Entries from March 2009 ↓

I am thrilled on reading today’s gospel on the transfiguration.

Why?

I recall the story of my Mum who told me that my uncle Ignace AhLim some 62 years ago received a letter from her, from China where she was sent after her marriage with my Dad to prepare the return of the family to Mexian.

Mum informed him that she gave birth to a son on the Sunday of the transfiguration. Ignace sent back his congratulations and added to her, that this son will transform her life and will cause the improvement of her relations with her in laws. The in laws vision of her will be transfigured.

In the Chinese culture, the first son of the eldest son has a very special ranking: he is charged with the responsibility of the clan & family. Indeed looking back to my mum’s life, she did transform and influence the Yiptong family with her kindness and  living her path in  faith of Jesus.

No wonder that today’s reading yields in me an emotional charge. I have used this anecdote of my life to make it the motto of my life. I live to be the transformer of the lives of others who are on my path- this is my calling.

I bless and am thankful the Lord who gave me this auspicious birth date and gave me the appropriate calling.

From the sermon of my parish priest on the reading, I shall remember:

On our journey through lent to Easter , the liturgy takes us from last week from the desert where Jesus was to tell us that as a human, just like Jesus, we shall be tempted, today the reading places us to the summits of mountains- a call to look up for heights to reach the spirit of God. We are called to the transform our manly nature to reach our union with our Creator.

Jesus His beloved son has come and we are called to listen to him. He has risen from the dead, so shall we should we listen and follow His path?

You probably saw on the newspapers that the Government of Mauritius has appointment a consultant to brand Mauritius. I record the last article on L’Express on the 5^th February 2009.

Who is this firm how do they operate? What is their track record?

We are now in the business of Nation Branding.

By definition, all emerging industries are very creative but also very chaotic, and it is hard to find the trend-setting individuals among the booming chaos. But at Nation-Branding we thought it would be interesting to end the 2008 year with a special feature with some names to a field which is not only rising, but is also somewhat surrounded by secrecy.

I found of the net a list of the 10 most influential nation building experts and our chosen expert is on the list.

Fiona Gilmore is one of the leading experts and authors on brands and branding. She co-founded Springpoint, a global brands and corporate identity consultancy, with its headquarters in London. In 2003 she founded the country-branding consultancy Acanchi and has worked in initiatives with the authorities in the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Zambia, Bahrain, the Isle of Man, Lebanon, Mauritius, Wales, Northern Ireland, Belfast, Britain, Hong Kong, and the Blue Mountains of Australia.

I am reading the publication of the repositioning of Spain by Fiona in 2001.

Most of the time, you get what you ask for? I wonder what was asked for in this case. What were the deliverables asked for by our government?

Let us hope for the best.

Was I being fair to my entourage? What is being fair to someone?

Treating your customer fairly? Do I  need to discriminate? How?

The following article has the advantage of questioning ourselves on the subject:

The Myth of Treating People Fairly and Equally

By Jeff Mowatt

I’ll just come right-out and say it. I believe that treating customers fairly and equally is a mistake. It’s unprofitable. It belittles customers and employees. And it’s unethical. There, I’ve said it.

Certainly, we should treat people fairly – but not equally. I’m not advocating some Orwellian decree that ‘some animals are more equal than others’. This has nothing to do with a customer’s value as a person. It has to do with bending so-called ‘rules’ to give exceptional customers the kind of unique service they deserve.

In my many years working as a consultant and trainer with dozens of companies and bureaucracies, it’s unfortunate that I continue to encounter employees who buy-in to the myth of the virtue of treating all customers equally. If this is the case in your organization, consider this scenario…

Imagine that as part of your daily routine, you stop into your local convenience store to buy a coffee and newspaper. The store employees know you by sight. One day you find yourself needing to change a $100 bill. You stop in, pick up a couple of items and pay for them with the hundred. The store has a policy that they don’t accept hundreds, so the cashier simply refuses you. You are fully aware that they make more than that much change every 15 minutes. You also know that when added-up, you’ve given them hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of business over the years. Yet they refuse to grant you this slight favor. How’s your customer loyalty now?

Refusing your $100 bill would have been an incredibly bad decision on the part of the cashier as well as the management who created the ‘rule’ that permits no exceptions for the store’s best customers. The problem is that by definition a ‘rule’ treats everyone equally – whether it’s fair or not.

What If We Treated Our Children This Way?

Imagine the consequences of a parent treating their six-year-old and seventeen-year-old equally. That would mean telling the younger child, “Make sure you are home from grade one by midnight!” Most people appreciate that it makes sense to treat children fairly. It would, however, be a mistake to treat them all equally, and apply the same rules regardless of their ages. That’s more than just a mistake; we might even call it immoral.

We Already Discriminate in the Workplace

There’s a certain irony to taking this approach to the workplace. The same individuals who assume that all customers should be treated equally, often have no objection whatsoever to the organization offering preferential parking and restroom facilities to customers with disabilities. Yet, that’s a blatant example of treating customers fairly but not equally. I don’t know of anyone who objects to organizations giving better parking spots to the disabled. Yet, every day we hear employees using inane statements like, “If I did that for you, I’d have to do it for everyone.”

The challenge for business owners and managers is providing the kind of training and authority that front-line employees need, so that they will make more appropriate on-the-spot decisions for customers.

The Truth About Word-Of-Mouth

“What happens when customers talk to each other?” That’s one of the most common concerns I hear from employees in my training sessions where we address this subject. They are afraid that if they accommodate one customer’s special request, then that customer will talk to other customers, and the employee will be pressured to do the same for everyone, which, of course, they can’t do. In other words, they’re going to have a lot of unhappy people out there if they accommodate special requests. This is the kind of convoluted logic that stems from the underlying belief in treating everyone equally (not necessarily fairly). Another way of putting it is: I’m afraid that if I provide an extra service for one customer (because we made an error or the customer does a lot of business with us), then I’m going to disappoint other customers whose circumstances don’t warrant the extra service. So to avoid disappointing some people, we’ll just make a rule that no one gets special treatment. That way, we’ll just disappoint everyone, including customers whose unique situation deserves extra service.

Customers understand the concept of fairness. If I’ve never been to a particular convenience store and suddenly walk in just to change a hundred-dollar bill, I’m not likely to get outraged when the employee explains that they don’t have enough change on hand so they can’t help me. If, on the other hand, I’m doing business there every day, I’m more likely to be upset if my store won’t make change for me when I know they make that much change every fifteen minutes. If they do make an exception for me because I’m a good customer, I’m not going to rush out, phone all my friends, and tell them, “Hey, my convenience store made change for me, and they don’t usually accept hundreds!” Customers rarely go out of their way to talk about good service. The occasion when customers share information about a business is when the service is bad. Bottom line: employees needn’t worry about possible negative ramifications of taking extra care of good customers. What they should be far more concerned about is the negative impact of treating all customers the same.

Last week , I was discussing with a friend who had difficulties with her partner. Now reading through The Secret, I have found the appropriate text to advise and help her.

The Secret to Relationships

· When you want to attract a relationship, make sure your thoughts, words, actions, and surroundings don’t contradict your desires  .

· Your job is you. Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody.

T Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who show you love and respect.

W When you feel bad about yourself, you block the love and instead you attract more people and situations that will continue to make you feel bad about you.

· Focus on the qualities you love about yourself and the law of attraction will show you more great things about you.

· To make a relationship work, focus on what you appreciate about the other person, and not your complaints. When you focus on the strengths, you will get more of them.

Extracted from The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

I was watching THE SECRET, DVD lent to me by a friend. It is about the law of attraction.

Any idea was it is? The movie was made based of the book authored by Ronda Byrne. It has to do with the power of Positive thinking. Whilst working ‘towards’ better mental strength is excellent on the other hand, as taught by my NLP experience, we require also to draw from the ‘away’ elements.

Cultivating positive thinking is great to maintain and develop one’s mental growth. How would you fend away the negativity that is all around?

*** Article: How to Stop Absorbing Other People’s Negative Emotions – By Judith Orloff, M.D. ***

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In my new book, “Emotional Freedom,” I emphasize the importance of learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it’s vital to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s negative emotions or the free-floating kind in crowds. Another twist is that chronic anxiety, depression, or stress can turn you into an emotional sponge by wearing down your defenses. Suddenly, you become hyper-attuned to others, especially those with similar pain. That’s how empathy works; we zero in on hot-button issues that are unresolved in ourselves. From an energetic standpoint, negative emotions can originate from several sources. What you’re feeling may be your own; it may be someone else’s; or it may be a combination. I’ll explain how to tell the difference and strategically bolster positive emotions so you don’t shoulder negativity that doesn’t belong to you.

This wasn’t something I always knew how to do. Growing up, my girlfriends couldn’t wait to hit the shopping malls and go to parties, the bigger the better — but I didn’t share their excitement. I always felt overwhelmed, exhausted around large groups of people, though I was clueless why. “What’s the matter with you?” friends would say, shooting me the weirdest looks. All I knew was that crowded places and I just didn’t mix. I’d go there feeling just fine but leave nervous, depressed, or with some horrible new ache or pain. Unsuspectingly, I was a gigantic sponge, absorbing the emotions of people around me.

With my patients, I’ve also seen how absorbing other people’s emotions can trigger panic attacks, depression, food, sex and drug binges, and a plethora of physical symptoms that defy traditional medical diagnosis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than two million Americans suffer from chronic fatigue. It’s likely that many of them are emotional sponges.

Here are some strategies from “Emotional Freedom” to practice. They will help you to stop absorbing other people’s emotions

Le manager agité est le titre de l’article du mois de Raymond Villancourt chez qui je suis abonné depuis des nombreuses années.

La recherche du calme et de compréhension est juste dans ce présent des remous de l’économie et du monde financier. Nous vivions des moments d’effervescence intense,  a quoi bon de courir dans tous les sens?

Composer avec le chaos ambiant. Soyons patient, en attendant que le nouveau paradigme apparaisse. L’eau est trouble, ce n’est pas le moment de s’agiter et de chercher son chemin, survivons et composons dans la situation actuelle. Je propose un repli de regard vers soi.  C’est un moment de mettre de l’ordre chez soi, d’augmenter sa productivité interne, de questionner son mode fonctionnement. Je n’ai aucune doute que les mécanismes économiques et financiers se transformeront et nous aurons à nous y ajusté. J’entrevois déjà des normes d’un monde plus écologique se mettre en place, plus égard vers une économie renouvelable.

Je vous recommande la lecture de son article et la visite de son site.

Etre tenté par Satan au désert. Jésus s’est retiré au désert pour se ressourcer, pour prier et dans ce moment la que Satan profitera pour le tenter. N’est ce pas que dans les moments ou nous pensons être plus fort que Satan utilise sa ruse pour nous appâter et nous tenter ? Jésus n’a pas succombé car il est homme et Dieu, mais nous faible homme que nous soyons, sans recours divin, nous risquons gros.