We Are Our Biggest Enemy: July 2008

Speaking of Foundation, I would like to take this time to also talk about the final year examination which ALL of my students are taking.

I am worried for all of you. BUT, I am sure that you all will get good results if you just follow what we told you when we trained you (or for that matters, remembered what we taught you! :P)

But nonetheless, I would like to just STRESS on one major point. WORK ON YOUR FOUNDATIONS for all the subjects. This will be the deciding factor on whether you can do well or not. There is no use to work on your TYS or PYPs without knowing how to do it right the first place. And while practise makes perfect, PRACTISE WRONGLY MAKES PERFECT WRONG (My personal phrase to all my students). So, get it clear what you are doing first, know the fundamentals and foundations well, and you would not have much problems for your Exam.

Same offer goes out to you! EMAIL ME, should you have any problems. Only about 80 days more to GO!

BE GREAT!
Ken Koh Seng Kiang

Ken Koh Seng Kiang is the Co-Trainer and Consultant of the highly successful Super Teens Holiday Camp and Smart Kid Training workshop. He has positively impacted the lives and personally coached over 10,000 students from Singapore, Malaysia, China and Indonesia. Ken is one of the rare few in Singapore to be personally trained and coached by Dr Ernest Wong. For more information, please visit www.learningmastery.com.

Recently, a strange idea got me really excited and I sort of came up to this phrase "How you love your other half is how you love yourself". It is just my thoughts and I would like to ask for some comments and feedback. So, please feel free to voice your opinions here. Thanks first!

Okay, here I go.

Many of us have experienced this before, or have "committed" such an act before in our lives. When we are interested in a certain person of the opposite sex, we start to treat the person really well, taking care of the person's needs, being really sensitive to the other person's moods, almost all the time. It usually happens during the dating period.

BUT then, things start to change once you become attached. You think that you are treating your other half the "same" way, but your other half starts and keeps complaining about you, gets upset at you for small little things that you didn't do, and you two end up fighting or having cold war. Sounds familiar?

Well, for most of the people I know, it seems to be the case. And recently, I thought about it and in my own opinion, the reason is because, you have started to treat the other half as part of you, and therefore, you treat the other person the way you usually do to yourself.

Yes, it may sound alittle crazy, but let me do my best to explain to you what I mean.

Before you are attached, you are two separate entities, and you do your best to please the other person (at least for most people). You would even do things which you never thought that you would do. You would even do things which you would never even do for yourself! It is quite normal. You are "in love" and the chemical reactions in your brain sort of make you do all those crazy things.

BUT when you get attached together, things change. Things sort of stagnate alittle, and you are not as "romantic" as you were during dating. Reason, I feel, is because, you feel that your other half is a part of you, or is YOU (whether consciously or unconsciously). And because of this, you don't do those "special" things for your other half anymore, BECAUSE, you don't do those "special" things to yourself in the first place.

To make things easier to understand, maybe this would help.

A person who always hurt himself would end up hurting his other half.
A person who is stingy with herself would usually be stingy when it comes to her other half.
A person who has no drive for a better life would not have high expectations of the other half.
A person who cannot love him/herself, can never love his/her other half.

And the same goes for people who usually have a relationship that works out wonderfully.

A person who splurges on himself would usually be able to splurge on the other half.
A person who is able to spend time with himself is usually able to spend time with the other half.
A person who is able to be open to herself about feelings and emotions is usually able to be as open to the other half.
A person who is able to love him/herself, can truly love his/her other half.

(Please pardon me if this sounds confusing. I am just voicing this out here, haphazardly. So please help me by providing comments. I want to clear this in my head too. :S It is a strong feeling that I am onto something really big here, and I want to get it right.)

This is usually the case, or rather, this IS THE CASE for everyone. Before we are in a relationship, we treat the other person as different, and that the other person has a different expectations. So, during "courtship" and dating, we change and adjust to match to that expectations.

BUT, when we become attached, Two Becomes One...or rather, Two Becomes YOU. And that is when, if you don't see this fact, the problem arises. You start to treat the other person the same way you treat yourself. You start to thing that, that person's expectation is actually your expectation of yourself. You start to treat that person the same way you treat yourself, thinking that person will not mind (and boy, are you wrong about that!).

That is when the challenges of relationship come about. And unless you are able to resolve this part, the problems will just keep mounting.

So what's the solution for this? My suggestion is, rather than working on the relationship, the focus of work should be on ourselves instead. The "war" is not with the External world (your other half), but rather is in the Internal world.

Do you truly care about yourself? Do you truly take good care of your own wellbeing? Do you feel good about yourself? Are you honest with yourself? Are you open to your emotions, whether negative or positive? Do you accept yourself, your strengths and weaknesses? Do you love yourself?

When was the last time you even had a conversation with yourself ABOUT yourself?

Your answers to the above question will determine the sort of relationship you will have.

If you truly care about yourself, your health and takes care of your own wellbeing, you would be able to take care of your other half's health and wellbeing.
If you feel good about yourself, you would be able to feel good about your other half.
If you are honest with yourself, you would be able to be honest to your other half.
If you are open to your own emotions, you would be able to be open to your other half about emotions.
If you are able to accept yourself, strengths and weaknesses, you would be able to accept your other half, strengths and weaknesses.
If you are able to love yourself, you would be able to love your other half.
If you are able to have a close, heart to heart conversation with yourself about yourself, you would be able to have a close, heart to heart converstaion with your other half.

I came to realise that whether a relationship works out or not, it is a choice of whether you want to work on yourself first, and never on what you can work on the other person. It is a choice whether you are willing to take responsibilities and take charge of yourself, and not on the other person. It is YOU first, before the other. You are the cause.

So, if you are always in a relationship where you get hurt, or where there are huge problems, it is because of YOU and only you. You created those problems.

BUT, if you are having a fulfilling relationship with your other half now, good for you! It is also because you have CREATED the results.

It is all you.

So my last question to you is this, when is the last time you have had a honest conversation, about your own life, about your own future, about your own happiness, about your feelings, with YOURSELF?

Regards,
Ken

(Pardon me too, if there are any spelling errors or grammar. So I can amend.)