If circumstances (like the weather) seem to be conspiring against your plans you have three choices:
1. Give it up as it clearly wasn't meant to be
2. Adapt your plans so you can get somewhere near where you wanted to be
3. Stick to your plans anyway, but maybe by a different route
The first one is just stupid - What does "meant to be" mean, in this context?
The second one is better, but what will you be compromising on?
The third one? Well, you either wanted or needed to do that thing you planned, or you didn't. If you did, go ahead and do it.
Roy
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Thursday, 15 November 2007
What's the Big Idea?
Hello again
A question for you: Are you an 'ideas' person?
Me, too.
I find ideas passing through my mind at the most inopportune moments. You know the times I mean: when you're in the bath, when you're driving, when someone or something else demands your attention.
Keeping a notebook handy isn't always an option. A voice recorder is sometimes a better idea. Telling the person we're with can help us remember. I never did tie a knot in my hankie...
So, at these moments, we can sometimes be forgiven for not committing the idea to any kind of lasting medium, and so, sadly, forgetting what it was.
Because the problem with passing ideas is that they so often seem to be just that - passing into our brains on one side and straight out of our brains on the other.
Which is all the more reason why we should all remember to take notes on the occasions when we can. When it's easy, convenient and not impolite to do so. I know that, you know that, we all know that.
So why do we so often forget to do it?
Because it's such a good idea?
That would explain why the brilliant idea I had for today's blog entry is apparently lost forever!
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
PS. Despite that mishap, today has been a very productive day, with a report written, our next major product a few steps nearer completion, another small project ready to send to the customer and a proposal in the air for yet another joint venture.
It keeps us busy...
And it's all such good fun!
A question for you: Are you an 'ideas' person?
Me, too.
I find ideas passing through my mind at the most inopportune moments. You know the times I mean: when you're in the bath, when you're driving, when someone or something else demands your attention.
Keeping a notebook handy isn't always an option. A voice recorder is sometimes a better idea. Telling the person we're with can help us remember. I never did tie a knot in my hankie...
So, at these moments, we can sometimes be forgiven for not committing the idea to any kind of lasting medium, and so, sadly, forgetting what it was.
Because the problem with passing ideas is that they so often seem to be just that - passing into our brains on one side and straight out of our brains on the other.
Which is all the more reason why we should all remember to take notes on the occasions when we can. When it's easy, convenient and not impolite to do so. I know that, you know that, we all know that.
So why do we so often forget to do it?
Because it's such a good idea?
That would explain why the brilliant idea I had for today's blog entry is apparently lost forever!
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
PS. Despite that mishap, today has been a very productive day, with a report written, our next major product a few steps nearer completion, another small project ready to send to the customer and a proposal in the air for yet another joint venture.
It keeps us busy...
And it's all such good fun!
Saturday, 10 November 2007
What's He Got ...
... That I Haven't?
It seems a fair question to me. I mean, why should some people have all the luck, all the money, and that damn attitude that seems to say, 'I deserve it all'?
What do truly, exceptionally, mind-bogglingly successful people have that the rest of the population lacks?
What is it that divides the self-made 'haves' from the unmade 'have nots' (not counting those that inherited or otherwise got lucky)?
In short; what have they got that gets them everything else?
I think that's the wrong question, however we phrase it.
I think what they actually have is something missing.
Something like doubt, fear, uncertainty - or something that creates those unhelpful feelings, anyway.
I've finished Professor Daniel Gilbert's excellent book Stumbling on Happiness, and if you've read it too, you might well know what I'm talking about. You might have come to a similar conclusion already, anyway.
It's that mental process that seems 'unique to humans' - a dangerous phrase, as the Professor points out - which is so unreliable in most of us we really might be better off without it sometimes. It's called imagination.
It's imagination that shows us the worst possible consequences of an action, and it's imagination that makes us fearful for a child's safety when they're out of sight, even when keeping them in sight might put them in greater danger. It's imagination that makes us wonder 'What if I can't do it?'
And that's something that the most ballsy, seat-of-their-pants, outlandishly flamboyant and successful entrepreneurs in the world never seem to allow themselves to consider. Some of them don't seem able to conceive of the idea.
So, next time you're considering a new venture, and wondering 'Should I try this? What if I can't do it?' Stop imagining and just try!
Who actually knows what will happen if you do try? Not you, that's for sure.
And what's the worst that could happen?
No - don't answer that!
Unless you want to stay exactly where you are, that is.
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
It seems a fair question to me. I mean, why should some people have all the luck, all the money, and that damn attitude that seems to say, 'I deserve it all'?
What do truly, exceptionally, mind-bogglingly successful people have that the rest of the population lacks?
What is it that divides the self-made 'haves' from the unmade 'have nots' (not counting those that inherited or otherwise got lucky)?
In short; what have they got that gets them everything else?
I think that's the wrong question, however we phrase it.
I think what they actually have is something missing.
Something like doubt, fear, uncertainty - or something that creates those unhelpful feelings, anyway.
I've finished Professor Daniel Gilbert's excellent book Stumbling on Happiness, and if you've read it too, you might well know what I'm talking about. You might have come to a similar conclusion already, anyway.
It's that mental process that seems 'unique to humans' - a dangerous phrase, as the Professor points out - which is so unreliable in most of us we really might be better off without it sometimes. It's called imagination.
It's imagination that shows us the worst possible consequences of an action, and it's imagination that makes us fearful for a child's safety when they're out of sight, even when keeping them in sight might put them in greater danger. It's imagination that makes us wonder 'What if I can't do it?'
And that's something that the most ballsy, seat-of-their-pants, outlandishly flamboyant and successful entrepreneurs in the world never seem to allow themselves to consider. Some of them don't seem able to conceive of the idea.
So, next time you're considering a new venture, and wondering 'Should I try this? What if I can't do it?' Stop imagining and just try!
Who actually knows what will happen if you do try? Not you, that's for sure.
And what's the worst that could happen?
No - don't answer that!
Unless you want to stay exactly where you are, that is.
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
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