Changing The Way You Look At Your World

Our opinions are our theories.

Theories change; thus, our opinions change, too. Our perceptions of our world are ours; they are entirely our own possessions. Our sensory interpretations of our world are part of our map. This map – a work-in-progress – is continually being updated. What is truth, fact, and reality is determined by our own choices, perceptions, mindsets and attitudes.

Positive-minded people are not born; they develop their positivism through their experiences, education, knowledge, opinions, awareness and judgments. Optimism can be learnt, although it may not be the most reliable and accurate indicator during a crisis. When crises emerge, we need to be prepared for the inevitable and unpredictable.

There are ways to alter the way we view the world with promise, premise and purpose.

1)    Surround yourself with experts, and learn from them by asking questions.

2)    Challenge the status quo. What is accepted may not be the best or most useful.

3)    Focus on useful behaviors; reduce or eliminate useless behaviors. We have choices.

4)    Focus on what has gone well; catch people doing right, instead of only the wrong.

5)    Participate in sports: it builds character; promotes a sense of healthy competition, excellence and achieving goals.

6)    Celebrate with others. Celebrate the success of others.

7)    Be inspired by role models, films and biographies. Ask what makes these people tick, differently.

8)    Learn by doing and immersing yourself in the experience. Plunge yourself into the change process.

9)    Travel is a good way to make comparison and contrasts with what we know, and have yet to know.

10) Stay actively in touch with others; network actively with people you have placed in your contact list. The future is about connections and connectivity. Harness technology for these reasons.

Drawing Inspirations From Films, But Check the Authenticity

I just finished watching 'The Social Network' on DVD - awesome Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) screenplay. This mega-site we share over 207 countries, is worth $25 billion. I was intrigued by the motivations behind the construction of this highly developed social media network. I like the sub-text of 'You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.'

I steered away from the film for some time until I was doing deeper research into social media, and crowd sourcing. Having read many reviews about The Accidental Billionaires, I decided to wait it out. The book by Ben Mezrich only interviewed the litigious co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, but not Mark Zuckerberg (he refused to be interviewed). The new book, The Facebook Effect seems to show more promise and another perspective to the founders of this social phenomenon. David Kirkpatrick (Senior Technology Writer at Fortune magazine) had complete co-operation and access to Zuckerberg; however, this version may suffer from its late entry after the book and the successful film.

This was a video produced and edited by our swim buddy, Dennis Quek. It is a summary of our day with the SAFRA Swim For Hope, held last Sunday. This tribe from Triathlon Family Singapore has been swimming every Monday, and on alternate Saturdays at the lagoon. It was a fun-filled day swimming laps that count towards charity. Our team swam in excess of 2,700 laps.

Evidence counts as proof of occurrence of an event. Word of mouth has some weight, yet anecdotal evidence is still subjective. Never confuse personal observation as fact. If it is an established fact, there will be published evidence of its existence. It is important to have enough breadth of knowledge before purporting to be an expert. One-sided perspectives are biased, so we need to possess a balanced approach to our opinions. If we have the ‘what’ but not the ‘why’, your stance would be weak and pointless.