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  1. Scott H Young
  2. ABOUT
  3. ARTICLES
  4. MY PROJECTS
  5. BOOKS & COURSES
  6. FREE NEWSLETTER
  7.  
  8. Why You Should Be More Extreme
  9. August, 20178 Comments
  10. Trying too hard is stigmatized in our society. People don’t like it when someone goes too far when trying to accomplish something. This is unfortunate, because going too far is exactly what you need to do. Case in point: I recently started tracking calories. No, I’m not fat. No, I don’t think I am. But […]
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  13. Three Strategies for Behavior Change
  14. September, 20168 Comments
  15. Most of self-improvement boils down to behavior change. You want to exercise more, eat better, earn more money, learn a new language, stop worrying so much. All of it is a form of changing your behavior. Looking around, there seems to be broadly three ways of changing behavior: Bottom-up Top-down Inside-out I notice that people […]
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  18. What Does it Mean to Work Hard?
  19. November, 201543 Comments
  20. I don’t feel like I work very hard. These days I usually wake up when I want to. I take frequent breaks. I even take random days off to spend time with friends, to go hiking or to read a book. This seems to be true even when I have a lot of work to […]
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  23. How Much Stress Do You Need for Success?
  24. September, 201544 Comments
  25. A lot of anxiety in life is both unwanted and involuntary. Often when I have an early morning flight, I can’t sleep deeply. The worry about sleeping through my alarm clock has me waking up involuntarily, every hour or so. Even when I should have enough sleep to feel rested, I wake up groggy. I […]
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  28. How to Build the Habit of Finishing What You Start
  29. April, 201565 Comments
  30. What do you do when you start a personal project, but you start to lose interest? Should you quit or keep going, even though it’s no longer fun? What if the project is to improve your health or career? What if your goals change and the project no longer feels relevant? Should you quit or […]
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  33. Make Plans Work on 20% Effort
  34. November, 201413 Comments
  35. I’m currently doing an experimental pilot course with Cal Newport about applying the ideas of deliberate practice to a career setting. To get better feedback, we limited the course to fifteen people. We also had the potential applicants jump through a number of hoops to eliminate the uncommitted. A $500 tuition fee, application form including […]
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  38. The Stupidity of Cutting Sleep
  39. October, 201437 Comments
  40. Last week I did a live workshop for the students in Learning on Steroids. One of the listeners asked me whether I knew a way to reduce sleep to 5-6 hours and not feel tired. No, I don’t. And you shouldn’t try. Similarly, when I was in university, I knew people who often bragged about […]
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  43. How to Increase Your Ability to Focus
  44. September, 201414 Comments
  45. This is the first day in a one-week, free, rapid-learning bootcamp. Every day, for the next seven days, I’m going to be sending a new email with a strategy you can use to learn more effectively. However, this first email is the only one I’m making publicly available on the blog. What’s more, once the […]
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  48. Why You’re Probably Not Working as Much as You Think You Are
  49. July, 201411 Comments
  50. People who’ve never done a timelog before often grossly overestimate the amount of time they are actually working. Years ago I had a friend who was launching a software company and earnestly told me that he was putting in 12-hour work days to achieve this. Despite that, I could see him making dozens of online […]
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  53. How Much Harder is Learning Chinese Than Spanish?
  54. April, 201427 Comments
  55. A big question I had in my mind before starting this trip was how much harder is learning an Asian language like Chinese than a European one like Spanish? Obviously Chinese is harder, but how much? Is it just a little harder than Spanish or is it several times more difficult? My experience with both […]
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  58. The Three-Step Strategy to Study Hard Without Burning Out
  59. April, 201442 Comments
  60. Most of the time I talk about learning better, I try to focus on long-term habits. Build good habits over months and years, and they’ll serve you for the rest of your life. Even if you fall off the wagon, it’s easier to rebuild old habits than construct fresh ones. Sometimes, however, you won’t have […]
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  63. My Plan for Learning Chinese Over Three Months
  64. February, 201455 Comments
  65. Normally I share my learning experiences after the fact. I’ve written before about tackling MIT’s calculus, Spanish, linear algebra, finance and other non-academic learning tasks. This time, however, I wanted to do things a little differently. I want to share my thinking process before going to learn Chinese. Then, once we land and the three […]
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  68. My Spanish After Three Months
  69. December, 201317 Comments
  70. A little less than three months ago today, I arrived with my friend Vat with very limited Spanish, with the goal of not speaking English for our entire stay. The challenge was an experiment: would it be possible to get by with no English even though our Spanish was rudimentary? And more, how much could […]
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  73. Watch Out for “Good” Ideas
  74. July, 20136 Comments
  75. Whenever I hear unanimous opinion a new idea or plan I have is “good”, I get suspicious. Until recently, however, I couldn’t articulate the cause of that suspicion. After all, if most people think an idea is good, shouldn’t that give me more confidence in it, not less? I think I’ve figured out the trigger […]
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  78. How to Execute a Successful Side Project
  79. July, 201317 Comments
  80. I’m a big believer in the power of side projects. This blog was once a side project. Same for the business behind it. Nearly every professional milestone I’ve made was from something that happened in my spare time, and I don’t think that’s an accident. Side projects harness the unexpected. While your regular job and […]
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  83. How to Focus
  84. April, 201339 Comments
  85. I spoke at an event recently about learning and my MIT Challenge. The talk was about which memory and insight-building methods I found useful during my experiment. After the talk, one of the audience members came and asked me whether I felt the success of the project was mostly due to efficient learning methods or […]
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  88. Catch-22s and Bootstrapping Your Life
  89. March, 201322 Comments
