It’s a new year! If you’re like most people, at some point in the last 30 days you took a brief look at your life, thought about what you wanted to change or improve, and made a commitment that this year you would finally do it.

If so, then you definitely need a motivational kick in the ass!

I just came across a great post titled, “25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing”

Though the post is aimed at writers (obviously), most of the advice applies pretty much to everyone. You can read and take value from the post by simply injecting your own passion/dream/goal in place of “writing.”

There is one slight problem though…

The original post is filled with profanity. For example, the full title of the post is “25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing (Right F*&^%$g Now).” And they didn’t censor out the “F” word. In fact, it makes frequent appearances throughout the rest of the article.

That doesn’t bother me at all (which is why I am linking to it), but some of you may be offended. Or may be sitting at a computer where you don’t want to bring that up. Consider yourself warned.

Here are my four favorite points from the post, edited for language (the bolding is mine too):

Stop Running Away

Right here is your story. Your manuscript. Your career. So why are you running in the other direction? Your writing will never chase you — you need to chase your writing. If it’s what you want, then pursue it. This isn’t just true of your overall writing career, either. It’s true of individual components. You want one thing but then constantly work to achieve its opposite. You say you want to write a novel but then go and write a bunch of short stories. You say you’re going to write This script but then try to write That script instead. Pick a thing and work toward that thing.

Stop Stopping

Momentum is everything. Cut the brake lines. Careen wildly and unsteadily toward your goal. I hate to bludgeon you about the head and neck with a hammer forged in the volcanic fires of MountObvious, but the only way you can finish something is by not stopping. That story isn’t going to [write] itself.

Stop Thinking It Should Be Easier

It’s not going to get any easier, and why should it? Anything truly worth doing requires hella hard work. If climbing to the top of Kilimanjaro meant packing a light lunch and hopping in a climate-controlled elevator, it wouldn’t really be that big a deal, would it? You want to do This Writing Thing, then don’t just expect hard work — be happy that it’s a hard row to hoe and that you’re just the, er, hoer to hoe it? I dunno. Don’t look at me like that. AVERT YOUR GAZE, SCRUTINIZER. And get back to work.

Stop Playing it Safe

Let 2012 be the year of the risk. Nobody knows what’s going on in the publishing industry, but we can be damn sure that what’s going on with authors is that we’re finding new ways to be empowered in this New Media Future. What that means is, it’s time to forget the old rules. Time to start questioning preconceived notions and established conventions. It’s time to start taking some risks both in your career and in your storytelling. Throw open the doors. Kick down the walls of your uncomfortable box. Carpet bomb the Comfort Zone so that none other may dwell there.

You can read the other 21 points here:

“25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing”

Self-Promotional Plug:

If you want some serious help figuring out and getting what you really want, then check out the Smart Ass Success Audio Series! Seven one-hour audios, each with a different expert sharing a ton of valuable, applicable advice to help you achieve all you ever wanted!

Click here to learn more…

Today is December 23^rd. For many people, myself included, this will be the last day of work before a week-long holiday.

I don’t know about you, but I like to spend my holiday time doing three things:

1)      Spending quality time with friends and family

2)      Reflecting on the previous year and planning for the next one

3)      Kicking back and relaxing with some good books, movies, TV shows, and other fun distractions!

I hope you have planned some time in the next week or two to do some serious relaxing. If not, re-consider – this should be your recharge time!

To help you properly prepare for your relaxation time, I have created a list of books, TV shows, games, and music that you should consider reading/watching/playing/.etc. They brought/bring great joy to my heart, and I think you may enjoy them too:

Fiction Books 

Fantasy – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

This is book one of Martin’s A Song of Ice and fire series. It is unlike pretty much any other fantasy book I have ever read:

• There is a lot of character development
• There is a lot of political intrigue and discussion
• Magic, while present, plays a relatively small role
• Martin is not afraid to have stuff…happen. I can’t say more without spoiling, but suffice it to say, you can’t ever say, “no, he would never do that.”

Books 2 and 3 are excellent as well. Two warnings:

1)      I haven’t read four and five yet, but I understand they take a drop in quality from the first three

2)      There are projected to be two more books. Martin took something like five years between books 3 and 4, and another six years between books 4 and 5.  So there’s a chance you’ll get hooked, read the first five books, and then have to wait for years to finish the series…

Consider yourself warned.

Get it from Amazon…

Thriller – Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

This is the only Lehane I have read and all I can say is, “Wow!” This was awesome. I didn’t know what to expect, so this book sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally picked it up. When I did, I tore through it, unable to put it down. Just a great book that keeps you reading right up until the end.

If you’ve seen the movie or know how it ends, you won’t enjoy it nearly so much. So go read it now before someone spoils it for you!

Get it from Amazon…

Non-Fiction Books 

The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simmons

I’ve written about this before. Go read that post, or just pick up the book before. It’s very interesting…

Get it from Amazon…

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims

This is a great book that stresses the importance of making “little bets” when it comes to developing new ideas, strategies, and innovations. The premise of the book is that rather than spending a ton of time and effort researching, thinking, and planning, the most innovative companies and people make many “little bets.” These are “low-risk actions taken to discover, develop, and test an idea.”

These small actions let you quickly get feedback, see if an idea is worth pursuing, and discover what adjustments you might need to make before moving forward. I have started applying some of the approaches from this book into how I do some of my own work.

If you think about it, “taking little bets” is a very “Say ‘Yes, And!’” of idea…

Get it from Amazon…

Movies

I don’t know, I’ve been struggling with this one. I saw a few movies this year, and some were very good, but none have me jumping out of my chair wanting to tell people to run out and see them.

Instead of a long write-up, here’s a list of movies I saw this year that I enjoyed, and you might too:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• CaptainAmerica
• The Help
• Super 8
• Bridesmaids
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes

If you saw some great stuff this year, let me know what I missed!

TV Shows

I am going to recommend three shows that are actually quite popular, so you may have seen them already. But they are great, and all three have most or all of their episodes available on Netflix streaming.

Mad Men

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it’s won something like four Emmys for Best Drama. But I didn’t get around to watching until a few months ago, and I have to say, it had me hooked.

I can’t really explain why. It’s not like the usual type of show that hooks me in (24, Lost, Alias, etc). Sometimes it can seem downright slow. The main characters are often annoying, mean, and unsympathetic. And yet, as soon as I finished each episode I wanted to watch the next.

Get it from Amazon…

30 Rock

Here’s another one that people have been telling me about for years, and yet I only recently got around to watching. Turns out, I was missing out on a great show.

This is a ridiculous, off the wall, and downright hilarious show. Give this show a chance and watch the first episode or two. If you like those, you’ll like the whole series.

Get it from Amazon…

Psych

One of my favorite shows. This one I have been watching since day 1, and it still makes me laugh, every single time. This is the only show that consistently makes me laugh out loud, even when I am watching alone (think about it – how often do you truly laugh out loud when no one else is around…?)

If you grew up in the 80s and like pop culture references, then you absolutely have to watch this show. Even if you didn’t and don’t catch the refernces, you’ll still enjoy the show (trust me – my fiancée can attest to this)

Get it from Amazon…

Video Games

I am not a hard-core video game player. In fact, I don’t own a Playstation or X-Box, and the only reason I have a Wii is that my fiancée brought one with her when she moved in.

However, I do enjoy a good PC game (yes, my nerdery knows no bounds). For whatever reason, I have been playing older games, and I have been loving it. Below are two PC games I enjoyed this year. Both are set-up as “first-person shooters,” but are very different from your traditional “Doom” type games.

System Shock 2

This game is literally more than a decade old (it came out in 1999). I dusted it off and played it early this year, and I was sucked in. I couldn’t stop until I finished. Even more telling, as soon as I finished playing, I immediately started replaying it, using different skills and strategies (the game is designed in a way that you can use a variety of tactics to get through it). After my second run-through, I played it again. Then again. Then again. I honestly lost track of how many times I played it.

It’s immersive, entertaining, engrossing, oftentimes scary, and definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

Get it from Amazon…

Portal

Portal is a much newer game (it came out in 2007) and very different from System Shock 2.

In Portal, you play a character who has a “Portal Gun.” This gun lets you shoot portals onto floors, walls, ceilings, and other surfaces. Step through one portal and you will come out the other.

