Welcome to Chez Cliff!

Browsing around Barnes and Noble, I couldn’t help but to stop and stare at the ten of thousands of self-help books littering the shelves.  It is simply amazing about how you can find any self-improvement book on nearly any topic.  “How to deal with the loss of an old cat” or “You too can count to ten”.

It started my brain a-whirring to the many self help books I’ve read over the years.  To be honest, only a few had a real impact on my life.  By using the word “impact”, I’m talking about a real measurable influence and something which I incorporated into my daily life.  Forget the “feel good” books.  That buzz is only temporary.

I’m going to outline over the next few days those books which have had a real, measurable impact on my life.  It won’t be a book review, but rather what tidbit I pulled and implemented into my life.

Book 1:  7 Habits of High Effective People.

From the 90’s, this was probably one of the first self-help books I ever read.  The seven habits, clearly outlined in the book, all revolved around making people more effective.  Out of the seven, one impacted me directly.

Habit 3:  Put first things first

Many moons ago, my level of “proactive” stopped at those items I was truly interested in.  For example: having a nice dinner.  Other items, like paying bills or filing taxes, always took a back seat.  The bill would arrive and I’d be neck-deep in studying for an exam.  I knew I had a few weeks to pay the bill and even if I was late, the electricity would not be shut off until the third notice.  Before I knew it, the shut off notice would arrive and then I’d have to hustle to the electric company to pay it.

The author generated this chart (Slide 28) that shows the different quadrants people live their lives.  There are four quadrants, broken up by “Urgent” and “Non-Urgent” and then divided by “Important” and “Non-Important”.  These four categories create four areas where all tasks fall.

Simply explained, Urgent-Important items require immediate attention and induce the highest levels of stress.  Non-Urgent, Non-Important activities are pure time wasters, like watching television.

When the author showed that tasks can move from one quadrant to another, due to lack of activity, then something just clicked.  Like paying the electric bill.  When it first arrives, it’s classified as Important but Non-Urgent (Quadrant 2).  As bill sits there, gathering dust, it moves from Quadrant 2 into Quadrant 1.  The shut off notice arrives and I’m scrambling to pay it.  And the author was right: stress level was quite high.

Seeing these tasks and how they move in these quadrants really got my head screwed on straight.  Suddenly I could see that truly effective people focus on Important/Non-Urgent tasks.  By dealing with these in a timely manner, they don’t have a chance to become Important/Urgent items which induce stress and take valuable time to correct.

"Freakonomics" was on my desk to read.  I finished it.  Needless to say, I enjoyed it.

There is a section of this book, dealing with real estate.  But that’s another topic for another time.  This article deals with interpretation of data.

When a media expert says "Think this way" I reach for my bottle of malox.  Their reasoning is "If you look at the data . . ."  And surprise surprise surprise no data is given.

I’m fully aware various news sources will print "the news" and get an expert who agrees with their theory.  Just this past week, two news article who claim to look at the same data, declared the housing market to be either in a wreck or on the road to recovery.  Which is the general public to believe?

In Freakonomics, the media scare tactic is addressed.  Using "experts", the media creates fear where it wants to create fear.  His discussion of "perceived threat" versus the "real threat" was quite compelling.  The author references children dying in gun related accidents are a fraction of children dying in swimming pool accidents.  Parents refuse to let their child play at a house that has a gun, for fear their child may be shot.  Yet there is no problem sending their child to a swimming pool.  The difference is there’s a 100 times greater chance the child will drown versus shot.

Don’t forget your sunscreen.

Yet because of the intense media coverage of a shooting, swimming pools are largely ignored.

Unless you’re Tommy Lee.

If the Freakonomics reader disagrees with what the author is saying,
the data is provided for the reader to scrutinize.  One can draw their
own conclusions, based on the data.  A nice touch.

Admittedly the author’s assertion that Sumo Wrestling is fixed did not sit well with me.  Sumo Wrestling is as pure as Professional Wrestling and horse racing.  There’s no "fixing" going on.

Nope.  None at all.