2 More PR Myths – Busted!

You can still get PR even if you don’t have a lot of money. Remember my post from last week?

Well, here are two more myths… shattered!

Here’s the scoop directly from my new book, “Simple Publicity – How to do your own public relations to boost sales, awareness and credibility fast… without spending a lot of money.”

“PR Myth #3 - You Can’t Get Good Press Because You Don’t Own a Big Business!    

       Wrong! It’s time to stop the limitations and think big. As a small business owner, you actually have an advantage over big business in obtaining good press. Why? Here are five good reasons:

1. Only you have the passion.

      Your business is your “baby” and you have more passion about it than anyone else on the planet. And only you can convey this passion as you communicate to the media and potential customers and partners.

      Large businesses have comprehensive, communications-departments to talk about their news and events to the media. And often, the strong, passionate feelings about the business can weaken as growth and financial priorities take precedence.

      Think how nice it is for a reporter to talk to a person who is truly passionate and optimistic about what he or she does in today’s onslaught of negativity and bad news?

2. You have a unique story to tell.

      Most people have not heard about your business, and reporters love this. It gives them the opportunity to be the first to cover a new, fresh story that has not been told before.

      Plus, only you can share the specific details about how you created and pursued your business idea to make it a reality.

3. You can move fast without an extended approval process.

      With larger companies, there are usually more people, departments and communication channels to go through in order to obtain approval on various advertising and publicity messages. This takes extra time.

      As a small business owner, you have the advantage of calling the shots and making decisions quickly. This enables you to get appropriate information to the media fast.

      Plus, it will be much easier for reporters to reach you, the owner and leader of the business. Without the hassle of dealing with a corporate hierarchy, they can get the inside information they need from you, write a great story and meet their tight deadlines.

4. You can build personal, media relationships.

      Larger organizations have teams of leaders in various departments who talk to the press, depending on who is available. Since you will be handling all of the interviews, you can create personal relationships directly with media-members.

      By talking to various reporters, you can offer your expertise as a resource for future articles and keep in touch with breaking news-stories.

      If you provide credible, newsworthy information on a regular basis, and reporters are able to get in touch with you quickly, you’ll establish valuable relationships that can turn into major, media-mentions in the future.

5. You can control your messaging.

      Since you’ll be handling all of the media interviews, you can control what is said, how you sell your products and services, the tone/style, and the timing of your important messaging.

      Rather than checking with a legal team or communications department to hone a specific message, you can respond to media-members, and answer interviews questions quickly and accurately.

      Reporters know that they can get in touch with you, confirm story facts and move quickly without having to go through other departments. It’s a win-win situation for you and media-members.

PR Myth Buster #4 – Press Releases Are All You Need.

      Most entrepreneurs immediately think of sending out a press release when they think of public relations.

      But press releases are not always the answer.

      In fact, by sending out a blanket press release to a list of thousands of media-members, you can actually hurt your reputation with the media!

      Today’s media-relations practices involve targeted pitching where the right story angle is developed and communicated to specific reporters, producers and editors at the right time.

      A press release can help customers find your business online via the search engines, get newsworthy information out to the right people and help you accomplish other, unique business goals. But it is not usually the answer for obtaining large numbers of media quotes or press clippings.

      Instead, think of a press release as a relationship-builder. Use it to remind important customers, partners, investors, employees, sponsors, and certain media-members that you have current news, products and services and that your business is up-to-date and growing.

      In fact, if you have a tight budget and schedule, I suggest spending the majority of your publicity time talking to targeted reporters via phone or in person rather than sending out a press release to the masses.

      This way, you can share your passion and introduce yourself to appropriate, media-members directly. And this is usually much more beneficial than writing a press release and simply distributing it to a blanketed list of hundreds of media venues.

      Whether or not these myths come as a surprise to you or not, public-relations does not need to be a mystery. You can use it to your advantage to help your business boost sales, awareness and credibility fast… so let’s get started!”

For valuable information on boosting sales, awareness and credibility with public relations and SEO copywriting, visit www.rembrandtwrites.com and get your copy of “Simple Publicity” to start growing your business!

Copyright 2010 - 1Win Press, “Simple Publicity - How to do your own public relations to boost sales, awareness and credibility fast… without spending a lot of money.” Not to be reproduced without permission.

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How to Get Publicity Now

Do you need publicity right away to build some buzz for your products and services?

Well, here are three things you can do right now that will help you get the word out… fast:

1. Write to your local paper.

Check your local paper to see if they have an “Opinions” or “Letters to the Editor” section. Send in a note describing your opinion about a particular article in the paper. Then, sign your name with the name of your company and a link to your Web site.

Your article should provide your opinion and information the readers will care about. It should not be a sales piece. Your byline will be all the “promotion” you get, but it will be enough to get your site, and business, some extra awareness.

And if you are not a good writer, have a friend or ghostwriter help you with the writing and editing process. After all, you want to send in a letter than sounds professional and get your point across.

2. Post a press release.

Write a press release about the benefits your business has to offer. You can tie it in with a current trend, holiday or special discount you are offering. Then, you can either spend the money to distribute it online through a service like PRWeb, PRNewswire, BusinessWire, etc., or you can simply post it on free, distribution sites online (check the list at www.rembrandtwrites.com).

And if you really want to get some good coverage, hire a professional, SEO copywriter to optimize your press release for the search engines. This way, people searching for particular words in your release will be more likely to find your press release online.

3. Create a partnership.

Find another business or charity in your local area that you can work with on a particular event, fundraiser or other, joint activity. By teaming up, you’ll share the time, effort, marketing lists, and overall costs.

Plus, you’ll create a larger event that will build more buzz with the local media and potential customers.

Time to Get Creative.

If you need to generate sales and build awareness for your business, don’t wait for funds to start coming in. Be creative. Think of ways to get people to talk about your products and services without spending money.

By contacting the local press, distributing news and information your potential customers will find valuable and working with partners who complement your business, you can grow your business without spending a fortune!

Need additional tips on how to build buzz without spending a lot of money? Please contact me here, and check out the free information at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Next: Exposed - The PR Myths!

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Exposed - The PR Myths!

How was your Halloween? Was it as scary as your current, publicity activities?

Well, if you’ve had bad publicity experiences in the past and are afraid to move forward, don’t be!

After hearing from many entrepreneurs who were “taken” by a big agency or just didn’t have the money to pursue PR activities, I decided to write a book to expose the myths about PR and provide a simple guide to get started.

And as a fellow, small business owner who started with an extremely low budget, I can relate… so with this in mind, here’s a free excerpt from my book, “Simple Publicity – How to do your own public relations to boost sales, awareness and credibility fast… without spending a lot of money.”

“The 4 PR Myths – Busted!

As an entrepreneur, there are many advantages to using PR that are really exciting. In fact, after working with numerous, small businesses for many years, I’ve found that there are four major myths about having a successful, public-relations program.

No, you don’t! Halleluiah! Just what you wanted to hear! Yes, it is simply not true that you need a lot of money to pursue public-relations efforts. It really just takes time and effort.

In fact, as a new entrepreneur, you may lose a lot of money and sleep by spending big bucks on a large, public-relations agency. I’ve talked to a lot of business owners who were completely frustrated at the process. After spending thousands of dollars, they received minimal attention and press mentions.

Why? Many large, PR agencies will be interested in having you as a client and taking your retainer fees. But then, as one of their smaller accounts, you may not get the attention you deserve.

This doesn’t happen all the time, but a recent college-graduate or intern may handle your account. Then, you may not see the results of working with a well-known agency. And by the time you realize this, your complete, PR budget can disappear!

If you are just starting out and don’t have the money to hire a publicist, you can get some fantastic press coverage on your own. But you need to be willing to take the time to make it happen. This book aims to help you do just that.

After creating a plan, conducting the appropriate research and taking action, it is possible to get targeted media venues to spread the word about your business.

And this refers to more than just the local press. You can book interviews with nationally-syndicated television and radio programs. You can appear on the cover of The New York Times, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal, talk to “Oprah” and the morning radio-show-host, chat on a popular blog, and be on any other media venue you go after!

It’s just a matter of researching in advance and taking action.”

Check in next week to find out the other two myths. And if you can’t wait and want to start taking advantage of the power of PR, check out the book here or write to me below.

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4 Crazy Myths about Marketing

Before I will work with a company on their marketing strategy, I need to make sure that they are of the right mindset.  Unfortunately too many business owners have taken to believing certain crazy myths about marketing.  Sorry, but I’m here to debunk those myths.  Here’s the top 4.

I once walked into a retail store to meet with a new prospect.   I was shocked and appalled by what I walked into.  The store was a large showroom located in a very bad part of Phoenix.  In front of the store, on the sidewalk, right next to the street, they put two sample products.  The products had obviously been out in the hot Phoenix sun for months, if not years.  They were faded, warped, dirty, and even broken.  They looked like they belonged in the junkyard.    The inside of the showroom was no different; however,  was filled to the brim with this product.   It was obviously hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory, if not a million.  And the products on display were dusty and in disrepair.    I could go on and on.  But the fact is that the prospect needed more than marketing.  They needed to get a clue.  If you market crap, it’s still crap.  And no one wants to buy your crap.

The truth is that marketing takes time to obtain the results that you are looking for.  And if you’re looking to marketing as some sort of miracle cure for your failing business, it’s too late.  Better get out while you can.    The most successful marketing strategies are implemented consistently over time.  The marketing you do today may not pay off until tomorrow or even next year.  That’s why you should always be marketing.

While social media and publicity are much talked about marketing mediums, rarely do they produce instant results.  Both of these require consistent exposure over time. While social media does bring in new customers, you have to build a following first and that takes time.  And the only exception to the publicity rule is that you could get tons of new customers by being endorsed on a television show like Oprah.  But that situation is rare.

As an owner of a marketing firm I can guarantee you that the methods we use will get people in the door.  But nothing else.  Marketing is all about getting the word out about your business, but it isn’t directly correlated to sales.  Marketing can get people in the door, or to your website, or even on the phone.  But what happens after that is called sales and sales is up to you, your staff, or whoever is interacting with the customer.    If you don’t know how to follow up, service customers, give them what they want, close a sale, etc, all the marketing in the world won’t help.    You can’t just sit back and think that customers will do all the work themselves.  Marketing can get them there for you, what happens after that is up to you.

To be successful, marketing needs to be strategically and consistently implemented over the lifetime of a business.  On top of that, marketing can bring in new customers, but what happens after that is up to you.  Make sure that you give them reasons to buy, and give them reasons to come back.  It’s not just about the product, the price, or the promotion.  It’s about the experience, the environment, and the attitude.

Wendy Kenney is the internationally bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available on Amazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

Wendy owns the company 23 Kazoos, a marketing and publicity firm in Phoenix, Arizona, that has helped companies like Culver’s Restaurants, The Arizona Farm Bureau and Tom Chambers Commercial increase their visibility through social media, publicity, and creative marketing strategies.  Wendy honed her marketing skills while working for organizations such as MetLife, WebMd, and PacifiCare.

As a Marketing Expert, Wendy speaks internationally to corporations and organizations about marketing strategy, branding, and low cost, no cost marketing.

Wendy lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband Mike, and three teenage sons.   Her personal goal is to visit all of the Major League Ballparks in the US before she turns 49. So far she has been to 13.

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Gmail Killer? Facebook Rolls Out the Next Evolution in Messages

This morning Facebook announced the rollout of the next evolution of Facebook Messages; a platform that is already being dubbed “The Gmail Killer.”

According to Facebook’s CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg, this is not email, but rather simple, seamless conversation.   Zuckerberg says that this platform enables users to have “conversations with people that they care about the most no matter what method they prefer to communicate.”

Facebook’s new mail system will have three primary features. 

1.   Seamless Messaging between multiple channels

2. Single Conversation History, and

3.  The Social Inbox.

This platform integrates four different conversation channels;

text messaging,instant messaging,email andFacebook messages.

The idea is that people can have a continual conversation with each other on whichever channel they prefer.  For example, you can start the conversation via email, but then continue it via text message.  Facebook’s goal is to make it feel like conversation, to be a “real-time, immediate personal experience.”

Another major difference between Facebook mail and other email is that instead of having many emails in your inbox from the same person, all with different subject lines, you’ll only have one continual thread per person.  The idea is to make communication “simple, quick, timely and fun,”  said Zuckerberg.

Facebook mail will also integrate a Social Inbox filtering system.  Because the goal of the system is to allow people to have conversations with people you care about the most, by default  the filter will put the conversations with the people you care about the most at the top of your list and into a special folder (i.e. friends and friends of friends).  Other conversations, such as those from people not marked as “Friends or Friends of Friends” will be filtered into a folder called “Other.”    Users will have their own Facebook email address, i.e. Username@facebook.com.

According to Zuckerberg, the program will be rolled out slowly, over a period of months, with first adopters joining by invitation only.  You can request your invite here:  http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/

While Zuckerberg doesn’t think that Facebook mail will be the death of traditional email platforms like Gmail or Yahoo Mail, currently Facebook mail does not sync with other email programs.

How will this new evolution affect email marketing?  What do you think about this new evolution of conversation?  Your comments are welcome.

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Covert Influence � The Covert Magic Button to Influence People and Yourself

Want to know a powerful covert influence tool that allows you to get anything you want - through your own acts or by subconsciously commanding others to render it to you?

It does not take a magician or hypnotist to do it. Even an ordinary individual has the capacity to achieve this covert influence technique through constant practice.

Imagine the power if you could just do a simple act and you'll instantly be able to change your mood or energy level. Just imagine the power of having others do whatever you want them to do without them being consciously aware of it.

When I mention the word oranges, your mind processes the image, your mouth may begin to water, and you may even remember the times when you and your special someone were enjoying and eating the oranges together.

Here's another example of this covert influence application.

Have you watched a movie that was so touching it made you cry? In one of the movie's most moving scenes, there was sad background music.

Two months later, you're listening to the radio. You heard the same sad song from that movie. You suddenly remembered the scene, the actors, the emotions, even the person seated next to you who was also crying two months ago.

You felt the sensation all over again. You recollected the sentimental mood because of that same music.
This covert influence tactic is known as anchoring.

What is an anchor? An anchor is a compelling and influential connection of something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted with a specific memory or representation.

You associate something experienced in the past with a state correlating to the present.

How To Use An Anchor

Reflect on a time when you had a totally exciting, fun, or happy experience. Engage yourself thoroughly on that wonderful feeling. See, hear, taste, smell, and feel everything around you.

Then create an anchor. Clench your fist in excitement, listen to a lively song, squeeze your thumb and middle finger together, or just do anything you can think of, as long as it's something that creates intensity within you when it brings you back to that moment.

After about 1 to 3 minutes, let go of the anchor while still engrossed in that state. Wait for a few seconds, then break out of that state.

The more intense and passionate the experience, the better anchor you will create. If you're going to visualize and reminisce the times you went hiking in the mountains, enhance the sensations before assigning an anchor.

Feel the refreshing atmosphere, see the lush green flora, smell the fresh mountain air, smell the barbecue, play with the fireflies.

It would be so much better if you were actually hiking in the mountains. The actual experience is much more conducive to creating an anchor.

Let's say the anchor you've created is a large snapshot of your entire team, with the invigorating view of the mountains as the background.

Then next time you feel blue or stressed out, just look at that picture and you'll feel calm and relaxed. It's as if you were brought back to the mountains. You'll feel stimulated and energized.

Article Source: http://www.bigarticle.com/

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Kevin Lankford is an internet marketer and life coach who provides training for those who wish to improve their lives and make money on the internet. Check out his many training tools and articles.

Motivation - The Power of Drive

Motivation- The Power of Drive!

My experience tells me there are three stages people go through on their way to having the drive necessary to meet their goals:

• I want to want to
• I want to
• I will no matter what

It’s only when you reach the stage of I will no matter what that you access the power of drive in your life.
Having said that, I’ve taken the word DRIVE and created an acronym that provides us with some direction. Here are five key strategies for implementing the power of drive in your life.

D etermination - Once you have decided on a goal, there can only be two results: you either get what you want or you have reasons (that is, excuses) why you didn’t. Determination produces results instead of excuses.
Does that mean that with determination you will never fail? No, not at all. The race is not always given to the swift, but to those who keep on running.
Many people know the name Babe Ruth as one of the greatest home run hitters in the history of baseball. Did you know he also lead the league in strikeouts? Babe Ruth also said, “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” The implication for us is clear - keep swinging.
R esponsibility - There is a famous qoute that says, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Unfortunately, we live in a culture that seems to teach “if it’s to be, it’s up to someone else.” Responsibilty means that you have determined (there’s that word again) that no one else has to do anything or stop doing anything for you to do your part, and do it massively.

I nventive - The seven last words of any business or corporation are “we’ve always done it that way before.” That’s a sure death rattle for any creativity at all. Remember, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. 

Every so often I get someone who tries to convince me that they are simply unable to be creative. My question to them is this, “do you ever worry?” Of course the anwer is yes. Worry is nothing more than creativity used in a negative way. It's the misuse of one's imagination.

Here’s a creativity causing question “In how many ways can I accomplish what I want, in new, unique and fun ways that will benefit both others and myself in the process?” Chew on that one a while, and watch the creativity start flowing.
V ision - There is a parable that says “where there is no vision, the people perish.” (proverbs 29:18) I believe this holds true for our goals, as well as anything else for that matter. Do you have a clear picture of where you want to go?
If not, follow these two steps:

• Create a very clear and detailed picture of where you want to go and how you want your life to be. It can help to cut pictures from magazines, books, etc. that represent your goals and dreams. A vision board! 
• Take the picture in your mind and make the colors more intense and more inviting. Make all the details of the picture brighter and brighter. This creates a more and more compelling picture that can increase your drive.

E nthusiasm - Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm. It’s the engine that drives great accomplishments. Author and speaker Barbara Glanz, whose slogan is “spreading contagious enthusiasm” has this to say about the power of enthusiasm: “I am constantly humbled by the gift with which I have been blessed--a contagious enthusiasm about the difference each one of us can make in this world.” Samuel Ullman once said, "Years may wrinkle the skin, but loss of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

If you will install these five keys into your life, it will serve to jump start your drive. Article Source: http://www.bigarticle.com/

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our free 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.

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Motivation: 3 Keys to Lasting Change

David Bowie once sang, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, tryin’ to face the strain.”

There are times in life when trying to change can be a strain. If you are like most folks, you have tried to change something in your life. And, like most folks, may have found yourself frustrated when you were unable to change. Perhaps it was a habit, an attitude, or some part of an important relationship. Whatever the issue, try as you might, you were not able to get the changes you wanted.

Welcome to the club, it’s a big one.

Here’s the really good news - you can get the changes you want! And it doesn’t have to take years and years and cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, two of the more common myths about the process of change.

Here’s a question - have you ever tried to open a ketchup bottle with a lizard? Of course not. The reason behind that rather odd question is to illustrate how frustrating and silly it is to try to do a job without the proper tools. My job in this column, and as a counselor, is simply to give you some of the tools that I have found useful in helping people get the changes they want in their lives.

Today we will look at three key tools for getting the changes you want, whether it’s at work or home.

Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want

What do the following statements have in common; “I want to stop smoking”, “I want to stop yelling at my kids”, “I’ve gotta stop working so hard”, “I need to stop neglecting my marriage.” One thing they have in common is they are all statements from clients, in the first session, when I ask them what they would like to be different about their lives. Another thing these statements have in common is that they all focus on what they don’t want.

Why is that important?

Well, think about it for a moment. When you first learned how to throw a ball, were you taught where to throw it to or where to not throw it? Another silly question, really. Of course you were taught to focus on where you wanted the ball to go.

In the same way, to achieve the changes you want, focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. It’s really not that difficult. In the examples above, all we need is a change in wording, which brings a change in focus.

Here’s a sample of what I mean -
“I want to stop smoking” becomes “I want to be smoke free.”
“I want to stop yelling at my kids” becomes “I want to manage my kids (and myself) better.”
“I’ve gotta stop working so hard” becomes “I want to work smarter, not harder, and enjoy life more.”
“I need to stop neglecting my marriage” becomes “I need to make my marriage a priority.”

And so on.

Focus on one change at a time

 
Trying to change too many things at once dooms you to frustration at best, and failure at worst. You can end up like the side show at the circus. You know the one, where the guy is spinning several plates on a stick, and has to run around to keep them all spinning at once. Eventually, you wear out, quit, and all the plates come tumbling down.

When working on changes, especially at first, focus on one area of change at a time. As you get your “psychological feet” under you in one area, move on the next, and then the next, etc. In this way, if you worked on one change a week for a year, that’s 50 things you could change in a year, with two weeks off for vacation.

Aim for progress, not perfection.

Let’s say you want to quit smok- oops, I mean become smoke free, for instance. You make it for six days, and then smoke one cigarette. It’s important to remember that six days smoke free is progress. Go for six more and then build from there.
What you don’t want to do is focus on the slip-up, and then give up in frustration. So many times we expect perfection from ourselves when we want to change. That’s a sure set-up for failure.

Focus on the progress, even if it’s one step up and two steps back. Keep going, and eventually you can get to 100 steps up and an occasional step back.

Focus on what you want, one change at a time, aim for progress. That’s a three part prescription for successful change.

Thanks for reading, and keep the change. Article Source: http://www.bigarticle.com/

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our free 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.

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Psychology of Persuasion � Instant Persuasion Using Trends and Passions

It is easy to influence people if you know how to apply the psychology of persuasion. In this article, I will show you some instant persuasion strategies to persuade prospects to become buyers utilizing current trends and their passions.

Ready to use the power and psychology of persuasion to sell more products and get what you want from others?

Read on!

Instant Persuasion Using Trends

If you can associate your product with the hottest trend, then you're bound to achieve great success.

When a well-known international Olympic event takes place, you will notice sponsors associating their product with the occasion. You'll see them paying handsomely to have the right to claim that their product is the "official shoes" or "official drink" of that Olympic event.

This psychology of persuasion is effective because of the law of association. You associate your product with something that's currently hot or in-demand.

You don't have to pay an expensive price to associate yourself with the trends though. You can simply put information about the trend in your sales message that associates it with the product. For example, you can say something like:
"If Mr. ABC mentors you, you're on your way towards becoming the Harry Potter of life coaching."

Associate yourself, your company, your product or service with the current hottest trends. Some websites will notify you when new trends or stories emerge.

They include:
news.google.com
news.yahoo.com
msnbc.com
cnn.com
cnet.com

In order to save time, you may subscribe to their RSS feeds so you may be alerted automatically when buzz-worthy stories arrive.

Here's a tool you can use to predict the potential popularity and origin of a trend:
http://www.google.com/trends

Instant Persuasion Using Passions

Your friend loves magic, and you're selling a course about how to earn money on the internet. You can incorporate the 2 themes together so your material can be associated with their passion.

You can say something like "This Houdini internet marketing course allows you to magically escape the rat race by teaching you step-by-step how to earn big profits online in the shortest time."

Again, this persuasion technique associates your product with your prospect's passion. It's important to build rapport with him first, and of course, know his values so you'll have a clue on what his passions are.

To know his values, you can ask questions like:
"What's most important to you about (attending this event, buying this course, etc.)"
"What do you value in a (business, car, etc.)?"

Now that you know how to apply the psychology of persuasion using trends and passions, how will you use this knowledge to succeed in your ventures?

Article Source: http://www.bigarticle.com/

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50 Ways to Get Your Life in Order

This is an article by guest writer Mark Foo, author of The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People.

There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of chaos in your life. As Albert Einstein once stated, “Three rules of work: out of clutter find simplicity, from discord find harmony, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Unexpected challenges are what make us stronger, so don’t avoid them. Keep in mind the following 50 tips and you’ll be able to streamline your life and get back on track in the New Year.

1.)Recycle old papers that are filling drawers in your house. If you’re anything like me, you have drawers overflowing with old receipts, junk mail, records, and notes to myself. Get rid of all of this. Invest in a paper shredder to reduce clutter and maintain privacy.

2.)Mentally prepare yourself for change by visualizing your ideal self. Who do you admire the most? How do you envision yourself in the future? Who do you want to be? Visualize yourself to be that person.

3.)Realize that unexpected events can be a good thing. As the Dalai Lama once said, “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

4.)Ask people you admire how they got where they are today. I’ve always admired my grandfather. Learning more about how he started up his business, dealt with difficulty throughout his life, and maintained grace throughout it all has helped me in my personal endeavors.

5.)Cut back on alcohol, cigarettes and other vices. These can be crutches that cloud judgment. The money saved by not purchasing or cutting back on this type of material can then be put into something rewarding such as a vacation.

6.)Remove elements of negativity from your life, be they people or a job you don’t want to do. If you have friends who are bringing you down, there’s no need to keep hanging out with them out of obligation. Cut your ties and cut your losses.

7.)Start each day with a clear to-do list along with your cup of morning coffee whether black or with your shaving cream. Knowing what you need to do in the day ahead helps keep you on track.

8.)Clean your house from top to bottom and throw away anything outdated. Not only receipts, as mentioned above, but any old junk that should be donated to charity or sold in a garage sale.

9.)Institute a clear filing system for your personal records. Investing in a simple filing cabinet and folders with labels is something you don’t need a personal secretary for and makes your life much easier when you are looking for a specific item.

10.)Do your grocery shopping for the week on the day it’s most convenient. Make a list, budget, and get only what you need to save time and money.

11.)Take a career test that will help you identify your strengths. If you are unhappy with your career but don’t even know where to begin in the process of moving on, this can be a good way to identify strengths and new possibilities.

12.)Meet with a professional counselor if there are issues you need to discuss. Many people are struggling with dead weight from the past or emotional baggage that is holding them back. Deal with them and move on with professional assistance.

13.)Go through cabinets and throw out expired medications or food items. The last time I did this, I found everything from 3-year-old curry powder to 5-year-old aspirin. Throw them out.

14.)Make a clear diet plan with an emphasis on whole grains, fruits and vegetables. A healthy diet plan has a tremendous effect on your overall energy levels.

15.)Add vitamin pills to your daily diet. Vitamin supplements can help reduce the possibility of cancer and osteoporosis, among other disorders.

16.)Work out a clear exercise plan with an activity that you enjoy such as dancing or biking. My girlfriend loves yoga, and I am a soccer enthusiast. As long as it’s active, it counts.

17.)Set appointments you’ve been putting off. It’s easy to put off going to the doctor or dentist until we are sick, but preventive care is extremely important in overall health levels.

18.)Take up a mental exercise. Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, or other word games along these lines are more than just a good way to pass time. They have been shown in studies to help improve overall mental capabilities.

19.)Publish your own book. This is easier than ever before with Internet publishing. You can get your ideas out there and start making money from them. I’ve published my own eBook, The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People, check it out.

20.)Make a reading list and join a book club. Most people state that they want to read more, but without an actual plan you may not make the time to do this. Joining a book club not only serves as a social activity but also keeps you up to date with your own reading list.

21.)Spend time with yourself each day. Susan Taylor states that “spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.”

22.)Practice breathing exercises or meditation. Stress can have an overarching effect on our overall productivity levels. When stressed, I personally forget to breathe at times. Take the time to take deep breaths and improve oxygen flow to the brain.

23.)Speak and act with honesty. Are you able to stand by what you do and say? If not, it may be time to reexamine your own words and learn to articulate your thoughts in an open, honest way. This helps eliminate mistakes down the road.

24.)Learn from past mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Usually, we make a lot of them during our lifetime. As long as they aren’t repeated too many times, and are looked at as a learning experience, they can in fact be a good thing in the long run.

25.)Volunteer to help others in your community. Helping others is a rewarding way to get your own life together.

26.)Take up a new language or hobby.

27.)Read inspirational biographies. For new ideas, find out how others got their lives in order.

28.)Talk to a stranger. Unplanned conversations can be surprisingly inspiring.

29.)Reconnect with friends and relatives who live far away. Call those people you miss but keep putting off calling. With the Internet and Skype at your disposal, even an online chat can help you reconnect.

30.)Change your toothbrush. It can be a hotbed of bacteria.

31)Take more naps. Sleep is often sadly underrated in its ability to boost energy, mood, and keep reaction times sharp.

32)Drink at least 6 cups of water per day. Staying hydrated helps keep energy levels up.

33.)Organize your photo collection. Get both digital files and physical printouts in albums. If you’re anything like my family, your photographs could be sadly sitting tucked away in shoeboxes in the closet, taking up space.

34.)Take an interest in art in your community. Visiting galleries can help introduce you to the artists in your community and help stimulate thinking.

35.)Join a hobbyist club. My friend decided to learn more about building model airplanes and was so deeply into it that he recently obtained his commercial pilot’s license. You never know where a simple hobby can lead you in life.

36.)Keep a calendar with commitments. Having a visual reminder in front of you can be extremely helpful. We are all different types of learners.

37.)Don’t put off difficult conversations. Deal with problems directly and immediately. This will result in a much lower level of anxiety for all involved.

38.)Make a list of priorities and do what makes you happy. If you have lost touch with your own priorities lately, it can be beneficial to take the time to sit and think about what actually makes you happy. Work toward achieving this as much as possible.

39.)Spend more time outdoors. Nature has an ability to help soothe a troubled mind and clear your thoughts. Taking a walk in the woods or climbing a mountain, at any level of difficulty, gives a sense of pride and accomplishment.

40.)Attend lectures. These could be science lectures or other types, but it’s helpful to keep up-to-date on what’s going on in the world and plan accordingly. Keeping the mind active helps you in all aspects of your daily life.

41.)Take the time to stretch muscles. Get a massage to improve muscle tone and circulation, then use this new energy and apply it to your work routine.

42.)Make laughter a priority. Hang out with some of your most entertaining friends for a good laugh, or simply sit back with some favorite old comedies. Laughter counts as exercise and has been shown to expand your life span.

43.)Clear some time each day to do nothing. As a child, I remember that we had “free time” scheduled into our school activities every day. This could be used for reading, drawing, or simply staring into space if that’s what we felt like doing.

44.)Schedule a much-needed vacation. What a novel idea, and one that keeps the brain at ease.

45.)Learn new tips for entertaining. You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to throw a great dinner party, and learning how to be a host or hostess with minimal effort can give a big boost to your confidence levels.

46.)Throw out old clothing that doesn’t fit. Too many of us are squeezing into outdated clothes that are doing us no favors. Look and feel your best with clothes that are tailored to fit.

47.)Live in the present, not the past. The past is over. Move on and enjoy every moment as it occurs. Take stock of what needs to be accomplished and move forward with this information.

48.)Learn from past mistakes and move forward with your life. Get your life in order by looking forward, not back.

49.)Get your car checked up. You go to the doctor to have your body checked up. Don’t wait until it is too late to perform maintenance on your car. I once got stuck on a road trip to Ipoh (Malaysia) as a result of this oversight, and it wasn’t pleasant.

50.)Budget for possible home repairs. Set aside some money in the proverbial cookie jar to keep home maintenance within the realm of possibility in this coming year.

Do you have a tip to help us get our lives in order? Please share in the comment section below!

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Deconstructing Creativity: The 4 Roles You Need to Play to be Fully Creative

Do you want to be fully creative? To not only have wild ideas, but to actually create and bring remarkable things to life?

There are four distinct roles to be performed for the creative process to be as effective as possible. Each one requires that you play different characters, with different mindsets and skills.

The roles are: Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior.

Learn how they help unleash your creativity and how to master the skills each one requires.

Ideas do not come out of the blue. In order to build them you first need to gather the raw materials: facts, concepts, experiences, knowledge, feelings — that’s what ideas are made of. To get all of that, you need an attitude of ongoing curiosity and exploration.

The Explorer is always in search of new things. He is relentlessly curious and never limits himself to a particular area of experience and knowledge. To have ideas is to connect dots. First and foremost you need lots of dots to connect — you need fuel for the formation of new ideas.

Be curious and alert. Poke around in unknown areas. Be like a child, by paying attention to the world and being receptive to it. Rediscover the fun in finding things out.

Seek out as many inputs as possible. Do not limit yourself to the tried and true. Read different books and see different movies from the ones you like. Also, don’t mind going after information “you’ll never use”. Seek many different areas of knowledge.

Talk to a lot of different people. Get to know many different perspectives. Talk to strangers. Don’t limit yourself to expert advice.

The artist has ideas. He takes the raw materials from the Explorer and combines them in novel ways.

When people say someone’s “creative”, they’re usually referring to the Artist. The Artist has ideas mostly by trying new things. He applies his imagination by rearranging, turning things upside down, stirring things up. He pursues different approaches and finds unexpected connections. He’s playful; he doesn’t care about what people expect from him.

Flex your idea muscles. Write down new ideas as they come to you; it stimulates your brain to generate more and more ideas. Also, use idea-generation tools deliberately: Lists of 100, Idea Quota and SCAMPER just to name a few.

Play! We all know it: the most efficient way to have new ideas is by having fun. Don’t always take problems too seriously. Entertain yourself and keep your brain fresh and ready.

Use your imagination. Leave practicality aside; don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild and visualize new possibilities. Dare to ask ‘what if’ and watch new realities unfold.

The Judge is all about “getting real”. His job is to analyze the Artist’s wild ideas and assess if they’re practical — in the real world.

The judge questions assumptions; he compares and analyzes. He checks how feasible ideas are. No matter how much the Artist loves an idea, the Judge looks for counterarguments, checks evidence, and makes hard decisions. Combining gut feeling and analytical tools, the judge must only let through feasible ideas.

The Judge gets a bad reputation — but only because people usually invoke him too early. Killing an idea before the Artist can play with it is a pity; killing it later is oftentimes a necessity.

Develop critical thinking. Check your assumptions, experimenting with hypotheses, analyzing results and drawing conclusions. Master decision making.

Be aware of thinking traps. Our minds deceive us. Be always aware and vigilant of your own biases. There are more ways than you can imagine that your thinking can go wrong. Really.

Be real. Will the idea give you the return you want? Do you have the resources to make it happen? Are you willing to put the effort to make it happen? Be practical and down-to-earth.

As soon as you have an idea ready to be executed you’ll realize the world isn’t set up to accommodate every new idea that comes along. The enemies can be external: competition may be fierce, or people may just don’t “get” your beautiful ideas. Even harder than those, there are more than enough enemies already within you: think resistance, excuses and fear of failure.

The Warrior’s job is to make ideas happen. For that, you’ll need not only a strategy and plan of action but to put in the hours — fight the daily fight.

That means remaining productive, developing the resilience and courage to overcome obstacles and, of course, being able to sell your ideas — whatever’s necessary to materialize them.

Overcome resistance. When you create something new, resistance inevitably creeps in. You need to find ways of overcoming procrastination and staying productive day in, day out.

Be courageous. In order to make things happen, you’ll need to let go of self-doubt and conquer fear of failure.

Market and sell your idea. Are you the only one who thinks your idea is great? Can you convince others of the merits of your idea? If you can’t sell your idea, it won’t get far.

In reality, we all know the path to creativity is not that sequential — explorer-to-artist-to-judge-to-warrior. Usually, there’s a lot of switching back and forth between roles: The Judge may return an idea to the Artist for further development; the Artist may want more data from the Explorer to develop a certain idea, and so on.

This is fine. The main thing is to be aware of which role you’re performing at different points in time. We often get stuck in the Explorer role for too long. Or we may jump the gun and summon our Judge while our Artist is still working his magic. There are so many ways to spend too much or too little time in each role, or to overlap ineffectively.

The lesson is: make sure not only to develop the skill set for each role, but also to play each one at the appropriate time. Be aware of which phase of the creative process you’re in and what you’re trying to accomplish. All roles are equally important: make sure they’re playing well with each other.

These concepts above are not new. The idea of the four creativity roles comes from Roger Von Oech‘s classic work on creativity A Whack on the Side of the Head, as well as the Creative Whack Pack (which is a deck of cards where each of the four roles is a suit — very fun, do check it out too).

I have had this book for ages but only lately have been applying its principles and becoming more conscious of the steps of the creative process. There’s a myth that creativity needs to be wild and unplanned, that one cannot be trained to be creative. I’m increasingly convinced that that is not true and I will expand on this topic as I explore more. In the meantime, A Whack on the Side of the Head and Creative Whack Pack are two truly excellent resources I recommend for those interested in becoming more creative.

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Are you stuck in a rut? Run from the experts!

You’re facing a big challenge at work and can’t come up with any innovative ideas. Maybe your business is flagging or a particular area in your personal life has stalled. Either way, you could really use fresh new ideas to spice things up.

In situations like these it’s tempting to go seek help from the experts. After all, someone much more knowledgeable should be the best source of ideas, right?

Well, maybe not.

Experts need to specialize. They need to draw boundaries around their subjects so they can narrow their focus and be as effective as possible in their fields.

This ‘compartmentalization in thinking’ is immensely useful in speeding up problem solving. It also means experts usually fall short in stretching their thinking beyond their areas of expertise, and as such fail to see the big picture.

Michael Michalko puts it well in his book Thinkertoys: “It’s like brushing one tooth. You get to know that one tooth extremely well, but you lose the rest of them in the process.”

But it gets worse: experts may not only miss obvious solutions, but they may actually cause harm, forcing inadequate solutions that fall within their area of expertise. “To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail”, psychologist Abraham Maslow wisely remarked.

Although experts are often useful, when it comes to innovation you may actually be better off without them.

The alternative to talking to experts is — drum roll — talking to nonexperts, of course.

Regular people around you. Your soccer buddies. The garbage collector. Uncle Bob. It doesn’t matter who: anyone outside your field, anyone who’s strange to the problem — anyone who “doesn’t know the rules” will do.

Regular people — nonexperts — don’t have enough experience to know where to draw boundaries: they’re unaware of limitations or “how things are supposed to work”. In their naïveté, they’ll miss many constraints and assumptions you take for granted — which is exactly the point. These are the people who will most likely spark fresh new ideas for you. They can genuinely think outside the box: for them, there’s no box.

We have a tendency to always go after more specialized people for getting help in our problems — and that works in many cases. But for creative endeavors, perhaps all you need is someone who knows less.

The great news is that there is no shortage of nonexperts around you. Everyone is a nonexpert at most things. All you need is to know how to tap into their non-expertise in the area you need help. Here are 3 tips to help.

To build a solid network of idea-generating friends, first and foremost you need to strive for diversity.

It doesn’t matter if you have 500 peers to draw ideas from if everybody else’s mind is the same: it’s not a matter of how many people you know, it’s how many kinds.

Resist the temptation to seek advice only from people who think alike: it’s comfortable, I know, but it hinders you from fully expanding your mind. Go out and mix with people with diverse interests for a change!

Getting in touch with many different perspectives is guaranteed to keep your creative juices flowing (and as a bonus you become a much more interesting person in the process!).

Find out how different people would tackle your problem. How would a nurse do it? A 5-year-old child? An economist? Your mom?

Never miss the opportunity to have casual conversations with strangers. The butcher, the old lady ahead of you in the line and the ice cream vendor are all sources of potentially useful ideas. Even if you don’t discuss your particular problem directly (which of course may not always be a sensible thing to do), discovering different perspectives about random life subjects is useful in itself to spark new ideas.

Having an abundant circle of relationships always comes first, but after striving for quantity, you now need to make sure you have quality relationships too!

There’s a certain breed of people that you’ll always benefit from having around: it’s the kind of thinkers that spark your imagination whenever you talk to them. You know who they are:

They love original ideas and use them in their businesses and lives.They are relentlessly curious and pay attention to the world around them.They may be naïve about your business, but are not stupid or ignorant of the things that matter.They have great wits and challenge the absurdity in things.

Make a list of people who you know have those traits and arrange to spend more time with them. Never let too much time pass without staying in touch with them. Discuss your challenges and ask for ideas — or just engage in idle chatting (which also sparks a torrent of ideas in itself).

Having such vibrant people around you is invaluable for your creativity and too fun to miss out.

This is a fun technique I use sometimes. I like to call it “Fool Mode”.

When I’m in “fool mode”, everybody knows the solutions to my problems. Everybody is a genius — except me. In fact, not only do they know the solution I’m looking for, but they may be already giving it away — the only caveat being they’re talking in riddles — so it’s my job to figure it out!

Adopting the fool’s mindset works great because it checks our tendency to kill ideas before giving them at least some thought.

Think about this: When someone presents us an idea we can’t see the use for, our tendency is to dismiss it immediately, labeling it a ‘stupid idea’. Now what if the other person were a well-known genius — like, say, Einstein who once said "it takes a genius to see the obvious?" Would you not consider paying a little more attention to what he would have to say? Of course you would! It’s in that thinking — trying to force relationships between seemingly unrelated ideas — that your breakthrough idea may lie.

Being in “fool mode” is also fun and teaches important lessons: You open your mind to the world. You temporarily suspend judgment and let go of any intellectual arrogance you may have. You assume everybody has something to contribute — and what you come to realize, of course, is that they do.

You shouldn’t expect random people to actually solve a complex problem they don’t know about. But, if you have an open mind and are willing to listen, they can spark off a torrent of fresh new ideas, which may be just enough for you to solve the problem yourself.

So, by all means don’t dismiss experts. They have more experience and can often help you. But don’t forget that the great innovative ideas are usually elsewhere. The solution you’re looking for may be with your neighbor or with weird uncle Bob — you just need to go get it.

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Personal Development Ebook Giveaway!

This weekend marked 3 years since the first post on Litemind! To celebrate the date, I have a special treat for you.

For the past few days I have been talking to many fellow personal development bloggers… Many of them, in addition to their blogs’ free articles, also sell ebooks with premium content. These ebooks are great and well worth the money (as their customers can attest) — and today you have the chance to get them for free!

Yes, each of these authors agreed to give away copies of their ebooks to a few lucky Litemind readers! And it’s really easy to join and participate.

For a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment with the 3 ebooks that you would like to win, in order of preference, chosen from the list below. You have until August 2nd (next Monday) to post your comment. (One entry per person, please.)I will publish the list of winners on Wednesday, August 4th. There will be 12 winners — each one getting one of the ebooks. (If two or more winners choose the same ebook as their top preference, I’ll use their second and third choices, giving preference to the winners who were drawn first.)

Here is the list of personal development ebooks, in random order, for you to choose. The descriptions were provided by their authors. Many of the ebooks have free chapter previews, so make sure you visit the links to get more details.

Anyway, make your choices, pick the three you like best and let me know in the comments below.

by Leo Babauta and Eric Hamm

Are you in need of a motivational boost? The Essential Motivation Handbook was created to address those everyday motivation, productivity and self-improvement issues that seem to plague so many of us.

You can use this ebook as a handy reference any time you need motivation and as an easy way to find dozens of great motivation tips without having to spend time searching for them online and filtering out the useless stuff.

Learn more about ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’

by Scott H. Young

Do you have a habit you would like to change? This book is about learning the right strategies so you don’t need to constantly rely on willpower. Exercising, quitting television, cutting down e-mail, waking up earlier — which are normally painful and long processes. By practicing the right techniques you can learn how to do it with far less pain and much better results.

Learn more about ‘How to Change a Habit’

by Marelisa Fábrega

Imagine waking up each morning to a life that’s centered around your life goals, instead of trying to fit what’s most important to you into the nooks and crannies.

How To Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List will show you how. By the time you finish reading this ebook you’ll know exactly what you want in each area of your life, and you’ll have defined exactly how you’re going to get it.

Learn more about ‘How to Live Your Best Life’

by Daniel Richard

The fastest way to go broke is to spend on the things that you don’t love. In a society that had taught us to have more of everything — from junk to spending on the unnecessary — how can one go from funding dreams with debt to becoming debt-free, ending the addiction of overconsumption and start living again?

Doing With Less is written to guide you to make changes in your live, bringing out the minimalist in you, and making you thrive with less in a rush-rush society.

Learn more about ‘Doing with Less’

by Ali Hale

Regain Your Balance is designed to help you get back in control of your life. Tackling six key areas – your time, creativity, focus, environment, recharging, and money – it’s packed with motivation, ideas and tips to help you find your balance again. With bonus worksheets and a two-minute questionnaire to get you started, you’ll feel calmer — and on top of things — straight away.

Learn more about ‘Regain Your Balance’

by Hunter Nuttall

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most popular personality assessment in the world. While simple on the surface, one’s four-letter type offers amazing insight into their personality. Solve the personality puzzle, and get a much deeper look into yourself and everyone you meet. Whether you’re a type theory newbie or a die-hard typewatcher, this ebook will give you a fresh and entertaining perspective on how to enjoy better relationships and a better life.

Learn more about ‘The Personality Puzzle’

by Henrik Edberg

The Power of Positivity contains 22 chapters where we explore the tips and strategies that can help you to greatly improve your life in areas such as weight loss, confidence, social skills, productivity, self esteem and attitude. It’s a constructive and practical guide to living a more positive, happy and successful life.

Learn more about ‘The Power of Positivity’

by Celestine Chua

The Personal Excellence Book is your essential handbook to help you live life to your best. At nearly 800 pages long, it contains 120 in-depth, self-exploratory articles and exercises.

Covering 9 key categories of personal growth — including Purpose & Meaning, Goals and Success, Cultivating Habits, Emotional Mastery, Relationships, Productivity and more — The Personal Excellence Book is a one-stop guide if you’re serious about living a life of your highest meaning and potential.

Learn more about ‘The Personal Excellence Book’

by Henri Juntilla

Passionate Living is a simple guide to getting you started on following your passion. There comes a time in each of our lives when we need to stop squandering our potential and start doing what we truly love.

Passionate Living is a book filled with my personal experiences on how to make that happen. It’s a simple and effective guide that deals with aspects ranging from fear and the lack of time to the specific steps I took to get to where I am now.

Learn more about ‘Passionate Living’

by Everett Bogue

The Art of Being Minimalist teaches you how to apply simplicity in your life to achieve your goals. Last year I quit my job, moved across the country with everything in my backpack and $3,000 in the bank — everyone said I’d starve, but instead I opted to live a minimalist life. This is what I learned: when you don’t have all of the junk, you can achieve the important.

Learn more about ‘The Art of Being Minimalist’

by Scott H. Young

What if I told you everything you know about how to learn, study and succeed in school was wrong? Through researching speed learners, school experts and pinpointing the hidden weaknesses most students face, I’ve been able to come up with my own system — holistic learning.

Holistic learning is the opposite of rote memorization. Instead of trying to pound information into your skull, you can weave it into existing understandings. By using these strategies you can actually “get” any subject you want to study.

Learn more about ‘Learn More, Study Less’

by Marelisa Fábrega

How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists is your guide to leading a more creative, inspired life. It shows that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts, but is important in any field.

The purpose of this ebook is not just to give you information, but to transform you into a more creative and innovative person. Get practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor.

Learn more about ‘How to be More Creative’

Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-time reader, thank you for being around during these 3 years — it means a lot to me. And good luck everyone!

PS1: Just like I did with the Personal Excellence Project, I want to make sure the random draw process is as transparent as possible. To pick the winners I’ll use a random sequence generator, numbering the comments (in chronological order) and using a public and yet unknown piece of data as the seed. I will use Amazon‘s stock last trading price for August 3rd. That makes sure the draw is fair and that its authenticity can be verified by anyone. (I know many people wouldn’t care about this kind of stuff, but I do.)

PS2: I’d like to spread the word to as many people as possible about this giveaway. So, if you’re feeling particularly generous, I would be very grateful if you tweeted it or shared it with your friends on Facebook (buttons right below). Thanks!

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The Relativity Mind Trap: How Comparisons Can Lead Us Astray

Our minds make sense of the world by making comparisons. For instance, how do you tell if something is cheap or expensive when shopping? It’s mostly by comparing it with other products, isn’t it? And so it happens for everything in our lives: we’re constantly comparing — everything, all the time.

It’s true that making comparisons is human nature, but judging everything only through comparisons can get us to think irrationally and make bad decisions. It eventually makes us feel miserable when we realize that our choices weren’t really that good, after all.

Learn how this mind trap works and how to escape it.

Picture yourself in the following situation: You have two errands to run today — buying a new pen and a new suit for work.

At an office supply store, you find a nice pen for $16. You are set to buy it, but you remember the exact same pen is on sale for only $1 on a closeout 15 minutes away. Do you buy the pen for $16 or go for the $1 one?

OK, on to your second errand: Let’s go get your suit. You just found a nice suit for $500 and while waiting for the cashier, another customer tells you that you can find the same suit for $485 on a store just 15 minutes away. Do you buy your suit for $500 or drive 15 minutes for the $485 one?

Take a moment to think about your choices. What would you have done?

A similar situation was presented to a group of people in a study (by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, the same brilliant guys from another great famous framing experiment). The results? They found that most people chose to drive to buy the cheaper pen, but happily parted with $500 for the more expensive suit.

What’s going on? Can you spot the contradiction here?

Clearly, our minds are fooling us. In both situations your choice boils down to saving $15 or 15 minutes of your time: The absolute price of the item you’re buying has no importance whatsoever (and is the red herring used in the experiment to elicit the contradictory behavior the researchers were looking for).

Whether you save $15 from buying a pen, a suit, a car or a luxury yacht, the end result is the same: $15 in your pocket. The only question that matters here should be: “Is 15 minutes of my time to save $15 worth the $15 I’m saving?”

What’s happening here is that your mind can’t decide, without external aid, if a $15 discount is a good deal: it needs something else to compare the discount to (in this case, the total price of the item).

And this is the problem: we look at things in life relatively, comparing differences, instead of looking at each thing’s value on its own.

Making comparisons and evaluating things relative to each other is a many times a useful shortcut, but as demonstrated above, in many occasions it severely hinders our ability to make wise decisions.

Not surprisingly, relativity kicks in not only when buying pens and suits but in almost everything in life.

Relativity, along with the bad comparisons it entails, can make you feel bad about yourself, get you in debt, and lead you to make life-changing decisions that are just plain stupid. In short, it can make your life miserable.

The examples are countless; here are just a few.

Comparing yourself with others. This is a biggie. If you assess your worth by comparing yourself with others (in any dimension you choose to use), you’re set for disappointment: there will always be people better than you in any measure you pick. I’ll further explore this theme in a subsequent article, but for now it suffices to repeat something you already know: avoid comparing yourself with others; it’s always a no-win situation.

Keeping up the Joneses. The richest person in a poor neighborhood is usually happier about his net worth than the poorest person in a rich neighborhood — regardless of how much they actually have! In light of relativity, people compare themselves with their neighbors, and don’t like the feeling they’re behind “everyone else”. This is an endless cycle: the more people have, the higher they set the bar for the people they compare themselves with.

Winning (and feeling like you lost). Isn’t it true that the silver medal usually tastes bitterer than the bronze medal? Despite the absolute value of the medals, earning the silver medal usually comes in the context of failing to win the gold one. The bronze medal, on the other hand, is earned in the context of getting any medal instead of no medal at all.

Taking advantage of “great deals”. It’s a well-known sales technique to offer customers the most expensive products first. Those overpriced items establish the context for people to see the other products as being cheaper. Oftentimes those “cheap” products are not cheap at all, but thanks to relativity, you walk away thinking you made a great deal. (Note, though, that you paid the ‘absolute’ amount of money for your product! It may be relatively cheaper but you may have parted with a great deal of your hard-earned money, anyway.)

On the flip side, people may go for the more expensive item because the difference in price to the less expensive one doesn’t look as big. People find it easy to spend $3,000 on leather seats for their new $25,000 cars (the $25,000 serves as the comparison number), but have a hard time spending the same amount on their living room sofas (that usually don’t have a clear figure to be used for comparison).

Is it possible to escape the mind trap of relativity”? Dan Ariely, in his brilliant book Predictably Irrational (from which I got most of the inspiration to write this article) hints at the solution.

The way to escape thinking in terms of comparisons and relative terms, is — not surprisingly — thinking more in absolute terms: you got to escape the trap of doing local comparisons and think more broadly.

Going back to our example of buying the pen and the suit: Resist the temptation of looking at the $15 savings relatively to the item’s total price (the immediate, most salient comparison). Escape that local comparison and put the savings into a broader context instead. Ask yourself ‘What can I do with the $15 saved?‘ and see how that can better inform your choices.

Maybe you will buy a book? Save the money? Donate it to charity? Moreover, ask yourself: “Is $15 worth a drive downtown and 15 minutes of my time?” In short, see beyond the immediate situation.

In 15 minutes, maybe you can go back to work and earn more than $15? Or maybe a 15-minute break is what you need right now? Regardless of which way you decide, remember: this has nothing to do with the price of the pen or the suit, but with what you are actually saving (time? money? hassle?) means to you in a broader context.

This was an easy example, but if you think about it, you can apply it to just about everything in your life. How about stop comparing yourself with others and assess how you feel about your life broadly — on your own terms? How about focusing on the value of your silver medal instead of the other guy’s gold medal?

Think outside your immediate context, escape easy comparisons and start seeing things in a broader perspective. When you think about life this way, everything can be seen under a new — much more positive — light.

Try it: make notes of some of your important decisions (and some of the not-so important ones) then write down your impressions from a relative as well as an absolute perspective. Are your decisions better one way or another? Why? How?

While simple in theory, thinking in absolutes is not the way we’re wired to think, so doing it always takes a great deal of conscious effort and practice. But it’s absolutely worth it.

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Framing Changes Everything

A young priest asked his bishop, “May I smoke while praying?” The answer was an emphatic “No!”

Later, when he sees an older priest puffing on a cigarette while praying, the younger priest scolded him, “You shouldn’t be smoking while praying! I asked the bishop, and he said I couldn’t do it!”

“That’s odd,” the old priest replied. “I asked the bishop if I could pray while I’m smoking, and he told me that it was okay to pray at any time!”

As this joke shows, the way you frame a problem profoundly influences the solutions you get. The same problem, when seen from a different angle can lead to a directly opposite interpretation!

Skillfully framing problems is paramount for better problem solving and decision making.

On the flip side, it’s too easy to fall into thinking traps when it comes to framing. Let’s look at one of these traps — and offer some ideas on how to overcome it.

Let’s make a thought experiment, shall we?

Suppose the government is gearing for the outbreak of an unusual disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed, and you must choose which one you think is better. These are the estimates of the outcomes for each program:

Program A: 200 people will be saved.

Program B: There’s a 1/3 chance that 600 people will be saved, and a 2/3 chance that no people will be saved.

Make a note of your choice.

Now suppose that, instead of those two programs above, you’ve been presented with the following two programs instead. As in the previous situation, pick the one you think is better.

Program C: 400 people will die.

Program D: There’s a 1/3 chance that nobody will die, and a 2/3 chance that 600 people will die.

Which programs did you pick for the two questions above? (Hint: Most people pick A and D.)

This question was asked in a famous experiment by Tversky and Kahneman (which led to a Nobel Prize for Kahneman), with 72% of participants choosing option A over B, and 78% choosing D over C.

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me these are astonishing results!

Why?

In case you didn’t notice, programs A and C are identical, as are programs B and D. They’re objectively the same — the same number of people live and die, with the same odds — but they’re presented — or framed — in different ways!

If people were to act consistently, it would be expected they would pick either A-C or B-D. But the change in wording alone was enough for people to shift their choices from the first option to the second. Many people chose inconsistently compared with their previous choice.

And that’s how powerful framing is.

No matter how “rational” we think we are, emotions and mental images play a large part in our decisions — many times preventing us from seeing the real content behind our options.

Have you ever heard that people are in general averse to risk?

Well, the experiment we looked at strongly suggests that that statement may not be entirely true. When the programs were presented in terms of lives saved, the participants preferred the safe program (Program A). However, when the programs were presented in terms of expected deaths, participants chose the gamble (Program D). If people were risk averse, they’d always choose the safe option.

People are willing to gamble — but usually only when the gamble can avoid losses.

It turns out that in our minds losses are much stronger than gains. We feel much stronger negative emotions when losing than positive emotions when winning (about 2 times stronger according to some studies).

We feel much more disappointed losing $1000 than happy when earning $1000. Saving 200 lives is good, but it is not as appealing as the possibility — even if not that favorable — of avoiding the loss of 600.

If framing has such an impact in how we decide and solve problems, what is the “correct way” of framing a problem? How can we protect ourselves from our biases? Here are four ideas.

Never accept the initial framing without at least some thought — whether it was formulated by you or by someone else.

Try different perspectives and look for distortions in thinking. Play with your problem definition.

Because our perceptual positions determine how we view things, it’s important to learn how to shift perspectives and look at a subject in different ways.

To avoid the biases of posing your problem as losses or gains, state the problem in a neutral way — one that combines both positive and negative perspectives. Make it in such a way that it is redundant, simultaneously encompassing multiple reference points as objectively as possible.

In our previous example with the disease programs, it could become:

Program A: 200 people survive. 400 people die.

Program B: 1/3 chance for 600 people to survive and 0 to die, and 2/3 for 0 people to survive and 600 to die.

Regardless of which of the options you end up choosing, you can now evaluate them in a much more balanced way.

Take your problem, invert it and see how you feel about it.

For example, if it’s about earning $1000, imagine that you already have it and now would lose it. In the same manner, if it’s about losing $1000, imagine that you’re $1000 behind and that you’ll earn it.

Check how that feels comparing to the original situation. If you notice a strong asymmetry between your feelings in both situations, this is a strong signal that you’re being affected by the framing of the question.

Check for elements in your problem that trigger disproportionally emotional responses. It’s always useful to be aware of the role our own emotions play when we make decisions. Acknowledge and express your emotions — it would be impossible not to, anyway — but don’t let them cloud your vision.

To separate the rational and the emotional components of the problem, detach yourself from it: Imagine the situation is happening to someone else, someone you don’t know. Conversely, get the opinion of other people who are not involved.

Tune the emotions down for a minute to add a new perspective to your problem. Then feel free to tune them back up.

Now, it’s over to you… Have you ever been affected by misframing a situation? Were you able to reframe it? How did it work? Share in the comments!

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Beat Parkinson’s Law and Supercharge Your Productivity

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Even if you are not familiar with its name, I’m sure you’ve fallen prey to Parkinson’s Law countless times… what can we do to escape it?

We all know the drill: when we have too much time to complete a task, we tend to slack off until the task becomes urgent. Then, when meeting the deadline gets nigh impossible, we become super-productive and miraculously pull it off — getting the job done just in time.

The quintessential example of Parkinson’s Law in action is school assignments: even with a full month to complete an assignment, most people work very unproductively (if at all) until the last few days — when they pull one or two all-nighters and manage to get it done right at the last minute.

If you are like one of those students, you know that ‘working’ on the assignment filled up the whole time available — even if only psychologically — despite the fact that you spent little time in actual, productive work. Had you invested this short amount of time right after the assignment was handed to you, you would have completed it much sooner and could have spent the remaining time much more joyfully (either truly resting or working more productively on other stuff).

Does that mean we’re doomed to work at our peak only when we’re faced with looming deadlines? How can we get rid of this unproductive behavior and beat Parkinson’s Law? It turns out there are a few things you can do. Read on.

Parkinson’s Law always strikes the hardest when you have enormous tasks with far-away deadlines. The best way to fix this is, of course, breaking those big, monolithic tasks into many smaller, bite-sized tasks, along with several intermediate deadlines to complete them.

In addition to showing how you are progressing, frequent, achievable deadlines create a mild sense of urgency during the whole duration of your work, keeping you naturally engaged and focused on what needs to be done.

This method works great indeed, but note that you still need to take those intermediate deadlines seriously — which is not always easy!

It’s not always easy to know for sure when a task is finished. The more of a perfectionist you are, the most likely you’re a victim of Parkinson’s Law: there’s always one more little thing to add, one little refinement to be made, isn’t there?

Sure, I am all for aiming for greater quality: the hard part is knowing where to draw the line so we don’t spend a lot of time overdoing it.

If you suffer from this same problem, one thing that helps a lot is to precisely define the output of your tasks. The trick is to be as specific as you can about them — and then simply stop when you complete them.

For example, ‘write white paper draft’ allows too much room for interpretation by your inner perfectionist. ‘Write a 1000-word unedited stream-of-consciousness-style text’ works much better, doesn’t it? Being specific upfront helps keep our perfectionism in check.

Most of the time, Parkinson’s Law kicks in when we’re doing too much stuff at the same time: our days become a jumble of tasks when hardly any ever gets completely finished. And, with the huge amount of distractions that tend to creep in, it only gets worse.

To avoid Parkinson’s Law’s effects and finish tasks sooner, we must work on them one at a time, focused and with as few distractions as possible.

The best way I know to do that is by corralling your tasks using time boxes. Get a countdown timer and set a time limit to work on them — a contiguous block without distractions to finish or at least make progress on those tasks.

Another great way of setting boundaries is by clearly separating between work and leisure. If you restrict the time available for work (and honor it, of course), you’ll learn to fit all your work into these boundaries. My favorite technique to keep work boundaries well-defined is the time budget (where you define how much time you spend on each area of your life).

When you have a tight time limit or deadline, it forces your brain to figure out ways to get it done in the time available.

So, it’s time to stop adding hidden “safety buffers” when you estimate and allocate time for your tasks: if you pad your estimates, they will be wasted as a result of Parkinson’s Law kicking in.

What works here instead is to set challenging deadlines for yourself. Not too challenging — mildly challenging, I’d say. The trick here is that they must still be believable — otherwise you’ll just disregard them.

Take those time boxes you set for yourself (in item #3 above) and now shrink them! Can you do the same task 10% faster? Maybe 20%? A litttle more, perhaps? As soon as you set an expectation — an estimate for the duration of a task — the estimate becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The task will take the expected time, so take advantage of that!

The good thing about regularly challenging yourself that way is that you’ll improve your estimation skills very quickly, in addition to having fun finding creative ways to win these self-imposed challenges. If you practice (and your tasks are well-defined and small enough), it becomes increasingly easier to effectively set challenges for yourself.

One reason Parkinson’s Law is so prevalent — especially in corporations — is that people rarely have the right incentives to finish early:

—”Finished already? Here’s more work for you.”—”You’re fast! Guess we can bring the deadline forward next time!”

Even without pointy-haired bosses around, sticking to the current task as long as possible is often desirable, as it can act as a security blanket: maybe you’re avoiding your next task because it is too daunting, for example.

So if you finish early, give yourself mini-rewards: take a quick break, browse the web, go for a walk — do whatever takes your fancy — and enjoy the feeling of having deserved it. The key here is to associate rewards with results, not with time spent — so don’t fool yourself.

Of course, incentives for finishing early only work if the task is well-defined (i.e., you know exactly what ‘done’ means), otherwise most of us will just cheat (by doing a sloppy or incomplete job) in order to get the reward sooner.

Lastly, something that happens too often is hanging on too long to a task solely because we don’t know exactly what to do next.

Most of the time, the cognitive effort in planning tasks is much higher than that required to actually carry them out. That means that if we don’t have anything ready to be acted on, we may not have the required energy to stop, plan on-the-fly, and then get back to work. The easy way out is to stick to the current task for as long as we safely can.

One thing that I always strive to do is separate planning from doing, and make sure to always have a few next actions in the pipeline so you can keep the momentum going and avoid having to stop to reassess what you should be doing.

Are you a victim of Parkinson’s Law? What works best for you in beating it? Share in the comments!

…and, while we’re still at it, writing this article reminded me of an oldie (but goodie) short video I enjoy. It’s not exactly about Parkinson’s Law, but it’s somewhat related and always makes me chuckle…

(If you can’t see the video, watch it on Youtube)

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