Accountability Gratitude Productivity
My Daruma doll, which I’ve written about in a previous blog, is about to get another black eye. Please watch the video to see what happens.
Character Move:
Gratitude in the Triangle,
Lorne
The irony in launching The Character Triangle: Build Character, Have an Impact, and Inspire Others…
My website host has been rock solid for all the time my website has been up (since April 2010). My team did extensive planning to make sure we had a smooth book launch. Yesterday after my blog was posted, and after I sent an extensive email announcement that my book was available for purchase, it came to my attention that my site was down! (Since 7:00 am PDT no less.) The hosting company, which has been very reliable to date, had network issues and a number of other back-up challenges. I wish I could tell you it was because my book went viral and overloaded the servers, but I don’t think that was the root cause. Ha-ha.
Anyway, by 3:00 pm PDT yesterday, the site was up and running again but I know a lot of customers were bounced… …darn. I apologize if that happened to you. It is so enticing to want to blame someone and feel victimized, etc. But instead, if I take a deep breath, I realize this gives me an opportunity to contact you again about the book, and practice the principles I write about. Now I don’t say in the book that it is always easy or even enjoyable to live in the Triangle. If I want to live the principles, it doesn’t mean just doing so when all is groovy.
Also, based on the feedback we’ve received you can now click on the image of my book and go directly to the order page. But, if you are NOT on my site and reading this as a subscription e-mail, please go http://www.lornerubis.com to order the book.
Character Move:
Re-launching in the Triangle,
Lorne
Today, October 25,2011, The Character Triangle: Build Character, Have an Impact, and Inspire Others is now available for purchase! Hooray!
To order my book, please click on the “book” tab (above; on the navigation bar at the top of my home page). You can buy the book in any format AND receive a 25% discount by applying the following friends and family discount code – “LRCT”. Please feel free to share this code with anyone who you think might enjoy the book.
What I most care about is that readers apply concepts taken from the book, and as a result improve the well being of themselves and others. I know practicing the Character Triangle as a system WILL build character, have an impact, and inspire others. And that defines success in a very personal and unique way.
Character Move:
Thank you for celebrating with me. Reading and making the book come alive completes the book. THANK YOU!
Celebrating in the Triangle,
Lorne
Accountability Communication Personal leadership
Have you used the process called STP for engaging in effective discussions and problem solving? I use it every day. It is the most useful communication tool in my daily skill value kit. Practice it and I guarantee you will be grateful for the results!
STP in the Triangle,
Lorne
I guess it was my weekend for movies that shove mortality to the front of my thinking.
My wife and I saw 50/50 in the theater. The story revolves around a young man with spinal cancer and a glimpse into his search for healing and survival. At home we ended up watching Sister’s Keeper, different but with the same theme. But, just in the nick of time a loved one gave me an antidote I’d like to share with you – a nine minute video celebrating life.
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades. As a visual artist, Louie has created some of the most iconic and memorable film moments of our time. For TED Talks, Schwartzberg presents a video of gratitude and uses the fresh eyes of a child and senior to help us stop and take notice.
Character Move: I challenge you to take nine minutes, stop yourself from what you’re doing now, to soak in the following video. Louis helps us pause to inhale that which is present. And this very moment is all we really know for sure that we have. One moment our mortality will be standing right beside us. Hopefully your investment in the nine minutes will be an insight into how to make the distance longer and richer.
Having Gratitude for life in the Triangle,
Lorne
Growth mindset Management Respect
“The real act of discovery consists not of finding new lands but in seeing the land with new eyes.”
Marcel Proust, French Philosopher
IBM annually surveys about 1500 CEOs and asks them to identify the most critical issues facing their businesses. The most recent survey highlighted two issues: 1) managing complexity, and 2) developing creativity. They also emphasize that the need for innovation from individuals and groups as perhaps the most elusive trait, obviously necessary to address the complexity challenge. This data has personal implications for you and me. As the world changes faster and faster around us, if we are not constantly reinventing ourselves, we will likely be replaced by someone who brings more value and/or a better approach. How do we constantly reinvent ourselves? What can we learn from people who study and apply innovation as a core business?
IDEO is a highly reputable firm located in Palo Alto, California. They are hired by tier one firms to bring creative solutions to solve big time problems and/or create new market opportunities. They have worked on literally thousands of projects usually concluding with outstanding outcomes for their clients. In studying what the most important ingredients for driving creativity and innovation, they highlight two very important elements underneath their success: 1) Become an anthropologist, and 2) think verbs not nouns. If you want to dig deeper to understand the analysis behind this, read books written by Tom Kelley.
By becoming an anthropologist IDEO challenges us to do the opposite of Déjà Vu (i.e. “we’ve been there before”) and to apply vuja de – to see where we are with fresh eyes. Thinking in verbs rather than nouns, IDEO emphasizes that we tend to focus on providing an experience. And it’s an experience that generates and creates feeling and emotion; something others can find value in.
Character Move:
Let’s reinvent and create every day. The world around us is changing daily but that just provides us a glorious incentive to sharpen our anthropological skills and evolve….clearly a verb!
Vuja de in the Triangle,
Lorne