Category: Bits and pieces (Page 20 of 28)

Do Less, Achieve More

May 8, 2008 /

I have finished Do Less, Achieve More by Chin-Ning Chu. The subtitle is Discover the hidden power of giving in. The book is divided into three parts, each one dealing with one of the three secrets which are:

  1. Fine-tune your actions
  2. Put your mind at ease
  3. Discover the divine power

Under finetuning your actions is a list of 18 tips. There is also this gem about time management, it is worth repeating that:

Time management is about managing ourselves, not about managing time.

A part in this section is called ‘Life is full’, looking back we have always filled our 24 hours. But did we do what we really wanted to do?

Success is not about having more. It is about fine-tuning your understanding of what you are willing to give up in order to get what you really want.

The conclusion for fine-tuning: Trade what does not work for what you really want.

The second section, put your mind at ease, is about accepting divine guidance. Life is a school, unless you complete your lessons at each phase you do not get to move forward.

In the third section, discover the divine power, it states that as long as we are reacting we have lost sight of our own agenda. The author wants us to find our point of restfulness which makes it possible to stay in control. She mentions mediatation and intuition as tools for this, the books describes six techniques.

I have mixed feelings about the book since to me it revealed no secrets but I guess that depends on where we are in our own progress.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Leave the door open

May 4, 2008 /

At Pick The Brain is a post about The Other Side of Productivity: Coincidences, Synchronicity, and Serendipity. The post lists “Three Methods for Attracting Coincidences and Serendipity”.

Believing in the phenomenon of coincidences and serendipity does not mean that you shun work and sit cross-legged waiting for the universe to deliver your dreams to your doorstep. It simply means that you plan your days utilizing the best organization and scheduling tools, tips, and advice you can find, while leaving the door open to startling, dramatic occurrences.

It is a great post and I love the final sentence: Plan your day, but expect for things even better than those that you have planned to happen.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

The Manifestation Wheel

May 3, 2008 /

I have finished a really interesting book titled The Manifestation Wheel: A Practical Process for Creating Miracles written by Alan Seale. The Manifestation Wheel is an interesting concept created by Alan Seale and partly based on the Lakota medicine wheel.

The Manifestation Wheel is made up of eight “houses” or steps: intention, peace, energy, guidance, empowerment, action, surrender, and legacy. Through these eight houses, the Manifestation Wheel offers a process that helps readers create the conditions necessary for their vision to manifest. It calls forth the reader’s intuition and develops deeper and higher levels of awareness.

Alan explains that in beginning a project, we usually begin by clarifying what we want. However the immediate next question, one that is rarely asked, must be, “What is the greatest potential wanting to unfold?” This is the true catalyzing question. The Wheel takes you beyond personal wants and desires to tap into a bigger picture—a picture of “what wants to happen,” a picture of your greatest potential and the greatest potential of a moment, situation, project, or vision.

The book guides the reader through the eight houses of the wheel. Exercises and questions for each house help you keep your project on the move and aligned to the structure of the wheel. The eight houses form a logical path from vision to legacy, placing action plans in the sixth house and using the first five houses to build a solid foundation. The final step in each house is to go back through the previous ones and see if anything has to be changed.

In the eight house of legacy you shall consider sustainability and long term implications of your project. What is the impact on coming generations? That is something we rarely ask ourselves.

For many years, Alan used the Lakota Medicine Wheel and its concepts to powerful effect in the building of his life, career, and relationships. Recognizing that the language of the Medicine Wheel was a bit arcane for today’s world, he adapted the Medicine Wheel to create the Manifestation Wheel, a tool that is accessible, practical, and immediately productive for individuals, businesses, and organizations in the 21st century. Now Alan has written the guidebook to the Manifestation Wheel, making this simple yet profound process available to everyone.

I love the book, it is well written and the Manifestation Wheel is a very useful tool. But available to everyone is a stretch, you must have an open mind and trust the combination of spiritual wisdom and scientific knowledge.

The image is borrowed from Allan Seale’s site.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

The Starfish and the Spider

April 7, 2008 /

This post is copied to my new blog The Wise Owl.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is written by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckström. It is a very interesting book that compare two different kind of organizations but also mentions a hybrid or combo version, best of both.

Spiders are centralized, command and control, organizations. Historical examples are the Spanish army, the Aztecs and the Incas. Today most companies and organizations still work like this.

Starfish are decentralized with no hierarchy and no headquarters, an open system with no designated leader. An historical example listed in the book are the Apache indians. Modern examples are Craigslist, Wikipedia, Burning Man, AA, Skype, Kazaa and open source software like the Apache server.

An interesting part of the book is when they give examples of the spiders problems when they have to compete or combat against starfish. The Apache indians (starfish) managed to stand up against the Spanish army (spider) but the Incas and Azteks were spiders too and could be beaten. Todays music industry (spiders) fight against filesharing (starfish) and will most likely not win.

A hybrid approach means companies gain from both world, spider as well as starfish. There are examples of companies like eBay and Amazon that decentralize customer experience. And there are centralized companies like GE that decentralizes internal parts of the business.

