Who is John Galt? Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged offers the perspective. You supply the answer.

Why do I have so many books? And how is it that I am trying to read them all simultaneously?  My brain has been at work lately attempting to uncover the mystery of my reading addiction. Alas, the answer came to me last week as I was pouring through the novel Lying On The Couch by Irvin Yalom while seated in a crowded coffee house in Davis, California:


I know that you may be thinking, how sad. But it is so true that books fill my soul in ways that friends have been unable to over the years. For me, a good book is like having a conversation with a best friend...one that keeps me engaged, won't abandon me and that I can turn to time and time again to revisit important life lessons.

While I am inherently a loner, there are times when I seek out the company of others. To this effect, I have found that books are a great way to break the ice. Whenever I'm in a public location , I find that all sorts of eclectic people tend to gravitate my way because they are curious about a particular book title I'm engaged in. For example, recently I was at a lunch alone at a fine restaurant in Sacramento enjoying the company of a book entitled Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. One by one as bystanders passed my table I was subjected to some rather strange looks. It was only later that I realized the source of those reactions.

An interesting aside and true story. A acquaintance of mine who is a popular motivational speaker hates to be bugged by chatty folks while traveling by plane. So he had his graphic designer design a book cover that would fit a standard size hardcover novel. The book cover is entitled "How To Sell Insurance To People On Airplanes." He says that people now leave him alone to read for flights of up to 12 hours or more.

I have also discovered that for those select few people that I allow into my life, what they are reading provides me with a glimpse of where they might be in their life journey. My friend John from Chicago for example recently revealed to me that he is reading a book entitled The Black Swan: The Impact of The Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It's a book that is also a part of my vast collection. Unfortunately I started to read it and grew bored with it. But now that I know John is reading it, I have the inspiration to go back and crack it open again.


A common question that I get from others about my book addiction is why do I read so many books simultaneously. One.... because whenever I get bored with a book for a spell I can switch to another. Two....books reflect various compartments of my life at the time that I am reading them. By way of example, my recent interest in economic development has me reading Who's Your City: How The Creative Economy Is Making Where To Live The Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida; Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams; Breakthrough: From The Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger and Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell. In terms of personal development I am currently soaking up the aforementioned book Lying On The Couch by Irwin Yalom...a book that explores the challenges of personal boundary issues in therapist/client relationships (a book surprisingly valuable in my work as a Human Resources Director). And his sequel The Schopenhauer Cure is waiting in the wings to be devoured. I also subscribe to three magazines: Shambahla Buddhist Magazine (spiritual enrichment), Wired Magazine (technology/societal enrichment) and my all-time favorite periodical Fast Company Magazine which keeps me abreast of the business world.

One final question that I often get is where on earth do I find time to read. Good question. My response: We can always carve out time for the things we really love in life (...just ask a person who wants to spend time with someone they're madly in love with.). For me, I set aside an hour every morning before work to get grounded with a good book and a cup of java.

Speaking of time to read, I have a date with myself right now to enjoy my favorite pastime. On that note, I bid you farewell..

                                     

Mindfulness and Leadership

What I discovered yesterday is that ice skating requires one to be fully present in the moment. My time at our local rink was cause for reflection on how I often find myself "skating" through life without paying attention to what's really going on. Navagating the ice is the midst of out-of-control teenagers, inexperienced learners, and fallen parents reminded me that present moment awareness is key  not only to one's survival, but to finding meaning in the experience.

Undoubtably Phil Jackson, head basketball coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. What I love about Phil is his ability to constantly reinvent himself and to remain calm in the midst of the chaos. He is an amalgamation of many traits: centered, bizzare, spiritual, mysterious, intellectual, focused, grounded, and comical.The leadership characteristics that I've observed in Phil are priceless and serve as an foundation for my own life evolution.

Wanna know what I’m really about at the core? These 8 websites give you in-depth look at what gets me jazzed in life.

www.freerice.com. If you like the world of words, then this site will have you addicted in minutes. And all for a good cause.

www.planetizen.com. My fantasy career is to become an urban planner. This site (my browser homepage) could become the catalyst for acting upon my dream.

www.google.com. One of my greatest joys is to throw words into the Google search bar to see what comes up. Interestingly enough,  I just did a search on the word “googolplex” so that I can impress my math buddy at our local Starbucks.

www.mariskris.blogspot.com  Simply the best, introspective blog on life in cyberspace. Marissa Kristal, the author, has been a friend for about two years despite having never talked by phone or in person.

www.ohiostate.scout.com  I am an Ohio State junkie to the core so this site keeps me connected with Buckeye Nation

www.spiritrock.org  This is where I go to break bread with my spiritual family and community.

www.innosight.com/blog/  Clayton Christensen the editor of this blog is a brilliant futurist and thinker about innovation. I read his book “Seeing What’s Next” in graduate school and have been following his insights ever since.

www.craigslist.com  As a human resources director, this site serves as the primary source of top candidate talent for the organization I work for. Truth be told, I also check out the “missed connections” section daily to see if anyone has a secret crush on me.
 

I have a 45 minute commute each day to work that I use for creative thinking and daydreaming. I call it "windshield time" and some of my most creative ideas flow during these minutes of reflection. I must say however that engaging in this sort of thought process while driving to and from work is somewhat of a dangerous proposition. This is due to the fact that I'm often not fully attentive to what's really happening on the roadway. Truth be told, I have had days where I have driven to work or home and didn't even remember the drive. Scary, huh?

It all started with the smell of natural gas along the perimeter of our house while I was out walking the dog. My mind immediately began to recall past scenes on the 11 o’clock news of houses that had been sent airborne as a result of gas explosions. I called our local utility company the following morning and was told that a service person would be out to take a look sometime that day. It wasn’t until 9:12 p.m. that the doorbell rang. As I looked through the window of our front door fully expecting an exhausted, listless, uninspired utility worker, there stood a man proudly wearing a Pacific Gas and Electric uniform with a huge smile on his face. “Good evening.”, he said as I opened the door.  “Sorry for the delay in servicing your request. Let’s get to work in fixing your problem.”  Needless to say I was immediately taken aback by his positive  attitude at that hour, particularly in light of the fact that it was a windy, damp and cold evening-- his final service call of a long workday.

I immediately escorted him through the house and then out to the garage via the indoor patio. Given that the patio smelled of recently deposited poop in the cat box, I remarked, “Well, here’s where I first detected the gas leak,”-- a comment that elicited raucous laughter from the two of us. Once in the garage, I observed a true master at his work. Not only did he quickly identify the leak around our gas tank, he fixed it in record time. He also took the time to show me how to ignite the pilot light whenever it goes out. (It was much simpler than the pilot lights I that recall as a kid where my dad would light a match and stick it in a hole at the base of the gas heater so it would light. Of course my brother and I winced at the sight of this fully anticipating an explosion-- the force of which would propel us to the moon.)

We then headed to the back yard to investigate whether there were any possible leaks around the gas meter. Lo and behold, this is where he discovered the biggest leak of all, requiring another forty-five minutes of his repair time. So with a dull flashlight and beads of drizzle running down his jacket he went about his work as a true professional, fixing our remaining leak. As I watch him meticulously loosen, replace and tighten various pipes, I began to reflect on the quality of his work and what it symbolized. I thought, “Here is someone who without complaint, in the midst of a long day and messy weather conditions is passionately engaged in his work.” In a day and time where so many people complain of unfulfilling work it was refreshing to observe someone who appeared excited about what they were doing. Gas isn’t something that you would ordinarily think one would be excited about but the stories he shared with me regarding his twenty-five year career with the utility company reflected a person at peace and on purpose with what the universe has asked him to do.

My preferred method of meeting people is through synchronistic encounters. I love to allow these encounters to occur spontaneously in the moment with no attachment to the outcome.

It is not unusual for perfect strangers to start conversing with me out of the blue. For example, last year on a trip to San Francisco a homeless man sought me out while I was sitting on a park bench downtown. We ended up talking for four hours! And just this morning a man who was with his wife at a local coffee house that I frequent approached me to ask about my running shoes. He asked me a number of technical questions regarding my shoes (I had no clue as to what he was inquiring about) before introducing himself. He then apologized for interrupting my reading. I said to him "Not a problem. These sorts of conversations happen to me all the time."

I am really stoked about attending the Burning Man event in the Nevada desert in September...www.burningman.com. It should be a life changing experience!