The Self Improvement and NLP blog

Self Improvement - The Best Things in Life Require Sacrifice and Commitment

2011-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Self Improvement and NLP blog

The best things in life require sacrifice and commitment

Many of us think that life should be easy. We are tempted to seek easy way out in trying to improve our lives without paying a price of sacrifice and commitment. Actually this morning when I read an article in the newspaper about a man whose leg was amputated, learning to walk and later he decided to train for climbing Mount Everest one day.

Everyday he practised walking and walking. He improved one step at a time. First he walked a few steps, then a few miles … later he climbed a little hill and soon he graduated to climbing higher mountains in Malaysia and other Asian countries. Now he dreams of clearing the Mount Everest with one leg.

Many of us cannot even walk properly with two good legs. What struck me is that this person is determined to do the best by self improvement and self discipline.

Fearless and joyful living is definitely possible, it is acquired with much devotion, perseverance and tenacity. The more we practise, the more we achieve. The price of success is definitely nurturing and improving every moment we possibly can.

Like a garden full of flowers, must come with little seeds which were watered consistently and regularly with love and devotion. The never ending improvement and effort will pay off by itself when the time is long enough…

So do not despair. In every effort there is a growth, there is an improvement slowly but surely…

Cheers

Sally klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now!! :) :)

Self Improvement - The Art of Learning Things Well :)

2011-02-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

The art of learning things well

Hi , I was taking my breakfast at a café this morning when I overheard two old men talking. It was about the universe and how things move about in this universe. One man said to the other, “We should burn our energy by one more percent so that we can boost the little bit more life in us…” What a great idea because when we push a little further, we gain a little more… just like instead of just walking one mile, we can be easily walk a little more to another half mile more and then we achieve many more miles in our life.

I heard him saying further that we can achieve greatness without even being great. A little sand can cause discomfort when it gets into your shoes. That sand causes hurt even though it is mere particle of sand. Similarly we can improve our lives greatly by doing great in small things such as adding a little more effort into our work, putting a little flower into the empty vase; smiling at strangers along the road – all these add to the greatness our lives can achieve without effort only by a mere 1 percent more…

I hope that this learning will help me improve my outlook of life, whenever difficulty arises, I will do my best to overcome by adding the 1 percent more effort to think positive, to grow each day… We are part of this universe, we stand with the stars… We are all stars by shining a little a day…

Champions improve their lives everyday by practice and practice – one more percent each day I believe. Improvements are not made by quantum leap, but by inches of hardwork and learning and relearning…. cheers!

Sally Klaus,

from The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Have a great happy day …

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now…

Self Improvement: Saving Time to Improve our lives....

2011-02-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Self Improvement and NLP blog: Saving Time to Improve our lives..

Hi friends, saving time is basically about how to choose. The power of choice enables us to make or break it in our daily lives. Prioritization of demands is nothing new to all of us yet we often do not practise what we know already. Indeed making the right choice can save you time and money.

Everyday we are bombarded by choices. To eat Italian spaghetti or to eat hamburger? To take a cab or to drive? To buy item A or item B? All the various decision making boils down to choice.

To make a wise choice requires us to lower our expectation and to tame our inner gremlin. We often have inner gremlin or monster who will dictate our bad choices and then we feel so miserable and our lives become terrible. So the expectation set should be in such a way that we save time and money by being less fussy, less critical and less demanding on our friends, our work and our environment. In this way, we find that we are not bogged down with so much trivialities that we free our time to improve our being – by having more time to play, to pray and to spend with loved ones..

Proper time management is life management. So making the right choices enables us to live a life meaningful and enriched in ways that are beyond money . Money cannot buy happiness. Money cannot buy time. So doing things by prioritizing our live’s needs will help us to live better, sleep better and work better… Why not?

Let go of the gremlins inside us, let the love of life flow out of our hearts and minds.. in this way, we improve our daily living and still have a great day ahead….cheers

Sally Klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now…

Can Being Lazy and Slow Be Really Good for Wellbeing? :)

2011-02-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Self Improvement and NLP blog

Power of being lazy and slow

Sometimes we think that by doing things fast or even multi tasking we are doing lots of work and being very productive. This is indeed wrong because by multi tasking, we may not be able to fully focus on minor details and thus the work will not be really as effective as we want it to be.

So today I am going to discuss some ideas on how to improve our lives without the hassle and buzzle of being too busy and too fast. I read some books recently on the need to slow down in this fast moving society. True, being too fast is not really good for our souls. So how to be slow and steady and still reach the ultimate success goals.

Here are some tips to achieve self improvement and maintain high efficiency.

Firstly, follow the Japanese method of having “ma” – a kind of space – in between work. It is like a breather, a pause in a movement… Have you ever heard a presenter or speaker speaking very fast and then he pauses for a moment… the whole audience becomes interested in what or why he pauses… This is the powerful moment of ma.

Life should be filled with “ma” every now and then.. allowing us to breathe and recollect our life so that our live is not just work, work and work.. It is enhanced and made better improved with lots of ma in between.

The second is to pause and take a power nap every afternoon (even at work) – the Americans now realise that an afternoon siesta can be very effective for productivity. A moment of rest is very refreshing to the body and the soul.. it helps the brain too.

The third tip is to breathe deeply – just like a little baby – really breathing in moments of life each day… our lives would be very much improved and beautified if everyone of us can breathe deeply and take in the world in one deep breath… and then take the next step slowly but surely to the next level.. This deep breathing is very often practised by the religious people who seem to live longer and healthier.. so we should do likewise so that our lives will be greatly improved especially the quality of being.

The next tip is to take the untrodden path. This means trying new ways of doing things, walking new paths along the way or taking new routes in our life journey. Familiarity breeds contempt of thoughts so it is good for us to take new routes, new ideas of solving problems and looking at problems. In this way, we enrich our lives and enhance our living.

Ah, the power of being slow is definitely good for us because it is moments when we stop to think, stop to look around us that we realise that the world is such a beautiful place… the warm sunshine in summer and the light breeze are all we need for great living… Cheers

Sally Klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

How to Save Time ... Time Saving for Improvement of Lives

2011-02-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the Self Improvement and NLP blog

Saving Time to Improve our lives..

Hi friends, saving time is basically about how to choose. The power of choice enables us to make or break it in our daily lives. Prioritization of demands is nothing new to all of us yet we often do not practise what we know already. Indeed making the right choice can save you time and money.

Everyday we are bombarded by choices. To eat Italian spaghetti or to eat hamburger? To take a cab or to drive? To buy item A or item B? All the various decision making boils down to choice.

To make a wise choice requires us to lower our expectation and to tame our inner gremlin. We often have inner gremlin or monster who will dictate our bad choices and then we feel so miserable and our lives become terrible. So the expectation set should be in such a way that we save time and money by being less fussy, less critical and less demanding on our friends, our work and our environment. In this way, we find that we are not bogged down with so much trivialities that we free our time to improve our being – by having more time to play, to pray and to spend with loved ones..

Proper time management is life management. So making the right choices enables us to live a life meaningful and enriched in ways that are beyond money . Money cannot buy happiness. Money cannot buy time. So doing things by prioritizing our live’s needs will help us to live better, sleep better and work better… Why not?

Let go of the gremlins inside us, let the love of life flow out of our hearts and minds.. in this way, we improve our daily living and still have a great day ahead….cheers

Sally Klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now…

Self Improvement - The Fourth Dimension of Inner Reflection

2011-02-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

... ... the Fourth Dimension of Inner Reflection

Have you heard of the Fourth Dimension? Well, many of us thought it must be something to do with spiritual realm or some kind of voodoo stuff. Some thought it may be scary even.

Well, it is about the search for our part which deals with the inner being. It is simply to work from the inside out. It actually is like tapping on a huge reservoir of database or resources from which to draw our strengths and our connection with our own soul.

The most common ways of drawing on this reserve is to do some of these things:

a) you can pray for 15 to 30 minutes each day so that the peace you gain from prayer can help you to sustain through the day

b) you can do meditation and thus draw your inner soul to be in sync with God and seek peace so that you can handle tough decisions later part of the day

c) you can do aerobic exercises so that your body is in tune with your inner being – relaxed and able to take challenges in the later part o the day

d) you can also walk around the neighbourhood alone and feel the air around you.

Whatever it takes, search for the inner self is a great leap towards self improvement and NLP power. The reflection is best done in the morning before you go to work or start your school. In this way your life would be well lived.

Cheers,

Sally Klaus

of the Self Improvement and NLP blog :) :)

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

Self Improvement - Apologising and Apologies are good for you

2011-02-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi folks, I have something interesting to share about how to improve our lives and live well . It is the matter of apologizing to the people we have hurt knowingly or unknowingly.

If we want our lives to be meaningful and full of power, we must learn to apologize sincerely and not to justify our mistakes. Many of us admit our mistakes but we go on to justify why we did that mistake. This is not an apology but a rationalization or justification of what went wrong.

Instead I would like to propose that we realize first we are not perfect and we need help to improve our lives with people around us. So to be really sorry, we have to first acknowledge that we have done a wrong to someone we know.

Face the person squarely if possible and then tell the person that you are very sorry to have cause hurt or injury either physically or emotionally.

If the person refuses to accept this, then you are free to go on with your life because you have made an effort to erase that pain. However if the person forgives you and accepts the apology , then it is even better to make good your wrongdoing by asking whether you can help make life better for the other person by doing a deed for him or her.

To improve our lives daily, we have to be on the lookout to do things mindfully and not to cause hurt wherever possible. This will then enhance our being of living life to the best of our capabilities.

Cheers,

Sally Klaus

How to circumnavigate round obligations and still feel good about ourselves

2010-11-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

How to circumnavigate round obligations and feel good about ourselves

Today as I was having lunch with an old friend, he suddenly mentioned that life is full of obligations and we have to fulfil them due to various reasons. He was rather upset by this kind of demands.

Let me share with you the trick of going through such obligations by circumnavigating round this issue and feel good about the performing of the obligations happily after that.

People usually think it is so unpleasant to have to do this and do that for example going through school day itself can be tortuous for many people who hate going to school and listening to teachers’ nagging lessons.

Well, the think is that we can actually prepare ourselves by mentally doing something different i.e looking at the obligations or events in a different light.This makes you feel great and happy.

Say, for example, if you think the teaching is nagging or talking in a boring lesson, you can turn your attention to people around you, your books in front of you by really imagining that they are somewhat play things. This distraction will enable you to feel good inside. Time will then fly by very quickly. Of course occasionally you got to look up so that the teacher knows you are not completely “lost”.

Our minds are powerful processors of information and can give you improved well being once you set your mind to enjoy whatever that comes along.

This simple technique is to enable you to experience goodness out of anything boring. I tried that in one party where it was so boring because the host kept ranting on and on about the achievements he has accomplished for the past many years. I switched my mind off and imagined other more exciting things while watching others respond nonchalantly to the monologue. It became an engrossing event for me because I thoroughly enjoyed myself as if I were listening to the speaker.

Using this distraction for your mind when you face with boring situations can improve your wellbeing while allowing you to feel good about any events, or obligations you face because you already “make up your mind to enjoy it”

This powerful imagination has given me lots of confidence and enhance my life tremendously.

Cheers
Sally Klaus

the self improvement and NLP blog :)

Making dreams a reality by merging dreams with imagination!!

2010-11-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

Yet more interesting articles from the self improvement and NLP blog :)

Hello and welcome back! Here is a short article, for a quick read and a quick think :)

Making dreams a reality by merging dreams with imagination

Why dreams are relevant to our self improvement and enhancement? Many reasons for making sure that we are able to make our dreams a reality especially those which have certain bearings on our lives.

Firstly dreams are helpful in that they prepare us for what is to come.

Then they provide a form of release.

Another reason is that it is part of our unconscious or subconscious state of being.

Pay attention to your dreams at night. You can even write it down the next day so that you can analyze what is the real cause.

Be sure to have nice, sweet dreams!

Cheers
Sally Klaus
from the self improvement and nlp blog :)

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

Tips on being a great conversationist to improve your life

2010-11-11T14:22:00.001-08:00

More from the self improvement and NLP blog

Tips on being a great conversationist to improve your life

Since 16 I was already training myself to become a great conversationist so tht I can have friends and to get boys to do things for me. I only realized that this is connected to NLP when I read a book on this useful technique used by many authors to teach the art of being a great conversationist.

I shall share my personal experience on this very important interpersonal skill which I harnessed so well that even now, I could get strangers to respond to my conversation because I will focus the questions on them and their lives.

People like to talk about themselves and criticize others because in doing so, they feel good; they feel motivated and lighten up.

Everytime I attend a function or a party, I will scan the whole area for anyone who looks like a good conversationist too. If it is someone whom I like to be acquainted with, I will go up to the person and smile. Then I will ask very straight forward questions such as :” Heh, is this your first function or party?”. This is to check whether that person is interested in accepting your smile or question.

Once that person is caught smiling back and starting to talk to me, I will start my conversation with that person which may begin continue this” I seem to have seen you at ABC event or function before. “ this is a safe starter. Most of the time, this statement works in my favour.

If I discover that he or she is not my type of conversation partner, I may excuse myself on the pretext of having to get a drink or saw someone I know and move on…

If that person is fun to be with, I may end up asking for phone number or vice versa. Then a friendship or a relationship thus may begin. Try this if you are still unattached, lonely or single. It works very well for me because I believe in using my powerful smile and a simple greeting to cut down all barriers… A smile is a sure way to enjoying yourself anywhere anytime.. Learning to become a great conversationist helps you to grow and get friends everywhere.

Cheers
Sally Klaus

from the Self Improvement and NLP blog :)

How to Get Through Major, Big Events in Life Smoothly!

2010-09-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome once again back to the self improvement and NLP blog!

How to get through a big event smoothly and without fuss!!!

There are some major events in our lives that we have to take care of, with all kinds of details and trivialities. For example, a wedding is a big event. Before this event, you have to get a dress or gown, a cake, a bridesmaid if you are the woman, and a best man, if you are the groom, wedding rings, a huge car to drive you to church, a caterer, and a host of other things, activities and plans. Whew!

Oftentimes, we made the mistake of choosing people out of pressure rather than someone who is suitable for our need. We sometimes choose the nearest cake shop, the tailor and other medical personnel or things because we are pressured by time and money constraints.

So to avoid all these worries, the proper way is to first decide in your mind, what the time you need is, how much lead time and how the event is going to be like at the end of the planning. In this way, you spend a little time, visualizing the end result – the outcome first and then plan backwards so that things won't mess up and also you can do it smoothly without fuss.

The difference is basically good and bad choices we made. Using and applying various imaginative techniques of harnessing your imagination and visualization, you cook up the final day result and see that you have all the necessary things and stuff. In this way, nothing is missed out for the big day or the big event.

The power of using such powerful and wonderful techniques is to plan and then execute the plan according to your visualization or imagination which enables you to see and feel through the whole process.

Using positivity helps you to improve whatever event you intend to carry out; whatever activity you want to perform. In this way, you empower yourself and improve your way of doing and managing things.

Your life will not be the same again once you use such techniques especially the process of powerful visualization. Imaging everything working out through each phase and definitely the event will turn out the way you want it to be.

Cheers
Sally Klaus

How to Pass Examinations and Interviews!

2010-09-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the self improvement and NLP blog :)

How to pass examinations and interviews.

I would like to share some secrets about something that most of us fear : examinations and interview.

The trick to getting through tests, exams and interview is sufficient preparation and confidence.

We always imagine the worst when it comes to exams or tests. This is how we frighten ourselves and plant fear into our own minds, and thus our body reacts accordingly by sweating. Anxiety sets in, and lo and behold, the result is that we fail because we have already imagined failure!

So to avoid such a negative journey and tendency, it is first vital to allow ourselves to seek a calm mind, a cool head and a proper plan.

The question is: How do we become confident and behave confidently?

Think of a time when you felt focused and very confident. It might not be an exam or a test period. Feel how good you felt at that time, and then imagine yourself going through the test or exam with that same kind of feeling.

Then run through the process over and over again by practicing and rehearsing. So in preparing for an exam, do those questions which you are most confident of passing, then work on those that you may have difficulties with. And hence in this way, you already have the good feeling inside your head and thus you will do well.

I practiced this NLP way of preparing for exams and interviews and have done extremely well in both areas. I believe you can also do the same. Just be confident, feel confident and use this way of imagining a good outcome and thus be sure that you will be able to overcome the fear of anything – be it exams or interviews!

Cheers
Sally Klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

Overcoming fears and phobias Using Laughter Therapy

2010-09-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
-Overcoming fears and phobias Using Laughter Therapy

Actually, I knew about laughter therapy long ago, but it was only recently, when I joined a community club in my neighbourhood, and discovered the fun of using laughter therapy to become a better human being, that I realized that self- improvement techniques can be enhanced by this simple therapy.

According to one writer, who was striken with cancer, he found that his life became better when he began to laugh and have fun everyday. Laughing was a big business in India because thousands of people have improved their lives by mere laughter, three times a day. In fact laughter therapy started in India and has spread throughout the world today. The power of using laughter therapy is tremendous. It can remove fears and overcome phobias, because when one laughs, the positive enzyme is able to multiply and let the body relax. In this way the mind and body are able to be in sync to do something exciting thus igniting the brain to feel good.

My sessions in the community club has improved my breathing, my thinking and my confidence too. Indeed laughter has a price while misery is free.

So the slogan "don’t worry, be happy" is truly a way to live a confident and improved life.

All the best to you as you seek self improvement in every domain of your life!

Cheers
Sally Klaus

The Removal of Mental Blocks

2010-09-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

The Removal of Mental Blocks by the ...

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Today I am sharing some insights about the removal of mental block which some of us are confronted with. To enable you to improve your utilization of your brain power and to enable you to be more effective than you already are, you could the following steps:

a) think of a time when you are doing something simple such as brushing teeth or brushing hair

b) then think of how you can enhance that experience of brushing your teeth by making it more exciting by gurgling with a smile on your face or combing hair with positive, harder strokes

c) then imagine what will happen when your teeth are shining clean or your hair is done and fully brushed, and imagine the joy from within your body…

d) then you go further by imagining the future one year from now, when your way of brushing teeth or combing hair may be different

What is the purpose of this exercise? When I first did this, I was thinking, what the heck? What is the use? But then as I practiced more and more and imagined further and further, I became happier and more positive, so much so that now my life is improved tremendously – I am more proactive and more productive in my work and in my personal relationship with others.

See, a simple task can be enhanced and your life improved greatly by the simple step of discovering your inner self. Mindfulness helps to extend our strength and capacity to self improvement and achievement.

Cheers
Sally Klaus

Self Improvement and Building New Beliefs in Yourself!

2010-08-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

Self Improvement and NLP blog

Hi a good day to you. My last blog was on the changing the way you think and you change your life. Today it is about building new beliefs in yourself. I was once a very scared and timid person. I was also afraid of dogs in the neighbourhood.

One day I decided that I should change my beliefs by building new thoughts and new way of doing things. Often times, we are bogged down with uncertainty and self doubt. Actually we are made more than mere mundane workers. We are supposed to aim for the stars and reach out for the best we can.

However in reality we are faced with lots of anti-neuro-linguistic programmes because our parents, family members and friends are often telling us from young, what to believe , what to do and how to behave. Most of our actions were simply not good enough for them.

So today let us learn to remove all doubts and limitations about ourselves and use the NLP way of creating what is possible and what is the “real me” inside you.

Start first with a problem you believe you have now. It does not really matter the size of the problem or the difficulty of the problem. Use your NLP – belief changing technique called the Belief Swish Patten and think of a resource which you have to solve the problem. Most of us do not really spend time thinking about our strengths, our resources and opportunities. We merely try to wrangle ourselves out of problems as they come. So now you have to imagine your resources and banish the limitation thoughts inside your head.

Visualise your immense power and ability to “get over your problem’ and then you can sense a real change inside you. Repeat this positive thoughts a number of times so that you internalise your power of getting rid of limiting thoughts.

Always visualise the positive and the NLP will work for you .

This positive thoughts help you to improve yourself and enhance your relationship with others as well.

Be a change agent. Move out of the world of limitations and uncertainty.
Good luck!! :)

Sally Klaus

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

More on Self Improvement and NLP :)

2010-08-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Self Improvement and NLP blog

Hi friends it has been sometime since I last blogged. I was busy giving seminars and workshops about self improvement and stress management that I did not have time to blog. Well, today I am going to share with you some tips on how to self improve and enhance your life through more NLP techniques.

The power to change your life today is to change the unconscious thinking part of our brain. Very often the unconscious self is that part of the mind that analyzes, thinks and try to solve problems and also controls our bodily movements.

This part of our brain is also responsible for the memories and our capacity to think and react to daily demands arising from work and other issues.

We have lots of bad habits which inhibit our thinking process and thus we have to learn to use this NLP power wisely by using some of the simple tips I am sharing with you.

Firstly understand the reason why you are upset about something. This is the most difficult part of our thinking. Many of us do not really think clearly and form a picture or image of what we are doing. Instead they rely on feeling as to the reason for being angry. These negative emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness and disappointments are generally not turned into pictorial analysis.

