The world is on a slippery slope. It is changing fast. And if you don’t know how to deal with it, it may eat you alive.Social networks are more tempting than ever. Social marketing can create needs you didn’t even know you had. And if you don’t know your life priorities, everybody will try to suck the attention out of your eyes.You will be lost forever if you forget your life priorities in this social and attention game. Therefore, discovering them in time and keeping them under control is fundamental.

The Attention Suckers

A few months ago, I was reading a list of advice from the most successful people on Earth. And I found one from Warren Buffett that immediately caught my attention.It was fast, simple, and effective. I applied it in a few minutes, and it changed my perspective on goals. And I wish to give you the same tools.So if you are interested in:<ul><li>getting a weekly self-improvement goal</li><li>and the free infographic to track it</li></ul>subscribe to <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a> now!

Warren Buffett's Life Advice

Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of our time. His investment choices made him a rich man. And nobody seems to match him in terms of financial outcomes.Over the past years, he released many interviews about his discipline and strategies. And he also shared self-improvement and personal growth tips.One, in particular, caught my attention – a piece shared by his pilot (then named The Pilot Story). Buffet used it to show people how to find their purpose. And although his advice is not rocket science, he succeeded in life. So, he must have understood something most people ignore.

Why listening Warren Buffett’s life advice?

Mike Flint was Warren Buffett’s pilot for ten years. During their many flights, Flint shared his life priorities once. And Buffett asked him to test his priorities with a 3-step exercise . Only in this way could Flint be sure of the importance of his goals. Buffett’s advice is nothing special. Its simplicity is its main strength. But his 3-step plan can help you spot your life priorities right away. So, let’s jump right into it.

The 25/5 Advice from Warren Buffett

Writing 25 goals is the first step of the exercise. And even if it seems simple, you will notice it will become challenging after the first few.Twenty-five goals are a lot. You will need to dig deep to find a way to fill all the spaces. So here are a few suggestions:<ul><li>Consider career, family, passions, self-care, personal growth, finance, love, and friends goals. </li><li>Start with one life purpose and try to understand if many goals hide inside it. </li><li>Include materialistic goals like the house of your dreams. </li><li>Be as specific as possible. </li></ul>

1 – Write 25 life goals.

Now that you have found your 25 life goals, you must pick only five of them. If finding 25 goals was challenging, figuring out the most important ones would be even worse. So here are a few suggestions:<ul><li>Start by excluding the last goals you added to the list.</li><li>Understand if there are mutually exclusive goals. For example, if you have a successful career, you can afford a big house.</li><li>And if you still haven’t reduced the list to only five goals, cut goals without second thoughts. </li></ul>

The third step is the key to Buffett’s advice – the swing that changes everything.Your life is full of things you want to achieve. You may have understood that by now. But your time and focus are limited. And you can only accomplish that much. But how can I make this easy for you?I don’t think I can.The 20 goals you left out are the distractions that will fight for your focus. Here, I said it.

3 – Avoid the other 20 goals at all costs. (1)

The 20 remaining goals you didn’t pick will try to distract you. So avoid them at all costs.Here is some advice from me.<ul><li>Make two lists with your five life goals and their 20 potential distractions, and keep them somewhere you can see them. </li><li>You can make adjustments, but you can only do it twice: now and when you reach one of the five goals. Switching too much transforms life goals into other failures. </li></ul>

3 – Avoid the other 20 goals at all costs. (2)

Follow Buffett’s advice to find your 5 life priorities and their 20 distractions.1 - Write 25 life goals.2 - Circle the five highest-priority goals.3 - Avoid the other 20 goals at all costs.[<a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">SUBSCRIBE</a> TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE INFOGRAPHIC AND TRACK YOUR PROGRESS]

If you loved the newsletter, and want to support my work, subscribe and share <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a> with your friends and families!Like this one, you will find a free infographic to track your weekly challenge in each post!Stay consistent and stay strong!

Before you go

This is a tool you can use to understand your top 5 life priorities and their 20 worst enemies. Use it carefully. And use it soon.

