Why productiveness is the key to happiness

Penguins don't care how long it takes them to catch their daily fish quota. Year after year, they go through the same routine, hardly improving anything. Their survival is entirely based on the expectation of zero change.

From the 32 million estimated living penguins, none gives a damn about productivity. They don't save for the future and often remain unaware of the existence of predators until it is too late to do anything about it.

Contrary to what is portrayed in cartoons and children books, penguins are neither creative nor funny. This is proven by the fact that tourists going to the Stewart Islands in New Zealand rarely devote more than a couple of hours to watch penguins.

“I had never realized that penguins were so passive,” Japanese tourists frequently comment. “They just stand there for hours and do nothing.”

Practically without exception, tourists return home with the conviction that being a penguin is not really that much fun.

Luckily, most humans come to a similar conclusion by the time we grow up. Hanging around, squandering our life away, is not a viable option for those who aspire to happiness.

Only purposeful action and continued achievement fulfil our psychological need to feel in control of our future.

Irrespective of the field involved, productiveness is the key to happiness.

As long as the process remains result-oriented, it matters little whether you choose to devote yourself to growing your own company, writing music, searching for an effective treatment of cancer, or raising your kids to become great human beings.

Our rational nature takes pleasure in every achievement along the way. No matter how small our victories, we all love to tell our friends about them.

1. AT WORK: when you figure out a way to complete a task quicker than anyone expected.
2. AT HOME: when you manage to fix an old appliance that was considered beyond repair.
3. IN SPORTS: when you succeed at running faster and score additional points.
4. AT INVESTING: when you see the value of your assets go up and feel your strategy vindicated.

During the last fifteen years, "lean thinking" has been the foremost management doctrine for increasing business productivity.

Its four essential tenets constitute a restatement of the ancient Taoist principle of harmonious action:

1. A call for simplicity and evenness in all processes.
2. Abhorrence of waste and emphasis on long-term sustainability.
3. A focus on human creativity as the ultimate economic resource.
4. The view of life as a flow of actions that can be continuously improved.

While management theorists continue to study how to apply lean thinking to commercial operations, the real challenge lies in learning how to use it to improve our individual productiveness and happiness.

There is a good reason behind the passivity of penguins. Although they know how to catch fish, they don't realize that, one day, they are going to die. None of us can hide behind that sort of ignorance.

In the last decade, the number of work-hours needed to manufacture a car has been halved, but as individuals, we have not become twice as productive and happy.

Understanding the link between productiveness and happiness is only the first step. What remains is to draw the map that shows us the path to a brighter life.

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Why Finnish people never raise their voice

If you have had the chance to work or spend a holiday in Finland, you might have noticed that Finns never raise their voice.

Finnish men and women are remarkably polite towards friends and strangers and you will almost never see them quarrel. Finns are also known to be extremely honest and this is reflected in their incredibly low crime figures.

Most people react with disbelief when they hear these facts for the first time. “Human nature is similar everywhere,” they argue. “We are all made of the same flesh and blood. Cultural myths are nothing but fairy tales.

”To prove their point, they will look up on Internet until they find a news report about some atrocious murder in Helsinki and then they will smile satisfied. “You see, there are also criminals in Finland!”

Perfection does not exist. Indeed, Finnish youths shout at each other from time to time and criminality, although relatively low, is far from being eradicated.

My point is not that Finnish men and women inhabit an ideal society.

I am just trying to bring to your attention the fact that verbal or physical violence constitutes a rare phenomenon in traditional Finnish society.

In this respect, Finns are amazingly different from other cultures. Foreigners who go to live in a small Finnish town for a year frequently experience a shock when they return to their own country. If you doubt my words, take a moment to reflect.

Pick up pen and paper and make a list of situations in the last month when you have witnessed verbal or physical abuse. Chances are that your list will be long.

Business discussions that turn to shouting matches.

Aggressive behaviour during sporting events.

Humiliating treatment of employees.

Loud, bitter, public recriminations between spouses.

Human life offers infinite occasions for disagreement and irritation. How is it possible that Finns systematically tend to avoid violence?

Is there a lesson that we could all apply to improve our private life and working environment? What makes traditional Finnish culture so peaceful?

The answer is deceptively simple. Apparently, Finns have found a better way to discourage unacceptable behaviour.

