Success in Balance

Teen is running out of innings, but the game still isn’t over

When asked where he gained his wisdom, he answered, “Through cancer.”

Wow, as I read this I was inspired and thought perhaps that’s the direction Success in Balance should go. Perhaps this should be a site full of encouraging links. There’s so many things to be thankful for, it all depends on what we focus on. We can learn so much from and through adversity. We can also learn a lot from others…if we jst slow down for a minute to reflect. This story reminded me of that and I need to be reminded more often.

Grace & Peace!

ABC News: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life

Professor Randy Pausch’s inspiring last lecture at Carnegie Mellon about living life to the fullest struck a chord with people all over the country. Seven months later, Pausch talks about his battle with cancer, his family and how that last lecture changed his life.

Wow, every time I listen to Randy I  get something of value. I came across this web page by ABC News with interviews and links to his lectures and just found it so inspirational. So I thought I would share. I hope you find it encouraging as I did.

I just read this interesting article by John Dvorak. The interesting thing is it is a PC Mag article. His whole premise is that phones have not made life better, in fact in many ways it has created some misplaced priorities. At least that’s my take. At first I didn’t agree, but the more I thought about it the more I think he is right. A friend and I had an e-mail conversation earlier today about the latest smart phones and PDAs. We really like the promise of convenience, but is it a reality? Do they allow me to work from the beach and thus allow me to spend more time at the beach? Or a ballgame or someplace else I enjoy? The reality is they could, but instead I can now work from the beach when I would have been at the beach anyway. So the reality is they enable work to creep into my private life…not a good thing.

Years ago scholars predicted with all the improvements we would be able to work 20 hours a week. But what has really happened? All the improvements mean we can now work 70 hours a week.

Gadgets can help with success in balance, but they must be used strategically. So instead of running out to get the next gadget, think about how it will make your life better…I mean really better.

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Twelve-steps to curing e-mail addiction - CNN.com

An executive coach in Pennsylvania has devised a plan to teach people how to manage the electronic tool, which some users say can be as much an intrusive waste of time as it is fast-paced and efficient.

Developed for cases such as a golfer who checked his BlackBerry after every shot, and lost a potential client who wanted nothing to do with his obsession, Marsha Egan’s plan taps into deepening concern that e-mail misuse can cost businesses millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Fascinating article that for me touches on many levels. First is the addiction part. Sure I think many are addicted to the instant gratification that e-mail can provide and also the idea of living up to expectations. For academics this can be very real. Last semester I had a student e-mail me at 6:30pm with a question, but I was out at a family function. When I returned home and checked e-mail at 9:30pm (just 3 hours) I was greeted with a nasty note “why have you not responded”.

But the reality of this article is that it is more about time management and setting priorities than then addiction. There are some good tips for keeping e-mail under control. As our attention spans continue to get smaller and smaller we need to work hard to bring them back up or the IQ of the entire nation will eventually suffer.

FOXNews.com - Happyness Found in Fatherhood - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs

It will also remind them to be encouraged, because some of their best fathering may start when they are flat on their back. After all, success in life, and in fathering, is less about how many times one falls, but rather, about how many times one gets back up.

One more movie to add to the holiday viewing list

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Cheer up: You hold key to being happy
Think about three good things that happened to you each day before you go to sleep…

People keep doing it on their own because it’s immediately rewarding, said Seligman colleague Acacia Parks. It makes people focus more on good things that happen, which might otherwise be forgotten because of daily disappointments, she said.

Miller said that the exercise made her notice more good things in her day, and that now she routinely lists 10 or 20 of them, rather than just three.

Great article with some great perspectives. We are what we think and when we think happy we eventually become happy

Sort of like Thanksgiving every day!

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Having money helps, to a point

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner and Princeton economist, and colleagues recently declared that the notion that making a lot of money will produce good overall mood is “mostly illusory.”They noted that in one study, people with household incomes of $90,000 or more were only slightly more likely to call themselves “very happy” overall than were people from households making $50,000 to $89,999. The rates were 43 percent versus 42 percent, respectively.

Definitely interesting to think about this article. What role does money play in your happiness? Sure it does not cure issues, but it can do other things. I suspect if they accounted for other issues, such as marital state, family relationships etc. they could have explained more of the difference. That’s why we all need balance.

ESPN.com - NCF - Curry: The pain of discipline vs. the pain of regret

No one is pressing for the solution to this growing menace. No one is putting it into context. “The coach must take responsibility,” pontificates the former coach. “Fire the coach” scream the boosters who, by the way, always scream, “Fire the coach”. “I wish the coach would teach my son how to behave,” exclaim the parents. The paltry one-game suspension by conference officials would be a bad joke, but is made even worse by certain Miami boosters, who are suggesting that all this is a badge of honor, and “returns Miami to its rightful place in football.” “Just what our program needs right now,” they crow in their delirium.

Wow, what an incredible article. Curry hits the ball out of the park. Have you been watching the UM-FIU mess? Pretty sorry state of affairs. I was just lamenting with a colleague about the total lackm of leadership we are seeing in society right now. Everyone is focused on the hear and now. No one wants to deal with the long term. No one wants to pay the price now for success later. But as I look at it more closely I am not real happy about what I see in my own life. Too often I make the easy choice instead of the tough one that has longterm implications. What about you?

Actually, I have more thoughts about this article, but will leave it at this now.

Darren Hardy Blog: Stress-Free Life (2b of 10)

Every emotion you have is good or bad by the label YOU have given it. In the grand scheme of things, there really is no good or bad. It is just an illusion created by the opinion you or others (that you have accepted) have given it.

Good post about stress by Darrn Hardy of TSTN, stress is the result of illusions we create and how we deal with those illusions. It just shows how we can better handle our stress. Good stuff from TSTN as usual

Yes, what an interesting word. Sometime we say yes and we mean it, sometimes we say yes and we are simply trying to move something forward without conflict. But have you ever thought how yes impacts no? Well, one of the first things we learned when learning about how to take control of our time and achieve success is that we need to learn to say No! Sounds simple, but before we can really say no, and mean it, we need to learn to say Yes! But to really say yes we need to know what is important to us and why we are saying yes in the first place. Over the years I have learned to say no more often (still not often enough) but I am still struggling with yes. Sometime I say yes because of the person that is asking. I still say yes way too often, but I am really not saying Yes! Rather I am saying “ok” or simply agreeing. We need to move beyond ok and get to Yes!

So what does all this rambling mean? Take some time to think about what you are really saying yes too. If you can really say yes to the things that are most important to you, it makes saying no that much easier.

Hoping you find your Yes! And I find mine