Life Habits

The audio podcast itself is the primary delivery mechanism for the content of the series but listeners have requested written copies of the quotes included in the episodes as well as the list of ideas that are provided. These are now more recently provided in the Lyrics tag in the individual mp3 audio files.  You can access this material if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch by tapping on the screen while the podcast is being played.  You can also access the quotes and top 10 list for a specific episode within iTunes while in the Podcasts view by right clicking on the episode, selecting Get Info, and then selecting the Lyrics tab.

Listeners have also asked for this material for the entire series in one place.  This material is therefore now provided to serve this need. Thanks for listening to the podcast and I hope you find quotes and top 10 lists valuable too.  Please note that the first few episodes didn’t settle on 10 ideas per episode but over time that’s the number that was arrived at for the subsequent episodes.

Please note: if you took notes for the episodes that have missing notes (indicated by “in progress”), please send them to lifehabits@gmail.com

Episode 1 - Overview and Setting Priorities

1. Starting with the end in mind
2. How you would like to be remembered
3. Determine what is most important to you

Episode 2 - Time Management

Thomas Edison, “Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the only and the only thing you can’t afford to lose”

1. Take control and don’t be controlled by time
2. Use a yearly and weekly time scales
3. Set weekly plans on Sunday
4. Prioritize your roles
5. Focus on the non-urgent and important
6. Change meeting lengths and take time for yourself
7. Select the optimal communication method
8. Take control of electronic communication
9. Effectively multitask and delegate
10. Don’t over schedule

Episode 3 - Staying Positive

Helen Keller, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us”.

1. Glass half empty or full approach
2. Determine how to react to situations
3. Focus on positive behaviors of others
4. Dwelling on the negative is destructive
5. Make deposits in the emotional bank account
6. Use the positive to motivate yourself
7. Energies your own mind’s positive perspective
8. Practice positive behaviors and thoughts

Episode 4 - The Power of the Mind

Marcus Aurelius, “You have the power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength”.

Examples of the power of the mind,  the ways in which it can take control without our knowledge, and what we can do to avoid the effects of them.

1. Placebo effect
2. Re-constructed memories
3. Confirmation bias
4. Bandwagon effect
5. Base rate fallacy
6. Illusion of control bias
7. Gamblers fallacy
8. Planning fallacy
9. Halo effect
10. In-group bias and out-group homogeneity bias
11. Groupthink
12. Cognitive dissonance

Episode 5 - Working Remotely

Joe Bitner, “Many not only work from home but they can also work from a remote island if they want.  A lot of what we do is to meet with our clients but once you’ve sat down and discussed with them their business plan, you can do the actual work from any location.” Optimize flexible hours

Episode 6 - Career Planning

Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

(in progress)

Episode 7 - Career Strategies

(in progress)

Episode 8 - Authentic Parenting

“No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I’m not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.” Bill Cosby

“Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who step on their toes” Chinese Proverb

“Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.” P.J. O’Rourke

“Parents who are always giving their children nothing but the best usually wind up with nothing but the worst” - Parent

1. Life Balance - kids time - adults time
2. Foster good self-esteem
3. Management vs. relationship
4. Responsibility - chores
5. Give them space to learn for themselves
6. Develop shared interests and do them
7. Set limits and be firm about them
8. Establish a clear set of values & model them
9. Keep tabs on age appropriate rules
10. Tell them you love them and show it - you might not always like their behavior but always love them

Episode 9 - Fitness for Life

John F Kennedy “Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”

Jack Lalanne “I just want to see how long I can keep this thing going. The easiest thing is dying. Living is a a pain in the butt.”

Julius Erving “If you don’t do what’s best for your body, you’re the one who comes up on the short end.”

1. Health is the great equalizer - you’ve only got one body, one set of genetics, and no amount of money or influence is as effective as just you looking after the one body you have - and fitness is the way to get there
2. Exercise and overall fitness boosts your brainpower, clarity of thinking, and lowers stress, and increases your energy
3. When you get the body you want through excercise you feel better, look better, and feel more confident interpersonally
4. Make fitness your most important goal for life
5. Fit excercise into your daily routine
6. Choose an excercise activities you like but they’ve got to both aerobic and strength based
7. Make the activity more enjoyable (iPod) or make it social
8. Set realistic but sustainable milestone goals and make them public for motivation
9. Re-start the program if it lapses and don’t be discouraged - this is a life-long quest
10. Celebrate successes as if they were the most important achievements in life - which they are

Episode 10 - Effective Public Speaking

Jerry Seinfeld, “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

Roscoe Drummond, “What this country needs is less public speaking and more private thinking”

Dale Carnegie, “There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave.  The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”

Mark Twain, “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”

Different types of public speaking - large group in-person presentation, conference call presentation, speaking up in a meeting or call.

