Your "Can do" Jar

“When was the last time that you felt so great about yourself because you did something great?”

Is it 1 year ago, 1 week ago or 1 day ago?

What is about experiencing it more and more everyday?

I used the concept of “can do” jar, maybe you hear the concept of “cookie jar” (in the book “Can’t hurt me” of David Goggins).

How to create “Can do” Jar?

Each time when you achieved something, you would record it.

Each day you wake up, read it up. Or each time you meet challenges, you can read up one story in it.

Do you see the unseen confidence in you?

This story will change how we see confidence:

“There was a business executive who was deep in debt and could see no way out.

Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said.

After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.”

Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

“I can erase my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.

“I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the rest home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”

And she led the old man away by the arm.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.”

What is about you? Do you compare your self-worth with your current materials you have? or the situation you are in? Or you dare to allow yourself to acknowledge the true great potential and capability you have to work on nurturing it everyday? Your belief in yourself will translate into action and real results!

——

[Câu chuyện thay đổi cách bạn nhìn nhận về sự tự tin]

“Một giám đốc điều hành doanh nghiệp đang chìm trong nợ nần chồng chất và không còn lối thoát.

Các ngân hàng cho công ty anh vay tiện gọi điện dồn dập mỗi ngày báo thanh toán hạn quá nợ. Các nhà cung cấp đến tận văn phòng yêu cầu thanh toán khoản tiền hàng. Anh rơi vào tình cảnh hoang  mang sợ hãi, ngồi trên ghế đá cạnh văn phòng ôm đầu tự hỏi liệu có điều gì có thể cứu công ty anh khỏi phá sản.

Đột nhiên một ông già xuất hiện trước mặt anh. “Tôi thấy có điều gì đó đang làm phiền anh,” ông già nói.

Sau khi lắng câu chuyện sắp phá sản của giám đốc điều hành, ông già nói, "Tôi tin rằng tôi có thể giúp anh."

Ông ta hỏi tên người giám đốc điều hành, viết ra một tấm séc, và dúi vào tay anh ta và nói: “Hãy cầm lấy số tiền này. Gặp tôi ở đây đúng một năm kể từ hôm nay, và anh có thể trả lại tiền cho tôi vào thời điểm đó ”.

Sau đó ông lão rời đi nhanh chóng, để lại người giám đốc điều hành thẫn thờ.

Người giám đốc điều hành nhìn thấy trong tay mình là tấm séc trị giá 500.000 đô la, với chữ ký tên Tiến sỹ John D. Rockefeller (một trong những người đàn ông giàu nhất thế giới thời điểm đó)!

“Vậy là tôi không còn phải lo sợ về tiền bạc nữa!” Anh tự nhủ. Nhưng ngay lập tức, trong lúc không còn lo sợ đó, anh có một cảm giác là mình có thể tạo ra nhiều hơn số tiền đó với năng lực của mình, anh đã làm vậy trong suốt nhiều năm qua. ANh quyết định cất tấm séc và sẽ tìm cách vực dậy công ty bằng chính năng lực của anh.

Với sự lạc quan và tâm thế tự tin đó, anh chủ động gọi điện cho các đối tác và thương lượng các giao dịch tốt hơn và gia hạn điều khoản thanh toán. Anh bắt đầu kết nối các đối tác mới và tìm kiếm những đơn hàng mới. Anh đã chốt thành công một số vụ mua bán lớn. Trong vòng vài tháng, anh ta đã trả hết nợ và công ty anh tiếp tục sinh lời.

Đúng một năm sau, anh trở lại công viên với tấm séc được người đàn ông ký cho mình. Đúng giờ, ông lão đã ký séc cho anh xuất hiện. Đúng lúc người giám đốc điều hành chuẩn bị trao lại tấm séc và chia sẻ câu chuyện thành công của mình với ông lão, một y tá chạy đến và nắm lấy tay ông lão.

