Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Will you still need me, will you still feed me...

I just finished John Izzo's book, "The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die" and I think it's a good choice to provide some perspective for New Year's resolutions.

This book contains a very interesting collections of anecdotes and insights from hundreds of interviews Izzo has conducted with "elders" in various cultures around the world (ages ranged from 59 to 105). He distilled what he learned from these interviews into the "Five Secrets" that these elders deemed essential to a happy life. For those of you who crave the list, the five secrets are:

  1. Be true to yourself
  2. Leave no regrets
  3. Become love
  4. Live the moment
  5. Give more than you take

A simple list of the Five Secrets is useful, but the "why" really comes out in the stories Izzo shares in this book. I learned a lot of subtleties about the five secrets through the stories in each section.

Powerful perspective from others - and some questions of my own

Izzo went down the path toward this book because he wanted to learn how to have the most fulfiling life possible. His father died at age 36, and Izzo's sense of urgency about his own life increased as a result. This study process got him to spend a lot of time with old people and he found that different cultures place different amounts of value on the old in their societies. Izzo found many cultures where the elders are held in very high regard, and regularly consulted about weighty matters - for example, he cites a Romanian saying, "The house that does not have an old person in it must buy one."

He also observes that the US culture, for one, tends to focus more on the ideas of the young, and relegates elders to nursing homes and retirement communities. I think his observation is an interesting one and, while his statements about this may be exaggerated a bit, it's worth considering whether we are systematically dismissing the value of the old people in our society - and figuring out how each of us, individually, can embrace the value of our elders more often.

As cool as Izzo's ideas are, one thing bothered me after reading this book: Most of the "elder honoring" cultures Izzo mentions (Romania, Tanzania, etc.) are not exactly dominating the world's stage for political, economic, or social contributions. Why not? What else is needed? And is there a way to accelerate world contributions by better engaging elders in our activities and decisions?

Start the New Year with some new ideas

There is a lot to think about in this book, and I think it provides an excellent backdrop for reviewing your life's priorities and purpose. If you're thinking about New Year's resolutions this would be a good book to read before you put pen to paper - it's an easy read for such a deep message, and the stories will be good for you no matter what..

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[Review] Fired Up or Burned Out

It's been a good year for good business books. I just finished Michael Stallard's Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity, and liked it very much.

The concepts in this book are sound, but the reason I liked it so much is that it contains a lot of stories that help illustrate how the concepts work in real life. For example, one of the concepts discussed in this book is about how to establish and maintain "Connection" in the workplace.

Great coaching

Stallard goes on to tell the story of John Wooden, a basketball coach, and how Wooden fostered a sense of family and commitment within his basketball teams (it's a great story) and went on to become one of the great basketball coaches of the game. Wooden coached some truly great players like Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during their college years, and made quite an impact. For example, Abdul-Jabbar wrote of Coach Wooden:

"[He] had a profound influence on me as an athlete, but even greater influence on me as a human being. He is responsible, in part, for the person I am today."

The foundation of Wooden's philosophy was to bring together Values, Vision, and Voice and the impact was extremely powerful. He fostered Connection in everyone on the team - not just the stars, and believed in dealing with issues, challenges, fears and disagreements out in the open. I can't do the story justice here, but it's an inspiring example of connecting individuals into a powerful team.

Not-so-great coaching

Stallard follows this with the story of Howell Raines of the New York Times, who had a disastrous reign due to politics, favoritism, and inconsistent application of policies and values. He fostered Connection in the stars of the organization, but alienated everyone else.

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Freedom to choose

Today's Thanksgiving Day in the US, and I'm spending the day with my family. I'm thankful for many things, not the least of which is our freedom to make choices and take actions that help us become better people.

With that in mind, please enjoy these inspiring thoughts from the late Sybil F. Partridge, called "Just For Today"

"Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals.

Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.

Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.

Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.

Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways; I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.

Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything and not try to regulate nor improve anyone.

Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.

Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurrying and indecision.

Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.

Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me."

Every day, you can make a difference through the choices you make. Happy Thanksgiving!

Another note: If you want some more inspiration, check out the special Thanksgiving post at Joyful Jubilant Learning!


