People love to give excuses on things they don’t want to do. It’s actually not the excuses that made them unable to do certain things but their own willpower and own initiatives. If you don’t have a strong willpower, you can come out with all sorts of irrelevant excuses just to avoid doing something.

Just take a look at the examples below, how often do you hear these lines from people?

• It’s too late now, I will go to the gym some other time.
• Today is a very tiring day, I’ll just skip gym.
• Whoa, he’s staying so far away! I don’t think I want to go find him for dinner.
• I have a busy schedule and the wedding invitation is too last minute, I doubt I have time to attend it.
• The process is too tedious, we should just ignore it.
• It’s too troublesome to fill in the claim form, I’ll just forget it.

I’m pretty sure some of those lines are familiar to you. And this doesn’t just apply to our daily or personal life, it also applies to our job. There are times when companies refused to do something for you just because it’s too resource extensive to do it. Well, fact is, they just don’t want to do it – the admin could be lazy, or the bosses just don’t care.

So are you one of those people? People who love to give excuses just because they don’t have the will or the initiatives to do things?

Maybe a change should be made. Stop giving excuses and just do it. If you cannot do it, just say you can’t do it. Don’t try to come out with some bullshit because it (the bullshit) can only last you a short while. Once it’s clear, you’ll find yourselves in deeper trouble – you’ll lose the trust of the other party and that other party could sometime be none other than yourselves (try giving excuses to every single appointment you have and you will soon find that person disappearing from your life. He/she will think why bother to ask you out when he/she knows you’re going to turn it down with some lame excuses?). And if you want to do something, then give your all to do it. No mountain is too high to climb, and no journey is too far to travel (I think).

Or to cut things short – if you have the will, there will always be a way(s).

I always ask this question to myself and people close to me. I feel that this is one of the most important questions one should always ask.

• Why are you here in this company?
• Why are you here in this job?
• Why are you here in this shopping complex?
• Why are you here in this gym?
• Why are you here in this world?

All these questions only have 1 similar purpose – to make your presence in whatever place to be more worthwhile. Ask yourselves why are you here in this company? What is it that you want to do? And what is it that makes you join this company? Are you here because you want to contribute? Or are you here because there’s something this company has that attracted you?

Or if you’re asking why are you here in this world, then things like your purpose of being here, or what makes you feel your stay can be more meaningful, or perhaps what are the things that you think will allow you to answer the first question?

And this does not apply only on personal level. A team manager should always know the purpose of his/her subordinates of joining the company. Is it because of the job scope? Or perhaps the money? Or the benefits? Know the reasons well and try to make them happy by managing those reasons.

However, I realized that most people, including the managers, bosses, etc, do not care about this question at all. People will just be here for the sake of being here. They never think about the reason of being here. If you ask them, they wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Hmm, sounds a little bit like sleep walking, no? You go to a place without realizing why you are there!

Come on people, I’m sure you can do better. It’s fine to go to a place without any reason from time to time but it’s not really a good habit and you will not appreciate the time spent. Wanna go to a vacation? Then state your reasons of going there – spend more time with your parents, take a break, etc.

Ask more such questions and I believe once you found out about your reasons of being here, you will appreciate the moment more.

Hope it helps.

In the 21st century, we’re spoilt with choices….plenty of choices. It’s so much that anything complicated or messy will be ignored by us. Complicated banking system, confusing investment type, a machine which is hard to operate, or even a overly-cluttered workspace, just to name a few. These mind-boggling things are fast becoming things of the past.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some of the successful products in recent years.

• Apple IPod and IPhone. Simple design. Ease of use. In fact, most of Apple products have been designed with simplicity in mind.
• IKEA’s furniture. If you notice the design in the IKEA store, most of them are pretty simple and clean. Some are a bit cluttered due to the space but overall, they are still relatively simple yet attractive.
• Operation manual used to be text book sized but has now reduced to maybe one a4 paper for most products. People are just too lazy to read long-winded manual. They just want to get straight to the point and save time.
• And if you use Internet everyday, do you prefer a web site design which is messy or a design which is clean and simple?

