<ol><li>Talent requires deep practice;</li><li>Deep practice requires vast amounts of energy;</li><li>Primal cues trigger huge outpourings of energy. Safety and future belonging are two powerful primal cues.</li></ol>

The Talent Code

<ul><li>Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways—operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes—makes you smarter.</li><li>Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them—as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go—end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it.</li></ul>

Deep Practice 

<ol><li>Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons—a circuit of nerve fiber.</li><li>Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.</li><li>The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become.</li></ol>

How A Skill Is Formed? 

Because the best way to build a good circuit is to fire it, attend to mistakes, then fire it again, over and over. Struggle is not an option: it's a biological requirement : in order to get your skill circuit to fire optimally, you must by definition fire the circuit suboptimally; you must make mistakes and pay.

Why is targeted, mistake-focused practice so effective?

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

<ul><li>Because wrapping myelin around a big circuit requires immense energy and time. If you don't love it, you'll never work hard enough to be great.</li><li>The more we develop a skill circuit, the less we're aware that we're using it. We're built to make skills automatic, to stash them in our unconscious mind .</li></ul>

Why are passion and persistence key ingredients of talent?

Excellence is a habit.

Myelin wraps it doesn't unwrap. Like a highway-—paving machine, myelination happens in one direction. Once a skill circuit is insulated, you can't uninsulate it (except through age or disease). That's why habits are hard to break. The only way to change them is to build new habits by repeating new behaviors—by myelinating new circuits.

Why Are Habits Hard To Break? 

Every expert in every field is the result of around ten thousand hours of committed practice. Ericsson called this process "deliberate practice" and defined it as working on technique, seeking constant critical feedback, and focusing ruthlessly on shoring up weaknesses.

10,000 Hours Of Deep Practice 

“High motivation is not the kind of language that ignites people. What works is precisely the opposite: not reaching up but reaching down, speaking to the ground-level effort, affirming the struggle.”

<ul><li>ABSORB THE WHOLE THING. This means spending time staring at or listening to the desired skill.</li><li>It sounds rather Zen, but it basically amounts to absorbing a picture of the skill until you can imagine yourself doing it.</li></ul>

RULE ONE: CHUNK IT UP

<ul><li>There is, biologically speaking, no substitute for attentive repetition.</li><li>Myelin is living tissue. Like everything else in the body, it's in a constant cycle of breakdown and repair. That's why daily practice matters, particularly as we get older.</li></ul>

RULE TWO: REPEAT IT

"If I skip practice for one day, I notice. If I skip practice for two days, my wife notices. If I skip for three days, the world notices."

Deep practice is not simply about struggling; it's about seeking out a particular struggle, which involves a cycle of distinct actions.1. Pick a target.2. Reach for it.3. Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach.4. Return to step one.

RULE THREE : LEARN TO FEEL IT

<ul><li>Going slow allows you to attend more closely to errors, creating a higher degree of precision with each firing—and when it comes to growing myelin, precision is everything.</li><li>"I am slow to learn and slow to forget what I have learned," Lincoln wrote. "My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch anything on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out."</li></ul>

Why does slowing down work so well? 

<ul><li>Ignition: The moments that lead us to say that is who you want to be. We usually think of passion as an inner quality. But it is something that came first from the outside world.</li><li>Future belonging is a primal cue. </li><li>It's not as simple as saying I want X. It's rather saying: I want X later, so I better do Y like crazy right now.</li></ul>

Future Belonging 

“See someone you want to become? Better get busy. Want to catch up with a desirable group? Better get busy.”

Brains are always looking for a cue as to where to spend energy now. Now? Now? We're swimming in an ocean of cues, constantly responding to them, but like fish in water, we just don't see it."

Ocean Of Cues

"If we're in a nice, easy, pleasant environment, we naturally shut off effort, Why work? But if people get the signal that it's rough, they get motivated now. A nice, well-kept tennis academy gives them the luxury future right now—of course they'd be demotivated. They can't help it."

Greatness isn't born, it's grown. Here's how.....

What is the secret of talent? How do we unlock it? This groundbreaking work provides readers with tools they can use to maximize potential in themselves and others. Whether you’re coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by tapping into a newly discovered brain mechanism. Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the world’s talent hotbeds—from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York—Coyle identifies the three key elements that will allow you to develop your gifts and optimize your performance in sports, art, music, math, or just about anything. • Deep Practice Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice. • Ignition We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack? A higher level of commitment—call it passion—born out of our deepest unconscious desires and triggered by certain primal cues. Understanding how these signals work can help you ignite passion and catalyze skill development. • Master Coaching What are the secrets of the world’s most effective teachers, trainers, and coaches? Discover the four virtues that enable these “talent whisperers” to fuel passion, inspire deep practice, and bring out the best in their students. These three elements work together within your brain to form myelin, a microscopic neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts. Scientists have discovered that myelin might just be the holy grail: the foundation of all forms of greatness, from Michelangelo’s to Michael Jordan’s. The good news about myelin is that it isn’t fixed at birth; to the contrary, it grows, and like anything that grows, it can be cultivated and nourished. Combining revelatory analysis with illuminating examples of regular people who have achieved greatness, this book will not only change the way you think about talent, but equip you to reach your own highest potential.

productivity

Productivity

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

problemsolving

Problem Solving

books

Books

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What is the secret of talent? How do we unlock it? This groundbreaking work provides readers with tools they can use to maximize potential in themselves and others. Whether you’re coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by tapping into a newly discovered brain mechanism.Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the world’s talent hotbeds—from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York—Coyle identifies the three key elements that will allow you to develop your gifts and optimize your performance in sports, art, music, math, or just about anything.• Deep Practice Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice.• Ignition We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack? A higher level of commitment—call it passion—born out of our deepest unconscious desires and triggered by certain primal cues. Understanding how these signals work can help you ignite passion and catalyze skill development.• Master Coaching What are the secrets of the world’s most effective teachers, trainers, and coaches? Discover the four virtues that enable these “talent whisperers” to fuel passion, inspire deep practice, and bring out the best in their students.These three elements work together within your brain to form myelin, a microscopic neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts. Scientists have discovered that myelin might just be the holy grail: the foundation of all forms of greatness, from Michelangelo’s to Michael Jordan’s. The good news about myelin is that it isn’t fixed at birth; to the contrary, it grows, and like anything that grows, it can be cultivated and nourished.Combining revelatory analysis with illuminating examples of regular people who have achieved greatness, this book will not only change the way you think about talent, but equip you to reach your own highest potential.

Daniel Coyle is the author of the upcoming book The Culture Code (January 2018). He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, The Little Book of Talent, The Secret Race (with Tyler Hamilton), and other books. Winner (with Hamilton) of the 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Prize, he is a contributing editor for Outside magazine, and also works a special advisor to the Cleveland Indians. Coyle lives in Cleveland, Ohio during the school year and in Homer, Alaska, during the summer with his wife Jen, and their four children.

Daniel Coyle

Procrastination is that urge to distract yourself from important tasks. Productive procrastination is a nice way to tell yourself that you're not really procrastinating because you're still being productive in some way.

Can Productive Procrastination Be A Useful Tool?

<ul><li>Smaller Tasks: Break your project into bite-sized pieces using <a href="https://monday.com/blog/project-management/task-analysis/#:~:text=Task%20analysis%20is%20important%20because,streamlines%20processes%2C%20and%20increases%20productivity">task analysis</a>. Re-ordering your tasks or jumping between can help to move the process along.</li><li>Establishing Structure: "Unnecessary" but important tasks help you stay motivated without forcing your attention on something you just can't focus on.</li><li>Reducing Stress: Procrastination leads to stress, which takes a toll on mental health and, in turn, productivity. If you feel like you're still being productive because you're at least checking off something, you're helping to reduce the risk of heightened stress.</li></ul>

Using Procrastination to Your Advantage

Monitor Your TimeThe key to using productive procrastination to your advantage is to keep it under control. Keep the miscellaneous tasks under half an hour.

