Pursuit of Excellence

Items in italics are direct quotes from the articles below

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/20/billionaire-mark-cuban-says-dont-follow-your-passion.html

Chances are, you’ve been advised to “follow your passion” or “do what you love” at one point in your life. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban says to ignore that conventional career advice. In fact, “‘follow your passion’ is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get,” the “Shark Tank” star wrote on his blog in 2012. Your passions “aren’t worth a nickel,” he continues. “Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around. How many were/are there? … Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions? “Or, if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success? Was it the passion or the effort you put into your job or company?” He encourages a person to follow the effort. Look at where you’re actively applying your time is the best indication of your future. The question is what are you building of value with your time? “But when I got one of my first jobs out of school using technology, it was like, ‘Wait, I love this.’ I’ve taught myself the program, I could go seven hours, eight hours without taking a break thinking it was 10 minutes because I was concentrating so hard and so excited and really loved it. “And that’s when I realized that I can be really, really good at technology.” Cuban argues that when you spend more time working at something, then you will get good at it, and as you get good at it you will enjoy it. “When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it,” the billionaire writes. “When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.” Monitor where your time and effort is going, and monitor to see if you are truly becoming an expert at it. Passion is a process, but the most important step you can take is the first step.

https://www.inc.com/linda-naiman/5-brain-hacks-that-will-help-you-think-smarter.html

When I bought my first computer years ago, I hired a tutor to teach me how to use it, but before she had finished giving me instructions my fingers were all over the keyboard pushing buttons. “What do these do?” I wanted to know. She was a little horrified because I could have frozen my computer, but she told me I was a natural-born hacker. I laughed and was glad to know that. Hackers are naturally curious and resourceful. We like to find expedient ways to solve problems; kind of like design. I asked Neil Pavitt, author of Brainhack: Tips and Tricks to Reach Your Brain’s Full Potential, (an incredibly useful book which he asked me to comment on before it went to press) for some effective hacks you might not know about. Happily he obliged: write by hand, don’t try to have good ideas, just say it, plan a pre-mortem, and turn performance anxiety into performance energy. Writing by hand forces your brain to think and capture only the essential information vs typing. To have a truly good idea, you should be willing to put all your ideas on paper, and out of those ideas, you can find one good idea. Even verbalizing a problem will help engage your brain into solving a problem vs. thanking about it. When you create a plan, imagine the worst-case scenarios and this will engage your mind to creatively solve each problem that could arise. At work you want focused performance energy, but you don’t want the stress that comes with performance anxiety. The trouble is, your adrenal gland can’t tell the difference between you needing the energy at work, to you worrying about it at night. Stress is just performance energy that’s outstayed its welcome. So to make your performance energy work for you, start by spending less time thinking and more time planning and doing. If you’ve got a speech or presentation to make, don’t spend time imagining how it’s going to go, write down what you’re going to say and practice it. These simple techniques are for the express purpose of exercising your brain, and increase the performance not just at work but in life.

If you are interested in creating a budget, then contact me for a financial checkup in the contact me section. Also, learn more about the self-lending principle in the mustard seed section.

This week, I’ve included One of the Most Motivational Videos You’ll Ever See [WARNING!!! – Belief Changer] from the VideoAdvice YouTube channel.

“If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.”

Proverbs 28:26 MSG