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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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The Power Of and the Problem With Thinking

by Rick Baker
On Mar 9, 2011
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone
 
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus Aurelius
 
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire
 
Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.
Thomas Szasz
 
You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert.
Denis Waitley
 
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James
 
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill
 
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 
Most of us are consumed with our own thoughts and desires and are not always thinking about what other people may want. This is not necessarily being egocentric; it is just being human.
Bo Bennett
 
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
 
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
Most of one's life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.
Aldous Huxley
 
Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
Ray Bradbury
 
Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.
Deepak Chopra
 
Misery is almost always the result of thinking.
Joseph Joubert

Sales Tweet #168

by Rick Baker
On Mar 9, 2011
Sales Tweet #168 Ernest Seller’s Client, Mr. Kaye, describes Ernest as 'the only anaesthetic that hurts'.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
You remember Mr. Kaye – Ernest’s favourite Client. The way I heard the story, Mr. Kaye dreamed that line a few years ago when Ernest was giving a sales presentation. It happened like this...after 45 minutes or so of some of Ernest's best sales-spiel-stuff Mr. Kaye slowly dropped his head to his desk and dozed off. Ernest didn’t think much about it. He's seen Mr. Kaye do that before. Figures it has something to do with concentrating better. Anyway – that day – after a nice little snooze Mr. Kaye woke up with a new description of Ernest.

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Thought Tweets | Ernest Seller

Stress & emotional resilience – Part 1

by Rick Baker
On Mar 8, 2011
For a while now I have wanted to write a paper about workplace stress.
 
I decided, rather than wait to complete it I would write out some preliminary thoughts…this Thought Post is an introduction.
 
First, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:
 
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, first coined in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance. It refers to the consequence of the failure of an organism – human or animal – to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined.[1]
 
Signs of stress may be cognitive, emotional, physical or behavioral. Signs include poor judgment, a general negative outlook[citation needed], excessive worrying, moodiness, irritability, agitation, inability to relax, feeling lonely, isolated or depressed, aches and pains, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, dizziness, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, eating too much or not enough, sleeping too much or not enough, social withdrawal, procrastination or neglect of responsibilities, increased alcohol, nicotine or drug consumption, and nervous habits such as pacing about, nail-biting and neck pains.”
 
Next, here’s some information provided in David J. Lieberman books:
 
What causes stress and how do people react to it?
 
Stress happens:
  • When we have doubts
  • When we are not Confident
  • When we do not feel in control of the situation
5 different kinds of stress:
  1. Acute & short-lived
    • Example – many people are stressed when they must give a speech
  2. Acute with a sequence of challenge of some duration
    • Example – the 911 tragedy
  3. Chronic demands, pervasive and personal
    • Example – taking care of an ailing relative
  4. Lingering
    • Example – child abuse
  5. Background stressors
    • Examples – traffic, loud music
People react to stress 3 ways:
  1. Avoidance
  2. Problem-focused coping, when the stressor/situation can be changed
  3. Emotion-focused coping...change the way we feel
…to be continued

Sales Tweet #167

by Rick Baker
On Mar 8, 2011
Sales Tweet #167 Avoid arguments: when you don’t know, when you are wrong, and when you are right.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
I am working on the list of situations where it is good to argue…if you are a lawyer in a court case…if…

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Beyond Business | Thought Tweets

Sales Tweet #166

by Rick Baker
On Mar 7, 2011
Sales Tweet #166 Ernest Seller has self-respect...when he passes mirrors he smiles.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Well, at least he doesn’t take a bow. There's no self-image shortfall.

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Thought Tweets | Ernest Seller

Your brain needs the proper amount of sleep

by Rick Baker
On Mar 4, 2011
It is important to get the proper amount of sleep...say 7 to 8 hours per night.
 
In order to get that sleep, it is important to get to sleep when you want to get to sleep.  I mean, laying around thinking about sleep doesn’t count.
 
There are some things you should not do just before going to bed because those things tend to reduce your ability to fall asleep.
 
Conversely, there are some things you can do to promote falling asleep sooner rather than later.
 
I listened to an audio book that provided a list of things we shouldn't do just before bedtime.
 
As examples:
  • Don't exercise just before bedtime.
  • Don't drink coffee.
  • Don't eat.
  • Don't watch TV, especially the news…which tends to raise blood pressure.
  • Don't read exciting stuff.
To be clear - reading before bed can help us fall asleep.
 
However, that sleeping aid doesn't work if the reading material is exciting.
 
I see opportunity here.
 
I'm thinking of writing a series of before-bedtime ‘blogs’:  I will make sure they are not exciting at all.
 
In the meantime, I sure hope my Thought Posts are not depriving you of too much sleep.

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Brain: about the Human Brain

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