Is there a lesson that we could all apply to improve our private life and working environment? What makes traditional Finnish culture so peaceful?
The answer is deceptively simple. Apparently, Finns have found a better way to discourage unacceptable behaviour.
It is a way that involves not-doing, rather than doing. It is a form of punishment that can take life-threatening proportions in small Finnish towns isolated by snow during winter months. It is called ostracism.
Nobody will force you to be honest. You will be free to offend your neighbours. No one will prevent you from making as many enemies as you wish. There will be no shouting and few complaints.
Nevertheless, one day, when you really need help in a critical moment, people will just leave you alone.
A few decades ago, specially in small Finnish villages, ostracism constituted a horrifying punishment that only a fool would be willing to incur.
Nowadays, although modern technology renders snow and ostracism less threatening, honesty and politeness still remain at the core of Finnish culture.
“This is is an interesting principle,” you might say, “but does it have universal application? Do we all need to go and live in Finland?” Frankly, I don't think so.
I believe that we can start small, right here. It is quite simple, actually. In fact, next time you are about to raise your voice, all you have to do is think of the Finnish snow.

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Building of Teen Self Esteem Starts at Birth

When does self esteem begin? Many times we think that self esteem begins in our children when they hit their tween years, not realizing that it really begins at birth. It is developed with the influence of parental attitudes and behaviors right from birth and then continuing on into all the childhood developments.

Their self-esteem is first built by having their basic needs met, including the need for love, comfort, and closeness. How children are treated by their parents or primary caregivers sets the stage for how their self-esteem is developed. Young babies and children who feel unloved find it more difficult to develop a sense of self-worth and then carry those feeling on into later childhood and on into their teen years.

Supportive parental behavior, including encouragement and praise for accomplishments, as well as the child's internalization of the parents' own attitudes toward success and failure, are the most powerful factors in the development of self-esteem in early childhood. Stresses at home, such as parents arguing a lot, or not having friends to play with and interact with, can have a negative impact on a child's self-esteem and self-worth even at a very early age.

When children have a good quality of self-esteem they can handle conflicts, peer pressures and making friends, easier. Preschoolers learn self-esteem in stages through developing their senses of trust, independence, and initiative with their parents and siblings and then that moves on into interacting with their friends and other relatives.

Self-esteem comes from different sources for children at different stages of development. Our self esteem is instilled in us during our youth. It is very important to be aware if the under current in the home is critical; as being criticized by parents and family members tends to slowly strip the child of their feelings of self worth.

Self esteem is described as having an inner good feeling of oneself. It is the way you perceive yourself and your self value. When this reflects within the child, it is what they think and feel about themselves and how well they feel that they do things, this is ultimately what is important to them and this is the foundation their self esteem is built upon.

As the children grow and mature and their experiences move outside the immediate home and move on into school, and with their peers, it becomes more important in these areas how they determine their self-esteem. Schools also have a huge influence on self-esteem through the attitudes they foster toward competition and diversity and their recognition of achievement in academics, sports, and the arts. At this stage, social acceptance by a child's peer group plays a major role in developing and maintaining self-esteem.

The physical and emotional changes that take place in adolescence, especially in early adolescence, present new challenges to a child's self-esteem. They are faced with physical and hormonal changes and this the time when teens go through major changes in their lives and their self-esteem can tend to be very fragile. This is the time when teens require and need to have a very supportive family.
Fitting in with their peers becomes more important than ever to teens self-esteem, and, in later adolescence, relationships with the opposite sex or sometimes the same sex can become a major source of confidence or insecurity. Body image is a major component in teenagers' self-esteem, and they are very concerned about how their peers see them. This goes for both boys and girls, body image is very important and teens who have high self-esteem like the way they look and accept themselves the way they are.

Parents can foster self-esteem by expressing affection and support for the child and to start this as previously stated in the early years, will be helping the child set realistic goals for achievement instead of imposing unreachably high standards. Teens that learn to set goals in their lives have higher self-esteem than those who do not. During this time and even before, children and/or teens can be taught visualization. This is an excellent tool to create and develop self esteem in all individuals and a great visualization tool is vision map videos.

Teens can also be encouraged to watch the words they use to describe themselves, such as if they constantly say they are stupid or that they can't achieve success; they need to understand that is what will happen. So, make it a habit of saying positive things and use this positive posturing to create self esteem to their full advantage. The use of affirmations is also a great way for them to start using affirming language and these are also featured in vision map videos.

Be sure and explain to your teen that nobody is perfect in the eyes of everyone else, so by trying to be perfect you may just be setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. Spend more time focusing on the qualities about them that you like and less on the ones that you dislike. Teach them to believe in themselves completely, and others will also believe and trust in them.

