I am the best version of myself. Be the best version of yourself and earn more

Lead yourself, don't follow someone else

Managing your destiny from the back seat will not be easy. It happens that you are assigned a specific role and there is no way around it. But in many cases, you still have some.

My career in Australia began with the fact that I was called for just three weeks to work on the program. But I soon saw the real reason why I was hired: the project was running out of time due to poor management.

What they really needed was a new project manager. And I took over his job without waiting to be asked. A week later, I officially received this position.

Sometimes the chance to break into the lead is not given to us by someone from above, but goes to the one who took the initiative.

Don't be shy about your weird habits

At school, we are taught that being distracted and crawling is bad. Many children are given special medication to keep them calm and less twirl at school. However, outside educational institutions strange compulsive movements may actually serve an important purpose.

Stop being ashamed of your habits.

Perhaps the fact that you fiddle with a pen or twitch your leg (or annoy everyone around with some other incessant body movements) somehow helps you focus.

So buy yourself some little toy like an anti-stress cube, or start drawing pictures during conference calls, or find some other way to support your habit instead of crushing it with willpower or medication. This makes itself felt your creative energy, and the ability to direct it in the right direction promises you good dividends.

go away

A few years ago, the BBC produced a documentary Bilton, Richard. Apple ‘Failing to Protect Chinese Factory Workers’. BBC News. BBC, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. about inhuman working conditions in numerous factories in China where iPhones and iPads are assembled for Apple. The program told about the excessively long working day of workers, their uncomfortable living and demanding bosses.

But most of all I was struck by the moment when one worker spoke about the all-consuming sense of hopelessness that generates work on the assembly line in the same mode brought to automatism for 14 hours, six days a week. The lack of free will destroyed in him the desire to live and even led him to think about suicide.

Most of us, fortunately, have never been in such circumstances. But sometimes we also have the feeling that our professional and personal life is an endless run in circles. If this feeling lingers, remember that you have an opportunity that most desperate Chinese workers don't have. You can also do something else.

How to acquire new knowledge

Ask more questions

One of the biggest joys of fatherhood for me is hearing from my children a lot of questions on everything from why Portuguese is spoken in Brazil to why there are no seat belts on motorcycles. Unfortunately, I get far fewer questions from my students at the university.

As we age, we show curiosity less and less, and for many reasons.

Sometimes we are afraid that we will look stupid. Sometimes we mistakenly believe that at the right time the information will appear by itself (or at least be found on Google). And sometimes we ourselves do not realize that we do not know something. But it shouldn't be. The first step in acquiring knowledge is to consciously ask questions about topics you do not know. And the inextricably linked second step is listening to the answers.

Buy unfamiliar magazines

A few years ago, while traveling in South Africa, I picked up a magazine called Farmer's Weekly, which was aimed at farmers. One of its articles dealt with what the author calls the "Amish paradox," namely their practice of crop rotation and avoiding chemical fertilizers designed to make vegetables and fruits grow larger in less time on commercial farms.

The Amish, on the other hand, tend to grow smaller produce over longer periods of time and deliberately rotate crops so as not to deplete the soil. As a result, their lands remain fertile longer.

And although I myself do not have to agriculture nothing, I took away from this article one more general idea: sometimes you have to give up quick gains in order to achieve longer ones ... and the source of this reasoning was a magazine that most readers would consider useless for anyone who does not work on the ground.

Sit on the couch more

Self-help books will never tell you to spend more time on the couch. But nowadays access to huge archive knowledge can really be obtained from the comfort of the couch: you have at your disposal excellent documentaries, podcasts, TED presentations and all sorts of videos on any topic ( !) on YouTube.

So sit on the couch for your pleasure and feel free to stretch these moments ... But only as long as they benefit your brain.

And if it all ends with the fact that you are drunkenly watching old seasons of TV shows, you need to tie up with sitting on the couch. Forget this advice, get up and do something else. Now.

How to become more honest

Uncover the unexpected truth

There is a truth we expect to hear. It is impossible to lie about the education you received or where the product you are selling was made. But we generally don't expect people to start telling us the truth on their own initiative. Especially if they offer us something for money.

For example, we don't expect a mechanic to tell us how much he's actually pocketing out of the money he's taken from us. What if he said? Such frankness would set him apart from the rest and serve as a perfect example of how useful it is to tell the truth before you are forced to do so.

Do what you promised

When talking to other people, we keep saying something to them every now and then. We say that we will definitely introduce them to someone. We assure you that we will certainly return to the issue with which they asked us to help. We guarantee that we will meet certain deadlines. Honesty requires that we keep our promises. And this applies even to the smallest of them.

When I propose to introduce someone to someone, I always do so. When I promise to remember for someone the name of a great book that popped up in a conversation, I make sure to send that person a message soon with its title and a link to an online store where you can buy it.

The bottom line is that the habit of bringing the conversation to the point makes you answer for your words in any other cases. And everyone can hone this skill to full automatism.

Sign with your name

When giving my students the task of writing an essay, I, unlike many other teachers, never assign a minimum length. I only ask them to prepare a well-thought-out and well-formulated text on the specified topic, and they can determine the length of it themselves. If they manage to speak convincingly and interestingly about the topic of the week in one sentence, I will only be happy.

However, I have another requirement: I insist that each student sign their essay and post it on our course blog. This implies complete transparency so that all other students can read it, and I will publicly rate it from 1 to 5 in the comments to the post.

I do this in order to turn one of the main rules of the Internet in my favor: everything that you post on the Web affects your reputation. By signing the essay with their name, students take full responsibility for the quality of the published work. And that tends to make them put more effort into creating it.

I still hope that one of them will still be able to present a perfectly balanced judgment in a single phrase. But so far no one has succeeded.

How to get your own point of view

Learn to separate opinions from facts

It has always been difficult for all of us to separate what seems from what can be objectively proven. The media we use may be biased. The public's reliance on them can lead to wrong conclusions and enable anyone to prove any claim they want simply by twisting the "facts" so that they speak in their favour. And if we add to this the epidemic on the Web, we get "the perfect storm, behind which it is difficult to see the truth."

But this information environment, where news is circulated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has its advantages. You can always get to proven facts if you set out to form your own opinion based on a critical comparison of different sources.

Don't be a fool

If liberal arts colleges guarantee their students anything, it's that they will teach them how to think. However, in order to learn to think, it is not necessary to receive higher education(although the self-discipline it takes to earn a degree can be a valuable skill in itself). This requires having enough confidence to form a point of view and asking as many questions as possible to make it justified.

To be a fool means to stubbornly insist on one's belief, despite the lack of facts and evidence and the inability to argue one's position.

If I were to slander the taste of cauliflower and claim to hate it, but never taste it... I'd be that idiot. Ignore objective information and insist on something simply because you feel like it, while having neither evidence nor personal experience, is stupid. You can and should be smarter.

Take an unpopular position

One of characteristic features sycophant - blindly agreeing with everything the boss says. However, psychologists who study human behavior have found that it is natural for all of us to agree with the opinion of a large group of people. Psychologists call this the “spiral of silence,” in which group members, out of fear of being isolated, begin to lean toward the opinion of the active majority.

The best way to combat this effect is to deliberately take an unpopular position from time to time in order to create conditions for yourself in which you will have to defend it desperately.

This little trick, which can terribly piss off your surroundings, does wonders for developing a strong point of view, because it forces you to consider other people's opinions and look at the world through the eyes of a person whose beliefs are different from yours.

More paradoxical and discouraging success secrets can be found in Rohit Bhargava's book Always Eat with Your Left Hand. Everything in this book is the exact opposite of what your parents, teachers, colleagues, and bosses have been telling you for years.

For a whole year, at the beginning of each month, we published - to acquire and develop skills that will be useful in life. If you've consistently put off our program until later, or just haven't found the time, now is the time to catch up.

A chance to become the best version of yourself in one month.

Let's start the first week. You must take the right course, get yourself in shape and learn how to handle money. Don't worry, it's all real. At least you will be able to take the first steps in the right direction. We will work on ourselves on weekdays, and on weekends we will rest and tune in to future achievements. Shall we start?

Monday. Analyze yourself

It is impossible to achieve impressive results without careful preparation. Set a goal for yourself to be more productive. And the first step that you need to take towards your goal is to ask yourself questions. Imagine that you are looking at yourself from the outside and answer: how satisfied are you with your position? Are you comfortable at work? Are you happy with your financial situation? How are things with personal life? Do you play sports? Are you happy?

The answers to these questions will help you take the first step towards the life you've always dreamed of. Take 40-60 minutes and analyze yourself.

Tuesday. Think of your future

Do you have a purpose in life? Do you know where you are going and what you want to get in a week, a month, a year, five years of your life? It is possible that you find it difficult to answer these questions - there is nothing to worry about. However, it is today that you should think about your future.

