Thanks for the Suggestions

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. These…

Suggest a Topic

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 it to…

Self-Discipline: Persistence

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 On” has solved and always…

Self-Discipline: Industry

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 that isn’t really hard…

Self-Discipline: Hard Work

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…

Self-Discipline: Willpower

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…

Self-Discipline: Acceptance

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 of…

Self-Discipline

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. In this series I’ll be focusing on what I call the five pillars of self-discipline. The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard…

100%+ Traffic Increase

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 30.…

Speed Up Your Mouse

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 cursor…