The Voyage Project

I was really impressed yesterday with my daughter's interactive notebook's very first page on Mindsets!   She was overjoyed and I was thrilled that she "schooled" me on having a growth mindset. I know a lot about practicing my own growth mindset. My company offered training which I took full advantage of.  And at one point, I even wanted to be a coach.  Then I found myself putting it off, having problems, traveling and just thinking that I don't have time for that.  Ideas without actions are just dreams!  I can make time if it's important enough.  And that's really what having a growth mindset is all about it. What is Growth Mindset? "Check yourself before you wreck yourself" -- Ice Cube A growth mindset simply means that your talents can be developed with practice, strategies and help from others.  In action, you channel your thoughts away from negativity and stagnation by thinking from a continuous improvement perspective. Here's

We, our lives, are a work in progress.... hmmm sounds a lot like a project!  I love projects.  I love managing projects.  I love life.  I love being the manager of my own life! Project Management (and life) is all about outcomes and minimizing risk to your project (uh, life). Here are some basic concepts of Project Management. Stakeholders Needs Vision Priorities Plan, Goals, Objectives, Milestones, Tasks, Work breakdown People and Resources, durations, availability The Critical Path, Dependencies Communication Time, Money, Quality Issues and Risks That sounds a lot like life. Why should one continuously improve in life or in general? "You're not important because you look good or because you have a whole lot of money.  You're important because you are created by God." - Mos Def That's the bottom line.  In the time space continuum you are as important as any other person. You are important because you are a beneficiary and stakeholder of

During my life, I have felt like I was just surviving; that I needed something or somebody.  I have often felt like "I'm not getting anywhere".    In really hard times, I felt like I was losing it all; that some thing or some body was being taken away from me.   At other moments, I convinced my self that I didn't need anything or anyone!  I felt like I was existing, "making it", that I had what I needed or that I had my act together.  Most times I felt simply that I can do and be so much more. What do we need to survive?  What does it mean to thrive?  What does it mean to LIVE? Abraham Maslow was an American Psychologist who proposed a hierarchy of human needs to sustain the best psychological health of an individual to survive, develop and grow.  He studied the healthiest people in his network surmising that the study of “stunted” individuals would contribute to a stunted society (more on this some other time) . Maslow proposed that there are two

Life can be as empty or as full … as clean or as dirty…. as filtered or unfiltered or as flavored or unflavored as you make it. We must balance it.  It will tip.  We must adjust. My own life has been filled with many ups, many downs, everyday struggle and some major game changers.  As the saying goes, I’ve seen some “things” and been some “places”.   I’ve often been advised that I should write a book about my life… being the child of teen parents, my childhood in poverty, being an intellectual teenage thug, being in special operations, being a software development manager, and traveling with two children.… aspects of my life that shaped me but not without me doing some shaping of my own.   Through it all, I’ve always felt like I won.  I tend to carelessly chide “I don’t know how” but in all actuality I do and explaining how may do me (and others) some good.   One consistent nagging thought to myself every single day is “you must make the difference”.   I think.   I plan.