When I was a high school golfer and not much given to a professional program of advice, I had a raw Arnold Palmer type swing where I stood up to the ball and ripped it. Sheer muscle. The woefulness of that strategy came crashing down on me one day when my playing partner and I [...]
Possible selves
One of my high school teachers would ask if we thought our homework might get done “as if by magic.” Sometimes people tend to think that transition happens for them as if by magic. But of course, it rarely does. Instead, there’s a sorting out process that needs to occur. In which real choices are [...]
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Practice, practice
It turns out that talent is overrated. Of course, it’s needed to do well. But what’s needed more, researchers have discovered, is an ability to practice. To look at what we do in a more considered way. Where we get the most from each experience and steadily grow into better performers.
Put this in the mold [...]
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Actions well-played
Three medical students. One did the right things to succeed. Another strategically played all the right angles. And the third became deeply involved in what really interested her. Which student would later become the happier and more successful doctor?
Studies say that people who become deeply engaged with what they’re doing tend to stick with it [...]
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A quick-study
My sister Suze had already acquired a Chicago accent when I visited my family 4 months after the move from the east coast. Suze’s a quick study, someone who has a leg up because she can quickly master new situations. But how important is it to be a quick-study?
I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, and every [...]
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Playing at a high level
Great lives are ordinary lives intensified. So high-level play requires more than intelligence and talent, it requires a kind of intensity played out over time. My brother Doug, for instance, has several inventions coming to market, but all are the result of many years of careful nurturing. But what path for this glory?
James for one [...]
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Getting better
How does being nimble really influence our personal and career performance? The dictionary defines nimble as: quick, clever, agile. That’s probably how we’d all like to act, even if that means following a program of practice and advice to get us there. Yet sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re already nimble. Let me [...]
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Security
When I taught a change management course for Hewlett Packard a few years ago a peculiar thing happened. Even though the company was changing — it was going global — many HP employees didn’t want a professional program that would give them the advice needed to make the personal changes necessary to make this evolution [...]
Culture of involvement
Overheard. Girl: I just don’t know why we have to study all these facts. Guy: Yeah, how’s that going to help us with our clinical performance? Girl: We’re just studying things without knowing the reasons behind them.
Is it important that students get the facts right before they act? Or should they have a way of [...]
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Opportunity
Why is it that some people see opportunity for change and development where others do not? My friend Jane, for instance, goes to the golf course every weekend with her husband who manages the clubhouse. She inevitably makes sure to tour the course in a cart and then sit in the clubhouse and play cards. [...]
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Action learning
My father came from the show not tell school of leadership. So when I told him I was ready to build a model plane on my own, he said go ahead. But oh the glue that followed! How very weighted down that plane became from layers of glue used to cover my mistakes. And oh [...]
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What’s next, what’s best
My nephew Leo recounted to me his summer “studies”: jazz piano camp for two weeks, baseball camp for one week, the Jersey shore for one week, and the lake in Quebec for one week. Leo is one of those fortunate kids who realize early on the importance of learning by doing. And it shows – [...]
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Individuals
Ever wonder why an all day meeting makes us so tired? Maybe it’s because we’re protecting ourselves! Since linear step by step presentations hold off giving us the whole picture, our unease at not having a gestalt makes us extremely uncomfortable. What better way to handle this, then, than to shut down, to fall asleep! [...]
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Taking the time
As a 7 grade student I spent a few summer afternoons learning to play chess with my friend Albert Wagner. Since he was considered really, really smart, I was surprised when I trounced him in games 1 through 6. On top of that, I was surprised at how ever so slow he was. But in [...]
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Being sure
I once offered career advice to a young man named Allen. Having lived all his life in Charlottesville, Virginia, he was apprehensive about his new job with a pharmaceutical firm in New Jersey. To give him confidence with new situations, I asked him to make a list of clothes he might buy his girlfriend and [...]
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Change
Twenty years ago when I made the transition from married to single life, I did a lot of, well, strange things. Not knowing how to act as a single person, I began to experiment. One experiment involved clothes. I’d moved to Chicago and like my mother before me and my sisters now, I began to [...]
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Relating
A minister of the Episcopal church near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville lamented that students did not understand the Word (or at least his word). That’s because, he said, the students were spoiled; they didn’t care about the deeper things in life.
I find many guides — teachers, managers, leaders – taking this position. They [...]
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Ignoring the elephant
A young gal who once worked in a Charlottesville coffee shop I frequent often dispensed bushels of self-help advice to her favored customers (not me). Some time later I found her working in the Whole Foods vitamin department, a much better venue for dispensing help, I thought, but still not a place for the self-help kind. Afterwards she went [...]
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Welcome to Nimble Journeys, where the discussion is about developing a lifestyle and work-style where we act with skill and grace. Thanks for visiting and I hope you will join the conversation.