Chester’s Tips for Success

If you consider yourself an intelligent, highly capable, and confident individual who has many interests and skills then you’re probably a capable dabbler. Capable dabblers are an interesting breed; despite their many strengths and interests, they have difficulty picking something to focus on. People who fit this category tend to have an ever burgeoning pool of interests and a desire to do and experience everything they possibly can. This is something that I’ve been dealing with all my life and though I’ve gotten better at managing my dabbling tendencies, it’s still a challenge I face every day.

Having been born and raised in America during the latter part of the 20th Century, I was raised with the belief that I could do or be anything I wanted so long as I put my mind to the task and worked really, really hard.  The manifesto of limitless possibilities and grandiose dreams was a cultural 180 from what my parents grew up with in post WWII Taiwan.  Instead of Nike commercials telling us to “Just Do It”, my parents were raised with the “Don’t Do It” mentality that’s common among East Asian societies.  I remember numerous moments in my childhood when my parents would say something along the lines of, “You don’t know how lucky you are to be in America.  When I was a little boy/girl my parents…” The conversation usually continued with my parents sharing harrowing stories about beatings involving sticks, paper back books, belts and backscratchers for not excelling in every subject.  My parents would tell me, with a hint of envy, how lucky I am to have been born in America, the mecca of opportunity.

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Tags:   Career Development · Twentysomethings · Words of WisdomNo Comments.

This is the speech I wrote a few weeks back for my weekly Toastmasters meeting.  Something about the transience of life got to me and I felt compelled to write about it.  Enjoy!

The average life span of an American male is around 74 years and for a female, it’s 79. According to a German survey conducted in 2005, the average person living approximately 79 years spends one third of their life or approximately 26 years sleeping, 6 months on the toilet, 2 years going to school, 7 years working, 5 years doing housework, 5 years eating and drinking and 5-10 years on the TV and Computer. Unbelievable huh? If you feel the need to get up out of your chair and bolt out of the room to go and do something, I won’t hold it against you. Life really is too short.

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Tags:   Inspiration · ToastmastersNo Comments.

Here’s my second speech from the Competent Communicator manual. It seems my difficulty is in keeping things within the time limit. If I aim for a sub 900 word speech, (this speech is about 1350) I think that might get things in under 7 minutes.

Title of the Speech: Better Than You Think
Enjoy!

Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and most welcome guests. Have you ever woken up and wished there was a reset button, or a giant bottle of white out that you could pour out over all the dirty, messy gunk in your life?

Well it happened to me not too long ago, a few years back during the latter half of my high school career. I was in the thick of things: my mother was laid off; my father, who had been out of work since I began high school, was diagnosed with prostate cancer; and my sister, still a freshman in high school, looked like E.T.’s sister, with her right eye floating where her forehead should have been because of a tumor in her face the size of my fist. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I got rejected by a girl I liked who confessed, “I’m not into smart guys.”

I was crippled by every bit of insecurity a boy of seventeen could have. And though I walked around with a veneer of hope and optimism, I was raw and hurt on the inside, a glass pane ready to shatter.

Things didn’t change immediately, but they did improve as I met more people, heard more stories. During my freshman year in college, I met Douglas, a man who taught ex-convicts and parolees marketable skills so they could find decent paying jobs that would keep them off the streets. When I asked Douglas why he was doing the work he was doing, he said, “Because I was there once, I remember what it was like.” Douglas, at the ripe age of fourteen, was among the wealthiest and most successful drug dealers in his neighborhood. He had the women, the cars and more money than his fourteen year old mind could dream of spending. At one point Douglas had seven Mercedes Benzes lined up outside his half million dollar home. Douglas was living the high life. He smiled as he retold the story, his big lips widening as he spoke, “Until I got hit.”

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Tags:   Inspiration · Motivational Speeches · ToastmastersNo Comments.

“I feel the need. The need for speed.”
–Maverick

A memorable line from the very entertaining movie Top Gun. But my reference here has nothing to do with flying fighter jets or racing in general. When I say the need for speed, I’m referring to the need for everything in life to be fast and immediate.

There’s Not Enough Time

Recently I’ve been reading A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle, a bestselling author and spiritual teacher. You can check out his website here . The book is about the need to let go of the ego and become aware of our Being (aka Presence) that comes before the ego and without which the ego could not exist. He likens this to achieving a greater awareness from unconscious living, i.e. simply reacting, to conscious living, i.e. being.

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Tags:   Virtues · Words of WisdomNo Comments.

If you asked a typical 20 something professional whether or not they are a good communicator, chances are they are going to say yes. The term “good communicator” is vague enough to allow for pretty much everyone to say yes without blatantly lying.

Being a young 20 something, I’m always on the look out for new opportunities and occasionally I’ll scan job postings to see what’s out there. So far, I’ve yet to see a job posting that has failed to list “good communication skills” as one of the job requirements.

If most job postings require good communicators, it’s no wonder why everyone thinks they are good communicators. If you got the job, you must be a good communicator right?

Well… not quite.

First off, most job posts I’ve seen make sure to emphasize the requirement of good written and verbal communication skills. While both are extremely important, they are by no means the only means of communication. There’s also body language and one of its subsets: facial expressions.

In my own experience, it seems that successful people, especially those that are considered “good communicators” are usually good at speaking with their body and most particularly with their faces. I’ve heard of smiling described as a person’s most lethal weapon. Though it may sound silly, I don’t think the assessment is very far off.

In my current job as a reporter, I’ve met a whole range of people, from technicians, educators, diplomats, entertainers etc. The people that I’ve felt good about have generally been people that I’ve respected.

Tags:   CommunicationNo Comments.

The day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday,” is traditionally a big spending day, a buying bonanza for shoppers.  Likewise it is also an extremely important day for retailers.  Apparently some retailers make over 50% of their sales between Thanksgiving Day and New Years Day.  I just heard on the radio that this year “Black Friday” is more like “Grave Friday” given the depressing economic conditions that retailers have been facing.  Charitable donations to organizations like the Salvation Army are down 20% while need is almost double its normal levels.

Shopping during the holiday season is second nature for many.  Cost conscious buyers line up in front of their chosen stores on Thanksgiving Day to wait in line and get the best deals retailers have to offer.  Get what you want and save money while doing it, what could be better?  Personally, I’ve never waited on a line for those outrageous deals retailers offer around this time of year, but I’m sure it’s enticing enough for some.  It’s easier not to think about those things right now since I don’t have excess cash to spend anyways.

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Tags:   Smart Money Tips · TwentysomethingsNo Comments.

Over the last few weeks, since I’ve started following a daily writing regimen, I’ve come across a few realizations about the relationship between personality and creative endeavors that have startled me. A few months back I met a film maker who said he wrote for ten hours a day, five days a week. This sounded incredibly difficult to me, but I believed him because I was working on his first feature film. Being the ambitious, anything-is-possible person that I am, I decided to follow his example and pursue my own ten hour a day writing regimen. I learned a big lesson: what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another, at least not without some training and development. I usually burned out around 6-8 hours.

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Tags:   MBTI · Strengths1 Comment

Budgeting is both a skill and practice that isn’t usually taught in school but is indispensable to life.  Even if you happen to strike gold or win the lottery, budgeting is a skill that you want in your toolkit because it will help you preserve your wealth in the long run, which will help you lead a happy and financially stable future.

I first started budgeting my expenses and income in college when I was working part time as a career counselor and research assistant in addition to my school work and extra curricular activities.  Budgeting was a means for me to keep track of my income and expenses, helping me to avoid overspending and credit card debt.  Credit card debit is a young person’s worst financial nightmare (it also happens to be one reason why financial institutions are failing, but that’s another story for another time).  I wrote about my experience with credit card debt and the process I went through to eliminate my debt and develop a solid financial plan for my future.  You can read it here.  

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Tags:   Personal Finance · Smart Money Tips1 Comment

In yesterday’s post, Three Reasons for Practicing Consistent Action, I outlined three reasons for practicing consistent action.  For today’s post I wanted to share some tips and bits of wisdom that I’ve picked up that helps in practicing consistency.

1. Think Before You Act - This is an easy one.  It’s something that I used to hear all the time from my parents.  Things like: Don’t touch the oven it’s hot! Don’t touch the electric circuit, you’ll get electrocuted! Don’t walk into the street without looking both ways, or you’ll get hit by a car!  Parents tend to exaggerate negative outcomes in an effort to protect their children.  And yet most children, despite what their parents say, end up doing exactly what their parents warned them not to do.

A mystery?  Maybe.  But I think the more plausible reason is that children tend not to think before they act; kids are more impulsive than adults because their instincts are less honed.  That’s why kids are encouraged to make mistakes early on; the hope is that by the time they become adults, they’ll have learned their lesson and can make better choices and decisions.

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Tags:   Personal DevelopmentNo Comments.

Consistency of thought and action is something that I’ve always wanted to develop. Being the spur-of-the-moment, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of guy that I am, consistency is not something that comes to me naturally. But the older I get the more I’ve become aware of how important consistency is to successful living.

Here are three reasons for practicing consistent actions:

1. Practicing Consistent Action Leads to Better Results -

If you try to do less, you’ll be more successful in the few things you do.  I promise.  Being an overachiever for most of my younger years, I always bit off more than I could feasibly chew.  I took more advanced classes, participated in more activities and tried out more majors than any right minded student should.  As a result I always felt like I was being pulled too thin and had trouble realizing the level of achievement that I was hoping for.

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Tags:   Personal Development1 Comment