Simple illustration. Various applications.
Source: Carl Richards
This. Or that?
May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Such was the force of her presence that what came after her was defined in terms of her absence
April 9, 2013 By 17 Comments
“She changed us all. We went from being a people who saw ourselves as eternally on the downward slide to a nation that was proud to be British again.
The UK’s first woman prime minister transformed a sclerotic British economy, all but neutered the trade unions, and endeavored to ‘roll back the frontiers of the state’ … The flip side of her courage, toughness and radicalism was an arrogance, obstinacy and remoteness that became more marked the longer she clung to office … Yet such was the force of her presence that what came after her was defined in terms of her absence.
Born in 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Margaret Hilda Roberts was the younger daughter of a corner-shop grocer, Alfred Roberts, and his wife Beatrice. He was a self-made man, a Liberal alderman and a father whose tenets of integrity, hard work and self-reliance were strong influences throughout her career. His younger daughter’s self-belief manifested itself early. Told by a teacher how lucky she was to have won a poetry-reading contest, the 10-year-old Margaret replied: “I was not lucky. I deserved it.”
~ Financial Times on Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1925 – April 8, 2013) who died yesterday. RIP.
Source: Quote from Financial Times: Margaret Thatcher: ‘Iron Lady’ Who Remade Britain. Image from Taylormarsh.com
T.G.I.F.: Loooooong Week
March 8, 2013 By 25 Comments
T.G.I.F.: When my inbox is getting flooded with emails
February 22, 2013 By 25 Comments
Keep Pegging Away
February 21, 2013 By 14 Comments
Yet, another remarkable post from Brainpickings titled 9 Rules for Success where Maria Popova shares excerpts from an essay by British novelist Amelia E. Barr (1831-1919). Barr, despite a devastating loss of her husband and three of their six children to yellow fever in 1867, went on to become a dedicated and diligent writer, eventually reaching critical success at the age of fifty-two. I’d encourage you to read the entire post at this link as it is that good. Here are a few of my favorite excerpts:
1) Men and women succeed because they take pains to succeed. Industry and patience are almost genius; and successful people are often more distinguished for resolution and perseverance than for unusual gifts. They make determination and unity of purpose supply the place of ability.
2) Success is the reward of those who “spurn delights and live laborious days.” We learn to do things by doing them. One of the great secrets of success is “pegging away.” No disappointment must discourage, and a run back must often be allowed, in order to take a longer leap forward.
5) We have been told, for centuries, to watch for opportunities, and to strike while the iron is hot. Very good; but I think better of Oliver Cromwell’s amendment — “make the iron hot by striking it.” [Read more...]
Serve
February 19, 2013 By 37 Comments
“We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.”
Sources: Image - iraffiruse via clausleesemann. Quote: Yahoo Voices
Running. Against the Wind.
February 11, 2013 By 27 Comments
Out the door. 6:30am.
Driving to a team meeting in Manhattan.
Freezing rain. Tap tap tapping on hood of car.
Passenger side wiper banging on an ice chunk. Curse. In a hurry. Again.
Fwap. Fwap. Tap. Tap. Fwap. (You could stop and clear it pal. You could. Or you could keep watching and listening to this show. Show plays on.)
I fan through playlist.
Dreary day. Fog. Rain. Icy conditions.
Feels like, looks like, Detroit. I rifle through playlist hunting for Bob Seger.
And, land on “Against the Wind“
Traffic slowing. Yellow caution lights frenetically flashing.
Salt truck scattering its melting magic on I-95.
I turn my attention to the lyrics.
↓ click for audio (Bob Seger – “Against the Wind”)
It seems like yesterday
But it was long ago…
We were young and strong, we were runnin’
Against the Wind
Running. To get on travel teams. To get grades. To get out of high school. To get the girl. (No one would have me!) To get to college. To get to adulthood. To get. To acquire. To, To, To, something else… [Read more...]
T.G.I.F.: May it go as quickly and efficiently
February 1, 2013 By 13 Comments
Source: Thank you fantasmaglorious. Couldn’t stop watching. Boyo, what is with your fixation with water balloons?
T.G.I.F.: Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing.
