Would you be surprised to learn that wealth creation boils down to time management? In order to create wealth, you have to spend time looking for ways to do so.
Think of the following:
A passive source of income isn’t going to create itself out of the blue;
You’re not going to wake up one day and discover that you now miraculously have an investment portfolio; and
It’s highly unlikely that a business opportunity will just land on your lap.
If you want these things, you have to make them happen. That is, you have to devote your time to making them happen. You can begin to create more wealth, right now, simply by setting aside an hour of your day for wealth creation.
I’m going to refer to two different sources in order to back-up this claim:
“The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy”
“100 Ways to Create Wealth”
Discover what these two sources have to say about time and wealth creation below.
The Millionaire Next Door
In “The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy” , the authors—Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko–, compile research they did on millionaires. They use the term “millionaire” to denote households in the United States with a net worth of over one million dollars.
In the book, the authors describe the following three types of people:
Under Accumulators of Wealth (UAW): People who have a low net worth compared to their income.
Average Accumulators of Wealth (AAW): People who have an average net worth compared to their income.
Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAW): People who have a high net worth compared to their income.
Then they add the following: “PAWs allocate nearly twice the number of hours per month to planning their financial investments as UAWs.” That is, people who accumulate wealth spend time thinking, planning, studying, and taking action related to making and protecting their money.
100 Ways to Create Wealth
Right now you may telling yourself that you don’t have the time to devote to wealth creation. Here’s a quote from a CNBC article:
“Millionaires only have 24 hours in a day, just like the rest of us. What separates them from us is time management. While the rest of us go home and flop on the couch in front of the TV, the wealthy are reading and doing things that contribute to their success.”
In addition, all you really need to devote to wealth creation is an hour a day.
In his book, “100 Ways to Create Wealth”, Steve Chandler argues that one of the best ways to create wealth is to devote one hour a day to looking for ways to increase your income. Chandler explains that it’s amazing what you’ll find time for, once you’ve decided that something is a top priority for you. Make increasing your wealth a priority.
Chandler makes reference to Thomas J. Watson in “100 Ways to Create Wealth”. He indicates that when Watson joined the Computer-Tabulating Recording Company — the forerunner of today’s IBM — in 1914, he took with him the “Think” motto which he had coined when he worked at the National Cash Register Company. He would say the following:
“Thought has been the father of every advance since time began.”
Soon, the one-word slogan “THINK” appeared in large block-letter signs in offices and plants throughout the company.
Conclusion
Most people don’t take the time to think about their financial possibilities. Try this: set aside an hour a day and sit down with a yellow pad and a pen. Have it be your creative thinking time. Ask yourself how you can generate more income and increase your wealth. Carve an hour out of your day and think!
There’s a task that you need to get to, but it’s something dull and tedious. Every time you think of getting started on the task, you’re filled with dread. It’s very likely that the following thoughts go through your mind every time you think of the task:
I hate doing that.
I’m going to be bored out of my mind.
Dull, dull, dull . . .
Zzzzzzz . . .
Is it any surprise that you keep procrastinating when it comes to getting the task done? Of course not. There are many reasons why we procrastinate, and one of them is boredom. Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use in order to get yourself to work on a boring task, and one of the most effective of these is to make the task fun.
Below you’ll discover three examples of how to turn a boring task into a fun one.
The Piano Stairs
Under normal circumstances, when people are given the choice between walking up the stairs or riding up the escalators, the choice is clear. The great majority people will choose to stand passively on the escalators. After all, walking up the stairs requires effort.
However, we know that movement is good for you, and that most people are not getting enough exercise. The question then becomes, “How can people be motivated to use the stairs instead of using the escalators. What if you make climbing up the stairs fun?
“The Fun Theory” is a site put up by Volkswagen which is “dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better.” In order to test the theory that people would choose the stairs instead of the escalators if a “fun” element was added to climbing up the stairs, the people from “The Fun theory” tried an experiment:
They turned stairs at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into piano keys. That is, they engineered it so that as people climbed up the stairs, each step would play a different musical note.
The result was that more people started using the stairs. In other words, people were willing to make the effort to walk up the stairs when it was turned into something fun. Here’s a YouTube video of “the piano stairs”:
Two More Examples
The Fun Theory site has several more examples of getting people to take a desired action by introducing fun into the mix. Here are two more examples:
In order to get people to recycle glass bottles, the container in which people place the glass bottles was turned into an arcade game. You can watch the video below:
In order to get more people to throw their garbage away in the garbage bins, instead of simply throwing it on the ground, a device was installed in a garbage bin which creates a sound as if the rubbish is falling down a deep well. Here’s the video:
These experiments confirmed it: making things fun really can change behavior. Fun motivates people to do things they previously avoided because they were simply boring and monotonous tasks which did not seem worth the effort.
Conclusion
Here’s an excerpt from “The Procrastination Equation”, by Piers Steel on the subject of how to stop procrastinating by making things fun:
“Boredom isn’t inherently part of any job – anything can be made more exciting simply by how we treat it. Tom Sawyer, for example, managed to get the village boys to payhim for the privilege of whitewashing his Aunt Polly’s picket fence. How? By insisting that they couldn’t help and making them envy an unenviable chore. Fortunately, there are a few effective techniques for turning leaden tasks into golden ones.”
The next time you find yourself procrastinating because the task that you need to get done bores you to tears, ask yourself how you can make the task fun. Or, you can also ask yourself: “What would Tom Sawyer do?” Stop procrastinating by turning boring tasks into fun tasks.
Maybe you want to sit back in a lounge chair–on a beach in the Caribbean–reading a novel by your favorite author (with the requisite drink sporting a cocktail umbrella resting on a small table beside you). Or take your kid to the next Olympic games. Perhaps you want to own a luxury car or go on a Manolo Blahnik shopping spree a la Carrie Bradshaw.
You may, instead, want to help build schools in Africa, or visit the small town in Ireland where your grandmother was born.
One of the obstacles that many people face when they think of the life goals that they want to achieve is that they don’t know how they’re going to pay for them. This post is going to set forth three strategies for financing your life goals. The three strategies are the following:
Think of a problem that you’re having that others share, and find a solution for the problem.
Think of an alternative to money.
Flip it.
Each of these strategies is explained below.
Think of a Problem and Solve It
One of the best ways to come up with the money that you need in order to finance your life goals is to identify a problem that you’re having, which others are having as well, and solve it. That’s what Bette Nesmith Graham did.
You’ve probably never heard of Bette Nesmith Graham, but she invented a product that we’ve all used at some point or another. Bette was a divorcee who needed to find a job in order to support herself and her son. She managed to find office work, but she faced a huge obstacle: she wasn’t a very good typist.
Bette came up with the idea of using tempura paint to cover up her typing mistakes. In her kitchen at home, she experimented with different ingredients she could add to the tempura paint in order to better camouflage her typos, and she hit upon a formula that worked. She called the product that she came up with “Mistake Out”.
When other office workers noticed what she was doing, they started buying “Mistake Out” from her. Once Bette saw how well received her product was, she tried selling it to IBM, but they turned her down. She then changed the name to “Liquid Paper” and continued selling it herself. In 1979 the Gillette Corporation bought Liquid Paper for $47.5 million.
Ask yourself the following two questions:
“What problem am I having that others are having as well?”
“How can I solve the problem?”
Think of Alternatives to Money
Best selling San Francisco author SARK—Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy—who has sold over 2 million of her books, went through a period of twelve years during which her books were rejected. During those twelve years she was a penniless artist. Therefore, she found ways to get what she wanted without resorting to money: for years, she lived on barter and trade. Here are three examples:
When she first arrived in San Francisco around 1981 she made a sign reading: “Artist available for dinner” and sat in a chair in the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel. She was invited to dinner and offered a place to stay.
When she was looking for a place to live she put the following ad in the paper: “Incredible house sitter seeks incredible house.” Three days later, she began house sitting in a four-bedroom mansion on Russian Hill. The job lasted two years.
Later on, she traded her artwork for rent.
Keep in mind that at the end of the day, for most of your life goals, money is not your ultimate objective. For example, if you want to visit Italy, money is just the means you might be relying on to get there. However, money is not the only means at your disposal.
There are many things you can do to visit Italy, even if you have a limited amount of cash. As an illustration, you can get free accommodations via the CouchSurfing community. In addition, you can get very creative with Frequent Flyer miles, as Steve Kamb explains in this article. You can also follow SARK’s example and look for creative ways to use barter and trade.
Flip It
“Flipping it” is a creativity technique that involves doing the opposite of the standard, reversing things, and flipping things over. The usual way to pay for a life goal is the following: you save your money until you have the amount that you need in order to achieve your goal. But what if you did things differently?
For example, when Elizabeth Gilbert wanted to travel to India, Italy, and Bali, she didn’t spend months saving up until she could afford the plane ticket. Instead, she pitched a book about her future travels to an agent. She got an advance for the book, and that’s how she paid for her trip. The result was the book “Eat, Pray, Love”.
As another example, Quirky, Inc, is a social networking site for product development. Basically, if you have an idea for a product that you think would be useful to others, you submit your idea to the site. The Quirky community–that is, anyone who creates an account for free at Quirky–offers feedback on your idea in the form of comments. The community decides which ideas will be developed.
Quirky, Inc. has a team of professionals that will get to work on creating a prototype of the products that the community decides will go forward. During the development of the prototype, the Quirky community gets to weigh in on every step of the process: your product’s design, name, packaging, color scheme, and so on. At the end of the day, you lose all rights to the product, but you get a percentage of the sales that are made.
That is, if you have an idea for a product you don’t have to go out and find a way to finance the process from the idea stage to placing the product on store shelves; instead, Quirky, Inc. does all that. Essentially, you’ve placed the burden of financing, product development, and marketing on someone else. And you reap an economic benefit from your product idea.
Instead of following the linear route of setting money aside each month in order to be able to finance an important life goal, ask yourself how you can flip it.
Conclusion
What important life goals do you keep postponing because you’re not sure how you’re going to pay for them? Apply the strategies above and get going on living your best life.
Passive income is income that requires a strong initial effort to get it started, but which requires little effort to maintain. Generating passive income is the holy grail of making money online.
In this blog post I’m going to share with you the five ways in which I make passive income online. The five ways are the following:
I make money from old blog posts by selling eBooks tailored to the subject of each blog post.
I make money from old blog posts through Amazon Associates.
Squidoo sends me money each month for my high-ranking Squidoo lenses.
I make affiliate income from one of my Squidoo lenses.
My Squidoo lenses drive traffic to my eBooks’ sales pages, and I generate sales from that traffic.
Each of these is explained below.
Ebooks Tailored to the Subject-Matter of Old Blog Posts
I make money from the blog that you’re reading right now. How do I make money from this blog? By selling eBooks that I write. The four main eBooks that I sell from this blog are the following:
However, blogging income is generally not considered to be passive income, because a blog needs to be constantly updated. If you write quality posts–and I like to think that I do–creating new blog posts each week takes a lot of time and effort. Most of the sales of the four eBooks that I mention above come from readers drawn to my blog when I publish a new blog post.
At the same time, there is an aspect of blogging that I would argue is passive. I’m referring to making money from old blog posts. I identified a few blog posts which I wrote a while ago, that get a lot of traffic. Then I asked myself, “How can I make money from these blog posts?” The idea that I came up with was the following:
Write a short eBook on the subject matter of each of these blog posts.
Create a sales page for each of these eBooks.
Link to the sales page of each of these eBooks from the corresponding blog post.
In order to stand in front of all that traffic and sell them something, I wrote this eBook: “350 Tips For Writers, From Writers”. I link to this eBook’s sales page from the aforementioned post.
There are four more examples like that. I wrote the blog posts and the eBooks, I forgot about them, and I make money from them each month.
Making Money From Old Blog Posts Through Amazon Associates
Amazon-the giant online book seller–has an affiliate program. If you join Amazon’s Associates Program you can link to them every time you mention a book on your blog–as well as other products that are available on Amazon–and earn a commission anytime someone buys from Amazon after entering their site through your link.
I haven’t been linking to Amazon very much lately–because I prefer to direct traffic to my own sales pages–but I linked to them in many of my old blog posts. Once again, since I’m making money from Amazon based on blog posts that I wrote and forgot about, I consider it to be passive income.
Every month since then, when I check my income report for Amazon Associates, I notice that some people have bought “Happier” through my affiliate link.
There’s a few more examples like that.
High Ranking Squidoo Lenses
Squidoo is a Web 2.0 site founded by marketing guru Seth Godin which allows anyone to set up a single page—called a lens—on any topic, for free. Advertising revenue is shared with these content creators. Lenses can be about anything, such as:
Creative thinking techniques;
People–Mother Theresa, Prince Charles, Brad Pitt, or even your grandmother–;
Places–your home town, a place you traveled to, and so on;
Hobbies:
Pet care; and so on.
The amount of money that you get from Squidoo depends on the rank of your lenses. I have a few high ranking Squidoo lenses, so I get money deposited in my Paypal account from Squidoo each month. The process that I follow with Squidoo is the following:
Create a lens and publish it.
Create some links back to the lens so that it ranks well on Google.
I hit “edit”, “save”, and “publish” on each top ranking lens about once a week (to keep them “fresh”).
Since the effort that I make to maintain the lenses is minimal, I consider the money that I get from Squidoo to be passive income.
Make Affiliate Income From Your Squidoo Lenses
Some time ago I decided that I was going to write a new eBook, and I started a Squidoo lens on the topic in order to collect the research that I was doing for said eBook. I published the lens, but I got sidetracked by other projects and I haven’t gotten around to writing the eBook.
However, since the lens was getting some traffic, I decided to look for a way to monetize it. I knew that a blogger whom I admire had written an eBook on the lens’ topic, so I became an affiliate for her eBook and I started advertising it on my lens. Every month I sell a few of her eBooks, and every month I get an affiliate check from her.
I created the lens and basically forgot about it, and I make affiliate income earned through that lens every month.
Squidoo Drives Traffic to My Sales Pages
As I mentioned at the very top of this blog post, there are four main eBooks from which I make money online. One way in which I market these eBooks is by creating Squidoo lenses to drive traffic to my sales pages. Again, since I do very little work in order to maintain my Squidoo lenses, if I sell an eBook from traffic that landed on one of my sales pages from Squidoo, I consider that to be passive income.
Conclusion
To recap, the bulk of my online income comes from eBook sales which are generated each time I publish a blog post, and that’s not passive income. But I would argue that the five methods which I describe in this article are passive income.
I’m not going to reveal the specifics of how much passive income I make, but it’s a decent amount. And best of all, it’s p-a-s-s-i-v-e. That is, it’s practically the equivalent of opening the door to my apartment each month and finding money lying on the ground.
And that’s a good thing.
How do you generate passive income online? Please share in the comments section below.
It’s almost February, and we all know what that means: Valentine’s Day is almost upon us! Make your Valentine’s Day this year fun and memorable by planning ahead of time.
To help you, here are 74 heartfelt ideas for your Valentine’s Day bucket list.
1. Make pancakes into the shapes of hearts and serve with berry-flavored, reddish syrup. Top with raspberries, strawberries, and powdered sugar.
2. Make red velvet crepes with raspberry jam and cream cheese filling; drizzle Nutella on top.
3. Give your loved one a card that says “I love you because . . .” Come up with as many reasons as you can of why you love them. In fact, come up with 100 reasons.
I love you because of the way your face lights up when you smile.
I love you because you know all of my secrets and you don’t judge me for them.
I love you because when I’m with you I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.
I love you because you believe in me.
4. Make a gift basket for your loved one filled with treats he or she likes.
5. Hire a chef to come over to your house and cook you a dinner for two on the 14th (but don’t hire a violinist to play for you as you eat, because that probably gets weird after the first fifteen minutes or so).
6. Make a grand romantic gesture.
7. Have a turquoise Valentine (instead of decorating with the usual red, white, and pink, use turquoise).
10. On February 1st watch “Summertime”, with Katherine Hepburn. A lonely American woman unexpectedly finds romance when she takes a trip to Venice, Italy.
11. On February 2nd watch the film “Love Affair”, with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. After meeting on a flight to Sydney, ex-football star Mike Gambril and singer Terry McKay, each of whom is engaged to be married to someone else, fall in love. They agree to meet at the top of the Empire State Building six months later, but one of them doesn’t show up.
12. On February 3rd watch the black romantic comedy, “Harold and Maude”. Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
13. On February 4th watch “Sleepless in Seattle”, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Sam is a widower and single father living in Seattle. He ends up on a radio program lamenting the loss of his wife. Thousands of miles away, Annie hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam.
14. On February 5th watch “Say Anything” with John Cusak. A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.
15. On February 6th watch “When Harry Met Sally”, with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. A platonic relationship turns into a romance.
16. On February 7th watch “It Happened One Night”, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, falls in love with a roguish reporter.
17. On February 8th watch “The Notebook”. A poor and passionate young man and a rich young woman fall in love. They are soon separated by their social differences.
18. On February 9th watch “Ghost”, with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. After being killed during a mugging, a man’s love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.
19. On February 10th watch the film “South Pacific”. On a South Pacific island during World War II, love blooms between a young nurse and a wealthy French planter.
20. On February 11th watch “Roman Holiday”, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Ann is the crown princess of an unspecified country who’s on a widely publicized tour of several European capitals. In Rome, she escapes her guardian to experience the city on her own. She meets an expatriate American reporter and they fall in love.
21. On February 12th watch “The Graduate”, with Dustin Hoffman. Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is having an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner. He then finds himself falling in love with her daughter, Elaine.
22. On February 13th watch “Love Story”, with Ryan O’Neill and Ali McGraw. Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri come from opposite backgrounds. However, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other even though Oliver’s wealthy father threatens to disown him..
23. Give your crush a heart-shaped box filled with assorted chocolates.
24. Give your crush a personalized Valentine’s Day teddy bear.
25. Give your loved one a red rose for every day you’ve known them.
26. Send friendship valentine cards to all of your friends.
27. Choose a Nicholas Sparks novel and read a few pages of it out loud to your partner starting on the first day in February (yes, his novels are cheesy, but so is Valentine’s Day). Here are three you could choose from:
A Walk to Remember
The Lucky One
Message in a Bottle
28. Find some great love quotes and put them up on your bulletin board.
29. Get a book of love poems and, every day in February, read a poem to your partner.
30. Write a love and appreciation letter for your Valentine (call it a billet-doux).
31. Take a bubble bath with your partner.
32. On the 14th eat dinner at the most elegant restaurant in town.
33. Fill the cookie jar with love notes.
34. Get a caricature done of the two of you together (my sister got one done with her husband, and it’s really cute).
35. Slow dance with your partner.
36. Give your loved one a balloon bouquet.
37. Hire a Mariachi band and serenade your loved on Valentine’s Day.
38. Cook your loved one’s favorite meal.
39. Each valentine day exchange the following:
A gag gift.
A homemade gift.
The gift of food.
The gift of music.
The “just what I wanted” gift.
40. Give your loved one an A to Z of romantic gifts. For example,
A – Aretha Franklin album
B – Books
C – Candle
D – Donut
41. On February 1st fill a mason jar with nuts, and attach a note that says: “I’m nuts for you”. (This idea and the next few ones that follow are corny, but that’s Valentine’s Day for you, so just go with the flow.)
42. On February 2nd give them a little bag filled with cocoa powder and little marshmallows with a note that says, “You warm my heart”.
43. On February 3rd give them a Valentine’s Day Root Beer Float Kit (put root beer, a pint of vanilla ice cream, and a heart-shaped straw in a basket) with a note that says. “You float my boat”.
44. On February 4th fill a mason jar with Valentines candy corn and attach a note that says, “It may be corny, but I love you.”
45. On February 5th get a cute pair of Valentine-themed socks, and put them in a bag with a label that says, “You Rock My Socks Off”.
46. On February 6th get a pack of gum and attach a note that says, “”A little birdie told me that you were looking for a Valentine… How about you “chews” me…
47. On February 7th get a pack of hot tamales and attach a note that says, “You are one hot tamale!”
48. On February 8th get a small box of assorted chocolates and attach a note that says, “It’s a treat to be your Valentine.”
49. On February 9th make a book of love coupons (redeemable for a massage, a date night, and so on), and give it to them. Here are some ideas.
50. On February 10th get a roll of mints and attach a note that says, “We were ‘mint’ to be together”.
51. On February 11th get a bottle of champagne with a note that says, “You make my heart bubble over.”
52. On February 12th get a small toy shovel (like the ones you take to the beach to shovel sand), and put it in a plastic baggie with Valentines M&Ms. Attach a note that says, “I dig you.”
53. On February 13th put gummy worms in a pail and attach a note that says, “I’m hooked on you.”
54. On February 14th give your significant other a Cracker Jack box with a note that says, “Valentine, you crack me up.”
55. Bake together: make sugar cookies shaped like hearts or X’s and O’s; make cupcakes and decorate them with heart-shaped edible confetti sprinkles; bake a heart-shaped cake; and so on.
56. Start the day on the 14th by playing “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.
57. Create a tradition of making fondue for Valentine’s Day, instead of going out. Make it a chocolate fondue, and dip all of the following: angel food cake, graham crackers, marshmallows, lady fingers, biscotti, or meringues.
58. Dress all in red on Valentine’s Day.
59. Print out Valentine subway art, frame it, and put it up around the house. Better yet, choose one spot in the house that you’re going to decorate for Valentine’s Day–the mantle, the entry-way, the bedroom, and so on–and hang up all of your subway art there.
60. Write your significant other a love poem (it can be of the “Roses are red, violets are blue” variety; we can’t all be poets).
63. Get a special mug for Valentine’s Day that you use only from the 1st to the 14th of February. It can have red SMACK lips on it, a cupid, the phrase “I love you”, red and pink hearts, and so on.
64. Do one special thing for each other every day from the 1st to the 13th of February (like a countdown to Valentine’s day with acts of love):
Take Starbucks to her at work.
Warm the towel in the dryer and hand it over to her when she gets out of the shower.
Do “his” chore for the day.
Let him pick what you watch on TV (yes, you may end up watching sports).
65. Play the game “21 questions” during dinner on the 14th, and get to know each other better.
66. Exchange foot rubs.
67. Put a love-themed jigsaw puzzle together as a couple.
68. Get your kids a treat for Valentine ’s Day and hide it. Leave clues on heart-shaped notes so that they can find it.
69. Make a love tree for your table’s center piece. Hang up heart-shaped ornaments, as well as photos of your loved ones –kids included–with a note in the back that says why you love them.
71. Get yourself a heart-shaped key chain, pendant, or pin and wear it during the first two weeks of February to get into the Valentine’s Day spirit (kind of like the Christmas spirit, but for Valentine’s Day).
Focus on those things which are most important to you, instead of trying to do it all;
Learn to say “no” to requests from others which are not aligned with your goals;
Avoid people who push your buttons; and so on.
How about trying some unusual ways to reduce stress? After all, the more stress management techniques you have at your disposal, the better equipped you’ll be to deal with stress. You’ll find four unusual ways to reduce stress, below.
Drink Orange Juice
Eating oranges–or drinking orange juice–helps reduce stress. This is because of their wealth of vitamin C. Studies show that this vitamin can reduce levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol, while strengthening the immune system.
In a German study, researchers subjected 120 people to a stressing event: a public speaking task combined with math problems. That’s right: public speaking and math (I know I’d be stressed).
Half of those studied were given vitamin C, and the other half were not. Signs of stress–such as elevated levels of cortisol and high blood pressure–were significantly greater in those who did not get the vitamin supplement.
The stress-reducing effects of vitamin C are two-fold:
People with high levels of vitamin C in their system don’t show the expected mental and physical signs of stress when subjected to stressful situations.
In addition, they bounce back from stressful situations faster than people with low levels of vitamin C in their blood.
Researchers indicate that–since vitamin C works rapidly, and is short acting–, it should be taken at regular intervals throughout the day. Of course, drinking orange juice isn’t the only way to get vitamin C. This vitamin is found in many fruits and vegetables, and can also be taken as a supplement.
Switch Brain Hemispheres
Switching brain hemispheres is a technique for reducing stress which is recommended by Michael Kerr. As you know, for different activities we rely more heavily on either our left or right brain hemispheres. At any given moment you can reduce stress by switching to an activity that uses the hemisphere of your brain that is not causing you stress.
For example, if the source of your stress is centered in the creative and emotional right hemisphere–you’re feeling depressed, anxious, worried or otherwise emotionally distraught–, then change to a task that requires more of your left hemisphere to kick in, such as any of the following:
Filling out a Sudoku puzzle;
Organizing; or
Performing some other task that requires linear, sequential thinking.
If the stress is a result of being time pressured or overworked, chances are your left brain hemisphere is stressed. In this case, do a right-brain activity, like engaging in play, playing a musical instrument, drawing, or engaging in some other creative pursuit.
Have a Handful of Pistachios
When you experience stress, a very common side effect is an elevation of blood pressure. In a Penn State University study, researchers found that eating pistachios resulted in study participants experiencing a substantial reduction of the negative effects of stress on blood pressure.
The researchers found positive results with as little as 1.5 oz of pistachio added daily to the diet. Consuming 3 oz of pistachios daily showed even greater relaxation of the arteries, thereby easing the workload on the heart even more. In a nutshell, pistachios protect your heart from stress.
The One Minute Miracle – Yoga for the Hands Ritual
Mudras can be described as yoga for the hands. Daniel Millstein wrote a book called “The Mudra of Light”, which describes a one-minute yoga-for-the-hands-ritual that uses 12 simple hand gestures. Each hand gesture is coupled with an affirmation. (Millstein later changed the title of the book to “The One Minute Miracle”.)
When you’re feeling stressed, take a mini-retreat by setting aside a minute to go through the ritual created by Millstein. You can find photos of each of the 12 positions, along with the affirmation that you need to say with each position, here.
In addition, you can follow along with Millstein as he takes a minute to go through the 12 positions in the video below. (I tried it and it’s very easy to do, and very calming. Best of all, it just takes one minute!)
