Don’t Trust the Source.
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Life Hack:
Don’t Trust the Source. Throughout your life people will be more than willing to offer you their advice even if you don’t explicitly ask for it. Often times, well-intentioned advice can guide us through difficult decisions or in moments where we need extra encouragement. However, not all advice is right for YOU. Whether you’re looking to make a career jump or plan a vacation to a third world country, people will weigh in with advice based on their own life’s perspective. For example, your Mom who’s been at the same company for life probably wouldn’t understand a jump to a startup and your Aunt from the countryside wouldn’t get why you booked a spontaneous trip to Colombia.
So how do you know which pieces of advice to take and which to ignore? Start with the source and ask yourself these two questions: 1) Is this person someone who’s opinion you respect? 2) Do they have good perspective or extensive knowledge in the area your seeking advice? If the answer to either of these questions is “No” then you should ignore their advice and seek it elsewhere. Find people who’s advice you trust, but when in doubt listen to your own instinct. You know your own path better than anyone else.
Lifestyle Tip:
I’m an Instagram Addict. OK, I’ll be the first to admit it. Over the past five years I’ve slowly developed an addiction to Instagram. Yes, I’m calling it an addiction. It’s gotten so bad that I actually delete the app off my phone every few days to go on an “Instagram cleanse.” Scary, I know. But I realized over the past few months that I was wasting countless hours each week scrolling through Instagram’s addictive “Explore” Feed. Sure, sometimes I’d find useful posts about places to travel, restaurant’s to try, or healthy food… but 90% of the time I’d find myself viewing mindless memes and clickbait videos. After more than five minutes of going down this rabbit hole, I can literally feel my brain shutting off and turning into a soft mush.
During these “Instagram Cleanses” I delete Instagram off my iPhone for a full week. I then allow myself to download it for a half-hour binge every Sunday before deleting it again. This cleanse method has done great things for me very quickly. Most notably, it frees up time for more productive and enjoyable activities (i.e. reading, podcasts, blogging, texting with friends). On top of this, I’ve realized that 7 days off Instagram isn’t as dramatic as it sounds. Sure, I miss a few DM’s and maybe a pic of my friend and his fiance in Bali, but these are all things I can like and comment on retroactively. I realized that my life isn’t on social media. And now that I’ve seen my own problem, I can see how pervasive it is across my friends.Are you a social media addict? What parts of life are you missing because of it?
Career Tip:
Be a Student for Life. Let me guess, you were the type of college student who crammed for exams by pulling all-nighters and once college ended you vowed to “never study again.” I used to be just like you. I thought the introduction of 9-5 workdays meant that studying was over. Eight hour workdays were already longer than any day I had in college. But I realized quickly after college that studying was far from over for me. I found out at my first corporate job that the best employees with the brightest futures used their off hours to study up on the industry or polish off their presentation skills. They weren’t at happy hour. They were mastering their craft.
If you want to take your career seriously then you need to think proactively about what skills you need to develop to get to the next level and then set time aside to master them. Is their an industry exam you need? Would getting your masters make sense? Should you join ToastMasters? Don’t work overtime on your current job, but instead work overtime on YOURSELF. It will pay massive dividends.
Website to Check Out:
The Culture Trip. When you arrive in a foreign city it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. How do you spend the few days that you have? Where do you get food that’s both local and delicious? What words are essential to know in the language of the country your visiting for you to get by? I discovered The Culture Trip on my trip to Colombia this week and found it a good supplement to my Trip Advisor research. With these two sites I was able to find top activities, restaurants, and hidden gems that would’ve been possible otherwise. While Trip Advisor provides great peer reviews from other tourists, The Culture Trip adds a local flavor from people who have had extensive experience living in the area.
Quote of the Week:
“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till the other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau