Mind Cook

When are items more valuable than experiences? The wisdom of generation Y and beyond is that experiences trump everything else. But is that always true?

People like to say those who buy expensive cars or branded items are just showing off. Their money would be best be used to… Doing what? Going on a holiday? In some cases yes it makes a lot of sense to just go for a holiday, especially if you have a simple job or a golden spoon. But what if time was extremely precious? Wouldn’t it make sense then to spend on something you can enjoy everyday?

There will be people who pursue luxuries for the sake of showing off. This is epitomised by Instagram. But there are some people who believe their time is better much spent doing what they need to or what they love. And there is nothing more foolish than a person who has lots of riches but lives until death like a pauper.

Do not underestimate the power of one brief moment. We are programmed to think we need to spend months or years to learn something because of compulsory school learning and structure. Yet it only takes a single moment to change your knowledge, perspective and actions.

For example you might be working on a project and doing it the usual way. Then you get one insight from a senior who completely changes the way you design and execute. Or it could be an idea that popped into your head that was inspired by a single scene or line from a book.

Executing can take a long time. However changes in perspective happen in an instant. Do not make the mistake of prioritising a learning course just because it is longer.

If we seek to find something that everyone agrees on, it means it has been done before and it’s proven. You will need to try and do that if you are representing the government because you represent everyone. But in some cases you should just be yourself without consulting externally.

This is confidence we are slowly losing and are complacent about. One cannot make effective decisions if we are constantly requiring feedback. The wants of many are often impossible to accommodate, it is best to stick with making yourself satisfied with the decision.

Be brave and be bold. There will definitely be people who support you.

There is a great advantage of being a first mover. Yet there is also a major risk. They both go hand in hand so if things don’t work out being first don’t take it to heart.

When people are given a blank canvas, nobody knows what to draw. Yet after someone claims the canvas, there will be criticism and opinions all over. Sometimes great things result from this after someone else points something out. Who is responsible for the success at this point?

Both the first mover and the key contributor should be glorified. Without the contributor there will be no good result. But without the first mover there is no result at all.

Be first and be bold. The act of being first is already great in its own right despite the outcome.

When dealing with people, the best option is usually to give it all at one point without thinking too much about long term. The reason is by doing that others will feel it is sufficient when you really give it your best. Walking away after that makes everyone happy.

On the other hand if you only give sparingly, chances are that the other party also feels you are holding back and demand more of you. In the end it becomes a continuous stressful situation.

Be prepared to give it all and then be happy to move on. Everybody will feel better after.

Sometimes you get lemons in life, then you have to cope with the lemons. After you found your way out we call it a blessing in disguise. It doesn’t come automatically.

There are other times we make conscious choices to get or do something. Yet we feel at the time of obtaining things we did not get a good selection to base it off from.

Often if something already works ok, it is best to accept it as the best you have at the given time, even if you were not given a choice. I experienced multiple times where a quick decision turned out ok but I went back to explore the options properly. In the end the first choice was good.

Appreciate what you have foremost. Blessings can only be counted with a thankful mindset.

Sometimes we distort our reality when we are engrossed in something. Like we assume that what we love is common knowledge. I see this behaviour a lot in relation to social media. There seems to be almost an expectation to know about your friends in social media.

I can’t speak for everyone but I don’t find my time on social media generally constructive. In fact it can make a day that was free for many things disappear. Or an early night becoming insufficient sleep. Yet social media certainly has its place, especially when you are in business.

We should not expect something to be known by everyone when it is posted on social media. We can only treat that it is no longer a secret. It is a big difference and it may colour the way you carry out conversation with others.

There are so many interconnected services these days it is almost impossible to have a backup for everything. For example if your EFTPOS service is down you can’t take a lot of payment. Same if your phone service is dead no one can call you. Have you considered that your email might be down?

We are moving through our lives taking things for granted. This is the healthy way to live not living in constant worry or fear. I really do think that we must be aware of what we are relying on. Beyond that we absolutely cannot replicate some items.

At a business level, make sure all critical services have as limited reliability on others as possible or that would cause such outages to definitely come up in news. This tends to mean that you can’t rely on a lot of intermediate wholesalers and unfortunately also on many startups who haven’t thought through this process. You can’t have a backup for everything, just make sure you know what these are.

What makes a day worthwhile? Is it the time spent with people you care about? Is it the goals you wish to achieve? Or is it just feeling a sense of happiness for most of it?

I think it’s best to try and a achieve all of that in any day. I am not expecting you to cram your five year goal in one day. But to chip at it and find that balance where you keep progressing.

If you postpone one item it often leads to distress from another aspect later on. Define some realistic short term goals and choose some people to spend time or talk with. A continuous stream of decent days is better than one super day in a week of depression.

You didn’t schedule for it and you have a 100 other things on your plate. This problem should take only a few minutes to solve but why is it not working?

The most likely thing you end up doing is hammering. In the construction industry this is known as using the precision gauge called the knock-o-meter. A few adjustments here and there and it should be ok. Right?

Well the trouble is you often spend more time hammering it into place rather than starting over. In some cases this leads to wastage which is unacceptable. Most of the time though it is much faster to remain calm and tackle the solution with proper planning and thinking.

When in a rush try not to use the hammer. Force yourself to use a screw driver instead. The results will speak for itself.