Toolkit Quotes

The key to meditation is to exist one hundred percent in the here and now.

Choice is the doorway to our creative power. To unleash this power, we must begin from the state of beingness.

Now the choices you make are not about finding your path. Rather, they are choices to open the path you have found.

evolution had gifted them with a profoundly complex toolkit for taking the world apart to see if there was a crab hiding under it.

In order to be the master of your life, you must first recognize that you are the rightful master of your brain, its owner and operator.

I surrendered myself to the cages of others' expectations, cultural mandates and institutional allegiances. Until I buried who I was in order to become what I should be. I lost myself when I learned how to please.

The norms were created by somebody, and each of us is somebody. We can make our own normal.

Discontent is the nagging of the imagination. Discontent is evidence that your imagination has not given up on you. It is still pressing, swelling, trying to get your attention by whispering: "Not this.

Destruction is essential to construction. If we want to build the new, we must be willing to let the old burn. [...] The building of the true and beautiful means the destruction of the good enough.

Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.

Nearly every book has the same architecture--cover, spine, pages--but you open them onto worlds and gifts far beyond what paper and ink are, and on the inside they are every shape and power. Some books are toolkits you take up to fix things, from the most practical to the mostmysterious, from your house to your heart, or to make things, from cakes to ships. Some books are wings. Some are horses that run away with you. Some are parties to which you are invited, full of friends who are there even when you have no friends. In some books you meet one remarkable person; in others a whole group or even a culture. Some books are medicine, bitter but clarifying. Some books are puzzles, mazes, tangles, jungles. Some long books are journeys, and at the end you are not the same person you were at the beginning. Some are handheld lights you can shine on almost anything.

I argue that the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Indeed, by relying on faith rather than evidence, religion renders itself incapable of finding truth.

I am a human being, meant to be in perpetual becoming. My goal is not to remain the same but to live in such a way that each day, year, moment, relationship, conversation , and crisis is the material I use to become a truer, more beautiful version of myself.

But the law's dream - anyone's dream - would be to turn the clock back and stop the bad thing from happening in the first place.

Skepticism must be a component of the explorer’s toolkit, or we will lose our way. There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any.

I might have a few screws loose, but she’s not rocking with a full toolkit, either.

Don't just focus on seeing things from your own perspective. It can give you blind spots.

I like being with you all night with closed eyes. What luck--here you are coming along the stars! I did a road trip all over my mind and heart and there you were kneeling by the roadside with your little toolkit fixing something.

I am not a good friend. I have never been capable of or willing to commit to the maintenance that the rules of friendship dictate. I cannot rmember bithdays. I do not want to meet for coffee. I will not host the baby shower. I won't text back because it's an eternal game of Ping-Pong, the texting. It never ends. I inevitably disappoint friends, so after enough of that, I decided I would stop trying. I don't want to live in constant debt. This is okay with me.

But that’s bullshit!” Doug says. “Jesus! Haven’t you guys spent any time at all around people like Comstock? Can’t you recognize bullshit? Don’t you think it would be a useful item to add to your intellectual toolkits to be capable of saying, when a ton of wet steaming bullshit lands on your head, ‘My goodness, this appears to be bullshit’?

The point, as I emphasize in the book, is not for players to become professionals, but rather to have innovative and creative ways of thinking about real problems as part of their intellectual toolkit.

Who am I?" "What is the purpose of my life?" These questions arise spontaneously throughout our lives, either unbidden or through conscious intent. Anyone who wishes to live an authentic life must answer these questions, regardless of whether they believe in the existence of the soul or practice a religion. If these queries remain unanswered, life will more than likely remain superficial and empty, in spite of any material abundance. If you wish to make the soul's journey, then I suggest you ask yourself these questions relentlessly and ruthlessly, and listen carefully.

The 6 i’s toolkit combines enhanced intuition with real-time improvisation to adapt to changing circumstances and imagine new possibilities. Then, inspire yourself to invent your future and achieve the impossible.

Rebellion is as much of a cage as obedience is. They both mean living in reaction to someone else's way instead of forging your own.

Which of my beliefs are of my own creation and which were programmed into me?

Feelings all your feelings is hard, but that's what they're for. Feelings are for feeling. All of them. Even the hard ones.

The way to "make yourself happy" is to be happy.

Control leaves no room for trust.

It took me a while to realize ‘getting better’ isn’t about preventing myself from ever encountering negative emotions. It’s about building my toolkit and having practices in place so that I can handle the lows better; it’s about understanding that experiencing those bad days doesn’t mean I’m reverting or losing progress, but simply that I’m human. It’s all a balance. Healing isn’t linear.

It’s about building my toolkit and having practices in place so that I can handle the lows better; it’s about understanding that experiencing those bad days doesn’t mean I’m reverting or losing progress, but simply that I’m human. It’s all a balance. Healing isn’t linear.

The results were extraordinary. Over 70 percent of those who scored high on the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale correctly picked out the handkerchief-smuggling associate, compared to just 30 percent of the low scorers. Zeroing in on weakness may well be part of a serial killer’s toolkit. But it may also come in handy at the airport.

You need [...] to evolve, to become. [...] You are here to become.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. —STEPHEN COVEY

Suppose a developer has a conversation with a customer about details of a feature. The conversation should not be considered complete until it is expressed as a customer test.

when people near the accomplishment of goals, they naturally self-motivate and put forth an extra burst of effort to complete them.

There is a meta-game going on during every interaction with another human, both consciously and unconsciously

misconceptions of narcissism as a black and white “thing” that people either “are,” or “are not” is an oversimplified approach

Healthy levels of narcissism and self-enhancement are necessary, with a low level of self-enhancement being detrimental to our wellbeing and success.

One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now.

Armed with the complete CRISPR toolkit, scientists can now exert nearly complete control over both the composition of the genome and its output.

To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 AD. "Each language has its own cognitive toolkit," said psychologist/linguist Lera Boroditsky in 2010 AD.