  90. Catch-22s are problems which have circular or paradoxical solutions. Named after Joseph Heller’s famous book by the same name, about a soldier who can avoid dangerous combat if he is insane (but applying for the provision is proof of sanity). Many situations in life are close to Catch-22s, problems by which the method of solution […]
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  93. Self-Discipline Comes First
  94. February, 201329 Comments
  95. The most important skill is execution. Having great ideas, wise decisions or clever strategies comes second. The ability to get things done is paramount. This why I sigh when I hear people complaining about being unable to stay motivated on a project because they aren’t sure whether it’s the right one. These people have it […]
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  98. “It’s Who You Know”
  99. February, 201330 Comments
  100. I’ve often heard the titular expression in conversations about professional success. Uttered with a sneer, it seems to point at the unfairness of life and the hopelessness of the masses of people without good connections. It’s also an expression that is mostly true. Talent and effort matter, of course, but the gears of the machine […]
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  103. Two Types of Growth
  104. February, 201344 Comments
  105. Anything you try to improve will have a growth curve. Imagine you ran everyday and you tracked your speed to finish a 5-mile course. Smoothing out the noise, over enough time you’d probably get a graph like this: Here, improvement works on a logarithmic scale. As you get better, it gets harder and harder to […]
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  108. Double your output (while working fewer hours)
  109. October, 201226 Comments
  110. In this post I’m going to share a trick I’ve used to double the work I’ve managed to get done, while working fewer hours. Without it, I’m certain I couldn’t have finished the MIT Challenge. Before I share the method, however, I’m going to tell you why it works. First, I want you to ask […]
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  113. Why Focus (not Effort) is the Key to Getting Stuff Done
  114. October, 201240 Comments
  115. Around the time I started this blog, I was obsessed with habits. The psychology is fascinating and the idea that you could reprogram your behavior was compelling. After all, how much could you accomplish if you never failed to act on what you planned? The science of behavior change makes it exciting too: operant and […]
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  118. Why You’re Lazy (and How to Fix It)
  119. October, 201226 Comments
  120. After spending a year working through MIT’s computer science curriculum independently, I’ve gotten quite a few comments from people claiming I must have extraordinary self-discipline. I let that vanity sink in a bit, but then remember I procrastinated for a week to pack for my last trip, ending up doing it all last minute. The […]
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  123. The MIT Challenge is Complete
  124. September, 201252 Comments
  125. After 11 months and 26 days, I managed to finish the last project and exam for the MIT Challenge. That makes 33 classes for which I passed the final exams and did the programming projects. As I share in the video, I’ve learned a lot in the last year. But more than just my learning, […]
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  128. Don’t Follow Your Passion
  129. September, 201210 Comments
  130. I recently read an advance copy of Cal Newport’s fascinating (and controversial) new book: So Good They Can’t Ignore You. The main argument being that following your passion is bad career advice. The first problem is that, for the most part, preexisting passions don’t exist. Cal cites a study which interviewed 500+ university students to […]
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  133. The Beginner’s Guide to Learning to Program
  134. September, 201219 Comments
  135. One of the most frequent questions I get asked in emails is what’s the best way to learn how to program. In the past I’ve shied away from this question, since the internet is populated by much better programmers than myself. However, while there are many guides to learning a specific programming languages or tool, […]
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  138. Work Less to Get More Done
  139. August, 201227 Comments
  140. For several years now I’ve used a productivity trick called weekly/daily goals. I’ve written about it many times before, but the gist is simple: You keep two to-do lists, one for the day and one for the week. As the week goes by, move items from your weekly to daily list. When working, only focus […]
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  143. Should You Learn New Skills or Master Old Ones?
  144. July, 201231 Comments
  145. A recent meme in the life-advice world is that anyone can make themselves an expert. Malcolm Gladwell suggested that 10,000 hours of practice were the key to becoming world class. Anders Ericsson’s research backs this up—if you want to be good, deliberate practice is key. A bigger question is, what’s the best way to spend […]
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  148. The Laziness Paradox: Embrace Your Weaknesses to Accomplish More
  149. May, 201224 Comments
  150. I was recently having dinner with a friend who was telling me his plan to get in shape. He had always been on the skinny side and wanted to bulk up a bit. His plan was to gain ten pounds over the following two months. Being the good friend I am, I told him he’d […]
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  153. What Matters More, Marketing or Mastery?
  154. February, 201225 Comments
  155. Last week’s guest article on hacking the system generated a frenzy of discussion. One reader commented that this was the best guest post he had ever read. Another said it was terrible and that it detracted from the entire work of this website. I normally leave follow-up to the comments section, but this ideological rift […]
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  158. If You’re Young, Do Harder, Riskier Things
  159. January, 201226 Comments
  160. I get a lot of email. Most is encouraging, but now and then I get an email from a reader irate that one of my articles didn’t speak to them personally, so they write me a scathing critique. A common template goes something like, “You think it’s easy to do _____. Just wait until you […]
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  163. Look Lazy, Be Productive
  164. January, 201226 Comments
  165. There’s a huge difference between looking productive and being productive. It’s one I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self. About seven years ago, I had big ambitions. I was going to run my own online business and be successful. Unfortunately I didn’t have any direct role models of people […]
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  168. Developing an Appetite for Hard Ideas
  169. August, 201125 Comments
  170. Richard Feynman, professor and Nobel-prize winning physicist purportedly only had an IQ of 125. Smart, but hardly in the rarefied spectrum we normally consider for genius. This trivia is usually brought up to show the ridiculousness of IQ testing. If an obvious genius doesn’t qualify for Mensa, how valid can it be for normal people? […]
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  173. Completing an MIT Physics Class in 4.5 Days?
  174. August, 201149 Comments
  175. Reprinted from my free newsletter, Learn Faster, Achieve More. Last week I sat down to write one of the hardest exams I’ve ever had to prepare for, and I’m not even a student anymore. The class was Classical Mechanics, an MIT physics class. MIT generously puts up many courses online, for free, so you can […]
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  178. The Skill of Trying Your Best
  179. July, 201116 Comments
  180. “As long as you tried your best,” was a phrase I’d hear as a kid. It was supposed to console you in the event of failure. Reminding you that, as long as you put your best effort in, then it didn’t matter if you lost. Hearing that phrase as an adult, I wonder how often […]
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  183. Here’s What’s Wrong with Self-Help
  184. September, 201038 Comments
  185. “I’m not really into that personal development stuff.” A friend said this to me the other day. I found it interesting not because it’s unusual to say, but because it’s common. I know many people who wouldn’t be caught dead walking around the self-help aisle of a bookstore, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have […]
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  188. Discipline Can Make You Good, Not the Best
  189. August, 201021 Comments
  190. I have a pet theory about discipline: Discipline can help you become good at something, but it can’t make you world-class. If you want to be in good shape, it’s not unreasonable to expect success if you put in enough hard work. Same is true if you wanted to be a decent guitar player or […]
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  193. Should You Waste More of Your Time?
  194. May, 201023 Comments
  195. If you want to enjoy life and accomplish anything meaningful in it, productivity matters. I’ve met quite a few people who feel overwhelmed constantly by their workload. Even in cases when I know I’ve had relatively busier period in my life with less stress. That isn’t to claim I’m somehow superior–I’m definitely not. Simply that […]
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  198. Do You Use “Lack of Motivation” as an Excuse?
  199. March, 201023 Comments
  200. A common excuse I hear for not setting goals, building mastery or sticking to important habits is the phrase, “I’m just not motivated enough.” I wonder whether these people believe motivation will simply fall from the sky and strike them. As if sitting and doing nothing was the best way to break a cycle of […]
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  203. You’re Lazier Than You Think
  204. March, 201024 Comments
  205. Most people vastly overestimate their willpower. After four years of detailed feedback from readers on habit changes, I can come to no other conclusion. If willpower were cash, most people empty their wallets on the first day. Keeping this in mind, when I set the first 30 Day Trials for the group of students enrolled […]
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  208. Why Self-Educated Learners Often Come Up Short
  209. February, 2010151 Comments
  210. I have a pet peeve about certain people who attack formal education systems and claim to pursue self-education. Not because universities are spectacular learning environments (they usually aren’t). Or even because self-education isn’t a worthwhile goal (it’s probably one of the best). It’s because I’ve noticed many of the university-hating self-taught are the kind of […]
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  213. What if You Have More Than One Passion?
  214. November, 200921 Comments
  215. If you have many different passions, pursue all of them. Recently, I’ve had a couple emails from readers explaining that their problem is simply having too many passions. Far from being members of the apathetic masses, these people seem to have difficulty focusing because there are simply so many things to be interested about. I […]
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  218. Success Requires Hard Work (But Not All in One Day)
  219. October, 20098 Comments
  220. Becoming good at anything takes hard work. A lot of it. The people who are willing to sweat out their craft for years will win. The people who want quick money and fame after six months will not. However, while success may require a lot of hard work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that work is […]
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  223. How to Draw (and Other Life Lessons)
  224. July, 20095 Comments
  225. “I can’t draw, I’m not an artist.” I’ve heard this many times. Some people must think that being able to draw faces or pictures is something you’re born with. It’s not. It’s just a skill, like any other, that people have worked to become good at. I just spent an afternoon doing illustrations for my […]
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  228. Know Your Burn Rate, and Why it Sabotages You Before You Begin
  229. July, 20098 Comments
  230. A burn rate is a term used by new companies. It’s the amount of money that they must spend every month to keep operating. Once the money runs out, the company goes bankrupt. So, in many start-ups, the race is to start earning money before they run out of money. I think the idea of […]
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  233. How to Increase Your Creative Output
  234. May, 200911 Comments
  235. This is the 695th article for this website. Subtracting the shorter entries and including articles I’ve written for other websites and my e-books, I’d estimate that represents a little under one million words of content. Every word of that was written in the last three years. Having a high creative output is a difficult productivity […]
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  238. How to Build a Solid Foundation for Self-Improvement
  239. March, 200913 Comments
  240. In the beginning of any self-improvement effort, it can be difficult to make lasting changes. You may go to the gym for a week and then stop. You might be productive for a few days, but start procrastinating when the motivation wears off. You may set a budget, only to overspend a month later. To […]
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  243. You Only Know What You Measure
  244. January, 20097 Comments
  245. I’m amazed at how many people fail to take an easy step when working on a goal: writing things down. If you’re trying to save more money, a good start is simply writing down the things you spend money on. If you want to get in shape, write down what you eat and what you […]
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  248. Personal Excellence Comes First
  249. November, 20087 Comments
  250. In his book, Stephen Covey split the seven habits of highly effective people into two categories: personal and interpersonal habits. He felt that the personal skills came first. Communicating goals with another person isn’t useful unless you have the discipline to act on those goals. Personal excellence comes first. I think this a point that […]
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  253. How to Stay Motivated in Long Projects
  254. July, 20089 Comments
  255. At some point in every long project, you’ll hit a motivational rock-bottom. A bad day, week, or month where you don’t feel like doing any work. You’ve been writing, coding and working for months and the initial enthusiasm that got you started is gone. Now you’re left staring at your computer screen blankly, as doubts […]
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  258. You’re Allowed to Be Happy and Ambitious at the Same Time
  259. May, 200811 Comments
  260. I’m writing this post in a lawn chair, sitting in the full sun and listening to the birds. I couldn’t be happier right now. I’m doing work that I love, and I get to be my own boss. I finished a leisurely 10 km run yesterday, a distance that would have had my legs aching […]
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  263. Shortcomings Create Your Opportunities
  264. May, 20086 Comments
  265. I’m in the middle of reading The Count of Monte Cristo, when I stumbled onto an interesting paragraph. The book, for those of you who aren’t aware, is about Edmond Dantes a young man who is falsely imprisoned in a dungeon for fourteen years before escaping and plotting his revenge on the men who took […]
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  268. People Remember Your Screw-Ups, Not When You Help
  269. April, 20085 Comments
  270. A friend of mine was asked recently to share his advice to a group of people. His advice was, “do what you say you’ll do.” People will remember when you break promises, but they won’t remember when you help them out. I think this is great advice about the importance of being reliable. People expect […]
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  273. Sprinting Theory: How to Have Self-Discipline on Steroids
  274. January, 20088 Comments
  275. There ain’t no such thing as willpower. Explaining away wins and losses by some magical force is only useful if you don’t understand anything about your own psychology. Having concrete theories about why your self-discipline can fail you is far more useful. I’m going to explore one of those ideas for putting your self-discipline on […]
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  278. Riding the Tipping Point: 6 Tips for Using Exponential Growth
  279. January, 20083 Comments
  280. If nobody can work 100 times harder than you, then how can some people earn 100, 1 000 or even a 1 000 000 times the results? The answer is that most problems don’t work on a straight line, giving the same amount of results for each hour you invest. The Stonecutter’s Dilemma is a […]
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  283. Feeling Overwhelmed?
  284. January, 20083 Comments
  285. How can you do it all? Running a marathon, setting up a successful business, getting organized and achieving your dreams aren’t easy to do. Even after you take the important step of deciding what you want out of life, it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the size of everything you want to accomplish. […]
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  288. How to Eat Healthier
  289. December, 20073 Comments
  290. “A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.” – Spanish Proverb I strive to live on a healthy diet. I don’t eat meat and eat very few animal products. I avoid white breads and rice. I rarely have caffeine and I […]
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  293. 7 Reasons Not to Set a New Years Resolution in 2008
  294. December, 20078 Comments
  295. We’re approaching the start of 2008, which means it’s time for another round of New Years Resolutions. I’ve seen statistics on the failure rate of New Years Resolutions above 95%. And unless you’re planning to be the lucky few out of a hundred, that means there is something seriously wrong with these yearly promises. What’s […]
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  298. 11 Tips to Get the Most From Your Days Off
  299. December, 20075 Comments
  300. In Japan, they have a condition called “karoshi”. Karoshi means “death due to overwork” and it is common enough that they actually have an organization for it, the National Defense Counsel for Victims of Karoshi. The group claims nearly 10,000 Japanese die from overwork each year. Clearly, having a day off isn’t such a bad […]
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  303. How to Build an Ironclad Personal Discipline
  304. November, 20076 Comments
  305. “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold probably […]
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  308. The 6 Keys for Writing a Kick-Ass To-Do List
  309. November, 20073 Comments
  310. Are you driven to get your to-do list done? Or do you get feelings of dread just from looking at it? Motivation is critical for getting things done. But if you don’t write to-do lists properly, even exciting projects will only inspire procrastination. Here are some suggestions for writing a to-do list that will make […]
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  313. The Art of Lifestyle Design
  314. November, 20079 Comments
  315. Is what you did today representative of how you want to live? Lifestyle design is the counterpart to focusing on achievement. Completing goals asks you what you want to accomplish. Lifestyle design asks you what experiences you want to have. How you want to live, instead of what you own. I believe the best way […]
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  318. Are You Too Busy? Or Just Gutless?
  319. October, 20076 Comments
  320. “I don’t have enough time.” Being busy is a good way to avoid risks. You’re too busy doing the routine things to try the non-routine things that might scare you. If you aren’t sensitive to the words you use, you might not even realize you do this. The fear of unknown gets excused so quickly, […]
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  323. Can Partying Make You More Productive?
