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How to Break Bad Habits

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

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We all have habits, tried, practiced and learned behaviors that let us act on autopilot.
They keep us in check and make sure that we can complete tasks on autopilot and still get them right every time.
You can compare a habit to a mental programming that you can access anytime you drive a car, get out of bed, prepare yourself in the morning or go to work.

It lets you think about other things while doing things you do every day, perfectly.

The problem is that all of these programmed habits aren’t beneficial.
Negative habits can be hard to break, but are very important to address.

Most of us have a few bad habits like biting our nails, eating when stressed or taking a glass of wine after work every day.
Some of these habits you don’t even notice doing, I had that problem when biting my nails, it came so naturally that I didn’t even think about it.

It is the nature of a habit that makes it hard to shed
Since habits are programmed behaviors designed to make it easier for us to function, practiced behavior becomes hard for us to change.
Our mind has learned to act in a certain way each time it encounters a situation, to unlearn a habit it takes a lot of conscious effort.

Focus on the positive outcome not the habit itself
Focusing on a habit only reinforces it. The mind has trouble with the word “not” it doesn’t really understand the concept, which means that to the mind “I am NOT going to eat” becomes “I am going to eat” which reinforced the habit.

If you are down and depressed, the state of mind you are in when you chose to eat to cheer yourself up (I am using an example here, change the habit and situation to fit your negative habit) don’t even mention food in your mind, instead focus on what you should do instead e.g. “I will take a walk to clear my head” “I will write the things down so that I can look at them” and so on.

This method works and is the most efficient way to shed bad habits in my experience.
Try it and let us know, what do you think?

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The Gratitude List

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

Everyone has a wonderful life. Even if it might not feel like it right now, you always have something to be thankful for.

Learning to focus on what you should be thankful for takes you focus away from the things you wish you had and helps you relax and be happy.

This gives you the opportunity to work more single-mindedly on bringing more of the positive into your life.

Happiness
Happiness is the most important pursuit in our lives, becoming happy, calm – finding peace, serenity and feeling that your life has made a difference is what we should all be aiming for.

Your life already has meaning, you have changed the lives of everyone you have met and if you have tried to be a good person, you have probably changed their lives for the better.

Many keep themselves down by thinking about what they are sad about, by instead focusing on what you are happy about you become a lot happier.

The Gratitude List
I know that it can be hard to focus on the positive in hard times. I have been in and through hard times, financially as well as emotionally and in relationships.

For example I went through a period where I was bankrupt, completely. I was behind on my rent, my loans and in addition owed about 20 000 USD to family and friends…

It was hard to focus on the positive, but when I did things started turning around, slowly but surely.
What helped speed up the change was focusing on the positive, by making a gratitude list.

The 3 Steps of a Gratitude list:

1. Write down everything you could possibly be grateful for.
It can be anything, from your looks, your mind, your relationships, your job, school, friends, family, your possessions to the fact that you are alive!
Anything worth being grateful for, write it down.

2. Put the list beside your bed.

3. Every morning when you wake up, look at the list.
Read it through and reflect over how much good there is in your life, how much good there is for you to be happy for.

This shifts your thinking
When you start thinking about what you want your thinking starts to shift away from what you are complaining about and towards what makes life work living, it makes you happier and more focused so that you can work harder, smarter and attract more of what is good in your life into it.

Posted in Motivation, Personal Growth | Tagged gratitude list, happiness, Motivation | 21 Comments

We can be Heroes – We can be Great

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

The science of the mind is an interesting field of research. Looking into the mind of successful and unsuccessful people and trying to understand the differences and the similarities. Trying to understand why some reach the stars why others trip on a simple straw.

Many believe that the answer lies in circumstance or some in-born characteristic or that it has to do with your upbringing.

I believe it has to do with your heart.
Do you have the courage to say no when people want you to do things that obviously aren’t what you should be doing? (like over partying, taking drugs, getting into fights etc.)
Do you have the strength to push on when things are tough?
Can you turn your life around?

If you chose to, you can say yes to all three questions.
It is up to you.

No one is born with a better ability to say no.
No one has a better opportunity of looking at themselves and discovering what their strengths are.