Attitude. Optimistic people work through setbacks and trauma… while pessimists settle into a funk that can’t be budged. And it’s a CHOICE. At some point in your life, you choose to either live in gloom or sunlight.

Through reflection, awakening, and choice we are able to exist as our true selves. However, this is not the end. In order for us to realize and put into practice the life purpose we have chosen, endless choices await us.

As a result, studies have found we can reap immediate intellectual and emotional dividends from investing in exercise and sleep, or even from taking a moment to breathe deeply, smile broadly, and stand a little taller. In

Dark-Side Insight #1: If you are an ethical, rational actor in the game of business (or in life)… … then you’re operating with 2 strikes already against you. Unless you are fully aware of how your fellow actors are behaving.

When we have a clear idea of who we are and why we live, our lives become a journey. A story is created about our lives. And when the end comes, even if the story adds up to only one line, the story reaches a settled conclusion.

Populist governments are, almost by definition, ill-suited to handle complex problems of governance. Style, swagger, and atmospherics, superficial and simplistic solutions, and enthusiastic sloganeering form the core of the populist's playbook—and are the antithesis of the toolkit needed to deal with a deadly pandemic.

People have different ideas about what's brave. You did the brave thing, because the brave thing is doing what your Knowing tells you to do. You don't ask others what's brave, you feel and know what's brave. What you know to do might be the opposite of what others are telling you to do. It takes special bravery to honor yourself when the crowd is pressuring you not to. [...] Sometimes being brave requires letting the crowd think you're a coward. Sometimes being brave means letting everyone down but yourself.

Imagination is how personal and worldwide revolutions begin. 'I have a dream,' said Martin Luther King, Jr.

My emotions My intuition My imagination My courage Those are the keys to freedom. Those are who we are.

My way of life is to dare to imagine the truest, most beautiful life, family and world - and to then conjure up the courage to make real what I have imagined.

Our beliefs determine how we experience the world.

Exterminate all the Brutes, Sven Lindqvist

If we can see anxiety-inducing situations as opportunities to improve, grow, and become better at challenges, we are less likely to avoid or distract ourselves from them.   A

Your goal should be to create a win-win-win partnership.

It may seem like writing tests slows down development; in fact, testing does not cost, it pays, both during development and over the system’s lifecycle.

Taking care of ourselves, being in charge of our lives, is a way of saying we are worthwhile, an acknowledgement of our self­worth.

The world that used to give us puzzles but now dishes up mysteries.

Think before you write, while you write- and definitely after you have written.

You have the power to choose the words you write, so choose the right ones. And yes, this applies to the workplace too. Make a difference!

As Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

leaders sell themselves and their ideas by selling their ability to convince others that they can deliver on their promises.

Your life is one big selling experience that not only leads to credibility but needs it to move forward.

It is perennial crops, however, that offer the highest potential of any food production system to sequester carbon, especially when they are grown in diverse multilayered systems.

If you’re ashamed of anything you’re doing, then STOP fucking doing it.

Here’s who I am, here’s what I have, here’s why you want it… and here’s what to do now.

A sales transaction, at its most fundamental form, is an inherently hostile act.  Both the buyer and the seller want the best possible deal.

What the fuck, let’s go do it.

The people who get the most done in life are all extreme risk-takers. They embrace change, because growth is impossible without it. But you don’t go out and start changing things willy-nilly.

Working out whether or not the claims you make in your premises are true, while important, is simply not enough to ensure that you draw true conclusions. People make this mistake all the time. They forget that you can begin with a set of entirely true beliefs but reason so poorly as to end up with entirely false conclusions. The problem is that starting with truth doesn’t guarantee ending up with it.

psychologists have long observed something they call the Einstellung effect, where having an existing solution in mind makes it harder for us to see a radically different but better way to solve our problem.

Observing, it turns out, does more than activate our visual perceptions; observed actions are mapped onto our motor systems. So if you are watching someone hitting a baseball, you're actually practicing your swing in your head. You are working all the neurological connections that you need to actually stand up and swing the bat. And so seeing can be a powerful enabler of doing (as well as a powerful enabler of empathy).

[Whenever we wonder] 'What should I do', instead of asking ourselves what's right or wrong, we must ask ourselves: [...] What is the truest, most beautiful story about [this situation in] your life you can imagine?

[When I meditate,] there in the deep, I could sense something circulating inside me. It was a Knowing. I can know things down at this level that I can't on the chaotic surface. Down here, when I pose a question about my life I sense a nudge. The nudge guides me towards [...] the next right thing, one thing at a time. That was how I began to know what to do next. That was how I began to walk through my life more clearly, solid and steady.

Instead of racking your brain to come up with solutions and ideas, you create the best possible space for the other person to think effectively about the problem. The approach is called “extreme listening,” a term coined by educationalist Nancy Kline.

I loathe black-and-white views of the world. It’s a shame that our great country has descended to this “you’re nuts if you don’t agree with me” mentality… but it’s part of the pendulum that’s been swinging back and forth ever since we left the jungle.

Remember, it’s your novel, your name, your hours of toil and trouble, so write the novel you want to write. Tell the story you want to tell. But also remember: you want someone to read it, so write a novel that people who do not love you or even know you will want to read. How? Be entertaining. Be true. Be smart. Be specific. Begin with a specific character in a specific kind of trouble in a specific place at a specific time. Get your characters to talk to each other, but not too much. Don’t have them say everything they mean. Have them say things they don’t mean, things that are not true, things that are only half-true. In other words, make them human. Have them do things they shouldn’t do. Have them make mistakes you never would. Have them fail and keep on trying.

The amygdala responds to imaginary information in the same way it responds to a real situation, so anxiety brought about by thoughts and images created in the cortex is just as strong as the anxiety you will experience from a real and live situation or threat.

