Will power. It’s something you’re either born with, or your not, right?  Wrong!  Studies show that will power is actually utilized like a muscle, and that it depletes in strength when you use it just like a muscle does. There’s a really cool study done at Case Western University that I want to quickly share. One group of participants were asked to eat a cookie, and another group was asked to eat a radish with a plate of cookies next to it that they couldn’t eat. Then, both groups did a difficult puzzle, and the study found that those who resisted the cookie gave up sooner because they had already expended their will power.

Here is how to train your will power, and there are two will power workouts to do that.  

The first workout is to set yourself up for success by writing down what you need to do and when it needs to be done by. This is like stretching your muscle and getting it ready to go. Workout 2 is to condition yourself and build discipline. Make a plan for how you can tackle the task gradually and follow through with it. I’m feeling stronger already! Give those two exercises a try next time you don’t feel like doing something.

I’m just going to jump right into it. Clean up your computer desktop. The reality is, our desktop is our virtual workspace, and maintaining organization and format helps to increase productivity. Benjamin Franklin once said, “For every moment spent in organizing, an hour is earned”, and I believe that. The obvious piece to that is organization helps you find things easier, and waste less time searching for that file or folder that you need. But, that doesn’t actually account for that much time in the day. What I think Franklin was alluding to is that taking the time to look for things serves as a major disruption to your work-flow.  

As we get going on an assignment or project, we build momentum. Our thoughts start stringing together to align everything into one vision, helping our work to naturally layer on top of itself. When you’re in the groove, and you have to spend extra time and energy in preparation, it breaks up that momentum and makes it harder to seamlessly continue where you left off.

Lastly, if you’re the kind of person that gets stressed out with clutter and extra stimulation, then a clean desktop will help you to be more effective with your work just because it is more comfortable for you.

So, there are a few ways to get organized. My technique is to create folders and put my miscellaneous documents and images in those folders. This helps decrease the overall volume of content on my desktop. My rule of thumb is I like having two thirds of my laptop desktop empty. It seems like the right balance for me, but I’m one of those people who can’t stand clutter.  

 “Good things are coming. Can you feel it?". Just because things are a certain way doesn’t mean they are going to be that way in the future. Life can change so fast, and that lucky break or well-earned breakthrough might be around the corner. There’s an excitement about the unknown, especially if you are working hard and applying yourself. Opportunity is abundant and you’re ready to grab it!

The feeling that those good things are coming, provides the validation you need to continue applying yourself. It’s a surge of energy that helps you put a little extra in everything you do. Also, that energy has a strong pull on the good things you are trying to attract, bringing them closer to your grasp every single day.

So believe it. Good things are coming. Can you feel it?

I want to share a success story that has been a long time coming. For almost a year now I have been getting on a call Monday morning with my buddy Zach. He is my peak performance partner, as coined in the book, The Compound Effect, where we share our goals for the week, reflect on how we performed the previous week, and provide criticism, praise, and ideas for each other.

Zach is a very high functioning. He's on the fast track kind of young professional who will undoubtedly do great things in his career and life. But, he has one weakness, which is he can’t get himself to wake up in the morning!

He’s very motivated to get up earyly because he has great days when he is active in the morning, posting up at a coffee shop, and gaining momentum as his morning progresses. But, his body tells him he can’t, and instead he spends too much time being home in bed trying to talk himself into it, not even getting good rest.

To add, I believe that pressing snooze first thing in the morning means that you give yourself a hall pass with the first decision you make in the day, setting the tone for the rest of the day to accept other excuses.

To continue with Zach, we started working toward his goal of getting up consistently at 6:30 A.M., using a report to me as his accountability, but without success.  We were slowly transitioning him to that time, but a funny thing happened. Since the goal was titled, "get up at 6:30", he wasn’t motivated to wake up at 7, or 730 even, because he had already failed to achieve his goal and figured he might as well keep sleeping.  So, to aid in the transition, we shifted the wording of his goal to “Don’t snooze”, which could objectively be measured and applied to all times of the day.  In the first week, he didn’t snooze once and is has already gotten himself down to a 7am wake up time!

I tell this story to emphasize the importance of setting practical goals that are designed for us to achieve. By setting incremental goals, you can slowly tweak your goals to become closer to that target goal!

I totally get that our lives are busy enough as they are. Hustling between locations, meeting up with people, taking care of errands, the list seems to pile up before we know it. The thought of adding something else to our plate sometimes seems impossible. Everything needs to go seamlessly to get it all done, or so we think.

I challenge you to go out of your way for other people. To go out of your way is to make an effort, and to perform a gesture that isn’t expected of you because you want to do something for someone else. Although it does add a mini-strain to your life, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Try to think of it from the opposite vantage point. For instance, if you’re helping someone else get through their crazy list of things to do, and making their day more manageable, people are extremely appreciative of that consideration and think highly of it. You become a lifeline for them. The reality is, if you plan it right ahead of time, the gesture doesn’t need to disrupt your day as much as it seems.

Another example would be if you live with roommates, choose to cook a little extra and feed them also. By adding 5 minutes to your routine you are saving thirty minutes from theirs. Or, at work, before you run to the post office, ask the people around you if they need a letter dropped off also. These small moments of doing something for someone else, that fit naturally into your own day, create incredible moments for building relationships and serving others’ needs.  

So, going out of your way is as simple as keeping others in mind, and putting yourself out there to help in small and natural ways. Give it a try and see how easily you can start helping other people.

In every professional setting there is something important to note. You likely have someone who influences the way that you do your work, and someone whose work you can influence. As for any team, it is important to get multiple opinions, perspectives, and sets of eyes on a project to ensure it is done well. Often times, that oversight can be very critical and makes us question what the other person thinks of us. This only happens when we choose to see it that way, which is within our control.

The first and most important factor in accepting feedback is to manage emotion. It is human nature to be resistant to differing opinions, and we often defend ourselves to maintain our comfort zone and status quo. This response is often driven by emotion and can distract us from the intent of the communication, which is improvement.

First, when presented with feedback, don’t view it as a opposing opinion. Merely view it as an opinion. Treating the feedback as a data point, not a personal attack, helps us dissociate from the negativity in the feedback and take the actionable components as good insight. Then, to be sure that next steps aren’t emotionally charged, circle back on the project after some time has passed to approach the challenge, and all of the solutions to it, in a less emotional and more objective state.

Similarly, when feedback is positive, don’t let it occlude your mind from other possibilities. We have a tendency to grab onto the opinions that align with our own impressions, creating a stronger contrast with the different opinion. View all feedback, criticism, and praise as an independent opinion that will be evaluated equally when the right time comes.

I had a pretty big realization the other day that is testing my own definition for self improvement. My philosophy toward personal development is very similar to that presented in the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, which is all about how small things add on top of each other. For that reason, I have tried to instill great micro-habits that serve as the foundation for that growth, knowing I would reap the benefits in time as they compound on top of each other.

However, I now realize I haven’t paid enough attention to the complimentary part of that argument that the same things occurs with bad habits and poor decisions.  Removing the negative is just as important as adding the positive when it comes to personal development, and it’s something I want to spend some time exploring.

It’s not just about adding something new to your day to be more productive and feel like you got more done, it’s also about efficiency, and doing less of those things you know are wasting your time and energy. A good example is instead of focusing on how many days this week you worked out, start keeping note of how many nights you resisted the urge to make yourself a bowl of ice cream. It’s not as glamorous, but subtracting is just as effective as adding when creating a self-improvement lifestyle.

So, in your life, think about the things you might want to cut out and dedicate some of your attention in those areas to reap benefits. It’s not always about working harder, it’s also about working smarter.