How To Contribute In People’s Lives.
Share your secrets openly. “It’s the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. It’s also a very clear path to happiness.” — Sheryl Sandberg You want to create something significant, but, you’re unclear. What to do and how it can be accomplished? Everyone...
How To Take Breaks, Without Feeling Like A Lazy Bumb
Cultivate a relaxed state wherever you are. Despite the well-known benefits of taking breaks, many of us struggle to disconnect from work. More than half of employees end the year with unused time off. This ends up costing employers in more ways than one, such as...
How to Know You’re Heading in the Right Direction
Creating landmarks can help you decide if you’re heading in the right direction. Welcome back my fellow travelers on the river of life. If you’re just joining us, I recommend you go back and take a look at where we’ve been so far. We started by recognizing that we...
What I Did When I Got Lost
Time flows like a river, and there is nothing we can do to go back in time or move forward into the future — so our boat has no oars. We can only steer our way through life at a constant speed — which is why our boat only has a rudder. Let’s talk about how important that rudder is in the right hands.
The One Thing I Was Missing
So there I was, adrift on the river of life, heading toward… well, I thought I was heading somewhere…
That’s when I realized I was just drifting. Caught up in the currents of life, I mistook motion for progress.
How to Go From Just Getting by to Thriving in the Digital Age
How do you look at the current world? The now-famous writer, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote for 25 years before he was discovered. Another famous writer, Charles Bukowski, toiled away in obscurity for thirty years before he received a small publishing deal. A modern...
Want to Be More Driven? Honor Reflection
Looking back is not easy, but using it to light your creative fire is the secret to your success. As I look back over my life, I can’t help but be thankful for where I am today. Every now and then, memories invade my thoughts and cause me to place a high priority...
You Don’t Need to “Have Your Life Figured Out” By 30 (Or Ever, For That Matter)
I turn 30 in three months, and I’m not freaking out at all. I’m fine. To boot, I have none of the accomplishments and milestone of the person who “has life figured out.” Instead of a stable job, I don’t have a job. I’m choosing to be a full-time writer, which is...
I Want To Help You Say; NO.
Whew! I got through that speech. The one I did not want to do. I know I said YES when they ask me to give the talk to eighty plus old-timers. (I can use ‘old-timers’ since I am one). The most extended hour known to man was mine when I talked about something I knew...
Your Greatest Fears Are the Greatest Wastes of Time
Quit fearing and get to doing. As a member of a 12 step fellowship, we talk a lot about fear. We have acronyms. We have its spiritual principle opposite. We talk about how to walk with courage. All of us, including my teensy-weensy wimpy self, can let fear run our...
How To Stop Drifting And Start Succeeding
What to do when you’ve recognized you’re drifting If you haven’t read the first post in this series, Stop Doing This One Thing Today, you owe it to yourself to start there. Then, come back and keep reading. You and I are meant for great things. I recently figured...
When No One Will Support You, Support Yourself
When you have a serious goal, it lives inside your mind. It’s a burning desire that doesn’t go away. Even when a bout of demoralization or simple uncreativity strikes, you still have that goal burning. It’s smoldering, perhaps not burning strong, but it’s still there....
Your Best Creative Self Is Waiting in the Quiet Time
Avoiding the noise comes at a cost that will always be worth it. Our creative minds are often subjected to the cruelest negligence. We dismiss the thought of being alone with our ideas because we assume they’ll either be awful or won’t be useful in any way. Yet, in...
How to Become the Best in the World at What You Do
I’ve decided that I want to become the best writer in the world. This is a goal I’ll never reach. I mean, you have Hemingway, Plath, Bukowski, Rowling, King, R.R. Martin, Gladwell, Kafka, Gilbert, and a slew of other writers from ancient to contemporary that are much...
Stop Doing This One Thing Today
You may not even realize what you’ve been doing wrong. You are meant for great things. Let’s start there. Do you believe it? I’ll bet you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this. Take a few seconds to center yourself. After you’ve read...
How to Effectively Decide What Is Urgent and What Is Important
And what to do first. “Understanding how to work within the battle between urgent and important is essential…” Every morning, walking into my office, I would fear what came in overnight. Working in an environment where we would have customers call in and email...
The Day You Realize How Much Your Freelance Work Is Worth
You’ll stop giving discounts I worked a 9 to 5 for most of my life. It was predictable, relatively safe, and I knew how much my time was worth because they told me how much it was worth. I never realized how difficult that last idea was to change until I entered the...
Personal Branding Strategy (The Emotions Strategy)
This article is about how evoking the right emotions is a personal branding strategy. For those of you that don’t care what other people think, all you want is to do your job and get out of work. You may want to rethink this approach. Think about what that...
How to “Become a Better Person”
How do you become a better person? What does that even mean? Who gets to decide? What are the standards? How do you know for certain you’re moving in the right direction? The definition of better changes depending on the context. You can improve in certain areas while...
The Productivity Guide to Getting WAY More Done
“Why can’t you get that work done?” “What’s wrong with you?” “Just apply yourself.” I used to hear that all the time, and then I’d look around at my messy house, my endless list of to-dos and wonder how people manage to get it all accomplished. I’m good at Angry...
I’ve Been Living A Lie For The Past Decade
It’s like waking up to realize someone else had lived your life and did a crappy job, but at least now you’re free. It’s not easy to accept an idea which shatters your entire worldview. Some people choose to deny. Others decide to confront and retaliate against the...
Do Yourself a Favor: Focus on What Matters
Cleaning up your time will ultimately clean up your life. We all can relate to times that seem to be in complete chaos. Mornings are dreadful. Nights aren’t any better. Days are longer and more stressful than ever, as you pace around thinking about what you’ll have to...
6 Things Every Writer Should Do Before 6 AM
The early morning has gold in its mouth — German proverb I am about to reveal to you the secret of massive productivity and inevitable success. It involves maximizing your time and accomplishing more in a few hours than most people accomplish in a week. It is a...
Five Things I Wish I’d Done That Didn’t Seem Important
Regrets fade away when we realize we can live like we always wanted to live. Fresh out of college with a degree in Journalism, I landed a job with a local newspaper. Since we had a small staff, I spent a lot of hours after work writing feature stories or editing...
The Hidden Costs of Success No One Ever Talks About
Nothing’s free. Is success worth the price? You’ve been drudging through your existence for some time now. You’re older, have fewer aspirations, and are more resigned to your fate. You think back to the times where you seemingly had it all — freedom, hope, dreams you...
The Surprising Upside Of Being A Perfectionist
Perfectionism can actually be quite wonderful. “What’s your biggest weakness?” You’ve probably heard that it’s no longer considered a wise move to respond to this common interview question by saying, “Well, I’m a bit of a perfectionist”. Being organized and...
How to Stay Productive and Get Results Under Pressure.
Pressure comes from within and so must be mastered from within. Let us admit it. Nobody performs well under pressure. A lot of us think we do, but we don’t — or at least, we don’t perform as well as we could perform. And in their book, in their book, “Performing Under...
This is How AI will Stop You from Quitting Your Job
And it is quite terrifying. It’s Friday afternoon and one of your employees asks for a private meeting. Before you even close the door, she tells you she’s found another job and is leaving the company. How will you respond? Who will cover her responsibilities? What is...
What To Do When You Have No Idea What To Do
📌 Be clear regarding your values. “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” — Roy E. Disney A wise choice might be easier if you’re aware of your values. Whenever you’re stuck, return to your values and take another crack...
How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure (Without Superhuman Confidence)
Why is the fear of failure so powerful? You’ve heard the question a million times — “What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?” But asking that question isn’t useful because you are afraid to fail. Speaking in hypotheticals doesn’t work as well as giving you...
How to Say Goodbye to Procrastination From Now On
Overcoming your procrastinating self starts with managing your procrastinating habits. Most of us want to get a lot done—and fast. There are deadlines to meet and other tasks to get to, so time is obviously of the essence. But most of us also struggle with the...
How to Become the Best in the World At What You Do
I’ve decided that I want to become the best writer in the world. This is a goal I’ll never reach. I mean, you have Hemingway, Plath, Bukowski, Rowling, King, R.R. Martin, Gladwell, Kafka, Gilbert, and a slew of other writers from ancient to contemporary that are much...
How to Walk Through Transition with Intention
Honor Your Limits. Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing. Celebrate Small Wins. Long ago, settlers were the adventurous ones, trading in their sweat and safety for the promise of a better life. These days, “settling in” rarely involves danger. But it does still demand...
I Doubled My Productivity With One Simple Change
You can too if you’re willing to think differently I like simplicity. I always have. But, there have been a lot of times in my life when I have found myself in the midst of a storm of complexity. I also enjoy getting things done. Even before productivity became the...
Why Doing Things “The Hard Way” is 10x Easier Than Any Shortcut
I just saw a blog post titled, “6 Figure Blogging: Zero to Passive Income in 30 Days.” The post was filled with useful information, but I’m not sure how I feel about the implications of the title. It’s a theme I’ve been seeing across the internet lately. Open up your...
8 Keys To Master The Art Of Persuasion
Can you get your peers to see things from your point of view? Do you have great ideas but you are unable to convince your coworkers or your boss, or are you a business owner finding it difficult to get your staff to adjust to new changes? Maybe you need to master the...
How to Turn Your Childhood Memories Into Springboards
Going back in time opens our eyes to what we can experience today, but we shouldn’t stay there. I don’t know about you, but I have some great memories of my younger days. There were some sour bits here and there, of course. But for the most part, life was a swirl of...
Stop Bullsh*ting & Put In The Work: Differences Between The Pro & The Amateur
“Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to put in the work…At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off” — Kevin Hart One of my biggest pet peeves is people who want results but don’t want to put in the work. I can’t stand...
Forget ‘Doing,’ Sometimes It’s Best To Wait
Yesterday I ordered a traditional breakfast here in Singapore. It’s made with Kaya toast, coffee, and two half-boiled eggs. When the kindest Chinese man you could think of served it to me, I thought the half-boiled eggs were hard boiled eggs. Fifteen seconds...
The Power of No - The Nice Person’s Guide to Setting Boundaries
One key to successful relationships is learning to say no without guilt, so that you can say yes without resentment.Bill Crawford Let me guess. You’re a super-nice person who’d help anybody do anything at any time. You’re proud of your reputation too. I bet you’re...
Why Perfection Should Never Be the Goal
We Are Not Robots for a Reason This life was never designed for us to be perfect. But for some reason, there are lots of people wanting to be perfect. We want all that we do to be spot on — no errors. It’s normal. I get it. At least, that’s what some think. Let’s...
How Being More “Selfish” Makes the Lives of Everyone Around You Better
You’ve heard the phrase before. If a plane is going to crash or experiences major turbulence, oxygen masks come out and you’re instructed to put your own mask on before you put your child’s mask on. There are many reasons why being more “selfish” — taking care of...
Why You Need to Publish Your Originality
Creating: the lost art in a world of conformity. Creativity: the use of unique, imaginative ideas in the capacity of producing something new. With all the sophisticated improvements we see nearly every day, it can become easy to forget the need to use our own...
Stop Sacrificing Yourself on the Altar of Productivity
Why working ourselves to burnout is ruining our lives. In our world of fast-paced, stressful work, many of us think we cannot take a break and must push ourselves to our breaking point. Working ourselves until we want to quit our jobs or have an emotional or mental...
Where to Find the Energy You’ll Need to Become Successful
Work + knowledge + faith = energy Self-improvement is like planting a garden. Growing takes a lot of hard work — consistent energy input — before you get any output. You have to prepare the ground by removing weeds. Tilling comes next, and without the proper tools,...
Faustian Bargains: How to Stop Trading Your Life Away for Nothing
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he didn’t exist.” The devil does exist, but not in the form you imagine. No, there is no red-skinned, horn-headed, fire and brimstone lair ruler, but there is an insidious force that exists to kill your...
How to Become an “Overnight Success”
My five-year journey from “nobody” to “somebody.” “Advice is an autobiography and NOTHING else.” — James Altucher People hate advice given by someone who isn’t living what they tell other people. It’s easy enough to write a book or a blog post that regurgitates ideas,...
The Necessary Lies You Need To Succeed
It’s a common rule of thumb to forget the story and celebrate the glory. Without mincing words, no one is interested in your merciless drudgery or the amount of time you put in getting things done. The shame-shamble history repeats itself; we all want to be...
3 Ways to Slow Down When Your Body and Mind Tell You To
Do you ever feel like your life is out of control? That there is no end in sight to the madness of it all? Maybe you worry constantly about not getting enough done, and yet you still struggle to find focus and control your unstable emotions. The last two months have...
Jerry Weintraub: How to Have Any Career You Want and Make Millions
How does a complete nobody get the opportunity to become Elvis Presley’s manager? Jerry Weintraub was an ordinary man with extraordinary dreams. One of those dreams was to become Elvis’s road manager. There were a few problems with his goal. One, Elvis already had a...
Overwhelmed? 4 Simple Steps to Regain Control
Have you ever felt there’s too much weight on your shoulders? Maybe too many ideas in your head, too many tasks on your to-do list, with little to no time to pursue them all? Your worries buzz and hiss and rumble in a tidal wave of overwhelming pressure. Suffocating....
7 Ways To Create Momentum In Your Life
Keep pushing forward Momentum makes it easier to create change. It’s much harder to find the first client than to find the tenth. If you have to lose 50 pounds, the second 10 are easier to lose than the first 10. It’s just hard to get started when you’re...
Goals Suck. Systems Work.
I get a lot of emails about goals — and I mean — a lot. But if I had the ultimate answer for accomplishing your goals flawlessly, I’d live in a huge mansion. One of the biggest reasons that I see people fail in their goals is that whatever they want to do, whatever...
Give Your Creativity a Platform
You may not know where to start, but keeping those ideas moving changes everything. I've always considered myself a creative person. From the moment I was able to pick up a crayon, I would attempt to construct a world that was the epitome of happiness. Throughout my...
This is What 70 Looks Like, Episode #3
Channeling my inner Nancy Pelosi I’ve been flattered of late, in a way not experienced before. Two years ago I moved to the Hudson Valley town of its namesake river. To Hudson, New York. A lighthouse sits right off the city’s shoreline; the Catskill Mountains rise to...
Does Intuition Make You a Better Leader? It Does!
Intuition: the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning; something one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning. Intuition is a strange and wonderful thing. It’s kind of mystical...
You Should Never Hide What You Really Like
Your quirks are just what we need. With all the new trends and updates going live every second, it’s hard to figure out what we actually like. There’s just so much being thrown in our faces that we lose our ability to point out what satisfies our cravings. Since the...
The Surprising Truth About Waking Up On The Wrong Side Of The Bed
Definitely some truth to the idea Even though both sides of your bed may look the same, you’ve probably heard the old saying about waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Scientists have discovered that there’s some truth to the idea. Being stressed in the...
Don’t Waste It
A Few Simple Reasons Why You Should Use What You Already Have I’ve mentioned in the past that I love playing the piano, keyboard, workstation, or whatever anyone wants to call an instrument with black and white keys. If it makes musical sounds, there’s a chance I...
Self-Leadership: How to Learn How to be Your Own Mentor
Self-leadership is the currency of success in 2019 and beyond. What do I mean? There are going to be disproportionate rewards for people who are self-reliant vs. people who need to be told what to do all the time. I have no mentors. All of the work I do is in the...
Energy Drainers: 9 Vampiric Habits You Do to Yourself
Avoid them at all cost to keep your long-term sanity. I’ll give you just a handful, but they are among the worst drainers in the world. The order is not dictated by the effects. They differ for different people. 1. Procrastination. source: pixabay.com It can...
Why Brainwashing Might Be Good For You
I’ve been where you are. I’ve had the feeling of, “I can’t wait to start the new year with this new habit.” Maybe it’s writing. Maybe it’s working out. What happens after a month? It tends to drift, that commitment, that memory, that motivation. That motivation...
How Habit Stacking Works (And How To Start Using It Today)
I’d heard of habit stacking for awhile. Do this one thing and then it leads you into another thing. But I just didn’t get it. As someone who is in the “productivity writing niche” you’d think I’d get a brochure in the mail. Nope, I didn’t. So it wasn’t...
Morning Pages - A Simple Way To Get Unstuck And Reduce Stress
If you are creating art on a regular basis, you are going to get stuck. It’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. You are constantly facing failure on a regular basis. So how do you get unstuck? How do you keep things fresh? One of the best ways is...
How Successful Remote Teams Manage Mental Health
Graphic by acework, 2019. All rights reserved. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” — Wendy Mass Mental health challenges for remote workers In Part I of our Remote Best Practices series, we mentioned how remote and...
How to Stop Being Lazy and Start Taking Action in Your Life
Chalk this up as one of the worst feelings one can have. You know you could do more with your life. In your imagination, everything works out well — you’re productive, your ideas come to fruition, you get things done. In reality, the opposite is true. That’s the...
5 Ways to Use Fear to Get What You Want
It never fails. Every time I launch something new in my business, like this course I’m currently developing, all my doubts and fears come flying to the forefront again, even though can see the infinite possibilities this will open for my clients. The fear pushes aside...
Scarcity Mindset Prevention: A Case Against the Race to the Bottom
And a simple guide to never undervalue and undercharge ever again! Freelancers, unite! You guys! You understand what I’m saying, don’t you? Almost all of us have been there, right? Working for peanuts so we can pay off rent, or cell phone bills, or maybe just buy...
You don’t know what you don’t know.
You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s a riddle challenging every new leader. I wish I’d understood twenty or twenty-five years ago there were ten thousand things I didn’t even know I needed to know. If I’d understood that, I would’ve been a better leader from the...
How to Respond to People Who Don’t Believe In You
Maximizing your potential by minimizing your distractions. I'm pretty sure you can remember a time when someone treated you like you didn’t exist. It made you so upset you didn’t even know how to respond. Like when a person you know questioned your ability to follow...
This Stupid Facebook App Controls My Life
Want to see how much time I spend on my iPhone every day? Four hours and ten minutes on average. LIKE, WHAT?! And a whopping 60–70% of my time is spent on social media. If you want to break it down even further, here it is… This is a problem. I Am Obsessed With...
What the heck is a leadership mantra?
Listen. Sweat. Create. Be kind. Give. This is my personal mantra. Several years ago I thought carefully about picking words to define my best self. These are the words I chose. They represent the things important to me and serve as a day to day reminder of how I want...
How to Turn Surprisingly Small Actions Into Dramatically Better Results
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.Warren Buffett We all want to succeed. We want our hard work to pay off, and we dream of the benefits yet to come. But in the present, we’re consumed by the immediate and the...
The Subtle Reason of Choosing Your Problems
In life, there is no escaping from problems and struggles. Even if you manage to change your current lifestyle, don’t be surprised to find yourself surrounded by an entirely new set of issues and struggles. It’s another matter that context and magnitude of your...
How to Own Your Ambition and Get Want You Want (Without Being Evil)
It’s time to have a serious, even a little confrontational, chat today. I’m going to call you out a little bit, ok? You can take it and it will be worth it. You tell yourself lies to feel better about your lot in life. You almost have to. Otherwise, it would make your...
My Daily Routine in a Tech Company.
Don’t Envy our lives through rose-tinted glasses. I work as a manager for a tech services company based out of India (We are also lovingly called sweatshops, body shops, cost-cutting shops etc.). We are also nicknamed as owls (night-owls, day-owls, twilight-owls,...
How to Move from Limiting Beliefs to Productivity Success
The Ladder to Productivity Success is Only One Step Away What we believe about ourselves and our work deeply impacts our productivity and success. If we believe that we cannot be successful then we will not be successful. However, if we have a desire to be...
This is What You Can Learn from Rebellious Artists
“The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art / project / enterprise is to you — and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.” - Steven Pressfield In 19th century France the success of an artist was dictated by...
Say NO To Things You Don’t Believe In
Without explaining yourself. There will always be something super important ahead of you. Once in a lifetime job offer, you would be crazy to reject, the meeting you must attend or client you have to build a relationship with. The list can go on and on. I have used...
Do you know the Nutbush?
I cannot dance. At every event where there’s dancing, people literally have to drag me onto the dance floor. Once they get me there, I’m so worried about how awful I look, I can’t enjoy myself. But when the Nutbush comes on, suddenly, I’m transformed from Baby in the...
3 Surprising Similarities Between Focus And Other Life Hacks
No wonder people are all over them. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” —Hans Hofmann There is no denying we are living in a world of excess. We have too much of everything from entertainment choices,...
Learn the Importance of Saying a Painful “No”
This week, one of my closest friends asked for my help with a data and communications project that would take a lot of time and collaboration. It’s the kind of project that sadly cannot be done at any time, requires a lot of updating of shared spreadsheets and...
I like my business like I like my coffee… simple.
I bought a Chemex (a.k.a. fancy glass filter coffee maker) in April for two reasons. First and foremost: I was fed up with the limited offering of almond milk around here. It took me 8 months to find a coffee shop offering almond milk. The rest of them so politely say...
7 Ways to Finally Build Habits that Stick
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. — Jim Ryun I am a strong believer that if you manage to build the right habits you will succeed in whatever you do. Establishing habits and sticking to them requires a lot of willpower and dedication....
The Magical Art of Tidying Up Your Whole Life
Several years ago when Marie Kondo wrote her book suggesting all the ways to reduce, fold and organize your “stuff”, many people became absorbed with at least starting to address their clutter. That was good, but I wonder how many people put the same energy into...
It’s Not That You Don’t Have Enough Time In A Day, You Just Don’t Create Enough Of It
Have you ever felt as if there just isn’t enough time in a day to complete what you had set out to do? Have you ever felt as if time is moving too fast? You plan out your day the night before thinking “Ok I have 24 hours to do this.” You wake up the next morning ready...
Productivity Lies We Often Believe (And How To Debunk Them All)
Productivity is a funny thing. And having worked with some of the greatest productivity minds around and written several productivity books, I’ve realized there are a few common lies we all too often believe about productivity. We all want to be more productive...
Taming The Ego
Sigmund Freud wrote a book that changed the Western World: Das Unbehagen In Der Kultur. The English translation is “Civilization and it’s Discontents.” This, in my opinion, does not do justice to what he was trying to say. The German word, Das Unbehagen, is closer to...
5 Brutal Yet Life-Changing Truths You Can Use to Transform Your Life
Ambitious people are a dime a dozen. Most people doubt themselves. All of us — in some shape or form — are stuck in la la land. One of the most difficult yet useful skills is the ability to balance your aspirations with reality. A pessimist and an idealist both miss...
If You Want To Find The Shortcut To Success, You
About a year ago I started listening to podcasts. I subscribed to popular ones such as the Tim Ferris Podcast, Masters of Scale with Ried Hoffman and The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes. I enjoyed listening to their interviews and hearing the stories of wildly...
Why Communication Is So Important for Leaders
Strong communication = Strong Execution. I am sure most of you would remember a game from your childhood called “Chinese Whispers.” Standing in a circle, a message gets whispered from one person to another. When it completes a full circle, the message in all...
What Gets Measured Gets Improved
(my personal systems for tracking self-improvement in all areas of my life) I’m improving all areas of my life. I do this by following daily disciplines connected to the outputs I want to achieve. I track my daily disciplines. In fact, whenever I start a new habit, I...
Chasing Money? Getting Nowhere? Try This Instead!
Chasing money for its own sake distorts your values. You often end up sacrificing too much for it. You may sacrifice your self-esteem, your health, your time, and your reputation. It’s also not uncommon to sacrifice your friendships and relationships. Naturally, when...
Three Universal Habits that Will Make You More Productive at Work
Exercise, meditate and keep a gratitude journal. Say what?!?!?? Yep, these three habits will help anyone become more productive at work, whatever that work is. Of course, if your job is to dig ditches with a spade for eight hours a day, you already get a hefty dose of...
My Wake-Up Routine…
And No, I’m Do Not, Will Not, Shall Not Wake At Dawn! The above is my idea of bliss. Oh to be a cat! To sleep whenever, where ever. Here it is, my awaited morning routine. It’s not mind blowing… rather quite mundane,one might say…But here it is, all the same. Sorry,...
Being Afraid to Lose Will Ruin Your Chances of Success
We all know the daunting feeling that comes with starting — or trying to start — something new. A new profession. Trying out a new hobby. Learning a new skill. Perhaps even writing and publishing a post here on Medium. Whatever it is, the feelings can be overwhelming...
How to Be a Good Boss.
“A good boss is one who walks around you under your hat”. You know the expression, “No one’s perfect.” It’s a good excuse to use when you have no other, as long as you don’t overuse it. Bosses are human, too, so they’re not perfect either. Even the best of them don’t...
How to Stay Focused and Avoid Unwanted Thoughts?
You don’t stay focused by avoidance, you stay focused by keeping your unwavering attention on the task at hand. Thus, first of all, don’t try to avoid unwanted thoughts. Ignore them, acknowledge them, but don’t try to avoid them. That way you only fuel...
Are You Wasting Your Time on Self-Help Books?
This is a sort of follow on from my last piece —We Know What to Do, so Why Aren’t We Doing It?— and something that I have been thinking about lately. Over the past few years, I have read and listened to quite a few self-help books/audiobooks. Popular titles such...
Knowledge Sharing — Why Everyone Should Do It and Encourage It
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it“— Margaret Fuller Everyone was intently listening to him, and I could see the astonishment on their faces. He was not their supervisor. He was not even working there. And he was not called in by their HR to...
The Secrets Other Self-Help Gurus Won’t Tell You (But I Will)
“Trust none of what you hear, some of what you read, and half of what you see”. Nassim Taleb “Trust none of what you hear, some of what you read, and half of what you see”. Nassim Taleb A lot of self-help gurus, for lack of a better word, lie. And there are a number...
How To Solve The Biggest Problems With Fear
FEAR- The four letter word that can make or break a person!! Every year we hear about the increase in suicide rates around the world, and no matter how much we improve our lives in all the fields, still the suicide rates have not yet come down. Suicidal trends have...
Who is holding you back?
It’s easy to identify the trolls. Trolls are people who have nothing good to say. They are the ones who live to stir up anger, rage and sadness. Many of them are unsatisfied with their lives. They are seeking an outlet for attention. They are seeking a stage. ...
The Game of Life
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I am here to support life. This is my new mission statement. I make this stand because I am life, a sentient being among other...
After reading this, you will trade all your money for confidence
I was born shy… Was I actually born shy? Quite literally a tabula rasa. As a young lad growing up, I couldn’t approach a babe. Due to the unanimous standards created by the society, I think I need to be more specific with the use of words like ‘babe’ — I’m...
How to Change Your Life For the Better (Without Having to be Perfect)
I’d snapped. After two years of working as a manager at a video store, I’d finally had it. The pay was bad. The customers were rude. I felt trapped and knew I wanted more. I vividly remembered a day where everything went wrong — a Murphy’s law kind of day....
The personal bars (goals) we set, are they optimal?
How low is low and vice versa. Basically, are we progressing? It’s a no brainer that to grow, it is implicit that a stimulus is needed, for, adjusting to the renewed environment is when we grow. There comes a need for us to unfetter ourselves from complacent cocooning...
How to Become Successful Without Trying Hard At All
Yes, really. According to many, success is predicated on the level of effort you put forth towards being successful. Do I believe in putting forth an effort? Absolutely. Do I believe in developing skills? Of course. But there’s a subtle difference between trying to...
The Art Of Saying No: The Only Client That You Should Give Your All
I got a very seeming juicy deal from a from businessman a week ago. He wanted me to help him handle content strategy for his online store. I was excited at first but later found myself turning down the offer. There was no cogent reason for doing so, but call it...
Don’t Sleep on Your Wins
They say a loss can make or break you. From it, you can either learn, adjust and move forward or lay down, accept defeat and give up. But a win can be equally as devastating on the journey towards your success. You may have seen it happen to someone else...
Powerful lessons from a mouse who wanted to be the Lion
I craved for successI Fantasized of Fame and RichesSuccess bade me goodbye, I looked at Life in his eyesLife responded You can And all I did was procrastinate Opportunities knocked, but I sleptSuddenly I woke up and blamed life for its share of miseriesLife...
No, I Don’t Want to Be Like Them
Defending the beauty in what you bring to the table. aybe you have a favorite movie star, a favorite singer, maybe even a favorite athlete. Most people want to be just like them—whoever they are. They look at every little detail and follow their every move. I’ve done...
10 Rules for Living Your Best Life
This post was originally an answer to this question on Quora — What are your personal 10 Commandments? Get yourself right first — We all want to “change the world,” and have an impact on other people’s lives. It’s honorable. But is it practical? Imagine a world where...
This is What Happens When Inspiration Strikes at 2.00 AM.
It is the flash which appears, the Thunderbolt will follow. At 2.00 AM on a cold rainy night, you get a flash of inspiration…….. You become a reincarnate of Newton. But unlike Newton on whom a shiny apple fell, your inspiration was triggered by a svelte droplet of...
How to Start a Successful Side Hustle and Make $1000/mo or More
A few months ago, a jaguar escaped its cage at a New Orleans zoo and killed six other animals. A few months ago, a jaguar escaped its cage at a New Orleans zoo and killed six other animals. Rightly, no one blamed the jaguar for being a Jaguar. For years, its...
Running your decisions through this filter will change your life.
Late last week I trekked into town, looking for a change of scenery and a boost in productivity. I sauntered into one of my favourite haunts where coffee is on tap and powerpoints are plenty. Unfortunately, productivity alluded me for the first hour of my visit. But I...
New Wine Out of Old Wineskins
I solve most of my challenges and work through hard decisions while I am out running. Therefore, it was no surprise to me that a challenge that I didn’t really think I needed a solution to popped up on a recent run. As I ran, I kept thinking about conversations I had...
10 things that the 2018 Australian Cricket scandal taught me
It’s Summer here “Down Under”- the season of test matches and tennis. I love the sport of cricket. Being raised as an adopted person by parents who were from England and moved to Australia, cricket, along with pot noodles and Yorkshire pudding & HP sauce were...
The Magic Potion that Will Save You From Procrastination
Here is the magic anti-procrastination potion for you: An Ounce of Self-analysis As much as you cannot base your work habits on motivation alone — it’s important to examine your deep desires and follow them. Becoming productive for the sake of productivity will...
Build up your network. Do a little LinkedIn this week.
First, the disclaimer. If you hate social media or at least the social media owned by Facebook, I’m not going to try and convince you otherwise. Read no further. If you’re on Linked In or keep thinking you should be on Linked In, proceed. Linked In, for a lot of its...
Have You Been Living a Disempowered Life?
This morning I woke feeling fed up with my life, my situation, and God. Nothing has been going right for, well, the past 10 years. I’ve tried to remain positive and optimistic with the full expectation that ONE day my life will finally be MUCH better than it’s been....
School Is Absolutely Worthless
I hate school. I think it’s one of the worse institutions established. Since we were old enough to remember we were told that school is the answer to education, acquiring skills, and financial freedom. But in reality, it’s just an organization meant to convince...
How To Be Persistent With Your Goals
Even When the Finish Line Is Hazy Do you find yourself quickly growing frustrated when taking on a new skill or workout routine? Or do you have a goal you’ve been pursuing for years — maybe even since childhood — but still haven’t achieved the results you’ve desired?...
Discovering Moments of Clarity
“On a clear day,” according to Frank Sinatra, “you can see forever.” While we often wait for outbreaks of clear perception, where we understand something deeply from a level of intuitive knowingness, where we effortlessly connect the dots, it may be possible to...
Which Direction of Motivation Do You Have?
My client thought her partner’s lack of interest in buying a new house together was a sign that he wasn’t interested in the relationship, but as it turns out, it was actually a sign that she needed to communicate with him in a different way. She was so excited about...
The Budgeting Crisis For Millennials
According to a poll by NBC News, approximately 3 out of every 4 Millennials have some form of debt. Some would think that a majority of that debt relies heavily on student loans, but rather, to everyone’s surprise, it is credit card debt. So maybe the previous...
Being A Parent AND Pursuing A Dream
When you become a parent, your dreams don’t just disappear. You might want to pursue a new career, become debt-free, get in shape, or maybe even all of the above. But you’re already overwhelmed — how do you pursue a dream while being a parent? Here are five steps you...
This is How You Get Work that Matters Done
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” — Alexander Graham Bell Believe it or not, there’s a good reason lion tamers only use a chair to keep an angry lion at bay. For years, I wondered why an animal...
How Learning Two Languages at the same time Makes it Easier to Learn
I am studying Urdu and Spanish at the same time. On Mondays I have my Urdu class, and on Wednesdays I have my Spanish class. Some people think I am mad doing that. Actually, it’s easier to learn two languages than studying one. Here is why! One Learning a language you...
Happiness: A Deadly Modern Illusion
Why an unhealthy view of success is ruining your drive. hether it’s a job we hope for or a relationship we dream of, happiness is often at the top of our pursuits. We want to feel good about heading into any avenue of our lives. The satisfaction from this sense of...
Conflict and learning not to be afraid: A Leadership Story
No one has ever accused me of being a conflict management guru. I don’t like conflict. I don’t like raised voices and emotional exclamations. I don’t like being involved in conflict and I don’t like having to manage it. Putting my head in the sand would be my...
This is How Your Hustle Can Hurt You
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”- Lao Tzu There’s a prevailing theme of hustle being pushed in our culture. Social media is flooded with words like “grind,” and “crushing it.” Athletes to actors invariably credit their success to spending more...
The Best Way to Learn Anything
Never back down from a mental challenge again. So, you’ve found a nice, comfortable place to read. Peaceful and quiet, you settle down to dig into that new book everyone has been raving about all year. Seconds tick away as the worries of life fade into the shadows. ...
Negative Experiences are Good For You
What a wild ride this life can be. From losing a grandmother in the middle of my first semester of graduate school to having my daughter born six weeks early later in the same year, I’ve been through some rough patches recently. And yet, 2017 was my best year ever....
Being Alive Is Enough Encouragement To Live To The Fullest
Being alive is the meaning Life is the greatest blessing graciously given to me. I am encouraged to live life to the fullest because it is a gift that keeps on giving as long as I express gratitude. At the beginning of each day, I smile at the sun. Being...
How To Create Empowering Habits To Supercharge Your Life
Stop wishing, start doing, and take command of your life “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” — John Dryden How you go about your daily routines ultimately determines the life you live. How can you fill your life with abundance and...
How to Master the Fine Art of After-Work Emailing.
Hint: It is Your Key to Promotion. How to Master the Fine Art of After-Work Emailing. Hint: It is Your Key to Promotion. Image Credits: Pixabay.com We had assembled again for Jack’s party, his third in three years. This time, however, it was bigger and better. The...
