TGIF – A Salute to Work-Life Imbalance

As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.

Quote of the Week: “Three Rules of Life…1: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. 2: Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. 3: Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition – they somehow already know what you truly want to become.”  Steve Jobs

Humor Break:

Bev: Al, I am reading an article and the author mentions the Zen approach to work-life balance.  Do you know what that is?

Al: Yeah, do no work and have no friends.

Stat of the Week: Just when we have worn out our typing keys preaching the need for work-life balance, along comes a blogger who turns the work world upside down with this question: “Why is everybody so concerned about work-life balance?”  Click here for 5 reasons to embrace imbalance!

Action Tip: Regardless of how you view the above link on work-life imbalance, it is extremely important to check out our assumptions now and again.  It keeps us on our toes … and toe walking is a very healthy mental exercise.

Self-Development Corner: Regular readers of this post know of my enthusiasm for Coursera, the free online university – the best universities and the best professors in the world.  As of this writing, there are 328 courses available in all kinds of categories.  But if I could only recommend one course, it would be this one: A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior.  The professor, Dan Ariely of Duke University, is one of the greatest minds of our age.  His whole body of work is to check out assumptions … and he has developed some surprising and important conclusions about human behavior.

This 6-week course begins March 25.  I highly recommend it for anyone in the business world.  For anyone who serves the public.  For anyone who interacts more than once a year with another person.  In other words, for everyone.  I sponsor a young student, Karen, who attends the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.  She is studying International Business and Finance.  I told her she couldn’t consider herself ready for her chosen field if she did not take this course.  She signed up (it takes about 20 seconds to sign up).  Please at least click on the link and read about the course.

He recommends three books to read, as professors tend to do.  They are, of course, his books.  I have already read them.  They are easy reads, entertaining and informative.  I have reviewed them in early posts on this Blog.  You don’t have to read the books to get something from the course.  Just watch the videos if that is all you have time for.  But I beg you to join me, Karen and my neighbor in indulging in continuing education at the apex of excellence.

Ifin ya wanna ta larn how to rite gude like I is: English Composition I: Achieving Expertise (March 18, 12 weeks, Duke University).

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.