We all have strengths, we can all be incredible, we all are incredible.
Sometimes you just have to say “I want to make a change and I will!”

Start Small
You don’t have to change your life around today.
Start with small steps.

Either you can start by setting a goal for your dream life or you can just think of one step you can take now that would make your life better.
Maybe taking a course at college?
Switching jobs? Changing social cirkels? Breaking a bad habit? Developing a positive habit?

We all have something we can change for the better.
The question is, do you want to?

It takes effort
Any change takes effort, the reward is incredible, but it takes effort to start.
Once you start it all gets easier, but taking that first step can be frightening.

I want to help you take that first step, I want to be the voice in your head telling you “You can do this, you can do anything!”

Because with a voice in your head telling you that you are great, you can be great, you can do anything!

If you really want to change your life, it is in your hands, it is up to you.

Two ways to begin
I like to start by setting a goal.
By sitting down and thinking things through, being tactical.

In this article you can read about the 7 steps to setting a good goal.

But many like to take action quickly, get started, and that doesn’t have to be wrong. Just make sure to make time down the road to make goals and plans. But begin now, that is good!

Answer the question;
What action can I take today that will make my life better in the future?

Take action on your answer and start immediately.
Why wait for a better life longer than you need to?

Posted in Goal Setting, Motivation, Personal Growth, Planning Your Goals, Regular Mistakes | Tagged become a hero, change, goal setting, make a difference, success | 8 Comments

ANNOUNCING: The Time Management Expert Course

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

It’s finally here!
I’ve been writing and editing for six (very long) months.

Now I’m pleased to formally announce:

The Time Management Expert Course

This post isn’t designed to ‘sell’ you on this product.
Instead I’ll answer a question I’ve received a few times: “How much will it cost?”

Right now, this course is being offered at a price that’s pretty low considering what’s included.
We only charge 19.97 USD/month for the 5 month course.
I have been told multiple times that I should at least double the price, but I see no reason to. I am pleased with the price and I don’t want to charge any more than that.

The bad news is that the program has been very, very popular so far.
We will only be able to accept about 100 members to the course and we opened the gates for the early notification list yesterday.
Already over 50 have signed up and we have a very limited number of spots left.

Don’t fret though, if you go to the Time Management Expert Course home page you can sign up and start on the course at once.

I look forward to working with you and I hope you find the benefits of more time as rewarding as so many others have.
Good luck!

Join the Time Management Expert Course!

Posted in General news, Stress Management, Time Management | Tagged new product, opening day, stress management, The Time Management Expert Course, time management, time management series | Leave a comment

If You Don’t Want to be Doing What You Are Doing – Make a Change!

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

“I was wrong”
How many times have you said this in your life?
My guess is, not many.

How many times have you been wrong?
If I haven’t guessed completely wrong, more than once.

Owning up to a mistake is nothing most people are good at and it often costs us, especially when it keeps us from seeing the truth and keeps us from giving up on a project doomed to failure.

Good ideas gone bad
When starting a new project it usually feels great, it cannot go anywhere but up, you will succeed and you will get the fame and recognition that comes with it!
But as time goes by, things stop going as well; your success takes a turn for the worse.

You start brainstorming to come up with ideas to salvage the project and you might get a break through.

But sometimes a market and your product isn’t salvageable; as when the computer was invented, it was a lost cause for companies making type writers, the market vanished.
It feels obvious to us now that companies making typewriters should have quickly left the market for other things, but many stayed on to the bitter end.

The problem is that not all have the courage to face reality and see that your project, even though it was a good idea at the onset, just isn’t a good idea anymore.

“But if we stop now all the time and energy we have put into it will have been wasted.”
This is true, but what happens if you keep putting time and energy into the project and don’t get any payoff down the road either?
What if you start on a new project that has better chances of success?

The flip side – the two motivators
I am worried though as I write this article that I will get many people to give up on projects, most projects aren’t doomed even if they might seem so now. Psychologists have proven that the closer you get to achieving your goal the more motivated you get to complete it.

Feels logical doesn’t it?

But what they have found is that at the same time you become more afraid of failure and want to go up.
What is really sad is that the fear of failure increases faster than the motivation to complete.
This means that just before you complete your goal your whole being is telling you “Give up! Run away!”

Success is truly one step beyond failure
This is something I always repeat to myself when I feel like giving up, if my body is sending me the emotion that I should give up, surrender, it is because I am only one step away from success.
That is why I am so afraid!

The lessons from todays post

1. Your emotions will fool you.
when you feel like giving up, that is exactly when you need to continue and push on!

2. Your mind will tell you when a project is doomed.
Your logical mind can see that a project is on its way to ruin if you listen to it. Your rational mind, can way in the larger issues and smaller issues that are threatening your project. If it turns out that your project is doomed, quickly give it up, salvage what you can and move on to a project with a brighter future.

Always make sure though that it is your rational mind you are following and not your emotions, because if it is your emotions you are listening to, you are probably only one step away from success.

The Time Management Course Opens Tomorrow!
Make sure not to miss your chance to save over 2000 hours/year.
Only the first 100 people will be able to join!

Join The Time Management Expert Course!

Posted in Personal Growth, Regular Mistakes | Tagged bad ideas, giving up, good ideas, success, when not to give up, when to give up | 2 Comments

We Go Live Tomorrow!

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

The Time Management Expert Course comes out tomorrow!
We have been working hard to make it as good a program as possible for you, and after hearing from our beta testers, are sure that we have succeeded!

This is what is included in the course:
The system revolves around knowing exactly what you should do, now, at this very moment.
We get there by combining your recurring tasks and your unexpected tasks with your ideas and goals.

In my old job I had very many recurring tasks, I was a sales manager so I knew that I had group meetings, individual coaching, my own selling and prospecting and sporadically recruitment. In my new job as a sales and marketing manager I have very few recurring tasks, no two weeks are the same. I still use the same system, but I have more focus on unexpected tasks now than I used to.

The Course is delivered as 24 Lessons:

Lesson 1: Course and System Overview
Lesson 2: Mindsets – Quadrant 2 Mindset, Single-Minded Focus, Start With The Most Important Task
Lesson 3: Weekly Plan
Lesson 4: Daily Prioritization
Lesson 5: Your Calendar
Lesson 6: Monthly and Yearly Plans
Lesson 7: The 80/20 Rule and Your 3 Most Important Tasks
Lesson 8: Bringing the first half of the equation together
Lesson 9: Inbox Overview
Lesson 10: Writing Things Down
Lesson 11: Filling Your Inbox
Lesson 12: Emptying Your Inbox
Lesson 13: Project Planning
Lesson 14: Adding to Calendar
Lesson 15: Filing
Lesson 16: Reviewing the Complete System
Lesson 17: Delegating
Lesson 18: Following up on Delegation
Lesson 19: What to do When Others Delegate UP to You
Lesson 20: The 80/20 Rule on Deleting Un-Important Tasks
Lesson 21: The Complete System
Lesson 22: Tweaking and Improving
Lesson 23: Where to go From Here
Lesson 24: You Are Now a Time Management Expert

You can both read the lessons in text format or download them as mp3s and listen to them anywhere.

In addition, I’m offering a few extras:
1. 13 articles on stress management
Which teach you to better handle stress and multiple techniques to help you let go of unnecessary stress.

2. Procrastination Resources
During the next couple of months this is going to be a big focus point for me, so far we have added 3 articles on procrastination that all can make a huge difference in conquering this habit. During the next month we plan on adding many more to help you completely rid yourself of the bad habit of procrastination.

The Goal of the program
We want to save you over 2000 hours/year – giving you over 2 months of waking time to spend as you wish!

You can use this time anyway you want, I know people who would love to be able to balance their life better and spend more time with their family, people who would love to be more efficient at work or in school so that you can produce better results or just feel that time is the most precious resource we have, so why not spend it well?

In any case, the time management expert course will help you gain more of the precious resource, time!

We go live tomorrow!

Make sure to visit The Time Management Course home page tomorrow to sign up.
Sadly we will only be able to accept the first 100 members to join and as we have seen on our early notification list, these 100 spots will be filled up soon.

Make sure to get your spot!

Posted in Regular Mistakes | Leave a comment

How to be more Efficient With Your Time

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

These 10 time management tips will help you get your time under control letting you be more efficient and spend your time more wisely. Click each individual tip for more indepth information on it.

