As said by one of my all time favorite authors Tony Robbins, questions you ask yourself, consciously or subconsciously, determine how you think and live. I sincerely believe this especially after trying for myself one of his exercises to see what the essence of thoughts are. Setting aside philosophy, metaphysics and any rationalizations, after asking yourself “What are thoughts?” you would get caught up in a series of questions and answers until it should hit you that thoughts are simply questions.
And the nature of your brain, like a perfect computer, is to always come up with its own answers almost automatically given enough focus on the questions - no matter if they are good or bad questions in the first place. So thoughts are questions. In so many words other authors of the subject and even Zen masters would probably agree that thoughts (which we have established are questions) give rise to emotions and emotions give rise to decisions and decision to actions which sum up your life.
Questions being so important, here’s a short list of possibly life-changing questions I gathered from a couple of books from Tony Robbins, Shafin De Zane and many others. Most of them you may surely have heard of before but try to suspend judging them as glib or trite self-development mumbo jumbo. Do try to seriously answer them at the right time, when you are relaxed, focused and have blocked a time to really contemplate on them. Oh yeah, right down your answers somewhere safe and private… [Read more →]
I’ll assume you are between 27 and 33 years old, my specific target reader for this post. Then, I’ll correctly assume your parents are baby-boomers and were in professions such as architects, teachers, doctors, lawyers, corporate managers and such. In your earliest years, they told you that you can be anything you want and the most important thing is to be happy. In your grade school and high school years, they told you to study hard, get good grades and it will all pay off.
In college, they encouraged you to get into computer, engineering or management courses. They might have nervously smiled if you took history, writing or art related courses. Now that you are working, they ask if you have your insurances covered and they tell you they have saved up for your MBA. Sometimes they ask you to check their email. Particularly your father, once in awhile, gives you “jewels of wisdom” when you ask for career advice but it seems he is on autopilot and resumes to read the newspaper.
You have to understand that your parents’ world and the times they grew up in are very, very, very different from ours. They grew up with the themes of security, simplicity, hope and progress. On the other hand, we started our careers in the world of Internet, Google, Friendster, outsourcing and call centers, DVDs, MP3s, and cellphones all of which were non-existent in their time.
I was blown away when Anthony Robbins in one of his lectures, succinctly characterizes our time - the 21st century - as the age of “fast and discontinuous change.” Of course there has always been change, but not as fast now and it was not discontinuous for change then did not eliminate and create jobs, processes, industries, and products overnight. Discontinuous means you cannot logically predict what will come next.
What’s more is that this fast and discontinuous change is not temporary or an adjustment that will soon plateau; it will be the norm. [Read more →]
Are you a fanatic of lifefhacking and its subsets - success tips, entrepreneurship, self-development, health, finance and whatnot? This whitepaper compiled a very complete and exhaustive lists of blogs and links on the subject of lifehacking.
Just don’t forget, spending too much time reading them would actually be counter-productive… Focus on not more than three that really relate well with your lifestyle and character. Whatever the tips you find useful, don’t try them all in one go. Also remember to always differentiate between tricks and principles.
I just have to share this. The beautiful picture above is Victoria Falls in Zambia.
My desktop wallpaper is plain black with a few white text of power notes such as “Focus”, “What is your desired outcome?”, and “Are you inventing things to keep you busy instead of completing your goals for today?”
My screen saver is another matter. I point it to a special folder of inspiring images mainly consisting of places I plan to travel. After a few Google searches, I found a Japanese travel site to fill this folder. The great thing is the travel shots are mostly from the places I find fascinating: Africa, Syria and Tibet to name a few. Hope you check it out; the photos are fantastic and very large so they’re great for wallpapers and screen savers.
Networking is one of the most powerful and fastest ways to learn more about the things that interest you. Going further, why not network with celebrities? It can be fun if we just can overcome fear of being rejected. Hey, they’re people, too, right? And with Internet it’s not impossible to reach out to them.
Following Tim Ferriss’ post some time ago about contacting high profile personalities, I came up with my own list of international and local people I will try to contact this 2008:
No, this post isn’t about jeans. The “gap year” refers to an event where you drop everything you are doing right now in your everyday life and take just take a hike for a whole year! This usually involves traveling around the world, but it can also involve taking odd jobs in the places you visit to fuel your extended hiatus.
Quit your night-shift call center job. Well, maybe not today or tomorrow but when you have learned enough and saved enough to get by for a new career. This is one opinionated post that will surely touch a nerve with the huge population of young working people in the industry but I’m writing from experience.
And as an added disclaimer, I do not hate the call center industry at all. I recognize its value from providing opportunities to thousands, improving the economy, and fully opening the Philippines to the global market. I would even say that any entrepreneur would benefit from cold and warm calling skills that you would definitely learn in a call center. I would just advice workers here not to stay too long as a night-shift agent or manager.
College All Over Again A strange thing I found out when I was working as a deputy director for start-up call center is that a majority of the employees from my former company kept working despite low pay, disputes with management and other negative factors simply because of their co-worker friends. In relation, another thing I saw with my own eyes is that most of them stayed because of a competent, and well-liked supervisor or team leader. This social aspect of the call center, while I generalize, cannot be discounted. The call center atmosphere is almost always fun, laid-back and basically feels like college all over again with many drinking sprees and out of town trips. [Read more →]
Last October, under the advice of my entrepreneur friend I took a three-week vacation to relieve some stress and to test 4HWW’s mini-retirement. Without much planning, I packed lightly, took a quick snapshot of my finances, and left word to a select few (business and personal) in case of emergency only. It was one of the biggest, most impulsive and best decisions I have made in years considering there were so many things up in the air at the time.
You’ve heard the statistics… around 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 2 years. Ouch. We hear about miracle stories from entrepreneurs, published in GoNegosyo or Entrepreneur mag. What you don’t hear about are the equally intelligent and talented people who somehow had to close down their business.
So, for the undeterred entrepreneurs out there, how do you increase the chances of making it and being published in the next issue of Entrep magazine?
Stack the deck in your favor. Tilt the odds towards you staying in business. It may involve doing some unglamorous or counter-intuitive things, but you’ll be thankful when you fail to close that deal and still have enough money left in the bank for next salary.
Here are some ways to help yourself stay in business:
I’m a nut for non-fiction, particularly books on business, entrepreneurship, self-development and productivity. For those who have read more than a few titles on such subjects, eventually you would notice opposing ideas (which all seem to be right) among authors of any topics.
Take for example two recent best-sellers that are driving the life-hacking craze - “Getting Things Done” by David Allen and “4-Hour Workweek” of Tim Ferriss. [Read more →]
