-
Mastering My Monkey Mind
MMMM…meditation. My nemesis. Whenever I read a list of wellness habits, I gleefully check off items I practice habitually. Until enviably I land on meditation. I have sporadically meditated over the years, but it has never become an atomic habit. So, I decided to take on a meditation challenge with the goal of ten minutes…
-
Failure is Painful
We often grow and learn the most through our failures. We like to believe that when we do that right thing, it will feel good. When it comes to learning through failure, even the best kind of failure, this belief is a myth. Learning from failure is not always fun. In fact, it usually isn’t.…
-
Reading Recap: January 2024
🦡Where the Deer and the Antelope Play – Nick Offerman Shout out to Brinton Johnson who recommended I read Nick Offerman. I don’t know much about his acting career, but he is a great writer. I chose this title from Nick’s catalog, because I love hiking and national parks. I enjoyed Nick’s storytelling about his…
-
Build Durable Skills
Durable skills, skills that last, have been top of mind for me lately. During Microsoft’s Discover Day, I heard Nadim Abdo recommend building durable skills like communications. Serendipitously, I was writing myself a note about durable skills in a presentation on the value of developing a deep reading practice. Durable skills like communication and reading…
-
Become a Culture Leader
Early-stage career development in technical roles is driven by developing the ability to deliver more and more complex solutions. If you increase your technical skills, have basic professionalism, and are reasonably productive, that is usually enough to propel you upward in seniority. But there may come a day when this formula ceases to be so…
-
16 Weeks of Time-Block Planning
Time-block planning is a productivity system designed to help prioritize focused work. I have come to the end of my first time-block planning workbook. 16 weeks are in the books. Here are the practices that I have found most helpful so far. 🗒️Keeping my daily calendar in a physical notebook. I constantly need to look…
-
Reading Recap: December 2023
🏉Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life by James Kerr – I didn’t expect a lot from this book, but it surprised me with a very solid overview of business and performance concepts. I wasn’t quite an All Black, but I loved played playing collegiate rugby. 🤷Messy by Tim…
-
The Power of Dad Jokes
One of my colleagues decided that capping off our weekly management meeting with a joke would help us leave the meeting with levity and a positive outlook. I have managed to earn and maintain the ignoble designation as the “Dad Joke” teller for these meetings. My joke selections seem to earn the requisite groan response…
-
Operating from a place of fear
…and how to avoid it High-performance is free-flowing, loose, creative, and soaring. Fear tightens us up. Fear tells us not to take any risks. Fear tells us to stay on the ground where the terrain is familiar. Playing while afraid usually hurts our performance. Ironically, when we are afraid is often when we need our…
-
SME FTW
Becoming a subject matter expert can accelerate your career advancement. This is especially true earlier on in your career. I was thinking about advice for people early in technical careers, so I went back and read some of my performance reviews from 15 years ago. The common theme that I kept seeing over those years…