ThinkTankOne

30/03/2024

HAVE A GOAL?

Sitting here on Easter Sunday (Happy Easter Holiday!) I’m declaring to all that I’m looking for 2 (former or new) clients to work with. Start 2nd week of April. With renewed purpose in place, the time is NOW to help someone ‘normalise excellence’ far beyond what they have been achieving…

Your commitment:
- 1 hr video call every week, same time, same day for a minimum of 6 months. Just because you may want to, it may not work for us. I will look to share a conversation prior to make sure your are ready.

Focus will be:
- purposefully aligned desires and goals
- action and ex*****on
- measurement of success
- WARNING ⚠️ it will likely involve ditching an unhealthy habit and gaining at least two healthy ones.

Message me (label “PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL”) directly if interested …

04/01/2024

Working Non Stop V Rest + Learn
The results are different!

06/10/2023

Imperfection. Madness. Ridiculous. Why not?!

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
Attribution unknown

Andrea Kowch - In the Distance, 2015.

14/09/2022

Fencer V Fighter

Over dinner I happened to be reading a ‘stoic newsletter’ that hits my inbox from time to time it read something like this…

Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy in the United States and an unsung hero in the history of the world, was once asked by a Congressman if he was prepared for the upcoming hearing in which Hyman needed to speak about a number of complex, important issues. "Yes," Rickover replied, "I shaved and put on a clean shirt."

Rickover didn’t need to prepare because he “was prepared”. He wasn’t some figurehead who had to be briefed before answering questions. He knew his science and his department inside out. Because he lived and breathed his work—famously interviewing something like 14,000 college grads himself for various positions over the years. He also personally tested every nuclear submarine during its initial sea trial after construction.

His joke about preparing by getting dressed calls to mind an analogy by Marcus Aurelius, who said that a true philosopher is a fighter not a fencer. A fencer has to put on armor and pick up a weapon. A fighter just has to close their fist.

That should be our model too. We shouldn’t be cramming the night before a test, or frantically looking for advice once a crisis has arrived. We need to be prepared. We need to be so on top of our work—and the knowledge required—that everything we need is right there, already in our hands and in our heads. If you’re rushing, you’re already too late. If you’re looking for your weapons, you’re already beaten.

You gotta know your stuff inside and out. You have to live it and breathe it. You gotta be ready.

Are you?

23/09/2020

“The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished.” ~ Deng Ming-Dao, Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony

Picture credit