17 Comments
Jun 24Liked by Martin Prior

Really great thoughts here. I'm going to have to practice this.

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No worries Aanya. It’s a good one if you get stuck and need a reframe.

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This is really thought-provoking. I just did this with a few projects I'm working on and it helped to validate that I should keep going. Although hard, the thought of giving up on them would be far worse.

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Thanks Chris. It’s a slightly different way of looking at it that can shift your thinking.

When we start to realise what we and the world would lose it can bring things into better perspective.

The flip side of course is that sometimes we do need to change and this type of thinking can be inertia that prevents us from making a change.

Life is never easy ay!

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Jun 23Liked by Martin Prior

I do to a degree. I run an astrophysics research group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I feel completely responsible for bringing in funding for my employees so it is hard to cut back. Indeed, I am ramping up some new research in which I am personally particularly interested.

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A thought provoking and enjoyable read. Thank you Martin.

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Thanks Richard. I hope it was useful.

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Great exercise. Pause and reflect, and then, as our dish towel says, "Keep Calm and Carry On."

That was a motivational poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 in preparation for World War II. The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, threatened with widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities.

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Jun 25·edited Jun 26Liked by Martin Prior

Currently on my lunch break - was just talking to my partner about whether or not to renew my website that auto-renews on 28 Jun 24 from one of those "business in a box" gimmicky sales pitch that I wasn't quit sure about but here we are nearly 2 yrs later and the prices are going up. Need to re-engage once my shift is over with this exercise when I am not pressed for time - thanks for the inspiration, this has been A Vocal Embrace #painttheworldpurple 🎨🌎💜

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Excellent. Hope it helped you map out the decision.

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Great insight, Martin. Taking a break and reconsidering the why is really helpful and something I need to focus more on.

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Cheers Jacob. It’s easy to forget our whys as we hustle each day. Always good to step back and reassess.

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Jun 24·edited Jun 24Liked by Martin Prior

I like the thought experiment. It's a great way to reconceptualize what we are doing.

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It certainly works in some instances. Just flipping it around focusses the mind on what is lost and hence what you gain by carrying on.

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Jun 23Liked by Martin Prior

Very timely for me as I am still working at 72. I need to consider the opportunity cost of that and will try your oarallel column technique. Thanks

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Thanks John. That’s a tricky conundrum. Do you have the opportunity to scale back the time you spend working as opposed to stopping completely?

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RemovedJun 23Liked by Martin Prior
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No worries Os. It’s very easy to think we can achieve everything in life but somethings we need to focus in those one or two things at a time. Really give those our 100% attention and then build from there.

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