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‘Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of

self will require not just small adjustments in your way of


living and thinking, but a full-on metamorphosis’

-Martha Beck

(American author and life coach)

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Preface
This book includes collection of the best articles about
personal development and productivity from the web.

These articles have greatly helped in my own development


and understanding the way of life. The purpose of this
book is to make these articles accessible to the people i
love , so that even they may have the access to such
opportunities , which undoubtedly will help on their way
to self-improvement and growth.

No content in this book is original work. Therefore, a


sincere thanks to all the great souls for sharing such great
works freely on the web.

We all know , at some point in life we all reach a stage


where life seems too messy and meaningless and difficult
to handle whilst creating confusion and fear about
executing the power of choice we possess.

During such times, a glimpse of such wisdomful sayings


and articles can light up the moment by alleviating the
confusion, destroying the ignorance and helping us know
the reality of life and hence leading to discovery of our
own selves.

I hope these articles inspire you to grow and develop.

Good luck.

- Dr. Nagaraj M .Umachagi


nmuraj@gmail.com

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INDEX
1. It ’s Time to wake up pg 5

2. Self Love pg 9

3. 50 Life secrets and Tips pg 14

4. 10 sentences that can change


your perspective on Life pg 27

5. Steve Pavlina articles


i. 33 rules to boost your productivity pg 33
ii. How to become an early riser pg 38
iii. 10 tips for college students pg 43
iv. Time boxing pg 60
v. Speed Up pg 63
vi. Self Discipline pg 67
vii. Hard work pg 72

6. Law of Attraction pg 77
7. List of websites pg 84
8. After note pg 85
9. Guy in the glass pg 86
10. Thank you pg 87

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Here it begins.......

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Its time to wake up
-Andria Zapiain
( http : / / w ww. hig h ex iste nc e.com /its- tim e- to -wa ke- up/ )

Apathy. It astounds me. It’s everywhere, in every mind


and every soul. Never have I felt more concerned for
the future of humanity. Now, I know I haven’t lived
long enough to make such observations… but isn’t
youth supposed to be the flaming torch of uncontained
passions that will push humanity to its next leap?
Aren’t we supposed to be the dreamers? The
idealists? The crazy ones?

Yet, everywhere I look, I find apathy. Apathy in older


people doesn’t scare me as much as apathy in the
eyes of youth. Apathy in my generation. Apathy within
myself. There is nothing I abhor and fear more than
this. I hope you, dear reader, are not overcome by
apathy, for it is the most dreadful of defeats. The
death of a human heart lies not in hatred, but in
nothingness. Once your mind stops searching and you
stop feeling, when your emotions freeze and crystalize
inside your soul, once your dreams turn to dust and
your can’s turn to cant’s… That is death. I feel like I
am surrounded by death. Could this be the true
zombie apocalypse? Is this it? The death of progress?

Is there nothing out there, dear reader, which makes


you want to laugh out loud? Cry until you run out of
tears? Speak up? Shout out loud? Punch someone?
Change the world?

Is changing the world a ridiculous notion to you?

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Let me ask you something, if it is not you, if it is not
me… who is going to change the world? You know it
needs changing, don’t you? But if none of us feel like
we’re up to the task… then who will do it?

This life is all you have. This very moment is all that
exists or ever will exist; the past is a memory and
the future is uncertain. Are you spending your time
wisely? W hen you look back on this day… what will
make it remarkable? “Oh, but it is only one day in my
life” you say.
What makes you so sure that you will have time to do
whatever it is that you must do with your life? I’ve
never seen such guarantee, signed by the very hand
of your God of choice. Never, because there is no
such thing. You could die tomorrow. You could die
now.

Actually, if you want to be a fatalist, you’re dying right


now. Each moment that passes brings you closer to
the day of your death. After that, no one knows what
happens.

Why on Earth would you waste your time? Time is all


you have. You can do amazing things with it. It’s time
to do it, because maybe you will not see the Sun
rising tomorrow. Or even worse, maybe you will live to
a hundred… and realize that you’ve done absolutely
nothing of worth in your life. Is this what you want?

And please, do not for a moment think that money is


the answer here. No matter how much money you earn
throughout your life, it will not bring you happiness or
peace. Money is just an object, and a fruitful life is
never one tied to mere objects. There has to be a final
objective, a mission, a plan… Which is yours? How
will you change the world? Will you leave your mark or
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will the world never know of your existence? Will it be
like you never even existed?

Yes, you might call me crazy all you like. In truth, I


question my own sanity all the time. But see, here is
the thing: I believe I can achieve great things. I
believe I can change the world for the better, and I
believe that when I’m old and wrinkled, I will be able
to look back on my life and realize that it was all
worth it. Being an outcast. Being ridiculed for thinking
too much, as if thinking was some sort of flaw. The
sleepless nights, spent writing quietly. The tears that
had no explanation. The irrational feeling of a flame
inside my heart. I know it will all be worth it, and that
by the end of my life, I will be satisfied by what I
accomplished. The thing is, I want a better world. I
desperately want it, and I am determined to fight for it,
whatever the cost.
I know my life is just one amongst billions, that my
words may be lost in the wind, my thoughts buried
forever. But even if I don’t succeed, I have to try. I will
not spend my life following a path that has been set
out for me, just mindlessly living every day with a
boring routine that will lead me nowhere. Every path,
eventually, leads us to our death. It is inevitable. So
why, oh goodness why, would I follow the path that
society has assigned me? I think it is time for all of us
to realize that we can do whatever it is we want with
our lives. You don’t have to go to school, then college,
then have a boyfriend/girlfriend, then get married, get
a job, have kids, grandkids, grow old and die. You can
do that, of course, if it is what you want… but is it
really what you w ant?This is the great
question: Above everything else, what do you want
to accomplish in your life? What is the point of
your existence?

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I think it is time for us to realize just what great power
lies within us. It is time to wake up and destroy
apathy, for it is killing us all. It is time to ask the
important questions.

It’s time to wake up.

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Self-Love
-Jordan Lejuwaan

(http://www.highexistence.com/my-radical-realization-about-
self-love/)

Do you love yourself?

That’s a hard question to answer. Of course you love yourself,


right? After all, you are YOU.
But it’s not that simple. We live in a culture where we’re
constantl y shown what we don’t look like, who we aren’t and
what we don’t have. Self-love and acceptance is surely at an
all-time low.

To make matters more confusing, the people who act the most
confident often have the most dire issues with loving
themselves. Do not mistake compensation for authentic self-
love.

Indicators of self-love issues:

 Being hyper-critical of yourself


 Difficulty in loving others (because you must first love
yourself)
 Self-sabotage (not doing what yo u KNOW you should be
doing)
 Being self-conscious in social situations
 Difficulty in fully accepting compliments
 No accomplishment is ever enough, even temporarily
 Not valuing your own time and priorities (being overly nice
to others)
Self-love is the foundation of most every self-improvement
topic. If you’re looking to be the best version of yourself, this
is the place to start.

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This is something that everyone can work on, no matter how
much you love yourself. There is no limit as to how much self-
love you can cultivate and the benefits you can reap from it.

My Story
Before I delve further into this topic, I want to share with you
the story of how this has affected me.

4 months ago, no one would have guessed that I had issues


with self-love…

 I had created a booming online blog/community, co-founded


a movement well on its way to changing the world and just
sold another company fo r a sizable sum
 I had an extremely fit body, complete with a defined 6-pack
 Never had issues finding beautiful girlfriends
 Spent ample time each week helping people with their life
Life was good.
But one night of psychedelic introspection revealed all was not
well beneath the surface:

 My successes were never enough to make me feel


accomplished. Even worse, I noticed how prone I was to
subtle self-sabotage, thereby curbing the success of those
ventures. For example, I had known for a while that I should
be sending out a newsletter to HighExistence users to help
bring traffic back to the site. I was sitting on a database of
30,000+ emails and doing nothing with them.
 My fit body was never fit enough. I even remained insecure
about some parts of m y body despite them looking how I
had only dreamed of years earlier.
 I had a long track record of suddenly losing interest in girls
once it was clear that they trul y loved and cared for me.
One week I was head-over-heels in love with a girl, and the
next I had lost interest to the point of not being able to kiss
them without a feeling of disgust. For years I had no idea

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what was wrong. It was incredibly frustrating because I felt
like I had no control over this phenomenon and none of my
friends seemed to experience the same issue. Then that
night it suddenly became clear that I was subconsciously
sabotaging these relationships because deep down, I felt
unworthy of being loved. There was nothing wrong with the
wonderful girls I had dated, in fact the issue was that inside
I felt they were too good for me.
 I had issues taking compliments from people, eg.
HighExistence readers writing to me about how much they
loved HE. Reading those nice words felt uncomfortable; I
actually disliked reading and replying to them.
 I would go to great lengths to help others, to the extent of
greatl y eating into my own time and preventing me from
reaching personal goals. Loving others can only go so far
until it is unhealthy, and you end up hurting yourself.
All of this hit me at once like a train. I spent the next day
reading every article on the web about self-love and exercises
to cultivate it. Over the next month I practiced the techniques
outlined in the next section religiously. The results have been
profound. Each of the previous indicators have been
completely reversed:

 Self-sabotage is a thing of the past. It’s now easy to


become aware of any tasks that I’m putting off for illogical
reasons and to attack them immediately. It feel really good.
For more info on this, check out my 30 Da ys of Fear
Challenge.
 I’m 100% happy with my bod y while still having a healthy
desire to continually improve
 I’m in love with an amazing girl who loves me back with the
same intensity, and am feeling none of that unease that
plagued me in the past. We have the all-encompassing,
reciprocal love that I have alwa ys yearned for. And yes I
met her through HighExistence :)
 I love receiving compliments, especiall y if I can shoot them
back with double the <3

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 I’ve segregated my personal time from time set aside
communicate with and help others (currently Tuesdays and
Thursdays)

Self-Love Exercises
Note: These exercises might feel weird, awkward and fake at
first, but that will change quickly. The phrase “fake it til you
make it” really applies to self-love.

Mirror Exercise
I found this to be the most effective exercise, while also being
the hardest to bring yourself to do because it’s so bizarre.

Go into a room with a mirror and lock the door. Get close to
the mirror, no more than a foot away. Stare deep into your
e yes for 2 minutes. Not in the way that you normally look at
yourself in the mirror — actively become aware that this
is you. Once that strange sensation comes over you, repeat
the words ‘I love you’ out loud for a minute. Then begin stating
things that you like about yourself — how you look, things that
you’re good at, what you’re accomplished, etc.
Hug Yourself
This sounds really silly, but it feels fantastic. Reach your
hands as far around you as possible and squeeze. Hold this
for a minute or two while repeating ‘I love you’ and reall y
feeling it. Focus your a wareness on the area around your
heart.
Reverse Each Criticism
W henever you hear yourself criticizing yourself, immediately
follow it up with two compliments, ideally but not necessarily
related to the criticism.

Loving Meditation
Feeling love towards others is a good wa y to ramp up towards
showing love to yourself. Go thro ugh the people you care most
about in your mind and send them love. Picturing yourself
giving them a huge hug. Wish them a fantastic day and the

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fulfillment of the dreams most dear to them. After you’ve gone
through your family and closest friends, do the same for
yourself.

Personal Day
If you have issues with valuing your own time, pick one da y a
week to focus entirel y on yourself. Take the extra time to make
the food you love the most, take an extra long shower, sleep
in, etc. Show yo urself love just like you would yo ur significant
other.

Love, Love, Love


Take a few introspective minutes to look for the indicators of
self-love issues in your life. I cannot explain how empowering
it feels to shift from a place of lack to a place of full self-love
and acceptance. Self-love is the foundation for everything.

