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Showing posts with label killer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label killer. Show all posts
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
10 Killer Ways to Rock the New Year by Making Resolutions that You’ll Really Keep
You know the drill—it’s always the same. Every New Year, millions of people get all ramped up to start the New Year off with a bang, setting all kinds of resolutions, making all sorts of promises to themselves and others, and by the beginning of February, the only thing that’s banging is their heads against the wall.
Things really shouldn’t be this way, but alas, for most of us, they are. It’s not that we don’t want to make changes in our lives, but most of us are unaware of how keying into a few old-school tactics can help us to rock a new year in with resolutions we’ll actually keep. Here’s the secret: there is no special formula; no magic wand to wave over ourselves that will transform us into rock stars that actually do what we say, and no, there isn’t a pill for it yet either.
The secret is this: it takes good old fashioned American work to succeed at anything!
It may be a New Year, but you’re the same you, and if you want to rock the New Year in with some killer success strategies that’ll stick, you have to be willing to work hard and believe you can make it happen. Here are ten strategies that will help get you on track, and keep you there:
Most people are gung-ho at the beginning of the year, all “Yippee!Go get em! Live the dream, set new goals, lose that flab, and get that makeover”, but hype won’t get you anywhere. That’s why most of us fail to do much of anything. The only thing that will work for you—whether you’re trying to lose weight, start a new business, or set new goals—is to realize that anything of value, anything that’s worthwhile takes time and perseverance to achieve. There are no shortcuts. No guts, no glory.
Most of us fail at keeping our resolutions because we lack passion, we’re too general in defining our goals, and we’ve had way too many failures on the front end of things. In other words, we expect to fail. To succeed, you have to dig deep and find out what’s really important to you. People who are passionate about what they’re doing don’t burn out as easily. That doesn’t mean they don’t get tired; it means they something more powerful is driving them. This could be a cause, a belief, a need, or the love of something. Find your own passion, and there will be no stopping you.
Most people who are successful pour into the lives of others. They’re generous with their time, and they want to build value for others. If you want to succeed in anything, learn to be a giver: don’t think about what’s in it for you—think about giving others what they need, and everything else will fall into place.
Don’t overlook the importance of building relationships. Whether you’re working on a new business, trying to lose weight, or trying for that promotion, relationships can provide the client base or support you need.
Successful people are always learning: they look to other successful people to mentor them they are teachable, and they don’t try to re-invent the wheel.
Whatever you want to do, you have to invest in it. That means time, money and plenty of effort. Buy the right food if you’re trying to lose weight and make a lifestyle change. It may be more expensive to go organic, but you’re worth it. Spend the money on that great online course by a reputable teacher; you can’t make money if you won’t invest it your own business. You have to be willing to do things others won’t do.
We’ve heard this one forever, but how many of us actually do it? Most people aren’t aware of how their negative internal monologues affect their abilities. Start noticing what you tell yourself on a daily basis: if you’re prone to negative self-talk, learn to replace it by building positive counter-statements. For a list of thinking errors to watch out for consider this:
Nothing keeps you from reaching your goals like stinkin’ thinkin’.
Don’t skip this exercise! Get a piece of paper and write down a list of what is motivating you to lose the weight, continue with your writing, start a blog, create a new business, or whatever else you may be wanting to do in the New Year. You can do this on 3 x 5 cards. When your motivation waxes and wanes, pull ‘em out and read them—slowly. If you want to lose weight and you’re tempted to overeat, remind yourself why this is an important lifestyle change for you. Ask yourself the following:
How do you want to feel about yourself at the end of the day?Will this action help or hinder your ability to reach your goals?What do you need to do to re-focus on the bigger picture?What next steps might you need to take to do that?How will you plan for future obstacles?Winston Churchill said this years ago, but it still holds true: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Most successful people have seen the bottom drop out plenty of times, but they suck it up and keep going anyway. When you want to quit, just take a break, regroup and come back into it when you feel ready.
When trouble or difficulty arise it’s easy to get discouraged: those last ten pounds that won’t come off, the rejection of another article, or the financial hit the new business took, for example. Discouragement can lead to despair—no bueno! Try looking at the obstacles through the lens of possibility, and see your challenges as opportunities for new growth or a change of direction. If you throw the towel in, you’re done.
So, now that you’re aware of some old tried-and-true ways to make your New Year’s resolutions stick, what the heck are you waiting for? Bring in 2013 with a bang!
Back at you: What have you tried that’s helped you to turn a New Years resolution into a reality?
Featured photo credit: Umbrella woman jump and sunset silhouette via Shutterstock Rita A. Schulte is a licensed professional counselor in the Northern Virginia/DC area. She is the host of Heartline Podcast and Consider This. Her shows air on several radio stations as well as the Internet. They can be downloaded from http://www.ritaschulte.com/category/podcasts. Rita writes for numerous publications and blogs. Her book on moving through the losses of life will be released in Fall 2013 by Leafwood Publishers. Follow her at www.ritaschulte.com. Friday, January 25, 2013
The search for a genetic killer
But the request to analyse the DNA of Lanza is just the latest in a long line of attempts to account for the behaviour of individual killers in terms of genetics.
