I’ve named everything that I’ve ever owned. Real or inanimate, I have to give it a first and last name. Everything in my apartment comes alive at night.
Author: signordal
March 28th
Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space…
March 27th
The first duty of wine is to be red. Don’t talk to me of your white wines.
20 Beliefs You Will Gradually Let Go of Over the Next 20 Years
The afternoon always understands what the morning never even suspected.
Everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head.
Every day. All the time.
YOU are telling yourself a story right now.
And this story is simply a collection of beliefs that ultimately makes you what you are – it lays the foundation for every action you take or don’t take in life. In essence, you build yourself out of this story, one day at a time.
For a while, everything aligns just fine, or so it seems, and life is good.
But then, at some point, perhaps sometime in your thirties, forties or fifties, you get slapped with a harsh reality that (more…)
Ambivert Personality? 10 Clues This Might Be You
I love having a career where I can work from home.
I spend a lot of time writing, researching, and creating courses and other content. All of this is done alone but for the company of my trusty little Mac.
Working from home gives me a ton of flexibility and allows me to focus on my work without too many distractions. I enjoy the quiet time when I can brainstorm and reflect without someone in a neighboring cubicle coming by to shoot the shit.
But every couple of days I start to go stir crazy. I get agitated and feel isolated. I stare out the window, waving at random passers by, hoping they might come in and, well, shoot the shit.
Even though I work and live with my life partner, Ron, I miss the company of my friends and family. I miss having a team of people to bat ideas around with. I miss feeling the energy of other people around me.
When this happens, I call my friends to arrange a group dinner. I’ll schedule time to visit my young adult children. Or Ron and I will meet up with another couple for the evening.
Sometimes I’ll arrange to participate in a webinar or podcast with other online entrepreneurs or attend local a networking meeting.
Spending time with smallish groups of people fills up my emotional tank and allows me to express the extroverted bits of my personality. But after a few hours around people and putting myself out there, I’m ready to be on my own again.
If I had to label myself, I’d say I’m an extroverted introvert. But there’s another word that better captures the personality type of those of us who aren’t all introvert or all extrovert. We are ambiverts.
Are you an ambivert personality?
To understand ambiverts, you need to know a little about the whole personality typing thing.
The notion of introversion and extroversion came about when Swiss psychologist Carl Jung coined the terms in his 1920’s work, Psychologische Typen (Psychological Types).
Jung felt that the differences in introverts and extroverts came down to energy. Extraverts are more energized by social interactions, whereas introverts are quickly drained by them.
Therefore, extraverts pay more attention to their outer worlds, and introverts are more reflective and focused.
Other theories suggest the preferences exhibited by introverts and extroverts are due to differing levels of cortical arousal (the speed and amount of the brain’s activity). Introverts have naturally higher cortical arousal than extroverts, and introverts process more information per second.
Yet another theory suggests that the brains of extroverts are more sensitive to rewards, like the rewards you get during social interactions, making them more inclined to hobnobbing with others.
Many studies have shown that the brains of introverts and extroverts are quite different, and each personality type has it’s own set of strengths and weaknesses.
However, the traits of introversion and extroversion exist on a continuum, and most of us fall somewhere in the middle of that continuum. We might lean a little more one way or the other. But we all have a little bit of each type within us.
Those who tend to fall more in the middle are ambiverts, as this illustration shows.
If you have an ambivert personality, you have reason to celebrate. You, my friends, have a bit of an advantage over more “pure” introverts or extraverts. Why? Because you can more easily adapt to various situations and settings, allowing you to sway with the wind so to speak.
Wind swaying allows you to see both sides of the picture, to be more flexible and intuitive, and to better calibrate your behavior and reactions, thus leading to more successful encounters.
This happy little factoid has gained traction after Adam Grant, a professor of psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, published a study in Psychological Science suggesting that ambiverts perform better as salespeople than extroverts because of ambiverts’ more adaptive personalities.
