An old coach of mine, Paul Dominguez, once taught me to pay attention to my environment; that my environment actually “calls forth” certain behavior. You might notice this clearly in a living room that’s organized around the TV. With the chairs, table and sofa all arranged around the TV you’ll find it perfectly natural to…
In their Law of Attraction books, Esther and Jerry Hicks talk about segmenting. The idea is you break your day into discrete portions of time or “segments” as a means to focus your attention during that time on something that you want done. This is a brilliant concept. Why? Because my biggest challenge is managing…
So I’m writing a book, and after explaining what the book is about to a good friend, he asks me why am I writing it? I gave the obvious answer of course, “Because I’ve always wanted to write a book.” And then comes the predictable question, “Why?” And then my mind produces a deluge of…
I posted before about our ability to create a space between stimulus and response. This is of course not Nobel Prize submission material, yet it’s one of those truisms that is so often taken for granted. What I want to say here is that a practice of creating that Space will be a difficult one…
What’s a uniquely human ability? We are very likely the only animals on the planet that can create a space between stimulus and response. Actually I don’t know if this can be proven, but it most certainly is a major aspect of being human. Human beings have the ability to choose what their response will…
What is it about last minute that focuses the mind? I recently had the experience of planning for a move and I gave myself sufficient time. However, two weeks before the move it dawns on me that for a whole host of reasons a later moving date would be preferable to the one I chose….
One is stressful, the other is numbing. The latter type of distraction serves to numb you to the pain of the former. The best example of a numbing distraction is TV. You turn it on and it effectively distracts you (numbs) from all your concerns in the world. It turns your mind off. Other good…
In the quest to improve performance we’ve gone through several useful philosophies about what to manage, specifically we’ve been told to practice managing: time people projects energy These are all valuable management philosophies but they do not acknowledge the most fundamental practice: the practice of managing commitments. What are commitments? Commitments take several forms e.g….
Everybody loves simplification so here are two simple principles you can use in the practice of your life; two principles you must own to get more from life—and by “own” I mean not just understand and explain, but know and act from (without thinking) like an extension of your own mind and body. These principles…
Seems like an odd question to ask. The answer is, well … do your best; give it everything you’ve got. What does that mean, everything you’ve got? I hear people say they gave it 100%, and others say that they gave 200%. Hmmm. Makes me wonder if they have any idea what percentages mean. All…
Have you ever listened to the pharmaceutical adverts on TV? As the soothing voice says “Absolv, when taken immediately after upsetting your partner can bring on feelings of contriteness that a puppy would envy. Clinical studies have shown that 77% of users of Absolv are forgiven for extreme transgressions including not sharing with housework, coming…
Many moons ago a senior director at my old company sat with me talking about my career and said, “Peter your problem is you have no ambition.” That felt like a slap across the face because at the time there was no one working harder than I was and prior to coming to the head…
As we drove along the winding road to Maracas beach in Trinidad, my friend Ilene said to me, “You know, I’ve come to realize that there’s only one thing you really need to get when you have a boss.” “Really?” I replied; my sense of intrigue and wonder stimulated because Ilene is one of the…
If you find yourself blaming someone for some unwelcome outcome or a broken relationship, you might want to consider that nothing is ever 100% anybody’s fault. Accepting this requires an ability to expand your perspective on any situation. For example, in criminal justice it may be relatively easy to prove who robbed the convenience store…
Do you think you should acknowledge people for just doing their jobs; for just doing what they’re supposed to? Many people would say no, of course not. They’re doing the absolute minimum required and it’s only service or results over and above the norm that should be acknowledged or rewarded. If you think this way…
The essence of practice is the consciousness or intention you bring to the practice – something that you willingly choose to participate in every day. Long held practices take on a life of their own and if there is no clear purpose to the practice we call them habits. For some gossiping is a habit,…
If you take a telescope and look upwards and outwards, you’ll soon gain a healthy perspective on how small, how insignificant we and our planet are in the grand scale of our galaxy and the universe. You’ll be similarly amazed if you take a microscope and look inwards; there’s an entire universe of cells, atomic…
You heard me! It’s big, it’s round, it’s talked about, it’s yours. So learn to love it. Would like to say this is a quote from “Embracing Your Big Fat Ass: An Owner’s Manual,” but I haven’t read it … yet. I probably won’t but it is possible. While big fat asses may not be…
What is your concept of the truth, and why is it germane to the practice of your life? Well think about it. If you live your life according to things that you believe are true, and they’re only partially true or flat out wrong, what do you think the impact would be on your life?…
