Beginning or Ending: Count Paradigm vs. Countdown Paradigm?

A month ago on the beginning of Ramadan, I posted the following on Facebook "Beginning and end are 2 sides of the same coin. The beginning of anything means the beginning of its end or the beginning of the countdown towards the end. I guess if we looked at it that way we would know that the month has started to end yesterday".

Few months before that I had a discussion with some colleagues about what I can call the countdown paradigm; about looking at time and processes always as countdown towards the end. So it simply means that if you joint a job today then your days in the job have started to decrease and the remaining days are less until you reach your last day on this job even if it's after 10 years from today.

Few days ago, it was my last day with an employer to join another employer.

I'm currently going through many beginnings and ends, and I guess we all do that everyday on a level or another but sometimes we don't pay that much of attention.

My question for you is, how do you normally look at it? How would you like to look at it? When you join the new job, are you beginning? Or are you ending? Is the beginning the beginning of the end? Or is the end the end of the beginning? 

I guess we would all say that there's a beginning and there's an end and there's a timeline in between. I guess we may sometimes disagree on where the beginning ends so that timeline would begin or where that timeline ends so the end would begin.

In many cases, you all of a sudden hit the unexpected end and then you can't really clearly define those three entities; beginning, timeline and end.

I normally adopt the count paradigm and not the countdown paradigm, especially for those things with unknown or undefined end dates. I normally say I've been in this position for 3 years and I don't think of it as I have 1 year left.

There're very clear things where we adopt the countdown paradigm like in contracts, studies .. etc. And I don't get surprised when I see people adopting the count paradigm in those cases as well.

As we're very familiar with the count paradigm I would like to elaborate a bit on the countdown paradigm and see how good or bad, convenient or inconvenient it could be.

• Countdown paradigm is very-result oriented, it looks at the time as a resource against the set of objectives, with the bell ringing for the beginning you'll know that the resource is decreasing and you'll be more mindful on what you've to get done for yourself and others.
• Countdown paradigm is very much focused on what's next, it's not focused on the end only as it clearly proposes the new beginning after the end, so it always helps you be ready.
• You're heading towards the end and towards the new beginning at the same time, and both do have requirements that you have to work on now.
• Countdown paradigm is not pessimistic, it's very optimistic, it's about nice glorious ends and challenging beginnings, it's about advances and new frontiers.
• Countdown paradigm is not stressful, it's a real stress-relief agent, It helps you arrive at destinations prepared and makes you ready for surprises and unexpected ends.
• Countdown gives you a good criteria to decide on things, investments, decisions based on their contribution to the end and their value at the destination or the at the next beginning.
• If you took the macro countdown paradigm into account, you'll wonder about your end in this life and your objectives towards yourself and others and you'll be focused on the next beginning depending on what you believe in. In the end it'll always help you be better in managing your presence in this world.

What do you think?

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The Art of "To-Start"

In the first post in this series we highlighted the problem of priorities in our lives. We asked how to make the tasks that are meant to have the highest positive impact on our lives more urgent and not to remain as dreams till we run out of life.
In the second post we addressed the causes that drive each of us to not take his dream that seriously and to keep it as a dream and no more.
This is the last post in the series and I'll reveal the sercret solution of the problem. If you didn't read the 2 earlier posts, please do. It should help you understand the problem more and so you'd know if this solution is for you.
The solution is to start. Yes, to start achieving your dream, to put it into action, to take it off the shelf and to make it reality.
When I say to start, it doesn't mean to take your PhD now, but it means to work on your first smaller task on the whole big task of the PhD. If this smaller task is to pick your subject then do this now and let this be your urgent task.  If it's to find the suitable university or program then this is your urgent task. If it's to get a certain prerequisite, then this is your urgent task. Whatever that smaller task is, do it and focus on it for now.
The first question we asked was how to make the PhD as urgent as buying the tomatoes your wife asked for. I would say that getting the PhD couldn't be made an urgent task, but the smaller sub-tasks that form the PhD as a whole could be urgent tasks. So getting your PhD could not be an urgent task, but submitting your proposal, documents, studying for an exam, submitting a review, and meeting your project group are all urgent tasks.
You may have accused all those who're around you of being unfaithful, insincere, betrayers as you've found out that they're following you up on unimportant tasks and never asked you seriously about your PhD and when you'll be done with it.
Let me tell you that as the start will turn this monster task into smaller mice it will also establish new followers in your life in addition to the current followers. All those followers will be advocates for these new mice. Your school colleagues, lecturers, supervisor, program director and family will all be very serious followers on your new highly urgent tasks.
By starting, the monster will become a queue of mice that come one after another, and all of them will build the required urgency around themselves. They will be followed by the new agents until they're all finished, that simple.
Let's go through the causes we've listed in the last post and let's expose them to the "to-start" solution and you'll see the magic of this simple solution.

