The Language of Success
The other day, having just typed an email to a customer, my mouse cursor hovered over the send button. But something didn’t feel quite right. Re-reading the email, I stopped at the following sentence:
“I should be able to get this to you in the next 24 hours”.
This is a fairly standard sentence, but on this particular occasion the word “should” caught my attention. Was this the best word I could use? Did it even matter?
I knew why I had chosen this particular word; I wanted to convey that I expected to have the work done within 24 hours, but there was a possibility I wouldn’t. So there was a rational reason for my choice, but in that moment I also came to see that using the word “should” could have potentially negative and unintentional consequences.
Ted Rogers, the Canadian Communications mogul who recently passed away, once noted: “It’s funny, the difference between success and failure often is very little.” It seems to me that one of these “little things” is the language we use to communicate. Here’s why:
Read the Rest of This Article »
Blogopolis Blueprint Has Arrived
While blogs about blogging is a crowded niche, there is always room for a new entrant with a fresh approach.
Eric Hamm (Motivate Thyself) and Sean Platt (Writer Dad) have teamed up to launch Blogopolis Blueprint, a blog dedicated to helping bloggers find their online voice and remain one step ahead of the curve.
Eric and Sean have been busy in recent months with guest posts on Zen Habits, ProBlogger and Pick The Brain (here and here). If you have come across these posts, or are familiar with their own personal blogs, you will know both men are great writers and have a lot of insightful knowledge to share.
Eric and Sean tell me Blogopolic Blueprint will highlight a specific blogging theme each week, and in addition to their own articles the blog will feature a rotating cast of guest authors and interviews.
But that’s enough out of me…. go check out Blogopolis Blueprint (or subscribe via RSS and email).
Peter writes about how to change your life at The Change Blog. He is also the author of Starting a Blog and Audio Book Downloads.
The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich – Pick The Brain Exclusive Offer
I read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich a few years ago and loved it. The book introduced me to a number of life-changing concepts, so I was hardly surprised when I later learned it is the bestselling success book of all time. There was, however, one thing I didn’t take away from the book: a clear understanding of what Napoleon Hill refers to as the “hidden secret” in his book.
If you have read Think and Grow Rich you will know there are numerous mentions of this hidden secret. In fact, Napoleon Hill offers the following teaser in the book’s introduction:
“In every chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy whom I carefully analyzed over a long period of years.”
I was therefore very happy when I recently received a copy of Brian Kim’s e-book The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich. Would my curiosity finally be satisfied? I hoped so, but I must admit I was also worried that the secret Brian would identify would be a big let-down. I believe my thoughts were: “Please don’t be the Law of Attraction!”
What’s the Book About?
Brian doesn’t waste any time in his book, identifying what the secret is at the very start of Chapter 1. I’m happy to say it is not the Law of Attraction.
As previously noted, the secret is said to appear in every chapter of Think and Grow Rich. Brian is understandably keen to prove the secret he has identified is what Napoleon Hill had in mind. He devotes the second chapter to going through Think and Grow Rich chapter by chapter, pinpointing exactly where the secret is mentioned. Assuming you have read the book, you should find some satisfaction to going “Aha! That’s where it is!” I think you will also be more than convinced that Brian has indeed correctly identified the hidden secret. The rest of the book goes into detail about how you can use the secret to obtain whatever it is you desire in life.
One thing I noticed is that there is some repetition in the book. However, I think this was a conscious decision on Brian’s part to make sure the reader fully comes to grip with the message of the book. As he says in the book, one common fault of success books is they ‘pump’ you up and that’s where it ends. The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich is designed to forever change you way you approach a goal or desire.
Why Buy the Book
I highly recommend this e-book to people who have read Think and Grow Rich. If you haven’t read this classic, Brian has included a copy of this book in PDF format free with the purchase of his book.
Now, those of you who have read Think and Grow Rich may be wondering whether or not this book is worth your hard-earned cash. “Can Brian Kim really tell me anything new about success that Napoleon Hill hasn’t?” is what you may be thinking.
Well, the book succeeded in satisfying my curiosity about what Napoleon Hill refers to as the hidden secret, but it also did far more than this. I believe the book’s real value is that it helps everything you have read about self-improvement and personal development come together and click into place.
Think of success as a puzzle. We are all familiar with many of the pieces of this puzzle, principles such as courage, confidence, hard work, persistence, etc….. What is not so clear to many of us is how these pieces fit together to form the puzzle. Brian has done an incredible job in this book of giving the reader both the big picture, as well as a detailed process for making your deepest desires become reality.
The book is a healthy 122 pages, and Brian has also generously included two bonuses: a special report called The Three Biggest Mistakes People Make When Using the Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich and a workbook that accompanies the book bundled up as a special offer for Pick The Brain readers.
Click here to access the special offer for Pick The Brain readers and get The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich by Brian Kim and the bonuses today.
Taming the Web 2.0 Mind
Am I the only one who has trouble focusing on a single task? I doubt it.
It wasn’t always this way. At school and university it seemed relatively easy to apply myself to a single task. But these days it seems as if my mind is wanting me to do a million different things at once.
I call this the “web 2.0 mind”. Why? Because I believe the web 2.0 has changed how I act, both online and offline. When online I’m usually busy doing a number of different things at once. Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, Skype, blogs…. these are just a few of the places I might I be at any given moment. Doing multiple things at once has become the norm for me, which is why I say even when I’m offline I can find it difficult to focus on a single task. Of course multi-tasking is nothing new, but never before has it been so easy and enjoyable to be doing so many things at once.
You may be asking yourself: does this web 2.0 mind even need “taming”? Well, let me make one thing clear: the ability to be doing a number of tasks at once – ie multi-tasking – is not only an asset, but a necessity, in this modern economy. And as I previously noted, it is often fun to have a number of things on the go at once. However, there often comes a time when you need to put your head down and get a particular task or project completed. And when this time comes, the last thing you want to have to deal with is a mind that is running wild with thoughts such as “I wonder what is on the Digg front page” or “I’ll just check Twitter quickly to see what my friends are up to”. These sound pretty harmless, but it’s funny how 5 minutes can quickly turn into 30 minutes without you realizing it.
Read the Rest of This Article »
The Personality Puzzle – Pick The Brain Exclusive Offer
What can four letters tell you about someone (including yourself)? It turns out quite a lot.
“The Personality Puzzle” is the new e-book from Pick The Brain contributor Hunter Nuttall. Back in August we published Hunter’s first article for this blog: Introverts And Extraverts: Can’t We Just Get Along? If you enjoyed this article (and it seems many of you did – it received 90+ comments and 1119 votes on Digg), this book will be of immense interest to you.
What’s the book about?
“Sometimes I just don’t understand human behavior.”- C-3PO
“The Personality Puzzle” aims to help you understand what “makes people tick” via the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI originated from the ideas of revolutionary Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. His work was continued by an American mother and daughter team, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, and resulted in the MBTI being published in 1962. The MBTI did gain some popularity in the 1980s, but according to Hunter the usefulness of it is grossly underestimated.
What’s so good about the book?
One of the best aspects of Hunter’s e-book is the way he combines psychological research and real-world examples. Here are just a few of things you will discover in “The Personality Puzzle”:
Read the Rest of This Article »
The Little Book of Productivity
You may have noticed a recent backlash against productivity in some parts of the personal development community. If you have found yourself second guessing the value of this subject, it may be worth going back to a very simple question: “why be productive?”
The first idea in The Little Book of Productivity, the new e-book written by Scott Young, is to understand the reasons for wanting to get more done in less time. Many of you will be familiar with Scott’s work from his regular contributions to Pick The Brain over the past year and his own self-titled blog, Scott H Young.
Of course everyone will have their own individual reasons for wanting to be productive. Personally, productivity is a subject I have taken an interest in due to the pressures of working two jobs and being the father of two boys under the age of two. I need to be able to get things done quickly and efficiently. As Scott points out, by becoming aware of these reasons you will be naturally motivated to stay productive instead of slipping into lazy habits.
There are many more excellent ideas in this book, including timeboxing, sprinting theory, Hofstadter’s Rule and operant conditioning. And that is exactly what The Little Book of Productivity is: a book of ideas. Scott’s book looks at 99 ideas related to productivity, with each idea taking up one page.
The book is very well organized (as you would hope a productivity book would be) and covers the following topics:
- Beating Procrastination
- Becoming Organized
- Staying Energized
- Getting Things Finished
- Automate Your Routine
- Productivity Hacks
- Doing the Right Work
Returning to my first point in this review – the backlash against productivity – I would like to point out that a book such as this doesn’t pretend to be answering life’s big questions. But there are plenty of other books for that. The Little Book of Productivity does, however, hope to improve your life. And as I’m sure you will agree, sometimes it only takes one idea to do this.
If you are interested in The Little Book of Productivity you can purchase a copy for $9.95 USD by clicking the following button:
If you would like to know more about this e-book, Scott has made the first chapter available to read for free here.
How to Build Self-Discipline
Discipline is freedom. You may disagree with this statement, and if you do you are certainly not alone. For many people discipline is a dirty word that is equated with the absence of freedom. In fact the opposite is true. As Stephen R. Covey once wrote, “the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”. And in the longer term, the undisciplined lack the freedom that comes with possessing particular skills and abilities – e.g. to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language.
Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life. Therefore it is self-discipline that drives you to:
- Work on an idea or project after the initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away
- Go to the gym when all you want to do is lie on the couch and watch TV
- Wake early to work on yourself
- Say “no” when tempted to break your diet
- Only check your email a few of times per day at particular times
In the past self-discipline has been a weakness of mine, and as a result today I find myself lacking the ability to do a number of things which I would like – e.g. to play the guitar. But I have improved, and I can say that it is self-discipline that got me out of bed this morning at 5am to run and then write this article. Believe me, I would love to be curled up in bed right now, but this desire is subordinated by my inner sense of purpose.
If you struggle with self-discipline, the good news is that it can be developed. For example, it is only in the past two years that I have trained myself to wake early. The following are what I have found to be the five traits of self-discipline:
Read the Rest of This Article »
Free E-Book: A Year of Change
I’m excited to announce I have just finished my first e-book, A Year of Change.
This e-book includes my best articles from my first year of blogging both on Pick The Brain and my own personal blog, The Change Blog. During this year I married, became a first-time father and relocated from Australia to Canada. Perhaps more importantly, during this time I underwent a personal transformation that changed both how I see my life and the world in which we live.
To grab yourself a copy of this free e-book, you simply need to sign up to my monthly newsletter, The Change Blog Newsletter.
I pack this newsletter full of inspiring and useful personal growth material. And I guarantee your information will be kept private and not shared.
Peter writes about how to change your life at The Change Blog. He is also the author of Starting a Blog and Audio Book Downloads.
Stinking Thinking: Do These 8 Patterns of Limited Thinking Apply to You?
“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
The way you think has the ability to turn your deepest desires into reality or, alternatively, keep you chained to mediocrity. This article looks at eight patterns of limited thinking – as identified by Dr. S McKay, Davis, and Fanning in their book, Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Life – and how they can be resolved. Breaking these patterns of limited, habitual thought will free you to realize your full potential in life.
1. Overgeneralization
This pattern is characterized by broad, general conclusions based on a single incident or piece of evidence. Overgeneralization often takes the form of absolute statements and uses words such as all, every, none, never, always, everybody and nobody. For example, if you read too many personal development articles you may believe all television is a waste of time.
You can stop thinking in absolutes by using words such as may, sometimes, most and often. Saying some, or even most, television is a waste of time is far easier to take seriously than simply saying all of it is.
2. Polarized Thinking
This is black-and-white thinking, with no room for shades of gray. People and things become either good or bad, smart or stupid, brave or cowardly. President Bush’s declaration in the aftermath of 9/11, “You’re either with us, or against us” is a famous example of such thinking. And we all know know what has happened since….
Fight the urge to make black-and-white judgements by accepting people and things are too complex to be reduced to “either/ or” judgements. This is especially important in regards to judging yourself. Allow yourself some room to make mistakes without automatically labeling yourself a failure.
Read the Rest of This Article »
Book Giveaway Winners & Link Karma
Two weeks ago I posed the question: “are you doing what you love?” Thank you for your wonderful answers. Some notable responses included:
- “Yes!!Yes!!! I love what I am doing!!! I get up everyday and say I love this day!!”
- “I’m currently doing what I like, and working towards doing what I love.”
- “I took a risk and it paid off. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do.”
If you would like to read more of the responses (there were over 48), here is the post: Ask the Reader: Are You Doing What You Love?
Also, we have a number of copies of Sway: The Irrestistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman to give away for our favorite responses. The recipients of the book are:
- Alex Fayle
- Mr. Smith
- Alice
- Victor Stachura
- Lee
- Sam Smith
- Jen
- Stephanie
- Simon Hill
- Ned
- Jamie
35 Comments