When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:13-18) For many years, I viewed this passage as an affirmation that no matter how bleak things got, no matter how dark the world became, there would always be a church somewhere. It might…
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It's tempting, but don't do it. Never confuse activity for accomplishment. Just because we're busy doesn't mean we're being effective. Although we might be buzzing around from event to event, commitment to commitment, busyness itself is not a guarantee that our quality of life (or quality of work) will be better. In fact, it could be counterproductive. An injured muscle needs time to heal. Without enough time to rest, our best ideas may give way to just OK ideas; even worse, they might give way to really bad ideas. Make it your goal to be effective, not just busy.
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From Alvin Toffler via The Speed of Trust: "The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that cannot learn, unlearn, relearn."
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One of the blogs I regularly track is The Harvard Business Review. Actually, it's a collection of multiple blogs all under one roof. Last week, one of the articles that caught my attention was this one: "12 Things Good Bosses Believe." Here are the highlights: I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me. My success — and that of my people — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not…
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Thanks to Guy Kawasaki, I just discovered this site called "Letters of Note." It's a collection of "correspondence deserving of a wider audience." The following quote is from Thomas Edison who is writing a letter of congratulations to a former colleague. What caught my eye was this passage: "The worst is to come, for it takes about seven years to convert the average man to the acceptance of a solved problem." Was Edison being sarcastic, pessimistic, optimistic, or realistic?
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