The Bushy Path

In 2016 Olympic games, Usain Bolt was participating in his third consecutive Olympic games. He had won a gold medal in the 100 meters race in the previous two Olympic games. Will he win for the third time? They got set for the 100 meters final. And the gun sounded. The 8 athletes raced. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds,... Justin Gatlin has got this. It seemed Usain Bolt was going to lose out on gold this time. Oh wait. Like lightning, Bolt rocketed, caught up and got to the finish line. First. Another gold.

What if you can predict the future? Would it make your life easier? Would it make your career more vibrant? Of the closest words to describe the future, one of them is uncertainty. Although many times, people make predictions, they give their forecasts, and are pretty confident about it.

Mike Tyson is a popular man today.  A large portion of his fame is a result of his illustrious career as a boxer. Even today, many years after his retirement as a professional boxer, you would think Mike Tyson is a tiger at first glance.  Until you look closer and discover he’s a man like you, but with a much tougher face. Mike Tyson was a valiant boxer. Tireless and an ever-present thorn in the sides of his opponents.

One dangerous conclusion we always make is substituting correlation to be causation. Many times, when it is convenient for the narrative we're trying to pursue, it is common to blur the lines between correlation and causation. Or even delete it in some cases. Yet, knowing the difference between correlation and causation can make all the difference in your career and life as a whole. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, correlation is the relationship between things that happen or change together while causation is the act or process of causing something to happen or exist. Causation is also called cause and effect.

So, you're one quite busy guy. But you can't really measure what you have achieved through your busyness. Being busy is good, but being productive is great. When your busyness leads to productivity, then you’re managing your time as well as you can. Productivity is a subjective word. Its definition depends on who’s defining it and what frame of reference they’re using. If you achieve all the goals you set for the day, that could be a good way to measure productivity. What is the expectation at your workplace for a day of work? Did you meet them?

If there is one problem common to most people, it is how to get the most out of our time. If there is one habit common to all successful people, it's that they manage their time like a boss. They take charge of their time and get the best out of it. They understand how the usage of time dictates the level of their success.

Time is the most precious resource you have. Often, people lose consciousness of this and waste their time unconsciously. If you're one of those who do this, it's okay. I understand your plight. I fight every day to get the most out of my time. In fact, everybody you think is an epitome of time management goes through the same fight every single day. And you must go through this fight too if you want to get the best out of your time. Do you need time management at all? What are the reasons time management is worth all the effort you put into it?

Time and tide waits for no man.  Too many goals and too little time to execute them.  Man wants success but man gets failure. Perhaps it takes an extraordinary power to achieve success. Or a bit of magic and superhuman abilities. The world is a difficult place and it is very hard to achieve sustainable success. But the world is not an impossible place. If you have paid your dues, then you’ll surely get the results you deserve.

One of the most amazing feats in architecture, Neuschwanstein castle, in Germany, took 24 years to be completed.  Dracula castle in Transylvania took nearly a century to complete.  So, how long do you think it will take to complete a skyscraper? Years. And you’ll be right based on skyscrapers that have been built in the past. But today, Broad Sustainable Building in China will beg to differ. The company built a 57-storey skyscraper , Mini Sky City, that has 800 homes and working space for 4,000 people. In just 19 days. Did I say it is earthquake proof? Yes, it is.

In the summer of 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps had gone through his usual routine before his swimming event. He had done his 25-meter sprint in the pool to raise his heartbeat. After that, he put on his headset for his songs playlist before a race. He was getting ready for the 200-meter butterfly race. Minutes later, the athletes were beside the pool, ready for the event. Moments later, the gun went off and each swimmer plunged into the swimming pool for the chance at winning the ultimate medal: Olympic gold.

You left for your workplace in the morning like a hero. With the hope of getting a lot of things done. But you came home tired and with the niggling thought that you could have done better than that. You’re not alone. Workplace productivity is one of the most important things in any workplace. Except you don’t love your work, you always want to increase the quality and quantity of work you can do daily. Whether you’re a very effective worker, or a mediocre one, there is always room for improvement. No man is perfect and therefore the need for constant improvement. The extent of what man can achieve is limitless.

You have been thinking about it. And it has been giving you migraine. You had high hopes for your career. But now you feel your career has gone stagnant. You have been told to sweat the big things, the important things, and ignore the small things. You have followed that to the letter but your career is still stuck in mediocrity. Are the small things unimportant? This advice seems to imply it. However, it is a really bad idea to follow. Because the small things are more important than you think.

In the movies, it is usual to see people solving problems creatively without even trying. It is common to see a protagonist in a movie plot the antagonist’s thought patterns in under a minute of thinking hard. It can make you feel dull in comparison if you have ever tried to find a creative solution in 30 seconds without any success.

Every day, we take on risks. Some of these risks are so common that we no more see them as risks. Whenever you drive to your workplace, there is always a risk – no matter how low – of an auto accident. But how many people think of this risk? Very few. There are some other risks we often fear. We think about those risks constantly. In fact, these thoughts lead to full blown worry. Many times, your fear is probably misplaced because some risks are actually exaggerated but affect a very small percentage of people. There are some risks however, that are more dangerous but that we place little attention to.

After spending 20 years working at your job, you have a level of confidence that comes with solving many problems in your field and helping many people out. You believe you have seen it all. But wait a bit. What if that is just your perception rather than the reality. Experience is good in any job but if careless, it can lure you into a pit of overconfidence. And one way to be realistic is to admit that it is almost impossible for anybody to see it all no matter what they do. You may have even gotten a lot of praise from your co-workers or your employers but you must always be careful and vigilant. You must always know that experience in itself is not what solves problem.

How many times have you been told to set incredible goals? How many times have you been told to set daunting goals that you are currently unable to achieve? It is a good piece of advice but it is incomplete. To achieve your goals in practice, you have to adopt a better strategy. When we set goals, we must always know that our goals will face reality. Any goal that fails to consider the meeting point between it and reality may face its unachievable end. The most important reason to set any goal is to achieve it.

On a sunny day, on Thursday the 7th of September, 2017, John left his work with one aim: to quench the thirst that had made his throat desert dry. He walked up to the nearest restaurant he could find. When he sat down, a waitress came to meet him for what he would like to take. He was too tired to talk but he could see that bottle like a fully-grown woman with wide hips. He pointed at the bottle that had a red band at its middle.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, he said: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” he said. He said the iPhone will be a 3-in-1 device that combines its iPod music and video player, a phone and a ‘breakthrough internet communications device.’ It was a big promise. Even though Blackberry and Nokia were wildly popular at the time, Steve Jobs had no plan to underpromise. You should banish any plan to make an underpromise too.

Entitlement mentality is usually attributed to spoilt brats and selfish people. But who isn’t selfish? There are many bad sides to having an entitlement mindset but there is a good side to it which is important to human living. It may be good to feel entitled. If you really deserve what you feel entitled to. People are always fast to castigate individuals who feel they are entitled to a benefit. Who are they to ask for more? Why are they inconsiderate of others? Why can’t they shut up and be grateful for what they already have?

Mr. Joe is an easy going man. He is tall, dark and handsome. He had beautiful dreams for the future and although he is still yet to manage to make his dreams reality, he is still very hopeful that one day, he would throw his fist into the air having conquered the world. When Joe was a young man, he had a proposed future. He would rise from the middle class that his parents have been hopelessly stuck for years. He would do business, he would become a business guru, he would build a beautiful mansion, he would buy exotic cars and travel to exotic locations in the world. And marry a beautiful wife. And now that he is married with two young kids, his wife is not a woman you would call ugly. Joe had achieved one of his goals but he still has many things to worry about. At least that was among the least of his worries.