“It’s the way you ride the trail that counts.” — Dale Evans
My 4-year-old neighbor just got a tricycle.
He rides in the driveway, simply going back and forth again and again.
He loves it.
It doesn’t matter that there’s a bigger/better/cooler tricycle out there somewhere or that every 10 seconds he has to stop, lift up his bike, and switch directions.
He’s just happy to ride.
Smart kid.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF WITHOUT MARKETING YOURSELF
“If you want people to care about you and your work, double down on its quality, your commitment to those who consume it, and your willingness to share your expertise with the world.”
I don’t spend a lot of time marketing myself and yet…I’ve attracted a large audience and strong network of connections who have helped me in countless ways.
In this post, I share seven ways to market yourself without marketing yourself including to overdeliver, share what you learn, and make things to put into the world.
RELATED: How to create your personal brand in 14 steps.
2. HOW TO STOP LIVING FOR THE WEEKEND AND START LIVING FOR TODAY
“My ideal day doesn’t require me to be rich or powerful or important. It just requires that I be good enough at something to sell my services on the open market and strong enough to say no to things that are beyond my needs. That is a privilege, and it’s more accessible than we think.”
This post is inspired by a great Marcus Aurelius quote: “You could be good today, but instead you choose tomorrow.”
Ryan Holiday riffs on this concept and explains how to stop living for the weekend and start living for today by choosing to live the life you want now instead of waiting to do so.
RELATED: How to have a great day tomorrow.
3. HOW TO GET MORE ATTENTION FOR YOUR CREATIONS BY TELLING YOUR THREE STORIES
“A well-told story makes people care, which is why your ability to tell stories is the key to attracting attention for your creations.”
Sometimes a message resonates more when you can watch and listen to it than it does when you read it, which is why I’m excited to share this video with you.
The Art of Improvement YouTube channel created an animated video based on my post about how to get more attention for your creations by telling your three stories.
In it, you’ll learn why sharing the stories of where you’ve been, where you’re at, and where you’re going makes a huge difference in the success of your work.
RELATED: How to ask better questions and have more interesting conversations.
4. HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR DESK
“Put a reminder of your values front and center, whether that’s with a Post-it Note, a printout, or a computer screen background. That way, when you’re feeling overwhelmed and need to decide what to tackle next, you can use those values to help you decide what to do.”
Don’t worry, this isn’t just about cleaning your workspace.
Alli Hoff Kosik interviewed nine design, career, and organization experts to compile suggestions about how to arrange your desk to increase productivity.
The suggestions include to focus on functionality, add green, and organize based on how you work and think.
RELATED: Office tactics for introverts.
5. STEVEN PINKER’S 13 TIPS TO BECOME A GREAT WRITER
“Reverse-engineer what you read. If it feels like good writing, what makes it good? If it’s awful, why?”
Reading this post won’t guarantee you’ll write a book that becomes Bill Gates’ favorite, but it does reveal the concepts that helped Steven Pinker do just that.
His 13 simple tips to become a great writer include to omit needless words, let verbs be verbs, and put new information at the end of a sentence.
RELATED: How to differentiate yourself as a writer.
6. 20 LIFE-CHANGING BIG IDEAS
“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
This is a deep one.
Vishal Khandelwal has compiled 20 ideas that changed his life from a diverse collection of thinkers including Steve Jobs, Carl Sagan, and Anne Frank.
The ideas range from how to deal with success, to life being a single player game, to life’s purpose and meaning.
RELATED: How to conduct an annual life review.
7. SPEND LESS TIME IN YOUR FEED AND MORE USING SEARCH
“It’s easy to blame the digital world for our distractions, but in part it’s up to us to learn not only when to tune it out, but also how to use it wisely.”
Here’s a simple and powerful idea.
Austin Kleon points out we’ve fallen into a trap of spending our time thinking about whatever gets pushed at us in our social media feeds instead of self-directing our attention.
To correct this he suggests you spend less time in your feed and more on search and offers a simple Twitter hack to change the way you access information on the platform.
RELATED: How to reclaim your news feed.
8. HOW TO BUILD A COMPANY LIKE AIRBNB
“Inspired by the approach Disney took in developing the original Snow White film, the founders began looking at Airbnb not as just a website or a service but as a story, with a beginning, middle, and end.”
Lenny Rachitsky spent seven years working at Airbnb and in that time learned what it takes to build a successful company.
In this post he shares seven lessons about building a company including to nail the problem statement, maintain a high bar for everything, and think of organization design as a product.
RELATED: The origin story of Airbnb.
9. HOW TO KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP
“You ask yourself two questions: Is it working? Do I still believe in it?”
It’s not a refusal to quit that leads people to success, it’s an understanding of when to quit that makes all the difference.
In this two-minute video, Chris Guillebeau breaks down how to know when to give up and suggests the answer can be found by asking yourself two simple questions.
RELATED: The benefits of quitting things.
10. EIGHT WAYS TO MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF YOUR CONTENT
“Consider from the start how you can repurpose your content in order to get more value from it and build that into the format of your creations.”
Content creation is hard work and you deserve to get more value out of it than you likely do at this point.
In this post I suggest eight ways to maximize the value of your content including to create elastic content, pay attention to your audience, and have a newsletter.
(Speaking of which, if you have a newsletter or are planning to launch one, you may want to join my Newsletter Creators Facebook group.)
RELATED: The two secrets to creating content people love.
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I got some of this week’s ideas from Lauren Holliday, Thomas Oppong, and Rachael Horwitz — they’re awesome and worth checking out.
Image via Soledadsnp.