How Not To Make A Drastic Mistake You Will Regret

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Preventing Burnout: A Cautionary Tale

My first in-person meeting with Charlie Hoehn. Zion National Park, 2009.

Charlie Hoehn first reached out to me in 2008 through Ramit Sethi.

Shortly thereafter, I hired him as a part-time intern. Eventually, he became a full-time employee.

For three years, we worked together on a number of projects, most notably the The 4-Hour Body and the Opening the Kimono event. Charlie’s responsibilities ranged from “professional” tasks (planning VIP parties, assembling scandalous guest posts, coordinating logistics for 15,000 orders during the Land Rush campaign, etc.) to productive tomfoolery (epic grocery shopping sprees, editing vajayjay photos, photographing giraffe make outs, persuading me to swallow 25 pills at once).

It was one hell of a ride.  We had a lot of fun, and we had some huge successes.

From day one, Charlie expressed a constant desire to become a hyper-efficient and effective entrepreneur. His role expanded as he requested more responsibilities (“What else can I do to help?” he’d ask me repeatedly), and we often found ourselves juggling several projects at once.

Most of the time, we handled it well. And as Charlie’s comfort zone stretched, his confidence increased, his communication and abilities improved, and our day-to-day operations were generally strife-free. We worked well together.

Then — in the middle of making The 4-Hour Chef – he suddenly quit.   It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Finding work-life balance (or work-life “separation,” as I prefer) in a connected world is challenging.  Speaking personally, I’m either 100% ON (for book launches, creative deadlines, etc.) or 100% OFF (such as my recent excursion to Bali). This ability to hit the shut-off switch helps me remain sane, separate work from pleasure, and it usually prevents me from burning out.

In this post, Charlie will share his story: what it was like to work with me for three years, and what led up to his burnout.

For all Type-A driven readers — especially those who struggle with the shut-off switch — this one is for you…

My brain felt swollen, like it was pushing against my skull. I looked down at my iPhone. Good lord. 60 hours straight. Wide awake, no sleep, for 60 hours straight. Yet I was still lively and sharp, thanks to the magic pill.

For four days, I’d supercharged my energy with a powerful nootropic; a brain drug typically reserved for fighter pilots and narcoleptics. If you’ve seen the movie Limitless, well, that pill actually exists. The drug’s primary function is to silence the body’s pleas for sleep. Lucky for me. Rest was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

I’d secretly taken this brain drug, without my boss knowing, so I could be great at my job. I was in charge of coordinating the Opening the Kimono event — a private conference on next-generation content marketing, hosted by Tim Ferriss.

Most attendees knew Tim for his two mega-bestselling books: The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body. The driving themes of Tim’s work were effectiveness and efficiency — getting better results, in less time, with less effort.

In The 4HWW, Tim gave readers step-by-step blueprints for creating online businesses, generating passive income, outsourcing work, and taking mini-retirements.

In The 4HB, Tim revealed how to lose 20 pounds of fat in one month (without exercise), how to triple fat loss with cold exposure, and how to produce 15-minute female orgasms. Both books sold more than a million copies each, and Tim was a star in the publishing world.

In addition to being a bestselling author, Tim was also a successful angel investor and advisor (his portfolio included Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Evernote, and many others). He was also — and I’m not exaggerating — a Chinese kickboxing champion, a horseback archer, a world record holder in tango, and a polyglot (fluent in five languages).

I’d been working with Tim for nearly three years as his Director of Special Projects. It was a dream job that I’d worked hard to land, and I’d reaped countless benefits. In the time we’d known each other, he’d personally introduced me to a wide array of amazing people: mega-successful CEO’s, brilliant tech entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, world-class athletes, inventors, robotics engineers, pickup artists, jet-setting casino owners, supermodels… The list was endless. My network went from “average” to “insane” simply by being around him.

Dinner party at Tim’s with guests ranging from MDs to tech innnovators. And me! (far left)

Surprise weekend trip to Zion, Utah.

In Napa for Opening the Kimono.

Tim: Want to grab lunch? Me: Sure. Tim: Cool. Oh, and the Mythbusters are going to be there.

He’d also given me a world-class education (I’d guess 3-5 MBAs combined), and helped build my portfolio into a showcase of incredible work.

I was 25 years old at the time, living in Russian Hill in San Francisco. Each morning, I’d walk over to my neighborhood café, sit down with my laptop, and work until nightfall on my weekly tasks. Whenever I finished a given job, I’d ask Tim for more work. Things multiplied quickly, and I soon had a plethora of responsibilities: assistant, researcher, editor, marketer, videographer, photographer, customer service, project manager… And then, I was his conference coordinator. Opening The Kimono was my biggest challenge to date.

More than 130 authors and entrepreneurs, from all over the world, paid $10,000 apiece for admission to Tim’s conference. And while I was confident we would successfully make it through this four-day event, I was also completely overwhelmed by the complexity of the task. There were so many moving parts.

I was terrified of screwing up. If something went wrong, I would need to fix it with superhuman speed. Somehow, I had to stay awake for the entire event…

And so, in my desperation, I visited an overseas pharmaceutical website, where I ordered the most powerful brain drug on the market.

The pills arrived just before the event. I took one every morning. Each day, I expected to pass out randomly from exhaustion. But it never happened; I stayed alert and wide-awake the whole time. The pills really, really worked. During the course of the four-day seminar, I slept a grand total of six hours. And just as I’d hoped, I was great at my job.

Discussing details before dinner, at the Kimono event.

Resting at the Kimono event with my co-conspirator, Susan Dupré.

The event was a whirlwind, but we managed to pull it off. On the final day, everyone gave us a standing ovation. Attendees ran up to hug us and said it was the best conference they’d ever been to. Our inboxes were filled with dozens of glowing reviews and thank you notes.

I was in shock. After months of working around the clock, we’d exceeded all expectations, including our own. Tim gave me a hearty congratulations, and said he was amazed how well we’d done.

I was proud, happy, and very tired when I arrived back home. But later that night, my body started sending out emergency signals, warning me that something horribly wrong was happening.

My heart was racing. My vision was blurred. I had a pounding headache that wouldn’t stop. Sounds drifted sluggishly into my ears, and I could barely stand upright.

For the first time in my life, I felt completely and utterly burned out.

# # #

A few days later, I went back to work. We were just getting started on our next big project: The 4-Hour Chef.

Two years prior, I helped Tim edit and launch his second book, The 4-Hour Body. I was immensely proud to have played a part in the book’s success; it was the pinnacle of my career. On the other hand, The 4-Hour Body had been the most stressful undertaking of my life. Tim and I half-joked that the book nearly killed us. I was hesitant to jump in for round two.

Ace Hotel in NYC, where we worked during the lead up to The 4HB launch.

Moments after The 4HB hit #1 on New York Times, with Chris Ashenden and Steve Hanselman.

Celebratory cheat meal: Six-layer chocolate motherlode cake at Claim Jumper.

Hudson’s Booksellers in JFK, during the week of the release.

Tim offered to double my salary if I helped him complete The 4-Hour Chef.

It was a generous offer, and I was immediately interested in taking it. I’d be making more money than I’d know what to do with, and I’d have another cool achievement under my belt. What did I have to lose? After a moment’s pause, we shook on it.

I felt incredibly fortunate to be in that position, especially since so many people I knew were either unemployed or working in jobs they hated. My family and friends all congratulated me. From a distance, things looked great.

But on the inside, I was flailing. I’d completely lost balance, and I couldn’t see that I was destroying myself.

I was addicted to my work. You see, I liked to think of myself as busy and important, so I tethered myself to the Internet seven days a week. I communicated with everyone through screens. I spent all day long sitting indoors. I drank coffee all week, and drank alcohol all weekend. I only stopped working when I was sleeping. And then I stopped sleeping.

I just couldn’t stop myself from working all the time. I wanted to be indispensable, the best in the world at running operations. It didn’t matter what else was going on in my life or if I started feeling sick; work was everything to me. Practically everyone I met in the tech scene behaved the same way.

So many of my friends and colleagues were workaholics.

Several buddies of mine were pulling 16-hour workdays. My friend in medical school was popping Adderall like candy. All of us were destroying ourselves during the week, and punishing our livers on the weekend. We didn’t take vacations. We didn’t take breaks. Work was life.

Checking email at 3:00 AM in Buenos Aires.

Here’s the thing: I was a workaholic long before I met Tim.

I’d always stayed up late. I’d always spent hours at a time staring at screens. The difference now was that my state of mind had changed. Now, the results mattered more than the process. I took everything very seriously because I thought I was so important — there was money and success on the line! And I wanted to be the best at dominating life.

Predictably, life stopped being fun.

Each week, I felt increasingly sick, exhausted, and apathetic. My eyes sunk back and grew dark circles beneath them. My forehead developed thick stress lines.

My hands started shaking. I felt like I was always on the verge of crying. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me, so I just tried to work my way through it.

Then the deadline for The 4-Hour Chef got pushed back three months.

Then a family member died.

Then a close friend attempted suicide.

When Tim and I met up for dinner the following week, I told him very meekly:

“I can’t do this anymore. I have to quit.”

# # #

Tim didn’t argue with me.

He understood where I was coming from, and offered his support in whatever I was going to do next. It was a massive relief to part on amicable terms, but I felt weaker than ever. I was already feeling the pressure to get back to work, but what would I do? My identity was gone. I decided to take a couple weeks off. Then another week… And another…

I spent the next three months being unemployed and feeling awful. Every day, I’d go through the motions of my old routine without actually doing anything. I compulsively checked email all day long, stayed up until 4:00AM, and slept a few hours each night. I received a handful of job offers and turned them all down, recoiling at the thought of having to go back to work.

The worst part was the guilt. I felt enormously guilty every second I wasn’t doing something that could advance my career or earn money. I would pace around like a neurotic rat, coming up with random chores to distract myself. When the chores were finished, I’d think, “Okay… Now what?” Any activity that didn’t feel productive – sleeping in, watching TV, taking a trip – filled me with regret. There was this gnawing sense that I was wasting time. I was losing money. And yet, I had no desire to work.

I started wondering if I’d screwed up my life very badly. Hadn’t I been living the dream? Did I just throw away everything I’d worked for? I started feeling very anxious. I wanted to do something big, to reinvent my career, to make a name for myself so I could be successful. What that something would be, I didn’t know.

Then one day, two of my friends, Chad Mureta (whom I’d met at the Kimono event) and Jason Adams, suggested that we start a mobile app company together. They were both sharp entrepreneurs and savvy marketers, and Chad was already making millions from the apps he’d developed.

Finally, I thought, here’s a job that makes sense. I could be one of the founders of a cool tech startup, working on fun projects with my smart friends, in one of the most exciting industries on the planet. The Draw Something app had recently been acquired for $250 million, then Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. I thought, This gig might make me a millionaire by the end of the year! This is it…

I was so relieved to feel productive again. I strolled into the office each day to work on my laptop until late in the evening. I sat down, stared at my computer screen for several hours, and drank coffee. When I got home, I worked on my laptop until 4:00AM, slept for a few hours, then started all over again.

We spent the first month putting together an online course called App Empire, which walked people through the entire process of starting their own app business. It required many sleepless nights to get it finished on time, but we managed to pull it off.

Chad Mureta and Chris Whitmore (cameraman) during filming of App Empire.

Launch day, filming in a San Diego hotel suite.

Support team on App Empire’s launch day.

The launch of the course was a success, raking in $2 million dollars in revenue over the course of 10 days.

If you said “WTF!” after reading that last sentence, I don’t blame you. But our results were somewhat typical in the high-cost information product world. When you combine a $2,000 course with a huge list of potential customers (and three guys who know a lot about online marketing), you get a multi-million dollar product launch.

We spent the next two months doing weekly webinars, walking customers through each lesson and answering their questions. In our spare time, we worked on our app ideas.

At some point in the third month, I realized: I didn’t care about apps. I knew how to make them, and I knew how to succeed in the app market, but I just didn’t care. I didn’t really use apps and I never got excited about them.

I asked myself, Why am I really doing this work? Well, the job gave me an excuse to hang out with my friends during the day, rather than being holed up alone in my apartment. But that was only a small part of it. The honest answer was:

Status. Money. Guilt.

I wanted to impress other people with my “success” of founding a company. I wanted to be rich. And I wanted to avoid feeling bad for not working.

The problem was… I didn’t really care about what I was doing. There was this weird disconnect, like apps should have been the natural progression in my career. But it just never felt right. It felt forced.

I quit my job that week.

Once again, I experienced “success” and walked away from it. Only this time, I was riddled with anxiety.

I started to think I was going to be punished for not being productive, for not making money, for not having my life figured out. I didn’t know how or when, but I was certain it was going to happen. Everything was coming to a head. It was only a matter of time before something terrible happened…

# # #

I was in a bad place for a long time after I quit those jobs.

I was too ashamed and proud to reach out to anyone for help, so I bottled my feelings up and stumbled around for the next year. It was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life.

It’d be very easy for me to manufacture a villain in this story. I could tell you that I was pushed too hard, or that no one cared about how I felt. But that’s not the truth. I was the one who chose to stay up until 4:00AM. I was the one pouring caffeine down my throat four times a day. I was the one who secretly ordered brain pills. I was the one who isolated myself from friends and kept my feelings hidden. Everything I did that fueled my anxiety was my choice.

The truth is that all of my emotional issues would have unfolded for me at some point in my life, regardless of whom I was working with. I was the creator of my own anxiety, and I was the one who broke myself with my workaholic habits. I just didn’t recognize how destructive my behavior was because I thought it was normal.

I wish someone had held up a mirror to show me I was the problem, but that never happened. No one knew the full extent of my situation but me, and I was in denial. It’s worth taking a moment to ask yourself:

—  Do I feel guilty or anxious when I’m not working?

—  Have I stopped playing with my friends?

—  Do all of my daily activities revolve around building a more successful career?

—  Am I always sleeping fewer than eight hours per night?

—  Am I consuming stimulants multiple times per day to hide my exhaustion?

—  Am I sitting still and staring at screens for most of my waking hours?

—  Do I interact with people primarily through screens?

—  Am I indoors all day long, depriving myself of fresh air and sunlight?

