How would people describe your character? Here are a few character-related posts you may have missed. Click on the links to read the full message.
“Be the kind of person you want in your life.”
“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”
“The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”
Image from classicalwisdom.com
Take out a piece of paper and list your very best qualities. Ask yourself what others in your personal and professional worlds would add to this list given your modest and humble nature.
Create a second list of qualities you most admire in those around you that may not have made it onto your first list.
Rate yourself on the level of action you demonstrate regarding those qualities, on a 1-10 scale.
What would be the value and benefit to you and those around you if you upgraded or shared even more of your best qualities with your various communities?
What action will you take today to realize the difference you intend to make?
Image of Hans Rosling from TED.com
Looking at anything and declaring it a problem is a very human thing to do. In many ways, this very characteristic is what makes us human.
In his fascinating book, Factfulness, professor of international health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling and his colleagues Anna and Ola, offer an amazing new explanation of why we see the state of the world as far worse than the facts reveal.
Rosling explains what he calls the “Ten instincts that Distort our Perspective.” Among them are:
Rosling and his team of researchers are by no means blind to the significant challenges facing the world. He is, however, asking all of us to look closely and clearly at the objective facts to better enable us to tackle the very real problems facing humanity.
What is at least one significant opportunity in our world that you are committed to working on, given this clearer and objective perspective?
Please consider watching Hans Rosling’s TED Talks, and if you wish to learn more about his important work, read his book.
Image from Amazon.com
If you were to rate yourself on your ability to create and sustain relationships, how would you score?
Take a look at your most closely held and cherished relationships and see what values and beliefs connect you to those people. The better you truly know and live these core values the better you can choose and navigate in your personal and professional communities.
This inner wisdom can help you better lead yourself and others who resonate with similar energies.
Consider reading the book Soul Experience – The 4th Level of Identity, by Al Killeen, to help you get to know yourself better.
Image from Unsplash by Simeon Jacobson
To what degree are you a “Go for it” person?
When you put on your thinking cap, how creative and bold are your ideas and plans?
Once your strategies and tactics are formulated, how inspired, energized, and motivated are you and those around you to execute them with passion and purpose?
Where and on what personal or professional priority would a far more enterprising approach be what is needed to achieve a more audacious outcome?
In a complex world, simplicity can be helpful. Here are a few simplicity-related posts you may have missed. Click to read the full message.
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
“If you want to be free, learn to live simply.”
Image from YouTube
In the Motor City – Detroit – the car is king and most people don’t do a lot of walking. We do, however, do a lot of driving, and the roads in the region are poor at best. Pot holes are at epidemic levels, making driving costly in terms of repairs, and dangerous to human life.
A colleague made me aware of an amazing technology being developed in Europe. This machine mounted on a truck platform miraculously fixes pot holes of various sizes in 5-10 minutes. Here is a video about it.
Which of your personal or professional roads are getting bumpy and require repair?
Where and how will your begin paving these thoroughfares to smooth out your journey to reach your most desired destinations?
How youthful are you? What is your attitude toward aging? Here are a few age-related posts you may have missed. Click the links to read the full messages.
“We are always the same age inside.”
“Youth is eternal to those with a curious, loving, joyous spirit.”
Image from NASA.gov
NASA has been engaged for many years in the search for exoplanets, with a wide variety of highly sophisticated and expensive instruments. If you care to do a bit of reading, check out these links:
The Spitzer Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope
TESS: Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
The James Webb Space Telescope
Exoplanets orbit stars outside our solar system. Scientists have discovered thousands of them to date, and the numbers continue to grow. Perhaps the biggest question is how many are actually out there, and more importantly, how many have life, or could sustain life?
Although it is guesstimated that there are trillions of exoplanets, and that the sheer number of them adds to the potential that they could harbor life, they are all too far away to visit – even in multiple lifetimes.
How and in what ways can and will you honor and cherish our beautiful planet? What can you do to leave it far better than you found it, for the sake of the earthlings and space travelers of the future?
Image from Adweek
The unemployment rate is at the lowest level in decades, and the search for talent is more competitive than any time most of us can remember.
With over 70 million Baby Boomers having exited or in the process of leaving the workforce, the prospect of attracting and retaining top talent to compete successfully in the global economy is not likely to get any easier.
Beyond all the benefits, perks, and bonuses, many leaders are finding it difficult to attract and retain the best and brightest.
What heart-based or heart-felt behaviors and cultural efforts can you initiate and sustain throughout your organization? What needs to happen – especially within the leadership ranks – to be one of the Good to Great and Built to Last organizations we so admire?