Real life experiences about turning dreams into reality

How to turn dreams into reality

by Mani Jack, M.J.

Chapter 1

I am not sure if magic does exist but our mind is very powerful if we were to stay focus on what we want in life. Is it possible to turn dreams into reality by focusing your mind towards what you want? Let me share my own experiences.

      When I was 16 years old, going to the school canteen during the recess time was not an activity that I adored because I didn't have enough money to buy enough food to feed my stomach that didn't know how to spell the word "full". I would just normally buy a bun and walked away quickly from the canteen as I couldn't stand looking at others who were enjoying their luxurious meals. However, I always imagined having my best meal at the canteen. That visualization had kept my stomach full. One day, my naive classmate was bullied by some students. I was not close to him  because I was new at that school and that boy lived in his own world but there was a voice in my heart telling me to do something. So, I suddenly became a lion. Right before the bully approached him, I stood up and said "Try me instead of him". The crowd was shouting frantically, asking the bully to start the fight. The bully didn't dare to look at my fiery eyes and finally sat down. He was as silent as a stone. The crowd was disappointed but that was the end of it. Starting from that day, no one had ever bullied that boy who finally became my good friend until today. As we got closer, unexpected opportunity came in. He asked me to join him to work as a part-time waiter at one of the 5 star hotels in the city at night. I was speechless. It looked like God, the universe, the small deeds and my focused mind and continuous visualization were working together to turn my dreams into reality. It was a very tiring profession but I finally got the amount of pocket money that I have  been thinking of for so long. Since then, he and I began to enjoy our breakfast to the fullest at the canteen. 

      While waiting for my SPM result (SPM is a public exam for form 5 students/high school in Malaysia), I was hoping that I could continue my study as a form 6 student. Deep in my heart, I was not sure whether I could achieve it or not but I kept thinking about it because that was the cheapest way before I could do my first degree but it was also the riskiest path. I knew that I would not pass my SPM result with flying colours because I was too busy working at night as a waiter to support myself and my family and the worst part was I could only afford to buy the reference books for each subject a month before the exam. It was a very last-minute preparation. When the result was announced, it turned out to be better than my worst fear. It was neither excellent nor bad. It was good enough to help me to register myself as a form 6 student. Once again, God, the universe, the small deeds and my focused mind and continuous visualization were working together to turn my dreams into reality. However, the journey was quite challenging. My application to be a form 6 student was rejected by a few schools. Finally, one school gave me a chance, a chance of a lifetime. A chance that I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

      When I finished my form 6, I began to think of my life as a university student together with specific visualization. At that time, I knew it was impossible for me to do my first degree because my family couldn't afford it. However, not a day went by that I didn't think of that dream because I knew that God was watching and listening. I worked as a waiter at one of the high class cafes in town in which every day I had a chance to meet many types of tourists from all over the world. Everyday I gave my best to my customers and my colleagues. Every customer was treated like kings and queens. I helped my friends at the kitchen even though that was not my job. I tried to get myself busy while waiting for any good news from heaven above. While serving the tourists, I loved to observe how they spent their lives and their money. Sometimes it really broke my heart when I saw them paying the bills because the price of the meal was equal to my one-month salary. I was terribly underpaid. I talked to myself every day when I was alone regarding my financial status  and who I was in the eyes of the society. I told myself that I couldn't work like this for the rest of my life. I must do something to change my destiny. Suddenly in the year of 1999, the government offered a study loan to any students who would like to pursue their tertiary education. My heart was smiling in tears. I believed that I was the luckiest man on earth on that day. I filled in the application form and I was ready to fly. However, a lightning struck my way. My sister asked me to postpone my dream because she wanted me to wait until she  had graduated. I ran amok.  I burnt the form and locked the door. After doing a long self-reflection, I began to accept the fact that  I had to sacrifice first before I could taste victory. I could not be selfish as we depended on each other due to poverty. I accepted her request and had to wait for one year. When she had graduated, it was my turn to turn my dreams into reality. I filled in the application form and quickly wrote the courses that I really wanted. My first choice was a degree in law because I really wanted to be a lawyer while the second choice was a degree in TESL. While waiting for the official reply, I spent my days diving into my funny imagination about my life as a university student. When the offer letter reached my house, I was like a kid who was celebrating his first birthday. I tore the envelope quickly as I wanted to know if I got the first choice. When I opened the offer letter, I was offered to do my first degree in TESL which was my second choice. I was silent and wondered why God didn't give me the first choice. I tried to comfort myself saying that one day I would find the answer. Nevertheless, I was grateful because once again,  God, the universe, the small deeds and my focused mind and continuous visualization were working together to turn my dreams into reality. 

     I am sharing this story because I want those who read these  true stories of mine to continue to fight for your dreams even though everything seems to be impossible. Good luck. I will be writing the second chapter soon. May God bless those who helped me before with lots of blessings every day. Amen. 

A focused mind is a mind that opens the unexpected doors. M.J. 

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5 practical tips to keep your marriage happy

How to make your wife happy or how to be a good husband. 

1. Money management

Whether you are the single income earner or both of you are working, your wife needs emotional security. In other words, as a husband, you must know how to manage your money well. It does not have to be perfect but as a husband,you have to make sure that the money is enough to pay for the bills, food and pocket money. If a husband doesn't know how to manage his money or the family's economy well, this could create unnecessary conflicts between husband and wife. 

2. Give her space and time with her family

      Before you came into her life, she was raised by her loved ones she calls family. Her parents and her siblings mean  a lot to her. Her family perhaps represents half of her memories. Trying to prevent her from seeing her family is just like taking away half of her soul. As a daughter, she has unfinished "emotional debt" with her family especially her parents. She needs to be given the freedom to pay back everything that her parents or her siblings have done for her. She may not be able to pay back everything that her  parents have done for her but at least the time spent for her loved ones will give her peace of mind and heart. No matter how old your wife gets, she is still a daughter to somebody she calls parents. As long as her parents are still alive, give her as much time as possible to spend with her family. 

3. Help her with house-chores.  

       A man doesn't to have to do everything at home but small deeds done with lots of love will keep your wife happy. There are a few things that you can do as a husband at home such as cleaning the fans and the toilets, changing burn-out bulbs and etc. However, I think the one that a wife loves the most is when the husband is a good chef. If you don't know how to cook, learn how to cook. No excuses. You may fail hundreds of times but as time goes by, as you will be very good at it and addicted to it. In other words, you are actually adding more flowers into the gardens of your marriage. 

4. Learn to say "I am sorry". 

       Man's main problem is his ego while woman's main problem is overthinking or over sensitive. If the relationship is more important than your ego or overthinking, learn to say sorry as fast a possible. Being silent for more than 2 or 3 days or perhaps one week will create more negative thoughts in the minds of both parties and more fire in the hearts of both parties. It is not easy but if she means everything to you, start with a friendly gesture, say something nice and ends with "I am sorry". 

5. Don't try to make a woman a man. 

    Woman and man are two different creations. You have to be very observant because their facial expressions represent many things. Use your instinct wisely because your wife's smile or eyes have something to say even though they say nothing. If you could notice all of these changes, your wife will appreciate you because you notice her tears and worries. In other words, it shows how much you care about her. 

"If she feels comfortable with your presence, you are the one." M.J. 

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4 effective tips to deal with negative or toxic people

How to deal with negative people

by Mani Jack, M.J. 

  

There are many types of negative people. 

1. The first one is the one whom we call fault finder. 

      There are many reasons why some people become a very negative fault finder. The basic cause is negative family upbringing in which a parent or both parents who hardly compliment their own children for every effort that their children make. In other words, this child has never been recognized for his or her efforts. Last but not least, the parents are only interested to highlight the mistakes made by their children and sometimes make fun of the mistakes which gradually destroy the self-esteem of the children. These parents who are extremely too perfectionist will always be too critical on their children's performance or characters which will develop the culture of fault-finding in their children. As they grow up, they will become a very negative adult who will not be able to see the good sides of others as they thought that they were right or perfect. All in all, this kind of parenting skill is driven by the fear of failure.

        If this fault finder is your boss, that means he or she is not interested to help you to grow in that company or organisation. He or she is only interested in the profit or the fame of the company or the organisation. In other words, it is all about his or her personal interest. You will never move forward no matter how hard you try to please your boss. If you refuse to leave the company or organisation, create your own island of happiness. If you have a chance, leave but make sure you have learned a lot from that company. wake up in the morning and stay focus on new things that you can master from that company or organisation. 

        If the fault finder happens to be one of your colleagues, assume that he or she does not exist or assume that he or she has never been relevant in your life. You can either choose to be the fault finder to teach him or her a lesson or you just focus on the other colleagues who have made your life wonderful and positive every time you go to work. Don't allow them to bully you. Be firm and speak your mind. 

       If the fault finder is one of your family members or your relatives, just stay away as much as you can if you cannot stand the heat. Let karma do the work. One day, life itself will teach them a lesson and if you are lucky enough you will be the first to go there to lend a hand or to enjoy the scenery. Perhaps, a tragedy will change him or her and if you could forgive them, perhaps it is time to start the relationship all over again. 