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Breaking Out of a Bad Mood

Breaking Out of a Bad Mood

Every now and then, you might find yourself in a bad mood. No one likes being in a bad mood because their energy seems low, they can be irritated easily, and life does not look pretty. This can decrease your productivity and send you into a negative spiral. Furthermore, no one wants to be around someone who's feeling sour. A bad mood is a great way to bring those around you down into the dumps. So how do you shake off a bad mood?

It’s easy! Just try out one of these simple ideas to turn your frown upside down:

1. Get dressed. That’s right. Get up, take a shower, put on some nice clothes and gussy yourself up to the nines.

• Studies have shown that your mood has a lot to do with your self-image. How different do you think your self-image is between a just-rolled-out-of-bed look and a ready-to-hit-the-ground-running look?

• By getting dressed and doing what it takes to make yourself look good on the outside, you feel better on the inside. When you feel better on the inside, your mood changes significantly and you’re ready to face the day. Another bonus that comes with a positive self-image is an increase in self-confidence.

2. Get moving. Exercise releases hormones that help alter your mood. For example, cleaning your space gets you moving and makes you feel better about your surroundings. This also clears out clutter and makes your space more appealing. It doesn’t really matter what exercise you do. The idea is to just get up, get out, and get moving.

• Many times your bad mood can be amplified by your lack of movement. Getting up and doing something, whether it’s exercising or even walking around the block, can give you a big mood boost.

3. Read a book. Reading a book takes you to a different place and allows you to step into someone else’s shoes. Why not pick up a book by your favorite author and let them transport you out of your bad mood for an hour or so?

4. Meditate. Deep breathing exercises and a focused mind can break you out of any sour mood. Remember back in grade school when you were taught to take deep breaths and count to 10 when you got angry? It was actually for a very good reason.

• When focusing on one thing and breathing deeply, our bodies tend to respond in a positive way by relaxing and releasing tension.

5. Hang out with friends. What are friends for? Spend some time around any of your good friends and you’ll be snapped out of that bad mood so fast you won’t even know what hit you. Connecting with the ones you love can re-create positive and hopeful feelings.

6. Laugh. There’s no possible way that you can laugh and stay in a bad mood. It’s proven that your emotions follow your actions, which is why many therapists recommend taking action to cure things like anxiety and stress. Next time you’re in a bad mood, try laughing.

• I guarantee that you can’t stay in your bad mood after more than 5 minutes of continuous laughter! Try watching funny videos or a hilarious sitcom.

7. Treat yourself. Do something just for you. You deserve it anyway. The key is to just go a little overboard and do something you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Have fun with it and make it memorable.

• Go shopping for one of your favorite articles of clothing and splurge a little if you can afford it.

• Have a back massage or spa treatment. Similar to meditation, this is a great tool to relax and break you out of whatever might be dragging you down.

• If you’re short on funds, go window shopping. Go to one of the most expensive stores around and try on clothes or go test drive a hot little sports car. Give yourself a reason to get back into the swing of things and get rolling again.

• Get a hot fudge sundae with extra hot fudge. If you would prefer not to eat a lot of sugar, then treat yourself to a special organic dish.

While there are many other ways to shake yourself out of a bad mood, these are a few great ways to start. Try some of them next time you’re feeling down. Better yet, see how many of them you can make it through before your bad mood has completely vanished. I would bet that you will be feeling great again in no time.

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Why you should base half of your decisions on facts and the other half on reality

Lies, sweet lies. How much we love them and what ridiculous price we are willing to pay for them!

“Men should avoid the distractions of pretence and delusion,” wrote German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the year 1842. “Impossible expectations disconnected from reality always result in disappointment and sorrow.”

Learning to see the truth is seldom easy and never without cost, but a sharp vision of the world and a clear mind bring man unlimited rewards.

Conformity is a bank from which you can borrow short-term convenience after you have secured repayment by means of a mortgage on your soul.

By willingly ignoring facts, we often place ourselves in a fog of ignorance, increasing our likelihood of making expensive mistakes and creating dangerous inconsistencies in our actions. Consider these five examples:

1.- UNHEALTHY FOOD: Despite being aware of long-term negative effects of some foods, we keep on consuming them in the illusion that, somehow, we alone will be immune to the consequences.

2.- DECAYING WORK ENVIRONMENT: We close our eyes to signs of decline in the company we work for, often for years, in order to avoid the nuisance of searching alternative employment or the risk of starting our own business.

3.- WRONG RELATIONSHIPS: We ignore major character flaws and attribute non-existent virtues to someone we find sexually attractive in order to justify an unsustainable choice.

