Negative thoughts are not all bad

There is a conundrum in this world. One has many thoughts, inevitably, some are positive, some are negative. For some people, however, negative thoughts overpower positive ones; for others, the reverse applies. The balance can be achieved through some training or immersion in appropriate environments.

Negative thoughts are not all bad. They are generally beneficial in the short term because they help us avoid dangerous or risky situations. On the other hand, they constrain our actions to (mostly) short terms decisions. Positive thoughts, on the other hand, are essential for long term planning and constructive decision making.

Therefore, depending on whether one aims for short term protection or long term development, one’s attitude is of vital importance. Negative thoughts, attitudes and emotions are very easy to acquire and express; the results can be seen very quickly. Positive thought is more difficult to foster and develop because its results take longer to bear fruit. Occasionally, there are even setbacks when one’s expectations are not met after a set of actions are followed. To properly align oneself to the appropriate attitude, one should explore to find the right people who hold desirable values and foresight, befriend them and work together towards the desired objectives.

Time management is a skill that is learned from practice

Time and time again, we have been reminded that to become successful, we must emulate those who are. Use them as rulers and measure our distance to success, for if you possess all the characteristics of successful people, you will succeed whether you want to or not. A simple analogy will suffice. If the wealth of the world were divided equally amongst all men, then after twelve months, those who possess characteristics of successful people will retain their wealth and amass greater fortune. Those deprived of the prerequisite characteristics will lose their wealth and the world will return to its balanced state.

Time management is a skill that is learned from practice. There is a difference between having lots to do and actually doing lots of things. Many people believe they have lots to do; the result is that procrastination ensues and nothing gets done. Some people actually do many things, but little by little and with some prioritisation, things get done. See if you have heard this before when you invite someone out for an important matter:

I don’t have time, I am very busy.

Would you have time next week, weekends perhaps?

Hmm, let me check the calendar

So your calendar doesn’t have anything next weekend…

Well yea, let me get back to you on that

Then he never does. Clearly, most people are stuck on the prioritisation issue. They feel that something more important might come up and they would them have a free timeslot for which to attend. You will see the fallacy in that people do this for everything, so in the end, nothing actually gets put in that timeslot because they are reserving it for ‘something more important’. Finally, that timeslot goes to waste and they watch TV or do something with the lowest priority.

Today, I saw a father stroll his baby through Central just next to Pedder Street. In the context that swine flu had landed in Hong Kong, the father wore a mask. The baby had no such luck.

Due to the urgency of the matter (Swine Flu hits HK), I’ve decided to push forward the publication date of this article which describes the difference between the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), and the Optimal Daily Allowance (ODA) of nutrients such as vitamins, phytochemicals and minerals.

RDA & ODA
The RDA has its historical origin in the USA, where in 1948 just after the Second World War, they began formulating a series of minimum values of vitamins and minerals with the aim to secure that larger populations should not suffer from serious diseases because of deficiency. In other words, the RDA provides ……