Editor’s note:  This is a guest post from Carolyn Elliot on how to read poetry to expand your heart.

Carolyn is author of the book  Awesome Your Life: The Artist’s Antidote to Suffering Genius.   She won several awards for playwriting, fiction, and poetry, fresh out of high-school, and later, taught the courses Reading Poetry and Literature and the Contemporary. She is well read, and some of her favorite authors include Dickinson, Emerson, Goethe, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Neruda, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Whitman. Carolyn did her undergraduate work in Creative Writing and English at Carnegie Mellon University, and in her dissertation, she investigated the relationship of literature to the soul as it is imagined in romantic aesthetics.

Given her background and passion, I asked Carolyn if she could tackle the following challenge:
How can anyone, without a poetry background, get started with poetry as a source of inspiration and insight in their day to day?

The result is a powerful recipe below for awakening your senses and dipping your toe into the evocative pool of poetry.  Without further ado, here is Carolyn …

Poetry isn’t just for folks in tweed jackets with leather elbow patches.  The greatest poetry is language infused with the wisdom of a powerful heart.  If we learn how to read that great poetry well, we can let that infusion soak into us and transform our own perception for the better.  Reading poetry sensitively can be a spiritual practice that gradually alters our consciousness so that we see our world with vast insight and love.

The mode of encountering poetry that most facilitates heart-expansion isn’t the kind of technical, critical reading that’s taught in most English classes (“The caesura in line 8 creates a tension that magnifies the alliteration within the ABDDC rhyme scheme, highlighting the hendiadys that follows in line 10….”).  That kind of reading can be interesting if you’re already a balls-to-the-wall poetry buff and you want to “get under the hood” of a poem.  But most of us don’t want to tinker with the engine of a fantastic car.  We just want to drive it.

The way to “drive” a wonderful poem so that it opens you up is through contemplative reading.  In contemplative reading, we meet a poem via our intuition and imagination rather than our analytic brain.

To get a feel for contemplative reading, try this exercise (I’ve used it with my Reading Poetry students at the University of Pittsburgh for years to great effect):

Entering the Aether

Select a poem that you want to meet deeply.  For those just starting out, I suggest the opening pages of “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, “Ode to a Lemon” by Pablo Neruda, and “I Dwell in Possibility” by Emily Dickinson.

For the purpose of this example, we’ll use a magnificent lyric, “The Orchard” by H.D.  Sit comfortably with the poem within easy-reading reach.  Read the poem once, not bothering to “figure it out,” just getting a sense of what’s there.

Now close your eyes.  Settle in by breathing deeply and slowly.  Imagine that you see swirling all around you a very fine, very silvery substance called aether.  Aether is the material of the imagination and spirit, thought to be a basic element by classical and medieval philosophers.  The aether is fluid like silk, and moves around you in spiraling eddies.

The aether is extremely sensitive.  Whatever words or images you bring to it, it will amplify by means of all the senses and emotions available.  In a moment, you’ll bring a line from your poem into the aether, and the aether will respond by creating visions, sounds, scents, touches and feelings.  You might see whole scenes unfold.  You might hear music.  What you experience may or may not directly relate to the words you bring in.  The aether offers its response from a place of deep wisdom beyond the conscious mind.

Bring into the aether the first lines of the poem, “The Orchard”: “I saw the first pear / as it fell.”

Now close your eyes again and observe how the aether responds to just these lines.  What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?  Sit in contemplation for a few moments, allowing the aether to fully unfold its response to these lines.

After observing the response of the aether to your satisfaction, write down what you witnessed in terms of every bodily sense.

Here are responses my students have recorded:

“I caught a scent of lemon mixed with black coffee, and felt overwhelmed.”

“I saw Versailles, with rows of round pear trees and a huge blue sky.”

“I saw Adam and Eve under the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.”

“I saw a giant primeval forest, with a huge pear falling slowly, bursting with juice.  I heard the sound of quick-beating drums.”

“I felt a woman’s cold hand on my shoulder.”

You’ll notice that some of these responses pertain directly to the words of the poem, and some don’t.  That’s perfect.  The point is not to find what the lines “mean” but instead to discover what they do.

Repeat this process of bringing lines from the poem into the aether, observing the aether’s response and writing it down until you complete the poem or until you feel full (like you’ve eaten all you want from a delicious meal).

The wonder of this mode of reading is that it requires no background knowledge, no technical terms, no “expertise” at poetry.  And yet again and again, I find that when my students partake of it, they intuitively and immediately discover all the rich mythological and historical resonances that a poem has to offer, often finding more depth than the most highly-trained critics offer in their essays on the same poem.

Reading contemplatively by entering the aether with a poem gives you a way to create a meeting space between the wisdom of poetry and the wisdom of your own imagination.  Over time, this practice of reading feeds your deep self and renders you capable of seeing from your calm heart rather than your frantic mind.  It accomplishes what the great poet John Keats called the work of “soul-making,” a process of being able to discern the profound truth beneath disturbing appearances, so that bliss rather than worry becomes your default experience.

Love!

Carolyn

Welcome to my collection of Tony Robbins Quotes. It’s organized by action, change, communication, fear, goals, life,  questions, and success.

One thing you’ll notice about Tony Robbins’ quotes is that his phrases are measured and meaningful.  He boils down potentially complex ideas into simple, bite-sized chunk.  He also says things in a way that’s sticky.

Enjoy …

Top 10 Tony Robbins’ Quotes

Here is a short-list of some of Tony Robbins’ most popular and insightful quotes:

1. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
2. “In life you need either inspiration or desperation.”
3. “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”
4. “It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.”
5. “Let fear be a counselor and not a jailer.”
6. “Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process.”
7. Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.”
8. “Personal power is the ability to take action.”
9. “The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.”
10. “You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.”

Action

Tony Robbins quotes about action:

• “I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.”
• “If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can.”
• “In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”
• “Personal power is the ability to take action.”
• “The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
• “The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behaviors.”
• “We will act consistently with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not.”
• “You always succeed in producing a result.”
• “You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.”

Change / Decisions

Tony Robbins quotes about change and making decisions:

• “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
• “All personal breakthroughs being with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief.”
• “Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards.”
• “For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent.”
• “If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.”
• “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”
• “More than anything else, I believe it’s our decisions, not the conditions of our lives, that determine our destiny.”
• “We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.”
• “Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.”

Communication

Tony Robbins quotes about communication:

• “The people who shape our lives and our cultures have the ability to communicate a vision or a quest or a joy or a mission.”
• “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

Fear / Failure

Tony Robbins quotes about fear and failure:

• “Let fear be a counselor and not a jailer.”
• “Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.”
• “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”

Goals

Tony Robbins quotes about goals:

• “Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction.”
• “How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?”
• “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.”
• “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

Life

Tony Robbins quotes about life:

• “I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.”
• “In life you need either inspiration or desperation.”
• “Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”
• “Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process.”
• “Live with passion!”

Purpose / Meaning

Tony Robbins quotes about purpose and meaning:

• “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”
• “Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.”
• “It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.”
• “Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.”
• “You see, it’s never the environment; it’s never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events … how we interpret them … that shapes who we are today and who we’ll become tomorrow.”

Questions

Tony Robbins quotes about questions:

• “Quality questions create a quality life.”
• “Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential.”

Success

Tony Robbins quotes about success:

• “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.”
• “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”
• “Success is doing what you want to do, when you want, where you want, with whom you want, as much as you want.”
• “Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment!”
• “Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
• “Take control of your consistent emotions and begin to consciously and deliberately reshape your daily experience of life.”
• “The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.”