Perhaps the first attempt was for a case that bears more than a surface resemblance to the Sandy Hook shooting. In 1998, a 15-year-old high school student called Kip Kinkel killed both of his parents before driving to school and shooting 24 students, one of whom died.
In his trial a child psychiatrist argued that Kinkel had “genetic loading” that made him susceptible to mental illness and violence.
His appeal also relied upon this angle. His lawyer argued that “owing to a genetic predisposition, and therefore through no conscious fault of his own, the defendant suffers a mental illness resulting in committing his crimes.”
Perhaps for the first in decades, an appeal to genetics was used in an attempt to explain the killer’s behaviour.
The genetic arguments became more sophisticated with the trial of serial killer Cary Stayner where a psychiatrist and geneticist presented a genealogy of the his family showing how mental illness and violence ‘ran through the family’.
By the time of the trial of murderer Stephen Mobley, the defence based part of their case on molecular genetics – suggesting that Mobley had a version of the MAOA gene that made him susceptible to violence.
It’s worth noting that none of these appeals to genetics have been successful in the courtroom but it’s interesting that in light of the tragic events in Sandy Hook there has been, yet again, a look towards genetics to try and make sense of the killer – this time presumably based on the yet more advanced technology of whole DNA sequencing.
On this occasion, however, the reasons seems less related to issues of legal responsibility and more for scientific motivations, supposedly to better understand the ‘DNA of a killer’.
As the Nature editorial makes clear, this is foolish:
There is no one-to-one relationship between genetics and mental health or between mental health and violence. Something as simple as a DNA sequence cannot explain anything as complex as behaviour.
However, it shows an interesting shift away from the courtroom genetics of past incidents to a ‘public health’ approach, where, as sociologist Nikolas Rose has noted, the justification is given…
…not in the language of law and rights, but in terms of the priority of protecting “normal people” against risks that threaten their security and contentment. Biological factors are merely one set of factors among others predisposing individuals to antisocial conduct, and “therapeutic interventions” are proposed for the good of both the individual and society.
There is a valuable science of understanding how genetics influences violent behaviour but analysis of individual killers will tell us very little about their motivations.
It does, however, reflect a desire to find something different in people who commit appalling crimes. Something that is comprehensible but distinct, alien but identifiable.
This may give us comfort, but it does little to provide answers. In the midst of tragedy, however, the two can easily be confused.
Link to Nature editorial.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
How to Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch That Will Land You Big Business
This is the 30-60 second business description of what you do and why someone should work with you. It's called an "Elevator Pitch" because it describes the challenge: "How would you explain your business and make a sale if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream prospect and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?"
This article will explain the elements of a powerful elevator pitch and then walk you through how to craft yours.
Why Is Having an Elevator Pitch So Important?
You only have 30-60 seconds to make a powerful first impression. The attention span of the average person is just 30 seconds before their mind starts wandering. The other reason is people have less time today. You need to grab them quickly or lose them forever.
Essential Elements of a Powerful Elevator Pitch
Concise. Your pitch should take no longer than 30-60 seconds.
Clear. Use language that everyone understands. Don't use fancy words thinking it will make you sound smarter. Your listener won't understand you and you'll have lost your opportunity to hook them.
Powerful. Use words that are powerful and strong. Deliver the "Sis-Boom-Bang" to grab their attention!
Visual. Use words that create a visual image in your listeners mind. This will make your message memorable.
Tell a Story. A short story, that is. A good story is essentially this: someone with a problem either finds a solution or faces tragedy. Either type of story can be used to illuminate what you do.
Targeted. A great elevator pitch is aimed for a specific audience. If you have target audiences that are vastly different, you might want to have a unique pitch for each.
Goal Oriented. A kick-ass elevator pitch is designed with a specific outcome in mind. What is your desired outcome? You may have different pitches depending on different objectives. For instance do you want to: make a sale, gain a prospect, enlist support for an idea, or earn a referral.
Has a Hook. This is the element that literally snags your listener's interest and makes them want to know more. This is the phrase or words that strike a chord in your listener.How to Craft Your Killer Elevator Pitch
Write down what you do. Write it several different ways. Try writing it at least 10-20 different ways. Don't edit yourself at all. You will edit later. This first step is for generating ideas. Don't hold back. Ideas can be goofy, serious, wild, funny, or conservative. It doesn't matter. The goal is to get at many ideas as possible down on paper.
Write a very short story that illustrates what you do for people. If necessary, the story can be long. You will boil it down later. Paint a picture with words.
Write down your objective or goal. Do you want to make a sale, gain a prospect, enlist support for an idea, earn a referral, or something else?
Write 10-20 action statements. This is a statement or question designed to spur the action associated with your goal.
Record yourself. You can use Jott if you don't have a recording device. Jott is a free phone based service that translates your messages into text as well as providing an online link to the original audio.
Let it sit. Come back to what you've written with fresh eyes and ears the next day or later on in the same day.
