1: “Why does this matter to you?”

That’s the question author, consultant, and facilitator Peter Block asked Daniel Coyle

They had just met. Daniel, a writer, had set up an interview with Peter. They met at a coffee shop in Cincinnati, which is where Peter now calls home.

“A rangy eighty-five-year-old, Peter had settled into his chair and gave me a fond, knowing smile, as if we’d met each other … continue reading

1: Tynan thought mindfulness and meditation were “too wishy-washy and time consuming,” he writes in Superhuman by Habit.

When he tried meditating, he found it hard to keep his attention on his breath. His mind kept wandering, which left him frustrated and ready to give up.

But then he discovered something that completely changed how he saw meditation.

“If meditation were easy, it would not be as beneficial,” he writes. … continue reading

1: How do you react when something bad happens in your life?

“Your knee-jerk reaction to bad events can be to only see, and to dwell on, the negative, giving you a biased view that can affect your mood and paralyze you from acting,” Tynan writes in his book Superhuman by Habit.

When you think about positive, healthy habits, chances are your brain immediately focuses on work and productivity … 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: Many people believe they are the only ones who don’t fit in.

“Feeling like you don’t belong can change how you interpret everything you experience,” writes Kelly McGonigal in her powerful book The Upside of Stress.

“Conversations, setbacks, misunderstandings,” she notes, “almost anything can be viewed as evidence that, in fact, you don’t belong.”

“The belief that you don’t belong also feeds into many destructive states of mind, … continue reading

1: “Shelley was speechless,” says Mike Oppedahl, the managing partner at GiANT Worldwide.

He had just introduced the 5 Gears tool, which we’ve been exploring this week in RiseWithDrew.

“Shelley is a rock star,” he says in Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram’s book The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time.

She’s “like a cruise missile as it pertains to … continue reading

1: What do you do when the battery turns red on your phone?  You recharge it.

Yet, many people who are tired and overworked just trudge forward.

Which begs the question, “Why do you think you can force yourself to run well on empty?” Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram write in their book The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time.

“People … 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: “Monday, July 1st, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia, and before the morning was ended a full-scale summer storm would break,” David McCullough writes in his book John Adams.

John Adams, then one of Massachusetts’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress, was up before sunrise.

Early that morning, he wrote a long letter to Archibald Bulloch, the new president of Georgia: “This morning is assigned … continue reading

1: Jennifer’s father was ill.
“The two things that he could do to improve his physical condition most significantly are to eat better and exercise,” she tells Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram, who write in their book The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time.
And, “the two things he refuses to do are eat better and exercise,” she says.
Jennifer … continue reading