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Brevity (in diplomacy)

14/04/2016 /

On August 9th, 1940, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of UK, sent a Memorandum to the War Cabinet . He asked his staff to write shorter Reports and to avoid those useless phrases which could be replaced by one word.

In particular he wrote, in the final part of the Memorandum:

The saving in time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real point concisely will prove an aid to clearer thinking.

Copy of the original document is available at UK National Archives http://www.ukwarcabinet.org.uk/documents/345

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Overconfidence

12/04/2016 /

In his short talk at TED@NYC, Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Hogan Vice President of Research and Innovation, examines the relationship between confidence and competence. Most people, according to his researches, are overconfident. He  urges the audience to take a more self-aware approach to confidence, and to embrace the power of negative thinking.

Geniuses and Supermen

09/04/2016 /

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

Peter Drucker

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Image source: Flickr – Shaun Wong (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

 

15 ingredients to be (emotionally) wealthy

07/04/2016 /

Sherrie Campbell in a post for the blog “Entrepreneur“ investigates a particular area of life which, if fully developed, may lead to everlasting happiness and success.

Sherrie’s thoughts could be considered as a recipe! You can imagine emotional wealth as a well-prepared dish to impress your loved one and each ingredient needs to be carefully picked!

Here are the ingredients:

1.Confidence is like the salt we put in boling water to cook pasta

2.Resilience is like the cooking pot

3.Keep looking forward is refraining from testing  during the preparation

4.Don’t compromise yourself: if you don’t like molecular cuisine, don’t do it!

5.Faith: believe in yourself and your abilities: the object of your desire will be satisfied!

6.Maturity: be patient, and choose no shortcuts (no frozen pizza, pre-packed sushi or home-delivered chinese, please!)

7.Discerning: proportion and quality of ingredients are always better than quantity, just as friends

8.Reality: you cook what you really want: no trendy recipes!

9.Readiness: put your cooking tools on the working board,

10.Self-preservation: you know when to stop cooking and have a sip of wine

11.Value time: or your soufflè will deflate…..

12.Have limits: no red wine with lobster, please!

13.Altruism: you cook for your loved one, not for your own glory

14.True to yourself: see n. 8!

15 Create happiness: it’s not a given, it’s an happiness-generator

For the full article read here

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Image source: Flickr – Anders Sandberg – (CC BY 2.0)

 

05/04/2016 /

Everyone strives for a reasonable work/life balance, but it’s a common experience that it is often very hard to reach. Professional help may come in handy.

In a recent Time magazine article Tim Ferriss, author of the international bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek, has shared six tips to enhance productivity, illustrated the science behind them, why they really work and have a positive impact on your daily routine.

  1. Manage Your Mood. Most productivity systems underestimate the impact of feelings. If you are calm and happy you are more likely to get your work done sooner and better.
  2. Don’t Check Email in The Morning. Checking your inbox first things first in the morning amounts to having your priorities hijacked by whoever has decided to send you a message.
  3. Before You Try To Do It Faster, Ask Whether It Should Be Done At All. Not all the things you are planning to do really need to be done before you call it a day. Focus only on what is really important and set your priorities accordingly.
  4. Focus Is Nothing More Than Eliminating Distractions.
    Concentration is key to successful prioritization.
  5. Have A Personal System. Productive people have a routine, a system of their own to get things done, and they stick to it.
  6. Define Your Goals The Night Before.
    If you wake up and you have already thought about what should be your priority during the day you are halfway to success.

Do you want to know more?

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Image source: Flickr – Matt Gibson (CC BY-NC 2.0)

 

Getting to destination

01/04/2016 /

The Diplo calendar 2016 realized by Stefano Baldi and Ed Gelbstein presents a selection of quotes from the Classical World for living and working better.

For the month of April the selected quotation is by Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was a tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing no wind is favourable

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Photo credit: herr hartmann (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Re-awaken the giant within

31/03/2016 /

“Global beliefs are the giant beliefs we have about everything in our lives: beliefs about our identities, people, work, time, money, and life itself, for that matter. These giant generalizations are often phrased as is/am/are: “Life is . . .” “I am . . .” “People are …”

As you can imagine, beliefs of this size and scope can shape and color every aspect of our lives. The good news about this is that making one change in a limiting global belief you currently hold can change virtually every aspect of your life in a moment! Remember: Once accepted, our beliefs become unquestioned commands to our nervous systems, and they have the power to expand or destroy the possibilities of our present and future.
If we want to direct our lives, then, we must take conscious control over our beliefs. And in order to do that, we first need to understand what they really are and how they are formed.”

“Re-awaken the giant within” by Anthony Robbins

You can donwload for free the book of Anthony Robbins here
Re-awaken the giant within

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