  324. October, 20072 Comments
  325. Somewhere I think we’ve bought into a lie. And this lie is that, in order to get things done, you have to discipline yourself to avoid having fun. Because, the lie continues, partying, fun and socializing are wasting valuable time that should be spent on work. The lie tricks you because it seems to match […]
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  328. 17 Tricks to Reclaim Your Stolen Attention
  329. August, 20073 Comments
  330. “I’m so poor I can’t even pay attention.” Time is not money. Attention is money. Not just money, attention is life itself. Where you pay attention doesn’t just impact your bank account but the quality of life itself. With the colorful buzz of television, downpour of e-mail messages and endless stresses it is time to […]
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  333. 7 Tips to Find the Hidden Utility in Everything
  334. August, 20072 Comments
  335. “Beggars can’t be choosers” As trite an obvious as this saying is, it does hold a deeper truth. Rarely do the perfect ingredients come together to make something happen. The perfect tools, mentors and resources don’t always show up when you need them. Since you can’t usually choose your starting point, you need to find […]
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  338. 10 Tips for Enjoying Solitude
  339. July, 200711 Comments
  340. “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” – Francis Bacon A little solitude can be relaxing. A lot can make you feel lonely, isolated and miserable. But sometimes solitude is unavoidable. You may have to close yourself away from friends to finish a project. You may be placed into […]
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  343. 100 Good Ideas
  344. July, 20073 Comments
  345. I write a lot of ideas on this blog. I’ve written over 300 articles and dozens more for other sites. Two e-books and a software program, there are even more ideas I’ve tried to give some depth to. This list doesn’t just represent links to posts, but it gives a broad stroke of my entire […]
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  348. Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines
  349. June, 20072 Comments
  350. I have forty minutes to write this article. Do I need to limit my time? Probably not, but I’d like to illustrate a point: Deadlines are useful tools. Deadlines are a budget for your time. It makes sense that budgeting your money would be more efficient than spending whatever you feel like. A budget forces […]
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  353. Is Willpower an Illusion?
  354. May, 200721 Comments
  355. Is willpower really that important? I’m doubting this assumption. It seems that the more I’ve learned about improvement and psychology, the less important willpower seems. Habits, energy management, and various human quirks seem to have pushed will into a smaller and smaller corner as a means to explain or plan for success. Now I’m starting […]
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  358. Myth: Organization is the Key to Productivity
  359. April, 20076 Comments
  360. The problem with commonsense is that it isn’t that common. I’ve read a lot of books on productivity and time management and they all seem to espouse the same basic idea. The false idea that the reason you aren’t productive is because you simply aren’t organizing, prioritizing and using your time efficiently. Experimenting With Chaos […]
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  363. Do Less to Be More Productive
  364. April, 20073 Comments
  365. Note: This is a guest post by Leo Babauta, a fellow PBN member, who blogs at Zen Habits about setting goals, creating habits, productivity, GTD, motivation, exercise and more. If you enjoy this post, I recommend you head to his site for more inspirational writing. Many articles on productivity will teach you how to do […]
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  368. Avoiding Motivation Burnout
  369. April, 20078 Comments
  370. It’s easy to get really enthusiastic about a new goal, start working hard and then completely burn yourself out a week later. For some people it’s an annual event, usually starting about January 1st. Diets that crash in a month. Financial plans that aim to hit your first million in a year. Like a kid […]
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  373. The Myth of Confidence
  374. April, 200724 Comments
  375. This is why I love you guys, you make the content for me. A reader going by Al E. posted this fascinating comment in regards to my post, The Confidence Myth. His major point is that telling someone to “be confident” is a waste of time. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t like advice that […]
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  378. Be Decisive
  379. March, 200712 Comments
  380. Decisiveness is defined as being “characterized by firmness and decision.” Being decisive means that you have the ability to decide. From the strength of a decision you then have the ability to act. Leadership requires that you are able to make key decisions effectively. Decisiveness then simply means being the leader of your own life. […]
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  383. Guiding Your Emotions
  384. February, 20076 Comments
  385. Have you ever gotten mad over nothing? Often when you look back at that time from a more resourceful state your past anger may have seemed silly or even confusing. You may have struggled to understand what had kept you from escaping it, what was fueling this negative emotion. Yet while you were annoyed, the […]
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  388. Long-Term Habit Changes
  389. February, 20072 Comments
  390. Changing a habit isn’t that difficult, it’s making that change last where things get tricky. Many people have started diets and held them up for a few months only to break their commitment and have to start from scratch. Building enthusiasm for a new goal or project can get you a few days, maybe even […]
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  393. The Optimists Dilemma
  394. February, 20073 Comments
  395. To be positive or not to be positive, that is the question. Being optimistic can certainly motivate you towards action. Unfortunately, unadulterated optimism can also blind you to potential problems and get you to overstate your chances of success. The optimists dilemma is whether the gain in motivation is worth the price in rationally observing […]
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  398. Specializing VS Generalizing
  399. February, 20074 Comments
  400. Some of the comments in my last article about generalizing skills, brought up the dilemma many people face when building skills. Should you become a jack of all trades but master of none, or become wickedly proficient at one skill without involving yourself in others? There are a lot of different ways to look at […]
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  403. Skill Generalizing
  404. February, 20073 Comments
  405. I recently spoke at my Toastmasters club during an open house to some guests about the benefits of membership. One of the important points I made was that Toastmasters works on your communication skills not just public speaking. Because most people speak in front of an audience infrequently, this helped them realize the advantages Toastmasters […]
