Big Idea #1 From Me
I recently read the interesting story of a 20th-century lion tamer named Clyde Beatty.
He lived in an age where many lion tamers of the time died in the line of duty.
Yet, Clyde Beatty lived till he was 62 years and when he died, it was from cancer, rather than from being mauled by a lion.
So, what did Beatty do differently? Well, it turns out that he was one of the first people to adopt the use of a chair and a whip in his lion taming act.
You see, when a lion tamer is performing his act, he always ensures that the chair is held in the lion’s face. This doesn’t only maintain a physical distance between the lion and the performer, it also confuses the lion. Why? Because it is focusing on all four legs of the chair at the same time, rather than on the tamer.
Many people today are just like the lion in the tamer’s act!
Just like the lion is immobilized by focusing on all legs of the chair at the same time, many people are immobilized into mediocrity because their attention is pulled in all different directions.
Understand this: The world out there is always waving a chair in your face every time. And as long as your eyes are on the legs of the chair, rather than the meal, you will continue to be locked in the cage of unfulfilled potential.
Big Idea #2 From Research
“Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk” by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky is one of my favorite journal articles of all time.
One of the ideas that stood out to me was the manner in which people think about probabilities, or the likelihood that something will happen.
People have a tendency of not thinking about the probability of an event, but rather the impact of that event. And this is reflected in their decision making process.
For instance, assume I’m about to toss a coin.
If I asked you to choose between head and tails, you will probably pick one side at random. Why? Because you know that every coin has a 50% chance of giving you a Head and a 50% chance of giving you a Tail.
What if, before flipping the coin, I told you that I will give you $1000 if the outcome is Heads?
Most people will subconsciously weigh “Heads” more valuable than “Tails” – even though the likelihood of either option is still 50% each!
This human tendency to subconsciously overweigh the likelihood of an outcome is the reason why people continue to gamble. The probability of winning the big payout is very, very small. But since the impact of winning is BIG, gamblers overweigh their chances and continue to gamble.
My key takeaway is simple. You might be thinking you don’t gamble, or engage in other socially unacceptable behaviors. But I want you to think about how you are handling your health or finances. Who knows, your preferences might just be revealing how you are underweighing your chances of experiencing the outcomes of unhealthy physical and fiscal behaviors.
Big Idea #3 From the Bible
Proverbs 3:1-2 says, ‘My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.’
‘Length of days’ and ‘long life’ are two concepts that took a while for me to differentiate.
People are more familiar with the concept of long life, which literally means growing to a full, old age before expiring.
Length of days, on the other hand, expresses a situation whereby the individual who understands its operation is able to milk from 1 day what others attain in a month, or a year!
I know this is not intuitive to the logical individual, but when you realize that (1) time is a property bound to the physical realm, and, (2) God is spirit – He transcends the physical, you will have no choice but to agree that partnership with the Father is the Ultimate productivity hack!
May the Lord give you understanding in these things.
