You’re far from perfect. Unless you are clinically “narcissistic,” you probably recognize this and easily admit it. But you may not realize that overconfidence may be your most damaging fault of all. Overconfidence is sneaky, first because nearly everyone has some of it – yes, even those who suffer from low self-esteem and imposter syndrome. […]
Your Overconfidence Is Hurting Your Productivity Read More »
As I’ve said many times, unless you’re a hermit you cannot prudently ignore the impact of other people on your productivity and success. That’s why you’re never done seeking out and maintaining strong relationships. A word that characterizes some of the strongest relationships is “rapport.” It refers to the condition in which people feel a
The Power of Personal Rapport Read More »
I’ve previously mentioned how Edison rejected the idea that he’d ever failed to find a way to make an electric light bulb. Instead, he insisted he’d found 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work. While these 10,000 experiments were at least in some sense failures, they probably could not have been avoided, since Edison was operating in
Avoiding Unnecessary Failures Read More »
Even before I was first introduced to the idea of Biorythms, I recognized that my level of skills, intelligence, perception, and even physical strength would vary from day to day, sometimes from moment to moment. This awareness, now actively studied by scientists, makes it clear that our ability to function – and particularly to function
Your Productivity Varies – Here’s Why Read More »
There’s more to you than meets the eye. Whether you know it or not, you possess a wide range of skills, talents, and capabilities you can use to pump up your level of productivity and success. Since I don’t know you personally, I can’t tell you exactly what they may be. But I can give
Utilize All Four of Your Sides Read More »
Your “Basic Choice” is the name I’ve given to the simple act of choosing what you’re going to do next. You make this Basic Choice every time you stop doing something, and start doing something else. For example: Are you going to continue reading this blog, or flick to something else? The next time you
Pathways to Peak Productivity Read More »
I remember when I watched a young couple in a San Francisco park enjoy their two-year-old daughter’s ability to climb up a couple of stairs and throw herself down a three-foot-long metal slide, over and over again. Back at my hotel room, I felt that same level of enjoyment as my then-25-year-old son described a
Signposts of Growth Read More »
It’s a basic assumption of mine that if you work to your maximum capabilities, and steadily seek to grow those capabilities, in the long run you will accomplish a great many of your most important tasks, projects, and goals. But while this sounds simple in theory, in daily practice it can be quite difficult. There
Make the Most of Yourself Read More »
Deep down, we all want to know how good we are, really. But our ability to evaluate how good we are – at our work, at our relationships, at life in general – is unhappily not very good. We’ve all heard of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which documents this problem. First publicized in 1999, it’s the
How Good Are You, Really? Read More »
There are times when our work and our lives are going great, and times when that’s less true. But difficult times need not be all bad. They often present ripe opportunities to shake things up and make them better long-term. This seems obvious to me, and there is ample logic supporting this notion. Here it
