It’s usually easier to be right than to convince others. The latter is much more important. Quietly stewing over how they didn’t get it isn’t helpful. Working out how to be more convincing, is. Being helpful is better than merely being right. Continue reading Can you convince them of that
Is the world short of profound insight, or merely short of it being applied? What does that mean for you? Continue reading Profound insight
Having established that inquiry is more important than certainty, it’s worth thinking about where to inquire. Be wary of folks whose answers support only their own conclusions. Be pleased when you’re given the scope to probe, interpret and challenge. Be alert when opinion is dressed up as fact. Be content when your answer is a deeper, more meaningful question. Genuine inquiry is a challenge and … Continue reading Where to inquire
Things change and now you can’t do what you used to – at least not as easily. You can be frustrated about this to no effect, or you can look at your options. Change your life in a way that brings back what you want if it’s important enough. Accept that it’s gone if it’s truly not coming back. Either way, you have to get … Continue reading When you can’t do that anymore
When I was in my late-twenties I very often felt inadequate. I had travelled and accomplished a lot, but never lived up to inherited expectations of who I should be. I realised one day that the people I admired most had done none of the things I felt I should’ve done. The expectations weren’t mine, and I learned to let them go. In my forties … Continue reading The people I admire most
I remember when I was 18 getting back from a three mile run and feeling exhausted. I more or less collapsed on the stairs when I got in the house. Today, at 45, I enjoyed nearly 13 miles with a good friend and after getting home took my dawg out for a good walk. I’ve put in a lot of training since I was 18, … Continue reading What do you want to be better at
I read today that it “is no coincidence that Einstein, who made the most discoveries, also made the greatest number of mistakes”. Elsewhere, Neil Pasricha has written this as “lose more to win more”. Time and again, successful folks pass on the message that there is no straightforward road to success. We must be open to failure, course correction, and new information. Humility helps. Courage … Continue reading Mistakes and losses
I’m enjoying another great book about organisational leadership – Turn the Ship Around. Increasingly, I’m conscious that reading alone takes you only so far. You have to act on what you learn, to spend time with the lessons and thinking how you want to apply them to situation you want to influence. Reading and absorbing is a help, to really extract value you have to … Continue reading Exploring or mining
I’m reading ‘Lost Connection’ by Johann Hari again. It tells a powerful story about the impact of pharmaceutical company profiteering on how depression is treated. Regardless of whether or not he’s right about that, there’s a clear acknowledgment of the placebo effect in the medical profession. Placebos work because of the stories (which may be implicit) we absorb about them. For good or bad, humans … Continue reading Clutching at stories
I enjoyed an online training session yesterday, aimed at getting comfortable with selling. Asking for money is very difficult for me, however necessary it is and even though I feel I have much to contribute. A key point of the training was to be “available for a yes, and a no”. You put you what you have on the table, and without any pressure invite … Continue reading Being available
Sometimes You Learn 