1. Decide whether to do it
2. Consider why you’re doing it and what you want to say
3. Understand who your audience is
4. Determine where you’d like to do it
5. Be clear, concise, and organized - focus on no more than three major messages
6. Speak more slowly and louder than you think you should
7. Prepare visuals to guide and reinforce what you want to say - don’t read words on slides
8. Stay connected with the audience and ask them questions and comments
9. Reinforce the key message and follow-on actions required in wrapping up
10. Ask for feedback from peers, listen to recordings, and plan on how to improve and practice

Episode 12 - Dealing with a Flat World Quoted stats - World Internet Users - March 2008 Asia 37.6% Europe 27.1% North America 17.5% My sites - 60% NA, 20% Europe, 15% Asia, 5% rest

1. Appreciate that the world exists - avoid enthocentrism
2. Consider where “here” is when mentioning place
3. Pronounce names properly - listen to voicemail
4. Be aware of idioms and language differences eg. hitting a home run, at the end of the day
5. Be careful with sports & government references
6. Avoid cultural minefields i.e., people’s names in red
7. Speak more slowly and use simpler grammar/vocab
8. Learn more about other cultures/biases (from staff)
9. Whenever you’re comfortable - check - left side of road
10. Given trends, if you’re good at this, you’ll prosper

Episode 13 - Taming Technology

Make it work for you rather than being a slave to it.

Stewart Brand, “Once a new technology rolls over you, if your’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.”

Mitchell Kapor, “Getting Information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”

Bill Gates, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”

Control your interruptions (inputs) and your workload (outputs) via technology to lower stress, make more time for yourself, be more effective, and enjoy life more.

1. iPods/iPhone to multitask - podcasts & audiobooks
2. Text messaging - keep in touch efficiently
3. Voicemail - rather than being interupted
4. e-mail - twice a day, filtering, short replies
5. Electronic sicky notes (post-it notes)
6. Calendar (diary) block for your time
7. Instant messaging control
8. Social networking - reconnect & stay connected
9. Web through rss and services (banking, etc)
10. Heart-rating monitors, GPS, treadmill, DVR
11. Unplug entirely

Episode 14 - Sex Differences

Research shows that there are very few differences between the sexes in cognitive abilities and psychological traits.  Sex and computers.

But there are certain important trends, hearing, seeing, risk taking, response to stress, communication, compassion/cooperation — most women prefer feeling and most men thinking.  Men talk more in public but women more at home, women make more eye contract, and agree rather than debate.

There aren’t major differences in things like intelligence, there are many differences that are important to be aware of in order to be effective in life.  You should drive for equality and fairness while also being aware of and optimizing for differences.

1. Equality through Awareness & acknowledgment of both sexes (his)
2. Sexist language, attitude, and behavior (comfortable)
3. Remove biases (power of the mind episode)
4. Optimize androgyny
5. Men - listen more actively, cooperate, compassion
6. Women - speak up more, risk taking, confidence 6. Learn from the other gender Celebrate Differences
7. Feel good about being feminine or masculine
8. Use the power of your gender
9. Make sure it is appropriate in the context
10. Nobody is perfect on this topic - mistakes will happen

Episode 15 - Achieving Success

Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Bob Dylan - A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

Monty Hall - Actually, I’m an overnight success. But it took twenty years.

Woody Allen - Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Albert Einstein - Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Malcolm Forbes - Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

Dale Carnegie - Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

Author Unknown - Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.

Author Unknown - Most look up and admire the stars. A champion climbs a mountain and grabs one.

Mahatma Gandhi - As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world…as in being able to remake ourselves.

