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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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How to stop complaining

by Rick Baker
On Jun 11, 2013

 

While in Italy last month, I re-read Marcus Aurelius' 'Meditations'. It is therapeutic to consider the self-help messages this famous Roman Emperor wrote over 1800 years ago.

Here's an excerpt, from book 4 section 3...

"What's there to complain about? People's misbehavior?

But take into consideration:

  • that rational beings exist for one another;
  • that doing what's right sometimes requires patience;
  • that no one does the wrong thing deliberately;
  • and the number of people who have feuded and envied and hated and fought and died and been buried.

...and keep your mouth shut."
 


One of my heroes...

 

Marcus Aurelius

121 AD - 180 AD

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Hero Worship | Wisdom: Surviving the Test of Time

Thought Tweet #752

by Rick Baker
On Jun 4, 2013

Thought Tweet #752 Think in new ways; think in old ways...just don't waste time dabbling in-between.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Wisdom survives the test of timeCuriosity & Creativity are essential things.

It's the stuff in-between that wastes time, injures attitude, and accomplishes little.

Create a How To Think list

Thought Tweet #747

by Rick Baker
On May 28, 2013

Thought Tweet #747 "Other people's mistakes? Leave them to their makers.Marcus Aurelius 


The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Marcus Aurelius is one of my heroes. 

Over 1800 years ago, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote those words in what was later [much later] published as 'Meditations'. While nobody knows exactly why he wrote several short `books`, it certainly appears he wrote them as a self-help exercise...to keep his thoughts focused and his spirits up when times were tough. The 'books' were written late in Marcus Aurelius' life...likely during the 160`s AD. 

I re-read 'Meditations' in Italy while on my way to Rome last week. The above quote can be found at book 7, section 29.

Clear, concise & nicely-worded wisdom.

Constructive criticism is definitely an oxymoron.

Thought Tweet #746

by Rick Baker
On May 27, 2013

Thought Tweet #746 Wisdom, defined: removing things that are wrong from your 'To Do' & 'To Think' lists.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

"Experience guides intelligent people as they think and act."

Edward de Bono

'Six Action Shoes', (1991)

(That's another definition of 'Wisdom'.) 

Tags:

Thought Tweets | Wisdom: Surviving the Test of Time

Born to learn

by Rick Baker
On Oct 19, 2012

People are born with a natural talent for learning.

We learn by:

  • understanding self (starts with our body parts and how they interact with surroundings), 
  • observing other people (our parents having a huge initial impact), 
  • observing our surroundings (identifying patterns, posing & testing hypotheses)
  • perceiving (creating unique & personal explanations of the vast array of stimuli that 'hit' our senses), 
  • memorizing knowledge (short-term & long-term memories of manifold experiences and perceptions), 
  • imagining (holding images in our mind's eye...remembering past events and envisioning future events)
  • practicing skills (so they get hard-wired into our brains), and , of course,
  • interacting with people and things around us (from mirror neurons and Theory of Mind to mentors, trainers, and championship teams). 

Born to learn: that's the way we are born.

Our learning takes the form of a life-long series of self-corrected behaviours coupled with a life-long series of successful outcomes and not-so-successful hard knocks.

People are created with a remarkable capacity for learning.

All people are created that way. Then individual experiences affect the duration and extent of learning. Also, individual choices affect the extent and duration of learning. 

Here's an example of a string of thoughts about learning:

  • I was born to learn.
  • In the past, as I went about my learning, some people encouraged me and some people put me down. 
  • Now, I see learning as my responsibility...I don`t seek encouragement and I am not put off by put downs.
  • Now, I see introspection as the ongoing starting point for learning...as the ancient Greek aphorism states - Know Thyself.
  • Now, I see individual strengths, wisdom, self-control, and positive attitude as the key ingredients for success in any endeavour...and each of these is the substance of life-long learning.
  • I know, to succeed in a business role, I must combine my talents and specialized knowledge with life-long practice and exploration of new things. That is the only way to master business work.
  • I know, because I have seen it first-hand, the capacity for learning does not have to wither with age...it is the one blessing that remains with us as long as we want it to and are prepared to do the brain work that self-feeds.
The capacity for life-long expanded learning is our unique blessing.




Tags:

Brain: about the Human Brain | Values: Personal Values | Wisdom: Surviving the Test of Time

Thought Tweet #471

by Rick Baker
On May 7, 2012

Thought Tweet #471 Better to be stuck on sticky problems than to be burned by fire-fighting.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

In business, we need to save our brainpower for innovative and creative work. When we fire-fight those daily fires, we remove our ability to excel at problem-solving and opportunity-capturing. This is especially so if our ongoing fires generate emotional heat, which they often do. When we fight fires we get burned at least 2 ways: (1) we burn energy in our brains that could be used to fuel better-caliber thinking and (2) we burn time that could be spent on better-caliber work or other important activity. This is confirmed by the 80/20 Rule. It is at the root of ancient wisdom, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Tags:

80/20 Rule | Brain: about the Human Brain | Thought Tweets | Wisdom: Surviving the Test of Time

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.