CREATE YOUR TURNING POINTS

www.createyourtuningpoints.com My son was the finisher in a cross-country run last year and then again this year. The run was not timed. No first, second and third places, Just for fun and the experience of it for the kids. Before they can start winning races one day, they must finish them first. Such a good metaphor for life. Don't start something we cannot finish. Just by finishing everything I have started in life, I would have accomplished so much more. Yet, I have been too “focused” on starting too many things only to have given up half way. Finishing requires discipline as much as anything else does. It is a skill in and of itself. Rah-rah type of motivation can get even the laziest bums moving. But only the quietly confident and inwardly tough individuals can finish what they have started, when nobody is greeting them at the deserted finish line. Whatever you do, you should do it for yourself - whether someone is watching you or not. www.createyourtur...

How do you build your dreams? Or more precisely... How do you build your vision? You build your vision by building your own vision YOURSELF; not by buying into dreams that others are trying to sell you. Building your own vision means you have to personally figure out all the things you need to personally do in order to get there. You must have the big picture and also a blueprint that lays out all the steps that will get you there. You then have to organise those steps yourself. Tweak them, rearrange them and go through enough trial and errors. You have to go thru that messy process which will eventually become your system. Nobody will be able to build you that system. If they do, they will charge you a fortune for it. It’s ok if it works for you but you will find that, in most cases, it will NOT work for you. The world is full of dream sellers. System sellers. Vision promoters. Hope marketers. You cannot exchange your money for hopes - no matter how promising they ...

Our lack of self-belief costs us the most (both in terms of time and money) throughout our lifetimes. Historically, people pay ridiculous amounts of money just so they 'get' to do things they were not confident enough to do straight away by themselves.   However, once you have fixed your mindset and eventually your self-belief, you will be able to cut back your spending on so many unnecessary things that are designed to boost your self-confidence. Clothes that costs for than what they're intrinsically worth, fancy-sounding university degrees from prestigious sounding Ivy Leagues universities, life coaches who will tell you stuff that makes you feel good (simply because they see you as their cash cows) without actually making you see the truth for what it actually is, business coaches who will 10X your sales. The list just goes on and on. I say whatever you want to do, just do it - even if you lack self-belief. Instead of choosing the easy way out by buying yourself...

The title of this post is inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr's quote which says that the " time is always ripe to do right ". And that right thing, in my mind, and in the context of this post, is to write. Oh yes, we all need to write.  If work is, as Khalil Gibran said, " love made visible ", then writing is definitely thinking made visible. Talking may be the most effective way to discover our thoughts but what writing can do, talking cannot do.  Writing is so much more effective in holding ourselves accountable for the thoughts we think. It helps us commit into actions on those ideas we hold dear to, and those ideals we aspire to realise, like no amount of talking can do.  As the Vienna-based Shaolin monk, Shi Hengyi once quipped, "The talking is very big in this world". Watch this clip from minute 2:36 till 2:44. We must move from the passive act of thinking and talking to the active act writing and doing. Talking is just a way ...

You want more love?  You give more love. You want to move forward?  You push backward. You want more money?  You give more value. You want more time?  You give up more distractions. You want more restful sleep?  You work harder and longer. You want to feel richer?  You give up your desire to be richer. www.createyourturningpoints.com

The difference between wisdom and intelligence. Wisdom is the skill in seeing the reality as it is and be happy (or not unhappy) about it. Intelligence is the skill in doing all the ‘right’ (or ‘advantageous’) things in order to acquire and amass the things which we think will give us happiness so that one fine day down the track, our happiness index will hit the peak. While the not-so-wise person who reads this post will say to himself that he should now focus on cultivating his wisdom rather than his intelligence, the really wise reader knows that he should cultivate both (wisdom and intelligence). www.createyourtunrningpoints.com

You need people to need you. To do that, you must be the person who can help others get what they want. You just have to make yourself being of value to others. Why so needy? You might ask. Well, we are all inter-connected. When people need you, they will then be wiling to give you what you need. They need your products and services, you need their money. They need your help to solve their problems; you need their help in referrals to solve your marketing problems… etc. On the other hand, the fastest way to get rid of people is by being a burden to them! www.createyourturningpoints.com

Customise your own life, craft your own job, chart your own path! One thing we do here in Create Your Turning Points is to encourage our young readers to take control of their own lives by crafting their own jobs. At a time when Artificial Intelligence is taking over our jobs at an increasingly alarming pace, the only way to prevent ourselves from being a victim is to craft our own way of making a living. The more personalised or customised your job is, the harder it is for AI to replicate you. If you earn your money by not only doing what you do but also by being who you are, then no AI can do your job as well as you do it. Give your customers, employer, business partners and all other stakeholders not only the outcomes they expect but also a significant piece of you (that is made up of your love, toil, blood, sweat and tears), and they will not want anyone or anything else to serve them because they know it’s not the same. Never the same – if it isn’t coming from y...