This is just a quick note that I made some changes on Sources of Insight. The main things I changed are the sidebar and the menu. On the sidebar, I moved some things around, chopped “Resources” and renamed “Categories” to “Topics.” I tried to move everything upward so it’s easier to browse the topics. I like to make space and keep things clean.

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus

Sources of Insight is really driven by one thing – to help you make the most of work and life. One of the things that surprised me about Sources of Insight is how many people have asked me about the design of it. It’s a work in progress, but there is certainly an element of design about it.

It had to be done. Out with the old, in with the new. In this case, it was a bit more like spit and polish. I cleaned up Sources of Insight to get rid of some of the things that were bugging me. I consider it an example of sweeping in action.

Here are the outcomes I wanted to achieve:

A tag line that resonates and inspires
A simpler and more useful set of categories for my posts
A simpler and more useful set of tags for my posts

“Why are you not being everything you can be right now?” – Gabrielle Bouliane

Life’s short. I’ve had enough loss in my life to always remind me you never know how much time you have to make the most of what you’ve got.

I follow the advice of one of my mentors, living each day as if it’s my last, but planning to live 100 years. I never let fear or resistance get in the way. It’s a path of giving my best where I have my best to give, living my values, following my growth, and creating the experiences I want in my life.

I’m back from my epic adventure. I took a 30 day road trip with my wife across the U.S. from WA to N.J. to Key West to Las Vegas … 10,000 miles and 26 states. It’s a fairly unique experience and perspective, so I’ll share it here with you.

I’ll be back. Rather than keep it indefinite, let’s just say I’ll be back in November. Every now and then I take some down time. It’s one of my renewal patterns. It’s partly why I like doing projects and why I like the change of seasons. Great down time, helps me with great up time. I remember Deepak Chopra once saying something like the child sleeps so well, because the child plays so hard.

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.

You might have noticed that I’ve changed my tag line on my blog a few times. My latest tagline is “proven practices for getting results.” Choosing a blog tagline sounds like it should be such a simple thing and yet, it’s really not. Your tag line can make a big impact for both yourself and others. For you, your tag line can help remind you what your blog is all about and serve as a source of inspiration.

Here is a quick look at last month’s most popular posts. It’s purely based on traffic. I might make this a monthly practice. It’s a good forcing function for me to take a look at what’s popular as well as rekindle some sparks with some of my posts. A monthly rundown also helps me see the forest from the trees and it’s a good way to stop and smell the roses …

I realized I still have a lot of first time visitors. I figured I should point out some things to help get you started. Even if you’re a regular reader, here’s some things you might like to know.
Exploring Posts
While there’s a few ways to explore the posts, one of the simplest ways to scan all my posts is to use the roundups:

2008 01 – January Post Roundup
2007 Post Roundup

Personal Development and Professional Development
The focus of The Book Share is on insights and actions for personal and professional development. For personal …

I’m going to continue to do post roundups. I’ll continue trying to find better ways to browse my collection of posts, but using a post roundup seems pretty effective for now. Here are my January posts organized in alphabetical order.
January Posts

Action-Forcing Events
Avoiding Vicious Cycles
Building Trust on Your Teams
Building Your Advice-and-Counsel Network
Checking Whether You’re on Track
Choose-Tos Over Have-Tos
Cooperative Controversy Over Competitive Controversy
Framing Compelling Arguments
Fundamental Do’s and Don’ts for a Productive Relationship with Your Boss
Guidelines for Structured Reflection
Improving Job Satisfaction
Personal Invention Quotas
Personal Space
Positive Thinking vs. Positive Action
Proven Techniques for Remembering
Reading is an …

How do you improve your writing?  How do you make your writing more conversational?  How do you cultivate a personal style in your writing and your speeches?  In Perfect Phrases for Executive Presentations: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases to Use to Communicate Your Strategy and Vision When the Stakes Are High (Perfect Phrases), Alan M. Perlman, Ph.D. writes about five principles you can use to improve your writing and speeches to make them more conversational and personal.
Five Principles for Improving Conversational Communication
Based on results and experience, I agree with Perlman’s principles …

A colleague suggested I do a roundup of my posts. I thought this was a great idea, and timely, since I’ve been trying to find a better way to get to some of my older posts. I still need to improve this, but I like having a post that makes it easy to browse my 2007 posts.
I’ve changed my style over the past year, based on reader feedback. At the end of the day, I want each post to be a nugget of insight and action that you can quickly …

How do you build a team that trusts each other to speak their mind and take risks?  How do you make it possible for the team to engage in passionate and sometimes emotional debate, knowing that they will not be punished for saying something that might otherwise be interpreted as destructive or critical?  It’s not about trusting that your team members will behave in a certain way.  It’s about building vulnerability-based trust, where it’s safe to take risks and face conflict on the team rather than fear it.  In The …

How do you create compelling arguments for change? How do you convince others to comply with your requests? How do you reduce the perceived costs of action or increase the perceived costs of inaction? In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about framing compelling arguments.
Key Take AwaysHere’s my key take aways:

Frame your arguments. One approach is to just ask for what you want and see what happens. If the stakes are high, you’ll want to frame a compelling argument.
Know whether …

How do Zen masters point students to awareness without using words? In Simple Zen: A Guide to Living Moment by Moment, C. Alexander Simpkins PH.D. and Annellen Simpkins PH.D. write how Zen masters point students to awareness through hits and shouts.
A Nonconceptual Experience
Alexander and Annellen write:
“Chinese Zen masters Ma-tsu and Lin-chi often resorted to shouting or hitting in response to students’ questions. This created tension in the students since they never knew when they might receive a smack from the master. The purpose, however, was not to terrorize the students …

Can setting a quota, help you accomplish more? It worked for Thomas Edison. In Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition), Michael Michalko writes about how Edison used quotas to improve his results.
Thomas Edison’s Personal Invention Quotas
Michalko writes:
“Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He was a great believer in exercising his mind and the minds of his workers and felt that without a quota he probably wouldn’t have achieved very much. His personal invention quote was a minor invention every ten days and a major invention every six months. To …