Why We Feel Lonely and What to Do About It

According to Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, man is, by nature, a social animal. The loneliest people are antisocial individuals in any society. Human brains are wired to depend on social connections to thrive. Whenever you are cut out from these connections, your brain will tend to trigger the feelings of pain and sadness. Loneliness is a feeling that causes people to feel alone, unwanted, and empty. It is therefore politically correct to say as a human being, you cannot live alone. You need social interactions to define who you are.

Loneliness can take a toll on your health. It can affect your mental and physical health. When it affects you psychologically, you develop conditions such as insomnia in that you are completely unable to sleep. Research has shown that loneliness can also elevate your chances of developing dementia when you’re older. In very severe instances, loneliness has been known to trigger suicidal thoughts and can drive you to take your life. 

Apart from impacting your mental health, this condition can also influence your physical health. Studies have reported that people who experience chronic loneliness eat unhealthy foods that lower their immune system. They are also at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Apart from your health, loneliness can also influence your behavior. Most lonely people tend to turn to substance abuse in certain instances.

So, in a world filled with interesting people and a lot of fun things to do, why do people feel lonely? Here are three reasons detailing why:

1. Loneliness can be hereditary

You could have inherited loneliness from your parents. Research shows that there are about 15 genetic variations that can make you susceptible to loneliness. It is such traits that make you want to distance yourself from people. 

A good example of people with hereditary loneliness is an introvert. These are people who prefer to live in isolation. They possess a reserved and quiet demeanor and are overwhelmed by social engagements involving many people. Some people are born introverts, while others pick up this trait as a result of how they were raised. 

2. Inflated expectations toward friends

Have you ever felt lonely while hanging out with a group of friends? Well, it is possible to feel that way. Having a lot of friends is not a guarantee that you will not get lonely. Friendships are built on relationships and often have feelings attached to them. If you do not feel connected to your numerous companions, you will tend to get lonely. People with lonely tendencies assume that having friends will help them solve their problems. Unfortunately, not everyone in your social circle will come to your aid when you are in trouble. Very few will provide support, so you should strive to have quality and not quantity with regards to friends.

“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.” – Zig Ziglar

3. You’re too uptight

Some people constantly maintain their “guard up” which makes it difficult for them to bond and connect with other people. If you are the kind of person who sits in a social gathering and stays quiet the entire time when other people are having a conversation, then you’re contributing to your loneliness. Such behavior will make it difficult for other people to reach out to you and want to bond with you.

4. The fallacy of social media

Ideally, social media is supposed to bring people together but the irony is that it causes people to feel lonely. How does this happen? People tend to post their best selves on social media platforms even when it is not true. When you are busy checking your friends or colleague’s images of their supposedly “perfect lives”, it is likely that you will feel left out. 

A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found an association between social media and loneliness. 

Having known why people tend to get lonely, what do you do about it then? Here are tips on how to avert loneliness:

1. Engage in sporting activities

You know you are lonely when you feel unhappy and sad because you are isolated. The journey to averting loneliness begins with you. There are numerous activities you can engage in to feel connected to people. For example, you could take part in sporting activities such as marathons or cycling races near you. In such sporting activities, you have a chance to meet numerous people and it is unlikely that you will feel alone. 

2. Volunteer in community work

Volunteering gives you a chance to focus on the needs of other people. It is difficult to feel lonely when you are caring for the elderly in a home or catering to the homeless. Lending a hand will leave you feeling fulfilled and it will also help you keep your mind off sad thoughts that are associated with loneliness.

“A season of loneliness and isolation is when the caterpillar gets its wings. Remember that next time you feel alone.” – Mandy Hale

3. Attend therapy

When you experience chronic loneliness, you should seek help. You could source the services of a therapist who will help you understand the underlying issues that are making you dissociate from other people. Therapy will give you fresh perspectives on your problems and help you understand your emotions better.

4. Detach from social platforms

As indicated above, social media is one of the factors that contribute to loneliness. In case you spend a lot of time on these social media platforms, you need to stop it and reexamine your life. When you do so, you will realize there is a lot you could with your life away from these platforms. However, you can decide to scroll through these platforms once in a while based on how well you are doing with the management of your loneliness. 

Conclusion

Loneliness is a complex emotion that can affect anyone. Of importance is how you handle yourself when this feeling overwhelms you. If you want to be happier and live a full life, you need to tackle the problems in your life that are making you sad and unhappy. 