Please share yo ur experiences, realizations and additional


exercises about self-love in the comments!

<3 <3 <3

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50 Life secrets and tips
- Jordan Lejuwaan

(http://www.highexistence.com/life-secrets-and-tips/)
1. Memorize something everyday.
Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory
functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust
out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your
best options.

2. Constantly try to reduce your attachment to


possessions.
Those who are heavy-set with material desires will have a lot
of trouble when their things are taken away from them or lost.
Possessions do end up owning you, not the other way around.
Become a person of minimal needs and you will be much more
content.

3. Develop an endless curiosity about this world.


Become an explorer and view the world as your jungle. Stop
and observe all of the little things as completely unique
events. Try new things. Get out of your comfort zone and try to
experience as many different environments and sensations as
possible. This world has so much to offer, so why not take
advantage of it?

4. Remember people’s names


so that the y feel appreciated and for your own future benefit
when you want something from that person. To do this, sa y
their name back to them when they introduce themselves.
Then repeat the name in your head a number of times until you
are sure you have it. Continue to use their name in
conversation as much as possible to remove any chance of
forgetting it. If you’re still having trouble, make up a rhyme
about their name: “Dan the Man” or “Natalie flatters me.”

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5. Get fit!
It’s ridiculous to think that we have one body, one sole means
of functioning, and people are too lazy to take care of
themselves. Fit bodies lead to better health, confidence and
more success with romantic endeavors. I’d sa y th ose are
3 very good reasons to get in shape.
6. Learn to focus only on the present.
The past is unchangeable so it is futile to reflect on it unless
you are making sure you do not repeat past mistakes. The
future is but a result of your actions today. So learn from the
past to do better in the present so that you can succeed in the
future.

7. Even more specifically, live in THIS moment. Even 10


minutes ago is the past. If you live purely in this moment you
will always be happy because there is nothing wron g in this
split-second.

8. Smile more often.


W henever you get a grin on your face, your brain is releasing
serotonin, the happy hormone. Smiling is the natural way to
force yourself to be happy. Many people even smile for five
minutes straight in the morning to get themselves in a great
mood for the day. It is a very powerful tool that is utilized less
and less as we grow older and need happiness more than ever.
Just remember that while happiness leads to smiles, smiles
also lead to happiness.

9. Drink water.
Hydration is tremendously important for overall health. Soda
has absolutely ZERO nutritional content; it’s like pouring a
punch of sugar and syrup into your cup. Instead, fill it with life-
replenishing water. It ma y taste p lain at first if you’re coming
off of a heavy soda-drinking streak, but you’ll soon find
yourself addicted to it. 10 glasses per da y is optimal, how
many have you b een getting lately?

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10. Don’t take life so seriously!
Learn to laugh at the little things and this whole “existence”
thing will be a whole lot easier. Be amused by you r mistakes
and failures and be thankful that you learned your lesson and
won’t mess up like that again. And most importantly do things
that you enjo y! Life is not strictly business, it can be mixed
with pleasure.

11. Think positive thoughts.


W hen you find yourself thinking a negative thought, stop it
immediately b y a ny means necessary. Slap yourself in the
face, yell something positive at the top of your lungs or jump
up and down. Do whatever it takes to get back to a positive
mindset as such is essential for continual happiness and
success.

12. Read books.


Knowledge is power. If you’re looking for some mind-blowing
books to read, check out ’8 Books That Will Violent Shift Your
Perspective’ .

13. Get in the sun.


Superman was completel y re-energized when he flew out to
space and soaked in some rays and you can do the same right
outside your front door (if you live in a constantly dreary place,
my apologies). The sun feels amazing: your entire body will be
coursing with wa rmth and life.

14. Help others.


I’ll just give you a plethora of reasons wh y this is a MUST

1. Helping people has a ripple effect. If you help


someone they will feel more obliged to help someone
else, and so on. Pay it forward
2. You grow by giving and helping others. It can change
you in ways you never expected
3. Your relationship with that person will become
stronger

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4. It’s the most fulfilling thing you can do on this planet.
It not only feels amazing physically, you also feel like
a good person
5. You might be able to call in a favor later when you
need some help
6. Karma (if you believe in it)
7. Because there are more people in this world than just
you

15. Set aside a specific time to worry each day. Ponder all
of your problems and anxieties during that time so that they will not
distract you during work or moments of pleasure. This way you can
be extremely efficient with your time and avoid focusing on negative
things as much as possible. If you get all of your worry out of the
way and have the mental fortitude to keep from reverting back to
them, you will be much happier on the daily.

16. Be honest at all times.


Lies lead to nothing but trouble. Being known as trustworthy is an
excellent trait to maintain and essential to having integrity.

17. Sleep less.


Fully adjusting to a new sleep cycle can take up to 21 days so don’t
give up if you feel tired after switching to 5-hour nights. The “required”
8 hour/night is for normal people. If you’re reading THIS article on
THIS site, you are not normal. So figure out how much sleep YOU
really need and adjust accordingly. As enjoyable as sleep is, waking
existence is much more fulfilling and efficient. IF this really sparks your
interest, check out alternate sleep cycles with which you can be fine
off of 2 hours of sleep per day.

18. Read “Bringers of Light” and “Conversations with


God” by Neale Donald Walsch.
These books will help you decide what you want to do in this life
and how to get to that point. They will also profoundly change the
way you look at the purpose of existence. Read them!

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19. Figure out what your goals and dreams are.
So many people wander aimlessly through life simply go for whatever
small thing they want moment by moment. Instead, decide what your
perfect life consists of and begin to put the steps in motion to reach
that place. The most satisfying thing in the world (yes, better than sex,
much better) is overcoming a challenge and reaching a goal. We are
the happiest when we are growing and working towards something
better.

20. Start your day off right.


Wake up and set aside an hour for personal development activities
(meditation, self-introspection, observing nature, etc.) Do the things that
make you feel blissful, optimistic and empowered so that you can set a
positive tone for your day. I guarantee that once you start doing this,
your days will be more enjoyable and fulfilling. Today is going to be
the best day of your life.

21. Utilize ‘The Burning Method.


’Whenever a fear or worry or complaint comes to mind, close your
eyes and imagine writing down the thought on a piece of paper. Then
proceed to light the paper and fire and watch it disintegrate. Even
better, actually write it down and burn it. You won’t have any problem
ridding your mind of the thought after doing this.

22. Travel.
Anyone who has ever gone anywhere will tell you that traveling is one
of themost exciting and life-changing activities that you can do.
Observing a different culture will expand your mind while making you
further appreciate the life you already live. This goes back to becoming
an explorer: this world is your jungle so go explore! Who knows,
maybe you’ll find a place you love so much that you decide to move.
Imagine the
positive repercussions a new environment could have on your life.

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23. The Rubber Band Method
This is the third and final way to rid yourself of negative thoughts
(hopefully by now you have figured out that this is very important!).
Place a rubber band around your wrist and snap it against your skin
anytime a negative thought finds its way into your head. This operant
conditioning technique associates a slight pain with negative thoughts
like Pavlov associated food/salivation with the sound of a bell. Sounds
a bit cruel at first but it only stings for a second, I promise. Plus the
outcome, having only positive thoughts, far outweighs a little slap on
the wrist here and there.

24. Learn to be unaffected by the words of others. Most


people get very upset when they are called negative names by others,
but there is a simple trick to overcoming this. Here it is: If I went up to
you and called you a fire hydrant, would you be upset? Of course not.
Obviously you are not a fire hydrant, you are a human being. The
same concept applies to when someone calls you something that you
know you are not. They are foolish for saying such things, so why
would you react with such anger? The only exception is when someone
calls you something that is true! In this case, you should thank them for
alerting you to a weakness, one that you can now work on changing
.

25. Read “Zen and the Art of Happiness” by Chris


Prentiss.
This book will give you the knowledge and instruction to be happy
at all times regardless of the circumstances. Yes, this sounds like
an oversimplification of happiness, but I assure you that this book
will change you in an amazing way
.
26. Develop the ability to forgive.
Forgiveness is something that most people fail miserably at even
thought it’s so simple. Grudges only bring more misery to those who
hold them and prevent good relations with the target. YOU makes
mistakes all of the time so why not have mercy when other do?
Remaining angry feels horrible while

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forgiving someone brings a refreshing sensation to the mind
and healing to the relationship.

27. Be the person that makes others feel special. Be


known for your kindness and sympathy.

28. Learn to lucid dream or to realize when you are dreaming so


that you can control your dreams. Sleep feels good, but it’s rather
boring and unproductive. With lucid dreaming under your belt, night-
time can be even more
exciting than when you are awake. You can do anything: fly, travel to
other planets, party with a celebrity, get intimate with your dream boy/
girl, etc. Many lucid dreams have also reported being able to speak
directly with the subconscious during dreams by demanding to be
taken to it after becoming lucid. For those that know a thing or two
about your subconscious, that is a BIG deal.

29. Visualize daily.


It has been said and proven time and time again that what you focus
on is what you get. If you complain all of the time, you will run into
more of the things you complain about. The same goes for good things
like health, wealth and happiness. So spend some time in the morning
imagining yourself achieving whatever it is that you currently desire.
Focus is key in this exercise, so choose a quiet environment where you
won’t be disturbed. If you’re having trouble focusing and continually find
that your mind has wandered to something else, read about meditation
in the following life tip. There is a lot more to this concept, so check
out the full article on visualization and the law of attraction here.

30. Meditate everyday for at least 20 minutes.


In this modern world where everyone is so connected to everything
else via cell phones, TV and internet, most people rarely enjoy the
beauty of silence. The ability to quiet your mind and relax your body
is an art and skill that everyone should develop. Simply sit
somewhere, preferably in nature, and focus on your breathing or try
to think about nothing. This

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is going to be extremely hard at first! You might find it boring
or just plain impossible to think of nothing, but you will get
better and you will learn to love it. Post-meditation, you will
feel extremely clear-headed and.. well, just plain wonderful.
The onl y wa y to really understand this sensation is to try it.

31. Learn to control your mind.


What kind of skilled human are you if you cannot even control your
own thoughts? While the human mind is described as being a stream
of consciousness, that does not mean you can’t decide where your
stream flows. Techniques like meditation and the 3 ways to flush out
negative thoughts will aid you immensely in learning to control your
mind
.
32. Learn to control your emotions.
The only person that can make you unhappy is you! You are the one
that decides to be affected by the words and actions of others. Realize
this so that the next time you experience a negative emotion, you can
find the strength within yourself to overcome it.

33. Take a class in speed reading.


Books are full of information that can enhance your knowledge-base,
vocabulary and yourself as a person. Speed reading is an easy way to
get at this info faster so that you can have more time for other
endeavors.

34. Relax!
This one is for you workaholics out there (myself included). Yes, work
is very important and productive but you need to take some time to
chill out everyday or you are going to burn out faster than a candle
with no oxygen. Additionally, you need to reward yourself for a job well
done. What’s the use of doing all of that work if you can’t have a little
fun from time to time anyways?

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35. Work on making good first impressions.
Practice a strong, firm handshake and the small talk that
generall y goes along with meeting someone for the first time.
People won’t know what to think of you if you have nothing
more to say be yo nd “My name is _______, nice to meet you.”
Also make sure you remember names, as mentioned
previously. W ho knows, you may be going into business with or
marrying this person you’re meeting for the first time if you
make a good impression. Be sure and make an excellent one.

