The Power of Music

“Music is the universal language of mankind” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


“Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.” - E. Y. Harburg

This post was composed while I was listening to my favorite music and songs. Without it, I was dozing off. Well, according to Science Daily, Music could be a way that the brain sharpens its ability to anticipate events and sustain attention.

“Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert." - Pat Conroy

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without” - Confucius

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." - Billy Joel

Baroque music (those that are of 60 beats per minute) has been known can accelerate learning, and enhances both short-term and long-term memory.

Besides, Music does bring people together and it does have healing power. There were experiments that have evidence that Baroque music actually increases the growth of plants, while acid rock kills plants! So be very careful with the type of music you listen to. There is power in Music!

What to do you think? Do you agree?

Photo 1 by JaxPhotography taken from this source
Photo 2 by Living Through the Lens taken from this source

Related posts:

• Hear or Listen? - Listen with your ears
• Learn to Rest and Relax. It is necessary!
• Don't Worry Be Happy

Emotional Intelligence versus I.Q.

In this last decade, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that emotional awareness and the abilities to handle feelings are much more important than I.Q.

Either you control your emotions, or they control you.

Studies have shown there was very little correlation between a child's success in examinations and his/her success in adult life.

At best, I.Q. contributes 20% to the factors that determine life's success, which leaves 80% to other forces - Emotional Intelligence.

"Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it drives many of our daily actions." - Freedman et al.

"What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills - your EQ - not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests." - Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

Below is an I.Q. game. If you are interested, try it out. Do share the lessons you had acquired from this IQ game!

Can you help them cross over the river?

(I had adapted this IQ game post with permission from this source)

Below are the rules that apply for this IQ game.

1. Only 2 persons on the raft at a time
2. The father can not stay with any of the daughters without their mother’s presence
3. The mother can not stay with any of the sons without their father’s presence
4. The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member if the Policeman is not there
5. Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft
6. To start click on the big blue circle on the right.
7. To move the people click on them.
8. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

Click the above screen to load the game and then 開始 button to start the game.

Photo by slark taken from this source

Related posts:

• Competence Starts with feeling competent
• You must take action
• Action generates inspiration
• Know yourself well
• Pay attention to your thinking
  

The Power of Expectation

"Patients tend to heal in accordance with their expectations."

Research is showing the power of expectations, that they have physical not just psychological effects on your health. - CBS News

A doctor can take a placebo and tell a patient that it is a powerful medicine, and the patient will react as though the actual medicine had been taken. Of course, this does not work all of the time. If it did, no one would need to take any medicine at all. It does, however, work with a significant percentage of success.

"Life is largely a matter of expectation." - Horace

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy." - Brian Tracy

"Your expectation opens or closes the doors of your supply. If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you, your supply will correspond with your expectation." - Orison Swett Marden

"We tend to live up to our expectations." - Earl Nightingale

“Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.” - Ralph Marston

Photo 1 by Rigor & Samnooshka taken from this source
Photo 2 by stylishjo taken from this source

Related posts:

• The Importance of Planning
• Equip yourself with the necessary tools
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
• Raise your standards
• Commit to Excellence

Condition your mind for success

In some mysterious way the subconscious mind tends to actualize what we visualize. So, even when the roof is caving in, picture yourself as a giant success.

"To win a race, you must first win it in your mind."

“Great athletes train their minds as well as their bodies. There are various mental conditioning techniques many use when preparing for an event. Perhaps the best known technique is visualization, creating a mental image not only of the desired result (the gold medal, a new world record, a hole-in-one), but also of every move that will be taken en route to the ultimate goal.”

I had started another blog with this objective; that is to help you condition your mind using images or photos. For example, if you were to mimic this photo and you will feel like laughing. Try it!

Photo by frogarythm taken from this source

Related posts:

• Belief System
• Control your thoughts
• There are no limitations

Remember to put on your thinking cap

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking." - George Patton

“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” - William James

"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week." - George Bernard Shaw

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” - Oscar Wilde

Photo by Wearn taken from this source

Related posts:

• Don't Worry Be Happy
• Control your thoughts
• Thinking is hard work
• Think and Grow Rich
• There are no limitations
• Pay attention to your thinking

How smart are you?

To outperform someone else - even if that person is "smarter" than you - is to increase your own Mental Performance Ratio - the percentage of your total mental capacity that you are putting to use.

"A man can learn only two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people." - Will Rogers

"Smart men put up with small annoyances, to gain larger rewards later."

Worker smarter, not just harder!

"The harder and smarter we work, the luckier we get - and the more we live."

"It's never smart to act better or wiser than those around us."

"A mark of a smart employer: he hires men smarter than himself."

"I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am." - Henry J. Kaiser

"Heed woman. They're smarter than men. They know less, but understand more." - Anonymous

What do you think?

Photo by unity.project taken from this source

Related posts:

• Who is the wise man?
• Continuous Learning is a must
• Be kind to one another
• Be smart but not overconfident
• Good Communication Skill

Pay attention to your thinking

The wise man thinks before acting and the fool thinks after it.

Whenever a man falls, it is usually at the point where he thinks he is strong.

The higher a man goes the narrower becomes his thinking. Therefore, watch out.

“A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes. Those who know how to think need no teachers.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Thought is action in rehearsal. Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest.

Every thought we think is creating our future.

A change for the better always starts with a change of thinking.

Photo by The Albanian taken from this source

Related posts:

• Thinking is hard work
• Think and Grow Rich
• Control your thoughts

Anger Prevention Kit

A match stick has a head, but it does not have a brain.

Therefore, whenever there is a little friction, it flares up immediately. Now, at times the effects of this flaring up can be devastating as it can engulf a whole lot of many things and play havoc and cause destruction.

We have a lesson to learn from this tiny match-stick. All of us have heads. And unlike the match-stick, we have brains as well. Therefore, our wisdom lies in not reacting on impulse - a habit of great importance when managing people.

Photo by AndiH taken from this source

Related posts:

• Angry? - Calm down to remain wise
• Forgives one another
• Be Responsible
• How to response to Stress

Master your mind

"The mind is like the stomach. It not how much you put into it, but how much it digests." - Albert Jay Nock

"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." - Napolean Hill

To sharpen your mind, select a topic and force yourself to keep talking about it for 10 minutes without stopping. That develops concentration, observation, memory, will power and fluency.

My mind is my greatest gift but it is also my worst enemy.

A great improvement can be achieved as long as we spend some time to improve our mental skills and building our mind.

Photo by jm3 taken from this source

Related posts:

• Control your thoughts
• Belief System
• Have an open mind
• Renew your mind

Renew your mind

Your mind is a "Thoughts Factory". You are the production manager. It can produce either positive or negative thoughts. Ideas of others are your raw materials.

Let new thoughts make you a new man. Be ye renewed by the renewing of your mind.

Changing our thoughts and attitudes requires effort. But anything that doesn't require effort isn't worth having.

Photo by Tub Gurnard taken from this source

Use Your Head

A great improvement can be achieved as long as we spend some time to improve our mental skills and building our mind.

The more you use your brain, the more you have. Using it, wakes up idle brain cells. Below is Sudoku game which makes us use more of our head.