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Koleksi Khas Digital
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| SMART people learn from their mistakes; wise people from the mistakes of others, as well as their own.
Who we are today is a result, of course, of nurture and nature. Yet there is also the influence of our personal life choices, and their results or repercussions, depending, respectively, on whether those choices were good or bad ones.
All adults, regardless of our age, have made smart, good choices, as well as stupid and bad ones. Why? Here are two obvious answers:
1. That's life; and
2. We're only human.
I'm not being facetious.
There truly is no point beating ourselves up over past mistakes stemming from bad choices. The best way to recover from our errors committed along life's journey is to alter our trajectory — slightly or massively — by charting a fresh course in life marked by milestones (actually, 'kilometre stones') comprising a series of superior choices.
Such proactive choices may be focused on health or money, or relationships, or career, or education, or fitness, or a myriad other life-dimensions.
In every area of life where we want things to improve significantly, we can intentionally break from our negative practices or habits arising from a string of bad past choices, and, instead, adopt better practices and habits through higher quality choices going forward.
I don't know the specific blend of bad past actions and choices that has led you to, perhaps, be sad sometimes about how your life has turned out, thus far.
Yet chances are very high that when you are alone, you are inclined to sometimes reminisce about the different forks in the road you have encountered, and also upon the pathways you didn't take that might have given you a far better life.
The good news is that radical change is possible. Really.
The bad news is that you can't do it in the past. Time's Arrow moves us steadily and inexorably from the past to the present, and then onto the ever-unfolding future. So, in the absence of a bona fide Time Machine, which, as far as we know, can never exist because we can't build one (Delorean or otherwise), we can't travel to the past to correct perceived errors in our life choices.
What we definitely can do, though, is to dream, think, plan and set the stage to do better... today and tomorrow.
SWITCHING GEARS
This Money Thoughts column is scheduled to be published four days before Christmas 2025. So, as Christians everywhere celebrate the coming of the Christ Child (roughly 2,030 years ago, in Bethlehem of Judea — about 9km south of Jerusalem), and most of the rest of humanity revels in the tinsel, glitter and general musical merriment involving Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman throughout the end of our fast-fading year and the hope of a better 2026, this seems like a wonderful time to switch gears and change course.
To help you do so, consider what French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) wrote: "Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."
That's fabulous advice. But it begs the key question: How?
Brian Tracy, the legendary speaker, consultant and writer on enhancing personal and professional effectiveness, suggests we all ask one question with great regularity when contemplating our current actions and practices: "Knowing what I know now, would I start it again today?"
In some instances, our answer would be "no". In which case Tracy suggests we heed something called the principle of Zero-Based Thinking. It involves asking that vital "Knowing what I know now...?" question, and deciding to stop any and all activities that are not moving us toward our dreamed of brighter future.
Our next step then will be to decide what positive change must be initiated to fill the vacuum left by the abandoned bad (or non-optimal) activity or habit. To learn more about this fabulous tool, watch Tracy himself explain the Principle of Zero-Based Thinking here: https://youtu.be/cQu1yA0k87U?si=R9nUzeNi1nvdiYEW
As you watch this video, take notes on what we will abbreviate to ZBT. Then decide to take action, ideally today, using that potent principle.
TAKE ACTION
It will work with all dimensions of life. With the New Year looming, for instance, it might be time to make fresh New Year resolutions such as joining a gym and actually working out there.
Or, in the financial and economic dimensions, to begin making your life better this Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026, here are a few money-related situations you might wish to allow yourself to be guided on by ZBT.
I believe, if you do, you can turn things around to improve your life by:
1. Buying adequate life insurance;
2. Buying sufficient medical insurance;
3. Saving money regularly;
4. Investing wisely; and
5. Writing a will.
In each of those five areas, decide what you may be doing in a suboptimal manner today, and how you may make better choices, using ZBT, tomorrow. Once you have made those better choices, do take positive, hopeful action. |
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