—  Do I depend on alcohol or drugs to cope with social situations outside of work?

If you said ‘yes’ to most of those questions, you are not alone. When I was at my worst, I was doing all of these things on a daily basis. I was fueling my own anxiety and I couldn’t even see it.

My perceived lack of productivity, lack of money, and the unknown future kept me in a constant state of panic. Every day was a haze of fear and exhaustion. For more than a year, I tried everything to pull myself out of this state of living death. Nothing seemed to help, and I nearly lost hope.

Then one night, I had my first major breakthrough, which laid the foundation to cure my anxiety. This breakthrough happened in a flash. The emotional burden of non-stop worry was lifted, and I could finally breathe again.

It wasn’t hard. It didn’t cost me anything. It was only a choice.

###

TIM:  To be continued in Part 2, where Charlie will describe the step-by-step process he used to reverse his descent into darkness (and we’ve all been there, including me).  

I also learned a lot from Charlie’s struggles.  First and foremost: As a boss, you cannot assume that someone is resting and recovering properly. You must ensure it. Employees out of sight does not equal employees out of the inbox.

Don’t want to wait for Part 2?  Take a look at Charlie’s new book, Play It Away: A Workaholic’s Cure for Anxiety, which includes all the techniques he used to get his life back on track.

Posted on February 13th, 2014

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Everything you need to know about donating your voice: Why you should help The Human Voicebank Initiative

Technology TEDTalks Rupal Patel shares how she is making synthetic voices as unique as fingerprints. Here, how you can help. Photo: Kristoffer Heacox

By Rupal Patel

At TEDWomen, I introduced the audience to VocaliD — a project aimed at designing personalized synthetic voices so that people with severe speech impairments can use a voice that fits their body and personality. This is a project that I’ve been working on for several years, along with my students and my collaborator, Dr. Tim Bunnell of Nemours AI DuPont Hospital for Children. Together, we have developed algorithms to build unique voices for those unable to speak without computer assistance.

Rupal Patel: Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprintsWe have conducted experiments to iteratively improve our techniques, which rely on combining the recipient’s vocal identity features with the speech clarity features of a matched voice donor. In early 2013, we reconnected with a young woman named Samantha, whom I had met years before, when she was 9. We had been painstakingly working toward the perfect—at least by scientific measures—voice for her and didn’t want to share it until it was absolutely ready. But through working with Samantha, we’ve come to understand that what she wanted wasn’t a perfect voice … she just wanted her voice.

At the end of my talk at TEDWomen, I invited the audience (both in San Francisco and around the world) to visit our website, VocaliD.org, where you can not only request a personalized voice, but also find out more about how to donate your own voice. The response was overwhelming. We have received 50+ requests for voices and nearly 400 people have signed up to help — and those numbers continue to grow.

To meet the demand, we’re working hard to raise funds and build the infrastructure to gather and store all the donor voices. We are calling this effort The Human Voicebank Initiative. Our goal is to collect one million voice samples by 2020 to create the world’s largest repository of voices. This corpus would allow us to generate unique vocal identities for hundreds of recipients for whom we do not yet have matching donors. Recipients like Troy, 24, who uses the same voice as Stephen Hawking; Maryam, 19, who refuses to use a device because it does not sound like her; Sylvia, 53, whose voice is no longer supported on her new device; and Dale, who at just 5 years old has tried several voices but is still hoping to find his own.

Until now, voice donors have had to visit my laboratory — or Dr. Bunnell’s — to record 2-3 hours of speech (around 3,200 sentences) in a professional sound studio. This rather complicated process allows us to collect high-fidelity audio that we can use to create a high-quality voice. The drawback, however, is that it limits our ability to reach a vast audience, which is critical to making a real difference for the hundreds of people already waiting for voices and for the even larger set of people who may want voices in the future. These people aren’t limited to a single age group or a particular educational or technical background. They are as diverse as humanity itself, and thus we need a similarly broad group of donors. We cannot achieve that with the sporadic, resource-intensive visits to the lab that we now rely on.

But replacing our model will be tricky and will require creative solutions. The software we use runs on desktop computers, and it’s not particularly engaging. Instead, we envision an alternative that can run on tablets and mobile phones, which have surprisingly good microphones. To engage children and less technical donors, we need to design a fun, simple game that will capture their attention and make them want to play again and again.

We are committed to advancing our initiative and we need your help. Without you, we simply can’t give voices to the people who need them—let alone perfect ones.

If you’re interested in donating your own voice, you probably have some questions. Here’s what you need to know: 

Q: What do I need to do?

A: You need to be able to read or repeat short sentences that, together, cover all the combinations of sounds that occur in our language. The more of your speech we have, the better a voice we can create.

Q: How long does it take?

A: We need about 2-3 hours of speech from each donor. (Though even an hour of speech can go a long way.) You don’t have to do this all at once. You can take your time and break it up into small sessions of around 15-20 minutes, so that you can record your best voice. That’s why we need a simple website or app — so you can record whenever you want. All we’d ask is that you record in a quiet place. The better your recordings, the better the voice we can create.

Q: Do I need to sound like a radio announcer?

A: No. We want and need all types of voices. Each person has a unique voice, which can help this project in its own way.

Q: Will others recognize me in someone’s voice?

A: The new voice will have elements of your voice blended with the recipient’s voice, so it is possible, but very unlikely that others will recognize you — unless of course you have a famous or well-known voice ;)

Q: Why should I do this?

There are so many reasons! First of all, you can help give someone a voice — that’s powerful. But in the process, you can also learn something about your own voice just by banking it. Most of us rarely give our voice much thought, but the process of recording can be made educational and reflective. In fact, for K-12 donors, we hope to develop a curriculum that will supplement the voice donation process.

But really, there are more reasons than this. If you bank your voice, it may be possible to re-create it should you ever lose it in the future. And your voice may help researchers learn more about the human voice in general. Finally, it could not only help us determine better ways to design synthetic voices, but also ways to apply our knowledge to improve health diagnostics, bioengineering, and other related fields.

Q: When can I start?

A: As I mentioned, we are working hard to raise funds and create a team to launch this exciting effort. If you want to be part of The Human Voicebank Initiative, please visit www.vocaliD.org and sign up to donate your voice, time, expertise, or financial support.

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How To Have A Lovely Day

Here’re 10 ways to have a lovely day:

Smile at strangersSlow downSay thank youGive lots of complimentsDress nicelyWear perfumeObserve and listenBe charmingLaughWish others a lovely day

You can also have a brighten day now: 20 Inspirational Quotes To Brighten Your Day

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2004-02-14 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Cocaine use increases stroke risk in young people reports Science News. Risk of being a giant knob-end already well established.

The New York Times has an interesting piece on how musical hallucinations are giving researchers clues about the workings of the brain.

For the first time, a baby is born to a brain-dead woman kept viable on life-support to be able to give birth. Reported by the Otago Daily Times.

Brain Watch has an excellent explainer on brain death for those wanting some background.

Focussed ultrasound to stimulate the brain. The mighty Neuroskeptic has a look at this new neurostimulatory technique.

New Scientist advises us to fall for a robot to fend off heartache and explores the robot relationship subculture.

A dozen of the craziest romance-related studies ever featured on Seriously Science. Sex apparently burns 3.6 calories a minute. A minute? I barely make 30 seconds.

NHS Choices takes a level-headed look at the ‘male and female brains are different sizes’ story which has gone all shades of wibble-wibble-daft in the media.

The origins of the F-word. A brilliant post from the historians of language at So Long As It’s Words… traces it’s history. Also features John Le Fucker from 1286.

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5 Tips for Actually Making Money this Upcoming Tax Season

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What Chess Can Tell About Our Life Will Surprise You

Chess is a board-game that most of us are familiar with. Duh! But there’re more things about chess that you never knew were so related to our life. Sudhir Sirnivasan has shared his view on how chess is similar to our life on Quora:

Black people are allowed by the rules to mainly be reactive – sad but it’s still sometimes true in today’s society…

The smallest people can become the greatest, with perseverance.

The top people never fight from the front.

The ruler is weaker than he should be.

When your opponent makes swift progress and rubs shoulders with you, you can cross him and take him out to retain advantage.

Women, despite being far more powerful than men, are encouraged to be selfless and keep the man’s well-being at the back of their mind at all times.

If the lowest people in your team aren’t taken care of well, your group will not last long.

You must be willing to give up the things you love the most to be able to come up trumps at the end.

To succeed in the long-term, it’s crucial to plan well in advance.

It’s vital that your opponent never see you suffer, even if you are. When in battle, hide your weaknesses.

The quietest and the most unexpected people can often be the most loyal and the most useful ones.

It’s more useful to encourage strong members of your team to be together than to keep them divided.

A knight in a corner is a knight wasted. If you don’t give your assets what they need, they’ll be useless and perhaps leave you eventually.

If you don’t value time, you’ll lose despite all your strengths.

If there’s bickering and no solidarity in the economically weakest sections, it’s a recipe for impending ruin.

The poorest and the smallest ones are often the first to be sacrificed, and suffer the greatest loss.

To be the closest to a top person, you must either be his wife, or be willing to cross everybody for him

A king is allowed to have multiple queens. Sound familiar?

“Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events” - Benjamin Franklin

I guess you understand more about what Franklin said now?

These life-changing questions are worth reading: 31 Questions That Will Change Your Life

Anna is a Lifehacker who enjoys writing about lifestyle advice. She is particularly interested in exploring new knowledge and information for readers. Contact her at ANNA[AT]LIFEHACK[DOT]ORG

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Why Self-Confidence Should Be Your Top Goal This Year

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Free Training – Get Paid to Change the World

Is it possible to build a business that serves the greater good AND earns good money at the same time? Of course it’s possible. I’ve been doing it for many years, and many of my friends — and readers — are in the same boat. We love the idea of making the world a better place, and we enjoy an abundant lifestyle as well.

Some people feel these goals are at odds with each other. If you feel that way too, go ahead and try the either-or mindset for a few years, and see how it works for you.

But if you’d rather do some good in the world and enjoy the process — if you think it’s possible for service and abundance to co-exist gracefully — you’re certainly not alone.

One of my friends, Ryan Eliason, is launching a new webinar training program specifically for these kinds of people — people who want to be (or who already are) social entrepreneurs.

The best part is that Ryan’s training is FREE.

This training program is for people who care about making a difference in the world — people who care about creating a more compassionate, sustainable, and conscious world through business.

This training isn’t for dreamers who’d rather sit around hoping for things to improve. It’s for people who’d like to be part of a movement to change the nature of business on this planet, to make business about something more than just making lots of money.

As you’ll learn in Ryan’s training program, he expands the definition of the “bottom line” to include 3 parts:

People – provide value to your customers, and create a delightful social landscape of supportPlanet – make a positive difference in the worldProfits – generate income to make your work sustainable, and increase your impact over time

Helping heart-centered people earn a great living is Ryan’s speciality. He’s been coaching socially conscious entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Nearly 50,000 people have participated in his past programs.

This new training series starts on February 11th.

If this topic interests you, definitely check it out. Ryan has a reputation for giving away much more in his free programs than others include in their paid programs. You can sign up here:

RSVP Here (only takes 30 seconds)

Here’s what this free training series covers…

how to build a successful business rooted in profound servicethinking bigger (how to stop playing so small)strategizing for your businessmaking the contribution you’re capable of10 real life examples and case studies for you to learn fromconscious marketingclient attractiongenerating a mindset for successtime management skills to dramatically increase your focus and productivity

And again… the training is free.

To make sure you get the most out of his training, Ryan is also offering two extra gifts when you register:

Gift #1 – Ryan’s New Book

Ryan’s new book is coming out on February 5th:

The 10 Best Ways To Get Paid for Changing The World
How To Make A Lucrative Career Out of Profound Service

Register for the training and you’ll get a copy of the book (at no charge) as soon as it’s available.

Gift #2 - Client Attraction and Enrollment Mind Map

Ryan’s Mind Map will help you improve your business strategy, so you focus on the right things while letting go of the time wasters.

Reserve your place in this no-cost training and get your free gifts here:

The 2014 Visionary Entrepreneur Empowerment Training

It will take you only 30 seconds to register, and it might just change your life.

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Visionary Empowerment Training - FREE training for conscious entrepreneurs
Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

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2004-02-07 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Science News has an extended piece on progress with the still-not-entirely-clear-what’s-going-on billion dollar BRAIN initiative.

There might be a little synesthesia in each of us. Nautilus looks at how our senses combine and cross.

The LA Times reports that boxing and ultimate fighting promoters are donating to a neuroscience study on the long-term effects of being repeatedly punched in the head.

The False Memory Archive. An interesting project covered by an article in The Independent.

The West Briton reports on a Cornish drug dealer who told police he didn’t know how heroin had become taped to his testicles. God bless the Westcountry.

There are ways to prevent loved ones from becoming victims of an overdose. Here are three. Important piece from Time.

The Guardian reports that the UK Government has privatised the ‘nudge unit’. Presumably by making it the default option and waiting to see if anyone opts out.

A new cognitive science news website The Psych Report launches and looks very impressive.

Discover Magazine reports that the oldest human footprints found outside of Africa have been found in Norfolk. The ‘out of Norfolk’ hypothesis soon to be published.

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5 Out-of-the-Box Methods to Quit Smoking for Good

An estimated 50 million Americans smoke cigarettes (by some counts more), and every year without fail, giving up that vice is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, it’s not just a casual habit for most smokers – it’s a physical addiction that can be hard to quit cold turkey because the body craves it.

There are, of course, plenty of tried and true methods to cut back or quit smoking. Nicotine patches have been on the scene for close to 20 years now, while the newly popular e-cigarettes may help heavy smokers give up tobacco. Then there’s the cold turkey method, which many people claim is the only good way to quit an addiction completely.

But those methods don’t work for everyone, and it can be frustrating to hear the same old advice over and over again while you’re still struggling to quit smoking. If you’ve already tried quitting through conventional methods and haven’t found anything that’s worked, consider trying these out-of-the-box approaches. (Don’t say you weren’t warned.)

Aside from weight loss, smoking cessation is the most common reason people seek the help of a hypnotist. The idea is that smokers are guided into a relaxed, receptive state, and the hypnotist instructs them to focus on their motivation for quitting smoking or to picture themselves as non-smokers.

Smokers can also be taught to practice a self-hypnosis technique several times a week at home in order to stay on the right track.

The ancient Chinese technique of acupuncture has been used to treat everything from back pain to insomnia, and now there’s some evidence that it may be able to help people quit smoking, too. According to a Reuters review of 14 international studies, participants who tried acupuncture were more than three times as likely to still be smoke-free six months to a year later.

Acupuncturists insert needles at points believed to influence the organs engaged when smoking with the goal of decreasing participants’ desire to smoke. Acupuncture has proven to be a good stress-reliever, so this might be a particularly good approach for anyone who smokes when they’re stressed.

Here’s a method you don’t hear about every day: to quit smoking, a man in Omaha drew a picture of a cigarette every time he had a craving. He’s drawn hundreds of cigarettes, but he hasn’t smoked one in over six months and has been drawing them less since the cravings have diminished.

If sketching isn’t your thing, you might try another activity to keep your hands busy so you can’t hold a cigarette. Some people have had success holding onto a pen or a coin, or by chewing gum or using a toothpick. When you first quit smoking, you might also try to keep yourself busy by going to public places that don’t allow smoking when you experience a craving.

In the spirit of keeping busy to stave off the cravings, consider starting a regular exercise routine. If you’ve been a heavy smoker for a while now, taking up exercise may be tough, but start with shorter routines and work your way up. If you manage to stay cigarette-free and keep exercising, you’ll quickly be able to see your fitness improving, and you can use this as motivation.

We all know that smoking increases your risk of lung cancer and can wreak havoc on your skin, but it can be hard to get motivated to quit when you don’t see any immediate negative consequences of your bad habit. But now thanks to visualization software, you can scare yourself straight by projecting what you will look like in a few years if you continue to smoke heavily.

According to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day will develop the wrinkles of a non-smoker 1.4 times older than them – meaning a 20-year-old smoker would look 28, a 30-year-old would look 42, and a 40-year-old would look 56. If you just need the right motivation to quit smoking, seeing yourself get old before your time on a computer screen may just do the trick.

Keep in mind that you can pair any of these out-of-the-box methods with conventional methods, like attending a support group, using a nicotine patch, or working with a behavioral therapist. Everyone is different, so go with the approaches that you think will be most helpful for you – and if something’s not working, don’t be afraid to try a new method.

Juliana Weiss-Roessler is a freelance writer based in Austin, TX. She writes blogs, articles, resumes, white papers, press releases, website copy, and e-newsletters for individuals and small businesses. Learn more about Weiss-Roessler Writing.

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The Incredible Importance of Sleep for Habits & Motivation

For a long time, I underestimated the importance of sleep.

Sure, I know that sleep is important for health and happiness and all of that … but it wasn’t until I learned two things that sleep took on a new importance for me:

If you don’t get enough sleep, you will fail at changing habits; andIf you have a lack of sleep, your motivation will drop tremendously.

For years I focused on waking early so that I’d be more productive and be able to focus on my morning habits. But those two things were harmed by a lack of sleep.

I could cite a bunch of studies and numbers, but here’s the honest truth: based on my own self-experiments, and working with thousands of people on habits, sleep is one of the most important but least valued factors when it comes to creating habits.

And in my own life, I’ve noticed that when sleep levels drop, my productivity drops. My motivation to work on hard projects drops.

Here’s what happens:

I stay up late but still try to get up early, and so I’m in a bit of a sleep deficit.Unfortunately, I stay up late the next night, but still get up early the following morning, and the sleep deficit grows.This continues until I’m really tired and just not motivated to do anything.This lack of motivation drops my discipline levels, so that my healthy habits get forgotten. All I care about is how crappy I feel, and how to comfort my bad feelings.Whatever project and/or habits I’ve been working on get dropped. I feel worse.

This pattern continues until I get enough sleep. It takes a day or two to get back to where I should be.

I still do this from time to time, but I’ve learned this pattern the hard way from so many repetitions that I’m much better at getting sufficient sleep these days. And I’ve gotten better at recognizing the signals that I’m not getting enough sleep, soon enough that I can remedy the problem sooner.

I’m not an expert on sleep, but here’s what I find to work for me:

Go to bed earlier. I like to wake up fairly early (not the crazy early hours of my past), but if I don’t go to sleep earlier, then waking early is a mistake.Sleep in if I don’t go to bed early enough.Have a bedtime routine. I don’t always follow my routine, but when I do, I sleep much better. Basically, it involves flossing, brushing my teeth, cleaning up, shutting down my computer/phone, and then reading.Meditate. I lie down with my eyes closed, and meditate, focusing on my body and breath. If I’m tired, this never fails to put me to sleep.

If for some reason those things don’t work, I use this method (walk myself through my memories of the day in detail) to finally fall into the gentle embrace of sleep.

If you find yourself lacking motivation or having trouble changing any habits, check your sleep levels. It could be the factor that’s holding you back.

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2014-01-31 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Nautilus discusses how music hijacks our perception of time.

What the Dunning-Kruger effect is and isn’t. Good in-depth discussion of this often misunderstood effect from [citation needed].

The Atlantic has a fascinating piece on mental illness in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Should a robot decide when to kill? asks The Verge. To the bunkers, you say?

Do Deaf People Hear an Inner Voice? Fascinating discussion on The Voices Within.

The New York Times discusses recent research on how we’re genetically part Neanderthal.

Why the social construction of madness is not as simple as it seems. Excellent piece on the Discursive of Tunbrige Wells blog.

Nature releases the latest edition of the excellent NeuroPod podcast.

An article on the history of the ‘Satanic abuse’ panic of the 1980s is mysteriously taken offline by Psychiatric Times. Gary Greenberg takes up the case.

New Scientist has a oddly-titled article (mind-reading?) on genuinely interesting research looking at how the brain makes sense of phonemes.

Fantastic YouTube video of a moving sculpture that gives the illusion of a rotating head.

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3 Ways To Ditch The Blame Game

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5 Ways To Help You Get Started On Your Most Important Work

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10 Creative Gifts for Your Valentine

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A reality of dreams

The journal Sleep has an interesting study on how people with narcolepsy can experience sometimes striking confusions between what they’ve dreamed and what’s actually happened.

Narcolepsy is a disorder of the immune system where it inappropriately attacks parts of the brain involved in sleep regulation.

The result is that affected people are not able to properly regulate sleep cycles meaning they can fall asleep unexpectedly, sometimes multiple times, during the day.

One effect of this is that the boundary between dreaming and everyday life can become a little bit blurred and a new study by sleep psychologist Erin Wamsley aimed to see how often this occurs and what happens when it does.

Some of the reports of are quite spectacular:

One man, after dreaming that a young girl had drowned in a nearby lake, asked his wife to turn on the local news in full expectation that the event would be covered. Another patient experienced sexual dreams of being unfaithful to her husband. She believed this had actually happened and felt guilty about it until she chanced to meet the ‘lover’ from her dreams and realized they had not seen each other in years, and had not been romantically involved.

