QUOTATIONS

New habits are hard to develop, new skills are difficult to learn, and discipline to stick to what we start is elusive.  Why?  Andy Stanley, Pastor and founder of North Point Ministries, succinctly explains those feelings and offers a way to overcome them.

If you want to learn something new, challenge yourself to be better, and ultimately accomplish that which you set out to do, this episode is for you.

T.E. Lawrence, the man behind the Lawrence of Arabia film of the 1960s, was a truly remarkable character.  He worked to free citizens of the Ottoman Empire from their dictatorial leaders, and, in the process, achieved and learned many important things.  In his book, 7 Pillars of Wisdom, he speaks volumes about those experiences and presents us with an epic challenge.  Are your dreams just that or are they more?  Lawrence argues they can and should be.

Samuel Lyman Atwood (S.L.A.) Marshall, US Army General and military historian spent decades perfecting his leadership skills and perspectives. He not only led allied troops in WWII, but also wrote extensively on combat, soldiers, and gave the world a glimpse into a world most will never see. In his book, Men Against Fire, he captured the importance of not just being a leader, not only worrying about mission accomplishment, but also the paramount importance of caring for what that about which the led care. Though imperfect himself, he captured, perfectly, that sentiment in this episode’s quote.

Anatol Rapoport was a mathematical psychologist (yes, that's a real field of study!) and is famous for his work on game theory, social network analysis (long before the modern versions), and conflict/peace studies.  He famously created an algorithm for the Prisoner's Dilemna that was both elegant and simple.  

In this episode, we explore the framework, proposed by Rapoport and brought to us courtesy of American Philosopher Daniel Dennett, of how we ought to approach difficult subjects with those with whom we disagree.

We are 3 "selves":

1) Who we think we are

2) Who other people think we are

3) Who we really are

The closer these 3 "selves" are to one another, the more genuine our life.  Actor Ian Reed Kesler, as his character Stu Buzzini on the show Suits, reminds us that it's important to seek out feedback on how close our "selves" are to one another. 

The real question is, once we know, will we do anything about it?

Time.  We all have it, we use every bit of it, and it passes whether we use it well or not.  H. Jackson Brown speaks to us, through advice to his son, on how we ought to approach time.  His challenging words have led me to consider the ticking clock and how I spend my time.  I hope they'll challenge you to do so, as well.

In this episode, I discuss the importance of provenance for quotations and illustrate it with a quote from someone you've likely never encountered in your readings.  

Why do people do what they?  The answer is not what most of us think and if we can capture and internalize the message of today's quote, we will certainly be better for it and see the world in a new light.

19th century philosopher, critical thinker, and man without a homeland, Friedrich Nietzsche poses a simple, yet potentially troubling question...what if...

How would and, more importantly, how should we respond?

Optimism can be elusive, especially with all the world's worries and uncertainties all around us.  Why has this happened to me?  How will I make it through this?  What unforeseen thing lies ahead?  

Mark Sanborn, author and motivational speaker, brings us a well known allegory about perpetual optimism and its value to our lives.  He urges to find the positive even amid heaps of undesirable refuse.

In this episode, the late Dr. Eric Zencey tells us the story of the Millerites of the 19th century and uses that story to illustrate the allure of apocalyptic thinking.  I discuss some modern-day versions of this type of thinking and how we might avoid it.