Ep. 87: Two-Minute Tip — Be Crazy About What Could Be Cool

05/30/20 • 1 min

You know this is another one of those kind of out of the box things but this could be a really good time to do some reflection on new stuff. New relationships. New ways to manage your relationships. New ways of managing yourself. Being able to work more independently, even if you're still part of an organization, and need to be connected to it.

We grow with challenges, so the challenges that we may all be in right now or experiencing in some way, shape, or form they're going to teach a strength, patience, and tolerance I've discovered after my 75 years. That tends to show up and expand, and kind of add to the quality of my life. Add to the relaxation of my life. Add to the focus of my life.

One very useful key many times, is journaling. If you're not doing that already you might want to consider just sitting down and just writing. Just writing out. I've done journaling on both my computer as well as with a great fountain pen and a wonderful journal, over the years in my life.

There have been times that was really really helpful. Just to help kind of uncork, unload and open up some creative thinking that could go on when you're in times that sort of force some reflection where reflection could be highly useful to you. So, be crazy about what could be cool in your life, in lots of different ways. Be open to all the options for that.

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Ep. 86: Two-Minute Tip — Upgrade

Upgrade, you know if you have any downtime at all, with that kind of backed off time that we have, in the pandemic. It's the situation we're dealing with right now.

This is a time to think, it's part of one of those backlog things, one of those things you may have had in the back of your mind. I need to upgrade my computer. I need to upgrade my operating system. I need to upgrade this piece of software. I need to upgrade any of my technology, and any of my tools.

If you're painting, do you have the right brushes? Do you need to upgrade those? If you're playing the flute, or the piano, do you need to upgrade any of the music that you have to be able to practice with?

So I know this is kind of an off-the-wall question. But, a good idea to sort of access, is there anything that you might want to bring up to current speed? That you enjoy, that you love, or you need to be involved with.

I love Kevin Kelly's book from a few years ago, talking about the inevitable, talking about the inevitable trends that are happening to all of us, no matter what. He basically made the point that, you're never going to get really any good at anything because there are going to be constant upgrades, especially in software. So, I used to think that I could just resist upgrades to my Quicken because I thought I could manage it, but now I can't afford to do that because, who knows, to be able to manage Quicken and my accounting stuff personally I need to have the current version.

So it's kind of like, trust that you're never going to get truly on board with everything, currently and totally, but some of those things might need to be upgraded, and that could be just a process. You kind of get the zen of that. OK, let me just keep upgrading, getting better at, getting more stuff that might work. So, just in case that triggers any kind of a thought. Any kind of a thing you might want to add to your list. Hopefully that's helpful.

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Ep. 88: Two-Minute Tip — Outcome and Action Thinking

A bit of a repeat if you've listened to my other tips, but one I just wanted to reinforce. Outcome and Action Thinking.

Outcome and action are the two core elements of productivity. What do I want to produce or experience? And how do I need to allocate or reallocate my resources to make it happen? So that kind of thinking, as simple as that sounds, is something that we need to train ourselves to do. It's really a cognitive muscle you need to work with. So anything that's got your attention, anything that's either worrying or bothering you. That's the time to practice this sort of cognitive muscle. To use it.

What would you like to have true? Instead of whatever is currently true. And how do you need to reallocate, or allocate your attention, your activities, your resources, to make that happen?

For those of you asking "What's that huge pile of books back there David?" Frankly, the outcome was, I had a bunch of archives of all of the translated versions of my book in the different languages that we were going to throw away when we moved to Amsterdam. We said, nah we should probably keep at least one copy of each, but we live in an apartment. So, a small space. Outcome... How do you do that? That's a great bookshelf you can get from a company called Design Within Reach in the U.S. that actually works, where you can stack all those things up and they don't fall over. Anyway, so that's what that is.

So, outcome and action thinking. I just challenge you, invite you, to apply that somewhere that you might be not thinking you ought to apply that, or that you haven't done that yet. So, what's the outcome you're after? What's the action step you need to take to move toward it?

In many many cases now, that's become something that's just habit in my life given what I teach and what I've explored over all these years about how to keep your head clear. So hopefully this will be just a reminder for those of you already familiar with that idea. To apply it wherever you need to apply it now.