What’s Your Learning Goal?

What new skill, activity, hobby, or subject matter do you want to learn about? I suggest pursuing one major learning goal for 2015. Perhaps you would like to delve deep into history and become an American Civil War buff or an expert on the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Maybe you would like to learn […]

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Three Magic Words are…

…Write It Down! 1) Do you want increase your productivity? Write It Down. Think on paper and consider your top concerns, assumptions, questions, goals, projects, and tasks. 2) Do you want to increase your creativity? Write It Down. Record your observations, conversations, ideas, insights, answers, solutions, crazy thoughts, and wild memes. Simple advice? Yes. Easy? No! Think of all […]

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Avoiding Groupthink

Rub-a-dub-dub,  Three men in a tub; And who do you think they be? The butcher, the baker, The candlestick-maker; Turn ’em out, knaves all three! It is common for individuals to seek out people of the same race, gender, educational level, and SES; however, gathering like-minded people is an awful strategy for finding the best […]

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Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” – Randy Pausch Former Disney Imagineer and Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an inspired (and inspiring) man who passed away at age 47 due to pancreatic cancer. Although he knew he was dying, he did […]

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T.A.R.G.E.T. Goals

Here is another useful acronym that I’ve developed for focused and rapid goal setting: T.A.R.G.E.T. Goal setting is the process that allows one to hit a bull’s eye. Without an identified objective, how can one aim much less hit a specific target? For every goal, you identify these major six attributes: T – Tangible A […]

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50/5 Challenge for 2015

Happy New Year! I have encouraged friends, family, and clients (and some strangers) to consider crafting the following for 2015: A. A Life List of 101 Goals which includes goals for 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, (and maybe 50) year time horizons. A life list is also known as a ‘bucket list’. B. A Purpose […]

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Analyzing Problems

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain I’d like to introduce you to the question toolkit for analyzing problems that I call Two Extremes and the Mean. When considering any major problem, it is useful to consider these three potential end-games. 1) What is the […]

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Take Care of the Minutes

“I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.” – Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)  Rarely do entire days slip by unnoticed. Instead, time is lost in small increments, such as 5 minutes here, 15 minutes there. For example, time is often wasted while […]

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What Would Thales Do?

“The most difficult thing to do is know thyself.” – Thales The very first Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus, was not only a brilliant mathematician and early scientist, but a very shrewd trader and investor. One anecdotal story about his life suggests that he become wealthy by procuring an absolute monopoly on the olive presses […]

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Latin 101: Seize the Day and Do It Now

‘Do It Now’ is almost a personal mantra and something I’ve discussed on this blog and elsewhere; however, today I want to discuss two related Latin phrases to stimulate your cerebral cortex. Carpe Diem: The Roman poet Horace wrote this famous line “Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero” (Odes 1.11) which literally means Pluck the […]

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