Opinionated? Hell Yeah!
Chris Garrett asks whether your blog -- or mine, for that matter -- is opinionated.
The answer is of course, hell yeah, is my blog opinionated!
Let me give you an example: Chris Shugart at Testosterone Nation has that Phoenix Theory, where
from its own ashes, the fiery bird is reborn.
--The failure — the person who hasn't begun properly and hasn't set himself on fire — will find plenty of reasons to avoid the tough exercises and rationalize laziness.
The phoenix — the angry person who has burned away all his previous excuses — will get mad at himself for slacking. He'll remind himself that he must earn his post-workout drink, and if he needs to, he'll slap himself across the face until he feels like getting into the squat rack.
Think I'm kidding? This is how truly successful people push themselves. They're not hand-holders; they're ass-kickers... even if it's their own ass that needs kicking. They drive themselves, and usually not with positive affirmations.
While the theory sounds familiar and I definitely subscribe to it, the opinionated part is yet to come. Here goes --
Phoenix Theory goes against what most hand-holding motivational "gurus" preach. But I'm not a motivational guru; I'm an experimenter and an observer. I'm not interested in what works in corny "personal growth" books; I'm interested in what works in real life, in the field. And what works in the real world isn't always pretty. But the results are.
That is pretty much the point where some ways have to part. Call it Elite, Machiavellian, Utilitarian, Biblical, even Cold-blooded, or Insane, I call it Excellence X Chutzpah, and it is always based on higher principles. I am always here to make you look good, whatever it takes.
It is not for everybody. While everybody is invited to try, some are here to stay. That is my opinion.
Labels: bible, business, chutzpah, decisions, elite, excellence, lifehacks, lifestyle, machiavelli, marketing, opinion, personal+branding, rant, success, testosterone, wow-bits
Spreading vs. Selling Ideas
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.
Labels: business, copyright, failure, filesharing, ideas, intellectual+property, marketing, motivation, success, wow, wow-bits
How to Change Circumstances
Create your reality through communication.
Repeated communication perpetuates the subject exchanged. In contrast, don't talk about things when the objective is -- not only to prevent knowledge about but even more so -- to preclude wider and potentially irreversible manifestation.
Nothing is irreversible. Nothing is absolute. And when you think it is -- it is not.
Once a certain reality appears right and matches your desire and expectations, make it a fact, pin it down by communicating it as widely as possible.
Try to consciously rethink and refine your working theories. Be liberal when it comes to replacing a hypothesis. This applies to relationships as well as to marketing strategies and even business plans. You will discover that your assumptions tend to be more negative than the potential outcomes and thus inhibit the quality of your results. Find the weakest links and reinforce them.
Tweak your plans, goals, and objectives until they precisely match your idea, then work and fulfill your idea, and eventually strengthen the elements you like most by selectively stressing them over the less desired details.
Please note that honesty, absolute honesty, is a prerequisite here. What we are doing here is not tweaking information about reality, we are not suppressing facts, nor are we beautifying mediocrities; instead, we are modifying and optimizing progress, once it is still, well, in progress.
This is another instance of the concept of the self-fulfilling prophesy, this is the exact way it works. Project your idea, your desired outcome. Broadcast your desire, appreciate it, look forward to it and finally manifest it.
The self-fulfilling prophesy? The law of attraction? Yes, the two are the same with the self-fulfilling prophesy ultimately delivering the instructions, the how-to, in its very name.
You get exactly what you dare to communicate.
Labels: communication, law+of+attraction, lifehacks, self-fulfilling+prophesy, subjective+reality, wow-bits, wow-subjective-reality
Be Productive or The Law of Specificity
In chemistry, specificity is --
The selective reactivity that occurs between substances, such as between an antigen and its corresponding antibody.
Processes and methods that are more specific have more impact than general tools and strategies. What works in business is not supposed to be applicable in leisure or education, even more specific, what works in my business like a charm isn't necessarily guaranteed to work in your business at all.
An antigen and its corresponding antibody,
that's the key here. Some concepts just don't match while others -- sometimes and with some people -- match squarely. You are only as productive as you are and you most likely improve within your own realm. That said, most tips will -- if anything -- only initiate an improvement that you are responsible for yourself.Over on lifehack.org, Dustin Wax dicusses the five productivity ideas he's not buying (yet?)
The body of work on productivity, life-work balance, and personal achievement sits uncomfortably -- perhaps perilously -- close to the genre of “self-help”.
I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. Here are the five examined points --
- Mind mapping.
- The 80/20 Rule.
- The power of Brand You.
- Making productivity a habit.
- Visualizing success.
Mind mapping? It works for people who would work this way anyway. If you never draw ideas then there's a good chance that mind mapping isn't for you. It certainly isn't for me either.
The power of Brand You. It works if you're so inclined -- it won't work for everybody but for those in need and with a corresponding personality, it works wonders.
The 80/20 rule. Obviously it's ridiculous to examine projects and calculate percentages -- but the concept is certainly valuable and at least inspires people to think.
A question is whether --
... it [is] possible to increase this small number of high-performing causes while at the same time decreasing the relatively high number of underperformers?
Now, take a look at the opposite --
In order to increase the quality of your work, you have to increase your output in quantity.
It's a matter of reflection and analysis, ever so short of the proverbial paralysis. I don't think that any recipe or laid out how-to hack whatever part of your mind does indeed work as advertised or prescribed. Instead, it's the one spark contained in one article out of hundreds, the one way out of the dozens of X ways to do Y written in almost robot-like staccato all over the place with hardly enough resources to finish yesterday's 25 ways with today's 50 ways already waiting to get socially bookmarked and overwritten by tomorrow's -- hey it's sunday, let's present the 100 ways of non-productivity and hope that nobody notices that ... don't worry, nobody does ever notice the dupes, because of severe how-to overload.
By the way,
making productivity a habit
is a great example of a concept devoid of any meaning at all. Isn't productivity being productive in the first place? The short form of this truly revolutionary concept is to be productive -- wow. I mean WOW.This is Zen. I love Zen.
Who's the intended audience of the content-avalanche, anyway? (I use the term content in its most generic form and not for the lack of a better word here.)
The desperate need for serious help is directly anti-proportional to the willingness to accept it and follow even basic recommendations. People become help- and advice resistant when they need it the most.
The rant is over now. Thank you for your patience. Have a great weekend and when it's over, make sure to be productive again.
Labels: business, decisions, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+branding, productivity, rant, success, wow-bits, zen
Make it Personal
Sometimes, things just won't take off. Great ideas, but still --
It's not personal. It's strictly business.
Yeah right. What if that's exactly the problem? Make it personal.
The solution is to inject some -- or some more -- personality. You're still not required to identify yourself with your idea but make it yours, at least.
Whatever it is, it's a product of a very personal idea. Once detached from its original personality it is hard to reattach an idea to its emotions. However, since your idea will die from too clean an abstraction anyway, it will be worth that one last try.
Obviously, continuously maintaining the connection between your personality and your idea is the objective here. By creating personal bonds between your idea and yourself, between yourself, your idea, and your audience, your sparks will eventually ignite the fire.
Expose in detail --
- What and how do you feel?
- Why is your idea so important?
Share your personality with me. Tell me and I'll buy it. Your idea, that is.
One last thing. Make it deeply and genuinely personal, anything that even remotely spells superficial won't suffice, in fact, superficiality will cost you your very idea.
Labels: business, decisions, lifehacks, lifestyle, marketing, personal+branding, success, the+godfather, wow-bits
Two Ways of Owning a Law
The surprising difference between accepting a law and breaking it.
There are laws for almost everything. And I am not talking about jurisdiction here. Not the social and societal restrictions and determinations of governmental authorities.
Yet -- can every rule be bent and every law be broken?
In science, there are a specific number of established scientific laws, or physical laws as they are sometimes called, that are considered absolute and inarguable facts of the physical world. Laws of science may, however, be disproved if new facts or evidence arise to contradict them. A "law" differs from those as hypotheses, theories, postulates, and principles, etc., in that a law is a general statement about nature that is considered proven beyond doubt.