If you want a quick look at some of what’s inside the book, see Lessons from a Starfish World.

There is a booksite at The Starfish and the Spider. Wikipedia also has a page about The Starfish And the Spider.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Three books by Robin Sharma

April 6, 2008 /

I have read and reviewed three books by Robin Sharma. Here is a short summary and links to my reviews.

The monk who sold his Ferrari is a great book that covers much of Eastern and Western wisdom around life and success. The book is well written and the concepts are nicely fitted into a frame, a fable around the seven virtues. This book is the first one with the monk and where you get to know his history plus why and how he changed.

Discover Your Destiny With The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is labeled “A potent pathway to self-awakening that will help you to live your greatest life and claim the happiness, prosperity and inner peace that you deserve”. Still, this is not one of those “just wish and it will be yours”-books, instead it is a guide book on how to discover your authentic self and achieve lasting inner peace.

The Saint The Surfer And The CEO is about a person’s three final questions: Did I live wisely? Did I love well? Did I serve greatly? I like this book too, it gave me valuable input to help change my life and views.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

The rest of your life?

March 22, 2008 /

Last night I watched Alfie on DVD. Great music but the movie is so so, Alfie is shallow and does not learn from his mistakes. In one part of the movie Alfie has regrets and walks along the beach talking with an older man. Alfie is asked “What’s gonna happen to the rest of your life?”

What about YOU, what is going to happen to the rest of your life?

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

True love

March 11, 2008 /

I came across a blog called Sri Chinmoy Inspiration which is a blog on Self improvement written by Tejvan Pettinger and where I found several interesting posts.

The post about How to distinguish between love and emotional dependence is great, I like this part:

True love means loving people for who they are, not trying to channel them into who you want them to be.

That is similar to a text I have on my wall:

Love me as I am and not as I should be.

Note: Photo by Alone….

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

How to write well part 2

March 8, 2008 /

Based on a comment to How to write well I answered:
My own top writing tip would be to write about what you are passionate about and to let the passion show. When someone combines passion and knowledge almost any topic is worth reading about.

Skellie writes about “How to Write Like a Painter” where she picks a painters way of working and applies it to writing.

Once you have an idea for an article it’s relatively easy to work out what you want to say. It’s the how that trips us up, so often causing writer’s block. We’re trying to paint a masterpiece in the first sweep, when every great masterpiece grows from very humble beginnings.

Anna Goldsmith has a guest post at Copyblogger about Five Easy Steps to Editing Your Own Work. Editing can be boring but is needed to make things as correct as possible.

DailyWritingTips has a post with 34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better Writer. It is a useful collection of tips from readers. I like this one:
Learn the rules of good writing… then learn when and how to break them.

Brian Clark at Copyblogger writes about How to Use the “Rule of Three” to Create Engaging Content.

You see the Rule of Three used all the time across diverse areas of life. Why? Because information presented in groups of three sticks in our heads better than other clusters of items.

DailyBlogTips has a guest post by Mike Smith about The Art of the Follow-Through: Every Great Headline Needs an Even Better Opening Paragraph.

You should be using your headline as an attention grabber and something that’s going to sting when hit with it, or in the blogger’s case, it should grasp the reader’s attention. Your introduction paragraph should be a combination of punches that really rock the reader and stop them from moving forward to the next website.

Mike rounds off his post with “The knockout blow: The final paragraph”.

If you write well you want to be seen, Leo Babauta has a post at Copyblogger about Go Big or Go Home: Why Being Bold is Critical to Getting Noticed.

Do you sometimes have a problem with getting started? Check out Ready, Set, Write! at DailyWritingTips.

One of the biggest problems people have with writing is getting started. A blank page (or computer screen) can be intimidating, but prewriting is a great way to overcome that intimidation.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

An Eater’s Manifesto

March 8, 2008 /

I found An Eater’s Manifesto over at ChangeThis. The manifesto by Michael Pollan is an interesting read, a teaser for his book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” but well worth reading.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.

We are entering a postindustrial era of food; for the first time in a generation it is possible to leave behind the Western diet without having also to leave behind civilization. And the more eaters who vote with their forks for a different kind of food, the more commonplace and accessible such food will become. This is an eater’s manifesto, an invitation to join the movement that is renovating our food system in the name of health—health in the very broadest sense of that word.

Michael Pollan means the Western diet is causing a lot of health problems, we need to change what we eat (less processed food, less artificial nutrients).

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

How do you change your thinking?

March 6, 2008 /

I got this quote a while back:

The greatest discovery of my lifetime was that a person can change the circumstances of his life by changing his thoughts.
William James

Change is an important issue, both on a personal level and for society and our world. It brings another quote to my mind: “Change comes from within.”

Another quote, by Albert Einstein:

Clearly the problems we suffer cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

Albert said it well, to solve our problems (personal or at other levels) we have to think in a new way. The trick is to change how we think, being open minded helps a lot.

How do YOU change your thinking?

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