Achievement is a mental game

Go for your golds the way an athlete pushes himself to reach his full potential

What rating would you give yourself on personal productivity?

Do you have a systematic plan for improving your effectiveness in your daily work?

Super-achieving business people and athletes know what it takes to motivate themselves, maintain focus in the face of obstacles and drive forward to the completion of their vision and dreams.

They take charge of their work by being aware of their personal patterns of behaviour and adjusting and experimenting with new ways of doing things. Imagine if yu could quickly recover from fatigue, mental setbacks, surprise problems, overloaded task lists, lack of time and all else that can stand in your way of working near optimum levels.

Top achievers begin the process by carefully noting what is and what is not in their control. They then only focus on those things over which they have control and let go of those things that are out of their control.

If you list all the things you must do in a day and all the roadblocks that might fall in your way, you willl quickly realise that the only thing you have true control over is yourself.

Start with yourself

So to improve productivity and effectiveness, begin by focusing on yourself.

Focus on your attitude, your thoughts, how you feel, how you react to problems, how you prepare to succeed, how you review your performance and how you set and go after realising your goals.

Here are some tips for improving personal effectivess:

1. Plan your work and then work your plan

This is an old saying, but it contains simple wisdom. You have to know where you want to go before you get there.

2. Remember, "Mile by mile it's a trial, but inch by inch, it's a cinch"

If you look at everything that you must do, it can seem overwhelming.

But if you break down each project into tasks and objectives and just focus on these bite-size portions, you will be amazed at how quickly the little things combine to complete major tasks.

Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.

3.Ask yourself, "A month or a year from now, will this matter?"

If you get mired in trivia, get distracted by surprises or get sidetracked by things that "feel good to complete, but that are off-task", then ask if what you are doing now will have any impact on your future goals. This will keep you focused on what is truly important.

4. Set deadlines and make timetables for executing each objective that takes you closer to your goal

It is amazing how a future due date drives current behaviour.

Keeping records of tasks completed gives you proof that you are making progress.

Having a deadline creates some urgency to complete the task.

5. Post and consult your priority list many times every day

Thi swill keep you on track through those crazy, unpredictable days. It is so easy to lose sight of what is important and to begin putting out fires when you should remain focused.

6. Review your day and ask yourself, "What were the top three things I accomplished today?"

Thi smakes you accountable to yourself and helps you measure how well you stayed focused on our priorities. It will also help you set up the next day.

7. Clean up the tasks and projects that annoy and frustrate you the most

This might be office clutter, paper piles, a messy desktop on your computer, not being able to find things, or anything else that bothers you every time you look at it or think about it. Conquer it and free your energy.

8. Celebrate your successes

Many people go through their days and weeks barely congratulating themselves for their good deeds and accomplishments.

Don't keep focusing on what you lack or on what you still have yet to complete. Give yourself credit for jobs well done and for wading through the many tasks you finish each day.

9. Continually reset new goals once you reach each goal

This is one of the true secrets of super achievers. They continually re-adjust strategically as each goal is met. They endlessly create new goals to fuel the fires of motivation and to take themselves closer to their potential.

Maintain your self-awareness, make adjustments and execute your plans like top business and sports performers, and you also can become a super achiever at personal effectiveness.

Adopted from The Straits Times, Saturday, August 16, 2008, which is adopted from Bill Cole, the Mental Game Coach.

Hey, AIESEC!

Last Saturday, we gathered for @ interview training.

We felt thanks to Ivan who gave us a vivid training and demonstrated an over-confident interviewee. And also thanks to Wan Xin and Nicolas as interviewers, we’ve gained some useful points for interview.
We’ve found some interesting tips as below:
Don’t show “I like you” sign to interviewees during interviews.
Clear your mind for stereotypes and biases especially regarding looks.
Keep questions short and concise. (Let’s keep Hong Kong pace!)

Finally, good luck to all the interviewers. Hope that we can find excellent newbie for the new term in @!

i snapped a shot of @ at different places as and when i thought of @. wanted to share the places i've been with everyone. :) so i did a little collage for my trip to aussie while thinking of @. :) so @ went around with me to a few places. great barrier reef, great ocean road, sydney opera house and more! please post it up on the blog! hope you guys like my postcard with love.

cheers,

min! :)

Ong Xin Min, National Sales Team

Upcoming Events In AIESEC NTU

Welcome Tea : 15 August

Interview: 20 August ~22 August

Induction 1 : 7 pm 29 August

Induction 2 : 7 pm 5 September

EB Outing

Watching Olympics Opening Ceremony
Date: 8 August
Gather time: 630pm
Gathering venue: Outside Cafe Express
Watching at: Nanyang Auditorium!

National Day Fireworks
Date: 9th August
Gather time: 6pm
Gathering venue: City Hall MRT

First post of the new term

It's been a little silent in this little place for a little while.

So let's start off the new term with good news!

The AIESEC Singapore Rewards and Recognition!

*DRUM ROLLS*

(By the way, we did this so many times today during AGM to pass motion. [I am sure everyone had very good digestive system =p])

New Member Excellence Award in NTU - Aravinda Karunaratne!

AIESEC Leadership Award in NTU - Wang Wenfeng!

Best Department in NTU - Incoming Exchange!!!!!

The extra exclamation marks were added for personal bias. =p

And for this award that everyone was waiting for.. The Local Committee of the Year Award! And it went to Nanyang Technological University!

I would like to use this space to express my heartfelt gratitude to Alvin who has worked SO HARD over the past year in helping NTU to scale greater heights. And we did it! And the award is the best evidence for our performance! =D =D =D Thanks Alvin!

Conclusion: 2nd August was a much celebrated day for AIESEC NTU. =)

The Happy Faces

National Planning

I promised to blog about National Planning! And so yes here it goes. 12 hours before I fly off.

A bit of background, National Planning is a time when EBs from all LCs come together and function together as one team for the collective future of AIESEC Singapore. It is a platform for various portfolios from to work with their counterparts from other LCs and the MC. Most importantly, it is the time for people to know AIESEC and to know each other better. It was spanned across 1.5 weekends in the beautiful month of June, taking up a total of 2 Saturdays and 1 Sunday.

First programme of the day - ice breaking! Trying to know people from other LCs.

Or pick up pretty girls.

Then it was the games! Get whacked if you can't name a person from other LC.

Congrats! Punishment for the slows. Or rewards? 

Pass the love on. *lick*

Second punishment. Not sure why Li Jun always loses.

May be I know why.

Then session went proper. The first session was AIESEC history, where dedicated MCs searched up and down, called old people, dug in the AIESEC chamber of secrets to find out the old precious history of AIESEC Singapore. Rated best session!

Li Jun's session on IM. Please read that IM is going to be the important thing in AIESEC Singapore next year!

On Sunday, our trainee for Lewin Education, Michal from Slovakia joined us for lunch!

The wonderful heads

There were A LOT of birthday celebration throughout the National Planning. We celebrated 3 times in total for 3 wonderful people's birthdays!

Appreciation session for the very important people who contributed to the status of AIESEC today.

A special present for the special boss.

NTU as one. Currents, elects, alumni, members. Who cares. It's called AIESEC NTU.

And this is called AIESEC Singapore! With you missing in the picture...

Lastly, I just wish to share this very pretty picture with you guys!

From LC planning at Aloha Changi!

Hi from 2 international facis!

Hey hey!!!!
Before EVOLVE conference write up is here, let me update you guys about us at MIRACLE! For those who don't know, Han Ling and I are now in LC UPM Malaysia, in our first journey as international facis.
We are living very well here. UPM is huge. And this is expressed by an NTU student. So you know how huge UPM is. There are many similarities between NTU and UPM. We both have multiple cemetries near school, both are research universities, both are the largest campus in the country etc. UPM premeet style is very different from Singapore's. We worked in a faci/OC room, we sit on the floor, work with laptops on our laps, constantly hunt for internet hotspots in the three dimensional space, bath in cold water, Han Ling and I sleep on the single mattress with blanket from the conference manager. But we are feeling great! We love the difference here. We are working together with interns, facis and OCs. There are a lot of laughters, serious brainstormings, great food and drink, dances. AIESEC Malaysia doesn't do old @ dances! They invent dances every year and don't do what were done a year ago.
Miracle is starting tomorrow, and we are all so happy. A little introduction to Miracle - it is a LC-initiated conference for non-@ers, in fact, for teenagers aged 15-19 to educate them about green and entrepreneurship. They have their own AIESEC DTs who are here on a series of work for green and the conference itself, and Han Ling and I are the only two international facis.
Last year, Alvin and Grace came here for faci, this year, me and Han Ling.
Who's next?
Can't wait to come back and share with you all!

NTU Executive Board 08/09

This is an announcement.

After two tough rounds of EB application, where candidates meticulously filled up application form and went through gruelling interview where they were put under the spot light and get their ideas and vision grilled and barbequed by the EB currents and LCP and MC elect, the final 13 is finally out!

Let's welcome:

Honorary General Secretary: Chang Lusi

In Incoming Exchange department,
Vice President: Sheng Yunzhou
Accounts Manager: Wang Yannan
Servicing Manager: Xiao Min

In Outgoing Exchange department,
Vice President: Aravinda Karunaratne

In Business Development department,
Vice President : Teng Wei Wei
Marketing Manager: Hao Yiou

In Talent Management department,
Vice President: Ivan Tay Kai Yuan
Human Resource Managemet: Xiao Xiao

In Information Management Department,
Vice President: Dharwin Suhendi

In Finance department,
Vice President Finance: Trang Thu Trang

In Communications department,
Vice President: Anchit Malhotra
Branding Director: Rachel Chan

Thank you for your commitment and courage to step up for leadership roles.

For the other applicants, thank you very much for your passion and dedication too! I still hope to see you guys around!

This news is proudly brought to you by:

Low Wan Xin

Upcoming eventS

Despite impending exams, AIESEC doesn't keep quiet! We've had more outlets for you to source for motivation and empowerment.

First, AP Director visit

Current AIESEC Asia Pacific Director, Shirley Ma, is coming to town! She will be in Singapore for country visit, and she will be visiting NTU AIESEC on 8th April. She'll be keen on sharing about her stories and the life at AIESEC International, as well as clarifying questions you guys have about AIESEC, or your purpose in AIESEC with whatever status you hold in AIESEC, or how to fulill your goals in AIESEC. In fact, she's one of the best persons to bombard about these questions!

So the date and time and venue:
Date: 8th April
Time: 630pm - 8pm
Venue: NBS Seminar Room 2 at S4 Level B2.

To get a sense of who she is, feel free to visit this video we took of her at APXLDS at previous blog entry. I would appreciate if you could send me a short reply at wanxin86@hotmail.com if you are interested to come, so that I can get a picture of how many attending.

I know exams are drawing near, but this is the only time she is visiting Singapore, and it's really a precious opportunity to speak to someone who knows AIESEC at a higher level, and I don't think I need to market more about this. Just come with all your questions and queries and expect to be empowered!

Second, Information Management training.

Immediately after the LC sharing, Sharon will be conducting an Information Management training.

Don't know what is Information Management? That's why you should attend the training! Trust me, believe Sharon, it'll be a very fulfilling workshop. Who knows? It may complement what you are studying currently too!

Date: 8th April
Time: 830pm - 10pm
Venue: same room
What to bring: laptop!!

This training is compulsory for all EB elects.

Third, AIESEC Study Day!

If you are looking for a nice place to study, our teacher advisor has kindly helped us to book Seminar Room 2 on this Saturday 5th April FOR THE WHOLE DAY! It's available since 8am onwards. During that time, please observe the rule of no FAT (F***king AIESEC Talk :p).

Lastly, let's have some entertainment! You can see I am trying to avoid study. But ANYWAY, during APXLDS, the foreign environment brought us much inspiration and creativity. So me and Han Ling and others were talking about how AIESECers can teach their babies A-Z. So see how:

A - AIESEC (duh!!)
B - Business Development
C - Conference
D - Development
E - Exchange
F - Finance
G - Gossip (probably only applicable here :p) or Growth Network
H - Human Resource
I - International or ICX or IM
J - Job Description or locally, Jumpstart!
K - Knowledge
L - Leadership
M - Management
N - NLDS
O - OGX
P - PBOX
Q - Quality
R - Raise/Realise
S - Sustainability
T - Traineeship
U - Undergraduate
V - Vision
W - Workaholics
X - eXperience
Y - Youth

And..

What about Z?

It's up to you! :]]]]]

Hope this has made your day!

This video will be great for introducing AIESEC to any people!

This is what you do when you don't wanna study... haha

The APXLDS/APXPros People are BACK

Dear NTU AIESECers,

Miss you guys so so much! Still need some time to get used to the humidity here, and so many other things which we have adapted to the Japanese style!

While I am intensely anxious to share with you guys all that we have got (which I heard we get a slot to share at post exam party!), I am also aware that there's something called exams coming up! I need to have this important aspect worked too!

So, let me not share for now, but let the important people we met share their experience with you! Enjoy! And hear us roar at Post-Exam Party! Can't wait!

Gabiza from Romania, Current President of AIESEC International (PAI) shares her take of AIESEC! She was the facilitator for the conference! *lucky*

Dey from Venezuela, ex-PAI shares! He is just as charming as our local Dei! He was the chair for the conference! *even luckier*

Shirley Ma from USA, current Asia Pacific Director motivates! She's also a facilitator! Go on saying we are lucky woohoo!

How can we forget David Benjamin? By the way, he is now the MCP for New Zealand! clap clap!

Cyrus, the MCP elect of Hong Kong. It's his turn to share!

Yunus from Turkey shares too!

