Choosing/Decision-Making

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Leadership / Nature

Why I turned down nearly $10,000 to teach for an Ivy League school for a week in Shanghai

Columbia University offered me nearly $10,000 to fly to Shanghai to teach an entrepreneurship class, block-week style, meaning a semester in a week, 9-5 each day. I've taught that way before and got great results. I love teaching entrepreneurship. I'm not bragging to say that my reviews say I'm exceptional at it. I love my alma mater, Columbia, and as an adjunct professor, experience teaching at Ivy League schools helps my career. I had developed the relationships with the department that offered me to teach with them for years. I had worked on making this opportunity happen for years and could expect more offers if I did well. I like making $10,000 doing what I love. I loved living in Shanghai for a year in…

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June 17, 2017

I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses, my recent Inc. article

Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

I Do Burpees Daily Because I’m Lazy and Full of Excuses

My Inc. post Monday, "I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses," began I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses Not having a skill so useful as discipline is a reason to do them, which transformed my life. When I tell people about my burpee habit, their most common response is to suppose I was born with superhuman discipline. I do them daily, and have since December 21, 2011, starting with 10 per day. Now I do over 50 per day, in two sets, followed by stretching and other exercises to work what burpees don't. So when I write "burpees," I mean "10-minute burpee-based routine." Any self-imposed, daily, challenging, healthy activity would work--push ups, jumping jacks, etc. People…

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June 10, 2017

Balinth Harvath's podcast Call for action to you — for a new path to reduce climate change with Joshua Spodek

Audio / Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Education / Leadership / Nature / Podcast

Call for action to you — for a new path to reduce climate change

Prepare for one of my most important podcasts from someone who knows the science behind the environment. Want to improve the environment? You may remember Balint, a fellow scientist who got a PhD in physics became an entrepreneur got passionate about improving in business, and teaches experiential project-based learning. from his first podcast interview of me, which covered leadership and education. We continued our conversation and spoke the way only physics PhDs can. I shared what I've posted here about my developing plans to start a movement on leadership and the environment. We decided to record another conversation on it for his podcast on how to act on the environment---yes, you, personally. He posted it, "Call for action to you — for a new path…

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June 8, 2017

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Habits / Inc.com / Nature / Podcast

Leadership and the Environment Podcast episode #3: Freedom, empathy, garbage, and compost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEKCbrTZ9CM How much waste do you create that others have to deal with? The environment involves more than global warming. As my Inc. piece reported recently, we're producing enough waste that an island in the middle of the Pacific, with no inhabitants and thousands of miles from any city, is covered with plastic and other waste, most of it needless garbage: I don't know what to call that amount and kind of garbage: sickening? Insane? Irresponsible? Typical of our lifestyle? Here's how remote the island is: Maybe a couple pieces of that garbage came from you! ... or me. We both contributed to a system that helped produce it. In any case, I can't take responsibility for your behavior, but I can take responsibility for…

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June 5, 2017

Joshua Spodek on Leigh Martinuzzi's The Hidden Why podcast

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Freedom

My first guest “host” on a podcast: The Hidden Why, by Leigh Martinuzzi

Leigh Martinuzzi hosts the podcast The Hidden Why. He posted my first solo audio recording. Listen to the recording! Listen to the recording! We met online, which led to speaking, learning each other's work and interests, and talking about collaborating. I thought he might interview me. Instead he suggested me recording something for his blog by myself, which I consider harder. More than harder, I find it scarier to record something from scratch by myself. I describe in the recording how I viewed the chance as an opportunity, but not how scary I found it. Even so, I took on the challenge and am grateful to Leigh for giving me the chance and motivation, and then to share the recording with his audience. Listen to…

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June 3, 2017

Leadership And The Environment DuckDuckGo search results

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nature

The Leadership and the Environment Podcast: It Starts Here and Now

Everyone wants a cleaner environment and recognizes human behavior is trashing it. We can't stop ourselves because of the systems we created that make it convenient, comfortable, fun, and in nearly every way emotionally rewarding to pollute except that it's against our values of leaving the world better than we found it. Only you know your values and what better means to you, but I've never met anyone who didn't consider cleaner air and water better. We don't want to pollute, yet our systems make us. So few people act to reduce their pollution, forcing us to rationalize why it's okay for each of us to do things we know hurt others. Things we want laws for organizations like governments and large corporations---such as to…

