The Game of 500

57 - New Blog

Moving house again. Here.

56 - Sudden Insight

Planning really, really is the key.

But planning can be very, very time-consuming.

Therefore the planning process must itself be done efficiently. The mind must focus during planning.

55 - Kids Goal

Applying Post 53 again, to the kids:

STEPS ONE TO THREE
For the rest of the year, I will constantly provide the kids with a rich learning environment and plenty of high-quality learning experiences, to help them grow and blossom.

STEP FOUR
1. Read constantly to them.
2. Take them out to the playground to play & exercise.
3. Play games with them, encouraging them to focus and concentrate on one activity at a time.
4. Encourage them to draw and colour.
5. Expand their vocabulary.
6. Expose them to math by playing games involving counting, sorting & patterns.
7. Take them out to interesting places.
8. Get them interested in puzzles and toys that require thinking.
9. Engage them musically by singing and encouraging them to sing.
10. Apply Doman's encyclopaedic methods, not by flash cards, but by Powerpoint.
11. Engage them in art & craft activities.
12. Introduce them to the Mandarin language.
13. Encourage motor skills through ball games.

STEP FIVE
Do at least one activity per day.

54 - Career Success

Applying Post 53 to my career:

STEPS ONE TO THREE
I want to be promoted in early 2007.

STEPS FOUR & FIVE

First:

1. Convince both bosses that I overwhelmingly deserve promotion.
2. Make it easy for them to convince their boss that I overwhelmingly deserve promotion.

Then, break it down:

3. Deliver outstanding performance, clearly superior to my peers.
4. Make sure that both bosses and their boss know it.

Define Outstanding Performance:

5. Handle complex deals well
6. Handle many complex deals
7. Handle important platform-building projects well
8. Handle many important platform-building projects

How Will The Bosses and Their Boss Know It?

9. Get involved in the biggest, most complex deals around. The rest follows naturally.

How to Get The Complex Deals & Platform-Building Projects

10. Volunteer.
11. Get rid of low-value work, freeing myself up to handle bigger things.
12. Create my own platform-building projects.
13. Do great work for the people who bring in the complex deals, so that they come automatically back to me for more.

How to Get Rid of Low-Value Work

14. Pass them to colleagues lower down the food chain.
15. Resist new low-value work.
16. Think big picture, and come up with permanent solutions to recurring issues in low-value work.
17. Complete low-value work fast.

How to Handle Complex Deals Well

18. Concentrate on results and efficiency.
19. Display strong technical expertise and knowledge.
20. Drive the deal, don't be driven. Move fast.

How to Display Strong Technical Expertise and Knowledge

21. Read a lot. Do research.
22. Organise knowledge and precedents well.

How to Create My Own Platform-Building Projects

23. Identify my key areas of responsibility.
24. Identify the biggest recurring issues in each area.
25. Do a project to clear up these issues.

53 - How to Succeed in Everything You Ever Want To Do

This is from Brian Tracy. Simple, rather self-evident and yet likely to be devastatingly effective, if you merely get around to applying it.

Step One - Decide Exactly What You Want.
Step Two - Write it Down.
Step Three - Set A Deadline.
Step Four - Make A List of Every Task You Can Think Of That You Need To Do to Achieve your Goal.
Step Five - Organise Your List Into A Plan.
Step Six - Take Action on Your Plan.
Step Seven - Do Something Every Day That Moves You Towards The Goal.

52 - Start With Imagination. Add a Dash of Optimism, A Few Pieces of Good Luck and a Lot of Hard Work ....

... where could I be in five years?

I could have earned my first million. Won the YAY award, and GPA two or three times. Published a book; maybe two. Daddy of three happy, brilliant children. Very fit, very healthy. A real meditator, and finding more peace and happiness. Creative, innovative and precise - having unlocked a greater portion of my mind's hidden powers. A top industry expert in my area of work. Regularly jamming music at a gig somewhere. A marathoner. And a very, very well-known commentator on politics and current affairs.

51 - Kids' Learning Log

50 - Investment Log

49 - Meditation Log

48 - Work Learning Log

47 - Fitness Log

46 - Kids

Spent some quality time with the kids last night. Little Boy drew a face - his first-ever real picture. We played bricks, read sentences, messed around with formboards.

45 - 360 Degrees Look at Life

This is going to be a rather long post because I have quite a lot of things to get out of my head and down on paper. As I write this I’m deliberately trying to frame everything in a more positive light, because sigh, I do need some psyching up.

So here I go, Mr Positive himself.

Lots of opportunities for growth and development are popping up everywhere in my life now. I am frankly feeling a little overwhelmed, but then these are good kinds of problems to have. You don’t grow unless you are yanked out of your comfort zone once in a while.

That’s what’s happening to me right now and importantly it is I who is choosing to be yanked. No one says that I must do all the things I’m doing – I chose this. My negative feelings derive, I think, more from the fact that there are so many exciting opportunities and avenues to explore right now that I cannot effectively explore all of them at one go. But that as I said is a good kind of problem.

Typing fast now, to get everything out of my head.

C, PB – Checked out their website but it doesn’t say much. I think the work could be interesting. Just went through the PB stuff at my own workplace. There would be quite a lot for me to learn – the learning curve would definitely be there. I have to remember to check out our own materials in greater depth at another time. Meanwhile no point thinking about the C, PB job any further.

CS – Readership sailed to an all-time high but we know why, don’t we. T*mmy. I think I was hitting an all-time high anyway but T*mmy pushed it to where it finished in February (11,000). I think I’m putting a lot of positive energy into CS but I think maybe I need to cool off. It’s eating too much of my time & brain juice. I should keep the purpose of CS firmly in sight. It’s not just about numbers. I’ll blog when I really have something to say.

Poetry (1) – Next step is to work with E of EP because that’s the honourable thing to do and besides I really don’t think that E of FF is going to move. Just forget E of FF, and move on. Priority now is to focus on the manuscript and the 15 May deadline. Immediate next step is to talk to E of EP on Friday and I should plan for that. Will put out more untested stuff out on RE and refer E of EP to it and see if he thinks they’re any good.

Poetry (2) – Everything else – new poems, GPA 2007, etc, just put aside for now.

Running – JPMCC is coming up. 5.6 km. Closing deadline for signing up is 31 March. I just signed up for this. 26 April is the event proper. Now I have a definite target to train for.

Kids – Here I must not compromise and I must strive to spend quality time with them even when I feel stretched in other areas of my life. I had specially chosen and set aside toys that I want to play with them – but I still haven’t touched them yet! I have not been giving Little Girl that much of my time & attention lately. This has to change.

Finance in a Nutshell – The structured reading programme doesn’t work. I need to read stuff that’s more specifically and directly related to what I am immediately tackling at work. But I also need some structure; otherwise there will be no discipline. I need to keep track of my career learning, both on-the-job and through self-study.

Career - Wrestling with this at the moment. I've been mindmapping about this and I got some clarity. Basically I'm aiming to learn; and I'm aiming for promotion; and both require me to put more focus and get more interested in my own work. I've basically worked out five key things I need to do for the rest of the year:

1. Get more efficient.
2. Build my knowledge and expertise.
3. Carve out some niches for myself - gold, repacks, REITS, SG.
4. Increase profile with key persons.
5. Contribute more ideas at department meetings.

44 - Running

Ran today. 4.5 km at a quick pace.

43 - Readjustment

Plans will be made in my notebook.

42 - State of Mind

Been feeling edgy and nervous this week. Think it's work-related. It's really piling up. I need to get a hold on this.

I have too many things growing in my life simultaneously. It's difficult to keep track. In a way, it's a good sort of problem, I suppose. But I keep feeling that I may drop the ball somewhere.

Need to do some readjustment.

41 - Mind & Body

Ran last night (a short one, but with speed) and meditated briefly this morning. Also spent some time reading with Little Boy yesterday.

40 - Upset Tummy

My tummy has not been feeling good since Sunday. Queasy. I wonder if it's something I ate, or whether it's some kind of stress reaction. It has been rather hectic at work recently.

39 - Meeting the Headhunter

So I met the headhunter last evening. Turns out that the position is C, Private Banking. It did sound interesting to me, but the thing is that on a logical assessment, there isn't much push for me to leave my current job. Right where I am, the money is good; I'm still learning; and people are generally nice.

Still Ms Headhunter and I talked and I think she found me an impressive candidate and she wanted to send me in for the job. So I said okay. No harm meeting her client and exploring the opportunity. At the least, I get a feel for the current market conditions.

She will be sending in my CV, and then we'll see how it goes.

38 - Longer-Term Goals to Keep in Sight

1. The LLM scholarship goal. New idea - contribute an article on derivatives to that website.

2. SCB 10K / JPMCC.

3. CS's readership has surpassed 10,000 for Feb. The March goals will be (a) to beat 11,000 and (b) focus on promoting CS to new readers.

4. Meditation.

5. Raise smart kids.

6. Focus on SG law.

7. The social mindscape speech.

37 - Immediate Next Steps

Just read through my whole blog. For the sake of clarity and convenience, I set out the next steps I need to work on. Deadline for these goals are 12 March 2006 (the second Sunday of March).

1. Get at least six poems out on RE.
2. Take two days of leave to rest and recharge.
3. Watch the rest of the DVDs on preschoolers education.
4. Work out a plan to improve my time management.
5. Work out a plan for shining at work.
6. Read another three chapters of the Nutshell Book in the 1st week of March.
7. Read another three chapters of the Nutshell Book in the 2nd week of March.
8. Run at least six times.

36 - Review of the February Goals

I had set myself some goals to be accomplished in the second half of February. Here they are again:

All are accomplished except Number 6. So I score six out of seven, a great job by me!

35 - Health & Fitness & Kids

Ran yesterday, a long one. From B Park all the way back home. February fitness goal accomplished!

Oh, and the whole family was at B Park. The goal of taking out the kids to have some outdoors fun is also accomplished.

34 - More on Poetry

Sent out full manuscript to (E of EP). Tidied on the poems on my thumbdrive. Also, I've decided to post even the dubious stuff on RE, and solicit feedback and comments.

33 - Poetry

Received email from (E of EP) saying that he would be happy to publish the book if I succeed in getting the publishing grant.

32 - Ran Again

Ran on Thursday evening. Need to run once more this week, in order to meet the February target.

31 - Career

So that coldcalling headhunter got me to agree to meet up for a chat on Monday. And I'm really wondering whether this is going to be worth the trouble, but ok fine, just this once I'll go. Anyway, it's always good to know a little about the current market, even if one is not seriously planning to make a move. The role is in the area of private banking.

I was busy at work today but it was actually fun when I really got down into the thick of things. Today I continued to learn about the hedging aspects of securitisation deals.

30 - Busy, Busy. A Round-Up

On Loving Myself

Work continues to keep me very busy. I should take a day off and get a break. Next Friday - 3 March.

A self-reminder. My strategy for the Game of 500 is to make a great number of small, minor, painless improvements, creating a synergistic and cumulative effect.

On Health & Fitness

Two more runs to go for this week. If I run today and once on the weekends, that would be fine.

On Family

Wife has fixed up dinner with my parents this Sunday evening. My dear wife.

Need to take the kids out for a walk one more time this week, to meet the February target. Aim to do it tonight.

Kids' education task - I will watch the rest of the DVDs on preschoolers.

Did flashcards with Little Girl again last night. She's having fun - she really likes this.

On Finance

DBS Shenton Income Fund is looking worse and worse. Feel like switching out. Something to think about.

On Career

The daily to-do list isn't working out for me very well. I need to rethink this.

The "Get Promoted" plan needs more focus on my part. How exactly do I intend to accomplish this?

On Poetry

Immediate poetry task - sort out the mess in my thumbdrive.

On CS

Hit an all-time monthly high this month, despite the month not being up yet.

29 - Number of Posts

I'm hitting approximately 30 posts in 2 weeks. At this rate, I will hit 500 posts in about eight months. Wow, that sure is quick. Wonder how much change I can really effect by then.

28 - These Publishers Are Fickle

ET says he's interested after all. He says he's stuck in in-camp training right now and wants to meet up when he's out.

I wish these publishers would make up their minds. I'm not feeling pleased - I'm feeling irritated.

27 - Work-Challenged Days

The last two days have been busy ones for me at work. I am doing quite a lot of work and moving things along. But more keeps coming in.

Took kids to playground on Monday and also got Little Boy to kick a ball around. Good for his motor skills. I also went jogging on Monday - a short one.

Also I read four chapters of the "Finance in a Nutshell" book. Subsequently I will blog about what I covered. The first few chapters are easy - I don't think that the subsequent chapters will be that easy. Also I'm basically glossing over the maths. It's enough for me to know the broad principles.

26 - High Productivity Day

I have designated today to be a High Productivity Day at work. With 3.5 hours left of the official working day, I might just still make it.

25 - Plans for CS

The goal is to build readership up to 10,000 by the end of May. The underlying purpose is to get people to think more critically about the news and issues of the day.

24 - Lunch with Dobyns

Had a quiet, peaceful lunch by myself today in a quiet, peaceful cafe. I read the poetry of Stephens Dobyn. Great stuff. He is the inspiration for the new directions I want to take in my poetry. Natural language, startling images, a truly imaginative approach to framing his subject matter. He offers so much to chew on.

23 - Evening Out with the Wife

Last evening, my wife and I went to the beach too. Without the kids, for once. We had a nice stroll and talked about things. Oh, and a great seafood dinner too.

22 - Educating the Kids

Last night, I finally got around to watching the two DVDs on preschoolers' education. I'd bought these quite some time ago. The Ministry of Education produced these with the intention that they be used as guides and resources for preschool teachers.

I didn't have time to watch everything. I watched the sections on music, art, maths and motor skills. I picked up a fair number of useful ideas, I should say. I think I need to get Little Boy (and Little Girl) more involved in physical games and such.

21 - More on the February Targets

This weekend, I did flashcards with Little Girl several times and so the flashcard goal is over-fulfilled. She seems to really enjoy these sessions. I also ran on Saturday. That means I have three runs to go, next week. Took the kids for a long walk and to the playground yesterday, so I have to bring them twice more in the coming week to meet my target (an obviously achievable one).

20 - March Investment

March is coming up and it's time to start thinking about where I want to make my next monthly investment. REITs is something to consider.

19 - The Finance Concepts

In Point 3 of my Post 9, I mentioned that for the sake of my career, I needed to beef up on my finance concepts (this incidentally will also help me in my own investments). Here's the book I planned to read.

To impose some discipline on myself, I need to develop some kind of reading schedule. The book has 30 chapters, so if I read three chapters a week, I finish in 10 weeks. So that's what I aim to do.

I don't necessarily have to pay a lot of attention to each chapter. The materials in some chapters will already be familiar to me. In other chapters, I may not know the stuff but it may not really be relevant to what I do and what I need to know, so I will just go through those parts cursorily.

Week 1 begins next week.