The process of overcoming loneliness begins when you focus your attention on the things that matter the most in life like social interactions. Often, it is difficult for people to notice that you are sad and lonely, therefore, you should endeavor to look after yourself. 

How do you keep your mental health in check especially when you’re feeling lonely? Please share your advice for everyone to read below!

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https://addicted2success.com/life/why-we-feel-lonely-and-what-to-do-about-it/

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others and Live Life to the Fullest

It’s not a secret that social media is a major cause of depression nowadays. According to “Journal of Depression and Anxiety,” people using social media are almost three times more likely to develop depression than people who use it less often. While comparing ourselves to others is in our nature, it’s important to know how to stop comparing ourselves to others in a negative way.

1. Understand that you are shown the result, not the journey

The truth is that most people show only the highlights of their lives on social media. Usually you don’t get to see their everyday work, and everything they have to do to maintain that quality of life. Also, you never know what they had to sacrifice for that success. Maybe for them it doesn’t seem to be a sacrifice, but for you, it would be one. 

For example, you love spending time with your kids, and spending less time with them would be a sacrifice; while someone doesn’t want to have kids at all, so they have a lot of time to pursue their goals and achieve success. Would it work for you? Probably not. So, always keep in mind that you see only the result, not the journey.

2. Become fulfilled

The best way to stop comparing yourself to others is to become fulfilled yourself. Become a person who doesn’t need to compare themselves to others. However, this is neither a short nor an easy journey. You should have enough passion and what’s more important, dedication and persistence.

3. Set goals, make an action plan

In case you haven’t started your journey to success yet: set goals first. Be focused, don’t set too many goals. Prioritize your goals and put all of your energy into pursuing one goal at a time. 

After setting a goal, make an action plan. Keep in mind that both the plan and you should be flexible. If something doesn’t go as planned, review all options you have at hand and choose the best one possible. Sometimes the Universe shows you ways you could have never imagined or thought of before. Sometimes the worst situation ever turns out to be a turning point leading you to success much faster. 

Don’t overestimate your power. As a human being, you have little control over other people and situations. Just make sure you choose the best possible option thrown at you.

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” – Steve Garvey

4. Put your business first & social media aside

If you’re only beginning your journey to success, comparing yourself to people who are in the middle of the journey or have already achieved great success is just wrong. You will never get to your destination if someone else’s success distracts you from doing your job and discourages you. Spend as little time as possible on social media platforms and take care of your own business. Put your business first, always keeping in mind your end goal to motivate you.

5. You’re going through life at your own pace

Everyone has their own path and pace. If you have already started moving towards your goal, and you know that you won’t give up no matter what, sooner or later you will achieve it anyway. The only difference between you and the people who already have what you desire is the amount of time spent working on a particular goal. Keep growing, keep improving yourself, and you will finally succeed. 

Don’t give up on a goal even if it takes you longer than you expected, because you can always alter your plan. Stay flexible, and greet whatever the Universe gives you with gratitude. 

Even if an obstacle comes into your path, make sure you consider it a blessing in disguise. Obstacles are opportunities to look at something from a different angle and learn something new. After all, there is no certain way to achieve success, so stay flexible, adjust, and you’ll get there anyway.

6. Get rid of limiting beliefs

Get rid of your limiting beliefs ASAP. Don’t get discouraged by your limiting beliefs that tell you “you are not worth it” or “it’s impossible.” Whenever you hear something like that from your relatives, friends, or your own mind, question those beliefs. Are they true or are they deceiving you? Your mind may be deceiving you because it is against doing something extra and leaving its comfort zone. Fight your limiting beliefs! 

7. Stop caring about other people’s opinions

Stop caring about what people may think about you. Do your thing, be persistent, and stay focused. People don’t think about you often anyway. It’s better to try and fail than to regret that you’ve never even tried.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

8. Treat yourself well

Be your own best friend and don’t be too strict with yourself. Give yourself enough time to relax. Practice digital detoxing often or delete your social media accounts. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone or to impress other people. You also don’t have to show them your progress. You don’t have to tell them what’s been happening in your life.

Focus on your own life and your happiness. Praise yourself and thank yourself for the work you’ve done. Be grateful for what you have achieved, and be proud of yourself. Don’t give up even if you fail. 

How do you focus on yourself and create your own best life? Do you have any tips or advice for our readers? If so, comment below! 

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https://addicted2success.com/life/how-to-stop-comparing-yourself-to-others-and-live-life-to-the-fullest/

How to Make Mindfulness a Practical Skill

My journey from glossing-over life to immersing myself in life has been far from glamorous but one dripping with satisfaction that comes from self-growth. From only being able to academically spell m*i*n*d*f*u*l*n*e*s*s to making it a practical way of life is now my personal mission.

I have approached mindfulness like a curious child to understand how I can make it work for me. Some of the questions I asked were, what will it do for me? The answer to that was – there is only one way to find out, and that is by immersing myself.

I am sharing 5 nuances of Mindfulness that are now entwined in my life. It took many years of understanding and then implementing before I could find the right language to express them and make them into bite-sized workable thoughts.

Here are 5 ways to make mindfulness practical:

1. Being mindful

Being mindful is being attentive, alert, and present to a situation. Come to think of it, mindfulness has been an expectation from us throughout our lives.

Long before mindfulness became popular in the spiritual sense, the corporate world used the term extensively. ‘Be mindful that whilst you make this change, it will impact the bottom-line,’ or the board rooms usually echoed with ‘bear in mind that we don’t have a big budget.’ Mostly it was someone a level higher with broader responsibilities reminding us that there were more factors to consider when making a decision, ‘so, don’t overlook them.’

This is quite aligned to life. Mindfulness means we are alert and present and consider all possibilities. ‘Being present’ is also no different from how our schools made us respond to the daily attendance roll call.

So, check-in with yourself as often as you can – am I present when drinking this coffee or when talking on the phone? The more frequently I asked myself this question, the more alert I became to the situation at hand and that was the first step towards mindfulness. It expands your range of thinking like nothing else can do. And that opens doors of possibility.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”- Buddha

2. Work hard, party hard and in between the two, sleep enough

Working on a few hours of sleep was a badge of pride I wore just like a lot of my colleagues during my prolific corporate career. The coffee machine was the holy ground for discussing the hours of sleep we all had the previous night. The more senior the person and the fewer his hours they slept made them a bigger hero in everyone’ eyes. We thought that’s what we all needed to do to grow. So, we continued to campaign – work hard, karaoke hard, and party hard.

It took me many years to realize how lack of sleep was hollowing out my productivity, my alertness, and my mood. Very casually, I started listening to the timeless rules of sleeping for a productive day. I cannot even begin to tell how it has transformed my life. 

You will usually find me in an upbeat mood and generally energized and enthused in life. I hear myself even laughing a lot more. Why had I not done it all these years? Oh well, there is never a good answer to that. But we can start now. Sleep is a gift we can give ourselves every single day. So, let’s do it.

3. Self-Love

Over the years, I have been working on making self-love practical. It is a big subset of mindfulness because it means we listen more to ourselves. So, here’s one thing I do: At the cashier at Zara or any similar store, when they ask me if it is a present, I smile and say ‘Yes, it’s a present for me.’ This has almost always made the cashier smile too. But sometimes I do let them wrap it up especially if it was underwear or bath oils.

What does it do for me? I build a special connection with myself. Every time I open those ‘presents for self,’ it’s self-love in action and reminds me it was worth waiting at the counter to let them pack it. That’s a micro-anchoring of mindfulness as you don’t rush out of the store but patiently wait, acknowledge the cashier, and engage in a dialogue which is more than handing out your credit card. All this is done with a small smile at both ends. It’s a win-win. This may sound innocuous but give it a go ‘experience’ for yourself.

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” – Brené Brown

4. Self-Belief has runner’s legs

It can take you to take places you cannot imagine. Make sure you start with the smallest sprint. Believe in the silliest, most insane thing you can do today then go ahead and do it. Here’s the catch, don’t expect the outcome others have had or what the books tell you. Just do your best and be prepared to embrace ‘your’ outcome.

5. The human body is far wiser than the human mind

The mind can often give an incorrect intuition. Our mind is layered with our cultural conditioning. Often, our decisions are loaded with judgement instead of objectivity. Negativity bias is another insidious ‘devil’ that makes us remember the negative stuff more than we remember the positive things. Our mind also has an inner critic that can damage our self-esteem and self-worth when it goes on a rampage.

The body on the other hand has its own intelligence for ‘fixing.’ A femur set properly can heal in 6 weeks but if someone calls us stupid 20 years ago, our inner critic does not let us forget that. The body thus is a very sophisticated operating system and works the way nature does.

