The True Secret Of Success - You Are The Average Of Your Five Closest Friends

If you could do only one thing for success what would it be? There are many things that you can do from goal setting , to regular feedback, to visualisation but perhaps one of the most important, if not the most important of all is the people you hang around with.

Hubert  Howe Bancroft  spent his life studying  how and why people were successful and became rich. He summarised his work in his book 'The book of Wealth' (written in 1896). This was an inquiry into the  nature and distribution of the world's resources and riches. He found the one thing that showed if you would be successful was the company you keep.

The Elastic Band Effect

The reason for this is sometimes described as an elastic band effect.
If you are surrounded by negative people who are in a bad way , when you try and improve, they will act like an elastic band and 'snap' you back to their level.

If you are surrounded by positive, successful people, and you begin to be negative, they will 'snap' you back to  their level. This will be because of the sort of conversations they are having, the places they go, to topics they discuss, the businesses they work on, etc.

The Fastest Way to Success

The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be......Reid Hoffman (founder of Linked In)

Reid Hoffman hit the nail on the head with his quote. If you are surrounded by people who have already got to where you want to be, they will be talking , doing, acting in a way to continue their success. If you are in that environment you will carried along with them.

Reasons for success

So  apart from the general flow what other advantages are there with the people you hang out with.

1. Support
• Your network gives you support. If you are in a positive, action oriented, goal focused environment, you will get positive suggestions and help.
2. Ideas
• You will have better quality ideas.
3. Resources and Connections
• They say your network = your net worth. A good network will give you good resources and connections.
4. Accountability
• A good network will hold you accountable and force you to succeed in the goals you have said and shared with them.

Actions

So what should you do?

1. Review the people you hang around

• One way is to give a red mark to everyone who is negative and  give a green mark to everyone who is positive.and make sure that you have more green marks then red marks ( and you remove as many of the red marks as possible)
• Another way is to score everyone. If they are energy neutral they have a score of zero. If they give you energy they are +1. If they give you a lot of energy they are +2. If they take your energy away they are -1 and if they take a lot of energy away they are -2 Then calculate your net score with the people you spend the most time with.

Whatever you find, you need to spend more time with positive people who have done what you  want to do already.

2.Start a Mastermind
There is  a Japanese proverb ' none of us is as smart as all of us'
Another thing to do is to start a mastermind. A group of people who meet regularly. Each person will talk about his problem and then everyone will give advice. The idea is that the mastermind (the sum of all the minds) is greater than the individual minds.

Remember - Whoever you surround yourself with determines your destiny. so choose wisely.

The Secret To Organisation - The 5S model of Lean Six Sigma

Do you get frustrated by not being able to find something? Do you spend more time in trying to remember where that note was or trying to get back to the thoughts on a specific topic?

The 5S model of lean six sigma could be the solution  to your problems.

It is an organisation method to  ensure efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing items used and thinking about standardization  to increase productivity.

The 5S model is great for the workplace and fantastic for getting your personal world in order.

It comes from Japan and was one of the  techniques that enabled just in Time manufacturing.

So what does the 5S model say? Well there are 5 stages.:




1.Sort (Seiri)
2.Set in  order (Seiton)
3.Shine (Seiso)
4.Standardise (Seiketsu)
5.Sustain (Shitsuke)

The names are shown above (with the original Japanese names in  brackets).

So lets dive in to the detail. This is how I see the 5S model.

1.Sort

Everything in your environment needs to be considered. The items that are not necessary (or haven't been used in a while)  need to be thrown/given away. If you really can't throw it away put it in a storage for a couple of weeks and if it hasn't been used throw it away.
Also make work easier by removing obstacles to work.
Remove anything that is unnecessary.
Clear your workspace and desktop and this should make your world a bit clearer, less stressful and more relaxed.

2.Set in order

When anything comes in, into your world , you should think of the following questions:

   i) How will I use this?
  ii) When will I use this?
  iii) What else will I need when I am using this?
  iv) Who else will be using this/ Who else will be involved when I am using it?
  v) Where will I be using  this?
  v) What parts of this will I need/ do I not need

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can allocate in the correct place (e.g on your workspace or in your folders , etc.)
Make sure that all necessary items are correctly placed/stored so they can be easily selected for use.
For reports/work think how will users want to  see this and prepare the work in the format that will answer their predicted questions, efficiently and effectively.
Make it easy to select often used items/ files (Tools such as Workflowy.com or Microsoft OneNote or GoogleDrive are good to keep everything organised and easily accessible (on your computer or mobile)).
Place/file/store items based on their use and frequency of use, with the most often used items, placed in  the easiest to access areas.

3)Shine

Clean your workspace daily
Keep your workspace/filing/storage/documents clean and tidy and pleasing to be/work in.
This means that when you finish anything you should put things away.
This also means that when you finish your work on your computer, you close anything and reboot next morning. This should clear resources and refresh systems.

4)Standardise

Once you have a process that works, establish procedures and schedules to ensure consistency. This should be replicated by other people in your team or in other things that you do.
Ensure that your personal/work routine supports these new practices.
Make these new practices part of your daily routine.

5)Sustain

Make sure that once you have an improved system, this is maintained.
Ensure you track how you are doing to ensure that you do not fall back into bad practices.
Review regularly.

Questions Not Answers Will Bring You Success

Judge a man by his questions not his answers.

Your questions dictate the direction you focus and therefore the direction of your destiny.
People don't realise this and wonder why they have failed again and they don't even realise that their life was decided in a subconscious question.

So what can you do? You need to be aware of the questions you ask.

1)When you ask bad questions you need to replace them with good ones. i.e.

      a) Catch yourself when you ask yourself bad questions and notice them.
      b) Replace them with a better question.

2) Ask good questions in the morning to set you up for the day

3) During the day you need to ask good questions to direct your focus

4) Before going  to sleep you need to ask good questions to let your subconscious focus on  overnight and to prepare for the following day.

So lets see that in more detail

1.Bad questions and their good replacements

Why does this always happen to me? Replace this What can I learn from this or  How can I improve for next time?

Saying why does this happen to me has a assumption that  you are a victim and powerless and your thoughts and destiny are focused on being a poor victim. When you change this to what can I learn or how I can I improve for next time you are immediately transformed into a positive action world where you are in  control and can make your world better.

I'm useless. Replace this with what 3 things can I do to get better or  who can I learn from. When you say you are useless you are deleting  part of the sentence, i.e, useless compared to what - an olympic athlete, a professional? Again replacing with an action phrase make you feel better and gives you more options.

2.Morning questions

What am I most grateful for?
You can't be grateful and angry/fearful at the same time. Numerous studies have shown that being grateful makes you feel better. It is an easy way to feel great.

Who can I send a thank you note to?
The first email you send should always be a thank you or I think you are great email. This makes you feel great (as you are the sort of person who would do something like this and make other people feel great) and you build your social network which makes you feel more secure and makes you feel better.

3.During the day questions

What am I most proud of?
Thinking of this reminds you of what you have achieved.

What am I most excited about in my life right now?
This makes you feels more energized and action oriented.

4.Evening questions

What have I learned today?
You should always learn something every day, otherwise you are missing an opportunity to progress.

What are my 3 things to do tomorrow
This lets your subconscious focus on the tasks at hand. One trick is to see these 3 tasks as already done and experience the feelings you have after they have been completed.

The secret to success - A Rubber Band?

If I were to tell you that you could change your life and be successful and all you needed was a rubber band, you would probably think I was crazy but it's an experiment lots of people have done and found to be truly empowering.

So what is this about? This is based on the original 21 day no complaint challenge by Will Bowen, popularised by Tim Ferriss.


The 21 Day No Complaint Challenge

The original challenge from (Will Bowen) is to go 21 days without complaining. So what do you do?

1) Put your rubber band on your wrist. You have now started and are on day 1 of  the challenge.
2) When you complain you move the rubber band to the other wrist. You are now back to day 1. Every time you complain you have to swap the rubber band and go back to day 1.
3) The goal is to go 21 days without moving the rubber band to the  other wrist (ie not complaining).


Why should you do it ?

Tim Ferriss comments on this in his article 'Real Mind Control: The 21 Day No Complaint Experiment'.

He found the following things happened.

1) Instead of complaining he started thinking what could he do/create to avoid this happening in future.

2) He was able to turn off negative thoughts as he had to give a solution instead of just continuing with the complaining (The complaining  just kept open - loops in GTD (Get things done) talk which just result in you wasting energy). This resulted in better sleep and nicer conversations.

3) He found this attracted people to him as people want to be around action orientated problem solvers.

From my point of view, doing this exercise gives you back control of your life. When something goes wrong and you blame the weather, your boss, the other guy, it means that you have given away your power. Not complaining means you have to think of a solution. You also have to accept that it is your responsibility to do something about it.

You have the power and suddenly the world has changed.

What Is Life? 10 Secrets For A Successful Life

What is Life? Why are we here? What is the purpose? What is the reason?

In the east they talk of the purpose of life being Moksa or release/escape from the bondage of samsara (birth /death /rebirth).

Purpose

In my view it is about finding a purpose. This has been eloquently phrased by both  Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin,

"Make a dent" in the universe"....Steve Jobs

"If you would not be forgotten
  before you are old and rotten.
  Then write something worth reading
  or live something worth writing".........Benjamin Franklin.

I.e. you should try to do something worthwhile that will be remembered in 200 to 400 years.
So how do we go about it. Try these 10 secrets to have a successful life.

1. Remember Life is Short

In 49AD (almost 2000 years ago), Lucius Seneca (known as Seneca the Younger) wrote on the shortness of time. He says that time is the  most valuable currency not money.
He finds it strange that people are so stingy with their money and free with their time when their time is more important.
He also finds it crazy that people work all their lives and then retire when they are too old to enjoy the time they have. You should really take mini-retirements when you are younger.

So as we realize that life is short and we are looking for a purpose, how should we act?
Try these strategies...

