It has never been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for and that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for. This has always been true...
So, everyone should be careful of their thought because thought are important as they define us. And everyone should be watchful over themselves when they are alone because it's the time when thoughts come into play. This should always be the greatest lesson one should learn.
There are things that are uncontrollable and there are things that we can control by our present action. Owning the outcomes means being responsible for it.
Whatever situation life brings to us, we must take responsibility for making the decision rather than focusing on our weakness and complaining about it.
When we start to become responsible and accountable to the circumstances that we encounter, we are more likely to become success and find fulfillment
"Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking", written by Malcolm Gladwell is a wonderful book that describes the psychology of snap decisions and quick thinking, illuminating how subconscious biases affect the way we think and behave.
This book explains how subconscious racial and socioeconomic biases affect how we think about other groups of people and the language we use to describe them. With many real life examples, he explores the concept of “thin-slicing, which is the quick process by which people size up an individual and come to a conclusions, based on limited past experience and using only bits and pieces of superficial information while lacking the truth.
This book made me realize that we, human beings are bit too quick to come up with the explanations for the things we don't really need explanation for. He also proclaims that truly successful decision making relies of the balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
Blink, I believe convinces us that snap judgments can be as good or better than reasoned conclusions and shows the way to discover where and when rapid cognition proves a poor strategy, and to examine how the rapid cognition's results can be improved.
The 12th century Eastern Classic "The Doctrine of the Mean" has a very important lesson for generations with a guiding principles of one should never act in excess. This classic represents moderation, objectivity, sincerity, honesty and propriety.
The three guidelines from this book that we can use in our life are:
Self-watchfulness: It includes self-discipline, self-education and self-questioning during the process of self-cultivation. It requires the equilibrium which is no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow or joy and is the root of all human actings.
Leniency: It requires the understanding, concerns and tolerance. It's understanding that what you don't like when done to yourself, you shouldn't do to others.
Sincerity: This requires the close connection between heaven and human. It is the end and the beginning of things and without sincerity, there would be nothing.
Some quotes from this great books are:
There is nothing more visible than what is secret, nothing more manifest than what is minute.
Sincerity is the way of human. One who posses sincerity is the one who, without effort, hits what is right and embodies what is right.
To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge. To practice with vigor is to be near to magnanimity. To posses the feeling of shame is to be near to enemy.
Everybody has their own culture or core values that define them in the journey of life. Similarly, every organization has its own culture and core values that define it and give it value.
The modulation of culture means aligning the culture of the organization with the culture of the people in that organization. It is one of the most difficult tasks, yet it is very crucial, because the future of an organization depends on the trust and transparency among the people who work there.
That trust and transparency are possible only when both cultures are aligned. If they fail to align, people in that organization begin to lose the responsibility to handle things intelligently, and eventually the whole organization starts to fall apart.
They may have rejected your application.
They may have rejected a resume. They may have rejected a business plan. They may have rejected your proposal. They may have rejected a piece of paper.
They didn't reject you because they don't know you.
We live in the world saturated with information. We have virtually unlimited amounts of date at our fingertips, at all the times. And we are versed in the arguments about the danger of not knowing enough and not doing our homework.
But there exists an enormous frustrations with the expected cost of knowing too much, of being abundant with the information. We have come to confuse information with understanding. These are two different terms with two different meanings...
Knowledge and information are useful in every aspect of our life for understanding is the key.
Sigmund Freud gave an important lesson about decision making which is worth applying in our real life. It goes:
" When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matter, however, such as choice of mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of our personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
Self-identity is based on our thoughts of ourselves and we have the ability to control our thoughts.
So to boost our self esteem/identity we have to have an empowering thoughts. We have to focus on things we have or things we are proud of rather than focusing on other people’s success or happiness.
It is the only thing that gives us true fulfillment.
Some won machines. Some won real estates, stocks and companies. Some own the health and business empires. Some own trademarks, legacy and social status.
Many successful leaders and companies are started by a person who owns something. It may be the skills, the ideas or the passion that drive that person towards it.
As we seek to make a difference in the world, we have to answer the most important question: What do we own?