Happy Wisdom

Beware of Unicorns!   http://skia.deviantart.com/art/Unicorn-287148950 Haven't posted for a while, having chosen to contribute to  InfoQ.com .  My first time with that site and I had a great time.  I found the experience edifying. I had to do something before every company manager thought it a good idea to follow the  Bezos/Amazon employee "hunger games" model .  They're not going to get away with it; not with the feedback I've gotten. People are seeing through the "I'll work to death and maybe get rich" scheme more and more.   Again, I don't judge people who work there as long as they're being mindful about the opportunity costs of doing so.  In that vein, I've got to tell you about the dangers of unicorns.   Unicorns being the new jargon for private companies estimated to be worth over $1B USD.    First lets be honest - most startups aren't unicorns and never will be.  That's why they chose this as a metaphor. T

Just  a quick update.   Found this article on Buffe r, and thought of my own creative pursuits.  I think there's something to be said about the shields of rationality, of your inner critic, fading as you get more tired. More coming soon!

4th Quarter of 2015 - GO TIME What does it mean?  By the end of this month the year is 3/4th over.  For those good at looking at calendars and math, you might ask - why is this blogger telling me Q3 is over?  Its September!   Well, lets face it, the year is basically over after Thanksgiving.  Even if you're in sales, you have to prep for December now...not in December. We are in the 4th Quarter.  When all sales folks want to make quota. When football teams make a press to win, putting in that extra doze of effort.  The players all hold up four fingers. Its a sign to GET SERIOUS .  Hold your hands up high with four fingers up.  Do it.  This is when you open your dream capture system ( aka LifeSparcs ) and open that thing up to the front and review the Dreams, Goals, and Musings section.  What in this area gives you energy, gives you passion, provides heart and meaning?  Big questions.   We must use these socially-sponsored milestones to take a look at our

What is it with New Yorkers and Seattle? First they blasted us out of our coffee-induced happy-place with a piece on how everyone west of Interstate 5 will be cast into the Pacific Ocean by a massive, continent changing earthquake, putting the odds at 33% that it'd happen within fifty years. Now we have this this one on Amazon   and how they've built a modern day Hunger Games workplace. You see, it is well known in the Seattle area that Amazon does not consider work-life balance or anything remotely like that. Everyone in the area knows this, because we all know a friend or a spouse that worked or used to work there.   Its not a sweatshop, but its close.   Most people know this going on an interview there know this.  They figure they'll stay four years until they vest and they get out.  If they survive the infighting and bullying, that is. But I have to admit it - I had no idea how bad it really was.  If half the things in this article are true it's the worst emplo

Remember the mission of HappyWisdom? To counter the negativity found so often on line . Well, here's a nice piece from Vox . "In the 19th century, extreme poverty — defined here as living on less than $1.25 a day* — was the norm. In 1820, 94.4 percent of humans were below that line." While we're not done yet,  this is the best possible time to alive by far. 

Hanford Reactor B National Museum Summer is a time of adventure, a time where the normal structure of the days of school fall away and much of our culture runs around the countryside. This was me.  I ran to a place called  Hanford, and for those who don't know, this site was an important part of the Manhattan Project, the race to build the first atomic bomb.   After a very long bus ride across a WHOLE lot of nothing in Eastern Washington, we come upon two buildings.  The larger is the reactor, shown above. They chose this place because they wanted something far away from population centers.  And believe me, it is still away from population centers !  Now, since this is Happy Wisdom, I'm not going to get into the politics of the events that surrounded the creation of this site.   I'm going to focus on this as raw human achievement.  It's all science and willpower here.  This is a monument to human creativity.  It is insanely awesome that the bo

“You only have to do a few things right in your life, so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”  - Warren Buffett Since launching LifeSparcs, I've been obsessed with minimalism.  I've r emoving clutter, working on doing fewer things, and really using intention to determine those few things. I'm teaching my kids this - be intentional. But there's so much noise. When I hear this I think Social Media, and media in general, but its more than that.  I've been reading  Greg McKeown's  book Essentialism , and he's got some great articles online as well.   One of my favorites is The Unimportance of Practically Everything , where he discusses items that readers of this blog and LifeSparcs will be familiar with  -  putting things in a short list, and focusing on those things alone for  period of time, or as we call it in the agile coaching business, a timebox.  Then you reflect on what you've done...and repeat. Maybe you think you're a

I'm very excited to announce the creation of the LifeSparcs memobook !   Check it out - isn't it cute?   So, what do you do with it, you may ask?  Well, if you've been watching me over at LifeSparcs, you know what we're working on - a way for anyone to attain a greater level of happiness. Lets run down how you might do this using this little gem, which you can order from LifeSparcs.com for the low-low price of $15 bucks.    1.  First thing you do is remark on how easy it is to carry with you. This is by  design.  They say the best camera is the one that's with you.  Well, the best journal is the one with you , as well. 2. Now that you've recovered from the awesomeness that is the memobook in your hand, open it.  The first few pages are dedicated to the right brain . This is where you will brainstorm, draw, mindmap and dream on paper.  Avoid listing anything in linear form, and try to leave some blank space . This memo book could last half a y

