Wednesday, June 29, 2011

How will Austin's cultural, social and economic diversity shape our future?

It is a pleasure to inform you that the next edition of Forefront Austin has been released. This month's BIG question: How will Austin's cultural, social and economic diversity shape our future?
"The 2010 U.S. Census documents that Central Texas’ social, cultural and economic fabric is more diverse, varied and nuanced than ever before. Forefront Austin’s perspectives this month tell the stories behind the numbers—the opportunities, the challenges and the potential. Unexamined, diversity could lead too easily to division. Here Forefront Austin partners offer a glimpse into how Central Texans are weaving these distinct populations into unified and forward momentum for our region."
Come on over to Forefront Austin, where you will enjoy excellent feature perspectives on this important question. Family Eldercare's CEO (Angela Atwood) writes about Five Ways Central Texas is Aging with Style. Read about how Asian cultures are making their mark on Austin from the perspective of Sunni Jackson, winner of a student showcase essay from Manor ISD. Get in-the-know on Austin's growing Latin music culture, quickly becoming a larger part of our overall thriving music scene. Or click on this month's Infographic to see Central Texas by the Slice.

Next month's BIG question: Community Recess – What is the value of investing in play?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Seed of Purpose

D.J. Gregory:
Continuing with my summary of Denis Waitley's classic book, Seeds of Greatness, subtitled The Ten Best-Kept Secrets of Total Success, let's take a look at seed number five. The fifth seed is purpose. Waitley's chapter on purpose is all about goal setting. He says, "The reason so few people achieve their goals in life is they never really set them in the first place." 

There is a power within all of us that moves us towards our dominant thoughts. Waitley encourages you to know where you are going and to live life with a purpose. I love the expression, 'He/She walks with a purpose!' You can just tell who the people are who move through life with places to be and people to see. 

How about D.J. Gregory, who walked every round of the PGA Tour in the year 2008 despite battling the crippling disease cerebral palsy? D.J. walked every hole in every round of 37 tournaments, covering over 800 miles. He had a purpose!

  1. Self-esteem
  2. Creativity
  3. Responsibility
  4. Wisdom
  5. Purpose

Monday, June 20, 2011

Congrats to US Open winner Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy:
What an amazing US Open at Congressional Country Club in Washington, DC! Congratulations to Rory McIlroy who ran away with the title and played golf like he was playing a different course than the rest of the field. Whether or not we were watching the next greatest player ever, we were certainly watching some amazing golf and a shattering of US Open scoring records. I can't wait to see what Rory does at The Open Championship in mid July.

My friend Porter Briggs, who is a missionary in Honduras where he runs an orphanage, sent an email in response to my last post on The Dan Plan. In summary, Porter wanted to make these points about Dan's plan to become a professional golfer through putting in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.
"In the 'nature vs nurture' argument, I actually believe nurture to be far more influential. I've discussed this issue with many people and I call it my "Michael Jordan Argument." The basic point being that if I, Porter Briggs, had had the opportunity to grow up with Jordan, and eat when he ate, practice when he practiced, and done everything exactly as he did, that I still would have NOWHERE NEAR his talent, and the reason being because I was not born with anywhere near the talent that he was. That said, I still think practice is extremely important, and it can be the difference between success and failure, but it can only take us as far as our genetics allow."
It will be interesting to continue to follow Dan and see if his deliberate practice can produce a golf swing as beautiful (or as effective) as Rory McIlroy's!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Seed of Wisdom

The fourth seed of greatness that Denis Waitley teaches in his classic book, Seeds of Greatness, is wisdom. He describes wisdom as honest knowledge in action. It is one thing to know something well or to be good at a specific talent. But when we use our knowledge and our talents to do good in the world, we are practicing wisdom. I like this quote from Thomas Wolfe:
"If we have a talent and do not use it - we have failed. If we have a talent and use only half of it - we have partially failed. If we have a talent and somehow learn to use all of it - we have gloriously succeeded and won a satisfaction and triumph that only few individuals ever know."
Some great questions to ask about your Wisdom (p. 113):
  • Are you honest with yourself and others?
  • Do others trust you completely?
  • Are you going where you want to go, doing what you want to do, and becoming who you want to become?
  • Are you making the best of your real talents in your profession?
  1. Self-esteem
  2. Creativity
  3. Responsibility
  4. Wisdom 

