Joshua Martins

The daffodil principle is taught as a great principle of celebration where we are taught to move towards our goals one step at a time even if we're taking baby steps to reach them. It teaches the importance of being patient and how it correlates to why extraordinary successes happen:

1. Ordinary actions are done consistently
2. Regular feedback is provided where you're self-aware of what works and what doesn't and with this, you improve the former to maximize possible outcomes.

When trying to achieve a certain goal, taking action is merely not enough, you must also constantly assert change and improve the process you're using as well.

Set yourself up with manageable expectations and try to improve at least 1 percent a day - in the long term - you will only thank yourself as that 1 percent compounds on itself and produces results you could have never imagined. Whether it may be 1 percent every day or every week, it still produces significant outcomes.

There are two ways to measure your progress with the daffodil principle, and those are to make qualitative and quantitative improvements towards yourself or your goals.

If by chance your goal is to write a book, then the qualitative improvement you could do is to increase your knowledge in grammar and syntax; for quantitative you could write a thousand words a week, as long as it is 1 percent more than last week.

Consistent actions and feedback result in great outcomes.

Charismatic leaders bring out our best and make us excel. Research shows that those following charismatic leaders perform better, find their work more meaningful, and have more trust in their leaders that those who follow non-charismatic leaders.

Charismatic leaders cause followers to become highly committed to the leader's mission and make personal sacrifices by mastering the art and science of personal magnetism.

• Speak slowly. Visualize the slow, emphatic tone of a judge delivering a verdict.
• Pause. Those who show confidence often pause for a second or two between sentences.
• Drop intonation. Lowering the tone of your voice at the end of a sentence sounds confident. You can even lower your intonation midsentence.
• Check your breathing. Try not to breathe through your mouth as it can make you sound breathless and anxious. Instead, inhale and exhale through your nose.
• Smile. Smiling projects more warmth in your voice. It's even worth doing when on the phone.

The use of imagery increases charisma.

Research shows that a high imagery speech resulted in higher ratings of charisma that a low imagery speech.

Consistency in tone is very persuasive. People who don't get stirred up and maintain a narrow tonal range have a natural advantage.

The more consistent they are in emphasis and rhythm, the more convincing they are to others. They are also perceived as having better ideas and a better presentation style.

It can do this by stripping away the emotional information in faces and intonation.

Virtual communication may dampen laughter that would otherwise happen face-to-face.

To become a charismatic manager, focus on these techniques:

• Framing through metaphor-stories and anecdotes
• Demonstrating moral conviction
• Sharing the sentiments of the group
• Setting high expectations
• Communicating confidence
• Using rhetorical devices such as contrasts, lists, and rhetorical questions together with non-verbal tactics such as body gesture, facial expression, and animated voice tone.

Ocean water is full of mineral salts which enter through the rivers, passing through rock and soil. Water has a property of evaporation whereas salt does not, so a lot of salt is left behind.

Oceans are saline throughout the world, but the Mediterranean Sea is saltier. Many oceans are less salty due to the regular mixing of fresh river water.

Your 20s are very turbulent times. You want so much for yourself and have such high expectations and wishes to succeed.

Don't get carried away with how hard is all seems. Growing up is much like the weather. When you hit big storms, it may seem like they're going to overwhelm you. It will change - the sun will come out again.

Many people around us don't give up in challenging situations.

We can draw inspiration from them. We sometimes tend to give up and do something else, and it helps to remember not to do that.

Learn to take care of yourself. Don't depend on people to provide for you. You can have something of your own and provide for your family.

Enjoy going to work. It's the people you're with that makes a job fun. People make your work different.

When you're learning something in school, you're learning from people who know something you don't know. Continue in that throughout your life. Mentors go beyond teachers and bosses. Develop relationships with people who you can observe, and see how they do things.

You can minimize mistakes if you have people in your life who will challenge you and make you reconsider.

The secret to a life well-lived is to learn to make the most of what you have.

Keep trying until you succeed. If you can't do something, keep on trying.

Never let anything hold you back when you think of ideas.

You’ve got nothing to lose. Just make sure you act small. Put in the work and stay practical.

Every time you experience stress over a problem, you’re basically sabotaging your life.

