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The more time you have …
Love this quote from 37signals: But you don’t have to work superhuman hours. A normal workweek should be plenty. Even less is ok. In fact, being short on time is a good thing. It forces you to focus on the essentials. There’s no time for things that don’t matter. There’s only time for the basics.…
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Life changes and peripeteia
There’s a TED talk by Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, where – in the midst of talking about castrating sheep – he mentions two words he learned from his classics teacher in college: anagnorisis and peripeteia. Anagnorisis refers to that moment when a character makes an important discovery. Peripeteia is related – it’s…
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Put the trash in the leader’s van
On the way back from a recent staff retreat, I was driver of van #2. The bosses were in van 1 with half our group, and I was following with the rest. But on the way to the retreat, my van had the luggage and their van had the food. But on the way back,…
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A little Palin/Fey for Election Day
It’s a long-gone auction on Ebay, but I love that this actually exists – a copy of Palin’s book signed by Tina Fey… (via)
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Lead? How about do? [quote]
“I think “lead” is something you can choose to do when circumstances call for it. But it’s not a job title or a status. I think we should simply be doers. React the right way. Live courageously. Pursue great visions. Act with integrity. Serve others. Bring ideas to life. And let our status speak for…
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Want to find out what’s really important? Stop working for two weeks.
Mark Batterson says a Change of Place + Change of Pace = Change of Perspective. I start back to work tomorrow after two weeks off to help take care of our brand new baby. One thing that was interesting about handing off all my “residence director” work three days into the semester and coming back…
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Life changes and expired food
This probably is a little odd, but a specific memory I have of my senior year of high school headed into college was looking at the expiration date on a package of cheese and thinking, “by the time this cheese expires, I’ll be in college.” In that moment, it hit me that my high school…
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“A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the Kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.” – J. Oswald Sanders
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Two people sharing life
In Donald Miller’s most recent book, he shares a priceless thought about marriage. I don’t remember if it’s a thought from him or someone else. Check page 205/206 and see for yourself. But the general thought was that marriage just involves a guy and a girl. Normal, regular people. It won’t solve any of your problems. More than…
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Jim Collins – A leader as an Architect
This is a great article about moving from charismatic leadership to a leader who builds systems that last longer than himself or herself. I think all leaders need some kind of charisma, but if we’re just relying on that charisma to give the organization momentum, the movement won’t last beyond that one person. Leaders should…
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Leadership is about execution
“Choose one or two ideas and execute on them fearlessly. If you try to execute on all of your ideas, you’ll probably not accomplish much. We each have to be focused on the execution of ideas, not just the creation of ideas.” – Brad Lomenick
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Best. Video. January edition.
“You promise not to go behind the couch anymore?” “….uh huh…” “For real?” “… I’m sinking!!”
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Conan’s take on cynicism
All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. – Conan O’Brien
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Linkage: Taking action, allowing others to be themselves, and Super Bowl bars
There’s a lot of good stuff around the interwebs. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading lately… What you don’t do doesn’t matter: “Every day I think all kinds of nice things about people, and maybe 5% of them make the transition into something I actually do. Thinking about someone doesn’t help them. It’s only…
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Emotional labor. Bring it.
Physical labor is digging a ditch. You don’t do it cause it’s fun, you do it because it’s your job. I don’t care if you’re in the mood for it. Emotional labor is smiling or engaging with someone or bringing insight to your job. Sometimes you do it for fun, but you always do it…
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Jon Sampson 