Playtime & Success - Who says you can't have it all?

“ The only place success comes before work is the dictionary.” Vidal Sassoon.  


It’s a quote I’ve seen before and saw again this morning.

It may be true – I think we all understand the sentiment.  However, I did start to think about something that comes before both of those things – in the dictionary as well as in life. 

Play.

I tweeted a phrase my Dad used to share with me recently; “Find something you love doing Simon and you’ll never work a day in your life”.  What he meant was that work can be play – and if you make it so then it doesn’t feel like work anymore.  What is interesting though is the by-product of this – when work is play – it often breeds success.

Think about it.  Think about something you love; Something that when you do it you lose track of time; You get into a state of flow; Something that when you wake up early to do it you are excited and you can’t put it down at night.

It could be gardening, golfing, guitaring, gaming, gyming, grilling, galloping, guffawing or any other activity for that matter (it doesn’t even have to begin with with G).

If you really enjoy it, you’ll dedicate time and energy to mastering your art (or science), and as a result its likely that you are going to get pretty good at it.

It may be that you can’t just become a pro golfer – but there are lots of other opportunities to work in the world of golf.  The same goes for any activity.  If you love it enough, find a way to play and work at the same time.

It will make for a happy working life – and lets face it we spend a lot of our life at work.

Playtime and Success – Who says you can’t have it all?

You are the Cause; Luck is the Effect

"You need a bit of luck in a tournament like this."

I’m trying to think how many times I have heard that statement over the past few weeks.  Every single person that has been asked about England’s performances in the Euros has said the above statement.

Does luck really exist?  There are two ways you can look at any situation involving what might be called ‘luck’.

England were lucky not to concede against Ukraine when the ball had clearly crossed the line.

 John Terry put himself in the right place at the right time to put enough doubt in the 6^th official’s mind.

This is luck at its most basic – a perception.

People who tend to be luckier just think differently about opportunities. They also think differently about their failures.  This process can be so powerful it can even filter out opportunities staring them in the face.

Last week a salesperson called our house.  He asked for Mr. Clarkson so my wife put our 2-year-old son on the phone.  We giggled as our little lad jabbered away.  When we took the phone back off him the salesperson had hung up.  We may not have bought anyway, but now there was no chance. 

However, if that salesperson had still been on the phone, and had shown a sense of humour – I would have heard him and his sales pitch out.  You never know – I might have even bought.

He might have considered himself lucky if I had but the truth is, it would have been him making his own luck by giving it a chance. 

He probably considered himself unlucky so put the phone down.  The truth is – he was unlucky BECAUSE he put the phone down.  Its just a case of cause and effect.

You are the cause – luck is the effect.

So come on England – do the right things and the world can think you are lucky.

The Brain's Protractor

Welcome to the Think Works Blog!

The first in an ongoing series of observations, anecdotes, lessons, questions and more.  All focused at improving the way we think and therefore do.

The cornerstone of anyone working in this field of human high performance is perspective and perception.  So let's start there....

You remember protractors at school?  Usually a semi circular thing for measuring angles.

Your mind has a hidden protractor when it comes to perspective.

We were in Cyprus for a 10 day break.  Beautiful place and fantastic people.  We had 3 days left of the holiday and a friend used an interesting word... JUST.  "Just 3 days left" he said to my daughter.  She turned to us and with a sad look on her face said "I don't want to go home yet."

My response was to highlight that we weren't going home yet - that 3 days gave us plenty of opportunity to have lots of fun.

It led me to think that you can look at 3 days very differently depending on your perspective - or ANGLE.  If you are about to head away for a romantic city break for a long weekend - the thought of 3 whole days is a really exciting one.  However, when people think of the last 3 days of a 2 week holiday, it may well depress them.

Look at any fact you face and there are lots of angles it can be viewed from.  These angles are nothing more than perspectives.  Take a different view of a fact and you are using your mind as a protractor to see which angle might be the best to see it from.

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