Says Dr. Grant, “Because they naturally engage in a flexible pattern of talking and listening, ambiverts are likely to express sufficient assertiveness and enthusiasm to persuade and close a sale, but are more inclined to listen to customers’ interests and less vulnerable to appearing too excited or overconfident.”
As an interesting aside, Grant found that extraverts didn’t outperform introverts in this same study. These two extreme personality types brought in just about the same percentage of sales. Who knew?
Since most of us are ambiverts, it’s helpful to know the signs of ambiversion to see if you resonate with this personality type description.
Here are 10 clues you might be an ambivert:
1. You are adaptable.
Ambiverts have the ability to adapt to the situation they are in. They are comfortable in a much wider range of situations than introverts or extroverts.
If you are at a social gathering, you feel comfortable engaging in conversation and talking with a variety of people.
You can be in a group setting without feeling like you want to run away — at least not initially.
But when it’s time to head home, put on your sweatpants, and cuddle up with a good book or your favorite TV show, you are perfectly happy as well.
2. You are a middle of the road risk taker.
Extraverts tend to be more comfortable taking risks and living life on the edge. They might hop on a plane for weekend getaway at the last minute, or they might make an impulsive decision to buy a new car.
Related: How Your Personality Type Impacts 3 Key Areas
Introverts are much more reserved and cautious when it comes to risk. They will weigh the pros and cons carefully before making a decision about something that has potential negative consequences.
However, those of us who are ambiverts are willing to take risks, but not all the time. An ambivert has the capacity to make an impulsive decision and throw caution to the wind.
But there are times when you know you need to be more thoughtful and careful about your decisions.
3. You know when to talk and when to listen.
Because ambiverts are adaptable, they are good at reading a person or situation to determine whether they should use their gift of gap or tune in with their strong listening skills.
This is one reason Dr. Adam Grant found that ambiverts are better sales people. They are good at listening to the customer, but they also have strong skills in closing a sale.
Related: 8 Ways Introverts Can Develop a Strong Personality
Because all of us interact with different types of people, ambiverts have an advantage because they can shift from relating as an introvert or as an extrovert.
4. You can perform tasks alone or in a group.
Introverts much prefer to work alone and feel overwhelmed and drained if they are forced into group situations. Extraverts are energized by working with and around other people and feel isolated and uninspired working by themselves.
Ambiverts do well in both settings. There are times they enjoy working alone and feel more productive without others around.
However, an ambivert might soon crave time with other people in order to recharge and get motivated.
5. You like activity and down time.
Ambiverts enjoy spending time with friends and family, socializing, and staying busy. Until they don’t.
An ambivert might hit the wall suddenly and decide they need some down time.
Ambiverts prefer a mix of activity and quiet leisure. How much of each depends on where they fall on the continuum between introversion and extraversion.
6. You can take or leave small talk.
Small talk makes an introvert want to chew his or her foot off. They will do just about anything to extricate themselves from an idle chit chat. They much prefer deep and meaningful conversation.
An ambivert can handle small talk and even participate with ease, but they find it boring and superficial after a while.
They know small talk is part of socializing, but eventually an ambivert wants to move on to a more substantive conversation.
7. You’re trusting and skeptical of other people.
When an ambivert meets someone new, they might immediately open up and share personal information with this new person. They might feel trusting right away and see the best in this person.
But other times, not so much. Their introverted, intuitive side taps them on the shoulder with a warning: “Don’t spill the beans with this person. They can’t be trusted.”
An ambivert isn’t trusting with everyone, but they are more willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt than perhaps an total introvert might be.
8. You can be the center of attention — for just so long.
Sometimes it’s fun to be the life of the party and have all eyes on you.
Being the center of attention isn’t all bad for an ambivert, but then there are times you just want to blend into the crowd.
You might begin to feel drained if the attention is on you for too long, and you’re ready to pass the baton to someone else after an hour or so.
9. You have a split decision on the Myers Briggs test.
If you’ve ever taken the Myers Briggs personality test, you know that you receive a score that shows whether you’re more introverted or extraverted.
