Stephen Guise's Blog, page 29

Direction Is Everything

Small steps create exceptional results despite seemingmeaningless. Do you know their secret of success?

They enable you to effortlessly change your direction.

People most often look at the size of their actions (or intended actions), but the direction you’re currently headed in is far more important than that—so much so that if you only thought about your direction and pivoted when necessary, you’d do very well in life.

When you’re on the couch watching TV, you’re pointed towards more mindless r...

Choose “Active Relaxation” Over Stressful Working

Relaxation generatesproductivity, and don’t justmean that in a “we need to take breaks to be productive” way. A calm, relaxed mind enhances performance while working.I call this productive form of it “active relaxation.”

Relaxation and stress are counter-forces; opposites on the same spectrum. So one way to see how relaxation affects productivity is to see how stress affects it, and that’s something we already know…

The more stressedyou are, the worse you will perform. Increasedstress on your...

Tomorrow Is Not Your Friend

This is today, and it’s beautiful. Tomorrow is gross. (photoby szeke)

I used to see tomorrow as my friend.

If I had a bad day, there was always tomorrow’s fresh start to save me. If I wasn’t productive today, I could just get a little bit more done tomorrow. Whenever today wasn’t perfect, tomorrow still had the possibility. Anything could happen tomorrow!

But as time went on, I saw the red flags. I realized thattomorrow is like a friend who always stabs you in the back, but you don’t notice beca...

Do You Depend Too Much On Permission?

When’s the last time you jumped into new waters without support? (photoby Hiddenpower)

Nobody will give you permission.

You know why?

It’s not theirs to give!

Many of us, myself included, let fear control our behavior more than it should. This is not news to any of you, but have you thought much about the roleof permission in that? How often and to what extent doyou seek permission to do things? How fearful are you of stepping out and doing something without a hint of validation?

When Is It OK For...

Why Anyone Can Be Confident

Studies show that people who are moderately overconfident benefit from it. The reason? They act according to their overconfidence, which brings them more opportunities to meet that standard. Others may have a more realistic point of view, which acts as their ceiling.

Thinking realistically isn’t even logical anymore. A guy tightroped across Niagara Falls. A blind man scaled Mt. Everest. People have been doing unrealistic things forever. So maybe realistic doesn’t actually mean realistic. Maybe...

The Benefits of Doing Nothing for Five Minutes A Day

This guest post is by Daniel Zandt. Daniel covers the scientific benefits of meditation and gives a great guide for different ways to do it. I hope you enjoy thisas much as I did!

Have you ever heard the old adage, “The power is within you”?

It’s one of those sayings that we tend to skim over. “Great!” the response will usually be, “But the sentiment doesn’t sit with the lived experience of my day-to-day life.” And it’s true. In the pursuit of our goals we have an array of “outside” needs: for...

Use An Idea Pad To Absorb Online Distractions

Simple solutions are the best ones. (photobyRick Payette)

Have you noticed that when you focus on your work, it generates new ideas?

New ideas are great, butI’ve noticed that theyare often strong enough to pull me away from my current task. That’s a problem, because effectiveness comes from focusing on a specific piece of work and executing, not following every glowing trail you see. Those who follow the glowing trails often get lost doing so. Also, why are the trails glowing?

The Idea Pad

While...

Why You Should Stop Caring About Results

Plot twist: there’s an ant hill underneath her. Run! Photobya n i. Y.

In school, I didn’t care about my grades.

It was only in my later high school years that I didmy homework regularly (whoever invented homework is the worst).

But the reason I still had decent grades (my college GPA was 3.43) is because I was a master test taker. Andmy secret of successwas… apathy. I did preferto do well on tests as opposed to poorly, but I felt no pressure while taking thembecause the outcome didn’t matter ver...

5 Reasons People Fail With Mini Habits

photobyjayRaz

My book, Mini Habits,has been a bestseller for more than seven months straight, selling over 16,000 copies in that time. It’s also the highest-rated habit book on the market because of the success people are having with it. It is in the process of being translated for publication in other countries. It easily outsells traditionally-published books in the same niche.

In short, the mini habits strategyis very effective and ithas made a big impact so far.

But no solution is perfect, r...

The Shocking Truth About Failure

If you try to roll a seven and instead roll an eight, did you fail? Or was it never up to you in the first place? (Photobytopher76)

The shocking truth aboutfailure: we tell ourselves we’ve failed when we haven’t.

Let’s get right to the point.

Chance outcomes can NOTbe considered failures.

Sure, you might call a chanceresult “failure” in the technical sense of the word (i.e. not a successful result). Most of us, however,think of failureas aperformance-based mistake or shortcoming of our own doing....