• Starting will put you in the environment, will give you the example, will make the benefit clearer to you since your first visit of a university website.
• Starting will make the route clearer, will clear its milestones, and this will help you effectively go through it. 
• Starting will help you focus on your current tasks, will help you know what you have to do now and not to be busy with what's to come. A task after another you'll find yourself defending your thesis and then comes the honor. 
• Starting will build your credit of achievement and with each step you make you'll be more capable to continue and accomplish.
• Starting will turn the dream to truth, hope to achievement and bitterness of regret and defeat to joy and dignity of progress.
• Simply, after you start you'll be a totally different person, and you'll be on your way to achievement. 
• Whatever comes on the road after your start is nothing but a problem that's easy to solve. 
• Every failure you encounter after starting is a new learning experience which qualifies you more for achieving your goal. 

In brief, before you start you're a fantasy, after you start you're reality.
So dear traveler, get busy with your first smaller sub-task, hold the first ring on the chain and start. Push yourself to start or get pushed. Throw yourself into it or find someone to throw you in it. Hold your breath and jump in. Don't worry, you'll not drown, there's plenty of companions and plenty of boats only for those who've defined their destination.

<< Why You're More Serious About The Tomatoes and Not As Serious About the PhD

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Why You're More Serious About The Tomatoes and Not As Serious About the PhD

In the last post, I asked the question "What Got a Higher Priority: Getting Your PhD or Buying a Kilo of Tomatoes?", and I was actually raising the question of how to make the most important tasks from non-urgent tasks to urgent tasks? how can we take an action about them? how can we get the same attention and follow-up from those around us on those important tasks just like how we get their follow-up on buying the kilo of tomatoes? How can we stop dreaming before we find our life is over?

So we're accurately here addressing the case where we think, dream, intend and then look for some urgent important or unimportant tasks to push achieving this dream away, to postpone the change, to stop our growth while the world around us is rapidly moving and progressing.
The solution is really simple. And before we jump into the solution let's look at the reasons, the causes behind this problem. What's it that makes us less serious about our dreams. I will take the PhD as an example, and I'll compare the dreamer and the actor.

No Charger To Begin With
When dreaming about having the PhD, the dreamer's motivation to finish the thesis is not as serious as the actor's, the one who's already working on his thesis. The dreamer's feeling of the return is also incomplete. The actor is already seeing the impact this step will have on him. It's enough for him to look at his lecturers, or peers who're about to finish or have finished their PhD and he gets that everyday. For the actor the benefit is crystal clear and for the dreamer it's vague and uncertain. The actor sees the benefit and charges his motivation daily and dreamer tries to imagine those benefits and how they may feel or look like.

Which Highway? Any Idea?
The dreamer knows that he generally wants to have a PhD, from which university? In what subject? What're the prerequisites? What's the process until the thesis defense? How long would that take? How is he going to do it? He doesn't really know. Who's his thesis supervisor? What're his requirements and expectations? He doesn't really know. As a matter of fact, his dream is not really defined, it's just like how they always try to visualize the dream; foggy, blurry and whitish. The actor knows the answer for most of these questions in addition to sufficient answers to support his progress for a year ahead. The dreamer dreams of a dream that he doesn't really know, and the actor is acting on tasks that are crisp and clear.

Frozen By The Monster
One of the biggest problems is thinking about our dreams as a whole and not as a sequence of tasks or events. We see the PhD or the book to author or the business as a result, as a point and not as a process. And this is the reason of feeling unable to approach this big monster. The actor sees his next task to be delivering chapter 3 of part 2 for revision, while the dreamer sees his next task to be getting the PhD.

100% planned.
The dreamer didn't start yet, he didn't exert any efforts to accomplish his mission and so all of the mission is remaining. And this is an enough reason to not attack it. If we imagined that he finished half of it then he only has to work on the other half. If he did, It should make his mission easier and should make him a bit committed towards what he has accomplished so far.