2.Learn the rules

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can  break them like an artist"....Picasso

You need to learn the  rules of life and  what you can and can't do.

3.Enjoy Life

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in  the  rain"

Before you know it, your time will be up. So learn to enjoy every moment of life.

4.Create your vision

"Everything you can imagine is real"....Pablo Picasso.

People often think that certain things are impossible but if you can imagine you can create it so go and do it. Everyone thought that running a mile under 4 minutes was impossible for a human but as soon as Roger Banister broke this record, many people did it.

5.Collaborate

There is a great fable called Stone soup. It talks about the secret to get anything is to create something together. People want to be part of something good.

6.Expect change.

"You can't step into the  same river twice"....Heraclitus (as the river would have changed and you would have changed).

Everything changes so you should expect change.
In 1894 there was a big horse manure problem in New York. There were so many carriages with so many horses and their manure was acidic. It was piling up on the streets and dissolving buildings.
Everyone thought it would be a disaster but then the car was invented and this problem disappeared.
Things will always  change.

7.Focus on what you want

"Your current conditions do not reflect your innate potential, rather the size and quality of the goals you are currently focusing on " ......Tony Robbins.

As William Whitecloud says in his excellent book , The Magician's Way,  your thoughts create your reality so make sure you focus on a compelling, exciting, positive vision.

8.Make your Goals bigger than your problems

People focus on their problems and then wonder why they are feeling depressed, negative and anxious.
From an evolutionary point of view we are hard wired to focus and prioritize dangers. This was great for stone age man as he was ready for any attacking animals. It is however not so good for us now as we focus on the negative still. This is why bad news sells more than good news.
So we need to counteract this and focus on the positive.
The best cure I know for anxiety is to make your goals so much bigger than your problems that your problems become insignificant.

9.Learn to Negotiate

In life you get what you negotiate, not what you deserve so learn to negotiate.

10.Fake it 

The brain processes information.When you see your your hand and when you imagine your hand the brain processes both of these. It doesn't really notice the difference (they both occur in area 17 of the visual cortex).
So if you focus on acting as if you are already where you want to be, your reality will match your vision.

Students rise to the level of their expectation so if you act as if it were true and truly believe in it and it will become reality.

How Earth Moves, Why are there Seasons, Calendars

This is a great video summarizing, how the earth, moves, why we have the seasons, why we have the Julian and Gregorian calendars and why we lost 11 days in 1752.

• Earth spins - The earth spins counterclockwise.  A way to remember  this is to think of the US as an animal running with its head leading.
• Meridians - Earth is split into lines
• Longitude (vertical)
• Latitude (horizontal)
• Tropic cancer(top) -due to tile of the earth.
•  most northerly circle of latitude on earth at which the sun can be directly overhead (ie it turns )
• Occurs on June solstice (when northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun to its maximum effect).
• Tropic of capricorn(bottom)
• Most southerly circle of latitude on earth at which the sun can be directly overhead
• Sun is highest to you (your noon ) when it is on your median (all shadows point to either north or south pole)
• Subsolar point
• This is when the sun is directly overhead so there are no shadows -shadows fall straight down so they disappear
• In Hawaii this is called Lahaina noon
• It occurs twice year,
• Local apparent solar noon: This is when the sun is overhead on your meridian
• Sidereal day (pertaining to the stars): It takes 23.9 hours for the earth (eg a meridian to spin) relative to a far away star.
•  (eg This is live driving a car and looking at a far away mountain, which doesn't seem to  move)
• This is a day relative to a far away stars
• Solar day :Earth moves counterclockwise around sun - more than sidereal day is required for a meridian to point back at  the sun.
• Solar day varies.
• Solargraph - picture of sun's path across the sky (normal distribution tall to shallow)
• Should be straight line at noon local apparent solar noon but is 8 (top small, bottom long)
• So your clock appears slow and fast relative to this
• Equation of time - compare clock time to solar time
• Why is there difference between our clocks and solar time? 
• Earth on an eliptical orbit around the sun so speed changes - close and faster in January so a solar day is longer (turn more) compared to further away
• Earth is tilted so the subsolar point goes  up and down
• Sep 18 solar day - shortest 1min less
• Dec 22 solar day- longest 1min more
• Tilt causes seasons
• More heat energy laid down per area.
• Also tilted half spends more time receiving sunlight
• Solar year - The solar year  365.25 solar days 
• Julian Calendar-
• This calendar added a leap day every 4 years (Feb 29)
• Introduced in 46 BC by Julius Ceaser
• Leap days move calendar too far. Its not  365.25 but 365.2421 and it fluctuates year to year
• so in 1582 - The calendar was 10 days behind the season compared to where they used to be.
• Gregorian   calendar 

