Think About It Archives - Page 55 of 61

Precision Is The Key To Success

Posted on July 9, 2020

Whether you are attempting secondary school mathematics, or helping NASA prepare for a rocket launch, I believe precision is the key to success.

You don’t generally play a piano. You select specific keys and strike them with precision. Playing any key in any order while lazily hitting random keys together, is unlikely to make a great symphony.

The more precise you become with something, the greater your probability of success with it. I think people generally understand this concept. We see so many people trying to learn, practice and improve their skills. It could be at school on tests, in sports, or during their career.

The more precise you can be in speaking and communicating, the more success you are likely to find in whatever endeavour you pursue. This can be particularly true when you ask for something. Make sure you are clear about what your are asking for. The greater the precision, the more likely people will understand the request and be able to deliver on it.

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin

When following instructions it is useful to follow along precisely. For some reason, people sometimes ignore the instructions or skip over several steps. I wouldn’t be so brazen. Especially if it is important.

Follow every step precisely because precision is the key to success. ?

Observe Think About It

What Do You Look For In Other People?

Posted on July 2, 2020

I’m not sure many people consciously consider the traits they look for in friends or associates. What do you look for in other people? Are there five or six must have items on your list? Perhaps, like many people, your friendship circle is simply a collection of people you got along with well at some point.

We tend to veer towards groups with people who have similar interests like cars, property, music, surfing or bridge. And usually people bump along meeting others in that group until they find someone who they click with.

Is there a more efficient way to go about this? Speed dating fascinates me for this reason. On the surface it seems rather cold and unromantic. But it has an undeniable efficiency. Whether you have a list of ‘must haves’ or not, people tend to know within a few minutes whether the person has ‘heck yes’ potential or not.

And, if they don’t have the potential, simply catch and release. There are other fish in the sea. Of course the sooner you find those other fish, the sooner you will find additional joy.

The tough part comes when you find someone you enjoy hanging around with but they are not good for your future. Do you have the strength and discipline to cut them loose?

Become clear on what you want in a person you spend time with. Like a holiday, job, spouse, business partner or doctor, you’re going to spend important time there/together. You might as well set some specific and high criteria.

Financial Think About It Time

Shirtsleeves To Shirtsleeves In Three Generations

Posted on July 1, 2020

Wealth. It is frequently fancied while sometimes sneered at. How do you keep it in the family? Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations is a well known, international sentiment, with this in mind.

Historically, the first generation works hard, makes sacrifices, and ensures that the money comes in. In addition, they use it well. Because of this, the first generation can grow their wealth. Often this requires practicality and frugalness. While displaying these values, their children learn more about the ingredients to success and wealth.

Parents will sacrifice their pleasure to provide a better life for their children. During this period, the children see their parent’s effort and sacrifice. Because of this, they often choose or are directed toward more stable and higher income roles. Without having to toil and sacrifice as much as their parents, who shielded them from it, they develop more of a lifestyle led existence.

The parents often sow the seed of the family’s demise. They do not always train their children in hard work, sacrifice, sensible spending and intelligent, long term investing. Certainly the second generation seldom pass key life lessons on to their children.

The third generation, brought up with wealth and a nicer lifestyle, often have few of the key ingredients to maintain or build on the family wealth. Therefore, many times this third generation reduces the family wealth. This may be through poor investing, frivolous spending, family legal disputes or trying to live up to the family name.

You can prevent shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. Be sure to instil in your children, and grandchildren, the concepts of hard work, sacrifice and developing an investor‘s mindset.

Action Think About It

What Makes You Decide?

Posted on June 30, 2020

We make decisions every day. There are the thousands of little decisions and the several, or dozens of, much larger decisions. But what makes you decide anything in the first place?

What is it that makes us decide that it is time to brush our teeth? Is there a trigger that helps us with the decisions around the clothes we will wear today or what we will eat for lunch?

Some decisions are instant, like to keep walking or stop. Other decisions are longer term, such as where we will book next year’s summer holiday.

Perhaps many decisions are merely strong habits. If you decide to go to bed because it is 10:00 pm, is it much of a decision if you go to bed every night at that time?

A lot of decisions are the result of measuring pleasure or pain. I might keep walking if I see an old friend up ahead (pleasure pursuit). However, if I see a car hurtling through a red light, I might stop walking across the street (pain prevention).

