self improvement

Making Deposits In the Bank of Experience

For those times when you wonder what you’re getting out of practice and training:

“For 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education, and training. On January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”

– Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, pilot US Airways Flight 1549.

About the Bank

One of the first personal improvement books I read was The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People By Stephen Covey. The book had a big impact on how I worked. Covey spends time in the book diving into work and personal relationships. One of the concepts Covey espoused is the importance of making deposits in the emotional bank accounts of others. Basically, every time you build up trust or goodwill with another person, you’re making a deposit in their emotional bank account as well as yours.

Being a saver, the bank account analogy made a lot of sense to me. You build up deposits of trust and respect over time and occasionally you can make a withdrawal, possibly a favor or tapping into another’s expertise.

[Read more…]

Making Sleep Awesome Again.

09/16 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Nine Ways I’m Improving My Sleep and Fighting Fatigue .

By Brad Beckstrom

I shouldn’t complain, after all, I’ve spent a half a century on this planet without a major illness. I’m not sure my second half-century will go as well, but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. In return for my overall good health, I’ve gotten to battle my share of ongoing “nagging conditions.” I think “conditions” is a good word for these because they are a state, a circumstance in which I operate, they are ongoing and generally unyielding to my efforts. I have learned to live with these conditions and manage them on a day-to-day basis so that they’re generally unnoticeable to others and, on a good day, unnoticeable even to myself.

What is my condition? Boogers. That’s it. That’s what I’ve called it since I was a kid “Boogers”. The official medical term is Sinusitis, Basically your nose overreacts to everything and fills up with some sort of snot that dries up in the night and turns into boogers. It’s sort of like having a mild cold all the time. Immediately people think “oh, you must have allergies.” Nope, I’m allergic to nothing. I’ve been tested probably 5 times, even once at the National Institutes of Health. After sprays and meds didn’t work, top docs told me, “oh, the problem is your deviated septum. Surgery can fix that.” I got a second opinion, “yep surgery will fix that.” I got the surgery, it didn’t fix it. It’s my condition. It’s not going anywhere.

I was told that these sinus problems need to be addressed or they can lead to sleep apnea which can lead to stroke, cancer or DEATH. So, now these boogers could kill me if I didn’t get rid of them. Or more likely, my wife will kill me for my loud snoring, [Read more…] about Making Sleep Awesome Again.

Please Go Ahead.

02/16 by The Frug Leave a Comment

How using these 3 words daily, will change your life for the better.

For the last few months, I’ve been involved in a social experiment. It’s one of the simplest and most effective things I’ve ever tried. I dabbled with this in the past but wasn’t always the best at sticking with it. The experiment involved using three words “please go ahead.”

I decided that regardless of where I was, airports, hotels, restaurants, in my car (especially in my car) I would utter three words “please go ahead” whenever someone maneuvered in front of me, around me, or even needed to just butt in line or nudge me out of the way. I decided I would stick with this regardless of the situation. Someone would literally have to throw an elbow into my gut for me to skip it.

It was the perfect time to try this 3 word experiment. I’d be traveling to several US and foreign cities large and small, along with all of the flight and hotel check-ins that go along with that. I’d be busy as usual around home as well. If you’re a person who sometimes runs late or considers yourself an “excellent driver” who has no time for the other “non-drivers” on the road than this may be a bit difficult to stick with. However, it’s the folks with type A personalities that will benefit the most. So stick with it.

Once you find yourself involved in this experiment, you automatically become more observant of the people around you since you’re letting them go ahead of you. [Read more…] about Please Go Ahead.