Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

Archives for December 2024

Our 10 Most Popular Articles of 2024

By Leave a Comment

Top Blog Articles of 2024 Here are our most popular exclusive features of 2024. Pass this on to your friends; if they like these, they can sign up to receive our RSS feeds.

  1. Stop Blaming Your Parents for Your Current Problems. Blaming your parents traps you in the past, preventing growth. Therapy should empower you to focus on what’s within your control today, allowing you to move beyond old wounds and embrace positive change.
  2. Embrace Imperfection to Thrive Like Toyota. Toyota’s culture fosters continuous self-reflection, known as “Hansei,” where mistakes are acknowledged and used to improve. Regular “Hansei-Kai” meetings ensure ongoing progress by analyzing performance and discouraging the pursuit of perfection.
  3. Conquer Paralysis, Not Fear. Fear may hold you back, but paralysis keeps you stuck in place. By acknowledging and embracing fear, you can push past it.
  4. Turn Disagreements into Dialogue Using Neutral Phrasing. Use neutral language, like “it seems,” to separate the person from the problem, reducing defensiveness. This approach encourages understanding, fosters meaningful conversation, and shifts focus from blame to mutual problem-solving.
  5. Discover Why Philosophy Matters for Your Life. Philosophy helps explore deep questions about existence, ethics, and meaning, offering guidance toward more fulfilling pursuits. It encourages the development of virtues and principles, with an emphasis on living a life grounded in purpose rather than mere happiness.
  6. Host a Personal Hackathon: Innovation Isn’t Just for Tech Companies. The hackathon, initially a tech-driven event, sparks creativity and rapid results. Dedicate time to neglected projects, idea brainstorming, or team collaboration—creating a focused, deadline-driven environment that promotes innovation and clears backlogs.
  7. Avoid Undermining Your Success with Smarts Alone. Overvaluing intelligence can limit your success. Neglecting diplomacy, ignoring feedback, and working independently can hold you back.
  8. Pitch Problems, Not Ideas, to Drive Innovation. By focusing on problems instead of ideas, you inspire collaboration and creative solutions. Problems resonate on an emotional level, engaging others, while ideas often meet resistance.
  9. Think Before You Drop That Truth Bomb. Before speaking your truth, ask yourself: Does it need to be said now, and by you? Consider timing and context, as sometimes holding back can preserve relationships and avoid unnecessary conflict.
  10. Lead with Toughness, Not Popularity. True leadership requires making difficult, sometimes unpopular decisions. Focus on organizational goals and facts, not personal approval.

And here are some articles of yesteryear that continue to be popular:

We wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2025!

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Our 10 Most Popular Articles of 2022
  2. Our 10 Most Popular Articles of 2023
  3. In Praise of Inner Voices: A Powerful Tool for Smarter Decisions
  4. Situational Blindness, Fatal Consequences: Lessons from American Airlines 5342
  5. Accidents Can Happen When You Least Expect Them: The Overconfidence Effect

Inspirational Quotations #1082

By Leave a Comment

We can ask ourselves daily what we have done to make the world a better place, to make someone smile, to help someone to feel more secure, etc. It’s the simple things which have the greatest effect. We must never underestimate the strength of a smile or act of kindness.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

It is ridiculous ever to forget that you and your business are each implanted in the society of the moment…. We cannot ignore the world of our time. We had better understand it.
—J. Irwin Miller (American Industrialist)

In a profound sense every man has two halves to his being; he is not one person so much as two persons trying to act in unison. I believe that in the heart of each human being there is something which I can only describe as a “child of darkness” who is equal and complementary to the more obvious “child of light”.
—Laurens van der Post (South African Explorer, Writer)

Youth is something very new: twenty years ago no one mentioned it.
—Coco Chanel (French Fashion Designer)

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over gain, and you will grow stronger until have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.
—Anne Sullivan Macy (American Educator)

The little I knew about my own self wouldn’t have filled a thimble!
—Alice Walker (American Novelist, Activist)

Inaction is bad leadership, but it can feel safer than action because to act is to open yourself up to criticism.
—Jeffrey Immelt (American Businessperson)

All natural objects … all forms, colours, and scents … are types of some spiritual truth or existence.
—Charles Kingsley (English Clergyman)

Remember that pain has this most excellent quality: if prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)

Book Summary of Bill Perkins’s Die With Zero

By Leave a Comment

'Die With Zero' by Bill Perkins (ISBN 0358099765) Hedge fund manager Bill Perkins’s Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life (2020) emphasizes the unpredictability of life and how wealth can breed attachment. Instead of hoarding resources for an uncertain future, you should focus on maximizing life experiences while you are still healthy enough to enjoy them.

Perkins outlines how priorities shift through different life stages. Many retirees feel unprepared to truly enjoy their golden years, despite having the financial means to do so. Rather than viewing this time merely as a financial reserve, retirees should strive to make those years vibrant and fulfilling. Ultimately, at the end of life, accumulated wealth holds no intrinsic value.

Idea for Impact: Riches alone will leave your stories untold. Balance prudent thrift with meaningful enjoyment of the present by intentionally spending on experiences that align with current means. Don’t keep delaying the good stuff. Live to the core.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Yes, Money Can Buy Happiness
  2. The Extra Salary You Can Negotiate Ain’t Gonna Make You Happy
  3. The Problem with Modern Consumer Culture
  4. Beyond Money’s Grasp: A Deeper Drive to Success
  5. I’ll Be Happy When …

Some Worry is Useful

By Leave a Comment

Some Worry is Useful - What Action Can You Take Now Worry can often feel overwhelming, but it usually serves a purpose. Some anxious thoughts can help you prepare, avoid surprises, and motivate action. To manage your worry effectively, ask yourself, “How is my worry helpful?” and “When does it become unproductive?”

Train yourself to differentiate between productive and unproductive thoughts. For instance, when preparing for a significant work presentation, channel your worry into action. Focus on researching your topic, creating slides, and practicing your delivery. This productive worry acts as your to-do list. In contrast, if you find yourself fretting about job loss, unproductive thoughts like “What if I can’t find a new job?” may arise. Instead of spiraling, take action—update your resume and start networking. If you’re worried about a family gathering, thoughts like “What if everyone argues?” distract you from what you can control. Instead, plan activities that foster conversation.

Idea for Impact: When worry strikes, ask, “Can I take action today?” If the answer is yes, get to work. Tackling your worries directly helps alleviate anxiety.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Don’t Do the Easiest Jobs First
  2. Ask This One Question Every Morning to Find Your Focus
  3. Did School Turn You Into a Procrastinator?
  4. Why Doing a Terrible Job First Actually Works
  5. Thought Without Action is a Rehearsal for Irrelevance

Begin with Yourself

By Leave a Comment

'Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames' by Thich Nhat Hanh (ISBN 1573229377) Self-love is the essential foundation for authentic connections with others. Thich Nhat Hanh‘s book, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames (2002,) is a poignant reminder that while anger is a completely normal emotion, it must be addressed mindfully to prevent suffering, with healing commencing through an exploration of the roots of one’s anger and the practice of self-compassion.

Without communication, no real understanding can be possible. But be sure that you can communicate with yourself first. If you cannot communicate with yourself, how do you expect to communicate with another person? Love is the same. If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love someone else. If you cannot accept yourself, if you cannot treat yourself with kindness, you cannot do this for another person.

If you don’t love yourself, you can’t really care for anyone else. It’s that simple.

Self-compassion and forgiveness are essential for building deeper connections and enhancing your emotional strength—and genuine peace. By strengthening your bond with yourself, you create a foundation that makes it easier to connect with others. Engaging in this inner work boosts your empathy, allowing you to truly understand and relate to the struggles of those around you.

Idea for Impact: Self-love isn’t just for you; it changes how you interact with the world and lets you support others with real kindness.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Change Your Perspective, Change Your Reactions
  2. Learn to Manage Your Negative Emotions and Yourself
  3. Anger is the Hardest of the Negative Emotions to Subdue
  4. The More You Can Manage Your Emotions, the More Effective You’ll Be
  5. What the Buddha Taught About Restraining and Dealing with Anger

Zen Parable of the Overflowing Teacup: The Power of an Open Mind

By Leave a Comment

Beginner's Mind: Zen Parable of the Overflowing Teacup There’s a well-known parable in Zen Buddhism about a teacher and a teacup that goes like this:

A learned professor visited a Zen master, eager to understand Zen. He introduced himself by listing his credentials, academic achievements, and extensive knowledge, hoping to impress the master and prove himself worthy of profound teachings.

In a gesture of hospitality, the master offered the professor tea, pouring fragrant liquid into a small, delicate cup. As the professor began to sip, the master calmly continued pouring, and soon the tea overflowed, spilling onto the table.

The professor exclaimed, “Master! Why are you still pouring? The cup can’t hold any more!”

The Zen master replied calmly, “Your mind is like this cup—already full of your own ideas, overflowing with preconceptions and opinions. If it’s full, there’s no room for new knowledge and wisdom. First, you must empty your cup before you can truly receive the teachings of Zen.

Idea for Impact: Approach learning with an open and receptive mind, willingly letting go of limiting, preconceived notions. Unless you make space for new knowledge, your mind can’t fully absorb deeper wisdom.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Change Your Perspective, Change Your Reactions
  2. Anger Is Often Pointless
  3. I’ll Be Happy When …
  4. Heaven and Hell: A Zen Parable on Self-Awareness
  5. Shrewd Leaders Sometimes Take Liberties with the Truth to Reach Righteous Goals

The Myth of Passion

By Leave a Comment

The Myth of Passion at Work: Passion Can Burn Bright, but it's Fickle and Rarely Lasts A common piece of advice from successful folks is to “find your passion,” but that idea is misguided, as I’ve pointed out before. Sure, passion can burn bright, but it’s fickle and rarely lasts. The more you chase after it, the unhappier you become when your job isn’t perfect. An idealized version of work is hard to come by, and when reality doesn’t match up, disappointment kicks in, often leading to burnout. Plus, people driven by passion often struggle with repetitive tasks, seeing them as boring and resisting work that doesn’t fit their idea of passion.

Idea for Impact: The key to job satisfaction lies in finding work that is moderately challenging—difficult enough to engage you without being frustrating, yet not so easy that it becomes mind-numbing. Pick something you enjoy and that you’re decent at. Seriously, only a toddler expects to be keyed up all the time!

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Risk More, Risk Earlier
  2. From Passion to Pragmatism: An Acceptable, Good Career
  3. “Follow Your Passion” Is Terrible Career Advice
  4. Get Started, Passion Comes Later: A Case Study of Chipotle’s Founder, Steve Ells
  5. Before Jumping Ship, Consider This

Escape the People-Pleasing Trap

By Leave a Comment

Escape the People-Pleasing Trap You may believe that being kind, gentle, and agreeable will earn you love and acceptance. However, doing things for others that they should handle themselves only sets you up for disappointment. Ignoring clear violations of your boundaries and agreeing to commitments you’d rather decline only makes things worse. When you take on others’ frustrations and make their feelings your problem, you add to your own burdens.

Being a people-pleaser, under the illusion that it will win you affection, leads to a harmful cycle of neglecting your own essential needs. This flawed mindset fosters deep feelings of disrespect and disconnection from yourself. You endure constant invalidation based on how others treat you, making them dependent on you. Your relentless efforts to please will never be enough.

Idea for Impact: Shift your attitude. Elevate your self-respect. Take charge of your life. Prioritize your own needs. Don’t hesitate to say “no.” You deserve the same love and respect you freely give to others.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Affection Is No Defense: Good Intentions Make Excellent Alibis
  2. The Tyranny of Obligations: Summary of Sarah Knight’s ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k’
  3. This Single Word Can Drastically Elevate Your Productivity
  4. When One Person is More Interested in a Relationship
  5. The High Cost of Winning a Small Argument

Inspirational Quotations #1081

By

The religious man is he who does not belong to any religion, to any nation, to any race, who is inwardly completely alone, in a state of not-knowing, and for him the blessing of the sacred comes into being.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (Indian Philosopher)

Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.
—Benjamin Graham (American Investor)

Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless.
—Lee Kuan Yew (Singaporean Statesman)

Calculation never made a hero.
—John Henry Newman (British Theologian, Poet)

Life is not an easy matter. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.
—Leon Trotsky (Russian Revolutionary)

The strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (American Poetaster, Author)

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.
—Christopher Hampton (British Playwright, Screenwriter)

I learned the real meaning of love. Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades. You can depend so much on certain people, you can set your watch by them. And that’s love, even if it doesn’t seem very exciting.
—Sylvester Stallone (American Actor)

We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true, though, happily, for human nature, gloamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating if not excusing its crimes.
—James Fenimore Cooper (American Novelist)

Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch thee.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

Not Every Customer is a Right Fit for You—and That’s Okay

By Leave a Comment

Not Every Customer is a Right Fit for You---and That's Okay In business, every sale may feel like a win, but some sales can actually harm you more than help.

In Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (2010; my summary,) Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh illustrates the importance of parting ways with problematic customers. He recounts how, when it was a fledgling startup, Zappos identified a customer who exploited their generous return policy, ordering thousands of dollars in shoes only to return them frequently. Acknowledging the strain this put on their business and customer service team, Zappos chose to cut ties, issuing a full refund and politely refusing further business. This decision allowed them to maintain their high standards for customers who genuinely valued their service.

Not all money is good money. Certain clients can negatively impact your well-being—and your bottom line.

Filter out the wrong customers. Cut loose those who don’t fit. Over time, you’ll become adept at spotting clients you’ll regret accepting. Some customers simply aren’t worth your time and energy. Sometimes, it’s more cost-effective to refund their money and send them packing. Other times, it’s wise to discourage potential clients from buying in the first place. You might find yourself confidently saying, “Sorry, this just isn’t for you. Please don’t send any money my way.” It may seem a bit blunt, but it’s liberating. The payoff? You’ll build a fantastic group of clients who bring genuine joy to your work, significantly reducing negative stress for you, your team, and everyone involved.

Idea for Impact: Good business sometimes means letting go. Life’s too short to waste on the wrong customers. Filtering out those who aren’t a fit isn’t just smart; it’s vital for creating a fulfilling, enjoyable career. Work with those who inspire you.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Putting the WOW in Customer Service // Book Summary of Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness
  2. Consistency Counts: Apply Rules Fairly Every Time
  3. Is The Customer Always Right?
  4. How to … Care Less About What Other People Think
  5. Be Comfortable with Who You Are