The one habit that can transform your world forever

The one habit that can transform your world foreverThe one habit that can transform your world foreverWhat is the one habit that can transform your world forever?The habit of tracking.No, I dont mean stripping down to a loincloth and sniffing animal tracks.I mean tracking and monitoring yourself.Peter F. Drucker the famous business consultant and entrepreneur has a famous saying thatWhat gets measured gets managed.And to put it bluntly, 99% of the population goes through life without ever measuring their performance or happiness.Let me give you an example to illustrate how valuable this habit can be.One of my employees has a girlfriend who used to suffer from depression and anxiety.She would go through dark depressive geschehens seemingly out of nowhere.Being an analytical thinker, the employee in question purchased a small notebook and started keeping it in his back pocket.Anytime his girlfriend had a depressive episode or anxiety attack, he made a note of the circumstances surround ing it.After about 3 weeks, he noticed 3 trends.The episodes happened after consuming processed or fried foods, particularly dairy, red meat, and gluten.The episodes happened after nights of sleep deprivationThe episodes happened after long work shifts with negative co workers.After he noticed these patterns, he decided to help his girlfriend make a change.They began eating an 80% vegetarian diet with little to no processed foodsThey invested in an incredible mattress and high quality sleep gearHis girlfriend quit her job and took a short sabbatical before finding more meaningful work.The result?Her depression and anxiety have completely gone.He told me that, even when she gets upset, her response is simply, I ate something that put me in a bad mood, just give me 15 minutes to do some yoga and get over it.Thats a HUGE change.And it happened because he purchased a $0.96 notebook and paid attention to patterns.How can you apply this to your own life?Here are a few ideas to get you sta rted.1. Track your productivity vs. various habitsOur success, whether we like it or not, will largely be determined by our ability to get massive amounts of work done in the fastest and most effective way possible.The only aufgabe is that most people are completely unaware of how their habits affect their productivity.For example, I found in my own life that when I sleep 89 hours a night Im about 30% more productive than I am on nights where I only sleep 67 hours.One of the best ways that you can improve your life is to track your productivity against different variables.For exampleSpend 2 weeks sleeping 8 hours a night and 2 weeks sleeping only 6 and compare your output for those weeks.Experiment with different morning routines to find the most effective way to prime your day.Try using the Pomodoro method (work 50 minutes take 15 minute breaks) for 2 weeks and compare your productivity to the previous weeksTry out different planning methods and see which one helps you be the most effective.The more you can isolate and compare the affect of different habits in your life, the better your life will be.If you are willing to track and refine your habits against your goals, I promise your success will skyrocket.2. Track your spendingThis is a hard one.Most people are broke.And they arent doing anything about it.The first of the month rolls around and they wonder to themselves, Where did all of my money go?Before you ever try to create a budget, you should track your spending so that you know exactly where your money is going and why.From here, you have the power to say Wow I spent $140 on lattes this month? Im going to invest in a milk frother and make them from home and put the $110 I save into my savings account.What gets measured gets managed.If you want to manage your finances, start by measuring them.3. Track your eating and exercise patterns vs. your health goalsHeres the thing about health and fitness Its incredibly personal.I know some people who (literall y) eat only meat and they feel AMAZING.I know other people who will have terrible stomach pains and indigestion from only a few bites of chicken.Health isnt a one size fits all game.You need to figure out what works for You and the only way to do that is, you guessed it, TRACKING.I recommend that you track 4 things.Your exercise/activity habitsYour dietYour subjective energy levels each dayYour weight/body fatIf you will track these things every day for 30 days and then run experiments to determine which foods make you feel great and which ones make you feel like crap, youll be able to intelligently alter your diet for optimal performance.The same thing applies to your workouts.Some people get energized by hard workouts and some people become so exhausted that they cant get anything done for a weekBy tracking your workouts vs. energy levels you can identify which activities help improve your energy and body composition and which ones exhaust you and lead to fatigue.4. Track your rel ationship satisfaction vs. your romantic habitsAnother way you can implement tracking into your life is to track your Romance Habits against your relationship satisfaction.I know this might sound excessive (and honestly, it is) but it works.If your relationship sucks, it can be hard to properly identify whats causing problems and leading to conflict.By tracking your romance habits (e.g. how many dates you went on, how much time you spend together and what you do, how often you say I love you or praise your partner, and how often you have sex) youll be able to identify the things you need to do to make your relationship work.I know this might seem overly analytical and sociopathic, but I promise it will work.5. Track your happiness vs. major variablesAt the end of the day, we all want to be happy.Its one of the major goals of the human existence.But the problem is that very few people KNOW what makes them happy.They think they know But they dont.Years ago, I thought more money, more sex, and more status were the keys to happiness.However Despite earning multiple six figures, dating and sleeping with dozens of beautiful women, and becoming well known in my industry, I was depressed and anxious all the time.I realized, with time, that what actually makes me happy is spending time with friends that I love, getting out into nature, having authentic connection with a woman I love, and doing work that matters.I didnt know what I didnt know and I was depressed because of it.In your own life, track the different variables you believe influence your happiness.Work your ass off for a month and make lots of money, see how happy you feel.Take it easy and spend lots of time in the woods for a month, see how happy you feel.Test, test, test, until you find YOUR happiness formula.And then go and live it everyday.I hope this provided some value to you today.Stay Grounded,AndrewThis post first appeared on Quora.

