interesting

The Movie Director’s Guide to Effective Teaching

January 30th, 2008 by Victor Stachura

How many “training sessions” have you sat through where you’re eyes started to roll into the back of your head and you couldn’t stay focused no matter how hard you tried?

I’ve sat through to0 many sessions like this, and frankly, can’t stand it any longer. I don’t even fault the presenter. Many times people gain valuable experience in a topic or technique and are asked to put together a presentation and “train” a group of people. The problem is, the presenters are rarely trained in teaching techniques or learning theory.

It was after doing a little research that I then came across the learning principles of William Glasser, M.D – a psychiatrist who wrote many papers on improving the U.S. school system and was an advocate of non-medical treatments to mental disorders. He said:

“We Learn . . .
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss
80% of what we experience
95% of what we teach others.”

As someone who occasionally develops training material in a corporate environment, these principles dramatically changed how I develop and present my material. I also think about my kids in school and wonder if any of their teachers use these principles?

I do know that when I help my daughter study for a test, I have her teach me the material. She loves being the teacher and my only job is to listen and ask her questions. We find that she scores much higher on tests when she uses the studies-by-teaching method as opposed to rote memorization of the material.

An understanding of these principles is key to improving the learning experience. I’ve spent many hours delivering presentations when my only qualification was that I knew the material well. The problem was that I knew nothing about teaching.

When I thought about the Glasser Principles of Learning, I can see that my audience was only retaining 10% - 20% of what I was teaching. As a stockholder in my company, that did not sound like a good return on investment to me. I wonder how much money is spent by corporations on training where the participants only retain 10% - 20% of what they see and hear?

One thing to note was my class surveys always came back positive. “nice presentation”, “instructor knew his material” they would say. But, who really cares about the instructor? It’s not about me or any instructor – it’s about how much the audience learns and physically changes through your lecture (the brain creates new pathways and physically changes as you learn new material). The point of any class is to put new information into the heads of your audience. I often wondered – which 10% - 20% of the material is the class retaining? Then I found out.

Learning Happens at the Beginning and at the End

Research has shown that learning most frequently happens at the start and at the end of a message. Your message could be a presentation, advertisement or a lecture, it doesn’t matter – people remember the beginning and ending more than the middle. It’s called the primacy-recency principle and was first studied in the 1920’s. Movie directors understand this to well – that’s why in most movies something big usually happens within the first couple minutes and the best song is left until the end. They want you to remember the start of the movie and feel good at the end. We can apply this concept and provide a better learning experience for your audience.

Use Beginnings to Grab Your Audience

It’s at the beginning where you can grab the attention of your audience and set the tone for the rest of your message. We remember more from the beginning and end of a presentation than we do of the stuff in the middle. Usually people are ‘ready to learn’ at the beginning of a session and pay close attention and typically take notes.

But then something happens after a while – their eyes glaze over and they start to drift away. They check their Blackberry, complete their to-do list for the day or just plain doodle. All the while the presenter is trying her hardest to deliver her message and teach you her topic. Has this ever happened to you?

What’s missing, is the attention grabbing message. Too many times we don’t do an adequate job of telling the audience why they should care about the material. And it can’t be some lame corporate directive reason either. You have to explain why your message matters to your audience in a way that’s meaningful them. You as the presenter may be passionate about a topic, and to be successful, you have to communicate that passion to the audience. Only then, when the audience has a compelling reason to listen, will true learning and retention occur.

Endings are for the Big Hollywood Finish

At the end of your talk you want your audience to leave feeling good, like they truly learned something. You want them to leave with a sense of accomplishment. That’s why it’s actually better to cover fewer topics with more depth, than a range of topics at a cursory level.

Remember, it’s not how much you know, but how much your audience learns during your lecture. People need to feel they’ve changed during your talk. They need to feel they were engaged, challenged and reached a higher level of thinking (just like in a video game). Yes, game designers do know something about keeping our attention and providing just-enough-challenging-activities to get us into a Flow State. I think we can borrow some of these concepts and apply them to teaching and learning.

Improving Audience Retention

You solve the I’m-bored-in-the-middle-of-your-lecture syndrome simply by having more starting and ending points. I’m not suggesting you take breaks every 15 minutes, but you should provide for some type of exercise, discussion point or a change of pace about every 15 minutes. An exercise or discussion point that breaks up the flow of your talk will allow the audience to have more points where learning will occur.

In one class I took they had an exercise titled “Vote with your feet”. The instructor would ask some controversial question and everyone would go to one side of the room or the other based on their answer. The class would then discuss the topic while standing.

This technique was pure genius and a classic implementation of ‘adding more starts and ends’ to your talk. The class was forced to get out of their seats and move – which is great for getting the blood flowing and making sure everyone is awake. Since the question was typically asked at the end of a section – we were more inclined to remember the questions and more importantly, the discussion points. Once we sat down we proceeded with another start. Another point that facilitates learning.

You can see that by providing more beginnings and endings, you are actually operating at the higher end of the William Glasser scale – especially if you provide exercises or opportunities for discussion.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/the-movie-directors-guide-to-effective-teaching/

A simple way to save time: trust people

Posted by Carmine Coyote under Managing time , Trust

This post is part of the “Thoughts about time” series

1. Stop pushing the river
2. A simple way to save time: trust people
3. Why some people and organizations almost always have time for everything
4. The secret ingredient in actions that get outstanding results

Today’s driven, macho managers have lost the idea of how to use others properly

Here’s a little story — a true one — from the time when I was working with a major European organization. Sally P. was overworked, burned-out, stressed and exhausted — the whole nine yards. So her boss asked me to talk to her and see if I could help. It didn’t take long to discover the truth. Sally routinely stayed at her desk until 9.00 or 10.00 p.m., though she started work before 8.00 in the morning.

“What do you do?” I asked her.

“All day I’m busy with meeting, customers and staff matters,” she told me. “It’s madness. I only get to do the stuff I need to do after everyone else goes home.”

“And what’s that?”

“Reading through things. Checking everything has been done correctly. Sorting out tomorrow’s schedule. That kind of thing.”

What it came down to was this. Sally checked nearly all the work her subordinates did, even down to correcting typos in their reports and re-ordering “faulty” priorities. When I suggested this was a total waste of her time, she got angry.

“Not at all,” she said. “It’s essential. You’ve no idea the mistakes I find. It would be dreadful to let things like that slip past.”

“And what do you say to your people?” I asked.

“Well, I tell them, naturally. I get cross with them.”

“And…? Has it changed?”

“Not really. I mean, you can’t get good people today, can you?”

Delegating upwards

It took a while to get Sally to admit the truth. Her staff didn’t check their own mistakes because they knew she would do it anyway. And they didn’t change because they knew she didn’t trust them to do better. In fact, she treated them like naughty children, so that’s how they saw themselves.

Lack of trust is probably the single greatest cause of overwork amongst leaders at every level. Because they don’t trust others:

• They can’t delegate anything other than the most mundane jobs.
• They have to attend pointless meetings, in case something is said or decided behind their backs.
• They have to be on every circulation list for the same reason.
• They have to re-do, vet, double check and edit their subordinates’ work, because they don’t trust them to do it properly.
• They have to devote time to regular boot-licking, because they suspect no one trusts them either.

Organizations are full of pointless activities that are only needed because nobody trusts their boss, their colleagues, their subordinates, their suppliers and, least of all their customers. Whole departments exist entirely on the assumption that, if you didn’t have them, idleness, corruption, embezzlement, petty theft, and misappropriation would be general. Then, of course, you need another group to make sure the first aren’t abusing their position to do all those things themselves. Look how HR departments — supposedly there to help find, train, and develop good employees — are being slowly transformed into corporate police: another branch of compliance and legal services.

Yet these same employees, who aren’t trusted to behave reasonably in working hours, are apparently worthy to choose a government, act on school boards and in positions of public trust, bring up children, handle their own finances, and fight and die for their country.

If you pay peanuts, the saying goes, you get monkeys. Well, if you treat employees like naughty children, congenital idlers, or incipient criminals, that’s pretty much what they’ll become — at least during working hours. And you’ll be like Sally: overworked, stressed, burned-out and neurotic — the typical image of the harassed executive of today.

http://www.slowleadership.org/blog/?p=36

How to Set Up Your Personal University

January 24th, 2008 by Scott Young

No, you don’t need to rent a campus, hire professors and start charging tuition. Setting up a personal university means taking your self-education as seriously as any schooling you manage pay for. While regular university is expensive and stops when you get a degree, your personal university continues indefinitely and can be run for free.

I’ve always been educating myself. From learning basic programming languages in my pre-teens through to reading about quantum physics and world religions in my spare time today. But it has only been in the last few years that I’ve gotten serious about my self-education. In that short time I went from reading a handful of books each year to over seventy.

But forming your personal university isn’t just reading a lot of books, just like getting a degree isn’t the result of taking random classes. Taking a more well-thought approach to what you learn in your spare time can give you an edge over the haphazard learner.

