Exploring Resilience via Lifes Burning Issues

Tag: Thoughts (Page 21 of 23)

Choices part 4

Careful.... you are always in charge of your choicesA quick revision

In this series so far we have explored the number of choices people make in a day and an anagram for CHOICE in part 1. Looked at constructing our decisions and the need for solid foundations in part 2, and in part 3 looked at a particularly tragic set of consequences around some choices.

Moving on

This post is a return to looking at the word choice and a continuation of spelling out the word. So here’s to the letter “O” , which if you have reviewed part 1, you will know  refers to others/obstacles/opportunities.

Others/Obstacles/Opportunities or all three?

Other people, life’s obstacles or opportunities are often driving factors in the need to make a decision.

Other people are bring with them a whole range of opinions, beliefs, attitudes and factors which, in a whole range of ways, they offer up as building materials for constructing your decisions. Some of these will be overt and easy to see, and some won’t be, and some will be so covert you’d think they are operating like special forces soldiers!

For example have you ever said something (often saying something to your children falls into this category) only to catch yourself and think, gee I sound just like….(mum, dad, nanna etc etc).

So other people can already have had a significant influence on the foundations of your decisions. So when taking the time to reflect on a decision can you examine where the elements are coming from, and which elements are helpful or harmful, which you should keep and which you should discard?

Obstacle is a noun that refers to something that obstructs, stands in the way of or hinders progress. But isn’t this just a definition?

There is a military quip that says the easy path out is likely to have already been mined by the enemy! So is the easy path always the best one, and might that nasty looking track provide some interesting options?

Many people decide that obstacles are too hard to overcome, or are unwilling to try due to a sense of fear of something. Some people will see the proverbial mole hill as a mountain, while some will see a mountain and think that might make an interesting trip.

How do you see the obstacles that life throws up, molehills, mountains or….

Opportunities. Many people think that opportunities are grand chances that only come along every so often. Sometimes these grand chances also scare the crap out of people triggering their fear of something, so they see them as an obstacle.

Every person you talk to provides you with an opportunity. This might be an opportunity to positively influence them through the simple act of smiling at them, it might be building a new friendship or relationship with them. It might be to learn something from them through an interesting conversation, it might be on opportunity to see how they do something and learn either how to/or how not to do something.

Even life’s catastrophes present opportunities. This blog and the Samuel Morris Foundation are testiment to this, and if some upcoming posts I will provide the back story to why this post is trying to turn life’s crap into fertilizer.

The truth is opportunities are often where you least expect them, which is right under you nose, right now! Just think about all the things going on in your life right now.

ALL THREE…not too many people have ever had a life experience that did not involve dealing with others, obstacles or opportunities.

What people, obstacles or opportunities have provided the greatest influence, road blocks or chance for change in your life?

Better than normal!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/weirdcolor/2966114569/

photo by Look Into My Eyes

So 2009  is nearly gone and 2010 is almost upon us…. lots of people are getting around to doing their planning for the next year. Reflecting on the consequences of last years plan, setting goals, creating to-do lists or coming up with their three words like Chris Brogan, or using a multitude of other planning tools.

What’s the Vision?

Most of what people are doing with their planning is trying to set out their vision for 2010 and/or beyond. So I thought taking a gook look at vision would be a great way of taking a peek at 2010.

20 20 or simply normal?

You probably know that when people talk about having perfect vision they talk about having 20/20 vision.  Or what is considered normal for human visual acuity.

But what does normal vision mean? When talking physical sight 20/20 means the ability to distinguish between two objects approximately 1/16th of an inch apart from 20 feet away (or 1.5 mm apart from 6 metres).

What we are trying to do when we are setting a vision for our lives is to distinguish and choose what items/objects/values are going to be most important to us as we move through next year and try to see what the finish line will look like or us.

Anecdotally we know that the only time most of have perfect vision in dealing with our lives is in hindsight, by why can’t we have better than perfect vision moving forward?

20 10 – or better than normal?

When we refer back to physical vision, 20 10 vision is twice the acuity of 2020…. or better than normal.

We have all used different planning tools in the past. So now is the time to ask yourself whether these tools really helped you to distinguish between the items/objects/values to turn your year into a success, or whether they really continued to produce more of the same.

We have many options available to us. The internet allows us to find many different planning tools and to adapt either to the tool as a whole, or to adopt one or more of a tools various components.

Ideally we should be looking for elements that will allow us to develop our 20/10 or better than normal vision, so whatever tool you adopt or adapt it really needs to be helping you to better distinguish between the items/objects/values etc that will contribute to your success.

I hope 2010 is a year of great success for you!

What tool have you adopted or what customised solution have you adapted to help you build your better than normal vision for next year?

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