Jeffrey G Causey

Finally back with a new entry and I am continuing my book reviews from the 2017 reading list I put together. This post is all about Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done--Now!   by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, which is on the topic of helping you get the important things done now. I actually finished it a while back and am well into the next title on the list, although some personal issues kind of slowed down everything going on in my life. Juggling Elephants is a "fable" type improvement book. Actually, it is almost a fable within a fable. At the top level and used only superficially at the beginning and the end it tells the story of a father relaying advice to his grown daughter who shows up to meet him for lunch one day. The advice he gives is then the fable he tells her about how he learned to get so much done and to always be on top of the important things in life.

As I start some work to bring some life back to this blog site, it seems appropriate that I start with a review of A Whack on the Side ofthe Head . From what I’ve gathered, A Whack on the Side of the Head is a bit of a classic in self improvement although I had never run across it before adding it to my 2017 reading list. And yes, as you may have guessed from the date of this entry, I am running behind on completing that list. I attribute part of that to not keeping up with the discipline needed to keep moving forward with the list, although some delay was introduced by the need to read some other materials and books during the year. Anyway, I’m back and ready to get some creative with some new entries. A Whack on the Side of the Head covers ways to help the reader tap into their creative juices and remove those mental blocks that keep them stuck in a rut. Author Roger von Oech sets forth several examples to open the book demonstrating creative thinking and how people have so...

When I last posted here, it was to share my 2017 reading plan and list. Things have been quiet since then as I've been dealing with other, higher priority items in my life. The good news is, even though I wasn't posting, I was reading and making progress on the reading list. I'm still just a bit behind schedule, but catching up fast - partly thanks to the first book on the reading list. That first book was Sleep Smarter and this is my brief review of it.

Late December and early January have turned out to be very busy, so my plans to put together a post outlining my 2017 reading list has been languishing on my to-do list. No longer though as I have finally found a few minutes to stop and put together the list. Why did I bother to put together a list for the upcoming year especially when I almost always have a book "in progress" at any given time? It was mainly driven by the suggestions on goal-setting that I recently wrote about. One of those tips was putting your goals in writing, so I did that with regard to what I hoped to read in 2017.

I know most folks are probably in the midst of preparations for the holidays and are busy with all of the tasks that go along with that. However, as the year is drawing to a close, now is the time to start thinking about goals for 2017, especially since you may be getting some time off from work (I hope you do). Hopefully, you may even find some time for some personal reflection and can spend some of that effort thinking about what 2017 may bring. I recently attended an online webinar about goal-setting for 2017 (or any other time for that matter) that was hosted by Michael Hyatt. I also came across an article about some unconventional tips on setting goals ( 6 Tips for Goal-Setting That, Trust Me, They Don't Teach You in College ). Hopefully, some of this will help you move beyond the typical mantra of setting SMART goals (smart, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based). Since goal setting is such a personal matter,  don't feel like you need to stick to these m...

The concept of caring being something positive should be fairly obvious, but the title of this piece is not meant to be redundant. Instead, I hope it emphasizes the importance of a positive attitude and how it can impact those around you, notably your co-workers that you likely spend a lot of time with in your life. Besides helping to relieve stress, which can in turn enhance productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, positive attitudes can help people perform better when dealing with customers. Hopefully you realize that helping improve the customer experience ultimately has a positive impact on the bottom line for a business or organization.

The other day via one of my newsletter subscriptions, I came across this article ( Carol Dweck on Creating a Growth Mindset in the Workplace ) that surveys a book from 2007 - Mindest: The New Psychology of Success . I thought it had some really interesting points - to the point that I decided to jump in and order Mindset from Amazon (should be here in a few more days). The idea behind Mindset is that different mindsets impact not only how we do our jobs, but the mindsets of our employees can impact the ultimate success of an organization.