Learn Any Hard Skill by Cal Newport

Premise: We live in a world that is changing much faster than we can keep pace with. The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence is a testament to this. As I talk in my book Thrive, we will be called upon to learn something new all the time, just to stay relevant. If we are to thrive, we need to be able to turbo charge our ability to learn. It is in this context that I really liked a video posted by Cal Newport, that he released at the start of the year on his YouTube channel and would like to […]

Are you an Amateur Leader or a Pro?

I recently read a post by Steven Pressfield about turning pro. You can read the entire post here. That sparked the thought about leaders as pro. I have heard of almost all the fields having amateurs and professionals. I have never heard anyone being referred to as an amateur leader though. Does this mean that there are no amateur leaders? I don’t think so. Just because leaders are working professionals they don’t necessarily become professional leaders. In fact, just like any other field, I see a lot more amateur leaders than I see pro’s. The question then is – How […]

The Willing Embrace of Training

Steven Pressfield, the author of one of the most iconic book on Creativity and its so called nemesis, the resistance – “The War of Art“, in his recent blog post talks about the importance of training for creative professionals. I totally believe that leading is an act of active creation and therefore what is applicable for creative artists is also applicable for all of us leaders (and yes, that also includes you if you are aspiring to be a leader). It is true that deliberate, specific and repetitive training, programs our System 1 (as defined by Daniel Kahneman, which is […]

PBTO35: Peak – The Secrets to becoming world class with Anders Ericsson

http://traffic.libsyn.com/pushingbeyondtheobvious/35_PBTO35__Peak_-_The_Secrets_to_becoming_world_class_with_Anders_Ericsson.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Email | RSS In this episode, we host Dr. Anders Ericsson. He is the world’s foremost expert on how to become an expert. He shares a lot of actionable information about what forms the core of expertise. He also shares about purposeful and deliberate practice. He also talks about how success it is not about achieving our potential but building our potential as we go along. You can find his wonderful book – Peak on Amazon here. You can find more information about him here. PS: This podcast is brought to you by […]