So, I went on something of a binge read recently of Paula Pant over at
AffordAnything.com and I thought I'd share some of my favorite articles from her.
Does Passion Come First? Or Second?
One I think appropriate for those starting out in business for themselves is her article on passion. I found the article really interesting because I've often had a hard time figuring out what my passion really was since I felt like I rarely felt true "
Passion" for any subject (I don't know, I might have been expecting too much.). And that seemingly unanswered part of my life started to bother me when they would talk about the whole "find your passion and the money will come" thing (Though it's more like find your passion that matches a niche with a need or desire who are willing to pay money.)
So, when I read her article, it was really something of an eye opener that, when you think about it, is really quite obvious,
if you actually stop to think about it.
Here it is:
Start Working and the Muse Will Appear
Simple Steps To Change Your Life
This next one is on "
How to Change Your Life In Less Than One Minute". She actually covers several simple methods to make your life better but my personal favorite was one titled "The Franklin Affect".
You know how when you give a gift to somebody it makes you feel happy inside and creates positive feelings towards them? Well, apparently that action "lights up the “caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens” in your brain, the
same parts of your brain that get excited when you eat something
delicious or receive a compliment." (
quoted from Paula Pant's article)
So, the story goes that Benjamin Franklin won over the good graces of a stoic judge when he asked to borrow a book from him. It was a small request and easily granted but it apparently won him much more than the book in the end. :) "Franklin wrote that when someone else does you a small favor, they tend to like you more
, because of the joy they’ve experienced in doing that favor for you." (
Quoted from Paula's article.) Hence "The Franklin Affect"
You vs. Your Habits
For our third article we have
Sheer Willpower Won't Work. It covers the fact that, no matter how hard we try, our willpower is not going to beat out our long standing habits. Instead, we need to know why we do what we do, only
then can we circumvent our long-standing habits.
Being the owner of some bad habits myself and, of course, knowing others who struggle with changing their habits, I found this article interesting. I usually try to muscle my way through my own resolutions and find it doesn't work very well. The only time I've been able to successfully change my habits was when a pain point was unintentionally introduced into my life that made certain things I would normally enjoy not
quite so enticing.
While it only slightly addresses it, this article definitely applies towards making new habits when trying to start a business. Often, when starting out, you'll have to break yourself out of the habits of sitting down in front of the television every night or doing something,
anything, other than what you need to be doing to get your business going. Hopefully, after reading this article, you'll have a better idea of how to win against your habits.
Why Doing Stuff That "Looks Good on a Resume" May Not Be Such A Good Idea
This last article covers jobs, resumes and business.
Why You Should Quit Worrying About Your Resume.
I liked that she pointed out that companies don't particularly want to see the type of work experience that will "look good on a resume". Instead, they want to see someone with a confident attitude, lots of experiences and interests that can be applied in many areas, someone willing to learn and try new things (as shown by their varied experiences and skills), as well as an engaging, passionate personality.
I definitely agree that, no matter whether you're going for a job or planning on working for yourself, you should definitely get as much experience in different areas as possible. For one, you don't know what you'll like or be good at until you try it. And, secondly, the more experience you have the more it adds to your understanding of other areas.
My sister frequently talks about how learning some Spanish helped her understand English better. As for myself, having worked with things like photo editing (and being very good at looking things up when I didn't know something) that actually helped me work with HTML coding when I was setting up a website for someone I knew. You'll be surprised at how much different topics can cross over and help each other.
So, get out there and try new things! :D
Well, those are my top four favorites. I hope you find them as interesting as I did. Come back soon!
