Category

Transformation

Category

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: Two-thirds of the housekeepers in Stanford Professor Alia Crum’s study believed they weren’t exercising regularly.

One-third said they got no exercise at all.

“Their bodies reflected this perception,”  Kelly McGonigal notes in The Upside of Stress.  “The average housekeeper’s blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, and body weight were exactly what you’d expect to find if they were truly sedentary.”

Their perception was their reality.

Which is different from … 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: When Diane Button was new to end-of-life care, so many questions flooded her mind.

“I wondered if I would ever get to a place where I would feel comfortable stepping into the home of a dying person with ease and grace,” she writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.

Fortunately, she had a mentor. “Hospice chaplain Clarence Liu was was … continue reading

1: How long do you have someone’s attention at the beginning of a meeting?

About 10 minutes. 

That’s it, Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.

“You naturally have someone’s attention for about 10 minutes before that person loses focus on your message,” says John Medina, author of the brilliant book Brain Rules and the director of the Brain Center continue reading

1: You have a decision to make.

What’s your natural instinct?  Speed up?  Get it done?  Move forward?

Terry Looper suggests a different path. “Instead of going faster, as we’re inclined to do, the goal is to learn to adopt a slower pace.”

What should be your goal? To get neutral.  “Where you desire God’s will over your own,” Terry writes in his book Sacred Pace: Four Steps to Hearing continue reading

1: You are stuck.

“If only your prospects knew as much about your company and its solutions as you do, they would buy from you, right?” Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their powerful book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.

Not so fast, the authors suggest.

Erik and Tim emphasize the importance of finding your unique story and point of view as a salesperson. This is essential … continue reading

1: Turns out anxiety and excitement are the exact same emotion.

Physiologically, that is. Which just means how your body operates.

“Whether you are anxious about something or excited about it, your body responds in a nearly identical ‘high arousal’ state,” Jane McGonigal writes in her book SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully.

How does your body react?

“You have excess energy, you may feel butterflies in your stomach, … continue reading