Quick note: I’ve been quoted in CNN, Business Insider and CBS Business Network in the past month for my articles! Check them out: How To Stand Up to Rude Co-Worker (CNN) | How To Handle Rejection like a Pro (Business Insider) | Being Rejection Proof (CBS Business Network) | Learning to Say No (Business Insider).

I’ve also recently contributed to an article for the August issue of Simply Her magazine (if I’m not wrong), so check it out when it hits the stores next month.  The article is on maintaining one’s sanity in the workplace.

Ok, I’ve been keeping this under wraps for a while as I wanted to wait till everything is confirmed before I announce anything.

As of this coming Sunday (19 Jun), I’ll be traveling to Europe! Holland, Amsterdam to be specific. And I’ll be traveling around for 3 months, after which I may go over to UK for a few more months, as I’m eligible to stay in UK for 6 months without a visa. *Starts cheering and throwing party poppers*

It’s really exciting for me because this is the first time I’ve been to the Western part of the world. Some of you may recall from my Vision Board video that Europe is next on my travel list (it’s on my bucket list as well). And it’s now finally coming true!

The truth is, I’ve always wanted to experience life overseas for an extended period of time, ever since I was a student, to experience life in a different country and immerse in the local culture. When I was in university, I planned to go overseas for exchange, but didn’t get to do so as I skipped my honors year and graduated a year earlier than expected. NUS, or universities for that matter, don’t allow students to go on exchange in their last year, so this goal of mine never got to fruition.

Yet, it remained a lingering intention to be fulfilled one day.

Ever since I graduated from university, I’ve traveled around Asia Pacific, largely the Greater China and ASEAN region, thanks to my previous job. I feel like I’ve seen a good breadth of countries in Asia region, and have been eager to check out the Western part of the world.

This year, I decided to put this goal into action. After 2 years of working on my business, I feel I’m in the perfect place to do that. One, I have steady streams of passive income (from my ebook sales and advertising). Two, I’m not geographically bounded with my work – by deliberate design, too. Meaning, I don’t need to be at a particular location to perform my work. I can blog from anywhere in the world, just as I can do my 1-1 coaching anywhere, as long as I have my laptop and an internet connection.

I used to have ongoing speaking engagements and coaching work that required me to be in Singapore, but I’ve been ending those arrangements in the past few months as I didn’t want to be geographically bounded. I wanted to be able to do my work and pursue my personal goals at the same time.

So finally, it has come to the point where I’m ready to realize my personal goal to travel overseas. Originally my intention was to travel to New York sometime in June-July and stay there for a few months. I was even preparing to apply for a US visa earlier this year.

As fate would have it, I was recently invited to speak at a Learning Conference in Holland, Amsterdam by de Baak (a renowned training institute). The engagement is taking place on 21 June and all expenses will be graciously paid for by de Baak. (Thanks Wouter and Harry!)

Since I’m going to Holland now, I thought I might as well shift my travel plans there – to be frank, either place works perfectly for me, since I have never been to Europe nor America before. After the conference ends, I’ll be extending my stay in Holland Europe for 11 weeks, since that’s the maximum period I can stay in EU without a visa (it’s too late to apply for a visa now).

I’ve not checked if my return flight is changeable – if it is, I might shift it out by a few more months and make a visit to UK, where I’m eligible to stay for 6 months on a Singapore passport without a visa. Either way, I’ll definitely be in Europe for the next 3 months in baseline scenario.

So that’s it – hello to Europe, and bye to Singapore for now! I’m not sure if there are any readers in Europe – if you are, please come and say hello in the forums or on Facebook. Feel free to share any tips on staying in Europe – I’m all ears.

What am I planning to do in the 3 months there? It’ll mainly be to experience and immerse in the local culture in Europe. I’m not a backpacker style traveler and I’m not all that interested to comb through X countries in X days either – I don’t find any fun in rushing through a travel. I’m the sort who prefers to just stay put in a place and immerse in what it has to offer.

I’ll check out Holland in the first few weeks, after which I may take weekend trips to neighboring countries if I get bored while I’m there (namely France, Germany, and possibly Italy). But this is just a back-up plan right now. My main plan is just to hang out in Holland and enjoy the place.

Will I be blogging about the trip? It depends. If there are any personal growth lessons I pick up along the way, I’ll surely be writing about them. I don’t think I’ll be explicitly writing about the trip, though I certainly will share an experience or two, where relevant. After all, Personal Excellence is about sharing the lessons I learn in life through what I experience.

Right now I’m just really excited about what’s up. I haven’t packed my luggage nor done any major preparations yet, though I imagine it’s going to get really busy in the next week before I fly off.

Jun 14, ’11: All your responses have been overwhelming! Thank you so much for your well wishes!

Since the post went online 2 days ago, I’ve received numerous emails and recommendations from EU readers and past EU coaching clients. Because of that, my itinerary is also rapidly changing as well. After high recommendations on Germany from all of you,  I’m planning for a multi-stop trip – first in Holland for a month, then Germany (possibly a month), and next either to another country or back to Amsterdam, depending on how the trip goes.

Jul 1 ’11: Check out the 7-part Holland Travel Series. It shares my tips on how to travel to Holland, the dutch culture, dutch lifestyle, dutch environment and essential things to know about the country. I’ll be going to Germany next. Join my Facebook Page for daily updates and pictures on my trip!

Nov 7 ’11: I’ve finished my Europe travels, and I ended up staying in Holland, Germany, France/Paris, Spain and London in the past 4.5 months. Even had 2 London meet-ups with PE readers while I was there! (Meet-up #1, Meet-up #2). It’s been a great ride, and I really enjoyed my stay there. I’ve made many wonderful connections during my time there and I’m sure this isn’t the last time I’ll be here. For now, I’m off to US – will see what adventures await there.

Jan 25 ’12: I’m finally back in Singapore after my almost 3-month long travels in US – covering east coast (Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, Boston) and west coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). I also did a speaking engagement with Wharton Business School while I was there. It has been a great 7-month long travel – for now I foresee myself staying put in SG for a while. Here’s to a tropical climate, consistently (warm) weather and nice, predictable routines.

Image ©

Related Posts

• I’m on Channel News Asia!! Catch me Live Next Tues, 28 Dec
• Announcement: London Meet-Up!
• London Meet-Up – Details
• PE London Meet-Up #2 (Oct 29, 2011) – Pictures and Afterthought!

Update Dec 29, 2010: Thanks everyone who tuned in and for all your kind words! ♥ Check out the photos and uploaded videos here.

Hey all!! I’m very excited to share that I’ve just been contacted yesterday by Channel News Asia to appear for a live interview segment next Tuesday!

For the non-Asian readers, Channel News Asia is a huge and highly reputable Asia news broadcaster, covering news in over 10 Asia territories. It’s like the Asian equivalent of BBC and CNN imo. Read: Wikipedia page | CNA Website.

I’ve been invited to speak on the topic of bucket lists, where I’ll share my bucket list, what bucket lists are for, and how it helps us to live a more fulfilling life. I’ll be part of a panel of other guests (there will be 4 of us in total I believe), and we’ll be interviewed by Flying Dutchman as part of the CNA BlogTV segment. Singapore readers will be familiar with him as the DJ for Class 95FM.

The interview will be aired live, both on Channel News Asia channel as well as online via the CNA Blog TV site. So for all of you who are not in Asia, you get to watch it too! Just log on to the CNA Blog TV page during the segment. It’s set for next Tuesday:

• CNA Web Feed: Feed goes live at 8:15pm – 9:15pm (SG time GMT +8: Refer to World Clock).
• CNA TV Network: The segment airs live: 8:30pm – 9pm (SG time GMT +8: Refer to World Clock).

I’m SUPER excited about this, partly because this is my first time on national TV (that I’m aware of), in the capacity of my new self – someone who is pursuing her new life and creating it from scratch (from since 2 years ago when I quit my previous job), so I definitely see this as a huge milestone and an affirmation that I’m moving forward in my work and reaching out to more people. To me it’s like the universe is giving me a nod to say that “You’re doing great and you’re on the right track. Keep it up and keep on going!”

The second reason why I’m ecstatic is because last year I wrote my goals for this year, and one of the goals I wrote was to appear on CNA. Since this goal is more of a mark of affirmation vs. a specific goal to consciously strive for, I didn’t do anything about it, instead opting to focus on my core goals. So imagine my shock when I got a call yesterday from the CNA producer saying they’d like to have me on the show! I was out of the world ecstatic – at the same time I was a mini mind-warp because the same thing happened when I wrote about appearing on CNN (which manifested earlier this year), as well as speaking in a regional conference (I was invited to speak in a HK conference 2 months ago in Oct). Some readers have also told me that they’ve seen Personal Excellence featured in Guardian (UK), India papers, along with other publications too this year, though I’ve not been able to get hold of the supposed articles.

