Day 562
Photograph https://unsplash.com/szolkin
Auteur/autrice : marc
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Discipline is the mother of Success
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What to do when you are short of ideas? 3 techniques that work
https://unsplash.com/intrepid Day 561. I am sitting in front of my tablet and am scratching my head. I had thought about a topic this morning for this post, but it vanished… It should have been a bad topic. I am looking through the window and it rains. Definitely a day to be working, but I have not a single idea for this post. Then of course, the idea comes in because I am using one of the following techniques to get ideas pouring in. And the idea is to share with you how to deal with the blank page syndrome. The problem? You need to write of paper or put a project plan together, or produce whatever that needs to be produced starting from scratch, and you do not know how to start, or where to start. Use any of those simple 3 techniques and you will experience the magical effect of creativity unleashed:
- Start typing (or writing, or any other activity that is required for the task you have to do). Type the first idea that comes. It can be your printer is black, why is this printer black by the way? Or it can be that it is raining and you love the smell of earth and nature after the rain. The trick here is to start a train of thought. Your unconscious mind will create links and ideas will start flowing. Continue writing until you have the right one.
- Flip through previous projects, texts, or ideas. The best way to create something new is to start from something existing. Actually very few new things are really new. They are just an enhancement of something that existed and presented as new.
- Switch to something else… Hey, but I need to do this thing, I cannot switch to something else. Actually, if you are familiar with the concept of « lacher-prise », or « let go », you understand that holding to something too hard is counterproductive. You need to get away from the thing that blocks you to be able to get back into it. Counter intuitive? Sure, but really powerful. So let go, start something else, and in a matter of minutes, ideas will fly in so naturally you’ll wonder why they did not come sooner. The magic of Let go!
The human brain is full of mysteries. Sometimes, with these conscious techniques, we will « fool » our unconscious brain so it provides what we are looking for. Try it, you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain in terms of creativity and productivity. Voilà, I am happy, I went to no idea to a blog post in ten minutes.
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The most important leadership skill…
https://unsplash.com/matthewclarkrogers Day 560. How do you become a respected and successful leader? As Lao Tzu wrote: When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’ Hundreds of books have been written on leadership. Over the ages, leadership has changed and the necessary skills to be considered a good leader have changed too. However, all good leaders have one thing in common: they succeed through others. All good leader need others to deliver the vision. And to be able to lead others, they need one crucial skill and that is: speaking.
We all learn to speak by listening first, then by learning the rules, mostly grammar. However, what is barely taught is the how and the what (the content, not the rules). Words can lift you up, can tear you down, and can even kill. How you deliver those words can be the amplifier. Words and their delivery, a.k.a. speaking, is the most important skill of all because this is one you cannot delegate. You have to learn it, you have to rehearse, and you have to master it. The good news is it can be taught. Clubs like Toastmasters will equip you with the right skill set to speak and to lead.
Speaking is not difficult but it’s powerful. It requires understanding of its power and a lot of training. Once you master the art of speaking, you need to polish it, slowly, skillfully. The best investment you can do for yourself and for others!
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Greece 2015, Germany 1918? #ThisIsACoup
https://unsplash.com/ugmonk Day 559. Greece has said yes to Europe. Europe has reached an agreement with Greece. Although I am no historian, no politician, and no diplomat, while reading the reports of the negotiation marathon I had one feeling: Europe has humiliated Greece, like in its time Allies had humiliated Germany after World War I. Of course the circumstances are different. Of course Greeks need to reimburse their debtors. Of course Greece needs to demonstrate its willingness and possibility of repaying its debt while avoiding to go into the next crisis.
As a kid, I was taught to practice what you preach. Tell me M. Hollande and other European so-called « leaders »: why do you continue lending money, not your money, but taxpayers’ money, to Greece while you know that Greece will never be able to pay back its debt? Not only you ruined France, you will now ruin Greece, adding shame to prejudice. For the first time since WW2, land sovereignty has been compromised. Not by war, by money. Greece will sell its territory to payback its debt, not because it wanted to do it, because it was told to do it.
I am not sure how the Greeks will react to this « agreement ». Time will tell. But in 1918, Germans felt badly and the post-war recession opened the door to fascism and ended up with WW2. IMHO, one thing is blatantly visible in this crisis: people never learn from their mistakes and history is doomed to repeat itself, again and again! What’s up doc? Nothing, the sun will continue shining for a few billion years, whatever happens to those tiny living creatures called human beings, so as Candide was saying « we must cultivate our garden ».
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3 rules to survive and win the email battle
https://unsplash.com/mumolabs Day 558. Do you receive too many emails? If not, then you can go back to what you were doing previously. If yes, just continue reading, because I will give you my own personal 3 rules to win the email battle that take literally 5 seconds to implement and allow you to free time to do meaningful work. Before getting into those rules, I need to clarify one simple point: email is just one of the many ways to communicate and is the asynchronous way. Asynchronous means that when you press the Send button, your email can take some time to be delivered and the recipient may not be online or not in front of his or her email client, so he or she will receive it later and may answer later too. So we come to our first rule:
- If you expect an urgent answer, do not use email, use instant message, phone the person, or walk to his or her desk. In other word: speak!
- Put each email you receive and read in one of those three buckets: trash, archive, action. All those emails that you are copied on or that you receive because you are part of a distribution list will go to trash. But hey you tell yourself, it may be important! Sure it may. And I assure you that if it’s really important you will hear about it through other ways of communication soon! And if you feel it’s important, read and archive! As for those email that you can answer in less than 30 seconds, answer them immediately and move! For those that require some work, keep them, flag them, change them into a task and put them in your calendar. In that case apply some judgement. Some email do not require urgent action, plan them for the next day or the next week.
- End your day with an empty mailbox. Yes, you read it well, empty your mailbox. If you applied rule two, at the end of each day, each email will have been either trashed, archived or actioned upon, your mailbox will be empty!
I always smile when people tell me they receive too many emails. You receive too many emails because you let others send you too many emails. It’s not about others, I am sorry to say it’s all about you! You are the master of your mailbox, do not let your mailbox rule!
