Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Miss out on many things to choose what matters.
大切なものを選ぶために、たくさんのことを見逃そう。

 

Fear of missing out (FOMO) has been overvalued these days.

From a worldwide view, there are billions of interesting people and opportunities out there. Thousands of new books are published every day. A new blog, podcast or media is born every single hour. Zillions of content are uploaded to the Internet every single minute.

We are unable to enjoy all of them every day because we have ‘only’ 24 hours — it’s long enough to do something meaningful, but too short to just consume these content (junk included).

There are millions of people and companies who emphasize the value of the opportunity they are providing. They are trying to make us feel like we would miss out on something if we wouldn’t choose what they provide.

But that’s a delusion. In almost all cases, our life is not going to be worse even if we don’t choose these opportunities. In fact our life and business can be better by not choosing them — because we can protect our time to think thoroughly what matters most to us.

Living our life is to miss out on almost all opportunities and to choose only a few of them. It’s not about countless opportunities we are missing — it’s about what we consciously choose out of them.

So when you’re in doubt or feeling FOMO, ask yourself this question:

Am I willing to choose what matters most to my life? If so, what is that?

 

 

An abundance of information is only a distraction.
大量の情報は気を紛らすだけ。

 

People who provide us with A LOT OF information for free has an intention. They want us to buy something from them.

Exposing ourselves to many information at once can paralyze our thinking. So always ask ourselves:

Do we really need to consume these information?

Does the information improve the quality of our life and business? Or just the authenticity of the person who provide the information?

 

 

See the things as it is.
モノゴトをありのままに見よう。

 

All business owners should learn how to draw so as to improve their judgment.

Why drawing? To draw something accurately, we have to closely examine it — without any prejudgment or biased perception. People often say that they are ‘not good’ at drawing, and it usually means that what they draw is far different from what the object really is. That’s because they are NOT free from such preconceptions while drawing: they are drawing based upon their prejudgements, not the object in front of them.

This kind of perceptual difference also occurs when we use ‘icons’ — a simplified, abstract drawing — in communication. Since such icons are different from what it actually is, people apply their own preconception to the icons. For example, someone draws an icon of a normal building, but others may see it as an intimidating, high-rise building.

Learning to draw forces you to use your brain differently. You have to recognize your prejudgment and let it go in order to draw the object as it is. And if you are a business owner, this practice — letting your prejudgment go — helps you observe a situation of your business (as well as yourself) clearly and make a better judgment.

Learning to draw improves the function of our brain, and it’s worth spending our time. Because what we think in our brain becomes our business.

 

 

Everything starts from a small step.
あらゆることは小さな一歩から始まる。

 

What is the one thing you are eager to do?

What would be the first, the smallest action — a baby step — to make that happen?

Why not take that tiny step today?

What would be the next baby step?

Why not put that into action tomorrow?

Why not keep the ball rolling bit by bit until you get what you want?