Today’s timeless quote comes from the great Irish playwriter George Bernard Shaw written in his satiric work “An Unsocial Socialist”, published at the end of XIX century.
Isn’t it an interesting point of view?
I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking: What is my purpose in this life? What is the reason for my being? What are my talents? and When will I find myself?
And the truth is, very few people know their talents from a young age. And even if they know their talent, lots of hard work and learning is needed to master a talent i.e. to create yourself.
For the rest of us, where the talent is not defined early, we need to:
learn new things on a regular basis;
repeat what we know to master a skill,
connect our knowledge and build on top of it.
This is basically the process of creating ourselves. Once we start sharing our knowledge, helping others, getting a sense of accomplishment, and even feeling happy with our contribution, then we can say we created ourselves. But that’s not the end of it – lifelong learning continues and self-development never stops.
Actress Marilu Henner is 1 of 10 known people in the world with the ability of superior autobiographical memory – an astonishing ability to recall details of every day of her life. In her book “Total Memory Makeover”, Marilu unfolds pros and cons of having autobiographical memory and illustrates them with multiple personal stories.
Part of the book is dedicated to help the readers improve their memories, enjoy and cherish every moment of the life, by keeping a memory journal to track events from the past and build personal history “track”.
What I like the most from her advice in the book is the three simple rules for unforgettable experience, which I admit is 100% true for my memories of events from my past that have left vivid imprints in my mind.
The first rule is: ANTICIPATION – Make sure to get prepared for the event. Talk to family and friends about it, reveal your plans, and show excitment. For example, if you are planning a two-week vacation, allocate time to get mentally ready, to plan fun trips and entertainment and share the plans with someone.
The second rule is PARTICIPATION – once you arrive at the event or start the trip, try to be 100% present, participate in the planned activities and have fun – enjoy the moment to the fullest, take photos, mementos and keepsakes. Don’t forget to keep a journal with notes from the journey – it will come handy later when you need to refresh the memories.
The third rule is RECOLLECTION, and comes after the event or activity is completed, and you are no longer part of it. This phase is the longest and can continue forever, but should start as soon as the experience is over, while the memories are still fresh. Start talking to friends and family – how photos from the places you’ve been, share stories what happened and how it felt.
Please make sure to check out the book for more entertaining, and educational advices from Marilu. The book is easy to read and her stories for sure will resonate with readers everywhere.
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, who has researched the different personalities of employees and determined that in the office environment, there are three basic kinds of people:
Givers,
Takers &
Matchers
According to the research, the majority of people are Matchers and we all have our moments of giving and taking, but we most probably are inclined to be either a Giver or a Taker.
You can figure out for yourself by acknowledging which of the following two questions you will most often ask yourself when you interact with your colleagues: What can you do for me?or What can I do for you?
Many studies have proven that in order for a company or an organization to prosper, there is a need to have a culture of generosity, where people, willing to teach others are encouraged and the knowledge and skills are safely carried over from person to person, without fear of being judged or laughed at.
In my experience with a company for more than 3-4 years, I have seen a high percentage of turnover of staff, and in many of these cases, the knowledge and wisdom these people possessed were lost for the organization once they left. This lack of learning is not always acknowledged by the company but has a significant impact on the new employees. The newly hired employees inevitably start from scratch and build proficiency, mostly based on own practice and errors, and lack the wisdom of mentors or senior associates.
For making any organization successful, Adam Grant offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share. The three simple steps are:
Protect Givers from burnout – Make sure Givers provide quick tips and don’t just do most of the work themselves.
Encourage help-seeking – Make it easy and safe to ask for help.
Get the right people on the bus. Keep the wrong people off the bus – having Takers in the team, poisons the atmosphere, where any and all collaboration is difficult. In such an atmosphere, even the Givers are discouraged to help.
Read the Entire Book
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success and you can order it from your favorite online book store or get it from your neighborhood library, where it is available in multiple formats: printed version, e-book or audiobook.
The book has been translated into 30 languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune’s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review’s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post’s books every leader should read.
Are you wondering if you are a Giver or a Taker?
Assess yourself. As Adam Grant explains, the assessment is using state-of-the-art methods in organizational psychology. For each question, give the answer that comes naturally to you. Your results will only be as accurate as you are honest—and self-aware.
Today’s quote comes from Oprah Winfrey and focuses on practising gratitude, appreciating the things in our life that we value. Being thankful for what we have and trying to see the positive side of things rather than the negative, makes us happier and richer.
If we concentrate on what we don’t have or don’t know, we will end up feeling miserable and unhappy, and will never have enough.
This book should be on everybody’s nightstand! It contains so much wisdom and truth, extracted from the author’s experience and knowledge, accumulated through the years and written with a fantastic sense of humor.
Reading this book made me feel a lot better about myself and my life journey, accomplishments, and my perception of being happy.
Scott Galloway is the New York Times bestselling author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
The curve of Happiness thought the life journey
Just some of Scott Gallaway’s pieces of advice for Living a Happy Life:
If you find you are stressed, recognize this is a normal part of the journey and just keep on keeping on.
Lack of balance in the twenties and thirties, sweat and work translate into balance later. Get busy while you are young.
The definition of “rich” is income greater than your burn rate.
In 50s married couples have 3x the assets of their single peers. Why? Sharing expenses, streamlining decisions, buying assets that increase in value instead of things that rust, rot, or depreciate.
Career advice: A less sexy job equals more professional fulfillment. A sexy job equals less fulfillment. A boring company equals a good investment. An exciting company equals a bad investment.
Serendipity is a function of courage. Nothing wonderful will happen without taking a risk and subjecting yourself to rejection.
Drink less, think long term (compound interest), and spend money on social andexperiences.
Give somebody a good death. Provide comfort to a loved one that is terminally ill.
Get the easy stuff right: show up early, have good manners and follow up.
Things vs Experiences – Studies show people overestimate the happiness that things will bring them, and underestimate the long-term positive effect of experiences. Invest in experiences over things.
“The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most,” Grant says. “You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.…
How the ideas are born? Where and when is the ideal place and time to come up with ideas?
Steven Johnson author of the book “Where Good Ideas Come From” gives a remarkable talk about the recipe for creating a great idea.
“We take ideas from other people,from people we’ve learned from, from people we run into in the coffee shop,and we stitch them together into new forms and we create something new.That’s really where innovation happens.”
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is 
Nadia Karaboycheva 