FALLING in love with life...
FALLING in love with life
I choose to fall in love with the beauty of life - through every single person I meet. Do you?
The guard at the building entrance never forgets to give me a big smile as he opens the door whenever he sees me with the bicycle, “Have a nice day and a nice journey.”
The lady in the small shop always gives me extra things whenever I buy anything.
The guard in the office never forgets to give me a high-five with a big smile whenever I pass by the gate.
The cleaner in the office never stops joking with me whenever she sees me walking around and brushing my teeth after lunch.
The housemate never forgets to share news about his table tennis training and competitions every single day after leaving work.
The gentlemen in the speaking club never forget to give nice encouraging feedback whenever I finish my speech.
My friends never forget to share all events and learning material related to my passion…
And many people, keep sharing the positive vibe - the other side we can learn through an unexpected time.
Some may ask "it seems like a fantasy life, where is the other side of it?" Yes, it has different sides. We can choose which side to focus on and amplify on. I choose the side that sparks the possibility and action to move forward a beautiful future. And you?"
The beauty of life is truly found in people, in you.
A Conversation to walk you out your comfort zone
A CONVERSATION
FOR ANYONE WHO THINKS YOU ARE IN YOUR COMFORT ZONE
H: I felt I had been in a comfort zone for so long. Today it is raining, I was despairing about when the Covid would end, when I could live up to my dreams and desires.
J: How long have you felt like that?
H: 3 years ago, when I had just got married, when I got into being busy with my children and family, I felt I was living in my comfort zone, leaving my ambitions behind.
J: How do you know you are in a comfort zone? If you are not in there…where would you be?
H: I observe that I have a stable job, I have the same routines, I don’t develop my skills or maybe try something new…
J: What would be the skills or the “something”…?
H: It would be like speaking, connecting, doing business… but when I thought about that, I was afraid it would have an influence on my family…
J: Have you ever done it and how did you know it would affect your family?
H: I did it - for example, going to learn skills and I found I couldn’t spend time with my children in the evening as I had previously …
(“We”…. Is the royal “we”? – But I think you mean “I” ?)
J: I have one “mother”, this one is pursuing her dreams and she still spends time with her children maybe not so many hours – but with quality and great energy.
And the other “mother” – who is always struggling, thinking that I am not yet working on my dreams, thinking that she is stuck with her family.
What do you think your children want to be in order to improve their lives?
H: For sure, the first one.
J: What would be the time of day when you could protect to work on your skills and share with your children about it? You all pursue your dreams, you pursue your dreams, your children do too…
H: Morning time…
I messed up. You messed up sometimes? It is ok. Stand up
I mess up. It is ok. Stand up...
SUNDAY REFLECTION - GRATITUDE
I messed up in keeping appointments which I wanted to, I put different important things on my plate at the same time...
Thanks to all my team&friends who are supportive and caring to stand by my side...I get back on track, step by step.
Do you mess up things sometimes? It is OK. But it is NOT ok to stay there for so long. You fail. It is ok, but it is not ok to stay there for long. One step at a time, we can get back on track.
And we have patience with our loved ones if sometimes they mess up just because they need sometimes to re-order things in life. Our kindness will support them to be back.
Discipline is not only about being able to do as you say every min, every day...
but it is more about having a min or a day that you are out of track; and the next min, the next day you get back on track.
Thanks to all my team&friends who have been patient and supportive to me and others. And don't forget to do it to yourself too, especially Sunday is with us...
"It is ok to be quite"
You can succeed whether you are an introvert or extrovert…
You can lead whether you are an introvert or extrovert…We have seen introvert mega-successful entrepreneurs: Larry Page co-founded Google alongside Sergey Brin; he served as Google’s CEO until 2001 and then re-assumed the position in 2011; Bill Gates - the founder of Microsoft. Gates started out as a solitary introvert; Warren Buffet, the founder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a prominent figure in investing; Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook founder, a considered shy person.
All of these people are considered introverts based on social standards while keeping positions that require different outgoing activities. But they all succeed and be the best at what they do.
Key takeaways if you are an introvert are:
If you don’t speak much, you can still lead
If you are quiet, you can still inspire others by your being and your presence
Even you are categorized as an introvert, you can still speak well when it is important enough
Introvert or extrovert both have their own advantages, the most important thing is you know how to maximize them and surround yourself with people can compensate what you are not great at
Don’t make being introvert a reason to not pursue what important to you, maximize the use of it and surround yourself with people can work on your weaknesses with you.
Let’s discover a great story of a world champion of public speaking - a considered introvert person on this coming Tues podcast.
https://www.facebook.com/events/956203801901338
DEDICATION took to go from an INTROVERT to WORLD CHAMPION SPEAKER
DEDICATION took to go from an INTROVERT to WORLD CHAMPION SPEAKER Aaron W. Beverly
You can inspire others whether you are an introvert or extrovert.
You can inspire others whether you are at a world-class level or if you have just started your journey.
With that mind-set of giving enough effort, dedication and values at world-class level, you get to the world-class level one day.
And even then, you never forget where you came from, you are still learning and giving as you did when you first got started.
I am excited to unfold a real-life example journey of a person who has practiced the above principles - the world champion of public speaking Aaron W. Beverly in this coming "Grow with Jen" podcast.
In this episode, we will have a conversation with Aaron on how he made his journey from being considered introvert to being a world public speaking champion:
- How did Aaron overcome the fear of speaking in public while being considered an introvert?
- What differences are there between a speaker and a world-class speaker; a valuable person and a world-class valuable person?
- What habits does a person need to adopt in order to achieve that world-class level?
- Do we all need to be a world-class valuable person? Why and why not, what is next for us.
Cannot wait to see you there with Aaron!
Register to join our zoom chat at: https://jenvuhuong.com/joywithjen
Live at: https://www.facebook.com/jenvuhuong
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About: Aaron W. Beverly
2019 World Champion of Public Speaking
Storyteller | Keynote Speaker | Trainer | World Traveler
In August 2019, Aaron Beverly emerged as the winner of the Toastmasters International Speech Contest, an annual public speaking competition that includes over 30,000 competitors worldwide. Performing the speech entitled “An Unbelievable Story,” Aaron provided a humorous take on the heavy subject of race and the importance of “acceptance despite difference.” That speech won him the prestigious title of World Champion of Public Speaking.
An accomplished speaker prior to the 2019 championship, Aaron also earned 2nd place in the International Speech Contest in 2016. Giving a speech that has come to be known simply as the “57-Word Title Speech,” Aaron spoke about the power of using a few words in world that believes “more is better.” Beverly is also, a five-time speech contest semifinalist, and a Moth Story Slam winner.
Oddly enough, Aaron considers himself to be “one of the most introverted people you can meet.” Public speaking and storytelling were extroverted activities he never thought he’d pursue. However, with hard work, dedication and a team of invaluable supporters,
Aaron has become proficient in both skills and has learned to balance his innate introversion with flashes of extroversion.
Storytelling and public speaking have not only led Aaron to engage audiences at Fortune 100 companies such as Vanguard, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo; notable Universities such as Temple, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania; but they have also allowed
Aaron to travel to countries around the world including: Taiwan, Malaysia, India, and the extremely foreign land known as Canada.
Aaron is living proof, that the art communication can have a profoundly positive effect on the advancement of your professional career and the fulfillment of your life.
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About Jen Vuhuong, Love Live Give
GRATITUDE to uncertainty
GRATITUDE to uncertainty...
As we get stronger, we experience:
We try a new thing, we feel fearful, doubtful, uncertain; we hesitate, then we still keep moving forward as what we do is important.
We step one more step, we still feel fearful, doubtful, uncertain; we realize "ah, fears and doubts inform us that we are getting out of our comfort zone", we take one more step.
As we step one more step, we look for bigger fear, doubts, and uncertainty because they will make us stronger.
As we keep stepping forward, we say "thanks" and smile as doubts and fear become the great friends of our growth and joy.
You got this, overcoming fears, doubts and uncertainty and you will continue.
I am grateful for you. Happy Saturday my friends. Dream big, start with one step, thankful for difficulties.
THERE IS A STRONG REASON, THERE IS A WAY...
Rob had to attend a training event where 500 people were waiting for him. The event was in Washington DC so Rob had to take a flight from New York.
At that time, the city was suffering heavy snow. However, three days before the flight, there was no information about flight cancellations from the airline. two days, one day before the flight, there was still no information.
It seemed that the flight would still be going. But the night before the flight, Rob got a call informing him the flight had been cancelled. He asked the airline to find another flight not only because for his sake but because of the 500 people waiting for him. They found one flight for him at 6am and he had to be at the conference at 6pm that day.
To catch up with the sudden change in the flight, he had to drive to the airport from 11pm that night but he felt still lucky. He reached the airport after 6 hours 30 minutes in the heavy snow (normally it would take only 3 hours). He was about to enter the check-in counter when he discovered that the flight was delayed till the following day.
Now his only alternative was to drive all the way by car to the event. And he did it.
The 500 people cried when they heard the story told by the man who did enough to deal with whatever it took!
If you create a strong reason to do something you will always find a way! When something is important enough, we create a compelling reason for doing it...
CURIOSITY & CONFIDENCE
CURIOSITY & CONFIDENCE & CONNECTION...
You want to be more confident about yourself, is it your dream?
You want to be more competent at certain skills?
You want to learn more about others to have better connections?
Maybe there will be times when you feel doubtful about yourself, when you are feeling scared of giving it a try? Or maybe you feel a lack of confidence when seeing other people who are so good at what you want to learn and you think, “It is for them, not for me”? Or maybe you feel scared of judgment?
Because of these doubts and fears, you may not take positive action to develop yourself to be more competent….. and then confident!
How can you turn these doubts and fears to becoming EXCITEMENT, to make yourself take action to be better - more competent? Then you will feel more confident about yourself.
One of the practical exercises is to use CURIOSITY to trigger that EXCITEMENT!
When you feel doubtful about yourself: be curious to ask yourself, “Why do I feel like this?” and listen to the story behind the feeling - you acknowledge the feeling and its story. Right after that, tell yourself that you don’t need to be in that state of mind. Change your focus to another question: “What is the one thing I can do to make me feel better, right now?” That one thing can be going for a walk, thinking about something that you achieved in the past or, right away, practicing a technique to be better at what you want to achieve.
You are not confident about yourself when seeing other successful people: you may start your learning journey, you look for experts and you see their performance, you start comparing yourself and feel, “You are nowhere now,” and you overwhelm yourself with that comparison and jealousy. Acknowledge these feelings and be curious about, “What is the one thing I can learn from these people?” or “What is the story behind their achievement?” When you have CURIOSITY and ask these questions, you will learn part of the secret of their success. Just choose one action to take, one step at a time.
You are scared of judgment: maybe you want to speak up but you are scared of people judging you. You get overwhelmed by it, you decide to protect yourself by not trying. But stop, be curious about the feeling, acknowledge it and be curious, “What is the one thing I can learn from the success of others in order to be better?” Always be curious to listen and critically evaluate what you see, then you will gain enormously from this feedback.
Have a curious week my friends!
My favourite way of practicing CURIOSITY: (a quotation from my book)
“Spend a half-hour in a coffee shop being curious about everyone in the place. Without actually talking to anyone at first, release your curiosity and pose the following questions to yourself: I wonder where they are out of balance in their lives. I wonder what they value. I wonder what they are missing in their lives, what makes them laugh, where they have constructed self-imposed limits. What do they like about the day? What are their life dreams? What empowers them? What do they like about the people they’re sitting with? At the end of the half-hour, find someone you can spend a little more time with and actually ask that person the curious questions. As you ask the questions, be aware of what is happening with the other person. How does this person respond to you when you are curious? Then look at your own role in the conversation…
Afterward, be curious about your own curiosity. What did you learn about being curious? What was easy? What was hard? What made it easy or hard? How could you be more curious? What would that give you?”
