Naming hopelessness is the first step to our well-being. "I am lost." Saying how you feel connects you with your narrative instead of the jumble of despair and judgments about feeling despair. Where do we find hope? In essence, it is within us and between us. When we share our hope with others, we give them hope, and they provide us with hope.

Acknowledge hopelessness

<ul><li>Honour your feelings of hopelessness without being consumed by them. Don't deny uncomfortable emotion, but welcome it like a guest, not a permanent resident in your mind.</li><li>Remember that compassion for ourselves isn't often our first instinct.</li><li>No judgment. Your feelings are expected and not a sign of failure or weakness.</li><li>Humble goals. No act of hope is too small.</li><li>Find little pivot activities, be it watering the plants, or listening to music.</li><li>Hope without proof. Hope is moving forward in life and oneself without the certificate guaranteeing "x will happen." </li></ul>

Ways to respond to lostness and hopelessness

Acknowledging hopelessness can unlock the hope within.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Finding Hope in Hard Times

The process of becoming wise:<ul><li>gather enough valuable information,</li><li>filter the knowledge for your circumstances</li><li>apply what you learn until it becomes wisdom (common sense).</li></ul> Mastering the process takes time. You have to think forward and backwards, reflect, and connect valuable and similar knowledge from different domains.

Wisdom is not knowledge

The age of information makes it difficult to separate knowledge from noise.Attention deficit makes it very hard for many people to pause and think over important knowledge. As a result, they can't pick the knowledge out of the information to take the next step to become wiser. If you can't find the knowledge to apply in your life and gain wisdom, it can take much longer to move from A to B.

The age of information

Confucius once stated: "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." Knowledge transfer is required. If you can't learn how to filter the knowledge from the noise, success could take a very long time.

Becoming wise is a process, not an outcome

<ul><li>Wisdom is having the insight to know what to do in any given situation. </li><li>Wisdom is being able to see the big picture and make well-informed decisions.</li><li>Wisdom is learning from one’s mistakes and improving as a result.</li></ul> Wisdom is experience in progress. Wisdom is timeless. It has nothing to do with I.Q.Many smart people are not wise. Being wise means making sound judgments based on prior knowledge. It is skills that you build on throughout your life, not something you can get in a couple of hours.

Wisdom is learning from experiences

Cultivating wisdom doesn't take years of study. You won't become wise overnight, but with some dedication and effort, you can become more discerning. You can improve your store of knowledge which can help you to become wise. Then apply what you learn and learn from others. Your life will improve if you work on your wisdom engine.

You can cultivate wisdom

Wisdom is not knowledge. Knowledge is not the same as information. And information alone doesn’t make you wise. Here’s the process of becoming wise: gather enough valuable information — filter the…

philosophy

Philosophy

The 3 Stages of Becoming Wise

Clients look for representation that they can resonate with or someone that they feel will be able to connect with them.
When writing your bio, check with your firm if they already have an established template for it but if there's a theme or message that you need to follow, do so; but if not, feel free to share aspects of your life outside of work.

Consider Genuinity

Hiring the best lawyer possible is what prospective clients look for when looking for a legal representative. Keep this thought in mind when writing your bio. In order to express this, you may jot down your motivation for legal work and anything else related to it. Sharing a heartfelt passage shows that you care about your clients and that will give them something to ponder upon.

Express Your Passion

Writing about your prior successes will allow people to peek into your strategies and diligence in representing past clients. If you're wondering how to start writing them, here are a few questions that could help:<ul><li>What is the percentage of your clients that you have kept out of jail?</li><li>What is the aggregate amount of money you've been able to recover on behalf of your clients?</li><li>What percentage of cases have you won?</li></ul>If your expertise is on a field where it's easy to show your success, keep the list short - about 3 to 5 recent or historic accomplishments.

Talk About Your Successes

Your bio as a legal representative must be long enough to give your prospective clients enough information to want to reach out to you - but not so long that they'd be having a snoozefest If there are a lot of things you want to include in your bio, a solution is to create two versions of it. A short one, to keep on the firm's website; and a long one for the potential clients that want a more thorough understanding of your experience.

Use Brief Sentences

The rule of thumb when updating your bio is that it's best to make changes to it every quarter with any new information or accomplishments. By ensuring that your bio is up to date, you'll be able to gain a tinge of advantage over the competition.

