Snowball Concept
Summary - Yesterday it's big to small.. Today it's small to big
Today I'm going to prove to you that there are always two ways or more to see at things and both of them can be correct. Yesterday, I highlighted that we should always finish the biggest task to motivate us. Apparently there is another concept I just found while reading in the internet that describe it the other way around.
That concept simply urge us to finish the smallest to motivate us. See... Exactly the opposite but still true. Let me explain this concept.
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The Secret to Washing Dishes
Summary - Lesson learnt from washing dishes
It has always been established between me and the mrs that cooking will be her duty and washing dishes is mine. Obviously we will help each other out but the responsibility is clearly as such.
So here I was doing my dishes when I suddenly noticed something about the way I wash the dishes. :) Apparently there is a pattern and I just realized it. Instead of washing what ever come first, I always choose the biggest items in the sink (like plates etc) first before the smaller one. Yes, even if that piece is located deep down the mountain of dishes.
I know what you're thinking, banji.. you have way much time eheh bear with me for a while. I then try to figure out why do I wash dishes in such a way, bigger plate first and then the smaller plate. Here's why...
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The reason for my methods is because I want to have an immediate visual satisfaction. When I see the big plate washed, (meaning no longer in the sink) I feel like this work I'm doing is actually making progress and I can see it clearly. Imagine if I washed all those spoon and fork first, the mountain of plate will still be there and it is quite demotivating.
Heheh when you wash dishes, your mind tends to wander, and this is when ideas will come in pouring. So what is it I am trying to highlight here?
That maybe in everything we do, we can start with the most important things first (or big things). This way when we finish that one, we will be more motivated to finish off those smaller ones, because from visual point of view, we had already finished half of the pile of work with one completed job.
Classic example is like when you clean your room. All the garbage is still left on the floor, but you spend your time cleaning all the dust at the window (which by the way, nobody will notice). This will be very demotivating because after you had finished with the dust, you will see those garbage and it seems that all your work is for nothing.
Obviously this "Finish the bigger task first" rule has better application for other things in life, right? :)
Where else we can apply this rule? Or do you even agree with it? If not, care to share any other suggestion?
- Other Related Entries -
- Do You Know Uncle Pareto - 80/20 rule
--------------Personal Note-------------
Now that the mrs is pregnant, I will have to help more with the housework. I truly respect those working wives. You work just as tough and when you get back from work, you cook, clean and entertain your family with so much energy. I salute you....
One of the biggest mystery of life... Working wives :) (Note: By wives, I meant the whole group of wives in general, not one husband 4 wives :) )
Ramadhan Tribute #6 - Lailatul Qadar And Sin
Summary - Lailatul Qadar, another POV
We had reached the third phase of Ramadhan. It is popularly connected with one of the greatest gift from Allah himself to us, the Lailatul Qadar.
As a quick introduction to Lailatul Qadar, this night is one of Allah's secrets. One night in the whole 30 nights of Ramadhan will be chosen by Him and whoever strive to perform "ibadah" that night, will be awarded the same "pahala" as performing "ibadah" for 1000 months.
That is more than 83 years. I'm not sure exactly how Allah will reward that person. But simple logic (within my limited mind) believe that if I perform one "solat sunat" that night, it will be equivalent of me performing one "solat sunat" every night for more than 83 years.
Imagine if we strive every year to find that lailatul qadar, and perform that one "solat sunat" in that night. And imagine we can get hold of this lailatul qadar for 40 years of our life. That would equivalent of us performing one "solat sunat" every night for 3320 years :)
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There's so many things we can talk about lailatul qadar. The malay myth of how water will freeze that night, some ignorant folk even stay up that night to see miraculous thing and try to capture it so that their wish is granted.
We can discuss how certain "ulama" had even predicted lailatul qadar based on the day of the first of Ramadhan. Personally, I think this is just a mere conclusion based on experience. Even Rasulullah didn't disclose the exact date and only specified the range of the nights. And we must not forget, the actual reason lailatul qadar is kept a secret is to motivate muslim to perform "ibadah" the wHOLE month.
It would be very wrong if we aim to find that night and perform all the five solat (Subuh, Zohor, Asar, Maghrib and Isyak) with the intention not having to pray a single day for 83 years. (silly)
We can talk about all that... but what interest me is this
If any "ibadah" we performed in that night, will be rewarded as if we performed it for 83 years, how about if we commit sin that night?
What if that night, we stayed up all night talking about other people (mengumpat or fitnah)? What if that night we scold our parent and hurt their feeling?
There is no "hadis" explaining this. But I have to say that it is so much easier to commit sins than performing "ibadah". We need to be very very very careful this time of the month.
What do you think? Or maybe you know anything else about Lailatul Qadar worth sharing here?
- Other Related Entries -
- Ramadhan Tribute Series
- Allah's Secret - The 4 secrets and why?