Several patients dreamed that their parents, children, or pets had died, believing that this was true (one patient even made a phone call about funeral arrangements) until shocked with evidence to the contrary, when the presumed deceased suddenly reappeared. Although not all examples were this dramatic, such extreme scenarios were not uncommon.

This sometimes happens in people without narcolepsy but the difference in how often it occurs is really quite striking: 83% of patients with narcolepsy reported they had confused dreams with reality, but this only happened in 15% of the healthy controls they interviewed.

In terms of how often it happened, 95% of narcolepsy patients said it happened at least once a month and two thirds said it happened once a week. For people without the disorder, only 5% reported it had happened more than once in their life.

Although a small study, it suggests that the lives of people with narcolepsy can be surprisingly interwoven with their dreams to the point where it can at times it can be difficult to distinguish which is which.

If you want to read the study in full, there’s a pdf at the link below.

Link to locked study at Sleep journal (via @Neuro_Skeptic)
pdf of full text.

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Trello

I’ve been really diving into Trello this week, which I mentioned in my December 2013 Updates post. I now have 17 different Trello boards for managing various projects. You know me — when I get into something new, I love to fully immerse myself in it. Best way to learn quickly.

More than 100 people have signed up for Trello based on my recommendation in the past few days, and I’m sure hundreds more will sign up soon, so I’ll share a bit more about how I’m using it. I don’t get paid for referrals since it’s a free service, but I can see how many people sign up via my referral link. I did get a free year of Trello Gold, but that maxes out after your first 12 referrals, and the Gold version really doesn’t add much value at this time. IMO the free version has everything you need.

I especially like using Trello for managing the various steps in upcoming speaking engagements and joint-venture business deals. Trello makes it easy to see at a glance what the next action steps are.

Trello is really good at hiding complexity and simplifying multi-step projects. It’s surprisingly fast and easy to use. I can fill out and organize all the details for a new project within a matter of minutes.

I also like the Archive feature. If I want to reuse a list that I’ve used in the past, I can retrieve it from my saved archives and modify it as needed. The steps are largely the same for each speaking engagement: confirming dates, booking travel, etc. So once I list out the steps for one engagement, I can reproduce them for another engagement with a few clicks.

I’m also testing Trello for managing my daily to-dos. I have a board call !Today that shows my to-dos for the day. When I’m viewing that board, I only see today’s activities. So when I’m in action mode, I can ignore everything else and just focus on that one day’s board, so I don’t get distracted by pending tasks.

I populate my !Today board by moving in to-do items from my other Trello boards. One of my tasks for today is to listen to about 3.5 hours of audio material for a group recording project. Last night I moved that list of items from the board for that project onto my !Today board. Incidentally, I use the ! sign before the !Today board name to move it alphabetically to the top of the board list for fast access.

Trello is especially great for collaborating with others. I’m involved in one group board that a team of seven people are using to manage our recent recording project. This allows anyone to quickly check the board to see what tasks need to be done next. We have three days’ worth of audio recordings to edit. We’ve listened to Day 1 so far, and this week we’re tackling Day 2's recordings. So this gives everyone on the team great visibility on our progress. Trello provides a simple way to hold ourselves accountable and make sure we keep moving the project forward week by week.

Rachelle and I have a shared board for just the two of us where we can brainstorm ideas for new things we want to explore this year, with separate lists for her fantasies and mine. It’s a fun way for us to share our desires and expand upon them. It was especially fun to edit our board together while Skyping at the same time (we’re currently in different cities). That makes it easier to play off each other’s ideas and amplify them.

One nice use of a Trello board is for travel planning. Rachelle and I have been talking about spending a month in Hawaii this year, so this morning I added a board called “Hawaii Trip.” It includes lists like Islands to Visit, People to Meet, Activities, Places to Stay, To Dos, etc.

Since you can create unlimited boards with Trello, I create new boards liberally instead of trying to stuff everything into a monstrous single board. This encapsulates the data for each type of project or activity in its own space, allowing better focus since I’m not distracted by other concerns while working on one particular board.

If it stresses you out to look at your Trello board, you’ve probably put way too many items on a single board. Split off some of your subprojects onto their own boards, and manage those pieces separately. Don’t be stingy on creating new boards.

For traveling planning, I suggest making a separate Trello board for each upcoming trip. That way you can customize the lists for each trip. For my Hawaii trip, I have a list of islands to visit. For a Paris trip, you could have a list of museums and sights you’d like to see.

If you’re looking to create some passive income this year, one great use of Trello would be for managing your SBI projects. Since SBI is having their annual 2-for-1 deal till January 6th, you could create a separate Trello board for each site you’re creating, with lists for things like Content to Create, Keywords Ideas, Income Generators, Research Materials to Read, Action Steps, Advice, etc. This will help you manage everything neatly in one place.

If you’re building out two different SBI sites, then you could have a separate Trello board for each site, and customize the lists on each board appropriately. So if site #1 is about raw foods, you could have lists like Recipes, Weight Loss Tips, Raw Blogs for Guest Posting, etc. And if site #2 is about using Trello, you could have lists like Trello Tips, Links to Public Trello Boards, Travel Planning With Trello, etc. This can help you design the content and structure for your sites.

You could also use Trello to brainstorm ideas for new businesses. In 30 minutes or less, you could use a Trello board to hash out the basic plan, take a step back from it, and see how it looks to you. It’s similar to mind-mapping, but Trello lets you go deeper since every node can have more checklists and notes inside of it. And you can easily click and drag to move things around.

Personally I love Trello so far, and I’m optimistic about its future development. It’s developed by Fog Creek Software, a company I’ve known about for many years. I used to read Fog Creek founder Joel Spolsky’s popular JoelOnSoftware blog when I was running my computer games business. Joel has some deeply insightful articles on software development and team project management.

Steve Recommends
Here are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. This is a short list since it only includes my top picks.

Visionary Empowerment Training - FREE training for conscious entrepreneurs
Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

If you've found Steve's work helpful, please donate to show your support.
Get Steve's Free Newsletter to stay in touch and receive the newest updates

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A ghost heart?

biology TED Books

Here’s a treat for Valentine’s Day (in addition to this playlist of TED Talks about love): Below, take a close-up look at a decellularized “ghost heart.” This heart can serve as a scaffold upon which to grow a working heart from human stem cells. Researchers at the Texas Heart Institute created it by stripping all the living cells from a pig heart with a soap solution, which bursts the cells and leaves only the protein structure behind. These scientists have successfully implanted tissue-engineered hearts into rats and pigs so far. They hope ultimately to create personalized human hearts and help relieve the shortage of donor organs. 

Behold, the “ghost heart.” Image: Courtesy of RMR Labs, Texas Heart Institute

Read much more in the new TED Book Super Cells: Building With Biology, by Nina Tandon and Mitchell Joachim. It’s available for the Kindle, Nook, and through the iBookstore. Or download the TED Books app to get access to this title — and the entire TED Books archive — for the duration of your subscription. 

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We welcome talks and conversation on abortion as a social justice issue.

News

There have been reports online today that TED has “a policy against discussing abortion.” We’re happy to confirm that that is not true. We’re listening carefully to the community’s concern, and we agree that abortion and reproductive care are core issues of social justice and human rights.

