The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

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You’re Not a Genius: Can You Become a Genius at Work?

Life


Creative Commons License photo credit: riacale

Everyone wants to be a genius. However, the word “genius” gets thrown around a lot these days. If someone can memorize some facts from a book well they are called a “genius”. If someone can speak really well about a topic they are branded a “genius”. However, the true genius is someone who sees something that someone else doesn’t see. The true genius is insightful, clever, original and brings about change. The true genius is hard to come by.

How you can be the genius at your work

If you want to become a true genius you are in for a bit of a sore reality shock. Its not going to happen. True geniuses that are remembered as true geniuses are often born with a spark and they exhibit the qualities early in life. It is not often that a 30 year old at a desk job becomes a genius all of a sudden.

Read the first paragraph of this post again.

Now you know the trick. To be a genius at work you do not need to be Leonardo Da Vinci. You need to be “perceived” as a genius by the others around you. A genius, after all, is a relative term. If the other people at your work are lazy, slow and careless you will be able to become the work “genius” with nothing but a little bit of extra preparation!

Steps to becoming more like a genius

Now that you have faced facts and realized that you are never going to be a genius if you aren’t already you need to look at ways to be more like a genius. One can increase ones intelligence and perceived intelligence by emulating the greats of the past.

NOTE – This post might upset some people. If it upsets you it is likely that you are living a lie. There is nothing wrong with being of “average intelligence”. If you are trying to be smarter for anything other than academic purposes it is likely you are trying to be somebody you are not. This is not something people will respect you for. Be yourself. Most of the greatest people in history had other qualities other than intelligence – compassion, love and determination.

1. Read the news
If you read up on the current news, especially the news relating to your industry, you will be able to make recommendations that are current and up to date. They will seem inventive and cutting edge. It also allows you to relate what is going on in your company to what has happened to other companies in the news.

2. Study history
In the same light as number one if you read history you will seem learned and more able to make inventive suggestions. People are able to change the future by understanding the mistakes people have made in the past. The greatest fools are the ones that do not learn from history. Do not be like this. Make sure you study the history of your firm, company, industry and nation.

3. Change your perspective
The greatest geniuses in history have looked at simple issues with a different perspective. The greatest inventions in history have taken a simple idea and expanded on it.

“Thus the task is not to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what no one yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” -Schopenhauer

4. Work damn hard
All the geniuses throughout history have been hard workers. It is a mistake to think that smart people are just like that naturally. They work really hard. Leonardo hardly slept because he was working so hard. The same goes for everyone else.

“If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent” – Isaac Newton

5. Be patient
Monks will spend years in solitary retreat to make a simple realization. Nelson Mandella spent years in a prison where he was able to reflect on certain injustices and formulate a way to change them when he got out of his cell. Likewise, insight and cleverness takes time. If you need to solve a problem at work you need to give it time and attention. Do not be turned off if you do not make a break-through right away.

“I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light” – Isaac Newton

6. Relax
Nothing will ever come from a tight mind except for more tightness. The greatest moments of clarity happen when one is relaxed. However you relax it is important that you do that when you are “trying” to discover something new. The more often you are relaxed the more often these breakthroughs will occur.

Originally posted on March 9, 2008 @ 9:28 am

6 Ways to Make True Friends in Your Workplace

Life


Creative Commons License photo credit: snorrim

Some days you just feel like no one at work is your friend. You might know a lot of people but none of them really know you – none of them get you. In this post I will take a look at how you can build some true friends in your workplace.

To make true friends at work you must:

1. Give people time
If you do not give people any of your time it is unreasonable to expect them to like you. People need time to understand what you are about and who you are. Sometimes all it takes is a coffee and a really good chat to get to know someone. Other times it will take many weeks and months of hard work. Don’t be afraid to give some time.

2. Be honest
There is no point telling someone you are really good at playing snooker if you aren’t. It is dishonest and it will wind up getting you into trouble next time you are at the local pub and your new friend wants to play pool! Be honest with the people you want to make friends with. You always bond closely with people if you share the same interests.

3. Be open
Never be afraid to express who you are and what you feel about a certain topic. If you feel like George Bush is a bit of a war criminal you should be clear cut about it. Being open allows people to see what its going to be like being around you. More often than not they will like you for who you are.

4. Bring food
Whatever situation you might be in it is very important to use food as a friendship builder. Billion dollar businesses have been founded over lunch. Best friends are made over a coffee and a snack. Food is a friendship builder. If you are working late nights at the office try ordering in a pizza and sharing it with everyone without making them pay. This one act of generosity can work magic.

5. Don’t make fun
Quite often people think all jokes are created equal. They aren’t. While you and your already established mates might like to make fun of each other it is quite often the case that a “new” friend will not understand. All it takes is one seemingly harsh comment and you have blown any chances you might have had. If you are going to make jokes, don’t make them personal.

6. Organize things and follow through
Some of my best friends are the ones who got my cell number on the first meeting because we expressed some interest in doing something together. Sometimes it was an indoor soccer team, sometimes it was just going out for a drink. People love seeing that you pay them some interest. Don’t always wait to be asked out, start doing the asking.

