Ann Oliveri

Habits

Stuck?  Gail Brenner, A Flourishing Life, provides a January booster shot for discouraged New Year's Resolution people.  Her January 21 post on 10 Life Changing Facts About Habits provides perspective on our immunity to change:

"Habits can’t sustain themselves in the light of conscious awareness. They thrive on resistance and evasion. But when we illuminate them with laser-like attention, when we are willing to see things exactly as they are, they soften. The momentum begins to slow, and we become aware of space for new perspectives and choices. We realize freedom."

 Photo Credits

Wikipedia @ 10

Hard to believe that Wikipedia will celebrate its 10th birthday in four days. Although not as addictive as Google, I do default to reading the Wikipedia entries before pursuing other options served up by a Google search.

Ten years also feels like a good time to reflect on a rising tide of fear about all things Wiki, and increasingly Google.

As I am so happily afloat in the positive contributions of both, while freely acknowledging their shadows of potential misuse, I want to suspend judgment, reflect on what it means, and snorkle the tidepool to better understand both the risk and opportunity.

One thoughtful perspective showed up this morning, a post by Katherine Smith, the exec of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, True Transparency Is More Than Spilling the Beans.

If you have a perspective on the power--positive and negative--of Wikipedia, crowd sourcing, and valuing utility of content by scale and volume of users, please comment and offer up additional links. Thanks for whatever you can offer.

Science of Fear

Turns out that accepting  your self-doubt is more effective than resolving to change the behaviors that go along with it or challenging the underlying thoughts.

Melinda Beck reports on Conquering Fear in the Wall Street Journal, and the shift in cognitive-behavioral therapy toward mindfulness as the means to cope with phobias and even borderline personality disorders.

Essentially, if you can observe your critical thoughts without judging them, you neutralize their emotional power and can decide what you want to do about it--or not.

 "What happens in mindfulness over the long haul," Marsha Linehan, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, notes, "is that you finally accept that you've seen this soap opera before and you can turn off the TV."

Change your mind, change your life. Be a Learner, the Observer-You-Are, not a Judger, and discover more options for moving forward in 2011.

20 Leadership Bloggers' Best 2010 Posts

Dan McCarthy, author of the Great Leadership blog, asked 19 of his favorite independent leadership bloggers to select their favorite post of the year and published the results last month. 

Dan's own favorite is: How to be a More Approachable, Sociable Leader.  Why?  “I picked this because it’s personal. At the time I wrote it, it was something I was really working on and part of my IDP.  Six months later, after following my own advice, I’ve been told to stop telling people it’s a development need – because it’s not. There’s no such thing as “hard wired” – anybody can change if they want to,  know how to, and work at it.”

Change your mind, change your life. Change who you follow. Change how you lead. Here are the other 19 blogs featured in Dan's post--browse until you find one that works for you:

Art Petty, Management Excellence

Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender

Alison Green, Ask a Manager

John Baldoni, John Baldoni's Lead By Example

Mary Jo Asmus, Mary Jo Asmus

Kevin W. Grossman, Leaders. Better. Brighter.™

Lisa Haneberg, Management Craft 

Kevin Eikenberry, Leadership and Learning With Kevin Eikenberry

Jennifer V. Miller, The People Equation "

Jane Perdue, Get Your Leadership BIG On! 

Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership

Jason Seiden, Fail Spectacularly!

Bret Simmons, Bret Simmons - Positive Organizational Behavior -

Mike Myatt, N2growth Blog 

Mark Bennett, TalentedApps

Scott Eblin, Next Level Blog

Erin Schreyer, Authentic Leadership

Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace

Mark Stelzner, Inflexion Point

Wake Up

Gail Brenner blogs at AFlourishingLife.com. Last month, she tackled awareness as the precursor to change, to altering habits you'd like to shed:

"Don’t force yourself to change...embrace things just as they are. Take every fear and disappointment, every tension, every whirlwind of thoughts and create a warm and accepting space where they can be received. The habit can’t hold up to the power of loving attention, and change begins to happen effortlessly.

• Start by being curious and open, willing and patient.
• Bring to mind a habit you’d like to work on and a situation in which this habit played out.
• Begin to ask questions:

-What am I thinking? What story am I telling myself? What expectations do I have?
-What am I feeling?
-What physical sensations do I notice in my body?

• Peel back the layers until all is revealed.
• Welcome these experiences like a long-lost friend. Say, “yes” to each one. This is the end of the inner fight and the beginning of real possibility.

"With great compassion, shed light on the experiences that make up your habits. They will start to fall apart right before your eyes, leaving you spacious, open, and happy."

Change your mind, change your life.  Change who you follow.  Change what you read.

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.  Oscar Wilde

You're Perfect

If you are anxious or evenly grimly resolved to improve in 2011, stop and think about what allows you to be at your best. What are the habits, the rituals that support you?

One habit to question is who you follow, what you read every day. In this new year, alter your pattern. Try some new, more creative sources of inspiration, such as Leo Babauta's  ZenHabits.net.  Here's Leo's 2010 take on perfection:

"We don’t need to improve our lives. We don’t need to improve ourselves, because we’re already perfect.

"Once you accept this, it frees you.

"You’re now free to do things, not because you want to be better, but because you love it. Because you’re passionate about it, and it gives you joy."

Change your mind, change your life. Change who you follow. Cultivate zenhabits.net  See where it takes you.