Some people would think about LifeSparc  and other similar  tracking systems as specific to work life.  That would be missing its intent. LifeSparc is more for things that are out of our reach, for things that we cannot  or do not normally do. For example, a high-powered executive man or woman who has been alpha personality type may not feel the need for a system for work. Perhaps they naturally obsess and  achieve things in their career that they value.  That may not be where the problem is.  Often the problem is in our blind spot.   Where this person might need help could be  on the family front.  Maybe they're not particularly good at building relationships with their children. Maybe it's their sister,brother, mom or dad.They've  buried their problems in activity  and excuse but frustratingly it keeps resurfacing.  This exec archetype may not realize it but they have a complex problem and need a different set of tools.  That humans are perennially reaching, that we are i

Recently my family and I went to visit a place called Astoria, Oregon, and had a wonderful time. There was delightful breakfast place called Pigs 'n Pancakes. We stayed in the Astoria Riverside Inn, which was wonderful, with large rooms, game systems, and a wonderful view. Yet, most of all, we were surrounded by Lewis and Clark sites.  Are You Here?   If you're not aware, the Lewis and Clark expedition started in St. Louis in the early 1800s. Those two brave gentlemen and a party of more brave gentlemen and at least one woman, Sacagawea, made their trek all the way to the Pacific coast.  On their way out to the Pacific, however, they got stuck. They got stuck here: Now you have to understand, these guys were tough.  Stopping them wasn't easy.  Yet, so close to the ocean, they get stuck in this little outcropping.   Here's how he describes it: Rain soaked the expedition party that night, and it continued at intervals throughout the next day, November

How did I not know about this?   Happiness has an Official Day - and its today. So ...be happy !!!!  You can upload your happy self at these links below : https://www.globalhappyparty.com/ goo.gl/Sd06Ko Lots of happy people here!

Some some interesting points from TIME Magazine. They have had some very good articles lately http://time.com/3099180/ways-to-be-happier/ Unfortunately we all have a hereditary “happiness set point.” That means approximately 50% of our happiness is outside of our control. But that means 50% of  our level of happiness is totally within our control .

Since this is the official blog of LifeSparc, I've decided to start talking here about same.  These posts will be building an argument towards a new way of thinking about life and a process towards getting what you want, making sure you still want it, and what to do if you don't know what you want. These posts will be longer than the HappyWisdom fare, and will likely be edited after I post them as I form the work. Enjoy! Introduction  I will take this opportunity to make a grand generalization about human life in the 21 st century.  It is complex.   We all have an amazing litany of things that we have on our plates today, and almost to a fault people I talk to say they’re overwhelmed. This is true of people I know that have traditional notions of wealth, and of those that do not. It seems that no matter where you are on the income ladder, people strive for more. To have a better job, a better car or even a car that works. Maybe you have those things but you&#

First, I've been working on LifeSparcs.com . As you might know, LifeSparcs is the process of finding and achieving your goals without hating your life.  It has in the center of it a process framework that will help you get there.  But for now, what are the rules of LifeSparc? Four Rules of the LifeSPARC process -   Finding and Staying on the Happy Track You have to write your goals the actions that will embody your happy life track You have find things that renew you on your journey for sustained energy on your happy life track You have to get some advice to make sure that you're actually on your true happy life track.  You have to repeat the above steps weekly , reviewing and prioritizing while on your happy life track Note about the term happy life track.   This aligns with  HW#4 - Happiness is not a destination, nor is it really a pursuit, since pursuit infers you can catch it.  No, happiness is more subtle - you must be on the track of doing mean

HW Praxis #29 - Be thankful for birthdays despite your age, indeed because of it.  Many others have not lived to see your age.  Life is a gift and your birthday is your opportunity to be thankful for it. There have been a slew of birthdays in my family, including my own, and I've come to really view them in a different light.   Then I started to wonder which of my ages was the best, and sure, certain, that it wasn't the one I was having.  After all , we all wish we were younger, right? Well, apparently not.  According to this poll , fifty is the most popular age. According to a recent Harris interactive poll, the magic number is 50 ...Not surprisingly, younger people chose younger ages. Echo boomers, ages 18 to 36, thought the perfect age was 38. Gen Xers, ages 37 to 48, wanted to stay put at 49. Baby boomers, ages 49 to 67, thought 55 was pretty awesome. While mature adults, ages 68 and older, were happy to hold steady at 67. Fifty?  What is going on here?   As

HW Praxis#21 - Start over - scrap everything, think fresh I have been on a semi-mission to spend money on books at my local Barnes and Nobel  to ensure it stays there, and this trip I'm delighted to report that I've got a new find - Marie Kondo's " the life-changing magic of tidying up " She is a Japanese organization consultant, which definitely caught my eye.  For those who haven't been to Japan, or don't know Japanese people, they are an astoundingly organized culture.  Notice I didn't say all Japanese people are organised.  "All people do X" is a silly generalization regardless of what you're talking about.  However, I do believe cultures have properties, just like people. consider the definition of culture  " the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively" and I would say tidiness is part of that.  My daughter is studying Japanese and says this property is share