General

• “Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.“
• “The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.”
• “The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.”
• “The only people without problems are those in cemeteries.”
• “Want to learn to eat a lot? Here it is: Eat a little. That way, you will be around long enough to eat a lot.”
• “Whatever happens, take responsibility”
• “When people are like each other they tend to like each other.”

My Related Posts

• Lessons Learned from Tony Robbins

Books About Tony Robbins

• Awaken the Giant Within
• Unlimited Power

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”—Voltaire

Your thoughts can shape your feelings can shape your actions.  Thinking is powerful stuff whether you’re shaping your moment, or shaping your lifetime.

The real beauty is that thinking is a skill and you can develop throughout your lifetime.  To build our thinking skills, we can draw from the wisdom of the ages and modern sages.  And quotes are one of the best ways to do that.  Whether it’s positive thinking quotes, or critical thinking quotes, there are so many words of wisdom and sayings that make us think.  Perhaps one of the most powerful thoughts on thinking is this …

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  Watch your words, for they become actions.  Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” – Unknown

Now, let’s turn wisdom into action and fill your quiver with arrows of action, and fill your mental toolbox with a garden of insight in the form of pithy prose, one-liner reminders, and quotable quotes.

To make the most of these thinking quotes, see if you can find three thinking quotes that you can use in some way or at least make you think.   There are no right answers here, only growth and greatness.  Here’s to your excellence.

Top 10 Quotes on Thinking

1. “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James
2. “Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” — Thomas Szasz
3. “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” — Winnie the Pooh
4. “Few minds wear out; more rust out.” — Christian N. Bovee
5. “It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.” — Luther Burbank
6. “Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” — Benjamin Lee Whorf
7. “Misery is almost always the result of thinking.” — Joseph Joubert
8. “Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.” — Edward de Bono
9. “Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.” –  Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. “What we think, we become.” — Buddha

While that’s a useful bunch to have under your belt, and you may have heard of many of these before, now take a waltz through the garden below and be sure to stop and smell the thinking quotes that bloom brightest for you.

Thinking Quotes at a Glance

Here is a collection of thinking quotes from A – Z for your browsing pleasure …

1. “A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.” — Jerry Seinfeld
2. “A good listener is usually thinking about something else.” — Kin Hubbard
3. “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James
4. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” — Thomas Paine
5. “A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” — Mahatma Gandhi
6. “A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.” — Soren Kierkegaard
7. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde
8. “An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.” — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
9. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” — Tony Robbins
10. “A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
11. “An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.” — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
12. “And these little things may not seem like much but after a while they take you off on a direction where you may be a long way off from what other people have been thinking about.” — Roger Penrose
13. “And we’re seeing a higher level of consciousness and many more opportunities for people to challenge their present ways of thinking and move into a grander and larger experience of who they really are.” — Neale Donald Walsch
14. “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” — Albert Einstein
15. “As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behaviour. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behaviour. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.” — John Maxwell
16. “At a certain age some people’s minds close up; they live on their intellectual fat.” –William Lyon Phelps
17. “Begin challenging your own assumptions.  Your assumptions are your windows on the world.  Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” — Alan Alda
18. “Belief is when someone else does the thinking.” — Buckminster Fuller
19. “Believing is easier than thinking.  Hence so many more believers than thinkers.” — Bruce Calvert
20. “Better to be without logic than without feeling.” – Charlotte Bronte
21. “Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.” — Alvar Aalto
22. “Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” — Thomas Szasz
23. “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” — Winnie the Pooh
24. “Don’t be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.” — Arthur Miller
25. “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” — Ray Bradbury
26. “Doubt is not a pleasant state of mind, but certainty is absurd.” — Voltaire
27. “Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” — Niels Bohr
28. “Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.” — Khalil Gibran
29. “Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
30. “Few minds wear out; more rust out.” — Christian N. Bovee
31. “Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” — George Bernard Shaw
32. “Get into a line that you will find to be a deep personal interest, something you really enjoy spending twelve to fifteen hours a day working at, and the rest of the time thinking about.” — Earl Nightingale
33. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” — Rick Warren
34. “I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
35. “I am not what I think. I am thinking what I think.” — Eric Butterworth
36. “I began to realize that thinking itself is nothing but the process of asking and answering questions.” — Tony Robbins
37. “I cannot cure myself of that most woeful of youth’s follies – thinking that those who care about us will care for the things that mean much to us.” — David Herbert Lawrence
38. “I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.” — Arthur C. Clarke
39. “I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.” — Bob Dylan
40. “I grew up thinking that whatever I wanted to do, I could do.” — Victoria Principal
41. “I have a different way of thinking. I think synergistically. I’m not linear in thinking, I’m not very logical.” — Imelda Marcos
42. “I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.” — Georgia O’Keeffe
43. “I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way – I hope it never will.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
44. “I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” — Donald Trump
45. “I like to think of thoughts as living blossoms borne by the human tree.” — James Douglas
46. “I like what the future holds. I don’t like thinking about the past.” — John Cale
47. “I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
48. “I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.” — Xun Zi
49. “I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.” — Billy Joel
50. “I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.” — Joan Rivers
51. “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.” –  Albert Einstein
52. “I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.” — Harold Kushner
53. “I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.” — Peter De Vries
54. “I’m against fashionable thinking.” — Herman Kahn
55. “I’ve never responded well to entrenched negative thinking.” — David Bowie
56. “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”– George S. Patton
57. “If I look confused it is because I am thinking.” — Samuel Goldwyn
58. “If the track is tough and the hill is rough, thinking you can just ain’t enough!” — Shel Silverstein
59. “If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen.” — Desiderius Erasmus
60. “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” –  C.S. Lewis
61. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee
62. “In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.” — Lao Tzu
63. “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” — James Thurber
64. “It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost.” — Richard Bach
65. “It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” — William Shakespeare
66. “It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.” — Stephen Hawking
67. “It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.” — Luther Burbank
68. “It’s not the events that shape my life that determine how I feel and act, but, rather, it’s the way I interpret and evaluate my life experiences.” — Tony Robbins
69. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” — Lao Tzu
70. “Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” — Benjamin Lee Whorf
71. “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” — Winston Churchill
72. “Let your performance do the thinking.” — Charlotte Bronte
73. “Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
74. “Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering – because you can’t take it in all at once.” — Audrey Hepburn
75. “Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.” — Mason Cooley
76. “Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.” — Ambrose Bierce
77. “Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.” — William James
78. “Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man’s happiness really lies in contentment.” — Mohandas Gandhi
79. “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.” — Blaise Pascal
80. “Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.” — Virginia Woolf
81. “Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” – Voltaire
82. “Men always do leave off really thinking, when the last bit of wild animal dies in them.” — David Herbert Lawrence
83. “Men can live without air a few minutes, without water for about two weeks, without food for about two months – and without a new thought for years on end.” — Kent Ruth
84. “Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.” — Virginia Woolf
85. “Misery is almost always the result of thinking.” — Joseph Joubert
86. “Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.” — Aldous Huxley
87. “Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.” — Edward de Bono
88. “Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.” — Carlos Santana
89. “Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.” –  Henry Louis Mencken
90. “My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.” — Billy Connolly
91. “My hand is the extension of the thinking process – the creative process.” — Tadao Ando
92. “My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.” — Jean-Paul Sartre
93. “No amount of energy will take the place of thought.  A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.” — Henry Van Dyke
94. “No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head.” — Terry Josephson
95. “No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.” – J. P. Morgan
96. “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”—Voltaire
97. “Nothing comes merely by thinking about it.” — John Wanamaker
98. “Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.” — G.C. Lichtenberg
99. “Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” — Carl G. Jung
100. “One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.” – Moliere
101. “Opinion is that exercise of the human will which helps us to make a decision without information.” — John Erskine
102. “Our job is not to make up anybody’s mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking.” — Anonymous
103. “Our minds are lazier than our bodies.” — François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
104. “Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.” — Deepak Chopra
105. “Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to.” — Howard Mumford Jones
106. “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” — Soren Kierkegaard
107. “People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.” –  Anthony de Mello
108. “People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.” — George Carlin
109. “Physiological response to thinking and to pain is the same; and man is not given to hurting himself.” — Martin H. Fischer
110. “Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard
111. “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” — Zig Ziglar
112. “Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” — Tommy Lasorda
113. “Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.” — Baruch Spinoza
114. “Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.” — Karl Von Clausewitz
115. “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” — John Locke
116. “Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
117. “Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” — Edmund Burke
118. “Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else.” — Nicholas Sparks
119. “Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.” – Horace
120. “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” — Carl Sagan
121. “Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.” — Wayne Dyer
122. “Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.” — James Thurber
123. “Some people get lost in thought because it’s such unfamiliar territory.” — G. Behn
124. “Some people do not become thinkers simply because their memories are too good.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
125. “Some years ago, I wrote a book called the Emperor’s New Mind and that book was describing a point of view I had about consciousness and why it was not something that comes about from complicated calculations.” — Roger Penrose
126. “Sometimes I think and other times I am.” — Paul Valéry
127. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” – Bill Gates
128. “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
129. “Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.” — Joseph Addison
130. “The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.” — Norbet Platt
131. “The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life.  The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of clichés.” — H.L. Mencken
132. “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” — David Ogilvy
133. “The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.” — Thomas A. Edison
134. “The best way of forgetting how you think you feel is to concentrate on what you know you know.” — Mary Stewart
135. “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.” — John Kenneth Galbraith
136. “The forceps of our minds are clumsy things and crush the truth a little in the course of taking hold of it.” — H.G. Wells
137. “The ‘how’ thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile ‘ifs’.” –  Norman Vincent Peale
138. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
139. “The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.” — Theodore Roosevelt
140. “The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” — Martin Heidegger
141. “The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” — Robert H. Schuller
142. “The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.” — Francois de La Rochefoucauld
143. “The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” — Charles R. Swindoll
144. “The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” — A. A. Milne
145. “The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.” — John Locke
146. “The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.” — Will Durant
147. “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” — Samuel Johnson
148. “The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” — Tony Robbins
149. “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.” — Albert Einstein
150. “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” — Albert Einstein
151. “There are different rules for reading, for thinking, and for talking. Writing blends all three of them.” — Mason Cooley
152. “There are some days I practice positive thinking, and other days I’m not positive I am thinking.” — John M. Eades
153. “There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.” — Thomas Paine
154. “There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.” — Georg C. Lichtenberg
155. “There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
156. “There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.” — Clarence Day
157. “There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.” — Thomas A. Edison
158. “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” – Voltaire
159. “Thinking about the universe has now been handed over to specialists. The rest of us merely read about it.”—Mason Cooley
160. “Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought.” — Martin Heidegger
161. “Thinking in its lower grades is comparable to paper money, and in its higher forms it is a kind of poetry.” — Havelock Ellis
162. “Thinking is like loving and dying.  Each of us must do it for himself.” — Josiah Royce
163. “Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
164. “Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.” — Charles Kettering
165. “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” — Henry Ford
166. “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
167. “Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.” — Robert Frost
168. “Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.”– W. Clement Stone
169. “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
170. “Those who know how to think need no teachers.” — Mahatma Gandhi
171. “Thought is action in rehearsal.” — Anonymous“Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the
172. fruit behind it.” –  Ralph Waldo Emerson
173. “Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.” — Tryon Edwards
174. “Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man.  But they don’t bite everybody.” — Stanislaw Lec
175. “To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.” — William James
176. “To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.” — Og Mandino
177. “To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.” — William Hazlitt
178. “Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” — John F. Kennedy
179. “Try not thinking of peeling an orange. Try not imagining the juice running down your fingers, the soft inner part of the peel. The smell. Try and you can’t. The brain doesn’t process negatives.” — Doug Coupland
180. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” — Marcus Aurelius
181. “We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.” –  Buddha
182. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein
183. “We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.” — Albert Camus
184. “We teach people that they upset themselves. We can’t change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today.” — Albert Ellis
185. “What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.” – Voltaire
186. “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.” — Abraham Lincoln
187. “When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” — Thomas Paine
188. “When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.” — John Adams
189. “When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.” – Plato
190. “When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” — Joseph Campbell
191. “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.” — Carter G. Woodson
192. “Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.” — William James
193. “Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.” — William Zinsser
194. “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” — Isaac Asimov
195. “You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think.” – Walter Anderson
196. “You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.” –  Tom Brokaw
197. “You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see.” — Tadao Ando
198. “You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert.” — Denis Waitley
199. “You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” — J. K. Rowling
200. “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” — Alan Watts

Photo by @boetter.

One of my mentors shared their favorite inspirational passage with me.  It’s The Man in the Arena.

The Man in the Arena is a famous passage from the speech  Citizenship in a Republic, given by by Theodore Roosevelt.  It’s about standing strong when tested.

It goes like this …

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

You grow, by putting yourself out there.  If you’ve ever been in a situation that requires great courage, skill or tenacity, then, you know what it’s like to be “the man in the arena.”

If you’re going to fail, then at least dare greatly, and remember, it’s not the critic who counts.

Photo by West Point Public Affairs.

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editor’s note:  This is a guest post by Kevin Lam, and I have to say you’re in for a treat. If you don’t know Kevin, he’s a master of pragmatic insight. He’s always pushing the envelope and he’s a serial Entrepreneur. Kevin is also a continuous learner and he’s always testing his ideas and setting a new bar for himself.  Without further ado, here’s Kevin …

Occasionally I get mistaken for someone who is very successful and get asked if I have a list of steps to follow so that others can enjoy the same successes. I don’t have a step-by-step guide (though I do highly recommend JD’s Agile Results), but what I do have are nuggets of wisdom that I like to call “secret sauces” that I’ve picked up along the way since starting my Internet security services and data protection businesses. My hope is that they can be useful for you in helping you create your own list of secret sauces. Here are my top 5:

1. Pain from regret versus pain from discipline
2. Emotional intelligence versus actual intelligence
3. Fear is false evidence appearing as real
4. Gold bar or crap sandwich
5. The secret to happiness

Secret Sauce #1: Pain from Regret Versus Pain from Discipline

Besides actual physical pain, there are two pains in life that I know of: the pain from regret, and the pain from discipline.

The pain from regret is the discomfort you feel after you should have done something, but the opportunity has already passed. For example, this is the disappoint in yourself when you had a whiz-bang idea that someone else capitalized on because you were too lazy yourself to execute on it. Or that test you failed because you didn’t study the night before.

The pain of discipline however is the discomfort you feel when you are doing something that isn’t pleasant when you are doing it, but it’s something that has to be done or needs be done. For example, it’s the pain you feel in your arms when you push yourself to do 10 extra push ups in the morning.

Here’s the key difference: Pain from regret stays with you for a long time, eats away at you and drains your energy. Pain from discipline on the other hand is momentary and fills you with a sense of accomplishment afterwards. The United States Navy SEALs have an interesting motto that I think captures the essence of this secret sauce and goes something like this: “Pain (from discipline) is weakness leaving the body.” Mint. Think about this the next you’re trying to push through a difficult task.

Secret Sauce #2: Don’t Let Your Emotional Intelligence Override Your Actual Intelligence

The rapper T.I had an MTV show where he went around to various cities to help troubled teenagers. He gave this piece of advice to one of those troubled teenagers, but I think it can be applied to just about everyone, troubled or not. Your emotional intelligence is the part in all of us that causes us to sometimes lash out and do stupid things like physically abuse a spouse and say irreparable or hurtful words (and be an all-around jackass). Your actual intelligence is the part between your ears that lets you look at problems objectively and logically. Make sure one is not unnecessarily overriding the other.

Secret Sauce #3: FEAR = False Evidence Appearing as Real

Richard “Mack” Machowicz, a former Navy SEAL and host of the Discovery Channel’s show “Future Weapons” sat on a TV panel and was asked how he handled fear especially when he was faced with difficult situations. His response was that he looked at fear as “false evidence appearing real” indicating that we often and irrationally fear things that have not materialized. What’s more, the fixation on that fear often immobilizes us and prevents us from accomplishing our dreams. For example, quitting your job to start a business, getting that promotion or asking that special stranger out on a date. Look at the fears you have in your life right now, have they actually materialized and what are they preventing you from achieving?

Secret Sauce #4. Gold Bar or Crap Sandwich? Choose Battles Worth Winning

Either it was Sun Tzu or it was Bruce Lee who said this (it’s really not important as you will see shortly from this section): “If you battle, you must win.”  The author of this quote was making the point that is if you have to fight for something it must be a fight that you can win. I’d like to add a modifier to this quote if you will, and that is “if you battle, you must win … and you must pick battles worth winning”.  That is, before you engage in a battle (argument with a co-worker, law-suit against a family member, whatever) look at (1) can you win that battle, and (2) if you do win what is the prize and is it worth the effort? Gold bar, or crap sandwich?

The most recent example that sticks in my mind happened the night I was drafting this article for JD’s blog.  At the gym I go to, there this a fellow who was looking to start his own business and knew that I had already started a few of my own. He was telling me about how he read that start-ups struggle and are rarely profitable for the first five years “like yours.”  Huh? Last time I checked I’ve been profitable each and every year I’ve been in business. I corrected him, but he kept insisting my businesses were not profitable. Now, I could have easily won this battle by showing him my books, balance sheets and yearly profit and losses, but remember that’s half the battle. Even if I did show him my books and convinced him otherwise, what would it get me? The approval of someone who clearly has a listening problem? Crap sandwich. I just smiled and said “yeah sucks to me” and let him ramble on a little more before excusing myself from the conversation. Save your energy for battles that are worth winning.

Secret Sauce #5:  Happiness = Reality – Expectations

This one I learned from Warren Buffet. Basically it says that happiness is reality minus expectations. Put another way, the less expectations you have in your life the happier you will be. When I started to really internalize this everything around me transformed. My marriage, my businesses, how I saw and appreciated my friends and family and much more. Stew on this point a little more if you have to and you’ll see that Buffet is right. Powerful, powerful stuff.

Bonus Sauce:  Practice Asking Why (Look for the Sauce Inside the Sauce)

I am going to bet that most people won’t read this far, so I saved the best and most potent secret sauce that I know of  for those of you who did and that is to “look for the sauce inside the sauce.”  One more time so it sticks: look for the sauce inside the sauce.

Thus far I’ve shared with you my top 5 secret sauces. That’s the what part, but there’s another more important part to consider, and that’s the why part (i.e. the sauce inside the sauce). Yes these are the top 5 secret sauces that drive me, but why do they drive me? Take secret sauce #5 for example. Ok, there’s the formula for happiness (the what). But why is this one so profound? Well to reduce expectations one needs to be aware of them. That’s the why: building stronger self-awareness. The more self-aware you are … how do I put this the easiest … the more successful you will be at everything, forever! Now take a look at your own list of secret sauces and practice asking why. I am betting your list is transforming right before your eyes.

Train your eye to also see the why and you will start seeing the world, people and events around you much more differently. Pssss … there’s secret sauce everywhere.

Good luck.

–Kevin

“When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie, that’s amore.” — Dean Martin

Happy Valentines day!

Love comes in all shapes and sizes and to each his own.  In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I put together a sampling of 25 movies and what they can teach us about life and love.  Even if you’re not a fan of Valentine’s Day, enjoy the quotes and perhaps see things in a new light.  Sometimes just the right words, are like an old song, sung new.

Here they are:

1. As Good as it Gets – Love can bring out your best.  Melvin: “You make me want to be a better man.”
2. Be My Valentine Charlie Brown – Just because you don’t get a Valentine, doesn’t mean you aren’t lovable.
3. Casablanca.  Kiss like you mean it.  Ilsa: “Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.
   It’s the kind of thing you want to hold on to forever.”
4. Casper: Don’t let go.  Casper: “If I tell you I love you, can I keep you forever?”
5. Cinderella.  It’s what dreams are made of.  Cinderella: “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”
6. Dan in Real Life.  Love is an ability.  Marty: “Love is not a feeling, Mr. Burns. It’s an ability.”
7. Don Juan DeMarco.  The answer is love.  Don Juan: “There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love.”
8. Ghost.  Sometimes you need to hear it.  Sam: “Ditto.”
9. It’s a Wonderful Life.  We’ll do anything to impress the one we love.  George: “What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary.”
10. Memoirs of a Geisha. Love is a bond.  Nobu: “We are tied to each other. I know you feel it too.”
11. My Girl – Butterflies and fuzzy feelings are what first kisses are about.  Loss hurts.
12. P.S. I Love You – Cherish the time you have together.  It’s part of the journey.  Gerry: “If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you’re sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you’ll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I’m a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I’m just one chapter in yours. There’ll be more. I promise. So here it comes, the big one. Don’t be afraid to fall in love again. Watch out for that signal, when life as you know it ends. P.S. I will always love you”
13. Romeo and Juliet – Puppy love makes you say the darnedest things.  Romeo: “See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!”
14. Runnaway Bride – Sometimes it’s a bumpy ride.  But it’s worth it.  Maggie: “I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is going to want get out. But I also guarantee… that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Because I know in my heart… you’re the only one for me.”
15. Shrek – Love comes in all shapes and sizes.  Stay true to you.
16. Sleepless in Seattle.  Sometimes, it’s like a snowflake just for you.  Sam: “Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic.”
17. The Bridges of Madison County.  You know it when you feel it. Robert Kinkaid: “This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.”
18. The Crow.  Remember them.  Sarah: “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.”
19. The Notebook – If you’ve ever really loved, you know what it’s like to really live.  Noah: “I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.”
20. The Princess Bride – Nothing beats true love.  Miracle Max says, “Sonny, true love is the greatest thing, in the world-except for a nice MLT – mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.”
21. The Way We Were – Remember how it felt when it wasn’t complicated.  Hold on to that.  Katie: “Wouldn’t it be lovely if we were old? We’d have survived all this. Everything thing would be easy and uncomplicated; the way it was when we were young.”
22. The Wizard of Oz.  Love isn’t meant to be practical.  Wizard of Oz: “As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”
23. Titanic. Endings can be bitter sweet.  Jack: “Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me… it brought me to you. And I’m thankful for that, Rose. I’m thankful. You must do me this honor. Promise me you’ll survive. That you won’t give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise.”
24. Wedding Crashers – Love more.  You’ve got more capacity than you might think you do.  John: “You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.”
25. When Harry Met Sally.  Sometimes love is like a new lease on life.  Harry: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

What movies wrinkled your brain when it comes to love?

“Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.” –  Calvin Coolidge

I hope your New Year’s Resolutions or goals are going well.  For a lot of people I know, they aren’t getting the results they want.  Let’s fix that.

One of the best ways to get results is to use a system.  Why is that?