• Created by Pope Gregory the 13th.
• Catholic church wanted Easter to occur exactly when it occurred centuries ago.
• This makes 3 fewer leap days every 400 years. There is a leap day added every 4 years leap except if divisible by 100 unless if it also evenly divisible by 400
• In 1582 the calender went from oct 4 to 15 for countries who listened to the Pope  (i.e. they lost 10 days)
• England and her colonies (including the US) followed in  Sep 1752. They went from the 2nd to the 14th (ie lost 3-13) so they lost 11 days. They also changed the 1st day of the year from March to Jan 1st.
• This calendar still causes a difference every 3216 years.
• However the oceans, internal  liquids and celestial bodies are all affecting the Earth's movement.
• Speeds
• Earth spins 1670 km/hour around its axis.
• Earth spins sun 108k km/hour around sun.
• Solar system moves 70k km/h in direction of vega
• Solar system is part of galaxy milky way. It is at a  60% tilt and moving clockwise at 792k km/hour
• Galaxy moving through universe at 2.1million km/hour towards the great attractor

Productivity Tips from Elon Musk to Supercharge Your Success

Elon Musk is a super high achiever. He has multiple companies.

Tesla - electric car company
SpaceX - Spaceflight company
Boring company- Tunneling company
SolarCity - Solar panel and rechargeable lithium ion battery company
Neuralink - Neuroscience company

A recently email from him to his 37, 000 Tesla employees shows his  productivity tips for success.


1. Get rid of all large meetings (unless they provide value to the whole audience, in which case, keep them very short) and  all frequent meetings.

2. Meetings should be infrequent unless a matter is urgent.

3.Drop off a call/meeting as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value.
It is not rude to leave. It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.

4.Avoid acronyms or jargon.
Anything that requires explanation inhibits communication.

5. Don't let hierarchical structures make things less efficient - Cut out the middle-man.
Communication should follow the shortest path. Bypass the managers and go straight to the person doing the work.

6.Don't follow rules, follow logic.

How many of these do you do? How many of these can  you start to implement today?

Motivational video "Change your mind in just 2.50 mins"

Here is a two and a half minute motivational video to supercharge you to success!


Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
You are the creator of your own destiny.
If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do  is, wake up and always act like your wearing an invisible crown
Knock the  "t" out of  can't to make can.
Failure is simply the stepping  stone to success. 

He was a  man who faced many rejections from newspaper editors. They said he had no talent. He became the biggest creator - Walt Disney

He was a man who failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light - Thomas Edison

He was a man who failed in business at the age of 21, his sweetheart died at the  age of  26, he had a nervous breakdown at 27, and became the president of the United States - Abraham Lincoln

Learn form the life stories of these people.
Turn your negatives into positives
Don't wait . The time will never be just right.
Create a definite plan  for carrying out your desire and begin at once. 
Whether you are ready or not, put this plan into action,
Start your day with a positive, love to take responsibilities.
When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve,  Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
Go for it.
Think and grow rich

Programming your mind for success | Carrie Green | TEDxManchester

Here's a great talk by Carrie Green on the secret of success.



Carrie talks about how people perceive  a situation.She asks people to come to the front.
For some people, the voice in the heads talk about the fear, the worry, the doubt. For others about the exciting opportunity.

Whats going in your mind determines the  opportunities you will have.
Sometimes we have negative thoughts - I cant do that. I don't have the money. I'll do it tomorrow.

She talks about starting her mobile phone unlocking business, asking for help and being an entrepreneur.
She talks about being lonely and  her negative mind and how even 3 months of travel didn't help.

She then had two positive insights.

1) Michael Gerber in his book the e-myth.
He talks about imagining walking into a room where your friends and family are, and  you  see a box, then you realise it is your funeral.
What kind of things do you want them to say about the kind of life you lived,  the kind of person you were and the kind of things you achieved?

2) Anthony Robbins said -Your destiny is determined by the choices you make. Chose now and  choose well.

If you want to achieve an amazing life, you need to decide the kind of person you want to be. Program your mind.
She loved being an entrepreneur  and  solving problems, So what did she do?

1)She replaced her negative thoughts with positive ones. She would help connect and  inspire female entrepreneurs.

2)Visualisation - she focused on her goals, seeing everything in detail.
She created a wish list of all the authors she wanted to have on her new magazine. She printed them out and put them on her wall and made it happen.
She wanted to talk in the house of comments. She made it happen..

3)She made some crazy goals and  got her mind to make it happen.


Succces is no accident. You must know the kind of person you  want to be and then make it happen.
You have the power to control of your thoughts.

Daily Habits of Successful People | Brian Tracy

What are the habits of successful people? How can we learn from them? This great video from Brian Tracy shows you their secrets.




What is it that successful people do habitually every single day, that leads to them being in the top 20% of money earners in our society? Well Aristotle said that 95% of everything you do is a result of habit so the rule is form good habits and make them your masters rather than allowing bad habits to form.

Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with.

Now one of the turning points in my life and my study of psychology was the discovery that all habits are learned and can be unlearned actually you don't unlearn a habit you replace a bad habit with a good habit that has more powerful impact, how do you develop a good habit? You develop by repetition. Almost everything you  do from the time you get up is habit. so think what are the best habits to have.

1.Develop  the habit of daily goal setting and goal orientation. 

What does this mean?

1.  When you  go to sleep at night  think about your goals for the coming day
2. Make a list for each day  of all the goals thjat you are going to accomplish that day
3. Keep a journal and write down your goals on a regular basis
4. Throughout the day (e.g. when walking or driving) think about your goals

You do become what you thing about most of the time. You do achieve what you think about most of the time. So all successful and wealthy people think of their goals all the time

2 Be result orientated.

Results orientated people are always thinking of  the most important things that they can do right now to achieve their most important results. They make a list of everything they have to do and set priorities.

Here is a great way to become result orientated. When you have your list for the day, ask yourself If you can only do one thing today (as you will be called out of town), then what would it be. Put a circle around that and start on that immediately first thing  you do and then work on that one thing non stop until you complete that one activity. This simple technique has taken people form rags to riches all over the world for 100s of years. Pick your most important task and start on it immediately and discipline yourself to stay with it until it is completes.

3. Be people orientated

Recognize that everything you achieve in life is going to be with the help of other people . What is it that other people want and need from it. How can I help other people so they want to help me back. If you are in sales top salespeople think about their customers all the time. Who are they, what they want , how they can help them the most, and help them today.

In their relationships successful people are very focused on the most important people in their world in business and personal lives.

4.Be health orientated.

Think of eating less and better food.

Think of daily exercise.

Think of lots of rest. 

Remember to be successful in our competitive world you  need lots of energy. To get a lot of energy you need good food and lots of rest.

5.Stay Honest. 

Always tell the truth no matter the price.

6.Develop Self Discipline 

Self discipline seems to be the foundation habit that makes everything else possible. The best definition of self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it,whether you like it or not. Anyone can do it when they feel like it. It's only when you do it when you don't want to that you develop the self discipline.

What is the one habit you should develop right now to develop your other goals? Whatever it is start practicing that habit every day from now.

15 HABITS ALL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE

How many of these habits do you  have? Try and gain one new positive habit each week and see how you feel.

Successful People Unsuccessful People 1 Show Gratitude Have a sense of Entitlement Pay Compliments Criticize others without Justification 2 Know How To Forgive Hold Grudges 3 Live For The Moment Live In The Past 4 Take Responsibility For Mistakes Blame Other Around Them 5 Share Information Keep Secrets 6 Radiate Positive Feelings Express Negative Feelings 7 Talk About Ideas Gossip About Others 8 Celebrate Victories with Others Take All the Credit For Themselves 9 Are Always Ready For Change Are Scared Of Change 10 Hope Everyone Succeeds Secretly Hope Others Fail 11 Consider Other Points Of View Only Thinik About Their Own 12 Set Goals For Themselves Never Set Goals 13 Know What They Want Don't Know What They Want 14 Are Always Learning Think They Know Everything 15 Read Books Watch Tv

How Bad Do You Want It? (Success) HD

How bad do you want it? Watch this for some motivation!



The guru said I'l  meet you at the  beach. The young man got there at 4am.
The guru asked  how bad do you want success?
The guru asked the young man to walk out into the water. Then a bit further, then a fit further.
How bad do you  want to be successful asked the guru. Go futher
Then the guru held the man down,  under the water. Just before he was about to pass out.The guru lifted him up.
 I have a question for you, how bad do you want to be successful. When you want to be as successful as you want to breathe then you'll be successful.
When you have asthma you have shortness of breath you just want to breath that is all you care about. When you get to the point when all you want to do is be successful as bad as you want to breathe then you will will get it.

How to stay calm when you know you'll be stressed | Daniel Levitin

Wouldn't it be great if you could stay calm when you know you'll be stressed? Daniel Levitin talks about prospective hindsight (or pre-mortem) that the that the psychologist Gary Klein had written about.





He talks about thinking ahead and planning for future issues, such as:


1)To prevent losing things -Design a spot for things that move around. Eg have a hook for your keys or a box for your passport.
2)To prevent problems if you lose your documents on  holiday --Take a cell phone picture of your credit cards, your driver's license, your passport then mail it to yourself . If they are lost you can then facilitate replacement

What other things can you think of? If you  could spend 15 minutes now just think how much pain you  can  avoid later?

Try something new for 30 days - Matt Cutts

Interesting talk by Matt Cutts on trying something new (or subtracting something) for 30 days.
What are you waiting for?



Time passes so quickly and before you know it the next 30 days would have gone.
Seneca wrote in 'On the shortness of life' that we waste our time and we don't appreciate it, so why not do something beneficial for the next 30 days. Matt Cutts mentioned  the following items to either add or subtract from his life.


Adding to his life
Bike to work
10,000 steps/day
Take a picture a day
Write a novel

Subtracting from his life
No TV
No Sugar
No Twitter
No Caffeine

And what happened? Time becomes much more memorable. It doesn't fly past.
He then began to set himself more and harder challenges and he even managed to climbing Mount Kilamanjaro!

He said if you really want to do something badly enough you can do anything for 30 days.

