How To Be Smart (Part1)

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To be smart is being armed with sufficient information to challenge any problem with possible solutions. For you to be able to do this, you need to continually improve your education. This is the first step in learning how to be smart. Here are some practical suggestions:

1.    Aim to educate yourself. Keep in mind an education isn't the junk you are forced to do in school for diplomas and degrees; it's an understanding of the world around you. People who are naturally curious for some reason begin to stop asking questions the moment they hit school. The truly brilliant mind however, always questions their world and tries to make sense of it. That is the secret to "genius".

2.  Work on your vocabulary. Use a few definitions from the dictionary each day, or subscribe to a "word-of-the-day" service online. You can also take the vocabulary tests in Readers Digest or buy a book on increasing your working vocabulary. Read the dictionary one letter at a time. This will take you at least a year but you will grow intellectually.

3.  Read a variety of books. Reading a lot is often described as the secret to intelligence. The smartest people in the world tend to read every single day. You may not always enjoy it, but reading will open up your mind to a variety of new ideas and experiences. Keep your reading diverse by reading books of all genres including non-fiction.

4.  Educate yourself about the world around you. Cultivate an interest in subjects like current events, interesting facts, funny and inspiring quotations, good books and movies, scientific studies and interesting inventions. Educational television, like PBS, is a great way to learn. Learning to think critically about the world around you by being aware of cause and effect in events will make you much smarter. If you can read much faster than you can speak, it is much more efficient to read a book, or better yet a non-linear electronic document like a wiki than to watch a show for all but the most intellectually demanding or video-dependent learning. Commercial television is particularly bad because its ultimate purpose is to do just enough to keep you at the TV and its ads, not satisfy you so you can do something else.

5. Make connections. Find uses for information, rather than just collecting useless trivia. Burying information somewhere deep in your brain is not useful; you have to be able to access it in real-world situations. Think of real-world situations in which a piece of information will make sense. Then share it and watch it grow!

Source: Wikihow

6 Things To Do To Increase Your Success Rate

We humans (that means me included) often get stuck in a hamster wheel of habit. We do things that aren’t good for us, remain where we shouldn’t and put ourselves through voluntary suffering all in the name of comfort. We don’t know these things are damaging, because it’s normal to us.

Here are six things you should quit doing today, before it’s too late.

Quit Stopping – I’ve completed six half marathons (13.1 miles) over the past few years and each one has been an emotional experience for me.

They say that at the very moment you want to quit, you’re actually almost there. It’s the stupid human in us…we go so far and then our brains take over and tell us it’s too hard. When did we get the memo that life was supposed to be easy all the time?

Think right now about something you keep stopping. You committed to it, but then you suddenly quit because it started to require a little extra elbow grease. A project at work, a relationship, a fitness goal. Remember why you started it, then push onward. Because the more you stop and think about quitting, the longer it’ll take to get to your desired result. Or worse, you’ll never know what it feels like to reach the finish line.

Quit Saying Tomorrow – You know the saying, “Yesterday you said tomorrow?” Seriously, stop that! Delaying or procrastinating around something that you think is important means one of two things. You’re either scared to start because it means your life will change or you want it for the wrong reasons (i.e. someone else is encouraging you to do it).

So yes, that new healthy eating thing you want to do will be very difficult and possibly unpleasant. But every day you wait to start is another day you’re not helping yourself. And you keep telling yourself that you’ll wait until the kids are a certain age before you finish your degree, but is that really the main reason you’re waiting? Or is it because studying is not nearly as exciting as all the other options you have right now? And while you’re at it, why are you donating free money to the gym? They haven’t seen you in months.

Quit Being A Victim – When people tell me they’re doing something or making certain choices because they have “no choice,” it makes me want to bang my head on the table…and then put that on repeat. You have a choice in everything you do. Barring a few really crazy exceptions, no one holds your hand to the fire on anything. And if you’re choosing to remain in a place that isn’t positive, you’re victimizing yourself.

You are not so worthless that you have to keep dating that person. There are other places you could live. And it’s not your schedule that prevents you from being healthy.

Our social groups are great for complaining. We all discuss our problems with our friends and that’s ok. But there are limits. Everyone gets a few opportunities to complain about a particular hardship, but if you seek advice and respond with “but I can’t” (said in whiny voice) too many times, you officially become a victim. Eventually, you’ll have to ask yourself whether you even want to fix the problem.

Quit Saying Yes – Anytime we say yes to something, we’re saying no to something else. So when you say yes to a happy hour, you’re saying no to . When you say yes to a crappy review from your boss, you’re saying no to getting acknowledged for the great work that was overlooked. When you say yes to watching pointless reality TV shows, you’re saying no to doing the dishes. Or if you say yes to staying late at the office, you’re saying no to your relationship.

It could be you don’t need to entirely quit saying yes. You may just need to analyze when you’re saying yes and what you’re trading for it. You might find yourself saying yes to things you don’t even care about and no to things that could make your life better in some way.

Quit Expecting – I got an email the other night from someone looking for advice after reading this article. He told me that he’s been working for the same company for his entire career, rising through the ranks and loving it. But recently he realized he’s hit a wall – he’s had many reviews and each time he meets with management, they’re not giving him the promotion he knows he’s ready for. My question to him was, “Have you asked for it?”

It’s very rare for a company to proactively promote someone at a fast pace. Especially true in older organizations, if you expect your company to promote you when they feel you’re ready for it, you’ll be sitting around waiting for about 10 years to reach the next level.

Your boss is like your significant other. Don’t expect them to read your mind. They’ll only know what you need when you tell them. If you really have your heart set on something (like a promotion), you must be vocal about it. If you don’t speak up, you’re leaving the translation up to them. Expect at your own risk.

Quit Avoiding – Suck it up. We all have things we don’t want to do, but we have to do them because we’re adults. (Should I have started the paragraph with, “Dear Congress”?)

I once managed a team responsible for a corporate-wide project with a lot of moving pieces. There were some majorly miserable elements to that project and there were some really sexy parts (i.e. things you put on your resume) too. As I sat with my boss reviewing progress one day, she asked why I hadn’t finished one particular task (a task that couldn’t be delegated). I responded with, “It’s boring me!” Her response was, “Your point?”

Yeah, life doesn’t work that way. You can’t pluck the fun parts out and leave the tough parts on the table. You take all or none.

If we didn’t have to work hard to reach success, we wouldn’t appreciate it. If there’s something you’re putting off because it’s boring you, it’s hard, physically demanding or tiring…just get up and get it done. Quit avoiding it. There will be rewards along the way and there will be a great sense of accomplishment at the end.

Source: Forbes

Molly is a co-founder and Executive Producer of Haul Studios, the founder of GlassHeel.com and a freelance writer covering business, leadership and innovation. 

KEEP MOVING ON

Never stop learning. Strive to move on. There's no neutral ground in life. No one sits on d fence and gets to anywhere important in life.
After breaking the world's fastest record (which he was holding at the time), Usain Bolt has gone on to steadily win several races in different competitions against fierce opponents. You can always break new ground. He attributed his success to focus, determination, hard work and several other virtues.
The Koch brothers (Charles and David) in d Forbes top ten billionaire list are still making definite marks to increase their investments.
There are no limits for those who desire to move on to greater heights. There's a level beyond you. You simply need to use the eyes of the mind to see more opportunities around you and most importantly take advantage of it. As long as we are breathing, there's room at the top of the ladder. No success is ever enough.

Lessons from Bill Gates

Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder and Philanthropist

When questioned about his incredible success, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, now turned Philanthropist with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, offered these ten insights to anyone starting out and desiring success. They are worth considering:

1. Life isn't fair, get used to it;

2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem; it expects you to accomplish something before feeling good about yourself;

3. You won't make $60k (about N9m) a year out of school, or be a vice president with a cell phone. You have to earn it!

4. Do you think your teachers/lecturers are tough? Wait till you have a boss; he is not tenured!

5. Flipping burgers isn't beneath you; your grandparents called it opportunity

6. Your parents weren't always boring; it came from feeding you, cleaning your clothes and paying your bills. So before you rush out to save the rain forest from the 'parasites' of your parents' generation, try delousing your own closet

7. Some schools may have abolished winners and losers, but life hasn't. They may have eradicated 'failing grades' and given you as long as you want to get the right answer. This bears no resemblance to reality;

8. Life isn't divided into semesters. You don't get summers off! Employers aren't interested in helping you 'finding yourself'; you do that on your own time!

9. Unlike television, real people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work

10. Be nice to nerds; chances are, you'll end up working for one someday!

Think deep about how you want your life. Plan and prepare towards IT!
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ARE YOU GOING WITH THE FLOW?

“Only dead fish go with the flow.” Dead fishes simply go with the direction of flow of the water body. They have no life in them to go otherwise. How do we differ from dead fishes if we allow our lives to be patterned with what’s the norm?

Image Courtesy: contrarian.ca/2009/07/04/going-with-the-flow

Most of us like to take the path of least resistance. We don’t want to be termed the odd one out. We don’t want to be seen as been ‘different’ even though we’d like to be different but not ready to pay the price of being different: Courage.

How do you know if you are going with the flow?

A very simple way to know if you are going with the flow or not is the decisions you take on a daily basis. For instance, if you just resumed in an office where you resume by 8am and you decide to resume one hour earlier to get started with your day, you will be noticed and possibly mocked (I have seen that happen too many times); that’s not a problem. But when you drop your guard to go with the flow of prompt resumption or late resumption, you will notice one thing: your productivity will drop. You are down with the flow; struggling for survival. One mark of truly successful people is continually doing the inconvenient but necessary things without losing enthusiasm.

How do you deal with this: decide everyday you breathe to be different. Don’t take the path of losers. Don’t just do the convenient; do the necessary.

(A word of caution: By any means, being different does not mean you should neglect sound principles or good examples from mentors or role models.)

Dead fishes don’t swim. The water body carries them and sooner than later drops them on dry land. You have life in you, a great opportunity to be different and an example unto others in every good works. You’ve got no business going with the flow. Only those who stand out are outstanding.

Share and inspire a friend. Have a great working week.

GROWTH is NOT automatic!

You’re only young once, but you can be immature indefinitely. Each year the Lobster is forced to shed its shell; it’s a pity we aren’t! If you don’t make personal growth your responsibility it’ll never happen. The road to anything worthwhile is always uphill, so the sooner you start climbing the closer you are to reaching your potential.

Growth is your responsibility. When you were a child, your parents were responsible for your growth; now YOU are! Robert Browning wrote, “Why stay here on earth except to grow?” Yet not very many people dedicate themselves to the process of growing. Why? Because growth requires change and most of us are quite uncomfortable with change. Gail Sheehy writes, “if we don’t change, we won’t grow, and if we don’t grow, we’re not really living. Growth demands the temporary surrender of security. It means a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. Taking a new step is what we fear most, yet our real fear should be the opposite.”

How do you grow? Physically, we all grow by eating well, sleeping well, exercising well. Mentally, we grow by reading, studying, learning and applying. Spiritually, by reading The Word, praying and applying the principles.

What you sow today determines what you reap tomorrow. Oliver Wendell Holmes noted, “Once stretched by a new idea, a man’s mind never regains its original dimensions.” So what are you doing today to become MORE successful tomorrow? Can you think of anything worse than living a life devoid of growth and improvement?