6/9/05

Today I feel so dumb. I thought my new comp is going to come today, so yesterday, I unplugged my old comp and attached my old harddisk to the external case. But.... I got the date wrong!!!. Its next weeeeeeek. So how? I plugged everything. If not, I cannot do my work. Super dumb + poor sense of dates.

In the morning, a feeling of challenged. Its the NTUC BEST challenge. So what happened? Anyway its a business simulation game where we need to decide on a few inputs like advertising blar blar blar and see how my company fare against other companies. Bad start, bottom of the table for the first 4 rounds. But, we strive, we schemed, we pit our brains against all odds. We climbed slowly and slowly, we eat other companies up!! We managed to get out of the bottom pit and climb up 4 ranks. Ermmmmm there were 15 teams haha. Our company went for the differentiator strategy but it seems like its hard to sustain performance haha. GAmes aren't good for strategic training eh? Any good PC business games to recommend?

I need to do work at night, have not been able to sleep and do work well these 2 days because of the computer excitment haa. I'm crazy. Now i'll have to wait one more week!! How much can i endure? haa

Slice of life

Managing Conflict with Family & Friends (2)

In the last programme, we discussed how negative self-talk can cause us to react angrily to the actions and statements of family members and friends.

We talked about how you might be upset over your spouse's extravagant gift for you perhaps - you telling yourself things like "she has such poor judgment", "we don't need such a big TV", "there she goes again, spending money excessively", "why can't she ever do what I want her to do?", "why did I marry such a woman?"

Of course, none of these things make any sense to you once you cool down and became your rational self again. But, at the moment of anger explosion, your self-statements seem 100% true to you. If you engage excessively in them, you distance yourself from your loved ones who are baffled at your outbursts. Over time, you may even begin to believe in some of the damaging statements.

The next time anger threatens to spoil a family event, try these simple steps:

Step 1: Retreat and think things over. Never respond immediately to a family anger or stress trigger. Give your body and your mind a chance to calm down so you can think rationally. Research shows this may take at least 20 minutes.

Step 2: Examine the evidence. The most convincing way of disputing negative self-talk toward a family member is to show yourself it is factually incorrect. Do not lie to yourself, but-like a detective -simply and honestly look at all the evidence at hand.

For instance, when you allow yourself the time to calm down and look at things objectively, you'll realize that past experience proves that your spouse isn't extravagant with money, and is in fact usually frugal. You remember that she always has your best interests at heart.

Step 3: Find a more positive and useful way of interpreting the behaviour of family members. Learn to read the intention behind the behaviour instead of judging the action. Your loved one is only trying to show his or her love and support for you, not to cause you stress.