Action is the biggest Motivation

Conventional wisdom states our motivation leads us to perform an action.
Our feelings and motivation do guide us, but there is a way to change our mental state, our mood. The way is Action itself.

Control your Behaviour

While it is difficult to control our thoughts and feelings, it is entirely possible to control our external behaviour and change our mood.

Mood follows action.This could be as simple as forcing yourself to exercise, run errands, or get dinner with a friend when you’re feeling particularly low.

Reverse the Equation of Motivation

A firm daily practice takes some motivation to get going, but over time, the equation is reversed; dedicating yourself to a firm daily practice is what builds motivation.
Our constant practice of action alters our mood, taking a cue from our behaviour.

Creating your career

Most people never make a conscious decision about their careers and end up at a certain place, due to external factors and present opportunities. Their career path wasn’t carved out or planned.
Creating your career is something that most people don’t think of at an early stage when they are not sure about themselves and the world around them.

You Decide who you become

Here are Five Steps that can create your career:
1. Analyzing yourself.
2. Identify your industry
3. Improve your basic, universal skills
4. Start from Scratch
5. Continuous Self-Development

Self-analysis

When you analyze yourself, instead of pondering over what you are not good at, find out your strengths and sharpen them, turning a good skill into excellence.

The place to shine

Pursue a career at a place that fits your strengths and makes you shine.
Do what you love and you will see that even a hobby can turn into a career.

Your Universal Skills

Just knowing your job is not enough, you also need some universal skills like:
• Leadership
• Good writing ability
• Personal effectiveness
• Persuasion

Start from scratch

Be patient and start from the bottom; avoid going for quick fixes and unrealistic expectations, and keep learning as you go up the right way.

Self-Development for growth

Successful people keep learning and developing themselves. This way they are never stuck in a dead-end job, or in their own comfort zone.

GTD (Getting Things Done)

GTD is a productivity method for organizing your to-dos, priorities, and schedule in a way that makes them all manageable.
Its 5 principles are:
• Capture
• Clarify
• Organize
• Reflect
• Engage

“GTD is an organizational system. It doesn’t put rules around how you actually do your work. Instead, it focuses on how you capture the work you need to do, organize it, and choose what needs your attention”
– David Allen

GTD: Capture

Capture everything. Your to-dos, your ideas, your recurring tasks, everything. Put it in a pen-and-paper notebook, a to-do app, a planner, whatever you prefer to use to get organized.

GTD: Clarify

Clarify the things you have to do. Don’t just write down something vague, but plan actual steps that are clear and sheds light on the details, the time and the exact action required.

GTD: Organize

Organize those actionable items by category and priority. Assign due dates where you can, and set reminders so you follow up on them. Make sure all these are done keeping in mind the priorities

GTD: Reflect

Reflect on your to-do list and review it often. If done right, this is a very helpful step to trim the list or do the action right away.

GTD: Engage

Get to work on your list. Choose your next action and get to it. Your system is, at this point, set up to make figuring that out easy. You know what to work on, and when.

The method that works for you

Find a GTD-friendly system that works for you, like a paper notepad,a planner, or a certain app like Evernote, or the default App in your Smartphone like Apple’s Reminders or Google Keep.

There are many famous schools of thought that you have probably heard of, but did you hear the truth or just get a caricature of the idea?
For your reading pleasure, here are ten schools of philosophy you should know about. Some of them are commonly misunderstood, and we correct that problem here.

Nihilism

Nihilism means “nothing.” It is the lack of belief in meaning or substance in an area of philosophy.
• Moral nihilism argues that moral facts cannot exist.
• Metaphysical nihilism argues that we cannot have spiritual facts.
• Existential nihilism is the idea that life cannot have meaning and nothing has value.

Nietzsche was not a nihilist but wrote about the dangers posed by this philosophy.

Existentialism

Existentialism originates from Soren Kierkegaard and Nietzche. It focuses on the problems produced by existential nihilism. For instance:
• What is the point of living if life has no inherent purpose?
• How do we face the knowledge of our inevitable demise?

Existentialism emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice.

Stoicism

Stoicism was popular in ancient Greece and Rome and is practiced by many in high-stress environments.
Stoicism focuses on how to live in a world where things don’t go as planned. The idea is to accept all the things beyond your control and to focus on what you can control.

Hedonism

Hedonism is the idea that pleasure and happiness are the keys to a good life. Modern philosophers would say that pleasure is a kind of happiness, but not the only happiness.
Epicurus tied hedonism to a virtue ethics system based around moderation and self-discipline.

Marxism

Marxism is based on the collected ideas of Karl Marx, the German philosopher. He critiqued capitalism. Main ideas:

• The capitalist mode of production alienates us from the results of our labor;
• The tendency of capitalism to overproduce and crash as a consequence;
• The labor theory of value.

Famous Marxists include Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Slavoj Zizek.

Logical Positivism

It is focused on the idea of verifications. It is trying to base all knowledge on either empirical data or logical tautologies.
The underlying principle of verificationism cannot be shown to be true, making it unsolvable.

Taoism

Taoism is based around the Tao Te Ching, written by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu.It is based around ideas of:
• humility
• the ‘Way’
• a focus on the individual
• simplicity
• naturalness

Taoist thought later fused with Buddhism and formed Zen.

Rationalism

Rationalism is the idea that knowledge must come from reason and thought, rather than empirical evidence. Socrates, Rene Descartes, and Spinoza argued for rationalism.
Today, most thinkers combine rationalist notions with empirical data.

Relativism

Relativism is the idea that views are relative to the perspective.This idea can be applied to morality or truth, where some argue that there are no moral facts or absolute truths.
Cultural relativism is the idea that the morality of two different cultures cannot be compared.

Buddhism

Buddhism is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha. Although Buddhism has a diverse range of thought, it is bound together by the idea that suffering has a cause.
Buddhism believe suffering can be overcome by:meditation,following the eightfold path andcontemplation of sutras.

Let’s say that you didn’t exactly hit it out of the park with your resolutions this year. Let’s say that you’re getting ready to step up to the plate again. Let’s say that you’re ready to start over and really make this year a year of action. Whatever action you plan to take first, it’s always best to plan accordingly and prepare for the journey ahead. After all, it’s not an easy trek. Maintaining good habits and routines over the course of twelve days — let alone twelve months — is a challenge.

I take the time to build up three things to start a year of action during the month of January so that I can really take the twelve months to come to new heights. Rest assured, you can take these things and apply them at any time of the year. But there’s no time like the present, so why not explore one of them now and see where it leads you?

1 – Connecting With Your Actions

Starting new habits, getting into new actions is a challenge.One way is to connect with your actions better by using context and association with the work you intend to accomplish.
By using contexts and looking inward, you’ll create better awareness for yourself. And that will lead to a better for yourself too.

2 – Learning to Say No

Learning to say No to certain unproductive or distracting actions is the best way to leave space for what’s important in your life.
Obligatory behavior doesn’t go well with what you want to do. Every aspect of your life will suffer if you take up too many things.

3 – Focus

Focus your attention 100% on the task at hand. Anything less is not ideal.
If you are getting distracted all the time, with email notifications, facebook updates, or a ringing telephone, you are essentially getting robbed of your attention.

A year of action is closer to being realized — when you use as many of the above three ways as starting points as you possibly can. Better still, if you take all three ways and keep them at top of mind throughout the year, you can go beyond just having a year of action…you can have a life of action.

And that’s definitely a life worth living.