Free Spirit.

I'm moving on

2009-05-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

Free Spirit.

I am moving on to wordpress because i'm annoyed at blogger's functinality inflexibility of posting to an ftp site (like nomadlife.org).

And if I were to switch off from nomadlife, it should be to a nicer system.

Follow me here: fheyder.wordpress.com

100 Ways To Motivate Yourself

2009-05-18T04:12:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com: 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever: Steve Chandler: Books

In a standard 4 types of personality test, I am the influencer.
In the quirky dove-owl-peacock-eagle personality test, I am the peacock.
In the super complicated 9 types Enneagram test (my favorite), I am type 7: the Enthusiast.

What do they mean? Pretty much that I am a creative, outgoing, happy person. I also happen to be very inconsistent, having outbursts of i-want-it-this-instant things. Always starting, never finishing. (Well not always, but I that's my normal operating tendency that I will fall back to if I am not performing at my best)

It's true. I am that person. I have accepted it. So in my day to day living, I have to constantly struggle to identify these bad traits when they come up.

The conversation in my head will be something like this:

"Man I hate mondays, let's see what's on facebook"
"Warning!!"
"Just five minutes"
"five minutes is up!"
"But I have to see what my friend wrote, friendship is beyond work"
"it's been 10 minutes"
"Already 10? Well then another minute wouldn't hurt"
"It's been 30 minutes, I feel guilty"
"Hey... ads on glass blowing course, that sounds cool"
"No I don't need a glass blowing course"
"Maybe not, but live life without regrets rite?? What if I regret this later"

On times where my dark side is winning, I like to pull out one of my favorite book out of the drawer. 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler. It does what it says, giving many many tips to jolt myself back to motivation and back to my original task. (This is of course assuming that your original task had some kind of meaning for you, if it doesn't then maybe you need a bigger help!!)

Personally, I like to pick a random page whenever I open Steve's book. So I don't know if I've read them all, but even the old ones are still a good straight-to-the-point advice I could always rely on.

Some samples that have helped me overcome a snag during a dry day:

No. 23 - Kill your televison - Self explanatory and can also be applied to facebook

No. 5 - Push all your own buttons - Making note of simple things that lift you up like a great song and using all those to repeat the feeling when you are down.

No. 99 - Laugh with no reason - Hahaha my favorite tip.

No 38 - Learn to come from behind - Accepting the fact that the natural rhythm of things are sometimes about 1 step up and 2 step down. That's not a problem, just put in sometime to recharge and do it again.

And many others...

Usually after pondering one of Steve's tips which may or may not include a simple exercise, my heads all cleared up and things look better. I find my thoughts going back to:

"Monday's aren't so bad after all"
"You sure??"
"Yeah... let's do this one tiny step at a time. No biggie"

Very cool

2009-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Using facebook status updates to write a story. Quite a good detail packed into 160 characters snapshots. hands up for dodysm!

dodysm: "Saturday, May 02, 2009
No Title Yet Part 1 - Murder of a Chechen Rebel
This is a snapshot of a fictional story written daily on my Facebook status, 160 characters at a time - two or three status updates a day. Each paragraph constitutes one Facebook status update. It is still ongoing and it is written without edit.

'Any last wish Yamadayev ?' The bound man on the floor looked up with his red swollen eyes, angry and resigned. He started to speak when the trigger was pulled. Job #151 was completed. Dubai, March 30, 2009."

I'm a convert

2008-02-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

Recently switched from "7 Habits" to "Getting Things Done".

7 Habits puts a lot of emphasis on saying no to small things and delegating them. After a few years I finally realized why it wasn't working for me, I don't have any power to say no to my boss nor do I have anyone to delegate to! The only person who is under me is the cleaning auntie, and even she has more powers than me!!! ("Auntie, I want green tea" "Mei You!!" sob sob!!)

The whole premise of Getting Things Done by David Allen is that until your mind knows that you will do a certain task (by writing it down in a trusted list) it will continually remind you randomly thus making your thoughts muddy. It also reminds you about the million scenarios attached to that task, making you overwhelmed and tempting you to forget about it all together. But your mind is also smart enough to prioritize things so you don't need to keep much than lists of "To Dos". Best thing is, you don't have to purchase any super expensive custom tailored organizer... in fact David Allen himself mentioned that he is very happy with his standard issued palm organizer.

