Wanna Change Someone's Mind? Better NOT Argue!

 

WANNA CHANGE SOMEONE'S MIND?  These days WHEN every gap, every disconnect and every misunderstanding may sometimes end up in an argument [sometimes known as CLASH OF TITANS], it tends to be like a battle for that moral high ground.  Psychologists tried to debug this issue and find a modus vivendi and the sage advice is:  DON'T ARGUE.  Instead, to disarm the other party, INVITE that person for a healthy interchange and initially, self-commit yourself to spend more time LISTENING than talking💚💛💜

Philosophically, experts say that in the middle of arguments, it is NOT far fetched that one of the variables is related to one's beliefs and WHEN beliefs get into the equation, they claim that beliefs tend to be tied up to one's identity, emotion, and even persona.  And in almost all interchanges that eventually escalate into a full-blown clash, people will tend to cling to their respective viewpoints [NO MATTER WHAT]❎❎❎

UNTIL that full-blown argument evolves and escalates to a full-fledged no holds barred confrontation that often backfires because the moment one of the protagonists feels judged [WHETHER prematurely OR not], that party will simply go on 'auto shutdown' mode, hearing and listening NADA and NOTHING.  HOW do we wiggle out of that impasse?  Experts advise that we can lead them into that PATH OF CURIOSITY.  HOW? Ask politely and calmly WHO OR WHERE was his source of that information OR data😌😌😌

In a subtle approach, let's try to reflect their concerns BACK TO THEM, hoping that we can dissect and mine 'shared values' before you start offering your own perspective.  YESsirrrrrs, this is NOT about backing down OR compromising your own principles.  Instead, this is all about creating enough trust for someone to even consider shifting theirs.  BUT human nature tells us that as much as you CAN'T fire with fire OR venom versus poison, WHEN we are in a standoff that still remains civil, this is all about figuring out WHAT OR WHERE is the chink in his armour😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  Almost everyone is pitching [including the late Steve Jobs WHEN he launched iTunes for Windows] that arguments all boil down to persuasion and persuasion itself is never about charisma OR authority BUT more on the 'sequencing' of our approach to reach for 'common ground'.  There's that common pitfall, though, WHEN both protagonists never ever hoped to reached a 'common ground' because both parties are so glued to that 'LAST MAN STANDING' mindset WHICH then leads arguments to turn its ugly head. So, WANNA CHANGE SOMEONE'S MIND?  Better NOT Argue, not so fast!!! 

Fewer CHOICES, More HAPPINESS?

 

Fewer CHOICES, MORE HAPPINESS?  I really think so.  We DON'T need to look far away.  Let's relook at our very own selves.  If you step into any of those 7-Eleven, Lawson OR Family Mart convenience stores, do you remember if you spent like half an hour just to buy a specific item?  If I have to bet, one's average total clocktime in the convenience stores will be around 5 to 10 minutes.  Except probably WHEN during our 2-week holiday in Japan WHERE we were awed [and floored, maybe] by the one too many choices of foodies, chocolates and even drinks in most of their branches.  In fact, we always ended up like shopping right then and there.  BUT would you agree, FEWER CHOICES equates to MORE HAPPINESS??? 

In our world WHERE options abound, many assume that more choice equates to more freedom and therefore greater happiness.  Many recent researches increasingly suggests that the opposite may be true.  Fewer choices can actually lead us to a more content and satisfying life.  There's this counterintuitive idea coined by psychologists as the PARADOX OF CHOICE, it was explained that WHEN people are faced with one too many options, we tend to experience greater anxiety that even leads to that so called 'decision fatigue' and eventually regret.  WHILE having some choice is undoubtedly empowering, having too much choice can be mentally exhausting and paralyzing💥💥💥

A lot lab-based studies dissected into that puzzle as to HOW one too many choices can somehow undermine our happiness.  And the conclusion is that WHEN individual are forced to make multiple decisions in a day [LIKE WHAT to wear, WHAT to eat, WHAT to buy], their cognitive resources get depleted.  Ironically, the common conclusion amongst all those studies is that having fewer choices help preserve our mental energy for the decisions that really matter.  Here's some tidbits of information about the late Apples founder Steve Jobs as to WHY he wore the same outfit every day.  NOT out of laziness BUT to minimize trivial decisions and reduce cognitive load.  And another downside of excess choices is our 'post-decision' regret WHEREIN WHEN we have too many choices, we're more likely to imagine that a different choice might have been better.  That 'WHAT IF' mindset erodes our satisfaction.  WHETHER choosing a new smart phone, a car OR even a meal, the more alternatives we consider, the less confident we feel in our decision💚💛💜

Psychologists coined this unique tagging people WHO strive to make the best possible choice as "MAXIMIZERS" as they are easily most prone to this kind of regret and are often less happy overall than "SATISFICERS", WHO are content with a 'good enough' choice.  Simplifying our choices DOESN'T mean giving up our hard-earned freedom to choose.  Rather, it means, being selective about WHERE we devote our decision-making energy.  Practices like spiritual retreats OR minimalist living intentionally reduce our daily choices LIKE WHAT to eat OR do, thus freeing up significant mental space for deeper thought, creativity and even our emotional well-being.  True, small adjustments will go a long way to help.  LIKE if we try going for a 'choice diet', that limits our decision-making in areas of low importance LIKE WHAT to have for lunch OR WHICH brand of toothpaste to buy😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  I always believe in striking that 'right balance' in our decision-making, WITHOUT depriving us OR curtailing our freedom of choices BUT at the same time, WITHOUT pushing us into that involuntary 'analysis-paralysis' dilemma because in today's  hyper-choice culture, happiness may NOT lie in having more options BUT in having just enough and in being confident enough to choose without looking back.  And by simplying our decisions, we can then focus on WHAT truly matters and live more purposefully and achieve that mother of all bottomlines WHICH is HAPPINESS😊😊😊

Cheering, CHECK! Yelling is 'X''

 

Mr AI says that CHEERING in life encompasses both encouraging others and finding ways to uplift yourself [especially during challenging times].  BUT no sirrrrrrs, we WON'T spend time about CHEERING but slightly veer to that loud and rowdy YELLINGS we sometimes bear witness in our interactions.  It's true at some point in our life, we did end up YELLING BUT I believe everyone will agree that YELLING is NOT healthy for any relationship NOR is it a great way to yield any healthy OR productive results.  Good grief, psychologists advise that there are 'cheat codes' we can consider.  LIKE WHEN someone is YELLING, we should stay calm during that moment BUT it's more than that📗📙📘

Experts tell us that WHEN someone is YELLING, they are manifesting an attempt to emotionally rule over you with the end intent of gaining the upper hand in a situation.  In short, YELLING is their means to gain control over you.  In one word, it is intimidation no less.  BUT you might wonder WHY many end up that way?  It's because it yields results for them BUT only in the short-term though💥💥💥

Experts advise us to consider two critical points WHEN someone is YELLING on us:

• Understand the reason behind it
• Be cautious HOW you react to it

One misstep, and that could ignite a bigger fire than WHAT you have at hand WHILE the right approach can help to diffuse things, rather end up escalating the situation❌❌❌

BUT the bigger question is, HOW sure we're NOT escalating things?  Let's pick the brains of experts:

• DON'T mirror that rude behavior of others.  Let's learn the art remaining calm.  IF we react, surely they will react to our reaction and things will likely escalate
• Take a STEP BACK.  Pausing allows us to assess and figure out WHETHER it's worth waiting out that yeller
• DON'T as in DON'T AGREE WHEN you are YELLED.  Doing so means you succumbed to that YELLING
• Regardless of the situation OR problem, let the person know that you will NEVER accept being YELLED
• TAKE A BREAK to collect yourself and that's it

Our takeaway:  Sometimes, pausing can be challenging in a world WHERE things move so fast around us.  HOW I did it sometime in the past.  In those tense and stressful times, WHAT I'll do was scribble things out in a piece of paper as I thought that writing did provide me a distance between myself and my emotions.  Just a few of degrees of separation can be extremely beneficial to our mental health.  And that distance will provide us the opportunity to consider the emotion rather than acting on it immediately.  It also allows us to express ourselves safely without feeling the repercussions OR consequences.  Bottom line, if you're at the receiving end of YELLING, just DON'T stoop down to that very 'gutter level' dude😡😡😡

When Intellects Collide.....

WHO says intellectual discourse is damn boring?  I beg to disagree, so I'm sharing this Quora.com post by Alessandro:  American physicist Robert Williams Wood was on trial for 'beating the RED light'.  And he defended himself by claiming that the RED  traffic light appeared GREEN to him because of the relativistic "DOPPLER EFFECT".  Struck by the physicist's scientific explanation, the judge was about to acquit him when, suddenly, a young man intervened. With the intent of demolishing the physicist's statement, the young man offered to calculate the speed at which a driver would have to travel for a red light to appear green to him.  The judge accepted the young man's proposal and after the latter had finished his calculation, carried out with cold calm, changed the penalty for violation of the traffic code from 'for having gone through a RED light for having exceeded the maximum speed limit instead📗📙📘

The young man smiled ironically in the direction of Wood who, a few days earlier, in his capacity as a professor, had failed him in the physics exam.  This reminds me of that age-old cliche:  TIT for TAT.  Stone me and i'll stone you.  BUT WHAT I heard many times is that silence can be that deafening.  THAT is, if you are more quiet, the better control you have in life💚💛💜

Corollary to this, I often heard this one-liner as well:  LISTEN MORE, SPEAK LESS.  In the most practical terms, the less we speak, very obviously the lesser are the chances of us ending up uttering something 'stupid' OR just off-track.  Moreover, like it OR not, you may come out OR stand up as someone WHO is intellectually upright.  Net result, there is that high likelihood of people eager to hear WHAT you want to say.  WHAT an irony, right???

If there's one gaping hole most educational and academic systems share in common, most of their curricula are focused on the subjects and technical aspects BUT HOW often do we hear subjects that are focused on PEOPLE SKILLS, on SOFT SKILLS?  The irony here is that 90% of the time, we will be dealing with people and even getting into loggerheads with some of them is sometimes inevitable and this is WHERE our conflict resolution skills get into the picture.  BUT there's even a preemptive way and countermeasure to 'nip in the bud' potentially brewing conflicts😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  One lesson that gets refrained over and over again is DON'T BURN BRIDGES but WHAT gets missed here is the need to value every contact we make in life.  Even as we speak now, everytime I call the hotline, regardless IF it's my banker OR my favorite pizza delivery, first things first, I would inquire on the name at the other end of the line.  Regardless of intellect, WHAT we need to harness and enhance is our relationship-building and sustaining the gains.  We DON'T want to wait WHEN INTELLECTS COLLIDE, right dude???

Trueness, If We're On Time, We're Late!

 

NOT because I ran out of possible thread topics BUT I'll admit I miss talking about this [as it was my favorite one-liner zillion times for the past zillion years @ our workplace].  Working in a Japanese-centric organization for close to fourteen years was very memorable in the sense that I personally gained a lot of insights and lessons from a Japan perspective, one of WHICH is time management, unmatched anywhere else in the world💚💛💜

Sadly, PUNCTUALITY is one of the least talked about victims of our instantly connected world.  And someone tells me that there has been a marked improvement in PUNCTUALITY after we got hit by the Covid-19 Pandemic?  Nooooo sirrrrrs.  I have all the facts to prove that instead of improving, things turned from bad to worse. HOW and WHY?  If during the pre-pandemic, meeting attendees will step into the meeting room JIT [just in time], in those Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls, attendees expect magic and miracles because it's a remote call!@#$%?

You'll be surprised, despite the remote setting of those virtual calls, joiners will end up miserably late for multiple frustrating reasons LIKE:

• The device camera OR audio OR both are not working?
• MS Teams is asking HOW the caller wants to join?
• GoogleMeet program starts to update by then?
• Zoom Call credentials is incorrect OR invalid?

Funny, I did even witness some attendees dressed to the 'T' up front BUT unconscious that the camera is turned ON, in the end, revealing a NOT so 'ethical' attire 'down below

The ramifications of the decline of these most basic best practices is regretful to say the least.  The death of proper grammar has been bemoaned for years as the shorthand of tweens texting has now moved onto Twitter.  The decline of our face to face interactions have been documented and mourned as people now prefer to sit at the dinner table and tweet about the people they're with instead of being with the people they're with😄😄😄

Our takeaway:  It just adds up to our sadness that the decline and deprioritization of PUNCTUALITY has become the 'silent victim' that I, and many others operating on HST [a.k.a. Hustle Standard Time] are most acutely aware of.  Little-little lessons here that can have serious ramifications and 'domino effect' in our lives is that much as we value our time immensely and want to show respect for other's time as well as it is the only possession that we have and will never get back once it's gone.  Trueness, IF WE'RE ON TIME, WE'RE LATE!@#$%

Is Dopamine Our Ally Or Nemesis?

 

For the longest time, multiple studies resulted in the same conclusion with regard the chemistry of our brain largely influences our own personality and emotions.  A most recent study added icing to the cake WHEN it found out that one personality trait in us humans is HOW sensitive amd responsive we are to incentives and rewards.  Dude, I'll be the first to raise my hand and scream 'AYE' because without doing a lookup into the lives of any one else, I just need to look deep inside me.  And I'll admit that zillions of times, incentives and rewards that were either tossed OR offered to me like carrots really triggered my 'spikes' and I'm cocksure that is exactly WHAT's been happening to almost anyone of us [except for outliers if there is some underlying 'disorder']📗📙📘

So, is DOPAMINE OUR ALLY OR NEMESIS? Apologies BUT till now, this is hotly debated by researchers because experts claim that some of us are motivated by signals of that 'incentive-reward' stuff and end up pursuing goals WHILE others are NOT.  The reason for that difference?  They argue that it is related to different levels of our responsiveness to DOPAMINE , one of those chemical substances that transmits nerve impulses through our brain💥💥💥

Doing a lookup in recent experiments on us humans, experts have concluded that DOPAMINE is strongly related to the trait some researches coined as "EXTRAVERSION" BUT since then, they translated it for a better appreciation of us layment by tagging it as 'positive emotionality'.  Same studies showed that the higher the level of DOPAMINE or the more responsive our brain is to DOPAMINE, the more likely a person is to be sensitive to incentives and rewards💚💛💜

To convince the doubters, the researchers tell us that the higher our level of DOPAMINE, OR the more responsive our brain is to DOPAMINE, the more likely we will be vulnerable and sensitive to incentives and rewards.  I CAN'T agree less with this.  I have NOT only witnessed these in the one too many competitive sports BUT I'd just like to get back as to how I did succumb to those incentives and rewards WHEN I was offered it many times💧💧💧

Our takeaway:  NOT to spoil things, we got to be wary [if NOT worry] with CHEAP DOPAMINE as it can 'pull our standards' to the lowest'. Imagine if your productivity OR performance OR positivities in life would consistently shoot up and spike each time incentives and rewards are dangled on you!@#$%  It's kind of saying, the more we look for instant fixes, the more we tend to lower our standards to DOPAMINE.  Mind you, there is distraction everywhere.  BUT is that distraction so powerful that we end up letting it take control of our life?  It's like we wake up every morning to live our life on that dreaded default mode  WHERE you DON'T make decisions and instead, you end up influenced to make decisions.  So, is DOPAMINE OUR ALLY OR NEMESIS?  Dude, it's HOW you manage it every step of the way😊😊😊

