Easy ways to improve your memory

Think of all the things you could do with a better memory – remember prospective client’s names you’ve only met once, rattle off facts about your products and services with ease to your customers, never forget your anniversary (again), etc.  With a better memory you could get better grades in college, advance your career, and greatly improve your income potential.

Most of us already use the more common memory tricks like mnemonics – Roy G. Biv to remember the major colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), or Every Good Boy Does Fine for the line notes of the treble clef, and simple repetition, which is drilled into us at an early age.

I’ve put  together a list of some lesser known memory boosters and cheats for you, easy ways to help you:

- Recall almost any fact with ease,

- Remember faces and names,

- Associate facts with a date,

- And develop an uncanny ability to recall every word said.

So prepare to amaze your friends, family, and colleagues with your new found cognitive abilities: Read the rest of this entry »

Want to be happier?

Wouldn’t you like to be happier? That is, without the aid of prescription pharmaceuticals? Most people spend their lives chasing after things they think will make them happy, like money, careers, or relationships, only to discover they’re no happier than they were before.

You would think winning the lottery would make you the happiest person in the world, but studies show lottery winners go back to their previous levels of happiness within five years.  If you get an unexpected windfall the areas of your brain that register pleasure light up temporarily, but if you receive that same amount on a regular basis (like a paycheck) it doesn’t have the same effect.

The opposite is also true for people who suffer terrible losses.  Studies show that paraplegics have the same level of happiness after one year as do lottery winners.  Our brains adjust to our environment and our circumstances and return to a sort of preset happiness baseline.

So does this mean nothing will keep us happy? That we should give up chasing after those things we think will make us happy? Even though money doesn’t bring lasting happiness it does buy some really cool stuff, a good career can bring a sense of fulfillment and purpose, and married couples are reported to be happier and married men for some reason tend to live longer than single guys.  And if you follow these five tips from the experts on being happy you can have all these things and more happiness, too: Read the rest of this entry »

Are powerful people more likely to cheat?

Are people with questionable morals just naturally drawn to positions of power and authority, or does the power that goes with the position change people for the worse?

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois and Tilburg University in the Netherlands developed a series of experiments to answer this question.  Groups of student volunteers were asked to recall and write about times in their lives when they were in a position of high and low power, and the process of mentally reliving these events would “prime” the volunteers for the study.  Half the group would be in a mindset of high power and the other in one of low power, and each group was then given one of two tasks to perform.

Half of each group was sent to a private room, given a pair of ten-sided dice, and told to report to a lab assistant the number from 0-100 they rolled (the first dice rolled was the tens digit and the second was the ones digit).  The lab assistant would then give the subject a corresponding number of lottery tickets for a drawing to be held after the study was completed, so the higher the number they rolled the more tickets they would receive.  There was no one to witness the rolls of the dice and the participants were on the honor system to report the number to the lab assistant.

The results: Read the rest of this entry »

What's your definition of failure?

Before I give you my definition I want you to stop for a second and think about your personal definition of failure.

Is your definition of failure not accomplishing something you set out to do?  If this is the case, then every “successful” person you’ve ever heard of is a failure.  People typically don’t get things right the first time they attempt them, or the second, third, or fourth time for that matter.

Thomas Edison is said to have tried at least ten thousand different ways to perfect the incandescent light bulb.  When asked about his failures he simply replied Read the rest of this entry »

Know when to outsource and when to do it yourself

Companies and the government know it’s more cost effective to hire contractors to do certain kinds of work.  It just doesn’t pay to attempt to do everything in-house, especially highly technical work and routine administrative jobs.  Most of our IT staff and administrative help are contractors, and about half of my department’s positions are contracted out.  It’s a good working arrangement for us because if we need additional help we ask for more contractors and when there’s less work the contractors move on to other jobs.  Not always the best deal for them necessarily, but our contractors are compensated well and their kind of work is still in pretty high demand so ours always have someplace to go when they leave us.

So if it’s advantageous to outsource highly technical work and administrative jobs why do we insist on doing everything for ourselves at home? Read the rest of this entry »

Run your personal finances like a corporation

Wouldn’t it be nice if your life and personal finances were run as orderly and efficiently as a major corporation?  Follow these 5 steps and you’ll be well on your way to running your personal finances as smoothly as a well-oiled corporate machine.

1. Get approval for major purchases.

Even if you have a corporate card with no credit limit you’re eventually going to have to answer to the bean counters.  Adopt this attitude toward your personal credit card and ask your significant other to review your purchases and do the same for him or her.  No significant other?  Draft a close friend or family member to audit your credit card statement and in turn offer to do the same for them.  This way your purchases will be as transparent as any corporate financial report and you’ll probably be a lot less likely to make impulse buys.

2. Make decisions by committee.

Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”  Take this to heart the next time you have a major decision to make, whether it’s for a major purchase, an investment, refinancing, credit card offer, etc.  Read the rest of this entry »

Are you making resolutions or goals?

Before you start publicly declaring your resolutions for the New Year, do you even know what a resolution is?  Merriam-Webster defines a resolution as reaching a firm decision about something, but what does deciding to do something have to do with actually making it happen?  I could decide to drive to Cabo San Lucas but without a car, some maps, and a passport it ain’t gonna happen.

This reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago about three frogs sitting on a pond log.  One frog was big and green with huge ugly warts. The second frog was quite handsome as frogs go with attractive yellow spots and legs built for leaping.  The third frog by contrast was quiet and shy, averaged sized, and with no markings at all, the kind of frog that just blends into the background. Read the rest of this entry »