Happy Holidays…. This holiday season proved to be both enjoyable and exhausting.  I received a few quick read self-help / motivational books this holiday season.  I finished one today entitled It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be – by Paul Arden.  The book is a quick read aimed at provoking thought to help you be the best you that you can be.  Like the "bible" (as so many refer to it on Amazon) I don’t think the ideas conveyed are meant to be taken literally but rather absorbed, digested and interpreted in a way that help you climb higher.

In the world of technology we spend so much time learning…. formulas, calculations, etc…   Many of the concepts are apropos and really got me thinking so I though I would share them with you.

It’s Wrong To Be Right
Being right is based upon knowledge and experience and is often provable.
Knowledge comes from the past, so it’s safe.  It is also out of date.  It’s the opposite of originality.
Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems.  The old situations are probably different from the present ones, so that old solutions will have to be bent to fit new problems (and possibly fit badly).  Also the likelihood is that, if you’ve got the experience, you’ll probably use it.
This is lazy.
Experience is the opposite of being creative.
If you can prove you’re right, you’re set in concrete.  You cannot move with the times or with other people.
Being right is also being boring.  Your mind is closed.  You are not open to new ideas.  You are rooted in your own rightness, which is arrogant.  Arrogance is a valuable tool but only if used sparingly.
Worst of all, being right has a tone of morality about it.  To be anything else sounds weak or fallible, and people who are right would hate to be thought fallible.
So:  it’s wrong to be right, because people who are right are rooted in the past, rigid-minded, dull and smug.
There’s no talking to them.

It’s Right To Be Wrong
Start being wrong and suddenly anything is possible.
You’re no longer tying to be infallible.
You’re in the unknown.  There is no way of knowing what can happen, but there’s more chance of it being amazing than if you try to be right.
Of course, being wrong is a risk.
People worry about suggesting stupid ideas because of what others will think.
You will have been in meetings where new thinking has been called for, at your original suggestion.
Instead of saying, ‘That’s the kind of suggestion that leads us to a novel solutions’, the room goes quiet, they look up to the ceiling, roll their eyes and return to the discussion.
Risks are a measure of people.  People who won’t take them are trying to preserve what they have.
People who do that them often end up by having more.
Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong.  But being right may be like walking backwards proving where you’ve been.
Being wrong isn’t in the future, or the past.
Being wrong isn’t anywhere but being here.
Best place to be, eh?

Do Not Try To Win Awards
Nearly everybody likes to win awards.
Awards create glamour and glamour creates income.
But be aware.
Awards are judged in committee by consensus of what is known.
In other words, what is in fashion.
But originality can’t be fashionable, because it hasn’t yet had the approval of the committee.
Don’t try to follow fashion.
Be true to your subject and you will be far more like to create something that is timeless.
That’s where the true are lies.

The moral is think for yourself, don’t be afraid to be wrong or unfashionable, be creative, innovate, succeed at being all you can be and be humble!

I will finish-up with this final passage:

Do Not Covet Your Ideas
Give away everything you know and more will come back to you.
You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arm around their exercise book or exam paper.
It is the same at work, people are secretive with ideas.  ‘Don’t tell them that, they’ll take the credit for it.’
The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves.  Eventually you will become stale.
If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing.  This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.
Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.
Ideas are open knowledge.  Don’t claim ownership.
They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s.  They are out there floating by on the ether.
You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.

Happy Holidays!  A little more food for thought before you finalize the New Year’s resolution 🙂