Because if you use a system, you can keep tuning it.

But it’s more than that.  If you use a system, you don’t have to keep figuring out the basics.  You can move up the stack and focus on higher-level issues.  Another benefit is that you can chip away at a problem.  Few problems withstand sustained effort over time.

The System in a Nutshell
Here is a very simple system, that I use, along with many other, for getting results:

• Monday – Each Monday, write down three results you want for the week.  Yes, just three.  And write down the “results” you want, not the ‘tasks” of how you’ll get it done.
• Daily – Each day, write down three results you want for that day.  Again, identify the ‘results”, not the tasks.  If you know what you want to accomplish, you’ll figure out the tasks.
• Friday – Each Friday, ask yourself, “What are three things going well?” and “What are three things to improve?” and write them down.

That’s the Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection pattern from my book, Getting Results the Agile Way.

The writing down part is important, even if you lose it.  It’s the process.  This is a simple, but systematic way to get results.  In fact, it might seem too simple, but that’s why it works.

Why the System Works
I’m torn between wanting to tell you a story or give you an example to light this up, but I’m actually going to reveal the magic for now.  If you know why the system works, you can better leverage it to unleash your best results.  Here are some of the finer points on why this system works:

1. It’s pinned to a week.  Each week is another chance to test the system.
2. It uses The Rule of Three.  By sticking with three things, it helps you chunk up your results and make them easier to remember.
3. It works with pen and paper.  I use an electronic approach.  But I’m primarily paper-based.  I use sticky notes to write my three things down.
4. It’s “outcome” focused.  Because you are focusing on three results, you avoid being a “task master.”  All of your “tasks” should roll up to your three results or outcomes.  These three results are your tests for success for the day, and the beauty is, you decide what those three key things are.
5. Meaningful results.  This makes you the author of your life.  You write your story forward.  You define those three results each day, and each week.
6. You automatically improve focus, priorities, and time management.  Simply by making mindful choices about your results, you’re exercising your focus, priorities and time management.  By focusing on the day or the week, you are tuning your time management skills by figuring out what you can bite off that makes sense with the time you’ve got.
7. Avoid overload and overwhelm.  Rather than get buried under your tasks, you uplevel it.  You decide the meaningful results to carve out for the day or the week.
8. You can see the forest from the trees.  You can zoom into the day, by focusing on your three key results, or your can take a look from the balcony, and focus on your three key results for the week.
9. It’s a positive spin.  You’re basically empowering yourself and taking ownership of your results.  In addition, part of Friday Reflection is shining the light on your personal victories.  These quickly add up.  Every week.
10. Roll with the punches.  Things go wrong.  This system is all about getting back on your horse, in the simplest way possible.  Did you fall off today?  Fine … it’s a clean slate.  Simply ask yourself, what are three results you want for today, with the time, energy, and resources you’ve got?
11. Fresh starts.  It’s a fresh start, each day, each week, etc.
12. It’s a learning loop.  Just by practicing the system

It’s a system I’ve used with many people over many years.  It’s worked wonders.  The surprise is how effective it is for such a simple system, but the proof is in the results.  Take it for a test drive and see whether it helps you whip your day into more meaningful results, improves your energy, and helps you actually achieve more of the things that matter to you.

Keep the test simple and just write down three results you want for today down on paper.  That’s it.  You’re doing Agile Results.

Here are some additional resources to explore for more information:

• Getting Results the Agile Way (Landing Page)
• 30 Free Training Modules for Getting Results
• Video – Eduardo Jezierski on Getting Results the Agile Way

“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.” –  Agha Hasan Abedi

I finished my new list of insightful Management Books.   It’s a collection of my favorite and noteworthy management books.

One of the things that makes this book list unique is that I find out about great management books from people that are getting results.   It’s not just my wisdom – it’s the collective wisdom of my network.  I ask my colleagues at Microsoft, what management books made a difference for them, and I ask people outside of Microsoft, from freelancers to Entrepreneurs to CxOs (CxO is simply short-hand for CEO, CTO, CIO, etc.)  I then test these books out based on their recommendations, and I continue to expand my library.

Battle-Tested Books for Getting Results
Another thing that makes the list unique is that it’s “battle-tested.”  In other words, these are books that I use in the trenches to get results.  While many books have good theories and ideas, I’m a fan of turning insight into action and getting real results on the job.  One thing I have learned though, is that the burden is usually on the reader to translate the ideas into action.  As a reader, I accept that responsibility, and I “own” my results by deliberately turning the books I read into actionable insights.  I try to go the extra mile by sharing the insights I learn with both the people I mentor, but also scale it out to a larger audience, here on my blog.

Mapping Out the Most Effective Books
There are more books than we’ll ever read in a life time, so part of what I try to accomplish is map out the best of the best.   Best is always relative though, so I optimize towards “effective.”  Additionally, I try to find the most effective books, based on scenarios.  For example, if you’re starting a new job, The First 90 Days is golden.  If you need to figure out how to share vision and create a strategy for execution, Flawless Execution is a great start.  If you need to shift to fully engage and empower your workforce, Zengage is the place to start.

Note that I originally included brief scenario descriptions for each book, but I cut that it in favor of keeping the list as lean as possible.  I’ll solve this problem eventually, such as maybe adding a scenario map, but for now, I’m more concerned about sharing a lean list of the books I draw from for insight and action on the job.

Call to Action

1. Explore my list of insightful management books.
2. Tell me what books I need to know about.
3. Tell me *why* I need to know about them.

It’s a living library of management books.  I’m regularly expanding my library and I regularly recommend books to people, not just at Microsoft, but I regularly interact with fellow lifelong learners beyond Microsoft too.

“Success is a journey, not a destination.” — Ben Sweetland

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by John Hanson on Success 2.0 in the new workplace.  John is passionate about developing people and helping them succeed.  His super skill is translating concepts into real world practice.  He’s been creating success with individuals for 16 years at SAFECO Insurance, and 10 years at Microsoft.   What I like about John is the fact that he’s full of stories … the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He’s been helping Microsoft’s high performance employees make the most of what they’ve got for years, so he knows what works and what doesn’t, as well as how to tune and tailor insights and actions to help people unleash their best in any situation.  What I also like is the fact that John gets to see what goes on behind the scenes and he knows how things work.  It’s all too easy to walk around with one set of expectations and then get surprised.   John helps share how the rules work so you get surprise less and can quickly make sense of what’s going on.   If you can see it, you can change it.    Without further ado, here’s John on Success 2.0 …

The last few years have brought us a new workplace, with new uncertainties, new risks, and new ways of working. But have you changed?  Are you aware that the workplace is more competitive than it has ever been?  Do you have that nagging feeling that your job could be on the line?  Are the new people coming into your organization younger, willing to work way more hours than you are, and making much less in pay?  Have you re-considered how you have learned to exist in the workplace, dropped habits that don’t help you, and moved on to new ways of working?  …

Top 10  Lessons for Success in the New Workplace
Here are some things to consider:

• Lesson #1.  Email is not work.
• Lesson #2.  You are in this on your own. Unless you get help.
• Lesson #3.  Comfort is the enemy of success.
• Lesson #4. Know what your business needs.
• Lesson #5. Know the performance management game.
• Lesson #6. Get feedback.
• Lesson #7. Your manager is the master of your destiny.
• Lesson #8. Social Networking sites should be used cautiously.
• Lesson #9. Know yourself.
• Lesson #10. Focus on getting results.

