Scott, Author at Scott's Thinking

Accelerate To The Finish

Posted on September 1, 2020

There are four months remaining until New Year’s Eve and we ring in 2021. That really means we have 3 months to accelerate to the finish. For a lot of people, December is filled with shopping, parties, family, preparations, holidays, school events, Christmas and New Year’s itself.

Given all of those events in December, very little else gets done. So if you are trying to make things happen with a business, strengthen a new habit or finish a project, aim to finish by 30 November.

That gives you 13 weeks to get it all sorted before December descends on us. That is plenty of time to do many things. That is roughly 65 weekdays and 26 weekend days. 91 days altogether. The other 245 days are gone.

However, you need to be focused now. Every minute needs to count. There is no longer any time to assume you can get started later or do it later. You may even have to sacrifice a little! You may need to give up on some of the scrolling, watching and time with friends.

This is your last chance to win back 2020. Make it a great year, despite the unforeseen challenges that Covid brought to everyone. You can accelerate to the finish over the next 91 days and make this year a resounding success.

Plan the details, focus on the outcome and take disciplined action. Go!

Action Reframe your thoughts

Personal Accountability Is Critical

Posted on August 31, 2020

You can have reasons or results. You can be someone who produces or gives excuses. Everyone can deliver or wither. Personal accountability is critical.

It may be a good idea to decide which way you want to live your life. And you may also want to consider how you are perceived. Do you want to point to any possible hurdle in life and blame it for your lack of success? Another way is to reach down, overcome the obstacle and succeed despite it.

Perhaps a child is not getting decent grades at school. Should we blame the teacher, the school, the system or the leaders of the country? Starting with the child might be a better option. Is the child capable of better grades? Are they putting in the time and focused effort that that child needs to in order to achieve the higher grades expected?

There is a generally accepted ‘better way’ to do almost anything these days. You can find these online easily. Not only is there one ‘better way’, frequently you will be able to find many very good options to choose from. To get from London to Paris you could drive, fly or take the train. There are also pros and cons for each.

Personal accountability is critical. Get the results despite the hurdles.

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts

Build Your Endurance

Posted on August 30, 2020

Life is a series of sprints wrapped inside a marathon. There are ups and downs, victories and challenges. If you build your endurance, you will survive and probably thrive as you move from one sprint to another.

Most people seem to notice the challenges ahead more than they celebrate the victories that loom in the past. Whatever you focus on will be your reality. So choose what you focus on carefully. You will have enough of your own challenges in life without adding anyone else’s to your list.

As you build your resilience and your endurance, you will gain additional confidence and personal power. With these attributes you will improve your rate of success. This will build your mental strength so that you can call on that when you need to endure difficult times.

Remember to get the flywheel of success working with you. It is much better than having the flywheel of doom working against you. Amazingly, you get to choose which one you have at your side, based on your focus and attitude. Bizarrely, too many people choose the later rather than the former.

I’ve never understood why someone would want to make a life full of challenges even more challenging.

Stay focused and build your endurance.

Think About It

The Aim Of Knowing Something

Posted on August 29, 2020

I enjoy learning new things. Particularly if it involves why people think a certain way. Recently I’ve been considering the aim of knowing something.

Usually you learn something because it will have utility or an entertainment value. Sometimes we learn something just for the sake of knowing it.

In our youth we must learn many things to form a base knowledge. We learn a language and maths along with history and music. We learn a broad spectrum of things to give us a base information.

Beyond that however, why do we learn things? And are we learning things in an efficient way? What is the aim of knowing something if you won’t use that knowledge to any benefit?

How much of what you learn in a day is provided by an external source? Have you specifically sought to learn about a topic or did it simply happen to be in your newsfeed? Or is it what an editor decided you would see?

Perhaps we should be more selective about what we learn about? If we decided what we wanted to learn about, would we be more effective in our learning?

Think about your day ahead. Are you learning useful things and applying that information to a productive goal? Or are you just drifting through your usual informational smorgasbord and picking up bits and pieces?

Action Gratitude

Loving The Great Outdoors

Posted on August 28, 2020

It’s great to get back outside and enjoying the spaces, sounds, smells and sights our world has to offer. Loving the great outdoors can be a very easy thing to do. Though sometimes the conditions have to be right.

Despite having done some exciting outdoorsy things, I tend to be a fair weather outdoorsman. I can handle some pretty big extremes. However, I do enjoy my creature comforts.

I’ve endured skiing in -40 Celsius conditions in Eastern Canada. I’ve also picked grapes in 40+ Celsius weather in the outback of Australia. Night diving on The Great Barrier Reef was exciting. As was hiking to the top of Africa by reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

I’m generally a fair weather camper. Though listening to tonight’s rainstorm from inside our tent was fascinating and a real delight.

Hearing the wind howl and rain lash down and sweep across the tent was quite something. It’s not often enough that we stop and just admire the natural world.

Although nature can be tough, cruel and destructive with its hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and hailstorms. There is such awe in those things and beauty in its kinder, gentler aspects.