36. Learn to use your eyes to their full potential:


0. Make constant eye contact when in conversation. Looking
away (especially down) is a sign of inferiority and
uncertainty. Instead, look at your conversation partner dead
in the eyes and keep them locked on
1. Master the piercing stare. You know when someone looks at
you and it feels like the y can see into your soul? Well that’s
not a hereditary characteristic, it just takes practice. Work
on sharpening your gaze in the mirror. You’ll know you have
it when it’s intimidating to continue looking at yourself
2. Master the one-eyebro w raise. This one isn’t necessary b y
any means, but hey, wh y not? Pick a brow to learn with and
go look in a mirror. Raise both of your eyebrows b ut use
your hand to hold down the brow that you want to sta y
down. This will probably feel very stupid at first but if you
keep trying, you will eventually pin down the muscle you
need to flex to get that one brow up

37. Be mysterious.
Don’t let off everything about you and definitely leave out some major
details. There is something both alluring and mesmerizing about
someone who no one knows fully about. I’m not saying to confide in no
one or to alienate yourself. Just think James Bond.

38. Come up with a life mantra.


You know, like “Carpe Diem” or “Live life to the fullest,” but not as
cliché. Make it something that really hits home with you so that you
will actually stick to it. Make sure it’ not so specific

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that it rarely applies but also not so general that it’s not
personal.

39. Get good at something.


Call it a hobby or a passion, whatever it is, just get damn good at it.
Your occupation does not count! Make it something that you can
practice often enough to excel at. Examples: Magic tricks, surfing, ping-
pong, creating short films, and unicycling. It can be anything but I
would recommend choosing something that: 1) You are passionate
about 2) You can bust out at any moment to display your skills for any
discerning crowd. My mind goes immediately to aerobatics and break
dancing, but that’s just me
.

40. Work out those abs.


Above any other muscle group in the entire body, the abs are the
most important. They constitute your core, the center point of your
body. Your ability to balance comes almost completely from the
strength of your abdominal muscles and balance is vital to
performance in any physical activity. Summary: they’re very important.
For more info on how to work out your abs, check out this video
.

41. Keep your brain sharp.


The majority of people are stuck in ruts. They go to the same job
everyday, hang out with the same friends and eat at the same places.
While that may feel safe, it’s not the most stimulating lifestyle for your
brain. Those synapses have been built up enough, so try something
that you do NOT know how to do! Buy a model car kit, master the art
of sudoku or crosswords, or go pick up another major at your nearest
college. The point is you need to be learning new things to keep your
brain honest. Form new synapses by forcing your mind to work in
ways it has not worked before. Just like physical workouts, doing too
much of the same exercise will eventually give no results. Switch it
up!

23
42. Read something inspirational right before bed and
after waking.
This will set get you in a great mood for sleep and for the day.
Read anything from a famous speech to your favorite self-
improvement book. Try to read something that get’s you really
excited in the morning especially so that you’ll leave your
house beaming with energy and wonder
.
43. Do what you love.
There is a huge difference between making a life and making a living;
which one are you making right now? So many spend their entire lives
trying to make as much money as possible so that they can afford to
do what they really want later. It makes no sense to settle in life until
you’re 65 so that you can retire and do what you want when you’re
already WAY past your prime. We only live life once so why wouldn’t
you want to spend it pursuing your bliss? To do anything else would
be a tragic waste of the freedom you are allowed if you are reading
this right now. Follow your bliss and you will be a thousand times more
happy than your retirement date and 40+ years younger. But first you
need to figure out what you love to do…

44. Choose your friends wisely.


You are affected far more than you think by the people you spend
your time with. Do your friends share your values? Do they encourage
you when you speak of your goals and dreams or do they scoff?
Make sure the people around you are conducive to the lifestyle you
want to lead or you will find yourself being dragged again and again
into behavior that distances you from your desires. Friends with a habit
of producing negative thoughts will especially hinder you. This can be a
hard task to follow through with if you realize you good friend is one
of these saboteurs, but you must be firm!Don’t let anyone get in the
way of you being all that you can be.

45. Don’t burn bridges.


By that I mean maintain your relationships with people even if you
think you are never going to see them again. For example, if you are
quitting your job, don’t chew out your boss before leaving! You might
run into him/her again later and life and

24
wish you had never severed ties so harshly. You never know
when you might need the help of someone you knew in the
past. Plus there is alread y too much hatred in this world, why
add more towards the people you interact with?

46. Keep a journal/diary.


It sounds like a very monotonous habit at first, but when you get into
it, that little book will become a great way to organize your thoughts
and track your growth over the years. Most of us already stay awake
in bed at night pondering the events of the day anyways so why not
document those thoughts in an organized fashion? That will allow you
to look back and observe how your way of thinking has changed over
time.

47. Read “New Pyscho-Cybernetics” by Dr. Maxwell Maltz.


This book will explain why the content of your thoughts has such a
profound effect on your life through religious, philosophical and
scientific arguments. A must read for completely understand who this
life thing works.

48. Learn to use and trust your


subconscious/intuition.
When you spend time in silence everyday, listen not for words but for
a feeling that tells you to do something. Do not mistake your own
reasoning and thoughts for those of your subconscious. If you can
track where the thought came from,(this thought led to that thought
which led to this thought, etc.) then it was not from your subconscious.
Learning to accurately discern between the two will allow you to tap
into knowledge that you don’t consciously have.

49. Develop a charismatic personality.


You know, the kind of personality that is surrounded by people
constantly and is the life of the party. Start visualizing yourself as
THAT person. Maybe take a short course on dynamic speaking and
learn some jokes. Take the time to learn some party tricks and sleight
of hand. Most importantly, believe that you already are charismatic
even if you fail at being the center

25
point of the next party. Lie to yourself constantly and tell
yourself that you are more warm and gregarious than Ronald
Regan. Belief is the first step! Reality will come soon after.

50. Love is all there is.


If you truly want to be a master of life, let love be in your every action.
Love your friends, family and enemies alike. This is the most difficult
thing to do out of this entire list, which is why it is listed at #50. But if
you accomplish this, you will be seen as a leader among everyone that
allows hate, envy, disgust and all other negative emotions into their
lives. Think Gandhi. Love is so rare in this world when compared to the
massive presence of hate that by exuding love, you will immediately
see yourself and the people around you change. Love. Love. Love.

26
27
28
29
30
31
The following 5 articles are by renowned
personal development author and blogger
Steve Pavlina
(www.stevepavlina.com)

32
33 Rules to Boost Your
Productivity
- by Steve Pavlina
Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve
problems. When a problem is large or complex, and
the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic
allows you to begin making progress towards a
solution even though you can’ t visualize the entire
path from your starting point.

Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a


mountain, but there’s no trail to follow. An example
of a heuristic would be: Head directly towards the
peak until you reach an obstacle you can’t cross.
Whenever you reach such an obstacle, follow it around
to the right until you’re able to head towards the peak
once again. This isn’ t the most intelligent or
comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will
work just fine, and you’ll eventually reach the peak.

Heuristics don’t guarantee you’ll find the optimal


solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at
all. But they do a good enough job of solving certain
types of problems to be useful. Their strength is that
they break the deadlock of indecision and get you into
action. As you take action you begin to explore the
solution space, which deepens your understanding of
the problem. As you gain knowledge about the
problem, you can make course corrections along the
way, gradually improving your chances of finding a
solution. If you try to solve a problem you don’ t
initially know how to solve, you’ll often figure out a
solution as you go, one you never could have
imagined until you started moving. This is especially
true with creative work such as software
development. Often you don’t even know exactly
what you’re trying to build until you start building it.

33
Heuristics have many practical applications, and one
of my favorite areas of application is personal
productivity. Productivity heuristics are behavioral
rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can
help us get things done more efficiently. Here are
some of my favorites:

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a


task is to delete it. If it doesn’ t need to be done,
get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy
to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each
day in advance. Decide what you’ll do; then do
it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to
tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the
morning instead of delaying it until later in the
day. This small victory will set the tone for a
very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of
productivity, and schedule your most important
tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks
during your non-peak times.
5. No-comm zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks
of time for solo work where you must
concentrate. Schedule light, interruptible tasks
for your open-comm periods and more challenging
projects for your no-comm periods.
6. Mini-milestones. When you begin a task,
identify the target you must reach before you can
stop working. For example, when working on a
book, you could decide not to get up until you’ve
written at least 1000 words. Hit your target no
matter what.
7. Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period,
like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task. Don’ t
worry about how far you get. Just put in the
time. See Timeboxing for more.
8. Batching. Batch similar tasks like phone calls or
errands into a single chunk, and knock them off
in a single session.
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9. Early bird. Get up early in the morning, like at
5am, and go straight to work on your most
important task. You can often get more done
before 8am than most people do in a day.
10. Cone of silence. Take a laptop with no
network or WiFi access, and go to a place where
you can work flat out without distractions, such
as a library, park, coffee house, or your own
backyard. Leave your comm gadgets behind.
11. Tempo. Deliberately pick up the pace, and
try to move a little faster than usual. Speak
faster. Walk faster. Type faster. Read faster. Go
home sooner.
12. Relaxify. Reduce stress by cultivating a
relaxing, clutter-free workspace. See 10 Ways to
Relaxify Your Workspace.
13. Agendas. Provide clear written agendas to
meeting participants in advance. This greatly
improves meeting focus and efficiency. You can
use it for phone calls too.
14. Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20
rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task
comes from 20% of the effort. Focus your energy
on that critical 20%, and don’ t overengineer
the non-critical 80%.
15. Ready-fire-aim. Bust procrastination by
taking action immediately after setting a goal,
even if the action isn’ t perfectly planned. You
can always adjust course along the way.
16. Minuteman. Once you have the information
you need to make a decision, start a timer and
give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual
decision. Take a whole minute to vacillate and
second-guess yourself all you want, but come out
the other end with a clear choice. Once your
decision is made, take some kind of action to set
it in motion.
17. Deadline. Set a deadline for task
completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on
track.

35
18. Promise. Tell others of your commitments,
since they’ll help hold you accountable.
19. Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show up on
time. Arrive early.
20. Gap reading. Use reading to fill in those
odd periods like waiting for an appointment,
standing in line, or while the coffee is brewing. If
you’re a male, you can even read an article while
shaving (preferably with an electric razor).
That’s 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Visualize your goal as already
accomplished. Put yourself into a state of
actually being there. Make it real in your mind,
and you’ll soon see it in your reality.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent
rewards for achievement. See a movie, book a
professional massage, or spend a day at an
amusement park.
23. Quad 2. Separate the truly important tasks
from the merely urgent. Allocate blocks of time
to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those
which are important but rarely urgent, such as
physical exercise, writing a book, and finding a
relationship partner.
24. Continuum. At the end of your workday,
identify the first task you’ll work on the next day,
and set out the materials in advance. The next
day begin working on that task immediately.
25. Slice and dice. Break complex projects into
smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing
just one of those tasks.
26. Single-handling. Once you begin a task,
stick with it until it’s 100% complete. Don’ t
switch tasks in the middle. When distractions
come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
27. Randomize. Pick a totally random piece of a
larger project, and complete it. Pay one random
bill. Make one phone call. Write page 42 of your
book.
28. Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism by
completing your task in an intentionally terrible
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fashion, knowing you need never share the
results with anyone. Write a blog post about the
taste of salt, design a hideously
dysfunctional web site, or create a business plan
that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy. With a
truly horrendous first draft, there’s nowhere to go
but up.
29. 30 days. Identify a new habit you’d like to
form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30
days. A temporary commitment is much easier to
keep than a permanent one. See 30 Days to
Success for details.
30. Delegate. Convince someone else to do it
for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Sign up for martial arts,
start a blog, or join an improv group. You’ll often
encounter ideas in one field that can boost your
performance in another.
32. Intuition. Go with your gut instinct. It’s
probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the processes you
use most often, and write them down step-by-
step. Refactor them on paper for greater
efficiency. Then implement and test your
improved processes. Sometimes we just can’ t see
what’s right in front of us until we examine it
under a microscope.

37
How to Become an Early Riser
- Steve Pavlina

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits


contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
- Aristotle

Are morning people born or made? In my case it was


definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed
before midnight, and I’d almost always sleep in late. I
usually didn’ t start hitting my stride each day until
late afternoon.

But after a while I couldn’ t ignore the high correlation


between success and rising early, even in my own life.
On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I
noticed that my productivity was almost always
higher, not just in the morning but all throughout the
day. And I also noticed a significant feeling of well-
being. So being the proactive goal-achiever I was, I
set out to become a habitual early riser. I promptly
set my alarm clock for 5AM…

… and the next morning, I got up just before noon.

Hmmm…

I tried again many more times, each time not getting


very far with it. I figured I must have been born
without the early riser gene. Whenever my alarm went
off, my first thought was always to stop that blasted
noise and go back to sleep. I tabled this habit for a
number of years, but eventually I came across some
sleep research that showed me that I was going about
this problem the wrong way. Once I applied those
ideas, I was able to become an early riser
consistently.

38
It’s hard to become an early riser using the wrong
strategy. But with the right strategy, it’s relatively
easy.

The most common wrong strategy is this: You assume


that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go
to bed earlier. So you figure out how much sleep
you’re getting now, and then just shift everything
back a few hours. If you now sleep from midnight to
8am, you figure you’ll go to bed at 10pm and get up
at 6am instead. Sounds very reasonable, but it will
usually fail.

It seems there are two main schools of thought about


sleep patterns. One is that you should go to bed and
get up at the same times every day. It’s like having
an alarm clock on both ends — you try to sleep the
same hours each night. This seems practical for living
in modern society. We need predictability in our
schedules. And we need to ensure adequate rest.

The second school says you should listen to your


body’s needs and go to bed when you’re tired and get
up when you naturally wake up. This approach is
rooted in biology. Our bodies should know how much
rest we need, so we should listen to them.

Through trial and error, I found out for myself that


both of these schools are suboptimal sleep patterns.
Both of them are wrong if you care about productivity.
Here’s why:

If you sleep set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed


when you aren’ t sleepy enough. If it’s taking you
more than five minutes to fall asleep each night, you
aren’ t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed
awake and not being asleep. Another problem is that
you’re assuming you need the same number of hours
of sleep every night, which is a false assumption. Your
sleep needs vary from day to day.

39
If you sleep based on what your body tells you, you’ll
probably be sleeping more than you need — in many
cases a lot more, like 10-15 hours more per week (the
equivalent of a full waking day). A lot of people who
sleep this way get 8+ hours of sleep per night, which
is usually too much. Also, your mornings may be less
predictable if you’re getting up at different times. And
because our natural rhythms are sometimes out of
tune with the 24-hour clock, you may find that your
sleep times begin to drift.

The optimal solution for me has been to combine both


approaches. It’s very simple, and many early risers do
this without even thinking about it, but it was a
mental breakthrough for me nonetheless. The solution
was to go to bed when I’m sleepy (and only when I’m
sleepy) and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time
(7 days per week). So I always get up at the same
time (in my case 5am), but I go to bed at different
times every night.

I go to bed when I’m too sleepy to stay up. My


sleepiness test is that if I couldn’ t read a book for
more than a page or two without drifting off, I’m
ready for bed. Most of the time when I go to bed, I’m
asleep within three minutes. I lie down, get
comfortable, and immediately I’m drifting off.
Sometimes I go to bed at 9:30pm; other times I stay
up until midnight. Most of the time I go to bed
between 10-11pm. If I’m not sleepy, I stay up until I
can’ t keep my eyes open any longer. Reading is an
excellent activity to do during this time, since it
becomes obvious when I’m too sleepy to read.

When my alarm goes off every morning, I turn it off,


stretch for a couple seconds, and sit up. I don’ t think
about it. I’ve learned that the longer it takes me to
get up, the more likely I am to try to sleep in. So I
don’ t allow myself to have conversations in my head
about the benefits of sleeping in once the alarm goes

40
off. Even if I want to sleep in, I always get up right
away.

After a few days of using this approach, I found that


my sleep patterns settled into a natural rhythm. If I
got too little sleep one night, I’d automatically be
sleepier earlier and get more sleep the next night.
And if I had lots of energy and wasn’ t tired, I’d sleep
less. My body learned when to knock me out because
it knew I would always get up at the same time and
that my wake-up time wasn’ t negotiable.

A side effect was that on average, I slept about 90


minutes less per night, but I actually felt more well-
rested. I was sleeping almost the entire time I was in
bed.

I read that most insomniacs are people who go to bed


when they aren’ t sleepy. If you aren’ t sleepy and find
yourself unable to fall asleep quickly, get up and stay
awake for a while. Resist sleep until your body begins
to release the hormones that rob you of
consciousness. If you simply go to bed when you’re
sleepy and then get up at a fixed time, you’ll cure
your insomnia. The first night you’ll stay up late, but
you’ll fall asleep right away. You may be tired that
first day from getting up too early and getting only a
few hours of sleep the whole night, but you’ll slog
through the day and will want to go to bed earlier that
second night. After a few days, you’ll settle into a
pattern of going to bed at roughly the same time and
falling asleep right away.

So if you want to become an early riser (or just exert


more control over your sleep patterns), then try this:
Go to bed only when you’re too sleepy to stay up, and
get up at a fixed time every morning.

41
Why get up early?

I’d say the main reason is that you’ll have a lot more
time to do things that are more interesting than
sleeping.

Again, I’ve gained about 10-15 hours per week doing


this. That extra time is very noticeable. By 6:30am,
I’ve already exercised, showered, had breakfast, and
I’m at my desk ready to go to work. I can put in a lot
of hours each day of productive work, and I’m usually
done with work by 5:00 pm (and that includes
personal “work” like email, paying bills, picking up my
daughter from preschool, etc). This gives me 5-6
hours of discretionary time every evening for family,
leisure activities, Toastmasters, reading, journaling,
etc. And best of all, I still have energy during this
time. Having time for everything that’s important to
me makes me feel very balanced, relaxed, and
optimistic.

Think about what you could do with that extra time.


Even an extra 30 minutes per day is enough to
exercise daily, read a book or two each month,
maintain a blog, meditate daily, cook healthy food,
learn a musical instrument, etc. A small amount of
extra time each day adds up to significant amounts
over the course of a year. 30 minutes a day is 182.5
hours in a year. That’s more than a month of working
full-time (40 hours per week). Double it if you save
60 minutes a day, and triple it if you save 90 minutes
a day. For me the savings was about 90 minutes/day.
That’s like getting a free bonus year every decade.
I’m using this time to do things that I previously
didn’ t have the time and energy to do. It’s
wonderful.

42
10 Tips for College Students
- Steve Pavlina
After writing the time management article “ Do It
Now,” which was based on my experience of
graduating college in three semesters with two
degrees, I received many follow-up questions from
students asking for more advice. Here are 10 tips
to help you create a productive and memorable
college experience… and most of all, to deeply enjoy
this time in your life.

1. Answer the question, “Why am I going to


college?”
Many college students really don’ t have a clear reason
for being there other than the fact that they don’ t
know what else to do yet. They inherit goals from
family and peers which aren’ t truly their own. That
was how I started college. Is this you as well?

As I’ve stated previously on this blog, the three-


semester deal wasn’ t my first time at college. I had
previously gone to college when I wasn’ t in the right
frame of mind to be there. In high school I was a
straight-A honors student, President of the math
club, and captain of the Academic Decathlon team.
That momentum carried me forward, and without
really ever deciding if it was what I wanted, I found
myself with four more years of school ahead of me. It
seemed like a good idea at the time, but my heart
just wasn’ t in it. Consequently, I sabotaged myself in
a big way. I blew off my classes and got an education
in parties and alcohol. Apparently some administrator
was biased against students whose GPA starts with a
decimal point, so I was soon expelled.

43
That experience sent me into a bit of a tailspin. I was
in a funk for about six months, mostly just playing
video games. Finally in an attempt to re-ground
myself, I got a retail sales job and tried to stay under
the radar while taking some time to “find
myself.” That was the time I began developing an
interest in personal development, and boy did it pay
off. A year later I was ready to go back to college,
and I started over as a freshman. But this time I
knew why I was there. I wanted to be a programmer,
and I wanted to earn my Computer Science degree (I
later added the Math degree). But it was more than
that. I knew I was capable of a lot more, and I
wanted to push myself. I wanted to create the richest
experience I could. For me that meant a really dense
schedule.

Your goals for college will likely be different than


mine. What are they? Why are you there? If you
don’ t know — and I mean really know it in your gut —
then you have no focal point for your experience. You
may as well not even be there. What is it about your
experience that resonates as true for you? What are
you there to learn? What do you want to experience?

2. Imagine your ideal college experience.


Once you know why you’re going to college, imagine
your ideal outcome. Let it flow outward from the
reason you’re there. Whether you’ve already started
college or not, stop and simply write down some
attributes of your ideal experience. Describe it in as
much detail as you can.

Before I returned to school, I spent hours visualizing


the kind of experience I wanted to have. I saw myself
being challenged but managing it easily and without
stress. I saw myself making new friends. I saw
myself having a really great time. Most of all I
imagined a very balanced experience — a blend of

44
academics, activities, socialization, and fun. The
keyword I used was “richness.”

This was a really important step. I didn’ t understand


the mechanism at the time, but I was pre-
programming myself to succeed. Whenever I
encountered obstacles, my ideal vision was so much
more compelling that I was always able to find a way
to get what I wanted. I became a co-creator of my
experience instead of a passive victim of it.

Visualization allows you to make mistakes in


advance. If you can’ t get a clear visualization, your
experience is likely to be just as fuzzy. Debug your
visualization until it inspires you.

Real life will of course turn out differently than you


visualize. The point of visualization isn’ t to predict
the future or to restrict your freedom to decide later.
The point is to give you more clarity for making
decisions right now. Your ideal scene serves as a map
that can guide you through the quagmire of options.

3. Take at least one extra class each semester.


Students are taught that 12-15 semester units (3-5
classes) is a “full” schedule. But a schedule that light
is hardly full. A person with a full-time job will put in
a good 40+ hours per week, and students enjoy every
possible vacation day plus spring break, winter break,
and summer vacation. If you want to spend four or
more years in college, add more degrees or get a job
on the side. Don’ t feel you have to go at a snail’s
pace just because everyone else does.

Now you might be thinking that 12-15 units are


supposed to equate to a 40-hour week with all the
outside homework and studying, but that’s only going
to happen if you do things very inefficiently (which
sadly is what most people do). If you follow some of
the time-saving tips later in this article, then 15 units
45
should only require a few additional hours outside of
class to complete assignments. Obviously I couldn’ t
have taken 31-39 units per semester if it meant doing
double those hours in outside homework. I didn’ t
succeed by overworking myself.

If you’re an above average student, you can certainly


handle an above average schedule. Sometimes we
don’ t know what we can handle until we push
ourselves a little. If you think you can handle 15
units, take 18 or 21. You can easily shave a year off
your schedule. Or you may be able to add a minor or
a double major.

What about prerequisites? For the most part I simply


ignored them, and fortunately at my school they
weren’ t enforced too well. I found that most of the
time a prerequisite is listed, it’s geared towards below
average students. Don’ t let pointless bureaucracy
slow you down if you want to graduate sooner.
There’s always a way around it — it’s usually just a
matter of getting some random form signed by
someone who’s too bored to care either way. A smile
and a compliment go a long way.

By the law of forced efficiency, if you put more things


on your plate, you’ll find a way to get them done with
the time you have available. So if you don’t challenge
yourself a little, that extra time will slip through your
fingers.

