Its Never too Late

The first Success Principle we all know is to take 100 percent responsibility for your life. Never has this been more needed than now at this point in time when volunteering. Current societal Indonesian challenges – such as language, Women – Men Relationships , discrimination against your Skin colour – have left many volunteers in a state of resignation and despair.
It is time to turn this situation around. Each of us has the power within us to create the life we want, the life we dream about, the life we were born to live. Each of us deserves to fulfill our full potential and manifest our true destiny. It is our birthright, but it must be claimed. It must be earned through hard work, and part of that work is first learning and then living by the time-tested and ageless principles that are guaranteed to bring about our desired results.
And you, even as a sole individual, can have a tremendous impact.
As a volunteer or aspirator , you have much wisdom to offer the people in your life. The greatest gift you can give anyone is a gift of empowerment and love. What could be more loving than helping someone you care about get free from their limiting beliefs and ignorance about what small things they can do to improve on their social Wellbeing and empowering them to create the life that they truly want from the depths of their soul?
Can you Imagine creating the Possibilities?
What if everyone of us gave up complaining, took full responsibility for ourselves and our lives and started creating the life of our dreams? What if every one in your organization practiced these principles? What if every member of your softball team approached life this way? What if every person you work with and associate with knew these principles and put them into practice in class, on the playing field and in their social life? What if every man and woman in prison was to learn these valuable principles before they were released back into society? It would be a very different world.
Imagine a world where everyone would take 100% responsibility for their lives and the results they produce or don’t produce. Where everybody would be clear about their visions and their goals. Where nobody would fall victim to the criticism and abuse of others. Where everyone would persevere in the face of hardship and challenge.
Men and women would band together in teams to support each other to become all that they could be. People would ask for what they need and want and feel free to say no the requests of others when it is not right for them to respond with a yes. People would stop whining and complaining and get on with creating the life that they want. People would tell the truth and listen to each other with compassion because they know that peace, joy and prosperity would flourish if they did.
In short, the world would work!
Your Contribution Matters
The greatest contribution you can make to the world is to grow in self-awareness, self-realization and the power to manifest your own heartfelt dreams and desires. This is why Mahatma Gandhi advised, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
As you shift, the people around you will notice and be inspired to model your actions. And as they shift, you’ll find that your little world becomes more of the place you dream it to be, full of support, peace and love.
The next greatest thing you can do is to actively facilitate the growth of others. But they are not the only ones who will benefit by your investment of time and energy in taking on the role of teacher.
Passing along your wisdom forces you to clarify your ideas, confront inconsistencies in your own thinking and more closely walk your talk. But most importantly, it requires you to read, study and speak the information over and over again. The resulting repetition reinforces your own learning.
And here’s another major benefit—the more you help other people succeed in life, the more they will want to help you succeed. If you’ve ever wondered why people who want to help othere with their heart are so successful, here’s the answer: Because they have helped so many people get what they want, those they have helped naturally want to return the favor. The same will be true for you.
Help Create a Movement
I envision a world where every volunteer is inspired to believe in themselves and their abilities and is empowered to reach their full potential and realize all their dreams. full story......

Credit union Think impact

people’s savings goals generally relate to future payments they would like to make: for school fees, housing, weddings, working capital for trading activities or health emergencies. By planning payments, households can seek to stabilize their daily circumstances, develop opportunities to improve their condition in the future, and mitigate shocks that can set their families back. Thus, the notions of savings, payments and budgeting are inextricably linked.
Yet most savings services available to the poor do not link these three elements. Budgeting is often treated as a financial education matter, not directly facilitated by savings products. And the basic accounts of many banks and financial coops often stand in splendid isolation, offering few if any payment benefits.
The innovation of mobile money has been to put payments as the first rung in the ladder of financial inclusion, but now we are observing that the step from sending and receiving money in real time to storing value over time looms large for most users. Budgeting tools may be a missing link in mobile money. To make mobile money services more relevant, they need to be packaged as elements of a broader savings proposition based around helping people budget for today and plan for tomorrow. This should accommodate the mental models that they already use today, just with better tools.
Mobile phones offer a special opportunity for integrating savings, payment and budgeting tools seamlessly for the client. The phone offers a level of immediacy and interactivity that no other kind of banking touch point can deliver. It needs to evolve from being a mere payment instrument (a card and point-of-sale terminal replacement technology) and become a tool that helps people manage their money. The phone can act as a passbook, a calculator, a channel for alerts and reminders – all at your fingertips.
The mobile user interface –the set of screens that people use to handle their finances on a mobile phone—will therefore be a key determinant of how successful mobile money turns out to be in facilitating fuller financial inclusion. How will mobile money providers present the range of budgeting tools, savings options and payment services to their clients? The product challenges in the front end (user interaction on a very limited user interface) will eclipse the traditional challenges in the back end (integration into the core banking system).
Mobile money is not just a cost reduction story; it ought to be a service creation and integration story as well. Mobile phones offer the possibility for banks to maintain a constant presence in their customers’ lives, helping them budget for today and plan for tomorrow. full story......