February 1, 2013 By 28 Comments
Picture of Bliss
January 30, 2013 By 45 Comments
bliss
/blis/
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Noun
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Bliss Definition: Google
Patience Grasshopper. Patience.
January 15, 2013 By 27 Comments
Michael’s in my head again. Jabbing. Jabbing. Jabbing. Gracefully dancing and landing punches like Sugar Ray. With similar effectiveness. Each one leaving a mark. Punch line popping: You are RUDE.
If you want to pay someone a quiet compliment, give them some serious attention when they are speaking.
I’m in the groove. Making up lost time on a long neglected project with a looming deadline. And, then a colleague with unscheduled “drop-in” meeting walks through my door. My flow is interrupted. “It will just take a few minutes,” was the request. Rather than setting expectations as to my time upfront or scheduling a meeting to accommodate the discussion, I reluctantly shoe-horn it in.
We’re five minutes in. And we are wading. In a swamp. My mind begins to wander. (My foot starts tapping. I start playing with my pen. I sneak glances at my watch. TRIGGERS. Susan’s post intrudes: You see the triggers pal. The alarms are coming at you in waves. Pull up. Pull up. Do not go to the “automated response.”
I am here on purpose…
January 8, 2013 By 44 Comments
Six days back at work…after a two week vacation.
Tension. Decompression. Recharge. Ramp-up. Escalation. Full engagement. Tension.
Full loop restored.
And, cycle time is compressing year over year.
Meetings. Emails. 2013 Planning. Events. Phone calls. Problems. Opportunities. Running. Faster.
In a momentary gap in my schedule…a mental image of this photo flickers by…a photo tripped into during the recharging phase of vacation. Image darts in and out for days. Pulling me back to a time when life was simpler. When picking sweet, juicy Bing cherries and filling the bucket was the task of the day.
I am here on purpose... [Read more...]
T.G.I.F.: Sooooo happy to be running to the weekend…
January 4, 2013 By 27 Comments
Hump Day: “This guy doesn’t get it…just throw me the stick”
December 19, 2012 By 28 Comments
Make it a Level 5 Good Morning
November 27, 2012 By 51 Comments
Something so simple. Yet, so true. Yes, it takes time. Yes, an introvert would need to leave the safety of their comfort zone. Making a human connection. I care. You matter. Need to work up to top of the ladder. See full and worthy post from The Chief Happiness Officer:
“Please do not underestimate the effect of something as simple as saying good morning at work. Studies show that when you have a good start to your work day, you’ll typically have a good day. Here’s our easiest and best tip for kicking your work day off with happiness: The Level 5 Good Morning. We call it that because there are several approaches to saying good morning at work:
- Level 0: You ignore people completely
- Level 1: A somewhat unintelligible grunt
- Level 2: Saying good morning without looking at people
- Level 3: Make eye contact as you say good morning
- Level 4: Also say something more than just good morning, e.g. “How are you?” or something more personal.
- Level 5: Also touch the other person – e.g. a handshake or a pat on the shoulder.
At what level are the typical good mornings in your workplace? And what would happen if you took it to level 5?”
Even a dog can learn to do it for Pete’s sake…
Billion a Second…
November 20, 2012 By 10 Comments
This meeting was no different than any other. No different from the hundreds of meetings in the days, the months before. Where I’m on to the next meeting while attending the one in front of me. Meetings with a replicated loop. Mind whirring…processing. Me pushing. Me prodding. Agitating. Me wanting and needing more. Extraction. Creating discomfort. Manufacturing urgency. I’m not looking for you to love me. That’s what your dog is for. This morning, my level of consciousness had been ratcheted up by a few lines from Daniel Bor the night before. And, I roll into the first meeting of the day. I’m listening. I’m watching.
We are what we do every day. Nothing more.
November 19, 2012 By 17 Comments
“The snowflake moment we idolize, that final and glorious crystalline state which Bentley captured on black velvet time and time again, does provide justification for everything else. It is the end, and so must mean something, must make a bold statement about the substance and quality of our existence. But the snowflake moment is just one of a countless million moments, an isolated still shot of an existence that is predominantly defined by its very motion. We are what we do every day. Nothing more.
~ Scott Schwertly, The Snowflake Moment
Image Credit: Thank you headlikeanorange
T.G.I.F.: Long Week? Let’s Play!
