Blog
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Impact Manifesto: You Make A Difference Whether You Want To Or Not
By Porchlight
"You impact the people around you. From the very day you are born, you make a difference. Your parents took one look at you and realized their lives would never be the same. People feel your influence countless times, in amazing ways you never notice. Just as the butterfly's wings can change the weather, your tiny movements may create storms that shake the entire earth. Your impact is incredible, and today is the day you can take charge of it. Today you can amplify everything good. Call it the Impact Factor."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Brother John
By August Turak
"Uncertainty as to life's purpose is much in vogue today. So too are the relativistic notions that would consign life's purpose to a matter of taste. The agony of life is uncertainty and the rationalization is that uncertainty is certain. However, the plain truth is that for all our anguish we treasure uncertainty. Doubt forestalls action. The problem with life's purpose is that we know damn well what it is but are unwilling to face the changes in our lives that a commitment to self-transcendence, to being the best human being we could possibly be, would entail. It wearies us just thinking about it. So we rationalize that it's all "relative," or that we're already doing enough and don't have time. Worst of all we rationalize that those who do accept the challenges inherent in self-transcendence are uniquely gifted and specially graced."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How To Be a Disruptive Hero
By Bill Jensen
"Disruptive heroes are the people who either completely change the rules or teach us that the status quo needs to be pushed, challenged or broken. They have a major impact on what we believe is possible, what we do and who we become. If that sounds daunting for you to take on...don't freak out! You get to pick the scale and scope of your efforts. Focus on something that's mostly within your control and becoming a hero will be easier than you first thought. But if you would like to change the world as a disruptive hero, could you? Yep. Most of the biggest names in arts, government, business, social movements and more got there by being disruptive. Go for it!"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Art Is Freedom
By Erik Wahl
"My name is Erik Wahl and Art has saved me from a life of slavery. I've been a member of A. A. (Artists Anonymous) for over twelve years. I am a recovering suit and tie. I am recuperating from years as a gear in a wheel that barely touched the ground. And now, after rediscovering my Art by freeing my mind and digging to find my inner creative genius, I am a proud survivor of 'standardized education. ' I found a new path. I learned to UNthink. I learned how to unleash and unlock my mind to find freedom. In my search for freedom, I was unaware that 'art' (actual paintbrushes and paints) would serve as my personal rehab as I began to rebuild from rock bottom. But during this deep search for real answers, I realized the term art had been misused for centuries. What originally began as a term defining the interaction between geniuses and muses eventually was morphed into a hierarchical description of taste and masterpieces. 'Art' became a product and 'artist' became a career where, like any other job, you could succeed or fail.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Biology of the Bottom Line
By Porchlight
"Can we succeed without the body. On the face of it, this seems like a ridiculous question, but when we step back and take a closer look at modern organizational culture, we might be inclined to wonder. After all, most discussions of management and strategy take place in the disembodied, abstract world of the mind. The body is considered a minor player at best and health becomes a concern only in its absence, when skyrocketing medical costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism reach unacceptable levels. In practice, today's organization is almost completely blind to the body and its contribution to performance. We are, in the language of therapy, 'vertically disintegrated' or to put it more bluntly, 'dead from the neck down. ' As Sir Ken Robinson put it in his legendary TED talk, most of us now consider the body to be little more than 'a locomotor device for the head,' a transport mechanism whose only purpose is to move the brain from one computer terminal or meeting to the next. And so it comes as no surprise to discover that we are suffering catastrophic consequences.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
FundRazor: How Collective Sourcing Can Fix Public Education
By Porchlight
"What if everybody with a child in public school decided, collectively, to stop buying one thing in favor of another? How much would a company pay to have their product be the new thing bought? We are talking about leveraging an emotional tie to a business decision. We are talking about bringing small businesses and education together. But we have a few hurdles to get over first. When it comes to changing the way we fund public education, we have to stop looking at ourselves as just voters and taxpayers. We must also identify ourselves as consumers and business owners, and use that as a way to see what funds are available and really get what we need."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / News & Opinion
Think Differently
By Porchlight
When we think of creativity, we often forget the broad scope of what that means. We look to alter details, not scrap entire systems and start from scratch. In some ways, we attempt to make the process of doing what we're supposed to do more interesting, and that's it.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / New Releases
Books to Watch: August 2013
By Porchlight
If you're like me, your summer reading list is infinite—wonderful-looking books in a towering protean stack which both promises blissful enrichment and threatens utter annihilation by way of procrastination and its associated guilt. And summer isn't even over yet. Don't get discouraged.
Categories: new-releases
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Blog / News & Opinion
A New KnowledgeBlocks Giveaway: Grab Bag!
By Sally Haldorson
Everyone loves a grab bag. It's exciting to get a package delivered to your door, and while you know it is from 800-CEO-READ, and so you know it contains business books, it's still so exciting to rip open the flaps and discover what's inside. Due to some traveling and other inconveniences, rather than offer a specific book for a new giveaway--we've got two great books lined up for August, so stay tuned!
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / Staff Picks
Become the Real Deal
Book Review by Porchlight
I’ve recently caught myself using the phrase, “(s)he’s the real deal,” when talking to friends and colleagues about people who have distinct reputations for success or innovation. It’s somewhat aphorismic, but what does this phrase even mean? Off the bat, there’s one word that comes to mind: authenticity.
Categories: staff-picks