      If the fault finder is one of your friends, delete his or number or unfollow his or her Facebook page because your mind and your heart deserve peace. You deserve to be happy. 

2. The second one is the one who is too selfish. 

        At certain point, selfishness can be good for our mental and emotional health. However, being too selfish can be very destructive. A selfish person is the one who thinks that he or she as the only person on earth who has more burden, more commitments, more stress, more pressure, more workloads and etc. than others. This kind of person will always think that this world owes them everything. This kind of person is only interested in getting you to listen to their drama but refuse to do the same when you need them to listen to your problems. How to deal with them? If he or she is your boss, just mind your own business. Let him or her wonder why everyone is ignoring him or her. If he or she is one of for family members, don't give them any attention. They don't deserve it. If he or she is your friend, stop entertaining them. Let them think. Let them do a long self-reflection about themselves. They are only interested in receiving. 

3. The third one is the one who is a hypocrite. 

       This kind of person is one of the worst. They talk about what they hate but they forget that they are doing the same thing. For example, if they publicly talk about animal abuse, at home they also silently hurt their own pets. If they talk about religions, their actions and words in real life are full of arrogance. If they talk about betrayal, they forgot they also did the same in the past. If they talk about honesty, they themselves can't be truly honest for the rest of their lives. If they talk about injustice, they themselves forget to be fair with their own family members and friends. If they talk about world hunger, they themselves forget that they have not been concerned about their own neighbors who need help. If they talk about other's bad behavior, they forget to look at themselves in the mirror and believe that the ones they see in the mirror are correct, right and perfect. If you choose to stay, you will be the victims of his or her scrutiny as hypocrites have the tendency to be judgmental. Cut all ties. There are so many new friends that you could choose from out there. 

4. The fourth one is the one who is ungrateful. 

      This type of negative person is the most dangerous. Why do I say so? First, they are lazy. They refuse to develop their own gift and talents to improve themselves. They always  consider other's achievements, success or happiness as threats. The second reason is they refuse to appreciate what they have. This lack of appreciation will cause them to be angry and restless. The third reason is they can be dangerously envious. They may destroy what you have because they can't accept that you are ahead of them. The last reason is they love to sigh, whine and complain about things that they don't have, things that make them angry or other people. You can't help this kind of negative people. They have to help themselves. Let them find their own turning points. If you get too close to this kind of negative people, their words and actions will take away your inner peace and may prevent you from improving yourself. 

     We can always help to motivate the negative people but they themselves must make efforts to improve themselves. However, if we help them too much, they might be too dependent on us which may cause us to lose ourselves or perhaps they might use us as their permanent punching bags. 

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6 things that you should do to heal your broken heart after a breakup

How to cope with breakup 

by Mani Jack, M.J.

1. Sit down, take a pen and a book and do a long self-reflection

     Love is not something that we can own. Some people experience true love while some could only afford to experience the love of sympathy. We can't even touch love no matter how long we hug the ones we love because love is an abstract noun. We can feel it but sadly we cannot keep it in our safest vault as we can't see it no matter how much love tries to express itself from the eyes which are in love. We can technically create the feeling of love by showing physical attractions but to maintain the fire of that love requires so many things because men and women have complicated needs and wants. When we fail in a relationship, it can either show the worst part of our ex or show the worst side of ourselves. We should look deeper into ourselves and study why we fail in that relationship but we cannot continue to punish nor look down at ourselves just because we fail in a relationship.  We can always look for a missing shoe at a shoe store but love doesn't work that way. Some are not meant to be together either because the flame is no longer there or your ex refuses to keep the flame burning due to some known and unknown reasons. Sometimes we are trapped between feeding our own ego instead of trying to really understand why we fail. 

  

2. Get closer to yourself. 

     Protect your mind from destructive thoughts. After breakup, self-blame can be very extreme. Negative or evil thoughts might be flooding your mind which could force your heart to feel the unbearable heat of frustration. You must try your best to prevent yourself from doing something which could harm yourself. If possible avoid driving. To cry within or to let your eyes do the shouting is okay but try your best to protect your mind from having more bleeding conflicts with your heart because the explosion in your heart could drive your mind to do something insane. Last but not least, regardless of your religious background, ask for help from the godly voice inside your heart for guidance and protection. 

  

3. Get closer to your family and good friends. 

     Quickly spend more time with them. Create meaningful and sweet memories with them. Keep yourself busy. As time goes by, that heartache will be reduced. You will find new love as you renew the feelings of love between you and your good friends and your family members. The time spent with them will make you realize that they are the ones who will be there for you when things start to fall apart. They will not be able to replace the love that you had for your ex but it will help you to understand more about the many meanings of love.  

