Living in More Than One World » transformation http://brucerosenstein.com/blog The Blog of Bruce Rosenstein Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:02:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 4 Areas of Mid-January Self-Improvement http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2012/01/4-areas-of-mid-january-self-improvement/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2012/01/4-areas-of-mid-january-self-improvement/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:14:13 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=1306 Last week I wrote a guest post for LexisNexis Government Info Pro, Creating Your Total Life List for 2012. Much has been written at the end of last year and the beginning of this one about new beginnings. But as we get deeper into January, it’s easy for the fresh feeling to wear off. No matter how many systems you use to better your life, having handy reminders for self-improvement are always helpful:
1. Time management and productivity: Jason Womack, whose book Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More, will be released next month, is interviewed by Meridith Levinson for CIO.com, in Time Management: 6 Ways to Improve Your Productivity. (Meridith  interviewed me in 2009, for Peter Drucker as Life Coach: Book Shares His Wisdom.) What’s valuable about Jason’s advice is that it is work-specific, and we can never get enough good tips in this realm.
2. Happiness: This a topic gets hotter every year. For evidence see the January-February 2012 Harvard Business Review, with a number of happiness-themed articles, including Shawn Achor’s Positive Intelligence. Shawn wrote a terrific book, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, in 2010. Also check out The Happiness Advantage: An Interview with Shawn Achor, on the World of Psychology blog.
3.  Mindfulness and Stress Reduction: The British duo of Danny Penman and Mark Williams, authors of Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, have a guest piece for CNN.com, Destress your life in 10 easy steps. Also have a look at their recent posts for Psychology Today. For a personal account of the benefits of mindfulness meditation, see Newsweek’s Mindfulness Meditation Is Rediscovered, by Amy Gross, the former editor in chief of O, the Oprah Magazine.
4. Lifelong Learning: Opportunities abound, from taking classes (both in person and online) to self-directed learning from books and articles in print and online. For quick, painless tips and idea-starters, check out Newsweek’s 31 Ways to Get Smarter in 2012.
Obviously there are many other categories, strategies and techniques for improving your life this year. But any one of the four above would be a great place to start.

]]> http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2012/01/4-areas-of-mid-january-self-improvement/feed/ 2 Laura Goodrich and the Art of Seeing Red Cars http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2011/02/laura-goodrich-and-the-art-of-seeing-red-cars/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2011/02/laura-goodrich-and-the-art-of-seeing-red-cars/#comments Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:10:10 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=1043 The most valuable books for personal transformation are often short, practical and to-the-point. That is an apt description of Laura Goodrich’s just-released Seeing Red Cars: Driving Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization to a Positive Future. Laura is the co-owner of On Impact Productions; and also a consultant, radio/TV/film host and a fellow Berrett-Koehler author. You can read a free excerpt from her book and see her new promotional video at her page on the B-K website. I met Laura last June at the B-K Authors Cooperative Marketing Workshop. I wasn’t surprised that her book is full of solid, actionable advice, because in one of the exercises during the workshop, we were in the same “co-consulting” group to briefly discuss areas in our professional lives that we wanted to work on. I found her to be genuinely thoughtful and interesting/interested, while helping me to think about new ways to approach problems. That’s a big premise of her book: how we think about what we want in life determines not only how we act – or don’t act – but also what we create and receive, personally and professionally. We get more of what we focus on, and for many of us, we focus on what we don’t want, rather than what we do want. She covers both the personal and organizational levels, with exercises to help you determine your passions, interests, goals and values. What particularly interests me is her material on being well-rounded. Her added focus on family and friends, health/fitness, personal finance, spirituality/faith, volunteerism and other areas provides a strong added dimension beyond the workplace. Dr. Ellen Weber, a brain researcher who is interviewed in the book, also has an interesting post about it in her new Forbes blog, Mind Makeover. One final note: the company you keep has an effect on how you think and view the world. Remember this Goodrich suggestion from Seeing Red Cars this weekend and beyond: “Hang around with people who have very positive thinking.”

]]> http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2011/02/laura-goodrich-and-the-art-of-seeing-red-cars/feed/ 0 Scranton Comes Alive http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/08/scranton-comes-alive/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/08/scranton-comes-alive/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:35:34 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=699 Scranton, Pa., where I was born and grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, was not particularly a cultural hotspot when I lived there. But in recent years, the situation has changed dramatically. Many people know it as the fictional setting of the hit NBC show The Office. There are now Office-themed tours, the subject of Jayne Clark’s recent USA TODAY story Scranton welcomes fans of ‘The Office’. And during last year’s presidential campaign, the city became known for the family roots of both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden. Among the major improvements in recent years include two top minor league franchises shared with their neighboring city, The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the New York Yankees; and hockey’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the top affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain (near the baseball stadium) books major pop music acts during the summer. These big-time sports and music activities would have been nearly unthinkable when I lived there, and it’s nice to see the progress. The latest major development is the new Commonwealth Medical College, which has just seated its first class. It went from idea to reality in less than five years. Read the fascinating two-part series in The Scranton Times Tribune, by Sarah Hofius Hall. It shows how far the city has come in the long, painful transition from a coal-based and manufacturing economy to becoming more knowledge-based. There are also excellent, long-established local schools of higher learning including The University of Scranton, Marywood University, Penn State Worthington Scranton and Lackawanna College.  The tourist attractions such as the Steamtown National Historic Site and the natural beauty of much of the area and its surroundings, combined with its relatively short driving distance to both Philadelphia and New York City, are also making people see Scranton in a more positive and hopeful light.

]]> http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/08/scranton-comes-alive/feed/ 1 Peter Drucker and Your Future http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/06/peter-drucker-and-your-future/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/06/peter-drucker-and-your-future/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:01:43 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=419 Although it was written for a journalism-related readership, I think any knowledge worker can gain valuable insights from a guest column I wrote this week for the website 21st News, Lessons Learned from Peter Drucker: A Guide For the Future. It’s partly a personal look at how I have been living and applying some of the principles in my forthcoming book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, before and after my layoff last December from USA TODAY. But it is mainly a short guide to how people can apply some of the principles in their own lives, based around five areas: teaching, continuous learning, mentoring, volunteering and reflecting. I pointed out Drucker’s stellar journalism credentials: besides his many books, he contributed for many years to such publications as The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, Harvard Business Review and many others. He embodied high-minded achievement, delivered with integrity. He was the kind of role model that knowledge workers can emulate if they are working or not working, looking for a new job or thinking of changing professions. 21st News describes itself as  “a comprehensive Web site about the future of journalism and the news business.” The guest column was for Grant’s Angle, the blog by the site’s founder and editor, Grant Perry. Judging from his bio, he is a great example of being multidimensional and living in more than one world. I’m grateful for the opportunity he provided me to contribute to his site.

]]> http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/06/peter-drucker-and-your-future/feed/ 1 Yoga (and More) as a Vehicle for Post-Layoff Transformation http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/05/yoga-and-more-as-a-vehicle-for-post-layoff-transformation/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/05/yoga-and-more-as-a-vehicle-for-post-layoff-transformation/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 14:24:04 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=159 Tony Dobrowolski of The Berkshire Eagle reports in his article Workshop addresses job-loss stress on an intriguing three day program in June at the Kripalu center for yoga & health, in Stockbridge, Mass. It’s called Transformation: From Surviving Job Loss to Thriving, and will be focused on the kinds of thinking and mind-body awareness skills that are crucial to dealing properly with the loss of a job. These skills are also important for the transition into the unknown territory of deciding what to do with the rest of your life. And of course the latter represents only one step, as big and important as it is, as this decision will have to be balanced against reality. It will be interesting to see if the blend of yoga, meditation, life coaching and other techniques can be a model for others who are on, or will soon be on, this difficult life journey.

]]> http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/05/yoga-and-more-as-a-vehicle-for-post-layoff-transformation/feed/ 0 Po Bronson on Your Future http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/04/po-bronson-on-your-future/ http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2009/04/po-bronson-on-your-future/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:30:08 +0000 bruce http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/?p=58

Po Bronson, author of the best-seller What Should I Do With My Life?, has a thought-provoking piece in the April issue of Fast Company, What Should I Do With My Life Now? His book presented a number of case studies of people who made significant changes in their life. The new article provides a realist view for people contemplating such changes in the current troubled economy. It’s based on six myths of personal transformation, underpinned by the fact that dream jobs, fulfillment and responsibility are all attainable, but they will not come easily. Passion and desire are not necessarily sufficient.

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