Thursday, April 30, 2009

Seven P

Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance –

Dad calls the above the seven “P” method of life, sounds simple and easy to follow doesn’t it.

First let me say to everyone who has commented upon, linked to me, following me or who has sent me an email since I posted, just thanks so much for your support and all of your kind words. I believe in the axiom: "that you get out of things what you put into to them" but your response has been well above anything I could have expected.

So, just thanks guys, (you too S and F) the comments were very humbling and reinforces my belief in the community we have going on here. I really would like to thank those whose blogs I have not read as of yet or commented upon, who have chosen to follow me or comment upon these posts, so please just give me a few days so that I may respond in kind. I would like to take a minute to point out this community directory being compiled by Steevo here. And if I have omitted anyone, in regards to linking, please just send me an email or leave a comment.

I thought I might try and do some interactive things with this blog and my readers, which I think makes blogging a more worthwhile experience. First I am going to try and respond to every comment made; I like it when other bloggers do that. As many of you know I am an attorney, so from time to time I was hoping to make you all members of a jury, I will lay out some facts to a case and see what you think about how the case should be resolved. Some days I may get a bit political or legal on you also, we will see. Also like today I hope to ask you a question or two and look forward to all of your responses, especially those from overseas to today’s question.

My Dad has a bunch of expressions he passed on to us as we grew up. I love my dad maybe more now than I ever did before. Dad is really a simple guy who grew up during the Great Depression; whose parents were both dead by the time he was 16; joined the marines at 17; went to Korea to fight in a war came back; went to work; raised a family and he is now retired in Florida. It is tough to tell Dad a hard luck story or to formulate reasonable excuses for lack of effort too. In some other post I will get into all that, later on, describing my family some more and possibly some issues, Dad and me, had earlier in this life.

I’ll bet most of you have learned expressions or common sayings, maybe passed onto you by family or friends, that guide or affect your life. My Dad is a big believer in being prepared for things and something preparation does for me is to give me a sense of confidence. Whether it was taking a test in school, playing a sport, taking an interview, meeting a client for a big meeting or going to court, if I am prepared I am always more confident. My Dad would love this post of Gurney’s I read today, and anyone reviewing for finals or revising for tests at any school at any level may benefit from taking a look at his post. Preparation I believe is one key to success in any event in life and when those times arose that I was not prepared Dad would let me know about it as the results were always evident.

He had another little saying that I have taken to heart a lot more after meeting a certain little Aussie and I think I will share it with you also. Now we never had a cat and quite frankly I and they aren’t even friendly, as I am allergic to them, but Dad always says that “you got to let the kitten have the ball of string every once in awhile or he won’t come back and play with you”.

Dad believes in fairness and balance in this life. He suggests there maybe times in life when you should save another’s face, so don’t try and win every thing in life, allow others around you to share in success, and they will stick around you. He explains if you try and have everything your way and put forth no thought or effort for others, you may end up without friends at all, just people who may want something from you. Friends to me are everything in this life and I am so glad to have all of you who I have come to consider, new friends.

So here is what I would like to know: what expression, saying or axioms have affected, guided or influenced your lives; who taught you it and what does it mean to you?

Take care and be safe


Cvn70

20 comments:

  1. YAY im the first commenter

    kk here is mine

    "sebastian if you dont get over 85% in any test or exam i will send you to a tutor"

    Thats my mom for you always trying to squeeze the best out of something. this as affected me how lol i do anything from blackmail a teacher to buttering them up but the easyist of all STUDY STUDY STUDY to et a great mark. it also makes me sad when she goes oh only 97% mabey you should have studied more. but the biggest affect of all is probly caring as she cares enough always to ask what im doing at school ow can she make it better and "Do you want me to get a tutor" trust me tutors in New Zealand are expensive lol.

    still when ever i ask for a dutch tutor i get back "stop learning such a useless language why not me get you some more english tutoring"

    lol

    dank u wel
    (thanks)

    seb

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  2. my maxims i guess are
    "do unto others..."
    (a bit boring, but that's me)
    "always try to be fair"
    "there's 2 sides to every story"

    no idea how i came to have them ingrained so deep though.

    my favourite maxim (that i don't *always* follow), is
    "yield to temptation - it may not pass your way again"

    torchy!

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  3. "You learn more by listening than by talking"
    This was drilled into me by my late grandfather.

    The back story is that I never could shut my mouth when I was little. Especially in school. Somehow I managed to get the straight A's, but every report card I got marked for poor behavior because I could't shut my trap. It took many years to really understand how important this advice was, and sadly I'm not sure I really understood it until after my grandfather had passed.

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  4. i'm not sure where i got it from or if it was just my own thoughts on it. but i use to tell people that

    "if they are brave enough to ask the question, then they must be ready for the answer"

    and that goes to say that if i was ever asked directly if i was gay i would tell them yes.

    i think my thought was that if they were asking then they already knew, and it was more of a confirmation.

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  5. Be the change you want to see in the world.

    and of course

    I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they go by.


    I look forward to interesting things from your blog.

    Matt

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  6. There are so many, but here's one I developed for myself through studying biology:

    "The act of creation is much more difficult than the act of destruction." Or some variant thereof.

