Empowerment!

It’s a tiring day. For me and perhaps for everyone in the venture unit who stayed in school until 10 in the evening. Did make a lot of progress today when comes to the planning portion for the group camp 2008. However, the meetings seem to be getting longer and longer as we spent more time into the finer points of the planning progress. And this seems to be draining the committee members out. I guess now it will be a compromise between being democratic versus efficiency of the committee. I may have to adopt a more directive role during the meetings to ensure that meeting time will be cut short. But this also means that it may stifle their creativity to a certain extent? Will see how it goes.. putting thoughts into it…

Okay. Did some pioneering yesterday and manage to build the suspension bridge with the ventures. It is the first time that we built such a bridge and I really applauded the ventures for the skills. (definitely better than us when we were 18 =)). I believed that they will outdo and outshine us – something that I personally hope to achieve so that the unit will always be progressing forward.

Some pictures of the pioneering session:

Pegging the pegs - it gets tougher as you go deeper.

adding on the railings for the bridge.

Beautiful work by choon lian and moo teng on the railings too.

End product.

Let's test the strength of the bridge. All up on the bridge! look at how much it has sagged.

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Came across this blog entry from Tricia’s blog – a fellow AK coach.

COACHING!
Tricia Ang
29 Dec 2007

To me, coaching is a very meaningful job. First of all, I like working with kids. Though sometimes I’ll have to work with rebellious, naughty kids, it hasn’t stopped me from having this passion of coaching. It is from these camps and coaches that the kids get to learn things out of their textbooks, step out of their comfort zone and learn to work with one another to achieve their common goals. As a coach, I am learning together with them. The sense of satisfaction seeing them laugh their hearts out during camps, bonding together as a team and making improvements be it as individuals or as a group, is beyond words. its something valuable and irreplaceable.

As a coach, I am constantly growing as a person. I learnt many things from the AK coaching family. Their culture is one of a kind. Although I’ve only been coaching for a few camps, I have grown to be more matured and have started living in this world instead of merely existing. I’ve learnt to take up responsibility, set goals in life and living life to the fullest each day. I see things from different perspectives and learnt to analyze things before making decisions. I do things differently and handle things better than before. I start building up on my confidence level and im now a more optimistic person. Most importantly, i learnt to treasure the people around me more and not take things for granted. As compared to the old me, I am a complete new person I would say.
Past does not equal future.

I just coached a camp recently. I had this real problematic kid. Initially I really wanted to give up. However, something inside me tell me NO! It was just after a few seconds of thoughts going through my mind that I felt totally different. Why see it as a problem? Why not treat it as a challenge and a time for me to stretch out of my comfort zone. At the end of the camp, I received an appreciation note from this camper and it says: thank you for helping to change I will try my best. its all these little things that keep me going.

There are times when the going gets tough in my coaching life. I get rebellious campers, campers that refuse to cooperation and sometimes campers that stir trouble. In the past, I’ll see all these as problems and tend to give up easily. I’ll complain why is it that I am the one that gets all this shit while other coaches get all the angel campers. However, I see things with a different light now. Event (10%) + Response (90%) = Outcome. Focus on the solution and not the problem. Treat these problems as challenges and not obstacles. It all boils down to attitude.

Choices have consequences. Choose your thoughts and you’ll feel differently.
Definitely its also the OE coaching family. thank you for supporting me in times of need, giving me opportunities, helping me to improve and making my coaching journey so enjoyable.

I can relate well with this entry of hers. AK coaching culture has always been encouraging and uplifting that it draws people back to its camps. I believe that the coaches and participants derive some values from it that make them want to go back. Similarly, it also has been my aim to build the unit with the ventures to one that develops people from within in a positive environment. I will always remember this mantra – 2 things in life that will shape your life – the books you read and the people you meet and associate with. We will strive to make the venture unit into one where like-minded people congregates and grow together. The environment should be an encouraging and motivational one too.

I am who I am today because I have 2 persons who always believe that I will be someone great – Melissa and my scouter John Poon. And looking at the ventures – all of them have what it takes to become someone great – and they need affirmations from their peers that they can succeed. Your thoughts shape your life and positive injections from your surroundings( your friends) will reinforce that. Negative injections on the other hand will crumble that. And it doesn't kill one to encourage another, although I agree that it is always easier to discourage and belittle someone. It takes greater strength and courage to do the former. Who do you want to be?

