photo credit: sjsharktank

“I could do it if I really wanted to” is one of the oldest and most overused excuses for not getting off your butt and going after something you would very much like to do.

I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I could start learning how to speak japanese, if I really wanted to.

I could become self employed… if I really wanted to.

I do agree that some degree of will power is necessary in order to gets started at doing something.

However relying on it completely to achieve your goals is not generally the most effective approach.

The reason for this is that as humans, we have this natural tendency to feel doubt at some stage towards pursuing your goal.

Why will power is overrated

Trying to pursue a goal while relying solely on will power is like trying to climb a cliff wall without a rope or safety harness. The moment you get tired, or in this case feel doubt, there’s a high chance you’re going to let go and fall straight back to the bottom.

If you don’t need to rely solely on your will power, then don’t.

Unless you are a person who believes 200% that you will definitely succeed, relying solely on your will power to help you overcome a challenge you have never faced before is a recipe for failure.

Will power is not constant like a flash light that shines at the same brightness all the time. It has moments when it dims, which makes the path ahead that much harder to see.

This is when alot of people are likely to give up, and when that happens, you lose.

Why mentors are important

A mentor or a coach is a person who has already reached the destination you want to reach. This means that they know the path and have 100% confidence on how to get to where you want to go.

Many times people will treat life challenges like school exams. You have to rely completely on yourself and you can’t cheat by referring to the answers.

Well guess what? Having a coach is like having a cheat sheet during an exam.

Anytime you feel stuck or need help with a problem, you refer to them.

Anytime you reach an obstacle you feel like you can’t cross, your coach will be there to show you how to cross it and to push you to keep moving forward to the next milestone.

Coaches and mentors are important because they take the guess work out of achieving your goals.

They already know the path, all you need to do is pay attention to what they are telling you to do.

Even if your flash light runs out of batteries and you’ve lost sight of your goal, you can put your arm on their shoulder and they will lead the way.

Mentors and coaches are there to make sure you don’t stop short before reaching your goals, so if you’re really serious about succeeding, get one.

Related posts:

1. My 2 Step Process To Achieving 9-to-5 Freedom
2. What Losing Weight Can Teach Us About Succeeding At Online Business

photo credit: MrB-MMX

Recently I was trying to get a new project off the ground but for some reason I was procrastinating on it.

I had the time and the means but for some reason I just wasn’t doing anything about it.

At this stage most people would just assume that they are just lazy, however I’ve learned that this is usually never the case.

When I thought about the situation more, I realized that every time I thought about the project, my mind would drift towards 2 specific problems.

Even though I had identified the problems, they were fairly complex and took me several frustrating days to come up with solutions.

Once I’d solved them though, I was able to speed through the project without any major issues.

Your brain, as highly evolved as it is, is not designed to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously and I explain why below.

Why can’t I solve multiple complex problems simultaneously?

Complex problems require significant conscious attention and creative thinking. This is why when you try to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously, your brain goes into overwhelm.

Trying to solve multiple complex problems you’ve never dealt with before at once is like trying to listen to two separate conversations on separate topics simultaneously while coming up with intelligent responses to both. Very hard to do and extremely frustrating for everyone.

Projects all consists of multiple tasks, some of which do not have clear solutions.

As such, when you focus on a project as a whole, there is a high chance you will be attempting to focus on multiple problems with unclear solutions.

This is generally how people end up feeling overwhelmed when they think of big projects.

So how do I avoid procrastinating on projects that  feel overwhelming?

Whenever you are faced with a big project, it is best to break it down into its individual tasks.

From here, it is best never to multi-task when dealing with a complex problem within that project.

By doing that,  you are able to focus your full attention on coming up with solutions for that one problem. This then allows you to progress faster through the project.

By progressing faster, you will automatically feel more productive and this will motivate you to keep moving forward.

Aren’t convinced? Try this exercise

Think of something you have been procrastinating on, grab a piece of paper and start writing every single step you need to take in order to mark it down as complete.

You will find that while you are writing this list you will get stuck.

The reason you will get stuck is because you will be faced with an action item or multiple action items that require you to think hard in order to come up with a solution.

For instance, you may find that the reason you are procrastinating on asking your boss for a raise is because you are afraid that you will not know how to respond to his counter arguments for not giving you a raise.

Here you would need to focus all your energy and attention into figuring out how to solve that problem. Maybe you could role play. Perhaps you could take a class on negotiating. Maybe you could imagine your boss is a cute harmless kitty when you go in to see him/her.

Whatever the case may be, procrastination stems from your minds inability to automatically come up with a clear solution for a particular problem.

On a more positive note though, once you have devised a clear solution for the mental obstruction, your path towards your goal becomes much clearer and you are less likely to procrastinate.

When you’re trying to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious, you need to focus.

Otherwise you risk getting frustrated by your lack of progress which leads to procrastination and ultimately causes you to give up.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems
2. Step 6: Post-Office and potential problems
3. Exercise 6.1: Common teleworking problems and solutions

photo credit: thefixer

“The rose doesn’t need to say anything for me to know that it is beautiful”

There are times when conventional wisdom seems appropriate. There are also times when conventional wisdom just feels plain wrong.

It’s at times like these that your instinct is calling out to you to take a second look at the situation to see what’s wrong with the picture.

I’m going to use early high school dating as a means of elaborating more on this point.

When I was 13 years old, the conventional wisdom (for guys anyway) was that if you wanted to go out with a girl you had to impress her.

The accepted method at the time for doing this was to try and prove you were Alpha male by doing something to prove that you were better than all the other guys.

Methods ranged from buying gifts, to bullying nerds to demonstrations of athletic prowess.

These would usually get a girls attention to some degree, but not for very long.

As the years went by, more and more guys caught on that there was more to attracting girls than simply showing off.

As they learned their lessons and realized what worked and what didn’t, guys began to get smarter at the dating game.

I use dating as an example here because it’s a process that you can’t pack into a neat little package and expect to work with everyone.

It’s also something that every guy I know wants to do and as such, are intrinsically driven to do.

Some girls like nice guys, some girls don’t. Some girls like the shy quiet type, others like guys who are charismatic and outgoing.

Knowing if someone is genuinely attracted to you and building a good relationship requires some degree of instinctive awareness.

You can’t just follow a procedure in a book and trust that everything will be just dandy.

The challenge of believing in your own beliefs

Growing up, there were times in my life when things just felt wrong.

Sometimes it gets hard to hold true to your ethics, especially if the whole world is telling you they’re wrong.

I’ll be honest, I’ve let myself slip at times, letting go of beliefs that I held true to myself and succumbing to peer pressure.

The pursuing results were usually worse than giving up my beliefs in the first place.

The reason for this being that, even if the whole world can’t see it, you know you’ve lied to yourself, and that sort of feeling hits you at the core of your being.

The journey to finding your true self can be a hard and lonely path at times.

Sometimes following your instincts means doing what people consider unpopular.

Sometimes it means letting go of friends who though were a bad influence, made you feel like you were connected to someone and weren’t alone.

Usually though, the path of following your heart, no matter how hard, leads you to a place where you feel inner peace, even if the world around you is in chaos.

This is where I believe true happiness lies, and the more I am true to myself, the more I feel it.

Your instincts keep you balanced on the path to your true self

When I close my eyes, I imagine myself as two distinct characters.

There is the me that just wants to feel, react and be passionate, and there is the me that wants to maintain control, structure and direction.

I find that I feel the most content when I am close to striking a balance between the two.

Not too much control that my spirit is broken and I lose touch with my feelings and not too much freedom that I become reckless and inconsiderate of others.

My instincts are the measuring tool that help me maintain harmony and gauge if I am straying too far towards either direction.

Learning to trust your instincts is like learning to trust your balance when riding a bike.

At first it can be hard and you might fall a few times at the start.

Over time though, your balance improves and soon you are riding the bicycle with ease.

Your instincts keep you centered and when mastered, allow you to direct your life and will without struggling.

This is what I believe it means to find your true self.

To be able to choose your own path and to follow it with ease and joy.

Related posts:

1. How to Make Your Company Really Trust You
2. TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution

photo credit: CJ Sorg

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be involved in a strongman training session being run by my chiropractors son.

I’m really new to this kind of training, but from what was explained to me, strongman training involves two things:

1. Progressive increases in weight and specific exercises to increase your functional full body strength.
2. The practice of explosive strength exercises that work your entire body, stimulate your nervous system and make you want to throw up or die

At the end of the two hour training session, I had the opportunity to experience the second one by dragging a weighted sled 50m across a muddy yard in the cold rain.

It was probably the most unpleasant thing I’ve done in awhile and half way through it, I was sure I was going to give up.

10m from the end, I could feel my thigh muscles burning from trying to drag 65kg of sled through mud.

I’m not much heavier than 65kg so I may as well have been dragging my own dead body and by that stage it felt like I was.

At the brink of exhaustion, the only word that was ringing in my head was “STOP”.

My body had had enough and it delivering the message to my fading consciousness.

Just as I was about to call it quits, I could hear voices around me.

It was the other participants and my trainer, urging me on to not give up and that I was almost there.

From hearing the word “STOP”, all I could hear now was “You can do it!”, “Don’t give up, you’re almost there!”.

My body felt terrible, but somehow just hearing and believing that there was a possibility of success, it found the strength to keep moving forward.

Eventually I made it past the finish line and I collapsed in a heap on the ground.

When the blood eventually made it’s way back to my brain, I felt a sense of pride in knowing I managed to push myself past my mental limit and take action.

In acknowledging that, I knew that I would never have been able to do it without the encouragement of my trainer and the rest of the group.

And To the Point of This Story

Sometimes we get bogged down by people who tell us that we cannot achieve something. Eventually if we hear this enough, we may start to believe it ourselves and it becomes our own limiting belief.

In saying that, the opposite is true as well. If someone tells us we can do something and they say it persistently enough, we may start to believe that we are capable of achieving something.

If you want to stop negative thinking and overcome limiting beliefs, you need to do two things:

1. Minimize the negative influence that is stopping you
2. Maximize the positive influence that makes you take action

For instance, if you have friends who are constantly putting you down, then you should make a mental note to not take their advice seriously or just avoid them altogether.

If you have teachers or mentors who makes you feel smart and capable, spend more time talking to them and learn to trust their advice.

One method I find extremely effective is to buy an audiobook that speaks directly to my limiting belief and explains to me systematically how to overcome it.

I will play this audiobook over and over and over again until the limiting belief has been completely overwritten.

By having an external voice constantly and repeatedly explaining the solution to me in a logical fashion, my subconscious mind has no choice but to let go of the limiting belief.

Your internal voice is a powerful thing and what it says to you will determine what you will choose to do and what you will choose not to do in this life.

If you don’t like the sound of that voice, find an external one that you do like and listen to it until your internal voice matches it.

This is why sports teams have pep talks before games and why parents should always tell their kids that they are capable of anything they can put their mind to.

Taking action is also very important, but it all starts with believing in what is possible.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 4.4: Dealing with Negative Self Talk
2. Exercise 4.2: Expressing Ideas Clearly to Overcome Resistance
3. How to Reduce Fear by Thinking Like a Freelancer

Click here to view the original talk on TED.com

Having spent the weekend in Melbourne visiting some friends and exploring the Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture exhibit at Federation Square, I was both inspired and keen to get back to creating new content for the site.

Following my usual routine of checking out what was new on TED, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sir Ken Robinson had presented a new talk.

For those of you that don’t know him, Sir Ken Robinson has been an advocate for encouraging creativity in schools and revamping the education system to help children discover and develop their natural gifts and talents in order to ultimately discover and pursue their passions.

This talk is a follow up from his first talk on TED back in 2006 which is also worth watching.

Related posts:

1. The Paradox Of Choice – A Talk by Barry Schwartz
2. [Video] Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
3. Exercise 4.4: Dealing with Negative Self Talk

photo credit: B. Ware

Do you find that you tend to feel mentally exhausted at the end of a long work day?

You get home, kick off your shoes and just want to relax for the rest of the evening.

That sounds fair you’d think, considering you just spent an entire day slouched in front of a computer screen or some other form of manual work.

