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Success Advice

Too Much Personal Development Is Not Good

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Some of you just wet your pants and now want to kill me. That’s okay, I’m a big boy now. I’m supposed to be the Gen Y poster boy for personal development so why would I say such a horrible thing like that?

Like anything, it’s because that statement is true. Too much personal development is not good for you. Social media tells us we have to keep growing every minute of every day. I agree we need to keep growing, but you can overdo it.

Too much personal development makes you one of those over-achievers that can’t shut up for even five minutes about how much they’ve got done for the day.

At cocktail parties, they keep dropping in the lines about how hard they work and how awesome their hustle is. I switch off when I hear this sort of talk.

The world doesn’t necessarily need more personal development; what the world needs are:

1. More people prepared to give everything of themselves and get nothing in return
2. More people willing to help a brother or sister out when they are in need
3. More people to flip problems on their head and solve them in new ways
4. More people that are obsessed with teaching the art of love

Okay, the last one was a little soft for a bloke, but you always ask me for the truth and I’m going to give it to you like a cold shower at 4 am on a Monday morning when you are freezing your tits off.

Be present

Instead of overdosing on personal development, concentrate on being more present. You’re here some of the time, but when you do too much personal development, you are in your head a lot. That’s because too much personal development causes you to live in the future and become obsessed with progress.

How does Uncle Tim know all of this? I know all of this because what I’m describing is what I suffered from.

I was the guy that woke up at 4 am, wrote a bunch of inspiring articles, did some exercise, drank green juice and threw on a Tony Robbin’s audiobook. I still do a lot of these tasks now. The key is that I don’t overdo it anymore.

“Being obsessed with personal development causes this over-achieving disease that our younger generation seems to have become addicted to. You don’t need to hustle and work 10X every moment of the day”

These are great disciplines to have but they have been taken out of proportion to what really matters in life. I’d rather you got home from the office each day and looked at your significant other in the eyes and told them how you felt about them.

I’d rather you gave some of your time each day to come back to right now and know that this very breath you are taking in this moment will never come back again.

I’d rather you realized the beauty in now instead of being sold the dream that the beauty will be here tomorrow, or in a year when you achieve more than your next door neighbor, or brother or sister has achieved.

Love a bit

While we overdose on personal development, we take away time to love a bit. Loving what we have and loving other people is a commitment of time. Just saying I love you to someone once in your life and proving it once, is not enough.

For you to truly demonstrate the act of love, you need to allocate time to it. Love is one of the few currencies you have been given to spend, and to share. Having more love in your life is about giving more of it. It requires you to think outside of your own selfish wants and desires and focus on someone else’s.

Too much personal development is, in a way, a demonstration of one’s selfishness. When we overdose on personal development, we show the world we are in love with ourselves in an egotistical way. We show the world that all we care about is bettering ourselves and that we don’t have time to love.

As I’ve said already, personal development is phenomenal just don’t overdose on it like I did.

Get over yourself

I didn’t pump out 200 reps of bench press yesterday. I know I’m a freaking disappointment to the world aren’t I? How dare I be into personal development and do anything less than a Spartan workout before breakfast. How dare I not push my chest out and show all the progress I’ve achieved at the gym.

I got news for everyone who hasn’t heard this: no one cares about what you have achieved. What they care about is who you are becoming and what sort of a person you already are. Take your Fitbit’s and your apps that track your reps and put them where the sun doesn’t shine.

You and your amazing Instagram life are boring. We’re all peeping in at this life and asking “Yeah but what’s in it for me?”

That’s the real truth right there.

“All your progress means nothing if humankind doesn’t get to progress or benefit as well”

What can you replace too much personal development with?

For me, I’ve replaced too much personal development with asking myself the following life questions:

– What is the meaning of my life?
– Why do I do what I do?
– How can I give more and create more value for those around me?
– If all of this ended tomorrow, would I be proud of myself?
– How do I love more?

Questions like these lead to new pursuits and give you a new priority in your life. When you understand that you are only a small part of this universe and that you are designed to contribute something of significance, your perspective changes.

The one success tip I constantly seem to keep giving is that it’s not about you. Part of that statement is a reminder to myself not to get caught up in my own perceived awesomeness and I encourage you to see that advice in the same way.

So quit trying to outdo everyone because it’s killing your success and it’s done the same to me. Personal development is not a competition or a cult.

Personal development is designed to help you make little steps each day so you can: uncover your purpose, find more ways to give, be fulfilled in life and love more than you have ever loved before.

I want you to remember these truths the next time you overdose on personal development and find yourself bragging on social media about how much you love it!

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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Creating legal boundaries
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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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