Lesson #1. Email is not work.
No software development team ever shipped an email.  No account manager ever sold an email to an enterprise customer.  Email is something you sometimes have to do in order to get work done, but it isn’t, by itself, work.  I see people focused on email all day, every day.  Not just at the office, but at home, at the grocery store, at the Christmas program.  And yet I don’t see people in the grocery line writing code, assembling an electronic device, or inventing a new vaccine.  Any productivity methodology that focuses exclusively on email is really missing the point.  Oh, and by the way, a lot of your younger colleagues think of email as next year’s snail mail.  Useful for a limited number of things, but generally an anachronism.

Lesson #2. You are in this on your own. Unless you get help.
You own your future.  You own your career.  You own the network you build (or don’t build).  If you are fortunate enough to have a manager or someone else that focuses on your development, that’s great: take advantage of that help.  If you don’t, you must create it for yourself, so that you can get what you need in order to grow and develop. So grow your network.  And if you haven’t already, go get a mentor.  You know you should, so just go do it.  Be specific about what you need, be diligent in your hunt for the right person, and then maximize the time you spend with that person.  While you are responsible to yourself, you are not alone, unless you want to be.
Part two here is that despite the fact that the workplace is more competitive, it’s also a greater job requirement that you be more collaborative.  This requires the regular maintenance of relationships, behaving with transparency and integrity, and generally working to make the project successful rather than aggrandizing yourself.  Yes, sometimes you will get trumped by an old-school type person who pulls the rabbit out of a hat right before review time.  But this type of “trick” is getting much more scrutiny than ever before, and it’s harder and harder to do.  Go with what works.

Lesson #3. Comfort is the enemy of success.
When you grow comfortable in a role, on a team, or in a job, it feels really good.  You are often going to be the acknowledged “go to” person on the team for certain things.  This is deadly to your growth.  You need to move on, take on something scary, so that you can continue to grow and develop.  That means you have to figure out how to let go, how to delegate, how to share, the things you worked so hard to get right.  Managers like having people on their staff that are very comfortably competent.  They are predictable, they get things done, and they make the manager successful.  That doesn’t mean it’s good for you, unless you are choosing that situation for yourself.  You should always be working on something that makes you a little uncomfortable and stretches you somewhat.

Lesson #4. Know what your business needs.
In the software development business, shipping on time is king.  In sales, it’s closing deals and hitting your numbers.  In supply chain, it’s “efficiency on time.”  Everything you do should be in support of your team’s primary business objective.  It’s all about focus.  This is why you do skip level meetings…to get more clarity on the business needs of your group, and to better understand the problems that are driving your more senior leadership.  Solve those problems, and you become immensely valuable to them.

Lesson #5.  Know the performance management game.
Sit down with your manager and ask them for the specific timing and processes of how performance management REALLY works.  If you are expecting to do fine work through the year and then get rewarded for it, you are probably naïve.  Ask your manager for specific historical examples of work from people in your role who were exceptional.  And always keep in mind how people matter when it comes to getting promoted, identified as a high potential, or simply getting above average rewards.  Your manager can block you for below average performance.  Your manager can also block you accidently because they have no clue what you are doing, or how well you are doing it.  Your skip level manager is the one who will likely make the decision on who gets what rewards.  But they make that decision only partly on their own observation.  Mostly they are relying on the comments of the “aunts and uncles” (your manager’s peers), because they don’t have to say anything nice about you (your manager does, because it makes the performance conversation much easier).  When the aunts and uncles speak up for you, it’s because they honestly see you as performing at a higher level, and their personal integrity requires them to speak up about it.  So know you know who you need to include in your network, why you need to collaborate across groups, and how it is that some people do well, and others do not.

Lesson #6. Get feedback.
“You are doing great,” isn’t feedback.  Those are comfort words.  It’s designed to shut you up, so you get back to work.  It usually means you are doing ok…no major problems to solve.  It can also mean your manager isn’t paying any attention to anything but the bottom line, and has no idea what’s going on.  Find that individual on your team that you may not see eye to eye with, who will tell you where you are slipping up, and where you are having a tough time.  Now take action on it.  If there is a set of interactions that don’t go so well, as your manager for direct feedback on how you might have handled it differently.  It is so much better to ask, in these situations, than to have your manager sit you down and have to drive that conversation.

Lesson #7.  Your manager is the master of your destiny.
This means two things: first, never stay with a manager who isn’t going to do well by you. Life is too short to waste a year on someone who can’t help you.  I have seen people stay in a poor situation way longer than they should, because of other loyalties, only to get hurt in the long run.  You are entitled to a manger.  You are not entitled to a great manager.  If you see your manager straying from the primary business needs…that’s bad.  Their survival isn’t guaranteed.  If you have a primary values conflict with your manager (e.g. you are totally about the customer, they are totally about innovation), that’s bad. Everything you prioritize as important is going to seem out of whack to them.
Secondly, you need to consistently feed your manager information about your performance that allows them to reward you.  This information must be timely, it must be detailed, (in writing is good) and it must demonstrate that you are all about whatever your manager and your business values.  Failure to do this will result in your immediate career frustration.  Remember that idea in your new employee orientation that you should have regular one on ones, document what was discussed, and send it back to your manager for confirmation and comments?  This is hugely valuable.

Lesson #8.  Social Networking sites should be used cautiously.
I’m not going to discuss the usual dangers of social networking sites (if someone has to tell you not to leak company secrets in your blog, you will find some way to self-destruct regardless of the advice you are given).  I will tell you that many/most managers see sites like Facebook as a total waste of time, and a potential threat to your ability to hit your goals. Being aware of what you do, and how it effects other people’s impression of you is really critical.  Don’t throw it away.

Lesson #9.  Know yourself.
While admitting every failure or challenge to your manager isn’t the most politic thing to do, you HAVE to admit them to yourself.  If you don’t know your strengths, your weaknesses, your passions, your irritations, your hates, you will stumble through your career.  Know what you do under stress.  Know what makes you lazy.  Know everything you need to know so that you can be intentional…so you can make clear headed decisions about what you are going to do.

Lesson #10.  Focus on getting results.
I’m a training and development guy, and have been for 26 years.  I have seen and been through every productivity training philosophy out there.  They all have something helpful in them.  Some of them really resonate with a small group of people, and help make those people highly productive.
But none of them, in my experience, help such a broad group of people consistently get results the way J.D.’s Agile Results method does.  J.D.’s method is flexible, simple, and gets the job done…you can go in as deeply as you’d like and benefit.  But most of all, it is sustainable.  None of the other methods that I’ve seen are sustainable.  I’m very familiar with one approach that people liked to attend every year, not because they needed the learning it offered, but because it was a day focused on clearing out your inbox.
You have to make your productivity system your own.  Mix and match elements and ideas of the different things you see in a way that works for you…but by all means, pay conscious attention to how you get things done, so that you can consistently perform at a high level, and with a minimum amount of stress in your life.  This is the new workplace…and it requires you to work differently to be successful.

“Seek truth with open eyes.” – Steve Pavlina

Have you heard of Steve Pavlina? He’s the author of Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth . Chances are you may know him as a personal development leader or a successful blogger or a raw food guy. If you go back in time, you might know him from his days as a successful game developer.

The game developer link is an especially interesting one. Steve brings his game development skills to the personal development arena, and to the ultimate game — the game of life. As a developer, it’s about designing experiences, figuring out how things work, testing results, getting the bugs out, refining as you go, and paving a path forward. Life’s like that, too.

When I first came across Steve’s about page, a few years back, I didn’t know what to make of the stream of attributes: "blue-eyed, colorblind, left-handed, well educated, vegan, lucid dreaming, purpose driven, happily jobless, reality manipulating, meditation practicing, risk taking, goal seeking" … etc. The one that struck me though was "insatiably curious seeker of truth. That what resonated with me—I too am a truth seeker.

