10 Ideas For The Interested This Week - For The Interested

10 Ideas For The Interested This Week

“The easy way is also the right way.” — Bruce Lee

To hit a good ping pong shot, you’ve got to read the spin as it comes at you.

You need to identify what’s been sent your way and leverage it to your own advantage on a return shot.

Your ability to do that ultimately determines your success.

Kind of like life.

Now, on to this week’s ideas…

1. HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR DAY

“It’s not the number of things you accomplish that matters, it’s the importance of them.”

It’s possible to feel less overwhelmed AND get more done. The key to doing so is to simplify your approach to work and life.

In this post I suggest seven ways to simplify your day including to segment your time, limit the access people have to you, and get an early win.

RELATED: How to pare down your life.

2. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WRITING ONLINE

“Your ideas are the most valuable currency in a knowledge-driven economy. Just as an investment account allows your money to grow day and night without your involvement, content does the same with your ideas.”

I agree with so much of the smart stuff in this post that it makes me wish I wrote it.

David Perrell’s ultimate guide to writing online is packed with advice about things like how to create an online home for your writing, distribute it, and build a personal monopoly.

It also reinforces one of my core beliefs — everybody should have a newsletter.

(Speaking of which, if you have a newsletter or are thinking of starting one I invite you to join my Newsletter Creators Facebook group.)

RELATED: The ultimate guide to growing your audience.

3. HOW TO ASK FOR A RAISE

“There’s evidence that you’re more likely to get a bigger raise if you ask in terms of percentages instead of dollars. This is because the percentage will feel less tangible.”

This one’s a must-read for anybody who’d like to earn a bit more money, which I assume means it’s going to get a LOT of clicks.

Grant Sabatier breaks down how to ask for a raise including advice about how much to ask for and when to ask.

RELATED: Why an “unraise” may be more valuable than a raise.

4. ALL THAT WE SHARE

“These people have a lot to talk about, they just don’t know it…yet.”

I’m not going to spoil this one for you by explaining it.

Just go watch this four-minute video if you want to feel a little better about the world.

RELATED: Watching this video every morning could change your life.

5. WHERE TO START WHEN YOU WANT TO OPTIMIZE YOUR HEALTH

“Most of the benefits of sleep, exercise, and diet come from just doing the basics right. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, here’s where to start.”

The advice in this one may seem obvious, but that’s kind of the point.

Beth Skwarecki explains where to start when you want to optimize your health including basic tips to improve your sleep, reduce your stress, and increase the effectiveness of your exercise.

RELATED: The best way to wash your hands in 20 seconds.

6. HOW TO FIGURE OUT YOUR NEXT STEP WHEN YOU FEEL STUCK

“Be micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you…you never know where you might end up. Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery. Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams.”

If you struggle to figure out what your next move should be, this can help.

Madeleine Dore explains how to figure out your next step based on advice from a variety of successful creative people.

The tips include to ask yourself if you’re ready or simply restless, get outside your own head, and accept there is always a waiting period.

RELATED: How to get any career opportunity you want in the next six months.

7. HOW TO EARN PASSIVE INCOME

“Passive income is based on the faulty assumption that once you hit a goal, you’ll be happy and satisfied and can go on with your happy life. But as pretty much anyone who has ever gotten something they want knows, that’s not really how it works.”

I believe the concept of “passive income” is a bit of a lie and in some ways this post backs that up.

Still, Nat Eliason’s breakdown of how to make passive income offers solid advice about passive sales machines, passive products, affiliate sales, and more.

RELATED: Want to make money from your expertise? Start here.

8. HOW TO CREATE A NEW BUSINESS MODEL

“If you are working on a new model, for anything (it could be crypto, health care, education, finance, etc, etc), you should look very closely at what are the most annoying and frustrating aspects of the current model and focus on leading with features that remove them.”

While the inspiration for this post is the upcoming streaming battle between Netflix and Disney, it’s really about a more universal business concept.

Fred Wilson explains how to create a new business model and suggests it’s always the frustrations of an existing model that create the opening for a new one.

RELATED: How Amazon innovates in ways Google and Apple can’t.

9. HOW TO DO NOTHING

“One thing that is important to me is: was there a time in the day when you were fully aware of the fact that you’re alive? Were there even five or ten minutes where I was able to drop out of the stream of productive time? A lot of time it’s just closely observing something. If you’re really lost in observing something, you lose yourself.”

Don’t worry, this isn’t just another person telling you to meditate.

Jenny Odell explains how to do nothing and redefines the term — she suggests it’s not about literally doing nothing, but rather choosing to replace some things you pay attention to with others that can provide more meaning or value to your life.

RELATED: How to stop working so much and what I learned from doing so.

10. HOW TO HANDLE THE FAILURES OF YOUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

“This isn’t another post about how failure is good for you. Because the truth is failure is only good for you if you learn how to handle it.”

We all encounter failure, but unfortunately we don’t always deal with it in an effective way.

In this post I share six ways to better handle failure including to recognize it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough, find the success within the failure, and determine if your failure is an end or a beginning.

RELATED: How to challenge your own ideas of failure.

WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF

I got some of this week’s ideas from Thomas Oppong, Media REDEF, Khe Hy, and Creative Mornings — they’re awesome and worth checking out.

Image via HeungSoon.