• Winter Fair, where 400+ people showed up. I was in charge of pasta. Made two sauces, and they tasted good. I got to use the full size kitchen at the school. Everything was so much hotter! I felt useful. The school is coming alone, albeit all the challenges, albeit the humongous loan.
• Their performances were lovely. Not great, but lovely. Seeing them struggling through the songs and poems was the best show on earth.

• The most rewarding experience from the fair was Jing’s ensemble with her friends Jenna and Ceres. A week ago they sounded terrible. We practiced almost every day. They came and slept over and practiced. In the end, they didn’t sound great, but at leas they were able to finish the piece!

• We celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday. Yes. Everybody is still around.
• Met up with Andy. He was the first person I know from HK that went to Tony Robbins’ courses. It was refreshing to get to know his story, his struggles, and just him. He reached out just because of something I wrote. He acted out of serendipity. I admired that, and it was a fantastic reminder.
• Play practice breakthrough – I was able to get pass regurgitating the lines and started to act. It was a refreshing experience. Zoran has been disrupting the course of my life, and I gladly accept that.
• I had a few good conversations. With K, J, G, and even E. I tried to point to the greatness of K, that he was an amazing creator, and was driven to grow. Same for J, who has been committed to grow and change. My relationship with G has improved. We laughed with each other’s lame jokes. But he’s very thoughtful. I wish I could reason things out like him. And then E. He knew everything I knew. He was tackling things I had never dealt with. But I think I was able to make myself useful to him. He is an amazing human being. I admire him. He cares. As Zoran said, you don’t have to be great, be good, but at the minimum, you must care.
• I had a talk at HKU. I am very grateful that Kevin thought I could be useful to the students. I enjoyed the chat because I noticed how rusty I was. My awareness seemed to have improved so I felt I was a lot more objective in observing myself. This wasn’t a skill I had. It was refreshing to also see how driven, well equipped, positive, those students were, especially those from China. I feel sad that folks in HK are really falling behind, and are complacent.

• I had to pitch to a company for a leadership training program. That company was very discipline in building their young company. I was amazing to see a group of people trying to bring the teachings of Dalio (and the book scaling up). We had to show my deck on a PC, and it looked terrible. I was ok with that, which in hindsight was unacceptable. I will never let that happen again. I will either turn it into a PDF, or create a PowerPoint friendly version, or make my keynote more “device agnostic.”

• Lastly, we had the Advent Spiral for the Kindergarten. It was Chai’s first time, and he refused to walk it. Sharon had to carry him, and it was a beautiful scene. Sharon violated her own rules (again!) and wore dress-like pants. It put out a few candles and thank goodness she didn’t set everything ablaze.
• Personally, I enjoyed being able to play the background music. The process was boring, but the fact that I was able to add something to the ceremony felt good. I am very grateful I have this skill.

These skills.

Perhaps that’s what I am most grateful for. I had opportunities to be useful. I got to cook some pasta, practice with the girls, make some keynotes, present a little, make some music, talk to people.

I don’t feel like I am bragging, even though I keep wondering if this post is a humble brag. But then, even if it is, fine. Because I feel very grateful. I am very lucky. I must have done something right. Sniff.

1. I did not become aware during the presentation. This has been a goal of mine – to be more aware throughout my day. I failed at this.
2. As I was unaware most of the time, I rushed through it.
3. I looked to the left a lot more than to the right.
4. There were a few times where I was stuck and could not find the words. Rusty.
5. I did not slow down during the opening and at the end.
6. I was self-conscious during the end and didn’t pay attention to that, and address it.

All in all, I was not mindful. Next time I will add a small sign on my slides to remind myself to pay attention to what’s happening- to become the 3rd person of my presentation.

I also need to work on how I could use discomfort / unease / awkwardness as triggers to awareness.

I also wish I wrote down the questions and the names. I thought about doing so but I let the idea slip away in my mind.

This one is different. I will be talking to MBA students and recent grads. I will be sharing my experience from Nike and Apple.

My tendencies are too many ideas, too many jokes.

I have 3 ideas: Read Mind, Flex the Org, Do good and hard work.

What do I want the group to walk away with?

People?

Or maybe it’s this idea behind practical leadership and the importance of building leadership habits?

Olympian’s Secret 

Michael Phelps was going for the 10th gold medal of his career in the 200-meter butterfly race during the Olympics in Beijing. As soon as he dove in, his goggles started filling with water. 

“I dove in and they filled up with water, and it got worse and worse during the race,” Phelps told reporters. “From the 150-meter wall to the finish, I couldn’t see the wall. I was just hoping I was winning.”

He continued on. He looked comfortable as he swung his arms in perfect motion. With a few meters to go he made one last stroke and then stretched out for the wall at the perfect distance, not being able to see if it was even there. When he looked up at the clock he had not only won the gold medal, but broken the world record.

How did he do it?

Visualization practices. 

Visualization is basically day dreaming, that means we are all born to do this! The challenge we have with day dreaming is its haphazardness. The solution is to systematically and deliberately visualise all sorts of scenarios and your actions in these circumstances. Science showed that you could mentally prepare yourself better by practicing visualisation diligently. 

The Inner Game:

Olymian Apolo Ohna, a legendary eight-time short track speed skating medalist in the Winter Olympics, learned how to skate by “watching and mimicking and copying what I saw, and then applying that in a way that I felt like was natural to my body.”

Babies learn the same way. They intuitively learn how to stand by watching and mimicking, and not by listening to adults’ instructions. Yet, we’ve lost most of the intuitive learning skills because our education systems have taught us out of it. The good news is, this hidden talent, is still within us. 

Combining the two:

1. Feed yourself with high quality presentations. Watch and feel them repeatedly. Michelle Obama, Jack Ma, Ken Robinson, Soong May-ling …
2. Mimic them repeatedly. Mimic a variety of styles and occasions. Don’t be shy now. It’s ok to mimic. We all do that, right?
3. Visualise your next presentations. Plug yourself into different simulations:You are on fire and everyone is laughing at all your jokes. Your PowerPoint fails. Your clicker fails. Audio fails. Obnoxious boss asking you to “go back one slide” repeatedly. You forget to wear your pants. Visualize your actions and reactions, your feelings, your self talks, the color of your shoe laces. Visualise how you go through them. 

Then, begin again.

Bottom line:

This is a method used by many. If you were to give these practices a go, remember to trust the process, and experience what it does to you.