Do What You Love To Do
August 4, 2008
July 2008 served as an important milestone in my life because I reached one of my goals, i.e., learning the Neuro-Linguistic Program [NLP] from the certified trainers in Singapore. I have a group of fans in Singapore and some of them did this course with me. We chatted during the breaks to find out what we are doing and some of them were surprised to hear that apart from my tax consultancy work, I am also generating income from five different streams. Gosh! Am I really able to multi-task? Where do I find the time to do all of these? This is the theme of this week’s article.
I believe many people who are not able to reach their goals tend to blame the whole galaxy, excepting themselves. At the same time, these people tend to give excuses and the classic excuses are “I have no time” or “Where do I find the time to do this?” If you are giving excuses like these, people, perhaps you have the limiting belief that you cannot achieve your goals because you have no time. Guess what? Your brain will set up a program to make sure that you will never find time to achieve your goals. This ‘brain’ matter is interesting and it is my major discovery after attending the NLP course.
To break this limiting belief, let me give you a counter example. For those international students who were invited to attend the International Lunch on Day 3 of OASIS, I want you to close your eyes and visualize George standing on the stage talking to us.
As George speaks, I want you to remember a phrase he used: “I am obsessed with trading and I love it so much that I will trade 18 or 19 hours a day if I do not need to teach.” If you can’t hear George clearly, ask him to stop and repeat the sentence. I am sure George will say "Okay" and smile.
Now you can open your eyes and relax. Hear what George said. He spends 75% of the available time a day to do what he loves to do. No wonder he is a trading master.
What can you learn from George? In order to be successful at something, you must do what you love to do. If you do what you love to do, you will never have an excuse such as "no time." Don’t you spend every minute watching your favorite TV program or playing your computer games? Where do you find the time to do these activities? So, please find your passion and you will do whatever it takes to reach your goal.
Unfortunately, our Asian society imposes an inherent barrier on all of us and this is the reason why some of us will carry the limiting belief. Let me give you an example. You may say that your interest lies in drawing cartoons but you can''t do what you enjoy doing because you do not believe that drawing cartoons can make you any money. So, you end up working in an organization and drawing a huge salary. The problem is if the job is not what you love to do, you will never enjoy it by giving your 100%. This is true, at least, in our Asian society… there exists a divergence between the activities we do as a job and those we do because they are our passion.
It was fortunate in my case that tax consultancy work is my passion and I have been doing this for more than 14 years. I always tell people that the reason why I choose to be a tax attorney is the money. Of course, money is important but not the most important thing. I do what I love to do and I told myself long ago that I will become a master of it. Therefore, I did whatever it takes to read articles and textbook about taxation. When I had questions, I did not procrastinate but instead sought guidance from my partners and seniors. I continued to improve my technical skill and presentation skill.
Passion does change over time because we experience different circumstances at different stages. As a result, passion may not last forever and you should adopt a flexible mindset if that happens. In my case, I found a new passion—trading—in 2004. I adopted the same technique by ‘eating,’ ‘sleeping’ and ‘breathing’ trading. Since 2004, I''ve done so many of these trade-related activities that I sped up my learning curve, which put me in the position where I am today.
So, if trading is your passion, you are on the correct path to success.
To access previous articles written by Jack Wong, please click here.
Jack Wong
Staff Writer and Instructor
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site
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