Getting Sold on Self-Education

If you don’t read a lot outside of work or school, the reason probably isn’t a lack of time. Lacking time might slow you down, but even with fifteen minutes a day you could chew through two or more dozen books a year. The problem is usually that you aren’t sold on the benefits of investing in educating yourself.

Reading and self-education takes effort. While this effort can have big short and long-term payoffs, those gains aren’t always easy to see. If you’re already spread thin between other commitments, it might seem like too much to throw reading a book or two per week on top of everything else.

Here are just a few of the benefits I’ve noticed from a literary gluttony:

• Improved Grades. Reading more outside your classes broadens the base from which you can learn material inside your classes.
• Improved Work. Every idea you learn can help improve your craft, whether that’s being a rock-star programmer or the world’s best manager.
• Life Improvement. Every idea, in the end, is self-help. Even if you aren’t reading books from the personal-development aisle, you are still gathering ideas that you can eventually connect down to improving yourself.
• Hacking Reality. The more you know, the better you are at decrypting reality. This is the biggest benefit of self-education because the more you learn, the greater your ability to sculpt what you want from the world.

Building Your University Curriculum

The best way to start any self-education is to start writing down what you would like to learn. I did this recently and wrote down dozens of different subjects from card counting to South American history. Write down important books you would like to read. I made a list that included everything from fiction such as Shakespeare and Vonnegut to non-fiction works by Aristotle or Adam Smith.

If your list looked anything like mine, chances are you’ve got enough material to keep you booked for the next few years (okay, bad pun). The next step is to whittle down this massive library into something you can learn over the next few months. Here are a few tips for thinking through your book list to take with you on your next trip to the library:

Pick 2-3 books per topic of interest. Taking only one book on a subject only gives you a single author’s perspective. If you find a subject interesting, you owe it to yourself to pick out two or three books to get contrasting views. Picking out more than three books in advance might be repetitive if you want to cover other subjects.

Read unusual and unusually good books. With every batch of new bestsellers, it is easy to jump on the latest book with the flashiest title. I strive to balance my portfolio by looking for more unusual books and unusually good books that may not get as much buzz today. This gives you a creative edge over the people who only read from the front of the bookstore.

Mix fiction and non-fiction. I used to read almost entirely non-fiction. Lately, however, I realized that great works of fiction can have even more value than non-fiction. Rather than unloading information, fiction gives you an opportunity to rewire how you think.

Use a T. The T-Model is one of the best theories for learning I’ve come across. Basically, it suggests you should focus on building a lot of skill in a select few areas (the shaft of the T) and know the basics about many areas (the top of the T). Using this approach, you can split up your learning between new areas and focusing on your expertise.

Use Wikipedia as a Start Point. Not sure whether you want to read a few thousand pages about a new subject? Just wikipedia a few topics within that area and see whether it spikes your interest.

Diversify. Stock pickers diversify so that the chances one devastating negative event or missing a great opportunity won’t hurt them. Diversifying your knowledge helps as well by focusing your attention on learning things far away from your current understandings.

Make Use of OpenCourseWare. Although online learning still has a ways to go to compete with your local library, OpenCourseWare is very close. Check out MIT’s selection of free online courses. These can help provide the structure of a formal course with the low costs and flexibility of self-education.

See Also: The Independent Scholar’s Handbook. Published in pdf format, this free resource provides a guide for independent learners.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-set-up-your-personal-university/

Thank You for Everything

by Alan Cohen

The story is told about a woman Zen master named Sono who taught one very simple method of enlightenment. She advised everyone who came to her to adopt an affirmation to be said many times a day, under all conditions. The affirmation was, "Thank you for everything. I have no
complaint whatsoever."

Many people from all arenas of life came to Sono for healing. Some were in physical pain; others were emotionally distraught; others had financial troubles; some were seeking soul liberation. No matter what their
distress or what question they asked her, her response was the same: "Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever." Some people went away disappointed; others grew angry; others tried to argue with her. Yet some people took her suggestion to heart and began to practice it. Tradition tells that everyone who practiced Sono's mantra found peace and healing. Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.

My friend Lisa, an attractive woman in her late 30's, came to one of my seminars after I had not seen her for a number of years. She informed
the group that a year earlier she had been diagnosed with a brain disorder that required immediate surgery. The surgery was done, a steel plate was inserted in her head, and her doctor keeps her under close observation. Lisa reported that now she lives from day to day. Privately I told Lisa that I was sorry she had gone through this whole ordeal. "Oh, don't be sorry," she told me emphatically. "I'm not sorry at all. This was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It really got me to appreciate my life and relationships. I married a wonderful guy and we are thinking about having children. I wouldn't trade the experience if I could." Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.

Can you imagine what your life would be like if you simply dropped your complaints? It's a radical proposal, since most of us have been trained
to question, analyze, and criticize everything we see. But then we end up questioning, analyzing, and criticizing ourselves. Then we miss out on joy, the only true measure of success.

The ecstatic mystic poet Hafiz proclaimed, "All a sane man can ever think about is giving love." One evening I received a phone call from my
friend Cliff, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn who discovered "A Course in Miracles" and became a world-class love exuder. Cliff just went around finding good and beauty in everyone he met. On the phone, Cliff told me, "I just called to tell you how much I love and appreciate you."

"Well, thank you Cliff," I answered, delighted. "I really appreciate that . . . What prompted you to call me at this moment?"

"My knee was hurting me, and I knew that the only way I could feel better would be to give more love. So I began to think of the people in my
life who I care about, and you came to mind." Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.

As we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving, many of us will be getting together with our families. Perhaps family issues may come to the fore and we might be tempted to fall into a pattern of rehashing old
resentments and arguments. Wouldn't it be fabulous if, as we sat with
our relatives, we held in mind, "Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever." Imagine what this Thanksgiving would be like if we decided that no matter how much mom complained about dad; how much dad bugged us about getting a real job; or how unspiritual our ex is, we chose to be an unstoppable appreciation machine and found the good in our loved ones. Indeed this would be a triumphant Thanksgiving to remember!

Yes, I know, there is a voice inside you objecting, "But if I did not
complain, people would walk all over me and selfish opportunists would
genetically manipulate my food and terrorists would keep crashing airplanes into buildings and . . ., . . ., and. . . . Got it. Now if you went to Sono, her response would be, "Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever." I am simply suggesting that we practice the mantra for an entire Thanksgiving day. And then maybe one day a week. Then we might start to feel so good and our lives will become so effective that we want to turn every day into Thanksgiving.

In my book "Handle with Prayer", I state that the highest form of prayer is gratitude. Instead of asking God for stuff, start thanking God for stuff, and you will find that God has already given you everything you could want or need, including the adventure of discovering more riches every day.

Life is a big treasure hunt. Eventually we grow weary of seeking treasures outside ourselves, and we begin to look within. There we discover that the gold we sought, we already are. The beauty we overlooked because we were focusing on what was missing, still lives and awaits us like an anxious lover. As T.S. Eliot nobly noted, "The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.

Have a great day.

About The Author: Alan Cohen is the author of many popular inspirational books, including the best-selling 'Why Your Life Sucks and What You Can do About It', the award-winning 'A Deep Breath of Life', and his latest book 'Mr.
Everit's Secret--What I learned from the World's Richest Man'. Alan offers four on-line courses throughout the year and the life-transforming Mastery Training in Maui. For information on these programs and a free catalog of Alan's books, tapes, and seminars, phone 800.568.3079, visit www.alancohen.com, email info@alancohen.com, or write P.O. Box 835, Haiku, HI 96708.

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"Who ceases to be a friend never was one."

--Greek proverb

Ode to the Sound Byte?

How to Sell Your Success Story in an Interview: The Subtle Art of Verbal Branding

Let's face it: we're living in the era of the sound byte. Everyone from politicians to advertisers has come to appreciate the power of compact, unforgettable catchphrases to convey information and persuade audiences. In a perfect world, complexity might be king, but in this day and age, for better or for worse, the sound byte rules.

Believe it or not, the very same principles that are used to guide marketing campaigns and shape political stump speeches can help you sell yourself in an interview. It's all a matter of honing in on the core message you want to communicate and then finding a few clever phrases and themes to use to help you consistently get your point across in your interview responses.

Verbal Branding 101: What It Is…and What It Isn't

Don't worry -- you won't have to become the sort of slick, artificial persona who speaks only in glib slogans and mottos. Instead, the art of verbal branding in interviews -- and elsewhere -- involves distilling your strengths and past successes into a series of catchy, concise, memorable explanations. It also involves identifying a handful of themes and narratives that you want to use to help shape the way your success story comes across in the interview.

Sound complicated? In truth, it's actually easier than you might think. With a little forethought and planning, you'll be speaking in perfectly-formed sound bytes in no time at all. Here are a few of the sound bytes that will help you succeed in your next job search.

• Your personal commercial.

