3-minute Thursday

Episode 102: Two Feet, Five Breaths (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Apr 17, 2019

Welcome to 3-minute Thursday. This week I introduce a way to bring more ease into your day.

The practice is called Two Feet, Five Breaths. It takes one minute and requires no equipment. All you need is a place to sit and some form of breathing apparatus. (I recommend the lungs.)

The other great thing about this practice? You prove once and for all that what happens in Vagus does not stay in Vagus.

That’s Vagus, the nerve, which is the best instrument for shifting your body from “fight, flight or freeze” mode to “rest and digest.”

So you can find the ease and inner calm that brings you into the current moment.

All in 3-minutes. So you can stop listening—and start practicing.

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Episode 96: Three Ways To Be Happy (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Feb 13, 2019

Three ways to be happy is the topic of today’s 3-minute Thursday.

My inspiration is Martin Seligman’s classic book, Authentic Happiness, which helped me cope through hard times and find joy and freedom in good times.

Seligman describes the pleasure life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life. What are these and why do they matter?

Listen in as I walk you through these three forms of happiness with examples from my own experience.

All in 3-minutes. So you can stop listening—and start practicing.

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Episode 94: You Can Practice Better Than That (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Jan 23, 2019

You can practice better than that.

Seriously.

It’s time to raise the bar in organizations around how we practice leadership.

That’s why we’ve looked at how to practice leadership directly and on-the-job.

But what, you might wonder, are these an alternative to? What are the most common current methods for improving as leaders?

Listen in as I walk you through three of these, why they fall short, and how what I’m proposing can replace or supplement them.

All in 3-minutes.

So you can stop listening—and start practicing.

Listen to the Podcast

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Episode 92: Practicing Leadership On-The-Job (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Jan 18, 2019

(Delayed due to technical glitch. The gorilla sat on my media server. I swear.)

Practicing leadership on the job.

It’s the single best way to improve what you do and who you are becoming as a leader.

Practicing leadership on the job involves learning while you work.

This is different from practicing leadership directly, the subject of episode 90. Instead of stepping outside the flow of work to focus 100% on improvement, practicing leadership on the job means you develop and work at the same time.

I call this the On-The-Job-Practice Cycle. It involves four steps:

Prepare
Act
Reflect
Get Feedback

Listen in as I walk you through these four steps.

All in 3-minutes.

So you can stop listening—and start practicing.

Listen to the Podcast

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Episode 90: Practice Leadership Like Athletes And Chess Masters (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Dec 20, 2018

Practice leadership like athletes and chess masters!

Welcome to 3-minute Thursday. Today’s episode is about four ways you can improve your leadership by emulating top performers in sports, chess, and the arts.

Let’s say you want to become more skillful at having rigorous and respectful conversations with others. In my first book, Practice Greatness, I call this Arguing Better. How would you use the following four methods of direct practice to argue better?

The music approach
The chess approach
The sports conditioning approach
The sports simulation approach

Listen in as I walk you through all four options.

All in 3-minutes. OK, this time it’s 5 minutes!

So you can stop listening—and start practicing.

Listen to the Podcast

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Episode 88: Do You Know Your People? (3-Minute Thursday)

by amiel · Nov 29, 2018

Photo Credit: davidmoore326 Flickr via Compfight cc

Do you know your people?

Welcome to 3-minute Thursday. Today, I give you four questions to ask yourself about the people on your team so you can know them better tomorrow than you do today.

Why is it important to get to know your people?