Category: Personal Development

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Disconnect Yourself from Distractions and Notifications

One problem with the modern world is that it’s almost expected that people are supposed to multitask. The problem is no one can actually do it. It’s actually impossible for over 99 percent of humans to multitask. If you don’t believe me, you’ll need to look up the studies because it’s not something that is disagreed upon among social scientists.

 

Humans Cannot Do Two Things at Once

 

In reality, instead of true multitasking, you’re just splitting your attention between tasks – and not always evenly either. Trying to multitask is a productivity killer and also a mood killer. There are rare humans with superhuman ability who can multitask, just like there are rare humans who can perform superhuman athletic feats; some people are born with brains that are different from the norm.

 

More than likely, you are not one of those people. More than likely, you also cannot actually multitask. Trying to multitask is not just killing your productivity it’s probably even making you feel bad about yourself because you can’t live up to your own expectations, much less anyone else’s.

 

Multiple Studies Show People Cannot Multitask

 

Studies conducted by universities around the world have concluded that multitasking is not possible. Imaging shows that it takes most of us an average of 15 minutes to switch tasks and become reoriented to a primary task once distracted. There is no scientific argument that these things are true. After 50 years of research, scientists agree that trying to multitask is poorly affecting our productivity and our memory and, sadly, creativity.

 

Make The Commitment to Give Up Trying to Multitask and Start Focusing

How And Why You Must Remove Distractions

So, try this out for yourself. Turn your notifications off and stop being available 24 hours a day. You don’t owe it to anyone to be available to them at all times of the day and the night. And honesty, can you really be that much help at all hours of the day and night? When you don’t sleep enough, is your work done to a high enough standard?

 

Set specific times and block out your schedule for each activity and task you want to do each day. Whether it’s surfing Instagram or watching YouTube or commenting to your friends on Facebook Groups – or going for a game of Tennis with friends – get it in the schedule so that you can focus on it 100 percent.

 

When you get good at scheduling and actively shunning the idea of multitasking, you’ll feel so much more satisfied with your life and feel as if you have more time for doing all the things that make you happy and successful in life.

 

 

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Learn and Practice the Philosophy of Stoicism

There is no way for you to learn everything you need to know about this life philosophy from one blog post or article. However, if you’ve never even heard of the idea, just being exposed to this idea and what it really means can help you live a better and more successful life.

 

Live a Good Life of Virtue and Good Character

 

Firstly, a stoic believes that living a life of virtue and good character is the answer to living a happy and fulfilled life. To live this type of lifestyle, it takes introspection and an understanding of your own personal values, principles, morals, and willingness to live them.

 

You Are Responsible for Yourself

Are You Really Being Accountable?

 

Secondly, a stoic believes it’s within your power to be who you are and who you want to be and that you are fully 100 percent responsible for your own life and how you feel about it, but you cannot control what you cannot control. Therefore, a stoic will focus on controlling what is controllable.

 

Want Less Experience More

 

Thirdly, a stoic puts more stock in having experiences and learning new things over having more stuff or buying the most popular thing. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a minimalist, but they don’t just buy things for no reason or status purposes and actively focus on wanting less.

 

Accepting of Reality

 

Finally, stoics understand that they will not live forever. They are accepting that they’ll die at some point and live their life with that in mind. For example, if statistics show that walking fast 45 minutes a day extends life, and the stoic can make that happen because they have legs and the time to walk, they’re going to do it without struggling about the why or what-ifs surrounding the stats.

 

If you’re not sure who you are yet, or how you want people to think of you after you’re gone, take the time to discover who you are and how to become the person you want to be. If you are often considering the legacy you’re going to leave behind, it’s a lot easier to make the right choices when you have an options. Suppose you are fully accepting that you control your own reactions to the things that happen to you and not the other way around. In that case, it becomes a lot easier to make good choices minding your own personal ideals over what other people might think about it right now.

 

You can learn more about stoicism by reading books about philosophy like:

 

 

 

But you can also join groups about stoicism on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media sites that offer communities. There are also many useful YouTube videos about the philosophy of stoicism that you can get a lot out of.

 

 

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Daily Habit for Health: Stand Up At Least Once Every 30 Minutes

The smallest action, when done regularly, can make all the difference. If your life or job is sedentary, you can improve your health substantially simply by adding just one thing to your day. Add movement every 30 minutes and do it by making it a habit.

Exercise For 5 Minutes Each Morning

This micro habit of movement can make all the difference in your chances of developing cancer or having circulatory issues like blood clots, and even improve your mental health – and all you have to do is stand up, get up, and stretch your legs once every 30 minutes.

 

No special equipment or clothing is needed. Just get up and stretch and then sit back down and continue working. This habit will improve your circulation, help you maintain your weight, cut down on anxiety, and make you feel more awake and productive all day long.

Weight loss

To lesson your chances of blood clots or other cardiovascular issues:

 

  • Take a break to stand up every 30 minutes – All you have to do is stand up, stretch for a few seconds, and then sit back down—no need to go on a stroll or anything like that. Just get up, stretch, and sit back down every 30 minutes. Set up a reminder to get up and move.

 

  • Stand and move while watching Television, YouTube, or Movies – Instead of sitting to start with, don’t sit. Stand up and get moving while you watch your favorite shows. You can stand up and march in place while watching just as easily as you can lay down and watch.

 

  • Work at a standing desk – Invest in a sit and standing so that you can either sit or stand during different periods of activity. The change will really help you avoid problems.

 

  • Use a desk treadmill – One way to beat the system entirely is to invest in a desk treadmill that fits under your desk so that you can keep moving as you work. Peddling away while you work at your desk in a sitting position will help a lot.

 

  • Start fidgeting – If you really cannot get up and sit back down due to work policy or flow, start learning to wriggle while working. Fidgeting by moving your legs back and forth can keep the blood flowing, so you’re less likely to develop a blood clot from being sedentary.

 

Even if you are a person who exercises every day, if you don’t get up every 30 minutes or so when sitting, you could be putting yourself at greater risk of poor health outcomes. According to studies conducted by the Mayo Clinic, sitting even 90 minutes at one stretch without moving could be detrimental to your health even if you regularly exercise.

 

 

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Exercise For 5 Minutes Each Morning

An important habit to incorporate into your day is to move your body more. Sitting and being sedentary is worse for your health than even being a cigarette smoker, assuming the smoker is physically active.

Walking

Short Term High-Intensity Exercise Benefits Health

 

According to a 2018 study at an Australian University, two minutes of exercise at a high intensity in the morning may be just as good for you as 30 minutes of exercise. Plus, moving boosts your serotonin levels and puts you in a happy mood the rest of the day, not to mention you’ll jump-start your metabolism and thus maintain a healthier weight easier.

 

Morning Exercise Eliminates the Need for Willpower

 

Most of us have good intentions to move more, but we often allow an entire day to go by without ever doing the intentional exercise we planned. This ends up backfiring and causing us to be less healthy and less productive due to increased fatigue and brain fog that happens when you’re sedentary.

 

Make It a Habit

 

From this day forward, right after you get up, as soon as you can move well, do a three-minute warm-up plus two minutes of high-intensity movements until it becomes a habit for you within thirty minutes of rising each day. Since it’s just five minutes, you don’t have to prepare as much as if you were going on a bike ride or a longer run.

 

Mix Up Your Movements or Just Do the Same Thing

 

Some ideas are jumping jacks, jump roping, pushups, jogging in place, jogging down your driveway, squats, running up and down your stairs. Whatever it is that you do, do it at full intensity for just two minutes. You can exercise more later, but this is just something you do upon rising each day before you have your coffee or get ready for the day.

 

The benefits of working out like this each morning are that you’ll feel more energetic all day long, you’ll be more alert, focus better, and due to all that, be a lot more effective in whatever you need to do. Making the workout only five minutes long, including warm-up and the high-intensity two-minute workout, helps eliminate any excuses because you don’t need any equipment, gym, or set up to do this fast workout. But, one thing is clear, it will set you up for a much more successful day.

Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

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Say No At Least Once a Week

As you work building in daily habits that will make you more successful, one of the skills you need to practice and habituate is saying no more.

For the next month or so, start saying no to something at least once a week.

say no

The way to choose what to say no to is to check your goals, look at your schedule, and ask yourself what you really want. If an action leads you to reach your goals and fits your schedule, saying yes is fine, but if it does not provide any value to you or does not fit into your schedule right now, say no.

 

When you do say no, you don’t owe anyone a reason with few exceptions. However, here are some reasons and ways that you can say no more often.

 

If You Already Know Say So

 

Sometimes you simply know that you don’t want to do something no matter what. Instead of putting people off or saying yes just to avoid the issue, start saying no right away. For example, if you have a friend involved in an MLM and constantly asks you to come to parties or buy things, and you have but resent it, start saying no and ask them to stop asking you.

 

Say I’ll Think About It

 

You don’t have to give people answers right away about anything. This can help you reduce the pressure on yourself to say yes to anything. Start making it a habit always to say, “Let me check my schedule. I’ll get back to you by 3 pm on Friday with my answer.” This way, they can wait patiently, and you can ensure that you want to say yes or no.

 

Always Check Your Schedule

 

Even if your first thought is that it’s something you want to do, you must always check your schedule before saying yes. You may be over booked already, and even if you’re going to say yes, you need to say no. Doing this will ward off burnout. Stretching yourself too thin is bad for you and everyone else that depends on you too.

 

Offer Alternatives

 

Sometimes you can’t do what your customer or the person wants, but you can turn your no into a yes in the recipient’s mind. If you know someone who can do the thing being asked of you better, tell them about it. If you can offer some help but not exactly what was asked for, say exactly that to the person.

 

One thing to remember is that you don’t have to be part of everything in your community. Saying no allows others to step up. Suppose you’re the type that runs your PTA, a small business, and more than two or three community organizations and clubs. You’re probably doing too much. Let others shine and take your time back. Your friends and family and you will thank you.

Write Down 3 Things You’re Grateful for Each Day

 

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Write Down 3 Things You’re Grateful for Each Day

One of the very first habits it’s important to incorporate into your daily life if you want to be happy and feel successful is the habit of gratitude. Being grateful is more than looking on the bright side. It’s actually about being realistic about what is good in your life.

I am Grateful

To record your gratitude, use whatever method works best for you, whether it’s to email yourself, using a paper diary, or some other method. The important thing is that you acknowledge in a way that can be tracked at least three things you’re grateful for so that you can look back on it and measure how far you’ve come.

Tips to Help You Practice Positive Thinking

Plus, there are many benefits to appreciation outside of a good mindset.

 

  • You’ll Feel Happier – The saying about what you focus on grows is very true, especially when your focus is on something positive about your life. When you can see the good in your life as it’s happening, you’ll be much more likely to be able to do it again.

 

  • You’ll Be More Satisfied with Your Life – It’s so easy to focus on things when they go wrong. You missed your alarm clock, you got caught in the rain, you spilled food on your new shirt – all seem like bad things until you realize oversleeping enabled you to cuddle with your spouse longer, the rain cooled you down after lunch, and you only spilled the food because you were laughing with your best friend.

 

  • You’ll Become Less Materialistic – When you focus on the positive, it becomes clear that it’s not things that make you happy or successful – it’s experiences. As you realize that your life becomes so much richer and then, of course, you feel more comfortable and experience your life as successful.

 

  • You’ll Be Less Likely to Suffer from Burnout – If you’re aware of yourself and stay mindful, you can avoid experiencing burnout in the first place. Taking the time to record your gratitude lets you concentrate on the good parts, which can calm you down and let you place your focus where it belongs.

 

  • You’ll Experience Better Physical Health – People who can turn their focus to what’s good in their life are more likely to exercise, eat right, and stay mindful about their health.

 

  • You’ll Sleep Better Every Night – Getting everything out on paper before bed is a great time to focus on gratitude. You’ll fall asleep faster as your good mood will result in reduced anxiety.

 

  • You’ll Feel Less Fatigue – When you sleep better at night due to less anxiety, you’re naturally going to feel more well-rested and sharp during the day.

 

  • You’ll Feel Healthier Due to Suffering from Less Inflammation – Sleeping better and being less anxious has great effects in a positive direction on body-wide information thought to be one of the driving factors in disease.

 

  • You’ll Be More Mentally Resilient – Not having your mind clouded with all the negativity of the day is going to help you bounce back when things do go wrong. When you can turn your brain toward what’s good about something, you can usually get back on the path faster.

 

  • You’ll Be More Patient – Not being on edge due to anxiety and bad thoughts will also increase your patients with others and yourself too. After all, there is often something good you can take from almost everything, eventually.

 

  • You’ll Have Better and More Solid Relationships – People like being around those who are more positive than they do people who are always on edge and anxious. If you really want to build strong relationships, focus on the positive more.

 

As you can see, being grateful carries many benefits that will make your entire life better. No one is asking you to be thankful for a bad situation, especially something beyond your control, but you need to look at what is working in your life, analyze why that is working, and then do more of that. The best way to do that is to look for things to be grateful for each and every day.

 

 

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Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps

Focus shows you have the drive and desire to want to achieve something. It’s about putting all your energy into one thing and getting it down with grit and determination. It ingrains your goals and keeps you on the path of success. However, it’s hard to maintain and easily affects your business if you don’t.

 

Here are five steps to improve your focus and prevent self-sabotage from destroying your success:

 

Step 1: Find Your Mantra

Everyone has something unique to them that drives them to keep going—for example, putting on music while you work or giving yourself words of encouragement. Whatever it may be, find what resonates with you and repeat it every day before you get to work. If you are not sure, try giving yourself a pep talk in the mirror first thing in the morning and see just how much more productive and positive your day becomes.

 

Step 2: Commit to Healthy Routines

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and exercise routine is one of the best ways to ensure you get the right nutrients your body needs to function optimally. Poor concentration and memory problems are direct messages from your body that it is missing essential nutrients to work correctly. Learn to listen to it and always strive to provide it what it needs.

 Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

Step 3: Eliminate Distractions

Put your distractions like cell phones in a different room or turn on your StayFocused chrome browser extension to block YouTube or other sites you always lose track of time on. Create the right working environment that inspires you to work at your best and quickly. Throw out clutter and things that don’t provide value to your work.

 

Step 4: Commit to Mindfulness

To be more focused, you have to commit to do so and be mindful of your actions and surroundings. You can’t expect others to provide that information for you, nor will their perspective be automatically valuable. As only you know what you need and want from life, no one else. Only you know if music distracts you or if your set goals don’t actually align, for example.

 

Step 5: Plan More Effectively

Find the right time of day to do your work. All humans have a set number of productive hours and times of day that work best for them. Test and experiment with various schedules to see what works best for you. Just because everyone else works a 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t mean you have to, too.

 

Don’t let your lack of focus get in your way any longer. Determine what you really want in life, create an action plan, take responsibility, and control your own life.

Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps

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Invest in More Training and Education

When you invest in more training and education, you are investing in yourself and ensuring a successful life for you and your business. Through education, creativity and innovation are born. What you achieve and don’t do in life is a symptom of the knowledge and experiences you have gained.

 

As they commonly say, “You can’t know what you don’t know.” Simple to put, yet complex in nature when you really break it down. In other words, when you lack the knowledge, you can’t make the right decisions. This is why it’s essential to take the time to find and invest in the right education to be sure you do what needs to be done to live your idea of success.

 

The following are four important reasons you should never skip on an opportunity to learn and gain more knowledge:

The Importance of Continued Learning in Life and Business

To Increase Your Reputation and Trustworthiness

To make a sale in a business, you need to form trust with your target audience. This requires your ability to build a favorable reputation for your brand. The more you educate yourself within your industry, the better you can understand how to do this.

 

To Bring About New Opportunities and Experiences

Personal growth, innovation, and creativity are developed through the experiences and opportunities you take. You get a chance to see life from many different perspectives as you meet and interact with more people. Giving you more opportunities to network and to better optimize your business.

 Be More Proactive and Less Reactive to Achieve Higher Success

To Have A Competitive Advantage

The one consistency to life is change. While scary to most, it is actually a beautiful thing. Change has afforded you all the wonderful experiences, people, and possessions you get to enjoy today. Change in business can happen fast, and before you know it, you are no longer relevant. Education can keep you relevant and ahead of your competition as you are proactive to keep up and become more creative.

 

To Improve Strengths and Weaknesses

Finally, but certainly not least, education provides you the ability to improve your weakness and perfect your strengths. Even more so, it can unlock abilities and skills you never know you had. Further increasing your creativity and giving your business a unique and personal advantage.

 

To Improve Empathy and Compassion

Education provides you information and different perspectives about the world. Empathy and compassion help you develop a deep understanding of the world, its challenges, and how people interact. With empathy and compassion, you can create better products, ideas and get through obstacles more efficiently and successfully.

 

Investing in education will always be a gain, even if you can’t see it directly. It can improve the quality of work, increase your revenue, improve your communication and understanding of the world to better plan and be more effective with your time. Increasing your success and happiness in the long run, making it one of, if not, the best investment you can make in business.

