Being Optimistic When Things Suck

In the midst of financial turmoil and vocational insecurity, many people have hid under a bed of pessimism like a pet with no desire to go to the vet. The vet may be very helpful to the prolonging of the pet's life, but he is afraid. This is similar to most Americans I know who are so afraid of being optimistic that they resemble a trembling k-9. What they don't realize is that this lack of optimism is causing the bad things in their lives to grow. I discuss this phenomenon in my article, "Being Optimistic When Things Suck."

We like public opinion a whole lot. The media, the social networks, and our friends are all telling us to prepare for the worst right now. We are inclined to agree with them given our subconscious pack mentality. This would be the absolute worst thing to do with the world the way it is. You cannot afford to cause and spread negativity right now, for it will limit your ability to live and likewise your chance of getting money making opportunities.

Check out the article to get a better idea of how optimism can help you.

The Lessons of Steve Pavlina #2: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

Most people that I talk to in the world refer to their jobs as if they were prison sentences. Should it really be like that? Should we be spending most of our time (40-60 hours) doing something that we dislike? Steve Pavlina doesn't think so. I think it's very important to discuss the pros and cons of his article, The Lessons of Steve Pavlina #2: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

One of Steve Pavlina's most popular blog posts is about these 10 reasons to abandon those 40 to 60 hours of torture per week. In this article, I talk about the ways to bridge the gap between being employed and happily and healthily jobless. Setting up yourself for success is very important before you make the leap into passive (24/7) income. It is very possible that embarking on a life of that sort of income now, will allow you to make twice as much as you do now within a couple of years. Plus, you will be able to work on something that you like. Not a bad combination.

The Lessons of Stephen Covey #2: Leadership versus Management

When we get into a position of leadership for the first time in our lives, we often find that it can feel impossible to just get from one day to the next. The people who are underneath us are not doing nearly a good enough job to work the day to day operations of your business. There is a feeling that you need to do everything yourself to do it right. This is not true leadership which is discussed in the article "The Lessons of Stephen Covey #2: Leadership Versus Management."

Stephen Covey's 2nd and 3rd habit deal with leadership and management respectively. An effective leader looks at his business from up on high, ensuring that the business is going in the right direction. A manager makes sure that the things the business is doing are going well and efficiently. If a leader spends all his time managing, how can you ensure that the business is headed in the right direction?

The solution will come from fantastic delegation skills and the ability to let go the "productive in the immediate" tasks for the ones that will help more in the future.

The Lessons of Steve Pavlina #1: 30 Days of Success

My favorite personal development author is named Steve Pavlina. He is a blogger like myself and I just can't get enough of his great and modern tips for conscious living in the world. My introduction to him began with a solitary month of hard work, which I detail in "The Lessons of Steve Pavlina #1: 30 Days of Success ."

Pavlina details a method of changing your life as you would try out a new piece of software. A 30 day trial. If you make an alteration in your life that you don't like, you can give it up at the end of the free trial. If you do like it, you will already have it established as part of your life.

Why not give it a shot?

The Lessons of Stephen Covey #1: Quadrant II

What would happen if you just did the things you were supposed to do every day but never anything more? Would you grow? What if you only did the things that would help improve your skills, but you slacked off on the things that were urgent? I talk about these questions in the article "The Lessons of Stephen Covey #1: Quadrant II."

Dr. Stephen Covey, of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People fame, talks about the four quadrants of day-to-day tasks. Quadrant I tasks involve the urgent and important activities. Quadrant II is centered on the important but not urgent ones. It is this Quadrant II that Dr. Covey recommends to get ahead in life. You must focus on the things that are important for your future in order to improve your ability to create value in the world. This increase will allow you to make more money and to be more successful.

The Lessons of Earl Nightingale #1: Thinking

We are taught many subjects in school. We learn English, Math, Reading, Science, and hopefully Art and Music. Very few of these classes teach us how to think. This is a skill we need to learn on our own, as is stated in the article, "The Lessons of Earl Nightingale #1: Thinking."

Many scholars and creative geniuses have cited the power of adding a little bit of thinking to your day. The personal development speaker Earl Nightingale recommends that you set aside an hour a day for this task. You can use this time to brainstorm for your future, to make your current tasks more efficient, or just to figure out a problem that has been nagging you.

By adding this time to your day, you have a better chance of growing as a person and reaching your goals of success.

How to Be Successful

Most people have a definition of success that will never allow them to become successful. I detail this in the article "How to Be Successful."

Our society has a very broad interpretation of failure and a very narrow one of success. It makes A minuses seem like the worst thing that can happen to a student. It makes 2nd place a travesty. This should not be the case! It makes many people who are amazingly smart and talented people feel like the dregs of society.

If we are to change this way of being, we must first change our definition of success. And actual success will probably follow.

Give Yourself the Gift

Opening yourself up to really feel what you're writing is not easy. We as humans and United States residents often find ourselves being heavily suppressed during our childhoods. By the time we become adults, we tend to have closed ourselves off from our major emotional valves. That is where the article "Give Yourself the Gift" comes into play.

My favorite professor in the whole wide world, actor/director Joan Darling, taught me many things about life and creativity. One of the most important was the "Give Yourself The Gift" concept. There is an internal switch you must flip to truly get in touch with your emotions. By having it switched off, it keeps you from being real during a performance or while writing a book. You must flip that switch if you want to get to a new level of power in your creative work.

Faking it may work sometimes, but do you want a method that works occasionally or nine times out of ten? It's your decision.

Creative Writing Tips #1: Substitution

One of the great facets we can bring to the table as writers is our life experience. Whether or not they know it, some of the greatest writers we've known have been putting parts of their lives on the page. The best way to utilize this technique is to understand it, as is detailed in the article "Creative Writing Tips #1: Substitution."

Substitution does not mean simply writing creative non-fiction. It is a way of making your life into a metaphor. Inserting characters and ideas from your experience into the way a character or a plot line plays out. This can be invaluable during the tough times where our ideas seem to run dry and our motivation is wavering.

You are your best idea generator. Look toward your past to make your stories interesting and realistic.

Creative Writing Tips #2: 20 Distractions

Sometimes, I don't know how professional authors do it. At least a group of them are married with kids and mortgages and yet they find a way to churn out great reading material. Maybe it's my ADD generation, but I am so distracted all of the time by various things inside and out of my house. I have devised solutions to my twenty top problems in the article, "Creative Writing Tips #2: 20 Distractions."

One of the major things that gets in the way of writing is technology. Cell phones and instant messages can ring or ping you every few seconds unless you silence them. A disorganized workspace or a pet waiting to go out can literally grab you out of your creative zone and make you feel grounded for at least an hour or two. Read the article to find out more about how to deal with these problems.

You can be the master of your time with a little bit of hard work and discipline. Good luck.

Quitting Coffee

As a current and perhaps soon to be former employee of a coffee shop, I have seen both the positive and the negative effects of the drug known as caffeine. Some people seem more chipper and productive when they use it, but the drop off is too precipitous and they turn into depressed angry people only an hour or two later. Personally, I have determined that drinking that kind of stuff is counterproductive in the long run, as I've detailed in my article, "Quitting Coffee."

The first month that I gave up coffee for good was pretty rough. I definitely felt some symptoms of withdrawal even though I hadn't been having that much coffee previously. Each successive month has been like lifting another layer that was dimming my clarity. I have felt better and more "with it" ever since and I want to give other people the opportunity to experience this feeling as well.

Try it for 2 months. Write a journal about how you feel the first week and compare it with how you feel the last week. I promise you that there will be quite a difference.

Self-Sabotage

One of my biggest problems when I left college was that I seemed to be getting in my own way. Deep down, I knew that I was meant to do great creative things, but by the end of each day, I had convinced myself that it wasn't worth starting. After two years of nearly no productivity, I knew that I had to find a way to stop my Self Sabotage.

We have a tendency as humans to act on our fear. Back when we had to run away from predators during our development of a species, this was a great trait. Nowadays, when the dangers are much more internal and metaphysical, sometimes we run away from the things we should be running toward. The biggest and scariest challenges are actually worth attacking if you want to be a major success.

The main point here is that when something scares you, it is usually the right path to take. Genetics or no genetics :).