New Semester, New Opportunity

I love the start of a new year, a new semester, a new job, a new President.  The change is invigorating.  We get the opportunity to leave the old behind us and begin anew.  Whenever you get the opportunity to have a fresh start, try something new based on what you learned in the previous go around.  Do away with those bad habits and reinforce the good ones.

This semester, I’d like you to try something new.  Stay ahead of the wave. The wave is a metaphor for the workload that you’ll have throughout the semester.  It has a momentum of its own and if you aren’t prepared it can either crash down on you or leave you behind.  If you are prepared, it will carry you all the way to the shore.

The best way to be prepared for the wave is to anticipate its movement before it forms.  Here are some ways that you can stay ahead of the wave:

Before your first class

• Get a big calendar that you can write on or get familiar with the calendar in your PDA or notebook
• Put all major dates that you know into your calendar (e.g. key birthdays, holidays, spring break, exam week, games, etc.)

After your first class

• Get the syllabus from each of your classes.  If your teacher/professor did not hand one out, make sure they have one on their website, if not then ask them directly or via e-mail — YOU MUST GET THE SYLLABUS ASAP
• Transfer every assignment/quiz/test/final onto the calendar
• Mark each major assignment/test/final with a highlighter

Create a plan

• Break down each item in your calendar into the major steps required to complete it (see breakdown below)
• Estimate the time required for each major step and the order that they should go in
• Lay out each major step into your calendar (with estimate) and write them down with enough information so that you will remember what it means in the future

Review the plan

• After you have put all of your assignments/tests/etc. and their associated major steps into your calendar, then go back through your calendar to see where you are overbooked.  Look for multiple big deliverables in one week or activities that overlap with games/tournaments.
• Move back some major steps into an earlier week to even out the load
• Be sure to leave gaps of time for fun – a prepared student is a relaxed and well-balanced student

Execute the plan

• You are now more prepared than 70% of the people enrolled in school – enjoy that confidence
• Follow the plan – The reason you built it at the beginning of the semester is because you could be objective and not be persuaded by distractions.  Don’t allow the compelling distractions that will be all around you to take you off track.  If you do, then the wave will catch up.  Remember, it has a momentum all of its own.  It won’t slow down just because you do!
• Adjust as early as possible – Even the best of plans cannot anticipate everything.  Be aware that things will come up unexpectedly that you want/need to do.  Assignments will be easier or harder than you planned for.  New assignments may get introduced.  Every time something changes in the mix, consult your calendar and see how that change impacts your life.  Adjust the calendar accordingly.  The longer you wait to analyze how an unexpected change affects your calendar, the more likely you won’t stay ahead of the wave.
• Get help -  If you discover that it’s taking you much longer to do something than you had planned, then evaluate why.  Is it because the assignment is more involved than you thought or is it because you just don’t understand the material.  As soon as you discover that you don’t understand the material, get help immediately.  Don’t assume that it will eventually come to you – it probably won’t.  You need other perspectives, a different way to hear it, a different example, a different setting.  You will get it, but not by avoiding it and not without getting help from someone.  There is no shame in admitting that you don’t understand – only shame in letting it overtake you.

Breakdown Instructions

Breaking down problems into bite-sized pieces is an art form.  To be really good at it requires experience, foresight and practice.  Even though it will be new to you, it must be done – just give it your best shot and adjust as you go along.  You’ll get better at it every semester and eventually it will become second nature.  This section gives you some generalities to start with when you are planning your major steps.