The wind and rainstorms are more exciting when you’re not stuck out in them. So from inside my tent, I’m loving the great outdoors.

Reframe your thoughts Think About It

What Would Your Grandma Say?

Posted on August 27, 2020

In my youth I found that this was a good barometer of what would be acceptable for my thoughts and actions. “What would your Grandma say?”, was a phrase that I would run through my mind in situations that may have been pushing the boundaries.

The idea I created in my head went like this. I would imagine the scenario whereby my grandmother picked up the newspaper or turned on the news and there was a report about me, her grandson. The report would highlight what I had said, done, written etc. and paint it in both a balanced and then a biased way.

Then I would go visit my Grandma and have a conversation with her about it. If that whole idea of her finding out what I did, or my having to discuss it with her, made me uncomfortable, that was an indicator to stop before doing anything.

I was telling my son about this recently and suggesting that it might be a useful guide for him. Especially in this era of one strike and you’re out.

You may already have your own system that works for you. That life guide that keeps you from pushing the envelope too far.

If so, great!

However, if not, what would your Grandma say?

Observe Think About It

Be Careful Of That Kodak Moment

Posted on August 26, 2020

Have you ever held onto your position or point of view too long? It gets embedded for maybe the wrong reasons. Be careful of that Kodak moment. That moment when you realise, “things have changed and I am out of touch now”. That can be a painful moment if it is left too long.

You see, we can get attached to our position. We can also defend it. Perhaps we have fought for it. And it seems to have been right. This is because many people have supported us and the results have been very favourable. This is just how Kodak felt over the decades of being in the photography industry.

They felt they had an unassailable position. Things just wouldn’t change that much and they would remain the go-to name in that space. As the leader in that space, they wasted over a decade. Then, the upstarts and technology, fads and trends saw the whole field get turned on its head.

By the time they realised that they had missed the boat on digital photography, it was too late. And so, most people had already moved on to a new party. In addition, they found other players who were far more prepared for the changing world ahead.

We saw this with records, books and cars. Where else do you see the newer ideas and people supplanting the old? Be careful of that Kodak moment.

Action Reframe your thoughts

Hoping But Not Happening

Posted on August 25, 2020

Hope is a very powerful and optimistic state of mind. However, despite its power it is not action or results. Hoping but not happening is an all too common situation for many, many people.

Sometimes people will use the word when they know they will not be making it happen. It’s as if their response has a silent ‘but’ underlying it. For example, if I ask one of my children if they can tidy their room before going to school, I may get the following reply. “I hope so”.

It’s a great reply. It’s optimistic and fills me with hope that it could happen. So the word is a feel-good filler. However, the child may have no intention of doing anything to tidy their room. This happens in a work setting too.

Hoping someone calls, is ok, or gets the job are all better than worrying about the opposite outcome. So in that sense, hope is a fantastic and positive word.

Hoping gets your mind thinking about the positive outcomes you would like to have in your life. The next step is to get curious and ask yourself what actions you could take to move those hopes and dreams into your reality.

When you take action, hoping but not happening will no longer be a part of your life.

Observe Reframe your thoughts

Happy With Your Default Lens?

Posted on August 24, 2020

When we are conscious, we can choose to look at the world from different angles and through several different lenses. Are you happy with your default lens?

Usually we have a preferred, or default, lens that we see the world through. This lens can energise us, depress us, frustrate or inspire. It can help us to be hopeful, critical, cynical, fearful or resilient.

The wild thing about this lens is that, just like with a pair of glasses, you can change it. With a different prescription you will see things better or worse.

With the best lenses you can see with greater clarity, less effort and more enjoyment. If your glasses aren’t well prescribed, life can seem fuzzy, take more effort and you may have more headaches and frustration.

With the right lenses you can focus on the good in everyone. You can accept the imperfections and be grateful for seeing people strive to make life better. You might even be able to see what others are trying to do rather than project diabolical assumptions onto them.

Most people want a better life for themselves, their loved ones and the world. Usually it is in that order. They may see a different route than you to achieve that. Encourage people while they improve rather than try to destroy them because you think you could live their life better.

Are you happy with your default lens?

Action Time

Spending Time Wisely

Posted on August 23, 2020

It’s fascinating to watch ourselves try to save money but spend precious moments doing it. Spending time wisely is almost an art form and partly a science. Using our time on positive and useful things is much more beneficial to us than squandering it.

It is an interesting balance with time. As we do not know how much of it we will have, we want to make good and efficient use of it. In addition, we do not know how well we will be physically and/or mentally through our lifetime, even if it is a long one.

So there are trade offs. You have choices and decisions to make. And these choices are frequently adjusting to new realities. Therefore your decisions may change.

When you are young, or much older, most people have more time than money. Therefore they will wait in a 10 minute queue or walk 20 minutes to save a pound or two. As a person acquires more money they are more likely to spend it to save time, rather than spend time to save money.

You can earn more money in life but there is little you can do to extend your natural time on earth.

In addition, feed your mind with positive, hopeful, helpful and wonderful things. Spending time wisely also means making little room for complaint, anger, negative and frustrating information or entertainment. The cost is too high.