The MIN Story: 2015

4/11 'why do you quit dandelii0n?'

2:04:00 AM

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22/9 BS1001 intro to bio midterms

10:33:00 AM

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Watched Inside Out ytd w le roomie and it was rlly a good movie! Think I'd ask my fam to watch it too hahahah. Didn't expect that I'd be needing tissues :b

The part that impacted me the most was probably the part whereby Happy allowed Sadness to take over the controls and to turn some happy core memories into sad ones.

Rylie used to be so bubbly~ and cheerful~ because Happy was always in charge of the controls. But when Happiness failed to convince Bing Bong (Rylie's imaginery friend), Sadness successfully convinced him. (Oh ya context is that, Bing Bong was feeling sad and hopeless cuz he was afraid that Rylie would forget him. So he just plopped on the floor and refused to move. But Happiness and Sadness were stuck in a maze and needed Bing Bong to guide them out.) Happiness was puzzled by how Sadness managed to do convince him to move on (?) Sadness replied that she only listened and related to him. That made Happiness realise that Sadness could actually be useful.

When Happiness allowed Sadness to take over the controls, Rylie started crying and told her parents how she couldn't get used to the new environment and missed Minnesota where all her friends and team mates were. Her parents responded by comforting her and they all had a group hug kind of thing andddd ya that was the emotional scene.

I felt that part was especially relatable. I felt like Rylie. Yknow, always being optimistic, trying to look for the good in situations, thinking how we can turn things round cuz things are not that bad. But sometimes things get too much to handle and it's rlly hard trying to stay happy and keeping ppl happy. But it's okay. I learnt that it's okay to be sad, and that we don't have to be happy all the time.

I think maybe one of the reasons why I was able to keep happy for a long time was because I tended to chuck the memories away. Like what's the point of living in the past right. I lived in the moment. So ya, think it's time to start LIVIN' IN THE MOMENTTTT and catchup w work for now haha 24AUs omg leggo

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28/8 holding your appointments

1:19:00 AM

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10/8 end of summer?!?!

11:05:00 PM

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31/7 anyway

12:22:00 AM

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30/7 mah pink wew

11:50:00 PM

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11 Differences Between Busy People vs Productive People

10:40:00 PM

Cr: http://atoz2u.com/blog/11-differences-between-busy-people-vs-productive-people/

1. Busy people want to look like they have a mission. Productive people have a mission for their lives.
Busy people hide their doubt about the destination of their lives by acting confident in their little steps.

Productive people allow others to see the doubt in their little steps because they are clear on the destination.

2. Busy people have many priorities. Productive people have few priorities
Nobody is ever too busy, if they care they will make time. Life is a question of priorities. If you have 3 priorities, you have priorities. If you have 25 priorities, you have a mess.

The pareto principle is that 80% of your desired results come from 20% of your activity. Henry Ford built a fortune not by building better cars, but by building a better system for making cars. Busy people try to make better cars, productive people develop better systems for making cars.

3. Busy people say yes quickly. Productive people say yes slowly
Warren Buffet’s definition of integrity is: “You say no to most things”.

If you don’t say “no” to most things, you are diving your life up into millions of little pieces spread out amongst other people’s priorities. Integrity is that your values are clear and that your time is going to serve those values.

4. Busy people focus on action. Productive people focus on clarity before action
To focus on the top 20% of activities, you must gain clarity about what those activities are for yourself. The greatest resource you will ever have to guide you to live a good life is your own personal experience – if well documented. Sadly, most people only document their life in facebook status updates. Keep a diary and take 5 minutes every day to reflect on the past day, on what worked, on what didn’t work; and some time on what inspires you.

5. Busy people keep all doors open. Productive people close doors
As a young person it is good to open options. It is good to want to travel, to learn languages, to climb mountains, to go to university, to work in tech, to live in another country. However, there comes a point in life where one must let go of most options and focus. If my goal this year is to learn spanish – I will speak spanish at the end of the year. If my goal this year is to speak spanish, earn 30% more, travel to 10 countries, get fit, find a girlfriend, go to all the concerts… I will not speak spanish at the end of this year.

6. Busy people talk about how busy they are. Productive people let their results do the talking
Stephen King says: “A writer is a producer of words. Produce words: you are a writer. Don’t produce words: you are not a writer”.

It is a clear binary thing. Talking about writing is not writing. Published authors don’t talk about their next book – they are focussed on producing it. I have grown to have less and less interest in what people tell me that they are going to do – I ask them what they have already done. Past performance is the only good indicator of future performance.