Highlight the good stuff. Listen and read through what you've recorded and written. Then either highlight or circle the phrases that hook you with clear, powerful, and visual words. Obviously not all the words will fall into these categories. You still need connector words, but you want them to be as few as possible.
Put the best pieces together. Again you'll want to write down several versions of this much tighter pitch. Tell us what you do and why people should want to do business with you. Include elements from your story if you can fit it in.
Record these new ones.
Do a final edit cutting as many unnecessary words as possible. Rearrange words and phrases until it sounds just right. Again, the goal is 30-60 seconds maximum.
Dress Rehearsal. Run it by as many people as you can get to listen to you. Get feedback from colleagues, clients you trust, friends and family.
Done for now. Take your final elevator pitch and write it down. Memorize and practice it until it just slides off your tongue naturally.
Continue to improve. Over time, always be on the listen for phrases that you think could make your elevator pitch more clear and impactful. And then test it out. Every once in a while you will probably benefit by starting from scratch because things always change: you, your business, your goals, and your clients' needs.What's your elevator pitch? Share it with us in the comments!
Resources:
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
TED Book: “Controlling Cancer” offers bold plan to stop a killer
The scourge of cancer has ripped through bodies, families, and generations for so long and with such power that it feels almost invincible. Biologist Paul Ewald—widely regarded as the leading expert in the emerging field of evolutionary medicine—and co-author Holly Swain Ewald may have found a way of attacking the intractable killer, which they detail in our new TED Book Controlling Cancer: A Powerful Plan for Taking on the World’s Most Daunting Disease. The Ewalds believe that viruses may be at the heart of the onset of cancer and we can attack the disease through an early attack on the virus. In this important study, they form an innovative plan for rethinking and eradicating one of the world’s deadliest diseases. We recently spoke with Paul about his new book.
Why is cancer so hard to fight?
Treating cancer involves both attacking and protecting human cells at the same time. It is difficult to devise chemotherapies or vaccines that have sufficient precision to damage the cancerous cells without harming the normal cells. Approaches to preventing cancer have included medical procedures that are not available to everyone or lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and reduction in sun exposure that have proven difficult for people to abide by. We’re just now beginning to develop new methods of control, such as vaccines against infectious causes of cancer, which circumvent these problems
What is new about your approach to controlling cancer?
We are using evolutionary principles to reformulate our understanding of cancer. This perspective allows us to understand major obstacles associated with some approaches and the unappreciated potential for others.
How are viruses so important in the onset and evolution of the disease?
Viruses evolve to compromise a cell’s fundamental barriers to cancer in a variety of ways. These manipulations allow them to persist within people for long periods of time. The end result is that viruses push infected cells to the brink of cancer. Mutations finish the process.
We often hear that lifestyle choices and hereditary factors play a big part in the onset of cancer. Is that true?
Cancers are caused by combinations of factors. A balanced assessment of the causes of cancer must address all three categories of causes—hereditary factors, infectious agents, and noninfectious environmental exposures. But we understand the relative importance of these causes and the interactions between them for only about a quarter of all human cancer. Family studies tell us that hereditary factors play a relatively small role in common cancers. Generally they increase a person’s vulnerability to infectious and noninfectious environmental agents. Lifestyles can play important roles because they can change the exposure to environmental hazards that cause mutations and to cancer-causing infections, and can alter the body’s defenses against cancer. A lifestyle that exposes skin to ultraviolet light, for example, can lead to skin cancer because ultraviolet rays cause mutations. A lifestyle that exposes a person to unprotected sex with many sexual partners or involves intravenous drug use can increase the risks of cancer because cancers causing infections are often transmitted by sex, intimate kissing, and contaminated needles.
How will we fight cancer in the future?
Prevention is better than cure, and cure is better than palliative care. If we shape the future well we will be shifting efforts toward prevention. Because cancer is almost always caused by combinations of factors, we need to identify those causes of cancer that can be prevented effectively and with low cost. Evolutionary considerations tell us that chemotherapy and vaccines that target the cancer cells will almost always be associated with serious adverse effects on normal cells. When cancers are caused by infections we have better options because infectious organisms, being different from human cells, can be targeted with less damage to human cells. We can prevent infection by vaccination and blocking of transmission. Increasingly we should be able to treat cancer-causing infections by therapeutic vaccines, antiviral compounds, and sometimes even by antibiotics, as is now the case for some stomach cancers. The crystal ball is a bit murky because we don’t yet know how many human cancers are caused by infection–It is at least 20% and at most about 95%. Evolutionary considerations suggest that it will turn out to be higher rather than lower within this range. Let’s hope so, because in that case we should be able to prevent or cure most human cancer.
Controlling Cancer: A Powerful Plan for Taking on the World’s Most Daunting Disease is part of the TED Books series, which is available for the Kindle and Nook as well as on Apple’s iBookstore.
Monday, September 26, 2011
The 6 killer apps of prosperity: Niall Ferguson on TED.com
Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture — call them the 6 killer apps — that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 20:20.)
Watch Niall Ferguson’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
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