Really really, I think this is the best for overly worked analyst (office low lives) with minimal budget for fancy organizers!

ps: Obviously I am only mentioning basic premises on which GTD is best. The book has lots of good handy tips and it has been drafted into my permanent best-books section on my shelf.

RDA Singapore

2008-02-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

I don't have that many goals in life, it's bad, i know. But one thing I've always wanted was my own horse. Of course, I can't afford one yet... so I looked for ways to be around them for free.

That's how I got myself into volunteering at the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) every Saturday afternoon 3:45pm. The RDA provides free, therapeutic horse riding lessons to children and adults with disabilities.

Every week, I volunteer as a side walker for their beginners class. There are about 6 children in one class with 6 horses, 3 instructors, 6 leaders and 6-12 sidewalkers. The Instructor plans the lessons, the Leaders are responsible for the horses and the Sidewalkers communicates basic instruction to the riders. Each rider has a special condition. My rider, Ashwin, is Autistic.

Ashwin has a hard time concentrating and is frequently pre-occupied with his own thought. But slowly, through his RDA lessons, he learns to concentrate better with voice commands. On some days it's hard to get through to him, but on some days (like yesterday) he's such an angel that you wouldn't think there is anything wrong with him. Oh and he also likes to see himself in mirror which is always cute to watch.

To be honest, I volunteered because I can be around horses. But those little kids' smiles are fast becoming my Saturday afternoon miracles.

2008-02-02T19:14:00.001-08:00

2008-02-02T18:57:00.001-08:00

Travel travel travel

2007-06-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

8-14 July - Japan (Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka)
21-29 July - Hong Kong
9 - 19 August - London

All using SQ... my my, fancy me...
weeheee...

Changing my job role was a good decision!

Dangerous thing to let your mind wander

2007-06-13T02:40:00.001-07:00

Especially at work!

*mail from Daniel X came
me : taking a look at Dan's male
boss : was that a freudian slip? ;)

crap.
God i wish there is an erase button on IMs!

Today..

2007-06-13T00:23:00.001-07:00

Is just one of those days... &$!"&€@

Most difficult language is Ithkuil

2007-05-28T03:31:00.000-07:00

I came to know that "Hungarian" is Nomads' standard answer for the question "What is the most difficult language in the world". With 35 cases of word construction, I don't want to argue (or learn it).

But I do like to be different. So. presenting... Ithkuil.

Albeit an artificial language invented by a linguist, it is by far the most complicated and efficient language ever developed. It is so complicated, however, that no one including the founder actually knows everything about it. As far as we know, all sentences become much much shorter when translated to Ithikuil

Example:
--------
Ithikuil: Oumpeá äx’ääļuktëx.
English: On the contrary, I think it may turn out that this rugged mountain range trails off at some point.

*I am in a "I hate Mondays" mood. Hence the completely useless post*

I've borrowed a book: "Draw from the right side of the brain"

2007-05-11T02:44:00.001-07:00

Since drawing courses range from 280-1000 for simple 8-10 weeks of sketching lessons, I have taken the cheap way out! by a book. Borrowed not bought!

It’s called “Drawing from the Right Side of the brain”. Or womthing like that. Supposed to be good… we’ll see. I’ve finished chapters 3-4. Will post my drawings later.

My roomate took drawing classes before, so she has been giving me tips.

Roomie: “Get a bigger paper, so you can shade better”
Me: “Nah… i’ll stick to this new sketch book i bought”

See more progress on: learn to draw

5.6K... 50:44

2007-05-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

My roomie’s sms: “Not bad for a girl on drugs”

I say not bad at all. If it weren’t for the drugs (I took some painkillers because of a nasty headache) I might not have finished!

Official time is 50:44, but clearing 11,000 people of the finish line took a few minutes definitely!

But nevermind, I’ve finished my goal to run non stop! Funilly, when I did stop at the finish line, my stomach caught up and I had that nausea feeling. Hehehehe

See more progress on: get in shape

Wed Fri

2007-04-26T19:02:00.001-07:00

Did some more…
20 minutes continuous hitting 2.2 K with 172 HR :(
I’m worried because of two things:
1) I’m slow!!!
2) My HR is really not looking healthy.

I am thinking of taking on the 5.3K milkrun (i think) on 1st of July. but this time I am starting out my training program based on HR. I don’t want to run fast once, I want to build up my endurance and cardio.

See more progress on: get in shape

I'm a lazy bum, I know!