Bone-dry Feet
The dream is still a dream. He didn't get his feet wet. He didn't feel the taste of achieving one step on the road. And when considering the above reasons it would make it feel more difficult for him to work on. Surely, achieving one step on the road should make him on the other extreme.

Solo Dream vs. Crowd Action
The dream is his and his alone. He may narrate it to others but it remains his dream. As long as it's not put into action, people are only able to share his dream for few moments. On the contrary, in the times of action millions will give a hand to help him get his PhD. Yes, it's not only about his family, the lecturers, the supervisor, the dean and the librarian. It also include the researchers working in the same field all over the world, and those who're facilitating their lives and operations. It includes the passport control officers, the airlines companies, the bus driver and the guy in the grocery store. Yes, everyone can help when it comes to action, otherwise the dream is his and his alone.

Tic .. Tic …. Tiiiiiiiiiiiiic. ……….. (no more)
He dreams for an hour then sleeps for hours. It may hit his mind once or twice a year when the academic year is about to start or when he hears about someone who started or finished his PhD. In the beginning it's more of a reminder, then it becomes a painful feeling of guilt that he tries to escape. For the dreamer, It comes every now and then and then stops. The actors lives it in every single moment with all his senses and attention.

See? I Was Right! ... Yeah, Right!
When the dreamer looks at someone who has started and then stopped or faced a problem he would say: "See? I was wise I didn’t start". He sees that he didn't risk his time and money which both may have been already wasted in hundreds of kilos of tomatoes. He would forget that the gap between both of them is really huge. The actor that faced a problem has to look for a solution and then he would be done. The dreamer is in front of a dream that he didn't have the courage to attack. After a short or a long period of time, the actor would have achieved, and the dreamer would have achieved a dream. He thinks that he didn't risk anything, but indeed he risked his life and his dream.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
To continue to dream of the PhD for years leads us to getting used to dreaming, and makes us even more far from approaching the achievement. And It's worse to add more and more dreams in addition to the PhD, and then we end up with dreams as our daily bread.

No Resources. It Should Be Ok
There's no doubt that we can't do anything we don't have the resources for. I do believe that lacking the resources doesn’t have that much of impact when compared to the other reasons. Mostly if the dreamer started to work on his dream then lacking the resources will just be another problem like any other problem that he has to pick the solution for from plenty of available solutions.

Is there any other causes you'd like to add? Are we close from the solution? Can you detect it?
<What Got a Higher Priority: Getting Your PhD or Buying a Kilo of Tomatoes?
Next on this series: The Art of "To-Start">>

What Got a Higher Priority: Getting Your PhD or Buying a Kilo of Tomatoes?

Don't rush into an answer, I'm not really asking you about what you think, but I'm more of asking you about how you behave.


In the Egyptian media there has been this stereotype about the wife forgetting the tomatoes and calling the husband to pick a kilo of tomatoes on his way home, although it is not happening anymore due to the lifestyle changes, but it's an example that goes for many other things. We all know the Eisenhower method in categorizing tasks into important/ unimportant and urgent/ not urgent and dealing with each task accordingly.

I listened one time to Stephen Covey and he was addressing one of the most critical quadrants which is the quadrant of important not urgent tasks. And he said that if you thought about tasks that are meant to have the most dramatic impact on your life you'll find that they all fall in this quadrant. They are always important but not urgent.

Think about getting your next degree or starting you own business it's all important and if it happened it may change your life totally, but it remains non urgent. Such tasks don't follow-up on you but you are are the one who should do something about them. You don't have to only follow-up on them, but you have to actually attack them as they're mostly difficult ones.

So the comparison here is about the task that may positively change your life dramatically and I gave the PhD as an example and which you may postpone for many many years, and between the kilo of tomatoes which with the urgency created around it, it remains not that important.

If this is the picture, how can we make those very important tasks from not urgent to urgent? How can we achieve the dreams we had for a long time now? How can we pay more attention to these tasks more than the kilo of tomatoes that grabs our attention because someone is following up on it? It's all between you and yourself, it's your own dream and nobody is going to follow you up on it.

This issue was something that I thought about for a long time and I've gotten to a solution, which I've seen many fruits come from. Until the next post, please share with me and the readers the solutions you tend to take to tackle this problem in your life.

Next on this series: Why You're More Serious About The Tomatoes and Not As Serious About the PhD