November 16, 2012 By 33 Comments
You got your talkers. And you got your…
November 13, 2012 By 19 Comments
“There’s two kinds of people in this world when you boil it all down. You got your talkers and you got your doers. Most people are just talkers. All they got is talk. But when all is said and done, it’s the doers who change this world. And when they do that, they change us, and that’s why we never forget them. So which one are you? Do you just talk about it, or do you stand up and do something about it? Because believe you me, all the rest of it is just coffee house bull$4!+.”
Image Credit: FatmohnScoop
T.G.I.F.: I LOVE LUCY!
November 9, 2012 By 27 Comments
You are what you do. Get on with it.
November 8, 2012 By 32 Comments
wsj.com: Eight Principles of Successful Optimists
If there were one guiding principle that encapsulated all pragmatic optimists, it would simply be: “judge your worth not by what you own, but by what you create”…In my travels documenting and working with a number of these individuals I’ve observed number of core principles they all seem to share, and they’re principles any of us can adopt:
- Have an unashamed optimism of ambition. (Don’t feel embarrassed to say that things can be better. Have no qualms about imagining an improved world and advocating for it, no matter how much derision you may receive at the hands of the cynical.)
- Engage in projects that are bigger than you are. (“Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.”)
- Your ideas are for sharing, not protecting. (Pragmatic optimists happily let their ideas go out dating.)
- Making mistakes is OK, but not trying is irresponsible.
- You’re defined by what you do, not by what you intend to do. (Pragmatic optimists aren’t interested in what you might do if you had more time, or if your manager was more understanding, or if you were the manager, or if it was next week. You are what you do. That’s it. Get on with it.) [Read more...]
There’s only one lady I dance with…
November 6, 2012 By 24 Comments
And given that I don’t dance, this is saying something. (I watched Dancing With The Stars last night so dancing is on the mind.) I’ve tried them all. Safari. Firebox. Internet Explorer. And others. The Google Chrome Browser is simply in a league of its own. Nothing comes close. Here’s a quick review of why it works for me and why you might find it helpful as a blogger, writer or a PC/Mac desktop/laptop user:
Syncing. It follows me where ever I go. I log in on any computer and bang! There are all my tabs, extensions and folders. It’s like I never leave my favorite cozy couch and comforter. It syncs across all computers. I have immediate access to all of my tabs and extensions from any machine. I can get started immediately without interruption.
Tabs: Tabs are Tabtastic as a PC Magazine’s review describes them. I can set frequently-used tabs that I can click to access sites immediately. I can park less frequently used sites into folders. All easy to set up and access.
Extensions. These are BIG. I use them often. You can hang free productivity apps from the browser (and they follow me on all machines). There is a simple download process from the Google WebStore. There are hundreds of apps. My favorite 1-click extensions are the Evernote clipper (stores articles, jot notes, clip articles for sharing); Diigo (for quick bookmarking and highlighting); 1Password (password setting, storage and auto login – because who can remember all of their passwords? This works great); Addthis (for sharing via email, twitter, tumblr, facebook and many others); Chrome Notepad (handy, simple note taking app that I use all the time) and Readability (save articles to read later online or offline and syncs to Ipads and Iphones. Works beautifully.) [Read more...]
No Pain. No Gain?
November 5, 2012 By 28 Comments
“…maybe that’s the lesson for me today. to hold on to these simple moments. to appreciate them a little more. there’s not many of them left. i don’t ever want that for you, finding things that make you happy shouldn’t be so hard. i know you’ll face pain, suffering, hard choices, but you can’t let the weight of it choke the joy out of your life. no matter what you have to find the things that love you; run to them. there’s an old saying: that which does not kill you makes you stronger. i don’t believe that. i think the things that try to kill you make you angry and sad. strength comes from the good things: your family, your friends, the satisfaction of hard work. those are the things that keep you whole, those are the things to hold on to when you’re broken.”
~ Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy
Image Source: Sergioalbiac. Quote Source: gene-how. Post inspired by Another Day in Paradise
Get Up. Get Out. Don’t Sit.
