i-TFTD #269: From the Nitwittersphere

Having coined a word for the title of this i-TFTD, I feel compelled to explain and enlighten you of its origin.
Twittersphere, of course, is the total universe of Twitter users and their output in the form of tweets.
A nitwit is a stupid person. A nitwitter as per urban dictionary is a person who irritatingly discusses their twitting frequently. Someone else has defined nitwitter as a person who writes hopelessly incomprehensible Twitter posts.
So, my contribution to the blogosphere is nitwittersphere. Sorry. Will do better next time.
Unlike the above gobbledygook, tweets on Twitter can be useful, funny and thought-provoking. Here are three for this edition of i-TFTD.

#269-1. @funnyoneliners: Today is the first day of the rest of the mess.

#269-2. @michaelmelcher: Your inbox is not your to do list.

#269-3. @r_ganesh: Doers are too busy to consult thinkers, who don't know or care to sell to doers or have action bias. Think I must do something!
____The first one is a variation of ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life’. The second is about prioritization. Some people worry about not having time to prioritize and plunge into activity while some others agonize too long in synchronizing detailed to do lists in various gadgets! For both categories of folks, I recommend reading a short post at http://ribbonfarm.posterous.com/when-you-fail-to-prioritize-prioritizing. The third was my attempt to point out the irony in the artificial classification of people into thinkers and doers. I think we all do both though the degree and the domains may vary from time to time.

i-TFTD #160

#160-1. Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.
-Glenda Cloud

#160-2. Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off! But if you don't have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you.
-Amelia Earhart (first woman to fly across the Atlantic)

#160-3. Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
-Malcolm Forbes

____
This could be correlated with i-TFTD #129: Purposeful Growth. For intentional growth we should busy ourselves working on our future state with respect to our current state, without wasting time comparing with others whose current state could be different from ours.

Also, the study of successful persons in any field shows that they made the best of the cards life dealt them with, without moaning about what cards were missing. This could be correlated with the Strengths Approach we talked about in i-TFTD #79: 3 Tips to Be a Prime Mover, i-TFTD #99: Listen to the Whisper, i-TFTD #115: Only One Move, i-TFTD #20: Motivation + Talent = Strength and i-TFTD #10: Abolish SWOT Analysis.

i-TFTD #152

#152-1. We build (software) systems like the Wright brothers built airplanes -- build the whole thing, push it off the cliff, let it crash, and start all over again.
-R. M. Graham

#152-2. Act as if everything you think, say and do determines your entire life - because in reality, it does!
-Laurelle Adrian

#152-3. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo DaVinci

____
A counterquestion to the first one is: the Wright brothers succeeded, didn't they? That too in a big way where many failed for centuries earlier.

The second one seems obvious but do we really remember or even accept it? Whenever we behave in a particular way knowing that it is not exactly the best course of action nor the best attitude to adopt, if we remind ourselves that ultimately there are consequences to everything good or bad, maybe we will change.

Only someone as sophisticated as DaVinci could come up with the profound third statement. I believe one has to progress in stages: from

-simplistic (simple due to lack of awareness and limitation)
to
-complex (sophisticated if polished, complicated if not)
before cycling back to
-simple (by choice).

i-TFTD #151

#151-1. Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
-Basho
#151-2. Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.
-Liz Smith
#151-3. We change the world not by what we say or do, but as a consequence of what we have become.
-David Hawkins

____
The first one is profound. We find it easier to blindly mimic the procedural aspects of a past success rather than imbibe the spirit, the values, and do the hard work of evolving an approach suited to the changed times. This reminds me of the inspiring anecdote of Maitreyi, one of the two wives of sage Yajnavalkya. When he decided to retire to the forest and asked his wives how they would like all his possessions to be divided amongst them, she expressed her curiosity to know about that which made him leave all his wealth. This story forms the context for a large portion of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – one of the old philosophical texts roughly dated to the 8th century BC that contains, among other gems, the doctrine of "neti, neti" (not this, not that) and the "Lead us from Darkness to Light" snippet beginning with "asatoma".

A lot of books such as Execution by Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy, The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton and Getting Things Done by David Allen are selling by the millions because they purport to help us get started with the right action.

I believe our words have an impact on others and ourselves much more than what many believe. Actions obviously have a bigger impact on changing the environment. The third tells us that the biggest impact is from who we are so we need to choose our words and actions such that they help us in becoming what we wish to become.

i-TFTD #47

#47-1. Not to do what you feel like doing is Freedom.
-Swami Chinmayananda

#47-2. We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
-Herman Melville

#47-3. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
-Og Mandino

_____
I normally avoid clubbing quotes on the same subject but the above three just happened to be related. What I like about them is they provoke thoughts in a logical sequence. My initial reaction to the first statement was, "How can that be?" The second quote hints at the answer by talking of interdependence. The third one pithily points out the benefit of a serving attitude. When I then re-read the first quote, it seemed to make more sense.

