Getting to know me

This is the result from a Job Personality Profile Test that I took. Gives a little insight about the kind of person I am. I agree with some parts but not so sure about others. That's alright because these test results are never determinative but merely descriptive. It's not meant to be used as a label and definitely not as an excuse for a pattern of behaviour, especially if it is a misbehaviour!

It's fun. Have a go at it yourself. Would be thrilled if you care to share the results with me.
Job Personality Profile Test

Summary
Cheryl Wong, your responses indicate that you are very outgoing, warm and friendly in a non-aggressive manner. While you are remarkably good at influencing people to adopt your viewpoint, you also rely strongly upon your motivational ability to urge people into action. Although you prefer that other people delegate authority and detail work, you enjoy developing people if given the opportunity. Your high sense of urgency excites desire for a great deal of variety in your life. You show commitment to supporting organizational standards and structure.

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Communication Style
Cheryl Wong, you have strong social skills and are excellent at quickly establishing rapport. You enjoy talking to people and do so with enthusiasm and spontaneity. Your style of fast, lively expression is both engaging and effective. You are a fluent speaker who expresses thoughts quickly, optimistically, and persuasively.

Also, Cheryl Wong, you express urgency when relating with people. You like fast paced exchanges and, at times, your tone may be impatient.

You enjoy talking and can put people at ease. You use a fun, indirect style of communication. You are people-oriented and can easily relate with another person's point of view.

Cheryl Wong, you are a natural team player. You readily delegate authority, and you embrace training. You do not care to be involved with too many technical details. You let others set game plans, priorities and time frames.

You function well when you are allowed a lot of people-interaction. You would rather talk about details than write them down. You enjoy being the focus of attention.

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Leadership Style : Persuasive
You perform your leadership role by using your excellent ability to interpret people's actions and dialogue, and then by persuading them to do things your way. You like to build team spirit and rely upon team decisions. You develop your subordinates, and you delegate both authority and details. You actively promote change and like to find new ways of reaching goals.

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Conscientiousness
Your personal style tends to be somewhat easy-going and relaxed. You do your best work on tasks that you enjoy, but you may be able to sustain an adequate degree of effort when it comes to essential tasks. You may or may not be concerned about extremely high levels of achievement. You like to maintain a balance between work and relaxation. You may apply positive motivation for consensus-building work activities, but maintaining focus on bottom-line results may be a challenge for you.

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Motivational Needs
Cheryl Wong, you tend to be motivated by a great deal of interaction with people, and by identifying with a prestigious organization with a good public image. You desire opportunities to make more money for yourself, or to improve your status within the organization. You are motivated by praise, public recognition, and by acceptance. You are most productive when working as a team player, and when you are liked by others.

You tend to be demotivated if your territory or opportunity is reduced in size, or if you are not allowed a significant amount of people-interaction or teamwork. Insufficient recognition from management and/or peers can also affect your motivation. You can be demotivated by a perception of not being personally liked, and by not being invited to meetings with peers.

Primary Motivators
• A lot of interaction with people.
• Meeting new people and making friends.
• Opportunities to make more money and improve status.
• Being a team player within the organization.
• Praise and public recognition.
• Identifying with an organization that has prestige and a good public image.
• Awareness of what is going on in the organization.
• Acceptance and being liked by others.

Primary Demotivators
• You perceive you are not liked.
• You are not invited into meetings with your peers.
• Your territory, (opportunity) is reduced in size.
• You feel you are not part of the team.
• You do not have enough people contact.

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Emotional Intelligence
Cheryl Wong, your responses indicate that you tend to recognize your own emotions, moods, and drives as they occur. Furthermore, you are aware of the impact of your emotions on others. You display appropriate self-confidence and perform accurate self-appraisals of your talents and abilities.

I'm-patient

Patience seems to be a virtue that always elude me. I like to be accurate, right, effective, etc (revealing the choleric side of me). But more than all those, I like to be fast! My greatest challenge in doing well in Maths when I was younger was simply due to the fact that I was too impatient to check through my work. It's not as funny as it sounds since I've lost many precious marks for making careless mistakes! I have learned through the years how costly my impatience could be.

