By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 30, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET How many times has your boss said, no surprises? Bosses want everything to go down exactly as planned. Of course they never do. Maybe instead of trying to avoid surprises we should plan more of them. When is the last time you genuinely surprised someone? Did you delight a customer today with the element of surprise? Did you do something so totally unpredictable that people all around you took notice? Predictability is overrated and boring.
When the Saints tried an onside kick to begin the second half of the Super Bowl everyone on and off the field was taken by complete surprise. I thought at the time that the game was over right then and there. The key was the element of surprise. If you look at the statistics behind onside kicks it was a genius move by Sean Payton, the Saint’s head coach. Turns out that only 26% of onside kicks in the NFL work when they are expected late in the game. The success rate goes up to 60% if the ploy is unexpected. The Saints not only had the underdog, post Katrina thing, working for them the odds were in their favor. The onside kick was a brilliant use of surprise and the Colts never recovered from it.
Lady Gaga is all about the surprise. We expect her to surprise us with her look and art every single time. Lady Gaga delivers. Her appearance at the Grammy Awards was no exception. Whether you are a Lady Gaga fan or not you have to be impressed with her capacity to surprise, provoke, and entertain. Her outfit at the Grammy’s was unlike any I have ever seen and her duet with Elton John was equally memorable. Lady Gaga is determined to be remarkable and to consistently surprise. No easy task to be surprising when everyone is expecting you to be. It isn’t my favorite genre (if you can call her music a genre) but I have to hand it to Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta for being surprisingly entertaining.
 My friend Tony Hsieh has built an incredible movement and company at Zappos. The company is built around the simple idea of surprising each and every customer with service beyond expectations. It seems so logical and yet most customer service is awful and disappointing. Not service from Zappos. Just ask my wife and daughters who have been delighted on many occasions ordering shoes from the company.
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Saul Kaplan: Surprise!
By Julie Rath, on Fri Sep 27, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET 
Photo courtesy of GQ
Lately I’ve been shopping for three different clients looking for each one’s own “It” leather jacket. Each guy already has a leather jacket that he wears, but the fit is off in all cases. The biggest mistake guys make with leather jackets is buying ones that are too roomy and too bulky. A leather jacket should fit snug to the body; you shouldn’t be able to fit anyone else under there with you. Armholes should be cut high, and sleeves should hit no lower than at the base of your wrist. Don’t be surprised if you have to go one size down from your usual to get the right fit.
Other ingredients for achieving leather jacket greatness:
1.// Think leather jacket, not leather blazer or leather trenchcoat. The former feels dated, and the latter might get you arrested.
2.// Choose the right color for your complexion: if your skin tone is cool, go with black; if warm, go with brown.
3.// Don’t be afraid to up the style quotient when deciding what to pair it with. After all, you are wearing your “It” leather jacket, so you might as well wear it with personality. Try it with a slim tie for a night out as seen above.
4.// Refrain from putting a jumble of things in your pockets. This not only adds bulk, but it will also stretch out that killer fit you worked so hard on.
5.// Just say “no” to patches, logos, racing stripes, hoodies and excess distressing.
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Sep 26, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET  The journey to the center of our bodies. What on earth is the core?
“Today class, our experiment is to stay in the gym for 12 hours and ask every person what their goals are.” A landslide will mention “core” “abs” “stomach.” It is our obsession. Another experiment is to watch any informercial, pushing an obscure fitness product, and see how many times they mention “core” or “abs.” I’ll be willing to bet its more times than they mention anything nutrition related. I mean why eat well when you can do crunches, situps and use the shake weight and get ripped. That is until you realize you have to do 250,000 crunches, JUST to burn enough calories to lose one pound of fat…YES just one pound. You can do crunches until you are blue in the face but it won’t eliminate your stomach fat. And on a side note, whatever new product is out there, it won’t speed the results up any faster. So why do we do crunches? Well duh, its to get an 8 pack!
Abs are made in the kitchen, no matter how hard you work your “abs” you cannot outwork your diet. If your nutrition is not up to par, your stomach will not be either. “So what is the core?” “Why do we have to work it?” “How do we work it?” I answer all of the above!
