Just a Thought!

This is my very first poem, inspired by a Sing China 2020 song and a Bible sharing session that I am conducting this Saturday - it is really amazing how two totally disparate events caused me to write this heartfelt poem: Because of you My life has changed Because of you My life has meaning Because of you I've learnt how to love Because of you I've learnt how to live Thank you, Death.

On 4 June 1942, the Americans encountered an enemy that bore striking similarities with COVID-19 : - Invincible : At that time, the Japanese navy was thought to be unbeatable since it had not been defeated over the past 50 years. - Invisible : Radar technology was in its infancy and couldn't detect anything beyond 240 km, so this made it virtually impossible to detect the Japanese fleet in the Pacific Ocean which covers 165 million sq km! - Inexplicable : The attack on Pearl Harbour was such an unexpected move by the Japanese that the Americans actually had clear warnings but chose to ignore them! So they had no idea how to fight an irrational enemy! But through sheer determination, fearless heroism, intricate planning based on what little intel they had plus a little luck, the Americans dealt a crippling below to the Japanese navy at the battle of Midway where the Japanese lost 4 carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 3,500 men and 270 aircraft whereas the Americans lost only 1 car...

If you're still thinking of your New Year resolution, consider making this one which costs you nothing but will totally change your life for the better: Sleep more ! Ever since I made this resolution on 1 January 2020, I find myself more alert, productive, innovative and slimmer too! It is amazing how a little sleep will transform your life! But don't just take my word for it and read everything on sleep here ! To track my sleep patterns, I use the Sleep++ app on my iPhone and for Android users, you can choose a similar app here . P.S. As 2020 is the lunar year of the Rat , it is interesting to note that rats sleep a lot - about 9 hours a day and that is why they are so energetic!  

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Inception and I recently encountered something eerily similar to it but oblivious to many: the use of persuasive technology by social media and online games to influence human behaviour. It is by no chance that hordes of youths and even adults are spending more and more time on mobile games and social media to the extent of becoming unknowingly addicted. This is the engineered result of the unprecedented marriage of psychology and technology which gave birth to apps with drug-like power - so now you know why you can't resist crushing candies or checking Instagram/Facebook for the number of Likes ! I personally witnessed its destructive power in youths, causing them to neglect their studies, family and even their own health. And the saddest thing is that there is little we can do. I have tried to help one teenager through professional counselling but not one counsellor has succeeded. I only discovered the reason recently through this insightful...

I love Superheroes ... but I love more the unsung heroes among us as well as the hero that is in YOU - because there is nothing more inspirational than to meet a real hero in the flesh! So hope my quotes below will unleash the hero in YOU (regularly updated - my personal reflections on them can be found here ): "Never postpone doing good because you never know if the opportunity would be postponed for good." "If all the time & effort spent complaining are dedicated to solving problems, there will be less problems to complain about." "Character is doing what one thinks is right, not doing what one thinks is wrong and constantly learning what is right and wrong." "When you count your blessings, you multiply your joy & divide your ego." "Be on the lookout for small opportunities to help someone so that when the big one comes along, you’re ready." "Speak words of Kindness as they give Hope, Strength & Motivati...

At the start of this new year, I would like to share my personal thoughts which are inspired by my life experiences and captured in short original quotes: Love "You truly love when you love even when you don't feel like loving." “It matters little that you cannot do great things because little things can matter greatly too when done with love.” "True Love loves loving regardless of the lovability of the beloved." "True love is a decision to love even when the feelings of love have gone into remission." “Let all your thoughts and actions be immersed in pure LOVE, and you will understand the mystery of LIFE.” "If family matters to you, it matters you spend quality time with family." Happiness “Your Happiness will find you when you help others find theirs.” “The surest way to lose happiness is to seek it." "If you're not happily exhausted at the end of the day, it means you have not found a worthy challenge that exploits your fulle...

One message a day... this is how I hope to change the world. Hence, I have started a free messaging service called OREDY ( O ne R efreshing & E mpowering message D ail Y ) for anyone on WhatsApp . Rest assured that your personal information will not be shared with anyone else. This is purely my personal endeavour to make a difference in the world; I will be choosing the messages daily which are categorized into various lists. Here're the List Codes of my service: QUOTES : Daily inspirational quotations from great men and women throughout history, eg. "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist BIBLE : Daily inspirational Bible verses, eg. "My Grace is sufficient for you, for My Power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9 JOKES : Daily hilarious jokes to keep the wrinkles away, eg. A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says, "Sorry we don't serve food in here!...

I must confess that I didn't have high expectations of the movie " 3 Idiots " and resigned myself to being bored for 164 minutes watching the show with my colleagues in our monthly get-together. The title was idiotic, the length sounds like eternity and the genre invoked images of lame dancing around trees and it didn't help that the show is in Hindi and I had to read the subtitles. But at the end of it, I realized what an idiot I had been because it was the best movie I had ever watched in my life!!! Since then, I've bought the DVD and soundtrack and watched it 7 times with family and friends and still counting! What made me transform from a reluctant viewer of " 3 Idiots " to its most enthusiastic evangelist? I can't pinpoint the exact reason but I found myself laughing, crying, cheering, singing and being inspired to follow my heart to be the best I can be! There are touching reflections of life, death, friendship and family bonds as well as ...

I was thrust into a management role with many challenges which I am quite sure, can't be met by my engineering and data mining skills. I need an MBA . But like all MBA wannabes, I need to overcome the 3 "No's": No time, No money, No GMAT . My solution: The Personal MBA book by Josh Kaufman . I bought it at the local bookshop at S$30.77 only! My plan: Finish one chapter per week- so in 12 weeks, I will obtain my Personal MBA:) My progress: I am officially into my 4th week and I'm already feeling and thinking like a businessman!! Not only in my work, but in family and church matters too! I hope by blogging about it, I will stick to my schedule! Check my blog again 8 weeks from now;)

I felt a nagging heaviness in my head for the past few weeks. Even though I was relaxing or enjoying activities with my family, it just refused to go away. Initially I thought I was not getting enough sleep but I can't get rid of it even after a 8-hour rest! Then I slowed down and took time to reflect on what I was thinking all this while. I realised to my surprise that I was worried about an upcoming technical meeting and was regretting some of the stupid things that I have done in my experiments. No wonder my head was heavy: I was carrying "emotional baggage" of the past and future! I have since dropped such imaginary baggages and focused only on the task at hand and savouring every beautiful moment such as now when I am blogging happily;)  

During Chinese New Year, I drove my family and a friend's family out in my new Touran for a fun time at eXplorerkid followed by a sumptuous dinner at JustAcia . At the end of the outing, during the car journey back home, my friend's young daughter candidly said that it was the happiest day of her life ! I was deeply touched and for a moment, was at a loss of words - I just turned back and gave her a wide smile. I struggled to recall the last time I've used the magical phrase " happiest day of my life " - it seems that Adulthood has kidnapped Innocence, Contentment and Unconstrained Joy and set an impossible ransom... Perhaps it's time to go on the offensive - to bring back the simple joys of life that make life's many challenges bearable - will contact Childhood and Contemplation on a rescue plan now!

Today is the 100th-day death anniversary of my Dad, Vincent Woon . I'm close to my Dad. In fact, among my siblings (2 brothers and 1 sister), I believe I'm the closest to him, being the youngest as well as having the same Catholic faith with him. I miss him... but the busyness of life (yes even during my 2-week-long holiday!) doesn't give me the luxury of time to reminisce our wonderful times together - perhaps our modern society is moving too fast and we risk losing our humanity and becoming more like unfeeling machines if we don't slow down... This afternoon, our family "visited" my Dad at the columbarium to say a short prayer. It was a short session with little verbal exchanges but it was a nice feeling to be together as a family, remembering someone so close to our hearts. And at 3pm, our close church friends gathered at my Mom's place for a short memorial service. Their presence meant a lot to us and spoke volumes of how my Dad had touched t...

I doodled. I wrote. I typed. I emailed. I ICQed. I MSNed. I SMSed. I blogged. I facebooked. Now I tweet ... "It's never too soon to do the right thing but it can be too late." David Woon, Tweeter ( http://twitter.com/davidwoon )

I am sure you were inspired by President-elect Obama's historic victory and started to wonder if you could also be President one day in your country - well, at least I did:) But if we are honest, we know deep in our hearts that such an ambition is way too farfetched to be of any use in motivating ourselves to be the best we can be. We need something more realistic and pragmatic yet equally inspiring... I found my answer in writing humanitarian blogs to change the world - you can find yours too if you look in the right direction: Humanitarian : Some noteworthy humanitarian undertakings include making a difference in the upcoming World Aids Day , alleviating the hunger of about one billion people, ending child pornography , fighting human trafficking and forced prostitution , and lifting the taboo on depression. Environmental : With unusual climate changes impacting the world, it's high time we do something about deforestation , car emissions and waste management . "Foc...