Secondly, once you are able to form an image of the anger or the emotion faced, you are able to control the neurochemistry which simply means you can choose to describe your thoughts and thus able to change your thoughts.

The next step is to change the anger into happy thoughts by thinking of something wonderful. Close your eyes and see the image of the happy occasion or the event which enabled you to be happy then.

Then pay attention to the feeling in your body which is now slowly changing from negative to positive emotion. See this picture of happiness working its way to making you feel good.

Afterwards you will feel good for no reason at all. Maintain such a thought for the next few days and I am sure you will be able to get rid of unwanted feelings.

Changing your thoughts enables you to change the way you behave. So once you are able to imagine happy events , your neurochemistry will generate enough positive feelings to help you deal with yourself better. In this way, you will have improved and become more productive and healthier in body and in mind.

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now…

Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog -

2010-06-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvemnt and NLP Blog -

Howdy folks

I want to continue discussion about listening to your heart. To improve blood circulation, you need to really listen to your heart - both physically and psychologically. This is because the heart is the centre of our body and soul. The body is the house for our blood flow and help the heart to pump life into every part to keep us alive.

To increase the blood flow and allow the heart to beat well, we need to engage the heart by listening to it. Firstly we have to ensure our diet is reasonable on our heart. When we take in food that is not nutritous or hazardous to our health, our heart will suffer. So by listening to our heart, we should eat well and improve our dietary nutrition and enhance our daily intake of water and vitamins.

The next self improvement we can do is to listen to our heart emotionally . Sometimes when people give us toxic remarks or bad suggestion, we tend to keep them in our heart and this adds to the burden of our heart. We may think we are not bothered by suggestions or remarks, but we may let these remarks affect us and thus our hearts become painful and functioning badly. To improve our heartbeat and enhance our self confidence, we should let bad things go and just think of positive side of life. This will lighten the burden on our poor heart. Expressions like heartache, heartburn and heartless are some of the painful ways to describe disturbance of not listening to our hearts.

So, listening is very very important to us . Another listening of our heart is by listening to our own ambition and our dreams. Some of us give up our dreams because we do not listen to our hearts and instead listen to people who try to dissuade us from achieving our goals. We could have a better improved life if we realign our goals in life properly and confidently.

Listening is not easy. It needs practice and self control so that we are able to be mindful of our NLP ability. With properly tuning to our heartbeat, we can learn to better our improvement on our lives and live effectively.

Go and listen to your heart. Your career may take off like an eagle because you listen!

cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - listen to your heart

2010-06-25T19:30:00.001-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog - Listening to your heart

Hi good day friends
I have been talking about listening. The power of listening is manifested in many ways. The focus listening is further enhanced by our ability to listen to our hearts.

What is listening to our hearts? Often times, ignore warning from the heart to our own peril.
Bylistening to our heart, we can improve our blood circulation and improve our well being. Our lives will be able to be enriched tremendously.

So I now want to share with you two things which is concerning about listening to the heart for better NLP and better improved status of your well being in life.

The first listening is the physical listening to our hearts. Many city dwellers like you and I do not exercise and do not eat properly. We do not listen to our heart. Our heart may be burdened with excess fats, excess weight of emotional problems etc.. yet we ignore the heartbeating of pain and anxiety. We live terribly and do not have the NLP in sync . We did not listen and what happens? Many people as young as 20 years old are caught with heart attacks in the middle of their work or school . The problem is that they did not listen to their heart. The warning signs are clearly shown by our daily lives. Tiredness, fatigue, lack of motivation, financial and work-related problems are all compounded and loaded onto the poor little heart. The result of failure to listen--- poor living , meaningless encounters and no empowerment nor any kind of improved state of being..

So we must learn to listen to our hearts. To do this physically, exercise briefly three times a week of half-hour duration. Overexercising can also be bad for the poor heart. A brisk walk, a leisurely swimmng routine, a cycling trip to the next town are all good and not so strenous exercises we can indulge in regularly. In this way our hearts are able to pump up healthy and enhanced confidence as well as giving us that state of self improvement and enhancement.

The other listening to our hearts is the ability to discern NLP so that we can tune in with out body and our soul. The heart is a vital organ for a great life. To ensure it is properly taken care of, we must take care to eat properly, to exercise regularly and to take things not too seriously so that we improved our state of being, we improved our living condition and we improved our life span.

To live a greatly improved and enriched life, we must listen to our hearts regularly. In my next blog, I will share with you the right food that will help us to have a good and healthy heart. The heart is the centre of our universe. We must protect it to live a greatly improved and empowered life!

Hear it, breathe it and listen to it..My heart will go on and on.....
Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- Power of Mindfulness in Listening

2010-06-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - The Power of Mindfulness in Listening

Hi folks
greetings once again. Today is a cold day with rain since morning.

Well, with my cute little teddy bear and a cup of hot coffee next to my writing table, I got the inspiration to share with you the power of mindfulness in listening.

There are many people who wander through life without any purpose, no improved standard of living, no improved relationship and no real joy in life because they do not practise mindfulness of listening. This is an art of listening to your body. Often times we merely go through the motion of daily survival without mindfulness of thoughts or actions. So there is no self improvement even when a person is over 70 years old. To truly live a meaningful and enhanced NLP life, we need to really listen to our body one step at a time. I do not mean you slow down your steps so much that you shuffle your feet and takes years to reach the next point in life.

What I mean is listening to your body motion and your heart beat in the things you do and you become aware of the power of mindfulness and listening. When you listen, there is a lot of power to push you to enhance, to enrich and really to move out of the rut into the next level of being.

I have seen many people who have potential for future success but their attitude and their poor listening skills have caused them to live in mundane doldrums and remained stagnant in their career and their lives. They are very unhappy and unsuccessful . They do not have self confidence. They lack self improvement and they lack the skills of truly enjoying the wonderful world around them.

My suggestion is that if we listen with mindfulness in our action, we will be able to become empowered and improved in every way of our life. To learn to improve, we need to attend other people's workshop, learn from mentors and people who are better than you; people who have skills you do not have so that you can hone your skills to the next level.

Life is about discovery and exploration to become better than yesterday, to be improved over last action and to be enriched over last status of wealth and being.. Keep learning and listening with mindfulness. Do not skim through your task. Do not try short cut to get away.

Step by step when you listen, you can hear the heartbeat of success. I was there years ago. Today I listen with mindfulness and to my body and have found the enriched self and become a better being. Ask my friends , they can vouch for me.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog - Power of Focus Listening

2010-06-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - The Power of Focus Listening

Hi folks
Today I would like to share something which is motherhood for many people but it is really crucial for our self development and empowerment.

There are lots of books and self help on active listening. Most people have some vague idea of active listening. Well, let me assure you that focus listening is more than active listening. It is to focus your mind, your heart and your soul (body and emotion) . Many people think that multi-tasking and doing lots of things at one time is good. Wrong! This is because their heart and soul are not in sync. There is no focus listening of their heart and head. So doing anything well, one must learn to focus one thing at a time. One improved step is better than 9 poorly done movements. So it is vital that we have focus listening especially when we attend talks, meetings or even conversation with a friend.

To focus well, you need eye contact with sincerity and then you need to arch forward to show your body is ready for the closeness, the intimacy of conversation or attention. In this way your mind can then concentrate and do well. Whatever you are doing, you will do well in the area of learning.

So if you are ironing clothes, arch forward and have eye contact with your clothes which you want ironed and other tasks. Eye contact is not just with another human being. It is with the things you want to do. In concentrating and focussing on them, you are doing focus listening.

Listening to your head, heart and body (soul) is a powerful way to improve your life, enrich your NLP power and also to enhance your value in society and in your career development, Many people lack this kind of focus and lack the listening ability that they miss out the best things in life. I used to be like that. multi-tasked and very easily agitated. Today I do one thing at a time, slowly but surely with focus listening and now life is so great and wonderful. Everyday is a wonderful fullness of life, of grace and of joy. Even my arch enemies now smile at me and become friends even.

So, focus on one thing at a time, listen to one person or one sound at a time and slowly build up the reservior of power and grace. The self improvement that you gained from focus listening will bring you to higher levels in terms of career, money and also earn you friends.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to maximise learning at seminars

2010-06-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to maximise learning at seminars and workshops

Hi good day folks

I was asked by some of my friends as to how to maximise learning at seminars and workshops. This is a vital question because the whole purpose of attending seminars is to increase our self awareness and increase our confidence and therefore become better and improved.

Well, I learned over the years both as a participant and a trainer, that it is essential for all of us to really carry a little notebook. This is not the laptop or computer, but a little booklet to jot down main ideas. One great writer told me that you just need one big idea to become great. You need only one big idea to break out of life's mundane trivialities. So jotting down whatever ideas mentioned in the seminar and talks could become BIG ideas for you next time. This is how you improve and innovate on those ideas for future references.

The second thing I learned and told my audience about is to concentrate and listen. Listening is not easy for most of us because we think we are very smart and there is nothing we can learn from others. Wrong! Anyone can be a teacher to us if we are attentive enough to put our heart and ears to the ground. Sounds of wind can become lyrics for song writers, so words of wisdom can be missed if we do not pay attention during class or workshop.

How to improve ourselves and enrich our life's experiences, we have to truly listen and not hear. Hearing we may forget but listening is the whole body experience. Both the head and the heart are used to the fullest. In this way, we improve our lives by learning from others and we enhance our stature by being more knowledgeable.

So, next time, listen for important ideas, write down quickly into the little notebook and then try to apply when the need arises. In this way, you improve your repertoire of ideas, improve your life and also open up your inner circle of networking possibilities.

This is how we can maximise our learning at any workshop or seminar. Marginal improvement day by day is accumulation of knowledge which can turn into power as time comes.
Cheers and have a nice day

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- Enriching seminars

2010-06-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - enriching seminars

Hi folks, greetings once again from Sally Klaus.

Attending seminars is a really enriching experience both for self improvement and also for networking socially. Similarly conducting seminars is also exciting and enhancing our confidence.

I once conducted a motivational workshop in one of the hotels in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpus is the capital of Malaysia and a bustling city. The workshop was attended by supervisors of that particular hotel. The boss felt that, after many years of working , some of the supervisors become jaded and indifferent. So he invited me to give a motivational workshop.

This workshop was supposed to spruce up the team spirit and work improvement in the hotel. At first, the supervisors were reluctant participants because they were asked to attend by their boss. Their angry looks soon turned into giggling and hearty faces because I started the workshop wtih humour and fun activity.

Humour is a very important part of our self enrichment journey. Often people do not have fun in their lives so they become very low in self esteem and lacking drive in whatever they do. So when I added some jokes and fun into the workshop; some of them could relate to the jokes . They became talkative and excitable. Yes, it was the connection that enabled them to let down their hair and involved in the workshop.

They were motivated and highly excited at the end of the workshop and asked me to conduct other programmes for them in future. I was happy to have shared with them some enriching experience and also given them self confidence in the process.

They gave me feedback such as ,"never realised wokshops could be fun and enriching", "ah ya, should have attended more of such seminars and workshops in the past..." I was touched by such positive comments. It was good for my self esteem too. I felt elevated and stimulated to work harder for my personal improvement too.

So when I conducted another workshop, I was able to give more jokes and added more humour to spice up the programme. The effect of humour was indeed enriching and refreshing. The feedback was even better than the first.

My first workshop happened 10years ago. Today I have travelled round the region, giving talks and seminars to different groups of people. For me, it was learning each time I conducted any seminar. When there was positive feedback it boosted my self esteem and increased my self confidence. When there was negative feedback, I would work harder to improve those areas of inadequacy.

You should try to conduct a simple workshop at your workplace or even volunteer to host an event to enrich your life experience and improve your lives. It is a wonderful feeling standing in front of a group of captive audience.

Truly, whether you are attending or conducting a seminar or workshop, the enrichment is boundless and immensely useful for our life journeys. The subtle improvements to our lives are beyond words.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - having fun at workshops

2010-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - having fun at workshops

Hi friends

I want to continue sharing about attending workshops and seminars. The real issue is how to have fun while attending workshops, whether the trainer is exciting or boring.

The one thing I learned from my numerous attendance at workshops and seminars is that I must think of the fun quotient at the course. Once I decided how much fun I want to achieve, the self improvement element will automatically come into the picture. The trainer can be a boring dude or a tremendous exciting screamer, you are the star of the workshop! It is about you - your self improvement journey. You come to a seminar to enrich, empower and to improve your life , your self. So, do not care what kind of trainer, what kind of stuff is being taught. What is important is that you imagine fun and excitement which will enable you to truly learn self enhancement and motivate your inner drive to excel better in the next endeavour.

Another thing which I wish to share about attending workshop is to collect as many names as possible (with telephone contacts) in case, in future, you may need to connect with them later on in your life. Who knows? You may find a business partner, a confidante, a friend or even a pal in the workshop. This is a real gain in the long term. See, your life becomes a great improvement and empowerment center immediately. A whole repertoire of knowledge and wisdom is in store within that brain of yours. No one can take that power from you . It is your own treasure and your own NLP power.

Ah, think about it. Learning is fun no matter how you look at it. Smile and laugh a lot during workshops and people remember you . In this way, you are already enriched.

Cheers, go and attend any workshop of your budget...

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- attending seminars

2010-06-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi folks
I got a lot of positive feedback and interest in the what kind of seminar would enable people to improve self confidence, self awareness and self enhancement. Let me share with you my personal secrets in getting the best out of any seminar.

The first thing you need to do is believe in yourself - that I can learn something positive whatever or which kind of seminar you are attending or I would like to attend. Having this positive mindset, I then let my hair down and then really enjoy the course thoroughly and then reflect on whatever I have learned. Usually I feel very enriched, and self improved. Likewise, you can gain lots of self confidence which will enable you to even further become a better neuro-linguistically programmed (NLP) person- with better behaviour and better outlook in life after that. I accumulated my belief through attending at least one seminar a month.

The second thing is to carry with you a little notebook (costing a few cents - not a real notebook or laptop) and jot down whatever your trainer or speaker said and kaboom, you have mastered art of writing short notes and also enlightened your self wisdom and thus increase your self improvement rating and ego elevation. Even Albert Einstein, while he was alive, used to carry a little notebook to record any queries he might have or to note down any kind of question which could have flashed over his mind. Note taking is vital for self improvement because human minds tend to forget what we see or hear. I always have a little notebook with me in my handbag. It is very useful and handy when collecting telephone contacts of strangers you meet during seminars or along the way.

The third thing is to participate or get involved as much as possible so that you can then apply to your everyday living. I can assure you that by so doing, you feel that you have improved self awareness and increased your self confidence and esteem greatly. Oftentimes, those who are not participative or have an attitude problem will not improve because of mental block in their head. During seminars, I always volunteer for whatever game or activity the trainer wants to do. In this way I learn at first hand.

We can always learn from others no matter how minor the learning point. It is the application of what we learned that we actually gain lots of self improvement and also increase our NLP skills and power. Attending NLP seminars is even better. The lessons learned are able to empower you and give you greater NLP capability.

Lastly, if you are introverted sort of person, try attending seminars which enable you to get out of the comfort zone and vice versa, if you are always talking and outgoing, take the time during seminars to listen and learn. This is what self improvement and self empowerment is all about.

Hope you have now a better idea of how you can enrich your lives through self improvement seminars and NLP workshops.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Attending Seminars is to be involved

2010-06-20T07:33:00.001-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi friends, greetings again.

A short while ago I was sharing about the involvement of ourselves to improve our lives and become better informed and more confident because self improvement will lead to greater self esteem and better NLP of our pesonality and our lives.

Attending seminars is a good way to do self improvement. You get to tap other people's brains and also their skills at first hand. You get to be involved in something useful and personal. Some seminars are very exciting because they encourage participation and in doing, you learn a lot.

Self improvement come quickly to those who participate eagerly at seminars and talks and public workshops. During such times, the person who gets involved more, learn more and thus improve more. Those who are quiet and aloof may not learn as much and thus their self improvement level may not be high.

There are many types of seminars for self improvement. What you need to do is to check your budget which can be from $20 to thousands of dollars per seminar. Anthony Robbins' seminars are expensive but they help to give a lot of self improvement tips while some are cheap but they are good for self motivation. So depending on what you want to improve in your lives, you attend what you enjoy and then also learn something useful and fun.

Cheers and keep learning. Attending seminar for self improvement is a good start if you are not involved in anything right now...

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

2010-06-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Involvement means self improvement faster

Hi folks, it is me again. Today I will like to share the secrets of how to keep improving and learning . The basic principle is to be involved in whatever you are doing.

Confucius said, when you hear, you may forget, when you see you may remember but when you do , you learn. So self improvement is technically to be involved in something you are interested. How to be involved? Do not be a spectator.

Use your heart to do things rather than using your head. When you use your head too much, you are always rationalising . However when you do things with your heart, you learn faster and you improve yourself better.

How to be involved? It is simple, you have to enjoy doing what you like.Improving your self and learning skills means that you can become more skilful and gain more self confidence and definitely life will be improved and thus your self improvement level moves up along the life journey.

So why not be more interested in your daily activities? Be more involved in helping yourself to improve and learn more skills so as to equip for life.You also will increase your Neuro LInguistic Programming (NLP) for your life....

One of the ways is to be inquisitive and curious about people around us. Another way is to do things with more self-conscience and self talk. In this way your self improvement skills will be boosted and life will definitely improve in the long term..

Cheers and keep improving
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - learning a new skill this month

2010-06-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hi good day friends
I have been busy making money and learning new skills. Recently a friend asked me about gift wrapping and that she commented that paper wrapping is so out- of -date and so boring. She said why don't we learn the Japanese art of Furoshiki? Wow, sounds great isn't it? Just the name already so high sounding - surely the art of cloth wrapping as it is known in English must be equally fantastic and fun.

Indeed, yes, yes yes. It was fun and exciting. No wonder the Japanese are so well known for their gifts and their wonderful ways of presenting gifts which may not be expensive but look very expensive and refined. The receivers are always so happy to receive the gifts because they are so wonderfully and carefully wrapped not with paper but with cloths which are unique to their culture.

Well, Robin (my girl friend) and I decided that we should set up a shop selling Japanese gift wrappers - not paper products but cloths of different sizes and different designs to wrap different shapes of gifts... Indeed for the past few weeks I was struggling with the art. Learning to gift wrap in Japanese way is very difficult. Unlike paper wrappers which are commonly available and easily used, the cloth must be suitable for the right gift and the right colour to match. The cloth design itself is already an art ,what more the wrapping itself.

for the first gift, I decided to choose a small box(easy to wrap square
objects) the wrapping is straightforward just like the paper wrapper. The only difference is that you need to tie a nice ribbon-like pattern on the top of the box and that itself is really an artistic presentation.

for the second gift, I choose a round cylindrical type (much like the holder for painting) and you have to wrap it like candy with both ends nicely tied up and folded into a Christmas sweet-structure type of gift.

There are so many varieties of gifts and so many types of cloth to choose from. The folding of the ends into ribbons is another hard bit. Well, practice makes perfect, so I have been practising with table cloth, rags and other cloths so that I have enough practice later when I open my little shop for business.

While learning this art form, I encountered problems because I am by nature very impatient and want things to happen quickly and get on with the next task . However this skill learning has taught me many thigns.

Firstly it is about the heart in the wrapping. The Japanese do not do things hastily. They are thoughtful, mindful and careful. They select cloth carefully, place the cloth reverently on the table top which must be very clean and clear of other stuff, and then with sharp scissors and accessories before wrapping. Such deliberate attempt to wrap even the simplest and the cheapest of gifts make you realise that effort is more important than the gift itself. The art indeed is so zen- like, you feel peace and inner joy just to wrap one gift. The wrapping can take up to 30 minutes to perfect a wrapping.

Secondly the learning of this art actually trains one's patience. Selecting the cloth itself needs time and care and then the whole art of wrapping makes you really perspire. I had difficulty with this at first because it is so tedious and cumbersome. No cutting corners, no speedily wrapping up just because you are in a hurry. It is carefully planned out days before the gift is to be presented and thus the whole game of sorting, finding and wrapping so that the receiver is given the honour and the joy of receiving the gift from a friend's heart.

The last learning point of this wrapping is that it shows you a simple piece of cloth can become a part of a friendship to be revered and to be enjoyed . When the friend receives the gift, the inner joy and excitement will stay for a long time because of the way it is presented and the colour which is chosen to brighten someone's day.

So let us brighten someone's day today with a nice smile , which is the greatest simple gift of all. It costs nothing but it brings joy and sunshine to anyone who sees the smile. After this , go and learn this art of gift wrapping so that you can be different in your own country , unless you are Japanese yourself. Ah, even if you are a Japanese person, learn to master the more refined version of the art of cloth wrapping - the furoshiki-

Cheers and happy learning this new skill... I will share some more in my next blog.

Good day
SallyKlaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - thoughts for May Day

2010-05-02T01:43:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog - Thoughts for May Day

Hi folks and friends, yesterday was May Day. There are two meanings
to May Day. One is the calling for help as if we are in trouble or crisis. The other is that we are having the rest for all labourers in the world of work.

For the first meaning, it is common for people to get into some form of crisis because life is full of problems and troubles of sorts. The calling of SOS or May Day, May Day is to allow people to answer to your call and come to your aid. I have my first May Day when I broke my shoulder during a judo match years ago. When I screamed for help, everyone around me thought I was just seeking attention since I did not win the tournament match. Well, I was thrown off the shoulder by a more rugged female judoka who recklessly hurled me onto the hard tatami(floor) with her speedy throw. I was not able to break my fall on time and had a nasty shoulder pain. This May Day of mine was responded by all with lukewarm help because everyone around me including my sibling thought that I was stronger than that. I could handle anything tough. I was sort of a "tough cookie" boyish and cocky. Well, it was a disaster and my help came from the most unexpected person - a frail male teacher who was thin as a rake. He helped me to the ground in front of all the bewildered looks and drove me to the nearest hospital and waited for me. Well, he was my first love and my motivation to do better for my judo practical test nex time round. His gentle demeanour made me think that all men should be like that. Well, until today I have not found anyone gentler than my ex-teacher. I wonder how he is today? I hope he has become someone's dream man and a wonderful husband I am sure.

Well the next type of May Day is what all workers look forward to -- a day of rest from labour. May Day is also call Labour Day during which workers will stop work and reflect on what is the improvement they have to make on their lives and others. For me , May First (May 1) was a good day because it enables me to sleep, eat and read my favourite book.

May Day is a day of self examination for all of us. Each of us must look at our own reflection in the mirror and adjust our hair, clean our face and adjust our attire before facing the brave new challenges of the next day. Indeed, a smile is the best accessory to any dress, any attire and any new start. It is the shortest bridge for any two persons when some one smiles and makes us feel good.

Yes, life is about many May Days of rest and crises. It is really up to us to handle each day as it comes. I am now learning guitar and finding the chords interesting and the fingers painful because the fingerings on the guitar frets are not easy when you are above 35 years old as fingers are stiff and hard to bend with the chords. Learning is never easy. Self improvement is never easy too. It takes effort, discipline and most important of all, self belief that I can do it. Yes, all of us can do it if we put our hope on having fun and learning.

Cheers
Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog -sharing thoughts for April

2010-04-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing thoughts for April

Hi good day friends. I was amazed by the power of words which can kill and can warm. Many times we are discouraged by words of anger, words of hurt and sometimes words of criticism while those who gave us wonderful kind words are remembered and warmed our hearts. Yes, I am going to share with you further principles which I learned from my workshop participants. Instead of I, the trainer giving them kind and powerful words to motivate them, they gave me boosters in principles which I shall share shortly.

The Victoria Principle is about the confidence which can derive from simple things such as wearing a simple accessory. Take for instance, a plain white shirt with a red neck-tie or a colourful neck-tie will make the man stand out in a crowd while a lady with a plain outfit coupled with a pearl necklace (which can be plastic beads looking like pearls or water-cultured pearls) can instantly make the person look different. This is called the Victoria principle. Victoria in the sense of victory in thinking and behaviour. So this is the simple Victoria principle for females and Victor principle for you gentlemen out there. One simple accessory even a nice watch or a nice briefcase can make a person outstanding.

The next one is the Monk's principle. Wow, some of us may be wondering what kind of monk philosophy or religious thoughts we have to ponder on. No worries. The basic monk principle is that of clear thoughts and mindfulness. Whenever we do something, some thoughts must be put into it. The mindfulness of doing that particular task is vital to the success that follows after. I was told by a friend that one day he was in the University canteen taking his meal when a friend tripped and fell on someone's computer wire lying haphazardly on the canteen floor, thus causing a person to trip and his own computer to be destroyed because it fell onto the ground and crashed. See, a little mindfulness of just ensuring no one is being inconvenienced by placing the wires in such a way as under a chair or under a table, or put up a sign to tell friends that they should stay away from walking that path or space would have saved the computer from damage and the friend from tripping and hurting himself. This is what the monks do, everything they do in mindful thoughts of others. Even carrying water from the well or sweeping the courtyard of the temple -- even Mother Theresa emphasized this point that it is the little things that matter.

The next principle is called the Good Samaritan Principle. Many of you have heard of the story of being a good samaritan. It is not about helping an injured person but helping yourself. The reason why this story was told is to let people know that what you do is not really about others, it is about the boomerang effect. A good deed comes back to you later on. The empowerment of helping others is in the power of action and self belief that this act will help the other person. This samaritan effect is like the boomerang, what goes round comes around..

I have to go now but I will share the rest of the little philosophies shortly. Many of us are pained by little things in life not by huge problems. It is the little sand that gets into our eyes that cause us to feel painful and uncomfortable and it is the little sand that gets into our shoes that cause us pain in walking, so take care of little things and you can handle big things when they come along.

Cheers and have a good day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing thoughts for April

2010-04-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing thoughts for April

Hi folks, I have been away for some time giving talks on motivation and how to live life, so I have not blogged for a while. Hope you guys have not forgotten me.

Well, today I am sharing thoughts for the month of April because I have gathered so much self improvement learning from my participants and my friends during this time while I was supposedly to be teaching, yet I was learning more than teaching!

The most interesting principle I learnt was the Mother Theresa's Principle. What is this principle? It is about doing the little things for your friends and colleagues without their knowledge and brightening their lives so that they in turn can become better off and go on to brighten other people's lives. Say for example, you leave an apple on your colleagues' tables one Monday morning quietly and go on with your usual routine. When your colleagues come to work, they are pleasantly surprised to see a fresh rosy apple on their desk. They may ask but they will be happy to receive this gift. The apples do not cost much but they bring great joy to the receipient. Do this kind of little random acts of kindness, and your life would be enriched many folds more.

The second principle is called the destruction power of rotten apples. I am sure all of you know that one rotten apple spoils the whole crate. So if you know someone who has toxic personality and who does nothing but is critical of you and always find fault with you, go away as far as possible before you get drawn into the negativity of that poisonous "apple". It is not easy to run away from such a person but you can always counteract by switching your thoughts to positive things if this rotten apple tries to destroy your mood or your day. You may even turn him or her around by offering oranges such as nice words to such people. Tell them they look good or they are great for their attire or their little acts which may be worth talking about. In this way you can redeem the rotten apple and it will not spoil your day, instead you improve that person along the way;

The third concept is called the Mathew concept. Who is Mathew? It is actually borrowed from the bible. The gospel of Mathew contained one story of the talents. Each one of us has different talents and thus we should use that talent or those talents which we have and behave accordingly. For those with many, they should utilise them to the fullest while those with one should not bury their only talent like an ostrich. The only talent may be the best such as being able to sing or dance. If you have only one talent, capitalise on it and maybe you are greater than you thought.

Ah, I will share more in my next blog. Think about these few tips and make your day a wonderful day. It takes very little to make our lives meaningful and it takes very little to help others become enriched and improved their lives.

cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- colour your life

2010-03-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Today onwards I will be sharing something about colouring our lives. Many of us are not aware that colours will enhance our lives and colours can also destroy our lives.Why is this so?

We are living in a world surrounded by colours which are different hues from the universal central colour of white. The energy which we derive from the different colours will give us the kind of stamina we need and the kind of booster to our daily lives. However if we use the wrong colour in our clothing, our way of decorating the house, the way we place objects in our office with wrong colour scheme, it may make our day lousy (terrible) or the colour may brighten our day and make our work so much more productive,

I learned colour therapy while I was in Sri Lanka in 2005. There are some people there who are very poor yet they live very enriched and fulfililling lives while others who are rich and powerful are having terrible bouts of pain and low self esteem. I discovered the secret to all these is simply the use of wrong colours or liking the wrong colours.

today I will be sharing how you can enhance your bad day with hues of yellow and green. If you want to spice up your daily work and enjoy mundane chores without feeling blue, then you have to spot yellow objects or wear yellow T-shirts or green shorts or put a green plant on your work table . If you are at home, place the green plant in the kitchen and if you are at work, you can wear a light yellow shirt with blue/black pants and if you are a woman, wear light yellow or beige blouse with green accessories such as a brooch or a scarf which will enhance your day - trust me - it worked for many of my clients who told me that they had blue Mondays. This is a sure way to ward away your Monday blues and turn them into cheery and bright sunshine day!

Yellow is a cheerful, bright and sunny colour which is supposed to brighten, cheer up or give you a great forward future. It is continuity and visionary. So having a yellow object or yellow clothing for a day which is going to be jam-packed with lots of meetings or projects, yellow is the way to go.

Green is the nature of earth or growth. It represents newness and development. A green plant, a green object gives you the freshness and feelings of something good is on the way. Even though green has its side effect of being a green-eyed monster or a green horn, green generally is a good colour not for clothing but for objects which will show developments such as green jade for accessory, green plant for your work table or a green dustbin for you to throw your trash.

Ah, I will share other colours for another time and be sure to think yellow as the sunshine, brighten your life with shades of yellow and beige. The day will be better even when it is raining.It will surely enhance your day and your work will improve and your career will be great....

Cheers and have a bright day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Sharing my life journey

2010-03-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

Hi good evening friends, I would like to share another self improvement chapter of my life where I pursued my studies at the University. the budget given to me for my varsity studies was not much so I had to make do with very mundane breakfast and water from the water cooler so that I could save money to buy calculator. A calculator twenty years ago was very costly and bulky. I managed to buy a good calculator and a slide rule for my business calculus.

The days of learning was tough. A lot of young people think that older people had it easy. Actually we were not able to get resources and books were very expensive and limited. The library is forever swamped with students waiting for the same volumes. I managed to secure a good seat before the library opened every morning because I would leave my house at early hours in the morning and then reaching the university way before any other person. So I would sit right next to the library door for the librarian to open the door at 8.30 am in the morning.

Ah, it was fun because I would be armed with my favourite book or a magazine. this enabled me to gain knowledge and not waste my time. Also I would use the time to think about the meals I would have to prepare when I returned home from the varsity. The days passed very quickly and soon it was time for graduation.

I was able to get a good job way before my graduation because I was a great learner and many lecturers praised me for attentiveness and hardwork. Yes, hardwork is the key to success.

Going for further studies is a great way up the social ladder. In fact the rungs on the social ladder would be smoother when you have a good degree. Also you gained lots of friends who could help you in future.

I like to encourage all of you to pursue your academic dreams and your learning towards your goals in life. The Chinese has a saying which suggess that learning is a source of wealth and books are the keys to lots of wealth and riches... sure, it is a key or a means to self enlightenment and self enhancement. The view from the top of the ladder is different from the bottom of the ladder. It inspires me to go for greater heights because the learning experience at the university gave me several useful lessons:
a) it gave me confidence and self belief in my abilities and capabilities
b) it gave me new insights into doing certain projects
c) it gave me good friends who shared my enthusiasm for life
d) it gave me hope for a better life

Now I not only got my necessary educational qualifications, I also gained valuable lifesklls such as how to negotiate for better scores; how to work your way through a difficult project and how to handle difficult people.

So friends, plan for your further studies today. Today is present. Today is a gift. Plan today for a better tomorrow

cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP blog -sharing my life journey

2010-03-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog - sharing my life journey

Hi I was so busy with some humanitarian efforts the last few days that I did not have time to blog and share with you folks my journey in life - in fact one of the joys of life is driving. My life is so much richer and fuller even since I learnt to drive some 20 years ago.

The actual skills you derived from driving a car will enable you to drive a small lorry or truck and even a little van so that you need not worry about how to earn a living after that. The other skills I garnered from my driving lessons before I became a full-fledged driver were manifold:
a) the skills of driving are the same as the skills of handling life situations; the more you drive, you more you can handle difficult situations in our lives for example how to avoid difficult corners along the road , the same applies to how to get out of trouble when you see one coming along the way.
See, driving is so good that it enables you to enrich your lifeskills;

b) driving gives you tremendous freedom which you cannot get by taking a bus or any public transport. With the car is in your hands , you are the master of the journey you want to take... you can slow down or you can accelerate ; it is up to you but in a public transport you are not able to find even a seat sometimes, so you stand in the cabin swaying left and right according to the bus driver's skills .

c) driving enriches your world. You can see different perspectives of the scenery of the road, the different angles along the way and also you can listen to your favourite piece of music or song along your way to work or to anywhere you are going. There is no one to tell you what to do. This is what I call - the secret of being self-driven - the freedom to think, the freedom to do what you like and the freedom to go whichever way you fancy. Driving gives you all this and more.

The other thing which I learnt when I mastered my driving skills is that you "owned" this skill all your life. This means that you can use it whenever you want even when you have no car or mode of transport. Once you have it, it is in your memory. The knowledge belongs to you.

I have been driving almost 20 years now and still enjoying every minute of the driving experience. Although sometimes the roads are jam-packed with cars and all sorts of vehicles, I still feel very empowered and enriched because I am in my little private space - listening to my favourite music and thinking about my life - how it has improved since I knew how to drive. The world is our oyster. It is up to us to become pearls. It is up to us to recognise the freedom to go which way we want.

Learning to drive is much more than learning to ride a horse. Riding a horse requires the joint-effort of that creature, sometimes bad mood, the horse will bump you off the paths but the car is absolutely in your control provided you pumped enough gasoline ...

To ACHIEVE success in your self journey, the more self discovery and self improvement skills you need to harness and learn, so that there is excitement and meaning along the road of wonder and joy.

Go for a test drive today. The air is good and the day is fine.
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing my life journey contrinues

2010-03-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog -

Hi friends, the last blog I was talking about how I gained confidence in learning to ride a bicycle. Today I will share my experience in learning to ride a horse.

I was so confident about myself and my learning ability when I could ride a bicycle so I decided to do something more exciting than riding a motor bike. I went to learn how to ride a horse.

Going to the polo club is an adventure in itself because when you visit a polo club, the place seemed so intimidating because you do not see many people but vast areas of flat and wide spaces with long poles defining various squares. I was wondering about the various square perimeter of enclosure when I saw a trainer with a beautiful brownish white horse walking round the perimeter of one of the enclosures.

It was about a 15 minute walkabout in the enclosure and then the trainer mounted the horse and off he rode into the other side of the field. The horse was not galloping but merely trotting round in another enclosure and other horse trainers and different horses came for their daily exercise - much like dog owners running their dogs.

Here, I could see different kinds of majestic horses . Some riders galloped away while some merely walking round with their horses.

Next I visited the stables. The smell was bad but it was an exciting thing to see how people can actually communicate with these animals.

After a long while, I was able to ride one of them. The one chosen for me was a light brown horse, about a few years old, and already fully grown. He stood quietly by the side of my trainer , who instructed me how to mount the horse and sit on the saddle including how to hold the reigns of the horse. Next he told me what to do and he lead the horse with me sitting up there. The view is so different from the ground.

My heart beat very fast and my fear of falling was so great that I kept asking the trainer is it dangerous? is it safe for to ride alone up there? The trainer patiently told me not to worry just relax and look ahead. Wow, it was frightening initially but after some time, I gained enough confidence and asked the trainer whether I could a longer route . So he let me ride the horse for an hour along the field and across one or two paths towards a village nearly. He sat in front of me and ask me to hold on to him. The horse trotted along the road in a steady and rhythmic way.

I could not contain my joy and started singing. It was a wonderful day when I rode on that beautiful horse. The confidence I gained from this horse riding experience has enriched me further along my journey of life.

First of all, I learned that there is a time for everything. You cannot rush the learning because certain things need to be learned first. You cannot run unless you learn to walk . You cannot fly unless you have wings or take the aeroplane.

Ah, the next learning point which I want to share with all my friends is that the ride on the horse is like having a bird-eye view of the world. You need to see things from a higher perspective sometimes if you want to succeed in life. From the ground things may seem so different , so tough but when you see the whole picture, you can make better decisions and become more understanding of others and their hardship. You become more humane sometimes after a tough situation.

The last thing about riding a horse is that if you are afraid of the horse, I think the horse is more afraid of us.. This means that sometimes, things are not as complicated as we thought. Do not fear because you have imagined too much, rather let things run by themselves and then you adjust accordingly. The world is not so terrible after all. It takes time to know people and situation better.

This is a good experience for me. I learned to take things slowly and not hasten because I was impatient, rather I have to learn to wait for good things to come. Patience is reward in itself..

Life can be enriched in so many ways. Every way is a great way if we look from the top of things.. cheers

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- sharing my life journey

2010-03-08T16:03:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi folks it has been days since I got into the blog due to meetings and conferences last few days. Well, it is through all the participation at seminars and conferences that we learn to tap other people's brains and their thoughts.

Well, the usual topic during the conferences these days are centering around financial crises and how to allevate poverty and problems of poor countries.

I am very glad that people are coming forward to discuss issues about life, survival and also lots of self improvement schemes to encourage people from all walks of life to adopt the life-long learning method for self enhancement and self empowerment because at the end of the day, it is up to us to enrich, enhance, empower and motivate ourselves because it is our own personal journey through life.

Friends and family can only walk alongside us but we have to trudge the path alone actually. Whatever we want to do, we should do to the best of our ability because this is our basic duty to ourselves.

Today I want to share my learning experience in riding a bicycle. For many years I have always wanted to learn how to ride a bicycle because it is so convenient. You just hop onto the two-wheelers and out you go to the world at your own speed, of course you have to watch the cars and big buses coming your way.

My first experience in riding a bicycle was a terrible one. I had so many falls and bruises that I almost gave up until my brother who came to know about it, helped me to steady myself with encouraging words and pep-talked me into self confidence. The next few times when I tried riding, I became more confident and finally after two months of slow learning curve, I became an expert and now I could ride without hands-on.

The cycling experience is really about life. It is the falls that made us strong; it is the bruises that remind us to be patient and resilient. Nothing achieves without hardwork. I practised till I mastered the riding techniques. Today cycling is such a breeze.

However to really excel in this life journey, you need friends who will encourage you , family who will support you because the journey would be easier. When you are alone, the road is tougher than when you have someone close by .. This is why for football/soccer matches, the spectators are the ones who give the teams the booster and usually the team on the home ground stand a better chance of winning because they know their families and friends are out sitting and standing there, cheering them on.

Well, my bruise marks are still with me. They have faded with time but still a scar here and there to remind me that whenever I fall, I must pick up and go again. Also the cycling process is such that you have to keep riding and cycling and peddling because once you stop, you will have the tendency to fall.. so never be complacent because once you stop learning, you may fall and getting up may be tougher then...

Go and grab a bicycle and ride into the countryside, where the winds are blowing and birds are chirping and where the air is fresh and inspiring.

Cheers and have an adventure today. Today is a good day. Carpe diem
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing my life journey

2010-03-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

Hi good day folks, I wanted to share my part in the quest for one-skill a year scheme. I got a friend who is now based in Thailand, Phuket, once told me that it is good to have mastered one skill a year so that by the time you are 50 years old, you have at least a repertoire of 10-15 skills.

So I was so impressed by his enthusiasm about life that I took on the scheme of learning one skill a year. The skill which I very much wanted to learn then was sewing. This was because I like to have my own design and pattern. I do not like even today to buy clothes off the peg. Someone else might have the same dress as you have etc.. So I decided to take up sewing at a local dressmaking and design school.

What I thought was easy turned out to be rather tough. The first few lessons were merely to learn how to cut brown paper into shapes of human body. It was tracing some bodice sizes and shapes and then outlining onto the brown paper with a HB pencil and then cut out slowly using a razor-sharp scissors. I had to cut properly because most of the time, my cutting was out of the line and the trainer , an old stern lady would ask me to redo and repeat the process of cutting the paper pattern well.

She said that the bodice pattern could be kept for a long time if we cut rightly and properly. The only adjustment we need to make in future with our brown paper pattern was to drawn parallel to the original design if we put on weight or vice versa. Usually it is when we put on weight that the design has to be widen but not on the paper. The paper would be pinned onto a real cloth and the cut would be adjusted to suit the size of the wearer.

What a great idea. A fix pattern but the cutting would have to adjust for extra inches here and there. I marvelled at how the trainer could think so effectively. One design , many types of shapes can be churned out on the cloth later on...

Ah, the learning to sew means you have to know how to use the sewing machine because that is the most important part of the process of sewing a piece of beautiful dress or blouse.

The threads have to be passed through tiny little needle before you can even sew anything. The pulling of the cloth across the machine is also an art. You really need to pull the cloth gently so as not to tear it or pull it out of shape. I took another three months to learn peddling the sewing machine.
Now, I could peddle the sewing machine like an expert and without looking at the cloth I am transforming into a beautiful dress or other kinds of wear.

The most important part of this self improvement is to ensure that you learned to do your best, whether in the cutting of the bodice pattern, or in the peddling of the machine or in the designing of the new dress. Heart must be there. You cannot but feel for the design you want to create and sew.

My sisters in law loved my dresses which I presented to them every Christmas for many years. It was only when one of them got married that I stopped sewing for her and the other sibling.

