TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

YOU must take personal responsibility. YOU cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but YOU can change yourself-Jim Rohn (self-made millionaire, success coach and philosopher.

It is normal for us to start blaming everything and everybody except ourselves, if things do not go as desired. The truth is, we are often scared to really find the true source of our situation. Often, it starts from within.

Once you have accepted that you are the primary source of the problem, stop making excuses. Excuses will slow you down and nobody benefits from them.

You must understand that life's formula is event plus response will result in the outcome. How you respond to a certain situation will result in the outcome. Instead of blaming for your lack of results in your present situation, you have to change your responses to the events that happen until you get the outcomes that you want. This is the option that promotes creativity, opportunity, freedom and ultimately, wealth.

Start believing that you are capable of to make things better and produce better than mediocre results from your actions. You must decide to take control of your life.

First you need to analyse where you are, meaning your current situation. You need to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Next you have to visualise where you want to be and what you want to have, 5 years from now. You can start taking responsibility for the outcome of future endeavours. You have to learn to be responsible for your level of achievements, emotions, results of actions and state of health

The results of your actions depend on the input you make in the first place. If you keep doing the same things that do not give the results that you want,perhaps it is time to change strategies and line of action.Find out who can help you to reach your destination. Finding a role model and a mentor would cut the time needed to reach your destination.

For students, seeking your teacher and your better achieving peers for help and pointers are effective lines of action. Being in the company of like minded people is also another way of keeping you on track to your destination in your journey of success.

Continuously seeking knowledge by reading relevant books are great motivation tools and could change the way you understand things. So,you should be spending more time at libraries, bookshops and book fairs. Nowadays, the Internet has proven to be an immense source of knowledge. So sitting at your computer and doing useful things is another way of seeking new information.

Since joining the Money Mastery community, I have started to take responsibility for my life. No more blaming circumstances and others for my inaction. I have started to be more positive in my outlook and more proactive. I needed to change myself since I have control of myself. I cannot change others around me because I have no control over them. At the end of the day, who I become is due to me and me alone. I decide and take action. The outcome will follow. It will be a positive outcome if I had made the right choice and taken the right step.

(For those wanting to know more on Money Mastery please leave your email in the comments.)

Book Bonanza

Early Sunday, my husband was alerted by one of his Facebook buddies on a warehouse book sale in Petaling Jaya and was given a link to the said sale.The sale was only for 3 days and one day had gone by.

Without much delay, armed with the cyber information, we set out to find the point of the sale at Section 13 PJ.

Even though it was only advertised over the Internet, the response was great. There were so many book lovers browsing, collecting the books and placing them in boxes when we got there. One European woman collected 4 boxes. I wonder how she carried them to her car.

Over 100,000 imported fiction, motivational, business and non-fiction books and magazines were offered at the lowest price of RM3 and the highest price of RM 10. Imagine buying a RM50-RM 60 hard cover book for only RM10. We even bought an Australian interior decor magazine for RM5.

We purchased 11 books on Sunday and went again on Monday to collect more Steve Berry books to complete a collection.

We left the sale only after leaving my email so that I may be alerted of more sales bonanza in the future.

The above picture shows all the books that our family has collected in 2009. That does not include some which are currently being read. Meanwhile, the television will remain off for a while as we go through our new toys. That is our contribution to saving electricity for now.

Now where are we going to put all these books?

Winner or Loser

Excerpts from a book on winners and losers by Sydney I Harris.

