Tim Stodz Newsletter - 10/22/18
The week's best resources for a better you.
Good morning,
Updates from the blog - Last week was a big week. The podcast started taking a life of it’s own. Instead of sticking to the standard interview format of podcasts, I decided to do something original. Something that feels much more like me. Since I started my daily short form podcasts, my downloads and my show have started to take off.
If you prefer podcasts over reading, you can still follow the blog at TimStodz.FM. Get caught up on last week’s posts…
Enjoy this week’s newsletter. :)
1. The Lost Art of Concentration - Being Distracted in a Digital World
We check our phones every 12 minutes, often just after waking up. Always-on behaviour is harmful to long-term mental health, and we need to learn to the hit the pause button.
If you want to find success or you want to get ahead in your career, one of the easiest ways you can do this is by practicing the skill of concentration. It is estimated that the average worker spends 3-4 hours actually working during his or her work day.
To be someone who is productive and is able to move the needle is a difference making quality in our workforce. It harder then ever to focus and to concentrate, but the good news is that concentration is something that can be practiced, harnessed and improved upon.
2. The Ultimate Guide to Making Smarter Decisions
In my quest to provide the best resources possible, I came across this delightful website and community called Farner Street. This article really caught my eye and I appreciate how the principles in this article can be easily applied to every day life.
“Thanks to the internet, I was no longer limited to the best teachers in my organization or university. I went from theoretical classroom examples that were completely divorced from the real world to the wisdom behind the achievements of one of the most successful businesses of all time. What I discovered in Warren Buffett and his longtime business partner Charles Munger opened a door that has never shut.”
3. Why a Daily Writing Habit Improves Your Life
You don’t have to convince me. I write every day, no matter what. Even if no one reads it. Even if I am the only one who knows. Every day, I put words on a page.
With that, I invite you all to learn more about this talented writer I discovered. Here is a excerpt from the article…
I wanted to be a writer for a decade before I became one. All it took was a decision. At some point, you have to look at yourself and say, “Fuck it. I’m a writer!” And then, start doing your job by writing every day.
4. The Three Pillars of SEO: Authority, Relevance, and Trust
Modern search engines use complex algorithms to find, read, and ascertain the topicality of webpages. They can then match those pages with search queries looking for the information they contain.
In other words, search engines are trying to find the most authoritative (and relevant) sources to match the query.
For any given query, there are typically a great many pages that potentially satisfy that query.
Users expect the search engine to take the role of the knowledgeable librarian and direct them to the best pages for the query.
That’s a judgment, then, of the relative authority for the topic of the query of all the possible pages, so search engines must be able to assess that relevance and authority at a huge scale.
5. Not Exercising is Worse For Your Health than Smoking, Diabetes and Heart Disease
One of the things that upsets me most about our health system is how quickly we look to take pills to cure our problems. It seems to me like the common sense solution to almost every health problem is exercise.
"Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker," Jaber told CNN. "We've never seen something as pronounced as this and as objective as this."
Jaber said researchers must now convey the risks to the general population that "being unfit should be considered as strong of a risk factor as hypertension, diabetes and smoking -- if not stronger than all of them."
"It should be treated almost as a disease that has a prescription, which is called exercise," he said.
Workout of the Week
Man makers are one of the absolute best exercises you can do. Even if you don’t have weights, this circuit of exercises is easy to do right in your living room.
This workout has plenty of breaks in it, so don’t get discouraged. Go at your own pace. If you do this workout once a day for a week you will be amazed by how much you can improve in that short time. Get after it!
Quote of the Week
You can let the man by you or the ball by you, but never both. - My Dad
Photo of the Week
Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner.
Final Thought
I have been thinking a lot this week about doubt. In order to do my newsletter, I have to spend a lot of time searching the internet for resources that I know could be of value to you. There are some amazing people out there doing amazing work and in my searching, I find myself comparing myself to other people.
It’s easy to say things like “you only need to be comparing yourself against yourself”, but let’s be real, it’s natural to size yourself up against other people. The problem becomes when our comparison turns into self defeating language or behavior.
So this week, let’s practice forgiving ourselves if we are not where we want to be. Let’s be mindful of how we speak to ourselves and remember that the goal is to get a little better each day.
If we get a little better each day, it is impossible for us not to be successful.
You are beautiful. See you next week.
Tim Stodz