40+FAB Blog

In life, there is the battle and then there is the war. The battle is singular but the war is plural, made up of many battles over time.

People like to boast of being undefeated in battle, and yes those battles are important, but it is more important to win the war.

The greatest is not one who has never been defeated in battle, in fact, one cannot truly claim greatness if they have never been tested with failure and overcome it.

Some people only choose to fight where they know they can win. They never try to do anything bigger than they can handle. They always play it safe. It is more important for them to remain undefeated than to learn and grow.

Greatness accrues over time, it is the attitude of one who looks beyond winning temporal battles and focusses on the ultimate aim of winning the war.

40+FAB Blog

Have you heard it said that the biggest room you should have is the room for improvement. I love this!

No matter how good you think you are, there is room for improvement.

No matter how far you think you have gone, there is room for improvement.

No matter how fast you think you ran, there is room for improvement.

No matter how much you think you know, there is room for improvement.

No matter how much you think you have acquired, there is room for improvement.

So what’s your biggest room for?

40+FAB Blog

The famous success guru Jim Rhon said, “Economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more”.

In other words, the best way to get more is to do more.

 

Doing more can be achieved from two perspectives, quantity and quality.

If I make 10 handkerchiefs for sale, I can earn more by making more, so I increase the quantity to 20. This works well with physical products.

If I work a 4 hour shift, I will earn more by working an 8 hour shift. But there are only 24 hours in a day and I could never work all those hours everyday. This is where the focus has to shift from quantity to quality. I have to do more in terms of value delivered to earn more.

I cannot provide better value without going through a process of improvement. As Albert Einstein said “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

If what we have in our world has become better, it is because we have thought better.

To earn more, I have to do more. To do more, I have to think more. To think more, I have to learn more.

This is a tried and tested process for making room for more.

40+FAB Blog

At the 5-year old’s party today, there was an entertainer for the children who kept them riveted to his magic for 1 whole hour. Not only was it highly entertaining for the kids, but the parents and grandparents too were glued to his every move with the puppets, magic wands, handkerchiefs, and a floating table to round off the show. 

Maybe the kids would have believed it to be real magic and the adults more skeptical of it, but whatever it was, Magic Dave gave a very convincing performance that no doubter could poke holes at.

Like with all great performances, it takes a lot of thought and practice to capture the minds of the audience. It even takes more work if that audience consists of varied age groups, but what I find is that if something is really good, then it cuts across age, gender, culture, social status and maybe even religion. I am sure you can name 5 products that everyone you know would not mind owning.

So how can we bring some magic to what we have to offer? Well from observing Dave, I would say (1) Know what you are good at and get better at doing it (2) Love what you do and those you do it for (3) Give it your very best like you are doing it for the first time even if you have done it hundreds of times before (4) Have a great attitude and let it infect others (5) Get others involved (6) Build up the momentum, don’t let the last thing you gave be better than the next thing to come (7) Appreciate those who have given their time to engage with what you have to give.

I believe doing these 7 things would help us bring more magic to what we have to offer.

40+FAB Blog

As I watched my seven year old son at his swimming lesson playing a game of water polo which had 9 boys pitted against 12 girls all of the same age, I was reminded about this age old rivalry between boys and girls.
When the swimming instructor blew the final whistle, the boys cheered wildly as they smacked the surface of the water excitedly, celebrating their narrow victory. As we walked to the changing room my son said to me, I knew the boys would win because we are stronger than girls and more used to playing football so we were able to defend our goal. I only agreed with his second point because practice does make one better.

It is important what we make children believe about their abilities as they will subconsciously act in that way. A boy has no extra ability than a girl, but if he believes so, then he will act accordingly. In the same vein, a girl has no lesser ability than a boy, but if she believes so, then she will act accordingly. 
As much as there is a difference between the sexes, it does not make one superior or the other inferior. It is also true that each sex can only do so much on its own, but when we come together, what we can achieve is immeasurable.

Let us teach each boy and each girl to believe the best of themselves and let us encourage them to strive for the extra abilities that can be released when we work together.

40+FAB Blog

Every once in a while it is good to look at things from a different perspective.

When Netflix first started out, they approached the biggest player in rental videos at the time, Blockbusters. They got turned back as they met with no interest in their streaming video offer. Today, Netflix is everywhere and their business continues to expand. 

 

Can you think of a time when what you held as a sure outlook suddenly crumbled because of something different? Did you ask yourself, why didn’t I see that coming?

