Work intelligently

Today I read this phrase in a marketing sheet:

"Many people work hard...
...the successful ones are the ones who work intelligently."

I phrased it earlier (in the The productivity trap) this way:

"WHAT to do and HOW to do is more important than the amount of things you achieve."

Or again in other words:

"It is not enough to work hard, it is important to work on the right thing in a good way."

An old phrase also says: "Switch on your brain before you do something."

In the last weeks I have seen pretty good examples where people worked hard on solutions where the goal could have been achieved better and easier by thinking simpler and different.

Another phrase says: "It's lonely in the saddle since the horse died."

Related posts: The productivity trap, Dynamic activity, Get focused with 3 questions, Responsibility and decision.

Living on others costs

Whenever I stand in front of my brother's grave I get reminded about the fact that I would have never met my wife if he would still be around.

I don't know if I would have married anyway and whom. And if I would have had the two wonderful children I do have now. Everything would be different I think.

What I also get reminded then in the next step is: Whenever people die, they make place for other life. And then I notice all the small things that are said and done harming others in one or the other way.

I think - in the same moment - of people getting exploited in their work and of people being psychological harmed for the sake or fun of somebody else.

We should remember that we do not have more permission to live than anybody else. I abominate people who just think of their own advantage, but dealing severely with myself, I can find myself also sometimes being egocentric.

There is overall equilibrium of life on this planet, just distribution of amount and quality varies from one corner of the world to another.

If I still would have my brother around, of course attention of my parents would be shared on us both. If he would have family probably we would see my parents less often to help us out looking after the children etc. - I must be thankful of the attention that I get and keep in mind, that whenever people are doing me a favor, they could have done for somebody else ... and maybe there would have been other people having a more serious and more urgent need for that attention...