Think About It Archives - Page 52 of 64

Sometimes It Is Who And Not What

Posted on February 1, 2021

Who says someone can be more important than what is said? It seems a little odd to me but it happens. Sometimes it is who and not what that makes all the difference.

Do you remember your parents telling you something and you didn’t believe them. Maybe it was when you were a teenager. Or perhaps you were in your 40’s. They said X and you did Y.

Having your own children is the cosmic giggle from the universe. Now the shoe is on the other foot. You will be imparting brilliant, relevant and fascinating advice, or information, and it will fall on disinterested ears.

However, a friend of theirs will say the same thing and it will be all high fives and wow. If you’re nodding to this, remember you did/do the same thing to your parents. You may dismiss your parents as being from a bygone era. In doing so, try not to dismiss the pertinent advice they are giving for your benefit. Listen carefully.

If your best mate told you the same thing, then do it when your parents mention it. And give your friends due time while considering their view. Oftentimes friends can dismiss a point of view because they think their friend has no idea. However, an expert in the field might say the same thing and you will quote them all day long.

Sometimes it is who and not what.

Financial Observe Reframe your thoughts Think About It

Your Money Pays For Their Vacation

Posted on January 30, 2021

Make sure you only buy things that are essential to your life or for true happiness. Remember that when you spend, your money pays for their vacation, not yours.

Think about that for a minute. You buy two large pizzas for £25 and that is a fair exchange. You receive two large pizzas with toppings of your choice and they receive the payment they wanted. However, think one level deeper.

When you buy the pizzas, your bank account goes down and their bank account goes up. You have less cash for your vacation and they have more cash for theirs.

Quit giving your money to everyone else so they can have your vacation.

You could buy two large pizzas at the shops for £10. Then put the £15 of saved money into two other accounts. The first £7.50 could go into your vacation fund. The other £7.50 could go into your long term strategic investment fund.

You get to eat the pizzas and you build up your vacation and investment fund accounts. Sure the pizzas may not be quite as delicious from the fridge. And there would be some effort in cooking them. However, you would still have the nutrients and additional funds in your core accounts.

From one simple example, you would have almost £800 across your accounts in one year.

When you’re about to spend, remember, your money pays for their vacation.

Action Progress Think About It Time

Be Obsessive

Posted on January 29, 2021

This is a great way to approach things in life. Why do anything half-hearted? If you are going to undertake anything, be obsessive.

It has been awhile since the last time I heard this phrase. However, I heard it the other day when I was on the new Clubhouse App. Mr Beast, the young YouTube sensation with over 50 million subscribers was using it to note how to gain success. He told the person in question to be obsessive. It is a philosophy that he uses too.

Essentially, he gets up and spends every waking hour being focused on improving his craft and planning or creating content. Then he goes to bed. That seems fairly obsessive to me.

It makes me think about the book, The Zulu Principle. The premise of the book is that you can learn anything and become a world class expert in anything pretty quickly. If you focus on one topic and read three books on it, you’ll be well ahead of 96% of people on that topic. Then if you network around people who are experts in that field, you will rapidly absorb their additional knowledge.

So in a few months, you really could be world class in just about anything.

And I get it. I don’t want my brain surgeon to have just read a few books and gone to a few Medical wine and cheeses.

But for most things, just be obsessive.

Observe Reframe your thoughts Think About It

Aren’t You Curious?

Posted on January 28, 2021

That rich woman. That powerful man. How did they get where they are today? What path did they take? Which hurdles did they overcome. Aren’t you curious?

Notice the couple with a great relationship. Observe the family that plays and laughs together. Hear the love in their voices, projecting kindness from their heart.

Wondering why things are as they are, is a great skill to develop. Everything seems to be here for a reason. The sun to warm and the rain to cool. Gravity is there to hold things down. Rivers flow into seas. It all seems a little convenient. You may want to change the setup and the system, but perhaps you just don’t know why it is how it is.

Start with this way of thinking and you’ll find it effortless. But if you didn’t, there will be work to do. Attempts to put others down for their successes, or feelings of jealousy or envy, are not useful.

Get curious about their mindset and the path they have taken to this state and place. You too could have the same if you followed the natural path and process. All journeys to a destination have a beginning, middle and end.

Aren’t you curious about the process required to achieve anything?

Observe Think About It

Like Minded People

Posted on January 27, 2021

This is what we are all looking for. We want to find people we can relate to. Those people that think like us are golden. Like minded people make life easier. We don’t need to think. We can just float together.

This is an awesome experience. We can talk for hours with like minded people. We feel good about the experience. There is a flow to the conversation. We speak the same language. The words we select are from the same patch. And the order and tone we use is so simple and totally fluid.

It is easy to lull ourselves into a false sense of security that everyone thinks like us. Then someone uses a word that isn’t from our patch. Or the tone dips instead of rises. Occasionally we notice the words are positioned in an odd order to our expectations. Screech! Hand brake. What was that?

