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In our journey through life, we are often faced with challenges and setbacks. How we perceive and respond to these obstacles can greatly impact our overall happiness and well-being. Optimists, those who maintain a positive outlook, tend to enjoy happier lives compared to their pessimistic counterparts. In this blog post, we will explore the reasons why embracing optimism can lead to a more fulfilling and joyful existence.

Improved Mental and Physical Health

Optimists are known to experience lower levels of stress and anxiety, which can have significant benefits for both their mental and physical health. Studies have shown that positive thinking can strengthen the immune system, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and even increase longevity. By maintaining a hopeful perspective, optimists are more likely to engage in healthier lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise and balanced nutrition, further enhancing their well-being.

Resilience in the Face of Adversity

Life is full of ups and downs, and setbacks are inevitable. However, optimists have a remarkable ability to bounce back from disappointments and setbacks with renewed vigor. They view setbacks as temporary and believe in their own ability to overcome challenges. This resilience not only helps them maintain a positive mindset but also enables them to learn from their experiences and grow stronger.

Enhanced Relationships and Social Support

Optimists tend to foster positive and supportive relationships, as their hopeful outlook attracts like-minded individuals. They exude warmth, empathy, and kindness, which in turn encourages the development of strong social networks. Research indicates that individuals with robust social connections experience higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction. Optimists also tend to be more forgiving and understanding, which promotes healthier and more fulfilling relationships with others.

Increased Opportunities and Success

The power of positive thinking extends beyond personal well-being and influences professional success as well. Optimistic individuals are more likely to approach challenges with a solution-oriented mindset, leading to enhanced problem-solving abilities and increased creativity. Moreover, their positive energy and belief in possibilities make them more open to new opportunities. Optimists are not afraid to take risks and are more likely to persist in the face of failure, ultimately increasing their chances of achieving their goals.

Greater Overall Happiness

Optimism is closely linked to a sense of gratitude and appreciation for life’s blessings, no matter how small. By focusing on the positive aspects of life, optimists experience greater joy and contentment. They are more inclined to savor life’s pleasures, cultivate a sense of wonder, and find beauty in everyday moments. This positive mindset creates a feedback loop of happiness, where optimism fuels positive experiences, and positive experiences reinforce optimism.

Conclusion

The power of optimism should not be underestimated. It has the ability to transform lives, making them happier, healthier, and more fulfilling. By embracing a positive outlook, individuals can experience improved mental and physical health, cultivate resilience, foster meaningful relationships, seize opportunities, and ultimately live a life filled with joy and satisfaction. So, let us choose to embrace optimism and unlock the boundless potential it holds for our own well-being and happiness.

We’ll delve into a topic that may initially seem paradoxical: why some of the most brilliant minds in the world often pose seemingly stupid questions. Prepare to have your preconceived notions shattered as we explore the intelligence behind seemingly absurd inquiries.

The Curious Nature of Intelligence

Intelligence is multifaceted, often exhibiting itself in unexpected ways. We’ve been conditioned to associate intelligence with profound knowledge, insightful answers, and the ability to solve complex problems. However, true intellectual prowess goes beyond these surface-level assumptions. The truly intelligent among us possess an insatiable curiosity and an uncanny knack for exploring uncharted territories of thought.

Questioning the Norm

One of the hallmarks of intelligent individuals is their willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. They have an innate ability to question established norms, dismantling assumptions and inviting a fresh perspective. While this may lead to seemingly foolish queries, it is through these unconventional inquiries that true genius manifests itself.

Igniting the Spark

Imagine an inventor who posed the question, “Why can’t we fly like birds?” or a physicist pondering, “What if time is an illusion?” At first glance, these questions may appear nonsensical or even naive. Yet, it is precisely this audacity to question what others deem impossible that ignites the spark of innovation and fuels the progress of humanity.

Uncovering Hidden Gems

In a world that often seeks immediate answers, we tend to overlook the richness concealed within seemingly trivial or idiotic questions. The brilliance lies in the ability to uncover hidden gems beneath the surface, to explore uncharted territories of thought, and to challenge the status quo. By daring to ask these apparently foolish questions, brilliant minds pave the way for new discoveries and paradigms.

Embracing Vulnerability

Asking an apparently stupid question requires a degree of vulnerability. It means setting aside the fear of being judged or ridiculed for one’s curiosity. It takes courage to expose oneself to potential criticism, but it is through this vulnerability that the most extraordinary insights can emerge.

