10 Tips to Manage Your Career

Managing your career is an on-going process and it is a challenging one. There are many areas to pay attention and take care of. The following aspects are important for your career success:


1. Manage your time: It is important to spend some time every day, preferably, in the evening to prioritize your daily tasks for the following day. When you follow the to-do list faithfully you will get the most important things done smoothly. A to-do list also helps you achieve a balanced life. You l get things done without working overtime and you have time to pursue your personal interests and passion.

2. Manage your goals: Have you got your written goals? Your goals are the road map of your life. It tells you what and when to do in order to accomplish your objectives. You follow your daily tasks without fail so that you will reach your weekly objectives, your monthly goals, and your yearly plan.

3. Manage your productivity: Get away from your comfort zone and think creatively to find new ideas to get things done more efficiently and effectively. Work smart and follow the 80/20 rule to do less, but more productive.

4. Manage your boss: Get to know the objectives and pressure of your boss and coordinate closely to get things done. Be aware of his or her working style and follow accordingly. Get into the good book of your boss by showing what you can do for the company.

5. Manage your image: Dress smartly and be meticulous to let others know that you care about yourself and to project an image of self-confidence. Be approachable and friendly when dealing with others.

6. Manage your health: A robust health gives you the drive and energy to perform at your peak. Exercise daily to sustain your alertness and concentration at work under stress.

7. Manage your habits: Beware of your bad habits such as not paying attention to details, coming to work late, and the like. The key is to eliminate your weaknesses and fortify your strengths.

8. Manage your relationships: Think more about other people. Think of their interests and find out what you can do for them. Others will notice that you pay attention to them and in return, they will help you when you ask for it.

9. Manage your emotions and also other people: Keep your problems at home and be happy at work. Smile at people and make others happy too. Get to know the feelings and moods of others. Approach another person at the right time so that you will get things done easily and quickly.

10. Manage your finance: Spend within your budget and use your credit cards as your own money. The most important thing is not to get into debt. Build your creditworthiness by paying your credit card bills fully and promptly.


To manage your career is to manage changes in life. Be open-minded to new ideas and always update yourself through continuous learning.

10 Situations to Avoid Getting a Loan

It is unwise in the following situations to obtain credit and get into debt. It will jeopardize your finance during an emergency situation like when you are out of work


1. No regular income: When your income fluctuates from month to month there is no way to do a budget and include the repayments of the loan into your monthly outlay. It is also unlikely for you to obtain a loan without a regular source of income

2. Not within your budget: Don’t get a loan when there is no extra fund to meet monthly repayments

3. Live a more expensive life style: When you can ill-afford to eat out at high end restaurants and buy branded goods, you still can satisfy your hunger in a less expensive way. The cost of branded goods includes frequent advertisements and a higher margin for profit. A less expensive brand is just as good without the high cost of advertisement and lower profit margin.

4. Replacing household items which are still in good working order: When you have the means there is no problem but don’t get a loan to replace electrical appliances or TV which are still in good working conditions.

5. Change a three-year old car to the latest model: The car is in tip-top condition, why raise a loan and incur unnecessary debt and pay interest?

6. Getting things you want: Borrow money to satisfy your ego? It’s stupid thing to do.

7. Sending your children overseas for further education: If it is within your means to study locally why incur a debt to send them overseas? Do you think it is a good thing to pledge your house to finance your children’s education abroad?

8. Throw a party to celebrate an occasion: Who cares about your celebration? Just do it among family members. Don’t get a personal loan just to spend it.

9. Holiday abroad: Have a good time locally instead of getting into debt and paying interest. Malaysia is one of the top ten destinations for holiday makers. Discover more about your own backyard.

10. Renovate your house: Don’t beautify your house when it is in good repair even though the bank encourages you to take a loan as the value of your property has appreciated over time.


The only good thing to raise a loan is to get a roof over your head.

7 Areas of Personal Development

Personal improvement is an on-going process in life. The most important thing is to keep making improvement and getting better in the following key areas of your life:


1. Improve your health: Walk more and drive less, watch less TV, and move more. Improve your health by getting more aerobic exercise, weight training, and stretching. Watch what you eat and take breaks between tasks and enjoy a good night’s sleep.