We pick up on these subtle nuances. There is a sense something is a little off but we may not be able to put our finger on it. Our backs get arched a tiny bit as we prepare to switch to defence. Who is the infiltrator, the odd one out? Why are they here? I hope they don’t bring their like minded people into this chilled oasis.

Comfort versus thinking and learning…

Financial Gratitude Progress Think About It Time

How Do You Give Back?

Posted on January 26, 2021

Do you do something for charity, your community, people coming up behind you? It’s good to reflect on this. How do you give back?

I am trying to add more of this into my days. I do it sporadically and I would like to do it in a more structured way. It starts with giving my time to people who are building their careers or businesses. Then, Money for charitable causes and effort for good causes.

Getting clear on how to apportion time and money, and setting those aside for good causes, is a useful exercise. It makes you stop and think about what you do now, what might be good and even how it makes you feel. Should you set aside more time and money? To whom and how should that be done?

Some people are very good with structuring their thoughts around this. I’ve known people to set aside x amount of money and y amount of time. Then they gift that away through the year. Other people simply donate a lump sum and that’s that. All requests after that are denied.

Some people will give money freely but not their time. While others do the opposite. There are those that give 1% of their income while others give away most or all of it, like the incredible Chuck Feeney.

How do you give back?

Progress Think About It

So Now What?

Posted on December 25, 2020

When you get through a big event, or reach a big milestone or a significant goal, there is often a big sigh of relief. Then comes a feeling of, ‘So now what?’

We often need a moment or two to relax and recharge. Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally too. That can be part of the celebration of having completed. Some people will go all quiet and others will jump up and down and be very vocal.

Regardless of how you celebrate and recharge, there will be a requirement to fix your mind on a new goal or event. Without a new focus for your days, you may start to drift. As you drift, you can lose your way. Your good habits may dwindle and poor ones may develop in their place.

So switch your focus onto the next big event. Lock it in and start taking the next steps required. Start building momentum toward your next big adventure and victory.

The time between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve is an excellent time to reflect on your next moves. There is a lull in the universe. It allows you to gather your thoughts and prepare for the challenges ahead.

So now what?

Observe Reframe your thoughts Think About It Time

Convergence Ahead

Posted on December 19, 2020

Life might eventually get a little sterile. Now it may take 50 or 100 years, or even longer. However, I can start to see greater convergence ahead.

With technology quickly changing the landscape many modern norms may well disappear. Getting a learners permit to drive a car may no longer be a right of passage for the teenager. Uber and then driverless cars will do away with that exciting option.

Many of the jobs for teens may also disappear. For example, no paper routes because soon all information will be communicated electronically. Not simply because it is is cheaper and more efficient. But the climate change and ecological benefits of not felling 100’s of millions of trees and blotting them with ink every year have got to be obvious.

We will have explored, modelled, tried and had feedback on just about everything over the next decades. There will be little left to explore on Earth. From the land to the oceans, Earth’s core and even history. It will have been explored and decided upon. That is what will be taught in schools, if those continue to exist.

Robots will be doing most things, including making the other robots. I’m not sure what the people will actually be doing. But in 50 years, there may be little left to do.

I can imagine the convergence ahead. Thank goodness for space exploration.

Gratitude Observe Progress Think About It

Who Guides You?

Posted on December 18, 2020

We have all followed someone else’s advice at one point in our lives. Sometimes it will have turned out well and other times not. Who guides you?

There are many traditional people that give advice that people have listened to over the years. Examples range from the head of your local or national government or religion. In addition, it might be the senior member of the armed forces or your royal family.

You might also have chosen to consider the words in the book of your religion, your local or national media outlet, or perhaps an influential magazine or book. There can be many people putting these printed items together. Though the key pieces will be influenced most by the author and senior editor.

Then, of course, there are friends and family, neighbours, teachers, professors, doctors, and other members of the community. Finally, there is also the voice inside your head. Sometimes this intuition or inner voice will be the most influential or powerful. Other times, we bury it, subordinate it or completely ignore it.

All of the above have their own angle, bias, desired outcome and experience in life, through which everything is filtered. Be conscious of that. In the end, it is your life. The voices you let steer your ship will have a significant impact on the joy, pain, challenges, success and gratitude in your life.

Who guides you?

Observe Think About It Time

The Randomness Of Life

Posted on December 14, 2020

Look at your best friend, current job, the industry you’re in and your home. Is it exactly as you planned it? The randomness of life is fascinating.

I will guess that most people in their early twenties have barely given a thought to these aspects of their lives. This is especially true if they were asked to project out to when they would be 35 years of age.

How did you find your current best friend? The average person meets about 10,000 people in their lifetime. There are 7.8 billion people on earth. How fascinating that you have a best friend from such a small sample size. And let’s assume that you met half of those people, about 5,000, before the age of 30.

What random event, word or phrase, got you interested in doing your current job? Have you ever wondered which random events occurred earlier in your life to point you into a career in X? You came to be in a certain industry also, which may, or may not, have been by choice

Now consider your home, the location you are in, the type of property and the style of it. You may have looked at only 4-20 properties before selecting one. And those were just the one’s available at the time, that you went to see.

The randomness of life is fascinating.