  

4. Play with regrets. 

     Ask yourself these questions. Will I be able to enjoy happiness if I were to continue to hope that he or she will come back to me? Is it worth it for me to play wait and see? If I were to proceed with a marriage with him or her, will I be able to keep that marriage which is heavily burdened by our major differences and etc.? Can I give the best of myself if he or she refuses to feel the same way as I do? What if this failure is just a stepping stone before I meet the one that I have been looking for? Can a marriage or a relationship grow if the foundation is weak as long as love is concerned? Will I be able to adapt to his or her weaknesses for the rest of my life? Am I too cheap or too weak to practice self-pity? 

  

5. Invest in yourself. 

     Use the causes of the failure to rebuild yourself. Perhaps, his or her temporary existence is meant to become your best turning point. Focus on how you can make yourself much better than you were before. If he or she left you because you are too dependent, learn to be independent but don't do it because you want him or her to come back. If he or she left you because you had nothing, learn to improve your academic qualification or the status of your job but don't do it because you want him or her to come back. If he or she left you because you were too emotional, learn to improve your emotional intelligence but don't do it because you want him or her to come. Focus on improving yourself because a better you will attract a better person in the future only if you have learned to forgive your past. But if you drag your past into the new relationship, history of your failures will repeat itself. 

  

6. Give yourself the correct amount of time to fall in love again. 

     Some people take months before they could fall in love again while some take years. In some cases, some will forget about falling in love again. No one can force you to fall in love again as love itself is born out of nowhere. If you force yourself to fall in love again when you are still emotionally wounded, the tendency to fail again is always higher because the new person will be victimized by your assumption. 

     In conclusion, LOVE is not a subject that everyone can master but patience and self-investment could make a lot of BIG differences. 

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9 things that you must do if you want to be successful in life

How to be successful in life

By Mani Jack,           M.J.

I am writing this article so that the young generation will try their best not to repeat the critical mistakes made by those who failed to manage their lives well before so that they will enjoy a better life as there are basically three types of persons in this world; the one who learns from his mistakes, the one who learns from his and others’ mistakes and the one who never learns from his and others’ mistakes. If you can’t be the second one, being the first is one is good enough. 

1. Invest in yourself.

It is impossible for you to help others if you don’t help yourself first. If you look at the current trend of the world today, it is all about expertise. If you are very good in what you do, you will be able to make or attract money. If you work for others, everyday is supposed to be the day for you to learn. Give yourself at least 10 years before you think of setting up your own business or be an expert in your company. An expert will always be well paid. If you do business after working for at least 10 years, you will know who to contact, what to prepare and how to run that business. On the other hand, force yourself to consider reading as a permanent habit as you must know about what is happening in the world today. If you love cooking, reading will help you to improve your recipes and cooking skills. If you love drawing, reading will help you to understand the current demand. If you love to fix cars, reading helps you to find new and economical ways to fix a car. If you love to sing, you will be able to find new ways to market yourself. If you love to teach, reading will help you to find new approaches or technology to improve your teaching skills. If you love to bake cakes and cookies, reading helps you to improve the ingredients of your creations. If you love science, reading helps you redefine your perspective. Last but not least, reading makes you a greater person in silence.

2. Avoid unnecessary debt.

Debt is inevitable but there are two types of debt. The first one is used to make money while the second causes us to lose money. If we keep losing money due to debt, we will fail in whatever we do because debt will take away our happiness and retard the growth of what we want to do or achieve in life. If you know that you are still learning about how to manage your self-discipline as long as money is concerned, stay away from credit cards and personal loans. Master your subject or passion first. Be the asset for your company or organization. Be patient. Learn as much as you can first about money because money is a bad master but the best worker. The banks can either build your income or take away every penny you have. You don’t have to have everything that your friends have because every person has a different family background. Even if you come from a rich family, if you don’t learn how to manage your money well, your family empire will be destroyed by your destructive spending habits. Debt is very dangerous because it will affect you mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Study the ones who fail to manage their money well. Look at the quality of their lives and ask yourself this question. Is that the life that I want to live for the rest of my life?

3. Be honest with yourself.

If you come from a poor family, don’t pretend as if you are rich by forcing your parents or yourself to wear branded items just to please the imperfect society. If you continue to pretend to be someones else just to please everyone (actually no one really cares), that pretentious character will become your habit. The worst part is, that habit is very expensive because you will continuously force yourself to be “perfect” in the eyes of the fake society. Even if you come from a rich family, wealth doesn’t last more than three generations if financial intelligence is absent. It is okay to wear the brands that you like but wear them when you are financially ready and if it makes you happy as your happiness must have nothing to do with others’ opinion or judgement.

4. Embrace your strengths and weaknesses.

No one is perfect. No matter how hard you try to be perfect, you will never be perfect. Even if you think that you have already achieved perfection, that definition of perfection is exclusively yours to define. It has nothing to do with anyone else because each of us define perfection in our own unique ways. However, it is not wrong to try very hard to achieve perfection as long as we don’t force others to accept our version of perfection. On the other hand, telling ourselves that we have achieved perfection could be dangerous because it may cause us to be trapped in the comfort zone which may cause us to stop improving ourselves. The weakness that we have might be a blessing in disguise. Trying to delete the weaknesses will cause us to be very stressed. We can always improve our weaknesses but we decide the amount of time that we need to improve the weaknesses because trying to improve them overnight will give us unnecessary nightmares.

5. Appreciate your gift and develop your talents and the hidden talents.

Everyone is blessed with a gift (a skill that you are born with), talents (interests) and hidden talents (skills that you thought you never had). Let me give you an example. When you are born, you love drawing. At school, your drawings have become everyone’s reference because your drawings are so perfect. Even your teachers have to admit that your drawings are better than their drawings. That is your gift. As you grow up, you will have interest in computer specifically in HTML. You are willing to spend money to learn more about HTML. As time goes by, you can call yourself a website developer. That is your talent. However, talent needs hard work while a gift doesn’t need hard work but appreciation. On the other hand, while you’re busy improving yourself as a website developer, you suddenly fall in love with nature. You begin to take pictures of nature. When you post your pictures online, some people would say that your pictures are as good as the pictures taken by the professional photographers. That is your hidden talent. You will always be able to find your hidden talents as long as you keep your minds and hearts open to possibilities and as long as you are willing to learn something new. If you combine your gift, talents and the hidden talents, can you imagine how powerful will you be? You will be a great man or woman as you have so many things that you can offer to this world and at the same time you will be able to develop your active and passive income as long as you offer the best quality in your services and products.

6. Learn about money.

Money and oxygen have shared the same status today because both determine the rate of our success today and tomorrow. Some people say that money cannot buy everything but no one is willing to transfer all of their money from their bank accounts into your account. Money becomes our enemy if we spend it blindly. On the other hand, money becomes our best companions when we learn to invest wisely. It is never too late to make peace with money because every day is a day to start all over again. You are very lucky today because information about how to invest your money is just a click away when internet was created.

7. Keep your good friends while making new friends.

Anything can happen in your life. Sometimes your best friends become your worst enemies today. Sometimes, your enemies become your good friends today. Sometimes stranger becomes your family. Whether we like it or not, that is life. Nevertheless, true friends will stay despite the changes that happen in the world every day. Good friends are important because no one can be strong forever. We need second opinions on our plans, predicaments or lamentations but we decide whether the second opinions are suitable or otherwise. I know we need God but I believe that God has assigned his angels to help us in the forms of friends and acquaintances.

8. Embrace changes

Whether we like or or not, changes will happen every day. The best book to help you to be prepared is the book entitled Who Moved My Cheese. Comfort zone is dangerous especially for those who are working in the private sectors. It is more challenging for those who are doing medium and small businesses as they have to think beyond ordinary as they have many types of commitments and deadlines that they have to meet. The changes can be good or bad. If it is bad, it depends on the quality of our emotional intelligence. In other words, how we respond to the changes will determine how well we adapt to the unexpected changes. That is why we need a support system in the forms of emergency plans, good friends, supportive spouse, supportive family member and our savings to help us face the changes. If we can maintain the best quality in us despite the changes, I believe we can consider ourselves as successful even though we might not do well in certain areas of our lives.

9. Believe in the presence of the god/creator/universe/mother nature

As we move into the world of technology, we can see that we have more free thinkers in this world especially when we manage to become the creators. Sometimes, the skepticism among the scientists is too much as science depends on physical evidence. Scientific investigation has limitations because no matter how perfect the technology is, we need at least 300 days to reach Mars. Even the nearest star system is 4.3 light years away (http://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time ). We get old in the blink of an eye in the first chapter of exploring the outer space. In other words, we have to acknowledge the presence of superpower that governs the whole system no matter how skeptical we are as everyone, when the time has come, we will have to say goodbye to everyone as we enter a new world after death. Science is important but it must not deny the existence of the unseen world because as time goes by, scientific investigations and creations might allow the lucky generations to see what we couldn’t see before.

….…Thank you for reading…….

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4 things that you should do to keep yourself happy

How to be happy

By Mani Jack, M.J.

1. Love yourself first

Can you sincerely love others if you hate yourself every time you look at yourself in the mirror? I believe that we should learn to sincerely love ourselves first before we learn to love others from the bottom of our heart. Bill Gates already shared his words of wisdom when he said “if you compare yourself to others, you are actually insulting yourself”. If your nose is not as sharp as the white, make sure that your mind is sharper than the white. If your skin is not as white as the white, make sure that that your heart is as white as the snow. If you are not as beautiful as Nicole Kidman, make sure that your body is as beautiful as Megan Fox. If you are not as handsome as Brad Pitt, make sure that your wallet is as fat as Warren Buffet. If you spend the rest of your life cursing God about your weaknesses, you will not be able to see the many parts of you which can be turned into your greatest strengths especially the gift and talents that you have. You can only be happy when you start to acknowledge every blessing that you have.

2. Expect less or little

Problems are parts of our lives. Whether we like it or not, problems will always be there. There are two types of problems; problems which meant to be there and the man-made problems. Last but not least, there are many types of problems such as financial problems, mental problems, emotional problems, spiritual problems and etc. These problems remain as problems if we focus too much on solving the problems in one day. Some problems cannot be solved in one day. Some take days, weeks, months and years depending on how we respond to the problems. If we have financial problems, sleeping, gambling and drinking alcoholic drinks will worsen our financial problems. It is better for us to revise our own spending habits instead of doing something else which could make things worse. If you have spiritual problems or in other words you have problems with your faith, talk to religious figures whom you trust. Every man must acknowledge that supreme power does exist in this world. If you have emotional problems, study the causes of those emotional problems. If you have problems with your anger, study the cause of your anger. Sometimes, the main cause of our anger is our failure to make peace with our past.

3. Choose what we read and watch carefully.

If you are emotionally sensitive, avoid reading Facebook postings which could trigger your negative emotions. Trying to change the world is a waste of time. Everything that is bad or good has been there ever since. In general, we tend to forget that our brain is just like our stomach. If what we eat determines our health status, what we read determines the health of our minds. Our brain or our mind is connected to our heart. If the mind always reads or sees something negative such as abuse, war, hunger, murder, abduction, rumours and etc. the heart will always be in fear. No matter what we do or say, the status quo of this world remains the same. It is neither heaven nor hell. If we can’t protect our mind, our heart will always feel the pain. I understand that we want to be updated with the latest current issues as we want to know about what is happening in the world today. However, the balance must always be there. We should spend more time reading and watching good things so that our minds and hearts can have a good rest and most importantly we will believe that good things and good people exist on earth.

4. Enjoy little things in our lives

Make a list of little things that you have in your life. Those little things could be your job, house, happy family, independent and helpful children, good friends, food on the table, understanding spouse, parents or grandparents who are still alive, extra money in the bank, good health, understanding boss, cooperative colleagues, helpful neighbours, talents, peace, less natural disasters and most importantly the chance to see the world for another day. Focusing our minds on these blessings will help our minds and hearts to stay happy because emotional support is just a click away.  

Our happiness is our responsibility but we have to decide who or what should live on that island of happiness. M.J.

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6 things you should do to be a great thinker

How to be a great thinker

 by Mani Jack, M.J. 

1. Be original

     It is okay to be inspired by somebody or some great individuals. However, this world is looking for originality such as Secret Recipe, Bugati, Lexus, Mcdonald, Chanel, Prada, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Pua Kumbu, Adidas, Nike and etc.  Fake item could be popular but the popularity is temporary. If you are inspired by a great writer, try to write your own essays, novels, stories and poems by using your own unique ways. If you are inspired by  a great singer, make efforts to be better than the original singer. Otherwise every time you sing that song, people will remember the original singer instead of thinking of you. If you are inspired by a business idea, come up with your own idea which is guided by the original idea. If you are an inventor, invent something different which can be turned into an intellectual property. Originality takes time but the your name will be remembered. Being original is painful but it supports healthy competition. If you are a car maker, it is okay to be inspire by Ferrari but you must come up with your own design which is better than Ferrari or at least brand that can give nightmares to the one who creates Ferrari. It is not wrong to be inspired by the previous great individuals but that inspiration must serve only as guidelines because your hard work will be paid well. 

2. Take reading as your permanent habit. 

    Your mind and your stomach may look different by the system remains the same. If your health depends on what you eat, the quality of your mind depends on the what you read. On the other hand, if you only read the subjects that you like or know, you will never be a great thinker. Try reading something that is alien to you. Read a subject that has nothing to do with your expertise. Go for something that has almost nothing to do with your academic qualification. In other words, challenge yourself to the maximum instead of challenging others. Reading something new will melt some frozen parts in your mind as you will be very knowledgeable. All in all, if you read rubbish, you will speak and write rubbish. 

3. Question and investigate 

    If you swallow a statement or a story or a news blindly, you cannot be a great thinker. If you want to be a great thinker, question what you see, hear and read. Investigate the story or the news. Find out more about the chronology of what you heard, saw and read. When you are done questioning and investigating, you will find the best conclusion and a fair judgement. Furthermore, you might eventually know the truth and it will prevent you from being practicing prejudice. In other words, try to be skeptical. Skepticism will drive you to go deeper into that subject. When you know more about that subject, can anyone bluff you? 

4. Look at things from different perspectives. 

    If you watch a movie, don't just watch the movie for the sake of finishing the popcorn. Every great movie director has a lot critical messages that he or she wants you to understand and reflect on. These beautiful messages will make you think and they could also make you wiser. On the other hand, if somebody says something which challenges your belief or your traditional thinking method, which could be a beautiful quote or a sarcastic statement, don't be too quick to be offended. Take a deep breath and try to decipher the message of that statement. Perhaps it is never meant to hurt you but to make you think deeper. 

5. Try to love literature. 

    Literature is the garden of flowers of English language. However, the thorns are everywhere. You have to really think critically to understand every piece of the literary device. It will squeeze you dry mentally but gradually literature will make your mind sharp. Start with simple poems or short stories. After t\reading them, write your own reflections or conclusions and read more about the selected poems and short stories for comparison. 

6. Don't avoid thinking. 

    Some hate thinking because it is tiring. Based on my experiences, it is indeed very tiring but as time goes by, your mind will get used to thinking. Some avoid thinking because they are governed by the problems. If you could make enough efforts to study the cause, you will understand the effects clearly. Consequently, when you have acknowledged the cause and effect of your problem, you will start thinking of the solutions. Thinking of these solutions is very important because it can reduce your worries and fear because you have laid out a few solutions which could help you to think further on how the solutions should be carried out in the most effective manner.

If this world is out of great thinkers, creativity will die young. M.J. 

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4 basic qualities that a great leader must have

How to be a GREAT leader

By Mani Jack, M.J.

1. Lead yourself first.

If you study great leaders such as Sir Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad and etc., they basically share the same characters. The most common one is they lead themselves first. They lead by example. If you want to have great followers who could turn out to be great leaders, you must CORRECT yourself first. The qualities that you must basically have are integrity, wisdom, vision and the appreciation of time. In addition to that, you must continuously educate yourself and the most powerful way to achieve that is through reading. A great leader will always challenge himself instead of challenging others. A great leader will always read new subjects which are alien to him because a great leader must be very knowledgeable. When a leader is knowledgeable, he will know exactly what needs to be done for his country because he has the sufficient knowledge about a particular government department or agencies. 

2. Listen

Everybody can talk but only a few can listen. A great leader is the one who is humble enough to believe that he doesn’t know everything which causes him to listen carefully to criticism and suggestions. Listening is very important because if a leader gives a public statement without consulting the right ones, everything that he says will backfire. A public statement which is stated without a careful study will eventually destroy a particular ministry because the intelligent ones in the ministry will be having hard times accepting the wrong directives from a minister. In addition to that, the citizens will also be negatively affected by this wrong directive. 

3. Principles

A leader who doesn’t have principles will be remembered as a political clown for the rest of his life. A great leader must fight for what he believes in as long as that belief is harmless and benefits his people. For example, if a leader believes that moderation is the key towards political stability in his country, he must do everything to make sure that moderation is being practised in his country. If he believes in the importance of human rights, he will translate his words into actions by making sure that every human in his country is well protected by laws. 

4. Experience the complaints or problems in order to know the truth

A weak and lazy leader depends on rumours and his secretary’s beautiful reports. A great leader will not allow himself to be entertained nor fooled by those beautiful reports. A great leader will go to the ground to experience the sufferings of his people. He himself will see those problems for himself so that he can come up with the best solutions to solve the problems. A great leader will have a strong political will to table the issues in the parliament to get each member of the parliament to discuss the issues together in order to serve the people better .

“A great leader is the one who decides to be the change.” M.J.

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10 powerful motivational quotes for teachers

1. If parents and students give up, we still have hope but if teachers give up, all will become hopeless.

2. Students know if you speak nonsense. You must understand what you teach before you teach your students.

3. Don't try to be too perfect because your students want your sense of humanity more than  your expertise.

4. Take risk because teachers are the agents of changes.

5. Don't be too concerned with what other people say because you know about your students more than outsiders.

6. Appreciate your students no matter how small his or her progress is because appreciation is the seed of success.

7. Your success as a teacher will never come early. It will come to you at least 5 years after the students have left you. Therefore,give your best because students achieve maturity later not overnight.

8. If you really want to be a teacher, you must have many hobbies to reduce your stress because the pressure at school is indescribable.

9. As a teacher, you will either look younger than your real age or older than your real age as everything depends on how good you are at managing your stress.

10. As a teacher, you will either be empowered by pressure or destroyed by pressure.

11. Teaching is a heavenly calling. Only the chosen ones will be the teacher because there is something that a teacher has that other professions do not have as their hearts are bigger than their heads.

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8 Powerful and inspirational quotes about faith

1. If you fail in every effort you made, perhaps it is time to let God hold your hands.

2. Your instinct does not have eyes but it can see clearly if you allow it to speak.

3. Not all questions have answers because we have to make efforts to climb the mountain.

4. Whether we believe in God or not, the law of nature will always be relevant as what we get depends on the types of seed we wish to plant.

5. If we are created in the image of God, the laws on earth should not be too different from the laws in heaven.

6. Faith is built through continuous prayers and gratitude.

7. If we challenge God due to our poor faith, be prepared for the price that we have to pay.

8. Perhaps, challenges in life are meant to remind us to repair our relationship with God.

Quotes about gratitude

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10 powerful and educational quotes about leadership

1. If you give a speech about a theory, be prepared for a sleeping audience but if you combine the theory with experiences especially personal experiences, the audience will learn a lot as they have a reason to stay awake.

 2. How people respond to your public statement will always surprise you because many love to judge without reading and many love to speak without thinking. Therefore, think carefully before you make a public statement.

 3. You cannot lead anyone until you learn to lead yourself because if you lead yourself first, every speech you make will become seeds of good governance.

 4. When you sit on that very important chair, many bees will come to meet you. If you have weak self-discipline and fake principles, you will forget everything that you wanted to do for the people.

 5. You might lose a lot of things when you admit your mistake but you will gain a greater reward in the form of trust because denying the mistake will cause you and the people to lose everything.

 6. Educate yourself first before you talk about a very important subject because a knowledgeable society is the result of the existence of internet which causes general knowledge to be one click away.

 7. If a great mind with a grateful heart is appointed as leaders of the country, we don’t have to waste our precious time watching political dramas done by incompetent leaders.

 8. When you are appointed as a leader of a very important organization, ministry or departments, the first two things that you must do is to get everything you have to know about the current problems in that particular organization and choose the right team to work on practical solutions to avoid public scrutiny.

 9. If a smoker is addicted to cigarettes, a drunkard is addicted to alcoholic drinks, a fault finder is addicted to finding mistakes, that means a politician is addicted to red carpets, cameras, attention and power.

 10.                     A great leader learns from other great leaders from great countries while a weak leader destroys the education system to keep him in power forever.

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11 educational quotes about politics and political intelligence

1.       If there are no permanent enemies in politics, government of the day should always be replaced in every election to keep them working for the voters they lied to.

 2.       Politics is full of lies and truth because its interpretation depends on the quality of education system in that country.

 3.       Political candidates will always say what you want to hear during the election but their true colours will only be shown to you when they sit on that chair.

 4.       Get to know more about the essence of a political candidate before you give your PRECIOUS vote because his political manifesto is just a river of golden saliva.

 5.       It is easy to become rich through politics in a corrupted country because black market is treated as a holy market.

 6.       It is not easy to become a politician in a country in which good education is the foundation because politicians have very little room to speak nonsense.

 7.       Political intelligence is defined as the ability to read the lies in every holy word presented by a politician.

 8.       Politicians can always fool the voters by declaring their assets but if you make your own simple mathematical calculation, you will see illogical equation.

 9.       Politics is about the power to govern. Choosing the right political parties to run the country is as important as choosing your future husband or wife because that decision will affect you in every aspect for the rest of your life.

 10.    Good politics focus on education, economy and peace while bad politics play with petty dramas, provocative statements, excuse and distractions.

 11.    The common way to drive a country’s economy is by creating a legal addiction such as cigarettes, gambling, fast food, alcoholic drinks, Panadol, pain killer, vape, chocolates and etc. but the government will never admit that they are a part of it if something goes wrong.

These inspirational and educational quotes about politics and political intelligence are originally written by me. If you wish to copy, don’t forget to give credit because a great country is a country that is driven by integrity and originality.

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