Books I just finished reading
- Think Orange - Reggie Joiner
- Shift - What It Takes To Finally Reach Families Today - Brian Haynes

Books I’ve read/watched/listened to this & last month
- Master Leaders - George Barna
- Men is From Mars, Women Is From Venus - John Gray (Old Audio CD from the Library)
- The 5 Essential People Skills - Dale Carnegie
- Becoming A Great Staff - Andy Stanley (Teaching DVD)
- Family Wisdom - Robin Sharma
- Flip It, How To Get The Best Out of Everything - Michael Heppell

Just downloaded “The Principle of the Path - Andy Stanley” for my month’s Audible book credit,

… and I read the bible and study it almost everyday.

In case you think that I only read sex books.

Pastor Dinah brought me a pack of Starbucks first instant coffee on her recent trip to the US that is not available in Singapore yet. From the packaging, it is stated that the reason Starbucks spent 20 years to try to capture a perfect cup of coffee in an instant form is because they believe that people should never be without great coffee.
Having tried it, I have to say that its good, maybe not great but really really good coffee it was.

Good coffee always go with other good things. Like good books, good music, good inspirational work and ……. of course what I think to be some good ‘T’s we can have this year. What’s good coffee without these 3 good ‘T’s.

Good ‘T’houghts
Check the stuff that occupies the garden of your mind. Are they flowers or are they weeds? If they are flowers, guard it!  If weeds, trash it and replace it

Good ‘T’aste
Check the decision you will make this year. Are they sweet and tasteful or are they distasteful? Who you are today is the accumulation of decisions you have made in the past. Have good taste for right decisions this year and you’ll be transformed for the future.

Good ‘T’ension
Differentiate tension caused by sin and those caused by you developing and growing to be a greater leader.  One is destructive, the other is actually of the good type. Come to appreciate good tension because it just means growth is on the other side of the door.

Formula of Failure: A few errors in judgment and repeat it everyday.
Formula of Success: A few simple disciplines practiced everyday.

Are you doing something to expand your circle of influence or are you playing around your circle of concern?

Stephen Covey is a hero of mine and I just heard him speak about these circles. It may not be new to most of us but it sure is new to me because I can’t believe that people spend so much time in the circle of concern that it has made it expand at the expense of a small circle of influence.

I’m working with the circle of influence because that’s the only thing that I have control over and not a waste of time.

I did it. I officially went for training this year. What an achievement.

In 2 days time, I’ll  be attending our Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur and facilitating “Be A Kids Builder” Workshop there before a week later, coming back to facilitate “The One Thing” sessions @ The HopeKids Leadership Retreat.

I enjoy a life in balance, to train and be trained. Our dream is that everyone has a chance to have both in our communities.

It was the second night with Eric Feng and his trainers.

What a remarkable night as 30 of us learn about public speaking. Now we can have the skill to communicate and speak to people more effectively.

My greatest take home is PREP where we ask these questions of our speeches.

1. Whats our point? (Point)
2. Why is it important to the audience? (Reason)
3. Tell a story (Example)
4. How does it apply to the audience? (Practice)

Because applying to children’s church sometimes we speak well but we don’t have a point. We also don’t care what we share is important to the kids. We don’t have a story to make it real and no application for the kids to take home and use.

Now with some of these skills, we can do better in our speaking and communication with kids….  or we can also use it to rule the world.

(See first night @What I Learned last Night)

Spent the evening with author, blogger and public speaking coach Eric Feng with our team of kids communicators last night.

Here’s what I learn

1. It is important to form a good first impression because it last longer and it’s harder to reverse.

2. It’s easier to look confident than feel confident so do our best to look confident because that may lead us to feel confident.

3. Dealing with difficult people (or children), we need to stroke them and come to the point when persistence about what needs to be done must be made clear.

4. We leave different first impression to different people. I can look fatherly, not very friendly, friendly, approachable and serious all at the same time. Try to leave a good first impression but don’t sweat it when it’s not as expected.

5. Charisma is all about the likeability factor and giving other people the attention that they need.

6. Good communication can be simply summed up as telling a story and making a point.

(See second night’s learning - Again what I learned last night)

Stage 1: Life Sucks
Stage 2: My Life Sucks
Stage 3: I Am Great
Stage 4: We are Great
Stage 5: Life’s Great (2% of the world)

2% of people are in Stage 1,
25% in Stage 2,
40% in Stage 3,
22% in Stage 4 and
2% in a place to change the world.

1) Where are you? How can we move to the next stage?
2) We meet everyone is all stages in our work and ministry. How can we move people to the next stage?

I notice some movements in our lives (mostly mine)….

It’s not so much that we are running away from our problems, but really running away from our solutions; Because a solution means personal change and that is a scary thing for many of us. We rather be victims which is a familiar condition than a victor which is relatively uncomfortable.

We should choose powerfully today. We can because He has!

I know pastor Jeff has been working really hard and today, he’s down and not well.  So I thought maybe I’ll be faithful with my words and message him.

” Hi Pastor Jeff, The art of resting is ‘Don’t read your smses’. Get back to bed and God bless -Hong Teck” 

He usually replies but he didn’t which shows that he is really resting.

How often do we really rest? We are always busy thinking of all the things before us and all things ahead of us,  really as if they are more important than things within us. Jesus asked he who is sick and weary to ‘Come to Him’ so that He can give him rest.

So the art of coming to Jesus is not reading your smses and come to Him who is within us and enjoy being present.