ThriveCurve.com

-The Monk who Sold his Ferrari

A “must read”, despite its cheesey style that really grates… Sharma spells out changes in thinking and behavior that can have an enormous impact on who we are and how we get the most from life. Key ideas include:

• willpower is a muscle that drives change - you need to exercise this muscle on small and regular issues and tasks as a means of building resilience for the bigger and/or less frequent moments when its needed
• habits make us who we are - creating good ones and jettisoning ones that hold us back

Tags: habits, willpower

Why Thrive Curve?

“Thrive Curve” is a work in progress on ideas and thinking about thriving in the 21st century. About the only thing that seems certain about the future is that it isn’t what it used to be. So, if we can’t predict and plan the future, being good at improvising, shaping our “craft” (what we are good at and have a passion for) and living a balanced life seem like good bets.

This thinking is our own, coupled to that of a large number of outstanding authors and presenters. We are packaging the “memes” in visual ways (part of our “craft”) and leaving the breadcrumb trail for those interested in finding our more about the underlying memes and where they spawned from.

“Thrive Curve” is being in the Beginner’s Mind> Barbarian > Expert phase of the learning cycle outlined below…

Charles Handy’s ” The Empty Raincoat” coins the phrase ’educated incapacity’ and shows how in life it’s a good idea to re-invent yourself periodically before you get stale at the top of the curve - the change being easier when you are still going up, than waiting until you feel resentment and defensiveness that creep upon you slowly.

Howard Bloom’s “The Lucifer Principle” talks about the natural pecking order that falls out of our evolutionary past - that individuals, communities, organisations and countries all strive to be at the top of the pecking order, but that once you are there your behaviour changes from barbarian openmindedness to defensive entitlement.

Tags: barbarian, pecking order

-The Dip

An excellent quick read that puts the hard yards you need to do to get from A to a much better B in context. That is, the bigger the effort (the dip) the harder it is for everyone - not just you. Now if your dip is playing to your craft then its going to be easier for you. In our business, this has made a lot of sense. Developing new IP, or a service or competency in a technology robs one of time and opportunity. However, by picking the right dips it helps keep us “best in the world” as perceived by our customers. The ”best in the world” is worth a blog  in its own right as it takes into account the fit you have with what someone wants - including price, relationship, geography, skill mix…

Tags: willpower