Free Your Mind for Success
Good morning everyone,
Some quick updates on the blog - I spent hours on a blog post last week that I believe to be very important. I believe that the pursuit of perfection gets in the way of success. Perfection is not your friend, he is your adversary and he wants to convince you that you are not good enough. Here’s how to handle the perfection lie!
More from the blog…
Enjoy this week’s newsletter. :)
The Three Career Paths
We have all heard the slogan.
“Find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” But what if you don’t know exactly what your path is? How do you find a career that aligns yourself with your interests?
Penelope Trunk put together an outstanding article on the different possibilities for people and their careers. It turns out, there are three different career paths. Everyone will fall into one of these paths.
This article is a great place to start for anyone who is unsure of what they want to do. But then I got to thinking, what happens after you get that position that is aligned with your path? How do you then progress in a company?
The Harvard Business Review did a study that projects the path for growth. Believe it or not, the trick to promotion is to become more of a generalist than a specialist. There are lots of options in between, but if your goal is to climb the ladder, this is a clear path to success.
What On Earth Should You Eat?
We are going through a food revolution in this country. We are finally starting to understand what caused (and is causing) the obesity problem in the county.
One of the leaders in the battle against sugar is Dr. Mark Hyman. Dr. Hyman has published at least 8 books on health and wellness and specifically diet.
Most notably, Hyman has explained some of the complex digestive systems of our body is relatively simple terms that regular people can understand.
With that, I present to you Mark Hyman’s Guide to Healthy Eating
READ IT! PRINT IT OUT! PUT IT ON YOUR FRIDGE!
Following these simple guidelines will completely transform your body. It will help you build a relationship with food so that you can appreciate your body, build a connection with food and how it fuels your mind, body and spirit. It’s a brilliant piece of guidance.
Stop Worrying About What NOT To Spend Money On
It’s not what you make, it’s what you spend? Right?
Well yes, but also no. If you do the math, we can see clearly that “cutting back” on certain expenses has little effect in your long term net worth.
For instance, many financial advisers tell you that spending $3 each day on a cup of coffee is one of the habits costing you your success. But what if you could live your life in a way which ensured you could buy the things you enjoy and continue to build your net worth?
To explain this profound way of thinking, Ramit Sethi put together a road map which focuses on the few “big wins” needed to build real wealth. When you really think about it, $3 a day on coffee is $1095 a year, but what does that matter in the grand scheme of things? If your goal is to retire as a millionaire, you want to focus on a few big wins.
Waste Not Want Not: Time, Money, and Trash
Ever since Juliana came into my life, I have been paying much more attention to my waste. Without much effort, Juliana and I have both been able to reduce our weekly trash to less than a full trash bag.
I watched The Story of Stuff, and I learned that 99% of everything we buy get’s thrown away within 6 months. Since then, I have been finding ways to reduce my trash. Mostly, I have been avoiding plastic at all costs. People have been living without plastic for tens of thousands of years. I promise, you can live without plastic and you wont even miss it when it’s gone.
I don’t live a complete “zero waste” lifestyle, but being mindful of my waste has spilled over to all aspects of my life. For instance, I became very mindful of wasting time. I started paying attention to how many moments throughout the day were distracting me and so I started to get more in tune with my focus.
I download the Tide app and I started documenting all the ways that I waste time. The results of this little app have probably earned me an extra 10-20 thousand dollars this year, simply by upping my performance.
To wrap it up, here is an article on No Sidebar that provides great tips and resources for managing your waste.
Video of the Week
This video was right on the money. Many people know how I feel about the “hustle lifestyle.” It’s time we rid ourselves of these ridiculous notions and we start getting real about what a successful life really looks like.
Quote of the Week
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. - Bruce Lee
Photo of the Week
Lim Choo How, 49, from Kedah, Malaysia, was walking around a factory compound one day in June when he noticed the wasp flying round a nest, absorbing water and blowing water away to keep their nest dry. Lim, who takes does photography as a hobby for 12 years, rushed back to his office to pick up his camera.
He said: “This behavior is rare in macro photography. After sharing my photos I get good response from lots of friends, especially on Facebook.
“There is a wonderful world out there of us to explore through macro photography so let’s start clicking away.”
Final Thought
I had a real learning experience this week. I fear that I may have gotten a little ahead of myself with some of my projects and I took my eye off of the prize.
Don’t ever forget to stay centered and stay focused on the things that matter. In my case, I got a little too far away from the data points. Knowing my traffic and conversion rates is paramount and I paid a price for getting too far ahead of myself. Lesson learned.
What is it in your case? What is the core of your work? What is the one thing you need to always focus on? Keep that close to the hip.
Don’t ever forget, you are beautiful. See you next week!
Tim Stoddart