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Tom Butler-Bowdon Quotes

Anyone can get a job, but do you have a purpose?

Anyone can get a job, but do you have a purpose?

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Jobs, Purpose
Tom Butler-Bowdon (2010). “50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life from Timeless Sages to Contemporary Gurus”, p.13, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

We are all living longer lives now, so this extra longevity gives us second, third or fourth chances to succeed at something or change careers. It is great to think big, but the formula for success in our time is also to THINK LONG. There is a huge waste of talent out there because people think they are 'too old' or 'too late'. Actually, if you take the span of productive life from 20 to 80, at 50 you still have 50% of productive years ahead of you.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Thinking, Long, People
Source: bobmorris.biz

The more choices we have, the greater the need for focus.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Choices, Focus, Needs

Most of us cherish freedom, but when we actually get the opportunity to make our own way it can be terrifying.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Opportunity, Way, Cherish
Tom Butler-Bowdon (2010). “50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life from Timeless Sages to Contemporary Gurus”, p.13, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Trust your intuition, rather than technology, to protect you from violence.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Technology, Intuition, Violence
Tom Butler-Bowdon (2010). “50 Psychology Classics: Who We Are, How We Think, What We Do: Insight and Inspiration from 50 Key Books”, p.20, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Autobiography of a Yogi is justifiably celebrated as one of the most entertaining and enlightening spiritual books ever written.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Spiritual, Book, Enlightening
Tom Butler-Bowdon (2010). “50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom From 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose”, p.301, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

People race to achieve everything by a certain age in their life, be it 40, 50 or 60 - but with increasing life spans 50 or 60 might be just the beginning of a new career, or just the point when you begin to get into your stride. There used to be a syndrome of me retiring at 65 and then dying not long after because their life was stripped of meaning, without their work. But these days you may live another 20 or 30 years beyond 65 so you have to figure out where you can make another contribution.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Long, People, Dying
Source: bobmorris.biz

Turning 40 is often a big symbolic point in one's life. In the 20s we feel we can do anything, but as the 30s progress we become more mature emotionally, and in terms of work tend to focus. These two things combined: emotional maturity and career focus, often produced an explosion of self-purpose in our 40s.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Maturity, Emotional, Focus
Source: bobmorris.biz

Edward Banfield's idea of the "long time horizon," says that more successful people look further into the future, judging their efforts and results in terms of decades, not weeks or even months. This is the power of thinking long.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Successful, Thinking, Long
Source: bobmorris.biz

This is the period from ages 60 to 90 in which many people have a new sense of freedom, kids grown up, retired from formal work etc., about their possibilities. They can either crown a career, start something new, or launch themselves into a meaningful social enterprise. A phase of life that was once seen as an end can now more accurately be enjoyed as a beginning.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Meaningful, Kids, People
Source: bobmorris.biz

With people having longer life spans, 50 is the age at which many people only just get into their stride. Consider Ray Kroc starting McDonald's at 52, or the novelist E Annie Proulx only coming into the limelight in her 50s. The careers that each had had gave them the skills and knowledge that allowed for their real contribution. Never discount things that you have learned so far: they may be the platform for something great.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Real, People, Age
Source: bobmorris.biz

We want everything in a hurry because our primary aim must be survival in the short term. Long term thinking has seemed like a luxury in human history because lives were shorter, but with our increased longevity we have to figure out what to DO with all our time, and to pace ourselves to achieve things that we want. Hobbes might have been right when he originally wrote that life is 'nasty, poor, brutish and short', but today we are AWASH with time.

Tom Butler-Bowdon
Thinking, Long, Survival
Source: bobmorris.biz

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