Small action (or inaction) is always followed by a chain of other events which would never happen, if you acted differently. This is the principle of butterfly effect.

Quick introduction

My day was terrible. You certainly know that feeling when everything just goes wrong. My math test went wrong, I missed the buss and I had to wait another half an hour for the next one. It was raining.When the buss finally arrived, I got on. The whole way home I was feeling exhausted.I was getting off, when I heard a voice behind my back: ,,Goodbye! And have a beautiful day!"I turned and realised that it was the bus driver talking to me. It surprised me, because bus drivers in our city never interact with passengers, unless it's absolutely neccessary. And this one wished a nice day to me.

The bus driver

,,Thank you! Goodbye!"I responded.By the time I got home, the exhaustion was gone. I was delighted by the words of the bus driver, it just made my day.If he didn't say anything to me, I wouldn't have continued writing my first novel.The bus driver helped me a lot. And he said only two sentences!This was the time I realised that even the smallest gestures of kindness can literally change someones day. 🦋

He started a "domino"

You can't change the world.You can change a person's world. The more people you help, the more worlds you've changed.

The next day after school I walked into a school changing room and there was this boy who doesn't speak too much (I bet you have this type of person in your class or workplace too). Our lockers are near each other so I meet him quite often. He never smiles.I decided to do something similar to what the bus driver did to me.When I was leaving I said: ,,Bye, have a nice day." and smiled.

In a changing room

He looked confused at first (and I completely understand why - I would be confused too...)But then he turned to me and said: ,,Thanks. You too." with a subtle smile.A week after this he asked me about what is going to be on the next test (he never did that before). Something changed.Now, we still have small conversations from time to time. We aren't best friends, but we are always happy to see each other.

I learned that not everybody reacts to smile or compliment in a visible way. Sometimes it takes some time before you see how it helped. Sometimes they don't respond at all.But that doesn't mean that they aren't glad to hear that. We can't read people's minds. We don't know, what's going on there.Maybe they just don't know, what to say. Or they're shy. Or they're shocked because they didn't expect that.

Ungrateful? I don't think so...

Everything should be done only to certain extend. I think this is a question of common sense. If you fake being positive all the time, it can get people around you really annoyed rather than happy, because they may see through your mask and consider you as shallow. So it's better to don't force your kindness.

Am I annoying?

Be kind to those around you, you never know, what are they going through

The funny thing about this chapter is, that in my language, the word changing room has nothing to do with the word change. So when I was writing that part, I was laughing so hard when I realised the analogy.

Fun fact

PS: Big thanks to the bus driver - without him, this post would never existed

If this post was helpful, please let me know in the comments👇 & don't forget to share it😉I'd be happy if the content I make will be useful for at least few people🦋Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! Yours,Lesni

This post is about how the butterfly effect changed the way I view the world around me and how it can do the same for your life. And for all the people who will ever meet you...

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

mentalhealth

Mental Health

communication

Communication

#2 How The Butterfly Effect Can Change Everything

It's quite obvious that if you keep buying new things and never bother to organize them, your home will soon end up like a total mess.The same goes for your brain.Do you take time for cleaning?

Trash information

Mobiles are perfectly designed to keep our minds engaged. When we are left alone with our own thoughts, it's not always comfortable. We don't want to hear them, we don't want to feel anxiety or regrets from past, so we grab our phones. We cover our problems by the digital clutter. It's quick and it's effective... For short time. This way, we don't have to face our demons.But we don't change anything by running away. They are still here.

The qick fix

It's actually not only about "meditating". It's also about the most fundemental moments of your day - the moments at the bus stop, the moments on the way to you school or job... Let those moments breathe. Let them be quiet, not filled by any podcast, music or scrolling through social media. Your thoughts need to be heard, otherwise they will pile up and get you overwhelmed (you can write them on a piece of paper or keep a journal - I'll be talking about that later in the series)TIP: Leave your phone in your bag, not in your pocket.

Cleaning up the brain clutter

Mobile phones fill up some kind of a strange void inside of us. Every person has different kind of void - different thing is missing.Or accurately - MORE things are missing. It's a combination. And some of them are more complex.I will try to illustrate at least one of the things that most people find missing in their lifes when they sroll social media. But remember - there are some more "voids" inside of you, which you need to figure out by yourself. And they are connected.

Overcoming the scary void inside

If you miss success in your life, you may find yourself looking at content of succesfull people or people giving advises on how to be successful. To some degree it can be inspiring, but it can very quickly lead you inside a rabbit hole of self-improvement content. The problem is that you consume the content, but very often you find yourself not able to fulfill all the standarts and feeling even worse afterwards.

Missing success

Maybe you have found some interesting tips on how to change your life for the better, it helped, but you can't seem to find anything new anymore. You hear the same advises over and over again, searching for new content and hoping this time it will be the gamechanger.But it won't.Please stay with me and keep reading, I need to tell you something.

Watching self-improvement content gives us the illusion that we achieved something already. But in reality - nothing really changed.Digital world is different from the real one and as long as we continue to spend any of our free time there, we vanish the time for the real self-improvement.Maybe you think you need to watch all that videos and read all that books...But I think it's much simpler than this.

Illusion of success

I've came across many different techniques and all of them were promissing success. It always looked like THIS IS FINALLY THE ONE MAGIC FORMULLA I have been looking for✨️.It was always working for some time.But it always ended up by failure. Again. I slipped back. But why?

What I've learned from all the self-improvement content so far

It's about something hidden inside of you. If you aren't able to achieve your goals, no matter how hard you try, the problem is much much more complex than having the wrong technique.Implementing advice without understanding the root issue may not bring you lasting change.Instead of looking for quick fixes, focus on understanding yourself first. You may be thinking: Okay, but HOW?What does it mean exactly to understand myself?

It's not about the technique

This is something you will be learning as long as you live.It's a great mystery of our lifes - Who are we?And why are we here?

Understanding yourself

Imagine dying tommorow. Yeah, it's a bit scary, but necessary question.Is there some mission you would regret not finishing? Take some time to think about this now.

Why are you here?

Maybe all the routines you were trying to acquire weren't all that important to you and there is something else you would rather do instead.You have your own unique place in this world and your own mission to complete. That mission is REALLY important. Trust me.PS: Do you know how butterfly effect works? And why is it so important?Check out the next chapter of this series 😉

Connected

As you can probably see, English isn't my native language. I'm still learning and I know I still make a lot of mistakes.So, if you found some of them, feel free to correct me in the comments down below. I will appreciate it✌️(it's possible I won't correct it in the post, because it would mean deleting the whole thing, but your comment will prevent me from making the same mistake again) - this applies to the whole series.Also let me know if the content I'm creating is helpful for you - if it spoke to you at least on some level🌱Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!Yours,Lesni

Notification

The problem with algorithms and information overload...

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

#1 The trap of constant distraction

Confirmation Bias refers to our tendency to interpret new information in a way that supports our existing theories and beliefs, rather than objectively considering all the facts.
<ul>
<li>We often filter out or ignore any information that contradicts our current views, leading to a strong and often disproportionate support for our preconceived ideas.</li>
<li>Indications to the contrary are quickly dismissed as exceptions or special cases.</li>
<li>Our bias is often influenced by our emotions and past experiences.</li>
</ul>

Confirmation Bias

CONFIRMATION BIAS

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored! ⚡To overcome confirmation bias, write down your beliefs and consciously seek disconfirming evidence.<ul><li>Set aside preconceived notions</li><li>Be open-minded to opposing viewpoints</li><li>Challenge your own beliefs</li></ul>Next time, before jumping to a conclusion, make sure you have thoroughly examined all evidence.

How To Deal With Confirmation Bias?

Our minds tend to focus on examples that are easily remembered. Example: When we see news of car accidents, we become anxious when driving on the highway ourselves. "May be I'll end up in an accident too". However, the likehood of dying from lifestyle diseases like Diabetes or Hypertension is much higher. Since that is not often highlighted in the news, they are often overlooked. <ul><li>Our minds prioritize information that is most easily accessible or most recently encountered.</li></ul>

Availability Bias

We are confident that we notice everything in front of us. But in reality, we often only see what we are focusing on.Simply put, whenever we are paying attention to something, whether it is painting, reading, driving, or observing a person of interest, we tend to not notice certain events around us, no matter how notable they may be.

Illusion of Attention: The Gorilla in the Room

Whatever we fail to notice remains unheeded. We may overlook important details, leading to potential biases in our decision-making.The Danger of Illusion: Focusing on only certain aspects can lead to us missing out on key information that may have a negative impact in the future.Be Mindful:<ul><li>Pay attention to your biases and try not to prioritize certain information over others.</li><li>Take a step back and reassess your decisions to ensure all important factors are considered.</li></ul>

Avoiding Attention Bias

Know how our subconscious mind controls our action with illusions

A world-class thinker counts the 100 ways in which humans behave irrationally, showing us what we can do to recognize and minimize these “thinking errors” to make better decisions and have a better life Despite the best of intentions, humans are notoriously bad—that is, irrational—when it comes to making decisions and assessing risks and tradeoffs. Psychologists and neuroscientists refer to these distinctly human foibles, biases, and thinking traps as “cognitive errors.” Cognitive errors are systematic deviances from rationality, from optimized, logical, rational thinking and behavior. We make these errors all the time, in all sorts of situations, for problems big and small: whether to choose the apple or the cupcake; whether to keep retirement funds in the stock market when the Dow tanks, or whether to take the advice of a friend over a stranger. The “behavioral turn” in neuroscience and economics in the past twenty years has increased our understanding of how we think and how we make decisions. It shows how systematic errors mar our thinking and under which conditions our thought processes work best and worst. Evolutionary psychology delivers convincing theories about why our thinking is, in fact, marred. The neurosciences can pinpoint with increasing precision what exactly happens when we think clearly and when we don’t.Drawing on this wide body of research, The Art of Thinking Clearly is an entertaining presentation of these known systematic thinking errors--offering guidance and insight into everything why you shouldn’t accept a free drink to why you SHOULD walk out of a movie you don’t like it to why it’s so hard to predict the future to why shouldn’t watch the news. The book is organized into 100 short chapters, each covering a single cognitive error, bias, or heuristic. Examples of these concepts include: Reciprocity, Confirmation Bias, The It-Gets-Better-Before-It-Gets-Worse Trap, and the Man-With-A-Hammer Tendency. In engaging prose and with real-world examples and anecdotes, The Art of Thinking Clearly helps solve the puzzle of human reasoning.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

problemsolving

Problem Solving

books

Books

Rolf Dobelli is a Swiss author and businessman. He began his writing career as a novelist in 2002, but he is best known internationally for his bestselling non-fiction The Art of Thinking Clearly (2011, English 2013), for which The Times has called him "the self-help guru the Germans love".

Rolf Dobelli

The Art of Thinking Clearly

1. Achievement of goals2. Personal growth and development3. Increased confidence and self-esteem4. Recognition and rewards5. Impact and contribution

Pros

Striving for excellence can lead to the accomplishment of meaningful goals and aspirations, helping you fulfill your potential and realize your dreams.

1. Achievement of goals

Pursuing excellence challenges you to continually improve your skills, knowledge, and abilities, fostering personal growth and development.

2. Personal growth and development

Achieving excellence in your endeavors can boost your confidence and self-esteem, affirming your capabilities and worth.

3. Increased confidence and self-esteem

Excellence often attracts recognition and rewards from others, such as praise, accolades, promotions, and opportunities for advancement.

