Thinking of Tomorrow

Episode 15 - First Impressions and Confirmation Bias

In this episode I talk about a few psychology studies that show how quickly people form first impressions and how reluctant we are to let them go. It is important to be open to changing our minds and to look at new information with curiosity instead of judgement. I'm not suggesting you simply forget your past experiences, but don't let your past experience with one person determine your future experience with a different person who happens to look the same.

Episode 14 - Honorable Leaders

In this episode I talk about how to identify actions that are associated with someone who is honorable and how honorable people make the best leaders. From sports coaches, to restaurant managers, to business executives being an honorable person will have a positive impact on the culture and performance of your team.

Episode 13 - Core Values

In this episode I discuss a few ways to identify your core values. These are the values that you do not compromise on. It is important to identify them, so that when you are in a situation where someone with different values behaves differently than you would, instead of getting angry you can react in a way that is still in alignment with your values while allowing a different person to be different than you.

Episode 12 - Developing Patience

In episode 12 I talk about what patience is, what it looks like when someone is patient, and most importantly how to build patience as a skill. I reference The Marshmallow Test, Chris Croft, and Simon Sinek, and I hope you take away some valuable information on this one. Thanks for listening.

Episode 11 - Overcoming Obstacles

In this episode I talk about the differences between internal and external obstacles, how to define them, and most importantly how to overcome them. Our internal obstacles tend to be habits that we are trying to change, and external obstacles tend to be things that we need mental flexibility to work around.

Episode 10 - Reaching Goals

Happy 2024!For episode 10, I wanted to talk about how to reach your goals. A lot of people make New Year Resolutions as a way of setting goals to try and do better this year than we did last year. Unfortunately, most of us do not stick to our goals after a month or two. I hope the examples and strategies in this episode help you stick to your goals so you can feel better about what you accomplished in 2024 than what you accomplished in 2023.

Episode 9 - Implicit Trust

In episode 9 I talk about the reasons why we have different levels of implicit trust and why it has been declining over the last 30 to 40 years. Citing a pew research study done in 2019 about trust declining over the past 3 generations, giving a few specific examples of big news stories that degraded trust for millennials, and most importantly how to start rebuilding that trust with each other.

Episode 8 - The Wedding Cake

In this episode I continue discussing the importance of language and how it changes the way we perceive a situation. I talk about how Lynda and I have improved our communication over 14 years of being married, and how a bakery in Oregon refusing service to a couple could have been handled far better by everyone involved if they had used better language to address each other.

Episode 7 - Turn the Ship Around

In this episode I discuss a small part of the book "Turn the Ship Around" by retired U.S. Navy Captain David Marquet. I use one of his examples to demonstrate the importance of language and how changing the words we use to describe a situation will change how we think of that situation. Describing a group as 'they' puts a psychological barrier up that separates us from that group, making it easier to push blame and take no responsibility.

Episode 6 - The Marshmallow Test

In this episode I talk a little about The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel, and focus on how building trust is a form of delayed gratification and is essential to building successful teams. The quick gains you might see by doing something that gets results immediately will likely cause you long term headaches that there is no quick solution for. Building trust takes time, and the benefits are not easily measured, but it is always worth it.