Yesterday I was in a mental stew.  I was angry, angry at someone and angry at recent circumstances in general.  I knew from the moment I became angry that I needed to let it go.  Being angry with a person, just gives them power over you.  I know this.  I teach it to my students.  “Never, let someone make you angry.”  I tell them.  The only way someone can make you feel anything is if you give them the power to do so. 

Yesterday, I let someone make me angry and I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it.  I tried activity.  I cleaned out the garage, I mowed the lawn.  I decided to move my fire pit to a new spot and so I loaded up the firewood and moved it.  When I had finished I was still angry and caught in a loop of thinking about ways to retaliate and then the mental rebuttal of “that accomplishes nothing, let it go.” 

I then moved an archery target that I had set up in the yard last year, but never used–mainly because it wasn’t in a convenient place.  When I had finished it was getting late, but I didn’t want to go inside and bring my anger on the family so I grabbed a bow and some arrows that my brother in law had loaned me. ( I have only shot it a few times, and I’m certainly no expert or knowledgeable about all the terminology.  So, forgive me if my attempts to describe archery is inaccurate. )

I shot the arrow at the target and missed the first shot.  My second shot hit the target, but it was really high.  I then slowed down and tried to recall all the pointers that my brother-in-law had given me. 

• Draw the arrow back to the same spot every time.  Find some sort of reference point where the fletch or your thumb reaches so that you know its knocked to the same spot.
• Watch the vertical position of the bow
• Watch the horizontal position of the target bead
• Release the bow smoothly
• A millimeter difference in any one of the above positions means a difference of  several inches at the target.

I focused on getting all of the pointers correct and set a goal to land a cluster of arrows in the same spot.  It didn’t take long and I was hitting the target in a fairly small cluster.  I was just beginning to hone in on my shots when my wife called me in to watch my son so she could go pick up our daughter.  I packed up the bow and went inside. 

As I sat with my son,  my thoughts briefly went back to the person that had made me angry and I realized that I wasn’t angry any more and I could let the problem go.  Even better, I realized that the entire time I was target practicing I was so focused on my form that I had stopped thinking about the person.  I had broken the loop.

Last night I found a new hobby and a great way to relax.  Today, I can analyze why it worked and I realize that shooting a bow requires focus and an attention to form.  I think this is why so many people like martial arts or yoga or pilates.  All of these actions require a focus on form.  You can’t really multi-task when you’re focusing on form.

The next time you are stewing over something that is doing you no good, what can you do to break the loop?  Is there something you enjoy that requires focus on form?

In the 1990’s Toyota was a small car company.  Today they are the largest in the U.S.  Much of their success can be attributed to The Toyota Production System.  Toyota’s philosophy was to create value and eliminate waste.  Waste or Muda is described as the use of any resource that doesn’t provide value to the company or the customer.  In order to eliminate waste, one must understand what waste is.  Taaichi Ohno knew this was necessary and he identified the 7 wastes of industry.

1. Overproduction
2. Delay (Edit: Time)
3. Transporting
4. Over-Processing
5. Inventory
6. Motion
7. Making Defective Parts

A friend of mine has the job of identifying wastes in operation and manufacturing  using the lean principals developed by Ohno.  He has learned from implementing these practices that they can also be applied at home and in our personal lives.  He has shared his ideas with me and is allowing me to share them with you.  Over the next couple of weeks will will cover each of the seven wastes in the Muda Series.

If you knew of someone  brand new to personal development that was looking to begin by making one  and only one change to improve themselves what would it be? What is the ultimate productivity tip?

I’ve gathered 50 of the most popular and most influential productivity tips from around the web, in order to put them to a reader vote.  Wherever possible I’ve included the person that first introduced the concept or first introduced me to the concept.  Some of the tips are so widely used that it is almost impossible to figure out their original source. Continue reading…

Getting better requires laughing from time to time.  I really enjoyed this video thanks to Coppyblogger for sharing this with the twitterverse.

Today was supposed to be day 1 of my 30 day challenge to establish a strength training routine to my life.  Thirty minutes before my first workout I rolled my ankle.  I was carrying some boxes and my backpack with my laptop and a bunch of work in it, which was slung over one arm,  to my car.  My car was parked next to a curb and as I leaned over to put the boxes in the car my backpack shifted and caused me to take a step to correct my balance.  Unfortunately, I stepped off the edge of the curb and landed on the outside of my foot.

The twisted foot is certainly painful and I will not be able to put much pressure on it for a couple of days, the good news is that I don’t think it is twisted nearly as bad as it could have been.  I’ve had some nasty sprains in my day and my ankles are pitifully weak. Stepping off a curb with about 40 lbs of loose weight swinging in my backpack could have been enough to put me on crutches.  However, I have been wearing my Vibram Five Fingers nearly every day for about a month and I believe it spared me from a true sprain.  I’m able to limp on my ankle without to much pain.  If I take it easy for the next two days, I hope that on Wednesday I’ll be able to start out with the workout I had planned for today.