Here is a truly amazing story of 25 year old Nick Vujicic who was born without limbs. Nick learnt to deal with his disability, and it was only when he began to embrace his situation that he started to achieve greater things in his life. Individuals like Nick Vujicic can teach us to appreciate what we have, and encourage us to never give up, that we can overcome the challenges in our lives.

"People say to me, ‘How can you smile?’” he says. “Then they realize ‘there’s got to be something more to life than meets the eye if a guy without arms and legs is living a fuller life than I am.’

Until the next issue,

Selina Lai

PS. Don't forget to check out the Success Tip

Today's success tip comes from Shane Toohey.

Shane created a business consultancy called Peak Teams. Together with his business partner, Ian Schubach, Shane developed a patent-pending technology that simulates adventure environments to create unique and powerful learning programs on leadership, teamwork and change. Peak Teams works with some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world.

What are some of the practical things one can do to become a better listener?

For most people today, the single biggest impediment to good listening is lack of time. People make themselves too busy to listen. So the first and most important step for becoming a better listener is to make some time and ask the question - what are the benefits of listening?

In business, listening is the best way to strengthen teamwork, create new ideas and improve customer service. When people listen in the workplace, staff morale goes up and productivity increases because people develop new skills to solve problems so much faster. To become a better listener in the workplace, you must plan to make time to talk to people. Plan to have your conversations in quiet places that are free from all the usual office distractions - phones, faxes, computers, coffee machines. And respect the other person; never answer your mobile phone or look at your watch when you are listening to people.

One other critical skill to improve listening at work is being open to the other person's point of view. Do not interrupt other people before they finish speaking and seek to really understand what they are saying before you give your opinion.

At home, listening is the glue that holds families together. Without good listening, marriages break down and children grow apart from their parents, especially in the teenage years. Becoming a better listener at home involves many similarities to the workplace. Intent is very important, so commit to wanting to listen to your husband, wife or kids and demonstrate that you care by putting down the television remote control or the newspaper.

Remember above all else that listening is a gift, so give it freely and often.



This website contains even more great tips from Shane Toohey.


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE NOW

Hope every one of you had a great Christmas and New Year break. I had an awesome time relax ing and rewinding over the festive season. I spent most of it as a tour guide for some visiting relatives and catching up with many of my friends during Christmas and New Years. Here's a picture of the Lamb we had for New Years Eve, I'm not sure if I can ever have another barbeque without a lamb!

It's already two weeks into 2009 (ie. almost 4% of the year is over) It's interesting when you stop to actually think about how we spend our time and how precious our time is. For an average person they spend most of their time working. and whatever time they have left is usually spent watching TV, spending time with family, going out enjoying life etc.

Most people work:
•    5 days a week
•    52 weeks
•    get 10 public holidays
•    get 20 days annual leave
ie. we spend 230 days working out of 365 days (ie. 63% of the year)

When we drill down into the days, on a working day we spend:
•    8 hours sleeping
•    8 hours working
•    2 hour travelling to and from work and lunch in between

This leaves us with 6 hours of free time on a working day and 14 hours on a non working day. In one year we will have 3,270 free hours (230 working day x 6 hour + 135 non working days x 14 hrs), which is equivalent to 136 Full Days!

I remember back in University some students were doing 15 hours a week, 13 weeks a semester, 2 semesters a year and 3 years for one bachelor's degree. This is equivalent of 1170 hours for a 3 year bachelor degree in language, arts, science, commerce, economics etc.

It's amazing when we put things into perspective we can start to uncover the power within ourselves. An average person with 3,270 free hours a year can complete 2.8 bachelor's degrees in a single year from the free time that we have.

So until next time, the question to ask yourself is, "What am I doing with my time?"

Yong-Long