It’s pretty obvious isn’t it? When there are too many things available to us, we tend to focus more on simple things which we can understand and digest right away. A complicated or messy design has the tendency to make us more sophisticated (not in a good way) and even, at times, frustrated.

So if you are trying to come out with a design or a product, remember that it’s important to solve the problem with as simple a method as possible. Because unlike in the past when anyone who creates complicated product is regarded as a genius…people nowadays prefer the simplistic approach.

If you’re a fan of Malaysia’s MixFM, you should know that they are coming out with this new program called “dearly deported” or something. It’s a competition where the participants tell the DJs who they (the participants) really want to meet. The ‘who’ must be someone they’ve not met for a long long time.

So the other day DJs went to 1 part of KL to interview people. Their question was “if you were given a chance to meet someone you’ve not met for many many years…for 10 minutes, what would you do?”

Some of the answers:

• To have a good chat with the person and his/her family.
• To chop onion with her mum, just like the old time.
• To go for a walk in the place they’ve played together as kids.

As you can see, all of these things are very very simple. Some would call these “small little things”. There’s no big hotel, no luxurious restaurant, no cool gadgets (like Apple IPhone), no big BMWs. Nothing big at all. Ok, maybe there are, but not mentioned because those are not the point. All those things are so simple that a normal and fortunate person can do them anytime, anyday…but most of these normal and fortunate person never appreciate such ‘little things’. They always look up at the big things. And little do they know that sometimes, these small things don’t happen twice. They are there once, and they’re gone. You might never get them back.

All I can say is, big things are there in the sky for a reason. They are your inspirations, your goals, your dreams. They do matter in our life but what really matters now is the little things that happen in your life. In fact, they are everywhere. So start to pay attention. Notice them. Appreciate them. And perhaps 10 years down the road, you will look back to today and say “I’m glad I’ve enjoyed the small things that life threw me 10 years ago”.

Consider the following 2 examples:

1. Not a quiet person in the office. But when it comes to meeting, he prefers to remain quiet even though he does have some opinions/ideas/suggestions. He is worried others will look down or laugh at him. So he prefers to keep those points to himself. And sometimes, after the meeting, he’ll start to complain other people’s ideas and that the management should listen to him instead.
2. Never a quiet person and loves to speak out during meetings, sometimes, a bit too much. His purpose is to enforce his ideas and authority, and make sure he is important in the meeting and everyone is listening to him. This kind of people tend to have poor listening skill. He can ask or talk about something which has just been discussed few minutes ago, or he often interrupts people while they’re talking.

Of course, the second one is the type which we always notice and always hate. Well, he makes us notice him anyway. But in my opinion, both are equally guilty and equally bad. Both should change and a balance should be reached.

The quiet one should learn to be more outspoken. These individuals always complain that other people are more successful not because they are smart, but because they can talk. Bad news for these guys, that’s the reality. It’s not like you need to talk like a consultant or salesman, but good communication skill is an essential tool in the corporate world. Would you rather work with someone who can explain himself well, or someone who knows a lot of stuff but always tell you the wrong thing? The answer is pretty obvious. Also, it doesn’t help to keep everything to yourself. People won’t know what you want/feel until you tell them.

On the other hand, the 2nd person should also change. Try to listen more and put his ego down. No point forcing his ego onto other people as this will only frustrate and irritate people more. Also, there’s no need to show off how outspoken he is. Giving other people the opportunity to speak or finish their sentence is necessary as a kind of respect. If you don’t respect others, no matter how good a speaker you are, they will not respect you (some will hate you). So listen more and observe the situation before you speak (so far, those that I know who belong to this group…..nobody really likes them, not even the bosses).

So what do you think? Have you met such people before? Do you find them annoying and at times frustrating? Or perhaps you are one of them? (Well, the first one is still okay since nobody really hates them… but the second one is quite a pain) If yes, which type do you think you are and how do you think you can change for the better? Remember that a balance is required here and too much of any side can bring pretty bad consequences.