thanks sounder,
for your help. i am on the way to progress. it is not an overnite success. and i think you mature enough to understand it. my mail problem is my beliefs and you are surprise to know that i am fearing from success. yes this is true i have belief that keep me away from the success. i am on the way to dissolving it. and focus on what you want the essence of all the articles you read.
in every article, seminar, technique any thing you notice you will find that they are helping you in one way or another way to focused on what you want.
this habit require a constant vigilance i mean witnessing so that you know when you are focusing on what you do not want. and than change the focus.
and what do you mean by focus. focus means what internal pictures or movie you are making, what you are saying to yourself, what you are feeling etc. this is called hte focus and this require a habit and making this habit is very tough. if you are not agree than please check at yourself. for one day just keep watching yourself with curiosity that what you are doing and why you are donig and you come to know.
bye
janet smith
From India, Madras
32for your help. i am on the way to progress. it is not an overnite success. and i think you mature enough to understand it. my mail problem is my beliefs and you are surprise to know that i am fearing from success. yes this is true i have belief that keep me away from the success. i am on the way to dissolving it. and focus on what you want the essence of all the articles you read.
in every article, seminar, technique any thing you notice you will find that they are helping you in one way or another way to focused on what you want.
this habit require a constant vigilance i mean witnessing so that you know when you are focusing on what you do not want. and than change the focus.
and what do you mean by focus. focus means what internal pictures or movie you are making, what you are saying to yourself, what you are feeling etc. this is called hte focus and this require a habit and making this habit is very tough. if you are not agree than please check at yourself. for one day just keep watching yourself with curiosity that what you are doing and why you are donig and you come to know.
bye
janet smith
From India, Madras
i am happy that my links are helping you.
if you are interested than please go for the sedona method at sedonamethod.com. it is really simple and effective. in today's recession time the technique take less time and energy. it not only keep you cool in this toughest time but also encourage you to go for win. it is not a information piece which are giving to you.
if i am right than i know that you all people have enough knowledge but what is require is efforts. but we cannot do the required efforts because when we started to do the work it require than we are going to face the negative emotion which arise from our past failure or any other reason. and we are also deal with the resistant. this resistent make is us fail and this resistant mostly is from our subconscious mind. and the sedona method work very fine with you. i am using it from more 15 days and i find that it is valuable piece of do able thing. every author give us the information but this method encourage us to do releasing.
if you are habitual with it than the efforts become the effortless. it is running from 1952 to till date. more than half of the authors seen in the movie the secret using this method.
please read the book of hale dawanski or purchase its audio which cost around US$ 400.00. if pocket is tight than you can download it from the torrent.
and more more request from me that if anybody has the sedona method e-book than please let us know. it is really useful to all.
now i am copy the article of the steve pavlina which i find is very good.
janet smith
Have you ever started off the New Year by making grand new promises to yourself? You list out your new goals (and re-list some old ones). You get excited about what you'll accomplish. You think about how great your life will be when you get all those things done.
And then sometime in December, you look back and wonder where all the time went?
You certainly kept busy. You got a lot done. But somehow the stuff you didn't get done was the stuff that really mattered. The stuff you completed just wasn't as important. You did a good job of maintaining the status quo, but you failed to get ahead. This year turned out very much like the year before... and the year before that.
Where did you go wrong?
Setting the Right Goals
One possibility is that you set lame goals. It's very common to set goals that come from social conditioning instead of setting goals we really care about. For example, maybe you set a goal to make a certain amount of money, but deep down you just don't care that much about money. If you'd set a goal you really cared about instead, you might have accomplished it by now.
If you set a goal, and you aren't as enthusiastic about that goal as a child asking for a piece of candy, your goal is probably pointless and uninspiring. You think you want it. You tell yourself you should want it. Intellectually you think it would be great to have it. But deep down it just doesn't connect. You simply don't care... not really. I know it's hard, but you need to dump these types of goals. Otherwise you're trying to climb a ladder that's leaning against the wrong building. You're not being authentic.
Good goals stir you emotionally. They scare you. They push you to grow. They require you to face your fears. They practically dare you to chase them down. They expose your inadequacies. The best goals are those which make you think, "Damn, it would be awesome to achieve that! But I'm really not sure if I can pull this off..."
One of the goals I set at the beginning of this year was to become a raw foodist. I've been a vegan since 1997, and I wanted to make the transition to a 100% raw diet. This was a goal that inspired me. It also scared me because I didn't know how I'd pull it off. I successfully achieved it though. It was hard to adapt to this way of eating, but fortunately it's very easy to maintain. I've been eating 100% raw for most of the year now.
Setting Priorities
You don't need to set a ton of different goals. Fewer is better. It's better to achieve one big goal than to set 20 goals and fail to achieve any of them. Setting too many simultaneous goals will just dilute your focus.
A goal is a decision. If you set lots of goals at the same time, you haven't made any real decisions. You're just playing the field, hoping you'll find the time to squeeze everything in. But there's no commitment. What you have is a quagmire of potential distractions. One goal is clarity. Ten goals is confusion.
If you want to succeed in achieving your goals, pick just one or two at a time, and stick with them until they're complete. You can also set new goals afterwards.
Try limiting yourself to one major personal goal and one major professional goal at a time. Stick with these priorities until they're 100% complete. You'll achieve your goals much more quickly if you do this.
One of the reasons I had such a great 2008 was that I was very clear about my primary goals. Going raw was my #1 personal goal. Finishing my book was my #1 professional goal.
While these goals were on my plate, I worked hard on them. They never slid under the radar. I couldn't forget about them or ignore them. And since these were goals I really desired, I was inspired to take a lot of action.
If you have a goal that's too big to stick with until it's 100% complete, break it down into phases. For example, I broke my book project into different phases like creating the outline, writing the first draft, editing the book, and then promoting the book after it was released. That way I could work on other projects between phases to fit the schedules of others I worked with.
When you think about your New Year's goals, try setting just one personal and one professional goal. Then commit to sticking with them until you've achieved them. If you aren't willing to do that, then you're just playing games with yourself. If the goals are really important to you, then you should get them done quickly and directly by minimizing distractions and obstacles.
Focus Focus Focus
If you set strong, worthy goals, they'll probably require tremendous focus. If you allow all sorts of minor projects and tasks to creep onto your plate, you'll find yourself feeling pretty lousy around December.
When you focus on a goal, this means you must prevent yourself from focusing on anything that isn't part of that goal. So get used to saying NO -- a lot!
When I'm working on an important goal, I imagine I have a shield up that deflects anything that isn't relevant to that goal. I often let other parts of my life slide, at least to the degree they can handle some sliding.
Life is filled with potential distractions. If you try to keep on top of everything, you'll fail to keep on top of what's most important. You'll soon find yourself drowning in pointless tasks and not getting the important stuff done at all. Your goals will never become reality.
When I'm working on an important goal, many phone calls go unanswered, and long emails go unread. Why? Although these tasks may seem important, they aren't nearly as important to me as the goals I'm working on. So I simply blow them off. I don't have time to attend to all these things and stay focused on my goals at the same time. I have to triage one or the other. I choose to become a published author and a raw foodist this year, and the price was that I blew off a lot of email that I considered unimportant. I think that's a pretty good price.
If you're working on minor tasks and projects instead of your primary goal, then on some level, you're procrastinating. Ask yourself if those minor tasks are so important as to justify putting off the achievement of your goal? Do you really need to take that phone call or answer that email? Or would you rather be one step closer to your goal?
If you aren't working on your most important goal, how can you even claim to be working?
This hidden procrastination is just one step away from full-blown procrastination, where you actively disengage from doing any seemingly productive work and just mess around instead. You're actually better off taking time off to mess around because then you can't kid yourself that you're working. If you need a break, take a break. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you want to be working, work on your goals. Don't get mired in distractions that only seem like work.
If you aren't working on your goals, you aren't working. You're just wasting time.
Put in the Time
Many goals can be achieved if you simply put in the time. If your goal isn't physically impossible, chances are good that you'll eventually achieve it. You may have a lot to learn, but there's nothing stopping you from learning what you need to learn. Just put in the time, persist, and you'll get there.
For my goal of becoming a raw foodist, most of my time went into education and experimentation. I spent a lot of time reading books and talking to successful raw foodists. I tried lots of different recipes over a period of months to learn what worked best for me. There was no getting around this. I had to invest hundreds of hours to reach my personal tipping point for long-term success. After that the goal was achieved, and I was able to enjoy the benefits day after day.
For my goal of writing a book, most of my time went into thinking -- before I even started writing. Figuring out what kind of book to write took longer than the writing itself. Again, this required hundreds of hours of effort. I actually achieved the tipping point before I started writing the book. Planning the book was incredibly challenging. Writing it was fairly easy.
How many goals have you failed to achieve because you didn't put in the time?
If you throw 200 hours at your #1 goal, could you make a serious dent in it? Very likely you could. Even if you don't know how to achieve the goal, 200 hours of education would take you pretty far. "I don't know how" is a nonsense excuse when there are so many educational resources available these days.
Chunk it Down
If you get clear on your #1 goal, and you let the distractions slide for a bit, then what stops you from putting in the time?
Most likely it's a lack of clarity about what to do next. When you stare at a big goal, it's easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed. This encourages you to procrastinate.
Realize that some feelings of stress are quite normal on a big project. When you're not working, the stress feels negative. But when you're working steadily, mild stress transforms into positive focus. So if you feel a little stress at first, don't worry about it. It will soon become your ally. If you see the stress as something to be avoided, you'll simply fall into the trap of perfectionism.
To achieve a big goal, chunk it down into smaller steps. Don't worry about breaking down the entire project into tiny pieces. Just break off a piece from the front edge. Chunk it down until it's small enough that you have enough clarity to start working on it. Then get to work.
When you've completed all the small pieces in front of you, break off another piece from the new front edge of the project, and chunk it down some more. Then get back to work.
If you have goal-related actions you can complete, then go do them first. Don't worry about chunking down the rest of the project until you need to do so. Don't use over-planning as a means of procrastination.
Very often you'll find that once you get into a good flow of action, the chunking-down takes care of itself. One action flows smoothly into the next. Just get started on any piece of the project, and you'll soon build the momentum to keep going.
No Excuses
It's so easy to make excuses for not working on a big goal. I don't have the clarity I'd like. I'm not as motivated as I should be. I'll just get these little things off my plate first. If you succumb to such excuses, your goal will take 10x longer to achieve -- if you achieve it at all.
All of those excuses will go away if you just say "screw it" and get to work anyway. Start off by tackling some small piece of your goal, and you'll be too busy to hear the excuses. Drown them out with action.
Think of it like this. If you love to drive much faster than the legal speed limit, a part of your consciousness will be preoccupied with the possibility that you may get a speeding ticket. That's always a risk. So while you're driving, part of your mind is preoccupied with looking out for Highway Patrol officers. Even if you aren't consciously aware of this, your subconscious mind will tackle it for you. This means that part of your attention is elsewhere.
However, if you don't speed when you drive, then you needn't worry about getting a speeding ticket. Consequently, the part of your mind that was obsessed with this possibility is free to think about something else. Your attention is no longer divided.
Similarly, when you work on non-priority tasks, your attention is always split. Part of your mind is thinking about what you're doing, and another part is worrying about what you should be doing instead. You're splintering (i.e. lowering) your consciousness when you do this. You aren't fully present.
On the other hand, when you work on one of your key goals, your mind is made whole again. Distracting thoughts normally fade within the first 15 minutes, and now you're 100% focused on the important task at hand. And afterwards you feel great for making progress toward your goal.
Notice that when you work on something that's really important to you, once you get past the first 15 minutes or so, you normally feel wonderful. You feel relaxed and productive. You also feel very present.
However, when you work on unimportant tasks and put off the big ones, you can't consistently reach this state. You feel more stressed and distracted. There's this subtle nagging voice telling you, "This isn't what you need to be doing right now." And it just won't shut up. This leads you to try to drown it with even more distraction and pointless entertainment that leaves you feeling empty. This can lead to a cycle of addiction where you're constantly drugging yourself with daily distractions to avoid feeling so unsettled. You can never cure the problem with this strategy though.
The solution is that you have to start living up to your potential. No more excuses. Set those big goals, and go after them with gusto. This isn't just the right way to live. It's also the way that feels best.
It feels great to look back on a year knowing that you achieved your biggest goals. Who cares if you didn't return every phone call or answer every email? Yes, some people will be bothered by that. So let them be bothered. They probably shouldn't be wasting time calling and emailing you about trivialities anyway. Surely they have more important things to do with their lives as well. :)
From India, Madras
if you are interested than please go for the sedona method at sedonamethod.com. it is really simple and effective. in today's recession time the technique take less time and energy. it not only keep you cool in this toughest time but also encourage you to go for win. it is not a information piece which are giving to you.
if i am right than i know that you all people have enough knowledge but what is require is efforts. but we cannot do the required efforts because when we started to do the work it require than we are going to face the negative emotion which arise from our past failure or any other reason. and we are also deal with the resistant. this resistent make is us fail and this resistant mostly is from our subconscious mind. and the sedona method work very fine with you. i am using it from more 15 days and i find that it is valuable piece of do able thing. every author give us the information but this method encourage us to do releasing.
if you are habitual with it than the efforts become the effortless. it is running from 1952 to till date. more than half of the authors seen in the movie the secret using this method.
please read the book of hale dawanski or purchase its audio which cost around US$ 400.00. if pocket is tight than you can download it from the torrent.
and more more request from me that if anybody has the sedona method e-book than please let us know. it is really useful to all.
now i am copy the article of the steve pavlina which i find is very good.
janet smith
How to Achieve Your New Year's Goals
Have you ever started off the New Year by making grand new promises to yourself? You list out your new goals (and re-list some old ones). You get excited about what you'll accomplish. You think about how great your life will be when you get all those things done.
And then sometime in December, you look back and wonder where all the time went?
You certainly kept busy. You got a lot done. But somehow the stuff you didn't get done was the stuff that really mattered. The stuff you completed just wasn't as important. You did a good job of maintaining the status quo, but you failed to get ahead. This year turned out very much like the year before... and the year before that.
Where did you go wrong?
Setting the Right Goals
One possibility is that you set lame goals. It's very common to set goals that come from social conditioning instead of setting goals we really care about. For example, maybe you set a goal to make a certain amount of money, but deep down you just don't care that much about money. If you'd set a goal you really cared about instead, you might have accomplished it by now.
If you set a goal, and you aren't as enthusiastic about that goal as a child asking for a piece of candy, your goal is probably pointless and uninspiring. You think you want it. You tell yourself you should want it. Intellectually you think it would be great to have it. But deep down it just doesn't connect. You simply don't care... not really. I know it's hard, but you need to dump these types of goals. Otherwise you're trying to climb a ladder that's leaning against the wrong building. You're not being authentic.
Good goals stir you emotionally. They scare you. They push you to grow. They require you to face your fears. They practically dare you to chase them down. They expose your inadequacies. The best goals are those which make you think, "Damn, it would be awesome to achieve that! But I'm really not sure if I can pull this off..."
One of the goals I set at the beginning of this year was to become a raw foodist. I've been a vegan since 1997, and I wanted to make the transition to a 100% raw diet. This was a goal that inspired me. It also scared me because I didn't know how I'd pull it off. I successfully achieved it though. It was hard to adapt to this way of eating, but fortunately it's very easy to maintain. I've been eating 100% raw for most of the year now.
Setting Priorities
You don't need to set a ton of different goals. Fewer is better. It's better to achieve one big goal than to set 20 goals and fail to achieve any of them. Setting too many simultaneous goals will just dilute your focus.
A goal is a decision. If you set lots of goals at the same time, you haven't made any real decisions. You're just playing the field, hoping you'll find the time to squeeze everything in. But there's no commitment. What you have is a quagmire of potential distractions. One goal is clarity. Ten goals is confusion.
If you want to succeed in achieving your goals, pick just one or two at a time, and stick with them until they're complete. You can also set new goals afterwards.
Try limiting yourself to one major personal goal and one major professional goal at a time. Stick with these priorities until they're 100% complete. You'll achieve your goals much more quickly if you do this.
One of the reasons I had such a great 2008 was that I was very clear about my primary goals. Going raw was my #1 personal goal. Finishing my book was my #1 professional goal.
While these goals were on my plate, I worked hard on them. They never slid under the radar. I couldn't forget about them or ignore them. And since these were goals I really desired, I was inspired to take a lot of action.
If you have a goal that's too big to stick with until it's 100% complete, break it down into phases. For example, I broke my book project into different phases like creating the outline, writing the first draft, editing the book, and then promoting the book after it was released. That way I could work on other projects between phases to fit the schedules of others I worked with.
When you think about your New Year's goals, try setting just one personal and one professional goal. Then commit to sticking with them until you've achieved them. If you aren't willing to do that, then you're just playing games with yourself. If the goals are really important to you, then you should get them done quickly and directly by minimizing distractions and obstacles.
Focus Focus Focus
If you set strong, worthy goals, they'll probably require tremendous focus. If you allow all sorts of minor projects and tasks to creep onto your plate, you'll find yourself feeling pretty lousy around December.
When you focus on a goal, this means you must prevent yourself from focusing on anything that isn't part of that goal. So get used to saying NO -- a lot!
When I'm working on an important goal, I imagine I have a shield up that deflects anything that isn't relevant to that goal. I often let other parts of my life slide, at least to the degree they can handle some sliding.
Life is filled with potential distractions. If you try to keep on top of everything, you'll fail to keep on top of what's most important. You'll soon find yourself drowning in pointless tasks and not getting the important stuff done at all. Your goals will never become reality.
When I'm working on an important goal, many phone calls go unanswered, and long emails go unread. Why? Although these tasks may seem important, they aren't nearly as important to me as the goals I'm working on. So I simply blow them off. I don't have time to attend to all these things and stay focused on my goals at the same time. I have to triage one or the other. I choose to become a published author and a raw foodist this year, and the price was that I blew off a lot of email that I considered unimportant. I think that's a pretty good price.
If you're working on minor tasks and projects instead of your primary goal, then on some level, you're procrastinating. Ask yourself if those minor tasks are so important as to justify putting off the achievement of your goal? Do you really need to take that phone call or answer that email? Or would you rather be one step closer to your goal?
If you aren't working on your most important goal, how can you even claim to be working?
This hidden procrastination is just one step away from full-blown procrastination, where you actively disengage from doing any seemingly productive work and just mess around instead. You're actually better off taking time off to mess around because then you can't kid yourself that you're working. If you need a break, take a break. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you want to be working, work on your goals. Don't get mired in distractions that only seem like work.
If you aren't working on your goals, you aren't working. You're just wasting time.
Put in the Time
Many goals can be achieved if you simply put in the time. If your goal isn't physically impossible, chances are good that you'll eventually achieve it. You may have a lot to learn, but there's nothing stopping you from learning what you need to learn. Just put in the time, persist, and you'll get there.
For my goal of becoming a raw foodist, most of my time went into education and experimentation. I spent a lot of time reading books and talking to successful raw foodists. I tried lots of different recipes over a period of months to learn what worked best for me. There was no getting around this. I had to invest hundreds of hours to reach my personal tipping point for long-term success. After that the goal was achieved, and I was able to enjoy the benefits day after day.
For my goal of writing a book, most of my time went into thinking -- before I even started writing. Figuring out what kind of book to write took longer than the writing itself. Again, this required hundreds of hours of effort. I actually achieved the tipping point before I started writing the book. Planning the book was incredibly challenging. Writing it was fairly easy.
How many goals have you failed to achieve because you didn't put in the time?
If you throw 200 hours at your #1 goal, could you make a serious dent in it? Very likely you could. Even if you don't know how to achieve the goal, 200 hours of education would take you pretty far. "I don't know how" is a nonsense excuse when there are so many educational resources available these days.
Chunk it Down
If you get clear on your #1 goal, and you let the distractions slide for a bit, then what stops you from putting in the time?
Most likely it's a lack of clarity about what to do next. When you stare at a big goal, it's easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed. This encourages you to procrastinate.
Realize that some feelings of stress are quite normal on a big project. When you're not working, the stress feels negative. But when you're working steadily, mild stress transforms into positive focus. So if you feel a little stress at first, don't worry about it. It will soon become your ally. If you see the stress as something to be avoided, you'll simply fall into the trap of perfectionism.
To achieve a big goal, chunk it down into smaller steps. Don't worry about breaking down the entire project into tiny pieces. Just break off a piece from the front edge. Chunk it down until it's small enough that you have enough clarity to start working on it. Then get to work.
When you've completed all the small pieces in front of you, break off another piece from the new front edge of the project, and chunk it down some more. Then get back to work.
If you have goal-related actions you can complete, then go do them first. Don't worry about chunking down the rest of the project until you need to do so. Don't use over-planning as a means of procrastination.
Very often you'll find that once you get into a good flow of action, the chunking-down takes care of itself. One action flows smoothly into the next. Just get started on any piece of the project, and you'll soon build the momentum to keep going.
No Excuses
It's so easy to make excuses for not working on a big goal. I don't have the clarity I'd like. I'm not as motivated as I should be. I'll just get these little things off my plate first. If you succumb to such excuses, your goal will take 10x longer to achieve -- if you achieve it at all.
All of those excuses will go away if you just say "screw it" and get to work anyway. Start off by tackling some small piece of your goal, and you'll be too busy to hear the excuses. Drown them out with action.
Think of it like this. If you love to drive much faster than the legal speed limit, a part of your consciousness will be preoccupied with the possibility that you may get a speeding ticket. That's always a risk. So while you're driving, part of your mind is preoccupied with looking out for Highway Patrol officers. Even if you aren't consciously aware of this, your subconscious mind will tackle it for you. This means that part of your attention is elsewhere.
However, if you don't speed when you drive, then you needn't worry about getting a speeding ticket. Consequently, the part of your mind that was obsessed with this possibility is free to think about something else. Your attention is no longer divided.
Similarly, when you work on non-priority tasks, your attention is always split. Part of your mind is thinking about what you're doing, and another part is worrying about what you should be doing instead. You're splintering (i.e. lowering) your consciousness when you do this. You aren't fully present.
On the other hand, when you work on one of your key goals, your mind is made whole again. Distracting thoughts normally fade within the first 15 minutes, and now you're 100% focused on the important task at hand. And afterwards you feel great for making progress toward your goal.
Notice that when you work on something that's really important to you, once you get past the first 15 minutes or so, you normally feel wonderful. You feel relaxed and productive. You also feel very present.
However, when you work on unimportant tasks and put off the big ones, you can't consistently reach this state. You feel more stressed and distracted. There's this subtle nagging voice telling you, "This isn't what you need to be doing right now." And it just won't shut up. This leads you to try to drown it with even more distraction and pointless entertainment that leaves you feeling empty. This can lead to a cycle of addiction where you're constantly drugging yourself with daily distractions to avoid feeling so unsettled. You can never cure the problem with this strategy though.
The solution is that you have to start living up to your potential. No more excuses. Set those big goals, and go after them with gusto. This isn't just the right way to live. It's also the way that feels best.
It feels great to look back on a year knowing that you achieved your biggest goals. Who cares if you didn't return every phone call or answer every email? Yes, some people will be bothered by that. So let them be bothered. They probably shouldn't be wasting time calling and emailing you about trivialities anyway. Surely they have more important things to do with their lives as well. :)
From India, Madras
hi all,
one more time i come to a very good article of steve pavlina and that is given below :-
Pursuing Your Passion to Develop Valued Expertise
Common advice is to do what you love, and the money will follow. That's close to the truth, but it skips a few critical steps.
Here's a more detailed version. Do what you love. Then work at turning your passion into a practical skill set that allows you to create and deliver real value. Start sharing your creative output with people, and use their feedback to grow and improve, so that you're eventually providing something people truly appreciate. Get your work into people's hands (for free if possible) to build a following. Then set a fair price for your work, and the money will follow. Continue to develop your skill at doing what you love. Periodically adjust your prices to adapt to changes in supply and demand and to reflect the increased value of your service.
Those middle steps usually require a lot of time and effort. It's not that hard to think of something you enjoy doing. The hard part is taking years to really develop your interest into a serious skill set.
Lots of people try to take shortcuts here, and they almost always fail. For example, many people started personal development blogs around the same time I did, but most of those sites were total flops in terms of their ability to attract long-term readers. The people who started them usually gave up within a few months. Some complained that I was lying about my results. Others blamed blogging itself, claiming it was overhyped. Some wrote articles about why professional blogging was just a passing fad.
For the most part, these failure stories involved people in their early or mid-20s, some in their late teens. Most were interested in their topics, some even passionately so. But they hadn't yet put in the time to turn their hobbies into serious skills. They didn't understand how to provide value to others. Their failure was inevitable.
My Story
Before I started I'd been working on personal growth for almost 15 years. I'd listened to dozens of audio programs (some of them more than 50 times each), attended seminars, and read hundreds of personal development books. I'd been conducting personal growth experiments for most of my adult life. I'd already been a vegetarian for 11 years and a vegan for 7 years. I had run a marathon and trained in martial arts. I'd been married for 6 years and had two kids. I'd served as president of a non-profit association.
In addition to that, I'd already written a couple dozen published articles, some of which had become very popular. I'd been getting feedback on my articles for years. I'd been paid thousands of dollars to write articles for a major online publication.
I was already an experienced entrepreneur with 10 years of experience. I'd learned how to make a sustainable income online. I knew how to create a website, achieve good search rankings, build traffic, sell downloadable products, and lots more.
I'd had almost 25 years of computer experience. I got my first email account in 1989. I created my first website in 1995.
The reason I started a personal development business in 2004 wasn't just because I was passionate about the topic. Tons of other people are passionate about it too. The reason I started a business was that I realized I could actually provide serious value for people. I believed I could provide a useful service that would help a lot of people grow. That requires a lot more than raw passion.
I would NOT have been qualified to run a successful personal development business when I was 22 years old. If I'd tried to do this back then, I doubt I'd have been very good at it. Heck, I wasn't even very good at starting my computer games business back then.
I'm not saying you can't succeed in your early 20s. I'm simply saying that if you want to generate real income from your passion, you need to develop some serious skills. You need to do more than crank out low-quality content or provide a low-quality service just because you enjoy it. It's great to be doing what you love, but you need to go a few steps beyond that to enjoy sustainable long-term success.
Erin's Story
Erin began having unusual psychic experiences at a very young age. When she was only 4 years old, she used to go around telling people she had ESP. She would tell people she could read their minds. She'd blurt out predictions that would later come to pass. She was good at freaking people out. :)
In high school Erin started giving psychic readings to her classmates. In her spare time, she would practice astral projection with a few friends who were deeply into it. Things got so serious that she had to back off for a while. Suffice it to say that she had an unusual reputation in high school.
Years before she began offering readings professionally, Erin was studying paranormal phenomena. When I first met her in 1994, I noticed that she had many well-worn books about lucid dreaming, astral projection, psychic development, and more. She'd also gotten readings from other professional psychics and had some memorable experiences.
When Erin decided to go pro in 2006, she worked to develop her talent into a serious skill that could provide strong value for others. She read more books, listened to audio programs, and attended live workshops with some of the best psychic mediums and professional intuitives on earth. She practiced different styles of meditation to see which enabled her to tune in best. She got readings with other psychics to learn from them. She did dozens of free readings to hone her skills. She even tuned in to her spirit guides and got advice from them. She did all of this to hone a talent she'd already been using for 30+ years.
As a result of pushing herself, Erin saw tremendous growth in her abilities, which allowed her to deliver more value to her clients in less time. As she completed hundreds of readings and word of mouth spread, she had to keep raising her rates to keep up with the demand. Consequently, her reading prices today are about 10 times higher than they were when she first went pro in 2006. (If she didn't set her rates at this level, she'd likely be stricken with a multi-year waiting list, which would be a ridiculous situation since no one would be able to get a timely appointment.)
Erin could have coasted if she wanted to. She could have settled for "good enough." She could have been content with the talent and skill she had. She could have given $15 readings like many amateurs in her field do. Instead she pushed herself to get really good. She's always seeking to gain that extra edge that helps her become a clearer channel, so she can provide a better service for her clients.
The key point is that Erin took deliberate steps to turn her passion into a serious skill capable of delivering real value to people. This is why she gets feedback from clients like, "I'm stunned. You just helped me figure out in 30 minutes what would have taken me 3 years of therapy to unravel." The reason she's able to earn such a high rate for her work (currently $497 for a 30-minute phone reading) isn't because of her innate talent. It's because she worked hard to turn that talent into a service that helps people achieve breakthroughs quickly. Many people have some intuitive ability, but very few take the time to develop it into skill that can change people's lives in a matter of minutes.
I encourage you to do commit to a similar process of skill refinement if you haven't already done so. Take what you're passionate about, and put some serious effort into it. Turn your passion into a skill that can be used to create a lot of value for others. This is a pattern common to high achievers. Who wants to spend their life as an under-achiever anyway?
Everyone has hobbies. We all have activities we enjoy doing. But few will go that extra mile and turn their interests into major skills.
By the way, our daughter is named Emily Skye Pavlina. So as it turned out, Erin really did have ESP. ;)
Developing Expertise
Here's some advice on how to become an expert in your chosen field.
Leverage your natural strengths and talents.
You can build skill in almost any field through sheer force of will; however, you'll get better results if you focus on areas where you already possess some natural talent. Erin learned that she had unusual psychic and intuitive skills; she could perceive things that other people couldn't. I learned that I was unusually good at problem-solving; I could see solutions that others couldn't. Through many years of self development, Erin and I built these natural talents into major strengths. We also developed other skills to further leverage these strengths, such as our writing and communication skills.
Do what you love.
Experts love their work. They work in fields they're deeply passionate about. Money is NOT their primary motivation. Even self-made multi-millionaires are generally more enthralled by the game and the challenge of earning large sums of money vs. the money itself. Let your passion drive your expertise. In my own life, the main role of money is simply to make my work as sustainable as possible. Generating a sufficient level of income from my passion means I can do more of what I love without being distracted by scarcity-induced problems.
Learn from other experts.
Experts typically spend years, often decades, honing their knowledge and skills in a particular field. Accelerate your learning by buying their educational products, attending their workshops, and if possible, communicating with them one-on-one. Even if you think you're quite the expert already, keep exposing yourself to fresh input. Genuine experts are lifelong students. They see learning as an ongoing process that never ends. Never become such a know-it-all that you close your mind to new ideas.
Share your expertise.
Use your talents and skills to provide value to others, even if you aren't that good yet. The feedback you receive will help you grow faster. Once you become halfway decent, you can begin generating income from your work, which sustains you in the long run and prevents you from wasting time with a less suitable job just to pay the bills. As a result you can spend more time doing what you're best at. Your expertise is a gift to be shared for the betterment of all.
Stay frosty.
Prevent yourself from becoming myopic. Step outside your primary field, and expose yourself to totally different fields of knowledge. Many personal growth experts draw heavily upon their prior experiences working in other fields such as sales, real estate, and comedy. Their unique perspective gives them many original insights to share. Many of my best personal growth insights came from working in the software industry, and I often use video game analogies in my writing.
Take action.
Talking about what you love does not equal doing what you love. If you want to write music, then sit down and compose something instead of whining about the RIAA's latest misdeeds. If you want to be a writer, go write an article or short story and publish it online within 24 hours instead of makings lists of stuff to write about. If you want to be a dancer, put on some music, start dancing, and post a video on YouTube. Just shut up and go create something. Then get it into people's hands as soon as it's done. In the words of Curly Howard, "If at first you don't suck seed, keep on suckin' till you do suck seed." If Curly can become a beloved actor, still making people smile 57 years after his death, what excuse do you have?
Keep your eye on creating value.
As you build your skills and soak up new knowledge, think about how you can apply what you know to help people in the real world. If you can't see how you'll eventually apply what you're learning, most likely you're going to forget it anyway. When I took programming classes in college, I studied a lot of computation theory that was largely useless outside academic circles. I learned to create value for others mainly by working on my own programming projects outside of class. I learned more about practical programming by purchasing programming books from the local bookstore as opposed to reading computer science textbooks.
If you're currently attending college, learn to discern which classes are helping you create value... and which are mostly mental masturbation. Of all the material I studied in college, less than 10% of it was of any practical use in terms of enhancing my ability to create value. That isn't to say the other 90% wasn't interesting too, but it really didn't help me much in my future career development, and I actually went to work in a field that aligned perfectly with my degrees. I double-majored in math and computer science and went on to develop computer games for many years. Very little of what I learned in college was of any use to me in the real world.
From Passion to Professional
Doing what you love is a good first step. But it's not the only step if you actually want to make a sustainable living doing what you love.
Lots of people are passionate about music, but how many can compose a song that you and I would care to listen to? And how many of those can create something we'd be willing to pay good money for? This might sound harsh, but the main reason people fail to generate income from their passionate love of music is because they stink as musicians. They aren't very good at all. Some are in major denial about it, so they blame their lack of success on external entities like the music industry. But if they were to devote a decade to seriously developing their skills, they'd have a good chance of generating real income from their work. There's no need to make excuses when you're seriously good at what you do.
Doing what you love is wonderful. Who wants to spend their life doing work they don't enjoy? That would be utterly stupid. There's no need to enslave yourself in cubicle city just because you lack the skill to earn income any other way. Start doing more of what you naturally enjoy. Put in the time to get good at it. Focus on practical learning, not mental masturbation.
You will get there if you stick with it.
From India, Madras
one more time i come to a very good article of steve pavlina and that is given below :-
Pursuing Your Passion to Develop Valued Expertise
Common advice is to do what you love, and the money will follow. That's close to the truth, but it skips a few critical steps.
Here's a more detailed version. Do what you love. Then work at turning your passion into a practical skill set that allows you to create and deliver real value. Start sharing your creative output with people, and use their feedback to grow and improve, so that you're eventually providing something people truly appreciate. Get your work into people's hands (for free if possible) to build a following. Then set a fair price for your work, and the money will follow. Continue to develop your skill at doing what you love. Periodically adjust your prices to adapt to changes in supply and demand and to reflect the increased value of your service.
Those middle steps usually require a lot of time and effort. It's not that hard to think of something you enjoy doing. The hard part is taking years to really develop your interest into a serious skill set.
Lots of people try to take shortcuts here, and they almost always fail. For example, many people started personal development blogs around the same time I did, but most of those sites were total flops in terms of their ability to attract long-term readers. The people who started them usually gave up within a few months. Some complained that I was lying about my results. Others blamed blogging itself, claiming it was overhyped. Some wrote articles about why professional blogging was just a passing fad.
For the most part, these failure stories involved people in their early or mid-20s, some in their late teens. Most were interested in their topics, some even passionately so. But they hadn't yet put in the time to turn their hobbies into serious skills. They didn't understand how to provide value to others. Their failure was inevitable.
My Story
Before I started I'd been working on personal growth for almost 15 years. I'd listened to dozens of audio programs (some of them more than 50 times each), attended seminars, and read hundreds of personal development books. I'd been conducting personal growth experiments for most of my adult life. I'd already been a vegetarian for 11 years and a vegan for 7 years. I had run a marathon and trained in martial arts. I'd been married for 6 years and had two kids. I'd served as president of a non-profit association.
In addition to that, I'd already written a couple dozen published articles, some of which had become very popular. I'd been getting feedback on my articles for years. I'd been paid thousands of dollars to write articles for a major online publication.
I was already an experienced entrepreneur with 10 years of experience. I'd learned how to make a sustainable income online. I knew how to create a website, achieve good search rankings, build traffic, sell downloadable products, and lots more.
I'd had almost 25 years of computer experience. I got my first email account in 1989. I created my first website in 1995.
The reason I started a personal development business in 2004 wasn't just because I was passionate about the topic. Tons of other people are passionate about it too. The reason I started a business was that I realized I could actually provide serious value for people. I believed I could provide a useful service that would help a lot of people grow. That requires a lot more than raw passion.
I would NOT have been qualified to run a successful personal development business when I was 22 years old. If I'd tried to do this back then, I doubt I'd have been very good at it. Heck, I wasn't even very good at starting my computer games business back then.
I'm not saying you can't succeed in your early 20s. I'm simply saying that if you want to generate real income from your passion, you need to develop some serious skills. You need to do more than crank out low-quality content or provide a low-quality service just because you enjoy it. It's great to be doing what you love, but you need to go a few steps beyond that to enjoy sustainable long-term success.
Erin's Story
Erin began having unusual psychic experiences at a very young age. When she was only 4 years old, she used to go around telling people she had ESP. She would tell people she could read their minds. She'd blurt out predictions that would later come to pass. She was good at freaking people out. :)
In high school Erin started giving psychic readings to her classmates. In her spare time, she would practice astral projection with a few friends who were deeply into it. Things got so serious that she had to back off for a while. Suffice it to say that she had an unusual reputation in high school.
Years before she began offering readings professionally, Erin was studying paranormal phenomena. When I first met her in 1994, I noticed that she had many well-worn books about lucid dreaming, astral projection, psychic development, and more. She'd also gotten readings from other professional psychics and had some memorable experiences.
When Erin decided to go pro in 2006, she worked to develop her talent into a serious skill that could provide strong value for others. She read more books, listened to audio programs, and attended live workshops with some of the best psychic mediums and professional intuitives on earth. She practiced different styles of meditation to see which enabled her to tune in best. She got readings with other psychics to learn from them. She did dozens of free readings to hone her skills. She even tuned in to her spirit guides and got advice from them. She did all of this to hone a talent she'd already been using for 30+ years.
As a result of pushing herself, Erin saw tremendous growth in her abilities, which allowed her to deliver more value to her clients in less time. As she completed hundreds of readings and word of mouth spread, she had to keep raising her rates to keep up with the demand. Consequently, her reading prices today are about 10 times higher than they were when she first went pro in 2006. (If she didn't set her rates at this level, she'd likely be stricken with a multi-year waiting list, which would be a ridiculous situation since no one would be able to get a timely appointment.)
Erin could have coasted if she wanted to. She could have settled for "good enough." She could have been content with the talent and skill she had. She could have given $15 readings like many amateurs in her field do. Instead she pushed herself to get really good. She's always seeking to gain that extra edge that helps her become a clearer channel, so she can provide a better service for her clients.
The key point is that Erin took deliberate steps to turn her passion into a serious skill capable of delivering real value to people. This is why she gets feedback from clients like, "I'm stunned. You just helped me figure out in 30 minutes what would have taken me 3 years of therapy to unravel." The reason she's able to earn such a high rate for her work (currently $497 for a 30-minute phone reading) isn't because of her innate talent. It's because she worked hard to turn that talent into a service that helps people achieve breakthroughs quickly. Many people have some intuitive ability, but very few take the time to develop it into skill that can change people's lives in a matter of minutes.
I encourage you to do commit to a similar process of skill refinement if you haven't already done so. Take what you're passionate about, and put some serious effort into it. Turn your passion into a skill that can be used to create a lot of value for others. This is a pattern common to high achievers. Who wants to spend their life as an under-achiever anyway?
Everyone has hobbies. We all have activities we enjoy doing. But few will go that extra mile and turn their interests into major skills.
By the way, our daughter is named Emily Skye Pavlina. So as it turned out, Erin really did have ESP. ;)
Developing Expertise
Here's some advice on how to become an expert in your chosen field.
Leverage your natural strengths and talents.
You can build skill in almost any field through sheer force of will; however, you'll get better results if you focus on areas where you already possess some natural talent. Erin learned that she had unusual psychic and intuitive skills; she could perceive things that other people couldn't. I learned that I was unusually good at problem-solving; I could see solutions that others couldn't. Through many years of self development, Erin and I built these natural talents into major strengths. We also developed other skills to further leverage these strengths, such as our writing and communication skills.
Do what you love.
Experts love their work. They work in fields they're deeply passionate about. Money is NOT their primary motivation. Even self-made multi-millionaires are generally more enthralled by the game and the challenge of earning large sums of money vs. the money itself. Let your passion drive your expertise. In my own life, the main role of money is simply to make my work as sustainable as possible. Generating a sufficient level of income from my passion means I can do more of what I love without being distracted by scarcity-induced problems.
Learn from other experts.
Experts typically spend years, often decades, honing their knowledge and skills in a particular field. Accelerate your learning by buying their educational products, attending their workshops, and if possible, communicating with them one-on-one. Even if you think you're quite the expert already, keep exposing yourself to fresh input. Genuine experts are lifelong students. They see learning as an ongoing process that never ends. Never become such a know-it-all that you close your mind to new ideas.
Share your expertise.
Use your talents and skills to provide value to others, even if you aren't that good yet. The feedback you receive will help you grow faster. Once you become halfway decent, you can begin generating income from your work, which sustains you in the long run and prevents you from wasting time with a less suitable job just to pay the bills. As a result you can spend more time doing what you're best at. Your expertise is a gift to be shared for the betterment of all.
Stay frosty.
Prevent yourself from becoming myopic. Step outside your primary field, and expose yourself to totally different fields of knowledge. Many personal growth experts draw heavily upon their prior experiences working in other fields such as sales, real estate, and comedy. Their unique perspective gives them many original insights to share. Many of my best personal growth insights came from working in the software industry, and I often use video game analogies in my writing.
Take action.
Talking about what you love does not equal doing what you love. If you want to write music, then sit down and compose something instead of whining about the RIAA's latest misdeeds. If you want to be a writer, go write an article or short story and publish it online within 24 hours instead of makings lists of stuff to write about. If you want to be a dancer, put on some music, start dancing, and post a video on YouTube. Just shut up and go create something. Then get it into people's hands as soon as it's done. In the words of Curly Howard, "If at first you don't suck seed, keep on suckin' till you do suck seed." If Curly can become a beloved actor, still making people smile 57 years after his death, what excuse do you have?
Keep your eye on creating value.
As you build your skills and soak up new knowledge, think about how you can apply what you know to help people in the real world. If you can't see how you'll eventually apply what you're learning, most likely you're going to forget it anyway. When I took programming classes in college, I studied a lot of computation theory that was largely useless outside academic circles. I learned to create value for others mainly by working on my own programming projects outside of class. I learned more about practical programming by purchasing programming books from the local bookstore as opposed to reading computer science textbooks.
If you're currently attending college, learn to discern which classes are helping you create value... and which are mostly mental masturbation. Of all the material I studied in college, less than 10% of it was of any practical use in terms of enhancing my ability to create value. That isn't to say the other 90% wasn't interesting too, but it really didn't help me much in my future career development, and I actually went to work in a field that aligned perfectly with my degrees. I double-majored in math and computer science and went on to develop computer games for many years. Very little of what I learned in college was of any use to me in the real world.
From Passion to Professional
Doing what you love is a good first step. But it's not the only step if you actually want to make a sustainable living doing what you love.
Lots of people are passionate about music, but how many can compose a song that you and I would care to listen to? And how many of those can create something we'd be willing to pay good money for? This might sound harsh, but the main reason people fail to generate income from their passionate love of music is because they stink as musicians. They aren't very good at all. Some are in major denial about it, so they blame their lack of success on external entities like the music industry. But if they were to devote a decade to seriously developing their skills, they'd have a good chance of generating real income from their work. There's no need to make excuses when you're seriously good at what you do.
Doing what you love is wonderful. Who wants to spend their life doing work they don't enjoy? That would be utterly stupid. There's no need to enslave yourself in cubicle city just because you lack the skill to earn income any other way. Start doing more of what you naturally enjoy. Put in the time to get good at it. Focus on practical learning, not mental masturbation.
You will get there if you stick with it.
From India, Madras
hi all,
one more article on the productivity from stevepavlina.com. it is very useful and good for all. hope you like it.
janet smith
Are You Over-engineering Your Productivity?
Excessive productivity can bring the most gifted man almost to madness.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
If you've ever tried to improve your personal productivity and/or become more organized, you've probably encountered the problem of over-engineering. Over-engineering is when you spend so much time organizing, planning, and maintaining your productivity systems that you actually become less efficient. Your productivity scaffolding yields a net productivity loss instead of a gain.
Every few days someone emails me about a new productivity system, application, or web service. Each one claims to have a new twist on how to boost productivity. But what would happen if I starting using dozens of different websites and applications to supposedly boost my productivity. Would I really gain anything at all?
The Hidden Cost of Productivity Enhancement
Consider the hidden cost of investing in productivity tools:
* Productivity Systems - Learn about the system, perhaps via word of mouth. Buy a book on the subject. Read the book to learn the system. Prepare to implement the system. Practice using the system, often incompetently at first. Stick with the system for a few weeks minimum to get used to it. Continue to spend time working the system indefinitely. Figure about ways to tweak the system to better fit your particular circumstances. Explain the system to other people who are curious about it. Re-implement the system each time you stray.
* Productivity Software - Learn about the software. Decide whether it seems worthwhile. Download and install a trial version. Learn to use the software. Buy the full version, pay the bill, and do the accounting for the purchase if you deduct it as a business expense. Mail in a rebate if available, and deposit the rebate check. Spend time using the software. Upgrade the software as needed. Transfer it when you buy a new computer. Uninstall it when you no longer need it.
* Productivity Gadgets - Learn about various gadgets. Read the reviews. Decide which one to buy. Buy it. Unpack it. Learn to use it. Input your data. Spend time using the gadget. Upgrade it as needed. Deal with breakage if you're unlucky. Explain the gadget to people who ask you about it. Sell it or dispose of it safely.
The worst part is that you have to endure much of this time investment even if you choose wrong and end up discarding a tool you dislike. It can take hours just to properly evaluate a productivity tool.
I've found that the most productive use of my time when someone emails me about a new productivity tool is to simply hit the Delete key. It's a terrific time saver.
Old School Productivity
As I detailed in the article Do It Now, I took triple the normal course load in college and graduated with two degrees in only three semesters. This was back in 1992-93. I had a packed schedule and many open projects with deadlines and various degrees of priority. In my final semester I worked as a contract computer game programmer on the side while also attending school (more than) full-time, so I had professional, personal, and academic projects to juggle. I didn't use any fancy productivity tools, yet somehow I managed to be extremely productive.
There was really just one productivity tool I predominantly used -- a pocket-sized paper assignment notebook. Whenever I'd get a new assignment, I'd write it down in my notebook along with the deadline. When I completed an assignment, I'd cross it off. I wrote down every assignment in the order it was received. I didn't do any reordering or prioritizing of this list. When a page from the notebook was all crossed off on both sides, I ripped it out and threw it in the trash. If I had to write down scheduled appointments, I added them to my notebook too, noting the date and time. I had a paper calendar at my desk, but I rarely used it except maybe to mark holidays.
How did I decide what to do? I paged through the notebook to scan the current list of assignments. Typically there would be about 20 of them. I considered each assignment's difficulty, duration, and deadline as well as my energy level. Then I made a snap decision about which one to tackle next. I just picked one that seemed to be a reasonable choice, not worrying much if it was the best choice. I probably spent no more than 2-3 minutes scanning and deciding, so I didn't do any fancy mental gymnastics. Then I started working on that assignment immediately, sticking with it until it was 100% complete. If I had to write a term paper that took me 20 hours, I did virtually nothing else of any consequence until it was done.
Since assignments were recorded in the order they were assigned, the oldest assignments were in the front of my notebook, and the older, freshly recorded assignments were in the back. If I had a really old assignment, it would often be the only item left on a page with everything else on that page already crossed off. This gave me a little extra pressure to complete the oldest projects, since then I could rip out its page and throw it away, thereby making the assignment list feel a little lighter. The older a project became, the more incentive I felt to get it done.
If a task on my list got too old and I hadn't done anything with it, I might decide not to do it at all, so I could finally remove the page and toss it. Alternatively, I might decide it was still worth doing, in which can I'd copy it to the back of the list and give it a chance for another cycle. Maybe the timing just wasn't right the first time. But if a task was on the list for a couple of months and hadn't been touched, it probably just wasn't important enough that I was ever going to do it.
Getting Into Action
This simple low-maintenance system worked extremely well for me. It kept me in the state of doing instead of planning and prioritizing. In the years since my college days, I've repeatedly fallen into the trap of over-engineering my productivity, getting sucked into trying all sorts of elaborate systems. It's rather disgusting how much time I've invested in trying to be more productive. It's true that some of it did pay off very well, but given how much time I wasted sifting through lumps of coal to find the gems, it's hard to know if the overall pursuit was worthwhile.
I keep falling back on the simplicity of a linear first-in, first-out list, spending the bulk of my time directly working on projects instead of fiddling around with my productivity scaffolding. Your results may vary, but I seem to get a lot more done when I spend my time completing tasks instead of figuring out the best way to begin them.
If you find yourself getting sucked into productivity tool mania, consider that the secret to high productivity is to get your tasks done efficiently, intelligently balancing the urgent with the important. If your productivity tools aren't measurably helping you complete important projects faster than you could without them, you may be better off cutting your losses and abandoning those tools completely. Sometimes the best productivity system is something that's dead simple.
Imagine what would happen if you spent a solid week or two repeating this loop:
1. Quickly scan your existing materials such as to-do lists and scraps of paper to pick a task that's reasonable to do next. Don't worry about selecting the optimal #1 task. Just pick one that you know you need to get done. If it seems to be taking you more than 3 minutes to decide, feel free to begin with any task that has a deadline sometime in the next 30 days, such as paying your bills or doing your grocery shopping.
2. Do that task, sticking with it until it's 100% complete. Don't check email or do anything else if you can avoid it. If the task is longer than 4 hours, chunk it down, but try to do the chunks in order without switching to other tasks in between unless absolutely necessary.
3. Return to Step 1 and repeat.
I think most people will get far more done with this simple approach instead of twiddling with fancy productivity tools.
Lightening Your Load
If you keep a good flow of action going, your overall load of tasks will tend to be lighter. A lot of items on a typical person's to-do list have deadlines within the next 30 days. If you can increase the speed at which you complete such items, you'll have fewer of those items on your list at any given time. That means fewer tasks to think about and less stress. You don't have to prioritize tasks that you've already done.
Which would feel better to you: to complete an 8-hour project from your to do list, even if it isn't the most important one, or to spend 8 hours testing new productivity tools? I don't know about you, but I feel much better after I complete a project. When I spend time trying out tools, I feel much more empty.
Two weekends ago, Erin and the kids went out of town, so I had the house to myself for several days. I knew that was a good time to complete some kind of multi-day project, and I had several good candidates on my task list. I didn't spend much time thinking about which project was best. I just picked one that seemed reasonable and set to work on it right away, sticking with it day after day until it was complete. That project involved upgrading the hardware and software for StevePavlina.com's web server and adding several new features to the site, such as an "Email this article a friend" link for every blog post. I don't know if that was the most optimal project to do at that particular time, but I'm glad to have gotten it done.
When I spend too much time planning and prioritizing or testing new productivity tools, it keeps me out of the flow of action. Once I get drawn into productivity enhancement mode, which can get pretty addicting, I can spend hours doing meta-work but not actually completing tasks that produce real value. I start thinking of planning as an end in itself instead of a means to more important goals. I may become more organized, but in the end I really have nothing to show for it. If my actions don't generate value for other people, who really cares?
On the other hand, if I make quick decisions about what to do next and just tackle some value-generating project immediately, I slide into the flow of doing. I feel much more energized when I complete a project vs. when I complete a plan, and I have a tendency to flow right into the next action with only a short break. People actually care about the website upgrades I recently completed. I can see that the new features are being used. If I post a new article or send out a newsletter, I can see that it benefits people. But if I invest time and energy into boosting my personal productivity, it doesn't benefit anyone unless it translates into increased value delivery at some point, and whether that increase actually occurs is highly debatable.
Be Discriminating
I'm not saying I rule out productivity tools altogether, but in order to even look at something these days, I have to hear positive feedback about it from multiple sources. If one person emails me about it, I usually tune it out. If 3 or 4 people tell me about it, I might visit the website. But in order to really consider it, I probably need to see it come up at least 7 or 8 times. Then if I check it out and discover it's really good, I might recommend it on my website, so others can benefit from it too. Of all the productivity tools people have informed me about during the past few years, I might recommend around 1 in 50.
Be cautious about turning the pursuit of greater productivity into an end in itself. Remember that the point is to get things done that create value for others. You can't be said to be productive if you aren't delivering value, regardless of how finely you've tuned your suite of productivity tools. If you do feel the urge to tweak your methods, keep your eye on the delivery side.
From India, Madras
one more article on the productivity from stevepavlina.com. it is very useful and good for all. hope you like it.
janet smith
Are You Over-engineering Your Productivity?
Excessive productivity can bring the most gifted man almost to madness.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
If you've ever tried to improve your personal productivity and/or become more organized, you've probably encountered the problem of over-engineering. Over-engineering is when you spend so much time organizing, planning, and maintaining your productivity systems that you actually become less efficient. Your productivity scaffolding yields a net productivity loss instead of a gain.
Every few days someone emails me about a new productivity system, application, or web service. Each one claims to have a new twist on how to boost productivity. But what would happen if I starting using dozens of different websites and applications to supposedly boost my productivity. Would I really gain anything at all?
The Hidden Cost of Productivity Enhancement
Consider the hidden cost of investing in productivity tools:
* Productivity Systems - Learn about the system, perhaps via word of mouth. Buy a book on the subject. Read the book to learn the system. Prepare to implement the system. Practice using the system, often incompetently at first. Stick with the system for a few weeks minimum to get used to it. Continue to spend time working the system indefinitely. Figure about ways to tweak the system to better fit your particular circumstances. Explain the system to other people who are curious about it. Re-implement the system each time you stray.
* Productivity Software - Learn about the software. Decide whether it seems worthwhile. Download and install a trial version. Learn to use the software. Buy the full version, pay the bill, and do the accounting for the purchase if you deduct it as a business expense. Mail in a rebate if available, and deposit the rebate check. Spend time using the software. Upgrade the software as needed. Transfer it when you buy a new computer. Uninstall it when you no longer need it.
* Productivity Gadgets - Learn about various gadgets. Read the reviews. Decide which one to buy. Buy it. Unpack it. Learn to use it. Input your data. Spend time using the gadget. Upgrade it as needed. Deal with breakage if you're unlucky. Explain the gadget to people who ask you about it. Sell it or dispose of it safely.
The worst part is that you have to endure much of this time investment even if you choose wrong and end up discarding a tool you dislike. It can take hours just to properly evaluate a productivity tool.
I've found that the most productive use of my time when someone emails me about a new productivity tool is to simply hit the Delete key. It's a terrific time saver.
Old School Productivity
As I detailed in the article Do It Now, I took triple the normal course load in college and graduated with two degrees in only three semesters. This was back in 1992-93. I had a packed schedule and many open projects with deadlines and various degrees of priority. In my final semester I worked as a contract computer game programmer on the side while also attending school (more than) full-time, so I had professional, personal, and academic projects to juggle. I didn't use any fancy productivity tools, yet somehow I managed to be extremely productive.
There was really just one productivity tool I predominantly used -- a pocket-sized paper assignment notebook. Whenever I'd get a new assignment, I'd write it down in my notebook along with the deadline. When I completed an assignment, I'd cross it off. I wrote down every assignment in the order it was received. I didn't do any reordering or prioritizing of this list. When a page from the notebook was all crossed off on both sides, I ripped it out and threw it in the trash. If I had to write down scheduled appointments, I added them to my notebook too, noting the date and time. I had a paper calendar at my desk, but I rarely used it except maybe to mark holidays.
How did I decide what to do? I paged through the notebook to scan the current list of assignments. Typically there would be about 20 of them. I considered each assignment's difficulty, duration, and deadline as well as my energy level. Then I made a snap decision about which one to tackle next. I just picked one that seemed to be a reasonable choice, not worrying much if it was the best choice. I probably spent no more than 2-3 minutes scanning and deciding, so I didn't do any fancy mental gymnastics. Then I started working on that assignment immediately, sticking with it until it was 100% complete. If I had to write a term paper that took me 20 hours, I did virtually nothing else of any consequence until it was done.
Since assignments were recorded in the order they were assigned, the oldest assignments were in the front of my notebook, and the older, freshly recorded assignments were in the back. If I had a really old assignment, it would often be the only item left on a page with everything else on that page already crossed off. This gave me a little extra pressure to complete the oldest projects, since then I could rip out its page and throw it away, thereby making the assignment list feel a little lighter. The older a project became, the more incentive I felt to get it done.
If a task on my list got too old and I hadn't done anything with it, I might decide not to do it at all, so I could finally remove the page and toss it. Alternatively, I might decide it was still worth doing, in which can I'd copy it to the back of the list and give it a chance for another cycle. Maybe the timing just wasn't right the first time. But if a task was on the list for a couple of months and hadn't been touched, it probably just wasn't important enough that I was ever going to do it.
Getting Into Action
This simple low-maintenance system worked extremely well for me. It kept me in the state of doing instead of planning and prioritizing. In the years since my college days, I've repeatedly fallen into the trap of over-engineering my productivity, getting sucked into trying all sorts of elaborate systems. It's rather disgusting how much time I've invested in trying to be more productive. It's true that some of it did pay off very well, but given how much time I wasted sifting through lumps of coal to find the gems, it's hard to know if the overall pursuit was worthwhile.
I keep falling back on the simplicity of a linear first-in, first-out list, spending the bulk of my time directly working on projects instead of fiddling around with my productivity scaffolding. Your results may vary, but I seem to get a lot more done when I spend my time completing tasks instead of figuring out the best way to begin them.
