photo credit: Robb North

Writing could be a hard thing to do. Having no audience or lesser readers could be better. For me, it means lesser concerns on the impacts of my writing. Launching my new theme was made to mark a new beginning. I am now trying to write just like how I started blogging few years ago. Simply write and thinking less of other stuffs. Categorization, direction (or purpose), standards, and keeping good impression are some of the things I want let go. It’s back to the earlier passion of writing.

Nevertheless, writing is still not an easy thing to do. Besides getting back to our old pattern, we sometimes find that our creativity juice is not flowing. Writers call it writers’ block, but I believe we all, knowledge worker that requires creativity, face it at one point or another. Sometimes we ask, ‘Where has that creativity gone?’

In processing that thought I have found some answers and I would like to share it with you in this article.

Where has creativity gone?

Maybe I need some rest. Rest is one main ingredient for creativity. In rest, I’m not referring to sleeping alone, it is the restful heart. Stress and creativity will not work together. Cosimo de’ Medici has believed that pressuring his artists would not get them producing their best works. Restful heart is free from worry and anxiety, from fear of something that will unlikely to happen. Restful heart is a trusting, hopeful, and cheerful heart. Rest gives you time to think and reflect, not merely consuming more materials to spice up your creativity.

Where has creativity gone?

I remembered watching one writer was giving a speech in TED Talk. I couldn’t remember her name, but she was sharing one worry that writers have; that their best work was that of the past, and there is no point to write anymore. It’s simply mind-blowing to me. Maybe it’s the worry that our present work will not match up to our past, putting us to procrastinate on engaging our creativity. It’s one thing to believe that our best work is the next one, but it’s also important to let go our past work as our baseline. Holding fast to our past works could prevent us to create something new, even if at the end it does not turn as good as our past work.

Where has creativity gone?

Is that perfectionism? I want to include more and more reference to what I’m writing. I have to add for the sake of complexity. I have to add for the sake of correctness; I’ve got to have the right and complete sentences I quoted. I have to add for the sake of reliability, showing that it’s not my useless ramblings. Do I have to add not to plagiarize? Or was that cover up of the doubt I have in my opinion? I have to back all my opinions with others’ statement that inspired me. The list can go longer and longer, stealing us from our creativity? What if we can break the rule that we created ourselves? Simply relax, believe, and express your creativity?

Where has creativity gone?

Maybe it is worry that I’m not as smart as what I expected? Has calling myself stupid made it into reality? Or it might be the low IQ, which decreasing over time? Was that why the creativity is not there? Carol S. Dweck noticed the pattern and wrote it into an article she wrote, titled “Belief That Make Smart People Dumb” (Steinberg, 2002).  Inside, she was sharing that our belief of fixed intelligence has prevented us to take courageous steps. For such person, failure is a big thing for it is proving that he or she is dumb or not intelligent enough. Failure disrupts their self-worth, and learning is as risky as the opportunities that will reveal their ignorance and errors they make.

Where has creativity gone?

Maybe it’s simply hard work that is required. Maybe we can enjoy the pleasure of effort and detach its result from our self worth. The word “gifted” might give people impression that they can achieve what they want without much effort. It undermines the hard work and commitment they have to put and invest. Our belief in our “gifted”ness could prevent us to make the commitment, persuading us to give up when we face obstacles. Maybe we should believe the other way round? We should not be bothered by whether or not we are intelligent or gifted. We can believe that we can learn and grow. Our intelligence will grow with it, and only then we will be “gifted” and able to do things easier.

Where has creativity gone?

It’s right here. It might be hidden until you take the first step. It might call you to simply start writing and letting go what you want to say. Just like what I did in drafting this article, my ramblings formed up into an article. It might not be the usual article you will find in the internet. I guess not many people sharing their thought and its complexity like this in a blog. But hopefully it’s a story that you can learn from. It’s not in a point form or bullet point, but I hope that it will help you digging and passing through any writing block or procrastination that has come in front of you. It has made my day; hopefully it makes your day too!

Robert

Resources:

1. Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid by Robert J. Sternberg.
2. To Be of Use: The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work by Dave Smith.

photo credit: Shandchem

This is part of my assignment for Business Intelligence course, answering how 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, the collapse of Lehman Brothers financial firm in 2008, and the rise of internet age affected the way multinational consumer electronic firm approach business intelligence, especially in regards to managing business risk.

The Black Swans

The 9/11 terrorist attack in New York and the collapse of financial firm Lehman Brothers in 2008 are examples of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb called as Black Swan as he wrote in his books, The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. Taleb uses the metaphors ‘Black Swan’ to describe such events that has three features: “rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective) predictability”[5].

Both events are rare and have extreme impact, but do they retrospective? According to Fox Business Network, the two events are not necessarily unrelated.[11] It reported that after the 9/11 event, there is reduction in interest rate to increase market confidence in spending and boost the economy back. The higher liquidity in the market, added with high spending habit of many Americans (even with money they have not earned), has resulted in large sum of money created by debt. Unsurprisingly, the bubble is burst with Lehman Brothers as its first victim.

Hugh Courtney brought up the four levels of uncertainty that business has to manage [2]:

• level 1 (clear enough future),
• level 2 (alternative futures),
• level 3 (range of futures), and
• level 4 (true uncertainty).

