The Now Habit

A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

by Neil Fiore (24500)

Despite the fact that procrastination is a known drain on personal and organizational productivity, very few people ever take the time to define precisely what procrastination is.

A good working definition of procrastination is: “Procrastination is a mechanism that people use to cope with the anxiety or stress involved in starting new tasks or completing old ones.”

When you adopt this definition, it then becomes clear that the key to overcoming procrastination isn’t the usual collection of cliches:
“Just get out and do more.”
“Try harder.”
“Get better organized.”
“Stop being lazy.”

Instead, to genuinely overcome procrastination you’ve got to deal with your more deeply seated inner dialogues and your own personal definitions of “failure,” “perfectionism” and “work ethic”. Instead of a collection of how-to advice and tactics, you need to have a strategic system in place that will give you the tools you need to mentally shift gears intoa higher level of functioning. Once you take more control over the way you think about your work and motivate yourself, you will then naturally become more efficient and productive.

1. Create a mental safety net
2. Use positive self-talk to reprogram your attitudes
3. Use the symptoms of procrastination to trigger the cure
4. Strategically schedule some guilt-free play time
5. Use three-dimensional thinking and reverse calendars
6. Make worry work for you rather than against you
7. Create and use an unschedule on a daily basis
8. Set a few realistic goals that deserve your attention
9. Learn how to work in your most productive flow state
10. Turn setbacks into opportunities to move forward

The Now Habit

The Clean Tech Revolution

The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity

by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder (24700)

Developing “clean technology” is no longer just a social cause championed by the tree huggers or environmentalists — it is rapidly becoming the next big engine of business and economic growth for a large number of mainstream companies.

“Clean tech” is any product, service or process that delivers value while eliminating or reducing the use of natural resources. As such, clean tech companies and technologies typically:

Harness renewable resources and materials

Reduce the use of nonrenewable resources

Eliminate or reduce pollution or toxic wastes

Deliver superior perofrmance

Provide investors with increasing returns

In the 1970s, clean tech was often labeled as “alternative” and there are six major forces that are fueling the drive towards clean tech:

Costs: clean-energy costs are falling as the costs of oil and fossil fuels steadily rise.

Capital: there is now a large influx of capital flowing into making clean tech products better.

Competition: many governments are going green in order to help create the jobs of the future.

China: the explosive growth of developing nations is driving clean tech development.

Consumers: who are starting to prefer cleaner products which use less resources.

Climate: business feels a need to be seen as contributing to the solutions to the world’s problems rather than generating more.

Today, industry giants like Toyota, Sharp and Goldman Sachs are making multi-billion-dollar investments in clean technology for solid business reasons rather than in an attempt to change the world.

The Clean Tech Revolution

The Exceptional Presenter

A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room

by Timothy Koegel (24900)

The potential payoff for possessing exceptional presentation skills has never been higher than it is at the present time. If you can make great presentations, you can:

Build and enhance your reputation

Sell more by presenting to groups

Win your peers over to your ideas

Position yourself to get promoted

Win more business for your firm

Become more versatile and more needed

Put differently, the better your presentation skills are, the more professional you become and the more money you will make. There is a direct link between how strong your presentation skills are and what you ultimately achieve in your career.

At first glance, becoming an exceptional presenter may seem like an impossible task, but it’s not actually beyond reach. As long as you know what you need to do and then work to improve your skills, with consistent practice you can lift your presentation skills from being average to expcetional. The key is to focus on and then work at regularly upgrading your presentation skills.

The Exceptional Presenter

E-Myth Mastery

The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company

by Michael Gerber (12500)

The e-myth credo is: “Don’t spend all your time working in your business; work on building your business as well.” To do that in practice and to build a world-class business around entrepreneurial principles, there are seven essential disciplines to master. To be more specific, there are four key building blocks you can use to close the credibility gap between what you say and what you do.

1. Leadership
Good leaders make their vision a reality and think objectively.

2. Marketing
Leaders identify target markets and position their enterprise

3. Financial
Leaders make financial decisions and harness cash flows

4. Management
Leaders develop the culture and build operations manuals

5. Fulfillment
Leaders analyze and imnprove all the systems of the business

6. Lead conversion
Leaders give existing and new customers opportunities to buy

7. Lead generation
Leaders focus on reaching and impacting their target

E-Myth Mastery

The Google Enigma

This was a very interesting read that we can all learn from:

The Google Enigma

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