Peter's Info Box

A teaching by Emily Esfahani Smith. The pursuit of happiness (a state of comfort and ease, feeling good at the moment; most often via success) is actually counterproductive as it could actually make you unhappy and lonely. Instead search for meaning in life. Our search for meaning in this life stems from a realization of our mortality and a resulting question: How do I live given the fact that I will die? According to Emily, a meaningful life is when you connect (belong to) and contribute (serve) to something beyond yourself (i.e. family, work, God etc.). People who have meaningful lives have one or more of the following four pillars: Belonging – the state of being in a relationship or group where you are valued for who you are intrinsically and you value others similarly. You are valued for who you are , not what you do, believe or have. You believe your life matters to others and vice versa. This springs from love. Learn to slow down to talk to others and treat the...

The Path is All Yours Chapter 1 You must be smart and strategic about how you use your content. First create valuable content that will grow your influence. Q: Are you creating valuable content that is strategically used? Think of yourself as tomorrow’s newest star. Q: How do you think about yourself? It’s a matter of survival to think beyond your current successes and constantly look for ways to create new ones so that you are never limited to any one platform or even one topic. Do this by creating a personal brand so powerful it transcends even your passion! Q: How are you forward looking when it comes to constantly creating new successes? (When it comes to social media) you are in complete control of how the world sees you, how often, and in what context. Remember: in complete control. Use this privilege to the max for your success! (Some who have made it) said that the experiences and skills they gained in their former jobs – even the ones they hated – were e...

In his book  Impact: Great Leadership Changes Everything  by Tim Irwin, he says there are five steps to wrecking your life, or as he would say  derailing your life.  They are: Lack of self-awareness.  When a person doesn’t know what could bring them down, they don’t know what their weaknesses are. Is it money, greed, power, sex, lust, a bigger house or car? What are they willing to trade their marriage, reputation, kids or future in for? If you don’t know that, you will be brought down. Arrogance or misguided confidence.  when a person sees someone wreck their life and says, “That could never happen to me.” This is when a person sins once and says, “I already did it once, what is one more time?” They have supreme confidence they can stop whenever or take back control whenever they choose, or, that it won’t destroy their life. Missed warning signals.  This might be close calls in getting caught, being late to work for staying up too late, convictio...

I recently got a message from a former student in my IGCSE English class, a random message because she just happened to think of me. That in itself touched me but what got my attention was this sentence:   I heard someone talking about hating their school’s English classes and I did too- in my IGCSE years. I only enjoyed my English classes when you were my teacher haha! My interest piqued, I asked her if she could pinpoint what made my English class enjoyable. Her answer blew me away and unknown to her, revealed several key principles for making any class interesting. She mentioned the books I introduced for Literature (reading and discussion). I had requested that a classic but boring literature book be replaced with a book I believed was relevant and challenging, addressing ideas young people need to face and talk about. The book? Tuesday With Morrie by Mitch Albom. "That's not literature material!" you may exclaimed but it made reading interesting and the lessons in ...

"I don't know what to do" You may have said or thought this. In my life I have, many times. So what to do when you feel you don't know what to do? An article I read on this matter gave some suggestions: 1. Share yourself to the world. Get out of your own head. Involve other people. Show your work. Get feedback about your thoughts/ideas. 2. Prepare for change. Especially mentally and emotionally. 3. Experiment, a lot.   When you try something new, you don’t have to know what’s going to pay off or what the endgame looks like.

What is catastrophic thinking? Catastrophic thinking is when a person imagines scenarios in his or her head ( this article  tells you how to use that to reduce your anxiety) that are way more intense or graphic than what can really be expected. For example, if someone’s brother or sister is late to meet for lunch, the anxious person may begin to frantically worry that his or her sibling has been in a terrible car crash and is now severely injured or dead.  Sensations, thoughts, and emotions are seen as signs of immediate physical or psychological catastrophe.  a kind of  anxiety disorder  defined in Psychology Today as  "ruminating about irrational worst-case outcomes" . anxiety disorders. They identify 6 essential ingredients of a cycle that fuels them:  Catastrophic Beliefs  (“I’m having a heart attack, I’m dying,”) triggered by a  Precipitating Event  (heart palpitations) results in both  Anxiety Symptoms  (shortness ...

For a very long time, I really wanted to be famous, especially as a pastor. I wanted to have a famous church, a famous ministry and a famous name. I hoped that when my name was mentioned, everybody (in the Christian world or at least in Malaysia and some other places) would know who I am. Unfortunately this desire has not served me well and has coloured black my service for others and my expected results. It has left me disappointed, caused me to be disillusioned with what I have done and who I do have in my class or meeting. Desiring to be famous, to see what I define as having arrived, has caused me to devalue what I do have and to chase impossible numbers and events. So why am I so desperate to be famous? Why do I jump at any possibility to be famous? I finally owned up to my malady after I realized that being famous was a powerful driving force in my life and it was adversely affecting my work and life satisfaction. I sat down and Googled ‘desiring to be famous’ and read man...