Author: Bardees

The Corridor Principle

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When I read my gratitude journal entries, I sometimes find myself grateful not only for people I have in my life and moments in my day but for new ideas I am learning. One idea I’m so grateful I learned from listening to Brian Tracy is called The Corridor Principle.

The Corridor Principle states that you will not see the doors that await for your in the corridor you’re about to walk unless you start walking.

That is another way to say you will not know the opportunities you might be presented with until you start. This idea is about encouraging you to start whatever you’re reluctant or scared to pursue, and how starting will help open new doors you wouldn’t have thought existed otherwise.

What a beautiful secret to success.

The Corridor Principle

Books To Look Forward To This Spring

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New books I pre-ordered for authors I respect and admire are:

I trust those authors and I can’t wait to see what hey have in store for us.

I would like to mention I like to support my favorite authors. Pre-ordering matters in book publishing business. I also joined the launch team of Jon Acuff’s book to get early book access and read it and review it before its release, so I will share this review here soon.

I will also attempt to write more book reviews here in this blog. I’m reading all the time so why not document it? I watched this inspiring video where one of things the blogger mentioned was that he regretted not writing book reviews sooner because he wanted to get a glimpse of who he was when he read certain titles when younger. That got me motivated indeed.

Books To Look Forward To This Spring

A Snowy Day

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Those have become so rare in Jordan where I live that we got so crazy looking at the snowfall yesterday. My kids and I literally jumped up and down of joy while running from one window to another in the house to see the snowy view each one displayed.

This 24-hour storm gave me the chance to experience playing in snow with my kids aged 7 and 5 for the first time because it was their first! The energy they had was astonishing and adorable, especially my youngest. When we came back in the house, I realized he was all wet but never complained once because he was playing so hard.

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A Snowy Day

Anticipate

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Anticipate is one of my favorite words. If we think about it in terms of work and projects, it is really helpful.

Anticipation helps us plan better if we:

  • Anticipate changes.
  • Anticipate obstacles.
  • Anticipate questions.
  • Anticipate expenses.

Anticipate is another term for risk management in projects or how we might do a SWOT analysis. It is, in this case, a guiding direction.

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Anticipate

Keep Your Goals Visible

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Today I wrote my work goals for the year on a white cardboard paper to keep them on my desk visible to me all the time like |I did last year.

I spent the first 6 weeks of the year analyzing and reporting last year’s performance and preparing for a kick off meeting presenting all my findings. Now that this task is done I’m back to working on my objectives for the year. Seeing them written in front of me reminds me of my priorities and keeps me focused.

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Keep Your Goals Visible

Radio Crush

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A little thing that few people in my life know I like to do every now and then is sending voice notes to my favorite local Arabic radio station Watar FM. It’s my favorite because their Arabic choice of music is so good and especially because I respect their strict policy of not speaking over music. So when a song is playing we get to hear it from start to end. No ads. No interruptions. On the other hand, there are certain radio shows elsewhere where we are put through the agony of presenters singing along with songs not just cutting them. Does it annoy you too?

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Radio Crush

Productivity Technique: Time Blocking

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Time blocking at work has been an indispensable productivity and focus technique for me in the past months. I learned it from Cal Newport and Charlie Gilkey.

At the start of each workday I write what I plan to do on a time schedule. I use my weekly passion planner to do that and I use erasable pens as I edit it when needed.

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Productivity Technique: Time Blocking

What Fires You up?

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I am so impressed by the stories of Todd Parr that I got for my kids recently. They are so funny, meaningful, colorful. I even felt like hugging those brightly colored pages that my kids laughed with me/at me in amusement.  

The latest book we read was called The Feel Good Book. We loved it so much that we kept naming things and moments that make us feel good long after finishing reading it.

This reminded me to share my feel-good list I made recently using my PowerSheets, appropriately called: “What Fires Me Up”.

Here it goes in no particular order:

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What Fires You up?

Evening Reflection Questions

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I mentioned in my evening ritual post that I like to end the day with reflecting on the day using the five-minute gratitude journal which has an evening section consisting of 2 prompts:

  1. 3 Amazing things that happened today…
  2. How could I have made today even better?

I am happy I built my gratitude habit so well that I find it so easy to answer question one. I still get stuck sometimes answering question 2 because sometimes I really feel I gave it all I got that day. That’s why I try to ask myself this question in a different way, making it more specific, like:

  1. How might I have been harsh, uncaring, unfriendly, or unkind today?

Below are some other good reflecting questions shared by Ryan Holiday to give yourself a pat on the back on the progress you are making.

  1. What bad habit did I curb today?
  2. How did I improve today?

More reflections questions I loved (and shared here before) from the author Tasha Eurich

  1. What went well?
  2. What didn’t work?
  3. What did I learn from this?
  4. How will I be smarter tomorrow or next time I face this?

The internet is full of good questions to use for reflection, do not overwhelm yourself. What is important is you start this end-of-day reflection habit. Choose one to three questions only to answer every night to make the habit as small as possible so you would stick to it. Keep your reflection journal on your pillow so you will see it when you go to bed and remember to do it.

Happy reflection!

Evening Reflection Questions

My First Brush With Positivity

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Do you remember the first self-help book you ever read? I do. It was the classic Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking, translated to Arabic. I read it one summer when I perhaps was 14-15 years old at my grandmother’s house where I used to spend summers with my sisters. My aunt Stella bought it or borrowed it from someone. I remember being mesmerized by the idea that we need to pay attention to the quality of our thoughts. I remember my excitement reading it and enjoying this shiny new type of non-fiction books I got my hands on.

I usually give credit to reading the more recent controversial book The Secret for turning on the lights for me how my thoughts were powerful and that I needed to watch them. This classic book I read as a young teenager, however, was actually the first to tell me there were two kinds of life outlooks. The positive and the negative.

I now wonder why I had to stumble into a book to learn this key life lesson. How can I teach this skill to my kids? I believe the way I behave and talk to them and to myself infront of them is crucial in teaching them this view. But is it enough?

Thinking about this book today I realize I need to be more vocal about how to view our life’s ups and downs and let my kids find out the good news from their mummy first.       

My First Brush With Positivity