They say bad luck comes in 3s...
Now, I'm not superstitious, but I have noticed that there seems to be some truth in this…
Your car breaks down, you sprain your ankle and you smash your phone screen all in a week.
But it's not only bad luck that subscribes to the rule of three…
A few weeks ago an image popped up on my Linked In newsfeed. It was of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, returning home after the war.
The deck of the ship is literally crammed full of soldiers - packed in like sardines and barely able to move.
It's quite an iconic photo.
Now, I'm a bit of a history buff. I'm fascinated by the world wars and so when I was in LA a few years back, I paid a little visit to this ship.
It's a popular visitor attraction with three tours to choose from: the regular tour that gives you a little of everything, the ghost tour and the war tour.
I went for the war tour. It was worth every penny. I even got to see Winston Churchill's office; The very place that he issued to order for the Battle of Britain to commence.
But one of the most interesting things I learnt was that when they sent the RMS Queen Elizabeth off to join the war they needed as many men as possible. So they rammed them in like sardines.
There were so many men on board that they had to break it down into 3 shifts (see, rule of three pops up again). There wasn't enough space for every man to sit or sleep.
As a soldier, you would do an 8 hour standing shift, an 8 hour eating shift and then an 8 hour sleeping shift.
Seeing this picture got me thinking of the rule of three and how much of a role it plays in my life. I eat three meals a day. I've got three kids. When I'm calming myself I count to three… the list goes on.
Three is even used a sales technique in marketing - if you want someone to believe what you're telling them give them three benefits…
Every day I set myself three hard tasks to get done. Not two or four. But three.
I learnt this strategy from a book - one of the best books I've ever read. It's called The Inside Out Revolution. If you fancy an insight into human behaviour and some simple strategies to get results then give it a read.
So how about you? How much of your life revolves around the principle of three?
Chadd Blunt
Millennium Cargo