This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

I have repeatedly discovered that it is important for me not to surpass my capacity for responsibility. Over the years, this capacity has grown, but the results of exceeding it have not changed. Normally, my capacity is exceeded gradually, through the accumulation of simple, daily tasks. But a few times a year, I spontaneously decide that I'm ready to be a real adult. The first day or two of my plans usually goes okay. For a little while, I actually feel grown-up and responsible. At some point, I start feeling self-congratulatory. This is a mistake. I begin to feel like I've accomplished my goals. What usually ends up happening is that I completely wear myself out. The longer I procrastinate on returning phone calls and emails, the more guilty I feel about it. Then the guilt from my ignored responsibilities grows so large that merely carrying it around with me feels like a huge responsibility. It always ends the same way. And then I rebel.

Ever Imagined a World Without Internet? [INFOGRAPHIC] Steve Carrell may be seeking a friend for the end of the world, but here at Mashable, we're more concerned with the end of the Internet. Can you imagine it? Instead of an iPad, you'd be clutching a weighty $1,200 Encyclopedia Brittanica as you rock yourself to sleep. And instead of tweeting with pals halfway around the world, we'd be licking stamps that would total $6.3 trillion in the United States alone. SEE ALSO: The Internet Is Ruining Your Brain [INFOGRAPHIC] Online Education created this graphic detailing the nightmare that would be the world without Internet. What would be your biggest nightmare in a world without Internet? Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, JamesBrey

A Father's Advice: F. Scott Fitzgerald on What to Worry About In the hundreds of letters authored by F. Scott Fitzgerald that have been collected, we have this one dated August 8, 1933. In it, he offered the following advice to his 11-year-old daughter Scottie, while she was away at camp. It is still good advice today. I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. Half-wit, I will conclude. With dearest love, Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog This is a post by David Dotlich, Chairman and CEO of Pivot Leadership. He is a co-author of The Unfinished Leader: Balancing Contradictory Answers to Unsolvable Problems with Peter Cairo and Cade Cowan. To be a leader today in almost any organization means you are daily, if not hourly, bombarded with problems and challenges that don’t have clear-cut “right” answers. Just to be clear: I am not talking about conflict as it refers to disagreement over how to make a decision in which the facts point to a clear outcome, or personal disputes in which one or the other party feels slighted or bruised. In my 30+ years of work as a leadership executive and coach for Fortune 500 companies, as well as through interviews with 100 CEOs and top leaders, I’ve identified five effective ways to successfully manage conflict when faced with paradox:

A Random Act Of “Wow” I was pretty exhausted when I checked into the Embassy Suites hotel in Maryland last night. I was greeted politely, they found my reservation quickly (always a good thing) and then it happened . . . I was told that I had been selected as their guest of the day! Well son of a freakin gun, not even 30 seconds before I was simply Paul Castain and now I morphed into the Embassy Suites Guest of The Day. I’m not going to lie . . . Here’s what they gave me . . . A bag of all kinds of snacks . . . here’s the bag, minus the snacks Free internet . . . A certificate which I was thinking about waving around the lounge in the same way Wayne and Garth waved their backstage passes in Wayne’s world. A letter informing me of my “Guest of The Day” status! Here’s the bottom line folks . . . Appreciating a customer with a “random act of wow” doesn’t have to break the bank! I wonder if this is something you could utilize in your business somehow? A client of the day or week or what have you. A bag of goodies?

Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald I am a long way from Australia at present. I am based in Amsterdam, and have been travellin in Lithuania and a quick trip to Karlsruhe. But I was asked to write something about Australian democracy, which I found difficult to be frank. I am not a political scientist nor an Australian historian, but here are some thoughts dating back to August: On 16 August 2011, there was a public meeting at St Peter’s Town Hall in Sydney’s inner west. Their fears resonated with concerns of farmers and communities across the Liverpool Plains. On 14 August 2011, the words ‘Dalian’ and ‘PX’ were disabled (or rather scanned for removal) on Sina Weibo, the extraordinary Chinese microblog network. In August 2011, Dalian had become a city seething with anger over petrochemical pollution. Taken together, one can see that defiance, demonstration, and a sense of the greater good are not confined to one type of regime. Several false starts later, here we are.

Mapping the world of thinking. MindTime® is a cognitive framework for predicting individual differences in people. What does that mean? The MindTime Theory is a universal organizing principle that reveals a simple framework for understanding the perceptions people will have of each other and the world around them, and reliably predicts how they will act upon their perceptions in all areas of their lives. How can it do that? “MindTime will be the dominant theory of individual differences in psychology.” —Dr. As simple as it appears, the MindTime cognitive framework is actually a well-researched, scientifically validated model of thinking. Specifically: how people form their individual thoughts, the patterns in information they are able to perceive, what kinds of thoughts people can form, and what mental strategies and patterns of behavior can evolve from those thoughts. And, everything we do begins with a thought . . . Its Past perspective: Its Present perspective: Its Future perspective: The value of Past thinking

The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office” My neighbor introduced me to The Office back in 2005. Since then, I’ve watched every episode of both the British and American versions. I’ve watched the show obsessively because I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space. Until now, that is. Now, after four years, I’ve finally figured the show out. I’ll need to lay just a little bit of groundwork (lest you think this whole post is a riff based on cartoons) before I can get to the principle and my interpretation of The Office. From The Whyte School to The Gervais Principle Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon is a pitch-perfect symbol of an unorthodox school of management based on the axiom that organizations don’t suffer pathologies; they are intrinsically pathological constructs. The Sociopath (capitalized) layer comprises the Darwinian/Protestant Ethic will-to-power types who drive an organization to function despite itself. The Career of the Clueless

Beyond the Comfort Zone Neale Donald Walsch said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” That is SO true and SO important to remember. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone, on the brink of a decision to throw yourself fully into the unknown, and let an open future with limitless possibilities carry you as you free fall. To change is to grow, and to grow is move beyond your comfort zone. The comfort zone is the red light district of personal growth. We all have a comfort zone, or maybe several. To protect what’s inside; the beliefs, the relationships, the identity. The purpose of this piece is to nudge you out of your comfort zone, even a little. Comfort zones are deceptive and misnamed. There are two ways to break the cycle and stretch your comfort zone. Expand your circle, to include more ideas, people and possibilities. Think about the benefits. What is the motivation to burst out of the comfort zone in preference for the wide open spaces of reality?

Mostly About Chocolate Ending "Business As Usual": 10 Insights on Rethinking Work When is a book not a book? When it’s a mechanism for change. That’s the conceit behind Michael Bungay Stanier’s recent release, End Malaria. It also artfully collects essays from 62 visionary leaders – ranging from WIRED‘s Kevin Kelly to Sir Ken Robinson to (full disclosure) Behance’s own Scott Belsky – on the topics of creativity, business, productivity, and leadership. Nancy Duarte /// CEO, Duarte Design & Author, Slide:ology: Don’t blend in; instead, clash with your environment. Nilofer Merchant /// Author, The Now How: When we are silent, we are hurting the outcome… Research proves that even when the different points of view are wrong, they cause people to think better, to create more solutions and to improve creativity in problem solving. Premal Shah /// President, Kiva.org: People need opportunities to be creative; it’s absolutely vital. Barry Schwartz /// Author, The Paradox of Choice: Jonah Lehrer /// Author, How We Decide: Andy Smith /// Co-author, The Dragonfly Effect: