CARRIET24

LALA

Name:
Location: Singapore

My Name is C A R R I E. There is nothing wrong with my name. If you think you know me, read my blog and think again. I'm imperfect but I'm Lovin' it. I'm the only witness and the only person who can judge my life

Saturday, January 19, 2008

an overview of LMS

After the weeks of LMS lessons, i have indeed learnt alot and benfitted from all the teachings in Life Mangement Skills. I have to admit though, LMS classes aren't always a bed of roses, there are parts where the lessons get abit dry with all those terms. Nevertheless, i feel that LMS is still enjoyable and it's a really practical module as i am able to apply what i have learnt, like managing anger and conflict. All in all, after the ardous journey of learning, application is the most important tool and i'm proud to say that i have applied what i learnt in my LMS class :)


knowing myself


As i remember vaugely, the first lesson was about self-esteem and self-awareness. Basically, this lesson taught me to understand myself at a greater depth. Often, we always claim that we understand ourselves better than what anyone else could. Well, it can be true but how often do we really reflect over our mistakes to allow us to learn and grow from it, to understand ourselves better? Also, i have learnt what my personality exactly is from the Johari window. From my personality, i understand why am i able to open up to others while some can't. In a way, it helps me to be more sensitive to other's feelings because a person's personality leads to their emotions and feelings. Not only have i learnt about self-awareness, i have also learnt about a person's self-esteem. A person's self-esteem is equally important as well as it builds up their confidence level and it helps the person to achieve a greater height.
afterall, before i allow others to know me, i should understand myself first :)



Time and Priority Management

With 24 hours a day, it still seems little to many of us as we often face tremendous work load. I often complain of having insufficient time to complete my work and that i have so many other things to do like shopping, tutorials, other projects. And due to the fact i'm unable to finish my work, i will get frustrated and throw my temper. In this lesson of time and priority, i was taught how to manage my time and priorities right. For example i learnt how to set my priorities right and how to utilise my 24 hours (minus sleeping hours) properly. From this lesson it gave me an insight that at times, it isn't having a large workload just that i myself procrastinate too much and ended up piling all the work. Frankly speaking, i still do not have the habit yet to construct an activity log but nevertheless, i am still able to mentally sort out what should come before what and etc. In addition, by setting specific goals to what i'm doing helps alot as i feel that certain drive to complete my work and that satisfaction i have completed it!

Also, it isn't all that an easy feat to be able to identify the obstacles to the completion of tasks.

At times, i feel i might even overlook that a certain thing is an obstacle which would hinder my progress, but oh well, "no pain, no gain" :)



Managing Anger

Anger is defined as natural emotional response to perceived frustration, threats, disappointments, and stress. It is natural and not foreign to all of us. Instead, it is somewhat familiar to us as anger resides in us all.

Especially for me, as i am more of a straight-forward person, whatever i'm unhappy with or whatever i'm angry about i would just show out my displeasure through mincing words, cold muderous stares or even resort to pulling punches. This is to vent my anger and my frustration on that particular someone.

Fortunately, im not short tempered and neither will i get angry over peanuts, hence, my anger is somewhat under control for fear of it blaring out loud.

What's useful to me about managing anger i have learnt is that it taught me again about the triggers to anger. Although even the noblest could not get rid of anger, at least after learning managing anger, i am more able to know what triggered me to be angry. At times it would be entirely due to cognitive distortions which lead to my outburst. For example i might be thinking, "She must have been super angry with me and now, shes so gonna tell others how wicked i m and etc". This thinking would add fuel to fire and drive me to a higher level of anger and resentment.

As there are people with difference in their characters and personality, all i could do from now on is to apply how to cool down and not resort to cognitive distortions to further fuel my anger. Hence, whenever i feel like slapping that someone or soclding that someone, i would take a step back to cool myself down. Afterall, in some cases, because of anger, it led to a situation far worse than what it already is.

Managing anger is important as is helps me to cool down and think before i act. Afterall, who doesn't want to live life happily. If i were to choose, i would rather choose to cool down and smile at the end of the day rather than to get rash-headed and still angry at the end of the day :)



Understanding You and Me

To understand each other, the most important tool would be communication and to communicate, we should listen to each other. We often hear this "can you listen to me? im talking to you". This is an example of ineffective listening which would often result in miscommunication and then lead to disagreements ad quarrels. Effective listening helps both parties as it often beings them closer to one another. By just silently listening to another's woes or happiness, we could often tell what character this person has. Of course, by providing that listening ear to our friends give them the message that they are not alone and that they have people behind supporting whatever they have done.

I feel that, when a person is willing to share his/her sorrows with you, it means alot. And also, i feel that once someone opens up to you, the person doesn't requires much comments, the person just needs someone there to confide in, someone there to listen to his/her burdens.

Don't be taken aback when just by being a simple listening ear, it helps a person alot more than what you can imagine,



Managing Conflict
Conflicts are all part and parcel of life, it is inevitable and natural. I believe that nobody lives in this world without having any form of conflict. Well, before i stepped into the class for managing conflict, i deem conflict as "quarrels", just any form of "quarrels". After the class, i have learnt that there are various forms of conflicts such as Workplace conflict, Relationship conflict, Structural conflicts, Inter-racial conflict, Data conflicts, Interest-based conflicts, Value-based conflicts and etc. From Managing Conflict, i have been exposed to the fact that conflicts might not necessarily be bad. It sounds contradictive but conflicts do help to strengthen bonds and relationships between the conflicting parties. In a way, both parties would get to understand each other better and history would not repeat itself again. Also, conflicts promote gorup cohesion and conflicts promotes creativity. It sounded all strange to me in the first place as to how can conflicts ever be good? But after reading on, i withdrew my earlier thought.

basically, there are five conflict management style, - the turtle, the shark, the teddy bear, the fox and the owl. It sounds wierd but actually it isn't. All the animals are just names to represent each different management style. Bascially, i see myself more of a teddy bear and owl. At times, i do feel lyke having a conflict as i would get to know how much i mean to that person yet i still value the relationship alot. I'm willing to collaborate at times and accomodate at times. I know that at times it is tough to achieve the win-win situation of a conflict but i would try to get the best out of the both worlds. In a way, it would benefit both parties from all the hustle and bustle which occured.



Managing Fear

Everyone has their own little dirty secret about fear that even someone very close to us may not know. Fear. A simple yet powerful word. Fear of heights, Fear of animals, Fear of pain etc etc etc. There is just so many fear residing in this world. In this lesson i have learnt of a way to overcome my fear. In a way, fear is just an obstacle in our life, a hurdle to get through. Once we have gotten through it, it doesn't seem as scary as before. Like once i have a fear for something, i would write it down somewhere, then i would continue with the reasons why i am fearful of it, followed by how would i overcome the fear. This step by step procedure do help me to overcome certain fears as i know why am i afraid of it. Although it requires a long period of time to get over the fear, it is still helpful to me to get rid of the fear slowly. :)



In conlcusion, over the past few weeks in LMS class, i have learnt alot of practical and useful life skills. Not to mention, i have found several great friends as well. In addition, in LMS, it really taught me to look deeper into myself, to understand myself better, to really get to know in a given situation, what should i do. Like when i get angry or i meet with a conflict, i would just walk away, take a deep breath and slowly manage my anger, conflicts, fear and also slowly listen to others and to set my time and priorities right.

It might seem boring to others about why are we learning all these, but trust me, it is a lesson of a lifetime. I have learnt many useful applications which i believe have benefitted me greatly in my personal or work life :)

Thursday, November 1, 2007

the first post.

Self-awareness and self-esteem. Something which is so simple yet goes un-noticed by none other than ourselves. Posed a question, what's self awareness and self esteem ? What good will they do us ? Somehow these might be some reasons as to why they go un-noticed. Touching upon the more "theoretical" self awareness simply means to be aware of one self meaning to say to be able to understand who you are, the value you have instilled and your perception of the world - or rather- the society. self esteem simply is about the confidence level in ourselves, our own self worth and what we would like to "perceive ourseleves" as.

What's so great about learning all these is that firstly (as what i have mentioned earlier), in my opinion, it brings out the more so called "undiscussed" issue about oneself. It is only when we are somehow being forced to anaylze ourselves through various circumstances, that's when i think that we are able to truly understand ourselves and what we need. In the first lesson, i was somehow able to realise how "open" i am towards the people around me through the means of the Johari window. Contrary to what i perceive myself as conservative, i began to ponder, i don't think i'm really conservative. I'm able to open up to people about almost anything under the sun and the friends around me seems to know me rather well for i am able to even share my personal secrets (i asked around for opinions :x) Then what about self-esteem? Somehow i didn't really know that being a perfectionist is a tool to hide our own self-esteem. I perceived myself as a perfectionist for everything i want to get it done would have to be perfect or else i would want to redo everything again. What's meaningful is that to refrain from suffering from low self esteem, i would have to be optimistic and somehow happy-go-lucky in a way. It doesn't matter if it's a rainy day for i know that the sun would be up pretty soon or perhaps even a rainbow. It would do no good to just sit by and moan or grieve, learn to take things in our own stride and i believe in our eyes, the world might just be another better place.

Being in the performing arts, my task is to perform. Perhaps due to the perfectionist in me or my supposedly low-self esteem, negative thoughts would just stream in like "Oh no, i'm seriously not good enough" or even body language like the tensing of the body or the breaking out in cold sweat aka stage fright. However, at a deeper level, what caused my stage fright? My self-esteem. True to belief, practice makes perfect but there are times whereby the subconcious mind is so much more powerful. Even though I might have practiced hard enough, subconciously, if i tell myself "no, i can't do it", then the result would turn out to be not that great or even disasterous. Especially when put into a new environment and we have to introduce ourselves, I would be paranoid of what would people think of me, how am i like all these negative thoughts. Regarding this, I'm pretty sure all of us have had these kind of experiences before. One thing that i have an upper hand is that i was once a president of my CCA in Secondary School for 2 consecutive years. I guess this was the platform to make me not to be so afraid of speaking in public. Yet, the fear somehow still lies there for i think, no one is completely immune to speaking up especially in what i call, "alien" environment. Yet, i still have to control. I think the best way is to tell myself "yes, i can do it", take a deep breath and face the world. Somehow this will work. Instead of thinking, "No, can't, unable", i have to think "Yes, can, able". The subconcious mind really does wonders. I'll still be nervous and afraid but i know that if i tell myself yes i can, at least, i wouldn't screw things up or make myself feel worse :)

Imagining myself 5 years later. I wouldn't be a student (i think) but out there working. I guess i would imagine myself to be a career women with confidence :) I'm still not that confident enough, i'll get all jittery and my voice will be soft if i do a presentation now. But i reckon - or rather- i hope, 5 years from now, i would be someone speaking to a group of people i don't know confidently and amaze them. It would be tough but all i can do is to build up my self confidence by speaking up more often than not :) Socializing and networking would also help to boost up my interpersonal skills and my communication skills as well.

"before i want people to know me, i should know myself first"

Friday, October 19, 2007

HELLO

HELLO !!!! WEE HEE >.<