Simple thought experiment – do you feel the wind moving around your hands as you walk? The answer is very clearly yes. Swinging our hand through air creates a sensation that is obviously perceptible. Pay attention next time you go for a walk and you’ll certainly notice it. Yet it’s likely that you’ve never consciously …
There’s a short, yet powerful, section in Marcus Aurelius’s book, Meditations, that he simply called “How to act”: Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings. Don’t gussy up your thoughts. No surplus words or unnecessary actions. Let the spirit in you represent a man, an adult, a citizen, a Roman, a ruler. …
There’s a delicate balance between truth and effectiveness. It’s rare that the exact way we think about a given topic is also the most effective way to inspire others. So we have to pander. We have to meet people where they are, rather than where we want them to be. Rather than presenting things exactly …
There’s an interesting phenomenon. When we’re trying to get a difficult point across, almost without fail, the audience doesn’t listen the way we want them to. The people who are already doing what we’re asking listen intently and take every word to heart, whereas the people we’re really trying to influence either don’t care or …
Rather than just sharing a single quote this week, I’d like to point to a surprising clever and insightful short story from the children’s author, Shel Silverstein: https://www.slideshare.net/cyaneum/the-missing-piece-meets-the-big-o -Brandon
Understanding our purpose is a challenging, and maybe impossible, task. I recently revisited an intriguing exchange in a interview Mike Posner had on The School of Greatness podcast, that I think helps to shed some light on the topic. When asked about his personal purpose, Mike Posner starts with the answer you’d expect from a …
Who would you rather have teach you how to rebound – Shaquille O’Neil or Dennis Rodman? Shaq is number 15 on the all-time rebounding list. Rodman is 23. Shaq is 7’1″. While he played, he was almost always the tallest, heaviest, and strongest player on the court. He was one of the best at using …
99.9% success rate is devastating as a rock climber. You can safely climb hundreds of times but that one bad break, whenever it happens, is all that matters. These types of situations present some of the toughest challenges in life. When one loss overshadows countless wins. It’s typically best to avoid these situations. When we …
There are lots of ways to come up with useless goals, but before we even start thinking about the specifics, there are two important screening questions we have to ask ourselves: 1. Is the result under my control? 2. Does the goal actually matter? Take health an example. Getting taller is a bad goal. Sure, …
We must continually remind ourselves that there is a difference between what is natural and what is good. Nothing is more “natural” than being mauled and eaten by a bear. Sam Harris -Brandon