It takes discipline to stop myself from getting caught up in the fast-moving pace of life around me, without me speeding things up even more. My impatient nature is also reflected in my impatience with myself. I hate making mistakes (streaks of perfectionism) and can be very hard on myself when I do or when I feel I am not learning as fast I would like to. I look around me and tend to compare myself with the experts and those who've been around for much longer than I - then subtly tell myself, if they can do it, I can do it too and better, NOW!?!

It's this drivenness that I need to watch out for because I know life and nature has its own course of time. It's unreasonable to stand in front of a child and get impatient with him because he isn't growing up fast enough - by my standard and for my pace! I am learning that I need to give people room and space to grow, recognising that God is at work (usually not at my desired pace). There are times when I think they can do better but that doesn't give me a right to tell them off when they're not living up to their potential, or worse still, my expectations. Impatience and sarcasm is a lethal combination, and under absolutely no condition am I ever justified to use sarcasm to tear my brother down. God is at work and if He is not complaining, who am I to think I know any better? People do not intentionally fall short of their full potential and I must not assume otherwise. Grace is giving them the benefit of the doubt that they tried the best they can for that occasion. One thing I know I should do but don't do often enough, is to acknowledge and appreciate others for their efforts. Instead I am ever so quick to point out how far they missed the mark, as if they don't already know! I've seen how encouragement can help my friends gain confidence and believe in their own potential, that they would be willing to try again even after a 'fall'. However I have to be careful not to use encouragement as a subtle form of manipulation or pressure to make others perform! It's a fine line sometimes but I think people can sense when we genuinely believe in them and their full potential, yet accept them as they are!

Grace is really love in action. I'm constantly looking out to see what grace would look like under different circumstances.

You'll Never Walk Alone

There are not many weekends that a Liverpool fan can boast of... especially in this season. Last Sunday was one of those! A 2-1 scoreline is more than what I had hoped for!
Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal

My friend, a Manchaster United fan, had more faith than I had, to believe Liverpool could slay the giants. Needless to say he had his own agenda, hoping the defeat would close the gap between Man United and the Gunners. The results shocked me and as you can well see, I've yet to recover from it. I am proud to say that ManU no longer can boast of being the only ones to defeat Arsenal! It's a hard blow for the Arsenal fans. Both these arch rivals are meeting at the Carling Cup on Thursday morning (KL time) and I can't wait to see the showdown!

By the way, did I mention I enjoy watching football, especially EPL? Support Liverpool and any team that plays against Manchaster United (it's pretty obvious!) Other loves include rugby (international matches) and F1. My favourite person on the rugby and football field usually is the referee! Somehow think they have a very tough job, especially when two strong teams are playing each other. In rugby you can actually hear very clearly the call of foul play and what the exact offence is. So cool! The referee is probably the lowest paid person on the field and most of them do it part-time, out of passion, but he is the fittest of them all, trailing the ball up and down the field to both ends of the goal posts! As for F1, I always look out for pit stops during the races. Think the team has a big part in determining the outcome of the race, and often don't get half the kind of pay and recognition given to the driver. :-(

I guess this just reflects how I feel about people in the background. They are the key to success although not often given the same recognition nor duly remunerated. For every star personality, there is a star team that stands behind their success because you'll never walk alone.

People should be more -----?

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson.

I once heard a radio deejay ask this... How would you fill in the blanks to this statement "People should be more ____?" My almost instant answer to that was "Expressive"! I'm a firm believer that Love must be expressed. As much as possible, I try to let those I love know how much they mean to me and how much I love and appreciate them. I constantly remind myself that I don't know what tomorrow holds so I cannot afford to take anything or anyone for granted.

At the same time, I tell people not to wait till I die to say nice things about me; there's no point in giving me a fancy eulogy! I much rather hear it whem I'm alive. Yet I must admit that more often than not I find myself not short of negative comments (under the guise of 'constructive remarks') and don't take enough time to affirm those around me. Sigh... I still have lots of learning to do.

A friend commented that the way one filled in the blanks would probably reveal a little of the kind of person they are. So how would you fill in the blanks?

Gift of Life

I am conscious that some who are reading this blog may be discovering a darker and more melancholic side of me. Yes, even the choice of song (for now at least) reflects that ... 'All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray'! For someone who is normally seen as bubbly, totally sanguine in nature and full of life, this may come as a real surprise to some. This is me; the more private and reflective me. Just one who has had a taste of brokenness and learning to come to terms with my own humanity - to some degrees anyways. I am keenly aware and am grateful to acknowledge that I'm constantly at the receiving end of grace, both from Him and others around me. I have had my share of mountain-top and valley experiences in my own journey. I don't know where I will be today if not for Him, who saw me through the dark nights of depression and even being suicidal at some points. Perhaps that's why nowadays I've learnt (and am still learning) to see things differently... that every day is a gift of life to be truly cherished and lived to the full.

Can He be trusted?

Have you ever wanted something so bad and yet when you get it, you fear the worst is yet to come, to the point that you become ambivalent about that subject all together? For example you're hoping to get a dream job and the moment you get it, your mind goes wild about how things can possibly go wrong - like you having to work with the worst set of colleagues possible; being late on your first day; mucking up on your first major project and failing to live up to your employer's expectations? I think it's weird how my mind can play tricks on me and work up my greatest fears, real or otherwise, when I think I've finally got what I've been dreaming for all my life. I guess that's just normal anxiety working up... or is it a sign that I don't trust God to give me what I really want with no strings attached?! To be honest, I don't know. I don't believe God is out there with an agenda to sabotage my life but I guess I'm not totally confident that I deserve such a good deal... therefore certainly something must be wrong with it.

I'm not naive to think that life should or will be smooth sailing, but am I sufficiently confident that God is and will be for me? If so, then I know that I really have nothing to fear. Whatever that lies ahead of me, I will be able to overcome it with God by my side. I'm not expecting life to be a bed of roses but do I trust Him to take me through all that lies ahead, the good, the bad and the ugly? It's hard when you're stepping out to the unknown. I am reminded that my source of hope and confidence lies in God's word and His faithfulness. He's proven Himself to be so faithful throughout history, in my own life (short as it may be in comparison) and in the lives of those around me. He's never failed those who love Him. I am counting on that.

Honestly speaking

I've recently let my friends in on this blog. It's a little scary because I initially did not write for that purpose. Will letting it go public affect the way I blog? I hope not. I honestly doubt it will not have any effect or that it will make no difference. I think it's only human to be affected by what people think of us, especially if they are people whom we consider important. People have as much power and influence over me as I 'allow' them; their views matter to me only as much as they matter to me! Yet I remind myself that ultimately I must live before the audience of the One. His views should outweigh any other person's views in my life - I am still learning.

Blogging can be so addictive. I've always wanted to write although I had no idea where to start. What better way to start than to write on a very familiar topic - myself! I've always admired those in creative fields like musicians, actors, artists, poets, designers, sculptors, etc. Human beings are so amazing to come up with a myriad of ways to express their creativity, reflecting our loving Creator. Among all the different modes, I find that words have been the most effective vehicle for me to express myself. I'm not the finest of writers and am far from proficient. I only hope to record my observations and reflections for this season of my life. I will pen personal experiences (if I think they are worth mentioning); my thoughts and reflections. There will not be many discussions of current events unless I think I have any original idea to contribute. As much as possible, I'll stay away from mentioning people by name, and if I really have to, it will not be without their prior permission. Quotes and ideas drawn from other authors will be given due credit, where possible.

The whole exercise of putting pen to paper (today keybard and screen) has been most therapeutic. If fellow pilgrims can find any encouragement from these jottings, that'll be great. Whatever it is, I will continue to write, honestly and authentically, from the depth of my heart.