Augutines Doctrine of Grace

"Sinful man depends, for his recovery to good and to God, entirely on the free grace of God; this grace is therefore indispensable, prevenient, irresistible, indefectible; and, being thus the free grace of God, must have lain, in all the details of its conference and working, in the intention of God from all eternity.”
 — Warfield, Studies in Tertullian and Augustine, p. 130; Warfield, Calvin and Augustine, p. 322.

Machowicz’s Training Pyramid

Richard "Mack" Machowicz’s Training Pyramid goes 
Correct Fundamentals,
Concentration,
Consistency,
Accuracy, 
Speed
--In that order.

Don't work on any step until you have mastered the prior step.

How to Streamline Your Writing Process

How to Streamline Your Writing Process, courtesy of Henneke at Enchanting Marketing

Looking for great content?

Sally Hogshead, of Fascinate fame, has published a great blog post entitled 21 Juicy Ideas for Fascinating Content.

Here are a couple of her points. Then go look at her article.

1. Start with information, then add insight

Information is good, but it’s not enough to establish your thought leadership. If you and I can both search for the same information, that “content” isn’t content — it’s a commodity. Step it up a notch by adding insight to your message.

2. Show us the implications of a trend

Enlighten us. Connect the dots. For example, “Here’s something on the horizon: ___, and here’s what it means for you and your business: ___.” Give us your interpretation. Point us toward what we need to pay attention to.

3. Go on a rant

Show us a point of view that you feel strongly about. Make a fuss about a problem. A passionate voice vividly communicates what you believe and why we should care.

She has a whole lot more. Go check it out.

Mountaineering

"A climb is no fun unless there has been one moment at which you have sworn that if once you get down alive you will never go up a mountain again."
-- Anonymous

Grinding for the Man

"And I'll tell you one more thing. If all you're doing is grinding for the man, it's going to burden you. Once you say, 'Hey, I'm grinding for the man but I'm putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy', you're working for you." 

-- Jocko Willink

As quoted in an interview with James Altucher.

Negotiate, Fight, or Flight

It has been observed that one of the differences between the "street-wise" and the rest of us is that we often negotiate our way out of difficult circumstances while the street-wise rarely negotiate and will choose to either fight or flee.

Robert Mnookin has written a book, Bargaining with the Devil, that gives a formal framework for the negotiate or else decision. He is the chair of the Program on Negotiations at the Harvard Law School, so he is a pretty good source.

His basic framework is that you need to dispassionately (emotions always get in the way of logic) think about five points:

1. What are my interests and what are my adversaries interests?
2. What are my alternatives to negotiation and what are my adversaries alternatives? [Understand your, and his, BATNA's.]
3. Is there a potential deal that is better than the BATNA for each of us?
4. What will it cost me to negotiate? Not all costs are in dollars. Time, emotion, reputation, and self-image are also factors.
5. If we reach a deal, is there a reasonable prospect that it will be carried out? You can always put penalties for nonperformance from third parties in the deal.

Think about these before you make a fight or flight decision.