What I especially like about Pavlina’s work is that he is often able to put into words, what I already know to be true.

Steve covers a wide range of topics from personal productivity to personal development to personal growth and conscious living, along with experiments in life style design. This post is my attempt to highlight some of the lessons that I think you’ll enjoy the most, as well as where to go for more.

25 Lessons Learned from Steve Pavlina
Here are 25 lessons from Steve Pavlina that just might change your life:

1. 3 attributes of personal development. Steve says personal development has three attributes: 1) getting an increasingly accurate view of reality (understanding how reality works, interacting with reality),  2) experiencing your desires, and 3) becoming stronger (capable of achieving greater goals.  Watch Self-Development Video Interview with Steve Pavlina.
2. Get perspective from your past, present, and future self. In this exercise, you visualize versions of your past, present and future self (e.g. You 2005, You 2010, You 2015.)  Have a conversation with your future self.  Ask your top of mind questions, and listen as your future self answers with compassion and confidence.  Next, have a conversation with your past self.  Let your past self ask questions, and notice how easily you can answer them.  Next, step into the future and be your future self, and have a conversation with your present self.  Let your present self ask questions, and notice how easily you can answer from the vantage point of your future self. See My Favorite Meditation.
3. The Past Does Equal the Future. You can predict the future in a general way. Steve says, “If you want to know where your current path is taking you, look to your past. That’s the best way to predict where you’re headed.” According to Steve, “The truth is that past performance is in fact the best predictor of future performance, not just with individual human beings but with teams, companies, technology, political bodies, and other time-bound entities.” See The Past Does Equal the Future.
4. You have the right to be wrong.  Don’t be bent on being right.  After all, you’re only human.  Trying to be right all the time, takes away your freedom to experiment and go out on a limb. According to Steve, “You have the right to make mistakes. You have the right to fail.” See You Have the Right to Be Wrong.
5. Take your ego out of the picture. Divorcing your ego from your outcomes, and taking it out of the picture, is a key to growth.  It enables you to see things more accurately, because you don’t have to be right.  It enables you to go out on a limb, because it’s OK to fail, because you don’t have your sense of self wrapped up in your outcomes.  Steve says, “Separate yourself from your ideas and your work and see them as something separate from yourself, you’ll feel you truly have the right to be wrong. If an idea fails, why not let it be the idea’s fault instead of your own? Allow your ideas to fail without turning them into personal defeat.  When you fail you discover your boundaries. You map out the edges of your capabilities. And this allows you to eventually move beyond them.  Being wrong eventually leads to being right. And even where it doesn’t, it’s still a more interesting path than being nothing.”  See You Have the Right to Be Wrong.
6. You are your consciousness.  Who are you?  According to Steve, “what defines you as a person is your consciousness. Your consciousness gives you the capability of self-definition by choosing your thoughts. So if you associate the failure of your ideas as a personal failure, then you use your own consciousness against itself (to define yourself as a failure).”  See You Have the Right to Be Wrong.
7. We’re all cells in the same body.  Steve says, “I realized that we are all cells in the same body, and that the health of the body depends on the cells.”
8. Focus on the good things in your life.  Rather than focus on your financial debt, focus on the good that’s around you and what you want to experience.  Why feed so much time, energy, and attention on the worst part of your life?   Focus on the stuff you want to experience, feed your time and energy into things you want to experience – abundance and creativity.  Create your own abundance vibe. Creating Abundance.
9. Don’t give your power away.  You limit your relationships, career, and social life when you give your power away.  On relationships, Steve says, “The basic pattern is that you decide something else has to happen first before you can attract the relationship you truly desire.”  On career, Steve says that instead of using your power to create work that fulfills and inspires you, “you stick with unfulfilling work to make ends meet. You feed your power to your bills, as if those small pieces of paper somehow control your destiny for the near future…”  On social life, Steve says that instead of surrounding yourself with friends and family that uplift, encourage, and support you, you feed "your existing disempowering relationships.  You obsess over what others think about you, people who really don’t encourage you to be your best self anyway.  You worry about what your Mom thinks about you."    See How You Give Your Power Away.
10. Stop creating false prerequisites.  Progress is faster when you focus on what you want, over focusing on your problems.  According to Steve, the answer is to stop creating false prerequisites.  Instead, feed your desires.  Steve says, "The idea of feeding your power to your desires is incredibly simple. All you need to do is decide what you want and then focus your thoughts, feelings, and actions on those desires."
11. Build a strong ego.  If you think of your ego as your personality and sense of self, not arrogant, there’s a good reason to build a stronger ego.  Building your ego then is a character building exercise, where the goal is to build out a strong character with well-defined attributes.  Steve says, "Your ego is your character, an important part of your human avatar.  If you try to weaken your ego, you’re simply weakening your character."  Steve teaches us that many spiritual seekers end up in limbo when they try to detach from their identities and possessions.  Steve says, "They can’t get themselves to relinquish all attachment to their identities and their stuff, so they strive to get by with a sense of minimalism. But they’re never really satisfied living in this halfway space, so quite often their “spiritual practice” devolves into attacking others they believe are more ego-based than they are. It temporarily makes them feel better about themselves."  According to Steve, you can grow your character, build your ego, experience a better life, and create more good for the world, by 1) owning your character, 2) engaging with life, 3) focusing on intelligence, and 4) focus on character building (honesty, courage, exploration, service, acceptance, discipline, and connection.)   See How To Build a Stronger Ego.
12. Balance self-acceptance and personal growth.  Accept the now, while you grow to who you want to be.  Steve asks the question, "Why not fully accept yourself as you are and also be totally committed to lifelong growth?"  It’s an oscillation along a spectrum — "The more you accept where you are, the less motivation there is to grow.  And the more you push yourself to grow, the less satisfaction you derive from your current position."  According to Steve, the conflict between self-acceptance and personal growth is due, in part, to a linear mindset, where your life is moving down points on a line.  The first point is your birth, the last point is your death, and the points behind you are your past.  In a linear mindset, it’s natural to rate the quality of your experiences on those points on the line and compare them.  When you compare them, you want to improve or increase the quality.  The problem is this fluctuates a great deal depending on your situations and positions in life.  If you root your self-acceptance and sense of self in your positions, then you don’t have stable ground.  Instead, root yourself in something durable, while enjoying your unique journey of growth.  See Self-Acceptance vs. Personal Growth.
13. Root yourself in something durable, and keep your self-esteem separate from your circumstances.  Don’t root yourself in something changeable, such as any form of position or status.  Instead, find a firm foundation in something durable, such as unconditional love, service to humanity, compassion, etc.  Steve says that if you separate your position from your identity and attach your ego from your outcomes, then you find inner peace … "your position can rollercoaster all over the place, and you can still be at peace on the inside no matter what happens."   See Self-Acceptance vs. Personal Growth.
14. Experience drive without attachment, ambition without ego, and peace without passivity.  Steve says, "You don’t have to withdraw and be totally passive.  You can enjoy being an ambitious overachiever and set and achieve goals like a maniac — and have a great time doing it.  But meanwhile, you don’t see your identity in those fluctuating outcomes."  Ultimately, "you can experience drive without attachment, ambition without ego, and peace without passivity."  See Self-Acceptance vs. Personal-Growth.
15. Clarity is an important quality of success.  Steve shares 11 ways to gain clarity: 1.) assume 100% responsibility for your own level of clarity, 2.) stop creating the opposite of clarity, 3) harvest and apply the clarity lessons from your past, 4) use visualization to create the vibe of clarity, 5) ask for help, 6) put your goals in writing, and review them daily, 7) accept that any goal is better than no goal, 8.) crystallize your goals, 9) pay attention to the path, not just the end result, 10) stick with one primary goal at a time, 11) explore and experiment.  See 11 Ways to Gain Clarity.
16. Conduct your own personal growth experiments.   Steve says, “Whenever you come up with a new idea for increasing your effectiveness, test it to see what effect it has.  Don’t dismiss any ideas until you’ve actually tried them.
17. Courage plays a key role in relationships.  When it comes to relationships, according to Steve, you need courage to:  1) initiate new connections and overcome the fear of rejection, 2) intimately connect with people, 3) face the truth about relationships that have gone awry, and 4) end those relationships that no longer serve you.
18. Sense the big picture that emerges from multiple viewpoints.  Switching perspectives is a skill you can build.  You can switch perspectives, by asking questions, such as, “How would a Buddhist view this situation?”  Steve says, “When you first attempt to perceive reality through multiple lenses, especially those that seem to inherently contradict each other, it will feel as though you’re trying to do the impossible.  You’ll be like a new-born baby trying to make sense of garbled blobs of light, noise, and pressure.  You may feel overwhelmed and frustrated, as if you’re flooding your mind with utterly useless information.  Be patient with yourself.  With sufficient practice, you’ll gradually learn to combine data from multiple viewpoints into a single coherent picture.”
19. Seek truth with open eyes.  Steve says, “Seek truth with open eyes.  Courageously accept your discoveries and their consequences.  Rid your life of falsehood, denial, and fear of what is.  Make truth your ally, not your enemy.”
20. You exist only in the present moment. Along the lines of Peaceful Warrior, you are this moment.  Steve says, “Your past is composed of memories, but you still access those memories in your present. Your past is only real — it only has existence to you — when you consciously focus your attention on it. It is your attention that gives your past its power, and it is also your attention that feeds your ego. You can choose to stop focusing so much attention on your ego and your personal history, and instead you can redirect that attention to identify more with your consciousness and your awareness.”  See Trial and Error, Ego and Awareness.
21. Find the sustainable path.  If you take care of yourself first, you can take care of others better.  Don’t ignore your own needs or you won’t sustain your journey.  Steve says, “This made it clear that if I wanted to effectively serve others, I had to make sure I was also meeting my needs, or my work wouldn’t be sustainable.”
22. Be the boss of you.   The problem with a job is you only get paid when you show up.  Another problem is that many jobs are about being a cog in somebody else’s wheel.  You have to fit the mold and follow the instructions.  This robs you of your creativity and you trade your time for money.  Instead, focus on your creative genius and deliver value up, while growing yourself and creating value for the world.  Setup system that make you money, even when you’re not working.  “Non-dummies eventually realize that trading time for money is indeed extremely dumb and that there must be a better way.  And of course there is a better way.  The key is to de-couple your value from your time.”  See 10 Reasons Why You Should Never Get a Job.
23. Show up.   Turn abstractions into actions and show up.  Simple practices over time can yield amazing results.  Showing up is more than half the battle.  While it doesn’t guarantee success, it gets you the bulk of the way there, and keeps you in the game.  Steve says, “Showing up is always the limiting step.  Showing up doesn’t guarantee I’ll become a black belt, but it will get me about 80% of the way there if I stick with it.”  Steve goes on to say, “If you allow abstract concepts like health or love to remain abstract, you won’t move forward in these areas.  Abstractions are wonderful tools for thought, but eventually you need to turn them into concrete physical actions.”  See Showing Up.
24. Shape your personal brand.   You can shape your brand through awareness and authenticity.  On your external brand, what three adjectives would people use to describe you?  On your internal brand, what three adjectives would you use to describe yourself?  People will label you whether you like it or not.  You even label you whether you like it or not.  It’s natural to have labels, since people are pattern matchers by design, and labels help us simplify a complex or overwhelming world.  If you accept this, then the question becomes what are you going to do about it?  You can influence and shape your personal brand, by being mindful of how what you say, how you say it, and what you do.  The simplest way to be congruent and make this low stress is to be yourself, and be authentic.  There’s only one you in the world.  It’s a lot of work to try to be somebody else, especially somebody you’re not.  Steve says, “I think the best external image to project is the one you believe best reflects who you really are. Being yourself simply means being honest.”  See Personal Branding.
25. Use creativity to serve you.  Don’t be normal.  The planet needs more creative problem solvers.  Use creativity to get results in your health, relationships, finances, personal productivity, motivation, and happiness.  Use creativity to overcome boredom and as a competitive advantage.  According to Steve, one way to do this is, “figure out what everyone else is doing, and then do the opposite.” Steve says, “If you’re not very bright, then following the masses is generally a good idea.  But if you have a half-decent intellect, then you can do much better than average, so hold yourself to a higher standard.”  Steve goes on to say, “Obviously not everyone in the business world will appreciate your creativity, but if most of your competition is wholly uncreative, you’ll stand out from the crowd and get noticed, which can bring you opportunities that uncreative people will never be offered.”  See Creativity for Smart People.

