Category Archives: Future

Maximum Social Confidence

Easily Develop Rare Conversational and Social Skills

Mark Twain is famous for a lot of things.

One of them is witty sayings. One my favorite’s is “the difference between somebody who can’t read and somebody who doesn’t is nothing.”

Meaning if you CAN read, but you never do, your not utilizing a GREAT WAY to gain more information and perspective.

Of course, since you’re reading this now, you’re not one of the “non-readers” (who seem to be more and more today.)

A lot of things can be thought of like this. You may have a FANTASTIC personality, but if you never let it out, nobody will know.

Many people think of themselves as shy and reserved. Quiet, laid back, it takes a while to get to know them.

In fact most people are very different around strangers than they are around friends.

Funny thing is that everybody is thinking the same thing.

Everybody would LIKE to be more outgoing, but they would also like somebody else to be the one that “goes first.”

Sure, if you’re going to be around the same people for a while (work, school, new neighbors etc) then that’s not a big deal.

Just relax, and let it happen.

Sometimes though, being able to make a STRONG first impression is crucial.

Maybe you only see them once. Maybe you’ve got fifty other people trying to make a STRONG first impression, like in a job interview.

Having the skill to do this will help. You don’t need to ALWAYS be super outgoing and charismatic, but it’s good to know that you’ve got that secret weapon in your back pocket in case you need it.

It can be the ONE THING that keeps YOU in their mind instead of every other person.

Of course, most people don’t take any effort to learn how to do this. They tell themselves they’ll simply “step up to the plate” when the time comes.

Only the time never comes.

If you make a decision to learn as many skills as you can, you’ll NEVER regret.

There will never be a time in life when you think, “Gee, I’ve got too many skills.”

Especially communication skills.

The more you’ve got, the better you’ll do.

Luckily, conversation skills are like getting better at pushups. Why is this luckily?

Because anybody, if they would only do a few minutes of pushups every morning, can work up their way to quite a few.

Conversational skills work the same way.

Click Here to find out how.

Are You Stealing From Your Future?

Are You Stealing From Your Future?

Which One Of You Benefits?

​Some of the most helpful questions come from the field of economics.

Now, most people imagine that economics is some kind of advanced mathematical study.

And if you listen to the economists who work for the government, they sure try and make it seem like this.

I even read an article (written by an economist) who tried to get another article published in some of the mainstream economic journals, with no success. He’d written the article in very simple terms, so that anybody could understand it.

And it was rejected by all the publications.

Then he took the SAME article, the SAME ideas, and made them sound incredibly complicated and used a bunch of unneeded mathematical formulae. 

And it was ACCEPTED by the same publications.

To understand why, here’s a joke:

A hiring manager interviewed three people, a mathematician, an engineer, and an economist. He asked each one what “one plus one” was.

The mathematician looked at him like he was crazy and said, “two.”

The Engineer stroked his chin and said, “Hmm, well that depends on the constraints of the system and various other unknown variables.”

The economist smiled, looked at him and said, “Well, what do you WANT it to be equal to?”

The joke being, of course, that economists can use all kind of mumbo jumbo to make up a bunch of intelligent sounding bullcrap.

But back to the original questions.

Or the original idea. That REAL economics is always based on human action.

And human action is ALWAYS subjective, and ALWAYS involves choice.

And one of those questions is, “At what cost?”

Politicians HATE this question.

But as individuals intending on creating the best life we can, we MUST ask ourselves this question, if we want keep ourselves honest.

Sure, it’s fun to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat ice cream. But at what cost?

What are you missing out on? What OTHER things could you be doing? How would THEY benefit you? Would they benefit you MORE (in the long or short run) than sitting on the couch?

And famous economic question is, “Who benefits?”

If there’s any funny stuff going on, a good way to find out what’s REALLY going on is to ask, “Who benefits?”

How can you apply this to yourself?

Imagine yourself today, or over the next week.

Imagine yourself a year from now. Five years from now. Ten years from now.

Imagine all of your selves, now and in the future.

Next time you are thinking of doing something (sitting on the couch or building your empire), ask yourself:

“Who benefits?”

The NOW you, or the FUTURE you?

Few people make an effort to plan their future with any conscious or rational thought.

