Your favorite athlete closes in for a win; the crowd holds its breath, and at the crucial moment ... she misses the shot. That competitor just experienced the phenomenon known as “choking,” where despite months, even years, of practice, a person fails right when it matters most. Why does this happen, and what can we do to avoid it? Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen explain why we choke under pressure.
Lesson by Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen, animation by Olesya Shchukina.
Macio Thompkins is a 19 year old employee of the City of Atlanta and a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. Growing up on the Northwest side of Atlanta, Macio had to overcome numerous challenges and hurdles to achieve his dream of graduating high school and being a model of success for his family and friends. However, thanks to Beyond the Bricks program offered this summer at Georgia State University, Macio dreams now include sharing his talent with the world and his message of determination and success.
Where: Starbucks Downtown Fairfield 700 Jefferson St Corner of Jefferson & Texas (map)
Description: We
meet every last Saturday of each month (weather permitting). We clean
up different locations and neighborhoods. Please join us. All are
welcome
At the Matt Garcia Foundation we don’t want to complain about this, we
want to create solutions to problems. It is with this spirit that we
began our Monthly Community Clean Ups.
On the last Saturday of
every month, volunteers get together and clean up a neighborhood in
Fairfield. We pick up trash, work on landscaping paint windows, fix
fences – all in an effort to improve our community. This is another
example of community coming together to help make a difference.
The
Matt Garcia Foundation Dream Team, is all about stepping up and
stepping out of ourselves to serve others and our communities to be a
part of the solution. Matt would say ” if you see a piece of garbage on
the ground, please just pick it up” How simple is that! So, that is what
we do.
Are children poor liars? Do you think you can easily detect their lies? Developmental researcher Kang Lee studies what happens physiologically to children when they lie. They do it a lot, starting as young as two years old, and they're actually really good at it. Lee explains why we should celebrate when kids start to lie and presents new lie-detection technology that could someday reveal our hidden emotions.
We get stronger, not weaker, by engaging with ideas and people we disagree with, says Zachary R. Wood. In an important talk about finding common ground, Wood makes the case that we can build empathy and gain understanding by engaging tactfully and thoughtfully with controversial ideas and unfamiliar perspectives. "Tuning out opposing viewpoints doesn't make them go away," Wood says. "To achieve progress in the face of adversity, we need a genuine commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of humanity."
Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.
We see it in public gestures like Nelson
Mandela forgiving his captors after his long imprisonment or when
President Ford pardoned President Nixon.
And we often see the results when there is no forgiveness.
Like in the news every day - from revenge violence to road rage to people arguing about reclining seats on airplanes.
Yes, Mandela and Ford were leaders, but how does forgiveness apply to us as "everyday" leaders?
It applies immediately and directly.
But before I share my thoughts, let's start with the three types of forgiveness. They are:
• Forgiveness of self
• Forgiveness of others
• Forgiveness of situations
As I describe each, I believe the relevance to you both personally and as a leader will become clear.
Forgiveness of Self
We
all make mistakes. We all exercise poor judgment. We all screw up. It
is what we do next that matters most. If, after our mistakes, we live in
guilt and in the past where the mistake happened, nothing positive will
come from it.
It's considered a universal truth that "we learn
from our mistakes". Yet this "truth" is missing a couple of components -
lessons in mistakes are there but the learning isn't guaranteed, and
the learning won't come if we are living in the mistake or not willing
or able to reflect on it, or won't let go of it and forgive ourselves
first. A more complete statement of that truth is that "we can learn
from our mistakes if we will let ourselves learn and choose to do so."
And that learning can't happen without self-forgiveness.
There
are other reasons why self-forgiveness is important. It will allow
ourselves to focus on the future, rather than the past, and it will
allow us to reduce our stress and frustration (and makes us healthier
too).
Forgiveness of Others
Admit it.
When you read the title of this article, this was probably the type of forgiveness you were thinking of.
Think
for a second about the way you feel about a person who hasn't forgiven
you. Do you want to be around them, or work for or with them? Are you
willing to give them your best effort? Or does the barrier between you
(which can include self-forgiveness too) keep you from moving forward?
When
we don't forgive others, we set ourselves up for animosity, reduced
productivity, more conflict and drastically lowered trust.
So how open to forgiving others are you?
Forgiveness of Situations
Things
happen that might not be anyone's "fault". Do you know people who
continue to dwell on a past situation that caused them grief or pain,
even if it was just a situation? When we are able to forgive situations,
we are able to let go of those negative feelings and move forward.
Your
forgiveness of situations defines how forgiving you tend to be of
negative circumstances, events, or situations that are beyond anyone's
control. This would include things like illnesses, natural disasters and
the like.
Can you let go of these situations so you can move forward?
If
you hear yourself saying lots of "If only... " or "If it had just
happened that way... " type statements, you likely have a ways to go in
this area.
So What?
When we can forgive, we can move from a
past focus to a future focus, which provides us with hope,
accountability, and the opportunity for growth and advancement. As long
as we (or others, or an entire group) are living in the past, no
progress can be made.
Because error is part of being human,
forgiveness allows mistakes, failure, slip ups, errors in judgment and
decision making, flaws and other breakdowns to become a source of
increased wisdom and learning. Without the forgiveness, the same events
and situations create more divisiveness, angst, conflict and discord.
The
best leaders use the practice of forgiveness to transform themselves
and their organizations into forward-looking, agile learners and promote
better results every day.
But?
If you are still reading and
still are having reservations, it is likely that you agree with my
premise, but aren't sure how to let go. Perhaps this quotation from the
psychiatrist Thomas Szasz will help - "The stupid neither forgive nor
forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not
forget."
The point is instructive. Events, mistakes and mishaps in
the past can be learned from, but only if we can let them go through
forgiveness. This does not mean we should forget those events, but
rather put them in the proper perspective. They are events in the past
that we can't change now, but we can learn from.
Have you ever found yourself dealing with difficult people? People who are hard to get along with? I want to give you three strategies to deal with difficult people. It starts with the acronym H.U.G.:
1. Hear them.
Step back and really hear what they’re saying, and then ask them, “Here’s what I heard you say. Is this what you meant?” Once they know that they’ve been heard, could it be that they may shift their behavior?
2. Do the uncommon thing.
Let them know that you care. Empathize with them. Let them know, “I understand where you’re coming from.” That doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them, but to be there in that moment says to them, no one else has taken the time to go above and beyond—but you do, because you are uncommon.
3. Guide them.
Sometimes difficult people can project what is happening in them on you. If you don’t guide a person in how they should treat you, they will mistreat you. Really understanding how to guide a person in how they talk to you, how they engage with you, ensures that in a very difficult situation, you can remain respectful and honorable, but not allow them to use you.