Controlling Productive Procrastination

Keep Tasks Simple<ul><li>Stick to a routine</li><li>Keep your focus on a relevant area</li><li>Find accountability partners</li><li>Avoid falling into old habits</li></ul>

Don't get started on a whole new project!

Take BreaksTake the time to recharge and completely turn your mind away from your obligations once or twice a day. This helps reduce stress and improve your outlook on the day.

Sometimes the best use of your time is to do nothing

Productive procrastination is a quality tool when used in moderation. But don't give “meaningless” tasks the role of being productive just because you want to feel better about how you’re using your time. It’s a good practice to adjust your productivity shortcomings and acknowledge the procrastination traps you commonly fall into. Stay structured, find a system that works for you, and be honest about your mental capacity each day.

A Word of Caution

Here are a few key take-aways from my latest article!

What is productive procrastination? Use these "secondary tasks" to your advantage and avoid procrastination traps.

remotework

Remote Work

habits

Habits

timemanagement

Time Management

People who are time poor are less happy, less productive and more stressed out. They exercise less, eat fattier food and have a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Time poverty forces us to compromise. Time poverty doesn’t arise from a mismatch between the hours we have and the hours we need; it results from how we think about and value those hours.

There is an 8 out of 10 chance that you are one of the poorest people in the world: time-poor.

Time confetti: the little bits of seconds and minutes lost to unproductive multitasking. Each bit alone is not very bad, but all add up to something more pernicious.Time confetti fragments an hour of leisure to smaller chunks (5-6 minutes long). It takes time to cognitively recover from shifting our minds from the present to a stress-inducing activity. Time confetti makes us feel even more time impoverished than we actually are.

Time trap #1: Technology interruptions break our hours into confetti 

Money protects against sadness but doesn’t buy joy. Once we make enough money to pay our bills, save for the future and have some fun, making more does little for our happiness.A culture obsessed with making more money believes, wrongly, that the way to become more time affluent is to become financially wealthier. Focusing on chasing wealth leads only to an increased focus on chasing wealth.

Time trap #2: We focus too much on work and money

Because of a cultural obsession with money, many people protect their money in ways that are counterproductive to time affluence. We reflexively go for the lowest cost when we shouldn’t.Even if we’re making a bad trade-off between time and money — such as driving two miles out of our way to save 10 cents per gallon on gas — it doesn’t feel like a bad choice. That’s because we don’t really know the worth of the time it took.

Time trap #3: We undervalue our time

Our identities are tied to work.Financial insecurity drives workism. Most of us cope by working more and trying to make more money. And we feel guilty about spending money on things that make us happy, such as dining out or vacations.The social appearance of being busy makes us feel good about ourselves. In contrast, focusing our attention on something other than work can threaten our livelihood and status.

Time trap #4: We regard busyness as a status symbol

Being constantly connected to our devices prevents the brain from recovering, keeps our stress levels elevated and takes us out of the present.Idleness has been shown to be a valuable form of leisure and can increase time affluence. The physical and mental benefits of disengaging the brain are far more valuable than the stress created by keeping the mind engaged at all times.

Time trap #5: We have an aversion to idleness

The best predictor of how busy we are going to be next week is how busy we are right now.

Time trap #6: We think we have more time tomorrow than we actually do 

Which of these 6 time traps is eating up all your time?

1. RitualsAt its core, Confucianism describes a way for humans to live together in the world, writes Stephen Angle in Growing Moral. One way to help us live in harmony with each other is through rituals. The Confucians’ idea of rituals could also be described as semi-scripted practices or even etiquette.

Rituals

In the Socrates Express, Eric Weiner (a previous podcast guest) explains, “Thousands of miles separated Confucius and Socrates, yet the two philosophers had a lot in common. Both men occupied precarious positions, admired by their disciples, and mistrusted by the elites. Both had an informal, conversational teaching style. Both questioned assumptions. Both were sticklers for definitions. ‘If words are not right, judgments are not clear,’ Confucius said.”

