I recently had the pleasure of buying a can of [tag]Dr. Pepper[/tag] from a local man in a shopping centre. Considering we don’t have Dr. Pepper here in [tag]Brisbane[/tag] the price was considerably more expensive that you might think… but I didn’t mind paying it. Why? Every time I go into the store the man greets me with a smile and always has something great to say. You can just tell he absolutely loves what he does. How can I tell that he does? Because his [tag]heart[/tag] is in what he is doing.

The opposite of what I am saying

Yesterday I bought my very first table at a local furniture store. The man who runs the store was sitting in a recliner with his eyes closed and didn’t even acknowledge us as we walked in the store. Probably didn’t help that I said, ‘Wow, they are dead on a Saturday,’ as we walked in. Whoops! The table we had picked out of the catalogue was ordered and the man hardly moved. Now I am not one to make[tag]judgments[/tag] on the spot but I would say he was not happy with his job and his heart was somewhere else.

Where is your heart?

My heart is in creative, idea generating things. I like to make new things out of old combinations and build things. Now, I don’t know which end of the hammer to pick up but in my heart this is how I am.  The point of this post to ask … is your heart in what you do?  Check yourself.  Ask yourself… do I want to do this for the right reasons or the wrong reasons?  Look at the mirror and ask yourself what’s the deal?

How do you know your heart is not in it

When you go to work do you feel the ‘ugh’ feeling?  What do I mean?  A while ago a colleague of mine walked up to the office he was in and he had recently quit.  I said to him, ‘Why?’.  He said to me, ‘Every time I walked up the stairs to come to my office I would get depressed.’  I instantly saw his point.

Now I have to caution you here.  Sometimes you have to build something else in order to move forward before you make the shift.  But, don’t lie to yourself.  Tell the [tag]truth[/tag].  If you know you aren’t putting your heart into it… find out what you should be and go for it.  That however is another story for another post.

I consider myself successful because not so many years ago I was unemployed with no education and nowhere to go. Now, although I am not financially prosperous, I have a job as an academic where I am able to teach other people about the very things I had trouble learning. I have just completed a PhD and now I am waiting for my marks … which when I consider it what I was previously is nothing short of miraculous! I had help from my friends, family and I believe God. However, I learned some amazing things about this life in this time and five of them I would like to share with you today.

1. Never ignore your heart

When I left school I had the fourth worst score you could get from the high school system in Queensland. This meant I was automatically rejected form every single university in the entire state. I was really depressed during that time because my dream was to go onto university and study. I never really stopped trying. Thanks to my abysmal score I had only one opportunity which was TAFE (Technical College/Polytechnic for my overseas readers). This particular college at the time was the single worst in the state. Intuitively my heart told me that going there was the right choice… not just because it was the only one but I knew for whatever reason it would open doors later on in life. Indeed it did… now I work at Griffith University as an Associate Lecturer in the Business School. Imagine that! I never stopped doing what I knew I should be though from time to time I did wander off track. Always listen to the drumbeat of your heart.

2. Be wary of the advice of others

People usually have good intentions when they are telling you what they think you should do. They cannot see into your destiny and do not know what you know about you. So take advice with a grain of salt. Listen carefully to the mistakes people have made. Like when people say don’t go into business with friends… ask them why? Ask them to explain why that would be a bad idea and listen. You will learn some pitfalls that you should avoid. On the other hand I had someone who kept telling me to stop studying and go and get a job. Now, I have a job and I am studying while I write cool blog entries like this one! Not only that, but I have met people from all over the world and worked with people twenty years my senior on major industry projects. I am not wealthy but I have gained a wealth of knowledge. Hence, I am here telling you (whoever you are - God bless you for reading) what I learned! What a great privilege.

3. Don’t say no because you can’t do it

I have learned that challenges will come. I have stood through what looked like at the time as a great impossibility only to find that I was led through it. Now as a believer I am convinced that impossible means nothing. However, a lot of the times we are facing challenges in our life that we think are truly impossible. What happens is we talk ourselves out of trying. This is a fatal mistake. When you venture out into the unknown you are a pioneer. You are paving the way for others to follow. If you say no, maybe others you will influence will agree with you and likewise not try. There is more to be gained from failing then there is in never trying. I always put action ahead of thinking, which at first seems counterintuitive, but I am all the richer for it. Try your ideas out, if you can, it’s a great way to learn if it works or not.

4. Don’t flog a dead horse

There are times in my life when I wish I could borrow the TARDIS from the Doctor and visit myself and say, ’stop doing this… it’s going to be a disaster!’ Once I get going on a project I will work at it until it’s done. Sometimes my convictions are not well founded… therefore I make disasters. One incident springs to mind in which I had the opportunity to leave a [tag]business[/tag] that ended up costing me HUGE amounts of money. At the time I was thinking it couldn’t possibly fail or rather this CAN’T possibly fail because I had so much at stake. It did fail. I find great comfort in the lyrics of the Gambler at such times. Knowing when to run is oh so important.

5. Learn to love failing

Following on from point 4. can I tell you that I love failing? Well no I don’t. I have some monumental failures (see fiction page) behind me. Sure, I have hurts attached to those failures but I also have learning. I love failing because I have learned something about myself, what I was doing and the problem I was trying to solve. You are not a failure because you have failed you are failure if you fail to learn. Learning is a key life skill. Failure hurts but it’s what you can milk from those failures that will put you heads and shoulders above the rest.

6. Opportunities do not come labelled

Oh how I wish they did. If there is one thing I could leave you with as you read this… please understand some opportunities you will never have again. Once I had a literary agent willing to sign for a book I wrote (again see the fiction page) and he told me to have it edited to suit the US. I was so excited. The guy I hired took over five months to get back to me with a finished manuscript! Initially I was told it would take I contacted the agent again and he’d moved on. I am still not over this but I have noticed… carefully assess every opportunity and make DAMNED sure you have support when you need it. If you don’t think fast, think quick and be smart. You may never EVER get the opportunity again. How I wish I could wind back the clock and slap that guy upside the head but what good will it do me? No bloody good! Expect opportunities and be cautious but go for it if you think it has a shot. You may not get another shot.

7. Be patient and take small steps daily

[tag]Patience[/tag] is a annoying. I hate to wait as much as they next person. My wife recently planted a tomato tree in the backyard of our previous house. Right before we move I noticed a green fresh tomato growing and thought yes! Fresh tomatoes! You know what, we had to move and leave the plant there because it’s roots were so deep it probably wouldn’t have made it. How long did I wait for the tomato only to have it snatched from my grasp? Now I feel robbed! Patience though will get me another plant in just a short while and I will have my fresh tomatoes. Think about how patient the plant is and how slowly it’s roots grow. I have been told that some forms of bamboo will sit under the soil for years and suddenly shoot up only to become a deep rooted pest! We need to be like that. Take steps towards a goal on a daily basis and make good quality [tag]decisions regularly as you do[/tag]. All of the good things in my life I have had to wait for. Day after day, year after year. Now, while I was doing nothing… nothing happened. Yet, if I build it bit by bit I have the complete building at the end. I would urge you to do the same. You may never get there as such but someone will come after you and who knows what your legacy will be like. Don’t wait to develop your goals… do it now but do so one day after the other.

8. Acknowledge, encourage, recognise and honour the people around you who help

I am disgusted to my very bones when I think about the amount of heroes we have in society. Why? Every successful person has people who encourage them along the way and support them. They would be nothing without those people. One person I think of in my life is my mother. Now this may seem corny… but she always has something positive to say when it comes to what I am doing. A birthday card I got from her once said, ‘Happy Birthday Professor’. That blessed me so much that I have never forgot it. At the time I was really struggling and people all around me were telling me to quit what I was doing. God bless you mum. When I look back at where I came from to where I am now I am amazed. Those that put up with me and helped me all know that I appreciate their input.

Thanks for reading this article… remember you can donate or even better leave me some constructive feedback. See you next time.