Shifting Gears

1 more month to Final exams. Shall give my last burst of fire and endure this painful 5 weeks. As most of you should have known by now, the first half of the sem wasn't fantastic and right now I'll have to put in double the effort. Have not been practising what I preached about consistent work and thus minimal effort. Will apply this the next sem so that everything will be paced out evenly. Thus have to JB, prob the manual will have to come in after my exams. No time to look into that right now.

Morphing into a mugger right now. study till rather late every night and starting to feel a bit burned out from the everyday 8am - 11pm mugging hours. I guess this is inevitable if i am going for my scholarship.

Lastly, ANCHOR WORDS, for those people who has trouble keeping themselves focus. Anchor words are words that you specially chose and it trigger off certin set of emotions/ feelings when you say it out. For instance, my anchor word is discipline or 4.5 (CAP). When I say out either of the words, I will feel recharged and find myself with the motivation to carry on. This is especially true for me who gets distracted very easily.

Below is an article on anchors. Read it if you are interested. See ya soon.

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ANCHORING WITH NLP
Adam Eason

TThere was some sunshine this weekend while I was writing this! At least here on the sunny south coast of England there was. I went out walking along the sea front with my partner Sara on Saturday morning and it was wonderful; the feeling of sunshine on my face, the smell of the air, the sites of other people out and about and happy, the local land train was shuttling people and their excited children back and forth from Bournemouth pier to Boscombe Pier and my senses were filled � a major event for human neurophysiology (mine anyway!)

The funny thing is, later on that evening when my friends were joking about my pink coloured forehead, I told them that I was really looking forward to summer and as I spoke, I felt the sun on me, imagined the fun I was going to have on the beach, remembered the smell, the amazing feeling of joy that I get from being there, just by anticipating it all.

A natural phenomenon we can replicate with NLP techniques. NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming, which is just a methodology for helping make changes. We shorten it to NLP for easy understanding.

Without realising it, the time I had spent on the sea front earlier that day had acted as an anchor for the wonderful experience which immediately followed it. The next time I saw & heard the experience, albeit in my mind, my neurology went "I know what happens now" and started to produce the intense physical responses that it 'knew' were coming next.

In the field of NLP, an anchor is any representation in the human nervous system that triggers any other representation. For instance, the word 'sex' will immediately trigger images, sounds etc associated with that word. The word 'chocolate' will trigger different associations. I am not too sure which of those will create the most intense feelings though! These words are anchors. Anchors do not have to be words, they can be a wide range of things.

With NLP, we identify that anchors can operate in any representational system (ie. sight, sound, feeling, smell, taste.) Let me give you some examples;

Tonal: By that, I mean for example, the special way a certain person has of saying your name, like when a friend or family member says it. My mother shouting my name from the depths of my home when I was a child often signalled the fact that she had discovered something that I had done that meant trouble for me! "Adam!" often made me feel what I was in store for.

Tactile: The effect of a certain type of handshake for example, or the sensation of a reassuring hug compared to a loving cuddle. Rekindles all kinds of wonderful feelings.

Visual: The way people respond to certain items of clothing. I recently had lunch with a group of my friends from the town where I grew up and several of them commented on the jacket I was wearing. Now, whenever they see it, it reminds them of those comments and makes them smile.

Olfactory: Like when you smell a certain kind of food being cooked can suddenly have you remembering a time when you were in the school cafeteria.

Gustatory: The taste of your favourite food or the way certain foods can make you remember how you felt when you had it before. Maybe like when you were given soup and a big helping of love and sympathy when you were young and off school because you were poorly. I know every time I eat Heinz Tomato soup it reminds me of just that.


Once again, in the field of NLP, an anchor is any representation in the human nervous system that triggers any other representation. It is conceptually similar to Pavlovian conditioning (ie. bells and salivating dogs; some of Pavlovs findings feature in the field of NLP.

While the anchor I created for the sea front was unintentional, it is possible for you to use this NLP tecnique to anchor yourself intentionally. Have a go at this and learn this NLP technique for yourself��

Fistly, think of an occasion when you had a highly pleasurable, positive or enjoyable experience. See what you saw then (looking out through your own eyes), hear what you heard and feel what you felt. As you feel the sensations increase in intensity, squeeze the thumb & forefinger of your left hand gently together for a few moments, then release them. Now 'break your state' (Eg. by remembering what you had for lunch yesterday.) Squeeze your thumb & forefinger together again, gently pulsing them. The state will return.

