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By nigelchua, April 10, 2013 8:06 pm

This story was shared recently during a City Harvest Church service on 23^rd February 2013, but I intrigued, I went to do more research on it. Apparently it’s been told by Christian speakers and pastors as early as 1955 when Billy Graham told a variation of it earlier in his ministry.

Here’s how the story goes:

Two men are standing in front of a painting called “CheckMate” in an art gallery. In the painting, a , a king and his advisor-magician is playing chess. The magician is supposed to be the devil. The devil is smiling and grinning from ear-to-ear because he has the other man, the king, cornered.

The title of the painting, “CheckMate” seems to imply that the game is over, and from the smile that the devil has, it seems that the devil has won because he has the king cornered. That the king has no more moves and is locked. And that is the common story told to everyone who looks at the painting.

The first man went on to look at other paintings in the gallery, but the second man was intrigued by the title and the chess game drawn. You see, he’s an international chess champion, so he stayed and stared and studied the chess board on the picture. There was something wrong, and he kept trying to look for the answer.

He took so long that the first man had already seen the entire gallery and came back to the “CheckMate” picture, and saw the second man still there, smiling. When he saw him walking over, he beckon him over excitedly and shares with the first man…

“The perception is not right! The king has one more move!”

The chess champion said again – “it’s not checkmate. The king has one more move.”

As I look at the picture, it doesn’t seem to me that the devil was smiling, nor did the king look like he was overwhelmed. The devil, in green on the left, looked unsure and afraid that the king wouldn’t buy his bluff, and seemed to show that he was planning more stuff. The king, on the other hand, looked entirely at the board only and totally focused on the board.

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By nigelchua, March 24, 2013 6:16 pm

You can only have three choices or approaches that you can take in life:

• Give up
• Give in
• Give it all you’ve got

Both the first two options, which are giving up and giving in are the most common options that people take.What they do is that they tell themselves things like “It’s too hard/I can’t do it/I’m too stupid, I’m too ____ (insert excuse of choice here)” or a combination of that. These are the people who choose to let go of their visions, dreams, ideals, drives, hopes and whatever is and was meaningful to them because of setbacks, difficulties, boringness/unexcitement or whatever the reason is.

They chose to let go. They chose to let their eyes glaze over, and zonk out. They chose to sleep in. They chose to not do anything to bring them closer to their dreams. They chose to bury their hopes.

The other group of people, are the people who never say die. They may fall occasionally. They may cry in anguish amidst the pain, but they press on. They fight and they press in and they push forward and they push forward some more. They don’t give up. They are relentless.

I’d like to suggest you pick up this new characteristic of being relentless. What www.dictionary.com defines being relentless as:

adjective

that does not relent; unyieldingly severe, strict, or harsh; unrelenting: a relentless enemy.

Origin:
1585–95; relent + -less

Related forms
re·lent·less·ly, adverb
re·lent·less·ness, noun

Synonyms
rigid, unbending, obdurate, adamant, unyielding. See inflexible.

So that means that you do not relent, you do not yield, you are strict and harsh and hard and unending. You don’t give up on yourself, you don’t give up on your dreams, you don’t give up on your hope.

You don’t give up.

You hold fast to what you believe in, you hold fast to your truths and dreams. Even if you fall today, right now, and you bleed or you cry. Once you’re done bleeding and crying, you pick yourself up, clean your wounds and dry your eyes, and you press on in again, towards your dream.

Every step matters. Do it right now. Take steps towards your dreams. It doesn’t matter if it’s just one step. Or if it’s just one step an hour. As long as you keep pressing in. You are unstoppable. You are relentless.

It’s all within you already, you’ve got to give it your 100%. Giving your 100% means to hold nothing back. You’re letting go the floodgates and you’re overrunning your tasks, your challenges, your enemies. You’re pushing your boundaries. You’re pressing close to fatigue.You fear you will faint or die before you get there, but you won’t die or faint.

You know what? You have all it takes. You will do it. You will get there. You are relentless.

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By nigelchua, March 17, 2013 5:51 pm

Earlier in March 2013 (I think 2nd March 2013), Louise and myself went to a bag shop in Golden Shoe called Chop Chip Huat to look for a bag, as my bag had started to fray and breakdown at the seams.