Monday, June 13, 2011

Hiking Yoga and Tee it Forward

Tree Pose:
One of my goals when I left Salient Systems in early January was to attend 80 yoga classes in 90 days. Yoga is a great way to restore your body and replenish your mind. I enjoy the low impact, peaceful pace of the classes and find that it helps me start my day with a wonderful outlook on life. I am pleased to report that I have made that goal and am, in fact, on-track to attend 160 yoga classes in 180 days. To celebrate, my wife treated me to a Hiking Yoga excursion this weekend on the beautiful Barton Creek Greenbelt. Hiking Yoga is a unique 90 minute workout that combines the cardio of hiking with the power of yoga. I commend it to you.

I wish I could report having accomplished my other athletic endeavor, which was a golf goal. I aspire to break 80 from 6000 yards. Like my yoga goal, I set my golf goal in January, well ahead of the PGA Tour's new Tee it Forward initiative. At least I am on the same wave length as the PGA and I am far more flexible, thus I know that round in the 70's is coming one day.
"Simply put, TEE IT FORWARD can make golf much more fun for millions of people," said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. "We believe that by moving up to another set of tees, golfers will experience an exciting, new approach to the game that will produce more enjoyment and elevate their desire to come back and play even more golf."
 Who is going to win the US Open?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Dan Plan - checking back in

The Dan Plan
I thought it would be fun to check back on Dan McLaughlin and his transformation plan from no previous golf experience to golf expert by way of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer on April 5, 2010 and began his journey to see if he could become a professional golfer. He will hit the 10,000 hour mark in November of 2015, with  8,379 more hours to go. Dan's goal is to inspire others to live their dreams and accomplish their goals. He has a full team of support, including a golf coach, a strength coach, a nutritionist, a cinematographer, a marketer, and a web designer. Of interest is that he still has only a putter, pitching wedge and 8-iron and is learning the game from 100 yards and in.
 "Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years." (The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance: Ericsson, Krampe, Tesch-Romer)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Seed of Responsibility

The third seed of greatness from Denis Waitley's book of the same name is responsibility. Last week, we looked at creativity and the week prior was self-esteem. This week, it's responsibility and Waitley focuses on using our self-control to live responsible and productive lives. Here are Waitley's seven C's of self-control:
  • We control the clock
  • We control our concepts
  • We control our contacts
  • We control our communication
  • We control our commitments
  • We control our causes
  • We control our concerns
Next, let's check in on The Dan Plan, and see how our friend Dan is doing with his commitment to perfect his golf game through 10,000 hours of practice.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Inculcate - to implant by repeated statement or admonition

I have a friend named 'Fast' Eddy Epperson, who developed Easy Street in the 70's. We live on Easy Street, which has become somewhat of an anomaly around our house these days, considering we have a gaggle of girls to put through college and life can seem a little chaotic at times. In fact, we live in the house that Ed built for his family.

I enjoy having coffee with Ed to hear stories about Austin and to discuss life from the perspective of someone nearly 25 years older than myself. (I am 51.) Ed is in fantastic physical condition. He plays tennis nearly every day, participates in strenuous yoga classes, goes on an annual ski trip where he skis 30 straight days in Colorado, and rides a motor cycle. He has no diseases and all of his joints and bones work extremely well. While some of this is just good genetics, there is no doubt that much of it is in the way he chooses to take care of himself. He is a retired veterinarian, and gives much of the credit to what he learned from taking care of animals.

Today we talked about the Andre Agassi autobiography, Open, that I wrote about last week. Ed made the interesting observation that Agassi was inculcated from a very early age as a pugilist and a defender. Agassi's father was an Olympic Boxer (of Iranian and Syrian origin) who trained his son literally from the crib to hit a tennis ball. Agassi remembers watching his father once get out of their car and fist fight a man who had cut them off in traffic, his father getting the better of the man. Agassi displayed these scrappy and defensive characteristics throughout his career with the best return game of all time, and some of the best baseline ground strokes ever.

It makes me wonder what I learned from my parents and what my children are learning from me?