May your 2017 goals lead to your actions and your actions lead to your dreams.

While sitting in an Austin hotel room at the end of May 2010, I wrote my first post for this blog. At that time, I had three goals:

• Experience a new (for me) aspect of social media
• Develop and flesh out new ideas
• Provide something of value—not just another cyber rant.

I believe I have accomplished the first and the second. It is up to you whether I have accomplished the third. My blog posts contain videos, book recommendations and summaries, questions to ponder, and always a takeaway to apply immediately to life.  I have remained true to my commitment to publish one blog post per week. This post marks the 344^th consecutive week.  And I know that I am #alwayslearning!

Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing.  I would love to hear what you found of value on this blog. And, please feel free to share any ideas you have for future posts.

As has now become tradition for this blog, this last-of-the-year offering lists each of the previous 51 posts I have made to this blog this year. Along with each title, you will find a statement about each. Perhaps a nugget or two will provide inspiration. I have linked each title to the actual blog should you want to read it, re-read it, or share it. Thank you for your continued support and comments.

I also have included (1) the top five (by number of views/visits) blog posts for 2016; and (2) top five blog posts since I started this journey in 2010.

*Top Five 2016 Posts on this Blog*

1.  (#308) Thanks. You’re Helping!

2. (#309) Thanks. You’re Not Helping!

3. (#295) His Heart Created A Wonderful Life

4. (#299) The First Forty Years

5. (#297) In Their Words: Leadership and Collaboration

*Top Five All-Time Posts on this Blog*

1. (#194) Honor the Past. Celebrate the Present. Embrace the Future.
2. (#86) A Model for Critical Thinking

3. (#18) Crab Pot Mentality!
4. (#93) SQ4R: Strategic Reading Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond

My video that accompanies this post is my most watched YouTube video.

5. (#219) The First Day of Class: People Before Paper!
All the best to you and your family and your friends as you create and enjoy your 2016 journey. May your 2017 goals lead to your actions and your actions lead to your dreams.

