Alicia Parr's Adventures

Those Invisible Tailwinds

Alicia — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:01:55 +0000

We humans are funny beasts in many ways. We want things to be good and relentlessly look for the bad. This is a short post that inspects this bias and compares it to cycling and the wind.

Any of us who have ridden more than a few miles know how tempting it is to [...]

Why I’m Not a Huge Fan of Formal Succession Plans

Alicia — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:41:44 +0000

Recently, I was reading a report about executive development and was struck by the authors’ surprise that succession planning dropped down in priority as a leadership development from 2009 to 2011. The report is a fantastic and highly useful piece of work. I found many, many insights to help me think more programmatically about how [...]

Conversations With Remy – 3/29/13

Alicia — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:49:52 +0000

Remy’s four now and four year olds say the darndest things. I had a convo today that I wanted to type up for posterity. No idea what he means, but maybe you’ll understand what lurks in the depths of the introspective pre-schooler mind.

Remy: (looking thoughtful and sounding rather well-reasoned) I don’t like myself. (pause) [...]

Success, Happiness and Meaning

Alicia — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:07:38 +0000

I’ve written about success before. I’m not interested in revisiting that piece, highlighting what parts I agree with and what I don’t. That piece looks pretty prescriptive. This piece simply shares what I think about success meaning for me. It might be interesting to nobody, which is fine.

I’ll speak to the post title [...]

Big Boy Broadcast – Q1 2013

Alicia — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:14:01 +0000

I’m overdue for a Remy update. Not that everyone’s waiting with bated breath for this, but the future me will appreciate that I take the time to do this. These updates are a great written history.

The biggest change is that Remy has finally developed more social awareness. He willingly shows affection to others [...]

Thoughts on Weight Loss Goals

Alicia — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:51:12 +0000

Since last May, I’ve been part of a Vistage group. It’s a group of professionals who serve as a accountability and development community. A facilitated peer group, if you will. At the beginning of the year, we set new strategic initiatives. Well, blah blah buzzword blah blah blah. We set goals. Many set a personal [...]

Favorite Characters on TV

Alicia — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:22:11 +0000

We don’t watch a ton of TV around our house. We don’t have cable and use Amazon Prime and Netflix as our providers, so we tend to get in a pattern of following a couple of shows through as many seasons as we have access to until we run out. Last night, I got to [...]

2012 Reading List

Alicia — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:49:28 +0000

Around the turn of the year, I move my books read from the main page to a post so my ongoing list appears slightly less unweildy. It’s that time of year.

Completed: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. by Liz Wiseman. Reinventing Leadership Development: Proactive and Progressive Strategies. by Dan Gallagher, Theresa [...]

My Journey in Athletic Priorities

Alicia — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:28:12 +0000

I’m always surprised when I learn that some people still read my blog posts. I started this habit of publicly accessible race reporting back when fewer people did it, which lent me more readership than the quality of reporting ever really warranted. Since I entered parentdom about 5 years ago (counting the fetal incubation period), the regularity [...]

Participation Report: Gallop & Gorge 8k

Alicia — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:05:07 +0000

I did this event a couple years ago. I was soooo much more fit then, so even with a 3 hour training run in my legs from the prior day, I still ran a highly respectable time. But that was 2010 and now it’s 2012, the year of inconsistent training. Hence this being called a [...]