1. Set, document, visualize, & own your goals and subgoals
2. Assess your abilities, resources, and deltas
3. Consider any biases, childhood fears, parental pressures
4. Factor in family arrangements, kids, etc. (balance)
5. Education, training, and experience
6. Network, mentor, and be mentored
7. Just do it - act before you think - take risks
8. Expect and learn from setbacks - continuous learning
9. Periodically reevaluate progress & correct course
10. Do what you love and love what you do

Episode 16 - Positive Psychology

Four Ways to Build Self-Efficacy Gratitude at Work Learned Optimism and Resilience Celebrating Successes Effectively Establishing the Conditions for Flow Broaden and Build: The Power of Positive Emotions Meaningful Work Strategies for High-Quality Connections Discovering and applying strengths

Episode 17 - Managing Anger

Don’t be a slave to your emotions - don’t let others control you - control yourself Powerful emotion can result from frustration, hurt, annoyance, disappointment

Waldo Emerson - For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Benjamin Franklin - Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.

Marcus Aurelius - How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

Chinese Proverb - If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

Bobby Hull - Always keep your composure. You can’t score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score.

Horace - Anger is a brief lunacy.

1. Pause, don’t respond, take deep breath, parasympathetic, delay - stimulus/response
2. Communicate in person not e-mail/text, etc.
3. Write it down in e-mail but don’t send it
4. Try to understand the other person’s point of view
5. Stick to the facts, not character - this is a mess vs. you’re a messy person
6. Work on solutions rather than restating problems - future focus not past
7. Practice what you’re going to say while visualizing the situation
8. Think about what you’re modeling (for kids)
9. Practice simply getting control of your emotions in a variety of situations
10. Nobody is perfect - learn from your mistakes

Episode 18 - Self-Actualization

Bill Gates - The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Steve Jobs - Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Norman Vincent Peale: One of the greatest moments in anybody’s developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

Og Mandino -Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.

Unknown Author - Seeing yourself as you want to be is the key to personal growth.

Deficit Needs - Physiological, Safety, Belonging, Esteem Being Needs - Self-Actualization - be all that you can be

Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, William James

1. Solitude - away from everyone & everything - including technology
2. Relaxation - breathing, meditation
3. Personal reflection - dreams, goals, progress
4. Feel satisfaction with yourself
5. Feel and express gratitude
6. Visualization - future state
7. Independent/autonomous
8. Humility and respect for others - compassion, forgiveness
9. Freshness of appreciation - creativity - outside the box
10. Reset button - daily or at least weekly

Episode 19 - Forgiveness and Compassion

Josh Billings - There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

Mohandas Gandhi - The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong

Friedrich Nietzsche - I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend someone is, they’re going to hurt you every once in awhile and you must forgive them for that.

Buddhist saying - If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.

Dalai Lama - If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Haile Selassie - It is much easier to show compassions to animals. They are never wicked.

Leonardo da Vinci - The purity of a person’s heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals

Forgiveness is the process of ceasing to feel resentment, indignation or anger against another person for a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. Rely on religion or not - whatever works

1. Understand who is hurt most by you not forgiving
2. Decide that why isn’t important
3. Acknowledge your own role
4. Express your feelings
5. Communicate your forgiveness

Compassion is a profound human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. In ethical terms, the various expressions down the ages of the so-called Golden Rule embody by implication the principle of compassion: Do to others as you would have done to you.  Research - dealing with pain or just deeply trying to do the right thing for other people and animals.

1. Better to give than receive
2. Actions speak louder than words
3. Random acts of kindness
4. Planned acts of compassion
5. Karma - All living creatures are responsible for their karma - their actions and the effects of their actions

Episode 20 - Fostering Creativity

Edward de Bono - “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”

Arthur Koestler - “The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.”

Albert Einstein - “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

Smiley Blanton - “A sense of curiosity is nature’s original school of education.”

Mary Lou Cook - “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

Frank Capra - “A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”

Thomas W. Higginson - “Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes.”

Erik Christopher Zeeman - “Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity”

1. Understand - the context
2. Analyse - the current solutions
3. Be Curious - explore dramatically different contexts
4. Trust Intuition - feelings, emotion, hunches
5. Brainstorm - generate a lot of ideas without criticism (daily reflection period)
6. Document - make notes regularly of your wild ideas
7. Prototype - test your ideas in quick and easy ways
8. Get Feedback - solicit input from key stakeholders
9. Iterate - make changes based on feedback
10. Stay the Course - don’t give up - great innovations often take time to take hold

Episode 21 - Simplifying Life

Albert Einstein - “Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler. ”

Henry Ford - “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. ”

Leonardo da Vinci - “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Richard Bach - “The simplest things are often the truest.”