  Like all sound bytes, your personal commercial needs to be brief and to-the-point, clocking in at no more than thirty seconds. Its chief components are the characteristics that you see as your three primary strengths. You can structure this mini-speech any way you like, but the three primary strengths have to be the memorable highlights of your personal commercial.

• Your value proposition.

  A variation on your personal commercial, your value proposition borrows a concept from the world of sales. In this statement, you choose the three strengths, skills, or experiences that will offer the most value to your potential employer. What will hiring you do for their organization? Shrink your answer down to a thirty-second sound byte and memorize it.

• Your condensed autobiography.

  If you had a nickel for every time you've been asked, "Tell me about yourself," you probably wouldn't even need to be looking for a job! In interviews, in elevators, in networking situations, in a million other places -- you need to be prepared to answer this inevitable question in a polished, professional, and memorable manner at a moment's notice. Write a list of your personal, academic, and professional highlights, and then ruthlessly edit until you can get it under a minute.

• Your personal glossary.

  Your final feat of verbal branding is coming up with a list of memorable catchphrases that will help you reinforce your success story. Using your résumé as a guideline, translate all of your major strengths, experiences, skills, and resources into two-to-three word catchphrases. Get in the habit of weaving these catchphrases into your interview responses. Used consistently, they will help create a sense of unity and coherence in your answers. This subtle but effective verbal branding strategy will help you stand out from the crowd.

At first, it may feel a bit strange to use these verbal branding strategies. Admittedly, getting in the habit of thinking of yourself as a "product" that must be marketed can be a learning process for many jobseekers. But once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy the added confidence you get from having a repertoire of prepared marketing messages to call on in any situation. Plus, the added edge that verbal branding gives you just may be the thing that sets you apart from your competitors -- and helps you land you your dream job.

http://www.hcareers.com/us/resourcecenter/tabid/363/articleid/823/default.aspx?type=news&source=hosp-js-us-01-18-08

first impressions last?

Email for Job Seekers: Etiquette, Strategies, and Best Practices to Help You Succeed

Recent labor statistics have indicated that more than half of all job searches originate or proceed entirely online and through email. For jobseekers and employers alike, the shift towards online recruitment has many advantages. The convenience, speed, and responsiveness of online communications can't be beat, as anyone who has spent weeks waiting for a response to a résumé delivered by postal mail will surely confirm.

But while the superior speed and convenience of online job searches is indisputable, the emerging paradigm of online recruitment also comes with its own set of rules and guidelines. If you're relatively new to the online sphere -- or if you don't have a lot of experience using email for professional communication -- it's crucial to make sure you're well-versed in email etiquette before you begin exchanging messages with potential employers.

A Whole New World of Communication

Email is simultaneously similar and dissimilar to other types of communication. Like more traditional methods of communication, such as face-to-face interactions and telephone conversations, the ultimate objective of email is exchanging information. However, unlike these methods of communication, email strips conversations of the contextual clues that are a major component of face-to-face discussions. In an email conversation, you have to get your point across without the aid of gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice -- and that can be much harder than it sounds.

Control Your Message Very Carefully

Most people tend to treat emails very casually, as evidenced by the text-message-style acronyms and abbreviations that often pop up in messages between friends and family members. But when you're communicating with potential employers, it's important to make sure that you exert a much stricter level of control over your emails.

Think of it this way: every sentence of every email you exchange with a future employer reflects on your fitness as a candidate. In a way, your emails will function unofficially as supplementary application materials. In other words, it's well worth your time to check -- and double check -- each email you send out during your job search.

Here are some more guidelines to help you ensure that your job search-related emails will increase your chances of landing the position you want:

• Establish a Dedicated Email Account.

  With so many free email services available, there's no reason not to have a professional-sounding email address just for your job search correspondence. A simple handle that includes your full name (such as nancysmith@email.com) is the best way to avoid confusion. Avoid handling any job search-related correspondence from your current workplace email address.

• Stick with a Professional Look.

  Before you start sending out job search-related emails, make a visit to your email program's "format" toolbar. If typically you use any non-standard elements in your emails, reset everything to the default setting. Delete signature files, automatic attachments, or any unusual format settings, and select a 10- or 12-point standard black font. You want to stand out from the crowd, but you don't want to be remembered as the applicant whose emails are bedecked with purple curlicue lettering and a glittery animated GIF!

• Err on the Side of Formality.

  According to Orville Pierson, author of The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, one of the most common mistakes jobseekers make in their emails is adopting too casual a tone, which can come off as presumptuous and unprofessional. It's possible to be both friendly and formal in emails with potential employers, he says. Aim for a pleasant and polite tone, rather than an overly chummy one.