This was the experience that taught me that wherever you go, whatever job you take, you always want to be working on boosting your career skills, not in the hopes that you’ll get a reward from your current company or boss—because they might not be there one day. Instead, you almost need to see yourself as a freelancer, building skills and capabilities to take with you to the next job and the next job and the next job. That’s your toolkit, and you should be adding to it all the time, because you can’t rely on a company to take care of you and nurture you and bring

The idea behind the meta-induction is that all of our theories are fundamentally provisional and quite possibly wrong, if we can add that idea to our cognitive toolkit, we will be better able to listen with curiosity and empathy to those whose theories contradict our own. We will be better able to pay attention to counterevidence - those anomalous bits of data that make our picture of the world a little weirder, more mysterious, less clean, less done. And we will be able to hold our own beliefs a bit more humbly, in the knowledge that better ideas are almost certainly on the way.

Decision makers find that asking what-would-it-take questions gives them more, better, and different Macro Tactics from which to choose. As a result, they put themselves and their organizations in stronger positions to achieve their Desired Outcome and they avoid costly and preventable mistakes

Storytelling is the difference between solving a problem and creating a cause. Lists solve a problem: Here's an issue we face, let's create a pro and con list about how to solve it and then pick the best option. A cause is something that ignites people and unites people. That is what a good story does: It creates a cause.

When peace has thoroughly permeated our brain, mind, and body, we can create it as our reality. I firmly believe that every person is a peacemaker, once thy have developed their self-awareness and creativity. Peace must not be left to government leaders or gurus. It must spring from the brains, hands, and minds of the people.

A surface desire is one that conflicts with our Knowing. We must ask our surface desires: What is the desire beneath this desire? Is it rest? Is it peace? Our deep desires are wise, true, beautiful, and things we can grant ourselves without abandoning our Knowing. Following our deep desire always returns us to integrity. If your desire feels wrong to you: Go deeper.

In the US and Canada, the buffalo were slaughtered for their hides. Often, whole carcasses were left to rot after the tongue, popular in the cuisine of the day, was removed. This slaughter was encouraged by both the American and Canadian governments and was yet another implement in the colonial toolkit. Since the buffalo were critical to the survival of the Plains people, the decimation of the herds was an intentional strike against their ability to provide for themselves, a strike against self-sufficiency. The buffalo were a scared gift to the people, providing them with food, clothing, and shelter. The wholesale slaughter was devasting to the people, not only because of the resulting impoverishment and starvation, but also because of the horror of such wanton destruction of the Creator's gifts.

In every family, culture, or religion, ideas of right and wrong are the hot cattle prods, the barking sheepdogs that keep the masses in the herd. They are the bars that keep us caged. I decided that if I kept doing the "right" thing, I would spend my life following someone else's directions instead of my own. I didn't want to live my life without living my life. I wanted to make my own decision as a free woman, from my soul.

In order to move our culture forward, revolutionaries have had to speak and plan from the unseen order inside them. For those of us who were not consulted in the building of the visible order, igniting our imagination is the only wya to see beyond what was created [before us]. If those who were not part of the building of reality only consult reality for possibiliies, reality will never change. [...] Each of us was born to bring forth something that has never existed: a way of being, a family, an idea, art, a community - something brand-new. We are here to fully introduce outselves, to impose ouselves and ideas and thoughts and dreams onto the world, leaving it changed forever by who we are and what we bring forth from our depths, So we cannot contort ourselves to fit into the visible order. We must unleash ourselves and watch the world reorder itself in front of our eyes.

>>> puzzle_letters = nltk.FreqDist('egivrvonl') >>> obligatory = 'r' >>> wordlist = nltk.corpus.words.words() >>> [w for w in wordlist if len(w) >= 6 ...                      and obligatory in w ...                      and nltk.FreqDist(w) <= puzzle_letters] ['glover', 'gorlin', 'govern', 'grovel', 'ignore', 'involver', 'lienor', 'linger', 'longer', 'lovering', 'noiler', 'overling', 'region', 'renvoi', 'revolving', 'ringle', 'roving', 'violer', 'virole']

Like all supposedly classless societies, America makes up for its lack of formal caste barriers by raising class prejudice to a fine art; the cheap shots at small town America so common among the urban middle classes who dominate today’s green scene are an expression of that, and so is the peer pressure that keeps most Americans from doing the sensible thing and buying cheap and sturdy used products in place of increasingly overpriced and slipshod new ones.

The realization that symmetry is the key to the understanding of the properties of subatomic particles led to an inevitable question: Is there an efficient way to characterize all of these symmetries of the laws of nature? Or, more specifically, what is the basic theory of transformations that can continuously change one mixture of particles into another and produce the observed families? By now you have probably guessed the answer. The profound truth in the phrase I have cited earlier in this book revealed itself once again: "Wherever groups disclosed themselves, or could be introduced, simplicity crystallized out of comparative chaos." The physicists of the 1960s were thrilled to discover that mathematicians had already paved the way. Just as fifty years earlier Einstein learned about the geometry tool-kit prepared by Riemann, Gell-Mann and Ne'eman stumbled upon the impressive group-theoretical work of Sophus Lie.

The porn kids come across on the internet, is misogynistic poison. We have to explain that to them so they don't think sex is about violence. Sex is a wonderful and exciting thing about being human. It is natural to be curious about sex and when we are curious about things, we turn to the internet for information. But here's the problem with using the internet to learn about sex: you cannot know who is doing the teaching. There are people who have taken sex and sucked all the life out of it to package it and sell it on the internet. What they’re selling is not real sex. It lacks connection, respect, and vulnerability, which is what makes sex sexy. This kind of porn is sold by people who are like drug dealers. They sell a product that fills people with a rush that feels like joy for a short while but then becomes a killer of real joy. Over time people prefer the rush of drugs to the real joy of life. Many who start watching porn very young will get hooked on the rush. Eventually, they will find it hard to enjoy real sex with real human beings. Trying to learn about sex from porn is like trying to learn about the mountains by sniffing one of those air fresheners they sell at the gas station. When you finally get to the real mountains and breathe in that pure, wild air—you might be confused. You might wish it smelled like that fake, manufactured air freshener version. We don’t want you to stay away from porn while you’re young because sex is bad. We want you to stay away from porn because real sex—with humanity and vulnerability and love—is indescribably good. We don’t want fake sex ruining real sex for you.

