[...] Brett A. Legree (Is that your middle initial, [...]

Oh, for sure – you are right, and I don’t disagree – all of these things are guidelines that have worked in the past.

My point, though, is that they are just that – guidelines – you can take them as a baseline, though I believe you should tweak them to suit your own personality and situation.

If you don’t do that, it might not be as effective as it could be, or – dare I say it – it might not even work at all.

Because I’ve seen that, time and again from a different angle – my current workplace is constantly rolling out new things to try and make the company more effective. They use as the basis what they call industry best practice.

The problem is this – they never tweak it for the very unique company that we are – and time and again, these new initiatives fail.

I’ve only been here for 8 years, and I have seen almost one such new initiative, that was touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, fail per year I’ve been here.

If you want to make the employees work better, why not ask them what they need, rather than roll out some program that worked at a different company?

So I say it is with the self – I still agree with you, all of these books and so forth are great. I take what they offer, and tweak them for me.

I see what you’re saying, that not all strategies are ideal for each person. For example, to gain discipline, some strategies are very effective for some, but won’t be as piercing for others. I think that is true.

But…

At the same time, there are principles to effectiveness. For example, right now I’m reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People” I’m at a section now called, “6 Ways to Make People Like You”

They are based on principles that have worked for people *who have succeeded*.

In other words, principles that have proven effective time and time again.

So while I see what you’re saying, I also believe that learning proven techniques and principles is a wise way to going about getting to the top.

So true, isn’t it – once inspiration strikes, the change is inevitable.

@Davina,

So am I! Which brought me to this point, eventually (luckily, I’m a speed reader so I only took a year or so to get here!) – it’s still fun to read about this stuff, as it keeps me going…

But, I agree that there comes a time when you gotta take those training wheels off and ride for your life!

Davina’s last blog post..My Turn To Be Seen

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Exactly…

@Ellen,

I think our collective may be out here, for some of us. I find I have more “like minded” people out here than I do in my little town! We do have to pull together – we can’t isolate ourselves.

I think you may be right about the stars…

@Jenny,

You’re right – no one said it was easy, and so we can always use some of what the other folks have already done as a baseline. For me, Getting Things Done doesn’t work – or rather, I don’t work with it. Too structured for my life right now. So I choose a simpler approach to organizing myself.

You will get there – I have no doubt!

thanks for the reminder!

Love the cartoon!

Jenny’s last blog post..Say What You Need To

Yeah. You have to figure it out for yourself. But the Vikings had their collective. We really don’t have that anymore, unless you live in a little town where everthing is prescribed.

Now, everything seems to be everyone for himself. I still don’t really believe that, but I do think for the most part we are cut off from eachother.

What I like about the Vikings is that they had the stars imprinted on their memories when they went sailing. Maybe that helped them figure it all out.

Ellen Wilson’s last blog post..Don’t Cut the Horizon in Two

Rita

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