2. Getting more positive emotions: Think more about happiness and act more cheerfully. Feel good about yourself and be more confident Associate more with positive-thinking people and smile more often at people to make them happy too.

3. Continuous learning: Learning is a delightful thing. It broadens your mind, stimulates your thinking, and provides you with more resources to solve your problems. It is also essential to update yourself and make changes to keep up with the current trend. Read more and learn more new things every day.

4. Improve your personal finance. The money will not give you 100% happiness but without money, there will be no happiness. Managing your financial resources is a balancing act. The more you spend the less you will save for your retirement and the less you spend you will have to sacrifice some enjoyment at the moment. Be more cautious about money matters.

5. Improve your relationships with others: We always think of ourselves more when we deal with others. Thinking more of the other person is an effective way to get along well with others.

6. Improve your work: It is about making yourself more effective, efficient, and productive at work. It means you will have to get out of your comfort zone and try new things and make the necessary changes for the better. Work smart, do less but achieve more.

7. Improve your family ties: Spend more time at home with .your loved ones. Talk more often about anything and everything. Find out more about your children’s school life and their homework. Go out together more often for more fresh air, sunshine, and laughter.


Remember these 7 key areas in your life to seek constant improvement and to live a more satisfying and successful life.

4 Pillars of Human Weaknesses

Newspaper headlines are more or less the same. The following are the usual ones you see every day:


• Half a million life savings cheated by a share scam

• Failed to overtake - 4 killed

• Committed suicide for $25,000 due to loan sharks

• 20-year jail for criminal breach of trust.


These headlines are the outcome of human weaknesses in the following four areas:


1. Greed: It is human nature to believe in getting rich without putting in an effort. They are gullible to get rich quick schemes, excited about things which are free and cheap, and believe in getting things the easy way. In life, the only sure way to be wealthy is through your blood, sweat and tears, and nothing else.

2. Impatience: Youngsters are thrilled to beat the red light, excited to overtake more cars in front in a reckless manner. They are satisfied to risk their lives and the lives of others by driving very fast on the road. Life is precious and you only live once. Live and let live. Go slow on the road and practice tolerance.

3. The 4 vices: They are gambling, drinking, smoking, and womanizing. The habit of gambling can only lead to debt, delinquency, and bankruptcy. Smoking is not only a health hazard it is a fire risk at home as well. You can light a cigarette and lie on the bed and without realizing it you snooze off with the lighted cigarette. By the time you wake up the whole room is already ablaze. Drinking and driving are the quickest and surest way to hell. Such reports are always in the news about fatal accidents relating to drunk driving. Prostitution is closely linked to venereal disease and the break-up in marriages

4. Wrongdoings: These include tax evasion, cheats, stealing, lies, fraud, adultery, corruption, rape, murder, harassment, misappropriation, cover-up, and many more. Doing the wrong things will not pay, sooner or later the truth will be out and the law will catch up with you. Go straight and be conscientious of what you are doing.


In life, you have to believe in cause and effect, go slow on the road, give up all the bad habits, and avoid doing the wrong things.

10 Characteristics of a Good Employer

Prospective employees and young graduates are looking for the following positive pointers for their first job:


1. Matching individual skills to a relevant job: It means an employee is able to use his degree, skills, and knowledge on the right job to do things that he or she is passionate about and interested in.

2. Job security: It is a well-established company with a proven track record. The company is viable and profitable and is able to offer employees long-term employment

3. Staff development: It is a win-win situation to develop and train existing staff to be more knowledgeable and skillful to do a better job and raise productivity. Staff is motivated by their personal development and positive contributions and achievements.

4. Staff advancement: They can see clearly a career path in the company for those who are ambitious to move up the ladder and it is the policy of the company to promote from within.

5. A balanced life: Management encourages working smart and the importance of the personal life of employees. There is a balance between work and other things in life to reduce stress at work to the minimum.

6. A competitive pay package: The company is able to offer a better than average starting pay to attract talents and retain them to be potential leaders.

