For the past two weeks, life has just passed by me through actions of routine.  I drive to work without much thought, tuning out traffic completely and in a daze for most of the hour commute – it’s almost as if my car was on cruise control all the way to work.

At work, I’m engaged and I get things done, but my ability to think creatively has hit a wall.   I’m not as productive as I would like to be, I’m not as focused as I usually am, nor am I pushing for the awesomeness that I know I am.

Post work, my schedule is my schedule:

• Monday/Tuesday – Gym
• Wednesday/Thursday – Vball
• Friday-  Gym (sometimes) then chill
• Saturday – Vball clinic/chill at night
• Sunday – Fam jam lunch/ do nothing

WHAT THE F IS WRONG WITH ME?!!

Time to look for some inspiration…

Check back.

- C

Today at work, my Director gave me advice about how successful business women make it to the top, referencing an article she had read over the weekend. Two things stuck in my head:  Successful business women keep it short and to the point (or in other words, talk like men) and secondly, they do not take things personally and get emotional about it.  As a result, this inspired me to think about how I deal with situations at work and reflect upon my style of communication and management of stress and conflict.  Here goes!

Point # 1 – Straight to the point.

In all aspects of my life I’m pretty good with being honest, open and to the point.  I say things as they come and I filter accordingly, depending on who I am speaking with, how well I know you, and whether or not the recipient is used to my communication style.  Of course there are exceptions of when this is not true, for example, a) talking in circles because I am nervous and can’t for the life of me wrap it out and/or b) I just met you and I’m not going to go right into it.  Some refer to this as “the fluff” … i.e. “Hope things are well/weekend was good/etc.”, but I do believe that (at least from me) it comes from a genuine place and that it’s respectful to ask someone how they are doing.

With that being said, there are two things that I could use some work on: confrontation and feedback. Sometimes in the workplace you may have experienced blame or pointing fingers.  The best thing you can do is stay positive and then take the  CYA = Cover Your A$$ approach (an acronym my coworker had used which I had no idea about until today) by always making it a habit to save emails that you think may be important later.

The other part that I’m working on is feedback, both upwards and with peers.  I take feedback very well but giving negative feedback is another story because you need to be constructive and choose the words you use carefully. With practice comes a developed skill, so who wants some feedback?! lol

Point #2 – Control those emotions!

Not surprisingly, I’m better at this at work than I am in my personal life.  When it comes down to a professional setting, I have learned the art of controlling my emotions over the years, whether it be anger, stress, and/or disappointment.  It’s hard not to let your emotions rip when someone has a bad day and decides you’re their target for the day or when you make a mistake and get called out on it… BUT sometimes you have to just suck it up.  My best advice thus far is to stay positive in all situations and find a solution rather than focus on the problem.  It’s not worth b!tching about it for more than 5 minutes.  Instead get yourself in a get sh!t done mode and take care of the problem right away – you’ll be surprised at the people you impress when you’re able to make problems disappear.

Of course, I haven’t mastered this skill yet but it’s something that I will continue to do and improve on.  Most of the time my emotions are happy anyways, and the only disadvantage of that is being too social and not getting any work done! :P ha ha (just kidding…)

Happy March!
-C

Lesson Learned: Don’t Expect Change Instantly.

Over the weekend, I realized that I can’t expect change to happen instantly and these daily ‘challenges’ for self improvement came with the expectation that I would, by the end of the year have found 365 things that I promised to make better.  Why didn’t anyone tell me it’s not realistic? Thankfully, my BFF came back from audit hell to suggest that I could take these challenges a week at a time.

Project Me was supposed to be a fun process for me to grow personally and professionally.  It’s a project that pushes me to think about and reflect about the person I am now, who I want to be in the future, the relationships I have and all else that is important in my life.  How do I become a better version of me in one year’s time?

A Fresh Start:  Budget Me Green

What I started 2 weeks ago hasn’t been left behind, in fact we can call it a head start in the race for me to become a better person.  Swear Jar count is now at $47. … if anyone was curious. #lesigh

My challenge for the week is to stay on top of my budget and track every penny that I make and spend.  I started the year with a 2011 Budget excel sheet all organized with pretty colours and categories,  and although I have been sticking within my budget, I can’t be 100% sure until I put it all on paper right? Right. I’m going for the green baby, but not in Q1!

Happy Savings!

- C

Day 4 – Find an extra productive hour each day (or maybe just the weekdays).

Day 5 – Read the news.

Day 6 – Enjoy some me time.

The weekend  seems to always include a lazy day for me and although I very much enjoy sleeping in until the afternoon on weekends, I find that it will also be important for me to find that extra hour to be productive each day (Monday to Friday at least.)  With that extra hour either at work or in the morning, I would be able to do so much!  Waking up  earlier will allow me to fully enjoy breakfast or being more productive at work will mean that I get off at 5pm!

Something I’ve also been doing is trying to keep up with the news.  Key word here being try. It’s embarrassing when I feel like I don’t know what important things are happening around the world.  If I fit 30min into my day to reading the news, it’s a productive way to learn about the world.  2 birds with 1 stone? Yes!

Today’s commitment was about enjoying me time, which I’ve talked about in the past. I think this makes me a better person because it allows me to get to know myself better and just be comfortable in my own presence.  It lets be reflect about the week, the things that are important, my goals and most of all, just relax.  As an extrovert, I always find it amazing what you can learn about yourself, just by being alone.

Swear Jar Update (re: Day 3): We’re at $23.  Thank you MIAMI Heat for losing today’s game against Boston.  #lesigh.

- C

<photo courtesy of http://pineapplelicious.deviantart.com>

It’s true, my name is Cheryl Ho and I have a swearing problem.

I really don’t mean to be offensive, rude or inappropriate… but there’s just something so liberating about using the F-word.  lol  It’s so versatile.  It can be used as a verb, noun and adjective, not to mention that it can be paired with oh so many emotions too! I won’t say that I’ll never swear again cause that’s just crazy, but it can certainly be minimized.  There’s really only one place and time that I can think of for swearing haha but I’ll leave that to your own imagination. (;

I will agree that substitutes (like “F” or “B”) for these words are probably not much better than the swear words itself but at least it sounds better and less vulgar.  The most challenging part of this is playing sports because we all know, it’s impossible to control my emotions during a competitive game of volleyball!

For the next 30 days: I will donate $1 per full swear word I use to charity.  Sounds easy enough? And wow, there’s even an iPhone App called ‘iSwear” that helps you keep track!

-C

In my quest to adopt a healthy lifestyle, I’ve been trying to determine whether drinking 8 cups of water a day (excluding other liquids consumed) is necessary to maintain a healthy diet, but there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence behind this popular belief. According to the article published by Harvard Medical School, this is indeed a myth and in fact, research strongly suggests that large amounts are not needed.

Here are some of the advice:

So what to do?  It’s nearly impossible for me to measure the water content from the foods that I consume but I am sure that  I could commit to drinkinking 6 cups of liquids a day at the minimum (excluding the water I have when working out/playing volleyball).  As for minimizing caffeine, carbonated drinks and alcohol… we’ll keep those beverages as a weekend treat or a cheat day kinda drink only (for 30 days)!

Cheers!

- c

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Tony Hsieh said in his book, Delivering Happiness (btw it’s a good read) and even more so tonight because I realized that I can be a shitty person to someone I care a lot about; and as much as there are a lot great things about me, there’s also a lot that isn’t…  I definitely could be a better person and I definitely want to be in all aspects of my life.  So why wouldn’t I (or anyone else for that matter) want to make myself 37x better than I am today by the end of the year?

For those who are reading, thank you for joining me on this journey.  For the sake of being realistic, I’m going to try this for 30 days and hopefully work myself to 365 days.  Some days may involve bigger more noticeable changes and other days will be the little things that may consequently end up being the most significant.

Today I make a promise to myself that I will make that 1% of change everyday for the next 30 days.  Please feel free to call me out if I don’t embrace these changes fully.

This will be a slap in the face.

Day 1 – Stand Back

I appreciate life, people, opportunities, lessons and everything that I have been fortunate to experience.  But despite the fact that I do express this appreciation daily to people I love, my downfall is that I also pick at the details that sometimes don’t matter as much.  Why am I so petty? It annoys me to think that I could be this way.

I fail to see the bigger picture sometimes because I’m so focused with the emotions that are attached to what I am feeling/thinking at the moment that I don’t stand back and evaluate the situation.  It’s also really hard for me to talk myself out of it, because at that moment I feel like it is what it is at face value. But I will start.

The reality of the situation is most likely not as bad as it seems if I would just step back and take myself out of the situation.  I need to look at the bigger picture as much as I look at the small things that I spend so much time on.  Professionally this has never been a problem but somehow in my personal life, I take things literally to heart because the truth is, it’s all or nothing.  Either I care or I don’t, and if I choose to care, then I care a lot a lot.  Relax girl, you need to take a chill pill.

It’s funny (not really) that I am good with helping friends in these types of circumstances and can give the best advice in the world, but  I completely fail at applying what  I know in my own life.

Stand back and think for a moment, will this matter to me tomorrow?

- c

For the past two years, life has been challenging on a personal and professional level.  I never thought that life could be so hard, being that things have always worked out for me, or so at least I thought. Despite the ups and downs, 2010 was still a great year and one I call, the ‘come back year’.

Over the last 6 months, my career – which I’ve worked so hard for – has turned around and I can’t be happier genuinely loving my job and being passionate about what I do every day. The next step is to be even more awesome and be a game changer in an ever-changing industry.

On a personal level, friends and family have never been so loving and supportive – I’m so thankful for you.  In relationships, I allowed myself (until recently) to be vulnerable, so much so that I wasn’t my own anymore. It’s a scary feeling.  But love is always a risk and I won’t stop taking them until I find it.

With new lessons learned, both mind and heart, I am really looking forward to a New Year.  People say that your 30s are the new 20s, but heck – I can’t wait to live the best years of my life as a 25-er.  Drink up friends, cause 2011 will be the year of many many celebrations.

No resolutions this year, but a promise to remembering my own little words of wisdom.

#NTS (Note To Self) for 2011.

1. To Thine Own Self Be True.
It’s not worth it if I have to change who I am.

2. Don’t stop believing, keep on moving.
2010 has taught me that anything is possible.  If I am truly passionate about something, I can make it happen.  It doesn’t mean things will always work out or that I’ll get it on the first, second  or third try – but if it’s worth fighting for, don’t give up.  Good things happen to those who have heart and fight to accomplish.

3. Stick to the Budget.
SAVE. SAVE. SAVE. Enough said.

4. Celebrate the good times.
It’s never too busy to celebrate, whether mini GNOs or grand parties, life is to be lived.  There are so many things to look forward to in the New Year, so I hope we will have a drink or two.

5. Take risks, be spontaneous.
Do things that are out of my comfort zone.  Some things on my list include, let someone else take the lead, travel somewhere foreign, attempt side projects, continuously meet new people.

6. Be Awesome.
It’s not good enough to be great, be awesome.  Professionally and personally, I want to reflect back in a year’s time and honestly feel like I was awesome in everything that I put my mind and heart into.  It’s a big challenge but hey why not?

Happy New Year!

- C

Over the past few days I’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible people and to say the least, I feel pretty lucky considering that this door opened very unexpectedly.  But maybe sometimes that’s the best part, when you’re caught off guard!

To keep this post short and sweet, what I’m saying is to simply take and make every opportunity something worthwhile.  I’m confident that I made a great impression but whether or not things turn out positively, I sincerely believe that it was definitely still a good experience.  It’s true, I am really drawn to passionate people… and yet again, I’ve been inspired (:

Happy Friday!

Anywho, #6 of Project Me is all about planning.  Naturally a planner at heart, scheduling, organizing and prioritizing my life has always been a very simple process to me.  I am never without an agenda (whether it’s Outlook, BB calendar, or notebook agenda) because for some reason I feel that it’s important to always optimize my day(mayble less now than before, but still)!  But for those who aren’t very organized or like to think that you’ll remember it later, a month or even a year from now, let’s be honest – it’s not going to happen.

The reason why this post made Project Me is because I really have to get back on track and ’stick to it’ (#3 below).  I haven’t been following my schedule simply because I think I have a lot of time.  My tasks feel less urgent  – i.e. job apps, studying CMA, etc. – but in reality, the more time I think I have is the more procrastinating I will do and the more cramming and regret I will later feel.  So here I am, making my commitment and sharing it with you!

I hope this helps!

Four Tidbits to Planning (/Managing Your Time)

1)  Write everything down! 
It may seem silly to schedule in  “Girls’ Night” or “Running errands” but the truth of the matter is that those things take up time, your time!  Whether it is work, an assignment, a volleyball game, lunch or BFF’s birthday – everything that you do should be written down.  That way, you know where the gaps are and exactly when and what you can reschedule, if need be.  Writing everything down doesn’t mean you need to go into excrutiating detail, it just means you can refer back to it.

2) Be realistic
In reality, “shit happens” and sometimes you need to reschedule plans that you already made.  A good friend/mentor once told me to leave Sundays open just in case things happen and need the extra day.  Whether it’s Fridays for you or  Saturdays for some, it’s good to leave a full day empty in your week.  This way when something comes up on Thursday, you still have time to go to the gym on Sunday!  And if all goes well that week, then you have yourself a day off!

3)  Stick to it
The hardest part of planning isn’t the scheduling/organizing part, it’s the sticking-to-it-and-folllowing-the-schedule-part!  Of course, appointments and fun events are easy to abide to but what about more daunting tasks like studying, or cleaning your room, or even cooking instead of take-out tonight night? Exactly.  Following through with your plans is the deal breaker; if you don’t, there wasn’t really a point in planning now was there?

4) Make it fun
Now that you’ve been good and stuck to your schedule, why not have some fun with it?  No one really likes routine, people are just comfortable with it (at least I think so).  To get out of the grind, change it up and fill your weeknights after work with different activities.  Whether it’s having dinner with friends at least once a week, or making time for the gym 3xs a week (without setting strict days) – whatever it is, change it up and make it fun!  (Make it fun also relates to making daunting tasks fun, so that you will stick to it!  For example, instead of just cleaning your room make it a project!  Clean your room so that you can paint or redecorate, this way you have more of an incentive to complete the task!)

Later days!