[I wrote a new introduction to my SIDCHA series. I’m happy enough with it to share it as a regular post.] Most people seem to want improve themselves, personally or professionally. Reading, watching, and listening to people tell you how you can develop yourself professionally or personally doesn’t change anything beyond give you a bit of information. People don’t succeed because they have more information. They succeed because they act.[…] Keep reading →

I prefer posting original content, but I found such valuable and new insights in this interview of big-time author Sam Harris on how the mind worked I couldn’t help it. He put into words what I’ve experienced but hadn’t thought to express so clearly. That clarity helps clarify the observations and let you use them. The awareness his descriptions create lead you to greater self-awareness and ability to understand and[…] Keep reading →

I visited a site designed to help people start new habits called lift.do. You would choose one of the many habits from their list and they’d support you with instruction, pairing you with other people starting the same habit, sending you graphs of your progress, and things like that. A lot of hand-holding. I get their intention, but I find it counterproductive. I think it’s effective at getting people to[…] Keep reading →

“The world you see is not what you think it is.” How many organizations start with this philosophy? It piques your curiosity—“It isn’t?”—to hear what comes next. The next step is the tricky one: “We’ll tell you what it’s really like.” They rarely word it so bluntly, but many organizations start this way. For all I know they’re right. What I do know is that once someone gets you to[…] Keep reading →

Two great posts by others force me to break my pattern of sticking to original work. The first is that if you know me you know I love Calvin and Hobbes. The first new work by Bill Watterson in a long time appears here — “Ever Wished That Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? Well, He Just Did.” The second is one of the best[…] Keep reading →

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, None but our self can free our mind. — Bob Marley, Redemption Song Context How do you move from living reactively, like in this graph, where you can’t help but react to any intense motivation: To living aware and non-reactively like this, where you are aware of many motivations but don’t feel compelled to react blindly to any? That change brings freedom. It comes from[…] Keep reading →

Remember I found a guy in England who did a one-year burpee “ladder” in my post “A burpee brother?” A burpee ladder means one burpee on the first day, two on the second, three on the third. A one-year ladder means you go until you do 365 on the last day for a total of almost 70,000 in the year. I’ve meant to do 365 burpees in a day since[…] Keep reading →