by Vlad Dolezal on March 30, 2010
I was recently reading my copy of Tim Brownson‘s Don’t Ask Stupid Questions. At the end of one of the chapters, he inconspicuously tucked in this question:
What are the real enemies in your life?
Despite being a single sentence, it got me pacing around my room and muttering to myself for about half an hour (If you saw me then, you would doubt my sanity to even take care of myself, let alone help other people through life coaching) . What are the real enemies in my life? [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 26, 2010
This post will probably ruffle some feathers. So be it.
The bloggers can take it. I care about you, personal development blog readers. Because “personal development” blogs that keep feeding you list post after list post are basically cheating you by giving you an illusion of personal development, instead of the real thing.
Let me explain… [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 23, 2010
This is going to be one of those posts.
I’ve got a fascinating topic and a lot of ideas about the topic, but no clear conclusion.
So I’ll just throw all my ideas out there, and maybe a conclusion will emerge. Or, maybe you guys will be smarter than me, and we’ll come up with something cool in the comments! At the very least, I plan to get you thinking.
Read on to find out why hope makes you swim longer, why playing the lottery is worth it (for those who play it), and why false hope might not be so false after all. [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 19, 2010
Over the 2 years that I’ve run this blog, I’ve earned an astonishing $0.49 in Amazon referral fees!
In a bold move to double that number by the end of 2010, I’m presenting you this list of personal development books.
As a completely unintended byproduct, you will also get to read a list of fantastic books that changed my life! And they can probably help you too. Though, as Johnny B. Truant says, you wouldn’t buy a book on how to bake a cake, read it, then wake up the next morning and start complaining that cake hasn’t magically materialized in your oven.
You change your life. That being said, these books will give you one helluva kickstart! [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 16, 2010
(above: Bubblewrap solution to hitting my head on the ceiling.)
After my post about my No Soap, No Shampoo Experiment got a great response, I realized a few things:
- I love reading about people who live their talk (like Benny the Irish Polyglot)
- a lot of other people do too
- one of the reasons I started this blog was to connect with like-minded people
With all that in mind, I decided to start a monthly summary of my personal development experiments. I hope to find people who are already doing what I’m experimenting with and others who are just about to start. Plus you can learn from my experience! [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 12, 2010
Mal Dickson, a rock-climbing instructor from Devon, UK, has an interesting way of testing applicants for his advanced rock-climbing class.
He has them climb a mountain where, about two thirds of the way up, there’s an overhang. From below, it looks like the top of the mountain, but once you climb over it, you see a big chunk of the mountain still towering over you.
And Mal’s way of testing applicants is simply hiding behind a rock at the overhang and watching the climbers’ expression when they scale the overhang. [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 9, 2010
Ever noticed how there’s so much different personal development advice online?
- choose and thing and do it well – no, wait – do many things and be flexible
- focus on your long-term mission - no, wait – live in the moment
- focus on how you can give to others - no, wait – focus on developing yourself first
I was thinking about how all my favorite bloggers approach personal development differently… which comes through implicitly in their posts.
And then I thought – hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we got a bunch of them explicitly stating their views, and then compared them side by side?
So I decided to ask them two questions:
1. What do you consider the most important part of personal development?
2. If you could share only one short paragraph with the future generations, what would it be? [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 5, 2010
Elephant keepers in India have an interesting way of keeping their elephants from running away. They tie them to a wooden peg with a rope.
It doesn’t make sense on the surface, since a rope like that has no hope of holding a grown elephant. But ask any elephant keeper and he will chuckle and explain:
When a baby elephant is born, the herder ties it to a peg with a rope. At this point, the rope is strong enough to hold the elephant.
The baby elephant quickly learns that trying to escape the rope is futile. And he keeps that learning with him, even as he grows up and the rope becomes far too weak to hold him.
And like that rope, we often form beliefs that might be useful at first, but then hold us back in life, long after the original reasons are gone. [click to continue…]
by Vlad Dolezal on March 2, 2010
I have to warn you up front.
This isn’t going to be one of those comfortable easy blog posts, where you just nod along, agree with the author on every point, then retweet it and go about your life unchanged.
This post will challenge your thinking about the world. It will probably make you uncomfortable at several points. That’s a good sign – it means you’re stepping outside your comfort zone, which leads to growth.
My goal is to make you think. I don’t want you to agree with me on every point. That would be just as useless as you deciding that I’m wrong before you even hear what I have to say – it would stop you from growing. Instead, I’d like you to keep an open mind, and think about what I say.
Buckle in and keep your eyes on the road – this will be a wild ride. [click to continue…]
