DaddyDear

Welcome 2009!

New Year means a brand new beginning. My focus for this year is mainly in the area of building up my financial and physical health:

1. Grow my FX trading account by 10% per month
2. Read 1 book per week
3. Read to Ashley & Georgia 3 times per week
4. Run 10 km per week
5. Swim 500m per fortnight
6. Eat 2 different servings of fruit per day
7. Eat a bowl of oatmeal cereal for breakfast at least 4 days per week

I’ve just setup a new site for my mobile blogging.

Click here or key in http://moblog.projectdreamz.com on your mobile devices to check it out.

Read this short passage written by Portia Nelson … …

So simple, yet so true.

Chapter I

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.

Chapter II

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place
but, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter IV

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter V

I walk down another street.

Didn’t know what “REAL” stand for till yesterday. It’s Regular Exercise Active Lifestyle.

I find this year’s run a bit more challenging than the previous year largely due to the weather. The morning sun was quite strong at 7.45am, but luckily also helped to dry up the muddy trail. It would have been very messy if the ground was wet.

Like last year, the most challenging part is still the last 2km stretch, where the direct sun was scorching on our face, and the straight road seems never ending.

I find the water points very well distributed at strategic locations with very efficient logistic support, and regretted carrying a bottle of water for 2km before I could dispose it.

The free shuttle service to Pasir Ris MRT station was very well organized. Though the queue was around 500m long, there was ample supply of shuttle buses, and the queue time was less than 10 minutes.

Overall, I find the event very well organized and enjoyable, and would defintitely look forward to take part again next year.

MummyDear and I attended a short workshop at Ashley’s school last Friday evening. I felt that it’s more like a mini sales talk by an external consultant selling their product. The consultant was encouraging the parents to persuade the school to adopt the program. Despite the sub-standard sales talk, I did pick up a new tool that may come in handy when coaching kids or even adults on emotion management.

This tool is the “Emotion Thermometer”. It was introduced by Dr Michelle Garnett as a technique for scaling emotional intensity by drawing pictures against a scale similar to a thermometer, hence allowing a person to describe and process their emotional experience in a concrete and specific manner.

Here’s an example I found in an article at smelena.com:

I find it especially useful when applied on young kids who are not equipped with sufficient vocabulary to describe their emotions, as it’ll help them to visualize the level of their emotional state with reference to a scale using pictures or simple words. The process of creating the “thermometer” activates both the left and right brain, and will be more appealing to the “visual” and “kinesthetic” people.