Over the years, a variety of studies on people suffering from different forms of anxiety and disorders help us understand. They started realizing their condition was affecting their relationships with parents, significant other, spouse, or coworkers. Many have admitted that anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder have played a massive role in damaging the relationship. Fortunately, many of these disorders are now treatable. When anxiety is out of the picture or under proper control, a relationship with loved ones once again could grow. In

We discovered this when we invited the Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman to TED. Known as the father of behavioral economics, he’s an extraordinary thinker with a toolkit of ideas that can change any worldview. We had originally asked him to speak in the traditional TED way. No lectern. Just stand on the stage, with some note cards if need be, and give the talk. But in rehearsal, it was clear that he was uncomfortable. He hadn’t been able to fully memorize the talk and so kept pausing and glancing down awkwardly to catch himself up. Finally I said to him, “Danny, you’ve given thousands of talks in your time. How are you most comfortable speaking?” He said he liked to put his computer on a lectern so that he could refer to his notes more readily. We tried that, and he relaxed immediately. But he was also looking down at the screen a little too much. The deal we struck was to give him the lectern in return for looking out at the audience as much as he could. And that’s exactly what he did. His excellent talk did not come across as a recited or read speech at all. It felt connected. And he said everything he wanted to say, with no awkwardness.

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air and saying, ‘Enough!’ I immediately feel my brain seizing up when I do that. Then, instead of being smart in handling the workload, it’s easy to make bad decisions,” he says. “You can end up catastrophizing, worrying about worst-case scenarios like missing deadlines and even losing your job. None of which helps you think any more clearly.” It’s a good description of how stressful it feels when our brain’s deliberate system gets swamped with demands, and how the resulting tumble into defensive mode makes it hard to be our most sensible selves.

Plato compared the whole self to a chariot in which reason was the driver and two irrational parts, the biological appetites and the social reactions, were two very unruly horses. The challenge that had to be solved, to him and to the Neoplatonists, was how to train these horses so that they would accept the guidance of the reins and take the chariot the way the charioteer wanted to go. Several centuries of work went into finding the best ways to meet that challenge, and the toolkit that became central to Neoplatonism from the third century CE on – well, that’s where magic comes in.7 In the writings of Neoplatonist philosophers such as Iamblichus and Proclus, the word used was theurgy or divine work, which they distinguished from thaumaturgy, working wonders, the common or garden variety magical practice that went on in classical society in much the same way that it goes on in ours. The practice of theurgy was exactly the unpopular kind of magic I introduced in the previous chapter; in the technical language of the time, it was practiced to purify the vehicles of consciousness; in the terms I have been using, it was intended to see to it that the baboonery of biological drives and social reactions didn’t interfere with the reason and the will.

Performance measure. Throughout this book, the term performance measure refers to an indicator used by management to measure, report, and improve performance. Performance measures are classed as key result indicators, result indicators, performance indicators, or key performance indicators. Critical success factors (CSFs). CSFs are the list of issues or aspects of organizational performance that determine ongoing health, vitality, and wellbeing. Normally there are between five and eight CSFs in any organization. Success factors. A list of 30 or so issues or aspects of organizational performance that management knows are important in order to perform well in any given sector/ industry. Some of these success factors are much more important; these are known as critical success factors. Balanced scorecard. A term first introduced by Kaplan and Norton describing how you need to measure performance in a more holistic way. You need to see an organization’s performance in a number of different perspectives. For the purposes of this book, there are six perspectives in a balanced scorecard (see Exhibit 1.7). Oracles and young guns. In an organization, oracles are those gray-haired individuals who have seen it all before. They are often considered to be slow, ponderous, and, quite frankly, a nuisance by the new management. Often they are retired early or made redundant only to be rehired as contractors at twice their previous salary when management realizes they have lost too much institutional knowledge. Their considered pace is often a reflection that they can see that an exercise is futile because it has failed twice before. The young guns are fearless and precocious leaders of the future who are not afraid to go where angels fear to tread. These staff members have not yet achieved management positions. The mixing of the oracles and young guns during a KPI project benefits both parties and the organization. The young guns learn much and the oracles rediscover their energy being around these live wires. Empowerment. For the purposes of this book, empowerment is an outcome of a process that matches competencies, skills, and motivations with the required level of autonomy and responsibility in the workplace. Senior management team (SMT). The team comprised of the CEO and all direct reports. Better practice. The efficient and effective way management and staff undertake business activities in all key processes: leadership, planning, customers, suppliers, community relations, production and supply of products and services, employee wellbeing, and so forth. Best practice. A commonly misused term, especially because what is best practice for one organization may not be best practice for another, albeit they are in the same sector. Best practice is where better practices, when effectively linked together, lead to sustainable world-class outcomes in quality, customer service, flexibility, timeliness, innovation, cost, and competitiveness. Best-practice organizations commonly use the latest time-saving technologies, always focus on the 80/20, are members of quality management and continuous improvement professional bodies, and utilize benchmarking. Exhibit 1.10 shows the contents of the toolkit used by best-practice organizations to achieve world-class performance. EXHIBIT 1.10 Best-Practice Toolkit Benchmarking. An ongoing, systematic process to search for international better practices, compare against them, and then introduce them, modified where necessary, into your organization. Benchmarking may be focused on products, services, business practices, and processes of recognized leading organizations.

The political forces arrayed on the side of capital have always wanted to treat labor as a commodity, driving down costs and demanding the freedom to move production to countries with the lowest wages. They have tried to prevent workers from forming unions and look for opportunities to break unions once they are formed. They have also tried to prevent governments from regulating working hours and conditions, imposing minimum wages or mandating family leave. On the other side, the workers have organized into unions, braving numerous bloody confrontations, in order to be able to bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions, and over the years have won a number of important concessions, such as laws that prohibit child labor and provide for a regulated work week, safer working conditions and so on. The heyday of this era was in the 1950s, when an assembly-line autoworker in Detroit was able to earn enough to afford a house and a car, raise a family and then retire comfortably. That era is now over.

