Monthly Archives: November 2008

What will you do today?

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I’m on holiday this week visiting New York City (follow me in real time on twitter), so here’s a video that is in keeping with the topics here and filmed in New York. Hope it inspires you to take some action!

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Start every day with this question. What will you do today? How can you make a difference to your life and the lives of others?


Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

(If you are one of my wonderful subscribers and can’t see the video in RSS or Email, click here)

What will you do today? Let me know if the comments below!

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Bits & Bobs:

  • This week I secured my first social media consulting job. It’s a favour for a friend, but you have to start somewhere.
  • I have increased my subscribers by a third this week, so welcome new people! Get ready, Lifestyle Project steps up a gear after my break.
  • I’ll respond to comments when I’m back.

Image Credit: by Stuck in Customs on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Chris’s time for three: reading around the web:

  • http://writetodone.com/2008/11/20/ask-leo-live-qa-for-bloggers-and-writers/
  • http://www.willitchangeyou.com/personal-growth-where-to-start/
  • http://www.blog.neverthesamerivertwice.com/2008/11/21/in-defense-of-television/

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I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

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Top Tips to Eliminate Temptation (and information overload)

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One of the things that has become more and more apparent in the media recently is the need to cut back, save more and be frugal for the road of recession ahead. Recession or not, I like to try and make sure that I keep my life as decluttered as possible (it’s in my genes), and always ask myself before buying anything whether I really need it or will really use it. I am only human and do have an addiction to gadgets and cool t-shirt designs but nobody’s perfect.

Here are some tips for eliminating temptations which I use to great effect. I find that what you don’t know can’t hurt you… If you don’t have the information pushed to you, you won’t want to consume it.

Healthy Eating
If you don’t want to eat as much chocolate, don’t buy it! It may sounds simple, but if you buy the foods you want to eat to be healthy and don’t buy the foods that you know you want to cut down on then you won’t eat them. When I want to loose weight I cut down on sugar and alcohol. If the chocolate isn’t in my cupboard at home, I won’t eat it.

Information Overload
As an internet savvy, social media, RSS reading blogger I do like many other people suffer from information overload in this area. I have this problem that I feel that I need to read every blog in my RSS, magazine that comes through the door and watch every episode of a TV series I am following. The best way I have found to reduce my information overload is to trim down on the blogs that I read, the information coming through my door and the TV programmes I watch. I you haven’t got it in your ‘pile’ of reading to start with then you don’t need to read it. I also have resisted joining every link sharing, social media application that springs up to avoid feeding myself with more and more information.

Products
When I buy something online I always make sure that I untick the box that says “Keep me informed of product updates” from the company I am buying from. I also regularly unsubscribe from newsletters, product info emails etc from amazon, play.com etc. These companies don’t send you emails for your benefit, it is helping them to sell more products. If you don’t know a product exists you won’t want to buy it.

People
No not temptation be consume people in any weird way. This applies more to work than social situations but if you avoid going to meetings you won’t get actions. Say no, and only interact with the people that give you the most benefit towards your long term aspirations, rather than those who give you the most information to deal with or actions to complete.

Of course to make the above tips work for you, you do need to have a certain amount of self control and discipline. We are all human and falter at times but if you want to make a change in your life for something that is important to you and for the better you should be able to have the discipline to go for it.

How do you eliminate your temptations?

See also: You Can’t do everything, get over it.

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Bits & Bobs:

  • I’m not happy with the new logo. Any suggestions do let me know lifestyle [dot] project [at] yahoo [dot] com.
  • As of today I think my stomach is all better!
  • I’m off to New York next week (follow me in real time on twitter) and can’t wait! Hope to have a post ready before I go or a guest post if I get any submissions.
  • Yes this end of blog post section is messy, I’m experimenting!

Image Credit: by Daniel Y. Go on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Time for three: Reading around the web:

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

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The Importance of Being Idle

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Image by *Micky on Flickr via Creative Commons

I’ve been ill with a stomach bug for the last few days and this has reminded me of the importance of rest and slowing down. When you are interested in productivity and achieving your goals it is easy to become too focused on always doing something, and neglect the fact that sometimes doing nothing is equally as important. Allowing your body and mind to rest and recuperate is an important part of healthy living.

It is no lie that in order to achieve your goals you need to make productive use of your time and really make sure that you are taking the right actions to get you to where you want to be; let’s not forget that it is all very well complaining that we don’t like our current job, situation etc. but if you don’t take action and you just lie on the sofa watching TV night after night then you are in a position of your own making. Like many things in life, rest and work are areas where you need to strike the right balance to enable you to be efficient in what you do, and get where you want to, without burning out.

Here are some tips on slowing down, but still remaining productive towards your long term aspirations.

1. Recognise the signs
You need to learn to recognise when you are working too hard or approaching burn out. By learning the symptoms and causes you can take the necessary actions to make sure that you avoid getting into a fatigue situation early.

2. Allow yourself to stop
So you recognise the signs that you are doing too much, but heres the hard part; persuading yourself to stop and rest for a while. I often find that I feel the need to always be productive and if I am not doing something constructive then I feel like I am selling myself short. There is always a time for hard work, but there is also a need for rest.

3. Plan your rest
I always make sure that I have something to look forward too such as a holiday, weekend away or something new and exciting to do. This is a great technique because then, when you are facing a difficult challenge or a situation that requires extra focus, you can always look forward to something that you have planned coming up soon.

4. Have a day off
Another great tip is to have a day off, at least one per week. You need a day to rest and do nothing. This allows you mind to recoup and process the copious amount of information you have to deal with on a daily basis.

5. Use your time wisely (be productive)
You are less likely to feel guilty about resting or taking time off if you are productive when you are working towards your goals. Make sure that you use your time in the most productive way you can and don’t procrastinate. If you strive to get the action habit then you will achieve what you want whilst still having the time to relax.

I know that many people are working hard in their Lifestyle Project to have more time off! Work hard, but don’t deny yourself the rest that your body and mind deserves along the way to achieving your goals.

How do you relax? Do you feel that you can’t relax because you always need to be ‘productive’? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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Bits & Bobs:

So the new site design is up, what do you think? I’ve still got a few tweaks I would like to do but I like the design very much. I’m planning to do a post on moving from wordpress.com to your own hosted blog soon – if you have any questions regarding this please do let me know lifestyle [dot] project [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Image Credit: by *Micky on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Reading around the web (some actually relevant to this post!):

http://lateralaction.com/articles/getting-nothing-done/

http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2008/11/who-says-follow.html

http://zenhabits.net/2008/11/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-getting-things-done/

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

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How to Get What You Want Out of Life

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Image by Light Knight on Flickr via Creative Commons

Image by Light Knight on Flickr via Creative Commons

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” Lawrence J. Peter

How clearly defined are your goals? In order to be as effective as possible in getting what you want out of life, you really need to make sure your goals are clearly defined. This is not as easy as it may sound. Often people have many little goals they want to achieve, but are not sure which objectives to concentrate on in order to achieve their ultimate goals. If you are not clear on the objectives you have for yourself you will not be able to define the required actions you need to turn your dreams in to reality.

How to clearly define your goals

1. Make a list of all the things you want to achieve.
Think long and hard about this. Start by brain-storming ideas then leave the list for a day or two before revisiting it to finish off. Initially, list everything big and small.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

  • What do you want to do, be, or have?
  • What Lifestyle do you want to lead? How you see yourself in a few years time? (or how you want to see yourself?).

2. Think big.
At this point don’t think about what you could or couldn’t achieve, just think about what you want. If you could have, be or do anything what would that be?

3. Review the list.
Hopefully you now have a list of goals, projects and items you want to achieve. These will probably vary in size from big lifetime goals, to small things or projects that you want to do. Review the list and check that it captures everything important to you.

4. Eliminate.
Here is where it starts to get difficult, but there is a method to follow here. Think ten years ahead  in the future, these are the big goals. Tidying your loft or redoing the patio is probably not on the critical path to the place you want to be in ten years time. Sure they are important to you now in the short term, but you really want to be taking actions that will have the most effect towards achieving your future goals. You’ll probably find  some points you have written down are not that important. Other targets may seem important, but ask yourself “If I didn’t do this, would it mean I couldn’t reach where I want to be?”

5. Simplify
You can’t work effectively on ten goals at a time, probably not even half that amount. If your goals are important to you and you really want to achieve them, they should be something you care about more than anything. Again, this is not easy, but if you find your passion you will understand what is most important to you.Look at your edited goals list. What is the most important goal to you now? I would suggest you pick three large goals, maximum maybe five, and focus on these as your only priorities.

How your goals tie in with your Lifestyle Project
Your Lifestyle Project is the sum of the actions you take to achieve those goals. By definition, a project encompasses all the required activities to achieve defined objectives. The skill to managing your project is maximising the resources available to you to achieve the objectives. Therefore the key is to clearly define for yourself what your goals are. Be in a position where you are able to state what your goals are in life at the moment and to easily say 3-5 sentences stating your objectives.

Stop putting off the important
Some of the items on your list will probably be action points. This means they are probably things that you need to achieve or do in order to take the steps to reach your ultimate goals. DO NOT keep procrastinating activities on this list. Don’t hold up pursuing your dreams by ‘achieving’ mediocre or unimportant tasks or waiting for the right time before starting on the path towards your desired goals. There is never a right time. I very much doubt anyone finds a point in their lives where all conditions are perfect to start a new venture or pursue a new project.

Clarifying your goals for yourself is the first thing to do in your Lifestyle project. I suspect some people will find this very easy, whilst others will find this very difficult to do. However, the main thing to realise that once you understand yourself and what you want to achieve, you will be able to, or at least attempt to, control your own actions so that you are always working towards getting where you want to be.