moneyFYI
Financial Freedom Is Merely Organized Common Sense
You Will Live Your Life In The Future and The Present Does Not Define It
How many parents have a heard a 10-year-old or even a 17-year-old say something like, “I am not good at math.”? It could as easily be English, history, or science. How should you respond?
You have two general choices.
- You can question them about why they think that. That is tempting. It seems to show concern and perhaps the offer to help overcome some missing thing. It is counterproductive. It requires the young person to rationalize why they are weak in a subject. It reinforces their belief. It is an acceptance of the present defines the future. An acceptance of the status quo to govern their life.
- You could offer a simple one-word answer. “Yet.” That answer has several advantages over the nurturing one.
Why is “Yet” helpful?
- It switches the time from from the present to the future. You will spend the rest of your life in the future so don’t permit the past and present to limit it.
- It identifies the current situation as potentially transient. The current situation may include some mistakes. The idea of a mistake is to learn something. Have you ever learned anything being right?
- It implies the ability to change one’s outcomes. Mastery of anything involves practice. You cannot learn to lay the guitar practicing for 10 minutes a day and then only if you feel like it. “Yet” provides a way to think about the shortcomings. It doesn’t matter how you came to be here.
- It is comforting as most people have weaknesses in their tool kit. If you know you can overcome, you will look for a different future template and learn to change the things that are not helping you.
John Wooden says
John Wooden was head coach for basketball at UCLA when they were winning 11 NCAA championships in 12 years. Try this thought on for size, “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” You might never be the best there is but you can be the best you can be. When you have done all you can do, you’re finished that task. As time passes you might acquire some other skills that would make you better at something you thought you had previously finished. Every condition is about yet.
Edward de Bono says
Edward de Bono was a Harvard professor who specialized in creativity. “NO is the basic tool of the logic system. YES is the basic tool of the belief system.” When you are developing your skills, the belief system will carry you farther than the logic system. Why? because the logic system creates virtual limits. You should think of limits more like a fence than as an immoveable obstacle. You cannot be an engineer before you learn calculus. Calculus is a fence and you can create a gate. Take the courses and learn how to use the calculus tool. Make your own gates. Do Bono’s technique is to see what exists and think laterally. Vertical thinking accepts what is and assesses refinements. How does looking at the issue without limitations, change it. His example is “What if cars did not have wheels. You soon get to mag-lev and flying. Maybe floating. Each alternative will have elements that help you see other possibilities. Like, “Why cars?”
“What if” is the key to reorganizing the future.
No one, living, should ever be finished improving.
When he was 80, they made a short movie about Pablo Casals. “A Day in the Life of Pablo Casals.” The director asked him why he still practiced 4 to 5 hours a day. Casals response should be the model for each of us, “Because I think I am making progress.”
You stop making progress when the present defines your future. Your peace of mind suffers too. Take De Bono’s advice. – Think laterally. Build gates.
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