Expanding the Realm of Possibility

Stupid questions, far from being the mark of ignorance, are the driving force behind expanding the boundaries of human knowledge. They lead to breakthroughs and paradigms that reshape the world as we know it. The act of asking these seemingly absurd questions demonstrates an individual’s capacity to think beyond the confines of convention and envision a reality that has yet to be discovered.

Conclusion

So, the next time you encounter what appears to be a mind-numbingly dumb question, I implore you to pause and consider the intelligence behind it. The ability to ask seemingly stupid questions is a testament to the remarkable minds that dare to challenge the norm, explore the unexplored, and question the unquestionable. Let us embrace the audacity of these queries, for they are the beacons of intellectual brilliance, illuminating our path towards a future defined by unbounded possibilities.

Getting home

It was a rainy Thursday evening in October. As I approached the westbound Docklands Light Railway platform, I realised it was stacked 6 layers of commuters thick – everyone meshed together like penguins in the Arctic.

I could notice regular characters from the 6:30pm brigade – the towering gentleman with a style and demeanour out of a P.G. Wodehouse novel, whom I’ll refer to as Bertie. Also present was Felicity – right at the back of the platform, but unmissable not because of her stature, but because of her signature neon trench coat that radiated pinkish hues onto the faces of nearby commuters, whether they liked it or not.

A train arrived, packed; the penguins jostled towards the doors, nobody alighted, but a lucky commuter or two managed to squeeze on – with the inevitable penalty of being merged with a sweaty scrum of strangers. Another train arrived two minutes later – a few more commuters with sharp elbows inserted themselves into the throng, only to have their noses compressed into the armpits of other commuters as the doors closed.

Not being a fan of crowds, armpits or body odour, I had seen enough.

My choices were:

a) go back to the office and wait an hour or two until things improved

b) wait around until the crowds lightened

c) find inspiration from somewhere that offers a non-obvious solution

I turned around and looked at those fortunate souls who were heading east – their incoming train was almost empty and so was their platform. And then I realised that doing the opposite of everyone else was the only way I was going to get home at a reasonable hour. So I boarded the eastbound train and off she sailed – I noticed the westbound platform of the next station, Heron Quays, was jam-packed too; I stayed on. Next up, 2 minutes down the track, was South Quay, and to my delight I noticed that the westbound platform only had a handful of passengers. I got off the train and changed to the westbound platform. After waiting for 20 seconds, the westbound train arrived half empty – to my huge delight. I was about to retrace my steps, but I was heading home.

I made myself comfortable on the train. Heron Quays approached, before the door opened to a flood of eager commuters, all jostling to make it onboard, leaving hundreds of disillusioned faces to watch the doors close and the train depart. It had been 10 minutes since I had headed east from Canary Wharf. And now I was approaching it again. The mass of commuters on the platform didn’t appear to have changed – Bertie, whose moustache could no longer be contained, hadn’t moved; and Felicity’s pink coat continued to act as a fluorescent upwards highlighter on neighbouring faces. Neither stood the faintest chance of boarding this train, or any other anytime soon. I was glad I hadn’t stayed with them.

There are occasions when taking the obvious path isn’t going to provide the benefits we desire.

Falling asleep

I sometimes suffer with insomnia. It always happens when it’s important that I get a good night’s sleep for a challenge the next day – a job interview, an exam, an important meeting or even a long-haul flight – or some other event that requires me to be in tip-top mental shape. In order to give myself every chance of a good night’s sleep I thoroughly prepare in the countdown to snooze time: I read fiction, I avoid blue light, I drink tea designed for sleep, I take a bath and I might even use my wife’s lavender pillow spray just in case it might give me an edge. And when it’s finally time to sleep, I lie there monitoring myself to see if I have fallen asleep yet – and of course, I haven’t, so I try something different – I lie on my right side, then I lie on my back, then return to lying on my left side again.

After half an hour of fruitless attempts to sleep, I remember that I read somewhere that carbs really help sleep and also apple cider vinegar! So I get up and go into the kitchen for a cheese sandwich. Cheese is added because I recall that you get bad dreams from eating cheese before bed – but dreams mean sleep, so I cut off a large chunk just to make sure I get enough of a dose. I pour half a glass of apple cider vinegar and steel myself before somehow dispatching it in return for that magic soporific feeling that I’m fighting so hard to achieve.

Like an Olympic sprinter about to settle into the blocks, I return to bed and I mentally psych myself up again for my battle with sleep. I lie there for 10 minutes, then I try to meditate – slow breathing, acceptance, being the observer of my own thoughts. Still nothing, then I count sheep, this never works…maybe I’m too hot? The duvet is abandoned…wait, aren’t weighted blankets supposed to help – the duvet returns. The hours go by, with one experiment after another failing to deliver the goods. In short, it appears that trying really, really hard to sleep doesn’t work!

I now know that trying hard to get to sleep is going will be counterproductive. The opposite of trying to sleep is trying to stay awake – but that sounds like a ridiculous strategy for getting to sleep. But when all else fails, laying in bed in complete darkness while trying to stay awake has helped me to drift off.

Apparently, I am not the only one this strategy works for. Paradoxical Intention (PI) – having the intention to stay awake as a means to fall asleep, is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. According to an article in Psychology Today, trying to take control of involuntary responses – such as sleeping, blushing and trying hard not to laugh, often backfires.

Whenever you can’t sleep, give reverse psychology a whirl and you might end up quickly falling asleep by trying not to.

Avoiding investment risk

Your investment faces the least risk when you are guaranteed not to lose money. Examples of risk-free investments include bank savings accounts and cash ISAs.

But, inflation erodes the value of cash investments and even the 4% interest rates we see UK banks offering in 2023 means that with CPI at 10%, your investment in these products faces a real return of -6%. In my book, the guarantee of losing 6% of your purchasing power over the course of one year doesn’t seem risk-free at all.

The best way to avoid investment risk may actually be to take on risk – better financial returns tend to be associated with higher risk. I’m not suggesting a trip to Vegas with your life savings. Or cryptocurrencies, NFTs or some other untested fad. Oh, and I’m absolutely not dispensing financial advice here either!

The point that I’m making is that unless you are investing for a short period of time, the stock market – which is considered riskier than cash (but safer than Vegas), has been a more reliable way for your investments to outpace inflation than cash, as the graph of the FTSE Global Equities Index shows.

Product Ideation

Assume that the customer segment for a product you are working on is made up of sensible people who want original products. Intuitively, the focus should be on thinking up a small number of sensible ideas based on the conventions that the target customers live by.

Originality is borne out of a large volume of ideas, and it’s usually the ideas that are the furthest from sensible that end up sparking novelty. Wild, crazy, out-of-the-box ideas often end up being the genesis of original, practical, breakthrough ideas that give you the edge over the competition. Design Thinking can be a useful framework to support the generation of new ideas that solve your client’s problems in a better way than

Strength

People get strong by lifting weights, don’t they?

Actually, it’s the lowering of the weight (known as the eccentric movement) where the magic happens – read more here. New weight training machines are able to benefit athletes by increasing the weight on the eccentric portion of the repetition. I use the Vitruvian Trainer+ to accomplish this. Running down a hill or walking down stairs will strengthen your muscles and bones more than ascents.

Philosophy

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life

Albert Camus

Pursuing failure is how you improve and ultimately succeed. Effective weight training demands that your last repetition is the one that you fail to complete. You need to experience failure in business in order to develop insight into how to be more successful. Facing your fears and insecurities head-on leads to breakthroughs in your resilience and perseverance. Being open about your vulnerabilities will make you more confident and attractive to others. Ultimately, our challenges, failures, struggles and disappointments are the sources of our strength, character, wisdom and satisfaction.

Flightpaths

Until February 2022, a trip to Japan from the UK involved 8 hours of eastward flying over Russia.

Avoiding Russian airspace would surely involve an easterly flight over the countries that lie south of Russia.

It turns out that a westbound flight to Japan can sometimes be a faster and more fuel-efficient option.

Use sparingly

It doesn’t always make sense to do the opposite of convention. Following established practices and learning from the cumulative wisdom and experience of humanity is often the right path to take. And following the wisdom of the crowd – especially when the crowd is large and made up of diverse, independent perspectives, can leverage collective intelligence. Statistics from the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? shows the Phone a Friend (the expert) option yielded a correct response 65% of the time compared with 91% from the Ask the Audience.

Innovating and sometimes problem-solving demands that we try something completely new and distinct from Bertie, Felicity and everyone else. Consideration of doing the opposite of what is obvious may lead you to find a better solution.

I work in technology.  My role, along with the entire technology organisation that I am part of, is to provide optimal solutions for the problems we have been asked to address.

Before I go any further, I will define what I mean by the terms ‘problem’ and ‘solution’.  A quick disclaimer: these are my own, off-the-cuff, definitions, and are in the context of technology product management.

problem

noun

1. an unwanted challenge to the customer that needs to be dealt with and overcome.  
2. a benefit or desire perceived by a customer segment that provides convenience, comfort, or prestige.  

solution

noun

1. a specific implementation to address a customer problem or achieve a customer benefit.  
2. Solutions to a ‘need to have’ problem are often referred to as a painkiller, while a solution to a ‘nice to have’ problem is analogous to a vitamin.

During the development of new or evolving software products, the following are examples of artefact types that are commonly used in software product development to articulate the problem and solution respectively.

Problem space	Solution space
Business Requirements  User Stories Use Cases User Needs Customer pain points and desires User Personas	Wireframes Functional specifications Prototypes Software solution architecture Business process model

Define the Problem First!

The problem space needs to be explored, defined, and properly understood by the team before candidate solutions can be explored.   At school, the teachers drilled into us that we needed to carefully read and understand the exam question before arriving attempting to solve it.

Regardless of what methodology is used, a solution cannot be solved without the problem being first known and understood.  This statement is so very basic and obvious that you are probably wondering why I am even bothering to write it!  All will become clear if you bear with me.

Problems polluted with solutions

When I started my career in software – when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had received no training and all I wanted to do was to write code and learn how to be a better programmer; my focus was very much on technology, while I paid very little attention to the customers and their needs.  I have observed the same tendency afflicting most teams in every organisation I have worked with since then.  Technology teams tend to be plagued with a laser-like focus on the solution space.  And frustratingly, even some team members, with decades of experience, who have the role of specifying the problem, appear to be mesmerised by the glamour and glory of the solution – to the extent that problem space artefacts, such as business requirements, are communicated as a weird farrago of user needs, technical design and even implementation detail! This confusing and unhelpful mixture of problem and solution statements is referred to as “solution pollution”.

Examples of solution pollution

Solution Pollution Version:

I can click on the ‘Play Song’ button to start the song

What’s wrong with it?

The use of the word ‘click’ implies that a mouse (or some other pointing device) is required – this is a facet of the solution. However, the requirement to play a song is likely to be equally valid for devices that aren’t connected to a mouse

A button is a UI component – this is a design and an implementation detail.

The inclusion of the words ‘Play Song’ implies that it must be written on the user interface – this is a user experience detail.

Other ways to initiate a song playing are implicitly omitted – such as voice command or gestures, although these may be better solutions

Pollution-Free Version:

I can instruct the selected music track to play

Why is this version an improvement?

Solution Pollution – what’s the big deal?

Not knowing what the actual problem is – the most important piece of information I need to be mindful of when working on a solution is the definition of the problem I am tasked with solving.  In the same way that I need to read, and re-read an exam question as I am answering it, I need to continually focus on the problem in the course of addressing it.

If the requirements are muddled together with someone’s assumption about how the requirements must be solved, then those tasked with solving the problem have a choice:

1. reject the requirements because they are not fit for purpose
2. ask for the requirements to be stated in a way that does not imply a solution
3. filter out the solution – either mentally or by restating the requirements themselves
4. go along with aspects of the solution that is stated in the requirements

In my experience, 4) is usually the choice taken.  Challenging a requirement can lead to friction with colleagues, and especially with project leads, who are keen to meet their milestones and may not be supportive of reopening discussions – this is especially true in waterfall projects – including those that are labelled as agile, but really aren’t.

Important requirements can be hidden or distorted by describing an implementation; describing an obvious implementation will stifle the team from working together to identify a better solution.

Innovation –  to improve or maintain market share, organisations need to develop better products that differentiate themselves from the competition.  Better products rely on innovation from empowered, collaborative teams.  Collaborative teams rely on a clear definition of the problems they are tasked to solve – not product requirements that indicate how the solution must work!  If the solution is stated in the requirements, the team is unlikely to feel empowered to come up with an alternative or to challenge the stated solution.

Cost and feasibility – a requirement that implies or explicitly states a solution may not be feasible to deliver within the budget and time constraints of a project.  If NASA had a requirement such as “the pen must write in space”, it would have eliminated the pencil, cameras and voice recording as options.   Alternatively, if the requirement was stated as “record information in space”, a wide range of viable options would have been identified to address the real need.  The story goes that the Space Pen used by NASA cost more than US $1,000,000 to develop, meanwhile the Russians instead used the pencil!

User experience – if the requirements are polluted with aspects of the solution, the user experience may be artificially hampered.   For example, if a requirement states “the customer needs to be emailed each time a payment is made from their account” then choices that could lead to a superior customer experience aren’t in the frame.  Instead, if the requirement is expressed as “the customer needs to be notified of payments made from their account”, then a number of choices become available and assessments can occur to determine which one is optimal.  

