1: “Lately, I feel joy when I do burpees.”

That’s what Christina, a 43-year-old poet from Kingskettle, Scotland, said when asked what brought her joy.

“A burpee is a physical exercise that involves dropping to the ground and getting back up again,” Kelly McGonigal writes in her new book Joy is a Risk Worth Taking.

Burpees are tough and exhausting. Who actually enjoys doing burpees?

But for Christina, Kelly … continue reading

1: “How can I respect someone who behaves in ways I deplore?” Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and their co-authors ask in their classic book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.

“What do you do if you’re upset because another person has let you down?” they ask.

What if this behavior has happened repeatedly?

“How can you respect a person who is so poorly motivated … continue reading

1: Imagine having a boss who regularly fails to keep commitments.

“How could you tell the boss you don’t trust him?” Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and their co-authors ask in their classic book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.

“Surely there’s no way to say this without him becoming defensive, right?”

Maybe.  Maybe not.

The solution is to find what the authors call a … continue reading

1: “Inside the cockpit, alarms were blaring,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.

Qantas Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny looked at the display.

Twenty-one of the plane’s twenty-two major systems were damaged or completely disabled.

“Engine two was on fire. Engine three was damaged. There was no data at all for engines one and four,” Charles describes.

“The fuel pumps were failing. The hydraulics, pneumatics, and electrical systems … continue reading

1: As the pilots stepped into the cockpit, 440 passengers were preparing to board the eight-hour flight from Singapore to Sydney.

“Even before Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny stepped on board Qantas Flight 32, he was drilling his crew in the mental models he expected them to use,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better..

Richard is a blunt Australian, “a cross between Crocodile Dundee and General Patton,” … continue reading

1: Do you believe that all meaningful problems are deeply rooted and difficult to change?

David Yeager, a mindset researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, shares a story that reveals how deep people’s skepticism can run about the power of short interventions to improve people’s lives.

This week we’re examining multiple studies that show your mindset, or how you think about something, can have a profound impact … continue reading

1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain.

The following day, July 3rd, final revisions to Thomas Jefferson’s draft of The Declaration of Independence were agreed to.

Which brings the story to the 4th of July, 1776.

“In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4, 1776,” David McCullough writes in his … continue reading

1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.

“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.

But “there was … continue reading

1: Author Joseph Grenny had been married for just a few years when his travel schedule became hectic.
He and his wife, Celia, had two young toddlers, and she served as the sole parent when Joseph was on the road.
One evening, he arrived home from a long trip, Joseph and his co-authors write in their classic book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
“Celia was … continue reading

1: When Phillip Jeffrey was 25 years old, he was diagnosed with a rare, incurable blood cancer. For the next six years, he underwent many rounds of chemotherapy.

Then, he had a stroke in the area of his brain responsible for vision.

“Losing vision is traumatic for anyone, but it was especially so for Phillip, whose greatest passion in life is photography,”  Jane McGonigal writes in her book SuperBetter: The … continue reading