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Do you have to complete a piece of writing but are putting it off? A report, a blog article, or a letter? Are you finding that the moment you sit down to write, your mind seems to go blank? Crap! Writers block! What can you do about it?
Although, the term writers block is popular, this feeling of blockage and mind blanking is not specific to writing, but of any creative feats. Other examples include, brainstorming for a new business, dancing, musical performances, music composition, painting or photography. I’ve personally experienced this during my photography work, blanking out as I stand in front of a client waiting for me for direction. I call these Creative Blocks, where your mind just comes up empty and you feel lost. It’s purely mental.
Through practice and observation, I’ve gotten pretty good at getting past these blank moments, and this article shares some insights for unlocking your creativity. Throughout the article, I will be using writing as the example, but keep in mind that it is equally applicable to any creative activity. Read more: http://bit.ly/KM38du
Via Martin Gysler
If success depends on effective action, effective action depends on the ability to focus your attention where it is needed most, when it is needed most. This is the ability to separate the important from the unimportant, which is a much-needed skill in all walks of life, especially where there are ever-increasing opportunities and distractions. 12 Universal Skills You Need to Succeed at Anything First, let’s talk a little about ‘time’: There are two types of time, clock time and real-time. In clock time, there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. All time passes equally. In real-time, all time is relative. Time flies or drags depending on what you’re doing. Time management systems often don’t work because they are designed to manage clock time. You live in real-time. The good news is that real-time is mental. You create it. Anything you create, you can manage. There are three ways to spend time: thoughts conversations actions Read more: http://bit.ly/Lrta3v
Via Martin Gysler
If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. 1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Lose 5 pounds” is a better goal than “lose some weight,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. “I’ll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you’ve actually done it. 2. Seize the moment to act on your goals... Read more: http://bit.ly/KNvNwj
Via Martin Gysler
Once there was a man named Lester Levenson. This is true; I know former students of his. One day when he was in his early forties, doctors sent him home from the hospital, giving him only a few months to live. There was nothing to be done, they said. His heart was so weak he was instructed not even to tie his own shoelaces, lest the exertion cause him to drop dead. Now Lester, being a thinking kind of guy, decided he had been stupid to have gotten himself into this position. So he set about to correct things. Overwhelmed with a fear of dying, he began to examine his predicament. He concluded that it was his feelings that were causing all his problems, not others or the world, as he had previously thought. He also discovered that each of us has an inborn capacity to release our negative feelings. So he began to systematically let go of every negative emotion he was experiencing. Read more: http://bit.ly/K9KXhI
Via Martin Gysler
Some of the smartest people I know continuously struggle to get ahead because they forget to address a few simple truths that collectively govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder: #1 – Education and intelligence accomplish nothing without action.
It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action. There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action. It’s as simple as that. For some practical guidance on taking action, I highly recommend The Now Habit. #2 – Happiness and success are two different things.
I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a million dollars online last year. Every entrepreneur I know considers her to be wildly successful. But guess what? A few days ago, out of the blue, she told me that she’s depressed... Read more: http://bit.ly/JDTk5T
Via Martin Gysler
Startups.We know the mantra: Team matters. Is this philosophy exaggerated? Overrated? Cliché? No. Team is the only thing that matters. Whatever you’re working on now, the half-life of innovation is so rapid now that your product will soon be out-of-date. Your existence is irrelevant unless you continue rapid innovation. Your ability to keep up is dependent on having a great team of differing skills. Individuals don’t build great companies, teams do. The nature of the Internet and global knowledge is such that even if you’ve stumbled on to a super interesting area of innovation there will be many teams tackling the same problem at exactly the same time. If you develop something novel that catches a spark you’ll have the world gunning for you over night. In this globally connected world product leads disappear in nano-seconds. Read more: http://bit.ly/J6aoLM
Via Martin Gysler
Are you ready for the fight? Recessions are created for people who want follow this trend... why wouldn't you make your own trend and start your own business? An excellent post with some interesting insights and examples. [note mg] Recessions are the perfect time to start a business: FedEx, Microsoft, Burger King and even GE were started during the recessions the U.S. has experienced over the last century and a half. If you’ve been thinking about starting a new business, the fact that the economy is down should not stop you. In fact, there are many reasons why the national economic situation should encourage you to start a new business now. You Have Motivation... Read more: http://bit.ly/L9RTWH
Via Martin Gysler
So I thought that I might write a quick review of every self-help book ever written all right here in this one little post. Simple enough. I love the easy jobs. Surely it couldn’t be that hard, could it? I figured that maybe I could take the important lessons from every self-help book I’ve read and every life experience I’ve endured, condense all that into fifty key points and save everybody a whole bunch of reading time. Sure, global book sales in the self-help field might take a down-turn for a decade or so, but I’m willing to take that chance and put in a solid sixty minutes (or so) work for the good of humanity; my gift to mankind. Selfless I know.
I thought that perhaps I could follow Stephen Covey’s lead (the Seven Habits) and come up with my own list of say… Read more: http://bit.ly/K0qqcN
Via Martin Gysler
So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years: 1. Ignore everybody. The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the biz card format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn’t I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever? Read more: http://bit.ly/IeXQ4d
Via Martin Gysler
We discuss many aspects of personal finance at Get Rich Slowly. We explore ways to earn more money, get out of debt, and build an emergency fund. We talk about the psychology of money management, and we share tips and tricks for making the most of your savings and your career. Basically, we do our best to help readers take control of their financial lives. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the little details of money management. Sometimes we forget the Big Picture. Because of that, I like to devote my annual Happy New Year post to a colossal summary of the collected wisdom at this site. If you’ve resolved to take control of your finances in 2012, this article is the place to start. It’s packed with tips and resources for making the most of your money. And as I do every year, I’ve added one tip to the list. Here then are twelve simple but effective steps to take control of your finances in 2012...
Via Martin Gysler
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I know you want to be the best you can be. We all do. But sometimes we look for success in the wrong places or we try to achieve it in the wrong ways. Here are 60 inconvenient truths about personal development to help you stay on track. The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing. Growing happens when what you know changes how you live. You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones. A good idea without action is nothing at all. It’s not so much about finding opportunities as it is about creating them. 10% of our lives is decided by uncontrollable circumstances. 90% is decided by how we react to those circumstances. What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow. If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started, you’ll never achieve anything. Read more: http://bit.ly/KEJdhO
Via Martin Gysler
I was recently reading Steve Pavlina’s: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job and noticed that this guy knows what the hell he’s talking about. For this, I feel that it’s very important that I share his article with you just in case you might think like I used to. I too believed that security came with working that “9-5″ and hustling my ass off hoping for a minuscule raise. Sounds familiar right? When I decided to start Circle One Communications, LLC in January 2008 I knew I was taking on a major risk. I also knew that most people wouldn’t understand. Steve along with other successful online marketers seemed to be the only people who understood my downright disdain for being a sheep in a work force that taxed the employee for the benefit of corporate profits. I can relate to the employee mentality for maintaining stability but at the same time… Read more: http://bit.ly/KNyoX1
Via Martin Gysler
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.” This is a famous quote from Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Intuitively, we know that perfectionism is unrealistic and restrictive, a tyrant that steals success. In fact, there are many sayings and experts that stress the importance of making mistakes for creating and achieving great things. But still there are many people who fear making mistakes. According to Martin Antony, Ph.D, professor of psychology at Ryerson University and co-author of When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough, “Generally, fears are influenced by both our biological and genetic makeup, as well as our experiences.” We model what we see, Antony said. He gave the example of parents expressing their fears over making mistakes, which a child, like a sponge, soaks up. Read more: http://bit.ly/M6sEva
Via Martin Gysler
If we don’t own our minds, we’re like pawns in a game where we’re not the player. We’re being played. Corporations, governments, advertisers and even religions (oops, I said it) have gone to great lengths to control your mind. Sometimes their tactics are obvious, but most of the time they are downright sneaky. If we want to ensure that we’re living for ourselves and not serving some corporation’s agenda, we have to put on our mental armor. We have to arm our minds so we can first know when their is an assault on our sovereignty. Here are 10 tools you can use to avoid brainwashing and retain the ownership of your mind: 1. Decrypt media spin.
