thinking

Do You Use the 5 Hour Rule?

July 26, 2016 by David

http://www.inc.com/empact/bill-gates-warren-buffett-and-oprah-all-use-the-5-hour-rule.html

The author of this article states “Many of these leaders, despite being extremely busy, set aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) over their entire career for activities that could be classified as deliberate practice or learning.”
Is this what you do? She goes on to reflect that this “learning” can be subdivided into:-
(1) Read
(2) Reflect
(3) Experiment

Do you think this is useful?

photo by Claudio Toledo on Flickr

Stop Worry

Are you a worrier? Worry generates stress, dampens self confidence and makes you feel bad. Can you stop worry? What it doesn’t do is solve problems – in fact worry doesn’t do anything useful as far as I can see.

Worry comes under the umbrella of anxiety. And we expect it to be at its worst in pressure filled situations, where we are most desperate to perform our best. So for a presentation, exam or a race we can caught in a see-saw between confidence and worry as the consequences of performing badly are difficult to dismiss.

I have two daughters currently going through important University exams whose normal self confidence seems to be hiding away somewhere. They were both revising throughout the Christmas holidays, yet are now gripped by fears of doing badly. Telling them they may do worse by worrying won’t help either! [Read more…]

Is Optimism the Foundation of Self Confidence?

January 27, 2010 by David

Are you an optimist? Do you naturally look on the bright side of any situation? Do you expect the best outcome – or the worst? The reason I ask is I have just read that

"Optimism is the foundation on which all self confidence is built".

Whilst I'm more of an optimist that pessimist, I had never seen optimism as such a building block for self confidence.

The quote comes from blogger Bud Bilanich, who brands himself "the Common Sense Guy". His thoughtful post Haiti, Optimism and Success takes in how people can still be optimistic despite great devastation and how ultimately most of our troubles and worries pale by comparison. [Read more…]

Adjust your Attitude

December 27, 2009 by David

self confidence As we move towards year, and decade, end its a usual time to reflect and make plans (dare I say resolutions!) for 2010. Last year, in When New Year Resolutions Break Down, I discussed not getting too hung up on 1st January as being the only time to set goals. The more important part of that opening sentence is reflect – what can we learn from our experiences.

My own period of reflection is still a "work in progress", but one thing I'm going to work on in 2010 is my attitude. Self confidence is nothing if not an attitude – and what attitude you adopt is under your control. Here are a couple of examples.

Gill Hicks

Originally from Australia, Gill Hicks has lived in London since 1992. Her life was totally transformed by the terrorist attack on London in July 2005 ("7/7") – as Gill put it she "started life number 2". Standing close to the suicide bomber, she lost both her legs and nearly died – losing 80% of her blood and suffering 3 cardiac arrests in the aftermath. [Read more…]

Build Self Confidence by Being Lucky?

August 30, 2009 by David

A post about the Law of Attraction and Luck? Are they prerequisites for self confidence? No, but they both centre on beliefs and how we see the world, which have a huge bearing on self confidence.

Law of Attraction – Total Twaddle?

Any follower of this blog would soon notice that one of my pet dislikes is the Law of Attraction. Not so much for what it is, but the way it is promoted as if there really is a "Law". In "Do you believe in fairies?" I used the story of Arthur Conan Doyle, and his unshakable belief in the existence of fairies, as a comparison.

The biggest argument I have, is with those who believe that by thinking something, you can externally influence events and "make things happen". The most used example is being able to conjure up parking spaces by just imagining that empty space. [Read more…]