Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts

Sunday, October 11, 2015

The Currency of Wisdom

How do you actively develop your wisdom?

How often do you seek your wisdom of hindsight? That is, your inner-eye that helps you reference your future decisions with your past.

On the one hand, we experience self-talk like 'once beaten, twice shy', 'I should have listened to my gut feeling' and 'rash decisions'. On the other, you may have appreciated moments like 'Eureka!', 'my intuition talked to me' and 'I was fortunate/lucky'. We can attribute our success and failures to being acutely attuned to both our senses (sensitive, sensible) and our intuition (sixth sense, gut feel, instinct).

Learn From Your Failures
There is a truism that we can learn from our mistakes and failures. How exactly does one learn from disappointing results? Unguided, we may wallow in self-pity and become depressed. With the right internal lenses, we can filter out the emotions to attain the filtrate of 'good stuff'. These include lessons that we may apply at the next decision. What to avoid, be mindful of, cognisant about - we can apply this to our next business venture, relationship, and commitment. Sports-coaches remind us to write our thoughts and feelings while they are freshly-imprinted in our minds. We can review our results, and make adjustments in our planning and preparation for future attempts.

Learn From Your Successes
When you achieve a new milestone in your life, reflect over what you enjoyed about it. Ponder over how you would achieve your results and performance differently next time. Which values did you learn from your success? Humility, patience, consideration, respect, trust, care, and many more. What did you add to your character in your success? How can you build on your abilities, and expand and extend into your capabilities? Wisdom from our success can help us become confident to 'dream bigger for longer'. We can enter the realm of personal excellence and mastery, as such.

Leadership Lessons: How do you draw on your wisdom? How often do you convert to your currency of wisdom? How do you apply it to your decisions in business, socially, as well as in your personal relationships? Add to your wisdom. Observe, reflect, extract, from your experiences and use it for your learning and application.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Success: Book Smart or Street Smart?

Billionaire-TV celebrity, Donald Trump based his award-winning series The Apprentice on the premise of the nature-nurture debate. Will the ultimate apprentice he selects prove that street smartness triumphs over academic intelligence? That’s where the politics plays out in the challenges and dysfunctional team dynamics. Having business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit, is relevant as a staff as it is an entrepreneur.

For new readers directed from REDSPORT.SG, here is an essay that may, perhaps, be useful for undergraduates and working mid-lifers who are seriously contemplating a career change or reconfiguration. When we creatively extract life lessons from abstract topics like sports, we may discover more than meets the eye. Here are some useful lessons that you can use to prepare yourself for your future employ.

1)    Have a plan. Make it clear for you. Make a life-chart that is large, colourful and noticeable. Anthony Robbins wrote his first plan behind a roadmap- a map upon a map! Stick pictures of places you wish to visit, and things you’d like to have. Add a Bucket-List wile you are it.
2)    Write up a SWOT Analysis of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Update this regularly as you become more knowledgeable and skillful. The idea is to become strong, empowered and re-inventive, so as to stay relevant in the marketplace for as long as you desire.
3)    Build your Personal Branding. What are your values, beliefs, preferences, prejudices and perceptions about people, work and recreation? How do you build your credibility? How do you build your reputation that stands you out, with distinction and your signature moves?
4)    Learn and apply your skills. Develop mastery in some skills. Exceed yourself. Test your skills daily. Take on a measurable challenge. Chinese undergraduates run a marathon to have an edge towards qualifying for the top universities. Train for your job interviews. Answer questions clearly with no hesitation. Learn independence. Learn to assemble a DIY cupboard, replace a light-bulb, wash your sports-gear, sun your shoes (before it pongs) or cook a simple meal for yourself.
5)    Attempt and attain dynamic work-life balance. Eventually, this will make way for work-life choice (a term popularized by ex-GE CEO Jack Welch) as priorities shift and change.
6)    Develop your soft-skills. Be persuasive. Be influential. Lead. Be a leader. Assume responsibly key leadership positions in university or the polytechnic.
7)    Surround yourself with experts. We stand on the shoulders of giants! Learn from the old and young. Be curious. Discover your ignorance and ingenuity. Value discipline. Discipline means doing the chores, and enjoying the process however mundane it may be.
8)    You will make mistakes! Nobody’s perfect. There are enough fallen leaders to remind us of the fallacies of leadership. Value your values. Walk your talk, and be consistent. How you bounce back from failure is your resilience. Snap back, re-focus and get back on track.
9)    Either you lead, or follow. The choice is available at all times. You can be a servant and a leader. Lead and serve. Lead to serve. Be in the service of your team. Serve them well. If you won’t lead, treat people humanely well, at least.

Feel free to comment if you need clarification. Have a good weekend!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Quote Me on This!

"Running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are." Joan Benoit Samuelson

Quote.

The above quote came via one of my Twitter friends, who captured the quote from one of the world’s best marathoners. I love quotations, as some of these eventually merge into my cache of internal or external mantras. Mantras are usually quotes that are recited in repetition, or become clichés through time if these are habitual verbal spouts. Famous people tend to be quoted often, through their writings or public interviews.

Quotes are interesting verbal utterances. In journalism, you may be familiar with ‘Don’t quote me on this!’ and wonder why they do. Usually, the best stuff is often not quoted (but appear in print, nonetheless). Quotes may include wise sayings, or words of wisdom – drawn from tacit wisdom and experience. Quotes are distilled knowledge, filtered finely through time. It is précis writing at its verbal best.

Blogs are archives of open quotes. The writer expresses his or her own thoughts, musings, random thoughts, babbles and sharing. Certain, random outbursts of unbridled thinking can lead to humiliation and shame. Never accept a quote provoked in a moment of emotional outburst. It can be raw and unsavoury.

In an abstract sense, quotations may conceal personal strategies for success. Virgin’s Richard Branson’s ‘Screw it. Just do it!’ suggests that at times we should be proactive and decisive, and not hesitate. ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.’

Which quotes keep you moving, one step in front of the other? Which quotes activate you into action? Which quotes sustain your actions and passion? Which quotes remind you to stop, take stock and smell the roses?

Unquote.
******
'Status update: Sprained my right wrist last Wednesday before a ride'; rode on adrenaline for two more hours until I responded to body's shocked state. Applied RICES and rehabilitative interventions. More mobility, markedly reduced swelling. Hand grip improved, with wider range of finger mobility. Spirit still high, thanks to well wishes from friends and associates. Mild setback; what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Enjoyed the forced rest. My new Elite Razor Carbon is fine - at a glance, she does look like a traditional steel-bike (painted deliberately as such). Listen to your body.'