What makes you decide to support a political party or leader? Which internal system makes those split second decisions while driving at 70 mph?

Could it be your Emotions? Experience? Training? Conditioning? Education? Influence? Peers? Data?

Have an honest moment with yourself and consider what really are the main reasons you make many of your decisions. You may be surprised.

Gratitude Health & Fitness Think About It Time

Sometimes You Just Need A Break

Posted on June 28, 2020

Life can have moments of relative calm. It can also have periods of full speed intensity. During the crazier moments, sometimes you just need a break.

There are quite a number of things that can fill your days. For example, you might help to maintain your household, have a busy job, look after kids, be studying, be a carer, be growing a business or volunteer. Many people are trying to manage everything while doing a combination of these.

Life’s challenge is that the ‘to do’ list is always longer than the time available. So you must be careful to set some boundaries and create priorities as well as follow some cut off times. If you go non-stop too many days or weeks in a row, you may find other challenges in your life. Normally this would be your physical health and mental fortitude.

It is easier to burn out than recover from it. Occasionally we get so caught up in the cycle of doing, we don’t even realise the mental and physical toll we are having on ourselves.

Remember to schedule down time, rest time or you time. It is important to recharge your batteries. Occasionally that will mean you will not get everything on your list completed. As long as none of it is life threatening, then we should not think twice about this.

Remember, you shouldn’t push excessively for too long. Sometimes you just need a break. Make sure you schedule one in and take it. Your soul will be grateful.

Action Think About It

Prepare For The Worst And The Best

Posted on June 26, 2020

It is always important to maintain a positive perspective. To this end, one should prepare for the worst and the best and not prepare only for the worst.

In the headline, I’ve modified the popular idiom of, ‘Hope for the best and prepare for the worst’. It makes more sense to me this way.

Taking action, planning and preparing only for the worst seems like only half the answer. Although hope is an excellent thing to have, I thought we should put some action, planning and preparing for the best in here too.

Hope is a great start but by planning, preparing and visualising the best outcome, we may actually help to create it. In addition, it may be more likely to come to pass if some action has been taken.

So let’s hope that things get better. Let’s plan for better days ahead. Why not map out what ‘great’ would like for your life over the next three, six and 12 months? If you haven’t done so already, start preparing for the life that you want. Mentally map what it looks like and how it feels. Review this in your mind daily. Several times a day if you really want the change to happen.

While doing that, also prepare for the worst. Be ready to quarantine at some point, lockdown again, be clear on your finances for the 12 months ahead and especially if household income became impacted. It’s not fun to plan for tough times ahead but it is prudent.

Finally, Do not plan just for the physical outcomes but plan for the mental condition you’ll need as well. Be ready for challenge but focus your thoughts on happier days.

Observe Think About It

Being Right And Wrong

Posted on June 25, 2020

Sometimes you need to rely on the information that you are given. You may even believe it to be true, only to find out it isn’t so. Being right and wrong can add an extra layer of complexity to any situation.

I learned early on in life about the importance of your source. I also learned not to believe everything I read. In addition, I learned that adults make mistakes just like kids.

When I was 12, I read about Ian Gillan replacing Ronnie James Dio in Black Sabbath. I can’t recall which magazine it was in, but it was likely Circus or Hit Parader. The article had his name misspelled as Gillian though, with a second i. However, I was unaware of who Ian Gillan was and so did not know the correct spelling of his name.

I was made aware of the correct spelling though. I went into school the next day, armed with this big, exciting news. Memorising this new name was important so that I could get the story right. A friend of mine laughed at my pronunciation of Ian’s name, given the additional i. The conversation suddenly stopped being about this new change in one of our favourite bands.

The discussion then centred on how to spell Ian’s name. I was certain that I had memorised it correctly. My friend was certain he was correct. As he was a fan of Deep Purple already, I assumed he was correct and I let it go.

I checked the magazine that evening and I had read its incorrect spelling correctly. It was difficult in that pre-internet era to verify something like this without getting to a shop to check the spelling on the album or cassette. As I lived on a farm, far away from record shops, this was a non-starter.

My friend brought in his Deep Purple cassette the next day to confirm that the spelling was with just one i – Gillan.

