The best luck quotes at your fingertips. This collection of luck quotes includes advice from Emmerson, Shakespeare, Tony Robbins, and more.

If you know the cycle you’re in, you can make more effective decisions. You can anticipate instead of react. I’ve been trying to get a handle on the economy to know what to expect and to figure out what the best moves are. The New Economy Cycle is apparently one of the most important financial planning cycles for your life, your investments, and your business. It’s less about the day to day decisions, and more about the big structural decisions you make in your life, such as where to live, what jobs to do, what to learn in school, … etc.

Peter Drucker was a leader in management philosophy and effectiveness. As a writer, management consultant, and social ecologist, he played an influential role in shaping key concepts around business, innovation, decision making, leadership, productivity, time management, and personal effectiveness. He first coined the term “knowledge worker” back in 1959, and helped pioneer knowledge work productivity.

When it comes to sleep patterns, some people really are night owls or early birds. According to John Medina in the book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School , 30 % of the population is an owl or a lark (an early bird in scientific literature.) The rest of us are called hummingbirds where some of us are more owlish and some are more larkish and some are in between.

Do you lean towards analysis or do you lean towards action? When I first heard the metaphor, describers and doers, it resonated immediately. It suddenly connected a lot of dots. I thought of all the people I know that have a bias for analysis and I thought of all the people I know that have a bias for action.

Here they are, my top 10 life lessons boiled down. I regularly ask people I know for their 10 best lessons in life. Everybody has lessons to share whether it’s about their best skill or it’s their life lessons learned. I figured since I regularly ask people for their best lessons, I might share some of mine. This particular set is the result of me thinking really hard for 10 minutes (at which point I had to send my email), so they are likely to change as I give them more thought.

I’m a fan of using checklists to improve results. Checklists are powerful tools for jogging your memory, reducing stress, and sharing know how. Fighter pilots use checklist effectively to eliminate task saturation, take away workload, and avoid forgetting something critical. Many businesses use checklists to train new hires as well as run everyday operations.

When you name something it’s powerful. You have a way to reference it and share it with others. Patterns are named problem and solution pairs. They are a simple way to build and share a catalog of knowledge. You can use patterns to efficiently share strategies or principles. Rather than 100 words, you can use one word. Practices are methods or techniques. They are “how” you do something. By leveraging patterns and practices, you can improve your ability to get results. Basically, it’s a way to build a mental toolbox of insight and action to draw from.

“What’s their story?” … With one cutting question, my manager exposed the fact a colleague had only one side of the story — their own.

We make up stories every day either to explain our own actions or the actions of others. What happens when our stories limit us or hurt our relationships? For example, have you ever jumped to the wrong conclusion about somebody’s actions and later regretted it? I know I have.

My manager shared Colin Powell’s lessons in leadership with our team today. I had seen Powell’s leadership lessons before, but it was a great refresher and a perfect reminder that some leadership practices never go out of style. In fact, I would argue that Powell’s leadership lessons are actually timeless principles. The beauty is that you can take his core principles and adapt them to your own situation.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John C. Maxwell
How can you become a leader in your field?  A colleague shared a link to How to Be a Leader, which I found interesting.   I think the key takeaway is that to be a leader in your field, you help move the ball forward. 
You Need More Than the Skills You Got In School Philip writes:
“To succeed in your career, you need more than the skills that …

In this video, the “Last Lecture,” Randy Pausch talks about his dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and what lets you get to achieve your dreams.  The idea of the last lecture is a hypothetical question, “if you knew were going to die, and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?”  For Randy, it wasn’t hypothetical.  He was fighting pancreatic cancer.  This talk is not about death, though.  It’s about life and how to live.  Specifically, it’s about achieving childhood dreams and about how you …

A friend of mine gave me the following advice … you’re the average of the 10 people you spend time with. Looking back through my life, I could see how impactful that guideline really is. I know I’ve grown the most, when I’ve surrounded myself with the best.

Don’t break yourself against your own expectations. The square peg won’t fit any better into a round hole by thinking the hole should be square or wanting the peg to be round. First know what you’ve got. Seeing things the way they are, isn’t limiting, it’s enabling. When you know how things are, you can deal with them more effectively and find a way forward.

Sources of Insight is one year old. It’s hard to believe. Sometimes, it feels like I just launched yesterday. Other times, it feels like it’s always been there. Time is funny like that. My first post was Fear of Weaknesses, Fear of Failure, and Fear of Who You Are. This post is a walk through some of my highlights and lessons learned over the past year, and a look to the future.