- Personal Effectiveness Tips
- For any big project or looming deadline, set your own deadline that corresponds to a week earlier than the actual deadline. This allows you both the time to fix problems should they arise last minute as well as the pride of knowing that you are ahead of schedule in the first place.
- Don't ever miss an opportunity to notice what's right in the world. Too often we fail to slow down for those beautiful moments, those blinks of time where everything is right. In doing this, you'll discover that there are so many moments from which to choose that you can't help but feel lucky to be here, right now.
- Anytime you hear or read a word you don't understand, write it down and look it up. Keep a running list of about ten words, and practice using these words in your everyday discussions. Once you can do so, start a new list. I've learned almost fifty new words in the last six months using this little tip.
- When working out, remember that the quality of the workout (which translates to how effectively you train/work your muscles and cardiovascular system) is most important. Too many people subscribe to arbitrary lengths of time ("I work out for two hours, every night") and don't put enough thought into their workouts. What results is burnout, and a general aversion to going to the gym. Focus instead on getting a workout in that will allow you maximum gains in the amount of time that works with your schedule. Then go home, and relax.
- Eliminate unnecessary stressors from your life at every chance. Do you really need to always have your cell phone on? Do you really need to check email fourteen times a day? Do you really need to be offended by the harsh words of someone whose opinion you really don't value anyway? Stop creating artificial stress in your life, and watch your stress levels (and blood pressure) drop precipitously.
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- Day in the Life: How Not to Win Friends and Influence People
I was in Chicago this past month, visiting a dear friend, and we were walking about, enjoying the humid Midwestern afternoon, when we decided to stop in for a bite to eat. During our meal, I decided to visit the restroom, and excused myself.
Blackberries are nice phones, but my particular phone did not come with a hip holster, and so I usually carry my phone in my pocket. One of the side effects of doing this is that I occasionally prank call whomever my phone decides to target at the moment. After doing this several times (which can be quite embarrassing, as I leave minute-long messages to clients without knowing it, leaving all sorts of topics and conversations open to public ears) I learned how to use the key lock feature of my phone, which prevents unintentional dialing. However, on this humid afternoon, I had a momentary lapse, and forgot to do so prior to leaving for the bathroom.
After washing my hands and using the hand drier, I exited the men's room and grabbed my phone out of my pocket in order to check the time. To my horror, I realized that I was still on a phone call that I had accidentally made to our family nanny back home in Columbus. Aghast, I quickly hung up on the call, which had lasted well over a minute. As I sat down at the table, I realized what had just happened. I had broadcast the entire visit to the men's room to her, live and unedited.
As I sat back down to eat, I laughed at the thought of how confused she must be at the moment. I never call her unless I have something important to relay, so I knew that she had answered the call. What had she heard? I never asked. But knowing that I tend to talk to myself, whistle, and sing while making pit stops in restrooms, I had a pretty good idea she thought I was crazy now.
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- Reality Check - Karma
The word karma, which is a derivation of the Sanskrit word, karman, meaning "action, effect, fate" is now commonly used in line with the Buddhist and Hindu interpretation, which centers around the cumulative sum of our actions while living. In everyday living, we tend to speak of karma as the spirit of getting back from the universe that which we put into it.
The more I ponder, the more I believe that, for everyday matters and most everything outside of the tragic or unexplainable, we are exactly where we are "supposed" to be in our lives. We are living the life that we have made for ourselves. There's just something accommodating about the universe, in that it expands or contracts accordingly when we ask it to do so. Now, I'm not writing a sequel here to the book, "The Secret" (which I found to be the most simplistic and boring self-help book I've ever read, but that's just me). I am, however, a believer that life is about making our own karma. When we work hard, live with integrity, treat people well, and believe in ourselves, good things eventually happen. They may not follow our own predetermined timeline, or our arbitrary vision of how things "should" occur, but life generally accommodates.
This is a good thing. It means that we can drop the excuses, and that we can have the faith of a child when we accompany that faith with the work ethic and intelligence of an adult. We can create better realities, day-by-day, and bit-by-bit. All we have to do is attack life with vigor, and do our part to "deserve" the success we so desire. If we can meet that requirement, we'll be in a position to enjoy some of the better things in life.
For all the intelligence we have as higher-order beings, the answers to most of life's questions can be found not in thinking but in doing and behaving. For as smart as we are, we tend to overthink and underdo. We make easy problems difficult, and we make life harder than it needs to be.
Work your butt off, live passionately, laugh often, and have faith that your efforts will be rewarded. They will. It's called karma.
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