inspiration

Who has changed your life?

5:12PM Sarah Stokely | I don’t often post spiritual or inspirational posts, but I just read “How to change another person’s life” over at the “I will change your life” blog, and thought it might be time. That post gives credit for the little actions or words which can be said to us, which change us in profound ways – sometimes without the speaker even intending to do so. Years ago, a friend helped me get through a personal rut and back on track towards my career goal of being a journalist. He was just recapping a night out we’d had with a few friends, but I can still remember exactly what he wrote about me: “If brains are knives, Sarah’s running around madly brandishing a chainsaw”. Might sound like a wierd compliment, but coming from one of the smartest computer geeks I know, it meant a lot to me to be reminded that I’m one smart cookie myself. That compliment boosted me so much I really credit Ben with helping me get my butt back into professional journo mode. And I don’t think I even told him. So thank you, Ben, if you’re reading this. Got any stories to share about people who’ve inspired you? Share in comments please, let’s share the love. :) More »

Why you should aim to have an average day

2:02PM Sarah Stokely | Lifehacker reader Rod put me onto an interesting article espousing a rather different view of the world – which advises curbing overachieving tendencies and goals to become a sustainable achiever. Entitled “Have an Average Day”, the article suggests that by shedding the heavy expectations you place on yourself, you’re freed up to get down to actually working on what you want to do. I particularly liked the examples the author uses to illustrate the ‘exceptional impact of a series of average days’: 1. Choose an area of your life in which you have been trying to excel, such as writing, sales, or being a parent. 2. Consider what would constitute an average day in that area. For a writer that might be 90 minutes of writing; in sales that might be speaking with five new prospects; a parent might aim to spend an hour a day 100 percent focused on the kids. 3. Project forward. If you did nothing but repeat your average day five days a week, what would you accomplish in three months? A year? Five years?      Writing 100 or so hours over a three-month period is enough to complete a book; in a year that would be two books, some poetry, and a screenplay. Speaking with 100 new prospects over the course of a month would definitely lead to new sales.      A parent who spends at least an hour a day focused on children racks up 90 hours in three months. In five years, if a parent made even a small difference in each of the 1,800 hours she or he spent, the impact would be anything but average. The notion is similar to the suggestion that you work in increments to beat anxiety, which we wrote about earlier this week. Thanks for the tip, Rod. Have an Average Day [UTNE Reader] More »

Spark Creativity with a List of 100

7:00AM Wendy Boswell | Generate ideas—potentially a LOT of ideas—with a all-in-one-session “list of 100″: a list of creative ideas, solutions, etc. about any topic you’ve been wanting to tackle. Self-improvement site Litemind has more: The goal of a List of 100 is to take your mind by surprise…With a List of 100 you tend to get more unexpected ideas, because you catch your subconscious off guard, not giving it any time for its behind-the-scenes editing. The main tip to remember with this is you’ve got to do it all in one sitting; otherwise, your creative mind doesn’t get fully engaged. This sounds like a super way to hash out something you’ve been struggling with, as well as generate creative ideas. Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100 [Litemind] More »

Schedule Your Someday Tasks

1:00AM Wendy Boswell | Self-improvement blog Life Coaches has posted a sobering article from someone who found themselves undergoing emergency open heart surgery, pondering all the “somedays” he had let pile up. I don’t advise waiting for open heart surgery to think about Someday. For one thing you might not survive the experience. The time to start thinking about Someday is today. You need to make a list of your Somedays and convert it into real days. I mean that literally. Sit down and make a list of all the things you want to do someday and start scheduling them. The author goes on to say that it does not matter how trivial this list might look, as long as the items are important to you. What’s one topic on your list of “someday”, and how do you propose going about accomplishing it? Let’s hear in the comments. When is Someday? [Life Coaches] More »