One Tool You Should Be Using...Thinking Out of the Box

One tool you should be using is "Thinking out of the Box".

When people say to you, "Think out of the box", what do they mean? They mean think in a way that you wouldn't normally think. Now, we human beings are creatures of habits. We love our comfort zones. It very often takes a crisis to push us out to try something new.

I have always found reading books to be a good way of encouraging myself to think out the box. Some years back, I read the book, Creating You & Co. by William Bridges. At the time I was reading this book, I had been an employee for about twelve years. In all that time I assumed that my employer owed me the obligation of providing me with a secure job once I fulfilled my own part by being a good employee. Everyone I knew, who had a job was looking forward to working till they attained the retirement age.  In this book, I was confronted with realities of the changing world of work. The buzz word then was re-engineering of businesses which very often resulted in down-sizing of the workforce. Bridges helped me to begin to think about my work in a different way. I began to think of myself as the CEO of Me and Co. and realised that I needed to take responsibility for the path that my career would take from then.

Roy H. Williams, the New York Times best-selling author of teh The Wizards of Ads Trilogy of books, published an article "Your Seat in the Stadium of Life". In this article, he said, 

"Your box is your perspective, your worldview, your schema - the sum of your life's experiences - your own personal set of assumptions. Like a seat in a stadium, your "box" determines the angle from which you view every game.

What people call "thinking outside the box" can be accomplished only by getting out of your seat and walking to an unfamiliar part of the stadium to borrow the seat of someone else.

Now you're seeing things from their view. You're still in a "box", but it's not your own. You've borrowed a new perspective so that you're seeing your problem through the eyes of another - according to their values and assumptions." Read more here...

A book that you choose to read, very often enables you to borrow someone else's seat in an unfamiliar part of the stadium of life and see life through their eyes. In the book, you have the opportunity of seeing how things will turn out if you choose paths of action that are different from what you are familiar with. The beautiful thing is that you see all this without having taken any step forward in any direction.

Since reading "You & Co.", I have read other books which have firther solidified my perception that my career in my business.

And now it's your turn. Which books have helped you to begin thinking out of the box?

I'm Staying With It...

One of the beautiful things about defining an objective and committing to it, especially publicly is that you never forget it or give up.

Source

It is now four months since i wrote and posted a blog entry. In all that time I have constantly thought of my commitment to write a weekly blog post, As desirous as I was of keeping my commitment, taking the needed action has been much harder than I initially thought it would be.

Looking back now, the truth was that I already had a very full schedule and if my blogging desire was going to truly take off and be consistent, something had to give. I couldn't be everything and do everything that I wanted to be. It was time to determine which of my many interests, I will have to let go.  And so I gave myself time to reevaluate my time commitments.

In the past couple of months, I have learnt how to say No to some things so I can say Yes to some other things.Most of the things I have had to say No to are good things. Being on a committee for a good cause, attending yet another social event...I am still in the process of making my life lighter...but as you can see, I am making progress. Evidence of my progress is my writing this post.

One thing I will not give up in this process of making my life lighter is reading books.

I have continued to read books. In my next post, I will tell you about "Miracle on the Hudson" by Chigozie Udmezue the book I am reading now.

Now what about you? What is that thing you have committed to doing and which hasn't taken off? Don't give up on it. Go back to your planner and make time for it in your schedule. It may take a while for you to get going. Stick with it.

I Won't Give Up...

Making a commitment involves dedicating yourself to something, like a person or a cause. 

A commitment obligates you to do something.

Making a commitment is a good thing. Once you define an objective and make a commitment to achieve it, the commitment holds the objective constantly before you. I am learning the benefits of making a commitment. It is a little over eleven weeks now since I posted my last blog entry. In these eleven weeks, I constantly remembered my two commitments:

• To write a blog post every week; and
• To read for 15 minutes every day

I kept the commitment to read for 15 minutes a day. In fact because I already have a love for reading, I read for more than fifteen minutes each day. I have since completed the book, Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married by Gary Chapman and started to read "Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships" by Chip Ingram. However, I still struggle to read at regular times.

Writing a weekly the blog post has been a tougher nut to crack. Eleven weeks have gone by without a blog post. Did I just forget my commitment? Not really. Every day, I remembered it. Yet each week went by, without a blog post. I am slowly recognising that when I make a commitment, I need to make space for it in my schedule of things to do. For writing the blog, I need to make time for thinking about what to write. I need to also make time for writing the entry and posting it. And so I am at my desk resuming work on something that I have committed to do.

I'm glad I made a public commitment. It has kept me accountable. I thank you, my friends, who have inquired from time to time, about when you'll see my next post. Here it is...

The next couple of weeks will show me whether I am mastering the lesson I am learning about making space in my schedule of things to do for the commitments that I have made.

Now its your turn. What commitments have you made in recent times. How are you doing with keeping them?

Discovering Myself...

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” ~Henry David Thoreau

A few months back, I decided to write a blog post every week. My commitment was public and because I pride myself as one who keeps her word, I have since then kept that commitment in my face. At first, it was a struggle to even remember to put writing the blog post in my weekly schedule. And when I did remember, it was yet another struggle to write it. I chose to keep my commitment.

My blog was to share my journey as I build my life by learning from books. I am not sure there is any time in my life that I am not reading a book. I always have a pile of books beside  my bed. I do not leave my home without a book in my handbag so that if I find myself waiting somewhere I have something to read. I will rather read a book than watch TV. So I felt blogging about my journey with books will be a breeze. Alas!!! That has not been the case.

In these few months, I have discovered a few things about myself. One discovery that has surprised me is this: Though I have read portions of very many books, I have completed only very few. And so I know bits about many subjects because I have skimmed many books, but I am not sure I can have a rich conversation about these books and their content.

Do I hear you say, "What does it matter?" I ask myself the same question.

Prior to blogging, I would have responded that it does not matter. However, the goal of my blog is to encourage others to develop a reading habit and enjoy books. To do that I have to read books to and not just skim through them.

Last week, I made another public commitment. I decided to start a 15 Minute A Day Reading Challenge from today August 1. I will choose a book, read it for 15 minutes each day, and stick with the same book until I complete it. All through this week, I have struggled with the choice of which of my many books, I should read. I have concluded that it doesn't matter which book I choose. What matters is that I stick to the plan. Arriving at that conclusion made it easy for me to write today's post.

And so starting from today, I will read from from 6pm to 6.15pm every day. My first book is Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married by Gary Chapman.  If I read for just 15 minutes a day - every day, for one year - I can complete 20 books! I am excited, just thinking about it.

Hmmmmmmnnn! I set out to write one blog post a week. I am steadily approaching the achievement of that goal. But look! See what I am becoming by achieving my goal.

What goals have you set for yourself? What are you becoming by achieving that goal?

I'm at the Starting Block...

There is no elevator to success…you have to take the stairs. - Zig Ziglar

With an elevator, you can close your eyes and be taken up to a higher level. With taking the staircase, you have to focus on where you are going, you have to exert yourself to get to the higher level .

Last week, I renewed my commitment to read for 15 minutes everyday. Start date for implementation is August 1.  In preparation for taking action on this commitment, I have all of this week been looking at my activities plan with a view to choosing the specific 15 minutes of the day in which I will read.

Its amazing how very cluttered my life is that to find just 15 minutes to spare is tough. However, because my decision is public and because I like to be accountable, I have not given up on finding the time to read for 15 minutes daily. I realise now, that it is good that there is some time lag between when I made the commitment and when I am to start its implementation. The last one week and the remaining days of the month of July are affording me the privilege of thinking through my commitment and how best to implement it. If I were to have implemented the decision last week when I made it, I probably would have given up by now. I hear you asking me "Why?"

I'd have given up, because, I had not yet answered some important questions that are critical to helping me achieve the goal. Some of these are:

1. Which time of the day was I considering?

2. How would my current daily activity plan be affected by using this time differently?

3. What adjustments do I need to make to accommodate the expected changes?

4. Which book do I want to start with?

Not having answers to these questions meant that I was already falling down right from the starting block. I have learnt an important lesson. When I set a goal, that is just the first step. My current activity plan will require some adjustment to accommodate the steps that I will take in order to achieve the goal.  I need to ask and answer the questions:

• What are the small steps that will help me to achieve the goal? 
• How would my current daily activity plan be affected by implementing these steps? 
• What adjustments do I need to make to my present activity plan?

I have chosen two 15 minutes segment in my day for reading my book daily one in the morning and one in the evening. I chose two so that regardless of the pressures on my time, at the worst, I'll have 15 minutes daily, at best, I'll have 30 minutes daily.

If I read just 15 minutes a day - every day, for one year - I can complete 20 books! I am excited just thinking about it. 

Will it be easy? I'm not kidding myself that it will. But  I will give it my best effort. 

Will you join me in the 15 Minutes a Day Reading Challenge? Click here to find out more about it. Let me know in the comment box if you're accepting my invitation.

I'm Taking My Own Advice...

Advice is very easy to give to others but quite tough to implement in one's own life.

As a bookstore owner and a lover of books, I very often dish out advice to others with a view to encouraging them to give time to read good books. In 2013, I read a blog post on Lifelong Learning by Jen Harris and learnt that:

• If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world!
• If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on that subject!
• If you read just 15 minutes a day — every day, for one year — you can complete 20 books!

Based on this discovery, on Hidden Treasures Bookstore's Facebook page, we invited our fans to  join our 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Here's how the challenge worked. Participants were to:

1. Choose a book to start with and get the book;

2. Choose a specific time in the day when they'll read the book EVERY day for 15 minutes, e.g.     6.00 - 6.15pm;

3. Start reading the book every day at the scheduled time;

4. When they finished reading the first book, take a second book and repeat the cycle;

5. Share their experiences (if they like) with us on our Facebook page as they go on this journey;

6. Invite their friends to do the same.

Since I resumed blogging about my experience reading books, I have done some self assessment and found that I have not taken my own advice. I haven't put in my daily schedule time for reading as advised in the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Invariably, my desire to read regularly is not realised as other activities overwhelm any efforts I make to fulfil that desire.

The time has come for me to take my own advice. I really do want to share my experience about reading books. To do that I have to read books on a regular basis. So I have come to the place of a new commitment. I commit from August 1, 2014 to take the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge.

I invite you to join me in this challenge.  Let me know in the comment box, if you're accepting my invitation.

I Choose To Be Accountable...

An accountability partner is someone who you trust to hold you to the standards that you set for yourself. As stated in the quote by Bob Proctor in the graphic below, "Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results."

Keeping a commitment to friends is difficult. You really want to be seen as a person of your words. And yet when the going gets tough, you have a reason that you think is good enough to explain why you have not kept the commitment you made to them. What can your friends do? They accept your explanation. Those who hold you accountable listen to your explanations, but, remind you not indulge yourself in excuses.

Last week, I didn't write a post for my blog. A number of my friends checked in with me to find out why. They reminded me that I had requested them to keep me accountable in writing posts for my blog. I am grateful to them that they did. It set me thinking about the commitment I made to you my readers that I will write one post every week. I realised that ultimately keeping a commiment to others begins with keeping a promise to yourself.

And so, this week I choose to keep the promise to myself and then to you.

As I searched within myself to find out why I was not writing my blog posts., I admitted to myself, that in some way, I expect the post to write itself. I hear you asking, "How do you mean?" One I'd written a post and published it, I went merrily on my way and I didn't give the blog another thought until it was time to publish another one. Of course, it's not so easy to think up a subject, develop it and then write a post in the twinkling of an eye. So, I'd struggle with it and when I make no headway, I'll then say to myself, perhaps I'll just leave it off till the next week. I see now what may have led to my blog going comatose in my earlier attempts.

I am learning that I need to think ahead. I need to choose the subjects I'll write about well ahead. I need to include in my schedule, time to develop my thoughts and time to write my posts.

You my friends are doing a good job of holding me accountable. Now I need to show by the provision I make in my weekly plan that I intend to keep my commitment, first to myself and then to you all. That I will do.

Now is there some way I can reciprocate the favour you have done to me of keeping me accountable? Let me know......