Written by: Isaiah Hankel
Topics :Being Present, Confidence, Enjoying Life, Legacy, Personal Mission
“In the absence of willpower the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.”
Aleister Crowley
“The greasiest leverage you can create for yourself is the pain that comes from inside, not outside.”
Anthony Robbins
“Idleness is the root of mischief.”
Geoffrey Chaucer
The key to breaking a bad habit is to replace it with a better habit.
Almost everyone has heard the story of Jared Fogle, the guy who lost 100’s of pounds by eating Subway sandwiches. Jared’s story has been studied and celebrated in numerous business journals and self-help books. In Made To Stick, Chip and Dan Heath describe the story of Jared’s transformation as one of the stickiest stories ever told.
When Jared started his junior year of college, he weighed over 420 pounds and wore size XXXXXXL shirts, the largest size available off the rack. Eating food was Jared’s response to everything, including hunger, boredom, loneliness and stress.
Jared’s father, a clinician in Indianapolis, had warned him about his weight for years without much success. Then, one day in December, Jared’s roommate noticed that Jared’s ankles were swelling. Jared was diagnosed with edema, a condition in which the body retains fluids because the blood cannot transport liquid properly. Since edema is a precursor to diabetes and severe heart problems, Jared went through a series of hospital visits. A few months later, Jared decided to slim down.
Motivated by Subway’s “7 under 6” campaign, Jared had his first turkey club. He liked the sandwich, and eventually he developed his own diet: after waking up he would have a cup of coffee, then at noon, he ate a six-inch turkey sandwich from Subway and around 5pm, he ate a foot-long veggie sandwich from Subway. That’s it. No other snacks. No cheating.
Exercise was not … More »
Written by: Isaiah Hankel
Topics :Developing Others, Handling Haters, Influence, Leadership, Legacy, Travel
“A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.”
Robert Kiyosaki
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“It’s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack; not rationality.”
Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman; Kill Bill)
Being soft on other people is selfish.
I was sitting in the exit row on a plane descending into Denver, Colorado. Anyone that has flown into or out of Denver in the spring knows that it’s a hull thumping ride. Ten minutes into our descent, the plane hit some massive turbulence and shook the cabin violently from side to side. I squeezed the armrest and looked out the window across from me, trying to somehow see the wind that was causing the ruckus.
“Quit being a baby.”
The lady sitting next to me was looking at me amused with a half-cocked grin on her face.
I laughed and said, “What?”.
“Put your big boy pants on, you’ll be fine”.
She was slouched back in her chair, completely relaxed, with her knee posted on the seat in front of her. Despite being in her 50’s, she was chewing gum rapidly and smirking like an arrogant teenager. I liked her immediately.
The name of my verbally abusive travel companion was Amy Jordheim. Amy is the Regional Manager of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and the Director of International Medical Relief, a non-profit organization that provides free medical aide to countries all over the world. We ended up talking and during our conversation I asked her: “What motivates you? What … More »
Written by: Isaiah Hankel
Topics :Business, Enjoying Life, Guest Post, Handling Haters, Legacy, Personal Mission
“Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual reinvention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination.”
Sir Richard Branson
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Now that I’m over sixty, I’m veering toward respectability.”
Shelley Winters
You can have anything you want in life if you position yourself properly.
The problem is that most individuals let other people set the course for their life and then follow it with blinders on. They build momentum but they never evaluate its direction. In fact, the average person chooses to keep his blinders on because he’s too afraid to veer off course. Even though it’s someone else’s course.
In Graduate school, my roommate, Ben Harms used to help take care of his girlfriend’s dog, Leo. One weekend, I came home and the dog had a huge cone wrapped around his head to keep him from turning his neck. The cone is called an Elizabethan collar and is worn by cats and dogs as a protective medical device to prevent the animals from biting or scratching their bodies while injuries heal. I don’t remember why Leo had to wear the collar but I do remember what Ben called it: the cone of shame.
When you stay on someone else’s course and refuse to take a different path, even when you know you should, you’re wearing the cone of shame. You’re restricting your movement and blinding yourself to other options, or other positions, often as a result of past wounds.
If you ever find yourself wearing the cone of shame, chew it off. Be your own master.
The key to enjoying life and gaining influence is to constantly evaluate your position in life, relative to your biggest goals, and to reposition yourself when necessary. … More »
Written by: Isaiah Hankel
Topics :Being Present, Confidence, Developing Others, Influence, Leadership, Legacy
“I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.”
Marilyn Monroe
“You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer ‘yes’ without having asked any clear question.”
Albert Camus
“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your…khakis.”
Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt; Fight Club)
Charisma is a combination of attractiveness and unpredictability.
One magnetic person can influence an entire organization. The President that changes the entire direction of their country for the better – think Abraham Lincoln. The CEO that catapults their company from the gutter to epic levels of success – think Steve Jobs. The team captain that infects the entire franchise with a championship spirit – think Michael Jordan.
The word charisma, from the Greek meaning “favor given” has two different senses: 1) compelling attractiveness that can inspire devotion in others, and 2) a divinely conferred influence or talent.
Contemporary definitions of charisma maintain that there is some sort of irreducible, seductive and elusive character to charisma. The mysterious quality of charm suggests a connection to something unexplainable, even spiritual. This is why media commentators continue to describe charisma as the “It-factor” or “X-factor”.
The best way to understand something as enigmatic as charisma is to consider its opposite: repulsiveness.
Think about something that repulses you. If you are truly repulsed, even the thought of that thing will produce feelings of disgust, pushing you mentally and physically away from it. Focus on the intensity of those feelings. Charisma generates that same … More »
Written by: Isaiah Hankel
Topics :Business, Developing Others, Influence, Leadership, Legacy
“Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.”
Norman Vincent Peale
“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”
Stephen Hawking
“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Goodbye information age.
We are in the idea age. An age, or era, dies once something better comes along that turns the valuable resource of the previous era into a commodity.
The stone age was replaced by the bronze age, and the bronze age was replaced by the iron age. And now the information age is being replaced by the idea age.
There used to be different degrees of accessibility to information. But now, thanks to the 24-hour news programs, the internet, broadband, cell phones, tablets, and a variety of other media channels and outlets, everyone has access. The world is completely saturated with information. This is why business moguls and celebrities now take unplugged vacations to digitally detox and learn how to enjoy life again.
Enter the idea age. Ideas add quality to information. You create ideas from the best information. But things are moving fast. Just as we are entering the idea age, we are leaving it. Ideas are already commodities. In fact, there are idea farms, such as Ideafarms, that will take in your raw idea and dump out a finished product, service, or company. Idea farms take your idea from A to B, from abstract thought to physical reality, for you.
Additionally, there are websites like IdeaConnection that allow you to list and advertise your ideas so that interested investors and buyers can find them. You … More »