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  7. Uh, my favorites include:

    "Its easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission"

    "Pain is weakness leaving the body"

    My favorite by far was told to me by my dad, i cant remember who actually said it...

    "When you die, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

    I've always tried to live to the fullest...

    btw, the seven p's where huge in my house too...

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  8. I don't know if there are any expressions or something that has affected my life. I can't think of any right now. Well my grand mother used to say something like "there will be a good day too" when something bad happened or something went wrong. I notice that I'm thinking that when something I do goes wrong.

    S.

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  9. @ Seb it must be know nice knowing your mom is always squeezing you lol but it shows how much she cares about you and I hope you squeeze her back :P, thanks

    @ Torchy maybe we should all be yielding to temptation more :P and you always practise do onto to others at least in your dreams I have read about. A fair minded indivdual though you are.:), thanks

    @ Dan sounds like you heard it often :D It really is something that I try to do a lot in my business as you need to understand what the client is saying about a situation before you can act, thanks

    @ jay to me that is a brave response and attitude, but in fact I agree if the question is asked they probably are asking for a reason. I am still not sure i would divulge the information myself, a weakness of mine perhaps, thanks

    @ Matt i hope you and your generation are part of the change we need in this country and deadlines - wooshing sound that is not giving me a pretty image lol, thanks

    @ AEK I know this for sure as creation involves planning, thought, revisions, hours upon hours of testing or modeling and caring. Where as destruction of ones work maybe done in an instant and without thought of any kind, thanks

    @ Randy I like the one about its "the life in your years" how true, and i am not surprised you have heard of the seven P's yourself, or that you live life to the fullest, thanks

    @ S hey thanks so much for stopping by and your mom understood what it is like to ride the waves, cause i also think life has it ups and downs and you need to stay in the boat during both times to ride out the problems of life, thanks

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  10. my Grandfather always told me two things.

    1) NEVER believe everything you here, or see. always question it. always question what may be 'normal thinking'

    2) think about it! dont take it at face value

    3) (his 'business-esque' advice) There is only ONE thing people will always need in the world, and cant make more of it-- and that's LAND!

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  11. Agh. I can't think of any at the moment my mind just went blank.
    But just the morning, on the way to work I flipped through a talk radio channel - and they were discussing "things your parents told white lies to you as a child" stuff.

    The one that cracked me up was what a caller said:

    "we always told our children that Cheerios were bagel seeds - if you planted them in the garden, they might grow."

    Oh, and my Mom recently ruined my belief in her magical power to change traffic lights to green. When I was a child (in the passenger seat) and we were stopped at a light, Mom would say something like "ok, I bet the light will change... 3.... 2.... 1... CHANGE!!" and voila, the light turned green.

    Only recently did she tell me (the obvious) that all she did was look sideways at the light facing the cross street and wait until it went to orange or red, and the lights had a 2 or 3 second delay before changing to green.

    *sigh*

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  12. my mum is always readin some guy named Dwane Dyer or sumthin like that. an hes gots lots of sayins more than i can rembr. but i think Torchy was thinkin of twins with his coments...
    do unto others...yeah treat yur twin the way u want to be cause umm hes kinda like me...
    2 sides to a story...definately unless yur triplets. but dont mattr cause mum always believes C's version over mine when we get into truble.

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  13. @ Tyler One of n my faborite presidents said something very similar, trust but verify, thanks

    @ Seth i love the bagel seeds line and think i may use that in the future, thanks

    @ AgentK I guess when yo are a twin some of these sayings can have double meanings :), thanks

    @ Jakee, if i new you were stopping by i would have dustred and vacummed first, lol. i was trying for thought provoking but from you i am estactic with the idea of whimsical :P, thanks

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  14. @AgentK: i wasn't actually thinking of twins when i said those, but i can see that they would be fitting. i am a gemini, so i am almost a pair of twins in my head!

    as for seeing both sides of the story, sometimes that just equates to not being able to make up my mind.

    @bob: LOL @ your response to jake!

    torchy!

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  15. hmm, dont know what an axiom is! And I could of read this post completley wrong! Im gonna say I was self guided in life! Parents never pressured me to do anytin (better in the long run, NOO!) Oh well, as my mother always says
    "lifes a bitch, and then you die"
    hey, theres one!

    xxxxx :P

    (btw, this is a very high brow blog! i mean that in a nice way!) :) :) :)

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  16. @ Me, Myself axiom its a proper english word google it lol, self guided is that how you got lost :P, thannks

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  17. Hey Bob...

    My late dad always said its better to enjoy what you, than to make loads of money.

    I have a similar maxim to jay.osa , except mine goes "If you want to look in the box, you better be prepared for what you might find" And yeah, I have come out to a few people because of that.

    But the most important thing I will always tell anyone is that Before you can love anyone, you have to love yourself first.

    Sethy

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  18. @ sethy i am still looking for something i enjoy until then i better keep making some monies, and still working on loving myself somedays, thanks

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  19. "...don't piss into the wind..."
    Possibly the BEST advice I ever got

    B xo

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