Coursera is a great new site that has partnered with leading post-secondary institutions to offer university-level courses online for free.

I’m interested in Introduction to Logic, Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, and A History of the World Since 1300.

What would you like to learn? Check out the current courses here.

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From Max Gunther (h/t Farnam Street):

We are counselled to fix our eyes on our goals, looking neither to the right nor to the left, refusing to be distracted. This is supposed to be the sure route to success. But here is a puzzling fact. It turns out that lucky men and women, on the whole are not straight-line strugglers. They not only permit themselves to be distracted, they invite distraction. Their lives are not straight lines but zigzags. …

If you put blinders on yourself so that . . .

IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not . . .

If you have ever wished you could cook, paint, play an instrument, or have better nunchuck skills, then I have the perfect article for you.

LifeHacker has done it again, created a megawatt post with an impressive amount of references for the Top 10 Highly Desired Skills  You Can Teach Yourself.

10. Repair Almost Anything

9. Learn to Paint or Illustrate

8. Defend Yourself 7. Improve Your Design Skills

6. Learn a New Subject

5. Build and Hack Hardware

Head on over to LifeHacker to . . .

LiveStrong has some simple good advice over here on how to commit to a routine. What do you think, does this work for you?

1. Set Reasonable Goals

2. Chart Your Progress

3. Schedule Set Times for Exercise 

4. Don’t Over Do It

Simple enough, right? For me it’s the charting of progress that seems to keep me committed, because I just can’t bear to skip a line on my tracking document.

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Really? Four languages in a few years? I suppose if your job depended on it like this guys did, you’d have to figure out some sort of system.

Here are his steps: 1. Pronunciation

2. Vocabulary and Grammar

3. Listen, Write, Read

4. Speak

Sounds simple, right? I’m guessing the hardest point is not giving up somewhere in between Steps 2 and 3.

I would love to hear if anyone else has either used this method (successfully?) or developed their own method.

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Except for the learn to say No part…

The Secret to Life by Bud Caddell

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It has been a standing agreement in our house that reading a book a week is an honourable goal. Finishing a book a week sometimes mean that we forgo an hour of TV or sleep, but it has been worth it. Over the last few years we’ve only missed the goal once or twice, and not by much. That said, since I started my new job I’ve read about 1/4 as many books as I would like to, and I’ve been stuck about 75% of the way through . . .

Sometimes I find myself thinking (or talking to myself) in French, which is very exciting (and overdue) after 14 years of school French and twice weekly lessons for the last year. But these are generally just basic thoughts about the weather, the traffic, etc. What would be even more exciting is to find myself switching to French as my go-to decision-making language.

Here’s why:

…researchers believe that thinking in a second language provides a kind of cognitive distance that promotes analytical thought and reduces emotion.  It operates like a screen door in . . .

8 Steps to Transforming Your Organization (or your Marriage, Career, Body, Kids, Etc)

1. Establish a Sense of Urgency

• Examine the facts
• Identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or major opportunities

2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition

• Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort
• Encourage the group to work together as a team

3. Create a Vision

• Create a vision to help direct the change effort

. . .

→ Continue Reading: Leading Change
. . .

→ Continue Reading: Leading Change]]> http://www.definingsomeday.com/2011/06/06/leading-change/feed/ 1 http://www.definingsomeday.com/2011/06/06/leading-change/