Time flies …
Unconsciously, we have come to the end of EG1471. I can still remember the first lecture of my EG1471, which started with an ice-breaking game which is just like yesterday and now I’m writing the last blog and the exams are approaching soon! Time really flies.
Very lucky that we are given to write something personal in our final blog, which makes me feel very comfortable. So, I have decided to write something about life and time.
Hmmm. Life is short. This is because time flies. Especially when we are filled with busy schedule, we can’t even notice that time is passing seconds by seconds cruelly. Since everyone in this world is equally given the same amount of time, the only difference is what has you distribute the time to. To me, children are the happiest category of human being as they spend most of their time to do whatever they want to do, think whatever they want to think such as day-dreaming, playing, talking to their beloved parents and so on. As we grow up, the time which we distribute to ourselves and to people who loves us seems to be decreasing dramatically. Actually, when people grow mature, they should realize what the most important things in their life are. But in this tempting world, they are too many seductions which make people confused about what are really more important to them. In this way, they will reduce the time distribution from whom and what they love and from who loves and cares about them, because they need to spread the time to what they think is important in their life.
As a matter of fact, a flower is always a flower. No matter whatever chemicals you add to it to make it gorgeous and beautiful, its basic needs are still soil, water and sun. Like human beings, no matter what achievement you have in your life, you still need love and care to sustain your life. With love and care, people might feel warmth; people might feel that life is meaningful. So, life is short. Within a short span of time, how much time has you distribute to people around you to give them loves and cares?
I think that this is an important question that we have to keep reminding ourselves. This is because although we understand the theory, but the reality may make us forget it. Have you ever have a feeling such that you regret that you did not do something or did something which you wish that it doesn’t happened before at the time which has passed? So, I think we should be clear in our mind, apart from learning how to manage our studies, we also have to learn how to manage our life, which is much more important. When you come to the end of life, you might realize that studies is only a small portion of your life. Having so much time concentrating on one thing, you might neglect other meaningful and beautiful things in your life. The message which I wish to conveyed is, don’t miss any precious moment which might happen to you and regret when it had passed.
Spend more time appreciating at the flowers and trees along the path you come to school instead of your notes, spend more time observing what people around you have made your life warm and meaningful. But remember to be thankful and make their life warm and meaningful as well. Life is short, 30 years 40 years isn’t long, so how much thing do you think you can do within the time frame to make your life and other’s life meaningful so that you won’t regret when you reach the end?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
Based on Goleman, emotional Intelligence on effective leaders mainly comprises of self-awareness, self-management, social management and relationship management. The first two domains are more concern to personal whereas the later are more social and more concern to a person’s ability in relationship management. Intuitively, most of us have understood that EI is more important in traditional workplace but there is no empirical evidence which highlights the enormous impact high EI can have in the workplace until recent years. In fact, Daniel Goleman’s research had shown that EI is the sine qua non of leadership. Together with IQ as threshold capabilities, they formed the 
entry level requirements for executive positions. High emotional intelligence can be reflected in a person's behavior in the workplace.So, the most effective way to evaluate workplace performance is through structured behaviorally-based interviewing and 360˚ reference checking conducted by high calibre, trained evaluators. Items evaluated usually comprise of how an executive manage his/her emotions during time of stress and how he /she interact with his/her colleagues. Apart from th
at, an interesting research shows that, senior levels in the organization are more likely to have an inflated view of their emotional intelligence competencies, and less congruence with the perception of others, than lower level employees. The first reason is because the executives are lonely at the top and they have fewer opportunities for feedback as there are fewer people above them to provide feedback. Secondly, it is because mostly people are less inclined in giving constructive feedback to their senior colleagues. Besides, EI is something which cannot be learnt by reading some books or articles. It takes training, practice and reinforcement. So, in order to have effective leaders in a workplace, the executives must frequently be given feedback on their performa
nces and management styles as an outcome of behavioral-based interviewing and 360˚ feedback.