I think the real benefit to a dense schedule isn’ t that


you’ll graduate sooner. The real benefit is that you’ll
enjoy a richer experience. Taking five classes instead
of four means more learning, more achievement, and
more friends. And what employer wouldn’ t be
attracted to a student who graduated more quickly
than his/her peers? This sort of thing sure looks
great on a resume.

46
4. Set clear goals for each class.
Decide what you want out of each specific class. Is
this a subject you’re eager to learn? Do you want to
target this teacher for a letter of recommendation? Is
this a required class you must take but which doesn’ t
otherwise interest you?

My goals for each class determined how often I would


show up, whether I’d sit in the front or the back, how
actively I’d participate, and what kind of relationship
I’d seek to establish with the teacher.

For some classes I wanted to master the material.


For others I just wanted an A grade. And for others
I wanted to set myself up for glowing letters of
recommendations from enthusiastic teachers whose
native language was English (so the letters would be
highly readable and positive).

My mom has been a college math professor for


decades. At home she’d comment about students she
barely knew who’d ask her for letters of
recommendation. Many times she had to turn them
down because she just didn’ t have anything positive
to say in the letter. On the other hand, she was
happy to support those students who put in a serious
effort. Most teachers want to help you, but you have
to let them see your strengths. Even if you don’ t get
an A in a particular class, you can still give a teacher
plenty of material for a great letter of
recommendation if you participate actively and show
respect toward the teacher.

This is not about manipulating your professors into


lying on your behalf. The simple truth is that the
quality of a letter of recommendation ultimately
comes down to how much a teacher respects you.
Don’ t put yourself in the desperate situation of having
to request a letter of recommendation from a teacher
who doesn’ t even remember you — or worse, one who

47
thinks poorly of you. Set yourself up for success in
advance.

One of my professors learned about my packed


academic schedule and expressed interest in learning
how I was managing it. We had a very nice
conversation about time management techniques. I
had several programming classes with this professor
and aced them all. I happened to think he was an
excellent teacher, I had great respect for him, and I
quite enjoyed his classes. When it came time to ask
him for a letter of recommendation, he wrote one of
the most glowing letters imaginable (“best student
I’ve encountered in my career,” etc.).

On the other hand, I had certain teachers who were


downright lousy. I ditched their classes often
and learned the material from
the textbook. Obviously I didn’ t seek out their
assistance down the road.

Sometimes you’ll achieve your goals; sometimes you


won’ t. Even if you do your best, you may still fall
short. You may encounter teachers that are unfair,
lazy, sexist, racist, or otherwise incompetent. My wife
had an overtly sexist professor who would never give
a female student a grade higher than a B, no matter
how well she did. He would say things like, “If you’re
a male, you’ll have to work hard in this class. If
you’re a female, just come by my office after hours.”
Eventually sexual harassment charges were
filed against him. You’ll have to pick your battles.
Some are worth fighting; others are best ignored.
Having clear goals will help you decide which is which.

5. Triage ruthlessly.
You don’ t need to put an equal amount of effort into
every class. Inject extra effort when it’s important to
you, but feel free to back off a little from classes that
are a low priority based on your specific goals. For
48
me this was an important way to conserve energy. I
couldn’ t play full out in every class, or I’d burn out,
so I invested my energy where it mattered most.

In every student’s schedule, some classes are critical


while others are almost trivial. In a typical week, I’d
usually ditch around 40% of my classes because I just
didn’ t need to be there. For some classes attendance
was necessary, but for others it didn’ t make much
difference. I could simply get the notes from another
student if needed, or I could learn the material from
the textbook. If it wasn’ t necessary for me to attend
a particular class (based on my goals for that class), I
usually ditched it. That saved me a lot of time and
kept me from having to sit in class all day long.
Sometimes I’d just grab some food with friends to
give myself an extra break.

I would also triage individual assignments. If I felt an


assignment was lame, pointless, or unnecessarily
tedious, and if it wouldn’ t have too negative an
impact on my grade, I would actually decline to do it.
One time I was assigned a tedious paper that
represented 10% of my grade. I really didn’ t want to
do it, and it required a lot more hours than I felt it
was worth. I was headed for an A in the class, and if
I didn’ t do this assignment, I’d drop to an A-. So I
respectfully told the professor I was declining the
assignment and that I thought it was a fair trade to
receive an A- in order to reinvest those hours
elsewhere. He already knew me and understood my
reasons. He gave me an A-, and I was fine with that.
It was indeed a fair trade. In fact, looking back I
wish I’d done this sort of thing more often.

Sometimes teachers get a little too homework happy


and dole out assignments that really don’ t justify the
effort. You’re in charge of your academic experience
though, not your teachers. Don’ t feel you must do
every assignment just because the teacher feels it’s a
good idea. You be the judge in accordance with your

49
own reasons for being there. Just be sure to consider
the consequences of your decision.

By stealing time from low priority assignments, I was


able to invest more time in the real gems. Some
creative assignments taught me a great deal. I
usually hated group projects with a passion, but there
was one particular group project where the team
really gelled. I enjoyed it tremendously and learned a
lot from it.

A cool triage technique I used was timeboxing. I


would decide how much time an assignment
warranted, and then I’d do the best job I could within
the allotted time. So if I had to write a 10-page
research page on European history, I might devote 8
hours to it total. I’d slice up the 8 hours into topic
selection, planning, library research, outlining,
writing, and editing, and then I’d do my best to stay
within those times. This was a great way to keep me
from overengineering an assignment that didn’ t need
it.

In a way this was my own method of academic load


balancing. Some of your assignments will be
unbalanced in the sense that they seem to require an
unreasonable amount of effort compared to how much
of your grade they represent or how much you expect
to benefit from completing them. Sometimes I would
decide that the effort to write an A-paper just wasn’ t
warranted. Maybe I’d estimate it would take me 20
hours to do an A job but only 10 hours to do a B job.
And if the assignment was only 10% of my grade,
perhaps I could accept a B there. I often thought in
this Machiavellian fashion back then, and often to my
surprise I found that my B-quality papers would come
back with As anyway.

50
6. Get an early start to each day.
I’ve written previously about the benefits of becoming
an early riser. I wasn’ t getting up at 5am when I was
in college, but I’d usually get up around 6-7am. I
found that getting an early start each day helped me
get a lot more done, not just in the morning but
throughout the day. I began each day with a 25-
minute run followed by a shower and breakfast. This
simple morning routine got me out the door feeling
alert and energized.

I’d be lying if I said I got up early because I wanted


to. It was really out of necessity. I had many
morning classes, including 7:30am classes one
semester. But I’m glad I did that because if I didn’ t
have those morning classes, I just would have slept
more than I needed to. Even if you hate morning
classes, you may find as I did that you’re a lot more
productive if you schedule them anyway.

7. Reclaim wasted time during your classes.


Let’s face it. Not every class is going to require your
utmost concentration. Sometimes teachers babble.
Sometimes they reiterate what you already know.
What percentage of class time requires your complete,
focused attention? For some classes it’s 90%. For
others it’s 20%. If you aren’ t actively learning during
class, you’re wasting time. If a class is really
challenging, sit in the front and soak up every word.
But if a class isn’ t challenging you, then sit in the
back, do homework for other classes, and pop your
head up every once in a while to see if there’s
anything worth jotting down. Always have a book
open, so when your hippie professor goes off on yet
another nostalgia trip about the 60s, you’ll have
something productive to do.

51
This was a surprisingly great cure for boredom. If the
professor was droning on and putting everyone to
sleep, I’d be working on programming assignments. I
used to write them out on paper and then go to the
computer lab between classes and type them up. That
way I didn’ t have to spend much time outside class in
the lab, sometimes just 10-15 minutes if my program
worked the first time.

You’ll be amazed at how much time you can free up


using this method. I was able to complete the bulk of
my assignments in class (but usually not in the
classes in which the tasks were assigned). If you’re
in school right now, I challenge you to see how much
extra homework you can complete during your normal
class time today. Then estimate how many hours
you’ll save every week from this practice. It really
adds up.

You can’ t concentrate at peak efficiency continuously,


so be sure to take breaks. When you need a break
though, take a real break. I used to meditate or nap
on the grass between classes in order to recharge
myself. I’d use my wristwatch alarm to signal when it
was time to get up and go again. Those breaks were
very restorative, and I could go to the next class and
work full out once again. I never worked flat out all
day long. I worked in waves between total
concentration and total relaxation, cycling many times
per day.

8. Learn material the very first time it’s


presented.
One of the biggest time wasters in school is having to
relearn something you didn’t learn properly the first
time. When students say they’re studying, most of
the time they’re making up for a previous failure to
learn the material.

52
In software development it’s well known that bugs
should be fixed as soon as possible after they’re
introduced. Waiting to fix a bug near the end of a
project can take 50x as much effort as it would take
to fix the bug the first time it was noticed. Failing to
learn what you’re supposedly taught each day is a
serious bug. Don’ t try to pile new material on top of
an unstable foundation, since it will take even more
time to rebuild it later.

If you don’ t understand something you were taught in


class today, treat it as a bug that must be fixed
ASAP. Do not put it off. Do not pile new material on
top of it. If you don’ t understand a word, a concept,
or a lesson, then drop everything and do whatever it
takes to learn it before you continue on. Ask
questions in class, get a fellow student to explain it to
you, read and re-read the textbook, and/or visit the
professor during office hours, but learn it no matter
what.

I was normally an ace in math, perhaps because my


mother is a college math professor who was taking
calculus classes while I was in the womb. Plus my
father was an aerospace engineer, so I’ve certainly
got the genes for it. But there were a couple topics I
found incomprehensible when they were first
introduced: eigenvalues and eigenvectors. I’m a
highly visual learner, which is normally a strength
academically, but I found these abstract
concepts difficult to visualize. Many of my classmates
found them confusing too. I invested the extra effort
required to grasp these concepts and earned an A in
the class because I treated my confusion as a bug
that had to be fixed immediately. Those students who
allowed their confusion to linger found themselves
becoming more and more lost as the course
progressed, and cramming at the end couldn’ t bestow
complete comprehension. Just like programming
bugs, confusion multiplies if left untreated, so stamp
it out as early as possible. If you’re confused about

53
anything you’re being taught, you’ve got a bug that
needs fixing. Don’ t move on until you can honestly
say to yourself, “Yes, I understand that… what’s
next?”

Ideally there should be no need to study outside of


class, at least in the sense of relearning material you
didn’ t learn the first time. You can review old
material to refresh your memory, but you shouldn’ t
have to devote a minute of your time to learning
something that was taught a month or two earlier.

During finals I was probably the least-stressed


student of all. I didn’ t have to study because by the
time the final exam came up, in my mind the course
was already over. The test was just a formality.
While everyone else was cramming, I’d be at the
arcade playing video games. I’d already learned the
material and completed all the assignments (at least
the ones I was going to complete). At most I’d just
spend some time reviewing my notes to refresh the
material the night before the test. Isn’ t this
how academic learning is supposed to work?
Otherwise what’s the point of showing up to class for
an entire semester?

During each semester ask yourself this question: Am


I ready to be tested right now on everything that has
been taught up to this point? If your answer is ever
“no,” then you know you’re falling behind, and you
need to catch up immediately. Ideally you should be
able to answer “yes” to this question at least once a
week for every subject.

Falling behind even a little is an enormous stressor


and time waster. First, you have to go back and re-
learn the old material when the rest of the class has
already moved on. Secondly, you may not learn the
new material as well if it builds on the old material
because you lack a solid foundation, so you just end
up falling further and further behind. Then when you

54
come to the end of the semester, you end up having
to re-learn everything you were supposed to learn.
But because you cram at the last minute, after finals
you forget everything anyway. What’s the point of
that silliness? It’s like overspending on a credit card
that charges you 25% interest. Eventually you’ll have
to pay up, and it will cost you a lot more time in the
long run.

