Making a quantum leap PERSONAL GROWTH
42 19 SHiv on
success author of bestselling book YOU CAN WIN COVER STORY
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DO IT NOW HOW to finally stop procastinating
productivity
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Talia Wolf on Mobile Conversion Optimization
Zen & the art of Ninja
GROWTH INTERVIEW
Productivity
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I
’m
sure we’re all familiar with procrastination. I’ll start a new diet Monday, I’ll go back to school next year, I’ll work on that presentation after dinner. Do any of these statements sound familiar? They do to me. I even procrastinated writing this article, because my brain is kind of a prick sometimes.
DO IT
NOW HOW TO
FINALLY STOP PROCASTINATING 1 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
In moderation, procrastination isn’t that bad. However, when you continually postpone doing the things that are good for you, it becomes a big problem. And when you’re a freelancer, too much procrastination can lead to missed deadlines or excessive stress. Figuring our why people procrastinate isn’t rocket science. We do it because we choose to feel good now rather than feel better later. We opt to engage in activities that make us happy at the moment instead of delaying gratification and receiving a larger or more enduring reward at a later date. More often than not, we choose to postpone activities we’re not particularly fond of, whether we’re talking about eating healthier or finishing up an assignment for work.
it’s tempting to delay work until you ~feel more productive~ or ~check that totally unimportant errand off your to-do list~. But hiding from work and facing deadlines only when they’re unavoidable won’t help you build a successful small business. In fact, chronic procrastinators will never reach their true potential unless they learn to control the issue and stop putting off finally tackling their goals.
Here’s how you can do just that. I even have science to back up my claims. 01
SET CONCRETE GOALS
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FOLLOW THE 2-MINUTE RULE
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BREAK BIG TASKS INTO MANAGEABLE CHUNKS
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COMMIT FOR 5 MINUTES
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THINK IN SMALLER TIME UNITS
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SPICE UP TEDIOUS TASKS
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FREE UP YOUR SCHEDULE
When you work for yourself, keeping your procrastination at a manageable level can be tricky. With no boss looking over your shoulder and a plethora of distractions at every turn,
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01
02
Set Concrete Goals
Break Big Tasks into Manageable Chunks
Abstract goals may be fun to fantasize about, but there’s a smaller chance you’ll actually pursue them. Setting specific objectives, on the other hand, is more effective when it comes to motivating yourself to tackle them right on. Moreover,according to a study, focusing on concretely framed goals keeps your expectations in check, which is always a plus. So instead of challenging yourself to “grow your client base”, think of a more specific target – like applying to three new gigs per day. That sounds more doable, right?
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04
Commit for 5 Minutes
03
Follow the 2-minute Rule
We sometimes procrastinate because a certain task feels too difficult or timeconsuming. To avoid this, make it a habit to break down each huge project or goal into smaller assignments. For instance, writing a book can seem like a huge undertaking, but setting out to write one chapter per week doesn’t feel so bad. Creating an entire website for a client can seem daunting, but creating just the homepage may actually be fun. You get the point. Even MIT advises students to break down large projects into smaller tasks and reward themselves after finishing each one.
PRODUCTIVITY
The 2-minute rule is pretty straightforward: whenever a task takes less than two minutes to complete, do it now. Whether we’re talking about answering an email, adjusting a font, or proof-reading a short article, don’t postpone the activity. This tip comes straight from David Allen’s bestselling book, Getting Things Done. Here’s what he had to say on the subject: I have a two-minute rule that says: If you determine an action can be done in two minutes, you actually should do it right then because it’ll take longer to organize it and review it than it would be to actually finish it the first time you notice it. Makes sense. Furthermore, this allows you to check something off your to-do list before even adding it, which is pretty liberating.
PRODUCTIVITY
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According to research by Kenneth McGraw, the most difficult step you must take when tackling a task is getting started. Once you get the ball rolling, it’s much easier to keep going until the assignment or project is done. Luckily, there’s a way around this – tell yourself you will only do the dreaded task for five minutes. Give yourself the liberty to drop the task if you’re not feeling it after that window of time and do something else. More often than not, you’ll find yourself completely immersed in what you’re doing and eager to finish. Magic.
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05 Think in Smaller Time Units
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Free up Your Schedule
Spice up Tedious Tasks Another study, by Neil Lewis and Daphna Oyserman, says that in order for the future to energize and motivate current action, it must feel imminent. The two psychologists found that if we look at a far-off event in terms of days instead of months or years, the event seems like it would happen sooner. How can this help you finally stop procrastinating? Simple. Instead of telling yourself that your deadline is still three days away, tell yourself you’ve only got 72 hours left to get things done. This should give you the motivation needed to start work sooner rather than later.
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When we find a task boring or low-value, we’re more likely to procrastinate. According to a paper titled The nature of procrastination, low task value is considered one of the four pillars of procrastination, along with personality, fear of failure, and expectations. You can easily fix this by spicing up tasks you view as tedious - make them into a game or associate them with a more pleasant activity. For instance, whenever I’m required to write a lengthy email I’m not excited about, I do it while listening to Beyonce. If I have to write yet another article about a subject I’m not fond of, I time myself to see if I can do it faster than last time. It might sound silly, but it works.
