• Reload Your (Abandoned) Resolutions

    edited by Alexander Becker

    One goal, three to-dos, and a trick, each day.

    Or...

    1000 tasks and a gun to your head.

    This post is not too late. Quite the opposite is true. By now, most resolutions have been abandoned and life goes on. Let's see if we can reanimate one of them. Actually, the calendar year is just another occasion. You can just as well start on any given day and work the plan.

    I read so many make-2008-the-best-year-ever articles (no links here) these days by everyone remotely concerned with hacking life... yet it is so easy.

    One Goal

    Did you achieve your primary 2007 goal?

    Did you set a primary 2007 goal in the first place?

    We all know the distinction between urgent and important -- have-to-do and should-be-doing.

    I want you to pick one goal for this year. One primary goal and only one that has absolute priority in 2008. Choose wisely because you will have to stick to it.

    Obviously, we're looking at the should-be-doing stuff. What is it that you know you should be doing but for whatever reason you never really started. Pick an important goal that will advance you and you life towards the fulfillment of your dreams -- or one of your dreams for now.

    Now, list your potential should-be-working-on goals and sort them and make one a priority. Make one of them your resolution. Everything else is and remains secondary for the current year.

    Three To-Dos

    Alright. So you've set your goal. What now? Of course, you already expect the answer: To-dos. Please note that you will have lots of unrelated to-dos of the have-to-do variety each and every day so we are going to add just three more to-dos -- the voluntary ones, you know, the sexy ones -- and we resolve to set them every night for the following day and we further resolve to execute, to really do them -- whatever it takes.

    Make small, small, small to-dos at first. The smaller the better. Set up three babysteps for each day and do what it takes. The trick is do make the tasks worthy, manageable and doable because we resolve and make a contract with ourselves that we are not going to break. Again, plan small tasks, three of them and do them.

    The Trick

    To make it even easier for you, set your list of three up for the next day and what you don't manage to do; cross it off the list anyway. It's gone. No second chances. No 2 items today and 4 tomorrow. If you don't do it today you're not allowed to try again tomorrow. Realize that you will lose your task when you don't do it today.

    Since all your tasks are important -- otherwise they wouldn't be scheduled for an important goal -- you definitely don't want to miss even one of them. Three tasks a day are hard enough to determine, don't spoil them without a reason -- and there is no reason.

    Imagine today as your last day and it'll become even easier to get up and just do it.

    That's why we start with small tasks. The point is to not break your contract. Don't be afraid to plan ridiculously easy tasks, remember, as long as you move, you will eventually arrive.

    That's it. Choose one priority goal. There can only be one priority. Test it and make sure you have what it takes to stick to it.

    Start and set three to-dos for each day. Start small but steady.

    Remember, it is not important to achieve something big every day. What is important though is persistence, that you do something -- three things -- every day. Think up three pathetically easy to achieve tasks and just do them and see your motivation ask for more...

    1000 Steps are Enough

    Don't overdo it. Sometimes it feels like three is not enough. Don't think about it. It is enough. In fact it is 3 × 365: A good thousand tasks. Instead of asking for more tasks, make them bigger.

    1000 steps should be sufficient. The beauty is that you don't even have to come up with a thousand tasks. Once the goal is clear, improvise and play it where it lies.

    Did I already mention to progress slowly? There is no going back. If you expect the next day to be packed with urgent have-to-dos, schedule three lightweight items that reward your mind instead of stressing you even more.

    A Variant

    Sometimes it is hard to find three tasks for that one goal on a given day. This is where your other, non-priority goals come into play. You still have to do three tasks each day but you advance your secondary goals as well. This requires you to at least determine and tackle one task for your primary goal; allocate the remainder for that day to other should-be doings. This leaves you with still three important steps each day and one excuse less in case you lag behind your scheduling skills.

    Summary

    Commit to your resolution in writing and post it where you can see it.

    1. Determine and remember your one goal. What should you be doing?
    2. Schedule three to-dos every night. Easy or hard but three.
    3. Yesterday's to-dos are not allowed to be finished today. If you didn't do it, it's gone, no matter how precious, important, or beautiful it was supposed to be. If it was that important, you'd better done it.

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  • Common Sense: Friend or Foe?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    If there is one enemy to what we're trying to do here it is common sense.

    Really? Attacking common sense? Isn't common sense an ideal to strive for, something you attain at some point in life? Isn't common sense even a sign of maturity?

    Let's see what we've got --

    Common sense is sound judgement not based on specialized knowledge; native good judgement. That which is believed to be knowledge held by people "in common".

    Common sense is a good starting point, nothing more and nothing less either.

    There really is nothing negative about common sense. It's just that there isn't anything special about it either. Common sense is the lowest common denominator. It is the average. And that's the issue.

    On the other hand --

    Common sense is judgement without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race. --Giambattista Vico

    Judgement without reflection is a shortcut with judgement ultimately substituting experience. Short-circuiting common sense itself creates actual experiences.

    WOW, that is so -- common sense... Ever hear that? No?

    Extraordinary and common sense are mutually exclusive. The antonym is insanity, if you get my drift... Don't worry, not that kind of insanity.

    So what are we going to do about it? Ignoring the enemy?

    Ignoring common sense in the absense of something better? Half-knowledge and intellectual weakness is the result of ignoring common sense. Don't let common sense replace education, instead replace common sense with original experience.

    Here is the problem --

    Common sense is part of the home-made ideology of those who have been deprived of fundamental learning, of those who have been kept ignorant. This ideology is compounded from different sources: items that have survived from religion, items of empirical knowledge, items of protective skepticism, items culled for comfort from the superficial learning that is supplied. But the point is that common sense can never teach itself, can never advance beyond its own limits, for as soon as the lack of fundamental learning has been made good, all items become questionable and the whole function of common sense is destroyed. Common sense can only exist as a category insofar as it can be distinguished from the spirit of inquiry, from philosophy. --John Berger

    You first have to master the rule -- master common sense -- in order to intelligently and successfully break it.

    This obviously, does not imply to ignore common sense, quite the opposite is indicated and the way to go. Study common sense, master it and be aware of it, all the time, for it is changing and evolving the same way -- though not necessarily in the same direction -- you are evolving.

    There is no substitute for common sense except for the lessons you draw from going against it. Common sense itself is a substitute for experience. Again, the key is to closely follow the common in common sense, only to do the exact opposite and replace common assumptions with real experiences.

    Do not abandon common sense but instead become highly aware of it and approach it from the other side, fight it from the inside, if you want to.

    Do not rebel unreflectedly and against everything. Look through the common and determine uncommon sense instead.

    The trick is to not --

    Resist and defy a generally accepted convention.

    ... but instead to turn the convention upside down, not for the sake of rebelling but for the sake of doing the uncommon in order to create original experiences.

    Make use of common sense as a temporary placeholder to be filled with your own experience, it is neither friend, nor foe.

    It is the individual against the common. You cannot really collaborate and fight together against common sense. Joining forces means, implies, and requires defining common ground, a mutual understanding, it means determining the lowest common denominator. See above.

    Set yourself apart from common and bring out your individual best -- without anything common.

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  • Why Don't You?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The difference between excellence and mediocrity? Action.

    Initial output is important. What initial input triggers your action in the first place?

    Is there any moderate amount of anything that could get you started? No? I thought so.

    It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.

    While it helps to start from scratch, you don't necessarily have to lose everything in order to evolve -- it's the easiest way though.

    I could. Complacency. Inertia. Hesitation. Laziness. Insecurity. Being content enough. Mediocrity?

    Why does it always have to be a shock, something extreme, something radical, some drastic experience, to get us moving? Why do we look best when we're totally exhausted? Why do we have to run a whole marathon? Why do we literally have to burn the ships? Why can't we just start?

    Because maybe -- maybe, it would be too easy. If it would be so easy, everyone could and eventually would do it.

    Enough, sufficient, moderate -- that is what is holding back and keeping together the mediocre.

    Mediocrity is not the problem nor is it the enemy. Mediocrity is the result of not getting started. Get started and you will eventually evolve and excel. But if you don't -- you won't.

    I can. The world is not enough, nothing will ever suffice, and moderation is not a means to achieve anything remarkable.

    You know that you could. I know that you can.

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  • Spreading vs. Selling Ideas

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Too many geniuses still wonder why their ideas won't spread.

    Obviously, it bears repeating --

    Do you want to spread an idea or do you want to establish a business and make money? That's an either/or decision to boot. You will end up doing both but you are not going to skip this first decision.

    Spreading ideas and making money are not mutually exclusive, it's just that ideas are more suited to being spread than sold.

    So you package that idea, make it into a product and sell it. Try to sell it, that is. The problem? Packaging the idea however beautiful, making it into as many products possible, doesn't actually spread that idea. There is no shortcut.

    An amount of money, any amount, is just another barrier to spreading your idea. While this is nothing new, why then, are you still trying to sell your ideas?

    Is fear still stronger than desire?

    Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

    Howard Aiken

    Even more, I'd rather worry about nobody being interested in stealing my idea -- as an artist, my #1 concern would be to get my music, films, &c. on the filesharing networks. Again, nothing new, but why, then, are you nowhere to be found?

    Intellectual property is the ownership or origination of an idea and not the possession and fierce defense of every tangible and intangible digital representation or copy of your idea on the internet, on DVD, or even on paper.

    Spread your idea, whatever it takes, and make money, no matter how, but do not confuse the two.

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  • Hesitation: Do Anyway or Do Not?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    When in doubt, don't vs. Do exactly what you hesitate doing.

    There are two possible causes for hesitation. The one where you hesitate because you doubt the outcome and on the other hand the kind of hesitation where you are not sure about the way to tackle your job.

    The way is, once started, easily adjustable, but only when started. When the destination, the goal, is clear and you truly stand behind it, the actual way to achieve it is nothing to worry about.

    The outcome, in contrast, determines the way. If and when you hesitate, once you do hesitate, when the outcome is not desirable, when it feels like "it's not worth the effort," you can just as well leave it altogether. Don't even start.

    Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity. --William Hazlitt

    Similarly, if something doesn't work the exact way you expect it -- leave it alone.

    This is not blindly subscribing to fate, quite the opposite, the mere notion that something "shouldn't be" is enough to taint your commitment and it practically guarantees sub-optimal results. In which case, you can't do your best and -- just as well do nothing at all.

    One more reason to do instead of pondering doing or not --

    Live that moment as fast as you can and fill it with as much life as possible. Do not live it as if it was the last one, live it as if it was the only one.

    In other words, if it feels like a chore, if effortlessly isn't the best way to describe what you're up to, if procrastination is even an issue, please don't bother and step back, for others might just love doing what you so -- don't.

    When you're clear and positive about the outcome, do -- push through hesitation, whatever it takes and the way will pave itself for you. When you don't even know where to go, let alone like where you're going to be, when you ever so silently resist or reject the outcome, don't -- give in to hesitation, stay where you are and find another goal worth the effort.

    Determine which kind of hesitation you deal with, then decide about doing anyway or not doing at all.

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  • Play It Where It Lies

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Plan or play?

    Do you think he plans it all out or just makes it up as he goes along?

    Have an overall, yet general plan and comfortably own any situation.

    What may look like outrageous chutzpah is most of the time spontaneous action taken on the spot, at the exact right time. It's like Columbus' egg: Everybody could have done it -- but they didn't. That, by the way is the genesis of conspiracy theories. Was it planned all the way through to the end or is a sequence of events being taken advantage of by someone just doing it?

    Playing it where it lies does not necessarily imply to conceal your intentions. You can make it even more elegant, seize an opportunity, lightning-fast, the very moment it emerges. The right timing makes your action appear planned and thought through. Knowing what it is you want, you can act boldly yet spontaneously, as long as the opportunity in question is remotely compatible with your big picture view. Once you're sure about the big picture, you can play almost everything and immediately, seemingly without even thinking. Start playing while everyone else is busy pondering doubts and mistaking hesitation for an elaborate form of planning.

    Have a rough plan, if any; play it where it lies, with everything you've got; and have everybody admire your apparently delicate plan as you make up the details when the situations unfold.

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  • Anti-Hero of the Day: The Constantly Whining Business Man

    edited by Alexander Becker

    When determining the best isn't worth the effort or the options are few and written about over and over, it's helpful to consider the other end of the spectrum.

    In other words: Let's look at the negative to get a glance of the positive.

    Three possible reasons explain -- not justify -- why a business man would constantly complain about his particular business and for good measure, about the economy as a whole --

    1. To convince his vendors and suppliers to drop their prices;
    2. To prevent his employees from asking for higher wages;
    3. To express his ignorance and that he really doesn't know what he's doing.

    Now, it's possible to get your vendors to offer better deals without whining. That is called negotiating. And while the art of negotiation certainly includes acting and pretending to be whining, it's not required and it doesn't have to become the state of mind of the constantly negotiating negotiator. The art of negotiation is related to the art of war; ask Sun Tzu.

    Next, how is it perceived to whine when a No is too hard -- for you? You whine as an excuse? Instead of an excuse? Also, employees who are denied the money they deserve plus having to endure the whining are double likely to eventually leave.

    In the end, the always whining business man is probably ignorant and incompetent. It's a matter of honor to stop complaining, otherwise quitting is an option to consider -- for vendors, employees, and ultimately, for the poor man himself.

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  • What do People Love About You?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    This post is part of The Foundations of Your Personal Brand Series.

    Burn the business plan and write a book instead, suggests bypassing the production of an always, almost instantly obsolete business plan in favor of a book that you can still sell, even in case the business fails.

    The article is an interesting read, especially in the context of the added value of long tail versions of online content and its appearance in ebooks, for example. Yet, the inspiration came with questions making it into books, more specifically, I stumbled across one simple question, What do customers love about your product? My answer is equally simple, yet it defines everything I do: My customers love that I make them look good. Discretely. I work behind the scenes to make them look good.

    For now, no book-instead-of-a-plan but a short manifesto to frame the purpose --

    Making You Look Good

    That's all I've ever done and all I ever will. Not that you don't look good in the first place -- the opposite is true -- I will make you look even better. Who wouldn't want to look better, especially when given an exact plan and the means to do it. Why not? On the other hand -- why? The answer is exceedingly simple... because I can. Well, I have to.

    Technically, I make you look good -- conceptually, I make you look even better.

    That's my business and my job, whatever I do, be it technical advice, or conceptual consulting, I am here to make you look good, better, the best you can be. As far as I -- and you, for that matter -- are prepared to go. To me, this means whatever it takes -- why not go all the way if it is almost paved -- but ultimately, you decide.

    I make you look good and you make yourself be seen. How about that?

    Looking good, of course refers to more than visual beauty. Looking good you can on stage to be sure, but you can also do so in marketing, in politics, in a debate, in writing, and in talking, sometimes you can even look good, best that is, in absence. Opportunities to look good are always and all over the place.

    Working from scratch? No. That's pure creation, while, on the other hand, making you look even better is refining and uncovering the divine. I'm not adding anything which is not already there, instead, I bring it out. Think marble and the sculpture hidden within. Nothing more and nothing less.

    Little work could be done to discover the smallest hint, implying a whole world of change to you, or, on the other hand, immensely hard work could be invested, only to emerge the slightest bit wiser. It is worth the effort in either case.

    The beauty of making you look good is that it is an iterative process, it doesn't matter how small the first step -- by definition and comparison, you'll look even better.

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  • The Top 5 Reasons to Get Even Leaner

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The following article is an entry in the group writing project "Top 5" by Darren Rowse at problogger. The whole known web is currently getting streamlined, partitioned, sliced and diced, by Top-5s only to eventually be reunified in that one, giant, list of all of them. Enjoy.

    Let's take a look at why it is beneficial to get even leaner. Not lean instead of fat. Leaner instead of lean. Leaner than lean. This is about and for the already lean. Get more perfect. Here is why --

    5. Excellence. The #5 reason to get even leaner is the act of pushing through and going all the way, expecting more than others think is possible.

    You leaned your system down until now. Up to this point, you recognize that the leaner you get, the better it gets overall. Why would you settle for mediocrity. You're well on your way to excellence. Why settle for less? It's the goal and the relativity in leaner that propels you forward and makes you accomplish more and more in order to get there. You may not reach perfection but no one ever died from wanting too much either.

    4. Efficiency. The #4 reason to get even leaner is to get ever more revenue for the same or even less input.

    A leaner organism is a more effective organism. Come with minimal luggage. Don't bring more than you really need. Lean determines the ratio between work and rest, between production and administration, between muscle and fat. The more muscle that is at work against less and less superfluous weight -- as opposed to specific workload -- the more effective is the whole system. Think bureaucracy. Think governments.

    3. Hunger. The #3 reason to get even leaner is the hunt, its prerequisites and its conditions. There is no place for complacency on the hunt.

    The leaner you get, the more hunger you experience. Hunger keeps you awake and makes you alert. You need all your senses to even mildly satisfy that hunger. It's the hunger for more that guides you on the path to getting leaner in the first place.

    2. Discipline. The #2 reason to get even leaner is the reward -- in this particular case, the reward is the reward.

    The process of getting leaner is the opposite of instant gratification. It's the noble art of enduring the delay to eventually get it all. As long as the journey appears to be the reward, you're not there yet.

    1. Competition. The #1 reason to strive for maximum leanness is doing it because it's possible.

    Something that gets infinitely harder, the closer you come to reaching the absolute goal, is the ideal feat to fight for. If it was easy, anybody would do it and succeed. To succeed in getting even more lean -- leaner than any one of your competitors -- is the chance for you to set your name in stone. Competition is the ultimate comparison. There is only one first place.

    Please note that while thinspiration employs and works with human role-models, you may also consider lean management, or think lean business administration, for example, if this makes you feel more comfortable.

    Getting leaner is ultimately getting rid of more stuff. The ideal of getting leaner is about releasing the unnecessary. Less is more.

    Good riddance.

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  • Free ebook: Celebrate Your Beauty

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty -- whatever it takes.

    Whether you work on stage, or walk the runways, whether you make things real on the big screen, behind the scenes, near a microphone, or in the proximity of a camera, this little book is for you.

    Also, producers, can you hear me? Make your artists happy with this book. Celebrate Your Beauty provides targeted and clustered content, a well-readable, pre-selected set of articles written to help promote beauty and maintain motivation on and off stage. Share it, mail it, give it away, and make them love you even more.

    This book will make you look even better.

    Celebrate Your Beauty is a long tail edition, a small, topical ebook, 26 pages, remixed and arranged from articles appearing on WOW. As much as with a delicious dinner, all the ingredients are readily available -- yet, you still let the chef do the work, don't you?.

    Celebrate Your Beauty will never go out of print -- it doesn't have to. You print it if you want to do so, I may even print it, but no one is going to stock this one.

    With no shelf space to pay for and, in the case of purely digital services like iTunes, no manufacturing costs and hardly any distribution fees, a miss sold is just another sale, with the same margins as a hit. A hit and a miss are on equal economic footing, both just entries in a database called up on demand, both equally worthy of being carried. Suddenly, popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability.

    The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

    Like I said before: Everything has its moment.

    Download the free ebook: Celebrate Your Beauty, written to help promote beauty and maintain motivation in the world of looks.

