I missed turning my Google Calendar up this morning – work was too busy right off the bat and I skipped on this habit I really wanted to keep. Nevertheless, I had it on after lunch. And there it was right there, staring at me, all the things I’m supposed to do, but couldn’t remember to. Well actually, there’s just one. Self-motivational time, 9am!

What I was supposed to start my day with, has today became an after lunch affair. You know what they say tho, better late than never.

Ah well, as far as self-motivational goes a great ego boost came upon me this morning. I stumbled upon a link to this free I.Q. Test, and took it right away. I scored a respectable 132 which puts me into the bracket of Gifted (2.3% of test takers). I don’t know about you, but being in the top 2.3% makes me radiate with the effervescent glow of intelligence aura. Sure, the test is just for entertainment purposes, and 132 is right at the edge bracket of falling into Above Average, but I stand my ground proudly and am keeping this test result in my Gmail inbox! =)
Ego boost!

For my self-motivational time, I spent some time reading up on Steve’s blog on various subjects and what not. Today’s subject was Relationships, and the article I randomed talked about Testing to Failure.

For example, suppose you want to ask someone out for a date.  One simple test would be to go right up to the person and ask.  Within minutes you’ll know the answer.  Yes, this is common sense, but how common is it in practice?

In summary, he preached on how one should not be afraid of taking risks and making a mistake. Instead, what you should be afraid of is missing out on an opportunity. Out of the various ideas he tested on his personal development website, about 1/3 succeeded, 1/3 were neutral, and 1/3 were complete flops. If an idea fails, he’ll just have to remove it, and it’ll be a bad week or maybe a month – not a big deal. But if an idea succeed, he reaps the long term benefits. Missing out on those long term benefits – now thats a big deal.

As I read through Steve’s blog and look back at my own situation, I’m fairly pleased to note that I’ve been subconsciously doing what Steve preached. Not to the full extent, but there are definitely instances where I would normally had simply “backed off” and not give it my best shot. But instead, by twist of fate and luck, I took on the challenge and has been rewarded.

One great example would be how a long time back I agreed to meet up with Jorim, a friend of Bear’s, even though Bear has sort of “warned me” that he may be in trouble, etc. One thing led to another, and I find myself getting to know Jorim’s partner, Shaun, and his girlfriend, Elaine. This led to me helping the NUS Motoring Club with their event, Caltex National Karting Challenge. That in turn, made me do up my portfolio site, and not forgetting it also gave me a great work experience to put into my resume.

Recently, I have been approached by a prospective client, who found out about me online – something which would not be possible without the promotion from NKC, and my portfolio site. That online presence has also brought me another client, which has in turn recommended me to another client. And all this from one chance meeting that I would normally have had backed out of!

True, there were many instances where fate intervened, but in the end I am happy with how I handled myself. One thing I learned from this is how wrong I can be in judging characters and value. I thought of the initial project as a small one-off thing that wouldn’t help me much. Instead, it’s been a great hit with the public, and there are already talks of doing it again next year.

While I fully agree with what Steve said I do feel that what I am lacking now is not drive, motivation, nor courage (to test myself). Instead, it’s more like focus. I’ve listed plenty of goals for myself, both short and long term. But as I browsed through them, I can’t help but feel the need to find one to focus on.

And even as time passes, more and more came into my life and new goals and situations occurred. I need to take a break of my freelance, work, blog, et all and really focus on what I want to do first and foremost. I need to re-list my goals, based upon the importance of each.

That will be my task this weekend. For now, I savor the week that was, and still to be. I look forward to Friday, and no matter what, this would be the week where she has “made my week” twice!

- “I’d rather go out with you than be with him!” she said