Fight Overthinking, That Destroyer of Decision Making

When making decisions under pressure, many professionals are plagued with a fear of making the wrong choice, selecting an option that could lead to business failure. This fear of failure, in itself, is not a bad thing.

In our new book What Business Can Learn From Sport Psychology, we examine how a fear of failure can actually provide powerful motivation for athletes and business professionals. But that's only if the fear of failure inspires thoughts of success and taking assertive actions toward a desired goal.

So where does the fear of failure stem from? Often it originates from the fear of making the wrong choice, which more often than not is caused by overthinking.

The root of overthinking.

With overthinking, people want to make the right decision so much, they worry that they won’t be able to and lose sight of what it takes to make good decisions: a clear mind. By worrying and ruminating about a decision, they can slow down the mental processes that underpin decision making. They try to force the brain to complete the complex process of making a decision in a way that it is not comfortable with.

Take driving for example. Driving is an extremely complicated process involving coordination of mind and body to perform intricate movements safely and proficiently. If you've been driving for some time, no doubt you make the complex decisions for doing so without thinking about the precise processes involved. You have developed expertise after all, and decisions can be made without having to process each alternative and consciously weighing the pros and cons. But maybe when you were learning to drive this wasn’t the case. When someone is learning to drive, each choice is made intentionally and deliberately.

But if you had to take your driving test again in order to continue driving (and had to make sure your performance was flawless), you would probably abandon your automatic decision-making process and instead break down the choices into their component parts, asking yourself, Are my hands in the right place? Have I checked the mirrors? Am I in the right lane? 

The trouble is, by examining all the component choices, you would be making decisions in a way that's very odd for your brain. You are an expert, remember, and all this intricate and in-depth procedural decision making is not needed anymore. So what would normally be a smooth and proficient decision-making process would become a slow and uncoordinated state of confusion. That ultimately would damage your performance.  

In golf, overthinking the skill execution has been the ruin of many a professional. Like all elite athletes, professional golfers have undergone thousands of hours of deliberate practice to ingrain technical skills into their mind and body. This learning process means that when they perform, they don’t need to think about the individual component parts of skill execution.

When putting, they don’t need to consider the complex sequence of coordinated movements in their hands, arms, shoulders, back, trunk, legs and feet. They can just think about where they want to the ball to go and execute the move automatically.

But when worry emerges, in those pressure situations when a putt will win the championship, many golfers start to break the skill down and try to make the putt as if they were novices performing the skill for the first time. No longer is putting a smooth automatic process. It becomes an uncoordinated and rigid process. And that can turn a simple putt into a performance catastrophe.  

When working memory isn’t working.

So under stressful, pressured situations, when making a decision is vital, worrying can cause overthinking. The working memory is someone quickly calculates risk and weighs the pros and cons in the brain. It is also where worrying takes place.

Because worrying takes up vital space in the working memory, no longer can the person efficiently process the information needed to make that all important decison. Instead, he or she tries to grasp every little component part of making that choice and break down the skill of decision making into a mechanical process. Just like the driving example, however, this isn’t how the person normally makes accurate decisions.

Be instinctual.

If you encounter those stressful high-pressured moments, instead of overthinking and risking paralysis by analysis, carry out your business analyses and evaluations, think about the issues and then go with what feels right rather than trying to function like a computer with a calculated output. In other words, consider the information you have and then trust your instincts.

Your gut reaction is informed by your vast experience of being a business professional and also from your experience of being human. You make decisions all the time without overthinking them. You, as a human being, are an extremely powerful and efficient decision-making machine.

From Entrepreneur

The Habits of the World's Smartest People (Infographic)

There is no one picture of intelligence, but many people with high IQs do tend to share some of the same habits -- both good and bad. For example, according to research complied by Online-PHD-Programs.org, while those with high IQs tend to set goals and read avidly, they are also more likely to drink more heavily and suffer from anxiety.

For more on the habits of smart people, including a look at the IQs of icons such as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates, check out the infographic below.

Successful People Start Before They Feel Ready

In 1966, a dyslexic sixteen-year-old boy dropped out of school. With the help of a friend, he started a magazine for students and made money by selling advertisements to local businesses. With only a little bit of money to get started, he ran the operation out of the crypt inside a local church.

Four years later, he was looking for ways to grow his small magazine and started selling mail order records to the students who bought the magazine. The records sold well enough that he built his first record store the next year. After two years of selling records, he decided to open his own record label and recording studio.

