1. First thing in the morning, be grateful.

When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you think about? Does your mind instantly turn toward the worries and concerns of the day? Do you think about all the things you have to do and start planning even before you get out of bed?

How you start your day is probably the most important indicator of how you’ll spend your day. Start your day in negativity, and that’s probably how you’ll spend the day. Instead, make a conscious effort to spend five minutes every single morning, thinking about what you’re grateful for.

I spend at least five to ten minutes every morning counting my blessings. There was a time when I spent that time thinking about bills that needed to be paid, thinking about stuff I had to accomplish, thinking about a problem client, or any number of other things that bothered me. Then one day, as I laid in bed thinking about all these negative things, I thought, “I guess it could be worse.” And suddenly it hit me how blessed I am. I have a roof over my head, food in my fridge, friends and family that love me, and honestly no matter what happens, there’s someone out there who has it worse than me. So ever since that day, I’ve started out by considering my blessings, and believe me, the list of blessings for most people is quite a bit longer than you may realize when you first start doing this. But once you get going, it’s hard to stop.

The thing about starting your day this way is that it’s hard to see any problem as insurmountable or totally disastrous when you’ve gone through all the ways in which you’re blessed.

2. Live in faith.

Whether you follow a particular religion or spiritual path, you can live in faith. What this means to me may be very different than what it means to you. The point is to get in touch with the spiritual side of yourself that you may have allowed to lie dormant, and tap into that power.

I know a lot of people aren’t into faith as a business strategy. It’s one of the more esoteric points that I’ll make, so follow my logic: If you tap into a part of yourself that you may have allowed to remain dormant, you become a more complete, whole person. This allows you to become more productive and enthusiastic about life, your work, and everything else. Thus, your business (in addition to everything else in your life) will be positively affected. And, in my experience it’s never bad to have God/Spirit/The Universe/Insert-Your-Preferred-Entity-Here in your corner!

3. Associate with successful people.

I’ve heard it said that you’re the average of all the people you associate with. So if you spend all your time with lazy people with no ambition, you’re going to find it a lot harder to be ambitious and hard-working. Spend your time with powerful people who strive to succeed, and you’ll find it hard to lay around doing nothing all day.

Does this mean you should get rid of your less successful friends? Absolutely not. But you should start getting to know people who are where you want to be, and raise the average of the people you hang around with!

4. Celebrate your successes.

I like to overlap my projects. Before I finish one, I’m already planning the next. That way, I never have post-project blues. However, I do take some time out to celebrate my successes, and you should, too. Don’t let a win go by without notice!

5. Adopt a mindset of follow-through.

All too frequently these days, folks are focused on The Secret and the Law of Attraction. Ever since The Secret came out, people think they don’t have to do anything but wish their desires into reality. Sorry, people, that’s not how it works. Even if you believe in the Law of Attraction, you have to follow through! Ever hear “God helps those who help themselves?” Well, so does the Universe. So you’ve absolutely got to take steps to help yourselves. Adopting a mindset of following through on your dreams and desires is vitally important to your success! No more thinking, now is the time for action!

Implement these 5 mindset-shifting strategies and watch your business start working more optimally and profitably. Your mindset can make all the difference!

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Future: A role model. Pick one who has achieved something significant in life and learn how the person has gone about reaching those heights as well as understanding the traits and personalities of that particular person. Mine is Sir Richard Branson. He started off selling his own scrubby newsletter via a public telephone box in England and currently owns a multi-billion pound conglomerate selling records, sponsoring an F1 car and flying people to space. He, like everyone else dreams about crazy ideas and goals, but unlike any ordinary person, he, on occasions forgo the need of financial modelling or getting leverage from his bankers and just work towards getting things done. He’s has travelled around the world in a hot air balloon several times. He launched Virgin Airlines to provide for the lucrative London-NYC route when BA was dominating the market. He is taking holidaymakers to space in his Virgin Galactica. I can go on explaining a further 300 examples! (Virgin Group has about 400 businesses). So yes, pick a person, read his/her autobiographies, understand the measures he/she took to achieve the tremendous amount of success and selectively choose learning points to adopt in your own pursuit.

Present: And the need of a Mentor?

Future: Nothing is better explained and expressed than in person. And that a mentor provides the social element in the form of interactivity. A mentor is a person for you to look up to as well as asking progressive questions you may have for a challenging situation in life. A business mentor may coach you whilst you set up your business. A life mentor would talk about perhaps balancing life-style priorities. A romance mentor (and everyone has these) could give you a different perspective on that current relationship that you have. And so on.

Present: Her name is Clare by the way.

Future: Ultimately, having these people as benchmarks will give you two advantages – education and carrot & stick. Be humble and learn from them, absorb positive elements and understand the negative ones and learn to avoid them in future. Have that competitive spirit, dare to aim high and attempt to better what they have achieved – so Sir Richard has a net worth of a couple of billion quid and possesses 400+ businesses? Say you’ll do better and work on it. After all, you already have the advantage of owning your own mobile phone.

Future: I have not tried the patches, gums, psychologists, yoga, etc but what I can offer you is my advice!

In line with the Lifestyle Recalibration, this is a good opportunity for you to STOP, once and for all! Here are Marc Woo’s 5 ways to stop smoking!

1. Move to Singapore - If the price and convenience won’t deter you, I’m pretty sure being seen as a social outcast will! Imo, smoking in Singapore is like taking coke in the UK. Not cool!
2. Run Marathons - With this goal at hand, you will be disciplined and learn to maintain focus. Unfortunately this also applies to sweating out everyday at the gym/runs and compromising on food!
3. Sperm Count Meter – Adopt paternal inclinations, develop strong desires to have kids and embed paranoia that every puff you take will literally kill off millions of your little offsprings. Like watching someone get kicked in forbidden territory, you’d somehow mentally share the pain!
4. Fancy “that sort” of Woman - I know it’s easier said than done, but I had experienced being in long term relationships with women (gals) who are totally against the idea of their man smoking. These sort of women will get so upset that you wont have any sort of comfort until you promise them (and deliver) the world. They go absolutely mental if they catch a whiff of tobacco from you and they will inflict pain so great that it’s probably worthwhile to quit smoking. And no amount of perfume, mint or medicated oil will hide the smell. Tried and tested!
5. Mind over Matter – Finally, it’s just being mentally strong. Grow a pair, take the dive and say eff off to ever smoking again. And stick to it!

Good luck!

“Try to learn from the past” shows an attempt to learn from historical successes and failures. Additionally, the fact that he only tries, instead of being headstrong definite shows a certain amount of confidence (or to an extent, arrogance) in his approach of the road ahead – ie, shrugging off what has been done and move forward.

“Planning for the future by focusing exclusively on the present” can be interpreted in many ways. I’d like to stipulate that you should have Strategy, Foundation and Tactics. Think of it as long-, medium- and short-term planning – Set a 5 year plan, break it down to yearly goals, and further dissect the years to more granular bi-monthly targets.

You will wake up to a sense of purpose and direction on a daily basis. You will be pumped up to get out of that bed and put on the “game face”. And you will exude positivity and optimism, which are essential elements of a successful person. However, do not be worried about achieving that particular goal in 5 years, take it one step at a time. If you set your sights on the stars, you’ll likely, at the very least, land on the moon.

Present: What a wall of text after weeks of inactivity, but I’m listening!

Future: Attached is a plan I did yonks ago for your viewing pleasure!

Drafted in Aug 2009 with 1 pager text of granular yearly plans to complement (but not included here). However, mind you plans do change! For the current 5 year plan, visit my LinkedIn profile: http://sg.linkedin.com/in/marcwoo

PS: I was washed up with tremendous amount of work recently and almost neglected the nurture of this blog. I admit that the comment in the previous post ignited me to revisit what I set out to do in the first place. Thanks.

Future: On the topic of getting out  of the comfort zone, assess habits, behaviours, interests and hobbies and make necessary upgrades where possible. Stop shaking your legs, start a daily ritual of exercising, drink less, pick up a dance or learn photography. Generally move towards a richer and fulfilling lifestyle, one with purpose. Wake up every morning with a plan in mind – more on this later!

Present: Easier said than done.

Future: Seize the fact that you have switched career and geographical habitat to enlist your new lifestyle. It’s the easiest and perhaps the most logical way – the new environment will probably induce the change seamlessly.

Present: Hence this blog?

Future: =D

Present: That’s what I did. Giving up my job in London, which paid almost double in absolute terms, and moving to Singapore to pursue change and explore opportunities.

Future: Don’t stop there. Keep pushing to the limit on a daily basis. Outline what needs to be done. Take calculated risks and get out of the comfort zone to achieve the ultimate goal!

The imaginary future Marc Woo: Top-of-the-food-chain-successful-ish. Happy with a big fat family!

So here it goes, the epic conversations between the present and the future. Conversations that will involve key advice, motivational talk, nags, quotes and so forth. The past will weave in from time to time. Excerpts that will be posted here will be more for my purpose. Feel free to read, absorb and post comments. However, park the derisory thoughts in your little wicked mind.