THE PRODUCTIVITY WAY I WORK
About the Author Here’s the ugly truth: Sometimes we procrastinate because we’re too tired and we simply need a break. If you’re always in the habit of adding too many tasks on your to-do list, it may be time to rethink your strategy. Never take on more projects than you can handle and make sure your workload allows you to achieve a healthy work/life balance. It’s time you finally learn to say no from time to time. Learning to do things that will benefit ‘future you’ instead of ‘present you’ takes practice, discipline, and a bit of motivation. You likely won’t be able to completely cut procrastination from your life, but using the tactics described above will at least give you a head start. Just don’t put off giving them a try, okay?
THE WAY I WORK PRODUCTIVITY
Alexandra Plesa is a full-time freelance writer who runs on coffee and WiFi. She writes about business, pop culture, and personal development.
Connect with her Twitter: @alexandraplesa. This article was first published on HarpoonApp blog.
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THE PROMISE OF A PENCIL: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Adam Braun The riveting story of how a young man turned $25 into more than 200 schools around the world and the guiding steps anyone can take to lead a successful and significant life. Adam Braun began working summers at hedge funds when he was just sixteen years old, sprinting down the path to a successful Wall Street career. But while traveling he met a young boy begging on the streets of India, who after being asked what he wanted most in the world, simply answered, “A pencil.” This small request led to a staggering series of events that took Braun backpacking through dozens of countries before eventually leaving one of the world’s most prestigious jobs to found Pencils of Promise, the organization he started with just $25 that has since built more than 200 schools around the world.
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The Promise of a Pencil chronicles Braun’s journey to find his calling, as each chapter explains one clear step that every person can take to turn your biggest ambitions into reality, even if you start with as little as $25. His story takes readers behind the scenes with business moguls and village chiefs, world-famous celebrities and hometown heroes. Driven by compelling stories and shareable insights, this is a vivid and inspiring book that will give you the tools to make your own life a story worth telling. If you Like What you Read, Follow Us on
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Talia Wolf on Mobile Conversion Optimization Talia Wolf
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alia has been doing conversion optimization for almost 6 or 7 years now. She helps companies all over the world to optimize their websites. She puts a lot of emphasis on understanding where the leaks are in the funnel, what the problem is right now with the current website or online assets, landing pages, registration forms, banners, pricing pages and many more to understand what needs fixing and also taking a very deep dive approach to understanding the psychological triggers and understanding the consumers.
She works with her clients to understand about them and what they are looking for, what they really need, the experience they are looking for, the different emotional triggers that they need and using all of that knowledge to basically run thousands of AB tests and try to figure out what is the best way that will create a better experience for customers and as a result increase her client’s revenues and conversion rates Interestingly before getting into conversion optimization field, she was doing social media and a lot of paid traffic marketing. She was working in a different agency and she was basically kind of working on helping companies drive traffic to their websites and of course create amazing campaigns on social media and stuff. 11 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
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But she was constantly looking for something further. And while her clients and customers were constantly talking about likes and engagements from Facebook, she was more interested in seeing the actual revenues that it drives and the results.
It was only after she stopped working for that agency and started doing some stuff on her own that she realized what she really wanted to do. She didn’t really know it was conversion rate optimization and was just basically trying to make all sorts of changes on landing pages and registration forms to make them work better.
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Subsequently, she connected to her partners and together they founded conversion optimization agency and started helping companies do that on their end.
says Talia. As a result of the tool, they saw an average increase of over 200% in conversion rates on mobile. They had no plans to build another tool and the company around it as it was going to be an internal tool for the agency but because it started having its own business model, they basically separated the companies and now today it is 2 different companies and she is running the product here with her partners and it’s called Banana Splash. They help every customer by increasing their conversion rates and revenues on mobile.
HOW SHE STARTED
BANANA SPLASH? She was running the agency for 6 years now and about 2 years ago, her team realized there was a big issue with mobile. Up until then they were using responsive design and just helping their customers use that but the more time passed, they realized there was a bigger issue with mobile and wanted to help fix that. And so, they actually built an internal tool for their clients to use. It was basically their way to launch quick AB tests on mobile without needing designers or developers. They really wanted a quick way to launch different pop-up’s and to see how it shows on mobile that looked more native and personalized to the behavior. 13 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
Since there is not a lot of resources for many companies to do that and that is why they use Banana Splash because it really is a simple and easy way to increase conversion rates on mobile without needing to completely redesign the mobile site or develop it.
What we actually saw was that mobile visitors behaved very very differently on mobile than they do on the desktop. And so, we really wanted to create a better experience, but it’s very hard to do that when you have a lot of work to do and a lot of clients don’t have the resources to completely redesign mobile. So, we built this tool that was going to help us with the simple line of Javascript to detect real-time behavior
CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
ON MOBILE
Conversion optimization on mobile is difficult. The reason it is so hard is because as marketers we still treat our mobile visitors as mini desktop visitors.
We’re not really looking at the fact that we have different behaviors and we treat things very differently when on mobile
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We do things differently, we search for different stuff and what marketers are doing right now is just taking the desktop design and shrinking it to a mobile so it looks really good but it doesn’t consider a specific behavior of mobile visitors and then what happens is there is a huge gap in conversion rates of up to 300% because people can’t find what they are looking for on mobile, they get to the website, they can’t find what they are looking for and they leave. As per Talia, it requires a lot of resources and time for optimization so that is why they built Banana Splash to give marketers the power to do it themselves. They will be able to just launch AB tests on mobile within minutes. The idea is that, in order to start optimizing mobile you really first have to start doing research in a better way, the first thing is to understand your mobile consumer, understand who they are, where they are coming from, what devices they use and what browsers they are using, what they are searching for, what keywords they are using, what pages they own etc. There are so many metrics you need to get to know but you also have to understand their state of mind. You have to understand they have a different need emotionally, psychologically and once we start to identify who the mobile visitor is, what they are looking for and how different they are from the desktop that’s when we can start designing a better experience.
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TIPS OR HACKS TO IMPROVE
OPTIMIZATION ON MOBILE FAST.
Talia is not a big believer in tips and hacks because she thinks that in general conversion optimization is not about tips and hacks. There is too much content on the web on optimization like five ways you can increase your landing page conversion rates by 1000%. It isn’t real it’s someone else’s best practice and you really do have to test all these things by yourself just because it works for someone, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you. And the key for that is just because we have different target audiences and definitely not everyone’s the same when it comes to conversion optimization, it is multiple disciplines. You need to know copywriting, design and consumer psychology and there are so many different things you need to know. In order to really increase your revenues on mobile and really get started with optimizing your mobile experience, you really do have to start doing research and understanding your mobile visitors better. Until we continue looking
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a lot you actually understand why it worked and it gives you knowledge about your customers. So the idea is - What is the problem right now within the funnel and how can you solve it? And then when you think about how you can solve it, it’s not in tactic it’s in strategy. What would make your customer feel safer?
at mobile visitors as if they are the same as desktop visitors, we’re still going to get the same problems. So as per Talia, she would definitely start by looking at the different metrics and running a different kind of research just for mobile and then of course also start speaking to customers. This is something that a lot of companies miss. She would definitely run different surveys and talk to people and see what people are missing, what are they looking for and how can you help them do that? When it comes to re-designing mobile it’s very hard to do so and you know it’s hard to do that on the desktop too with thousands of AB tests. The best way to make changes that actually matter instead of completely redesigning mobile, is to just understand the behavior of mobile visitors and then designing for that specific behavior and trying to help them complete that specific task instead of completely re-designing mobile.
INSIGHTS ON
EMOTIONAL APPROACH.
Our main focus is trying to understand what makes people buy stuff? And I am not talking about features or pricing or you know the product itself but actually about emotion. In life, we are motivated by our emotion and we buy stuff on emotion because of the way we feel. We are buying better versions of ourselves. Talia says that we try to make ourselves happy, we want to feel good about ourselves, we want to feel safe, we want to feel loved, every product or service that we buy helps us feel something towards ourselves, towards the community that we are in. Even when we are doing it with B2B companies for example, when you are buying a product or tool or service for your company, there is a lot of emotion involved because you are constantly thinking about what your boss is going to say, what your mates are going to say, what your employees are going to say. So there is a lot of emotion involved and this methodology dives deep into who your target customers really are, what are they looking for, what are the different emotional triggers that set them on the right path or what makes them buy? It is basically running AB tests on strategies.
Talia and her team developed the emotional targeting methodology over the past 5 or 6 years. It’s basically built on why people purchase products. 15 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
So if for example AB testing a call to action button from red to green, or just testing a copy or headline, you test the entire concept, entire strategies. So that the idea is that when you get the results from an AB test whether it is one or THE WAYINTERVIEW I WORK GROWTH
What would make your customer feel more love? What would make your customer take the next step within the funnel and then you AB test that using different emotions, different colors, different images, different fonts in order to see what makes a difference, what actually persuades your customer? It’s called persuasive design. And you AB test that to see what works and what doesn’t. That will really give you an insight into who your customers really are and of course you see increases in conversion rates with 100’s of percentages for your customers.
And most importantly I think when it comes to this methodology is that you are not just optimizing for the sake of one KPI and to get more registrations but you are actually optimizing for knowledge and you can use that knowledge because once you understand what makes your customers tick, what makes them buy, you can change entire processes within your company, change your sales teams, customer service teams, retention teams, and everything can change within the company
Talia works with different companies all over the world and when it comes to e-commerce, for example, her approach is very much into who the customer is and what they are actually buying. THE WAYINTERVIEW I WORK GROWTH
HOW COMPANIES WITH LOW RESOURCES
CAN MOVE FAST AND HAVE HIGH CONVERSIONS?
As per Talia, the main issues when people look at conversion optimization, it’s just about AB testing. They think it’s just about launching that AB tests and seeing the difference. And a lot of companies don’t have that kind of traffic to really start testing and they should not waste their time doing so. In order to really grow you really do have to get to know your customers better. Her advice for them would be to build personas, to do competitor research, to do surveys and user testing. And really dive into who the customer is because what she has seen is when you profile your customer and you understand them on the deeper emotional level and you remember what your value proposition is and again the value proposition isn’t how many features you have or how much it costs. It’s the emotional value that you give to your customers.
A lot of the times she will do profiling and buyer personas and when she does these personas, she will actually print out the people personas and will put it up in different parts of the offices for people to look at and remember e.g. this is Phillip, this is Rachel, this is Jenna and they have different characteristics even just her age and if she is married and how much money she is making. It’s about their biggest dreams, their biggest fears, what makes them happy, what makes them sad and using that to basically really create a better experience for these specific people.
