Change your stories, Change your life

Re-tell your disempowering past stories to release your pure desire to unleash your passion.

Why is it important to re-tell your past experiences?

It is important to recall your past experiences and give them empowering meanings in order to be able to consciously realise your pure desire of loving and living meaningfully, the infinite source of passion. Becoming an observer will help you detach from the past. When you become an observer of the past, you go on the journey of discovering the root of your deep down emotions, your past experiences, your trauma. When you observe the past, give it a positive meaning, you detach from it.

Steps:

Imagine you are now an observer of the past witnessing different experiences so you can move forward in your life:

Step 1: Give your electronics a break. Grab a pen and paper or a notebook, and head to a favourite place to study your writing (for example, a quiet place like your bedroom or coffee shop).

Step 2: Divide your paper into three columns.

Column 1: Write down any traumatic or unfortunate experiences in the past. Feel the pain as if it were flowing from you through a pen onto a piece of paper.

Column 2 will record the negative feelings from the experience.

Column 3 will record the positive feelings from the experience.

Step 3: Acknowledge negative and positive emotions.

Step 4: Redirect focus and Attach positive meanings and act positively for a better future.

How to acknowledge the emotion and redirect the focus:

Ask yourself: What can I learn from that? Write in the third column your positive feelings.

Tell yourself: “Thank you (acknowledge the experience and be set free from it). Everything is over (let the pain pass). I got through it, I was able to continue with new experiences in life (moving forward with strength).

Action: Write in the third column one thing I can do now to comfortably and happily enjoy the present moment. Write how I can progress forward into the future.

Step 5: Eliminate the first and second columns, the repository of traumatic experiences and negative emotions - retain the third column with positive emotions and actions.

When you become a storyteller - an observer - of your past experience, you are connecting with the best version of yourself - always leading a life of passion. This way, you have just removed a cover built by society - Past experience - to unleash your passion.

Discipline equals self-love

Because you love yourself, you don’t want to feel disappointed about yourself when not having discipline to overcome distractions or temporary temptations.

You love yourself too much to eat unhealthy food because you don’t want to blame yourself later. You love yourself to much to blame others because you know you won’t feel good after that.

Steps to be disciplined:

- Step 1: Remember the reason you need to practice discipline in a certain task.

- Step 2: Use Reminders – objects to activate the habit that you want to build (for example: put a sticky note on the wall in front of your desk.)

- Step 3: Create an environment that supports the making of habits (for example, drinking water is harmful to the health if it is directly from the refrigerator – leave glasses of water in several places in the house if you want to practice the habit of drinking a lot of water.)

- Step 4: Mark what you have achieved through the days and celebrate them in that program (for example, you can enjoy yourself somewhere to relax, maybe to have sex or have a healthy meal.)

Gratitude

My memory drifts back to the vision of an afternoon when the sun was shining in every corner of my house. I was three years old. That day, my parents were in the hospital taking care of my younger sister. My brother had gone fishing and my eldest sister was at the market selling vegetables. I stayed at home playing with my second eldest sister, Tomorrow. We were playing on the swing under the Longan tree in my family’s garden. Tomorrow would push me up and I would laugh out loud as I sailed high into the air. Suddenly, we heard the family dog barking, and we saw a lady who seemed to be around 30 years old. She was riding a bicycle, and she entered our yard. Tomorrow and I ran to the yard to talk to her.

“Hi, I am your aunt. Your parents want to see your sister and asked me to take her to them,” she told Tomorrow, pointing at me. Tomorrow did not have enough time to figure out who the lady was, as she continued. “And my bicycle was broken, so I will have to take your family’s bicycle to go there.”

While Tomorrow was still confused about what was going on, the lady grabbed the bicycle and prepared to leave. I realised later when I was older that my family’s bicycle at that time was really expensive and our most valuable asset; not many people in my village could afford to buy one. My father had saved money to buy it as a gift to my mother, so that she could use it to commute safely to the market every day.

The lady lifted me up onto the bicycle and rode away, leaving my bewildered sister behind. I, on the other hand, felt excited to go see my parents. After the lady took me about 500 metres away from my house, I suddenly heard a familiar voice: “Don’t go, Huong (my Vietnamese name).” A few seconds later, the person with the voice stopped in front of me and the lady. He must have been sprinting after us because he was panting.

It was my brother. “I want to take my sister home. She isn’t going anywhere. She is still too small to go to the hospital.”

“But your parents want to see her,” the lady insisted.

My brother stood his ground. “My parents told us to take care of her at home. She will stay with us. You can go there alone. I have never seen you before,” he said sternly.

