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Go Forward

Why do people get stuck in their anger? Anger feeds on itself. It's contagious. It spreads only ill feelings and seldom accomplishes value. It gets in the way. I understand where it comes from. I feel angry myself sometimes. But it does not help us most of the time. We all make mistakes. We change, we grow, we cross boundaries. We even hurt feelings. Let's let the feelings heal. Let's learn and move forward. You'll make mistakes and I'll make mistakes and the more passionate we are about what we do the more likely we are to cross those hard to see boundaries. If you can forgive my mistake I can forgive your anger. Then we can both let go and go forward. -- doug smith

Challenge Your Fears

It's natural to feel fear when we're faced with a challenge. What if we fail? What if it's more than we expected? What if we're not up to the task? We should be cautious. We should focus on doing what is achievable. And yet, so often what is achievable but challenging frightens us into immobility. We can become overly respectful of our fears to the point that they control us. Let's try something different. Challenge your fears, don't worship them. You are bigger than your fear anyway. So am I. -- doug smith

Keep Your Agreements

A broken agreement often breaks hearts. Keep your agreements. As you achieve your goals, as you solve your problems... Keep your agreements. -- doug smith

Challenge Your Fears

Chaos Screams: Prioritize!

I'm still looking for someone who can do everything. Every task on their list, every task on their boss's list, every goal in their endless stream of goals. I still haven't found them. I'm still looking for the person who can finish everything they've started, who can achieve any goal while tackling all goals, and who never gets nervous in the process. I still haven't found them. No one can do everything. Not even you. Chaos comes when we try to do everything. Chaos comes when everything looks like it's as important as everything else. Chaos comes, and it screams. Do you hear the screaming? Do you enjoy the screaming? Chaos screams! Prioritize. Prioritize and chaos will settle down. -- doug smith

Chaos Cleaner

Life gives us chaos to clean out the unimportant and make room for significance. -- doug smith

Go Big!

Make sure that your goals for each day give you something to feel good about achieving. If your goal doesn't make you feel good, it's too small! -- doug smith

Right Now

What if time didn't matter? What would you work on? What if you did that right now? -- doug smith

Clear Enough May Not Be Clear Enough

How clear is your message? You'll know it's clear when it's understood. You'll know it's understood when your intended audience communicates it back to you, meaning and tone and urgency intact. Clarity requires constant clarification. Chances are you're not done. -- doug smith

Listen Without Judging

Listening seems easy until you try it without judging. We're trained to judge from an early age. We judge nearly everything. We like it, we don't like it, we have our reasons our logic our standards and so we judge. Like a celebrity judge on a talent show we judge with confidence and assurance that of course we are right and entitled to judge. Completely. And yet -- what is the point? Do you know anyone who wants your judgement? Do YOU desire anyone else's judgment? Go ahead and judge if you want to, if you must. Here's what I know: if you truly want to listen, listen without judging. Listen with curiosity, as if you don't know the answer already. Because maybe, just maybe, you don't. And, by listening without judgment, you might actually hear. -- doug smith

Listening Is A Survival Skill

Are you an active listener? An active listener makes listening for understanding the focus of a conversation. You'll have plenty of time to express yourself. First, listen. Listening is a survival skill. I have never regretted listening to understand before responding. Plenty of times I have regretted speaking too soon. Listening can keep you out of trouble. That conclusion you jumped to? Perhaps a moment more of listening would have clarified the situation. That insult you didn't intend? Could more listening have alerted you to a sensitive area in your conversational partner? That breach of etiquette, that spilling of confidential information, that career limiting rant -- so many communication mistakes can be prevented by curious listening. If you want to communicate for results, you have to first know what your audience hears. You get there by listening. Listening to the words, the tone, the body language, the in-between-the-lines nuances of emotions. Listening is

There Is More To The Truth

Who knows everything? I don't know everything, do you? No one knows everything. Now, before we break out into song, maybe the best thing I can offer on this incomplete version of the truth is this: No one can tell you your truth, AND your truth alone is incomplete. It's true for me, it's true for you.  Or, is it? If you allow your truth to grow, to change, to evolve, it will stop getting in your way and instead will open up more possibilities. And possibilities are the super fuel of success. -- doug smith