Feeling productive is not the same as being productive. This is important. I can feel productive while I’m playing minecraft. I can feel unproductive while I’m producing an excellent blog post that will help others take better actions.

7. Busy people talk about how little time they have. Productive people make time for what is important
Any time we spend on excuses is time not spent on creation. If you allow yourself to practice excuses, you will get better and better at excuses. Productive people don’t use time as an excuse. An action either supports their highest values and mission, or it does not. If it does not, they don’t do it – even if they have a whole day off.

There is an Irish saying: “It is better to do something than nothing”.

This is a lie! It is better to do nothing than to do an action that doesn’t connect with your highest values. Sit still.

8. Busy people multitask. Productive people focus
Productive people know about focus.

Do you know about the Pomodoro technique? It is brutal, but it is effective. Identify a task to be done (for instance, write this blog post). Set a timer to 20 minutes. Work on the task until the time sounds. Any distraction (I must check email, I must get some water, I must go to the bathroom) and you reset the timer to 20. How many pomodoros can you complete in a day?

9. Busy people respond quickly to emails. Productive people take their time
Email is a handy list of priorities. The problem: they are other people’s priorities, not yours. If you respond to every email, you are dividing up your life into a thousand tiny bits that serve other people’s priorities.

There are 3 choices when you first review your email inbox: Delete, Do, Defer. This is not a post on email management, here are a few on managing email overload from Gigaom, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur.

10. Busy people want other people to be busy. Productive people want others to be effective
Busy managers measure hours of activity, productive managers measure output. Busy managers are frustrated by others looking relaxed, looking like they have time, looking like they are enjoying their work. Productive managers love seeing others enjoy their work, love creating an environment in which others can excel.

Busy people are frustrated. They want to be valued for their effort, not for their results.

There is a Hindu saying: “We have a right to our labour, not to the fruits of our labour”.

We have a right to enjoy being excellent at our work, not a right to enjoy the car, the house, the money that comes from doing good work. Productivity is about valuing the journey towards excellence, not any moment of activity.

11. Busy people talk about how they will change. Productive people are making those changes.
Kilian Jornet doesn’t spend much time talking about what he will do. He talks about what he has done, what he has learnt, what inspires him.

Spend less time talking about what you will do and dedicate that time to creating the first step. What can you do now that requires the approval of nobody else? What can you do with the resources, knowledge and support that you have now? Do that. It is amazing how the universe rewards the person who stops talking and begins.

We are born with incredible potential. At the age of 20, the best compliment that can be paid is that you have a lot of potential. At the age of 30, it is still ok. At 40, you have a lot of potential is becoming an insult. At 60, telling someone that they have a lot of potential is probably the cruelest insult that can be made about their life.

Don’t let your potential go to waste. Create something amazing. This is its own reward.

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22/6 chicken soup

2:50:00 AM

Watched this Chicken Soup for the Soul vid on Youtube and it reaffirmed me of my choice of specializing in Marketing!

And from that, I learnt that we gotta realign our goals with our purpose in life. And how do we know what is our purpose in life? We could think about when we were happiest, what were we doing then? Yeah! I was definitely most happy doing marketing/ OB than boring shit Stats even tho I managed to psycho myself to like it at that point of time. But it took sooo much effort to convince myself that it was ...... quite fun. zzz

If our goals aren't aligned w our purpose, it'd be equivalent to the analogy of 'climbing to the top of the ladder, and realising that it is leaning against the wrong wall'. You can have all the riches, the house, the car, the fame and fortune but you still aren't happy.

Oh and I find this quote rlly true. "The way you do anything, is the way you do everything"
They were using the analogy of how one golfs relates to the way in how one does their work projects. Usually if ppl don't follow through a golf swing, they don't follow through their work projects etc

They talked about the concept of visualisation as well! And that many successful ppl do meditation. And I kinda feel that when we pray we are actually meditating and visualising our prayers and maybe that's probably why I rlly do see results after praying? Perhaps its the same concept but it just takes a different form. Nonetheless I'm still gonna continue praying anyways cos WHEN I PRAY, I make appointments so much more easily, don't even have to try hahahah secret weapon shingshingshing

Wah I rlly like this Chicken Soup thing, initially thought it was damn lame but I WAS WRONG?? It rlly gets you thinking about your life.

Ohyeah and one thing I've learnt (through my own experiences) is not to let others dictate your life or have their opinions influence your thoughts too much. Different ppl are made for different things.

Mention the word 'Telemarketing' and ppl just throw you w a bunch of negative statements like 'very hard one lah', 'confirm kena shouted at all the time', 'always kena rejected not sian meh'. But like no? It's def not as bad as what ppl think it to be and I most prob will stay put till sch starts.

Yeap at times it can be quite demoralising but you rlly learn a lot LIKEEE how to pick yourself up after failures, you learn perseverance, you learn adaptability, you learn optimism and negotiation , you learn MARKETING heh heh, you learn how to read tones and calculate your chances, you learn when you should be letting go and alllll these lessons are invaluable. How to teach one sia, learn yourself one. Whatever you're gg through in life, there's so many things you can learn along the way. If you quit halfway, you'll never grow what. When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade~~

SO YEAH just because they think it's bad doesn't mean it's rlly bad. Try it for yourself and you can get the most accurate idea of how things are like!

Suddenly broaching bout this cos just now when I mentioned 'Marketing', I was thrown with 'marketing cannot find job one lah'. Likeee if you're good, I don't believe cannot find jobbbb and I believe I'm not that cui lah hor

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10/6 best day & night of the weeek

2:03:00 AM

OMG best day and night of the week!?!?

Started my first day as a telemarketer today! Haven't done sales in a damn long time (we were supposed 'sell' an appointment), skills are superbly rusty, been super out of touch and I was very nervous. The FC asked if I was scared. "Nope!" LOL.

ANW by some magic (?), I managed to book an appointment in the first call LOL. I don't even know how? It was my most cui attempt... ever. Was damn lucky hahaha I kept stumbling over my words and didn't even know what I was talking about but she was still interested to meet up ohmygod.

Aft my first call, the luck kinda died down and I didn't fix anymore appointments. Sadded. But anyway, better than zero hahahaha.

---------------------------------

Ended work at 5 and Sirachar could only meet me at 6.30 :||| Roamed arnd the mall, entertaining myself, testing out the piano in yamaha lol AND she finally reached at 7.15 mygod. Anw, we met at BK but were gonna head to Makisan! Passed by 4 fingers and OMG!!!! Pulled Sirachar back. Freaking saw my crush(???!) queuing at 4 fingers! Damn coincidental cos prior to this, we were deciding between makisan or 4 fingers HAHAHAH. But being the chicken I am, I was hesitating whether to eat at 4 fingers or not. Ikr?! Your crush there, ofc go eat there lah??? BUT I don't even know how I was gonna eat, later kena caught spas-ing (no im kidding) or look until too obvious when he *touch wood* doesn't like me how??? Image ruined forever.

In the end, we decided to eat at 4 fingers HAHAHA.

And being the chicken I am AGAIN, my back was facing them while queuing (ikr?! wtf. I also wtf myself). So Sirachar became my eyes lol. Maybe he liked me too??? Cos Sirachar said his friends kept looking over. Or maybe cos got chiobu then they look over. Maybe it wasn't because he told his friends about it. How I know right? sighz. And I'm pretty sure he saw me cos there was this split second of eye contact but split second only how to say hi right? Aiya ohmygod this is damn weird lah. Are we acquaintance or are we friends? I also don't know. Why is the first layer of ice so hard to break? Maybe we are both too chicken to break. Fug. At this rate, think I'm gonna be single forever.

Anyway in the end, didn't talk lah. Was quite sad. Was hoping that he would eye contact when we left or something, then can at least say hi or bye BUT NEVER :( Eh damn sad. But nvm, my night was still made yay ^^. Crowning this the best day and night of the week hahahahah

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5/6 it fairrr

12:17:00 AM

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3/6 things rlly do work out in the end!

7:07:00 PM

YESSA!!! Now I'm a strong believer of 'Doesn't matter if you don't get what you want because you are meant for something greater'.

2 weeks ago, texted in an application for a job with a friend and I was scheduled for an interview slot. Asked if there was an additional slot for her to come in as well. Interviewer kinda agreed to let us go for the interview tgt. Since they alr had a prior impression of me (cos I was the one who interacted and got the interview slot mah), I held back during the interview and let my friend talk more. Actually ended up, she talked for the most of it..... When the interviewer asked if my friend was actl the one who texted the HR girl, I knew they liked her more than me alr lah. But aiya whatever.

They said they would get back to us 2 weeks later but they didn't. So I texted them again enquiring about the status of our application but she didn't reply me???? They called my friend instead and told her she got the job lah and got no slots for me. My friend told me about it and I was like it's okay, just go for it if she wanted to, totally chill about it (i'm rlly chill about it haha). Ofc it would be ideal if we could work tgt but if rlly cannot and we both needed money, then it's rlly okay! I'll just go find other jobs~

Just ytd, I went over to Michelle's place to chill, lepark and we chanted for 20 min bef gg to Chomp chomp. AND I THINK THE CHANTING RLLY WORKS!!! :D Could see the benefits pouring in soon aft. Like I don't even have to plan anything, everything just maps out by itself, MIRACULOUS!!

