personal growth

Make Tomorrow More Productive in < 15 Minutes

We all have days where we find ourselves staring at the computer screen for hours and at the end of the day feeling like we got nothing accomplished (except for catching up on our Facebook and Twitter feeds).

This is an awful feeling.

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Instead of commiserating on the lost time, make tomorrow a bit more manageable and successful by implementing these two habits:

Write out 5 goals for tomorrow

Start out by making a short list of the top 5 things you want to accomplish tomorrow. Make the goals specific and descriptive.

Here are some examples: read more

7 Essential Skills for Being a Team Player

teamworkIf you want to make meaning and change the status quo, it’s not enough to just be on the team. You must also be a team player.

Remember your 6th grade basketball team? Whether you were a starter or second string, A-team or B-team, your position on the team was extremely important.

No matter what your role is in the organization, it is essential to have these skills in order to be successful.

The best team players:

Help teammates win

Have the back of your teammates. When one person wins, you all win. If someone is struggling to meet a deadline or stuck on a problem they just cannot solve, jump in and help. Sometimes just an outside perspective can get to the solution quicker.

Ingrain trust

You know those plays where the point guard doesn’t even look at the person they are passing to? That’s what you want to do. You want your team mates to trust you will be there when it counts.

Inspire each other

Inspire your teammates to push harder and further. Go out of their comfort zone. Do things they didn’t think they were capable of doing.

Bring positivity

The Power of Positive Thinking. When someone gets a miss, stumbles, falls – help them get back up and shake it off.

Work with intensity read more

The Most Important Formula You Need to Solve

formulaWe often associate formulas with mathematics, however they are hugely beneficial to use in many other circumstances that don’t include just numbers.

Figuring out what you need from your current or future job can help you create a career path that best fits your personality, needs, ambitions, and lead to a more fulfilling life.  I call this your “work-happiness formula“.

Take a moment to list out the factors that are important to you.

Once you have your factors, take the top 5-7 and place a multiplier in front of them (not exceeding 100%) in order to prioritize them. read more

3 Tactics for Overcoming Haters

hatersThere are haters out there – everywhere. Some subtle, some very direct.  They are the folks who don’t believe you can do what you say you can do, brush off any of your success, and often beat you down – (emotionally, not physically).

Haters are toxic to creativity and can hinder pushing forward on your goals. How do you deal with them?

Decide not to associate with them, and cut your losses

It’s not worth being miserable everyday. If you circle the parking lot before heading into work, it’s time to move on and find some new associates. However, it can be difficult to not associate with these folks if they are close friends or family, and in that case it is worth talking to them about what is going on. It will probably be a difficult and uncomfortable discussion, but it is better then lying awake in bed each night with the anxiety and doubt. You might even be able to turn them into supports! read more

6 Survival Strategies for Life Mavericks

be differentGoing against the grain to create something incredible and wonderful is not for the faint of heart. You may channel this desire in the career you pursue, or in the building of your ideal dwelling, or in the formation and development of your personal relationships – maybe it’s all three. There will be many lonely and dark days and nights while following a different path than the norm and status quo.

How to you survive the hard times?

Keep those who both believe in you and will call you on your shit, the closest read more

4 Critical Tips for Avoiding Decision Paralysis

Businessman Forward PathIndecisiveness is futile- but making impactful and important decisions can be difficult.  I know.  Trust me.  We are often forced to make decisions without complete information.  Any mathematician (like myself) loves to make decisions based on formulas, data, and concrete assumptions.

Unfortunately, life and business don’t always present challenges that way (you know – with all that data presented nice and neatly for you).

How can you ease the process? (and stop wearing the finish off your wood floors from pacing) read more