• Pre-Reading (2-hours per chapter)- If you are covering Chapter 7 on Tuesday, then read it and take notes on Sunday or Monday.  It takes about an hour to read a chapter and another hour to go back through the material to extract good notes.  Remember that summarizing the material in your head and writing down your notes (freehand or on your laptop) will help you commit them to memory and have a deeper understanding much better than just reading.  If you have more than one chapter to read, spread it out over a couple of days.  Your brain gets bored easily and needs new, fresh information.  It is better if you focus hard on one chapter and then move on to the next subject.  You want to read before you cover the material in the class for two reasons: 1) repetition and additional context (different perspectives) increases your ability to recall the information and 2) you will have a deeper, richer understanding of the material if you are not learning it for the first time in class.  This second time around allows your brain to do a different level of learning – the level necessary for a thorough understanding.
• Class (length of class) – Always go to class – every class!  Record every class with your digital recorder.  Be sure to sit in a location where you can get a good recording.  Listen first, take notes second.  In other words, it is much more important for you to listen and comprehend than it is to fill your page with notes.  When you take notes, you focus your attention on what you are writing down, not what the teacher/professor is saying.  It is impossible to write down notes while still processing what is being said.  If you record your classes, then you can listen again and take notes after class.  When you do take notes, make them short and only write down the key points so that you can return your attention to the lecture.
• Review Class Notes (1.5X length of class)- On the same day as the class (preferably 3-hours or less later – according to Brain Rules) re-listen to the lecture with your digital recorder.  This time, stop the playback to take more comprehensive notes.  Really pay attention to make sure you understand and make notes in the margin on the things that are unclear/confusing.  Plan on this activity to take about 1/2 as much more time than the playback of the class for good note taking.  When you take notes, don’t just write down things that were said.  Instead, write down key points and conclusions.  Make your own conclusions too.  Repetition increases your ability to recall the information.
• Weekly Help (1 hour/class) – Plan to go see your teacher/professor once a week to discuss the things that you’ve noted to yourself in the margin that were unclear/confusing.  Not only will they help you understand the material, but they will know who you are and the level of effort that you are putting into their class.  At the end of the semester, they’ll give you the 90 rather than the 89.  As your teacher/professor if they have any old quizes/tests that you can use for practice.
• Review for Quiz (30 minutes for each chapter and class session it covers) – If you have done the steps above, reviewing for quizes should be easy.  At this point, you will have already read all of the chapters and have notes over each of the chapters and classes.  All you will need to do is go back over all of your notes, which by now will probably already be in your head.  If you have an old quiz, look at the questions and see how they relate to the material.  Are they taken directly from the material?  Are they abstract and require that you have reached your own conclusions?  Imagine the kinds of answers that you expect the teacher/professor would like to see and answer each of the questions as if you were taking the quiz.
• Research Paper (8-10 hours) – I never just sit down and start writing.  When I do, I always end up with a disorganized mess.  No one I know that writes for a living ever just sits down and starts writing.  Good writers start with a plan.  The plan starts with understanding the objective of the paper.  What is the paper about?  What conclusion are you trying to reach?  What is your purpose?  Start here and the rest is easy.  It may take some time to figure this out because you may have lots of options.  You may try one conclusion and discover that you don’t have enough supporting points, so you have to change conclusions.  If you start with the plan up-front (rather than having a few pages already written), then you have a lot more flexibility to change and pick the right objective.  Then, determine the major points and their supporting points.  This should come pretty naturally if you already know the material.  Organize them into an outline with an introduction, body to make your argument (major points) and conclusion.  You should allocation about 6-8 hours for writing an average-sized paper.  After you’ve written the paper, you’ll need to walk away from it for a while.  Eat dinner or work out – get you mind on something else for a while.  Then, when you can be more objective, you will want to read it again critically.  You may find that one of your major points is weak or that the organization needs to change.  After you have made the paper as good as you can on your own, it’s time to seek help from others.  A couple of days before the paper is due, go to a friend who is great at writing or someone in the writing lab.  Give yourself enough time to take their feedback (sometimes vague) and figure out how to incorporate it into your paper.
• Review for Test (30 minutes for each chapter and class session it covers) – Preparation for tests are exactly like preparation for quizzes except that you have more material to review.  Spread your review out over several days and really study your notes deeply.  If you know the material well, you may find yourself glazing over them during your review.  This will do you no good.  You need to be in a quiet room with no distractions and read your notes carefully.  If you have forgotten something, then go back and listen to that part of the lecture or re-read that part of the text.  At this point, if you don’t know something, you’re not going to learn it.  Test reviews are about filling in blanks and making new connections as you’re putting together known material in a more comprehensive way.  If you have old tests, study them carefully and really try to see what the teacher/professor is asking for.  Pay attention to their style for asking questions and how you think they want to see them answered.  You will only know their style by going to class.  Did I mention you should ALWAYS attend class?

If you need help doing the breakdown let me know.  I have to do it everyday with every assignment that I create.

Guess Who’s Movin’ In?

As the Obamas are preparing to move into the White House on January 20th, the Bushs have announced their plans to move to Dallas.  I had heard that they were moving to an area of town called Preston Hollow.  Funny, this was the area where I lived in high school.  I wondered where they would be moving, but never imagined that his new address would be published.  Sure enough, a quick Google search revealed the address and even a link to a Google map if you want to go by for a visit.

The map above goes from my old house to theirs.  It is only .7 miles away and in all my years there, riding bikes and driving through the neighborhood, I don’t remember ever going down his street.  They picked a good, obscure place where they and their neighbors will hopefully be able to live in peace.

Changing a Tire

I don’t think we’ve ever had to change one of our tires on the road before.  It’s really simple, but you just have to follow a few simple rules.

