While working on my latest book, I had more than a few people ask me about spirituality. They wanted a succinct explanation or a simple model. I started going through various definitions, models, and testing what I could find. Here’s what I arrived at …

Here’s a post that I originally published on my work blog, but I thought the readers here would benefit from it too. It’s a simple model for thinking about your career growth. With things like a “jobless economic recovery,” careers ending, and a “skills-for-hire” economy, it’s even more important to focus on growth while managing your career. At the end of the day, YOU play the most important role in your career growth – own it.

This is a guest post from bestselling author, Michael Michalko. Michael’s super skill is creative thinking. In fact, he organized a team of intelligence specialists to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods.

To the right is a drawing. What does it look like to you?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” — Charles Darwin

One of the best ways to get results is to change your approach. You can change yourself faster than you can change other people. This gives you incredible flexibility in any situation. Your ability to change your thinking, feeling, and doing is the key to changing your lot in life or changing the results you get.

You can use stories and The Rule of 3 to simplify your day and make meaning. Three is just the cap so you can boil your day down into three simple stories (e.g. win a raving fan, have a four star dinner with a friend, and write a game-changing post.)

“The problem of information overload, therefore, may not be the quantity of it but our inability to know what to do with it.” – Danniel Tammet

One of the most important skills I mastered early on at Microsoft, is information management. My ability to organize information directly impacts my success. For me, information management is the key to daily productivity from researching to learning faster to keeping my email inbox empty.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins

This post is my attempt to surface and share some of my favorite lessons from Tony Robbins.

Tony Robbins is a living example of smart and gets results. He walks his talk. He’s a powerful combination of action, passion, and commitment to continuous improvement. When it comes to unleashing your best, Tony Robbins sets the bar. I actually think one of his super skills is bringing NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to the masses and making it practical.

Maybe the answer is “nothing.” If so, at least it’s a conscious choice. It’s a simple enough question, at first blush. In fact, it’s the question I use to make the most of my day. But there’s more to it.

The real question is, “What do you want to accomplish today? … given your available time, your available energy, your MUSTs/needs and/or wants?”

“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.” – Vernon Howard

What did you learn last year that surprised you the most? … What did you learn last year that really mattered? To keep track of the distinctions I learn, I keep an insights journal. In my insights journal, I write down my one-liners of “ah-has.” I track anything from quotes that hit home to dots that finally get connected I keep it simple – a tickler list with just enough to jog my memory.

How do we “know” something? … I think you’ll like this as a simple model to help answer the question – how do you know something to be true? There are 3 main ways:
1. Experiential (empirical)
2. Cognitive (Rational)
3. Constructed (Creational)

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” — Maria Robinson

A simple way to think about designing your life is — your job, your village, and your hut. These three together shape a large part of your every day experiences. Your job is what you do, your village is where you hang out and who you spend your time with, and your hut is your family and your home.

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.” — Benjamin Disraeli

It was a powerful year for Sources of Insight. I’ve added 190 posts on topics ranging from improving your productivity to sharpening your thinking skills. My quest is simple – find and share the best of the best insight and action for work and life. From quotes to featured guests to lessons learned — it’s all about improving your effectiveness and leading a better life from the inside out.