4. Recognition and rewards

Striving for excellence enables you to make a positive impact and contribution to your community, organization, or field of interest, leaving a lasting legacy.

5. Impact and contribution

1. Stress and pressure2. Fear of failure3. Perfectionism4. Overlooked aspects of life5. Comparison and self-criticism

Cons

The pursuit of excellence can be demanding and stressful, leading to feelings of pressure, anxiety, and burnout, especially if you set unrealistic expectations or face constant scrutiny.

1. Stress and pressure

The fear of not meeting high standards or falling short of expectations can create anxiety and reluctance to take risks, inhibiting creativity and innovation.

2. Fear of failure

Striving for excellence may sometimes manifest as perfectionism, an unhealthy obsession with flawlessness that can lead to dissatisfaction, procrastination, and paralysis.

3. Perfectionism

Focusing too much on excellence in one area of life, such as career or academics, may result in neglecting other important aspects, such as relationships, health, and leisure.

4. Overlooked aspects of life

Constantly measuring yourself against others or unrealistic standards of perfection can breed feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and negative self-talk.

5. Comparison and self-criticism

To achieve success, it's important to maintain balance by taking care of yourself, being kind to yourself, and having a realistic view of success and failure.Remember:<ul><li>Success is not everything, and failure is not the end</li><li>Self-care is crucial for mental and physical well-being</li><li>Don't compare yourself to others, focus on your own progress</li></ul>

Balance

While striving for excellence can bring many benefits, it's essential to balance ambition with self-care, self-compassion, and a realistic perspective on success and failure. Here are some pros and cons of striving for excellence

productivity

Productivity

habits

Habits

timemanagement

Time Management

Strive for excellence 

Since the Queen is a very powerful piece, it is also very vulnerable to the opponent’s constant attacks.Therefore, it’s convenient to place it behind a pawn, preferably on the second rank so that the first one is free for Rook development.

Place the Queen behind the line of friendly pawns during opening

Generally it’s a bad deal to trade a well-positioned piece for a bad-positioned one.When you trade one of your developed pieces for one of your opponent’s not developed ones, you waste time. The same is true if you trade a piece that has moved a lot for one that your opponent moved only once.

Avoid trading a developed piece for a not developed one

The King’s safety is one of the most important things to care about during opening and middlegame. The King in the center will always be very vulnerable to the opponent’s attacks, especially in open positions. Castling means placing your King comfortably behind a pawn blockade and allowing development of one of your Rooks. Then, the Rook may rapidly occupy an open or half-open file.

Castle as quickly as possible

health

Health

strategy

Strategy

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

3 General Chess Principles (Part 3)

Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth.

Knowing something to keep and something to release, you can't carry all things. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go.

It's totally up to you.

My experiences has been that my mistakes led to best things in my life, and being embarassed when you messed up it's part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it, that's a gift.

Losing things doesn't just mean losing. A lot of times when we lose things, we gain things too.

every choice you make leads to the next choice, wich leads to the next choice, which leads to the next and i know it's hard to know which path to take.

There will be time in life where you need to standup for yourself.

Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform

sometimes the right thing to do is to sit and listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us.

how will you know what the right choice is in thse crucial moments? You won't

The scary news is you're on your own now, but the cool news is, you're on your own now.

We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars, and our dreams, and you will screw it up sometimes, so will I. Anyway, hard things will happen to us. We will recover we will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it

This is my old note that I wrote while watching Taylor Swift's commencement on YouTube. These are the sentences from Taylor Swift that I found very useful, and I ended up writing them down at that time. Enjoy reading.

education

Learning & Education

videos

Videos

Taylor Swift's NYU Commencement Speech

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Be a great badass human. Do what's right even when it hurt.

How you do anything, is how you do everything.

Better weird than Boring.

Your job isn't done until THE JOB is done.

Less words, More Meaning.

Even our notes are worth stealing. Make every creation a mini-masterpiece.

Show me your results, not your intentions.

3 month plan —> 1 month plan1 month plan —> 1 week plan1 week plan —> 1 day planCut the time between having an idea and acting on it.

Improve your time-to-action:

Source - <a href="https://sparklp.co/f2e19d45/">Codie Sanchez Newslwtter.</a>

at last!

meditation

Meditation

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Let’s reprogram your brain in 5 minutes.

1. Authenticity2. Growth mindset3. Resilience4. Creativity and innovation5. Connection and empathy

1. Self-doubt2. Judgment from others3. Missed opportunities4. Struggle for acceptance5. Lack of motivation

1. Authenticity: Embracing imperfections allows you to be genuine and authentic, showing your true self to others without pretense or facade.2. Growth mindset: Viewing imperfections as opportunities for growth and learning fosters a growth mindset, where setbacks and mistakes are seen as stepping stones to progress and improvement.3. Resilience: Embracing imperfections builds resilience, as you learn to bounce back from setbacks, failures, and disappointments with grace and resilience.

4. Creativity and innovation: Imperfections can spark creativity and innovation, encouraging you to think outside the box, experiment, and explore new possibilities.5. Connection and empathy: Sharing your vulnerabilities and imperfections with others fosters connection, empathy, and understanding, as you recognize the common humanity in all of us.

1. Self-doubt: Embracing imperfections may sometimes fuel self-doubt and insecurity, leading to feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness.2. Judgment from others: Some people may perceive imperfections as weaknesses or flaws, leading to judgment, criticism, or rejection from others.3. Missed opportunities: Perceiving imperfections as limitations may lead to missed opportunities or reluctance to take risks, hindering personal and professional growth.

4. Struggle for acceptance: Embracing imperfections can be challenging in a society that values perfection and success, requiring courage and self-acceptance to defy societal norms and expectations.5. Lack of motivation: Accepting imperfections may sometimes lead to complacency or lack of motivation to strive for improvement or excellence in certain areas of life.

Embracing imperfections can lead to greater authenticity, resilience, and creativity, but it's essential to balance self-acceptance with a desire for growth and improvement.

 Imperfections

Large tasks can seem daunting and lead to procrastination. Break them down into smaller more manageable steps to make them less intimidating.

1. Break tasks into smaller steps

Clearly define what you want to accomplish and set deadlines for each step. This adds a sense of urgency and accountability, making it less likely to procrastinate.

2. Set specific goals and Deadlines

Techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, time blocking, or creating a schedule can help manage time effectively and reduce procrastination by providing structure and focus

3. Use time management techniques

Procrastination often stems from fear of failure, perfectionism, or lack of motivation. Identify the underlying reasons for procrastination and address them directly through self-reflection or seeking support.

4. Identify and address underlying

Set up a reward system for completing tasks or making progress. This can help create positive reinforcement and motivate you to overcome procrastination.

5. Reward yourself

"Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill." – Christopher Parker

Procrastination is the craft of postponing today's responsibilities until tomorrow, often accompanied by remorse. Here are five steps to conquer it.

5 strategies to overcome chronic procrastination

ONE STEP AT A TIME

Ditch the “one day” mindset and change it to a “day one” mindset.

A lot of times I find myself saying “one day”, but what I don’t realize is that I am subconsciously putting off what I am wanting to achieve. Instead of saying “one day I’ll get that dream job, dream vacation, dream life etc” I starting saying “day one of getting that dream job, dream vacation, dream life etc”. This small change in mindset has changed my perspective on so much. Life is not going to wait for you to achieve all the desires you have. The world does not care about what dreams you are reaching for. Start having that “day one” mentality and watch how much things change for you.

Day One Mindset

This idea cultivates change in mindset, not only to motivate you, but to help you achieve those dreams and goals quicker.

“Day One” Mindset

Find  Self Improvement Tips - Curated from popular Books like Atomic Habits, 48 Rules of Power, Deep Work, Rich Dad Poor Dad and way more!