The other day I was arguing with a friend. Maybe not a full argument, but a misunderstanding. During a break I got online and noticed a link to an interview with someone whose thinking I liked. The first few minutes of the interview told me it would help. I suggested to my friend we both listen to the interview. We did. We then immediately came to understand each other, resolved[…] Keep reading →

A friend recommended to me an exercise I hadn’t heard of. It sounds like the Three Raisins exercise I learned from Jon Kabat-Zinn, included in my leadership book, and assign in my leadership class. She didn’t explain much about it, but my experience with experiential exercises told me that doing it would reveal more than any explanation. The exercise The instructions: Drink a hot beverage and when I think judgmental[…] Keep reading →

I’ve wanted to share some of my views on mindfulness, which connects with leadership, especially personal leadership, for a long time. Bruce Langford, who hosts the Mindfulness Mode podcast gave me the chance. If you care about mindfulness, leadership, mindful leadership, you’ll value listening to this conversation. We talked about Starting mindfulness What mindfulness is Getting more done through mindfulness Habits and mindfulness Food, eating, and mindfulness The counterproductive results[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been answering questions on the social media site Quora for about a month. My responses are getting more views and upvotes, so I thought I’d put some here, since the posts there are like posts here for readers who don’t feel like going there. I’m thinking about making a standard Saturday practice of collecting my responses here from there for the week. Since I have a month to catch[…] Keep reading →

EDIT (2019): While I value all the resources below, this page is long due for an update. Other resources have emerged as more important. I’ll do my best to update it soon. If you can’t wait, contact me and I’ll raise its priority. The best place to find more, besides contacting me, is one of my seminars or classes. If I haven’t posted about an upcoming one recently, check with[…] Keep reading →

Illustrative labels can help, as opposed to evaluative, judgmental ones like yesterday’s post. I love the term “Monkey Mind.” I heard it from a friend who teaches yoga. Without hearing any explanation I immediately understood its meaning and saw how the term helped understand a concept. When you increase your self-awareness you start to notice how your mind works. The less you know how to manage it, the more it[…] Keep reading →

I got this exercise from a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who writes on self-awareness, mindfulness, and meditation. I find it helped me understand a lot about how I perceive my world and how I can influence how I perceive it. I don’t know if he made it up or got it from somewhere. Anyway, all you need is three raisins and some free time. The Three Raisins exercise Preparation: get[…] Keep reading →