What makes the game really interesting is that the portals maintain your physics. That is, if you jump off a ledge and fall through a portal on the floor, you will emerge from the other portal with the same velocity you had from your fall!

There are no enemies (for the most part) in the game. Just about every mission involves you figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B by creating portals. At its core, it is a puzzle game. And a damned good one.

Get it from Amazon…

Board Games

Even as technology improves and video games get more and more sophisticated, I have found myself playing more board games with friends. They offer a social element that video games lack (even the multiplayer online ones). Also, as someone who spends most of his day on the computer and quite a bit of time watching  TV, it’s nice to be able to turn off the tech for a while.

The Settlers of Catan

I am just starting to get into the world of “Euro-Gaming.” These are games that are much more involved and strategic than what we here in theU.S. think of when we hear the term, “board games.”

If your only experience with board games is games like Monopoly, then you don’t know what you have been missing!

Settlers of Catan is a strategy game where the players compete to set up villages, cities, and roads on an island. You have to manage resources, trade with other players, and carefully plan your expansions. It’s a fun game that has tremendous replay value.

Get it from Amazon…

Taboo

If nerdy strategy games aren’t your thing, then you might enjoy a good party game instead. I enjoy quite a few of them. For this list, I went with Taboo.

For those who are unfamiliar with Taboo, the basic mechanic of the game is that one player has to get their teammates to guess words without using five words that are “Taboo.” If you say one of the taboo words, the other team gets a point. You try to get your teammates to guess as many words as they can in a short time period.

I picked Taboo for two reasons:

1)      It’s a ton of fun

2)      It’s high-energy

3)      You can scale the length of games

4)      It’s a great game to practice/develop improv skills

Yes, I realize that #4 is where my bias comes from. But think about it: Taboo is a game where you have to consistently try to achieve a fixed goal without being able to go down traditional paths. It’s a great way to have fun and practice your creativity!

Get it from Amazon…

Music 

Anything by Rush

Do I really need to explain this? If you have been reading my site for a while, then you’ll already know that Rush is my favorite band. .If not, then read the following posts:

• Great Motivational Lines from Rush Songs
• Does Greatness Just Happen?
• More Lessons From My Favorite Rock Band of All Time!

If you don’t know any Rush songs, then watch my “Intro to Rush” Youtube playlist:

Get some Rush on Amazon…

Happy Holidays!

That’s my list. Whatever you celebrate this time of year, even if you celebrate nothing, I hope you got some ideas you can use to relax and recharge.

Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you in 2012!

This past Tuesday, December 13^th, was the seventh and final session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I had a great interview with Russell White, and he shared some terrific information on staying motivated, even after your initial excitement wears off…

Below I have posted a 4 minute clip from the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas I got from talking with Russell about motivation, drive, and staying focused and on track. (There were many more…).

If you’d like to get the full audio of Russell’s call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the call recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-7-Russell-White-Motivation-sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas you can use to  stay motivated all the way, no matter what!

1. Stop looking for life balance. Instead, find ways of blending different elements of your life together. The crossover will enrich every area of your life and increase your motivation.

2. Motivation comes not from achieving some objective level of success, but rather from knowing that you are taking the actions you need to reach your own potential.

3. Failure can be a great chance to redirect your energy. Did you fail because you just weren’t very motivated or driven? If so, maybe you need to redirect your energy elsewhere.

4. The best external motivation combines accountability, support, and the recognition of a job well done.

5. Are you finding yourself more distracted more often from the direction you want to go? If so, “your drive may be stuck in park.” If you are frequently distracted, it may be time to revisit why you have lost your drive and motivation.

6. To maximize your motivation, you need to surround yourself with people who will be supportive and positive. Be wary of negative people who sap your drive. Spend less time with them, and involve them less in your plans and goals.

7. When you find yourself in an “un-motivated funk,” and you don’t know what to do, try stuff! You can’t “think” your way out of it. Try new things, and then make note of what works to get you going. Make a list of those for future use.

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because the offer will be gone on December 23^rd!