The consequences of teams honouring solutions that masquerade as requirements may lead the users of the solution to think that they are not properly considered, understood, or cared about.  Would you use a product if it is clear that the team that designed it is not interested in caring about your needs?

 

Why does solution pollution happen?

The delivery team insist on it

The team responsible for designing and delivering the solution are sometimes fearful of ambiguity and the collective responsibility of shaping a solution that may not be accepted by the business stakeholders.  Consequently, many teams insist on having design and implementation details included as part of requirements.

Business stakeholders knowing the answer

Over-eager business stakeholders may be keen on advocating a particular solution – this often happens if they have seen a competing solution in the marketplace that they would like to mimic or when they possess some technical knowledge. While solution ideas from everyone should be welcomed, they should not be mixed into the requirement.

Customers indicating what they want

Customers often provide feedback about new features that they want to materialise in forthcoming versions of products.  

As Henry Ford may, or may not, have said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Instead, if we focus on the feedback “whys”, we are likely to reveal underlying goals and motivations that underpin the feedback.  These “whys” reveal a fundamental problem (or problems) that needs to be addressed – and considering these instead is likely to lead to a wider range of solution options to choose from.

This may lead you to question: Shouldn’t the stakeholders specify a solution? The technology organisation is ultimately responsible for the solution they implement.  Does that mean they must define this on their own, excluding other stakeholders, customers, or users?  No!  The technology organisation is not responsible for defining the problem, but they are not uniquely positioned to imagine every possible way of addressing the problem.  While it is important that the solution and problem aren’t muddled together, stakeholders should feel empowered to provide solution ideas and to feel involved.

Bad habits

Companies are often guilty of unwittingly incubating bad practices – including organisations that are prevalent in the software industry.  Junior colleagues are often mentored by more senior, experienced colleagues who have cultivated bad practices because they too followed the methods adopted by the herd.

Lack of exposure to good practices

Good learning courses, good books, good YouTube videos and good colleagues can mitigate the bad practices that can be observed around us.  Good practices must be continually reinforced over a long period of time before they eventually stick – especially if they are reversing bad practices.  

Design Constraints belong in the solution space

Design constraints that have been decided by an organisation need to be an input to the team who are designing and building the product.  And occasionally the regulations of sectors – such as those in banking or pharmaceuticals may impose design constraints as well.

These constraints are still not requirements: they sit in the solution space because they limit, or even indicate, the solution options available.

Summary

Defining the problem facing users, customers and stakeholders is both liberating and empowering. It enables teams to work together to create solutions that are in the best interests of the users and other product stakeholders.

If you care about innovating to solve your customers’ problem; if you want to avoid wasting time building a solution that does answer the exam question, or if you care about simple, elegant, effective solutions that are both cost-effective and minimise effort, then please, please ensure you clearly define the problem first and clearly separate this from facets for the solution.

If you are striving for high performance – be it for your business or a personal competency, you should be interested in tracking metrics that indicate if changes need to be made to improve.  

Managing a software engineering team might involve measuring the lines of code written or perhaps the number of story points the team has accrued over the course of a sprint.

In learning a language with the Duolingo app, the primary measure of progress is the number of points I have earned between Monday and Sunday.

Insurance companies measure the number of new customers gained.

Airlines gather metrics showing the number of unoccupied seats.

Behaviour adapted for metrics

People or businesses will inevitably amend their behaviour if there is a particular metric (or metrics) that define their success – they are likely to optimise so that their metric scores are as high as possible.

For instance, if I worked in an organisation that only measures and rewards me for my promptness in replying to emails, I am likely to optimise the way I work so that responding to emails becomes my top priority.  The downside is that it is likely that I am going to be distracted in meetings, the thoughtfulness of my emails will most likely suffer and the time I spend in deep work will be restricted to those times when my colleagues of clients aren’t sending email.  Focusing our attention on a particular set of metrics is inevitably going to cause side effects. 

• A software engineering team is likely to lower their focus on the performance, quality and elegance of their code if they are being measured purely on the number of lines written.

• Duolingo’s weekly finish line is Sunday, which is also when time runs short, so I frequently rack up quick, easy points on Duolingo by repeating the beginner lessons I have already mastered – and in doing so, I will learn nothing new.

• An insurance business focusing on bringing in new business may end up doing so at the expense of loyal customers, who become disgruntled at the superior prices offered to new customers.