I think this is an affirmation of the importance of writing down your goals, as I’ve shared in 30DLBL Book (Days 2, 3, 4) and throughout the site. Every goal is created twice: First in the mind, then in our reality. In order for our goals to manifest themselves in reality, we’ve to first be clear of them in their mind, and the process of writing them down and putting them in our vision board (30DLBL Day 5) helps us to make them crystal clear.

I’ll update this post soon once I get details on the segment timings from the producer. I’ll also update on my FB and Twitter, so keep a look out there.

In the meantime, is there any kind soul here who is able to help me record the segment on the web and on TV? I’ll love to be able to get a copy for my viewing, and probably to put up on Personal Excellence for other readers to see. You’ll have my eternal gratitude! Let me know via the comments or the contact form if you’d like to help.

Stay tuned next Tues (Dec 28) at 8:15pm (for those watching online) and 8:30pm (for those watching on CNA channel)! Let me know if you’ve any questions in the comments area!

Other Media Features this month: Simply Her & Edvantage (Asia One)

On media-related updates, I’ve been quoted in other media outlets this month (Dec ’10) as well. If you read Simply Her magazine, you’ll find my contribution to an article in this month’s issue (Jan issue), on setting new year’s resolutions that work (page 120). I’ve also been quoted in Edvantage (Asia One)’s article on “Should you go back to school?” If you’re someone looking to return to school after working for a period, you might find the 8 tips there helpful.

Related Posts

• My Channel News Asia Feature (28 Dec 2010)
• I’m Going to Europe!
• My Photoshoot With Simply Her Magazine (July Issue)
• My Latest Media Coverage in Simply Her Magazine

As a case study, I was asked to offer my career coaching to a brand manager in a local company. The task entailed (1) shadowing her at work for 2 days – from being in meetings, interacting with colleagues, liaising with customers, talking on the phone, giving presentations, etc -, (2) observing how she carried herself in these situations, and (3) coaching on those areas – what were the positive areas, what could be improved, and in the process helping readers learn how to project their best workplace persona.

After the coaching wrapped up, we had a photoshoot as part of the article feature. My past media photoshoots were done in my home, and this was my first media photoshoot in a studio. It was a very fun experience, and the stylists and designers were very fun loving people too :D.

Here’s some pictures of the photoshoot to share with you guys:

Entrance to Simply Her and Her World Office. These are some of the past covers!

Collage of past features in the magazine

Trying on my clothes and having the designer decide on the outfits for the shoot

Having my hair done. Jacqueline is the hairstylist, while Rachel (the lady with the stripped shirt) is the make-up artist. Check out her make-up kit!

Getting my make-up done

Preparing for the shoot! The lady in green is the designer Sherry, while the photographer is behind setting up the camera.

Lights, camera and smile!! :smile:

Closer shot

Changing outfits for the 2nd shoot, which is the group shot

That’s me with Lorraine, who is the brand manager I worked with in the case study :D. The metal bar-like things are more as placeholders. They will be removed in the final photos.

Me and Lorraine again :razz:

Me with Jacqueline, the hairstylist

A sneak peak of one of the shots :smile:

Want to see the actual feature article and the outcome of the photoshoot? The feature will be out in the upcoming July issue of Simply Her (which will be out by third week of June, which is next week!). Singapore-based readers – You can grab a copy at local newstands, supermarkets and convenience stores
Thanks Madeline and Lorraine – It has been wonderful working with both of you on this!

Related Posts

• My Latest Media Coverage in Simply Her Magazine
• Media Coverage in My Paper
• I’m on Channel News Asia!! Catch me Live Next Tues, 28 Dec
• I’m Going to Europe!

I was approached by the editors a few months ago to provide advice to their readers on how to develop positive thinking (Feb issue) and quick tips to manage your health (Mar issue). Thanks Justina and Madeline for this opportunity!
For a list of my other media coverages, check out the Media section

Related Posts

• My Photoshoot With Simply Her Magazine (July Issue)
• Media Coverage in My Paper
• Media Coverage in ZB Comma
• EmbraceLiving.Net in Media!