    One last thing -- from now on, comments are open, I invite you to tell me what you think, what you feel, and whether you strive to leap forward and show the world that it is possible.

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  • There Are No Misunderstandings

    edited by Alexander Becker

    This essay is part of The Subjective Reality Series.

    A misunderstanding is a failure to understand or interpret correctly. The theory is that there is no failure involved and each and every subjective interpretation is inherently correct.

    A misunderstanding is a disagreement. Then again, if both you and I were talking about the exact same thing, there would be no disagreement. But we're not. Instead, we are talking about your interpretation of what's going on and mine.

    We are describing different sides of the same coin with different, conflicting terms and the mutual assumption that both sides look alike. The ultimate argument deals with the surprising fact that the sides are not equal -- despite our best efforts to match our communication. Please note that we never argue about different things, we always argue about -- apparently -- one and the same thing. Once it becomes clear that both sides of the coin do in fact differ from another -- the fight is over.

    Don't get me wrong because you can't -- there are no misunderstandings. Only asynchronous thoughts. Consider the déjà vu situation from the matrix.

    [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
    Neo
    Whoa. Déjà vu.
    [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
    Trinity
    What did you see?
    Neo
    A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
    Trinity
    A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

    Something has changed. That's the point. Something has changed and isn't -- yet -- communicated to everybody involved. Misunderstandings are indicators of unfinished, incomplete communication. Misunderstandings are the expectation of linear development based on prior, obsolete knowledge while current knowledge has already advanced. You misunderstand because you're not up-to-date, you're not in the present.

    It's not that you know less than I do nor do I know less than you do. You and I know different.

    But I thought you meant, ...

    Apparent misunderstandings are born when one and the same situation, scene, or outcome is perceived and eventually analyzed and compared from different perspectives, through different lenses. Prior knowledge and experiences result in unique expectations which in turn lead to unique conclusions. Misunderstandings are the exchange and forced comparison of different levels of progress, quality, and contextual truth. Yes. It's exactly the way you think it is.

    On a sidenote, if there are no misunderstandings, is there any chance that there is no paranoia either?

    The paranoid person blames and/or fears intelligent beings for their supposedly intentional actions. The question is whether the supposedly intentional actions are in fact intentional and this again is a matter of perspective. Suppose I, myself am not aware of my intentions but instead you are. You make my actions intentional. Whose paranoia is this in the first place?

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  • Defining Unknown Variables

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Let's take a look at the unknown and find a way to not only make it known, but even more, make it our very own.

    As long as you don't know the content of a variable, you can safely assume the most favorable one to match your expectations. Sure, you can always assume the worst in order to have the eventual outcome exceed you expectations but what for?

    What's the point in calculating with minimum positives and maximum negatives other than smaller rewards? Of course, you also minimize frustration, but at the same time, you keep the potential gains in check as well. You can easily maximize your results by fixing the unknowns on the positive side.

    Think communication. As long as you cannot be sure about an answer, you can as well assert that it is positive. Pretend the outcome to be good and it will be at least -- better.

    You don't know the answer? Even less, the answer is likely to be negative but isn't yet expressed? It is your chutzpah to assume and define the most positive reply possible. Thank your correspondent for their understanding and their help and move on. Build on top of that extorted outcome and everything down the road will be tangible and legitimate in its consequences.

    In short, once you inquire, do not waste time waiting for a reply, instead, act as if the answer was already received -- positively.

    ... expecting more than others think is possible...

    Expecting more, ultimately leads to more. This is one of the attributes of excellence. The self-fulfilling prophesy is about stating outcomes and determining variables, thus paving the paths for least resistance. A preconceived outcome is easier to realize than any alternative simply because the alternatives aren't made up yet. The more detailed your assumed variable, the closer to manifestation it is; it's just the easiest way possible, laid out, predigested, and formulated.

    When comparing the definite with the indefinite, the definite prevails because it just is. It is closer to being. Shape your dream and make it as definite as you can, for realization is just that.

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  • The State of Flow and Becoming Addicted to Action

    edited by Alexander Becker

    There is much said about the state of flow. If you want to achieve genuine and non-esoteric flow, try action. Cascading action. Action which builds on top of preceding -- action. Action as in progress. Action as in creation as well as in evolution.

    Become addicted if you aren't already. More and more. Create. Evolve. Whatever it is but let it move and it keep it ever new. Progress. All the time. There shall be no single day without any -- even the smallest -- step towards the current and the next goal. Action.

    What did you do today to achieve immortality?

    As with publicity, almost any action, good or bad, is preferable to inaction and static being. Positive progress is obviously favorable -- though when in doubt, have it move in either direction, as long as it moves to begin with. If and since you work -- you do, don't you -- under the premise that each and every time you perform at the very best of your ability, that at that particular time, you can only excel and ask for more and more tasks to crunch.

    By following and cultivating this attitude it will be easier to do only one thing, that nobody will ever forget -- every day. Which, by the way, is just the minimal answer to the immortality question. What if you accomplish that one thing early in the morning, even before breakfast? Would you try and get done one more thing towards immortality? What about an entire series of things?

    Once you start a series of cascading actions, the addiction part is taking care of itself. This is flow. This is the point where it is commonly said that success is inevitable. It just doesn't work any other way because each event triggers -- almost domino-like -- the next and the following ones with the result becoming inevitable because of cause and effect.

    Please note that while some effects certainly do not require specific causes, and some causes produce no effects at all, it is equally certain that inaction -- unless no action is the desired cause -- is not going to cause any significant effect. In other words: No cause doesn't cause anything.

    One last thing: The use of the term addiction hints at some negative implications. While the focused, conscious obsession definitely helps with achieving your goal, the addiction has its downsides: Laser-like concentration tends to utilize other system's vital energy and you may destroy on one side as much as you are trying to build on the other side. Get rid of your addiction as soon as the negative issues outweigh the positive ones -- and yes, there are positive aspects with any addiction. Otherwise it wouldn't be such a problem in the first place. Remember that you're after the rewards.

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  • Single-Handling vs. Missed Opportunities

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Single-handling is the high-speed, high-performance productivity concept of dealing with tasks, material or immaterial, on first sight, encounter, or touch. Get it out of the way as soon as it comes up, without ever looking back again.

    Here is a short exercise: Analyze your missed opportunities for a given timeframe, say last year, and determine how much stuff you wanted to get back to. How many interesting things, creative hooks, and potential successes piled up in order to be forgotten and later purged, ironically handled for a second time only to be discarded since their best before dates had long expired.