Conclusion
Stress can wreak havoc with both your physical and your mental health. It can definitely be a barrier to living your best life. What unusual ways do you have for reducing stress? Please share in the comments section.
Here are five feel good videos that help remind us what a great world we live in. I hope that they brighten your day!
‘Boom De Ah Dah!’ – The World Is Just Awesome
This is a video from the Discovery Network. To quote them: “To all fans of the whole world and all its sights and sounds.”
Runner Intentionally Loses Race
With all the news about Lance Armstrong’s deception, it’s refreshing to come across an athlete who understands what true sportsmanship is all about. This past December, 24-year-old Spanish athlete Ivan Fernandez Anaya was participating in a cross-country race in the Navarre province of Spain.
Anaya was in second place, running behind Abel Mutai, the Kenyan athlete who won a bronze medal in the London Olympics. Mutai mistakenly thought that the race came to end about 10 meters before it did; so he stopped running. The crowd started yelling at Mutai to keep going, but–since he doesn’t speak Spanish–he couldn’t understand what they were saying.
When Anaya caught up to Mutai, he didn’t take advantage of Mutai’s mistake. Instead, Anaya slowed down and guided Mutai to the finish line, allowing Mutai to cross first.
Flashmob – The Sound of Music
A flashmob performs a dance to “The Sound of Music” at the Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium.
A 9-Year-Old’s Dedication to His Brother
I love stories of siblings looking out for each other. Seven-year-old Cayden Long has cerebral palsy. He can’t walk or talk without help. However, thanks to his 9-year-old brother–Conner–, Cayden knows the thrill of participating in sports activities.
Conner participates in triathlons; and he takes Cayden along for the ride. This is how he does it:
He pulls Cayden in a raft during the swimming portion of the race.
Then, as Conner bikes, a trailer behind him holds Cayden inside.
Finally, he pushes that same trailer — still holding Cayden — while running to the finish line.
What a Wonderful World
This one’s for the nature lovers. Originally uploaded by the BBC in December, 2011 on their YouTube channel, they re-uploaded it for everyone who’s not located in the UK (very thoughtful, thank you). This video is spectacular.
What videos would you add to this list? Please feel free to share in the comments section below.
“How to Succeed”, or “Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune”, was written by Orison Swett Marden in 1896. It’s the third book written by Marden that I’ve read, and I’m quickly becoming a fan of his.
I’ve extracted 49 snippets of wisdom from “How to Succeed”, which you can read below:
1. “Many of us who think we are poor are rich in opportunities, if we could only see them.”
2. “Do the best you can where you are; and, when that is accomplished, God will open a door for you, and a voice will call, ‘Come up hither into a higher sphere.’” — Beecher
3. Seize opportunities: Let nothing escape you which you can possibly use for your own advancement; keep your ears open for every sound that can help you on your way; keep your hands open and clutch at every opportunity; be ever on the alert for everything which can help you to get on in the world.
4. Seize every experience in life and grind it up into paint for your life’s picture.
5. If you want to get rich, study yourself and your own wants. You will find millions of others have the same wants, the same demands. The safest business is always connected with men’s prime necessities.
6. Any man who can supply a great want of humanity, improve any methods which men use, supply any demand or contribute in any way to their well-being, can make a fortune.
7. First find out what the people need and then supply that want.
8. Don’t think you have no chance in life because you have no capital to begin with. Most of the rich men of today began poor.
9. God has given every man a capital to start with; we are born rich. He is rich who has good health, a sound body, good muscles; he is rich who has a good head, a good disposition, a good heart; he is rich who has two good hands, with five chances on each.
10. Man only grows when he is developing along the lines of his own individuality, and not when he is trying to be somebody else. All attempts to imitate another man, when there is no one like you in all creation, as the pattern was broken when you were born, is not only to ruin your own pattern, but to make only an echo of the one imitated.
11. Don’t wait for a higher position or a larger salary. Enlarge the position you already occupy; put originality of method into it. Fill it as it never was filled before.
Be more prompt, more energetic, more thorough, more polite than your predecessor or fellow-workmen.
Study your business, devise new modes of operation, be able to give your employer points.
The art lies not in giving satisfaction merely, not in simply filling your place, but in doing better than was expected, in surprising your employer; and the reward will be a better place and a larger salary.
12. Show me a man who has made fifty thousand dollars, and I will show you in that man an equivalent of energy, attention to detail, trustworthiness, punctuality, professional knowledge, good address, common sense, and other marketable qualities.
13. Don’t yield to vice, dishonesty, or idleness.
14. Help yourself and others will help you.
15. Alexander Hamilton said, “Men give me credit for genius. All the genius I have lies just in this: when I have a subject in hand I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I make the people are pleased to call the fruit of genius; it is the fruit of labor and thought.”
16. The law of labor is equally binding on genius and mediocrity.
17. “I have been watching the careers of young men by the thousand in this busy city of New York for over thirty years,” said Dr. Cuyler, “and I find that the chief difference between the successful and the failures lies in the single element of staying power.”
18. Man never reaches heights above his habitual thought.
19. We are responsible for our thoughts, and unless we could command them, mental and moral excellence would be impossible.
20. It is difficult to estimate the great influence upon a life of the early formed habit of doing everything to a finish, not leaving it half done, or pretty nearly done, but completely done.
21. Nature finishes every little leaf, even to every little rib, its edges and stem, as exactly and perfectly as though it were the only leaf to be made that year. Even the flower that blooms in the mountain dell, where no human eye will ever behold it, is finished with the same perfection and exactness of form and outline, with the same delicate shade of color, with the same completeness of beauty, as though it was made for royalty in the queen’s garden.
23. “No great deed is done,” says George Eliot, “by falterers who ask for certainty.”
24. To think we are able is almost to be so; to determine upon attainment, is frequently attainment itself.
25. It is he who resolves to succeed, and who at every fresh rebuff begins resolutely again, that reaches the goal.
26. Persistency is characteristic of all men who have accomplished anything great. They may lack in some other particular, have many weaknesses, or eccentricities, but the quality of persistence is never absent in a successful man.
27. It is not so much brilliancy of intellect or fertility of resource as persistency of effort, constancy of purpose, that makes a great man.
28. Everybody believes in the man or woman who persists.
29. Even the man with small ability will often succeed if he has the quality of persistence, where a genius without persistence would fail.
30. The very reputation of being strong-willed, plucky, and indefatigable is of priceless value.
31. “Never despair,” says Burke, “but if you do, work on in despair.”
32. Stick to the thing and carry it through.
33. “To be happy, the person must be cheerful and gay, not gloomy and melancholy. A propensity to hope and joy is real riches.” — Hume
34. Dr. Johnson once remarked with his point and pith that the custom of looking on the bright side of every event was better than having a thousand pounds a year income.
35. “We have not fulfilled every duty, unless we have fulfilled that of being pleasant.”
36. The pendulum of a certain clock began to calculate how often it would have to swing backward and forward in the week and in the month to come; then looking further into the future, it made a calculation for a year, etc. The pendulum got frightened and stopped.
37. Do one day’s work at a time. Do not worry about the trouble of tomorrow.
38. But oh, for the glorious spectacles worn by the good-natured man!—oh, for those wondrous glasses, finer than the Claude Lorraine glass, which throw a sunlit view over everything, and make the heart glad with little things, and thankful for small mercies!
39. “If there be a faith that can remove mountains, it is faith in one’s own power.” — Marie Ebner-Eschenbach.
40. Believe in yourself; you may succeed when others do not believe in you, but never when you do not believe in yourself.
41. Great men have usually had great confidence in themselves.
Wordsworth felt sure of his place in history and never hesitated to say so.
Dante predicted his own fame.
Kepler said it did not matter whether his contemporaries read his books or not. “I may well wait a century for a reader since God has waited six thousand years for an observer like myself.”
“Fear not,” said Julius Cæsar to his pilot frightened in a storm, “thou bearest Cæsar and his good fortunes.”
“Heaven takes a hundred years to form a great genius for the regeneration of an empire and afterward rests a hundred years,” said Kaunitz, who had administered the affairs of his country with great success for half a century. “This makes me tremble for the Austrian monarchy after my death.”
42. Self-respect is the early form in which greatness appears.
43. One of the greatest aids to education is the habit of writing out an analysis or a skeleton of a book or article after we have read it.
44. “What property has he left behind him?” people ask when a man dies; but the angel who receives him asks, “What good deeds hast thou sent before thee?”
45. Some people are born happy. No matter what their circumstances are they are joyous, content and satisfied with everything. They carry a perpetual holiday in their eye and see joy and beauty everywhere.
When we meet them they impress us as just having met with some good luck, or that they have some good news to tell you.
Like the bees that extract honey from every flower, they have a happy alchemy which transmutes even gloom into sunshine.
In the sick room they are better than the physician and more potent than drugs.
All doors open to these people. They are welcome everywhere.
46. “Who is the richest of men?” asked Socrates. “He who is content with the least, for contentment is nature’s riches.”
47. “No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger,” says Beecher. “It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.”
48. If our thoughts are great and noble, no mean surroundings can make us miserable. It is the mind that makes the body rich.
49. We make our own worlds and people them, while memory, the scribe, faithfully registers the account of each as we pass the milestones dotting the way. Are we not, then, responsible for the inhabitants of our little worlds? We should fill them with the true, the beautiful and the good, since we are endowed with the faculty of creating.
Leo Babauta’s productivity system, Zen to Done, is a set of 10 habits that will help you to get organized, simplify your life, and get things done. It’s based on David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD), as well as on the work of Stephen Covey and others.
Keep in mind that instead of trying to implement all 10 ZTD habits at once, Leo recommends that you choose one habit at a time and focus on it for 30 days. Then move on to the next one.
The 10 Habits of ZTD are:
ZTD Habit 1: Collect
ZTD Habit 2: Process – Make Quick Decisions on Things In Your Inbox
ZTD Habit 3: Plan
ZTD Habit 4: Do One Thing at a Time Without Distractions
ZTD Habit 5: Simple, Trusted System
ZTD Habit 6: Everything in Its Place
ZTD Habit 7: Weekly Review
ZTD Habit 8: Simplify
ZTD Habit 9: Routine
ZTD Habit 10: Find Your Passion
Each of these habits is explained below.
ZTD Habit 1: Collect
Carry a capture tool with you wherever you go–whether it’s a small notebook, a Hipster PDA (a stack of index cards clipped together), a PDA or anything else that works for you-and write down tasks, ideas, projects, phone numbers or anything else that pops into your head.