Conclusion

There are so many ways to make friends. It does not matter what tricks you learn the best thing you can do is be honest and open and don’t be afriad to start a conversation. Relax and be natural.

Originally posted on March 6, 2008 @ 8:52 am

How to Get More Work Done Without Working More

Life


Creative Commons License photo louder

The key to getting more work done is not to work longer hours. It is to work efficiently with the time you are given. If you feel like you don’t get enough done during your work day then this post is for you.

To get more work done you MUST:

1. Look at emails only at designated times
This is one of the best things you can do because we waste so much time checking emails and facebook messages. If you are like me you will have three or four email addresses and you need to check them constantly. This is crazy! Instead we should only check emails for the last ten minutes of every hour. This allows us to stay focused on work without breaking our rhythm.

2. Know exactly what you are going to do each hour
It is a good idea to spend the first ten minutes of each day organizing exactly what you are going to do with that day and writing a list. Then every hour you should add to that list with specific things you need to do in that hour. This is a fantastic way to stay on topic and focused for longer periods of time. It is also very rewarding when you knock the whole list on the head.

3. Eat a good breakfast
If you don’t eat breakfast chances are you will be feeling tired and groggy by lunch time. This means that the final hours of the day are slow and unproductive. If you eat a good fruit-based breakfast, however, you will be able to concentrate for longer and you will be much more effective.

Have a look at what Gandhi had to say about eating fruit after he spent six months eating nothing but fruits:

“I may not be able to lift heavy loads, but I can do hard labor for a much longer time without fatigue. I can also do more mental work, and with better persistence and resoluteness.” – Gandhi

4. Use an online calendar
Online calendars like the one Google offer here are a great way to plan your day, week, month and year. If you write down what you need to do and give a date by when you need to finish it you will be more likely to accomplish it than if you never wrote it down. Visual aids like this are very important.

5. Learn the lost art of concentration
It seems that in the old days people were able to concentrate more. Now we are in the age of TV, Blackberry, Youtube and Facebook and we cannot bare to work for ten minutes without being entertained. However, we have an amazing mind somewhere in there and it’s power can be harnessed for productive things.

Concentration is about mental strength. You need to learn an internal discipline so that you can stay focussed and on topic without wandering off into la la land. Ten minutes of concentrated work is better than an hour of interrupted work.

“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.”
– Isaac Asimov quotes (Russian born American science-fiction Writer and Biochemist. 1920-1992)

To get more work done you MUST NOT:

1. Reward everything you do
I know a lot of people who give themselves a reward for everything they finish. They spend more time making “reward coffees” than they do working for the reward! Make sure your rewards are meaningful. If they are not you will soon lose the ability to make a reward seem like a good reason to do some work.

2. Initiate conversation with workmates
Obviously you cannot ignore people if they come up to talk to you but please do not be the guy at the office who stops his work for a break and goes and annoys other people. Concentrate on what you are doing while you are doing it. When you are working; work. When you are having a break; break. Try not to mix things.

3. Eat too much sugar
Sugar in food causes a sugar rush and after the high there is a very depressing low. This low will cause even the most disciplined worker to stop his/her work and wander around the office or the internet looking for things to do. Try to stick to foods like nuts, fruit and anything with a low-gi index if you want to stay on track.

Originally posted on March 3, 2008 @ 5:45 am

Top 10 Ways You Can Lose Weight at Work Today

Body


Creative Commons License photo credit: Spring Dew

One of the worst places for your waist line is the office. We binge. We snack. We stress eat. Here are the top 10 ways you can lose weight at work.

1. Get off the coffee
Coffee is not a weight gainer in itself but the sugar, cream and biscuits you have with it are. How many coffees do you have each day? How many sugars do you have in them? Coffee is a drug and it leads to addictive behaviors. It is bad for your weight.

2. Take the stairs
If you have some stairs at work you should use them. However, if you work in a high rise building do not feel like you have to take all of them. It would take way too long! Instead get off a floor or two early and dash up a few flights. Running up stairs is one of the best ways to burn calories. Perhaps after lunch would be a good time.

3. Sit on a fitness ball
A lot of places in Australia now sit on fitness balls instead of chairs at work as it is much better for your back and posture. The advantage of this is that you can also drop down and do a few crunches in your spare moments. Any calories you can burn during the day are a bonus.

4. Bring lunch from home
You don’t have to bring lunch from home everyday but the more often you do the more likely you are to eat healthy. Stuff brought from home (salad, sandwhich, soup, etc.) is a better alternative than going out to the local eatery. You will get more nutrients as well and as such have a more productive day.

5. Park the car further away
If you drive into work consider parking in a carpark that is about ten minutes walk from your office. A walk of this time would burn quite a few calories. It is good for waking you up as well if you start nice and early.

6. Ride a bike
Many top executives I know actually ride their bike into work on days they know they won’t have to leave the office. For example, if you have no meetings on Friday you can ride into the office and not worry about being anywhere in a hurry. The more often you do this the more weight you will burn. And it is exercise that is part of your daily routine in that it ges done while you do something else (go to work).