7 Principles of Personal Growth
This might very well be Steve’s most important contribution to the personal development space.  It’s a simple framework and lens.  Steve identified 7 universal principles of personal growth.  There are three core principles: truth, love, and power.  There are four secondary principles: oneness,  authority, courage, and intelligence.  Oneness = truth + love.  Authority = truth + power.  Courage =  love + power.  Intelligence is when the principles of truth, love, and power are in harmony.

Here are the 7 principles at a glance, along with their key components:

1. Truth.  Truth includes perception, prediction, accuracy, acceptance, and self-awareness.
2. Love.  Love includes connection, communication, and communion.
3. Power.  Power includes responsibility, desire, self-determination, focus, effort, and self-discipline.
4. Oneness.  Oneness includes empathy, compassion, honesty, fairness, contribution, and unity.
5. Authority.  Authority includes command, effectiveness, persistence, confidence, and significance.
6. Courage.  Courage includes heart, initiative, directness, and honor.
7. Intelligence.  Intelligence includes authenticity, creative self-expression, growth, flow, and beauty

Steve says, “observe how a lack of truth creates problems for you, how a lack of love causes you to feel disconnected and alone, and how a lack of power makes you feel helpless and victimized.  Discover how much easier life becomes when you align yourself with truth, love, and power.”

Top 10 Steve Pavlina Quotes
Here are my top 10 quotes by Steve:

1. “Be afraid if you must; then summon the courage to follow your dreams anyway.  That is strength undefeatable.”
2. “Being normal is a myth. There’s no such thing.”
3. “Beneath the surface chaos of reality, there are many governing patterns to be found.  As you become aware of these patterns, life becomes incredibly fascinating.”
4. “Embrace your unique path of growth.”
5. “I see my beliefs as a toolbox of lenses to choose from; they’re an extension of my senses.”
6. “The closer your internal model of reality matches actual reality, the more capable you become.”
7. “The purpose of planning is to focus your present-moment decisions.”
8. “Total clarity is a rarity.”
9. “Where is the path with a heart?”
10. “You can focus your mind on the inside, and take disciplined-action on the outside.”

Quotes Organized by Category
I’ve included some of my favorite Steve Pavlina quotes below.  For simple scanning, I’ve organized them using the following categories: Career, Courage, Ego, Growth, Intelligence, Relationships, Self-Discipline, and Spirituality.

Catalog of Steve Pavlina’s Resources (Sites, Book, Videos, Posts)
Steve has a vast body of knowledge, from articles, to posts, to videos, to books.  For simple scanning, I organized Steve’s collection of resources into the following buckets: Key Links, Book, Videos, and Popular Posts

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