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Five Boosts to Rock Your 2021 – 1/5/21

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Five Easy Ways to Make Your Life Better for 1/5/21

7 Ways to Make 2021 a Year of Growth and Joy

(Steven Ray Marks | Self-Helping Yourself | 1050 words)

Growth and joy come from attitudes and choices, not circumstances.

Keep a positive attitude, instead of complaining.

Be content with what you can’t change, and take action on what you can change.

Form plans, but be ready to adapt.

Maintain connections with friends and communities.

Related: Optimism and Pessimism are Self-Fulfilling

How to Master an Important Habit in 2021

(Gretchen Rubin | 1075 words)

Habits are the foundation of how we live.

Every person is different. There’s no one-size-fits-all method of habit change.

To find what works for you, learn from your past successes.

6 Unconventional Ways to Build Focus, Resilience, and Calm in 2021

(Jory MacKay | RescueTime | 2650 words)

Focus and resilience are necessary for happiness and achieving goals. These skills can be developed.

Become indifferent to things you can’t change. Deprioritize stressful things that don’t help you.

Rebuild passion and curiosity.

Experiment with working habits. If working remotely, match your internal clock to your workday. Create boundaries on work.

The Future Belongs to the Focused: These 7 Unconventional Tips Can Help

(Michael Thompson | Ladders | 1425 words)

This is the same topic as the last article, but has different suggestions.

It’s worth considering multiple perspectives to find what works for you.

Focus on doing your best for 5 minutes at a time.

Save your worst work task until last.

Keep a “worry” journal.

Related: 10 Things to Do When Feeling Overwhelmed

10 Personal Finance Tips That Changed My Life

(The Millennial Money Woman | 2775 words)

Money is a topic many are afraid of. But having finances in order makes life easier.

The Millennial Money Woman explains how to cut spending, invest the right way, avoid bad debt, set monetary goals, and adopt a growth mindset.

Related: Interview With The Millennial Money Woman

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.

Enjoy Five Boosts? Please consider buying me a coffee.

I work hard reviewing hundreds of articles a week to find five that contain the best advice on easy ways to improve your life.

As well as writing the posts for Self Helping Yourself, and Rockstar Excel.

If you can’t donate, you can always help by subscribing, recommending Five Boosts, Self Helping Yourself, or any articles to your friends, or by rating/reviewing The Weight Loss Habit on Amazon. (If you’ve read it.)

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Five Boosts 12/15/20 – Loving Failure And Ignorance

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Before getting to the boosts, I have a favor to ask.

I’m always trying to make Five Boosts more useful.

You can assist by completing this two-minute survey.

I’d truly appreciate it.

And don’t forget to subscribe to get Five Boosts in your inbox every week, as well as your free copy of 24 Ways to Improve Your Life.

Five Easy Ways to Make Your Life Better for 12/15/20

Interview With the Millennial Money Woman

(Steven Ray Marks & Fiona | Self Helping Yourself | 1875 words)

The Millennial Money Woman (also known as Fiona) is a top personal finance blogger.

She gives easy, actionable advice on getting your money in order:

  • Start saving and investing early
  • Avoid common mistakes
  • Cut spending
  • Leverage opportunities the internet gives

Related: 13 Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Finances

10 Ways to Love Your Partner in a Meaningful Way

(Kimberly Brown | Purpose Fairy | 975 words)

Love is something you actively do. A bit of mindful effort keeps your relationship strong, which makes both you and your partner much happier.

Suggestions include:

  • Talk to each other daily
  • Build them up
  • Flirt
  • Be more give than taking
  • Love yourself

How to Cope With Feelings of Isolation During the Holidays

(Abby Moore | Mind Body Green | 675 words)

The holidays are especially difficult for those with pandemic-related mental health challenges.

I know it’s hard for me – I haven’t seen my mother and sister in nearly a year.

To feel a bit better, make a plan of joyful ways to spend the holiday.

Adapt traditions for quarantine, or create new ones.

Spend time outdoors, or volunteer. Charity is a great way to boost your mood.

Video chat with family. It’s not the real thing, but it’s better than nothing.

Selective Ignorance: Cultivating Intentional Knowledge in a Chaotic World

(Anne-Laure Le Cunff | Ness Labs | 1350 words)

The unlimited knowledge is at our fingertips is both a blessing and a curse.

What knowledge we consume and how we consume it can make us miserable or be a distraction.

Cultivate selective ignorance by limiting information sources that don’t provide value or enjoyment.

How to Overcome Failure and Use it as Motivation

(DJ Jeffries | Addicted 2 Success | 925 words)

Everybody fails sometimes. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Failure is an opportunity to learn and come out of it stronger.

To do this:

  • Understand what went wrong.
  • Look to friends for advice.
  • Listen to constructive feedback.
  • Keep moving forward.
  • Don’t be afraid of failure.

I always say: “If you failed but learned how to do better next time, you haven’t really failed.”

Related: Disembarking From the Failboat

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.

Enjoy Five Boosts? Please consider buying me a coffee.

I work hard reviewing hundreds of articles a week to find five that contain the best advice on easy ways to improve your life.

As well as writing the posts for Self Helping Yourself, and Rockstar Excel.

If you can’t donate, you can always help by subscribing, recommending Five Boosts, Self Helping Yourself, or any articles to your friends, or by rating/reviewing The Weight Loss Habit on Amazon. (If you’ve read it.)

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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.

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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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