Continuing along the theme of the doubt tax, I’ve talked with several people over the past year who are looking for the secret to effectively change their lives. One example is people who want to change careers, and are looking for the secret to writing the right resume or learning the interview secrets that will […]
Category: selfdesign
Personal Operating System
Building on my post yesterday about deliberate practice, I’ve been using a technique over the past year to practice certain behaviors, which is called a “personal operating system”. I learned of this technique from Maria Andersen last year, and she later wrote it up as a blog post. The idea is to come up with […]
Peak, by Anders Ericsson
Amazon link Deliberate practice is an ongoing theme for me these days, as that growth mindset drives much of my belief in my ability to improve at things I used to think were genetic and unchangeable. Deliberate practice is mentioned in several books I have read, like The Talent Code and So Good They Can’t […]
The doubt tax
Once or twice a year, somebody posts to the biking list I follow asking how one learns to do long climbs such as Page Mill Road, the 2,000 foot vertical climb up to Skyline Blvd. And they are always disappointed to hear the answer is “You just do it.” There isn’t a secret or a […]
So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport
Amazon link “Follow your passion!” is common career advice. Cal Newport thinks that is a terrible idea, and explains why in this book. He observes that following your passion will not succeed as a career move unless you have something that will differentiate you from everybody else following their passion. As he puts it, The […]
Leadership and Self-Deception, by The Arbinger Institute
Amazon link Book site A friend loaned me this book after it was recommended to them by their manager, and I think it’s a great resource for illustrating how we contribute to the negative relationships in our lives. It’s a fictionalized story of how a business executive and father is coached into seeing how his […]
What’s not on the menu?
I was at a workshop a couple weeks ago, and there was an organized dinner one evening where we went to a restaurant and ordered off a pre-planned fixed menu. While chatting before ordering, a couple locals mentioned that the restaurant was known for its mac’n’cheese, which was not on the fixed menu. So when […]
Ways of responding
My friend and I were talking about how to respond to events like the election or other adverse events in life where you don’t get what you want. She suggested that there were a few categories of responses, which we labeled as follows: Helpless: Shrug your shoulders and say “That’s just the way the world […]
Turning the page
I haven’t posted since the US election, as it didn’t feel right to engage with the abstract self-design questions I’ve been pondering without acknowledging the change in the world that I live in. Trump’s election was a shock to me. I saw the possibility (even 538’s models had him at a 1-in-3 chance on election […]
Camp Calm and meditation
I’ve been curious about meditation for years, but could never find a way to get started. It seemed both too easy (“I just sit there?”) and too intimidating (“empty my mind? become one with the universe?”). Earlier this year, my therapist recommended meditation to help address a challenge I was facing. I tried the Headspace […]