Black Swans are examples of the level 4 uncertainty. Even though they are not prospective, they are retrospective. In other words, we might be able to predict or avoid it with enough business intelligence. Hugh Courtney also suggested that we can put our best effort to minimize residual uncertainty – the uncertainty left after the best possible analysis to separate the unknown from the unknowable [2].

A multinational firm in consumer electronics, without any exception, has to face level 3 and level 4 uncertainty as well. These are what they can do to avoid or cover themselves against catastrophic events such as 9/11 terrorist attack and Lehman Brothers’ collapse.

1. Insurance. Firms are realizing the need to cover themselves against catastrophic events, not only the traditional risks such as fire and earthquake, but also the human made catastrophe, such as the terrorist attacks. Within few years after 9/11, insurance industry had seen severe losses, great price rises, and profit records, all in swift succession.[7] As insurance industry stabilize itself, multinational consumer electronic firm can get the benefits by covering itself from the losses due to catastrophic uncertainty.
2. Precautionary actions. Firms are also seen to be more cautious in dealing with uncertainty. Some examples can be observed in the world trade one year after 9/11.[12] Corporations pay close attention to the so-called BERI index (Business and Environment Risk) when assessing investment opportunities in critical countries.  Companies also spread the value chain across various locations or even to multiple continents. Since 9/11, many companies have also radically restricted their number of business trips. Company regulations even specified that board members must not travel in the same plane.
3. Backward strategy analysis. Under level 1-3 uncertainty, the analyst can move forward from situation analysis to the implications for strategy. In level 4 uncertainty, however, an alternative is needed. Analysts are now required to move backward from hypothetical strategy to the assumed conditions or situations needed. Further, analysts are required to challenge those assumptions, gathering information and intelligence to support their beliefs. Analogies and reference cases can be useful in assessing whether those assumptions and beliefs are feasible.[2]
4. Bigger intelligence pool. Two out of four remedies to the strategic surprise suggested by Chester A. Crocker[1] are dealing with enlarging the intelligence pool. First, he suggested that leadership and management structure need to place a premium on open architecture to ensure that multiple inputs and voices are heard and to instill rewards for unconventional thinking. Second, he also suggested that the inclusion to the decision bodies and boards of various sources and expertise will help. With those practices, firm will have access to bigger intelligence pool to gain the “mega view” of the issues at hand, ensuring lesser residual uncertainty.
5. Flexibility. To tame the beast of uncertainty, Lord Levere suggested that a firm needs to respond to the changing risk environment.[7] As uncertainty is always there, maybe the best policy is being flexible or at least include some flexibility into the planning process. As Chester A. Crocker said, “ the implication is clear: if, despite all best efforts, strategic surprises are inevitable, then it becomes imperative to do everything possible to build the possibility of surprise into the planning process and to focus particular effort on coping with and managing its potential effects”.

Nevertheless, consumer electronics firm must avoid “analysis paralysis”. The firm might be required to make a decisive action in spite of the uncertainty and along the way, reiteratively correct and fix their direction. For example, there is a need to increase liquidity after Lehman Brother’s collapse. Consumer electronic firms cannot wait for a perfect product to be launched, they need to come out with products soon to compete and meet the market need, and possibly release patches, fixes, or new versions along the way. Multinational firm with deep pocket is also seen paying their supplier faster to increase market liquidity.[13]

The Emergence of Internet and Web 2.0

This is the era of internet, an information era where user can have access to the abundance of information anywhere, anytime. With the rise of Web 2.0, internet users do not only consume the information, but also produce the information that collectively shaped our modern culture.

However good it may sounds, this also extends another risk that a firm needs to manage; that is the risk towards its intangible asset. Besides intellectual property, Lord Levere, Lloyd’s chairman, also raised up reputation risk as an important asset whose loss may lead to years needed in regaining market position and public confidence.

Reputation risk is one of the intangible asset that has to be managed better with the growth of Internet and Web 2.0. There are customer’s reviews everywhere, from reseller sites (such as Amazon) to the individual blog in the blogosphere. They provided user feedback on firm’s products and services, both the satisfactions and dissatisfaction. Most potential customers will now also search for review before buying a certain product. Hence, customer electronic firm needs to be careful in managing its product quality and its brand reputation. Well-managed reputation will also pay very well as potential buyers put high value on such reviews.

Besides the risk, Internet and Web 2.0 era also brings up bigger pool of intelligence that businesses can be benefited from. As I stated earlier, this is necessary to manage the risk against uncertainty better. Here is some the additional intelligence that the modern internet has brought in.

1. Online community of practices. A firm can benefit from them to learn more about various expertise to get a better bigger picture of the uncertainties they are facing. Knowledge sharing has also revolved in which an individual firm does not only capture information content, but at the same time build contacts and its knowledge networks.[10]
2. Accessible information about their competitors. A firm can find out more about the strategy movement and updates from its competitors faster and easier. They can also find out more about the customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction against their competitors. The firm can then convert it into product idea and strategy to meet the unmet needs.
3. Collective intelligence. Don Tapscott defined it as the “aggregate knowledge that emerges from the decentralized choices and judgments of groups of independent participants”.[8] As more web tools are provided for user to tag and comment on what is good and what is bad, collectively a pattern will emerge and firm will be able to identify what is popular and important for their customers and potential markets.

