Jan 16
Q: When I go to the bathroom, my urine is colorless. The only medication I take is aspirin, once a day. Do you think there’s a connection?
A: No connection. And it’s not
necessarily bad that your urine is colorless. Most people assume urine should be yellow, but if it’s yellow, that probably means you’re not drinking enough water.
The more yellow the urine, the more likely you are dehydrated. Clear urine is usually an indication that you have drunk the right amount of water.
Jan 07
Every so often a truly groundbreaking idea comes along. This is one. Mindset explains:
Why brains and talent don’t bring success
How they can stand in the way of it
Why praising brains and talent doesn’t foster self-esteem and accomplishment, but jeopardizes them
How teaching a simple idea about the brain raises grades and productivity
What all great CEOs, parents, teachers, athletes know
Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference.
In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.
In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.
Jan 05
8 growth principles vital to charting your path to personal development
It’s amazing how seven words can so dramatically shape the course of your life: “What is your plan for personal growth?”
I can still hear my mentor Curt Kampmeier asking me that question, even though 40 years have passed. Answering it helped define me and chart the course of my career and my life.
On the day he asked, however, I had no answer. I scrambled and talked about how hard I was working and all the things I was trying to accomplish.
Curt just looked back at me with a knowing smile. He could see through all the bluster to the truth: I really had no plan.
If I were to ask you the same question, how would you answer?
Jan 05
Are you hard on yourself when you make a mistake? In this clip, author and speaker Andy Core explains how the “2 hour rule” can help you move on and refocus.
“I believe that people who really care about doing well at work are often times too hard on themselves,” Core says. “I believe that people who thrive in a high demanding job, high demanding life, they’re better and faster at forgiving themselves, which frees up their willpower to get moving forward again.”
So, if you mess up, how do you fix it? By forgiving yourself sooner. By forgiving yourself faster. And that’s how you go from frustration and procrastination, back to motivation.
Jan 04
Here are tips for getting your mind right before your next big meeting, event or even a holiday gathering—and for stopping your head from tripping you up:
1. Ask yourself how you can contribute.
You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room or the most experienced to contribute. What do you bring to the party?
2. Think about the problem to solve, not the people.
What problem is to be solved or opportunity to pursue? Keep your mind there. This keeps your energy on the results. I loved the recent advice I heard for new graduates: Rather than focusing on the job you want, focus on the problems you want to solve.
3. Stop seeking approval or validation.
Not everyone will agree with you or love your ideas or suggestions. Don’t expect appreciation for being a contributor—that is what you are supposed to do.
Jan 02
Are you non-active, reactive or proactive? Plus, we tell you how to take charge of inevitable change.
I can still remember sitting around the dinner table at 15, hearing my mother say, “What do you think about moving?” as she casually passed me the mashed potatoes.
What do I think? I think it’s a horrible, terrible, unbearable idea. I love this house, my friends, my school, and the thought of moving again just three years after the last time makes me want to burst into tears! “Because we’ve bought a new house and will be relocating in a couple of weeks!” she continued, dribbling gravy over her plate.
Even as adults, most of us don’t choose change. We get comfortable with our routines, our lives, our friends, our cocktail of choice, even our routes to work, and any detour can be a source of frustration, fear and stress—we prefer the security of what we know. But change is unavoidable, and how we react to it determines the outcome, good or bad.
Dec 31
If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent.
What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here’s how:
1. Learn to be strong but not impolite. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.
2. Learn to be kind but not weak.We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.
Dec 31
‘One person with a commitment is worth a hundred who only have an interest.’
When you plan and prepare carefully, you can legitimately expect to have success in your efforts. When you recognize and develop the winning qualities that you were born with, the winner you were born to be emerges. Although not all your expectations are going to come to pass, you give yourself an infinitely better chance of succeeding by taking the proper steps.
Regardless of your goal—losing weight, furthering your education, earning a promotion, saving money for a new home or an exotic vacation—you can expect to achieve your goal if you plan and prepare for it.
Start with these 10 steps:
