Because some things never change

After my last example Prepare to win, Karin added a great comment which made me feel compelled to add a new example as an follow-up. It is what Karin said, somewhat paraphrased.

Don’t try to win if you just want to enjoy the ride.

Today’s lesson I would like to call Henrik’s Third Law of Advice: For every good advice there is an equally good advice saying the opposite.

On the importance of preparation and practice, from former Swedish cross country skier and biathlete Magdalena Forsberg. [FTBM]

The will to win is not as important as the will to prepare to win.

Do you want to prepare to win? Or do you just want to win?

From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice. There are things, like the weather, that our Circle of Influence will never include. But as proactive people, we can carry our own physical or social weather with us. We can be happy and accept those things that at present we can’t control, while we focus our efforts on the things that we can.

Do you carry your own weather inside  you?

Some ideas about how weather affects different people, from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn’t, it affects their attitude and their performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them.

Reactive people are also affected by their social environment, by the “social weather”. When people treat them well, they feel well; when people don’t, they become defensive or protective. Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them.

Does your mood depend on the weather?

Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, notes that changing habits are hard.

Habits have tremendous gravity pull – more than most people realize or would admit. Breaking deeply imbedded habitual tendencies such as procrastination, impatience, criticalness, or selfishness that violate basic principles of human effectiveness involves more than a little willpower and a few minor changes in our lives. “Lift off” takes a tremendous effort, but once we break out of the gravity pull, our freedom takes on a whole new dimension.

Yet another use for the Pareto principle – the first 20% of change takes 80% of the energy?

Stephen Covey defines proactivity in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values – carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.

Can you control your impulses?

If you want to change your life, start with yourself. Or, as expressed by Stephen Covey’s in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Anytime we think the problem is “out there”, that thought is the problem.

Now, where was that problem, again?

Extreme distance runner Rune Larsson on running habits. [FTBM]

There are two kinds of runners: those who are going to the track tomorrow, and those who are just on their way back.

Which kind of runner are you?

And for those who need subtitles – we’re not just talking about running.

I originally saw it on dump.com, but they have since cleared their archives. The caption, to which I can only agree, was “strangely enough, this motivates me”.

A great quote by J. Richard Hackman, as tweeted by Jurgen Appelo.

“Not a single great novel, epic poem, or symphonic score has ever been written by a team.” – J. Richard Hackman