• Airlines overbook flights to ensure seat utilisation is as near to 100% as possible; but in the pursuit of flights departing at full capacity, the airline may be forced to turn passengers with paid-for tickets away – and be faced with having to pay them compensation .

Pair the yin metric with the yang metric

Andy Gove suggested that when identifying a measure, a counter-measure should be paired with it.  The counter-measure represents the unwanted side effect that introducing the measure could inadvertently foster.

• In software, the number of lines of code written should be paired with a quality metric and a performance metric

• The Duolingo app should measure (and score me) based on new material I have learned over a given week as well as scoring me by the number of lessons taken 

• Insurance companies should pair the metric of new customers with the retention of existing ones

• Airlines should not just measure the number of seats occupied, but also the number of passengers turned away due to the flights being overbooked

Metrics in business and in life are like the displays in a cockpit – the improvement in one positive measure (rate of ascent) needs to be assessed in tandem with a counter-measure (airspeed) – if this isn’t done, stalling becomes a risk in aviation and in life in general.

Picking the right measures needs to be balanced and holistic in order to drive meaningful and sustainable positive outcomes.

I sometimes look up at a blue sky with white puffy (cumulus) clouds and see whether I can spot a shape.  I might see that the cloud has taken the form of a dragon.  Another person might look at the same cloud and see a fish.

As the cloud moves, it morphs into something new, before reinventing itself over and over again.

My judgment on a product vision, a meeting or a person will not be the same as someone else’s.   Neither of us will be right.  Everyone has a perspective and few things remain the same for long.

The shopkeeper doesn’t like me, the neighbour’s cat judges me, the interview did not go well – these perspectives are all as accurate and transitory as my interpretation of the cloud being shaped as a dragon. 

Email is still a useful way to communicate, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to be take out a small chunk of someone’s day.  Most people, including me, have at one point or another fallen into one of the traps that waste others’ time.

 Some examples are listed below:

Dear Julia, Dear Reed, Dear Julius etc.

I’m Julian and the clues are in my email address julian.reed@[my_employers_name].com as well as in my signature at the bottom of the email you are responding to

FPA CARP BRD, please respond by EOD.  TYVM

Sorry that I come across as someone who needs their mind sharpening.  But thank you for spending part of your working day thinking up how to incorporate a little cryptic puzzle into your message for me…

! Urgent flags for a non-urgent message

Your lack of preparation is not my emergency.  Using the urgent flag does not mean that you jump the queue!  You’re going to the back of the queue!

LOTS OF TEXT IN CAPS!

Don’t shout at me, I’m sensitive!  

Or are you worried that I will not understand the most important aspects of the email because I was off that day in school when they taught how to read the alphabet in lower case?

These feature’s are all aligned with the MVP.  As for the main feature, it’s delivery date is next week.

There are two specks on my computer screen and the dusting I am doing to get rid of them isn’t working!  Oh, hang on, they are apostrophes – you did that on purpose, didn’t you?  

A useful refresher on apostrophe rules can be found on this page.

An email sent to 55 people and only four people need to actively engage

51 people don’t need to watch the email ‘tennis match’ between those actively engaging.  In my opinion, real tennis is a good spectator sport –   but none of the email spectators are on the edge of their seats, glued to Outlook, awaiting the email equivalent of a winning drop shot.

John replies to all 55 people in the thread when saying nothing more than “thanks” to Jane

Nothing changes for me, or the other 53 recipients, when we receive John’s email indicating that he had sufficient gratitude to type 6 characters.  Saying “thanks” is great John, but do we all really need to know that you are polite?

New Year’s resolutions are a wonderful idea. But they need be applied throughout the year to have their full effect.

There are five resolutions that have the biggest impact.

1. Exercise for at least 15o minutes a week. Why? Because the long term holistic benefits to body and mind are beyond anything that any doctor could prescribe.
2. Meditate for 10 minutes or more daily, preferably at the very start of your day. This helps give our minds the chance to choose the meaning we apply to external events.
3. Sleep for a solid 7 hours or more a night. If you are going to pick only one resolution on the list, pick this one. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night supports our physical and mental wellbeing.
4. Consume what benefits you. What we read, listen to, watch, think, drink and eat all affect our lives. For example, I can focus my thoughts on a rude neighbour or I can instead choose to think about the kindness of a colleague – both will influence how I feel.
5. Be grateful every second of the day. If we direct our minds to gratitude, it is impossible to simultaneously harbour negative emotions. We are the best versions of ourselves when we possess a positive mindset and gratitude is a great vehicle to take us there.