How to Create a High Performance Business Mindset Through Ancient Stoic Philosophy

Let’s cut to the chase. How many more articles need to be written about having a bulletproof mindset, blind beliefs, core values, and positive thinking before we realize this information is completely useless…?

Now before the swarm of an uprising mutiny forms within the behavioral psychology and mindfulness groups, we must quickly clarify this message. This knowledge is completely useless… WITHOUT application. 

Very Little Has Changed Over a Thousand Years

As Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” The word “Arete” is Greek for excellence, and is used to describe the status and/or accomplishment of an individual or group of individuals who achieve a high standard of achievement.  At the end of the day when everything is said and done, are you able to consistently walk away from a day at work and say you truly achieved excellence? More importantly, what does excellence actually look like? 

It’s easy to say excellence is a relative word, as excellence could mean multiple things to many different people. For a parent, it could mean they were able to get their kids up for school, finish their homework, and get them to eat dinner together. For an artist, it could equate to getting into that flow state of mind to finish up a project and send it off for publishing. As a business executive, it could mean you were able to finally accomplish and finish the to-do list that has taken you months to get your team together to work on. The list could go on… 

So as a working business executive, what does excellence mean to you? In the end, it really doesn’t matter, because the moral of the story is excellence isn’t a destination, it’s a process and repeated set of habits that serve your bottom line over time. 

To truly excel at a task or role, one must create intentional daily habits and systems that take us closer to the end goal, whether it be a project deadline, writing copy for a marketing campaign, or having a difficult conversation with a coworker about a workplace problem. Our daily habits will always dictate our long term outcomes, which is why so many people struggle with changing bad habits to good habits, as our bad habits usually show their ugly head weeks and months down the road. If you aren’t intentionally taking steps to move your career forward, you may end up quite surprised to see where you find yourself in the end. 

To Understand Business, We Must Understand The Brain

With that being said, one of the biggest difficulties with changing someone’s habits comes down to how we are inherently wired as humans. When it comes down to it, our brain hasn’t changed much for thousands of years since we split away from our close primate cousins. In the end, we still possess a near 40,000-year-old brain that is trying to exist in the 21st-century business world full of distractions, stressors, and newly developed technology that has vastly outpaced the speed of our brain’s own evolution. 

Don’t get too concerned, because this isn’t inherently a bad thing, as it allows us a unique opportunity to go back to our roots to understand how we will behave when placed into new environments and situations. 

This information is vital because it supports our use of these timeless principles from the Greek and Roman Stoics and allows us to apply them to real-world situations we are currently challenged with today. 

Your Mental Mindset is Your Future Roadmap To Business Success 

Thus, we need to realize the importance of our mindset during these unprecedented times, because it’s safe to say this is not the first, nor the last time we as a society endure a pandemic, economic crash, or cultural shift as a result of some unforeseen circumstances on this amazing planet we call home. 

The only way to actually endure and own these uncertain situations is through owning your mindset, which the Stoics believed was the most important thing a man or woman could possess. Your mindset is the ONLY thing you can truly control, which is why it is so vital for us to own our mindset and use it to create intentional habits of success during this period of uncertainty… Because if we end up becoming a victim of our environment, we will always be controlled by our environment. 

Bruce Lee, an avid student of Stoicism, said “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. If words control you, that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” 

This is why you must always remember that your mindset is the ONE thing that you will always have control over, which is a lesson as old as time. In moments of history, we can find hope in our future and seek knowledge of the past to benefit our next challenge ahead.  

from
https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/how-to-create-a-high-performance-business-mindset-through-ancient-stoic-philosophy/

This is What Happens When You Live Life Looking Forward

If you’d like to learn how to let go of your past so you can look forward to a better future, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

What if you woke up one day and had nothing to look forward to? Wouldn’t life seem dull and meaningless? You would feel like all the excitement was sucked out of your life. Yet, what do we do in our daily life instead of looking forward to the future? We spend time lamenting over the past. When my first business failed, I had many sleepless nights. I was breaking my head trying to find:

• What did I do wrong?
• Why was luck not in my favor?
• How do things fall in place for others and not for me?

I had so many whys and hows looming in my head. I wasn’t asking myself constructive questions. I wasn’t finding areas to improve. I was only hunting for reasons to prove that I did my best, and the outcome wasn’t my fault.

But such a mindset only pushes you into a corner when you have your entire life ahead to chase success. If you continue lingering in the past, longer than necessary, you lose the opportunity to enjoy the present and relish the future. You must look back at failure only to identify your lessons.

Here are 5 reasons why you must live life looking forward:

1. You cannot change the past

No matter how hurtful the result or how stupid your mistake, it is now behind you. You can slap yourself, cry over it, or find reasons. But no matter what you do, you cannot change what has happened.

The more time you spend brooding over an adverse event in life, the more you grow anxious and stressed. You cannot forget the past in an instant and act as if nothing happened. But, how long you choose to dwell in the emotions of the past is a choice only you can make.

You can choose to linger on with negativity for months together or pick yourself up in a week and move on.

2. You enter into a victim mindset

Different people have different reactions to failure. When I failed, I was hell-bent on keeping my ego intact. No matter how poor my decisions and actions were, I tried finding reasons to justify them. I wanted to believe that I did my best, and the result was beyond my control. I was deep within the victim mindset.

Some people have an opposite tendency where they blame themselves for everything that happened. Though their actions had no direct effect on the outcome, they accuse themselves needlessly.

They aren’t looking to change themselves in the future. They simply want to inflict damage upon themselves to remain in the past.

When you find excuses to validate your actions, you boost your ego for no reason. When you blame yourself, you are shattering your self-esteem. No good comes of either of them.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” – Buddha

3. Looking forward leads to self-improvement

When you choose to look at the future, you are leaving yourself with only one choice – finding a solution and improving yourself. The option of crying over what happened and blaming yourself is out the window.

Keeping your eyes on what’s yet to come helps you find answers. You start identifying what you can do better to experience a better future. The only reason you must look at the past is to identify lessons to prevent a similar mistake in the future. Look back at the past, learn from the experience, and aim for a better tomorrow.

People who are addicted to success are similar to ants. Try placing an obstacle in front of a bunch of marching ants, and you’ll know what I am talking about.

The little creatures will try to find a different route to get to their destination. If they can’t find one, they will try to climb over the barrier, dig underneath or carve a hole to get through. Never will you find ants sitting next to the obstacle and cursing their luck.

4. Time is finite

If you lose all your money, you can make some again. If you lose power, you can bounce back. But if you lose time, you’re never getting it back. Time moves only in one direction – forward. You cannot stop or go back in time, but you can move forward with it.

You would have spent a few minutes reading this article. Those are the precious moments of your life you’re never getting back. Even if you hated this article, I cannot hand the time lost back to you.

Make every minute of your life count. If you choose to look back at your past failures and sulk in the corner, you’re losing time. Instead, you could use it to build a better future for yourself.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

5. Looking forward gives you something to chase

An essential part of happiness lies in having a goal to aim for. If you choose to linger in failure, not only are you failing to chase your dreams, but you are also depriving yourself of contentment.

When you pursue a target and make progress, your brain releases dopamine. This is a hormone that creates a sensation of pleasure when you check a task off your to-do list or reach a milestone on your project. If you do not have a goal to chase in the future, you lose the opportunity to get a shot of dopamine.

Every time you look forward to a better future, your enthusiasm shoots up, and you turn all geared up to strive for your dreams.

Conclusion

Time and again, We will face obstacles in our life. Every time things go wrong, you have two choices. First, you can lose hope and give up because you failed. Second, you can learn your lessons and move on to better things in life.

You might assume that the successful people had all the things work in their favor. In reality, their journey was no different than yours or mine. They overcame their challenges and found a way to crush their barriers.

What you choose to do when you face a hurdle next time determines how the future shapes up for you.

What are some of your techniques to ensure you have a better future than the present? Share your thoughts with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/this-is-what-happens-when-you-live-life-looking-forward/

3 Crucial Blogging Steps You Should Never Overlook

If you’d like to learn how to create a well-versed blog, so you can have a blog that’s seen by thousands of people, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

You know, when I first started my blog back in 2014 I had no clue what the heck I was doing. Just write, Iva, you’re a good writer. Write good things and people will flock to your website in droves. Traffic will be insane and you will be the star of the world wide web. So, needless to say, that didn’t happen. I was so naive. There was so much to learn and do.

What’s wrong with my blog?

This question went through my head all the time. Where’s the traffic and the cheers of all the raving fans? There was nothing right about my site. It was all wrong.

Apparently, starting a blog doesn’t mean you just make a pretty website, start writing and hope the internet will explode with your awesomeness. I kept plugging away for a few more years before I finally decided it was time to get serious and figure out how this blogging thing works!!

Cue the learning process

I’d rather stick needles in my eyes than read blogs on how to blog and drive traffic to your site. But it dawned on me that if I want to get this up and running the way it’s supposed to, then I need to learn stuff!

And minus the needles, I started reading and learning. I did whatever it took to figure out this blogging business. I’m gonna break it down for you simply here so you don’t have to go through the same anxiety and frustration that I went through. 

This is for any and all of you who are blogging or thinking about it and want to have a good foundation. 

“If you want to continually grow your blog, you need to learn to blog on a consistent basis.” – Neil Patel

The things I’m gonna cover here are:

• proper blog format
• SEO stuff 
• other social media stuff

Tip #1- The Blog Format

First and foremost, if your blog and site look like crap no one is going to want to share it. This was my first mistake. Oh, I knew how to write but you’d never know it by looking at my blog. 

• Aim for 1000–2000 words, depending on your topic. Make small paragraphs, 2–3 lines each. Keep in mind, many people are reading articles on their mobile devices now (think 5″ screen) and to read one big long paragraph is painful. Break it up.
• Insert images for reading pleasure. 2–3 should suffice. 
• Your title should be engaging as well as the main/featured image. We have short attention spans. If your picture and title don’t capture our attention in the first 5 seconds, we’re gone. 

Let me give you an example:

• Example 1: How to Make Your Blog Better.
• Example 2: 4 Insanely Easy Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog and Make More Moo-lah!

Which one would you click on first and want to read? 

• Add internal links to other posts you have that relate to your current post. I add 2–4 depending on the length. 
• Make sure to include an external link. An external link could be a reference to another site that has great information about your article. 

Give your readers valuable top-notch information. Don’t just write for the sake of writing like I used. Give them value, a reason to want to read more of your stuff AND a reason for them to want to share your stuff.

Tip #2- The SEO stuff

Learn it! For real! Right now! Do it! I had no clue what SEO was for the longest time. What the hell is SEO anyway? Search Engine Optimization. Search. Get it? People go on the web to “search” for things. They plug in words (or phrases) in the search bar and hit enter. I had no clue.

You don’t have to pay for a keyword tool. I have in the past but realized I do just fine finding things in the Google search bar and checking out my competition. 

Google search bar is the best. A great way to search for keywords is right on the Google search page. This is where people are going to search for things! Type in a few words and see what people are also typing. 

Let me show you…

See if you wanted to write about making peanut butter cookies (yum), it shows you all the other peanut butter cookie ideas people are searching for. Those are your keywords! Easy right? My advice on SEO would be to take a course, buy a book, watch tutorials, do something but learn it!

“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” – Wendy Piersall

Tip #3- Social Media Platforms

Do you already have social media accounts but your peeps aren’t engaging? You will have to test and find out where your audience is hanging out. It took me a while to realize my peeps aren’t on Twitter and though some of them are on Instagram, they’re not interested in anything other than inspirational quotes.

I tested and found my people were on Facebook and Pinterest. I joined Pinterest in January 2018 with 15 followers and no clue what I was doing. Today I have almost 140K followers with over 10 million monthly views (I’m not even kidding) It is my main driver of traffic to my website. Get on Pinterest (yes it’s for bloggers too) and work it. I bought a book on it and then wrote my own.

Engage engage engage. Need I say more? No one is going to find you if you don’t put yourself out there in the share world. You NEED groups. You need collaboration. You need to connect with other bloggers. You need to share your stuff out so people can read it and find you and love you.

No miracles here

This isn’t gonna happen overnight. I had to go through all my blogs and edit each and every one of them for SEO, change images, change titles, you name it, I did it. Yes, it’s a lot of work but, it’s so worth it. How bad do you want to grow your blog, drive traffic and make money? 

How to stand out in a sea full of bloggers

You need to go above and beyond. Remember this isn’t a sprint. It’s a long slow marathon and the only thing you need to do is show up and perform better than the guy ahead of you.  This is all really bare-bones stuff just to get you started. There is so much to learn, constantly. You can do this!

Happy Blogging!

Have you ever written for a blog or created your own blog? We want to hear your stories! Please share them below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/3-crucial-blogging-steps-you-should-never-overlook/

Tell a Story, Don’t List Benefits – How the Science of Storytelling Will Transform Your Business

If you’d like to learn how to tell amazing stories so you can influence people to act, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

In 2009, a man bought 200 objects on Ebay for $129 and sold them for $8000. How did he achieve an increase of 6202 percent? He did it by adding a story. He commissioned 200 writers to tell a story about each object. This experiment proved: the power of storytelling is real. 

How can anyone justify wearing a pair of sneakers that costs at least four times the manufacturing price? The purchase is not rationalized by some extra rubber or innovative material, nor by a special fit or an extraordinary energy boost. We all know the truth: a sneaker is a sneaker. But by wearing a 100 Dollar sneaker you become part of a story.

At an auction, someone bought a Nike sneaker for $475,500, and it was not because of some rational benefits. It was because the buyer became part of a mythical sneaker history, where the shoes were made by Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, who used his wife’s waffle iron to create a new kind of running shoe. It’s like owning the Mona Lisa. 

Why doesn’t GoPro advertise the cool technical features of its camera on the front page? They could have said, GoPro has an unshakable HyperSmooth 2.0 stabilization and built-in mounting. Instead, they say, GoPro helps people capture and share their lives’ most meaningful experiences with others—to celebrate them together. Of course, they list the benefits. But first, they tell a story. 