It is evident that wealth is even more unevenly distributed than income and that the gap is widening. Since 1976, wealth has increased by 63 percent for the wealthiest 1 percent of the population and by 71 percent for the top 20 percent. Wealth has decreased by 43 percent for the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population (Economic Policy Institute 2011). The widening gap has multiple causes. First, shifts in the U.S. tax code have lowered the top tax rate from 91 percent in the years from 1950 to 1963, to 35 percent from 2003 to 2012, allowing the wealthy to retain far more of their income (Tax Policy Center 2012). Second, wages for most U.S. families have stagnated since the early 1970s. Moreover, credit card, education, and mortgage debt have skyrocketed. Finally, the collapse of the housing market beginning in 2007 dramatically affected many middleclass families who held a significant portion of their wealth in the value of their home. By 2012, fully 31 percent of all homeowners owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth (Zillow 2012).

Virtually every version of CBT for anxiety disorders involves working through what’s called an exposure hierarchy. The concept is simple. You make a list of all the situations and behaviors you avoid due to anxiety. You then assign a number to each item on your list based on how anxiety provoking you expect doing the avoided behavior would be. Use numbers from 0 (= not anxiety provoking at all) to 100 (= you would fear having an instant panic attack). For example, attempting to talk to a famous person in your field at a conference might be an 80 on the 0-100 scale. Sort your list in order, from least to most anxiety provoking. Aim to construct a list that has several avoided actions in each 10-point range. For example, several that fall between 20 and 30, between 30 and 40, and so on, on your anxiety scale. That way, you won’t have any jumps that are too big. Omit things that are anxiety-provoking but wouldn’t actually benefit you (such as eating a fried insect). Make a plan for how you can work through your hierarchy, starting at the bottom of the list. Where possible, repeat an avoided behavior several times before you move up to the next level. For example, if one of your items is talking to a colleague you find intimidating, do this several times (with the same or different colleagues) before moving on. When you start doing things you’d usually avoid that are low on your hierarchy, you’ll gain the confidence you need to do the things that are higher up on your list. It’s important you don’t use what are called safety behaviors. Safety behaviors are things people do as an anxiety crutch—for example, wearing their lucky undies when they approach that famous person or excessively rehearsing what they plan to say. There is a general consensus within psychology that exposure techniques like the one just described are among the most effective ways to reduce problems with anxiety. In clinical settings, people who do exposures get the most out of treatment. Some studies have even shown that just doing exposure can be as effective as therapies that also include extensive work on thoughts. If you want to turbocharge your results, try exposure. If you find it too difficult to do alone, consider working with a therapist.

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Toolkit: Reflect on what is contributing to your low mood

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If they can, you can too. It’s a toolkit anyone can draw upon. Find people who are going through the same challenges as you and spend time with them – or find other ways to hear their stories. By immersing yourself in vicarious success, you’ll be building a powerful story in your own mind: that if they can, you can too.

Understanding and tracking 10 most crucial google analytics metrics Google Analytics proves to be an invaluable asset for businesses of varying sizes, offering comprehensive analysis capabilities. It empowers users to gain insights into their content, websites, and incoming traffic, thereby aiding in the enhancement of overall strategy and campaign planning. It is imperative to familiarize oneself with Google Analytics before engaging in practical application. Obtaining a Google Analytics certification serves as an excellent introductory step, and it is worth noting that this certification is available for free. By incorporating Google Analytics into your digital marketing toolkit, you can significantly bolster your online marketing endeavors. For more information on analytics metrics, Google Analytics certification, and measurement, please refer to the accompanying blog.

we find that a creative approach to life, be it in the arts, sciences, or any other life context, can evolve only when there is sufficient esteem for the self.3

Put pen to paper. The people who build their truest, most beautiful lives usually do. It's hard to jump from dreaming to doing. As every architect or designer knows, here is a critical step between vision and reality. Before imagination becomes three-dimensional, it usually needs to become two-dimensional. [...] Let's look at what we've written and decide that these are not pipe dreams; these are our marching orders. These are the blueprints for our lives.

New friendship memo: For us there would be no arbitrary rules, obligations, or expectations. We would not owe each other anything other than admiration, respect, love.

But there are some to-do list essentials that we should all know if we want to help our brains navigate the day, based on the science of working memory, motivation, and goal pursuit. I don’t always see people applying these brain-friendly essentials, so here’s a checklist for you to consider: Write it down as soon as it comes to mind. Never waste your brain’s precious working memory by trying to hold your tasks or ideas in your head. Use your intelligence for getting things done, rather than trying to remember what you need to do. That means having a process for capturing to-dos as soon as they occur to you, even if you then end up transferring them to a master list. Only keep today’s tasks in view. You might have a grand list of tasks you’d like to complete in the coming weeks or months. But once you’ve decided what you really need and want to get done today, work off that list, and hide the rest. As long as your longer-term items are visible, they’ll use up a little of your brain’s processing capacity—and may even depress you a little if your long list is very long. Make it satisfying to check off. If you’re online, give yourself a box to check, and a ping or a swoosh to hear. If you’re working on paper, give yourself the satisfaction of a big bold line through everything you’ve done. The more rewarding it feels to track your progress, the more your brain will tend to spur you toward getting things done. Be realistic about what you can do in a day. Progress feels good to your brain’s reward system; failure doesn’t. Do you have five things you’d like to tackle today, but know you probably only have time for three? It’s better to feel great about nailing three tasks. If you succeed and find you’ve got more time, you’ll be flushed with motivation to seek out one or two more tasks. Include mind-body maintenance. Put exercise, rest, and other physical health goals on your list alongside your other tasks. If you take a moment to put “take a walk” on the list, you’re way more likely to build it into your day rather than let it be crowded out by other demands—just as defining goals for anything makes it more likely you’ll get it done.

people are far more likely to achieve their goals if they think hard about both the outcome they want and the obstacles they’re facing, and plan for both.

In a third study, where volunteers were given a test to measure their concentration, those who were asked to wear a lab coat made half the number of errors of those who wore their street clothes

But I discovered that when I was struggling to stay on track with the intentions I’d set in the morning, it really helped to literally remove everything from my desk. Clear the space, and I suddenly feel clearheaded. The effect is nothing short of miraculous.

René Marois, director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, showed that people doing two tasks simultaneously took up to 30 percent longer and made twice as many errors as those who completed the same tasks in sequence—findings that have been replicated time and again by other scientists.

Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory about every Christian (journeying from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City), but it is particularly reflective of Bunyan’s own experience. A tinker by trade, Bunyan was used to travelling from village to village with a 60-pound anvil and hefty toolkit on his back: it became a model for the great burden of sin his pilgrim carries on his back (until he comes to the cross and it is ‘loosed from off his shoulders’ to his enormous relief).

What if you could identify the roots of these emotions and unplug them for good? Cognitive therapy offers a basic toolkit for dealing with emotions to people who lack it.

So what are these magical coaching questions? They’re based on something known as the “GROW model”—because they walk people through steps called the goal, reality, options, and way forward: Goal. What does the ideal outcome look like? Reality. What’s the current situation—the good and the bad? Options. What are the options for moving forward? (Always start with the other person’s ideas. Tell them you’re happy to add yours, but that you want to start with theirs.) Way forward. What is their first step going to be? When will they take it? What help do they need?

Avoid the joy-killing phrase “Yes, but . . .” when you spot a problem with someone’s suggestion. Instead, try “Yes, and . . . ,” to signal that you’re adding your perspective alongside that suggestion rather than in conflict with it.

Ensuring that colleagues feel that workplace decisions are fair not only keeps their reward systems happy, but leaves people with more mental energy to focus on other things.

You can’t avoid the fact that decisions sometimes benefit certain people more than others. But you can demonstrate that the process behind the decisions is fair.

simply pausing and asking, “What’s the right way to solve this, ideally?” When I feel frustrated by a lack of progress, I often find that’s enough to put me in a more exploratory mindset.

When the rush is there, you're not acting like yourself. You're nervous and insecure. There's no critical thinking and you make idiotic choices: I just want to rip his clothes off and breathe his air and so what if he's clinically depressed!

What we believe, we become.

Today, most of us don’t face such immediate pressure to survive, but we still find it hard to make a sacrifice now for a benefit later. We can do it, but only with significant effort; it taxes sophisticated neural networks in our brain’s deliberate system, those associated with self-regulation and planning. Meanwhile, plenty of immediate rewards tempt us, like chatting with colleagues, browsing websites, or crossing off the easy tasks on our to-do list. So our automatic system, always keen to expend the least amount of mental energy possible, reaches for those rewards instead.

Introduction to Strategic Analysis1

There’s a car racing metaphor I find helpful when I’m trying to remind myself to look up from my laptop and take a break. When I was a child, I visited the maintenance pit of the famous Silverstone Formula One racetrack, and of course it was fascinating to learn about the tire switches and refueling that mechanics were able to do in just a few seconds. But what stayed with me most was the idea that success was determined not only by the car’s speed on the track, but also by the “pit strategy”—the race team’s scheduled pit stops. Each stop was a tactical investment in performance, a deliberate slowing down, to enable the car to speed up afterward. Pit stops are not wasted time—they’re an essential part of an efficient, well-planned race. And your brain is like that race car. Downtime is as important to your work as every other part of your day, and you need to make sure you get enough of that time throughout the day. Plan for it, protect it, respect it.

Robyn also uses a quick reflection practice that she invented, which she calls “DATE,” an acronym that reminds her to think back on her day and recall what she’s discovered (“which could be an interesting fact or lesson learned, or perhaps something I’ll do differently tomorrow”), something she achieved, one thing she’s thankful for, and something she wants to remember that she experienced, whether in her work or beyond.

another reason so many of us often feel overloaded is because of something called the planning fallacy.1 This describes the fact that we typically expect tasks to take less time than they actually do, because we base our estimates on one standout memory—our best past experience—rather than the average time it’s taken us to do similar tasks in the past.

when you’re estimating the amount of time a task is going to take, balance your brain’s natural optimism by imagining a scenario where things don’t go entirely your way. Then plan for something close to that.

Unfinished tasks are like screaming kindergartners—much easier to handle when you get them to sit down quietly.

I look at all the things on my plate and say, ‘Okay, what really needs to happen by the end of the day?’ That clarity can be quite de-stressing.” What if there are multiple urgent things to do? “If I ask myself honestly, there’s always one thing that’s really top priority, usually because other things depend on it or there’s really more at stake in the longer term. And the other things can be deferred or delegated or dropped if I really analyze it.

What’s the smallest first step you can take to move things forward?

We so often get pulled into tasks that we should, by rights, be asking others to help with. We tell ourselves that they’re not quite as experienced or knowledgeable as us, or that it will be quicker if we just do it ourselves. But there’s a massive cost to this way of thinking. By being unwilling to delegate tasks that others could reasonably help with, we fail to make progress on the important or tricky things that only we can do.

Normally Anthony would have written something like this: “I’m so sorry, but unfortunately I’m no longer going to be able to join you on the trip to KL. We’ve recently taken on three big projects and I’m finding myself swamped with all that entails. As a result, I just can’t carve out the time to make it possible, despite my best efforts. Huge apologies again.” By comparison, his positive no went something like this: “I was honored that you invited me to KL. The work you’re doing is fascinating and impressive [warmth]. As you might know, our side of the business has also grown enormously in the past few months. We’ve taken on three exciting new projects that will really change the way our clients think about marketing. I’ll be setting up the projects in the coming month, and it’s my responsibility to make them the success they deserve to be [his yes]. To do a good job, though, I’m having to let go of a lot of things. And sadly, one of them is the chance to come to KL. I’m disappointed, as I was looking forward to it [his no]. Please let me know if it would be helpful to connect you with people who might take my place and add value to the group—I have a few ideas. In the meantime, I wish you all the best for a fruitful trip [warmth].