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May 28, 2017

Audio / Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Leadership / Models / Nature

How science improves leadership and coaching: My conversation with Ron Potter

Does a background in science help someone lead? ... does it help someone coach? If so, how? I spoke with longtime leadership and executive coach Ron Potter, who came from an engineering and technical background to coach executives at top levels of major global companies, about how our backgrounds help. We covered: How a science and technical background helps us understand and work with emotions better than others ... and the limits of rationality ... and how to work with them effectively, calmly, and productively How science helps change beliefs, freeing yourself and teams from mental jails How a science background helps coaching Stories illustrating why More... You'll hear that I've held back on the value of my science background despite others working with me…

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May 13, 2017

UN climate change milestones. Note lack of personal change, motivation, or responsibility.

Choosing/Decision-Making / Leadership / Nature

Personal responsibility, leadership, and global warming

Global initiatives miss the one big change you, the person reading these words, have control over and nobody else does, which is your behavior. If you don't change what you have control over, why would you expect or suspect anybody else would? Will you change what you can? Though I can't prove it, I know that if you do and you stick with it, however much it looks like sacrifice now, you will be glad you did. In fact, you will rank it among the best changes you've made in your life. The above words were my response to a link a friend sent on some United Nations climate change goals. I put the graphic from the article below. My interests in leadership and the…

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May 10, 2017

Choosing/Decision-Making / Exercises / Leadership / Relationships

Learning social and emotional skills is hard but worth it

Ultimately all the advice in the world leads to one simple starting point: You have to act, practice, and rehearse new skills to get their benefit and those first acts, as with any new skill, will be clumsy, embarrassing, and full of other challenges that will lead the novice to feel bad. If you try, you will fail and feel bad, worse than if you never tried, but if you stick with it, you can overcome the failures. You'll never lose access to the skills you now have it you don't want to feel or act social, but you can when you want. The reward for overcoming those failures, in my experience at least, is so much greater than the struggle to reach that reward,…

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May 9, 2017

Daniel Gefen's Can I Pick Your Brain interview of Joshua Spodek

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / SIDCHAs

Can I pick your brain? … Daniel Gefen’s wonderful, funny, penetrating interview of consistency and greatness you can achieve

I wish I could convey how much fun Daniel Gefen and I had talking before the podcast. I think it comes out in the conversation. Beyond being fun, Daniel went into depth nobody has about something I long wished someone would---the motivation behind the burpees and sidchas. Most interviewers ask about what I do, less about why or the effects. Daniel delved into consistency and how much it can create in your life. Listen to the interview! Listen to the interview! From Daniel's about page: Here are Daniel's show notes: My guest today is probably one of the most accomplished and consistent individuals I have had the pleasure to meet. Joshua Spodek holds five Ivy-League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA from…

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April 28, 2017

Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nature

The Great Barrier Reef’s Demise and You

According to The Guardian: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data 'Last year was bad enough, this is a disaster,' says one expert as Australia Research Council finds fresh damage across 8,000km I read this at a message board for geeks and entrepreneurs and shared the following, which I wanted to share here: Many posts here about how sad and disgusted people are. Not much about people taking personal responsibility. What do people think the carrying capacity of the planet means? Sustaining more humans means sacrificing other life that competes for our resources. It means pollution rising until it doesn't quite kill us but is well above the levels of a pristine, clean environment. Nobody wants to live near…

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April 10, 2017

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Perception

The opposite of consuming unnecessarily is not deprivation or unhappiness

Apparently of all the materials we mine, extract, harvest and so on, after six months, less than one percent is still in use or in the product we got it for. Over 99% of what we get from the earth is used that long. I found that statistic from The Story of Stuff (video and annotated script). These two pages 21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own and Surprising Stats give even more insane statistics about how much we materially consume. It feels like we could use an interaction like the scenes in the shows about people who weigh over 600 pounds where they have them look in the mirror, which they never do because they prefer denying seeing themselves, and…

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April 7, 2017

My guest post to Lidiay K's blog on how I wake up in under one minute every day.

