Submitted by: Isa

What it is: A really easy introduction to how to more effectively communicate and experience your life.

Description: this easy to read and easy to approach book offers the reader some no nonesense coaching on the meaning of your words and actions, and how to live more powerfully in agreement with them.

Continue reading ‘Review: The 4 Agreements’

This tip is definitely for advanced users…

Many times a day, I’ll jump into my iTunes to switch up the playlist, or find something new. I have a big library, so there’s lots there. Should just take a second, right? Not if I get sucked in to fixing duplicates, changing all the artist names to be spelled the same way (GrowthPop, growth pop, gRowth_Pop?).

This ends up eating a lot of my day, so I found a solution. I tried using Fixtunes, but it didn’t recognize the hundreds of songs I have with no information, and hung exactly 100% of the time. Then I found Jaikoz! Jaikoz fixes your tags, and does it by checking not only the track info you have, but will check the actual audio file itself and compare it to its database. It basically listens to your music, and recognizes the song. Then you can tell it to just autocorrect the whole thing.

One word of caution, it’s got a lot of options, and it’s made by one guy, so you’re best off reading the documentation to make sure you do it right. This is what worked for me, and we make no guarantees…

This is what we did:

• Drag your music library in
• Click “Action->Remote Correct->Get Acoustic ID
• Click “Action->Autocorrect
• Close the program and say “yes” to save out the changes

For a lot of files, it takes a while, and I had to drag all my music back into iTunes, but hooboy, it’s nicer to look at than a spotless kitchen!

Check out the software here.

At one time or another, we’ve all accidentally (or not accidentally) ended up with a cork stuck on the inside of a bottle. Absolutely no way to get it out, right? Turns out it’s easy, and from the looks of it fun, way to free your cork from it’s glassy prison without a shard of broken glass.

Not sure about you, but after watching this, I will for sure be pushing in the cork from my next vanquished wine bottle, just so I can pull it back out again.

Michael Phelps has won more gold medals (8) in a single Olympics than anyone in history. In honor of his inspiring week in Beijing, we’ve assembled a list of 8 secrets to Michael’s Olympic success:

1. Rap Music: Michael gets focused and pumped up to crush world records with the help of Outkast, Eminem, Twista, and Lil Wayne. When asked what he was listening to before medal #4 he responded,  “What did I have on today? I think I had “I’m Me, by Lil Wayne.” Swimmers regularly ‘psyche’ each other out by talking smack in the Olympic ready room, rap on his iPod keeps Michael focused and in the zone before each race.   More on Michael’s iPod selection, at: What’s on Michael’s iPod
   
2. Hating to lose: It may go without saying, but you can hate to lose and still be a good sport. Michael has said he looks for motivation in everything he can find, including losing. “Four years ago I wanted to race and I hated to lose, getting third in the 200m freestyle, and when I do lose in races like that it motivates me to swim faster.” Learn more about how Michael turns losing into winning, here.
3. Eating 12,000 calories per day: Phelps consumes 6x the normal adult male diet every day while maintaining 4% bodyfat. That’s a testament to an incredibly high metabolism and an insane training regimen. He says he spends most of his time eating, sleeping and swimming, but with all that food moving through him, he’s clearly leaving out pooping! See this article in The Telegraph to see the full breakdown of Michael’s diet.
   
4. Being an X-Man: There’s no getting around the fact that Michael Phelps is a real-life mutant with genetics on his side. Size 12 feet may as well be flippers, extra-long arms and

   Continue reading ‘8 Secrets to Michael Phelps’ Success’

Derren Brown is an NLP Phenomenon. Check out these videos where he predicts exactly what three women are thinking, takes someone’s wallet just by asking, and convinces someone to completely forget the thing they wanted most not 30 seconds before. He uses a combination of techniques, including NLP, to convince, predict, and amaze.

(more videos after the jump)

Continue reading ‘How to: take someone’s wallet just by asking’

Are you a pro at buying a car? Know how to negotiate, evaluate a car’s value, and choose the right time of the month to make a purchase (the end, when salespeople have to hit their quotas!)? If so, this video’s not for you, for the rest of us who dread the idea of haggling with a salesperson or even used-car owner and figuring out whether we’re being screwed or walking away with a steal, Rob Gruhl gives a quick five-minute lesson on what to look for, and how to buy a car without the drama.

It turns out, smiling DOES help you feel better.

According to two research studies, one in 1988 and one in 2002, just smiling can help accentuate a positive experience.

And since it’s Monday, we thought you should know.

Read the full article on Cognitive Daily

My ears perked up when a woman at a bar told me about a new training program that gets you in wicked good shape, but takes less than 30 minutes a day…and sometimes less than 20. Some say, after their first workout that they are the toughest 20 minutes they’ve ever experienced. A few days later I ran into an old friend of mine at the gym. I watched him wince through a round of situps, and then saw him run and jam out some quick pullups, run back and grab the kettle bells, sweating like a madman and breathing hard.

“I have to ask,” I said. “You doing that crossfit thing?”

He gave met the lowdown. Every day you go the crossfit site:

www.crossfit.com/

Get your workout for the day which ranges from running a 5k for time to something a bit more sophisticated like the below:

10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 30 reps
50 Pull-ups

Continue reading ‘Crossfit Junkies’

The Top 10 Delusions of Personal Growth
By Carl Buchheit
1. That you can get somewhere positive by defeating something negative.

When we act to improve our lives by defeating some aspect of ourselves (for example, “an old, unwanted behavior pattern,” or a recurring issue of “self-sabotage”) who is it, exactly, who wins?

One of the most enduring and unfortunate delusions to come out of the personal growth movement (especially the “monster power growth” version of it) is the idea that

Continue reading ‘The Top 10 Delusions of Personal Growth’

I have a love-hate relationship with note taking. I love it when I have a system for storing, filing and retrieving the information. I hate note-taking, when I know my notes will end up in a notebook or pile of other notes that will never be referenced. Lifehacker’s Gina Trapini summarizes a few methods for taking great notes and making your notes more usable in her latest post, Geek to Live: Take Great Notes

A Summary:

Method 1: Symbolize the next action

Using notepaper or a simple text file on your laptop or tablet, indent the pages of your notes in from the left margin. Then, use a simple system of symbols to mark off

Continue reading ‘Method Note-Taking’