I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but I once heard that the next morning after Lailatul Qadar, we can even look at the sun directly. This is because all angels are flying back to the sky that the sun's brightness is reduced. Again... I'm very not sure whether this is true or not. But when I was in form 2 and 3, I had to travel to my school very early in the morning. And I can assure you that there will be one morning every year in Ramadhan that the sun is very beautiful and I can stare at it for a very long time. At the time, I really believed that lailatul qadar was last night and I had missed it. :(
One Thing We May Not Know About Moderation
Summary - Know your extreme limits
Forming the club aside, I really hope this Hari Raya will be the best irregardless of the expenditure. What Ms Intan had commented carry some truth, when this is a once per year occasion. Furthermore it is actually recommended by Islam to honour and celebrate it happily. I guess in short, it is totally up to us to maintain balance between "spending until it hurts" and "saving until it hurts"
Hm I believe the key to better life is always moderation. Sugar if taken excessively will lead to diabetic and if we just cut out anything sugary, we will be equally sick and weak. We need to consume sugar but only in very moderate amount. (Doctors, correct me if I'm wrong).
Even if the example is wrong, we all know this fact long time already. So why is this post will be any different?
Again, we all know the importance of moderation, but the one thing that we don't know is where is the line separating moderate and extreme. We may think we know, but the truth is we really don't.
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An example, a friend ask for help, how far do we go to help him. We have two option.. We can go to the extreme until we give him all our money in the bank, or the other extreme would be to ignore him entirely. Now we know that we need to help him (this would be the moderation). But how far should we help him. (This is the tricky part)
We must always have certain principle on this matter. Like in this scenario, maybe our principle is to help him in all matters except financially. Because debt can bring the ugliness in a friendship. I wouldn't say that this is a good principle, but it is a good thing to have that kind of principle / policy beforehand.
The same thing goes to everything. Always have a policy that define what is the extreme of both end. it make things a lot easier, I assure you.
Other scenarios that maybe good for us to have policy
- when to get angry and when to be patient
- when to continue work / study and when to give in to sleeping
- which person to be friend with, and which person shoud be avoided
- etc
Do you have any other scenarios to add where extreme limits need to be clear? Appreciate your feedback...
- Other Related Entries -
- Unbelievably Arrogant - Please have an open mind
--------------Personal Note-------------
Back when I worked in Johor, there was one time I was down with Dengue fever. I was at the time still single and live by myself. So one fine day, I felt very sick. Throwing up every now and then, feeling like you want to go have no 2, but nothing came out. Seriously that was hell. And I can even picture myself dying.
One thing about me with fever, I usually try my best to sweat it off. I jog around the house but the condition just worsen. I then decided that this was no ordinary fever, and submitted myself to the hospital to be checked. I was immediately suspected to having dengue fever.
My point is, if I still want to be "degil" and still trying to sweat the fever off, I would probably die due to late detection. That's just how much important knowing the limits to extreme is.
Labels: extreme, Idea, moderation
I Should Apply To Be A Bank Manager...
Yesterday is a "Pay-my-bills" day. So after the Jumaat Prayer, it will just be me and the bank.. Everything is fine, but I need to complain on one thing. The BSN (Bank Simpanan Nasional)
Just imagine, about 40 people queing and only two counters opened.It's not that they are not enough staff to man the counters. There are guys behind the back door sitting and laughing. I know that it must be their lunch break, but I think the management can do more to settle this problem. For your information, this condition has been a practice since before I was transfered here.
What I did, I first go to the BSN to get the queing number, then I just take my time doing other chores. Believe me, I even had time for shopping my MONTHLY groceries. It's that bad..
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I don't expect the staff to be self motivated. That is just near impossible when there is no reward in working harder. This is entirely up to the management to do something. Maybe reward the staff by asking them to collect the queue number. Then everyone will do their work faster to serve more people and get more incentive
Parent saw their children spending more time with television must do something to change tv into books and study. They should never assume their children will be self-motivated to study for their future.
Again human is naturally lazy. But there are some rare people who are hardworking, and will go the extra mile while completing his/her responsibilities. These are really rare breed. And usually these are the people who will be the successful ones.
- Working Zombie - Organized way to better pay
- Do You Know Uncle Pareto? - The infamous 80/20 Rule
About 1 year back, I'm not that comfortable using internet to do my banking. But I force myself and now I cut 50% of the time spent. The post office here is far worse compared to BSN. I guess that what push me to start internet banking :)
Are you currently using internet banking?
Labels: career, Idea, motivation
Life Is Like Pasar Malam
With the new template going on, it does feel a bit like preparing for raya at home.. changing new curtains or repainting the house. Very exciting.. Hopefully everything is ok with the new template. Do inform me if there is anything I can help you with.
Yesterday I actually went to the first bazar Ramadhan this year. Well, you have to understand that going out of an estate is hardwork, so I very seldom went out. The bazar here at my place is not that grand if compared to back home in Kedah, but there is still lots of yummy food around :)
I remembered an advice given by my brother, which I am going to share it with you.