A problem is nothing but an unanswered question. So stay calm. And figure out the answer.

Wrong reasons to start relationships include money, fear of being alone, abuse, needing attention.

The foundation of all relationships should be based on love, respect, support, trust, patience, good company, laughter, sadness, and more support.

You always pay for something with money, time (the most valuable thing you have), or other resources.

Life is a business. And smart business people spend their resources wisely.

Waiting, postponing, doubting, researching too much — it’s all not useful. Get your act together, and decide firmly whenever you have to make one. 

And when you made the wrong decision, own it, apologize, and make another decision.

Being a leader also has nothing to do with your title.

When everyone looks at each other because no one wants to take responsibility, decide that you will take responsibility.

There’s only one thing that helps you to go from nothing to something: You have to put in the work. 

Make sure you value effectiveness over everything. Results matter. Get things done and move on to the next thing.

In almost everything you do, you're selling yourself.

When you sell, be transparent, honest, and to the point. Don’t waste your time on people who don’t like you anyway. 

... in order to improve your self-confidence.

You only improve your self-confidence by becoming good at something: By learning, doing, seeing results, and repeating that process for years. Your confidence will grow slowly every day.

We’re social animals. When we’re alone, we die early.  

So be nice to each other. And respect that your friends also have lives of their own.

Don’t believe all the success stories you see everywhere. YouTubers, Instagram models, millionaire entrepreneurs: They seem perfect. But you only see the outside.

You don’t have to be a cynic. Just don’t take appearances for facts.

It’s fuel for you. You can use criticism to improve yourself, your product, or your service. 

Or, if the criticism makes no sense, it can make you angry, which is also a good thing. That type of anger is useful. “I’ll show them!”

If you can’t take care of your body, you can’t take care of anything.

You can influence your health by eating healthy, exercising, and treating your body with respect.

You control your thoughts. That means you decide what you do with your life. If you’re unsatisfied, angry, or frustrated, that’s all you.

Make yourself useful. 

Instead of consuming so much information, products, and entertainment from others, spend a fraction of that time on creating something yourself.

It’s your ability to resolve conflicts between your short-term desires and your long-term goals.

For example, successful self-control means sacrificing immediate pleasure (cookies and cakes) and choosing the delayed reward (healthy weight).

People who have high self-control aren’t missing out on enjoyment. Not being able to resist temptation and enjoying life are not the same things.

They tend to eat in a healthily way, exercise more, sleep better, drink less alcohol, smoke fewer cigarettes, achieve higher grades at university, have more peaceful relationships, and are more financially secure.

Research showed that self-control is ultimately limited by our biology. We can’t exercise effortful self-control indefinitely – the brain has to do regular maintenance to remain functional.

People that are great at self-control don't have to make more effort. Instead, they avoid effortful strategies and use easier ones.

In this way, they don’t tax and overwork their brains, and thus they are free to invest their effort into pursuing their goals, instead of fighting with themselves

• Thought suppression: when you consciously attempt not to think about something. It can have some benefits in the short term, but it takes a lot more effort than other strategies and it will make your desire even stronger in the long-run.
• Resisting temptations: it when you’re actively inhibiting your urge to act on them. Because it’s one of the most effortful strategies, it’s likely to fail when applied over a longer period of time.

Use a ‘commitment contract’. This is a way to impose costs on self-control failure.

For example, you sign a contract with a friend or a company and place a financial deposit. You only get your deposit back if you meet certain criteria after an agreed-on period of time. For instance, you need to cut down your smoking to a few cigarettes a day. If you don’t satisfy the criteria, then you lose your deposit.

... to prevent self-control failures. Research has shown that people who have developed a self-image around virtuous activities are more likely to identify and resolve self-control conflicts.

For these people, indulging incurs a cost to their self-image – it contradicts the beliefs they have about themselves.

Many studies have shown that mindfulness is an effective way for boosting our self-control.

Mindfulness doesn’t suppress or resist your thoughts and emotions. It just changes your perspective on them. You don’t judge your inner experiences (don’t evaluate whether your desires are good or bad).

Distractions cause cognitive load: they fill up your working memory. As a result, there’s less space for your long-term goals.

A distraction can be anything such as chatting with friends, listening to the radio or watching television.