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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Put your foot down...say "No" to "No"

by Rick Baker
On Oct 15, 2013

Beliefs: some good, some not-so-good

Beliefs intertwine with perceptions and patterns in your brain. Then beliefs manifest their influence, acting as your 'internal filters'. These filters guide your view of the world. These filters guide your behaviour. Your beliefs become deeply-held in your subconscious mind. From that strong base, your beliefs generate your habits…some good, some bad. Your beliefs determine your appetite for new things, your attitude toward change, and your ability to replace bad habits with good habits.

Do you know the true nature and depths of your beliefs?

Have you taken the time to 'dig deep' and understand your most-powerful beliefs?

These beliefs, your strong-and-deeply-rooted beliefs, govern your life: deep beliefs are the roots of your greatest joys; deep beliefs are the roots of your darkest fears.

Your deepest and most-strongly-held beliefs aid your efforts toward certain goals while they resist your efforts toward other goals. In these ways, your beliefs are fundamental to your life. They are fundamental to how you feel during your life and they are fundamental to whether or not you achieve the success you desire.

Where did your beliefs come from?

When it comes to questions like this, all of us are students. None of us know with certainty why or how we have beliefs. Yet, certain things make sense to us. As examples:

·         We perceive things and our perceptions of those things are taken to our brains

·         Our brains file vast amounts of information in memory, for future reference

·         Our brains like to simplify our lives so they sort things into patterns/concepts

·         With repetition bits and pieces of information solidify into bigger pieces and then into patterns

·         Diversity of perceptions expand and complicate perceptions, building a hierarchy of sorted/related patterns [and concepts]

An illustration...

When we are infants we hear our parents say the word "No". That's an audio perception. As our parents repeat the word "No" we learn "No" is an important part of our lives. Simple repetition of that spoken word causes neurons in our brains to construct deeper "No" pathways. Recognizing the importance of "No", our infant brains begin to build a "No" pattern. Our infant brains quickly pick up diverse perceptions that will feed into the "No" pattern. A parent may show an angry face while saying the word "No". The visual body language signal and the verbal sound signal send 2 separate messages, both of which feed into the growing "No" pattern in our infant brains. We notice/perceive that different situations precede our parents’ "No" messages. We perceive more diversity, more repetition and the "No" pattern becomes stronger, deeper, and more-nuanced. Even as infants we have a very broad and deep understanding of the word “No”. We recognize its sound, we recognize what it looks like when it is written, we recognize the facial expressions and the various forms of body language that accompany the word “No”, and we know the word “No” is expressed to us as a result of a wide range of different situations.

We learn our parents are not the only ones who deliver "No" messages to us. Other family members, to varying degrees, deliver "No" messages. We meet neighbours who have little people of their own and both those neighbours and the toddlers they bring into our lives add more "No" to our perceptions.

Why all this discussion around the word “No”?

That question begs the questions…

Do you understand how the pattern/concept “No” has fed negatives into your belief system?

Do you understand the extent the pattern/concept “No” throttles your efforts toward your desired goals & success?

Do you understand how to go about repairing the damage the word “No” has done to you belief system?

Are you willing to make an effort to find out?

Not a problem

by Rick Baker
On Oct 10, 2013

Did you teach your children to say, "Thank You"?

How often do you say those 2 simple words at work?

"Not a problem"...how often do people say that after you say, "Thank You"? 

Whatever happened to, "You're Welcome"?

Is "Not a problem" halfway between "Yes it is a Problem" and "I sure hate these pleasantries"?

Is "Not a problem" a clever way of bringing problem-thinking into the situation?

We should take these possibly small yet possibly very important communications more seriously...and make sure they do not become rote lukewarm Bad Habits.

Resiliency - while I don't like the word, I do like this Dale Carnegie advice

by Rick Baker
On Sep 12, 2013

Recently, I listened to the audio book 'Make Yourself Unforgettable, Dale Carnegie Class-Act System' (2005)

[While for some reason I do not like the word 'resiliency' but have no concerns about the word 'resilient'], I was impressed by the Carnegie views on resiliency.

Here's a summary...

Resiliency helps you handle Problems...i.e., you are able to bounce back from Problems and you are able to handle them better.

[That alone is a good enough reason to work on building resiliency.]

7 Personal Resiliency Builders

  1. Sociability - ability to form friendly, positive relationships
  2. Humor - ability to see the comical elements in life and laugh at yourself
  3. Insight - ability to understand people and situation 
  4. Adaptive Distancing - ability to recognize negative people and keep your distance from them 
  5. Flexibility - the ability to adjust to change and adapt to handle tough situations 
  6. Personal Competence - the ability to excel at one thing and renew self-confidence and energy 
  7. Perseverance - the ability to keep trying despite the difficulties

and 7 Ways to Build Resilience

  1. Make Connections - meet and learn from as many new people as you can 
  2. Avoid seeing a crisis as an insurmountable problem - don't catastrophize 
  3. Accept that Change, both positive and negative is part of living 
  4. Move steadily and consistently toward your goals 
  5. Look for self-discovery opportunities 
  6. Keep things in perspective - don't fight against the current 
  7. Take care of yourself, mind and body
At Spirited, Good Habits are thoughts and actions that take you toward your goals.
 
...many Good Habits described above!

Task-multiing beats up on Multi-tasking

by Rick Baker
On Sep 7, 2013

I've been asked, "What's your definition of multi-tasking and task-multiing?"

Here's how I have answered... 

First - the way I use them, both words refer to processes/actions done by people's brains [not machines].

  • Multi-tasking is doing [or trying to do] a number of different tasks at one time.
  • Task-multiing is doing one thing so well it can either be repeated for profit or used to accomplish more than one goal...or both.

And, there is more...

People do not multi-task well...if not all people then at least the vast majority of people do not multi-task well. When we multi-task our brains slice time & thought and actions up into small pieces to meet the requirements of multiple tasks. When brains do that they must repeatedly shift our attention.

When we multi-task we focus, initiate, stop, shift, re-focus, re-initiate, etc. For a number of reasons, people's brains have trouble doing that.

Another factor: when we are multi-tasking, much of the time we are doing things that are a waste of time. By 'waste of time' I mean things that do not take us toward our goals. By Spirited definition, those things are Bad Habits. The distraction caused by multi-tasking increases the likelihood of doing waste-of-time things.

While we are wasting our time on excessive [multi-tasking] things or struggling with multi-tasking in general, we are not concentrating on activity that can be repeated for profit or can be used to serve multiple purposes. i.e., Many people's brains are too busy [because of their] multi-tasking to perform task-multiing. As a result, multi-tasking people miss many opportunities.

Opportunities are found by people who are able to focus and concentrate the energies in their minds...[and let that focus and concentration fully escape...but that's a topic for another day].

Many brains are neuronally challenged to the point they are over-loaded...in other words - too busy. The people who own those brains are, in reality, too busy for constructive work. What's worse, even more people think they are too busy - these people are mixing I'm-too-busy thoughts with bits and pieces and fragments of multi-tasking thoughts. Now, that's a sure-fired way to waste brain energy and accomplish little.

That's why I say task-multiing is better than multi-tasking.

[It’s also explains why successful people have more time…but, that’s another Thought Post.]

***

"The neural circuits devoted to scanning, skimming and multi-tasking are expanding and strengthening while those used for reaping and thinking deeply with sustained concentration are weakening or eroding."

Clifford Nass, Stanford University

The more you struggle the less you achieve goals. Yet, failure can trigger better ways.

by Rick Baker
On Aug 30, 2013

When you take charge and command your willpower to deliver results you do not achieve those desired results.

[forced discipline of willpower does not bring success]

When your brain knows and understands it is in your long-term best interest to do something, more often than not you will not do that thing.

[intelligence doesn't motivate]
 

When you feel fear and stress, you will tend to either avoid action or take the wrong action.

[fear is, at best, a temporary motivator...and it often sends you in the wrong direction]

When you desire something intensely, more often than not you do not obtain it.

[desire on its own doesn't bring results]

So, what does work?

How does a person obtain goals?

How does a person succeed?

Successful people provide the answers. A study of successful people delivers the answers.

Here's what studying successful people confirms...

Successful people, people who are known for their ability to magnetize the support of others and achieve desired goals possess 3 things:

  1. Intelligence
  2. Self-control
  3. Drive
#1 - Successful people know Intelligence is a life-long process. It is a life-long process about people, about process, and about situations. Successful people are life-long learners. The day they stop learning is the day they stop being successful. Successful people place a high priority on self-knowledge and self-improvement. They apply their Intelligence toward self-development particularly in the areas of Self-control and Drive. In addition, successful people focus on their Talents until they become strengths. Successful people specialize and they stretch in the direction of their personal strengths. They vent their strengths. Successful people do not fear the intelligence possessed by other people: they seek out the best people and particularly people who possess strengths they do not possess. They are skilled at putting other people's strengths to use, ensuring their weakest areas are offset by others' strengths.
 
#2 - Successful people learn how to set aside immediate gratification and focus energy toward long-term goals. They have a Vivid Vision of the future and they place a high value on learning what actions will take them toward their goals and determining how to excel at the performance of those actions. They self-monitor. They learn how to avoid distractions. They tend to view 'failures' as temporary obstacles and learning experiences. Related to failures and obstacles, successful people possess the self-control to direct negative feelings toward positive changes - changes for the better. In other words, failures spark improved focus and greater commitment and failures energize. Successful people use self-control to build positive attitude and winning character by stopping Bad Habits, starting New Things, and creating Good Habits
 
#3 - Successful people are born with powerful internal drives...and they figure out how to keep those drives alive regardless of the pressure applied against them in the form of criticism from other people. They develop thick skin. The clearer their Vivid Vision the thicker their skin. Successful people have a burning internal drive to take action, build things, accomplish results, and to influence other people. At one point in their lives - perhaps when they are young, perhaps when they are in their 30's or 40's, perhaps as late as when they arrive at old age - this drive becomes focused on a single vision, which defines their goal. It is at that time that energy of their Drive, Intelligence, and Self-control blends to generate success.
 
When Drive, Intelligence, and Self-control blend and Focus with intensity on a clear Vision and Goal...only then does success have no choice but to arrive.
 
The good news is all of these things are available to most people.
 
All of these things are available to you.
 
Seek them out, package them, & put them to use.

Thought Tweet #812.5

by Rick Baker
On Aug 27, 2013

Thought Tweet #812.5 Interest: WHY I'm doing something. Intent: WHAT I'm wanting to do.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Communicating our Interests. Communicating our Intent. Good Habits to do.

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