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We are all given each 24 hours. Everyone will have to go through the same 24 hours - criminals, loitering youth, the dance teacher, the prime minister, and even Rasulullah. So what are we bringing home from the 24 hours? Do we even know our reason going to this "pasar malam"? or are we just walking around aimlessly.. and in the end we brought back those colorful tents home. which is clearly not what we're supposed to buy.
So what do you do at 6am? 7am? how long do we really need to sleep? Where can we squeeze out more time for us? Seriously I read a lot of self-managing books, but in my opinion this "Pasar Malam" concept is a good approach simply because we can associate the feeling of wasting time when we go to a "pasar malam" and return home empty handed... Don't you think so?
- Slow Mo and Fast Forwarding Time - Time does have a sense of humor
- Procrastinator United - 3 personal tips to overcome procrastination
I heard a quote in the tv the other day - "Bukan masa yang terlalu cepat, kita sebenarnya yang terlalu lambat". Really make sense...
By the way, Mertabak here is very expensive. Cost me RM1.80 each, but I have no choice but to buy because the mrs ask for them... It's a good thing she crave for things buyable eheh :) Foods are getting more expensive each day isn't it? and getting smaller too
This Time Is Mine
Today's the last day of my medical leave. Unfortunately, there's some sign that my eye is better. Again.. unfortunately. Nevertheless it's still a good thing that I was given the leave. Now why do I say it's good? Here's why..
I can actually spend time to do other thing. like finishing up the Harry Potter book, resting, and doing some little projects. I wonder why I cannot do this during my day off every week. I guess when it's your day off, you just want to rest. No more working.
Come to think of it, maybe that's why we are so frustrated with work. We work and we work every single day, and when it comes to our day off, we just spend it resting (with the intention to gather strength for another series of work the next week). Some spend it by doing chores that cannot be done on weekdays. This chores are usually not that fun, like doing laundry, cleaning the house etc. It's like work... without the paycheck. No wonder we are stressed out, we are working every single second of our life.
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Seriously I realize this yesterday, that we really need to take some time for ourselves. Allocate some time to do what we want to do. For example, me with reading the book. or surf the web... not to find material for your blog, but just because you want to.
I try to come up with some things that we can do just for our own pleasure.
- watch sunrise (at least once a week)
- take leave from work and go see a movie of your choice alone
- play music and do nothing but listen
- buy a watercolor and draw an abstract drawing
- make a robot from bottles and wires
Conclusion - What we do every single day almost always for someone else, or for getting some benefit from it like paycheck, recognition etc. we never spend time for ourselves. It's true we must not be selfish, but our own time, our own activity is very important for us to realize that we really living a life.
After finishing Harry Potter, I'm going to find if there is any Silat training here at my place. Anything will do.. I really love practising Silat, not that I am any good :)
Just simply love the art
Labels: Idea
Ramadhan Tribute #4 - The Syaitan In Us
We all know that Syaitan are our greatest enemy. They had sworn to sway us away from the Islam and Iman. If there is any bad things we do, we often associate it with the Syaitan, whispering in our heart to push us do the sinful thing, like "mengumpat", stealing, and even killing. Syaitan is of course blamed for every bad things happening in the world.
That makes me wonder, Isn't it during Ramadhan, all syaitan are chained to protect human from being tempted? Why is it, that nothing had actually changed. Just look into our heart, we ourselves can do sinful things during Ramadhan, like "fitnah", "mengumpat", even neglect the 5 solats. Look around us, we can see people proudly not fasting, innocently walking during Friday prayer, and some even go to the extreme such as raping and killing. Can we really blame Syaitan for all this?
I definitely agree that syaitan is the one who whisper to us, tempting us to do sinful things. and I agree that they are human's enemy till Judgement Day. But how can we explain the sinful things we do during Ramadhan? Desire? maybe...
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Until one time, we no longer care what is makruh and what is sunat, If we don't realize this, the time will come when we no longer care what is haram and what is wajib. To make things worst, not only we are like that, we try to persuade our friends to act the same. What difference then between us and syaitan?
Basically we can see ourselves, syaitan's work is very easy. Maybe we should learn more about Islam, knowing exactly what is makruh, what is sunat. If we take the time to learn about makruh and sunat, I believe abiding wajib and haram will comes naturally. Let's give those syaitan a challenge shall we?
When I wrote this, I feel like the words are actually meant for me. I admit, I am not a good muslim. I never pray at the beginning of the period, I rarely "sedekah". And it's been a long time since I go back to learning all this Feqah. So this writings are more like a reminder to me, A reminder that I know and still I don't care. Ya Allah, please make me a better person
Labels: Idea, Islam, Ramadhan, Syaitan
Ramadhan Tribute #3 - Expectation
The Battle Field of Badar
A very good day to all of you... The sun is .. well not shining, it's about 1 am in the morning. Tomorrow we will be performing the 8th day of fasting.. so like my friends Yanz asked the other day in the shoutbox, "Siapa tak puasa, angkat kaki". I'm still not sure whether she meant to raise up a leg or to "cabut" :)
I don't know about you, but every year, I see more people not fasting, and they are not embarassed about it. When asked, they just say that they feel weak if they fast.
