How Archimedes, Thomas Edison, and Elon Musk used First-Principles Thinking to Create World-Changing Technological Breakthroughs

How Archimedes, Thomas Edison, and Elon Musk used First-Principles Thinking to Create World-Changing Technological Breakthroughs

technological breakthroughs

Roshan Thomas was one of the first employees at Tesla, joining the upstart electric car company in 2001. Across from him sat CEO Elon Musk, a tall, energetic engineer who described his dream of replacing the internal combustion engine with a global fleet of electric cars.

He asked Musk whether taking on a problem that automotive giants with their billions of research dollars had failed to solve was too ambitious. The CEO answered that he looked at only two things before embarking on anything. First, can it be done? Are we breaking any laws of physics by doing this? Second, is it important enough for humanity that it would make a major dent? If the answer to 1 and 2 is ‘yes,’ then he would move forward.

Musk describes this approach to problem solving as “First-Principles” Thinking. It is a thought process that allows a designer to innovate in clear leaps instead of incremental gains. With first-principles thinking, an innovator begins at the most fundamental truths and reasons up from there.

Such an approach has allowed Musk to do unprecedented things with the Tesla Model S. Musk is obsessed with each car being perfect. He has told his teams that he wants the cars to be so accurate that they could be used as a calibration device. If he wanted to know how long a meter was, he could measure the car. This approach to design comes from the design book for rocket design, which he uses for his rocket firm SpaceX.

This is very extreme for the car business, but for the rocket business it is not, so from my standpoint, when people say you can’t do that, it’s like, ‘I do that every day. What are you talking about? I know it’s possible.’ We’re trying to take the precision of rockets, where fractions of a millimeter can mean the difference between success and failure. We’re applying rocket science to the car business. If you want to make the best car, that’s what you have to do.”

Musk is not the first person to apply first-principles thinking to problem solving. Aristotle said 2,300 years ago that approaching first principles is the key to doing any kind of systematic inquiry. Another ancient Greek inventor also applied this thinking – Archimedes.

Archimedes was the Elon Musk of his day, building technology centuries ahead of his time and discovering scientific proofs that were not rediscovered until the time of Newton. He was such a genius inventor that Roman chroniclers claimed he built a primitive laser out of an array of mirrors. Its bursts of solar energy burned down an entire enemy naval fleet.

Archimedes lived in the city-state of Syracuse, a Mediterranean backwater with little access to technological tools or written works that he could use to carry on his studies. Despite his isolation, Archimedes’s aggressive adherence to logic allowed him to make big discoveries.

Many of Archimedes’s inventions are still in use today: the compound pulley is still the basic mechanical feature of an elevator. He invented a screw that moved water uphill and catapults that defended Syracuse from Roman invaders. He was the first scientist to apply abstract mathematical principles to the world around him.

The third inventor to use first-principles thinking is Thomas Edison. He achieved similar levels of productivity as Musk and Archimedes. He was arguably the most prolific inventor in all of history, with 1,093 patents to his name. His lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, churned out a minor invention every 10 days and a big thing every six months or so.

While many of Edison’s most famous inventions were more practical versions of things that already existed (such as the light bulb), he applied first-principles thinking to come up with original designs, such as the phonograph. While other inventors had already made devices that recorded sounds, Edison’s invention was the first to reproduce the recorded sound.

The phonograph took nearly a decade to bring to the market. He first conceived of the idea in the 1870s of turning electromagnetic waves into speech. Edison first used grooved paper disks or spools of paper tape. Edison eventually settling on a tinfoil disk. But tinfoil was so delicate it could only be played once or twice before becoming unusable.

Edison spent 10 years testing every substance imaginable until settling on the wax cylinder. His invention spread rapidly and became the dominant audio recording format for most of the 20th century.

Being a first-order inventor meant having every conceivable material on hand in order to test any theory. Edison’s laboratory materials supply items included over 8,000 kinds of chemicals, every size of needle, every kind of screw made, every kind of cord or wire. It also included hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels, silk in every texture, cocoons, ostrich feathers, and even a peacock’s tail.

Whether you are an ancient Greek scientist like Archimedes, an American tinkerer like Thomas Edison, or a CEO of a rocket ship firm like Elon Musk, first-principles thinking can help you overcome problems in a completely different way than those around you.

Michael Rank is a doctoral candidate in history. He is the author of 12 books and host of the History in Five Minutes Podcast. His most recent book is The Most Productive People in History: 18 Extraordinarily Prolific Inventors, Artists, and Entrepreneurs, From Archimedes to Elon Musk

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9 Phrases That Will Lower Your Energy

Did you know that every word you say and every thought
that you think has a vibration to it.

Dr. Masaru Emoto, A scientist from Japan has conducted numerous studies on the effects of postive thinking on plants and water.  He became famous when his experiments on water molecules featured in the 2004 film, What The Bleep Do We Know? His experiments show that human thoughts and intentions can alter physical reality, such as the molecular structure of water. 

Dr.Emoto-rice-experimentAnother famous experiment conducted by Dr Emoto and his researchers showed that negative words and thoughts directly affects the rate at which the cooked rice decomposes.  On one container of cooked rice he wrote “thank you” and on the other “you fool”. He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten.

So what does this prove? Well crtics would say it proves nothing, whilst I believe that our thoughts, and the words we speak have a direct affect on everything around us.

There are lots of experiments that have been carried out similar to that of Dr. Emoto’s.

The same type of thing happens in human interactions, no we won’t go all moldy if we think negative thoughts but it can spiral into something even more dangerous than mere mold: stress, disease, and depression.

Vibrations of our thoughts and words.

Although you can’t see the vibrations of energy that are emitted, unless you were to do an EEG, which records the electrical activity of your brain, you can pick up on the vibrations from another person unconsciously.

We’ve all had experiences when we’ve walked into a house and immediately felt the loving energy from it, or conversely, felt the bad vibe from it.  This is you picking up on electrical activity which has been emitted out to the surrounds of the person having these loving or negative thoughts, and this electrical activity has been transformed into a subtle energy that sticks to the surrounding furniture, the walls, the carpets and the whole air.  Much like the way lightning is created when tiny positively charged sparks reach up in response to negatively charges in the air or clouds above the ground, so our minds emit these tiny charges of energy, either negative or positive.

So you thoughts and words create this energy and can be felt by others around you, some will fell it much stronger than others.

So, we have to be mindful of the words we speak and the thoughts we think.

No I’m not saying it’s all positive thinking all the time, its about remaining in a positive state of mind rather than a pessimistic state of mind.

With that in mind, I have written a list of phrases that you might want to be mindful of:

9 Phrases That Will Lower Your Energy

I’m not going to explain any of these phrases as you will know what I mean as soon as you see them and maybe even recognise a few of these phrases :)

1. This always happens to me!

2. I can’t do this!

3. Life sucks!

4. She/he doesn’t like me!

5. I’ll try to do that!

6. I will never be able to do that…!

7. The world is a bad place!

8. I hate him/her!

9. I’m not good enough!

 

 

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How to Become a Billionaire

The world’s first billionaire was John D. Rockefeller, which he achieved in 1916, but billionaires are still quite rare in the world of business and finance.

If you go back 10-15 years everyone wanted to be a millionaire, but now there are thousands of millionaires around the world and the perception of money has changed drastically over the last few years with the arrival of the internet.

So now we all want to be billionaires, but what makes a billionaire, how do they think, what makes them different.

This infographic illustrates brilliantly how billionaires think and act a little differently from us.

How to Become a Billionaire

Self-made-Billionaire-Infographic

Source of Infographic from Brighton School of Business and Management

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Why Punishing Ourselves Never Works the Way We Want It To

adriana

adriana

We all have feelings. That’s obvious. But did you know there’s no such thing a wrong feeling?

Has someone ever told you you’re not allowed to feel what you’re feeling? Maybe. Have you ever told anyone they’re not allowed to feel what they’re feeling? Perhaps.

BUT have you ever told yourself you’re not allowed to feel what you’re feeling? I guarantee it. AND you do it WAY more often than you even realize.

As humans making our way through our lives, going about our business, and doing the best we can with what we’ve got, we sure seem to have this thing with kicking ourselves when we’re down.

When’s the last time you felt mad, sad, bad, angry, jealous, depressed, lonely, anxious, worried, scared, or vulnerable? Think about it for a second. And then think about what was going through your mind – what were you thinking when you were feeling one of above said emotions?

You may not know right off the bat, but I will bet, no, I can almost guarantee you were thinking to yourself something like: “you’re so weak! How can you let yourself feel this way?” or “You’re pathetic. No one else let’s themselves get in to an emotional state like this!” or “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you keep it together!” or some other really encouraging, uplifting, and compassionate phrase.

To be fair, many of us do believe in earnest that we can whip ourselves in to a calm, peaceful, and balanced emotional state by criticizing and berating ourselves to no end. It is kind of how our society works: use punishment in order to keep the people in line.

Unfortunately that doesn’t work with our emotions – and I’m not even sure it’s the best way to run a society either. It’s almost like saying you can scream and yell at a crying child to get them to snap out of it and be happy. Pretty harsh Julia, but it’s true.

So now that we’re more aware that we tend to get all nasty with ourselves for feeling bad, mad, sad, angry, guilty, or depressed AND it doesn’t actually make us feel any better, what are we to do?

Let’s say a good friend came to you and said they were feeling really down, low, worried, scared or anxious – how would you respond to them? Something like: “You’re pathetic!” or “Stop being such a baby!” Oh man I sure hope not.

So then why do we think it’s okay to say things like that to ourselves?

What would you actually say to a close friend who was struggling? Why not try responding to yourself in the same way? You deserve to be treated at least half decently too.

It’s really important that we learn to take better care of ourselves – because let’s face it – we’re the only one of us we’ve got.

It’s okay to feel what we’re feeling. I’ve learned there aren’t actually any wrong feelings. We may not like what we’re feeling, but that’s okay, and it’s normal – life is not always pleasant. And that’s just a fact.

And by both giving ourselves the freedom and compassion to feel what we’re feeling, and also working on treating ourselves in the same way we would a close friend who was struggling, those unpleasant feelings really won’t stay around very long, AND they won’t be nearly as intense as they were when we were unknowingly making ourselves feel bad simply for feeling bad.

headshot Julia Kristina is a Mental Health Therapist who lives in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada. She runs a vibrant clinical counselling practice, is a speaker, workshop facilitator, blogger, and recovered ‘Friends’ junkie. In her spare time she likes to power walk, power talk, and power drill. You can read and see more from Julia Kristina on her Good For Me Blog.

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5 Ways to Control Anger and Improve Your Life

5 Ways To Control Your Anger & Improve Your Life

K Hotter 5 6 15

Our hearts and minds are filled with a lifetime of memories – both good and bad. But, for some reason, instead of savoring the good memories, many of us just dwell on the bad ones.

Well, that needs to stop. Accepting the hurt from your past, and then moving on, is a healthy way to sort out your feelings of unrest. I have first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to dwell on the negative memories that haunt your daily life.

I grew up in a relatively large family – I was the youngest of four kids. Overall, my childhood was very nice. My mother was a compassionate and loving woman. My siblings treated me like an adored baby brother. And my father was an excellent provider. But he also had an extreme anger problem, which resulted in sporadic verbal and physical abuse.

He was a police officer, who had difficulty handling stress. He would get overwhelmed with his job and raising a family. In his heart, my dad only wanted what was best for us. But, he let that anger out too many times, and in too many inappropriate ways. He had a rough childhood. His father was not a pleasant man. Luckily, he also had a great mother. She balanced him, as did my mother after they got married.

Those memories of being hit very hard, and being insulted in a nasty manner, have always haunted me. In the past, if I felt slighted or disrespected in any way, the inner beast would get fired up. Fortunately, I have never been physical. I have never hit anyone. But, the anger I felt was real. And deep. I needed to change. So I did.

Not everyone who suffers from anger issues has had the same experiences I did. We are all unique people with diverse backgrounds. But, regardless, of what road led you to your anger, you can still change direction. It’s never too late.

Anger is a disease that eats away at your soul and spreads to those whose lives you touch. So, here’s five things you can do to keep your anger under control.

  1. Stop pretending you’re OK.

If you are constantly agitated, and it only takes the slightest thing to propel into you a tailspin of anger. Then, you have an anger issue that needs to be resolved. It is not healthy to feel that way. Or act that way. For you. And for everyone else that you encounter. Look yourself in the mirror and finally admit to yourself that you are not okay, and a change is needed.

  1. Find a “peaceful” role model.

This may seem like an odd thing to do. But, trust me. It works. If you are an angry person, I know you’re aware of people in your life that you admire for their calm and peaceful demeanor. Learn from them. Watch them handle stress and pressure. Now, I am not saying being a copycat. Rather, just like anything in life – learn from the masters.

  1.  Release the aggression (constructively)

You must find a way to let out that beast within. Exercise is, of course, an amazing way to release that extra tension. I personally love to hike. It really calms me down, and keeps me in good spirits. Also, another way to release your angst is through a creative outlet, like writing, drawing, photography, etc. I have been doing stand-up comedy for the past two years, and it is such a rush to get up on stage and make people laugh. I feel so relaxed afterward.  I am not saying you have to become a stand-up comedian, but you do have to find a way to release your anger in a constructive way.

  1. Forgive the person who wronged you.

This may be the most difficult thing to do – in life. Seriously. Forgiveness is a monumental task, and an even larger accomplishment. Once you forgive, you take back the power from the wrong-doer. I used to think this whole forgiveness theory was a bunch of bull, and some cliché that has been perpetuated by the people who seek forgiveness. But, it’s not BS. It really works. Try it.

1. Laugh. A lot. 

This one is my favorite. And the easiest to accomplish. The first step is to be able to laugh at yourself. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Once you can do that, the sky’s the limit. People who can laugh at themselves live 20 years longer than those who cannot. OK, I just made-up that statistic. But, you get my point.

The key to all of this is accepting your past and resolving to change your old way of approaching things.  I wish you luck in your pursuit for inner peace.

——–

Kevin is a writer, attorney, comedian and photographer. He hosts a blog at kevinhotter.com, the aim of which is to inspire, motivate and entertain the world. 

 

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3 Ways to Become More Mindful During Your Workout

Mindful Workout

You step on a treadmill and get into a groove after a long day at work. Thoughts of your looming to-do list might be racing through your head. Or maybe you’re stressing about family or financial issues. And before you know it, you’ve forgotten you’re even there, pounding away on that rubber strip like a mindless robot.

Like most people, you probably want to take your mind far away from the excruciatingly slow-ticking clock before you. But tuning into your feelings while working out is hugely beneficial to your mental and physical health. It provides an opportunity to reconnect with a piece of you that might have gotten lost amid your hectic life and puts you on track to achieve your goals.

Of course, it’s not always easy to process the sweat pouring from your face, your pumping heart rate, and loud breathing and fathom what it all means. And with the omnipresence of media and entertainment and the piling stresses of daily life, distractions are almost impossible to ignore. But by focusing on the now, you can come back down to reality and start making the most of your workouts.

What Will This Do For Me?

Checking in, even in a brutally hard workout, helps you gain a keener sense of how hard you’re working physically and in a broader context. When I remain in the moment, I can ask myself whether I’m benefitting from the activity at hand. In terms of exercise, I can more accurately gauge where I am: Is my heart rate up? Am I breathing harder? Am I challenging myself or plateauing?

While running mile 16 in an IRONMAN triathlon, I became so displaced that I failed to notice a woman spectator running next to me. She was telling me to smile because I had this amazing opportunity, and that connection brought me back to a present state and forced a smile across my face. Instead of trudging through the marathon portion and dwelling on the pain of it all, I realized it was a blessing and completely turned around my state of mind.

How Can I Be More Mindful?

By bringing awareness into your workouts, you can stimulate your mind and body instead of taking part in a mindless routine. Here are three ways you can be more mindful:

1. Drown Out Your Thoughts 

In our always-on society, no matter where you are, you’re probably connected to a device. Even outdoor noises like cars rushing by and strangers conversing can be distracting.

Because we’ve become so obsessed with thinking about other things, our minds often take over and pull us away from the moment. And in a snap, the moment has passed, and we can’t recall it.

If you want to tap into your unconscious mind, you have to quiet your thoughts. This quiet time allows you to use your mind rather than let your mind use you.

2. Build a Ritual

Establishing rituals is a great way to train your unconscious mind to be more present. Setting up a ritual can calm an overactive brain, even if it’s something as simple as dimming the lights. As humans, we respond to rituals because they take the worry about “what comes next” out of the equation and allow us to focus on what really matters.

3. Meditate

Meditation is powerful — and not just from a spirituality standpoint. It’s an amazing tool that gives you the chance to connect with something bigger than yourself; it just requires some willingness. As your breathing becomes slower and more deliberate, your anxieties slip away. Meditating before or after a workout for just five minutes can help you refocus and remind you of what you’re doing and why. Don’t just go through the motions; actually be there.

When I’m mentally present during a workout, I think about different parts of my body in a connected way. How do my ankles feel? How does it feel when I break a sweat? This adds a whole new mind-body connection that’s induced by the exercise. It’s not even emotional; it’s a gauge or checkpoint for how I’m feeling.

Of course, you’ll inevitably have days when you hit the pavement and use the stress and tension as fuel to push yourself. And when being unmindful can help you get through a slump, it can have a positive impact. But as long as you recognize that distractions are everywhere — and you hold the mental capacity to get back on track — you can start putting mind over body and make your workouts worthwhile.

Rick Martinez is the CEO and founder of Project BINK, a community and platform that guides people to purpose-driven happiness. Find out more about how to eliminate distraction and become more mindful in your career, workouts, and life on the Project BINK blog.

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7 Thinking Patterns You Use to Distort Reality

Are you using your thoughts to create the life you desire or is the way you think having a negative impact on your life? Unfortunately, most of us fall victim to distorted and disempowered thinking patterns that rob us of joy and cause unnecessary suffering.

If this sounds like you, there is no need to feel bad. Life doesn’t come with a manual that tells us how to control our thoughts and formal education doesn’t teach much if anything regarding that sort of thing.

7_thinking_patterns_to_distort_reality

In this article, I will share seven common thought patterns that cause us to see situations in a distorted, negative way that is liable to cause misery, pain, and suffering. Make sure you aren’t sabotaging yourself with this sort of thinking and, if you are, find out why.

Discounting the Positive

It’s amazing how harsh we can be on ourselves, and this tendency makes it easy to forget the good things in life. Do you find yourself constantly zeroed in on the negative aspects of everything you do or obsessing over parts of yourself that you find undesirable? If so, you aren’t alone. I’m guilty of thinking this way, too, as are many other people.

For instance, you might receive compliments regarding a speech you’ve given and think, “Sure, they’re saying my speech was good, but that’s just because they are too nice to tell me the truth.”

This mindset can be quite damaging because it saps your motivation and gives you a reason to give up and stop moving forward. The following is a list of tips that can help you focus on the positive and become more objective and less judgmental about your accomplishments:

  • Accept compliments and don’t waste your energy questioning the sincerity of those who show appreciation
  • Write down all the positive comments you receive from others and review it whenever you’re feeling low.
  • Ponder everything you’ve accomplished in your life and make a list of it. Review the list whenever you feel the need to.

Assuming Your Feelings Are Always True

Do you feel like a loser because you’ve failed an exam? Do you think you feel ashamed because you weren’t able to accomplish something you intended to? No matter how real your feelings may seem, they are just emotions. They might feel intense or overpowering, but emotions have nothing to do with reality. They are simply the result of your interpretations (both conscious and unconscious) of what happens to you.

Learn to disassociate yourself from your emotions. Avoid saying, “I am” and try to give your emotions a different label. Instead of saying “I am angry,” for instance, say, “I am experiencing anger” to separate yourself from your feelings. Labeling emotions diminishes the response of the amygdala, the part of the brain that is responsible for the flight or fight response. It also increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, which contributes to rational thinking. Don’t try to suppress your emotions, simply acknowledge and observe them with detachment whenever possible.

Thinking You’re Psychic

You tend to assume you know what other people think about you. A example of this would be deciding an inexplicably quiet coworker doesn’t say much because she dislikes you. “I know what she thinks about me. I saw the way she looked at me,” you might think. “She doesn’t like me.”

In reality, you don’t know what she thinks about you. You can’t accurately assume what anyone thinks so take off your hat Sherlock Holmes! This coworker could be shy or having troubles of which you are unaware.People have misunderstood my words, actions, or attitude on many occasions. If other people can misjudge us so easily, then we can just as easily misjudge them.

When you try to read someone else’s mind or discern, you’re just projecting your thoughts about yourself onto them. Your self-image has a huge influence on how you believe others think of you. If, for instance, you are highly critical of yourself, chances are that you imagine people around you are highly critical of you as well. When this happens, you simply see the world in your version of reality. It can easily cause you to create a world where you feel your teachers, colleagues, or friends don’t appreciate you.

Worse yet, these feelings could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you believe that someone doesn’t like you, you’re likely to act differently around this person, and this alone may cause him or her to actually start disliking you!

Miscommunications and inaccurate assumptions can wreak havoc on relationships. If you sincerely want to know what people think about you, ask them! On a similar note, don’t expect the people in your life to know what you’re thinking.

Shoulds and Musts

Take a piece of paper and write five sentences that start with the phrase “I should”. Then ask yourself why you believe that you should do these things? Words we use every day have a tremendous influence over our lives. Words like “should” or “must” may seem innocuous, but they limit our choices in life. If you have too many “shoulds” in your life, it usually means that you have many expectations regarding how you must behave. These expectations stem from your belief system, which is often the result of what your parents or society have told you that you should/must do. If this belief system doesn’t align with who you truly are, you risk being a slave to expectations, “shoulds”, and “musts”, all of which put a damper on happiness.

After all, if you don’t behave the way you should, then you will likely punish or beat yourself up. That’s why “could” is a much more preferable word choice. “Could” gives you more freedom and isn’t so stifling. Instead of saying, “I should have done that,” for example, you could say, “I could have done that”.

Overgeneralisation

Overgeneralisations include thoughts like “I lost my job, I will never find a job again” or “I always do the wrong thing.”

Beware, when you find yourself using words like “never”, “always”, or “all the time” you are likely to overgeneralise. These three phrases are so absolute that they are rarely an accurate description of reality. More often than not, they are the result of subjective interpretations, which can be very destructive.

I recommend you to start take notice of the way you use these words when you talk to yourself, but also when you talk to your partner or other people. These kinds of words are usually not the words you want to use if you wish to create harmonious relationships.

Chain Reaction of Negative Thoughts

Have you ever taken the time to analyze what exactly happened the last time you felt depressed? Most of the time, the reason we get depressed is because we fail to interrupt an increasing flow of negative thoughts. Unfortunately, just one seemingly insignificant negative thought can be enough to create a chain reaction that turns into a downward spiral.