Instant Work Life Balance Recovery Strategies for Busy People

Work Life - Instant Work Life Balance Recovery Strategies for Busy People

If managing your time is important; then learning how to
manage your energy is vital. Here's why. Perhaps you can run
fast in your corporate world but how well can you recover
your energy? Elite athletes plan recovery cycles into their
intense training program. Over-training is madness and they
know it. Yet many corporate warriors have not made the
important connection between recovery and productivity, at
least not yet. You may be familiar with this scenario.

Joe did not get a good night's sleep. Too much on his mind.
He set the alarm for 5.30 am so he could prepare for the next
morning's management meeting. Half asleep, the alarm rattles
his nervous system. He checks his email before grabbing a
quick shower. He downs a coffee and is out the door before
his hair can dry.

The meeting goes OK, but only just. Lunch is fast food junk
and does nothing to nourish his body or mind. Forget his
soul! By mid afternoon, his concentration is lacking and he
is not the only one who notices. His boss cautions him to
'get with the program'. More pressure.

After a late evening working on another harrowing time driven
project, he staggers in the door of his apartment with another
version of fast food. There is still no real nourishment for
his body. A stiff drink or two and he is soon asleep in front
of an uncaring plasma TV.

Too much pressure, too little nourishment and no chance to
recover is a deadly combination. Be smart. Learn to recover
faster and more efficiently. Here's how

Plan to put 'recovery breaks' into your daily or weekly
routine. A recovery break is any activity that nourishes you,
your mind, body or spirit. These can be anything from a 5
minute walk in the sunshine to weekend gardening. It could be
a weekly workout in the gym, a game of golf or re-connecting
with a long lost hobby or passion. It could as simple as
leaving the office and having your healthy organic lunch in
the park.

One coaching client re-discovered her love of writing
children's stories as a way of balancing her demanding career
in law. Another found immense joy when he joined a singing
group. full story......

Business Building - How to Motivate Under-Performing Personnel

Emulate High Performers

Direct your staff to model the behaviors of their well
accomplished colleagues. The more you and your staff are
presented with these positive archetypes, the more likely
they are to model that behavior and exhibit the high
performance you seek. This applies internally and externally,
on a group and individual level. In addition to being modeled
from outside sources, successful techniques should be shared
by different groups within your organization. In order to
perform at peak level, your staff must know the details of
the methods that bring results. Take time or set up meetings
to share success stories where your staff can share their
most effective strategies.

Believe in Your People

The Law of Expectation plays a key role in managing people.
Simply stated, it says, "In life, you get what you expect."
So, expect the best from your staff in order for them to
perform at a high level. Given the proper resources and
direction, good people will perform at your level of
expectations. As someone they respect, the more you believe
in their ability, the more they will believe in their own
ability. Confidence breeds confidence and success breeds
success. Responsibility given to the right people will
communicate a message that you expect more of them and they
will perform to reach that level of greatness.

Set Realistic Goals

Employees should know at all times what they are striving
toward and being held accountable for. It is important that
your team has clearly defined goals set at the beginning of
any evaluation period. There is nothing as disheartening as
being evaluated without being given prior written goals. Also
important to note is that goals assigned to employees should
be attainable and influenced by factors within their control.
You should support your staff by providing them whatever
resources they may require for the attainment of their
objectives.

Incentive Programs

Incentive programs should encourage behaviors that benefit
the organization and promote its mission and values. They
should offer enticements for employees to launch new
initiatives that will directly or indirectly boost morale,
generate revenue, and reduce expenses. Incentive programs
work to create a corporate culture that promotes initiative,
teamwork, and the generation of ideas for productivity
enhancements. They assist in fostering the development of new
business, as well as the projects that affect the bottom line.
As the old saying goes, "You get more from what you encourage
and reward." Management is no exception. full story......

African Heritage

Africa is home to some of the world’s most imaginative names. For the natives, the name you are given is more than just a labelling tag, and helps shape your destiny writes Sunday Monitor Correspondent KAMAU MUTUNGA:

The culture of a nation resides in the heart and soul of its people. But for the people of Madagascar, their culture goes beyond their hearts, hurts and hats to the way they construct their huts.

For an understanding of the soul of their culture, one has to begin with their rather long names. Sample some: Renomenjahary Sitrakinianiania Jean Zuetienne, Razanakoto Sendraviaka Pirisoa Fandeferana, Rafara Malala Fetra Nemenjanohary Yvette. And the winner; Rakotomampiononjaharx Romuladon Jean Patri.

How do they write them on their identity cards? Or national team jerseys?

Well, they shorten them. Sitrika, Miavaka, Nekena and Romulando from the above names respectively. Even the 12-letter Antananarivo, the capital city whose name means “the city of a thousand”, is truncated to “Tana.” But picture asking directions to a town called Antsohimbondrona? Or to the home of the resident with a tongue biting such as Randriana Goulam Aly Amine Florida Gildas?
Each Malagasy name of countless consonants and tongue-twisting, repeated sounds is a saying, revealing something or the other about birth order, state of the family at time of birth, hopes and desires for the person, and such.

Seriously speaking
The mouthful Razafindrandriasimaniry thus means “the grandson of the prince who envies nobody”.
Traditionally, only single names were used, unlike in other parts of the world where people have European names, surnames and family names written, and pronounced, separately.

This naming is part of the culture of the Malagasy, as the inhabitants of the island are called. And although gradually changing, it is still popular among the natives.
Women, in particular, acquire longer names when they get married. If, say, Sahondra Mukamalala Rakotomalala marries Andriatsiferanarivo, her new name becomes Sahondra Mukamalala Andriatsiferanarivo Rakotomalala.

In the country of “a thousand hills” (Rwanda), long names are also vogue, like Dukuzumuremyi, pronounced “Doo-koo-zoo-moo-rem-yee” — Rwandese for “praise be to God”. Another is Imanairere, a female name translating to “God help me to grow”, and Mukantagara (born in a time of war).

Most of the names reflect years of Belgian rule, and the first names are invariably Francophone. We are talking names such as Pacifique and Seraphine. The same can be discerned in the neigbouring Burundi, where Pierre Claver Rwingema and Pasteur Bizimungu are the names of the prime minister and president, respectively.

The Rwandese write their Kinyarwanda names in capital letters.
In Africa, a surname is a mark of one’s identity and evidence of one’s roots, with the last name adopted for the sustenance of one’s family lineage. But the Rwandese rarely use them, unless a family intentionally adopts it.

This trend presented problems during family reunification efforts in the wake of the 1994 genocide. Over two million people fled with their families, but, six years later, thousands of children were yet to be reunited with their families because their names offered no direction.

For humour, look no further than Zimbabwe and countries in southern Africa. It is not uncommon for people in the land of Comrade Bob to have names such as Enough, Energy, Genius, Smile, Gift, Justice, Brilliant, Trust, Knowledge, Honour, Wedding, Funeral, Passion, Clever, Everloving and Anywhere.

In southern Africa, parents name their children as a way of recording an event, circumstance or weather conditions at the time of birth.

If it’s windy or rainy when you pop out, then Wind or Rain will be your name! Parents who sire a baby after years of “trying” might name it Tendai, or ‘gratitude’. One born in times of trouble could be named Tambudzai, literary meaning “no rest”.

Reminders of colonisers
In most African countries, people’s names were reminders of their English, Portuguese, Dutch or French colonisers, a tradition that was reinforced by missionaries through imposition.

Gradually, traditional names were given their English equivalents. This explains the prevalence of names such as Givethanks Paradza, Happyton Bonyongwe and Norest Pongo. Have-a-Look Dube and Energy Murambandoro are well known Zimbabwean footballers for Njube Sundowns and Mpumalanga Football Clubs, respectively.