That seriously puzzled me, "what do they expect?" We change our lifestyle, of course there will be some change in the way our body react. The first few days are always the hardest. Then our super adaptive body will not only be as normal, it will be better in term of health.
The first war in Islam, which is "Perang Badar" happened on the 17th of Ramadhan. 313 Muslim warriors were fighting about 1000 Quraisy warriors and they won. If muslims can actually performed the fasting while at a war (a fight between life and death), why we cannot fast when we are just doing our light job. We were even get paid for that. Did the muslim in "Perang Badar" get paid?
Most of the time, we even used this fasting month as an excuse to get lighter job. I know my foremen are.. Luckily the indian foremen are very understanding and offer to do heavier job. It's very embarassing to me, that when they are actually not fasting, but demand the lighter work.
What I'm saying is, we are fasting.. expect to experience some hardship, some hunger and thirst. Don't whine about being hungry.. That's just wrong.
Knowing this, I like to expand the idea to all things in life. When we started to work.. we need to expect that we are going to actually do some work. Don't be like my foreman... Some of them, when asked to do certain work, they insist that this job must be done by another foreman. This is not supposed to happen. we were hired to work, and so we must work. Period.. By the way, off topic, the foreman finally give in and do the repair I asked him to do.
Another example, is when studying.. We must not whine on the need to study. We are student, and we must expect that they will be a lot of studying involved. So.. all we need to do is to study. Yes, sometimes the work overloads, that we can whine. but not about the need to study.
Any other similar examples happening in your life, please share ya :)
The day is a bit hot now.. I have to admit that sometimes I have this thought in my head to break the fast. What I do, everytime that idea comes, is to think about how Rasulullah, tied rocks to his stomach just to ease the hunger. Immediately feel ashamed of having the thought. How about you? How do you overcome those urge?
6 Tips (For Now) To A Happier You
So what do you do to be happy back after being sad? It's Wednesday.. and in here, we're supposed to be happy on Wednesday :)
I was walking around the mill, and come up with these 10 steps on how to be happy. I know I will.... How about you? Do you find they will work?
1) First we need
2) One trick I always found useful is
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9) If you are actually saddened by a problem, and you've tried everything but to no avail. Maybe
10)
11)
12)
13)
/end list
I'm sure we all have our own way to be happier. Care to share yours.. They will be updated in the post by the end of the day :)
* Thanx to my friends, I've compiled their suggestions in the list. :) A more detailed explanation is available in the additional ideas. Feel free to browse them
- Donkey Tale - Mindset to go through harsh life
- How to systemically have happier days
:) Remember tips no 6, to share your happiness? This is mine... Few days ago, the mrs and I went to the clinic. And the doctor had confirmed that my wife is now pregnant!!!! :) YAYYYYYYY I'm so happy I literally jumped and almost did my happy dance. I actually did but at home la haha.
I pray to Allah that the mrs and the baby are both healthy :) I just can't stop smiling..... :)
Not Blind... "Rabun" Only
Thank you to all those contributing in the survey held on Saturday. It's always a good thing knowing where we can further improve ourselves. I still need more feedback to accurately renovate the whole blog.. So for those who have other things to add, I'd really appreciate it.
I believe all of us can agree, that if we are so accustomed to something, doing the same thing day in day out. We will not be able to see anything wrong with it.
Some will be so attached to what they hold to, they are willing to fight for it. Defending it to the end, even though the truth is, the thing is not worthy to be fought for. Wow that's very abstract of me.
Take me for example, I am so addicted to blogging, that I go to great length with the theme (the boy on the moon). At first it was a mere experiment, trying this and that... after a lot of time spent, I've decided that this is just perfect. (I guess the idea of changing the theme will be so tiring, that I convince myself it is perfect).
The truth is, I completely agree with some comments from friends that the theme is somewhat holding me back. It gives the wrong first impression, and there's not that much room for me to improve. For those who did come up and highlighted this, I salute you.
It is true that every person's opinion is different. Yours will definitely be different from mine. But now.. that is exactly why I needed to hear your opinion. To hear the other side of the whole story, to see the blog from other point of view. Whether to accept it or not is totally a different matter.
I guess we all have had experience of being blind. So blind that we ignore the truth. (loving someone so much, that we fail to see he/she is a bad person, being so proud that we assume everyone else is wrong etc)
In my mill, there's a new assistant started working last March. He used to work in another company. The first thing we did when he reported for duty is to have him go into the mill, and give us 20 things or more which he think is wrong. He came back... presenting to us about 30 items. Things like why some machine sounds weird, why our boiler seems to be very poorly controlled. My manager was smiling. I obviously not. Because those items are happening every day that I'm already so used to it I didn't notice them anymore.
Luckily the manager also didn't notice it eheh.
Labels: Idea, Perspective
When To Voice Out Your Inner Voice
A good friend of mine, Ms Intan had previously asked my opinion on a subject which is "When to give advice?". Well this is what I think.
However as always, there will be few factors one need to consider before giving any advice.
- Must be very sure of the advice. Don't advise anyone to walk in the dark, when you are not sure where the cliff is
- It is always better if the giver practise the advice first before advising others. However we must know that the advice will always be more important than the giver. A drug addict advises us not to use drug is a good advice. And we should take it irregardless of the giver condition.
- If the person ask for advice then it is almost an obligation for you to help. Who else will help?
- However if the person clearly say no advice needed. we should know what to do. Some people prefer to settle their problem their way, and this is a good quality.
- Sometime pople asked for help, but when we offered the help or advice it's like "curahkan air kedaun keladi". He expect us to agree and back him up. Truthfully, I always get annoyed with this people. And I usually just back away.
- It is very important that you believe your advice is beneficial or at least better. Friend A is giving advice to B about how smoking will make him look more cool. Obviously you disagree, (advice against smoking is always better).. it would be wrong if you don't stated your stand there.
- The advice must be beneficial to the receiving person, not to you. For example, your best friend has a crush on a girl, and he asked for your advice. once you see the girl, you decided to sabotage this friend of yours so that you will have better chance with her. you then advise your friend to run her with a motorcycle... that's wouldn't just be non-ethical... that's plain evil.
- The correct method in giving advice
- How to decide right from left - Making decision part 1
- Or you can do this - Making decision part 2
- Last option to choose an option - Making decision part 3
There are millions of reason why we should not interfere. But how do we live our life when we see a child learning to smoke in front of us.. and all we do is look the other way. Aren't we all related?
Ramadhan Tribute #2 - Culture or "Ibadah"
When people say Ramadhan or "Bulan puasa", what are the first things that come to our mind? I try this question myself.. and these are the answers that first come to my mind.
1) Breaking fast with family
I enjoyed this so much.. somehow it will always be last minute, and things will go in a rush. My family often break our fast on the floor in the living room because of the extra space. We can see people going to and fro from the kitchen bringing food. When all the food is served, we will all see with awe the varieties of food, and usually end up with a silent pledge to buy fewer food the next day. (of course it will only be a pledge). And another fact amazes me is how the last 10 minutes are the longest minutes in the entire history of mankind :)... everytime!
2) Bazaar Ramadhan
For those who have no idea, it is a place where all kind of food will be sold especially for breaking fast. You can see some of the most exotic food and "kuih" there. Legend has it, that once the time has come to break fast, all food will be FOC. heheh but this legend had never been tested simply because I never want to break fast there :)
3) Morey (pronunced Moray), "Malam Tujuh Likur" etc
/end answer
Truthfully, I loved everything about Ramadhan especially the above. And I have no intention to ask you not to love them... This is our culture, if we don't stand up to it, who will?
We don't remember Ramadhan as the month we should double all our "ibadah", cry for fogiveness in the silent night, trying to earn that Lailatul Qadar, or the month where we should train ourselves to be better, and most importantly to continue the better state after Ramadhan.
It's actually good that we had integrated our culture with Islam. That's the beauty of Islam.. But the danger will come, when the cultural side had already overwhelmed the true nature of is, we no longer see Ramadhan as an "ibadah".
Why Solving A Problem Is Stressful, When We Are Actually Problem Solver
Summary - An important factor to solving problem that we often forget
I think I found out why we are so stressed when handling major problem. :)
Ok, I'm sure most of us are good problem solver. We handle problems on a daily basis, from as big as how to live our life to as small as to how to kill time while waiting for a tv show to start. We knew almost every trick on how to manage stress. And had had lots of experience handling it.
But still, why when we were faced with a problem, those major ones like debt, bad in-laws or evil boss, we often stressed out when we cannot solve the problem as fast as we can. I think I know why...
I really believe that one of the contributing factors is due to the television we watch. First of all, I'm not saying that television is bad and must be banned for the sake of humanity :). This is just an opinion.
Almost all television series especially sitcoms will show the problem faced by the husband and wife, or parents and children. Most importantly, it also shows how the problem is solved within the 20 minutes show.
Maybe, just maybe.. we are actually influenced by this, and we expect all our problems to be solved in the shortest time, hours top. We are now lacking one of the key ingredient to problem solving, which is patient.
When parents faced their rebellious children, they expect the children to be obedient almost instantly. They have no patient what so ever to slowly advice the children. They expect results immediately. We all know, for those rebellion type, the harder we go against them, the harder they will rebel.
When a husband found out that his wife is seeing another man, he immediately scolded her, and those stupid ones may even resolve to divorce. Simply because we lack the patience. In Islam there are ways to resolve marriage associated conflict, advising, sleep separately, third party etc.
These two examples show how patience is sometimes needed in solving problems. There are other situation that may need prompt action, but that would be discuss in another time.
Maybe that's why we can see the older generation is more patient than ours. Hm..
Conclusion - life is not a show on a television. Some problems need time and patience to be resolved.
- Other Related Entries -
- Any Problem Can Be Solved - Basic problem solving skill
- Never Run away from a problem, solve it
Ramadhan is a very good tools to recover back the patience quality we may have forget. Be patient to break the fast, Be patient when somebody flame you, Be patient when you know there's nothing more you can do.
Ramadhan Tribute #1 - Welcome
It's that time of the year again... Ramadhan is here :) It is most probably to start this coming Thursday. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends reading, "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan".
This will be the first of the many tributes to Ramadhan I will write. The entries written is dedicated generally to all of us Muslim reading, specifically to myself... since I admit that I have A LOT to improve.
So can I ask what is Ramadhan to you? Is it just the name of the month where Muslim will be fasting? or does it have any other definition to you? We must first establish this before we even start fasting. Otherwise what difference would our fasting be from the diet practised worldwide.
Ramadhan is actually more than a mere month.
So what do you think the answers would be for the three questions? It is interesting that this training academy is actually supervised by no other, but by us ourselves. If we don't want to fast, who will know? It is entirely up to us... so as the supervisor of this training, do you have the answers for the three questions? No answers are wrong answers I tell you, simply because these answers are basically what we want for ourselves.
We really have to know what we're doing. Take eating for example, "How?" We put food in our mouth, chew and swallow. "To achieve what?" a healthier body, "What's in it for me?" no more hunger. All answers are equally important.
- If we don't know how to swallow, there's no point reading all those health books and knowing how a chicken would taste.
- If we don't know anything about health, we will be eating, and we will not be hungry but the food we eat will eventually kill us
- If for example our tounge has loss its sense of taste and thus we cannot enjoy the taste of food anymore. We will be eating healthy food but after sometime, the desire will deteriorate and we may end up (hilang selera makan) and possibly sick.
- Other related entries -
- Dari Mana Nak Kemana - The beginning of this blog
- The Story - Childhood memories of an "almost-fight" happened during Ramadhan night
--------------Personal Note-------------
Again... "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan" to all :). Hopefully we can gain other thing this month other than weight :)
Labels: Idea, Islam, Ramadhan, tribute
Doctors (good ones only)... We Respect You :)
Summary - Situation where mistakes must not happen.
It's just not easy to becoming a doctor. I once heard (doctors.. please correct me if I'm wrong) that in any test while pursuing medicine, the marking method is completely different from the rest of us. For us, if we answer the question wrongly, they will be no mark for that question. But for the soon-to-be doctors, if they answered the question wrong, their marks will be deducted accordingly. Doctors must train themselves to only be sure when answering, if not.. it is always better to leave the question alone.
They just can't afford to make any mistake, especially when lives are at stake.
An engineer is expected to make mistake, since this is the only way we can learn and get a more accurate result. Any damage done to the machine, is never an issue, we just simply replace it. But doctors can't do that. Otherwise, unfortunate cases like the cutting of wrong arm of a baby will be more common. Once the trust is gone... I guess we will have to take up medicine and be the family doctor ourselves.
What I'm trying to say is.. that in life there are two different situation. One, in which mistake is actually allowed and needed to gain experience. And Another where mistakes is never an option. NEVER... not only to doctors, but to us all.
Examples are like when we were going to blame someone. We must be sure that he is the culprit. No mistakes. If not sure, it is better to leave him alone. There is a saying in law if I am not mistaken, that "It is always better to free 10 guilty criminal than to imprison one innocent person"
In Islam also, the phrase "Cerai" is not a words can be joked around. If a husband say "Saya Ceraikan Awak" to the wife, irregardless of intention. The divorce had already occured.
Maybe you know any other situation that mistakes is not allowable?
Labels: Idea, Perspective
"Jangan Pandang Belakang"? --- Why not?
Summary - Accuracy can only be achieved from multiple point of view
I once heard that almost 70% of our interaction is based on sight. The remaining 30% is based on hearing, smell or touch. The figure is not important, what's important is that our ability to see is generally what we rely on to live and to learn. Don't you agree?
However relying only on sight is not accurate. A man draw the number 6 on sand in front of another man. The second man will see number 9. In short, in order to get an accurate picture, we will have to see everything from all possible point of view.
This topic can be elaborated in so many ways. But I'm more interested in this section, where we have only RM10
If we look at people who have RM1000, we will feel humble. We know that the RM10 we have is nothing compared to RM1000. We shouldn't be bragging to these people about our RM10. Instead we should learn from them on how to get that RM1000 and improve ourself
If we look at people who have on 7 cents, we will feel thankful. If we think, we are unfortunate, that's a living proof that we are actually blessed. And instead of whining of only have RM10, we should learn how to not only use the money wisely, but also how not to end up like that fellow.
What would happen if we only look in one direction? In the first case, we will be so passionate to chase that RM1000, we will forget more important things in life. We will forget to help others by donating because for us, every cents count to reach that RM1000.
In the second case, we will be so satisfied with what we have for the rest of our life. RM10 for us is more than enough since there are other poorer people around us. We will not dare to venture new things and we will lose all interest to be better, to have better life.
I don't think the two extreme cases even exist. But I do believe that we sometime tend to look from one point of view and ignore the rest. We actually need to see our life in all point of view and find the best compromise.
An excellent example would be to appreciate the peace we have in Malaysia but still working to improve the life of Malaysian, maybe by giving the best service when working etc.
Please don't just whine.. Everyone can do that, It helps create awareness yes, but that's it. Ask yourself... What can we do about it?
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
There's so much we can improve in this beloved country of ours. First of all, I noticed that we often take a stand in politics without actually knowing head or tails. For example, there is political party A and B. If our family is all in favor of party A, it is most likely that we will end up supporting party A. We shut all information from party B entirely. This in my opinion is not an accurate way to take a stand. Learn everything about both parties A and B. Go to both political campaign and mix with people from both parties. When you have all the information, judge them yourself and then make the decision. Don't you think it will be better this way?
Labels: Idea, Perspective
Bagai Menarik Rambut Dari Tepung
Summary - The correct method of giving advice
warning is basically a harsher way of advising. So what is the correct way of giving advice?
I'll explain through a story. One fine day, two boys were at the mosque when they saw an old man perform the ablution (taking the wudhu'). Now these boys were quite knowledgable about wudhu' and they knew immediately that the way the old man was taking the wudhu' was wrong. They knew they had to advise him. So what they did was to go to the old man...
Boys - Sir, if we can have your time, the two of us are actually discussing, I'm saying that this boy is taking the wudhu' wrongly, while he said that I'm the one who do it wrongly. Can you please be the judge of that?
Old man - sure, why not.
The boys each then performed the ablution, each took wudhu' the correct way. After both of them were finish. The old man embarassingly admitted that their wudhu' were actually perfect, and that his was the one which is wrong. He understood that the boys were trying to advise him and thanked them for that.
/end story
Giving advise is a good thing to do, it usually will benefit both of the giving and the receiving ends. Sometime the person giving the advice may actually be the one who need to be corrected. However, the method of giving advice is my main objective here.
I believe everyone has pride or ego. Everyone will feel attacked and humiliated if being told that they were wrong. It's human nature.
We cannot give advice in hidden meaning like the story at all time, sometime (usually) they might not get it.
We just need to consider the person's ego at all time. Because if not, he might feel offended and throw away the advice blindly out of ego. In the end, nobody will benefit. Isn't it more important for the person to at least hear the advice and think about it?
Of course there are always exceptions, some people, you just need to give it direct to their face. :)
Examples of where ego will be affected, children advising their parent to stop smoking, wife advising the husband to help in the house and vice versa, workers advising the boss on how to manage better.
By the way, the story above is actually a true story. And the boys are actually Hassan and Hussin, the grandchildren of Rasulullah :)
Have you ever given out any advice, brilliantly delivered? Or are there any other methods / examples of giving advice out there that can be shared?
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
There was one time, my boss drafted a letter, But maybe he was in a hurry, there were a lot of grammar mistake. And this letter is important because it is addressed to the DOSH (department of safety and health). I'm not that good in English but I have no choice. I corrected it and inform him about it after. I said that the letter was placed on my desk, and that I thought he asked me to correct it. He just smiled. And from that time, every letter he drafted goes through me first. (padan muka) heheh
I Know I Forget Something.. But What?
Summary - Six strategies not to forget things
A friend of mine had just left her purse in a taxi, Remarkably she not only take it very well, she manage to look into the half-full side of the glass :)
I believe everyone must have their own method to remember things. Not how to memorize things like my previous post. More on to remember things we brought (to avoid left behind), or task to do.
These are my strategies so far -
1) Always minimize the amount of bags
Most people are already doing this. If for example, you have 5 bags of groceries, put it all into each other making it into two bags. This way, you know exactly that both hands should be carrying something each
2) Create a ritual before going somewhere
What I did to remember things in my pockets, which consist of keys, handphone and wallet is to make it a practice to slap gently on all pockets before making a move somewhere, to the mill or anywhere. This way... I feel something is not right if I didn't do the ritual. :)
3) Learning from OCD people
OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. If you ever watched the tv series - "Monk" or "As Good As It Get", you will understand it. Simply, these people are very particular about everythings. Everything must be organized and be done their way. Lesson to learn from them is to organize. For me, I put up all my bills and things to do on one desk. Some things are left as a symbol of things I must do, like in order to remember to bring cash tomorrow, I will simply leave the money there. The desk will soon be crowded and with the intention of clearing up the table, I will do every task each items represents. :) It works by the way hehe.