Productivity Hacks For Working Moms
Are you a working mom and struggling to get things done or meeting set deadlines? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed and wish for some extra help? Well, as a working mom, I can totally relate. More so, because my children are still little, which even makes the demands...
Unmanaging Emails: Talk is not cheap
This is a personal story about my “Love-Hate” relationship with email. When the first email programmes became commercial round 1976, I was 13 years old. This teenager lived by a river in Australia and spent most of her time on High School, homework, reading, and...
Productivity Hacks Can’t Help You If You’re Doing The Wrong Things
First things first If you’re not working on your goal it doesn’t matter if you’re a Pomodoro expert, or if you know which rocks to put in the jar first or if you’ve downloaded 25 instant productivity apps. None of those productivity hacks will help you if you are not...
Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist
How to quit polishing and start publishing Do you have impossibly high standards? Do you hold back on hitting publish because you just want to polish your draft a little bit more? Do you resist sharing because your writing isn’t quite ready for prime...
How to Gain Clarity in Life and Stop Getting in Your Own Way
Discover the Goldmine You’ve Been Sitting On This Whole Time Why do we keep sabotaging ourselves? Why do we keep making bad choices when, in retrospect, the right choice seems so obvious? The answer lies in clarity. Discover how to gain clarity in life and stop...
Art & Soul Reloaded-A-Long Week 2
Know thy Enemy This is the second week of the series Art & Soul Reloaded-A-Long. For the introduction of this series, see here. It’s time for the second week of the Art & Soul Reloaded-A-Long. How did you do during the first week? Hopefully, you tracked your...
How John D. Stiller Became Poor to Become Rich
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Staring out the heavily tinted glass window of his penthouse suite, John D. Stiller sipped on his third Macallan Scotch this morning. “It is over!” “Malcolm P. Wesson! That little weasel embezzled...
Breakthrough at the Coffee Shop
The tall, imposing middle-aged man with the word “Security” emblazoned on the back of his heavy winter jacket spoke into his shoulder mic. Jess walked past him carrying her steaming cup of coffee, unable to discern what he was saying. She claimed a small table near...
The Most Successful Way to Fail
Getting back up when staying down is more convenient. A few years ago, I was a high school student with a long list of goals. It’s almost insane to think about how fast time has flown. Bright-eyed and excited about what the future had in store for me, I was oozing...
This is How I Became a Better Leader.
And I am still learning. As a newly promoted manager, I had expected my mentor to give me valuable advice, do’s and don’ts and tips’n tricks on how to be an effective leader. Instead, he just handed over to me a bulky well-thumbed book. The Bhagavad Gita “Just...
How to Bounce Back When Life Knocks You Off Balance
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The quote above is from boxing legend Mike Tyson. At the height of his career, he was the most dominating boxer the world had ever saw… Until he wasn’t. He got cocky, stopped training hard, and in a...
This is What I Would Tell My Younger Self
“Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.” — Herbert Henry Asquith I was arguably the worst barista that ever lived. I singled-handedly dashed the hopes and dreams of hundreds of Bay Area coffee lovers. Unsuspecting patrons, young and old,...
The Single Most Powerful Habit For Achieving Your Dreams
The One Thing Wake up, bleary-eyed and in serious need of a coffee. Stumble into the shower and blast yourself with hot water that only makes you sleepier. Some time between your drive to work and lunch you begin to feel like a fully operational human. The work...
3 Reasons Why It Feels You Don’t Do Enough
We’re always busy, running from one place to the other, struggling to finish the endless list of daily tasks. As each day passes, you feel that you could’ve done a lot more in those days. It seems that no matter how much effort you put in, no matter how many...
The 2 Things You Need To Be Successful
I never could help but wonder how did some people achieve success in their lives. Was it blind luck? It just happened that success knocked at their doors? Were their born with a high IQ? Did they know something I didn’t? For so long, I struggled to find the right...
Do you need to Make Some Changes?
Yes, you have to! Insanity is doing the same thing yet expecting different results. If we choose to accept this definition to be the universally accepted definition of insanity, then I can thus say that we all are insane at some points of our life. I assure you that...
Procrastination Station: The End of the Line for All Those Things You Were Going to Do When You Got Around to It.
I have a mile long list of things I want to accomplish: to clean up my office, to organize everything in the kitchen pantry, to write the books I want to write, to take the trips I want to take, to write the letters I should write, to read the books I want to read,...
Dream the Impossible Dream in 2019
What would you do if you had all the love, support, health, vitality, time, talent, money, opportunity, and abundance to do whatever you would like in 2019? What would you do if you had no limitations placed on you and every opportunity you needed to manifest a...
How to Cure Your Laziness and Skyrocket Your Motivation This Year
Chalk this up as one of the worst feelings one can have. You know you could do more with your life. In your imagination, everything works out well — you’re productive, your ideas come to fruition, you get things done. In reality, the opposite is true. That’s the worst...
Forget Food And Water. A Good Night Sleep Is All You Need.
ll sleep when I’m dead! You think an attitude like that is going to help you live longer, that is if you actually want to live longer? I still can’t believe that people think sleeping less and doing more activities is either healthy or it gives them more time and...
2018 in Review: How I turned darkness into lessons and blessings
It’s that time of the year where we all sit down and feel sorry for ourselves because of how much foods and drinks we digested. We instantly feel better when we set our intention to get a gym subscription and kill it during the first month or two before we give up and...
Want to be successful: Then rethink your definition of success
3 useful ideas on how you could define your success The chances are if asked to name 3 successful people you know, what comes to mind are people who are or have been in the public eye. In fact, if you go as far as to Google successful people what comes back is a list...
Why Resolve Dissolves…
Let’s Play Ball! You know the drill. The old year was a disappointment and the new season for change is around the corner. New Year’s Resolutions! They’re back. Now, what do you do? Play ball? Or go with failure’s flow? Choose at your own risk. ‘You’ are at...
What Do You Really Want?
Coasting through life is one of the surest ways to end up feeling bad about something, eventually. At some point you’ll default to saying that you’re comfortable in your life, want for nothing, and want nothing to change. But more often than not those are just lies we...
You Already Have What You Need to Begin
It’s time we ditched the same old excuses. Take a look around and you’ll come across some of the most successful people in the world. They have fame. They have talent. They have it all. It becomes easy to put every one of them in the same box. Characterizing them as...
Success Can Make You Weak
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” — Proverbs 16:18 Last month I wrote my best performing article thus far on Medium. With over 12,000 views, 5,900 reads, and 400 fans, it stands far above everything else I’ve ever written. But...
Mastering time management
Or how to get more done by doing less Most people do time management completely wrong way. I started my business career by developing websites and doing online marketing for local clients in Finland. I remember meeting some of the other web developers and digital...
9 Life-Changing Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re (Really) Ready to Transform
You blink and all the sudden your life isn’t quite where you want it to be. You live your life day to day. Your days are more or less the same. It’s not like you wake up and terrible things happen (although sometimes you do). You have slight annoyances, little moments...
This Is Why Rejection Is Good for You
Change your perception, change your outcome. There are many things we’d rather experience than to be rejected. It doesn’t feel good at all. In fact, it stinks. For some, this means turning away from their pursuits altogether. Settling for the identity of someone...
Inspiration Goes Both Ways
A moment of inspiration can strike when you least expect it. It was a tough day at work. I was annoyed and exhausted from the daily grind. On the way to the gym after my shift was done, I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer I am going to have to work at my...
10 Simple Ways to Make 2019 Your Favorite Year
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,” ~ Winston Churchill. Like many other people, I had given up on goal-setting. I’d set many goals and failed miserably. After every dismal attempt, I lost hope and energy. I was only...
This Moment Now
Wind rustling leaves of trees Birds fighting windy currents, Gray sky dots distant horizons Presence of this moment now. Lonely figure moves in the distance Struggling towards some destination, Bonsai thriving in cold winter wind Nature’s forces sublimely present. My...
How to Achieve 10x Results in 2019 Using This Simple Strategy
You try. Like all of us, you have a goal in your life you’re struggling with. You want to get in better shape, make more money, find more clients for your business, switch careers — the list goes on. What do you do? You set a goal. Your goal is always...
You Don’t Have to Set so Many Goals
The art of leaving room for change. I used to think being productive meant listing a ton of goals for the future. A load of plans had to be visible to my eyes in order to feel as though I was doing something. People who didn’t do this were “lazy” and...
Remove These 7 Obstacles to Have Your Best Year Ever in 2019
Self-help has a great way of firing you up. I bet you often find yourself fired up — especially around New Years — but does it last? You want to add new experiences, new goals, and new circumstances to your life. You’re going to push, strive, and reach for success,...
The Effortless Way to Success
I am a conscious being, but I do not understand consciousness. I see it in myself, and I see it in others, and many times I imagine that everything has consciousness. What I do know about consciousness is elementary. It’s the silent words that speak in my head, the...
How To Find The Inspiration To Go From Good To Great
the magic 1% Do you really need the elusive 1% of inspiration, or is 99% perspiration enough to get the job done? Inspiration is one of those ideas people use to separate artists from the rest of the population. Popular culture shows an artist writing or playing or...
How Wearing Sunglasses Indoors Can Improve Your Energy & Focus
Irlen Syndrome, the little known condition that plagues more people than asthma Alright y’all, listen up. This article is important. We’re going to be discussing a condition that is more common than asthma or heart disease, but few of the people who have it ever...
How This Article Will Change Your Life
Unraveling the Butterfly Effect Our past action inevitably shaped the future outcomes of our lives. Every conscious and unconscious choice you made will alter your life one way or another. But how big can the impacts of a small change be in such a complex environment?...
Develop Mental Toughness
Ever feel an overwhelming urge to put yourself to the test? Those are the feelings I’ve been having so of late. The need to test my limits. Push my mind and body to see how far I can go. Then go some more. 2018 has been a somewhat lazy kind of year...
Dress For Success: Two Reasons Why You Must
What is the first thing people notice when you walk into any room? How you look! You want everything you do and that includes how you are dressed to be the best representation of you. You need to brand yourself the way you want others to see you. Decisions are...
Meaningful connection with people: is it dead?
I always had a weird feeling when I went to school. I could never understand what it was. At first, assumed it might be the fact that I didn’t integrate with the other peers. The more time passed, the more intense that feeling got. It took me 2 years to discover that...
The 5 Psychology Secrets to Help You Say NO
Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best. We have been hearing this advice for a long time. And We all know that we need to say “no,” a lot more than we say “yes.” But we don’t. And we pay the price, with over-cluttered calendars, over-saturated...
The Awesome Power of Listening
When I lived in Virginia, I ran every Saturday morning with a group of other Galloway runners (run/walk method), and one of the other runners decided I needed to finally break the two-hour half marathon barrier. I had gotten close with a 2:00:58 half marathon, but I...
How to Ignite the Fire Inside of You
“Managers light a fire under people. Leaders light a fire in people.” — Kathy Austin Earlier this year, I finished an entire yellow junior legal pad worth of notes from the books I’ve listened to over a couple of months. The ENTIRE THING has notes. I had to look...
Build a Safe and Successful Mobile Office
What do you take with you to work in a taxi, in a plane, in a waiting room or in a medical clinic while you wait? Before you leave, check to make sure you have charged your tablet or phone. And, if you do a lot of working away from your office charge your portable...
How to Make a Dent in the Universe
Bashing self-help is all the rage these days. In 2018 (and beyond) it’s cool to be the nonchalant type who doesn’t care about goals, sees competition as inherently evil, thinks self-help is a charlatan’s game and mocks people who want to improve. Let’s just call a...
Change Your Story, Change Your Life
When you change your inner story, you’ll change your outer story. DG’s family struggled to make ends meet. After his parents divorced, he lived with his father, a construction worker. When money was tight, they lived in homes his father was remodeling. Smaller than...
How to Actually have an Awesome Vacation.
If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation. The ancient Romans were known for their extravagant and decadent banquets. There were multiple courses and loads of wine to be consumed and the feasting lasted all night. The foods that rich Romans...
The Positives Of Thinking Negatively
The world embraces positive thinking and discourages one from having a negative attitude or thoughts. A quick Google search shows pages upon pages of links teaching you how to escape negative thinking. This makes a great deal of sense. Who wants to see a negative...
How to be a Good Critic
Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots. What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: ABCDEF? It is FEEDBACK However, feedback is a double-edged sword. A positive...
Paying Attention to Details
Stop moving so fast. “The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.” —Charles R. Swindoll Life can get pretty busy. Each day holds a new challenge, stretching us in ways we didn’t think were possible. With every task...
How to Reach the Right People
What I learned about marketing after trying to do too much Do you want to win over the world? That’s the dream we buy into when we have something to say or sell. It’s appealing to have an office 10 feet from your bed. The thought of having my car’s tires...
Make Your Purpose A Part Of Your Life
The purpose of life is a life of purpose Do you wake up each day dreading the idea of spending another day at work? You might even feel the need to be a part of something bigger and more meaningful. If you’ve failed to discover and build your life around...
Master Your Focus Wisely. It will make you Happy and Attractive
Find out about the many benefits that mastering your focus has Where focus goes, energy flows. — Tony Robbins Are not you tired of multitasking? I’ve noticed that the more I try to multitask, the more my life becomes a blur. For a long time it was my firm...
How Do I Keep Losing Me?
Seriously, where has me been going? (+Gratitude) It happened again. I finished the project. I didn’t let up at the end and allow my momentum to fizzle out leaving another unfinished project on a dusty pile of broken dreams. I Even Knew What I Was Doing Next I...
The Blue Square of Homelessness Continues!
I have just listened to an article on the radio about homelessness. The guest was explaining why he felt it was good to give money to people who are begging. It reminded me of a blog post that I wrote in March. Homeless Blue Squares! - Rachel DodmanAs I write this, I...
10 things you should do to end (and start) the new year strong and inspired for success
Position yourself for success in the new year by taking a few vital steps now! “You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.” ― John Irving As you might have already noticed, most people are in their ‘autopilot end...
How to Let Haters Make You Stronger
The more you create and share online, the more likely you are to encounter people that disagree with you. And sometimes they are quite rude about it. We all have those comments from time to time. I’ve had my fair share, and I expect to get more. The first left me...
How to Succeed in Today’s Ultra Competitive Job Market
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.- Steve Jobs Everybody wants a rewarding job. We all want to make a lot of...
5 Simple Ways to Boost Productivity
The key to achieving insane levels of productivity is motivation, the phenomenal experience that drives you towards achieving your goals. And the science behind motivation is dopamine. So find a way to hack your dopamine and you boost your productivity automatically....
How to Be a Likable Person without Compromising Who You Are
If there was any skill you wish you could improve on, what would it be? Your jump shot? Honing in on your eye for photography? What about that F-major chord that looked so easy to play online? Chances are, you didn’t consider your ability — or inability — to listen....
Why we Spend endless hours on Social Media
Pull down the mask! We are found in an era where it almost feels like we are living two lives. We have our normal life which we live in and we have the social media life! In recent times, I have come to realize that some people tend to focus more on their social media...
A Little Book For The Tired And Overworked
“You don’t really go home, do you, Fred?” Mike, my colleague, asked me. “Yes I do,” I replied. “Come on, admit it, you sleep in the office.” “What, no way. I went home late last night and I came early this morning.” “O my Lord, do you even sleep?” Mike asked. “A...
7 Psychological Superpowers Few People Have (That You Can Use to Set Yourself Apart)
“Tell me where I’m going to die so I never go there.” The sentence above describes a superpower few people have. It’s one I’ve only been able to exercise ten percent of the time, but that ten percent creates most of the positive results I get in my life. What’s the...
You are Not Your Social Media Profile
What you see on my profile is in no way an adequate description of who I am. I mean, c’mon, I only get 200 or so characters in my bio, and that picture is tiny. Whatever you think of the people you meet on social media, and whoever you think they are, is...
How to Change Your Outlook and Reframe Your Perspective
Even if You Can’t Change Your Circumstances Maybe you can’t change your circumstances, but you can always change your attitude regarding your circumstances. Sure, sometimes you do need to make drastic changes when it comes to your health, career, or living situation....
How you can change in desperate times
We always want to strive for what’s best for us. There is nothing wrong with having the desire to have what’s the best, for you and for your family. Whatever the circumstances might be, to improve in your life, change has to be persistent. People will often...
Why that thing you are avoiding is robbing you and others
I kept avoiding it. I knew what I was doing, but it’s easy to convince yourself of almost anything. The problem was, this thing I was avoiding, became a roadblock to even starting a certain project. The real issue was that I knew that I had to have a...
Leadership Style: What does your leadership style say about you? What doy ou want it to say?
There are leadership skills and leadership styles. Your skills inform your style, but your skills are more definite and discreet. Your style is more how you’re defined, how you take your skills and use them to lead. Your style can end up being your reputation…how...
3 Simple Steps to Build Your Life’s True Vision
Sometimes, life seems so stagnant. You find yourself in this mundane routine. Everything you do is just to get by, just so you can say “I did it” and move on. Without clarity, this situation will stay unchanged. But if you’re reading this article, then you have a...
4, 3, 2, 1 — Happy New You!
It’s a brand new year “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve...
5 key takeaways to improve the performance of your newly launched call center
Efforts to improve call center operations are based on your business goals, which also effects labor efficiency, and reduced operating costs. But as a matter of fact, call centers are not built to serve managers, but they mainly serve customers and agents communicate...
