Self-Improvement

The Exponential Art of Kaizen

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Reading Time: 9 minutes When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.  Jacob A. Riis How are post-war industries rebuilt? Can worldwide poverty be reduced? Can couples divorce rates be predicted?   The answer to such dramatic questions …

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The Subtle Psychology of Making the First Step

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The scariest moment is always just before you start.  Stephen King  A fascinating book about writing is Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. The title comes from a family story about her brother. He was assigned a school project about birds. As children do, he procrastinated and delayed starting the project until the very end. Now, with the project due the next day, the boy sat at the table and cried. Where should he start? Will he ever finish the project? Lamott describes their dad telling …

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RAIN: How to Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture Emotions

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor  RAIN is a common practice in secular meditation and it is an acronym for:  Recognize the emotions  Allow the emotions  Investigate the emotions  either Non-Identification with emotions   or Nurture the emotions, depending on the version.  I heard of RAIN from Tara Brach, and there are a few RAIN meditations with her available for free. This practice …

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Learning New Words Can Help Recognize Our Emotions

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Reading Time: 9 minutes “Your brain’s most important job is not thinking or feeling or even seeing, but keeping your body alive and well so that you survive and thrive … How is your brain able to do this? Like a sophisticated fortune-teller, your brain constantly predicts. Its predictions ultimately become the emotions you experience and the expressions you perceive in other people.”  Lisa Feldman Barrett  Our brain is nothing short of a prediction machine. It is perpetually analyzing and adjusting the information coming across our senses.  Outside …

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Mindful Work – Capturing, Prioritizing and Working on Tasks Effectively

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Part 1: Mindless Work Part 2: Mindful Work There are two main types of networks that the brain has, a highly attentive state network and a more relaxed resting-state network. In her book A mind for numbers, Barbara Oakley names the thinking processes related to the two main types of networks the focused mode and the diffuse mode.  The focused mode is associated with the concentrating abilities of the brain. Diffuse-mode thinking happens when we relax our concentration and let our minds wander: taking breaks, doing something that …

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Mindless Work – The High Price of Continuous Multitasking

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Part 1: Mindless Work Part 2: Mindful Work I must not always multitask.  Constant context switching is the mind-killer.  Craving distractions is the little-death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my interruptions.  I will permit them to pass over me and through me.  And when they have gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see their path.  Where the shallow tasks have gone, there will be nothing. Only my attention will remain. Litany of multitasking adapted from Dune  In computing, multitasking is the …

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Letters to my Daughter: Myths and Tips to Strategically Distinguish Between Careers and Passions

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Reading Time: 10 minutes My dear daughter, you are still so incredibly young. But no sooner than I catch my breath for one moment and puff, you will be quickly wondering: what should I do with my life? What job should I pursue? Should I follow my passion? After all, isn’t what they say “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”?  No, my dear daughter, following your passion is terrible career advice. Focus instead on building rare and valuable …

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Metaphorical Thinking – Introduction

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Reading Time: 7 minutes Metaphorical Thinking – Introduction Metaphorical Thinking – the Cloud Metaphors Metaphorical Thinking – the Guest Metaphor Metaphorical Thinking – the Web Metaphors The Greek word of μεταπερειν translates in English as metapherein, the root word for metaphor. Metapherein is composed of meta (over, across, higher, beyond) and pherein (to bear or carry). A metaphor carries meaning from one word, expression, or image to another, connecting the two concepts. Hence, the word metaphor is itself a metaphor.  The metaphorical language consists of metaphors, similes, analogies, …

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