He rented the recording studio out to local artists, including one named Mike Oldfield. In that small recording studio, Oldfield created his hit song, Tubular Bells, which became the record label’s first release. The song went on to sell over 5 million copies.

Over the next decade, the young boy grew his record label by adding bands like the Sex Pistols, Culture Club, and the Rolling Stones. Along the way, he continued starting companies: an airline business, then trains, then mobile phones, and on and on. Almost 50 years later, there were over 400 companies under his direction.

Today, that young boy who dropped out of school and kept starting things despite his inexperience and lack of knowledge is a billionaire. His name is Sir Richard Branson.

How I Met Sir Richard Branson

Two weeks ago, I walked into a conference room in Moscow, Russia and sat down ten feet from Branson. There were 100 other people around us, but it felt like we were having a conversation in my living room. He was smiling and laughing. His answers seemed unrehearsed and genuine.

At one point, he told the story of how he started Virgin Airlines, a tale that seems to capture his entire approach to business and life. Here’s the version he told us, as best I can remember it:

"I was in my late twenties, so I had a business, but nobody knew who I was at the time. I was headed to the Virgin Islands and I had a very pretty girl waiting for me, so I was, umm, determined to get there on time.

At the airport, my final flight to the Virgin Islands was cancelled because of maintenance or something. It was the last flight out that night. I thought this was ridiculous, so I went and chartered a private airplane to take me to the Virgin Islands, which I did not have the money to do.

Then, I picked up a small blackboard, wrote “Virgin Airlines. $29.” on it, and went over to the group of people who had been on the flight that was cancelled. I sold tickets for the rest of the seats on the plane, used their money to pay for the chartered plane, and we all went to the Virgin Islands that night."

—Richard Branson

I took this photo right after he told that story. A few moments later I stood shoulder–to–shoulder with him (he’s about six feet tall) and thanked him for sharing some time with us.

Richard Branson talking on a panel in Moscow, Russia.

The Habits of Successful People

After speaking with our group, Branson sat on a panel with industry experts to talk about the future of business. As everyone around him was filling the air with business buzzwords and talking about complex ideas for mapping out our future, Branson was saying things like: “Screw it, just get on and do it.” Which was closely followed by: “Why can’t we mine asteroids?”

As I looked up at that panel, I realized that the person who sounded the most simplistic was also the only one who was a billionaire. Which prompted me to wonder, “What’s the difference between Branson and everyone else in the room?”

Here’s what I think makes all the difference:

Branson doesn’t merely say things like, “Screw it, just get on and do it.” He actually lives his life that way. He drops out of school and starts a business. He signs the Sex Pistols to his record label when everyone else says they are too controversial. He charters a plane when he doesn’t have the money.

When everyone else balks or comes up with a good reason for why the time isn’t right, Branson gets started. He figures out how to stop procrastinating and take the first step — even if it seems outlandish.

Start Now

Branson is an extreme example, but we could all learn something from his approach.

If you want to summarize the habits of successful people into one phrase, it’s this: successful people start before they feel ready.

If there was ever someone who embodied the idea of starting before they felt ready to do so, it’s Branson. The very name of his business empire, Virgin, was chosen because when Branson and his partners started they were “virgins” when it came to business.

Branson has started so many businesses, ventures, charities, and expeditions that it’s simply not possible for him to have felt prepared, qualified, and ready to start all of them. In fact, it’s unlikely that he was qualified or prepared to start any of them. He had never flown a plane and didn’t know anything about the engineering of planes, but he started an airline company anyway. He is a perfect example of why the “chosen ones” choose themselves.

If you’re working on something important, then you’ll never feel ready. A side effect of doing challenging work is that you’re pulled by excitement and pushed by confusion at the same time.

You’re bound to feel uncertain, unprepared, and unqualified. But let me assure you of this: what you have right now is enough. You can plan, delay, and revise all you want, but trust me, what you have now is enough to start. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to start a business, lose weight, write a book, or achieve any number of goals… who you are, what you have, and what you know right now is good enough to get going.

We all start in the same place: no money, no resources, no contacts, no experience. The difference is that some people — the winners — choose to start anyway.

No matter where you are in the world and regardless of what you’re working on, I hope you’ll start before you feel ready.

Written by James Clear

9 Things Rich People Do Differently Every Day

What you do today matters. In fact, your daily habits may be a major determinant of your wealth.

