How New Year Resolutions works

Hey guys and girls, ladies and gentlemen…

It seems to be tradition to make new years resolutions towards the end of every year, but unfortunately the majority of those resolutions don’t even make it past the month of January before they are broken or brushed aside and written off.

You may want to eat healthier, get in shape, lose weight, go out to get more dates, start a blog to make extra income, learn to play an instrument etc.

I’ve said this many consecutive years and made many courageous and reward-promising resolutions, only to forget about them after a couple of weeks into the new year.

Why New Year’s Resolutions Never Hold

From my experience I deduce that the problem lies in the fact that when you make one giant resolution (goal) in December for the year ahead, that goal is way too big and vague to actually materialize.

Let me explain a bit better:
When you decide that you want to lose weight and get in shape next year, that is a fantastic goal and resolution to set, because you and people close to you will benefit when you achieve that goal.

Now you have a goal, but there are two important things missing from the picture…

1-) You need a plan of action how you will achieve your resolution for the year ahead.
2-) You need to follow your plan and take action towards achieving that goal every day/week.

Without a plan and without taking action, I suspect that your new years resolution will not hold longer than a couple of weeks. This may sound obvious in theory, but when it comes to making new year’s resolutions, most people won’t make a plan and most people won’t take action.

How To Make New Year’s Resolutions Work

A method of setting new year’s resolutions that actually stand a chance to be fulfilled is to break your resolution up into smaller goals and break those smaller goals up into even smaller goals.

Imagine needing to move a solid block of steel weighing 3650 pounds for a distance of 300 feet (without any equipment). Sounds pretty impossible right?

Now imagine moving 10 pounds every single day for a distance of 300 feet. Sounds much easier and very do-able right?

The idea is that you take any large resolution that you want to achieve in the year ahead (e.g. losing weight and getting in shape) and break it into bite-size daily and weekly goals that you can easily carry out for the next 12 months on a routine basis.

Instead of saying that you want to lose 36 pounds next year, set the goal of losing 3 pounds a month.

Combine that with making a plan of action of going to gym 3 times a week and doing cardio 2 times weekly, and you have yourself a resolution that you can actually achieve without giving up before you even got started.

via upgradereality

15 Cool Ways to Boost Your Productivity

Feeling burnt out or lacking creative ideas?

This article is especially for all you writers, artists, business owners or anyone looking for some new ways to get their creativity flowing.

Here are 15 ways to give your creativity a jump start:
 

Write Your Ideas Down

Get into the habit of writing your ideas down as soon as you get them. This way you train your brain to keep coming up with ideas, and as soon as you get them you write them down.

When they are written down you don’t have to worry about remembering them and this allows more room for new ideas to form in your mind. 

Relax

Good ideas and creativity usually do not appear under stress. When you are relaxed and rejuvenated, creative ideas usually come rather naturally.

Take a walk on the beach, take a nap, go and play some sport or do whatever it is that relaxes you so that your brain can be more creative when you get back to work.

Have No Expectations

Similar to living with no stress, but specifically no stress from the outcome.

When you create with love and passion and no expectation of the outcome, the chances are much greater that you will create something remarkable!

Be Easy On Yourself

Stop criticizing yourself and stop being so harsh for yourself. Accept yourself the way you are and do things to the best of your ability.

You are enough and you are creative. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs block out your creativity! Remove the barriers and the ideas will begin to flow.

Read

Reading stimulates the mind. The more you read, the more you open your mind up to new ways of thinking and thus the more creative you will become.

I know that reading can be a bore, especially if you have to force yourself to do it. Just start small.

Choose a book on a topic that you like (it can even be about your favorite sport or artist) and spend 30 minutes before you go to bed reading that book. This way you can read 1-2 new books every month without it being a lot of effort, and it will definitely contribute to you being more creative.

Listen to Mozart

Albert Einstein said he owes his creativity to listening to Mozart pieces. Certain songs and compositions allow the brain to be more creative and function better.

Albert Einstein did not know why this was the case, but he found Mozart compositions to help his thinking.

In the present age the concept of music enhancing your thinking has been scientifically researched and proven. Certain frequencies have a positive effect on increasing your brain’s performance and creativity. Today they are known as Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones.

Basically, scientists have engineered sound-files (I canít really call them songs) with researched frequencies that have proven to increase brain performance. Simply buy purchasing some of these tracks and listening to them with stereo headphones, you can already notice an effect on your thinking and creativity.