Keep Your Bio Up to Date

The ABA Journal is read by half of the nation's 1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

career

Career

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

5 Tips for Writing an Attorney Bio

<ul><li>Also known as “Le Grande Boucle” or “Le Tour”, Tour de France is the world’s largest annual sporting event. </li><li>It’s a cycling competition that is held in France every year (sometimes neighboring countries) and takes place in 21 stages with a course that covers approximately 3,500 kilometers.</li><li>Cyclists from around the world gather in France to compete for the chance win the prestigious Tour de France trophy and a cash prize of €450,000 (just over $500,000).</li><li>This is a sport that garners 3.5 billion television viewers, and over 12 million spectators annually. It’s a thrilling sport and is completely free to attend.</li></ul>

“Le Grande Boucle”

<ul><li>Tour de France is a team sport that features a total of 198 cyclists in 22 teams of nine. Over the course of 21 days, usually in July, cyclists cover a race course extending 3,500 kilometers.</li><li>Tour de France is split into 21 stages: Nine flat stages, three hilly stages, seven mountain stages (including five summit finishes), two individual time trials and two rest days.</li><li>One stage is performed every day, covers roughly 225 kilometers, and takes about five and a half hours to complete. Each stage has a winner, and the rider that completes the most stages in the shortest amount of time goes onto win the overall title.</li></ul>

How Tour de France Works

<ul><li>Breakaways — Riders tend to cycle in a main group called a peloton, and have smaller groups break away to the front at almost every stage. Breakaways are a great method to use if a cyclist is not an exceptional climber or sprinter, because it gives them a chance at victory.</li><li> Attacks frequently occur on climbs, and involve a rider abruptly breaking away from the peloton at an extremely high speed in hopes that the other riders won’t be able to keep up with them.</li><li>A sprinter is a cyclist that finishes a race by suddenly accelerating to a high speed, and often uses the slipstream of an individual cyclist or a group of cyclists in order to conserve energy.</li><li>Lead-out Trains — This is a strategy used to setup a rider for a sprint finish. One rider on the team rides at a very high speed, and the team’s sprinter follows close behind to benefit from their slipstream. This reduces wind resistance, and enables the sprinter to achieve faster speeds without using as much energy as they normally would.</li></ul>

Tour Of France: Common Strategies

<ul><li>Grand Départ — The first stage of Tour de France.</li><li>Peloton — French for “group.” Peloton is the main group of cyclists who ride together for coherence.</li><li>Breakaway — A rider or group of riders who have broken away to lead the race.</li><li>Slipstreaming — Riding close behind another rider in order to benefit from almost no air resistance.</li><li>Bonking — Also known as “hit the wall.” This when a rider has completely run out of energy.</li><li>Domestique — Every team has a leader, and the remaining riders (domestiques) support the leader in whatever way they can in order for them to win stages, accumulate points and hopefully win the tour.</li><li>Directeur Sportif — Each team has a director, known as directeur sportif, that follows riders during the race and gives them instructions, water, helps with mechanical issues and replaces damaged bikes.</li><li>Flamme Rouge — French for “red flag” this is used to indicate the last kilometer of the race.</li><li>Lanterne Rouge — French for “red light” this is the last rider in the general classification/the tour. This is not a dishonorable term.</li><li>Musket Bag — A shoulder bag containing food and water that is handed to riders at feeding stations.</li><li>SAG Wagon — A vehicle that follows cyclists and picks them up when they can no longer ride due to injury, fatigue, biking failure, and also carries gear.</li></ul>

Tour de France: Some Of The Terms Used

The Tour de France can be a tricky thing to follow. Here is everything you need to know stay up to date on your favorite cyclists.

health

Health

sports

Sports

A complete guide to understanding the Tour de France

The assumption that the Earth can stop spinning is far-fetched. But, what if something changed the Earth's rotation? Let's assume the Earth stopped spinning gradually. 
And let's suppose that Earth's ecosystems have survived the transition. What would the new world look like?

Entertaining the idea of a still-standing earth

<ul>
<li>Earth would take a whole year to cycle from night to day and back. Cities would be in darkness for half the year and in sunlight the other half.</li>
<li>The polar regions would be deep underwater. When the Earth rotates, centrifugal force causes the planet to bulge along the equator. Without a bulge, all the extra water held in place along the equator would return toward the poles.</li>
<li>The Earth magnetic field might go away, leaving us exposed to harmful solar winds.</li>
</ul>

If the earth stopped spinning

Earth spins on its axis as it revolves around the sun.
Newton's first law of motion states that an object remains in the state of motion it's in unless another force acts upon it.
Before there were planets in our solar system, there was a spinning nebulous cloud of dust. The spinning dust collided over time and stuck together, forming larger rocks and, ultimately, planets. The cloud of dust was rotating from the start. The angular momentum the Earth needs keeps the world spinning.

