Leonard Ng

  • Blog
  • Poetry
    • This Mortal World
    • Changes and Chances
  • Translation
    • Tao Te Ching
    • The Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji
    • Rhapsody on Literature (Wen Fu)
    • The Art of War
    • The Song of Songs
  • Writing
  • Tutoring
  • Contact

What Kind of Goals Are You Setting?

10.01.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Sunrise road
Image by Karsten Würth.

It’s the start of a new year now, when many of us lay out our personal goals and aspirations for our planet’s next revolution around the sun. This is the season when we make our resolutions: statements of purpose for the changes we want to bring about in our lives.

Some goals, however, will make a much bigger difference to your life than others. So today I’m going to talk about the kinds of resolutions that will allow you to hold your head high by the time the year is done.

Let’s get to it.

Two Kinds of Goals

The goals people set themselves tend to fall into two categories: consumption-based goals and achievement-based goals.

The two differ in what they require from you. The first chiefly requires money. The second chiefly requires effort.

Let’s look at them both in greater detail.

[Read more…]

Categories // A meaningful life, Peak performance, The art of living well Tags // beginnings, focus, goals, growth, learning, priorities

Don’t Force Things, Flow with Them (Part 3)

09.11.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Surfer at Sunrise
Image by Frank McKenna.
A Rhythmic World

Life on our planet is all about rhythm.

Everything oscillates: inbreath and outbreath, high tide and low tide, day and night, waking and sleeping.

Our hearts beat in rhythm. That’s what keeps us alive.

Rhythm is made up of rise and fall, activity and rest. Often we think only in terms of activity, measuring our days by what we’ve done; but rest is what shapes our actions and makes them meaningful, just as the pauses between notes allow us to make sense of music.

The same applies to our own energy.

Four Kinds of Energy

Energy is about much more than physical tiredness. Generally speaking we have four kinds of energy: physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy, and willpower.

[Read more…]

Categories // Music, Peak performance, Productivity, The art of living well Tags // clarity, concentration, energy, fitness, focus, growth, holistic living, music, priorities, productivity, rhythm, sleep, work

Don’t Force Things, Flow with Them (Part 2)

01.11.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Polyphemos
Image by Aaron Wolpert.
Reading Ancient Greek: A Case Study

This year I set myself the task of reading all 24 books of Homer’s massive epic poem The Odyssey in Ancient Greek. This has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I’m glad to finally be doing it.

I’m now 20 books in, with four more to go — well on the way to completing what I set out to do. And I have full confidence that I will finish on time, because I’ve aligned myself with the principles of growth deadlines.

To recap, growth deadlines:

  • Make you better than you were before
  • Involve doing difficult things
  • Are based on sound knowledge and experience
  • Are flexible and resilient enough to withstand chaos

Let’s see how those points apply in this case.

[Read more…]

Categories // Peak performance, Productivity, The art of living well Tags // clarity, concentration, deadlines, experience, focus, fulfillment, Greek, growth, language, learning, priorities, productivity, work

Don’t Force Things, Flow with Them (Part 1)

22.10.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

mountain clouds
Image by Sergei Akulich.
A Cautionary Tale

Mencius (a Chinese philosopher) once told the following story:

Once there was a man from Song who, concerned that his seedlings weren’t growing, decided to pull them upward.

Worn out, he returned home and said to his family: “Today I’m exhausted — I’ve been helping the seedlings to grow!”

His son hurried out to have a look, and of course the seedlings had withered.

The Folly of Forced Deadlines

Inexperienced people often set deadlines they can never achieve. They say:

“I’m going to pack on 10kg of muscle this year.”

“I’m going to finish writing a novel in 3 months.”

“I’m going to make half a million dollars by December.”

Is it possible to accomplish all these things? Yes.

Are you likely to complete them, in good order and on schedule, if you’ve never done so before? No.

Why?

Because you can’t set reasonable deadlines until you’ve gained enough experience to know how long, under your own unique circumstances, you will take to achieve your goals.

[Read more…]

Categories // Peak performance, Productivity, The art of living well Tags // clarity, concentration, deadlines, emotions, experience, focus, fulfillment, growth, priorities, productivity, work

Focus More on What Matters

12.10.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Focus
Image by Romain Vignes.
The Ethos of the Extreme

Today’s world expects us to go to extremes in everything we do.

Entrepreneurs wear the 90-hour workweek as a badge of pride.

Parents obsessively pursue every new childrearing fad.

The ideal body image, for both men and women, has become unattainable without strict diets and hours at the gym.

All reality TV competitions now repeat the same mantra: to the victor the spoils. You’re either the best, or you’re one of the rest.

This is not a worldview which supports balanced living.

Unrealistic Expectations

Ours is a world in which intense competition is praised, with all the glory going to the ones at the top. But at the same time the world also tells us: you can have it all.

You can watch all the shows, buy all the things, enjoy all the experiences. You can be a tiger mother, a brilliant careerist, an extraordinary athlete, and a lover who makes the earth move — all while travelling the world, speaking seven languages fluently, playing lead guitar in your spare time, and knowing your Pinot Gris from your Pinot Grigio.

Fear of Missing Out has become the spirit of our age. Faced with such unrealistic expectations, we have only two solutions:

either we spend our guilt-ridden lives endlessly trying — and failing — to measure up, or we take a stand and tell the world to mind its own damn business.

[Read more…]

Categories // Productivity, The art of living well Tags // clarity, concentration, focus, priorities, productivity, work

Leonard Ng

Leonard Ng is fascinated with the practice of both the active and contemplative modes of life.

He is the founder of the copywriting agency Text/ure Collective, and is the author of two collections of poetry: This Mortal World and Changes and Chances.

Find out more about Leonard, or get in touch.

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates and to hear what's new with me.

Recent Posts

  • Horror: The Ultimate Procrastination Inducer
  • Why You Fall Sick the Minute Your Vacation Begins
  • How to Be Mindful When You Don’t Have Time
  • What to Do Before You Burn Out
  • The Levers of Optimism: How to Become More Optimistic

Search

© 2016 Leonard Ng.