Well, learning one skill a year is really a great idea for improving our lives and also to enable our minds and bodies to be alert and busy.

Go and look for an improvement project which you like to do. I am sure you are able to harness that skill to your advantage later on. You may even be so good that you can open a store or shop doing what you have learnt.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Sharing my life journey continues

2010-03-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi people, I want to continue to share with you my life journey especially this part of my life which was one of the most interesting and exciting part -
The learning of judo during my youth.

I began learning judo at age 13 when I chanced upon a book in the public library. This was because I was then learning Japanese and Judo was one form of Japanese martial arts. The others include Karate, Ninjitsu and other "do".. I was interested actually in Japanese flower arrangement called the Ikebana but it was too expensive and also my environment could not allow me to place exotic plants and display all over my house. There was simply no space even for me to have a proper sleep at night. The house was shared by twenty people. Our faces were often bruised from kicking each other in the nights and waking up to find our "puffed up" faces in the mirror the next day...How to accommodate ikebana arrangements which are massive displays of art and beauty.

So the best choice was something personal. I came to this book which showed various throws and falls. Ah, I thought to myself that if I could master this martial art, no one would be able to bully me and I could go out at night without fear.

So I signed up at the school judo club and had to travel to the Association which was quite far away from school to learn from the judo master. On the first day, I was late because I lost my way there. When I reached the Judo Association, my teacher (sinsei) was angry but did not show it. Instead he told me to be his assistant. I was thrilled, thinking that this was a great moment to learn first hand. But what a day! I was thrown several times on the floor to demonstrate hip throw, shoulder throw and overhead throw... ah yo, when I returned home that evening, my body was covered with blues and blacks... every part of my body was aching and in pain.

My elder sister sneered at me and laughed. My dad told me to stop learning this kind male martial art because I was a little girl. But I insisted that it was fun inspite of the pain. Also I wanted some form of self defence for my own protection.

The next lesson was even worst. I had to spar with my friend who was about twice my size. Naturally I could not heave her over my shoulder, so I got thrown heavily onto the floor instead. I broke my shoulder blade because I could not break my fall on time. I landed on my shoulder and my left shoulder broke. I cried loudly and my sinsei carried me to the sick bay ( a place to rest if we were not well). He asked me to rest first while he contacted my family or my school teacher. No one was at home so he contacted my school . You know what? The teacher who came to my aid was a quiet, kind and caring male Mathematics teacher who drove me to the nearest hospital to fix my dislocated shoulder back.

He did not teach me before. But I was in love with him after that. He became my motivation for learning and studying till I graduated from the university. This was the most exciting part of my life not just the learning of judo as a martial art but the knowing that this wonderful person existed in this world. He cared for me even though I was not his student. He drove me home and even asked about me days later when I recovered. I did not miss a single day of school or judo lesson after this incident!

I am still very grateful to him for this exciting learning experience of my life.. and it was this teacher who taught me to love others and to care for those in need. So whenever I can, I will render help to anyone because life is more meaningful if you care for others..

Learning judo not only helped me to improve myself, my self esteem , it also taught me to be patient, to be skilful in whatever you do and to learn to care for others.. My self improvement and self enhancement reached its little peak when I got my brown belt during the final test before I completed my studies. I could have gone on to acquire the black belt and become the next master - but I decided to stop here because it was great learning journey already...I want to pursue other skills and take on other learning journeys which I will share with you all too....

Have a nice day. Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog- Sharing my life journey -three

2010-02-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Sharing my life journey -Three

Hi friends, today I am going to share with you the learning of Japanese language as part of self improvement and enhancement of life. The oriental languaages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other South East Asian languages are rather difficult to learn. The reason is that you are not just learning a language per se, you are learning the whole cultural system and the norms and values of that society.

My experience with the Japanese language is thus. At first when I signed up the Japanese class , I thought it was merely the regurgitation of some foreign tongue. As long as you know how to utter some greetings and read simple stories in that language, you have mastered the language. Ah, I was terribly wrong.

The Japanese language was actually the Japanese cultural journey. It was a very exciting but difficult learning procesx because there are several levels of this wonderful refine language. First there is the honorific code of conduct which you have to learn, the greetings, the bowing and the gentle way of doing things if you were a female and another code of conduct if you were a male. Asian societies until the next 50 years or so, would be very much a patrichical society because man is supposed to be the head of the household. Thus the cultural bias towards the male species in Asia.

The first thing I realised in learning Japanese was not only the alphabets or character set was so complicated because each stroke symbolises something. A wrong stroke, you are in trouble and every combination of different strokes denote different meaning and different word. Ah, it was so complex.

The next difficult thing in learning Japanese language is learning the culture of the society. We have to learn how the Japanese behave. From the bowing and the making of a simple cup of O' cha (tea), it is a insightful cultural shock to most of us. The tea is simple yet so profound. The art of drinking tea is a pleasure to watch. The sipping of tea represents the peace and tranquility of the moment...to be savoured with each sip....ah..

Wow, I was very much attracted to the teacher's polite and gentle way of handling us, the wayward, impatient and difficult students who wanted to learn fast yet not paying attention. She was calm and firm. I had not seen her anger nor her agitation during the whole course of 1 year learning journey with her. You see, we were supposed to learn from basics to intermediate only. Thereafter if you were good enough to pass the Japanese examination at the Cultural Society, you then could proceed to the Advanced level where you even learn the Japanese calligraphy.

I encourage all of you to learn an Asian language, Chinese , Japanese or even Korean. All these three share common denominator - the Hanji (the Chinese characters).. However each differs in the way of life and way of being. My learning of the Japanese language gave me very vital insights into way of life that until today, most of my friends call me the Zen-Christian.

Zen is the religious belief of most Japanese and the way of zen is peace and mindfulness. Each step of our journey has to be taken with thoughts and mindfulness of that moment. This is something which I find useful even after graduating from the class. Whenever I drink tea or coffee alone, I would reflect on life because my teacher told me that drinking tea is thinking life.. Carpe diem

The other thing I learned throughout the course is to be patient with everyone and never to get angry because anger is a letter short of danger. Anger can use a lot of bad things to happen. See, what a great improvement to my life besides the Japanese languge which I am able to read a little today. I did not practise this language since 1980.

Initially I disliked the Japanese people because of my parents' prejudice towards them for their atrocities during the world war years ago, but after going through the lessons each week, I learned that we should not judge people by what their ancestors had done. Each generation and each person is unique and should be treated thus. I began to love all things Japanese because they are mindfully and intricately made by love of the art and by the love of their culture. This is something I learned too.

We should learn to love what we do and do what we love. This itself is life and self improvement means improving each day for a better tomorrow. See, the Japanese class has enabled me to be a cultured, patient and more peaceful person today. I will share more about Japanese culture and art in my next blog...read on...

Go and learn it. It is a cultural enrichment and enhancement for life.. You can also savour your next cup of tea or coffee with joy and peace..

Cheers

Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- sharing my life journey - Two

2010-02-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing my life journey two ...

Hi good day to all my friends. I am glad that I am able to share with you my struggling teenage years which resulted in a great leap forward and eventually to an adulthood full of promises and full of hope of a beautiful life.

During my teenaged years between 13 to 16, I studied very hard every morning, waking up between 3.30 to 4.30 am (unearthly hours), even before the cocks in the neighbourhood crowed. Can you imagine a young person struggling to change her destiny? Yes, I was there! I poured all the ice cubes from the fridge into a pail of water and bathed with the ice-cold water everyday without fail. This was to give me the energy and the motivation to work hard. It was freezing most of the time. Well, the effect of such rituals was that I became wide awake and very very fresh in the morning. You could not get back to sleep with this kind of awakening. So I sat upright at a small dining table and studied and read . I was always two chapters ahead of all my friends.

The days passed quickly and soon I completed my secondary (high) school with flying colours and of course went on to pursue my A levels Cambridge examinations . I did very well too. The same regimental routine enabled me to absorb whatever knowledge and power I could get.

Unfortunately being a girl in a traditionally poor family, my parents discouraged me from pursuing further studies because they felt that it would be best for a girl to marry young - innocent and nubile so that the groom's family would be delighted with a pretty young thing. I was firm in my decision not to stop school. My grandmother saw how much I loved to study. She persuaded my parents to give me another few years of education. But circumstances were beyond us because my father was found to have tuberculosis, a deadly disease which required long years of healing and treatment. So I had to give up my ambition for the time being.

Thank God that I met a most wonderful person who became my husband. He agreed to provide me the love and money to study at the university since I was given a place. He would pay for my tuition fees and also gie me a sum of money for my daily expenses. He also provided a sum of money for my parents so that they would not be worried about money matters. He was the miracle of my life . God was giving me a chance to have an abundant and successful life. Throughout my university days, he was my confidante, my supporter, my helpmate and my advocate.

Before I was matriculated into the university, I had several months of free time during which I worked as a translator in one of the largest publishing houses in my country. My editor was very nice to me and gave me lots of opportunities to grow and improve my skills in writing, editing and also public relations in media relations and other publicity events. That few months were the most exciting times of my life because there was hope and there were things to do and learn every day at the office.

The reporters and journalists were all very busy people. Every minute seemed very valuable to them. Once when my editor was not around, I followed a crime-beat reporter who was supposed to cover a murder case. It was exciting but gross to witness such a gruesome scene. It let me know that life could be so transient and so shallow. Today you are here, tomorrow you may be gone forever. It was a young person's death. What a pity to have his life snuffed out forever at such a prime time of his life. I was very grateful to the reporter for teaching me how to control my tears and how to detach from such emotional situations even though you could feel pain inside. I learned not to show fear.

The exciting times ended quite abruptly because the university's term started and I had to enrol into my program. I was thrilled because it was a totally "new world" - a world where you see everyone so smart, so motivated to do well and so busy; rushing from lecture theatre to class and then to another lesson again.

My learning expedited from then on and the learning curve took a fast upward swing to a higher plane. It was a great experience which I will share shortly later. The environment for learning (both mentally and spiritually) was so conducive for me that my learning curve soared higher and higher. It was really a mental and physical enlightenment for me.

Ah, the self improvement took a great jump too because I was also given a chance to represent my faculty in sports and games. This gave me physical strength and development which helped me to grow into a beautiful woman as well as enhanced my life for the greater challenges ahead.

This is why I am very keen to share my life journey with you all and hope that you too will have a challenging and exciting journey to tread on ....

Cheers and have a nice day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - sharing my life learning journeys - one

2010-02-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Sharing my life learning journey - One

Hi friends, I have been away because I was conducting some workshops in self improvement and learning for various organisations .

I will begin this with my own life learning journey of self improvement and how I became an academic and a behavioral consultant as well as one of the successful women today. In so doing, I hope that all of us can learn from each other and make everyday a learning experience. My first self improvement chance came when I was eight years old.

I watched a medium also known as clairvoyant, who was conducting a seance accidentally as I was a visitor to a friend's house. I was fascinated by the person's ability to translate the events of past into present happenings and to even provide hints of the future. It was not scary but very exciting because deep dpwn inside all human beings we harbour a secret desire to want to know our future... It was a case of curiosity killing the cat (me) because this became my learning point of wanting to control my future instead of depending on random events or people to help me.

Ah, by watching as a bystander, and as a child, I could see that people are very emotional and much affected by events beyond their control and always wanted to be certain about what would become of them. This is of course impossible because only God knows. However many people will still try to speculate and interprete everyday happenings and connect them to the future.. Well some might be lucky and chanced upon easy routes to future but others may not be so lucky and had to struggle day to day towards the future.

What caused me to want to improve myself was the fact that I would not want to rely on others to find out things or events or track lost persons etc.., rather, I wanted to be able to control my life to an extent that I can predict the outcomes of my actions - this means that if I work hard, I should reap positive results and if I do not work enought, of course I should expect failure in my endeavours.

The seance incident precipated my desire to learn and to improve my life. I was born rather poor. My family could not really afford a comforable life because of poverty and ignorance of my ancestors. It was my mother who decided to break out of the poverty cycle and dabbled in trading and commerce. I promised my parents that I would study hard and learn a skill every year.

So by the age of 13, (5 years after the seance event) I had already acquired several skills such as cooking, sewing , house cleaning and of course of being a master of at least 2 languages.

I used to be very timid because I had low self-esteem. With this reservoir of knowledge , I grew more confident . I was even able to tutor my rich neighbour's 2 children aged 8-10 years, in simple English and Mathematics. I received a handsome sum of $10 per month. In those days, it was big money because you could have a full meal with only a few cents. Also I wrote for some obscure tabloid and got paid for articles and reviews of books. This enabled me to study harder to achieve even more.

By 15, I had already mastered the Japanese language as my third language. Also I became an unofficial translator for one of the premier hotels in my country. This motivated me to improve myself even more. My objective in life then was to enable my family to live in comfort.

This part of my learning journey became the catalyst of my current status and standing among the millionaire-elite group and an active member of my university alumni.

I was propelled by the desire to improve my life. I read one famous inspirational quotation that further pushed me forward :" what the mind can conceive and believe, it can be achieved." This inspired me to improve everyday bit by bit - very much like the Japanese kaizen philosophy . This kaizen method teaches me to have marginal improvement and motivation everyday so that my life can be better and this has caused my to achieve a string of skills and a treasure box of talents which I can use for my future journey.

So, why am I sharing this with you all of a sudden as some of you may ask? It is because during my workshop, many of the seminar participants wanted to know how I have come so far. I was very touched and thus decided to share my life story in my journey of how I mprovee my life day by day - seizing moments to learn and improve my environment and my world around me. since I was eight until today.

My next blog I will share part two of my learning journey, the struggling teenage years where I encountered lots of learning opportunities and such as the hosts of neuro-lingistic programming skills, which equipped me for a life that can be flexible , adaptable and stress-free , enabling me to keep growing in stature and in strength. I believe all of you can also do that - grow and develop and master your life's events.

Life is a wonderful journey although it may not be smooth all the time... cheers and keep your heads up..

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Using your hands

2010-02-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - using your hands

Hi good day to all. Before I go to the Power of Three (after the sessions on Power of Two), I would like to share something that we can do with our hands.

Our hands are very powerful. They are the ones we eat with, write with and do things with. We are the architects of our own destiny by using our hands appropriately and meaningfully.

First of all, I want to share with all of you my practice of hand reflexology which helps to inject energy into my life every day and also enables me to have bonding with my family members and friends.

What is this Hand Reflexology? It is an art of enabling the reflex points in our body to be rubbed using the fingers on our hands , in a certain way to enhance blood circulation and increase our vitality .

I learnt this from a book long ago and have been practising this art of revitalising my life and my circle of friends . It is a simple way of harnessing your body's energy and stamina by doing simple actions using the two hands.

Hand reflexology was practised by the ancient Indians and Chinese as a way of circulating the blood flow to the various parts of the body so that the body will not be tired out easily and the person will retain energy at the end of the day. This requires simple acts of web -rubbing and clapping of hands.

Firstly, the HAND -CLAPPING : This is very simple.
When you clap your hands, friction is caused and blood is circulated thoughout your body enabling one to release energy and vitality. The louder you clap, the more blood is circulated and the faster you clap, the better you feel after a few minutes of clapping your hands loudly and quickly.

The Second act of reflexology is WEB-RUBBING:
To rub the web (which is between the thumb and index finger with the other hand means you place your thumb of the other hand onto the web of the hand you want to rub in a circular motion; All you have to do is to rub gently for a few seconds and then alternate the hands for a balanced rub of the two hands.

When you rub your web of your hand, you will feel some kind of sensation which enables blood to circulate properly and gives you the energy you need for the day. The best thing is that this web-rubbing can be done at home while watching television or waiting for people . The action only needs a few minutes of rubbing but the effect is lasting.

You can also do web-rubbing with your loved ones. This is a good bonding act because when you rub the hands of your loved ones, you feel a sense of being together and the warmth of sharing and caring is there.

The hands are powerful and enable us to do work and to create things. It is also with our own hands that we can create wealth and better life. I hope you can start today by doing hand reflexology so that you can harness energy when you feel tired or weary.

The other thing which we can do with our hands is to create something beautiful. Many things can be creatd from our hands such as paper folding or the art of origami (Japanese art of paper folding), we can bake a cake or sew a simple cross-stitch or even mend someone's shoes or broken stuff.

The power of living with our hands is great for our personal growth as well. The more we use our hands for useful endeavours, the more lively our lives would be and the more we can improve our quality of life.

Using hands is one of the ways to enhance our lives. Do something good today with your hands. Write a nice note to someone to cheer that person up; make a simple cake or cookie for a friend or neighbour; do a craft such as folding a nice bird with old magazine or even help someone across the road with your hands.

The ideas of using hands meaningfully are overwhelming. Yes, use your hands well today and everyday and make 2010 really fun and exciting.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

the Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Personal Innovation

2010-02-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Personal Innovation

Hi good day to all of you. Yes, the power of two is vital to our wellbeing as well as for companionship for the journey in life. It is not good for health if we travel along life journey alone. No man is an island and no one lives alone. Even hermits must come back to civilisation once their meditation period or self denial period is over.

Well, I want to pause for a while from the Power of Two to share with you about personal innovation. Life is a continuous evolving puzzle which intrigues us everyday with moments of surprises (both good and bad) as well as unexpected events and most of the time, painful circumstances which we do not wish to encounter.

So, personal innovation is to enable all of us to have the process of creating something new each day to counteract the moments of pain and anxiety. There is no need to invent light bulbs, or reinvent the wheel or to come up with new telephone designs etc... Personal innovation is about dealing with daily circumstances with new ways or insights.

We know all of us have habits which are already second nature to us. Some habits can be adjusted to enable us to have more comfortable and have more appealing behaviours so as to become more effective human beings. One famous quote by Denis Waitley mentioned that imagination and innovation equals realisation. So it is good for us to imagine and innovate so that we can have the reality of living well.

One way of innovating your personal life is to amplify your awareness of your routine activities. Can I sweep the floor differently from yesterday? Can I comb my hair in another way to look different and spritely? Can I wash my dishes with less water and more enthusiasm? Even your walking can be different and you will feel the experience of change. Little changes are like ripples which can then become huge waves of satisfaction to our lives.

Habits can be changed little by little to enable us to have joy of living. The more adjustments you make to your habits and your routine, the more choices you have for the wellbeing of your life.

Innovate your smile and put more oomph into it. Smile at 10 people if you always only smile at 2-5 people. Increase your speed of walking if you have been slow and uninterested. Reduce your talking and listen more .. there are so many innovative ways to do daily chores with fun and excitement. The ultimate result is that your behaviour will be different and your lives would be changed eventually.

To innovate consistently well and continuously, we have to take personal responsibility to ensure its outcomes are good. Satisfaction is derived when you achieved a different approach to doing the same things. The joy comes from the inner being . The key is to look not backward, nor forward but to look inwards- so that whatever we do, we do it with new eyes and renewed vigour.

Explore what is missing in your life today? Examine what habits you want to change in order to live a full life. Remember what is routine need not be bad; what is great, need not be difficult to achieve and what is not there before, does not mean we do not try new horizons, explore new worlds...

So, it is time for personal innovation. Take one habit at a time and adjust it to your liking. Who knows, the change may be good for you both for self improvement and for others as well.

Cheers and have new habits and new eyes...
Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Power of Two continues..

2010-02-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Power of Two continues...

Hi good day to all of you. As I was saying in my previous blog, the power of two is a very formidable force because two is a very even and powerful number.

It takes two to clap; it takes two to tango and it takes two to quarrel too. You cannot argue with yourself or fight with yourself. One is too few to have a discussion unless you are talking to yourself (either self talk or you are mad talking to yourself), the best combination is the power of two.

Couples working together as partners can produce far more beautiful things than one because the other can become the devil's advocate or advisor. The Chinese believe in yin-yang (power of harnessing the good of two opposite forces to produce great strength and energy).Love also takes two to form an union. Chopsticks and shoes and many other stuff are made in twos for comfort and for companionship and effectiveness.

So if you have to travel anywhere, get a good partner. In this way, both can look after each other and easy to go anywhere. A big group travelling together will be a hindrance while a couple moving together will be in sync.

Also two persons with passion in similar area of interest will be able to create great things due to synergy and productivity.

I would like to encourage all of you to treasure your other half (whether spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, lover, companion ). This is because you have someone else to spar with , someone to discuss things with and also to work together if there is a need.

Power of two is essential in many of our life activities. Only when we can harness and garner the other person's strength and eliminate our self-ego that we can achieve a higher level of being and a better enhanced life.

Go in twos; it is more fun, Work in twos; it is more enriching. Think in twos; it is more synergistic for better brainwave and thoughts. Two is a great number.

Just as the proverb says, two's company and three is a crowd. True, often times, the third party will destroy what two can achieve in harmony and peace.

Let me end with a 3-monk story. This is not meant to offend any Buddhist or Zen disciple but to illustrate the concept of the Power of Two.

In the monastery, originally there was only one monk. He was able to do everything all by himself and had peace. But he was very tired doing all things by himself. Then came another monk to join him. Now they were able to do more effectively and divide the work between themselves. However when a third monk came, the three became somewhat lazy and always thought to themselves, "maybe the other one will do the job". As a result, three of them stopped doing any work hoping that the other two would do the work. In the end, the monastery became very dirty and neglected.

This story serves to highlight the power of two and the importance of having someone close to us as a partner and as a travelling companion along the path of exciting life ahead.

So, choose your partner carefully so that the two of you can become great pals in all the beautiful episodes of life's moments of sharing and joy.

Don't wait. Just do it...
Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog - Power of Two

2010-01-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Power of Two -Part One

Hi good day to all. All the while we are discussing issues that affects one individually and how each one of us can live life to the maximum capacity and enhancement. There are many of us who has a partner, spouse or a loved one who may need to be motivated as well.

So, today onwards, I will be sharing ideas and tips on how to live well with your partner and your loved ones in harmony and exciting relationships.

Today I will be focussing on the topic of forgiveness as a means to a successful and meaningful life. Each one of us has our faults and our virtues. We think we are the ones less problematic than our loved ones. We think we are the ones who are near perfect, others are the ones with lots of imperfections.

The key factor about this idea of forgiveness is not religious but emotional. When you harbour thoughts of unhappiness about someone or something, you already build a barrier to your fulfilment of greater life. You have already been affected emotionally. The grudge, the anger or even the agony within you has to be taken out to the open - for clarification, for clearance and for love.

What is forgiveness? It simply means letting go of a painful event, deed or misdeed or omission from someone in the past. What is past cannot be undone but can be repaired with the heart for a better future.

Forgiveness is not a cure-all. It is about healing your loved ones' action and taking responsibility to make your own happiness for the future. It is about controlling your feeling better. However forgiveness is not about tolerating continuous bad behaviour from others; it is also not about reconciling with your partner who may not value your person as a friend or loved one. It is about making peace with yourself and for controlling your life better.

Ways to forgive and move on:
a) Get resentment out of your body and mind. A resentful relationship is a toxic one that will lead to deterioration of both your body and mind. Actually there are many things to have resentment about. Yet when we think carefully, what is there to resent? Are we really that great that little irritation causes us resentment? Are we so easily disturbed by other's misbehaviour that we cause our own pain within us? So the first step is to get the resentment out by talking about it. Talk to the person(s) whom you resent for something or some issue. If talking fails, then you can tell yourself that you have done your part and then let go of the resentment by not thinking about it anymore. Yes, it is not easy. But who tell you that life is easy? Who says that learning to let go is easy? It is time consuming and painstaking. At least by taking it out into the open, you are able to release the uncertainty and the pain for a while. Letting go also enables you to continue to look for positive ways to reconcile if there is a need in future.

b) The second step is recognise that everyone has flaws and faults. This is crucial to have a great life. It is easy to see the speck of dust in the eyes of others than see that big plank in your eyes. In deed this is true in the bible as well as in real life. Picking others' faults seem so easy because we are always seeing others in action , forgetting that others are also seeing us in action. Learning to accept irritations and faults of others is the way to a true love and successful living.

c) Be grateful and thankful for things we have rather than look for things we do not have. This step will enable us to have freedom to choose what kind of life we want. This also enables us to be more positive and proactive about living well. By being thankful to our family and loved ones for their support and their love, we are able to feel peace and joy.

Love conquers all. This is true if you want to harness the love and support of your loved ones. It is good to forgive your partner or spouse or a lover so that together both can work out a great synergized relationship.

The power of two is like a pair of chopsticks, One cannot do without the other efficiently; a pair of shoes too or a pair of spectacles . The reason for pairing is for synergy and strength. Often times, we think we can survive on our own. In actual fact, we need the helping hand of another to ensure that life is balanced and more complete.

The suggestion for all of us is to realise that everyone of us has faults and we should work together with the one you value for a greater span of joyous life and improve on further relationships of strength and happiness instead of looking for faults which are frivolous at the end of the day.

Good day and forgive one another for the sake of love.
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- Cure for Mundane Life -Final Part

2010-01-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Cure for Mundane Life -Final Part

Hi good day to all of you. In this last portion of cure for mundane life, I will be sharing with you the wonders of curiosity.

Many of us are curious but not curious enough. Why is this so? We thought we understood the mysteries of life already. So what's new? However let me assure you that in life, being curious is part of a motivation to push us to greater heights and curiosity does not kill the cat too. Why do we stop looking for answers once we hit puberty or adulthood?

The answer is very simple. This is because many of us have given to the mundaneness of everyday living and felt that nothing really change our lives no matter how curious we are... Wrong! One famous psychologist said that we should be curious always because knowledge will not acquire you, you must acquire it.. this means tht we must seek knowledge as knowledge and information will not come to us automatically.

Some common curiosity barriers we have to overcome are:

a) indifference or apathy because we live in a world of " I don't care!" or "I don't want to know!". This is our worst enemy because there are so many opportunities out there in the world, so much knowledge to acquire and so much to learn. We know that many things cause us pain or suffering but that should not stop us from being curious and inquisitive.

b) fear of the unknown is another terrible blockage to our search for a better life and self improvement. Nothing is to be feared, it is to be understood. Again here, many of us are so afraid to try new things, to go new directions and to seek new paths in our life. For example, when I was asked whether I would like to help in community service in Tamil Nadu, India, a place where there are very poor villagers. Many of my family and friends told me not to go because they thought it was very dangerous and these poor people might kill or rob you. Well, the ignorant friends were so afraid for me. Actually when I went there, it was a wonderful place where people were warm and friendly inspite of their poverty. Indeed, if I had listened to them out of fear, my life would not have been so exciting and so rewarding.

c) feeling of inadequacy and pride sometimes make us unwilling to be curious because we thought that we should not be seen to be ignorant or stupid. We try to act smart in front of people but actually it is the feeling of inadequacy and pride that hinders our success to a greater life and enhanced wellbeing.

So to overcome all these barriers and blockage to a great and exciting life, we should be curious, be willing to explore outside our comfort zone and also to ask for information and search new paths . The mundane part of our life will be erased once we embark on the quest of being curious.

Questions such as Why should I believe this? How do I know I am right? Where can I get more information etc.. should be constantly in our mind as we seek more knowledge and live a better self improved life instead of going through life so nonchalantly and miss out the beautiful things around us ; miss out on the exciting happenings around us...

So don't sit there. Go out and feel the world around you. Go and find a new path to success and seek new worlds out there... No venture, no gain...

Cheers and be curious always ...
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- Cure for Mundane LIfe IV

2010-01-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Cure for Mundane Life IV

Hi good day to all of you. I was sharing about awareness just a while ago and already I got friends who told me that they have been living life like zombies. They do not really think of what they are doing or how should their life be; they merely go through each day routinely and are too involved with getting work done than to be bothered with awareness of their surroundings or their environment.

So they decided to smell the roses as they were told to do. Indeed they realised that life need not be so mundane after all. It could be exciting and even refreshing with new looks and insights into the everyday living. The fact that they are now able to stop, look and then think is already the first step to cure mundane living.

The next step to further boost our awareness of our lives and excite ourselves to become more energetic and innovative is to become involved in other human beings' lives. What do I mean by that?

The world is now a global village. We are connected by internet, mobile and telecommunication devices that we are no longer alienated from each other. In minutes, we can fly from one place to another and in the next second, people from all over the world can read my mail and blog and give feedback via internet or web devices. See, this interconnectivity enhances our speed of life and thus we must harness it to the fullest of our ability.

Why must we be involved? It is because every action of ours can have an effect on others. For example, the earthquake at Haiti did not just affect the Haitians alone, it also affected people from Japan, Korea and South East Asia because their countrymen had gone there to work; to relax and maybe to do other kinds of services or activities. The disaster affected so many people and so many countries even though it was just an earthquake in Haiti, a small island in the Pacific Ocean.

I got friends who are now helping in the Haiti disaster areas as doctors and helpers to relieve the pain of the residents there in Port Au Prince.
The devastation of that place has caused pain in many of our hearts because it is heart-rending to see so many dead and so many homeless.

If it were nearer home, won't we be involved? So we should put our hearts and heads together to help one another. We may not be involved in the Haitian relief efforts but we can be involved in making our neighbourhood safer and more pleasant to live in.

Each effort we put in to beautify our gardens, our roads or even our lives will bring joy and hope to others who see us as their beacons of hope. We must be involved with others in helping ourselves to have better lives.

Like Emerson said, if we can help someone, or make a positive difference in the lives of our friends or neighbours, then we have not lived in vain on this planet Earth.

So the positive part of awareness is that portion of involvement. It can be active involvement as a helper and friend or an inactive involvement enhancing our physical environment and becoming green activists which will help the world at large.

This is the true meaning of awareness. The involvement of our lives with others to enhance and enrich one another so that we have great and meaningful lives everyday and thus mundaneness will be erased and every new day brings in new hope and joy of living.

Be the butterfly . Be the bird and by the free spirit that moves with joy and happiness.

Cheers and be aware , be confident and be hopeful of a better tomorrow.
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Cure for a Mundane Life - Part IV

2010-01-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi it is a new week and all of us are busy preparing for the end of month. It is a time when we have to reflect on our everyday living and see whether this month , the first month of the year has been fruitful and empowering.

Today I want to share Part IV of how to cure a mundane life . This part I will focus on Awareness as a powerful self improvement and empowering element in moving us forward in this daily mundane life.

What is really awareness? It is the ability to be conscious, to be sensitive and to be aware of what is going on around us every day. It is the control over our environment by being aware of our actions and what others do in our lives.

Awareness can come in many forms but the most common form is our alertness to any movement or change in our surroundings, our environment, whether at work or at home. This sensitivity to be able to differentiate the good and the bad in our lives such as discarding a bad habit or taking on a positive step to learn something new are all part of our awareness quotient in our lives.

To cure mundaneness and rut in our lives, we have truly to be aware of our moments. As long as we are aware of the moments and movements around us, of things happening around us and the actions we take to counter or to act accordingly is part of our control over the actions and make our lives meaningful and exciting.

We do not have to become monks or nuns to practise awareness. It is up to us to feel moment by moment and enjoy the state of being. The state of alertness and awareness we are in, determines our state of mind of being happy or sad.

Any situation can be positive or negative . It is up to us to decide how to handle it. The awareness of being able to take it one step at a time and keep our minds and body calm in handling even the most difficult moments of our lives, will help us to enjoy life in whatever condition or circumstance.

Being aware is good for us physically and emotionally. We will not feel stressed or harassed. We will not fall sick easily because stress often causes sicknesses and pains. Once we are able to cope with the moment and not worry too much, the situation somehow will fade away as quickly as it comes. Being aware is thus good for our soul as well. We are able to know that we can sleep well and not worry about things we cannot change.

So, take charge of your lives and be aware. Use moments of happiness to counteract moments of pain and sadness. In this way, we are able to take control of our lives and erase the mundaneness of everyday living.

We must able to discern and be alert to changes so that we can react accordingly and do things as they come. No point anticipating problems since we may not be able to solve them before they happen. Just take one day at a time thinking positive and being aware.

I believe that when we practise awareness, we are able to breathe better; see things better and thus our lives will be improved and become better. It is a great world still. Just smell the flowers today if you have not done so.

Have a great day and cheers

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Cure for a Mundane LIfe III

2010-01-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

Hi everyone , I hope you have a great yesterday and today will be another great day.

I was discussing about dressing recently and some of my friends told me that manners also make your day. Manners maketh a man - this is a famous Chinese saying. It is good to have manners because people do not know you until you show your manners well and instantly you leave a great impression on others. The first second impression to a better life is how you carry yourself and your graciousness and politeness towards anyone you meet.

Why manners can cure a mundane life? It is essential to have manners because of several reasons. The first is that you never know, who you meet along the road and what happens to you after that. When you display polite disposition to anyone and everyone, the response from them would be to be nicer to you too. In this way, your life is enhanced and it is thus able to give you a better day to do things well.

The second reason to have manners is that when you dress well plus having good manners, you would be able to score points at an interview or even when you are trying to make friends or making a sales. The person seeing you with good manners will be pleased to have a relationship (working or friendly ) with you.

The third reason is that when you are rude, the world around you seems to be also rude and terrible. It is like a mirror of our soul. So being polite will give you a mirror -effect of same feeling with others treating you.

I have encountered people who are polite and doing well in life. They smile even during adversity and do not even utter vulgar words or abusive language when they are hurt or wrongfully blame for things they do not do. They merely shrug off the bad incidents as natural part of life and they are very happy and productive in their work and in their private life. As a result they prosper both emotionally and materially.

Whereas there are many rude and haughty people who are impolite and ungracious living in terrible conditions and blaming the world around them and blaming others for their plight. They do not know that it is their own doing that cause them to be having a hard life.

My suggestion is that we should be polite because it is good for ourselves and for everyone we meet. In this way, our lives would be enhanced and the mundane life can become exciting because everyone smiles at you in return . A smile is the shortest route to a good relationship.

Practise your smile at more than 10 people each day along the road. Your smile can bring hope and joy to all you meet including yourself. The lightness of life can be seen by the sunshine a smile radiates. With a smile and good manners, you are on the road to success in life.

Cheers and have a smiley day :)
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- Cure for Mundane Life II

2010-01-19T18:12:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

Hi friends and comrades, today I would like to continue the discussion on the cure for our mundane life by sharing about personal grooming and physical appearance.

To many people, clothing is not an essential part of their daily wardrobe except when they go to work or when they meet important people or clients or functions. Well, let me share a personal story about dressing well at all times.

We are judged by our appearance, what we wear and how we behave in the eyes of the public or society. Most people look at the appearance first before even wanting to talk with you or to communicate in any way with you. We all are guilty of this "judgemental instinct". Whether you are good or bad, we are labelled by our appearance - by the way you dress or by the way you behave. Often times we behave well in public because we wear a mask of "goody goody" person when we may not be. But dressing - is there for all to see .This means that if we dress poorly, it reflects straightaway on us.

So power dressing is vital for success in our personal life and dressing well should be part of our daily attire. Let me share a personal story of why dressing is very important at all times.

Last week I had an appointment with some people who wanted to donate some stuff for the Nepalese villagers near Mount Everest Base Camp 1. The village children lacked stationery and books so I asked for some donations from friends and people who may have extra stuff. There was one old couple who wanted to meet me because they had some old books and lots of pencils to be given away. We agreed to meet at a crowded bus station downtown.

On that day I dressed well and had my Sunday best on. I did not do so because I wanted to impress them. I dressed well because I thought it would be polite to meet these nice people in clean and appropriately beautiful clothes. The old couple was so impressed with my dressing that they even offered me a job with their son's company as a Public Relations Manager. I asked them why? They told me, "Because you dressed up so well even for meeting people on such an informal occasion and in a crowded and dirty bus station."

See, my dressing , "neat and appropriately modest", won their hearts and even got a job offer! How exciting life has become for me if I were to join their son's company?

Power Dressing for the office is also very important for personal success and development. The way you dress in the organisation shows the way you deal with people and work. Bosses like staff who are immaculately dressed and neat at all times. No beards or goatees; no long shaggy hair unkempt ; no long and dirty nails; no torn pants or frayed hemlines. Dressing well shows confidence and pride. It also shows good manners and politeness.

By dressing badly you show others that you do not care; that you are careless and nonchalant. By dressing well and neat, you show that you are a professional and make others feel good to work with you.

So, to cure a mundane life, dress well for all times, appropriate for the occasion but do not overdress. It is good to have neat, clean and friendly appearance, with clothes that are suitable for the situation you are in. However it is important to be dressed well enough to meet the "King" or "Queen" or in other words, wear your Sunday best all the time. This not only helps to increase your self esteem , it also enhances your chance of getting into people's good books. Who knows, like me, you may be offered a good job which you have been waiting for?

I hope all of you will dress well, cut your hair accordingly; shave your beard or moustache and make sure you have clean finger nails because
you may have to shake hands and show gestures disclosing the state of your nails. For females, it would be good to polish your nails with glossy light pink or white so that your nails shine with confidence. Red or shocking pink nails tend to frighten away bosses or people who are conservative or traditional. Also wear lipsticks of pastel colors (not gaudy red or scarlet). You may want to leave a nice impression and improve your chances of better life by dressing well, having a neat appearance and also walk with care and proper gait.

It is time to change your wardrobe for a better life. Nice clothes need not be expensive and branded. Comfortable clothes are definitely better than trendy clothes. Cut your cloth according to your size and build....cheers

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

the Self Improvement and NLP Blog- A cure for our mundane life - Part I

2010-01-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
-A cure for our mundane life - Part I
How to raise our self esteem

Hi good day to all. I was discussing the issue of living an exciting life with my chatroom friends and they told me that their lives have been so boring and mundane that it is almost meaningless. So I am going to spend the next few blogs discussing and sharing with all of you - how to have a cure for our mundane life in a few parts.

The Part I will be focussed on "How to Raise our Self Esteem". Most often than not, many of us do not have healthy self esteem. We hang around with people with low self esteem and full of negative views of the world that we are also behaving like them. Do others make you feel guilty? Do you have friends who always leave you drained and feeling unhappy? There are many such people around us who disguised as friends but in actual fact they are our worst enemies because they drained us of our energy and motivation to work well and do our best.

To raise our self esteem, first of all, we have to avoid these people as quickly as possible. Life may be full of problems and challenges , even events which we may not understand. Yet we should be filled with anticipation and hope because there is always a better tomorrow. However if you hang around those negative and toxic people who make you feel tired, insecure and drained, then your life will become mundane and dull.

Secondly, all of us have the right to feel good, to feel great and to achieve our daily best. So, first things first. Get yourself people and friends Sewho share similar excitement and enthusiasm for the day and the week. Positive people are vital to revitalising our energy for the work we do and for the possibility of hope and joy in our lives.

Thirdly, set boundaries for different friends and people. Those who are able to motivate and encourage you, you should rank them in your hearts higher order than those who try to pull you down by their negative words and anger about the unfairness of the world around them.

The next thing, we have to do is to stop trying to understand other people's crazy or unreasonable behaviour. We have no time to go and analyse people around us. We only have time enough to do our best and do what we can for our loved ones and mostly for ourselves.

Moreover, we should do our reflection and use our wisdom to trust our own instincts to handle doubtful situations. A few minutes of deep thoughts about our directions will enable us to be clearer and more focussed.

The last but not least thing is to be able to say "No" to some of these negative friends when they are trying to run down something or someone. By asserting your rights, you are able to free yourself from any negativity and thus go on with what you are supposed to do.

Also there are times when you may feel neglected or out of the picture, you must take a deep breath and tell yourself that it is all right. All will come to pass. Everything will be in order again and "I must not be bothered by such issues". "I need not be involved in everything. I am only a human, one thing at a time." When you engage in such healthy self talk , you will not drag into depression.

So, take charge of your life and lift up your own self esteem by feeling good about yourself , no matter how many negative people try to surround you with their toxic thoughts and pull you down with them. Avoid them if possible but trust your inner wisdom if you cannot avoid them.

Most important of all, you are your own destiny. You can make your life great without having to listen to those unneccessary woes of life. Life is a challenge, conquer it; life is a hurdle, jump over it...cheers

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog: Rising above the average people

2010-01-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
Rising above the average people around us

Hi I hope by now most of us would have given ourselves the pep talk of being excellent every day and now I would like to share the need for us to rise above the average people around us.

We do not have to be in the top 10 percent of the crop. We need not be the absolute best among our peers. We just have to strive to rise above the average people around us. It is about us being apart from the masses, and being noticed by others of either the same calibre or higher order around us.

Human beings are sometimes very ironical and paradoxical. On the one hand we want to stand out of the crowd and yet at the same time, we want to be one of the "gang." We want to stand out and yet want to fit into the larger mass.

It may seems to be in opposite directions. But I can assure you that it is just our inner desire to identify with the others and to be a unique being able to be different and apart from the rest.

In everything we do, we just have to strive to be a few percent better than the average; a few dollars richer than the others or a few marks higher than the rest of the class. This is better than being the top dog or the best. When you are the best, the tendency is to become complacent and proud, thus causing lots of personal damage later on. On the other hand, just striving above the rest or rising above the average person, gives you a sense of being able to do more for yourself and also for your improvement subsequently.

How to rise above the average? For one thing, you have to have self -respect. The respect you accord to yourself must come from the inner desire to achieve your personal best. Your personal best need not be Number 1. If people go 1 mile, make sure you go a little further probably 2 miles; if others achieve average of 70 points, you go for 75. This is the way of rising above the crowd for self actualisation and satisfaction.

When we strive to rise above the average, we have the pride and the motivation to continuously improve and learn. This is also good for our interpersonal relationship with others. Moving above mediocrity connects you to both the upper group and the lower group of people. You are having the best of both worlds so to speak.

Remember you can hide behind others all your life but this is so ordinary. So be yourself and just rise above the average and be counted as above the ordinary. In this way your self worth will increase and your brain will be able to think better and faster too. Positive thoughts will excite greater rush of adrenalin into your bloodstream and will push you to greater heights.

To rise above the average, you really need to exercise lots of self discipline and develope your own inner energy to go for it. Once you can be above average, your life will be also above average and everything will seem to be better than others..

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to cultivate Brain Power and Excellence in Everyday living

2010-01-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
- How to cultivate Brain Power and Excellence in Everyday living

Hi, a very good day to all of you. As we all know, we are now living in the age of information and knowledge. Knowledge is Power. If you are able to control sources of information means you are able to control many things in this world. Brain power accounts for more than anything today.

Since industrial revolution of the 19th century, human beings have been improving every year with new technology and new inventions. Knowledge is now essential for almost anything you do. Thus education and continuous learning is a fundamental cornerstone for personal growth and potential development.

To harness greater brain power, you need not eat nutritious or tonic food. You need not even get tuition or extra lessons on your already packed schedule. There are simple steps which can improve your brain power and give you excellence in your everyday living.

The first step is that for you to wake up everyday thinking positively. Our brains rest in the nights when we are asleep although some people's brains only work in their sleep with lots of nightmarish dreams and mixed up fears in their subconscious. Well, when we wake up in the morning, we have to switch our brains to the active mode of positive thinking and telling ourselves, "WOW, it is a brand new day! I am going to do well today! " Such positive self talk and energy-releasing wake-up moments can already win your day .

The next step is that you must eat a good but simple breakfast with fruits and enough proteins to ignite the brain to new ideas for the day. Have a little notebook to write down what you want to do for the day and any new ideas which you may have thought about over the previous evening or during the brushing of teeth. Ask yourself , "What can I do to improve my life today " .

A steady search and 20 minutes of thinking everyday will give you the headstart to a great day and help you to finish ahead of others because the power of thinking is not natural to all of us. We have to provoke our thoughts , otherwise all our actions are mere reflexes.

Next, while waiting for bus, train or even walking to the car park, enhance your brainpower by reflecting on what is the best way of doing your work or what should be done to be a better person etc... Many great politicians, historians and scientists usually started their days with such thoughts for reflection. Also read a book, magazine or newspaper along the way to work or to school or even to the park. This is to increase your knowledge and awareness of current developments in the world around you.

Then, to spark your creativity, you may want to re-create new ways of doing things and replacing some "old" systems which are present in your office, your home or in places where you have been. Who knows, one of these days, you may even become an inventor incidentally like most of the inventors of yesteryears.

90% of inventions were not deliberate works of science but incidental moments of inspiration and creativity caused by needs and uses for the day. Use your conscious mind and your unconscious competence to energise yourself constantly for improvement and development.

The last but not least thing you can do to make an excellent life is to be a resource person to another human being. This means you can share whatever knowledge or skills you have with another person. This kind of sharing will enable you to sharpen your own skills further and to even make you the master of the field. So for example, you are good in speaking, you can train others to be as good as you are. This can be done either on a paid or a volunteer basis.

The final payoff of cultivating your brain power is to be a more interesting person. Smile at others along the way and you get smiles in return; walk with a lively gait and talk with a melodious voice; eat heartily and work cheerfully.

All these will enable your brain to be more active and help you to become excellent in everyday living.

Cheers and have a great day!
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog- overcoming procrastination

2010-01-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi , when I was discussing this subject of visualising your outcomes in order to live a greater-than-life living, some of my friends gave me the feedback that it is easy to set goals and to set outcomes etc. but not easy to carry them out. It is the problem of procrastination in most of us.

Yes, most of us have the problem of procrastination sometimes and for some, they never seem to get started. Thoughts are one thing, actions are another. We tend to drag our feet. Most of us are good at putting off things until last minute or the eleventh hour and then start to panick.

Well to overcome the problem of procrastination, we have to snap out of the dead centre. Shifting from the dead centre which is a comfort zone to an area of hyper activity requires us to be on top of things.

Surveys have shown that there are 10 common lists which most people tend to procrastinate:
1) writing a will or doing estate planning
2) looking at investment opportunities and financial planning
3) asking for forgiveness when you antagonized someone earlier
4) updating our particulars and details
5) making repairs to our house
6) getting a dental or physical checkup or medical examination
7) organising our routine and keeping out clutter
8) getting our bills paid on time
9) reassessing our needs and career
10) filling up income tax returns

The reasons given for laziness are plentiful. However to really get down to do a clean-up and work out the goals and plans can be a daunting task. It is frightening to do all these at all. It is fear that gets to us.

But dragging our feet has its price. Delay in repairing a leaking roof can cause other interior problems for the home; postponing a medical check-up can result in other unseen ailments etc..The damage caused by not doing tasks on time can be terrible unless we stop the procrastination and start moving.

The first thing to snap of this dead centre of procrastination is to tell yourself mentally that it could be a joy ride if we only do the things now instead of pushing them till later date. There is no gain without pain in the process of giving up procrastination.

Well, do not waste any more time procrastinating. Start unpacking your bags and throwing out the unused stuff and the unwanted stuff. Repair that roof now and mend that broken bicycle. Life is not that bad after all. It could be fun just doing the work that needs to be done.

Be a mover; be a fun-lover. Let us triumph over laziness by doing a bit at a time. Doing one thing at a time helps you to focus your energy and to do it right. Slow and steady wins the race.

Start now and you will not regret because by getting out of procrastination your life will be more meaningful, fulfilling and satisfying. Schedule your tasks daily and everything will be in order.

Cheers for a job well done today!
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Creating a greater life

2010-01-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
-Creating a greater life

Hi , today is a good day because I believe all of us want to create a larger-than-life living and a greater life. Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? Why some athletes are so good that they top the charts every time they run the race? Why some businessmen are so rich while others are struggling along?

The answer is actually rather simple. It is up to us to change the setting and thus change the outcomes of our lives. Like what Stephen Covey, a famous motivational speaker said, we must begin with the end in mind. This means we must want the outcomes or goals first and work towards achieving those outcomes.

To formulate positive outcomes with specific images or pictures is a crucial step towards greater-than-life living. Visualisation of the images you want to attain, pictures of what your vision contain , will enable you to have a clear idea of what to work for.

Many people among us are not very clear about where they want to go, what they want to do and how they want to achieve their outcomes in life that they just let the world go past them. To catch a cloud, you need to climb the highest mountain. To catch the wind, you need to make a good and tough net etc..

So you may have many vivid pictures and beautiful images of your future in your head. You are also very positive and focused on these things you want But you still have to ask yourself very clearly whether these things are really good for you? Do I really want them so badly that I can sacrifice time and space to get them? How long can I wait for these outcomes to be materialised? Do I have to sacrifice others to get what I want?

Asking pertinent questions means you actually reflect on these questions. Sometimes, things you want may not be good for you or your family in the long run. For example, if you have to work 10 or 20 years to achieve a high life and cause your loved ones to suffer lots of pain and hardship to attain that lifestyle, is it worth it? Are you sacrificing your loved ones too much in doing so?

Reflecting upon the outcomes and the general good of all the people around you is vital for a greater-than-life living. Do not in your enthusiasm to reach for the stars and neglect your loved ones who suffer as a result. In the end you may not be happy and contented.

My advice here is this, to live a larger-than-life living, you have to work towards your outcomes with the collaboration of those people who matter to you. In this way you get help and support to achieve your outcomes and they in turn benefit too.

I believe we live in an environment that one action affects another. One person's behaviour can have effect on another without knowing it. So be careful when you want to create a greater life. Make sure you consult people close to you or at least be sensitive to those who may be affected by your vision and goals. Let them participate for a greater synergistic outcome.

We are in it (this life) together. Our lives are intricately inter-linked one to another. Be benevolent, be big and be burning with your passion.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Effective Communication I

2010-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
Effective Communication II: Creating Rapport

Hi today is a great day because it is cool and nice. Communication is a constant flow of messages, information and images between people every minutes of our lives. When you are talking, walking or sitting, flow of messages, information and images are being sent and being received that sometimes we are not able to really decipher the right message and thus get the right response to the message intended for us.

So most of the time we look for people like ourselves (mirror imaging ) so that we can relate better. This is part of rapport. Rapport is the connectivity we want to have with others. Rapport is thus created between people of similar actions and behaviours. Our minds are constantly filtering impressions and messages that we want to accept and understand.

To be effective in dealing with people and enable us to really get along with others, the best way is to create rapport or to connect well. What are the steps to create a good rapport?

a) First, break up your words or messages into verbal and non-verbal elements . Words only form about 7% of the whole message structure.

b) Then check your tone of voice because tone is very important in saving or killing a message. Same message with different tones will mean differently. Tone of voice can determine the meaning of the message up to 38%.

c) Check your physical action and gestures. Wrong body language or gestures can also bump off a good message. This is because 55% of the whole message is seen from the physical action or gesture.

So to be effective, it is good for you to mirror and match your recipient if you intend the message to be heard well. Matching and mirroring are examples of rapport because you connect well and thus the message is easily understood.

Once you are able to communicate well and create a good rapport with your intended audience, you will be motivated to perform well and also improve your personal well being. Interpersonal relationships can thus be harnessed when you have the rapport and the connectivity.

The whole affair of being a human being is to be able to improve our lives daily through better knowledge, better interaction and better relationship with others.

Remember when you want to communicate with others, think of the words first, then the tone of voice you should use and the gestures that you want to convey the message effectively. The right use of words and gestures can really make life easier because you are understood.

Cheers and keep talking and communicating.
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Once you have

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Effective Communication I

2010-01-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Effective Communication I

Hi good afternoon
I am sure all of us are aware that communication is vital for good relationships, good business and good community development and of course our self improvement as well.

Let me start by sharing with you how effective communication can enhance and empower us in self improvement and development of better relationships with others. We are born gregarious - i.e. no man is an island, no one lives alone unless one chooses to do so .

So how do we get along with others? It is through effective communication and the way we convey or relay our messages to others everyday that increases our self respect among our peers and our motivation to be even more productive in our daily living.

Our mind is a very wonderful organ of our entire body. It is our state of being that formulates words or messages to be sent out every nano second of our lives. When we are happy, we send out happy messages which can be immediately felt by people around us and similarly, when we are upset or in a depressive mood, the message we sent across to others will be entirely of a different character altogether.

This is because everytime we change our state of mind, the world outside respond correspondingly. Many of us do not know that we can actually control the way we feel or the message we are about to send. This is the conscious state of our being.

A lot of us do not have clues over this conscious state because we are not competent in the conscious state of their life. They are hanging in a sort of limbo between consciously aware of what's going on in the world around them and consciously lacking in skills to cope with the environment which can be overwhelming at times.

This can be illustrated by a simple example. When you are a new cyclist or a new driver, you tend to be careful of where you are going as you need to concentrate and focus on acquiring your skills of driving or cycling. Once you master the technique of cycling or driving, you become competent and can even chat with your fellow cyclists or your passengers while maneuvring along the roads. This is what NLP experts called the conscious competent state of being, from an incompetent state of being as a new learner earlier.

Well, our conscious state of competence will affect our transmission of messages and images while we are still acquiring further skills to reach the state of unconscious competence meaning the skills become internalised or part of your identity that you can just do that stuff without much thought. That level of mastery is reached when one has acquired expert knowledge and skills to do things almost without thoughts or thinking. Many of us have some skills which have reached this level but other skills still need to be developed to full mastery of unconscious competence or "second nature".

So for concocting words or images to be sent out of our mind to be received by the other parties around us, we have to use the unconscious competence of framing our messages in best possible ways in order to get the right outcome(s). The receiver or respondent can then give us the accurate feedback we need to ensure effective communication , thus enhancing relationship between the sender and the recipient.

However we are surrounded by lots of noises, distractions and barriers in the world we live that sometimes, a wonderful message of good intention can be construed as "negative " by the recipient(s) that misunderstanding and conflict can result. This could be caused by some of us having our own assumptions and conscious incompetent state of being when receiving messages.

See, life is not a straight and easy line where you just follow the road. It is full of interference, distractions, temptations and experiences that each one of us has to decide how to be an effective human being; able to communicate well with others.

To reduce conflict or misunderstanding, it is good for us to listen and think first before we speak or do something, Listening with our heart is very important because it enables us to have a feel of the world around us first before we send out messages for the receiver(s) out there.

Thus effective communication start with the heart, not with the mind. It is with the heart that we can see rightly. It is then with the mind that we frame our message clearly . Do not use too much logic in dealing with others because your logic may not be their logic.

I will deal with other issues of communication in my later blogs. In the meantime, think with your heart first before piecing your words or images which you want to transmit, then you will not go wrong. So use short and brief transmisions are easier to decipher than lengthy messages.

Have a nice day and cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Strategies and Techniques from NLP to enhance your interpersonal relationship

2010-01-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi good morning to you. I would like to share the strategies and techniques from NLP to enhance your interpersonal relationship with people around you. This is because everyday we are dealing with someone, be it family members or outsiders.

Interpersonal relationships tend to be difficult for those who cannot communicate effectively. Each one of us is unique. Each one experience the environment in a very different way from another. Our views , our thoughts and our behaviour largely determine how we interact and deal with people around us.

To enhance our living and to ensure effective communication, I will be sharing with you all, effective communication over the next few blogs so that all of us can live life to the fullest and effectively.

What is really communication? It can be defined in several ways. Simply, it means information/message transmitted via a medium, either verbal or non-verbal through a process of exchange of signs, symbols, gesture, movement etc.. so that the recipient of the message can understand the meaning of that sent message or information.

The three elements of communication process are basically YOU, your audience(recipient(s)) and the message or information itself. To utilise the three elements, we have to use 4 communication tools such as listening, speaking, reading and writing so that your message is clearly understood without difficulty by the audience.

I will just deal with the barriers and filters in communication today before going into the communication skills per se. As each of us is unique, the way we handle our message or information to be transmitted is also unique to us. We use filters , set up barriers and interpretation so as to ensure the right message is passed on. However this set of internal filters that we possess in our heads include such things as our state of mind and wellbeing, our body movement and language as well as our way of doing things.

What we want to express may not be the actual expression because of these filters in our own heads. For example, a woman may want to ask for something she likes (a diamond bracelet) from her spouse or boyfriend, but she cannot directly say it out because her internal filter tries to put up barrier to the actual mesage which she wish to express, so she end up by saying things like , "I don't really like that diamond bracelet's design, er.. old fashioned," when in actual fact , she is dying for it. See, what the woman's internal thinking has caused her to mis-send a message. As for men however, they are more direct with their internal thoughts so they speak their minds mostly. That is the basic difference between men and women.

Women generally behave and think differently from men because I believe the internal filter is different and the way of deciphering thoughts differ as both are made biologically different.

However there are certain common grounds for both gender. All of us have to deal with other people everyday and thus both have to put up strategies and techniques of getting messages across all the time. Sometimes we fail to pass the correct messages due to barriers in the environment; sometimes it is our own internal interpretation of the message that cause the message to be received with different outcomes.

Whatever it is, I will be sharing techniques to overcome the internal state of being and to use effective communication skills when dealing with others.
Think about some of the situations in which you have been mistaken or misunderstood and you will know what I mean..

Cheers and have a nice day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to use NLP for your success in life

2010-01-05T16:55:00.001-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi good morning to you. Today I will share with you the use of NLP for your success in life. In my last few blogs, I mentioned about the importance of provoking your thoughts to enhance your life. So the next few blogs, I want to further this philosophy of using NLP to maximize your confidence and thus using it for your life's success.

What is NLP? Basically it is Neuro Linguistic Programming which simply means to use a way of thinking to excel in your daily life. It is a very result-oriented and action-packed programming. It is also about experimenting and living the thoughts which you could already have in your head. The NLP way of thinking is a systematic and structured way.

However I will be sharing with you, my own interpretation of this NLP techniques which I learned long ago and to enable you to practise the philosophy just as I have.

It boils down to 4 simple ideas :

a) Know what you want. This is a first step for any kind of action. This is what the Chinese say, "planning in Spring for the whole year's success". In other words, like all motherhood activity, you need to know your goals, aims or objectives. Without knowing where you go, it is like Alice in Wonderland, asking the rabbit, which way to take (when she came to the fork of the road), the rabbit's reply is so simple. Take any road if you do not have a desination.

Many people go through life with some kind of "blur view" of what they want in their hearts, not what they aim to do. It is drifting through day by day ; merely plodding on life without any exciting plans or goals for their future. Some office workers especially, work up to 18 hours a day without knowing why they slog so hard. Is it for money? Is it for some job satisfaction or promotion? Is it because of family commitments? Many are not sure. So you see, setting goals is not an easy task.

Even though your goals may change every now and then, still it is good to set some kind of parameters or goals with which you can work towards. The hope (future) is there for you to grab. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you look hard enough.

The first essential step is thus to know what you really want from this life. What you really want to do with your limited time on earth? Once you settle this main issue, you next have to take actions or tactical steps to acquire the goals. This may sound simple but....

You may need a road map, you may need a compass, you may need more resources etc... So the next step is to walk /work towards your goals in a systematic and methodical way in order that you can accomplish them faster.

Even our world is a structured one. The universe is a systematic structure if you see that day in, day out, the sun rises, the sun sets etc.. The earth revolving round the sun for 365 days etc... So as a human being, we also must have a systematic way of handling our daily life. It may be routine, it may be mundane but we have to have even a simple plan each day to maximize our satisfaction or happiness at the end of the day.

The next step is to adjust along the way. Certain goals may have to be axed due to changing circumstances or new developments; yet we have to go on restructuring our goals accordingly to the new developments and new insights. This step requires some techniques (which I will share in subsequent blogs) to make them goals become reality.

As this is NLP, we need to use our neuro senses to be sensitive to every situation. Are the results really what we want? Are the methods still effective for us after some time? These questions have to be asked along the way in order that we get the best final results or outcomes of our actions.

I am sure you want to know further , what techniques of NLP you can use to enhance your lives so that everyday is an exciting time ? Every day you can look forward to waking up and fulfilling your part of the journey for the best. With NLP you can achieve even more.

Cheers and a happy day:)
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - making new year's resolutions

2010-01-03T21:37:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi once again and a good afternoon
I wanted to share the making of new year's resolutions earlier but did not do so until now because like most people , my resolutions were made in December of 2009 for 2010 and yet yesterday when I re-examined the goals I want to achieve in 2010, I have new ambitions.

I discussed with a few close friends who shared the same agony. So we sat down just now during our lunch (it is lunchtime in Singapore now) - so we came up with the following steps to planning and writing new year's resolutions which may not be easy but we felt that this would be more systematic and achievable.

First thing first, we must have a mindset to change and accept change. Change often disrupts the usual flow of life so we do not respond well to change. However for resolutions to work, we have to reset our mind to change for the better.

Step 1: Start with one and only one simple goal or resolution. Look at the list of wishes you have made roughly and then choose one that is very pressing and need to change this year. For example, if you want to lose weight and quit smoking, you must choose one of the two. If you plan to do the two together, you may not succeed because it would be too ambitious and thus affect the achievement of both later. So choose one and go for it.

Step 2: Take 3-5% change or small marginal efforts such as losing 1 kg in a week instead of what advertisements or TV commercials claiming that you can lose 20 kg in 2 weeks! Losing 20 kg in 2 weeks will definitely be disastrous for health and you may end up nowhere near slim range but lying in hospital with glucose hanging above your head. So, make small goal of doing 1 kg per week or 5 kg per month. This is specific and achievable. You just have to eat one meal less each day and drink more fluid to make up for the lost bulk.

Step 3: How to sustain that result or visualise the end result. Use centering which I mentioned before in my earlier blog and do self talk that you can do it. A 5-kg loss in weight for a month is not as drastic as some claims by those spas or health centres of losing 20 kg in a month or in two weeks.

After this 3 steps, make sure you share your goal with your best friend or your family member who will become your buddy in achieving this goal of yours. You can also be the monitor for your buddy's goals of wanting to quit smoking.

In this way there is mutual guide and help so that when you falter along the way, your buddy can pull up and vice versa.

At the end of the month, check the results and this would motivate you to go for the next resolution of quitting smoking or drinking. Use this chance to rekindle your relationship with your buddy and this would further enhance your life's journey as this is a new journey in 2010....

Cheers and plan now for the new year resolution (one goal at a time please)
Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Programming our mind for confidence and strength

2010-01-03T16:10:00.002-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog
Programming our minds for confidence and strength

Hi good morning to all.
It is a brand new day and a brand new year 2010.

I would like to share about thoughts and programming our mind for effectiveness confidence and strength to enhance our capabilities and life.
Thoughts are natural as breathing and behaving. We all sometimes say things like "think before you speak," or let's think outside the box," or sometimes we say " I will think about it." The act of thinking or using our mind is very important for daily effective living.

What we do not realise is that the mind is a very powerful piece of organ that enables us to achieve things beyond belief.

How to program our mind is what I am going to talk about. The key to self empowerment and enhanced confidence is the ability to shift our thoughts as and when we like.

What the mind can conceive and believe , it can achieve - this is a famous saying from one of the most successful persons on earth. Yes, if we can have positive and powerful thoughts, we can move our lives to a higher level of effectiveness and confidence which means we can have strength to accomplish more things that we do now.

When we wake up in the morning, do we say GOOD MORNING IT IS A NEW DAY OR we drag ourselves out of bed and is it morning already?
Difference thoughts will mean whether the day is going to great or just passable.

So I always wake up in the morning with a choice of positive thoughts - and jumping out of bed is one swift action enables my adrenalin to work and my heart beats faster and with this, blood circulates to my brain (mind) and then I feel so much better already.

You see, our brain or the mind controls how our days are going to be. Miracles are performed not by God alone but the willingness to think positively and act positively - thus our thoughts are very powerful.

I once saw a child who was handicapped from birth , unable to walk properly and yet when his brother who was a normal child, was going to meet with an accident (that brother ran across the road , trying to retrieve his football), this handicapped child could dash forward and pushed his brother aside and then rolled to safety with such speed that you would think this guy was a sportsman. Yet, it was his thought to save his elder brother that caused his brain(mind) to react quickly and positively - thus moving all his muscles to such speed. It is mind over matter in this instance.

Let me assure you that if you put your mind to do something and believe that you are able to do it successfully. It shall be done. Even Nelson Mandela mentioned that our minds are so powerful that we fear to use it well.

Look around you, the achievements by others are actual evidence that people who use their minds (brains) effectively and confidently can strengthen their lives and achieve great things . All inventions from ancient times till today are works of the programming of the mind.

Let us think carefully and use our thoughts wisely for confidence and strength so as to enhance our capability and realisation of our dreams.

Cheers and have a good day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Building Confidence and self esteem

2010-01-03T16:10:00.001-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - questions to ask ourselves in order to live happily

2010-01-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi I want to give you some questions to ask ourselves in order to seek happiness along our life's journey.

Often times, it is the question not the solution that is vital and life-changing. Questions provoke inner thoughts. Even the famous Albert Einstein mentioned that the question and not the answer is the main focus of our query in life. His life works were based on lots of questioning. Why did this happen? How did this happen? When did this happen? Who made this happen? How to find solutions ? etc.. See, questions are catalysts to our reasoning and a query to a better enlightened path in our journey.

Let me ask you a few easy questions first.

a) What career or job would you choose if you have no limitations of income or lifestyle?
b) Who in this life would you like to share your dinner with, besides your immediate family members?
c) If you are stranded on an island, who are three persons you would like to be with?
d) If you are stranded on an island, what three things you would like to have with you?
e) If you were to die today, what are the things you would like to do?
f) Can you describe the best day in your life?
g) What are the favourite things you love to do?
h) What are the dumbest things you have done?
i) How much money is enough to you?
j) What are your new year resolutions for 2010?

If you can quickly answer these few simple questions without having to scratch your head hard and use lots of time, you have been thinking about life and what to do with it. However if you have no inclinations what your possible answers to the above are, then you need really to sit down and reflect on the above questions because at the end of the day, it matters what you do that you derive maximum satisfaction and happiness in your current life. You will find contentment and motivation once you are able to know yourself , your thoughts and your direction you want to move in life.

Your life is very precious because you only got one life and a span of 1 to 90 years if you are lucky enough to survive that long. Otherwise you have to make do with the shortness of it and enjoy every moment to the fullest like a butterfly, you get to see the panoramic view of the world. Do not be like an ant , always loitering and seeking under soil and leaves, without knowing the vastness of the world around you.

Like a butterfly, life is very fluttering and brief, yet the world is beautiful and lively. Butterflies glide about "without a care" in the world from one flower to the next, savouring every moment and tasting every drop of nectar or juice they can find. In fact, butterflies have better lives than bees who have to work for a queen, who does not give them freedom. Bees are very much like ants with lots of hardwork but no directional goals.

So live like a butterfly, with a bird-eye view of the world and smell the fresh flowers instead of doing mundane things all life long and then die without great and beautiful memories.

However to achieve all the high life of a "butterfly" , you must first get out of the cocoon, the hard shell , struggling out by yourself through discipline, self reflections and purposed-driven motivation so that you emerge lively and able to fly.

Some people like some butterflies do not emerge well from the cocoon and lame all their lives with dull colours and hobbling from plant to flower. The lack the incentive and inertia to push themselves hard out of life's cocoon.

So we must be the great colourful butterflies with full-fledged wings and a whole spectrum of beautiful colours to liven up our environment and our little "garden of life".

Here, I would like all of us to truly think on the questions which affect our behaviour and our actions. Do not wait till it is too late to do something we love; do not wait till eleventh hour to love someone whom we neglect in this lifetime.

I am sure in our busy-ness, we forget to hug someone close, we forget to do the fundamental human goodness in an effort to strive for other material things in life.

With questions, we will seek the solutions. While seeking, we should encourage one another to achieve greater success and our lives would be greatly improved and exciting. We will then be confident to handle any situation along the way.

Look up now, the sky is a beautiful blue today. Let us fly like the butterfly today.

Cheers
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to live a great life by removing our own prejudices

2010-01-01T16:06:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi good morning to you. Today I would like to share with you how to live a great life by removing our own prejudices.

I was talking about the truth about ourselves is sometimes so difficult to accept. Let me share a story which I read sometime ago.

There was a young lady who moved into a new neighbourhood. The first morning she saw from her window, her neighbour drying her clothes at the backyard and exclaimed to her family members that "Her neighbour's clothes are so dirty, maybe she should use a better detergent."

This continues till two weeks later, when one morning she woke up and saw that her neighbour's sheets are white as snow. She could not believe her eyes so she asked her sister what happened. Her sister simply replied that she had just cleaned their window glass earlier.

So you see, we see through tainted glass and dirty windows at others and find faults and troubles with them. Yet, our very own faults and failures we do not see as our own. We often try to rationalise and give excuses.

We cannot be truthful to ourselves most of the time. This is so when friends or loved ones point out our faults or failings and straightaway we jump into a rage and try to defend our actions by giving all sorts of weird excuses.

This is the main reason why many of us find happiness eluding us. Many of us wonder why it is so difficult to achieve better life, greater abundance and enjoyment of a "improved and motivated" life. Truth hurts but it is important to see the truth about ourselves.

We have to first of all, wipe our own heart and soul clean so that we have a clear view of what is happening around us; what we need to do with our faults and our failures and how to live a better enhanced exciting life.

The clearing of our prejudice should start from our heart. As Gandhi (former leader of modern India ) mentioned that it is with our heart that we can see rightly. Our brain is clouded with all sorts of intellectual reasoning and logical analysis which may not be useful when dealing with problems confronting us. Often times, we make better decisions if we use our emotions and our heart to feel for the situation on hand.

A famous Chinese proverb also has a similar ring to Gandhi's quote. It tells us to deal with money matters logically (with our brain), with people matters sincerely(with our heart) and with things around us with our love so that everything can turn out the way we want them to be.

Ah, how to remove prejudice from our own lives? A simple way is to live for the moment by using love as a measure - for example, if you are unsure what to do with your career? Ask what is your thing you love to do with your life? In this way, you clear obstacle by using love as the measure.

Similarly when confronted with difficult moments or decisions such as loss in any kind - friendship, jobs or even deaths of loved ones, use the heart to decipher the situation and throw out any negative thoughts and breathe deeply before deciding what step to take.

When we want to achieve the best for ourselves and improve our lives tremendously, we have to be truthful to ourselves, clear all tainted visions of everything and use our heart to measure the severity of the situation one at a time, so that we can take small steps to clear big obstacles. One step at a time, instead of doing all at once. This is the way to happiness and satisfaction with our circumstances whatever befall us.

Let me end with a story about how people think too much for a simple problem.

Once upon a time where was a king who received a beautiful eagle from a neighbouring kingdom. The eagle perched on a high branch of a tree and refused to fly. It just stood there for days even when the soldiers tried to shake the tree for it to fly away.

The king was very frustrated because he was fascinated with the flight of eagles - see how they soar into the blue skies. Yet this beautiful eagle just stood there numb to the world.

At last the king gave a decree to whoever was able to help the eagle fly would get a handsome reward. A simple farmer came to the court and asked to do this simple task. The king and his subjects were amazed when they saw the eagle soaring above their heads moments later.

He immediately sent for the farmer and asked , "How did you make the eagle fly?" The reply was ,"it is easy, I just cut off that branch !"

So you see, many problems can be solved simply. But we use our heads and brains to rationalise, to analyse and to examine how, what and when to solve the problems, when we can just take it straight at the root cause. Alexander the Great also solved a great problem when his father King Philip of Macedonia asked him to untie a difficult knot made of thick ropes. He simply used his sharp knife and cut it open, unlike the rest of the warriors who were much older and wiser, kept using their rationale to try and come up with a solution of untying the knot.

So , I feel that to achieve success and happiness in our lives and live meaningfully day by day with maximum personal improvement and motivation, we have to open our heart to be true to ourselves. It is not difficult if we are willing to let go . Let go of all the unnecessary baggage in our heads and we will have a lighter load in our hearts.

Cheers and have a nice day
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - The Third Step to Change your life to one of Greatness

2009-12-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi today I want to share the third vital step to a life of greatness. We should not live in mediocrity. We can live a life of enhanced greatness because even geniuses are just ordinary people like you and I.

The third step is the hardest but the most important step to achieving greatness and enhanced improvement in our lives as it is about learning the truth about ourselves.

Truth hurts like some people say. So we often hide in our mask and outer code of behaviour so that people will not see the true us. We ourselves also do not wish to know the truth about ourselves most of the time. The reason is that we fear that we cannot live up to our own expectations and power.

Since the world is full of liars and deceitful behaviours, we often fall into the "safe" trap of following what others do. This is a false belief that we are shielded from worldly problems. Lies help us to cover our sins, our failings and our inadequacies. In this society, nobody wants to know the truth. Everyone lives in a falsehood of love and careless affection. Lying feels good until you get found out, then it becomes a series of lies to cover the original track.

So the third step is to be true to oneself even if the world is lying out there. We should be truthful to our failings and our feelings. Truth will set us free to do the things we want to do, ought to do and can do . A simple way to live the truth is to keep simple promises which we made. For example, if you tell your child, you will come and support his ball game, you should be there regardless of how busy you are; if you promise to deliver something on time, make sure you are able to deliver that something on time. In this way you gain a reputation of keeping promises which will lead to a trust by others of you.

The simple truth is that when you tell the truth, you need not worry about remembering anything; you also find it easier to go on with life without having to lose sleep over what happened then and later. The most important thing is that when you tell the truth, you have the energy to do useful things best. It is not important to follow others in this life, it is important to follow the truth about yourself and use that energy for self improvement and enhancement of your life.

This step will lead you to think about yourself too. Many people around us like to give their advice and suggestions. Some even give their opinions freely without knowing us well. So it is good to think for ourselves, what we want to do with our lives and how best to achievement the satisfaction of self improvement and life enrichment . You have to be strong enough not to waver under other's opinion and affect your decision making.

When I first started my small enterprise, I was told by so many people that it was a bad decision. However, I thought carefully by myself for a few months and then decided that I should go ahead because it is my life we are talking about. So I made a decision of following my true self and started a small business. I also went for self improvement programmes and motivational workshops so that I am equipped with NLP skills to be strong enough to reject silly opinions of those around me.

In the end I succeeded and they came around and gave other kinds of advice such as how to do this , how to run that...etc... I told them that I get their advice when I need it. Yes, being true to yourself and thinking for yourself is a very important third step to achieving a greater than life success .

Our lives are in our own hands. We do not owe anyone a living neither do people owe us a living. It is thus vital for us to improve ourselves 3-5 % daily on small changes which enhance our wellbeing. A new haircut, a new pair of shoes and even a re-arrangement of furniture can help to boost our motivational inspiration for a better life. So do the 3-5% marginal improvement instead of taking big leaps which may be disastrous wrong moves. A small ripple can cause a big wave. So do things slow and steady and in small steps for an enhanced and improved life.

Let's go for it. Great life is waiting for us to grab it. Action speaks louder than words.
Cheers

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog -how to change your life in 3 steps

2009-12-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi how have you been during this festive season? I am sure all of us have enjoyed fun and joy in one way or another.

I am very happy that one of the village chiefs from a mountainous region in Himalayan range near Mount Everest came to visit me during this Christmas season and asked me to help him improve his village so that all of them can have successful and motivated lives.

He has heard about my self improvement schemes from his friends in India, where my friends and I built a green house and a computer centre in 20o4 and in 2007 we gave this Indian tribal village a solar panel so that they have hot water in the cold December months. The children of the tribal indian village had their lives improved tremendously and they no longer have to go without bathing.

Now the lives of the Himalayan region can be improved in 3 steps through the scheme which was useful to many people and I am sure , will be useful for you as well.

Step 1: Change a little bit - about just 3 - 5 % only. It is the marginal change in our lives that will create ripples and not big jump in behaviour that can move the world around us.

What I mean is make a small change each day - say. if you think your hair is bothering you, change your hairstyle which is not difficult . This change may not be big, but it changes your fashion for a while; also if you think that you are too fat, lose a kilogram of fat and not 20 kilograms as a goal.

The 3-5 % change in our daily lives can cause us to become more effective and motivated because people can see a subtle change each time they see us and this in turn will be powerful motivations for us to reach our improved state of being.

So create many small changes slowly and steadily not hastily as long as you are not standing idly and not doing something.

Enjoy and celebrate this small movements of successful changes. Tell yourself "well done" " you have managed to do something good now, go on the next small change." The essence of this step one is to aim big but make small easy steps to reach that big goal inside your head or heart.

Step 2: Get out of the victim mentality.

Many people I know blame others for failures, for unsuccessful lives etc.. Let me assure you that the faster you get out of the victim mentality, the faster your lives move towards greatness and joy.

Things like : others always have it better than me; everything bad only happened to me; others have better breaks in life ; you are suffering while the whole world is enjoying their great moments .... are all bull. In actual fact, all of us go through good times and bad times. It is like rain and sunshine. There are always challenges and there are also solutions if we try hard enough to find.

So snap out of the victim mentality and live. Even the best horse stumbles at times. Do not wallow in self pity and hoping that others can pity you . No one really cares for your well being except yourself.

Think only that what does not kill you make you stronger . Stop giving yourself label such as you are a loser etc.. Stop comparing yourself with others - each one of us has a life of its own.

So, do you let pity and bitterness set you back while you can get a hold of your life and move on . Replace excuses with positive action and give yourself enough thoughts to be decisive and composed.

In this way you are half your way to successful enriched and powerful life.
I will share Step 3 in the next blog so that you can start thinking about this two steps first and reflect upon what I have shared with the villagers and the people who now have motivated lives and no longer blamed the harsh environment where they came from. Nothing is impossible, only believe in yourself. The power in believing yourself will enable you to achieve a greater life.

Cheers and happy reading.
Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and BLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Pursuit of love and self enhancement

2009-12-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP BLog

Hi today I got something to share with all of you in terms of pursuit of love and self enhancement of joy and happiness.

To live a life of freedom and love is possible. To attain freedom of choice, freedom to do the things you enjoy , you must first disentangle yourself from lots of unnecessary worry and desires.

Many people are trapped in their world of imaginations of worry, negative thoughts and miserable impossible desires that they are unable to pull themselves out of the miserly life to enjoy life abundantly.

Conflicts are often self inflicted. When you insist on your right to do things in a certain way and thus antagonising others, it is not exercising freedom of choice but a bad case of selfishness and myopia. To actually exercise freedom of choice, you must first get rid of any selfish means to attain any thing of value. What does this mean? It simply means that we have to take a step backwards when we deal with others. Use our heart to understand the situation before using our head. This will be a lot more easier and less painful than to be rational all the time.

Technology has transformed many people to become impatient, ruthless and self-centred. We are being tied down by all the gadgets or modern electronic devices that we are not able to feel our heart and soul . We are constantly bombarded with noise and demands by others .So, to pursue happiness, love and self enhancement, you must decide which of the modern devices will not cause you to be overly dependent on them; which are the things that you need to have a moderately abundant life with connections to others as well and also time for your breathing space.

Self enhancement means that you have time to smell the flowers along the way to work, talk with people who may not matter in your career development or even help someone across the road . The pursuit of happiness is not all about money. It is about how we decide to live. If you decide to live well and joyful, start by enabling others to be happy first. Others and then yourself in this order of life and you will find that life is more palatable and smooth.

Happiness is often like perfume, you may not smell it, but others can get the fragrance when you pass by. This is the way of spreading love and joy.

Like Mother Theresa who once said, we must not be selfish, because we have so little time and so much to do. Also the real poverty in this world is not hunger for food, but hunger for love and care. So to be really rich and enjoying great life, you must learn to care for others.

The pursuit of happiness will lead to love and self enhancement if we are able to see things in the right perspective and do things that will enable others to grow along with us. Life is great if we love ourselves and others along the way.

When there is potential conflict, always seek a solution that enables all parties to win a little. Like the Chinese saying, step back a little and you can see the beautiful blue sky... what are you waiting for?

Cheers
Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Finding your niche of happiness

2009-12-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi recently I was busy helping a group of people to improve themselves through finding their niche of happiness.

Many people want to be happy in this life. Yet they are often plagued by sadness and self pity. To find your niche of happiness, let me share some ideas so that you can then become happy and your life would be improved and learning can take place. You will live better and can develop skills for further self improvement. In this way your life will be full of happiness.

To gain happiness, you have to firstly, exercise self restraint. You may ask, is this an oxymoron? Self restraint means that you have to control certain actions or behaviours so that other better behaviour can become your true self. .

If you want stability in a relationship , you must find step out of your own selfish nature and think of the other person or persons so that you can then strike a chord of love correctly. Take for instance, driving a car, you need to follow the speed limit so that you can drive easily and without worry for traffic police or people to shout at you. Similarly when you want to seek stable relationship, you must be able to accommodate the other person into your life. Never place yourself above anyone else.

For family happiness and stability, you have to take actions to love your home, your loved ones and to ensure that everyone is served well so that their needs are met first and then you will have joy within because their smiling faces would tell you of the happiness you have brought to them. Although family members may not display gratitude outwardly, it is the satisfaction that you can feel from a nice, cosy home with warm meals and clean surroundings.

When you practise self restraint, you will find that life is much better, with less worry, less quarrels with your loved ones and also less fuss. You will have more time to improve your life and your environment.

The next thing to happiness, is to exercise self transformation by reflecting on own actions daily and ensuring that we are able to improve ourself daily. The question is whether we have lived better today than yesterday? Our mind is often the culprit for our unhappiness because we tend to let it go wild with negative thoughts and imagination.

To curb the wrong thinking, it is good for us to always reflect on current issues which we can solve and control than things beyond us. Keeping our minds renew with goodness each day such as having positive thoughts will enable us to respond positively each day. Our thoughts are like currents, poweful enough to make us behave in certain ways which may be harmful to our health and to others as well.

You need not do meditation or silent sitting. It is enough to reflect before you retire to bed every night or even during meal times. A grateful heart of self reflection is a good start. Your mind is tame when you eat slowly, when you talk slowly and when you do things in a systematic, restraint manner instead of rushing through life without thought. A 5 to 15 minute quiet time each day will give you the right mindset to begin your day or to end your day depending on whether you can think better in the morning or at night.

The last portion of self restraint is to exercise wisdom in speaking. Do not use harsh words or negative words on others , no matter how angry you are. One Japanese proverb has this saying, "a kind word can warm three winter months" - see the power of speech or the spoken word. Kind words are like beautiful flowers giving out fragrance. Harsh words cause strife and anger in the hearers.

So restrain your speech, your action and your mind. This is the first step toward the nich of happiness which is long lasting unlike excitement which is temporary and can cause pain.

Happy reading and cheers
Sally Klaus

The Self Improvemen and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - How to convert failure to success

2009-12-13T05:26:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi I will be sharing tips on how to convert failure to success.

Often times in life, we meet failures in many situations. There are the poor grades in our school; the failure to get the ideal job we want; the failure in our relationships such as disastrous marriage, unrequited love affairs and unhappy family situations. We merely blame ourselves or blame others , without reflecting on the causes and effects of the failures we encountered.

Firstly, examine the causes for those failures. In the case of poor grades , the possible reasons could be due to lack of confidence, lack of hard work and lack of correct information and application. To rectify future bad grades, we can improve our methods of study, get more help and seek more resouces to cover the inadequate grades. In this way, the possibility of improving future grades is quite high.

For other kinds of failures, mostly they are due to lack of emotional intelligence and sensitivity to needs of others or even lack of awareness. To avoid such failures in future you can learn to be more aware, more caring and also more grateful so that others can feel your genuine concern and personal touch . In this way, it is much easier to succeed in relationships next time.

How then to convert failure of more serious nature such as failure of business endeavours? The best method for turnabout is to learn from mistakes and bravely look for solutions such as seeking improvements in both products and employee quality. Self improvement for yourself in terms of garnering better sales techniques or even reading more about other successes. In this way, you change your attitude from that of failure to success. It is a difficult journey from failure to success but it is worth it because in the long run, failures become part and parcel of any person's life. There is no need to take things too seriously, just keep improving and keep looking for better ways of dealing with people and environment.

