You’re reading The 4 Thieves of Productivity (Avoid Them At All Cost), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

“…at any moment in time there can be only ONE Thing, and when that ONE Thing is in line with your purpose and sits atop your priorities, it ill be the most productive thing you can do to launch you toward the best you can be. Actions build on action. Habits build on habit. Success builds on success.”
— Gary Keller, Jay Papasan from The ONE Thing

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. Give up the following four thieves of productivity in order to get more of what you want, and less of what you don’t. Let’s get into it…

1. Inability to Say “No”.

As a rule of thumb, you should avoid saying yes to most things unless they’re connected to your most important goals. If you’re afraid of saying no to someone because it might hurt their feelings, come up with a way to say it that you’re comfortable with. Here’s Seth Godin on saying no: “you can say no with respect, you can say no promptly, and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.” Love it.

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2. Fear of Chaos.

Stuff happens. Messes occur. Wives (and husbands) get angry. These things happen. But it doesn’t mean you should give up on your goals. Chaos is natural. In fact, the more you focus on what you want, the more of it you’ll probably get. That’s okay. In fact, problems are a good thing. When you’ve got problems, it means you’re taking action. You can’t grow unless you take action. And the more action you take, the more problems you’ll face. In fact, one of the biggest differences between productive people and unproductive people is this: when productive people come across a problem, they keep going — they take action. When unproductive people come across a problem, they stagnate — they stop.

Create time blocks to control the chaos in your life and remain as productive as possible. Use your time blocks to work on your most important projects, and protect them with your life. In time, you’ll learn to deal with the chaos in your own unique way. But don’t let chaos control you. YOU control the chaos… by focusing on one thing at a time. One time block at a time.

3. Poor Health Habits.

Poor health habits— especially poorly managed energy habits— are one of the most underestimated thieves of productivity. Your health and your success are intertwined with one another and depend on each to survive and thrive. For maximum energy management and productivity, plan your days to include the following:

1. Meditate / pray for spiritual energy.
2. Eat right, exercise, and sleep sufficiently for physical energy.
3. Spend time with friends and family for emotional energy.
4. Set goals, plan, and calendar for mental energy.
5. Time block your most important goals and projects for business energy.

4. An Environment That Doesn’t Support Your Goals.

Did you know that if one of your close friends becomes obese, you’re 57% more likely to become obese [1] as well? Crazy, eh? This is because the people we see and spend time with most tend to set our standards (see: The Law of Averages).

The final thief of productivity is about getting your game up! It’s about raising your standards in every arena of life — your goals, your habits, and your surroundings. I think Oprah’s got a great little nugget of wisdom when it comes to this: “Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.”

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It’s about the journey.

Here’s a quick recap of the four thieves of productivity — avoid them at all times, unless you want them to highjack your productivity:

1. Inability to say “No”
2. The fear of chaos
3. Poor health habits
4. An environment that doesn’t support your goals

You’ve read The 4 Thieves of Productivity (Avoid Them At All Cost), 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 Refusing To Acknowledge Your Inner Potential Is Dangerous, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Did you know that refusing to acknowledge your inner potential sets you up to be fooled? It was Soren Kierkegaard that said:

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Yes, it is true that you have more power and inner potential than you are currently using. Refusing to acknowledge this is a dangerous road you should desist from plying. Also, believing that your refusing to acknowledge your inner potential is humility or wisdom is akin to delusion. Both scenarios are dangerous and can lead you into the following:

1. Underachievement

There are more failure stories than there are successes in modern life today because the minds of many have been beclouded by the pressure of doing just enough to survive. Many are trapped in jobs they don’t like because they have refused to acknowledge their inner potential to develop better skills set to create or get a better job.

Imagine if President Barrack Obama had refused to acknowledge his inner potential to become America’s first black president, perhaps he would have underachieved relative to his inner potential—ended his political career at the senate level.

There’s always a next level in life and your getting there begins with acknowledging your inner potential.

Be it in business, academics, family or relationship life, refusing to acknowledge your inner potential can turn you into a perpetual underachiever. Don’t let good spoil your great, you’ve got to acknowledge your inner potential to move beyond mediocrity into excellence.

2.  Poor rewards

Except you are willing to do more than what you already do you may never be phenomenal and can’t attract phenomenal rewards.

If you are not where you think you should be at this moment; if you don’t like your pay cheque; if you feel you are not getting enough from life; that’s what you get for refusing to acknowledge your inner potential.

An elephant that works like an ant will never enjoy the elephant’s size of reward; rather it’ll keep getting the ant’s. Why? This is because the elephant refuses to acknowledge its inner potentials to do the elephant-sized works for the corresponding rewards.

Great people are not born great; they are only born with the inner potential of greatness they acknowledged and maximised.

3. Life of regrets

We can all relate to one incident or the other in our lives where we wished we had done a little more or worked a lot harder. We knew we could do more, we were told we could but somehow we refused to acknowledge this and therefore didn’t do anything about it. That thought there, is regret.

Who wants to go through life like that? Well, that’s what refusing to acknowledge your inner potential can lead you into—the “I-wish-I-did-more” lifestyle.

Imagine if Thomas Edison had stopped at the penultimate trial before the eventuay breakthrough. His last mistake would probably have been corrected by the next scientist and voila, the light bulb shines through. Then, Edison would have regretted refusing to acknowledge his inner potential that he could do more.

Takeaway

Refusing to acknowledge your inner potential is tantamount to losing them and the benefits they could bring if you’d maximise them. You’ve got to realise that you are doing yourself a great disservice by not acknowledging your potentials.

From underachieving to getting less than you deserve and regretting your inactions, not acknowledging your potentials is setting yourself up for a mediocre lifestyle. You have to let the best of you come alive.

How have you been able to acknowledge your inner potential? Please share in the comments.

Diena Diallo is an author and the founder of Diena Simply Natural. As a hair stylist and health coach, she helps women looking for change to feel beautiful about themselves, so they can live confidently through life and stay healthy enough to achieve their dreams. You can register for a free account and grab a copy of her self-help book, The Invisible Seed, where she shares her journey from depression to total self-healing.

You’ve read Why Refusing To Acknowledge Your Inner Potential Is Dangerous, 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 The 3 Surprising Things That Cause Short-Term Memory Loss, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Memories are a funny thing, aren’t they? Sometimes our minds can recall the most intricate details of an event that happened 10 years ago. Other times, we can’t remember where we put our phone 10 minutes ago.

While some age-related forgetfulness is normal, chronic forgetfulness is not—and it can happen at any age. New research has shown that certain lifestyle habits can impede our short-term memory and even increase our risk for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia.

So what common factors are linked to cognitive impairment and how can we improve our memory? The answers may surprise you.

• Lack of Sleep

We already know how critical sleep is for our physical well-being—but a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley shows what a vital role it plays in memory retention.

Since the short-term memory storage area of your brain can only hold a limited amount of information, things like names, dates, and phone numbers are pushed out and forgotten as new information enters. Researchers have found that as we sleep, brain waves carry these short-term memories to the prefrontal cortex (where long-term memories are stored). This process stores memories safely so you can recall them when you need to.

Poor quality sleep disrupts this transmission of information, and can affect your ability to remember things as recent as the day before.

Studies show that getting 7 to 8 hours of deep (non-REM) sleep, per night, can help your brain properly retain and consolidate fact-based memories. Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the easiest ways to start improving your short-term memory.

While getting better quality sleep may help improve your short-term memory, if you have trouble sleeping, be cautious of using common over-the-counter sleep aids that contain Diphenhydramine.

Diphenhydramine is part of a class of drugs considered Anticholinergics, which can inhibit neurotransmitters associated with learning and memory. A large study found that long-term use of these medications can increase your risk for certain types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s.

Instead, try these natural sleep aids:

• Chamomile herbal tea contains flavonoids that can act as a natural sedative
• Cherries, contain natural muscle relaxants like Melatonin
• Bananas, almonds, and walnuts, have sleep-enhancing amino acids, including Magnesium

• Age Related Hormone Fluctuations

Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and the thyroid hormones are all critical to our cognitive functions. Hormonal imbalances and decreases in these levels can have a major effect on brain function, often leading to memory and concentration problems.

Women tend to experience these types of memory lapses when they are pregnant (we call it baby-brain), and when going through Menopause. Men also experience a similar period of forgetfulness as their testosterone begins to decline in their later years.

While we all experience these changes at some point in our life, most scientists agree that it is never too late to improve brain health.

The Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation suggests that simple lifestyle habits can have a profound effect on brain function. Eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and incorporating 150 minutes a week of cardio exercise and weight lifting can dramatically reduce memory loss and cognitive decline.

Brain aerobics are also a good idea to improve memory function and help reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Whenever you are challenging your brain with new and different tasks, you are helping to improve cognitive functions. Try to incorporate mental exercises for 20 minutes a day, at least three days a week. Some ideas are crossword puzzles, word games, sudoku, reading, writing or playing board games.

• Busy Brain

With the advent of media and information overload, it’s no surprise that short-term memory loss is sometimes attributed to lack of attention span. Microsoft recently reported that our average attention span is only about 8 seconds. Highly digitized lifestyles including web-brows, multi-screen devices, smart phones and social media, all create a “busy brain” that make it difficult to stay focused.

Avoiding a diet high saturated fats and eating fish rich in Omega-3 fatty acids can help feed your brain for better memory and protect against memory loss. But if you’re serious about boosting your short-term memory, you should consider improving your clarity and focus as well.

Adding the following nutrients in your daily vitamin plan may be of help:

L-Theanine

This cognitive enhancer is an amino acid that can be found in green and black tea. It can help improve a person’s focus and mental clarity especially when combined with caffeine.

Ashwagandha Root

This exotic Indian herb is receiving a lot of attention lately, due to recent studies on its ability to enhance concentration, mental clarity and focus.

PQQ

First discovered in 1979, this compound has been scientifically tested to improve brain function, particularly in attention and working memory.

You may be wondering if there is just one supplement that you can take to improve your memory without spending hundreds of dollars on vitamins at natural food stores. Be Brilliant supports memory, clarity and focus with both traditional and scientific ingredients including Vitamin D, Magnesium, PQQ, Coenzyme Q-10, L-Theanine, Gingko Biloba and Ashwagandha Root, in a convenient, one-a-day tablet.

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You’re reading How to Find Your Own Calling Within 7 Days, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Leading a meaningful, satisfying life is all about finding your calling. As great as this may seem in theory, finding your purpose in life is easier said than done. Busy and overworked, we often let go of our dreams and simply exist on a day by day basis. Dreaming big and finding something meaningful to live for get pushed in the background.

There’s no need to give up on your calling, however. Figuring out why it’s worth living will require just a few days and a conscious effort on your behalf. Here’s how to do in seven days.

Identify Your Barriers

Use a day or two to figure out what’s holding you back. Most of us are so burdened by our everyday existence that we forget about the more important things in life.

Are you stuck in a job that doesn’t fulfill you but that you stick with because of necessity? Are you stuck in a relationship with a person who isn’t right for you because you’re afraid of ending up alone? Most of us are guilty of making such compromises. While they may start feeling comfortable with the passage of time, such compromises with values and beliefs will inevitably lead to a mediocre existence. To realize your full potential, you need to have a really good idea about what you want to accomplish and what’s holding you back.

What Captivates You, What are You Passionate about?

After identifying the barriers that you’ll have to overcome, it’s time to think about your passions. You have certain values, beliefs and a legacy that you want to live behind. Taking some time to think consciously about those will make it easier to identify your calling.

Journaling and recording your past experiences and attempts to identify your calling will come in handy. There may be things that you were passionate about for a certain period of time. After the passion subsides, however, you find out that they don’t provide the genuine fulfillment you’re looking for.

Apart from doing journaling, you may also take a day to carry out a brainstorming session.

Sit down and try to answer the question “what’s my calling?” Don’t think about it – just write down everything that comes to mind. You may be surprised by some of the concepts and the passions that will come to the surface through such a brainstorming session. It’s even possible to realize something that has been sitting in the back of your mind but that has never manifested itself as a complete idea.

Learn to Say YES

We are so set in our ways that saying “no” to new opportunities becomes an almost automatic response.

When you’re used to your comfortable, everyday existence, you stop challenging yourself. If you don’t push yourself outside of your comfort zone, chances are that you’ll never figure out what your calling in life is.

Instead of simply dismissing anything alien and scary, force yourself to say yes to opportunities. By accepting something that you would otherwise have turned down, chances are that you’ll identify new passions and things in life worth living for.

Find a Mission that Resonates with You

To feel satisfied and fulfilled, we need to know that we’re making a difference. This is the main reason why volunteering, doing fundraising or participating in charities gives people so much happiness.

Identify a mission that resonates with you and stick with it. You may start with something simple like launching a blog about wildlife preservation or ending animal cruelty. You may want to attempt collecting clothes or making money for people in need. You may even travel to a third world country as a volunteer. The size of the project doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re doing something that you believe in. Sooner or later, you’ll see yourself making the difference that you’ve always dreamed about.

Finding your calling doesn’t have to be about helping others or being a volunteer. It could also be quitting your day job and starting a business of your own. It could involve turning your favorite hobby in a full-time occupation. As long as you’re passionate about the mission you’ve embraced, jumping into a brand new world isn’t going to feel scary – it will be motivating.

To accomplish these steps within a short period of time, you may want to give yourself a vacation. Spending some time away from work, even away from the people that you live will help you find clarity. Travel to a serene place and dedicate some quality time to connecting with your own self. Opening the inner lines of communication and allowing yourself to dream big can lead to self-awareness that you never would have expected. After all, allowing yourself to dream and explore your desires isn’t scary. If you let your mind and your creativity wonder, chances are that you’ll come out with something amazing at the end of the process.

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Alicia Honeycutt is a digital strategist and a beginning writer at  essay.  She adores travelling and writing about her adventures.

 

You’ve read How to Find Your Own Calling Within 7 Days, 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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