Monday, August 12, 2013
LET PEOPLE COME INTO YOUR HEART
LET PEOPLE COME INTO YOUR HEART: It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you
Inspiring article by Jamie Dunn on
blog of +Richard
Branson
Jamie Dunn says:
“To me, building up a network with key, knowledgeable and most importantly, trusted individuals is one of the best things you can spend your time doing. Not just collecting stacks of business cards that you will keep in your drawer and never use, I mean creating relationships that add value to your life and your business. Most opportunities come from developing the right connections and relationships.”
I have sometimes the impression that people do only concentrate on presenting
themselves in the networks instead of reaching out to people. They have learned
to function.
You can be the best marketing person in the world, but if nobody knows who
you are then does it really count?
Especially Twitter is a great tool for networking, maintaining relationships
and creating new ones.
Do you really notice people or do you only share your stuff?
Twitter is like a great avenue where people meet others and there are indeed
people who say hello to you because saying hello shows that we are friendly,
open and interested in other people. The only problem is that not all people are
open and want to say hello back.
How can relationships develop when we nip them in the bud?
Life seems to be a matter of course.
Do we live our life with arrogance or with openness and a heart for other
people?
Do we try to impress with authority or with empathy?
Does trust come from:
I trust that you believe in my authority!
Learn to respect me!
I trust that you believe in my authority!
Learn to respect me!
or from:
I offer you my empathy and my trust that you are able to develop trust in me!
I offer you my empathy and my trust that you are able to develop trust in me!
??
I prefer the second option.
And you?
LET PEOPLE COME INTO YOUR HEART!
BE OPEN FOR OTHERS!
Read the article: http://goo.gl/Ek9eV
(Image from Aidan Jones on
Flickr: http://goo.gl/D4KPT)
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Live Longer
Live Longer: What You Can Learn from Elite Athletes and Why the Japanese Never Die
I played baseball for 17 years. I had incredible teammates. I spent thousands
of hours practicing and training. And after my senior season, I was named an
ESPN Academic All–American. (Press release here.)
It’s safe to say that being a baseball player was an important part of my
identity. It gave me a sense of purpose.
And then, one day, I graduated and my career was over.
As soon as I finished playing, I felt lost. On the outside everything looked
fine. I went to graduate school. I graduated with my MBA. I started my first
business. But on the inside, it seemed like I was wandering through life without
a sense of direction. I did the things that were in front of me, but never with
a sense of true conviction.
When you’re an athlete, you wake up with a sense of purpose each morning. You
know what you’re working toward (a championship), you know who you’re working
for (your teammates), you know why you’re training so hard (to become your
best).
I didn’t know it at the time, but having a sense of purpose — like the one I
had from baseball — is critical for feeling fulfilled, happy, and healthy. As
human beings we need something to direct our attention toward and something to
set our sights on.
But it’s not just my personal experiences that say a sense of purpose is
important for your health and well being, the medical research says the
same.
Here’s why a sense of purpose can help you live a long, healthy, and happy
life…
Why Do Some People Survive While Others Die?
In 1955, a physician named Robert Butler joined the National Institute of
Health.
In the years that followed, Butler and his research team would study the
health and longevity of people over the age of 65 in great detail. Butler became
fascinated with aging and would publish a wide array of ideas about how the
elderly could live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives in their final years. In
1976, he wrote about many of his findings in the book Why
Survive? Being Old in America and won the Pulitzer Prize for his work.
Butler’s research focused on subjects that were between 65 and 92 years old,
which meant that he had a front row seat for examining the factors that led to
longer life spans. As his career evolved, his research led to important
discoveries about what was required to live a long, healthy life.
One of the key discoveries that came from Butler and his research team
involved the importance of a sense of purpose.
As it turns out, people who had a strong sense of purpose in their lives
lived longer than those who didn’t have a clearly defined purpose. Moreover,
people who woke up each morning with clear goals for their life not only lived
longer, they also lived better than their peers (higher quality of life).
Most important of all, this wasn’t a finding that came from a single study,
but rather was repeated dozens of times in studies not only from Butler’s team,
but also from many other researchers.
For example, take recent research from Dan Buettner that looked at the women
of Okinawa, Japan…
Why the Japanese Outlive the Rest of Us
Okinawa is the southernmost region of Japan and consists of thousands of tiny
islands dotting the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. Those islands happen to be
the home of some of the healthiest people on the planet.
The Japanese have an average life expectancy of 83 years old, the highest in
the world. In particular, the women are incredibly resilient with an average
life span of 86 years, according to the World
Health Organization.
But in Okinawa, the story is even more remarkable. Despite being the poorest
prefecture in Japan, the residents of Okinawa have the “longest disability–free
life expectancy in the world.”*
Why?
There are many reasons, of course, but one of the most important is that
Okinawans have a strong sense of purpose. Okinawans are known for maintaining a
positive outlook on life and for pursuing their ikigai, which is a
concept that means “reason for being” or “reason for waking up in the
morning.”
Whether it be taking care of their grandchildren, working in the community,
tending to a garden, or anything in between, each person has an ikigai.
And as their long life spans reveal, having a sense of purpose is critical for
your health and happiness.
All of this begs the question, how can you find a sense of purpose in your
life?
Applying This to Your Life
There are two parts to every journey. Where you are now (Point A) and we’re
you’re headed (Point B).
One of the reasons we often feel stuck when thinking about our purpose in
life is because we have a tendency to get hung up on Point A and how that makes
us feel.
Want to lose weight? It’s easy to spend all of your time
thinking, “I hate how I look. I can’t believe I let myself get like this. I
want to lose 30 pounds.”
Want to become more creative? It’s easy to spend all of your
time thinking, “I’m not naturally creative. There isn’t enough time in the
day to pursue something fun. I have too many responsibilities that I need to
focus on.”
Want to accomplish just about any goal you’ve been delaying?
It’s easy to spend all of your time thinking, “I can’t stick to anything.
I’m easily distracted and I always end up procrastinating on things. I always
start with good intentions, but I can never seem to maintain it.”
The problem with these statements is that they are totally focused on Point
A. When you get wrapped up in your feelings about where you are now, you end up
focusing on the problem rather than the path forward. (This is exactly why I
wrote about the importance of building identity–based
habits.)
Thankfully, there is an alternative.
Live Longer: Purpose Comes With Practice
The problem with focusing on Point A is that you end up thinking too much and
doing too little. In my experience, the idea that you can “find your purpose”
simply by sitting around and thinking about it is a myth. Thought is good, but
purpose is the result of practice.
It took me 17 years to become any good at baseball, but by the end I loved it
with everything I had. I’m still not that great at writing, but after doing it
twice per week for the last nine months, I’m beginning to love it.
A lot of people like to volunteer, but it never becomes their purpose because
they never schedule time to practice it.
A lot of people like writing, but it never becomes their purpose because they
never schedule time to practice it.
A lot of people like to exercise or to garden or to teach or to do any number
of things, but it never becomes their purpose because they never schedule time
to practice it.
Imagine the opposite scenario. Imagine having something important that pulls
you out of bed each morning. Imagine focusing your energy on something that is
important to you and that fulfills you.
Most people think they need a better plan or more resources or more
experience or better advice, but really what they need is to commit to a
schedule and practice. Passion, purpose, and mastery aren’t the result of
inconsistent effort.
Pick something that seems fun or useful and start working on it. Choosing
something and moving forward is more important than choosing the right thing.
You can always practice something else later if this doesn’t work out.
Too often, we wait until we find the “right thing,” which means we end up
finding nothing. Purpose comes with practice.
*You can see further research on the life expectancy of Okinawans in the
studies here, here, and here.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
4 Productivity Questions I
Ask Myself Daily [Podcast]
by Jon Milligan
Do you talk to yourself? The truth is we all talk
to ourselves on a daily basis more than we think. How you think on a daily
basis affects your productivity. If you don’t like what you are saying to
yourself, the good news is you can change it.
Self awareness and attention management are so critically important to
your ability to get things done. I want to share with you 4 productivity
questions I ask myself daily. Before I start my day, I sit down and
specifically ask these questions. I then write down anything that comes to
mind. I’d like to encourage you to try this out for a few days and see how it
works for you.
4 Productivity Questions I Ask Myself Daily
Each of the 4 questions play a specific role in how I go about my day.
Each question comes from the Eisenhower Matrix of time management. If you have
every read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, then you
might recognize it by the 4 quadrants of time management.
Question 1: What needs to get done TODAY that only
I can do?
This question helps me to focus in my areas of strength. We have all
heard of the 80/20 principle. What I write down after asking myself this
question shows me the 20% of my work that will give me the 80% of my results.
Start your day here and determine to check off everything on your list under
this question.
Question 2: What is important that I need to
schedule so it will get done?
Do you have ideas or tasks that you never seem to find time to do? I
know I do. The problem is what doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done. Most
ideas are tasks or projects with no deadlines.
Since these ideas have “no sense of urgency” you and I will never get to
them if we don’t put a deadline on them.
Whatever I write down for this question, I want to have scheduled on my
calendar before the end of the day. It may be that I don’t work on that idea
until next week, but I do have a deadline on it now.
Question 3: What can I delegate that someone else
can do for me?
We all have tasks that we should not be doing. Sometimes the main reason
why we shouldn’t be doing it is because it is not in our area of strength. What
might take us 4 hours to accomplish could take someone else an hour. You can
get back 4 hours of your life by just delegating. How much is 4 hours worth to
you in your business? Ask this question, look over your to do list, and
determine to delegate the tasks someone else can do for you.
Question 4: What do I need to avoid doing today?
We all know how easy it can be for us to waste time during our work day.
We all have those certain things that rob from our time. In the morning when I
ask this question, I write down those things that are the biggest time wasters
for me.
They are reminders for me as I go about my day. Also, if I catch myself
“killing time” during my work day, I stop what I am doing, write down the name
of the distraction, and then get back to work. Awareness is the first key to
stop wasting time.
How Can I Put This into Practice?
Regardless of what software or system you currently use for your to do
list, you can easily implement this process. Take out a notepad and divide the
paper into 4 sections. Label one question with each box. Look over your current
to do list and as you ask the 4 questions write down what comes to mind. Now
you have an action plan for the day. I challenge you to use these questions for
a few days and see if they don’t help you to become more productive.
Question: Do you have any questions you ask
yourself in order to stay productive?
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