November 3, 2012 By 23 Comments
“…New research this month finds that the more time someone spends sitting, the shorter and less robust his or her life may be. The findings were sobering: Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. By comparison, smoking a single cigarette reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes. Looking more broadly, they concluded that an adult who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV. Those results hold true even for people who exercise regularly. It appears a person who does a lot of exercise but watches six hours of TV every night might have a similar mortality risk as someone who does not exercise and watches no TV…” [Read more...]
T.G.I.F.: Where are you on the PMC today?
November 2, 2012 By 35 Comments
T.G.I.F.: Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No…
November 2, 2012 By 21 Comments
Has your work week been like this? Guaranteed 30 seconds of smile.
Related Posts:
- T.G.I.F.: Don’t lose your head…
- T.G.I.F.: Raptor Sighting Down Under
- T.G.I.F.: Here’s your 5:00pm Bell!
- T.G.I.F.: I’m telling you, that’s not a croc… (7/20/12)
- T.G.I.F.: It’s time for… (7/13/12)
- T.G.I.F.: It’s so Hot! (7/6/12)
- T.G.I.F.: Treat. Yo. Self. (6/22/12)
- T.G.I.F.: Opening & Closing Bell! (6/8/12)
- T.G.I.F.: How hard can this be? (6/1/12)
- T.G.I.F.: “How much more can a man take?”
- T.G.I.F. (5/18/12)
Productivity vs. The Amount of Work
November 1, 2012 By 4 Comments
T.G.I.F.: Don’t lose your head…
October 26, 2012 By 15 Comments
Related Posts:
- T.G.I.F.: Raptor Sighting Down Under
- T.G.I.F.: Here’s your 5:00pm Bell!
- T.G.I.F.: I’m telling you, that’s not a croc… (7/20/12)
- T.G.I.F.: It’s time for… (7/13/12)
- T.G.I.F.: It’s so Hot! (7/6/12)
- T.G.I.F.: Treat. Yo. Self. (6/22/12)
- T.G.I.F.: Opening & Closing Bell! (6/8/12)
- T.G.I.F.: How hard can this be? (6/1/12)
- T.G.I.F.: “How much more can a man take?”
- T.G.I.F. (5/18/12)
The Musher is at the back…
October 25, 2012 By 30 Comments
For once, I didn’t hover. I didn’t smother. I didn’t micromanage. I didn’t edit every page of the presentation deck. I didn’t pour over the agenda. I stepped away. I trusted.
Several hours before the event I tried to inject. I was told to step away. That I was being a “buzz kill.” Let it be Dave. Let it be. And so, I let it be.
Our town hall is held 2-3x per year.
The large auditorium filled slowly. Too slowly for me. (It’s always too slow for me.) My anxiety climbing. Yet, it filled.
These meetings start slowly. A sense of unease. Shifting in the seats. It is near the end of the day and minds are turning to the commute home, to family, to dinner.
Front line team members gave business updates. Not senior management. Not middle management. [Read more...]
Are you an effective manager?
October 22, 2012 By 10 Comments
I’ve been slacking on the “Lead” part of “Lead.Learn.Live.” I’ve been distracted with “Premium” Hot Chocolate, Grilled Cheese sandwiches and painted pumpkins inspired by Jackson Pollock. Here’s one of two leadership primers to kick off the coming week.
The Harvard Business Review authors of Does Management Really Work? conducted research over a 10-year period involving thousands of organizations to determine whether companies adhere to three practices that are considered essential elements of good management. Before we get to the 3 basic elements, two of the key findings of this research were:
1) Many organizations throughout the world are very badly managed…
2) Effective Management execution on the basic practices is strongly correlated with better results
Take a pause before hitting the “read more” link. (I’ve already done it…so play along.) What exactly are these 3 essential management practices?
TGIF: OMG, so close to the weekend…
October 19, 2012 By 25 Comments
Source: themetapicture.com
Related Posts:
- TGIF: A long week’s pièce de résistance…
- TGIF: LOOK OUT EVERYBODY!
- TGIF: Your Bad Day Has Just Started
- TGIF: Don’t make me go to work…
- TGIF: Let’s Talk Turkey
- T.G.I.F.: Jump! (He said…)
- T.G.I.F.: Raptor Sighting Down Under…
- T.G.I.F.: Here’s your 5:00pm Bell!
