From the monthly archives:

May 2010

Myths That Need Busting

by Stephen Mills May 30, 2010
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Here are some common myths that are widely believed, but simply don’t stand up when put to the test. You may not agree that these are myths, but that’s normal. We tend to believe what we want to believe and what we intuitively feel should be true. I’d rather go with the evidence and the following are some beliefs that I am convinced are myths.

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Books You Might Want to Read

by Stephen Mills May 23, 2010
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I cannot say enough good about Columbine by Dave Cullen.  Simply an outstanding book and an engrossing read.  Highly recommended! Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence–and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process is a heartwarming and ultimately sad story of the famous African Grey [...]

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10 Ways To Be More Persuasive

by Stephen Mills May 21, 2010
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Everyone has a message. Everyone wants to be more persuasive. Whether you are an employee working for someone else, an owner of your own business, a student, a blogger, etc. you need to be heard. In that sense we are all marketers. The world is drowning in information and when you speak you need to make sure your message gets results.

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To Vent or Not To Vent

by Stephen Mills May 17, 2010
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We all know that venting, letting off some steam and then moving on, helps us right? Venting anger is supposed to be cathartic. Punching a pillow, yelling at no one in particular, banging your damn it doll, etc. as a way to vent anger or frustration and “get it out of your system” in a supposedly harmless way.

Actually all of that is false. Decades of research have repeatedly shown that venting does not work. Venting increases aggressive feelings instead of decreasing them.

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Just Let It Go

by Stephen Mills May 13, 2010
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Think about a person who in your mind has changed the world or who has done something great with their life. Now imagine that person had done something terrible, or something that they regretted deeply; something for which they were consumed with guilt. Now imagine that instead of doing whatever they had done for which you so greatly admire them, they had instead remained paralyzed by guilt or regret. Imagine what a tragedy that would have been!

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Master Your Workday Now by Michael Linenberger

by Stephen Mills May 11, 2010

Master Your Workday Now!: Proven Strategies to Control Chaos, Create Outcomes, & Connect Your Work to Who You Really Are is a really good book. I rate it five stars. Check out Steve Pavlina’s review on Amazon; he gives it a huge thumbs up. Pavlina spends most of his review describing Part I of the book, but Parts II and III are also really well done. Amazon is currently offering a 48% discount.

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Randomness and the Clustering Illusion

by Stephen Mills May 8, 2010
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A Texan shoots at the side of a barn and then draws a target around the holes and claims he is a sharpshooter. This is the humorous description of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. When you find find a clump or cluster of something in a sea of randomness and you draw your target around the cluster you are doing the same thing. Clusters are normal and expected in the real world. When a cancer cluster is found in a neighborhood, people start looking for explanations in power lines and chemical plants. They are doing little more than drawing targets around holes in a Texas barn.

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Getting Over It

by Stephen Mills May 2, 2010
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Would you rather have something or would you rather get over wanting to have it? That’s a deep question that I encountered somewhere and sometime during the past few months. I wish I could remember where I read it, but the question stuck with me and its source did not.

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