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Work hard to give yourself lots of options and opportunities
Friday, 4 January 2008
Always finish what you start, is an adage that many people try to follow. And it's a good one in a lot of ways. But it probably focusses too much on the importance of the entire process towards achieving a goal. Generally, it's the earlier part that's most important, in my view.
And that part is the creation of options and opportunities. If you become a master at developing those, you'll find the achievement of end goals much easier.
I see too many people getting tied up in the pursuit of one particular outcome. They field their entire resources into that, and can't imagine that life will be worth living if they don't achieve it.
They have to have that one job, that special person, or that particular amazing achievement. They get so focussed on it, that they ignore the plethora of other options around them.
Even worse, they get so nervous and obsessed with their one goal, that they often allow their emotions to ruin the achievement of it. If every race becomes all or nothing, don't be surprised if you usually end up with nothing.
When you have the skills to develop a number of options for yourself, you generally get better at achieving your desired outcome. The obvious reason for this is that the more attempts you have at your target, the more statistically likely you are to hit it. But even better, the more attempts you have, the better your skills at negotiating the obstacles in your way become.
If you're lonely and manage to get one date a year, your chances of staying lonely are higher. If for no other reason that you'll get nervous on the date because the stakes are so high, and ruin it.
If you do nothing but obsess about getting one particular job, you'll be wasting time you could be spending developing other career opportunities for yourself.
And if you invest all your money into one particular venture, your chances of losing the lot are much higher.
Every step of working towards a particular goal is important, and is worth putting effort towards. But the most important in many cases is knowing how to create the opportunities towards reaching that goal in the first place. Concentrate on this, and a world of interesting options will open up to you.
 | Sometimes, irrational behavior can be explained by attention-seeking | | Why do people do so many things that are so obviously stupid? Why do they take drugs, commit crimes, ruin good relationships, and spend money they don't have? |  | Science is the closest thing to verifiable truth that we have | | Wait! If you're the type of person who reads the word "science" in a title then moves quickly on, then this is an article you need to read. I promise it won't be boring. | | Most people start with a conclusion and then search for the facts to support it | | Most of us realise that the people we deal with in everyday life often aren't rational. They behave in ways that bewilder. They do things that seem immoral, stupid and not in their own interests. They hold beliefs that just seem crazy. |  | The world is filled with opportunity | | A few years back, I was doing some computer contracting for one of the biggest banks in the world. One day, an email was sent around by management requesting the entire information technology department attend a meeting in the conference room. |  | The secret of wealth is working easier, not harder | | Want to get rich? Just work hard and you will is the conventional wisdom. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. Since the dawn of humanity, the road to wealth has been through working easier, not harder. | | Get over your fear of failure | | Nothing stings quite like failing. This is especially true when it happens in front of people we like and admire. Our ears go red, our face feels hot, and we swear "I'll never do that again". | | Cut all your credit-cards in half | | I've never owned a credit-card. Most people are pretty surprised when I tell them that. They look at me like I've just said I've never had a glass of Coke or made a phone-call. | | Understand the true nature of reality | | Your life will never be perfect, but you can certainly make it better than it is now. The first step to achieving this is learning to understand the true nature of reality. It’s only by understanding the situation we find ourselves in, that we can do something about it. In fact, many of the great scientific and technical achievements of humanity prove this point. | | We all have moments of worry and doubt | | Let's face it, everyone wakes up sometimes and just feels down. The world loses its shine and you wonder why you even bother with it all. Worry and doubt lays itself over your psyche like a heavy snowfall. | | Be willing to crash and burn sometimes | | We all have trouble dealing with failure. We play so many mental tricks on ourselves in order to pretend we aren't avoiding it, that they can sometimes become all consuming. At night, while asleep, we have terrible nightmares of others disapproval, or the world rejecting us. |
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