My nephew posted this on his Facebook wall this morning:

We all have dreams, but how much are you willing to sacrifice to realize yours? Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Indeed. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Martin Luther King Jr died at 39. And he predicted his own death. On the eve of his assassination he said, in an eerily prescient passage:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.

Taylor Branch, the historian who wrote a trilogy of books on the life of King, said in the PBS show, Citizen King,

The Movement took a huge toll on him. When they did the autopsy, they said he had the heart of a 60 year old, he’s 39. So yes, it took a big toll on him, and he was constantly fantasizing about getting out of the Movement

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My friend who writes about parenting, bullying, and schools wrote an article called, Parenting a Life of Meaning, In it she asks: Is it really normal that children should hate school? Should we as parents and society tolerate that children spend 6-8 hours a day bored, uninterested, and uninspired?”

There’s a lot written now about the crisis in our public school system. But is it a crisis, or as one author writes, just a bit “like democracy itself, loose, shaggy, and inefficient, full of redundancies and conflicting goals?” Whether crisis or not, right now education is in need of innovation and I don’t just mean technology. Real innovation, and not just sustaining innovation is needed, starting with the goal of education.

The folks at RSA put out a video well worth the 12 minutes to watch. Changing Educational Paradigms asks some very simple yet disruptive questions about education

OK last post about Steve Jobs, I promise. But something else in Steve Jobs’ biography struck me. Even after Apple became the dominant player in the market, Jobs continued to see himself, and his company, as the underdog, having to defend itself against the dominant players. It was as if everything in his world was still Microsoft and he, and his company, were the rebels. He carried this with him, even when it ceased to be true.

In one of his last battles before his death, Jobs fought to keep apps off of the iPad that he deemed in any way pornographic, obscene, or defamatory. He was very serious about it, and in fact, banned some political ads that were too raunchy, a gay travel guide that showed too much skin, and some mainstream German newspapers that had topless photos. (more…)

I haven’t disappeared, am just closing in on the finishing line for the accreditation application for the Process Work Institute. Hopefully shipping on Friday. Then I am back in the saddle, have a stack of articles in the queue waiting to be posted!

As some of you regular readers know, I recently did a three part series on  habits – changing, developing and letting go of habits.It got a lot of interest. And in the course of discussion, you raised some thought provoking questions about change.

In light of that, and the recent Occupy Wall Street movement sweeping North America (and parts of Europe) right now, I am struck with the question of change unaddressed in my posts:

When does change happen?

Many were caught by surprise by the Arab Spring, the fall of Mubarak and Kaddafi. And did anyone predict  the Occupy Wall Street movement would spread to (as of this writing, according to the wikipedia) 70 US cities?

What makes us decide the time is now? What makes a movement take off, and not fizzle? What makes the time ripe?

Kairos, the ancient Greek concept of the ripeness of time, speaks to the mystery of time, but doesn’t explain how it happens. Kairos, in both ancient Greek and modern Greek, means ‘weather.’ Weather, as we know is unpredictable, or perhaps, predictable, if we can track the millions of variables in the atmosphere and now exactly how and when they will interact.

Human change, whether global or personal, is as mysterious as the weather. In spite of all of our focus, energy and intention, when things ripen, is still beyond our grasp. All we can do is prime the pump, recognize the opportunity, and develop the courage to disrupt and disturb our comfortable identities. We cannot force ourselves to make change unless the time is ripe, but we can challenge ourselves by asking, am I ready to change?

In the movie Bulworth, Warren Beatty plays Senator Jay Billington Bulworth a “suicidally disillusioned liberal politician who puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters.” It’s a great movie. And an even greater premise – that a politician doesn’t take on the problems of his constituents, but puts them back onthe people as problems of their own making.

It’s the primary season and next year is an election year, and I’m already dreading the prospect of sitting through two more years of hearing that our problems are the fault of Big Government. Doesn’t anyone else see that as a contradiction? Am I alone in thinking this creates the very problem people are criticizing,  making government responsible for the problems of big government? (more…)

In the last post, I talked about three common misconceptions around forming habits and making a change to your daily routine: discipline or will power alone is needed; inspiration should be enough, and having a fixed routine ruins spontaneity.

This post looks at some ingredients to forming a new habit, and making it stick. These are by no means conclusive – there are other things that help, but  I have found these 5 points to be key.

1. Know the difference between a goal and the activity. I realized that the main reason I wasn’t writing more regularly was that though I had a goal, I didn’t have a specific activity targeted. “Writing a post” is not a specific activity. Nor is “exercising” or “meditating” or “eating healthy.”  (more…)

I’ve been thinking a lot about habits lately. Everywhere I look, habits seem to play a role. Making headway on solving our biggest social problems ultimately comes down to changing ordinary, everyday habits. How do we switch to using public transportation instead of driving, or using reusable grocery bags instead of paper or plastic? Whether we’re tackling health care, the environment, or the global financial crisis, individual’s habits, behavior and choices play a role.

Closer to home, I’ve been thinking about my blog. I’ve had it for almost 3 years now, and my goal has been to write more regularly, ideally twice a week. And for three years, I’ve failed to attain that goal. What’s most frustrating is that I’m a fairly disciplined person. I exercise regularly. I answer emails promptly. I balance my bank accounts every month. I floss twice a day. The list goes on. So why do I fail to post twice a week? Well, here’s what I tell myself: it must not be important enough to me. I’m lazy. I’m undisciplined. I must be ambivalent about it. I make other things more important. I don’t take myself seriously. All of which has truth. But none of which helps me change. Here’s the simple reason. I haven’t posted regularly because I haven’t developed the habit. (more…)

There were several topics I wanted to write about but I sit here heavy hearted and overwhelmed with grief. The catastrophic earthquake in Japan and nuclear disaster unfolding render me speechless. Today, the posts I wanted to write seem insignificant in the face of so much suffering. Sometimes just bearing witness is all we can do.