Hope you guys have enjoyed the videos. We've taken pain to disturb them one by one. hehe.. Oh yeah one thing, we took this with the intention of using some for recruitment too. So if you guys need the videos, get it from us!! *Just gimme a call, don't stop me now, don't stop me (cause Im havin a good time)*

I am an AIESECer Campaign

Coffee with Love

This program was held in Geek Terminal on March 15th 2008 to talk about HIV in a casual fun setting and to encourage people to talk about HIV to their partners in a non-hesitant way. Our program started at 18.00 and wrapped up at 22.00. We reached out to 70 people.

The participants were asked to complete the HIV/AIDS puzzleThe program started by welcoming everyone and an energizer. The energizer helped to build a rapport with the audience and divide them in groups. Next on agenda was the session on HIV/AIDS. A puzzle of 24 cards of information was prepared. These cards were distributed among the groups. The facilitators asked the questions/statements and one person from each group who had the answer had to say it aloud to the audience. The objective of the game apart from talking about HIV was also to encourage participation from the audience. The game was enjoyed by the audience and at the end of it a beautiful picture of red ribbon around the globe was revealed.

After this, it was time for dinner and coffee appreciation. Mr. Danny from Geek Terminal gave a wonderful talk on coffee, which addressed the link between coffee and HIV, and even on the difference between an espresso and cappuccino. At the end of the session there was a special demonstration on coffee making too. Dinner was excellent and was enjoyed a lot along with the coffee appreciation.















The event winded up with the acknowledgement of Geek Terminal and other organizers. As a mark of commitment to spread the word on HIV the participants were requested to pledge and keep the promise. Feedback forms were filled up and the evening ended.

Standard Chartered Bank and AIESEC Singapore Partnership Launch

This program was held on March 11th 2008 to launch the partnership between AIESEC Singapore and Standard Chartered Bank to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among youth in Singapore. This program had 100 attendees, including AIESEC members (from National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and Nanyang Technological University), staff and students of Nanyang Technological University.

The launch event started with a speech from Grace Chen as Project Director of AIESEC Singapore to introduce BEADS and the partnership between AIESEC in Singapore and Standard Chartered Bank to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among youth in Singapore.














Following that we had a second speech by Mr. Ray Ferguson, Regional CEO of Standard Chartered Bank. He spoke about why Standard Chartered Bank took up the issue of HIV/AIDS and gave an overview of their program. After his speech, Ray handed over the “Train the Trainers” kit to representatives from AIESEC Singapore.














Next, Ms. Junie Foo (a HIV Champion) started her interactive session where she addressed the issue of HIV/AIDS in Singapore to the participants. AIESEC members also took part in a skit and interactive game “Bridges of Hope” that highlighted the importance of abstaining and being faithful.



























With the audience being educated and empowered to share what they have learnt with their peers, parcipants were given a red balloon each to mark this momentous occasion. With commitments made, the event ended with Standard Chartered Staff, AIESEC members and Nanyang Technological students exploring further ways of cooperation over lunch.

This was me 1 year ago...

I know this is very exhibitionistic, but I couldn't sleep tonight, and the narcissistic me decided to look back at my previous entries in my blog. And I found this entry. Dated April 4 07. 338 days before today. And wow. This is who I was then. So, just felt like sharing. Hope this brings meaning to anyone. :)

And the story begins here.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Had my first company meeting today with Sharon the boss for AIESEC Singapore and Ker Ying. It was, well, intimidating, as I didn't know what to expect for and what to prepare. In Psychology script, it's that I didn't have a schema for this kind of event. Schema is the mental framework which we use to organise knowledge regarding a particular event. But I feel secured. I am going with the boss man! I will just go there, be a quiet observer to understand how company meetings work. It was a meeting with SMG Training Systems.

The meeting went well, a lot of information exchanged. How aiesec ensures quality of interns, what are the backups if interns do not perform, the roles of aiesec in the internship matching, how can the company collaborate in our other seminars conferences workshops or recruitment... It's amazing to realise the professional structure of aiesec, when it's only done by students, and when the executive boards are changed yearly. The transition will be challenging to ensure continuity. Imagine the CEO of a company is changed yearly!

I really admire Sharon's cool composition and the way she deliver the message across. I can't imagine that I have to do that myself one day. But that day has to come and will come. And for SMG, my name is in there as the contact person for the internship programme. By hook or by crook I have to be knowledgeable in terms of AIESEC stuff. So I better learn more...

Realised recently that aiesec is like christianity. It makes you believe in it totally, like devotees, and start preaching people around about it. It commands for little doubt in it, and makes you slave for it with your heart and soul. Sometimes I have to try hard to stop my preaches to prevent myself from being annoying. Sometimes people just want to have their own way of life and you just have to come to terms with that. Haha...

Yep the end of my very short share in a night/morning when the sleeping spirit failed to visit me . Hope you guys like it. :)