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Habits / Tips

How I Wake Up in Under One Minute Every Day

Yesterday my guest post, "How I Wake Up in Under One Minute Every Day," posted in Lidiya K's Let's Reach Success blog. It begins For most of my life, certainly the past decade, I'd take twenty-plus minutes to get out of bed after my alarm, often forty minutes or more. Since November I've gotten out of bed in under sixty seconds, without fail, each day, at 6:15am. When a mutual friend put me in touch with Lidiya and we talked about cross-posting to each other's blogs, I saw her posts on the value of getting up early and thought I'd share my transformation. I didn't ease into getting up in a minute. I did it one morning for the first time in my life, found…

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April 1, 2017

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Leadership

The One Way Ticket Show podcast: the American Revolution and Leadership

Steven Shalowitz, host of The One Way Ticket Show podcast, posted yesterday our interview, "Josh's one way ticket is back to this historic time in American history," which covers the time in history I would choose to go to if I could magically go there with no chance to return, as well as Leadership Step by Step. Click here to listen! I find the show fascinating, as well as his guests, who include Nobel Prize winners, heads of state, heads of industry, and more, including, at last, me. From the podcast's about page: There was one question Steven Shalowitz thought to ask his many celebrity guests while hosting his radio show, Encuentro Latino, on Singapore's Gold 90.5 FM: "If I gave you a one way…

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February 15, 2017

Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship

Authenticity, Leadership & Finding Your “One Thing” from the C Method Podcast

Christina Canters of The C Method podcast posted her interview of me today. We had a fun, open conversation. I think you'll like listening. We talked about authenticity and how to achieve a lot by knowing how to focus on one thing by knowing what you want, not wondering, among other topics. Many people hold back from devoting or committing themselves to one thing, afraid of regretting losing what they decide against. We talked about what specifically to do to prevent holding yourself back. See my Harvard talk on not dwelling on decisions for more on deciding. Her blog page introduces me as: Joshua Spodek is an author, executive coach and leadership expert who is one of the most accomplished people I've ever met. He…

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February 2, 2017

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Freedom / Habits

The bounty of more value from less crap

I'm scheduling being on a podcast (with Steven Shalowitz of the fascinating The One Way Ticket Show) and Steven and I got to talking about food, flying, and trying new things instead of unthinkingly doing what everyone else does. Or not experimenting at all. Since I figure you're here to improve your life, I couldn't help but share some of our conversation. I mentioned I'm avoiding flying for a year. He asked, didn't know about the year of no flying. what precipitated it, if you don't mind my asking? love the idea. at this point i'd like to try a year without tv . . . I wrote, Two main precipitations: The first was my huge improvements in my life of little experiments like that…

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December 6, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom

How to do the things you dream of

People look at my bio or hear about the things I do and ask how I do them---visiting North Korea (twice), running marathons, working with Nobel Prize winners, getting a PhD, getting an MBA, starting companies, and so on. I finally figured out the answer. Here's how I do all those things: I do them. That's it. If you want to go to to North Korea, here's how you do it: Go to North Korea. There's no mystery. Want to do 75,000 burpees? Here's how: do 75,000 burpees. No mystery. You start with one, then the second, and so on. If you have to take a break, take a break and start later. It took me five years. Want a PhD? Here's what I did:…

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October 18, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making

Find out if you care about about yourself more or others with this simple question

You know flying in planes pollutes. You know your pollution hurts others. You want people to pollute less, knowing they'll have to change their behavior. The question is if you would pollute less yourself if you had to change your behavior. Most people think of themselves as caring about others and willing to sacrifice for some greater good. Consider these two options: Option 1: You fly to some destination you like, knowing it will pollute some amount, say 100 barrels of jet fuel that you're responsible for. Option 2: I have a magic wand that will transport you instantly to the same destination, but for it to work, you would have to pour half the amount of fuel the plane ride would have caused into…

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October 11, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Tips