According to Confucianism, we need to recognize and embrace the central role of rituals in our lives. Rituals help us notice things we might not pay attention to otherwise. Do you hold the door for the person coming in behind you? What color clothing do you wear to a funeral? We all regularly follow rituals, even if we are unaware of them. There are three dimensions to how we should think about ritual: what one does, how one does it, and its effects. Rituals help us to think about others and to integrate practices like respect and kindness into society.

2. ReadingWisdom traditions place great emphasis on the practice of reading. But very few of these traditions provide as much guidance as Confucianism. The Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi from the 12th century wrote,“The books you read should be embodied in your person. I don’t know whether what you routinely study is on your mind at all times or not. But if it isn’t, you’re just hurrying through the texts, reading for their literal meaning and taking little pleasure in them. This, I fear, will be of no benefit to you in the end.”

Reading 

Angle writes that Zhu Xi advised students to keep these three rules: (1) read little but become intimately familiar; (2) don’t scrutinize the text, rather personally experience it over and over; (3) concentrate fully, without thought of gain.The Confucian way of reading says books themselves are secondary. It is the open-minded and questioning attitude with which one reads that matters. In Confucianism, questioning and even challenging one’s teacher is seen as an acceptable way to seek greater understanding.

3. ReflectionConfucians put a significant emphasis on the practice of reflection. In the Analects, reflection generally means to look within oneself and backward in time. Although the practice of reflection is not so much about the actions but rather the motivations underlying those actions, writes Angle. The Chinese philosopher Mengzi put it this way,“It not the function of the ears and eyes to reflect, and they are misled by things. Things interact with things and simply lead them along. But the function of the heartmind is to reflect. If it reflects, then it will attain virtue.”

Reflection 

Is reflection the answer to the challenge of being a good person? According to Angle, no, for two distinct reasons. First, reflection on its own is misleading. Confucius said, “Study without reflection is a waste. Reflection without study is a danger.” Reflection is not an end in itself but part of a development process.Angle concludes, “Because reflection always comes after we’ve acted (or failed to act), it cannot be the whole answer to living a good Confucian life, but it is a crucial part of self-cultivation.”

Today's generation is involved too much in the social media and they are harming their own selves. These tactics will help them in regaining their natural being.

Medium is an open platform where readers find dynamic thinking, and where expert and undiscovered voices can share their writing on any topic.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

writing

Reading & Writing

education

Learning & Education

Medium – Three Practices from Confucius — That Can Change Your Life

<ul><li>Start with a visionary founder who is obsessed with product design, who is an engineer by trade, and who is a natural salesman. Most companies don’t even get past this first step. Hopin did because we have Johnny.</li><li>Hire just engineers as contractors and one other generalist entrepreneur who can write, sell, and help customers succeed.</li><li>Build a great product with a viral growth loop built into it. </li></ul>(continue below)

Hypergrowth Playbook: Steps to Hopin’s 6 Months of Rapid Growth

<ul><li>Work closely with key ICPs to shape your product roadmap. Remember that the market you start out serving may not be the market you end up dominating in. With Hopin, we began with solopreneurs, boutique agencies, and influencers but accelerated upmarket quickly.</li><li>Hire more engineers.</li><li>Sign your first annual contracts to anchor desirable customers.</li><li>Begin talking with investors about a pre-seed or seed round.</li><li>Hire a customer success person, a support person, and a salesperson with a proclivity for ops.</li></ul>(cont. below)

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 1) 

<ul><li>Launch in early access. Build a waitlist, letting in customers slowly. Use a lean marketing tech stack like Hubspot CRM, Zapier, Stripe, and Typeform. This waitlist is your community. StreamYard has an amazing blueprint for building a community of raving fans.</li><li>Get customer permissions to use recognizable logos and publish select case studies with good logos and/or numbers. These case studies reflect back to the market the type of customers you are built for (i.e., enterprise vs. SMBs)</li><li>Hire a PR firm to build buzz.</li></ul>(cont. below)

