A field guide to the twenty-first century, written by one of its most celebrated observers.

In his most ambitious work to date, Thomas L. Friedman shows that we have entered an age of dizzying acceleration--and explains how to live in it. 
We all sense it―something big is going on. You feel it in your workplace. You feel it when you talk to your kids. You can’t miss it when you read the newspapers or watch the news. Our lives are being transformed in so many realms all at once―and it is dizzying.

In Thank You for Being Late, a work unlike anything he has attempted before, Thomas L. Friedman exposes the tectonic movements that are reshaping the world today and explains how to get the most out of them and cushion their worst impacts. 

You will never look at the world the same way again after you read this book: how you understand the news, the work you do, the education your kids need, the investments your employer has to make, and the moral and geopolitical choices our country has to navigate will all be refashioned by Friedman’s original analysis.

Friedman begins by taking us into his own way of looking at the world―how he writes a column. After a quick tutorial, he proceeds to write what could only be called a giant column about the twenty-first century. 

His thesis: to understand the twenty-first century, you need to understand that the planet’s three largest forces―Moore’s law (technology), the Market (globalization), and Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss)―are accelerating all at once.

Due to an exponential increase in computing power, climbers atop Mount Everest enjoy excellent cell-phone service and self-driving cars are taking to the roads. 

A parallel explosion of economic interdependency has created new riches as well as spiraling debt burdens. 

Meanwhile, Mother Nature is also seeing dramatic changes as carbon levels rise and species go extinct, with compounding results.

How do these changes interact, and how can we cope with them?  

These accelerations are transforming five key realms: the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and community.

To get a better purchase on the present, Friedman returns to his Minnesota childhood and sketches a world where politics worked and joining the middle class was an achievable goal. 

Today, by contrast, it is easier than ever to be a maker (try 3-D printing) or a breaker (the Islamic State excels at using Twitter), but harder than ever to be a leader or merely "average." 

Friedman concludes that nations and individuals must learn to be fast (innovative and quick to adapt), fair (prepared to help the casualties of change), and slow (adept at shutting out the noise and accessing their deepest values), and he explores how communities can create a “topsoil of trust” to anchor their increasingly diverse and digital populations.
With  vitality, wit, and optimism, Friedman shows that we can overcome the multiple stresses of an age of accelerations―if we slow down, if we dare to be late and use the time to reimagine work, politics, and community. Thank You for Being Late is Friedman’s most ambitious book―and an essential guide to the present and the future.


The book is available from The Book Depository and Amazon

There never has been security.  No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; 
if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavour
~  Eleanor Roosevelt

What was the most challenging period of your life? What was the hardest, most difficult time in your journey? 

Is it possible that this event was the best thing that ever happened to you? 

Watch Jack discuss this counter-intuitive idea that can help you turn adversity into triumph.

When we know deep down that we're acting with integrity despite impulses to do otherwise, we feel gates of higher energy and inspiration open inside of us."  
Dan Millman
“I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.” -- Stephen Covey

I have shelves piled high with diet books of every shape and description. They are full of theories and plans, food allowances and calorie counts, strategies and tips.

Some of them have a simple message. Others try to complicate things with lots of scientific explanation. There's some truth in all of them but they simply don't work for most of us.

You can read every diet book out there. You can start out full of enthusiasm on yet another new weight loss plan or program every few months. But until you realize that it's not the plan or program that is keeping you from success - but you - you're likely to be still trying every diet under the sun until
 you give up wanting to lose weight in your nineties.

Now, I don't mean there's anything wrong with you that makes you unable to make these diet plans and programs work. In fact, you are in a tiny minority of people if you do succeed - the select few who have that iron will and determination to stick to a diet until they reach their target weight and beyond.

What I mean is that you're not taking into account that you are a human being and that human beings are creatures of habit.

People like what is familiar and comfortable - it's in our very nature. So to make changes which turn everything that we are used to upside down takes a monumental effort most of don't have the time and energy for. And it's not surprising that we scuttle back to our old ways before too long.

The first two steps to succeed in making any change are awareness and acceptance of the current situation.

You have to understand yourself and what you are capable of and accept that before you can move forward. If you're willing to accept that you're human and that huge sudden changes are unsustainable, you can start to work with that rather than trying to fight your very nature and those characteristics shared by almost all of us!

So, what's it to be? Buying every new diet book out there and trying it out for two weeks or two months? Or making small changes to your habits one by one to move towards the healthy lifestyle that will result in the shape you want?

Copyright Janice Elizabeth Small
http://www.SimplySlimming.com

"Sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction." ~Unknown

 Change is not easy. But it is simple. Things will always change. We don't have a choice about that, but we do have a choice on how we react to change; and as a leader whether or not we choose to create change. The choice really boils down to this...either we manage change or it will manage us.

 As a leader, however, deciding to make changes is the easy part. Getting your people on board is much more difficult. Why is that? Quite simply, change is an emotional process. We are all creatures of habit who usually resist it and welcome routine. Uncharted waters are scary!

 In the long run, however, sameness is the fast tract to mediocrity. And, mediocre companies won't survive. Tuli Kupferburg said it best... "When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." And, that is your challenge...to convince your team that the new world you are trying to create is better than the one you're in.

Is it easy? Of course not. It takes planning, commitment, patience and courage. The truth, of course, is that change can be a wonderful gift. In fact, it is the key that unlocks the doors to growth and excitement in any organization. And, most importantly, without it...your competition will pass you by.

A big part of success, as a leader, will be your ability to inspire your team to get out of their comfort zones; to assure them that even though they are on a new path, it's the right path, for the right reasons.

 That's what this book is all about....ideas, to inspire, to motivate, and to encourage your team to move forward and to embrace change.

 I'd like to share one of the chapters titled: "Learn from Old Warwick".

Enjoy!

  Excerpt from: Change is Good...You Go First By Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein

  Learn from Old Warwick

 Fostering a spirit of teamwork is critical in times of change. The key element is trust. Trust for the leader and trust for each other. There is a wonderful story from the play, Some Folks Feel the Rain; Others Just Get Wet; and I think it's worth sharing again to shed some light on how people think about teamwork...

 A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to reach for the map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn't injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.

 "Warwick can get you out of that ditch," said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the decrepit old mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, "Yep, old Warwick can do the job." The man figured he had nothing to lose.

The two men and the mule made their way back to the ditch. The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins, he shouted, "Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!"

 And the mule pulled that car right out of the ditch. The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, "Why did you call out all of those names before you called Warwick?"

 The farmer grinned and said, "Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he's part of a team, he doesn't mind pulling."

 To watch the movie or to look inside the book, just click here.

"Sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction."
~Unknown

Change is not easy. But it is simple. Things will always change. We don't have a choice about that, but we do have a choice on how we react to change; and as a leader whether or not we choose to create change. The choice really boils down to this...either we manage change or it will manage us.

As a leader, however, deciding to make changes is the easy part. Getting your people on board is much more difficult. Why is that? Quite simply, change is an emotional process. We are all creatures of habit who usually resist it and welcome routine. Uncharted waters are scary!

In the long run, however, sameness is the fast tract to mediocrity. And, mediocre companies won't survive. Tuli Kupferburg said it best... "When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." And, that is your challenge...to convince your team that the new world you are trying to create is better than the one you're in. Is it easy? Of course not. It takes planning, commitment, patience and courage.

The truth, of course, is that change can be a wonderful gift. In fact, it is the key that unlocks the doors to growth and excitement in any organization. And, most importantly, without it...your competition will pass you by. A big part of success, as a leader, will be your ability to inspire your team to get out of their comfort zones; to assure them that even though they are on a new path, it's the right path, for the right reasons.

That's what this book is all about....ideas, to inspire, to motivate, and to encourage your team to move forward and to embrace change.

I'd like to share one of the chapters titled: "Learn from Old Warwick". Enjoy!

Excerpt from: Change is Good...You Go First

By Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein

Learn from Old Warwick

Fostering a spirit of teamwork is critical in times of change. The key element is trust. Trust for the leader and trust for each other.

There is a wonderful story from the play, Some Folks Feel the Rain; Others Just Get Wet; and I think it's worth sharing again to shed some light on how people think about teamwork...

A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to reach for the map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn't injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.

"Warwick can get you out of that ditch," said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the decrepit old mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, "Yep, old Warwick can do the job." The man figured he had nothing to lose. The two men and the mule made their way back to the ditch. The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins, he shouted,
"Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!"

And the mule pulled that car right out of the ditch.

The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, "Why did you call out all of those names before you called Warwick?"

The farmer grinned and said, "Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he's part of a team, he doesn't mind pulling."

To watch the movie or to look inside the book, just click here.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

-- Alvin Toffler

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

Henry Miller