Many start-ups and entrepreneurs make a fatal mistake. They start with listing the benefits. The result? In a world where everybody is competing for attention—a limited resource to give—their business drowns in the noise. If you want people’s attention, you need to start with a story. Not just any story, but a compelling narrative with three ingredients.

The neurochemical “angel’s cocktail” you need for a good story

Paul Zak did an experiment where he showed people two types of short videos:

• a sad story about a father and son that had an intriguing start, a climax and a compelling ending
• a person walking about aimlessly during the video

The brains of the ones who watched the first video produced two neurochemicals: Cortisol and Oxytocin. Those people also took desired action—they made donations. The second video didn’t engage the audience’s brains in any way. 

In a related experiment, people infused with oxytocin turned out to be 80% more generous than others when splitting money. David JP Phillips adds another hormone and calls it the “angel’s cocktail”—the mixture of the three chemicals you need for a compelling story. 

“Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” – Joe Lazauskas & Shane Snow

Dopamine—the attention hormone 

“We discovered that, in order to motivate a desire to help others, a story must first sustain attention—a scarce resource in the brain—by developing tension during the narrative.” – Paul Zak 

The release of dopamine motivates us, helps us focus and sustains memory. If you want to stand out from the noise that has become abundant in this world—and will increase in the future—you need this hormone. 

In storytelling, dopamine is produced by creating tension and using a cliffhanger. Here’s an example: “You better not tell nobody but God” is the first sentence in Alice Walker’s masterpiece “The Color Purple”. It raises tension and questions you need answered. This way, it triggers the release of dopamine in the brain. We’re instantly paying attention. 

Oxytocin—the bonding hormone 

Empathy is the key to a story that inspires action. In a brand story, the hero is always the customer. Never make your brand or product the hero. This is a fatal mistake that has cost many businesses and products their existence. 

To make the customer the hero, you need to understand him. What is his or her desire? What keeps him awake at night? What are her greatest problems and fears? If you know the answers, you can create a story that evokes empathy—that shows that you understand the customer and releases Oxytocin to build trust and form a bond. 

 “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” – Jordan Peele

Endorphin—the happiness hormone 

There is one ingredient added to the angel’s cocktail. One that explains why we love the Late Night Show, sitcoms and plain entertainment. Research firm PwC anticipates revenue from media and entertainment will reach an estimated $2.2 trillion by 2021. 

Why do we spend so much money on being entertained and not informed? Because of endorphins that are released in our brain when humor comes into play. When your story makes the audience laugh, they feel more relaxed and creative. You need this desperately to combat the stress and anxiety of everyday life. 

Start with an image 

Stories are the pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering imagination. Start your story by creating a powerful image that both grabs the customer’s attention and will be remembered for a long time. 

Find an image that triggers the angel’s cocktail by adding tension, empathy and entertainment. Let’s go back to Nike’s campaign: Equality isn’t a game. But achieving it will be our greatest victory.

It raises tension by asking: How can we achieve equality? And will we? It triggers empathy by creating a common cause that matters to the customers: equality. And it provides entertainment by the comparison between sports (‘game’) and a political cause. 

Never underestimate the power of storytelling. A compelling story can increase the value of a product by over 6000 percent. If you want to stand out from the noise, use the science of storytelling. 

But remember, the story has to be authentic. Storytelling in marketing is not about manipulation because sooner or later, your audience will discover a fake, and it will ruin your company. The power of storytelling means using a privilege and telling a brand story that provides your customers with a value they wouldn’t have found without it. 

What do you think about storytelling? Is it something you’re good at & have seen the benefits? Share your stories with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/tell-a-story-dont-list-benefits-how-the-science-of-storytelling-will-transform-your-business/

How to Banish Procrastination With Scrum Methodology

If you’d like to learn how to stop procrastinating on your goals so you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

Everyone deals with procrastination. Scientists have conducted a lot of studies in order to understand the reasons why people procrastinate in the first place and help them overcome those reasons. The results of such studies could help us eliminate procrastination altogether. Some do help, undoubtedly, but we are still facing it. 

In the meantime, we are looking for the best ways to keep ourselves focused on our tasks. How? There are a lot of strategies and solutions that can help us manage workload effectively. One such solution that can banish procrastination for good is the Scrum methodology.

Scrum in a glance: What is it and how can it help?

Scrum methodology is a set of values, principles, and practices that can help you achieve more in a shorter amount of time. This is done by making sure that each and every task you have is small enough to be completed successfully. 

Then, these tasks are inspected and adapted to suit the needs of a project, minimizing the risks of not completing these tasks properly. This cycle repeats until everything is finished. Sounds great, right? 

1. What are the benefits of using Scrum?

There have been many reports (such as KPMG Global Agile Survey 2019) on how Scrum influences businesses that use it. Some of the benefits that are mentioned frequently include increased employee morale because employees have enough time to complete tasks every day and collaboration is highly encouraged. 

With over 68%, as shown in the research, organisations state faster product delivery as one of the key drivers for adopting Agile methodology, which means the teams are building better quality products. Since inspecting and adapting is used all the time, and project control is increased, as corrections can effectively be made whenever it is necessary, customer satisfaction is 42%. 

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

2. How can Scrum banish procrastination at work?

As mentioned, fear is one of the most common causes of procrastination. You may be afraid you don’t have enough skills or competence to complete a big task, which can lead to postponing working on it. 

There are many ways in which Scrum can help you stop procrastinating at work, from allowing you to build up your confidence to making you feel like you are part of the team. 

3. Scrum principles and methods encourage the benefits of short-term efforts 

The fact is that our brain finds it more difficult to process abstract things. Anything and everything that is yet to be shown or seen or has any inclination towards the future, creates a struggle. In a word, we find it difficult to commit to long-term efforts. Scientists call this present bias. 

Scrum methods allow us to rebalance the benefits by creating a set of smaller tasks that one can complete. By doing so, the action and the reward for doing a pestering task feels larger than the struggle of tackling it.

For example, you have a task to design an entire website (which has several dozens of different pages) – that would take you weeks! However, if you separate this task into smaller chunks, and you go on to design a Contact page one day, About us the other and so on – you will not only boost your productivity, but you will also feel much better about your skills.

4. Scrum helps you to organize activities and work on tasks that you don’t find interesting 

Let’s say you have to complete a task that is boring or repetitive. You avoid doing it and you keep postponing it until the very last minute. 

Since Scrum promotes collaboration and a sense of unity (because everyone is working towards the same goal), just by having this mindset of you being a partner with everyone else in the team can do wonders. 

You will change your perception towards these kinds of tasks and you may even start finding exciting ways to complete them, who knows.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln

5. Scrum helps you pre-commit and perform what you preach 

Scrum methods are created for the teams and teamwork. Together with a Scrum Master, the team determines the difficulty of the tasks and agrees on many action steps. This allows a person to add social benefits to certain actions and activities and follow through on a promise. 

Brain’s reward system is highly responsive to social life and it matters greatly what other people think, even strangers. Procrastination is a self-sabotaging behavior that can lead to wasted time, increased stress and poorer work performance. Telling another person you will do something can propel the action of doing it, and Scrum methodology empowers such social commitment. 

