Now you know why I need my days off !

With their parents busy and holidaying we landed ourselves with the two grand sons this morning.After all the hassle getting them into the cars we finally arrived at the coffee shop nearby to have breakfast.A few minutes to figure out what they wanted and then keeping an eye over them while they ate .The eating was intermingled with a lot of running here and there and it was fortunate the maid was with us and she assisted in no small way. After a lot of running here and there , fighting , the meal was finally over and mum had to put them all in her car as she had a task to perform .Before that , getting them into the car was a hassle as there was a lot of fuss over who sat where and finally it was sorted out and that was when mum said " now you know why I need my holidays ".As though I do not know !!! Children grow up and the growing up phase is a process by itself. It takes a lot of patience, understanding and above all the right attitude to be able to cope with their growing up stage.Adults have their own mind set and expect the kids to be in jive with what they want.How wrong can it be! You expect the toys and other playthings to be kept in order little realizing that to the kid its second nature to mess with things and seeing them litter the house should be viewed in the right perspective.Shouting and screaming at them is demeaning and speaks little of the adult's ability to control himself and also his level of sensibility.Children's tantrums should be viewed at in the right perspective and if done that way we enjoy the pranks and tantrums of the little ones.Never take your frustrations out on the poor kid but shouting and yelling at them since they are the only ones you can do that to. Too often we see parents being stressed ad upset because the kids dont follow instructions and do what the parents want.Hey..do we understand that they are kids and probably have not come to the age of reason yet?Put ourselves in their shoes and understand the psychological and physiological development of the kid and you will certainly look at them differently.Sometimes its quite amusing to see how the adults handle their kids and you will learn something about the adults. There is no doubt that bringing up children is physically tiring and emotionally draining but it is also a lot of fun and enjoyable to see them in all their mischievous best and having the opportunity to deal with them which itself is a challenge.

The extra mile

If you look for common factors in the lives of great people you will notice that many of them did not get where they were through chance but rather the extra push in what they did.This mad the difference and if you look around you will see many young people lacking in this today.Complacency, lack of will , lack of drive and a willingness to go the extra mile are probably reasons why they remain static in their careers and in their lives. If you cant listen to others , cant focus on what you are doing and cant think ahead then you are doomed to be one of the many mediocre people whom we find all around us. I have worked with many people and there are some who show positive qualities which I believe will take them far in life .As against this there are those who are in their own comfort zone quite happy where they are now and prepared to go through the rest of their lives quite happily.These people can survive but sadly will never realize their full potential. We never really know what we are capable of .Physically we find in times of emergency we can do what we never dreamed of doing and mentally , if we have the right mind set we will not know what we are capable of coming up with.I remember some years ago when we dealt with a boss who was a man of few words and he told us " I want a school".It was up to us to figure out what he wanted and do it for him.Thus was born Kolej Yayasan Saad in Melaka which turned out to be the kind of school which the boss wanted.It was a matter of putting ourselves in his shoes and trying to figure what he wanted and coming up with concepts and proposals for him to approve. Too often we find people who lack initiative who fail to think ahead and to be able to make real contributions to their families and companies.The one who goes the extra mile does this ...he thinks ahead , he thinks for others and would always inconvenience himself than others and he has to know for every action there is a consequence.I have staff whom I ask to do things but fail to report to me on the outcome.For me,work must be orderly and systematic just as the way we live our lives.There is the need for the culture of " do it now" above anything else.I cant stand the attitude of " later I will do it " for " later " never comes. To be there, there is no doubt the the person who goes the extra mile will always be amongst the first to be there .Its only certain categories of people who can do it and why not us?