10 Ideas Worth Sharing This Week - For The Interested

10 Ideas Worth Sharing This Week

“The good ideas will survive.” — Quentin Tarantino

Write a birthday blog post.

Even if you don’t have a blog. Even if you don’t publish it.

This past week, for the eighth year in a row, I wrote a post on my birthday reflecting on some aspect of my life. This year it was 42 TV shows that mean something to me on my 42nd birthday.

It doesn’t matter what you choose to write about — just choose something that makes you think and that some day you’ll enjoy looking back on and re-reading.

Trust me, it’s worth it.

Now, on to this week’s ideas…

1. HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS

“We’re more motivated by the fear of ‘losing’ than the prospect of ‘gaining.’ For example, when teachers receive bonuses at the beginning of the year that they will lose if they perform poorly, they are more motivated than teachers who start without the reward and earn it based on good performance.”

For the past six years behavior designer Max Ogles has studied motivation and the ways it can influence people to take action.

His list of 23 simple insights about motivation includes that money is a mediocre motivator, that we can learn to motivate ourselves, that high motivation doesn’t equal high happiness, that one of the best ways to motivate people is to help them uncover their intrinsic motivation, and more.

2. QUENTIN TARANTINO’S 10 RULES FOR SUCCESS

“The audience I have in mind isn’t some faceless blob that I’m trying to second guess — it’s me. I’m the audience and I know what I want to see. I was betting that there were other people like me out there.”

Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino may be a unique talent, but his ideas about what it takes to succeed are universal.

This video features a compilation of interviews with him in which he shares his 10 rules for success including to get out of loserville, be your own audience, grandiose your way out of fear, and more.

• Another idea about success: 5 Keys To A Successful Creative Career

3. SIX WAYS TO TAKE MORE INTERESTING PHOTOS

“Taking a picture is seeing something with your eyes and capturing that moment with a camera. Taking a photo acknowledges the difference between being somewhere and seeing somewhere.”

If you read this, your photos will improve.

Rob Moore shares six tips to take better photos that are simple and easy enough for anybody to do and instantly make your Instagram account a lot more interesting.

The tips include to pick a tree instead of shooting the entire forest, to get close and pick a side (especially when shooting people), to aim for delight instead of perfection, and more.

4. A SIMPLE WAY TO GET OVER PROCRASTINATION

“You’re not a procrastinator — you have a habit of procrastinating. Big difference. We spend way too much time trying to focus on manipulating how we feel and not enough time practicing the skills of controlling your behavior and your thoughts.”

Mel Robbins is the most booked female speaker in the world and based on this video snippet from her recent appearance on Lewis HowesSchool of Greatness podcast I can see why.

In a quick two-minute clip she explains how to get over procrastination and makes a convincing case to reframe your perception of the issues that hold you back.

She explains: “You have to learn how to leverage the power of your decisions and you’ve got to learn how to take action when you don’t feel like it.”

• Another idea about procrastination: 7 Strategies To Overcome Procrastination

5. HOW TO READ YOUR CUSTOMER’S MIND

“The best marketers know that the only thing that matters is what your customer believes. The stories she believes about herself and about the world determine her behavior.”

The stories we tell ourselves determine how we spend our time, attention, and money. That means in order to become a successful marketer, you’ve got to learn how to better understand the stories people tell themselves.

Margo Aaron explains how to hear the unspoken stories your customers tell themselves and offers some examples to illustrate how you can learn to read their minds and ensure you tell the right person the right story.

6. MR. ROGERS’ 1969 PLEA FOR PBS FUNDING

“If we, in public television, can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health.”

In 1969 Fred Rogers, better known as Mr. Rogers, was called to testify to Congress and explain why PBS deserved federal funding.

This video features his moving testimony that swayed a Senator who was unfamiliar with him in just six minutes. It’s worth a watch — especially since the state of federal funding for PBS is once again hanging in the balance these days.

7. HOW TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT

“In life, you rarely get paid for what you are doing. You get paid for what you have already done.”

When people wonder why they’ve achieved “nothing” in their life, it’s usually because they have the wrong definition of “nothing.”

Todd Brison breaks down why people overlook their accomplishments and offers five ways to achieve what you want in life including to quit trying to find your passion, to follow your interests, and to constantly upgrade yourself.

8. THE INTERNET IS SAVING CULTURE, NOT KILLING IT

“In the last few years, and with greater intensity in the last 12 months, people started paying for online content. They are doing so at an accelerating pace, and on a dependable, recurring schedule, often through subscriptions. And they’re paying for everything.”

The Internet raised a generation of people to believe all content should be free, but a funny thing’s happened to that belief recently — it’s changed.

The New York Times explores the recent rise in consumers paying for culture online and suggests we could be on the cusp of a profound shift in the way we find and support new cultural talent.

9. SIX WAYS TO WRITE EMAILS THAT WON’T MAKE PEOPLE RESENT YOU

“People like to have a reason for doing things. If you want to get a positive reaction to your message, it’s helpful to provide some greater context for the request. The ‘why,’ if you will.”

It can be tough to decipher tone in emails so it’s easy to come off in ways you never intended.

Fast Company asked Jocelyn K. Glei (who literally wrote the book on email) to share six ways to write better emails and her tips include things like avoiding imperatives, emphasizing the benefits of the task, and acknowledging the recipient’s workload.

• Another idea about email: How To Write Emails Like The Military

10. THREE WAYS WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WEB, ACCORDING TO ITS CREATOR

“It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want.”

Hard to believe, but it’s only been 28 years since Tim Berners-Lee submitted his original proposal for the worldwide web. But it’s the past 12 months that have him seriously concerned about the state of the web and its future.

The Guardian shares the three major changes the web needs according to Berners-Lee, including that we’ve lost control of our data, that it’s become too easy for misinformation to spread, and that political advertising needs more transparency and understanding.