The lady gave up arguing with my brother’s determined words, so she rode away as soon as she could. My brother held me tight and I could feel his heart beating in his chest. I didn’t realise what had just happened, why my brother was breathing so rapidly, and why he ran as he took me back home. My brother was horrified, while I, the victim, felt happy as an innocent would-be kidnapped baby. I only came to deeply understand that terrifying feeling that my brother had two years later when he held me tight after saving me from drowning in a river. I understood he was terrified because he’d almost lost his sister.

Nobody had any idea who the lady was, but everyone believed that she was a kidnapper. At that time in Vietnam, people kidnapped children to earn small fortunes by selling them in China. Some children in my province were kidnapped and I was thankful to be saved. That was why there were many movies about successful people who grew up abroad then went back to find their birth parents in Vietnam. As I grew up, I would sometimes joke with my mother that I could have become a successful businesswoman abroad and then come back to find them. My mother would always tell me it was the silliest idea she had heard of.

Deep within me, unconsciously, I knew that I didn’t need to be kidnapped to be successful but that I could just decide to become it. Deep within me, unconsciously, I felt incredibly thankful to have been given the golden chance to be me, as part of my wonderful and loving family.

We don’t need to wait for anything to happen to decide to become somebody. We just need to decide who we want to become. We don’t need to wait for anything to happen to feel how thankful we are, to just be alive, to have another chance to be who we want to be. We just need to decide to be thankful from today. We just need to decide to live a life with PASSION from today. Every day. Every moment.

Kindness of the uncle 'a...a...'

[Gratitude -Beauty of life] What do you feel thankful for today?

I am thankful for "The ‘a...a...a’ man who took me to the Happy House"

I was on my way from the house of my friend to a coffee shop named Happy House with excitement because of the coffee shop's name. This is also the name of a very lovely house in a childhood movie that I remember. (Maybe you know the movie, "Ngôi nhà Hạnh Phúc" in Vietnamese ^^☺️).

While I was enjoying the walk, a motorbike stopped by, and the rider – a man about 50 years of age tried to talk to me. “a …a…a…a….a…” – that’s all I heard, I couldn’t hear anything else. In an instant, I understood that he couldn’t speak and that he earned his living as a Grab motorbike rider. His sincere smile and his gentle polite gestures reassured me and I jumped on his motorbike and told him where to go. (My friends sometimes warn me whenever I trust strangers too much, but yes, I had faith in my intuition and it is often right^^ I believe if we are nice to others, we always gain rather than lose anything, don’t you agree?)

He took me to my destination, Happy House, driving slowly and carefully.

The first thing he did when I got off the bike was not to ask for payment, but rather he gave me a smile to express his thanks and handed me a small piece of paper with a phone number. I was in no hurry to use it and it didn’t feel right to be too involved in someone else’s business – but afterwards my intuition told me to pick up the phone and call the number as maybe he had urgent things to tell me, but he could not speak. I called the number – he tried to say something and I believe it was, “Call me if you need a ride.” Wow, such a really thoughtful and professional driver.

I walked inside the coffee shop and had a great feeling – difficult to describe. So many people out there are great, no matter what they do. If we slow down a bit, trust each other, be nice to each other no matter what we do, even if we don’t say much, we can create happy feelings for others!

Have a great week and enjoy whatever you do my friends!

Courage is a choice

#happyhighperformancehabits #joywithjen

Cheering people up = A habit to reinforce their bold action and your bold action + connection + growth

Who will you tell today, "Yes, Keep going" to cheer them up because of their courage?

We ended our delivery workshop (organised by amazing Lê Linh Ngọc and Hiếu Trí Nguyễn), with everyone writing one bold action they would do when going home. This little girl (with the mic) raised her hand and asked to do it right there.

She sang a song in front of an audience - the thing she was always fearful of doing. I could see her courage despite her fear. And I could see that her confidence will be blossoming with that continuous choice of courage over fear. Everyone in the workshop had a moment of worrying whether they could make it but after some seconds, they all joined in with the courage vibe of the girl.

You and I can join the little girl - doing one thing we are fearful of today.

And you can join with me and others to cheer someone today because of their courage!

Thanks and love to Ngoc and Hieu for creating the space for us to choose courage over fear!

