Being Point

Tag: patterns

  • How Would You Assess Your Ability To Use Hindsight In Favorable And Useful Ways?

    The benefits of hindsight have generally to do with learning from mistakes and the purported ability to develop complete understanding (as in 20-20 hindsight) of the past.

    What happens if we’re wearing less than perfect “lenses” as we review the past? I’ve known many people who carry what I call a “cup of worry” that needs to be filled up anytime its level goes down. The phrase “it’s always something” applies to this world view.

    To the extent that we view the past from, for example, the habitual perspective of being a victim of circumstances, or not having sufficient understanding, or a feeling that “that’s just my luck”: all of those “lenses” of hindsight will be guaranteed to bring us down.

    How would you assess your ability to use hindsight in favorable and useful ways? Are you closer to 20-20, or has your hindsight been negatively impacted by patterns of understanding the world? Where did you learn those patterns?

    What steps can you take to more consistently learn well from the past? How can the history that you are assessing be used to your advantage? Have you noticed that your ability to learn from the past has improved or diminished over the last few years?

  • What Do You Have To Learn From How You Handle Wake-Up Calls?

    Wake-up calls, of course, occur not just for individuals, but for every kind of human organization: families, teams, companies, institutions, governments – even countries and perhaps for the entire human population.

    A wake-up call is a warning that something more dire could happen – like hearing your tires hit the raised bumps on the freeway edge when you go over the line.

    Maybe you’re beginning to dose, but those bumps awake you – presumably to continue driving forward fully alert – or to pull over and rest – or take corrective action.

    Are you a person who heeds those calls? Has your pattern been to ignore them or to pay close attention?

    What do you have to learn from how you handle wake-up calls?

  • Reading Historical Fiction And History For Pleasure

    For those readers expanding beyond reading novels, biographies and historical fiction are hits among our readers. It’s useful to read outside the genre that you normally read so that you can broaden your experience.

    Hearty thanks to the readers who wrote in!!! Here are some of their replies to questions about biographies and historical fiction:

    “I also LOVE historical fiction. When The Tudors series first came on TV, I became fascinated with that period of English history and began reading all of Philippa Gregory’s novels about Henry XIII, his reign, his wives, his heirs and the entire Tudor and Elizabethan periods.”

    “Her books, on which the series was based, are steamy page turners (some are better than others) but to your point, I learned so much about the history that I was able to justify reading and enjoying them. They transported me to another time and were great escape fiction. Some of the titles are (if I can remember): The Constant Princess (about Katherine of Aragon) The Virgin’s Lover, The Queen’s Fool, and The Bolyen Inheritance.”

    AND

    “I also read a great many biographies when I was younger. You’re the first person besides me I have heard say that! I read just about everyone I got my hands on, so the list is long and actually a lot were autobiographies. Isak Dinesen, David Niven & Hildegard Neff come to mind.”

    “One of the best things I learned from this reading is to persist. Over and over you see the pattern that people who become famous (perhaps mostly in the arts which was what I read about) succeed because they ‘would not take no for an answer,’ because they did ‘not know how to do anything else,’ and because they ‘ignored all the people who told them to give up on their dreams.’ Well, I think these things work, personally.”

    Please share your favorite biographies and books about history with the group. What have you learned from this kind of reading outside of business and self-improvement reading?

  • Starting Over From Things Beyond Our Control

    In law, events beyond our control are called “acts of God” or “force majeure.” Working with our topic of starting over, we considered the topic generally . . . then how we can start over ourselves . . . and how we can allow others to start over.

    So, today: what about those pesky circumstances beyond our control? And their “first cousins,” the decisions we made long ago that may have continued to “haunt” us to the present. Decisions made by others that have impacted our lives, as we perceive it, negatively. All of these are fuel for lingering regret and remorse if not fully processed.

    Starting over means releasing those events, decisions and dynamics. They have already occurred. We can’t un-do the past, but we can start over and assess where we are as regarding these issues.

    Today would be an excellent day to put to rest all concern for things that already happened . . . especially long ago . . . so that the day is open to joy. They’re already gone. Start over today!

    We want to be able to have a long list at the end of day when we ask, “What brought me joy today?”

    Releasing old events, patterns and decisions increases joy . . . AND . . . remember, starting over is a strategic advantage in manifesting the results that you want today!

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.