The Virtue of Positive Reinforcement: Leading, Motivating and Instructing in Healthier Ways
Psychologist, Harvard professor, and father of positive reinforcement, B.F. Skinner conducted numerous studies dating back to as early as 1938 that gathered extensive data on the effects of positive reinforcement. Skinner coined the phrase operant conditioning, which in layman’s terms is basically changing a behavior by giving a reward to elicit the desired response. Therefore, the opposite of positive reinforcement is punishment.
Social Media Sites: The Good and the Unfriendly
If you’re not on social networking sites these days, you’re living in the 20th century or more or less. It might as well be the Stone Age if your profession relies on any form of content marketing. The sun is setting on the day of simply buying print newspapers ads or high-priced radio or television spots. Why pay tens if not pay hundreds of thousands of dollars when you can virally market yourself for next to nothing? It’s really a no-brainer. Save money or spend money. Spend money and get some views or virally market yourself and potentially get thousands upon thousands of eyeballs on your content. No one says, “I can’t wait to waste money on ineffective, expensive advertisement.” Read the rest of this entry »
Our Thoughts Are With The Victims Of The Seattle Pacific University Shooting
I have but few words….except to say that the escalating violence amongst the youth is frightening. And who is to blame? The mother, the father, the media, the environment, or circumstances? At some point regardless of where we come from and if we were: bullied, beaten, battered, abused and lived in poverty or lack, nothing excuses taking innocent lives.
Everyone wants to figure out the motive and honestly, there is a part of me that does too. Why do people go postal? What makes someone just “snap?” I don’t know. I do not care what you’ve gone through as a human being, there is no excuse for murder.
Repot, or Not? Mother Nature Holds the Answer
I have never considered myself to have a “green thumb.” My mother, however, could grow anything. As a child I remember my mother’s huge garden when we lived in New Mexico. We had a half-acre back yard, so it was a nice sized garden, to say the least, and a total pain, too. Mom used to make us kids pull out all the weeds to improve the health of the flowers or vegetables she was growing.
While some people profess to have learned all they need to know, most of us realize that we are far from knowing everything. We are always learning and growing. If you have learned all there is to know, then you are not truly living or evolving. Some of us are more self aware than others, knowing practically from birth what our lives will be like, what we want to be when we grow up, how many kids we will have or not have, sexual preference, our favorite color, flower, food, and etc. Others take a little longer to figure things out. For them it’s a lifelong journey to self-discovery. Read the rest of this entry »
When The Going Gets Tough…Get TOUGHER!
Have you ever heard of the sunk cost principle? It is business terminology that refers to how much time, money and resources one has invested that can no longer be recovered. It’s gone, baby, and there’s nothing you can do about it. So move on.
According to a University of Scranton, research found that just 8 percent of individuals actually achieve their New Year’s goals. The study showed that our brains are unable to process large lists, therefore making them counter-productive to our accomplishments. When you begin making an extremely long list, a Forbes article states that attempting to always knock the ball out of the park can be “psychologically daunting.”
Journalist and author of Mind Over Mind suggest keeping resolution lists shorter. While we’re still have more than half a year to go to reach Jan. 1, it is for certain that we all have at least one goal we’d like to have come to fruition next year. There is nothing wrong with having a dozen or so goals on your “to do list,” but have you reached a point where you feel like throwing in the towel? Read the rest of this entry »
Writing With Hope 