Five Bullet Monday - October 4, 2021

Here is your Five-Bullet Monday

A quote I am pondering:

“Good luck is when opportunity meets preparation, while bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality.” - Eliyahu Goldratt"

This quote, at least the first part, will be familiar to most people. I’ve found myself getting a little shoddy with meeting preparations over the last couple of weeks, and this quote was a good wake-up call. I want to be on the right side of being thoroughly prepared when an opportunity presents, not suffering a reality knock because I was lazy with my preparations.

A question I am asking myself:

Is there a better way?

This is a pretty cool question that we should be asking ourselves several times a day. Too often, we bash through work, routines or chores without really asking ourselves, “Is there a better way?”. Spending a few extra minutes thinking about potentially better ways to do something could be a great time saver for the future.

A book I am reading:

The Big Leap: Conquer Your Fear and Take Life to the Next Level – Gay Hendricks

I loved this book which demonstrates how we can go beyond our internal limits, overcome existing fears and learn new and powerful skills and habits to liberate our authentic greatness. There is a lot to be said for the power of positive self-belief, and this book illustrates that very well.

My favourite podcasts this week:

The School of Greatness Episode 1168 – with Mo Gawdat, How to prepare for the inevitable future with Artificial Intelligence

Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer at Google X. In the podcast; he presents some great insights on how AI will be shaping our lives into the future and how we need to prepare for it. He goes into how the ethics of AI has to evolve and how humans play such an essential part in that, and perhaps not the way we expect. It is well worth a listen.

Hugh-Tips

How diversified are your investments?

Asset Allocation is an absolutely essential part of investing, and many people sadly overlook it. They rush into buying investments and don’t spend much time thinking about the mix. Diversifying your investments through asset allocation is the foundational layer, and it’s how you build your house on the rock, not the sand. If you invest without properly balancing your portfolio, you could get trapped in an unbalanced position and be caught on the wrong side when the market moves. Proper diversification should be considered across asset classes (such as equities, bonds, properties, commodities, crypto and even collectables), across geographies (don’t be all in Canada or the US, for example) and across industries (don’t be all in tech).

My highlight this last week

Getting back to Vancouver

I have been out of the country for two months and have had a wonderful time with my daughter. Getting out of Australia and into Canada via the US felt like I ran the COVID-induced 60-hour gauntlet. I was very relieved to make it back to Vancouver safe and sound on Saturday evening. Now that I am back in Canada, I am very excited for the next couple of months, both personally and on the work front.

My challenge to you for this week

Do some really deep belly breaths through the day

Studies have shown that deep belly breathing (as opposed to shallow chest breathing) provides us with a whole host of benefits. These include increasing oxygen supply to the body, helping blood flow to muscles and bones, reducing tension and providing additional energy. If you are not already doing it, please give it a go, you will be amazed at what the power of good breathing can do for you.