We were browsing through the bags and looking for specific ones that I really liked, and I went down to the technical details and technicalities of what kind of specs I prefer in a back pack such as

• sturdy, wide and well-padded shoulder straps
• a back support that is breathable
• presence of hip support and strap-locks
• overall bag must be light
• bag must be able to last at least 5 years if not to, returnable for maintenance
• 50 liters and above
• pleasant looking
• bag must be able to open by zip, and zip must be at least half the perimeter of the bag
• support strap to hold the bag’s contents together
• needs to have a quick access compartment

As you can see, the list was pretty long, but not only were the workers there friendly and patient, even the boss himself was friendly and patient. No rush, no push, just relaxed service. The boss shared quite interesting points which were pleasantly surprising for me, which were:

The reason why he takes his time to share on the bags – he’s passionate about bags, having done it for more than 30 years. His modus operandi is to help us find the right bags that lasts….such that we’ll be so happy and tell more people about his services and bags.

I won’t deny that I was impressed. I like his cool, unfrazzled and friendly style, and he was also generous, opting to give me a rain cover for my bag for free, as well as a nice discount.

Wanna know the bag I bought?

It’s called MountainSmith – it’s an American-made bag. Very light, very sturdy, meets all my requirements as above, and more. It’s a little more expensive that what I had budgeted for, as I had originally budgeted $150. The bag original price is $265, and uncle gave me a sweet discount, which I’m not sure I should share as I don’t want to create expectations from my readers nor put the nice boss uncle in a tight spot.

An advice is if you’re looking for a bag, go visit the uncle at his shop (I’ll post his shop address below) with some ideas of what you want in a bag, and once you’ve found your bag, don’t be afraid or shy to ask him for a discount. Negotiate a little and he should try to find a sweet spot for both parties =)

Shop: Chop Chip HuatAddress: 505 Golden Mile Food Centre, Beach Road, #02-151-154, 159-162, Singapore 199583
Tel: 6292 4636
Fax: 6294 0362

The uncle’s name is Jefferey Yap, Mobile is 98235520

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By nigelchua, March 9, 2013 3:31 pm

Earlier this year, in January 2013, I decided to partner with an old buddy of mine, Suki, to help him run and grow his creative advertising agency called Pixel Monster LLP. The company started since 2011, which he launched after his earlier venture called Fat Pixel Pte Ltd dissolved.

To be frank, it wasn’t a quick decision on my part.

I took my time to ponder, I looked at the Profit and Loss, their accounts. I looked at their previous works and the companies that they had served before.

And I concluded that I definitely can trust Suki’s creative judgments and abilities.

Suki and his creative team are masterful artisans in the digital advertising and marketing world, and they have created beautiful and amazing creative ad work which have great functionality too, helping companies to either make more or save more or both. Read more

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By nigelchua, February 28, 2013 10:33 am

Whew, today is already February the 28th, and that marks close to the end of February. Time really flies, doesn’t it? If you calculate the total number of days of January and February 2013, which is 59 days, and divide it over the total number of days in 2013, which is 365, that’d mean that we have had effectively used 16.1% of 2013.

Application-wise, have you progressed at least 16.1% in the goals you have set? It doesn’t matter if it’s in areas such as business, personal development, spiritual walk, whatever. Let’s get down to details, and get focused.

Let’s say for 2013, you want to save $10,000.

By now, have you saved $1,610? That’s a very focused and sharp way of setting and achieving a financial goal. Of course, multiply according to the levels you wish to achieve, be it $100,000 or $1,000,000 or beyod.

We can also apply to our businesses. Let’s say you have a business now, and it’s earning you grossly $10,000 per month, and net per month is about $3,000. And you want to increase your nett profit to $6,000, which is 100% growth. At 16.1% progress, have you already reached $3,483 net profit by the end of February 2013?

And this applies to all the goals that you had set for 2013.

If you’ve not progressed as much, as much 16.1% – two questions. Is there any progress at all? Or if there is some progress but not much? Either ways are fine, but it’s time to push and move and growth. Time to focus on growth.