Reference
entry level requirements for executive positions. High emotional intelligence can be reflected in a person's behavior in the workplace.So, the most effective way to evaluate workplace performance is through structured behaviorally-based interviewing and 360˚ reference checking conducted by high calibre, trained evaluators. Items evaluated usually comprise of how an executive manage his/her emotions during time of stress and how he /she interact with his/her colleagues. Apart from th
at, an interesting research shows that, senior levels in the organization are more likely to have an inflated view of their emotional intelligence competencies, and less congruence with the perception of others, than lower level employees. The first reason is because the executives are lonely at the top and they have fewer opportunities for feedback as there are fewer people above them to provide feedback. Secondly, it is because mostly people are less inclined in giving constructive feedback to their senior colleagues. Besides, EI is something which cannot be learnt by reading some books or articles. It takes training, practice and reinforcement. So, in order to have effective leaders in a workplace, the executives must frequently be given feedback on their performa
nces and management styles as an outcome of behavioral-based interviewing and 360˚ feedback. Reference
Sean, D. (n.d.). Emotional intelligence and leadership. Retrieved October 12, 2007 from
http://www.ceoforum.com.au/article-detail.cfm?cid=6226
http://www.ceoforum.com.au/article-detail.cfm?cid=6226
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The review of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'
The movie ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ is a romantic epic originated from Arthur Golden’s best-selling novel in 1997. The story is set in a mysterious and exotic world before World War II, casting a Japanese child, Sayuri, who is sold to work as a servant in a geisha house. Despite a treacherous rival, Hatsumomo, who nearly breaks her spirit, Sayuri blossoms into the legendary geisha. The reason behind is because Sayuri cannot forget a moment of unexpected kindness she experience at an early age, which sustains her throughout the years of sufferings. In order to be close to the man she love and who is beyond her reach, the only way to her is to become a geisha. The whole movie is narrating the life of Sayuri; how a poor little girl blossoms to a legendary geisha because to pursue her only hope in her life---the man she loves.
This is a melodramatic film full of cherry blossoms and dark streets lit by paper lanterns, where all houses have their own deftly-maintained garden and everyone is dressed to the nines (very impressive and elegance kimono!!!). Besides, the most capturing part to me is the dances and the trainings of Sayuri to become a geisha, which are the beautiful arts that we seldom have the opportunities to appreciate. These are the most well done and successful part in the movie. Apart from these, the story in the movie of love and betrayal seems hardly appropriate to the treatment mainly probably because of the over-emphasizing on the visual scope. The only success is the hatred of Hatsumomo to Sayuri; how she did everything just to destroy the destiny of Sayuri and finally die because of her hatred. Whereas although Sayuri and Ken Wanatabi met at last after a lot of suffer and twist and turns, I did not feel touched at all.
Anyway, the love of Sayuri to Ken Wanatabi in the movie is another special type of love to me, which can be seldom found in the world nowadays. That is a love which you hide very deeply in the heart, but give you the strength to face any difficulties, makes you stronger, and in order to get closer to the man you love, anything terrifying to you will be nothing anymore, just because of him.
It is beautiful.
This is a melodramatic film full of cherry blossoms and dark streets lit by paper lanterns, where all houses have their own deftly-maintained garden and everyone is dressed to the nines (very impressive and elegance kimono!!!). Besides, the most capturing part to me is the dances and the trainings of Sayuri to become a geisha, which are the beautiful arts that we seldom have the opportunities to appreciate. These are the most well done and successful part in the movie. Apart from these, the story in the movie of love and betrayal seems hardly appropriate to the treatment mainly probably because of the over-emphasizing on the visual scope. The only success is the hatred of Hatsumomo to Sayuri; how she did everything just to destroy the destiny of Sayuri and finally die because of her hatred. Whereas although Sayuri and Ken Wanatabi met at last after a lot of suffer and twist and turns, I did not feel touched at all.
Anyway, the love of Sayuri to Ken Wanatabi in the movie is another special type of love to me, which can be seldom found in the world nowadays. That is a love which you hide very deeply in the heart, but give you the strength to face any difficulties, makes you stronger, and in order to get closer to the man you love, anything terrifying to you will be nothing anymore, just because of him.
It is beautiful.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
What effects might a university student with high emotional intelligence experience in academic and social arenas?