Frederic Chopin - “Simplicity is the final achievement”

Frank Lloyd Wright - “”Think simple” as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.”

Hans Hofmann - “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak”.

1. Take Stock - of what you do in a week
2. Prioritize - use the life priorities of episode 1
3. Less is More - consider dropping the bottom items on the list
4. Delegate - don’t try to do it all yourself
5. Set Limits - Don’t sweat the small stuff - good enough
6. Block Time - for yourself and specific activities weekly
7. Just Say No - practice not getting into more commitments
8. Clear Clutter - especially your work space - clears the head
9. Single & Multi-Task - determine what can be done in parallel and what not
10. Check Progress - regularly and make adjustments

Episode 22 - Stop Procrastinating

Wayne Dyer - “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy”

Benjamin Franklin - “You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again”

Abraham Lincoln - “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle”

Napoleon Hill - “Don’t wait, the time will never be just right”

Martin Luther King Jr. - “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step”

Proverb - “One of these days, is none of these days”

Unknown Author - “I always wanted to be a procrastinator but I never got around to it”

1. Understand
2. Simplify life
3. Subdivide tasks
4. Set mini-deadlines
5. Make deadlines public
6. Put it in your Face
7. Remove distractions
8. Reward yourself
9. Internalize non-Procrastination
10. Generalize

Episode 23 - Taking Stock

Pele, “Practice is everything” Yogi Berra, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” Leonardo da Vinci, “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” David Starr Jordan, ““Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.” Unknown author, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved”

1. Set life priorities (Episode 1:Setting Priorities)
2. Make time for yourself (Episode 2: Time Management)
3. Focus on positives (Episode 3: Staying Positive)
4. Avoid biases (Episode 4:Power of the Mind)
5. Relationship vs. management (Episode 8: Authentic Parenting)
6. Fit excercise in to get fit (Episode 9: Fitness for Life)
7. Avoid enthocentrism (Episode 12: Dealing with a Flat World)
8. Make technology work for you (Episode 13: Taming Technology)
9. Optimize Equility & Androgyny (Episode 14: Sex Differences)
10. Just to it (Episode 15: Achieving Success)

Episode 24 - Managing Stress

Lee Iacocca, “In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” James C. Dobson, “There are very few certainties that touch us all in this mortal experience, but one of the absolutes is that we will experience hardship and stress at some point.” Sydney J Harris, “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” Bill Clinton, “Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think.” Britney Spears, “Every night, I have to read a book, so that my mind will stop thinking about things that I stress about.” Reinhold Niebuhr, “Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other”

Top 10 List:

1. Understand circle of influence
2. Lower arousal level via breathing
3. Progressively relax muscles
4. Exercise vigorously
5. Get sufficient sleep
6. Distract yourself
7. Get social
8. Focus your energies
9. Moderate substance use
10. Assess progress

Episode 25 - Blogs and Podcasts

Quotes and Facts:

Rebecca Blood, “A weblog is a coffeehouse conversation in text, with references as required.” Paul Boutin, “Twitter, Flickr, Facebook make blogs look so 2004″ Jason Kottke, “Growth of Twitter vs. Blogger - crazy insane viral growth” Pew Internet Project, “Podcasting continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with the total audience for podcasts increasing by 58% in under two years…those that download podcasts every day - has gone up 300% in the same time”. FeedBurner,  “podcast circulation is consistently growing nearly 20% per month.”

