Punching bags work!
// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Health and fitness
Feeling stressed? Go get a punching bag. The more punches you hit, the more pressure you relieve. Imagine the punching bag being the only thing between you and the As that you need to get at the end of the year. Then focus on just punching the bag to submisson. Make sure that you try to rip the punching bag but not your hands. At the same time, you get pretty nice bruised up knuckles and a real rush of adrenaline.
Simple Stuff, Strong Medicine!
// February 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Success Stories
Dear Sir,
I wish to thank you for writing the book, “The 10 Step Study Formula” It is really effective and simple to read.
I am a secondary 2 boy and I didnt do well for my PSLE. It is mainly due to my fault for not having the motivation to study. As a result, I ended up in a neighbourhood school. I tried putting in effort but I tend to give up halfway as I found the information too much to absorb. As a result, my results suffered further.
But after reading your book, I fould out that it is not a matter of how haard I study, but rather, how I study. I learnt to make my own notes and use memory skills that you taught in your book to help me memorize better. I realized that close to 80% of the stuff in my textbook are not relevant at all! I just have to identify the crucial 20% and make them into my own notes.
I found memorizing more simple and fun now. And my results improved a lot during my last exam. I felt more confident and capable after reading your book.
Thanks for your help and looking forward for eve greater stuff from you.
Regards
Kevin Ng
Student, Singapore
To find out more about Study Grandmaster’s Resources, visit http://blackmarket.studygrandmaster.com/
Terry Fox, the Determined
// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Health and fitness, The Study Grandmaster's Idols
Heard of Terry Fox, the Canadian marathon runner? Well, at 18, Terry was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his right leg amputated.
Most people would see this as a tragedy and never, in their wildest dreams, would they see themselves running. Not Terry Fox. This courageous man decided that he would use this experience to raise money for cancer research and make a difference to all cancer sufferers. So, despite having only one leg, Terry started to run across Canada to raise a million dollars.
The 6 Driving Emotions in Our Lives
// January 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits, Study Techniques, You can be Happy
Contrary to what we think, it is not logic which drives most of our behaviours but rather, it is our emotions. We humans are creatures of emotions. Even a Study Grandmaster like me is no exception. In this teaching, I would like to share a powerful insight that I have used to help thousands of students to understand themselves, break their habits and addictions, get motivated to study and reconcile relationship issues.
Have you wondered why it is seems so difficult to change our habitual behaviours? The reason is because our decisions and behaviours are driven by our emotions more than by our logic. Logically, we want to stop smoking or stop overeating, who does not know that smoking and overeating is bad for our health? I am sure everyone knows, yet many people are still doing it repeatadly. The reason? They satisfy their emotional needs.
At the same time, we all logically want to study hard and score As in our exams. Yet, why are there still so many students lazing around, even during exam times. The reason is because they do not feel the motivation to study as their emotional needs is not satisfy by studying. As a Study Grandmaster, I constantly makes studying satisfy my emotional needs. That is why I am so motivated to study at all times. I will share with you later.
In order for our behavior to change, you must first understand that our decisions and actions are driven by these 6 emotional needs. This is why we sometimes do things that don’t make any sense at all. We do it simply to meet these 6 emotional needs. So, what are these 6 emotional needs?
Emotional Need 1: Certainty
The first emotional need is the need for certainty. It is a sense of security we all need to feel that things will be okay. It gives us peace of mind and assurance.
Although we all have the need for certainty, we do different things to meet this need. For example, when you feel stressed, worried, or uncertain, how do you meet your need for certainty?
Some people use destructive behaviours like over-eating, smoking or drinking alcohol. It helps them get ino this ‘high’ mood where they feel that everything will be ok, only to find out after the feelings went over, that their uncertainty still remains. Others get certainty by imposing their will on other people or by losing their temper.
At the same time, there are constructive behaviours to get certainty. Many people pray or use religion to get that sense of certainty. While some people, adopt empowering beliefs like, ‘ I know I can succeed this time’ or they simply have faith in themselves. Others get certainty through exercise, reading in books to strengthen their beliefs or confiding in a friend.
So, think about this. How do you meet your need for certainty? And Is it constructive or destructive to you? If it is destructive, how can you change it to make it constructive and yet satisfy your need at the same time?
How to Set Goals that Motivate you Everyday
// January 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits, Study Techniques
You have learnt how important goals are in our lives. Yet, you have also learnt why goals are ineffective for most people and how to break them. You have also learnt how to align your values with your goal. Therefore, I can assume you are ready and excited to sit down and start designing your desired destiny you want. Before that, I will like to share with you 5 important ways on how to set goals that can motivate you everyday, that can give you the extra fuel you need, and that can makes you feel like though you are on ectasy everyday.
Your goals should be…
1) Specific & Measurable
Vague goals like “I want to improve my results” or “I wish to lose weight” are NOT effective at all! Is improvement by 1 mark consider hitting your goal? Is losing weight by 1 gram consider hitting your goal? You see, if your goals are not specific, they are the same as ‘No Goal at all’! The more specific your goals are, the more focus your mind will be. Having a focused mind will in turn lead to effective strategies and results. So the question to ask yourself is “Improve by how much?” Is it improve by 10 marks? 20 marks? 50 marks?
You should give yourself measurable time frames to achieve your goal too. Why? Because we humans are creatures of prorastination. If we do not give ourselves a timeframe to achieve our goals, we will tend to drag and drag, and before we know it, exams are here again! And then we give the common excuse that goals are useless. Therefore a specific and measurable goal will be “I want to improve my A Maths by 20 marks in the next prelim.” or “I want to lose 5kg by next month.”
What are the Emotions that drive you constantly?
// January 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits, Study Techniques
Hey young ones, has this question ever come to your mind? What are the emotions that drive you constantly? Do you always do things to feel certainty, or our of love, or to feel significant?
If you have not realised this, up to 90% of our actions are driven by our emotions, and not our logic! Logically, all of us will like to work hard towards our goals, but emotionally, we are always held back by feelings of lethargy or even fear. There are 2 types of emotions of emotions that control us; positive emotions and negative emotions.
Positive emotions are what drive us, and these are the emotions that we lean towards to. Examples are happiness, security, power and freedom. On the other hand, negative emotions are those that we will try our best to stay away from. They are pain, fear, depression etc..
Think about the decisions that people make constantly? Are they driven more by emotions or by logic? If they are driven by emotions, what are they?
For example, when couples get married, they feel that marriage will moves them towards positive emotions like life-long happiness, comfort and secuirty. At the same time, some couples marry because they want to avoid negative emotions like loneliness and insecurity.
Then why do some people decided to stay as singles all thier life? That is because they attach very different emotions to marriage. They feel that marriage will bring them unhappiness and loss of freedom. This could be due to experiencing some failure marriage in the past or they have seen couples breaking apart after marriage in the past.
Therefore, to achieve excellence in your studies and other key areas of your life, you need to align your key positive emotions and negative emotions with your goal! I call the positive emotions ‘towards-emotions’ as they drive you towards your goals while the negative emotions ‘away-emotions’ as you work towards your goal to stay away from them.
Families For Tomorrow Parenting Conference 2010
// January 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // News and Updates
To all Parents in Singapore,
Take note of this really cool event on 23st Jan, Sat.
Bringing up a family is certainly not an easy task, let alone building a strong family. The key to “Building Strong Families For Tomorrow” lies in establishing “Family Resilience“.
Families For Tomorrow is organising a Parenting Conference “Building Stronger Families for Tomorrow”
Come to this conference to learn about the 4 key aspects of “Marriage“, “Parenting“, “Children” and “Family Finances“.
Happy New Year, Everyone!
// January 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Grandmaster Habits, Study Techniques
It is 2010 and school is starting again! I know many students dread school lessons, but if you have heed my advice and study in advance during the school holidays, you should have no problem coping with lesson in this year. If not, don’t worry too! Keep on reading my articles and your learning curve will be more gentle and more fun if you have practised what I have shared. Remember, studying is cool!
In my last post, I have shared about the importance of setting goals, and I have seen many of you posting about your resolution in my forum! Well done, young ones! Unfortunately, there are still many kids who do not believe in setting goals. They always say, “goals are useless. They don’t work for me. I never achieve a single goal in my whole lifetime.”
Does it sound familiar to you? Well, there are 5 reasons why goals don’t work for most people.
1) Self-Limiting Beliefs
This is one key reason why people don’t set goals for themselves. They only dream of what they want. But when it comes to writing their goal down and making a commitment, they start giving excuses like, “I am not smart enough,” “I am hopeless in Maths,” “It is too difficult for me.”
By now, you should have known that all these are not true but mere perceptions we made about ourselves. So start to break your limiting beliefs and create empowering ones.
2) They don’t know what they want
The first step in setting a goal is to know very clearly what you want in the first place. Ask yourself, “What do you really want in life?” Many people respond by saying, “But I don’t know what I want!”
How My Life Changes
// December 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Parenting Guidance, Success Stories
Hi Study Grandmaster,
This is Jamie Jackson from the US. I wish to thank you for sharing very valuable parenting tips in your eBook, “Bonding Communication and Empowering Strategies in Parenting“.
I have a 12 year old son whom I thought was getting out of hand and beyond my control. Instead of studying, he liked to get into gang fights and skip schools. Despite repeated scoulding and nagging, his behavior continued. There was one incident where he was caught shopliftng and nearly went into jail.
But after reading your book, I practised what you shared and instead of the usual nagging, I went deeper into his mind and find out what are his problems. I entrusted important tasks with him and teach him effective study skills to make him like studying.
After 6 months, he has completely changed and is now a student leader in school. All these will not be possible without your book. I strongly encourage all parents to read the book and it will give you special insights to nurture your child.
Thank you Study Grandmaster! Hope to see more resources coming up!
Regards,
Jamie Jackson, US
To find out more about Study Grandmaster’s Resources, visit http://blackmarket.studygrandmaster.com/
The Secret of Overcoming Procrastination in 4 Simple Steps
// December 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits
Let’s face it. Overcoming procrastination can be a challenge if you don’t know what’s causing it in the first place. These 4 simple steps will help you find the REAL cause of procrastination making overcoming procrastination a breeze. You’ll soon be able to achieve those daunting tasks and in some cases, even look forward to doing them!
STEP 1: Identify the REAL Cause of Your Procrastination The first step is finding out what’s preventing you from overcoming procrastination in the first place. People often use the word as if ‘procrastination’ itself is the problem. For example, “You know, I really have a problem with procrastination.” But procrastination itself is NOT the problem - it is only the symptom.
Start by picking a task you know you should do, but have put off for a long time. Is this something you dread doing because you’re not good at it?
For example, I had a student who always turned his homework in late. He constantly put it off until the very last minute - even after being penalized, still nothing changed.
The boy, as it turned out, was afraid of getting a bad grade on his tests. Without even thinking about it, he would put it off until the pain of turning it in late became greater than his fear of getting a bad grade.
In his mind, he was actually protecting himself from a potentially painful situation. The apparent reason for his procrastination was – “I’m too busy with my projects.” The REAL reason for his procrastination – “I’m afraid I might fail.”
To find the source of YOUR procrastination, ask yourself the following questions…
1) Am I putting it off because I’m just not good at it?
2) Am I putting it off because I’m afraid I might fail or because I’m afraid of what might happen?
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