Blog / Fitness

The two meanings of competition

The concept of competition implies beating the other person. In sports the concept is a standard, fundamental part. In everyday use outside of sports that beating the other person often carries a tinge of accusation or wrongdoing. People accuse others of being over-competitive, which they look down on. I've never heard anyone accuse another of being under-competitive. In business, competition often carries a noble ring. Business culture holds that business should compete to win. I've found that competition has another meaning -- to strive to improve yourself, independent of beating someone else. Sometimes you see this meaning in sports when people describe someone as "a competitor," even when they aren't competing someone to win. A competitor in that sense tries to improve him or herself,…

0 Comments
October 22, 2013
Blog / Leadership

A book I haven’t finished and why I recommend it

I first met Sebastian Marshall about five years ago in New York City through mutual friends. Though he was just over half my age at the time, I don't hesitate to say I've learned as much from him as nearly anyone -- and I've studied with Nobel Prize winners. He's been a great friend since. We've since met in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, and often on the internet. I continue learning from him. I'm amazed and inspired how he keeps developing and producing. I mean to write about his book today, but you have to know a bit about him to give context to his book. [NOTE: I haven't actually spoken to him in a while and am writing this review independently of him. I haven't…

0 Comments
October 14, 2013
Awareness / Blog

We all feel emotions all the time

When someone gets animated others often describe them as emotional: "John is acting so emotional" "Jane got so emotional when Ryan said ..." and things like that. I'd like to suggest an alternative perspective I think you'll find more precise and useful: Everybody feels emotions all the time. What's the difference? When someone sits quietly reading, they aren't acting or feeling unemotional. I suggest the are feeling and acting on emotions as much as anyone. They may feel calmness, relaxation, satisfaction, or something like that, but those are emotions. They aren't feeling no emotion. Emotions motivate you. If you got out of bed this morning, something motivated you and you felt some emotion. No emotion means lying in your bed until you die. An animated…

2 Comments
October 5, 2013
Blog

Redefining failure

Life has only one finishing line, which is when you die (I hope I didn't break that news to you). Everything else is a part of life -- no more an end to one thing before than a beginning to something else. That view seems inarguable. Whatever happens to you, no matter how much you like it or not, if you haven't died you'll continue past it. So how can anything be a failure? Sure, you can call any result a failure, but you never have to. If it didn't go your way, you still haven't finished yet, so you can still make something of it. Everyone has had things go the opposite of how they wanted from the most successful person to the least.…

0 Comments
October 4, 2013
Oops! Haha … did I say four miles? … Uh, I meant seven.
Blog / Fitness

Oops! Haha … did I say four miles? … Uh, I meant seven.

I didn't mean to write yesterday's post on starting with emotion on exercise, food, and habits. I meant to contrast how I like to exercise with how people who don't exercise seem to and then to tell today's story. People who don't exercise seem to characterize it as torture and dislike it. I see it as fun and rewarding. Sometimes it feels like torture, but only when I know the feeling of exhaustion to follow that I know I'll appreciate more than I dislike the torture. I love being fit. Today I'll share a funny story about it. Context Living by the Hudson River means I can run without having to stop at traffic lights in Hudson River Park, which the city has slowly been improving.…

0 Comments
September 27, 2013
Blog / Fitness / Nature

Start with emotions if you want to motivate yourself … or anyone else

I find Americans try to get precise and scientific about food and exercise, in contrast to how incredibly unfit the country is. I write "try to" because I don't think they succeed in being precise or scientific. The term carbohydrate, for example, used to have a specific scientific meaning. I think it still does, but I think in standard American usage it means "bad" or "evil," like the term fat used to. But I don't think people know what carbohydrate means, but it sounds technical. Same with Omega whatever fatty acids, free radicals, and so on. Same with exercise. People throw around terms like anaerobic, cardiovascular, and VO2 max like candy, rarely knowing what they mean. Jargon devoid of meaning. More than devoid of meaning,…

0 Comments
September 26, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Leadership

Reminder: See my leadership seminar this weekend!

Brought to you by the Distinguished Leaders committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (copying the following announcement from that site): Leadership Through Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence In a weekend, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence through the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. While business schools and corporations are increasingly focusing on personal leadership, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence as foundations for leading others, many MBAs never had the opportunity to take a formal course in personal leadership. Joshua Spodek, MBA, PhD, has developed a two-day weekend workshop in just this area. His experiential course combines advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology with successful business leadership…

1 Comment
September 17, 2013
Blog / Fitness / Leadership / Nature

Healthy food mostly replaced my unhealthy food. Here’s how.

