Anxiously engaged

April 21, 2010

Engagement. It’s a measure of how emotional you are about something, how much you care, how involved you are, and how active you are in its pursuit. Being engaged is crucial to being productive. An employee who is engaged will work far harder, and accomplish far more than one who is disengaged. Unfortunately, engagement at [...]

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The pursuit of mastery, and the mastery asymptote

April 15, 2010

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his poem “A psalm of life” (here), wrote the following: Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today. I think what he is talking about, is the pursuit of mastery. The pursuit of mastery brings purpose to [...]

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An amazing story that changed a life

April 6, 2010

A couple weeks ago I had the most remarkable experience. I had the opportunity to take my family to visit Angela Johnson at her sculpting studio in American Fork, Utah. What Angela does defies description (see below). The story of how she got there, is even more amazing. Before I tell her story, here are [...]

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There is no secret ingredient!

March 31, 2010

Perhaps one of my favorite all time movies is the brilliant animated film, Kung Fu Panda, by DreamWorks. It’s 91 minutes of pure awesomeness. In it, the overweight, clumsy, and kung-fu-less panda bear, Po, is selected to be the chosen Dragon Warrior, who will bring peace to the Valley and defeat the dreaded tiger, Tai [...]

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What Abraham Lincoln taught me about failure

March 24, 2010

In 1831, Abraham Lincoln failed in business. In 1832, Abraham Lincoln was defeated for state legislator. In 1833, Abraham Lincoln tried a new business, and failed. In 1835, Abraham Lincoln’s fiancée died. In 1836, Abraham Lincoln had a nervous breakdown. In 1843, Abraham Lincoln ran for congress and was defeated. In 1848, Lincoln ran again, [...]

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Control vs Influence

March 22, 2010

If you’re talking about your own life, control is what matters. Self control, or self-discipline, is fundamental to your ability to succeed in anything. But if you’re talking about the life or lives of others, control is an illusion; influence is what matters. Whether it’s with your kids, your employees, your peers, or even your [...]

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Microcosms make you stronger

March 16, 2010

As I’ve continued writing my book, Escape Velocity, I keep thinking upon this notion of microcosms. For more on what I call “The microcosm approach to success”, see the following two posts: Making the most of microcosms (how to use microcosms to achieve large objectives) Controlled Failure (how to fail on your terms) There’s an [...]

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Controlled Failure

March 12, 2010

As I mention here, we should be failing on a regular basis. I want to fail. To not fail usually means I’m not pushing hard enough. Not trying new things. And there are vital lessons that we learn when we fail, and that can only be learned through failure. The road to success is paved [...]

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Making the most of microcosms

March 10, 2010

A microcosm is just a small version of something much larger. It’s usually very similar in the most important regards, but much simpler. Kindergarten, for instance, is a microcosm of college (the macrocosm). You couldn’t drop off a kid in college and expect them to do well. They must first survive a number of preparatory [...]

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Why are some able to change, while others are not

March 2, 2010

In conducting research for my upcoming book “Escape Velocity”, I asked the following question about change, on LinkedIn. I got terrific responses, from terrific people (including a psychotherapist, a scientist, a banker, a microbiologist, project managers, marketers, authors, to IT professionals, career coaches, and CEO’s). I wanted to share them, unedited, in the author’s own [...]

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Joannie Rochette – an emotional night

March 2, 2010

Joannie Rochette, a 24 year old from Quebec, was a 2009 World Silver medalist, and a five-time canadian champion who came to the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver as a top contender in women’s figure skating. But only two days prior to the start of her event, she learned her mother had died of [...]

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Change Blindness – test your attention

March 1, 2010

I posted earlier about the “all of a sudden” syndrome that we so often fall victim to, wherein the phenomenon of “change blindness” often hides important details from our attention. Sometimes this is due to our attention being directed elsewhere, and sometimes it’s because the change occurs in such small, incremental degrees that we fail [...]