And don’t forget to pull WAY off the road before changing the tire.  This guy didn’t and luckily he’s still alive to talk about it…

Be Proactive

One of the things that we aren’t explicitly taught in school is how to be proactive.  It is one of the most important success factors in business, yet we really don’t spend any time learning what it means, how to be proactive or even how it can be exploited.

Throughout our school career, we are told what we need to do.  If we weren’t told what to do, then we believed it didn’t need to get done.  Our actions were determined entirely by our educators.  This process is necessary when we are young because we literally don’t know what we don’t know.

One thing that being told what to do teaches us is to plan ahead.  We have a test coming up on Friday, we’d better start studying a few nights before.  Another thing it teaches us is to break things down into smaller pieces.  My test is over 3 chapters and a lab, I’ll read the first two chapters on Monday night, read the third chapter Tuesday night, review my notes and the lab on Wednesday night and go through the review on Thursday night.  This is how we learn to successfully complete tasks.  This is how you prepare a workforce for the Industrial Age.  This is how things get done.

Be Proactive

1. Envision your goal
2. Observe your surroundings
3. Analyze the situation
4. Decide and make a plan
5. Execute

Being proactive goes beyond planning ahead by forcing you to think on your own.  The first step in being proactive is envisioning where you want to be or what you want to accomplish.  It seems obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how much time and effort is spent on activities where people have no idea what they are setting out to achieve.  Being proactive requires that you have a thorough understanding of your vision or your goal because the journey to achieving it will be littered with challenges and distractions.  It is only your dedication to the goal that will allow you to continue on the right path toward success.

Imagine driving along the highway and you come upon some highway construction.  The detour takes you 5 miles out of the way on a road that you are completely unfamiliar.  If the detour is not marked well, then you could be lost with no obvious route back to the main highway.  Do you just continue driving in any direction?  No.  Your goal is to get to Midland to celebrate your grandfather’s birthday.  You know Midland is west of Austin, so you go west until you can find a road to get you back to the main highway.  Your well-understood goal kept you going in the right direction even though you were lost.

The second step is recognizing what is happening around you.  Again this seems obvious, but many people just do – not observe.  In school, your feedback may be your grades, your schedule, the level of difficulty you have in a particular class, etc.  These observations will indicate how well you are progressing towards your goal.  Perhaps your goal is to get all A’s and B’s.  How are your scores so far?  You’re doing well in all of your classes except math where you have low quiz grades and you know you don’t understand the material like you should.

The third step is analyzing your observations and the various options/consequences.  In other words, what do the observations mean?  In this case, they probably mean that you’ll not achieve your goal because you are doing poorly in math.  So, what do you do?  Study more for math?  Get tutoring?  Spend more time doing homework and online quizzes?  This step is critical because you are evaluating the information that you have, considering the alternatives to help you achieve your goal and evaluating the potential outcomes or consequences.  It could be, for example, that if you spend 5 more hours per week on math that your grade in English will fall.

The forth step is making the decision and making a plan.  This is where being proactive really becomes visible.

The fifth step is executing your plan – basically what you’ve learned to do throughout your school career.

Think about it.  Not in any of these steps did someone tell you what to do.  Instead, you knew what you wanted to achieve, you evaluated the situation relative to your goal, looked at your alternatives and their associated consequences, made a plan and began execution.  This is not a one-time process.  Being proactive is constant.  Every time you get new information you will go through the same last 3 steps.

Being proactive is simple and critical to your success.  You’ll find that this process will work for you in all areas of your life.  If you know the process and know that you have the power to apply it, then you will be a leader in every organization of which you are a part.

Pray Everyday

Every night when my head hits the pillow, I pray.  I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember and every night I follow the same pattern.

First, I pray for everything I’m thankful for.  I literally go through a list of the most important relationships in my life, my health, intellect and a couple of physical things (like our house) that provide me and our family with comfort and security.  As I mention them mentally, I visualize each one.  Second, I pray for strength.  I list each major goal that I am working towards and ask for the strength (or courage, or intelligence, or creativity) to achieve each objective.  I also visualize each goal or associated challenge as I go through the list.  Finally, I pray for my life.  I express how fortunate I feel for who I am, the experiences that I’ve had and those that I will have.  Even as I write this, I get an overwhelming feeling for the incredible gift of my life.  No matter what is happening in the world or my life, this is always the most powerful part of my prayer.

I think I was a teenager when I started praying this way.  I remember listening to the prayers of others around the dinner table, on TV or at church.  It struck me that so many use prayer to ask for things.  Ask for things!  This never made sense to me.  Especially if you believe that prayer is like a phone call to God, then why would you spend the time asking for things.  It seemed so selfish to me – especially in America where we have such abundance – that people would use their silent moments with God to ask for more.

I’ve always believed that we have everything we need … possibility.  That gift was bestowed upon us the moment we were born.  We each have unique interests and talents and the possibility to put them to good use.  I believe it is our responsibility to determine what those are and how best to apply them.  We weren’t meant to be granted wishes!  It was from that point on that I vowed never to ask for anything in prayer – only the necessary attributes to achieve my own possibilities.

So why is a guy who does not attend church recommend that you pray everyday?  Well, I believe that there is tremendous power in prayer.  Not because God is listening, carefully taking notes and manipulating events in the universe to grant your wish.  Instead, I believe prayer is a conversation with yourself – a gateway to your subconscious.  Every religion on earth has some form of prayer or meditation to help increase your awareness and remove the conditioning of everyday life.  Prayer reminds you of what is truly important.  It helps you envision the future and what path you want your life to take.  It helps you remain positive and humble.  It helps you visualize what you need to do to accomplish your own possibilities.  And by the way – everything is possible!

There is a book and a video call The Secret.  The Secret is really just a collection of practical philosophies to help lead a happy and more fulfilling life.  The common thread throughout the book is the belief that our positive thoughts (the way we choose to perceive ourselves and the world) are powerful magnets that attract health and happiness.  I’ve mentioned in a previous post that people who perceive the world negatively reflect their perspective in their face, their walk, voice, gestures, etc.  How you choose to perceive things (your reflections of attitude) becomes who you are – to yourself and to those around you.  Prayer helps you reinforce your chosen attitude (thankful possibilities) so that your attitude will naturally permeate everything you do.

Positive daily prayer = Happy, successful life

Harmony Happens

I’m a believer that their is a natural order to events and circumstances.  You’ve heard me say things like, “oh well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be”.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel that I have any control over events, it is merely a recognition that things tend to work themselves out over time based on an unseen set of “rules” that I consider to be the natural order of things.  Some people call this fate.  I don’t like that word because fate seems too controlled or pre-determined. I don’t think that God, for example, sits up there and makes decisions on our behalf – although, that sure would be convenient for us.  Nor do I think that our destiny is pre-determined and we are merely puppets that act out an already-written play.  Instead, I believe we use knowledge, instinct and “feelings” to help guide us to the right place, to do the right thing.  A place where we are in harmony with the things that are around us.

Have you ever been to a party or a street corner where things just didn’t feel right?  You couldn’t identify why, but you just knew you needed to leave.  This is what I mean – you are not in harmony with your surroundings.  You have no logic to go on other than your unexplained feeling of unease.  Obviously, this feeling is a protection mechanism that we can’t understand, but keeps us safe when other facts (the things we can physically sense) do not detect a threat.

One of the dangers we face in our busy world is becoming numb to these unexplained sensations.  Perhaps we sense them, but we tend to ignore them or lose our trust in them.  I believe it is important to recognize these sensations, tune into them and value them as guides for the things we otherwise cannot see.

I’ve had a great example of this over the past few months.  Being out of work, my singular focus has been to find a job.  Obviously, I wouldn’t settle for just any job.  I wanted one that was inspiring, that represented my interests and values, that I believed would provide our family with more opportunity.  I set out to create a company that would do just that.  Through a lot of hard work, research and feedback from dozens of people, I created the memory concept.  I was thrilled about it because it fulfilled a personal dream of capturing and organizing Packaw’s life stories.   But things weren’t quite right.  The people who were excited about investing weren’t skilled technology investors.  The enthusiasm I expressed for the concept was not echoed with all of those whom I trust.  It was as if the concept was not in harmony with the things around it.  Of course, I was so dedicated to the concept because of my passion for the idea and my immediate need to get a paycheck that it made me almost numb to the sensations that were being broadcast around me.  It took the dropping out of the largest investor to force my awareness of these sensations and to look more objectively at the opportunity.  The concept was spot on, but something just wasn’t right with the business strategy.  When I began to have a different conversation, a different perspective with those around me about the concept, the right business strategy became rapidly evident.  Now when I share the updated strategy with those whom I trust and respect, I’m met with equal or more enthusiasm.  Business opportunities like partnerships, interest from key employees and potential investors are happening more rapidly and without effort.  The original concept with the updated business strategy has now reached a level of harmony that I never felt in previous months.  As with all things in nature, things ultimately work themselves out.  Had I pursued the previous business strategy, the company might still have been successful, but I’m certain the road would have been much more difficult than the one that I’m following now.

Remember that your life path is determined by billions of little decisions.  Each of those decisions is influenced by your individual objectives, the surrounding circumstances, your experience, state of mind, etc.  Just remember that your intuition and the unexplained sensations you feel are also helpful guides in steering you in the right direction.  Based on my philosophy, you will ultimately end up getting there eventually because harmony happens.  It is just a matter of how long and difficult the path will be.  By listening to all of your built-in resources, you’ll discover the most direct and painless path that exists.

Appreciating Classical Music

A few months ago, I read a blog that introduced me to Benjamin Zander.  I’d never heard of him before, but he is both an accomplished musician and the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  What makes Benjamin stand out, however, is his unmatched energy, creativity and ability to engage his audience.  This video is about 20 minutes long, but well worth the time.  Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video in this post.  Please follow this link.

You can find out more about Benjamin Zander here.

Work Through the Grey

When you were little guys (through 2nd grade), parenting was pretty easy.  Although mom consulted many parenting books, our best resource was a book called The Time-Out Solution.  The book  helped us implement the easiest and most significant parental tool we’d come across … time-out.  I’m sure you remember being forced to sit facing the wall screaming while we pretended to ignore you.  It was a sadistic, yet brilliant way to punish bad behavior.

With the punishment pre-determined, our most important job as parents was determining what actually constituted bad behavior.  When you were young, it was easy.  Everything was black or white … good or bad.

As you got older, however, time-out was no longer the most effective consequence for your expanding repertoire of questionable behavior.  What constituted “bad” behavior too became more difficult to determine.  Basically, the lines between good and bad … black and white became blurred … we found ourselves in a field of grey.  Why?  Because each situation was unique and involved many more variables – often these variables represented conflicting values, morals and lessons that we felt were important to reinforce.

When I thought about it further, I realized that this is what it means to be an adult.  You will increasingly be faced with decisions in which there are no definitive right or wrong answers – no black and white.  Instead, you must choose your course of action based on degrees of right and wrong.  My hope is that you will use all of your available tools (logic, intuition, morals and values) to help you decide what is best for you.  Mom and I are here to help, so are your friends, but ultimately you are the only one who can decide what that is…

As you make these adult decisions, know that you will have to make compromises.  The trick is knowing what to compromise.  Never compromise on the big things – the things that are most important to you – the things that “define” you.  Be true to yourself and you will always work your way through the grey.

Brain Rules #6 – Long-Term Memory

In a previous post, I summarized the first Brain Rule. In this post, we’ll focus on the sixth – LONG TERM MEMORY – or you must remember to repeat.

We covered many important aspects of memory in the last post about SHORT TERM MEMORY.  The most significant of which is the importance of repetition.  The only real way to convert a memory from short-term to long-term is by repeating the information and strengthening that memory with additional, related information.  But why?

Your body of knowledge is cumulative.  In other words, each new thing that you learn has links to and builds upon related things that you have learned in the past.  This phenomenon is really evident in math when you don’t really understand one problem solving technique and each subsequent lesson using that technique is completely foreign to you.  Because the brain builds upon what it already knows (a process known as encoding), missing a critical fact can make it very difficult (if not impossible) to comprehend and remember other things dependent on that fact.

Interestingly, information is best remembered when it is “encoded” with as many existing facts as possible.  The author uses a simple example of the word PIE.  If you only remember the sequence of letters – “P”, “I”, “E”, then your comprehension of the word will be minimal.  If you additionally remember a delicious chocolate cream pie that Gran made for Papa on his birthday, then your ability to remember the word PIE goes up considerably.  Sure, the memory is now complicated by the inclusion of Gran, Papa and chocolate cream, but those associations will help you comprehend, retain and recall the information more easily.  The more abstract the lesson, the more important these associations become and why repetition is so critical.

Each time information is processed, new associations and therefor a deeper understanding of the material is achieved. In the spirit of repetition, here is the process of studying recommended to maximize understanding, retention and recall:

• Read the materials before the lecture to initiate the learning process
• Attend the class lecture (advancing repeated materials to a deeper stage of memory)
• Review class notes, re-listen to the class lecture and re-read the materials immediately following the class (further advances the information learned into longer-term memory)
• Review the information again on regular basis (weekly) until it is committed to memory

Wrinkles are for Wussies

When I was in high school, we always had an ironing board opened up in the laundry room and mom always expected me to do my own ironing.  The early 80’s was all about long sleeve Polo shirts, so I got a lot of practice ironing my shirts.  Although you won’t need to iron a shirt as often as I did, it is a handy skill since having your shirts laundered is about $1.50/shirt.