So, when you feel conflicted try and listen-in to your body. The body works with the same precision as nature. Both do their job meticulously, slowly, and little by little. A tree takes 20 years to grow, just as teaching our lungs to breathe fully again could take a few years.

But this type of gradual change is usually irreversible. Just as we can’t reverse a fully grown tree into a baby-tree, similarly a wise body does not forget how to breathe deeply. The slow but sound approach of the body is quite-fail proof and also the reason why doctors can’t speed up the process of healing and recovery after a surgery. We just have to allow the body to take it’s time.

So, the next time you feel conflicted – try and listen to your body and the thoughts that don’t constrict your chest or knot your stomach are ‘usually’ the right ones to go with.

Closing thoughts

Life is a series of events that are not necessarily sequenced in the same way as we had imagined when reading bedtime books at 7. I have come to believe that in 24-hour cycles, things go just as we wanted them to or they can also go completely wrong. Regardless, it’s in those micro-moments that lies our expansion and growth. Let’s continue to make mindfulness practical.

How do you practice mindfulness? Share your thoughts with us below!

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https://addicted2success.com/life/how-to-make-mindfulness-a-practical-skill/

Why Spirituality Has Never Been More Important

Up until the third millennium, it was okay to philosophize moral conundrums and propose all kinds of abstract solutions while being absent to their practical repercussions. A typical philosophical scenario that can be touched on along the lines of this argument is called the Trolly Problem.

Here’s how it goes:

“There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the sidetrack. You have two options:

• Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track.
• Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.

Which is the more ethical option? Or, more simply: What is the right thing to do?”

Now bring a driverless car into the picture and all of a sudden this grueling philosophical problem becomes an engineering problem. How? 

Our world has advanced so much as to reach a point where the only way we can further that progress is by providing practical answers to the hard philosophical questions we have been shunning for so long. 

Imagine a scenario where our driverless car is heading towards a dangerous collision with an innocent passer-by. The only way to save him is to make a quick turn and drive the car off a cliff, killing the passenger on board. Who is to be sacrificed and why? The driverless car has to make a decision now. 

To answer such a morally loaded question essentially means to implement morality into our technologies. In other words, any proposition we make, we cannot make it without the knowledge that we will have to live with its consequences. 

That’s a hard practical problem right there — hard enough to turn a forward-thinking engineer into a pragmatic philosopher. 

“Spirituality is not the renunciation of life; it is the art of living fully” – Acharya Prashant

How Spirituality fits into this equation

If you look at it from a limited viewpoint of individual happiness, spirituality may not relate so much as a tool that can demystify problems of moral and philosophical nature. But if you widen its boundaries and let it shape the thought processes that concern a world beyond your own, then spirituality can play an unprecedentedly important role. 

You just can’t arrive at a universally acceptable moral decision without the help of a clear, all-embracing, and least prejudicial mind. And spirituality, as far as the human experience knows it, appears to be the only tool we can use to help us attain these rare higher qualities. 

What’s more, there’s a fairly general application of spirituality in the lives of modern humans. We are surrounded by and immersed in the tools, devices, and mechanisms that may have given us the material comforts we needed, but have also made us sacrifice something of much greater value: our spirituality. 

In the presence of all these modern inventions — the communication devices, the internet, entertainment tools, digital games, and all other kinds of mechanical tools/apparatuses — we can hardly practice the good old exercise of meditation and self-reflection. It’s only through thinking and observing the flow of our own inward thoughts that we can come up with practical answers to the moral questions —  questions that concern the whole of humanity and our world at large. 

This, I believe, is a time in history where we are faced with elusive emotional, psychological, and physical problems that can only be squared off with a mix of intelligence and spiritual force.

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https://addicted2success.com/life/why-spirituality-has-never-been-more-important/

A 5 Day Wellness Program Anyone Can Follow Right Now for a Better Life

There are innumerable health maintenance systems out there today. The problem with many of them is that in an effort to appear authoritative, they often become cumbersome. In reality, some of the best programs ever developed have been distilled into a few easily actionable steps that anyone can take with minimal guidance or accountability. 

This is exactly the framework I’ve used in developing my own programs for specialized training like weight loss or recovery. Even when dealing with clients who don’t know where to start, it’s developing the mindset of consistent, daily habits that leads to the greatest long-term success.