    The intention of building an archive containing reference material, material dedicated for later, unspecified, potential use, will leave you with constructive insights -- you will find things you long thought lost, only to notice that you manage to live without them, leading to the eventual, logical consequence to finally throw them away.

    Deal with everything immediately, as soon as possible and do not attempt to preserve anything for later. It will be too late. Everything which you do not act upon immediately gets never acted upon at all. Yes, there are exceptions but considering the results of the exercise above -- the list of missed opportunities is long and the ratio of exceptions to misses indicates a negligible count of exceptions -- you have to triage for ultimate productivity.

    If you can decide to deal with it later, whatever it is, you can as well take an additional moment and get it done on the spot. Yes, that's similar to the 2-minute rule from David Allen's Getting Things Done. In fact, it's even easier because it focuses on the yes-or-no decision of acting upon or discarding really fast.

    • If you have to read it anyway, read it now.
    • If you need to make the decision, why not make it now?
    • You first want to prepare ... in order to ... Do it now!

    The advantage of trashing over burying is that, when the time comes to go through the archives, you are not confronted with missed opportunities anymore. Instead, your missed opportunities are, from now on, conscious decisions to not participate.

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  • Subjective Reality: Create an Atmosphere

    edited by Alexander Becker

    This essay is part of The Subjective Reality Series.

    Do you ever wonder what your vast, unused mental potential is busy doing at any given moment? An obviously significant part of it is creating atmospheres out of your sensory input, it combines previously stored patterns and expectations and judgements into your very own subjective perception of intangible and often indescribable qualities.

    Atmospheres are objective environments which are subjectively created by your thoughts and emotions. An atmosphere is the pervading tone of a place or situation. The very same place, when perceived at different times under different or even similar circumstances may be experienced as if it was a completely different location.

    Note how time and circumstances are shaped and suddenly change at your fingertips when lived through a slightly changed context.

    Take your current environment as an example. Look around and consciously scan the setting which surrounds you right now. How does it feel? And back. What is there to evoke that particular feeling? If it is hard to describe it is because there is obviously some more to a situation than the sum of quantifiable and thus tangible parts.

    Develop and create an environment, your environment and make it your personal, your branded space. Take your environment and make it yours. You will be amazed by the unlimited options you encounter when it comes to configuring and fine-tuning your setting.

    And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:28 (King James Version)

    Create your atmosphere to your own and complete satisfaction. Recreate yourself in and through your environment and shape the resulting atmosphere until it is yours. Take special care of the more subtle elements, an air, think appearances and manners of objects and circumstances.

    Ultimately, the sequence is your mind creating an environment; you, perceiving that environment, perceiving it consciously; and finally shaping it through active and creative perception. If, for any reason, you are not absolutely, positively content with the atmosphere you created in the first place, go no further than your very own mind and -- if not working on the manifestation itself, at least improve your perception -- the rest, reality that is, will take care of itself.

    Your creations develop a life of their own. Try to always make sure that your intention perfectly matches the atmosphere that comes along with the manifestation. And vice versa.

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  • Follow Your Excellence

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Do only what you are good at. Even more, of the things you are good at, select those which you are best at. Spend as much time as possible working and applying your set of core skills.

    Persuade the people you work with of the enormous increase in efficiency if everyone was doing what they excel at. We are talking orders of magnitude here, even without exaggeration. The advantages almost present themselves: Incidentally, you work fast and most accurate when challenged at your level of expertise. In fact, the work you dismiss as too easy or as not challenging enough is not lesser work -- for you it is even harder than the most difficult jobs within your area of comfort.

    Delegate as much as possible of everything which does not fall into your core competency. It is not that you are too beautiful for any job, instead you are too busy accomplishing what only you can do, and what only you can do best.

    Install and ruthlessly defend flexible hierarchies of competence, wherever you are, for he who knows best or most is the boss -- this particular time, in his particular field. The result is dynamic leadership with true, original leaders, the capacities of their respective fields.

    Do what you are really good at. Delegate everything else. Outsource even the most basic tasks, actions, and processes as long as it helps you and frees time and resources to explore your excellence.

    Identify and analyze your stumbling blocks, the tasks where you always tend to procrastinate. This is not about overcoming procrastination, it is about eliminating the cause of procrastination once and for all. Tasks that make you procrastinate are the primary candidates for delegation and outsourcing. Tasks that feel even remotely annoying are likely to be delegated. Focus on your core skills and automatically get rid of procrastination.

    How many hours do you spend each day applying your most valuable talent? Two hours? Three? One? You work in the business of your choice, you create a dream job for yourself. Increase the number of excellence hours only slightly and compare your results after a while.

    When you feel like you don't even need sleep anymore, you are following your talent most appropriately.

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  • The Secret of Building a Strong Reputation

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

    1. 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.
    2. 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.

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  • How Your Mind Benefits from Cleaning Up Your Physical Workspace

    edited by Alexander Becker

    After you resolve to clean up that mess, you are forced to make yes-or-no decisions and, as a result, you will enjoy an unexpected, long forgotten peace of mind, in return for your physical efforts.

    Get rid of the clutter, take a look at your files in the drawers, at your clothes in their closets, at the too many items on your homepages, ... finally look at the stuff that piles up in your brains, occupying valuable working memory.

    No, you won't use any of it at some later time. You will, and neither will no other human being, never ever look again at the so called reference material, the results of your organization efforts to get things done.

    Organizing your physical world is an important step on the path leading to clarity, purpose, and success. The sorting through files and paperwork will reload the essence of all these things into your mind. Use this special occasion to handle everything only one single time and immediately make your decisions to either keep or drop. When in doubt, choose the latter.

    The intention of building an archive containing reference material, material dedicated for later, unspecified, potential use, will leave you with constructive insights -- you will find things you long thought lost, only to notice that you manage to live without them, leading to the eventual, logical consequence to finally throw them away.

    A positive side-effect is, that once you free your physical space from the clutter, you also free your mind. You do not even have to touch your cluttered thoughts to benefit from the cleaning, the newly won space in the physical world will simultaneously widen and expand your mental world. You will even notice the relief from stress, unrecognized stress resulting from long built-up heaps of stuff that is increasingly clogging up your productive system.

    Resolve today to get rid of something, everyday.

    An extension of this method is to continually and consciously make room for something new. In the same manner you stop old habits or activities in order to find time to start new habits and activities, make physical space for things you wish to acquire. Think of every acquisition as a replacement of something old with something new. Everything you buy, every item or abstract concept or idea you adopt, is in fact a renovation of all that you have -- once you stick to the giving away of something in exchange for anything which you receive. Live life, light.

    Peter Drucker would say: Before acquiring something new, give away something old.

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  • Quick Motivation: You Live in Paradise

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The first moment you spent on earth was the beginning of a new world, the world at your fingertips. You grew up and you noticed the nature of the nature of every living thing.

    You have the most beautiful life imaginable. You have it all. Everything is coming to you. Everybody adores you. You have, at your disposal, some unique, natural gifts that are waiting to get explored.

    You indulge in whatever passion you want. You have the capabilities and the potential to achieve it all.

    Your mind is more than able to handle even the most demanding questions and to produce answers comprehensible to anybody who would ask.

    Your presence is shining brightly and your glow illuminates the ground you walk on. In whatever guise you appear, your light is impossible to dim.

    Your talents are unique in their realm. You walk on paths that nobody else has ever touched.

    You can have it all. Reach out and grab what is rightfully yours. You deserve it and you won't take it away from anyone else because there is enough for everyone.

    You are special. You have the means to have everything you ever dreamt of.

    Deal with it. Accept your responsibility.

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  • Despair: A Shortcut to Bliss?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    You want to improve your well-tuned productivity? You look for ways to lose the last two pounds of body fat? You want to squeeze even more energy out of your already fine-chiseled, self-designed body? Most of the advice and tips and useful how-to guides are usually targeted at the eager and the curious and at the ones who are willing to improve their own situation and lives.

    Now, what about the people who are lost, often at the lowest end of consciousness. The people who are without hope and far from curious about optimizing their average productivity level from 80% to 85% efficiency?

    We're talking about the very first step to get someone out of absolute misery into conscious misery with a possible exit. What's the first step necessary in order to get you up and running again? What has to happen to make you want to come back?

    Analysis of your self results in what you already know, you are down, at the bottom of your experience. How to proceed from there? Sure, the second and every subsequent step are comparably easy once you get going. Where is the first step? How is it made? Is it even possible to make that first step alone, on your very own?

    What about the possibility of bliss being found even below the level of despair, the level from where you don't want to evolve. What if you refuse to come back because you have found bliss -- beyond all that external misery? What about absolute despair as a shortcut to enlightenment?

    Why would you want to traverse all the painful levels of consciousness when there is a perfect way, you take the opposite direction, you dive deep and deeper, through the dark, only to finally emerge as a new, enlightened being.

    The beauty of this approach is that even the well-tuned, the fine-chiseled, and the self-designed may benefit from such kind of thinking. See what you can find at the very bottom of your spirit, explore it, and make it your personal shortcut to bliss.

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  • Learn to Trust Your Inner Voice

    edited by Alexander Becker

    How old are you? Aren't you old enough to finally trust yourself?

    You feel like not exercising today? You feel like really overeating? Maybe there is a big project that is labeled important and thus would have to be treated first, with top priorities... but you feel like not touching it today?

    You are old enough. Listen to your instincts and do not always assume that your inner voice is a lazy one. Your inner voice, your instincts are guiding you. Why would you accuse yourself of attempting to cheat? Do you really think you are that bad?

    On the other hand, you may fear your inner voice could tell you to double your efforts -- how would you react to that?

    How many times did you give in to your feelings of not doing something at that particular time and on how many of these occasions did you beat yourself up, drowning in guilt, only to later realize that it was just right to not pursue that project on that day. Funny how the day after came along the last bit of input that I would have ignored if it hadn't been for my day off... and I thought I was lazy...

    The amazing thing about instincts is their effectiveness, they work... instinctively. It's like an additional sense -- but only when carefully observed and trusted.

    Take advantage of your inner voice and test it with minor issues at first. Act according to your instincts, preferably on difficult decisions where your conscious mind would suggest doing the exact opposite. Go with your instincts and evaluate what turned out to be different compared to the conscious-mind-only method. You will notice how your instincts contribute to your sensory input and -- once trusted -- are an important way to achieve clarity and stable decisions where the mind-only way would be still guessing.

    Respect your instincts and learn to trust your inner voice. Why would you assume that your inner voice is wrong? Why assume that your inner voice is bad in the first place?

    It is easy to ignore the inner voice, sometimes it is even easier to keep up the discipline than to break it. You have to constantly evaluate your actions. Do not let your habits run you and prevent you from optimizing your environment and your decisions. Do not stick to a habit because of the guilt that is associated with taking a day off. Stick to your habits because your mind and your instincts tell you to do so.

    Listen to your inner voice. Trust your inner voice. Rely on your inner voice.

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  • Make Exclusive Decisions

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Divide et impera, divide and rule: separate your thoughts, each from the other, sort through, be painfully selective about your longings and your objects of desire.

    You want it all, I know, but don't you want it all, only to avoid making a decision in favor of the definite outcome, the one thing you really want?

    Separate the goals you must accomplish from the objectives you merely hesitate to discard from your list of wanted achievements. Triage indiscriminately, not only your obligations but also your desires. Focus on one target at a time. Only this way, you will eventually have them all.

    Do not set up three top-priority goals in order to triple your happiness and your satisfaction. Is it even possible to be three times as happy, measurably? Resolve to concentrate on that one major project. Choose one and appreciate the satisfaction that comes from having decided and being gratified with just the right one. Trust your choice. Choose the one you really want. The chosen one itself will be happier being the only one and will show you great appreciation for your exclusive choice.

    The main objective of your experience is quality, not quantity. Do not give in and participate in the race for more and more at the expense of better and better. Instead, try to cascade towards the best that is achievable with the means you have at any one time. Always trade in the inferior for the superior. Always discard the good in favor of the better. You will end up having the best experience possible. You have to refrain from collecting the stuff that amasses along your way towards material enlightenment and let it cloud your wonderful presence.

    It is your indecision that makes you unhappy. Do not change your plans on a daily basis. Decide, stand up, and stand by your intent. Your decisions will bring clarity into your life. You will receive unexpected help from the people around you, they will surprise you with their support, now that they know what you stand for.

    Make your decisions and rule your own, personal kingdom.

    Buy only one car at a time. How many favorite cars are in your garage? Is it possible to have more than one favorite in any one class?

    You decide.

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  • Positive Peer Pressure

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Peer pressure is usually associated with negative behavior and the social dynamics of youth and growing up. Adopt and employ the concept of peer pressure to make a positive difference. Get your tribe to follow your positive lead just as they would follow you blindly in decadence. You are highly responsible for your fellow adventurers, the people around you who read your lips and do exactly what you do. Take good care of them.

    Live the best way you can under the best circumstances you can create and do not let your tribe in the dark. Strive to be an idol and carefully monitor every step you take in public; you are always watched and adored for what and for how you are. You are a role-model whether this makes you comfortable or not. Accept being cited as an example.

    This is by no means an abstract advice. Look around and observe the people you are with on a regular basis. Everyone influences everyone else. Even the most negligible action can have vast effects when, evaluated in hindsight, through your initial cause someone got inspired to do something not so negligible -- be it good or bad.

    Your network of influence, how far does it reach? How far do you intend to reach out? As a rule, the most freakish actions are the ones emulated the most and with great passion. How do you move? Do you eat in certain ways? Do you exhibit any weird behavior that supports your public, your stage personality? People will copy exactly that. Use the power of being an example to spread positive and meaningful actions, thoughts, and emotions. Sort through what is expected from you and live up to people's well-meant anticipations. Make sure to only meet positive expectations; everyone will wait for and prey on your negative output -- do not give in to lower instincts.

    The goal is not to create a uniform, synchronously-dancing, equal-looking tribe which would resemble an army more than anything else -- the ideal is the exact opposite, open-eyed, loosely connected, independent and free individuals, given their own, true voice, aware of their abilities and their purpose. You act merely as a catalysator for the people who look up to you.

    There are many who strive to become like you.

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  • Moderation in All Things?

    edited by Alexander Becker

    One of Benjamin Franklin's virtues was to: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

    I am always a proponent of pursuing extremes, if not for the outcome then at least for the value of the experience. Yet recently, I discover moderation as a concept. There are many events in life that benefit greatly from a moderate approach. Selective moderation leaves time and energy for the really important, for the high-priority issues to be tackled in extreme ways, excessive in single-mindedness and with overwhelming determination.

    With the overall concept and pace being moderate, as moderate as possible, resources are shifted towards the high-leverage objectives that are treated with all the power available, with utmost persistance and through exaggeration and escalation of circumstances whenever possible, even beyond the likelyhood of success.

    Moderation adds variety and promotes diversity since active moderation is capable of breaking repetitive habits -- the prevention of having too much of the same too often, for example -- allowing fresh input into your life.

    It may seem to conflict with the issue of discipline and exceptions, but you can benefit from moderating discipline itself for too much restriction -- and that's what a good part of discipine is about -- is detrimental to your success and your well-being.

    Moderation is important to break up black-and-white thinking since nothing is perfectly black nor white. Moderation is the complete scale from black to white and so is life which is -- to stay with colors -- taking continuously and simultaneously from the whole spectrum, including the extremes, incorporating every color that is imaginable, all side by side.

    Moderation precludes -- by definition -- the effects of excess.

    For good measure, take a look at extreme moderation which seems to be a contradiction in terms. You can exaggerate everything, just apply the concept of excess to the idea of moderation.

    Contemplating the reasoning behind moderation does in fact temper the extremes by itself through showing the nature and the evident advantages of moderation vs. excess; variety vs. uniformity; diversity vs. similarity; &c.

    I still feel the urge to take moderation to the extreme...

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  • Why You Should Seek Inspiration Instead of Motivation

    edited by Alexander Becker

    Motivation makes you want to do while inspiration tells you what to do.

    Motivation is unspecific. You are motivated or you become motivated through external stimuli and you get ready to do something. Once you are motivated, i.e. stimulated to a sufficient extent, you can and do start whatever task is offered or would offer itself to you.

    To sustain motivation, it has to be kindled and rekindled and carefully guarded while, on the other end of the scale, the overwhelming force which inspiration creates, is hard to disturb and even harder to resist.

    Inspiration starts with an idea or the seed of an idea, call it a hunch or an intuition, with only the slightest hint of motivation. Once picked up, the idea will immediately start to unfold and pull motivation towards itself until completion, until its full manifestation.

    Inspiration-invoked motivation is invincible and divine, it is not comparable to the externally aroused, raw, almost crude, give-me-something-to-do kind of motivation.

    The trick is thus, in order to achieve maximum and real motivation, to work on and take care of inspiration. Inspiration is the shortcut to motivation and it is much harder to induce since the reception seems to be a very delicate and subjective process without the physical means that trigger motivation.

    Inspiration takes place in the mind, via emotions and evaluation of the effects of sensory input. Motivation, on the other hand, is a matter of tangible cause-and-effect events that function via direct sensory input. You can become motivated through physical activity -- inspired you won't become, not necessarily though.

    I may motivate you with passion and with the influence of physical power but without actual inspiration and you will ask me for a task to complete... any task, you will be eager to use your instilled energy no matter how. I may do the opposite and give you inspiration; you will instantly and effortlessly motivate yourself and find and complete, all by yourself, the exact task for that very moment.

    Always look for inspiration and motivation will take care of itself.

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  • Willpower: Let Go of Everything

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

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  • A Simple Technique to Experience Amazing Productivity Gains

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

    1. Start with the ubiquitous mindsweep.
    2. Recognize and accept the Must Do tasks.
    3. Collect your intentions for the desired outcomes of the Must Do and the Want-To-Do Really Badly stuff.
    4. Inject as much positive thinking as possible into your mental process. Sanitize every thought of potential auto-sabotage.
    5. 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.

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  • 11 Ways to Improve Clarity and Start Getting Results

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Realize that you do not have to suffer to achieve what you want. You decide whether suffering is part of your experience or not.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

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  • Understand Pain to Train More Efficiently

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

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  • Succeed through Synchronizing Your Behavior

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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...

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  • Question Everything You Believe In

    edited by Alexander Becker

    After questioning everything you do, you may want to start from scratch with your beliefs as well.

    Question everything you believe to be true. Everything you believe in. Question the effect that each of your beliefs has on you. Is it good for you? For the success of your actions, for your mind, for your soul, for your emotions. Finally, what do your beliefs do to mankind? Do your beliefs help or hinder humanity?

    Why would you hold on to a belief that you know isn't perfectly beneficial to its believers? Why in fact, do you call it a belief? If you are convinced and know it for sure it is knowledge and there is no reason for any doubt. Make that belief knowledge or drop it. Knowledge as in you are absolutely, positively convinced -- not necessarily as in scientifically proven.

    What about beliefs whose primary purpose is to explain shortcomings? Beliefs that cover a lack of courage, beliefs decorating fears with colorful legends.

    A good way to start is to rid yourself from any belief whatsoever... Why believe at all? Please note that this is an exercise in using your own mind, not a contest in offending anybody else's emotions nor thoughts. There are subtle differences to pay attention to.

    So, do you merely believe in God or are you absolutely, positively convinced about the existence of God? Can you see the difference?

    Let's take a look at the inevitable objections to the questioning of belief itself: Isn't any objection somehow rooted in fear? Isn't the fact that you are not convinced based on a fear, that possibly, maybe, the belief could be wrong? Not so with knowledge. Either you do know or you don't.

    There is a very particular audacity in knowing vs. believing. That's the difference.

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  • Reality Check: The Implications of Elite Training

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

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  • How to Motivate Yourself with One Word

    edited by Alexander Becker

    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.

    Alcatraz Revisited

    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.

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  • Always Question Everything You Do

    edited by Alexander Becker

    You get up early. Question that. You start your day with a light workout. Before you leave the house you eat a light breakfast. You work during the day to the best of your abilities. In the evening, you workout heavily. You prepare your meal and you enjoy it before getting back to work at night, to the best of your abilities. You go to sleep after planning the next day. Question all that.

    There is no chance to improve anything without questioning everything.

    The time you get up -- is it possible to get up earlier or is it favorable to sleep a little longer in order to squeeze some more out of the evening hours?

    That light workout -- is it optimal or would you be better off with doing the hard workout before breakfast? The breakfast itself, what can you alter in order to stay more alert until your next meal?

    Are you really working to the best of your abilities? Question that.

    How is the quality of your evening workout? How do you feel afterwards? If the workout doesn't leave you feel like a million dollars, change it or shift it around on your schedule until that million is yours.

    What do you eat, how is it prepared, and when exactly is the absolute best time to peacefully eat and digest?

    Do you really plan your next day or do you simply copy the day you've planned once, years ago?

    Question your sleep. Do you sleep well? Always? Why not?

    Never accept anything simply because it repeats the same way over and over. Even the most basic tasks and functions should be subject to thorough questioning.

    You breathe. Well... let's take a look at the way you breathe, do you breathe deeply or rather shallow?

    Question it all.

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  • Remember Today

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The most beautiful day in your life. When was it? How was it? What made it so special and different from any other day you can think of? How did that day feel and what was the reason for that feeling? Is it likely and realistic to induce that feeling again, to repeat, if not the day, then at least the feeling?

    Although that one day is long gone and it won't come back anymore, the memories and the accompanying emotions will never fade away. Take a look at all your beautiful days in your life so far. What do these special, outstanding days have in common? They are perfect, they are unplanned, unexpected things happen, yet everything feels easy and like planned and executed by a divine hand.

    What do you expect to experience today? Do you expect an ordinary day or do you want a special one? You work today and you have a packed schedule and there is no time for any special moment? You plan on spending a perfect day on the weekend, your schedule will be free of stress and obligations, there will be plenty of time and everything is setup to accomodate future memories... How come that -- that day, the supposedly perfect, prepared, and predetermined day, turns out to be not special at all? No memories to take into the future to remember another beautiful day. Why is that?

    Let's go back to that day full of work. Full of decisions. Now, decide to make every moment special. Have a meeting? Make it special by chosing a different location, the most perfect location you can think of. Going to introduce yourself to an audience? Make it perfect by presenting yourself in the most special way possible.

    Since every moment you are going to encounter will be there for you exactly once -- decide and resolve to invest everything you have into every moment. Accept time and the present instead of resisting it, waiting for a better future. You'll end up waiting forever. Make the most out of every second you have because it will pass no matter how you spend it. Time passes anyway so why not enjoy it in its present, while it lasts?

    The most beautiful day? Today.

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  • Maintain Your Beauty

    edited by Alexander Becker

    How do you think are you going to be able to maintain your beauty during the years to come? Your beauty is shining and legendary. What do you think are you doing right now? Why do you think you can do without sleep? You don't eat regularly, you don't eat enough, and what you eat is not worth the mention. Then there is your mood, please watch it, for that you attract exactly what you radiate.

    You play with your life like I used to play with mine...

    You declare your starved look a beauty ideal and others will follow you because you are their idol, you are a role-model. Take responsibility. You work without rest while you postpone your health and your beauty... You expect to get it back after being rewarded. What do you think will be your reward? What do you expect from your reward? What do you plan on doing with your reward?

    What you still mistake for your reward will not satisfy your longing. But you know that. You will receive a thousandfold, yet you will be waiting for happiness. In vain. You will crave even more and try even harder when the only right thing to do is to step back and enjoy the show.

    Don't trade your beauty or your health for something you're not even vaguely able to describe. What you want lies in front of you, within easy reach, day in, day out.

    Let go of everything for the shortest moment of your precious time and feel what is there for you and only for you. Feel what you are missing and what you are neglecting in favor of that fear. Let go and be beautiful. Your reward comes from within.

    Surprised?

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  • Resolve to Improve

    edited by Alexander Becker

    As with most human issues, healthy eating is not about being perfect. You won't be able to eat perfectly anyway. Yet most people set the threshold too high and keep eating what there are eating, reasoning that they are not going to be able to keep up their discipline anyway.

    So what? Eat one apple as soon as possible and ideally eat it instead of something unhealthy. Too hard? Eat it in addition.

    You not only make the first step but you improve your health in a practical way that you can build upon. Every little thing, every decision in favor of good health is great. You don't need to change any habit -- at least not for now -- eat exactly what you always eat but add that apple and you will end up healthier than ever before.

    The idea is, of course, to raise your awareness but you don't need an elaborate diet plan or starvation routines or a mean workout program to get that beautiful life started.

    Eat an apple today, add a glas of water and a walnut and you are better off than yesterday. That apple will have a hard time counterbalancing the junk food that you may be addicted to, but it won't travel unnoticed through your body either.

    Resolve to improve something. Everything accumulates over time.

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  • I want you to be Happy, Healthy, and Beautiful

    edited by Alexander Becker

    You are beautiful. I want you to be at your best. Because you rock.

    People keep coming up to you, exclaiming: WOW! You are beautiful!

    The purpose of this site is to help you and inspire you in achieving and maintaining being WOW. It's about your happiness and your health and your beauty. We are talking about fitness and mind and health. About nutrition and about diets. About hard work and about amazing results.

    The difference between WOW and other helping hands is that I will never tell you that you don't have to work for your goals. In fact, you have to work as hard as you can -- by definition -- to achieve as much as you want.

    I want to bring out the best of you. Nothing more. It is a journey and it will be the best there is.

    WOW is a blessing and a gratification, an indicator that you are on the right track.

    You rock. That's it.

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