2007-04-22T19:22:00.001-07:00

I did one last thursday and that was it… :(
I did one this Monday.
It’s 2 weeks till the actual 5.6K…. I think I may have to start running every day now.
Still up to 20min + 10min…. And I found out to my dismay that I am slow (stupid short asian legs) about 7 km/hour i think? So would take me around 40 minutes to complete it with my pace….. Oh well, here goes nothing

See more progress on: get in shape

Certified Open Water Diver, baby!

2007-04-22T19:19:00.001-07:00

I’m done I’m done.
Did my exam on saturday and my temporary diver card until my real one arrives in mail! :D
4 Years of waiting and finally i can cross it off my list!

See more progress on: learn to SCUBA dive

Tioman weekend dive

2007-04-15T17:21:00.001-07:00

Open water dive training 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5!
It was unbeliavable… The first two I was a little miserable because I wasn’t used to equalizing and the right ear was painful. But onwards it was easy! Down blow down blow down blow.

Things I saw: Turtles, Stingrays, Squids, Car wreck, Cute divers in tights lol. And the feeling of flying is great. Summersaults, dancing under water. Hmmmm….

The only thing left: 1) Do my exam 2) Get my card.

I would definitely do this more often and maybe get myself an Advanced Open Water? Hmmm….

See more progress on: learn to SCUBA dive

Paid! (ka-ching)

2007-04-11T07:16:00.001-07:00

I am much poorer this week.
Why? caused i Finally put down that money for this weekend’s dive. Yay!
It will be to Tioman island, about 3-4 hours drive from Singapore into Malaysia. Can’t wait can’t wait.

There’s gonna be a total of 12 people on the trip. As my dive instructor said “Wicked wicked”

See more progress on: learn to SCUBA dive

Wednesday 11 Apr 2007

2007-04-11T07:13:00.001-07:00

Should have been yesterday but it was pouring!

I think today’s session was hard.
Lots of things going on at work so without realizing i went faster and faster and pushing myself harder. 15 minutes and i’m out of breath. so i went 15 – 5 – 10.

Sometimes it’s just nice to sweat all your exercise out. Yes ladies and gentlemen, i am beginning to see why some people find this theurapeutic. Just you, your shadow, the music and that lone road. Hmmmm…..

See more progress on: get in shape

Sunday

2007-04-08T03:55:00.001-07:00

20 minute stretch (check)
one week plan (check)

*pat pat pat on the back

See more progress on: get in shape

Thursday & Saturday

2007-04-07T18:15:00.001-07:00

Thursday, another 3×10 minutes. Average heart rate 168
Saturday, yoga to stretch out the kinks… whoever said yoga is not a sport should try it out themselves. It’s hard!

See more progress on: get in shape

Nope, nothing yet

2007-04-03T18:29:00.001-07:00

Just checked NAFA’s courses commencing april and may.
Nothing to commit yet

See more progress on: learn to draw

New Year's Day 2007

2007-03-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

Learning to surf at melbourne :)

Nervous restless

2006-12-03T15:51:00.001-08:00

What do you do when you have a million unfinished business...

I woke up and realized I haven't done a single useful thing this past weekend.
And my agenda is chalked full of stuff that has been there since a month.

Deadlines are pushing and my heart can't seem to stop racing.
Tick tock tick tock, yet i'm still here writing a blog.

It's one of those days where I'm very dissapointed with myself.
Vini, Vidi, never the Vici.

Too much efficiency

2006-10-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

I have a dear friend who is well known for his efficiency, both at work and at home. Pretty busy guy, working in a top consulting firm getting 5/5 star ranking on his assessments and holding 3 simultaneous projects aside from studying gmat for his MBA. Obviously someone with loads of stuff on his hands.

Today I called him and he was still at work.
Usually very talkative, he surprised me with a heavy and tired voice.

Me: Is everything OK?
Him: It's just been busy at the office, can I call you back later

(I wasn't ready to hang up yet as I was waiting for the train and feeling pretty lonely)

Me: What's wrong, you sound tired?

Him: I'm just really tired of other people not doing their job. I end up having to help them even though I finished my work. And I still have 2 projects to do! Sometimes I think it's easier being the one asking for help.

Him: Also my boss asked to speak to me today. He ask me not to be too efficient. He said that this caused the client to ask why is do they need many people in their project and may rethink about hiring us again next year.

How ironic... and there I was, holding my "7th habit of highly effective people" copy...

So there is such things as too much efficiency