"The metaphor I like is the avalanche," says Thomas Corley, the author of "Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits Of Wealthy Individuals." "These habits are like snowflakes — they build up, and then you have an avalanche of success."

Corley spent five years studying the lives of both rich people (defined as having an annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million or more) and poor people (defined as having an annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less).

He managed to segment out what he calls "rich habits" and "poverty habits," meaning the tendencies of those who fit in each group. But, Corley explains, everyone has some rich habits and some poverty habits. "The key is to get more than 50% to be rich habits," he says.

And what are those rich habits that are so influential? Here are a few:

1. Rich people always keep their goals in sight.

"I focus on my goals every day."

Rich people who agree: 62%

Poor people who agree: 6%

Not only do wealthy people set annual and monthly goals, but 67% of them put those goals in writing. "It blew me away," says Corley. "I thought a goal was a broad objective, but the wealthy said a wish is not a goal." A goal is only a goal, he says, if it has two things: It's achievable, and there's a physical action you can take to pursue it.

2. And they know what needs to be done today.

"I maintain a daily to-do list."

Rich people who agree: 81%

Poor people who agree: 19%

Not only do the wealthy keep to-do lists, but 67% of them complete 70% or more of those listed tasks each day. 

3. They don't watch TV.

"I watch TV one hour or less per day."

Rich people who agree: 67%

Poor people who agree: 23%

Similarly, only 6% of the wealthy watch reality shows, compared to 78% of the poor. "The common variable among the wealthy is how they make productive use of their time," explains Corley. "They wealthy are not avoiding watching TV because they have some superior human discipline or willpower. They just don't think about watching much TV because they are engaged in some other habitual daily behavior — reading."

4. They read … but not for fun.

"I love reading."

Rich people who agree: 86%

Poor people who agree: 26%

Sure, rich people love reading, but they favor nonfiction — in particular, self-improvement books. "The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves," says Corley. In fact, 88% of them read for self-improvement for 30 minutes each day, compared to 2% of poor people.

5. Plus, they're big into audio books.

"I listen to audio books during the commute to work."

Rich people who agree: 63%

Poor people who agree: 5%

Even if you aren't into audiobooks, you can make the most of your commute with any of these commute-friendly self-improvement activities.

6. They make a point of going above and beyond at the office.

"I do more than my job requires."

Rich people who agree: 81%

Poor people who agree: 17%

It's worth noting that while 86% of rich people (compared to 43% of poor) work an average of 50 or more hours a week, only 6% of the wealthy people surveyed found themselves unhappy because of work.

7. They aren't hoping to win the jackpot.

"I play the lottery regularly."

Rich people who agree: 6%

Poor people who agree: 77%

That's not to say that the wealthy are always playing it safe with their money. "Most of these people were business owners who put their own money on the table and took financial risks," explains Corley. "People like this aren't afraid to take risks."

8. They watch their waistline.

"I count calories every day."

Rich people who agree: 57%

Poor people who agree: 5%

Wealthy people value their health, says Corley. "One of the individuals in my study was about 68 and worth about $78 million. I asked why he didn't retire, and he looked at me like I was from Mars. He said, 'I've spent the last 45 years exercising every single day and watching what I eat because I knew the end of my career would be my biggest earning years.' If he can extend his career four to five years beyond everyone else, that's about $7 million for him."

9. And they take care of their smiles.

"I floss every day."

Rich people who agree: 62%

Poor people who agree: 16%

Enough said.

From Business Insider

10 Low-Cost Weekend Businesses to Start

Whether you want to just make some extra money in your free time or desire to one day quit your day job and create a full-time business, starting a low-cost business on the weekend is an easy way to test the entrepreneurial waters. You'll need to invest little more than your time, and before long, you'll know if owning a business full time is the right choice for you.

To help you get started, we've developed this list of 10 great businesses to start. No matter where your interests or talents lie, you'll be sure to find an idea that'll fit you like a glove.

If you like to party...

Party Balloon Service The demand for a party-balloon decorator is endless and certainly not limited to only children's birthday parties. Marketing this service is best achieved by creating a colorful presentation to be distributed to all local event planners, children's stores, daycare centers and banquet halls. Likewise, attending local networking clubs or chamber of commerce meetings is also a fantastic way to get the message out about your new service. A small amount of research into your local market will assist you in product pricing as well as determining demand and competition. Should you encounter a great deal of competition in your local community, you may want to offer additional services like party cleanup or event planning to create a competitive advantage. This is a business that can be easily run from home, but you will need adequate transportation to bring the balloon arrangements to events.

