RWL Newsletter #25
Happy 2017 a few days early! We had a snow storm last night here in Durham, so Kandie and I took advantage of it to go snowshoeing for the first time this season. The winter is really upon us now and we so enjoy walking in the woods after a good snow storm. Snow storms can be a royal pain, too. They snarl everything up and you can get stuck in your house for days sometimes. But after having spent a career in the military and living all over the country, one thing Kandie and I learned was that every place is as amazing as you make it - you just have to come at it with the right attitude. So in that vein, I've pulled together three fun pieces this week that play into the New Year's resolution mind set to help you get the right attitude for 2017. Check them out and let me know what you think!
Read
What: James Clear, How to Break a Bad Habit and Replace It With a Good One
http://jamesclear.com/how-to-break-a-bad-habit
Why: James Clear, along with Tim Ferriss (below), come out of the "life hack" genre that is very popular today. I read James's blog (I hate pluralizing words that end in "s" - especially names) and really enjoy a lot of what he has to say. The core idea of this post is if you want to drop a bad habit, you have to find something to replaced it with. In some sense, it gets at a sort of root cause analysis like we use in most of our quality programs. A former student turned me on to him a while back because Clear had written about intermittent fasting - which is going to be one of my 30 day experiments this January - see "watch"!
Watch
What: Matt Cutts, Try Something New for 30 Days (3 minutes)
https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days
Why: Folks who know me know I am a fan of 30 day experiments. Mostly diets - the $3 Diet, 30 Day Vegetables, and most recently, Into the Food Desert. I've also done 30 day exercise challenges, as well as creativity challenges. It's a great way to try to create a new habit, or even just blow out the gunk from the gears. Having to do something every day, if you really commit to it, is a great way to shake things up. I recommend something small that doesn't require an onerous amount of effort - that way you are more likely to stick with it. I'm going to attempt three 30-day experiments starting in January: 1) health: 30 days of intermittent fasting, 2) professional: read an academic article related to my research every day for 30 days, and 3) creative: write a poem every day for 30 days (I'm a recovering English major as some of you know). Give this a try - 30 days puts a limit on your effort. Of course you can continue after 30 days, but the larger point is to exercise your discipline muscles. I'll be teaching OB/Leadership in the spring and I will be requiring the students to attempt a 30 day challenge of their choice to make a personal improvement of their choice.
Listen
What: Tim Ferriss, What I Learned in 2016
http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/12/29/2016-what-ive-learned/
Why: As mentioned above, Tim Ferriss is from the "life-hack" genre. I am a regular listener to his podcast. He claims he interviews the world's leading experts in order to deconstruct what they do to be great. I periodically get fed up with this genre, but I usually come back because it motivates me to keep on trying to improve. In this podcast, Ferriss talks about how each year he spends time examining how he spent his time in the prior year and how he should allocate his time in the future. One thing we all have the same amount of is time in the day, week, and year. How we use it makes all the difference.
That's it for this week! Have a happy and safe New Year and I'll talk to you again next year!
If you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
I' d love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @bonicatalent .
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
Twitter: @bonicatalent
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau