Personal Growth & Transformation

How the iPad Will Change Education

By / 5 Comments
iPad will change education

An optimist always thinks that change is for the better. In his book, The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley describes the progress of human knowledge, a process of accelerating, spontaneous, change. Larger and larger human communities connect and exchange goods, information, and ideas. Only the best ideas survive. As these ideas accumulate, they become part of our collective intelligence. The result, in the last few hundred years, has been a dramatic improvement in living standards and a reduction in the number of hours of work necessary to acquire basic goods and services.

Education has been an exception. In the US, the cost of K-12 education, in constant dollars, has increased by 350% since the 1960s with no improvement in results.

The iPad , and the next generation of cheaper and better electronic tables that will follow it, are symbols of the dramatic change that is sweeping through the world of education.

How the iPad Will Change Education Read More »

Mindfully Moving Beyond Multitasking

By / 29 Comments
multitask

It’s become a truism in productivity literature that we shouldn’t multitask. Constantly switching between projects, we’re told, wastes time, because we need to reorient ourselves whenever we change tasks.

In working with clients on productivity issues, I’ve noticed that, although some people understand intellectually that multitasking is bad, they have trouble kicking the habit. As hard as they try to zero in on a single project, they find their attention constantly jumping around — from writing that e-mail, to coding that computer program, to folding their socks, and so on.

In other words, for these people, multitasking isn’t really a choice — it’s more like something that happens to them. But why?

Mindfully Moving Beyond Multitasking Read More »

10 Small Changes Which Make a Big Difference

By / 19 Comments
small changes

When you want to change something in your life, it can feel overwhelming. Whether it’s losing 50lbs or switching careers, starting a side business or spring cleaning the home, it might be a change you’re desperately keen to make … but getting started is really tough.

You don’t have to take huge, sweeping, radical steps, though. Small and simple changes are often the best way forwards – they’re sustainable and manageable, and you’re not likely to give up after one half-hearted attempt.

Here are ten to try.

10 Small Changes Which Make a Big Difference Read More »

How to Change Another Person’s Life

By / 26 Comments
change another person

There is a very easy way to change another person’s life, and it involves doing nothing directly or intentionally for them.

Back in 2008 I published two stories on PickTheBrain by Stephen Hopson that illustrated the profound and lasting impact a single person can have on our life. In these stories, Stephen shared how a teacher who belted out “THAT’S RIGHT STEPHEN!” gave him the confidence to overcome the insecurities he held due to being deaf.

Very often, as was the case in Stephen’s stories, the person who changes us does not even realize the positive and profound impact they have had. Why? Because they have not done anything directly and/ or intentionally for us. Rather, they have simply been living their own life in such a manner that we can’t help be changed for the better.

How to Change Another Person’s Life Read More »

How to Change Your Life

By / 17 Comments
how to change your life

We are often told that change is uncomfortable and difficult, that it inevitably involves pain, and that to change your life is to struggle and fight against the status quo. But there is another way. Change can be gentle, spontaneous and natural – effortless, even. With the right approach, big changes can occur without the upheavals we might normally associate with such shifts.

You create your own experience of life

It seems to be a rule of nature that similar things conglomerate. People from a similar social or cultural background are drawn together by a shared worldview; the rich and famous socialize within their own circle; similar scientific ideas which seem to arise at around the same time. The familiar saying, ‘birds of a feather flock together’ arises from this observation.

How to Change Your Life Read More »

How Pain, Heartache and Loss Can Make You Better

By / 15 Comments
loss

Pain and loss is a reality that we all have to deal with in our lives from time to time. It can control our lives and bring us down, or it can actually cause us to change in good ways and make us better.

It’s easy for us to want to push aside our negative feelings and not acknowledge their existence. We want to feel good and be happy all of the time.

And there’s nothing wrong with wanting happiness.

But what if when pain, heartache, or loss strike us, they can actually change us to make us better people? And what if it can help us deal better with future occurrences of pain?

How Pain, Heartache and Loss Can Make You Better Read More »

7 Powerful Success Principles

By / 13 Comments
success principles

A principle is a rule or law concerning a natural occurrence. When principles are applied, the results are predictable. Today I want to talk about seven success principles that will make your success a natural occurrence. These principles are timeless; they will work today the same as they worked 2,500 years ago, the same as they will work 2,500 years from now.

If you follow the success principles, success will surely be yours. Contrary to popular opinion, public debate, and what you may have seen on television, success is not the result of good luck. Success comes from the proper application of principles.

7 Powerful Success Principles Read More »

7 Ways to Develop a Magnetic Personality

By / 36 Comments
magnetic personality

I was never the “cool” kid in school. I was an angst-ridden band geek, and my only friends were the “smart kids”. Over the years my personality has definitely gone through some major changes. As I started to understand how to overcome the fear of who I am and find my most magnetic qualities, I’ve also learned quite a bit about people in general.

As part of my Personal Power II project that I’m working on, one of the things I’ve started incorporating into my daily routine is power questions. One of my questions that I’ve been using in order to make changes in my life is “what makes me attractive”?. Everyday I come up with different answers and the idea is at the end of 30 days my brain will make a connection between being awake and all these states. Today, when I was asked myself that question, the answer I came up with was making people feel good about themselves.

7 Ways to Develop a Magnetic Personality Read More »

Why Doesn’t Change Stick?

By / 24 Comments
falling leaf

A lot of us try – and try hard – to make changes in our lives. We’re keen, we’re motivated, we may even have a step-by-step plan.

For a while, it works. Maybe we successfully start eating more healthily, or take up an exercise routine. Maybe we manage to leave work at 5pm every day. Maybe we take a big step – like starting a family or quitting a job – and hope that this solves problems, like our struggles with time-management or our tendency to procrastinate.

Being inspired to change is great. But it’s hard to ignore the reality that lots of us want to change – and lots of us do start making changes – only to end up backsliding.

Why Doesn’t Change Stick? Read More »

6 Virtues that Can Radically Improve Your Life

By / 14 Comments
virtues

“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” ~Aristotle

Moral excellence, as Aristotle says, is a result of habit. Like anything else we want to master, to become morally excellent or more virtuous takes practice. Typically, we don’t go through our day thinking about whether we need to practice more kindness or more commitment or even more love. Morals or virtues are usually ingrained in us and come naturally, right? Yes, but if we became more mindful of the difference that the practice of virtues can make in daily life, we will undoubtedly lead a more fulfilling and happy life. Mainly because we are striving for excellence; our personal best based in virtues such as love, kindness, gratefulness, courage, and integrity.

By practicing the following six virtues, your life can radically improve in the form of better relationships, peaked performance, and fulfillment of your dreams.

6 Virtues that Can Radically Improve Your Life Read More »

Is This Type of Thinking Killing Your Goals?

By / 13 Comments
nothing

Several months back I interviewed a blogger named Jenny Blake who runs a successful blog called Life After College, and has actually just signed her first book deal. As I was going back through my chat with her about the process of writing a book, she said one thing that really stood out to me. She said that far too many people are victims of all or nothing thinking when it comes to the seemingly daunting task of writing a book. Most people don’t even start because they think that it has to be all or nothing: write the entire book or don’t write it all. When you think about goals in general that’s not at all how they are accomplished.

Let’s take a look at how we can overcome all or nothing thinking and actually accomplish our goals.

Is This Type of Thinking Killing Your Goals? Read More »