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 2)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Hire more engineers. Begin to focus on organization, product management, and start to work with GTM on a customer-friendly product release process. Hire a product marketer. ARWAG. Always Release With A GIF.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Scale the sales team to do demos and close more deals. Bring in a business operations (biz ops) leader.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Scale the success and support teams. The better the product, the smaller these should be. The more complicated the product, the larger these teams need to be. Also, in hyperscaling, support content becomes outdated fast so build in a process for keeping it fresh and up to date.</li></ul>(cont below)

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 3)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">You should be working with 5+ agencies by now to outsource most of your marketing efforts (brand, creative, paid ads, SEO, content, events, and PR). Write clear briefs. Bring vendors into Slack. Be quick to move on from agencies who are not good fits.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Experiment with pricing. Where do you want to be in the market compared to competitors? Ideally, you can offer a free version that has your branding watermarked somewhere (feed the viral growth loop). Also, always be working on the next plan up.</li></ul>(cont. below)

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 4)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Leverage community feedback (a Facebook group is fine) and user surveys (HotJar is great) for identifying the must-have features that will move customers up to the next plan.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Product/market fit is when growth numbers are up and to the right WoW for a dependable amount of time. The waitlist should be swelling. Customers should be regularly writing happy reviews, if not, incentivize them, getting you to the top of the review sites where your customers are researching products.</li></ul>(cont. below)

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 5)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Couple the launch with your Series A announcement, directing traffic to your first customer event where you announce a flagship feature.</li></ul>

Hypergrowth Playbook (cont. 6)

“If you haven’t done something at least three times successfully, don’t assume you know how to do it successfully.”

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">There’s a lot of insecurity when you’re doing something you’ve never done before.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">But I wasn’t alone. No one had experienced this type of rapid growth before. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">When you realize everyone else is neck-deep in imposter syndrome just like you, it’s mildly reassuring. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">What matters is that you keep learning, keep driving, keep experimenting, and keep solving problems wherever you are. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Constantly ask yourself the question, “What am I not seeing?” to try to stretch your thinking.</li></ul>

Everyone has imposter syndrome.

Self-protection is the enemy of growth. Rigidity is the number one way to fail as an early startup employee. The sooner you can learn to let go, the sooner you can help grow the company and grow as a professional.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Don’t be afraid to sell a feature that isn’t quite in production yet. Sell the roadmap. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Not only does it light a fire under the whole company to delight a client by delivering by a deadline, it also is highly probable that by the time it’s shipped, you’ll have just gotten through legal and procurement.</li></ul>

Roadmap marketing.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">This is simply a startup-y way of restating Steven Covey’s principle “Begin with the end in mind.” </li><li class="ql-align-justify">The key to early-stage rapid growth is to not just think and talk about ideas, but to attach everything you spend your time on to its external impact on the customer and on revenue. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don’t waste time with grand plans and six-month strategy decks at this stage — they’ll need to be updated or thrown out completely as changes happen rapidly and it’s impossible to predict anything beyond a quarter. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">You need to be thinking two steps ahead while always delivering on the now.</li></ul>

Think in deliverables.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Adaptability and flexibility are key to hyperscaling. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">“Be like water” was a common management mantra at Hopin used to remind the company to stay agile, embrace change, roll with the bumps, don’t take yourself too seriously, and be ready for any curveball the market might throw at us.</li></ul>

“Be like water.”

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">In the early days, speed wins. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Hopin became known for shipping features fast. Almost every week we would release a capability just in time for a big event to showcase it. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">This speed and responsiveness helped us bring in whales and beat out the competition. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Quality was also massively important and we evolved to emphasize both speed and quality for our long-term strategy and customer success.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Speed and quality tend to be at odds with each other. Every startup needs to balance both but also needs to decide which one they’re optimizing for.</li></ul>

Move at Hopin Speed

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Hopin has acquired five companies: StreamYard, Streamable, Jamm, Attendify, and Boomset. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It's important for the acquiring company to not come in with guns a-blazing. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">You’re not coming in as a superior but as a supporter. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don’t disrupt the good that’s currently going on. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Instead, become a student. Learn what’s working and what’s not and even when you see inefficiencies, resist the temptation to give orders. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It takes more than a few meetings to understand what’s really going on. Do an extended listening tour. There’s no need to prove anything. Simply take the time to build trust. </li></ul>