Recently in a [tag]dream[/tag] I found myself driving a huge crane that was lifting big boulders.  To the side of the boulders were golden rocks that were just sitting there. The first thought that came to me when I woke up was… I am helping others getting work done but not doing what I need to do to make sure I continue to succeed.  The gold that I have waiting to be refined is sitting there as I do backbreaking labour for others … who probably don’t care!  I am doing the donkey work for others at the expense of my own work. 

Part of the harsh realities of life is that you must be careful in selecting what you do to help others.  I believe we should be helping others because it’s part of my values however, if we do too much for others and neglect what we need to do … our opportunities to grow may be missed.  How do you know you are lifting boulders for other people?

You have been doing something for a while and you are making no progress

If you walk up a hill one step at a time you will eventually get to the top.  However, if you begin to walk around in circles your destination will be the same as your starting point!  Have you been doing this for a while… could be you are helping others get ahead at the neglect of yourself?

There is just no time for me

Is this you as well?  The whole idea of time for yourself is important because you are accountable for you.  What I am saying is this: make time.  That’s great but with all the things I am doing there is simply not enough time right?  Wrong!  There could be some things you are doing for others that should be pushed aside.

People around me treat me like a dumping station

A hallmark of finding out that you are carrying boulders for others is the amount of things people just give you to do.  Now, there are some things that you should do and helping others is very important.   Don’t be a dumping station… only take on those things that you know you can do without hindering your own future. 

I just can’t say no

This one is a tough one.  I work with a person who just can’t say no and I am much the same myself.  However, if you want progress in things that are important, you must get tough.  I have had to say no to some opportunities recently because it would have hindered what I was trying to achieve strategically.  Learn that no is a positive way of keeping what’s important on track. 

When you [tag]incubate[/tag] the dreams of your heart does it fill you with excitement… does it fill you with joy?  Then ask yourself this question: is it worth trading what the fulfillment of that for temporary acknowledgment of others?  Think for a minute… when that person gets a promotion or goes onto fulfil the goal they have how will that benefit you?   That doesn’t mean that you don’t do it because it won’t help you but if it interferes it what you should be doing…then you are creating long term damage.  Remember, you can help others carry boulders for you and you can help them but a sensible [tag]balance[/tag] must be retained.    Part of coming into your own is spending quality time building your life vision day after day… minute after minute… second after second.   You can’t come into your own and do what you should if you are lifting boulders for others.

Special Thanks to Alex Blackwell who published this article earlier in the month as part of his series of ‘coming into your own’.

In the haziness of everyday affairs we often are blinded by [tag]perceptions[/tag], [tag]beliefs[/tag] and [tag]hidden assumptions[/tag]. I have been thinking lately about how much of my life is a [tag]problem[/tag] and how much of it I make a problem. What do I mean? Well consider for a moment that a lot of things we think are real [tag]problems[/tag] are actually not ‘real’ as such. They exist in our heads informing of us that which ‘troubles’ us. As British academic Professor Peter Checkland puts it: an area of concern is something we find to be problematic. Sounds real obvious hey? Think about it for a minute.

The problem of causality

What I have noticed is that people often fail to recognise the difference between how we can cause something to bother us and how others can interfere. Think for a moment about this scenario. You are driving home on the freeway and suddenly a man swerves in front of you nearly taking you out. You react by slamming on your brakes and quickly lose control of your vehicle smashing into a nearby concrete wall. That is a real problem. You have been effected by somebody else’s poor driving. Same scenariobut somebody looks like they are going to cut you off and you react because of what might happen but never actually does. Your thinking caused you to respond not really the other drivers actions… although they were the trigger. In this latter example you can see that often in problem solving situations the real problem is your perception of what might happen. A problem is therefore a perspective that is the difference between what we expect (our point of view) and what actually happens.

The problem of [tag]perceptions[/tag]

Perceptions are as real as reality itself. One might go so far to say that perceptions are reality. Hold on, I hear you say, what I perceive is actually real? No. That’s not what I mean. I mean this: what you perceive to be real becomes real by virtue of the fact that you have perceived it. When you understand or recognise a problem to you it’s real. The effects of it will be as real as if the wind blew the roof right off your house!