This is why I came up with this simple 5-4-3-2-1 pattern for wellness and physical training. It can be implemented by anyone at any time, used as a framework for regular healthy living, and taken as a starting point for virtually any other training initiative. Come back to this pattern in between more complex training cycles, and you’ll see how easy it is to maintain.

5 Times a Week: Internal and Breath Work

Most of us have actually forgotten how to breathe. I know we all have to breathe to live, but we frequently breathe in a very superficial way that actually keeps us in a very outwardly-focused mental state. As a result, we can deplete ourselves of oxygen, stiffen through our ribcage, and keep our stressors front of mind while trying to also cope with reasoning and cognition.

The solution: meditation. I recommend meditation with focused breathing at least 10 minutes a day, five days a week. It can be a guided meditation (YouTube has thousands of great channels devoted to this), or something more intensive like the Wim Hof method. 

Whatever it is, breath work is vital to correcting breathing and getting the physical stresses out of your upper brain and back into the primal brain where they belong. This, in turn, allows your mind to focus better in the moment, improves your circulation, and helps to release stress stored in your body.

“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.” – Ajahn Brahm

4 Times a Week: Mobility and Internal Energy Work

At least four times a week you should be opening up your fascia, joints, and connective tissues. This type of work is often associated with breathwork and meditation, so it’s a great companion to the first step mentioned above. 

Modalities for internal energy work include yoga, taiji, and qigong. These practices are more gentle, but have a huge (and growing) body of research supporting their use in recovery, trauma, fitness, health maintenance, healthy aging, and a lot more.

The name of the game is coordinating body, mind, and breath into a single, internally focused system that works effectively to enhance oxygenation, circulation, flexibility, and mobility. It doesn’t matter if the training concentrates on prana or qi, or if it’s just plain old stretching coordinated with breathing. Opening up muscles, joints, and connective tissue is the key to undoing a lot of the damage by our modern, desk-bound lifestyles.

3 Times a Week: Resistance Training

You don’t have to be a competitive bodybuilder to train your muscles. In fact, most of us shouldn’t be. But you do need to make your muscles do some work. It isn’t just about being stronger, although that certainly helps. The fact is, muscle is metabolically active tissue, which means you burn more calories just being alive. Training skeletal muscles also puts tension on the bones, which increases bone strength and density. And (one you might not have known) resistance training uses LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) to transport protein to the muscles, which lowers your risk of heart disease.

Resistance training doesn’t require you to spend hours in the gym. With the right program, you can get what you need in 30 to 45 minutes, three times a week. It can be done with just your body weight, or using a pair of dumbbells or resistance bands. I even have a few techniques developed from physiotherapy that use dynamic tension (flexing the muscle) to improve tone and function without sacrificing the joints. The most important thing is that you get those muscles working so your body does its job.

2 Times a Week: Cardio Training

The old school of thought was that everyone needs to do at least 30 minutes a day of cardio training. The fact is, this information comes from about 40 years ago, and new research suggests much of it is unnecessary (remember: if you’re doing intense enough resistance training plus breathwork, you’re probably doing enough!). Some may even be harmful to your heart, lungs, and joints. Long, steady-state cardio sessions are also proving to be ineffective for long-term weight loss.

My preferred systems are high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and burst training. Both consist of very short, but very intense, bursts of high output activity (like sprinting) that alternates with longer rest periods (like walking, or even sitting). These types of activity cause your body to burn huge amounts of energy in short spurts, but have the added benefit of keeping the metabolism revved up for as long as 24 hours after the workout has ended, making them a highly effective addition to any weight loss or maintenance plan.

“The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 

1 Time a Week: Play

I mean, if you’re not getting out and enjoying life a little, what are you even doing this for? Get outside at least once a week, and have some fun. Go to the park with the kids. Go for a hike in the woods. Go rollerblading at the beach. Go for a bike ride. Get on a weekend soccer or football team. Whatever. Just have some fun, preferably outside, for at least one day a week.

This is, I believe, the cure-all for most of our indoor blues. We spend so much of our time focusing on fitness goals that we forget the real point: to be able to enjoy ourselves and get the most out of life! I guess I could say, “make it at least an hour,” but that would be restrictive. Instead, no time limit on this one. 

Pick your day, and have some fun. Unplug from work, bills, social media, the news, family drama, meal plans, and all that other crap. Take your strength, fitness, breathing, stamina, and flexibility, and put them to work. Lose yourself in how amazing the world is for one day a week, and everything else that bothers you will seem so much easier to manage.

How do you motivate yourself to keep your physical and mental fitness at its highest levels? Share your advice with us below!

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https://addicted2success.com/life/a-5-day-wellness-program-anyone-can-follow-right-now-for-a-better-life/

How to Be a Responsible Investor of Your Time

As someone who thrives on productivity and performs best when tasked with multiple challenges and responsibilities, I’m constantly trying to sharpen my entrepreneurial toolkit. Staying busy means my brain is “on” 24/7, and I prefer it that way. 

But at the same time, I’ve also learned how to optimize my time management so that I stay productive, motivated, and most importantly, fulfilled. If you’re struggling with time management, regardless of your seniority or the industry you’re in, there are ways you can work on being more strategic with your time investments so you get more from your time in the long run. 

Just like investing, learning how to make time work for you — not the other way around — is a key step in scaling your business and your personal ambitions. 

Here are 4 ways I’ve learned on how to invest my time more wisely:

1. Audit your schedule

One way to evaluate if you’re truly streamlining your workday, tasks, and schedule, is by performing a self-audit. Every smart and successful business owner and employee will also constantly be thinking in terms of the bottom line, and it should be no different when it comes to demands on your time. 

Say you (or your employees) spend five hours on a task and that roughly translates to $300 in labor, yet the lifetime value for the product is far less than that. Not only are you wasting your time, you’re wasting your money. Hold yourself accountable. Learn how to manage your time wisely, and never waste it.

To perform an audit, use an old-school planner, Google calendar, Asana — whatever task manager that works best for you — and time how long each task takes. If you learn that one of the items in your to-do list is a time-drainer, think about smart workarounds. 

Is there a tool you haven’t tried that could automate some of your work? If, for example, you’re the one doing all the billing for your company, is it possible to outsource this duty? Can you delegate it? Have you looked into virtual assistants?

The reality is, you will always have the same amount of time, but if you want to succeed, your responsibilities and goals will only increase. This is why one audit is not enough. As your business grows, perform routine audits to ensure you’re still on track and budgeting your time wisely. 

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” – Tony Robbins

2. Invest in others

Hiring smart, capable, out-of-the-box thinkers is how you will succeed as a business leader in your industry. Your most important team member? You can guess: Your co-founder. This person will be your #2, your deputy, your partner-in-crime. They will be the one who you can rely on when working out complex deals with clients, and piecing together a business strategy to lay out for investors. But this person can’t just be any smart individual with an impressive resume, they need to counterbalance your strengths and weaknesses. 

For example, you will never succeed if your business partner is the type to agree with all of your decisions. You need someone who will push back, challenge you, and think ahead. Investing in the right people has strong dividends because they end up saving you time in the long run by coming to you with solutions, not problems.

Building a team isn’t easy, but just remember: Always hire smart people and let them bring their ideas to the table. As Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

3. Don’t let the small stuff weigh you down

For small business owners, it may be necessary for you to roll up your sleeves and work on the more granular, time-consuming tasks at hand so that your business survives. However, as soon as you finally do have the resources and the staff, you must step back and focus on high-level items. 

So many of us get knee-deep in day-to-day executions, that we forget to step back and look at the bigger picture. That can be dangerous for long-term strategy and monetization planning. Regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur, consultant, or employee — it doesn’t matter. You should always try to carve out time in your day to take those important steps back and create, or re-evaluate your roadmap. 

Don’t just think big ideas, think colossal ideas. If you’re a mid-level employee and must ask your manager to have the spare time to be able to do this, chances are, they will be more than happy to do so, as it shows you’re showing higher-level initiative.  

“Those who believe they can move mountains, do. Those who believe they can’t, cannot.” – David J. Schwartz

4. Optimize your day-to-day life

You should use the time you spend at home as a way to unwind, be with your family and loved ones, and quite simply, relax. But you should also be thinking ahead to the next day and how you can improve and optimize the tasks ahead of time. 

This could be something as simple as prepping your briefcase on a Sunday night before work. It could be making your task list for the next day so you’re ready to go first thing in the morning. Work out what your daily optimization “hacks” look like, and you’ll find that not only do they save you time so that you can be focusing on higher-level plans, but they’ll create less stress and chaos in your personal life and your overall career.