Put in the effort to learn your material well enough to


get As in all your classes. It will pay off. Much of the
material you learn will build on earlier material. If
you get As in your freshman courses, you’ll be well
prepared to pile on new material in your sophomore
year. But if you get Cs that first year, you’re already
going into your second year with an unstable
foundation, making it that much harder to bring your
grades up and really master the material. Make
straight As your goal every semester. In the long run,
it’s much easier. I found that C students tended to
work a lot harder than I did, especially in their junior
and senior years, because they were always playing
catch up. Despite my packed schedule, it wasn’ t
stressful for me because I kept on top of every
subject. Consequently, I had plenty of time for fun
while other students experienced lots of stress
because they constantly felt unprepared.

9. Master advanced memory techniques.


One of the keys to learning material the first time it’s
taught is to train yourself in advanced memory
techniques. I used them often in classes that
required rote memorization of certain facts, including
names, dates, and mathematical formulas. If a
teacher wrote something on the board that had to be
memorized verbatim for an upcoming exam, I’d
memorize it then and there. Then I wouldn’ t have to
go back and study it later.

55
I’m sure you’ve encountered simple
mnemonic techniques such as using the phrase “Every
good boy does fine” to memorize the musical notes E,
G, B, D, and F. Those kinds of tricks work well in
certain situations, but they’re so grammar
school. There are far more efficient visual
techniques. The two I relied on most in school were
chaining and pegging.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain these


techniques in detail, but you can find plenty of books
on memory improvement, such as The Memory
Book by Harry Lorayne. I recommend learning from a
book because then you’ll build a solid foundation step
by step.

These techniques will allow you to memorize


information very rapidly. For example, with pegging I
could usually memorize a list of 20 items in about 90
seconds with perfect recall even weeks later. Experts
at this are faster. Anyone can do it — it’s just a
matter of training yourself.

I still use these techniques today. Chaining allows


me to memorize my speeches visually. When I give a
speech, my imagination runs through the visual movie
I’ve created while I select words on the fly to fit the
images. It’s like narrating a movie. My speech isn’ t
memorized word for word, so it sounds natural and
spontaneous and can be adapted on the fly to fit the
situation. Memorizing visually is much faster and
more robust than trying to memorize words. If you
memorize a speech word for word and forget a line, it
can really throw you off. But with a series of images,
it’s easier to jump ahead to the next frame if you
make a mistake. Our brains are better suited to
visualize memorization than phonetic memorization.

I don’ t recommend memorizing by repetition because


it’s way too slow. Pegging and chaining do not
require repetition — they allow you to embed strong

56
memories on a single pass, usually in seconds. The
downside is that pegging and chaining require a lot of
up-front practice to master, but once you learn
them, these are valuable skills you’ll have for life. I
also found that learning these techniques seemed to
improve my memory as a whole, even when I’m not
actively trying to memorize. I think this
practice trained my subconscious to store and
recall information more effectively.

It’s a shame these techniques aren’ t normally taught


in school. They would save students an enormous
amount of time. Do yourself a favor and learn them
while you’re young. They have a lot of practical
applications, including remembering people’s names.

10. Have some serious fun!


Challenge yourself academically, but give yourself
plenty of time for fun as well. Don’ t squander your
leisure time hanging around doing nothing. Go out
and do something active that will blow off steam
and increase your energy.

One of my favorite college leisure activities was


frisbee golf (also called disc golf ). I used to play for
hours at night with a couple friends, sometimes until
my fingers became blistered… or until campus security
gave us the boot for hitting one too many non-player
students.

While playing frisbee golf, we would often have


to scavenge through bushes, wade through fountains,
and climb over various hazards trying to recover
errant frisbees. It was always lots of fun, and we’d
usually “play through” these obstacles. Several hours
of frisbee golf served as a delightful reward at the end
of a challenging week. I still remember an incredible

57
“hole in one” shot I made from a second-story balcony
to hit a light post at the edge of a soccer field.

My biggest regret about college is that I didn’ t have a


girlfriend during that time. If I had it to do all over
again, I probably would have added an extra
semester and taken fewer classes to make time for
that someone special. I had the opportunity, but I
had to pass it up because my schedule was too
packed. Girlfriends can be a lot of fun, but most
aren’ t very efficient.

This article’s advice centers on making your college


experience as rich and memorable as possible. Get
your school work done quickly and efficiently, so you
have plenty of time for the variety of activities
college can offer. Join clubs. Play frisbee golf. Get a
boyfriend or girlfriend. The worst thing you can do is
spend your time falling behind academically due to
poor habits, feeling stressed and unprepared all the
time, and then playing catch up. Squeeze as much
juice out of college as you can, and let it serve as a
springboard to a lifetime of fulfillment.

People often assume my aggressive schedule must


have been stressful and exhausting, but the irony is
that it was just the opposite. I seemed to have an
easier, more enjoyable experience than my peers.
Students with lighter schedules slacked off and fell
behind because they convinced themselves they could
make up for it later. But I couldn’ t afford to do
that because it would have been impossible for me to
catch up on a dozen different classes… and way too
stressful to even think about it. If I fell even a week
behind, I’d be in serious trouble. So I
was compelled to develop good habits that kept me
perpetually relaxed, focused, and energized. Many of
the habits discussed above were simply the result of
setting the goal to graduate in three semesters. That
goal dictated the process. I’m very grateful for the
experience because it showed me just how much more

58
effective we can be when we push ourselves beyond
our comfort zones. It taught me to keep setting goals
beyond what I feel certain I can accomplish. Many
times what we assume to be impossible just isn’ t. We
only think it is.

59
Timeboxing
-b y S te ve P av li na

Timeboxing is a simple time management technique I


use often. I first learned about it in software
development terms. Let’s say you have a fixed
deadline for a new product you need to release, such
as an annual upgrade to software for calculating
income taxes. You must have a new version ready by
a certain date. So you’ll probably use timeboxing for
your development cycle, meaning that you do the best
job you can within the time available. What new
features you can implement are totally determined by
the time frame. Slipping the schedule is simply not an
option, so if you get behind, you must cut features.

In terms of managing your own tasks, timeboxing can


be a helpful technique. I primarily use it in two
different ways.

First, let’s say you want to get something done, but


there’s a risk it could end up taking far more time
than it’s worth because it’s the kind of task where you
might exhibit perfectionist tendencies. So you give
yourself a specific amount of time, which you won’ t go
over, and you simply do the best job you can within
that time.

As an example I use timeboxing when doing my


Christmas shopping each year. I usually allocate a
total of 2 hours to the task, which for me involves
buying gifts for 8 people (my wife handles the rest). I
decide in advance what kind of gift I should get each
person on my list, and then I order as much as I can
online and then head off to the local mall, where I
zoom from one store to the next picking up gifts as I
go. I also usually take advantage of my flexible
schedule, doing the shopping on a weekday morning
when the stores aren’ t busy and I don’ t have to wait

60
in line. So I’m in and out with everyone’s gifts in
under two hours.

(I know some people love holiday shopping, and


taking multiple trips to browse is fine if it’s something
you enjoy. But if you’re shopping-challenged like me,
and you’re no more likely to get gifts that are any
better if you invest an extra 10 hours in the task,
then it may be best to simply resign yourself to doing
the best job you can within the time you have
available.)

The second way I use timeboxing is when I have a


task or project that I wish to complete, but I don’ t
really know where to begin, or it seems like it’s going
to be a long time before I can finish a meaningful
chunk. Or maybe it’s something I find really tedious
and would have a tendency to procrastinate on. Then I
use timeboxing to simply commit to working on the
task for a given period of time to make a dent in it. I
normally use a period in the range of 30-120 minutes.
I release any concern about reaching a particular
milestone within that time — I simply commit to
putting in the time, regardless of how far I get. An
example where I use this approach would be when I’m
writing a new article. Finishing a complete article will
usually take me 3-8 hours. Sometimes I can complete
an article in a single stretch, but most of the time I’ll
stretch it over multiple sessions. So I use timeboxing
to just put a dent in the article and get started,
committing myself to writing for 1-2 hours without
worrying about how far I get. Then I just repeat the
process until the work is complete.

A side effect of this last method is that I’ll often end


up working much longer than I originally intended. If I
commit to working on a tedious task for just 30
minutes, it’s easy to get started because I’ve given
myself permission to stop after only 30 minutes. But
once I’ve overcome that inertia and am now focused

61
on the task, 90 minutes may pass before I even feel
the desire to stop.

Timeboxing’s ability to circumvent perfectionism and


avoid procrastination makes it a useful time
management technique. I even used it for this blog
entry, and now that my wife has returned home with
dinner and a movie rental, it’s time to say
goodbye….

62
Speed Up!
-b y S te ve P av li na

Don’ t use the “enjoy the process” mantra to justify


slogging along even more slowly and watching your
goals die. It’s a huge limiting belief to assume that
going faster means you’re doing something wrong and
creating too much stress.

Making goals happen faster is often a LOT more fun.


Fast tempo is HOW you enjoy the process. And some
goals cannot be achieved slowly at all, so in many
cases faster means success while slower means
failure.

If going faster makes the process of achieving your


goals less enjoyable for you, you’ve probably chosen
the wrong goals to begin with. If you don’ t want them
sooner, you probably don’ t want them.

On my first attempt at college, I tried going at the


normal student pacing towards graduation. I found my
classes boring and uninspiring. The goal of graduating
in four years seemed distant and too much out of my
control. The whole experience was pretty depressing,
despite the fact that I was attending the #1 school in
the nation for my major at the time. I did my best to
enjoy the process by having more fun outside of class
— getting drunk twice a week, shoplifting like crazy,
and playing a lot of poker. That helped — I certainly
enjoyed the process more, but it didn’ t help me on my
path towards graduation. After three semesters I was
expelled, and rightly so.

I took a year off, then tried again. This time I


tweaked the goal to make it more fun and inspiring —
to start over as a freshman and earn my 4-year
computer science degree in 1.5 years. All I really
needed to tweak was the speed. That brought many
other inspiring elements to the table — the full
engagement of my mind, motivation, focus, curiosity,
63
different ways of thinking about education, a sense of
control over the process, higher self-esteem, access
to deeper resourcefulness, a powerful vision of myself
as being more productive than ever, and so on. This
was the inspired path. The energy I felt upon
considering a serious speed increase was a clear sign
that I was onto something.

It also worked. Speed made the goal fun and


meaningful. It brought interesting challenges. I
revelled in the time management aspect. Finally I had
a goal that felt worthy of me, not the mind-numbing
snail’s pace of my first attempt at a college education.
After all, if 15 semester units equates to 15 hours per
week of classroom work (the average for a full-time
student), then where is all the extra time going? A
serious full-time student can invest a lot more than 15
hours a week in classes. Homework alone isn’ t enough
to fill in all the other hours of a week.

Instead of making the goal more terrifying and


stressful, the faster pacing made the goal so much
more fun. I loved the experience!

What I love about speed is that it pushes me not just


to achieve the goal but also to become a better
person along the way. In order to achieve a goal
faster, I have to change myself. I have to release
more limiting beliefs. I have to become more
organized. I have to focus better. I have let go of
more fluff. I have to cultivate new relationships with
like-minded achievers. I have to get better at avoiding
distractions. Since I love personal growth, goals that
challenge me in this way are so much more fun than
goals that don’ t. The speed aspect is what helps me
enjoy the process. Without sufficient speed the
enjoyment just isn’ t there.

Imagine playing your favorite game at 1/10th the


speed. Does that help you enjoy the game more or
less? For some, maybe it does help. Chess can be

64
enjoyable at a very slow pacing. I’m not suggesting
that all goals need to be sped up.

Just don’ t rule out speed as being negatively


stressful. Not all stress is bad. A fast tempo can
create a lot of eustress — positive, beneficial stress.
It can also mean the difference between achieving a
goal and failing to achieve it. Going so slowly that you
fail to achieve your desired outcome usually isn’ t
much fun. You can always justify such failure in
retrospect with a “well, at least I learned something”
or “I still enjoyed the process” mindset, and that can
help, but wouldn’ t it have been even better to gain
the lessons AND to achieve the goal as well?

How much faster is better? I’m not talking


incremental speed increases in most cases. I’m
suggesting that you consider a 2x increase in speed at
least. Even think about a 10x increase. Look at one of
your goals and ask yourself, “How could I achieve this
goal 2x, 5x, or even 10x faster?” I love the 10x
question because it really gets me thinking in new
directions.

Going fast is one of the things I love about writing.


It’s why I’ve written so much. If I wrote as slowly as
many other writers do, I’d be underground with a
bullet in my decaying skull by now. Going too slowly
is a creativity killer for me. I have to write fast to
enjoy the process.

These days I can write a 2500-word article in about 2


hours flat. That includes the time from when I get the
initial idea to when it’s fully written, edited, and
published on my website. Many writers I’ve talked to
consider that very fast. I consider it fun.

This morning I got up at 5am. I got an idea for a new


article at 5:20am. And now this 1100+ word article is
published a little after 6am — less than 45 minutes
from idea to publication. That pacing is fun. I enjoyed

65
those 40-odd minutes. I could have taken all morning
to write this piece, but why go so slow? Fast is fun!

At a higher speed, I’ll make more mistakes. I may not


be as elegant or polished, but so what? I can be blunt
instead. I’ll get the ideas shared and moving. Some
people will benefit from them. That’s what matters.
Keep the energy moving and flowing at a pacing that
feels exciting. Go too slow, and the ideas shrivel and
die.

Today I decided to take on the challenge of writing for


about 12 hours straight — fast — just to see how
much content I can create and how quickly I can
create it. I intend to keep writing throughout the day
with only brief breaks for meals and mental rest as
needed. I’ll publish the articles produced over some
weeks, not all at once. A challenge like this is a way
for me to enjoy the process of writing even more.

Note that going faster doesn’ t mean working crazy


long hours necessarily. It means thinking differently
about your work, focusing yourself, and having MORE
FUN.

Would you enjoy the process of achieving your goals


even more if you doubled, tripled, or 10x’d your
pacing? Pick a goal and ask yourself, how can I 10x
the speed? See what fresh ideas bubble up from your
subconscious. See if you feel any added energy or
excitement from the speed. Then go!

66
Self-Discipline
-by Steve Pavlina

This week I’ll be blogging a series on self-discipline.


New posts on this topic will appear every day Mon-Fri.
I’ve also added a new self-discipline category.

In this series I’ll be focusing on what I call the five


pillars of self-discipline.

The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline


The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance,
Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence. If
you take the first letter of each word, you get the
acronym “A WHIP” — a convenient way to remember
them, since many people associate self-discipline with
whipping themselves into shape.

Each day of the series, I’ll explore one of these


pillars, explaining why it’s important and how to
develop it. But first a general overview….

What Is Self-Discipline?
Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take
action regardless of your emotional state.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you could


simply get yourself to follow through on your best
intentions no matter what. Picture yourself saying to
your body, “You’re overweight. Lose 20 pounds.”
Without self-discipline that intention won’ t become
manifest. But with sufficient self-discipline, it’s a done
deal. The pinnacle of self-discipline is when you reach
the point that when you make a conscious decision,
it’s virtually guaranteed you’ll follow through on it.

Self-discipline is one of many personal development


tools available to you. Of course it is not a panacea.
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Nevertheless, the problems which self-discipline can
solve are important, and while there are other ways to
solve these problems, self-discipline absolutely shreds
them. Self-discipline can empower you to overcome
any addiction or lose any amount of weight. It can
wipe out procrastination, disorder, and ignorance.
Within the domain of problems it can solve, self-
discipline is simply unmatched. Moreover, it becomes
a powerful teammate when combined with other tools
like passion, goal-setting, and planning.

Building Self-Discipline
My philosophy of how to build self-discipline is best
explained by an analogy. Self-discipline is like a
muscle. The more you train it, the stronger you
become. The less you train it, the weaker you
become.

Just as everyone has different muscular strength, we


all possess different levels of self-discipline. Everyone
has some — if you can hold your breath a few
seconds, you have some self-discipline. But not
everyone has developed their discipline to the same
degree.

Just as it takes muscle to build muscle, it takes self-


discipline to build self-discipline.

The way to build self-discipline is analogous to using


progressive weight training to build muscle. This
means lifting weights that are close to your limit.
Note that when you weight train, you lift weights that
are within your ability to lift. You push your muscles
until they fail, and then you rest.

Similarly, the basic method to build self-discipline is


to tackle challenges that you can successfully
accomplish but which are near your limit. This doesn’ t
mean trying something and failing at it every day, nor
does it mean staying within your comfort zone. You
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will gain no strength trying to lift a weight that you
cannot budge, nor will you gain strength lifting
weights that are too light for you. You must start with
weights/challenges that are within your current ability
to lift but which are near your limit.

Progressive training means that once you succeed,


you increase the challenge. If you keep working out
with the same weights, you won’ t get any stronger.
Similarly, if you fail to challenge yourself in life, you
won’ t gain any more self-discipline.

Just as most people have very weak muscles


compared to how strong they could become with
training, most people are very weak in their level of
self-discipline.

It’s a mistake to try to push yourself too hard when


trying to build self-discipline. If you try to transform
your entire life overnight by setting dozens of new
goals for yourself and expecting yourself to follow
through consistently starting the very next day, you’re
almost certain to fail. This is like a person going to
the gym for the first time ever and packing 300
pounds on the bench press. You will only look silly.

If you can only lift 10 lbs, you can only lift 10 lbs.
There’s no shame in starting where you are. I recall
when I began working with a personal trainer several
years ago, on my first attempt at doing a barbell
shoulder press, I could only lift a 7-lb bar with no
weight on it. My shoulders were very weak because I’d
never trained them. But within a few months I was up
to 60 lbs.

Similarly, if you’re very undisciplined right now, you


can still use what little discipline you have to build
more. The more disciplined you become, the easier
life gets. Challenges that were once impossible for
you will eventually seem like child’s play. As you get

69
stronger, the same weights will seem lighter and
lighter.

Don’ t compare yourself to other people. It won’ t help.


You’ll only find what you expect to find. If you think
you’re weak, everyone else will seem stronger. If you
think you’re strong, everyone else will seem weaker.
There’s no point in doing this. Simply look at where
you are now, and aim to get better as you go forward.

Let’s consider an example.

Suppose you want to develop the ability to do 8 solid


hours of work each day, since you know it will make a
real difference in your career. I was listening to an
audio program this morning that quoted a study
saying the average office worker spends 37% of their
time in idle socializing, not to mention other vices
that chew up more than 50% of work time with
unproductive non-work. So there’s plenty of room for
improvement.

Perhaps you try to work a solid 8-hour day without


succumbing to distractions, and you can only do it
once. The next day you fail utterly. That’s OK. You did
one rep of 8 hours. Two is too much for you. So cut
back a bit. What duration would allow you to
successfully do 5 reps (i.e. a whole week)? Could you
work with concentration for one hour a day, five days
in a row? If you can’ t do that, cut back to 30 minutes
or whatever you can do. If you succeed (or if you feel
that would be too easy), then increase the challenge
(i.e. the resistance).

Once you’ve mastered a week at one level, take it up


a notch the next week. And continue with this
progressive training until you’ve reached your goal.

While analogies like this are never perfect, I’ve gotten


a lot of mileage out of this one. By raising the bar
just a little each week, you stay within your
capabilities and grow stronger over time. But when
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doing weight training, the actual work you do doesn’ t
mean anything. There’s no intrinsic benefit in lifting a
weight up and down — the benefit comes from the
muscle growth. However, when building self-discipline,
you also get the benefit of the work you’ve done along
the way, so that’s even better. It’s great when your
training produces something of value AND makes you
stronger.

Throughout this week we’ll dive more deeply into the


five pillars of self-discipline. If you have any
questions on the subject of self-discipline (either
specific or general) that you’d like to see addressed,
feel free to post them as comments, and I’ll do my
best to incorporate them along the way.

This post is part one of a six-part series on self-


discipline: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 |part 4 | part
5 | part 6. Read the other parts on the website

71
Hard Work
-by Steve Pavlina
Success literature going back hundreds of years
espouses the benefits of hard work. But why is it that
some people seem to feel that “hard work” is a dirty
word nowadays?

I define “hard work” as work that is challenging. Both


hard work and “working hard” (i.e. putting in the time
required to get the job done) are required for success.

A problem occurs when people think of challenging


work as painful or uncomfortable. Does challenging
work necessarily have to be painful? No, of course
not. In fact, a major key to success is to learn to
enjoy challenging work AND to enjoy working hard at
it.

Why challenging work? Because challenging work,


when intelligently chosen, pays off. It’s the work that
people of lesser character will avoid. And if you infer
that I’m saying people who avoid challenging work
have a character flaw, you’re right… and a serious one
at that. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid
doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles
strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge
them. To do only what’s easy will lead to physical and
mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed
by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why
such flabbiness is OK, instead of stepping up and
taking on some real challenges.

Tackling challenges builds character, just as lifting


weights builds muscle. To avoid challenge is to
abandon one’s character development.

Now it’s natural that we’ll tend to avoid what’s


painful, so if we see challenge as purely painful, we’ll
surely avoid it. But in so doing, we’re avoiding some
very important character development, which by its
72
very nature is often tremendously challenging. So we
must learn to fall in love with challenge instead of
fearing it, just as a bodybuilder can learn to love the
pain of doing “one more rep” that tears down muscle
fibers, allowing them to grow stronger. If you avoid
the pain, you miss out on the growth. This is true
both for building muscles and for building character.

While a common philosophy says to go with the flow,


the downside to this belief system is that you must
yield control of your life to that flow. And that’s fine if
you don’ t mind living passively and letting life happen
to you. If you feel you’re here to ride your life instead
of drive it, then you’ll have to accept where the flow
takes you and learn to like it. But sometimes the flow
doesn’ t go in a healthy direction. You can go with the
flow and end up in a pretty screwed up situation if
you don’ t assume more direct control when needed.

On the other hand, there’s the alternative way of


looking at life with you as the driving force behind it.
You create and control the flow yourself. This is a
more challenging way to live but also a much more
rewarding one. You aren’ t limited to those experiences
that can only be gotten passively or painlessly — now
you can have much more of what you want by being
willing to accept and take on bigger challenges.

If I only went with the perceived easy flow of my life,


I’d never have learned to read, write, or type; those
were all challenges where I felt I was going against
the flow of what was easy and natural. I wouldn’ t
have gotten any college degrees. I wouldn’ t have
started my own business. I certainly wouldn’ t have
developed any software. No way I would have run a
marathon — one doesn’ t exactly flow into such a
thing. And I most certainly wouldn’ t be doing any
public speaking. This web site wouldn’ t exist either; it
was definitely an entity created more by drive than by
flow.

73
I do believe there is an underlying flow to life at
times, but I see myself as a co-creator in that flow. I
can ride the flow when it’s headed where I want to go,
or I can get off and blaze my own trail when
necessary.

When you step up and learn to see yourself as the


driver of your life instead of the passive victim of it,
then it becomes a lot easier to take on big challenges
and to endure the hardships they sometimes require.
You learn to associate more pleasure to the character
development you gain than the minor discomforts you
experience. You become accustomed to spending more
time outside your comfort zone. Hard work is
something you look forward to because you know that
it will lead to tremendous growth. And you eventually
develop the maturity and responsibility to understand
that certain goals will never just flow into your life;
they’ll only happen if you act as the driving force to
bring them to fruition.

When faced with the prospect of saying to yourself, “If


I always avoid hard work, I’ll never in my life get to
experience X, Y, or Z,” it’s a little easier to embrace
the benefits of hard work. What will you miss out on?
You’ll probably never run a marathon, marry the mate
of your dreams, become a multi-millionaire, make a
real difference in the world, etc. You’ll have to settle
for only what going with the flow can provide, which
is mediocrity. You’ll basically just take up space and
die without really having mattered. The world will be
pretty much the same had you never existed (chaos
theory notwithstanding).

If you want to achieve some really big and interesting


goals, you have to learn to fall in love with hard work.
Hard work makes the difference. It’s what separates
the children from the mature adults. You can keep
living as a child and desperately hoping that life will
always be easy, but then you’ll be stuck in a child-like
world, working on other people’s goals instead of your

74
own, waiting for opportunities to come to you instead
of creating your own, and doing work that in the
grand scheme of this world just isn’ t important.

When you learn to embrace hard work instead of


running from it, you gain the ability to execute on
your big goals, no matter what it takes to achieve
them. You blast through obstacles that stop others
who have less resolve. But what is it that gets you to
this point? What gets you to embrace hard work?

Purpose.

When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work


isn’ t an option. It’s a necessity. If your life has no
real purpose, then you can avoid hard work, and it
won’ t matter because you’ve decided that your life
itself doesn’ t matter anyway. So who cares if you work
hard or take the easy road? But if you’ve chosen a
significant purpose for your life, it’s going to require
hard work to get there — any meaningful purpose will
require hard work. You have to admit to yourself then
that the only way this purpose is going to be fulfilled
is if you embrace hard work. And this is what takes
you beyond fear and ego, beyond the sniveling little
child who thinks that hard work is something to run
away from. When you become driven by a purpose
greater than yourself, you embrace hard work out of
necessity. That child gets replaced by a mature adult
who assumes responsibility for getting the job done,
knowing that without total commitment and lots of
hard work, it’s never going to happen.

Desire melts adversity.

Show me a person who avoids hard work, and I’ll


show you someone who hasn’ t found their purpose
yet. Because anyone who knows their purpose will
embrace hard work. They’ll pay the price willingly.

If you don’ t know your purpose yet, then in the world


of mature human beings, you don’ t yet matter. You’re
75
just a piece of flotsam on the flow created by those
who do live on purpose. And deep down you already
know this, don’ t you? If you want to make a
difference in the world, then hard work is the price.
There are no shortcuts.

Purpose and hard work are buddies. Purpose is the


why. Hard work is the how. Purpose is what turns
labor into labor of love. It transmutes the pain of hard
work into the higher level pleasure of dedication,
commitment, resolve, and passion. It turns pain into
strength, eventually to the point where you don’ t
notice the pain as much as you enjoy the strength.

Once again it all comes down to purpose. Create a


purpose for your life, and live it each day. And many
of the other success habits like hard work and working
hard will fall into place automatically. Figure out the
why. Why are you here? Why does your life matter?
That is the ultimate test of your free will.

76
Law of Attraction – Take Control of Your Life
By Jordan lejuwaan

W arning : T his ar ticl e wi ll sound like complete


bullshit to the conservati ve mind. If you can go into
the reading with an open m ind and ar e willing to try
the methods descri bed with the intention of
attracting good things to your life, please proceed.
However, if you are already s wayi ng towards
skepti cism, please save this article for a tim e when
you are dyi ng for a change or confi dent that this
m ethod could wor k for you. This might be the m ost
important and eye- opening article you will read i n
your entire life so plan accordi ngl y. Thank you
Int roduct ion t o The Law Of At tr action: M any of
you have pr obabl y hear d of the Law of
Attr ac tion, The Secret, visualization, or som e of the
other popular m ani festations of this tec hni que, but
m os t likely do not fully know what it is. Basicall y if
you spend som e tim e each day visualizi ng ( yes,
imagining) YOUR idea, exactly what you have
decided what you want. And you do this on a daily
basis. And beli eve 100% that by doi ng such things,
that ideal will m ani fest its el f in your li fe. And if you
expect to see results regardl ess of how i mprobable
such r esults m ay be.. You W ILL see results. You are
77
in complete control of your li fe/destiny/future, you
just haven’t grabbed the reigns yet. If you lik e what
you’re hearing and want to gr ab them, keep on
r eading.
Basics: M anifesting your ideal is not as hard as it
sounds . If you meditate daily, you are already hal f
way ther e in fact. But meditati on i s only one of many
m any ways for you to visualize what you want. I’m
getting to far ahead of myself already, so here are
the basics:
1. Decide what you want. This is by far the hardest
part of the whole proc ess, believe i t or not. W hen
you actually start analyzing everythi ng, you’ll
probably r ealiz e that you didn’t even want what you
thought you wanted that badly. You need to fi gur e
out what you want mor e than anything else, no
m atter how impossible the goal may sound right
now. Milli onaire? Sure. Billionaire? Even better . Or
m aybe you j ust want to get a girl /boyfriend or want
to lose weight. Anything you want. Deci de on three
things to start off with. One small goal , one medi um
goal , and one cr az y goal.
2. Choose a method by which you feel most
confident in your abili ty to vis ualize or imagi ne
your i deal — your life when ever ything that you want
has com e to you. Some people take walk s, some sit
in the dark, and som e m editate in parks. W hatever
the way, i t needs to be rel axing and as quiet as

78
possible. Make sur e you’re doing something wher e
you won’t be dis turbed for at least 30 minutes, if not
an hour. Be com fortabl e, but don’t lay down or you
m ight find more sleep coming into your life instead
of your ideal.
3. Creat e your fantas y by just letting your mind
wander for the firs t few ti mes. For exampl e, let’s say
the goal is to lose weight. Im agi ne l ooking at
yourself in the mirror and looki ng am azing. You
have lost XXX lbs and are extr emely happy with
yourself. Then you walk outside of your house and
som eone walks by and comm ents on how thi n you
look. So, to rei terate, you are i magining the tim e
when your goal has been com pleted, NOT how you
are going to get there. Your responsibility is to have
the will, not the way. The uni verse will figure out the
m ethod for you. Anyways, keep building the fantasy
until you have a series of events that you can
vi sualize happeni ng ever yday. R epititi on is key. Do
the same for your other goals as well. The fantasy
does n’t have to be split up into goal sections either,
in fact, combining goals in one fantasy is
encouraged. For exam pl e, if your three goals are
losing weight, fi nding a j ob and getti ng a new BMW ,
vi sualize your ver y thin self drivi ng to your new
79
job in your new BM W. If you are having trouble
vi sualizing/using your imaginati on, tr y clearing your
head first and not thinking of anything for 1 minute.

4. Repeat . Visualize this fantasy ever yday for at


least 30 minutes to an hour, or more if you feel so
inclined. Follow the sam e storyline agai n and again.
The whol e point of this is engrai ning your i deal i nto
your s ubconscious, which is the way in which you
com municate with the Universal Mi nd. Your
consci ous mind creates the ideal, then imprints it
onto the subconscious , whic h relays the goal to
Uni vers al M ind and puts it to work at attaining the
goal . Als o, put as m uch emotion into your
vi sualization as possibl e. W hen something that
woul d gi ve you trem endous joy oc curs i n your
fantas y, smile and feel that happiness . If it’s your
ideal life, you should be smili ng for a good amount
of the tim e you’re visualizing, right?
5. Expect si gns and results. If you c om e across
som ethi ng that could be an opportunity to ac hi eve
your goal, s eize it. For exam ple, if you ar e a guy
vi sualizing yourself on a date with a beautiful girl
and you run into an ol d friend who got hot over the
years, ASK HER OU T. Or if you see a poster for a
80
speed dati ng event, it is NOT j ust coincidence. If
you are visualizing well and consistentl y, you shoul d
be comi ng across an unusual, if not insane amount
of serendipi tous events, happenstance type things.
Realize that they occured because of your
vi sualization and that you are getting closer to your
ideal. But you will never get there unless you act
upon ser endi pity, upon opportunity, so be asserti ve !
E ven take risks, just know that it will turn out okay.
BE OPTIM ISTIC ! You’re ideal i s cl oser than ever
and closing in.

Other Tips:
- Positive things come to positive people, so
practice a good demeanor about life. Enjoy every
day and stop complaining. Don’t hate people,
that’s negative energy. The more positive you
are, the stronger your attraction for positive
things is going to be. Negativity cancels out
visualizing.
- Visualize every day, being consistent is one of
the most important parts of the process.
- If you are having trouble believing or
manifesting, visualize something smaller and
easier to attain, but out of the ordinary. If it’s
small enough and you are at least visualizing
correctly and with belief, you will most definitely
see results. Those results will increase your
belief and passion in visualization, thus giving
you the ability to manifest larger goals. W ork

81
your way up if necessary, but remember that
anything is possible.
- If you are either having problems either
deciding what you truly want or having trouble
visualizing, meditation is highly recommended.
You don’t need to take a class or to sit in a lotus
position, just sit somewhere quiet, make yourself
comfortable and close your eyes. Take 3 deep
breaths into your nose and out of your mouth and
then, as mentioned before, try to empty your mind
completely for a minute before attempting to
visualize. If your mind strays from your fantasy
during visualization, open your eyes, shake your
head, and then close your eyes and continue.
Books (These are the books that I read in order
when I became aware of the Law of Attraction
and began using it in my freshman year of
college. They go really well together and will turn
a s k e p t i c i n t o a h u g e l y s u c c e s s f u l vi s u a l i z e r )

1. For Those Still Unconvinced:

The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell


Maltz – This book is the best first read for those
getting into the Law of Attraction. Maltz slowly
and thoroughly explains why the law exists and
why visualization works. This will convince
anyone that the Law of Attraction is REAL and
able to be used by anyone at anytime. For each
chapter, he backs up his assertion with evidence
steming from simple logic, science, Christianity
and other religions. So no matter what your quip
is, Maltz will persuade you. Buy it in our online
store!

82
2. For Th ose Wanting To Better Understand
Visualizat ion:
The M as ter Key System by Charles H aanel – This
book explains visualization fr om step 1 to step 24.
Yes, i t goes that , but with c oncise chapters that
each end i n an exercise that should be done to
increase visualizati on ability. The Master Key
System is the definitive guide to The Law of
Attr ac tion and m akes it unbelievabl y understandable
and easy wi th its step- by-process.
3. For Th ose Wit h
Extreme/R isky/ U npo pular/C raz y Dr eams
The Innovative Mind by Gene Landrum – If your
dream isn’ t goi ng over well with your fam il y and
fr iends or if it is so out there that even you are
worri ed it might be impossible or too risky, this is
the book for you. It will :
- dispell your fears and then some
- get you ridiculously excited about the goal you
used to fear
- mi ght get you a little cocky si nc e i t focuses on how
few people can have s uc h goals.

83
List of websites

Some best websites for personal


development and to increase self-
awareness
www.stevepavlina.com
www.highexistence.com
www.zenhabits.com
www.marcandangel.com

84
After note-

85
The Guy in the Glass
When you get what you want in
your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King
for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look
at yourself,
And see what that guy has to
say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,


Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,


For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,


And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow (c) 1934


(1895-1954)

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-------Thank you-------

87

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