Here is your Five-Bullet Monday
Two quotes I am pondering:
“A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul.” - Jillian Michaels
“Your ego screams for people to acknowledge you. But you must do nothing. Take it. Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder“ - Ryan Holiday
Essentially, ego means having an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others. I have just finished Ryan Holiday’s book, “Ego is the Enemy”, and it led me to take a hard look at my ego episodes and see what I can do to eliminate them. The most effective way I have found is to try and keep my lips sealed and do a lot more listening, and when I do have to speak, to give others credit where possible.
A question I am asking myself:
Am I too hard on myself or not hard enough?
This is an unusual question to ask, but it does help us strike a balance between striving too hard and not striving enough. You will need to ask this question of yourself dispassionately – that way, you can get an objective answer once you consider your intent, effort, and output.
A book I am reading:
Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries – Peter Sims
Many of today’s largest businesses or household brands, came to be through their founders taking many little gambles or bets that eventually delivered world-beating results. Peter Sims provides excellent examples in the book, from Chris Rock to Pixar. The book encourages us to continually make lots of little bets rather than pouring our efforts and capital into one single solution or product that may not take off.
My favourite podcast this week:
The Great Speech Podcast – Ep 23, How to develop a great sounding voice with Caroline Goyder
Caroline Goyder is a world-renowned voice coach with over seven million views of her Ted Talk. I enjoyed how she talked about the power of our voices as an extension and projection of our personalities and skill sets and how we can improve our voices with some simple tips.
Hugh-Tips
Try out a new financial podcast
We are blessed to have a plethora of great financial podcasts to listen to and educate ourselves. It costs us nothing except to tune in, put the car audio on or a set of headphones and give ourselves some finance brain food. Some of my favourites are: Investing for Beginners Podcast; More Money Podcast; the Canadian Money Roadmap; Intellectual Investor; Everyday Investor; the Canadian Investor; and Build Wealth Canada.
My highlight this last week
Not shopping on Black Friday
It seems a little meagre in the biggest shopping week of the year, but I did manage to resist buying things I didn’t really need, only because adverts told me they were cheap. Black Friday spending this year in the US was around US$7.5 billion. I wonder how much will be put to good use and how much will sit around in homes and garages for years until it gets sold, donated or sent to the tip. I also wonder how many people will be feeling Friday’s toll on their credit card bills for months to come.
My challenge to you for this week
Do something special for a family member or loved one
Something as simple as a little thank you card, text message or note in a lunch pack to someone in your family could be the highlight of their morning or afternoon. So, why not give it a go and add a little sunshine to their day?
Have a great week
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