FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Good morning all bloggers. I have no idea where today's motivational words come from, but I suspect that it came from an e-mail that someone sent to me.

I am of the opinion, that people are really scared of change of any kind, they shrink from it, recoil from it , hide from it and then at the death they are dragged kicking and screaming into whatever change there is taking place!

Whilst I always thought that I embraced change and was always the first in the queue, I am reminded about my "fear" of computers and/or technology. Having been born almost a half century ago, I have been privaledged to see so many changes.

When I went to school we wrote with wooden pens that had an ink nib on the end and we dunked the pen into ink pots that were imbedded into the wooden desks, nowadays we have so many choices as to our writing materials. Strangely enough, I still faithfully use my Schaeffer Fountain pen that I have had for 30 years now. I also have a "newer model" Perilli Fountain pen that I use when I am auditing - the only problem is that I battle to get the green fountain pen ink! So much for availability

There were no such things as calculators and/or adding machines, everything was calculated on paper or in our heads - today kids take their calculators into exams with them, you can imbed all manner of formula into a spreadsheet, then just add numbers and the computers calculate everything for you! Or how about your cellphone that can turn itself into a calculator - how's that for progress?

Talking about phones, I grew up on a farm, where we had a party line! When the phone rang you had to count the number of short rings and long rings to ascertain which farm the call was for. In order to make a call, you had to firstly, pick up the phone to 'hear' if anyone was on it and then crank the handle several times to get hold of the exchange so that they could give you a line. Nowadays of course we all carry our cell phones with us (all except Trevor Nel of course, but that is another story for another day), and we can choose our ring tone!

When I got to College we were all so impressed at the shiny new 'electric' typewriter that we had. There was only one in the class and it was always a first come first serve as to who got to use the bloody thing - the rest of us got to use the old 'bang down on the keys' one that could develop your muscles far better than any work out at the gym.

Then I started working in the bank and lo and behold we had computers, they were huge, mammoth things that we sat behind dwarfed by their shear size. They clanked and gargled and month end was a night mare. I remember we had to shut the door to the office so that everyone else in the open plan office could actually hear each other speak. There was no fax machine and certainly no e-mail and we used the telex machine to communicate via the various banks. to indicate that the message was "authentic" we had a series of numbers that had to be calculated together - for example Monday was 3 + being the 19th was 52 + February meant that it was 16 + the amount that was being transferred was say R25 000, so that would be equal to 62. You added up all the amounts 3 +52 +16 + 62 = 133 and that was the "authenticated" reference number. The access to the "list of numbers" was dual controlled so it had to be removed from the vault by two signature holders - a junior and a senior and the calculation was done together and verified together and then had to be locked up again immediately - can you imagine having to go through this rigmarol every time you want to send an e-mail.

Getting back to my original statement, for the longest time now, I have been pertified of the new technology that comes flying at us on a daily basis. Some of it is so confusing and the new language that has been 'penned' in order to meet it's requirements was a quagmire for me. The result was that I just shrank from it all. A couple of months ago, I decided that being a shrinking violet with respect to my computer, the internet and the technology out there was not doing me any good and in typical Viljoen fashion, I jumped right in, the water's fine!

I now, as you know, have my own blog and share a business blog with Trevor Nel, called www.businessreality.blogspot.com. I am still no IT guru, but I try and understand and even learn one new thing everyday to make my life easier - because well isn't that what it's all about? Change is supposed to enhance your life, to make things easier - yet it is we ourselves who by shrinking from change make our own lives more difficult.

Regards

Nikki

Food for thought

With change comes the responsibility of knowledge sharing

Life is an expression of the mind
You are a creator of your own universe
You are free to will whatever state of being you desire through the use of your words and thoughts

Quality of life is brought about by your thinking quality
Thoughts produce actions. Look at what you are thinking

Realise that the one thing that you have absolute control over is your attitude
See the affect that your attitude has, on the others around you.

Your words carry with them a chain reaction
If your thinking is in order then your words flow directly from the heart

If you want to change your life. You must change your thinking
Reason creates an atmosphere of understanding which leads to caring.

Choose your words with care.