It’s funny how a person can be right and wrong at the same time, like I was. But it happens. So it is always good to check the original, definitive source, if you can, before using the information.

Reframe your thoughts Think About It Time

Immersing Yourself In Another Person’s Shoes

Posted on June 21, 2020

Sometimes I see a picture of someone and start to wonder about their whole life. Immersing yourself in another person’s shoes is a fascinating challenge.

I know the old saying suggests walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. But is that really enough? I guess it depends on your intent and what you are trying to get out of the experience.

Understanding A Position

If you are trying to understand someone’s position on a topic, it could be a little more complex than you think. Most topics, at their most general, can be distilled down to a binary option. However, as you dig deeper into the detail, there can be dozens, or even hundreds, of nuanced positions.

Just as a person can be summed up in one word, it doesn’t really give you a good understanding of them. A brief bio is more helpful. An obituary can sum up an important figure in half a page of a newspaper. But these are mere snippets from a person’s life. These do not usually fully inform you of how they got to their current way of thinking on various topics.

So this immersion perspective comes from trying to understand a person more fully. A person is constantly absorbing and assessing information which allows them to make minor shifts in perception. Perhaps we need to understand all of these moments of shift to fully appreciate where someone is coming from in their discussion.

Time To Understand

Let’s say the main influencing time in a person’s life could be distilled into one accumulated hour per week. So one hour, times 52 weeks, for a 50 year old means 2,600 hours of influential moments to review. To do so, at a rate of 40 hours per week, would take over one year!

Immersing yourself in another person’s shoes may not be practical. However, we can be kind and listen. People are where they are based on their own experience. This includes all the formal and informal education, and training, they have received in their entire life.

Berating a person for their current opinion, based on their personal journey so far, is not helpful. Understanding how they have arrived there allows you to help them consider alternative views.

Try understanding people a little more today. Listen to their view and allow them to have it. People are often more open to considering a new perspective when it is presented openly as an option rather than in a coercive way.

Health & Fitness Reframe your thoughts Think About It Time

Living To 100 And Beyond

Posted on June 20, 2020

The imaginative people on this planet continue to make progress on so many fronts, especially in the medical field. Living to 100 and beyond is becoming more of a frequent occurrence these days.

And with rumours that 100 is the new 80, it is all very exciting. The perception of ageing is also changing. Many people are still very active in their 70’s and 80’s. Some are surprisingly able through their 90’s and into their 100’s. With all the new replacement parts and better prevention and cures, the idea of ageing is changing.

How many centenarians are there in the UK? Globally? More than many people would expect. (Take a guess before checking the answer at the bottom).

Reaching 100, or beyond, may become less of an issue of physical limitations and more of a mental health and mindset challenge.

For this reason I am angling to reach 160. Aim high! So even if I come up a little short, it will still be quite an impressive run. With that in mind, I am building good habits for the long haul. Both physical and mental habits. I‘ll let you know if I make it. ?

Living to be 100 and beyond is quite an achievement. In 2018 there were 13,170 centenarians in the UK and 499,198 globally. They’re great numbers to build on.

Reframe your thoughts Think About It Time

Thinking Differently Changes Lives

Posted on June 17, 2020

It feels like there is a lot of upheaval and uncertainty in the world at the moment. Remember that thinking differently changes lives, whether it is with respect to Covid, your job or summer holidays.

Day to day life seems to be changing at a rapid pace. The future may, or may not, look different from what we experienced in 2019. But then again, things have been changing your whole life. So change is not really new. But what might be new is having greater uncertainty as to how this change will play out for you.

In our early years, many people have higher certainty due to social norms (school advancement, activities) and signposting by our parents or carers. From teenage years and onwards, we have a slightly lower certainty as we attempt to do things we want to do (apply to universities or jobs, move house, find new friends or a partner).

Often we decide on the change that we would like to happen in our life. But we did not choose this moment in time and the changes it has dealt us. And we do not know where this road leads. But the thinking that got us this far in life, may need some alterations for this next stage of life.

You are the hero of this story. No one else is coming to save you. You have the strength and mental acuity to shift now from uncomfortable to unstoppable. Be one of those joy filled people that believes thinking differently changes lives. Then make the mindset shift and begin the change.