Interview – 5 lessons from a Ranger/Special Ops soldier about leadership and persistence
bsp; Ranger School has been called the "toughest combat course in the world." My friend Joe (2nd from the left above) graduated class 495 in Ranger School and was Special Operations for seven years. I interviewed him about leadership, attitude and what it takes to make it through such a punishing ordeal. He also reminded me what "Ranger Candy" is. The full interview was almost 90 minutes long, so for brevity’s sake I’m only going to post highlights here. Subscribers to my free weekly…
7 minutes
5 Secrets To Using Your Time Wisely
Schedule things that make you happy You often schedule things that are "important", but what about the things that make you happy? Activities on your calendar are more likely to be the things you do. So be as good about scheduling the personal as the professional. From my interview with Stanford happiness researcher Jennifer Aaker: ...people who spend more time on projects that energize them and with people who energize them tend to be happier. However, what is interesting…
4 minutes
These 5 Things Will Make You Smarter
bsp; 1) Get rid of the distractions You can't multitask. Via Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School: To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously. All those buzzing text messages and email chimes can reduce mental ability by an average of 10 IQ points. For men, it’s about three times the effect of smoking marijuana. Via Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining…
4 minutes
5 New Secrets To Achieving Your Goals, Backed By Research
al setting is one of the four techniques the military used to increase Navy SEAL passing rates from 25% to 33%. Studies have also shown it makes you happier. So what are five steps to achieving your goals? 1) Shut Up Keep them secret. Talking about big goals rewards yourself ahead of time and makes you less likely to follow through. Via Daniel Coyle’s excellent book The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills: While it’s natural and oh so tempting…
4 minutes
Checklist: Are you doing these five things to be more effective at work?
w to be more effective at work 1) Have A Solid Daily Ritual Here's a solid one from Peter Bregman that will help you maximize use of your time . Via 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done: STEP 1 (5 Minutes): Your Morning Minutes. This is your opportunity to plan ahead. Before turning on your computer, sit down with the to-do list you created...and decide what will make this day highly successful… STEP 2 (1 Minute…
4 minutes
Checklist: Are you doing these five things to be the best?
Realize it's not about natural talent. It's about hard work. We all know intelligence is important, creativity is important… but how much do these types of natural talent control really what you can achieve in life? In ~95% of cases, they don’t. Via Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: “After forty years of intensive research on school learning in the United States as well as abroad, my major conclusion is: What any person in the world can learn, almost all…
4 minutes
Matthew Polly: What happens when you drop out of Princeton to move to the Shaolin Temple and master Kung Fu?
ntil a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped…
11 minutes
Five Simple Things That Will Make Your Life Better
bsp; 1) Want to be happy? It's more about perspective than anything else. Write down three good things that happen to you every day. Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you…
3 minutes