10 Time Management Tools to make your more efficient:

1. The 80/20 Rule
When you want to become more efficient many try to just do more with their time. I have found in my experience though that the greatest increase doesn’t come from doing more with less time, it comes from doing more of the right thing during the time you spend.

2. Weekly Plans
Having a good weekly plan is the center piece in becoming a good time manager.
By effectively batching tasks, setting deadlines, priorities and getting an overview you will greatly reduce the time you waste during the day, giving you more free time to spend on more pleasurable activities.

3. Monthly Plans
When you have made a weekly plan you quickly see that some of your recurring activities don’t fit into your weekly plans, some things are bi-weekly, once a month, once a quarter or once per year.

4. Yearly Plans

5. Organizing Your Days
When I started making my weekly plans I started saving a lot of time, but it wasn’t before I started organizing and prioritizing my day that I really saved time.

6. Strategic Planning
Making plans can be a lot of fun, you are imagining how you are going to accomplish a goal. In many ways you are already living the path you are going to take.
It can be very exhilarating.

7. Quadrant 2 Mindset
It wasn’t until I adopted a Quadrant 2 mindset that I really started seeing results.
The phrase “Quadrant 2” comes from Stephen Coveys book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

8. Delegating
Micromanaging is a pest both for managers and for employees, having to check up on every task, every activity takes an incredible amount of energy and leaves your employees feeling as though you don’t trust them.

9. 15 minute method
The hard part of efficiency is breaking the habit of procrastination.
It is so easy to procrastinate on tasks, to put off tasks that we just don’t feel like doing.
The problem are the reasons we procrastinate; We don’t know how to start, the task feels to big, we don’t have the necessary knowledge to do the task or we just don’t feel like we have the energy to do it.

10. Dealing with the TV
When I ask questions about what people think is important and they wish they were better at, a large group always answer, stress!
We don’t know what to do with our stress; it keeps overwhelming us and smothering us.
With all the stress we have we feel like we really need to relax when we get home, that is the main reason TV is so popular.

Be the first to know!
In one week we will be launching our course, the Time Management Expert Course.
We have set up an early notification list for the program, because of all the emails we are receiving. We see that there is a huge interest in the program. Sadly I don’t think we will be able to handle everyone at once. We will probably only accept about 100 members in the first round.

The early notification list will let you receive the information about the opening of the program first so that you don’t miss out on a spot.

Posted in Personal Growth, Stress Management, Time Management | Tagged 10 tips, being efficient, time management | 6 Comments

How to Make a Meeting Efficient – The Talking Stick

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

A lot of meetings are very inefficient, for many reasons.
One reason is that everyone wants to shine, be heard and make their point, this causes them to not listen to their colleagues and constantly interrupt each other.

Often you see people, who as it turns out, have the same opinion fight about it and disagree for 30 minutes before they both angrily agree to disagree but want to do the same things…

Enter the talking stick
The talking stick is a great tool that forces people to listen.
When you have listened and understood your colleague you may ask for the talking stick and say what you think.

The rules
1. Only the one holding the talking stick may speak.
2. The others seek to understand, they may ask you to restate your point to clarify to make sure they understand but they never judge or argue until they have the talking stick.
3. When the one speaking feels that he or she is fully understood they pass the stick. It is important that they feel understood, if they don’t they keep the stick and try to make everyone understand what they mean.

This forces your colleagues to listen and then rephrase back what you mean before they start replying with their own ideas. That way everyone will know what the others mean and can evaluate it.

I have seen this tool used effectively many times.

In the beginning you will often find some resistance, people don’t want to listen; they think it will make the meeting take a longer time. But once it because a habit the talking stick makes sure that everyone gets heard, that everyone feels understood and that you can tap the minds of all in the room to make sure you make the best decisions.

It also saves a lot of time that is otherwise waster arguing when the people arguing are really on the same side.

The early notification list will let you receive the information about the opening of the program first so that you don’t miss out on a spot.

Photo Credit: HerryLawford

Posted in Being the boss, Time Management | Tagged efficient meetings, meetings, office arguments, talking stick | 4 Comments

The Time Management Expert Course Will Be Opening in 1 Week! – Wednesday the 12th of Oktober

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

I’ve had a number of people email me, asking when the time management course will be launching and what is included, so today I thought I should answer those questions;

1. We open in 1 week – Wednesday the 12th of Oktober.

2. Here is what you can expect from this course:

A Sneak Preview of The Time Management Expert Course
As the title promises, I’ve attempted to create a course that teaches a near perfect system for managing your time.
This is the exact same method I use to structure my days and the same I teach my students.
The basics of the program works for anyone, because the different techniques all become very individual.

Getting the perfect daily to-do list
The system revolves around knowing exactly what you should do, now, at this very moment.
We get there by combining your recurring tasks and your unexpected tasks with your ideas and goals.

The Course is delivered as 24 Lessons:

That’s the basic course in a nutshell!

In addition, I’m offering a few extras:
1. 13 articles on stress management
Which teach you to better handle stress and multiple techniques to help you let go of unnecessary stress.

Everything is downloadable in mp3 format
You can read every article on the page, or download it to your ipod or mp3 player and listen to it as you do other things.

The Goal of the program
We want to save you over 2000 hours/year – giving you over 2 months of waking time to spend as you wish!

In any case, the time management expert course will help you gain more of the precious resource, time!

That’s it for this update.
I’m really looking forward to sharing the course with all of you, I hope you feel the same!

Be the first to know!
We have set up an early notification list for the program, because of all the emails we are receiving. we see that there is a huge interest in the program. Sadly I don’t think we will be able to handle everyone at once. We will probably only accept about 100 members in the first round.

The early notification list will let you receive the information about the opening of the program first so that you don’t miss out on a spot.

Posted in General news, Stress Management, Time Management | Tagged opening day, time management expert course | Leave a comment

30 Pick Me Up Quotes for a Bad Day

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Daniel M. Wood

Everyone has a bad day sometime, let this list help you turn this day around and make it a great day!

1. Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Jonathan Swift

2. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed” – Michael Jordan

3. “Do what you can with what you’ve got wherever you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt

4. “Laughter is the music of life.”
Sir William Osler

5. Every dog must have his day.
Jonathan Swift

6. “Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.”
Author Unknown

7. “In the giving-is the getting.”
David Matoc

8. “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”
Will Rogers

9. “Life is like a card of games. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.”
Jawaharial Nehru

10. “It’s not your circumstances that shape you, it’s how you react to your circumstances.”
Anne Ortlund

11. “The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.”
Abraham Lincoln

12. “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Buddha

13. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matter compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

14. “Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”
Henry David Thoreau

15. “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
Author Unknown

16. “Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”
Michael Caine

17. “It’s not denial. I’m selective about the reality I accept.”
Calvin

18. “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”
Lord Byron

19. “Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well.”
Josh Billings

20. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
Mother Teresa

21. “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
Herm Albright

22. “Nothing is worth more than this day.”
Goethe

23. “Life is like a ten speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.”
Charles Schultz

24. “There is nothing permanent except change.”
Heraditus

25. “I think these difficult times have helped me understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.”
Isak Dinesen

26. “Yesterday’s the past and tomorrow’s the future. Today is a gift which is why they call it the present.”
Bill Keane

27. “Hope is like a road in the country. There never was a road; but, when many people walk together, the road comes into existence.”
From the National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.

28. “Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”
John Updike

29. “Our greatest glory is not failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
Confucius

30. “Out of clutter, find simplicity; from discord, find harmony; in the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein

Make today a great day!

Posted in Success Quotes | Tagged motivational quotes, pick me up quotes, quotes, quotes for a bad day, quotes on succeeding | 1 Comment

How to Break Bad Habits

The Gratitude List

We can be Heroes – We can be Great

ANNOUNCING: The Time Management Expert Course

If You Don’t Want to be Doing What You Are Doing – Make a Change!

We Go Live Tomorrow!

How to be more Efficient With Your Time

How to Make a Meeting Efficient – The Talking Stick

The Time Management Expert Course Will Be Opening in 1 Week! – Wednesday the 12th of Oktober

30 Pick Me Up Quotes for a Bad Day

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