Tips to Shoot Video Like a Professional Videographer

Tips to Shoot Video Like a Professional VideographerTips to Shoot Video Like a Professional VideographerWhether you aspire to become a media videographer or just want to know how to shoot professional-looking videos, you need more than good equipment. Mastering several basic video tips will ease the frustration many videographersexperience. Before long, the voreingestellt tricks will become so routine that youll be able to concentrate on creativity and not just the basics. Shoot Steady Video A tripod is an easy answer to producing steady video, but avoid becoming dependent on it. You can shoot steady video without lugging around a lot of gear. Get your body in position so that every breath you take doesnt lead to unwanted camera motion. Use the ground, a wall, or another object to brace the camera and get interesting visual perspectives. By ditching the tripod, you can move around a scene without being anchored in one spot. Produce Creative Shots Producing interesting videos involves learning creative shooting techniques. You dont want your videos to look as though they came from a surveillance camera. A beginner tends to shoot everything from the corner of a room or away from the action. By putting yourself in the middle of whats happening, you will get images that arent possible from a distance. Experiment with different angles by shooting above and below your subjects. Practice Widescreen Videos Videos are trending toward widescreen formats, such as a 16x9 ratio. Think of how you can make this extra visual space work for you. You can capture much more content in a single shot, but remember that widescreen video doesnt mean shooting all wide shots. Television is still an intimate medium. Close-ups of faces will convey more emotion than a group shot of a crowd. Avoid Unnecessary Zooms and Pans Picking up a camcorder for the first time has just about everyone wanting to hit the zoom button on every shot while panning across the horizon. The resu lt can leave viewers seasick. If youre recording an action scene, let the motion thats happening naturally dominate your video. Stop yourself from adding random zooms and pans, which distract from the action. Make sure theres a reason you are zooming or panning. At a sports event, professional videographers follow the action by following the ball. Thats the motivation behind tilting the camera up when a baseball player hits a fly ball or panning during a double play. Get Good Results When Shooting Outdoors Youd think outdoor videography would be simple because the sun provides the lighting, but to get the best outdoor results, you have to watch the position of the sun closely. Shoot with the sun at your back. If youre recording people, they may complain about looking directly into the sunlight, but tell them that the shots youll get will be much better than if you were shooting into the sun. That would put their faces in silhouette. Prepare for Indoor Video Shooting Ignoring lighting when shooting indoors can make your videos look dark. Thats why indoor video shoots require additional preparation. Adding lights is ideal. If thats not possible, check out the available lighting sources. If youre shooting video of people, get as much light in their faces. But dont be fooled by overhead lights. While they may be bright, they only light the tops of peoples heads, leaving their facial features shadowy. Position Lights for the Look You Want Using television lights will give your videos a crisper look. But good lighting involves more than blasting your subject with as much wattage as you can find. Knowing where to position lights makes all the difference in getting a natural effect versus making people look as though theyre about to undergo surgery. Besides a standard 3-light setup- one directly on the subject, plus a backlight and a fill light- experiment to get dramatic effects. Turn out all the lights in a room and use only your equipment to highlight w hat you want. Compose Creative Interviews At some point, youll want to shoot video of a person talking into the camera. It could be a sit-down news bewerbungsgesprch or just a conversation with a person on the street. Plan the interview shoot to deliver professional results. Consider the background. If youre talking to someone about traffic in their neighborhood, show cars in the distance. If youre interviewing a father about the day his child was born, put him in a cozy setting, like near a fireplace. Then decide how tight you want to shoot the interview. There is the standard head-and-shoulders look, but you may want to interview a farmer on his tractor with much of the tractor in the shot. A highly emotional interview should be shot tight so that you can see into the persons eyes. Remember to Capture Good Sound While capturing compelling video, dont forget that good audio is a must. Otherwise, your video may turn out useless. The two most common mistakes are to forget to record audio and to fail to monitor the sound youre getting. Forgetting to record audio means a childs birthday party is silent. You may be able to see the other children singing and laughing, but without hearing it, the video is ruined. Monitoring the sound helps you avoid recording unwanted audio. That can happen when you interview someone and dont notice that you are standing near a loud air conditioner. When you watch the video later, all you hear is the hum of the A/C unit, which drowns out what the person was saying. Add a Green Screen to Produce Special Effects Using a chromakey green screen gives you a world of options. These are the same tools TV stations use to present the weather. A meteorologist stands in front of a green screen, which allows the weather maps to be superimposed behind him. You can shoot a person remembering her high school graduation while video of the graduation plays behind her. Its an easy way to combine two video sources into one shot.

How to Make Your New Co-workers Like You - The Muse

How to Make Your New Co-workers Like You - The MuseHow to Make Your New Co-workers Like You Starting a new job can feel a lot like your first day of high school. Sure, you have those mora adult concerns of wanting to prove your worth and demonstrate that youll be able to excel in that new position. But, more often than not, your biggest worry is this Will everybody like you? Will you make fast friends in the office, or will you be tempted to eat your lunch alone while locked in a bathroom stall?Fortunately, theres something you can do to make the right impression and quickly secure your spot as the most beloved co-worker on your team- and, it all starts with asking one (or all) of these four questions during your first week on the job. 1. Can You Tell Me a Little Bit About Your Role?In order to successfully communicate and collaborate with other employees at your company, you need to have a solid grasp on what exactly it is that they do. While job titles can give you a surface-level glimpse into the different tasks theyre responsible for, those really only tell you so much. For that reason, its always helpful to explicitly ask your colleagues what sorts of things they do on a daily basis.The benefits of this question are two-fold. First, youll get a much more comprehensive understanding of specific peoples job duties- which will be a benefit as you continue to get your feet under you at that company. Youll know who to approach with certain questions or requests, rather than wandering aimlessly. Secondly, this sort of question demonstrates your genuine interest in your colleagues. It shows that you dont want to work in a vacuum and operate with general assumptions about what other people are doing for eight hours a day- you really want to know them, so that you can work together that much more effectively. 2. Mind If I Sit Here?There are plenty of workplaces out there that are warm and welcoming- meaning youll likely end up with seemingly endless lunch invitatio ns during your first week. But, if that doesnt happen? Theres no need to wait for everybody else to extend an invite. Instead, take a deep breath, put yourself out there, and ask to sit with a group of your new co-workers during lunch.Being the one to take the first step makes you appear that much more friendly and approachable- not to mention confident. Once you find a place to sit, follow that up with some questions about what your colleagues like to do when theyre not at the office. Its a great opportunity to discover any common interests, while also reaffirming the fact that you want to get to know them as people- and not just team members. 3. How Can My Position Best Help You?This question is a big one. And, its almost guaranteed to inspire ridiculous, cartoon heart-eyes in all of your new colleagues.You understand the core duties of your new position- the job description was able to fill you in on that much. But, now its smart to go a step beyond that and find out how your rol e can bring the most value to the other people on your team.From your co-workers to your boss, finding out how you can be an asset to them and make their lives just a little bit easier- right from the get-go- is a surefire way to prove that you want to work in the interest of the team, and not just yourself.Of course, you dont want to extend too far outside of whats expected of your position. However, if there are simple things you can be doing to better work with your team members, knowing those within your first week is helpful. 4. Can I Help You With Anything?Your first week at a new job can feel a little strange. Most of the time, its filled with plenty of paperwork, the occasional meeting, and failed attempts at finding your way from the bathroom to your desk- without leaving a helpful trail of paperclips.But, since youre really only getting up to speed, theres typically some downtime. You dont have a ton of real work on your plate during that week- and, as an added bonus, almo st nobody knows your email address yet.This makes it the perfect time to ask your colleagues if theres anything that you can help them with. Not only is it a great way to make a positive impression on your team members, but its also an excellent strategy to gain some hands-on experience- and a better understanding of how everything works in the process.The first week in a new role is usually enough to bring you back to all of those first-day-of-school insecurities- particularly when youre concerned about whether or not your colleagues will like you.Fortunately, you can take matters into your own hands. Ask these four questions when youre just getting started in your new position, and your co-workers wont just like you- theyll respect and admire you too.