- T.G.I.F.: I’m telling you, that’s not a croc…
Mirror Mirror on the Wall…
October 18, 2012 By 12 Comments
I’ve been watching the debates and the bad actors in government. I’ve concluded that I’m a master compromiser when compared to this crowd. Then the mirror swings around and hits me on the forehead. See the chart below. Here’s Michael Brown’s 4-box on Compromise. I have no idea what “TKI” and “MBTI” stand for. Check out his full post on the theory behind it – I’ll let you hash that out with Michael and his high brow intellectual friends. I just wanted (needed) to get to the bottom line – how do I score? (Yes, it is always about the score. Yes, it is.) See the arrow pointing to my position. (And no one was looking when I nudged the star over to the right with some elbow grease. Hey, at least I’m not in the bottom right, right?. Poets/Artists, save your breath. I’m immune to the beatings on my lack of sensitivity on this topic.)
I
Then coincidently (by now you know there are no coincidences on my ride), I trip into the answer…
Reach as high as you can…
October 15, 2012 By 40 Comments
And if they are chocolate chip, you’ve hit gold.
Source: Marc Johns. Marc Johns lives with his wife, two sons, and his drawer full of pens in Victoria, BC, Canada.
Related Marc Johns Post: Sometimes the only thing left to do is…
TGIF: A long week’s pièce de résistance…
October 12, 2012 By 34 Comments
Sincerely? Best Regards? Thx? Cheers?
October 11, 2012 By 40 Comments
“Forget what you’ve heard about first impressions; it’s the last impressions that count. Last impressions — whether they’re with customer service, an online shopping experience, or a blind date — are the ones we remember. They’re the ones that keep us coming back. But there’s one kind of final impression that people seem to forget. The closing line of email — that line that you write before you type your name — has been all but forgotten. Go take a look at your inbox: you might be astonished at how little attention people pay to the closing lines when writing email. This underrated rhetorical device is so frequently disregarded that many people have the gall to use an automatic closing line attached to their email signature file…If a closing line can be so meaningful, so important, why are emailers squandering the opportunity, putting no thought in the closing? Time, perhaps, iPhone-finger exhaustion, multi-tasking – they’re all possible excuses. And many times, acceptable ones. We can’t be expected to neatly tie up every email every time. But once in a while, it would be delightful if people applied the same sincerity to the last impressions that we do to first ones.”
As mass producer of emails, this email & chart left its mark…
Source: Bobulate via explore-blog
TGIF: You just know it has been a long week…
October 5, 2012 By 12 Comments
TGIF: Getting The Band Back Together…
October 5, 2012 By 17 Comments
TGIF: LOOK OUT EVERYBODY!
September 28, 2012 By 8 Comments
TGIF: Ah, for Pete’s Sake, Just Give It To Me…
September 28, 2012 By 22 Comments
Don’t call a knife a knife…
September 27, 2012 By 29 Comments
“It sounds simple, I know. But it’s not. Listen, there are a million worlds you could make for yourself. Everyone you know has a completely different one — the woman in 5G, that cab driver over there, you. Sure, there are overlaps, but only in the details. Some people make their worlds around what they think reality is like. They convince themselves that they had nothing to do with their worlds’ creations or continuations. Some make their worlds without knowing it. Their universes are just sesame seeds and three-day weekends and dial tones and skinned knees and physics and driftwood and emerald earrings and books dropped in bathtubs and holes in guitars and plastic and empathy and hardwood and heavy water and high black stockings and the history of the Vikings and brass and obsolescence and burnt hair and collapsed soufflés and the impossibility of not falling in love in an art museum with the person standing next to you looking at the same painting and all the other things that just happen and are. But you want to make for yourself a world that is deliberately and meticulously personalized. A theater for your life, if I could put it like that. Don’t live an accident. Don’t call a knife a knife. Live a life that has never been lived before, in which everything you experience is yours and only yours. Make accidents on purpose. Call a knife a name by which only you will recognize it. Now I’m not a very smart man, but I’m not a dumb one, either. So listen: If you can manage what I’ve told you, as `i was never able to, you will give your life meaning.”
~ Jonathon Safran Foer: “If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe.”
Source: atomiclanterns via vlorin
