Compassion

My friend Kristin Barton Cuthriell has a great post on her blog today.

We may try to live with integrity, but slip up sometimes. We are human so it is going to happen. As long as we take responsibility for our actions, learn from our mistakes, and refuse to repeat damaging patterns of behavior over and over again, there is no need to wrap ourselves in shame which creates great pain. Having self-compassion rather than continually beating ourselves up will lead to greater peace of mind.

Get the rest of the article here: 2 Things People with Peace of Mind Do Differently. I suggest you follow her blog and read her epic book The Snowball Effect as a new year’s resolution…

Click to purchase on Amazon. — Click to purchase on Amazon — it’s only $3.03 in the Kindle version…

December 13, 2014 0

How To Craft An Information Diet That Actually Works

How to Craft an Information Diet That Actually Works

Lifehacker Australia has an interesting post on crafting an information diet that I think is worth reading and considering as we prepare for a new year.

Some of us watch a lot of TV. We may read more articles than we need to (the irony is not lost on me here). We go on Twitter to kill our boredom. By consuming information more carefully and treating it like food for our minds (which it is), we can do it in a way that actually works without completely cutting it out of our lives.

Get the rest of the article here: How To Craft An Information Diet That Actually Works | Lifehacker Australia.

Ideas that resonated with me?

Create A Separate Account (or Use A Separate Device) for Consuming Information (I use Gmail)
Make the Information Come to You (I use Feedly)

They conclude “The amount of time we spend mindlessly consuming information can be astonishing. In order to get a grip on your information diet, separate your information consumption and let it digest, understand what you want from each piece of information, and save time and expose yourself to new ideas by making the information come to you.”

To their advice I would add

Jealously guard your business email address — don’t give it to anyone with whom you don’t want to do business — use that Gmail address for everything else!
Learn to use RSS and select a feed reader and use it to make information come to you. I have found the best tools to be Feedly, Digg and Feedspot as well as the feed reader in Microsoft Outlook. Use them to lighten your email load.

It might also be a good time to read Clay Johnson’s book ‘The Information Diet‘ — it’s a great resource on this topic.

December 13, 2014 0

James Clear on The One You Feed

Great episode on one of my favorite podcasts:

This week we talk to James Clear about building habits. James Clear is an entrepreneur, weightlifter, and travel photographer. He writes at JamesClear.com, where he talks about scientific research and real-world experiences that help you rethink your health and improve your life. His blog gets millions of visitors per year.

Get the rest of the podcast here: 054: James Clear – The One You Feed.

btw, if you’re looking for a great app for listening to podcasts, I use and recommend PocketCasts…

December 12, 2014 1

Speaking

“If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.” Buddha

December 12, 2014 0

The Past

“The most positive action we can take about the past is to change our perception of it.” Deepak Chopra

December 12, 2014 0

Send the elevator back down

While I try to never confuse the artist with the art, it’s nice to see something good about one of your favorites…

Live & Learn

“If you’ve done well in the business that you wanted to do well in, then it is your obligation to spend a good portion of your time sending the elevator back down.”

– Kevin Spacey

Q: What keeps you going? What get’s you up in the morning?

KS: We had dinner one night on the beach. We decided to play a game and the game was you had to describe the most important thing in life using one word. So we went around table. You got health, wealth, family, money. It came to John Huston and he said “Interest.” “Interest.” “Interest” that’s the most important thing in life. And I feel that is something that I have adopted. The idea of being interested in things that I don’t know rather than things that I do know. Peeling back the layer again and again of putting yourself in situations that are challenging…

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December 12, 2014 0

How to stay in the present moment

The benefits are clear. Here are some thoughts on how to do it.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” Buddha

There is only one time and place where you can be and have any control over.

The present moment.

But most of us still spend a lot of our regular days lost in memories, reliving a sunny vacation or maybe more commonly repeating an old conflict or negative situation over and over in our thoughts.

Or we get lost in scenarios about what could happen in the future. Maybe through wishful daydreams. Or maybe by building monsters in our minds as thoughts go round and and round and create scary and dangerous mountains out of molehills or just air.

Or your thoughts may become split and unfocused between several different things and tasks.

If you spend a lot of your everyday moments and time in the future or the past or you have difficulty focusing and you feel this may have a negative effect on your life then maybe you want to learn to live more in the present moment.

Here’s what works for me to do that. Just a few simple things that I use in my normal day.

Get the rest of the article here: How to Stay in the Present Moment in Everyday Life: 5 Simple Habits.

December 11, 2014 2

Here’s something to look forward to in 2015

December 11, 2014 0

10 things to let go of before the end of the year

Excellent post in Mind Body Green!

As we enter the final stretch of 2014, you may be sensing an energetic shift. December is an important month because it sets the stage for the next year. Use this time to reflect on your goals and focus forward with clarity.

Do you feel weighed down by specific people or situations? Use this time to consciously create a stronger foundation for your life, which means walking away from things that drag you down.

This is an ideal time of year to release old thought patterns, fears, relationships, situations and things that no longer serve you. It shifts you into the closing down of the previous year and prepares you for the one ahead.

Rather than spending time focusing on what isn’t working, pull all of your energy into what is going well and focus on what you want. Use deliberate action toward those goals and you’ll see changes happen quickly.

In the spirit of preparing for the new year and releasing what no longer serves you, here are 10 things to let go of before 2015.

Get the rest of the article here: 10 Things To Let Go Of Before The End Of The Year.

December 11, 2014 0

Is The Relationship Worth the Price of Admission?

Randi Kreger curated a great quote by Dan Savage here:

No two people are 100% sexually compatible. No two people are 100% emotionally compatible. No two people want the same things. And if you can’t reconcile yourself to that, you will have no relationships that last longer than two months. And you know what? It’s not going to be their fault. It’s going to be your fault.

Get the rest of the article here: BPD Central. I strongly recommend adding Randi’s site to your feed reader as well…

December 11, 2014 0

RebelMouse

RebelMouse. Amazing technology. The name is still growing on me. Here they share about their products as well as the process of story telling around it the product.

Have you seen the RebelMouse Company video? It’s pretty great and we’re really excited to share it with everyone. As much as we love working with our brand and publisher clients to create amazing content marketing programs, it’s a different story when the cameras are turned, literally, on us.

Get the rest of the article here: RebelMouse Blog – 7 Things We Learned Making the RebelMouse Company Video.

My RebelMouse page is embedded in my website here.

December 10, 2014 0

Let’s be careful out there

Fans of the old Hill Street Blues TV program will remember this…

I just ended a two week long battle with safesear.ch — a stupid piece of malware that highjacked my search in Google Chrome. Because there’s so little in my life I can actually control, I get really agitated when there’s something about my computer that I can’t control so this really drove me nuts!

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing an increase in malware — apps that do malicious things to your computer. And, distributors of malware are getting very creative using official logos and artwork, etc. to get people to download their garbage onto their computers. The most creative one that almost took me in looked like a Flash updater from Adobe, but it wasn’t…

It’s getting so you have to carefully read everything before you install it so if you’re responsible for your own computer, be very careful about how you update. Read the fine print and only download from the ‘official’ company site. Also, in the past I have been very reluctant to use security suites but I am currently a Malwarebytes [their tech support helped me get rid of safesear.ch] and AVG Internet Security subscriber. It’s war out there — don’t be a casualty!

Adobe tries fixing Flash again after malware exploits already patched vulnerability (theunhivedmind.com)
Beware The Adobe Flash Update Scam (outingmyinnergeek.com)
Adobe releases emergency patch to fix Flash Player vulnerability (panarmenian.net)
Adobe tries again to fix Flash vulnerability (pcworld.com)
Adobe tries again to fix Flash vulnerability (computerworld.co.nz)

December 10, 2014 0

Another one bites the dust

Remember this one?

It’s great when it’s a Queen song but so great when it’s a free app you love like Trapster…

How do you avoid this? First, be careful about what software you actually download and believe it or not, I believe you actually want to pay for software you rely on. You may think you’re getting away with something by using a lot of free apps but as they say about Facebook, if you’re not not sure where the revenue is coming from, it’s coming from selling your personal data. Do yourself a favor and look for apps that are freemium and actually pay developers for what you use. Not only is it the right thing to do, it will keep your favorite apps from disappearing…

Oh, and if you’re looking for a Trapster replacement, try Waze — seems to have a lot more momentum and it will actually save you time, not just report speed traps!

One of Waze’s earliest rivals is calling it quits (techgadgettalk.com)
Trapster to Close Down (geekbeat.tv)
Trapster App Pulled From App Store, Service to Be Discontinued By the End of Year (iClarified.com)
Trapster Will Die At The End Of The Year (jalopnik.com)
Trapster Calls it Quits, Will Discontinue Service by End of 2014 (droid-life.com)
Avoid the Law No More: Trapster Dies with 2014 (goodereader.com)
One of Waze’s earliest rivals is calling it quits (engadget.com)

December 10, 2014 0

2014 Rewind

Yup. It’s that time already…

via YouTube Rewind: Turn Down for 2014 – YouTube.

December 10, 2014 1

Osama wanted new name for al-Qaida to repair image

As a marketing manager, all my challenges pale by comparison…

Bright, shiny objects!

And you think you’ve got branding challenges!

As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al-Qaida was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements.
Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what al-Qaida really needed was a fresh start under a new name.
The problem with the name al-Qaida, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.
via fox11online.com

Wow!

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December 9, 2014 0

Al Green’s still got game

via Al Green Blows Letterman’s Mind With ‘Late Show’ Performance | Rolling Stone.

December 9, 2014 0

The Healing Room

December 9, 2014 0

A better business presentation is…

Nicholas Bate shares 7 thoughts on better business presos. They…

Are shorter rather than longer.
Have slides as support rather than lead.
Talk about the audience and their challenges rather than the presenter and his/her magnificence.
Start and finish on time rather than assume nobody has any other place to be.
Meet the objective rather than fills the time.
Remember it is intended to achieve change rather than simply educate so insists on actions.
Better than the previous time it was given.

via A Better Business Presentation Is 7 – Nicholas Bate. Get his book Love Presenting Hate (Badly Used) Powerpoint here.