18 - The February Targets

In mid-February, I set myself certain goals to be accomplished by end February. I'm at the halfway mark - and this is the progress so far:

1. Run at least six times. (Ran twice so far)
2. Upload at least two more poems on RE. (Done - 3 poems went up)
3. Do flashcards with Little Girl at least five times. (Thrice so far).
4. Do the fund transfers to Finatiq. (Done)
5. Bring the kids to the playground or for long walks at least three times. (Zero)
6. Do a daily to-do list of tasks at work, focusing on top priority tasks. (So far so good, about seven more working days to go).
7. Read my new Enneagram book and note the ideas for personal growth. (Done)

17 - Back to GPA

In a sense, perhaps there is a positive angle to this whole experience with PT accepting, then rejecting my manuscript for publication. Perhaps what the universe wants is for me to focus on GPA 2007. And write poems at a higher standard than GPA has ever seen so far. That certainly is a worthy challenge.

16 - Book Reviews

I'm unusually enterprising these days. I told PT about my CS blog and said that if he sent me free books, I would review them on CS. Positive reviews not guaranteed, I said - I would express only my genuine opinions (but of course). He sounded keen about the idea and said that he would send me some books.

Well, I don't know this man very well so I don't know whether I can take his words seriously. But this could be the start of something new for CS - book reviews. And lots of free books for Joe Dogger, since if this gets established, Joe Dogger can look forward to free books from other publishers as well.

15 - Moving Right On

I shall not waste time feeling disappointed with PT. And also I shall not permit ET to continue being a loose end. I emailed ET today and said politely that I take it that the on-&-off-&-on-again deal is off, and this time for good, and that we all move on from here. And today I have also mailed the manuscript off to another publisher, EPG. Let's see how it goes.

14 - A Literary Setback

As I suspected, PT pulled out. He emailed me yesterday with a long, apologetic note. In brief, he's not interested in publishing the book anymore.

13 - On Poetry

I have a gift and I'm not making proper use of it. I've not been writing new stuff for a long time. I keep getting distracted by thoughts about how to get my (unpublished) old stuff published. These distractions are preventing me from doing what I really want to do - write new stuff, and take my creative writing to a new level. I want to use GPA 2007 as my motivation to write. But right now it isn't really happening.

Today I just emailed PT and nudged him a little further along the process of publishing B&M. It still seems a little too good to be true that a publisher is going to publish my book. So I won't believe it yet.

One constructive step that I see I can take is sort out the mess of poems in my thumbdrive. Then I will have a clearer picture of how much good, unpublished material I have left; and some ideas of what I can do with it. And then I can move forward.

RE will remain the storehouse for the most definitive versions of my poems. Or rather, the most definitive versions for the poems that ARE found there (since not all my poems are found there).

12 - Plans for Health

The basics are well-known, but every now and then, it's helpful to revisit the basics, and the Health Promotion Board is a decent source.

I plan to do some reading up for my own benefit, on the most common major diseases, and their risk factors, and how those risk factors can be reduced. I'm thinking of small, convenient and useful behaviours that I can make habitual. That's a project.

Meanwhile this year I will exercise regularly by running, swimming and doing yoga. I'm aiming to run the 10K race in December under 45 minutes. Swimming I want to continue with this year, because this is the last year my office will be in its current location and I probably won't have such easy access to a pool in future.

Yoga has been an idea at the back of my mind for the longest time, but I've never gotten around to it, but I have a few ideas on how to make myself do it. I see it more as a supplement to my running and swimming.

Nutrition - well, I take Vitamin C and consume fruits regularly. That's all I can say at the moment. I'm sure I can make improvements, but again it's likely that I need to properly educate myself first.

11 - Plans for the Personal Finances

If I aim to invest about $60,000 of my bonus money and time the investments over the remaining course of the year, then that means I should invest about $6,000 per month (beginning from March). That should be the minimum sum I invest each month, since I should also have excess cash from each month's salary.

When deciding on my investments, I should really make more use of this resource - SG Funds.

I should also get a little more defensive in my investments in view of the uncertainty currently prevailing over my wife's employment situation. I am quite confident that things will probably work out fine - she is highly marketable anyway - but just to be cautious, I should make sure I build the cash component of my portfolio somewhat.

10 - Plans for the Family

My plans for the family fall into two main areas. The first area is kids-related. To put it broadly, I want to give my kids every opportunity to blossom and grow.

