* Pendidikan Seumur Hidup: July 2010

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Overcoming a Loss of Motivation

How many times have you started a new activity (such as a personal project or exercise routine) with a burst of enthusiasm, only to see that initial momentum evaporate? This often leads to depression and causes us to give up prematurely. I’ve experienced this letdown dozens of times myself. But fortunately, with a bit of thought and reflection you can turn this negative emotion around.


The key to harnessing your emotions is understanding them. The natural pattern of human emotion is peaks and valleys. When we start a new project we’re filled with tremendous optimism. All we can think about is the expected benefits, and since we haven’t started yet, we aren’t aware of the difficulties involved. This natural high causes a surge of mental and physical activity. The peak is a great thing because the energy boost gets projects off the ground. If you’re a creative type like me, you know that this period is euphoric. You feel like nothing can stop you.

The downside of this surge of energy is that it inevitably ends. Exerting large amounts of energy wears you down, and after the initial optimism wears off we feel extremely tired. However high you started off, you fall down just as low. This causes a loss of confidence. The combination of fatigue, scant results, and an awareness of impending adversity makes us want to give up. From personal experience I’ve learned a few ways to hold strong against negativity.

Be Prepared for a Letdown

Emotions, by nature, lose their power when we understand them. Prove this to yourself. Next time you get angry, take a moment to reflect on the reason behind the emotion. When I step back and reflect, it’s easy to see that my anger is caused by insecurity/selfishness/jealousy etc. After I understand the cause my anger fades away.

The same technique applies to a loss of motivation. Instead of giving into negativity, step back and analyze. Look at the causes. Are you tired, burned out, disappointed by the results? Are these feelings justified, or are they a by product of a low point in the emotional spectrum?

To illustrate these ideas, I’ll use my most recent project as an example, the creation of this site. When I launched Pick the Brain it took an enormous amount of effort. I was completely new to blogging, web design, and traffic building so there was a steep learning curve. Writing new posts, setting up the site, and trying to build traffic took up nearly all my free time. After about three weeks I was completely burned out. I got depressed and started to question if the site was worth the effort. I wasn’t seeing any returns and I started to find enormous faults in my writing and the purpose of the site. There were moments when I was resigned to failure.

One reason I was able to overcome this loss of motivation is that I prepared myself for a letdown. Beforehand, I researched blogging and learned that it generally takes 9-12 months before a site begins to see significant traffic. Knowing that my lack of success was perfectly normal helped me get over it. The same is true for other endeavors. If you know losing 20 pounds in a month is unrealistic, you’ll be able to accept losing only 5 more easily.

I also knew my own emotions and was prepared for the initial emotional peak to pass. When I was first inspired to launch a website, my expectations were through the roof. Dreams of AdSense revenue danced in my head and I pictured throngs of loyal readers as if they already existed. But because I understand my emotional pattern, I realized this optimism would give way to depression. In the back of my mind, I foresaw the impending motivational battle, and when it came I was ready.

Reevaluate Your Strategy and Motivation

The passing of the emotional peak is a blessing in disguise because it allows us to reevaluate our plans from a fresh perspective. At first we are blinded by our own optimism. When we lose our motivation we can see gaping holes our in plan. We can either get down on ourselves and give up, or we can use this negative emotion to discover our faults and correct them. After I pulled myself out of the motivational cellar, I went back to all the negatives thoughts I’d had and applied them to improving the site. Having a pessimistic attitude opened my eyes. It made me realistic about my abilities and expectations. Emotional valleys bring us back to reality. Without them we’d be raving lunatics with unlimited self-confidence.

Use a loss of motivation as an opportunity to reconsider what your motivation really is. One reason I lost motivation is that I became too concerned with the financial aspect of blogging and lost sight of the real reason I started: sharing my passion for self improvement and the pursuit of happiness. When I realigned my motivation with my passion, the lack of results didn’t matter. My motivation returned because I realized connecting with people through my writing is an end in itself. Even if this site never makes I dime, sharing my ideas and experiences to help other people is worth the effort.

In truth, sometimes giving up is the right decision. If you started doing something for the wrong reasons you’ll likely lose your motivation. This is a good thing. It allows us to see what really motivates us. In these cases, the best choice is to move on to a new endeavor. Don’t fight self doubt, use it for your benefit.

Conclusion

Dealing with emotional highs and lows is an experience common to all people. We generally accept our emotions as beyond our control. They are powerful and mysterious and appear quite irrational. But if we contemplate our emotions, if we explore the inner workings of our minds, we find that like all things, emotions obey the law of cause and effect. Armed with this knowledge, we can continue to allow our emotions to dominate our lives, or we can use them to our benefit.

Don’t be surprised by a loss of motivation and don’t be disappointed by it. Understand it as natural effect of the human mind, and utilize this knowledge of self to make your emotions work for you.

PickTheBrain

Friday, July 9, 2010

How To Break Any Bad Habit

Why do people have bad habits?

Do you know that some people smoke only to control anxiety?


The automatic movement that the person does while smoking makes the person believe that he is in control of his environment and that’s why most smokers smoke when they feel anxious. It is in fact, one of the main reasons people start to smoke in the first place!

Do you know that some shopping addicts only buy things to improve their moods and not because they really want any thing they are buying? Those people go for quick fixes such as shopping to improve their bad moods or ease their stress. Ironically, these quick fixes actually worsen their moods and increase their stress (when they realize how much they’ve spent) when the high has faded.

Do you know that most drug addicts only use drugs to escape from their unsolved problems? Had those people learned, or had the chance to learn how to be brave or strong enough they might have never became drug addicts to begin with.

As you can see many of our bad habits are just a way to hide our vulnerabilities and mask our weaknesses.

The only way to break the bad habit in such a case is by learning how to deal with our weaknesses instead of focusing on building self discipline. Of course self discipline will help but without dealing with the root causes you will never manage to break your bad habits.


Why health warnings don’t work?

Lots of countries put pictures of diseased people on cigarette packs and while the pictures look really horrible they seem not to have any effect on some smokers.


Why is that?

Simply because each one of us has got his own unique values and belief system, a health warning would only affect a person who values health greatly. That’s why such warnings scare some people and have no effect on others.


Now go to a woman who is concerned about her looks and tell her that smoking can lead to severe acne and see her response. Most probably you will find the woman much more motivated to quit smoking than before.

In short, in order to quit a habit you need to know how badly it affects your core values.

Welcome to the real world

Usually after giving up a certain habit some people say that their lives have become boring. For example “after I stopped drinking my life became boring and uninteresting”

Usually I reply telling those people, Welcome to your real world!!

You have been escaping from reality for years and for the first time in your life you are now experiencing your true reality.

Instead of escaping to the bad habit you must work on fixing your bad world because after all it’s the main reason you are escaping to a bad habit! This is very scary to do. It takes a brave person. But the results are profound and life long if you can tough it out.

Behind every bad habit is a good intention

Our minds are intelligent enough not to ruin our lives without a strong reason.

Usually there is a very good intention behind every habit.

A computer addict might have became so because his life would have been really boring if he didn’t spend all that time in front of the computer.

In that case that guy should work on making his life interesting without a computer so that he doesn’t need to spend lots of hours in front of it. By providing a good habit that would satisfy the same need that the bad habit was trying to satisfy that person would easily be able to get over his bad habit.

in short, breaking bad habits is all about getting a deeper insight of the habit and the need its trying to satisfy.

M.Farouk Radwan is the founder of http://www.2knowmyself.com, the ultimate source for self understanding!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Simpan Sel Stem

Teknologi dalam bidang perubatan sentiasa berkembang. Para saintis dan doktor terus memikirkan cara yang terbaik dan selamat untuk membantu pesakit.


Menerusi mekanisme perubatan dan teknologi terkini, dibantu pula penggunaan peralatan dan mesin ia membolehkan pelbagai kaedah baru ditemui untuk rawatan pelbagai penyakit.

Kaedah penyimpanan stem sel misalnya banyak membantu pesakit. Kini individu boleh menyimpan 'darah' yang mengandungi sel-sel mereka sendiri untuk kegunaan pada masa depan menerusi sistem 'perbankan' yang ditawarkan.

