educating eric

I think this is probably a parallel to "we're human beings, not human doings." From: https://www.habitcoach.app/books/atomic-habits-an-easy-proven-way-to-build-good-habits-break-bad-ones/2/ You can change your outcomes or your processes; however, if you don't change your identity, you will eventually come back to your old habits. For example, if you want to stop smoking, and you keep saying, "I'm trying to quit smoking," it's the outcome you are trying to change. Lasting change can only come through identity change. In this example, you must start saying, "I'm not a smoker." (BTW, I'm not a smoker and never have been, nor do I smoke cigarettes or anything else. It's just an example from the site.)

Once every decade or so, whether it needs it or not...  The time has come to clean up the Blogger template here and have something that looks decent on something that was invented after the last time I modified the template: A "smart phone".  I know; it's an amazing new thing! The problem is, my entire site is hosed.  If you click around in various pages, it's a mess.  So, bear with me as I adjust and re-adjust and modify things..

Seth Godin had a throwaway line in the opening to his “Of Course They Cheated” podcast, but it’s a definition I’ve not heard before and can’t find elsewhere (at least, not this succinctly): “Management” and “Leadership” are not the same thing.   Management is done with power and authority, compelling others to do what we need them to do when we need them to do it.   Leadership, on the other hand, always involves voluntary compliance.   It always involves people eagerly following the leader. This is in interesting in and of itself, but Godin goes on to talk about “education.” And the same dichotomy is true about “learning” and “education.”   Education is often done “to” us.   It is mandatory.   People show up and say “You will learn this and there will be a test.”   That’s different than learning.   Learning is a process we choose to go through.   Learning needs to happen more and more.   There are more “learning opport...

I have a bad tendency to let webpages pile up on my phone.  Then, every couple weeks, I screenshot them and tell myself that I'll go back and review them. I never do. But if you haven't noticed, this blog used to be the equivelent kind of archive... so, why not do that again? Behold, here's what I had open on my phone up through April, 2019: How to age galvanied metal: from shiny new to vintage How does it work | Jolly Roger Telephone (this is a cool anti-piracy service) How to control X10 devices with Amazon Echo or Google Home Insecurity vs. Cowardice (a future podcast topic) Marcus Buckingham on the Dan Schwabel podcast Hydrocollid acne dots including Peter Thomas Roth acne-clear (I don't have acne - anymore - but this was an interesting "how to draw moisture out of skin" thing that came up for some reason Focus Minneapolis at the Weisman Art Museum (which I'm going to - "Reskilling L&D - designing learning experiences your emplo...

I’m cleaning up my iPhone and getting rid of apps I never use, so I can declutter my life a bit.  Figured I should make a list somewhere, and the world might be interested?   iLife suite – GarageBand, iMovie, Numbers, etc. Bible Lens from Life.Church – I think this uses AI to identify photos and slap out-of-context Bible verses onto them? United – I’ll grab it back if I ever fly United again Classic Words – I don’t play Scrabble, even though some friends and family do Docs from Google – I can grab it if I ever need it, right? Skype for Business – We use Zoom here now and this will probably change by the next time I need to use it Clips from Apple – I don’t know what this is so I suspect I can live without it? My phone says I’ve never used it. Six – Game. I’m not big on games. Hue – I don’t own any hue bulbs. Probably grabbed it for something at work. SiriusXM...

I was listening to VOX Podcast with Mike Erre (the episode on "Patriarchy, Leaving Church, and the Failure of God") and had a thought.  The traditional reading of Genesis is that Adam and Eve are the fruits, God stepped in, and cursed them. But what if the "curses" were simply the natural consequences of the conscious turning-away that they did? This episode uncovers the word play that might hint at that. Maybe God was saying "because you did this, here's what's going to happen to you" rather than "because you did this, here's what I'm going to do to you."   A subtle distinction but it gets at the character of a God... https://soundcloud.com/thevoxpodcast/patriarchy-leaving-church-and-the-failure-of-god

Yes, I've had a domain-name addiction for years.  In the spirit of minimalism, I'm trying to trim down on the various domain names I've held onto, so I've let go of my "conforming" domains and moved all the content over here.  I dubbed God.conforming.me " One man's thoughts about how God is moving him " and it was a random collection of anything theologically-themed that crossed my mind.  You'll now see some old posts in this site with the labels " God.conforming.me " (and a few with " God.conforming.us " which was for a group I was in that never took off).  Since the spirit of "Educating Eric" is that it's all-things-Eric, I might as well unify all that content under one ongoing "me site" rather than trying to split the topics out.  Right?  Maybe?  We'll see how it goes...

I don't often give career advice but I do have some in me. And if you have subordinates, you need to read this article: https://www.fastcompany.com/40481089/stress-is-making-you-micromanage-which-is-making-everything-worse I know some people don't like the term "subordinates" so let's rephrase it as: "If you have people in your life for whom your actions have a direct (and perhaps debilitating) impact on their income and career..." Want to go back to the word "subordinates" now? I thought you might. I've had plenty of managers in my 21 years of full-time employment and working several years part-time before that. Probably shy of half have been textbook micromanagers (the type to read that Fast Company article as a how-to manual) and one of my biggest regrets in life is that I was one, too. Only at times... but a character flaw that only shows up when things are stressful is about as major a character flaw as you can have. What ...

It's both entertaining and embarrassing that I can point to this blog at a blogging convention and note its 2002 start date. It's a mess -- a glorious, fascinating, pathetic, inspiring mess -- of random content over the past 15 years. So when I confront the "what's my niche" question... I don't have one. And maybe that's what it is. A non-niche. (That's so meta! I was introduced to the term "lifestyle blogger" at this year's Minnesota Blogger Conference , and the fact that I'd never encountered that term before now probably tells you something about my qualifications as a "blogger." I explained to those around me that my attendance was "aspirational" rather than... I don't know. "Real"? "Functional"? I don't know what the opposite word would be. I know that I'm nothing like the bloggers who were around me, with their focused themes and editorial calendars and monetization...

Don't worry; I'm not having a crisis of faith. But I had an interesting realization a few weeks ago: the only thing that has intrinsic measurable value is entertainment. OK, maybe not the only thing. Remedio healthcare, where you can stop somebody's pain. Or perhaps the restaurant industry where you can feed someone and stop their hunger. But even there, restaurants are more than mere satiation – they are a form of entertainment. Point being, a lot of the "deeper things" are really impossible to measure and you just have to hope that people are being affected the way you intended. This might have something to do with my being professionally employed in higher education. If I were to work in the entertainment industry, life becomes simpler: Were you entertained? You were? Great! Mission accomplished. Hedonism doesn't sound very satisfying, but it sure is straightforward. :)

Listening to The Ray Edwards Show | http://rayedwards.com/286/ Spiritual Foundations This week I want to talk about the promises made to Abraham and how they still belong to believers today. God promised Abraham that he would be blessed to be a blessing. Some people argue that this just applies to "spiritual" blessings, but in this week's episode I'll propose to you that we are, in fact, "heirs of the world" – according to "the promise". "

Wonder what that means? Listening to The New Man - Advice for Men on Relationships, Dating, Fitness, Career and Sex (How Anger Can Make Us More Powerful: Anger Management): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNewMan/~3/OJdOiqI3PC4/ Is anger management a bunch of BS? How can anger make us more powerful? Discussed: Anger vs aggression, Robert Augustus Masters, Equine Therapy The post How Anger Can Make Us More Powerful: Anger Management appeared first on The New Man Podcast .

There is an interesting theological tidbit in this podcast that I've never heard before and I'm not quite sure what I think. Eldridge says that we can plead the Cross against demonic influence, but the Cross "doesn't work against envy" because "it's envy that sent Jesus to the Cross". Join me in replaying and pondering that section a bit. Listening to John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart (Audio) (Envy - Part 2): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ransomedheartaudiopodcast/~3/D3zjljKZcS4/envy-part-2 Envy aimed at you and your family is a form of spiritual warfare - but rarely seen that way. Discover how God's love can overcome it.  

Listening to Resolute For Men (Godliness): http://traffic.libsyn.com/resolute/Godliness.mp3 Have you ever thought about what it means to be godly? Join us today on the Resolute Podcast, as Vince Miller and author Roger Thompson spend time together discussing godliness and its unique role in facing challenges with enthusiasm.

