The majority of meetings should be discussions

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Barry

“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.”

—Patrick Lencioni, Founder of The Table Group

Image from Unsplash by Content Creators

Death by Meeting is one of Patrick Lencioni’s numerous books. He first made his mark with his classic, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, from which his business fable format gained considerable popularity.

How do you feel about the meetings you attend? How many, how long, and perhaps most importantly, how productive are these often stolen parts of your day?

EXERCISE:

Given the concept that people participate more fully in that which they help create, try using the More, Less, Start, Stop Exercise to upgrade the engagement and value of your meetings.

Please also check out Death by Meetings for additional ideas that can benefit you and your organization.

Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Barry

“Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts. Aim for being heroic at consistency.”

—Brad Stulberg, Performance Coach

Image from Unsplash by Niklas Tidbury

We all get excited when we observe heroic acts in the world. These efforts almost always require extraordinary levels of physical, mental, and emotional effort. Unfortunately, as Brad points out, we all know that these efforts are not sustainable.

Although not as sexy, consistency provides a compounding effect that is both sustainable and sticky. These habitual actions often result in excellence in virtually any life domain you choose.

EXERCISE:

Select a single area of your life where you will make the heroic effort to be more consistent. Feel free to reply to this post and share the area you selected.

Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Barry

“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”

—David Bowie, late British singer, actor, and songwriter

Image from Unsplash by Kyle Glenn

In the animal kingdom the ability to hear is critical to survival regardless of whether you are predator or prey. The other senses definitely have their role in making sure they get to experience another day, or even the next moment.

What are the ways you currently sense what is just around the corner or perhaps far off in the distance? Consider this question for both personal and professional matters that are urgent and important to not only surviving, but thriving.

EXERCISE:

How might applying a herd mentality – where you are just one of many sets of eyes, ears, and noses – broaden your capacity to sense and react more quickly and more proactively?

Consider reaching out to family, friends, teachers, mentors, and coaches in your current communities to have many more better tomorrows.

By going out of your mind you come to your senses

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Barry

“By going out of your mind, you come to your senses.”

—Alan Watts, 20th Century British-American philosopher

Image of a man facing the sunrise with arms outstretched

Image from Unsplash by Zac Durant

Have you ever considered that going out of our minds was a good thing?

Not in the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest way, but in a quieting the inner voice/monkey mind way.

During a recent meditation session, the instructor led me through an exercise that focused on each of the five senses. With this shift of focus, I noticed a considerable reduction and even a few momentary stoppages of mental chatter and a greater sense of calm and presence.

EXERCISE:

Consider spending 60 seconds on each of your five senses. Make a note or two regarding what you perceived:

Sight
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell

Where in your life would going out of your mind and coming to your senses have the greater benefit?

Friday Review: Acceptance

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Barry

FRIDAY REVIEW: ACCEPTANCE

What aspects of life do you accept without question? Here are a few acceptance-related posts you may have missed. Click to read the full message.

“If you’re able to be yourself, then you have no competition. All you have to do is get closer and closer to that essence.”

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”

“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.”

It doesn’t make any sense

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Barry

“It doesn’t make any sense to make a key and then run around looking for a lock to open.”

—Seth Godin, American Author

Image from Unsplash by CMDR Shane

The Giving Pledge is a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back. You can learn more about this remarkable commitment to philanthropy and the causes they support by visiting givingpledge.org.

If you happen to not currently be on the list of the ultra-wealthy, I suggest you consider the Impact Pledge. There, we can all participate in a highly specific project by publicly committing our resources – especially time and energy – to a worthy mission to better our world. In such a way we can all participate in the design of a “key” solution that opens the doors of our most daunting local and world issues.

EXERCISE:

Consider visiting the Impact Pledge site to see how you might become a critical key to bettering our world.

When something small loudly demands all of our attention

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Barry

“When something small loudly demands all of our attention, its noise often drowns out the whisper of what’s enormously important.”

—Craig Groeschel, American Clergyman

Image from Unsplash by Sai de Silva

We live in a very noisy world. If you are like many folks these days, the decibel levels and shiny object distractions have reached new heights and the pace is accelerating exponentially.

Although there are extraordinary opportunities through the abundance of these worldly demands for our attention, we all require gaps in our days to recharge and renew.

EXERCISE:

Create two lists for your personal and professional life. Label the first list Important Whispers and the second Loud Demands.

What strategies can and will you employ to increase the time for items on the first, and reduce or perhaps eliminate items from the second?

We are mere journeymen

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Barry

“We are mere journeymen, planting seeds for someone else to harvest.”

—Wallace Thurman, 20th Century African-American Novelist

Image from Unsplash by Warren Wong

For virtually all people alive today, the standard of living and the quality of life has improved exponentially over the past few decades, and particularly in the last two centuries.

If you have ever interviewed your parents, grandparents, or even looked back over your own life, things have improved in countless ways.

Consider the idea that all the people known and unknown to you have been farmers planting and cultivating the seeds we all get to harvest each day.

EXERCISE:

Who in your world can and will you thank and acknowledge for all the abundance we experience today?

Where and how are you currently planting the seeds of a better world to benefit the lives of other’s for future generations?

Life is an echo. What you give, you get

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Barry

“Life is an echo. What you give, you get.”

—Author Unknown

Image of Echo Dot 3 from Amazon.com

If you keep up with technology, you know that Amazon recently launched the third generation of the Echo Dot. For less than $50.00, we can all tap into the virtually unlimited collective knowledge of mankind.

A frequently cited source of answers to our inquiries is Wikipedia – the free online encyclopedia created and edited by volunteers around the world. It is because of these individual and collective contributions that we all reap the benefit/echoes of others throughout the world.

EXERCISE:

What are the things in life you most desire? How would more generously sharing these resources echo back to you even more of what you seek?

Friday Review of posts on Renewal

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Barry

FRIDAY REVIEW: RENEWAL

What are your strategies for renewing your energy, your sense of self, and regaining balance in your life? Here are a few renewal-related posts you may have missed. Click to read the full message.