In one story, our colleague Kelly Stoetzel is quoted as saying: “Abortion is more of a topical issue we wouldn’t take a position on, any more than we’d take a position on a state tax bill.” Kelly’s quote was taken out of context. TED doesn’t take a position on issues. That’s not what we do.

TED is a platform for discussion. We are committed to a stance of open-mindedness and respectful dialogue. And we seek talks that build bridges and spark conversation.

Anyone familiar with our catalog of talks, events and discussions on women’s issues and equality knows these issues are near and dear to us. (A playlist follows.) We’re proud to have shared these talks and conversations on important issues with the world.

Abortion is a tough topic to talk about, for everyone, because of the passionate responses it evokes. You can see this on our conversation platform, where we host dozens of discussions among our community about abortion. We agree it’s an important issue, and look forward to continuing to promote the discussion of equality and social justice for women.

As a start, some TED Talks on social justice, access to reproductive health and equality. If you have great suggestions for reproductive-rights speakers, share your recommendation here >>

Esta Soler: How we turned the tide on domestic violence (Hint: the Polaroid helped)

Sheryl WuDunn: Our century’s greatest injustice

Melinda Gates: Let’s put birth control back on the agenda

Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition

Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: The toxic baby

Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

Sheryl Sandberg: So we leaned in … now what?

Jackson Katz: Violence against women—it’s a men’s issue

Zainab Salbi: Women, wartime and the dream of peace

Courtney Martin: This isn’t her mother’s feminism

Megan Kamerick: Women should represent women in media

Noel Bairey Merz: The single biggest health threat women face

Deborah Rhodes: A test that finds 3x more breast tumors, and why it’s not available to you

Paula Johnson: His and hers … healthcare?

Manal al-Sharif: A Saudi woman who dared to drive

Kakenya Ntaiya: A girl who demanded school

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The Ultimate Photography Cheat Sheet Every Photography Lover Needs

The almighty photo is quickly taking over the world. As our attention spans grow small, we really only want to see the photo and possibly a short sentence describing it. I mean look at social media avenues such as Instagram or Facebook, not to mention the newly coined term “selfie.” We just cannot get enough images in our lives. For this reason, quality photography is becoming increasingly important to captivate and lure in our audiences to our website, business, or blog.

You can buy a fancy dSLR camera, sure, but do you know how to use it? I have this exact problem: a fancy camera that is not living up to its potential because I do not know how to properly operate it. Well, here is some good news for me and those of you in my situation: I have rounded up a whole list of photography cheat sheets to use! This is one you will want to bookmark and save for reference!

Once you have taken all of these lovely photographs, check out this post to see what your photographer rights are:

Now I don’t know about you, but this article makes me want to get out my dSLR camera and play! Which settings and/or cheat sheet intrigue you the most?

Also check out: The Most Useful Photography Tips and Tricks that Make You Look Like a Pro

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Unwired: A Month With Limited Internet, & Now No Cell Phone

In January, as part of my Year of Living Without, I experimented with limited Internet, and this month I’m going without my cell phone.

Limiting my Internet was a challenge, I have to admit. I make my living on the Internet, do my learning there, teach my kids things, do my finances, plan short trips and longer vacations, read and discover and check up on what’s going on with the world. So limiting this connection felt like I was limiting my life.

That experience alone, of feeling like I’m limiting my life, was worth the effort.

Some things I learned in the past month:

Just how much I rely on the Internet. For everything.I can process email in 15-20 minutes. By process, I mean do a quick task the email requires or put it on my to-do list for later, reply, delete or archive. By the end of the short session, I’m done. I gave myself an hour of Internet at 5pm (or later if I couldn’t do it at 5pm) to take care of email and a few other things.But because I had limited Internet time, I felt like I was falling behind on work. I would put lots of things off until 5pm, but couldn’t do all of those things then (I had to work quickly), and so I would prioritize and do the most important/urgent things at 5pm. That meant lots of little things would get delayed, which was fine for about a week. Then things started to pile up.I got a lot done. Without the distractions of the Internet, I learned a lot of programming (still not very good). I switched midmonth to Ruby on Rails, which I love but am still learning. I can write a basic Ruby program but haven’t created anything in Rails beyond what I’ve done following tutorials yet.I wrote a lot. Writing is much better without the Internet. This is by a factor of 10 or more. When you have the Internet at your disposal, writing often gets interrupted to go check on this or that. But writing with no other good options means you’re going to really be able to focus.A short amount of Internet time in the morning turned out to be useful. So midmonth or so, I gave myself the ability to do some limited work tasks in the morning. This made me more productive for my business, but slightly less productive as a writer. It was a good tradeoff though — every decision is a compromise, and I think this was a good one.Even making this exception, I didn’t use or need: social media, news, reading blogs or magazines, Snapchat or other sharing services, games, Youtube or other videos, Reddit or Hacker News. So a lot of what I might normally use was not needed, and in fact blocking myself from these things helped me greatly.Once you allow a little, you have to be very careful to define your exceptions, or you start down a slippery slope. For example, if I say, “It’s OK to go on Twitter to check on X because I need to find this out for this task” … if I’m not careful, I can easily start checking Twitter for something else that seems important, and then maybe just once for something that’s not important but satisfies my curiosity, and so on.

Given this experience, I’d like to continue to practice limited email and other work-related Internet tasks, allowing myself to focus on writing and programming and other focus-requiring tasks, but giving myself space to take care of the smaller tasks as well. And I’d like to continue to limit my social media, news, video and other less important Internet usage.

In February, I’m going without a cellphone. I’ve already started, and it hasn’t been hard yet, but I’m curious what it will be like going for an extended period without one.

Some background: for many years I purposely avoided having a smartphone and mostly just had a dumbphone that could just make calls and texts (though it did have an alarm, worldclock and calculator!) … but in June I got an iPhone as a Father’s Day gift. Since then, I’ve found it useful but very tempting to check all the time. I’ve gotten better at not checking it constantly, but when I’m out and about and not doing anything, checking the phone is still a default.

So this month, I’m going to go without the cellphone. And unlike the Internet, I’m not going to make a bunch of exceptions.

I’ll make one exception because I don’t have a good alternative: my cellphone will be my alarm clock only.

Other than that, the phone will be off all day. I won’t bring it out with me. I’ll have to look up directions before I leave the house. I’ll be unreachable for any reason. I won’t know the time as I have no watch. I won’t do Anki flashcards or read Instapaper or look at my kids’ Snapchats or check my email or read my blogs on Feedly. Nada.

Wish me luck!

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A Simple (Yet Powerful and Actionable) Way to Re-Motivate Yourself

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A few ways to make the world more awesome: A chat with Kid President

Entertainment Robby Novak seems like a regular ol’ 11-year-old boy with a big laugh and a tendency to fidget, if you ignore the fact that he’s also a YouTube superstar. The dynamo elementary student started making a series of motivational videos with his older brother-in-law when he was just 9. The videos went viral, and since then, he’s appeared on Today , interviewed people like Beyonce and the President of the United States, and even addressed the crowd at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

Chances are you’ve seen one of Robby’s videos, though you probably know him as Kid President. As his alter ego Kid President, Robby addresses the masses from his tiny oval office, spreading the word that life should be a party, people should be more awesome, and everyone should “treat everybody like it’s their birthday.” He wears a really snazzy suit and a red tie. He dances better than most adults. His seemingly boundless enthusiasm is contagious.

Robby became Kid President when his brother-in-law — videographer Brad Montague — decided that people should spend more time listening to what kids have to say. They started making their signature motivational videos, working together on each episode without any fancy film crews or staff. It didn’t take long to realize that a little kid wisdom was exactly what the world wanted. Kid President’s breakout video, “A Pep Talk from Kid President to You,” which was featured on TED.com last February, currently has over 30 million views on YouTube.

In the video, Robby (as Kid President) gives a rousing pep talk that’s equal parts hilarious and heartwarming. He reminds us all that life is short, so short that we shouldn’t waste time being boring or unkind, or ignoring the call to make the world awesome. “Boring is easy,” he tells the viewer. “Everybody can be boring. But you’re gooder than that.” He dances, quotes both Journey and Robert Frost, and in perhaps the most charmingly memorable part of the video, asks, “What if Michael Jordan had quit? … He wouldn’t have made Space Jam … What’s your Space Jam?”

In 2013 alone, Kid President had the opportunity to honor his hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington; work with the White House to prank the Internet on April Fools Day; and host a special Google Hangout with the United Nations for World Humanitarian Day. He kissed Beyoncé, nabbed an interview with Josh Groban via a voracious Twitter campaign, and presented his NCAA Tournament picks with ESPN.

Kid President also happens to have a rare brittle bone disease — osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) — which has caused him to have over 70 bone breaks since birth. While this is a part of Robby’s life, he and his brother-in-law choose not to make it the focus of their videos, deciding instead to focus on Robby’s natural humor, penchant for dancing, and ability to give a really good pep talk. As Montague writes on the Kid President website, “What’s inspiring about Robby isn’t his condition, but the fact that his condition doesn’t define who he is. In spite of all he’s been through, he not only keeps going — he dances.”

We’re thrilled that Kid President took time out of his busy schedule to share some off-the-cuff wisdom about staying positive and making the world a brighter place, as well as some adorably practical tips about what to avoid when feeding a baby (he just became an uncle, so this baby thing is new to him).

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Don’t Freak Out: How You Can Suppress Stress When Meeting VIPs You Admire

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7 Unexpected Ingredients You Might Be Eating For Lunch Today

When you purchase food from a grocery store or restaurant, are you aware of all the ingredients that are included in the item? Some ingredients are a given, but others are not. Even when reading the ingredients list on a food label, you’re probably familiar with most of the names. However, if you’re someone who truly cares about what you put in your body, then you definitely want to educate yourself when it comes to unknown food additives and flavorings.

To get you started, here are some of the unexpected ingredients that you just may find in your lunch or dinner.

As you look through the infographic, you may be surprised to see that many fast food items contain TBHQ (Tertiary Butylhydroquinone), a chemical preservative which is a form of butane (a flammable hydrocarbon gas). Many processed meats also contain sodium nitrate, which becomes highly carcinogenic once it enters your digestive system. Sadly, this infographic shows that you’re often doing your body way more harm than good when eating everyday favorites. Which ingredient are you most surprised about?

7 Unexpected Ingredients You Might Be Eating for Lunch Today | Care2

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Success and Happiness: It's Your Heart vs. What the Others Think

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The Random Show, Episode 23 — New Year’s Resolutions, Firearms, Start-up Finds, Zelda, and Obscene Thoughts on Grey Hairs

There are dozens of topics covered in this wine-infused, bromantic episode of scatterbrained nonsense.

Like what? Well, plans for 2014, firearms, tech finds and start-up talk, the goodness of Zelda, favorite recent books, and much more. O-tanoshimi dane!

One special offer:
If you sign up as one of the first 100 beta testers for Shyp (click here) and ship anything — I suggest a book for a friend or family member — you’ll get the following:

A $10 creditA free copy of The 4-Hour Workweek, signed by yours truly!  Limited to first 100 to ship.

This edition of The Random Show was recorded and edited by Graham Hancock (@grahamhancock). For all previous episodes, including the epic China Scam episode, click here.

Special thanks to reader Jonathan Hsieh of ClickPlayCEU for the show notes below, which include links to almost everything we mention…

Hat tip to everyone who put notes in the comments!

SHOW NOTES — Random Show 23

Kevin
Commitment this year: Once per month doing something that I look back on and say – “That was an amazing life experience.”

The Bay Lights
http://thebaylights.org/

Mag Tactical – Kevin’s Trigger Cage for AR
http://www.magtacticalsystems.com/

3-day Meditation Retreat
http://noetic.org/ (Tim’s rec)

Some of Tim’s commitments this year:
- See the Northern Lights
- Fly fishing, potentially in Montana
- Surfing in Costa Rica
- Heli-skiing in Alaska or elsewhere

AngelList — See what Tim and Kevin invest in, and how you can invest alongside them:
https://angel.co/tim
https://angel.co/kevin

Shyp
http://shyp.com/
http://shyp.com/tim

VentureHacks
http://venturehacks.com/

Target Gold Tipped Socks
http://www.target.com/p/auro-a-goldtoe-brand-men-s-3pk-dress-socks-assorted-colors/-/A-14517495

Kevin’s upping his game: CK boxer micro briefs (amazon) –
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-Boxer-Brief-Black-Medium/dp/B004IYIMQI/

Bill Harlan – Harlan Estate
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304176904579111312431229306
http://www.harlanestate.com/

Mascot Wine
http://mascotwine.com/

The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Scratch-Sniff-Becoming-Expert/dp/0544005031

Bulleit Bourbon
http://www.bulleit.com/

2007 Clos de los Siete, from Mendoza
http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1044442

Fobo
http://www.fobo.net/

Tim Ferriss 3-Minute Breakfast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd-7a_wdVZk

Zelda a Link Between Worlds (3ds)
http://zelda.com/link-between-worlds/

Tim Ferriss Book Club

Vagabonding
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/11/11/vagabonding/
Daily Rituals
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/12/15/daily-rituals-mason-currey/
The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/0756404746

Enjoy!

Tim

Posted on February 6th, 2014

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Lovers’ Guide to Traveling on Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day today. A special day to spend with your sweetheart; with the love of your life. If you’re single, it’s a day to spend with loved ones and your dearest friends.

Heart’s Day can be spent anywhere; however, there are places where you can sense and feel romantic love the most. Seemingly, they were especially created as perfect settings for Valentine’s day. Indeed, some places are meant to delight lovers to the hilt. Just being in these places spells sweet romance. You know what I mean. It’s when you look at your lover’s eyes, feel like you’ve just been hit with cupid’s arrow, and the next thing you know… everything you see is a BIG RED HEART.

What are those places? We can start with the ‘city of love’ – Paris. This romantic city of France offers lovers a chance to experience a kiss to remember along the river Seine. Next, we go to Venice. Hurry, grab a bottle of champaigne, let’s go gondola riding and enjoy the endless maze of channels in this historical city of Italy. I’d love to tell you more, but I will allow the graphic to do its magic, instead.

A Valentine’s Day Guide for Wandering Hearts | Wood + Sea Co.

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