As luck would have it, yesterday I chanced upon this book in the bookstore and I bought it. I have browsed through it and I think it will serve as an invaluable resource of ideas for stimulating, educational activities for Little Boy. (Little Girl is too young for this book, but I have other resources for her). I like this book because it focuses on all-round development.

The book aside, one area that I want to focus on for Little Boy (which is not discussed in the book) is the Mandarin language.

For Little Girl, the questions of what and how to teach are easier, since I've had the past experience of teaching Little Boy at this age. Little Girl is also growing nicely and developing well, generally beating her milestones. I do intend to spend more time reading to Little Girl. And if Little Boy is interrupting these sessions, I'll have to take Little Girl aside and read to her in a separate room.

The second area of my family plans relates to sex. Heheh. I want to spice up my wife's and my sex life. But I don't think I want to blog about this here.

9 - Plans for my Career

Today I went off for a long lunch by myself to get some serious thinking done. And I did. Made some plans, set some goals and generated some ideas. For all areas of my life. Firstly, here are some of my thoughts on my career:

(1) I see that Singapore is going to be Home Base for me indefinitely. So even though I work in a regional role now, it is critically important for me to stay in touch with Singapore law as far as the banking & finance industry is concerned. There have been interesting legal developments here but I have not really kept myself current. I need to rectify this. Immediately I will start a new Singapore file to collect relevant reading materials.

(2) My main career goal in 2006 will be to deliver outstanding performance at work and place myself in a position to be considered for promotion again in early 2007. This is going to be tricky because I just got promoted this year and am not a natural candidate to be considered for promotion again so soon. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I will really have to be outstanding though. I have to outshine My Peers; competently handle some Significant Projects, and more importantly (I tend to forget this bit) be SEEN to be competently handling those Significant Projects.

(3) My next goal is to build my knowledge of finance concepts. This is my current Achilles heel. I'm a lawyer working in a bank - I know the law but I actually have no official, professional training in pure finance. Fortunately the way forward is clear and straightforward. I recently purchased a finance textbook which looks succinct yet comprehensive. If I read it from start to finish, I'll be in good shape and this goal will have been achieved.

(4) The academia/scholarship idea continues, but I'm keeping it on the backburner. Maybe next year is the year; maybe a better time would be 2008. We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'll just look out for opportunities to augment my scholarship chances. It would be important to look out for opportunities to speak at conferences or write articles for industry publications. This would improve my scholarship hopes.

8 – Instant Progress

This method (of setting short-term and very specific goals) may work for me. I experienced instant motivation to get things done.

Yesterday I went jogging. That’s 1/6 of the way towards Goal 1. I uploaded two poems (including one which I’ve felt somewhat dubious about, but readers’ comments were quite positive. Goal 2 is accomplished.

I did flashcards with Little Girl (that’s 20% of Goal 3 achieved). Moved $10,000 to Finatiq today, which is the maximum permissible in a day. I had a to-do list for yesterday and I have one for today.

At home I read my new Enneagram book and I think that I will move straight to the Level 3 development idea. Essentially, my personality type has the deep, ingrained fear that I may run short of resources (time, energy, knowledge etc) to deal with the challenges of life. So what I’ll do is monitor myself and rationally tackle that issue emanating from deep down in my head.

7 - Starters

For starters, I will set myself some short-term and very specific goals, to be accomplished in the next two weeks (that is, by end February). All of these are clearly achievable, if I simply put in the effort.

1. Run at least six times.
2. Upload at least two more poems on RE.
3. Do flashcards with Little Girl at least five times.
4. Do the fund transfers to Finatiq.
5. Bring the kids to the playground or for long walks at least three times.
6. Do a daily to-do list of tasks at work, focusing on top priority tasks.
7. Read my new Enneagram book and note the ideas for personal growth.

6 - Goal-Setting Principles

Some key principles.

Balance - I want to pursue goals in different areas of my life; that creates balance.

Focus - I can't have too many goals, otherwise my energies will be scattered and I will end up achieving little.

Flexibility - I don't want to get so focused that I fail to see new opportunities emerging around me.

Commitment - I need to be committed to my goals. Giving up too easily leads to nothing but wasted effort.

Tricky game, this goal-setting business. All the principles are competing principles.

The key will lie in the Pareto Principle. There is no ideal or permanent solution; the situation is perpetually dynamic. The strategy will be to keep doing the most important things as they pop up. Don't let the little things distract.

5 - A Bit of Tarot Amusement Today

That's my personality card - the Wheel of Fortune. What does it mean?
#10 - Wheel of Fortune

If your tarot number adds up to 10, your personality is represented by the Wheel of Fortune. Opportunity and new horizons keep your life spinning with regular change and new perspectives. You gather experiences from all walks of life and mold them into new prospects for your future. Creative communication and a willingness to move on are integral parts of your personality. Getting stuck in a rut drives you crazy, and if you ever feel trapped, the faster you shake things up the better. The world never stops, and neither can you. Wheel of Fortune types expect good fortune to come their way, and thus it always does.
And my soul card is the Magician:

#1 - The Magician

If your tarot number adds up to 1, your soul is represented by the Magician. Visionary and inspirational, you’re the person people go to for new ideas. You’ve got the uncanny ability to turn your ideas into reality – or at least get others so excited that they turn your ideas into reality. Focus is a key to your success. If you put your mind to something in a serious way, you’re almost assured that it will become a reality. Communications and clear quick thinking are your gifts. Magic is nothing more than the manipulation of energy to one’s will. At their best, Magician types are masters of manipulation.

4 - Tracking Progress

I have decided to track my progress in rather extensive detail, in a notebook which I shall carry along with me frequently. It's more convenient for just jotting things down in a jiffy. Periodically I shall just take the entries as a whole and summarise them here in this blog.

3 - One Step At A Time

Last week I went through a period of self-doubt. Fortunately I think I've mostly worked through those issues in my head by now. Although I am striving for tremendous improvement, I am not striving to do so by making painful, drastic and extreme changes. My strategy will be to make small, minor, painless improvements, and a great many of them, such that their effect is synergistic and cumulative.

2 - Kids

Yesterday, I made the effort to spend some quality playtime with the kids. I rummaged through the boxes and got them some playdough and some bricks to play with. We had fun. The Little Boy in particular is now old enough to get creative with things built with bricks.

The kids have lots of good, interesting toys that can engage their minds, but we'd packed away lots of these toys and made them inaccessible. The original idea was that we'd only make a small selection of toys available at any time (otherwise the kids would just mess up the whole place), but that we'd rotate and change the selection of toys ever so often, for variety's sake.

Well, we didn't get around to doing the rotation very often. I have to remember to do that more regularly. Better still, I'll specifically make time to play with the kids and I will personally dig out toys which they haven't touched for some time.

Play is how kids learn. And playtime is also bonding time between a dad and his kids.

What am I aiming for here? To be a great daddy to my kids; to give them lots of love and care and security; and, for the rest of their lives, memories of a warm, happy childhood.

And I want to raise them to be smart too, very smart. One step at a time.

1 - The Game of 500

The Game of 500 is a serious personal experiment. The quest is to massively change my life for the better, in every possible way. I will regularly record my progress and plans in this blog. The deadline is the 500th post from today.

I am aiming for personal growth, development, fulfilment, success and greater meaning in every area of my life. That includes family, career, health, the spiritual, finances, recreation, social contribution and my creative pursuits.

My target is not minor improvement. My target is TREMENDOUS CHANGE, for the better. I don't exactly know how I'm going to do all that. But I will work it out along the way.

This is Post 1, in the Game of 500. By Post No. 500, I want my life to have blossomed brilliantly in a way that I can scarcely imagine today.