Join PEAK for a run…

Join PEAK for a run…of togetherness and resilience

The dog goes for a marathon training …

In our trip to a mountain in Vietnam this week, we often woke up to run in the early morning …

This morning, I went trail running…and a group of others went for running on the road toward the highway…

And I heard this beautiful story from them when they came back from running…

After leaving the house some hundred metres, they noticed the dog belonging to the owner of the homestay following them…His engaging face made them reluctant to make the dog go back to the homestay…So it followed them on their way…

The dog consistently ran with them…after a certain distance, the dog stopped and peed on the road to mark their route back…

After 8km running, they reached the highway…It was almost the time scheduled to leave the homestay to go to another mountain area…

To save everyone else waiting for them…they rented motorbikes to go back…One guy picked up the dog on the motorbike …and they continued on their way to go back to the homestay…

The dog didn’t want to be on the motorbike but jumped on the ground and ran forward to lead them home…

So the motorbike slowly went at the speed of the dog…and they made it home with the dog!

The dog made their day – thanks to his faithfulness and company!

Confidence is a muscle, Compassion is a muscle ...

[Confidence is a muscle, Communication is a muscle, Compassion is a muscle...Which means we can train the muscles with enough dedication and commitment]
[Sự tự tin là một cơ bắp, Giao tiếp là một cơ bắp, Đam mê và lòng tốt là một cơ bắp...Chúng ta có thể rèn luyện "cơ bắp" này với sự cam kết và kiên trì]
“Dear Andrew,
Trying texting,
Love Grandmo”
Andrew got this text message from his grandma as it was the first time she tried to use social media to text him. She is 87 years old.
Each time he got a text from her, she always used the formula of “Dear, Content, Signature”, a very common structure of sending emails.
One day, he was in a trip in Switzerland, he texted his grandma “Hi grandma, I am in Switzerland”.
“Dear Andrew, Switzerland, WTF”, his grandma replied.
“What …”, he was surprised when seeing “WTF” from his 87 years old grandma.
To not assume anything, he asked “What does it mean WTF grandma?”
“Somone said to me it means Wow, That’s Fun”, grandma replied.
Did you get some laughter after reading this? I did. I watched this Tedx talk of Andrew and his humor in telling the story gave us a pleasant time – and interestingly, this humor was not something he had automatically – it was a process of practice. Humour is a skill that we can practice, does confidence, does compassion!
What is your "muscle" will you "train" today with your dedication?

Mission

I remember back then a lot of people texted me through my Facebook page asking me to take pictures. Sometimes I look through all the messages on Facebook and that day, I see a very long message from a little girl named Ngoc Anh. And the experience with Ngoc makes me more confident that I was born with the mission of capturing the moments and meaning of life.

“Ngoc Anh was born and raised in Quang Tri, is a beautiful girl with a sunny smile, she won the first prize in the Hoa Khoi contest at school at the age of 14. The year she won the Hoa Khoi Prize, was also the year she discovered she had leg cancer, and she had to undergo treatment and then amputated her leg. And when the leg was cut off, the first thing she told the doctor was, "Why didn't you cut it earlier so that the pain will be lessened." And after Ngoc Anh had her leg amputated, she got a prosthesis and returned to school to play with her friends.

Ngoc Anh was happy for 2 years, she found out that cancer had spread to her lungs and she would not live long with that disease.

While there are many people who can be economically viable, when they text me, they have no intention of paying the fee for taking pictures, but Ngoc Anh - a girl who is still in school and has a serious illness again offer to pay the fee and ask me to come and capture the last moments of her life. I was really touched, admired and respected the little girl's gesture. And in me there is a really grateful feeling because I was given her trust to capture the last moments of her life. After that, I arranged to fly in to capture the last moments of Ngoc Anh's life.

I still remember that day in Quang Tri, the weather was very nice, and I saw Ngoc Anh in the flesh. Although she has no hair left, Ngoc Anh is still very beautiful. Ngoc Anh's smile radiated, a smile with positive energy despite the death coming knocking on the door. I had a day with Ngoc Anh, and also took her to the sea, and that day was the most meaningful day of my life, for me to realize that I was born with the mission of capturing beautiful moments to spread. the value and positive energy of the women regardless of in the difficult times and in the moments near to death. "

- From the book “under the iceberg of success”_Jen Vuhuong

Turn Pain into Passion

Turn Pain into Passion

When Facebook first entered the Southeast Asian market ... very new ... a friend and I set up a business to support companies doing Facebook advertising.

I remember I was often invited to speak at events with 200 to 300 people - I had never spoken before in public with that big audience. Back at school, there were only twenty or thirty people in an event that I attended and I was more comfortable with that.

The number 200, 300 made me full of trepidation ... I told the organizers, "But I have never spoken in public like that ..." But then I also knew that if I didn’t go for it, I would lose the business opportunity.

