What a meaningful week!

Recently, I am living in the dormitory. I really enjoy this chance! The dormitory is really a good place for me to study and work hard, but on the other hand it's a bit boring to stay in dormitory at night without a computer. Since I don't have a computer in the dormitory, I couldn't share things frequently. Nevertheless, I am going to tell you what I have learned in this week, and I hope this update will not be too long for you to read.

On last Wednesday, I have joined the News Discussion Forum Series II, which was held by HCSA. The idea for this discussion forum was to let us know more about the Macau 2010 Policy Address. At the beginning, James simply gave us a summary about the Policy Address. Then, we have a quiz competition (Q & A) about it. This type of activity was really amazing, because we would easily focus on just a few points in the policy address. With a quiz, we could know more and think more about other things in the policy address which we didn't think of before.

Fortunately, our team won the competition, but it didn't mean we knew more than the others, just because we had luck. After the competition, we had a discussion time. Most of them were talking about the $6000, but what I really interested in was the education part. We could see that our government had put their whole hearted effort on Macau education, and especially for our HC. Without their support, I guess we won't have this great opportunity to go to exchange on next year. Therefore, we should work hard on it and reward our Macau with our whole heart. This series also reminded us to pay more attentions to our Macau government, what they were doing and how Macau was developing, because we will be the future pillars of Macau.

The series was followed by the HC lecture. Actually I don't remember how many times we had the lecture by Udani, six or seven? Maybe it doesn't matter because it feels like we are a big family and have already gathered together to learn new things for many times. And as I could see all of us had enjoyed this new 'home' very much, since in this 'home', the distance between us was much shorter and we were much closer. And I would like to call the lecture class "a party". As that day was the birthday of Ray and Ida. We have enjoyed many music, video, performances, and also learned many laws about leadership.

As you can see from the photos, Udani was going to pour the water onto my head. Telling the truth, I was a little bit afraid that his magic would fail. However, I did trust Udani and allowed him to pour the water. This magic brought us an idea that we should always prepare ourselves for the class because if we dried up at the beginning of class, we would absorb nothing in the class.

Following are some of the photos and video of this lecture. There were many other things that we had enjoyed in this class, but I couldn't show all of the things to you in here.

Happy Birthday to Ida and Ray. Thanks to Echo's delicious cake.

A wonderful song by Albert.

Our year 1 potential HC students had also given a performance.

Besides, we had learnt the power policy and the irrefutable laws of leadership by John C. Maxwell. What the laws are about are just many little things which we knew they are good but we seldom apply them in our daily life. Hopefully I could remember all the 21 laws and think about them before I do anything in the future. I am also impressed by the short reading "ROSE: A lesson for life". I strongly agree that there is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. We should grow up by always finding opportunity in change, and we have to see things in a different but positive sight. Like what H.O.S.T. states, we should be happy and optimistic, so that we will have no regrets when we die!

Finally, I have something which I learned from a workshop I joined today to share with you.

We people always classify other people or things into different categories. For instance, when we first see a man with white hair, our mind will immediately think that he may be an old man. Therefore, our behavior will affect our image to the others a lot.

Our behavior can be divided into five steps: knowing, thinking, learning, skill, action. These five steps are tightly connected and are circulating. First, when we know something, we will have some ideas about it. When we think more about it, we will try to learn it. When we have learned it, we will own the skill, or power. When we have this skill, we will do it. And this action will soon become our habits and so behavior. However, when we know that our behavior is not good, we will try to change it. When we change it, we have to change our skill, so we will learn how to change the skill, and think more about this skill. Finally, we will know more about this skill. These steps then keep on circulating.

As you could see, if we want to change a behavior, we have to take many steps to change it. Thus, don't always assume that a change can be made immediately, please be patient and pay effort to change it. To be an excellent leader, we should always change our bad behavior into good. Remember that we cannot save time, but we can use our time in a better way, so we should start to change our bad behavior today. It does take some time to change, don't mind that, just pay this time on the behavior, and we could do it together!

Some reflections..

Last Friday, Jackon, Helen and I had a meeting with Udani.

I remember that at the beginning, Udani asked us how did we tell our parents about the HC. And my answer was I didn't tell them much about it. It's because they don't really care me too much since I got into the university. I know that they are very busy and they want me to be more independent. Thus, I always finish things by myself.

Other than Helen, I seldom talk too much with my parents when they come back home. However, Udani told me that I should always find some time to talk and share something with my parents. I do really want to talk with them but when I see them being very tired after their work, I just don't want to bother them too much so that they can take a rest earlier. Thus, Udani told me that I should something at night which I never do to surprise my parents. What I did in these nights was to help my mother to wash the clothes and the dishes. I seldom do houseworks before, but I think helping them to do the houseworks can reduce their load. I know it's not enough so in the coming future I will do more things for them. I don't want everytime when talking about my family, I will feel sad and say that I do nothing for them. I need and I should do more for my parents, because I do love them!

One thing Udani always reminds me is that we should always smile to everyone you meet and be positive to everything. And we should not think about the result of doing things, but to enjoy the process, because many times we cannot control the result, but we can control what we do. It's really a good idea and I will focus on what I can control in the future.

I have learnt much when talking with Udani. His sharing always impresses me. I will always keep his positive ideas in my mind and I wish we can find some other time to talk with him again so that we can learn more from him.

Finally, there is a good news. I am moving into the dormitory of UMAC tomorrow. I can't wait because I am having a chance to live independent and experience a new life with others. I hope I can meet more people in the dormitory and learn more about living with new friends so that when I am in US, I will know how to socialize better.

Another week gone by..

Time is passing without any waiting... Such a busy week passed again...

Today, one of my friends said that my blog is just like a homework. Actually, I really don't want my blog to act as my homework, but to be a memory of my growth and my steps to be a leader.

Since I am a FST student and things which I learn in FST are formulae and programs, what I can share with you are usually related to my HC class. Surely, I do have many other funny things that I want to share but most of them are not related to my leader steps.

Another reason is that I am still not very good at writing. Sometimes I just don't know how to express my feelings in words. Thus, you will find my post are more likely to be something serious. I remember something that Udani said in the class -- we shouldn't always be a serious man, yet to be humorous without hurting others. Maybe it's hard for me to be humorous at this moment, but I think I can change me and I will change me.

I wish that in the future, when I read back this post, I will smile and say that I have improved myself. ^_^

There are still some left for last week. I have a wonderful talk with Udani and my FST mates (Jackon and Helen) on last Friday and a memorable hot pot gathering with my HC fellows on last Saturday. Photos and my reflections will be shared with you soon, so don't hesitate to keep your eyes on my coming updates.

We all need help..

Yesterday we had a wonderful class again. It's true that only two hours per week is not enough for us because we have a lot of things to share. And learning from others' experiences is much better than learning from the books, so this time every of us have to share something with the others.

Music can uplift our soul. Thus, every class Udani would share us a song. This time is a song by Celine Dion, called 'The Power Of Love'. I can see that most of us were enjoying this song so much, and some of us even danced with Udani. The feeling just liked we were a big family. This also reminded me that a leader should always provide a home feeling to the others.

In this lesson, Ivy, Polly and Lay share us a proposal of providing a HC workshop for UMAC and some high school students so that they can learn more about what HC is and also invite more people to join us. I love the ideas too. There are actually many UMAC students don't know what HC is doing. Some of them may also be potential leaders but they just miss the opportunity to join us, so we need to advertise our HC to more people. And this suggestion become one of our project for HONR202. I hope this would be a good chance for us to apply what we have learnt in HC.

After the discussion of the workshop, Udani asked every of us to share what we really need at this moment. Obviously, most of us need encouragement and communication improvement. I'm sure I would help all of you and I wish all of you will help me to improve my communication skill too. Cathy also mentioned that she needed time. I guess not only her, but all of us need time as life is limit. Udani said that we cannot save time but we can use our time in a better way, so starting from today we should make a good schedule for our time so that we won't waste it.

In addition, today I read Grace's blog. She pointed out that she needed to think about what her living purpose is. However, I think life is mystery. We don't know what the true meaning of life is, but we somehow know what to do, where to go. Therefore, sometimes it is no need to think a lot, just do what we want to do and care what we should care, and our life will become fruitful and beautiful.

Be selflessness

Every time when we gather together, I have a special feeling. All of us come from different majors, different faculties, but our aims are the same - to learn how to be a excellent leader. And it just like our real world, though every one comes from different countries, when we have the same dream, we can together make the dream come true.

Yesterday we met again, it was the fourth lecture. We were happy that Udani brought us a year 3 FSH student, Carlos, who had lived in America for more that ten years, to share us his experience in America. That's cool! I really thanked to his sharing as he let me know more about the qualities between Asian and American. Well, it's true that Americans are more active and hard-working than Asian. They will try to create new things and challenge the reality to finish their dream. In opposition to Americans, Asians are more likely to behave what they are used to do and follow the old-fashioned. That's why we should have at least once to live in foreign country so that we can learn their customs and enrich our global perspective.

I also want to say thanks to Udani as his lectures are always funny and creative. This time he shared us another meaningful song. During the song playing, we had to encourage each other with our whole heart. Encouragement is really a kind of mystical power! It can help everyone to rebuild the confidence and faith.

Udani also taught us what servant leadership is. I really appreciate to those servant leaders as they could sacrifice themselves with no rewards and care others far more than themselves. Although I somehow love to help the others more than helping myself, it is still a long way for me to consider myself as a servant leader.

A servant leader is selflessness, generosity and altruism, so I think what I can do right now is to build up this concept of servant leadership in my mind and use my whole life to achieve it.

NLP Workshop

I have to admit that my communication skill is relatively bad. I know how to speak and how to listen to the others, but I just don't know how to communicate well. For this reason, I participated in a  NLP workshop today which aimed to improve our communication skill by using NLP.

NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. It is knowledge on how to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve our specific and desired outcome, with the use of five senses, language and nonverbal communication.

At the beginning of the workshop, our instructor asked us one question, "What makes you difficult to communicate?" I am sure that most of you could give out some examples for this question, such as language differences and overly hostile stereotypes. These barriers are strongly affecting our communications. Our instructor then indicated that there was a theory for communication -- communication is 7% words, 38% tonality and 55% physiology. That means we can only get 7% of the actual meaning of the others' words. Therefore, we have to depend on four factors: F (Facial Expression), A (Attitude), S (Strategy), T (Technique), to deliver our meanings to the others. And NLP gives us a good idea of how to improve these four factors.

As communication is bilateral, to communicate efficiently, first we have to understand the thinking style of people. There are mainly four key characteristics for everyone. They are visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and auditory digital. However, how can we know what the characteristic of someone we don't know is? NLP mentions that we can find it out by observing their behaviors, for instance, skin color, breathing rate, lower lip size and eyes. It does take time for us to train how to observe these behaviors, but it would be very useful in communication. Once we have enough sensory acuity, we can easily find out the characteristics of the others.

After we know others' characteristics, we have to provide a "climate of trust" with them. When people are like each  other, they like each other, so we should have a good rapport. The major elements of rapport are "Matching" and "Mirroring". We can try to match or mirror others, in this part, posture and facial expression are very important. For instance, if you are talking to one who are holding his arms, then you can try to match him by holding your arms. Although it's just a simply action, but it will unconsciously provide a comfortable environment and he will more likely to accept your talking.

Moreover, when we are facing a lot of people, we will become nervous and lose our self-confidence easily, and cannot communicate well. NLP also provides us a skill to build up our confidence, it is called circle of excellence. Imagine there is a circle on the floor in front of you. Then close your eyes and go inside the circle. In the circle, imagine a time in the past that you were at the most confident point and full of energy. After that, try to feel what it's like to be in that state, see yourself in the circle being wonderful, hear what is going on around you and overhear yourself responding wittily. Next, try to keep this state in your mind and you will be confident. Finally, when you walk out the circle, collect this circle up and next time when you lose your confidence, you can take this circle out, put it on the floor and return to this circle of excellence again.

Through this workshop, I've learned what NLP is and I will try to apply the idea of NLP to improve my communication skill. Consequently, next time when you meet me, don't be strange if I am focusing on your lips or shoulders, because I am just trying to train my sensory acuity and figuring out what your characteristics are.