Emotional Intelligence can greatly assist a university student to achieve their success in either academic or social arena. From academic point of view, the most common problem for an undergraduate is stresses from studies. There is no doubt that a person with high emotional intelligence can easily overcome these stresses compared to those who do not have high emotional intelligence. Stresses are often a stumbling block for us to achieve our success. However, if suitable attitude and action are used to solve them, we can always turn the stumbling block to a new step which can help us to achieve a higher level of success. Take an example, undergraduates usually feel that they have too many tasks to complete but do not have sufficient time to get them done in time, and thus stresses are formed. If one has high emotional intelligence, which means he/she has adequate self-awareness, self-motivation and proper mood management, he/she will then be aware of the problems from the very beginning and analyze the pro and cons of him/herself and eventually positively motivate him/herself to do an arrangement which best fit his/her timetable to complete the tough tasks. They’ll treat every problems faced as a challenge and always seek for alternative solutions to solve them. In this way, the more problems solved, the more experience gained, and the easier to reach the success in academic studies. Apart from academic, high emotional intelligence can also assist an undergraduate to generate a harmonious social life and social life does play an important part in an undergraduate’s life. With good impulse control and excellent interpersonal skills, one can have marvelous relationships and communications with his/her friends, schoolmates and lecturers. A person is unlikely to do things in the most effective way if he/she does not cooperate with others. Moreover, most of the assignments and design projects in university are required to work in groups and most of the careers in the society nowadays are seldomly found to work independently, except for the professionals. So, the capabilities to work with the others very well will add a bonus to the achievement of his/her academic achievement. In conclusion, an undergraduate with high emotional intelligence will not only have a smoother road to success, but will also reach a higher step in the final success in comparison to those who does not have high emotional intelligence due to the good use of the ‘life’s tactics’ to overcome every challenge faced.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Meaning of Life
Every human is gifted a life. Because there is only one, our life is time-limited. And because there is a limit in our life, the meaning of life has become a concern to us. If we don’t have limit in our life, which means we have infinity life spans, ‘the meaning of life’ will not be an important issue to us anymore.
Imagine that we have unlimited life spans, we can perform the tasks which we cannot get it done by today in tomorrow, since we have unlimited tomorrows. So the tasks will soon be done one day in the future and there will be nothing for us to regret. The success and happiness which we achieve today can be accumulated to the future too. Life seems to be very perfect in this way.
But, if one must die some day at an unknown date in the future, he/she may think ‘since we’re going to die in the end, what is the meaning of life? ’
The meaning of life seems to be a very miserable problem to some of the human beings (I, have once been a victim of it). Whatever you do in your life, until the ends, everything returns to zero, since we have only one life. (Except continuing it in other places such as heaven or hell, I assume these are common explanations from various religions and neither me nor you can proof that there is such a place, so I am giving opinions based on what is known and what can be seen)
So, thinking of the meaning of life may not give you a perfect answer which can satisfactorily fulfill your queries and doubts of it in your heart till the day you close your eyes and leave the world, because no one knows why are we born to this world, and why are we going to die and leave the world after born?
Maybe there’s really a reason behind it. But based on our knowledge, we do not know the reason. So, instead of thinking the meaning of life, I have a good suggestion to change the question to what can we do to make our life meaningful? I always like a phrase that quotes ‘ don’t question what others can do for you, ask yourself what you can do to contributes to the others’. So, instead of thinking what the meaning of life is, we think what we can do to make the life meaningful, isn’t it more meaningful?
I would like to share with all of you with my opinion on meaningful life. (I cannot say that my definition on meaningful life is meaningful to all of you as different peoples have different values on meaningful life. Anyway this is only a sharing of my opinions : ) ) I think that making people happy and feel meaningful of their life means a lot to me.
