Christmas Tree Decked with Guilt-free Treats

Click here and indulge in products by Marigold.

Light Up with AZEL MONO LED Lamp

For more of Aztech Group's products, please click here.

Embrace Lifelong Learning

Photo credits: Lifelong Learning Exploration Centre

Photo credits: Lifelong Learning Exploration Centre

What Does Your Boss Want From You?

The list may well include productivity, consistency, reliability, high quality work, quickness, honour (deference), and ..... right at the end, loyalty. Honestly, he would get a canine or bowwow if loyalty is the name of the game.

And, if your boss happens to be a legendary Superboss in the likes of George Lucas, Mary Kay Ash, Larry Ellison and Ralph Lauren, what would he or she want from you?

Photo credits: matthewssteer.com.au

Based on his reviews of numerous articles and books as well as more than 200 interviews conducted, Sydney Finkelstein surmised that Superbosses value these 3 attributes the most:

a) Intelligence;b) Creativity; and c) Flexibility.

Daily Refreshing would say that Intelligence encompasses Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Agility and other soft skills such as the ability to lead, communicate, suss out the truth, ask incisive questions, organise, delegate and supervise.

Creativity would entail being a thought leader and innovator who expands his vistas and extends his horizon to do things with a fresh and invigorating perspective and give birth to new products or services.

Flexibility or agility is now in vogue for business folks with catchphrase such as "Adapt or perish". George Bernard Shaw has well noted that: "Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” Albert Einstein went even further to state that: "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

In case you are wondering whether you have the privilege of working for a Superboss (and become one yourself someday, if you learn to survive under their tutelage), Finkelstein have grouped them into 3 types for you to identity as follows:

A) Glorious Bastards 

- Care only about winning; ultimate hard drivers.

B) Nurturers

- Bring others along and care deeply about their success.

C) Iconoclasts (think "Icon")

- Inspires with their single-minded passion in their creative fields.

The power of change in your own hands. It is not your bosses' job to change you, especially when you are resistant to change or seek to get off the hook by spouting that you do not wish to change for the sake of change.

Renew your mind, and change for the better. Your best is yet to be. It's all up to you.

"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." -- Carl Rogers

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -- Barack Obama

Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and the author of Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master The Flow of Talent (Portfolio/Penguin, 2016)

Bibliography:

pages 104 to 107, Harvard Business Review (January - February 2016)

Coolest Scooter Sighted Thus Far

The following scooter takes the cake as the most stunning scooter that I have come across thus far. Check it out and imagine riding it into the golden sunset. 

Hand-crafted Cards from Vietnam

If you are looking for hand-made cards with a unique 3-D topping such as the following exhibit, please click here and let this artisan of cards brighten up your imagination.

The Top 10 Most Read Books

Photo credit: The Truth Bookroom

If you are interested to explore The Truth Bookroom, please click here.

How To Be A Great Teacher

Photo credit: Chizzle

If you are interested to know more about Chizzle, please click here.

Within Your Mental Vision You Are UNBREAKABLE

If you are in need of a perk-up or you are an aspiring athlete, this Unbreakable clip would serve you well.

Click here to pump up.

Interestingly, Joseph Schooling was featured in the clip before he became a Rio 2016 Olympic champion by winning the 100m butterfly event on 13 August 2016 ahead of American great Michael Phelps, South Africa's Chad le Clos and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh.

Click here to watch Joseph Schooling's triumph.

Food That Improve the Synapses In Your Brain

If, like me, you wanna know the food that improve the synapses in your brain, then you may wanna do a Google search.

My search has landed at www.foodnetwork.ca with the following results on "12 Foods That Improve Short-Term Memory", namely:

1. Salmon
2. Blueberries
3. Capers
4. Whole Grains
5. Chewing Gum
6. Broccoli
7. Dark Chocolate
8. Coffee
9. Eggs
10. Sage
11. Pumpkin Seeds
12. Tomatoes

Please click here to read up in more details.

I wonder why pumpkin seeds only and not the whole pumpkin, as well. Chewing gum was a revelation but, of course, you won't be ingesting it.

Cool Vespa Scooters

Vespa scooters have a timeless appeal and the following two recent sightings have been refreshing for me:

The Race Is Not To The Swift

"I returned and saw under the sun that—

The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all." -- Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NKJV)

The One Thing That You Need To Teach Your Child

What is the one thing that you need to teach your child?

Overhead, the suggested answer is to teach your child the discipline of cultivating winning habits. 

This is a compelling answer and the following poem will shed some light in support of the suggested answer.

The Habit Poem 

I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me,
and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men.
And, alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine.
Plus, the intelligence of a man.
You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.
Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?

I am a HABIT! 

But, this discipline would apply to teenagers and adults, as well. After all, we will need to discard some childish habits (much like the following playhouse) and cultivate new habits so as to grow in stature.

In answer to the million-dollar question of what is the sure way to success, the answer came as: Replace bad habits with winning habits!

What Does A Robo Keeper Look Like?

A robo keeper was reportedly featured as part of Liverpool Football Club's World Tour with the likes of former Liverpool players such as Ian Rush having a go at it. The robot with technological swiftness and reflexes is apparently pretty impressive -- Ian scored a goal, ballooned a second and got a third shot saved. 

And, I had wondered what a robo keeper might look like. He or rather it was a far cry from what I had imagined.

House Rules To Live By

Pick your own House Rules to live by. 

At Daily Refreshing, we would add: "Early To Bed & Rise", "Forgive Yourself" and "Forgive Others"; subtract "Try Everything Once"; and aim for "Be Consistent" rather than "Break The Rules Once In A While".

Powerful Words To Live By

In her book entitled "Magic", Rhonda Byrne opined that one word can turn your life around -- gratitude. Being thankful and counting your blessings would certainly change your feelings and the way you look at things.

But, the real power is not head knowledge but the application of knowledge which leads to experiences being gained, translating into heart knowledge. You gotta make "thankfulness", "gratefulness" and saying "thank you" second nature.

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings." -- William Arthur Ward

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." -- Henry Ward Beecher

Speaking on the vocabulary of success in his book "Notes From A Friend", Anthony Robbins illustrated that the choice of words can change the way we feel and react.

For example, "peeved" would be much more less intense than "furious", "angry" or "pissed off". 

You can control your words and therefore your feelings; keep your cool and feel good all the same. Hey, nobody going to thumb you down or ruffle your feathers, unless you let loose words that are detrimental to your good self.

Then, there is "love", which I would say is the greatest of all. Yes, you may have heard it at weddings or in church, but it still rings true. 

Here then is 1 Corinthians 13 from the New Testament of the Holy Bible (NKJV version) for your rumination:_-

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Remember, words make us strong not in themselves, but only when we live by them and make them part and parcel of our way of life. Stay fresh and be refreshed.