Why Getting Things Done Is Not The Answer
Awhile back, during one of the sessions in my Productivity Mindset course, one of the participants asked, “What’s the best way to use 10 or 15 minutes where you don’t have anything planned?” You should have heard the shocked silence when I said, “Well, you could just do nothing, you know.” Do nothing!? Like, stand in line without checking your phone? Like, sit in a chair and stare out the window? What a concept. Most of us feel like we should always ...
Five Things That Are Rocking My Summer
Summertime is here and along with the rising temps, I feel like my world is expanding by leaps and bounds. Blockbuster movies aren’t my thing (though it was kind of fun to wear 3D glasses to watch The Amazing Spiderman) but here are a few of the books, projects and ideas that have me buzzing with excitement. 1. The power of vewy quiet. When I was growing up in Iowa, a trip to the library with my mom and sisters ...
How Jeremy Lin Deals with the Pressure of Expectation And You Can Too
Seven weeks. That’s how long it’s been since New York Knicks Jeremy Lin burst onto the NBA scene — and already there’s speculation whether he can take his game to the next level as other teams gear up for him, or is he just a “one-year wonder?” In a matter of weeks, Lin went from sleeping on his brother’s couch to being in the glare of the global spotlight. On top of it all, he’s carrying the hopes and dreams ...
Iced Tea Vendor In The Flow
One of the surefire ways to get into a flow state is to make sure there’s an ideal balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and our own perceived skills — if we perceive the challenge to be greater than our ability, we get anxious; if the challenge seems too easy, we get bored. The key lies in proactively and imaginatively figuring out how to do that. Check out how this ice tea vendor in Bangkok* does it and, in the process, makes ...
How To Enjoy The Job You Have Until You Have The Job You Want (Part II)
A few years back, I wrote a post about how to enjoy the job you have until you have the job you want. Here’s another suggestion Over at The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle wrote a post about how a disproportionate number of CEOs began their careers in the mailroom and worked their way up. (This was also the plot line for an 80′s movie, The Secret of My Success, starring Michael J. Fox.) Despite their lowly position on the corporate ladder, these underdogs ...
Three Ways To Killer Focus (No Mafia Required)
Have you seen the movie Limitless? Bradley Cooper plays struggling author Eddie Morra, who is suffering from serious writer’s block. His life dramatically changes when he runs into his former brother-in-law, who introduces him to NZT, a revolutionary new drug that allows him to instantly focus and tap into his full potential. Voila! He cleans up years of clutter in his apartment, starts working out, finishes his book in four days, learns to speak Italian and Chinese, outsmarts the stock ...
In Praise of Uncertainty (And A Cheat Sheet For Enjoying It More)
Over the weekend, I saw Point Blank, a French action thriller about a nurse at a Parisian hospital whose very pregnant wife has been kidnapped and will be killed unless he delivers to the kidnappers a thief who’s a patient in the hospital. It was sooo good. Even as my heart was pounding, I savored the twists and turns in the plot and didn’t want it to end. What’s Wrong With Not Knowing? Why do we like uncertainty in our ...
[INTERVIEW] Michael Bigger On How Traders Achieve Creative Flow
Information is abundant and technology is cheap. At the same time, the good ‘ol financial models are changing. Linear, analytical thinking is not enough, and traders who don’t figure out how to access their creativity will fall behind. Listen in on the recording of my teleseminar interview with veteran trader and author Michael Bigger about his latest book, How Traders Achieve Creative Flow. Here are a few of the topics we covered in this truly content-rich call: Why creativity is ...
[Flow Tip #13] Transport Yourself
In my ebook, Focused and In the Flow, I came up with 21 tips for getting into the flow. Here’s tip #13 and a Nike ad that shows you how it works: Not inspired or excited by your immediate environment? Why not imagine a different one. Children do it all the time, transforming the living room into a haunted castle, one minute, or a jungle filled with spies, in the next. Why tether yourself, in spirit, to the same old ...
What Is Flow Anyway?
You know that feeling when you’re so fully immersed in an activity — an engrossing conversation, say, or a riveting mystery novel, a challenging game of tennis — that you lose track of time, your self-consciousness falls away and life seems effortless? That’s being in the flow. It’s a phenomenon that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor and former chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Psychology, has spent over 20 years researching and views as the key to enhancing the ...
