Forever Grateful

He is the only major author I know from the world of creative non-fiction.  Although I have read some of his creative non-fiction books, I have never dared to explore the genre deeply.  I regret that; I am, however, grateful this fast-growing genre. In his talk on creative nonfiction writing for scientists, Gutkind makes a compelling case on how creative nonfiction has become pervasive.   In our age, we have to understand robots or law.  Reading tomes of textbooks would not cut it for a majority of us.  They are too dry.  We need better resources: enter creative non-fiction. The mantra of creative nonfiction is good stories well told.   Powered by this mantra, Creative nonfiction is exploding into traditional bastions of rigidly crafted textbooks like science, law, and medicine. Instead of parading dry facts, creative non-fiction describes topics ranging from organ transplants to robots.  The technique supplants technical jargons with ca...

This is a gem of a book; it really is.  The first time I saw the title, I wondered what eating my frog meant.  It provoked me enough to buy a digital copy and imbibe its wisdom over a course of time. The frog metaphor captures our roadmap to success with gentle humor.  For example, Mr. Tracy gives us the first rule of eating frogs: if we have to ear two frogs, we ought to eat the ugliest one first.  Whatever does he mean by that? If we have two tasks with similar priority level, we ought to start with the hardest and more demanding one.  Simple to say but difficult to execute!  I mean we know ourselves; we have the propensity to cajole ourselves into doing easier tasks first so that we have a sense of accomplishment.  Mind you, we are settling for 'a sense of' rather than actual accomplishment.   Eat the ugliest frog first...what an interesting way of conveying a profound message.  Go for actual accomplishment rather than for a simulated...

  "To see a world in a grain of sand" has become a favorite refrain.  Each time I explore the works of great thinkers, I wonder how they have dived into their respective area of expertise.   A case in point is Positive Psychology.  I am not sure how I came across it initially, but I admire the works of Martin Seligman, who really did a lot to steer psychology that way.   I am grateful to learn that happiness is more than having a cheery face.  In fact, I am thankful that I learned that well-being or flourishing are more apt words to describe the exalted state that brings the best in us. Learning that well-being or flourishing has five measurable dimensions was both novel and fascinating discovery for me.  There I was usually equating happiness with sunny temperament only to discover how unenlightened I was.  Along came PERMA, the acronym for the five dimensions of well-being, and I found a new world. Now, we may not measure well acr...

I was intrigued with the title of this book and enticed by its brevity.  I quickly learned that Dan Sullivan is asserting that when we ship our work, we should be guided by hitting the 80 percent mark.   To strive for 100 percent perfection is to forgo the opportunity of achievement. The 100% rule unlashes two demons that dog us on our quest for achievement: perfectionism and procrastination.   We develop a fear that we can never hit a 100% but let our minds disguise that through perfectionism.   “We want to be a 100%” is the pseudo-lofty story we tell ourselves.   Unfortunately, that forces us to procrastinate releasing our work. This robs us the opportunity to place our ideas in the marketplace of our chosen field and get feedback quickly.   As a result, we do not grow and become the best versions of ourselves.   We shortchange ourselves and possibly live a blasé life of mediocre achievements while our perfect self is dressing up to meet the wo...

 I am always intrigued by this title: The Obstacle is the Way.   It is a book by Ryan Holiday.  He provides a neat eighteen-minute video summary of the book.  I, being a fan of the Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review (S3QR) method, absolutely love such videos.  They are powerful surveys of books and easily provide that vital first leg in understanding and internalizing the messages of books. In that video and also in early part of the book, Holiday provides us with a story that proves to be an apr metaphor for how we approach obstacles in our lives. There was a king whose people had grown soft and entitled.  he wanted them to teach them a lesson.  He placed a large boulder that blocked the entry into the city.  The king was disappointed to observe that subject to subject came across this obstacle and turned away.  Some tried to push away the boulder half-heartedly but gave up.  Many complained or outright cursed the king.  T...

  (385) The power of vulnerability | Brené Brown - YouTube Being able to stand before a rapt audience and present cogent talk on vulnerability is impressive.  More than that, however, it gives me a powerful visual what moment by moment commitment to a cause can do for a person.  She lived her story first and got to share one powerful segment of that story. I was reading an excerpt from John C Maxwell's Living with Intention.   Brown's talk gives specifics for what Maxwell is advising in the excerpt - living intentionally to become the story we want to tell.  The journey is not easy but worth the trouble. I do want to map out and travel such a journey.  Would i be able to do it?  Only time will tell.

  (380) "THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS DETERMINED BY YOUR DAILY AGENDA" | Powerful Speech by John Maxwell - YouTube How many times have I listened to John C. Maxwell state those words inside the quotes?  Many times.  This morning, this video spurred me to write this blog.  I am grateful for the video content that really pushed me to type these words.  I have to admit it was difficult to get started, but I am glad I began the uphill journey. Maxwell gives us a powerful visual for the uphill battles that dog us every day.  In the early part of the video, he stood before the audience with his arm stretched upwards.  That was his simple yet effective visual for the uphill path to success.  According to him, anything worthwhile requires setting our vision high and cultivating and maintaining the discipline to move us upwards along the difficult journey. He buttressed that with a personal example that I connected with easily.  At any point, he is planni...

