We all have fears…and some are even less scary than fighting a 7-foot martial arts specialist.

1) “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” — Bruce Lee …
The Chicago Cubs have not won a championship since 1908 – that’s the longest drought in North American sports…not just baseball…any major sport.
So, why have the Cubs sucked for so long?
This article is an excerpt from a terrific new book called Scorecasting that dug into a theory of the Cubs Curse.
The theory is that the Cubs don’t have as much incentive to win…and it’s due in large part to their fans. …
Resigning from a job is tricky — not only do you not want to “burn any bridges” when you leave a job, you want the departure to be as smooth and positive as possible.

My good pal Larry the Recruiter points out an excellent framework to keep in mind when you’re resigning: he suggests that you go Jedi on your boss by putting yourself in their shoes through the “5 Stages of Loss” framework. …
I’m frequently looking to take more risks in life…to face challenges that are a bit scary — below are some quotes about courage that inspire me.
1. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” — John Wayne …
Do you want to grow more? Create more? Achieve more?
Check out these 12 quotes about “taking action.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson is the action man!
“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson …
Boy, I love John Hagel — This guy is a walking web site. I’m amazed his thoughts on “shaping'” have not become more famous!
Afterall, how many of you wouldn’t like to create the next Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Visa type of ecosystem?
He covers “shaping” and other concepts in his book The Power Of Pull.
I got a chance to meet Mr. Hagel when I sat in on his latest “shaping” presentation at South by Southwest (SXSW) this week.
What follows is a part 2 to the first piece I did on Hagel called How to Shape A Market. …
I’m here at SXSW and LinkedIn founder (and investor) Reid Hoffman just rattled off 10 tips for entrepreneurs.

Enjoy:
1) Disrupt — Ask yourself is this ’10X’ different. If it takes $10 in revenue and replaces it with $1 in revenue (e.g. Skype), then that’s disruptive. …
A Major Myth — Most of us believe (wrongly) that to get more work done, we should work more time. Instead, …
-->Author Tony Schwartz (Be Excellent At Anything) had some good nuggets on increasing energy and productivity at SXSW in Austin today.
Talented artist Sunni Brown did this super-cool live drawing of Tony’s talk (below).
Emotional Energy — How you feel influences how you perform. Duh!
A Major Myth — Most of us believe (wrongly) that to get more work done, we should work more time. Instead, Tony says, we should manage our energy better.
The Power of Sleep — “Sleep is the single most undervalued behavior in our lives” because of the myth that if we give up one hour of sleep that will equate to one hour of additional productivity.
Quote from Herbert Simon — “What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
Multitasking is Bad — It is inefficient to multi-task (technically you can only task-shift). If you shift your attention from something, the cost to you is 25% effectiveness on that first item’s successful completion.
Two Tips On Improving Your Productivity— He cites a study of Berlin violinists by some guy who is an “expert on experts” (they were cited in Outliers)
#1 Practice– The top violinists practiced for 90 minutes maximum in 3 sessions primarily in morning (Schwartz says that it’s been proven that you can only practice 4.5 hours total in a day (that’s the limit))
#2 Sleep — Schwartz said that the superstar violinists slept more than average violinists (typically 8+ hours per night) and that they also napped on a regular basis (about 2.8 hours per week).
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because I wrote about Tony Schwartz’s previous book The Power of Full Engagement in How To Recharge Yourself and The 20 Best Business Books Of All Time.