by Gary Mintchell | Apr 9, 2024 | Personal Development
I remember, barely, being a freshman engineering student. My mindset reflected many (most? all?) of my colleagues—“I don’t need no stinkin’ English and speech classes!” Math and science. What else is there?
Then I got a job.
Turns out that communication skills are essential for career success. Want to be an effective engineer? The ability to listen, talk, and write will serve you better than how quickly you can solve differential equations. Eventually I landed a position as a senior editor of an engineering magazine. It is really hard to find an engineer who can write, they told me.
Charles Duhigg has released a new book. His last book, The Power of Habit, was a killer book. It came out about the same time as James Clear’s Atomic Habits. The two books taught us how to form habits to improve our daily lives and professional effectiveness.
His new book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, promised to do the same thing for effective conversations.
Not so much. It’s a disappointing book. Perhaps because it is really hard to teach people how to have deep conversations where you both connect.
He has outlined his three main points and tips for each point. But they lack the potency of how to develop good habits.
There were too many “Duh!” statements.
On the other hand, the book is packed with good stories. Duhigg is, after all, a journalist trained to write good stories.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 14, 2024 | Personal Development, Productivity
Are you the type of person who is known for getting things done? Is yours the first name that comes to mind when someone in the organization needs a report written or a light bulb replaced? Is “no” a seldom used part of your vocabulary?
In other words, do you always feel busy yet not accomplishing the work that would most boost your career or inner peace?
When you feel the need to focus on the things that really matter needing a way to say “no” more—or better stop being the name everyone thinks of first—then you need to dive into Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (author of Deep Work, A World Without Email, Digital Minimalism, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, and more).
We know what productivity is relating to our production and manufacturing plants. But knowledge-worker productivity cannot be readily defined.
Influenced through reading about the Slow Food movement in Italy, Newport thought about how our decades long obsession with productivity has led to what he calls pseudo-productivity—busy-ness just for the sake of appearing to be, well, busy.
He will show you a few calendar tricks to help you say “no” or at least something like “I’d be glad to help if you see where on my calendar I could get to it.”
How do I get to Slow Productivity?
- Do Fewer Things.
- Work at a Natural Pace.
- Obsess over Quality.
If you do what you’re supposed to do and do it well, how can anyone complain?
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 21, 2024 | News, Personal Development
Did you know that your new Apple watch can measure stress levels and offer ways to manage them? This was the pitch from the PR agency to get me to talk with MetaBrain Labs. Many PR agencies send press releases capitalizing on whatever the latest media frenzy watches. Many are too over the top for my focus. Mental health is a media frenzy–it is also a very real problem. People suffering from depression, anxiety, grief, and more often are told the closes appointment with a therapist is six months away. An app sounds good, I’m sure.
With 35.5% of people already leveraging apps and other forms of technology to address emotional or mental struggles, according to a survey conducted by MetaBrain Labs that spanned across the US, Canada and Europe, this technology is a great way for people to jump into the developing sector of mental health technology.
However, being able to measure stress is only part of addressing the problem of stress management.
“While the new Apple Watch measures stress levels and offers ways to manage them, it doesn’t address the underlying causes of stress. The MetaBrain chatbot and wearable, on the other hand, guides a conversation with your unconscious mind, akin to the way a coach would, through a series of strategic questions. This process employs deception detection via the chatbot wearable to workaround cognitive resistance, to pinpoint the specific mindsets responsible for generating stress, facilitating their transformation into positive ones,” explains Alexandrea Day, Founder & CEO of MetaBrain Labs.
I had an opportunity to interview Day. I brought along an assistant, my daughter who is a licensed therapist. Too often these psychological devices and “fixes” lay in the realm of quacks and get-rich-quick schemes. Following much probing about the background of the app and device and potential uses, my daughter said that Day’s work coordinates well with Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other approved therapies. I felt better about writing about this.
Apple’s stress identification technology or other forms and apps that allow users to practice mindfulness can help people find temporary relief, but MetaBrain is working to get to the root of stress to help guide people and reverse self-defeating behaviors and mindsets that are holding them back and causing stress in their lives.
Day continues, “Merely identifying stress through devices like the Apple Watch doesn’t put an end to it. Mindfulness may provide temporary relief, but it often resurfaces with new triggers. The MetaBrain chatbot and wearable aim to break this cycle by guiding users through a structured session to identify and reverse self-defeating mindsets. This process is swift, and consistent reinforcement over two weeks ensures lasting change.”
MetaBrain Labs, led by the pioneering Neurotech Innovator and CEO, Alexandrea Day harnesses the power of their patent-pending Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology to explore and retrain the unconscious mind. This helps individuals unlock and shift hidden mindsets, facilitating rapid behavioral change for a profoundly better life in as little as two weeks. The process, rooted in Adaptive theory and used by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) spans its use across all human endeavors from improving a golf score to becoming a mindful parent or a better public speaker.
This device will be useful as an aid with a professional therapist to boost mental health of their clients. It can also be used for cybersecurity vulnerability prevention.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 6, 2023 | Education, Personal Development
I was greatly blessed at work. For most of the positions I held, I was the first person to hold the position. I had the opportunity to forge new paths and ways of doing things. Yes, I had several terrible bosses that cost my health for a bit. But many more were the bosses who taught and provided opportunities for growth. Most of the time I did not feel like a functionary simply filling in my time—like the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s eerie story of the man who turned into a cockroach over night.
Given an Irish and Welsh ancestry and vast eclectic reading habits, I don’t know how I missed John O’Donohue. Jerry Colonna introduced us in his book Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong.
O’Donohue seems (although I haven’t found the document to study) to be the closest to my interpretation to the German philosopher GWFHegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit. That enough was enough of an enticement. But it his capture of the Celtic spirit that captivated me.
In the fourth chapter of Anam Cara (soul friend), he discusses work. And how modern work can be soulless robbing us of imagination and creativity. (He also references an early essay of Karl Marx about the alienation of the worker in modern industrial work. One of my favorites.)
With that long introduction, I will leave you with O’Donohue’s blessing for work.
May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
John O’Donohue
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 20, 2023 | Personal Development
No one can figure out Elon Musk. Erratically brilliant, I’ve heard. How can he cost himself and his investors billions? Spouting off support for a white nationalist post on his social media platform X.
2,000 years ago this wisdom was published, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.” James the Apostle
I have heard many times, “I’m an American. I have a right to my opinion.”
My readings in literature and history teach that having an opinion is the human condition. Opinions are easy. Thought is hard. Informed opinions thoughtfully expressed are rare as a gem in the desert.
You can say whatever pops into your mind. On social media it is easy to just pop off something. And then you live with that forest fire that James warns us.
You can say what you want, but there are consequences. Not everyone must agree. Many will vehemently disagree. There is no rule that you will not suffer consequences from saying stupid or inflammatory things.
It’s not the ability to say whatever you want; it’s doing the responsible act.
Your tongue, or your social media post or email, can create a whirlwind of emotions. Taking a breath before hitting the enter key asking if this is the responsible thing to do works wonders.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 19, 2023 | Personal Development
Dan Lyons, technology reporter, came to awareness of a glaring fault while sitting alone in an apartment while his wife and children were still living at home.
His problem—he talked too much. When he got started, his kids would talk about “Danalogues.” The problem is so prevalent in our society that it has a name—“overtalking.”
Some people never stop. My mother-in-law was a sweet lady, but she never met a silence that shouldn’t be filled. Maybe you know people like that. Even worse are those in such a rush to talk that they constantly interrupt and talk over others. Now we’ve gone from gently amusing to greatly annoying. If any of this resembles you, you may be a “talkaholic.” In that case, this book is for you.
His book is Stfu: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World. There is a little analysis tool in the beginning that will help you discern your talkativeness.
“Speaking with intention,” he says in the introduction, “that is, not just blurting things out, improves our relationships, makes us better parents, and can boost our psychological and even physical well-being.”
Lyons not only describes the malady in graphic detail, he also offers five tips to STFU
- When possible, say nothing.
- Master the power of the pause.
- Quit social media.
- Seek out silence.
- Learn how to listen.
If you read nothing else in the book, do the first chapter on the problem and the last chapter on listening. Most people hear noise, but most people don’t really listen.
I can enter a room and quietly listen and observe and be happy. But if someone asks me a question, I’m capable of a half-hour exposition on the topic. I needed the book! I once taped a small note to the top of my notebook that said only STFU. (That means shut up, if you don’t get the initialism.)
Try it. You’ll like it.