To make the most of anchoring with NLP, it is important to really engage in the experience and make it wonderfully vivid in your mind and to then also put effort into recalling it when you first activate your NLP anchor for a few times. Imagine how powerful this can be when you want to feel wonderful if you are home, feeling gloomy. Instead of reaching for the chocolate, you can start to activate your "feel good" anchor.

Every time you want to get motivated to exercise, just activate your enthusiasm anchor. It is a really simple technique of NLP.

This is a simple but powerful NLP technique that can enable you to have access to the states and resources you want, when you want them. The use of thumb & forefinger is an example of a tactile anchor, but you can use any representation to anchor something for yourself or someone else.

Guidelines for setting anchors with NLP;

In order to get a 'strong' anchor for an experience, it is important to

a) Ensure that you have a powerful example of the experience to work with.

b) Anchor in as many representational systems as possible (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, etc).

c) Set the anchor just before the experience peaks.

d) When you activate the anchor, do it accurately. Be precise!

e) With tactile (kinaesthetic) anchors, pulsing the anchor can help to maintain the experience

One of the people who came on one of my NLP training courses was particularly taken with the idea of anchoring. Shortly after the NLP training, one morning his wife offered to make him a cup of tea, and as she did so, he gently tapped the side of his cup with his ring. He repeated this the next few times she made him a cup of tea. After a while, all he had to do was tap the side of his cup subtly with his ring & she would spontaneously offer to get him a cup of tea!! Very Naughty use of NLP, Eh?! Just by creating a sensory representation (tapping the cup) that coincided with her making tea, he was soon able to use that representation as a trigger for what he wanted. He did eventually share his NLP anchoring experience with his wife and you can be sure he makes a lot more tea than she does now!

Now I know that by now some of you may be thinking "But isn't that manipulative?!?" One answer is "Yes, so use it for doing good stuff!"
Another answer is "no." It is no more manipulative than making yourself look good and smell nice when you go out. In those situations you are trying to get people to think the best of you and have a good response to you, a response that you are attempting to anchor through your choice of clothing, grooming and smelly perfume.

Here are some of the sorts of things that I go out of my way to use NLP to anchor whenever I see them or experience them:

- Smiles.

- Laughter.

- Excitement

- Confidence

- Good feelings

- Good performance (especially by waiters & waitresses!)

- Anything that looks good, useful or fun; Achievement and success are especially useful for stopping smoking, reducing weight or growing in confidence.

It's happening all the time anyway:

As I said at the beginning, anchoring with NLP is a naturally occurring phenomenon anyway. You are exposed to it all the time in everything you do. Everyone is doing this stuff all the time, often without really knowing it. All I am inviting you to do is to become conscious of the anchors that you and others are setting (maybe using NLP), and to start using them purposefully to get good results, rather than randomly to get whatever you get. Use NLP with mindfulness.

Taking this a step further;

Recently, I was working with a team of related staff members with regards to doing some NLP consulting with them. I asked them how they would know that the two days had been a great success. One of them said it would have a 'feel good factor' and simultaneously made a gesture with both hands towards his tummy. When I repeated the words 'feel good factor' to him, he nodded in confirmation. Later on, I referred to the feel good factor, and simultaneously used his gesture. Instead of a nod of confirmation, I got a full physiological response, including skin colour changes, posture and energy changes�the full works. His words had been a good anchor, but the words plus the gesture were far more complete. When I used both, I got a full response. I continued to use the anchor throughout the consultation. At no time was he aware that I was using NLP & his anchors � he just had the experience of being really well understood.

You can use NLP anchors to capture and re-use positive experiences for yourself & others. Now have a go at doing this NLP exercise too�

1) Think of an occasion when you had a highly pleasurable, positive or enjoyable experience. See what you saw then (looking out through your own eyes), hear what you heard and feel what you felt. As you feel the sensations increase in intensity, squeeze the thumb & forefinger of your left hand gently together for a few moments, then release them. Now 'break your state' (Eg. by remembering what shoe you put on first today.) Squeeze your thumb & forefinger together again, gently pulsing them. The state will return.

2) Identify something that someone you know already does, and create a subtle anchor. Set the anchor while they are doing the activity. Later, fire your NLP anchor and see what happens. If they do the thing you anchored, then it worked!

3) When you (or someone you are with) are experiencing something you want to have more of, anchor it.