“Cảm ơn trời ông ở đây!" cô ý tá vỡ òa, cô tiếp tục hướng về phía người giám đốc điều hành “Tôi hy vọng ông lão không làm phiền anh. Ông ấy luôn trốn khỏi nhà viện và đi khắp nơi nói với mọi người rằng ông ấy là tỷ phú, tiến sỹ John D. Rockefeller. ”

Rồi cô ý tá chào anh giám đốc điều hành, nắm tay ông già đi.

Vị giám đốc điều hành kinh ngạc chỉ đứng đó, sững sờ, không nói lên lời.

Cả năm qua, anh ấy đã xoay sở và làm mọi cách vực dậy công ty, với một cảm giác tự tin biết rằng anh ấy có một tấm sec nửa triệu đô nếu bất kỳ tình huống nào xảy ra.

Đột nhiên, anh nhận ra rằng điều tự tin không phải là khoản tiền đó, dù thực hay tưởng tượng, đã làm thay đổi cuộc sống của anh. Chính sự tự tin về năng lực của anh, sau khi bị bỏ đi gánh nặng lo âu về tiền bạc, anh ấy đã tập trung vào giá trị anh có thể tạo ra, và với tâm thế đó, anh đã chuyển bại thành thắng.”

Còn bạn thì sao? Bạn có coi giá trị của bạn bằng bối cảnh hiện tại của bạn? Bạn có cho mình nghĩ lớn hơn cho bản thân, trên cả khó khăn và bối cảnh bạn đang ở. Bạn có cho mình hành động theo giá trị tiềm năng thực sự của bạn, thay vì bối cảnh thực tế? Khi bạn tin vào giá trị bản thân, bạn biến nó thành kết quả thực tế trong cuộc sống.

INTENTION: Focus on INVOLVEMENT, IMPRESSION follows

We have read books or watched videos and may learn about tips to be more impressive when meeting or doing something.

To go to a deeper level of greatness, you want to go to more involvement then inspiration.

Imagine, you are in a networking event, you can experience the following stages:

• Courage: You dare to speak with a stranger

• Confidence: You appear very confidently

• Impression: You make people feel you are a very interesting person and they feel great to talk to you

• Involvement: You make people feel you are so interested in learning about them and they start realizing something about themselves after answering your questions

• Inspiration: You make people feel inspired to then do something to change their lives

All of these stages are great at a certain context, but you want to experience deeper stages to understand more about different aspects of your life and the impact you can make.

Which stage you normally experience and which one you are working on more now?

Love,

Jen,

CHEER UP

CHEER UP: a habit to build confidence

HOW CHEER UP CAN INCREASE OUR CONFIDENCE?

When we are in a down moment or lack of confidence, if we are cheered up (either by ourselves or by others), we will believe in ourselves more to take action, action creates an experience, the experience can lead to competence then confidence.

For example, I thought I could not speak well, my mentors cheer me up "You have the potential to speak well. Your current performance does not reflect your future performance. Just keep sharing and you will improve. I believe in you". I continued trying to speak then I improved then I became more confident.

We can be our own mentor or have a real mentor or a supportive community to be cheered up and keep improving.

Not even in a down moment, when we knock down a goal, we deserve to be CHEERed up either by ourselves or others. When we celebrate our achievement, our brain knows what is good to reinforce

HOW CHEER UP DEVELOPS COMPASSION?

When we encourage ourselves or others to overcome difficulties or down moments, we express our care and love toward ourselves and others.

7 WAYS TO CHEER UP OTHERS?

When they feel down?

- Acknowledge their feelings

- Say how much you love them or care about them and

- Ask questions to let them speak

- Listen

- Say "thanks for sharing"

- Ask them to do one thing to change their state of mind

- Make a joke

When they are not confident about themselves?

- Send an inspiring image/video

- Share one image of one achievement they did in the past

- Share one image of one thing you learn from them

- Ask them to share why do they feel that

- Listen

- Say "thanks for sharing"

- Learn one new thing with them

THE MOST 7 CHEERING UP SENTENCES I HEARD LAST WEEK WERE:

- I am happy

- I am very happy

- I am truly happy

- I am happy to know you

- I am happy to learn from you

- I am happy to learn to how to improve

- I am happy when you are all happy

What are your favourite cheer up sentences?

How to sustain self-discipline

Why is it important to be self-disciplined? Having self-discipline means having self-control. When you can control yourself, you feel that you are the victor of your life instead of victim of life; you focus on solutions, you focus on positivity, you are happier. Self-discipline and taking full responsibility for your life complement each other. Discipline also allows you to master your skills, then master your life to realise your dreams. You can discipline your daily habits, such as reading and making healthy choices, but first and foremost, you have to discipline your thoughts. Your thoughts become your behaviours, which then render your results. You want to discipline the thoughts to make them work for your passion not against your passion. Discipline the gratitude thoughts.

Rule 1: Associate discipline with positive emotions “Discipline brings you more freedom by living more precisely rather than being distracted by randomness”.

For example, instead of saying – you want to lose weight (“losing” doesn’t sounds very appealing) – you say to yourself that you want to do exercise to keep fit – you want to wake up early to do exercise, you can enjoy the fresh air and wake up your body to feel vibrant. That will help you start your day in control…then you will work better during the day…

Rule 2: 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.

Rule 3: Self-discipline comes with the ability to come back to your discipline even you lose track for one or two days or one or two times…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.)

Practice gratitude discipline:

Every morning, practice being grateful, think and write about three things that you feel grateful for. Feel it with all your senses, you are alive!

- Every time you have a problem, be grateful that it will challenge you, so that you can grow.

- Say thank you to colleagues, relatives and acquaintances.

Every evening, think about three things you are grateful for that day.

I am giving 30-min coaching to help you get started: jenvuhuong.com/coaching

With love,

Jen,

Your story matters

When I was in the UK, every month I went to a story-telling event where most people were native speakers.

As a little girl coming from the countryside of Vietnam, telling a story in the English language in front of around 200 people made me nervous in my stomach ... I could hear my little voice "people would not understand you..." (Have you ever felt that before? You wanted to speak up and that voice came up...)

But then I remembered the saying of a dear friend that "if your message is important enough to share with others then you have to share it, you don’t know who may benefit from it until you share it out…”. I also told myself I was inspired by people who shared their stories and someone could also be inspired by my stories...

That desire of sharing overcame the doubtful voice and I could not be more thankful that after my sharing, people would come and say they believed in themselves more, thanks to my story.

I noticed there was a guy of more than 60 years of age who always came to the event. I often saw him look at me speaking, not having any emotion or reaction - it was a blank face. I heard a voice telling me "He would not feel interested in stories of a little kid coming from the countryside like me". Have you ever heard a voice like that, just because of the reaction on someone's face?

Until one day, after my story about how I overcame my own doubts when changing my career, he came to me and said "You are like a rock, little girl. I often tell your stories to my grandchildren, you inspire them! Thank you."

I was touched by what he said!

I realized that we are sometimes caught up by the delusion of our own doubts, making us assume things and divert a part of our energy on thinking on being judged.

And if we fully focused on just sharing, serving for good - we would be free from all these doubts and fears, and be fully immersed in the message.

As I have learned a lot about myself and others through telling stories and listening to stories, I created Story Jam to welcome you to come and share your stories or listen to others' stories.

I am looking forward to hearing your story soon!

Do what you say

Yesterday I watched a video of Tom Biley – a successful entrepreneur and show host and I was stimulated 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 reality of being human. At the beginning, he just talked about it and did not do much more than that.

But the more he only talked about it without doing much with it in reality, he started feeling empty. He realised he had to do things and create the reality as he talked. He had to live what he was saying. He had to breathe what he was saying. He started contacting people one by one to do a show. Then another show followed, and it started growing with more and more people being inspired. His dream became reality as he spoke and took action and he learned from it.

Have you ever felt like that? You have a goal, you talk about it; you feel it is great. You also know when you take action as well as speaking, you create results which will reinforce your belief in what you say, rather than feeling empty.

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

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

Some thoughts for us to take away:

• Be 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 next time.

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!