BEAUTY of life...in every corner of life...
“I'm here…hi, why did you call me? I'm here…”
The Grab rider called me cheerfully when he saw me – I was talking with another Grab guy on the other side of the road…
"I have a lovely helmet but you still can't see me..." the driver teased me.
I was concentrating on thinking about the talk afterwards, but also get carried away by the excitement of the Grab riding through the traffic, I smiled “I see you now”.
Sitting behind him, I could clearly see the helmet decorated with blue “horns”… it was very lovely.
“You decorated this helmet yourself? It looks good…” I said to him as we were travelling.
"That's right, sister, I do it so that the passengers traveling with me also find it interesting, I hope they feel less stressed when they ride on my bike...", he smiled happily as he replied.
When we arrived at my destination, the entrance to the event venue was empty of trees. He asked me, “Do you have a parasol for this sun, or do you apply sunscreen?”
I thanked him and told him I liked the sun, then I said goodbye to him.
Stepping into the event…a sense of excitement remained…
Life is full of interesting things…and interesting people everywhere…right?
YOUR HEART WILL SING...
YOUR HEART is SINGING
when you do this…
I was speeding up in order to hit the last miles of my daily running circuit…
“Hi, can you please help us to take pictures…”
Suddenly, a girl stopped me asking me to take pictures of her and her friends while they were biking…
A thought popped up in my head, “How could she stop me while I was running that fast? If I had been walking then it would have been OK…, and there were other people who were walking…she didn’t ask them…”
But right after that, another thought came to me “I am always preaching to people to do an act of kindness every day, so here we go…”
I then became a camera girl asking them to take different poses…and I took around 10 pictures for them…
I was taught that, “If we say yes to do something, do it with 100% of our heart…”
I then detected a great feeling rising inside my heart…saying, “Bye” to them and about to continue running…
“Have a wonderful awesome day sis, keep going!” they called out to me as I disappeared.
No matter what is the impulse thought comes to you when someone asks you do something, when you do it, your heart will be singing...
KINDNESS makes our heart sing…
40 words from my sis...
1. APPRECIATE: appreciate every day as a chance to live and give
2. ATTITUDE: attitude matters more than talents
3. AMBITION: dare to dream big for ourselves and others
4. ACTION: action is the way to realize an ambition
5. BELIEVE: believe in ourselves, our dreams and others’ dreams
6. CREATE: create the life that we want and we deserve no matter where we come from
7. CLARITY: always seek for clarity by asking what do we want, what matters to us, what is important
8. CONFIDENCE: confidence is not what we have automatically, but is a choice, doing it despite fear
9. COMPASSION: compassion is to care for others by caring for ourselves and creating passion in what we do
10. DREAM: dare to dream, dream bigger each day for ourselves and others
11. DETERMINATION: being determined in our dreams and what matters
12. ENERGY: energy is not what we have but what we create by giving
13. ENTHUSIASM: enthusiasm is not what we have but what we create by doing what matters
14. ENCOURAGE: encourage others, cheer others
15. EXCELLENCE: it is not about being perfect; it is about excelling what we do everyday
16. EMPOWER: we don’t change others, we empower others
17. FOCUS: focus on the main things and what matter
18. FORGIVE: forgive others, it means we forgive for our mistakes, our bad behaviours to move on for a better self
19. GRATITUDE: being grateful for what we do, for others, for life, from a little thing
20. HAPPINESS: happiness is a choice, a choice of seeing everyday as a gift
21. HUMBLE: be humble to always keep learning from others
22. IMAGINATION: what we can imagine, can become our reality
23. INSPIRATION: be inspired by others and inspire others
24. INTEGRITY: do what we say, what we believe
25. JOY: bring the joy to challenges, everyday
26. LEAD: lead the change, lead ourself so we can lead others
27. KINDNESS: kindness is the door to happiness
28. MEANING: do what make us feel meaningful, do what matters; we always can have a choice to give a meaning to an even
29. MOTIVATION: motivation is a choice, we choose to generate motivation by our thoughts, behaviours
30. OBSTACLES: obstacles is the way to joy and growth and meaning
31. OPTIMISM: there will be always a better day when we believe, see it and do it differently and thankful for what we have gone so far
32. PATIENCE: be patient with ourselves, and others; be patient with our dreams and process
33. PERSISTENCE: be persistent with our daily action
34. POSSIBILITY: see the possibility in the impossibility
35. PRIORITY: it is not about time management, it is about prioritization
36. SKILLS: master skills that matter to our dreams
37. STRENGHTS: we are stronger than we think if we don’t give up, strength is a muscle, can be practiced with daily persistence
38. TEACH: we find the meaning when we can teach others what we have gone through
39. UNDERSTANDING: being understood by understanding others
40. VALUES: be a valueable person
THE SHIFT
KINDNESS is in every corner
I was excited. Returning home after talking about the topic of habits with my associates, I took my motorbike and went about 50m before I realized that it was out of air on both tires. It was late at night so there was no longer a car repair shop open. So I went back to the parking lot to ask to park the bike overnight, and come back tomorrow to fix the tires. The man at the usual parking lot suggested that I go to the adjoining courthouse for overnight parking. I went there, parked the bike and prepared to get a grab home.
I rarely park my motorbike in this building, so I'm not familiar with the security guard, but I could feel his kindness. He asked me what happened with my motorbike and how far I was from home.
Seeing that I was struggling with my bag and badminton clothes, the parking attendant said – “You can take my motorbike and go home, tomorrow you can return to me my bike after fixing your bike”.
I don't know who he is yet, and he doesn't know who I am, but there's one thing I know about him - his kindness and care.
KINDNESS is in every corner and in you. Do you see and bring it out each day?
KINDNESS is in every corner
KINDNESS in every corner, u see it?
After our hike, we went to get some water in a small shop. While we were queuing in the shop, we could see that everyone was leaving with a big grin. The closer we got to the counter the grin on everyone’s face was bigger.
When it came to my turn, I saw a big smile and lovely voice from the woman behind the counter. I could see how much sunshine poured out from her smile.
She gave everyone compliments and wished them a beautiful day, genuinely. It was just infectious. Nobody could resist being happy talking to her.
"I love your smile, you made everyone feel happy," I said.
"Thank you. It is Friday night; everyone should be happy after a long working week. I hope I can make everyone feel happier," the lady smiled.
It is just beautiful, isn't it.
Beauty is in every corner of our life.
Paradigm shift - when we change how we look at things...
"PARADIGM SHIFT", are you experiencing it?
(Thanks to this story that was told to me by my great friend in Penang, Malaysia…years ago…).
Li was at Munich airport and waiting for the flight. He was so hungry so he decided to go to buy a packet of biscuits. Li then went to sit at a chair which was near to an old man.
After settling down, Li grabbed the packet of biscuit on the chair. As he was grabbing the packet, he saw that the old man stared at him. He started opening the packet, the old man stared even more at him.
Li felt so weird but he kept opening the pack and then started eating one piece at a time. The old man also took a biscuit after Li took one piece. Li then took one and the man took another one. The last one, he saw the man take it before him and then he broke it into 2 parts, gave Li one part. Li took it and ate and could not understand how it was possible that the old man took his biscuit and felt free to eat like that. Li thought what happened with this man, the same happened with people in this country.
So, after finished the biscuit (just a half!), he decided to go to buy another pack and felt a bit angry and weird about the man somehow. He put the new biscuits in the bag and tried to find a place to stay alone. He opened the bag and eventually saw another biscuit inside.
He figured out he had actually eaten the biscuit of the man, not his biscuit.
A paradigm shift happened to Li, the weird person/impolite person was not the old man but himself! How nice the old man was!
Have you ever felt a similar paradigm! Things are not that bad as you think. Things can be very beautiful if you see it from other side.
Without needing to experience an experience like Li in this story ^^, we can still experience life differently. When you change how you look at things, things change! If we are open, don't let our silent assumption take over, we can learn and see the beauty of things and others.
The kindness of a passing stranger …
The kindness of a passing stranger …
..I was writing in my favourite coffee shop in the company of my laptop and my journal as usual.
Suddenly I heard someone say, "Excuse me, I don’t want to interrupt you but I just want to say that it is so nice to see someone is still using writing paper. I believe you will do well whatever you do!”
I was stunned to receive the praise. Deep down I felt a flow of fresh and warm energy receiving the pure kindness!!
We can make the day of someone by telling them that we believe in them.
Let’s do it from today!
…
The smiles of strangers
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I woke up with a headache. A part of me told me to just chill out and not read or exercise as I would normally do. But another part of me told me I had to keep going. I convinced myself to just write my daily journal and then I went for a run.
I was wondering about my thoughts and my headache while running.
"Hi, how are you!"
Somebody whispered with a sweet cheerful voice, it was a young school kid. She was with her other two friends, laughing and running to chase each other. With her big grin she wished that I had a great day and she cheered me for running.
It was like a warm beautiful feeling of engaging with the beauty of life. If I didn't crawl out of the house to engage with life, I would have missed the smiles.
I forgot about the headache. It was an illusion, it was gone.
Let's encourage ourselves to engage with life again, to be kind to others. Just a smile can make somebody’s day.
ABUNDANCE comes with our abundant giving mindset
I have learned from Michael Roach to have abundance:
Find 10 people who want to achieve the same thing like us
Help these people to achieve their goals
The power of I am sorry, thank you...
It comes when we say “I am sorry. Thank you! I will…”
Every morning, I can hear the broom sound of the neighbor across from my door while she cleans her yard and our alley. It is very kind of her, but I find she rarely smiles and her face seems serious that I don't feel I should start a conversation with her to say thanks as I normally would.
Her house and my house are both shaded by a big tree. Every morning when I go home from running, I jump rope in front of my house. That day, I was jumping and a motorbike came. I went ahead and jumped to reach my daily target before the bike arrived. The jump rope touched the leaf clusters of the old tree, so the leaves fell onto the road. I swept over to clean the leaves and went into the house to continue my exercise.
Half an hour later, I heard the familiar broom of my neighbor sweeping the street. And accompanied by the sound of brooms was a grumbling sound…I couldn't hear anything clearly, but my heart rose – was it because I dropped a leaf in front of my house while jumping rope…
I heard my own voice trying to explain “but I did sweep…” – I tried to comfort myself that his nagging wasn't about the leaves. However, deep in my heart, I knew that was the cause…I told myself – no need to think about it, go on with your morning work and forget about it. But there was still a certain uncomfortable feeling.
I decided to go see the neighbor. Walking downstairs, not knowing how to start, but I knew if I let it go, I wouldn't be comfortable.
Approaching the door of the neighbor's house, I saw that she was talking with some other friends.
"I'm sorry, I jumped rope in the morning and dropped the leaves, I didn't clean it well, thanks for your help. I'll be more careful," I confided.
"Ah, that's it, I just said that whoever dropped the leaves didn't sweep it well, i thought about you - the little girl often does exercise... pay attention next time little girl, thank you...", the neighbor smiled wittily, welcoming accept my apologies and thanks.
I felt relieved, and I felt the warm from her heart rather than the coldness that I found before…
So every time I see her, we smile and greet each other…She often lends me a bicycle pump when I need it…
I have a friendly neighbor…the door opens to that friendliness has a lot to do with the words“…I'm sorry…thank you…I will…”
Apologies and thanks are gifts we can give to anyone, every day…
3 times of seeing a challenge
You see it as it is - so it is not bad as you think
You see it with a better you in 10 years - so it becomes not that a big deal - u mentally get out of it
You see it with the first step to move toward your future - u physically get out of it
