1. What do you love doing most?
2. How can others benefit?
3. How can you do it massively to reach other people?
4. How can you do it intelligently?
Category: Success
2010 is half over. Are you making excuses?
Believe it or not, you’ve only got six months left in 2010. To be sure, BP will make the highlight reel — but this blog post is not about world events or stuff out there, it’s about you.
Now, when you read that you had six months left, did a little voice inside say, “I’ve got six months until my next New Year’s resolution”?
What happened to this year’s? Did you finish already? My guess is, probably not. If that’s the case, you just broke a promise to yourself. Do you find yourself breaking promises to yourself often? “I won’t eat that extra slice of chocolate cake.” “I’m going to lose 10 pounds.”
Do you find you keep making those statements to yourself over and over again? Here’s the deal: You need to stop making New Year’s resolutions. Stop it. Any promise worth keeping — to yourself, no less — is worth making and acting on NOW.
Notice I also wrote “acting on.” A promise is worthless unless you take drastic and immediate action. Maybe you throw out all your cake recipes or draw up a daily fitness schedule. The fact is, unless you’re willing to make a change, you will continue the cycle of broken promises.
You’ve got six months. Do it in three. Act now.
How to use anger to get ahead
You’ve all heard the advice your mom or dad would give you when you were young and got angry: Take a deep breath and count to ten. I don’t know about you, but I’d always feel angry — maybe even angrier.
Research has shown that individuals who can parlay their anger into the right kind of energy are more likely to succeed. Rudyard Kipling was right. Keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs will certainly go along a long way to prove you’ve got what it takes to succeed as a leader.
But there’s more to it than that. Anger is a form of pain, and pain is the greatest motivator. When you feel angry about something — say you lost an important client — use that energy and that pain to motivate yourself to improve. Don’t blow your top and go stomping around the office, although you may feel like it. Instead, ask yourself how you can do better next time or what it was about your plan that went wrong.
Next, find something positive about the situation, no matter how contrived. Maybe that client will be better served and happier with a different company (although you would have done a better job, naturally). Maybe the company you were competing with will feel good about themselves. You can feel good, too. This is pleasure.
Use the combination of pain and pleasure as motivators, and improvements will follow.
Are your beliefs limiting your abilities?
photo credit: cygnus921
Quick: Would you rather be, smart or lucky? Most people would say it’s better to be smart. Sure, we all want to have something between the ears, but smarts won’t get you too far without a little luck.
Don’t believe what I’m saying? Superstitions may be considered bunk — especially by highly intelligent people — but a study has shown that people are able to perform better when they believe in mumbo jumbo like luck. When individuals in a study group were given a golf ball and told to putt a hole-in-one, they were either offered “the ball everyone uses” or “the lucky ball.” Well, guess which group had the most success? The lucky ball people.
photo credit: Pink Sherbet
The golf ball didn’t have any supernatural powers, but the “lucky ball people” performed better and faster on motor dexterity tests, plus they had more confidence in their own abilities when asked beforehand how they thought they would do. Magic, right?
Luck — as we call it — was the excuse these people gave themselves to improve their confidence, set higher goals and work harder.
It essentially comes down to beliefs. Not beliefs in some talisman or charm, but belief in your own abilities.
Do your beliefs permit you to work harder and do better in life?
How to Succeed as a Copycat
photo credit: Marko K
We all know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — or at least we tell ourselves that when someone steals our idea. But research has shown that actually copying someone’s body language can create rapport.
Studies have shown that copying body language and repeating words with whom you’re interacting helps strengthen relationships. The next time you’re on a date, try mirroring his or her gestures. It can make you seem more attractive. Researchers also found that salespeople who mirrored their customers sold more products.
Now, there is a case where you don’t want to mirror. If a person dislikes you, mimicking will come off as sycophantic. And if you’re a boss who wants to preserve his or her air of authority, make sure you show it when interacting with subordinates.
Efficiency through self-analysis
Matt Bell – Hacking the Sleep/Wake Cycle from Loren Risker on Vimeo.
Sometimes, the only way to get better at something is take a step back and look at the raw numbers. Mat Bell had trouble sleeping, so hooked himself up to an EEG machine and looked at the variables that caused him to have a bad night’s sleep.
Now, most people wouldn’t go to this extreme, but you get the point that looking at something objectively — even recording it in the first place — can improve your performance.
Keep a journal. A life worth living is worth recording, even if no one else sees it. You can look back and see which goals you’ve made and which goals still need some work.
Cool places to work: The Situation Room
View the video on YouTube.
Now this would be a cool place to work. You might have a tiny chance of stepping foot inside if you’re a member of the U.S. intelligence community, Homeland Security or the military (or if you become President), but for the rest of us, this tour of the White House’s Situation Room will have to do.
Look at the executive look and feel they’ve designed for the meeting room. It’s created to mimic Air Force One’s meeting rooms. It lets the President know he’s at work and he’s the boss. Look at the technology. They’ve got top-notch everything. Even the high backed throne chairs and top-secret telephone booths look like something out of a spy film.
That’s not to mention the gravity of work that gets done in a place like The Situation Room.
An inspiring workplace, indeed.
Coffee does not give you superpowers — you do
photo credit: Omar MK
Scientists at the University of Bristol have just found that coffee addicts get no added benefit from their morning cup. Sure, they still need it. I need mine. But it doesn’t do anything other than bring you up to your baseline functioning level. You gain no advantage.
The only person giving you that advantage — that edge — is you. Give yourself credit and dig deeper.
About Me
Hi, I'm Michael (of Vancouver, B.C.). Welcome to my blog. Read more about me.