Category: Blog

Change is inevitable.

That phrase sounds trite, and perhaps even cliché, but it’s true, and everyone knows it.

Unfortunately, knowing it and accepting it are two very different things, and the latter is orders of magnitude more difficult than the former. Most people are of the mindset that things aren’t supposed to change. While everyone has a different threshold, all of us crave order, stability and predictability to one degree or another, and change disrupts that. It throws our world into chaos and uncertainty, which increases stress.

There’s really only one way to deal with change, and that is acceptance. Things change. That’s the nature of the world we live in, and there’s no use fretting about it or worrying over it. Doing that will only get you down. Besides, who says all change is bad? What it really represents is an opportunity.

Sure, when your world changes around you, there will invariably be an adjustment period, but more often than not, change brings with it new and unexpected opportunities, which are good things. Sometimes, chance brings things you never would have had the opportunity to experience or take advantage of if it hadn’t happened.

Of course, it goes without saying that not all change is good, but worrying about it isn’t going to keep it from happening. Again, the best thing you can do for yourself is to accept it, evaluate it with honest eyes, look for new opportunities hiding within the changing landscape and deal with the downsides as they come.

That is a far better, far healthier attitude to take than to allow the fact of inevitable change to get you down. If you go down that road, you doom yourself to a life of depression and uncertainty, and the more you try to hold onto the way things are, the more frustrated you’ll find yourself becoming. Don’t do that to yourself. There’s a better way!

No man (or woman) is an island. If you want to accomplish anything of importance, either in your personal or business life, you’re inevitably going to need the help of others at some point. You’re going to need a team to bring your vision or project, whatever it may be, to life.

Unfortunately, most people don’t have a clear idea of how to build a good, strong team that functions like a well-oiled machine, and the absence of this skill can make it much harder to achieve whatever goals they’re aiming at. Below, you’ll find some simple guidelines that will put you firmly on the path of building a world-class team, which will improve your chances of succeeding at whatever goal you’re chasing.

• It Starts With Vision – Before you can even think about assembling a team, you’ve got to have a crystal clear vision of what you want to achieve. What specific goals will you and your team be seeking to accomplish? What skills do you lack in terms of bringing the project to life? That will tell you which people you need to start attracting to your cause.

• Build Excitement And Commitment – Once you know who to start looking for in terms of building your team, the next part is salesmanship. You’ve got to pitch your idea to the experts you need and gauge their responses. It’s not enough that the person you’re talking to has a skill you need. That person also has to be genuinely excited by what you’re trying to do, because excitement breeds commitment, and commitment is the fuel that will see your project to the finish line.

• Collaboration Is A Must – Go ahead and dispense with the notion that you’ve got all the answers. You don’t. No one does, and you chose the members of your team not just for their expertise and enthusiasm for your project, but for their ideas. Accept them. Give them the space and the autonomy to add their thinking to your vision. As long as their ideas fit with the vision you’ve outlined, let them grow and flourish.

There’s obviously more to team building than just this, but if you start with these three simple points, you’ll go a long way toward building a solid, capable team that can accomplish just about anything you can dream of.

IQ is a well-known and well-understood measure of intelligence. Fewer people are familiar with EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, and that’s a shame, because EQ is often a better measure of who will be more successful and effective.

That might seem counterintuitive at first, but the more you think about it, the more sense it makes.

Intelligence would be the better measure if we lived in isolation, but at the root, we’re still extremely social creatures, and almost no one does all their work in isolation. Those who have higher EQ can work better with, and leverage the talents of others, thereby benefitting from productivity gains that a person operating purely on intellect can never hope to match.
So, what specific traits define EQ?

There are too many to name here, but below are some of the major ones:

Emotionally In Command

The individual with high emotional intelligence can seldom be baited. When the unexpected happens, he’s not the person you see flying off the handle in response, but rather, the one who closes his eyes for a moment, takes a deep breath and then methodically adjusts the course as needed.

This is not to say he is emotionless. It’s just that his emotions are never controlling him. It’s always the other way around.

Responsive, Rather Than Reacting

The emotionally intelligent individual never reacts to the unexpected by shooting from the hip or making emotionally-driven responses. Rather, this person assesses, evaluates and responds accordingly.

Again, this isn’t to say that such an individual doesn’t feel. He simply does not allow his emotions to drive his reaction, preferring to craft a cogent, logical response to whatever crisis has arisen.

Outreaching

Disagreements among friends and coworkers inevitably happen, and invariably, it is the more emotionally intelligent person who reaches out to the other party and begins to make amends. This person rebuilds bridges in the aftermath of the disagreement.

If you want to succeed, you need to become more emotionally intelligent. Start by striving to embody the three traits defined above.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Make an early New Year’s resolution and get started now! It’s easier than you might think, and we’ll outline a super-simple trick you can use to motivate yourself to better health, starting today.

The first step in making use of this motivational trick is to recognize the simple fact that most of us don’t like to exercise. Unfortunately, proper diet and exercise together (not just one or the other) is the gateway to better health.

Where exercise is concerned, trick your brain. Instead of joining a gym, think about the things you like to do or something you might like to try. The only caveat is that there has to be some sort of physical component.
Maybe that’s golf, or frisbee, or fencing or even whitewater rafting.

Whatever it is, if it’s something you genuinely enjoy, then you’ll look forward to doing it. The exercise you get as a consequence won’t feel like exercise because you’re having fun, and since you enjoy it, you’ll be inclined to do a lot more of it.

Where diet is concerned, the big watchword here is accountability.
Make yourself accountable by writing down everything you eat during the course of the day.

Often, the simple trick of being confronted by a written record of everything you eat is sufficient to make you steer clear of at least some of the snacks you’d otherwise be enjoying.

If that’s not enough, then enlist friends. You can help hold each other accountable. You’re almost certainly not the only person in your circle of friends struggling with weight and health issues, so take advantage of that!

Finally, set and celebrate realistic milestones. Don’t think about the fact that you’re 60 pounds overweight. Focus on the first 20 and make that your initial goal. Once you’ve achieved it, enjoy an evening of celebration (a “cheat day”) and then get back to work, focusing on the next twenty pounds.

Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to better health.

It probably comes as no great surprise that the nature of work is changing, but have you thought about exactly how it’s changing? If you haven’t, take a look at the trends outlined below. They will give you better insight into exactly how the world of work is going to change in the very near future.

1) Rise Of The Robots – Machine learning. Drones. Driverless cars. All of these are making their appearance in the workforce today, but they haven’t reached a point of saturation yet, and as such, their full impact hasn’t yet been felt – but it’s coming, and sooner than you might think.

These things are going to be enormously disruptive, and by some estimates, as many as 45 percent of the jobs in existence today will be threatened by some combination of the technologies we just mentioned. Don’t get too comfortable in your current job, because it may cease to exist well before you retire!

2) The Disappearing Corporate Ladder – This has been happening for a while now, but not all companies have fully embraced the change.

During the Industrial Era, companies grew and achieved success on the basis of a tightly defined, hierarchical structure, which we came to call the corporate ladder. If you wanted to advance, you moved upward…ever upward.

That’s increasingly less true today. Modern companies are flatter, and use a structure that looks more like a lattice than a ladder, enabling employees to cut across traditional boundaries more easily. This results in them zig-zagging their way to the top. From a practical perspective, this means wearing a great many more hats as you explore different departments and teams, burnishing your resume and skill set as you go, and making yourself a more flexible employee.

3) Digital Nomads – Right now, in the United States, there are tens of millions of “Solopreneurs,” who ply the waters of the gig economy, setting their own hours and working for themselves.

It’s a trend that’s only going to accelerate in coming years as the mainstays of traditional employment begin to disappear. You may not have a “job” at all as it is defined today. Are you ready for that? Do you have what it takes to fly solo?

Are you 100 percent satisfied with your life as it is at this moment?

Most people aren’t, and if you’re one of them, you may be feeling trapped. You may feel confined by the current boundaries of your life, and unable to see a clear way past them.

That’s not at all uncommon, and if that’s the predicament you find yourself in, then here’s a quick and easy three step plan that can help chart a course to continued personal growth and development.

Step 1 – Visualize, Then Write It Down!

Before you can grow, you need to figure out exactly how you want to grow. What do you want to do? Where do you want to be?

Try not to overshoot this immediately. Instead, set a reasonable, realistic goal for yourself. You wouldn’t want to write down that you wanted to be the world’s richest person and own a chain of tropical islands, but perhaps something such as: I want to start my own business and pay my house off in full, so I don’t have a mortgage. Both are good goals, and both are quite attainable with the proper focus!

Step 2 – Figure Out Whose Help You Need

Once you know where you want to go, an important next step is to evaluate your own skill set, and compare that against what you believe it will take to get where you want to be. If you find yourself coming up short in any skill you’ve deemed essential to the journey, find an professional who has expertise you lack, and make a plan for contacting them and gaining their assistance.

Step 3 – Itemize

Lists are your friend! Once you know the destination, and once you know who the important players are that can help you get where you want to go, start making an extremely granular, task-oriented list.

What specific things need to happen to get you to your end point? What order do they need to occur in?

Once you’ve got your list, making progress toward your goal is as simple as marching through it as quickly and efficiently as you’re able!

One of the biggest secrets to success, no matter what business you’re in, is good communication. If you can communicate your ideas clearly and effectively, you’re miles ahead of the pack because, sadly, it’s something that too many people struggle with.

Below, we’ve assembled a handful of hard-hitting tips designed to make you a better communicator. If you start putting them into practice today, immediately after you finish reading this article, then by the end of the day tomorrow, you’ll begin noticing an unmistakable shift as they begin to work their magic for you.

1) Develop better email habits – There are two pieces to this one. Firstly, don’t be one of those people who responds to a single point or idea in an email that contains multiple ideas.

You probably interact with at least one person who does that on a regular basis, and you know how annoying it is. When someone mentions three major points in an email, respond to all three points.

Secondly, when you ask someone for information, close the circuit when you get what you asked for. Send a quick, “Okay!” or “Got it, thanks!” message back to the other person so they know it didn’t wind up in your junk folder or Limbo.

2) Learn to listen! – Listening is the other half of effective communication, and if you’re not a good listener, then by definition, you’re not going to be as effective at communicating as you could be. The biggest single trick to becoming a better listener is that when someone is speaking to you, stop what you’re doing, put your phone down and look them in the eye.

This forces you to turn most of your attention to the person who is speaking, which automatically means you’re going to absorb more of what they’re saying.

After they’ve finished talking, ask a pointed question or two about the information you just received. Not only does this convey that you’ve understood what you heard, but it also forces you to think more deeply about what you’ve just been told.

3) Write stuff down! – You can’t communicate what you can’t remember. Save your brain cells for doing creative thinking and don’t overburden them with having to try to remember every detail of a conversation you’ve just had. Make notes and reference them later when you’re communicating that information out to others. That way, nothing gets lost in translation.

There are other tips that will enhance your communication skills, of course. Whole books can and have been written on the topic, but if you start with these three, you’ll see an immediate, notable improvement!

A lot of people have been talking about how the internet is changing and about how these days, it’s all about video and graphics. A lot of people believe the humble text article is going the way of the dinosaur.

While it’s true that it may happen one day, rest assured that day isn’t just around the corner. Take the text out of the internet, and all you have is a collection of videos and pictures without context. Like it or not, a great deal of our communication happens via the written word, and just like TV shows and movies didn’t kill text, the fact that we’re now uploading video to the web isn’t going to kill it either.

Text is still the undisputed king of the Internet, and if you want to build an active and engaged audience on the web, the sooner you embrace that reality, the sooner you’ll start finding success.

So, what makes a good website?

Images and video certainly help, but they’re the icing on the cake. They enhance the text-based content you have, and in terms of text based content, you need two basic flavors: the timely, and the timeless. These are very different kinds of content, and you need to be able to produce both well.

Timeless content pieces are also called “Evergreen Articles.” These are longer pieces of anchor content on your site that serve as authoritative references for specific topics. These articles may start out as shorter, timely pieces about a trending topic, and over time, morph into Evergreen Articles as you keep updating and expanding them.

While it’s entirely possible that you’ll get other bloggers linking to a timely article you’ve written, in practice, you’ll find that most of your external link love comes from those longer authority articles, and if you do a deep dive into your site’s statistics, you’ll find that your readers tend to spend the bulk of their time on those pieces as well.

The timely pieces, though, those are the things that tend to initially attract reader interest and attention. Those are the articles that draw them in to begin with. These are typically shorter, snappy pieces on a currently trending topic that are offered with some kind of unique twist.

Whether that’s your quirky and engaging writing style, supporting photos with creative captioning, or something else, each timely piece you create has to have a unique angle and an innovative approach to lure people to your site to begin with.

Then, once they see all the other awesome content you have to offer, it’s the overall quality that will get them to stay!

rap•port

noun

a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

A lot of people use the word “rapport” but relatively few of them sit down and ponder its deeper meaning.

When you think about it, building rapport is the heart and soul of effective communication. You don’t have to be a hostage negotiator to gain real value from building rapport with everyone you meet in your everyday life. The simple act of taking the time to do so will make all your communication more effective.

The question, then, is how? Why is it that you feel as though you connect easily and effortlessly with some people, while others remain forever at an arm’s length?

The answer is much simpler than you might expect, and there’s an easy solution to be had as well. That solution is mirroring.

See, when you meet someone with a personality type that’s very different from yours, it’s natural to get defensive, but doing so only highlights the differences between you.

If you look at video of an interaction between someone who is behaving aggressively and someone who is acting defensively, you’ll notice striking differences, even if the tape is muted. You can tell right away that there’s no way these two are ever going to get along, much less build any sort of rapport.

Next time you encounter someone you can tell you’re just not clicking with, here’s the secret: mirror them.

Adopt a similar posture and tone of voice. Match them move for move, even down to paying attention to their breathing and adopting the same rhythm. The effect is almost immediate, and you’ll be amazed at the results.

Within seconds, you’ll feel the beginnings of a connection, and after just a few minutes, you’ll find that you no longer have to concentrate to keep mirroring. Once you’re in sync, it maintains itself automatically.

It’s a small but incredibly powerful trick, and by mirroring the other person’s behavior, you’ll find it much easier to understand their feelings and ideas, which is, after all, the essence of building rapport.

In a world filled with 24/7 noise and flooded with a continuous barrage of 140 character Tweets, listening is becoming a lost art. In fact, being considered a “good listener” is almost quaint these days, and that’s too bad, because learning to listen effectively can not only improve the quality of your decision making, it can also make you a better leader.

If you’d like to learn the nearly lost art of being a world-class listener, start with these simple steps:

1) Put your phone down – When someone is talking to you, set your phone aside so you’re not tempted to glance at your newly incoming emails and Tweets. Maintain eye contact with the person speaking, which requires your brain to turn the bulk of your attention to that person.

2) Actually listen! – This seems like it should be obvious, but think about how most of your interactions go. They’re probably conversations where you spend at least as much time talking as you do listening.

The idea here is to spend most of your time not talking and really focusing on what the other person is saying. Sure, you may have a few pointed follow up questions, but even then, the goal is to get more information or to clarify, not to chit-chat.

3) Read Between the lines – Sometimes, what’s not being said is as important as the words being spoken, and this is something that poor listeners miss all too often because they glance away at the wrong moment to check their phones and such.

When you start really paying attention, though, you’ll notice that body language fills in a lot of the gaps the spoken word leaves out. The specific words chosen to convey a message can often be quite telling as well. Once you’ve upped your attention-paying game, all of this will become readily apparent to you.

There’s more to good listening than just these three things, of course, but if you start here, you’ll find that your listening skills improve significantly, and that is an excellent beginning no matter how you look at it!