WOWOW: The Real Hacks Edition [Links of the Week]
I'd like to focus on real hacks, not the kind you find filed and dug away under
50 more list-items to improve your shut-eye through extended boredom
, so, sleep, progress, and how-to -- not.Relax like a pro: 5 steps to hacking your sleep --
For longer naps, test multiples of 90 minutes, which is called an "ultradian" rhythm in some papers, though the proper term should be "infradian" since it's less than 24 hours. Thomas Edison, despite his vocal disdain for sleep and claim to sleep only four hours per night, is reported to have taken two three-hour naps daily.
Don't forget to factor in your time-to-sleep. It often takes me up to an hour to fall asleep, so I'll set my alarm for seven hours ((4 x 90 minutes) + 60-minute time-to-sleep).
... and it's even true: The 90-minute increments work like magic. I'm not exactly sure on how to factor in the time-to-fall-asleep though. I tend to count only true sleep time.
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The bottom-line is that no matter what speed bumps inevitably appear, there are a number of ways to stick to your training program. Cop-outs are unacceptable, excuses are even worse. Even if you don't know exactly what's going to be thrown at you, with just a little planning, you now know how to handle almost any less-than-perfect situation.
Everything does not require a 'How To' manual --
There are many situations in life where following your inclinations, without the manual of instructions, is the best approach.
The above article is from "the linguist," who provides our educational food for this weekend, a method -- LingQ -- to learn nine languages, for now.
Everyone learns to speak their native language. Why not use the same approach with a second language? Surround yourself with meaningful input that matters to you. Start at an easy level and work your way up.
Have a nice weekend, change the world as much as you can and make sure to keep smiling along the way.
Labels: business, chutzpah, decisions, excellence, how+to, lifehacks, lifestyle, linking, progress, sleep, success, testosterone, tracking
Knowledge is King: How to Spot The Fake
Not everybody knows more than you do.
Some don't know, don't even try, yet they pretend to know, while others don't know, do try, eventually succeed -- or even fail -- and finally do know.
Without knowledge, skill cannot be focused. Without skill, strength cannot be brought to bear, and without strength, knowledge may not be applied. -- Alexander the Great's Chief Physican
Real knowledge is king. I know, I know, applied knowledge is king but right now, let's focus on real knowledge vs. semi- or pseudo- or pretending-to-be-knowledge. Fake knowledge makes fake kings.
Exactly because knowledge is king, there are many who want you to believe they are king.
Whenever someone appears or pretends to be in the know, think twice before giving him or her expert credit and credentials. Consider these ways to authenticate the authority of an expert --
- Define your own, specific questions and insist on specific answers. A true expert contemplates your question, while the fake often slightly alters your question to match his partial knowledge. The difference is inthe depth and specifity of the answer.
- Check for an honest
I don't know
in response to a question that isn't answerable. Your fraudulent expert wouldn't admit. - Check for ego. If ego and knowledge of the expert in question seem inseparable, be careful, for he defends the limits of his knowledge with his very life.
- Challenge them to show instead of tell -- that's the easiest way.
Try to question the expert under four eyes or, if you feel comfortable, do your testing in public or at least among others who will -- most often and surprisingly -- not recognize the fraud.
Finally, it's always interesting to observe how little knowledge is necessary to survive and even thrive. Look around your professional competition. There are many who know much less than you do. Make the most of your true knowledge and claim your particular throne.
One more thing -- you too: Show, don't tell, because this is what makes the difference between real knowledge and fake knowledge. Make sure to apply and thus effortlessly show your knowledge. Also make sure not to show off either.
That kind of knowledge is king.
Labels: business, decisions, fake, fraud, how+to, knowledge, knowledge+is+king, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+branding, stussy, success
Linking Park: 2007-W07, The More Suggestions Edition
More networking, productivity, health and exercise suggestions, the whole enchilada.
We've had this before, but here is a great follow up on LinkedIn in particular and on making your business network pay dividends --
LinkedIn is just a tool, albeit a powerful one if you have a use for it and know how to make it work. If you are good at what you do, it amplifies it. If you suck, it amplifies that too. We'll assume the former and give some pointers on how you can make it work more effectively for you. If you find yourself wondering how to better use, derive benefit or get value from this tool, the following suggestions might prove useful. Don't forget the basic rule of being of service to others.
Basic rules? Priorities? See the pattern here? What we talk about when we talk about "priority" --
Since the Bronze Age of personal productivity, conventional wisdom has taught us the importance of priority in deciding how to plan and use our time. And, in the abstract, anyhow, that notion of putting your time and attention into those things that are the most valuable to you seems so "obvious" as to be a tautology, where "productivity = acting on priorities." (Of course, whether people's execution of the things they claim are important always maps to their stated intentions is another matter for another post a really big book.)
[...]
But, in practice, what the hell does "priority" really mean?
Almost everybody wants effortless success, the question remains whether it is possible to emulate effortlessness in the first place --
I believe our lives, world, and reality is actually created by the desires, thoughts, intentions, and images we give our attention to. Action is simply a way for us to enjoy what we've created.
... except for the fact that the effortless stuff is the stuff you really really want, everything else is not effortlessly achievable because you can trick yourself into true desire only so far.
Let's keep this issue open for later discussion and in the meantime, admire your results since you've decided to get in shape..... again, suggesting to --
Get in shape for life, not an event.
On a different level but nevertheless related, check out Yoga and rock climbing and the art of falling down --
I've been telling my students lately that when you fall out of a pose in yoga, that's a sign that you're getting stronger and that you're testing -- and pushing -- your edge. Conversely, if you find that you're never falling down in yoga class, or that you're never falling out of any poses, chances are that you're probably staying in your comfort zone a little too much. A similar set of principles can be applied to rock climbing, providing yet another example of how yoga and climbing fit together so nicely.
Body tightness is the secret of many amazing gymnastic feats. Study these gymnastics tension exercises --
One of the most important elements in gymnastics conditioning is body tension or "body tightness". Gymnasts can control the action of their body more easily (in static strength positions as well as in movement) when their body is held tight than when it is a loose collection of individual parts. A person's weight is much more difficult to handle when their body is relaxed than it is if it were held tight.
Here is another suggestion, namely to eat fewer calories and live longer --
Eating more calories than the body needs to maintain a thin, muscular weight ages us.
Sounds sensible, on the other hand, what about some food for thought -- Want to lose fat? Eat more and get lean --
Taking in too few of the required nutrients is equal to constant starvation. Consequently, your body expects nothing less than famine and starts to store the fat. Yes, every bit of anything you eat is treated as a scarce resource and is therefore stored away for times even worse.
Since we already talk about clogging, ... Pipes is a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. When I stopped by first, I got this though --
Our Pipes are clogged! We've called the plumbers!
Nevermind.
One of the worst productivity killers is the bad habit of going back and forth between one and the same task, hence the suggestion to get things done on the spot in order to minimize missed opportunities --
Single-handling is the high-speed, high-performance productivity concept of dealing with tasks, material or immaterial, on first sight, encounter, or touch.
Therefore, ... the book of the week is -- once again -- David Allen's Getting Things Done.
To your excellent life.
Labels: gtd, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, linking+park, networking, productivity, reference, review, wow
The Aficionado's Guide to Appreciation
Use intentional and controlled deprivation of that which you love most -- be it food or any material good that you don't want to live without, or an abstract, positive addiction that you usually follow -- to vastly enhance your sensation of abundance.
Deprive yourself through deliberately avoiding your object of desire for as long as you like -- or for as long as you want to enjoy the craving, for that matter. Watch yourself developing and executing the most arduous plans to actually get what you now really want.
This makes for an interesting experience in conquering discipline from both sides, you will try to keep up the discipline to continue the experiment while at the same time, you'll want to satisfy your need, often a conditioned habit, a negative discipline.
You will learn a lot about the energies hidden within you, only waiting to emerge and strike at the perfect moment. You are going to expend energies that just weren't there, or so you would have thought.
You will experience real-world adventures and have amazing tales to tell about serving and satisfying nightly cravings, about exploring levels of creativity and ingenuity that give you a glance of your true capabilities. Then, compare your usual levels of productivity to these peak states of potential productivity.
Observe the mixed feelings of satisfaction, when actually depleting the resource, the act of finishing until the last bit, only to replenish and start all over. Particularly noteworthy is the way you treat that last bit of what's left. Do you prepare to appreciate the final bit in a special way? Do you finish the remainder of the abundance like any other piece or do you throw it away, to avoid having to deal with the moment of absolutely nothing?
What can we learn from these traits, the description of nothing less than classic addictive behavior, to make us even more happy and more beautiful?
If you would only appreciate what you have while it lasts, you wouldn't have such a hard time when finally parting with what you never consciously enjoyed. The least you can do is to try to enjoy and celebrate every bit as if it were the last one.
One more thing... this is an experiment designed to stimulate the mind. Please think chocolate or some rewards to use as the trigger for the craving reaction. Do not think oxygen, or any other vital supply.
Labels: addiction, aficionado, appreciation, chocolate, cravings, diet, discipline, energy, experiment, habits, how+to, lifehacks, lifestyle, mind, personal+development, satisfaction, stimulation, wow
The Secret of Building a Strong Reputation
This post is part of The Foundations of Your Personal Brand Series.
Your business depends on your integrity while your integrity depends on delivering what you promise.
Consider two scenarios. You sense that the new client brings some great business. The first job needs to be completed as soon as possible and you want it to get the follow-up business.
- You estimate how long the job takes, you project a completion time that sounds good and acceptable to the client but you know is probably impossible to achieve.
- You do not estimate but instead you convince the client that his job will be treated as a priority and will be taken care of with all the resources you have. You immediately start working on the job and you get back to the client as soon as you know the time frame for definitive completion.
Scenario #1 is based on your belief that the client is off to the competition if the production time seems to conflict with his own projection or deadline. This is fear-based thinking and you end up apologizing (see below).
Scenario #2 is the way to go. It is your job to communicate that you are the best to get the task done without getting into specifics that will eventually turn out suicidal for your business -- having to deliver on your word despite the fact that everything has changed but the client's mind and expectations. Avoid the trap of running after your own word.
Your clients and customers take your vague estimates and treat them as promises. It's the only thing they have, after all. Whatever you state, you give your word. Whatever you say, guess, or estimate, make it as accurate as possible or avoid saying anything at all. Do not give any numbers or time frames before getting acquainted with all the required information.
When stating production or delivery times, it is almost always preferable to generously pad the time needed. Do not over-promise only to prevent the customer from asking the competition for a quote. You will have to apologize to a client you only gained with promising too much only to have him later, unable to leave, wait for your services to complete. You will apologize to a client who won't bring you any more business.
State accurate times and amounts, to the best of your knowledge, not according to your hopes or fears, even when the services rendered are taking longer than the client expected. Educate your customers about production times and requirements and have them base their estimates and expectations on the newly gained knowledge.
Your client's deadline is your client's deadline. If you know you won't be on time, immediately communicate this. Make a plan to get as much done as possible, try to help your client with his deadline but never promise the impossible. A client who knows that you do everything to meet his deadline will be your grateful client.
Compete with vigor, compete fairly, honestly, and trustworthy. Always under-promise and over-deliver.
Labels: accountability, acquisition, business, competition, estimates, excellence, how+to, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, motivation, personal+branding, productivity, reputation, responsibility, wow
Willpower: Let Go of Everything
You have a strong will. People fear your willpower, you even celebrate it. Yet, against popular belief, you cannot change other people's will with your own will, no matter how strong or terrible it is.
You may use seduction or force to get what you want, but you cannot put up willpower against willpower. Try to recall such a situation -- did it work? What were the consequences?
Get rid of the belief that you can control everything, because you can't. In fact, you are not even able to control anything, what you can and do control is your perception of things and events. You control and set up your expectations and your evaluations of events and their particular circumstances -- this is the mechanism to influence reality itself. Your subjective perceptions do objectively change your realities. You change your point of view, you walk around the object of contempt or desire and start to see it from different perspectives.
Putting up your will against an undesirable situation causes frustration and resent, your own frustration and the situations' resent. You may use or leverage some hierarchical power to change the situation but this is not your will. The moment you're trying to control your environment through your will, you do in fact force that very will upon your own mind. Your ability to create suffers as a consequence.
Change the situation using your will for good, not going against any other person's will and you are going to employ willpower for the first time in an economical and successful manner. Use that powerful will of yours to enhance and enforce your discipline, for example.
Let go. As an exercise, let go of everything. How does that feel? Let go of everything and consciously select the few things that you actually desire to productively take care of. Let go of everything else.
Now you are free. Free to create and free to succeed.
Labels: acceptance, discipline, goals, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, mind, motivation, personal+development, productivity, society, tips, willpower, wow
A Simple Technique to Experience Amazing Productivity Gains
You plan your objectives in written form. You live Getting Things Done and the accompanying struggles.
That is the easy stuff; mindsweeps, making lists of things, organizing and structuring the always up-to-date lists into contexts and working according to the circumstances, the environment, and the available energy. You will most likely end up with lists that grow longer and longer without even the slightest chance to ever satisfactorily complete any one sub-list.
Enter the advanced stuff.
Since you're working with and alongside intentions anyway, let's try to build a somewhat idealistic, but nevertheless fully functioning, productivity model based on only the best intentions.
- Start with the ubiquitous mindsweep.
- Recognize and accept the Must Do tasks.
- Collect your intentions for the desired outcomes of the Must Do and the Want-To-Do Really Badly stuff.
- Inject as much positive thinking as possible into your mental process. Sanitize every thought of potential auto-sabotage.
- Feel the synchronicities and the manifestations show up in waves depending on your faith in the actual reception of the intended goal or subject of desire.
It is as simple as reaping what you sow, only more elegant.
You act in accordance with your intentions, you set out your intentions and everything flows naturally, almost effortlessly, you take occasional glances at your plans and lists and you select instinctively, without much conscious thinking, the most appropriate and highest value-yielding task to subsequently accomplish in your sequence of events.
Now that is productivity, where the world seems to run in slow-motion while you are, in high-speed mode and fully alert, observing the fulfillment of your laid out plans and the arrival of your results.
The next -- and the last -- project you are going to tackle the old-school way will be the raising of your consciousness to the level where the magic becomes possible in the first place.
Labels: discipline, goals, gtd, how+to, humor, intention+manifestation, law+of+attraction, lifehacks, mind, motivation, personal+development, practice, productivity, subjective+reality, tips, willpower, wow
11 Ways to Improve Clarity and Start Getting Results
Once you have found your purpose in life, you will have more than enough to do in never enough time. Here are some ways to make your experience even more joyous:
- List the top three objectives of your current endeavour. To do this, weigh the most important goals and assign them relative importances. You obviously have to decide which ones are not in the top three. Can you see where this is going? No two things are equally important.
- Be sure and confident about what you are doing and why and pursue exactly one project, single-mindedly to the end, until completion. This means you have to make decisions. Do not stand in your own way. Concentrate all your efforts and energy on one target at a time.
- Be able to present a written list, at any time, with your top priorities. Practice and pretend to be pitching your services and your goals every day.
- Define your #1 goal, its #1 project and its respective #1 task and start working on it, once you understand that this is the only thing there is, right now.
- Do not worry about the future. Stop worrying altogether. Apply your rage to the present moment. Transform rage into vigor. Do not fight the future and do not fight in the future. Be clear about the present, about this very moment.
- Your rewards are nothing to worry about either, they will come to you when their time has arrived -- worrying will only delay them and prevent you from receiving what you deserve.
- Realize that you do not have to suffer to achieve what you want. You decide whether suffering is part of your experience or not.
- Drop any goal that isn't worth pursuing anymore; do not let your countless started, semi-finished, and never followed-up upon projects divert your focus. They are worth nothing and only add to your sense of failure. Get rid of the clutter.
- Set up a hierachy of time and desire. You cannot have everything you dream of immediately. Even if you skip sleep and eating, you are not going to accelerate the pace with which your dreams are made real.
- Set yourself up for success by accepting what you have, as the ground in which to plant the seeds. Do not resist the situation you're in for you set up your future failure as long as you fail to accept the present.
- Do not break down and destroy your previous achievements in order to follow a new idea. Recognize the foundations that are laid out for you and your creation. Build on top of what you have -- whatever that may be.
There is another way that runs parallel: see and set your goals as plans to improve your current experience of the present, whatever their outcome may be, regardless of the time it takes to successfully complete them, if they are ever going to be completed, that is.
Labels: clarity, discipline, education, goals, gtd, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, lists, mind, motivation, personal+development, practice, productivity, tips, willpower, wow
Understand Pain to Train More Efficiently
It doesn't have to hurt in order to work, especially not on an everyday basis, but an always and infinitely comfortable workout is no guarantee for success either. There is no reason to run away from the slightest air of pain, as much as you don't need to run away from hunger. Enjoy your pain as long as it lasts.
Have you ever trained to accomplish full splits? This hurts and it has to.
You can choose from three different kinds of pain.
First, there is the pain of muscles that are brought to their maximum in a controlled training situation. Your workout is breaking up the muscle fibers which subsequently heal and grow bigger and stronger as a result. You want that pain.
Then there is the pain of injury: it hurts and at the same moment you know that you should stop your workout immediately. You certainly don't want it but you need that pain in order to prevent further serious damage to muscles, joints, or ligaments.
Another form of pain, the most stressful and the most desirable one, while at the same time the hardest, is the pain of endurance, where the mind offers to shut down the muscles long before they are technically due. Your body would thankfully give in. It is an art in itself to signal the mind that you understand that there is still a long way to go -- sometimes literally, think marathon -- and that the body is physically capable of working the load. You convince the mind that its efforts in telling you to stop will be ignored.
The pain stays the same, whether you run the double or the quadruple distance, the trick is to surrender to the continuous pain and to proceed anyway. The reward is a solemn state, which is achieved when this royal pain is conquered with marathons for example, with wall chairs, with willpower plus discipline. Nothing more.
It is this pain that you don't really want nor need, in fact it is -- to a certain extent -- a game that your mind is playing with you. The more you resist and endure, the more your mind will respect you and finally cooperate with you in your effort to excel.
You need willpower to successfully finish heavy, painful workouts, you are even able to overcome the pain of injury with sheer willpower -- take care though -- but in order to conquer the pain of endurance you have to combine willpower and discipline. This is where real training with massive results begins.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Mental weakness, that is.Labels: discipline, education, endurance, exercises, fitness, health, how+to, inspiration, lifehacks, marathon, mind, motivation, pain, personal+development, sports, theory, tips, training, willpower, wow
Succeed through Synchronizing Your Behavior
Behave, when you are alone, exactly the same way you behave on the big stage. Avoid splitting your personality.
Will it be harder to adapt your stage personality to everyday life or to try and maintain the everyday personality and translate it to the big screen?
Imagine preparing your food the way you present yourself in public... you do that already? Now imagine a public appearance reflecting the way you relax inside the safety of your home...
Synchronize your public and private sets of behavior and you'll notice a more peaceful life, a life that is more centered and with less opportunities for inner conflict expressing itself as anger, accident-proneness, or simply self-propelling, ever perpetuating stress.
You split your behavioral routines, forced to act very disciplined throughout your public day with rules and guidelines for even the simplest of actions. Acting out the opposite side of behavior when finally being alone is a very comfortable form of compensation.
You may find some peculiar manners within your repertoire of expression that are apparently not suitable for the world. You may also find that your public appearance is somewhat inhibited and for certain reasons you feel that some traits of your inner personality are not congruent with your public image.
There are great opportunities in matching public and private expressions. Opportunities for growth, for overcoming inhibitions, and for building higher self-esteem. Do you ever wonder why success in certain areas of your life seems to be so hard to achieve? Release that fear of being recognized, uncovered, and discovered the way you really are, because everybody is able to see the real you right now, regardless of how you behave.
Do you still dance in solitude? Come out of the closet already. The streets are waiting for you, dancing...
Labels: acting, audacity, behavior, business, how+to, inhibition, inspiration, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, motivation, personal+branding, personal+development, reality, showbiz, stage, success, tips, wow
Reality Check: The Implications of Elite Training
Is it possible to be in top physical and mental condition while at the same time participating in life with all its seductions, influences, and an environment that is, if not negative by definition, at least neutral, neutral as opposed to the maximum goals and achievements that are so not-average and pursued while training for life?