Ambiverts tend to have a split score with a similar number for introversion and extraversion. You may trend slightly more one way or the other, but the scores are pretty close.
If you haven’t taken the Myers Briggs assessment, here’s a free version you can take.
10. Different people view me differently.
The Myers Briggs results show that you are a blend of introversion and extraversion, but the people in your life might view you as one extreme or the other.
Because you are adaptable, you can change your behavior based on the situation you are in.
If you’re at a social event chatting it up with everyone, then the people around you are sure you’re an extravert.
But on those nights when you just want to curl up with a book by yourself while your friends go out and party, you’ll be labeled an introvert.
The keys to enjoying the advantages of your ambivert personality type are self-awareness and attention to your environment.
By learning more about ambiverts and finding out your personality type score, you’ll be more in tune with your natural abilities to adapt.
You’ll also find yourself thinking about how you should behave and react before you engage in a business or social event.
Knowing that you’re about to make a presentation to the quiet, introspective potential client, you don’t want to go into the meeting with both guns blazing.
Nor do you want to be the shy, retiring wallflower in a boisterous brainstorming meeting with your outspoken, extraverted boss.
You have the emotional capacity to shift when you need to shift and feel comfortable doing so. Optimizing this flexibility can help you be more successful in your relationships, career, and in all aspects of your life.
The post Ambivert Personality? 10 Clues This Might Be You appeared first on Live Bold and Bloom.
Guide For The Millennial (And Everyone) Who Plans To Be Big
Most millennials are probably on the verge of looking for their purpose in life. Despite the wide range of goals they have, one thing is sure. A lot of them don’t want to follow the ‘work to live’ kind of mentality.
If you are one of these people, knowing how to start your business properly is essential. Without the right tips, you can end up failing hard and losing your interest and passion.
Here are some tips for millennials who are planning to take the risk and leap to build their own business:
Always begin with a plan
This is essential for every beginner. A good offense will always come from the best defense, so try developing a detailed game plan with future actions.
Your plan must identify all the opportunities, goals, targets, missions, and vision of your business. All of these must be in concrete detail along with your plans and your target deadlines for every objective.
Your plan can be your best defense to whatever bumps you’ll encounter ahead. Always make it as dynamic as it could be so that it can accept changes and alterations.
Build connections
Education is a continuous cycle. Always make sure you are learning something new every day.
Reach out to elders who know more than you. Never be afraid to ask questions if you are having difficulties or to seek help from someone who knows better than you do.
Successful company owners take one step forward and are active in the search for mentoring. It’s like going to community groups or attending seminars. In addition to learning, these things build connections, too.
Building relationships are critical. Until your brand is stable, you’ll have to exert extreme efforts in making your business known. One good way to expand social connections and networks is by reaching out to people online.
Talk to people you met from college or high school.
You can target them as your future clients or maybe employees. They can also be a big help when it comes to promoting your brand/business through word of mouth.
If funds are too short to implement these methods, try considering getting a loan. You can use a loan comparison site, such as Moneybanker, to get a clear idea of which companies can help you get exactly what you need. It comes with a directory and a search engine you can use to find the type of loan most suited for your business. It can save you time and effort searching through sites and search engines.
See Also: Finding Out the Best Time for Posting on Social Media Sites
Always be meticulous in checking your company’s growth
As part of your game plan, you must be firm about having a strong marketing and sales plan. This includes writing down in bullets or outlining your targeted audience, sales and expenses before even starting out the business.
As an entrepreneur, you have to make sure that there is an inflow of cash. In that way, you’ll know how you’re creating sales and you can be confident about your business growth.
As part of your plan, always find ways to increase profits continually. Good marketing and promotion strategies are great ideas.
Going back to the first step, you need to make sure the strategies you have are moving in action. With this, you can be confident about the success of your business.
Picture out how you will reach out to your target audience. With the help of social media, always promote, share and market your business. This medium will help you know and reach your specific targeted customers.
Join communities and sponsor events as part of your promotions strategies. You need to make a buzz to invite new customers to try out your brand.
Learn how to balance your work and life
Being a busy CEO, it’s easy to totally forget about the other priorities you have outside of your company. You need to exert extra time and energy to make sure everything in your business runs smoothly. However, being busy and having time are two different things.
As the CEO, you need to balance out your work and life in general. Don’t let work eat you up.
Don’t be a workaholic. There are other priorities in life that need your attention, like your family and friends. They might require your presence as well.
It is important to take care of your health, too. Keep in mind that your business would not function well without you. Never think that working yourself to the ground will skyrocket you to success.
Maintaining balance will give you a sweet and fulfilling feeling. It is fine to push yourself to the limit, but make sure you know when to pause and stop. Your life does not revolve around work alone.
Find time to go out and leave some time to relax and freshen up your mind. In this way, you can also have fresh and better ideas. Never let pressure dominate your way of thinking and decision making.
Always have time for exercise or other recreational activities. With this, it is not only your business that is growing but you as a person as well.
Do some catching up with your friends and family. After all, they are one of the most important components of your life.
See Also: 5 Ways to Balance Work and Family Time Even if You’re a Workaholic
Always have patience and respect towards things
Your attitude towards people, customers, and things will be your value. Humble beginnings usually lead to modest success as well.
No matter how physically and emotionally stressed you are, always think of the 9/10 rule. Consider the other person’s feelings and learn how to control your own. Never be angry at people, especially if it is not their fault. Always remember that sharp words can dull respect.
If you want to be respected by the people around you, always remember that success starts within. Let your customers and employees feel you respect them, their works, and words. Be the boss who is open to suggestions and the manager who listens.
Always practice what you preach. Be consistent with whatever policy you are imposing and always follow the ground rules that you made.
It does not mean that if you are the owner, then it’s okay for you to break some rules. Always keep in mind that many people are watching you, so be the best example they can follow.
Respect is hard to earn. Show everyone that you respect them and that you deserve to be respected. There should always be a two-way role in every decision and action you make. After all, you need people as much as they need you.
Takeaway
As startup entrepreneurs, you’ll have a lot of challenges and success along the way. Always think about correcting your mistakes and continue learning from them. Learn from other people’s experiences and never be afraid to take a risk.
As millennials, it will always be difficult to succeed in the world of startups. However, with hard work and perseverance, soon you’ll see yourself getting used to whatever you are doing. Starting with a positive mindset, you’ll be able to keep going through whatever challenge you face.
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Pasel Kuenzel Architects Design a Luminous Home in the Netherlands
This gorgeous 180 square-meter house was designed by Pasel Kuenzel Architects in 2016, and is located in the Netherlands. From the very first moment that we lay eyes upon this house, we can observe its style and design, which calls for our attention immediately. It appears to be sandwiched in between two other buildings; however, in its interior, that sensation dissipates entirely. It has bright spaces and clean wood floors,..
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Drop In SEO Rankings: A Guide To Complete Recovery
Say, one fine morning you wake up from sleep, get your quintessential cup of morning coffee and sit down at your workstation, only to find that the ranking of a huge chunk of your website has dropped. Now, before you freak out, make sure it’s actually an SEO ranking drop.
Even the smartest of the SEOs make the mistake of fretting and wasting time in the first few hours. For this reason, we have put together a small guide to help you manage dropped rankings successfully.
Is there an SEO ranking drop at all?
This is the first thing you should check once your website indicates a drop in traffic and sales. Over the years at NYC SEO Authority, we have seen rank trackers not localized properly or being bamboozled by one of Google’s new SEO experiments to give false hits.
If this is the case, you need to find out…
Has organic traffic dropped in your concerned pages?
Compare the organic traffic of your affected pages before and after drop. Note the changes in traffic since after your rankings have dropped and think about possible factors, like Holidays and festivities, that could have brought the changes.
See Also: Effective Ways To Attract Web Traffic Even When On a Small SEO Budget
Does your ranking tracker show a drop in rankings as well?
We recommend our followers to keep a track of their regular keyword rankings to see if the ranking drop stays for a few days.
Once you are sure that the ranking tools are showing a sharp drop but your GSC clicks are still high, then it could be a natural fluctuation.
However, if you can see the ranking change along with the GSC clicks, then there are a few more things you ought to do:
1. Check if a new Google algorithm has kicked in
Google is notorious for getting new algorithms every season and sometimes one has a completely different set of SEO rules from another. Quite a few blogs document even the minor changes in the SEO algorithm.
You can check out the following for all the latest news on Google SEO:
- Moz
- Search Engine Watch
- Search Engine Land
2. Is the problem on your end?
You need to understand why Google is penalizing your website or why your website is not earning any more brownie points from Google. If the trouble is on your end, you will need to change your SEO plan to boost your website ranking.
Here are a few factors on your end that can cause an SEO ranking drop:
Have you changed internal links of the affected pages?
Internal links are the main contributors of high page ranks and if you changed the locations of your pages without updating your XML maps, Google may be penalizing you without any warning. This can happen when site navigation is updated or key pages are updated, too.
What changes have you made to the affected pages?
From changing URLs to removing H1 and H2 targeted keywords, these things can negatively affect your site’s ranking. Therefore, if your team has changed any of these things or even your pages’ keyword density, there’s a good chance you’ll experience a drop in your SEO rankings.
One thing you can do is check if Google spiders can still access your site and check Google search console for recent crawl reports.
Has there been a site-wide link loss?
This is another very common factor that drives the ranks of all websites. If your website has lost external links, then it will reflect on your site’s SEO rankings.
You can run Screaming Frog on your affected pages to check which other pages link internally to them. You can use Majestic or Ahrefs to find all websites that link to the targeted pages. If this is your problem area, you have no other way than to work towards getting those links back in place.
Has your competition website made any recent changes?
Sometimes you may see your SEO ranking drop after your competitors optimized their websites. In this case, there’s nothing more you can do than suck it up and revise your SEO plans.
You can use tools like Versionista and Wayback Machine to find all recent changes made on your competitor websites. You can spot which of your competitors gained traffic and which ones changed internal link structure from these tools.
Take note of what you learn from studying competitor websites. Learn from the improvements made by your competitor sites and implement the same on your pages to make it rank better.
We know it is difficult to stay calm when your Google ranking is challenged. However, these are a few things we do at our firm to make sure that our website always stay on top, even after having our Seo ranking drop.
See Also: The Future of SEO – Predictions and Premonitions That Will Dominate 2017
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Tension And Resolution: How To Make Success Effortless
Success has a different meaning for everyone, but, fundamentally, it means achieving the results that you want. It can involve finances, relationships and other personal goals.
Almost everyone struggles to be successful and most people associate the struggles they experience as as essential to their success. You can see this more commonly in social media. You’ll find people constantly talking about ‘hustling’ and ‘working hard’.
Although working can help you achieve your goals, it’s not really always the case. Some people worked really hard but still fail to get what they really want in life.
For example:
When I first started out coaching, I was (still am) passionate about business coaching and so I planned my next move. Through an intuitive process, I realized that my next step was to make a status on Facebook to offer my coaching services to businesses.
I never really trusted social media to give me the results I wanted but I went ahead with it anyway. And to my surprise, one of my friends got in touch with me and said that her dad was looking for a coach for his business.
SIMPLE!
After the easy part, I encountered a bit of difficulty when I was preparing my presentation. That is the point where I realized that hard work is necessary for success but it should be handled at the right time.
But, why is that?
This can be explained by one of the hermetic premises I taught in my book ‘8 Lessons to Succeed at Anything’. This book covers 8 premises that can support you in creating the results that you want, regardless of what your circumstances are.
For this article, I will be covering the premise of ‘Tension Seeks Resolution’.
Tension Seeks Resolution
Tension is as common to life as breathing these days. We are always tensed up about something.
Basic human instinct suggests that if you experience tension, you’ll be compelled to resolve it. People do that through smoking, drinking, gambling and even shopping.
Tension has always had a negative perception from society. In reality, however, tension can be a great driving force for creativity.
Without tension, there’ll be no energy; without energy, there’ll be no creation.
Here’s an example to help you understand tension better.
Imagine that I have an elastic band between my two index fingers. The more I drive my fingers apart, the more the band stretches and the more energy (tension) it has.
Elastic bands tend to come back to their original shape/position. For the one in my fingers, this can happen in 3 ways:
-My hands get tired and I let the stretch go.
-The elastic band breaks.
-I let it go from one finger and it flies off in the direction of the other finger.
If the elastic band isn’t stretched, then it isn’t going anywhere.
You can see a very simple example of this in the life of a student.
It doesn’t matter how much time a student has to study for an exam. You can give him a couple of days, week, month and even a year, but he’ll probably not start studying or working hard till he comes close to the deadline. It is tension that makes students work hard and pull off all-nighters.
In general, there are 2 types of tension:
Psychological Tension
Psychological tension consists of your fears, anxieties, anger, sadness and similar emotions. This tension is the first to show up every time you go for something important. It comes from your unconscious limiting beliefs about yourself and the world.
For example:
I am not a very outspoken person. Personally, I don’t like putting myself out there in public where everyone can see me. I am always afraid of embarrassing myself that I initially only told a handful of people that I had become a coach.
So, guess what happened when I had to put out that status on Facebook offering my services?
I panicked and came up with a million and one reasons on why I should not do this. I had almost convinced myself that it wouldn’t work and that I would get nothing out of it.
But because I was trained, I knew that it wasn’t reality. It was just my fear telling me that I was insignificant (my limiting belief). So, I went along with posting the status anyway and, as a result, the company that contacted me became my first very big client.
The effects of people acting out on their psychological tension can be seen and have been seen all over the world, especially with people such as Robin Williams. These people have psychological tension that is so big and out of control that they were forced to commit suicide.
Creative Tension
The second type of tension is creative tension. It happens when you establish where you are and where you want to be. It involves taking very specific actions.
For example:
Recently, my partner and I found ourselves in a situation where we had to move out of our flat in 3 days but we had nowhere to go. We planned on going to her dad’s place and live in the spare room, but he refused.
And because we had assumed that he would let us stay, we ended up spending the money we had which could have gone for rent. The situation was bad. We could have been homeless and living in the airport in 3 days.
This created a lot of tension for us, especially psychological tension. To set up creative tension, we chose what we wanted and it was to live in a supportive and affordable place. We were extremely tensed and panicking for 2 days that we couldn’t find anything- except a small room 50 km away from the city.
This is when we decided to just let go for a bit and go out to have a coffee in a nice coffee shop. This is when my partner came up with the idea of texting a client of hers who was a local.
It was not long before her client called back, saying that she was ‘randomly’ shown a very nice room by a friend of hers a week before. It was affordable and located in the center of the city. She immediately gave us the contact details and within 24 hours we rented it.
So, don’t just do something for the sake of solving an issue. Wait for the right moment to take the right action.
But, how do you do this? How do you set up this tension? How do you make it work?
Imagination
The brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality. For example: Thinking of having sex will have the same effect on you as having sex.
If you imagine where you are and where you want to be, it will create both psychological and creative tension for you. You can use them to propel you towards your goals.
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An Elegant Concrete Apartment in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
This apartment, covering an area of 61 meters squared, is used for vacational rental services, and was recently renovated by Hiroyuki Ogawa Architects. It’s located in Shibuya, one of the most cutting-edge downtown areas in Tokyo, Japan, and, indeed, all of Asia. Its interior, a space of little natural light and decorated in dark hues, seeks to give its visitors a sense of tranquility and relaxation, taking them away, in..
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Sig Nordal 