How to ask a question

I’ve found that a lot of the questions I get asked throughout my day seem to waste a lot of time, when I’m focused on my current task someone asks me a question which distracts me, my thoughts hit a brick wall and I start to refocus on the question that is asked, it happens to everyone, but unless the question is asked with a clear purpose it usually creates nothing but frustration (for me).

I recently read a great paragraph from the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. This has changed the way I now expect to receive my questions, this is just a start for me to start demanding the following before you ask me.

Ensure you answer yes to the following two questions.

1. Have I decided on a single meaning for each term in this question?

2. Can an answer to this question be acted upon to improve things?

Although the above two points are generally related to existentialism they can be applied to normal life, especially that of a business. Asking these two questions of the questioner can save you a heap of time. Even better is if the questioner is aware of these two before he or she begins to ask.

However you set these questions up you have to be careful not to alienate the questioner, leave ego out of it and explain that a well structured question will get better and faster results in the long run. Most people will understand be attracted to your way of thinking, and also to the fact that you are asking them to tailor that question towards a goal.

Those that aren’t attracted to your way of thinking, well, not really your problem.

Always, always, always take the time for the beauty around you

I saw this while climbing a tree in a park just southeast of Adelaide. Right now is the perfect time of year to experience nature in its most intriguing form.

Out of the old, weathered, dead branch came an amazing new young shoot.

Old humans can also learn new tricks and they should do so until they are physically and mentally unable to do so.

Law of Attraction Simplified

After constant-every-day thought I finally decided what the best approach to the law of attraction is and I’d like to share it.

The idea of the law is excellent, and it does work, but you have to work also, and work quite hard that is (note: understand that the work doesn’t necessitate the gaining of the object of desire, the work is the remembering how to do it). The good thing is that after a while (taken about a year for me) you condition your mind to notice the things that happen that are a result of what you have thought. My mind has been focused on a lot of smaller things lately and those smaller things have happened (or come to me), this increases my already happy state and just proves what I started to learn (remember) in the first place.

It seems that I’m feeling quite content in allowing the smaller things to come to me instead of concentrating on the larger ones, hey, if life (at lower levels) really is the pursuit of happiness I’m already there.

Learn. Find as much literature as you can, read and understand it. Not only will you discover the science behind it but reading such stuff will create positivity in your life if nothing else, this positivity is a building block for you to experience what you have already known (but not to your consciousness yet).

Here is a short list.

· Ask and it is Given – Esther and Jerry Hicks

· Science of Getting Rich – Wallace D. Wattles

· Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World – William Walker Atkinson

· The Power of Positive Thinking – Norman Vincent Peale

· The Secret – Rhonda Byrne

Do a heap of research online, you will find plenty of material to download and read.

Simplify Your Life. When you stop complicating things you will find it a lot easier to focus and affirmate on what you want, the more you read into things the more clutter your mind will be trying to manage.

Stop it, now.

Are you able to remember the good feeling you get from moving or throwing away a heap of old useless junk? Stop being a packrat and live to your means. If you will not use it in the next 6-12 months, throw it away. Be grateful for what you have and remember, to keep your body (and thus your mind) alive the most basic need is air, food and water. Realise this and build up from it, when you do so you should feel immense happiness and gratitude for what you have and what you have around you.

Allow. Let the object come to you, let the universe bring it to you, relax and allow what is coming to you. Don’t pull the object or rush to obtain it, just let it happen. The idea of this, is simply a confidence builder for your conscious mind, confidence and happiness being a high allowing state. Imagine your mind saying “Hey, nice one, this is already on its way to me”. Do you get the idea?

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” – Lao Tzu

Basically perfect

“If we are basically positive in attitude, expecting and envisioning pleasure, satisfaction and happiness, we will attract and create people, situations, and events which conform to our positive expectations.”

Shakti Gawain
Author of Creative Visualization

3rd Eye Viewing Device

Never be as good as the imagination

Third Eye Project

Plan tomorrow tonight. 3 ways to always make your day productive and happy!

When you sleep your subconscious is active (mainly during REM sleep), your mind is relaxed and isn’t clouded with noisy ‘awake’ thoughts. Ideas and affirmations are solidified in your mind. The strange thing is that you aren’t consciously aware of this the next day, it’s just a standard day, but everything seems to go smoothly, you’re spontaneous, efficient, happy and you can focus on your goals easier. Sleep is also a great problem solver, so use it to your advantage.

Plan to plan. Whatever your nightly routine is, try to plan 10 minutes just before you put your head on the pillow, if you spend a bit of time in bed before you actually sleep – reading books, watching television etc – you could use this 10 mins while still in bed.

Visualise. Use the power of your imagination to see what tomorrow will be like, pretend that you are living tomorrow wherever you will be, see yourself how you want to see yourself, making great decisions and results at work, feeling happy etc.

Write. Jot down your goals for tomorrow on a pad (handy to always keep one on the bedside table). When you write something down it’s more concrete than you expect, even if you throw the paper away, it stays in your subconscious. If it’s an objective then your subconscious sees it as such and starts working out solutions and paths to such a goal.

Remember to start small with your plans, just plan to have simple things happen throughout the next day, after a while you’ll get better at planning and start to advance to bigger and better things!

Personal Development, Canine-Style

I loved this post by Craig Harper, i’m considering getting a cat soon and although they are a very independent animal they still do require attention.

Remember that the key to happiness is not to have other people admire what you have (if you think about that, you may realise that that is one of the major things we strive to succeed for).

The key is to be happy no matter what.

Personal Development, Canine-Style [Lifehack.org]

How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals

Another post from ZenHabits.

I’ve been goal setting recently, the one goal that I have decided to give 90% of my attention to is to gain MCSE* certification by the end of December 2008. This is a big task as to be fully certified takes about 7 exams, which means a hell of a lot of study, something that I haven’t done in a long time.

It’s been a month and i’ve devoted myself to about 1 hour of study 6 days a week (sometimes I do a bit more during the week to cover for Saturday. Doing such a small amount in the initial stages of a goal is crucial, the reason is that it builds up a habit. Once I had formed the habit (about 30 days) I could then go up to 2 hours a night (having the time of course) and the task doesn’t hit you as hard.

Start small and work your way up. Great key to living life easily.

Anyway, check out this article from ZenHabits, it’s about making the time to do those goals. Pay special attention to points 8, 9 and 11.

How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals

[ZenHabits]

Improving Yourself By Having Tolerance For Others

Something I have always had trouble with in the past is having tolerance for other people. The level of tolerance always varied depending on how much this person would annoy or insult me.

I realise now (moreso with adults) that this annoyance was 99% unintentional.

Social standing mainly depends upon your verbal interaction and spontaneity, an easy way to increase social standing is simply to ‘Make em Laugh’, when you inflict a positive emotion on another person they will subconsciously increase their attraction to you – beit friendship attraction or love attraction. As a result of this a huge chunk of our communication is often trying to make people laugh, even to the point when we automatically think ‘how can i make a joke out of this’ when in a particular situation or social encounter.

This leads to a sort of a desperation for some people to turn anything into an attempt to be funny. Unfortunately this usually results in a response of silence or perhaps animosity from those around him/her. This is an example of tolerance leading to disrespect among his/her peers.

What I have learnt to do is display this level of tolerance, but also let the other person know my true feelings towards the social mishap, this needs a particular level of radical honesty. Truly – from my experiences with this type of circumstance – honesty IS the best policy.

Let them finish. If you interrupt the person half way through their conversation or feat then you will only manage to insult their ego, this means that they will not listen to a constructive word you say. Show tolerance and patience, they will respect you and listen to you more when it’s your turn to correct them.

Be as honest as you can be. People’s minds are evolving, they are able to handle their emotions and accept critisism a lot easier. If they do seem upset at the time, it’s a good chance that they will return to you with apologies and acceptance later on if you are truly honest. Once they see that you are not trying to insult them, rather observe and gently critisise.

See the situation from their viewpoint. Were you once like them? If so it would make it a lot easier to ‘be in their shoes’. If not, make use of your creative mind and imagine what it would be like doing or saying the things that they have just said.

Most of the time it’s just a case of inexperience which is why we make mistakes in the first place. Know that you had made the same faux pas in the past and realise that your experience now – with the other person’s willingness to listen – can allow an accellerated growth of that person.

And becuase of that you will have someone that respects and really listens to you in the future. Always a Win – Win situation.

I’ll leave you with an interesting exerpt from a book i’m reading (A.H. Maslow – The Farther Reaches of Human Nature). He references a letter that he received from a religious lady, this is what inspired this article.

God sees and loves us in our present condition and yet sees our potential and requires of us growth toward the potential. As we become more Godlike, can we not too, be accepting of a person in his present state while beckoning to him to take the next step?

J.C. Penney’s 7 Keys to a Smashing Success

This is a post from The Positivity Blog

I love point 5.

Books are good. Experience is even better.

I went through a massive reading phase (still am to some extent) and those books gave me great knowledge, it also gave me a bit of a high, and excitement, but that was it, I usually didn’t follow through and go out and do the things that the book talked about. Funnily enough most of the books illustrated that instead of just reading, practice, test and evaluate the ideas given.

Don’t just read, get out there and make mistakes. Actually do both at the same time, life will be grand!

J.C. Penney’s 7 Keys to a Smashing Success – [The Positivity Blog]