David Herz, Coach

Ben suggests some of us are playing the lottery. Instead of having a plan, and doing the things that bring business, and knowing what's necessary, we keep stabbing at items hoping something will click.

So sometimes things do, but they don't hold, because there is no plan. So if you want your business to thrive this year, and it works for your life too, maybe with a little tweaking, here are the steps:

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Life happens for you, not to you. That quote sits here on my screen. It is from Jim Rohn. It is a good reminder. The three second distillation, because sometimes it is that simple.

I am incredibly sad these days. It is much worse to be sad for another than it is for oneself, and maybe it is in part for myself. Maybe it is all about me.

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Help Needed! Having some tough times lately, promotions not selling…almost broke…
What is the best book/​audiobook you know on handling our own emotions/​fear of not being good enough/​fear of screwing up?

I don't know that the best thing to handle your emotions is to hole up with another book. If you've read any book on the subject, the answer is usually something like a few simple disciplines, repeated over time will give you unparalleled success in your particular pond.

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Hello Dear and Beautiful People:

I am sorry for the somewhat more general format, but I've a number of people to reach and this I hope will be an efficient way to do that. And for the non-Jews, there's a Jewish bias in this missive, but you are more than welcome to come to this introduction.

So first, I acknowledge you all for the diffferences you choose to make in people's lives, whether it's just the work you do to be a parent, taking care of a parent or spouse, being the shoulder and support for your family, working on your marriages, working on creating normal lives when things have transitioned in unexpected ways, showing up at a Minyan, joining the CSS, opening your houses to me and other odd folk, educating, healing, taking the time to make yourselves and the world a better place, the comfort you provide, I could actually go on a long time here.

A lot of people show up for me here, and each of the above was directed at many of you personally.

So I am writing today because I've gotten a lot of value out of the work I've done at a company called Landmark Worldwide, which offers a series of personal development courses, the basic one being the Landmark Forum.

The Landmark Forum is a three day (and an evening) exploration into the conversations we have mostly with ourselves, mostly undistinguised, and how we invent them and then let them run our lives, obviously with great positive effect given where we've all gotten, but sometimes with less than salutary effect.

When we appreciate these conversations, and where they can get in the way, we find we have new paths and choices available to us, and create a space for more power, ease, freedom, self-expression, peace of mind.

And for some, the world shifts in massive ways, and for some it's just a shift in how we relate to what we've got. It will move your life forward in the areas that are important to you.

I'm having this introduction now because the course is being offered in a few weeks on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, completing Thursday evening. This is rare, like years between these. It's usually over Shabbat, and impossible for the religious jew as it's at the moment Zoom based.

So please, if any of what I've shared speaks to you, and I haven't shared anything here (I'm running out of time before Shabbat), or who I happen to be in the world makes a difference for you (I credit Landmark with most of the good stuff), show up for the Introduction.

Bring something from your life that doesn't work or isn't working the way you'd like it to, something important, like that would make a difference if you saw somethng new there. We'll have an exercise, explain what the course is about, and invite you to register. Have your calendar and credit card on hand so that you are not frustrated if this turns out to be what you want.

The cost of the Landmark Forum is $675. THe evening is without cost or obligation.

The promise is that you see something that makes a difference for you, whether you register or not.

Please let me know if you can make it, and I'll follow with a Zoom link for the intro.

Thanks so much. I love you all.

David R. Herz

The Formula for Success

I'm on my third Coursera course of this Corona Break, this one The Science of Success: What Researchers Know that You Should Know, with Dr. Paula J. Caproni of the University of Michigan Business School.

So I've completed week three, and this week we learned the formula for success, which dovetails with a lot of the materials I've been reviewing/encountering recently:

1. A Deliberate Purpose, echoing Napoleon Hill's Definite Purpose.
2. A Mental Representation of Excellence: see my post on The Secret. This the focus of Mark Joyner's meditation that he calls the Magical Minute.
3. A Step by Step Strategy, Backward Design is what we call it in education, or a Structure for Fulfillment as I know from my work at Landmark.
4. Practice with Precision: a push, coupled with a willingness to fail (or recasting failure as a part of learning), the best learning occurring at the edge, this the edge between order and chaos (Peterson's conversation on the Dao), or Jamie Wheal's enterprise to engineer flow, which comes from challenge in the right margin. n.b. a coach can make a difference here.
5. SMART Measures:
   1. Specific
   2. Measurable
   3. Attainable
   4. Relevant
   5. Time Bound

The Takeaway being that anything is possible for the person bold enough to declare his future and believe in it.

And this from Dr. Jordan Peterson

This one is huge, I transribe the relevant part for you:

50:53

You're in a schema and something comes along and knocks out one of the presuppostions so that what you are doing doesn't work, then you're going to fall into an intermediate period of chaos, and the chaos is going to be proportionate to the importance of the proposition that was disrupted, and the importance is going to be proportionate to how much you use that axiom across multiple situations. . . .

52:13

Generally you should assume that you calibrated your machine improperly. And I should also tell you something that's akin to that with regards to a self protective mode of reconstructing your schema. . . .

53:06

Maybe the reason the person won't talk to you is because you are just wrong in a million different ways. But, let's not jump to conclusions.

53:17: The Rule

So the rule there, the Mental Hygiene Rule is “Pick the simplest possible explanation. and until you disprove it, accept it.”

Mental Hygiene Rule from
2015 Personality Lecture 05: Constructivism: Jean Piaget

Redemption is something that is accomplished at the level of the individual. Every time you hear someone say that they've oriented themselves properly, it's like a bell rings in heaven.

Higher Ed & Our Cultural Inflection Point: Dr. Jordan B. Peterson/Stephen Blackwood