Success Intelligence by Robert Holden

Success Intelligence by Robert Holden.  The author spoke in one of the all-team meetings I attended in the US many years ago.  He was funny, engaging and made a compelling case for having heart/love in businesses.  In Oprah fashion, everyone in the audience got this book as a souvenir.

I have tried many times to read this book but I am still glad to have postponed reading until recently.  The message was very fitting for my current situation and struggles.  If I read it at another time, I know it wouldn't have as much impact.

There is a section of the book on permanent busyness.   I wrote down lines and paragraphs from the book (because I don't like marking books!) and shared some of them with my team at work.

From a distance, being busy looks damned impressive and very necessary.  It looks like purpose, focus, drive and huge productivity.  Oh, to be busy like that! Up close however, our busyness often betrays us.  Busyness is often just noise.  It has no real substance to it.  This is particularly true for people who suffer from "permanent busyness."

 It is my fervent belief that leaders are not meant to be permanently busy.  Leaders are the custodians of vision.  They are meant to take the time to meditate and focus on the essential truth of the work.

 Busyness is what you give your time to.  Purpose is what you give your heart to.  The fact is that it is very difficult to be permanently busy and truly inspired.

 Wholeheartedness is the antidote to burnout and hyperactivity.  The heart engages the whole being; it accesses all you potential; and it opens you up to greater inspiration and success.

 The hurry and the busyness are not our real lives; they are just what we do with our time.  Our real lives take place in the spaces between hurry and busyness; it is here that we connect to what inspires us and moves us.  It is here that grace exists.  The joy of slow is that it helps us to remember our true goals, and to know what we really want to be busy about.  The joy of slow is that it creates space for clearer guidance and new possibilities.  In the slow moments we are often more receptive, more economical, more astute, more strategic and wiser.

 God is in the interruptions.  I plan my day but He has the power of veto.  - Joe Mills  

Ang dami!  The other sections on success, goal setting, fears, etc. that were also very insightful.  There are also exercises at the end of each chapter that guides the reader to contemplate on the different subjects.  I did not do them yet but I plan to.=)

The key takeaways for me is to be more mindful and intentional about what I am doing everyday, to make time for the important (but not urgent) things like relationships, to ask for help, and to properly close the day by recognizing the progress I've made, however small.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Filipino Friday 3: Reading Habits and Book Formats

Image
Reading Habits and Book Formats . Where and how do you read? Can you read anywhere and everywhere, or do you need a certain place/mood/state of mind to get reading? Do you read more in the morning or at night or any minute that you can? Where and how do you usually read? Are you exclusively for print, or do you go for ebooks more than print? Have you ever tried audiobooks? I am old school.  Even as most books now have digital versions, I still prefer the physical, ink-on-paper variety.  I like holding a real book, flipping the pages and being able to see my progress based on the thickness of read/unread pages.  Somehow, I feel more engaged and focused reading a physical book vs. from a gadget. I very rarely reread books so most of my collection just sit on the shelf after I'm done with them.  I feel it's a waste of precious trees if they are not shared with others.  So I started a Google doc at work where the team can list down their collections and anybod...
Read more

Trivia and Reading

Image
I am currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I am inspired.  It’s about the author’s year-long quest to be happier.  It’s purposeful and practical and has lot of tips that I can apply or have started doing. Rubin focused on different areas every month and for May, it was Be Serious About Play.  The author was trying to go back to activities she enjoyed as a child. This led me to also think about a favorite childhood pastime, which was collecting trivia.  The Philippine Daily Inquirer used to run a trivia section by Bong Barrameda and I would religiously cut and paste them onto scratch papers, which I would then collate and read again and again.  Nerd zone! Not only that, I also kept a trivia notebook where I researched and wrote down interesting information like areas of study, capital cities, historical figures, scientists and discoveries, everything!  That was fun for me.  I was about to say they were useless info, ...
Read more

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Image
There is something to be said for collective recommendations like bestsellers list.  I found this title on such list at Fully Booked, read a few pages and decided to buy it.  I was intrigued by the theme of the book which is memory, specifically, how the author started as a journalist covering the US Memory Championships and ended up as a contender in the finals of the same competition one year later. It claims that with proper training, one's memory can be improved to be at par with the top mental athletes of the world.  Memory training has become an esoteric discipline because we practically do not need to remember a lot these days.  Information is very easy to retrieve from electronic devices and what not.  You just need basic search terms and the Google provides the information you need and more. Photo from Rainy Day Books I have to admit I rely on external memory a lot.  I can recall birthdays of my very close family members but outside of tha...
Read more