“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.”

THE 4 GS TO GENIUS

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

communication

Communication

Jim Kwik: Brain & Memory Coach

Learned optimism is the concept that a positive mindset can be cultivated, even in those with pessimistic tendencies. Heavily influenced by psychologist Martin Seligman, learned optimism is part of the positive psychology movement. By learning how to cultivate positivity in everyday life, you can improve your productivity and your mental health.

Learned optimism

<ul><li>Permanence. A pessimist may ruminate during a negative time in their life and see the darkness as permanent. </li><li>Pervasiveness. The pervasiveness of pessimism leads a pessimist to believe that failure at work is evidence of, or will lead to, failure in all other aspects of life. </li><li>Personalization. A pessimist will see their successes as being due to something external to them, and disappointments as being solely their own responsibility.</li></ul>

The 3 P’s of pessimism

<ul><li>Learned optimism leads to higher motivation. With more motivation to succeed, optimists exert more effort to guarantee achievement, in contrast with pessimists who are more likely to give up.</li><li>Optimism can predict good health, better career success, and superior social relations. </li><li>An optimists’ expectation of positive outcomes leads to upbeat feelings. Conversely, when pessimists expect a poor outcome, it can cause negative feelings including anxiety, anger, or sadness.</li></ul>

The benefits of learned optimism

The ABCDE approach to go from learned helplessness to learned optimism:<ul><li>Adversity. Start by describing a recent experience of adversity. </li><li>Belief. Then, write down all the thoughts running through your mind while thinking about this adverse experience. </li><li>Consequence. Now, consider the impact of these beliefs on your feelings and on your behaviour. </li><li>Disputation. It’s time to put your beliefs into perspective.</li><li>Energization: Use the newfound energy from the disputation step to cultivate a more positive outlook on the challenge you are facing. </li></ul>

How to learn optimism

Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person? Positive thinking can reap significant benefits. This is the power of learned optimism.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Learned optimism: how to cultivate a talent for positive thinking

Tolkien is most famous for writing the Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings books, each of which is fantastic in it’s own right.However, there is a fair amount of wisdom in the pages of his writing, and some of it can be used to help us through different challenges and adversities in life.For many, good philosophy is practical philosophy, and the best practical philosophy are those concepts that transcend the situations in which they’re written and apply broadly across multiple areas of life.Here are some of the best quotes of Tolkien:

J. R. R. Tolkien

All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes a fire shall be woken,A light from the shadows shall spring;Renewed shall be blade that was broken,The crownless again shall be king.

I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

The wise speak only of what they know

“Darkness must pass, a new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer."

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."

A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.

“Little by little, one travels far."

Courage is found in unlikely places.

J. R. R . Tolkien is famous for his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Here are some of his best philosophical quotes

philosophy

Philosophy

J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes - Philosophy For Life

"Nothing lasts forever."

"The hardest choices require the strongest will."

"There's nothing more dangerous to a warrior than emotion."

"Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk."

"I missed the part where that's my problem."

"Human beings are strong because we have the ability to change ourselves."

"I am Groot."

"Be strong, you never know whom you are inspiring."

We always watch fictional shows but many of the times they are trying to make us learn something too! I've mentioned some iconic lines said by the legends themselves.

Fictional Inspiration Quotes

Choices can be our best freind or worst enemy. They can deliver us to our goals or send us orbiting into a galaxy far far away.

Choices

The day you graduate from childhood to adulthood is the day you take responsibility of your choices.

Take Responsibility

There's a story about a man riding a horse, galloping quickly. It appears that he's going somewhere very important A man standing along the roadside shouts, "Where are you going?" The rider replies, "I don't know. Ask the horse!" This is the story of most people's lives. They're riding the horse of their habits, with no idea where they're headed. It's time to take control of the reins and move your life in the direction of where you really want to go.

Story Of Everyone

"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon... must inevitably come to pass!"

A daily routine built on good habits and discipline separates the most successful among us from everyone else. A routineis exceptionally powerful.

Daily Routine

Reading such beautiful and impactful book help me improve every day.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, based on the principle that little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. No gimmicks. No Hyperbole. No Magic Bullet. The Compound Effect is a distillation of the fundamental principles that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond. This easy-to-use, step-by-step operating system allows you to multiply your success, chart your progress, and achieve any desire. If you're serious about living an extraordinary life, use the power of The Compound Effect to create the success you want. You will find strategies including: How to win--every time! The No. 1 strategy to achieve any goal and triumph over any competitor, even if they're smarter, more talented or more experienced. Eradicating your bad habits (some you might be unaware of!) that are derailing your progress. The real, lasting keys to motivation--how to get yourself to do things you don't feel like doing. Capturing the elusive, awesome force of momentum. Catch this, and you'll be unstoppable. The acceleration secrets of superachievers. Do they have an unfair advantage? Yes they do, and now you can too!

books

Books

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, based on the principle that little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. No gimmicks. No Hyperbole. No Magic Bullet. The Compound Effect is a distillation of the fundamental principles that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond. This easy-to-use, step-by-step operating system allows you to multiply your success, chart your progress, and achieve any desire. If you're serious about living an extraordinary life, use the power of The Compound Effect to create the success you want. You will find strategies including: <ul><li>How to win--every time! The No. 1 strategy to achieve any goal and triumph over any competitor, even if they're smarter, more talented or more experienced.</li><li>Eradicating your bad habits (some you might be unaware of!) that are derailing your progress.</li><li>The real, lasting keys to motivation--how to get yourself to do things you don't feel like doing.</li><li>Capturing the elusive, awesome force of momentum. Catch this, and you'll be unstoppable.</li><li>The acceleration secrets of superachievers. Do they have an unfair advantage? Yes they do, and now you can too! </li></ul>

Darren Hardy is an American author, keynote speaker, advisor, and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine. Hardy is a New York Times best-selling author, who wrote The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, Living Your Best Year Ever and The Compound Effect. 

Darren Hardy

The Compound Effect

Los supervivientes de los campos aún recordamos a los hombres que iban a los barracones a consolar a los demás, ofreciéndoles su único mendrugo de pan. Quizás no fueron muchos, pero esos pocos son una muestra irrefutable de que al hombre se le puede arrebatar todo, salvo una cosa: la libertad humana —la libre elección de la acción personal ante las circunstancias— para elegir el propio camino.

¿Qué es lo único que no se le puede arrebatar al humano?

En esas condiciones, al hombre se le niega el valor de la creación o de la vivencia, pero aun así la vida ofrece un sentido.De manera que todos los aspectos de la vida son significativos; también el sufrimiento. Si hay un sentido en la vida, entonces debe de haber un sentido en el sufrimiento.La experiencia indica que el sufrimiento es parte sustancial de la vida, como el destino y la muerte. Sin ellos, la existencia quedaría incompleta.

El sufrimiento en la vida

En una ocasión leí la carta de un joven enfermo a un amigo; en ella le comunicaba que no le quedaba mucho tiempo de vida, que ni siquiera una intervención quirúrgica podría ya salvarlo. Continuaba recordando una película que había visto en la que el protagonista encaraba la muerte con dignidad y coraje. En ese entonces pensaba en el privilegio que suponía enfrentarse a la muerte con esa dignidad, y ahora —escribía— el destino le brindaba una oportunidad semejante.

Encarar la muerte con dignidad y coraje

Considerar la «vida provisional» como algo irreal constituía ya de por sí un factor primordial para que los prisioneros se desentendieran de su vida, pues todo carecía de sentido. Esas personas olvidaban que, muchas veces, las circunstancias excepcionalmente adversas otorgan al hombre la oportunidad de crecer espiritualmente más allá de sí mismo. En vez de aprovechar las dificultades del campo para probar su entereza, juzgaban errónea su situación, un paréntesis inconsistente del destino. Preferían cerrar los ojos y refugiarse en el pasado. Para esas personas, la vida perdía todo su sentido.

La oportunidad de crecer en la adversidad 

Debemos aprender por nosotros mismos, y enseñar a los hombres desesperados, que en realidad no importa lo que esperamos de la vida, sino que importa lo que la vida espera de nosotros. Hablando en términos filosóficos podríamos decir que se trata de una especie de giro copernicano: tenemos que dejar de preguntar por el sentido de la vida y en su lugar percatarnos de que es la vida la que nos plantea preguntas, cada día y a cada hora. Preguntas a las que no hemos de responder con reflexiones o palabras, sino con el valor de una conducta recta y adecuada.

La vida y sus preguntas (1/2)

En última instancia, vivir significa asumir la responsabilidad de encontrar la respuesta correcta a las cuestiones que la vida plantea, cumpliendo la obligación que nos asigna.Esas obligaciones y tareas, y en consecuencia el sentido de la vida, difieren en cada hombre, en un momento u otro, de manera que resulta imposible concebir el sentido de la vida en términos abstractos. Nunca se podrá responder a la pregunta sobre el sentido de la vida con afirmaciones absolutas. «Vida» no significa algo vago, sino real y concreto, del mismo modo que las tareas que nos impone son muy reales y concretas.

La vida y sus preguntas (2/2)

El Doctor Frankl, psiquiatra y escritor, suele preguntar a sus pacientes aquejados de multiples padecimientos: Por que no se suicida usted? Y muchas veces, de las respuestas extrae una orientacion para la psicoterapia a aplicar: a este, lo que le ata a la vida son los hijos; al otro, un talento, una habilidad sin explotar; a un tercero, quizas, solo unos cuantos recuerdos que merece la pena rescatar del olvido. Tejer estas tenues hebras de vidas rotas en una urdimbre firme, coherente, significativa y responsable es el objeto con que se enfrenta la logoterapia. En esta obra, Viktor E. Frankl explica la experiencia que le llevo al descubrimiento de la logoterapia. Prisionero, durante mucho tiempo, en los desalmados campos de concentracion, el mismo sintio en su propio ser lo que significaba una existencia desnuda. Como pudo el que todo lo habIa perdido, que habia visto destruir todo lo que valia la pena, que padecio hambre, frio, brutalidades sin fin, que tantas veces estuvo a punto del exterminio, como pudo aceptar que la vida fuera digna de vivirla? El psiquiatra que personalmente ha tenido que enfrentarse a tales rigores merece que se le escuche, pues nadie como el para juzgar nuestra condicion humana sabia y compasivamente. Las palabras del doctor Frankl alcanzan un temple sorprendentemente esperanzador sobre la capacidad humana de trascender sus dificultades y descubrir la verdad conveniente y orientadora.

education

Learning & Education

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

El Hombre En Busca Del Sentido

Trust does not mean that others have to do things the way you expect them to do them. Trust means to become vulnerable.

There are many ways to attain mukti or ultimate liberation – through pure energy, awareness, absolute selflessness, or devotion. Devotion is the quickest way.

A spouse is not a destination but a fellow traveler.

It is best to keep account of your own growth every day. Are you getting better, more joyful, and more sensible.

From the simplest aspects of life to the most complex, I see the play of grace on a daily basis. It is my wish and my blessing that you stay open to this possibility.

If you are present, I am always present – all your life and beyond. Even after I leave my body, I will still be present.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Mystic Quotes - Sadhguru

"When you hear good advice, you should always do two things: Take it in and pass it on."

The number one reason people give up so fast is because they tend to look at how far they still have to go instead of how far they have come. But it's a series of small wins that can give us the most significant success.

A narrow focus brings big results

Whether you're at work or at school when you're there you show up in the present time. Don't daydream about the past and the future concentrate in the present.

Show up fully

If you weren't watching the whole situation you can't say that you are sure that you saw that. Don't assume that you did.

Don't make assumptions

The unhappiest people are those who care most about what other people think.

Don't try to impress everyone

These ideas are important to me because they have been quite a hand. I hope they help you too!

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.   Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Robert Greene is an American author of books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written six international bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature.

Robert Greene

The 48 Laws of Power

A personality trait is a characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting that distinguishes one person from another. In natural language, traits often show up as adjectives used to describe one’s personality (e.g., friendly, recalcitrant, creative, bold, petty, loquacious) and imply a degree of stability.

What Is A Personality Trait?

When you tell me that Fred is quiet, I expect that when I meet him he will speak infrequently or softly or both. And I expect that this is driven internally—Fred’s quiet behavior is carried with Fred wherever he goes and manifests itself in a variety of circumstances. But what if Fred doesn’t want to be quiet anymore? What if Fred prefers to roar? Can he make this happen? Should he hire a coach?

Traits Are Mostly Stable And Internally Driven

Over the past half decade or so, psychologists (led frequently by Nathan Hudson) have been considering this question in earnest. Early results are generally promising, and sometimes in surprising ways. First, across major (<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/big-5-personality-traits">Big Five</a>) trait dimensions—with the interesting exception of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/openness">Openness to Experience </a>—students who wanted to change a given trait over a 3-month period were generally successful in doing so, at least from their own perspectives (Hudson & Fraley, 2015).

Can We Change A Trait If We Want To?

It turns out it was more effective to have relevant <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/motivation">goals </a>prescribed to some degree rather than to allow people to identify their own change mechanisms. Often, we know the endpoint (“I’d like to be more responsible”), but are less equipped to identify sensible intermediate steps (“I’ll start waking up a half-hour earlier each day to do something productive”).

And How Do We Change It?

As such, change plans were more successful when participants received some instruction to develop small, concrete intervening goals (e.g., organize the app icons on your phone’s home screen [Conscientiousness], smile at someone you don’t know [Agreeableness]). In fact, there was some evidence that without such coaching, the intervention could have effects opposite of the intent: one might come to see oneself as, say, less emotionally stable when the goal was to enhance this characteristic.

The Recipe For Change: Goals And Coaching

Why would this happen? The authors report that people’s desire for change seems to be relatively uniform, and they suggest that vague (and thus perhaps less obtainable) goals (e.g., “be more positive,” “meet new people,” etc.) may create circumstances wherein one is essentially repeatedly faced with their own failure to achieve change, and thus begins to believe that they are even worse off than they initially thought.

Desire For Change Is Vague. Goals Must Be The Opposite. 

For example, someone who would like to be more emotionally stable may develop a goal to relax when they’re stressed. But if each week you’re asked to recall instances when you relaxed in the face of stress and cannot find any, the belief that you’re unable to regulate your anxiety may grow stronger, altering your fundamental self-perception for this trait.

An Example Of Self-Undermining

You might ask yourself whether all this is to be believed, given that all information is coming from one source—the person themselves. Isn’t it possible that people say they want to change, then say they do different things, then say they’ve changed? Sure. And future studies employing peer reports of personality and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/habit-formation">behavioral change </a>would certainly bolster these findings.

But Can You Really Truly Change?

That said, there are some reasons to believe that these changes aren’t all in our heads. For instance, in a more recent study, Hudson (2021) asked people to identify change goals for a specific trait but subsequently randomly assigned people to different change protocols. For example, I may have stated that I want to become more conscientious, but I received an intervention aimed at increasing my emotional stability. It turns out that changes occurred in correspondence with the intervention, even without the explicit preference for a change in that domain.

Can You Change Any Trait At Will, Regardless Of Preference?

One caveat here is that this manner of intervention was only tested on Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness, and only worked in one case (Conscientiousness). Further, this does not mean that you can induce get-up-and-go in your lazy cousin through sheer force of your own will, but it might mean that presenting people with challenges that are consistent in nature over time might help them change, even without their desire for that specific change.

But: Response To Challenge Is Not Equal To Intentional Change

Essentially, there are two competing accounts of how trait change occurs in individuals. The Sociogenomic account posits that small changes in behaviors or emotional states accumulate in ways that directly lead to changes in personality and are mediated biologically—simply doing things, by choice or by external force, changes the way we interact with the world in ways that don’t require consideration of self-perception as part of the process.

It Seems That Some Traits Change Rather Unknowingly

The Neo-Socioanalytic account suggests that conscious attempts to change self-perceptions work not only to create the molecular state changes but also that these motivations to change affect self-perceptions or identity, which in turn affect personality. The former account would be a tidy way to explain that Conscientiousness seems to be changed without the person’s knowledge or investment, but the latter account would be supported by successful changes to Emotional Stability only occurring when the individual has willfully chosen to change and is participating faithfully in the process.

And Some Traits Change Only Too Willfully 

Regardless of the mechanism, there seems to be good news for you if changing an aspect of your personality is on your list. Obviously, some traits will be easier to change than others, and it’s important to note that these changes aren’t dramatic (our quiet friend Fred is unlikely to actually roar), nor are we sure that they would persist if and when your intervention lapses. But in three months, you could be more <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/extroversion">extraverted </a>or more conscientious than you are today, provided you set clear, consistent, relevant subgoals.

So, Is The News Good Or Bad?

Have you considered changing your personality? There are ways, if you have the will (and sometimes even if you don't). But is it really as simple as “where there’s a will there’s a way”?

Thinking about the necessary ingredients to become a better you.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Wills and Ways: Changing Our Personality

<ul><li>Be proactive.</li><li>Start with the end in mind.</li><li>Ensure that you priorities your goals properly.</li><li>Strive to understand the other person before you try to be understood.</li><li>Make agreements where you and the other parties involved all win.</li><li>Practise your skills individually and as a group</li></ul>

Lessons From “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People”!!

Important learnings from the book “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” at a glance.

A leading management consultant outlines seven organizational rules for improving effectiveness and increasing productivity at work and at home.

productivity

Productivity

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The 7 habits of highly effective people is recognised as one of the most influential books ever written. In this seminal work, Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. The 7 Habits have become so famous because they work. From Habit 1: Be Proactive and Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind, millions of People have worked their way through the 7 and found in them a key to transforming their lives. This book has been the key to the success of legions of business leaders and individuals the world over.

Stephen R. Covey is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Stephen R. Covey has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Stephen R. Covey's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Stephen R. Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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