You could even write a novel. Every November,  many people write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in 30 days. That is 1667 words a day /for a month. The next time you are at a party you can  then say you are a novelist!
Check out the website for more details
https://nanowrimo.org/about
https://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

He also found  that small sustainable changes are more like to stick.
If you were feeling really keen you could try doing it for 66 days as the latest research shows that a habit takes 66 days -see research from scientists at London university below.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0908/09080401

The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not so why don't you try something you've always wanted to try and in 30 days time, just think how great you will feel.

So what are you  waiting for?

Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes | Richard St. John

Great Ted Talk by Richard St John talking about the secret of success in 8 words and 3 minutes.




These are the points I found interesting which we should focus on. How many of these are you doing?

1. Passion
2. Work hard and make it fun
3. Practice
4. Focus on  one thing
5. Push yourself physically mentally
6. Serve others something of value
7. Idea - Think of a good idea
8. Persist

Breath -- five minutes can change your life | Stacey Schuerman | TEDxCha...

Five minutes daily to a better life. Great advice from Stacey Schuerman.



In our day-to-day lives we are constantly bombarded by sensory experiences that we begin to overload our sensory nervous system. Loud noises crowds anything that is trying to gain our attention which begins to activate that flight or fight activity in our bodies but what would you say if I told you there was a tool that you could tap into everyday, something that happens naturally that we can use to reverse that, to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to come back to the rest or digest activity. You would be able to slow down the breath and heart rate before during and after a stressful event what if it was as simple as just breathing. What if you took 5 minutes just out of your day to focus on the breath you might think you have no time for that but what if it was a crucial regiment for your health? What if by taking that 5 minutes a day it would make a difference in your life so where do we start?

Let's Begin here right now with your breath so take a moment wherever you are you might stay seated you might stand up but get comfortable. Allow the eyes to softly close, take a moment as you're here to feel the feet firmly planted in the ground. Take a deep breath in, feel the shoulders softening down the back and start to soften the muscles into the neck into the jaw take a moment here to allow yourself permission to let go of everything outside the space, let go of anything that might have happened before this moment then let go of anything that you have to do afterwards. Let go of judgements or expectations about yourself. Allow the mind to settle and begin to listen to the beat of your heart. Welcome yourself as you are at this very present moment physically mentally emotionally begin to bring your awareness to your breath to the deep sensations of the breath.

She then goes to talk you through more relaxing stuff.

The secret to becoming more charismatic in just 2 minutes a day for 21 days - (Slatcher & Pennebaker, 2006)

Would you like to become more charismatic and a better leader in 21 days by doing a 2 minute exercise a day? Here is a great talk by Shawn Achor on how to do that. Fascinating, inspiring and empowering.



This is the one that is least adopted especially at the senior leadership level. It's the most powerful intervention we have on record right now for raising other people's perception of your positive charisma that is compared to any leadership training that we've seen so far. The reason is that this is so successful is what we have you do is over the past 24 hours you think about one meaningful experience you've had, just one and it could be very small, a conversation you had with a client, with a child,  seeing a sunset, watching snowfall in London, maybe it was a book you were reading, whatever, for 2 minutes that is it, into a blank word document you just write down every detail you can remember about the experience and done. You don't talk about your whole day. Just for 2 minutes just write down every detail you can remember. The reason you are doing that is that you are actually getting your brain to relive that experience because if I hold my hand in front of my face, area 17 of my visual cortex lights up and says hand. Close my eyes and think about my hand in front of my face and area 17 of  my visual cortex lights up and says hand. My brain can't tell the difference between visualisation and actual experience.  So when you do this you've just doubled the most meaningful experience of  your past 24 hours. You do this for 21 days in  a row and your brain connects the cognitive dots for you, creating a trajectory of meaning running throughout your life. So now those emails that you have, those meetings,  the commute you have actually wrap around the trajectory of meaning, which raises your authenticity. Authenticity is just ajudged by how meaning connects to the actual activities you are doing within your life. When authenticity rises, if we take videos of you guys speaking, and  show it to naive raters, 21 days after doing a journaling exercise like this. Even though those raters don't know you or know that you are doing the journaling exercise, they judge you as having significantly higher levels of  positivity and charisma as a leader. It is remarkable.

Taking Action - Exercise (Babyak et al., 2000)

Here's a great talk by psychologist Shawn Achor on why exercise is good for your success and happiness.



Everyone knows exercise is supposed to make you happier but we tell you the wrong reason for it. Usually we say  if you run enough maybe endorphins might get released and you might get addicted to those. Endorphines, these neurochemicals, they give you short term happiness but we are talking about today is long term quantifiable happiness and what we found is exercise does this but for a completely different reason. Exercise does this because it changes your tetris effect. What it does is people who exercise  also started eating healther on average. Why because their brain says I've been successful in one domain I bet I can be succcesful in  another domain.  which is why we found when senior level executives exercise in the morning they are better at dealing with their inbox at 2 oclock in the middle of the day. Two separate functions at two separate parts of the  day  and yet linked to the same activity. That activity is that you are getting your brain to believe your behaviour matters. If you exercise and go to work and you look around at other people you think I exercised and look at all these people that didn't , Even though that's the fist time you've exercised in a decade. you feel a moment of success and that moment of success translates into the very next action you take and just like we see in sports we see they get into the momentum of success that happens because they have an initial victory which leads to a cascading effect and those individuals start building an entire constellation of positive habits around them based on that first belief that my behaviour matters.

How to get a laser focus - Meditation - Shawn Achor

Here's a great talk by psychologist Shawn Achor talking about how to get a laser focus.



I did this with Adobe CEO and senior leadership staff and take their hands of the keyboard for 2 mins a day and just watch their breath go in and out. they are breathing anyway so we just made them watch it. What they are doing is they are trying to get their brain to do one thing at ta time and as everyone in this room knows it is quite difficult because you are balancing so many balls at the same time.  Your brain is creating a Tetris effect of multitasking and a Tetris effect of a form of cultural deficit disorder, where it is very difficult to focus on  anything for a long period of time. We thing that's good but adolescents are much better at multitasking than anyone in this room for the most part because they play all these video games and have all these stimuli.  They are better at multitasking on average but by definition, even the best multitaskers drop their  success rates on both tasks by multitasking and significantly raise the stress on their systems and the best multitaskers in the united states are exactly the ones we have banned from driving and talking at the same time because it  quadruples the chances of an adolescent getting in a car accident. We find that multitasking is one pattern of dealing with multiple tasks but there is a better cognitive strategy to do multiple tasks by doing them with the entirety of your brain's focus by shifting form one to the other. You have to practice and train your brain to not split your cognitive resources and  mediation is the fastest way we have found to do that. For 2 minutes a day of watching your breath go in and out you can  undo the negative effects of multitasking and start getting your brain give you a focus like a laser on tasks instead of having a diffuse light of your intellectual  resources shined on it.

How To Become Happy And An Optimist - Shawn Achor

Here is a great talk by psychologist Shawn Achor talking about the work of Emmerson & McCullough where they made people go from being pessimists to optimists and improved the performance of the company.


This is based on work that was done by Emerson and McCullough. They went to a company much like yours and they had everyone of their employees, as a first thing when they came into to work,  write down 3 new (i.e. in the last 24 hours) things they were grateful for in a word document.
3 new things for 21 consecutive days results in 63 things you are grateful for but that is not the important thing. It doesn't matter what you write down , what matters is that the brain is scanning the world for things that are positive. a  lot of times we train our brain to scan for the negative and we are incredibly good at doing that because our brain is a single processor  so we denote our finite resources to scan the world for the negative and continue to miss out on the positive things that are happening in our environment.

If you do this for 21 days you  can take pessimists, who have always been tested as pessimists, who we know have genes for pessimism and they become optimists.  They ended up  testing as low  to moderate level optimists.

One thing they did at the company, is they started their meetings by saying one thing they were personally grateful for , one thing they were grateful about their team, and one thing about one member of their team.

Then they talk about the fires they need to put out, but not treat them as threats but challenges. The entire performance of the team then started to rise.

The Daily 2 Minute Secret to Happiness - Shawn Achor

Wouldn't it be great if you could be happy by doing something for just 2 minutes a day? Well that's exactly what the data and research shows. Watch this great talk by psychologist Sean Achor to see how you can do exactly that.

Taking Action- Random Acts of Kindness (Lyubomirsky, 2005)

What we had the CEO's do is before you open up your inbox, for the first thing in the day, before reading a single email and that's actually the only hard part of this study, you had to write a 2-minute email just praising or thanking someone in your social support network, not a coworker but  it's a family member or an old teacher or coach or someone you met at the conference, just someone you want to thank or praise for something. Just  2 minutes and you're done. What we found is, if you do this for three days you're hooked. All day long you think about that one email you sent this morning and being such a great person for sending such emails.

The reason why you do this experiment is over period of 21 days in a row your brain learns you have a robust social support network. You have 21 people in your social support network who have meaning to you and you just activated it in a meaningful way. As a result we found a correlation between CEO's social support and the happiness is 0.7 which doesn't sound that sexy but that's significantly higher than the correlation between smoking and cancer so if you had social support you definitely have a great chance of having happiness and without it that's the very first thing that goes with the happiness.

In my book I have a whole chapter on social investment which is studying individuals and companies that in the midst of challenge, instead of divesting from The Social Network they invest, they actually ramp it up and in doing so the success rate continues to rise where's the others continue to flag. I was working with UBS and one of the managers was telling me that there's a vehicle that would go round on Friday afternoons (the beer cart) after the markets close and it was a great way of bonding with everyone and if you're tired after working on the week and he said when the economy starts to fall, they cut back and the first thing of course you cut is the things that seem frivolous like the beer cart but of course if you cut the  social support its a mistake but that is what they did and they cut the beer cart but this manager reached into his own pocket to buy beer for his team. He said "I'm a professional investor I've done this for 20 years and it's the best investment I've made because my team in the midst of all the struggles while we losing people to other companies I didn't lose a single person on my team and they continue to do many of the things they want to because they saw me as a person who cared about them". This  just confirms the research that shows employees are more engaged if they believe that their manager cares for them.