Of course you need a break. Who wouldn’t?

The problem with feeling burnt out at the end of each day thought is that it leaves us with little mental capacity to focus our attention on other things that we should probably be focusing on more.

Things like our health or our relationships.

Can you think of times when you chose the vegetating on the sofa over heading to the gym for a workout because you were too tired?

Can you remember occassions when you decided to cancel a meeting with friends or family because you had a long day at work and weren’t in the mood to see anyone?

These seem like small things, but over time small things build up and before you know it you’re 61, overweight and have almost no social life.

Many people I know are stressed out and don’t spend time doing the things they used to enjoy because they believe they simply don’t have the time.

They’re tired and need a break. But the wheel keeps turning and if you don’t keep moving forward, your world could spin out of control.

That’s what I was brought up to believe anyway.

One day though I decided that I would prefer to risk having my world spin out of control than to keep running a race that I felt wasn’t leading me in the direction I wanted to go.

I decided the 9-to-5 work structure wasn’t for me and I quit going to work and became a telecommuter.

What happened next was hardly surprising.

When your brain isn’t forced to stay focused on doing a job you don’t always feel like doing for 8 hours straight everyday, a few things happen.

Firstly, your stress levels begin to drop. Secondly, your energy levels start going up. Thirdly, you immediately begin to feel happier.

Why I believe it is good to feel happy every day

So what’s the big deal with feeling happier?

Well, if you’ve ever been around someone who is genuinely happy, you will know that being around them somehow makes you feel good as well.

When you feel good, you want to do good things. You want to take care of your health, be social and generally do more things that make you feel better and happier.

When you are happier, you’re also in a better frame of mind to tackle negativity and stress.

You’re less likely to snap at people and you have a higher tendency to be patient and tolerant.

Imagine if more people were like this. Imagine if entire communities, societies and countries were like this.

Ok, I might be getting ahead of myself, but I hope you understand the point I’m trying to get to.

Improving society, making the world a better place, it all starts with the individual.

Yes, I’m talking about you, me and even the people who live next door.

While it is possible to be a decent caring person when you are under stress, being stressed, frustrated or just plain tired does make it harder to hold firm to your ethics and to always do what you believe is right.

In my opinion, the problems of the outside world can wait. What we really need to have is the time to reflect on ourselves so that we can change ourselves for the better.

Ask yourself, are you happy? Are you really satisfied with your life?

Because frankly if you’re not, its fairly unlikely that you’d feel driven to start doing anything significant to fix the world.

Find personal peace and happiness, live a life where you are content and from there figure out how you can share that happiness with the people around you.

Gradually but steadily, I believe we’ll be able to come to better answers to global issues as people become more aware and have more attention to spare in order to focus on bigger problems.

In time, we’d have an epidemic of stress free, happy people who want to make the world a better place.

I can’t say for certain what a world like that would be like, though I imagine it would be pretty good.

No related posts.

photo credit: jeffgunn

There is a restaurant that I go to with Cecil every now and again whenever I want African food or more specifically, Ethiopian food.

It’s not close to my house, not obvious from the road and his restaurant doesn’t even come up in a google search.

The reason we know about this restaurant in the first place is because we went to the vegetarian restaurant next door for a friends birthday and Cecil just happened to remember seeing it.

This guys restaurant by search engine standards has terrible SEO, though every time I go for dinner there, his restaurant is usually full of people.

It isn’t a very big restaurant. The size of roughly a small diner. It could easily fit 30 people inside and another 15 or so outside.

Initially you might wonder how his business survives, until you go and experience eating there for the first time.

Upon arriving, the owner greeted us as we walked in. The lights in his restaurant were dim, though it complemented the elaborate decor of the room.

Pictures and cultural heirlooms from Ethiopia covered the walls and the rich smell of spices flowed from the kitchen in the back.

You could tell that the owner really cared about his restaurant and that he had taken great care to make sure that when people walked in, it wasn’t just for food, it was for an experience.

The restaurant was run solely by his family so everything had a personal touch to it.

When it was time to order, the owner seeing that we were new took a few minutes to explain the menu to us and what exactly each dish was.

