@John58

​​Today you will work hard, you will study late night, you will skip parties, you will avoid hanging out with friends. But then tomorrow, you will enjoy your life in a much better way. You will never regret the times when put others before yourself. Actions define who we are. When mixed messages are put forth by our actions, especially without admittance and ownership, it’s a glaring indication that we need to ask some questions and do some hard work on discovering who we really are.

Working with People who aren't Good at Working Remotely. Most of us have spent the majority of 2020 working from home now, and there’s nothing to suggest that the remaining months of the year will see a significant change. There are at least two good reasons for this. Keeping your workers safe should be the number-one priority for businesses, even if that means putting up with potential short-term deficits in productivity or motivation. The other is that most people are now used to working from home and many are actually enjoying it more, and even doing quite  than when they were in an office. Many, but not all. In fact, working from home is still not a natural thing for a large proportion of the workforce, and there’s a difference between getting used to a temporary arrangement and adapting to it in the long run. Those who transitioned from an office to a virtual-only environment will have seen clear individual differences in people’s ability to adapt to the office-less age. Some are still struggling. Among the obvious barriers to working from home include having to balance parenting or other family responsibilities (working from home is generally easier if you are single and have no dependents), lacking a comfortable setup (e.g., fast and reliable Wi-Fi, space, silence, etc.), and being naturally sociable and gregarious (the more extroverted you are, the more lonely you will feel working from home). The good news is that you can make it a bit easier for others to work from home, even when they are not naturally prewired for it. Try following these two recommendations. **UNDERSTAND PEOPLE’S PREFERENCES** We often talk about working from home as if it were a single, unitary activity. However, there are as many individual preferences and approaches to working at home as there are to working in an office, so your starting point should be to comprehend people's privacy and tendencies. This is harder to do when you can’t see people in person, not least because you must navigate the delicate balance between knowing about their arrangements—which will inevitably include information about their private life—and respecting their privacy. You can still do this by focusing on work-related matters, allowing your colleagues to disclose as much personal information as they want. So, for example, you can ask them how they prefer to connect (e.g., video calls, email, WhatsApp, messages, or the humble phone call), when (e.g., what time of the day/week/month, how often, how spontaneously versus planned in advance, and for how long), why (e.g., with or without formal agenda, to catch up, to work on specific projects/tasks, or simply to socialize or gossip), and whether they welcome informal contact (e.g., Zoom drinks, group meetings, book clubs, etc.). **BE KIND AND CARING** Empathy goes a long way. Even before the pandemic, the business world woke up to the realization that empathy matters, especially for leadership. The global health crisis has worsen it. There has never been a better time to show your kindness to others, even if you have to do it over Zoom. Digital empathy can be clumsy and awkward, but it is still welcome by others. When your day is packed with virtual meetings, and your life is optimized for higher efficiency and productivity, life can become pretty soulless. Even if you didn’t have a close connection with your colleagues when you were working together in person, it’s never too late to change. Ask people how they are feeling, how they are doing, and how they are managing this extended period of resilient adaptation. Above all, offer your help and support. Thank you for reading. Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed this article.

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The Truth About How Your Brain Gets Smarter. I am @John58 I am kind of new here and this is actually my first article. Hope you love it. **The Smarter Secret** Let’s assume “smarter” means making better choices, getting more of what you want and less of what you don’t. Let’s assume “smarter” means learning things faster, having more “ah ha” moments, breaking through mental barriers swiftly and with deep fulfillment. Here’s how it works. Roughly half of your brain is made of grey matter (where neural pathways are forged and reside) and the other half is made of white matter. More on this in a moment. First it’s key to know that neurons that fire together, wire together. This means to learn something new, to set a new habit in place, repetition is required. When you practice something deeply, intentionally, and with some element struggle a neural pathway is formed. Neurons are now firing together in a new sequence, and thus are wiring together as a collective. Repeated firing signals that this neural pathway is important. Repeated firing with deep practice and either stuggle or ecstasy, alerts oligodendrocytes and astrocytes that this pathway needs to be upgraded, or insulated, and the process of myelination begins. The newly forged and repeatedly fired neural pathway is then insulated like an electrical wire wrapped in a protective coating. This pathway (grey matter) is strengthened via the myelin (white matter) insulation and it is transformed from the equivalent of dial up to broadband. Heavily myelinated neural pathways are up to 300 times faster—they’ve been optimized for speed and efficiency. They’ve also become the default behaviour, as the brain will choose the most highly myelinated pathways (because clearly they are the most important). This is how we form new automatic behaviors, also known as habits or habitual behavior choices. When Einstein’s brain was autopsied in 1984 record amounts of myelin were found. Does it mean he was smarter than most? Not necessarily. Does it mean he persevered, failed, keep pushing forward with deep focused practice? Yes. I’ve been using the understanding of myelin and the myelination process with my executive coaching clients for the past year.  Thanks for reading. Please like, subscribe and comment to subscribe back.

Everyone needs to read this great piece. https://read.cash/@ClDvor/before-you-go-back-to-your-old-routine-ask-yourself-this-9e949d9e