Personal Development – Cristian Mihai

Luck as a State of Mind

There’s this study that’s been fascinating me for years. Called “The Luck Factor,” it was conducted by a British researcher by the name of Richard Wiseman.

During this study, Wiseman proposed a simple task: he gave people a newspaper and asked them to count the number of images it contained.

There were two groups of people, those who considered themselves to be lucky and, you guessed it, unlucky.

The “lucky” took only a few seconds to count the images contained by the newspaper, while the unlucky… it took them a few minutes at least.

Why?

Uneasy Lies The Head That Wears a Crown

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” — William Shakespeare

We have this strange fascination for the extremely successful among us. We crave stories about Alexander the Great, Caesar, Rockefeller, or Vanderbilt.

But we don’t think that it’s not all fun and games to sacrifice in a myriad different ways on a daily basis in order to reach the top of the food chain. We don’t think of how treacherous the path to the top of the mountain truly is.

You Have the Right to Be Wrong

“If anyone can refute me — show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective — I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”
Marcus Aurelius

How often do you change your mind? How often do you change your beliefs? What about your principles? Or your self-image?

How often do you admit that you were wrong?

How often do you force yourself to see things from the opposite of your usual perspective?

It can often feel like a cardinal sin to change one’s mind, to admit being wrong, but the truth is that the inability to change one’s mind is the foundation of a fixed mindset.

5 Life-Changing Lessons from Steve Jobs

“If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?”
Steve Jobs

Jobs asked this question in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. He told the audience that he looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself that question, and whenever the answer was “no” for many days in a row, he knew something had to change.

This simple habit reveals a person who was incredibly passionate, disciplined, a true visionary, one who wanted to conquer the world, no matter yet.

Looking at yourself in the mirror, asking a question we all dread means that you are ready to carpe diem, as the Romans used to say. You are ready to do live each day as if it were your last, because one day you’ll most certainly be right.

This brings us to the first lesson we can learn from the genius co-founder of Apple.

If You Want It, You’ve Got to Act As if It’s Already Yours

There’s this fun experiment I’d often try with folks. I’d ask them to imagine themselves winning the lottery.

They’d tell me all the things they’d do with the money, all the places they’d travel to, all the stuff they’d buy.

It was then that I’d ask them to tell me how they’d feel. Would they act differently? Would they talk differently? What about they way they’d carry themselves? Their demeanor, the way they’d walk? Would that change as well.

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