Welcoming The Year Of Ox

First of all I would like to wish all my Chinese friends and readers
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Photo courtesy of Birds As Art.

This year is the year of ox, the second animal of the Chinese Zodiac, and I was born under this strong characted zodiac sign. Ox symbolize prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Wonderful isn't it to be born under a zodiac sign that has powerful signs of being a born leader, dependable and possessing innate ability to achieve great things. The cool fact is that these world famous leaders such as Barak Obama, Priness Diana, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussien and Napoleon Bonaparte are also born in the year of ox!! My favourite footballer, Wayne Rooney, is also born in the year of ox!! You definitely see the spirit of ox in him while he's playing.

Most of us now might be busy visiting Chinese Horoscope sites, seeking information and to learn more about your omens for the year. To be honest I really enjoy reading horoscope, either the Western or Eastern, mainly because some way it motivates me in the positive way, but I won't govern my life based on my sign.

Photo courtesy of Squidoo.

In Kuching, for days our nights were brighten up with colourful and beautiful fireworks, they can't even wait till midnight bombarding the sky 15 minutes earlier before new year. Which is rare back in my hometown, where you can only see fireworks shooting into the sky only on the new year. While in Gaza, they have advance "fireworks" that will explode in the sky and produce more tiny "fireworks" which will after that produce massive "fireworks" as it touches the ground - BIG BANG!!

I like festive seasons, it's time to get around visiting friends, enjoy the view of fireworks and of course feed your stomach all you can. Okay, I've done that on Christmas but this Chinese New Year I fed myself with advices and motivations.

Since my parents move to Kuching, I've been following them visiting their friends. One of my dad's senior is an avid talker on education. I've visited him last year and he and my dad had adviced me to continue on with my engineering studies. Their advice does motivates me a bit in the first semester of the year but in the end, on the second semester, I just can't force myself - I'm remarkably stubborn.

I can see the ox spirit within me, very persistent, for five years I've continued requesting my parents that I wanna change program to business. It does pays off, my parents agrees and this coming semester I'll be studying business, in the year of ox - how coincidence. I explained it to my dad's friend, he paused and agree with my opinion. He smiles and say "This is the time for you to realize your dream, God has granted your wish and now it's your turn to do your part".

Nick Vujicic - A Man Without Limbs And A Man Without Limits

Imagine that you're born without arms and legs. What can you do when you're physically disabled? You couldn't do what normal people can do like walking, running, dancing, sports, hold hands, hugging with your arm wrapping around someone and you have no hands to experience touch!! Imagine how will these inabilities effects your daily life.

Photo courtesy of Attitude is Altitude.

But being born without arms and legs doesn't limit Nick Vujicic from achieving his goals and dreams. Born with such massive disability you won't expect someone like him "walking" and travelling around the world touching peoples heart with his inspirations and motivations. This guy really inspires me, a perfect example of life without limits.

These are the keys that helps him and changed his life from a man without limbs to a man without limits.
- Perspective, vision and choice.

Nick grew up and learned to deal and adapt with his situation and started to find ways to accomplish tasks and do a lot of things on his own. If Nick can touch the lives of millions and overcomes all the hardships in his life and take charge, what's our excuses? Why can't we do it? Trash all the excuses and overcome the mindset of limiting ourself that we can't do something.







Videos are courtesy of richgrad.com.

"Motivation gets you through the day, but inspiration lasts a lifetime" - Nick Vujicic

Goodbye 2008 and Welcome 2009

Photo courtesy of Corbis.

Now it's the time to start planting the seeds. But the seeds will only grow and flourish if you have taken good care of it. Taking good care of it means you water it, weed it, provides it with good fertilizer and also good light source.

Same goes to the new year's resolution goals. Goals will just be mere wishful goals if you don't put them into writings and then formulates a plan and put them into action. In order to resolve your resolutions you have to do proper planning on what to do next and what are the steps required to fulfill your goals.

Failing to do so, you'll ended up having the same and repeating new year resolutions every year - which is called the "bring forward" goals. As the famous saying says, "By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail", I don't want to do the same mistake again.

Everyone wants to grow, achieving something in their life and climb the ladder of success. But things won't come easy so don't expect everything will come into your life knocking on your door. When you dream of something it will only become a reality if you do your part - realizing it.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Lee Artistry.

So what are my goals for this year?

Live healthy. It's easy to say live healthy but the reality to live healthy is that I have to do a lot of enjoyable hard works. Enjoyable? Yes, exercises can be a lot of fun, like playing football and futsal, I really enjoy them a lot. I have also already started hitting the gym early this year, pump some weights and runs on the treadmill like a hamster. I wanna have a nice muscle cut and stay fit. I'll also switch junk foods to fruits as my snack and cutting down my intake of alcohol.

Get to done. Eliminate procrastination and get things done. Tasks comes one after another, so it is crucial to identify which task are urgent and which are important, which task to do first and which to do later. Finish every task that has started first then proceeds to the next task. Keep multi-tasking at minimal as possible.

Simplifying. I want to get rid with all the clutters in my rooms and also in my head. I have a bad habit of leaving the cup, glass, bottle and cans on the table, especially on my computer desk. I only attend to these "left overs" when my mom starts to yap at me. I need to eliminate this bad habit as soon as possible. Clutters in my head aren't actually a problem, these clutters is which I call the "web of ideas". Rather than leaving them playing around in my head, which I'll tend to forget soon, I should put them on paper where I can remember them. So it's all about clearing - mess, desk, email inbox and phone inbox.

