Category: Notes (Page 5 of 9)

Simplicity

July 20, 2008 /

Success Soul had an interview with Leo Babauta on Simplicity, Clarity, Happiness and Success. Shilpan asked:

What is the single most important advice for my readers to use simplicity for their personal development?

I like Leo’s answer and his definiton of simplicity:

Simplicity is, at its core, just choosing the essential over the non-essential. It’s a way to make the most use of your time, to be more effective, and to do the things you love.

Start by identifying 4-5 things you really love — those are the essentials in your life — then build your life around those things. Eliminate as much of the rest as possible. The same is true of work tasks and projects, of the things you spend on, on the clutter in your house — choose the essential and eliminate the rest.

The essence of his answer sounds easy – choose the essential and eliminate the rest – but is harder to implement.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Meditation and intuition as business tools

June 23, 2008 /

In the book Do Less, Achieve More is mentioned that Harvard and INSEAD see meditation and intuition as the business tools of the future. A search using Google showed just one source apart from quotes from the book. In a newsletter from International Coach Federation – New York City Chapter it said as introduction to a presentation by Mark Thornton, former Chief Operating Officer for JPMorgan Bank in London:

Harvard Law, Columbia Business School, Insead and McKinsey & Co. do it – why don’t coaches? Meditation is a way to build critical emotional awareness, reduce reactivity and gather wisdom outside the traditional. Using role plays of difficult conversations, dialogues and interactive sessions, coaches will access places beyond reason and emotion where some of their true wisdom and best skills reside.

At “Mark Thornton” I found this quote from Mr. Claude Rameau, Former Dean of the World at INSEAD:

We do not know how to teach meditation and intuition, so we built a large meditation hall for teachers, executives, and students to just sit quietly and contemplate resting within.

At Mark’s website it says that:

His meditation courses have helped industry leaders — including The New York Times, Deloitte Touche, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative and others — learn to reduce stress, maintain focus, and stay inspired, while building inner mastery and enhancing overall creativity.

I do short meditations before client sessions in order to focus and prepare mentally.

At my other blog are posts about Meditation, including about the book The 5-minute Meditator which talks about spot meditations – an interesting topic.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Why do we resist it?

June 16, 2008 /

Jonathan Mead has a very interesting post over at PickTheBrain about Why Do We Avoid Doing What We Love?.

If we know what makes us feel alive, why do we resist it? Why do we avoid doing what we love to do?

There are some important lessons in here:

Failure is fundamental to the creative process. If you don’t fail, you’ll never improve.

Respect the fact that mastering any skill takes time. Instead of thinking about all the things that aren’t right, think about what you can do now to improve.

There is also a part about when we have turned our passion into work and what we can do to re-ignite our passion.

Anytime you feel that you must do something, you lose inspiration. You lose your sense of excitement.

I am following my passion and have started working as a professional coach. Another passion is sharing and gaining knowledge, a reason for my blogs.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Health at BBC

May 28, 2008 /

BBC has a section called BBC Health. That sections had a part about Healthy living which among other things covered Fitness. I like and agree with their introduction:

Maintaining a ‘keep fit’ lifestyle doesn’t have to mean slogging it out in a sweaty gym. Just boosting your levels of general daily activity will reap big rewards in improved health and energy.

There was also a section about Nutrition with this introduction:

You are what you eat
A good diet is central to overall good health, but which are the best foods to include in your meals, and which ones are best avoided? This section looks at the facts, to help you make realistic, informed choices.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

If there were ten of you?

March 22, 2008 /

Skellie asks two interesting questions over at Anywired.

What would you do if there were ten of you? (Putting aside the social and existential awkwardness that might cause, of course.)

Once you’ve answered that question, something to think about:
What will you do because there is only one of you?

This is a nice exercise, what are your answers?

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

What are you willing to leave behind?

February 26, 2008 /

I got this in one of my Daily Forwards Step:

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
André Gide

This rings true to me, we often have to leave things behind to be able to find something new.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Take care of your reputation

February 23, 2008 /

I got this quote in one of my Daily Forwards Step:

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett (Investment Entrepreneur)

What will YOU do differently?

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Hook, line and sinker

February 12, 2008 /

Over at Freelance Folder is a useful post titled Is Your Elevator Pitch a Home Run?.

Your elevator pitch is your 30-second marketing strategy. You need it to tell people on the fly at any given moment who you are, what you do, and help win them over – or at the very least, gets them to remember you so they can refer you to their friends. A good elevator pitch lands new clients, gets referrals, or makes you memorable.

I am working on my own elevator pitch, need one for my coaching business. The post above is a good start, so is my own post Elevator pitch – Networking pitch.

Note: Photo by ToastyKen.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Think before starting something new

January 18, 2008 /

Skellie wrote an excellent post about “5 Hard Questions You Should Answer Before Starting a New Project”. The brief list is:

  1. What are my end goals with the project?
  2. What will I have to do to reach those goals?
  3. Do I have enough ideas and inspiration?
  4. Do I have enough time?
  5. Will it impact on my other projects?

Skellie raises these questions in connection with a new blog project of hers but the questions are valid before starting anything new.

The first question is fairly easy, the other four are tougher since they are about how to get there and how to get it done.

Question four (enough time?) is something we really need to consider. I often underestimate the time it takes, both in volume and calendar time.

Question four and five might lead to rearranging priorities, read also my post about Turning 2008 into 80-20.

Note: Photo by Lost in Scotland.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

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