Success is an interesting phenomenon. It serves not only as a goal (Note: not an end point), but also as motivation towards the same goal. Each step we take in a certain direction not only gets us closer to this goal, but helps us gain momentum in this direction which makes the next step even easier.

But in order to take advantage of that motivation and momentum, we need to see the progress we’re making. What can we do to make sure we are seeing the steps we’re taking and leveraging these successes?

As I mentioned previously, success is personal, so for it to mean something, we’re the ones who have to define that. Now, we’ve already found our yardstick for measuring success. Whether it’s a lifelong goal, a weekly mantra, or anything in between, we now have a scale. But if we never hold anything up to the scale, does the scale even exist? (Don’t mind the philosophy). So let’s take a look at four ways we can hold things up to this scale. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I’ve come across a few articles that struck a chord with me and thought I’d share them.

A key component to a balanced workday, and a balanced life, is pace. Now, whether you work at a consistent pace, interspersing periods of work with periods of relaxtion, or you’re a member of the burst productivity school, working to a pace that suits your preferences and abilities allows you to remove stress and assists in maintaining balance. For a few tips on how to do this, take a look at LifeDev’s article, Pacing Your Work Day: Are You Stopping to Smell the Roses?

A major challenge in maintaining your ideal pace can be the amount of work you have on your plate. While we objectively know that taking breaks allows us to recharge and provide a net increase in productivity, if we’ve always got inboxes with 10 cm stacks of paper, we’re going to have a hard time taking those breaths.

FreelanceSwitch has a great article on Learning When to Say No. While I and approximately 18.7 million other people have written on this topic, one of the things that FreelanceSwitch’s article does to really set itself apart is to give you three basic criteria to judge opportunities by. While they take the view of evaluating potential freelance gigs, I think it’s easily adaptable to just about any situation.

Some of you might be wondering what everyone’s favourite constant is, especially since most people aren’t a big fan of death and taxes. Well, that leaves us with change. Change can be challenging, but one of the things I’ve found is that it’s going to happen whether you do anything or not, so taking a proactive stance towards it gives you an advantage that many won’t have.

Personal change can be the most challenging of all, but also the most effective at changing directions to get what you want. With that in mind, take a look at Life Optimizer’s post Top 10 Things You Should Change in Your Life to Get What You Want. It takes you things like changing your priorities, your motivations, and even your spending.

Enjoy!

Adam

For more on this topic, be sure to check out last week’s post on The Myth of Success.

Like many organizations, some people have mission or vision statements.

However, also like many organizations, while these can be good, they can also be overused, overly vague, or overcomplicated. This can make them useless when actually trying to serve their purpose, namely to inspire or assist in decision making.

This doesn’t meant that the idea is bad, however. Having something simple and overarching by which to evaluate possible choices can be a great way to maintain focus and ensure that you’re living the life you’d like to be.

So how do we get these advantages of having a yardstick by which to measure without leaving it vague and formless? Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Ulrich Thumult, licensed under Creative Commons.

Success is a term that is thrown around a lot in both the career and personal development/productivity circles.

Usually it seems to be portrayed as this ideal end state, at which we can all take a deep breath and survey our success with a vague sense of contentment and accomplishment.

While I must admit, I love the imagery this creates (for me, standing out looking over a vineyard from the portico of my country villa on a warm summer’s evening, not sure why), I don’t think it’s really all that accurate, and is more of a myth than anything else.

Why is this ideal of success a myth? Read the rest of this entry »

Just came across this article from Dustin Wax of lifehack.org.  If you’re a person who suffers from one or two “guilty pleasures”, this is a great way to help in refreshing your perspective into a more balanced viewpoint.  Not all pleasures are guilty, as nicely summed up in:

“But more often, our guilty pleasures are an exception, a small part of a life that’s otherwise already well-balanced. Which is to say, you can probably afford to indulge in a guilty pleasure or two without any guilt. If it gives you pleasure and isn’t likely to kill you, by all means, dig in!”

For the rest, please click through to read!

And on another note, I am back from another few weeks of hectic travel.  Last week was largely getting caught up on sleep and things at home and work, and this week I’m getting back into writing.

I did have the opportunity to write a few posts while away, though I’m working on getting these typed, formatted, and posted for your reading enjoyment.

Cheers,

Adam