Catégorie : Idea

7 simple ways to get motivated on Monday
Photograph from Morgan Sessions – unsplash.com

Day 517. Monday, for a lot of people, is the most horrible day of the week. Of course, when you don’t love your work it can be, but if you love what you do, it’s just another day. The truth is sometimes we just do not feel the motivation to start the day. So whatever day you are on when you do feel motivated, here are 7 simple tricks to get motivation kicking.
1. Listen to music. The music you like, the tune that will make you smile. Whatever it is, put your earplugs and pump up the volume. You will get a nice shot of dopamine.
2. Go for a run. If you do not run, do your preferred « sweating » activity. It will free some endorphins, the neuro transmitter that gets released after an orgasm. Worth some drops of sweat.
3. Have breakfast with your loved ones. This will increase the production of oxytocin, the love hormone. Nothing comes close to spending quality time with people you truly love.
4. Listen to a motivational speech. This may sound artificial, but listening to a truly good motivational speaker will switch your mood almost instantly.
5. Meditate for fifteen minutes. Meditation may not be your cup-of-tea, but give it a real try. Find a nice place, put on some relaxation music, breath and let the flow begins. Always a nice surprise for stressed people.
6. Show gratitude. When you arrive to your office, say thank you to three people for something they did for you in the last ten days. You’ll be amazed by the power of these little two words.
7. Smile. If you cannot make it, fake it! A smile is proven to have an effect on our own mood. After smiling for a while, you will feel this smile sink into you.
Motivation is a strange animal. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes not. One or many of the above tips will trick your body in a positive way and will help you getting the motivation back. And do not forget to treat you once you’ve made something valuable you planned.
1 juin 2015
8 reasons why you have to switch your TV off
Weathering the storm

Rule number 1: Switch your TV off! – Second Part

Picture from http://pixabay.com/fr/users/mojzagrebinfo-278781/ – Licence CC0

Day 516. Answering the questions of yesterday’s post helped you realize that television is not helping you to realize your goals, keeping them as mere dreams, far, far away. Of course, the path to least resistance will fight inside your brain to tell you that eh, TV is not that bad. And once again, it’s true, it’s not that bad, it’s what you make of it that is bad. A car is good, you can kill people by running into them and this does not make the car bad, it’s your actions that turned the car into a killing engine. TV is the same, and it can kill too : your ambitions, your dreams, your time.

Here are 8 good reasons that will help you realize that you need to switch your TV off for good :
1. You can be informed through other medias that YOU solicit: a daily newspaper, radio, internet, podcasts, blogs, news site, etc. On the news piece, it’s a topic on itself, but I have two questions I always ask myself when listening or watching the news: Does it concern me directly? Can I act upon it? For instance, if there’s an earthquake in another country and although I will feel compassion, does it change my daily life? Can I do something to help? If no to both, then move forward. As an individual, you cannot solve all problems of the world or of your country, so chose your battles wisely. I’ll write on this more, but it’s crucial.
2. It’s possible to get distraction through other channels: movies, theater, museums, games, reading, sport, etc. All other distractions will solicit your brain and your muscle, but more importantly your own decision: you have to decide and act, not just being on the receiving end.
3. Television is the least social media. You cannot talk, debate, exchange ideas while watching TV. You are just a spectator.
4. Television does not teach anything useful. There are some good programs during which you can learn things, but it’s a minority. You can learn the same by going to a public library or searching on the Internet.
5. Television costs you money. It’s cost of purchase, of electricity, of cable network subscription, just to name a few. You can probably save hundreds if not thousands of dollars/euros every year by switching it off and canceling all your subscriptions.
6. Television makes people dumb. Scientific studies have shown that kids can become asocial and violent through too much TV and too little social interaction.
7. Television manipulates you. Whether state or private television, television proposes one point of view, gives you one angle. Freedom is about questioning, pondering, not absorbing blatantly,
8. Television serves ads that you are not interested in. It goes with above manipulation. Watching TV sinks products in your brain and forces you to consume products you may not need.
If you are conscious of those 8 points, then you are probably making the right decision for you if you watch TV. Otherwise, take some time to think about it and make a decision, either to continue watching it or to switch it off. We will see later what you can replace it by.
31 mai 2015
4 questions to answer to understand why you have to switch your TV off!
Weathering the storm

Rule number 1: Switch your TV off! – First Part

Day 515. Television is a mere distraction. Nobody, really nobody, has ever succeeded in life, made a fortune or grew personally watching TV. Watching TV is merely a way to spend time without thinking. If you are serious to weather the storm that we call the crisis, if you are serious about taking control of your destiny, if you are serious about finding success and have a meaningful life, you need to switch your TV off for good.