The key elements of the capture habit are: take your capture tool with you wherever you go, write everything down before you forget, and empty your notes into your to-do list when you get back to your home or office. (Take note that your capture tool is one of your inboxes).
ZTD Habit 2: Process – Make Quick Decisions on Things In Your Inbox
An inbox is any place where you check your messages or read incoming information. The first thing you have to do is minimize your inboxes. List all the ways in which you receive information, evaluate each to see if it gives you value, and find ways to combine or eliminate inboxes.
For example, make sure that all the papers that come into your home get placed in the same inbox. If you have several email addresses, can you get them all forwarded to one service?
The next step is to check and process your inboxes once a day; you may need to check some of your inboxes more often, just don’t do it obsessively.
Start with the top item on your inbox and work your way down, making immediate decisions as you go along:
Delete (or trash it).
Delegate.
If it’s something you can deal with in 2 minutes or less, do it immediately.
File it: if it’s something you need for reference.
Add it to your to-do list or calendar to do later.
Work your way down through each item until the inbox is empty. Leave nothing in the inboxes.
ZTD Habit 3: Plan
At the beginning of each week list the Big Rocks that you want to accomplish–the 3 to 6 most important things you want to get done that week–and schedule them first. Each morning, create a list of 1 to 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks). These could include a Big Rock and a couple of other important tasks. Do your MIT’s early in the day to get them out of the way to ensure that they get done.
Planning gives purpose to your week: you’re not just checking items off of a to-do list, you’re doing what’s important to you and what will take you closer to achieving your goals.
ZTD Habit 4: Do One Thing at a Time Without Distractions
Select a task and decide that you’re going to work on it either until it’s done, or for a set amount of time (say 30 minutes). Before you get started, declutter your desk and eliminate all distractions: shut off your e-mail and cell phone, get off the internet if possible, and so on. Focus on the task you’ve selected to the exclusion of everything else during the time that you’ve allotted to that task.
If you get interrupted or think of something else that needs to be done while you’re focusing on a task, write it down and get back to the task.
ZTD Habit 5: Simple, Trusted System
All you need are lists. Instead of getting caught up fiddling with tools and creating complicated systems, concentrate on “doing” and not on the tools. GTD asks you to place your tasks (“next actions”) in a series of context lists, such as the following:
@work: for everything work related
@personal: all your personal tasks
@phone: for calls you can make from anywhere
@errands: your list of errands
@waiting for: a list of things you need to follow up on
Someday/maybe: a list of stuff you don’t want to or can’t do right now, but want to check on later.
Keep simple lists: all you need is one list for each context–which you check daily–and a projects list that you review either daily or weekly. These are not your daily to-do lists; they’re master lists from which you pull your Big Rocks and MITs.
But what about all those little things that need to get done? Reserve time in the afternoon to complete these small tasks.
ZTD Habit 6: Everything in Its Place
Your life can be completely organized with the following two rules: everything you own should have a home, and when you’re done using any item, put it back where it belongs.
Create a simple filing system so that you can quickly file any papers you’re going to need for future reference.
Putting things where they belong, immediately, is a habit. Treat it like any other habit and focus on it for 30 days to turn it into something automatic.
ZTD Habit 7: Weekly Review
You should have a list of life goals; that is, long-term goals. From those long-term goals, you should have between one and three that you want to accomplish this year. If you choose too many long-term goals to work toward on any one particular year, you will lose focus.
For each long-term goal that you choose to work on, choose one medium-term goal that moves you closer to achieving that long-term goal, and which you can accomplish within the next few months. Next, choose one short-term goal that you can accomplish in the next week or so that will move you closer to your medium-term goal. Once you’ve done this, every week’s Weekly Review should be just a review of the progress you’ve made on those goals, and a refocusing on those goals.
Review the notes you made in your capture tool: check that you remembered to add the phone numbers to your contacts, to add items to your context lists, and so on. Also, review your calendar and review your lists.
ZTD Habit 8: Simplify
Reduce your goals and tasks to the essentials. Review your task and projects lists and see if you can simplify them. Simplify your commitments and your incoming information stream. Make sure that your projects and tasks lineup with your yearly and life goals. Take everything that you can off of your to do lists: just do the stuff that matters.
ZTD Habit 9 – Routines
Set and keep routines. A morning routine, for example, could include meditating, going for a run, processing your inboxes, and reviewing your MIT’s for the day. You could also have an evening routine and weekly routines, such as doing the laundry on Monday, planning your menu and going grocery shopping on Tuesday, paying your bills on Wednesday, and so on. Find routines that work for you.
ZTD Habit 10 – Find Your Passion
If you’re passionate about your work, your task list will almost seem like a list of rewards. Here are two blog posts which will help you to identify your passion:
If you want an even more simplified version of ZTD, here it is: decide what’s most important to you, every day identify three actions that will you get you there, and go do that. Start applying ZTD today, and begin living your best life.
Marelisa Fabrega is a lawyer and entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as well as a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. You can learn more about her here
Would you be surprised to learn that wealth creation boils down to time management? In order to create wealth, you have to spend time looking for ways to do so.
(GTD), as well as on the work of Stephen Covey and others.
Marelisa Fabrega is a lawyer and entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as well as a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. You can learn more about her 
