Learned helplessness is a situation where a person doesn’t try to break away from a negative situation or attempt a particular task because he/she believes that it is impossible to do so. Such behavior occurs when a person has failed on the previous attempts or has witnessed others fail. A young man was walking through an elephant camp when he noticed something peculiar. None of these elephants were caged. All they had was a thin rope tied to one of their legs while the other end of the rope was attached to a weak ledge. Any elephant could snap the rope or uproot the ledge without breaking a s ..read more

The Red Queen Effect suggests that all species must constantly improve to survive. For humans, this translates into a need to put continuous effort to remain where one is. The Red Queen effect is based on a fictional queen from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” In the story, Alice(the little girl in Wonderland) runs hand in hand with the Red Queen. They both run so fast that Alice has a hard time keeping up. Yet, the Queen keeps screaming, “Faster, Faster.” Alice tries her best to speed up, but she is unable to increase her pace any further. But, what confuses Alice is that the worl ..read more

Locus of control is the extent to which people believe they have control over the events in their life. Recall a situation when you encountered a failure. You can go a few years back if you like. For example, you lost a match while in school, you missed a crucial deadline at work, or your stock investment went downhill. What was your reaction to that event? Did you feel the outcome was due to your actions or due to uncontrollable external circumstances? If you believe you had control over the event, you possess an internal locus of control. If you believe the result was due to external factors ..read more

Comfort zone is a state where you remain relaxed in a familiar environment thereby limiting your opportunities for growth and improvement. What are some of the goals you have wanted to accomplish but never managed to? Wanting to make more money Switching jobs Exercising regularly Eating healthy Reading more books Starting your own business When you aim for such goals the first time, you begin with all the energy. But, you soon realize that you have to change your routine and lifestyle to make your dreams come true. Putting in effort is hard, isn’t it? So, what do you do? You postpone your go ..read more

“I want to get better at time management,” you tell yourself with conviction. You then hunt for the best book on productivity and go on a spree of reading time management articles. You even join a couple of Facebook groups to motivate yourself to do better. After filling your brain with tips from different sources, what happens? You find yourself struggling with your time management problems just like you did before. The techniques you try do not seem to deliver the results you expect. “Why in the world are these methods not working?” you ask yourself. Were the tips useless? Of course not. We ..read more

If I ask you to paint a picture of laziness, how will your sketch look like? Try to think of an image in your mind. Most people visualize a person watching TV holding a bag of chips in one hand and a can of soda in the other. The other common depiction of laziness involves sleeping. Though these are the right pictures, you and I procrastinate in various other shapes and forms. We’re well aware of a few of them, but we choose to procrastinate anyway. But, the sneakiest ways of our laziness occur in ways which we ourselves don’t recognize. You blame the circumstances as reasons for procrastinati ..read more

The Red Queen Effect suggests that all species must constantly improve to survive. For humans, this translates into a need to put continuous effort to remain where one is. The Red Queen effect is based on a fictional queen from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” In the story, Alice(the little girl in Wonderland) runs hand in hand with the Red Queen. They both run so fast that Alice has a hard time keeping up. Yet, the Queen keeps screaming, “Faster, Faster.” Alice tries her best to speed up, but she is unable to increase her pace any further. But, what confuses Alice is that the worl ..read more

Locus of control is the extent to which people believe they have control over the events in their life. Recall a situation when you encountered a failure. You can go a few years back if you like. For example, you lost a match while in school, you missed a crucial deadline at work, or your stock investment went downhill. What was your reaction to that event? Did you feel the outcome was due to your actions or due to uncontrollable external circumstances? If you believe you had control over the event, you possess an internal locus of control. If you believe the result was due to external factors ..read more

Comfort zone is a state where you remain relaxed in a familiar environment thereby limiting your opportunities for growth and improvement. What are some of the goals you have wanted to accomplish but never managed to? Wanting to make more money Switching jobs Exercising regularly Eating healthy Reading more books Starting your own business When you aim for such goals the first time, you begin with all the energy. But, you soon realize that you have to change your routine and lifestyle to make your dreams come true. Putting in effort is hard, isn’t it? So, what do you do? You postpone your go ..read more

I was extremely unproductive a few years back. I had jam-packed days which yielded poor results. After tons of mistakes and years of experimentation, I figured a better approach. I do not want you to repeat my errors or go through a similar experience. In this article, I will share tips on how to build a habit of having productive days. If you feel you’re having tiring long days but no results, it’s time you gave your day a brand new outlook. Here is my story of how I used to go by my day earlier. Let us rewind the clock to 5 years ago. “I will knock off all the important tasks on my to-do lis ..read more