I personally experienced failures in my early business projects. They failed because I was too confident of my products, too unprepared for the market conditons and too eager for a quick buck. So there are many things which were not in my plans. The failure was painful but it taught me to be wiser and better prepared for the next venture. Now my business has been on going for the past few years and thriving.

My tips to all of you are to be aware of what went wrong; what could be done to improve and how to improve both products and service. Good products are one thing but good personal service and good work attitude are very important for personal success as well as business success.

To keep improving and learning is a motto for all of us. Life long learning is vital for our personal achievements.

Failure is the mother of success - so keep on looking at the positive side of failure as one continues to keep improving and keep learning.

Let us keep learning from our failed experience and renew our hopes for a better future.

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Powerful Self Talk for personal development

2009-12-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi I would like to share something about self talk which is very powerful for personal improvement and growth. Visualisation helps to give you the mental picture of your future or what you want to do but self talk is very much like seeing yourself in the mirror and preparing your mind and body for the action that is to follow.

The first thing that helps to transform you from one who is not confident to one who has hopes and aspirations for the future is to do lots of centering and self talk in front of the mirror when you bathe, when you comb hair or when you wear your clothes for outings etc.

What is centering and self talk? It is like giving your mind nutrients and resources for growth of your creative self. One of the things to begin self talk is to eliminate all negative ideas or feelings.

Negative feelings and ideas make one very lethargic and tired, while positive self belief helps to ignite the fire inside your body and mind so that you are ready for any kind of challenge or difficulty along the way.
Some of the negative thoughts which must be eliminated include being afraid or fearful of things. I will talk about removing fears in the next blog.

Right now I want to inject all of you with positive centering thoughts and powerful words of self talk that will help you boost your day and increase your energy to do things.

Always begin with a smile, a genuine smile that is from the eyes and heart. Let the crow feet come to the corner of your eyes. It is better to get crow feet and wrinkles than to be pretty stupid right? Once you give yourself the million-dollar smile, you can begin to talk to your image in front of your mirror. Clean the mirror to get best angle and clear view of your full body centering.

Repeat words like I have a clear purpose of life from today. Say out loud. My purose is to love myself and to do my best for my future and those whom I love around me. I want to do my best to get the best for my family and friends. I want to have things working well with me so that everyone around me can have security , love and happiness around me.

Once you smile heartily, telling yourself that you love yourself , you are able next to go on with other affirmations or self talk.

The next one should be learning is easy for me I am smart and capable and I can see solutions to all my situations not matter how difficult they are.

Actions for centering and energy:
You stretch out both your hands straight above your head and say I am going to reach for the sky. So your hands are stretched upwards towards the sky to reach it. In this way, your blood circulation helps you to go for the next gesture. Place your hands in front of you and stretch out straight and point both hands as if you are going to grab the future and saying I can see my future is bright and cheery.

When you have done the stretching skywards and stretching front with both arms straightened out a few times, you will feel much better and more energised.

The next step would be to fold your arms across your chest with your fingers touching your shoulders and say aloud that you are in control of your future. Hug yourself a few times by grasping your shoulders with your fingers and this makes you feel that you have been loved. Yes, you love yourself which is vital before you can go and love others.

The positive energy and self talk becomes very much a routine which you should do daily like habits of nature and these actions and self talk will center you towards focus and concentration to accomplish anything you wish to do to improve your life and live a fruitful and meaningful future.

Thank you for reading and doing the above.

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog --knowing your rights to self empowerment

2009-11-30T06:10:00.000-08:00

Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi , are you interested in self empowerment? Do you believe you can achieve what you want from life by knowing your rights and your obligations?

Once there was a famous person who said that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. This is very important because all of us got rights to believe in ourself, we got rights to achieve our dreams, we got rights to do our best to live life fully with the few tips I am sharing today.

Firstly you have rights to dream dreams and build your mind castles. Without dreams, people perish. This saying is true because if you do not have a vision or a dream, you just drift through life. But if you have dreams, not matter absurd or weird, you have the right to do what you like with your brain and your mind. Dreams are vital for us to move on in this life journey because it is rather tough living each day to the fully if you do not have dreams or goals.

Secondly you have rights to be yourself. You do not have to live for anyone else because you live your best as you are a unique being. In order to be an empowered and energised person, all you have to do is believe in yourself and be yourself. No matter what others say of you, you just stick to your own beliefs and your principles.

Remember your principles must be fundamentally great so that your dream is colourful and bright , giving you motivation to self improve and strengthen you each day and will not stumble when others try to run you down.

Moreover you have the right to fail as a human being. No one is perfect. Each one of us can fail as many times as possible because if you do not have a chance to fail, then you never experience true satisfaction in this life. Failure is the mother of success. Failure helps to humble us to become better, enriched and improved. If you do not fail or make mistakes , then you are like a ship that does not leave the harbour - good only for display and not for improvement and enrichment.

The last thing is your right to be imperfect and idle sometimes. No one is an island and no one is perfect. It is thus vital for us to exercise the right to be imperfect. Do not become so myopic and perfectionist in doing your thing so well that there is no room for improvement. Do not give yourself undue pressure.

Well, knowing your basic human rights to dream, to be imperfect and to
fail in this life, you are ready for meaningful happy living and empowered for better living and self development . You will become more positive, proactive and more prudent in your decisions of living a great life.

I wish all of you exercise your rights and empower yourself so that we can remind ourselves that we are human beings after all. Cheers and good luck

Sally Klaus
Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP blog - the process for enabling you to find answers for better life

2009-11-29T05:54:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

Hi once again I would like to further discuss the process for enabling you to find answers to a better life.
The first thing in the morning, the mid day actions and the evening ritual before you get used to the routine in moving towards the right direction of enhancing your life and improve your well being.

The first thing in the morning, look at the mirror and do a self talk . Positive self talk will give you a booster, which can be enhanced further by a big smile across your face. This not only stretches your facial muscles and circulate your blood flow into your other organs of your body,it also enables you to do a visualisation of what you want to do for the whole day.

The techniques used can be :
a) active visualisation
b) positive affirmations of your strengths and
c) doing a simple laughter therapy daily

a) Active visualisation of at least 15 minutes every morning is a powerful first step towards self development and positive living. When you visualise nice good images and views of great day ahead , you will instinctively go into a hype-up mode of being happy for the whole day. Your hypothalamus will eject lots of adrenalin into your body system to give you booster energy for the whole day
Then smiling to yourself for at least 5 minutes and practise smiling to others you meet for the morning , will add on the positive vibes for a great day - once the day is good, everything seems to be well. Even mistakes at work or criticism from colleagues or boss will not dampen your spirit for that day .

b) Positive affirmations such as the following examples can help you to enhance your self management for growth and personal achievement.
1. I live each day with passion and purposeful life
2. I am alive and breathing and this is the only thing that matters now
3. I always will feel good about myself because I am made for greater things which will happen soon enough.
4. I am a resourceful and nice person
5. I can make people happy and my work exciting because it is part of my personal growth
6. I deserve happiness, abundance and wealth.
7. I am a creative being, who merely needs patience to grow.
8. I am focussed and persistent in achieving my life goals.
9. I have lots of energy which I am going to put to good use.
10. I have complete freedom to do what I like with my time.

c) Doing a laughter therapy to ensure positive enzymes to activate my body for greater joy and energy to accomplish what I intend to do with my life or my days. How to do a good and simple laughter exercise.
1. First clap your hands palm to palm and say hoo hoo ha ha ha - do it a few times and then look at the mirror and laugh loudly till you look funny.
2. Use a long thin leaf, cleaned it and then use it to tickle yourself under your arm pits and let it run down your arms in a slow sensual way. In this way you feel ticklish and funny to be doing this silly stuff. In so doing, you relax and feel good.
3. Then go to someone and tell them a funny joke, a comical story or even an embarrasing moment you have had expericnced before. In sharing you may feel good and relaxed. This will give you boosters in both energy and strength to do your work well for the day and days ahead even.

I think if you do the above, you will find answers to better life and personal growth in terms of positive thinking and positive attitude. This in turn enhances your personal relationship with others too. People will find you more personable and fun to be with.

Thanks for reading and have a great time discovering your inner self and personal growth

Sally Klaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog

The Self Improvement and NLP blog - finding answers to successful living

2009-11-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog :
Do you want to find answers to successful living? Let me provide some tips which enable you to find possible answers to a successful life and great journey towards a brighter future.

There are people who keep searching for the meaning in life even though they are not in prison or in jail. Unlike Victor Frankl who searched for meaning in life while he was in a confinement of a prison cell, we can find answers on our own daily walk by doing the following actions:

a) Every morning wake up with a smile and think of an idea of how to make yourself feel great for the day. One way is to read comic strips in major tabloids or newspaper or even comic books . This will lighten your day and make your smile to yourself . Check your smile in front of the mirror - to get the best smile. While thinking of an idea , practise on your smile and this will make it easier to have good ideas,
You sometimes need only one idea to strike in big whether in work or in life. A smile is a bridge which links us to others.

b) Be nice and kind to older people, needy people or those who may need a smile from you , or a little help from you , along the way to work or to school or even to a park on a Sunday. By being nice, you have created a sense of power living because you have activated your inner spirit and moved into a nirvana sort of euphoria which will give you strength to last at least 8-10 hours of work or studies. Kindness is the new wealth creation because miracles happen when you are kind and helpful.

c) The next thing is to find a nice place to reflect or meditate on what issues are bothering you . A nice 10-minute after lunch meditation or a short break from your routine will give you the relaxed state to think on the cause and effect of those issues bothering you. One issue very common among all of us is about money - financial situation. In this case, you have to reorganise your thoughts so that you can find a goal or a solution to tackle the money issue. If it is a loan which you cannot repay, think of ways which you can obtain money or cash to repay. Look around you , friends, colleagues or even social organisations which you can seek for help. There are many organisations which can lend a helping hand if you have the necessary skills or collateral to exchange that temporary setback. I am sure many of us can straighten our thoughts and do a good financial goal effectively if we think hard enough for solutions and answers.

Another issue bothering most people would be relationship and matters of the heart. Although feelings and love cannot be forced or controlled, it is good for us to seek solutions by open communication with the others whom you have a problem. Own up and confess your inadequacy first , apologise if necessary to break the ice of silence or pain, then it is easier to discuss ways to foster a better relationship. Open communication or face to face talk may help to ease any hidden pain in both parties. The answer to better relationship and enhance love and care is via openness and willingness to compromise on each other's shortcomings and capitalise on strengths and love. If need be,, ask for forgiveness too. It helps much in easing your life.

There are a few more tips to finding answers to queries in our life which is an ongoing search for meaning and success. Best of luck to your search for answers now .
thank you for reading and have a great week ahead

Sally Klaus

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog.

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - Building Confidence and self esteem

2009-11-27T01:14:00.000-08:00

Hi friends I am Sally Klaus . I would like to give you tips on how to build confidence and boost your self esteem so that you can become an effective communicator and a successful worker in the workplace or a successful business person running an enterprise.

Sometimes we may have the knowledge, skills and talents to do our jobs well yet we may lack the confidence to let our friends, our customers or even our family members know that we possess such great flair or talents. In order to build confidence all the time and not just sometimes , it is important for us to follow the various steps which I believe will help you overcome your inertia and boost your self esteem in all situations.

First of all, you need to look at the mirror everyday , not for pimples or facial defects or ugly spots, it is to remind yourself that you are alive , well and raring to start a new life each morning. Tell yourself you are great , you can make it and if others such as Bill Gates can make it, why not you? What so special about these people that you do not have?

Beauty and looks are not really important in building confidence. It is the inner spirit , the inner drive to do well and to be able to stand tall even though you may be like me, just 5 feet (156 cm) tall. I am always looking in the mrror not for outward appearance, but to remind myself ,by doing self talk saying to yourself , heh, I am alive and everything will turn out well if I do my best today and everyday. This helps you and me to face the world outside the toilet and the bedroom. If you are still not convince inspite of the self talk in front of the mirror, just comb your hair at least 50 strokes so that your blood circulation will enable you to feel energised and boost your self esteem.

The next step is power dressing. Power dressing need not be expensive and showy. You just need to buy a neat, dark suit (whether you are a man or woman) ; reasonably affordable, must be comfortable so that you can move about freely in this suit. If you can afford more smart suits, good for you! This piece of clothing must make you feel good and smart- looking. Many people got their best deals without being handsome or beautiful. I got my deals because I portray a businesslike look
each time I speak with my clients or potential customers. I am not good-looking but I am smart-looking in my favourite two-piece business suit. The suit has taken me to many places around the world and enabled me to look confident enough to negotiate even difficult deals or speak with important personalities in the course of my work. Even the Chinese has a saying, human being needs proper dressing up while Buddha needs gold dressing to look good!

Third tip of building your confidence is to always carry a good book which is popular in the market. This is because reading maketh a man according to Francis Bacon-- this is to give you a chance to start a conversation with strangers if you are in that situation. By talking about popular book or the book you hold in your hand, you can thwart any fear inside you because talking about weather is boring topic. If the book is an inspiring book, you can even give some lines from the book for that person or persons you are facing - this will definitely boost your confidence and raise your self esteem surely. I have done that many times and also use books to fill in waiting time at airports, in doctor's lounge or waiting for bus or trains. This is definitely enabling and empowering your self confidence and increase your learning as well!

The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - boosting your self confidence and enhance your self esteem

Self Improvement and NLP blog - greetings from Sally Klaus

2009-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hi I am Sally Klaus and I am taking over my friend Shawn, who will be pursuing his higher goals of economics education.

I will be writing on how to become popular with the opposite sex, how to be confident successful person well loved by people around you ; how to win difficult conversations and become good at communication skills and presentation skills.

I have been giving motivational workshops in Asia, especially in China, India and Singapore. I am a trained certified behavioural consultant from the Motivational Institute of USA. I have a Bachelors degree in Business and Accountancy as well as a first class certificate from the London Pitman in Communications and Report writing .

I also have a Masters in Action Learning and have been doing volunteer work in counselling, humanitarian actions and aid in Tsunami efforts since 2005 . I have also worked with youths all over Asia in enhancing their confidence and self improvement in pursuing their life goals effectively.

I have motivated and helped to make many people from all walks of life from ages 15 onwards and all over the world , successful over the past 10 years . Some have even become rich and powerful in their arena of work and life.

Thank you for reading and stay on with me as i share my tips and knowledge as a practitioner in this field with you.

Cheers and think of a great happy picture in your head now...

Basics of NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming

2008-06-09T02:14:00.001-07:00

Basics of NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming

This post will deal with some basic questions and answers about NLP: what is NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming? Is NLP some scam, or is it true and does it work? What is it exactly and what are the various aspects of NLP? I will try to talk about NLP and what it is in this post for your information. It might be very useful as a tool for your personal self development and self improvement.

My story and my route to NLP: I had always been interested in NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming. I'll try to relate the development process that introduced me slowly and gradually to NLP. When I was in secondary school, I once read Adam Khoo's book on how to become a genius or something like that, and it had something to do with confidence, beliefs and all that. It was interesting, curious, and rather useful stuff and then later I graduated from Adam Khoo's books and discovered Anthony Robbins for myself. NLP was one of the major things that he was preaching. I am sure most people know him as a motivational speaker and gigantic guru, and he is very famous anyways. All my other heroes and people I looked up to and respected as celebrities, such as Derren Brown, 'Tony Robbins and many other experts were all also learning, talking, and preaching all about NLP. And so that was how I was introduced to NLP. I then went on to conduct and do my own research and analyses on NLP and its uses.

I will explain NLP in my own words: by dissecting NLP we get Neuro, Linguistic and Programming. First, "neuro" is related to the brain and to the mind, and hence NLP is basically about the mind and how we think. Next, linguistic means language and words, and basically NLP is also about language. The word programming shows us that the mind can be programmed by language, and vice versa, so the language-mind connection is basically what NLP is about to me. I must honestly add that it is very difficult to discuss and evaluate what NLP actually is, because there are many differing opinions and NLP is indeed a wide topic, but nonetheless it can be said to be about changing our actions, words and our minds to improve our human experiences and interactions. That is my personal definition of what it is all about:

NLP is about changing our actions, words and our minds or way of thinking in order to improve our human experiences and interactions.

To put it simply, consider an example. If I always think positive, then the world that is seen from my mind and my perception will always be optimistic and good and happy. This is the power of NLP. To see how NLP actually affects our behaviour and perceptions, consider the obvious fact that if we try to think positive and change our negative perceptions into something better, we will become happier because we feel more positive, having gotten rid of our negative feelings. It's that simple.

One example of NLP is modelling, according to Derren Brown. If I think someone is worthy of emulation, I just need to model my actions, behaviour and ostensible thoughts on that person and I am done - modelling has occurred. By doing this, according to NLP, I will soon feel better and also acquire the characteristics of the person I am modelling under NLP. Is this true and based upon NLP techniques and reasoning, or is this just plain commonsense?

This Self Improvement and NLP blog will explore various ways of improving self esteem, self confidence and self, and will explore various ways of improving oneself. In addition, the NLP section will attempt to explore more, and in depth, advanced NLP so that this method of living, thinking and perceiving things will have a positive and useful impact in your life.

To basically attempt to answer the few questions posed at the start of the post: what is NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming? NLP is, according to my own personal view, personal perception and personal phrasing, about changing our actions, words and our minds or way of thinking in order to improve our human experiences and interactions. Is NLP some scam, or is it true and does it work? This is hard to answer and you will have to find out for yourselves, and this will be dealt with in other posts here on the Self Confidence and NLP blog. What is NLP exactly and what are the various aspects of NLP? It is about changing your life and experiences for the better, via actions and thoughts that are specific and technique-based. There are many suppositions and assumptions that lead to specific aspects and specific fields in NLP, but let's see: persuasion, negotiation, personal issues, relationship issues, self improvement and self development issues, education, thinking and more can all be, in one way or another, influenced by NLP. All the propositions, assumptions and ideas related to NLP will be dealt with in depth in the course of this blog and in other posts. This article is merely the tip of a colossal iceberg... more to come on NLP and self improvement in future posts! Stay tuned, cheers.

Welcome to my Self Improvement and NLP blog!

2008-06-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hello and Welcome to my Self Improvement and NLP Blog!

Self Improvement is a very important and major thing for all of us. We all know that in one way or another we should always seek to improve ourselves. This website is my contribution to the world in the way of Self Improvement. In the area of self improvement, I will be looking and sharing common topics of interest, such as how to influence people, how to negotiate, how to better educate yourself, and self confidence of course. Self confidence is one of the most important areas of self improvement that I will be talking about in my blog. Simply - this resource is about self improvement in general, and self confidence (self esteem, personal confidence) in particular.

Why is there a subordinate focus on self esteem / self confidence? There are many people who are very successful in their own fields and jobs, but somehow feel that they are missing something, and that is self confidence. They are happy people who need self confidence. Some others are unhappy, unsuccessful people - but they are not untalented. They just lack self confidence and if only they had more or better self confidence, they would have been far more talented than they are right now. They are unhappy people now, and they know they need self confidence. I once had a friend called Victor, who was suffering from depression. He had clinical depression because people bullied him and he had no way of defending himself, so he withdrew into a world of denial and depression. He lacked self confidence and self assurance to tell the other kids to back off, or to stop their taunting and their bullying. Watching Victor and how his life was turned upside down because of lack of self confidence made me want to write about self confidence and how to improve one's self confidence. If you are successful in your own field but feel that you need more self confidence, this is the self confidence resource for you which will deal with many self confidence issues and how to be more confident. If you are lacking in self confidence and you know that you should improve on it, then this website might be just the thing for you. Come and read up more on self improvement and self confidence, and other interesting topics. If this blog cannot help you in any way, or if you already have excellent self confidence and you already know how to improve yourself, this should still make good and interesting reading, because I do know that deep down everyone loves a good read, or everyone loves a good juicy article here and there. Besides, this resource is not just about self confidence, as that is only one small element of self improvement, which is a continuous process and a very vast topic. Self improvement nowadays involves NLP too, in a way.

This brings me to another point: the second thread running through my website is NLP, or Neurolinguistic Programming. I will be dealing with many issues related to NLP here on Self Improvement and NLP, like what is NLP? how does NLP work? does NLP work at all, or is it some gimmick? and what does NLP have to do with my self confidence and self improvement?

Stay tuned for interesting and educational posts here on my Self Improvement and NLP blog! Cheers :)

Shawn Seah

A little notice: Apart from this interesting Self Improvement and NLP Blog, I also have other resources that I would like to share with you here. I write about money matters and investment in Ideas on how to become rich. I also write about my tours and travels (travelling is one way of boosting your self confidence and self reliance) in Tour and See the World! I also write an English blog, called English Language Resources Online, and a German blog, called How to learn German fast. I also write a personal blog called Anything that Interests Me! I also have an Online Education resource as well. Yes, I am a prolific writer. Well, I am sure that many people have diverse interests too, and mine are: money, travel, English, German, psychic phenomena and more. Do visit me when you have the time and energy. Thank you and see you soon! Cheers!