Acquisitions are the Ultimate Test of Adaptability, Trust

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">As managers, feedback won’t happen unless you ask for it. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It also won’t happen unless you free up the calendar space for it. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Being back to back all day every day sends the message that you’re too busy to talk through something. </li></ul>

Don’t just Ask for Feedback, Make Space for it.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Armando showed me an interesting insight about managing and metrics. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Several times, I’ve been in a meeting where someone reports on their metrics and Armando will kindly interrupt and ask something to the effect of, “But what is the number you care most about and why.” </li><li class="ql-align-justify">He asks them what is the true north they’re optimizing for. He wants to know why it is important to them. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It’s such a clarifying and focusing question. By asking it, it cuts out the surface level cruft numbers and vanity metrics and goes right to the person’s core operating strategy and how they measure it.</li></ul>

The question that cuts right to the true north metrics

A good manager is generous. <ul><li>They listen, genuinely curious about how their direct reports are doing inside and outside of work. </li><li>They reflect, coach, unblock and share helpful context.</li><li>They ask permission to give feedback. </li><li>They deliver feedback with clarity and objectivity.</li></ul>Bad managers are defensive. <ul><li>Instead of listening, they have a list of tactics for you to do. </li><li>They never ask for feedback. Or permission. </li><li>They’re too vague and dodgy when they give feedback, if they give it at all. </li><li>They don’t make time on their calendars for you. </li><li>They make problems bigger. They make problems personal.</li></ul>

Good Managers vs. Bad Managers in 1:1s

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Being strategic is a direct indication of how big you’re thinking. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Fast-moving companies need articulate big thinkers. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Thinking big means seeing the big picture, setting the right goals, and envisioning not only the desired state of the future but also the KPIs, systems and processes and team it takes to achieve it. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Thinking small looks like just a list of KPIs. It looks like achievable and predictable goals. It looks like a document or deck that is unclear, unstructured, and hard to follow.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Your strategy is a reflection of your experience. </li></ul>

Be Strategic 

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">They don't just articulated the problems, goals, plans, people, and metrics of the next quarter, they also have the story, the narrative, that they’re creating. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">They can confidently describe what the future looks like. And it often looks like a version of something they’ve experienced in the past or from history or from another player in the market that they’ve studied. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">They have a model they’re building off of.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Once you have the story, the last part of being an effective strategic thinker is the ability to communicate it and gain internal traction and 360 buy-in.</li></ul>

The Sign of a Good Strategic Thinker 

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Prerecorded content didn’t resonate with the audience as well as live content. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">When viewers realized the prerecorded content wasn’t live, they began criticizing the content in the chat. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">But during the live content, such as the panel, the audience was more involved in the discussion, asking questions and responding to points in the chat.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The observation is that polished, scripted, and produced video isn’t always better than off-the-cuff, unedited live video. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Often, the benefit of live streaming is a more genuine and authentic feel.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Connect with the audience and share authentic stories with them.</li></ul>

Authenticity isn’t Polished

"Content quality trumps production quality."

Always have a project that puts you out there. <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">A project that puts you out there could be anything — an app, a website, a blog, a product, a consulting service, a book, a side project, a hobby, a community, an event. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">As long as you’re consistently working on it and therefore being seen and meeting new people, it’s just a matter of time before you get lucky. </li></ul>

How to Get Lucky 

Learning from what worked from others experience bears a lot of wisdom. Nonetheless, it is through our own actions and experience that'll make true difference in our own lives. Hope this inspires and serves as useful guidance to all of us. 

I just celebrated my two-year anniversary at Hopin, having joined the company when it was just a few months old and in beta — pre-revenue, pre-funding, no full-time employees. Today, Hopin is over…

strategy

Strategy

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

What You Learn at a Startup that Grows from $0 to $7.75 Billion in 2 Years

Live in Day-Tight Compartments "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at distance but to do what lies clearly at hand"“Life is a ceaseless change, the only certainty is TODAY”

1. Analyse the situation & think what Worst can happen.2. Assume that the worst has happened. 3. Now devote your time and energy to trying to improve the worst.