 I would like to touch on the premise of this book and how it is changing my life.   In The Gap and The Gain, Dr. Hardy is contrasting two mindsets.   The gap forces us to compare our present state to where we want to be ideally.  While it is imperative to have goals, this is not the most effective way of measuring progress.   In the gain mindset, we still set our ideals, but we measure our progress compared to where we were previously.  We cherish and embrace our gains and our frame of reference is the success criteria we have defined for ourselves. I believe gain thinking fosters fierce work ethic as well as strong internal locus of control.  When we set our goals, we do it with an understanding that we are responsible for our success.  Whatever we set out to achieve will be meaningful for us because it is framed in terms of what we want for ourselves. I am grateful that Dr. Hardy illuminated the importance of gain thinking. ...

 I am always mesmerized by the opening lines of William Blakes's Auguries of Innocence                               To see a world in a grain of sand                                    And a heaven in a wild flower,                                    Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,                                    and eternity in an hour. To see a world in a grain of sand... I suppose every frontier of our internal lives can be explored.  Such an exploration needs an empathetic person asking probing questions and daring to embark on such an adventure.  ...

 I was watching the interview in  (324) የዳጊ ቆይታ በ Leading in Heels - YouTube  again.  For those of you who do not know Amharic, the first part roughly translates to "Time with Daggy".  Daggy, the lady being interviewed, is a celebrated talk show host and motivational speaker.  I was inspired to watch this interview again by few words I read from Seth Godin.  Bear with me, I will show you how one led into the other. I was reading the introductory part of Seth Godin's  This is Marketing.   Although the book was in my Kindle, I never opened it before yesterday.   3% into the book I saw the heading 'How Tall is Your /sunflower?'  Godin remarked that Sunflowers grow tall because they have deep and complex root systems.  With that metaphor in place, he further asserted that his marketing book is about roots.  He further added that the book is about anchoring our works deeply in the dreams, desires, and communities of t...

 It has been a while since I watched  (324) The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything | Josh Kaufman | TEDxCSU - YouTube .  I remember learning powerful lessons that impacted me when I first watched this TED talk.  In the spirit of sharpening the saw, I decided to watch it again.   I am happy that I did, and I am grateful that Kaufman did this TEDx talk. In this video (and also in his books) Kaufman confesses that he is a learning addict.  He enjoys it and thrives at it. Of course, there are more things to life other than lifelong learning. Kaufman cites a powerful example - the birth of his daughter Leila.  Parenthood all of a sudden took a priority, and the photos of Leila in that video underscores the importance of getting that right. Being an entrepreneur and self-learner, he wondered how he can prioritize parenting while staying the course on the life journey he has set up for himself.  This need drove him to research available literat...

 I thank David Epstein for challenging the Tiger Woods path to success.  I am further grateful that he delineated between kind and wicked learning environments. Let me start with kind learning environments.  Golf and chess belong to this category and the Tiger Woods model works fine. There is another approach, however, modeled after Roger Federer.  Federer sampled many sports before settling on tennis.  This is more typical way to progress in wicked learning environment, according to Epstein. I am glad he made me aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Tiger and the Federer approach.  Both methods can be extrapolated beyond sports.   Indeed, Epstein's work has emboldened me to treat my blogging experience as adventurous experiment.   The blog topics will meander.  I am intoxicated with the sense of adventure that sampling provides.  I look forward to zigging and zagging along many topics.  I look forward to work throu...

The world is morphing and to understand what is going on around us, we have to be lifelong learners.  Learning how to learn or learning like a pro becomes imperative if we are to navigate this new world of ours successfully. Oakley and Schewe provide us with a book and online course to guide us through science of learning.  There are several sessions I enjoyed.   One topic stands out for me, however - procrastination.   According to Oakley and Schewe, procrastination dogs us when faced with heavy tasks.  When faced with such difficulties, part of the brain called the insular cortex registers pain.  Rather than facing the pain, we resort to ameliorating it by resorting to activities like watching funny videos, playing games. or engaging on social media. One countermeasure effective against procrastination is the Pomodoro technique.  We can break down our tasks to be manageable through multiple twenty to twenty-five minutes intensive sessions f...

 Seth Godin's definition of marketing differs from the conventional view of marketing - like sales, hype, and advertising.  Marketing, to Seth, is anything that brings to the table that changes culture.   The modern age has indeed provided us with the privilege to communicate.  The internet has empowered us to contribute our visions, thoughts, and aspirations to the world by democratizing communication channels.  The expectation on our end is to be marketers in this broad sense of the word and have the courage and work ethic to express ourselves responsibly. It is all up to us.  This is not the age of the muse. This is the age of responsible industry.  We can no longer hide behind writer's block the way Percy Shelley did in his era. We owe it to ourselves to formulate our thoughts and share it with the world consistently.   Not all of our works will hit the mark.  May be none of them will.  Still, we must produce.  More im...