7 Reasons to Set Fire to Your Career Plan

September 30th, 2008 by Seamus Anthony 38 Comments

set-fire

Common wisdom has it you should plan out your career in detail otherwise you set yourself up for failure. So why should you do something as crazy as setting fire to your detailed career plan? Here’s why:

1 . The Most Successful People in the World Often Don’t Have a Detailed Plan

I’ve read loads of biographies of the most successful people of the last couple of hundred years and about 80% of them followed their bliss - not a detailed plan. The formula is this: Outrageous Goal + Action Habit = Score!

But then what will you do with each day? Well, Jerry Seinfeld once said something about how he never had any plans to become the most successful comedian ever, all he did was work hard at the one thing he was passionate about, come what may. I am sure you’d like to be as successful as Jerry (or even partially) and of course you can because your future is unlimited - so there’s your answer - just pursue your passion relentlessly.

And for those who are worried about spending too much time on irrelevant tasks. Well, surely you have enough intelligence to recognize a complete waste of time when you see one? Always be doing the next thing you can do that will move you closest to your goal.
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How to Make the World a Better Place

September 29th, 2008 by Hunter Nuttall 30 Comments

trash

Whenever I went camping as a Boy Scout, they would always tell us to “Leave this place better than you found it.” Some people would visit the campsite and leave plenty of trash behind, but not us. Not only would we take out everything we brought in, but we’d pick up some of the trash that other people had left. We always left the campsite better than we found it.

Now, what if we took that idea and expanded it? What if every time we came in contact with another person, we decided to leave them better than we found them? Meaning that not only would we not add to their troubles, but we’d make sure that they’d walk away feeling better than they did before. Imagine if everyone resolved to do that! And it’s really not hard.

How to not bring trash in

Last year I was reading an article about how much people complain every day, and I decided to do a little experiment. I was going to see how far through the day I could go before I heard someone complain. I didn’t even make it to work before it happened! I got on the elevator with a coworker, who started off the day by complaining about four ridiculous things.
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5 Unusual Ways to Achieve Super Quality Sleep

September 25th, 2008 by Jeff 24 Comments

quality-sleep.jpg

It seems like every sleep expert has reduced the fascinating topic of sleep to a boring set of rules:

  • Keep your room dark.
  • Take a warm bath.
  • Keep the bedroom for sleep and sex only.
  • Avoid caffeine x hours before bedtime (where x depends on who you ask).
  • Don’t drink alcohol.

Et cetera, et cetera, yadda, yadda…

Sleep is much more interesting than that. Now don’t get me wrong, the above points are valid. Some of it is great advice.

But it isn’t the half of it.

Obtaining super-quality sleep has become a (somewhat nerdy) passion of mine, and I personally don’t think the standard set of rules like the ones listed above really do justice to the nuances of better sleep.

Sleep is no doubt a critical ingredient in a healthy lifestyle. If I sleep poorly, I feel like an irritable, unproductive, unmotivated, unhappy, sick, deprived zombie.

But if I have “10 out of 10″ sleep, I feel like superman. My consciousness becomes crystal-clear. I feel more self-aware. And I get more creative work done than I would as a sleep-impoverished drone.

In this article I will describe five “unusual” sleep tricks that can give you that “10 out of 10″ super-quality sleep.
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12 Techniques to Stop Worrying

September 24th, 2008 by Cindy Holbrook 20 Comments
“I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened” -  Mark Twain

stop worrying

What Is worry? Worry is a very strong feeling of anxiety. It’s fear of the unknown - the thought that the worst will happen.

We may become overly concerned with future events. We may engage in repetitive negative self-talk with all the worst case scenarios. A lot of our thoughts will begin with …
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