Last Tuesday, December 6^th, was the sixth session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I had an awesome interview with James Rick Stinson, and he shared some terrific information on analyzing your plan, making necessary changes, and how we all can truly reach our Full Potential.

Below I have posted a 3 minute clip from the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas I got from talking with James about being “living at a ‘10’” in all areas of you life and “Refining Your Plan for Maximum Effect and Efficiency!”  (There were many more…).

If you’d like to get the full audio of James’ call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the call recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-6-James-Rick-Stinson-Full-Potential-Sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas you can use to be reach your full potential:

1. There are seven major areas you need to live at a “level 10” to truly fulfill your full potential:  physical, mental, spiritual, social, emotional, financial, and environment. Create a vision of what a “10” would look like in all those areas.

2. To access your inner wisdom and creativity, and to gain clarity in stressful times, take a “space break.” Pause, do nothing, and take a few simple breaths while you empty your mind of thoughts. A few strategic space breaks throughout the day will do wonders for your focus and productivity.

3. Create a maintenance routine that allows you to operate at your highest level. This is a series of things you do that set you up for success in at least the first three major areas of your life (physical, mental, and spiritual)

4. If you want to work in a more organized way, you have to be deliberate in where you want to go. You have to work against the force of entropy as you move forward.

5. Periodically “zoom out” and ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish today, this week, this year, this life, and even beyond.” This give you the perspective you need to make better long term decisions.

6. When working, “zoom in” and focus only on the task at hand. This maximizes your productivity and gets you results.

7. Having a big task list may just be a way to feel like you are being productive when in actuality what you are doing is avoiding the thing that we really need to do. Whatever it is that you are supposed to do in your life, that is the thing you will feel the most resistance to doing. Be aware of that, and make that task your highest priority.

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because once the Series ends, the offer will be gone!

This past Tuesday, November 29^th, was the fifth session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I was the one being interviewed on this call, and I spoke on the topic of improvising and flowing around obstacles on your path to success.

Below I have posted a six minute clip from the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas you can use to help you improvise and flow when setbacks and surprises throw you off track.  (There were many more…).

If you’d like to get the full audio of the call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the call recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-5-Avish-Parashar-Improvisation-Sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas you can use to be flow and improvise:

1. Anyone can do well when everything goes as planned. What separates experts and truly successful people from those who are just lucky or who struggle is how well they deal with the unexpected setbacks along the way.

2. The first step in improvising with the unexpected is to not reflexively do or say something stupid that makes the problem worse.  Use the PBT technique to avoid making this mistake.

3. Having fun and being willing to fail are the two critical success mentalities when it comes to improvising (or, frankly, any endeavor). If you are not having fun and are afraid of failing, you will not perform well.

4. Focus on what you can do right here, right now, with what you have. Let go of the rest.

5. Stop viewing the world in binary, “either/or” fashion. When Ding Happens, start looking for the third, fourth, and fifth options to achieve your goals.

6. Saying “Yes, And” is the key to improvising without whining, building strong relationships, and taking small actions that will help you overcome the obstacles in your path.

7. Just because you can improvise doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare. Work in advance to prevent as many foreseeable obstacles as you can. Then be ready to improvise, because something unexpected will pop up!

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because once the Series ends, the offer will be gone!

Last Tuesday, November 22^nd, was the fourth session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I had an awesome interview with Neen James, and he shared

Below I have posted a six minute clip from the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas I got from talking with Neen about being productive and “Executing Your Plans Like a Rock Star!”  (There were many more…).

If you’d like to get the full audio of Neen’s call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the call recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-4-Neen-James-Productivity-Sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas you can use to be super-productive:

1. The key to productivity is not to follow someone else’s system, but rather to identify your own productivity style. When and how do you do your best work?

2. Super-productivity is more than just managing your time. It’s about properly managing your time, energy, and focus.

3. To keep making progress, especially on your own personal goals, it is critical that you set up some accountability for yourself.

4. If you have a task or project you have been procrastinating on or that has stalled, commit to working on it just 15 minutes at a time. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in 15 minutes, and you’ll start building momentum.

5.  Delegating is an important way to make the most of your time. If you don’t have the funds, consider bartering your time and expertise with others.

