Back in primary school, we have a subject for life skills and one of the practical lessons that I remember most is woodworking. We’d have one workshop that situated at a remote corner of the school compound, which is built out of wood and looks a little out-of-place among the concrete buildings that surrounded it.

In there, there are lots of cupboards with toolboxes, rows of saws, hammers and other larger woodworking tools hanging on one side of the wall. The floors are totally covered in saw dust which never seem to be completely swept away cleanly no matter how much effort one have to put into sweeping it.

One of the projects is to build a small wooden stool. We’d first need to saw out pieces of wood into symmetrical polygonal shapes …

It’s easy to dream.

It’s easy to prepare and work towards your dream.

However, have that feeling of immense fear that holds you back from pulling the trigger? It happens especially at times when you’d gathered all the resources, waiting just a “yes” from you; it happens when the star are all lined up and waiting for you to take that first step; it happens when that opportunity of a life time had arrived and waiting for you to accept it.

At that moment, you just freeze there: unable to respond immediately as you’d thought you’d. A sense of overwhelming fear gushing within: it’s not just the fear of failure – where you imagine scenarios that you’d screw up somewhere along the way of claiming your ultimate prize; it …

This is one of the earliest quotes that I’d conceived and has since become one of my key supports I lean upon.

This especially rings true when life’s a mess and the future seemed bleak and shrouded in darkness. While it’s easier to wallow in self-pity, this is exactly when one should police the thoughts that goes through our minds. No light can come in if you allow yourself to drown deeper into a negative spiral of despair.

It takes courage to accept our sorrows and the undesirable state we are in. It takes effort to pick ourselves up and take a correction course to improve or change our situation. It takes confidence to trust ourselves that we have the skills, resources and ability to pull it off and overcoming obstacles ahead …

Personally I’m really a big fan of Marcus Buckingham’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, which advocates the importance of focusing on our strengths and harness that in-born powerhouse to achieve greatness. One great thing about the book is that it gave exclusive access to their Strengths Finder online test which leaves you with an accurate profile of five strength themes that you possessed, based on their intesive academic research and a large dataset of individuals who have taken the same test and later studied.

Two week ago, Sam Radford and his readers discussed about my strengths profile, engaging in a discussion as I attempt to explore new territories in explaining how I feel about these strengths and how have I (or have not) utilize them in my own life. In the discussion, I mainly …

Today I have shared this concept with one of my friends about the limited value of income as opposed to time, which is the tombstone principle of time management or personal development ideology.

I used the concept as presented by [Timothy Ferriss][4hww] in various talks to illustrate one application of your own hourly rate. I think the illustration would be starking enough to rethink about your concept of income and working overtime. (also as a very good reminder to myself :))

Now, assuming you are a highly paid but overworked personnel, overworking yourself to a schedule of 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. You earned a handsome salary of $8000 with an additional management incentive of 2.5 months for your good performance and effort. Doing the math:

• Time spent (based on 50 …