Making a selection of two dishes, we waited patiently for our orders.

When the food finally arrived, the owner had brought something we had not originally ordered. It was a bowl of freshly made cottage cheese. Before I can say anything, he quickly mentions that it is on the house and that the cheese would help reduce the spiciness of the dishes.

Earlier I had briefly joked to him that my stomach was fairly sensitive to too much chilli, but that I was determined to try this food that I was convinced was worth a temporarily burnt digestive tract.

Though it was only something small, I really appreciated his consideration and the amount of attention he gave to me though I was only one of many customers.

After we had eaten dinner, which was hands down one of the best meals I had ever eaten, he recommended that we finish off the meal with some spiced tea which he brings over in an engraved silver tea pot.

As he pours the first round of tea, he explains that the tea helps to wash down the spices and aided digestion. I could sense that he was still fairly concerned about my stomach, though I told him that no matter what happened I would be happy to do it again as the food was wonderful.

He laughs, and tells us that next time he’ll try to come up with more dishes that aren’t overly spicy. Surprisingly enough, the next time we visited, he did.

———————

Down the road from his restaurant is another African restaurant. It’ right along the main road you couldn’t miss it. Much bigger as well and it could probably whole twice as many customers.

This restaurant does show up in google search, however the feeling you got there was totally different from the first guys place.

I mean the food was decent (not as good as the other place) and the decor was alright, but the overall feeling you got was that the owner was more interested in making a profit than actually being hospitable.

When he realized that we weren’t interested in his efforts to up sell catering packs and the sort, he became quite rude as well.

We never went back to that place, and I always warn my friends who mention they might want to check it out.

Anyway, on paper, this guys restaurant definitely had a higher chance of getting walk in’s off the street than the other restaurant due to the better location (aka SEO).

Despite this though, the restaurant remained fairly empty during dinner with only one other small table being occupied while we were there.

Alot of people also passed by, and while a few would stop to read the menu, most of them would just continue walking past the restaurant.

The point of this whole story

Since visiting the first restaurant, I have since personally brought more than 10 of my closest friends and recommended it to many others.

The reason being that when I visit that restaurant, it’s not just the food that’s great. It’s the whole atmosphere and feeling of caring created by the owner and his family that keeps me coming back for more.

He might have the worse “SEO” in the history of restaurants, but I know where his restaurant is and I’m more than enthusiastic to share its location with anyone who will listen.

If you’ve ever been thinking of starting an online business, my advice is to simply be passionate about what you do and to care about the people who you serve on your site.

Passion is infectious and people like people who sincerely care about them.

If you do that, you won’t need to be on the first page of Google for customers to find you. The people who you’ve served will point new customers right to your door step, and there’s no better customer than one that’s arrived to your site on a recommendation.

If all the search engines were to disappear tomorrow, the only online businesses that would continue to flourish are the ones that have a dedicated following of people that have your web address memorized so they can always find you.

Connect with a customers heart and they’ll always know where to find you and they’ll want to share you with others.

Related posts:

1. DIY Website Part 1: Rules for choosing a name for your website
2. OEB 1 | What is your passion?
3. Donanza – A Freelance and Telecommuting Job Search Engine

photo credit: pshegubj

Being an effective telecommuter isn’t something that tends to happen overnight. Reflecting on the last 2 years and all the unlikely and generally unacknowledged issues I’ve had to deal with while telecommuting, I’ve come up with 7 habits that I believe help me be an effective telecommuter.

Far be it for me to say that I am effective, but I get my work done, I don’t stress and I am happy. I think I’m doing pretty well, though it wasn’t always like that and I had to work on it.

So if you’re ready, on to habit number 1.

Habit 1: Knowing how to get yourself to work and to do it happily

This is probably the most important habit if you want to have any hope of staying productive while you work from home.

There are basically two types of employees out there. Those that are intrinsically motivated ( internally driven, inspired to work) and those that are extrinsically motivated (externally driven, motivated by an outside force).

Most people are somewhere between the two to a certain degree, though it is important to ensure you are able to work consistently when you need to.

