Stress

In The Box Podcast

Episode 41: Tip For Starting A Business, Actionable Conversations, Keeping A Commitment And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast we got real about turning conversations into actionable items, if we’re projecting stress on others or feeling it ourselves, one way to help us keep a commitment, one tip for someone looking to start a business, and if the internet us powered more by bragging than drama.

Episode 41: Actionable Conversations, Projecting Stress, Keeping A Commitment And More

Conversation – First thing you should do to turn a good conversation into action?

Projection – When you are feeling stress/anxiety toward someone, are you really just projecting?

Commitment – What is one way to help you keep a commitment?

Bragging and Drama – Which has more power on the internet, bragging or drama?

Bonus – What is one tip you have for someone looking to start a business?

 

Stay Positive & Best Way To Listen Is To Download Us On Itunes

Stressful Work, Self-Evaluation And Hacking Your Productivity (And How To Win Monopoly)

Garth Beyer

Hacking Productivity

It’s been more than two years since I gave a Toastmasters speech. I connected with the president of the club I used to be involved in and had dinner with her yesterday. We chatted about the PR life and how stressful the work is. (Top 10 most stressful careers!)

I agreed that it’s stressful work, but it’s as stressful as you let it be; there are ways to lessen the stress.

One of my old friends gave a speech at the meeting about saving mental energy for more important decisions by limiting the options you have for what to wear. A few months ago I mentioned the benefit of wearing the same outfit each day. Jobs did it. Zuckerberg does it. So many others do it to save mental energy for work and decisions that matter.

What I do each weekend is evaluate my week in terms of stress, productivity, time, focus… all that important stuff that dictates your level of happiness or unhappiness. I stop doing what’s unproductive, I stop having meetings with people who don’t create value, I read more, I freewrite for 15 minutes every night, I meditate in the morning and recite a mantra I wrote – all the things I do and don’t do are done or not done with purpose.

The president asked me something like, “Isn’t that exhausting or stressful to have to be so on top of everything?” She was obviously thinking about the benefit of going with the flow, letting things be, simplifying life (which certainly has its value at times). My response…

It’s fun to hack your productivity, your energy, your focus. It’s like the moment you learn how to win Monopoly: just make sure you buy St. James. Place then begin to build on the orange. Works every time. The excitement of learning, knowing and then implementing the practice which nearly guarantees success is what drives me to reevaluate, review, and renew my objectives of the week each weekend.

Stress is not an external force we have no control over. We design our stress, and by evaluating ourselves on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, we begin to notice what’s working and what isn’t in our lives. We respond rather than react. It’s an art, and there is so much beauty in art.

 

Stay Positive & There Is No Better Game To Hack Than The Work Game

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How To Make Hard Work Smoother And Success Easier

How To Make Hard Work Smoother And Success Easier

Garth Beyer

Putting Yourself Out There In Something Bigger Than Yourself

I’ve tackled some large projects, some valuable pitches, and some heavy team building strategies over the last few years. What has made my practice flow and get me to quickly reach various successes (milestones I defined for myself)  has been to have a single target I want to reach. Let me explain,

  • If you want to work at a PR agency, choose one and make that your primary focus.
  • If you want to be a blogger, choose your corner of the internet and put all your worry, anxiousness, concern, and attention into it, and not any other corner.
  • If you want to travel to Nepal, put all you’ve got into making that happen.

BUT, be casually (not actively) open to new, different opportunities.

The benefit of working like this is that because you’re so focused on one thing, it makes anything and everything else seem nearly effortless.

  • It’s painless to go into and interview at an agency you’re not 100 percent sold on and rock the heck out of the interview because you don’t see it as a defining moment in your life.
  • When you’re focused on your corner of the internet, you’re more likely to get published on other outlets because you didn’t over think the writing you’ve submitted to them. You save the over thinking for what you publish on your blog.
  • It’s easy to “apply and see what happens” for a trip to Cambodia, even though your primary target is Nepal.

When you’re so focused on achieving one goal, you’re more carefree, open, vulnerable, true, and authentic when it comes to other related options. When you have your one target, it makes hitting any other targets much easier.

The best projects I’ve landed were ones I never truly aimed for, thus never stressed about.

Bonus tip: If you’ve got a big pitch or event you’re hosting or project you’re selling at a certain time of day. Plan something larger to do after, something that scares you more. It’s the same concept as described above. When you set a lofty target or goal for yourself, it makes everything else much easier.

 

Stay Positive & How Will You Use This Life Hack To Your Advantage?

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How To Not Burn Yourself Out (It’s Ironic)

Garth Beyer

Overworked

Spending hours on Pinterest or skipping lunch to continue working on your business plan is exhausting. To be an expert in social media, undo, marketing, guitar, writing greeting cards, anything, it takes tons of time.

Over and over I’ve watched others burn out from spending hours upon hours on something.

I’ve seen friends spend days learning cool Twitter marketing skills just to burn out and scrap their campaign idea.  Others have exhausted themselves from writing for 4 hours straight or playing a video game for 8 hours non-stop. (Ask anyone in my family or my close friends, I’m quite notorious for burning myself out too, and it’s taken a number of years to write this post with pure confidence.)

The best way I’ve learned to not burn myself out is to do a little bit of everything. To be a social media expert, don’t spend all your hours trying to leverage Twitter. Do something with Twitter once a day and move on to doing something with all the other social media outlets. Instead of going all in, go in on all.

It’s not about knowing a little bit about everything anymore. Now it’s about learning a little bit about everything continuously over a period of time until you’re an expert on a lot of things.

This also means to go out and run in the rain, to cook yourself a damn good meal, to email a family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. Everything in moderation.

 

Stay Positive & Emphasis On The Everything

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Do You Know What Sacrifice Is

Garth Beyer

You’ve sacrificed A for B, this for that, your money for the chance to get it back ten-fold, your time for the money you save not hiring someone else to do it. If you give something up for something you will benefit more from, is that a sacrifice? Or is calling it a sacrifice just having a poor perspective on the situation?

If you choose to stay up late to work on your startup, that’s not a sacrifice, it’s a smart choice.

If you choose to quit eating out so often so you can by a new camera for your photography project, that’s not a sacrifice, it’s a worthy decision.

Next time you say you’re making a sacrifice, really think about it.

 

Stay Positive & Calling It A Sacrifice Is Just Added Unnecessary Stress

How It Works

Garth Beyer

There is a little known benefit to watching how something works.

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For most things, you can read blogs, watch YouTube videos, or flip on the television show How Stuff Works to see how exactly something works. If you’re a real adventurer, you might go to the location of “it” and see for yourself how it works.

The little known benefit of watching how things work is that it becomes ever more difficult to hate it, dispute it, or rant about it.

After seeing this video on how clutches work, I don’t find myself getting angry when I’m shifting my motorcycle and it jerks me forward or backward.

There’s a natural tendency to care more about what we know more about. All opinions change as more information is acquired.

Next time something frustrates you. Learn about it.

 

Stay Positive & Stress Ball Profits Are Now Seeing A Decrease

(how do they even work anyway…)

Garth E. Beyer

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