Just not as usual - “I want a three-story house, be the director of a beauty salon and live in Hawaii,” but we will focus on our feelings. Isn't that what we're aiming for? To feel happy, energetic, strong, peaceful - to each his own. This is the Danielle Laporte technique (described in more detail) that turns goal setting on its head. Try setting goals in a new way.

Ask yourself:

• What are my true desired feelings?
• What do I want to do, experience, or have in order to experience my true desired feelings?
• What three or four intentions and goals will I focus on this year?
• What will I do this week to experience my true desired feelings and achieve my goals for this month?

Did you formulate answers? Now you have a plan for your life. At least for the coming months. It's time to start executing it, but before that, let's do a few more important things.

Wednesday. Start exercising

If you have health problems, then you will never be able to achieve your goals. So it's time to take care of yourself. And the easiest way to get in shape is to start playing sports. And you don't have to go to the gym. You can do this at home too. Take 15 minutes and do the following set of exercises:

How are you feeling? Are you capable of more? What day is your next workout? Put your workouts on your calendar or you'll keep postponing them.

Thursday. Leave the consumer society

Each of us wants to dress well, eat delicious meals and live in comfortable conditions, but not everyone knows how to handle their finances. And, as a rule, such problems appear because of your internal consumer. It is he who is the main enemy of the wallet.

Studies show that 53% of grocery shopping and 47% of household goods shopping are ad hoc. That is, you could well do without these purchases, but you have already paid for them.

Stop wasting your money recklessly!

And the surest way to save money is to start thinking before you buy and stop impressing others (yes, you have to admit to yourself that sometimes you do). Believe me, others don’t care how modern your smartphone is and which brand you prefer. Proper handling of money is the best indicator of your solvency.

Friday. Learn to rest properly

The life of each of us is full of stress and worries. However, we can set aside 15-20 minutes a day to deal with them through meditation. This magnificent technique will add awareness and concentration to your life, as well as relieve imaginary experiences. Just try to meditate - meditation has been proven.

New Year- a great reason to upgrade: set goals, demolish obstacles, refresh the “firmware” and introduce several good habits into your life. It's time to become the best version of yourself. Here are some tips for those who are ready.

1. Form the right habits

It's a surefire way to improve health, improve quality of life, increase productivity at work, and enjoy the freedom of spending the energy to form a behavior pattern just once. Identify areas in which you would like to become a superman, and begin to introduce into your daily routine those habits that will help you achieve your goal.

Performing daily habits usually requires a minimum of effort. For example, it won't take you long to clean up your house if you do it every day. And the desire to skip or postpone this small task will be much less than the temptation to avoid spring cleaning once a week or a month.

Agile-daily for personal development "Cosmos" will help you to form good habits at work.

2. Start feeling positive about yourself

It's time to change the way you look at your life. You need to remind yourself more often that you happy man, learn to easily endure any troubles and always remain in an even, benevolent mood. Any person is able to successfully cope with such a task.

work out positive attitude you can for a period of one to three months. Positive changes will appear in a month, but since they will come gradually, and will not fall on you in one day, you may find them imperceptibly. You can compare this process with laser vision correction. After such an operation, a person within two months forgets that he once saw poorly, and the ability to clearly distinguish objects now does not seem supernatural to him. Once you decide for yourself that such a habit is necessary, you must begin to look for positive aspects in any negative situation that you find yourself in. The positive aspect should not overlap the negative, it just has to be found. For example, if your car was taken by a tow truck, think about how many bonus miles will be credited to your card when you pay for the tow truck services. If your girlfriend dumped you, think about how your chances of getting in a relationship with someone better have increased. Be positive, but within reason. Use this method to deal with unpleasant situations. Look for positive aspects in problems, realize their advantages and draw strength from this to move on.

You will find more information about the different habits that can change your life and attitude towards it in the book "Superman by Habit".

3. Keep a food diary

At least for a while, try keeping a diary where you count calories and write down comments. Make sure that food is not used as entertainment, a way to deal with stress, and so on. Ask yourself: why do you eat this or that product, dish. Keep track of the balance of "bad" and "good" food, the amount of sugar consumed. This helps to analyze the diet and see an objective picture. will help you adjust your diet and not deny yourself anything.

4. Learn to set goals correctly

In order to achieve goals and enjoy approaching them, you need to set them correctly. Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, adequate, and they should also have a certain time frame. Without these five characteristics, you are unlikely to succeed.