There are huge amounts of population in the earth, but everyone is born and grown up in different environments. Some are rich, some are poor; some are loved, some are abandoned. Due to the reasons that we are not equally treated in the same way, these issues plays important roles in shaping one’s life. So not everyone have the chance to appreciate what he/she have in life but instead blame everyone and everything but not oneself. I always appreciate my fortune and thanks god to let me have the chance to appreciate what I had in my life. So I always search for various ways to give people happiness, either physically or mentally. I sincerely hope that my action does influence others to do so. (Do not deride my action, because the power of multiple is actually very strong : P) In this way, happiness can be spread to who does not have a lucky life, which I think can make my life really very meaningful.
I’m very glad that actually they are a lot of people who shares common thinking with me outside there. Today before the EG1471 lesson, it was pouring cats and dogs, and I did not bring an umbrella : ( However, when I was crossing the road from central library, a girl suddenly came from my back and asked whether I want to share the umbrella with her. I don’t know why I felt very happy and touched for her action. But instantaneously, I felt that she is very beautiful, not only on the outer beauty, but also in her inner beauty.
So, I do believe that a small action can warm a person’s heart. I will as well do the same thing to warm others heart. Hope you guys can do it too to make the cold world a warm one. You can never imagine how much happiness is created to others and yourself because of your insignificant actions.
P/s: Philosopher Socrates quotes ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’
Imagine that we have unlimited life spans, we can perform the tasks which we cannot get it done by today in tomorrow, since we have unlimited tomorrows. So the tasks will soon be done one day in the future and there will be nothing for us to regret. The success and happiness which we achieve today can be accumulated to the future too. Life seems to be very perfect in this way.
But, if one must die some day at an unknown date in the future, he/she may think ‘since we’re going to die in the end, what is the meaning of life? ’
The meaning of life seems to be a very miserable problem to some of the human beings (I, have once been a victim of it). Whatever you do in your life, until the ends, everything returns to zero, since we have only one life. (Except continuing it in other places such as heaven or hell, I assume these are common explanations from various religions and neither me nor you can proof that there is such a place, so I am giving opinions based on what is known and what can be seen)
So, thinking of the meaning of life may not give you a perfect answer which can satisfactorily fulfill your queries and doubts of it in your heart till the day you close your eyes and leave the world, because no one knows why are we born to this world, and why are we going to die and leave the world after born?
Maybe there’s really a reason behind it. But based on our knowledge, we do not know the reason. So, instead of thinking the meaning of life, I have a good suggestion to change the question to what can we do to make our life meaningful? I always like a phrase that quotes ‘ don’t question what others can do for you, ask yourself what you can do to contributes to the others’. So, instead of thinking what the meaning of life is, we think what we can do to make the life meaningful, isn’t it more meaningful?
I would like to share with all of you with my opinion on meaningful life. (I cannot say that my definition on meaningful life is meaningful to all of you as different peoples have different values on meaningful life. Anyway this is only a sharing of my opinions : ) ) I think that making people happy and feel meaningful of their life means a lot to me.
There are huge amounts of population in the earth, but everyone is born and grown up in different environments. Some are rich, some are poor; some are loved, some are abandoned. Due to the reasons that we are not equally treated in the same way, these issues plays important roles in shaping one’s life. So not everyone have the chance to appreciate what he/she have in life but instead blame everyone and everything but not oneself. I always appreciate my fortune and thanks god to let me have the chance to appreciate what I had in my life. So I always search for various ways to give people happiness, either physically or mentally. I sincerely hope that my action does influence others to do so. (Do not deride my action, because the power of multiple is actually very strong : P) In this way, happiness can be spread to who does not have a lucky life, which I think can make my life really very meaningful.
I’m very glad that actually they are a lot of people who shares common thinking with me outside there. Today before the EG1471 lesson, it was pouring cats and dogs, and I did not bring an umbrella : ( However, when I was crossing the road from central library, a girl suddenly came from my back and asked whether I want to share the umbrella with her. I don’t know why I felt very happy and touched for her action. But instantaneously, I felt that she is very beautiful, not only on the outer beauty, but also in her inner beauty.
So, I do believe that a small action can warm a person’s heart. I will as well do the same thing to warm others heart. Hope you guys can do it too to make the cold world a warm one. You can never imagine how much happiness is created to others and yourself because of your insignificant actions.
P/s: Philosopher Socrates quotes ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’
Saturday, August 25, 2007
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