Capitalogix

Motivation For Your Week

It's easy to think that motivation is for athletes, or for "them" ... and not you.

The reality is that motivation is a key aspect of everyone's day!  

Here's a video I found this week that is worth a listen.

 

 by Basquiat Picasso via YouTube

The transcript is here.

You can rely on external factors to bring you motivation, or you can make it an internal habit. 

The same way people love change – but resist being changed ... Being driven (by yourself) feels better than when someone tries to push you or drive you.

Sure, it's easy to be unmotivated and wonder why things never get done. 

Often, I'll see employees, or friends, get something 80 - 90% done and then move on to some new exciting prospect. 

They get distracted by "shiny" and use it as an excuse to ignore the hard part (that last 10%), and whine that nothing's ever finished. 

As long you are making progress (and refuse to give up) you are guaranteed to meet and exceed your goals.

So, stop whining and start grinding! It's time to get to the getting!

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - May 21, 2017

The "He Said – She Said" loop is funny ... But it is still giving me a headache.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Here are the Ridiculous Things Celebrities Demand Backstage. (BusinessInsider)
• Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity. (Medium)
• The Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity Methods. (Todoist)
• Hundreds of Privacy-invading Apps are Using Ultrasonic Sounds to Track You. (ZDNet)
• Why Would Aliens Even Bother with Earth? (LitHub)

  

Trading Links:

• Elon Musk Says Robots Will Help Tesla Catch up to Apple in Value. (Fortune)
• Retailers Look past Apps to the next Frontier of Digital Shopping: Chatbots. (WashPost)
• Vending Machine-like Skyscraper Concept Plans to 3D Print Custom Homes. (Mashable)
• Indonesian Islamist Leader Says Ethnic Chinese Wealth is next Target. (Reuters)
• Financial Technology is Proving Less of a Battleground Than Feared. (Economist)

 

Face Your Fears - Will Smith's Video

Recently, Will Smith shared a video of himself at Skydive Dubai.

Apparently, the experience taught him much more than how to jump out of a plane.

 "The point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear."

  

Worth a watch.

 

 via YouTube

Likewise, Tony Robbins preaches the importance of expanding your "threshold of control."

The idea is that you need to continuously push your limits and grow your tolerance of what is within your comfort zone.

Think about the problems and annoyances you had when you were 18, 13, or 8 ... Chances are that they were much smaller than what you now face comfortably. 

Expanding your thresholds of control, and facing your fears (and discomforts) is a big part of growth.

In my company, we call it "Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable."

The old way wasn't enough, and the tools and techniques that got you where you are, won't get you where you want to be.

So, into the unknown we go.

What do think will catapult you to that next level?  

What's the first step?

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 29th, 2017

Might be easier to solve a Rubik's Cube than to be President Trump.  Check out his first 100 days. 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

Lighter Links:

• Elon Musk and the 100 Hour Error. (MichaelHyatt)
• Gigaom's AI Startup Challenge – Finalists. (GigaOM)
• Access to Nature Reduces Depression and Obesity, Finds European Study. (TheGuardian)
• Fixing Lousy Sleep Could Keep Us Healthy Longer. (Futurity)
• Lab-Grown Meat is Almost Here. (BigThink)

Trading Links:

• Former Fed Advisor Says the Central Bank Shouldn't Comment on Equities. (CNBC)
• Quantopian Makes First Allocations to Crowd-Sourced Algorithms. (HedgeWeek)
• Fintech: Revolution or Evolution? (Ritholtz)
• Norway to Spend $315M on World's First Ship Tunnel. (CNN)
• BlackRock Signals Active Overhaul with Shift to Quant. (FTAdviser)

How Much Time Do You Have Left? How Much Time To Make a Difference?

We only have a limited time on this earth - and a lot of it is taken by frivolous activities. 

How much time do you think the average millennial spends on their phones ... or a baby-boomer sits in front of the TV?

The answer is a lot.

This chart based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it in perspective. 

 

How Much Time Do We Have?

via dailyinfographic

 

9 years in front of entertainment devices - another 10.5 years spent working.  You get the idea.