Ultimately, you want to feel in control of your own time, not the other way around. The time you have is the time you can spend coming up with the next great idea, the time you can spend cracking the code for an important project, and the time you spend working on yourself and your skill set. Never underestimate or undervalue time, and know that if you invest in it the most strategic way, the payoff will be exponential. 

Are you good with time management? Share your tips & advice for our readers below!

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You Should Never Be the Smartest Person in the Room

This might be a hard pill for some people to swallow, but you should never be the smartest person in the room. I know a lot of you will scrutinize this statement. Some of you will even get defensive after reading it. But I stand by it, and I’m not the only one either.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult career paths to pursue. If it was easy, there would be a lot more entrepreneurs out there. But this isn’t the case. For most people, failure is inescapable. So it’s no surprise that some leaders who make it past their first, fifth, and tenth year of business become egotistical. Entrepreneurial success stories are hard to come by. Except these egos eventually catch up to them and can become problematic. It’s because of their egos that leaders don’t want to hire people that are smarter than them. But some of the most revered entrepreneurs in the world do this.

This is how Michael Dell hires his employees. Same with Mark Zuckerberg. Even Steve Jobs, the face of Apple, knew this. Jobs’ made one of the most profound statements about managing talent when he said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” 

A business might be built on one person’s idea, but it’s sustained by their employees. If billionaires know this to be true, why is this not the standard for hiring at every company across every industry? Great leaders know that success isn’t a one-person show. Growth, sustainability, and profitability are a team effort. Hire people that constantly push boundaries, shatter glass ceilings, and push you outside of your comfort zone.

“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” – Confucius

Employees aren’t cogs in a machine, they’re your best assets

Elon Musk, renowned for his bold leadership, has always said that a business is only as good as its people, and I agree. Your company is a direct reflection of your employees. Hiring the best of the best will catapult you to the forefront of your industry; hire inexperienced employees that come at a cheaper cost to you and your company will plummet into the ground.

This is often a lesson that many leaders have to learn the hard way. Hiring for quantity over quality may seem enticing because you can pay employees less while also having more hands on deck to focus on day-to-day tasks. But in very few circumstances does ‘quantity over quality’ ever result in favorable circumstances. The same is true in business.

Entrepreneurs must often wear many hats, but they aren’t experts in every facet of their business. In order to have a well-rounded, high-functioning team, you must fill in those gaps by hiring the most qualified employees. Think of it as a business investment. 

Don’t hire people that will always tell you you’re right and follow your every lead. You need people that will check you, help you develop your ideas, and will bring different perspectives to the table. If you let your ego run the show, you bridle innovation and vision.

Keep competition outside of the workplace

In business, competition is the heartbeat of your company. It motivates leaders to strive for the impossible and to work more diligently in pursuit of their goals. But achieving these goals is only possible when you have a qualified team standing beside you.

While a healthy sense of competition among employees is natural, there should never be rivalries disguised in egotism between leaders and employees — yes, it happens far more than you’d think. If a leader is fixated on how they appear in comparison to others, it’s going to interfere with how they delegate projects and create a highly dysfunctional culture. 

A leader likely already knows their strengths, but they must also understand their weaknesses. This self-awareness is critical in making sure they check their ego before work every day. If you’re threatened by the talent of your employees, you end up working against them instead of nurturing a unified workforce that’s working together to build a prosperous company. In other words, you’ll end up getting in your own way of success.

“Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.” – Malcolm Forbes

Hire them and let them fly

Entrepreneurs often have a very misconstrued perception of leadership. Great leaders don’t hire employees so that they can tell them what to do, they hire people they can learn from. Your job isn’t to teach an employee everything they need to know to do the job well — they should already come to the table with this expertise. Instead, it’s your responsibility to create an environment that’s conducive to their growth and development.

Your employees shouldn’t need a lesson in ‘Business 101.’ Instead, they just need to be equipped with the resources and acumen that will help them refine their experiences and knowledge so that they can function independently of you. 

Your goal should be hiring people and then letting them fly. This doesn’t undermine your expertise and leadership skills in any way. Great employees simply don’t need your constant attention and support. You don’t have the time for that anyway, as you need to free up your schedule so you can focus on the big-picture responsibilities of running a business.

The business world isn’t a place for ego. You’ll work twice as hard to go half as far if you aren’t willing to hire people that are smarter than you.

What are your thoughts about intentionally not being the smartest person in the room? Share them with us below!

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