weather and some germs going around the office.

Nevertheless, I brought her and little Celeste to Zipangu, Shangri-La Hotel for a nice little Japanese lunch, Winnie's favourite dishes. It was a nice a cosy affair. Though we go out a lot to eat but we seldom end up at fancy restaurants by ourselves.

Celeste was up to her playful self.

But, it's times like this where I really feel lucky to have what I have. A loving family, a good home and good career. It's one of the times where you would look back at what you have done so far and evaluate yourself.

Well, the next day, our office colleagues did not forget to celebrate with Winnie. Surprising her with a cake and it was such pleasure to have almost everyone here at the office to surprise her!

Part Time Maid

Finally took on the services of a part-time maid from today. It'll really help with all the back-breaking work of having to clean our two-storey house. Especially when we are both working with nobody else at home.

We had the maid over in our apartment earlier this morning preparing it for a new tenant. (Yes, that's another story for another blog posting). Very good and very diligent.

Having a part-time maid really helps with not having to worry about the welfare and arrangements for a full-time one. Afterall, with just the 3 of us, we don't really create much of a mess... (err... almost never... ;-P)

At least Winnie, got to sit, relax and watch a movie while most of the chores are being done. Call me a male chauvinist but I do chores more related to renovations or tougher, manly stuffs... (I'm beginning to sound like Tim Ellen in "Home Improvement")

Where to have dinner on Saturday evening?

It's Saturday evening and I am here blogging while I wait for my little girl to wake up. I'm still wondering where to bring mommy, little Celeste and myself for a nice little dinner.

A couple of places I am considering are:
1) Chef and Brew on Damansara Heights
2) Ali Yaa, Sri Lankan Restaurant at Jalan Dungun, Damansara
3) Jarrod's and Rawlin's also at Jalan Dungun, Damansara

Thought I'd give them a treat after having been so busy for the last couple of weeks. I think I may even go up to the point of getting into the car before being able to decide on the place.

I'll continue here with what I decide on next and how the food turns out. Hehehe... :-)

Spiral Integrated : Team Building Weekend

Okay, I knew our recent increase in staff numbers and new Spiral team recruits had to eventually lead to this. A team building weekend. I was totally in on the idea of encouraging team spirits and fun among the staff especially the new ones. It was an excellent idea.

So we began about a week prior, by grouping the entire Spiral staff into three teams. As Cheil, Samsung’s brand and communincations partner was part of this team building exercise (we also called it a Getogether) was also involved, the split up as well to join each of our teams.

Next thing we knew, there were homeworks! And there I thought, we’d have a bit of weekend getaway and fun, but no! Admist all of the work that we have in progress at the office, we were set to work on team tasks. Beginning with the cheer… that was certainly a real laugh!

Our team chose Transformon as our name, but no, we were not high on crack or pissed drunk to have come up with that. When it was suggested, we roared in laughter and then knew it had to be. Transformers meet Doraemon!!! Yup, not Pokemon… it would have been too easy! but Doraemon instead. ;-D

After having given in to the fact that we could only hope for success by a resounding roar of laughters, we diligently rehearsed a cheer routine of what could only be known as humiliating and not to be mentioned ever again (after this blog, that is…). Perhaps descriptions of plastic cartoon water tumblers, kiddy fan, cute little bells around our neck and sad-looking-wannabe pom poms would give you a slight visualisation of the embarrassment that ensued…

Anyway, we started to make our way at an un-Godly hour of 6am on a Saturday, after only having a 2 hour sleep having just completed a big event the evening before. Got our way to the A-Famosa Resort in Melaka.

Spirits started high but begin to wane as we saw what our competition had prepared. Intimidating, rough and tough routines. Given a few minutes to rehearse before we had to present the cheer, we stuck our chest out and kept telling ourselves that it was laughter that we were after (and could perhaps only hope for!)

Well, our fears were put aside when we started our routine. It was surreal! My mind blocked out all the viewers and we just went for it. Damn… almost thought nothing could have been more embarrassing. Hehehe…

But, you know what’s the best part, though we didn’t come up tops with the team building exercises, we won ourselves a trophy for the Best Talent! You go figure that… It was a rewarding experience, one that taught each and everyone of use the importance of humility and confidence in what we were doing no matter what it was.

At the end of the day, we were closer friends, better colleagues and we learnt how to have fun together!