4) Car Alarm Dilemma
I always had this problem. (the word "had" is stressed eheh), I already locked my car with the alarm, but just after 5 minutes, I will start guessing, "did I lock my car?", "Did I hear the alarm clicking?". It's very troublesome when you are already far from your car. So what I do is, whenever I lock my car, I conciously force myself to see that the car is locked. So far, problem solved.
5) Record
One and a half years ago, I used a cellphone so ancient, it can only be used as a phone and SMS. Spoilt already I bought the one I'm using right now, There is a voice recording function embedded. So another way I remember things is simply by voice recording it. At the end of the day, I will upload everything into my computer and take action. If you must know things that I recorded, they are stuff like, blogging ideas, direction to certain places, the self-repeating song in my head, and hey.. I even compose song huhu (which I'm sure will be taken to grave with me).
6) Look for something else
I write this out of experience, when you forget where you misplaced something, it is almost certain you will not be able to find it. Try pretend to look for something else or stop looking entirely, Usually then you will find them :)
So there, 6 private strategies I used to remember things in my daily life. I'm sure there's more. What's your strategies? Please share :)
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
During my working days, I have accidentally locked myself our of my house quite a couple of times. I often had to resort to break the lock by force. Then I tried hiding spare keys. But I kept thinking that my gardener may eventually found it. My brother gave me one suggestion, to buy those Solex lock. You know, the one with the keys will always be with the lock unless you lock it. Solved my problems. I guess sometime the simple solution is out there.. we just keep looking the harder way :)
Slow Mo and Fast Forwarding Time
I was checking the calendar to check out this week's charity at Darul Izzah Bangi (Deliberately written to persuade you going hehe), when I suddenly realize that today is already the 23rd of Rejab. It seems like just yesterday, I notice of the coming of Rejab. Counting... there is only 36 days left to Ramadhan.
(Rejab and Ramadhan are Islamic months. Muslims all over the world will be performing the fasting during Ramadhan.)
If you notice, time sure fly faster when you are not paying attention.
- When we are just so busy with works, We will not even notice that we've just missed lunch.
- When we start fasting when we were children, we are holding a clock and see every second goes by. The longest time is the last 30 minutes :)
- When we got stuck in a meeting with the boss talking so slow, you can hear your stomach.. time feel like stopping. and yes you are hungry..
- and many more examples of this
Funny right? If we dreadfully hated what it is we are doing, we are doomed to "enjoy" every seconds of it and time move so slowly, you would check whether there's something wrong with the watch every 5 minutes.
And if you love what you are doing, before you even begin to enjoy it, it's already sunset.
heheh time really has a good sense of humor. Don't you think?
I remember very clearly the day I started fasting. Our "Abah" (Father) could see that we were going to lose the battle when we started going to the kitchen observing what new food magically appear on the table. He then took us out to the "Bazar Ramadhan" (A place to buy food to break the fast). There we were rewarded with RM5 of our choice of food and drinks. We really feel energetic then. With so much money, we bought a lot of food. I can still remember it covered almost the whole table. When we came back from the bazar.. it turned out only 30 minutes gone by. We still need to wait another 1 hour or so. All the energy previously had, had now vanished. And there we were looking "terhele" (very tired) with an alarm clock by our side. hehe
So what's your first day of fasting looks like? There's got to be funny stories in each of us :)
It is called snowballing and it is a widely used methods to clear debt. An example will illustrate better.
One man had 4 debt to settle, house loan, car loan, credit card and study loan. According to Snowballing Concept, the man need to figure out what is the minimum amount he can pay for each loan. He will then have to figure out which loan is the lowest amount.
In this specific case, his credit card is the lowest at about RM3000, so what he should do is to pay all other loans at the minimum amount. And the remaining money is used to pay off the credit card. For example, after deducting all the minimum payment to other loans, he still have RM500 cash. That money must be used entirely to pay off his credit card. In about 6 months he will finish paying the credit card.
Then he moved to the next loan with the lowest amount, let say study loan. Previously he pay a minimum of RM200 per month, now he must snowball the payment and use the extra money from not paying credit card (RM500) and pay the study loan at RM700 / month (Snowball). This goes on until he finished all his debt.
I actually think that this make sense. To finish all debt the lowest ones first. Now compare this entry and the entry yesterday. Both of them emphasis exactly the opposite things and yet both of them is correct.
What do you think? Is this snowballing strategy practical?
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--------------Personal Note-------------
I still have long way to go to finish my loans. And when those loans are settled, I'm very sure I will start with my house loan. So it's really a never ending story :)
One thing for sure, when we owe someone, we have to pay them. Even one cents. I'm very particular with this, because it will be very disappointing when somebody owe me money and he didn't even bother to pay me back. He even look at me as if I'm the one who owe him money. And that is why, I stop lending people money except for family of course. Come be my family huhu