Top 10 List:

1. Search for topics that interest you in Google Alerts & Twitter & iTunes Store
2. TED Talks video or audio podcast
3. TVO Big Ideas
4. This American Life
5. Harvard Business IdeaCast
6. The Economist
7. Stuff You Should Know
8. Grammar Girl
9. Skepticality
10. This Week in Tech (The Tech Guy)

To access these podcasts, simply search for them in the iTunes Store. Karel’s coordinates: Blog karelvredenburg.com, karelvredenburg on Twitter, and search for karel vredenburg in iTunes for podcasts

Episode 26 - Resilience

Quotes:

Anais Nin, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Toller Cranston,  “Wings are not only for birds; they are also for minds. Human potential stops at some point somewhere beyond infinity.” Bob Richards, “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Michael Jordan, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” Horace, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”

Top 10 List:

1. Understand your level of resilience
2. Assess and anticipate - challenges and changes
3. Consider strategies to avoid negative outcomes
4. Diversify areas of focus - multidimensional
5. Support system - friends and family - people you can trust
6. Relieve stress via exercise and hobbies
7. Focus on the positives
8. Keep things in perspective - priorities
9. Act decisively when that’s required
10. Take stock regularly

Episode 27 - Gratitude

Quotes:

Albert Schweitzer, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” Margaret Cousins, “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” Jean Jacques Rousseau, “There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.” Cicero, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” John F. Kennedy, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” William James, “The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”

Top 10 List:

1. Consider what you’re truly grateful for
2. Imagine you didn’t have what you’re grateful for
3. Think about a time when someone expressed sincere thanks to you and how you felt
4. Make a specific plan to express gratitute to specific people
5. Express gratitude authentically routinely
6. Even when being critical, first express gratitude
7. Reflect on how you feel when you show gratitude
8. Notice others who are good at showing gratitude
9. Think about how much gratitude costs you and how valuable it is
10. Take stock regularly on how you’re doing regarding showing gratitude

Episode 28 - Resolutions

Quotes:

Oprah Winfrey, “Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” Edith Lovejoy Pierce, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” Alfred Adler, “More important than innate disposition, objective experience, and environment is the subjective evaluation of these. Furthermore, this evaluation stands in a certain, often strange, relation to reality.” Albert Einstein, Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” Bernard Shaw, “The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them”

Top 10:

1. Reflect on your year
2. Consider all your roles
3. Evaluate topics we’ve discussed
4. Identify and celebrate successes
5. Understand & learn from failures
6. Convert learning into resolutions
7. Keep them short, simple, & measurable
8. Break them into sub-tasks
9. Make them public
10. Stay the course despite setbacks

Episode 29 - Leadership

Quotes:

Harold R. McAlindon, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Thomas J. Watson Sr., “Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.” Dwight Eisenhower, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Peter F. Drucker, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Publilius Syrus, “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” Arnold H. Glasgow, “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Napoleon Bonaparte, “A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Top 10 List:

1. Focus on People
2. Provide vision
3. Link vision to operation
4. Exude Passion
5. Focus on value(s)
6. Plan yearly, monthly, weekly
7. Measure progress
8. Modify course
9. Be authentic
10. Collaborate with leaders

Episode 30 - Staying Focussed

Quotes:

Italian proverb, “Often he who does too much does too little”. Johann Friedrich Von Schiller, “Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine”. Alexander Graham Bell, “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” Mariah Carey, “Never, never listen to anybody that tries to discourage you”. William James, “Act the part and you will become the part”. Robert Henri, “Do whatever you do intensely”.

Themes:

• Clarity of vision and purpose
• Do the things that are most important
• Stay in the moment
• Strive for excellence
• Remove distractions
• Enjoy yourself
• Don’t be discouraged

Episode 31 - Relationships

Quotes:

Arthur Schopenhauer, “Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people”. Brian Tracy, “The glue that holds all relationships together - including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” Anthony D’Angelo, “Treasure your relationships, not your possessions”. Stephen Covey, “Nothing is more exciting and bonding in relationships than creating together”. Anonymous, “Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests, but also the interests of others”. Anonymous, “We control fifty percent of a relationship. We influence one hundred percent of it”. Anthony Robbins, “The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships”.

