Jeff Davidson's Blog, page 13

World Population Crisis

An understated headline, to be sure: "Challenges loom as world population hits 7.6 billion."

Leave the Edge

For years, I stayed on the edge of my savings, my time, my resources, and my energy rather than storing these up for selective use when opportunities quickly presented themselves. As I began to formulate the Breathing Space principles, I realized my folly.

Get off the edge, put more away in savings, rest more often, eat properly and relax periodically throughout the day. Stop substituting motion for accomplishment.

Notes from “Egotopia"

A 20 year old book Egotopia by John Miller (University of Alabama Press, 1997) has some remarkable insights for today:

"There are moments in history that divide eras--moments that serve to direct our attention, to inform us of a fundamental shift in collective perception, in professed values. The emergence of the New American Landscape is just such a moment whose significance, for the most part, is a steep detection of sociologists, historian, and architectural critics alike.

So little of our historical landscape remains (replaced by the “New American Landscape”) that it’s hard to appreciate our present aesthetic deprivation, having few opportunities for comparison.

We have been transformed from a society modeled on the professed virtues of balance, harmony, rights, and responsibilities to one that unabashedly celebrates excessive behavior and self indulgence in the name of self-liberation.

The ugliness of our environment is a function of our transformation from a society to communal values to one that celebrates and encourages individual self indulgence. Greed, ignorance, mindless science and technology, and excessive materialism contribute to both environmental destruction and a public confusion and ambiguity about aesthetics.

We appear indifferent to the physical and environmental loss of our cultural heritage as authentic small towns and charming country side are paved over. Concurrently, we seemed pleased and satisfied in having created a physical environment in which it is literally possible to be no more than minutes by car away from refrigerated soft-drink. "

Telling Off the Junk Mailers

Please remove my name, and all its variations, and remove all of my contact information from any and all of your databanks, mailing lists, shared files, etc.

I do not want any mail, including solicitations, flyers, brochures, catalogs, announcements, circulars, postcards, promotions, faxes, or email at any time, ever, from you or any of your associates, affiliates, subsidiaries, vendors, or clients.

Thank you

Surfing the Web as Medication

The U.S. could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study suggested. Based on a telephone survey, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine concluded -- 12 years ago -- that more than one of every eight U.S. residents showed at least one sign of "problematic Internet use." The findings of this survey was consistent with those of previous, less rigorous studies.

The typical Internet addict appears to be a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends about 30 hours per week on non-essential computer use. Some people hide their Internet surfing, or go online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored alcoholics using booze, using the Internet to “self-medicate."

My "Breathing Space" Origins

Now and then people ask how I derived the title of my book, "Breathing Space."

One afternoon, I was speaking on the phone to a mentor and he mentioned that he needed to "get some breathing space." I wrote down those words.

The phrase became one of the powerful guiding forces in my life. From that conversation, I devised the Breathing Space Institute, wrote the book "Breathing Space," and have since given hundreds of lectures for audiences across the nation and around the world on managing the daily pace with grace, mastering information from any communication overload, and, of course, having more breathing space.

Longer Life, but Enjoying it Less?

As a species, we live longer. The life span of the average caveman was 19 years. The life expectancy in Europe in 1392 was 38 years. The life expectancy in America in 1892 was 49. Today it is above 77 for American men, 79 for women, and quickly rising for both sexes. Yet, for most people in our society, most days race by.

The faster we're able to travel or to gain new information, the greater our expectations regarding what can and needs to be accomplished in our lives. A day is still 24 hours but it seems to shrink in the face of more to do or higher expectations about what has to be done.

Time management is not the answer--it's too antiquated for the rapidly changing world. Instead, you and your fellow employees can recapture control of your lives:
* Reduce excess reading;
* Don't feel compelled to keep up with the news;
* Rest often; and most importantly,
* Handle your errands on weeknights--not on weekends.

A Vehicle for Job Worries

A 2006 study published in the "Journal of Marriage and Family" finds that cell phone use has become a vehicle for job worries and problems to interfere with family life for both men and women. Cell phone technology is linked to increased psychological distress and lower family satisfaction in general for working men and women.

Upshot in 2018: Manage your cell phone after hours or it will quickly manage you.

Time Tested Book: Willpower

From the publisher: "In Willpower , the pioneering researcher Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with renowned New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control."
 
"In what became one of the most cited papers in social science literature, Baumeister discovered that willpower actually operates like a muscle: it can be strengthened with practice and fatigued by overuse. Willpower is fueled by glucose, and it can be bolstered simply by replenishing the brain's store of fuel."

"That's why eating and sleeping- and especially failing to do either of those-have such dramatic effects on self-control (and why dieters have such a hard time resisting temptation).
'

"Swim with the Sharks" guru on Handling Stress

"Swim with the Sharks" guru Harvey MacKay offers a long list of tips on handling stress, streamlined here:

• Be completely present for whatever you are doing

• Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue

• When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane

• Keep your pace relaxed, and go outside once a day

• Take notice of the tension in your body