Become all you can become by raising yourself higher on the Tree of Life

Rocks, pebbles, and sand that your life organized around

Some of my students pondered my article from yesterday and asked themselves: why am I not reading?

One found something that may be the reason billions of people don’t read: by the time they would get to reading, they are too tired. They are spent.

The priority they assign to reading is low.

Normal lives are full of stuff to do that some meme says: you must do.

Take a shower every day, for example. Many people even wash their hair every day. Read the newspaper. Every day. Do shopping when they need something, when they need it. Drive the kid to activities.

Cut coupons. Check facebook, your email, chat, watch cat videos.

Cook every meal… instead of batches is one way many of my students spend their time, instead of reading. I, instead, buy enough to make 7 meals, I cook the food, and put it in sandwich or snack bags… more the snack bags, which are about one fist, so it’s the perfect size.

This means that I don’t cook every day. I always have 10 or so meals prepared in my freezer.

Continue reading “Rocks, pebbles, and sand that your life organized around”

Greg Abbott hires buses to transport immigrants to New York

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Greg Abbott and his prankish methods made me think.

I was curious what the good looking Texas governor’s vibration would be so that he finds it OK to play with people, be prankish, and deposit real people through the letter chute.

I could not find a good picture, so you have to see the poop on a car windshield… yeah. That is a perfect illustration to Texas governor and his intent. His age. His vibration… You’ll see. Continue reading “Greg Abbott hires buses to transport immigrants to New York”

Concerted effort? Phalanx? On what, for what? And why?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

There is ‘knowledge’… what you hear, what you read, even what you see… and then there is knowledge that is the result of what you do and observe.

Mind you, all knowledge depends on observation and actually accurately identifying what worked and what didn’t.

Because there are thousands of things that you can see at any one time, and it is hard to know what is operative and what isn’t, most people never distinguish accurately the operative factors, and therefore need a coach who looks from the sideways view where there are less factors to contend with.

What do I mean? Continue reading “Concerted effort? Phalanx? On what, for what? And why?”

This is one of those weeks: I am all talked out.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

And I rarely say anything twice. I expressed it once, and I am done with it.

34 years ago I started my journey from misery to The Promised Land… It was promised… and I went for it.

It was the last weekend of August back in 1985.

I snuck away from Jerusalem, where I lived at the time. Took the 2-hour bride to Haifa, took a taxi, and voila, my journey began.

It was a Communication Workshop. In Hebrew. My Hebrew was good enough to do work, but was pretty meager for transformational work, so it wasn’t till the last day that I understood a full sentence.

But that didn’t prevent me from having a breakthrough. Continue reading “This is one of those weeks: I am all talked out.”

Does any word added increase your vocabulary?

I have written about increasing your vocabulary, I have said it in coaching calls, I have been asking people to do what it takes, and the answer is… nothing. ¹

One possible reason is that you don’t know what I mean.

I have two students, one of them ex… 🙁 who, while reading books, wrote down words with their meanings, and learned them like a second language.

I, myself, look up every word on my kindle when I read, I don’t know, and then promptly forget the word. I have to look it up again the next time it comes up. And yet, I ‘sport’ an ever growing vocabulary, that has gone from 1000 in 2011 to 5000 nowadays. Continue reading “Does any word added increase your vocabulary?”

Why unconditional love is damaging but what is loving?

Why unconditional love is damaging, and why setting conditions is healthy… even loving?

My new 20-day skill learning challenge is to listen and internalize 20 videos by Hungarian, now dead, psychologist, Peter Popper.

Why am I doing this challenge? What will this give me?

I am self-taught… or more precisely: I have an education that is hodge podge, eclectic: I gathered knowledge from all over the place, and I have gaping holes, that until this day I had no idea where to fill or how.

The gaping holes are so big, that some of my students could slip through: Whatever I knew didn’t help them to become all they can become.

With that said, I listened to a Dr. Popper masterclass on youtube, sadly, it is in Hungarian, with subtitles that you need to set to your own language…

Dr Popper’s masterclasses, a whole lot of them, have 60% truth value, 30% of what he says fills in my gaping holes. Continue reading “Why unconditional love is damaging but what is loving?”

Learning to Learn on Coursera.org… can you? Will you?

Learning to Learn on Coursera.org, the missing piece of the puzzle, especially if you combine it with the Playground: the partner calls, and the skill learning challenge.

I’ve completed the first two weeks of study on coursera, with 99% effectiveness measured by the tests: only two mistakes total.. But did I learn the material?

I am finding that I am still having some issues with the vocabulary, so no, I haven’t. Continue reading “Learning to Learn on Coursera.org… can you? Will you?”

I am starting to change my mind about Jordan Peterson.

Yesterday I found a quote that shook me to my core… So I want to start with that. You could say: that quote accurately expresses my attitude about life… and I am moved by that.

Sandy Koufax was Jewish, and his attitude was what made Jews survive all those thousands of years of exile, all the persecution, and come out, when and if they did, on top…

Continue reading “I am starting to change my mind about Jordan Peterson.”

Your vocabulary is predictive of your success

If what we need is a larger vocabulary so we don’t fall into the trap of the mind where everything is the same as everything else, that it makes a lot of sense to start, as soon as you can, building a larger vocabulary.

With every new word a large chunk of the invisible reveals itself… priceless.

Here is the first word:

Jaunty. 1. könnyed and 2. vidám in Hungarian, I have to admit that in the past 37 years since I left Hungary, I haven’t seen anyone being jaunty… Maybe I saw people obnoxiously loud and too much smiling… but jaunty?

Jaunty is having or expressing a lively, cheerful, and self-confident manner, cheerful, cheery, happy, merry, jolly, joyful, gleeful, glad. It is not the the jolliness of pretense. And it is not the drunken glibness of the party. It is beautiful and it is natural. And I am, occasionally that, but haven’t had a word for it.

When I look at people’s reaction to it, they cheer up and smile with you… Continue reading “Your vocabulary is predictive of your success”

Why you are not, in fact cannot be curious?

I have decided to re-read the Feelings book, and this time make it a study, memorize the names of the different needs, take a more earnest approach to learning the “language” of the machine that is need-based.

I am feeling a mix of fear and excitement. where? in my stomach, expanding to my chest.

My plan is to read/study the book is to study it at the beginning of my evening reading session for about 10 minutes, and then switch to my “other” book… whatever book I am reading in the evening at the time… currently it is “Curious” by Ian Leslie. Continue reading “Why you are not, in fact cannot be curious?”