After analyzing 30-years worth of national data from time-use studies and a continuing series of social attitude surveys, the Maryland researchers report:

• Spending time watching television may contribute to viewers’ happiness in the moment, with less positive effects in the long run.
• By contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time.
• The short, temporary pleasure of television is similar to addiction: “Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure but long-term misery and regret,”

So should you stop watching TV forever? How about movies?

Look. I don’t know dude. Go read up on the original article.

Personally, I don’t endorse watching TV. Or smoking. Or juggling hand grenades. They just don’t seem like useful habits. Unless useful = avoid tuning into your own ongoing drama a.k.a your life, your personal growth, and real issues.

Think about it. What if someone you knew spent the next month replacing the time they use to watch TV to tune into their own life instead?

How would their life change?

And our parents. We have to stop them! It’s scary how many hours our parents spend on the TV each day! Even more as they age. And they used to tell us to stay off the telly.

How times have changed.

I guess some people might actually learn stuff from TV. In the same way you might learn stuff from real life.

But what do I know. I haven’t watched TV intentionally since I was 16. And that doesn’t imply I did anything useful either ;P

In the end, the big issue isn’t just about TV. It’s up to how we choose to use/ waste our time.

Most people get ahead during the time that others waste. ~ Henry Ford

For example: We can find so many other things to use/ waste time. Who knows, maybe science will also show you that watching YouTube makes you unhappy! Or fat? Or cancerous? Or fat cancerous and unhappy?

I hope not. I spent 20 minutes watching this on replay:

And I spent an hour making this blog post. What a complete waste of time ;P

Photo credits: TV pic by joguldi Cat pic by cloudzilla

How many promises have you made in your lifetime?

Promises to yourself. Promises to your boss. Your mother. Your friends.

What if you have kept them all? How would your world be today?

How many promises do we make, both knowingly, and unknowingly. Because when you think about it… you’re not the one making promises… promises are made when people believe you.

A promise becomes a genuine promise if there is genuine BELIEF in it… for example:

A promise to yourself

You say to yourself, “I’ll go to the gym 3 times a week”. Do you believe yourself? If you don’t fully believe yourself, it’s not w very good promise is it. No belief, no promise.

It’s probably like a goal. And it’s like OK if you didn’t hit a goal, but its NOT OK to break a promise.

Promises are very different from ’setting goals’, voicing out your intent, and ‘trying your best’. Promises have a different weight and effect on those who make them, and those who believe them.

A promise to others

As a brand owner / marketer, let’s say your product says “Gives you radiant skin”. If the customer believes you, your product had better damn well live up to it, or you’ll be breaking a promise, and losing repeat customers, and failing in business.

When you look at a brand, what do you expect from it, what do you believe about a brand? The moment your product is out there, people may buy into it, and suddenly, you’re making a promise whether you like it or not.

Marketers talk about a BRAND PROMISE - and they should keep it.

Khailee’s Promise

I previously “mentioned” that I would show you my latest Halloween costume, right? And if you believe me, that’s as good as a promise.

And I will stay true to it:

So here you go. I was dressed as SERENA WILLIAMS.

World number #1 baby!

Here I am trying to be a tennis player, hitting on girls:

It was fun at first, then it got uncomfortable (for onlookers, too), as my wallet, handphone, carkeys and such was in this waist pouch underneath the front of my skirt. So I had to like, play pennis whenever I answered the phone.

Anyways, where was I. Oh, promises.

Big Promises

Just a closing thought.

There’s a lot of power in keeping our promises. Shared promises can unite nations. And shared promises kept, will be completely worth the effort put into keeping them. (Hint hint Anwar or Obama)

The last 6 months of my life has been the most intense, mostly because I’ve been focusing every working hour on keeping my promises, to my clients, to my team, and to myself. And because so many young Malaysians and brand owners believe in YOUTH’09 and YouthSays, it creates very big, shared promises, which once kept, I know will completely be worth the effort put into keeping them.

//

Promises VS Goals idea, thanks to MindValley and Bill Bartmann

The tennis skirt and racket thanks to Xinch

Schools are sometimes criticized for too much theory, not enough application. The workplace sometimes gets you too busy to stop, reflect, and learn.

Then you read about people like Tim Ferriss, famous for his ‘intensive learning’ experiences where he breaks Tango records, wins kickboxing championships, and masters multiple languages.

And you meet people like Joel Neoh who wins National Rock Climbing Competitions, engineering competitions, the Malaysian equivalent of “The Apprentice”, and starts a million-ringgit startup… all before age 24!

So how does one become really good at something?

And how do you do it quickly?

Over the past 5 months since I left MindValley to build youth community platforms in this region, my learning and actions were forced to be more focused than it has ever been.

With this, something my friend Janne once shared with me, and Kolb’s learning styles come to mind. I have since re-interpreted what’s going on with my own diagram:

So how is this picture put to use?

Here’s an example of how I’ve witnessed some programmers get really awesome at what they do, viewed through the picture above:

The best programmers I know:

• Read up on everything related to the language / problems they are trying to solve - all the time!
• Experiment with solutions, and actively work with their project.
• Twitter and blog about what they’ve learnt / solved.
• Chat, share, comment, and discuss with other passionate programmers, or teach junior programmers.

And they can do all of the above, in multiple cycles, every day of the week. They fulfill all corners of the quadrant.

Organizations do it too! MindValley, who are Gods at internet marketing, get good at it because its team

• Sends it’s people out to learn from other internet marketing products and competitors
• Has weekly sharing and discussion sessions on what they learn
• Apply new techniques and tweaks to their existing businesses to see what works
• Synthesize key learning in a discussion session, then on their blog

And they repeat this cycle every week! The energy, learning, and revenue growth was amazing.

The next time you aim to learn something, consider a holistic immersion as pictured above.

Is it as easy as it sounds?

If all I’m doing now is training to be a Jeet-Kun-Do world champion, I can go through a cycle of practicing, watching Bruce Lee videos, chatting with my sensei, beating him up, then blogging about it.

But no, I’m not training to be a Jeet-Kun-Do world champion.

I’m focused on building a robust, profitable business which people love. This path involves a few moving pieces, requires even more focus, and perhaps the same sort of discipline of a Jeet-Kun-Do master.

It’s also true to say, that today’s careers may demand us to be pretty darn good at more than just one skill.

All the more reason we need to learn faster and smarter.

Here’s how a simplified view of Kolb’s Learning Styles do it for me.

• I don’t go and learn/ read something unless I can put it to use (after all, there’s always more to learn from everywhere, but I don’t have that luxury right now)
• Based on stuff I learn from others/ reading/ reflection, I put it to use, see what works, what doesn’t, make my own notes, develop new practices, and re-test on a situation
• Joel and I have frequent discussions and ’stop N think’ sessions to make sure our organization is on the right track
• I have been sharing and learning with all members of my team, at least once a week

And believe me, going through all of it gets you HIGH.

I’m learning and doing a lot more than I used to, and the past 5 months seemed like a whole year.

On the other hand, I also have more to improve, and a long way to go. For example, I wish to blog more about all the stuff I learnt (today I’m taking a real break, and it feels good to whack out a blog post like this, you know, help me tie it up in my head, and to share with you too).

But there’s a whole lot more to execute on. I’ll let you know when all this hard work creates something to show for. Probably February. For now, all I have is this blog post ;p

How applicable is this picture to your life?

Once upon a time, I was all over the place.

I would be reading up on economics. Chatting about the music scene. Doing an internet marketing project. Then blogging about how to style thick hair.

I was doing many things, and sometimes I felt like my entire life was all over the place.

Was it “wrong”? Or “bad”? I loved it! I was very focused on EXPLORING as much as I could. Learning about everything, and testing out and trying everything.

If you’re still in that mode, and haven’t decided to have one singular focus yet, trying a lot of stuff out is a great idea. And the picture above can help you learn stuff faster.

Right now, I’m bent on focus - so I can truly accomplish something more.

If you feel the same, and you’re out to really pick up a new skill, or win a certain battle, then take a closer look at the redrawn and simplified Kolb’s Learning Styles. When you see the need for some focused, intensive learning, this is definitely one way of looking at it.

Read more about Kolb’s learning styles.

Blue picture by sonictk, Matrial arts photo by kaibara87

How much time do you need to finish this?

How much attention do you need to finish this?

How much sleep do you need to feel fresh?

How much rest do you need to feel fresh?

Just like how time is so different from attention, I feel rest and sleep have a related, important distinction, too.

Time, like sleep, suggests quantity. Attention, and rest suggests quality.

And if you think about it, we go through life swapping time to get sleep, sleep to get rest, and rest to gain attention to do what we do best, before we head back to sleep again.

There may be some math behind the semantics, but I just woke up from an 8 hour slumber, and screw the math, I think I could use a bit more sleep rest ;p

From an award winning ad campaign in India… the ad copy is quite relevant to Malaysia’s political scene too.

If your life was a movie, what’s the story?

Would it be interesting to watch?

How are the characters, episodes, twists, sub-plots? What’s the next scene in your story? Who’s the hero? And who cast that jerk as your ex-boyfriend in the first place?

Most of all, who’s writing the story?

I love storytelling…

Good marketing campaigns, the survival of ancient cultures, iconic brands, the transfer of ideas, religion, moral values, and every form of entertainment you can consume involves heavy storytelling elements. Even sex ;p

Every one of us is a story, and our stories connect us all.

What’s your story?

How do you describe yourself in your blog’s “About Me”, and your Facebook profile? How do you view the story that was, and how would you write the story that will be…

Or would you rather tune in to another channel?

Day in. Day out. As an extra in other people’s lives. Releasing control over the script, production, lighting, casting, and direction to someone else…

Great questions.

