Growing up a 90s kid, I was heavily influenced by 90s music, and I have to admit, I still enjoy those infamous 90s one-hit wonders. Recently heard the New Radicals - You Get What You Give, which was basically my anthem during the 90s, and got slapped with perhaps the best advice I think anyone can do, regardless of age, status, money etc.
The one sure thing you can control in life is what you give. Whether your giving out help of any kind, compliments, or even just a smile. Obviously also works just as negatively, like giving out hate, road rage, whatever….
You always control what you give. You give someone hard work and and impressive results, that person will give you a job or raise. It doesnt work the other way around. I feel that people do the total opposite. They think they should be given, then they’ll “do” in return. This is a total losers concept.
You cant expect to be hand given shit in todays world. You have to go out and get it (give work) or in some cases demand it (give/show your value). Of course responsibility goes hand in hand with this. When you demand something, that means you deserve it through your positive actions, not because you think you should.
So try this out for a week and see how it makes you feel and how it affects your life. Each day as you wake up, decide one thing you will constantly give that day (smiles, respect, listening, help). Practice giving without asking or expecting something in return. Do the one thing you can control in life, becuase “You Get What You Give”.
I’m going to connect a couple posts from 2 great writers together about the rising and viable need for solitude in today’s information packed world. Ryan Holiday wrote a post about the need to demand and take time for yourself to have meditative isolation. Glenn recently commented on this particular post, and added this great thought:
“A generation has been produced that is more plugged-in and wired-up than ever before, with access stores of information expanding a rate far faster than we could ever consume, but I fear that these advancements will be meaningless if we can never find the isolation to take it all in and build on what we are learning.” – from Glenn at GlobalizedSo with these two great thoughts from two great writers, I will attempt to add my own spin on this. After reading “The World is Flat“, and realizing the the playing field of the world is flattening, with jobs and business (globalization) and now information, which means that everyone anywhere can be competition. For anybody to achieve great success in today’s world, having the ability to recognize the viable need for solitude is paramount. Its not who has information or knowledge, but what you can do with it, requiring innovation and imagination. You have to take solitude and really think, grasp, and learn the information you consume. Like Glenn greatly put, ” How can we, collectively, continue to prosume when we hardly have the chance to comprehend what we consume?”
To compete and succeed in the ever growing competitive world, you must take time for solitude to effectively learn and cultivate imagination and innovation with whatever information you get your hands on.
According to the article, “Task, not Time: Profile of a Gen Y job”, by Tamara J. Erickson, the Gen Y workers are challenging the traditional 40-hour workweek or eight hour day and rather be compensated for what they produce, not the time they put in.
Many Generation Y workers find themselves with the ability and preference of completing tasks faster and with more flexibility. With supreme technological proficiency skills compared to older workers, we as a generation would much rather achieve the work as efficient as possible, without any unnecessary hours spent in the office. With the ideal to work “asynchronously” – anytime, anywhere, Gen Y workers, along with many other factors involved, are changing and shifting away from the traditional 9-5 Monday through Friday workweek, and companies are taking notice.
There is proof of this trend being beneficial to companies, such as IBM and Best Buy. The article states that 40% of IBM have no official office, and Best Buy has reported better relationships with family and friends, more company loyalty, and more focus and energy from choosing their own hours to work as opposed to the traditional 9-5. Summing this up, Gen Y workers are finding new ways to be efficient and are ultimately pushing the idea of “Task, not Time”.
As a generation Y kid myself, am more drawn to using efficient tools to accomplish tasks, as opposed to having to come in and not leave til a certain time, not being as productive as I could. After reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I was officially programmed to pursue the freedom and flexibility to accomplish task as effiecient as possible. Now, besides working 2 shifts at a gym that allows me to read or do homework (free membership too), my other part time job is marketing and public relations for a restaurant, where I accomplish tasks from home and record my hours based on the honor system. I work Fridays usually 10am to 3pm, where I actually come in, but I am constant pushing for more efficient ways of working, like communication more through email as opposed to phone.
With this trend in mind, do you support this new shift of production in the workplace, or would you feel more comfortable in a traditional 9-5 work setting? If you support this trend, I highly recommend to study the 4-Hour Workweek, Parkinson’s Laws, and the 80/20 Principle, and practice utilizing these tools to be productive and efficient, not busy.
Read an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review courtesy of my college. Focusing on trends on the business horizon, international travel is expected to double, from 800 million international visits in 2008 to 1.6 billion visits in the year 2020. Looking at the economics of this trend, there can be only so many people that can visit museums or enjoy a beach. The demand for traveling to popular destinations will create a scarcity of place, according to the article.
The article gives 3 probable market responses: First, as demand will skyrocket past supply, tourism relate costs will rise dramatically, from hotel rooms in world cities to even taxis and airplane availability. There will soon be scalpers not just for sporting events and concerts, but soon for airline tickets and passes to museums or parks. Government will also control demand by putting taxes on travel to destinations. One example is the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, as more and more people coming to visit, the trend is impacting the ecosystem, which is leading to talks of raising parks entrance fee or restricting visitors, which leads to second…. Wait lists.
Expect to be on wait list for months, even years, before you can travel to popular destinations. With these wait lists forming, leading to number three, you can expect the creation of new destinations, more like replications of the wait listed places. For example, China is currently developing islands like Macao to rival Hawaii. You see it here in America, with casinos popping up in major cities, or the Indian casinos here in California, drawing business away from Las Vegas.
As scarcity of popular travel destinations around the world grows, there will be tons of opportunity to profit from the ever growing demand. I found this particular trend very interesting, and I am going to try and discover trends similar to world travel in the future. For instance, like the summer Olympics in Beijing this summer, I am going to look at investment opportunities in South Africa for preparation of World Cup 2010, perhaps the biggest sporting event in the world.
