Tag: Career

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Persuasion, Overwhelm, And Hard Conversations – Five Boosts 11/10/20

Written by Steven Ray Marks Leave a Comment on Persuasion, Overwhelm, And Hard Conversations – Five Boosts 11/10/20

Five Easy Ways to Make Your Life Better for 11/10/20

10 Things to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed

(Steven Ray Marks | Self Helping Yourself | 1850 words)

Life can seem overwhelming when you feel like you have more things to do than you’re capable of handling.

I give some strategies for dealing with these situations, based on my experience in fast-paced tech startups, such as:

  • Prioritize and pick one thing
  • Eliminate less important tasks
  • Complete something easy to build momentum
  • Put together a plan
  • Ask if your overwhelm is self-imposed

6 Phrases that Easily Redirect a Tough Conversation

(Steve Adcock | The Ladders | 575 words)

If a conversation goes off the rails and things get heated, calm things down by saying:

  • “I understand what you are saying, but let’s refocus for a minute”
  • “There are plenty of different perspectives here, but remember what we’re talking about.”
  • “I’m not sure I understand enough about that position. Can we talk about [original topic] instead?”
  • “I would rather not discuss politics right now, sorry.”
  • “I remember you saying something about your promotion earlier. How did you get that?”
  • “And speaking of that, did you hear about [mutually interesting topic]?”

3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Mood Right Now

(Henrik Edberg | Positivity Blog | 550 words)

Sometimes you’re just in a bad mood. Some strategies to feel better are:

  • Appreciate what you have
  • Act like you want to feel
  • Give someone a genuine compliment

15 Psychology Tips to Be More Persuasive

(Tanuj Sarva | IYNK | 1875 words)

Some simple strategies to be more convincing.

It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with these techniques both to use them yourself, and to be aware of when others use them on you.

Some highlights:

  • Explain the reason for your request
  • Compliment the person
  • Talk faster
  • Mirror their speech and action
  • Do them a favor to create an obligation

5 Kinds of People That Make Others Happy and How to Be One of Them

(Leon Collier | Contentment Questing | 1650 words)

Making others happy is one of the best ways to make yourself happy.

Some people are naturals at this, but you can also make a conscious effort. Suggestions include:

  • Send thoughtful emails
  • Plan something nice for your love
  • Listen well

Bonus Boost

Improving Skills to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

(Steven Ray Marks | Rockstar Excel | 575 words)

The story of a time I was thrust into a situation where my only options were to fail or to figure out how to do things better.

And how that experience eventually led to me creating my new site, Rockstar Excel.

Self Helping Yourself Tweet of the Week

Be sure to follow @YourselfHelping on Twitter.

Enjoy Five Boosts By Self Helping Yourself? Be sure to Subscribe and check out the Self Helping Yourself site.

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Money, Change, and Relationships – Five Boosts 11/3/20

Written by Steven Ray Marks 13 Comments on Money, Change, and Relationships – Five Boosts 11/3/20

Five Easy Ways to Make Your Life Better for 11/3/20

6 Strategies to Never Lose a Job and Have Rapid Career Growth

(Steven Ray Marks | Self Helping Yourself | 1925 words)

You can quickly get promotions, and avoid ever getting laid off, with these tactics:

  • Fill a vital function, and do a good job of it
  • Bring in or save more money than you cost the company
  • Be a rockstar at something
  • Be the one who understands how things work
  • Be someone people are happy to work with
  • Be a beast who does a massive amount of work

None of these are gimmicks. Ultimately, they come down to adding value to the company. But most of these are strategies that anyone can do with a concerted effort.

7 Cognitive Biases That Make Us Suck at Time-Management

(Becky Kane | Ambition & Balance by Doist | 4175 words)

Humans are irrational in many ways, but being aware of these can help us overcome them.

This is a long article, but well worth reading, as it suggests solutions to some of the most common mistakes we make in how we spend our time:

  • We focus on urgent but unimportant tasks, instead of the tasks that would yield greater rewards.
  • We can’t stop thinking about all the things we need to get done.
  • We underestimate how long it will take to do things.
  • The sunk cost fallacy
  • We overvalue the present and undervalue the future.
  • We get bogged down in complexities instead of taking action.
  • We pursue things that we think will improve our lives, but don’t make us happier.

How to Create a Budget

(The Millennial Money Woman | 4550 words)

A simple, step-by-step process for:

  • Understanding where your money is going
  • Getting your spending under control
  • Creating a plan for your future finances

6 Times When It’s Okay to Call it Quits and Start Over

(January Nelson | Thought Catalog | 500 words)

Your life path isn’t set in stone, and it’s okay to change directions. Some signs you should consider doing so are:

  • You realize you’ve been making yourself miserable
  • You realize this isn’t want you wanted
  • The only reason you haven’t changed directions is that you feel like you aren’t allowed to
  • You spend every day in tears

As someone who walked away from a successful and lucrative Accounting/Finance career because it made me unhappy, this article really resonated with me.

23 of the Best Relationship Goals to Nurture Intimacy

(Barrie Davenport | Live Bold & Bloom | 6000 words)

It’s important to maintain intimacy in a long term relationship.

These are some excellent tips for making sure that a close, loving, intimate relationship lasts for a lifetime, including:

  • Prioritize each other
  • Communicate with kindness
  • Plan for fun together
  • Perform regular acts of thoughtfulness
  • Have daily connection time

Bonus Boost

25 “Healthy” Foods that are Making You Fat

(Steven Ray Marks | Self Helping Yourself | 2325 words)

There are a lot of foods that are generally thought of as healthy, but contain far more calories than people realize.

It’s easy for people to think they’re doing everything right when it comes to healthy eating, but fail to lose weight because they’re eating way too much of these.

These foods may not be bad for you. But they need to be eaten in moderation, like every other food.

Examples include:

  • Fruit juice
  • Nuts
  • Restaurant salads
  • Avocados
  • Whole grain rice

Self Helping Yourself Tweet of the Week

Be sure to follow @YourselfHelping on Twitter.

Enjoy Five Boosts By Self Helping Yourself? Be sure to Subscribe and check out the Self Helping Yourself site.

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Be Happier and More Productive – Five Boosts 7/12/20

Written by Steven Ray Marks Leave a Comment on Be Happier and More Productive – Five Boosts 7/12/20

Five Easy Ways to Make Your Life Better for 7/12/20

Sometimes Good Advice Isn’t Good For You
(Self Helping Yourself | Steven Ray Marks)
There’s a lot of great advice you can find in the world. But every individual is different. Sometimes strategies that work for most people just aren’t right for you. You should still be open to trying advice, but you need to use self-observation to understand how it’s working for you in particular.

Volunteering Can Improve Your Mental Health
(Elizabeth Hopper | Greater Good Magazine)
Volunteering is a great way to make yourself happier. It gives you a warm glow directly. And it also has indirect effects to make your life better. It can give you a sense of community. And it can help build your professional and leadership skills. And many charities are offering ways to volunteer online during the COVID crisis.

Avoid “Bikeshedding” to Increase Your Productivity
(Melina Parker | Inc.)
“Bikeshedding” is when you spend way too long worrying about a minor detail, which keeps you from moving forward on your larger project. It’s something we all do, and keeps us from being as productive as we could be. To avoid it, ask yourself: 1. Will this decision matter five months from now? 2. What is the consequence if I choose “wrong.” 3. Is this problem helping me reach my big goal or distracting from it?

Get Your Career (And Life) Back on Track After a Disruption
(May Busch | maybusch.com)
When your life is disrupted – which let’s face it, describes most of us right now – it can be hard to get back on track. A good way to start is: 1. Take stock. 2. Go for small wins. 3. Focus where it matters.

Related: Disembarking from the Failboat

Five Ways Your Pessimism is Destroying Your Happiness, Career, and Relationships
(Holly Riordan | Thought Catalog | Scroll to end of article to subscribe)
1. You assume you won’t succeed so you don’t try. 2. You focus on negatives in others. 3. You stress out over things that haven’t happened. 4. You come across as a downer. 5. You psych yourself out and dread events that should be exciting. A personal note on this: While I’m generally optimistic, I often struggle with #3. I’ve developed a mantra, “Don’t get upset about imaginary things.”

Self Helping Yourself Tweet of the Week

There will always be people better off than you, and there will always be people who have it worse than you.

Comparisons to others shouldn’t stop you from taking the steps you need to live your best life.

And you certainly shouldn’t let comparisons shame you for your feelings.

Be sure to follow @YourselfHelping on Twitter.

Enjoy Five Boosts By Self Helping Yourself? Be sure to Subscribe and check out the Self Helping Yourself site.

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