Forgiving Versus Forgetting

 

One of the centuries-old debate that has hardly died down is that thing WHETHER FORGIVING IS FORGETTING?  And ironically, I did bear witness [first hand at that] peace and calmness that suddenly snowballs into an altercation and later into a full-blown quarrel and conflict.  And digging the very root of that full-blown conflict apparently reflected a historical note WHEREIN in the past, there was a shortfall [call it a fault OR shortcoming] from someone and somehow the olive branch was offered and both protagonists amicably agreed to just close that unfortunate chapter for them to move on.  Until one day that 'ticking time bomb' explodes again in their face!@#$%?

BUT for now, let's attack the bull by its horn.  Is FORGIVING really FORGETTING?  Trying to forget WHAT happened and simply wiping the slate clean?  BUT does that really work for us humans?  OR WHEN forgiving ourselves?  True, WHILE it's always important to FORGIVE, it does NOT always mean that we have to act AS IF nothing happened in the past, NO sirrrrs because FORGIVENESS DOESN'T require the removal of those consequences OR denying that trust was broken💚💜💛

And at times, maybe for the sake of our mental health, that FORGIVENESS process has to happen without pursuing reconciliation with the wrongdoer.  In short, it's playing a super delicate balancing act, navigating and wading through perilous and dangerous waters WHERE a slight tilt of the boat can capsize it outright.  Multiple researches show that FORGIVENESS allows our memories to remain intact as those of someone WHO HASN'T forgotten and only our suffering in the present changes.  And that all the difference is in the feeling that those memories bring about at a time of retrieval.  Ironically, WHAT shocked researchers is that people WHO did FORGIVE [even in good faith] were able to recall all the details of that past event that cause a past conflict as clearly as those WHO DIDN'T forgive [and that includes their emotional pain at that point in time]💧💧💧

As another one-liner goes very much in parallel to our FORGIVING versus FORGETTING conundrum, many elders would give us the sage advice that wounds do heal and that's 10000% true and correct.  BUT hey dude, more often, SCARS remain and likely it will remain therein for quite sometime.  Parallel to our thread today, all these researches suggest that FORGIVING cannot be equated to FORGETTING at all.  Instead, we need to change our emotional relationship to WHAT happened, allowing us to recall our past hurt and WHO'S responsible without harming our own well-being.  this could have important implications for those WHO might want to FORGIVE but are afraid it will impact them❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  In conclusion, almost all researches sing the same tune, that is, WHEN we FORGIVE, we change our judgment of WHAT happened during the wrongdoing BUT we still consider the people that wronged us as being culpable and therefore morally responsible for WHAT happened to us.  There's that human frailty dude.  Another reason we SHOULDN'T conclude that people might NOT always feel more benevolent after FORGIVING is that the transgressions may NOT be as severe as in other contexts like war OR genocide BUT if there's a streak of light here, is that FORGIVENESS can be cultivated after all BUT both protagonists should do it in good faith, and preferably in cadence😊😊😊

When Do We Pull The Brakes?

 

As everyone says, LIFE is never a straight line.  Even the roads and freeways in the First World have its own zigs and zags.  BUT that's NOT our thread today.  WHAT intrigues me is this question:  WHEN do we grind to a halt?  WHEN do we stop?  WHEN do we pull the brakes?  WHEN do we hold up things?  As long as it DOESN'T mean quitting, then, either of those scenarios may give us the tell-tale signs that it could be time to let go of something in order to focus on other things or tasks that are more important💧💧💧

BUT as we often heard, much as we live in a very challenging world, we should always be part of the solution and NOT the problem itself.  At some points in our life, we could have that feeling that's overwhelming, WHEN we're unable to handle everything on our plate.  Imagine those points WHEN we kind of considering just giving up.  Problem is, by nature, almost everyone of us perceive quitting [OR at least stopping for a moment] in a rock solid negative light.  HOW many times we've heard this rah-rah one-liner:  A WINNER NEVER QUITS.   A QUITTER NEVER WINS.  Yes I get it.  That notion has kept me involved in things for way longer than I should have been many more times💥💥💥

BUT, here's something that can give us that shot in the arm, and more than just a sigh of relief.  Sometimes, stopping OR quitting is the first step to us finding a new and better path and ending our burnout.  BUT the thing is, where possible, we should NEVER wait WHEN our back is that against the wall.  LIKE WHEN your task seems to have taken over your entire life?  If it has become all-consuming to the point that it is impacting other areas in your life, then that's a wake-up call📗📙📘

LIKE WHEN your goal DOESN'T seem to align with your values?  Then that's a problem, right?  If our objectives DON'T align with our principles, stopping OR quitting is an option.  YES, we can fool ourselves for a time BUT our actions will eventually collide and clash with our own ethics and values.  True, your outcome will decline and then you will never feel satisfied OR content.  BUT if your goals you've set AREN'T in line with WHO you are, it's time to abandon them in favor of a new version that reflects WHO you truly are💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  Of all tell-tale signs that makes me concerned, LIKE WHEN we DON'T feel happy.  And if the frequency of that unhappiness worsens.  In that case, there's a chance that WHAT you're doing something may need to come to an end.  True, it mighe be an unfulfilling objective, profession OR relationship.  And once you figure out WHAT it is, you'll probably feel better as soon as you give up.  WHY end up sacrificing our health, OR worse, our life for an activity OR endeavor that's worth threading out.  YES, after all is said and done, stopping OR quitting just in time may make you better off compared to quitting WHEN your house of cards has collapsed😡😡😡

Turning Setbacks Into Comebacks!

 

WHO wants SETBACKS?  Of course, there are NO takers for SETBACKS.  BUT hey, a SETBACK is neither a stigma nor a plague.  If you ask me, I'll swear I had one too many SETBACKS in the past.  And those SETBACKS floored me, knocked the wind out of me at times.  Lo and behold, I'm still very much a survivor and I'll humbly admit that I'm NOT less motivated OR less encouraged even in the aftermath of those SETBACKS.  Surprised?  Ooops better NOT because it's NOT me alone.  A huge throng will stand up much better than me and proudly declare that they became much more motivated to rise up after those SETBACKS📗📙📘

Let's admit it.  We will be hard pressed to find someone in life WHO has only had an upward trajectory.  In fact, most of us have had times WHEN we've been up, times WHEN we've been down, and times WHEN we WEREN'T quite sure if we were up OR down OR maybe we just felt we were in an uncomfortable situation OR circumstances.  BUT again, life's experiences come in all iterations and different shapes and sizes💚💛💜

And many times, those outlier of an experience may look OR sound awful lot like FAILURE either in our own personal OR professional life.  WHAT it's taught me through the years is that it's NOT the size of the FAILURE that counts BUT instead, it is HOW we did manage and handle the situation.  Do we let that SETBACK defeat us entirely and even thwart our own desire to recover and even succeed ever again?  Some folks might BUT I'll be up front WHY using our personal SETBACKS to our own benefit is the best way to go.  Any other course of action other than this may me catastrophic to say the least because that's turning a bad situation worse💥💥💥

In a poetic way, I remember this one-liner which says:  ALL OF LIFE IS AN EBB AND FLOW.  And I CAN'T disagree more because that's my observation as well of my life and even the lives I witnessed around me.  The trap here is that sometimes, you're going to feel like you're winning and at least some of the time, you're going to feel like you're losing.  BUT can we agree that personal SETBACKS give us that ironic opportunity, giving us time to gather our thoughts, reflect on WHAT we've been doing that's been working and moreso WHAT ISN'T as well.  And from thereon, it behooves that we initiate our own adjustments and course corrections for the remaining journey ahead😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  If there is one observation I witnessed first hand many times in the past, some would kind of 'sit down in the corner sucking his thumb' [no pun intended] and thinking about HOW unfair life is.  Obviously, one would feel defeated OR maybe a little lost and you might even feel like you are losing faith in yourself.  BUT if I have to explicitly declare, the only kind of SETBACK we should NOT and NEVER come back from is one WHICH we choose to let defeat our own self [and that's the stark truth no less.  At the end of the day, WHILE it's easier said than done, this all boils down for us to be reframing SETBACKS as our opportunities.  Again, it's akin to looking at a half-empty glass of water as half-full no less.  Dude, time to turn SETBACKS INTO COMEBACKS!!!

2nd Place Gets You Nowhere!

 

YES YES yow, 2nd PLACE GETS YOU NOWHERE. That's the least debatable statement ever!  WHETHER you are a bigtime business mogul OR you're one of the top professional boxers OR you belong to one of the top NBA ballclubs, It's GOLD OR bust.  It's the top plum OR none.  Of course, if you end up 2nd, you would hear faint hurrahs BUT trust me, that's one of those 'garbage time' stuff.  Because WHO cares the 2nd placer?  WHO really thinks that the 2nd placer was just a hairline away from being the overall winner?  In the NBA, when it's trade season with top ballclubs aiming for the NBA superstars within the top tier of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Lebron James, forecasts would shortlist the probable winners to 2 or 3 clubs and WHEN one club wins it, DOES 2nd PLACE MATTER???

True, competition is tight anywhere everywhere and all that matters really is to be atop the field.  WHEN I was with Dole Food, in one of our dinners with our CEO, he cockily took pride that in our very tight market then, we were becoming the runaway leader with a distant second to boot.  I then felt some air of braggadocio during that dinner BUT I knew then that he was NOT standing on shifting sands as I did bear witness HOW he aggressively took on the challenges in our tight market then, demanding 100% QA results from our very pressured production teams.  And NOT satisfied with our QA ratings, he tracked the CSAT [Customer Satisfaction] and NPS [Net Promoter Scores] right from our foreign markets in Japan.  Only then I think he managed to gather that gumption that we had a competitor WHO was eating our dust as a far 2nd from us.  Shifting over to our own lives, is it now ripe for us to throw out to the windows all our aspirations to be the 2nd tier, to be the 2nd placer in WHATEVER competition or rat race we are in now???

The thing is, many of us are indeed making progress most of the time, WHETHER it's in our academic endeavors, OR at the workplace OR even in our business forays.  BUT WHAT is quite a scare is BURNOUT does hit us along the way although BURNOUT has been dissected from researches as a perception of reduced personal OR even professional accomplishment OR simply put, that feeling like you are getting nowhere.  Oh Oh, that kind of negativity can spiral and WHEN you're feeling negative, it can be difficult to see the positive side of things💚💛💜

Many times, it's all a matter of perception.  Through the years, I constantly reminded myself of my very basic ground rules.  LIKE I write down my wins, no matter how small those wins are.  I then reflect on my immediate past week regardless of WHAT and HOW things transpired that week.  I then pick up my own accomplishments for that week and even those small-small good things that happened.  WHY?  Because that could potentially boost my own mental health everyday in fact.  Now, if there's one thing I kept closest to my chest.  It's journaling OR keeping notes of every kudos, complements and testimonials I receive from any legitimate source [Yesssirrrree, I DON'T go for those bogus testimonials].  WHY does that matter?  During my NOT so smooth days, those days WHICH I'll tag as rough, a streak of hope gets out from those testimonials, enough to keep me going

Our takeaway:  It is a fact that no rookie, neophyte OR newcomer reaches the pinnacle of success as instantly as those noodles get cooked and eaten.  You've got to invest all the sweat and sacrifices as you progressively move on, even if it means literally inching via inch every so often.  Eventually, you will be at the outside looking in, at the very precipice of success BUT once you reach the top, grab the plum and NEVER fail NOT to look back from time to time because your ultimate mission is to ensure that 2nd placer is a far 2nd placer, someone WHO could 'eat your dust' because 2nd PLACE GETS ONE NOWHERE!!!