Meditate

There are certain techniques that allow your mind to find peace and that allow you to silence all the hundreds of thoughts that constantly run through your mind all day.

When you achieve this inner calm, it has all sorts of benefits like being more creative and having better ideas.

Exercise

The effects of exercise and physical movement on the mind and creativity have been studied for centuries.

There is no doubt that you feel much better after exercise. This is because after you exercise, endorphins (feel-good hormones) are released into your bloodstream.

Ask For Help

Don’t be scared to ask someone for help or for their opinion. The input from a friend or stranger could be enough to jump-start a whole series of ideas and new creativity.

Expand Your Horizons

Do something you have never ever done before in your life. Go sky-diving or bungee-jumping. Sign up for hip-hop classes.

The experience of it may be enough to boost your creativity tenfold and give you many new ideas.

Eat Blueberries

Blueberries are said to be the richest in anti-oxidants and good for your brain an thinking abilities. Eat a handful a day, and even if you donít get extra creativity, enjoy the taste and the health benefits.

Stop Doing Drugs

I’m talking about sugars, processed foods, alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes.
(I shouldn’t have to tell you not to do hard drugs!)

Not only will your health benefit, but you will feel much more energetic. The chances are huge that you will find all sorts of new inspiration that comes with your new energy levels once you start eating healthy and stop consuming junk.

Do Puzzles

Puzzles stimulate your brain to look at a problem from different angles. The easier you are able to open up your mind to new ideas and new approaches, the more likely it will be that you become more creative.

Make Music
I personally like playing piano. It is relaxing and it allows me to experiment with new tones, melodies and ideas. Often while playing an instrument and making music I get very creative ideas for my own projects.

If you’ve never played an instrument, why not start with something simple like piano, guitar or the drums?

Practice

Practice makes perfect.

Yeah it’s cliche, but it’s true. Do you want to be a great writer? Then write ever single day, even if it’s just about your dog.

Do you want to be a good designer? Then design something new every day, even if it’s just a logo for your favorite food.

via pickthebrain.com

Break your Addiction to Job Boards

It’s news we already kind of knew, but Fortune Magazine has made it official: Job Boards are not the most effective way for most people to find employment.  The article notes it would be more effective to have lunch with one good contact than to send 50 resumes for openings through job boards.

If you’re struggling with job board addiction, here is a 12-step plan for moving towards more productive activity:

1. Limit time spent on job boards to no more than 20% of your daily effort
2. Set a daily target for actively growing your network
3. Revitalize and optimize your LinkedIn profile
4. Learn a new skill and add it to your resume
5. Volunteer  or mentor someone and add the skills you build to your resume
6. Consider an internship as a way of learning a new skill or getting into a new field
7. Connect with someone who will mentor you through this job search or join a search support group
8. Consider a contractor, consulting or short term job while searching for something more permanent
9. Join a professional group and attend the meetings
10. Twitter as an easy way to network and share your expertise
11. Plan regular face-to-face contact with others including networking meetings and social interaction
12. Reward yourself daily with pleasurable activities.  It may sound contradictory, but enjoying the time off can actually make you more productive.

Don’t be lured into the false sense of productivity offered by job board activity. These alternate activities will keep you very busy in ways that grow your network and truly move you closer to finding the right job.

via jobfully.com

Favorite Joke

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician…

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are sleeping in different rooms of a hotel. In the middle of a night a fire breaks out at the end of the hallway. The engineer is the first to awake. He smells smoke and goes into the hallway, seeing the fire. Next to the fire are a dozen buckets full of water. He runs to the buckets and empties six full buckets to put out the fire. With the fire extinguished, he goes back to sleep.

Later in the night, the physicist wakes up, smelling a fire. He goes into the hallway, sees the fire, and also sees a bunch of buckets, half of which are full with water. He reaches for his calculator, figures out the optimal trajectory, and puts out the fire with the throw of just one bucket of water. Satisfied, he goes to bed.

Finally, the mathematician wakes up, also smelling a fire. He enters the hallway and sees a fire and a number of water buckets near it. He does some calculation in his head and then says, “Ah, a solution exists!” and goes back to sleep.

(A fun variation of the last paragraph is that after seeing the fire, the mathematician sees the physicist, thereby reducing the problem to one that has been solved already.)