Catégorie : Idées

Since the invention of writing, books have always fascinated and have contained all sorts of truths. Nowadays, with the advent of electronic books, the market of books has exploded and millions of new books are published every year. With this explosion, I feel I do not have time to read all the great books that are published every month. However, my Kindle is full of ebooks I have not read yet and my library full of paper books I have not read yet, so I am sure I have always a book to read. The one I am currently reading is changing my perception on how the brain works and how marketers are getting results. But I will post later on this one, because it requires at least one post.

So the question I asked is insightful on how you progress, you move your thinking forward, you learn new things to help you refine your craft. If I were to give a good number to really make progress tangible, I would give 52. One a week! And this should be the baseline. We some training on speed reading, you can probably go up to 100, fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is great for expanding your mind and non-fiction for expanding your art.

You may say that you do not have time to read books. Well you may have time to listen to audio books instead of the news during your commuting time for instance. You may say that you do not like reading or you do not know where to start: here’s a good pointer to start reading. It’s low cost and can be read on your tablet with the Kindle app. You may say that you do not know what to read: here is the list of 100 best fiction books by Wikipedia, and here the list of 100 best nonfiction books my The Modern Library (you will find top 100 novels here as well). So get a Kindle or go to the nearest library or book store, and start reading!

The elections that have just happened in France were in all newspaper across the world because the ruling party (the socialist) has lost and the extreme right one (the front national) has tremendously grown although not really winning. And of course, everyone comments on the victory of the right wing against the left wing, and on the defeat of the left wing against the right wing. Politics are governed by cycles, like economy or civilization. And people comment and need to find reasons and predicts future outcomes… but people forget!

They forget that they made the same mistakes, took the same decisions, because they were impatient, because they are not taking the hard path to question the politics, to make them accountable to their promises. They listen to the media who happens to be as shortsighted as voters and to forget. Because media’s power is to tell stories, incredible stories, scary stories, emotional stories. There is beauty in the victory and a beast in the opponent!

The Beast for both wings was Marine Le Pen and the Front National. They won 62 seats out of 3,802… 1.63%, although they got 22.23% of total votes. As a reminder, in 1986, while another socialist was leading the country, François Mitterrand, the Front National got 35 MPs out of 577… just above 6%. But people forget and when they are recalled history, they shrug their shoulders and tell you this was different back then. The Beauty for the right wing is to have now 66 « départements », winning 25 (totaling 65%). In 1988, under the presidency of François Mitterrand, the right wings had 68 « départements » (totaling 72%, because of a total back then of 95).

If politicians were elected on the results they achieved, very few would be elected! If politicians were elected on their proven competencies, very few would be elected! There will always be beauties and beasts in politics. What voters should do is pay a visit to their candidates, ask questions, seek answers, cast their votes, hold their champions accountable and keep moving. Never ever forget and be brave!

Although I am not a native English speaker, I feel a major difference between would and could, and will and can. Of course, you will say that would is the past tense of will or that would expresses a polite request. However, the Oxford dictionary also gives those definitions: indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation; expressing a desire or inclination; expressing a conjecture, opinion, or hope; and expressing a wish or regret. All those definitions express an opinion or describes a situation that may not exist. By the way, when Barack Obama was elected he said, yes we can, not we could.

To me, using would or could is a way to say that there is a risk of failure, and if it does not happen, well, it does not happen, fail, done! Using will or can is a way to say that you will do whatever it takes to make it succeed. It may still fail, but you believe it will succeed. Words are a simple and powerful to express what we believe. We have only one life, and this should be a life of will and can, not a life of would and could. Have a look at where you are and where you want to be, then believe you can, and you will!

Sunday is the day of the Sun. The day for you. In some countries Sunday is the first day of the week. Fine, then your Saturday is my Sunday and this is the same. The main point of Sunday is to take time for you! Sometimes we feel we have very, very little time in the week due to our professional rhythm. Well Sunday should be actually named Funday! The day of the fun. The one day of the week that you can devote to do things selfishly for you and for you only. Take an hour to paint, to run, to visit a museum, to see a movie, to relax in the couch with a good book. This time is crucial to your balance. Make it uninterruptible and have fun!