The goal must be measurable. In kilograms, rubles, days, or in points on a scale from 0 to 10. No “I want more money” or “I want more communication with my family.” Achievable goal means a realistic approach to the task: do not set a goal to buy a mansion by the ocean. Start with small steps, like your own apartment overlooking the river.

The relevance of the goal means that achieving it is very important to you. You must clearly understand why you need what you are going to achieve. Limit your goal to a time frame. Having an endpoint means that you have a defined framework within which you will act. This gives strength to strive to solve the problem.

5. Challenge yourself

Perhaps a series of tests that can make you go beyond the ordinary is what you really need now. What for? To feel the taste of life, the meaning of simple things and find out what you are really capable of, and most importantly - to get the impetus for change for the better. Try to go through a hell of a week, it will help you set a new bar for yourself and set new standards for your self, which has always strived to stay in the comfort zone.

Your hell week should act as a catalyst and create momentum for change in the future. It is designed to be such a test, after passing through which you can reveal your abilities and look at yourself through the prism of the experience gained.

And 12 more short tips that will make you better:

• Get enough sleep. And get regular sleep.
• Give up sweets (better by 100%, not 98%).
• During work breaks, switch or change the type of activity drastically. Rest is a change from one activity to another!
• Turn off all notifications on your phone and computer to avoid distractions.
• Unload (and periodically repeat the procedure) all tasks from memory, store them in any convenient system, view it and the calendar every evening.
• Refuse the news, limit the time in social networks.
• Try to meditate every day.
• Try to sleep for 20-30 minutes during the day.
• Practice a week without coffee every month or two to avoid a downward spiral (addiction and consumption of ever larger doses).
• Try different types of aerobic activity and settle on the one that you like. Plan for a smooth implementation of training in life. Find yourself a training company.
• Get regular check-ups.
• Regularly recover both after work loads (breaks - weekends - vacations) and after physical ones (if you play sports at an amateur level, and not just fitness or gymnastics to maintain health, you need to pay special attention to this). Remember that development does not occur during training (which is only an impulse), but during recovery!

Being the best version of yourself is your duty and your duty. Not only for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of others and society as a whole. Whether you're unemployed, the manager of a large company, a barista at a coffee shop, a department store clerk, or a secretary, you'll be rewarded for being as focused as possible.

People. work. Partner. Family. Friends. Hobby. Stop worrying about what should make you happier but doesn't. Focus on a positive attitude towards what already brings joy! Happiness is not brought on a silver platter, you can’t take someone else’s, you just need to design your own.

2. Be an example

Mahatma Gandhi said, "Be the change you would like to see in the world." Trite, but true. You can yell at the waiter who mixed up the orders, break loose at the first comer who accidentally stepped on his foot ... Or you can behave exactly the opposite - and impress them much more! Negative emotions take away minutes of life, positive ones add.

3. Take time for yourself

Even if you have a family, work and a bunch of everything, it is very important to find a moment in the daily bustle to be alone with yourself. Understand some thoughts, feel your reactions, just sit and think about nothing.

4. Go in for sports

No, it is not necessary to live in the gym, it is enough to do exercises from time to time, run, swim - in general, do what brings you pleasure.

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5. Read books

Despite the fact that the adult brain is not as mobile and able to learn new things as in childhood, it is important to learn something every day. Memory is trained, curious facts get stuck in the brain, and a well-written novel brings a lot of joy.

6. Have sex

For a happy life, in most cases, healthy intimate relationships are important. It is not necessary to immediately mentally marry the first person you meet, but it is irrational to shy away from men, “because they have one thing on their minds”.

7. Accept change

From a new hobby, with which you have not yet figured out the attitude, to something serious like moving to another city or country. If change is inevitable, what's the point of worrying about it? If you treat them calmly and even joyfully, life will quickly return to normal.

8. Sleep

It sounds funny, but your mood and condition during the day depend on a good sleep. So if you can't get enough sleep on your workdays, don't be ashamed of napping on the weekends or wanting to miss a meeting with friends in order to snuggle up to your pillow.

9. Don't compare yourself to others

Sometimes you want to look at more successful peers and think why you are not among them. But such thoughts do not bring you closer to them, but vice versa! Focus on yourself and what is important for you, and the result will not keep you waiting.

10. Be positive

Behind these in simple words hiding a positive attitude towards life: work, people, events. Meet the new day with a smile, do not expect failure and ridicule, tune in to the best - and everything will be fine.