Any opportunities that you recognize or can think of with this trend in mind?
I’m currently studying the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the Hays Translation.
“We cannot step twice into the same river” – Heraclitus
Marcus expands on this… “Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed once and already carried passed us, and another follows and is gone.” (4.43 in Hays)
Its amazing at how I can relate those 2 writings to everything in my life. There is always the “would of, could of, should of”‘s in life, and its a bunch of bullshit. The chances are high that you wont get what you want if you have to ask yourself “Should I?”, or “What would happen if…” and the worst…. “I could of have done that but…”.
Most people tend to view events, situations, and decisions with the wrong mentality. They are quick to label anything in life as “bad” or ”good”, and mostly its decided on pure emotion at the time. Stoicism, also read in Meditations, states that one thing is neither good or evil. “… not objects or events, but the intrepretations we place on them are the problem.”
Regulate your weak and negative interpretations and perceptions on events and decisions you experience to avoid facing regret and to get what you want in your life.
So when your faced with any event or decision in life, tackle it with the right interpretation or perception, and then act. If you dont act, you will lose out to opportunities flowing by you. Similar to what Ryan Holiday says, if you dont define yourself, or in this case, your life, then others gladly will. Because you will only get one shot, one chance, one glimpse, before time passes you by.
So its been about 3 weeks into my new habit of drinking as much water as reasonable during the day. Whether its lugging around a gallon, 1.5 L , or regular 16 oz bottles of water at school or in my car, I have experienced a few pros of drinking water. Like my friend said at the gym, I did feel a new found energy throughout midday. Being a sucker the afternoon naps, ranging from 30 minutes to crazy 3 hours naps (not kidding), I enjoyed the surplus of energy I felt from drinking water and not the short energy burst and crashes of energy drinks. I still enjoy a nice and shortened naps though.
I also noticed I “pissed like a race-horse” the first week. I also found that when I make it a goal to drink as much water as I can, I get addicted to drinking more and more water, which kind of gives me pleasure, if that makes sense. I also saved about 10 bucks a week from not having to buy Sobes or energy drinks as frequent (I limited myself to 2 energy drinks a week).
These 30 days are wrapping up, and beginning the new month of April, I will choose a new habit to try out. I will definitely keep this new habit chugging as much water as reasonable throughout the week.
In Law 7 of the 48 Laws of Power, written by Robert Greene, I read an awesome statement;
Use the past, a vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom.
Reading about and learning from others experiences will save you countless hours, days, months, and even years of wasting time, energy, and if you want to get real dramatic, your life. Robert Greene writes that if you learn to use the knowledge of the past then you will look like a genius, when your really just a barrower.
Educate yourself and read the writings and experiences of others in your fields of interest. Talk and listen to those who have experience, and take notes.
Tucker Max is right when he says that humans have been recordin history for about 10,000 years……and any adversity or experience you go through, it has been written about.
Of course it is extremely beneficial to experience and learn lessons yourself, but to be efficient and competitive in todays world, learn to use the past and knowledge available to your benefit.
“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others’ experience.” – Bismarck
I spent some time today in the periodic room in college, and found out that they offer the Harvard Business Review for students to read, with some issues dating back to 2000. I grabbed an issue with emphasis on Leadership. I then read the article “Where Will We Find Tomorrow’s Leader?”, an interview with Linda A. Hill. Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School, argues that tomorrow’s leaders are going to be more collaborative and open to sharing power with employees. I remember reading specifically about a belief of “Employee first, customer second”. Mentor and allow employees to cultivate their skills and face challenges with freedom and risk, to allow them offer the best service to the customer.
The biggest thing I got from the article was a quote that Nelson Mandela is famous for on leadership:
“As a leader… I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”What I got from the article was that tomorrow’s great leaders must be able to bring the best out of their employees, mentor and allow them the freedom to take on projects with the risk of failing. Leaders must be able to collaborate with everyone, and allow employees to lead the way, while he simply orchestrates from behind.
“People mirror back to us the reality of who we are”
I read this phrase from the book, The Third Jesus, by Deepak Chopra. Very similar to the golden rule, “Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you”. So when you sit down face to face with reality, or any problems or dilemmas with people, spend some time rethinking the way you treat, react, and behave towards and around the people that you come across in life.
I frequently visit the website and blog of Steve Pavlina, and rediscovered an older post of something I found interesting. The blog post titled 30 Days to Success explains a great way to form new habits. Perform your new habit for 30 days straight, and then decide whether you would like to continue the habit or not after. The great thing is that after 30 days the habit will obviously be easier to maintain than starting it again. Pavlina also writes that you will not only break the addiction of the old habit during the 30 days, but the 30 days of success with the new habit will give your more confidence to continue the streak.
While working the closing shift at the gym I work at, I noticed a Sunday night regular come in with a huge gallon, maybe 2, of water. Already having drank at least 3/4 of the bottle, I asked him about it. While playing collegiate tennis a few years back at a nearby university, he started a competition among his friends of who could drink the most water each day. Turns out its a habit he has continued today, as he is now a tennis coach at another college. He also explained the numerous benefits of the habit as he admits feeling like his body is cleansed out each week by drinking the amounts of water he does.
So incorporating the 30 days to success program Steve Pavlina promotes, I will start tomorrow by drinking as much water as reasonable while breaking the habit of wasting a couple bucks a day on buying Sobe or energy drinks. I will buy a gallon or so container of water each Monday, then refill it daily for the rest of the week. I will track my progress on this blog while I also encourage you to try out the 30 days to success/New habit program for yourself.