My friend Johan said, “You have to go up and speak. I am prepared already, working in the background. You have to speak on behalf of the company - you are the face of the company".

So I accepted.

I remember the first time, everything went well, I was very happy.

But it was just an illusion, in fact I was happy but the organizers weren't happy - "You made too many mistakes while giving the presentation," the organizers told me after my presentation. They felt disappointed.

I walked back to my hotel room that day, I kept thinking – “why didn’t I practice this skill before, when I was a child. I practiced all skills like playing guitar or swimming – I don’t use these in real work but skills I need in the real work - speaking – I didn’t practice”.

After that self-talk, I didn’t do anything at the time. But then, I continued to go to other events – I got the same results, the organizers were not happy...

Then I decided to master my speaking skills, I went to speaking clubs like Toastmasters (and yes, that was where Johan and I met).

I asked myself – “How many people like me are out there – not practicing public speaking when we were kids?” Then we struggled when we grew up.

That was when I decided to start my company to help people with public speaking. It was a new thing where the market in Malaysia was not ready yet – around 5 years ago.

Decisions change lives

“I stepped out of the building where I work, on my last day at the company. I had a very strange feeling inside me. Unlike the previous times when I quit my jobs, at that time, I was not alone, not afraid. I didn't have a very clear plan of what I was going to do, I just knew I needed to quit the job in order to feel more of myself. Even though I felt some nervousness because I didn't know what I was going to do next, a rather interesting thought came to my mind at that time - well I was different, after all, I still have me. And I think that is the moment I begin to connect with myself, it opens the door to my journey in order to discover myself later”.

Ms. Huyen shared with me the moment she stepped through the door to open a world connected with her soul, passion, and mission to create the True Juice brand. More importantly, she shared the impact she has made with thousands of people in order to have a healthier lifestyle.

Tran Thanh Huyen (Huyen True Juice) graduated from Hanoi University and got a Master of Tourism Administration in the UK. She worked as a visiting lecturer at Hanoi University after returning to Vietnam and used to be an interpreter for the British Council. From 2015 until now, she is a co-founder, chairman, yoga and nutritionist of True Juice.

True Juice is considered to be the leading brand that offers cold juice from organic green vegetables to improve health. True Juice received investment and awards: Invested by Lotte Acceleator & Vietnam Silicon Valley Fund; the top 3 WISE Women Innovation Challenge the top impressive project attending the Women NextGen Entrepreneur event in Switzerland.

The book published by Ms. Huyen about juice and a healthy lifestyle in Vietnamese "Hello Juice" is one of the top bestsellers on the internet.

Ms. Huyen has built a community of tens of thousands of people who are inspired by her every day, and she also makes her mark with communities like Yoga Camp, JYogi, and Juicing Meetup!

You won't have what you don't have yet if you don't do what you haven't done yet.

“After returning from the UK to Vietnam, I worked for large corporations both in Vietnam and abroad. I had a stable job, good salary and a promising career. But after many years of work, I often wondered, "What am I doing this job for?" I found that, "If you do a job that you always ask yourself every day: What am I doing that job for, then obviously you are not passionate about it".

Throughout the struggles defining the purpose of her life, Ms Huyen felt she had to do something differently, otherwise she would always feel like she was in that vicious circle. And one day, that feeling was big enough, she made a decision to quit her job. Ms. Huyen shared with me the decision that had a great impact on her development direction.

Working in the office, much of it seated, with a lot of work pressure created questions lingering in her mind about lack of passion. She often felt tired and even obese. She tried all sorts of different methods, sometimes going dancing, exercising, and taking all kinds of herbal medicines, but as a result, she kept losing and gaining weight.

Only when it comes to juice and Yoga, can Huyen see her real change. Yoga focuses on the breath, but the breath affects the brain, so it creates changes both physically and in thinking. Unlike other methods, when looking at Yoga and juice, Ms. Huyen pursues it single-mindedly and even finds herself "addicted" to it. Also from the process of practicing Yoga and drinking juice, she became more connected with herself.

And as she felt this more and more, she realised that she had found something she could be more passionate about, in contrast to working at the office from which she decided to quit.

Ms. Huyen shared, “When I believe in my values more, the unpredictable challenges or events will not be too scary, and I need things that society often considers to be successful such as having a reputation or a good name. Age or title are not so important anymore.”

Reading this now, you will also be impressed how Huyen has made changes in her lifestyle that led to such life-changing decisions.

You will change your habits in 30 days?

In 30 DAYS YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR HABITS?