Lets start with what the “core” actually is. The National Academy of Sports Medicine defines it as the Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar spines and also the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip complex (stabilizes the body during weight bearing functional movements producing and reducing forces). WHAT? Time for an anatomy lession! PS do not fall asleep, it gets better.
Anterior
- Rectus abdominus- The “abs.” A key postural muscle that flexes the lumbar spine and can aid in respiration
Posterior
- Erector spinae- lower back muscles that extend the vertebral column
- Multifidus- deep musculature that runs from the base of the cervical spine to the sacrum. Main job is the stabilize vertebrae in the vertebral column during movement
Lateral
- Internal Oblique-Compresses abdomen; unilateral contraction rotates vertebral column to same side
- External Oblique-rotates the torso
- Quadratus Lumborum-Alone, lateral flexion of vertebral column; Together, depression of thoracic rib cage
Deep
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Sep 24, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET Most young girls become infatuated with pop stars at some point – and reflecting back on those initial crushes reveals a lot about who we are (and how old we are). For example, there were the bobby soxers who squealed over a young Frank Sinatra, the girls swooning over Elvis the Pelvis (before the Vegas sequined jumpsuit days), and teens fainting at Beatles’ concerts. In my day, we were too young to go to a Beatles concert but not too young to pick our favorite – the popular girls all liked Paul, cool girls worshipped John, out-there individualists picked George, and I was probably one of three girls who had crushes on Ringo. (Because he was the funny one – that’s the same logic that drove me to pick Peter as my favorite Monkee . . . . but I digress.)
As we grow older, our crushes evolve – often to include movie stars (while all my friends admired George Clooney, I always had a thing for Kevin Kline – again, he was funny), even comedians (the funny thing works for a lot of us) and political leaders – whether it was liberals admiring Barack Obama in 2008, or conservatives swooning over Paul Ryan last year (or my parents’ generation who loved JFK). These more adult crushes tend to include substance as well as appearance, admiration of talent or accomplishment or potential (like when I was one of lots of people, men and women, fantasizing about Nate Silver, doing statistical analysis with me in a dimly lit office, softly murmuring demographic data in my ear . . . . . . and YES, I know he’s gay, but hello, it’s a fantasy, I’ll never meet him anyway so what difference does his orientation make?)
Where was I? Oh, my latest crush, which seems novel to me, although my friends who grew up Catholic remind me of their crushes on priests, and there were some pretty hot scenes in the Thorn Birds between Meggie and Father Ralph. Still, I’d resisted the appeal of a man in clerical dress (and don’t tell me it’s a cossack or whatever, it looks like a dress to me) until the new Pope started blowing fresh air into the Vatican. The last time people were this excited about changes within Catholicism was Vatican Two – which inspired Tom Lehrer’s immortal “Vatican Rag.” So I figured it was time for another musical salute to the Pope . . . .
“Oh Francis (I’m A Jew Who Has a Crush On You!)”
By Nancy Slotnick, on Tue Sep 24, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET “There’s only one thing that he’s got that you haven’t got—courage.”—The Wizard of Oz to the lion.
A brain, a heart—to most of us, those aren’t that hard to muster. Or I should revise- for the people that interest me the most, brains and heart aren’t hard to muster. By the time of our grown-up life, we probably have honed our brains to be smart (is that possible? Sounds painful.) And either we have heart by now or we don’t. And in my opinion you gotta have heart. And if you don’t, well then, you won’t be going to see the musical Damn Yankees. And that’s ok because it hasn’t been on Broadway since circa 1997. But I digress.
Courage is hard for all of us. At least for me, courage is the hardest of the wizardly gifts. Perhaps because it’s unsteady. I have had a lot of courage at various moments in my life, but I still find it hard each time. The challenges that used to require courage get easier, but the sinking feeling in my stomach when I face a new challenge hasn’t gone away. Somehow I’m still able to put cheese fries in my stomach. But that may be a form of denial.
 Case in point– Barbra Streisand gets stage fright to this day. So what to do when we have to face fears anyway? I dare myself. Then I set my dare to music. This week my theme song is Bust a Move. “If you want it. You got it.” I took a look at the lyrics. Seems like it’s talking to a kid who probably looks like a fat Urkel from Family Matters but apparently he can dance when it all comes down to it.
We all feel like Urkel on the inside. Especially when it comes to dating. I know I did. And still do, just I’m not in the dating pool anymore, thankfully. In ’96, I named my dating-café “Drip” because everyone feels like a drip when they’re dating. Even the café itself would have felt like a drip if I had named it the “Lonely Hearts Café” or something like that.
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Nancy Slotnick: Okay, Smartie…
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Mon Sep 23, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET For every story on LivingIF, there is a backstory. Here are two unforgettable experiences we had due to Couchsurfing, both of which led to trip highlights. Let us know in the comments if there are any stories you’ve read here that you wanted to know more about how they happened…
HE SAID…
I wonder what our trip would have been without Couchsurfing. Staying with strangers, all around the world, was one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. The problem with Couchsurfing though is that it is a logistical challenge. Instead of heading to a central area to find a hotel, you have to head to residential areas, then find a person. Arriving in a new country, without a phone, trying to find someone inevitably leads to memorable situations. Nothing was quite like getting from Japan to South Korea.
Getting to South Korea meant exiting Japan, leaving Japan meant a last night out on the town that went from bar to bar to karaoke to sunrise. Taking a quick nap we had some takeout sushi for breakfast and headed to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. Narita is a city about an hour away from Tokyo, so we gave ourselves plenty of time, and casually switched trains from the metro to the suburban rail lines. Simple enough, just go to Narita, right? WRONG, never go to Narita…go to Narita Airport! They are very different destinations.
Arriving in Narita we realized our mistake and had burned our extra time. We ran out of the train station and asked a taxi driver how much to get to the airport. Translating on his phone he estimated it would be $120 and take over an hour…he recommended we take the train. Running back into the station, I saw a person who looked about 18 and asked him, “do you have an iPhone?” He responded, “hai” and handed it to me. Think about this for a second, on a train platform he just handed a complete stranger his iPhone…that’s Japan for you.
How did our best meal in South Korea happen? Trains, planes, buses and running.
The man with the iPhone said that he too was going to the airport…and he’d take us to the check-in counters. Looking at the train schedule, he estimated we’d arrive at the airport 25 minutes before our flight’s departure. He studied the Narita airport map from the train to the Delta check-in counter so we wouldn’t make a wrong turn. The three of us burst through the still-opening doors of the train, LOCAVORista and him sprinting to the counters with me behind carrying our bags. The check-in staff made a few calls to allow us to check-in, 15 minutes from an international departure, and instructed us, “you go now!” We said goodbye to our new Japanese friend and rushed through security, immigration and the terminal. We got to the gate and found everyone still at the gate; the flight had a last-minute delay of 30 minutes!
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Matt and Erica Chua: He Said/She Said: Behind the Blog Couchsurfing
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Sep 23, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET 
Our very own personal fitness advisor, Josh Bowen, is getting some big press for being named one of the ten top personal trainers in the world.
Check out an excerpt from today’s story in the Lexington Herald-Leader:
After 10 years in the business, personal trainer Josh Bowen is accustomed to meeting strangers and tailoring a fitness program to their goals.
But his comfort zone will be challenged this week in England, where he’ll be competing in a contest that will judge his abilities.
Bowen is a finalist in the Life Fitness Personal Trainers to Watch competition, which will be Friday in London. Ten personal trainers will be judged on their abilities to motivate, praise and collaborate with a client. The winner receives $5,000 and bragging rights.
Some 1,500 applicants from 43 countries applied to take part in the competition.
Bowen, 31, said that when potential customers approach him, “I have to quickly try to make a relationship with them, draw out their goals and nutrition, and then I show them what I do. I’m used to doing that on the fly — that doesn’t intimidate me at all — but I really don’t know what to expect (in London). I don’t know who I’m going to be training.”