Unlock true fulfillment: explore your life priorities with Warren Buffett's step-by-step guide! Discover your path to happiness in just 3 simple steps.

productivity

Productivity

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

timemanagement

Time Management

business

Business

Discover Your Life Priorities in 3 Easy Steps: A Fulfillment Guide

Your brain works better with a limited scope — it’s a matter of fact.Scientists proved multitasking is a terrible choice. Yet, people still boast about their ability to jump between tasks. But all they are doing is shallow work.Doing one task at a time can save you days of work. But without the proper structures, you will tend towards multitasking. So, you will spend weeks trying to reach goals that should take days. Weeks will extend to months. And months will become soon enough.To avoid this trap, you need a strategy. And here, I have 5 perfect templates you can use to achieve any goal.

Multitasking Is A Terrible Choice

Since I started writing, I have always searched for new ways to achieve my goals.I wanted the best template to improve my craft. And I used to get angry when I couldn’t reach my objectives.I felt incapable of doing what seemed easy for others. And my frustration made me quit writing multiple times. But eventually, I found my mistake.I was better than others. But I focused on too many things. And my brain couldn’t keep up with the stress.You can’t improve your skills if you push yourself too much. You must give yourself the space to fail, process, and retry.

The Multitasking Mirage

You are reading an excerpt from <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">The Challenge</a>, a newsletter where I discuss self-improvement, goal-setting, habits, time management, and health tips and tricks.Every week you will get:<ul><li>a challenge to pursue to improve your life</li><li>an infographic to track it.</li></ul><a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">Subscribe now</a> to help me continue publishing this type of content.

The Challenge

Multitasking is a beautiful concept. But it is flawed.Have you ever tried doing too many things contemporary?When different tasks give you consequent feedback, your brain explodes. It is challenging to keep track of the results. And you must write things down before you forget what you were doing.It often happens to me at work when I focus on an activity, and people come to ask me other things. They ruin my productivity. Feels familiar? Then, you are experiencing the residual attention problem.

The Attention Residual Problem

When you switch from one task to another, your brain still thinks about the previous one for a while. And on average, this overlapping happens for 23 minutes. In this case, the residual attention is the information your brain stores somewhere to find it once you get back.

When you multitask, you split your attention and create as many residuals as your tasks. So, switching between two jobs, you might even succeed. But if there are more, it becomes impossible to keep track of everything. Your performance decreases. And your stress rises.But if you focus on one task, the problem disappears. Your performance will improve. And you will better cope with stress.So, these 5 perfect templates can teach you to use focused attention and achieve any goal.

Why should you focus on one task?

Some of you already know three of the 5 perfect templates to achieve any goal because I discussed them in <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/publish">The Challenge</a>, my newsletter. There, I was talking about the <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/p/hope-vs-action-unleash-your-potential">difference between hope and action</a>. And I gave you a few ways to start working on your dreams.[Subscribe to  <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">The Challenge</a> to download the FREE infographic to track your goals]Therefore, I will explain those ideas better here and add two exclusive templates.

5 Perfect Templates to Achieve Any Goal

Milestones are the perfect way to achieve any goal. It might be the simplest, and it has many benefits. So most people don’t use it because of its simplicity.Working with milestones means splitting your final goal into smaller steps. And each of them represents consistent and meaningful progress.But what does this mean?

1 — Focus on a common goal (1)

Let’s pick writing a book, for example. If you think about the goal overall, it might scare you. Writing a book is a challenging goal. But you can split it into chapters, for example.Now, writing a chapter will be a shorter task. And after each chapter, you could:<ol><li>Celebrate your achievement,</li><li>Reward yourself with a little bit of relaxation,</li><li>And reignite your motivation to proceed.</li></ol>

1 - Focus on a common goal (2)

I have worked as a software developer for four years and always used two main strategies: waterfall and agile (next paragraph). They are well-known paradigms for planning and scheduling. But they have different strengths and weaknesses.Waterfalls are similar to milestones because you will get the same benefits. But you will divide your activities differently.Instead of working for a common subgoal, with waterfall, you group your tasks by deadline. And you could apply this technique to single or multiple projects. Follow these 4 simple steps.

2 — Use the strength of waterfalls (1)

<ol><li>List of all your tasks and their deadlines.</li><li>Group together tasks with close deadlines into waves. Closeness might be one or two months, depending on your job. But avoid prolonged periods since they will make you lose track of your progress.</li><li>Start working on the first wave. You have as much time as the length of each wave. But usually, you will have to use the last quarter of the time for refining, testing, and feedback.</li><li>You can start with the following wave if you finish before the limit. Otherwise, move some of the tasks to the next wave.</li></ol>

2 — Use the strength of waterfalls (2)

The agile template gives you more control over your tasks. But it reduces the period between deadlines, and you will stress faster.Also, with waterfall, you can work on more complicated tasks. But with agile, you must break your tasks into small pieces that take a day or two maximum.The main advantage of agile templates is their easy management. If anything changes in the meantime, it won’t affect much of your work. You can skip a few tasks or make adjustments.But if you create a good plan, you may ignore deadlines. You will deliver and forget the project as soon as you finish it.

3 — Enjoy the speed of small tasks

You can also use stories as one of the five templates to achieve any goal in your life.Stories focus on a common topic and build a sequence of tasks to achieve it. For example, writing an article could include:<ol><li>Brainstorm ideas and pick one that suits your content strategy.</li><li>Outline the selected topic.</li><li>Search for data that supports or contradicts your thesis.</li><li>Write the first draft.</li><li>Write the second/final draft.</li><li>Edit and proofread.</li><li>Schedule and publish the article.</li></ol>

4 — Split your work into stories (1)

As you can see, every task in the story aims at a common goal: writing an article. But splitting it into micro tasks gives you more flexibility in your planning.Also, you can use this template in combination with agile and waterfall. Consider each small task separately and schedule it according to your main template. But since you are making stories, you will use them to track each larger goal.

4 — Split your work into stories (2)

Three years ago, I started writing online. However, I ignored all the best practices to organize my work. I created a folder named Articles and started writing inside it.But as soon as my folder grew, my plan collapsed.When I had to search for old information or links, I had to open multiple files and search for them. I missed a place to write my ideas, so I lost most of them. And my productivity decreased due to the shallow work.[Download the FREE infographic to create your own Treasure Map by subscribing to <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">THE CHALLENGE</a>]

5 — Build your treasure map (1)

One day, I couldn’t deal with it anymore, so I downloaded Notion because its versatility fascinated me.It took me one year to organize the system that I use today. I am changing it often, adding and removing properties to my pages. But as soon as I need information from my past work, I know where to find it.In there, you can put:<ol><li>people you must contact in specific situations</li><li>tools you will need in your activities</li><li>information about past work that might help you (links)</li><li>environment requirements to reach peak performance</li><li>and everything that might become useful in the future.</li></ol>

5 — Build your treasure map (2)

Multitasking kills your productivity. But if you find a way to serialize all tasks and schedule them, you will notice great results.Here, you have 5 perfect templates to serialize your activities and achieve any goal you want.<ul><li>Milestones are the perfect choice if you don’t cherish your goals enough.</li><li>Waterfall and agile are two distinct templates that have different strengths. So choose based on your style.</li><li>You can use stories to split your tasks and schedule them even better.</li><li>While you can always build a treasure map to keep track of everything you learn.</li></ul>

Final Thoughts

As a software developer, I worked with many scheduling templates. Here are give of them that could help you achieve any goal you want.

Scientists proved multitasking is a terrible choice. Yet, people still boast about their ability to jump between tasks. But xall they are doing is shallow work. Doing one task at a time can save you…

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

5 Perfect Templates To Achieve Any Goal and How To Use Them

I’ve always searched for the perfect and most efficient way to finish all my goals and become good at anything I wanted. But I’ve always struggled to improve what I was already doing .I reached high levels of consistency and repetition. But my work was stagnant . I kept making the same mistakes . And I was stuck in a pattern with little to no improvement.But I had to change to succeed at my side hustle. And it all started with the 3 keys of mastery .

Can you master any skill you want?

If you want to master any skill, you need three things:<ul><li>a lot of consistency </li><li>to learn from your failures </li><li>and to replicate your successes. </li></ul>And having one or two of them is not enough.

The 3 Keys of Mastering Any Skill

<ul><li>If you are consistent, you will always produce something. But does it matter if nobody wants to see it?</li><li>If you learn from your failures, you will improve your craft. But will anybody follow you for one piece of work a year ? Someone might, but nobody likes inconsistent people.</li><li>While if you only replicate successes, you limit your reach and never evolve. People will get bored , and you will eventually lose your audience.</li></ul>

What if you don't follow the 3 keys?

You are reading an exert from <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">The Challenge</a>, a newsletter where I discuss self-improvement, goal-setting, habits, time-management, and health tips and tricks.Every week you will get:<ul><li>a challenge to pursue to improve your life</li><li>an infographic to track it.</li></ul><a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">Subscribe now</a> to help me continue publishing this type of content.

Experts have a strict practice routine that allows them to become the best in their field. But their routine is nothing special, and you can apply it too.So here is the 3-step routine that will help you master any skill you want in life.

How to Master Any Skill You Want

You can’t set average goals when trying to improve a skill. Improvement is a challenge, so your goals should be challenging.<ul><li>Set intense goals focused on a specific skill instead of the overall performance. </li><li>Leave out the skills you have already mastered. I used to concentrate on all my tasks at the maximum. But most times, I was so tired I couldn’t focus on the skill I wanted to improve. So, prioritize critical tasks and give them your undivided attention. </li><li>Work on a weakness. You can’t be good at everything. But you can become better or decent if you work on your weaknesses. </li></ul>

1 – Set intense goals. (1)

You can split your weaknesses into two categories:<ul><li>The Improvement Bucket contains every task you could improve and master. </li><li>The Delegation Bucket includes the activities you don’t like. Even if you become decent at them, you will never excel. So it’s better to give them to somebody else.</li></ul>

1 – Set intense goals. (2)

<ul><li>Give your goal undivided attention. Have you ever tried to study with the TV on? You can’t. So, reduce distractions to the minimum.</li><li>Work with great effort. You should know the task will be challenging from the start. So give everything you have because it could make the difference between success and failure. </li><li>Start with nobody watching. I used to practice my critical tasks publicly because I thought it could help me. But public practice adds up to the stress and makes you nervous. Plus, it can distract you easier. So don’t start with it if you are not ready yet. </li></ul>

2 – Reach your goal consistently.

You set your narrow goal and reach it once. But once is not enough. You have to be consistent and practice a lot.Here are a few deliberate practice rules:<ul><li>Total concentration and effort. Just because you reach your goal once, it doesn’t mean you can get distracted from now on. </li><li>Immediate and informative feedback. Find somebody like a mentor or a public that can give you honest feedback.</li><li>Repetition with Reflection & Refinement. Take a moment of reflection between training sessions. Try to understand the feedback and decode it into actionable steps. </li></ul>

3 – Never stop practicing.

Pick one specific skill you want to master or at least improve. Define the stretched goals you should reach to improve. Reach them consistently. And then, keep practicing.[DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC AT <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">THE CHALLENGE</a>]

If you loved the newsletter, and want to support my work, subscribe and share <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/">The Challenge</a> with your friends and families!In each post, like this one, you will find a free infographic to track your weekly challenge!Stay consistent and stay strong!

I have always wondered if I could master any skill I wanted. In this post, I discussed the 3 keys of mastering any skill that I stole from experts in their field.

The 3 Keys of Mastering Any Skill You Might Have Missed

career

Career

strategy

Strategy

education

Learning & Education

I didn’t always have a great relationship with my father. Many kids don’t have it, and it’s ok. So everything I learned from him was from mere observation.To be honest, we learned to appreciate each other only in the last few yearswe lived apart. I never stopped loving my dad. And I needed his affirmation.But he was an authoritative person who wouldn’t give it. So it took years to smooth our characters and meet in the middle.Here are 7 lessons I learned from my father that improved my life forever.

The Son-Father Relationship

My father was born in a poor village. He found a beautiful wife, my mother, and had two children.I don’t know how much you know about poor villagers and their lives. But if I had to describe them, I would use two words: hope and stillness.<ul><li>Poor villagers always hope for a better life.</li><li>But they never take action, so they hardly change their life.</li></ul>But my father never settled. He wanted his family to live better. He wanted his kids to have a better chance at life. So he broke the cycle and went abroad. And then he brought us with him.Here are the 7 lessons I learned from him in all these years.

The Man I Wish To Be

When my father came to Italy for the first time, he thought everything would be more accessible. But first, he lost his parents. Then, his boss treated him as an animal that could only work. He was misunderstood and underpaid. But he kept going through everything. Every time life challenges me, I remember his resilience. And I noticed that time and patience can bring you far. So if you are struggling to reach your goals, remember that:<ul><li>you live in a fast world — everything might finish in a moment</li><li>and if you give up now, you may have worked for nothing.</li></ul>

1 — Resilience is stronger than the odds.

You are reading an exert from <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a>, a newsletter where I discuss self-improvement, goal-setting, habits, time-management, and health tips and tricks.Every week you will get:<ul><li>a challenge to pursue to improve your life</li><li>an infographic to track it.</li></ul><a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">Subscribe now </a>to help me continue publishing this type of content.

My father never showed his emotions until a few years ago. He used to picture himself as a strong and independent man. So, many times, me and my sister thought he didn’t love us enough.Kids often fail to understand their parents’ behavior. And we weren’t unique. But under his grumpy shield, my father always loved us. And he tried to teach us what he thought was better for our future.Thanks to his sacrifice, I learned I could reach anything, even the most challenging dreams.

2 — Love defeats any sacrifice.

Toxic family members happen. Sometimes, they could even be your parents. But fortunately, my family wasn’t one of those cases. We always helped each other, so it was easy to love all of them.But Dad taught me that family is not only about getting help. And although its members are the best support you can find, you must cherish them every time you can.And dad always wanted to keep the family united. He demonstrated it by sacrificing to bring us here. And he shows it every time he calls everyone at his house to eat and party together.

3 — Family comes first.

“Studying is your job. Everything else is on me” — I’ve heard this sentence hundreds of times. But for my father, allowing me to study and seek my path was crucial.He didn’t need to tell me. But he insisted every time he saw a negative trend in my grades.He was often harsh on me and my sister. Yet, without his discipline, I wouldn’t have gotten my position at my job. Most of what I own is thanks to the commitment I learned in school. So you have to get good grades. Otherwise, you won’t be ready for what comes later.

4 — You have to get good grades.

My father had many flaws. But not accepting any idea that was different from his was the worst.He had a hard time trusting people. So he didn’t trust me when I told him I wanted to become a writer.We fought a lot over this. But I am more stubborn than him — it’s one of my best qualities. So over time, he got more open-minded. Fighting for my ideas helped me find a strong desire to prove him wrong. So fight for what you value because nobody can tell you what that is.

5 — Fight for what matters to you.

You can make two choices in your life:<ul><li>You can have a life full of passions and never achieve anything extraordinary.</li><li>Or you can obsess over one purpose and get the best out of it.</li></ul>In the first case, you won’t achieve anything. But if you pick perseverance, you could create a life of opportunities. You could make a change in any direction you decide to take. And the only thing you have to learn is perseverance.Dad was tenacious, and his discipline paid off dividends. So learn to be perseverant. Pick your purpose and obsess over it. Become one with your passion, and it will pay off.

6 — Perseverance always pays off.

Dad lost his parents while he was away. So he couldn’t give his last goodbye to both of them. I know he suffered, but he never blamed anyone for it.He talks about it a lot. Sometimes, I think this is his way of reconnecting with them. But even in the worst pain, he never lost his smile.There’s nothing more important than cherishing joyful moments with the people you love the most. And there shouldn’t be time for grudges or resentment in your lives.

7 — Never lose your smile.

If you loved the newsletter, and want to support my work, subscribe and share <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a> with your friends and families!In each post, like this one, you will find a free infographic to track your weekly challenge!Stay consistent and stay strong!

I didn’t always have a great relationship with my father. But in the past few years, he taught me how to become the man I want to be. Here are 7 lessons I could never forget.

The guidance of my father shaped my life in ways I couldn't imagine. Here are 7 lessons I learned from my father that improved my life forever.

philosophy

Philosophy

health

Health

parenting

Parenting

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

7 Lessons I Learned From My Father That Improved My Life Forever

Grit has been one of my biggest strengths and flaws altogether. I used to have long streaks of routines and consistency. But then, I would abandon everything and return to my old bad habits.Then, I would realize I was unhappy with my current situation, and the cycle would start again. But luckily, a few months ago, I learned something: grit could bring you ahead of the competition. Focus on your determination to build a side hustle, a healthy routine, or a career . The chances to succeed are pretty slim if you don't.

Building Grit: How to Fight Life Challenges in Our World

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

So if you have talent and good ideas, you are only 1% ahead of the others. The other 99% is pure commitment, repetition, and other things I will discuss later. Perseverance is your ability to keep going even when you fail horribly. It is your grit to show up every day and your need to demonstrate you can do everything you want. And you will do anything to reach that goal. Pretty powerful, don’t you think so?Those people are unstoppable.

What is Grit?

Grit, perseverance, fortitude – they have always been the factors that changed everything. People who learned to use this inner power changed the world and succeeded.At one point, if you always stand up after setbacks, you become inevitable. So, your grit is fundamental if you want to reach your goals. Failures are part of the game. And you can learn many things from them. But only if you don’t give up.Sometimes, you will succeed on the first try. But, most times, you must fail a lot to find the formula for success. So, if you give up, you lose. And there is nothing in between.

Grit vs. Failures

Some people learn to be perseverant from a young age. Lucky them! They will always have an advantage. But that doesn’t mean you will never become perseverant. You can build grit if you want.Angela Duckworth is a psychologist who has studied it all her life. In her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance , she explains what makes people grittier than others and how you can increase your perseverance. With that in mind, I will try a shorter approach here. So, how can you become grittier? Here are the ingredients of my Grit Recipe.

How to build Grit

My passions drive my actions every day. I write because I love writing. I am building a side hustle because I love the feeling of daily achievements. And I make web pages because I love the aesthetics behind it. Without my passions, I wouldn’t have done any of that. So passion drives my actions, and it is the same for you. But beware of temporary flings for activities that catch your attention. You have to dive deep into your soul to find your roots and what gives you joy. And when you’ll find it, you'll know.

1 - Take a handful of passion.

It takes a lot of mental strength to commit to an activity and keep doing it even if it fails.Many doubts will spawn in your head , and you will have to ignore them. But some of them will get to your soul , and they will try to convince you that you are worth nothing. In this case, Duckworth’s words can help you a lot:<ul><li>Set a goal you wish to achieve with all your heart.</li><li>Set a time frame in which you will do everything to reach that goal.</li><li>You can quit, but not before the time frame ends. </li></ul>

2 - Add an overflowing dose of commitment.

Growth is the third ingredient of the grit recipe, and it is also the most fundamental because it keeps everything together. You will never learn from your failures without a growth mindset. So focus on the lessons you can extract from each experience instead.Every time you finish a complex task, write one thing you learned. It doesn’t matter if it was a failure or a success. It has to leave you with something . Otherwise, it’s useless. <ul><li>If you succeed, write a lesson you should repeat . </li><li>But if you failed, list everything you should avoid and how you could have done better . </li></ul>

3 - Mix everything with a growth mindset.

Nowadays, everything is a goal. If you want to achieve something in life, you need a purpose. Otherwise, how could you track it? We need goals to put an end to our hunger for more. It is the barrier that keeps us from insanity. So, build clear goals. Be precise about what you want and when you want it.Make a plan to achieve it, and stick to it. If you followed the recipe until now, this will be only the icing on the cake. <ul><li>Make S.MA.R.T. goal.</li><li>Stick to them.</li><li>Repeat until your belly is full.</li></ul>

4 - Garnish with clear goals.

Prepare your grit recipe for the first time. Follow these four simple steps:1 - Take a handful of passion.2 - Add an overflowing dose of resilience.3 - Mix everything with a growth mindset.4 - And garnish with clear goals.[DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC AT <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">THE CHALLENGE</a>]

If you loved the newsletter, and want to support my work, subscribe and share <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a> with your friends and families!In each post, like this one, you will find a free infographic to track your weekly challenge!Stay consistent and stay strong!

Grit is a superpower you must learn to succeed in life. Some people learn it when they are young, others need to train. This post is for the latter.

Track Your Progress and Forge a Grittier Future with the Free 4-Step Infographic

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Building Grit: How To Fight Life Challenges in Our World

You value your time more when you have to manage other people. And I’m learning it only three years after I started talking about these topics.

People management is not for everyone. But I have always wanted to try it. And now, I’m finally getting a chance to prove I’m good at it. But unexpectedly, people management is challenging. And it forces you to learn many things about your time-management habits too.So here are 3 things I learned from my new position and how you can apply them to your time-management habits.

We are not the same. And usually, people specialize in what they like the most out of all their tasks and experiences. Therefore, some people will become faster at a few tasks, while others will excel in others. But when you start working with people, you assume they will finish every task as fast as you would.<ul><li>So if you don’t know your timings, you will fail at organizing the work because you will have no clue about what you are doing . </li><li>But <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/3-time-management-secrets-that-doubled-my-productivity/">if you know your timings </a>, you will fail again because you will organize the work considering only your working speed . </li></ul>

1 – You walk at different speeds.

You can deal with different speeds in two ways:<ul><li>ask people how much it would take them to finish a specific task, </li><li>or improve your forecasting skills by measuring their timings yourself. </li></ul>In the first case, they might specify a time slot that is too large. But in the second case, you will already know how much it will take them to finish. So you can act preemptively by scheduling the work differently.

How to deal with Different Speeds

The LessonEvery person has their speed which depends on preferences, mood, stress, and many other things. So don’t try to rush your activities only because other people can finish them in less time. And use the same approach even with your collaborators.

I need very few things to start working on a task. At worst, I will adjust part of the work to make it better. Yet, some of my colleagues need more assurances . And before starting to work, they must be sure the task they are working on is completely free of doubts. Sometimes, their approach is better because they never have to deal with failure or work more to fix any variations the client requests. But sometimes you can’t be sure about everything . And <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/p/hope-vs-action-unleash-your-potential">taking action </a>as soon as possible is better than doing nothing.

2 – You have different needs.

The LessonYou will reach your goals only when you will take them seriously. And if you don’t, you are groping in the dark.So fix a time slot for updating yourself on your goals and their progress . The review will keep you in control, and you will face challenges before they become giants.

I always wanted to be cordial and fun with everyone. And my boss knew about this tendency of mine. So when he gave me the position, he warned me I would have to be strict sometimes.So I schedule a daily meeting in the morning where everyone updates me on their tasks. And I am using this meeting as a training room to be more authoritative . So I force myself to be strict. And I tell people they are finishing their time if I see them procrastinating.

3 – There is a moment for everything.

1 - Don’t rush your tasks. Give yourself the time you need to finish them. 2 - Make a list of what you need to work on each task at your best. 3 - Build a routine of reviewing your goals to keep them under control.[DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC IN THE LINK BELOW]

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Mastering time like a leader: My latest newsletter reveals 3 crucial time management lessons learned from managing teams. And guess what? I created an infographic to help you apply these lessons!

Learn To Manage Your Time With These 3 Time Management Hacks

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Human Resources

3 Best Lessons I Learned From Managing Other People

I was born in a poor village in the East of Romania, where nobody knew anything about the world outside . We knew everything about everyone in the village. But we ignored there was a better way of living. And, in some ways, for many people, that was ok. My parents waited for a change for many years, and it never came. I had no power to change the outcomes of my family yet. But then, my father left the village to find a better place for us. And that was the first time I saw a change in my life. Luckily, for the best.

Living among poor people.

The action moves everything, and hope is for losers – that’s what I learned from my youth. If not for my father, I might have never had the opportunity to write online and build a side hustle. If he hadn’t taken action, we would still be there – hoping to reach the end of the month however we could. But he didn’t give up. When I return to my hometown and meet my old friends, they hope things will improve. They expect things will change now that they have more possibilities than ever. But they don’t do anything. And it pains me to know they will never change.

Hope is for losers.

How do you start doing something?It might seem like a stupid question, but it can be challenging when you don’t know where to start.You often know where you want to go but don’t know how to get there. Other times, you don’t even know your purpose. So you must go through some preparatory steps before you find your path. But with this 4-step life plan, you will find an answer and change your life by taking action.

How to Change your Life by Taking Action

Finding a purpose is the easiest task when hoping for something to happen. And if you do, your motivation gains the traction of the final goal . So you will start doing things with more ease.But <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/the-hidden-reason-you-havent-found-your-life-purpose-yet/">searching for purpose </a>is challenging. Anybody could find useless goals that last for a few days. Yet only life-long purposes have the power to push you forwards . So you must dig deeper into your passions and willpower. You must understand how far you want to go and how you plan to do it.

