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Stop Looking for Passion at Work

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , , January 28th, 2014 @ 9:54 am

The title is filled with irony.  The author of the linked blog post nails the discussion.

#1) Life is more than work and measurable accomplishments

#2) Time and energy are limited resources–how you spend them says a lot about who you are as a person.

#3) Passion renews you energy.  If you are lucky enough to have work (providing for your household) combined with your passion, hurray for you.  If you do not have work and passion interconnected, like most people, enjoy your life and the trade offs that make you happy.   It’s only the people with no passion we should feel sorry for.  Arguing which passion is better, well that is just idiotic.

http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Stop-Looking-for-Passion-at-Work?gko=2b679

 

 

 

Listening Well and the Cause of Happiness—What my God Children Taught me

1 comment By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , , , , , March 25th, 2013 @ 5:32 pm

My godchildren inspire me. They ask questions, alter my perspective and in exchange I get a youthful perspective. Some parents, surly know the feeling. The godchildren that inspired this writing are 14 and 15 years old. Their persistence forced me to think—to improve my grasp of “Listening Well” and “Causing Happiness.”

Listening Well

During the Thanksgiving holiday, amidst my godchildren’s question barrage, I was asked, “What would you do if you found one million dollars?”

My reply, “I’d try to give it back to who ever lost it.”

“No, I mean what if no one was around. You just found it,” replied my godson.

Confidently, I replied, “Well, no one loses a million dollars, and doesn’t look for the money. So, I’d help them find it.”

My goddaughter, better explaining her brother’s question, jumped in, “No! No, he means, noooooobody is looking for the money. You find a million dollars. What do you do with it?” Read more

Human Bias – Removing It?

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development, Politics & Policy Tagged with , , , , , , , , October 27th, 2012 @ 9:34 am

Well, well.  As a well-traveled black male, I’ve know the US environment, no the global environment, to have prejudice and bias.  Not life threating hatred, but some.   I believe, all humans utilize biases–The human brain works quite efficiently with biases (a topic worthy of a blog post by itself).

My key learning from the article is that sufficient racial integration has not occurred such that a broad base of Americans, see, Americans with racial differences as one of them.  If the article would have reported on the racial prejudice of Black people, I suspect there would be no progress.  My life experience certainly echoes the percentages quoted in the article.

As I reflect on the article, I remember the discussion Barack Obama made after the wide display of the Rev. Wright sermons.  One telling point he made, “America has not integrated its churches.”  Maybe that is the true evidence of integration, religious worship.  The American society has focused integration efforts on schools, employment, housing and with the Affordable Care Act, health care.  Maybe, just maybe, its time to effectively integrate religious worship.  Now, that is a challenge.

AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks – Yahoo! News.

Unpleasent Behaviors Know No Boundaries

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , September 22nd, 2012 @ 8:55 am

Everyone once in a while, we read a story or observe a behavior that challenges our mental constructs–those notions of cause and effect that support our bias and beliefs.   For me, the Bloomberg story of charities and telemarketing brought me to a stand still.   I just did not want to believe the greed and self-absorbed rationale that I attribute to the corporate world had invaded charitable organizations.  But alas it has. Read more

Why Feelings of Guilt May Signal Leadership Potential | Stanford Graduate School of Business

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , , , , August 26th, 2012 @ 7:26 am

I loved this article.   I found it an interesting way to say that people with empathy for others, and a sense of responsibility toward promises, make great leaders.   The combination of traits are hard to hone—It is difficult to care enough to get something done for others.   But I like the thought.

Why Feelings of Guilt May Signal Leadership Potential | Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The presidency: So, Mitt, what do you really believe?

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Politics & Policy Tagged with , August 26th, 2012 @ 7:23 am

October 5, 2012

Well, well.  Mitt Romney has confirmed my beliefs.  The NPR article confirms, for me, so much.  Admittedly, I may be using isolated events to confirm preconceived biases.  But, when I connect the dots from the August post I made, below, it’s hard to believe “isolated” is an appropriate adjective.

Romney:  I Was ‘Just Completely Wrong On The 47 Percent’ | NPR

August 26, 2012

Wow, The Economist really laid into Mitt Romney in this article.   I think their tone and questions are legitimate.  However, in my mind, the answer to the title question is obvious:  Mitt believes it would be great to be president.

All other thoughts are simply a means to an ends for Mitt.  What most of us call flip flopping for Mitt appears to be simply how he gets what he wants.  Fame, to be liked, power, and status they have driven this guy for a long time, nothing new now.

Mitt is pretty obvious, we just don’t want to believe he has the audacity to ask for our vote only by promising to make himself better off–but he has.

The presidency: So, Mitt, what do you really believe? | The Economist.

Aleph – A Discussion of What we should do in the present

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , , January 22nd, 2012 @ 8:38 am

I recently read Aleph by Paulo Coelho.  My first book by Paulo.  And the book was quite impressive.   His storytelling is excellent, his style intriguing, and best of all, the stories make you think of your own life.  More of what’s needed in the world, I think.  For me, I post blogs, to clear my thinking.  This post, then, is a statement to the ability of Paulo’s writing to encourage me to think.   Several discussion topics are suggested at the end of the book—a feature more authors should consider—one of which captured my attention while reading.  Paulo wrote:

“We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we’re always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn’t act as we should have.  Or else we think about the future, about what we’re going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don’t want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.”

Read more

Negotiating at Impasse—A question of Values

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Politics & Policy Tagged with , , , , July 14th, 2011 @ 6:50 am

When negotiating many people suggest that the participants start with common objectives.  This advice, assumes of course, negotiating efficiency is valued.  However, the negotiations for the debt ceiling increase remind me that it is common values, not objectives, that create efficiency in negotiations.  The federal government, as has the California state government of the last three years, illustrates this point clearly. Read more

The Parenting Challenge – A Review

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , , August 15th, 2010 @ 7:17 pm

All Joy and No Fun – New York Magazine

After reading the New York magazine article “All Joy and No Fun, Why parents hate parenting.” I reflected and gave some thought to two core concerns:

  1. What’s the root responsibility of parenting that upsets people?
  2. What is the underlying premise of Jennifer Senior, who wrote the article?

These two questions struck me as central to the piece, because, well, quite frankly, I never thought parenting should be fun. Read more

Getting to Innovation and Creativity

0 comments By Aaron Filed in Growth & Development Tagged with , , May 20th, 2010 @ 4:22 pm

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes a wonderful piece calling on all of us to, “unlock the hidden value of something that would otherwise be wasted.”  A wonderful concept.  There is an element of protecting the environment, and an element of creating productivity gains.  Yet the concept I appreciate most is using our brains to create opportunity.  The downside of conspicuous consumption was the expectation that people could buy what was needed. Read more

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