You’re reading 3 Steps to Suppress Adrenaline and Stay Calm, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Picture a shy guy. This guy does not like speaking out loud, especially if there are a lot of people around. So, if this guy were to speak before a large group of people he would probably feel really frightened, resulting in high levels of stress, his heart rate rising and so on.

Adrenaline, better known as the fight-or-flight hormone, is what causes these physiological symptoms to occur during times of stress, and happens naturally to prepare your body to deal with danger or unexpected situations. In addition to this, adrenaline boosts your awareness, and heightens your energy-levels to a great extent, resulting in restlessness and stress.

You have probably stumbled upon a feeling like this before, and if you have, you know how uncomfortable it is. Indeed, adrenaline might ruin your performance. Therefore, theoretically, if you learn to control your adrenaline, you will be able to deal with such situations much easier, and consequently achieve better results at any field of your life.

Although this might sound hard, it is actually quite easy to do. I have listed for you below, 3 simple steps to instantly achieve control of your adrenaline levels. Implement them to your lifestyle, and become more calm in an instant.

1. Practice Relaxation Techniques

There are several relaxation techniques specifically developed to decrease levels of stress. Most of which are based on handling the common symptoms of adrenaline. These techniques are simple, easy to learn and very effective. What is more, they are designed to work in an instant. Indeed, when these techniques are perfected (which is easy) you can reach a state of relaxation in any situation.

All this taken in consideration, these exercises are great for lowering stress, which is why I have listed below my top 3 relaxation techniques and how to perform them.

A. Breathe Deeply

In times of stress it is favourable to take a quick break and start breathing slowly.

Breath through your nose and let the air fill your abdomen. Truly feel the air rushing through your body while you focus on keeping a consistent tempo. However, don’t think too much about how long your inhale or exhale should be, as this might distract you. Just focus on deep breathing.

Breathing like this stops the acute adrenaline shock by lowering your blood pressure and slowing down your heart rate.

B. Be Present

Stop what you are doing and take a moment to focus on everything that surrounds you. Pay attention to environmental details.

Follow all movements you notice closely.

Next, focus on how your body feels by paying attention to all of your senses. Take pleasure in everything around you and realize that you are just a small brick in this huge world. Reaching this state will make you feel a lot less tense.

C. Progressive muscle relaxation.

Slow down and take a moment to focus on the difference between relaxation and tension. Slowly tense and relax several muscle groups over and over again until you feel the stress leave your body.

This will help you focus on the physical sensations and make you pay less attention to the thoughts that stress you.

2.         Divert Your Mind

This is a special way of diverting the secretion of adrenaline and is inspired from the practices of hypnotics. The way it works is a little complicated, but it has to do with tricking your subconsciousness so that you remain calm.

First thing you do is find an object that always seem to awake good memories. Something you used to play with in your childhood or a tool that helped you overcome tough times in your past. I for example, chose a glittering marble that I used to play around with whenever I was bored as a kid. The reason I chose this particular object is because it brings me a great deal of nostalgia, and for me that is a sweet and heartwarming feeling.

When you have found your heartwarming and emotionally loaded object, you may want to properly connect it to your memories. To do that you will have to play with or use the object just as you did in the past. As an example, let’s take my marble again. I would have to play around with it while bored once again to reinforce the connection I have with it and reawaken forgotten memories.

Until now you have connected a special object to a feeling. It is now time for you to put it into practice. What you do is take your object out with you out, and if a stressful situation occurs, be sure to hold it tight. Of course, If your chosen object is too big you won’t be able to hold it. In that case you will do fine by just thinking about it.

If this is done right you will find that you experience greater calm during stressful situations like a presentation or job interview.

3.         Take Magnesium

This is not an “in the moment” method. However, it is the best way to prevent a sudden adrenaline boost from happening at all,  allowing you to keep your calm during stressful situations. Sadly, this is also one of the most underrated methods.

I am talking about taking magnesium as a supplement.

Magnesium has been proven to reduce your cortisol levels significantly (link to study: http://ift.tt/2mU4MBR ) ,  and we all know how bad cortisol is for the body. Besides adrenaline itself, cortisol is the absolute worst hormone to be overexposed to and will stress you out. Therefore, getting rid of any excess cortisol production will elevate how relaxed you feel.

What is more, when you produce less cortisol in stressful situations, it will also dampen the nerve wrecking symptoms of the actual adrenaline boost and thereby keep you calm.

Luckily, you can easily find magnesium supplements online or in a health store.

You’ve read 3 Steps to Suppress Adrenaline and Stay Calm, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 5 Bizarre Goals to Help You Live a Greater Life, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Perhaps you’re fed up with regular goals? Maybe a monthly income target, or an ideal weight size, just doesn’t get you motivated like it used to.