The ‘Swans’ fly in flock

According to James Shinn, “Swans fly in flock. Though their appearance individually may be close to random, Swans may be linked causally and sequentially in time.”[5]  Shinn also emphasized that they are not necessarily bad. In fact, good and bad swans can be linked together.

To emphasize his point, Shinn shared an example of the bad swan, December 2004 tsunami that has devastated northern part of Sumatra. That tsunami (‘bad swan’) brought along the peace into the island (‘good swan’). The tsunami devastated Sumatra’s Aceh separatist movement, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) that it was finally willing to come to a peace arrangement with Indonesian government.[5]

Similarly, a firm can look into the unexpected surprise they are facing and take another look into the situation. With enough intelligence, business can identify potential trend they can tap into to make profits from them.

Consumer Electronic Association (CEA) President and CEO, Gary Shapiro has a good perspective on the recent economic turmoil as posted by TheTechZone.com[6]. “The CE (Consumer Electronic) industry is resilient but not immune from the business cycle. In a tough economy our products offer high value for entertainment and an entry point for entrepreneurs creating new businesses,” said Shapiro.

Tapping into the good ‘swan’. The economic downturn since 2008 might have affected most industries badly. This can be reflected by the number of job loss and retrenchments. Rather than resenting the current business state we are in, Gary Saphiro raised up a very good perspective that consumer electronic industry can gain advantage from, such as offering high value for entertainment and entry point for entrepreneurs creating new businesses.

In the current internet and collaboration economy, more and more people have access to start their own online business. Competing in the market that previously dominated by the big player, people build alternative products for a specific niche that is not covered by the bigger player. This build what Chris Anderson called ‘The Long Tail’ in sales distribution.[9] More and more players in the market lengthen the tail. With easy internet access, search and advertising, these start-up businesses might also gain a considerable share of the market, and in a way, thicken the tail.

Multinational consumer electronic firm can tap into these trend by taking the role as the Long Tail “aggregator”. Chris Anderson defined it as “a company or service that collects a huge variety of goods and makes them available and easy to find, typically in single place.”[9] Apple with its application store and iTunes is an excellent example of how a consumer electronic firm has successfully put itself into a very strategic role in harvesting profit from such trends.

In conclusion, internet has brought up and widen the expertise and intelligence business can tap into. With proper business strategy supported by enough business intelligence and certain amount of flexibility, businesses can make better risk management and make decisive actions despite the uncertainty and surprises they are facing.

Bibliography

1. Chester A. Crocker ~ Reflections on Strategic Surprise, chapter 13 of The Impenetrable Fog of War (edited by Patrick M. Cronin). 2008.
2. Hugh Courtney ~ 20/20 Foresight: Crafting Strategy in an Uncertain World. 2001.
3. Robert J. Rhee ~ Terrorism Risk in a Post-9/11 Economy: The Convergence of Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Action. Online: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=898062. 2005
4. Wikipedia ~ Catastrophe Modeling. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophe_modeling
5. James Shinn ~ Tracking Asia’s Black Swans, chapter 12 of The Impenetrable Fog of War (edited by Patrick M. Cronin). 2008.
6. TheTechZone.com ~ CES 2009 – Consumer Electronics Industry 2009 Forecast. Online: http://www.thetechzone.com/ttz/index.php/ces-2009-consumer-electronics-industry-2009-forecast/. 2009.
7. Lord Levene ~ Taming The Beast. Online: http://www.lloyds.com/News_Centre/Speeches/Taming_the_beast_-_managing_business_risk_Lord_Levene_Chairman.htm. 2004.
8. Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams ~ Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. 2008.
9. Chris Anderson ~ The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand. 2006.
10. Donald M. Norris, et.al ~ A Revolution in Knowledge Sharing. Educause Review, September/October 2003.
11. FOX Business Network ~ 9/11’s Impact on Business. Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FocoRIyyDSA&feature=player_embedded. 2009.
12. Hermann Simon ~ Terrorism Hurts World Trade. Online: http://www.ip-global.org/archiv/volumes/2002/fall2002/terrorism-hurts-world-trade.html. 2002.
13. Tom Krisher ~ GM to Pay Suppliers Faster. Online: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090928/BIZ13/309289956/1031/BIZ. 2009.

photo credit: James Jordan

It’s been three weeks since my new journey begins. I didn’t know that I have learned so much during these three weeks.Thanks to CK Reyes that gave me an opportunity to reflect on my three-weeks journey and share my 25 tips of entrepreneurship in her blog.

It’s not an easy journey, but I really have to thank God for the opportunities and open doors He brings to me. Also thanks to my friends and associates that has helped me along the way.

The article summarizes the lessons I learned the past three weeks. It is a part of 100 ways to birth your entrepreneurial dream written by CK Reyes and Michelle Vandepas. Please check it out! You’ll be inspired, who knows that you’ll have your own new journey!

For your success,
Robert

photo credit: Veyis Polat

Who is Larry Wall? Many of you may not know who he is.

He is the father of Perl, a programming language that is more popular among system administrators. He created Perl in mid-1980s. You may never hear his work, but there is something we can learn from his life as a programmer and innovator.

Today I want to share the three attributes of innovators, inspired by Larry Wall as he is mentioned and described in the book Learning Perl, by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, & brian d foy (I don’t have any idea why the last name is written in lower case).