4.- UNRELIABLE FRIENDS: We avoid confronting breach of trust to avoid rocking the boat, preferring to hang around people who do not deserve our friendship instead of making the effort to seek further.

5.- UNSOUND INVESTMENTS: We trust prodigious assurances of reckless money-managers and place our savings at great risk without giving it another thought.

Everybody makes mistakes and, when it comes to learning, there is no substitute for experience.

However, if we wish to minimize errors, few habits are as effective as standing still from time to time, questioning aspects that look too good to be true, and checking the consistency of our logic.

“Only an unclouded vision of reality allows man to perceive truth,” observed Schopenhauer. “Decisions based on facts render individuals self-supporting, which is the key to happiness.”

History shows that prejudice and conformity block progress more frequently than ignorance. In our age, we tend to forget to which extent the acquisition of knowledge is dependent on moral courage.

Let us restate at every opportunity our right to discard facts that don't match. Only by allowing reason to thrive will we keep civilization alive.

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Every Failure Is An Opportunity In Disguise

As much as we would all love to live an easy life with endless resources and finances, most people might admit that life would be pretty monotonous if there were no obstacles or failures. Evidence of this might be seen by watching the celebrity gossip television programs, where the rich and famous of Hollywood seem to bounce from one crisis to another, seemingly bored of living the good life. How many times have you watch such stories in the news, and thought what you would do to benefit humanity if you could have their vast resources of wealth, power and influence. How many times have you been puzzled when trying to understand their mindset?

Success begotten without any hard labor or without crossing any insurmountable barrier is hardly remembered even by the most successful people. To compare it with something which we experience every day, we would not value sunlight if it was not snatched by darkness of the night. While no one in this world is spared from ill fortunes and his share of bad luck, disappointments and failures, what separates men from mouse is the individual ability to deal with failures. While some succumb to their past rejections and present failures, some rise above it and strive harder to perfect their processes to achieve success. The second group always visualizes the entire spectrum of life – with its due quota of ups and downs and sees every failure as another opportunity thrown at them which has the potential of future success. This relentless pursuit of happiness and success despite all the hurdles which might come in the way, eventually take these people high on the ladder of accomplishment. The people who are tormented at the sheer thought of failure, past or present, are usually left behind.

What is it that makes successful people look beyond their set backs and re-set their goals with renewed enthusiasm and vigor? Here are some of the ways by which people can achieve this skill:

• Treat the past as over and future as illusive. This means that you have to act for the present moment, which is all that you have in front of you. If you let your past failures come in your way of thinking positively for the future, you would be perennially haunted by what obstacles may occur in future. The key is to treat any set-back as an opportunity to improve the way you do things. Once you start believing in what the present is offering you, you tend to be more focused on making the most of your opportunities.

• Believe in yourself. We all know about the rejection which Graham Bell faced from the scientific community when he invented a new way in which we could communicate. If Bell had given up on his belief and resigned to his failures, we would have perhaps never reached this far as we have today in the field of communication. Failures, negative criticism, set backs are all intrinsic part of success. If you believe in your ideas and can firmly stand by it, you can look at every failure on its face and see the sun that shines behind the barrier.

The talent or ability to take every failure in the stride is an important asset in any organization. It is really the leader’s responsibility to coach his employees and team members the importance of remaining steadfast in their approach to achieve respective career and personal goals. Set backs would come and go and would continue to do so, so long as you are involved in some kind of activity in life. There is a saying that when it rains, it pours. Nothing can be truer than this saying, when it comes to being flooded with set backs. Where we go wrong is that we fail to notice the silver lining around the cloud.

Motivational Magic is a mindset that gives special attention to building and reinforcing this type of thinking. People are given the tools to develop a more positive outlook towards life and to go beyond failures with a smile and head held high. The whole idea is to derive new enthusiasm from our adversities. Reaching deep within to tap into an inner power that you never worked with ever before. Reverse the negativity, and let us not turn the whole adversity experience into a vicious cycle where we perform sub-optimally in the face of adversities to invite more failure.

If you have tried hard, try harder this time pushing down all the adversities which hinder you and success could be round the corner. Overcoming the adversities of life can reward you with an exhilerating feeling of strength and accomplishment. While most people run from adversities, the true leader embraces adversity and uses it as a slingshot to propel themselves forward. Mount Rushmore was inspired by such leaders, incredible men who accomplished amazing feats by harnessing the power of adversity.

Allow your adversities to unlock your greatest opportunities for personal achievement and extraordinary accomplishments!

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