Today, was supposed to sneak into Wanling's staff canteen for lunch hahaha so we had to wear OL clothes. When I was alr out w my OL clothes, then wanz texted saying apparently security v tight so we couldn't sneak in. But it's okay lah, wear alr then just wear lor hahaha.

Realised I had 2 missed calls. Called back. And the lady asked if I was still looking for a part time job and they were from UOA. I didn't even know what was UOA and how on earth they got my contact number. The lady told me about the same job from the same company and asked if I was free to go down for an interview, and to send a resume bef gg if poss. THANK GOODNESSSS, I prepared my resume to send to Zhiwei 2 weeks back. Interview was confirmed at 4.30pm (just now) and just nice gotta wear smart casual. So YAY I didn't wear OL clothes for nothing hahaha

Didn't prepare for the interview at all cos I thought it was like any other part time job interviews, damn slack one, go there for briefing, fill an application sheet, ta-daaaaa. But NO!!

This interview damn hiong plz. It was like the first proper interview I had ever been to. They asked freaking lot of questions, even more than the previous one I had been to. Questions regarding my strengths, weakness, what my family and friends describe me as, what I looked for in a job, what I learnt from my previous job at (jengjengjeng) Jamie's lol, how I adapted to Jamie's etc.

Wah then aft that got second round of interview somemore. The guy came in and started telling me about finance and what I could gain from the job and perhaps I would consider working even aft hols ended and stuff. And was asked to read a passage. Not rlly a passage but more of like... the script haha. And he said my intonation and energy good haha. Mentioned something about like my innate ability to sth and maybe I could progress on to something higher and its like a waste if I just did telemarketing and idk lah he say until I like v zai like that. Major ego boost sia. But idk, taking it w a pinch of salt, if rlly progress up then say~~

But anyways, I got the job HAHA. Like on the spot aft the interview. Very happy cos this one chopchop get it alr as compared to the previous interview dragdragdrag.

Oh! And they mentioned alot about my resume as well. So luckilyyyyyy, I didn't send in some slipshod resume. It was cos they saw the school, course and events that I was involved in that made them take my interview more seriously.

So YEAH! Very happy that things mapped out by itself in the end :))) #faithstrengthened Shall chant more hehe.

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19/5 b&f/marketing

2:57:00 PM

Was playing the piano halfway when the notion of "Do what you like and you never have to work a single day" sunk in. Fug, I rlly don't mind playing the piano all day everyday lah? Should have been a pianist.

Which brought me back to the question of.... B&F or Marketing? Rlly torn between these 2 choices.
I guess it's pretty clear that I enjoy Marketing more than bonds and equities and I guess what's rlly holding me back is this sudden realisation. I mean being an investment banker is my ambition since Sec 2 and everything that I had been doing geared me towards this dream. It was my dream job.

Came across this article ytd night: The best part of life is realising why it's better that things didn't work out

That moment you realize your “dream job” was never really your dream job.
It takes some people longer than others to arrive at their purpose in life – it’s not anyone’s fault, as finding our purpose in life is found just as much outside of us as it is inside of us.

But experiencing that moment of realization, of realizing that what you once thought was your purpose in life is not at all your true purpose in life, is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world.

Often we fail at either reaching or succeeding in our dream jobs because there is something more, something greater, waiting for us.

It takes some people longer than others to arrive at their purpose in life – it’s not anyone’s fault, as finding our purpose in life is found just as much outside of us as it is inside of us.

But experiencing that moment of realization, of realizing that what you once thought was your purpose in life is not at all your true purpose in life, is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world.

Often we fail at either reaching or succeeding in our dream jobs because there is something more, something greater, waiting for us.

Came into NBS just for B&F and all of a sudden I'm not doing B&F anymore? I'm not sure if this is the right choice or not. And I'm not even sure if I can get into B&F or not. And should I even appeal if I'm rejected? Technically, life has alr helped cross out this option for me since I screwed up FM and it's highly likely I won't get accepted. So perhaps I was brought here for a different purpose...? I guess perhaps the hardest part is letting go. Letting go of the dream I had envisioned. Omg this is rlly such a big leap of faith :{{{{{{{{{{ Am I rlly doing this???????

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