How to Have a Better relationship With Your Phone
“Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives.” -Steven Spielberg What kind of friend would your phone be if you were to describe it as an actual person? Take just a second, pause whatever you’re doing right now...
Why I Stopped Revealing my Salary
Judge me by my Expertise, and not by my Salary Some time back, I was taking interviews of some candidates, for filling a crucial position within my organization. I finally zeroed on an amazing candidate who was a “superstar” in every respect. He was a technical whiz...
7 Surefire Ways to Lead a Miserable & Unsuccessful Life
“All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.” — Charlie Munger In 1986, philanthropist, investor, and vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, delivered a commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard University. The...
The Benefits of Finding Followers and Sharing Info
I know, many of the “experts” will say gaining tons of followers on various SNS is about as productive in the long run as being high school homecoming royalty. They will say that focusing on followers that are also “true fans” of your work is what really counts. And I...
Living Successfully With Screwed-Up People
By Elizabeth B. Brown There is no doubt that life is hard for some people, maybe for all. Sometimes the resolution of others to their problems can project on our own life, and most of the time those people are the ones who surround us, we care about, and we share...
Do You Want to Move Mountains? Get Up and Move Yourself
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” -Confucius I live in an area surrounded by mountains. Of the over 10,000 days of my life so far, I’ve observed the majesty and dominion of these mountains most of those days. I’ve hiked these...
The 1 Journal You Need To Become The Master Of Your Minutes
Everyone has 1,440 minutes in a day. It’s enough time to accomplish great things, or waste it away on social media, video games, or entertainment. How will you use your 1,440 minutes? When you manage your time well, you will: Get more done at home and at work Create...
Natural Freedom
Strong feelings of peace and love Pervasive warmth in my spirit, Not sure from where they come Just enjoying pleasant sensations. Waves washing through my heart Unexplained but deeply felt, Calmness as this day progresses Beauty in still blooming flowers. Nature’s...
Why Can’t I Get Everything Done?
Recently I was asked to help a collegue get her work/life schedule in order. The best system I know about is the Getting Things Done, GTD, approach. Since she is a, “ just give me the facts” sort of a person, I developed a lite version of the GTD system. The barebones...
Set Yourself Free in 17 Seconds or Less
Diving Into The Deep End When I first started transitioning from daydreaming to goal-setting, I felt like I’d fallen into quicksand. I was just overwhelmed: too many goals, and no strategy. I felt like a drowning person, flailing around. Too soon, the time I’d set...
I’m Grateful For The Little Things That Save Me Every Day
November is the month to be grateful. We’re reminded of that every Thanksgiving. We have a special day set aside just for that purpose — we celebrate that day with our family or close friends. What am I grateful for you ask? I’m grateful for Eduoard Benedictus. Who...
You Don’t Have to Be Good At It – You Just Have to Do It
How to get through the last few days of NaNoWriMo, no matter what. It came to me as it always does when I am approaching the end of NaNoWrimo: the dreaded 35,000 word slump. For some reason, 35,000 words is always the point I reach before I start getting tired of my...
How to be a Fantastic Leader When You Aren’t the Leader
Leadership is a CHOICE, not a title. My first GURU in my corporate life was not my manager. In fact, he was not even my superior in any sense. He was just a developer like me starting out, trying to establish a foothold in the dicey, turbulent world of the software...
The One Personal Quality You Need In Order to Have a Successful Relationship
Do you wake up to your spouse/partner every morning and reach for them beside you, feeling intense relief that they are there? Do you long and yearn to have them around you 24/7 in order to maintain your own happiness? Are your moments throughout the day completely...
You Don’t Need Permission – Start Building Your Dream Now
If only, you say to yourself. If only you could make your dreams a reality. They may be small hopes, like seeing your favourite artist play live. Or they may be huge, like attending the premiere of the film version of your novel. Your dreams have the feeling of...
How To Attract True Love
“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.” — Ivan Panin LOVE — that elusive emotion that captures our hearts, minds, and imagination! We all...
Making the Impossible Possible
As I was reviewing my first ninety days in my current position it began to dawn on me that the quotas I was required to hit were going to be nearly impossible. I stepped into a position where I thought there were some established processes in place and that it was...
Procrastination My Very Worst Enemy And My Greatest Mentor
Procrastination is without a doubt the ultimate enemy of success. If you ask any entrepreneur, successful, wealthy, or educated person, they would all tell you so. The chances of you doing something today is far greater than that of tomorrow if none all at! If you...
Don’t Follow Traditional Medium Advice – Stretch Beyond Your Niche
I’m like you, I want to be a better writer. Also, like you, I read articles by writers better than myself because I’m looking to learn. I’ve read countless points of advice for being a better writer and blogger. One thing I’ve read consistently was pick one niche (or...
How Acceptance Helps in Achieving Freedom and Real Happiness
“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” ― Amy Bloom As we grow older and more immersed in the how’s and why’s of the world, stability and peace of mind grow increasingly important. ‘Adulting,’ a term we often use with a pinch of...
You Worry and Waste Time Until you take Action
Nothing is under your control so take a deep breath and relax! Relax life happens Why worry about things you cannot change? You cannot stop time ticking, the morning will come whether you want it or not. The dreaded moment of standing up in front of many people and...
Where can I park? Lateral thinking.
Recently I saw an instant application of lateral thinking. It works in situations were vertical thinking doesn’t provide an answer. “Lateral thinking seeks to get away from the patterns that are leading in a definite direction and to move sideways by re-forming the...
What I learned today: real time leadership stories
There are small leadership lessons in almost every day. Most won’t be profound. Most will be reminders of things strong leaders are supposed to be doing. The list of leadership skills, responsibilities and strategies is long and sometimes feels unmanageable (to me...
When Nothing is Working: How to Transform Your Perspective
Simple Mindset Shifts and Actions You Can Take Today Do you feel like you’ve read every self-improvement book out there, applied all the tips, and still, nothing sticks? I’ve been there. Recently I heard an interview with Neale Donald Walsch, author of the...
“If Only:” The Saddest Words You Will Ever Hear
Life is like a broken dish — you can’t un-break it. Today, I stand on the parapet of the future with decades behind me, and what is now a limited number of years left to achieve my dreams. There are millions like me. We look back on our lives and see all the wrong...
The Self Help Advice From the Guy Who Really Needs Help
Have you ever been reading one of those self help books and you think to yourself “yeah, easy for you to write about how to overcome and succeed, you’re writing this on your yacht in the middle of the ocean because I’m stupid enough to buy your book” and then you hurl...
How My Productivity Obsession Helps Others
And Today, I Would Like To Help Change Your Productivity One year ago, I was stressed out and in the depths of struggle with work. I can remember it clear as day. Waking up early one Saturday morning and feeling terrible. My dreams were haunted by my day job and my...
9 Things Successful People Never Do
“No amount of experimentation can prove me right. One experiment can prove me wrong.” Albert Einstein. At least I think the quote is from Einstein. I Googled it. And who cares if the quote originally came from Einstein or not. You people who write posts about quote...
Warren Buffett’s 2-List Strategy To Prioritize And Focus
Maximize your focus and master your priorities Warren Buffett is famous for being incredibly wealthy and giving good advice. One of Buffett’s most famous pieces of advice is commonly referred to as the 2-List Strategy or the 25:5 List Strategy. It’s simple, but...
8 Ways To Deal With A Job You Don’t Like
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle” — Steve Jobs Sooner or later, it’s something we all face, a job we just can’t stand. It might be the job itself, the corporate environment, or the boss....
What You Can Learn From a Scared Kid Who Conquered his Fears
When you were a kid were you scared of something? Whether it be monsters hiding in your closet or that scary clown you got for Christmas who sits in the corner of your room. Fear expert Michael Telch tells us “Fear is the body’s alarm system — it’s an innate emotional...
Is Life Purpose Overrated? No – Here’s Why
“We can’t ALL just do whatever we want all day. If everyone followed their highest purpose in life, who would run the gas station? Who would collect the trash? Who would serve you at a restaurant? Who would repair your septic tank? There are people in this world that...
Think And Grow Rich The Great Secret That We All Possess
or millennium humanity was no different than your average everyday pet. We took orders without question, worked literally like a slave, hunted and gathered our food just like any other wild beast, and eventually faded into nothingness. Today can be said the same yet...
Take Off Your Team Jersey
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche The crowd cheers as...
Are You Settling for Second Best in the Game of Life?
How to Get Back on Track Do you find yourself just trying to get through the day? As much as I talk about living in the present, I don’t always practice what I preach. These last few weeks, I’ve been operating purely in reaction mode. My ever-growing list of...
Things I learned from the Ninja Turtles
My childhood was chaotic to say the least. But there was one thing I could always count on. And that was Saturday morning cartoons. My favorite, as you might be able to guess from the title of this article, was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I learned many life...
I Crossed 5000 Followers for the First Time
And This is What I learned on the way. 5000 followers do not appear like a big deal. But it is not a small number also. And it took me a little less than 2 years and more than 800 articles to reach the figure. But more than the stats, the sinusoidal curve was a...
How To Find The Thing That Gets Your Blood Racing, Your True Passion
A feeling that no words can describe What exactly is a ‘life passion,’ you ask? Passion: an “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling of conviction.” That might be the dictionary definition, but in reality, it’s hard to define “passion” because it’s a feeling that...
A Useful Perspective On Your Greatest Goals
Goals are meant to give us a direction in life, right? Without them, how could we carve a path in all this mess? We always must have an end-goal, something we strive for every day. Go to the library and get any self-help book. Chances are you’ll stumble upon pieces of...
Picture What Is Possible…Using Old Tools to Get New Results
Now is the Perfect Time to Strategize for 2019 “It is a universal principle that you get more of what you think about, talk about, and feel strongly about.” –Jack Canfield Recently my company offered to help us put together a plan and a vision for 2019. They urged us...
How a parent’s affection shapes a child’s happiness for life
We all live busy, stressful lives and have endless concerns as parents, but it is clear that one of the most important things we need to do is to stop and give our kids a big loving squeeze. Research over the past decade highlights the link between affection in...
How Can Art Battle Against Human Trafficking?
A look at the first 5 days of creative art in YELLOW. For the past 5 days I have drawn a picture to go with a prayer scripture. One every day. And the pictures had to be in yellow. Yes — yellow. I am advocating against human trafficking working with IJMCanada...
A Guide to Self-Improvement with Zero Self-Sabatoging
Moving forward without beating yourself up It’s frustrating when your personal development journey doesn’t come to the destination you expect it to be. The reason solely lies on the fact that a wrong mindset in self-help scenario has been so wide-spread than ever....
10 Ways to Become the best Father in the world
Life just keeps getting busy and as a result of that, many more families are broken and many more kids are getting frustrated as a result of that. In this article, I take a deep dive as to how you can become a more loving and understanding father. Just follow me along...
5 Productivity Hacks That Will Change Your Work Life
Life is honestly hard. It’s full of so many chores that have to be done and errands that need to be run. You can attest to the fact that most at times, most of these activities stand in the way of the stuff you actually want to do. If you’re feeling burnt out due to...
Just be now,
please Before your mind starts shaking head no, Before the past starts lecturing, Before the future starts speculating. Just BE now! Before you have time to check, Before your hair looks perfect, Before the straitjacket starts feeling comfortable again. Just BE...
This is What Happens When You Stop Thinking You’re Better than Everyone
Humility is the solid foundation for all virtues.” — Confucius Several years ago, I sat in the gallery of a New York courthouse. I watched as two attorneys pelted groups of twelve with questions as a stoic judge looked on, perched from her bench. It was only the...
Everything Happens For You, Not To You
I’ve recently become a personal-growth coach, and one of the concepts that I teach is how to change your mindset. So when I stumbled upon this quote from Byron Katie on Brooke Castillo’s, The Life Coach School podcast, I was in complete awe. I absolutely LOVED this...
The Benefits Of Public Speaking And Learning How To Do It Successfully
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy” — Jerry Seinfeld...
Love or Career – How to Make the Right Choice
Love and career can go hand in hand with a little effort She was Smart. She was ambitious And she knew she will have an amazing career. But she was also a diehard romantic who also wanted love in her life. Then he got transferred to Detroit (a no-option transfer. Go...
6 Qualities Everyone Should Possess
When I was growing up I heard numerous examples of people bragging about how much money they made or how many women they slept with. Everyone it seemed had a big mouth and love to brag and brag. I admit that I started to look up to these individuals and believed what...
How To Make Money With YouTube
“To me, YouTube isn’t just, ‘Watch my videos!’ It’s, ‘Let’s have a conversation and get involved in each other’s lives.’ I want to make [my fans] feel like they have a reason to have a YouTube account because they can comment and have a voice” — Shane Dawson You may...
Done Is Better Than Perfect
The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt. Sylvia Plath They say that everyone has a novel inside them. Maybe you know someone who is hard at work on theirs. You read their comments online or chat with them at an event. They tell you they’ve been working on it for a...
Self-Reliance: Necessary for the Future?
“The best lightning rod for your own protection is your own spine.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Being self-reliant these days is beginning to disappear. I mean you have many people receiving some sort of paycheck or subsidies. According to the US Census Bureau data released...
This is Where You Go to Practice Mindfulness
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. — John Muir” Japan’s innovation and unique pop culture have drawn globetrotters and backpackers the world over. The “Land of the Rising Sun,” has introduced everything from leading-edge technology to...
Assumptions: Making an Ass Out of U and Me
Drawing Conclusions Without Enough Evidence We make assumptions every day. We assume the world will keep on turning and that the sun will rise every day. Assumptions like these are based upon a lifetime of experience, but sometimes we make assumptions which we accept...
Are You Controlled By Your Emotions? 7 Signs That Say You Are
“Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves” — Carl Sagan Do you control your emotions or do your emotions control you? Everyone likes to think they have control over their emotions, but there are plenty of common signs that show that it’s quite...
Conflict Resolution: The Truth is in the Middle
Fair judgment in conflict resolution is one hallmark of solid leadership. Conclusions about right and wrong should be determined thoughtfully and without haste. I have short-circuited balanced and fair responses because I didn’t know what I needed to know. When a snap...
The Power of My Ponytail
Finding My Mojo After Sickness and Anxiety I have to admit, with full disclosure, that I have given up workouts over the past few weeks. I know what all the fitness people are going to say; “But it’s so good for you” “You will have more energy” “Your body will thank...
How To Look Confident Even When You’re Nervous
Self-confidence is the most attractive quality a person can have. How can anyone see how great you are if you can’t see it yourself? Confidence gives you an advantage in any situation. “With confidence, you have won before you have started” — Marcus Garvey You’re more...
What does it mean to “be present”?
How this phrase has changed over time and what we can do about it I’m lucky that, as an English teacher, I’m exposed to books that cover a full spectrum of genres, styles, and subject matter. In one class, we just finished Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. In another,...
Be VERY SELECTIVE when choosing a Seller on Fiverr!!
Yesterday I was beyond frustrated…. With a seller I had been “working” with. After several attempts to get what I had ordered, a few simple designs for my shirts, I was thinking I may well need a lobotomy. I will say, however, that customer support is great and very...
This is What Happens When You Take Dumb Interviews
You’ve gotta understand — when you interview a candidate, it’s not an interrogation. Sometimes you learn the harshest life lessons from the unlikeliest of sources And you never ever forget those lessons throughout your life. Some time back I was in the process of...
The Life-Changing Magic of “Flow” – Why Getting in the Zone May be the Key to Happiness
Happiness is a lie. At least the version of happiness where we’re all content one hundred percent of the time, feel no pain and get to spend our days enjoying stress-free leisure. Of course, we all know such happiness doesn’t exist, but we dream of experiencing it,...
How To Make Money With Your Passion
You might have heard of others enjoying a fun and fulfilling career related to their passion. They get to spend their time at work doing things they like! What about you? Do you feel as if you’re chained to a job you loathe? Do you dream of making money with your...
Why Not Leave Things to Chance?
I can’t call myself too responsible but a person eagerly aspiring to happiness — well, yes. And sometimes it happens that you lose yourself in daily routine, obsessing about whether this or that task is completed. Why do you do this? In this case I don’t believe that...
Want to get over it? Go through it.
Sometimes you have to go through the pain, to experience the joy. -Danity Kane Life is full of messy things. Really messy things. Sometimes we make our own mess. And other times the mess is made by someone else, sometimes even without our knowledge. Nonetheless life...
Everything You Want Lives Just Outside Your Comfort Zone
I want to make a bet with you. I want to bet that there are things in your life right now that you haven’t achieved, but would like to. I want to bet further that I know where these things not yet achieved, let’s call them aspirations, live. They live in a place just...
The Day lost my Most Creative Employee
And I stifled his Creativity. I am a manager by profession and a developer at heart. And having risen up from the position of a junior developer, I prided myself in knowing about each and every nuance of the developer “species”; their fears, their sorrows, their...
What a One-Year Sabbatical Can Do for a Family
A person sure can learn a lot in a year! As I’m looking at the calendar, I have mixed emotions as I realize that my year-long sabbatical from banking is about to come to an end. At once I am: amazed at the things that I’ve been able to accomplish, critical of myself...
How to Write Your Own Success Story
Everyone wants to be a success in both their personal and professional lives. In order to attract success, however, you have to be an active player in your life. After all, you can’t sit on the sidelines and expect everything to fall in place. So are you willing to...
This is How You Become Liberated by Your Insignificance
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” — Mark Twain “Everybody thinks they’re so damn important,” a friend once told me. For a long time, I was one of those people. I still am from time to time. Like...
