Paul Shirley
@paulthenshirley
Followers
12K
Following
8K
Media
620
Statuses
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I played basketball. I write books. I run The Process. I help people get stuff done. (And find meaning and connection while they're at it.)
Denver
Joined June 2009
Your answer is somewhere between Suck It Up and Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself.
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You know how to do the thing. Stop knowing it and start doing it.
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If in doubt, do something. It might even work!. Probably not, but at least you’ll know. And as GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle.
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RT @signulll: civilization’s amnesia loop:. 1. notice a problem.2. invent a fix.3. turn the fix into tradition.4. forget what it was fixing….
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RT @PilarPedrazaTV: I was a Senior when @paulthenshirley came to ISU from small town Kansas. We were frequently in the same building, Hilt….
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I've been spending a lot of time back in Iowa lately. I'm not sure they want this secret getting out but man oh man people seem happier there than most of the places I've been in the past few years.
A lot of people wondered who the tall guy was wandering around at our anniversary party Sat. evening. Our friends, John and Shirley, knew who he was and took the opportunity for a photo op. He is famous basketball player and now book writer, Paul Shirley @paulthenshirley. He
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As @Brett_Trainor writes:. "Forget hustle and grind. The new superpower is focus. We live in the most distracted time in history. Notifications, emails, endless meetings, non-stop social media… all designed to keep you busy, not productive.". Here's us talking this through:.
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Some kind words about The Art of Focused Work from the Ames Tribune:.
amestrib.com
Paul Shirley writes about his basketball experiences at Iowa State in a new nonfiction book about brushing aside distractions in an effort to focus.
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Oh the places you'll go!. In my case, to Hawkeye Community College to help their student-athletes kick off the year with a talk about the superpowers athletes get just by being athletes: the ability to focus, a capacity for managing failure, and on-the-job training in
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Beware the advice derived from a selective recollection of someone’s path to success. Most people forget to mention the missteps, dead ends, and blind luck that got them where they are.
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There are those afraid to try because they might fail and there are those who understand that the failure they should fear is not trying at all.
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I'll be in Iowa all next week. Wednesday, August 20: Launch event for The Art of Focused Work in Clive -> . Friday, August 22: Hanging at Fridays at the Farm in Middlebrook -> . Otherwise, if you see me at Hy-Vee, say hello.
facebook.com
Event in Cumming, IA by Middlebrook Agrihood and The Sons of Gladys Kravitz on Friday, August 22 2025 with 414 people interested and 30 people going. 10 posts in the discussion.
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Where there’s a will there’s a way, but the way won’t look like you thought when you found the will.
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I'll be in Clive (IA) one week from tonight, talking about focus, failure, and beating Kansas.
eventbrite.com
Join us for a conversation/Q&A with former Iowa State Cyclone Paul Shirley about his new book, The Art of Focused Work. (With Larry Morgan.)
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*watches people stumble around like zombies, their faces frozen by frowns as they stare at their phones*. Yes, please tell me how more technology is the answer.
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On this site, I only want to see your words, your thoughts, and your ideas. Yes, you're allowed to take up a bunch of vertical space with links, photos, and videos. But what if, instead, you had a little confidence in your words, your thoughts, and your ideas?.
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One of the challenges of our time is explaining universal truths to a population that was seduced into thinking they’d outgrown them.
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We gave control of the culture to the autists. It's time to give it back to the artists.
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You won't optimize your way to immortal. You'll optimize your way to insufferable.
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