Transparency
Peter Knox sparked this off with his own monologue on transparency:
My thoughts on transparency, honesty
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Tag Archives: People
Excellent Thanksgiving tips
From Keith Ferrazzi:
I do try to consciously practice gratitude every day, but certainly Thanksgiving is a reminder to us all. I recall driving up to Santa Barbara to meet some friends for the holiday one year and just scrolling through my cell phone and dialing people to say how grateful I was at that very moment for their presence in my life. How truly blessed I am, for so many different reasons, for the moments these people, like my writing partner Tahl Raz, walked into my life. The more people I called, the better I felt about myself and the world. What a gift it was to give to myself and I absolutely encourage you to try it… follow the discussion at the never eat along blog.
From DailyOM:
Often when we practice being thankful, we go through the process of counting our blessings, acknowledging the wonderful people, things and places that make up our reality. While it is fine to be grateful for the good fortune we have accumulated, true thankfulness stems from a powerful comprehension of the gift of simply being alive, and when we feel it, we feel it regardless of our circumstances. In this deep state of gratitude, we recognize the purity of the experience of being, in and of itself, and our thankfulness is part and parcel of our awareness that we are one with this great mystery that is life… follow the discussion at DailyOM.
From Tim Ferriss:
From Thanksgiving to next Thursday, November 29th, ask yourself the following question each morning, immediately upon waking up and before getting out of bed:
What am I truly grateful for in my life?
Aim for five answers, and if you have trouble at first, ask yourself alternative probing questions such as:
What relationships do I have that others don
Connect and reconnect with professors
One of the most overlooked resources at Universities would easily be the professors. Sure, my evidence may be anecdotal but I have a sneeky suspicion that many students forgot how awesome professors can be. For starters, they
Keeping in touch isn’t easy
Keeping in touch isn’t easy sometimes. These days with hundreds of Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin friends it can be overwhelming and even paralyzing to try and be a good friend to everyone. I’m sure we all have our close groups of friends: the ones we go out with, call occasionally, see on the weekends. But what about everyone else? I have my own method of keeping in touch…
Let me preface this by saying a methodological approach doesn’t mean it’s any less meaningful. We can all agree, our lives are quick and busy. So, I force myself to reach out to at least three friends every day. And, like most important things (schedule, to-do, contacts) I like to create a list or use a system to keep myself organized. So, I’ve created a spreadsheet that tracks the three people I’ve talked to and how we contacted each other (SMS, Phone, Facebook, etc.).
Click here to borrow my spreadsheet, Excellent Friends.xls
Sure, I could sit down every day and send a Facebook message to my friends but I’d start to see a pattern: I don’t call anyone, I don’t see anyone face-to-face. My hope is that hindsight will force me to be a better friend in the future. There are so many people I want to keep up with, I’ve found this is a simple way to do that. And if you’re really lucky, your friends will want to reach out to you, too. I can’t wait for that day. ;)
On Being Social
In the last few months I’ve become close friends with some people very quickly. At first it seems odd that you can connect so quickly and be so comfortable with people; I’ve learned the trick! Become well versed in the following: sports, music, and movies (not TV shows, there are just too many). You can always start a (recent, topical) conversation and carry it into other interests.
One of the best companies…
I sit here debating whether or not to publish this post; I’ve never been keen on writing about my employers. But, I have a really good point I want to make: employers need to take care of Gen Y. Why? Because we’ll take care of you, too. My employer is one of the best companies to work for.
It shows during training: you’re fed well, you’re given a wealth of knowledge (more than you can handle), and you’re surrounded by awesome people. Managers willing to consult you, check up on you, chat at the bar with you. Trainers willing to joke with you, talk sports with you and, of course, educate you so you can be successful. That’s all I ask! I don’t need to be “coddled,” just comforted.
I know I’ll be working hard in the coming weeks. I’ll spend a bunch of time away from people during “busy season” but, again, I’ll be on flights to training all around the country. Global organizations are great like that. In return, I’m excited to start learning on the job and contributing in as many ways as I can.
Its truly exciting to see an understanding, a conversation between generations. I realized it really meant something when my friend Ryan was quote in the same NYTimes article as one of my instructors last week. Thats when I knew I was with one of the best companies to work for.
Are we far too male-centric?
Are we far too male centric? Recently I’ve noticed how much wives put up with. From Eugene O’Kelly to Evan Almighty. And that’s just yesterday. It may sound naive but why are we still so very male-centric? Discussion at 9rules.
I’m worried too…
Danah Boyd has written some awesome papers. Her latest on social class and online social networks came to a good (tangent) point: With the hegemonic teens, I’m very worried about the stress that they’re under, the lack of mobility and healthy opportunities for play and socialization, and the hyper-scheduling and surveillance. I’m worried about their unrealistic expectations for becoming rich and famous, their lack of work ethic after being pampered for so long, and the lack of opportunities that many of them have to even be economically stable let alone better off than their parents. I’m worried about how locking teens indoors coupled with a fast food/junk food advertising machine has resulted in a decrease in health levels across the board which will just get messy as they are increasingly unable to afford health insurance.
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
The full title of the book is: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, How the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction. Here it is on Amazon.
Devin determined… this book is a must-read. Some parts get a little complicated for just a quick read. But, at 240 pages this is a a fun look at the societal and psychological issues we face.
The areas explored are summed up with the following:
…our experience of choice as a burden rather than a privilege is not a simple phenomenon. Rather it is the result of a complex interaction among many psychological processes that permeate our culture, including rising expectations, awareness of opportunity costs, aversion to trade-offs, adaptation, regret, self-blame, the tendency to engage in social comparisons, and maximizing.
The last chapter goes on to highlight and explain how we can try to avoid these issues (regret leading to depression, leading to suicide; comparing to neighbors and having regret; post-decision regret). A lot of it has to do with accepting “good enough” which Scott Adams recently talked about on his blog.
Again, I recommend the book because it may help you see your decisions a little differently. At the same time, it helps understand the psychology behind others’ decisions.
Everyone is Watching
We may think everyone cares about our every little detail. Perhaps we were brought up with a higher level of self esteem and self importance. We’re raised to believe that we’re all winners and we’re all important (Thanks, Mom). But, do people really care about what we’re always doing?