But those that DO, generally have MUCH better lives.

Get Yours:

Three Essential Daily Activities

Pre Frame Your Future

Power of Pre Framing

​Sometimes you can have a really good day.

All the lights are green, all your jokes are funny, and you even have pretty good dreams.

Other days, everything sucks. Nothing works, and you can’t fall asleep to save your life.

Many people use language that indicates they aren’t in control of their lives.

I hope I get lucky tonight.

I hope somebody gives me a chance.

I never get the right breaks.

I’m sure you’ve heard tired old sayings like “you’ve got to make your own luck” about a million times. 

But how the heck do you do that?

It’s definitely a skill, rather than a mindset.

Meaning it’s something you need to consciously practice, and get better at.

Unlike things like learning the directions to a local restaurant, where you only need to learn once, and then you’ve got it down.

Learning how to “make your own luck” is something that takes a LONG TIME to develop. In fact, think of this as one of those general life skills that you’ll NEVER be “good enough” at.

So, how do you develop this?

The first is to know what you want. Sure, everybody wants more money, more sex, more love, more recognition.

But how SPECIFICALLY do you want those things? What do you want to get paid for? What kind of person would you like to be in a relationship with?

Take some time to figure those out.

Then you can get started. You can first pre-frame every single day, and every single event.

Sure, this takes work. Sure, you’ve got to remember to do it. And sure, it takes the “fun” out of things “just happening.”

But guess what? Most people who wait around for stuff to happen are always waiting!

Anyhow, before you go into a situation, take a couple of seconds. Tap your temple quickly to remind yourself that you’re looking for ANY opportunities to get closer to your life goals.

Then, at the end of the day, spend a few minutes thinking and writing about what you DID to get closer to your goals. Then write a few ideas about what you can DO the next day.

IF you do these three things on a daily basis, your life will keep getting better and better.

Of course, since pretty much everything you want will involve other people in some respect, working on your social skills and your interpersonal skills will go a long, long way.

And in the same regard, this is a LIFE LONG process. Not a “once and done” process.

The sooner you start, the better off you’ll be.

Learn More:

Look Into Your Future

Your Future Is Waiting

Think Long Term

​Making decisions can be tough sometimes.

One way is good, but it’s got some drawbacks. On the other hand, if you do something else, it may be safe, but not nearly as fun.

A lot of things go hand in hand. Often times something good will go along with something not so good. It feels really good to stuff your face in front of the TV. But it doesn’t feel so good the next morning.

It may feel good to sleep in, but when you finally roll out of bed and see that it’s already in the early afternoon, you might not feel so excited.

One economist theorized that humans reached an evolutionary tipping point when we started to naturally think of pleasure out in the distant future, compared to the pleasure now. 

Meaning that lower animals are only driven by instincts. They can’t really plan. Even when squirrels save nuts for the winter, they’re being driven by instincts. It’s not like they fire up Excel and calculate their caloric requirements.

Humans, on the other hand, somehow figured out how to compare doing something now, vs. doing something differently, and then comparing the potential results in the unknown future.

Like maybe in the present a caveman wanted to punch another caveman in the face. But then he’d imagine that guy’s buddies ganging up on him later, so he would plan a better alternative.

They great thing about this is that you can cultivate it, and develop it.

Like any other skill, the best way to do this is to simply practice.

Start small, and do more and more as you can.

For example, consider waking up ten minutes earlier tomorrow, just to prove that you can. This will build up  your “delayed gratification” muscle in your brain.

As you well know, persistence is one of the most important skills for any kind of success.

All the genius inventors, artists, business people, scientists, none of them would have accomplished what they accomplished had it not been for persistence.

Whatever you want, you can get. But getting it WILL take time. It WILL take trial and “error,” or feedback.

So long as you keep your imagination fixed on the distant future, when you WILL be successful, you’ll keep going.

Consider doing something each day that builds up this attitude. Take one thing you’d like to do, or one thing you want to do but know you shouldn’t, and imagine how it will affect your life one year from now.

Spend a few moments thinking about that BEFORE doing it, whatever it is.

Keep this up and you’ll develop a skill few people have.

Which means you’ll be able to get stuff few people can.

These will help: