CREATOR ACADEMY BERHAD

Nobody likes being criticised, however being able to respond to criticism with nobility and detachment is an important life skill, which unfortunately only a few people have. If we respond to criticism without careful consideration, it can easily lead to unnecessary suffering. While appearing negative, most criticism is probably based, at least in part, on some truth, and by evaluating it rationally we have the opportunity to learn and improve from their suggestions. The problem is that while people may make valuable critical suggestions, often times we respond not to the suggestions themselves but instead focus on their manner and tone. In this respect we need to separate the criticism from the style of criticism. Even if people speak in a tone of anger, we should try to detach their emotion from the useful suggestions which lie underneath. If we wish to improve and develop we should invite constructive criticism and take them for what they are, positive suggestions for our better...

The quality of your life depends to a large extent on the quality of your emotional and mental life. If you are lazy, worry too much, and are afraid to try new things, you end up being stuck stick in the same spot and never move forward in life. When you change the way you feel and think about things, and the way you react to people and situations, your actions and behaviour will also change accordingly. If you do not change your thinking patterns, and cannot visualize your life differently from how they are now, you will go on living the same kind of life, day after day as you will be limited by your pattern of thought and consequently, your conscious and subconscious minds will be programmed to see and expect the same reality every day, and to create, attract and experience the same kind of experiences and activities. Once you realize that your outer reality is shaped to a great extent by your inner world, you will begin to be able to make positive changes to the life you are liv...

If you want to never be happy or satisfied with your life, one great way to do that is to raise your expectations to an unrealistically high standard that can never possibly be met. This is the essence of perfectionism. It’s the inability to be happy with something until it is perfect, without any flaws whatsoever. Of course, the problem with this mind-set is that perfectionism is often an illusion. Life rarely works out exactly the way we want, in any domain – whether it’s relationships, work, or goals. Many times being more happy with your life requires that you let go of these expectations and learn to be more content with how things are, rather than how you picture they should be in an “ideal world.” Often times, a more practical and realistic attitude prepares you for the inevitable road bumps in life. And it’s better to prepare yourself for reality than to live in delusion. To be truly happy, we need to switch from having a perfectionist mind-set, to a growth mind-set instea...

Falling on your face, screwing up or otherwise not  handling something well  is hard on the ego. It feels terrible when things don't go the way you want, or when a relationship or situation spoils because of your own missteps. Even so,  the most successful people  have a long list of failures. This is because, when you fail at something, you're ultimately left with two choices: You can succumb to your doubts and fears or you can choose to learn from the experience. By choosing to learn, you can transform your failure into an opportunity to reflect and grow at the very least. Failure can be both a challenge that can crush you or become your greatest opportunity to grow. Everyone has weaknesses, but with self-reflection they can be turned into strengths. Being honest with yourself is the first major step that you can take towards personal evolution. The failures that we all experience in life are what allows us to appreciate our successes, and provides context for...

Getting motivated is a challenge, and it often takes more than good intentions to really get going. When we first come up with an idea, we are excited by the possibilities and confident that we can achieve them. The problem is that good ideas don’t go anywhere on their own. Without a tangible force behind us nothing happens. So how do we force ourselves into action? A great way is stepping up and putting some hard earned cash on the line. Investing money in a goal does two things. First, it provides you with a valuable resource towards reaching your goal. Second, it gives you something to lose, because if you don’t do anything at this point, you’re wasting your own money. We’re only human, and despite our good intentions, our willpower can fail us. Over time we wear down and need an extra push. If you know you want something, invest in it financially and mentally. Give yourself a resource and a reason to push yourself. Creato...

Knowing and understanding what drives, angers, motivates, embarrasses, frustrates, and inspires you is extremely important, as these are the emotions that drive your actions, and self-awareness is the first step in creating the reality of your dreams and mastering your life. As you develop self-awareness you are able to make changes in the thoughts and interpretations you make in your mind. Ultimately, self-awareness is one of the key attributes of Emotional Intelligence and an important factor in achieving success. Self-awareness is developed by paying attention to your expressions of thought, emotions, and behaviour. Identify key triggers and learn to manage your responses rationally to achieve the result you want. By regularly practicing this, you can facilitate a heightened awareness that will allow you instinctively make better choices in your thought process long before an emotional reaction or destructive behaviour. Making changes in your behaviour is much easier to do when...

The phrase: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is heard frequently in the business world; if you want your venture to succeed, it’s important that you take the time to get it right in the first instant. After all, a bad impression is difficult to change. A business runs on personal communication as much as it does on money, and if you want to be successful, it is vital that those who you connect with, receive the very best impression from the outset. Making a good first impression is particularly important when it comes to meeting customers, pitching to potential clients, or during interviews. These are the key points at which people will meet you and begin to form an impression of you and the services you’re offering. There are a few essential components to making a good first impression; namely dressing well, taking care of personal grooming, projecting a friendly manner, and being able to communicate clearly and concisely. Do not ever underestimate the imp...

Self-discipline is one of the most important and useful skills everyone should possess. This skill is essential in every area of life, and though most people acknowledge its importance, very few do something to improve it. Contrary to common belief, self-discipline does not mean being harsh toward yourself, or living a limited or restrictive lifestyle, but instead at its core means  self-control, and is a sign of inner strength and control over yourself, your actions, and your reactions. Self-discipline gives you the power to stick to your decisions and follow them through, and enables you to persevere with decisions and plans until you accomplish them. One of its main characteristics of someone with self-discipline, is the ability to reject instant gratification and pleasure, in favour of some greater gain, and which requires spending effort and time. Life puts challenges and problems on the path to success and achievement, and in order to rise above them, you have ...

One of the reasons many people don't enjoy meetings is that they are often conducted poorly. At the very least, facilitating a meeting requires the ability to follow an agenda that keeps the group on the subject and encourages all members to participate freely. This is accomplished by having the group talk about the issues in an orderly and congenial fashion without one or two people dominating the discussion. Basics, like ensuring the environment is comfortable, and that the meeting starts and ends on time, as well as following a set agenda, all help to ensure a meeting proceeds smoothly. It is important to remember that whoever the facilitator is, he/she must listen more than they speaks. If that is not the case, more consideration should be given to questioning techniques. The goal is to encourage everyone to speak, and the facilitator must be quiet a majority of the time for that to happen. In addition, the discussion leader must be able to summarise the progress of the di...

Trying too hard is sometimes stigmatized in modern society. People don’t like it when someone goes too far when trying to accomplish something, which is unfortunate, because going too far is exactly what you need to do. To achieve results, there’s an optimal effort range. Too little effort, and you’ll fail to see traction. Sometimes, if there’s some friction between where you are now and your goal, you may not make any progress at all. Actually knowing exactly how much effort to put in to achieve your goals however, can be quite tricky. In some situations, only a modest effort on your part will achieve the desired result, while in other situations the effort required could herculean! Always assume that the ideal effort range isn’t easily within reach, which, let’s face it, is the most likely case, because if the effort threshold were really low, you would have already achieved your objective. All this means, is that going extreme isn’t necessarily negative. Starting strong and di...

Effective communicators know the importance of utilizing non-verbal communication when delivering a message. Non-verbal communication includes eye contact, posture, gestures, voice and tone quality and helps ensure that your audience receives your message effectively. The tricky thing about body language is that you are usually unaware of the messages you're conveying nonverbally. When people see themselves speaking publicly on videotape, they're often surprised to see that their body language conveyed an entirely different message from the one they had intended. As an example, some people actually shake their heads to seem to indicate a "no" when they are actually saying "yes." Effective body language supports the message and projects a strong image from the speaker. Audiences respond best to speakers whose bodies are alive and energetic, and they also appreciate movement when it is meaningful and supportive of the message. The most effective movements...

Your emotions matter in negotiations. They fuel your behaviours, energize you, and allow you to strengthen—or distance and damage—relationships with the people you’re negotiating with. But too often, people refuse to acknowledge their full range of feelings because they’re afraid of losing the ability to think rationally and act strategically. The key is to recognize during the negotiation what emotion you’re feeling, then quickly evaluate whether it will help or hinder you, and without taking a break, intensify or decrease the feeling, or in some cases change the emotion altogether. Mindfulness is the first step. This means noticing and accepting what’s happening around you from the expressions on other peoples’ faces to any emotions you’re feeling in that moment, such as anxiety or pride. Identify your emotional trigger and focus on something else. Emotions will inevitably arise during negotiations but instead of letting them happen to you or trying to overcome them, use them g...

Have you ever been so afraid of failing at something that you decided not to try it at all? Or has a fear of failure meant that, subconsciously, you undermined your own efforts to avoid the possibility of a larger failure? Many of us have probably experienced this at one time or another. The fear of failing can be immobilizing, and therefore make you resist moving forward. Unfortunately, when we allow fear to stop our forward progress in life, we're likely to miss some great opportunities along the way. It's almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. The wonderful thing about failure though, is that it's entirely up to us to decide how to look at it. We can choose to see failure as the end of the line, or we can look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it often is. Every time we fail at something, choose to look for the lesson that you can take away from situation. Need help overcoming your fears? Creato...

