[Today is the fifth in a series on my daily and weekly beliefs, in no particular order. See the introduction to the series and the value of flexibility in beliefs for background.] Do you ever not do something for fear you’ll fail at it? You’ve probably heard the phrase that the perfect is the enemy of the good. You may also have noticed that people who achieve greatness don’t do[…] Keep reading →

The changes you can make that will affect your life most are in your personal leadership skills — how you perceive yourself, others, and your environment; how you manage conflict; how you influence yourself and others; and the other components of leadership. These changes will affect how you experience life more than external things like winning the lottery, where you live, etc, no matter how big they seem. In fact,[…] Keep reading →

Do you feel stress from too much stuff to do or lose track of things? Many entrepreneurial and management types I know read Getting Things Done and put it into practice. I recommend it. I read the book and like the philosophy — in particular, his observation that if your mind has to remember something, it will allocate resources that distract you from everything else. The more you have to[…] Keep reading →

Following up on freedom from yesterday’s post, I wanted to share a perspective so useful, I almost can’t believe it wasn’t originally written for the context of personal development. Michelangelo, when asked about how he created David, said I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. As I mentioned yesterday, the greatest improvements we can make are to free ourselves from constraints that inhibit[…] Keep reading →

What are your goals? People ask that a lot, especially in personal development. I’m going to point something out you might not realize. People usually talk about goals as external — to get a promotion, to earn a certain amount of money, to marry a spouse with certain properties… stuff like that. People who take my seminar see what I put as the farthest stage I see myself reaching is[…] Keep reading →

A video of the Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery on the hundredth anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth — roughly like being at Arlington on July 4, 1976. There were many soldiers and foreign tourists, making for an odd mix. Normally the government prohibits tourists from taking pictures of the military, but perhaps for the special day, since they were there ceremonially, and since there were so many of them they let[…] Keep reading →

Before entering the War Museum (not sure the official name), I interviewed my friend and group-mate, Andrew, on the differences between our expectations — that the environment would be oppressive, we would be watched all the time, and so on — and experiences — communicating with the people and learning so much. Sorry about the sound, but as you can see it was windy. Here are details of painting of[…] Keep reading →

Shortly after last post’s videos, we returned to Kim Il Sung Square and interacted with more North Koreans, overcoming language obstacles in North Korea with friendly body language. If our would-be leaders don’t create peace, understanding, and communication between us, we have to lead them. The more we interact the more we understand each other. That’s how we show we aren’t the monsters or dupes their government says we are[…] Keep reading →

Here is a quick video with my thoughts on some differences between my expectations of North Korea (and those of everyone I know who visited) and experiences. I’m on the avenue between the Foreign language bookshop and Kim Il Sung Square. You’ll see Kiwi Tom being silly in the background (he does stand-up comedy, among other things) and the usual desolate, sparsely populated city. Here I shake hands with a[…] Keep reading →