Just encountered this insight while surfing the FTA satellite onto IBN and the Time to Revive ministry and a message from Dr. Kyle Lance Martin... The Old Testament emphasis on sacrifices was bringing your first and best -- you don't bring leftovers to God.  In Romans 12, Paul writes that we should "offer our bodies as living sacrifices."  So, my conclusion: Doesn't this mean that God sees us as a worthy sacrifice?  That we have something of value to offer? For many of you, this is obvious.  But many of today's Calvinist (or Puritan) Christian theologies run instead to OT passages like Isaiah 64 and insist that "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" ...and therefore, we ourselves are like filthy rags to God.  That sad not only because it's clearly incorrect, but because it denigrates the human creations that God loves.  Fallen? Absolutely. Valuable? Absolutely.  Please don't forget that.

I think I need a new word. I'm trying to describe my hope that project participants and client volunteers have two qualities. They need to be enthusiastic, in that they are positive and encouraging and engaged regarding the project. And, enthusiasm needs to be voluntary, in that it's because of a true personal interest in intrinsic motivation, not nearly fake because of some reward or feeling of obligation. But I think the word "voluntary" doesn't exactly capture that. As long as it's not under threat or duress, engaging in something is by definition "voluntary." So I need a word that captures something more than "I'm not doing this because anybody is forcing me to," but instead really says, "I'm doing this because I truly want to do it." Is that a distinction without a difference, or does it make sense?

In the world of social media management, sometimes you encounter people who don't quite get it. And that's OK. But sometimes you encounter the "collateral damage" that those people do. So, here's a brief Public Service Announcement on how Twitter blocking works, and might have unintended consequences for you and the people who rely on you. Here's the background: I had seen an interesting exchange between two Ed Tech personalities: Shelly Terrell publicly complained that someone had @-messaged her (a public "nod" or "head's up" on Twitter and other social media platforms).  She asked that they direct-message her instead. That's a really odd thing to say. Sure, you can use Twitter however you want to, but that's really not what it was designed for. Or, at least, it's unusual to complain that someone is using a key notification feature of it; @-messages were really early innovation and were ...

I'm listening to Beyond the To Do List , and up comes Rob Bell on "Being Present with Rhythm, Routines and Rituals":  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeyondTheToDoList/~3/ssYjvb7ILZk/ I know not everyone does... but I like Rob Bell. If we spent more time appreciating wisdom rather than vilifying him personally, I think the world would be better off...

Last February I met Darin Delaney at a " social media in small business " event sponsored by the BMO Harris bank branch in Burnsville, Minnesota.  At the time, he mentioned the Social Marketing and Networking Meet Up group that he co-leads, and I was all set to go... until I got sidelined by a cold the morning of.  (One of those "Wake up at 8:00 a.m., make a couple calls and emails to cancel appointments, go back to sleep for what you think will be just awhile, wake up again at 3:00 p.m.) kinds of colds; had I not gotten a flu shot, I'd have sworn it was the flu...) Fast forward to June (June?!?) and I finally made it to one of their monthly events. Today.  (What happened to March, April and May in my world?) I decided that rather than keeping my notes private, I might as well post them publicly.  It's social, right? Featured speaker and social marketing specialist Janet Johnson spent nearly two hours filling us in on Facebook ads.  The case-study was ...

There are a ton of interesting spiritual messages coming up as I'm Listening to The Ray Edwards Show (#233: Cliff Ravenscraft, "I Am Not Spock"): http://rayedwards.com/233/ or "It's Not About the Microphone" (Part Two of Two) Note: This episode is the second half of my conversation with Cliff Ravenscraft, aka The Podcast Answer Man . You can listen to Part One by clicking here. Cliff Ravenscraft is the king of helping people start their own podcast. He's helped thousands of people do it. But wait – there's more… This is fascinating conversation ended up being so far-ranging, we had to make it two episodes. We'll discover… Why typecasting is not necessarily a bad thing. How the musical Hamilton changed Cliff's life – and so many others. The nature of ambition, service, and selfishness. And so much more! Click here to download or listen to this episode now . Links Wow – what a lot of links we mentione...