Ready, set, inspect and adapt

All the points listed above are crucial steps if you want to deal with the biggest obstacles that prevent you from achieving your full potential so you can boost your productivity and banish procrastination.

Do your research about Scrum and think about implementing it at work. Trust me, it will do wonders for your productivity.

Have you ever used scrum methodology? If so, let us know about your experiences below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/how-to-banish-procrastination-with-scrum-methodology/

6 Simple Steps to Getting Things Done in the Chaos of Working From Home

The alarm rings. You roll over, stare at your phone, debating whether to snooze it or get out of bed. This is your normal routine each morning but today is different. It is different because the only place you have to go is your living room. This is different because you have a choice. No one is expecting your arrival. No one will be waiting for a meeting or knocking on your office door to make sure you are on time. You are not alone. This is foreign territory for millions of people in the world today. 

The alarm rings. You now have a decision to make. Get going or hit snooze again. Many of us are entrepreneurs. We have been running to the rhythm of our own beat for years. It is in our DNA. But even more of us enjoy the routine and dependability of a normal, get up and go to work type of day. Many enjoy being given the routine schedule. We enjoy the meetings and projects that are scheduled for us.

Yet others, are the meeting planners. We thrive on creating our own day and business. These two approaches could not be further from each other, yet the situation we are facing currently has now thrown the idea of ‘entrepreneur’ into the laps of many who never sought to live this way.

So how do you function within this lifestyle? How do you juggle the convenience of home with the rigors of to do lists and project boards? How do you stay in contact with your co-workers and team? How do you ignore all of the household chores that now stare at you all day long?

Let’s explore your work from home survival kit by setting 6 essential rules for working from the place you’re really used to simply living in:

1. Get up and get that game time uniform on

This is the single most important detail of working from home you will experience. Every single work from home article you read will list this very rule at the top of their list, if not first. Why? Because getting up, getting dressed and preparing for your day like normal, shifts your mind into preparing for work.

The psyche of the mind is a very powerful thing. Do you change clothes when you workout? Yes. Partially for comfort and convenience but you also do this to reset your mind. Do you change clothes at the end of the workday? Sweats, a t-shirt, shorts, something comfortable to let you know ‘I am home.’

This very practice that you normally partake in applies to your mornings and workday regardless of where you are. Get up. Get dressed. Iron your clothes. Shower. Do your hair. Keep the very routine you would practice if you were heading to the office.

“Productivity is never an accident. It’s the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning & focused effort.” – Paul Meyer

2. Great planning means great vision

If someone were to follow you to your place of work and log your day for a week, one thing would become clear: you have a routine.

No matter what that routine is, keep it at home during your work day. Sure there may be some elements that vary. You may have children to tend to. You may have pets that need walked or taken out. You may have other family living at home. For the most part your routine can remain the same.

If you get a cup of coffee on your way to work or once you get to the office, do the same at home. If you check emails first thing, do the same at home. If you say hi to certain coworkers, give them a call from home. Do everything you can to keep your routine the same. It will help shift your mind into work mode and give you more focus for the day. 

3. If your phone rings, smash it

You don’t have to completely smash it. There are really good benefits to working from home but there are also major traps. The greatest trap is distraction. When you are at your normal place of work you have built in accountability that is impossible to replicate at home.

Your team is at your office. Your boss is at your office. They are not following you home during this season of work. It is up to you to hold yourself accountable. It is obvious that hours are wasted at work by surfing social media and chat among workers but this pails in comparison to the temptation you will have working from home.

Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, the list of distractions goes on and on so you must set technology boundaries. Set times throughout the day allowing yourself space to peruse the social media world, then get back to work. 15 minutes of allowable technology will do wonders in keeping you on task and accountable.

4. Space: the final frontier

Clear a desk, empty a room and get organized. You have entered a new season of life, if only temporary, that can become a season of great empowerment and a designated workspace will open the door for just that.

Once you decide where you are going to work within your home, decide how you are going to work within that space. Do the things you would do at the office. Arrange your new area to replicate and simulate the actions and behaviors you would take part in each day. 

An uncontrollable lifestyle has been thrust upon you and now you are taking charge and creating as much controllable space as possible. Designate your space. Clear away distractions. Follow your routine and watch those project lists melt away.

5. What you put in is what you get out

Nutrition may be the last thing on anyone’s mind when discussing essentials at home but people love snacks and it’s easy to snack when you are home all day. Do not fall into this trap.

Food is fuel you need in order to thrive during this season of life. Set food boundaries in your house, especially during your work day. Meal prep like you normally would and in that meal prep select the snacks you would normally allow yourself at work.

Set your snacks in your designated work area so you don’t find yourself grazing through those cookies or pouring that next bowl of cereal just because it is available. You want to get through this season with your health in tact. Set your nutrition boundaries like you normally would and do not stray from them. Besides, those cookies will be there when you finish your work day. 

“Productivity is less about what you do with your time. And more about how you run your mind.” – Robin Sharma

6. Grab your jump rope in 3..2..1! 

Moving your body is an essential tool you can begin while you are working from home, then take to your place of work when your schedule resumes as normal. Many companies provide opportunities for their people to partake in physical activity but many do not. 

If you are normally not one to take walk breaks then start now! Use your work sprint timer and schedule to empower 15-20 minute breaks throughout the day that allow you to go outside and move. The sun is great for your body and mind and taking a short walk will do wonders for your productivity.

Even if your day includes working out before or after work, still plan some breaks for physical activity throughout the day. This is a great time to implement this healthy habit. Once you return to your normal schedule you can practice this habit at your workplace as well!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/6-simple-steps-to-getting-things-done-in-the-chaos-of-working-from-home/

7 Books You Should Read That’ll Help You Master Working From Home

Working from home is fast becoming the norm for many people around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some people, working from home might be a dream come true – for others, it will sound like a nightmare! Working from home doesn’t come without its challenges. It can be hard to concentrate when you’re in your ‘relaxation’ space, or because you have children! You might feel like you spend all day in your pyjamas, have trouble focussing, and can’t get the simplest of tasks done without office equipment.

Fear not! These 7 books will help you with your new working-from-home life, from time management to the best work at home essentials:

1. The Home Office Handbook by Lorie Marrero

This is a great book because it helps you have a solid organisational system. The Home Office Handbook outlines how to maintain daily routines to keep your workspace clean and tidy, both physically and digitally. There are a number of different solutions outlined and you can choose whatever one works best for you! There are also tips on time management, handling emails, phone calls, and how to organise your home life around work.

2. Work from Home Superstar by Jack Wilson

This is a book all about the distractions and troubles that can arise from working at home. The book poses the problem that most people choose to work from home to have more freedom: they find it difficult to keep working to a routine once that freedom is found, instead preferring to slack off and watch TV! 

Obviously, if all you do when you’re meant to be working from home is watch TV, it’s a problem! This book outlines how to be productive and work better, faster, and easier than ever. Everyone’s schedule is different, so you should schedule your work around whatever timeframe works best for you.

You might like to work in the evenings and have the day free for your kids – or early morning might work best for you. The solution is to find a timeframe that works best for you. A short book jampacked with a lot of valuable information!

3. Secrets of the Remote Workforce by Teresa Douglas, Holly Gordon, Mike Webber

The world has become our office – now we can work from home, a coffee shop, or the gym! But it’s hard to stay on task and stay motivated without the office environment or our boss breathing down our neck. This book covers how to avoid loneliness, how to communicate with colleagues remotely, how to network and grow your career online, and more.

This book is written by employees, for employees – it’s not written for companies or managers in mind. Instead, it is specifically for remote workers to help them get in the right frame of mind to work remotely. A very useful book!

4. Balanced: Finding Centre as a Work-at-Home Mom by Tricia Goyer

Here’s one for all the stay at home moms out there! Working from home as a mother has a lot of obvious benefits: no need to pay for child miners or day-care, and unlimited time with your children. However, there are also difficulties: raising children whilst maintaining a working schedule! It’s not a simple task but it can be done.

In this book, Tricia Goyer shares her own personal experiences as a work from home mom who also chose to home school her children! She worked hard to find a balance between all these areas of her life.

5. How to Declutter Your Home or Work Office to Improve Productivity by Sarah Adams

Moving on to the nitty-gritty of working from home, this book explores how you can declutter your home office and keep it clean. The author Sarah Adams, makes the point that an office space needs to be tidy and clean so that you can focus and get work done.

6. There’s No Place Like Working from Home by Elaine Quinn

The author, Elaine Quinn, has over 10 years of experience mentoring self-employed business owners and remote workers. She knows better than most how to get the job done and stay on top of poor habits! Since you might not be able to have Elaine mentoring you personally, this book is the best you can do to learn how to keep on track.

7. The Art of Working Remotely by Scott Dawson

Scott Dawson has been a remote worker for 21 years. In this self-help book, filled with funny and true anecdotes, Dawson explores how remote workers can learn to thrive. People aren’t typically taught how to be remote workers, they have to learn it alone. Dawson explains the best ways to set up a quality workspace, from coworking spaces to coffee shops, and the behaviours and best practices that will make you a remote working success.

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/7-books-you-should-read-thatll-help-you-master-working-from-home/

Here’s Why Personal Development Should Be the Ultimate Inspiration in Your Life

If you’d like to learn more about personal development so you can have the confidence to achieve the goals you set for yourself, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

A lot of us live a major portion of our lives running the rat race, where all we’re doing is fiercely and blindly competing with our peers and associates. While having a sense of competition allows you to push your limits, having an understanding of what a healthy competition means is also important. Additionally, it’s also important to know who it is you really need to compete with.

Ernest Hemingway once said, “There’s nothing noble in competing with your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” This really puts things into perspective. Coming out of a debilitating life situation a couple of years back, I was left questioning my identity. With all those years that seemed wasted, stuck in a deadlock situation doing nothing seemingly productive, the feelings of being “left behind” and having lost control over my life started to take over. This is where I learned the power of self-improvement.

You see, self-improvement enables you to admit and embrace your shortcomings rather than being ignorant and sweeping them under the carpet. It also allows you to realize that you’re actually not made to compete with others but to compete with your own self – be a better version of yourself than who you were the day before. This is what inspires you to work on yourself – to face the demons that reside within you and fix them to change your tomorrow for the better. 

This article will help you internalize why personal development should be your priority and ultimate inspiration in life. 

1. You get to explore and figure out your life purpose

The truth is that when you’re living a directionless life, you’ll keep wavering from one direction to another and never be satisfied. As humans, we’re always looking for ideas and inspiration to improve our personal and professional lives. However, this can only happen if you know yourself first.

Being on a “journey” of self-development allows you to see what your beliefs and values are, what you’re passionate about, and what you want out of your life. I call personal development a journey because it takes years and years to discover your inner strengths and capabilities.

While being inspired by others is okay, it’s equally important for you to find your inspiration within yourself. This will enable you to navigate through your existential crisis effectively and bring true meaning to your life.

“Personal development is a major time-saver. The better you become, the less time it takes you to achieve your goals.” – Brian Tracy

2. You will have the motivation to take control of your life

Once you become more self-aware regarding your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll have more control over your life. The cliché that every individual is gifted with something unique is, in fact, true, if we make the effort to know what our special gift is. For me, knowing myself more gave me the motivation that I was trying to find in others.

When you know what you’re capable of doing that will change the world to be a better place, it will give you a sense of direction to achieve your goals. Many times, people want to do so much but don’t know where to start. 

Self-awareness will give you that starting point based on your passion. For example, if you’re an empathetic individual and are concerned about the mental and emotional well-being of others, perhaps studying therapy or counseling is your calling. 

3. You’ll find contentment 

It won’t be incorrect to say that we’re all looking for satisfaction in one way or the other. Know that when you understand yourself better and work on developing yourself, you’ll embrace your weaknesses with courage and own your strengths too. You won’t keep beating yourself up for your mistakes. Being on the journey of self-development and analyzing your progress will give you the happiness of being better than yesterday. 

Also, observing how far you’ve come and how you impacted the lives of those around you by improving yourself will give you contentment like nothing else. Whether the change you bring is big or small, witnessed by others or just by your own self, it will be something cherishable for you as it adds value in some way.

4. You’ll become more resilient

Experience shows that it’s not what happens to you that shows your true self, but how you respond to it. When you’re on the journey of self-improvement, your life will not automatically turn in your favor – the obstacles and unfavorable things will keep happening. However, being conscious of the fact that you’re trying to achieve a personal goal will make it easier for you to accept your circumstances and face them in a dignified way. It will build your resilience towards life’s curveballs – you’ll become a person who is emotionally more stable – and the resilience you build will be a key to a successful life.

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. Your relationships will thrive

Relationships are an important aspect of every person’s life. We cannot survive in this world without our sanity in place, and good relationships play a significant role in taking care of this. 

Personal development allows you to look inward and work on yourself first, instead of pointing fingers. If you have an anger problem and you’re also trying to fix it, you will become calmer, more patient, and forbearing with time. This change will show in your personality and will improve your day-to-day communications. As a result, your relationships will thrive.

6. You’ll have a positive self-image

Self-improvement will enable you to be more confident and build your self-esteem. Focusing on yourself takes you out of the vicious cycle of thinking less of yourself and despairing over what others have achieved. It allows you to feel good in a realistic way by improving your personality. It makes you love yourself for who you’ve become and pushes you to reach your highest potential.

Embark on the journey of personal development so you can live an enjoyable and purposeful life by continuously raising the bar for yourself. By doing this, you’ll live a worry-free, yet visionary life where you’ll be your own inspiration.  

How do you stay up with your own personal development? Share your thoughts with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/heres-why-personal-development-should-be-the-ultimate-inspiration-in-your-life/

4 Simple Habits to Improve Your Life Right Now

If you’d like to form positive habits so you can live your dream life, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

When we talk about the habits that can improve our lives, we usually talk about meditation, waking up early, eating healthy, working out and many more. Even though these habits are extremely powerful, in the beginning, they require a lot of motivation and energy. That’s why for a while let’s just keep them aside.

This article is all about the four minimal habits that you can follow anywhere. To follow these habits, you don’t have to buy anything and you don’t have to torture yourself. Almost all of these habits are so simple that you can do them while driving, while taking a shower or even when you go to sleep.

When you want to improve yourself, you have to choose the smallest action in the beginning because you have to match how motivated you are to how capable you are to actually do something fruitful.

1. Self Talk

The problem all of us have is that we are our last priority. Even when we go outside, we are constantly thinking about other people and asking ourselves “Is she looking at me?” “Why is he so arrogant?” “Will I look dumb if I do that?”

This kind of thinking creates a different world inside of you where everyone is winning and you are the only victim. When we were teenagers, we had our own identity that defined our actions and behavior such as playing football, being a smooth talker, great writer, or being a musician.

But when we got trapped in the cultured myth that our society runs on like girls shouldn’t do jobs or boys should get settled before turning 26, our real identity faded and we started thinking as black and white instead of a rainbow. Self-talk is an incredible tool to witness that rainbow again. This reminds me of my favorite quote, “Talking with yourself is like a conversation with the universe.”

Self-talk is how you open the door to the self-love. Just talk about how your day was, talk about certain actions or whatever comes to your mind. Self-talk gives you a path to look into yourself and assess your strengths and weaknesses. Every road begins from you and self-talk will not only help you to find that road but also keep you focused on that road. 

“The thoughts in your mind will always be more important than the things in your life. Choose happiness.” – John C. Maxwell

2. Visualization

When I first started learning neuroscience as my first step to self-improvement, I got to know that our minds can be rewired to do certain things that we don’t even like. It’s all about playing that mental movie inside of your mind where you are the lead character who is a better version of who you are right now. Don’t just imagine it, but take the time to feel it, feel the ambiance, feel the vibe, and make it come to life.

The best thing about visualization is that it will help you to face your fears in the easiest way possible. Our minds don’t know the difference between what is real and what is fake, that’s why sometimes we get scared in our dreams because our mind doesn’t know that it’s the fake thing.

You can explore this loophole and consistently convince your mind that you are built for greater things. You have to be self-aware to find the answers to your problems in avoiding social media, overcoming addiction, and more. Eventually, you’ll be able to find the passion in your life.

The answer to self-awareness leads back to only one thing and it’s actually only one letter, I. Self-awareness is nothing but what I am thinking, what I am feeling and what I am experiencing. When you add a why to such a question like why I am experiencing, why I am thinking and why I am feeling, you will open a door to your inner reality. It’s only then that you will realize how much mental waste you are carrying with yourself.

3. Writing

Writing teaches us how to think but it’s not our day-to-day thinking, it’s the critical thinking that I’m talking about. The kind of thinking you need when you want to make bold and uncomfortable decisions. I’m a big fan of reading but I really think that reading is more about what to think while writing is about how to think.

I totally understand that some of you might not even like writing or some of you might not even have time to write but you don’t have to write for the Internet. All I’m asking you is to just write five to ten minutes every week, that’s it.

Just write what you are feeling right now, express your emotions. You can write poems if you want, the important point is to communicate with yourself.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

4. Be Grateful

We constantly crave new things. We constantly want to add new things in our life to elevate our current experience but we truly know how long this experience lasts. The shoes that you bought yesterday are not going to provide you the same experience fifty days later. We all add new things in our lives to elevate our current experience but it’s all temporary and being grateful is how you can keep that experience alive.

Constantly acknowledging the fact that you have a better life than the people who have to live on the street or those who only get to eat once a day, will make you realize how rich you actually are. It’s all about the perspective. Poor people think you are rich and you think the top 1% are rich.

Being grateful breaks all of these gaps like good and bad along with rich and poor. Being grateful will help you to look at life with a completely new perspective. When you wake up, just look around you. You have a bed to sleep in, you have food to eat, you have a job to earn money and a college to learn skills.

Once you start valuing the things that you have, you will find peace with the fewer things in your life. Being grateful for what you have right now will help you to value your life more. 

What one habit has helped you change your life? Share your experiences and thoughts with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/4-simple-habits-to-improve-your-life-right-now/

4 Skills You May Already Have That Allow You to Start Your Online Business Today

If you’d like to learn how to develop an online business so you can become a digital nomad, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

Many wannabe entrepreneurs never get around to starting their own businesses because they mistakenly think it’s outside the realm of what they’re capable of. While starting a business is by no means easy, it’s likely not as hard as you may think.

If you’re someone who’s been contemplating whether or not you have what it takes to be your own boss, here are 4 skills you may have that will be enough to start your very own business:

1. Programming skills

If you’re skilled in programming languages such as Java, PHP, HTML, CSS,  and C++, the sky’s the limit for you as an online entrepreneur. I’m not exaggerating here either. Programming skills come in super handy for literally any online business you start. This is because programming allows you to do two crucial things: create and automate.

In fact, starting a business is all about creating something out of nothing. That’s what programming is all about too! By being able to program, you’re able to start all sorts of online businesses, whether they involve creating mobile apps, developing websites, or building any type of online software.

The second ability, the ability to automate processes, is equally important. Running a fast-growing and successful business demands that your processes be automated. It’s by automating what you do that you ultimately save time and money. Ultimately, it’s automation that allows you to outperform your business competitors who lack the programming skills to do so.

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill

2. Video production skills

Whether it’s video production, video editing, animation, or graphic design, having the ability to create videos is an invaluable skill to have as an entrepreneur. Why? Because every business needs to market its products and services, and video is one of the most effective ways of doing this.

A simple 30-second sales video can cost small businesses thousands of dollars to create, but if you’re able to create these videos yourself, then suddenly all that money can be spent in other ways to further your business. You’ll also be able to create far more marketing content than your competitors, who are still resorting to hiring third party sources to create their videos.

Creating marketing content isn’t the only way video production skills can come in handy for an entrepreneur. In fact, these skills can be used as the foundation for your entire online business. Starting up a popular YouTube channel like “How It Should Have Ended” or “CinemaSins” can be a super fun and profitable business venture to pursue.

Another route to take is to use your video production skills to produce training videos or instructional videos for other businesses. The possibilities here are endless. You just have to put some thought into pinpointing how you want to utilize your video production talents to make money.

3. Web design skills

They say all an online business needs is a website and a way of getting traffic to it. While this might be oversimplifying things, it’s not too far from the truth. If you’re going to start an online business, your website is obviously going to play a huge role in whether the business succeeds or fails. This is why having web design skills can give you such a head start on your entrepreneurial journey.

Most new business owners have to spend loads of time and effort figuring out how to use a web development platform like WordPress or Wix to create their website. Either that, or they spend thousands of dollars to hire someone like you to create the site for them. Even once they get all of that done, they’ll still need to educate themselves on how to optimize their site for SEO purposes and increase conversion rates.

However, if you’re a skilled web designer from the get-go, all this stuff is likely easy peasy for you, which means you’ll be able to get it done quickly and move on to other matters that can help accelerate your business.

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4. Creativity

Sure creativity is a “soft-skill” and not a quantifiable “hard-skill,” but the reality is – creativity is really the crux behind whether or not you’re able to come up with that awesome business idea you can build off of. In fact, some would argue that your ability to think outside the box is the one most important skill necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Creativity is needed right off the bat to come up with your all-important business idea, and it’s going to be what you use to separate yourself from the rest of the competition. So, if you’re someone who’s worrying to yourself thinking, “I just don’t have any real technical skills that can give me an edge over other entrepreneurs,” keep in mind that some level of creativity and willingness to really think outside the box is what is far more important.

Conclusion

The beauty of starting an online business is that it doesn’t require you to have a boatload of money or to be some genius with inborn talent. If you have any of the four skills I mentioned, starting an online business is definitely a very viable option for you, and perhaps even the perfect career choice to make.

Have you started an online business? What advice do you have for those who are hesitant to start one?

from
https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/4-skills-you-may-already-have-that-allow-you-to-start-your-online-business-today/

What A Pandemic Can Teach You About Your Business

If you’d like to learn how to develop structure in your life so you can hit all of your goals ahead of time, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

This pandemic will likely shake up the whole corporate world quite heavily. Big businesses are – as always – too big to fail, but some smaller businesses will definitely end up in the gutter. Globalization will clearly be reduced on a large scale. Countries will act differently with each other, as well as us humans.

But if you have a personal or online business, there is a lot to learn from this pandemic. A lot of people can’t go out and socialize and don’t have anything to do because their company does not have home office capabilities. I’ve been asked a lot how I keep my mental sanity throughout this pandemic, and I realized that these guidelines I have for myself are great guidelines for running a personal business along with your own life.

1. Have a routine

Just because you are locked at home doesn’t mean you can drop everything you did each and every day so far. Routine is what gives your day structure, and structure keeps your life from chaos. 

What your routine looks like is totally up to you and dependent on what you are doing, what business you’re in, and what you want to achieve. To give you an example of a routine, see mine below: 

• I get up at 5 am every day
• I have coffee and talk a bit with my wife
• I write down something I am grateful for, something I let go, and what I will achieve today
• I eat at the same times each day
• I go for a walk at noon
• I work out, even if it is just 15 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups
• I plan goals for the next day each evening
• No heavy boozing
• No hours of Netflix

What does it achieve? Firstly, I know what my day looks like. I don’t just wake up whenever and then ask myself what to do. I wake up and already know what’s going on today. That makes starting your day way easier.

“Look For Magic in Daily Routine.” – Lou Barlow

2. Handling the body-mind-symbiont

The body and the mind are heavily intertwined. A numb body makes for a numb mind. You don’t need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger levels of jacked, but you need to move each and every day of your life. Every time I go for a walk, or workout, I notice my mind wandering. I am thinking about stuff and reflecting. If your body gets moving, your blood flow increases and this automatically pumps up your brain as well.

Why is this important for your business? Simple. Most businesses, especially online, live and die off of your ideas and your ability to concentrate on your work. For this, it is detrimental for your mind to function properly. This can be achieved by moving your body

3. The importance of the morning

The morning routine is my most important task of the day. I have a journal where I write each day:

• The bad thing I want to let go of for today
• What I am grateful for
• What I will accomplish today

Only do one thing per question! Keep it simple and quick. You don’t want to overwhelm your mind with fifteen things to be grateful for. Just one a day because you probably don’t have it as bad as you think regardless of being in a pandemic. 

While other people have it way worse, you are likely at home, will survive, and have running water, food, and electricity. Your business isn’t dying, even if sales broke down a bit, you’re still making money. Maybe you now have time to improve your business because you can’t work on your 9-5. Whatever your situation is, there is, 100%, something you can be grateful for.

Don’t just focus on the negatives. See the positive as well, this will ease your mind, and you will be more willing to work on your projects. 

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” – Steve Jobs

4. Plan your day ahead

Yes, this is business 101, but still. I noticed this a lot while we’re in this COVID-19 pandemic. Planning your day the day before is absolutely necessary. Each evening, set one big goal, and a few smaller goals you want to achieve with your business and with your life. If you want to do something around your house, and you’ve been neglecting it for weeks, plan it for tomorrow, and do it. Plan a proper time frame for when you’ll do it. Don’t just say you’ll do it “tomorrow.”

Chaos is what drives us mad, because we don’t know what will be happening. The reason why we all work so well in a 9-5 job, is because the day is usually externally structured. You are told when to arrive and when to leave. If you work for yourself or currently work at home, you’re likely relying on yourself for structure. Just act like you are your own supervisor, and you’re setting up structures for a lazy employee. Be your own boss, plan this guys’ day, and make him work it!

Know how your days look. Give them structure, keep your body alive, and this pandemic, as well as the implications of running a business, will be no problem.

I hope I helped you with an example of my routine and how to set up yours. But please, after this pandemic is over, don’t drop it real quick and go back to old ways. Keep this routine up forever, and see your life thrive.

How do you create structure in your life? Share some examples & thoughts with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/what-a-pandemic-can-teach-you-about-your-business/

4 Ways You Can Solve The Most Intimidating Challenges

It begins with a feeling of inflamed enthusiasm as your grand idea plays in your mind. Maybe it’s starting a business, or taking it to the next level. The challenge sets your heart on fire with excitement, and plants a smile on your lips, but then something happens.

Anxiety and doubt creep in and drown out the passion. You don’t know if you have what it takes to bring the idea into fruition. Getting the courage to start seems like a far-fetched dream, and it’s frustrating.

The good news is, you don’t have to wait for all the stars to align to get started. In this post, we will cover some techniques you can use to help you start working on your idea. So, let’s get this show on the road.

1. Rub shoulders with the selected few

Taking an impossible challenge is scary, because it feels like you don’t have a blueprint for success. It’s a killer thought, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. Find someone who has achieved incredible success when the odds are stuck against them.

With a little bit of research, you can find such an individual. The fact that they overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles serves you well. You don’t have to do exactly what they did, but instead, you can adapt it to your situation.

“Well, what if I’m a pioneer like Elon Musk, whom do l look up to?”, you ask. The good news is, you can learn from successful pioneers in other fields who made it to the hall of fame. Learn the lessons, adapt it to your situation, and keep moving forward.

“Every great achiever is inspired by a great mentor.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

2. Be open to suggestions

You will work extremely hard, but then the unexpected will happen. You will follow your plan with surgical precision, and it won’t always turn out the way you expected it to. There will be numerous twists and turns along the way that seem to take us off course.

You see, we always have in mind how we want things to go, but that’s not always the case in reality. It’s easy to be disappointed because you have held too tightly to your expectations. What you should do instead,  is make peace with the fact that every pursuit will not be a linear path. There’s no simple straight forward path to your success.

Here’s the catch, it’s not a matter of whether detours will happen, it’s a matter of when it will happen. And when they do, always remind yourself that it’s perfectly normal.

3. Learn to unlearn

Let’s say you want to start a business. The first thing you need to understand is that the landscape will always be changing. Be it your market, competitors, industries, or even yourself. Something may work the first time, but it doesn’t mean that it will the second time. The next time may mean discarding it, and trying a new way.

You will need to adopt a beginner’s mindset, be curious, and be open to new ideas. At some point along the journey, you have to ask yourself what old lessons need to be thrown out, and what you need to learn afresh. You will need  to let go of what you thought was true, and that’s the hardest part.

So, the question is, do you know what you don’t know?

4. Chill out

Constant pressure will be the theme of your life. The long hours and the all-consuming focus in your pursuit for success. The catch is, if you’re not careful they will catch up with you, consume you, and thrust you into a downward spiral. There’s the danger in believing the myth that if you work inhumanely long hours, forego life’s pleasures such as sleep, then success will come knocking on your door.

Instead, you have to learn to recharge yourself, because your life or business depends on it. You have got to learn to put the lights out, so that you can keep them on. You see, it will be tempting to keep going even when you’re tired, but there’s a problem. Everyone pursuing an almost impossible challenge, believes that the law of diminishing returns applies to everyone but them. And it’s delusional.

What you don’t want is disaster in the form of a burn-out that gets you back on the drawing board. It’s a long stretch, so take a pause, chill, and replenish your energy reserves. You will be grateful you did.

“Taking time to rest, renew, and refresh yourself isn’t wasted time. Recharge. Choose what energizes you.” – Melody Beattie

Are you ready?

To sum up, solving that challenge may seem impossible because you are doubtful of your abilities. But you are not alone. Everyone who is wildly successful has felt it at some point along their journey. You can take away some of the pressure by making peace with your inner critic. That nagging little voice in your mind can be put to rest by applying the above mentioned techniques. So give it a go.

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/4-ways-you-can-solve-the-most-intimidating-challenges/

Top 10 Productivity Books You Must Read to Prepare Yourself for Success

If you’d like to learn how to be more productive so you can maximize your life, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown.

---

2020 took an unexpected turn. With much of the population stuck at home in quarantine, and life not expected to return to normal until potentially the end of the year, even the most productive people are being forced to scale back their operations and expectations.

Whether you’re stuck at home, you’ve lost your job, or you’re working minimum hours to keep your job or business ticking over, this turbulent time can still be utilized to your advantage. Quarantine gives you the time you need to take a step back, examine your life and your prospects, and take steps to re-enter the business world with gusto.

Today, let’s take a look at 10 must-read books. We’ll examine some classics as well as the latest releases, and see how you can turn the year around with positive thinking and effective planning.

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Let’s start with a classic. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was written by author, businessman, and inspirational speaker Stephen Covey in 1989. To date, it has sold more than 25 million copies all over the world and continues to sell today.

The book is based on some fundamental productivity principles that apply across all professions and don’t change with time. Covey argues that if you see something that needs to be done, you should simply go ahead and do it. Throughout the book, he outlines 7 habits of the most effective people in business and helps you identify which tasks to undertake first.

If you’ve never read it, this is a perfect place to start!

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Entrepreneur, podcaster, and author Tim Ferriss wrote “The 4-Hour Workweek” in 2007, but like Covey’s book, it is still relevant today. Some criticize the author for never having worked in an office, but the book gives you an incredible insight into life as your own boss.

If you’re not looking to improve your performance at work, but instead want to establish yourself as a business owner or a freelancer, this is the book for you. It examines how you can become financially independent and work less than one day a week. It won’t be easy to do, but learning the tricks Ferriss used to achieve success will help!

“To enjoy life, you don’t need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren’t as serious as you make them out to be.” – Tim Ferriss

3. Summary of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

James Clear is a photographer, entrepreneur, and the author of “Summary of Atomic Habits”. His massive social media following is testament to the effectiveness of his book, which became a New York Times bestseller. 

The book examines big business ideas and how readers can achieve their goals. It’s an easy-to-read book with lots of actionable steps people can take every day. If you’re looking for an easy introduction to productivity, and a step-by-step guide that you can follow at your own pace, this is the best book to help you prepare for the rest of 2020.

4. There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game: Be the Best in the World at What You Do

Bo Eason isn’t a conventional productivity expert. A former professional American football player, Eason later became an actor and playwright and published his productivity book in 2019. “There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game” is the perfect 2020 read, looking at a four-step process to improve your character and integrity, and to take on board all the attributes required to be successful.

This isn’t just about how to build a business but serves as a guide to improve your own mental wellbeing and focus. It prepares you for great things!

5. How to Stop Procrastination in 10 Days

For some people, becoming a productive person isn’t just learning the skills to get stuff done; it’s a battle to defeat procrastination and the inability to focus. If you’re struggling to focus, Robert Marrat’s 2019 book “How to Stop Procrastinating in 10 Days” is the perfect 2020 read.

Whether you sit and read the entire thing in a day, or read the book over a series of days (or chilled afternoons in your garden!), you’ll learn how to motivate yourself to get up and do more. The list of anti-procrastination methods are particularly helpful, giving you easy goals to achieve and build on over time. 

6. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Originally published in 2001, David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” is still an excellent option for people looking to become more productive this year. As well as his series of online lectures, this book provides essential guidance on how to organize your tasks in a way that makes them easier to achieve.

Follow Allen’s guidance and you’ll learn key organization skills and discover how to create actionable work items out of all your current and planned projects. 

7. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Laura Vanderkam is a successful podcaster and author, and her 2010 book “168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think” is a great way to learn time management. Vanderkam explains how, even between having a family and work, you can always find time to achieve your goals and work harder. 

Take her Time Tracking Challenge and follow the tips in the book, and you may even discover that you spend too much time on tasks that don’t require it! Oh, and by the way, Vanderkam endorsed the first book on this list by Stephen Covey!

8. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Charles Duhigg, gives you a unique take on learning productivity skills by sharing with you some of his most interesting stories and the lessons that came with them. Through his life in journalism, Duhigg discovered how to make the most out of his days and prepare for the future.

In the Power of Habit, Duhigg argues that the key to success is learning good habits. As he says, the golden rule of changing your habits is not extinguishing bad habits, but changing them. 

“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.” – Charles Duhigg

9. The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning Elevate Your Life

Whether you’re a morning person or you want to become a morning person, this is the perfect read. Leadership expert Robin Sharma, introduced the 5AM Club concept two decades ago, but only published the self-help book in 2018 – and to much acclaim!

The book argues that heroes are made in the first few hours of the day, and encourages people to wake up early and get a head start on the day. Reading the book, you’ll learn how the mind is better prepared to get things done earlier on in the day, and you’ll even learn how to introduce a healthy sleeping schedule into your life. It’s a win-win!

10. Hyperfocus: How to Work Less and Achieve More

Finally, 2018’s “Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More” is another fine choice. Written by Canadian productivity consultant Chris Bailey, who also has a series of great lectures published online, this book argues that in the digital age we are more overwhelmed while achieving less than ever. 

Read this book and you’ll learn how to disengage from the things that don’t matter and focus your energy in the most productive way. The book has received great reviews so far, and it’s perfect for people who are looking to change habits on a long-term basis. 

So, there we are! 10 fantastic books for you to read! These books will help improve your knowledge, your skills, and help you find new ways to run your business. 

Which book on this list is your favorite and why? Share your thoughts below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/top-10-productivity-books-you-must-read-to-prepare-yourself-for-success/