Quotes About Improvement

Necesito vuestro consejo —les interrumpió Buttercup—. ¿Qué puedo hacer para mejorar mi apariencia personal? —Empieza por bañarte —repuso su padre. —Y, de paso, hazte algo en ese pelo —le dijo su madre. —Excávate el territorio que llevas detrás de las orejas. —No te olvides de las rodillas.

There were those Hosts who thought something better could have been said and better thoughts therefore thought, had I only been made to do other things than I had. That I could have been a better simile for those in need of one to speak precisely; to speak about those somethings other than me that I was—they would have asserted— like. But those critics of course couldn't say what those thoughts would have been, because they could not have them.

Before preparing to improve the world, first look around your own home three times.

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

Who is not satisfied with himself will grow; who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.

mental practice alone produced about two thirds of the benefits of actual physical practice

What's working and how can we do more of it?" That's the bright-spot philosophy in a single question.

Make the change small enough that they can't help but score a victory.

Fill pits, then build peaks.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Ronald Reagan famously posed

the growth mindset can be taught and that it can change lives.

The project often feels like a failure in the middle. But if the team persists through this valley of angst and doubt, it eventually emerges with a growing sense of momentum. Team members begin to test out their new designs, and they realize the improvements they've made, and they keep tweaking the design to make it better. And they come to realize, we've cracked this problem. That's when the team reaches the peak of confidence.

One Small Step Can Change Your Life, by Robert Maurer [Individual and organizational change]. If you liked the chapter on shrinking the change, this is your book. Maurer shows how small steps can lead to great change.

What's working, and how can we do more of it?

That's the paradox of the growth mindset. Although it seems to draw attention to failure, and in fact encourages us to seek out failure, it is unflaggingly optimistic. We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down—but throughout, we'll get better, and we'll succeed in the end.

trainers set a behavioral destination and then use "approximations," meaning that they reward each tiny step toward the destination.

The point of the Clinics is not to wow you with our creative genius, and it's fortunate for readers and authors alike that this is not the goal, because we are not creative geniuses. The point is simply to model the process of making ideas stickier. In contrast to traditional disclaimers, this is something you should try at home. Think about each message and consider how you would improve it using the principles in the book.

When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur…. Don't look for the quick, big improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts.

First, you fill the pits. That, in turn, frees you up to focus on the second stage: creating the moments that will make the experience "occasionally remarkable." Fill pits, then build peaks.

Thinking, Fast and Slow, mentioned above, and Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational. One of the handful of books that provides advice on making decisions better is Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, which was written for "choice architects" in business and government who construct decision systems such as retirement plans or organ-donation policies. It has been used to improve government policies in the United States, Great Britain, and other countries.

What's working, and how can we do more of it?" Sounds simple, doesn't it? Yet, in the real world, this obvious question is almost never asked. Instead, the question we ask is more problem focused: "What's broken, and how do we fix it?

We are really anxious to do all we can to improve our service, and your feedback would be very helpful.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. —Bill Gates 6 Little Things Mean a Lot It's not the one thousand dollar things that upset the customer, but the five buck things that bug them. —Earl Fletcher Sales and Management Trainer, Volkswagen Canada