One of my favorite “hacks” is re-typing highlighted portions of non-fiction I’ve read. The process of highlighting once then re-reading and re-typing later tends to lock concepts into memory for later retrieval when it’s most useful. Below are my re-typed notes from David Epstein’s recent book Range, which I found to be extremely interesting and
Two recent days were very different for me… despite my calendar and all external factors looking the same. On one day, I was tense, overwhelmed, and second-guessing myself. The other day, I was calm, trusting, and secure. The first day drained me; the second brought me great joy. What was the difference between the two
Brene Brown calls the ego “The Hustler.” It tells you that you’re never enough. And it thrives in our scarcity culture. Never good enough Never have enough Never done enough Never safe enough Never loved enough This pattern of thinking leads to anxiety, distraction, and resentment. For example, the day I published my recent book,
One day last summer, as our family was finishing up our time at the pool, my son decided to walk away and wait patiently. He never said he was leaving. Just disappeared. We weren’t scared as much as we were confused. “Where did he go!?” Then we got frustrated. “What does he think he’s doing
There we were for our regular gathering of close friends to talk about our joys and frustrations from the week. I paused and looked up at the group after telling them about a problem in my life. “Guys, do I keep repeating the same problems every time we gather, just with different details?” They nodded.
Is becoming a better listener the solution to world and personal peace? Might it be the most important driving factor in your career and personal success? Sure, we have to account for things that are out of our control. But for what we can control in life, what if better listening was the key to
In April, we succeeded in getting our client’s attention, creating interest, and building the belief that our project would make an impact. But COVID made a lot of other things seem more urgent to them, and interest in our project stalled out. The question for us was, should we all just go into a holding
So there my colleague and I were, listening to the needs of a client. Like doctors, we internally formulated our diagnosis as we learned about our patient’s symptoms and situation. The more we heard, the surer we were of what the patient needed. In fact, we were certain that we could help. And not only
This is gross, but every time I reach under my desk chair, my finger presses into something soft and gooey. I’m pretty sure it’s food. This has been going on for weeks. I have done nothing about it. It bothers me, but not enough, I suppose. Perhaps this is one reason why it’s hard to
As organizational hierarchy has flattened and cross-functional teams are increasingly responsible for getting the work done, everyone needs to be able to influence. In fact, last week a human resources manager told me that influencing makes up almost his entire job. “Every now and then I have to tell people they can’t or have to
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE