improvement – Pacific Crest Blog

Forget the Valedictorian; Let’s Recognize the Improvetorian

By Pacific Crest October 21, 2023Expectations, Failure, Improvement, Learning EnvironmentNo Comments

In top suburban schools across the country, the valedictorian, a beloved tradition, is rapidly losing its singular meaning as administrators dispense the title to every straight-A student rather than try…

Generalizing Juggling

By Pacific Crest September 2, 2023Generalizing1 Comment

Generalizing knowledge is not the same as transferring knowledge. The process of generalizing means developing enough working expertise that knowledge can be transferred to new contexts at will. This is…

Choosing Celebration Instead of Regret

By Pacific Crest May 16, 2023Assessment, Attitude, Expectations, Performance1 Comment

In Buddhism, desire is thought to be the cause of all suffering. One extremely common kind of desire is regret: the wish for that which is contrary to reality. You…

Building Better Behavior

By Pacific Crest May 11, 2023Maximizing Growth1 Comment

A college student who was finishing an elective course in philosophy wrote a letter to her professor, giving it to him as she left class on the last day. In…

Rewiring Circuits in My Super Secret Laboratory

By Pacific Crest May 4, 2023Attitude, Making Choices, Maximizing Growth, Self-Growth TipsNo Comments

When we feel like someone is trolling us, pushing our buttons, or getting under our skin, we generally stop responding and start reacting. When that happens, we have let go…

Avoiding Deadlines

By Pacific Crest April 19, 2023Time ManagementNo Comments

Deadline is an interesting word. It was created during the American Civil War by the horrifically cruel Confederate Army officer Heinrich Hartmann Wirz, who ran the prison in Andersonville, Georgia.…

What Would Future Me Do?

By Pacific Crest April 12, 2023Attitude, Expectations, Making ChoicesNo Comments

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If so, then the cement between those paving stones is the tired disappointment we feel with ourselves when we…

How High Can You Jump?

By Pacific Crest March 17, 2023Affirmation, Mentoring1 Comment

Between two stints in college, I went to business school. The counselor there looked at my records and said, ‘Well. I guess you can do just about anything you want…

Showing the Target: Criteria in Context

By Pacific Crest February 22, 2023Assessment, CriteriaNo Comments

You can't hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have. Zig Ziglar Our last blog entry was about criteria and how we…

Criteria are Everything

By Pacific Crest February 15, 2023Assessment, CriteriaNo Comments

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Anonymous That’s worth keeping in mind, but…