How can you expect to lead others if you can't lead yourself? This post, like most of mine, is about leadership. If you can't lead yourself, how can you expect to lead others? If you don't understand your emotions and motivations and how to create the ones you want in yourself, how do you expect to do so with others? Alternatively, the better you can lead yourself, the better you can lead others and, for that matter, yourself the next time. Since most of us want to eat differently than we do and others are constantly trying to motivate us to eat like they want us to, eating is a great place to learn leadership skills. Who do you want leading your eating habits, you…

5 Comments
September 16, 2013
Blog / Fitness

Do you confuse a reason to do something with an excuse not to?

When the topic of meditation came up the other day I heard the same thing I've heard many times before. I'm sure you've heard and said similar thing for similar activities: "Oh, I can't meditate. My mind is too frantic. I wish I could." Maybe you've heard or said it in this form: "Oh, I can't go to the gym. I'm too out-of-shape. I wish I could." or: "Oh, I wish I could organize my life. I'm just too busy. I wish I could" or in the generic form: "I wish I could do X, but I'm too what-X-fixes. I wish I could." Everyone who learned to do X, be it meditating, getting fit, keeping their life organized, or whatever, faced the same challenges and…

0 Comments
September 10, 2013
Blog / Fitness / Tips

Advice to someone starting a long-term project

Following up yesterday's advice to a client, here is advice I gave to another client who was working on an independent program I've found helpful (again, edited for anonymity). I think what I wrote could help anyone starting a long-term project, especially before you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm sharing it here. (Regular readers will note it resonates with the quotes in my post "A master speaks on creative expression," or at least I hope it does.) I'll tell you what I saw in what you wrote that tells me that if you stick with the exercises you will have the success you want. I saw that you are doing the exercises fully, with dedication and discipline. I…

0 Comments
September 5, 2013
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

You call exercise torture? I call it glory.

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. 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.] Emotionally, I don't want to do burpees nearly every single time I do them. As you probably know, I do twenty twice-daily. Starting is never easy. Never. If you think you have a harder time starting to exercise than others, I think you're wrong. I don't think anybody has it easy. Just some people developed skills to overcome the emotional challenges we all feel. Rationally, I want to do them, but my emotions oppose my rational thoughts. I use willpower to…

2 Comments
August 29, 2013
Blog / Fitness

More benefits of burpees

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. 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.] Ten days ago I wrote about running around eight miles for my first run in about three months after hurting my ankle -- "Soreness and exhaustion feel great!". Three days later I ran a nine-and-a-half mile run. Even having run marathons before, I consider those runs long and big jumps from no running. I'm surprised I did them. I keep asking myself what kept me in shape enough to do them. The best I can think of is burpees. Besides burpees,…

0 Comments
August 26, 2013
Blog / Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Leadership

See me on Leadership through Emotional Intelligence and Self-Awareness

Brought to you by the Distinguished Leaders committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (copying the following announcement from that site): Leadership Through Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence In a weekend, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence through the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. While business schools and corporations are increasingly focusing on personal leadership, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence as foundations for leading others, many MBAs never had the opportunity to take a formal course in personal leadership. Joshua Spodek, MBA, PhD, has developed a two-day weekend workshop in just this area. His experiential course combines advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology with successful business leadership…

0 Comments
August 16, 2013
Blog / Fitness

120 burpees yesterday! 10,000 burpees at 2×20 per day!

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. 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.] While writing yesterday's post on accepting my friend Dave's challenge to do one hundred burpees in thirty-seven minutes I ate a banana for energy and mentally prepared. Then I turned on my stopwatch, started it, and did ten burpees. At three-and-a-half minutes I did ten more. At seven minutes ten more. By the end I felt good enough to do them faster. After my hundredth burpee I stopped the clock at just under twenty-nine minutes. Coincidentally, Dave happened to text me…

0 Comments
July 18, 2013
Blog / Fitness

Another reason to share your passions

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. 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.] Today's post combines a few key things that result from and help create a great life. Having good friends who challenge you Sharing your passions Exercising regularly Accountability gets things done My friend Dave -- the guy I swam across the Hudson River with -- was back briefly from Tanzania, where he's doing development work. I don't have to tell you, the guy lives an amazing life. I told him I had been doing forty burpees a day since November 4…

0 Comments
July 17, 2013
Awareness / Blog / Tips

What is morality?

The concept of morality is for many people a complex topic. I like to simplify complex things, as long as the simplification works. If the simplification doesn't work I drop it, but sometimes the simplification works well. Longtime readers of this blog know I avoid using terms like right, wrong, good, bad, and evil and have an exercise to avoid them that taught me a lot, decreased how many arguments I got into, and benefited me in other ways. So the less I communicated judgment, the more I questioned the value of anyone communicating judgment and the more I started paying attention to how people used the word and concept of morality. I came to substitute the model that morality just meant someone telling someone…

0 Comments
June 22, 2013
Exercises / Models / Perception / Tips

A model for learning potentially painful, embarrassing, challenging skills

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Do you ever hold back from trying to learn something because you know you'll have to try several times to get it right? Are you afraid of falling, failing, getting hurt, and getting laughed at? Today's model addresses that, giving you a model for trying new things. It gives a great visualization for people who master a difficult task, as difficult, painful, publicly viewable, and challenging as any project you'll take on. You've likely done this harder challenge yourself. A model…

0 Comments
June 19, 2013
Awareness / Exercises / Models / Perception

A model for what improves life the most

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] What can you do to improve your life the most? Exercise more? Eat more healthily? Save or earn more money? Improve your social skills? Buy a house? I've found success in many areas of life. I think I could safely say I've performed in the top few percent of performers (to the extent you can quantify these things) in fitness, earning, academic success, business success, relationship success, and various other important things. Today's belief is about what, of all things I've…

0 Comments
June 6, 2013
Blog / Leadership / Tips

A model and strategy to lead people so they appreciate and thank you for being led

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Want to know a great way to lead people so they appreciate that you led them? Today's model and strategy show how. Often they'll thank you and look forward to being led again by you later. Note that it works when you and they both care about the goal. It may not work on projects that they have no internal motivation to work on. The first few times you do it, it may seem mechanical, but if you pay attention, you'll…

0 Comments
May 27, 2013
A model of emotional intelligence and self-awareness
Awareness / Exercises / Models / Visualization

A model of emotional intelligence and self-awareness

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] What is self-awareness? What is emotional intelligence? Everybody I know agrees that improving them improves your life and ability to lead yourself and others. "Know thyself," a basic instruction for improving yourself that has stood the test of thousands of years, means improving self-awareness. Yet few people can define either of these terms effectively. Today's model explains them both. A model for emotional intelligence and self-awareness First, some basics I'll take for granted. You have a head and body. You breathe.…

0 Comments
May 26, 2013
A few models that don’t improve your life that effectively
Awareness / Evolutionary Psychology / Exercises / Models / Tips

A few models that don’t improve your life that effectively

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] I wrote about The Method being an effective way to improve your life and, when applied to a team, to improve your leadership style. Based on the Model, The Method says that if you align your environment, beliefs, and behavior with the emotions you want, you'll feel emotional reward. Feeling reward means you'll feel motivated to continue your change through to completion. Most people don't know the Model or follow the Method. They use techniques that can work, but generally not…

0 Comments
May 24, 2013
Awareness / Evolutionary Psychology / Exercises / Models / Nature / Perception / Tips

A model that explains why your enthusiasm when planning disappears when doing

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Scene 1: You plan something big. You're excited. You know there will be challenges, but you also know you'll overcome them. You will do what it takes no matter what. Scene 2: You started the project but it petered out. You don't know what happened to that feeling of invincibility, but it's gone. What happened? How did you lose your motivation? Why didn't your willpower work? Today's model answers. A model that explains why your enthusiasm when planning disappears when doing :…

0 Comments
May 20, 2013
Blog / Exercises / Models

A model to help get you in better shape

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Today's belief counteracts a common trend I see about exercise. I forget if I've written about my impressions of seeing five-kilometer walks in Central Park with water stations and ambulances. While I support being prepared, I can't help but wonder if the suggestion that a five-kilometer walk could be a health risk might stop more people from exercising than these walks promote. I'm sure there are people for whom walking five kilometers could be a risk, but I imagine they would…

0 Comments
May 17, 2013
Exercises / Favorites / Fitness / Habits / Models / SIDCHAs / Tips

A model for consistency: If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it’s over.

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Do you have trouble keeping a habit going? Today's model is my model for maintaining my daily habits. A model for consistency: If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it's over. My friend who set this blog up for me told me this belief when I asked him how often he posted -- a few days a week, every weekday, or what. He said he posted every day and that if you miss one day,…

0 Comments
May 12, 2013
Awareness / Exercises / Models

A model to keep you from being manipulated by the media

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” 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.] Does reading or watching the news enrage you? Does it depress you? Make you feel outraged or helpless or scared? As much as the news media presents itself as something you need to participate as a citizen in society, they always have at least this goal: to sell more ads. They can separate the news from the business section all they want, but everyone knows what sells. Walk into any newsroom and they'll tell you they have to make an emotional…

0 Comments
May 10, 2013

End of content

No more pages to load

Older Posts