This is the third blog of the seven-part series of “7 habits of highly effective teh tarik kakis”.
[To have a better understanding of what is “teh tarik”, “teh tarik kaki” or “teh tarik session’, please go to the About page.]
Coming back to the 3rd habit of highly effective Ah Bengs, it is “chik hung chik hung lai, ban ban lai (one thing at a time, slow and steady)”. However for Teh Tarik Kakis, it should be like this:
FIRST THINGS FIRST and also LAST THINGS LAST
In a teh tarik/yum cha session, there are fundamentally 5 basic activities which can be classified as IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT:
1. first being “relationship building” with your kaki. For example, if you yum cha with your ai ren (partner/lover), you are building closer and more fulfilling relationship. If with business associates, you are building business rapport. Whatever your main topic of discussion in a teh tarik session, make sure it is important BUT not urgent.
2. second being “prevention”. A lot of time you meet because you are “fire fighting” a situation and you want an immediate solution. However, success is limited because “when your house in on fire, you can’t solve a problem effectively”. The best is to sit down and do prevention activities, such as brainstorming on how to generate more channels of income when knowing well in advance cost is going up.
3. third being “planning”. Similar to item 2, a lot issues or problems occur in our life happen due to lack of “planning”. So take time to plan as sporadic actions give unpredictable results.
4. fourth being “explore new opportunities”. A teh tarik session with the right partner (kaki) is very effective especially in exploring new opportunities in business.
5. fifth being “rest & recreation (R&R)”. R&R here means you yum cha with the intention to relax your mind which re-create your body-mind temperament. Of course I am not referring to frivolous talk, unwanted gossip and back stabbing kind of things.
Your yum cha session should be a Quadrant II activity which is IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT. Relationship takes time. Prevention needs effort. Planning takes time. Exploring new opportunities needs effort. Rest and recreation take time!
Dear teh tarik kakis, always yum cha to do IMPORTANT things but not urgent things ok ya?
FIRST THINGS FIRST = THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT
Tags: 7 habits, ah bengs, exploring new opportunities, first, habits, highly effective, important, last, people, planning, prevention, r&R, relationship building, rest & recreation, teh tarik, teh tarik kaki, urgent