6. Ask yourself, “What can I delete” from my life or schedule. Get rid of the unimportant to make room for the high priority stuff.

7. “No” can be a powerful word, if you use it free up your time, energy, and focus, for the things that truly matter to you. To quote Neen, “We don’t have time to do everything; we only have time to do what matters.”

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because once the Series ends, the offer will be gone!

This past Tuesday was the second session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I had an awesome interview with Bill O’Hanlon, and he shared

Below I have posted a six minute clip from the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas I got from talking with Bill about “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success!”  (there were many more…).

If you’d like to get the full audio of Bill’s call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-2-Bill-OHanlon-LazyMan-Sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas to kick-start your creativity:

1. The key to “working without working” is to discover and tap into the type of energy that charges you up – what makes you feel blissed, blessed, pissed, or dissed?

2. Follow your energy and passion even if you don’t yet know where that will lead. The first step is to go deep with your passion; they payoff will come later (plus, it will be fun!)

3. If you want to monetize your passion, you have to get your knowledge and passion out there in a tangible form (books, blogs, podcasts, interviews, speeches, etc.) Position yourself as an expert, and from that you can start earning money.

4. To accept feedback without getting depressed or feeling criticized, pay attention to feedback about your actions – things you can change – and ignore feedback that criticizes you and who you are. (i.e. ignore, “You’re arrogant.” Consider, “You didn’t take enough questions from the audience.”)

5. If you find yourself being overly affected by negative feedback, you may not have tapped into the right energy (see #1) or you haven’t dug into it deep enough. The right “rocket fuel” energy helps you push through negativity and resistance.

6. To change your behavior, just do one thing different. Make it small – don’t try to change everything at once. Make a small change, even if it in and of itself seems insignificant. It will lead to bigger things…

7. .When you get knocked down, get up, do something different, and ask yourself, “Where is my energy directing me now?” Listen to it and take action.

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because once the Series ends, the offer will be gone!

This past Tuesday was the first session in the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar Series. I had an awesome interview with Scott Ginsberg, and he shared a ridiculous amount of information and a ton of ideas anyone can use to tap into, improve, and apply their creativity.

Below I have posted a five-or-so minute long sample of the interview, as well as 7 simple ideas I got from talking with Scott about supercharging my creativity (there were many more).

If you’d like to get the full audio of Scott’s call, plus a bevy of bonuses and access to 6 more calls with awesome experts (along with the recordings and transcriptions), you can still sign up. Just visit the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar page and sign up now! Regardless of when you sign up, you’ll get the recordings of all past and future calls.

Here’s the sample:

Week-1-Scott-Ginsberg-Creativity-Sample

Here are seven simple but powerful ideas to kick-start your creativity:

1. Waking up excited to hit the ground running comes from knowing who you are. Once you know who you are, what you do, and why you do it, motivation takes care of itself.

2. “Stop planning and just write.”

3. If you want to access your creativity, start each day “vomiting” your thoughts onto a page or screen. It doesn’t matter if it’s legible or makes sense. Just dump and delete.

4. If you want to beguile inspiration, develop a system to not only write down but also organize, categorize, and access your ideas.

5. If you get a good idea, write it down, even if you don’t know what you’re going to do with it.

6. Something that’s a bad idea now may turn out to be a brilliant idea later.

7. Make a list of twenty things you do that are a waste of time and stop doing them.

Thanks for reading (and listening)!

Remember, there’s still time to sign up for the Smart Ass Success Teleseminar and get all the recordings, transcriptions, and bonuses! But hurry, because once the Series ends, the offer will be gone!

I just discovered that today, September 6^th, is “Fight Procrastination Day.” I’ve never heard of this day before. Frankly, it sounds like something somebody came up with while they were putting off doing real work.

Whatever its origin, it seems like a nice launching point for an article about procrastination…

I originally though about making the entire post:

“Today is Fight Procrastination Day. I’ll write an article about it tomorrow,”

But that would be silly and obvious, and I’m sure many others have made that joke.