Pass all my papers. This coming semester I'll be studying a new course, Business (Management and International Business). I've withdrawed from engineering course because I want to pursue my dream which is to become a businessman. I've been studying engineering for 7 years (since I was 16) so getting into business course is something very new to me. But anyway I feel so excited, can't wait for the class to start!!

Take control of my personal finance. I realized that it's very important to track all the spendings and incomes that rolls in my wallet. This is the best way to realize that how the money comes and goes in your life. All these while I've been spending my money without realizing what I've spent on. Tracking my spending will also help me to develop a new skill in data collection which might be a big help for my business studies.

Watching Sarawak FC live. Being a Sarawakian, till today I never watch any of the local football team's match live in the stadium. Only watch them playing in the TV while I was still a kid!! I know, they aren't as big as the European league clubs, but if you really love football you have to support your own local football club.

Begin a journal. Aside from sharing in my blog, I should begin a journal where I can express my deepest emotions and inner thoughts within me by responding and reflecting to the experiences and events happening in my life. A place where I can explore not only my thoughts and emotions but also my experiences.

But there is one simple thing that I should remind you, remain flexible. Unexpected obstacles may come through our voyage, so expect changes on your plan or maybe even your goal. Don't limit yourself and let opportunity pass because of your inflexibility. Remain flexible, focus on your goal until you reach your destination.

Now go ahead and pursue your dream and achieve goals but most importantly enjoy the journey!!

"Do lak mebaruh!!"

Reflecting back on 2008

The day has gone past pretty fast these days and now it's the end of another year. It was both a good year for me and also a difficult one. Today I would like to share my exciting moments and memories of 2008.


Family

It has been 7 years already that I've been living in other city far away from my family and this year I live together with them again under one roof.

Celebrate my brother's birthday.

Photo courtesy of Virtual Tourist.
Went for beach retreat with my family at Sematan Palm Beach Resort.

Play bowl with my family.

Partied with my cousins at Sematan Beach.

Friend

Visited my university mates house during Hari Raya.

Joined Swinburne's outdoor activity for the first time. Beach Bash '08 at Permai Rainforest Resort!!!

And won 3rd place in Treasure Hunt!!!

Having high time at the beach and get myself wasted.

Myself

Celebrating my 23rd birthday with my family.

Learned how to steam fish.

Learned how to cook chicken curry.

Worked as an intern at Konsortium Bumi Consultant and Services.

Permed my hair for the first time.

And the second time.

Broke up twice...

Weighted 76kg!!! Broke my previous record - 71kg.

Transformed into a vampire on Halloween.

Photo courtesy of Jungle Mike's Site.
Experienced kayaking for the 1st time.

Photo courtesy of Swinburne Sarawak Football/Futsal Club .
Participated in Swinburne's Futsal team selection. Just made it through the 1st wave.

Get on board on one of the oldest ship - The MV Doulos.

Well I have plenty sweet memorable moments throughout the year and of course I did encountered few problems and some painful memories. But I don't want to dwell upon the past or blame the whole year because of some difficulties. Instead I need to learn from my mistakes and the experiences that happened to me. I really appreciate and grateful with the happy moments and the experiences with my wonderful family and friends.

Was 2008 a good year for you?

Happy 2nd Bloggivesary Eli Shares!!

On January 11th, 2007 was when I officially started Eli Shares. It has been 2 years and I feel great about it although I just manage to publish 31 blog posts. Wasn't a great number though because I've done a blogging mistake but the site meter proves that Eli Shares is going back to the right direction again.

This is the visits and page views graph bar for the year 2008 and January 2009.

Reflecting back 2008

Traffic
During the two final months I've started to post more and be more active in the blogosphere community. I've started to comment and communicate with other bloggers and promoting my blog in my social network profiles. The promotion did really pays off with the visits and page views increased rapidly!!

Content
Posting frequency was improving compared to the previous year. Over the year I've published 21 blog posts and most of them are about personal development and Eli Celebrates His One Year Smoke Free has the most comment. The about me page wasn't that impressive and out of date. I didn't really care much about it at the first place but actually the 'about me' page is one of the most important component of the blog - who's the author, what does the blog offer, how to contact the author etc.

Layout and Design
First of all, I want to express my gratitude to Design Disease for providing free premium blog templates. I've been using this blog template since March, although I was having a bit problem using it because it's a Wordpress template and I manage to fix the problem. I've also added a chat box for me to communicate and Feedjit to track the location of the visitors.

Monetization
I've added AdSense into my blog and I only earned $0.12!! Anyway I'm still new with AdSense so I need to learn more on how to generate more income.

Eli Shares 2009 Resolution

+ Improve the blog content
   - Publish at least 15 blog posts per month
   - Write more useful content
   - Write remarkable content
   - Adding appropriate hyperlinks
   - Relevant use of categories/tags

+ Improve the blog community
   - Write an about me page
   - Compelling author information
   - Compelling contact information
   - Encourage blog comments
   - Giving remarkable comment on other blog

+ Improve the blog traffic
   - Hits 10,000 visitors on the site meter
   - Promoting the blog in social media site and forum
   - Submitting the blog in blog rings and networks
   - Use Technorati

Well, as a start this is my first post for this year and it's a fresh new start for the blog. I need to do a lot of improvements and accomplish the goals and milestones that I have set.

Getting ready for a better, bigger and awesome Eli Shares!!!