So what’s the real problem?

The real problem often is in your head. That’s right. You think something might happen and on the basis of that ‘reality’ you begin making decisions. I do this myself all the time. Ever thought of avoiding a social event because you might run into so and so and it would be a disaster only to go and find out it wasn’t. This kind of thing can get so intense that you begin seeing the pictures in your mind… day in and day out. You begin to imagine what might happen and sure enough before you know it you are making new plans to navigate around something that is deeply rooted in your mind.

Problems as perspectives

Problems are essentially ways of thinking (perspectives) that reside in our sub-conscious mental structure informing us of reality. You can begin to recognise them by asking yourself questions that expose them (I will talk about how to remove them in a later post). Things like: ‘Do I want to avoid the social event because it will be a disaster or because I am expecting it to be a disaster?’. See, we often build a reality to believe in just so we can make a place for the things we think are a problem.

I am going to end this post with a personal story. Before I started my present job I was warned about a member of staff by people I was hanging around with at the time. The people I was with told me that this person (called ‘Bob’ to protect the innocent) was not to be trusted and would rip me off. So believing what I was told I avoided them like the plague. However, I was assigned to work with Bob and found Bob to be helpful, courteous and nice. When I eventually told Bob what I was warned about… Bob told me she was worried about me because of the people I was hanging around! Essentially none of this was ‘real’ but it made for a ‘reality’ that become so real that two people were made to feel very uncomfortable and acted out of these beliefs. The real problem was the perspectives we had.

In closing today I want to encourage you to begin to look into your own life for limited perspectives. Once you see them… make a note of them and slowly begin to change the way you see things. I will write more on this so why not subscribe to my feed to see what I have in store. Thanks for reading!

I am moving house at the moment so I am strapped for time so I thought I would write a brief post on how I learn. I have spoken about this before here and also more specifically about learning here. How do we really learn things? Instead of writing a post about it I would like you to do this test.

I turned out to be a tactile/kinesthetic [tag]learner[/tag] which according to this test means and I quote, “You learn best when physically engaged in a “hands on” activity. In the classroom, you benefit from a lab setting where you can manipulate materials to learn new information. You learn best when you can be physically active in the learning environment. You benefit from instructors who encourage in-class demonstrations, “hands on” student learning experiences, and field work outside the classroom.”

For me, this wasn’t too suprised because I hate giving tutorials without a physical component. I often find ways to demonstrate ways of saying something by doing it. My earliest memory is of me pulling apart my bike just to see how it fit together. I think I was five. That memory makes me realise that I was always a ‘doing’ and then a ‘learning’ person which in some circumstances may be harmful. However, that’s the way I am wired up. What about you?

This test showed me some of my cognitive biases as well. As an academic I think my theories should work and be useful (I am into ‘action’ [tag]research[/tag]). If they aren’t then what’s the point? All of my research is geared up to ‘pragmatic’ philosophy which means I am constantly applying my ideas as a basis of their validity. I have plenty of opinions which I can’t validate yet most of what I believe I have experienced to be the case. Go ahead and take this test you might be surprised at the results.

Have you ever been stuck to come up with [tag]cool ideas[/tag]? Today I thought that it would be nice to share some of the things that have worked well for me over the past few years. So here goes: 4 ways to come up with cool ideas.

1. Write (journal) your ideas down

There is a lot to be said for the art of writing. One of the most helpful things I have found in coming up with cool ideas is to write about the topic and see what flows out of my pen. Now this is really the free flow of intuition coming out of your pen. I don’t really know why but writing is a really easy way to find new ideas. Try this: take a blank piece of paper (or open up an office document… open or MS variety for you lovers of Bill Gates) and simply start writing about the topic. Those of you who have experimented with journaling before will understand what I am talking about. This is a wonderful way to find new ideas. When you switch off your reasoning process and move to the right side of your brain you will begin to think in a creative manner. Writing stuff down is a great way to do this.

2. Build a mind map

Mind mapping for me is a fruitful activity. It’s helps to see your assumptions about an idea right there on the page. I have used many modelling techniques over the years but this one is the simplest and quite possibly one of the best (maybe with the except of rich picture building) techniques available. If you aren’t familiar with it I would recommend reading the wikipedia article. Remember though, you can make more than one and then compare your results. This is also very important!

3. Synthesise

This is the art of putting two old ideas together where it was previously thought impossible (roughly speaking). To synthesise means you take one idea and add others to it to see what results. The process of brainstorming is a good example of this. Of course synthesis is flawed because it relies on the premise that you can put two things together and there will be a good result. Clearly this is not so (consider the Pug?). However, sometimes the right amount of synthesis can be a good thing. Adding one idea to another can spark a revolution of creativity which leads to new perspectives not previously available. Try it!

4. Talking to yourself (meditation)

In the bible we find the term ‘meditation’ which I think really means talking to yourself or thinking out loud on one concept for an extended period of time and doing so from different angles. I am not sure why this is so but I have to admit when I talk to myself about a topic my [tag]creative processes[/tag] (I would argue intuitive processes) take over. Once I was stuck on a topic for a model I was building for one of my lectures on the Mobile Workforce. I began to think it through and talk about the concept from every possible angle when suddenly the idea spontaneously formed within me. The students in two classes responded so positively to it I believe most intuitive things are like this. We are often one good meditation session away from the answer!

Remember that when you are creating you are building things up from the inner you. Our minds prohibit this in general because of our capacity as humans to build overly large mental structures which form rules for us to live by. I think that when we engage in [tag]creativity[/tag] we are putting the logical process aside so we can create new things to build. That is, when we build things from the inside we are creating things for the outside. I honestly believe our educational processes set aside creativity and intuition as a second order concept. In a later article on faith I will develop this idea further. I hope you have enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing from you if you would like to add some techniques to the very short list I have here. Thanks for reading!

I am moving house at the moment and we finally got to see the place we are moving into today in full detail.  I have NEVER in my life moved into a house that was so filthy.  Normally, I wouldn’t blog about this kind of thing but I mean MY GOD!  The windows were dirty, the walls had black scuff marks on them, the oven was unclean and so I could go on.  Have you ever had this [tag]problem?[/tag]  Here are four reasons why shouldn’t do the same thing.

Remember the Golden Rule? 

Do unto others?  Why not think of the poor sucker who is going to move in after you.  How about them?  Now we have to clean the house just to make it habitable.  Why not buck current trends and scare somebody by doing something helpful.  I sure wish the person that came before me in my new house had done me this way… now that I have all this CLEANING to do!

A sense of personal respect

To me somebody who leaves a rental property in that kind of state (unless physically or mentally incapacitated) is saying, ‘you know what I couldn’t give a royal damn about whoever is coming after me.’  I see this kind of thinking on the road all the time.  Why do people compete for a space on the freeway?  Don’t you know that one day you will be DEAD and then where will you be rushing too?  Take you time and be courteous.   People who have no personal respect treat others the way they have been treated themselves.   Without recognising it we become the very thing we desire not to become by virtue of the fact that we are displaying the very behaviour we find so abhorrent in others.   So have some personal respect and do something you admire so others can likewise admire you.  Starting thinking about how you effect people’s lives and especially what you can do to make a positive difference… even if they never see you doing it!

All I have really said in this post is that you should display the behaviour that you yourself think you deserved to be treated with.  Now, this is a note to remind us in the world of business not to think that we must not have a different mindset when we rub shoulders with our colleagues.   Who you are on the field is who you are in life.  Don’t give me that, ‘yeah but this is business,’ poppycock … that means you choose to be an arrogant so and so who shelves his morals when convenient.  Don’t do this!  Be different by really [tag]being kind[/tag] and caring about those you know.  Why not frighten the hell of them by doing something out of the blue for someone you hate?  I am telling you this a really liberating way to live.

Really the golden rule could be put this way, ‘Do unto others what you think you deserve (or would like) done to you.  I think Jesus got this right!  Now, if you will excuse me I have packing and cleaning to do.