I recently learned about If-Then planning by way of Mel Robbins, who is a brilliant and practical motivational speaker and educator. She helps people identify negative behaviors and gives them the tools to replace them with positive behaviors. The If-Then planning technique is perfect to use on behaviors you know you don’t want to engage in.

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To reiterate, Mel emphasizes the importance of planning by writing down how you are going to handle certain situations when they present themselves. Go ahead and try it by identifying one behavior you’d like to avoid doing, and write down all of the triggers that start that behavior. Then, commit to an alternative behavior to do.

I want to set straight a theory that has been mentioned in a few different places, and share why and how it can be best incorporated into your activity. The theory is called Deliberate Practice, and was first introduced by Anders Ericcson in his book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. 'Deliberate Practice' is essentially the process required to become a master at something.  

This theory is in contention with the 10,000 hours rule shared by Malcolm Gladwell in his equally impressive book, "Outliers". The key difference between the two lies in focusing on the quality of the practice, not the quantity.  

Ultimately, the key differences in deliberate practice come down to 5 things. 

1) Motivation. You must have the desire to get better. 

2) Setting a plan of specific and realistic goals that progress in difficulty. 

3) Practicing at an intensity beyond your comfort zone. 

4) Consistent and prolonged effort. 

5) Receiving immediate feedback so that you can apply the necessary changes right away.  

The best example used in the book was how Steve Faloon went from being able to memorize 7 numbers at a time to remembering 82 numbers through deliberate practice. Not only is this an effective method, but it pushes people beyond perceived human limits!

Simon Sinek has the ability to engage with every person in the audience at the time. Lets hear from Simon as he talks about his best practices to starting a presentation.

"Presenting is like a journey. There are ups and downs, but there is a place we want people to get to. Whether it is to inspire action, or to learn something, or to perceive the world differently. We have to start with that end goal in mind, so that all of the pieces move towards that end goal. The structure is really important. How are you going to start? What is that frame that will get you going? There is no right way to this, but what I have found is to start with some sort of story that captures the idea that you are going to be presenting about. We can start of with something as basic and quite boring as, Imagine if you were to sit down with someone in a meeting and they hung on to every word you said. If someone shows up with the desire to give and idea, people are much more receptive".

Start with the end in mind, and tie it into a story.

Do you spend your time doing things you are already good at? If your first thought was no, then pay attention to this video. Stephanie Hall shares the details of an interesting study and talks about the importance of making the most of what you got.

"Hey everyone. We are going to talk about operating based on your strengths. According to studies done by Don Clipton, people who leverage their strengths are six time as likely to be engaged at work. When your work environment enables you to use your strengths, you offer value in what comes natural to you, and success is sure to follow sit as you will excel in your roll which leads to empowerment, and maximizing your true full potential. When you know what your talents are, you are able to refine your skills everyday while you find joy in what you are doing. When people try to build up their weaknesses, it only leads to added stress and frustration. So, instead, I would encourage you to uncover your strengths and leverage at least one of them on an daily basis to see how fulfilling it is to channel your efforts into a way that comes natural to you".

We all could use a bit more of leveraging our strengths.

If you want to or are learning a new language, use the app Duolingo.  

This app was created by Louis Von Ahn, a brilliant professor and businessman at Carnegie Mellon University. He is probably best known as the inventor of reCaptcha and how he began using the time people spend verifying their identity for purchases to digitize books and street signs.  

Duolingo was built on the premise of giving access to language and motivating people to return. It’s UX reflects that by creating milestones, maintaining a streak, and gamifying the process in whole. This app is designed to be used intermittently during down time as a social media replacement, and can easily be incorporated into your routine if you have the desire to do it.  

I am a huge advocate for Duolingo because I was able to advance past Italian 1 in college after using it for only 2 months, and went on to set the curve in Italian 2 because I was over prepared by the app. I can attest to the habit forming capabilities of it and was truly motivated to learn the language.

So apple, android, or whatever you may have, Duolingo is in the app store and available now, and is currently offering 30 different languages. Give it a try and watch your downtime become seamlessly more productive studying a foreign language.

We get to hear from a stand out talent who started her own company at seventeen and is a current college student who is sharing her insights on persistence:

Marrow stated, " It's easy to see success with people and think they were born that way. The reality is that every successful person was ambitious and relentless in some way. The tip: Be persistent. Maya Angelou once said, 'You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact. it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it'. So, with that being said,sometimes parts of your journey will be hard, but the only thing that can make it worse is quitting. So, keep going. Keep persisting. Some days the actions you take will be big. Other days, your best will be very little. But keep moving forward to persevere and I guarantee you will eventually succeed".

Odds are things haven't gone perfect in your life. You have experienced trials, tribulations, and triumphs. Whether it was unfair, unjustified, or unacceptable. We all have failed and failed hard, but failure can be valuable tool when used correctly.It is in these moments when things don't go right where you can really identify areas for improvement. Whether this difficulty presents itself in your personal life, your career, or your health,the fact that it did not go smoothly is indicative that the problem exist.

There are two ways to react to failure. Either you turn inward and internalize your emotions, or you can turn outward assign responsibility as you should and move beyond it moving forward. The best way to do this is to pick times when you did not meet your own expectations.Then, ask the question, "Why?", three times. This will take you to the root cause, which can be dealt with in an actionable way.

This message was taken from Charlie Houpert's YouTube series, "Charisma on Command", where he talks about bringing more quality into your life by re-framing negative situations in a positive way.

"Another thing that is going to help train your positivity is re-framing ambiguous or negative situations in a positive light. Taking the glass half full approach. In conversation, it comes through in your attitude. If you get into the habit of re-framing things in a positive light, being funny comes much more easier. That creates comedic moments when the negativity of the situation is juxtaposed with your relentless positive spin. For an example watch here as Chris Pratt immediately assumes that what ever Steven Colbert says is a good thing even though it is not intended that way

Colbert: 'I am going to call the police if you do not get off my porch'

Pratt: 'Oh! Do it! Call the police because they have cars and we would be happy to service their cars too'

To cultivate this habit in your own life, practice when seemly negative things happen to you. So, if you lose your job, you now have a new opportunity and more time to spend with your community. If you stepped in mud, you just got a new pair of brown shoes. Practice re-framing negative situations in a positive light, even if it is just to yourself and, of course out loud to friends".

It is all a matter of perception. Using the way you see things changes the way they affect you.