I have not read any books on love and marriage since Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (1992) because I thought I had read most of the important books on the topic and besides, I had a great 7-year marriage so far... Then I chanced upon Gary Chapman 's Five Love Languages (1995) - the concepts are not new to me but they are well-explained, practical and most importantly, impactful! Through his research and experience, Dr Chapman concluded that there are just five basic love languages: Words of Affirmation Quality Time Receiving Gifts Acts of Service Physical Touch And the key to a lasting loving relationship lies in discovering and speaking the primary love language of your spouse! In the Emotional Bank Account (EBA) terminology, speaking the primary love language of a person equates making a huge deposit to one's EBA with him/her. For example, if your spouse's primary love language is "Quality Time", you can't convince him/her of your lo...

The past 3 months had been an emotionally and physically trying period for me. Death, suffering, despair, betrayal, stress, fatigue – I’ve experienced these extreme states of life in parallel through my loved ones and close friends; a close relative had to make a decision to amputate a leg or die within a week; another had to face up to the inevitability of losing a second leg; a close friend struggled with the sudden prospect of divorce with young children; and I faced the toughest challenge of my job with key colleagues suddenly falling sick and heroic time constraints. Big questions about life naturally surfaced in my mind: is death a good choice when there's no hope for quality of life? why is there so much pain and suffering? what is the point of working hard when life is so short? what is the ultimate meaning of life? I found no easy answers even though I had been a God-fearing Catholic for decades - the ageless question of why an all-powerful loving God could allow so ...

In all my years of negotiations with parties from large MNCs, government agencies, and universities to negotiations with my 20-month-old son, I've learnt one thing: for any negotiation to have a high chance of success , the following assumption, which I call "The Golden Assumption" must be made: Everyone is reasonable. This may seem like a trivial point but it opens the door to real communication , which is essential for any negotiation . When we apply the Golden Assumption , we would strive to understand the other party's point of view even if their demands seem unreasonable at the moment; most of the time, we'll realise they are not unreasonable afterall if we just take the effort to understand them! But without the Golden Assumption , most people would simply activate their defenses and/or offences to " counter " the other party's demands and this would probably lead to a lose-lose situation - losing both goodwill and the deal itself! Of course,...

We all want to become a better person and where possible, help others to become better persons - there is no better way to change the world for the better . But how do we know if we are growing in character ? How can we assess a person's character ? How can we be objective? I propose two measures to gauge one's character : 1. Nobody-Centric Don't be overly impressed by spectacular displays of courage, charity or love - it is difficult to determine the underlying motives of such actions. One accurate external measure would be to observe how one treats the toilet-cleaner, waiter, sweeper, taxi driver or anyone who obviously isn't an asset in any imaginable way - in short, the nobodies . One can be nice to the handicapped to show off his compassion but it takes one with true character to pardon the clumsy waiter who spills soup on him. “ You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.” - Malcolm S. Forbes (1919...

If you find yourself doing many things at one go, e.g. munching food, talking to your spouse, checking your emails on your Blackberry , planning next week's work schedule, thinking about yesterday's soccer game and watching TV, all at the same time , then may I propose to you more fruitful way of life: N ow - O riented L iving (NOL) . I define NOL as living at the moment for the moment, i.e., if you are eating, you would be focusing your mind on chewing, swallowing and savouring every bite; if you are talking to your spouse, you would be listening attentively and responding accordingly. But why NOL ? Isn't multi-tasking more efficient? Here're 3 big reasons ( H 3 ): H appiness : NOL releases you from past negative experiences and future worries to enjoy the moment as it is. Of course, we can learn much from the past and we can succeed if we plan carefully for the future - a separate time must be set aside for these activities but they should not be mixed with other a...

Yesterday, I was pondering about why I couldn't save much money every month even though I had not been making big purchases lately... After analysing my credit card bills and bank accounts, I found the answer : it was in the little thoughtless purchases which I had totally disregarded because of the little money involved! Indeed, very often, it is the little things that resulted in BIG EFFECTS because we grossly underestimate them and let our guard down against them. Here're some other examples: Time : We lose much valuable time by watching short TV shows, taking short naps, playing computer games for a short while... Character : We mold our character with all the little thoughts we think throughout the day... Relationships : We build / destroy relationships with all the little thoughtful/thoughtless things we do/say...