7. Snack on mixed nuts
The protein in nuts keeps you fuller for longer. It makes it a perfect snack. If you eat nuts you will be less likely to snack on sugar filled snacks like candy, soda and chocolate.

8. Drink green tea
Green tea has a lot of fat burning properties. It is very good for you and will stimulate your metabolism. If you need your caffeine fix it is also a much healthier option than coffee.

9. Eat more often
If you have one big meal at lunch and that is it your metabolism is bound to be very slow and sluggish. Try to eat more often; smaller portion sizes of course. This will keep your digestive system cranking which is actually one of the best ways to burn fat.

10. Don’t stress
If you stress too much you will end up snacking or not eating properly. All stressful situations can be dealt with so relax and take it easy!

Originally posted on February 28, 2008 @ 5:08 am

How to Eat Cheap and Healthy at Work Everyday

Body, Nutrition

A lot of people blame their weight problems on their work. How many times have you heard and overweight friend say “I don’t have time for a healthy lunch” or some similar excuse? I hear it often. This post will look at some simple ways you can eat cheap and healthy at work every single day.

1. Start shopping at the local market
The supermarket and regular shops you go to are run on massive profits. Here in Australia we have Coles/Myer which is one of the biggest publically listed companies in the nation.

Their food stores make a big profit. The prices aren’t the best.

If, however, you go to the food market on a Saturday or Sunday you can pick up all the food the big guys sell but at cost price. It is fresh and healthy. Stock up on fruits and vegetables and things you can snack on at work.

2. Buy a big thermos and learn to make soup
Vegetable soup made from the vegetables you bought in the market is a great way to eat on the cheap and it is very healthy. Tomato based soups are particularly good for you as the cooked tomoatos have lots of cancer fighting properties. The thermos keeps it hot all day and you can have as much as you want without worrying about getting fat.

If anyone has any killer soup recipes I would love to see them. Surely some people in the cold US states make great soups?

3. Switch from Starbucks coffee to market Green Tea
My local Chinese Market in China Town has about 1000 varites of important teas. There is one for every health problem you can think of. You can buy a packet of about 100 tea bags for $5. That is nothing. That is as much as one coffee for some people! This strategy is good because you still get your caffiene fix whilst saving money, getting healthy antioxidants and cutting out sugar.

4. Remember the old sandwhich
What the hell happened to the days when people took a sandwhich to work? Society is so pleasure driven now that a killer triple decker sandwhich with salad and fresh goodies seems like food for a homeless person. Most people at work I know go out for a sirloin steak for lunch.

Whatever!

Get back to the simple days when healthy food was exciting and made you feel good about yourself. Packing a sandwhich (or three!) before work saves money, time and will keep you feeling better after lunch time.

5. Make enough dinner for leftovers
If I am making a dinner I know I am going to love and I know will last tomorrow I usually make enough for an extra meal. Pack it in the fridge in a container and grab it on your way out the door in the morning. Zero preparation time other than what you normally have for your nightly dinner. 9 times out of 10 your dinner will be a lot healthier than the stuff you buy for lunch so why not have it again if it is easier for you?

6. Check the fast food alternatives
So Subway might be better for you than KFC but is it cheaper than the sandwhich you could get at the local Deli? If you want to eat healthy and save some cash try the local corner store’s lunch specials. Quite often they are thrilled to have your business and you end up with a fresh made sandwhich or a nice home cooked meal. I love these “underground” places.

7. Discover healthy snacking
Normally at work you would snack on soda, candy, chips, coffee, tea and other things during the day. Instead, try taking a bag of mixed nuts or mixed sprouts to work and snack on them whenever you want. The protein will keep you feeling full so you will eat less of a junkie lunch and they replace the less nutritious snacks that you were eating before.

Does anyone have any other tips on eating healthy and cheaply at work?

Originally posted on February 22, 2008 @ 4:32 pm

How to Turn Work Stress into Happiness

Life

Stress at work

“When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.”
Horace (BC 65-8)

This quote is important for one big reason. And that reason is that Horace knew that “things” that are outside of us can only be dealt with effectively by using our internal skills and thoughts by remaining “level-headed”.

There will always be jerks at your work.

Your boss is always going to ride your back.

Deadline are always going to creep up on you.

The pay check is always going to seem a long way off.

Your mind is the only solution…

Why we need to shift our focus inwards

As you can see there is always going to be external things going on that make us stress out. Money, workmates, deadlines, etc. will always be there and they will always get the best of you if you try to make them go away physically.

Consider another quote:

“Instead of covering the whole world with leather, simply put on some sandals.”
Shantideva, Indian Buddhist Saint.

What Shantideva is saying that we always try to deal with things on the outside. If we have a jerk in the cubicle next to us we try to get transferred. What we don’t realize is that there is only going to be someone else that annoys you at your next desk. So instead of transferring how about shifting your focus inwards and dealing with your own mind. [Read more…] about How to Turn Work Stress into Happiness

Originally posted on February 22, 2008 @ 4:21 pm