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By Steve Tobak, Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we\u2019re young, life just seems to happen without us having much say in the matter. Then responsibility begins to shift from our parents to us. From that point forth, our own decisions and circumstance dominate our lives. Those two factors are largely responsible for how things turn out for us. And the two are intimately related.<\/p>\n We often observe how successful people make their own luck, but that\u2019s really just another way of saying they make smart decisions when it comes to taking risks and creating or capitalizing on opportunities. So success in business \u2013 and in life, I would argue \u2013 is primarily a function of making smart decisions.<\/p>\n Since every decision you make is based entirely on your own thoughts and feelings \u2013how your brain processes experiences, events, and information from a variety of sources to draw conclusions \u2013 it\u2019s actually not that complicated to determine how to make smarter decisions. This is how you do it.<\/p>\n Be present in the moment.<\/b><\/p>\n The first time I told the story of how an ex-girlfriend\u2019s father took me in his Porsche to visit his startup company, where I learned about the coming wave of digital electronics (that was the late 70s, mind you), I remember thinking, what if I hadn\u2019t been paying attention to the guy?<\/p>\n There have since been maybe seven or eight similarly critical random events that changed my life. And if I hadn\u2019t been engaged in the moment they would have simply passed me by. I never even would have known I missed them. And where would I be today? It\u2019s a sobering thought.<\/p>\n Trust your instincts.<\/b><\/p>\n Using the same example, what if that simple event hadn\u2019t resonated with me the way it did? What if I hadn\u2019t jumped right on it without hesitation and capitalized on the opportunity? I never would have gone back to grad school, gotten into the high-tech industry, and had an awesome 20+ year career.<\/p>\n When it comes to decision-making, listen to what smart, knowledgeable people say but, in the end, you have to make the right call. If you learn to trust your gut, you won\u2019t hesitate when what you\u2019re hearing is right. And when you do hesitate, you\u2019ll know it isn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n Think critically.<\/b><\/p>\n The more you allow yourself to be overloaded by information, interrupted by communication, and bombarded by distraction, the less time and attention you have left to focus on what really matters and question the accuracy, efficacy, and applicability of what you\u2019re learning and experiencing.<\/p>\n Let me say it another way. By opting for quantity of information, communication, and possessions over quality, you sacrifice deep understanding through logical reasoning in favor of the next shiny object, inspiring post, or other feel-good nonsense that grabs your ever-shrinking attention span.<\/p>\n You would not believe how much dumber that makes you. Without logical constructs like deductive reasoning and the scientific method, our society would never have progressed. There would be no technology. We\u2019d all be stuck back in the dark ages. Stop and think about that for a minute \u2026 without checking your phone.<\/p>\n Stay sharp.<\/b><\/p>\n Every time I see some popular and unsubstantiated nonsense about a miracle diet, pill, vitamin, or nutritional supplement that\u2019s supposed to do magical things like make you thinner or smarter, it drives me nuts. None of that stuff works, folks. They\u2019re all scams \u2013 moneymakers courtesy of our quick-fix culture.<\/p>\n Look, your brain is part of your body, right? Think. Just eat a good variety of reasonably healthy stuff, don\u2019t eat too much, get out and exercise once or twice a week, and you\u2019ll be fine. If you keep your body in pretty good shape, guess what? Your mind will come along for the ride and maintain its plasticity as you age.<\/p>\n One last thing. There\u2019s been some negative stuff about caffeine from questionable sources, lately. Don\u2019t believe it. It\u2019s an amazing and, read my lips, naturally occurring stimulant. For the vast majority of you, a cappuccino or a few cups of tea a day will not harm you. And it will make you sharper. No kidding. As with anything, just don\u2019t overdo it.<\/p>\nSource<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Steve Tobak, Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1673,182,216,1666,335],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profesionalnews","tag-be-smart","tag-english-book-in-georgia","tag-for-professionals","tag-may-2015","tag-tips-for-professionals","cat_33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4031,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions\/4031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}