What is particularly amazing is how inaccurate these forecasts are.

In Australia, every quarter, economists attempt to predict the percentage rise or fall in inflation. Even this simple idea cannot be predicted accurately. There are wildly inaccurate predictions.

If economists cannot get this number right, how can they predict global activities over the next 1-5 years, as they pretend to do?

Their predictive attempts are like sports commentators trying to predict the score progression in any match, score by score. It is a nonsense!

My point is this: how much time do you spend reading such forecasts, predictions, guesses? Are you wasting your time? Observe your reactions when you read such forecasts, and decide whether you are gaining enough value for the probably waste of your more valuable time, when you could be reading much more useful material.

Become more conscious and aware of why you choose to read nonsensical predictions.

My guess about why the media publishes the forecasts is that they need something apparently scientific or professional to regularly fill their spaces. The media particularly loves bad news, because bad news sells more newspapers than good news. This is a proven fact.

Choose to do your own thinking.

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

Of course, these professionals ‘blame’ the markets. It’s nothing to do with them!

There are two ideas to consider.

Firstly, is it wise for you to contemplate retirement in any event?

And secondly, would it be wiser for you to learn how to invest so you can take control, rather than leaving it to professionals because you have chosen not to learn?

On the first point, I believe that retirement is an unnatural act. My definition of retirement is that point of life when you cease to make a meaningful contribution. It is nothing to do with earning, or not earning, money.

Nothing in nature ‘retires’: birds don’t, plants and trees don’t, lions and tigers don’t. The essence of nature is being in the game of life.

Retirement is trying to get out of the game of life, but have the benefits.

‘Meaningful’ is different for every person. When you make a meaningful contribution, your experience of life is enhanced. You will be healthier, more energetic, and more interesting to those around you.

I hope never to ‘retire’.

Do your own thinking: are you trapped by the majority view that the purpose of life is to work, to save money, to retire, and then really start living?

On the second point, the world is changing so rapidly that each of us has to become a lifelong learner, otherwise we have to hand control of important issues to others. If you choose not to learn about investing, you are taking a big risk: the risk of relying on professionals in financial services areas. I have seen too many examples of how hard it is to pick a reliable professional.

Think about the value to you of learning to manage your own retirement savings!

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

We are led down a path that demands our attention, to be worried about the share prices, even when we don’t trade shares!

Amateurs everywhere are wondering what they should do about this. The professionals are desperate to get the amateurs to retain their services.

Newspapers are also full of advertisements for sophisticated trading strategies, that are foolproof, amazing, simple and wonderfully profitable.

Does it make sense for you take an interest in all this ‘stuff’?

Or is it all nonsense for you?

You need to decide, because you can easily waste so much of your precious time on these issues because you have not consciously decided what your life is all about!

I suggest that you contemplate answers to the following 5 questions:

1. What is my purpose, my meaning?
2. What is the vision I have for my life in 5, 10 and 20 years’ time?
3. What are my goals?
4. What strategies will I use to achieve my goals?
5. What are the values that are important to me, and that I wish to observe whilst pursuing my goals, vision and purpose?

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

I do not take illegal drugs: never have, never want to.

I do drink alcohol (love it!) and I am addicted to coffee. I have 6 cups a day, much to the shock of my naturopath. I have some idea of what it means to be addicted to something.

I am also addicted to the natural high of daily exercise, and I have competed for the past 26 years continuously in triathlons. This also means that I train in swimming, cycling, or running almost every day, and have done so for a very long time.

Drug addicts can be wealthy or poor. The evidence from the media over the years shows quite clearly that the price of drugs is artificially high because of their illegal nature. Many poor drug addicts are in our prisons because they had to steal or lie or cheat to get the funds to have their ‘hit’.

If we had injecting rooms, the need for such illegal behaviours would disappear. Our prison population would reduce. It costs over $150,000 pa to ‘house’ one prisoner. This waste of Government funds is ridiculous, when hospitals and schools and universities are being starved of funds.

The arguments against injecting rooms seem to revolve around the idea that such rooms ‘encourage’ usage of drugs. I disagree that it would have this result.

Politicians also appear to be ducking for cover because they believe community feelings are against addicts and so support for injecting rooms will cost votes.

I am blogging about this issue because I challenge you to get clear on your opinions and beliefs on this issue. Illegal drugs are impacting greatly on Australia’s future: the younger generations are being significantly harmed by the disturbingly large availability of illegal drugs.

I believe that the easy availability of drug-injecting rooms would reduce our illegal drug problems!

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

Objective truth is something that most people accept as true. For example, gravity applies on this planet.

Subjective truth is something that is true for you. For example, if you find someone to be beautiful, whereas others may strongly disagree with you on your definition of beauty.

Here’s the principle: when you act according to truth, you are more powerful than when you are driven by non-truth.

In simple terms, power is your ability to get anything done.

If you want to become more powerful, then harness the power of truth.

You can do this in many ways, such as:

• Study to investigate what is truth
• Increase your self-awareness so you can identify what is subjectively true for you
• Speak the truth as you say it, even if there are negative consequences
• Identify your passion and then pursue it, where there are almost certain to be negative consequences
• Do not remain in a relationship with a lover whom you truly know you no longer love.

In my executive coaching process, it is always rewarding helping people to identify more truth.

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

28 JULY 2011 ©

You and I make mistakes.

My hero, Buckminster Fuller (1896-1983) stated clearly, and my research has shown this to be true, that human beings only learn through trial and error. Making mistakes is an inevitable process of getting better at whatever you want to get better at.

As a professional speaker, I continue to make mistakes as I work on developing my skills on the platform or in workshops. I don’t like making them, but I know I need to!

In Victoria, the Auditor-General has recently reported that the Victorian Government’s Department of Justice had a bad process, read ‘mistaken’, for the auction of poker machines. The Government missed out on over $3 billion of revenue for this mistake.

How should the Premier of Victoria, indeed all political leaders, handle such mistakes?

I believe that a clear mistakes policy needs to be articulated against which behaviours are measured. I have helped many senior executives craft such policies for themselves and for their organisations. It is possible to do this and the benefits are many.

My message to you is this: what do you believe about the mistakes you make in your life? What is your philosophy on handling them?

And if a politician expressed such a view, would that help you in deciding whether to vote or not vote for that politician?

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

These competitions include swimming, surf life saving, Australian Rules Football, golf, running, water polo, marathons, and triathlons. In fact, I have been competing in triathlons for 26 consecutive seasons, since my first competitive race in November 1985.

I am also passionate about the Essendon Football Club. I have invested lots of money in my passion for this Club as a coterie member and then attending an uncountable number of Club events since 1981. The Club asked me to be the CEO of its Hall of Fame Project in 1995, which I did for 12 months with some success. With my Fundraising Team, that included Peter Costello, Former Treasurer of Australian, and Lindsay Tanner, Former Finance Minister of Australia, we raised over $1.2 million dollars.

I also observe the thousands of people who every week demonstrate that they are passionate, indeed fanatical, about their football teams. They invest amazing energy in their support. AFL Clubs would not succeed without the passionate volunteers who enable the Clubs to function as they do.

What’s the tragedy? These passionate supporters are not pursuing their passion at work. They have passion, but not for their work. Surveys I have taken over the past 18 years show that less than 20% of Australians are passionate about their work.

What a waste!

Do not be like this.

Do not work in an environment where you cannot be passionate.

I never have, and I never will. I am passionate about sport, and just as passionate about my work.

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©

Every cell in your body is relentlessly changing.

How will you keep up with these changes? Learning is the answer. It’s the only answer.

But less than 10% of Australians, and similar percentages around the developed countries of the world, invest in their learning after they have completed formal secondary or tertiary education.

I gained four first class honours in my final year of school in Melbourne. I was pleased. My wise father congratulated me, and then said I know nothing. I have to keep learning!

I gained an Honours Degree in Law in 1974 from the University of Melbourne. I was pretty happy with this. But my mentor, a wise Jesuit priest, Father Zoltan Varga, then challenged me with my next challenge: he said I should get a Masters Degree. When asked ‘why’, he sagely replied, ‘because anyone and everyone can get a Bachelor’s Degree; wise people take the next step’.

So, I gained my Masters of Law from Monash University in 1980. It was difficult to do this, part time, while working full time as a tax lawyer. But I am grateful that I took the wise advice offered to me.

Even now, 31 years later, I am constantly investing time and money and energy in learning. I am constantly honing my skills and knowledge to be able to thrive and enjoy this beautiful changing world we live in.

If you aren’t passionate about learning and developing yourself, I promise that you will be left behind. Then you will be lamenting how tough your life is.

Don’t be like this. Become like a child. Be hungry about your progress. Be passionately inquisitive.

A BLOG BY CHARLES KOVESS©