Blog Drive-Bye and Memes

 I have been tardy in replying to two memes.

The first is from Camille from her NOW blog about 13 facts from my childhood.

1. Remembering being lost in Birmingham, England when I was 5
2. Remembering being on the ocean liner coming to Canada and the train trip to Toronto
3. My dad showing us where we would live in Toronto and finding my first Teddy Bear waiting
4. The hospital when I had my tonsils out and finally being able to eat all the ice cream I wanted 
5. Reading Tarzan and swinging on the vines in the Humber valley
6. Having my first dog Rex and spending the summers running by the river on our adventures
7. Playing in a deserted Golf Club House with my friends and making it our fort for a summer before they tore it down
8. Skinny dipping in the Humber before it got too polluted
9. My first dance where I had 3 left feet and hated girls
10. Competing in Gymnastics and on the cross-country school team in high school
11. Camping out with the Boy Scouts and discovering poison ivy
12. Helping my dad wire up the booths for the Toronto Exhibition
13. My first motorcycle a 80cc Suzuki and being Evel  Knievel

The second meme is from Theresa from her Sleeping Kitten Dancing Dog about blogs that make me think. As this is the second time for this meme I will modify this to some of the blog drive-byes that I enjoy.

1. Ed from his The Pisstakers blog always has a humorous slant on the goings on in the blogosphere and believes in community and link sharing as does RT from Untwisted Vortex.
2. For a bouquet for my senses I often stop by the blog of Princess Haiku and Greg at the Cosmic Surfer
3. For my humor my daily stops are with Sandee at Comedy Plus and Bee from Muffin53
4. For discussions on different aspects of life I stop by Jennifer at Goodness Gracious and Pearl at Interesting Observations.
5. For some fantastic photos check out Thomas at  Photos from northern Norway. My favorite is his shot of the Midnight Sun
6. Don't forget than June 6, 2007 is the day to display your Peace Globe. If you don't have one you can get it from Mimi at her Mimi Writes. Cleo and I have ours to display on the 6th.

 Technorati tags: blog Drive-Byes, memes

Better Decision Making

When we are faced with making an important decision on whether to stay where we are and an opportunity to take a new path we often undertake an analysis of the choices. We are looking for a way to make a logical decision just as we have been taught.

However, when we are looking at the future there are no certainties; there are only probabilities, yet we treat our assumptions as if they are facts. We are using our powers of prediction to form our analysis. Even a simple plus and minus analysis uses prediction.

Another factor that logical decision making does not always take in consideration is the impact of the changes on the values we hold to be important to us. What values will be impacted, by how much, and their importance to us needs to added to the decision mix.

For example there may be only a limited number of possible advancements in our current field but the business is not likely to disappear has a value to us. A new career opportunity has more  opportunities for advancement or diversity which also has a value to us. How much is up to us.

We could start with a simple plus and minus list or other decision making tool that includes all of our values that will be impacted by the decision. Then we need to add the probability of each plus and minus occurring. If we have no idea then we have some more thinking or research to do.

After rating our list and removing any which have a low possibility of happening and understanding the impact on our values we are in a better position to make a good choice for ourselves.

Technorati tags: decisions, choice, values, uncertainty

Beliefs and Values

Beliefs are our perception of the universe and our place in it. It is our pair of glasses that we don to view events and things and determines what we pay attention to or ignore and they are totally subjective.

To put it another way it is our choice of beliefs that makes sense of our universe to us by explaining our experiences and what we see and know. If we choose to see the universe as a dark and hostile place; then, it is. We are always looking out for and protecting our self-interests.

This is a primary focus of a lot of self-help programs to putting you on track for your "quality" life that you deserve and can have with their program. Change your beliefs (perceptions); especially limiting ones, and you are on your way. Is it that simple?

We have two people who are offered a chance to accept a new job that will give them more opportunity, more money, and more things but it will mean almost no time for their family.

How did they make the choice? One person accepts and one person declines. Does the one declining have some limiting belief holding them back? Not necessarily.

One person defined the value of the new job as providing for the family in an economic sense and a necessary sacrifice in spending time with the family. The other declined by defining the value for the family as being involved and spending quality time with them.

Our beliefs affect how we see things but it is our values that choose for us.

Technorati tags: beliefs, values, perspective, personal growth

Narrow Focus and Balance

 Sometimes we can take analysis too far. As a scientific method or as a discovery process it does a wonderful job of breaking things down to their basic components to understand how it works or the basic elements of a problem. In each case we start with a known object and keep subdividing until we have basic ingredients.

When we take this approach and apply it to subjective things such as feelings, beliefs or goals; it can be like a hypochondriac focusing on a symptom and discovering a multitude of illnesses that they are sure they have and are forever curing.

We look at the problems and symptoms gratefully accepted from the whatever field of psychology we want to look at and decide we have it. We then put ourselves into analysis mode determined to find the cause of the problem and fix it. We can however, end up losing sight of the overall picture.

When we look at one aspect of ourselves without considering the whole it is like looking at a pile of parts from a watch. Every piece has meaning only to the overall design. You change a part at the risk of making the watch run faster or slower or not at all.Too narrow a focus can sometimes create more problems than it solves.

We need to be careful that we keep an eye on the effect a change has on the balance we maintain between all aspects of ourselves.

Technorati tags: focus, perspective, personal growth, balance