Personal Development for Geeks

The Four Agreements is a book that made an impact on me.

I stumbeled across this today - a summary of the book. It's a 12-page PDF file, and well worth a read if you're wondering wheter or not to buy the book.

Click here to read it (PDF)

These stories never ceases to amaze me:

Hour of daily exercise cuts bowel cancer risk

Whether is it jogging around the park, pumping iron or swimming, an hour of vigorous exercise a day can lower the risk of bowel cancer, a study said on Monday.

Even cleaning the house, or two hours of less strenuous activity can make a difference, according to the study of more than 413,000 people in 10 European countries.

Most people know that. I think we can replace xxxx with anything, like:

• Hour of daily exercise cuts risk of obesity
• Hour of daily exercise cuts risk of depression
• Hour of daily exercise cuts risk of early death
• Hour of daily exercise cuts risk of retardedness

etc.

It's not news - but it's good that it gets attention anyway

I'm just about to head out the door and I find this site.

It looks like a great resource for Lucid Dreaming with lots of good info. I'm looking forward to checking it out some more when I get time, hopefully later this evening

Check it out here:
http://www.dreamviews.com/index.php

Many geeks are introverts. And that's all ok - but in our occupation or in personal life we sometimes need to make a public speech. So, public speaking is something we need to be comfortable with.

This guide is divided into two parts, first a list of practical steps you can start to do instantly, and then a podcast by Steve Pavlina. I like to keep it practical, so here goes:

The 5 Simple Steps

• Take a moment when you are with friends you feel most comfortable with and say to yourself... This is me always. I am always the same at my core. I can be comfortable and confident with whoever I choose to be with. It is not the people I am with that make me comfortable or confident, it is my choice to be comfortable and confident. (thanks 999GEORGE)
• The problem is that you are stuck in a state of self-conciousness, which is the opposite to a state of self-confidence. Train yourself to be more focused on the other people in the group than you are on yourself. Try not to focus on yourself when speaking, try just to speak and focus on the others.
• If you feel free when speaking with close friends - before you speak to a new friend / audience, imagine yourself speaking to your close friends and put yourself into that state. You will begin to notice a different sensation going in your body. (thanks DatingSpecialist)
• Public speaking is like weightlifting, start small and then move on to heavier weights later. What "starting small" means for you is very individual. It might be speaking to some random person in the grocery store, or speaking to a group of people about something you know well. Practice makes perfect, and definately in the world of public speaking.
• Install a helpful new belief - we are all connected. People are not looking at you and judging you, thinking negative thoughts etc. the audience is you. The podcast below talks about this.

The Podcast

Here's a podcast from Steve Pavlina on "Overcoming fear", in which he presents the above technique in addition to a "new one" .. I love that he uses metaphores and speaks in a way we geeks can understand. He calls the irrational fear like the fear of public speaking as "a fault in the system" and removing it is like "debugging software and fixing bugs" .. simple as that!

Remember what Buddha said: "All suffering is caused by failure to understand our true nature"

By the way - a lot of people also recommend the book How to Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie - I've read it, and it's great. So ignore the cheezy title

Hope this post was helpful!