Archive - Feb 2008

Apologies for the delayed post - I've been out of town on personal and business trips, I'm preparing for up-coming workshops and one-on-one work, plus continuing my switch to the Mac (!), so a short post this week.

A few blasts from the past

For my new readers, here are a few past posts you may not have seen:

• Using "Follow the energy" to refine your personal development experiments
  
• Use Gmail's "star" to highlight your good news
  
• Living in the moment, preventing regret, and appreciating life
  
• Camera Phones and Ten Cent Augmented Reality
  
• Photo Blogs, Wikis, and Memories for Life

I'd like to tell you about three phrases you and I use that actually mean the opposite, and, when used improperly, hurt productivity and weaken your mind (Gasp!) Fear not, I'll also share the only times they are OK to use. And I'll start with a biggie.

"Let me think about it"

This is a classic in being indecisive. Situation: Have you ever been asked for something or had an offer made to you and you answered "Let me think about it"? Typically what this answer really means is "The answer is no, but I don't want to disappoint you so I'm going to pretend to think about it." Implied in this is "...and I hope you forget to bring it up again." Nasty!

In this case, you're is using the phrase as a crutch, and it has a cost:

1. It's going to dog you until it's resolved.
   
2. You're misleading someone and wasting their time; it's disrespectful.

One of the personal changes I was surprised by when adopting David Allen's work was how relatively efforlessly I lost 15 pounds [1]. In my case a simple engineering-based approach worked: Calories in < average calories burned. But keeping it off can be a challenge. What helped a lot was my wife's adopting the Weight Watcher's ("WW" from here on) program [2], which not only opened my eyes to how I thought about eating, but also kicked off some thinking about how WW and GTD are very much alike.