Due care in time...
To me, due care in time means thinking before something goes wrong. When the same people often seem lucky and others are always talking about their bad luck, I think part of the explanation lies in their attitude and the small choices they make.
The video is from 14 April 2010. I’m home from holiday and on my way to my office in Boca Raton on a rainy day. I’ve been thinking about luck, bad luck and what we can do ourselves to reduce the risk of mistakes.
Due care in time is something you do
Have you noticed that it’s often the same people who are lucky and the same people who are unlucky? I don’t think the explanation is the Law of Attraction or magical forces in the universe sending you a Ferrari.
Positive thoughts are fine. But to me, it’s about something more down to earth. A positive, optimistic attitude means you look for opportunities around you. And at the same time, you can think about what might go wrong and do something about it beforehand.
The optimist might stop and take a look
I use a little imaginary example: You’re driving along and see something lying in the road. The pessimist immediately thinks it’s just a plastic bag. The optimist thinks someone might have dropped something interesting and stops to look.
So it’s hardly surprising if the person who actually investigates finds something a little more often than the person who never looks. It isn’t magic. It’s a difference in the opportunities you see and what you do about them. Also read Skab din egen succes on finding your own way and acting on opportunities.
Three alarm clocks and an hour to spare
Then there’s the person who doesn’t get the job because the alarm didn’t go off, and asks what on earth he should have done. I have a little secret: When I have something important to do, I set three alarm clocks.
Not one, and not two. Three. Then I have to mess up three different alarm clocks to fail to get up in the morning. I try to make the mistake less likely before I go to bed.
I also say that I’ve never been late for a speaking engagement. A big part of the explanation is that I leave in good time.
I plan to be there half an hour early. And on top of that, I allow half an hour for something to go wrong. Suddenly, I have a whole hour to spare.
If I get a puncture, I have time to change the tyre or order a taxi. If an accident further down the road blocks traffic, I have a chance to find another route. That’s the sort of thing I associate with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s phrase "due care in time".
A car door and a Coke on the edge of the table
When I park somewhere with limited space, I park a little closer to the nicest car. My thinking is that its owner might be less inclined to slam their door into the side of my car, because they’re looking after their own too.
I find that it leaves me with fewer dents. That’s my little calculation, not a guarantee of what another driver will do.
It’s a bit like a Coke on the table. If you put it right on the edge, there’s a greater risk it’ll end up on the floor when you bump into it. Further in, it has a better chance of staying on the table.
So you can do something about the consequences of a mistake, even if you can’t prevent every movement or accident. Think before you put the glass down.
Look for opportunities and remove opportunities for mistakes
In the video, I’m pretty blunt with people who keep saying they’re unlucky or asking why others are always lucky. My point is that you can overlook opportunities, avoid taking chances and also fail to prepare for what might go wrong.
Along the way, I show a little of the area around my workplace. I think it’s fucking beautiful, even in bad weather. My own office is a small Regus office of around ten square metres above the Irish pub.
That doesn’t change my point: Look for opportunities rather than just problems, and try to remove the things you can see might go wrong in advance. In my opinion, luck and bad luck also have something to do with those actions.
And I finish with one very specific request: Go and make that bloody backup. Don’t wait until you need it.
Best wishes, Martin
Der er INGEN tvivl om, at Law of Attraction ej heller kun handler om at tro at universet selv bringer alle gaverne. Men, som du ganske rigtigt er inde på, så handler det hele om indstiling.
Når jeg er syg kommer jeg mig hurtigt på grund af det gode humør. Selvmedlidenhed hjælper ikke. Men det gør til gengæld den glade indstilling som siger: "Nå, det var noget skidt. Men nu kommer vi videre"…
Det med de tre vækkeure er genialt. Jeg bruger selv to. Det fungerer hver gang. 🙂
Rettidig omhu er et godt indspark, og der er ingen tvivl om, at vores indstilling til tingene har MEGET at sige. Om du vil kalde det LOA eller RO er sådan set en diskussion om pølsens smag. Substansen er den samme: vi præger vores resultater med den måde vi ser på udfordringerne foran os.