1. A winner makes commitment, a loser promises
2. A winner listens, a loser waits for his turn to talk
3. When a winner makes a mistake, he says, "I was wrong".When a loser makes a mistake, he says, "It was not my fault"
4. A winner feels strong enough to be gentle, a loser is never gentle-he is either weak or pettily tyrannous by turns
5. A winner says, "there might be a better way to do it". A loser says," that's the only way it has always been done"
6. A winner respects those who are superior to him. A loser resents those who are superior and tries to find chinks in their armour
7. A winner paces himself. A loser has only two speeds; hysterical and lethargic
8. A winner has a healthy appreciation of his abilities and a keen awareness of his current limitations. A loser is oblivious to both his true abilities and his true limitations
9. A winner takes a big problem and separates int into smaller parts so that it can be more easily solved. A loser takes a little problem and rolls them together until they are unsolvable
10. A winner knows that people will be kind if given a chance. A loser feels that people will be unkind if given a chance
11. When a winner works harder than a loser, he has more time. A loser is always "too busy" to do what is necessary.
12. A winner isn't nearly afraid of losing as a loser is secretly afraid of winning.
13. A winner goes through his problem. A loser goes around it and never gets past it
14. A winner knows when to fight and what to compromise on. A loser compromises on what he shouldn't fight for what isn't worth fighting about
15. A winner says he's sorry by making up for it. A loser says" I'm sorry" but does the same thing next time
16. A winner would rather be admired than liked, although he prefers both. A loser would rather be liked than admired, and is willing to pay the price of mild contempt for it.
17. A Winner learns from his mistakes. A Loser learns not to make mistakes by not trying anything different.
18. A Loser believes in Fate. A Winner believes that we make our fate by what we do or fail to do.
19. A Winner stops talking when he has made his point. A Loser goes on until he has blunted his point.
20. A Winner in the end gives more than he takes. A Loser dies clinging to the illusion that winning means taking more than you give.

Are we winners of losers?

What Has Happened to REAL REWARDS?

Do you know that Petronas, the national oil company, is introducing a new loyalty programme (effective from May 2009) with a new Mesra Card in place of its collaboration with Real Rewards previously?

When applying for the new card, we were given the option to either redeem our existing points or transfer them to the new Mesra card. But the catch was, Petronas would only redeem or transfer points earned through its Petrol Stations. So what happen to points earned elsewhere, e.g at Carrefour?

To get our answer, we drove to the Boulevards at Mid Valley with the intention of finding out from Real Rewards itself as there were no response to all our phone calls. After about half an hour, going up and down and asking around as to the location of the Real Rewards outlet, we were told that it had moved to Carrefour, Wangsa Maju.

We had been to the desk at Wangsa Maju a few times before (both during and after office hours) but there was no one manning the desk at any time.

Today, we went again and sadly, there was no one at all. However, there was a note saying that they could not redeem as they had run out of stock.

Back at home, we log in the Real Rewards website. Business seems to be as usual here but some pages are under construction.

We have tried to redeem our points online and are now anxiously waiting to see if the company will indeed honour our request.

Banking Online

For the past year, we have enjoyed paying for certain credit card bills online and at night too, directly from our account with the Bank.

Last night on logging in the Bank website, we were surprised to see that the prepayment instructions for the payment of a credit card had been reversed. This bank allows you to book payment at a certain date. We have been doing this for a few months now. How come, no payment was made last month when our account was in a healthy credit balance?

A phone call to customer service was promptly made. They will look into it.

So this morning a trip had to be made to the bank, despite the difficulty in getting a parking spot.I had to wait in the car while my husband went in to inquire. We received a call from the Bank about half an hour later and was informed that the instructions were not carried out because the amount was more than what was owing on the credit card.

This did not happen in the previous months. Someone had added a program that the client can pay less than or equal to the amount owing but if a bigger amount is paid they have to reject it. It is so preposterous. Even, it they want to do it, they could at least have informed us when we make the payment, like some online credit cards do.

So we managed to get them to cancel the late interest and finance charges and paid the exact amount owing, online at the present date and not at a future date. Funnily, if you pay at the ATM, you are allowed to overpay. Actually the brilliant programmer could have programmed to refund the excess back into the savings or current account of the client.

Or, the bank purposely want us to pay more, reject it and charge penalty for late and non payment so that they will earn more. That's something else then...