If you have goals you want to accomplish, aspirational travel and lifestyle plans - this really puts the idea of finding and living your passion in perspective. 

Here's another representation of the same data, using jelly beans.   I think it's pretty powerful and worth watching. 

 

Ze Frank (via YouTube)

 

In my TEDx talk, I talk about the Time Value of Life ...

In finance, the "time value of money" refers to the principle that the purchasing power of money can vary over time (meaning, money today might have a different purchasing power than money later). In part, this is because the value of money at a future point in time might be calculated by accounting for other variables (like interest earned, or inflation accrued, etc.).

A similar calculation applies to life ... or living.

Live Like You Only Have a Year Left.

During the last part of my Dad's life, I think he would have done almost anything for a little more time.

Things that used to be unimportant, or even mildly irritating, took on increased importance. For example, a dinner together became almost a sacred event; a kiss goodnight was truly heart-felt; and saying good-bye meant something ... because it could be the last time.

Nevertheless, as a result of that focus, he took more life out of that time.

Shouldn't we do the same thing?  Think about it ... We are never going to be younger than we are, right now.  We are never going to have more time to fix a big mistake.  Isn't it likely that the time value of your life, is worth maximizing?

If you realize that the time you have now is worth more - what can you do differently to get the most out of it?

So, if an average person only gets 2,740 days to do with what they want, those days are precious.

Based on who's reading this, you may have half that time (or a fourth).

What are you going to focus on? Making the most money? Helping the most people? Spending the most time with your family? Relaxing?

There's never a better time than now, to live a life worth living ... and only you can decide what that means!

I'd love to hear what you choose.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 14th, 2017

United Airlines got a lot of bad press when it physically removed passengers from a flight to accommodate crew members.  A day ago, they were at it again, when they removed a couple heading to their wedding.  Could it get any worse?

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

Lighter Links:

• Want to Found a Start-Up?  These are the Books You Should Read First, a Top VC Says. (CNBC)
• FDA Approves 23AndMe’s At-Home DNA Tests for 10 Diseases. (NBC News)
• “Love Drugs” Will Soon Be a Reality. but Should We Take Them? (Quartz)
• Eminent Astrophysicist Issues a Dire Warning on AI and Alien Life. (Futurism)
• Let’s Take an In-Depth Look at Current Advances in Artificial Intelligence. (Interesting Engineering)

Trading Links:

• Marijuana Price Dips to $1,679 a Pound. (247WallSt)
• Tesla Has Something Hotter Than Cars to Sell: Its Story. (New York Times)
• This is How Many U.S. Jobs Robots Will Create over the next 10 Years. (MarketWatch)
• This Cow Illustrates 8 Business Models (Infographic). (Entrepreneur)
• Steven Cohen Just Gave Millions to Crowd Sourcing Hedge Funders. (Fortune)

 

Related articles

How artificial intelligence has evolved over time

Elon Musk's Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

Once In a Blue Moon ... or every couple of years

Will AI Radically Change B2B Marketing? Marketers Think So

I've Been Going to the Gym Again ...

I've been going to the gym again ... and a lot of what I see there doesn't look like exercise. 

On the other hand, you have guys like this, doing 20 different types of push-ups: 

 

 

I used to do that.

But, I can do anything I commit to do.

So, I can do that.

Time to do that.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - February 18th, 2016

The Great Canadian Wall is up in the north.  Looks like it will hold till spring.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Genomics Intelligence Revolution. (TechCrunch)
• Generation Adderall. (New York Times)
• Spending 10 Minutes a Day on Mindfulness Subtly Changes the Way You React to Everything. (HBR)
• Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person. (NYT)
• The 5 Revolutionary Technologies that Will Dominate 2017. (Salesforce)

Trading Links:

• The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It. (Medium)
• Biden at Davos: Russia is Greatest Threat to Democracy. (USAToday)
• Volatility at Lowest Level for over a Year, Says S&P Dow Jones. (HedgeWeek)
• Jeff Bezos Just Passed Warren Buffett to Become the Third Richest Person in the World. (CNW)
• Ray Kurzweil: the World Isn’t Getting Worse. (GeekWire)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - January 20th, 2017

With technology becoming more ubiquitous ... perhaps Tweeting shouldn't be ... 

  

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Ringling Bros. Circus to Close after 146 Years. (Washington Post)
• Why Your Brain Makes New Year's Resolutions Impossible to Keep. (Popular Science)
• When the Picky Eater is a Grown-Up. (New York Times)
• Your Dog Knows Exactly What You’re Saying. (National Geographic)
• Nestle Claims a Scientific Breakthrough and Chocolate Will Never Be the Same Again. (Inc)

Trading Links:

• The End of Cloud Computing. (A16z)
• Rethinking Global Finance. (Wired)
• All World Maps Lie. So Which One Should We Use? (FastCoD)
• Why Rich People Set up Trust Funds for Their Pets. (Flipboard)
• Apple Sells Nearly 400 IPhones Per Minute, and Other Insane Stats. (Insider)

The Time Value of Time

In many senses time is relative. 

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this quote from Einstein.

"When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second.  When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour.  That's relativity."

It is about more than perception.  Here is something that highlights the relative value of time.

 

The Value Of Time:

• To understand the value of a year, talk to a student who has failed an important exam.
• To understand the value of a month, talk to a mother who has given birth to a baby a month prematurely.
• To understand the value of a week, talk to the publisher of a weekly newspaper.
• To understand the value of an hour, talk to a couple in love who are separated and want only to be together again.
• To understand the value of a minute, talk to someone who has just missed their train or plane flight.
• To understand the value of a second, talk to someone who has lost a loved one in an accident.
• And to understand the value of a millisecond, talk to someone who won the silver medal at the Olympic Games.

Time waits for no one.  So it is important to remember to make the best use of the time you have.

 

That Doesn't Mean Time Is Scarce Or Has To Be A Constraint:

Time is often thought of as a constraint or a scarce resource. There are lots of phrases that highlight this type of thinking.  For example: I don't have enough time; I'm running late; I'm up against a deadline; There are only 24-hours in a day; or, I’m going as fast as I can. As you might guess, that list goes on further.  Yet, time does not have to be that way ... it can be a tool instead.

So, I started to think about how I used time.  Was I making the most of it ... or taking it for granted?  It didn’t take much introspection to notice a few of the ruts I fell into.  I'm going to talk about one of them, here, because a small shift had a massive impact.  The thing we changed was our pace.

 

A Change of Pace:

When I jog, the beginning and the end are the hardest for me. Yet, after I find that initial pace and I settle into a comfortable rhythm, the majority of the run is relatively painless. My mind and body switch to an nearly automatic mode and I have time to think about many things.

Work is similar in many respects. Once a team gets in a rhythm, work and progress are somewhat automatic. Breaking inertia is a challenge; but people recognize that it's a challenge. The more insidious problem is to fail to recognize that the work rhythm that's comfortable, and which produces progress, is still a rut. It doesn't stretch and challenge the team to strive for more. Yet, this stretching is what drives innovation. It's the thought we haven't had yet … and a new perspective that changes everything.

Changing your pace can be an incredible catalyst to make that happen for you. For example, imagine that we put together a new portfolio in two weeks, on a wholly new tech platform, with new markets, and using new techniques. Then we tested, re-balanced and rebuilt that portfolio in one week. What we did, or the time in which we did it, wasn’t important. The important part is that it caused the team to work at a radically different pace than before. It was a sprint.

Moreover, this sprint caused us to re-think what we do, and more importantly, how we do it.  Many of the innovations and new distinctions that we discovered through this process will work their way into other areas of our work,  and will act as a catalyst for us to re-evaluate the way we do things.

 

A Challenge For You:

I challenge you to consciously change the pace of something that you are already comfortable doing a certain way. The pace can be faster, or the pace can be slower ... it doesn't matter.  Then notice what comes up for you, and what new opportunities and possibilities you discover.

Time is a valuable resource. Take this opportunity to re-examine how you can best view and use time to make the most of it.