Things can change for several reasons so it’s wise to keep tabs on the causative forces such as technological advancements causing disruption to the conventional ways of doing things, think of the Internet or Uber. Fads and trends that people subscribe to, think fashion or the whole eating healthy movement. Economic changes that could transform a community, think of oil discoveries that have defined the focus of many nations. Political changes that impact several government policies, need I say more?

Sometimes it can be really difficult to see what is changing, so why not surround yourself with people who do and who can help you see it differently.

40+FAB Blog

Sometimes we take so many things for granted that we become ineffective in life. What you eat for one has long term effects on your health. I know you have had those moments when you knew you shouldn’t be eating that meal at 11:30pm, but you shrugged it off and said, it doesn’t matter.

Citizenship is a big area that we sometimes leave to chance. The Greeks had a lot of philosophies about societal development, these are still being used by progressive nations till date.
One such idea was citizenship. They believed that citizenship stemmed from two notions (1) the existence of an organised state with a boundary, history and power to make decisions over its municipality (2) and inhabitants participating in its life as joint proprietors.

This speaks of a country with a government that decides what happens within it, and a people with active interest in their country, taking responsibility for what they want to see in their localities, participating in activities to accomplish it, and appointing officials who will uphold those ideals. 

 

Being a citizen means taking part. This goes beyond partisan politics or taking interest only when it is time to go to the polls. Citizenship is a way of life, a daily contribution to your society. Someone described it as being a part of a family.

So who is a good citizen?

One of the Greek philosophers said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Taking active responsibility to see the good of your locality or country, not just for now but for generations to come, that is the model of a good citizen.

40+FAB Blog

A trigger has the potential to unleash a very powerful force that if not directed judiciously could end up harming others.
We are bombarded with news on almost a daily basis about some trigger happy being that ended the lives of others for whatever reason they had in their head.
The real trigger however was not the one on their loaded weapon, the trigger sat in their mind.

Our mind stores up all the instructions for how we act consciously or subconsciously. It is the seat of logic and emotions.
The sight of some types of crawling insect will evoke very different responses in different people. To some it will create fear and they will flee, to others it will create disgust and they will proceed to get rid of it. Yet to one group it will create desire as they capture it for a good meal.

What do you have stored in your mind? What triggers your emotions and resultant actions?

Understanding yourself and knowing your triggers are key to self control.

How many times have you said what you shouldn’t have because you were provoked? What triggered your tongue?

How many times have you acted in ways you still regret because you were out with friends? What triggered your vices? 

How many times have you spent more than you made? What triggered your extravagance?

How many times have you judged someone because of how they appeared or what they said? What triggered your hate?

The ability to hurt and destroy is controlled by triggers, especially those that are internal. The ability to love and to build are also controlled by triggers. Let’s hold onto our triggers and only release them for a cause that is good.

40+FAB Blog

So at the end of the day, week, month or completion of a specific job, we usually get an income. That income is based on what we have done and as a result we get paid.

Income enables us to facilitate several activities in our lives. Usually the better the income, then the better the outlook and outcome of what we can do.

A study was carried out on several lottery winners that won millions. The statistics showed that majority of them were back to the exact state in life they were before their huge winnings. One of the conclusions was that their mindset never shifted to a higher level that could handle their new situation.

The mindset changes or improves by consciously allowing new information in, better thinking than we currently possess. It takes a lot of work to discipline self and acquire more knowledge. This type of hard work yields what I call the income of the mind.

You can only grow as much as you allow your mind and expectations to grow. As you grow, you will be able to handle more, and command more.

A university graduate will naturally command a higher starting salary than a high school graduate. Yet there are cases of high school leavers who ended up building multimillion dollar companies because they kept on improving their mindset, while some of the university crew stopped growing.

Don’t be limited by where you are or what you know now. Roll up your sleeves and challenge yourself to improve because the income of your mind will determine the outcome of your life.

40+FAB Blog

You have to be wary of any individual or institution that claims “I have all the answers”.

Is it actually far fetched to say that? Well the statement is only true as far as the question that was asked. You could have ‘all’ the answers to a particular question asked, for instance 1 plus 1?
The answer is 2 in Decimal arithmetic, but it could be 1 or 0 in Boolean arithmetic. I don’t even want to think what it might be in advanced mathematics or in a different subject like philosophy.
So, I can claim to have all the answers to that question in that context of that field of study.

Answers are hidden everywhere in plain sight, yet they are camouflaged behind specific veils guarded by the right question. 
The answers you get will never be better than the questions you ask.
If you struggle to find the right answers, consider if you are asking the right questions.

The next time someone says, I have all the answers, please ask them if they had all the questions first.