La crise, quelle crise ?

Catégorie : Idea

  • Change is hard and necessary

    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/holdosi-28614/
    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/holdosi-28614/

    Day 542. Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. I am paraphrasing the great Albert Einstein, but this is so true. In a fast changing world, we have no other choices but to embrace change. Trying to resist it is like staying aboard a sinking ship hoping it will stay afloat in the end. Of course change is hard. Change requires we drop activities, behaviors, ideas to start new ones. Change requires we wipe out the status quo.

    In the crisis opposing the taxis to Uber in France and in many other places on the planet, we have two systems that collide. It should be a great occasion to rethink the models, to shake old fashioned way to do stuffs, but instead it becomes confrontational, taxis trying to preserve the status quo and their privileges, if any. Competition has always been a driving force to reduce pricing while increasing quality. In France, our paranoid government wants to forbid SFR to purchase Bouygues Telecom to save competition that they recognized behind healthy and a contributing factor for better pricing and quality, while at the same time wants to kill competition in the transportation area by forbidding Uber to operate. Try to understand the logic of those guys stuck in a 19th century mentality.

    Taxis have no choices than to slowly disappear if they do not reinvent themselves. I confess I have not taken a taxi in France for years for two reasons: they are awfully expensive (an airport-downtown trip will cost up to three times in Paris what it costs in the US or Dubai for instance), and most of the time the driver is unpleasant. With what happens, I will not be inclined to take a taxi soon.

    Of course change is hard, but it is necessary. It’s only by embracing change that we find peace of mind and can smile at what the universe throws at us. As Robin Sharma says: Change is hard at the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous in the end. Are you ready?

  • The 3 rules of sound personal money management

    Weathering the storm

    Rule number 2: Manage your money like a company – First Part

    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/jarmoluk-143740/
    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/jarmoluk-143740/

    Day 541. Money is an energy. It’s used to fuel the world. A lot of people say money is the root of evil and therefore encourage others to live in poverty or at least with a minimum money. I believe that money can be a blessing and a curse. It all depends on how you manage your money. It’s true that money can make people go crazy and commit crime. It’s although true that money can save people’s lives, can cure disease and can positively contribute to the well-being of people. As for many things, charity begins at home and it’s crucial to know the basis management rules of money. Personal money should obey the same rules as an entreprise money.

    You are your own company, let’s call it yourself, inc. Yourself, inc. has an accountant: you! And if there are one guy in a company that knows how to handle the company’s money, it’s the accountant. He can be, or has to be, the bad-ass who ensures money is well treated. A financially sound company can weather any storm and will resist any crisis. Same for an individual. However, to handle your personal finance well, it has to obey the following 3 simple principles:

    1. Pay everything cash, except for case number 2
    2. Use credit only if the asset you acquire allows you to make money
    3. Put aside a share of your monthly revenue to weather storms or to treat you (in cash)

    Of course, this is not what a majority of people will tell you. I will however show you why these three simple, though not easy to apply, principles will be at the start of sound money management.

  • 3 working days are lost in front of the TV each week

    Weathering the storm

    Rule number 1: Switch your TV off! – Fourth Part

    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/RonPorter-291009/
    https://pixabay.com/fr/users/RonPorter-291009/

    Day 540. In 2013, many newspaper and online news sites revealed that the French were spending, on average, 3h50 in front of their TV every day ! I assume other countries will have similar statistics.

    If I do a quick calculation, this represents close to 27 hours every week in front of a TV set. This is actually more than 3 full working days. Just imagine if half of that time was dedicated to a form of enjoyable work like, for instance, personal development or professional training. With an additional of 13 hours of training every week, we would have a country infinitely more competitive that any other developped country, with a skilled workforce. Of course, we could think of transforming that time into other fun activities that help individual to have a more fulfilling life.

    However, making the choice of switching TV time with something that really matters to each of us is a choice. A personal choice and a political choice. Because TV is the best way to convey political propaganda, therefore from a political standpoint, the power has nothing to gain for their own rights in trying to cut TV watching time. Therefore, all that is left is the personal choice. Are you willing to cut your TV time to grow? It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s just a matter of chosing it. Are you ready?

  • Repetition Makes Perfection

    Day 539. An image of perfection

     Repetition Makes Perfection

  • It’s Monday, What are YOU going to do differently this week?

    https://unsplash.com/juliacaesar
    https://unsplash.com/juliacaesar

    Day 538. Hey, just sharing an idea with you guys. I was running yesterday, through the forest that I have the chance to live by, under a gorgeous blue sky. Running is generally an idea generation time. It’s probably the hormones that my brain generates that makes it working differently or faster. I had many ideas flowing during this run. Among others came productivity ideas (I will come to these ones in later post), post ideas and one simple idea of how better planning the week.

    If you part of my regular follower, you know I am always looking for better ways to be more productive and one of those ways is to plan the week ahead. In the planning sessions I have on Sunday evening I look at my short, mid and long term goals and ensure my planning reflects all of those and help me getting closer to them.

    One thing I overlooked actually was around what I need to learn to get to my goals faster and better. And to that ties the question I used as the title. Learning is about doing things differently or doing new things. Therefore, there is one question that needs to be answered week in week out: what am I going to do differently this week? This could be a new thing I will start doing to increase efficiency, a thing I will stop doing in order to snoop in something new, or a thing I will tweak.

    Therefore, during the Sunday planning, two questions are added:

    1. What did I do differently (and what did I learn) that I can continue doing, because it made a difference?
    2. What will I do differently this week to continue learning and improving?

    Simple to implement, huge learning and growing opportunity.