Archive for May, 2011

By Seamus Anthony

Yesterday, walking down our driveway, I came face to face to with a fox!

The fuzzy-tailed fellow paused for but a moment, shocked at my sudden appearance, before bolting across the road and through the garden of my neighbour. Thankfully there was no car coming, and he got away clean.

I got a good look at him, although not for long. I’d have liked to assure him I meant no harm so I could have checked him out for a minute and taken a photo for my daughter who would have been thrilled, but I guess it’s not in a fox’s nature to dilly-dally when it sees “a farmer”!

Unusual to see a fox in broad daylight; I had to wonder why he was up and about (I say “he” because he looked pretty big for a fox).

Partially inclined as I am to the woo-woo, I of course later looked up some keywords like “fox energy” and “fox power animal” to see what an appearance from one of our foxy brothers might be interpreted as.

By Seamus Anthony

Yes, it’s a cliche, but regardless, it is very important to realise that Life is all a game: if you play by the rules and play well, you score points and win prizes.

The other day I was emailing my partner to tell her I had deposited some money into our shared account. Being a freelancer the money income is irregular, and some weeks are better than others. As I sent the email this week I felt a little flush of triumph because it had been a good week and I’d paid us more than usual. Inwardly at least, I punched the air and did a little victory dance.

Then, suddenly I got a very strong “outsiders impression” (think “alien who has never been to earth or seen our way of life before”) as to how odd this whole money palaver is. Basically it is like a game in that we just need to score points to win prizes (things we can buy). If I don’t win enough points we can’t buy food. If we win enough points we can eat like Kings. If we really win enough points we can buy more than we can ever use, or *gasp* help other people who do not have enough points to get “ahead of the game”, as the saying goes.

By Seamus Anthony
We’ve all heard the cliché “it’s all about results”. But is it?

It’s easy to have a passion for results. Bank robbers have a passion for results, so do suicide bombers. But results don’t really last long. If you need to rob your way to wealth, then you probably don’t understand life or money well enough to hold on to your cash for very long. And some results, let’s face it, are probably fiction.

You can dream up the result for your business in a moment and put this into a detailed plan in as little as an hour. Then what stands between yourself and the end result? Process.

Process is going to account for countless hours whereas results are fleeting (a glance at your bank balance, a thank you speech, an article about yourself in the newspaper). So if you’re doing it all because of a love of results, which in and of itself is not bad (probably necessary), but you don’t enjoy the process, well you’re either a rare bird who can work relentlessly with only the thought of the dangling carrot to motivate you, or you’re never going to stick with the process long enough to succeed in achieving any results (let alone the rewards of this result).