I learned in 2007

This is my 50^th article which is interesting to me because it coincides with the 100^th comment on my blog. And it coincides with the end of year 2007 which held a lot of great experiences for me on the personal level.

Back when I started my blog in July this year, I wrote an article titled: “I learned – 2006“. I will tell you one little secret of mine; all through the year when I write my diaries I keep little notes about what I learned in special occasions. I summed it up for you in 2006 and here we go for the 2007.

Skimming is bad

I admit, this is one of my mistakes, I have been skimming.

I recently noticed that I don’t remember little details about some issues. I asked myself what’s the reason for this and I found out. I have been reading everything from daily news to books and reports so quickly. I think pressure and lack of time are main reasons for this attitude.

أثمن ما أملك

كنت أحصي ممتلكاتي منذ أيام. و بما أنني لا أملك الكثير لأتباهى به فقد قررت كحال معظم الفقراء أن ألهي نفسي بالتفكير بالمعني الحقيقي لقيمة الأشياء. ما الذي يجعل شيئا ما قيما و شيئا اخر غير ذي قيمة؟

كانت أول فكرة بادرتني هي أن الأشياء القيمة هي الأشياء التي نتباهى بامتلاكها. و لكن هل يعني ذلك أننا نرى قيمة الأشياء في عيون الاخرين فقط. قد يكون هذا صحيحا إذ أن الملابس القديمة تبدو فجأة ذات قيمة عندما نسمع إطراء ما. و كلما ازداد توافق الناس على قيمة شئ ما زادت قيمة هذا الشئ.

Say I love you

Personally, I lived my life with a certain distance from people. I was never the kind of guy who starts a new conversation in a public place. And in general, I would not initiate personal relationships with colleagues or coworkers. People criticized me for this many times, but my point of view was that people waste too much time complementing each other.

One of my habits is observing people. I noticed that people who are over-friendly with others hardly manage to gain there respect.

Playing self-chess

Sometime ago I heard people talking about the benefits of playing chess with one’s self. At that time I thought about it as ridiculous and I didn’t give it much of my attention. But my other self kept nagging on me and wanted me to play it with him.

To be frank, me and myself didn’t quite enjoy the game, but I couldn’t nevertheless notice that it should be the hardest game ever. Although I am not an expert in the game I know that chess is a game of planning, strategies and tactics. It’s your plan versus the opponent’s plan. While you keep discovering your opponent plan during the game, you adjust your tactics accordingly and you defend and attack according to the situation of the game.

The hard way

This is the secret of professional success: do it the hard way.

In a quiz for personal evaluation they asked the following question: if you’re planning a war; and there is two ways to reach to the site. One is relatively short and goes direct to the place and the other one is long and goes round the whole area to reach it.

They said that those who take the long road and prefer to know the whole area before reaching the target have more chances to succeed than those who prefer to get down to business and finish as quick as possible with the least possible damage.

You should be afraid

 

Once upon the time, scientist decided to do a certain experiment on monkeys. They put four monkeys in a cage with a ladder and a bunch of bananas above them. All the monkeys had to do to reach the bananas was to climb on the ladder and there they were. And what business could the monkeys do better than climbing.

My dreams

You may take away all of my money…

You may take away my home and work and everything I have…

You may leave me alone in the desert…

I will still survive, and I will still be a human…

Be a child o’th’time

Anthony: Be a child o’th’time.
Caesar: Possess it, I will answer.

I learned in 2006

I learned – 2006:

“I didn’t learn things. I’ve been through experiences showing me the importance of those things.”

• People reveal themselves under pressure. Daily life offers thousands of less-intense situations that also provoke revealing reaction.
• It has been proven useful to be underestimated by opponents.
• Measure yourself not by what you did, but by what you can do.
• If you have to do it, do it with perfection.
• Rude is not brave.