Valen Says...

This blog is moving

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:32:00 +0000

Hi there! Thank you for dropping by this blog, whether accidentally or purposely. :)

Anyway, if you like what I've written so far, and would like to read more, please visit my self-hosted blog Valen's World. I won't be updating this blog anymore. I will continue to write about all good thoughts and things in Valen's World. :)

So, see you there!

Important vs Urgent

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:37:00 +0000

It has been more than 20 days since I last posted here.

All of my blogging time has been spent on my other 3 blogs. Obviously, this is a neglected blog. This is what happened when you have several blogs to maintain.

Does this happen to you, too? Not only in terms of blogging, but your life in general.

Have you been focusing too much on your work or career, that you neglected your family and spent lesser and lesser time with them?

Are you too busy chasing after wealth, that you ignored your health and the inner peace your soul called for?

Would you attend to the urgent matter first, or deal with the important one first? Which is more 'important' to you? Of course, all people are entitled to have their own definition of 'urgent' and 'important'.

This blog is important. Not because I will turn it into a money-making blog. But because it has a purpose - it's a place where I share some personal thoughts about life, hoping to instill some positiveness into myself as well as those who are reading this. It's a place for personal reflection, really.

This blog may not be updated as often as other blogs, but what I wrote here worth much, much more to me than what was written in other money-making blogs, which often need my 'urgent' attention.

How about you - what is urgent and what is important to you?

Keep focused, keep cool

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:10:00 +0000

Do you often ask questions like "Why did he get the job and not me?" or "How come I still couldn't achieve the results that he could?".

In whatever ways the questions were asked, it all boils down to one question - Why are people better than me or mine (something)?

Take blogging for instance, particularly if it's about blogging for money.

If page rank matters (and sure it does), I have been asking myself why am I not getting as many paid post opportunities as others who have the same page rank as me? I also ask myself, how long would it be before the page rank of my blog will be raised? How come blogs with content similar to mine are getting high page ranks but mine not even 1?

Are you asking these questions too?

I guess the first thing that we need to stop doing is to keep comparing ourselves with other people. Not by asking why's and how-come's.

Take a moment to recall the reasons that made you started a blog. If your main purpose is to just have fun and share your experience and knowledge about something, then you shouldn't have let the page rank or opportunity issue bothers you at the first place.

If you intend to make money out of your blog, it's okay too. Just understand that before your blog can drive advertisers to invest in it, think of ways to make your blog a blog worth investing - one with good substance, up to date content, appealing template, for example. Ask questions like how-to's and how-can-I's to make your blog a far more interesting place.

You need to BE persistent, DO the necessaries, then only you can HAVE the results you desire. Also, use a little bit of patience and always keep your cool.

I'm actually writing all these for myself. But you can also apply it to many other areas of your life. :)

When one door closes...

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:02:00 +0000

When one door of opportunity closes, what's your reaction? What will you do?

Will you fret? Are you enraged? Do you walk away feeling defeated? Or would you just hope for another door to open?

There will be many times in our life that we thought something good would befall us, or we would stumble upon some extraordinary opportunities that would lead us to success.

But not all the time that an opportunity is there to wait. And not all the time what we anticipated would materialize. The door may just suddenly close, for a certain reason you may or may not know.

Before you immediately turn away to look for another door, why not take a moment to ponder - What has caused the door to close? Am I able to rectify the problem so that it will re-open for me?

You will find that it might be actually easier for you to amend the situation and regain access to that door, than to chance upon another open door.

Passion - the ingredient to success

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:54:00 +0000

I'm currently reading a book by Martha Stewart - The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Build, or Manage a Business.

I'm amazed by this woman. To me, she is a talented homemaker who has successfully translated her passion into business success. Although she had encountered a crisis in 2004 - being convicted for insider trading crime and sentenced to prison - she quickly regained her eminence as a homemaker expert since her released in 2005. Now, she is focusing on reviving her business, and her empire is expanding.

Martha's number 1 rule, as quoted from the book, is to "build your business success around something that you love.... endlessly interesting to you". That is true for every thing we do, not only in business.

For instance in blogging, you choose to write about things that you are passionate about and can have great fun writing about it. Then the likelihood of keeping your blog alive is much, much greater.

I also hope to start a business of my own one day, but I have yet to find my real interest and passion that I know I will persevere no matter how.

I guess I have to keep on exploring and searching until I find it, because Martha says "when work is based in passion, it does not feel like work". Just like blogging.

There must be a starting point

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:11:00 +0000

I started late, but I'm working hard to catch up.

I've decided to divert my very young beauty blog to a domain. Initially, I was naive, or rather oblivious, to think that I must be one of the only few persons to have this brilliant idea and to create such a blog.

But after browsing through the web, only I realized that beauty blogs are everywhere! In fact, the blogs are already well developed and have high readership. Oh dear, that means the competition is stiff out there if I want my blog to stand out.

But, I could also look at it differently. With so many well blogs standing around ready for me to drop by any time, I can use them as my guide and reference. I can learn from them. Eventually, I will develop my own style and give my blog an unique identity.

I don't know whether this new blog of mine is going to grow and flourish. In order to find out, I just have to make a start.

For every journey travelled, there is always a starting point.

Cherish every learning experience

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:06:00 +0000

Strictly speaking, I'm still considered a freshie, only 3 months 'old' in the world of blogging. But I definitely have learnt a lot over these 3 months.

It's like attending a blogging intensive course, where I learnt about page rank, feeds, monetization, creating favicons, a little bit of HTML here and there. And now, I'm preparing myself to go dot com for one of my blogs.

It's an amazing feeling when I look back to where I was 1 year ago, I didn't know anything about the blogsphere. My perception about blogging was 'a blog is just my online journal'. Little did I know that blogging can make money, too.

I wouldn't have had learnt these much if I were still working full time. Not that I'm encouraging people to quit their job to blog full time.

I'm just saying that, if you happen to have the opportunity to learn something new, cherish it, enjoy it, and make full use of it. You won't know how far you could go with this new learnt skill and knowledge, until you see it for yourself.

That's why I'm going for a dot com.

Blogger is still the best

noreply@blogger.com (Valen) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:28:00 +0000

I've always been a Blogger user. I tried to use Wordpress but somehow find it difficult to configure even the simplest things, such as fonts, to my likings.

May be those who have purchased the upgraded version are able to edit the layout, but if that is the case, I might as well stick to Blogger.

So, here I am, launching my fifth blog! I must be crazy!

Well, I don't really know what topic I would like to centre this blog around. Perhaps I should write something purposeful that will help make people's life better - positive notes, positive thoughts, helpful hints, words of encouragement, etc. After all, I can always refer back to this blog for 'advice' when myself need some form of encouragement or support some day.

Just come back later and you'll find out!