TV is not bad in essence, but because it’s so easy to switch it on and zap from one channel to the other, I encourage you to just get rid of your TV set, get rid of your subscription to cable or satellite TV and repurpose the time you spent watching it. I know some of you will resist: we all need to relax, we need distraction, TV is a good distraction. I agree, I have some questions for you:
1. How long do you spend watching TV every day?
2. What are you watching?
3. Are you interested in a particular program or are you watching what you find randomly?
4. Is what you watch help you progressing on your way to realizing your goals?
To make progress you need to understand what pulls you backward and which of the strings you can cut. If you are watching TV two hours a day, consider cutting this in half and allocate the hour saved to activities that help you toward your goals. This could be reading a book, playing a game with your child, going for a walk with your spouse, writing your journal, something that you will enjoy, that will relax you and that will help you.

It may look like a baby step, but it’s the constant drip of water that drills a hole in a rock, not throwing a bucket of water on to it. Switching off TV even for a short period of time every day will help you taking back the control of your time. Don’t let others control your time, it’s the most precious resource you have.
30 mai 2015
The 10 rules to thrive through a time of crisis
Photograph by Morgan Sessions – unsplash.com

Day 514. Between December 2008 and April 2009, while the financial crisis was in full swing, I started this blog and published posts on 8 rules to thrive through the crisis. I announced I would be publishing 10 rules, but posted only 8… the crisis probably took a 20% tax. Nevertheless, 6 years later, the financial crisis is still there. For sure some countries have better weathered the storm, but some are still lagging behind. Emerging countries seem better off than developed countries, will it be the case in the coming years.

However, if each crisis is an opportunity, there are simple rules that have always worked for me to weather any storm, any crisis, any hurdle, and any challenge and those are the ones I will share in the coming posts over the next month, based on the 8 I posted 6 years ago. They are drawn from my personal experience and my personal research. You may know some of those, if not all, and the one thing I can say is that they work! What they are not:
- A silver bullet. You will not get all that you want by following them. You need to adapt, tweak, act and take risks.
- A philosophy. I am a pragmatic guy. Although I love thinking and imagining what I could and want to do, I am hands on and do not think for the pleasure of it. I think for the pleasure to act.
- A shield protecting you from failure. You will fail, integrate this. Failure is an integral part of any learning and any success! Those rules will not avoid you to fail but will help you to get back on your feet faster.
What are they then?
- A set of means to an end. Simple, pragmatic activities you can put at play to reach your own objectives faster and better.
- A solid foundation. The building is yours to build!
- Simple down to earth principles for a rock solid life of success whatever the weather is.
Ready to enhance your life? Come with me then!
29 mai 2015
Switch your criticism time to creation time

Photograph by David Mao. unsplash.com

Day 513. When have you criticized something lately? May be it was your coffee this morning that was too hot, or the traffic that was too dense, or your boss who has been pushing too much work to you… whatever it was, what did it do? Probably nothing on the outside, but it fueled your negativity on the inside. Some will argue that it’s good to criticize, it helps to make things better and it feels good. It helps to make things better if, and only if, you can contribute to make them better. In the case of your hot coffee, you can definitely put it in the fridge, add cold water or just wait. On the traffic, if you are not working for your city, you cannot act upon the traffic but on the time you go to work for instance to avoid the peak time. On the feel good side, you succumbed to your archaic system, the path of least resistance, criticizing without proposing a solution.

Your coffee’s too hot? Great, you can cool it down by applying one of the solution I shared. The traffic is horrendous? Great, you’ll have more time to listen to this fantastic audio book and you will seek alternative route or different time to go to the office. Your boss is pushing too much work? Great, here’s a way to shine and to look for ways to get more productive, or to have a discussion to share your concerns. In all the cases, you archaic system makes you rant, and your prefrontal cortex makes you find a solution. The first is in charge of your Cro-Magnon side, the second of your personality and social behavior. Why do I write about your brain? Because each of your decision happens here and YOU are in charge. There’s no magic, it’s all yours to change, or not.

By criticizing without offering solution, we lose our precious time and are undermining our credibility. By criticizing AND proposing a solution, we move to a more advanced and respected behavior. The ultimate step is to not criticize and propose a solution to what is perceived as a challenge or a problem. Tomorrow, I will wake up five minutes earlier to have time for my coffee to cool down. Next week, I will leave home thirty minutes later to avoid the peak traffic. Today, I will have a discussion with my boss on my workload that is increasing. Less talking, more acting, and probably, more connecting. Switch criticism time to creation time, not easy, but essential to get a better and more fulfilling life!

28 mai 2015