The Best Advice I Ever Got

Sometimes, I find myself wondering how CEO's, celebrities, and other famous/important people got their starts or found themselves in their current positions. I think about what qualities they might have embodied, how they got the chance to meet or talk with the right person, or how they prepared for their breaking moments. I also find myself wishing I had more time to dedicate to personal growth and motivation. So, I was really excited when I found:
The Best Advice I Ever Got- Lessons from Extraordinary Lives compiled by Katie Couric.

It compiles stories and advice from many well-known, successful people such as: Mario Batali, George Lopez, Tyra Banks, Al Roker, Meryl Streep, and Donald Trump just to name a few.

I have really enjoyed reading these stories and pieces of advice and learning about these people as... well, as people rather than celebrities. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for short reading that can really pack a punch in the motivational department.

You can buy it here starting at $4.00!

SIDEBAR: if you've never used half.com for buying books, you're missing out.

So, until your copy arrives in your mailbox, I will share with you one of my favorite pieces from this book so far.

Mario Batali, celebrity chef and restaurateur, titled his section "Life is Not a Recipe". He talks about his various experiences working in restaurants and about moving to Italy to further explore the world of cooking. While I love his comments about being your own person and not conforming to someone else's recipe for success but rather writing your own, one little paragraph stuck with me more than the rest.

In reference to cleaning dirty deep fryers, Batali says,"I'm not kidding. It turns out to be a metaphor. Cleanliness is next to tastiness. Cook with a dirty fryer and you cook garbage. Start with a clean fryer and you get something perfect, simple, and poetic. Just like all of cooking, and all of life. Garbage in, garbage out. Truth in, truth out."

I particularly liked this segment because he makes a reference to "all of life", and I agree. This concept DOES APPLY to ALL aspects of our lives. This is why at the beginning of every week, I try to take time to organize my backpack, put posted power points from my professors in OneNote, and otherwise tidy up my life. It makes my school week run a WHOLE LOT smoother. I feel better prepared for class, I can find things in my backpack, and my nerves are a little less racked by daily tasks. But, this also applies to other aspects too. Having a clear plan or mindset before embarking on a grocery trip, prayer, meetings, projects, etc. helps us to make the most of our time and really focus on what is important.

So today, I challenge you to do three things.

1. Order this book!
2. Dedicate time to step back and reorganize your thoughts, desk, purse, whatever it is that is holding you back from being as efficient as possible or is causing minor yet unnecessary stress.
3. Read this book and let me know what resonates with you!

Look for the Positives

Whew! This past week has been crazy, and I have had some computer trouble that has put me behind in a lot of things. I'm still going to do all the posts from this past week, however. I'll combine the Mid-Week Motivation with Flexible Friday, here. 

Like I said, I've had some computer problems that have caused tasks like homework and email to take longer than usual. For someone like me who loves efficiency and hates to be late or slowed down, this was really annoying and stressful. However, while searching for solutions to my issues, I stumbled upon a little treasure. 

This little treasure breathes efficiency and made plowing through some of my work seem like a walk in the park. It makes a drudging task super easy and quick! And, it's FREE! Ever better. :)

So what is this gem, you ask? 

Spreeder is a free, online, speed reading software! You simply copy and paste the passage you want to read into its dialogue box, and it does the rest! You can also install the Spreeder toolbar button (I like it). With the button, you don't have to copy and paste if you're reading in your web-browser. Just click on the button when you're wanting to speed read something. 

Now, I was skeptical at first. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to comprehend what I read. But, I read about the Spreeder method a little and how your inner voice slows your reading and tried it out with a module that has a quiz at the end. I passed the module quiz with 100%, and read the corresponding passage in half the time it would normally take me to skim it!

Ok, so let's tie this back into our Mid-Week Motivation. I'll be honest; I got really frustrated and irritated with my computer issues this week, and it was difficult to stay on task. But, without these issues, I might not have found Spreeder, and I would still be drudging through long, boring paragraphs. So, maybe things aren't going super smoothly right now, but there could be a valuable gain from your struggle. You could learn a new skill, meet someone new, be forced to try something you wouldn't ordinarily (you might even like it), or you may find a much better way to do things. No matter the case, KEEP GOING! Meanwhile, stay focused, but be sure to take the blinders off and look around you for those little gems floating on the roadside; you never know how helpful they might be!

Have you had a diamond in the rough experience? Big or small, I'd love to hear about it! 

Free Fitbit! Well, Might as Well be.

Are you trying to find a fitness plan that will keep you motivated? Do you have a fitness goal for the upcoming year? Have you looked at buying a product like a Fitbit to help you reach your goals? If any of these apply to you and you own an iPhone (or other smartphone), this post is for you!

(If you have a smart phone other than an iPhone, you can still use the MyFitnessPal app and download pedometer apps to track your steps.) 

Okay, so now you're probably wondering where this "Free Fitbit" comes in. Well, if you have an iPhone, you basically already have one! With the latest iOS 8.1.2 update comes this app,

 iHealth tracks your steps and puts them into a nice line graph to track your progress.

Now, you may be wondering about the sleep monitoring aspect of the Fitbit and how it comes into play here. For this feature as well as extra motivation, use Lark!

When Lark is synced with your iPhone step tracker (easily done in the Lark settings), it will track your steps and your sleep patterns. My favorite feature of this app is the text message style it uses to give you feedback and report your data. You can have a dialogue with the app, and it will make meal suggestions and give you tidbits of motivation!

Now, do you also want to track your calorie, carbohydrate, protein, water, salt, or sugar intake? It's so easy with MyFitnessPal!

In this app, you can log all your food and drink intakes in a snap. You can search for foods from most popular restaurants and scan bar-codes to take away some of the guesswork and improve your tracking accuracy. MyFitnessPal will analyze your nutrition intakes and report them in an easy to use pie graph or detailed list. 

But that's not all, you can sync MyFitnessPal with your iPhone step tracker too, and it will factor those steps into your exercise for the day and add the calories burned to your daily allotment!

Need more motivation? 

These apps from FitnessStar, FitnessStar Yoga and FitnessStar Personal Trainer will design workouts just for you!

Guess what else, these will also sync with MyFitnessPal so you don't have to manually enter in your workout data! 

Now, I have one more app for you that can help to keep you motivated.

EveryMove also syncs with your iPhone Step Tracker and rewards you for walking! Some employers even have reward systems for employees that use EveryMove.  Try it out!

I hope these apps help you in reaching your fitness goals and save you some money! My personal goal is to simply get healthier and take better care of myself, and I think these will help. I will keep you updated on my progress. Feel free to share any tips and successes with me; I'd love to hear about them!