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10 Ideas For The Interested This Week

“You are as much defined by the things you don’t do as by the things you do.” — Tessa Thompson

There’s little in life that can’t be undone.

It’s easy to get stuck, regretful, and fixated on mistakes we’ve made.

But we can unwind the knots we tangle ourselves up in.

If you’re unhappy with a choice you’ve made, place you’ve landed, or direction you’re headed — undo it.

It may take time, effort, and guts, but it’s almost always possible.

Just (un)do it.

Now, on to this week’s ideas…

1. 15 TRUTHS ABOUT WORK-LIFE BALANCE THAT JUST MIGHT HELP YOU FIND IT

“Work-life balance isn’t a problem, it’s a symptom. If you struggle to find work-life balance it’s likely because you struggle to establish boundaries and set priorities.”

Work-life balance is tough to achieve because it’s a moving target.

But in this post I share 15 truths about work-life balance that just might help you find it including that the more time you give your life the better your work will become, the term work-life balance is part of the issue, and that work-life balance isn’t a zero-sum game.

RELATED: Measure work-life balance in years, not days.

2. 10 PRINCIPLES FOR THE CARE AND FEEDING OF IDEAS

“Like eating, this is something that you do every day, not just once in a while. The whole process of capturing, curating, and sharing content is continuous, not discrete.”

Since you’re one of The Interested, I’m sure you’ve got no shortage of ideas floating around your head and this post can help you organize them.

Doug Toft shares 10 principles for the care and feeding of ideas with the aim of creating your own “personal knowledge management” system.

His principles include to recognize notes are information assets, create “zero drafts,” and always be researching and writing.

RELATED: What I learned from sharing 1,000 ideas in 100 weeks.

3. FOUR WAYS TO FIGURE OUT IF YOU SHOULD TAKE A JOB

“Always, always, always choose the people. The people you work with every day will be by far the biggest factor in your work happiness. This isn’t measured just by whether they’re good happy hour companions or quick with a witty joke, however.”

If you’re trying to figure out your next career move, this Twitter thread is a must-read.

Jensen Harris shares four ways to figure out if you should take a job including that the direct manager is the key person to consider, you should optimize for the bigger opportunity, and go where you’ll learn.

RELATED: Career advice for The Interested.

4. 10 TIPS FOR A CREATIVE LIFE

“In this world, we can do many things. Make sure to say no, unless they really matter.”

There are so many inspiring thoughts in this 20-minute talk from david hieatt David Hieatt and the Do Lectures.

He addresses a room full of teenagers and offers them 10 tips for a creative life including to stop caring what other people think, choose your bosses carefully, and chase the work as opposed to the money.

RELATED: A manifesto for creative people.

5. SIX LIFE LESSONS FROM A GUY WHO HAS CHARTED HIS LIFE EVERY WEEK FOR 30+ YEARS

“A lot of the greatest things that moved the needle the highest involve either traveling somewhere new, or trying something new.”

This one’s tricky to explain in a short summary, but it’s fascinating.

For 30+ years John Gorman has tracked his life like the stock market — each week assigning ratings based on things like his health, mood, finances, and relationships.

In this post he breaks down his entire life in one chart and shares six lessons he’s learned in the process including that life almost always gets better, to accumulate as little debt as possible, and take calculated risks.

RELATED: Five ways to figure out how you waste your time.

6. HOW TO BUILD A BUDGET YOU WILL STICK WITH

“To make sure you’re really being conscious about your spending, you need to spend on the things you love — while ignoring everything else.”

We all have good intentions when we create a budget for ourselves, but few people stick with it.

Ramit Sethi shares three strategies to create a budget you will stick with including to automate your finances, spend only on what you love, and free up your money.

RELATED: How to create a reverse budget.

7. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO RATE YOU

“Once I got past the blows to my ego, the criticism, though it stung, was actually pretty useful.”

Here’s an interesting (and slightly anxiety-provoking) experiment for you.

GQ breaks down what happened when Clay Skipper asked his friends and family to rate him across a series of categories.

He learned a lot about himself in the process and now believes opening ourselves up to criticism from people who truly know us can be a counterbalance to the superficiality of feedback we get on social media.

RELATED: Why you can’t trust online reviews.

8. HOW TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN AN UNFORGETTABLE WAY

“Answering with your title and company is the cultural norm. But when you do, you’re missing out on an opportunity for the other person to know who you actually are. You are not just your job.”

This one will make you think twice about how you greet somebody the next time you’re introduced to them.

TED Ideas breaks down how to introduce yourself in an unforgettable way including to show vulnerability, resist using the same-old intro, and incorporate the problems only you can solve.

RELATED: Five lessons from meeting a stranger every week for a year.

9. HOW GARY VAYNERCHUK MAXIMIZES HIS SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT

“The ultimate goal of creating this presentation on my content model is to show you how my team took one of my keynotes, repurposed it into 30+ pieces of content, and then successfully distributed all of that content, resulting in over 35,000,000 total views.”

Gary Vaynerchuk creates a lot of content. But just as importantly, he knows how to maximize its value.

In this presentation he shares a step-by-step look at how he creates and distributes content, demonstrating how he breaks down one big piece of content into lots of smaller bites of content and allows audience feedback to influence it all.

RELATED: Eight ways to maximize the value you get from your content.

10. READ THIS WHEN YOU’RE WORRIED YOU CAN’T ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING

“Fear can’t stop you from doing something unless you let it. You’re worried one thing might happen, but there are a million other things just as likely to happen instead. The odds are something other than what you fear will happen.”

There are usually only a couple reasons you convince yourself you can’t do something — this post shoots holes in those reasons.

I suggest you read this when you think you can’t do something and you’ll discover why being afraid, uncomfortable, or confused can’t actually hold you back.

RELATED: This should be posted on the wall of every business.

THE TIME IS NOW!

My 30 Days of Doin’ It program is now available.

If you’ve got something you want to accomplish in 30 days or a new habit you’d like to develop, I’d love to help you do it!

More details here.

WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF

I discovered some of this week’s ideas from the newsletters of Swiss Miss, Charles Chu, Storythings, and Further — they’re awesome and worth your time.