Posts Tagged ‘the 4 hour work week’

Here is a list of some of my favorite sites. Not only do they have great content on various topics, but the writers are great at inspiring. I have also listed the titles of the last three posts on each so you can get a feeling for what they write about.

1. Blog of Timothy Ferris- Author of the 4 Hour Week. He writes about living an alternate lifestyle and how to do so by becoming more efficient and outsourcing (among other things).
   • The Fortune 500 4-Hour Workweek: Multiplying Output in Groups (Plus: Downloadable Checklists)
   • 4HWW Cover Story in Men’s Journal (Plus: Be in a Movie)
   • Total Immersion: How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days and You Can Too
2. Zen Habits- A blog focused on Personal development and and various ways to improve your life
   • Random Acts of Kindness: A Social Site I’d Love to See
   • The Zen Habits Twitterbot Challenge, Plus Two Ebooks
   • 7 Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them
3. Seth’s Blog- Seth Godin has written a number of amazing marketing books. I must for anyone interested in marketing or running their own business
   • The uncanny valley
   • Why cartoons work
   • You get what you pay for
4. 43 Folders- A blog about getting organized and personal productivity
   • Deciding Whether to Read a Book: Some Wildly Reductive Heuristics
   • Ubiquity: Firefox Gets its Quicksilver On
   • Social Networks: The Case for a “Pause” Button
5. Mind Tools-All about business, management, and work skills
   • How Well Do You Delegate?
   • How Good is Your Time Management?
   • Hiring People – Questions to Ask…
6. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Blog- Personal development blog by a successful entrepreneur
   • How Bloggers Can Get My Book for Free
   • Speaking in Tampa on October 5th
   • Can Spirits Help You Win at Gambling? A Las Vegas Field Test
7. Presentation Zen- A presentation and design blog written by Garr Reynolds. An amazing presenter and an absolute inspiration.
   • Kermit learns visual thinking
   • Learning slide design from an IKEA billboard
   • Ken Burns: going inside the photograph
8. Think Simple Now- A cool blog about productivity and making your life happier and simpler
   • Dealing with Difficult People
   • Dream to Reality: How I Quit My Day Job
   • How to End a Relationship
9. Tubby Nerd- Written by internet market genius Ed Dale. This blog is a must for anyone interested in learning about improving their internet marketing skills (or learning about guitars)
   • What Happens When You Leave Your Mac unattended
   • I haven’t moved this well in Ages…
   • Unboxing The Awesomeness…
10. The Happy Rock- A blog about personal development and getting and staying out of debt
    • Paying with Cash…Does it Save Money?
    • Reader Stories – Doing What It Takes
    • Just canceled Netflix…trimming the budget fat

So that’s my list? Please let me know what you think and let me know what great blogs relating to these issues I might be missing out on. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed.

I came across a post by Guy Kawasaki yesterday titled The growth Mindset. I have made a few posts about goals and I think that the pursuit of constant personal growth is also really important. Guy and Carol Dweck talk about how people with different mindsets will end up with different goals and different paths. I think this is an excellent article and have listed a few key point I think are important.

The two mindsets

The first is the person who thinks people are limited with the talents and abilities they are born with. This can also include the environment they are born into as well. They view these factors as how much or what they can achieve in life. The second mindset is the person who believes they can learn and accomplish whatever they want. They generally believe that how hard they work at something is more important than how good they are to start with. I obviously agree with the latter, and I believe you will find that most very successful people would say they would too. In many events in life, whether it is sports, business, school, or politics; the person who wins isn’t necessarily the one who was the best. It is usually the person who wants it the most and is willing to work the hardest.

Pursuing Constant personal growth

1. Set your goals very high and create a strategy to achieve them. This will allow you to keep learning and keep stretching for the next level. It is much better to set your goals high and fail then set them low and succeed. However, you can break your ultimate goal down into smaller goals to gain confidence in accomplishment.

2. Instead of coming up with reasons why you can’t, come up with reasons and methods to how you can. People achieve amazing things everyday that most thought were impossible. Focus on how to do it and don’t let yourself think about the negative.

3. Think positive and tell yourself you will achieve it. The mind is an amazing thing. Once you set it in your mind that you will achieve something your brain goes to work on how to accomplish it. I had set goals to study in Japan as a college student even though the costs were much more than I was able to afford. I told myself that I was going to go no matter what. I started creating strategies on how to get there, and was able to work even harder because I had a focus. The hard work paid off and I was finally able to study at Waseda University for a year on a full scholarship.

4. Don’t allow people to pull you down. People will have a million reasons why you can’t accomplish your goals. In most cases the truth is they have never tried themselves and are afraid to do so. If you want something bad enough, just go for it. In many cases the same friends and family who might have told you it was impossible will cheer you on once you start into it.

5. Fail and learn. The best way to get better at something is to fail. Failure is not the end of the game, it is just one of the steps. Don’t be afraid to fail and you will increase your chances of success dramatically. This has been extremely true in my Japanese language studies. I used to get embarrassed to make mistakes in front of people. But I soon learned that I would remember a word much better after I had butchered it in a conversation. You will also find that the people who are really great at languages (and other things) are the ones who just keep trying.

6. Adjust your goals over time. Set your goals high. When you achieve them, set new goals. Don’t feel that goals are too high. If you set your mind to something, you will be amazed at what you can achieve. Don’t let anyone or anything limit your mindset.

Books

The 4 hour work week

The Magic of Thinking Big

Time Power