I don't think we need to buy some beer for people to win their social support but I think we can write a two minute email to somebody in our social support network to ramp up a belief in our social network and improve happiness 

7 techniques to feel better and be successful - Tony Robbins

We all go through ups and downs and sometimes you just keep telling yourself to feel confident but your brain and body don't believe you. That's because you are communicating in the wrong way. Here are 7 techniques to improve how you feel and get success that I've found from Tony Robbins.

 The techniques are:

1 Model someone else for a few days
2 Priming
3 Absolute certainty
4 Change your focus 

5 Change your focus - use questions 
6 Immediate feeling change - think
7 Immediate feeling change - action

1.Model someone else for a few days

We all create an identify for ourselves. You can tell someone's identity by the gestures they have, the way they move. It's all to do with your belief system.

One thing that we all try and do is being consistent. So we talk in our heads to be more confident but it doesn't work. So what can you do?

The easiest thing to do is pretend to be someone else for a few days. Eg who is the most confident person you know (or if you can't think of someone think of someone from TV or film). Then just act like them for a week. Move like them, talk like them, have a posture like them. Think like them, behave like them. It might be difficult at first but if you get a few successes then it will build momentum and you will find it easier and easier.

2.Priming

Tony Robbins has a morning priming routing, which creates a rapid change in his physiology. Why don't you try something similar?  His program goes something like this:

1. Cold water plunge ( but you could just have a quick cold shower) 
2. Breath walking: Simply walk for a few minutes using a breathing cycle of 4 short inhales through the nose, then 4 short exhales through the mouth 
3. For 3 minutes feel grateful. Fill your soul with gratitude because when you are grateful it is impossible to be angry or fearful at the same time. 
4. For the next 3 minutes have a total focus on the feeling of the universe coming in and healing everything in your body, mind, emotions, relationships, finances and solving anything that needs to be solved. 
5. For the last 3 minutes, focus on three things that you are going to make happen. See it as though its already been done. Feel the emotions. 

3.Absolute certainty

Many people try something without conviction and then fail and then they say, see I told you it doesn't work. But you've got to be certain. But how can you be certain in a world of uncertainty? The trick is to think of the results in your head as if its already happened successfully.

4.Change your focus 

Seek and you shall find. Whatever you focus on you find. It is like when you buy a new car and then you see the same make of car everywhere but before you didn't. Your brain filters out and if you focus on the  negative then you will find the negative and it will take you into a negative direction. Focus on positive things, how you can improve, what great things you can do, how you can help yourself and your friends.

5 Change your focus - use questions 

Your focus is controlled by the questions you ask continually. If you ask questions like why does it happen to me, why I can't I lose weight you will find negative answers. Instead ask questions like what can I learn from this to be better next time or how can I lose weight and have fun.

6.Immediate feeling change - think

When you are trying to do something but in the wrong mood it doesn't work so how can you change? Try the following

1. Shake your body out. 
2. Think what are you proud of or what could you be proud of in your life today? Maybe you overcame a problem or did something good? Now when you feel proud, how do you breathe, how do you stand, how do you move, how do you think, how do you feel? 
3. Think of an area you are grateful for. Really get into the feeling. How do you feel? 
4. Think of something you are excited about. How do you feel? How do you speak? 

If you really get into this feelings your state should have changed.

7.Immediate feeling change - action

Emotion is created by motion. It is hard to talk your way to feeling better but action helps change how you feel. So take action. Shake your body, stand taller and start doing. Immediate massive actions is the cure all for everything. Do it and if the initial action doesn't work, change it and redo

2 minute a day, 21 day program for success - The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor

We believe we should work hard in order to be happy, but could we be thinking about things backwards? In this fast-moving and very funny talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that, actually, happiness inspires us to be more productive.




He's worked with schools and companies in over 45 countries and found that happiness is not due to the external world but how our brain processes the world.

If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, he's found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed.

If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we're able to work harder, faster and more intelligently. We need to be able to reverse this formulaso we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of.Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brainallowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.




When your brain is positive it produces dopamine which makes you happier. It also opens learning centres in the brain, making you better able to adapt to the world.




So how can you get more positive and productive? How can you rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully?

Spend 2 mins a day for the next 21 days doing the following daily:




1. Write three new things you are grateful for (Emmons & McCullough 2003)

2. Journaling one positive thing that happened in the last 24 hours (Slatcher & Pennebaker 2006)

3. Exercise (Babyak et al 2000)

4. Mediation (Dweck 2007)

5. Random acts of kindness (Lyubomirsky, 2005)

1. Write down three new things you are greatful for.

Write down three new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first

2.Journaling one positive experience you've had in the last 24 hours

Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it

3.Exercise

Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters

4.Meditation

We find that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand

5.Random acts of kindness

random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in their support network.





So by doing these 5 things, you can train your brain, just like people train their bodies and create positivity, productiveness and success.