Not long ago, I was taking a trip with my wife and kids, when I saw an interesting sticker on the outside of the hotel where we were staying. It was the logo of an organization called Optimist International, but nothing else. I was intrigued. When I looked up the organization, I found the following… Read More »The Optimist OS
The book 1984 is famous (infamous?) for many things, but chief among them is reinforcing a particular vision of freedom. You could call it optimistic, but it is rooted in an almost pessimistic way of viewing people in societies. That vision of freedom? It’s the vision that—no matter how many restrictions are placed on a… Read More »More Luxurious Chains: A Study of Contemporary Freedom
You’ve probably heard that old saying: People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Whether it’s attributed to Maya Angelou or a leader in the Mormon church isn’t all that important. What is important is that any time spent working with… Read More »Feelings First: A Modern Management Manifesto
Especially when we’re wrapped up in the pursuit of a goal, we tend to see anything that’s not clearly forward progress as a setback. In other words: We think If we’re not gaining ground, we’re losing it.
There’s this monologue I love from the show Breaking Bad. It’s about half-measures. You can read the whole thing here (warning: it’s a bit profane and grizzly). The gist of the speech is that the speaker, Mike, used to a cop. He and his partner would regularly be called to the same couple’s house for domestic disturbances. The really… Read More »My System Won’t Work For You
How we simultaneously underestimate and overestimate ourselves, and how to avoid both Is there any more overused cliché than “less is more”? I guess that’s kind of ironic, given the spirit of the saying. But I digress. There’s an application for the aphorism that I don’t think gets enough attention. It has to do with… Read More »When Less Really is More
I don’t tend to get excited about Hollywood folklore. But there’s one particular story I really love because it contains an unexpected pearl of wisdom, wrapped in a paradoxical sentence. It sounds contradictory, and like it can’t possibly be true. And yet it reveals something about human nature that’s worth thinking about. An LSD Trip… Read More »The Use and Abuse of Humor
Building a habit of structured reflection and planning to maximize your effectiveness “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” – Andrew Jackson There is an important line that separates when to think and when to act. But it’s not easy to see-especially in the practice of… Read More »Knowing When to Think vs. When to Act
When it feels like all you have time for is putting out fires, that’s when it’s most important to step back and reflect image c/o Pixabay There’s an old Zen parable that highlights the importance of spending your time wisely. A man goes to a Zen master and says “I need help. I’m stressed, I’m overwhelmed, my… Read More »The More You Think You Don’t Have Time to Plan, the More You Need to Do it
There is more than one way to eat a frog. Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash We’ve all dealt with procrastination. It’s that thief of time and energy that saps our productivity and can leave us feeling utterly powerless and pessimistic. And it’s likely that we’ve all gotten a piece of advice about how to deal with… Read More »Which of These Two Approaches to Procrastination Works for You?