The phrase Law of Nature has several meanings:
- It can refer to a scientific generalization based upon empirical observation, i.e., a physical law.
- It can refer any number of doctrines in moral, political and legal theory, also called natural law.
The second law of thermodynamics --
The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.
The law of the excluded middle states that every proposition is either true or false.
Newton's first law: law of inertia --
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force.
Finally, what about laws, named after people in general?
Social and societal restrictions can be bent and broken, laws of nature, laws that by definition do not provide exceptions or exemptions, are best accepted and not directly fought against. Not even resisted.
OK, enough common sense, this is the idea: Two ways to make history --
- The one who discovers a law of nature gets his name tied to it;
- The one who discovers that -- a physical law in particular -- can be bent or broken, gains immortality.
The former is a mere observer while the latter successfully resisted a law of nature. Obviously, the law in question becomes void and obsolete. Now, choose between the latter and the former's experience.
Change the rules and make them yours. Bend them until they break. Any rule that can be broken is worthless anyway. As a rule at least.
Labels: acceptance, business, chutzpah, common+sense, inspiration, law, resistance, wow-bits
Uniqueness and Branding
What applies to blog marketing holds true for personal branding as well. And vice versa; and vice versa...
Chris Garrett -- the friendly marketing geek (see, it works, Chris) -- points out the value of uniqueness. He gives examples and hints on how to discover your own uniqueness for marketing-your-blog purposes which collaterally reinforce your overall personal brand --
People could argue that it is unlikely you will find something absolutely, unquestionably, uniquely you, which is fine! You just need something different enough.
Different enough
works, but then, the moment you are eventually different enough, going all the way works even more. I understand the key in making an ever so small difference. Nonetheless, defending and fortifying that difference must become your job and one of your top priorities. Make that difference yours and completely own it and expand it relentlessly.The important thing is, do you know your uniqueness? Can you tell me in a sentence? If not, better get working!
Until you know that, you are useless.
(Which movie is this?)Finding that uniqueness may sound difficult in theory, yet in practice, it's astonishingly easy, once you follow your excellence --
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.
Delegate as much as possible of everything which does not fall into your core competency.
Just make sure to delegate wisely --
Intelligent delegation is not getting your job done by someone lower down in your corporate hierarchy. Instead, intelligent, smart delegation is finding the right person for the right task at the right time.
Please note that the brand is built on top of uniqueness -- and not vice versa.
Labels: branding, business, delegation, excellence, marketing, personal+branding, success, wow, wow-bits
Anti-Hero of the Day: The Constantly Whining Business Man
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 --
- To convince his vendors and suppliers to drop their prices;
- To prevent his employees from asking for higher wages;
- 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.
Labels: art+of+war, business, leadership, motivation, negotiations, personal+branding, rant, success, wow, wow-bits
Develop in Public, Refine Later
Do something, do anything. Everything you ever do is always under construction. Everything is work in progress.
Why not publish your new website under its working title on a makeshift domain? Not having decided about the final name and title is not an excuse.
Develop in public, redirect and refine later. It works not only with domain names, website content, or actual product prototypes. To get started, nothing works better than output. Publish, release, deliver, make something real and let the customer, recipient, beneficiary, have at it.
In fact, that's what the scientific method is all about --
The scientific method relies on the hypothesis. What's more intuitive than an initial hypothesis? Everything follows the scientific method, after all.
Determine a goal, make a plan, follow the plan, evaluate, improve the plan, follow, evaluate, ... is there anything which or anyone who doesn't work this way?
Scientific researchers propose specific hypotheses as explanations of natural phenomena, and design experimental studies that test these predictions for accuracy. These steps are repeated in order to make increasingly dependable predictions of future results. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry serve to bind more specific hypotheses together in a coherent structure. This in turn aids in the formation of new hypotheses, as well as in placing groups of specific hypotheses into a broader context of understanding.
Setting up a hypothesis, testing it and replacing it with a better one. If real progress is involved, is there any one thing which works differently in the first place?
