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	<title>Agile Living</title>
	<link>http://www.mineyourresources.com</link>
	<description>Thriving through change and uncertainty</description>
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		<title>A Personal Update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s been a while since I’ve done a personal update and there’s been a big thing that’s been going on in my life - something that’s completely turned our lives upside down. And is likely to do plenty more up-turning of our lives in the future. So I'm pausing the usual programming to share...

Andy and I are growing a little person!]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mineyourresources.com/2010/08/a-personal-update/</link>
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		<title>6 Ways To Discover Your Natural Strengths</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Discover your strengths and then align your work with that," is common advice these days. Most people now know that you'll be more productive and creative when you're working in your strength zone. You'll also learn faster, so you'll make more progress more quickly, and you'll probably also be a more enjoyable team member and manager to work with because you'll be enjoying your work. Best of all, you'll be energized by your work and enjoy working.
But it's not always easy to identify your strengths

The problem is that it's not always easy to identify your strengths. Often we're strong in performing tasks and ways of thinking that aren't celebrated or rewarded in our family or social circles, and so we don't even have a distinction for describing strengths in those ignored areas. Much of the time we're also placing a lot of pressure on ourselves to make a decision about what work is right for us - and to make the "right" decision, and this pressure and fear clouds our vision. Add to that the fact that we've often spent 12 or more years practicing fitting into an educational system that encourages conformity and rewards only a small sub-sect of strengths and abilities, and then it's easy to see how we can lose touch with our strengths.

If you're finding it hard to identify your natural strengths, then a great way to identify and affirm your strengths is by taking a few assessments. This is a particularly powerful strategy when you take 3 or 4 or even 5 different assessments, because you'll be able to compare your assessment results and notice the themes that keep popping up - these are your obvious areas of strength.

So here are 5 of my favorite assessments for discovering your natural thinking and doing styles:]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mineyourresources.com/2010/08/6-ways-to-discover-your-natural-strengths/</link>
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		<title>6 Smart Questions That Will Improve The Quality Of Your Life And Work</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Questions are a bit of a cheesy cliche in life coaching. Us coaches are known for telling our clients that we’re not going to give them answers, we’re going to ask them smart questions and help them find their own answers. And most people understand that a big reason for this is that other people don’t have all the answers for your life and, since you’re the person who spends the most time in your life, you’re obviously the expert on your life. But there are other good reasons for asking smart questions...
We're designed to answer questions and make decisions

Asking and answering smart questions will empower you in all areas of your life. In fact, there’s research that indicates that we have a decision-making center in the brain, and when this center is under-utilized and undeveloped there’s a strong correlation with depression. This suggests that being passive and avoiding reflective questions and decisions reinforces depression, while making decisions can make the development of depression less likely. I’ve helped people to clear chronic depression just by guiding them to ask and answer smart questions for themselves and to be more active decision-makers and players in their own lives.
Questions determine your focus

Even if you're not struggling with depression, you should be practicing asking smart questions. The main thing that makes questions so powerful is that they direct your focus. Focus is important, because focus determines what we pay attention to, and that determines what action we take and ultimately what results we get. You see, here’s how our minds work...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mineyourresources.com/2010/08/6-smart-questions-that-will-improve-the-quality-of-your-life-and-work/</link>
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		<title>How To Be Brain Of The Year; An Interview With Creativity Expert, Michael Gelb</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Gelb, the author of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day  for the upcoming Bottom-line on his book (die for release on 1 Sept). As usual, I was really excited about the interview, but I'll admit to having been more than a little intimidated by the prospect of interviewing someone who beat Prof. Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Garry Kasparov to the title of "Brain of The Year" in 1999 (yikes!).

With over 30 years of experience as a professional speaker, teacher and organizational consultant and having authored 12 books on creativity and innovation, Michael is a true pioneer and expert in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning and innovative leadership. And to give you a sense of his diversity, his other accolades include being a former professional juggler who’s performed with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. He’s also a fourth degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido, he’s a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, he has a Master of Arts in Psycho-Physical Re-education, and was certified as the first “Master Trainer” by the Buzan Foundation - that’s the Tony Buzan of mind-mapping fame, who I know a lot of you will be familiar with. He's also been called one of the coolest titles I've ever heard; an NPR commentator called him a “ warrior against zombification.” And I have to agree - it's a pretty apt description! (and a pretty freaking' cool title, huh?!)

I had planned to talk with Michael about How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: and his latest book, Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative Juices (yes, drinking wine the way Michael recommends can improve your creativity!). We did cover some of that ground, but we got side-tracked with a great conversation, talking about Michael's personal success strategies.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mineyourresources.com/2010/08/how-to-be-brain-of-the-year-an-interview-with-creativity-expert-michael-gelb/</link>
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