Instead, here are 7 simple but effective techniques you can use to beat, avoid, or make the most of procrastination. You may not always win, but you can at least put up a good fight…

1) Get Lazier

If you have a task that consistently comes up that kicks in your “procrastination urge”, then find a workaround. Figure out a way of changing what you do so you don’t have to ever do that task again. For example, if you always procrastinate entering information into your contact database after networking events, then buy a card scanner. Great things have come from focused laziness! (I wrote a post about it here: Achieve More by Being Lazier!)

2) Delegate

Can you get someone else to take on the task you are putting off? There are lots of options:

• Have an employee do it.
• Hire an outside expert.
• Barter tasks with a friend or family member.

Do what you love and find people who love doing what you hate and trade.

3) Ask Yourself, “Do I Really Need to do This?”

Sometimes, if you really think about, you realize you don’t really have to do the thing you are procrastinating. If you have a work related task that your boss told you to do, well, that you’ll have to do. However, there are many things you decide you “should” do. Then you feel guilty when you procrastinate. Let those go! Will the world really end if you take, “re-organize the hall closet” off your “to-do” list?

4) Shrink the Task

The bigger the task you have before you, the greater the urge to procrastinate. Shrink the task until you don’t feel overwhelmed when you think about it. You can literally make the task smaller, or you can break a big task into chunks and just take on the first piece.

5) Ramp Up

Your greatest productivity comes when you tackle your, most important project first. .However, when your energy is low and when procrastination is high, you may find it difficult to get started. In these cases, rather than going from not working at all to working full steam on a big project, start with something easier. I find it a lot easier to get started on a smaller task, and, once I have some momentum, it’s often easier to take on the big task.

6) Learn New Strategies

Why not spend your procrastination time learning how not to procrastinate? Two great books that I have found very helpful on this topic are The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel and The Now Habit by Neil Fiore.

7) Embrace It

Sometimes you just have to give in to that procrastination urge and put the task off for a day. However, you have to do it right. Too often, the fight with procrastination is a slow depressing one. You stare at your computer screen surfing through Wikipedia for hours. The day ends, and, you feel terrible for having done nothing. If you really want to embrace your procrastination, then when you put off a task, replace it with something truly enjoyable or rewarding. Read a great book. Go connect with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Work on side project that you are excited about. You’re still procrastinating, but at least you’re using your procrastination time wisely.

There you have it – seven techniques to beat procrastination (or at least make the most of it)! Hope you have a great “Fight Procrastination Day,” and I hope you get a lot done!

(If you use one of the techniques about, or if you use this day to take on a project you have been procrastinating, let me know in the comments!)

P.S. Hey, if you like this post, why don’t you share the love and click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this page…?
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Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there?  Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want – and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!

It’s Friday and, knock on wood, the east coast has not been hit with an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, locust plague, or an invasion of seemingly benevolent but in fact incredibly hostile aliens (though there are still two days left in the week…).

To celebrate our first “natural disaster free” week in almost two weeks, here are some links you can enjoy wasting time with!

Laughter Has a Positive Impact on Vascular Function

You’ve probably heard that laughing is good for your health. Well, here’s another study that confirms it. So get out there and start laughing – watch a funny movie, listen a funny radio show, read a funny blog or hire a funny speaker for your next event (whoops! How did that shameless plug slip in there?)

Read More…

When Irrational People Attack

I like to post a lot about stupid people making stupid decisions, especially in the moment out of strong emotion (like here, here, and here). This link is to a collection of examples of people getting violent in irrational ways that makes even me, who tries to find these types of stories regularly, kind of shocked. It’s all so very sad and stupid…

Read More…

Ingrate Rich Kids Sue Their Mom for Bad Parenting

Stories like these are why non-rich people hate rich people:

Read More…

A Tribute to Doing it Wrong

You know what’s ridiculous? The way infomercials and other “As soon on TV!” type ads display people who “need” their product. From being unable to pour soda, to being vexed by plastic wrap, to being unable to crack an egg, they make the average person look like a grade-A moron. I don’t want to live in the world where the average human can’t get their own shoes on and off, but I sure like to watch a video of all of those demonstrations strung together to Beatles music:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag

Mario Meets Portal

If you’re familiar with Super Mario Brothers and the first person puzzler Portal, then you’ll love this video of how Super Mario Brothers would play if Mario had a portal gun:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtcGiZelPfk

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Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there?  Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want - and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!