Related items

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A new voice emerges...

This week, I met someone I've been corresponding with because he is a reader of this blog. We both happened to be at the same trade show in San Francisco, and got the chance to sit down and chat for a while. I really enjoyed the discussion and we talked about a wide variety of topics. One of the things we discussed is blogging. You see, he has been considering blogging for a quite a while, and I encouraged him to go for it. I'm happy to see that he's done that, and is off to a great start.

Check out Derek, now sharing his thoughts at "Business Based Parenting." Today's post is on Perseverance, Persistence and Determination - which I'm taking as a sign his voice will be around for a long time. Way to go, Derek!

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Learn a 5-Step Weekly Review: You’ll love it.

I mentioned time auditing in my last post and in the past I've written about unplanned work's dastardly effects on productivity, and the power of time auditing (see "Related items" at the end of this post for links) . As I do from time to time, I have recently caught myself wondering, "Where does the time go?" The time is upon me again, so I'm starting another "time audit" using a traditional approach to time auditing described in Neil Fiore's classic "The Now Habit," (reviewed here).

If you're interested in time auditing, here are some thoughts that may help.

Time Auditing basics

Time auditing is a very simple thing to do, but it requires some discipline. Here are some tips:

  • Plan to stick with the time audit for at least a week. Two weeks is ideal.
  • Decide whether you want to track your time only at work, or all the time (i.e. work and personal). The "whole life" time audit is very powerful, but is a lot more work.
  • Decide how you will record your time - you can keep a written list, or record your activities electronically.
    • For best results, pick a method that allows you to record your activities all the time. The more complicated your method, the less likely you are to do it - so make it fast and simple.
      • I suggest paper for the "whole life" audit, since you can carry a small notebook around with you all the time and record your whole day's activities. Obviously, the paper approach is also good for "work only" audits.
      • You can record things on your computer, if that enables you to track everything you do.
        • If you spend all your time at your computer, you might try this free, web-based time tracking tool. Or, just keep a Word doc open and create a running list of activities in a document.
      • A PDA can work, if you find an easy way to track your time. I tried this method once and abandoned it - I found it to be difficult due to the time required to note times, write out.
  • Find a way to remind yourself to record your tasks, particularly in the beginning. I sometimes use the countdown timer on my watch by setting it to go off every 20 minutes to I can write down what I've been doing since the last time it beeped. After a couple of days, I don't really need the timer any more.
  • Be fairly detailed in recording your activities, particularly about recording when you change tasks - the amount of time you spend on a particular task will be important when you review the log, as will tracking how often you change from one activity to another. Track things like email, reading blogs and feeds, web surfing, making phone calls, daydreaming, goofing off, eating, going to the bathroom, getting coffee, etc.

For businesses, auditing is easy if they have merchant accounts set up to accept credit cards as a form of payment from their customers. Our credit card services keep a log of all your transactions and make auditing easier than ever!

Analyze your logs

  • At the end of a week, go through and tally up how much time you spent on specific categories of activities. When you review your logs, the categories will "suggest" themselves, but try to lump activities into as few buckets as possible. For example, you might have categories like:
    • AccountingbookProcrastinating / goofing off
    • Phone calls
    • Eating
    • Project work
    • Meetings
    • Commuting
    • etc.
  • Figure out which categories take up the largest percentage of your time, then do more detailed analysis of those categories. This is particularly useful for categories that are "time wasters" or unproductive for you.

Learn stuff

  • How does what you actually did compare to what you intended to do (or what you thought you did)?
  • What bad habits are wasting your time?
  • What interruptions are making you unproductive?
  • What habits are working well?
  • What changes can you make to get rid of your unproductive aspects, while increasing or nurturing your productive activities?
  • What negative-energy activities can you eliminate?
  • Are you spending enough time on important activities like:
    • important tasks & projects
    • managing up
    • managing down
    • time with your family
    • time with your boss
    • time learning and developing your skills
    • exercising

You may learn some very useful things during a personal time audit - I highly recommend it. By the way - if you have personal time audit tips of your own, please share them!


Related links:

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