Month: March 2017

Productive instead of right 

Try substituting the words productive and counterproductive when you want to say right and wrong. How do you feel different as a result?  Can you have a productive conversation with those that would otherwise be offended by the words right and wrong? 

Feeling good shouldn’t be preferred over feeling bad

Quite often there’s a false dichotomy between feeling pleasure and feeling pain. We seek pleasure and avoid pain. And, feelings quite often are inaccurate summaries of the world around you. They’re often out of touch with reality.  So does it matter if you feel “good” versus “bad?”  Or is it more important to understand that either way you can become…

Speak up for the people that are waiting to talk to you

Tonight while I was working out I was using a machine for a while. I like to do about 12 sets on leg press and lounge between sets.  Anyways, I noticed somebody looked like they were interested in using the machine I was using.  Between sets I noticed that they kept moving a little bit closer and checking to see…

How to change another person’s mind

We rarely recognize that any interaction we have with another person influences who we are and what we do. Someone might try to persuade you to change your mind about pending legislation or a decision at work.  And certainly if you vehemently disagree then you aren’t going to budge, or are you? You’ve countless times found yourself saying: “I’m not…

It’s not the cell phone user, it’s you 

It’s entertaining at the gym to listen to people complain about other gym goers. A frequent complaint is cell phone use.  If I am on my phone during sets people feel justified to bitch and complain and be rude. If I’m staring at the wall, people are polite if they approach me at all. I can stare for 10 minutes…

Hook, Relate, Elaborate

When teaching, use the formula: Hook, Relate, Elaborate For example, if I’m going to teach someone to tie their shoes. I might say “There are three simple steps for tying shoes.” (hook) Then, I would tie my own shoes while they watch. (relate) Then I would go into detail about what I did, probably once again tying my own shoes and/or…

What do you think of you? 

What do you think of yourself? When something goes wrong, how do you feel about you?  When something goes well, how do you feel about you?  When things are just going, how do you feel about you?  Quite often you’re hard on yourself unnecessarily. It’s rare for another person to judge you as much as you judge yourself. That can…