One day when I was a bit down I asked myself why and tried to discern the trigger event. I soon realized that the root of my low mood was a seemingly insignificant thought of which I wasn’t even particularly aware.

For instance, knee pain would negatively influence my mood so subtly that I would slip into destructive thought patterns faster than I could get a handle on them. It would go from “Why don’t I have a girlfriend?” to “I would like to do this or that, but I’m not smart enough.” Next was “I wish I could be as smart as my friend X” then “My friend Y is so confident, but he didn’t do anything to deserve it”. It was a downward spiral.

Does it happen to you, too? Analyze your most recent thoughts and try to pinpoint the very first thing that triggered your feelings. Was it really a big deal? Please don’t torture yourself with the worst version of yourself and your life by focusing your energy on all your problems at once. When handled on an individual basis, most problems aren’t that big of a deal. Refuse to link all of your problems to one another!

Adding Your Opinion to Facts

If we were to stick to the facts when thinking things over, we would avoid a great deal of grief. However, we’re often unable to avoid adding our little comments and opinions to the facts at hand. For most of us, these comments and opinions tend to be negative and only serve to make us feel bad.

An example of adding opinions to facts is evident in the phrase, “I lost $100,000 in the stock market. I’m a total failure!” The reality is that you lost $100,000 in the stock market. That part is factual. Your supposed status as a failure, however, is nothing more than your opinion.

A great way to stop bombarding yourself with damaging, self-critical opinions is to make a game of separating facts from opinions in your daily life. When you are hard on yourself, ask yourself whether the things you’re telling yourself are facts or opinions? You can extend this game to others as well. When people criticize you, ask if the person in question is telling you a fact about yourself or giving you their opinion.

Did you recognize your own thinking in any of these thought patterns? If so, how do you plan to stop distorting your reality and create a more positive mental state?

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15 Self Help Books Everyone Needs To Read

self-help books

Self-help and personal development material is one of those things that’s either embraced with open arms, or pushed away like a bad meal. I prefer the former. And I’m guessing that if you’re reading this article right now, you’re (at least) thinking about embracing this list of self-help books below.

So, without further ado, here are 15 of the best self-help books available today. Hopefully they’ll help you make as many positive strides towards your own personal development as they have for me.

1. “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

self-help books

Let’s kick this party off with a quick little exercise: imagine for a moment that you’re working on something—a project, perhaps—and this thing you’re working on; it happens to be something you absolutely love doing. It’s also something you’re damn good at, too … How do you feel when you’re doing this type of work? Does it make you feel good? Does it energize you? Do hours seem to fly by like minutes? If yes, then you’re probably in what’s known as a “flow” state. Wondering how you might be able to bring more flow into your life? Pickup this book.

 

2. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey

self-help books

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for couple of decades, chances are you’ve heard of ”The 7 Habits” by the late great Stephen Covey — but have you actually read it and put it to use as the self-help book it was meant to be used as? If not, then now’s the time to consider doing that. The power of this book comes from the timeless principles (or habits) it’s based off of. Each of the habits laid out in this book are designed to act as individual prescriptions for effectiveness in every area of life: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

 

3. “Willpower” by Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney

self-help books

I learned a super crucial self-help lesson from “Willpower”. Here it is: There are basically two qualities that correlate with success: one of them is intelligence and the other is self-control. So far scientists haven’t figured out what to do about intelligence, but they have re-discovered how to improve self-control. That’s what this book is about — improving impulse control — which is probably the most under-estimated aspect of self-help that there is. Get this book. It’ll change the way you live your life.

 

4. “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan

self-help books

Think of the ONE thing you ultimately want to do with your life, career, or business over the long-run. Once you’ve got that in your mind, think about how many dominoes you need to line up—and then knock down—in order to achieve it. Simple right? Actually, yeah. It is. But just because it’s simple doesn’t make it easy. That’s why “The ONE Thing” is such a powerful book. According to the authors, the key to success is figuring out your ONE most important goal — in your business, career, health, relationships, and every other area of life that matters to you — and knocking down one domino at a time until you’ve achieved that ONE goal.

 

5. “Psycho Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz

self-help books

Get this: “Pyscho Cybernetics” was written by a plastic surgeon who decided that one day, he wanted to help his patients see their beauty from the inside-out as opposed to the outside-in, which is presumably why most of them walked into his office. This is a surprisingly powerful little self-help book that’s packed with practical advice on improving confidence, overcoming fear, and more.

 

6. “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg

self-help books

The interesting thing about habits, is that once we develop them, they go about totally un-noticed in our day-to-day activities. For example: you probably don’t think about how many simultaneous actions go into reversing your car out of the garage and into the street safely and smoothly… you just do it. That’s a habit. But so is smoking“The Power of Habit” teaches you how to be deliberate about building better habits that serve you both in life and in business.

 

7. “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius

self-help books

“Meditations” is filled with Stoic wisdom that’s just as applicable to the world we live in today, as it was when it was when it was first written 1,800 years ago. The remarkable thing about the advice in this book, and the reason it shows up on this list, is because a vast portion of the spiritual principles that were practiced and written down so many centuries ago, have since been confirmed by science to be effective on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Find out more by picking up a copy of this age-old text to see if you can bring a little old-school Stoic wisdom to the 21st century.

8. “Getting Things Done” by David Allen

self-help books

Yah know — you can have some of the greatest, most innovative ideas in the world — and have every single one of them flop due to a lack of ability to EXECUTE. If you lack the willingness + capability to get things done with effectiveness + efficiency, it doesn’t matter how great your ideas are because when it’s all said and done, success depends upon consistent action. Which is exactly why David Allen’s “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” makes for such a crucial read.

 

9. ”How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

self-help books

Decades before we had the science and research to prove the power of Emotional Intelligence, Dale Carnegie had already written the definitive guide on how to leverage it to our lives and in our businesses. “How To Win Friends and Influence People” is one of those self-help books that seriously needs to be in everyone’s collection. I’ve lost count how many friends I’ve gotten copies of it for.

 

10. “Waking Up” by Sam Harris

self-help books

Still teetering on which box to check under the “Religious Preference” category?—Or whether to check any of the boxes at all? It’s not as big of a deal as it used to be.

In ”Waking Up”, neuroscientist Sam Harris breaks down the science behind how the brain relates to consciousness — and how that relates to spirituality — showing us that you can, indeed be spiritual without religion.

11. “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek

self-help books

“Leaders Eat Last” is a self-help book disguised as a leadership book. In the book, author Simon Sinek lays out actionable insights about why leaders need to replace the old “carrot & stick” models of management with more sustainable approaches, that are grounded in empathy and designed to boost engagement and a sense of camaraderie that’s missing in the modern workplace… Pick this book up if you plan on — or already are — leading a career or business that’s comprised of teams of people that depend on working together in order to succeed.

 

12. ”Give and Take” by Adam Grant

self-help books

Some people say that the only way to get ahead in life is to crush our enemies and claw our way to the top. Followers of this way of thinking believe it doesn’t matter how many fingers you need to step on to get to the top, it just matters that you get to the top. This is non-sense. And in his book, ”Give and Take”, author Adam Grant has the research to prove it. Grant says that the true drivers of success are centered not around taking, but giving.

13. ”Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi

never eat alone

The reason why “Never Eat Alone” — a book about connecting with people — is on this list because everything in life happens through people. And in this book, author Keith Ferrazzi breaks down the science behind building meaningful relationships. My biggest take-away? Stop trying to “network” with people to get what you want, and start trying to add value instead. Just read the book. It’s a game changer.

14. “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell

self-help books

This is a book about success… and how there’s a lot more to it than being smart and working hard. Maybe you’ve heard of Gladwell’s famous 10,000 hour rule and how it relates to success – but even then – there’s still so much more to learn about how successful people became so successful in the first place. “Outliers” is a must-read title if you’re looking for some self-help literature that’s focused on the subtleties and nuances that contributed to the success of icons like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

15. “10% Happier” by Dan Harris

self-help books

If you’re a skeptic by nature, then this is the book for you. “10% Happier” was written by news anchor, Dan Harris. In the book, he chronicles his run-ins with over-the-top self-help gurus (like the quacks behind The Secret)—and cross-references their claims with science to determine whether they held up or not. Along the way, he uncovers the intersection of where science meets spirituality. Good stuff.

Which book will you read first?

Now that you’ve got this big ole’ list of self-help books — there’s only one question left: Which one do you read first? Should you go out and get all of them immediately? Should you read them all at once? So many options. So little time. Ultimately, it’s totally your decision what you do with this list and how you apply it to your life and career.

But if I may, here’s what I would suggest you consider as you get started:

– Subscribe to a book summary site, like FlashBooks to get the key-takeaways from the books on this list.

– If you’d prefer to read an entire book, I would highly suggest that you read just ONE book at a time. Sometimes, when we see something new and exciting, we have tendency to want to do/learn/read it all at once… and as we all know, this is nearly impossible to do without stressing ourselves out. So, choose a book. And then commit to reading it from start to finish.

– If you’re in a rush, try Audio books, or Audiobook summaries.

– Finally, if you’re in a super rush, checkout some YouTube video book summaries, like this one.