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Essential Elements of The Realistic Optimist

If you want to be more productive, striving to be more of a realistic optimist might be the strategy for you. If you ask a successful entrepreneur what values or attitudes you should project, realism and optimism will likely be high on their list. An optimistic mindset should always be filtered with realism to see success. You can be a positive person all day long, but that doesn’t mean you will get what you want if you don’t act.

 

Here are a few tips to help you become a realistic optimist:

 

Unrealistic Vs. Realistic Optimist: Understand the Difference

One of the best methods to learning how to do something is to discover what not to do first. Being positive is great and has many benefits but doesn’t do anyone favors if it’s unrealistic. Toxic positivity only keeps you back and focused on the wrong things.

 

The distinction between a realistic optimist and an unrealistic one is their actions and their perspective on the world. Unrealistic optimists believe they will have success no matter what, even if they don’t work on it. They deserve and are owed success and the path to it won’t be complicated or challenging.

 

Realistic optimists are the exact opposite. While they too believe their life will be successful, they understand it is still up to them to realize that they have to seek knowledge and education, recognize mistakes, improve skills, and go after their dreams. They don’t wait around for it to come. They are proactive and always take on new challenges because they see them grow and gain more.

Changing Your Mindset: Attitude is Everything

Keep It Positive but Relevant and Attainable

An optimist is someone who is hopeful and confident about their life and the direction it will go. They believe that the world is ultimately good, and that evil will never prevail. While it sounds great, it’s not very practical on its own.

 

The world may be ultimately good, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be hard or challenging, which is why you need realism to balance it out. Realism makes sure that the plan you are taking is relevant to your ultimate dreams and ultimately attainable.

 

Only Focus on What You Can Control

One of the main objectives of a realistic optimist is to only focus on and control what you can. There is no point in ruminating or overthinking something that you have no ability to change.

 

You can’t change the weather; you can’t control people’s emotions, but you can control how you respond and which actions you take or don’t to get around it. You know the weather can change at a moment’s notice, so always have a plan B, for example.

 

Use these tips to be more positive and realistic to achieve maximum productivity, happiness and never miss any opportunity.

 

Changing Your Mindset: Attitude is Everything

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Your Lack of Realism Is Stalling Your Success

Realism allows you to manage your time better to plan more efficiently with improved confidence, clarity, and focus on tackling your goals. Realism ensures positivity and actions that result in creating attainable and relevant pursuits. Realistic people are said to be more independent and practical with their time.

Managing Your Mental State (When Times Are Tough) or (Through Adversity)

They use education, knowledge, and mindfulness to their advantage to make the right decisions. You will rarely see them go with the flow or not take a moment to recognize it for what it truly is. Without realism, you are likely down a rocky path of confusion and low self-confidence as you continue to accomplish goals that don’t lead to happiness or try to go after ones that don’t make sense and are out of reach.

This is a Great Jim Rohn Video that highlights the Steps to setting Realistic Goals. Pure Gold!

 

The following are a few tips to help you be more realistic to improve your business and life:

 

Always Stop to Think and Evaluate

Your parents might have told you this already, but it’s important to reiterate and harder than one might think. However, it’s the first step you should take to being more realistic. If you don’t stop and thoroughly analyze the situation, it could lead to more problems down the road. Miscommunication often stems from reacting right away rather than fully listening and being aware in that moment. It only takes a few minutes to evaluate your situation to be sure the information you are receiving and dissecting is accurate or not.

 

Develop More Awareness

Realism develops through experiences and education. Taking the time to learn about other people and the challenges or different things they go through in life allows you to see a different perspective and really see things for what they are. When you know all sides of the equation, you won’t be shocked at the result.  Join local events, industry conferences and surround yourself with more people that have similar interests and goals.

Ask for Feedback and Advice

Don’t shy away from constructive feedback, advice, or different point of view. The purpose is to provide you more insight and information you can’t see for yourself. Even if their opinions may not be true in the end, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t value you in some way. Now you know what not to do, for example.

 

Take Responsibility

Commit to being more mindful and responsible for your actions and inactions. This means being proactive with your life and gaining the knowledge required to form the success you want. Recognize your mistakes and find ways to improve, and always strive to be and do better.

 

Remember, the key to realism is to slow down, experience more, take in as much information as possible to create the right action steps to achieve your dreams and aspirations.