As usual, remember that this stuff is powerful so use your NLP skills wisely. As well, allow yourself to start becoming aware of when it is being used on you. Advertisers, politicians and stand-up comedians all know the power of NLP anchors and use them with great cunning (and to great effect.) Awareness with NLP is the key � have fun.

Long weekend

Last weekend was indeed an enjoyable one. 3 days of paddling, 1 night of scouts camp, 1 night of birthday partying and 1 last night of “dating” with mel. =)

:Scouts:
Am rather sad that one of the new ventures is leaving. But some things can’t be helped. All the best for her future endeavors.

I am also currently coming up with something which the ventures will feel proud of. For those who attended the sec3 camp, you probably had seen the first prototype - a dragon venture scout woggle that is going to be handmade by the individual ventures. Was thinking of making the woggle commercially but guess the price is a bit on the steep side. Have to abandon the idea. However, while I was walking home the other day, an idea struck- how about making it from metal wire. Then begin to search the net for wire sculpture/ wire art. Did not manage to find a lot of information from the web though. Nevertheless, started working on it and came up with 4 designs. Details wise will be released in due time. =P

:Paddling:
Conducted a 1 star course for the year ones of the PJC sprint team on Good Friday. A fun loving group and an easy one to coach. Am amazed by the stringency in the sprinting community. Din know that they are not allowed to consume fast food and heard that another school has egg regime and endless runs every morning to build up their so called muscles and fitness. Scary. I was thinking – is regimentation the only way to develop someone to his/her fullest potential in the shortest time? Ain’t there other ways and means to do it? No room for democracy too?

On the contrary, the 2nd course was a challenge for me. I started to question myself what makes a good coach. Many a times I feel that I can add more value to the course but my emotions tend to get the better of me. If the class does not have the motivation to learn, my motivation to coach drops. But is that the right way to go? Much room for improvement I guess.

:Dating:
Realised that I have not been going out much with Mel besides having dinners together. The dinner at fish and co and the window shopping at PS was a relief from the hectic schedule I have. Really enjoy such times together with Mel. Thank you Mel, Appreciate that =).

Birthday Girl

Her family and mine =)

Guess that’s all. Random and incoherent thoughts I have here. =O

Lecture missed

OVERSLEPT.

The Scoutmaster

The Scoutmaster
Edgar R. Guest

There isn't any pay for you, you serve without reward,
The boys who tramp the fields with you but little could afford.
And yet your pay is richer far than those who toil for gold,
For in a dozen different ways your service shall be told.

You'll read it in the faces of a Troop of growing boys,
You'll read it in the pleasure of a dozen manly joys,
And down the distant future you will surely read it then,
Emblazoned thru the service of a band of loyal men.

Five years of willing labor and of brothering a Troop,
Five years of trudging highways, with the Indian cry and whoop,
Five years of campfires burning, not alone for pleasure's sake,
But the future generation which the boys are soon to make.

They have no gold to give you, but when age comes on to you
They'll give you back the splendid things you taught them how to do
They'll give you rich contentment and a thrill of honest pride
And you'll see the nation prosper, and you'll all be satisfied.

Indeed, time invested into scouting will never bring about monetary returns. The journey of scoutmastership is never easy but it is definitely a fulfilling path to trek on. It is the belief that I am able to make a difference in someone else’s life that keep me in the movement.

However, I don’t know how much longer will I be able to contribute to the movement but for the time I am in, you will definitely expect a 101% from me. =)

Yours in Scouting,
Crazy Spinner 

focus regained!

scouting - guiding principles for my life

Focus!

to be fulfilled.

It's been a long time since i last posted. Thanks for all the concerns with regards to my previous post. Focus regained but more effort will definitely has to be put in to pull my grades up again. Rather satisfied with my grades so far for MST. 1 more paper tomorrow and that’s it for MST. For the remainder of the term, focus will be on 3 areas – Melissa( sorry for neglecting you for the past few weeks), venture scouting + group camp preparation and school work. Will be staying in school every day to catch up on recent topics. Anyone who wish to join me can message me =P.

Kudos to ventures for performing exceptionally well for jobweek. Am really proud of them. Their enthusiasm and positivity are commendable. You have proven yourself to the unit and the camaraderie exhibited has touched my heart too.

Guess that’s all. Back to mug. =)

Outdated photo albums coming ahead.

kayaking expedition from Pasir Ris WV to Sembawang end part.

100th month anniversary: to the zoo!!!