• Edit, Edit, and Edit Some More.

  You might not use the spellchecker when you're emailing your friends and family, but it's a must when you're composing job search-related emails. A few basic errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar may not only make you look bad -- it may also send the message that you don't care very much about landing the position.

• Triple-Check the Address Before You Hit 'Send.'

  In addition to basic editing, make sure you check the address and recipient list before you send an email to a potential employer. Misdirected job search emails are a major faux pas that could torpedo your chances of landing your dream job -- or keeping your current position. Another common email mistake is the classic 'reply all' error -- accidentally selecting this instead of 'reply' could broadcast your job search intentions a lot more widely than you want to, so be careful.

Used prudently, email can be a great tool for jobseekers. Just remember that each email you send is likely to be scrutinized as rigorously as your résumé, so take pains to keep your correspondence as professional as possible.

http://www.hcareers.com/us/resourcecenter/tabid/363/default.aspx?articleid=795

10 Habits of Highly Effective Brains

If you are reading this, the good news is that you have a brain inside your head. And you have probably read about the emerging brain fitness movement: frequent articles in the media, an ongoing PBS special, more and more products and games.

Newsweek's Sharon Begley recently wrote that "With the nation's 78 million baby boomers approaching the age of those dreaded "where did I leave my keys?" moments, it's no wonder the market for computer-based brain training has shot up from essentially zero in 2005 to $80 million this year, according to the consulting firm SharpBrains."

Now, before you embark on buying any of those programs, you should know that there is a lot we can do without spending a dime. Based on dozens of interviews with scientists and recent research findings, let's take a look at some of the habits of Highly Effective Brains:

1. Learn what is the "It" in "Use It or Lose It". A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain's beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.

2. Take care of your nutrition. Did you know that the brain only weighs 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake? As a general rule, you don't need expensive ultra-sophisticated nutritional supplements, just make sure you don't stuff yourself with the "bad stuff".

3. Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain: physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.

4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts until they become your default mindset and you look forward to every new day in a constructive way. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts, actually kills neurons and prevents the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons.

5. Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. "Use It or Lose It" does not mean "do crossword puzzle number 1,234,567". It means, "challenge your brain often with fundamentally new activities."

6. We are (as far as we know) the only self-directed organisms in this planet. Aim high. Once you graduate from college, keep learning. The brain keeps developing, no matter your age, and it reflects what you do with it.

7. Explore, travel. Adapting to new locations forces you to pay more attention to your environment. Make new decisions, use your brain.

8. Don't Outsource Your Brain. Not to media personalities, not to politicians, not to your smart neighbor, not to this blogger... Make your own decisions, and mistakes. And learn from them. That way, you are training your brain, not your neighbor's.

9. Develop and maintain stimulating friendships. We are "social animals", and need social interaction. Which, by the way, is why the Baby Einstein series has been shown not to be the panacea for children development.

10. Laugh. Often. Especially to cognitively complex humor, full of twists and surprises. Better, try to become the next Jon Stewart, and create your own unique humor.

Keep in mind that what counts is not reading this article-or any other one-, but practicing a bit every day until small steps snowball into unstoppable, internalized habits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alvaro-fernandez/10-habits-of-highly-effec_b_77369.html
Posted December 18, 2007 | 03:47 PM (EST)

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Read More: Brain Fitness, Sharon Begley, Sharpbrains, Breaking Living News

When did logic become a four-letter word?

Posted by Carmine Coyote under Best of Slow , Corporate culture , Slow Leadership

Facing up — logically — to the start of another year

Do you ever ask yourself unanswerable questions, such as: “Why do so many people talk so much about change and do so little different in their lives?” or “What makes companies and managers believe that the same ways of operating that got them into some mess are going to get them out again?”

I do, although I also know there isn’t an answer — other than to sigh at mankind’s invincible ability to screw things up (yet we claim to be the most intelligent creatures on this planet!) — but I have to hope that facing up to the question is at least better then pretending things are alright as they are and going to the Mall, which is what we are generally encouraged to do today.

Once or twice over the holiday period, I have been tempted to tackle this unanswerable question: “How did it happen that so many highly-educated and massively over-paid people on Wall Street and elsewhere managed to get caught out putting their money into investments that have been proved to be based on unquantifiable — in fact, largely unintelligible — amounts of risk? Why were so many supposed experts caught doing something outlawed in Risk Management 101?”

Giving up on logical thought

We all know that human beings, as a species, are remarkably poor at making rational decisions. We may claim to be thinking animals, but nearly all our decisions are made on an emotional basis and justified afterwards. We do what feels good and use our powers of thought to dress up the choice in an acceptably rational outfit later.

Yet these executives and professional investment managers are paid to think. They’re employed precisely because it’s supposed (falsely, as it turns out) that they can make rational choices and act according to the facts, where you or I would cross our fingers and hope, or pick out an investment with a pin.

Then, if times turn tough, these same people are expected to remain calm and rational, not act like any Tom, Dick, or Harriet, and run for safety, screaming “sell!” as loudly as they can.

In fact, they’ve been no more rational or logical in their actions than the most ignorant, amateur investor. They’ve bought investments without understanding them, or the risks they posed, and followed every passing whim of fashion. They’ve been as discriminating in what they gobbled up as a starving sewer rat; as willing to follow an independent path as a frightened lemming.

What’s going on?

I said at the start that the subject of this post is an unanswerable question. That’s not because there is no reason; more that there are so many linked causes and sub-causes that it’s impossible to sort them all out.

But I think there is one thread that unites many of the issues involved: the notion, prevalent for some years now, that being emotional is warm, attractive, and ultimately “good,” while being objective and logical denotes some inner deficiency of feeling. You see it in schools, where social skills are often prized above knowledge or critical thought. You see it in journalism, where “human interest” takes the place of news or analysis. You see it in the cloying sentimentality beloved of so many advertisers.

There are, of course, situations that do call for emotions; no one feels comfortable around someone who remains cold and withdrawn all the time; nor with those who use their imagined intellectual superiority to put others down. But there are many, many situations that demand rigorous logic and the courage to look reality in the face, even if what you see is horribly ugly. Investing is one of those, as are the large majority of actions involved in running a business.

You would hope that top corporate leaders have the sense to see when objective logic is needed, and when empathy is required instead. Yet what we have today are leaders who neither empathize with their employees struggling to earn a living — what does someone who earns millions every year know or care about the problems of paying the mortgage, or finding affordable healthcare? — nor show the ability to act logically in calculating risks and stay away from investments so exotic that nobody — including their own subordinates — has any clear notion of what those risks really are.

It used to be said (often by those same, smug “professionals”) that ordinary people always lose money because they are blinded by greed when things are going well, and driven only by fear as soon as the market turns down. If that’s so, it’s hard to see any difference between these over-paid professionals and anyone else in the present situation.

Learning our lessons

If executives do not act differently from the ordinary person; if they do not stay objective in good times or bad, and make choices based on logic. facts and fiduciary obligations, rather than personal greed and emotional whims, what basis is there for paying them large salaries? If leaders fail to lead, because they are themselves being led along by fashion and the wish to keep up with the Boardroom Joneses, what credibility should they retain?

The lessons we should take from the sub-prime debacle are human, not financial. The idea of the infallibility of free-market policies has been shown to be simply another ideological myth — along with the myth that attending to quarterly results will ensure long-term viability. Logic dictates that long-term success requires long-term thinking. Reason shows that taking on unquantifible risks is equivalent to making a blind guess. Justice demands that those who fail to earn the rewards they claim by right of superior understanding should forfeit them.

Logic and reason can be as beautiful and delicate in their use as the most refined emotions. Humans crave the joy of solving puzzles and following quests to their ultimate fulfillment. If they did not, there would be no long shelves of mystery books and fantasy novels in every bookstore and Hollywood would be out of business. It is as natural to take pleasure in using your mind to reach a logical conclusion as it is to use your emotions to feel love, joy, or happiness.

Thinking and logic cannot save you from every kind of mistake — nothing can do that — but they surely beat following each emotional whim, running with the crowd, and hoping for the best. Let’s stop deifying emotion, as if all emotion were created equal. Love is an emotion, but so is hate; altruism is an emotion, but so are self-centeredness and greed.

Logic may lack obvious warmth, but it also lacks much of the power emotions have to let us imagine doing whatever we want is also doing what is right.

http://www.slowleadership.org/blog/?p=348

really, now

Dragon's Yearly Horoscope

Dragon Ratings

75% (11 favorable and 1 neutral month)

Hopefully the Pig showered blessings on you last year. If not, don't worry. This year promises to be even better with your good friend the Rat in charge. You could enjoy success but this is still not the best of years, as Earth does not favor your luck. This is a year for avoiding risk. As a Dragon, you could be something of a dreamer. If so, this is the perfect year for you, since Earth promotes practicality. This means you have a good chance of realizing one of your big dreams.

Dragon Career

The year of the Rat seems to smile on your career. Chances for advancement may be there for the taking if you can come up with something imaginative that will breathe life into your ideas. If you are open to change, your willing spirit and adaptive style could win you big points with those in authority. A certain co-worker could become unexpected ally so be sure to stay alert to the work of those around you and find ways to get other people involved in your projects.

Dragon Relationships

The good-will of the Rat towards your career sector will likely overflow into your relationships. If you are able to come down from your lofty perch and express your emotions and love to your friends and family, many happy moments will likely follow. The Earth element of this year favors family, humble actions and heart-felt gestures. Your social life should be rather active. Single Dragons could find their soul mate, or at least a little romance, as this is a very auspicious year for love.

Dragon Health

You may feel like you are getting a double shot of espresso with the combined energies of your very active social life and the high-octane fuel that is derived from the year of the Rat. One word of caution: Although you may feel like a superhero, you are definitely not one. Take the same precautions that a normal human being would.

Dragon Wealth

Although your health is in very good shape, your financial fitness may not quite be at the same level, as the Earth element favors conservative actions over risky ones this year. If you are considering making a major purchase for you home, this seems to be a very favorable time to proceed with such actions. Striving to improve your financial contacts and networks could be profitable. Try not to overlook financial planning and savings.

Birth Data:
Birth Date: November 24, 1976

Signs
Year Fire Dragon
Month Earth Pig
Day Metal Dragon

Introduction

This reading is based on your Year, Month, Day and Time (Chinese hour) of birth. From ancient times, the Chinese have believed that certain parameters of your personality and fate were set at your moment of birth. The Chinese are not strict determinists, however, and do believe people can use the information in their charts to improve their lives. For example, athletic coaches train their teams to exploit their strengths and to find ways to compensate for their weaknesses. That’s an ideal use of this personality analysis.

Each part of this reading contributes valuable information to help you put together the pieces of the puzzle that make up this marvelous individual known as your self. There are many factors that make up your chart. Only by considering them all and forming an overall picture is it possible to accurately understand the complexity of your personality.

Furthermore, your chart can only tell you about a particular strength, weakness or other characteristic. It is up to you to take advantage of this information, to wisely use your strengths and compensate for weaknesses. Yes, Chinese astrology does outline the parameters of your life, but it is ultimately you who determines your fortune and your destiny. You can do this better if you are conscious of the roots of your behavior.

The analysis begins with a look at your year sign, which is the primary sign in Chinese astrology. This sign forms the basis of your personality.

Your Year sign

This section has three parts. The first notes some facts about your sign. The second describes your personality, first by stating your salient characteristics, then your preferred means for making decisions, then positive and negative personality traits, and finally the qualities you admire and those you dislike. The third identifies how the element ruling your year of birth modifies the basic personality of your year sign.

Basic facts about your sign - Dragon

The Chinese name for your sign: LONG

Ranking order in the Chinese zodiac: Fifth

Lunar years of the Dragon Year Sign:
Begin Date End Date Element
2/16/1904 12:00:00 AM 2/3/1905 12:00:00 AM Wood
2/3/1916 12:00:00 AM 1/22/1917 12:00:00 AM Fire
1/23/1928 12:00:00 AM 2/9/1929 12:00:00 AM Earth
2/8/1940 12:00:00 AM 1/26/1941 12:00:00 AM Metal
1/27/1952 12:00:00 AM 2/13/1953 12:00:00 AM Water
2/13/1964 12:00:00 AM 2/1/1965 12:00:00 AM Wood
1/31/1976 12:00:00 AM 2/17/1977 12:00:00 AM Fire
2/17/1988 12:00:00 AM 2/5/1989 12:00:00 AM Earth
2/5/2000 12:00:00 AM 1/23/2001 12:00:00 AM Metal

Direction: Southeast

Season: Spring

Hour ruled by the Fire: 7am - 9am

(Note: Chinese astrology "hours" are two hours long, and the new day begins at Western time 11pm.)

Fixed Element: Wood

(Note: Your fixed element is common to all people of your sign, regardless of the element that rules your year of birth. Its characteristics are incorporated into the description of your year sign.)

Ruling planet: Mars

Environment: The heights (hilltops, penthouses)

Color(s): Black and Yellow

2. The Dragon Personality

Defining Characteristics: Of all the signs, the Dragon symbolizes the flamboyant dreamer.

Making Decisions:

To understand how the Dragon operates, it is important to know Dragon is a Yang and a heart sign.

Being a Yang sign person, you are most effective using a direct, if not aggressive, approach to life. You tend to be proactive.

As a heart sign person, you are most comfortable following your heart rather than basing decisions on logic