A couple of follow-up thoughts on i-TFTD #41: Two Lives and Resistance. My experience is that it is very liberating once we take some action on a long-pending desired action. And it becomes easy after the first few steps. So start on one of them. At the same time, it is better to revisit and evaluate such longings to see if we need to let go of them based on current reality. After all, if I have not worked on something for years, maybe it is not really important or aligning with my true priorities. Removing such vague clutter from the list of long-term To Dos frees up my mind to focus more energy on the remaining ones.

i-TFTD #45

1. We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2. If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them.
-Anon

3. Comfort -- comes as guest, lingers to become host and stays to enslave us.
-Swami Chinmayananda

_____
The first one is especially evident during performance appraisal.

Sometimes people say, "I am human, I make mistakes." The problem is if one uses it as an acceptable response and fails to derive some lesson from the experience.

Most of the time we are striving to earn and enjoy comfort but progress and growth always lie beyond the comfort zone. Maybe we should be like the train, speeding across plains and over bridges, resting and recuperating periodically at stations. A train should not permanently be at the station.

i-TFTD #41: Two Lives and Resistance

Your Unlived Life
Every day we wake up, and, whether we know or appreciate it, we wage an invisible war against an unquenchable foe. This unseen enemy stands between the life we live and the unlived life within us. Fall victim to it as most do and mediocrity is your course. Overcome it and your glory will be the success and accomplishment that can only come with living your Unlived Life.

by Steven Pressfield (This is an excerpt of the article at http://www.nightingaleconant.com/ae_article.aspx?a=achievingyourunlivedlife&i=180&page=3)

DEFINING THE ENEMY
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever resolved on a diet, a course of yoga, and then quit on it? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.

Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and dysfunction. Resistance is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, harder to kick than crack cocaine. We're not alone if we've been mown down by Resistance; millions of good men and women have bitten the dust before us. And here's the biggest problem: We don't even know what hit us. I never did. From age 24 to 32, Resistance kicked my ass from East Coast to West and back again 13 times, and I never even knew it existed. I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed to see it right in front of my face.

Look into your own heart. Even though you've only read a few paragraphs into this article, unless I'm crazy, right now a still, small voice is piping up, telling you as it has 10 thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I'm crazy, you're no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn't real? Resistance will bury you!

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At 18 he took his inheritance, 700 kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement, but I'll say it anyway: It was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.

RESISTANCE IS INVISIBLE
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. It is experienced as a force field emanating from a work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. Its intention is to shove the creator away, distract him, sap his energy, incapacitate him.

If Resistance wins, the venture doesn't get started.
RESISTANCE IS INTERNAL
Resistance seems to come from outside ourselves. We locate it in spouses, jobs, bosses, kids, distractions. "Peripheral opponents," as Pat Riley used to say when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers. Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.

_____
At some point in our maturity about life and the universe, we have to strike the right balance between aspiring for further progress and accepting our own limitations. Of course these limits can be transcended but only through our own actions. Small steps forward are much better than grand visions or vague yearnings.

i-TFTD #39

#39-1. The only difference between where you are right now and where you'll be five years from now are the people you meet and the books you read.

-Charlie Jones

#39-2. Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket.
-Swami Chinmayananda

#39-3. Make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win.
-John W. Holt Jr.

_____
Some say they have no time to read, or that books cannot teach; some are too busy to consciously try and meet new people. Not doing both of these makes us miss so many opportunities to learn interesting and useful aspects about life. And obviously impacts our career.

The second is something we need to remind ourselves constantly. We often blame external entities or circumstances for our career, our mood, our happiness. Maybe because it is easy and lessens our guilt.

Dynamic people and organizations try many things boldly, knowing that some would fail but at least some would succeed. They progress faster than those who ponder and analyze too much in trying to avoid failure.

i-TFTD #9

#9-1. Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness... For you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs.

-Sherman Finesilver

#9-2. Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

#9-3. Don't limit investing to the financial world. Invest something of yourself, and you will be richly rewarded.
-Charles Schwab

_____
Name and fame are results of our actions, which reflect our attitudes. They are indicators and are not worth pursuing by themselves.

We have to begin where we are -- where else?! Too often we ponder over the past, delaying the beginning of useful action. This quote also indicates we need to have a realistic assessment of where we are, not self-inflated opinions of it.

Once we know where we stand, and remove any confusion of our goals, we can begin investing -- of ourselves and in our selves.

i-TFTD #5

1. Temper takes you to trouble, Pride keeps you there.
-Swami Chinmayananda

2. Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

-Napoleon Hill

3. Imagine that you are funded by the Universe, because you are.
-Burt Goldman

_____
Chinmayananda's aphorisms are pithy. Here he points out that sometimes we not only make a mistake but follow it up with a bigger mistake of not correcting. This is what I like to call "stuckness thinking" either due to ego or false pride. The solution is to pause, shake ourselves figuratively and move on.

Hill is an old proponent of positive thinking who wrote famous books such as Think And Grow Rich. The above statement is crisply brought out by the enduring tagline of Nike: Just Do It.

The third quote is a bit abstract but profound. Could be interpreted at multiple levels.