The media uses many different tools and angles to sensationalize things that aren’t inherently sensational. “Experts generally agree” can mean a community college professor and “recent surveys find” can mean the polling of 10 people... Read more: http://bit.ly/LtkcQN
Via Martin Gysler
You’re willing to achieve something, but your mind mechanism seems to defy it. So how do you bolster the willpower? What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter. Peter F. Drucker. You want to top the class in the exams, but you’re not preparing well. You would like to blog regularly, but you keep finding excuses. You’re dying to get that super client, but your competitor swept them away. You’re trying to break free from all the messy stuffs, but you can’t find a way out. Sounds familiar? What are the odds then? Buckle up; it’s about you and your willpower. Read more: http://bit.ly/MIdYBs
Via Martin Gysler
You are not who you think you are. Your personality and identity is significantly more malleable than you realize. With a few simple tricks, you can exploit your brain's innate functionality to change just about anything about yourself. Here's how. You Are Not Necessarily the Person You Think You Are You are not who you are, but rather the product of many influences. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" exists for a reason: the longer you've been the person you think you are, the harder it becomes to change. The thing is, you can dramatically change who you are. It's actually not so much that it's difficult to change, but that you've developed patterns and habits that make it easier to do things the way you do them. Read more: http://lifehac.kr/KozIhl
Via Martin Gysler
Sometimes what helps us to be successful in our professional lives is not such a great idea in our personal lives — competition is a quality that comes to mind. At the same time, we all have a limited amount of time each day to do the things that we want to do.
So for the sake of saving time and energy, I’m sharing a list of tips that will help you be successful in both life and in business.
1. Add Value
No matter what you do and where you go, you can’t go wrong with adding value. Simply put value is anything that people are willing to pay for. In your professional life, the more value you can offer the more money you can make. In your personal life, more value translates to closer relationships and strong personal growth. The best way to add value is to find the intersection between what people are willing to pay for and what service or product you can offer that is aligned with your values, strengths and goals. Read more: http://bit.ly/KqnTcb
Via Martin Gysler
To be a freelancer is sometimes a hard job. It need a lot of qualities and perseverance to be it for long time... What I like in this post, is that it speak not only about the advantages but also about the disavantages. [note mg] With more and more workers turning to freelancing, you may wonder whether you should freelance. Are you ready? What is the best path to take to become a freelancer?
In this post, I’ll identify five different routes people take to freelancing. I’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Path 1. Right After College Faced with a weak job market, many new graduates turn to freelancing to find employment. There are some positives and negatives to freelancing right out of school. Here are three advantages to freelancing right out of college:... Path 2. After Working for Someone Else Path 3. As a Part-timer Path 4. Job Loss Path 5. A Need for Flexibility Read more: http://bit.ly/JJl6IQ
Via Martin Gysler
This is the first in our series of articles that looks at leadership capacity and its impact on organizational growth and transformation. The full series will be available for download as a white paper once it is completed. Leadership capacity is more than simply skill development; it’s about performance, growth, transformation and change. For the purpose of our discussion in this series of articles, let’s define it as; “Leadership Capacity is the skilful use of leadership attributes for the growth and development of ourselves, our colleagues and our organization”. Great leaders not only understand how to engage and inspire their teams to get the best results — they understand the need to create participatory and collaborative processes that develop the abilities of the next generation of leaders. Leadership lays the groundwork for success Successful companies do not happen by accident. They are the result of building effective leadership capacity and an awareness and willingness to take the necessary steps in identify internal talent and nurture them into the leaders of tomorrow. Read more: http://www.customerthink.com/blog/is_your_leadership_limiting_your_organizations_ability_to_grow
Via Martin Gysler
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