When we look back on our lives even recently, we can see where either our emotions have got the better of us or our mind has distorted reality to suit itself. In reviewing the past we can easily tell where something went wrong and if we are perceptive enough we will not repeat the same mistake again.

Mostly, we are not perceptive enough and I have noticed that I can also quite easily fall into the same traps as everybody else, unless I am super sensitive- because I have a mind just like you.

Now this may not sound like much of a revelation but the truth is that our minds are similar and only differ insofar as the way we protect and defend ourselves. This habit is known to psychologists and others as our defence mechanisms which we developed from childhood.

Did you know that we have about 60,000 to 70,000 random thoughts every day and about 70% of those thoughts are repetitive?

What I am driving at is that we can do things differently and achieve a life worth living, if we can see where we went wrong. In this way our past failures leave clues and from these clues we can see where we went wrong.  One habit most humans have is the propensity to expect that both the best things in life AND the worst things in life will continue, a bit like the stock market or real estate market for example.

As far as the world of commerce and the world of survival are concerned, this is good for those like myself who are counter cyclical in nature and do the opposite of what the crowd thinks because we know that it’s tempting to follow the crowd.

However being human, we all have the tendency- out of survival- to want to follow the crowd and even those like myself who will tend to do the opposite of the crowd must be careful we are not reacting rather than responding.

I have got into trouble often enough, because I have assumed that things will continue to be “good” and abundant. Now whilst this approach may work psychologically it can have disastrous financial results especially if you are prone to taking risks.

For example, if there is a trend in the stock market or even in the social media world (God forbid ), to go against that trend may work if your ideas are so innovative and unique that they deliver what the others cannot; however if they are not, you will get trampled by the flood or the mob.

Insofar as success leaving footprints, we can always model the best when it comes to the matters of survival and perhaps business and career, but never should we forget ourselves because this is where we stand out from the rest; modelling the best as far as systems and strategies is fine but never at the expense of our individuality.

Chris Borrett