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”:
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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.
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.
Bill Strickland: Inspiring Americans to Dream (& Competition)
Bill Strickland is an amazing man. However, instead of me telling you why, I would like to invite you to watch the above video from TED in which Bill shares his astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music and unlikely partnerships (with subtle accompaniment by longtime friend Herbie Hancock).
Competition
Bill Strickland has recently released a book, Make the Impossible Possible. I have read the book, and loved it, so I am very excited to have 15 copies of it to give away. All you have to do to be in the running to win a copy is to leave a comment below. Share your thoughts about the video, or tell us one thing you once believed to be impossible that you have since discovered is possible.
Find Out More
If you would like to learn more about Bill Strickland, see also:
Weekly Review: Paraliminals
Note: Each week PickTheBrain reviews a book or product related to self improvement. This review represents the honest opinion of the author, but we’d like to disclose that PickTheBrain receives a small referral commission on orders.
An interesting product I’ve been using for the past several months is the Paraliminals series from Learning Strategies. The best way to describe Paraliminals is a combination of guided meditation and neuro-linguistic programming. It’s best experienced with stereo head phones because it works by playing two different audio tracks simultaneously.
The experience is difficult to explain, but the two soundtracks compliment each other in such a way that it’s impossible to concentrate on either but your brain is able to absorb both. One voice usually tells a story, relevant to the theme of the session while the other repeats affirmative messages. The sessions cover a wide range of self improvement topics, including health, relationships, personal charisma, and motivation.
Behind the audible voice tracks are soothing nature sounds accompanied by binaural beats. The real power of the program is the binaural beats, which work by using two complimentary frequencies that interfere with each other to create pulsating phantom frequencies.
The beats affect brainwave patterns and help bring the mind to a state of focused relaxation. If you’ve ever used a guided relaxation program, where the instructor takes you through the process of relaxing each part of the body, then you’ll recognize the feeling of your body being totally relaxed while the mind remains alert.
The benefit of Paraliminals is that it allows you to reach this state much more quickly and helps to block out distractions. I’ve found myself using Paraliminals as a substitute for naps.
Instead of going to sleep and waking up groggy, I lay down for 20 minutes and listen to one of the CDs. There are a wide range of topics covered in the Ultimate You series, so I can usually find something that matches my goals for the near future. After listening to the program I get up relaxed, refreshed, and motivated to take action.
Does It Work?
I don’t think anyone is silly enough to believe that listening to a CD will somehow take the work out of success. If you approach Paraliminals with this attitude then you’ll probably be disappointed. That being said, I think those who have a strong desire to bring about positive improvements will find Paraliminals to be a helpful tool.
The biggest benefit that I’ve experienced with the program is the ability to reach focused relaxation in a matter of minutes. Instead of having to find an isolated place and exert effort to clear my mind, Paraliminals puts the process on autopilot. I can just lay back and listen.
If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve put together a page with more information about my experience with Paraliminals. I’ve also gone to the trouble of negotiating a significant discount, available only to PickTheBrain readers. Check out the Paraliminals page for all the details.
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