Top 10 List:

1. Take stock
2. Broaden
3. Reduce
4. Deepen
5. Emotional Bank Account (EBA)
6. Express Gratitude
7. Forgive
8. Stay Positive
9. Invest Time
10. Keep Focus

Episode 32 - Self-Confidence

Quotes:

Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right” Lao Tzu, “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you” Eleanor Roosevelt, “Nobody can make you feel incompetent without your consent” Unknown Author, “If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price”

Top 10

1. Your current life is the result of your past thoughts and beliefs.
2. Analyze your internal dialogue. What limiting self beliefs do you hold about yourself/your abilities/your appearance/your character?
3. Challenge these negative beliefs - Where is the evidence? What has this belief cost you/prevented you from achieving?
4. Replace these negative beliefs with more positive ones.
5. Repeat the positive beliefs to yourself regularly even if, at first, it seems untrue. Suspend disbelief.
6. Visualize the new confident you, how would you dress, behave, interact with others?
7. What you think - you create. Self doubt leads to self sabotage. Be your own best friend.
8. When you act confident and like yourself, others become convinced too.
9. Thoughts lead to behaviour which leads to your outer reality. What you say and think about yourself is crucial because it is shaping your outer reality.
10. Make a list of your strengths and past achievements that you are proud of: Accentuate the positive.

Episode 33 - Electronic Communication

Quotes:

Marshall McLuhan, “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village.” Earl Warren, “The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual” Storm Jameson, “We need the slower and more lasting stimulus of solitary reading as a relief from the pressure on eye, ear and nerves of the torrent of information and entertainment pouring from ever-open electronic jaws.”

Top 10 List:

1. Assess your communication trends (what percentage is electronic, e-mail, conference calls, twitter, facebook, etc.)
2. Link to Family/Friends/Colleagues - Facebook - choose carefully who you friend and set your friend types and permissions
3. Folllow people who interest you - Twitter - celebs, experts in your field, people who have something interesting to say
4. Communicate regularly - what you’re doing, ask questions, comment on what others say
5. Go mobile - make it more convenient to communicate electronically by using cell phone texting as well as iPhone and Blackberry apps
6. Add video - use Skype Video, Google Chat, MSN chat - make the world a smaller virtual place
7. Hone your electronic communication skills - text, e-mail, chat, Twitter, Facebook, Internet Video
8. Set the appropriate privacy level for your communication - basic internet security plus information access - work and personal accounts, settings
9. Plan your electronic communication - social networking time limits, e-mail, chat, etc. because it will suck you in
10. Unplug - electronic-free sabbatical - make Sundays, for example, screen-free days for you and significant others around you.

Episode 34 - Work-Life Balance

Quotes:

Albert Einstein, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” Diane Domeyer, “Companies today cannot afford to ignore the issue of work/life balance. Providing employees the flexibility to address personal commitments, without compromising the needs of the business, can make the difference between a good working environment and a great one.” Louisa May Alcott, “Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” (1800s) Tom Stern, “How am I supposed to write a blog about work/life balance if you people won’t go away?” Paul McFedries, “Words and phrases commonly act as cultural signposts that give us clues about where we are and where we’re going. The phrase “work-life balance” is a perfect example. Coined in 1986, its usage in the mainstream press was sporadic for many years [but increased dramatically after the year 2000]”.

Top 10:

1. Assess your own practices
2. What should it be (equal isn’t necessarily the goal)
3. Blending - trend toward integrating both (beyond concept of “balance”)
4. Work from home
5. Use technology - VPN, Smart Phones
6. Set limits - schedule activities - universal calendar - block
7. Do weekly planning
8. Discuss with significant others - work & personal
9. Make your time count
10. Deep dives - work (deadlines) & personal time (vacations)

Episode 35 - Presentations

Quotes:

Wayne Burgraff, “It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time.” Philip Crosby, “The audience only pays attention as long as you know where you are going.” Ira Hayes, “No one ever complains about a speech being too short!” Gerald C. Meyers, “Humor heals the heckler.” Author Unknown, “The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” Guy Kawasaki, “A PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty point”

Top 10 List:

1. Audience - who are they, what do they expect, what do you know about them
2. Objectives - what do you want to be different after your presentation
3. Three main points - reinforce at the beginning and again at the end
4. Duration - plan to speak for half the time you have
5. Slides/structure - Decide whether to use slides, how many
6. Graphics/text - Make it engaging, minimize text, don’t read, but don’t overdo gratuituous graphics
7. Audio-video/animation - Include if relevant but don’t overdo
8. Humor - Good for breaking the ice and for hecklers, in moderation
9. Practice - Be in role and do runthroughs to practice, get timing right, etc.
10. Delivery  - Speak more slowly and with greater volume that you would think you should, ask for questions periodically

Episode 37 - Developing Skills into Habits

Quotes:

Aristole, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”