1 – Find a purpose.

One difference between hoping and doing is that, in the second, you will work towards clear and defined goals . When you don’t have anything to work for, you can’t track your success because you have no feedback on your success rate. So you may fall into many traps:<ul><li>you may think you still have time , </li><li>that you did enough for today , </li><li>or maybe your goals are unreachable . </li></ul>But if you break your goals into simple actions and analyze your efficiency on each, you can work better and deal with your weak points. So while transforming your purpose, use the <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals#:~:text=What%20are%20SMART%20goals%3F,within%20a%20certain%20time%20frame.">S.M.A.R.T. goals technique </a>.

2 - Transform your purpose into goals.

Hope is limited only by your imagination. But life doesn’t work like that.You can’t work on anything your imagination produces. Otherwise, you will work on too many goals at once and fail at everything. Milestones are a simple way to group and correlate a few tasks. So instead of splitting your attention, you will focus on a common goal.<ul><li>Using milestones, you group tasks with a common goal. </li><li>Working with waves, you define a subset of objectives with the same deadline. </li><li>And with focus points, you group activities with the same topic. </li></ul>

3 – Work with milestones, waves, and focus points.

4 – Start doing.And now that you focussed your attention on a few goals, you can work towards them.Leave your life of hope behind, and start doing. Leave your hopeless dreams and start building something real, one brick at a time.

4 – Start doing.

I want you to transform your hopeless dreams into tangible goals. Think about everything you ever dreamt of, and search for your purpose there. Then, transform that purpose into simple and actionable steps (S.M.A.R.T. goals).

I learned that hope is useless until I was a child. Here, I will show people the differences between hope and action.

Hope vs. Action: Unleash Your Potential with a 4-Step Life Plan

I wrote an article about a 30-day dopamine detox challenge a few months ago. And it’s going super well. I knew many people had this problem, but I wasn’t expecting so many to know it. So when I saw the numbers, I was surprised. But even if the article performed well, most people still ignore this problem. So I would like to build something simple to help anyone understand if they crave dopamine too much.

30-Day Dopamine Detox

The problem with too much dopamineDopamine is the happiness hormone. So, of course, we all crave it because it makes us feel great.However, feeding your body too much of a specific substance diminishes its receptors as a form of adaptability. And over time, your body will become dopamine-resistant, and you will need a lot more to trigger the same feelings.You become addicted to dopamine.

The problem with too much dopamine

Dopamine addiction has become a growing problem over the past few years because the sources that generate it increased.A few years ago, people had to tell you they loved what you were doing. And it didn’t happen that often.But today, your smartphone connects you to the world. A new like or share of your post would release dopamine you couldn’t experience before.And likes are not the only problem. Each notification has the potential to trigger a dopamine peak. And since you have tens of apps installed on your phone, even the most useless mail could make you happy.

The Increase of Dopamine Sources

<ul><li>Do you take up your phone as soon as a new notification arrives?</li><li>Or do you sometimes check it out of habit even if there are no new notifications?</li><li>Do you always search for something to eat out of boredom?</li><li>Do you usually spend a lot of time doom-scrolling? Or do you lose the sense of time while staying on the phone?</li><li>Do you have any dopamine-triggering hobbies like playing video games? And do you spend more than two-three hours per day on them?</li><li>Do you have any other addictions like smoking, caffeine, etc?</li><li>Do you struggle to manage your time and often procrastinate?</li><li>Do you often gamble?</li></ul>

Technically, no. You cannot become addicted to dopamine since your body produces it. But you can ruin its balance by giving your body too much of it without any effort to deserve it.In a past article about <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/delayed-gratification-to-help-improve-your-life/">delayed gratification </a>, I discussed how struggling to reach a goal is more beneficial because it creates a habit of working towards a purpose. So when you finally achieve it, you also feel a well-deserved satisfaction.

Is there a dopamine addiction?

I am trying to deal with my dopamine addiction everyday. But most people don't know why they procrastinate. I hope you can learn it with this.

Take the Dopamine Quiz right now and uncover the truth about your addiction to dopamine. It only takes 8 simple questions.

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