Be A Creator Not A Consumer - That’s Crappy Advice
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” The Book of Ecclesiastes Every once and a while you’ll start hearing a recurring theme work its way around the internet....
This Is The Right Time To Fire A Client
A couple of months ago, I fired a client. Not in the ‘come into my office, I’ve got some bad news’ style of firing either. No, it was short and to the point. I effectively said, ‘I’ll refund your money, don’t contact me again’. I was paid to run a marketing campaign...
7 Ways to Catch Your Dream
t’s Time to Release that Emergency Brake Holding You Back My grandparents must have had the steepest driveway in the entire state of New Jersey. Ascending it as a child sitting in the back seat seemed like climbing Mt. Everest. I mean the car was practically vertical...
5 Simple and Scientifically Proven Ways To Strengthen Your Marriage
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person” — Mignon McLaughlin You can have an amazing relationship with your partner that withstands challenges and the test of time. You can make your marriage more enjoyable, rewarding,...
This is What Happens When You Get Conned in a Foreign Country
“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.” — George R.R. Martin “After a few blocks, we had to stop to catch our breath because we were laughing so hard,” my father once told me. He was recounting his time living in Tokyo in the late...
7 Insanely Useful Productivity Tactics to Use Today
And Why My List of 21 is Helpful, But Outdated “You are a leader in any office or environment you are a part of with our company. You have shown how to see your faults and opportunities and learn to turn them into strengths,” my supervisor said during my mid-year...
Money Don’t Matter 2 Night: In Conversation With Prince
Rethinking Our Relationship With Money I usually listen to music in the background while I write, more for the emotion than the lyrics. But this song by Prince & the New Power Generation stopped me in my tracks. The song is “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night.” Like most...
How To Become a Better You, Even If You’re Already Great
Examining yourself it a little more closely so you can enrich your life in ways you wouldn’t have thought possible… Lots of “better you” articles start from the assumption that you’re a pathetic wreck marooned in a sea of troubles. Now, this might be exactly the case...
5 Productivity Blockers and How to Fix Them
Yes, this is “one of those lists”. But it’s short and sweet, and I’m sure you’ll find yourself falling into at least one of these traps once a day. Food Photo by Nielsen Ramon on Unsplash Don’t eat while your working, it’s as simple as that. Opting for “desk-lunch”...
ill-prepared
We mistakenly teach children that when they do what they are supposed to, things work out, or rather “bad things” don’t happen. I think that’s the biggest fallacy. I lost my first job after college. I did what I was supposed to do. Came to work on time, was a team...
Is chasing your dream at all cost worth it?
A recent US news about a TV actor who graduated from Yale University. When he was young, he gave up his high-paying job and chase his dream. In recent years, there has been no more TV show for him. Then he work as a supermarket cashier and get noticed by his peers....
Did You Leave Something in Your Cart?
This is a regular email heading in my inbox. I am a self-titled “chronic cart filler” for online purchasing. Our world, in all of its brilliant marketing and promotion, feeds on human impulses. It feeds on our need for instant gratification, last-minute spending and...
This is What Putting on Your Socks Can Teach You About Life
“It all begins with the socks”, he said, “Success begins from the ground up”. — John Wooden Those familiar with famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden may already know how he traditionally ran his first practice of the season. As fresh-faced and spry 18-year old...
High-Functioning Autism and Fulfilling Life: Are They Compatible?
The story of my day Today has been one of those days which I call “the hard time of an aspie” (that is, a person who suffers from Asperger syndrome — a mild form of autism). To begin with, I’m a very careful, cleanly, and neat girl — and I’m proud of it. I like these...
When You Go Through Something Hard, Great Things are Just Around the Corner
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca 2017 was rough for me. Really rough… I started graduate school classes while working full time. I unexpectedly lost a grandmother. I experienced the worst depression...
Understanding your Daily Minimum Effort: The key to making time for self-care
This week, I’ve had to drag myself out of bed every day. Sitting down to write — in fact, sitting down to do any work related task, has been a monumental effort. My motivation is at an all-time low. Earlier this week, I realised I likely created this situation by...
How To Use A Virtual Assistant To Market Your Business And Make Your Life Easier
“You have more important business decisions to focus on, rather than worrying about admin!” — Rebecca Morrison “You can do anything, but not everything” — David Allen It’s not easy trying to conquer the business world solo. How many times have you wished you had a...
I Once Was A King
You don’t need tons of money to feel like a King. Coming from where I came from, I wasn’t supposed to have nice things. No fancy clothes, no expensive cars, not even a remote sign of success. That wasn’t supposed to be in the cards for someone like me. Things Changed...
Stop Burdening Yourself with Unnecessary Ideals
It’s Okay If You're Not Feeling Well-Mannered There’s a development related process in psychology. It takes place during our childhood. When we’re kids, we’re egocentric. Till the age of at least four to six. After that, we turn into social animals. Allocentric...
This is What You Learn from Taming a 500-Pound Lion
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” - Alexander Graham Bell As a kid, I wondered why lion tamers only used a chair to keep an angry lion at bay. At nearly 500 pounds, the animal clearly has the...
10 Ways to Make an Extra $1,000 Each Month In Your Free Time
“There are no downsides to a side hustle. There are only benefits to building more than one source of income.” — Forbes Most of us only dream about making a 6 or 7 figure income a year, but the reality is that most of us would be equally chuffed to make just another...
The Three Scientific Reasons You Shouldn’t Check Your Notifications
It’s a psychological dependency that’s ruining your day. There are three reasons you shouldn’t check your notifications. All three are bad, and all three are avoidable by the simple expedient of not checking our phones. But this is hard. Why? First, you’re paying one...
Why You’ve got to endure a little bit more!
Our lives are a giant puzzle. Each piece on it own makes no sense but when all the pieces are put together, it makes a very beautiful picture. some of the pieces that make up the puzzle are big while others are very small. If you have ever tried to solve a puzzle, you...
How to recover when you lose momentum with your goals
We’ve all been there. We set a goal, start crushing it, then lose momentum. Sometimes it’s because we weren’t clear on the goal, to begin with. Other times, life happens and you need to deal with it. For instance, I had a clear goal for the month of September. Then a...
7 Things You Should Care Less About
“It never ceases to amaze me: the things people care about” — Marty Rubin Some things are worthy of your attention and concern. Others are not. Spending too much mental energy on the wrong things can move you further away from happiness and contentment. Making these...
Is entrepreneurship like firing a rifle?
My first crack at entrepreneurship was like learning to fire a weapon while someone’s shooting at you. I learnt my lessons on the battlefield, the most significant being this: Climbing over the top of the trench and charging as hard as you can is NOT a recipe...
The Most Powerful Keys To Self-Motivation That Will Help You Achieve The Life You So Deserve
Would you like to use the power of your mind to motivate yourself to pursue your life goals to fulfillment, irrespective of the challenges life throws your way? Would you like to discover some powerful techniques that will absolutely help you gain the motivation to...
Unlock Your Creativity, Avoid The Dementors
“Stay away from negative people, they have a problem for every solution.” — Albert Einstein I have a simple rule in life. Avoid people that bring you down. Using this rule has helped me a lot in life, so far. For instance, right after graduation I decided to ignore...
The Gift of Failure: Simple Steps to Win at Losing.
I’ve been thinking about failure a lot lately. Specifically, rejection. It’s probably got something to do with the fair share of it popping up in my inbox. The last few weeks, its wince and brace every time my email refreshes. I know it’s probably to be expected....
I Tried Four Bizarre Productivity Tips So You Don’t Have To
I know I’m not the only one out there who googles ‘best productivity tips’ in my free time but then does nothing to change my lifestyle. Anyone else? Put your hands up. But, in the middle of a self-improvement kick, I came across this list. I had also recently read...
Rise and Shine!
How to Get Up Early, Have a Miracle Morning and Improve Yourself Sounds great, and it is. Getting up early is difficult — and good Nowadays I’m getting up early. Okay, don’t think too much of it. It’s not that I’m waiting at five o’clock next to my bed in a yoga pose...
Why You Might Want to Give Up Social Media
yourself what, if anything, social media is adding to your life? Maybe it’s a great way to connect with others, but just maybe it’s a poor substitute for interacting with others in a more meaningful way. How do you use social websites? Consider these ideas when...
Yes, You Can Know What Skills Your Children Will Need In The Future
4 Soft Skills that Will Prepare Them via GIPHY Some things in life are not as mysterious as we often make them. Yes, the world is changing quickly, but that doesn’t mean we suddenly have no idea how our kids will be able to succeed in the future. What we need to...
When Are We Ever Ready To Do Anything?
Why do we believe that perfection works for us when it doesn’t? Listening to a radio programme recently, a caller was talking about how they had been preparing to have children for a few years and that now they were ‘ready’. It was all part of their plan. Another...
What a 2500-Year Old Book Can Teach Writers About Avoiding Distraction
“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” — P.J. O’Rourke In Homer’s epic poem, Odysseus orders his men to plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the ship’s mast in order to suppress his urge to listen to the seductive...
Why Monday is Not Just Another Day
Monday is a hard day only for those, who perceive it negatively. Well starting from the good wishes and loads of positive vibes to you and if you are reading this from your office desk on Monday Morning in search of some super motivational piece of content, you came...
Be the Best Leader: Demonstrate Respect
A cornerstone of effective leadership is the demonstration of respect. It sounds so easy. Lead well. Got it. Be respectful. Got it. But day in and day out the personalities and priorities of your team members mingle and sometimes collide. Varying degrees of expertise,...
You Don’t Have To Wake Up Early To Be Successful
You have to do right thing at the right time. While bidding goodbye to 2017, I made a commitment to make 2018 the best year so far. I wrote down huge goals, backed with super-detailed plans including all the actionable steps, routines and mindsets I needed to develop...
The honest truth about the self-help section in the bookstore
Don’t just read the pages, BE the pages. Do you remember the first moment you checked out the self-help section in a bookstore? Do you remember how crazy you were thinking about buying every book on the shelf after a really good one? Do you remember the first time you...
How to stay Motivated in a Job?
I have already chosen to do Job!!! So now my only Job is to at least Stay Motivated!!! It’s not at all a bad thing to do any job, but really bad if I do it whole my lifespan. But for the sometime of my lifespan in which I am doing the job, I should do it very honestly...
13 Powerful Quotes That Will Help You To Build Courage And Realize All That Is Good In Your Life
Motivation is certainly an all-important piece of life’s conundrums. The motivational quotes below can help you to build courage and travel towards your life’s goals. They can help you through the challenges and give you the encouragement you need to realize all that...
How to Start and Stick to your Dreams
The reality of following through to your Dream How do you start something? How do you actually start a business? How do you start writing your book? How do you start doing things you’ve always wanted to do? In today’s world, you get lost in the information available...
To Have a Better Life Focus on Where You’re Going, Not on Where You’ve Been
Has a movie ever changed your life? In October 2014 Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar was released. I saw it at least 10 times in theaters. It made me giddy like a little kid again. I love every part of that movie. The music, the actors and actresses, the effects, and...
Taking Time Off
Once again, I’m taking time away from certain social media sites in order to concentrate on other things. Some folks have labeled this my ‘digital detox’, something that is apparently a thing now among the hip crowd. Problem is, it’s not a detox OR a trendy thing I’m...
Why Chasing Perfection Is A Pointless Pursuit
When I was growing up, I always used to think perfection was something to strive for. I wanted to get 100% in my exams. I wanted to be the best footballer player I could be. I wanted to be the best at everything. To be perfect. As I failed to achieve these targets, I...
Beating Burnout When You Feel You Can’t Go On
Everyone feels burned out sooner or later. It’s a challenging thing to manage, since you feel that you’ve already done everything you can do and completely tapped your resources. But it’s likely that you can manage what’s happening in your life. We’re good at making...
Effective and Powerful Strategies to Deal With Difficult People
Who is that one person who gets on your last nerve? Who is the difficult person that, no matter what you do, you cannot avoid him. We all encounter difficult people — at home, at work, at church, in our neighborhoods, in life! What do we need, as followers of Jesus,...
How to Confront: Overcoming The Fear of Anger
Use anger wisely to get what you want. It was 9 PM. My boss called me. He raised his voice. I immediately lowered my voice and spoke softly. I’d do anything to calm him down first. Apparently, he wanted to complain of a mistake I made at work. Then he asked me to work...
Are you Certain?
When I read the news, listen to political debates or hear some of what politicians say, I realize that there is not a single thing that I can say I know with the certainty that politicians and leaders seem to possess for every single one of their beliefs. I often try...
Learn To Cherish The Difficult People In Your Life
Are there others around you, day in and day out, who make you miserable? Wouldn’t you love to change the dynamics of your experiences with them? The existence of difficult people can be viewed as an opportunity to learn. What can you pick up from these people, and how...
The Ultimate Guide To Striving For Progress Instead Of Perfection
The obsession of perfection takes away the joy of creation. Hello. I see your curiosity brought you here. Convey my thanks to it by clapping! Perfectionism is not excellence, it is procrastination based on fear — Alli Worthington Everyone has a book in them, but not...
Why I Will NEVER Be “Suzy” Homemaker…
This is a rant of sorts, and perhaps a pity party. Everyone is welcome, so long as we don’t turn it into a pissing contest. Everyone has their own version of their own personal hell. This does not necessarily mean this is the way it is, all the time though, just to be...
A few life lessons from a game of poker
The game that has been around for centuries, does come with its own share of wisdom. We could all take note of a few observations I made from my years of playing poker, that helps me do well in life. Here are a few things I learned (feel free to comment if you have a...
Your Purpose Doesn’t Have to Be Huge to Make a Difference
Most people think that to have a calling, to have a real purpose in life, that calling has to be something big and spectacular. They spend years trying to find their “true purpose,” feeling uncertain and confused and like they’re wasting their lives on the mundane....
Just Because It Ended Doesn’t Mean it Failed
There is some good there if you are open to it Things begin and things end, however, there can always be something positive that can come out of the experience if you choose to see it. Although it may be challenging to see it at first, whether a relationship or a job...
Position Yourself As A Leader In 20 Minutes Or Less
Positioning yourself as a leader will make your work more meaningful and advance your career. You can gain influence based on your title, or on knowledge and skills you already possess. While it could take years to climb the ladder up into senior management, tapping...
1 Year Later, I’ve Learned These Valuable Writing Lessons
Craft, credibility, and risk-taking matter I’ve just crossed the one-year mark for writing and, looking back, I’m a bit stunned at how much I’ve learned. I’ve always been a writer: I was the person who consistently received the feedback “more bullet points” when it...
Combating Negative Thinking With Positive Self-Talk
Do you talk yourself out of being excited and hopeful every time you feel good about yourself? Do you often start out feeling confident in yourself and your abilities, and then drop to zero confidence when your inner dialogue kicks in? This negative thinking is...
How To Think Positively In Tough Times
Sometimes it’s hard to look on the bright side even when things are going fairly well. When you’re going through tough times, gaining the “glass is half full” mentality can be a feat in itself! Don’t Get Overwhelmed When you’re in the middle of a stressful situation,...
1 Year Later, I’ve Learned These Valuable Marketing Lessons
I’ve just closed the circle on my first year of online writing for Wounded Birds Ministry, and it’s been a good time to sit back and reflect on how much I’ve grown. Much of that growth has been as a writer (which I share in Part 1), but I’ve also grown leaps and...
Luck Journal #2 – Sleep My Superpower
I don’t know what it is, I can’t sleep. You know who never says this — me, that’s who. I have a number of negatives in my life, but on the positive side, I have no issues sleeping. This sounds like it must be a major problem for many people. In my everyday life, I...
Stop Worrying About Building Up Your Resume-Focus On Delivering Value To Others Instead
Do something that actually matters and make the world around you a better place. Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M. get the money,dollar dollar bill, y’all - lyrics from the song C.R.E.A.M by Wu-Tang Clan Go to school, get excellent grades, go to a stellar...
Mental Martial Arts
Self Defense for Your Mind How does your psyche protect itself from the slings and arrows of life, such as: insults, physical mistreatment, guilt, verbal attacks on you, anger, resentment, fear, hatred, self-loathing, unending stress, jealousy, unacceptable thoughts,...
Did Your Computer Cyber-Bully You Today?
I was minding my business, getting on with my day. Clearing out a bunch of emails, answering some, saving some for later — you know the drill… I decided to check my Spam Folder in case Chrome decided something was junk which was, in fact, actual correspondence. What...
Here’s why everything works if you just stick with it
The reason why most people fail is because they can’t stick to something long enough to see any meaningful results. If you would just stick to something, most likely it’ll work out in the end. Spend a week researching what you need to accomplish and the resources...
For When You Just Want to Hide
Opportunity, Transition, and the Bumpy Road Between Here and There When Jeff Goins asks, “What is your superpower — the thing you handle with ease that others find difficult?” I answer without hesitation. “Transitions.” And yet, as I face yet another transition, I...
The myth of hiding mediocricity
Office door open. Part two. This is part two — in a two-part series — about the connection between strong leadership and an open office door. Keeping your office door open doesn’t magically make you a great leader but it does say things about who you are and your...
Surprised by Running Thoughts
When was the last time you actually stopped to listen to the thoughts running through your head? When you listen to what your mind is saying to you, you might just be surprised. Taking the Time During a class I was taking, the instructor challenged us to stop...
A Million Reasons I’m Lucky - A Series #1
Almost four months ago I started an experiment. I heard an author on a podcast mention that it was possible to change your luck. He talked about a scientific study done in England that showed this was possible. He also gave an exercise to change you mentally in the...
Perseverance – Success after Failure – The Tiger Woods Story can be Yours as Well
In life, there are many times that we look up at our life and wonder how we are ever going to climb out of the hole we have dug for ourselves through either self-inflicted crises or an injury or illness that hinders our ability to work or compete in our given...
This Not-To-Do List Is Just As Important As Your To-Do List
Had enough of your to-do list? Why not try this not-to-do list instead… I have enough on my to-do list to keep me busy, and purposefully so, for eons. But that’s not what this list is all about. This is a Not-To-Do list, which is intended to inspire you to reel...
The Smallest School In The World
It wasn’t much of a classroom. A cramped room, with four seats. I was the only student there, but my teachers we amazing. They were the heads of businesses, writers, scientists, military officers, many of whom were famous — they came to me whenever I chose. I had...
Why I have no patience for transcendental meditation
Transcendental meditation, I’ve been told, is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are thousands of successful people who swear by it. I’ve tried it and I don’t have the patience for it… Sorry. Last year I tried transcendental meditation as a way to unclutter...
Encouraging Entrepreneurship In Your Children
Whatever happened to the lemonade stands? Deep down, nearly every one of us wants to be an entrepreneur. However, forgoing your weekly paycheck to follow your true passion takes lots of self-confidence. Many of us lack that confidence. Therefore, a great portion of...
7 Tips for Improving Your Self-Improvement Efforts
There’s no shortage of self-improvement books, courses, manuals, videos, and ideas. The information needed to become fit, wealthy, healthy, famous, confident, and likable is readily available. The challenge isn’t information. It’s implementation. It’s frustrating to...
Start NOW and Love the Holidays with One Simple Tactic
A simple plan to keep away the year-end blues Fact: September is nearly over. For many of us that statement doesn’t hold a lot of weight, maybe you’ve been looking forward to Pumpkin Spice Lattes, maybe you haven’t. No biggie. What if I added onto that statement?...
The Productivity Miracle For Finishing That Project You’ve Been Putting Off
Focus on being productive instead of busy “Productivity is less about what you do with your time. And more about how you run your mind” — Robin Sharma “If you want to be more productive you need to become master of your minutes” — Crystal Paine “The way to get started...
The Secret To Building Rapport With Anybody
“Rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s world, to make [them] feel that you understand [them], that you have a strong common bond” — Tony Robbins “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” — Theodore Roosevelt Strong and healthy...
Tell Me What’s Standing In Your Way And I’ll Tell You How To Jump Over It
All your issues addressed — FOR FREE. I’ve always been a believer of the adage — Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And it keeps proving itself true time and again. I remember when I had just stepped into the world of blogging through a Wordpress blog, I used to...
Can What’s Missing Be Your Strength?
How being a vegetarian chef can turn you into a rock star! A song called ‘Figure It Out’ by English rock band Royal Blood came up on one of my Spotify playlists recently reminding me of a magazine interview with them that I read a while ago. I’m not really a rock fan,...
Hard Work vs. Smart Work — It’s a Draw!
Witness the match between Smart work and Hard work. Who wins? In today’s manipulative and fast-growing world, hard work doesn’t seem enough. Adding something will get us the perfect success recipe. The success strategy doesn’t completely rely on hard work now. There’s...
You believe more fake news than you realize
Fake news has always been out there. Even before the age of the internet, we’ve had men in powdered wigs whispering to their friends in the newspaper industry to put out fake news. It’s nothing new. It just seems like there’s more fake news now because we have a...
How to Avoid a Meltdown at Work
I teach middle-school students in an after-school program, which itself can be challenging. But one particular kid really knows how to push my buttons, and he’s the ringleader when it comes to stirring up trouble. I do my best to stay calm, telling myself that their...
In 3 Simple Steps You Can Accomplish Any Goal
Stay focused. Go after your dreams. And keep moving toward your goals." - LL Cool J For life to be worth living, we need goals. I’m not necessarily talking “Next year, I’m going to be on a rocket to Mars” goals. I’m also not talking about “Today, I’m going to brush my...
Things I Learned About Myself When I Ran A Half-Marathon
I realized several things about myself when I ran a half-marathon 4 years ago. I am not a big fan of running. Allow me to be more clear, I HATE running. Running is boring and mundane. For the majority of the past 15 years, I have enjoyed lifting weights and doing...
You Are The Average Of Your Last 5 Thoughts (Part Deux)
Shape your thoughts, shape your life If you’ve just stumbled on this post, I urge you to read Part One of this two part article here. If you’re feeling lazy, here’s a watered-down recap: Jim Rohn’s famous saying that you’re the average of the five people you spend the...
Why you should keep the TV on when you’re working
If you’re like me then working in complete silence is one of the most irritating things you can do. That’s the topic for today on why you should keep the TV on when you’re working. Why is that? Picture yourself with blinders on your eyes. You won’t be able to see...
Every time you feel like giving up. Don’t
Yesterday I felt like giving up. I felt lethargic, unmotivated and when I looked at the drivel I was producing I really began to question why exactly I was waking up at an ungodly hour each morning to churn out such tripe. I slowly came to a very important...
The Pomodoro Technique: 25 Minutes to Getting Stuff Done
Do you get distracted easily when you’re trying to work on your to-do list? Do you have trouble staying focused long enough to get tasks accomplished? The Pomodoro Technique may be a good solution for you. I stumbled upon the Pomodoro Technique about a couple of years...
Don’t Lose Your Edge: How to Find the “Flow” for Peak Productivity
Being in your element — that elusive “it” is the magic crossroads of aptitude and passion. When “it” feels right in your gut. There’s no stopping you; anything is possible. You’re in the ‘zone”; you’re feeling the “flow.” It’s a feeling of being at one with your...
The World Needs More Homemaking Career Women
Yes, you read right! It means we need more career women to focus on the home and we need more women whose sole career are their homes. We’re going to talk a lot about productivity, value, and purpose for women and we are also going to talk about the meaning, purpose,...
The reason I must struggle, in less than 900 words
An easy life does not exist. Yet I am surrounded by services which seek to make my life easier and eradicate any form of struggle from the equation. I can get a coffee from the comfort of my car (Illustration by Sarah Healy) I can get a cup of coffee without even...
The Employment Myth
Most people I know are either unemployed, employed, self-employed or business-owners. However, rather than just being 4 distinct stages or levels in the journey of life, it seems to define people a lot more. And so, there seems to be a lot of stereotypes around. I’ve...
This is What Happens When You Develop Grit
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” — George Bernard Shaw 100million Americans can trace their roots back to Ellis Island. Including me. My father’s grandparents arrived from Sicily and Calabria just a few years into...
How Wanting Something Can Make you Sacrifice Everything
Live your dream We all want to life our dreams, don't we? We are sold on an idea of a dream. “Live your dream”! “Love what you do” and etc. Does anyone ask questions such as: what does it take to live your dream? How easy is it to live your dream? We often dream about...
You Will Always Get My Very Best
Set your expectations high with me and I will do all I can to shatter them. I am an extremely competitive person. I always want to be the best at everything I do. Winning has always been extremely important to me. Many people have asked me over the years why I am this...
Life Is Not All Sunshine And Rainbows | You are allowed to have a bad day once in a while.
I don’t know about you but personally, I don’t understand how 95% of the things posted on social media are always so warm and fuzzy. Everybody seems to be living in a fantasy world. People are making tons of money, buying expensive cars, enormous homes, and fancy...
Self-celebration and the demise of the braggart How do you share success without sounding like an a**hole
I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a society which constantly reinforced the negative implication of bragging about one’s achievements; they were secret badges of honour, something which should be smugly locked away in the top drawer of the ever-ageing leather...
What Happens When You “Think Inside The Box”?
Problem Solving Requires More Than Creativity And Slogans Since the late nineteen-sixties, we’ve been told to “think outside the box.” For a while, the idea behind the slogan became the Holy Grail of problem solving. And the slogan “Think Outside The Box” became the...
The worst thing someone’s ever said to me
When I was twelve years old I probably had the worst thing anyone close to me has ever said. I still think about it, especially when I feel hopeless. The worst that someone’s ever said to me lingers in the back of my head even to this day. I was always told I was lazy...
7 Profound and Inspiring Books for Creatives and Entrepreneurs
I eat people’s brains… I love to crack open their skulls and peek into the inner workings of their mind. Metaphorically, of course. Reading feeds your brain, fosters creativity, and helps you move forward in your career or business. Today I want to share some of the...
You Are The Average Of Your Last 5 Thoughts (Part One)
Audit your own thinking before you do so the people around you “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius The saying that you should surround yourself with positive and successful people so that their wisdom and good...
How to Stop Dragging Your feet and Embrace the Future
Back to school. Sigh. I love my teaching job. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a slight tinge of disappointment as I prepared for the start of the school year. I sluggishly assembled my syllabi and lesson plans, with lots of grinding starts and stops. Of...
Executive Leadership: Success From Day One
Stories and Strategies for Nonprofit Leaders I’ve been in executive management in the nonprofit world for over 22 years. Ten or more prior years of nonprofit middle and senior management. A brief and unhappy stint in the for profit world of health care. From these...
What You Need to Know About Working After Retirement
On a path to return to work? If so, you’re in good company. It’s called “reverse retirement,” and it’s a LOT more common than you might think. More than a third of retirees return to work on either a full-time and part-time basis. A recent paper published by the...
8 Warning Signs You’re Defeated Before You Even Start Working Toward Your Goals
Raise your hand if you’ve failed to follow through with one of your goals? One day you’re feeling inspired. Maybe you watched a motivational TED talk or read a blog post that set your heart on fire. You’ve been wanting to make a change in your life and today’s the day...
Do This One Thing If You Use Something A Lot
It will change your life. In the last week of July, I made a decision in my life that made a lot of sense. I paid to become a Medium Member. No this isn’t a post about why every single person should be a member or anything like that. Though I will say it feels great...
Your Impact is So Much Bigger than You Know
Keep doing what you're doing! I get it, you feel discouraged sometimes. Am I really helping anyone? Is this all just a big waste of time? Is my purpose just a silly dream? I know I ask myself these questions when I have a setback or when things don’t seem to be moving...
This is What Happens When You Stop Watching the News
“One reason that cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers.” — Gwendolyn Brooks A few years after finishing drama school a funny thing happened. I started roaming the aisles of my favorite book stores (remember those?) looking for biographies on...
Accept Your Flaws And Then Enhance Your Strengths!
It took me a long time to unlock a secret to living a productive and happy life. Would you like to know what it is? It is simple really. You have to be self-aware. But here is the problem with being self-aware. Many people hate the things that they are bad at. They...
When You Can’t Make Up Your Mind, Just Do It
Up until June, I was a regular volunteer with a nonprofit that assisted low-income families. This morning I tried to decide whether or not to start volunteering there again. Summer travels had taken me away and I had gotten out of the habit. A few days ago, I was...
How to Win Any Argument
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” — Thomas Jefferson Have you ever tried to have a serious discussion with someone who strongly believes the opposite of you? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Kind of like butting your head against a concrete wall, or...
How to make your Ringless voicemail less intrusive and more beneficial
We all know the feeling that comes after checking the useless voicemail from a telemarketer who is trying to sell his products/ services. They send a random telemarketing copy to different users simultaneously in order to inform their users about something new. But on...
The Ancient Romans Hit The Snooze Bar Too
Times Change But Hearts And Minds Stay The Same I found myself talking to a friend one day, oddly enough, about something in the U.S. Constitution. He told me that the particular law we were talking about was ridiculous and archaic. The men writing that law could have...
A happier work environment in 5 simple steps
I have been astounded by the management styles I have witnessed while residing in Outback Australia. These can be neatly summarized as archaic. In order to boost productivity, piling on more work and creating a stricter work environment are perceived as the logical...
3 Ways to Unlock the Best Version of You
When I decide to undertake long-term action that might make me a better human I will inevitably face adversity in my journey. Adversity can enter my life in many different forms. It is the ultimate shapeshifter. It can invade under the guise of excuse,...
Finding your flow — the best places for happy remote work
Warning: This is not another “productivity hack” article. It’s based on personal experience and aims at facilitating happy and productive days that leave time and space for personal wellbeing. Office workers enjoy an increasing number of diverse spaces to work, like...
5 Life Changing YA Books to Accelerate Your Growth
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. We appreciate your help in supporting the work of PublishousNOW. Do the words “young adult book” make you cringe? That’s always been my immediate reaction. “YA” brought to mind crushes, vampires, and clunky writing. Besides,...
Why Your Own Speed is Often the Best Speed
High speed is not everyone’s speed. We all need to find our own rhythm. Comparing ourselves to others only adds to our anguish. Yet when we find that place of equilibrium; that space where we feel in flow, we are probably moving to life’s drumbeat at a speed just...
Why You Don’t Need An Early Morning Routine To Be Successful
Do you really believe that history’s brilliant and successful people, all had “early-morning” rituals ? all had “pre-dawn” routines ? I’m sure you’ve heard it before, “The most successful people know that the hopeful hours before most people eat breakfast are far too...
You Find More Value in What You Pay For
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett What was the last thing you purchased? Were you satisfied with it? How would your perception of its value change if you had received it for free? Would you feel so bad thinking about throwing it away? My...
What Is A Podcast?
A serious question from the older generation Attention all young people, this is NOT a how-to post. This is a serious question from an old broad. I’m serious about wanting to know the ins and outs of what a podcast is and how to do one. I’m an old school chick. I got...
How to Get Off the Treadmill of Life and Actually Enjoy Time Off
Have you ever tried to reward yourself with a trip to the beach or the spa, only to be bombarded by a nagging feeling that you should be doing something productive? And whenever you are working on something, you’re haunted by the thought that you should be working on...
A Hustler’s Burden
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brian Kurian. And I am a bonafide hustler. Why I Am The Way I Am Often times I have moments where I sit back and reflect on my life. I think about why I am the way I am. I wonder why I have such a hard time unplugging...
Why Being in Your 60’s is the Ultimate Startup
Here you are, sailing along in your sixties. Maybe retirement is on the horizon. Perhaps it is not even a consideration, yet. But somewhere in the back of your mind might lurk the scary question: What’s next? Well, my friends, what’s next is the Ultimate Startup. One...
Dear Internet, Please Stop Pushing Me so Hard to Get Up Early
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” – Benjamin Franklin As I heard my Fitbit alarm buzz me awake at 6:15 am, I knew that I was just too wiped out to get up and go for a run, so I ignored it and kept sleeping. After all, this was a...
4 Tools I Use to Boost Productivity
How I take care of business and boost my mental health Iam disorganized. I am lazy. I am low on energy. I am all these things; but, I am aware of these things, and unlike many with the same traits, I put effort towards battling these weaknesses. Last month I wrote...
6 Activities To Keep Life Simple
As the population continues to grow, the more than a trend for less is developing. This sort of trend is a minimalistic lifestyle. That isn’t to say this movement is bad, in fact, it’s still a good move as we move away from less material things and focus more on the...
4 More Wonderful Myth Busters on Creativity
Remember these words: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10,NIV).” I want you to know that some of the things you have been told about being artist are NOT true....
Start Fire To your Own Initiative
I am a procrastinator — a waster of time. I am sucked in by games on my phone, posts on Facebook, and the television. BUT I am a writer looking for inspiration in what I read and what I see and what I do. “An open calendar with short notes scribbled next to the dates”...
The Importance Of Being Self-Aware
Take an inventory of yourself and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. I will be honest with you my dear friends. I am absolutely terrible at a lot of things. No seriously. Here is a list of all the things that I am bad at: Algebra. Repairing things that...
At 65+: How to Unlock The Genuine Value of Lawn Mowing
I might as well start with a confession. I’m on the other side of 65 and until this summer had never mowed a lawn. Never. In. My. Life. Not in my youth in suburban Chicago. Not in my New Jersey-centered suburban life nor at the revered second home. I hardly thought...
Why Motivation Matters And Where to Find It
Motivation is described as interactions of both conscious and unconscious influences. It is the intensity of our desires or needs, It is influenced by the reward or value of our goals, It is dependant on the expectation we lay on ourselves and from our friends,...
This is What Happens When You Empower a Genius
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincen van Gogh Heis considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt. In just under 9 years he produced some 800 works of art. And in 2015, his...
We Should Focus on Outliers More
What’s an Outlier? In my article on education, I mentioned how some students, often the systemically disobedient, tend to be some of the most intelligent. These individuals, outliers from the normal distribution in more ways than one, can be some of the greatest...
Are You Ready For the REAL New Year
That’s Sept 4th This Year, In Case You’re Wondering, And Yes You Need to Set Some Goals My Mom and I never liked summer all that much. Oh sure, there were those days where I lay on my back and breathed in fresh cut grass, or where I went blueberry picking in the field...
Do Millennials Really Need to Stop Whining?
“Millennials can be very hardworking, but it’s easier to tell the story of the ones who are entitled.” -Kathryn Minshew I feel like I know next to nothing about my own generation. The two-edged sword that is the Internet has allowed us to form in our minds what it...
And This Door Too I Shall Kick Down
In order to be successful in life, you will have to learn how to create opportunities for yourself. Have you ever felt trapped? Have you ever felt that you keep having to face one closed door after another whenever you are trying to make a better life for yourself? It...