For instance, you may get too comfortable with your manager not checking up on your work and feel tempted to keep delaying work.

To counteract this you could make it a point to send weekly or monthly reports to your manager so you know that you have something riding on delivering your work on time.

If you are self-employed, you could make it a point to yourself to sit down and work for at least 2 hours in the morning after which you would reward yourself by taking the next 2 hours off watching an episode of your favorite TV show.

Figure out what motivates you and use it to get yourself to work.

Habit 2: Knowing where to draw the line between work and life

When I started off as a telecommuter, my office was also my bedroom.

I wouldn’t say this was the worst idea, but it did make it difficult to differentiate between work time and leisure time, much to the dismay of my partner who would catch me checking work emails before bed time.

When telecommuting or working from home, you need to know where to draw the line between work and life.

This can be done by certain boundaries that you will not cross once you are familiar with your work habits and what you need to do to stay effective.

For instance, you could make it a point not to check emails after 5pm or that on weekends you won’t touch work at all.

Alot of people already have trouble separating life from work while they are working in an office.

Once your home is your office, the lines can start to blur even more, so make it a point to ensure they stay clear.

Habit 3: Remembering to open the window or to go outside

The power of natural light can’t be understated when it comes to being an effective telecommuter.

I didn’t think this was a major issue, until I noticed strange changes in my behavior after not leaving my home for more than a week and generally keeping the shades drawn.

Too much darkness and not enough sunlight turns you into a creature of the night. Depressed, sluggish and out for blood.

Get some fresh air because you can and let some light in to get your daily dose of Vitamin D.

You won’t sparkle, but you’ll definitely feel better.

Habit 4: Getting enough sleep on a normal sleep schedule

Not enough can be said for the benefits of getting a night of undisturbed restful sleep.

You feel better, you work better, you are better. I don’t even use the alarm clock anymore on normal work days.

While this won’t apply to everyone, I find that I generally enjoy my day better when I do not wake up past 10am.

After 10am I feel half the morning is gone and I feel more rushed for some reason.

As a telecommuter, being effective depends highly on your own ability to stay alert since there isn’t going to be anyone around to push you to work if you’re looking abit sluggish.

Try to get the maximum number of hours sleep you can every night so that you feel fresh and ready to face the day when you wake up.

This not only helps you think more clearly. You will be more productive and everything is generally more enjoyable, even work.

Habit 5: Learning to slow down

My sequence of waking up used to look like this:

• Wake up> Computer > Food when I remember > Oh yeah I should maybe shave and brush my teeth

I used to feel rushed in the morning, like I needed to get to work right away and that time was flying.

Nowadays I’ve learned to slow down and come to realize that while work is important, it shouldn’t be the first thing i’m thinking of when I wake up.

Instead, I take the time to actually wash up. Then I go to the kitchen and make myself some real breakfast instead of having a rushed piece of toast and burning my throat on hot coffee.

When I’ve made my breakfast I’ll sit down at my desk (hang on hang on, I’m not working yet) and watch something inspiring like a TED talk or listen to an audio book to put myself in a positive frame of mind.

If I don’t feel like doing that, I’ll just sit down at my breakfast table and look out the window for awhile, taking the time to chew my food without worrying about the clock.

The point here is to learn to slow down and not to rush. Savor the time you have and enjoy it like fine wine.

Why? Because you can. And because it helps you relax and think more clearly about things that are important.

Habit 6: Knowing when its time to just do something else

There are times when you will hit a mental block. When you’re in the office, you’d probably get up, go talk to a colleague, surf the web or do something to ease your frustration on your task.

All the while though you have this nagging feeling that you should be working and that the warden could show up anytime and catch you slacking off.

Sometimes though, enough really simply is enough.

When I hit mental blocks or when I feel like I’ve been sitting down for too long and my legs are getting stiff and my eyes are getting sore, I know its time to just get up and do something else.

There is no point in stressing your mind and your body past the point where it is simply unhealthy to do so.

It’s like trying to drive at 100mph when your car refuses to go past the first gear. Eventually you’ll just break the gear box, then you’re not going anywhere.