Coming out of a controlled environment, mind and body, discipline and willpower are finally allowed to show what they are really able to achieve.
Yet it seems that only in a controlled environment, it is possible to train and prepare yourself for heights formerly unknown. This creates a dual environment problem, where you train for the outside world but not within that world. I'd love to promote training for the real world in the real world but it doesn't work this way.
You train with amazing results, you eat perfectly healthy, your thinking is positive and untainted, only to emerge from your laboratory immediately starting to effectively de-train your mind and your body. Life is cyclic.
I'm still striving to attain the heights of the monk, always, and continuously, although I do not recommend living completely ascetic. Life has to be instinctual -- to a certain degree at least -- it encompasses ups and downs, exceptions, successes and failures.
After a certain point, after accomplishing your goals for yourself, to go even further, to reach for the next impossible, the unreasonable, you have to decide whether to drop everything incompatible or accept satisfaction with what you have within easy reach.
This is what is meant when the best is being defined as the enemy of mere good.
WOW! You look like you're not from this world
is not an exaggeration but a perfect truth.We're talking about the training of elite athletes here, with goals hard to attain, training levels hard to maintain, and rewards hard to believe but why not adopt some of the methods and include them in your everyday mindset.
Labels: athletes, conditioning, education, elite, fitness, goals, health, how+to, integrity, lifehacks, motivation, practice, productivity, reality, sports, training, wow
How to Motivate Yourself with One Word
Your own word: give your word. If you are a person of honor and integrity, you know what it means to give your word.
One method is emotional motivation, pumped up at seminars or at group meetings where the participants leave with that smile on their face, only to have their motivation literally fade away over time, another method is Steve Pavlina's "sans chest-pounding motivation for smart people," intellectual motivation with the main idea to always set unreasonably big and thus intellectually challenging goals.
There are ends to achieve that are important and may be emotionally lit brightly and furthermore intellectually founded and held up by logical reasons and even some scientific evidence... Some goals, the really big ones, can't get enough motivational support to be pursued and focused on, no matter what.
Give your word to someone in order to complete and deliver on the promise whatever it takes. There are not many events that would make an acceptable excuse for yourself showing up with empty hands.
This goes beyond intellectual or emotional motivation. If it is promised, it has to be done. Motivation through honor.
Now, if you develop a similar sense of integrity in dealing with yourself, you may give your word to yourself in order to accomplish any given task even after emotional or logical motivational means are not available for some reason. The emotional momentum may be long gone and logic is hard to employ under certain circumstances.
It doesn't matter why exactly you have to do it, you gave your word and that is more than sufficient to change the world around the issue at hand.
Develop that sense of integrity and give your word to guarantee that things get done. Just make sure to be absolutely convinced that you are not going to give up before the defined and promised goal is achieved. Do not give your word if you are not willing or able to invest whatever you have in order to succeed.
The beauty of this approach is that you do not have to continuously invoke the whole array of "whys" and "what ifs" and "what if nots" in order to stay focused. Your word is a shortcut that let's you switch to autopilot and enables you to work without any doubts or any further questions on the current obsession.
The phrase
because I said so
now takes on a completely new meaning.Labels: goals, honor, how+to, inspiration, integrity, lifehacks, motivation, personal+development, procrastination, productivity, promise, tips, tricks, wow, wow-diet
The Wall Chair: Mental Toughness vs. Physical Endurance
A simple, yet effective exercise: The wall chair.
Stand with your back against a wall and feet shoulder-width apart. Slide down into a crouch with knees bent to about 90 degrees. Hold as long as you can.
On the first day, try to hold the position as long as you think you can endure. On the second day, increase the time by five seconds, on the third day, increase by another five seconds. Do this for about a week.
Now, what do you think do you work on during that week? You surely train your quadriceps, but most of the exercising is improving mental toughness. Would you expect to double your physical endurance in such a short time?
It’s the double benefit of training body and mind through continuously pushing beyond the limits that makes endurance exercises so valuable.
Labels: endurance, exercises, fitness, how+to, mind, strength, training, wow


