From the Author

Motivation to succeed comes in two flavors: external motivation, and self-motivation. There’s not much you can do to upgrade your external motivation, which depends mainly on the ways other people and situations arrange rewards and punishments to influence how hard you do or do not work. Self-motivation, on the other hand, is much more under […]

You won’t need these techniques with friends, because you’ll have enough shared background and “friendship equity in the relationship bank” to simply ask for what you want. You won’t need them in a formal presentation, either, because you’ll (hopefully) have enough hard-hitting information, facts, and credibility to make your case to a group that is

You need mo­tivation to make changes. And nothing is more motivating than a specific look at the details of what you can hope to gain. Here’s a chance to give yourself that look right now. To do so, just start a personal journal. You can do this on paper, or on your favorite electronic device.

Whether you’re working for yourself or others, there are certain factors that you should deliberately and steadily work to improve as a way to boost your career prospects. Here’s a brief rundown of each one: Basic Skills The road to success is paved with basic skills like being able to speak informatively and persuasively to

One young woman I know has a career, a family, and an itch to go back to school. Between all three, she has dozens of “important” projects and activities all clamoring for her attention and interest. Before she can even finish one item, several more are insisting on immediate attention. In fact, she feels herself

To be honest, I am not personally concerned with your particular goals. However, you most certainly must be. In fact, the specifics of the goals you set for yourself determine in great measure your accomplishments, your achievements, and ultimately, your happiness. You need a philosophical understanding of what you want to achieve. In essence, you

Although the basic principle of productivity is simple – do more of what’s important – there are a great many nuances and subtleties to the fine art of boosting your productivity and success. But at bottom, a lot of it boils down to simple behavior: what do you actually do when you’re trying to get

A lot of the time, I write about specific techniques you can apply to increase your productivity and success. But this time, I want to focus on some important recognitions that I’d like you to incorporate into your everyday work and life, to improve your overall level of productivity and success. They include the following:

Many of us think emotions are entirely separate from our choices, our actions, our results, our productivity, and our success. But that’s not true. Research continues to show that emotions – both positive and negative – are an integral part of ourselves. They don’t drive us just to laugh or cry, love or fear. They

As I’ve written many times before, one necessity for increasing your productivity and success is the ability to work well with people. Your performance often depends on their performance in more ways than I care to count. So it’s always appropriate to consider ways to get people on your side, win their respect and loyalty,