Nevertheless, Bowen said, he is confident and ready.
“If there’s anything I’m going to compete in, this would be it. That’s not to say I’m going in cocky, but I have a confidence about myself,” he said.
…
Another fan of Bowen is former state treasurer Jonathan Miller, whose Recovering Politician publishing company will print Bowen’s book, The 12 Steps to Fitness Freedom, in January.
“There are 12 steps every body needs to get results from fitness,” Bowen said. “It goes through all the things I would go through with a client. I can touch more people that way.”
Bowen has been Miller’s personal trainer for years and has helped Miller with “middle-age maladies” like lower back pain.
“He really has a holistic approach to personal training,” Miller said. “It’s not just going to the gym to lift weights. (In the book) he’s able to combine all those things into something the average reader can grasp.”
Click here for the full story.
By Saul Kaplan, on Mon Sep 23, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Calling all innovators and designers. It is time to get below the buzzwords and to mobilize our networks with urgency and purpose. Waiting for public and private sector institutions to transform our urban economies won’t work. It is up to us to deliver on the promise of social media platforms and self-organizing networks. We must mobilize purposeful networks to address the big social challenges of our time including education, economic, and workforce development. I got a big wake up call last week while visiting Detroit for the first time. Talk about a burning platform. If you need a call to action just visit Detroit and see the devastation for yourself.
This once great industrial city is a shell of its former self. Detroit has lost half of its population going from a peak in the 1950′s of 2 million to under 1 million in the 2000 census. It is expected that the population will settle below 700,000 as unemployment and home foreclosures continue to fuel out-migration. What is to become of those that can’t get out and are left behind?
Real unemployment rates in Detroit are thought to be as high as 50% and recent block-by-block surveys indicate that about one in three land parcels are either vacant or abandoned. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, called Detroit Public Schools a national disgrace that keeps him up at night. The new Mayor, Dave Bing, is talking about downsizing the city including drastic plans to relocate residents from desolate to stable neighborhoods.
You get the picture. It is enough to make you cry. Detroit isn’t the only urban center that has been devastated by the departure of an industrial era along with its good manufacturing jobs. Is your city far behind Detroit? The need for bold moves and real systems change seems so obvious. We can’t possibly address these challenges with tweaks to our current economic, education, and workforce development systems.
I went to Detroit to participate in a conversation about changing the trajectory of our urban economies. I had high expectations but the well-intentioned leaders assembled seemed resigned to working within current economic development models and systems to change our urban outcomes. I guess I naively expected more outrage and a greater sense of urgency for bold action to change the trajectory.
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Saul Kaplan: Wake Up Call
By Julie Rath, on Fri Sep 20, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET 
Even if you’re still rocking shorts and polo shirts, the time is now to make plans for your cool weather wardrobe. I’ve been pounding the pavement and interwebs hard looking for the best items for my clients as the stores are flush with new merchandise. If you’re planning on doing some Fall shopping yourself, I must warn you that one of the worst things you can do is to go shopping without a plan or, at the very least, a list.
Just wandering into a store aimlessly is for sure the easiest way to end up with nothing at all, or worse, to get pushed into buying a pile of clothes you’ll never wear.
With that in mind, I created this list of 18 must-haves (or nice-to-haves) to inspire and keep you organized as you craft a smart Fall/Winter wardrobe.
Transitional jacket — think peacoat, car coat, or other medium-weight option
Leather jacket – here’s how it should fit
Overcoat — buy now while the selection is good, and there’s still time to have one custom-made
Outerwear vest — wool/cashmere/down, as in the header image
Lined raincoat — you can also get one with a zip-out lining, which is one of the most versatile garments you can own
Dress boots — yes, you can wear these with your suit!
Bad weather boots — look for options that are waterproof and have rubber soles for traction
Wool/cashmere socks — if you’re tall or have very long legs, get ones that go over your calves so your legs remain covered when you sit
Wool/cashmere ties — perfect for frigid days in combination with a scarf
Hat, gloves and scarf — don’t wait for someone to give these to you as a holiday gift!