What can you do to help someone who has a pain point?

How to Use This Book This

When we find ourselves labeling someone as dumb, lazy, or annoying, it should raise a red flag. How much of that person’s behavior is driven by circumstance, and how much is driven by character?

The environments we grow up in can equip us with crippling weaknesses, but a weakness in one environment isn’t always a weakness in another.

When out and about, point out social situations in which one person is ignoring the other through their use of a phone (bad dates, parents ignoring soccer games, concerts, Starbucks where every single person is on a phone). Ask them, “What do you think the other person is feeling?” If you’re ready to give a younger child a phone or Internet access, study resources such as Adam Pletter’s iParent101.com and the American Pediatrics Association’s Media and Children Communication Toolkit to educate yourself about the games and apps your kid uses. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (esrb.org) offers useful information about setting parental controls on games. Other sources we recommend are OnGuardOnline, which offers tips for protecting your computers; Common Sense Media, which rates programs and apps; and iKeepSafe.org, a fount of information about keeping kids safe online. Above all, talk to your children and let them know that it’s your job to help them learn to use technology well. Say, “There’s a whole world available on this gadget. If you get into something that’s scary for you, I want you to let me know.” Let kids know you’ll check their texts and Twitter page randomly until you feel they are not using it in a way that’s hurtful to others or that makes them vulnerable to being hurt—and then do it. Make video game use contingent on not freaking out when it’s time to quit. If your kid is using technology excessively, consider consulting with a psychologist or counselor.

Plus I’m a bit of a germaphobe. Gloves solve both issues.” Not to mention they were an essential part of my toolkit.

Begin with the end in mind.

Slow down to speed up.

Modern brain imaging has revealed that individuals with ADHD have unique structural and chemical nuances in their brains that influence everything from their emotional responses to impulse control.

Are you fed? Are you watered? How much or how little caffeine have you had today? Are you tired? How are you feeling emotionally? How does your body feel? Do you have an “emotional hangover?” (being tired from a strong emotional response from the day before) Have you taken a deep breath today? Have you connected with nature today? Have you moved your body today? Have you connected with someone you care about today? Have you witnessed or listened to something beautiful or pleasurable?

The Salt Path,

Act like the person you want to be and eventually you become that person. Be the light you seek.

Arguably the most consequential product ever invented was the wheel. What most people don’t realize is that it took over 300 years (and, as Pirate Christopher likes to say, “And a bottle of whiskey Jack and a bag of Mary Jane”) for somebody to tilt the thing on its side and use the wheel for transportation. Before that, the wheel was only used for pottery. So, if the greatest product ever could not speak for itself, then what makes today’s entrepreneurs think their product (in and of itself) will drive its own growth?

Resolve dilemmas with greater ease. Ask “What could I do?” rather than “What should I do?

Anxious people tend to think about the potential harm of acting more than the potential harm of not acting.

Covers you for in-patient hospital care. Has no premium if you qualify. Has a $1,408 deductible per benefit period. May have more than one benefit period in a year and you may have to pay more than one deductible in a year. Does not cover emergency room care.

It’s just that little bit harder for our brains to think clearly about evidence that goes against our views—and the brain’s automatic system doesn’t like hard work.

It’s why for every 20-degree increase in a day’s temperature, researchers found that car dealers sell 8.5 percent more convertibles.5 “It’s been sunny in the last few hours, so a convertible is the right investment for me,” goes the logic of your shortsighted automatic system.

Another shortcut we take is to assume that if something is easy to understand and remember, it’s probably correct.

So it’s important for us to know that when we’re making decisions, we—and others—will instinctively tend to overvalue the status quo compared with new options, unless we stop to think properly about how splendid the unfamiliar thing might really be.

I’ve seen one technique that generally succeeds in improving our average level of wisdom: adopting a go-to cross-check rule that’s simple enough to become part of your routine anytime you’re doing something important. Here are five cross-check rules that I’ve seen people deploy effectively: “Don’t Default,” “Devil’s Advocate,” “Mandate Dissent,” “Never Say Never,” and “Pre-mortem.

In 2019, Dr. A. Luciano et al. reported a list of drugs repurposed for colorectal cancer treatment currently in clinical trials. This list includes: aspirin, celecoxib, doxycycline, etodolac, indomethacin, mebendazole, metformin, niclosamide, propranolol, simvastatin, and valproate. (35)

The Body Keeps the Score

It is important to believe in yourself and practice self-compassion. Your reality is governed by your thought process. Ensure you back yourself up and tide through challenges successfully.

strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it. ~ Ziad K. Abdelnour

Life becomes simpler when we pay more attention to the journey rather than the destination. There is a lot to notice, learn, and take in if we fully embrace the process.

Life comprises a blend of challenges and achievements. The lessons derived from the challenges form the backbone of personal growth and development.

By regularly visualizing your goals, you activate your subconscious mind and align your thoughts, beliefs, and actions toward making those goals a reality.

Gratitude has a far more profound impact on the overall well-being of the universe. The positive ripples created by a simple act of thankfulness have a far-reaching impact, leading to rewarding outcomes.

Questions are important. They ignite curiosity, deepen understanding, and pave the path for original thinking.

Prioritizing life balance fosters a sense of self-awareness, enabling you to cultivate a framework for pursuing passions. These pursuits lead to the discovery of meaning and purpose in life, enriching your overall life experience.

Value is the compass that defines what is acceptable to us and what is not.

Values do not stop with reflection or knowing what needs to be done. They are not just what you say or think is the right thing to do. Values are reflected through what you do.

Life balance is not about achieving perfect symmetry or equal attention to every aspect. It is about prioritizing what matters most to you at any given time and finding a sustainable equilibrium that aligns with your values and goals.

When there is authentic self-expression and genuine emotional engagement, there is synergy and growth.

True wisdom lies in the deliberate pursuit of a life filled with purpose, mindfulness, and compassion. Live each moment with intention, for it is in these moments that the essence of life is truly discovered.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his portable toolkit – or 'Action Kit', as he preferred to call it –

I have provided a detailed explanation of the relationship between science and religion elsewhere (Cragun forthcoming). In short, science and religion can contradict each other, but they don’t have to. Really it is fundamentalist religion that most clearly contradicts science (Emerson and Hartman 2006), while liberal religions are typically accepting of science (Cragun 2013a). An excellent illustration of how science has completely undermined fundamentalist beliefs by contradicting literalist interpretations of scripture is the overwhelming body of evidence that contradicts the Noachian flood myth (R. A. Moore 1983).

It is my conviction that corporate cultures which are defined by inclusion, kindness and ‘humanness’ will outperform those which are not.” - Monica Jonsson

It is my conviction that corporate cultures which are defined by inclusion, kindness and ‘humanness’ will outperform those which are not.

There is no failure, only feedback. All experience is information

A contract is an indispensable tool in the professional toolkit of any freelancer. It establishes a framework for the business relationship, ensuring clarity, fairness, and protection for both parties.

A truck probably constitutes the most important piece of equipment in the serial killer's toolkit here in the U.S. It's a modus operandi and getaway vehicle rolled into one.

A consequence of the brain’s plasticity is that it may change with every experience, thought and emotion, from which it follows that you yourself have the potential power to change your brain with everything that you do, think, and feel. So brain fitness and optimization are about much more than crossword puzzles and blueberries; they are about cultivating a new mindset and mastering a new toolkit that allow us to appreciate and take full advantage of our brains’ incredible properties.

Meditation need not mean sitting in a special posture. Nonetheless, we can use certain physical and mental exercises to calm the noises of the mind and body, and sensitize us to the sound of the soul.

When we allow a preconception to rule our behavior, we are actually allowing our past to control our present and future.

I am always doing that which I cannot do in order to learn how to do it.”  Pablo Picasso.

The emergency state tradition also taught them [presidents] to see war against another state as the strongest available tool in the foreign policy toolkit, even though no enemy state had sponsored the 9/11 attacks and Al-Qaeda could easily survive the defeat of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. When your toolbox has only hammers, everything starts looking like a nail.

Human Technology suggests that meditative experience can be deeper if preceded by stimulation and energizing our bodies and breath.We do this through "meridian exercises", an effective way of moving our bodies to improve our breath-work and to enhance our awareness while energizing our bodies.

Being is a more awakened state than having. To be is to exist in a space of pure choice and creation

No one has yet figured out how to manage people effectively into battle; they must be led,” wrote John Kotter

Remember that we remember very little! 10%              of what we read or hear 50%              of what we hear and see 80%              of what we say 90%              of what we say while doing   For

Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy has demonstrated that standing for two minutes in a ‘power pose’ – a stance in which we expand our body and take up space – has the benefit of increasing testosterone (a hormone that makes us feel powerful) and decreasing cortisol (a hormone released during the fight, flight, or freeze response that makes us feel anxious).

The Confidence Cycle is also a reminder of how important a growth mindset is. We become good at something, and confident at doing it, by practising it, and not because we were born with a special gift or disposition. Our abilities and skills aren’t fixed – we become experts in, or competent at, the things we practise.

Engagement is the ability to be present instead of caught up in our thoughts. It is about being fully in the moment; being open to, curious about, and actively involved in our here and now experience.

Has everyone got their civil etiquette handbooks, bags of joy and transformation toolkits? He asked as he held ip a pamphlet, a bright golden star and a small black velvet bag that almost overflowed with a glowing, golden substance that seemed to wriggle around as he spoke.

So the study appeared to indicate that our expectations, and beliefs about our behaviour — our mindset — can influence outcomes, or put another way, ‘the effect you expect is the effect you get.’   MINDSET

but they saw each failure as a necessary part of the process to getting things right. They embraced the failures because they told them what they needed to do differently. Failing was a necessary part of the process.  So they solved the problem not by developing a beautiful theoretical master plan, but by interaction with the real world – their approach mirrored how change happens in nature.   I

anxiety can be produced from two different areas of the brain; the cortex, which produces anxiety based on what we think about, and the amygdala, which reacts to what is happening in our environment.

Due to neuroplasticity, whatever you devote a lot of time to thinking about in great detail is more likely to be strengthened, creating a vicious circle.

As an analogy, imagine you’re driving a bus, while all the passengers (thoughts) are noisily chattering, being critical, or shouting out directions. You can allow them to shout, but choose not to engage with them, keeping your attention focused on the road ahead.

So our ancestors remembered every bad thing that happened and spent much of their lives anticipating more trouble, and this is the mind we inherited from them.

In his book, The Happiness Trap, leading ACT practitioner Dr Russ Harris, explains that negative thoughts are only considered problematic if we get caught up in them, give them all of our attention, treat them as the absolute truth, allow them to control us, or get in a fight with them.

Indeed, long-term elevated cortisol levels can lower immune function and bone density; elevate blood pressure, cholesterol and body weight; increase the risk of heart disease, depression and mental illness; and interfere with learning and memory.

Scientists used to think the brain reached maturity around the age of 25 years and then deteriorated. Now we know it’s much more like a muscle, and while it ultimately weakens over our lifespan, when we use specific neural pathways in our brain, they become stronger, and if we don’t, they become weaker.

>>> wn.synset('car.n.01').definition 'a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine' >>> wn.synset('car.n.01').examples ['he needs a car to get to work']

The sponsor’s primary goal is adding value to the target markets’ experiences with the event and with their brand.

Sponsors don’t want to connect with your event. They want to connect with your target market.