Do it first, then adjust based on experience

I grew up analyzing and planning. I achieved a lot---a PhD, playing at nationals, the MBA, and a bunch of other things. I get more done now. More importantly, I enjoy what I do now more. It's more attuned to my values. Instead of analyzing and planning so much, I figure out ways to start doing things. Back then I would have worried about doing things wrong, which kept me from starting. I see many people inhibiting themselves from doing things for that reason. I've learned the best way to figure out the best way to do something is by knowing more about the activity, and the best way to learn about the activity is through practice, which means the best way to figure out…

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October 10, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Habits

How to free your mind, step 1: Systematize what you can

David Allen's book Getting Things Done pointed out to me that the mind isn't very good at remembering important things or making difficult decisions. Rather, when it has to, it devotes more attention to those tasks than you want it to. For example, say you want to read a chapter of a book and want to remember to call someone important immediately after. Part of your mind will distract your reading by saying "Don't forget to call Jim when you're done. Don't forget to call Jim when you're done. Don't forget to call Jim when you're done." You probably learned to write things like that down, which frees your mind. That's why we write lists---to free our minds from trying to remember. Making decisions occupies…

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October 6, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Nature

Seek reward and joy, not deprivation

We all have Habits we don't like that we want to break Habits we think we'll like that we want to start Foods we want to avoid Foods we want to eat more of Skills we want to learn All sorts of things we want to change about our lives... BUT WE DON'T CHOOSE THEM. The classic case is the chocolate cake in front of us that, when it wasn't in front of us we said we wouldn't eat and we know we'll regret eating it later, but we feel the impulse to eat it. We know the value of controlling our impulses. We might know how impulse control correlates with success in nearly every measure in life. We have a lifetime of regretting eating…

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September 20, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Inc.com

A Simple Way To Simplify Your Life

My Inc.com post today, "A Simple Way To Simplify Your Life," begins The Simplest Way to Simplify Your Life This one step, iterated, will simplify your possessions and keep it that way. Books started the process, which expanded to everything. I viewed books like everyone else: they showed people who I was, they added to my home, were useful for reference, etc. I went through an experience that changed that. It started innocently. I decided to get rid of only my useless books--the ones I wouldn't miss and had for no good reason. Looking at my shelves it was easy to pull the junk from those worth keeping. Actually, there were some borderline ones, which I decided to be conservative about and kept. I still…

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August 29, 2016

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Models / Nature

The myth you believe about yourself that causes you to fail

I pointed out to a friend that he interrupted me nearly every time I spoke. He apologized and added, "I will never do it again." I believe he felt sincere when he said it, but I work in developing people and I've heard people say similar things too many times to expect he could do it. More importantly, I know the difference in mental states between saying "I will never do it again," and how you feel when you do the thing later. Psychologists call it an empathy gap and I've written about it. Sincere pledges A sincere pledge is when you say you will do something and when you say it, you mean with all your heart and mind that you will do it.…

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June 14, 2016

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Exercises / Fitness / Leadership / Nature / SIDCHAs / Tips

How not to be afraid to be yourself, Italian style

The other day I was interviewed for a podcast (I'll link to it when they edit and post it). The interviewer asked me how I accomplished so much. I told him and his listeners to look up sidchas on my blog. Everyone who aspires to greatness knows the importance of building discipline, integrity, dedication, and other skills. I accomplish things by acting by my values. I practice with small challenges like daily exercise, daily writing, cold showers, and so on. Almost nobody does these things or their equivalent for them, yet they want the benefits. You have to do things to get the benefits of doing them. Well, today's post is the smallest yet activity you can do to develop such skills. I don't care…

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May 7, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom / Stories

“Stuff,” challenging your values, and freedom

I find material things beyond the basics become a burden. What constitutes "basics" depends on everyone's unique values, but I find the more I get rid of, and the more free I feel as a result, the fewer things I need as basic, which lets me get rid of more. The less "stuff" I have, the more freedom I have, mental and physical. I value few things more than freedom. I think Thoreau said it well: "Simplify, simplify, simplify." Getting rid of unnecessary things starts simple. Nearly everyone has junk they already know they want to get rid of. Each piece of junk gotten rid of leaves the remaining possessions more valuable, so getting rid of each next thing becomes more challenging. What's the challenge?…

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April 4, 2016