Or perhaps you’re done with goals altogether? No matter how specific and measurable they are, it doesn’t seem to have much impact on whether you can achieve them.

Well, if that’s the case then I’ve got something that will pique your interest.

My 5 bizarre goals will make you think more than traditional ones. They may seem strange at first but their implications are far reaching. Build your life around them, and you’ll find you’re inexplicably guided towards a stress free, meaningful and, probably, wealthy life.

Goal n#1: To NEVER Write a CV in your Life

What would happen if you never wrote a CV?

Obviously, it would be unlikely that you’d get an employed job, but would it mean that you’d never make money?

Think about that for a moment. Clearly, it would limit your options. However, it would do so in a way that would likely lead you towards far more enjoyable and meaningful work.

70% of the employed American workforce either hate, or are unstimulated, by their jobs. When you consider this, writing a CV is likely to lead you to a stressful and boring life. Not to mention that they’re a pain in the ass to complete, totally inauthentic (coz you know if you were authentic, you’d never get hired!), and most times they get overlooked or ignored. Wouldn’t it be a more productive and enjoyable use of your time if you ditched the CV altogether and started looking for ways to earn money through your own initiative?

Perhaps you have a skill (playing a musical instrument, plumbing, languages) or could train in one, that you could market and then sell or teach?

Maybe you have a unique or expert knowledge about a subject that would allow you to become an information publisher? This route is becoming more accessible through promoting yourself on social media, having a website or blog, selling through Amazon and getting paid through PayPal. You could write an eBook on your specialist subject, coach people on it via Skype and have them sign up to your course on Udemy.

Perhaps you could set up a shop on Amazon or join a network marketing team and build your own team under you?

None of these options require a CV. Pursue one of them, and you get the freedom of being in control of your destiny, the added wealth from all the money going to you and the reward of being responsible for your success.

Goal n#2: To Live your Life Loan Free

What are the implications of refusing to take out a loan?

Does it mean you could never go to College or University, buy a home or start a business?

It would certainly make it harder, but not impossible.

Perhaps higher education would be beyond your reach but you could always defer until you had the necessary funds or work while at University.

Buying a home would be a massive stretch. However, the necessity of having to set your sights higher when it came to earning an income, and being scrupulous in your saving or investments, would instil some positive life and financial practices.

Without a loan, you’d be limited in the businesses you could start. However, these financial constraints would prevent a lot of the unnecessary wastage that goes hand in hand with the initial stages of starting a business.

While these, undoubtedly, are difficult restrictions, let’s consider the positives of never taking out a loan.

On leaving University, you can avoid the debt trap that chains so many people to working jobs they don’t enjoy. Instead, you can take your time, perhaps start your own business or work for free to gain experience.

The home is yours. There’s no obligation to work a job you hate to maintain monthly mortgage payments.

The pressure you face when starting your business is massively reduced. You have the freedom to learn from your mistakes rather than feeling like they might cause the end of your venture.

Goal n#3: To NEVER appear in a court room

Jury service aside, sticking to this goal will save you a whole lot of money and misery.

Clearly, you’ll want to avoid a court room on any criminal charges. However, for most people, this is an unlikely outcome.

What’s more probable is that you might see the inside of a court room over a marriage breakdown or a minor dispute. Preventing yourself from being in this position is of the utmost importance.

It’s easy to avoid minor disputes. Just don’t engage in the trivial. Remember the bigger picture for your life and rise above. Take the hit if necessary. In the long run, it’ll be worth it.

It’s harder to predict the likely outcome of a relationship when changes like age, children, one person growing and the other not wanting to, can all upset the perfect harmony experienced at the start. This means that you must be very cautious when entering a matrimonial union.

Perhaps you and your partner don’t need one. Your love doesn’t require societies stamp of approval.

If it does, then listen to your intuition. Is there a voice inside you, telling you there’s something wrong with the relationship? Do you have any doubts at all?

If so, getting married is a huge risk when you consider the emotional trauma, huge loss of finances and time that can result from ending it in court.

Goal n#4: To be Guided by your Conscience with EVERY Decision You Make

This goal requires a deeper analysis of your life choices and decision making. At first glance, you may believe all your decisions are made in line with your conscience. What kind of a person would you be if they weren’t?

But are they really?

When was the last time you disagreed with something that was happening at work, either to yourself or another person, yet kept quiet for fear of losing your job or damaging your prospects at the company?

Have you ever kept quiet about an issue in your relationship for fear of losing the person who’s treating you unfairly?

Do you buy unethical products (e.g. eating at McDonald’s, investing/saving your money in a mainstream bank or fund) out of convenience or personal gain, knowing that the company is having a detrimental impact on the world?

Listening and acting on your conscience isn’t just about abstaining from screwing people over. It’s about honouring the deeper wisdom that knows right from wrong and can, consequently, guide you to a greater life.

Note that I said greater, not easier life. Undoubtedly, being guided by your conscience in every decision you make is going to lead you into conflict with those that don’t. However, it will give you peace of mind, the pride of being able to look at yourself in the mirror and the respect and love of other people that do.

Goal n#5: To Meditate Every Day of Your Life

Don’t feel you must confine this practise to meditation only. I use this term because it’s the most recognisable. What’s important is having a daily spiritual/mindful practise that connects you with the deeper part of your being.

Sure, getting into the habit of doing this can be a pain in the ass. You’d rather watch TV, do something supposedly more important like work on your business or just make a start to your day. However, the time you invest in this practise will bring you rewards that resting or being productive can’t match.

You gain control over your thoughts through meditating daily. As a result, your susceptibility to fear, anxiety, minor worries and stress will diminish. Furthermore, you develop the ability to focus your mind.

This power will prove invaluable in achieving other life goals. Your mind can be your greatest friend or greatest enemy. While we’re conditioned to believe that our problems and successes lie outside ourselves, our minds are the true gatekeepers.

Meditation teaches you this.

What greater knowledge could you ask for? To know that you are the architect of your destiny is the most liberating realisation you can experience.

Special Offer for Pick the Brain readers!!!
Want to learn more about how to live a greater life? Then Click the link below and get your FREE eBook.

Escape The System: 50 Insights to help you live an Extraordinary Life

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Joe Barnes is creator of the Screw The System website and author of the critically acclaimed Escape The System. His mission is to give all Dreamers, Adventurers and Entrepreneurs the inspiration and information necessary to pursue their true calling. He also works as a hypnotherapist and tennis coach.

You’ve read 5 Bizarre Goals to Help You Live a Greater Life, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading Why You Should Implement A Regiment In Your Recovery, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Can a regiment make or break your recovery?

It doesn’t really matter what your recovering from, whether it be drugs and alcohol or sex and over eating. Even the common cold can be troublesome without some organizational structure or a regimented process. The question remains how and why should you implement a regiment into your daily process.

My experience with a regiment was after 10 years flipping in and out of recovery. I found myself on my last leg to stand on and clueless as to what to do. I evaluated what made me feel good physically, mental and emotionally.  I concluded that there were several things that I could do throughout the day that would keep me busy and lay my mind at ease.

I will list what I built into my regiment below:

• Prayer
• Exercise
• Meditation
• Long boarding
• Working/Learning

However, the biggest issue I had was implementing a schedule or process to implement these healthy activities in my life. I would do them sporadically and mix them up, but what I really needed was a healthy regiment to fill my time up during the day.

So, I devised a strategy based on waking up at approximately 7:00 AM every morning. I would first start out with prayer followed by a meditation to reflect on my purpose for the

day and to carry it out to the best of my ability. After making my morning coffee I would prepare for a 1 mile run and some push-ups. I would get done with this by 8:15 – 8:30 AM and start to get ready for work. I started work at 10:00 AM and would stay till about 4:00 PM. Once I arrived back home at 5:00 PM I would prepare for my evening. I started prepping for my evening and/or watching TV or some YouTube tutorials. Once it was about time for bed I started to implement prayer and meditation prior to going to sleep.

How did implementing a regiment into my lifestyle work?

On some nights, I would long board or do activities that would make me feel accomplished and get the blood flowing. Keep in mind that I am just coming back into recovery and had relapsed several times, so I was skeptical that I could recover from drug addiction and alcoholism. I wasn’t too confident in myself, but developing a process or regiment helped me stay the course.

The natural endorphin’s produced by the daily exercise had helped me remove the toxins from the body. It also helped me to think clearer. The prayer in the morning helped me to have faith. The meditation helped me heal and provided hope for my future endeavors.

What was I able to take from developing a regiment in my life?

Developing a regiment in my life helped me to recover from a hopeless state of mind and body, alcoholism and drug addiction. While I was always concerned with meeting my goals, I was less concerned with the obsession to use drugs or alcohol.

Please don’t overlook this because my experience was recovery from drugs or alcohol because the reality is too much of anything is no good. You could be someone that always wakes up late for work or someone who shops too much. The idle and unfocused mind will take you on a time-wasting roller coaster ride if you let it. A daily routine makes life a whole lot easier and more efficient.

You’ve read Why You Should Implement A Regiment In Your Recovery, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading Why You Should Implement A Regiment In Your Recovery, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Can a regiment make or break your recovery?

It doesn’t really matter what your recovering from, whether it be drugs and alcohol or sex and over eating. Even the common cold can be troublesome without some organizational structure or a regimented process. The question remains how and why should you implement a regiment into your daily process.

My experience with a regiment was after 10 years flipping in and out of recovery. I found myself on my last leg to stand on and clueless as to what to do. I evaluated what made me feel good physically, mental and emotionally.  I concluded that there were several things that I could do throughout the day that would keep me busy and lay my mind at ease.

I will list what I built into my regiment below:

• Prayer
• Exercise
• Meditation
• Long boarding
• Working/Learning

However, the biggest issue I had was implementing a schedule or process to implement these healthy activities in my life. I would do them sporadically and mix them up, but what I really needed was a healthy regiment to fill my time up during the day.

So, I devised a strategy based on waking up at approximately 7:00 AM every morning. I would first start out with prayer followed by a meditation to reflect on my purpose for the

day and to carry it out to the best of my ability. After making my morning coffee I would prepare for a 1 mile run and some push-ups. I would get done with this by 8:15 – 8:30 AM and start to get ready for work. I started work at 10:00 AM and would stay till about 4:00 PM. Once I arrived back home at 5:00 PM I would prepare for my evening. I started prepping for my evening and/or watching TV or some YouTube tutorials. Once it was about time for bed I started to implement prayer and meditation prior to going to sleep.

How did implementing a regiment into my lifestyle work?

On some nights, I would long board or do activities that would make me feel accomplished and get the blood flowing. Keep in mind that I am just coming back into recovery and had relapsed several times, so I was skeptical that I could recover from drug addiction and alcoholism. I wasn’t too confident in myself, but developing a process or regiment helped me stay the course.

The natural endorphin’s produced by the daily exercise had helped me remove the toxins from the body. It also helped me to think clearer. The prayer in the morning helped me to have faith. The meditation helped me heal and provided hope for my future endeavors.

What was I able to take from developing a regiment in my life?

Developing a regiment in my life helped me to recover from a hopeless state of mind and body, alcoholism and drug addiction. While I was always concerned with meeting my goals, I was less concerned with the obsession to use drugs or alcohol.

Please don’t overlook this because my experience was recovery from drugs or alcohol because the reality is too much of anything is no good. You could be someone that always wakes up late for work or someone who shops too much. The idle and unfocused mind will take you on a time-wasting roller coaster ride if you let it. A daily routine makes life a whole lot easier and more efficient.

You’ve read Why You Should Implement A Regiment In Your Recovery, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

http://ift.tt/2p8E1w9

You’re reading 5 Ways to Crush Stress Without Exercising More, Meditating or Changing Your Diet, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Like there’s a huge burden you are carrying around.

You are not alone. Our days are jammed packed with things to do. Being busy is a heavy weight we all live under.

And the stress that comes along with this is no joke. Overtime stress can cause exhaustion, health issues, and even depression. You can chip away some of the negative effects of stress by exercising more, eating healthier, and possibly taking meditation. But those are huge lifestyle changes.

Is there something easier to help you manage stress?

Of course!

Morning routines do a lot to lower the pressure and feelings of overwhelm throughout the day. Here are five simple strategies you can put to work today to keep the stress beast at bay.

1. Start your day the night before

No, you don’t need to work all night to catch up with work, social media, and emails. But you can plan tomorrow tonight and reap many benefits. When you plan your next day the night before, you won’t be stressed rushing out the door trying to figure out what you may be forgetting.

You’ll know when your meetings start, if it’s your day to pick up the kids from soccer practice, or if it will rain and you’ll need to bring an umbrella. In a nutshell, you’ll be prepared. The chances of unexpected things coming up as you leave your house are minimal, and that gives you great peace of mind.

The added bonus? Did it ever happen to you that you found a solution to a problem while you were asleep? Brilliant solutions are not going to pop up in your mind if your brain is wrapped up in a million little things you are hoping to remember tomorrow morning. Planning your day ahead helps you clear your mind and start the day less stressed.

2. Refuse to read or listen to the news

Unless you are in the news industry, you don’t need to feed yourself with the news first thing in the morning. Have you noticed how few of those articles are positive? Headlines are designed to catch your attention and entice you to read on. And writers know that a headline which creates strong negative feelings will do the trick.

Your mind is somewhat like your stomach. If you have donuts for breakfast, you can expect to have less energy than if you have a balanced nutritious breakfast. If you feed your mind with negative news first thing in the morning, you can expect to start the day negative, pessimistic, and stressed.

Choose to delay reading the news till the afternoon, and you’ll see your upbeat self shine longer during the day.

3. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier

Does more sleep help you create a peaceful morning? Not necessarily. When you cut short the time it takes you to get ready, you kick start the stress cycle.

Instead choose to start your day at a slower pace. You won’t need to rush to get ready, have breakfast, and be out the door in record time. These extra few minutes in the morning will help you stay calm throughout the day.

You’ll be able to leave the house five minutes earlier. And you won’t frantically honk your horn at the first sign of slow traffic on your way to work.

4. Create a Zen working space

A messy, cluttered, and unorganized working space is a great recipe for stress. Your workspace doesn’t need to be 100% minimal, but the more stuff you have, the more distracted you’ll be.

Clutter overloads your senses.  It creates opportunities for distractions and makes you feel like you always have things to do, even when you are done with work.

Of course we all have different tolerance levels to clutter. You need to find what works best for you. But when you notice that your eyes often get fixed on the pile of unfiled papers instead of the task at hand, it’s time to put those papers away.

5. Radically reduce your options

Be boring. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be boring all the time, just first thing in the morning. When you have fewer options, it’s easier to choose.

Breakfast is a great opportunity to be boring. It may not be exciting to start the morning with the same meal every day, but you won’t have to give it an extra thought. It’s fast and frees your brain power to work on more important things.

Clothing is another great option where you can be boring. I know, not sexy. But, did you notice that Steve Jobs always wore the same outfit? President Obama only had two colors of suits to choose from. These were big public figures. If they were okay to wear the same outfits every day, so should you. It’s about cutting short the decision making process in the morning so you can create a smoother, more relaxed, and peaceful day.

You can conquer stress

We live in fast-paced times and we have a lot on our plates. It’s easy to fall prey to stress.

You know how pernicious stress can be for your health.

And you know that if you don’t make a decision it won’t magically disappear. You have to be proactive.

You won’t ever fully control what happens throughout the day, the last minute requests, delays, or emergencies.

But you can control how you start your day, and how much the day’s curve balls affect you.

Decide today to eliminate stress by starting your morning right.

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Corina Semph is a mom, project manager, and blogger on a mission to help people transform their homes from chaotic to peaceful and uncluttered, even if they struggle to get rid of stuff.  Download her FREE Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Transform Your Closet from Crazy to Blissful in No Time.

You’ve read 5 Ways to Crush Stress Without Exercising More, Meditating or Changing Your Diet, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading Get Smart! How to use Emotional Intelligence in a Technological World, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Let’s face it. We’ve all met someone who was “smart as a whip” but lacked certain social graces or was “clueless” when it comes to understanding how his words or behavior impacts others.

You know: the scholarly neighbor who bombs out at cocktail parties due to
off-color remarks or jokes told in poor taste, to the alienation of others.

Or the successful business executive who publicly berates his restaurant waiter for his order, not recognizing that what he could potentially be “served” once his plate is returned from the back kitchen might be even less appetizing.

Or the writer whose published blog rants come across as immature, irrational and irrelevant to his readership.

Truth is, although Emotional Intelligence is a very important type of “aptitude” it’s sorely lacking in far too many folks. Which is why learning to cultivate it can give you a competitive edge in your career, solidify relationships, and help you to make “smarter” choices to enhance your quality of life.

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?

The concept was introduced by psychologists Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey in the early 1990’s. Essentially it involves, “recognizing, understanding, and influencing the emotion of others.”
It also entails recognizing and governing our own individual emotions.

The English Oxford Living Dictionary Defines it as : “The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically: emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success.”

Whether we realize it or not, Emotional Intelligence impacts many areas of our life and ultimately our bottom line. In fact, research from Harvard Business School demonstrated that EQ counts for twice as much as IQ and Technical Skills in determining who will be successful!

WHY EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE MATTERS

With all the advancements and advantages technology brings, it can’t compensate for poor manners, bad choices, or lessen “the fallout” from not knowing how our actions impact others. And there’s no “app” for that!

Emotional Intelligence, therefore serves as an important footstool to elevate our social standing and enhance our personal and professional relationships.

Accordingly, here are a few practices and principles to consider:

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK…
While most of us would agree that complete candor is a really cute quality in children, we typically expect grown folks to possess the maturity and emotional intelligence to know better, demonstrate proper discernment, and observe some type of respectful boundaries.
But, unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. For some people, what comes up comes out; they say exactly what they feel.

Be forewarned: saying anything that comes to mind can brand us grown-ups as uncouth, unkind, and even cause irreparable damage to our relationships.
Even the Good Book tells us that “the power of life and death is in the tongue.”

With this in mind, here are a few tips to becoming a classier communicator, to preserve your relationships and good image:

*Consider the nature of the relationshipIn law there’s a term referred to as “standing” that applies equally well here. In other words, what right do you have to say what you have on your mind? Is your relationship a close one that merits getting “personal” with the other person? For example, my friend Lil and I share things in the spirit of “sisterhood” that I wouldn’t typically share with all my other girlfriends–based upon a long friendship and trust.

*Consider the timing
Say for instance, a friend is dealing with the devastation of a recent split with someone she truly cared for. Is this really the right time to confess her man once tried to hit on you?

*Consider the setting
Whenever possible, avoid criticizing and correcting others in a public forum. It’s rude and potentially embarrassing.

*Consider the consequences
Though the “truth may set you free” it may also “liberate” long-term friendships. Proceed with caution.

*Consider the usefulness of the information
Is it something the other person has control over? If not, “mum’s the word.”

Remember, although we are privileged to live in a country that enjoys freedom of speech as an unalienable right, freedom ain’t always “free.” Choose wisely.

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JENNIFER BROWN BANKS is an award-winning blogger, relationship columnist and author of the Ebook, “Get Smart”– How to use Emotional Intelligence in a Technological World.”

Learn more at her top blog for writers: Penandprosper.blogspot.com

You’ve read Get Smart! How to use Emotional Intelligence in a Technological World, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 5 Steps to Rethinking Success, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Success if defined by the individual that is pursuing it. Unfortunately, too many people settle for less than their full potential and struggle with regrets later in life. I have found that many people do not take the necessary time to identify what success means to them. If you have not defined success for yourself, you will most likely borrow another person’s definition of success and spend your life comparing yourself to them. Here are 5 steps to rethinking success:

1) Spend a lot of time discovering your definition of success. You need to know what makes you feel happy and secure. One person may want to make a certain amount of money while another person’s definition of success is owning a farm and living off the land. If either one of these individuals pursued the other’s definition of success, they would most likely not have a lot of passion and thus never reach that goal. You will fail before you start if you pursue success that you are not passionate about.

2) Accept that you will experience adversity on the path to success. If you think true success is easy and you plan to spend most of your time searching for the path of least resistance, success will continue to elude you. If you expect challenges along the way, you will be less likely to be thrown off track when it occurs. As you get better at this step, you will learn discomfort is necessary to accomplish great things, and you will start pursuing challenges as opposed to just dealing with them as they come.

3) Do not think small. I have met many people that settle for less than their full potential because they don’t believe a higher level of success is possible for them. My family faced a lot of adversity when I was young and as a result I believed that a high level of success was not possible for people like us. Broaden your perspective by reading books, interviewing professionals and becoming a student of the things you enjoy. I enjoyed finance, so I started learning about the most successful people in that field and realized I could take the same steps they took to their success. I could not achieve that success over night, but if I was willing to work hard it was not impossible.

4) Success is much harder on your own. All successful people need others to reach their full potential. Identify your weaknesses and find people that can help you in those areas. For example, one of my weaknesses is processes. I enjoy coming up with the vision and having technical knowledge about subjects, but I don’t want to track paperwork or plan events. I have team members that thrive performing those tasks and as a result I can focus on the larger vision of our company.

5) You do not have to sacrifice everything else in your life to be successful. I have learned that intentional times allow me to accomplish much more in a day than most people. I am laser focused when I am working because I want to be successful in multiple areas of my life. When people find out that I run a successful financial advisory firm, that I have written a book and I get home at 5:30 p.m. on most days to be with my family, they wonder how it is possible. I have the same amount of time in my day as they do, but they can’t seem to figure it out. Make every minute of your day count!

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STEN MORGAN graduated from Linfield College in Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics. In college, he interned at Northwestern Mutual selling life insurance and quickly rose to the top 10 percent of the group. After college, Morgan applied for his dream job at an investment firm and was hired on the spot. A prodigious student of the financial industry, Morgan earned his investment licenses in record time. After a few years, he decided it was time to build his own financial practice, Legacy Investment Planning. “The Seven Mindsets of Success” is his first book. Learn more at www.stenmorgan.com

You’ve read 5 Steps to Rethinking Success, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading How To Stay Productive In the Face of Sickness, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

At the time of writing this, I have already been sick for a week. I am finally reaching the end of my cold and I have regained the energy needed to work but my work and my productivity levels have suffered over the past few days. If you are like me, losing time and being relatively unproductive are two things that make you feel as though you have completely failed at life. For those of you who may struggle to work when you are sick or for those who are currently sick and are struggling, take a look at some tips below to help you stay productive in the face of sickness.

1. Realize That You Won’t Be As Productive

You’re not going to be able to produce as much work when you are sick as when you are healthy. It doesn’t mean that you have failed in any way or that you need to put in extra time to make up for it. It only means that you need to put in less work on your work and more work on your health. Allow yourself to be content with what you achieve rather than what you expect yourself to achieve.

2. Do What You Can

Unless you have a big project looming over the horizon, don’t push yourself too hard. Limit yourself to simple tasks or to tasks that will only take up at most an hour of your time. Create time blocks for yourself in which you can do work and rest in between these specific time blocks. Spending too much time doing work and ignoring the state of your health will only create more problems that might end up causing your sickness to last longer.

3. Plan for the Days Ahead

Sick time is the best time to get your planning done. Instead of fretting over all the things that you aren’t getting done, plan ahead and rearrange your schedule so that you will be able to tackle your projects more efficiently when you begin to feel better. If you have the time and the energy, you can plan your whole month in advance.

4. Respond to Calls and Emails

If your voice mailbox and your inbox are full, take some time to respond to your emails and your voicemails. These things would usually be a productivity problem but since you won’t be as productive when you are sick, using downtime to reach out to those who have tried to contact you is a great opportunity. However, let yourself and the people that you reach out to know that you won’t be this available once you begin feeling better and getting back to a normal schedule.

5. Use Spurts of Energy to Your Advantage

If, during the duration of your sickness, you feel a sudden burst of energy, use it to your advantage. Do work during these bursts of energy and rest when you begin to feel drained. If you feel energized for the entire day, great! If you only feel energized for 20 minutes out of the day, that’s okay too! Remember, the most important thing to do is to listen to your body. Don’t push yourself to continue working if you are feeling drained.

Being sick doesn’t mean that you can’t get stuff done but it does mean that you have to be aware of your limits and work around them. You simply have to remind yourself to work smarter, not harder. If you are currently sick or you are feeling a cold coming on, use the tips above to help you remain productive.

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Dylan is a freelance writer from California. When he’s not writing, he enjoys making music, taking pictures, and enjoying life. He hopes to one day hold a lifestyle writer position at a major magazine.  http://ift.tt/2oVTekc

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You’re reading Four Clever Ways to Improve Focus, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

You have just 24 hours. And, you’ve got to do everything in these many (but few) hours. Practically, there’s a limit to the efforts you can put into a day, but then,
the paucity of time shouldn’t be a deterrent to achieving your goals.

You can achieve more by increasing your productivity which is contingent
upon improving your focus.

Focusing on the task at hand is the surest way to make the most of your limited
time.

Here are four clever ways to improve your focus

Don’t allow your mind to trick you

The human mind is a trickster. It’ll make you underestimate or overestimate
your capabilities. And, both of them are dangerous.

Your mind will trick you by suggesting that you can complete a task in less
time than you usually take. This is a fallacy that will make you allocate
two hours to do a job that may eventually take five hours to complete.
It’ll end up eating up more time than you initially planned and also drain
your energy. It will demotivate you to the extent that you may stop
planning your day.

Thus, understand your real strengths and weaknesses. Know your speed and do
a precise estimation of the work and plan accordingly.

Shorten your to-do list

It’s a good habit to make a to-do list. But don’t include every small task
in it. It’ll only increase your stress and distract your mind every time
you see it.

Instead, make a small list with just 2-3 most crucial things to do in a day
and assign sufficient time for each of these activities.

Keep your list short and succinct. Don’t overburden it with things that
aren’t going to add to your productivity.

Make a schedule for petty but important things

There are a lot of things which don’t add to your productivity but are
necessary.

Checking comments on your social media posts or wishing people on their
birthdays and anniversaries is not productive but required.

Watching or reading news, taking a coffee break, attending meetings, or
answering phone calls or emails are other things that consume a lot of
time.

But, you can’t avoid such activities. They don’t add to your output, but
you’ve to do them anyway.

Allocate time for them and make them a part of your schedule. What’s more
important is to stick to the schedule.

Take your two coffee breaks at the same time each day. Answer emails once
or twice a day.

For instance, I have fixed a schedule for all meetings, interviews,
responding to emails and queries, etc. between 12-2pm. For the rest of the
time, I focus on things that delivers output.

Do the hardest thing first

Do the most difficult or the worst thing upfront.

Mark Twain coined the term “eating the frog.”

If you’ve to eat a frog and you have the entire day to do it, when is the
right time?

The answer is first thing in the morning. Why? Because it’s the worst thing
to do.

If you keep avoiding it, it’ll linger in your mind breaking your focus.

Instead, get it done first.

Have a tough client to deal with? Meet him at the earliest. Have to
complete a complicated project that’s paying you well? Do it now.

