For 35 years, Robert Ballard committed his life to finding the Titanic. On September 1, 1985, he completed his mission. Since its sinking in 1857, the SS Central America was the object of hundreds of searches, until the shipwreck was finally discovered in 2014, with coins valued over $100 million. In 1953, Jonas Salk discovered…
Malcolm Muggeridge offered an example of deep reflection when he wrote A Twentieth-Century Testimony. Among his most profound statements: “When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive, seems now most futile and absurd.”…
Not so long ago . . . An application was for employment. A program was a show on TV. A cursor used profanity. A keyboard was a piano. A mouse was a critter. Memory was what you lost with old age. A CD was a bank account. Log on meant adding wood to the fire.…
A Stanford professor, Dr. William Fry, studied kindergarteners and adults. He found two differences. Children in kindergarten laugh 300 times a day, compared to adults, who laugh just 17 times a day. Children ask 125 questions per day, while adults ask just six. Jesus asked more questions than he answered. He was asked 183 questions…
When Grandpa Jones celebrated his 100th birthday and 75th wedding anniversary simultaneously, his friends were impressed. “What is the key to your longevity?” they asked him. Grandpa Jones: “Long walks in the outdoors.” His friends asked what led him to spend so much time walking outside. Grandpa Jones: “When we got married 75 years ago,…
It is not uncommon for a therapist to recommend a period of sexual abstinence for a couple, following the addict’s disclosure. Often, the offending spouse responds with outrage. We often hear something like this: “I have come clean and done the hard work of disclosure. Why would we enter a period of abstinence now?” Believe…
A high school dropout struck up a conversation with a genius while sitting on a bench waiting on a bus. The dropout challenged the genius to a game. “We will ask each other questions, and when one guy can’t answer the other guy’s question, he pays him $5.” The genius agreed. Genius: “What is the…
Dustin Hoffman went three days without sleep to prepare for a scene in Marathon Man. Meryl Streep learned Polish and German for Sophie’s Choice. Christian Bale lost 60 pounds to play an emaciated insomniac in The Machinist. Jamie Foxx glued his eyes shut to play Ray Charles. And Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass…
In December, 1944, American forces were surrounded by German troops at Bastogne, Belgium. The German general demanded immediate and unconditional surrender. For the Americans, the situation appeared hopeless. Supplies were low and morale was lower. Enter General Anthony McAuliffe. He assembled the 101st Airborne Division and surveyed the situation. Then he told his men, “Men,…
You need to come to see your addiction as an opportunity, not just a problem. Peter Drucker was right when he said, “Effective people are not problem-minded; they are opportunity-minded.” There are several traits that are consistent among men and women who learn to overcome. Writing for Workplace Strategies, Stewart, Cooper, and Conn identified four…