Again, this trend posed problems for the locals, as some Zimbabweans were saddled with “troubled” names. Take the editor of The Herald, Zimbabwe’s main government-controlled newspaper, for example. His family was in the middle of an internal feud when he was born. To mark that trying period, he told the New York Times in 2007, his parents named him... wait for this... Hatred! Hatred Zenenga.

A mother of 13 children — and who has had enough of the ritual — would typically name the last born Enough, while one who was so plagued by ailments that survival appeared dim became Godknows.The most humorous case to illustrate the ingenuity of the Southerners is the one of a father who joined Zimbabwe’s civil wars in the Congo. On coming back home, he was horrified to discover that his wife had given birth to a son while he was away and, to make his suspicions clear, named the son Never Trust A Woman!

Africans reverted to their traditional names to regain their lost heritage after independence, but they still retained the interesting mix of traditional, Western and Christian names.

Former DR Congo president Mobutu Sese Seko altered the private nature of names and naming when he changed his country’s name to Zaire in 1971.

Jail terms
That move, he said, was aimed at unveiling the official ideology of “authenticity”, and further decreed that all Zaireans must dispense with Christian and other Western names in favour of African tags.
Any priest found guilty of giving Zairean children Christian names during baptism faced a five-year jail term.

That’s how the Zairean soccer team to the 1974 (West) Germany World Cup managed to have this line-up: Mwepu Ilunga, Mantanta Kidumu, Uba Kembo Kembo, Etepe Kakoko, Mafu Kibonge and Kazadi Mwamba, among others.

Titles like Mr and Mrs were also dropped in favour of “Citizen”, and the president changed his name from Joseph Desire to Citizen Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Zabanga — or “The All-Conquering Warrior Who Will Go From Conquest To Conquest, Leaving Fire In His Wake”. A more succinct translation in the Tshiluba tongue means “The Invincible Warrior; The Cock Who Leaves No Chick Intact”.

Besides personal names, “The great Strategist” also changed names of rivers and towns. River Congo became River Zaire. The towns of Leopoldville, Elizabethville and Stanleyville became Kinshasa, Lumbumbashi and Kisangani respectively.

Building a national spirit also included abandoning Western fashion for printed cloth for women, and collarless, Mao-style tunics for men, which were worn without shirt or tie. They became Mobutu’s signature dress code, complete with a leopard skin hat and thick, black-framed glasses.

And while “The Great Saviour” ironically ordered the shunning of most things Western while selling his country to big French and American corporations, this wave of nationalism produced a period of extraordinary creativity in fashion and music that saw the emergence of Zaire as a continental music powerhouse via the Congolese Rhumba genre of Franco, Tabu Ley, Baba Gaston and Dr Niko Kasanda.

As Howard French notes in Anatomy of an Autocracy, Zaireans “endured 31 years of a stupid, vicious dictatorship while cooking up the best music and tastiest caterpillars on the continent”.

In 1997, General Laurent Kabila took over control of Zaire when Mobutu was forced into exile in Morocco, and reverted it to its old name, the Democratic Republic of Congo, its sixth overall change of name. Citizens could also reclaim their names if they wished, he decreed.

Spared balderdash
North Africans, however, were spared such balderdash as they carry names connoting their Muslim faith and Arabic heritage.
Those in South Africa, on the other hand, sport names that retain traditional meaning. Hence jazz great Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse’s first name means “Gift”, while Bafana Bafana striker Siyabonga Nomvete’s first name means “we thank you”.

Naming babies in West Africa is very important. Parents believe the choice of a name can influence the life of both the child and his family. In Nigeria’s Igbo community, most names have a symbolic meaning and are grammatically constructed to constitute a complex expression, besides most carrying religious references. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozo Adichie’s first name translates to “my God will never fail,” while Chinedu means “God guides”.

Others reflect the immediate surrounding or circumstances in which a child was born. And so Togolese and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor’s surname stands for “born in a time of happiness”. Others are named after days of the week. In Ghana, those who born on Fridays are named Kofi (Annan) while those born on a Sunday are named Kwame (Nkrumah).

Most parents prefer names that might have an influence in the way the child turns out. Meaning an over-ambitious name could have significant repercussions, whereas a simple tag might carry the burden of lofty expectations. They believe words have meaning, and names have power. full story......