Winter-weight casual pants — Incotex makes great corduroys and moleskin pants
Heavier-weight sport shirts — a trim-fitting flannel is a great weekend go-to
Heavier weight dress shirts — in more tightly-woven fabrics like oxford
Fall/Winter suits, dress pants and sportcoats — look for tweeds, flannels and heavier-weight worsteds
Menswear vest — wear with jeans for a stylish going-out look
Sweaters — v-necks, polo-necks, henleys, thin cardigans and thick shawl-collared cardigans are good options
Long sleeve tops — in thick materials like waffle-knit
Hoodie — look for one that’s super soft and trim-fitting
Remember, autumn is all about layering, so even if for example the idea of a thin cardigan or outerwear vest don’t appeal to you, think about them in combination with the rest of your wardrobe. The more you can mix and match pieces, the more versatile what you own will be.
If you’d like more tailored help with your Fall/Winter wardrobe, contact me. I’m currently booking appointments for the first week of October.
http://rathandco.com/2013/09/your-fall-shopping-list/#ixzz2eVuyqrmb
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Sep 19, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET With Nancy Slotnick providing dating advice and Jeff Smith counseling politicos, we’ve decided to add a new feature at The Recovering Politician from which every member of The RP can reap benefits: health and fitness advice. Our teacher is Josh Bowen, the Quality Control Director for Urban Active Fitness. Josh has spent the past 4 years directing and leading 400 personal trainers in 7 states. Before that, he served severak years as a personal trainer, with his most difficult client being The RP himself. The strength regime designed by Josh helped The RP overcome two decades of upper back problems.
And now, every Thursday at 8:30 AM, he offers advice for you and your families.
If you have any health and fitness questions, please send them to Staff@TheRecoveringPolitician.com.
To launch this column at The Recovering Politician, I have compiled a list of strategies to keep our kids active.
A friend of mine, who is an elementary school teacher, told me that her kids are only alloted 15 minutes of recess a day. Often times the teachers are under such scrutiny to hit certain test scores that PE and recess are but on the backburner. If the school systems would only take a look at several studies that show the more active a child (or adult for that matter) is the better their mind words to absorb vital information. So by limiting and abolishing recess and PE we are doing a disservice to our youth. We have to take matters into our own hands to keep our kids moving and active. These strategies are not revolutionary but they are helpful. Here we go!
Strategies to Keep Kids Active
1. Promote Activty, not exercise- Huh? Yeah! Promotion of exercise and workouts are not going to get your kids hyped up to go to the gym or even ride their bikes for that matter. They may not be ready for “exercise” but they will more than enjoy activity. This keeps the young mind that loses interest quickly, on task and having fun. I suggest the following:
– Active Play: ditch the video games and play catch, hide and go seek, Simon says and twister. Go old school, take it back to when you were a kid and you played hide and go seek for hours. Remember how much fun that was? I can’t tell you the last time I heard a kid talking about hide and seek, they would rather play Halo. Halo ain’t got nothing on hide and go seek (forgive me, I am from Kentucky)!
-Try an Active Party: In the summer time throw a party for your kids at the batting cages or in the winter a blowing party would fit the bill. Old school mentaility but activity nonetheless. This may inspire your young ones to pick a sport or find a hobby, all of which is great!
– Give them a Choice: Yes, they should be consulted with these decisions. A ten year old is not going to do something they do not want to do. So back door them, get them to pretend it was their idea and watch what happens!
2. Limit Screen Time- A surefire way to increase your child’s activity level is to limit the number of hours he or she spends in front of a screen — including television, video games and online activities. For example, you might consider a limit of one or two hours a day and, for a better night’s sleep, no screen time in the hour before bed. To make it easier, don’t put a television in your child’s bedroom, don’t watch television while you’re eating dinner, and restrict computers and other electronic gadgets to a family area. Also consider limiting other sedentary activities, such as text messaging or chatting on the phone.
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Josh Bowen: Strategies to Keep Kids Active
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