1) Be Lazy

Some people are so diligent working on the same thing over and over. Larry is not following that status quo, he is lazy. Larry was trying to produce some reports from a Usenet news (some kind of discussion forum which is a precursor of different web forums available nowadays). Being the lazy programmer as he is, he decided to overkill the problem with a generic solution, where he can also use it in at least one other place. This is the laziness that he also puts in the three virtues of programmers.

Laziness – The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don’t have to answer so many questions about it.
Larry Wall, Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen (Programming Perl)

2) Be Greedy

Larry created Perl because he wanted the advantages of both sides of programming language. On one side, it’s the low level programming (C or C++) which is hard to write, but fast and unlimited. On the other side, it’s high level programming (“shell” programming) that slow and limited but easier to code. Larry is not satisfied with either one of them. He chose to create something that will incorporate the strength of those two. And Perl is born, easy, nearly unlimited, mostly fast and kind of ugly.

3) Be Ugly

Larry knew very well what he want to create through Perl. He chose to trade off certain thing for the goal he pursued. He knew that he could not please all people. When he had to make a trade off between features that make programmer’s life easier but make it more difficult for student to learn, he will pick the programmer’s side.

Perl has many conveniences that let programmers save time. And that results in how Perl looks ugly for the beginners. If you’re not an experienced Perl programmer, you will need some time to understand all the code and shortcuts. Perl is symbolized as a camel. Camel is kind of ugly too, but they work hard. Camel gets the job done even in a tough conditions like the desert, even if it looks ugly and smells worse, or sometimes even spit at you.

Concluding Thought

The three virtues of programmers (laziness, pride, and hubris/excessive pride) have the similar characteristics to those I’m sharing above.

Yes, it’s not all the attributes needed as an innovator, but they exactly represent the  attributes that not many people consider as virtue. Larry has turned the limitations to advantages. They have become something beneficial to Larry’s life as programmer and innovator.

Despite of the laziness, Larry took pride and believed in his solution. He worked hard at it. He introduced the Perl to the community of users. And that is followed by a number of feedbacks and questions. Larry did not grow weary on responding but he consistently grew his work on Perl.

Now Perl is widely recognize, installed in nearly every system in use today, thousands of pages of online documentation, dozens of books and several main streams of newsgroups and discussions. It’s the fruit of what Larry Wall has worked in.

Innovating,
Robert

photo credit: kwerfeldein

What if we can turn our limitation into advantages?

For readers that have been following me long enough will know that I used to have “turning limitation into advantages” as the big theme of this blog.

Today, I want to share something along that line, especially in relation to productivity tricks. The tricks are mostly inspired by the book The Now Habit by Neil Fiore (review). This article will cover three limitations that we might always tell ourselves regarding productivity, and how we can use them for our advantages. Let’s start with the first one…

1. I don’t like to work, I like to play…

Do you always wait for Friday? TGIF is always on your mind when it’s Friday. If work seems to be a burden to you and you like to play, here is the good news. Productivity is not always about work, but it’s also about play. Yes, you don’t get me wrong. Guilt-free play is an important aspect of productivity suggested by Neil Fiore.  Not only to have balance, but as a reward.

We procrastinate when we think we don’t have time to play. In result, we play to procrastinate. Now, the trick is simple, you play and you must tell yourself that you will play. The play should not come before your work as a reason to procrastinate, but as a reward after completing some non-distracted works.

2. I don’t like structure or schedule, I like to cheat rules…

It’s exactly the idea behind the trick Neil recommends, The Unschedule. Most people can’t stick with many productivity tips because they can’t stick long enough with the habit or rules they are creating. Let’s imagine… what if the one we are breaking is our play time and we use it for our work?

Neil is using that inclination as a reverse psychology to boost our productivity. The trick is called The Unschedule. It works by scheduling your play time first while limiting your work time. Later on, we just have to focus on starting our work whenever we have free time. Neil suggested that it has to be at least 30-minutes blocks of non-distracted time. It’s not too short to complete something, but not too long to discourage us to start.

This trick is aimed to put more time into your leisure and more quality into your work. But more than that, it also builds up a subconscious desire to work more and play less.

3. I’m good at starting, but not good at finishing…

Are you good at starting and not good at finishing? It could be the problem of will and persistence. It could also be fear of completing with mistakes, failures, and imperfection. So, maybe we also have to change our perspective from finishing into starting, just like what I quoted from Neil below…

Finishing will take care of itself. When it is time to start the last thirty minutes that will finish the project, that too will be an act of starting-the start of the conclusion of your current project, as well as the beginning of your next. So forget about finishing. If you must worry, worry about starting. In order to finish, all you have to do is to just keep starting.
~Neil Fiore, Ph.D. – The Now Habit (review)

It’s not the matter of finishing, but the matter of starting. If your life has become a series of starting, the completion of the project will come eventually.

What if I have failed before….

photo credit: TheGiantVermin

If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
– Tallulah Bankhead

A journey to productivity is not an easy journey. Setbacks and disappointments are something we will normally face in life, but that should not be the excuse not to start and procrastinate further. You’ve got to be fearless to make mistakes, and even more to pick yourself up…

A mistake will not be the end of the world because I won’t let it be. I will pick myself up and will try again-regardless of how embarrassed or hurt I feel.
~Successful people according to Neil Fiore, Ph.D.

It may seem to be a long way to go, but you can always start, you can always focus on one step at a time…

If I think too much about reaching the finish line I lose speed, whether I’m ahead or behind. I’ve had to train myself to turn my attention away from finishing and toward the next step, the process of staying in the race.
~an Olympic runner mentioned by Neil Fiore, Ph.D. (The Now Habit)

If you are afraid of completing, then tell yourself to start again… it’s just another 30 minutes. The art of completing is just starting… when you start, you break the inertia, and you will flow.

Keep starting,
Robert

And lastly, a gift for you, here is a wonderful song from Jordin Sparks: One Step at A Time (buy CD)

Click here to view the embedded video.

photo credit: dcJohn

We are all looking to become a better person, but where should we start from?

Looking at ourselves, we see things that we need to work on. You can choose to work on your strengths when we talk about talents. But when we talk about characters, sooner or later, we need to work on our weaknesses and limitations. You want to be a better person, you want to understand yourself better. You want to change.

Looking at others, we see the various choices and decisions they have made. Should we try to follow their example? But that will be too many, which one should we pick?

Look at the book shelves, in library or book shops, a wide spectrum of knowledge to learn from. They can easily overwhelm you with the many different opinions, the many choices and things to learn from.

Look at advertisements, in newsletter or TV, you may see lots of offer and promotions. Classes, seminars, and books. They are touching our deepest desire to become a better person, to know more, to have more, and to become more of ourselves.

The lesson

Last year I shared a personal development course that I took, The Courage to Create. It deals a lot with digging ourselves. The program asked us to remember our past, traumas that formed our subconscious belief. When we found the promises and beliefs we have made, we can deal with them, and finally let go of them. The program is not cheap, and what they offer is quick identification of the subconscious beliefs, with the hope that your life will change as you are no longer controlled by them.

Do I regret taking the program? A bit. I learn many things about myself, but I found that I’m not even ready to face what I know. It gets me confused, I can’t even sure that things that I found out is correct or not. I may need to process my past more, but the follow up programs and sessions they offer is quite costly.

It’s only recently I learned an opposing point of view. It’s from Sy Rogers. From his biography, you will learn that he has struggle with his sexuality. He’s been living a gay life in most of his younger years. He was sexually abused by his uncle, and that caused his insecurity on his manhood. He was even almost undergoing sex change operation.

Eventually he was touched by God’s love and the church community he was in. It took a long process and commitment. And now he has married and has a daughter. And even more he has become an inspiring speaker in the area of sexual redemption.

Sy Rogers changed, not according to his own way, but God’s way. He mentioned that when we desire change, we sometimes overtake God’s way. It might be an honorable desire to become a better person, but it shows how impatience we are to change. God doesn’t want us to deal with all our problems at once. He has a process He wants us to go through. He does not take away the difficult people and circumstances from our life because He wanted us to learn from them. He wanted us to take His curriculum, the curriculum of life.

The curriculum of life

photo credit:

Henry Matthews in his book, Follow Your Heart shared about the 3 perspectives of life we can choose.

1. “Why do bad things always happen to me?”
2. “Life is a lottery, but I make the most of whatever comes along”
3. “My life is a series of lessons I need, happening in perfect order”

Which one will you choose?

The first one will guarantee you a life of misery and frustration. The second one is slightly better, giving an average quality of life, but it’s only the third one that will give you guaranteed peace of mind.

Have you started living? We often wish a different self, a different personality, a different challenge. Maybe it’s out of our impatience for the future that we forgot to live in the presence.

You can dig up all the subconscious belief you are in, you may put a lot of effort to become a perfect person, but the best lesson you’ve got to take is the lesson from your life NOW.

When we fail to learn a lesson, we get to take it again… and again! Once we have learned the lesson, we move on to the next one. (And we never run out of lessons!)
~Andrew Matthews (Follow Your Heart)

And who are you getting the lesson from?

Every person who walks into your life is a teacher. Even if they drive you nuts, they teach you because they show you where your limits are. Just because people are your teachers doesn’t mean you have to like them.
~Andrew Matthews (Follow Your Heart)

One said that even if we think we have become a better person, it’s not proven until it’s tested in relationship. One major character that rob us from learning is our defensiveness. As I shared with you as a lesson from the book Egonomics (review), it will try to justify your behaviors. It is the perception that what people think bad about you are wrong. Only when we really engage with the life and circumstance we are in right now, we can learn from it.

Yeah, this is the school of life, and they have its curriculum. It’s up to you to join any personal development or motivational program, but will you also learn from life? That’s the least you have to take. Whether you want it or not, the life has taught you lessons. If you learn from it, you go to the next level, otherwise, you’ll stay in the same level, again and again.

For your growth,
Robert

photo credit: furryscaly

Now, imagine the one in question wasn’t your car, but your idea or your business decision. How will you react? Rather than happy about it, most people will be turned into defensive mode. They will be trying to defend their idea.

The two scenarios above were taken from Egonomics by David Marcum and Steven Smith (review). The book has given me some insights on defensiveness, and here is what I want to share with you.

What are we defending…, really?

