I always thought the phrase was “random acts of kindness,” but then I saw the movie, “Evan Almighty” and somehow building an arc… or doing Acts of Random Kindness (ARC) stuck with me. In today’s world I feel like there is always a need for more acts of random kindness. And I say that while…
Even having read just the title I suspect there are some people who disagree with the statement. “Taking ‘it’ for granted is inevitable.” First, some will question what ‘it’ is. Second, some will argue that there are some things that are never taken for granted. To address the first – ‘it’ can be almost anything…
A few days ago (as I type this) I attended a police expo and conference. There were a couple hundred vendors there and I was walking around with a workmate visiting a few. Currently I work on the editorial team and this gentleman works with me as part of our advertising sales team. As with…
This morning I felt like it might be a good idea to share a couple of quotes. They are quotes that impact (or can) how you relate to others and who those others are. Remembering these wise words can help you avoid associations that are not in your best interest or are, at best, hurtful…
As with so many things I see each day, this was brought to my attention via a post on social media: 15 leadership lessons from General Mattis – call sign Chaos. I’m going to list all 15 but only comment on a few. They are the ones that are applicable far beyond military leadership; the…
I just recently saw a quote about nothing being in the middle of the road except for double yellow lines and roadkill. My first thought was that you usually don’t see roadkill in the middle of the road but in the travel lanes instead. The double yellow lines are what separates traffic going in different…
In any given December you can hear people talk about the bad habits they’re going to quit as part of their New Year’s Resolutions. My biggest challenge with such statements is that the person is waiting for a specific day, as if they need the calendar’s permission for when to start. How about starting RIGHT…
Words have meaning. In a perfect world, the same word would have the same meaning to everyone. That alone would reduce the amount of miscommunication and misunderstandings that occur. We don’t live in a perfect world though, and those misthings occur. Just recently there was a conversation held, that was unfortunately (or fortunately?) overhead, and…
Have you ever wondered why or how someone particular got to be King or Queen? Sure, if you watch movies and assume any level of accuracy in them, some of the kings our world has seen become so through nothing more than force of violence. They were the strongest or they had the strongest army….
Is life a circle? Or is it a line? Does it matter? Why even think about it? Just recently I ran across some memes that had me wondering about the mindset they presuppose and the overall tone, be it positive, negative or somewhat neutral. They started me thinking about Body’s Cycle – the humane decision…
Why would anyone want to learn anything from Jeff Bezos? Who is this guy and what makes his leadership lessons of any value? Jeff Bezos is the founder, chairman, CEO and president of Amazon.com, Inc. At the age of 55 (as this is written) he has a reported net worth of just under $165 Billion. For…
Or not private enough? “Don’t air your dirty laundry in public.” It’s an old and wise saying. When there are problems at home, at work, at school, in a friendship, whatever – it’s not usually a good idea to just share those problems willy-nilly with anyone who will stand still long enough to listen. While…
Not that long ago I had an experience that made me think about the difference between “being insulted” and “being offended.” In today’s society where it seems like there is always someone offended by something, no matter how innocuous or harmless the “something” might be, it’s almost become fashionable to be offended. What’s worse, the…
Every now and then in everyone’s life we get distracted by things that we either cannot change or that shouldn’t matter to us to begin with. The distraction can cost us time, emotional energy, mental fatigue and more. To increase the quality of our life and the sense of serenity in our days, it’s worth…
Just the other day I was involved in a very brief virtual discussion about the benefits of empathy over sympathy. For the person to whom you’re expressing either of these, there is a benefit; but which is better or more beneficial for them? The person who originally posted it had the position that empathy was…
I will never forget parts of my childhood and one of the things I remember best is my father complaining about how he could never get the grass to grow healthy. He’d complain about weeds; he’d complain about fungus; he’d complain about too little rain, too much rain, not enough sunshine, kids in the yard…
Have you ever considered the distinct difference between placing blame, finding fault and determining responsibility? They are surely all interconnected but they are also vastly different in leadership approach, critique for improvement and personal involvement in finding and enacting the solution. In a recent piece about Leadership and Management we identified several characteristics of leadership…
When we hear someone say, “He’s a strong person,” or “She has great inner strength,” it can mean different things to each of us. The word “strong” has a wide variety of definitions available for it, but the one(s) I want to concentrate on here are those relating to strength of character; strength of spirit….
I am far from the first person to have talked about the difference between discussion and argument or the pros and cons of each. Just recently, though, I was involved in a conversation about this very topic in a place where discussion was more common than argument. Further, it was observed that the discussion in…
Let’s discuss briefly the difference between “convenient” and “inconvenient,” and how being treated as either can be interpreted. This topic came up when a friend of mine said that he often felt as if he only received attention from certain people in his life when it was convenient for them. My over-analytical brain chewed on…