Being Able To Face The Person In The Mirror
It all starts with having the ability to love and respect yourself. You can go through your entire life answering other people’s questions falsely. You can spend your days giving people half-truths. Everyone can get fooled by your answers. But here is the thing… You...
This is Why Searching for Your Passion is Unreliable
“There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” — Nelson Mandela “Should I be a professional baseball player or a movie star?” I once asked my younger brother. I made the inquiry as casually...
Why Are Your Beautiful Relationships Going Wrong?
What You Don’t Know That You Don’t Know Are you having trouble connecting with your partner? Are the times of conflict increasing and the times of joy decreasing? Are you wondering if your relationship is going to last? Relationships are meant to be an area that...
How to Take Winning Steps Toward Realizing Your Dreams
So You Can Live Out those Dreams Hidden in Your Heart What dreams may come depends on what steps you take. We can put our hope in receiving a windfall or wait for opportunities to drop in our lap, but I would venture to say neither is likely. When they do happen it’s...
Golden Rules For Start Up Entrepreneurs
A Must Have Guide 1. Marry Your Company And The Employees! 💑 Working harmoniously with your employees and co-founders is like getting married to them! Understanding and compromising are two important traits that can help your business run smoothly. 2. Have a ‘KISS’...
Live Leadership Lessons from The Front with Joe Cala
This week my guest is Joe Cala! Joe has over 20 years in business and leadership, Joe is a source of spiritual inspiration and daily motivation in positivity & sales strategies! Joe connects with people he ignites their passion, processes, powerful truths and...
Be A Person of Value, Watch Sales Skyrocket
“I HATE selling!” For some reason, people have this view of selling as if it is an unclimbable mountain. People the world over seem to be deathly afraid of selling and perhaps it is because we have had so many undesirable encounters with people trying to sell us...
You Can Only Achieve Success When You First Define It
“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?” The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Some...
Dreams Can’t Happen Without Goals
For some reason when people find out I run 100-mile races, they all react the same way. After getting over the shock, the first question they ask is, “how in the world can you run 100 miles? I don’t even like driving 100 miles.” Since I am in sales and I know that the...
Does It Matter that My 6th Grade French Teacher Thought I Was a Failure?
I remember what happened like it was yesterday. After all, failure hurts. We were rehearsing for a 6th Grade French play. While I was waiting in the wings for my next entrance, I overheard my French teacher telling another adult that she thought I was the least likely...
What Are You Doing To Improve Yourself?
What actions are you actually taking to improve yourself? Most us have an idea of what we want to look like physically. We have an idea of how much money we would like to be making. Many of us even know what kind of a house we would like to live in and what kind of...
Plans Allowing Immediate Newness
What is Pain? “You mock my pain! Life is pain, anyone who says otherwise is obviously selling something!” William Goodman, The Princess Bride These are the kind of quotes that you repeat to yourself when every muscle in your body aches, your mind is twirling towards...
The One Question More Entrepreneurs Should Be Asking Themselves If They Want to Grow Their Company
That was the worst $600 I ever saved. In retrospect, I should have spent a few extra dollars more on the Nissan Altima I bought in 1992 and installed air conditioning. But I was trying to save as much as I could. At that time, my company was barely making any money,...
Three Things That Increase Influence | The Front
Leaders are leaders because they have influence! This video was such a hit, so by request… here are three things you can do to increase influence. If you engage actively, and spend the time to really work on or learn these three things, you can increase your influence...
Why Your Dreams Are Worth the Wait
And What to Do in the Meantime You have this dream. But it’s taking forever to happen and you’re not getting any younger. You wonder what it’s going to take to get there and if you ever will. You’re not alone. We like things to happen quickly. Don’t we? We despise...
How to get the mentorship of your dreams
Getting a great mentorship can be tough regardless of your profession, but especially for an artist Sometimes being an artist is hard. Being creative and having the whole world in front of you it can be difficult to really know what direction to go, even knowing where...
The Reason Why Having Courage to be Yourself is Revolutionary
“I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am.” — Thomas Cooley It sounds ridiculous, but I was once convinced the woes, worries, and wins I felt were uniquely mine; that no other soul, however, freed from ignorance or...
‘Heartcount’ over ‘Headcount’ – that’s all that matters!
If we look back — it all started with ‘Hands to work’ in the Industrialization era. Workers were expected to perform GIVEN tasks and that would be it. There were a select people putting their heads into things. It was an apt thing to do in that age, maybe. Then the...
Do not settle for anything but the BEST – from yourself!
Fortunate are those who gain realizations throughout the process of life and am glad to be one of those. Below is a snippet of one such realization — for you to read and let me know if you relate to it or even otherwise! Do not settle for anything but the BEST in...
Are You Aware of These Productivity Leaks?
Imagine you have a bucket of water. It’s nothing fancy really. It’s just a big ol’ bucket that you use to carry water around. Every person on the planet has a different bucket. Now, each day, you have a goal. Your goal is to carry the bucket full of water from point A...
Do You Know How To Turn Chores Into Games? Why Doing So Can Turn Your Work Into Play
Why do we like playing games so much? Why can’t we enjoy our work as much as we enjoy games? Why is it more fun to press buttons on a video game than on your computer at work? There are lots of different kinds of games, and no one game will appeal to everyone. But...
Self-Help Advice From the Guy Who Really Needs Help
Have you ever been reading one of those self-help books and you think to yourself “yeah, easy for you to write about how to overcome and succeed, you’re writing this on your yacht in the middle of the ocean because I’m stupid enough to buy your book” and then you hurl...
Are You Living the Entrepreneurial Dream, or Are You Chasing an Elusive Dream You’ll Never Achieve?
Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Was it a teacher? Your mother? Something you saw on Amazon or Google? Do you even know? I knew back when I was around 12. My mother always wanted a doctor in the family and had visions of me becoming one. I had other...
How to Schedule Your Time Effectively (Even if You’ve Failed in the Past).
Like many people, I have big goals when it comes to time management. I WANT to be one of those people who reads 100 books a year and publishes three novels a year AND runs an active blog…who checks her social media notifications and promptly closes the tab 5 minutes...
Do You Want More Optimism in Your Life?
Here are five choices. Choices Made, Make Us. Pastor David Jeremiah says; “No one drifts towards holiness.” Since this statement is true, we then must be intentional about our faith and lifestyle. Therefore, my wife and I practice these five choices. We do this, not...
Why I Believe Everyone Can Lead an Intentional Life
And You Can Start Today “I believe everyone can live intentionally by finding purpose, creating direction, and taking action.” Jack Heimbigner Just over a year ago I started to get this itch. Something was really bothering me about people in my peer group and on...
The greatness of children
So, I was watching a Nike commercial for a Marketing Class. And, just as You-tube hopes and predicted I would, I clicked on a related video. Another Nike ad - and greatness. It was called Nike: Find Your Greatness And I think we can all agree that if there’s one...
7 Steps to Crunching Criticism
Everyone is impacted by criticism of some sort. But leaders and those who take risks with new ideas are commonly targeted. There is not much we can do to completely stop criticism. But there are some things we can learn, and there are ways of protecting ourselves from...
For Everyone Second-Guessing Themselves…It’s OK to Chase ‘Crazy Ideas’
Those Who Choose to Dream - and Chase Crazy Ideas Many people struggle between feeling obligated to look and act like the people that surround them and their inner voice that begs that they strive for and become more. Maybe they just need more crazy ideas. Those who...
Your Success is My Success
A Woman’s Worth I’m reading Marianne Williamson’s book this weekend. The name is the subtitle of this post. What insight, people! It’s one of those books from which you take small morsels of thought at a time and chew and churn to digest the message correctly. Written...
Social Media Marketing for Dummies – What people really mean when they talk about SMM
There seems to be a million people telling you how you can make money through SMM. Or how you should start your own SMMA(Social Media Marketing Agency) because it will get you mad cash. But before starting your agency you might want to know what Social Media Marketing...
How to stay motivated as an artist and overcome creative “dry spells”
I’m just gonna start out by giving you the answer so you can continue doing what you were doing: It is MINDSET. So there is this myth that artist can only create when they are inspired. You hear people talk about writers block or being stuck in general. The solution...
4 Things to do to Make a Positive Difference – and Maybe Change Your World
Do you want to make a difference in the world — or at least in your world? Do you want to leave a positive mark? Nehemiah made a difference that changed history — at least a little. And his life shows how you can make a difference, too. The story starts like this:...
7 Serious Challenges of Effective Leadership
And how to eliminate them... Although during my college years I’ve been among the list of ambitious people, I still never considered leadership to be as important as I feel it is nowadays. You may wonder: “What changed this?” Knowledge comes with experience. I...
No, really. You can achieve the esteemed Flow State. Here’s how
“But I need a quiet space and my favorite coffee cup and my dog at my feet and … “ No. You don’t. Don’t get me wrong. I used to believe it. But now that I know how to attain the flow state on a regular basis, I don’t fall for anyone who says they can’t achieve it....
Why Are Awkward Conversations So Difficult?
Hint: Because You’re Trying Too Hard Earlier this week I taught a course called “Is Management for Me.” The class was full of about 35 adults who work in various parts of the Ontario Government. There were people who were a couple of years from retiring, and there...
10 Ways to Become a Better Leader
Whoever said, “Traveling is beautiful but not as beautiful as coming home,” clearly wasn’t an out of work actor. About two years ago, after nearly a decade of schlepping from one cramped casting room to the next, I parted ways with the love of my life. New York City....
Seven Leadership Lessons to Help You Climb Higher
I was a 17-year-old teenager who went to college as far away as I could and stay within the US mainland. That’s how badly I wanted to get away from home. Here was a typical kid from Bronx, with all the common traits of growing up in that environment. I believe it was...
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Hint: Science Says We Are Incompetent
We can probably all agree that the world is becoming increasingly complex, with more and more “noise” thrown at us as an attempt at communication. The messages come fast and furious from all corners, and we react to those messages depending on our mood, what our...
Do you take pictures or photographs? What’s the difference?
Tips to go from good to great with your photographs. In the days of film photography, it was said the distance between a good photographer and a great photographer was five miles of film. That would be a lot of pictures, and that is the point. With the advances in...
What are You Doing with Your 1,440 Minutes? And Only 480 Minutes are in Your Eight Hour Day
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made out of.” — Bruce Lee It roughly takes me 30 to 45 minutes to get to work everyday. Once I am at work, the next 30 minutes is used to start my day. And then, I work for the next three to four hours. I...
Is Working From Home Worse Than a Regular 9–5 ?
Ah working from home. Every startup blog and the 4-hour work-week tell us that this is what we should be aiming for. It gives you freedom so you can travel anywhere you want while still earning money, you can work from your bed for god's sake! What could be better?...
Why Am I Awake at 5AM?
And why it may not be a bad idea for you too. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Benjamin Franklin First, I am not going to try and convince you to be a morning person. So often, the ‘gurus’ tell us anyone can be a morning person...
How a Hollywood Screenwriter Made it Big by Knowing what NOT to Do
An actor who’d been kicking around Hollywood for nearly two decades decided to take a stand one day. After years of toiling away, he finally landed a small role on a series that turned out to be very popular. The only problem was, everyone on the show was making more...
Waking Up from Success
And Being Saved from True Failure I have always wanted to do something great. From an early age, I believed I was made to do something great. And yet, I have always been in conflict over what ‘great’ or ‘successful’ really meant. We all have this longing in our soul...
Escape from paradise | Enjoy a great career even if you are from a small town.
I spent half my career trying to escape small town journalism, and get a real job. Then one day, I realized I was already where I wanted to be. I live in a small town in Kansas. It is kind of remote. The town has around 12,000 people, and the next town is 15 miles...
Why Children Can Also Teach Adults Life Lessons
As a mom, I often find myself learning some significant life lessons from my children. Children are the best when it comes to teaching us how to tackle some challenges in life. They are so innocent, and with that comes a sense of purity and sincerity. Sometimes, I...
Hurry. But Hurry Slowly. How Intentional Urgency Can Help You Get Better Results
You bump into a colleague in the hallway. “How are you?” she asks. “Busy. So busy,” you reply with a shrug. She smiles a knowing smile and says, “yeah, me too,” and you both go on your way. It seems that no one smiles and says, “fine thanks” any more — it’s always...
Empower the Weak, Change the World
When we think about world change makers, we automatically think of the big names. Personages who have made history are the ones who left our world with significant changes and therefore are still remembered nowadays. When I speak to ordinary people like you and me...
Perfectionism was Exhausting and This is How I Stopped | Change starts with our thoughts
It was no use. He didn’t believe me. “No Dad, really. I did make all E’s.” (like A’s today). And if it wasn’t for Bob Haas telling the teacher I wrote on his report card, I would have had the money. Way to go, Bob! Okay, I shouldn’t have done it, but the mere idea of...
12 simple Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker
“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.” — Mark Twain We can learn a great deal from the Ancient Greeks when it comes to public speaking. The pioneers of theater and philosophy believed words held up the pillars of the...
One Simple Decision We All Make: Wreck or Ruin?
I have been having the same conversation with myself for the last year. - Are you strong enough to press on? - Would it really be so bad to just rest? No one is watching! - No, it is these moments of fatigue that count the most. Press on. At some point every...
How to Deal Effectively with Intimidating Behavior in a Working Environment – Conflict & Confrontation | A closer look at an overlooked form of intimidating behavior
Intimidating behavior is a serious problem once it occurs. No one would like to face any form of intimidation: neither in our work environment, nor in any personal area. It truly affects our thinking and doing. When we define intimidating behavior, we notice the...
Unlock the Power of Scheduling Tasks to be Productive: Why Using a Calendar is Better than a To Do List
“I’m not big on to-do lists. Instead I use e-mail, desktop folders, and my online calendar.” — Bill Gates Calendars don’t seem to carry as much importance in our productivity in today’s work world. Everything seems to use calendars, but they don’t take president as an...
The Long-Term ROI of a Great Mentor
It took me a year, but a few weeks ago, I reached my goal for writing on Medium. After posting a title I knew would immediately turn some people off, I received the following message: “Damn it, you did it again: A productivity based article that doesn’t repeat the...
Leadership Lesson From The Trail
Sliding down the side of a cliff Instead of paying attention to the trail I was calculating in my mind how fast I would need to do this segment to catch up to my running partner who had gone ahead when I had stopped to “check my hydration level”. Suddenly my plant...
Why Your Expectations Are Killing Your Productivity
Spoiler Alert: Because They Are Stealth I had one of those A-HA moments a few months ago. We all have them — those moments where there’s almost literally a flash of light and you think or shout “HOLY CRAP THAT’S WHY THAT HAPPENS!” I want to share this particular one...
Generation X and Social Media (How to become more productive without giving up your use of the internet)
Social media use is the new hub of the 21st Century, and no generation is exempt from its addictive and obsessive over-indulgence. According to a 2016 result from the Pew Research Center, and published by statista.com, it was found that 96 percent of Americans ages...
Crash Course in Home Simplifying
One of the great laws of productivity is that a project expands to fill the time allotted to it. Thankfully, it works the other way too, and with a bit of concentration and a plan, you can tackle a seemingly huge project like “simplify the house” and make great...
How to Love the Home You Have
If you’re looking for more contentment at home, you’re in luck. There are many tiny habits that you can incorporate into your daily routine to help you feel happier at home. Even if your current house or apartment isn’t everything you desire, you’ll be more content...
3 Reasons To Not Settle For Freelance Work For A Living
Being an entrepreneur is a very demanding position to be in. I’ve talked about only some of the challenges that an entrepreneur needs to go through. The other big problem is finding a way to turn a profit. Now I’ve talked before about how easy it is to make a profit....
6 Useful Tricks I Learned After the First 6 Months at my 1st Work
I’m extremely happy about my first job. Let me tell you why. I just had my first 6 months at my first job and I can’t believe how time goes by so fast. A supervisor at my workplace once told me this: “You know you’re old when you feel like time slips by so fast.” He’s...
4 Best Practices to Run a Business Smoothly
Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or a budding one, how a business is run is important. In fact, how it is run can determine whether your business will sink or prosper. I’ve talked briefly about how the entrepreneur lifestyle can seem glamorous. How some people...
5 Benefits of Adopting an Experimental Mindset
Learn something. Try something. Improve something. Repeat. We have never been inundated with more information. Access to anything we have ever wanted to learn is a click away. We can learn from the greatest minds in the world by listening to Tim Ferriss. We can learn...
I am a survivor
... and so are you. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ~Helen Keller Reflect. I decided to make a list of all I have survived in my life. I doubt my list is exhaustive, but I am amazed by the length of it anyway. If you...
5 Steps to Train Your Brain to Focus
I confess…I’m prone to distraction. And it used to be impossible for me to stay on any one task for more than 10 minutes at a time. There were just too many things competing for my attention. It would start when I was writing and had to do a little research. I love...
Inspire and Motivate Yourself to be Uncommonly Productive: What to do when you hit the wall.
The wall. Everyone knows it. They hit the wall - the productivity wall - at some point throughout their day. First, we try to power through. Then we take a break, go for a walk, get some coffee. And yet, we cannot seem to breakthrough. Suddenly we are considering...
How to Have Conversations with Meaning
Regardless of if you are confident in your own skin or not, this is a guide to build your confidence but also to have conversations with purpose and growth behind them. Have you ever had conversations that have gone nowhere at all? I’m sure you have online all the...
Want to Be More Productive? Build a Writing Routine Using These Brain-Based Principles
“Truth be told, it turns out timing and planning are everything!” I had a list of articles that needed to be written, a book draft to complete, and I’d been sitting at my desk for what felt like an eternity, barely making a dent in my list. So I got up to stretch my...
