I’ve been JOLTed

WEEK 9

The 9 week programme has drawn to a close, but the things I have learnt will be with me for the rest of my life. In many ways, it is a new beginning. Things may be pretty much the same as when I started the programme, but through changing how I think or what I think, I can effectively steer a path towards the desired outcomes. In other words, perception is reality. Perception is only limited by what you think. What lives within each of us is truly powerful and each one of us has God-given potentials.

I would recommend everyone to have a JOLT in their life.

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LEON...Mind Court

WEEK 8

The last work week couldn’t get any better, it is an out of the box experience that allowed me to put some of the JOLT learnings into practice. I have been on Jury duties and this gave me an opportunity to really put “Mind Court” in action.

I have realised that active listening and suspending judgement requires a good level of effort and concentration. My week has been involved with a lot of listening to the evidence, absorbing the information, be detached from the situation and suspending judgement until all viewpoints are heard.

As each piece of evidence is heard, the picture becomes a bit clearer. So the challenge for me personally is to apply the same process to my everyday events and experiences... i.e. gathering all the facts and evaluating a range of alternatives and implications.

The blog is now adjourned.

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LEON...Life is a marathon, not a sprint

WEEK 7

I ran my second marathon last Sunday. It was 5 minutes better than my first attempt. I was totally exhausted, but the excitement and achievement of the race neutralised the ensuring aches, pains, sore muscles and joints. The were moments when a sense of self intelligence came to play earlier in the race. At the half way point I was on track for my goal (trying to be 26 minutes better) but this quickly turned custard when I ran towards Quay st and then Tamaki drive. The sun came out to play and it was just very hot for October. The head winds further slowed my momentum. Disappointment set in as the goal became increasingly less realistic. My old self would continue to be on the path of negative thoughts and beating myself up so to speak. However, the tools I’ve learnt from JOLT challenge so far proved useful.

I put a mental stop sign and noticed the emotions I’m experiencing. I thought of the values exercise and realised there are no reasons why I should be feeling the way I was at that point in time. These feelings and emotions were simply inconsistent with the values I chose to focus on. I was amazed that by just catching my thoughts and emotions, I can consciously change my way of thinking and enjoyed the remaining race.

Another useful gem of knowledge I’ve applied is lowering my expectations and raising my standards. I’ve lowered my expectations in the sense that given the conditions my original goal is no longer realistic. I’ve raised or maintained my standards by giving my best shot in the race.

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LEON...Values by the same name can still mean different things

WEEK 6

It has always appeared to me that people are different because they have different values. This week’s programme is a real eye opener as I found out no two persons' values are exactly the same. Even if people call the value by the same name, it actually means different things to different individuals.

In one of the exercises, I found choosing a list of values was hard, and putting them in order of hierarchy was even harder. But writing down what each chosen value means to me and why each value is important really helped me to focus the things that are really important to me. This has provided me some clarity when I ponder on the question: “What is the meaning of life?”

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LEON...The emotions of an Aquarian

WEEK 5

As an Aquarian I have an inclination to be emotionally detached... or perhaps suppressed or ignored. It wasn't surprising to find my emotional vocabulary not as abundant as I wanted to be. It is quite interesting to learn that just by being aware of the emotions you're experiencing, it can separate and liberate you from that emotional state.

One’s emotions, including happiness for that matter, comes from within. This can be the hardest thing to master.

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LEON...Gratitude

WEEK 4

This week’s blog will be a short one as there is really one main area that really stood out to me. Gratitude.

For one of the tasks in the week, I found it challenging to write my Oscar thank you speech. That made me realise that I should express my appreciation and gratitude much more often. This probably relates to my observation earlier that I’m too much of a perfectionist and put too much pressure on myself. The challenge now is to mentally break down any unhelpful patterns & associations and build some momentum in this growth cycle. 

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LEON... All about me

WEEK 3

Someone asked me how JOLT challenge is going? The first thing that came to mind is that this programme is really quite different and it is really all about me.

Week 3 resonated with me for a myriad of reasons. The theme was maximising one’s energy. One of the topics explored was the importance of exercise in the context of developing positive mental and physical health. I value fitness highly and through hard work and mental toughness I lost over 25kg last year. This has greatly improved many areas of my life.

Nutrition, water and breathing were other topics under study. I have to admit I drink less water than the recommended daily intake, it is all too easy to be sitting down and absorbed by work. I probably will have to schedule in regular ‘drink water’ time just like the ‘me’ time. Breathing is an area I haven’t placed much attention on. It is very interesting to learn that breathing deeply alone will bring a range of health benefits.

The other topic of interest is sleep – which I don’t get enough of these days. It is quite difficult to sleep at the same time each day. I have learnt from primary school that human beings need 8 hours sleep each night. Apparently 5-7 hours work just fine but this takes some time to master and find the right rhythm. Less sleep time and more productive time sounds good to me, now just need to put that into practice.

Will be doing a self assessment later this week, not sure what it entails. I have done heaps of self assessment for work projects, but quite sure this JOLT one will be different. So many new and different perspectives each day!

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LEON...Brain gym

WEEK 2 

This week has been about discovering the amazing brain. What struck me the most was brain gym. I go to the gym regularly to get a workout for my body, but never thought the same concept applies for the brain. I’m not talking about solving puzzles, problems, trivia etc. Brain gym is exercises you can do to de-stress, energise and resets connection points in the brain so to speak.

I thought I’m pretty good at multi-tasking until being stretched and tested. During a workout session I was trying to do the below simultaneously:

• imitating someone’s posture/movements (visual)
• having a simple shape drawn repeatedly on my back
• listening to a story being told on my right
• bombarded with questions on my left which I need to answer

So what happened after 2 minutes???

-       I can barely recognise the shape being drawn
-       Only remembered 2 words from the story being told

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LEON...The contract

WEEK 1

I’m reflecting after 1 week into the programme. The first week focused on strengthening of my foundations and many of the tools and concepts I’m already doing such as prioritising all my tasks from urgent & important down to those non-urgent & not important. I find myself pretty good at planning tasks to do and setting aside me-time on a daily basis. The growth cycle stood out to me as sometimes I’m reluctant to take on new challenges and all the chaos that comes with it. I have realised that sometimes I put too much pressure on myself, a bit of a perfectionist so to speak and cared too much what others think of me – which is holding me back to be the person I want to become. I’m going to use more of the ‘ish’ mentality and apply the success formulae (Stepping Up Constantly and Consistently Each and Every Day) to all areas of my life. I trust in this way I will overcome any internal and external barriers surrounding my life.

Unlike anything I’ve seen, I had to enter into a contract with myself to ensure my commitment to this Challenge! The JOLT book is very informative, but I found that it is the exercises, activities, journals and discussions that all put the concepts into perspective and the learnings into memory.

I wonder what week 2 has in store...

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LEON...Quality time with me

INTRO WEEK

I just took on JOLT challenge this week and it will be an exciting journey ahead. I’m blogging my experiences, feelings and thoughts as I go and just a little nervous as I have not blogged before and not quite done a programme like this one. Personal development is one of my key priorities and I strongly believe that improvements begins with ‘I’. Still a bit unsure of what I’m getting myself into, but will be embracing this journey with an open mind and open heart. It may sound a little selfish, but I’m really looking forward to spending some quality time with me, myself and I.

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