Need to be creative? Classical music is the one to listen to.

Need to relax from a stressful situation? Classical music is a great reliever.

Need inspiration? Listen to classical music.

It is instructive to note that you don’t hear classical music blasting out of a low ride convertible during a summer evening. You may however hear it in the background of a millionaire’s garden party. I don’t know the reason, but I know it works to affect the mind beneficially.

I’ve listened to all types of music, rock, rap, etcetera.  Each has an effect on the thoughts of the mind. Of them all I’ve found classical to be the most beneficial. For example, drinking enough water and sleeping with classical music playing I have discovered can make five hours of sleep feel more refreshing than eight hours of sleep.

This is even more true in the current information age in which we live. The fabric of our interactions is tearing and stitching together in complex ways with many new threads sewn in place.

Re-skill, add skill, complement skills, whichever is most suited to your desired end, it’s all good.

The type of risk I’m discussing has no moral danger, nor physical danger in its action. We don’t take such risks not because they have any danger inherent in the action but because we are afraid to do so. We are scared.
There at the bounds of our comfort lies our constraints. Doing that thing which scares us pushes back the envelope of comfort, and expands our horizon.

We fear that we may be scarred by a negative result of doing that thing. People may laugh at us. We may mess it up. However, it is far better to walk with a scar than to be paralysed from fear and die of regret. Even the scar itself reminds us our fears have been conquered. Take courage, take a risk and lose regret.

My reading material was almost entirely technical information that contributed to going at slow pace.

Being overwhelmed by the amount of information to read was a stress inducer. Perhaps you’ve felt like that too?

I found the solution in learning speed reading, and thoroughly recommend it to others I meet. It has enabled me to go from a sluggish 200wpm to 1,200wpm and beyond. I worked at it for a month, at least 20-30 minutes per day.

I thought comprehension, and retention would suffer with such increases, but the reverse has proven to be true.

With particularly technical material, it can be read in a number of passes. Each pass building up a layer of detail in comprehension from the document. The total time to read the document a number of times still being much less than my one reading when I was a slow reader.

Another interesting thing starts to occur as ones speed advances through the 700wpm-900wpm range. Words no longer seem like words but their grouping seems like a picture. It’s a very odd concept, and hard to describe, but feels like you are eating information through your eyeballs.

If someone like me, who was such a slow reader, can speed read, anyone one can do it!

Gone are the days of not knowing where an item is, even if it lies in a swollen inbox.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed with life’s inputs the GTD system is sure to assist in helping you regain control and lower your stress.

A goal, tangible or virtual, is a marker by which we can measure our efforts. No marker means there’s no way of knowing you’re reaching your goal. It’s the target on the shooting range, the bullseye on the dartboard, the lap time on the clock, the landing light on the runway, the point “B” on the Google map, the luggage carousel in the airport…err, well you get my drift. It’s the point that tells you you’ve hit the mark, acheived, or arrived at where you want to be in life.

We take many corrective steps to steer us towards the marker (the goal) till we eventually achieve it.

Want to be successful? Define what success means to you, write it down and set down your marker. Set your goal.

My current goal is 166 more edits away (sic.)