Personal Development for Smart People^TM

Thanks for all the suggestions with respect to the Suggest a Topic post. This has given me greater clarity in understanding which topics people want to see covered next. I’m always open to suggestions, so please keep them coming if you have more.
Right now the leading suggestions were for topics 1 and 7. [...]

I’ve been asked if I’m open to suggestions for new blog topics. The answer is yes. I’ve been open to them since day one. Many of the topics I’ve covered have been suggested by readers, including the recent series on self-discipline.
Whenever someone sends me a suggestion for a new topic, I add [...]

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press [...]

Industry is working hard. In contrast to hard work, being industrious doesn’t necessarily mean doing work that’s challenging or difficult. It simply means putting in the time. You can be industrious doing easy work or hard work.
Imagine you have a baby. You’ll spend a lot of time changing diapers. But [...]

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
- Oprah Winfrey
Hard work — yet another dirty word.
Hard Work Defined
My definition of hard work is that which challenges you.
And why is challenge important? Why not just do what’s easiest?
Most people will [...]

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
- Vince Lombardi
Willpower — such a dirty word these days. How many commercials have you seen that attempt to position their products as a substitute for willpower? They begin [...]

The first of the five pillars of self-discipline is acceptance. Acceptance means that you perceive reality accurately and consciously acknowledge what you perceive.
This may sound simple and obvious, but in practice it’s extremely difficult. If you experience chronic difficulties in a particular area of your life, there’s a strong chance that the root [...]

This week I’ll be blogging a series on self-discipline. New posts on this topic will appear every day Mon-Fri. I’ve also added a new self-discipline category.
I’ve already written about 20 pages on self-discipline for my upcoming book, including what it is and how to develop it. I’ll share some of those ideas in this series, [...]

One of the Q2 goals I set at the beginning of April was to achieve a certain level of web traffic by the end of the second quarter. My goal was to achieve a 40% traffic increase (measured in terms of unique visitors per month) over the 3-month period between March 31 and June [...]

Here’s a very simple productivity tip that you might find helpful: crank up the speed of your mouse cursor. On Windows you can do this by clicking Start -> Control Panel -> Mouse and adjusting the speed as you see fit.
Everyone has their own preferences of course, but I think the default mouse [...]