Eat That Frog

I recently came across a book and my eyes and mind was hooked as I read the first few pages. The book is titled 'Eat That Frog' by Brian Tracy.

The book mainly speaks about managing and over coming your fears. Most of the time in our lives we put off important tasks that we don't like but they are important. By putting them off we increase our fear and create obstacles in our own development. This book mainly speaks about how you can over come that feeling. The book's title is very appropriate, Eat That Frog, and I have printed it out and pasted it infront of my work cubicle to remind me to be positive and start with the task that I hate doing most.

I am pasting a few excerpts from the book, they are taken from Amazon.com

 For the last few years I have been focusing on 1 or 2 most important things that I seriously focus on through out the year and I am very happy to see good results in my own development. Trust me, don't over burden yourself with many things, just focus on 1 or 2 most important things and then live by them till you see an improvement in your own development.

For this year, I am gonna Eat That Frog. 

Special Projects

I am blessed with 3 daughters, lovely angels. Amna, Rabia and Zoha. The first two are twins, 11 years old and currently in grade 6. While Zoha is 3.5 years old. Since last year I moved the twins to another school and I have seen remarkable improvement in their academic performance. Both of them work hard as my wife, Soulat, and I keep a very close track of their performance. The teachers are good and the parents are kept updated on child's performance on each test. In December, the twins appeared in their Mid Term Exams and I had promised them a trip overseas if their results are good. So, currently they are enjoying their holidays in Dubai. Shopping, relaxing and having fun. They have earned it. 

But the journey so far has not been easy for the twins and for the parents (mainly that's me!). I spent on an average 2 hours per day (after a full day at office) with them to help in their studies. This includes daily assignments, preparation for tests and special projects. 

Today, I would like to share with you about a special project that Amna and I did together. It is very special for us as well. The fun part was in the designing and planning of the project. Each subject has a special project at the end of each term and she did very well on all the projects, with a little help from my side. But, the science project was very special. The topic was 'Solar System'. Full freedom was allowed by the teacher to be as creative as you can be. But it should be original.

So, we came up with the idea of a small booklet. The main character in this booklet was Amna herself as an 'Expert of Planetary Sciences'. She is the one who takes the reader to a journey to the Solar System, explaining about the planets and space in detail. For this, we borrowed a laboratory coat from my nephew, who is a college student. Then, we had a photo session at home. We took many pictures of her to be put in the booklet. We kept this secret from my wife, so she didn't know about this till we got the booklet printed.

Next step was the designing of the booklet and collection of information. Amna and I worked on this for 10 days. Sorting out the right information, we also finalized few designs and then got the one we liked most.

Once done, I took the booklet design and Amna's pictures (in the Lab Coat) to a graphic designer for final touching and improvements. It was a lengthy process as each of the 14 pages of the booklet was carefully checked. We also paid a good deal of attention on paper quality and the type of binding we wanted for our booklet. 

The result came out as follows:

 

When I got the printed booklet from the printer's shop, I knew it was a blaster. As I brought it home, Amna was waiting for it and was very anxious to see her project. I can't explain the feelings of joy on her face. She was very happy and confident about her project. Then we showed it my wife and she was like stone for a moment. "Is this Amna?" she asked, " I can't believe it!". 

On the due date for submission, she carefully placed her booklet in a large brown envelope and gave it to her Science Teacher with very high hopes. 

She got full points for this project and her whole class surrounded her asking all sorts of questions. 

The best part of this whole exercise was that it was completely prepared at home, we spent quality time together sorting out information, designs and formats and above all the joy it gave to us. 

Amna is now more confident in doing much better than what she did in this project.

My other twin Rabia also prepared a similar project, the topic was the same but the design was different. It was also a booklet prepared on the same principles and it resulted in similar fashion - full points. Unfortunately, I don't have it's pictures to show you at this time. Maybe, if the school returns the projects to us, I'll take a few snaps and put it for your review.  

 

Ok, what's next!

I have a habit of fixing broken things and I have been doing this for sometime now. Fixing small things around the house was the beginning, this included electrical bulbs, switches, furniture, doors, windows, showpieces etc. Later on, when I purchased my own car, this habit prompted me to fix the car as well. 

This habit taught me some good lessons.  

1. Analyze the task at hand, explore it properly. Understand the problem.
2. Plan the work, lay out the steps.
3. Be patient, don't be hasty.
4. Once when you are satisfied about your plan only then execute your recovery process.
5. Above all, don't be shy to start from all over again.

My house is 35 years old and it frequently requires some repairs here and there. I wait for weekends to carry out small repairs and for big ones I plan when I have the time and money for it. 

This doesn't stop here, last year, I designed my very own showpieces. And I am big fan of model cars, so I decided to make something which keeps me connected with my childhood passion. I collected vintage Vespa scooter models suitable for this showpiece. Then a drawing was prepared, pieces of wood were purchased and slowly began to develop the design.

It looks like this and currently rests on my book shelf.

This design gave me the courage to make a hanging showcase for vintage model cars. In order to collect the model cars I visited more than 15 toy shops to search for the right models. It took me 3 months to collect more than 50 model cars. For starters I developed the following design and it currently is hanging in my study room. 

I am now thinking of making a new design for the remaining cars. Maybe this year, I'll design and prepare it.