February 2012
6 posts
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Compassion
“High expectations can have a positive effect; people need a high bar to stretch towards. But I think many of us take it too far. We slip so easily into criticisms of ourselves and those around us — family, friends, coworkers, public figures — that we no longer expect people to be human beings. And when we shame ourselves and others for failing, we make things worse. We contribute to pain...
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January 2012
13 posts
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“When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say...”
– Shauna Niequist
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Lately I've been reading
Emotional intelligence is often the characteristic that people over-rate themselves on most. It involves four components:
Self-awareness – the ability to read one’s emotions and recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
Self-management – involves controlling one’s emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
Social awareness – the ability...
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“The lust for comfort kills the passions of the soul.”
– Khalil Gibran (via pmou)
“Half the fear of failure is of the judgment of false friends we feel compelled...”
– Alain de Botton (via mostexerent)
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“Tell me, I’ll forget
Show me, I’ll remember
Involve me, I’ll understand”
– Chinese Proverb
Been thinking about growth, passion, and teams a lot lately. To be involved and feel ownership of something is much more empowering than being shown or told what to do. Even if you are not involved, make it so, and make yourself matter a little more.
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Thoughts
Today, the following thoughts occurred:
1. When subconsciously wanting to impress a group of individuals, we tend to conform our own behaviors to that of members in the group. For example, what may not have been so bad is suddenly “awful” because everyone else is voicing their opinion of the “worst experience ever.”
2. This is silly. It’s time to stop caring so much...
December 2011
4 posts
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“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did...”
–
Steve Jobs, Wired, February, 1995
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Open?
cultureofresistance:
This is the secret of propaganda: To totally saturate the person, whom the propaganda wants to lay hold of, with the ideas of the propaganda, without him even noticing that he is being saturated.
-Paul Watzlawick
I met up with some dear old childhood friends yesterday. In catching up with them and sharing our stories, I’ve realized how very close minded...
November 2011
7 posts
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“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known...”
– Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a...”
– Jack London
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“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each...”
– Anaïs Nin
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“Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise...”
– Stephen Colbert
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October 2011
6 posts
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New Goal: Storytelling
One trait that keeps popping up again and again at work is the skill of storytelling. I am a horrible storyteller - give me a PowerPoint and I can deliver a professional presentation, but give me a dinner table and I will tell a messy, anti-climatic version of what could have a been an exciting story. At home, I have always been unable to recount movies and books whereas my mom can talk about one...
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Here's to the Crazy One
Via Techcrunch, by MG Siegler
“While the reaction following Jobs’ resignation was powerful, the reaction to his passing has been nothing short of amazing. Former employees, colleagues, celebrities, adversaries — even the President of the United States paid tribute. But once again, the most fascinating group of people showing their support are the ones who did not know Steve Jobs. It’s the...
September 2011
3 posts
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“Don’t let others set your mood. Be upset because you want to, be mad or sad or...”
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August 2011
4 posts
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"Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to...
Notice without critiquing.
Appreciate without comparing.
Listen without interruption.
Question without objection.
Challenge without mocking.
Consider without doubting.
Discuss without criticizing.
Smile without hesitation.
Give without expectation.
Comfort without lying.
Guide without misleading.
Forgive without resentment.
Rest without judgment.
via Marc and Angel Hack Life
July 2011
19 posts
1 tag
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other...”
– Henry Ford
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Inspired lately by Donald Miller
Your life is a series of stories, coinciding and overlapping with the stories of everyone around you. A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it, but the most important part of a story is not the plot - the point of the story is the character arc.
1. “Writing a story isn’t about making your peaceful fantasies come true. The whole point of the story is...
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“Travelling with a companion, with a wife, with a girlfriend, always seems to me...”
– A Sense of Place, Michael Shapiro
You are simply not lonely enough when you travel with companions…spells of acute loneliness are an essential part of travel. Loneliness makes things happen.
(via zero-yesterdays)
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Rowling's Last Message
“I felt that it would be a betrayal of the character if I showed Harry doing anything other than living, what all along, he has discovered to be true, which is that love is the strongest power there is.”I thought a lot of people that had been through terrible things like wars, and having to come home and rebuild normality after seeing horrors has always seemed to me like such a...
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One Word Answers
What’s your favorite virtue?
What vice do you most despise?
What are you most willing to forgive?
What is your most marked characteristic?
What are you most afraid of?
What’s the quality you like most in a man?
What’s the quality you like most in a woman?
What do you most value about your friends?
What’s your principle defect?
What’s your favorite...