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Dean Bokhari is best-selling author and host of Meaningful*FM (MeaningfulHQ.com),one of the web’s most popular personal development podcasts.

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5 Smart Reasons to Practice Creative Visualization

how to visualize

“Oh gosh! Is this what the rest of my life is going to look like?”

Have you ever found yourself asking this tough dilemma? Have you ever felt like something in your life is taking the wrong direction? And it seems that you can’t do nothing to change that?

There comes a point in your life when you realize that you’re meant for something bigger than working your 9-5 hours (or more) under fluorescent lights and in unhealthy environments.

When you realize that you don’t want anymore lead a normal existence, conforming to society’s expectations, but you want to create something epic, something valuable for you and the millions of people out there.

But the problem is that most of the time you have no clue where to start to make this happen. Maybe you deeply desire to become a full time writer, a famous world-travel youtuber or a meditation instructor in a luxury retreat in Bali, but you feel stuck because you don’t know how to accomplish that specific goal.

Fortunately, you have the power to radically transform any aspect of your life and experience more happiness, joy, abundance, prosperity, health or any kind of success you truly desire. This power is called creative visualization.

Creative Visualization has now become one of the most widely used and popular personal growth tool on the planet to help you realize your full potential and live the life of your dreams.

But if you are still skeptical about incorporating visualization in your daily routine, here are some good reasons why you should consider taking up a creative visualization practice.

1. You discover your higher purpose

When I started my journey of self-discovery and awakening, I had no idea how to stop doing what I hated and start doing what I were meant to do.

Fortunately, visualization helped me to figure out how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be, and what actions I needed to take.

Therefore through visualization you can gain inspiration about the steps you should take towards your biggest dreams, because we are more likely to believe and act in the direction of our dreams, goals and aspirations, if we can actually see them as possible and achievable in our mind.

2. You become happier

Just after a few days of Visualization, you’ll start to feel more confident, happy, relaxed and mentally stronger. Visualizing yourself successful and living on purpose has a great impact on your moods and brain chemistry because your mind can’t see the difference between what’s real and what’s created in your imagination, thus your body will respond in the same way it would if you where actually experiencing that which you are visualizing.

3. You heal yourself naturally

This is my favorite one. Whenever I experience any type of aches and pain, I dive deep in my visualization practice and I clearly visualize my body rebuilding itself and getting better. And it’s pretty awesome when you realize that you can actually consciously control your body’s natural self healing mechanisms with just your mind. So, if you don’t visualize for any other reason, give it a try for this one.

4. You attract synchronicity in your life

When you start to visualize something you deeply desire to experience, you’ll begin to see great opportunities present themselves. You’ll meet inspiring people, have sparkling ideas and flash of insights. You’ll finally know what to do, how to get you back on track and, most importantly, how to transform any ideas into an action plan.

5. You become the best version of yourself

It’s time to acknowledge that your present life is largely the result of what you’ve visualized (consciously or unconsciously) up to this point. And if you’re like most folks out there, you’ve created results that aren’t so exciting as you think.

So, by visualizing yourself more healthy, successful, compassionate and happy, your subconscious blueprint starts to change, in this way, you will finally start to shape and create your destiny with your hands.

As you can see, these are really good reasons to start practicing visualization, and if you haven’t done already, I encourage you to practice it on a daily basis until it becomes as regular in your schedule as brushing your teeth.

You can get anything you want in your life. There’s nothing you cannot accomplish, because there’s nothing that you cannot envision. Decide today to make your life exactly as you want it.

So guys, now I’d like to hear form you: “What would you like to create in your life?”. Leave a comment below!

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If you are ready to take a step forward in your life Sign Up for FREE for Mastering Creative Visualization Masterclass, to discover how to make your life exactly as you want it.

Luigi Potenza is on quest to help people like you create a healthy, happy and EPIC life. Check out his Website to receive tools, ideas and techniques you can immediately use to improve any aspects of your life. Connect with Luigi on Facebook and Twitter

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What Colour Represents Your Personality

I’ve always been fascinated with the psychology of colour and how certain colours can influence the way we feel.  We all know that certain colours represent certain characteristics:

  • Red with danger and passion
  • Pink with love; orange with stability and warmth; green with nature and peace
  • Orange with stability and warmth; green with nature and peace
  • Green with nature and peace
  • Blue with calmness
  • Yellow with energy and sunshine
  • Purple with creativity
  • Black with death and eccentricity

So the clothes we wear, the decorations of the rooms in our homes, the paintings we buy, the images we are attracted to on Facebook.  It all reveals our true personality, and it’s fascinating to observe.

Today I wanted to share a quick quiz with you that I found really interesting:

What Colour Represents Your Personality

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