2016 in Review

1. Community Resilience * Maybe we can approach resilience as a condition of not only being adaptable to a disaster but also living and sustaining a healthy life that avoids (or, at least, prepares for) disaster before it happens.
2. Benefits of Remaining a Continual Learner * It can help us fill in gaps between assumptions and realities.
3. His Heart Created a Wonderful Life * Stay healthy and hug a little longer.
4. Not Us. Them! * The campus is not about the president, professors or custodians—it’s about the community.
5. In Their Words: In Their Words * The leadership concepts and exhortations in this post can be summed up in a word, RESPECT. Respect for your abilities, respect for your followers, respect for your team, respect for the mission, respect for humor, and respect for relationship building.
6. Do You Have “Hell, Yeah!” Goals? * When you establish new goals, consider these four components. Give your goals a second R.E.A.D.
7. The First Forty Years * If you held me down to provide the “secret sauce,” I’d say it is simply giving each other space.
8. Is Grit a Crutch? An Excuse? A Strategy? A game Changer? * To disregard fortitude ignores the importance of personal effort. No, it does not always “pay off” like we might want it to. Grit, though, is a contributing factor on our journey.
9. Authenticity: What Does It Look Like For You? * As you live your life, Please take my cue, To thine own self be true.
10.  Show Muscles * We can end up doing things that look good, feel good, or make a splash while ignoring the support system behind each of those choices.
11. Give Your All Stars the Spotlight * Find a way to let your colleagues share what they are proud of and how they do it.
12. Random Thoughts on Overload, Gratitude and Connectedness * But wouldn’t it be a shame if we create such unforgiving filters that the positive, the joy and the connections never make it through?
13. Question. Grow * “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”–Epictetus. “Question everything.” Einstein.
14. The Power of Empathy for Self * The first person we have to lead and be true to remains ourselves.
15. Thank You for Paying Attention to Me * Do you treat those you lead and those you follow with dignity? Do you do the same for yourself?
16. You’re Helping! * Laurie and I remain deeply indebted to many, many friends for their positive thoughts and love.
17. You’re NOT Helping! * I totally understand that many people just don’t know what to do when someone in front of them says, “I have cancer.”
18. Plussing + Amplification = Authentic Quality * What can you do this week to plus a situation and amplify someone’s position?
19. Grade Inflation. Have We Arrived In Lake Wobegon? * Grade inflation/distortion has consequences for self-efficacy, self-awareness, and self-competence.
20. Organizational Climate and Culture * Those who don’t understand the importance of relationship building to affect culture change are not leading but simply taking a meandering walk.
21. Information Literacy 2.0. WHO is the WHO of Your Information? * We need to pay more attention to the sources of our information and we now need to question whether the sources are real people.
22. P2P: Building a Story * Every encounter is a story waiting to happen; a story waiting to be written.
23. Play Your Song, Now * What song lives in you?
24. Process, Trust, and Organizational Growth: An Optimistic Approach *  Trust is what teams, students, teachers, employees and leaders need in order to challenge the process on the way to a better answer.  
25. Finding Your Passion Is Just The Beginning * Once we discover what we feel is our passion (or at least, our interest that could become a passion), the work has only begun. 
26. Bigger, Shinier, Newer Not Necessarily Better * Maybe I can help start small movement for change in the big
27. Relationships and Leadership * The demagogic hot head may catch attention—for a while. But soon he will burn his staff out.
28. No Need To Be An Island * Regardless of your calling or situation, collaboration and communication are powerful forces. There is no need to be an island.
29. The Nudge: Everything Sends A Message * We take chances, we fail, we learn, we grow,
    and we move forward.
30. Excellence And The Ordinary * Those striving for and maintaining excellence constantly want to know more—get to the next level.
31. Who Sets Your Agenda * Why let someone else interrupt my thought process and mindset with what they see as something I “need” to know “right now” from the “world out there”?
32. What Motivates Your Reasoning * It can be very easy to point out the window…The challenge is to look into the mirror.
33. Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Lunch Money * Don’t let anyone deny who you are.
34. Where Is Your Focus Space? * It seems I do some of my best thinking when I am not in my workspace.
35. Structures For Organization: Implications for Teaching and Training * Just because it was tossed, doesn’t mean it was caught. Just because it was talked, doesn’t mean it was taught.
36. Waiting For A Life Guard? * What have you been fearful of leaping into—but would really like to experience? What are you curious about doing or exploring?
37. Textured, Colored And A Bit Off-Center * By going a little off-center, we start to see things that can enhance our view. We open ourselves up to larger possibilities and opportunities.
38. I Saw Two Kids Playing * Every step of the journey does not need a checklist.
39. Quieting The Mind * My goal is to quiet the restless mind briefly now and then build to a more sustained practice later. 
40. 100 Years of Resilience * Life is not about me, it’s about others.
41. Questioning Risk * It’s OK to go into uncharted and murky waters. Diving in headfirst is optional.
42. Drive Like Your Kids Live Here * When we attempt to connect with people, we need to make it relevant to them. We need to connect to their stories.
43. Politics, Anxiety, And A Few Coping Strategies * How and with whom can you share love and goodness this week?
44. Wellbeing Is A Skill: From Balance To Integration * Wellbeing does not just happen.
    It requires thought, planning, and follow-through. Workplace leaders have to be role models.
45. Don’t Be Defined By Your Past * Do we need to have a life-altering event to find peace?  How do you find your place of peace? Have you found it?
46. Do Not Underestimate The Power Of Place * How would you feel if you found out you could never come back to your “place”?
47. Learning From The Low Vibrations * At times, we find ourselves caught up in the low-vibrations of negativity and defeatism. Draw on the strength within, around, and above.
48. It’s Up To You * Treat your dreams like your property. If you don’t protect them from theft and damage, who will?
49. Drop And Leave * I have witnessed people play a disappointing game of “drop and leave” with their goals and dreams.
50. Let’s Review * This week spend some time looking in your rear view mirror. 
51. Reflect, Remove, and Replace: Focusing On The Space * All of us have experienced times when one or more of the slices, sectors, segments, or spaces of our lives no longer seem to serve us.
52. A Blogger’s Retrospective: 2016 in Review * A listing of the previous 51 blog posts for 2016.

Make it an inspiring week, a wonderful holiday season, and H.T.R.B. as needed.

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Check out my latest podcasts at The Growth and Resilience Network™
(http://stevepiscitelli.com/media-broadcast/podcast).

Check out my website  (http://stevepiscitelli.com/programs/what-i-do) for programming information as well as details about upcoming webinars (http://stevepiscitelli.com/programs/webinars).

My books Choices for College Success (3^rd edition) and Study Skills: Do I Really Need This Stuff?  (3^rd edition) are published by Pearson Education.

(c) 2016. Steve Piscitelli. All rights reserved.