Who is my thinking partner?

This is Pejman Azarmina's blog on life's biggest decisions and how a thinking partner may help.

What do you mean by thinking partner?

Most of the time, we think on our own. But we also think in partnerships. We may not call it that way, but that's what we actually do. Whenever we share our thoughts and ask for feedback, comments, advice, guidance, suggestions, it's a way of thinking in partnerships. And the person we engage in that process is basically our "thinking partner". Read the full blog.

Six reasons for thinking

We ARE what we THINK; and the way we think determines how we experience life and where we go with it. Therefore, we need to change our thinking first, if we want to change our lives.

What kind of thinking are you better at? Are you a good decision maker (i.e. a wise person)? A problem-solver? A planner? A visionary? A person who makes lots of sense? Or a person who says "I don't know" a lot? A valid way to answer these questions is to start by describing why we think and what purpose it serves for us. Read the full blog.

Seven Bad Money Decision

Decision #6. Giving it to Someone Else to Invest: Well, it certainly happens. We give our money to a banker,  stock broker, or hedge fund manager to play with it and invest it as they see fit. The question is how much we trust their expertise and more importantly their values? Would we be OK that they invest our money on something that would yield a lot, but make other people significantly and unfairly poorer? How about investments that would outsource jobs to overseas? Or endanger the planet? Are we OK that they take risks that they are comfortable with but may result in losing our money? For more on bad money decisions we may make, please read the full article by clicking here.

How Can a Doctor Become a Patient's Thinking Partner?

In an ideal setting, doctors who want to be their patients' thinking partners must believe in the following four foundations:

• The patient is not just a patient. He or she is a whole person who is quite resourceful in taking care of himself or herself in many different ways
• The agenda of the consultation is agreed collaboratively by the doctor and the patient
• The decisions are made and owned by the patient, not the doctor. The doctor is impartial and unbiased in his/her role as a thinking partner
• The doctor is ready and willing to discuss his professional opinion and treatment alternatives in simple terms with the patient and in consideration of patient's whole life

To read more about this topic, please click here.

Seven Good Reasons for Not Having Kids!

Reason Number 1: Quality of Life: Quality of life is pretty complex. No one can tell for sure that having children is going to negatively or positively affect our quality of life. However, there is one thing we can do: to look inside and understand what makes up our unique quality of life, then we can assess how having a kid can affect it positively or negatively.

Mary is 29 years old. She is independent, happily married for five years and enjoys her balanced and peaceful life. For her, having a baby Sam means a significant change in her body and health (even temporarily), living with sleep deprivation for months, having to care for and respond to Sam's immediate needs 24/7, worrying about his health, education, future relationships, financial needs and never-ending uncertainties of the 21st century. In Mary's case, having a child results in a significant reduction in her quality of life.

On the other hand,  for Michelle who is an 18 year old single mom, having a baby Adam is the best thing in her life. She feels more self confident, stronger, and happier in general. Her quality of life increases as a result of having Adam. So, it's a good choice. For other 6 reasons, please click here.

Five Bubbles of Love

What kind of role does love play in your life? How central is it? What does it mean to you? How different does it feel to like, love or be in love with someone? And can you break it down and see the components it's made of?

This blog starts by looking at love as a bubble made up of or supported by several other bubbles: small or large, some becoming bigger as time goes by, some bursting out all of a sudden and some staying the same. Read the full blog. 

Three Simple Steps for Choosing a Religion

Many of us may have a "default" religion by birth, but when we become adults, we can either continue to practice the same religion, make a conscious choice to change it, decide to just believe in God, or not even that. If we are fortunate enough to live in a free country, we can actually take any of these routes. And this blog is all about that. IF I have a choice, then HOW are we going to make it? Read the full blog by clicking here.

Why Do We Choose a Lifestyle?

Every one of us has a unique way of living and that's basically our lifestyle. To give you a more accurate definition, lifestyle is more about our non-work-related habits. For example, the kind of food we normally eat, the type of drinks we typically drink, the standards and principles we follow around our intimate relationships and sex lives, whether we smoke cigarettes or use any drugs, the type of recreational activities we follow, the extent of our social life, holidays, ceremonies, shopping habits and any routines that we follow is in essence part of our lifestyle. This blog will discuss how factors such as risk tolerance, fun seeking, experimentation, religion and imitation play a role in shaping our lifestyles. Read the full blog.

Where is my next country?

There are over 200 million immigrants in he world. Are you one of them? Do you want to be one of them?  Do you know where to start, how to plan and what to expect? I didn't ... but over the years, I learned to become a "professional" immigrant, expert in immigration laws, savvy in analyzing new opportunities and ready to pack and go in a matter of months. Do you want to know how? Then read the full blog...

I Wish I Knew These When I Chose My Career!

From a practical perspective, it's always best to start with our interests and truly and honestly analyze that. Then we need to have a deep understanding of our core professional values. The knowledge and skill analysis (figure on the right) is a realistic way to find out if 'what we want to do' is aligned with 'what makes us happy' and 'what we can do'. So, let's start by reviewing the key questions we need to ask ourselves:

• What do I really want to do if I had no limitations whatsoever?  What is my ideal job?
• What are my core professional values that I uphold? What makes me happy in my job?
• What do I need to learn, develop or improve in order to be able to do that job? How realistic is that?
• How can I align the three things that I found above? Am I in a paradox? In a dead end career? Or just about to enter a new phase of my career? 

To read more, please go to my blog and read this article.