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  408. How to Make Commitments You Will Actually Keep
  409. January, 200710 Comments
  410. Have you ever made a commitment that didn’t stick? Resolved to stick to a new diet, but ended up splurging on a piece of cake? Resolved to watch your expenses, but ended up buying something you really didn’t need? Maybe you resolved to live consciously in the pursuit of your goals, but slid back into […]
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  413. Upgrade Your Day
  414. January, 200710 Comments
  415. Most people think of the big moments in life when defining personal happiness. Getting the promotion, fitting into a smaller swimsuit, finding that special someone. While these are certainly important, I believe it is the quality of your daily life that influences happiness the most. What would the perfect ordinary day look like? The right […]
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  418. Faster Improvement Made Simple
  419. January, 20074 Comments
  420. Have you ever set a goal or a resolution and failed to take the action necessary to make it succeed? Have you ever found yourself investing into improving one area of your life while others begin to crumble? Have you ever spent more time worrying and stressing about a problem then actually fixing it? Over […]
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  423. How to Build Skills Faster
  424. January, 20076 Comments
  425. Most goal achievement will require a certain amount of skill building. These can be external skills like communication, programming or design. They may also be internal skills like courage, discipline or emotional mastery. Much of faster achievement means faster skill building. Practice Makes Perfect The cornerstone of building any skill is practice. Instruction, modeling and […]
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  428. Effective Goal Setting
  429. January, 20072 Comments
  430. Goal-setting has its strengths and weaknesses. They can give you immense clarity and focus when you are lost and confused. They can push you to grow when you might otherwise think of turning back. However, goals can also harm. Obsessive goal-setters can lose sight of the bigger picture, endlessly chasing objective after objective only to […]
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  433. Why New Years Resolutions Suck
  434. December, 20064 Comments
  435. The year is almost up and with it will come a whole new round of resolutions. Frantic attempts to change habits, make commitments and radically shift the direction of your life. A hopeful new outlook on the upcoming year. Unfortunately, most New Years Resolutions suck. The vast majority of New Years Resolutions fail to make […]
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  438. Creative Constraints
  439. December, 20064 Comments
  440. Is more choice always better? Our culture of consuming would seemingly make that to be the case. More choices, more options, all with greater convenience than ever before. Constraints are definitely a bad thing, right? I disagree with the philosophy that more choice is always better. I believe that sometimes imposing additional constraints on a […]
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  443. Anchor Moments
  444. December, 200615 Comments
  445. You build up the confidence to go over and talk to the attractive stranger. You have thought of something interesting to say and you stroll by. Suddenly a fleeting expression on the strangers face causes your confidence to shake. You no longer feel your opening remark is nearly as witty or interesting as it had […]
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  448. Absolute Decision
  449. December, 20064 Comments
  450. I believe that most of the limitations we encounter in our life don’t exist out there in the world, but in between our ears. Our mind creates most of the limitations for us. Conversely, it can be our greatest source of power. When you understand your own mind and know how to use it, you […]
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  453. Seven Questions For When You Are Failing Miserably
  454. December, 20069 Comments
  455. All your hard work is getting you nowhere. Your dieting attempts fail to shed a single pound, your extra postings to your blog leave your traffic flatlining and your last date won’t return your phone calls. Failing sucks and it can be hard to muster up the courage to continue when you see it constantly. […]
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  458. Landslide Motivators
  459. December, 20063 Comments
  460. Where do you find the motivation to stay fit? To be more productive? To learn new skills? To conquer your fears? Some people just hope the motivation will come and leave it at that. Others are a little more proactive and specifically clarify the benefits of taking action and the consequences of not taking action, […]
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  463. Waiting for an Epiphany
  464. December, 200615 Comments
  465. I recently got a chance to browse the nearby bookstore. Aside from further affirming why I prefer amazon to brick and mortar bookshops, there was one other thing I noticed. Getting a chance to walk down the self-help aisle, I couldn’t help but feel my inner cynic trying to claw out. I think one of […]
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  468. In Retrospect
  469. December, 20065 Comments
  470. I’m a big proponent of thinking in the now. When you future dreams have no connection to the present, they have no real chance of happening. Even more, I believe that your actions, goals and dreams shouldn’t be focused on getting to some arbitrary future landmark but so that you can experience growth in the […]
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  473. The Seven Keys to Leverage
  474. December, 20063 Comments
  475. Today is the first day of your new exercise plan. You had decided you wanted to start going to the gym more regularly and decided to start today. You go to work and there is an accident with one of the computer servers and you realize you have to remake a document you had already […]
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  478. Now or Never
  479. November, 2006No comments
  480. One of the dilemmas that I have frequently faced is in trying to determine whether procrastination is justified or not. Sometimes you need to be patient and wait and other times call for immediate action. What often ends up happening is the events you put off until later you never actually get to. Now never […]
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  483. Solutions to the Ten Biggest Obstacles to Growth
  484. November, 20063 Comments
  485. Have you ever experienced a time in your life when everything seemed to stall? You were once making strides in improvements, now you are stuck and every attempt to improve seems like walking through knee-high mud. Maybe this was a time in the recent past. Maybe this is happening right now. You have probably noticed […]
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  488. A Drop of Success
  489. November, 200610 Comments
  490. A drop of success will create a pound of persistence. I’ve always wondered what factors made the difference between when I’ve stuck with something and when I’ve given it up. At first I thought it was strictly willpower and later I felt it had more to do with beliefs and circumstances. Now I can see […]
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  493. Using Pessimism
  494. October, 20065 Comments
  495. Is optimism better than pessimism? If you listen to most self-help writers they will give you a definite yes as an answer to this question. Our culture is steeped in positive psychology and optimism. We are told to “think positive” about the future and have “faith” that things will turn out well. Given this propensity […]
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  498. Procrastination – Start Now (Series)
  499. September, 20065 Comments
  500. Think about the last time you put something off even though you knew you should do it? If you are like most people, you probably don’t have to look very far back. Procrastination is a very common problem and it ranges from being a minor nuisance to a complete disruption of your life. This is […]
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  503. Procrastination – Break It Down (Series)
  504. September, 20061 Comment
  505. Procrastination is a common problem that can range from a minor nuisance to a serious handicap on your life. Due to both how prolific this problem is and how damaging it can become, I am writing a short blog series dedicated to the topic. This series will outline the fundamental three steps for overcoming a […]
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  508. Procrastination – Introduction (Series)
  509. September, 20064 Comments
  510. Have you ever procrastinated before? Of course you have, we all have. Procrastination is feeling that you know you should do something but you don’t do it. For some procrastination is a minor annoyance wasting their time. For others, procrastination constantly restrains them from leading a life they would truly enjoy. Procrastination – Series Introduction […]
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  513. Imagination VS Experimentation
  514. September, 20062 Comments
  515. Imagination is one of our most powerful tools as human beings. Our ability to see, feel, taste, touch and dream up realities that do not yet exist allows us to avoid much time spent in basic trial and error processes. This power of imagination comes with a hidden cost however. Every tool loses usefulness when […]
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  518. Overcoming Discouragement
  519. September, 200635 Comments
  520. Life is full of failures, rejection and more than a fair share of discouragement. I believe that the difference in how persistent people are often comes down to how they handle the discouragement that comes from the same situation. While some people can immediately brush themselves off, others can enter a negative cycle of thoughts […]
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  523. Rapid Habit Changes
  524. September, 20063 Comments
  525. Habits are the mechanisms that control much of our lives. The majority of our actions and responses are based on conditioned reaction to certain stimuli. The patterns of behavior you consistently use will ultimately determine the kind of life you live. If you have habits that allow you to have more fun, achieve greater success […]
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  528. Thoughts on University
  529. September, 20065 Comments
  530. I apologize for my lack of posting during this past week. I usually try to get a full article in every day or two, but moving to University has eaten up all my time and energy to write a new post until now. Seeing as this has been a big transition for myself it has […]
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  533. How You Should Pursue Personal Development
  534. August, 20064 Comments
  535. If you have spent some time on this website you have probably heard me make a reference to the distinction between lateral and vertical growth. These two terms I coined so I could reference what I felt were the two main streams of all personal development. Vertical growth is goal-setting, discipline, shoot-for-the-stars type of approach. […]
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  538. Enjoy Taking Action
  539. August, 20061 Comment
  540. In a recent article I discussed why I feel the major reason people have so much trouble going from dreaming and talking to actually taking action and living those dreams. I believe that the major reason that there are so many dreamers and so few doers is that dreaming and doing are completely different activities. […]
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  543. The Best Decisions I Have Made
  544. August, 20067 Comments
  545. You will make decisions in your life. Some of these decisions will be incredibly good and result with you experiencing a much improved quality of life. Other decisions will be poor, yielding little benefit, or worse, cause more damage than good. If there is one truth I have found it is that I’m not very […]
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  548. Trial Periods – Beyond Habits
  549. August, 20062 Comments
  550. In conditioning a new habit, creating a consistent schedule is absolutely vital. During the initial phase, using a trial period can be a great way to ensure a commitment to your schedule. The usage of trial conditioning periods is prevalent in a lot of self-help information, often in the form of 21 day periods. Steve […]
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  553. Overcoming Obstacles
  554. August, 20061 Comment
  555. This is the sixth chapter of nine included in my free, full version program, Goals! An Interactive Guide. The other chapters will be added in blog entries for future use. Goals! An Interactive Guide Chapters: Chapter One: Why Set Goals? Chapter Two: Decide Exactly What You Want Chapter Three: Create an Unstoppable Drive Chapter Four: […]
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  558. How to Recover From a Broken Commitment
  559. July, 20061 Comment
  560. If there is any problem I see with people starting to make changes in their lives it is an inability to really commit themselves to a path. In a statistic I saw recently, ninety-eight percent of all New Years resolutions fail before the next year. Many of the comments I receive from readers who have […]
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  563. The Reality of Focus
  564. July, 20065 Comments
  565. Has anyone ever asked you if you see the glass as half-full or half-empty? Most of us can probably remember hearing this expression at one time or another. Although the real essence of the question, are you optimistic or pessimistic, is an important lesson, there is an even more important and subtle truth here. This […]
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  568. Micro Habits
  569. July, 20063 Comments
  570. One of my frequent topics that I use for this blog is in changing and mastering our habits. I believe strongly that it is not our motivation or strategies so much as it is our subconscious, automatic behaviours that determine most of our actions. Since our actions inevitably create the force for which we create […]
  571.  
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  573. Shrink Obstacles
  574. June, 20064 Comments
  575. Goal setting would be easy if it weren’t for all those obstacles that get in our way. Usually soon after we’ve made a decision to do something, the universe as if wanting to test our resolve throws a completely unexpected obstacle. These obstacles can often seem insurmountable and make what you previously thought as an […]
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  578. Living at Full Capacity
  579. June, 20062 Comments
  580. What percentage of your resources and effort are you currently operating from? Right now, with only your current knowledge, abilities and beliefs, how close are your actions compared to your absolute best? For most people this percentage would range somewhere between five and thirty-five percent. A few remarkable individuals have periods of up to fifty […]
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  583. Review – Patterns for Success (Series)
  584. June, 20064 Comments
  585. This is the fourth and final article in my series entitled, “Patterns for Success”. The patterns we use for installing changes in personal development are critical to ensure that we can have continued improvement and growth in our lives. A haphazard method of installing new ideas for our growth only rarely results in permanent change […]
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  588. Implementation – Patterns for Success (Series)
  589. June, 20062 Comments
  590. This is the third article in the series entitled, “Patterns for Success”. In the past two entries I have discussed how understanding and utilizing an effective pattern for your own personal development and growth is crucial. In my own development the same, three-step pattern has continued to surface. The three steps are ideas, implementation and […]
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  593. Ideas – Patterns for Success (Series)
  594. June, 20063 Comments
  595. This is the second article in the series entitled, “Patterns for Success.” In the previous entry I wrote about how recognizing and utilizing a pattern for all of your personal growth accomplishments will greatly influence your results. For virtually all of my experiences in personal growth I have noticed a consistent pattern that emerges. This […]
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  598. Dealing with Frustration
  599. June, 200631 Comments
  600. Life is full of frustrations. From the minor irritations of losing your car keys to the major anxieties of continued failure towards a goal, frustration is not a pleasant emotion in any magnitude. Because of the unpleasantness of this emotion, people will often avoid anything that might lead to it. Unfortunately, many of the things […]
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  603. Brush Off Failures
  604. May, 20068 Comments
  605. Failure is a natural part of life. Making mistakes and moving through our problems is an inevitable occurrence. Many people have completely given up on the idea of pushing hard and giving their all because they fear failure, rejection or loss. As a result they have become the walking dead, refusing to actually live their […]
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  608. Recover and Rejuvenate
  609. May, 20068 Comments
  610. Do your goals consume a lot of your mental and creative resources? Career and business goals often take a lot of our time and energy. If you have set these goals properly, chances are you have a lot of passion and enthusiasm for successfully achieving them. If you have a lot of control over the […]
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  613. The Smallest Step
  614. May, 20063 Comments
  615. It is easy to become overwhelmed with personal development. With so many areas we need to work on, where do we start? Being hit with so many ideas on how we can improve our lives can make your head spin. I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard a personal development author or speaker claim […]
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  618. Decide Who You Want To Be
  619. May, 20069 Comments
  620. What are the goals you have set for yourself? (You do set goals don’t you?) The goals you’ve set might be things like owning a house, having a certain income or getting into a certain position with your career. Your goals might be focused on your relationships, your health or your contribution. You have made […]
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  623. Experimentation – Habitual Mastery (Series)
  624. May, 200621 Comments
  625. This is the last part in my series on how we can take control of our habits. Habit control first must start with awareness of your habits. Without being aware of how your habits are effecting your life, you are powerless to control them. Once you have identified habits that you would like to replace […]
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  628. Replacement – Habitual Mastery (Series)
  629. May, 20067 Comments
  630. This is part four of five in my series devoted to how we can take control of the habit patterns that run our lives. Habit control must first start with awareness of the habits we currently have and their positive and negative effects on our lives. Once you can recognize your habit patterns you can […]
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  633. Leverage – Habitual Master (Series)
  634. May, 200611 Comments
  635. This is part three of five in my series on changing and taking control of our habits. In my introduction, I discussed what a habit is and some methods that can give us some insight into our own behaviors. Once you are aware of your habit, the way to make changes is simply to condition […]
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  638. Conditioning – Habitual Mastery (Series)
  639. May, 200613 Comments
  640. This is part two of five in a series devoted to taking control of our habits. Previously I described habits as being unconscious procedures that our brain uses as shortcuts to complex and routine problems. In order to take control our habits, we must first start with awareness. Awareness of our habits is the key […]
  641.  
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  643. Introduction – Habitual Mastery (Series)
  644. May, 200641 Comments
  645. This is the first part of five in a series about how to change, improve and modify your habits easily and effectively. I have always been very interested in methods for taking control over these subconscious processes that run our life. A few of the more notable habit changes I have made include waking up […]
  646. _______________________________________________
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  649. Patience – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
  650. April, 20062 Comments
  651. This is the final article in my series about how to make personal growth last. In the first article I wrote about how the cornerstone of long-term development is the commitment to constant improvement. I took this idea a bit further by giving my four step process that has allowed me to stay committed to […]
  652.  
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  654. Maintaining Motivation – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
  655. April, 20063 Comments
  656. This is the second article in my series about how to make personal growth last. In this article I am going to discuss how we can maintain motivation over longer periods of time so that we can consistently apply the kind of actions we need for continuous growth. What is motivation? In order to be […]
  657.  
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  659. Continuous Improvement – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
  660. April, 20062 Comments
  661. This is the first article in my three part series about how we can make personal growth a permanent part of our lives. In this article I am going to go over the cornerstone of maintaining personal growth, which is in making gradual and steady improvements. The most essential element to long-term personal growth is […]
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  664. Personal Development as a Game
  665. March, 20063 Comments
  666. The similarities between personal development and role playing games are often striking. In role playing games or RPG’s, players have a character which must do certain tasks to gain experience points. Personal development involves doing certain tasks to gain experience as well. In RPG’s, a fundamental aspect of the game involves increasing the skill level […]
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  669. Overcoming the Frustration Barrier
  670. February, 200611 Comments
  671. When is the last time you went ballroom dancing, made a speech, learned a new language, took up karate or even cooked a new exotic food? When was the last time you did something out of your comfort zone? The experience was probably frustrating, depending on the difficulty of the task and how far outside […]
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  676. About Scott
  677. I'm a writer, programmer, traveler and avid reader of interesting things. For the last ten years I've been experimenting to find out how to learn and think better. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.
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