Bad habits interrupt your life and prevent you from accomplishing your goals. They jeopardize your health — both mentally and physically. And they waste your time and energy. Rather than blame and be hard on yourself for having difficulty eradicating bad habits, start by accepting that everyone has trouble changing them. Stop berating yourself for returning to the same old patterns again and again and enjoy some self-compassion for a change. If nothing else, the self-compassion will change your life for the better. Most of the time, bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom. Everything from biting your nails to overspending on a shopping spree to drinking every weekend to wasting time on the internet can be a simple response to stress and boredom. It doesn't have to be that way, though. You can teach yourself new and healthy ways to deal with stress and boredom, which you can then substitute in place of your bad habits. Of course, sometimes the stress or b...

Life is endlessly busy, and it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle. And let’s be honest – that go, go, go lifestyle can wear on you! For that reason, it’s more important now than ever to take the time to treat yourself every once in a while. While doing so may prompt feelings of guilt—as indulging is sometimes viewed as a selfish act or an unnecessary expense—it is good for your health to do so in moderation. Allowing yourself to indulge occasionally actually enhances one’s self-worth, simply by showing yourself that you are worthy of a treat, as well as reminding us that all of our hard work, dedication, and perseverance deserves recognition from the person who can sometimes be our toughest critic – ourselves! Let’s face it; we can all use a reward from time to time to keep us moving towards our goals. There’s no shame in that! In fact, small rewards certainly work to keep us motivated on the long journey towards specific goals, and setting smaller g...

We all know how important self-worth is. You don’t have to be a scientist to realize that the way you perceive yourself both directly and indirectly affects the way the world will perceive you. Success meanwhile goes hand in hand with healthy self-worth, but there is a fine line over which healthy self-worth turns into a never-ending, attention seeking and demanding ‘unhealthy’ narcissism or self-centeredness. This is not the way to success and can be a dangerous pitfall to anyone who is unaware. The true source of success, health and happiness comes from the higher Self and not from the ego. Your higher or spiritual Self is the real you, and this is the person you need to be on the outside, so never settle for less. Once accept yourself for who you are, it will literally transform the way you look at life, people and most importantly will improve your sense of self-worth. This attitude is crucial when pursuing your goals and dreams. If you need help transforming your att...

Conflicts occurs whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, or desires. Sometimes these differences may seem trivial, but when a conflict triggers strong feelings, it is usually due to deep underlying personal issues. If left unchecked, conflict can lead to hurt feelings, disappointment, and discomfort as well as unpredictable behaviour. When handled in an unhealthy manner, it can cause irreparable rifts, resentments, and breakups. However when conflict is resolved in a positive way, it increases our understanding of one another, builds trust, and strengthens our relationship bonds. At its core, emotional awareness is the key to understanding yourself and others. If you don’t know what you are feeling or why you feel that way, you won’t be able to communicate effectively ...

The whole idea of travelling, planning for a trip and packing bags, fills most people with enthusiasm as well as brings a sense of relief, joy and happiness. It is a highly productive way to unwind, de-clutter and to relieve yourself of the built-up stress from work as well as your personal life. In addition to being a good way of exploring new places, travel gives you the opportunity to also explore yourself and work on your own issues and conflicts. Ultimately, travelling helps provide that much needed time for yourself and gives you a chance to just relax, which has numerous physiological and psychological benefits to the body. When away on a trip, your brain gets time and space to replenish its energy reserves, so when you do get back to your  daily routine, you feel refreshed and are able to approach issues with a fresh and new outlook. Visiting new places and interacting with different people also paves the way towards getting introduced to new behaviours, perspectives,...

Staying focused when we are working towards a goals can be hard. In the beginning we’re highly motivated, but that feeling begins to wane over time. We get caught up, stuck, frustrated, overloaded, overworked, distracted, and lose sight of our ultimate objective. When our responsibilities and obligations stretch us thin, and we’re pulled in every direction, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and before we know it, we’ve lost that all-important focus that we had in the beginning. While it’s ok to let life get the best of us sometimes, it’s not okay to veer so far off-track that we lose sight of what we are working towards. Staying focused on our goals is not only important, it’s crucial. The key is to come up with your own system to help you stay focused on your goals. There are many methods and techniques that you can implement to help you avoid getting side-tracked, allowing you avoid distractions, and time-wasting activities, and get things done.   Create a detailed mission st...

The ability to forgive and let go of past hurts, can transform anger and hurt into healing and peace, and is an important tool for overcoming feelings of depression, anxiety, and rage, as well as personal and relational conflicts. At its core, it is about making a conscious decision to let go of a grudge, so that you can move forward in your own life. Forgiveness means giving up the suffering of the past, and forging ahead with a greater potential for inner freedom. Even from a physical aspect, forgiveness is associated with a lower heart rate and blood pressure levels as well providing overall stress relief, resulting in improved sleep quality. The problem for many of us however is that we sometimes can outwardly choose to forgive another, but deep in our heart, the anger or resentment lingers. It is in fact possible though, to forgive and truly let go of past disappointments, hurts, or blatant acts of abuse. Although at times this may seem implausible, forgiveness is a teachabl...

Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. But when it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems at work, in your personal relationships, and affect the overall quality of your life negatively. Worst of all, it can make you feel as though you're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.  People who are constantly putting others down, criticising everything, and making cynical comments, most probably haven't learned how to constructively express their anger. Not surprisingly, they aren't likely to have many successful relationships. The first step is to make a conscious decision not accept your feelings, and then look for a positive way to channel all that pent-up emotion. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behaviour. At the end of the day, feeling anger is not wrong in itself, but it is how we then react to that feeling that dictates whether it will be a negative f...

Every kind of job and profession requires you to be healthy not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Unfortunately, considering how stressful certain jobs can be, along with the other obligations and responsibilities that life brings, a lot of people fail to realize the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They fail to realise that having good health plays an important part in achieving success, as an active lifestyle can definitely affect your career in a positive way. Have you ever experienced situations where you feel like you just don’t have enough energy to continue? Whether you want to admit it or not, your physical well-being can affect your performance at work. When you are not physically fit, you easily get tired and are less alert, directly affecting your effectiveness and productivity at work. Take time to have regular exercise, sports or any physical activity that interests you. Want to start living a better life? It all begins with making...

Decades ago, branding was defined as a name, slogan, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these elements that identify products or services of a company. The brand was identified of the elements that differentiated the goods and or service from the competition.  Today’s understanding brand is a bit more complex, but has become even more important especially with regards to marketing. A strong brand is invaluable so it is important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building it properly. After all, your brand is a foundational component in your marketing and communication strategy, not to mention serves as a conduit to communicate your business objectives. Did the product or service perform as expected? Was the quality as good as promised or better? How was the service experience? If you can get positive answers to these questions, you've created a loyal customer.  A strong brand not only create...

Envy is one of the most uncomfortable emotions, yet it is one that we face quite frequently, especially with the prevalence of social media, which makes it easy to compare yourself to a perceived image of others. If we feel that we don’t measure up, (regardless of whether it’s actually true) our emotions can bring us down – and make our feelings of self‐worth plummet. If these feelings of jealousy are not released and are pent-up inside, over time it can cause emotional and physical stress which can be toxic to your health. Envy is a very strong emotion that can breed feelings of anger, resentment and even depression. What if, instead of letting those moments of envy and jealousy bring us down, we decided to let them fire us up? If jealousy and desire have the power to move us to feel so strongly, we should learn to harness those feelings to build motivation and drive passion too. We need to take the fear and negativity out of the word JEALOUSY and focus on the power it has to m...

Most people want the better things in life, - a nice home, a comfortable bank account, loving relationships, or a rewarding career. They wish that life was better, or that they had more, or that things somehow were different. They might even know the steps they need to take to get there – but what stops them? Often times, it’s the negative perception they have formed about themselves or the effects of toxic experiences that yet to be processed properly. In essence they are trapped by choice in a comfort zone of their own making, and maintain flawed beliefs about themselves stemming from guilt and self-doubt. By continually talking about, thinking about, and writing about the way they perceive things to be (due to a negative self-image)  they are continually reinforcing those very same brain pathways and drawing them further away from any chance of success. To change this cycle, focus instead on thinking, talking and writing about the reality you want to create. You must flood y...

Your friends and family make up the people that surround you. While we can’t pick our family, we can pick our friends—friends we want to be more like, friends whose power and positivity can help amplify our own. An aspirational friend is someone who influences and enhances my decisions to better my life. Do you have friends like this? If you think about your friend circle now, you probably have some that you lean on, and some that lean on you. Are the feelings mutual or are there some one-sided friendships? It’s important to have balance in your friendships and feel like you’re learning from each other. Look for people that will help keep you on track and want what’s best for you. Aspirational friends should see your potential and lift you up, not make you feel overly competitive.   When choosing friends, their inherent principles, attitude and outlook on life are more important than their financial standing, as people are much more than their bank accounts and in order to...