Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Side effects include missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome…

Rebuilding Momentum After Setbacks

If you ever find yourself feeling demotivated because of too many setbacks in a short period of time, here’s a simple way to rebuild your confidence and restore motivation: Switch to smaller tasks you’re certain to achieve, and just do those for a day or two. Put the big projects off for a moment. Get…

What’s Your Optimism Ratio?

In his famous book Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman points out how our present use of language can be a fairly accurate predictor of future success. Seligman explains how he was able to predict outcomes of sporting events with reasonable accuracy by comparing the language used by the coaches and players in interviews before the event.…

A Simple Productivity Tip

If you drink a lot of water during your workday like I do, you probably find yourself getting up from your desk several times during the day to get more water. I hate it when I’m working in a productive flow, getting thirstier and thirstier as I periodically glance at my empty cup to see…

Living Your Values, Part 2

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. – Ralph Waldo Emerson In Living Your Values, Part 1, you learned a step-by-step process for eliciting and prioritizing your personal values. Now in Part II, we’ll explore how to live with integrity to your values, using them to make decisions and take…

Thought vs. Action

Balancing thought and action is a challenge for many people, especially those who are self-employed. How much time should you spend thinking vs. doing? We hear things like, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” implying that careful thought must govern all action. But then there are also the cries of, “Do it now! Do…

Living Congruently

Do you tend to compartmentalize all the different areas of your life? Career goes there, relationship goes here, spirituality fits there, and health … well, that’s neither here nor there. Or maybe your compartmentalizing is temporal instead of spatial in your thinking. During the workday you do what you must, this evening you’ll do what…

Entrepreneurial Freedom and Responsibility

I worked as an employee only once in my life. In 1992 I had a part-time job at a small independent retail store, earning $6/hour. It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t want to have another job — ever. It wasn’t that it was a bad experience per se… I just felt…

Do You Create Plans That Would Require an Android to Execute?

Last week I read Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. I felt the book was filled with too many long-winded stories and could have been reduced in size by at least half, but I liked the overall message, which is that execution is a key part of strategy. Let me ‘splain…. No, there is…

Personal Development Insights Newsletter

I’m starting a free email newsletter called Personal Development Insights. Topics covered by the newsletter will center around time management, motivation, goals & goal setting, overcoming procrastination, work habits & personal productivity, balance, courage & fear, and getting your life on purpose. I plan to include some personal development tips and musings in the newsletter…