When you feel frustrated, I’m not saying give up right away. But if you’ve been hitting a problem for hours, had 8 cans of red bull and the floor is littered with the hair you’ve pulled out of your head, it’s a sign that you need to stop and do something else.

Take a nap, play a game, go out. Just do anything that takes your mind off work.

You’ll usually find that once your stress levels have dropped and your mind begins to relax, the ideas will flow more readily and  you’ll be able to find a solution to the problem that was hindering you.

Habit 7: Doing stuff to help remind yourself how lucky you are to be out of the 9-to-5

Like all things, it is really easy to take what you have for granted if you don’t take time to appreciate it.

Here is a short list of things that I recommend to help remind yourself that you are one lucky person to be able to work from home.

• Wake up at 10am or later
• Spend all day doing something you enjoy doing
• Take a siesta in the afternoon
• Take your laptop and go work outside
• Go do your errands during the day
• Drive to the beach
• Drive to hills
• Just drive
• Work in your pajamas
• Call a friend and catch up
• Make yourself a decent lunch
• Write on your blog
• Watch an entire anime series from start to finish
• Watch a movie
• Go to the gym
• etc etc etc

Related posts:

1. 8 Easy Ways to Look Effective in the Office
2. Step 1: Becoming a Fast, Effective and Independent Employee

photo credit: banspy

Have you ever watched a baby when it was learning how to walk?

First it would start to crawl.

Next it would try to stand while supporting itself.

After that it would try to walk while supporting itself.

Eventually, it would try to take a few steps without support.

Finally it would start to walk on its own without a problem.

It all sounds straight forward, though you also know that through this entire process they would fall on their butt more often than they would succeed.

It’s a great blessing that when you are at that age, we don’t really have a concept of failure or disappointment.

If we did, there would probably be a great many adults who are still crawling on their hands and knees.

In a way, most grown ups are still crawling on their hands and knees, though not in the way you might think.

Whenever we try something, fail and then never try again because we feel so disappointed by the failure, that’s when we become babies that never learn to walk.

If I asked you how much time you would give your baby to learn how to walk before giving up completely, you would probably say that you wouldn’t give up until your baby succeeded.

Now that makes sense… when you’re a parent with a baby.

Unfortunately, we don’t generally apply this sort of thinking to ourselves. That we are going to try and try and try until we succeed.

I know how frustrating it can be to fail and  how disheartening it can be to feel like success is taking forever to reach.

Because of this, I try to get joy from every minor success I get and to acknowledge every benefit I experience along the way.

For instance if I was trying to lose weight, during the process I would feel myself getting more and more energy, my clothes starting to fit better and my body becoming more defined.

I might have only lost half a kilo a week into my training, but by experiencing the benefits of the process and acknowledging them, I am motivated to keep moving forward.

For babies, they don’t think about disappointment or failure. They live in the moment and find amazement in discovering new things, even if its simply being able to stand upright.

Related posts:

1. What Losing Weight Can Teach Us About Succeeding At Online Business

photo credit: Martin Kliehm

There are days when I can work for 12 hours straight and there are days when I just can’t stand to work.

On days like the latter, I know I feel that way because my brain and my body are asking me to RELAX.

Here are my top 10 ways I use to relax on days when I really just need to take a break.

1. Take a nap – This is by far my favorite, especially on days when I’ve been up late working
2. Play some Soul Caliber or Tekken on the PS2 – Button smashing really loosens up the typing fingers.
3. Make some noodles and watch a movie – Good food and mindless entertainment,  need I say more.
4. Go out for a walk – Fresh air and the outdoors, reminds me of how lucky I am.
5. Do some chores and clean the house – A clutter free environment encourages a clutter free mind.
6. Go to the gym or do some climbing – Healthy body, healthy mind. A bit of sweat to loosen out tense muscles.
7. Make a cup of tea, sit on the couch and catch up on some reading – On rainy days, there really is nothing better.
8. Working on my blog – It’s never work if you enjoy what you do
9. Playing my guitar – There’s always a new song to be learned
10. Take a hot shower or bath – After one of these, everything just seems better

Related posts:

1. The 2 Key Reasons Why Most People Think Working From Home is Difficult or Impossible