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RECOMMENDED TOOLS FOR
THE CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
web analysis and analytics. There are so many different disciplines in conversion optimization. You constantly need to grow and change and optimize yourself. She recommends reading information in the right blogs, in the right places, so that you get the right information. She would not look for hacks or tricks, she would look for processes and strategies. She would try and choose one of the various different methodologies that are out there, that you can use to get to learn how to run conversion optimization tests in the right way. And then just follow the process. It would take more time but it’s definitely worth it.
Talia’s team obviously uses Banana Splash all the time, which is their main tool. They also use heat maps, like HotJar to do that. They use different e-mail marketing systems to help out and send out newsletters and also using Trello to really manage the different projects that they have. She also recommends Intercom to really get to know your customers better.
HOW TO BECOME
AN EXPERT ON CRO?
GROWTH ISSUES THAT YOU
FACED AT YOUR OWN COMPANY
With Banana Splash it has been a challenge identifying and putting a lot more emphasis on who our customer is. We are doing really well now and we are selling to many different customers and a lot of these people are seeing the results Their biggest thing right now is really showing people within a dashboard how well this tool is succeeding and how well it’s doing for them. For Talia, it was a big change going from services and agency work to the product. As the company is doing well, it’s getting investors. They’re doubling and tripling their customers every month.
t takes many years to become an expert on CRO and it’s not something that happens overnight. You definitely have to put a lot of time and it really does help when you kind of discipline yourself in multiple different areas e.g. copywriting, design, consumer psychology, in 17 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
Talia is more used to doing services and consulting than working on an actual product, so it’s a challenge for her which she is enjoying.
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HOW DO YOU KEEP
YOURSELF PRODUCTIVE?
On Inbound on Facebook, there is a lot of different communities that help each other out. And that has always been very helpful. For Talia, it is hands-on work, trying different tools, looking and searching for things and ways to optimize customer’s websites and just figuring it out one step at a time.
ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS
LOOKING FOR GROWTH.
She uses Trello to manage her workflow, tasks, and things that she needs to do. She still does have a white board and likes to write on it and kind of map out her week and know what are the most important projects that she is working on this week. She likes to look up and see stuff on the wall in front of her. But it really does depend on who you are and what you are doing. They have weekly and daily meetings here in the company with everyone. Just like 5 or 10 minutes’ conversations to kind of discuss what everyone is doing and how they can help each other and that’s always been a very helpful way for me.
HOW DOES SHE KEEP UP WITH
ALL THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY
The most important thing is to get to know your customers. 80%-90% of the companies that she works with have no idea who their customers are. If she asks them their answer is going to be: Well it’s a female or male between the ages of x and y. They live in this and this country and they use these and these devices. But that’s not what she mean. When she talk about identifying the target audience and really getting to know who your customers are, she means understanding that behind the computers there are people. There are people with hearts and feelings and values and needs and hates and we need to address them. And the better we know these customers, the more we are going to be able to create a better experience for them and grow our business quicker. Because we know them better, we know what they want and we can deliver that to them.
I think it’s not about keeping up with the latest technologies and changes but it’s more just every time I encounter a new challenge with a client or a customer, I’m constantly looking for better tools. So, I’m doing the work myself, looking for these tools and discovering them myself, I use them, I AB test them, I try them and then I know if they work or don’t. we definitely also have a very nice CRO community that helps each other out and THE WAYINTERVIEW I WORK GROWTH
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Shiv ON
About Shiv Khera
Introduction
SUCCESS S
hiv Khera was born in a business family in Dhanbad, India. His family had gold mines which got nationalized in 1973. He did all his schooling and college in Delhi and got married when he was 22. When the mines owned by his family got nationalized, they literally came on the street because his father had died just about the time when he had finished college and they were left with the liabilities and the assets were gone. He tried his hand at 3 businesses with no money and he failed on all three, so finally he left India, went off to Canada initially, and
started life by washing cars door to door with a bucket in his hand for a few years and then gradually moved on to selling vacuum cleaners and then got into selling life insurance.
During that time he attended a program by Dr. Norman Winson Peel which according to him was a turning point in his life.
Getting into selling life insurance was the best thing that could have ever happen to me That’s where he learned that selling is a rejection business and most people take the rejection personally and they get demotivated and quit.
He realized that many times we become our own biggest problem. And the problem is a sign of life, so long as we are alive we will have problems, the day we have no problems we would be dead. So bottom line is that every problem gives you an opportunity, the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. So that is the time one needs to look at where you are and how you want to move forward. Till then he thought he knew everything, but in reality, he had never read a book in his life but was reading comics. Even at school, he wasn’t the brightest kid, he failed in his tenth grade, but of course he cleared his higher secondary with the first division but the important thing is, that once that realization came after attending Dr. Winson’s program, life changed for him personally, professionally and socially.
He moved on to the US, got into 3 businesses and eventually bought a company out in California. Since he saw his life changed because somebody showed him the right direction, he decided that it is time for him to also put it back into the system and give back. GROWTH INTERVIEW
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So he started volunteering his time in maximum security prisons in the jails in the U.S.He used to go into the jails and teach them how to increase self-esteem program, he saw people’s life changed and gradually he decided to take his teachings to the corporate world.
Shiv ON
Success is progressive realization of a worthy goal me
After 4 to 5 years of doing training programs for the corporate world, he wrote his book,You Can Win in 1997. And it did rather well, became his international bestseller with more than 3.5 million copies sold worldwide. People often ask him how come it became such a nice good seller to which he replies that the purpose of writing book was to pass the wisdom and knowledge that he had acquired from people wiser than him to next generation.
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SUCCESS Success is very subjective and that subjectivity is based on values really. So based on our priorities is what we decide where we want to head towards. He has given a working definition in his book - Success is progressive realization of a worthy goal, now this is not what his definition, it is what given by a man called Earl Nightingale and it’s a journey, it’s not a destination, you never get there.
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Realization is a feeling, means it is internal, not external, you cannot make yourself successful, you must feel success inside yourself otherwise you are not successful, so that means success without fulfillment is empty, that’s like good looks without goodness that become irritating after some time. So it means we got to have substance or form, not just formal work. So many times what appears success externally maybe emptiness internally. No wonder billionaires like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson they took drugs and committed suicide, why did they do it? See these are people one can say had public success but private failures.
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How to be lucky for success?
T
Most people don’t see the struggle, they only see the success and they will always say,they must be lucky. Must be at the right place, at the right time. These are people who have never done anything in life; they will never do anything in life. They will not do anything in life!
here is a nice little saying by a great philosopher, the harder you work the luckier you get. He suggests to check out most people who have been successful. He says that you will hear many selfmade success stories but have you ever heard a self-made failure story? Never. People will always blame something, someone outside, they will either bring the parents, the teachers, economy, stars, horoscope, luck, something else, they will never accept responsibility, they become fatalistic people.
But you find most people who have reached anywhere in life faced the same problems which people who did not make it faced. If you look at the history of Bill Gates, Walt Disney or Michael Phillips or anybody else, you will find many failures. Michael had a fracture 2 years before, he won the Olympics medal. Walt Disney went bankrupt 7 times in his life, Bill Gates was a dropout. So if you look at behind everybody there was a struggle.
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So somebody said very well that if you ever want to be successful in life, just watch what others are doing, what the masses are doing and do the opposite. Because the masses have never been successful, and you go through history you will find positive thinkers have always been in minority.
One needs to channelize that energy for success. You’ve got to channelize your fear into a positive direction. And channelize it and convert it into positive energy which makes you perform.
All through the history they’ve always been a one man army and that’ is the key, those are the people who do it. In addition, you must prioritize, priorities are based on values. Another crucial element is to be focused. Unless we have the right focus in life with the right values in life you are not going to get anywhere, even if you do get there the journey is not pleasant and even if the journey is pleasant you don’t feel happy at the end of the day. If you are not happy even if you have achieved everything, there is no point living like that.
People have fears. How to remove the fear of Success? Fear is natural to each one us. An athlete who competes against others or a champion boxer who he gets into the ring, you think they have no fear? They all have fears. The important thing is, they are under very heavy stress, fear brings stress. And it is that stress that makes them perform. If they have no stress they would not be able toperform. So it is that same stress that makes them perform. So really it all depends on how do you use that energy?
One needs to channelize that energy for success. You’ve got to channelize your fear into a positive direction. And channelize it and convert it into positive energy which makes you perform.
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26 SCALEUP ISSUE 5 LIFE HACKING
Shiv’S
productivity tips Shiv has as of now literally become like a work alcoholic. Which is not the way he wants When you increase relevance, you increase conversions to be.
subconscious mind, the subconscious mind has greater power.
Role of subconscious mind
in Success
The conscious mind is the thinking part of our brain. The conscious mind has the ability to decide right or wrong, good or bad, accept or reject. The conscious mind does that. The sub-conscious mind is like a data bank. It has no power to reject, it can only accept. But whatever consciously is impressed into the subconscious mind reflects in our behavior. Between the conscious and the 27 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
He says that subconscious mind is like the car. The conscious mind is like your driver.The power is in the car but the control lies with the driver. So literally you find there arepeople who are called lucky, anytime they touch dirt it becomes gold, what is it? They have conditioned their sub-conscious mind to do the right thing and every time they dow it, they just do it right, it becomes reflex action automatically. That’s habits. We are all creatures of habits. 90% of our behavior is habitual, we don’t think we just act. If we have positive habits we are a positive character and if we have negative habits we are a negative character. Good habits take a lot of effort to inculcate but easy to live with, bad habits come easy but they are hard to live with and before we get the habit, the habits got us. We are creatures of habits and they start with little threads, till they become so strong like chains, we cannot break them. So it is very hard and eventually, we need to condition ourselves in a positive manner. If we have to think to do the right thing, we can never do it right, it must come automatically, it must become a reflex action, it must be conditioning in the body and mind. Mental conditioning.
THE WAY STORY I WORK COVER
Youth is always wasted by the time you get good sense you have no youth left
THE WAY STORY I WORK COVER
He says that one needs to prioritize in life and look at this, what a paradox and dilemma it is, a number of time-saving devices we have today we have never had that many time savers devices in history and yet we don’t have time. You know why? because we have lost our priorities, unfortunately. And that is sad. We must prioritize our things accordingly.
So that’s why many times people ask me, do you practice 100% of what you preach? My answer is no, I don’t but do I make every effort to practice 100% of what I preach? My answer is yes.”,
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How does
he find motivation? Just like our bodies needs food every day, our minds need positive thoughts every day, to stay motivated. Many times people are surprised that even he gets demotivated. So one needs to feed our mind with positive thoughts every day to stay on track otherwise we all slip back. That’s life. Just like you stop exercising your body will be flabby. You exercise it becomes firm. So you stop doing it, what happens? It falls down. That’s the way it is.
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Shiv reads one book every 10 days which is 30-40 books a year. Every night he sleeps,he reads 10-12 pages or he listens to some motivational audio video and goes to sleep.As a result, he wakes up with positivity as at night the subconscious mind is working for him. And that’s the way to go.
Advice for
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entrepreneurs on growth Most people are hung up with developing skills. There is a difference between being skillful and being competent. Skill is an ability. Competence is ability along with the willingness and the desire to do the job. There are many skillful people who are totally incompetent. So, you put money in developing skills, what will happen? You might get a promotion but when you develop yourself, self-development you will make a fortune
So keep on working on yourself, learning, growing, everything will be taken care of.
So keep on working on yourself, learning, growing, everything will be taken care of.
A good way to get daily motivation. Read something positive on a daily basis. Associate with positive people, stay away from negative people, they pull you down. So these are all things that people should do.
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THE WAY STORY I WORK COVER
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Zen & THE
Art of
Productivity
By Mary Jaksch
WHAT IS
PRODUCIVITY? Being productive means being able to create something with ease, steadiness, and joy. In order to be productive, we need all our energy to be channeled. Think of a stream: when it flows freely, the water rushes along – right from the mountains to the sea. But if you build dams, divert the course of the stream, or choke it with rubble, the stream will have to use a lot of energy to circumvent or overcome the barriers in its way.
We all have access to the pure stream of creativity.
A
short while ago, my friend Leo Babauta of Zen Habits recorded an interview with me about productivity for his great new book, The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination. It brought home to me how much my long-time practice and teaching of Zen has boosted my productivity. Leo says I’m one of the most productive people he knows. But the funny thing is that there are some small pockets in my life where I’m also the world’s worst procrastinator. More about that below… 31 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
The problem is that many people throw up barriers that impede their natural productivity. The outcome can be stress, procrastination, and grief for lost dreams. Yes, those lost dreams … Have you got dreams and even plans somewhere in the back of your mind that you’ve never realized? I bet you have. It’s sad when we miss out on bringing our brainchildren into life. But it’s never too late to get pregnant with a great idea and give birth to a new brainchild! So, let’s get cracking and take a look at how to crank up your productivity. But first a warning: if you’re looking for tips about dire stuff like making priority lists, or
getting up a 3AM, you better read something else. My ninja recipe for productivity is Zen inspired and is not about getting things done.
THE
N NJA THING
As many of you know, I’m a 4th Dan Blackbelt in karate in active training. One of the first things a martial artist learns, is that it’s better to go with an opponents energy, than to push against it.
For example, if someone throws a punch at you, you can use your opponent’s forward energy to your advantage if you avoid or deflect the punch. And, once you’re more experienced, you learn to drop the idea of ‘opponent’, or of ‘self’ and ‘other’
In terms of productivity, many books (but thankfully not Leo’s) espouse the use of inner force to conquer the nasty enemy of procrastination. Honestly, I don’t think it works. The Ninja approach of working with your inner opposing energy – instead of against it – is much more, well, productive..
HOW TO
STOP SELF-DOUBTS KILLING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY Most people spend a lot of their creative energy fighting negative thoughts. These thoughts can range from downright ugly (‘You’re a loser!’) to fearful (‘What if I fail?’). Such thoughts can be deflating. You’re all pumped up to create something – and then those niggly, nasty self-doubts start attacking your confidence. Here’s a simple way to work with them:
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Whenever you notice self-doubts in your mind, imagine a little green gremlin sitting on your left shoulder, whispering those nasty messages into your ear. Gently and calmly brush the gremlin off your shoulder with your right hand and say politely, “Not now, thank you!” (It will look as if you are brushing a piece of lint off your shoulder). This may sound bizarre – but it works! The reason why it works is because it helps you to become aware of your negative messages. Often, these kind of doubts were implanted in us early on by parents, caregivers, or teachers. They are so deeply embedded that we are seduced into thinking that they are THE TRUTH about who you are, instead of habitual thought patterns that were originally someone else’s idea. That’s where the Zen thing comes in. Through the practice of meditation, you learn to observe the mind, and to let go of prefabricated ideas of who you are. It frees you.
CONNECT WITH YOUR
CORE LIFE FORCE The ancient Chinese called the core life force Chi or Ki. They imagined it coursing through the body along certain paths or meridians. I think they really knew something. In order to be more productive, you need to connect with the life force at the core of your being.
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HOW TO DO IT ?
reflection that life is short is a great motivator for me. I have so many ideas I want to bring to fruition! ‘Now’ is all I have. ‘Tomorrow’ may not happen for
The ability to mobilize our life force is hardwired into each one of us. Just think about the amazing feats of survival human beings are capable of when life is threatened.
WHAT IF YOU COULD
HARNESS THAT PRIMAL ENERGY AT WILL? Two ancient pathways to accessing and releasing your primal energy are meditation, and mindful exercise. In my own experience, for example, my productivity has increased significantly since returning to karate training a year ago. And of course my Zen practice underlies everything I do.
LIFE IS
SHORT
Do you notice how fast – and faster – days, weeks, months, and years roll by? I remind myself of that every single day in order to appreciate the fleeting delights of each moment. The calm
me. Who knows? If there is something you want to create, don’t wait until ‘later in life’! Start the journey of a 1000 miles today – just with one tiny
The
PASSION THING I’m passionate about what I do! That’s why I’m so productive. I think passion is an expression of the life-force I was talking about earlier. When we’re passionate about what we’re doing, we’re fired up, and our energy is at our disposal. Sometimes it can be difficult to find our passion, but it’s worthwhile finding out what really drives us. 32 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
DO MORE OF
WHAT YOU LOVE
If you look at your life, what percentage of your waking time is filled with activities you are passionate about? In my life, most of my waking time is spent doing things I love. I love being creative, so most parts of my work are also fun. It pays to think carefully about your life. Are you enjoying it? Most of the time? Some of the time? If you’re not enjoying your life, you need to change something fundamental about how you live. One of the changes can be to do more of what you love. But there is also another pathway, and that is exactly the opposite:
LOVE MORE
WHAT YOU DO Let’s face it, in every project there are areas of work that are simply a drag. For example, I wake up to a deluge of emails with requests for help, niggles, comments, and so on, that all need to be answered. It takes me about 4 hours to hit them all on the head (the emails, not the people …). I used to feel resentful about this 33 SCALEUP ISSUE 5
because mornings are my best writing time. However, I’ve now changed the way I approach this task. I think of each interaction as an opportunity for connection. And – because I love connecting with others – the task that felt like a drag has now become meaningful.
There are some tasks that stay a drag – no matter how you look at them. And that’s were we tend to procrastinate. For example, I hate
anything to do with accounting and tax. Mainly because I don’t really understand it, and that causes some fear. So, that’s an area where I’m the world’s worst procrastinator. I tend to leave business letters unopened for as long as possible. Oh, the tales my friends could tell…
If you have an area of procrastination like that, you need to call in the troops. For example, I’ve got a bookkeeper who collects my tax info electronically and then liaises with my accountant. I’ve asked her to ring me every three month and arrange a visit to collect all my statements. In this way, I’ve put a fail-safe system in place. Because that system is in place, I can forget about tax stuff most of the time because it takes care of itself more or less automatically. So, if you tend to procrastinate in one particular area, call for help. Partner with someone who will remind you of deadlines and prod you kindly if you don’t deliver.
DOES MINIMALIST
PRODUCTIVITY WORK?
PROCRASTINATES – AND IT’S OK
OVERCOME
PRODUCTIVITY IS IMPORTANT
OVERWHELM? Wear an elastic wristband.
Jot down all the tasks you are holding in your head.
STEP 03
STEP
02 Focus on the task at hand.
Productivity is not really about producing something or being ‘valuable’ – it’s simply about having more joy in life. When you create something – whatever it may be – you’ll feel alive, and the joy of creation will pervade all areas of life.
If you want to learn more about how to be productive, I heartily recommend Leo Babauta’s new book, The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination It’s awesome! Leo shows how to emerge from the doldrums and crank up productivity in a way that’s both entertaining and inspiring. And you’ll get the interview with me as well.. What are your thoughts on productivity?
Maybe you too can think about draggy tasks in a new way that infuses them with meaning.
WHY EVERYONE
HOW TO
WHY
Some productivity gurus suggest paring down your activities in order to focus your energy on just one thing. Sounds good, eh? But it’s crap advice. The moment you start paring down, your whole energy flow can become disrupted. My advice is contrary: do too much! When you take on a bit too much, it heightens your productivity. Of course you have to be careful, because it’s important not to get overwhelmed.
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Whenever your mind slides off to other tasks.
Change the wristband to the other arm and refocus on your task at hand.
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STEP 04 STEP 05
Mary Jaksch
EDITOR-IN CHIEf of Write to Done
is an authorized Zen master (Diamond Sangha lineage), psychotherapist, and author. She has two nationalities, English and German, and live in New Zealand and is the mother of a grown-up son. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Write to Done and have trained over 5,000 bloggers in the A-List Blogging Masterclass.
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If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes-then learn how to do it later!
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CONTAGIOUS: Why Things Catch On
Jonah Berger
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What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?
videos. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheesesteak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the most seemingly boring products there is: a blender.
Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed list, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube
Contagious provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
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The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
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making a quantum leap STEVE PAvlina
S
teve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers in the world, with his work attracting more than 100 million visits to StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 1300 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help
Many books, audio programs, and self-help gurus promote the quick fix mentality. Read this
Since 1992, I’ve been pursuing personal growth with a passion. I’ve attended seminars, listened to audio programs, and read hundreds of books in this field. I’ve easily spent many thousands of dollars and invested thousands of hours on such pursuits. And one thing I can tell you from all of this effort is that personal growth is very, very hard.
Maybe I have a genetic predisposition to being lazy. Others conclude the whole personal development field itself is just a sham. [Insert guru name here] is only in it for the money — none of his/her ideas really work.
book and all your time management problems will vanish. Attend this seminar and you’ll be the next self-made millionaire. This kind of marketing is
unfortunate because most people who buy these products will achieve only modest results with them. Then disappointment and disillusionment set in. Some people feel they must be defective if they can’t meet such unrealistic expectations.