Having recently watched “Protagonist: The Movie”, I watched how a real life bank robber, terrorist, ex-gay evangelist, and martial arts obsessed person told the stories of their lives.

Recent soul-searching and reading John Carlton (a copywriter and marketer) write about “You: The Movie” inspired me to blog about this topic.

What’s the story of my life?

Well, I’ll be writing a new about me page, re-designing my blog, and re-writing my Facebook profile description real soon. A lot of it is outdated, and I’ll be making some big moves in the month of May.

Coming soon.

To a theater near you ;p

As an aside, here’s a movie poster I made 3 years ago, based on a picture of my student exchange buddies and I walking down the wrong side of Hollywood hill. We were on what I called “The Great Unamerican Road Trip”… 10 days. 10 international students. 10 cameras.

I was alone one night, in deep thought…

I was wondering what I would learn by going through a selection of 213 quotes on “action”.

The one thing I personally took away?

The need for consistency and continuous effort.

Not revolutionary, I know.

But it hints at me quite accurately, as I’ve spent the most part of life on “think smart” to the extent I’m relying less on “work hard”.

Looking ahead, for the ambitions I’ve chosen, I might have to do both.

I know, I know, first MC Hammer, now this.

No, I won’t be a source of offbeat news. This blog post is about finding your bliss.

Please watch this Chinese farmer grow robots for a living to see what I mean.

Look at that man.

And notice that

• He found something he really enjoys doing
• He is damn good at it
• He gets a chance to do it very often
• When he has an idea, he can instantly leap into the creation process…
• He doesn’t give a nut (or bolt) about what other people think

I admire this man. I really do.

Aside from the fact he is also willing to burn his house (and his marriage) in pursuit of his passion, lets imagine if….

• He gets paid boat loads of money to do what he loves.
• His passion also provides something of immense value to the world

Now that’s a sweet deal.

And that’s where I’m headed! (or at least where I intent to head)

In the meantime, I get distracted.

I was building wax sculptures all morning, Friday. Not quite as cool as ghetto robots, but I’ll show you some pictures real soon…

What would you do?

Who would you meet?

Now try this.

Blog about tomorrow, as though you’ve experienced it yesterday. (Example)

Seriously.

Blog about tomorrow in vivid detail, as though it happened yesterday… The goal here, is to force yourself to actively visualize what you would like tomorrow to be.

Will this affect your life in any way?

There’s only one way to find out.

Get involved in my latest open source social experiment… PREBLOG

Mike Williams and I, who launched the “Making08″ Facebook experiment now bring you yet another mind bending, reality altering project. If we can get 10,000 people actively preblogging, everyday, blogging about tomorrow as though it happened yesterday… do you think we would have more control over tomorrow?

Before I started preblogging, I had many questions… like:

• What if I didn’t want control over tomorrow?
• What If I want to “see what happens”
• Or am I really going to up tomorrow knowing exactly what I need to do to make it great?

Mike and I have tried preblogging privately for a while now, and I can’t wait to report my results to you.

But I will only share my results with those who have joined the experiment.

So you know what you need to do….

What are the top 3 activities you enjoy?

I realize I have been spending most of my life chasing the activities I enjoy. And this really paved the path I have followed thus far.

If only I enjoyed different activities, I would be a completely different person today.

So here’s my hypothesis:

If you want to completely change your life, one way is to change what you enjoy most.

To test this hypothesis, I will conduct this experiment.

Follow me for a moment to see what I mean.

At the end of the post, I will invite you to conduct this experiment… well see if it completely changes your life.

STEP ONE: List the top 3 activities you enjoy most.

Here are my top 3, as of 2 months ago.

1. I enjoy being absorbed in purposeful creation.

   Heck it doesn’t have to be too purposeful sometimes. I get so happy when I’m drawn into writing a new song, designing a new website, or developing a new idea, even though the purpose may not be initially apparent to me.

2. I enjoy chasing my curiosity.

   Mostly, this means, flipping through the bookstore, or spending hours online reading and surfing and clicking, researching a topic, or looking for answers.

3. I enjoy laughing.

   I love puns, random jokes in real situations, and laughing with people. My favorite set of jokers are Jeff, the MindValley guys, and myself. You have no idea how often I make myself laugh.

Okay, those are the top 3 activities I enjoy most. I know this because I spend 90% of my waking hours doing creating things, learning things, and laughing at my own jokes.

3 simple things make me a happy camper :)

But it looks like some changes will be made…

STEP TWO: Change your top 3 list

Now, my life would be quite different if I told you the top 3 things I enjoy is

1. Watching TV
2. Sleeping
3. Eating junk food

I might be speaking to you now as a napping godzilla. Hence, I will not enjoy any of those.

Picture this instead….

What if I enjoyed making money more than chasing curiosity, creating new things, and laughing?

For the most part of my life, making money has never been a top priority. ‘Enough’ money always came to me, through the stuff I did.

And I never really saw a pressing need for loads of money, anyway. I’m not a big spender, and I end up with plenty of savings.

However, in December 2007… Read on »