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Yeah, but…
“Yeah, but…” is a conversation killer. It suppresses emotions, creativity, and an opportunity to understand the other person better. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve completely switched myself off during a conversation because the other person said, “yeah, but….” Why? Because that’s the point when a conversation transforms into a monologue in which…
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You don’t need mentors
I never realized having a mentor is one of the up and coming fads. It seems everyone’s got a mentor (and you don’t?). They’ve got mentors for startups, for senior leaders, for artists, and for every successful people you might know. But are they successful? That’s subjective, primarily because not every startup is successful. Not…
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Leave them alone
These days it’s rare that I bump into something that’s genuinely refreshing and makes me go, “wow, that’s deep.” And one of those rare moments occurred last evening when I bumped into this beautiful paragraph from the English version of the Tao Te Ching. When taxes are too high,people go hungry.When the government is too…
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The truth about the path to mastery
I don’t believe the 10,000 hours theory. You don’t need to log in for that many hours. It’s probably closer to 20,000 or more, and no, there aren’t any shortcuts. Now that’s out of the way, I would still encourage you to say on your path to mastery because the pursuit will teach you many…
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But what about individual attention?
The most prominent hue and cry in parents-teacher association conferences across the world is efficient classroom management through individual attention. Most don’t realise that the two aspects are independent of each other. Sure, one affects the other but not so much as people believe. For example, having ten kids in the classroom doesn’t necessarily mean…
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The ultimate morning routine for the rest of your life
Just Google “morning routines”, and the search engine will blast you with millions of pages with juicy information on the best, the most productive, and the classiest morning routines of all time. People are fascinated with this kind of stuff, and I don’t have a freaking clue why. Believe it or not, you’ve been following…
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The last productivity advice you’re ever going to need
You’re not a machine. So, measuring your productivity shouldn’t be your ultimate goal. And optimizing and managing your priorities is a life-long process that will go through a thousand iterations by the time you’re finally through. Instead of focusing on GTD or any other complex methodologies, create a system that’s easier for you to understand…
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Help yourself to not read self-help
I’m at a stage in life where I’m not too fond of self-help or anything that looks, feels, and sounds like self-help. Here’s why — most self-help books and products are designed to change you for the better, and they fail. At least 99.99% of the stuff out there are rehashed versions of the stuff…
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Don’t raise a special snowflake
One of my friends is a passionate teacher, and she’s been at it for over a decade now. And it wasn’t until a few years back she found her true calling — teaching kindergarten. Not because it’s easy — it’s not — but she sees it as an excellent opportunity for her to influence, contribute,…
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The secret to great…
The older I get, the more opposed I get to a catchy book, video, and podcast titles, starting with “the secret to great…” It’s a scam that has built the multi-billion dollar self-help industry. And no, not every publication or course in the genre is trash; some of them are good, but those are rare.…