7. Challenging work: The job is stimulating and challenging so that it gives an employee a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. This is one factor of happiness at work.

8. Conducive working environment: The setting of the company is able to boost productivity and creativity among the employees. Teamwork is encouraged.

9. Management style: Top managements are always on the lookout for potential leaders to be groomed for promotion. These potential talents are offered a differentiated pay package to keep them motivated and engaged on the job.

10. A trusted brand: The company is a reputable and successful brand. Employees are proud and happy to be associated with an innovative and forward-looking establishment.


Is your company able to match your offer with the expectations of potential candidates?

7 More Ways to Reduce Your Expenses

Reducing expenses is an on-going battle to effectively maximize the use of every dollar in your possession. Here are 7 more ways to trim your expenditure in more creative ways:


1. Walk more: Walk if you can instead of driving your car. Walking is the best form of exercise and at the same time, you cut down on petrol usage and reduce the wear and tear of your vehicle.

2. Plan your trip: Arrange your trip so that you do your errands in one go. Take it as a joy ride at the same time and enjoy the trip to town.

3. Proper storage at home: Proper storage of the things at home is essential to cut down expenses. It is to avoid buying items that are still available at home. If an item is not stored orderly, when you have found it, most probably it is way beyond the expiry date. You will also attract the flow of positive energy when you keep your house tidy and clean

4. Tweet instead of using your phone: It is a wonderful way to reduce phone charges. Tweeting on Twitter or write on the wall on Facebook is just as effective as talking over the phone to get messages across. The big difference is that it is free to tweet or write on the wall.

5. Go shopping with a shopping list and follow the list: A shopping list is important that you don’t overlook an item and waste valuable time to go back and get it again. Furthermore, you avoid impulsive spending by sticking to the list and buy nothing more.

6. Take advantage of your credit cards to save: Get a credit card that is free for life and also offer you a discount on grocery and petrol charges. So instead of paying in cash charge them to your card and save.

7. Prepare your own favorite food: Home cooking is not only cost-effective but it is good for your health. You can go one step further by making your own desserts and pastry items such as cakes and muffin and serve as a snack during tea time. You use less sugar. It is more nutritious and a delight for the whole family.


What else can you think of to reduce expenses in more delightful ways?

7 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Alarm Clock

Do you need an alarm clock every morning to wake you up? Do you turn it off and continue to snooze away? Get rid of the alarm clock and wake up when you are ready to do so in a natural way:


1. An alarm clock: When you use an alarm clock, it means you are not ready to wake up; you need more sleep if you can. However, you have to get up and go to work. You wake up and get up rather reluctantly every morning.

2. Rude awakening: It is the worst way to be rudely awakened by the sound of an alarm clock. It is annoying and irritating and the noise puts you off even before you get up to start a brand new day.

3. Natural way to wake up: Listen to the natural sound in the morning to wake you up. .As an example, listen to the wake-up call of the roosters, the sound of the chirping birds, or notice the first ray of light breaking into your window. It is a pleasant, natural, soothing, and encouraging way to wake up in the morning. Don’t wake up to the artificial noise of an alarm clock.

4. Follow the rhythm of your body: There is a rhythm of work and rest going on in your body system, follow the rhythm, don’t force yourself to work further when your body has already signaled you to take rest. You will ruin your health this way. You will also wake up naturally when your body tells you to do so.

5. Sleep early and wake up early: The best thing in life is to sleep early and get up early. Early risers have many wonderful benefits.

6. Hopeful: You will wake up willingly when you are optimistic about life and full of hope.

7. Something you look forward to doing: Another good reason that you will wake up energetically to jump-start a new day is that you look forward to engaging in work that you are passionate about and interested in. According to an article in the August 2009 issue of the Reader’s Digest, The Digg Idea, it is mentioned that for two months after he launched digg.com, Kevin Rose didn’t need an alarm clock. “By 6am, I was up and on the computer,” he recalls,” It was the sheer fear of not knowing what was on my own home page.”


I don’t use an alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. I wake up but I don’t get up immediately. I prepare myself in a positive frame of mind before I get up. Do you think you can wake up without an alarm clock? Give it a try.