What about starting from scratch? Without a hypothesis?
Sometimes -- and only sometimes -- you have to start all new, start all over from scratch and tear everything which already is, down.
Where exactly does the act of creation take place... Is it the letting go? Is it the pristine ground?
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
Let's pretend to lose everything and examine the difference it makes -- compared to adhering to structures, conventions, and rules of existing systems.
That, in part, is the beauty of remixing: You start from scratch without holding on to any weights from previous structures yet you make use of the best parts of what's already manifested.
Thus, the act of remixing in public, recombining elements which are already tested and trusted, is a virtually guaranteed way to successfully create something more than the sum of its parts. Every subsequent remix will be better and better than its ancestors, hypothesis is being built on top of hypothesis.
The key is initial output.
Labels: analysis+paralysis, business, decisions, goals, gtd, lifehacks, personal+branding, productivity, remix, scientific+method, wow, wow-bits
Review: The Dip by Seth Godin
The best in the world.
Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can't deal with the stress of the moment. (The Dip)
Seth Godin of Purple Cow and Squidoo and Seth Godin fame once again adds some required reading to your list (and mine). The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).
A book mentioning its typefaces in the imprint has my full attention, Janson Text with Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, not just as a designer. A small, perfect bound book with nice paper and Hugh's drawings. That alone makes it the best book in the world -- at this exact time, at this very place, between and among the laser-printed, spiral-bound manuals and ebooks -- one of the few real books of the moment.
Seth says
being the best in the world is seriously underrated
. Being the best in the world is hip again.The best in the world. I wonder how many people actually do quit -- recognizing and quitting their personal cul-de-sacs (or culs-de-sac?). I'm sure there are many who follow the recognizing part and even some who consider the quitting itself. Case in point, it's the Dip in action: scarcity and the value created by scarcity.
I wonder how many people actually do quit
, the question proves Seth's every point,the best in the world
is not exactly about doing what everybody else is doing. Common sense is counterproductive here.The Dip sets up the best in the world vs. moderation --
... 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.
I still feel the urge to take moderation to the extreme... (WOW)
Moderation is common sense, where common determines the exact amount of moderation -- average. Everything else is extraordinary -- and therefore worth pursuing.
The best in the world goes against the Pareto principle --
80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. It is usually implied and recommended to focus on the 20% since this is where the return on investment originates. In our eternal quest for optimization, let's take a look at the dark side, the apparently unnecessary, the 80% of causes as determined by the Pareto principle. What about those non-vital many? (WOW)
The Dip is the remaining 20% of consequences. The Pareto principle boosts productivity and works like magic in average settings, but, to conquer the Dip, you have to go all the way. 100%.
Here is the Dip in the context of Zero-based thinking --
Apply reversed zero-based thinking: Knowing what you know now, would you again get out of that situation? What could have changed your decision? (WOW)
Obviously, realizing that the cul-de-sac was actually a Dip should have changed your decision.
To sum it up, the idea of leaning into the Dip and coming out the best in the world is taking us beyond moderation, certainly beyond the 80/20 principle, and in a way beyond zero-based thinking -- dip or dead-end is a rather binary decision. Yet, I can relate to that
best in the world
thing a lot. It instills a certain hunger, and hunger doesn't know about cul-de-sacs.The concept of sticking with strategies and abandoning tactics is particularly useful. It takes the guesswork out of motivation issues, shortcomings, and temporary failures.
The one missing ingredient is talent. The problem is that talent doesn't play any role. Maybe it's a lack of talent when quitting is the best you can do. Maybe -- in the end -- talent is what makes you the best in the world and prevents you from quitting when it just starts to hurt a little.
The Dip is a definite recommendation, stuff to read, live and quit through.
Now, get your name on that list already.
Labels: books, business, decisions, lifehacks, marketing, personal+branding, personal+development, quitting, recommendation, review, seth+godin, the+dip, wow, wow-bits
Constrain Yourself, Your Time, and Your Tools
Some concepts keep recurring, again and again,
less is more
, for example.Of Ririan Project's 33 New Ways To Overclock Your Brain, one is particularly powerful --
Constrain yourself.
You need structure in your life. And by constraining yourself -- say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with -- you can often accomplish more in less time.
Use deadlines and short time frames. What do you do with your time and sharply defined increments?
Let's take a look at relativity -- what do you accomplish within an hour?
- Exercises, for example
- 100 bodyweight squats: 3 minutes.
- 10 intervals of 15 seconds all out sprinting and 45 seconds recovery jogging: 10 minutes.
- Four ridiculous minutes of dumbbell thrusting.
- Full body workout using free weights: 30 minutes.
- Writing
- One such article: 20 minutes.
- Food preparation
- A big omelette with vegetables and some chicken, all freshly chopped: 15 minutes.
Now, what is it, what single activity takes a full hour? Is there anything taking one full hour? Sure, but cramming those activities within the available 30 minutes makes them even more intense, more dense, and more fun to begin with.
On the other hand, try to limit tools and get your ideas out, with whatever's at hand.
Pencil and a notebook instead of the computer anyone? The medium makes the message. Leave the notebook at home and write your million-dollar-idea down, on the next best surface. Do not let the medium or the brand of your beautiful sketchbook dictate your message.
In other words, do you need a certain, specific, tool to get the job done, a piano made out of glass, for example? One of my favorite quotes from Hugh MacLeod's How to be Creative, is about pillar management, and the props used to hide behind --
There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada.
There you have it, etc.
Labels: creativity, exercises, lifehacks, personal+development, productivity, training, wow, wow-bits
The 4 Minute-Workout: From Running Gag to Ego Buster
The X-minute workout, a running gag among fitness professionals, can still be employed effectively, especially as an addition to a well balanced schedule involving resistance training, intervals, and aerobic work.
The Tabata Method is a variation of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Dan John has build a short, yet effective
Fat Loss in Four Minutes
out of it --Tabata is the name of a Japanese researcher who discovered an interesting way to increase both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. It's one of those strange training programs that seems to fit across disciplines: it's excellent for bicyclists, speed skaters, Olympic lifters, or the person looking to lose fat quickly.
This training method is so simple, yet so incredibly difficult, that athletes tend to try it once, acknowledge its greatness, and then vow to never speak its name again. What is it? It's simple: take one exercise and perform it in the following manner:
- For twenty seconds, do as many repetitions as possible.
- Rest for ten seconds
- Repeat seven more times!
Ok. So much for the method. I really like sprint intervals but in Northern Europe, rain is sometimes used as an excuse not to go out and run. Enter the remedy;
Tabata thrusters
--The thruster is one of the greatest lifts no one has ever heard of in the gym. Take two dumbbells and hold them at shoulder height. Squat down, keeping the dumbbells on the shoulders. As you rise up, press the bells to the overhead lockout position. You can either press as you rise or use the momentum to help "kick" the bells overhead. I find that I do a little bit of both in the four minutes.
Thrusters do things to your heart rate and breathing that I honestly can't describe. Go light! A 35 pound dumbbell in each hand is a very difficult thruster workout! Check your ego at the door for the first two minutes.
It did rain and I did try it... The soreness lasted for three days.
For those of you who'd ask, here is the dialogue that founded all the fun, from Something About Mary in 1998 --
- Hitchhiker
- You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
- Ted
- Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.
- Hitchhiker
- Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
- Ted
- Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.
- Hitchhiker
- Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
- Ted
- I would go for the 7.
- Hitchhiker
- Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
- Ted
- You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?
- Hitchhiker
- If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".
- Ted
- That's right. That's - that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?
- [Hitchhiker convulses]
- Hitchhiker
- No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.
- Ted
- That - good point.
- Hitchhiker
- 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office.
- Ted
- Why?
- Hitchhiker
- 'Cause you're f--kin' fired!
The above described four minutes will indeed train your aerobic and your anaerobic pathways, at the same time, the mind will be working just as hard to stay with you and harden together with your body. Try it. It's only four short minutes. Plus three days, that is.
Labels: endurance, fat+loss, fitness, hiit, interval+training, tabata, wow, wow-bits