You ask, "Will I change my habits after 7 days?" Answer: It is possible!

You ask, "Will I change my habits after 21 days?" Answer: It is possible!

You ask "After 30 days will I change my habit?" The answer: Maybe!

You ask "After 90 days will I change the habit?" The answer: Maybe!

If you have ever participated in 7-day, 21-day or 30-day or 90-day challenges, you may discover after those days that your habits will change. Maybe they change, maybe they don't. They may change earlier than those days or later than those days. You may be wondering - how many days will it take to actually change my habits?

Did you know? The numbers above are not the numbers that make the change in your habits but what you need to change is your commitment - work that needs to be done even when you don't feel like doing it.

When I write a 30-day change in my book, the challenge I get most frequently is that after 30 days I will change. Yes, you will certainly change, but the magnitude of the change will be determined by your investment - in terms of your commitment, perseverance, and dedication.

Research results of Dr. Maltz1 in the 1950s showed that it took about 21 days for an action to become a habit. Research by Dr. Maltz was performed with plastic surgery patients and he found that these patients begin to get used to new faces after 21 days. The results of this study have been used by many people in the training of people and the effects have lasted in the long run. Another study published in 2012 by Benjamin Gardner, Phillippa Lally and colleagues at University College London found that: On average, it takes 66 days to establish a routine. The actual number ranges from 18 to 254 days depending on each specific case.

So what can we learn from these different outcomes? There is no one number that is absolutely true for everyone! There are many factors that determine the number: the habits that you want to change; the stage in your life you are at right now; you do not know what you want; you have goals but lack of motivation; you are motivated but lacking in effective working methods ... While there isn't a single number that holds true for everyone, the unchanging truth is that "action becomes a habit after a period of repetition" and "You are the result of habits".

To change a habit and keep a habit:

Make a change and find a reason big enough to change (it comes from within yourself. For example, you learn to run early every day because you want to take a running test - but why do you want to take a running test? Do you want to challenge yourself? Why do you want to challenge yourself? Because you want to feel like you can do it, to treasure yourself and, for sure, you will definitely be healthier!)

- Write on a sheet of paper and divide it into 2 columns: column 1 lists all you will lose if you don't change your habits and column 2 what you will get if you change the habit

- Use the 5W model to establish a new habit:

• What: What do you need to do?

• Why: Why are you doing it?

• When: When will you do?

• Where: Where did you do it?

• Who: Who gets you to do it the best you can? (because you want to do it yourself for that person, they may not know and they don't force you)

- Celebrate your accomplishments every day with that habit.

- Share and help others to change habits with you.

When you are persistent enough, the world can see

#happyhighperformancehabits #passionateperformance #joywithjen #jencoaching
Last night, as I was writing in my favourite coffee shop, I could see someone staring at my computer from my left side - through the glass. The cafe separates the outside and the inside with a transparent glass door - if one person sits inside and another person is outside separated by that glass door, it feels like they are sitting side by side.
I continued to write but still felt that gaze on my screen.
I turned to greet that gaze - it was a cute little girl about 10 years old. When she saw me turn around, she smiled and continued to scan with her face in all directions to see what I was writing on the computer.
I turned the computer to face the glass door so she could see better. She smiled - and ran away after her curiosity was satisfied when seeing what I wrote on the screen ...
It was one of the many times when I caught the eyes of little girls and boys - peering in different direction to see what I was working on --- it felt like being accompanied by them - by the outside world. It feels like, that when we are persistent in pursuing something, the outside world also provides support. Back in the UK, I still remember – some little boys even came up to me to ask me what I was writing; and one time there was a man in his 60s even who came up and encouraged me, saying, "I don't know what you're doing - but with your attention, I believe you will do well."
Have you ever had that feeling?
When am I persistent enough to pursue something? The outside world also gives its support?

KINDNESS becomes greater when we know how to ACCEPT it

#happyhighperformancehabits #passionateperformance #jencoaching

An Act of kindness and more importantly, HOW TO ACCEPT an act of KINDNESS.

What do you feel thankful for today? I felt thankful for an act of kindness from a stranger...to my very great surprise!

Yesterday I went to get my bike fixed after leaving the office. Both tyres required repairing. At the recommendation of the security lady in the office's building, I went to a shop in the street next to the place where I play badminton and it was the nearest place I could find that late in the day. And also it was raining!

I approached the mechanic and asked, "Could you help to fix both tyres and I can come back in 30 minutes after playing badminton?"

He greeted me with a smile and replied, "Sure!"