Doing the toughest thing first will boost your confidence and also take the
thing out of your mind enabling you to focus on other things for the rest
of the day.

Conclusion

With these four clever hacks, you can improve your focus manifold.

By eliminating things that aren’t productive or those which are stressful,
you can focus better.

While doing so, aim at your long term goals but focus on the task at hand
in a manner that there’s no tomorrow.

This way, you’ll strive to achieve more, ultimately increasing your
productivity and chances of success.

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Adela Belin is a private educator and a writer at Writers Per Hour. She shares her teaching experience with colleagues, students, and writers. Feel free to contact her on G+

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You’re reading 5 Ways to Craft Your Own Happiness at Work, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life – or so the saying goes. But what does it really take to find a career that you’ll be truly happy in?

Although most of us know what makes us happy in our personal lives, translating this to our professional lives can be a more difficult task. Research shows that today’s job seekers believe more strongly than ever that their careers should be fulfilling and meaningful, and one study found that 72% of Generation Y wouldn’t apply for a role with an organization if they didn’t believe in what it stood for.

Despite this, many workers aren’t happy in their chosen careers and a recent survey by Deloitte found that if given the chance, 44% of millennials would quit their job to join a new organisation or do something different within the next two years.

If this sounds familiar and you’d like to change careers or simply gain more satisfaction from your current job, here’s what research says about crafting happiness at work.

1. Use your strengths and talents

Although when choosing a career we tend to gravitate towards the things we love, it’s a lot more realistic to pursue something we are good at, or at least, have the potential to be good at. Research shows that working in a job that allows you to use your strengths and talents is the best way to reduce stress, increase productivity, and feel happy and fulfilled.

For the study, researchers had 577 volunteers pick one of their signature strengths and use it in a new way for one week. After this week, the volunteers reported feeling significantly happier at work and their levels of happiness remained high for a full month after the initial experiment.

Of course, it’s important to realise that loving something and being good at something aren’t necessarily the same thing. You might love painting, movies or music, but if you lack talent, it’s unlikely that you’ll gain much satisfaction or fulfilment from working in these areas.

2. Look for work that challenges you

Although you might think that a low-stress job would make you happier, research shows that dealing with some stress at work can be a good thing because it helps you feel challenged. If you have no stress whatsoever, you’ll likely become bored with your job and as a result, you’ll be less productive.

Moderate and short-term stress, on the other hand, can actually energise you, improve your job performance and increase your overall job satisfaction.

One study even found that workers in stressful jobs are a third less likely to die than those with easier jobs, as long as they’re in control of their own workflow. So the key to using stress productively is to find a job that challenges you, but also gives you the freedom to set goals and decide your own schedule.

3. Find a supportive work environment

If you want to be happy at work, one of the most important things to look for is a supportive work environment, because studies show that social support is one of the top predictors of job satisfaction.

Of course, you can’t and won’t become friends with everyone you work with, but a supportive work environment is less about having a lot of friends and more about knowing that you can count on your colleagues and supervisors for help when you run into difficulties or need feedback.

So when looking for a new job, focus on the workplace culture and find out whether or not you’ll be able to get help and feedback when you need it.

4. Look for ways to help others

Although it might seem like a cliché, a number of studies have found that when you’re able to help others in some way, your job will seem more meaningful and satisfying. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a doctor or social worker in order to be happy at work.

Some research indicates that employees can “craft” their own jobs to become more satisfied and engaged, and one way to do this is to work on consciously changing the way you view your job and the tasks you perform on a daily basis.

For example, one study found that although zookeepers aren’t usually very highly paid and often perform menial tasks such as scrubbing animal enclosures, they’re passionate about what they do because they view it as a way of helping animals, which makes it more meaningful to them.

5. Don’t try too hard

Finally, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to be “happy” in your job, because if this is your main focus at work, it may actually become harder to achieve it.

One psychological experiment found that when people were asked to read out a statement about the importance of happiness in life before watching a positive film, they felt less happy than those who simply watched the film. The researchers speculate that when being happy feels like an obligation, people will feel worse about themselves if they are unable to feel that way.

In another study, researchers had volunteers keep a detailed diary for two weeks and found that those who placed more value on happiness tended to feel lonelier and more disconnected from others.

So while it’s great to pursue a job that will challenge you and allow you to use your strengths, it’s also important to remember that work is work. If you’re constantly trying to be upbeat about your job, you’ll only be putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.

 

Marianne Stenger is a writer with Open Colleges. She covers career development, workplace productivity and self-improvement. You can connect with her on Twitter and Google+, or find her latest articles here.

You’ve read 5 Ways to Craft Your Own Happiness at Work, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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