The second scenario above relates with defensiveness, because often it relates with our positive image we’re trying to hold. Car has nothing to do with our self image, but our decision and ideas? Those are things that reflects our intelligence and self image, or in short, our ego. As David and Steven put it…

Fear is the mortar that holds together the wall of defensiveness.
~David Marcum & Steven Smith (Egonomics)

Ego and defensiveness were born by fear. It’s the fear of losing what we have or what we can have. If we are not defending our ego, than who will defend them? If we lose now, will we lose again and again in the future? What will happen if we lose our face? How can we face the future then? It’s interesting to see how we can overestimate the result of our one mistake. It’s the fear of failure that leads us to be defensive.

How are we defending ourselves?

photo credit: mckaysavage

Defensiveness can easily deal with spinning our facts and ideas. We can easily exaggerate, understate, manipulate, and fabricate the information we give.

And seriously, defensiveness blocks our potential to learn. What I experience was that we often rationalize our mistakes. We put our weaknesses as an excuse. We put misunderstanding as the issue, and we daydream if only the other person understand the perspective and motive that we have.

I have read many books on personality, strengths, etc, and in a way they can become an excuse of what our personalities are, and how other people should understand us. It’s good to understand ourselves, but it’s no longer good if we disillusion that as the only reality.

“We defend our enslavements,” said an unknown philosopher, “as if they were our freedoms.” Freedom comes from inviting reality checks while at the same time holding a positive self-view. The feedback we get won’t always be accurate; the data we receive filters through the biased lens of the one giving it, as well as the one on the receiving end. But what other people tell us does represent their perception of us, and we should remember that their perception is their reality. So if we want to work effectively with them, we must understand their reality.
~David Marcum & Steven Smith (Egonomics)

How should we change?

Does that mean we need to be passive to let go defensiveness? The answer is not to be unassertive person. That is the other end of the spectrum where we have lack of ego. The answer is how we can detach our idea from our self-image or identity.

It’s a very strong point that Egonomics emphasize, how we bring the intensity from our identity (that we are defending) to the ideas (that we are proposing).

There is nothing wrong with defending an idea. If our intent is to let the best ideas win, we should be able to take any stance, on any topic, in any arena to test the strength of what we’re debating.
~David Marcum & Steven Smith (Egonomics)

Conclusion

photo credit: lumaxart

Ego is an asset, but it often becomes a very expensive liability in our life. Not only getting defensive, we are also being comparative, showcasing brilliance, and seeking acceptance when we have problem with ego.

Defensiveness, together with comparison and competitiveness, caused us to be blinded by the opportunity to see what the goods that others have. When we need to prove our identity, when we don’t have a secure identity, it’s hard for us to see how others can be better than us. But even worse, it’s hard for us to learn from them. And the big rewards, as David Marcum and Steven Smith put it very well…

If we can drop our defensive posture and listen, it gives us power-power to be influenced and power to influence others.
~David Marcum & Steven Smith (Egonomics)

Hope this article inspired you to manage your ego, and manage your defensiveness. It’s a process, but you have to start now!

Managing ego,
Robert

photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Do you regret on the mistakes you made? Did you forget about what you have to do? Are you making lots of assumption and decision you need to keep track of? Or do you need a place to put the information you need?

If you’ve never had any place to put all those things, most likely you will put it in your brain. Let’s see what David Allen said about that…

It’s a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxieties about what you should be doing and aren’t.
~David Allen (Getting Things Done)

David Allen emphasized the need of a system to get things done. We need it to track all the things we need to remember. With a reliable system, we can let go our mind to focus only on one thing at a time, which is the next action of what we can do now.

Journaling To Done, or I call it JTD, is a system that I implement to work effectively as a software developer. It helps me to my day-to-day progress. It’s a tool for me to record the assumptions, the thinking process, the decisions, things I have to do, and things I learned all in one journal.

Today, I want to share with you in this article. It is also my tips on personal excellence, a contribution to Luciano’s Personal Excellence Project.

Let’s Journaling To Done (JTD)

Keeping a diary supports personal development.
~Stefan Sagmeister @TED Talk via 43Folders

What do you need to do to get started?

1. Get a note-book.

Pen and paper is still the faster way to journal. We can bring it anywhere, while traveling or during meeting. And it’s still one of the best GTD application according to Lifehacker.

With pen and paper, we can also add symbols or drawings easily. They captures our attention easily, and they speak thousand words.

For JTD, I will suggest to use a note-book with separate left column (see the image besides).

The left column is needed for you to draw symbols that you will recognize with a glance looking back at your journal. You can create your own symbols and add more of them as you start writing and find the need. That’s why it’s important for you to…

2. Leave the first page for symbol legends

As you write, you will make use various kinds of symbols. And you might find a need to refer back to this page to know what symbols you have created.

It will help you to standardize and remember the symbols. Attached is an example of the legend I have created after I started journaling at work.

3. Start writing

With that you can simply start writing. Put the date when you journal, and writing as you like. Journaling is for your own consumption, so don’t get caught up too much by grammar or sentence structure.

Don’t be too hard on yourselves as well. Flow with your thought, write down all the considerations you have, and you will see how things not as complex as you think it is. Writing makes thing simpler than it seems.

Why should you write for yourself?

• Writing de-clutters your mind. Often we think that a problem is complex until we write it down. Once writing it down, we will see the options available clearly. If needed, simply make assumption that leads to your decision. This will make some grounds for your decision and actions that you can explain to your boss, your team, your friend, or even yourself.
• Writing helps you to remember. Things written can be remembered better. When it’s something you need to remember or refer back, you can always use highlighter to help you identify them.
• Writing helps you learn from your mistake. Part of growing is learning from our own mistakes and writing is a good way to “teach” ourselves about them. It’s a lesson of what you will do the next time you face the same situation. It’s also about what you can do to fix the situation. This will help you remember not to make the same mistakes again.

4. Don’t aim for perfection

No, I don’t ask you to write everything that you’ve done. It’s not supposed to be a perfect record of what you have done over the day. Use your journal as a de-cluttering tool. Consider how it can help you to make decision, identify next actions or tasks to complete, write down info you need to refer back, or learn from your mistakes and not to repeat it again. Journal with a purpose and enjoy the process, don’t let JTD burden you with another task you have to do. Be experimental and find out how journaling will help you the best.

5. End with next action

This is the main distinctive point between JTD and simply journaling. The writing and de-cluttering process are meant to lead you to the action you need to do. With the assumptions you make, the idea you have, the consideration on all the options, they should lead you to the next action you can do. You can have one or more actions, but you need to identify what you can start doing now. After you identify them, you need to drop your pen, leave JTD, and start doing what you need to do, now!

6. Use post-it notes to process your distraction

photo credit: net_efekt

As you start writing, you might remember things that are not supposed to get your attention. These are some examples of the distractions you may have:

• reminder of other things you’ve got to complete, or
• an idea for other commitment you have, or even
• emotional baggage and inner distraction, such as anxiety, worry or depression, disappointment with someone, or unspoken words or feelings you have. It might be working to simply ignore them, but it will be better if you process them. You need to make it complete so that you can concentrate back on the thing you need to do. Express your emotion, fear, hatred, or whatever it is while you’re writing, seek deeper motive, and love yourself back again. You can always end with a motivational message for yourself, quoting a verse from bible or that wise and encouraging quote you remember.

As you see, all of them are distractions, things that can steal us from our focus and productivity. The idea is to let distraction as a distraction. Write them on a post-it note that you can throw away after you write. Alternatively, if it’s something important, you can always gather it back and paste it somewhere else. Maybe on the later part of the journal when you make time to process them, but not now!

7. Create bookmarks/TOC with post-it notes

Another usage of post-it notes is to create bookmarks. If you have written something important in your journal, you may want to refer back to it again some other day. For that purpose, pick a post-it note, and paste it on the page with that piece of info. Paste it in such a way that it can be seen without opening the book.

If you think that putting bookmarks is troublesome and untidy, an alternative is creating table of contents with the post-it notes. Even if you don’t put page number on your journal, you can always refer the notes with the date you wrote them. If you have written lots of pages within the day, put the page number starting from the journal you have on that day. For example, page number 1127-05 means that the info can be found in fifth page of 27th November journal.

Write the reference in a post-it note, so that you can always organize that reference later, paste it on different part of the note-book. It can be on the first page, together with the legends, front or back cover of the note-book, or anywhere else within or outside the book where you can find them easily.

photo credit: apesara

Concluding thoughts

JTD may not be a complete solution on getting things done. It may have to work together with other of your GTD system, such as calendar or to-do list program.

But JTD helps. It helps you make a complicated decision in your mind into clear options for easier decision making. It helps you to focus on solving the problem and find the next actions that you can do.

I hope that you will find this tip as something useful on your personal excellence. Enjoy the process, be experimental and do share with us if you find some tweaking to improve the process. For now, start journaling to done!

For your success,
Robert

photo credit: wilhei55

One of the sad experience in blogging is the time we lose our readers. Seasons come and go, and sadly readers come and go as well. This blog has the same experience, but the art is really how we can stay positive when that happens. Losing readers is unavoidable as a part of your growth as a blogger or a people of influence. You can take it as a failure, or you can take it as a success. It’s really about perspective.

If you ask me, then these are some of the reasons why you can smile and stay positive, even when you lose readership…

1. Your readers are growing…

Scott H. Young recently wrote a mind-boggling article in his blog, The Purpose of This Website is to Lose Its Readers. It really opened my eyes on the experience, more than a reason to smile, he put losing his readers as a goal or purpose to achieve. Isn’t that like school graduation? Imagine what will happen if school doesn’t want to lose its students. The students will never be graduated and they will never step into another phase of their life.

In blogosphere, we can also consider that our readers are graduated from our blog. They have gained so much from our blog. They are growing to their next phase of life and they need to learn from another source, someone that is suitable with their stage of growth.

I experienced this not only in blogosphere, but also in my relationship with some friends. One of them is a college junior which is very close to me. I motivated him once when he was down, and he was very thankful of it. Since then, we talked a lot, and he shared a lot of his struggle to me.

But, it did not take forever. I was sad but I learned to see it from a better perspective. He grew up, and he became a much more independent man. With that right perspective, I can be happy that I have helped him with motivation when he needed it, or maybe I can consider that as my specialty…

2. Consider that as your current specialty/niche…

Recently I learned how to swim, I hired a coach to teach me and after 4 lessons, I can swim. I considered that enough and I stopped. It’s not that I’m not I’m not thankful to him, but it’s so far what I need to learn from him. Swimming is his specialty or niche, and I’ve been graduated from his lesson.