Here are 5 Morning Rituals That Make You Feel Great
Practice these every day for awesome feels and great productivity. Let me ask you a question: Do you have a morning ritual? Of course, you have. But does that morning ritual make you feel great? Every day you routinely wake up and you go through it on auto-pilot. You...
When The Road To Daylight Is Through The Gloom
I know where I am. I look ahead to where I want to be. Each step must take me closer. It’s hard. Sometimes, like today, I feel that I will just die with things left undone, unsaid, and unfinished. That my fear will come true and my memorial will be, ‘Well, at least...
Turn the Page
Bad Results I was coming off three bad races in a row, two DNFs (Did Not Finish) and a DFL (Dead Fricking Last) and I was beginning to think that maybe I needed to retire from this trail racing/ultra running thing and run normal distances like the marathon or...
The One Thing to Avoid Doing on Social Media
There are many types of approaches to grow your business, and that’s alright. But it’s this particular approach that bothers me a lot and I’m not alone in that. Many marketers and influencers a like have said this tactic doesn’t work. Here’s how to break that habit,...
Leadership Thoughts From the Treadmill
Treadmill or Dreadmill? Treadmill runs are my least favorite way to get exercise but when it is -13 outside with a foot of fresh snow, the outdoor running needs to take a backseat. At least that was what I was trying to convince myself as I ran on the dreadmill....
How the 80/20 Rule Increases Your Productivity and Multiplies Your Margin
In 1848 a man by the name of Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was born in Italy who would provide the world with one of the most intriguing rules of time management and productivity. The 80/20 Rule, better known as the Pareto Principle, denotes this simple reality:...
How to Properly Create and Follow Through With To-Do Lists
Ah, to-do lists. Think of them as you will, but to-do lists are as frequent in my life as post-it notes (and believe me, I love using post-it notes). For myself, to-do lists are incredibly important to my business. My business is quite literally run by a to-do list....
Get Off Your Ass And Do Something
A Productive Way of Life In the early stages of running my business, I was someone who struggled with working. Procrastination was a common theme for me and I also succumbed easily to distractions. For several years that was my life where I did minimal work and...
Don’t Be Safe. Be You.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” — John A Shedd Recently a friend and I sat down to catch up. One of the questions I wanted to make sure and ask him as our conversation continued was what he thought about some of the more recent...
How I’m Using Post-it Notes to Stay Productive
A confession on why I find post-it notes so helpful and I can’t live without them anymore. The first week of January I vowed to clean up the space that I’m working in. But over the past few weeks, my desk is warmed with tiny pieces of coloured paper. From written...
Stop Complaining and Comparing
Start accepting and contrasting. Have you wasted your life complaining about not having enough? Not doing enough? Not experiencing enough? Have you wasted time comparing yourself to an old classmate via Instagram or Facebook? Oh, look at him on his fancy new...
Make the Most of Time
My pillow and warm blanket kept me, hostage, longer than I should have let them. Thank goodness for the snooze button that allowed extra time for cozy sleep…until I had to scramble to get up so I wouldn’t be late to start my day. Time. I want it to linger on the...
Focus, Correct, Expand: A 3 Step Strategy to Expanding Quickly
How to achieve massive growth and staying productive by managing these three aspects in your business. Last week I spoke about the many issues that Subway is plagued with. But one of the massive issues that have backfired Subway is the fact there are so many...
Planning Ahead For What’s Really Important (To You)
Editorial note: I wrote this several months ago, why I didn’t publish it — I have no idea. Maybe I was afraid of the backlash. Afraid my “friends” trying to make as much money as they can wouldn’t appreciate my philosophy. Maybe I was embarrassed that I want to live a...
One Thing You Can Do to Make It a Good Year
No matter what your circumstances are, you can make this a good year. We welcome every new year with a celebration. It’s easy at the beginning of the year to call it happy and expect good things. Will it last? If we don’t do something we’ll find ourselves with a good...
Breaking Hidden Rules Made Me More Productive
It was all about breaking a hidden rule Finish I recently read a book called Finish by an author I follow, Jon Acuff. In it, he talks about the reasons we don’t finish the projects or goals we set out for ourselves, and he offers research-driven, practical advice to...
What We Can Learn About Productivity From Subway
2017 was the year the Subway branch store of nearly 27,000 stores strong in the US in 2016 plummeted to 25,835 by the end of 2017. Today we’ll look into some of the causes of that, but also how we can use this news to increase our own productivity in our own lives....
Instructive Life Lessons from My Cat for the New Year
It’s a New Year and everyone’s getting on the goal-setting bandwagon — including my cat. It’s remarkable! It’s not like she walked up and made the announcement to me. You know felines. They like to think they are subtle and unobserved unless they decide it’s time for...
Environment Makes the Difference: My Low-Stress, No Fuss Method to Clean My Home
Control your external environment and set the tone for your internal environment. Creating a small space of beauty It was three months past my initial diagnosis of depression, and I was finally starting to feel better. I wasn’t on medications yet, but the classes,...
Magnetic Motivation
Shaping our goals and visions to pull us into the future we want now. Pizza is now off the menu. Got to battle the bulge a bit so I can’t eat pizza anymore. The cheese has too many calories (and what is pizza without melty cheese you can sink your teeth in?) and the...
The Only New Year’s Resolution You Need to Make This Year
As we embark on a fresh beginning to 2018, many begin to make at least one New Year’s Resolution. Here are some things to think about as you consider yours. Make 2018 amazing! You want 2018 to be an amazing year, right? It will be the year you say, I made it! I did...
6 Principles to Empower Making Decisions
Our daily decisions matter. We have all made decisions we regret — some immediately, some down the road and some continually! How should we make decisions in our daily lives? How can we be sure we are making the right decision? There is a solid process for making...
Reflections on a Michelangelo Quote
“If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius.” It took over two years for one of the most revered artistic geniuses in history to complete his statue of David. But the fact he was a genius didn’t mean he didn’t have to do the work. He still...
How to Simplify Your Work Space to Improve Creativity
Want to improve creativity? Maybe your workspace is holding you back. Creative types are messy, right? We get that reputation a lot. When I’m up to my eyeballs in a project, my office can be downright chaotic. Creative people tend to keep a lot of stuff because we see...
How to Find More Time for What Really Matters
Rethinking how we think about our time Ever wonder when you're going to find time for, well anything? What if an abundance of provision fell from the sky each day like manna? Would we grab it and save it? What if we were guaranteed the same amount every day — an...
Save Yourself Some Time, Here’s How to do Christmas Shopping Right
My solid strategy for Christmas shopping never changes from year to year and since applying it, Christmas shopping has been a wonderful experience for me. I want to share this strategy and how it can also tie into living a more positive life. As I’ve said before,...
I’m Not Setting Any Goals This Year
Maybe you shouldn’t, either This is the time of year that every personal development writer starts using a dirty, four-letter word: Goal. And the tips they give for setting and achieving goals are consistent, evidence-based, and solid. Almost without exception, they...
4 Ways to Join the Start-up World
In order of increasing difficulty. Have you ever considered joining a start-up? Do you have a great idea that the world can't live without? Maybe this will inspire you to join the start-up world. I’m from the Greater Toronto Area, and when I’m not listening to Drake,...
The Most Important Thing I Learned From My Former Mentor That Changed Me Forever
In business it’s vital to have a mentor, however, not everyone is suitable to be your mentor. I learned that with my first mentor when I went into in business, but I learned something else that’s equally important that has changed my views drastically. Today I’ll...
Creating a Plan to Achieving Your Goals
What does it take to actually complete or achieve goals? It is the end of another year and everyone is talking about goal setting and life planning. Why? Because we want to live the best years of our lives now. Every year, people set New Years Resolutions and goals...
3 Tips for Choosing Your Holiday Pace
The sprint towards Christmas is now on. How ready are you for the month of December? Is your calendar jammed packed with activities, traditions, work-related obligations as well as shopping to-dos? How will you choose your pace for the holiday season? Lately, I’ve...
Why The Holiday Season Is Perfect For Self Improvement
My personal thoughts on the holiday season, but also why it’s perfect for diving into self-improvement right now. I also share a guide on how to ease into self-improvement activities around the holiday season. December, the month where everyone has a lot of mixed...
3 Reasons for Respecting the Gift of Time
Have you ever heard of the man or woman that seen running alongside their bicycle? A passerby asks “Why are you running alongside your bicycle?” The ‘running’ man or woman replied: “Because I don’t have time to stop and get on my bicycle.” Have you ever felt like...
This Is How You Did It — How One Idea Brought You Here
A simple guide that explains how the rich and successful have gotten to where they are now. This is by following some of the actions that the successful and rich took to get to where they are today. Moreover, I outline what one must do to achieve these things. It’s...
Focus on This 1 Skill to be a Better Man
Hey, Man! Let me ask you a question: Are you where you want to be right now in life? You likely answered “No.” to this question. How do I know? Because you’re young and you’re a dude. You don’t have everything you want in life, yet. But, what if you could? What if you...
21 Tips and Tricks to be More Productive
Over the last month, can you think back to what your work hours have been? Have you been settling into the traditional 9 am to 5 pm job? Or more than 40 hours a week? Do those hours feel excruciatingly stressful or productive? Our work cultures today, seem to work us...
How to Do What You Don’t Want to Do
I’ll ask the obvious question first: Why would you want to do what you don’t want to do? Why even discuss doing what you don’t want to do? The answer is, quite simply, not that simple. If you’re feeling stuck and tired of procrastinating, this is how to do what you...
How to Keep Busy Teens Involved in Music
It is a busy time of year in music studios and school music programs. As a parent and teacher, there are countless concerts, performances, and end of year events. They are all great opportunities but honestly, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. It’s also the...
How to Wait on the Turning Point When We Can’t See What’s Coming
It never fails. I’m in the turn lane with a clear view of oncoming traffic. I’m calculating in my mind where the break is. The turning point. Then, as if a wrench falls from the sky, another car pulls into the opposite turn lane. Now I can’t see. My view is blocked. I...
How To Go From Just Setting Goals, To Achieving Powerful Growth And Changing Your Life
How to begin acheiving growth How I went to talking about goals and setting them for the sake of attention, to crushing my goals, and sparking massive change in my life. Today, I share a guide that outlines my old thought process, why it was wrong, and the changes...
13 Survival Tactics Every Pastor Must Use When the Sky is Falling
Proven techniques to help you survive a church crisis. Every pastor knows ministry isn’t for wimps. If any occupation epitomizes the phrase “only the strong survive” it’s ministry. There’s no escaping the bulls-eye on your back. -Criticism, spoken in the back...
Want to Produce Great Work? You Don’t Need More Tools, Motivation, or Discipline.
Here’s the Solution Instead. If you’re struggling to get to work on your dreams, it’s tempting to think you need more information, more strategies, and more “tools to succeed”. After all, it’s easy to convince ourselves we don’t have what we want because we’re lacking...
Lose Weight Faster than Ever
No such thing as “fast”. Millions of people will see that headline and they’ll be reaching for their wallets and minds faster than a snowball in an avalanche. We want to lose weight, have that perfect body, be healthy and we want it fast and easy. Sadly though there...
These 5 actions will make you a better human
No question. Sometimes we just get by. But, in our finer moments, most of us wish to become better human beings. Why is that even important? Consider the English poet John Donne who proclaimed, “No man is an island.”* Do you think Donne could have even imagined our...
5 Easy Ways to Beat Negative Stress
Positive Stress versus Negative Stress We can experience positive stress or negative stress. Yes, we can experience stress in two forms indeed. Negative stress is obviously the one that we want to reduce and keep under control. In this article, we are going to focus...
How to Increase Sales when Persuasion Isn’t Cutting It.
"What are YOU gonna do about it!?" Increase Sales?! Frank’s tone implied, When am I going to stand up for what I believe in and will benefit kids? An urgent call interrupted a day in the mountains before his brother returned home. The team lead had to share her panic...
Do You Deserve Money?
Revise your relationship with money! Let’s talk about money! Yes, you’ve got me right! Yes, I know it is often considered a “dirty word” by idealistic, spiritual, and non-materialistic people. But how about “cleaning it up” together? I call myself a creative and many...
The Art of Pulverizing Excuses
Having Less Excuses, And Far More Action So far this week on my blog I’ve been sharing pointers and tips revolving around excuses. From finding more options to finding someone that can help you. But all in all I’ve been dancing around how exactly do we pulverize our...
How Not to be Held Captive by Fear
The wind howled. The rain pelted. The thunder cracked. The sky grew darker. Then bang… I used to fear a lot. As a matter of fact, fear kept me from doing many things. I didn’t like to eat at a restaurant alone or even with my kids. I didn’t want to travel anywhere by...
How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety
Stop everything you’re doing right now. Just stop, relax and think for a moment. Are you busy steamrolling ahead? Are you in a rush, racing against time to get things done? Do you feel anxious? Well….stop! It’s time to find out how to relieve stress and anxiety….once...
The Elephant That Will Not Forget to Boost Your Productivity
When young, the thought of a wild animal having a part in one’s life and growth were fanciful. Yet, for a shy, timid 10-year-old standing in front of the class, it would have been a defining moment. How your superman Dad had brought home a wild animal. A Lion, Bear,...
Know How Create, Share And File Will Make You More Productive
Beginning of Evernote In 2007, Evernote began and launched its first service in 2008. The inspiration behind the program from the beginning was ‘keeping simplicity’. Similar to other start-up companies, they experienced both great growth and a few difficult days. Jump...
3 Productivity Techniques Help Work-Life Balance
Getting Things Done. Have you ever marveled at sportsmen and women that get to the top of their profession? I am amazed at how simple they make everything about their sports look. I wondered “how were they successful?” and realised it’s to do with their technique....
How to Find Your Quiet
We live loud, busy lives. Going all the time on the outside with noisy minds on the inside. How can we find any quiet spaces in our lives? How can we calm our inner world? It’s not easy but I found a way. And if I did, you can find your quiet too. Every day I have a...
How much can we believe our negative thoughts?
If you feel like you are swimming against the current and your arms can’t move, your voice is strained, and every good thing you do produces only more bad. I want you to stop. Drown for three seconds and get to know how close to death you are because negative thoughts...
Great Joy in the Middle of a Brutal Week!
What a week! During this seven day stretch: two friends died, my mother is in the hospital, my wife had surgery (and I do all the housework, laundry, meal preparation and so on until she is fully recovered) and I am dealing with a persistent and sometimes debilitating...
How to Overcome the Failure Myth
What exactly is the Failure Myth? Let’s break it down… First we’ll tackle the confusing mixed messages regarding failure. Optimists look at failure as a teacher and friend. believing failure teaches us things like try again, be persistent, never give up — spinning it...
What You Practice Today Is Not Important : A Music Teacher’s Manifesto
I use the Suzuki Method to teach the violin. Your child may be learning through a different style. They may be learning something completely different than music. You may be learning a new skill yourself. The following idea still applies. I could fill a whole book...
6 Things Introverts Hate
Living in an extroverted world is painful Being an introvert in an extroverted world is painful. My mom told me this story, so it must be true. “You were about five years old, and we were sitting in our car, waiting for the pedestrian to cross the street. Just as she...
Writing: My 3 Step Process for Getting Started
Sometimes getting started is the hardest part of writing. I’ve participated in a few writing challenges where the goal is to complete a certain number of words per month. Writing something everyday is key for me to be able to reach goals like this. Sometimes because I...
What Happened When I Ran My First Kickstarter Campaign
Don’t let the lack of money stop you from pursuing your dreams Kickstarter was never at the top of my list. I never saw it coming. “You should do Artprize,” my brother’s father-in-law tells me. “What’s Art prize?” I ask. I’d never heard of it until that moment. “It’s...
A Lesson in Life’s Messes
Life is messy. Some of you may read that line and think, “Duh Brandon. I think you are a little behind.” Truth be told, I might be. There are times (and they come way more often than not) that things do not go exactly as planned. Our plans may conflict with someone...
Press On
Let’s face it. There are days when we all have to do hard things we just do not want to do. It’s not always easy to get up in the morning. You may have had: a restless night a child kept you up a bad dream “baggage” carried over from yesterday or any number of...
The World’s REAL Currency
Regardless of what the media want you to believe, the world only has one currency. Yes. One. Can you guess what it is? Probably not. Euro? No. Yuan? Nope. Dollar? Not that one either. It’s not Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other crypto-currency. So, what is it? You use it...
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You are What [Who] You Listen to
Whether you believe me yet or not, you may be enslaved by the radio. Stop! Take that colander off your head, I’m not talking about that kind of radio enslavement. (The government would shut me down for sure if I started talking about… Wait… Um… Nevermind.) What I’m...
How to Reach Your Full Potential
You don’t have to settle for second best. It is within your ability to reach your full potential. Every human being has the ability to reach his/her full potential. That’s what you’ve been created for. Your purpose in life is to reach your full potential. So what is...
How To Improve The Quality Of Your Life
“Can you improve the quality of your life?” What would your answer be that question? Can it even be considered to be a fair question? Or have you made peace with the idea of “what’s meant to be will be”? Have you given up on all your dreams and have you accepted the...
5 Step Crash Course in “I Believe”
Sometimes I discount their ramblings because of their tender ages, because what can they teach me? They take me to task on the matter of “I Believe” and teach a valuable lesson. School of Life It feels like I am perpetually in school. It is the joy of learning...