Personal growth experiences often occur in the form of a quantum leap — a strong and radical shift from one mindset to another.
You go to work and suddenly realize you’re going to quit your job; even before you tell your boss, you know you’re certain and that there’s no going back. You decide to ask your boyfriend or girlfriend to marry you after you’ve been together for years. You decide you’re done smoking, and you quit for life. These decisions can happen in a mere second – a moment of clarity suddenly hits you, and you know what you have to do. A quantum leap occurs, and from that moment on, you’re never the same again. Some of these leaps appear more gradual than others, but virtually all of them can be traced back to a moment of decision. At some point you made a decision to change. And even before you manifest this change in your physical reality, you immediately know you’re not the same anymore.
I’ll say it again. Personal growth is very, very hard. If you think you can read one book or article on time management and instantly erase procrastination and disorder from your life forever, that’s an extremely unrealistic expectation.While a single book can
potentially lead you to a big change, most won’t. When you experience a big change in your life, it’s probably the result of a long chain of events, of which reading a particular book was only a small but perhaps critical part.
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It’s rare that reading a single book will produce a quantum leap. Quantum leaps require a large amount of consistent input and energy. When you decide to quit your job or break off your relationship or move to a new city, it may be the result of months or years of dissatisfaction. It may also occur after lots of time spent thinking positively about what life will be like after the shift. Both positive and negative factors can help generate a quantum leap. Most of the time when people pursue personal growth, they simply don’t invest enough time and energy in a consistent direction to achieve a quantum leap. Maybe you’ve read a book on getting organized, and while you were reading it, the positive energy you experienced moved you closer to making a leap. You felt fairly certain at the time that this was going to work. But then you finished the book (or got sidetracked and didn’t finish it), and the impact of the book gradually faded. You never reached the quantum leap that allowed you to break through to a new level of order in your life. Over a period of days or weeks, your old pattern reasserted itself. Sound familiar?
Small efforts over a long period of time may do absolutely nothing for you. You can read one time management book a year and be no better at your managing your time.
So what does work? How do you achieve a quantum leap? You need to exert some effort in a particular direction where you want to grow, and you need to consistently sustain it until you achieve a quantum leap. If you stop short, you’ll likely fall right back to where you started. So first of all, if you’re going to target a new quantum leap, you need to
But the bright side is that after you make the leap, you can rest for a bit.
But it wasn’t the book or the ideas themselves that failed you. The problem was that you didn’t invest enough sustained energy in the same direction to achieve the quantum leap. You never reached the point of no return. Reading a single book was only a small, short-term nudge, albeit in the right direction.
You’ve reached a higher state, and you’re going to stay there by default, just as a satellite in orbit will remain in orbit. Sure the orbit may slowly decay, but if that happens it will be over a long period of time, and only a minimal investment of energy is needed to adjust course and sustain your new orbit indefinitely. Quitting smoking may be very difficult. But if you’ve been a nonsmoker for years, it doesn’t take nearly as much effort to remain a nonsmoker; you may need to make some adjustments along the way, but they’ll be minor compared to the initial energy required to quit. Suppose you want to lose weight. You read a book on weight loss and get motivated to lose weight. You join a gym and start working out. After a few weeks, you’ve lost five pounds. But you get busy with work and gradually stop going to the gym. Crash! You gain all the weight back plus a couple more pounds. A few months later you try again. You get inspired and buy some new exercise equipment. Again you use it for several weeks and lose some weight, and again something takes you away from this habit and you gain all the weight back. The next year you join a weight loss organization, adopt their diet plan, and start going to weekly meetings. But after a dozen sessions, you drift again and gain back all the weight you lost. You’ve invested a lot of time, money, and energy into this goal, but it wasn’t enough to hit a quantum leap.
In order for a rocket launched from earth to reach outer space, the rocket must exert a sufficient amount of sustained force to overcome the earth’s gravity. If the rocket’s engines cut out prematurely, the rocket will crash back to earth. Just as it can take a massive amount of sustained force to put a rocket into orbit, recognize that there are certain areas of your life where you may need a large force to knock you into a higher state.
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01
So how would you pursue such a goal as a quantum leaper? The exact manner of pursuing this goal is up to you of course. But here are some ideas that will help you achieve a quantum leap:
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02
Immerse yourself in your goal Get clear on your exact goal, and write it down in your own words. Post your goal somewhere you’ll see it every day; I often use the text of my goals as screen savers or write them on my marker board.
Educate yourself
03 Alter your environment
on what it will take to achieve your goal. And I mean really educate yourself to the point where you become an expert. Keep pouring knowledge into your head until you succeed — continuously. Don’t just read one book on the subject. Read 10. Then read 10 more. Then 10 more. Listen to audio programs. Talk to experts. Never let up on your self-education. to support the achievement of your goal. This subject was already explored in a previous entry
And they continue to cling to people who hold them back. Year after year they remain stuck in unfulfilling careers, unhealthy bodies, stagnant relationships, and incongruent belief systems.
04
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such that your goal is supported by those around you. For details read this entry. One reason people fail to achieve a quantum leap is that they make only a meager effort in these four areas. They don’t get really clear about what they want and keep their goals in their face every day They invest only a few hours in education instead of several hundred. They maintain an environment that fails to reinforce their new identity. THE WAY IGROWTH WORK PERSONAL
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