Why the Earth spins

The Earth spins at the speed of 1,036 miles per hour (1,667 kilometres per hour).
<ul>
<li>The tides can slow the Earth's rotation speed and add about 2.3 milliseconds to our day every century. </li>
<li>Weather systems can also change the Earth's rotation.</li>
<li>Earthquakes can change the length of the day by redistributing the Earth's mass. The 2011 earthquake in Japan accelerated the Earth's spin and shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds.</li>
</ul>

The earth spins faster than the speed of sound

What if the Earth stopped spinning? Read about what could happen if the Earth's rotation gradually ground to a halt.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

space

Space

What If Earth Stopped Spinning?

Fantasizing about dramatically quitting your job by shouting at your boss and trashing the computer before exiting the building is a huge red flag that something needs to be corrected in your work life.
When work is a nightmare, it is natural to slip into daydreams of rage-quitting, but it can hinder any practical steps we need to take to rectify the situation. One needs to find the underlying cause or the issue that is making them dream about quitting furiously.

Rage-Quitting

<ul>
<li>The Source Of Your Rage: We need to introspect about what exactly is making us so angry by journaling our thoughts and reviewing the situations.</li>
<li>Talk To Others: Get an outside perspective as one can feel trapped and lose the sense of reality due to the distortion created by management.</li>
<li>Don’t Trash-Talk: It is good to network for better opportunities, but do not spend all your time trash-talking about your current pathetic state.</li>
<li>Self-Care: Take some time off and take care of your physical and mental health.</li>
<li>Plan Your Exit: Quitting a job without notice is not without consequences. To take things into your hands by job-hunting, networking or planning your own startup.</li>
</ul>

Rage Quitting: Five Ways To Channel Your Anger

Escaping into this fantasy won't free you from a toxic job. Here's what will.

communication

Communication

If You Feel Like Rage-Quitting, Here's What To Do Next

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

"The truth is more important than the facts."

"Dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses."

"Failure is another stepping-stone to greatness."

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in people's lives."

"Real leadership...comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing."

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

"Don’t ever confuse the two: your life and your work. The second is only part of the first."

"He who knows best knows how little he knows."

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader."

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

"Miracles happen every day. Change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around you."

"Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

"When I let go of who I am, I become what I might be."

"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right."

"Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any."

"Great acts are made up of small deeds."

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity."

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."

Contrary to popular belief, wisdom need not always be verbose. Sometimes wisdom is passed on in the most subtle ways, such as in short quotes.

Discover a Wealth of Wisdom in 25 Words or Fewer

When you're stuck, you need feedback. You need information that tells you what you're doing well and where you're going wrong.
We all have areas in our lives where we'd love to see positive and meaningful change. But sometimes, we don't know how to keep moving forward. We do research and think of strategies. We try to implement a few tactics, but then we get stuck. We are unsure if we are going in the right direction.

What you need to improve your life

Getting helpful information in an ongoing, interactive loop allows you to course correct.
Asking how you could be a better partner, team member, friend, or leader from people who can give you accurate feedback can help you improve.

Don't be afraid to ask for feedback

If you want good feedback:
<ul>
<li>Be open to listening to the things you might not want to hear.</li>
<li>Explain that you want to identify your blind spots so that you can improve.</li>
<li>Be gracious with the results, even if they're unpleasant.</li>
</ul>
Some professions come with feedback. Writers have editors, athletes have coaches. If you need more feedback, consider hiring a coach as everyone can do with some improvement.

Seeking good feedback

Some feedback is just noise. Feedback is based on observation and reactions to your specific actions. 
<ul>
<li>Feedback does not try to tell you what you should be doing. It tries to enlarge your perspective on what you are doing.</li>
<li>Opinions are just someone telling you how they feel about things. It may have nothing to do with you in particular.</li>
</ul>

An opinion is not the same as feedback

Great feedback isn't about convincing others to do things your way - it is about giving them insight on how to improve on their own methods. 
Giving feedback requires an awareness of what you're saying and how you say it. 
<ul>
<li>Make the feedback personal. Give specific examples.</li>
<li>Reassure the person you are trying to help them improve on themselves.</li>
<li>Be aware of your tone. You are a team member, not an accuser.</li>
<li>Choose your timing wisely. The end of a busy workday is often not a good time for feedback.</li>
</ul>

How to give great feedback

problemsolving

Problem Solving

entertainment

Entertainment

What Information Do You Need in Order to Change?

Steve Jobs stated that life is not fixed and ready-made for you to live in. You can change and influence the world and leave your mark on it.
Most of us will have a far less impact than Steve Jobs did. But in the smaller sphere of our lives, there is enough flexibility if we understand that life can be changed.

Reality Is Malleable

Thinking up a new life is not enough unless you also pair it with action. It is important then to realize that most of our actions happen without thinking. We do the same pattern endlessly, and those actions create our lives.
Real change seldom comes from a single exertion. It comes from committing yourself to specific daily habits until the habit feels comfortable.

Most Of Our Actions are Automatic

Setting difficult, ambitious goals and committing to them has a much bigger impact than people realise.
Edwin Lock, who pioneered the experimental study of goal-setting, found two things:
<ul>
<li>Harder goals produce better results, provided you stay committed.</li>
<li>Specific targets work better than vague suggestions like "doing your best."</li>
</ul>

Ambition Has A High Return

Growth is dominated by two trends:
<ol>
<li>Diminishing returns: At some point, more effort becomes increasingly unproductive. A key realisation is often to know how good is good enough.</li>
<li>Compound growth: Each past improvement helps further development. What at first looks like a small improvement will end in huge growth. The problem is often lacking the patience to continue even if your efforts at first seem unrewarded.</li>
</ol>
Understanding what kind of growth you're dealing with prepares you for progress.

Some Progress Slows, Others Accelerate

For most of recorded history, most of the roads to worldly success came at other people's expense.
In modern time, the most prominent way we have become rich isn't through plunder but through invention and service. We improve our lives mostly by making life better for others.

Life is Largely Positive-Sum

Exposure therapy works to reduce an irrational fear by exposing you to the fear in a safe environment.
Public speaking, talking to strangers, or taking tests can create a paralyzing anxiety. Knowing how to deal with it makes a big difference.

Fear is Overcome Through Exposure

Most of the essential activities in our life are infinite games, meaning that to win means you have to keep on playing. For instance, health isn't over when you've reached your weight-loss goal.
If you can keep going, you haven't lost.

Success is Stamina

The quality of your life is mostly determined by what you pay attention to. But most of what grasps our attention isn't good for us, such as anxiety and anger about things we cannot control.
Like a prudent gardener, you can choose what you let grow in your mind by watching the conversations you have, the books you read and the news you follow.

Attention Determines Your Direction

In the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, two people are unfairly imprisoned. One spends his time brooding, raging and attempting suicide. The other spent his captivity improving his mind by practising languages, developing tools, and reconstructing manuscripts from memory.
Freedom is possessed by varying degrees by different people. Your life situation could be constrained, or you may only have choices you don't like very much. But increasing your options is part of a good life.

We’re Fundamentally Free

While it's true that life is better when you have friends, money and status, that lifestyle is never satisfied. It always demands more.
Instead of striving to attain some ideal of life, organise your energy around pursuits that matter. Engaging in meaningful activities that help you and others are more satisfying.

Happiness is in the Pursuit, Not the Possession

The ideas that influence us aren't always obvious. Here are ten that have shaped my life, that may have the power to change yours.

habits

Habits

Ten Ideas That Have Shaped My Life

Happiness isn’t a ready-made concept but comes from our own actions. 
We don't need to make happiness an elusive goal to reach but can take the actions required for the art of simple living.

Happiness Is Not Bought But Crafted

Morning is a time of the day that we need to be alive, awake and practice mindfulness. 
Get away from all your distractions in the morning and take a deep breath, reconnecting with the immediate environment and breathing in the morning air.

The Morning Air

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.

<ul>
<li>To get something new in life, we must first identify the stuff that has fulfilled its purpose and discard it with folded hands of gratitude.</li>
<li>To calm your inner turmoil, remove the outer things that unconsciously are the reason for your stress.</li>
<li> Let go of all your unnecessary material possessions as well as the physical and mental baggage you are carrying.</li>
</ul>

Minimalism: Discard What You Don’t Need

<ul>
<li>To tell someone what you really feel about them is incredibly freeing.</li>
<li>Instead of holding on to unhealthy situations and relationships due to fear, obligations or ‘being in the good books’, we need to live with a light heart and should have the freedom to be at peace. </li>
<li> If we detach from people who feel toxic or a burden to us, we begin to feel truly free.</li>
</ul>

Emotional Catharsis

Any development we see was at first just an idea. We all were born naked and did not have the possessions, the hair, the clothes, and the relationships that formed as we reached our adulthood. We started from nothing and inside nothing (zero) there lies infinity.
One has to know that one has limitless potential and start from the first principles, pressing the reset button and starting the game again to pursue the seemingly impossible.

Everything Is Just An Accumulation

The past mostly regrets, and the future is anxiety and worry. The only thing that is real is the present moment, and the art of mindfulness delves into the present, instead of being in dreams or illusions.
Our breath connects us to the present moment, like an anchor. By focusing on our breath, we eventually become mindful by default and live in the Now.

Be In The Present Moment

In this confusing and chaotic world, happiness sometimes seems like an impossible goal to reach. Yet as much as we lament about the troubles of our time, contentment is always within our grasp. If…

Finding Hope in Hard Times

The 3 Stages of Becoming Wise

5 Tips for Writing an Attorney Bio

A complete guide to understanding the Tour de France

What If Earth Stopped Spinning?

Morgan E.