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Change blindness, and the all-of-a-sudden syndrome

March 1, 2010

As human beings, we tend to fall victim to the “all of a sudden” syndrome. All of a sudden I’m out of shape. All of a sudden my finances are a wreck. All of a sudden my product is late. All of a sudden a relationship is broken. All of a sudden I’m addicted. All [...]

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Boundin

February 27, 2010

The following is the words to the poem from the short film “Boundin” from Disney’s Pixar.  I fell in love with this short along with it’s terrific message and amazingly cute animation a long time ago.  Now it sits on my iPhone and my kids watch it all the time. Enjoy: Here’s a story on [...]

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Peaks and valleys

February 26, 2010

Peaks and valleys. Life is full of them. The important thing to remember when you’re in a valley, is that you won’t stay there forever. Valley’s are temporary, even when they seem to last an eternity. Inevitably, you find yourself back on top again. Sometimes just remembering that can be the encouragement you need to [...]

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Shaun White, the Double McTwist 1260, and the real story of his success

February 24, 2010

What on earth is the Double McTwist 1260? It’s where you flip diagonally two times in the air, and simultaneously spin for three and a half rotations. It’s a crazy, high-risk, highly complicated, and totally unbelievable move. Shaun White invented it, and showed it to the world as he took gold in the snowboard half-pipe [...]

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Are you failing on a regular basis?

February 23, 2010

I hope you answered yes. Because if you answered no, then it means you’re not trying hard enough. You’re not trying new things. You’re not pushing yourself. You may have even become complacent. So comfortable with where you are, that you’ve established a life of stasis. Stasis is a state of inactivity, or equilibrium. If [...]

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Anja Paerson, we fall and we get back up

February 19, 2010

Among the stories of olympic athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympic games, one that recently caught my attention was that of Anja Paerson, one of the most decorated downhill skiers in the world. Anja Paerson has an incredible 41 wins on the World Cup circuit which she started at only 16 years old (18 in [...]

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Petra Majdic proves perseverance pays

February 18, 2010

Cross Country Sprint star Petra Majdic, from Slovenia was favored to win Wednesday’s gold medal finals at the 2010 Winter Olympic games at Whistler. That is until she suffered a terrible accident during a warm-up early Wednesday. Her skis caught a patch of ice on a downhill slope. She fell 9 feet into a gully [...]

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Lindsey Vonn – Olympic example

February 17, 2010

Of the many champions at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada, the story of Minnesota’s 26 year old Lindsey Vonn is one that inspires me. Today Lindsey Vonn won the downhill gold on the 2,939-meter course at Whistler Creekside with a time of only 1:44.19, beating teammate Julia Mancuso by over half a second. [...]

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There is beauty all around

February 17, 2010

Early this morning I was on the way to the gym, when I was suddenly turned the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. There had been a light fog, and the sun had just broken through, casting beams of light that streamed down onto the neighborhood. I quickly pulled over to enjoy the moment, [...]

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Seth Wescott – gold medalist, honorary life-engineer

February 16, 2010

Yesterday was an amazing day watching 33 year old Seth Wescott win the gold medal in the snowboardcross event at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. He’s a true example of life-engineering, for while he was the defending gold medalist, having won gold medal in the event in the last olympics (the first olympics to hold [...]

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Sea shells and opportunities

February 15, 2010

Last week I was in Los Angeles California. My kids had made me promise to bring home some seashells, so at the end of the week I made it to the beach and began my search. I was soon dissatisfied with the meager offering of common, broken, picked-over shells available on the mostly-deserted shoreline though. [...]

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The Pareto Principle

February 9, 2010

The Pareto Principle is also known as the 80/20 rule, which states generally that in most events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. The principle was named after the Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto. In 1906 he found that 80% of the land was held by 20% of the population, and that [...]

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The principle of scarcity

February 8, 2010

The principle of scarcity is simple.  We tend to only value things that are rare.  Gold, diamonds, vacations, winning the lottery, you get the idea. We tend to see far less value in things that are more common, or are readily available, but that may actually be substantially more valuable, especially in accumulation. Perhaps not [...]

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