3-Step formula to solve worry situation

Happy the man, and Happy he alone,He who can call to-day his own,He who, is secure within can say,Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Healthy Religion (Have it or don’t)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Good Sleep</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Good Music</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Good Laughter</li></ol>Have these, Health and happiness will be yours.

4 Relaxing and Recreating Forces

Businessman who don't know how to fight worry, die young.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Get the facts</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Analyse the facts</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Arrive on a decision</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Act on that decision</li></ul>

How to solve the situation

It is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking. That's why there is always peace in libraries and laboratories.

For every ailment under the sun there is a remedy or there is none if there be one, try to find it if there be none, never mind it.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">To get what you want </li></ul>and after that<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">To enjoy it. </li></ul>Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

2 things to aim in life

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Clear your brain and desk of all things except those relating to immediate problem at hand.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Do things in order of their importance. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">When face a problem, solve it then & there.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Learn to Organise, Deputise & Supervise.  </li></ul>

Good Working Habits

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Don't increase your headaches with your income. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don't imitate others, Find yourself,Be yourself. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Do a good deed everyday to put smile on random face. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Expect ingratitude,its natural. Just give anything for the inner joy of giving. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Count 90% blessings not 10% troubles. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">When criticised, remember - no one kicks a dead dog. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Generally our fatigue is not caused by work, but by worry, frustration & resentment. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Choose work that you enjoy doing. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Be on budget, Spend wisely. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">KEEP ACTIVE KEEP BUSY.</li></ul>

Some little but important insights.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Most of the diseases in the world are caused by worrying and thinking about them all the time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Confusion is the chief cause of worry.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It's now called ‘Occupational therapy’- when work is prescribed as though it were a medicine. e.g. Outdoor activity like fishing, hunting, playing ball, taking pictures, making gardens, dancing, singing etc. So, the remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">99% of the things we worry about, never happens.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Let the past bury, it's dead. Don't saw sawdust.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Sticks and stones may break my bones yes what words can never hurt me.</li></ul>

Some More from the book

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Appreciate what you already have like your body, breath, everything around you.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Let's remember that gratitude is a cultivated trait, so if we want our children to be grateful, we must train them to be grateful.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Prescription for low mood or melancholy- try to think every day how are you can please someone. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">People who live on a budget are happier people.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Try to build credit, in the event you must borrow.</li></ul>

Contd.

The book 'How to stop worrying & start living' suggest many ways to conquer worry and lead a wonderful life. The book mentions fundamental facts to know about worry and magic formula for solving worry-some situations. Psychologists & Doctors' view: • Worry can make even the most stolid person ill. • Worry may cause nervous breakdown. • Worry can even cause tooth decay • Worry is one of the factors for High Blood Pressure. • Worry makes you tense and nervous and affect the nerves of your stomach. The book suggests basic techniques in analysing worry, step by step, in order to cope up with them. A very interesting feature of the book is 'How to eliminate 50% of your business worries'. The book offers 7 ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness. Also, the golden rule for conquering worry, keeping your energy & spirits high. The book consists of some True Stories which will help the readers in conquering worry to lead you to success in life. The book is full of similar incidences and narrations which will make our readers to understand the situation in an easy way and lead a happy life. A must read book for everyone.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

The book 'How to stop worrying &amp; start living' suggest many ways to conquer worry and lead a wonderful life.  The book mentions fundamental facts to know about worry and magic formula for solving worry-some situations.  Psychologists &amp; Doctors' view:  •	Worry can make even the most stolid person ill.  •	Worry may cause nervous breakdown.  •	Worry can even cause tooth decay  •	Worry is one of the factors for High Blood Pressure.  •	Worry makes you tense and nervous and affect the nerves of your stomach.  The book suggests basic techniques in analysing worry, step by step, in order to cope up with them.  A very interesting feature of the book is 'How to eliminate 50% of your business worries'.  The book offers 7 ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness. Also, the golden rule for conquering worry, keeping your energy &amp; spirits high.  The book consists of some True Stories which will help the readers in conquering worry to lead you to success in life.  The book is full of similar incidences and narrations which will make our readers to understand the situation in an easy way and lead a happy life. A must read book for everyone.

Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

How to stop worrying & start living

Procrastination is one of the main barriers blocking you from getting up, making the right decisions and living the dream life you've thought of.Recent studies have shown that people regret more the things they haven't done than the things they have done. In addition, feelings of regret and guilt resulting from missed opportunities tend to stay with people much longer.

Procrastination

For example, if you want to start exercising, a good goal might be “be able to run a full mile by the end of the month”, while bad goals might be “do some running” (unspecific) and “run a marathon by the end of the month” (unrealistic).

1. Set specific and realistic goals.

First, identify cases in which you delay unnecessarily, to figure out what exactly you procrastinate on (e.g., studying) and how you do it (e.g., by <a href="https://solvingprocrastination.com/social-media-procrastination/">browsing social media</a>). Then, think about those situations to also figure out where and when you procrastinate (e.g., at home or the library, on starting or finishing tasks, in the morning or evening). Finally, figure out why you procrastinate.

2. Assess your procrastination. 

It should involve using relevant anti-procrastination techniques, which account for the goals that you set and the nature of your procrastination problem.

3. Create an action plan.

Make sure to reflect on your progress and refine your approach, primarily by figuring out which techniques work for you and how you can implement them most effectively.

4. Implement your plan. 

identify the smallest possible step you can take to make progress toward your goals, and try to start with just that tiny step, while giving yourself permission to make mistakes during the attempt. For example, if you need to write an essay, you can decide to start by writing just a single word, while accepting that it won’t be perfect, and might even be quite bad at first.

5. To stop procrastinating right now

A practical, concise, and research-based guide on how to stop procrastination.

Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination – Solving Procrastination

We can all probably agree that procrastination isn’t wise. While most of us procrastinate from time to time, we often chalk it up to poor planning. When you understand what’s going on in your brain, though, a failure to plan isn’t the root cause.“Procrastination is an emotion-focused coping strategy,” says Tim Pychyl, associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, and author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: a concise guide to strategies for change. “It’s not a time management problem.”

Procrastination Is A Brain Thing, Not A Mind Thing

Pychyl says researchers in Germany compared the brains of procrastinators to non-procrastinators using functional MRI. It found that the brains of procrastinators have a larger amygdala, which is part of the limbic system known for fight or flight.“What’s happening is what we call the ‘amygdala hijack,'” says Pychyl. “The procrastinators are reacting emotionally, and the emotion-focused coping response is to escape. It’s saying, ‘I don’t want these negative emotions I’ll experience during the task,’ and so it avoids the task.”

The Brain Of A Procrastinator: “I Don’t Want To Do That!”

Procrastination is an emotion-focused coping strategy. It’s not a time management problem.

When you understand what’s going on in your brain, you can break the cycle and start to get things done.


This Is What’s Going On In Our Brain When We Procrastinate

Find 100+ Facts and Tips on Productivity - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

The Talent Code

Can Productive Procrastination Be A Useful Tool?

Which of these 6 time traps is eating up all your time?

Medium – Three Practices from Confucius — That Can Change Your Life

What You Learn at a Startup that Grows from $0 to $7.75 Billion in 2 Years

How to stop worrying & start living

Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination – Solving Procrastination

This Is What’s Going On In Our Brain When We Procrastinate

What are some tips for having a healthy relationship with money? | By Aymar Audry | Tealfeed

Purpose of Work : Clarity of Dream

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The Talent Code

Can Productive Procrastination Be A Useful Tool?

Which of these 6 time traps is eating up all your time?

Medium – Three Practices from Confucius — That Can Change Your Life

What You Learn at a Startup that Grows from $0 to $7.75 Billion in 2 Years

How to stop worrying & start living

Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination – Solving Procrastination

This Is What’s Going On In Our Brain When We Procrastinate

What are some tips for having a healthy relationship with money? | By Aymar Audry | Tealfeed

Purpose of Work : Clarity of Dream

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.