What I’m Reading

* On Why We Often Remember Bad Memories Rather Than Good: “Memories are fallible. Long-term memories are nearly always wrong.”

* On the Importance of Long Term Thinking in a Society Dominated by Instant Gratification: “The information you consume will likely one day provide you with some benefit, you just don’t know where yet. It just takes time.”

* When a Stress Expert Battles Mental Illness: “It’s hard to reconcile being an ‘expert’ on performance and experiencing what I’m experiencing. At times, I feel like a fraud and an impostor, fragile and scared.”

* On Taking Risk and Timing: “Isn’t that what drives us? The desire to acquire more, even if not necessarily more things but more knowledge, more skills, more experiences, more praise, more power.”

* How Nostalgia Can Help Us Find Our Meaning in Life  (PODCAST): What exactly nostalgia is, what it feels like, and what induces nostalgic feelings

* On Living a Perfectly Imperfect Life: “It’s about being compassionate with yourself as you are, and building on whatever that is — not feverishly trying to rebuild yourself in order to pose as something else entirely.”

* On Strategy and Execution: “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different. The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

* On The Advantages of Being Underemployed: “It’s not about working less – it’s the opposite.”

* On Stories That Saved a Prisoner’s Life: “I didn’t just live for that library. I lived because of that library. The Patuxent prison library saved me from crushing despair. It saved hundreds of other guys, too.”

On Figuring Out Your Flaws: “No one is crazy, including you. But everyone justifies actions based on poor reasoning, including you.”

On Self-Reflection and Gratitude: “Money and career are important but they’re not everything.”

On Being Good Not Great: “ ‘Trust comes from vulnerability.’ Recent experimental data suggests that this is because deep down inside, most everyone dislikes having to pretend they’ve got all their shit together. When you let your guard down and get real, others feel relieved and gain the confidence to do the same.”

How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape our Reality: “We can select truths that engage people and inspire action, or we can deploy truths that deliberately mislead. Truth comes in many forms, and experienced communicators can exploit its variability to shape our impression of reality.”

On Endurance and Time Horizons: “One is how much time you have to achieve your goals. The other is …”

On the Value of Irrational Thinking: “You are always explaining to yourself the motivations for your actions and the causes ….”

On the Relationship Between Dogs and Man: “The dog is a result of fear transformed into love. When we look …”

On Living a Meaningful Life: “Nothing could be more self-defeating than scrutinizing one’s life purpose. We ask ourselves if …”

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read, watched or listened to this week. You Never Have Time, Only Intentions https://www.raptitude.com/2017/05/you-never-have-time-only-intentions/ “Time shrinks and disappears, or arrives with new problems we hadn’t accounted for. It has done this out whole lives, and we never learn. Unlike time, you … Read more

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read, watched or listened to this week. Four links and descriptions:   Mindsets: Optimism vs. Complacency vs. Pessimism https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/mindsets-optimism-vs-complacency-vs-pessimism/ “A real optimist wakes up every morning knowing lots of stuff is broken, and more stuff is about to break. Big stuff. … Read more

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read and watched this week: On The Value of Distraction https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/a-new-theory-of-distraction  “What if, in fact, we’re not very good at being distracted? What if we actually don’t value distraction enough?” On Self Doubt https://stevenpressfield.com/2018/09/self-doubt-is-good/ “For every measure of self-doubt we experience … Read more

The Hero’s Journey is a sort of ‘template’ by which one can track the story and progression of heroes from any genre – from ancient myths to Harry Potter. This narrative arc has many applications outside of narrative fiction.  I personally use the arc when drafting speeches, working with clients on the trajectory and plan … Read more

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read and watched this week: On Luck Relative to Hard Work https://jamesclear.com/luck-vs-hard-work  “Absolute success is luck. Relative success is hard work.” On Self-Serving Bias https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/self-serving-bias/ “We all like to believe that our achievements are our own and that our failures are … Read more

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read and watched this week: On Learning From Mistakes https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/fool-me-three-times-and-i-give-up/ ” What you should learn when you make a mistake because you did not anticipate something is that the world is difficult to anticipate. That’s the correct lesson to learn from surprises: … Read more