In blogging and in life, you will eventually pick a niche/direction to focus on. The best thing is of course, one that can cover much more so that you can maintain your readers for a long time. But, unfortunately, there is a journey that we all need to go before reaching that. It’s also one great thing about blogging: that you can start wherever you are, with whatever knowledge you have right now.

Another example, I won’t be able to coach you business skill as I do not have much experience yet, however I can share with you about the experience in the success journey, the motivation, the attitude, the right perspective, the actions and habits you can start doing. It’s what I can offer now, and you can say it’s my niche. People change; people will judge and evaluate their commitments. That’s unavoidable! But as long as you grow, you can put aside what people think of you…

3. Time for you to grow…

photo credit: | JERRY |

In fact, it’s important that you write with the readiness to lose your readers. William Zinsser wrote about the writing audience in his book On Writing Well. And to my surprise, the audience is none other than you yourself…

Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. ….
You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. If you lose the dullards back in the dust, you don’t want them anyway.
~William Zinsser (On Writing Well)

The message is about what you believe, and it’s not about pleasing anyone with the message you bring. This is also the attitude I want to bring to my readers, I’m not here to make you happy. I am not writing that often, as I also need to “eat” what I write. I am growing so I can bring more value in what I share. And I have to also voice up what I believe even if I will lose some readers. It’s really when you are detached from your readers, than you can give and share the best from what you value and believe, not what will please them on the surface.

Concluding thought

So…. I really don’t think that you need to worry or sad losing some readers, or those who are commenting on your site. Even if they go because they don’t like you, you can always think otherwise, that you have already given them enough. And the point is you have to grow, as a blogger, as a human, and a leader. And it’s not about a competition of how many readers you have; it’s really about the journey that you need to take.

And for all who are still reading my blog, I really appreciate you guys, be the best you can be and follow your course, wherever you need to go. Reason-4-Smile will always encourage you to live your life.

And if there is one thing you can do for Reason-4-Smile, is really something that Scott H. Young also mentioned. You may not need my article anymore, but you can always share my blog or article to those you care about.

Stay motivated,
Robert

Related articles:

• Scott H Young » The Purpose of This Website is to Lose Its Readers
• Writing less, eating more | Reason-4-Smile Weblog
• How failures can make you smile | Reason-4-Smile Weblog

photo credit: linh.ngân

Have you ever fought your heart?

Nervous… I have no idea why, but that was what I felt last weekend. Maybe it’s worry of the project that I have to complete in The Courage to Create program. Maybe it’s a worry as I was working on the new theme on my blog. Will it show indecisiveness? Or instability? Will anyone unsubscribe? And so on. Maybe it’s a fear of failure, or maybe… it’s also a fear of success.

“When you cease doubting, you have stopped moving forward”
~Paulo Coelho (Brida)

The fact is… it is a part of success journey, a journey towards your dream. It should have happened to you, unless you have stopped following your dream. And it was something that Paulo Coelho also shared in his book, The Alchemist.

One boy, a shepherd, gave up all his sheep to pursue his dream to find his treasure. He found his dream girl in the journey, but he also decided to leave her for a moment to pursue his dream to find the treasure accompanied by the Alchemist.

Understand your treasonous heart

On the journey, his heart turned wild. He couldn’t sleep because of it. And he disliked his heart for it; he even said that his heart is treasonous. He didn’t want to listen to it and he decided to put it aside. The alchemist told him to understand his heart instead. Understand them so that it will not become a threat or unexpected blow later on.

Isn’t that the same as what we often experience? We often live our life without listening to what is inside us. The program I joined, The Courage to Create really helped me to understand me better. I guess it’s really a benefit of understanding your heart, your fear, and what has been controlling you so far.

Your heart’s confession

The boy managed to understand his heart, and here is what the boy’s heart said,

“Even though I complain sometimes, it’s because I’m the heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good, but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

That does happen to me… this heart is so fearful, and its confidence is gone. It is afraid that it will suffer because of the pursuit. It misses its comfort zone, and loses what it enjoyed doing. And here is what we all need to realise…

It’s okay, sweet heart!

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

What an encouragement! That statement really soothes my anxiety. “Do not fear!” that is the statement that Jesus said many times in Bible. Why? Because it is true, fear petrified you, fear held you back from achieving your dream, and worse of all, fear actually made you suffered. Even worse than the suffering you’re about to feel, which sometimes is not even there at all.

Deeper down in your heart…

What is deeper inside your heart? Your heart turned bad, because of you! It is so scared now, all because of you! It happened to speak to you to follow your dream, but your fear made you immobile, stay at the place where you are. Here is another confession of a heart…

“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

That’s what our hearts do, it stops speaking about our dream and vision, after all the disappointments we faced in our life. In fact, they stopped telling us to follow our dream; they knew that they will suffer because of that. Your heart might always be supporting you, but instead of pushing you toward your goal, it will stop over the time. If you don’t do anything about it, your heart will turn its back against you. It will ask you to stop your journey, to save both you and your heart from suffering.

The reward

Interestingly, the reward is more than just the goal and dream you achieved. As what this blog all about, it is also about your happiness in success journey. The reward is also in the journey itself. What is it? Here is a closing quote from Paulo Coelho, hopefully will inspire you to follow your dream.

“And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

In the journey,
Robert