You can learn to improve your empathy and compassion skills. You can do so deliberately by practicing exercises that work. If you’re reading this, you know the value of empathy and compassion to yourself and people you interact with. I don’t claim to be the best in the world but I do better now than before. I’ve also seen students and coaching clients do it. I found the pattern goes[…] Keep reading →
An actor told me about a time he forgot his line on Broadway in front of about a thousand people, some who paid hundreds of dollars for their seats. He was in his forties and had acted for decades. Still, sometimes you forget your lines. What do you do when a thousand people are watching you and you don’t know what to say? Most of us have faced not knowing[…] Keep reading →
My next leadership seminar will be January 12 at The Yard, a premier office space and coworking community designed to support business growth whose environment promotes creativity, collaboration, and connections. Perfect for my seminar! If you’ve thought about attending one of my seminars, this will be a great chance in a beautiful space, conveniently located. Click here for testimonials. HOW TO LEAD PEOPLE …so they want you to lead[…] Keep reading →
Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicist, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is a take on today’s post, “Your World Cup Ethical Questions, Answered.” The column doesn’t have a new post today, so I guess the Times gives the writer a vacation, which seems odd for a once-a-week column with only a few paragraphs.[…] Keep reading →
Have you ever wondered about when you lose weight what happens to the mass you lose? I didn’t think of it either. My first thought was that you excrete it. You lose some water and salt to sweating, but I figured that got replaced so didn’t figure into long-term weight loss. I didn’t wonder how the mass you lose would get to your kidneys or bowels. I read recently that[…] Keep reading →
A reader asked, about my post “Three years of burpees,” Integrity is a interesting concept. Its the same thing for me, after having developed some strong daily habits, which are different from yours. It has made developing harder habits, much easier. How is integrity different from self-control? Isnt self-control the same as doing something when nobody is watching? The way I think about it is, that developing any habit requires[…] Keep reading →
The dominant mainstream mental model I see about protecting the environment associates it with deprivation. I think most people associate helping the environment with driving cars with poor acceleration, eating food they don’t like, and wearing clothes made of hemp. I find this message counterproductive and inconsistent with what works. It’s counterproductive because it repels most people. I find it inconsistent because to me the basic elements of protecting the[…] Keep reading →
I’ve posted a lot about the effectiveness of making people feel understood to leading them. It increases your ability to influence them and makes them feel good. It also resolves a lot of arguments. Why does it feeling understood feel so good? Sometimes I describe it in seminars as close to feeling loved and no one has objected. Why does feeling misunderstood feel so bad? I’ve joked in seminars how[…] Keep reading →
[This post is part of a series on the Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA). If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Here are two videos of people who learned to dance by doing it every day. So much more photogenic than burpees and writing here daily. I don’t know[…] Keep reading →