Thirty minutes later, I came back to get the bike so that I would be ready for a meeting later on. I found that he had finished fixing one tyre but I was in a hurry, so I asked him to let me pay for the work he had done so that I could take the bike.

He didn’t have change for my note of 200K VND (about $10 - the cost of fixing the bike was 50K VND).

He asked me to find somewhere near by to change the note but I saw that most shops were closed. (and I didn't feel like doing it anyway. Delete Ed.?)  Suddenly, a young guy, about 20 years old, walked by as if he was returning from his shopping - he had a bag of snacks and fruit. I thought maybe he would have some small notes.

So I asked him, "Do you have any change for this 200K VND, I would really appreciate it? This man doesn’t have any change."

He smiled and opened his wallet to check the smaller notes but he couldn’t find enough to change my 200K. He then asked me how much I had to pay.
I said "50K VND."

But before I could do anything, the young guy had already given the mechanic 50K and then he left rapidly. I was surprised and tried to call him back.
"Hi, can you give me your number so I can pay you via bank transfer?"

And at that moment, I realized that I had almost ruined the meaning of his act of kindness!

I can hear the voice of my mentor now; that sometimes being able to accept the kindness of others is a great way to appreciate their kindness...otherwise you may ruin it.

I tried to slow myself down to say thanks to the guy as he left, but by then he was already far away.

I went home smiling, thinking that there are so many acts of kindness out there...the guy didn’t know that his small note could be with me for ever - making my night special because of his kindness. And he was a total stranger.

I told the story to my mentor afterwards and he laughed so much at how I almost killed the kindness of the guy by not being able to acknowledge it with my heart. Sometimes a simple, “Thank you” is a great way to acknowledge the kindness of others!

It is beautiful, isn't it? Being kind to others and being treated kindly and also being able to accept the kindness of others!

P/S: The following picture was taken at a grateful moment when I was in TEDx event. Grateful moments are around us if we take sometimes to observe and feel them!

Do what we speak

Yesterday I watched a video of Tom – a successful entrepreneur and show host and I was triggered by his sharing – only speak it or make it real.

He was successful in his nutrition business and wanted to change his career to host a show reflecting the possibility of human being. At the beginning, he just talked about it and did not do much and he felt great about it. He felt really good at the beginning when talking about it and feeling it happening.

But the more he talked about it and not doing much with it in the reality, he started feeling empty. He realized he had to do things and create the reality as he talked. He had to live what he spoke. He had to breathe what he spoke. He started contacting one person by one person to do one show so another show, and his show started growing with more and more people being inspired. His dream became reality as he spoke and took action and learned from it.

Have you ever felt about it? You have a goal, you talk about it, you feel it great. You also know when you take action as much as you speak or even more, you create results you will reinforce your belief on what you speak, rather than feeling empty.

Speaking about our goal and dream can be a great starting point and a great daily conversation if we also go out and make it happen to reinforce what we speak.

Speak with belief and take action to create results can help us reinforce our belief.

Some of the takeaways for us:

- Be a learner, as long as you are a learner

- Be committed to make what you want to achieve happen by seeing challenges as opportunities to grow

- Do one thing to go closer to your goal

- Reinforce your action

- Be thankful

- Keep reflecting and do better the next time

Today the action is to put the online course out there. 

How to have optimal energy. People often asked why do I had that such energy, I used to think it was normal. However, only the time when I would see my energy is deluted I would know the reason. When I had a clear vision for myself, nothing would stop me and nothing would bother me, only positive energy. 

The power of deciding who you are. 

Practices for energy:

- Water 

- Attitude 

- Triggers

- Exercise

- Reasons/Results 

Turn Dissatisfaction into Grateful action

Turn Dissatisfaction into Grateful action
#happyhighperformancehabits #joywithjen

“It seems no matter what I do, it is not good enough for you even you never say it out loud”, Cio (a close friend of mine) told me one day to my surprise. I was surprised because he could feel that energy that I felt deep inside me even I never spoke out loud.
He would join the event to support me with logistic, he would make a smoothie for me after I came back from running, he would wait for me to play sports. I said thanks but deep down I always felt it was what anyone could do.
After a month experiencing that hidden energy from me, he told me what he felt – feeling that hidden energy.
And then I realized that dissatisfaction came from my dissatisfaction with myself. I used to be told that I couldn’t do anything so I always tried to be better everyday and I sometimes never wanted to stop. I found that the dissatisfaction came from my lack of self-respect and self-worth.
Have you ever felt that before? That no matter what somebody did, you did not feel satisfied? And you also never satisfied with what you did? The dissatisfaction with the outside normally came from the inside.
So how can we deal with it?
We want to see the differences of being satisfied but at the same time never stop developing with being dissatisfied in a miserable way and you have to be better.
We want to try to be better with the good state of mind, the abundant state of mind not the lack state of mind, because it means the more we have, the more we feel the lack.
We want to acknowledge that we can be better and take enough time to integrate what we have done to feel content
Habits to turn dissatisfaction into grateful action:
- Journaling at the end of the day – write down what you feel thankful for and feel it, taking time to feel it
- Gathering your team or your family once a week to talk about what everyone has done well
- Asking others one great thing that they did everyday

What is your favourite way to turn dissatisfaction into grateful action?
#jenvuhuong #lovelivegive

Create JOY

#happyhighperformancehabits #joywithjen
What do you feel today?
What do you feel on Monday, Tuesday…Sunday?
I reminisce the time I did a survey asking people about their usual feelings on each day of a week.
Here is what I discovered (the mojos refer to the feelings):
Monday 🙄
Tuesday 😏
…
Friday 😝
Saturday 😀😃
Sunday 🤗
The blissful feelings, the joy increases as the weekend comes because they do not have to do a job or study anymore.
Which means they had most days, which they were not happy with?
Do you find yourself sometimes in the same situation that you always wait till weekend comes to feel great and most days you don’t feel vibrant?
So how can we change things around and make every day great and we look back after each week and feel proud of ourselves that we have live fullest to our energy and potential?
Can we? How can we have more ecstatic days?
Yes, we can and here are some ways we can do to BRING THE JOY to our daily life!
Before talking about the ways, we can take a look at why we often do not feel super great each day? The reasons can be: we don’t really enjoy what we do, we don’t find the joy at work, bad things happen…Most reasons come from being unintentional in what we do which means we are controlled by things and circumstances. That is why we can be intentional in what we want to feel. We can SET OUR INTENTION to CREATE JOY.
So each day or before each event, we will ask ourselves, what can I do to bring the joy here?
Here are some ways:
- Dazzle someone
- Walk in nature
- Tell a joke
- Say Hi to a stranger
- Study a new thing
- Share your ideas to other people
- Talk with a close friend
How can you start off building the habit of bringing the joy intentionally? You can write the way to bring the joy in a paper and stick in front of your working desk or maybe on your wallet or creating alarms on your phone to remind you every day. When you do that every day, slowly it will become a habit and a part of you, you will do it automatically.
What is your favorite way to bring joy today?
#jenvuhuong #lovelivegive

SELF-LEARNING

"I used all the money of the training course to buy books", Craig smiled and told me his "teacher" - a stack of books about leadership and management on his book shelf.

"My companies sent me to 2 training courses related to Scrum, one went well and the other didn't...I ended up getting refunded for the course that didn't go well...and as the promise when getting refunded, I would go and master the topic.
I went on to buy four hundreds of pounds worth of books (around more than 100 Million VND)...I would choose the best practices and then went on applying them...I then reflected and then read more and then applied...Overtime, I mastered Scrum and started teaching others..."
Craig shared with me an experience made him appreciate the power of self-learning.
We can learn from real teachers or we can learn from life lessons of teachers through books or their work. And one step to get us to that self-learning mastery is our choice, our proactivity together with a purpose of the learning.

(Source: jenvuhuong.com/leadershipdevelopment

)
So, what will you learn today to master the topic that you are in?

SMILE, INTENTION & CONNECTION

SMILE
" I like your smile with the white big teeth so I will let you go ", the police said to Sub. (A habit of being friendly with a big smile can create a great power of persuasion?)

Sub came from the US. He has a contagious smile - if he walks in a meeting, people will feel the relaxing friendly energetic vibe from his smile and they will also smile.

One night, Sub got caught by police while driving his car to town. On that day, he didn't bring his driving license.

The police asked him to look for any other paper having Sub's face in it. Sub tried to look at different corners of the wallet and down to the very bottom of it - but he could not find one.

The police then asked Sub "Hold on a minute, I saw a paper with your face and with a very big smile".

Sub got confused for a second, but still smiled friendly as his nature, and then tried to go over one more time different items in his wallet...

"Yes, that one", the police pointed at an item in Sub’s wallet.

"Oh, this one", Sub surprised.

"This teeth checkup appointment card?", Sub got even more confused and he even started to laugh at himself because he didn’t believe that the card would be able to replace the driving license.

"Yes, exactly", the police said.

As the police said, he picked up the card and also started to laugh "Wow, you had a very white big teeth, indeed". While looking at the card, he looked at Sub and continued “Yes, it is you. The white big teeth man, you can go now”.

"Come again", Sub could not know what was happening.

"I like your smile with the white big teeth so I will let you go", the police said.

"Next time, bring your license and drive carefully to make sure you can protect your nice teeth", the police winked and left, leaving Sub not knowing what to say, just kept smiling.

Our community had great laughter when listening to this story of Sub. And yes, we could somehow understand the police's feeling when seeing the contagious smile of Sub "it is really nice, indeed". And the smile came from his caring, friendly soul.

Have you experienced a similar situation where you could see the magic power of a smile? Have you used the power of smile to connect with people?

Takeaways from the story:
- When you smile, you release the tension, you set an intention to see situations with a positive attitude
- You tend to take positive action
- You make others smile too
Do you know?
- “British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars; they also found that smiling can be as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 Pounds Sterling in cash” (Forbes, 2011)

Choice + Consistency + Compound effect = Completed goals

"Your Choices (decisions) + Consistency (often seen in your Habits) + Compound Effect (Time) = Completed Goals.”

1. Choices
Your daily choices matter!
Choice is a door triggering your action leading to the results we get. For example, your everyday choice of what to eat, what to drink influences your health. If you choose to eat apples instead of candy, you give your body healthy inputs resulting in better health of you. If you choose to use a staircase instead of the elevator, you consume more kcal resulting in a healthier body or losing weight.

2. Consistency
What you consistently do every day decide who you become. When you make a choice, you take action. If you consistently make a good choice and take positive actions, it becomes a habit then influences the results you get.

If you keep making the choice of eating candy instead of apples, you eat the chocolates and it becomes a habit resulting in your unhealthy body.
If you make a choice to practice a speech every day, you finish 7 speeches after 1 week, 365 speeches after a year; you master your speaking journey.

3. Compound effect - Choice
When to start staying consistent in building a habit?
The earlier you start, the better it is!
Imagine if you start doing public speaking since you were 20 years old, every day you give a speech. When you are 30 years old, you have given 3650 speeches. But if you start giving speech only when you are 30 years old, you may need to catch up the person who starts a decade before you.
(But it is never late as long as you make a decision and take action most importantly stay consistent).

What is one goal that you will achieve this year and that you will work on it with a daily choice, consistent action!

Great week ahead my friends!

Let's celebrate

LET’S CELEBRATE
“Hi, join me to celebrate me for living 3 more months”!

What do you feel when reading the text – sounds scary - how a person can celebrate his or her death? But at the same time, it has a positive vibe - why is not when it cannot be different?
Each moment we have is a chance to celebrate and to feel that way, we will live with our fullest.

This is the text that Brian sent to his friends when knowing his cancer give him 3 months left to live. He had lived fully and when he knew he couldn’t change that truth – he wanted to make the best out of his remaining time.

This is a true story told by mentor when teaching me about the art of celebration because I avoided to celebrate myself, my birthday or my graduation ceremony or what I have done.
On the similar same days, I heard a story of a 99-year old man who was strong and sporty and he passed away while surfing – such a healthy state when leaving this planet.

I admired them. I admired their celebration when facing one of the biggest fears of human being – DEATH. They lived fully – they also died fully.
I myself feel thankful to be saved from deaths different times – thanks to my siblings – I almost got kidnapped, almost died from a serious accident which I lost one litter of blood, almost drowning in the river…
And for me, living until now is a GRATITUDE – thank you, life!

After the time hearing the story of Brian and the 99-year old man, and thinking back to my gratitude of being alive – I shifted my mindset in celebration. And I would love you join me to do so. The first time in my life, I went to my celebration for my second master to receive my honored award – I skipped it when I was at university and my first master - I thought I was not deserved to celebrate yet. The first time in my life, I asked my friends to come to my house for my birthday party which I tried to avoid before – I loved to organize party for others but when it came to me – I felt hesitated – I didn’t avoided others care much about me.

But I changed! Will you? if you have not celebrated yourself enough?

I wanted to celebrate, every little thing, and start from using my birthday as a chance to borrow your time to join me – to be together!
SO, YOU ARE INVITED – TO JOIN ME TODAY – IN MY BIRTHDAY. I use this as a chance for me to have you celebrate your life and we will do it together.

And yes, everyday is a celebration for us – thanks to what we have gone through. And if we together celebrate, the happiness is multiplied!

I LOVE YOU!
Thank for beliving in me, in you and in the greatness that we can strive for everyday!
I am thankful to have you all to be in my journey and allow me to share and to grow together

Love you!
Jen,