Author Archive

EMC QUEST Corporation publishes new book, A ZOOM LENS FOR YOUR LIFE. The book is by Active Garage columnist – William Reed, speaker, columnist, and martial artist, who also serves as Chairman and Representative Director of EMC QUEST.

This is a book of practical wisdom, exploring how you can develop flexible focus using the the powerful lens of the Mandala Chart to bring your life into balance, and your goals into focus.

It combines age-old questions with actionable ideas and tools, and helps you turn your dreams into real achievements. It is the first book ever to introduce the Mandala Chart in English, and contains many nuggets of wisdom which help you make the most of each day at work, at home, at play.

Each chapter explores the Mandala from a new perspective, with compact and insightful ideas for business and personal performance.

When read on an ebook reader such as Kindle, readers can also access the concepts through the online dictionary and web access, use the notes and highlight feature, and share passages on Facebook. This is particularly useful for readers for whom English may be a second language, making it possible to improve your English while you read the ZOOM LENS content. It is also a powerful companion for the EMC QUEST Personal Coaching Program.

A ZOOM LENS FOR YOUR LIFE is divided into 4 parts and 16 chapters:

Table of Contents

PART ONE: NAVIGATION

• Chapter One: Are Goals Traps or Opportunities?
• Chapter Two: Oceans of Opportunity
• Chapter Three: The Principle of Interdependence
• Chapter Four: The Principle of Initiative

PART TWO: MASTERY

• Chapter Five: The Eight Frames of Life—Health
• Chapter Six: The Eight Frames of Life—Business
• Chapter Seven: The Mandala Business Diary
• Chapter Eight: Finding Focus in the Frames

PART THREE: RESONANCE

• Chapter Nine: The Magic Eye of Metaphor
• Chapter Ten: The Art of Making Sense
• Chapter Eleven: Inside the Lines
• Chapter Twelve: The Wonderful World of Flow

PART FOUR: FREEDOM

• Chapter Thirteen: The Decision Trap
• Chapter Fourteen: The One Year Plan
• Chapter Fifteen: Determine Your Destiny
• Chapter Sixteen: Move Less, Attract More

From the introduction

“Imagine if your view of the world was restricted to what you can see in front of your face. This was the case for much of human history. It is hard to fathom to what extent technology has changed our view of the world, giving us zoom access to the outer reaches of space, the microscopic world, cameras transcending time and space, and the web connecting our world.

What if there was a tool that acted as a zoom lens for your life? What if you could step away from the fray to see the big picture, zero in for analysis or action, without losing track of how everything is connected? The Mandala Chart is just such a tool, acting as a viewfinder with flexible focus. In all periods of history, the people with flexible focus have been able to dance circles around the rest.

The Biggest Room in the World…

My personal belief is that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. This is a proactive philosophy of always experimenting and implementing to improve.”

Words of Praise for ZOOM LENS FOR YOUR LIFE…

“A Zoom Lens for Your Life is an excellent introduction to the Mandala Chart, providing multiple windows on the method, and inviting readers to explore more.” ~Matsumura Yasuo, Founder of the Mandala Chart Method.

“What William Reed brings to us in A Zoom Lens for Your Life is a checklist, of sorts, on how to make the most of each day at work, at home, at play. And he accomplishes this through the use of the age-old Mandala.” ~Mark Gresham, Director of Cambridge University Press, Japan

“A Zoom Lens for Your Life is a practical book for business people, and it contains many nuggets of wisdom from Japanese culture.” ~Higuchi Takeo, Director of Idea-Marathon Institute

“A Zoom Lens For Your Life will help you prepare for an uncertain tomorrow, the only kind of tomorrow most of us will face.” ~ Bruce Rosenstein, Author, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life

“The concept of the Mandala approach offers a powerful and realistic way to realize the important personal goals we set for ourselves.” ~Dermot Killoran, President of Calderwood Productions, Tokyo

“William Reed in A Zoom Lens for Your Life outlines how and why this ancient chart can be used to great effect in realizing our goals.” ~Philip T Gibb, President,British Chamber of Commerce in Japan

A ZOOM LENS FOR YOUR LIFE is available in digital form on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and can also be purchased in hard copy from Lulu.com and CreateSpace.

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Tagged as: active garage, e-books, emc quest, Flexible Focus, japan, mandala, mandala charts, william reed, zoom lens for your life

Use a Manifesto to build your brand, grow your list & sell more books

by Roger Parker on May 2, 2011

If you’re a business owner or an author using a sample chapter of your book, a report, or a tip sheet as a list-building incentive, consider replacing it with a manifesto. A well-written manifesto can do a better job of helping you build your brand and grow your list, paving the way for you to sell more books.

Manifestos are better list builders because they take a stand. Because manifestos strongly advocate a position, and are usually passionately written, they operate on an emotional level, tapping into the power of commitment. Read more…

Project Reality Check #20: Beware of Addiction to Agile

by Gary Monti on May 3, 2011

Can Agile cause damage?

Yes.

Is Agile a good method?

Yes.

How can both statements be true?

Let’s look.

First, let me say I have a great respect for RAD, Extreme Programming, Agile, etc., because the methods reflect acceptance of and dealing with a common reality. Read more…

As the Paradigm Shifts #D: Dignity, Denial and Detachment

by Rosie Kuhn on May 4, 2011

Whether self-employed, employed by organizations, whether retired or unemployed, we all engage with companies and organizations that support us or we support them. In our interactions with these organizations, what we are wanting is to experience qualities of dignity, first and foremost. This means being treated as a sovereign individual of value, worthy of respect. I want people to communicate authentically, with curiosity and interest. Read more…

Flexible Focus #52: A sense of Significance

by William Reed on May 5, 2011

Stephen Covey provided the world with a significant dimension of perspective when he proposed the Time Management Grid in his book First Things First (1994), using a 2×2 Matrix juxtaposing Urgency vs Importance. Though it has now become common parlance, it was revolutionary at the time when Covey made this distinction, and plotted it in four Quadrants. Read more…

Leader Driven Harmony #23: Five Stressful Behaviors and How to STOP them – Part 3

by Mack McKinney on May 6, 2011

In our last post we looked at two scenarios where, even though other people were causing us stress, we did not ask them to stop because we could not do so safely.  Here is the last scenario before we move on to subject of “is it worth your time to intervene”?  What would you do here? Read more…

Tagged as: active garage, center for change management, Communication, conor neill, Entrepreneurship, execution, Flexible Focus, gary monti, Leadership, mack mckinney, mandala charts, Project Management, rosie kuhn, william reed, www.activegarage.com

Today is a special day for Active Garage.

What makes this day so special is that today, we are unveiling our flagship project that we have been tinkering on “Actively” in our “Garage”.

Active Garage is proud to announce the launch of its new project, 99Tribes – A People discovery engine for Twitter.

There is no dearth of people directories on Twitter. So, why another one?

99Tribes helps you find and DISCOVER twitter users who share their interests. Based on the patented Rawsugar technology, you can start discovering people by typing what you are interested in (popular examples being: marketing, sales, blogging etc.)

Like any directory, 99Tribes will show the search results. What happens next shows the power of discovery.

On the left column, you will notice a set of tags. These tags show the “other” interests of people displayed in the search results.

For example, marketing may be your interest and you search on Marketing. Looking at the tags on the left you may notice that a set of people interested in marketing are interested in music too. You click on music and now the search results are updated to reflect people who are interested in Marketing and Music. It does not stop there. The tags get updated and you may notice that there are number of people who are interested in Music and Marketing are also interested in Fashion and Art. Or Camping or Hiking.

In other words, you can drill down to multiple levels and keep discovering wonderful people along the way!

We invite you to check it out, add yourself to 99Tribes and have fun discovering others with like interests!

Wish you the very best,

Active Garage team.

Tagged as: 99tribes, active garage, directory, discovery engine, fun, people, rawsugar, search