If you find yourself getting sucked into productivity tool mania, consider that the secret to high productivity is to get your tasks done efficiently, intelligently balancing the urgent with the important. If your productivity tools aren't measurably helping you complete important projects faster than you could without them, you may be better off cutting your losses and abandoning those tools completely. Sometimes the best productivity system is something that's dead simple.
Imagine what would happen if you spent a solid week or two repeating this loop:
1. Quickly scan your existing materials such as to-do lists and scraps of paper to pick a task that's reasonable to do next. Don't worry about selecting the optimal #1 task. Just pick one that you know you need to get done. If it seems to be taking you more than 3 minutes to decide, feel free to begin with any task that has a deadline sometime in the next 30 days, such as paying your bills or doing your grocery shopping.
2. Do that task, sticking with it until it's 100% complete. Don't check email or do anything else if you can avoid it. If the task is longer than 4 hours, chunk it down, but try to do the chunks in order without switching to other tasks in between unless absolutely necessary.
3. Return to Step 1 and repeat.
I think most people will get far more done with this simple approach instead of twiddling with fancy productivity tools.
Lightening Your Load
If you keep a good flow of action going, your overall load of tasks will tend to be lighter. A lot of items on a typical person's to-do list have deadlines within the next 30 days. If you can increase the speed at which you complete such items, you'll have fewer of those items on your list at any given time. That means fewer tasks to think about and less stress. You don't have to prioritize tasks that you've already done.
Which would feel better to you: to complete an 8-hour project from your to do list, even if it isn't the most important one, or to spend 8 hours testing new productivity tools? I don't know about you, but I feel much better after I complete a project. When I spend time trying out tools, I feel much more empty.
Two weekends ago, Erin and the kids went out of town, so I had the house to myself for several days. I knew that was a good time to complete some kind of multi-day project, and I had several good candidates on my task list. I didn't spend much time thinking about which project was best. I just picked one that seemed reasonable and set to work on it right away, sticking with it day after day until it was complete. That project involved upgrading the hardware and software for StevePavlina.com's web server and adding several new features to the site, such as an "Email this article a friend" link for every blog post. I don't know if that was the most optimal project to do at that particular time, but I'm glad to have gotten it done.
When I spend too much time planning and prioritizing or testing new productivity tools, it keeps me out of the flow of action. Once I get drawn into productivity enhancement mode, which can get pretty addicting, I can spend hours doing meta-work but not actually completing tasks that produce real value. I start thinking of planning as an end in itself instead of a means to more important goals. I may become more organized, but in the end I really have nothing to show for it. If my actions don't generate value for other people, who really cares?
On the other hand, if I make quick decisions about what to do next and just tackle some value-generating project immediately, I slide into the flow of doing. I feel much more energized when I complete a project vs. when I complete a plan, and I have a tendency to flow right into the next action with only a short break. People actually care about the website upgrades I recently completed. I can see that the new features are being used. If I post a new article or send out a newsletter, I can see that it benefits people. But if I invest time and energy into boosting my personal productivity, it doesn't benefit anyone unless it translates into increased value delivery at some point, and whether that increase actually occurs is highly debatable.
Be Discriminating
I'm not saying I rule out productivity tools altogether, but in order to even look at something these days, I have to hear positive feedback about it from multiple sources. If one person emails me about it, I usually tune it out. If 3 or 4 people tell me about it, I might visit the website. But in order to really consider it, I probably need to see it come up at least 7 or 8 times. Then if I check it out and discover it's really good, I might recommend it on my website, so others can benefit from it too. Of all the productivity tools people have informed me about during the past few years, I might recommend around 1 in 50.
Be cautious about turning the pursuit of greater productivity into an end in itself. Remember that the point is to get things done that create value for others. You can't be said to be productive if you aren't delivering value, regardless of how finely you've tuned your suite of productivity tools. If you do feel the urge to tweak your methods, keep your eye on the delivery side.
From India, Madras
Hi Janet ,
first of all I am very sorry for not giving response to your mail
secondly I am not a regular user , but I have learnt many many things thru this citehr, by the way my name is Phalguni I am a HR executive
Thirdly to day will try to read your motivational e-book and not audio because I donot have the facility any way doesn't matter.
And I will tell you one motivational author Mr. John Maxwell His books are very use ful pl go through by his books really you will enjoy his books
keep in touch
Cheers
Phalguni
:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D
From India
first of all I am very sorry for not giving response to your mail
secondly I am not a regular user , but I have learnt many many things thru this citehr, by the way my name is Phalguni I am a HR executive
Thirdly to day will try to read your motivational e-book and not audio because I donot have the facility any way doesn't matter.
And I will tell you one motivational author Mr. John Maxwell His books are very use ful pl go through by his books really you will enjoy his books
keep in touch
Cheers
Phalguni
:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D
From India
Hi Janet !!
I saw it and find it really interesting and useful. Actually I was searching for some articles on leadership the other day and saw your article along with 1 more.
I want to furnish my decision taking abilities so I thought to sharpen it by reading few articles online.
Take Care All
From India, Lucknow
I saw it and find it really interesting and useful. Actually I was searching for some articles on leadership the other day and saw your article along with 1 more.
I want to furnish my decision taking abilities so I thought to sharpen it by reading few articles online.
Take Care All
From India, Lucknow
thanks to all if they find this information is useful for them.
falguni how are you. sorry i am a bit late here. i am trying to find the books of Mr. John Maxwell in the internet and i thanks to you for this information.
ali-infoseek, i think you have to learn from your day to day decision. if you find the articles which helps you on your decision making ability than it is fine but from my point of view if you start making decision without worry much about that you are making right or wrong decision. and after that you start evaluate the decision you make than you find soon that your decision making ability has been so sharp that you are surprise.
the logic behind this decision is that when you make the decision that what you are going to do than you fear inside that may be your decision is wrong and you are not much have much ability and to solve this problem you are going to outside to look for help and you read the articles and other books etc. so that you can sharp your decision making ability. but you are aware that just reading book would not help unless you start making decision.
so when you make a decision with the facts you have right now without worry about outcome. than there is a negative result or positive results. if there is negative result than you evaluate the result and find where you are going to be wrong. and day after day day in and day out you are making decision and learning the lesson from each decision than you have already sharpen your decision making ability in a single month without reading any articles or books.
hope this help.
janet smith
From India, Madras
falguni how are you. sorry i am a bit late here. i am trying to find the books of Mr. John Maxwell in the internet and i thanks to you for this information.
ali-infoseek, i think you have to learn from your day to day decision. if you find the articles which helps you on your decision making ability than it is fine but from my point of view if you start making decision without worry much about that you are making right or wrong decision. and after that you start evaluate the decision you make than you find soon that your decision making ability has been so sharp that you are surprise.
the logic behind this decision is that when you make the decision that what you are going to do than you fear inside that may be your decision is wrong and you are not much have much ability and to solve this problem you are going to outside to look for help and you read the articles and other books etc. so that you can sharp your decision making ability. but you are aware that just reading book would not help unless you start making decision.
so when you make a decision with the facts you have right now without worry about outcome. than there is a negative result or positive results. if there is negative result than you evaluate the result and find where you are going to be wrong. and day after day day in and day out you are making decision and learning the lesson from each decision than you have already sharpen your decision making ability in a single month without reading any articles or books.
hope this help.
janet smith
From India, Madras
hi everyone,
here is another source of e-book which is cost you nothing because it is free.
Get $218.45 worth of success and motivation ebooks and audios for free
when you visit here he demand you e-mail ID and than you proceed to a page which he offer you a great number of ebook for a small price. on that page you have to look for sentence which says that i do not required this offer please skip over and take me to fee ebooks. when you click that link you are taken into that area where all the ebooks are there.
janet smith
From India, Madras
here is another source of e-book which is cost you nothing because it is free.
Get $218.45 worth of success and motivation ebooks and audios for free
when you visit here he demand you e-mail ID and than you proceed to a page which he offer you a great number of ebook for a small price. on that page you have to look for sentence which says that i do not required this offer please skip over and take me to fee ebooks. when you click that link you are taken into that area where all the ebooks are there.
janet smith
From India, Madras
hi janet that was truly magnanamous ,how about this just to to complement ur treasure mubarak
From India, Hyderabad
From India, Hyderabad
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