Pastinya ramai di kalangan kita pernah mendengar mengenai kejayaan perubatan dan faedah yang didapati menerusi penyimpanan sel stem menerusi bank darah tali pusat yang diambil ketika bayi dilahirkan.

Darah daripada tali pusat itu akan disimpan untuk jangka masa panjang bagi kegunaan bayi tersebut pada masa depan sekiranya diperlukan.

Sekarang, bagi mereka yang telah terlepas peluang untuk menyimpan sel stem sendiri (yang hanya boleh dilakukan ketika proses kelahiran dahulu) kini boleh melakukannya menerusi proses yang serupa.

Ketua Pegawai Perubatan StemLife Berhad, Profesor Aw Tar Choon berkata, StemLife kini menawarkan bank untuk simpanan sel stem bagi mereka yang dewasa.

Sel stem itu boleh digunakan semula sekiranya keadaan memerlukan pada masa depan.

Peripheral Blood Stem Cells (PBSC) atau sel stem darah periferal yang diambil merupakan darah sel stem dewasa.

''PBSC diperoleh daripada periferal darah anda dan telah menunjukkan potensi berkesan membantu keadaan darah anda yang rosak, kecederaan akibat bersukan, kecederaan trauma dan luka kronik.

''Proses pengumpulan sel stem dilakukan ke atas pesakit dengan memastikan tiada sebarang kerosakan sel berlaku ketika proses simpanan darah itu dilakukan bagi kegunaan jangka panjang,'' katanya.

Prosedur itu juga tambahnya, akan memastikan pengumpulan sel stem dalam jumlah yang banyak sekali proses itu dilakukan.

Suntikan G-CSF (faktor untuk merangsang sel stem) akan dilakukan untuk merangsang sel dalam tulang sum-sum anda bagi mereplikakan dan menambahkan jumlah sel.

Sel stem itu akan memasuki pembuluh darah anda di mana ia akan mudah dikumpulkan.

''Ketika prosedur pengambilan darah sel stem dilakukan, anda akan diminta duduk dengan selesa dan sel stem anda akan dikumpulkan dalam tempoh empat hingga lima jam.

''Darah ini akan dikeluarkan dari lengan anda, berputar dalam mesin apheresis (untuk sel stem diekstrakkan). Darah yang tinggal akan dikembalikan semula ke dalam tubuh pesakit di bahagian lengan yang sebelah lagi.

''Ia merupakan satu proses yang mudah dan tidak menyakitkan,'' jelasnya.

Sel stem itu kemudiannya akan dipindahkan ke makmal untuk proses selanjutnya termasuk pengiraan jumlah sel.

Ia kemudiannya akan disediakan sama ada untuk kegunaan individu itu secara serta-merta atau disimpan untuk kegunaan bagi tempoh yang telah ditetapkan.

''Sel stem anda akan disimpan dalam tangki simpanan cryogenic dengan suhu di paras negatif 196 darjah celcius,'' katanya.

Tambahnya, StemLife Berhad sendiri telah mempunyai peralatan terkini dalam penyimpanan sel stem anda.

Jelasnya, ia juga merupakan yang pertama menawarkan bank simpanan untuk sel stem bagi mereka yang dewasa dan perkhidmatan rawatan terapeutik di seluruh Asia Tenggara.

''Kaedah penyejukbekuan ini memastikan sel stem anda kekal dengan kualiti dan kuantiti yang sama ketika ia diekstrakkan. Jika ia diperlukan, sel ini akan dikeluarkan untuk kegunaan anda pada saat ia diperlukan,'' katanya.

utusan

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Rahsia Tulisan

Oleh Dato’ Dr Hj Mohd Fadzilah Kamsah

Pertama: Tekanan

i. Tekanan yang kuat Seseorang yang menulis dengan kuat tekanannya sehingga berbekas di bahagian belakang kertas.· Sihat, cergas, pantas dan sedikit agresif

ii. Tekanan yang ringanSeseorang yang menulis dengan lembut dan ringan dan tidak berbekas.· Kurang bertenaga, kurang sihat dan mudah sakit.

Kedua : Bentuk Tulisan

i. Tulisan yang bulat-bulatSemua huruf ditulis dengan bulat. · Emosional, prihatin, pengasih penyayang, kepekaan tinggi dan banyak memakai otak di sebelah kanan (otak kreatif)

ii. Tulisan yang tajam-tajam atau leper-leperTulisan yang angular dan sharp· Rasional, berkerja dgn sistematik, pandai mengurus dan banyak memakai otak di sebelah kiri (otak logical)

Ketiga : Kecondongan

i. Condong ke kanan· Extrovert, suka bercerita, berkongsi maklumat dgn orang lain, peramah, suka campur orang, mudah memimpin, mudah menunjukkan kasihsayang, berani, pemurah

ii. Condong ke kiri· Introvert, suka menyimpan rahsia, agak pemalu, tak suka berubah, amat setia kepada kekasih, keluarga, organisasi dan negara tetapi tak sukacampur orang

iii. Tegak· Systematic, mudah kawal diri, suka berkawan tetapi tak cari kawan sebaliknya kawan cari dia, tak suka gaduh-gaduh, suka ambil jalantengah

iv. Campur-campur· Emosi tak tetap macam remaja yang belum cukup umur atau macam orang perempuan datang bulan (maaf)

Keempat : Kerapatan

i. Jarang-jarang· Tak suka campur orang, kurang mesra dan sedikit boros.

ii. Rapat-rapat· Suka campur orang, amat bergantung kepada orang lain, jimat atau kedekut

Kelima : Pada huruf J, G, Y, Z

i. Ada ekora) Besar, panjang dan sempurna· Tahap emosi yang dipamer itu jelas, pengasih & penyayang, pemurah, mudah kesian pada orang, mempamerkan tahap kerajinan

b) Kecil, pendek dan tak sempurna· Tak pandai mempamerkan emosi, kurang rajin, tak pandai mempamerkan kasih sayang walaupun sayang itu banyak dalam diri

Keenam : Pada palang huruf kecil T (t)

i. Tinggi· Tahap aspirasi tinggi

ii. Rendah· Mudah berpuas hati, cita-cita rendah

iii. Tengah-tengah· Usaha dan tahap pencapaian itu di tahap sederhana


Rumusan :

Tulisan mencerminkan peribadi… Kita boleh menukar tulisan kita untuk mengubah peribadi dan Personaliti kita dengan sengaja supaya kita cemerlang dalam hidup.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Pelajar luar negara boleh dapat PR

PUTRAJAYA 5 Julai - Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi akan mengkaji cadangan untuk menawarkan pemberian taraf penduduk tetap (PR) kepada pelajar dari luar negara sebagai langkah menggalakkan pelajar berkenaan berkhidmat di negara ini sebaik menamatkan pengajian.

Menterinya, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin berkata, pemberian PR itu bukan untuk semua pelajar sebaliknya kepada penuntut yang sedang melanjutkan pengajian peringkat Sarjana dan doktor falsafah (PhD) serta yang ditaja kementerian.
"Mungkin kita akan tawarkan mereka berkhidmat sebagai pensyarah atau penyelidik tetapi penawaran bukan kepada semua pelajar sebaliknya pelajar yang benar-benar kreatif serta berkemahiran,” katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini.

Beliau berkata, di samping usaha untuk menarik minat rakyat tempatan kembali berkhidmat di negara ini, usaha menarik minat rakyat luar berkhidmat di Malaysia juga perlu.
"Kita tidak boleh menghalang rakyat tempatan berkhidmat di negara lain, sekarang kita kena bertindak secara adil dan jujur dengan berusaha mencari bakat dari negara luar pula,” katanya. - Bernama

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Pelajar Ke IPTA (Program Ijazah Pertama)

Kemasukan Program Ijazah Pertama :

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) (4,392),

diikuti Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) (4,001),

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) (3,717),

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) (3,694),

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) (3,436),

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) (2,973),

Universiti Malaya (UM) (2,819),

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) (2,495),

Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) (2,304),

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) (2,218),

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) (1,945),

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) (1,674),

Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) (1,406),

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) (1,168),

Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UnisZA) – sebelum ini dikenali sebagai Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia - (UDM) (881),

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) (678),

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) (445),

Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) (260). 

Kredit - En.Mohd Razihan dan  My Adha

Related Posts with Thumbnails