Friday with Friends – July 17

In this issue of Friday With Friends I decided to focus on ladies only. I have always appreciated the female perspective and these five bloggers really have a lot to offer.

The [read the article] link at the end of each preview will take you to their blogs so you can finish the article and have a look around. I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do.

Boost Your Productivity in 50 Ways
by Celestine Chua

Looking for ways to increase your productivity? Do more things in a faster manner, and with better output? Here’s a list of my recommended strategies and tips to increase your productivity. Each of them has its own set of contexts where it works the best in, so apply them accordingly:

1) Get a head-start: Wake up early – Start off your day ahead of others. When doing your tasks, start it 5 or 10 minutes earlier than the time you specify. Because you are an extra step ahead, you will feel especially good about it and be motivated to run fast to keep your lead.

2) Get the big rocks in: Big rocks are your quadrant 2 tasks – the important but non-urgent tasks. When big rocks are in place, you can easily get the small rocks, gravel, sand and water into the jar. Much easier than if you tried to do it the other way round, isn’t it?

3) Hardest task first: Within your quadrant 2 tasks, work on the most hardest one when you wake up in the morning. With that out of the way, everything else becomes a breeze. [read the article]

How to Strengthen Your Ability to be Decisive
by Dr. Annette Colby

If you find that your will to choose is not fully developed, you feel out of control. If you have not learned to use your free will, you feel fragile and vulnerable. If you were brought up to obey others while denying and disowning your unique personal choices, you feel lifeless. If your will is ignored, suppressed, or hidden, pain will arise.  

Look closely at your own will. Is it frequently:

- Pushed around by the will of other people?
- Influenced by the opinions of others?
- Suppressed by your own feelings, such as depression, guilt, anger, or fear?
- Immobilized by inaction and lack of direction?
- Weakened by self-doubt?

Notice if you generally do what you wish, from the core of your being, because you have willed it, or does some other factor dominate? Do you mold yourself to the expectations of others? What happens when you tell yourself, “I can create my life exactly the way I want it, in all dimensions — body, work, family, relationships, community, and the larger world?” How does your inner voice respond? [read the article]

10 Reasons It’s Awesome Life’s Not Fair
by Lori at Seeing Good

You work yourself exhausted but your boss’ son gets a promotion. Your friend the smoker is healthy as a horse while you suffer from chronic pneumonia. Your wife has an affair yet somehow takes you to the cleaners in your divorce. Things happen all the time that contradict our hope that good things will happen to good people. Hard work doesn’t always bring rewards. Good habits don’t guarantee health or happiness. Giving love and respect doesn’t ensure you’ll receive the same in return.

You may say life’s not fair—and I think you’d be right. But how does it serve us to dwell on that idea? Who benefits when we indulge bitterness, frustration, or anger? Or perhaps a better question is: who suffers?

I say we see we take this unavoidable truth and appreciate it for the possibilities it provides. Life isn’t fair, but that’s awesome because:

10. It helps you get better at accepting what is. When you don’t get what you feel you deserved, you could easily get stuck obsessing over how it should have been. I know–I’ve been there. It doesn’t help change the situation; and it only makes you feel you worse. When you accept what is you have power to change both yourself and your reality. How amazing that unfair situations allow you the opportunity to practice acceptance.

9. It encourages you to ask yourself the question: “Do I want to be a victim?” Every day we have countless opportunities to blame other people for situations in our lives. We can curse everyone from the mailman to the president for somehow screwing up our day. Or we can commit to taking responsibility for our future, and learn to repeatedly assess how we can accept and improve our life.

8. It reminds to appreciate what you have when you have it. It’s a harsh reality that you can lose anything at any time. Your boss could lay you off after a decade of loyal service; your husband could walk out the door even though you’ve been a faithful, loving wife. This tells me we need to cherish what we have at all times. And really, any reality that forces you to be present and grateful is a gift. [read the article]

Passion or Obsession?
By Giovanna at Imperfect Action is better than No Action

Passion is one of the most important keys to success in any arena of life. When you have passion in your life you wake up excited about your day. You make the right decisions, you get more done in less time, and things flow for you. If you harness your passion, people will believe in you, trust in you, and want to support you. No greatness can happen without a person’s passion behind it. But what exactly is passion? [read the article]

Who Will Take the First Step?
By Robin at Naked In Eden

Editor’s note: In this post Robin offers 10 answers to the question: “What do you do if someone hates you?”

1. When I feel hate from someone else, which almost never happens, I say to myself, “Although I’m not responsible for another’s choice to hate, is there anything real I might have done that I need to take responsibility for?”

2. Then I choose to look at the situation on a soul or psychic level. I like to distinguish what might be someone else’s feelings and what are mine. I can all too often and too easily feel another person’s feelings. So I like to separate their feelings from mine. It allows me to more clearly see the situation and let go.

3. I’ve always seen hate as a secondary emotion, the original or base emotion being fear. I’ve experienced life as two fundamental emotions: fear and love…with various off shoots from these two emotions. In many cases if we can get to the base emotion we can more readily understand what’s really happening. [read the article]

Benefits of Blogging – Becoming an Authority
by Kristi at Kikolani

Editor’s note: This post is the fifth in a series, where Kristi covers some of the many benefits of blogging.

What is authority?

I consider being an authority on a subject being someone that others can look to for solid, useful information. If someone is an authority on SEO, then you would know if you were having SEO related questions that this person would be the one to ask.

Do you have to know everything to become an authority?

Some people may assume that, because they may not be an expert on a subject, they cannot become an authority on it. I do not feel that is true. I think that an authority on a subject not only knows their subject, but also knows where to find information that they do not know. They continue to learn and expand their knowledge, as new information becomes available.

Consider someone who gained a master’s degree in a subject 5 years ago – at that time, they would have then been considered an authority on that subject. But if they have not maintained their education, chances are the subject has evolved. This is especially true in the areas of technology, science, medicine, etc. Their degree would be less valuable than someone who is either currently studying or gaining hands on experience in the same field today. [read the article]

Well, that’s it for this Friday with Friends.
Before you go, let me ask:

Did you find these articles useful?
Which ones did you like the best?
The lines are open!

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Friday with Friends – May 29
Friday with Friends – May 15