Life Habits

Many people hang on to resentment, hurt, and anger.  Many people also haven’t experienced the power of helping others.  This episode provides you with 10 ideas for skills to develop into habits so that you can appropriately and regularly express forgiveness and compassion.

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After the basic needs in life are met, many people still look for something else that will make their life everything that it can be.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a context for this and his work on self-actualization outlines the attributes people have who have achieved the highest levels of personal fulfillment.  Karel summarizes Maslow’s hierarchy approach and then uses it as the basis for a proposed set of 10 ideas for you to develop into self-actualization skills and, in time, habits.

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Most people find themselves getting angry and reacting in ways that they later regret.  After providing some description of what happens in the body and setting the context with some insightful quotes, Karel details ten ideas for skills to develop into habits that can help you to control your emotions, like anger, rather than them controlling you.

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A new area in the field of psychology is Applied Positive Psychology.  Karel interviews Kathryn Britton a professional coach who specializes in this area. Kathryn describes the major career changes she made to become become an expert in Applied Positive Psychology.  She outlines its history and the major themes it addresses given practical examples of each.  Discussion in the episode mentions Kathryn’s website, blog, and the newsletter to which she is a regular contributor.

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Some people just dream of success while others actually achieve it.  After reading some insightful quotes on the topic, Karel summarizes 10 ideas for you to develop into skills and in turn into habits to increase the likelihood of you being clear about what success means to you and then systematically achieving it.  He also reads a comment from a listener regarding a previous podcast which includes the recommendation for a book titled “Screamfree Parenting” by Hal Runkel.

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The sexes are different.  Karel reviews some surprising recent research findings regarding gender differences, provides some personal context for the topic, and then summarizes 10 ideas for developing some good skills in this area which can be honed into life habits.  Karel deals with topics having to do with equality, ideas for cross-gender learning yielding optimized androgyny, and advice regarding the celebration of one’s gender including its strengths and advantages.  Karel recommends the book “Why Gender Matters” by Leonard Sax which can also be found at audible.com.

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Technology pervades all aspects of our lives.  This episode provides you with advice to make technology work for you rather than you being a slave to it.  Karel gives advice on how to control the inputs, which are often technology interruptions, and the outputs, which are your ways of taking action.  He also provides his usual list of 10 items to consider in this case to optimize the aspects of your life that have to do with technology.  During the podcast, Karel mentions several products or tools.  Here are the links to those that were mentioned, audible.com, post-it notes, Facebook, and Google Reader.

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Tom Friedman wrote the best-seller “The World is Flat” and described how the world was becoming smaller and more interconnected as a result of, among other things, the advancement of technology.  After quoting some statistics regarding internet, blog, and podcast use worldwide, Karel makes the case for being more aware of and sensitive to global audiences and cultures.  He summarizes 10 skills that should be considered on this topic for honing into habits in order to more effectively deal with a flat world.  He also makes reference to avoiding cultural faux pas.

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Spoken language is one of the most important abilities humans possess but, surprisingly, also often the most neglected in terms of skill development.  The last episode dealt with spoken language as it relates to public speaking, an activity that is most feared by many people.  This episode deals with person-to-person, or interpersonal, communication which everyone does everyday.  After reviewing some insightful famous quotes on the topic, Karel summarizes 10 key habits do develop in order to optimize your interpersonal communication.  These are as as important to a business setting as they are to a non-business one.  Further honing these skills into habits will dramatically improve your communication skills and, in turn, your overall effectiveness and the quality of your relationships with others.

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Being effective at public speaking is among the most important skills to have yet most people fear speaking in public and lack some of the skills to be effective at it.  Karel provides advice regarding 10 valuable habits to develop in this important aspect of life.  He discusses relevance to work as well as non-work settings.

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This episode deals with the important topic of fitness both in terms of doing it for life and gleaning the benefits that include a better and longer life. After reading some famous quotes on the topic of fitness, Karel provides 10 things to think about regarding fitness. The first three deal with ways of thinking about the importance and the benefits of optimal fitness and the remaining seven deal with the development of specific fitness habits. This guidance assumes that you are in contact with your doctor to ensure that there are no medical reasons that would prevent you from engaging in an exercise program.

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This episode deals with the important topic of Authentic Parenting. Whether you’re a parent now, planning to be one in the future, or simply want to understand the world of parenting better, this is for you. Based on the first-hand experience of being a parent of four kids, observing the parenting of others, and the academic literature, Karel provides his list of 10 most important habits for being an authentic parent. These ideas will help you to be a better parent, make parenting less stressful, and lead to more enjoyment of your role as parent as well as give your kids the optimal family environment within which to flourish in life.

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Building on Episode 6 which dealt with the topic of Career Planning, this episode addresses Career Strategies.  Karel provides 10 strategies for choosing a career and being successful in it.  The ideas are relevant to those who are still in school and just thinking about future careers, those at the start of their career in order to enhance their success, and those well into their career who are looking for further career optimization or an alternative career.

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Whether you’re still in school and haven’t started your career, just got your first job, or in mid-career, the topic of career planning is hugely important.  As Lewis Carroll said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  Most people don’t pay enough attention to career planning or think about it too narrowly and then wonder why they don’t have the career they truly wanted.  Karel addresses this topic by introducing three factors that he believes are key to consider during pre-career, early career, and mid-career planning.  He then takes each and gives advice on how to approach making progress in a tangible way.

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There is a significant trend toward people working from home but there is very little information about good habits and best practices regarding this mode of working. Karel summarizes the three most common types of working from home and then outlines the benefits and challenges of remote work. He then provides specific advice about how best to arrange and handle working remotely as well as when it may not be the best option.

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