Filed under perspective …

Jul 03 2014
change, perspective, Uncategorized

Potentially profound positivity

A few years ago, I tweeted: “What if for one day people were incapable of thinking, acting, and speaking negatively?”

Reactions, perhaps not surprisingly, ranged from “how wonderful!” to “yeah right.”

For the most part, the responses seemed a very clear indicator of a person’s perspective on life

If their response was positive, they seemed to be a generally positive person

If the response was negative, their overall perspective on life seemed to trend towards the negative

 

negative-and-positive

 

 

The positive responders are easy to be around and generally good fun

While the negative responders are a challenge, although an interesting one

They’re a challenge in two ways:

  1. To understand the likely complex nature and twisting pathway of how they got to where they were (I’m guessing as babies they were as smiley and adorable as the positive guys)
  2. To figure out how they could actually be swayed from negative to more positive

Some might respond that getting involved with the negative responders is none of my business, however I think it is

I believe the world itself is capable of an overall shift from negative to positive

And the result of that, well, would be phenomenal (more smiles, more encouragement, move love, more peace)

 

And if you make it a little of your business, we could, you know, change the world

A lofty goal for sure, but without challenge, life can begin to get dull (and possibly even lead to negativity!)

 

 

 

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Jun 28 2014
improvement, inspiration, perspective

Current state of affairs

When was the last time you refreshed your CV (or resume)? Two years ago? Just before you got into your current position?

 

Two reasons why you should get on that:

  1. Obvious one: You’re ready to take on a promotion or new role (within the current company or at another company)
    1. Keeping your resume current allows you to nimbly apply for both new positions within your organization and ones outside
    2. In the unfortunate situation where you lose your current job, its one less thing to have to do to kick-start the job search process again (and it’s a nice psychological relief to have that already taken care of)
  2. Less obvious one (but even better reason): Assess where you’re currently at career-wise in your current role
    1. It’s easy to get drawn into the day-to-day work of your current role and suddenly months and at times years have passed
    2. Your job may be going well, however it’s also quite possibly your head-down approach has allowed you to miss out on fruitful opportunities
    3. Updating your CV, due to the nature of it being a high-level summary of your current and past roles, is a great opportunity to get a sense of what you’ve achieved, what more you’d like to do, and areas where you definitely want to do more

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

It’s definitely worth spending an hour (even better splitting that across 2-3 sessions) to get your CV up to date

 

You’ll likely have a couple of reactions when you’re finished:

  1. A fine smile after reflecting on how you’ve had some nice achievements
  2. A good boost to step back and re-establish some strong goals and milestones for the upcoming year

 

 

 

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Mar 29 2014
confidence, improvement, perspective

High school volunteer

High school was an interesting time

The things that a high school student respects in their peers at the time can appear to be quite different than when adults

Top athletes definitely deserve some honor, but popularity in and of itself shouldn’t really garner a whole lot of respect

 

And how different things are now as an adult

I may still respect a person that earns attention and popularity among peers, but one of biggest respect drivers for me today are those people that really give themselves to others, in a selfless manner

I could/would have grown to respect those that volunteered way back in high school, but it really wasn’t prevalent at the time

While classes were largely boring and contained little in the way of personal development and inspiration (academically or otherwise)

It’s definitely a shame that a ripe opportunity to instill the positive skills and mindset that come from volunteering in a young mind is often largely missed

It’s definitely not too late, but as an adult volunteering of one’s time is often limited to bits of free time scattered here and there

 volunteers

Introducing volunteering into young peoples’ lives would:

  • teach them valuable life skills
  • expose them to selfless thinking at a time where they’re more open-minded
  • benefit us all – those that receive help, those that volunteer, and those that are inspired by their efforts

 

 

 

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Mar 04 2014
improvement, perspective

The shoe perspective

 

Two shoe salesmen go to Africa in the 1900s to assess the opportunity to sell shoes.

They report back and one says it’s a horrible situation since they don’t wear shoes, while other says it’s a glorious opportunity since they don’t wear shoes yet.

 

I have always loved this story. And have come to appreciate and love people that are inspired to seek out the good and the opportunity in every situation.

Everything doesn’t always go as planned. Life wouldn’t be that interesting if it did, and we’d miss out on a range of learning opportunities. Try not to forget that when things appear to have gone awry.

Failures and frustrations can lead us to a richer life (if we let them).

 

dress shoes

 

 

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