Walks of My Life

We love to believe that willpower determines our actions. “If I just try harder,” we tell ourselves, “I can lose that last 10 pounds.” Or save $200/month. Or improve our time management. The problem is, it doesn’t work. Willpower is important, of course, but there’s more to behavioral change than just trying harder. Think about all the things we know we “should” do: Exercise regularly, eat healthily, max out our retirement accounts, save more, travel, call Mom.... In one study, researchers tried to understand why people weren’t investing in their 401(k)s. In the first example, less than 40% of people contributed to their 401(k). But after they made it automatic—in other words, the day you joined, you’re automatically contributing a small amount to your 401(k)— enrollment skyrocketed to over 90%. We know we should fill out that paperwork—and it’s probably costing us a lot of money to not be investing— but we just can’t seem to get around to it. It t...

Getting things done is not the same as making things happen. You can… …reply to email. …pay the bills. …cross off to-do’s. …fulfill your obligation. …repeat what you heard. …go with the flow. …anticipate roadblocks. …aim for “good enough.” Or you can… …organize a community. …take a risk. …set ambitious goals. …give more than you take. …change perceptions. …forge a new path. …create possibility. …demand excellence. Don’t worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen. ~Gina Trapani

What Would Buddha Tweet? Here is our paradox. We have never had more communications tools at our disposal, and yet we have never been less effective at communicating. It’s human nature to want the shiny new things. The amateur golfer thinks that with that new titanium driver she’ll be as good as Tiger Woods. And we believe that social marketing will magically transform our mediocre messages into the word of God. Like all good Buddhists, I believe that when things become chaotic and complicated, it becomes ever more urgent to cut through the noise, simplify and hone in on what really matters. Here are three timeless principles of good cause-related communications that will be as important in ten years as they are today: heart, simplicity, and story. Heart – engage your community from a place of passion and compassion. Facts matter less. Simplicity – if you can’t tell your brand story to a 9- year-old it’s no good. Story – t...

For 2,500 years in the West, we’ve tried to settle matters, because that’s what it meant to know something. Hyperlinks have revealed that that’s really just a result of using paper to codify knowledge: Books settle matters because they’re self-contained, fundamentally disconnected from other books, written by a relative handful of people, and impossible to change after they are printed. So, our basic strategy for knowing has been to resolve differences and move on: There’s only one right answer, and once it’s known, we write it down, and go on to the next question. That works fine for a small class of factual information. But, much of what we want to understand is too big, complex, and arguable to ever be settled. The hyperlinked world—the Web—is made for this way of networked knowing. A hyperlinked world includes all differences and disagreements, and connects them to one another. We are all smarter for having these differences only a click away. The challenge now ...

Why, exactly, do humans smile? This question puzzled anthropologists for hundreds of years. The smile is instinctive, one of a thousand fascination cues we use to persuade others to connect with us. Yet from an evolutionary perspective, the smile makes no sense. In the animal kingdom, retracting the mouth corners and baring teeth is a sign of aggression. Yet in humans, this same gesture signals openness. {So why are humans different?} The answer: Bigger animals have bigger mouths, and therefore lower vocal vibrations, which conveys dominance. Smaller animals have smaller mouth cavities, and their higher voices communicate friendliness or submission. It’s why a Rottweiler’s growl is more threatening than a Pomeranian’s.* When humans smile, we pull our cheek flesh back against our teeth, which makes our mouth cavity smaller, and raises the pitch of our voice. Presto, we sound friendlier essentially turning ourselves from a big animal into a sm...

Expertise is typically over-rated. Sometimes you have to rely on feedback to grow. My first SEO website had a serious error which earned me a chastising email, which at that the time didn’t feel so good. I responded to his email and fixed the error and today, the sender does not remember writing that email and has a big promotion for my site on his website. If you care and are receptive to feedback appropriately, eventually the market will help sort things out for you. People will come across your work and suggest helpful tools and ideas. Some will be rude, some will be condescending, and some will be generous and kind. But if you keep everything in your head then you can’t expect anyone else to appreciate your genius or trust your knowledge - they don’t know it exists. Ignorance can be an advantage, and feedback an incredibly useful tool. It allows you to share the journey, which helps make writing accessible to beginners. And it allows you the courage to do...

Confidence is rocket fuel for your business life. Confident people have a come-this-way charisma that generates a following. When you possess total confidence you are willing to take risks. When you have it, you propel yourself and your team forward into the future. Problem: Most people don’t cultivate confidence – it just lands on them due to favorable conditions. I call this spot confidence. Good times make for confident people. Bad times crush them, along with their daring point of view. The secret to unbreakable confidence is a lifestyle of  motional/ mental diet and exercise. 1. Feed Your Mind Good Stuff Stop reading negative information, listening to negative people or watching cable network news. You are loading up with fear. Replace that information with studies about the future or an improved you. You’ll soon emerge as a solution provider instead of a Chicken Little. 2. Exercise Your Gratitude Muscle Gratefulness is a muscle...

Markets have been through a rough patch lately. But it’s time for us to give them a new job to do. The powerful economic forces that have trashed our planet are the only forces powerful enough to save it. So are we doing all we can to put markets to work to drive down global warming pollution —the most serious environmental problem— while there’s still time? We need to magnetize ourselves. Markets, acting like a magnet, create a pull on people and businesses. So when a market is designed to protect the environment, it attracts brainpower and capital toward green solutions, aligning private incentives with the public good. It’s all about getting the rules right. The global warming crisis, like the recent turmoil in the financial system, shows why we need to design markets well and regulate risks appropriately. A worldwide carbon market will combat global warming by pulling inventors and investors—and you and me and everyone—toward low-carbon energy solu...