Brothers Brilliant

I've recently noticed how much I appreciate writing that is clear, direct and helpful. I stick to non-fiction for most of my leisure reading because, to paraphrase a recent trendy phrase, "I do drama on my own."

Chip and Dan Heath are two brothers and scholars that write books that are excellent, accessible and loaded with interesting studies. Their first book, "Making It Stick" is chock full of helpful advice on writing effectively.

Their principles for making ideas "stick" follow an easy to remember formula, use ideas that are "Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories (the acronym is SUCCESs)."

Their follow up book, "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard" may even be better than their first book. Just as rich with great examples of leadership and innovation. My favorite line from the entire book is a real kick in the pants for those like me that need help with following through on ideas, projects and plans: "Some is not a number, soon is not a time."

It's helpful to remember, too, that self-control is a resource that is in "limited supply." The Heath brothers write how researchers learned that self control can be exhausted. Therefore it's important to focus on what we use our self control on, because we can't draw on an endless supply.

With the ailing economy, drought, political turmoil and other news flooding from around the world, it all gets to be a bit much for me. Remembering that self control is an exhaustible resource helps me to remember what I can impact and what I cannot.

It also means relaxing a bit about the "small stuff". Really remembering, no one is watching, overseeing my every move. Not that I'm not interesting, but because they are usually too busy focusing on themselves. That's a huge relief. My self control can be focused on stuff that counts, like grading student work or things that I can have an impact on like my health.