I have learned from my coach today that:

People who fail are people who do not:

– Make a decision

– Plan what to do

– Monitor what they have done

The TWO key success factors are your COMMITMENT and your CONSISTENCY.

1. Commitment: Why do you want it? How hard do you want it? What drive you to get what you want – for what real purpose? If you cannot answer these questions with more than 100% confidence, it will be hard to get the result. The technical skills and knowledge you need to know is far less important (only 10%) than your presence (being there, 30%) and your commitment (60%) to succeed.

2. Consistency: How often you make a small step to start it up? The most difficult task is to start working on what you ‘think’, with a regular and systematic monitoring mechanism on a daily basis. Coach can only be a person who guides you, not the one who will work for you!

I commit to be your guide to self empowerment and inspiration. My passion is to empower and inspire people by asking powerful deep questions so that they can wisely make good decisions and directions by themselves.

I commit to transform how you think, feel, perform and live. I am a vehicle to take you to where you want to be.

I am your bridge between Thailand and Australia. With my global citizen attitude, you will enjoy my blends of western and eastern philosophies and knowledge sharing with you.

I commit to be your path to inner peace of mind and happiness of heart.

In short, I am your CHO or Chief Happiness Officer – the one who can take you to the journey of inner peace and happiness, connect what you think in your head and what you feel in your heart.

I look forward to talking with you soon. Let me know what you have learned from this post. Feel free to share you experiences with me.

With my kindest wishes,

Aek

PS: Thanks to my coach: Mr. Gabriel Gonsalves. Read his online newspaper here.

Imagine 10 days without all communication devices including phone calls, laptops, iPad, emails, Facebook – having around 12 hours of sitting in meditation between 4.30 am and 21.00 pm – following the precept (sila 5), eating only 2 vegetarian meals with no dinners! You don’t need any money during these 10 days. What sort of a life would that be?

• Everyday at Dhamma Bhumi Vipassana Centre in Blackheath in the last 11 days from 20 to 31 December (today), we had to wake up at 4.00 am. From Day 1 to Day 10, we had the first two-hour morning meditation session from 4.30 am to 6.30 am before breakfast. Then, we had the second three-hour meditation session from 8 to 11 am. After lunch, we had four-hour meditation session from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm. After a one-hour evening meditation session starting at 6.00 pm, we learned Dhamma discourse for 1.5 hours and meditated until 9.00 pm every night. I did enjoy learning the Dhamma discourse and stories as it was always the most interesting session of the day.

• To learn the art of living without misery, we must first find the cause of suffering from within, such as ego, greed, anger, frustration, disharmony and attachments. Would it be possible to examine such diverse mental realities of oneself? We have been introduced to try the Vipassana meditation technique. This is a systematic process of self-observation and a universal truth realization; the observation of sensations throughout the body, and the experimental understanding of our changing nature or the concept of impermanence (rising-staying-passing away), which leads to increased awareness, self-control with real peace of mind. We refrained from reading and writing and suspended any religious or other practices with a very strict novel silence rule for 9 days. We were allowed to speak with the teachers whenever necessary and could contact the management for needs related to food, accommodation, health, etc. On the last day students resumed speaking, making the transition back to a more extroverted way of life. We learned how to share the benefits received during the retreat with others.

• I was so excited and proud to learn on the tenth day that my former UWS B. Tourism student who I have been mentoring since 2004 could quit his smoking after nearly 10 years of heavy smoking! His parents are also so glad to be informed today – a BIG new year gift to their son. I also had an amazing experience throughout the process from day one with sweats, pains, tensions especially in the first 5 days; then it became easier and eventually with my mind freer and full energy in a lighter body! I promise to myself that I will continue practising this technique for the rest of my life as I believe that it will be a way towards my ultimate goal of ‘nirvana’ (enlightenment). Yes I did enjoy it at the end!

• Nevertheless this technique would not be everyone’s cup of tea, I cannot guarantee that all will have purified minds at the end of this intensive 10-day course. However, what I could guarantee is that you will definitely lose your weight (as I did) while having full energy and a much calmer mind (after more than 100 hours of sitting in meditation for the last 10 days 🙂 Please note that this Vipassana schedule of the year is extremely popular with the full capacity of 120 students (50% female, 50% male). This year, there were around 100+ waiting lists of people who wanted to join this particular end-of-the-year Vipassana course!

• Last but not least, I thank you all Vipassana teachers, the manager – Mr. Mark  Lazarus and his excellent team of volunteers, particularly those old students who worked in the kitchen and behind-the-scene services. What outstanding job they did with loving kindness! Sathu, Sathu, Sathu.

NOTE: There is no charge for the Dhamma teaching or for boarding and lodging. All expenses of the centre are met by donations of grateful students who have completed a course. The centre has no other source of income. At the end of the course, we all had the joy and benefit of giving donations for future courses.

12.09.12

Honestly, I am 46 today. I am still young @ heart:-) Fortunately, I have been living my life the way I want to be. For this reason, I truly thank my mom and dad who taught me how to be FREE, FOCUSED and FLEXIBLE. Most importantly, I have learned how to FAIL and FIGHT back without giving up. I am now more content and following the ‘Middle Path’ through life’s journey.

I aim to listen to my inner voices more and enjoy the next chapters of my life (4 years to 50, 14 years to retire) with a healthy lifestyle – FIT & FIRM in both body and mind. I will continue sharing my meaningful thoughts and lessons learned in life that might inspire others, regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, health and wealth. Ideally, I do hope that I could have some good impact to transform people’s lives.

I believe that life is a journey, not a destination. The more we travel, the more we learn about others and that can be reflected back in our own self-learning. This year, I travelled overseas to the US (New York – seeing a Broadway Show, 9/11 Memorial, MoMA, Guggenheim; Boston – including MIT & Harvard; LA and Chicago – visiting landmark houses/buildings of two of the greatest architects, Frank Loyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe); Turkey (amazing Istanbul and its beautiful seascapes); Vietnam (Hanoi, Ha Long, Hue, Hoi An, Danang, HCMC & home-stay around the Mekong Delta); Myanmar/Burma (Chiang Tung/Kyaingtong/Kengtung in Shan State) as well as travelling around my two home countries – Thailand (Chiang Rai & Naan) and Australia (Melbourne for the Australian Open & Uluru, Central Australia). Indeed, these travel experiences are priceless! However, I will end my Year of Travel with a spiritual journey, travelling to learn more about my inner self; e.g. my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, my breath, my worries, my ego, my greed and my suffering. It will be a 10-day Vipassana course – an ancient meditation technique over 2600 years, at Goenka’s Dhamma Bhumi in Blackheath near the Blue Mountains (www.bhumi.dhamma.org). I will then have a fresh mind for 2013 after recharging to my full energy (in mind-body-spirit) ready for the challenging year to come.

In the last decade, the 9/11 news coming on my birthday always reminded me that life is too short not to enjoy. I’m glad that I chose to be the architect of my own life. Knowing the Power of Now and have a happy moment in every day. Yes, we are all writing our own journey. Make it a good one with 7F’s – Free, Focused, Flexible, Fail & Fight, Fit & Firm. Cheers!