What Have You Learned Recently? Raising the Barr Weekly Memo: Issue 429

As most of you probably know, I write a lot. I share my thoughts and insights to help impact your life and business. But I also consume a lot of content from others in various ways such as: books, blogs, social media, online courses, virtual communities and more. To help me better internalize the content I absorb, I simply summarize my key learning insights and enter them into Evernote so I may easily digest and retrieve the content as needed. Here are 10 recent ideas I recently learned from others that had profound impact on me:

1. Randy Gage

You have an extraordinary influence on how wealthy or poor you end up…

Broke people usually have a negative energy around money in general.  The emotion they most associate with it is fear, stemming from their fear-based anxiety about their perceived scarcity of money.  Throw in some anger for not having enough, and finally toss in some jealousy for the people who have more.

Wealthy people usually have a positive association with money.  They view it in terms of the choices and freedom it can provide them. They associate it with happy times of pleasure and enjoyment.

2. Seth Godin

An overnight success almost never is.

Might as well plan for the journey.

3. Michael Hyatt

Our bodies weren’t designed to be in a constant state of stress. To put it simply, you can’t work all the time and not feel the negative effects. The solution? Create a rhythm of rest and work.

High achievers find this hard to believe. When you are driven by the need to achieve, it can be difficult to make time for something that doesn’t tangibly move you closer to your goals. I fell into this trap for years. But the facts are there. Practicing self-care—and, in particular, maintaining a hobby—provides your brain the opportunity to focus on something else, freeing up and recharging your mental energy. When you invest time on something you enjoy outside of work, you gain a greater level of clarity, creativity, and various health benefits—and ultimately improve the quality of your work.

4. Charles Duhigg

Overtime, all the small decisions we make, what we say to loved ones, how often we exercise, how we save or spend, how we market, write, pursue our goals, ALL have enormous impact on our health, productivity, financial security and happiness.

5. Jeff Walker

The age-old question: is email dead?

That’s how much Morning Brew—a strictly email-only based business—recently sold for $75M says “no way”.

So no, email is not dead. Far from it. It’s still one of the best ways to make money online.

6. Brendon Burchard

You won’t stay disciplined unless you can see, feel, sense, and acknowledge intellectually what the outcome is you’re after. If you’re not disciplined on a consistent basis, it’s because you don’t know what you want. So don’t beat yourself up that you’re lazy. You just need to make a decision.

There is no discipline without a schedule.

7. David Meerman Scott

I strongly encourage young people to create something of their own on the Web. It could be a website, blog, podcast, video channel, or something similar. Unlike a presence on a social network like LinkedIn, when you create your own channel with your own URL, you are driving people to your real estate, something you own forever.

I’m not saying ignore the social networks. Just realize that you don’t stand out.

Having a channel that you own on the web is a fabulous way to showcase who you are and what you are interested in. It’s a way to explore ideas and meet interesting people.

Potential employers love finding somebody for an internship or entry level job who has created content about something they are interested in. It doesn’t even have to be business related, just focused on something you are passionate about. A potential employer can learn so much more about you from your passions than a boring list of what schools you attended.

Imagine 100 people applying for a job. It’s likely that all 100 have a decent resume and a basic LinkedIn profile.

Now imagine that one candidate has those things plus, say, a podcast about some aspect of the kind of work they want to do or something they love. The podcast includes a companion site with show notes and a bio. Who will get the job?

8. Steven Pressfield

You think resistance isn’t real, it will burry you. Hitler wanted to be an artist, at 18 he took his inheritance and moved to Vienna to live and study. He entered the academy of fine arts and later the school of architecture. Have you seen any of his painting? Neither have I. It was easier for Hitler to start world war ii than stare at a piece of canvas.

9. Walter Isaacson

The secret is that nature is so beautiful that once you are curious about it, basic science leads to discoveries that lead to useful tools. Who would have thought that figuring out how bacteria use RNA would turn out to be so important to both editing our own genes and fixing sickle cell anemia and tay-sachs disease and many others and to creating a vaccine? Don’t be intimidated by science, all science is, is nature. It’s beautiful. Embrace the beauty of nature and open your mind up. Walk hand in hand on the journey of discovery.

10. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Another often-asked question when I speak in public: “Do you have some good advice you might share with us?” Yes, I do. It comes from my savvy mother-in-law, advice she gave me on my wedding day. “In every good marriage,” she counseled, “it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.” I have followed that advice assiduously, and not only at home through 56 years of a marital partnership nonpareil. I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court. When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

What have your learned recently and how has it impacted your life and business?

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