If you like working around the house...

Storm Window Installations and Storage Starting a business that provides residential homeowners with a service of installing storm windows in the fall and removing the windows in the spring is a very straightforward endeavor to initiate. It probably won't make you rich, but it can provide a great seasonal income of $15 to $25 per hour, with the potential for additional cash if you also offer optional window cleaning and repair services. The equipment necessary to get rolling includes a few ladders and basic tools, such as hammers and screwdrivers. Ideal customers for this service are owners of Victorian and heritage homes as wood storm windows often do not open or provide air circulation in the summer, requiring them to be removed and reinstalled later.

If you've got a green thumb...

Tree Trimmer Trees make the earth a greener, cleaner, more beautiful place, but occasionally even the best tree needs a trim. Branches become diseased or damaged--and dangerous--or grow too close to power lines. And most homeowners lack the skills or the courage to climb up to the trouble spots and chop away. If you've got the right stuff--both tools and expertise--you can earn green with a tree-trimming service. Leave fliers on homeowners' doorsteps, especially after heavy storms, and advertise in your local Yellow Pages.

If you like to work hard...

Garage & Attic Cleaning/Hauling Service Nobody likes to spend a weekend cleaning out the garage, attic or garden shed--it's dirty and time-consuming, and when it's done, there's still the task of hauling off all that discarded junk. But if you don't mind the physical labor, a cleaning and hauling service can be a lot of fun. You can usually find a few treasures among the trash, which most people are delighted to give away, and you can add to your income by recycling bottles, newspapers and metal cast-offs. You'll need a pick-up truck or other vehicle capable of carrying everything from cast-iron sinks to old timbers. Start off by advertising in your local newspaper.

If your favorite friends are furry...

Pet-Sitter What could be a better business for a pet-lover than playing with Patches or Princess? That's what a pet-sitter does for out-of-town or work-all-day owners: feeding, watering and horsing around with four-footed clients, providing love and attention along with essential nutrients. Some pet-sitters also handle medical needs, administering insulin injections or providing in-home after-surgery care. Remember that you'll be on duty during the holidays when people tend to leave town and you'll need wheels to take you to clients' homes. To get started, distribute fliers to veterinary clinics and pet stores and ask them to refer customers to you.

If you've got an eye for auctions...

eBay Business Thousands of prospective business owners just like you have found a niche online without investing much more than a dime through online auction services like eBay. Got a closet full of junk? CDs or videos you no longer want? An eye for garage and estate sale finds? Snap a picture, upload it to the web, write a description and wait for people to bid on your product. Okay, it's not that easy. (Is anything ever?) You'll be making many trips to the post office, continually honing your description skills and understanding the different auction posting options for the site you use, and spending a lot of time e-mailing buyers. Customer service is key in this business and it will take up your time. But there's no easier and cheaper way to start selling products online, and many people have formed full-time businesses around selling solely this way.

If you like being on the road...

Vending Machines The snack vending business is a multibillion dollar industry in North America and continues to grow each year. Entering into the vending industry is very easy. Simply purchase a few vending machines, stock and locate them, and you're in business, right? Wrong. This industry also has one of the highest failure rates due to the fact that people may invest in a shady opportunity, choose the wrong location, or not realize it takes constant maintenance to keep machines in tip-top selling shape. To get started, you must purchase the machines as well as the merchandise being vended. Don't slouch in your research of the vending machine, merchandise supplier(s), and potential locations. You must pay the location owner a percentage based on sales. The big secret to any route deal is to get locations in high-foot-traffic areas and, of course, as close to one another as possible. If your locations are spread far apart, you'll waste time and traveling expenses servicing them.

If you're a wire whiz...

Home Entertainment/Car Stereo Installer If you're one of the rare few who can hook up all those wires and cables at the back of the television, DVD player, digital video recorder, cable, CD player, video games and stereo system and make the whole thing work, then this is the business for you. You'll work at customers' homes, putting together new systems or adding new components they've purchased, or hooking things back together after a move. You can also make money by installing customers' car stereo systems. Attract customers by leaving fliers with cooperative electronics sales stores and place ads in your local newspaper.

If you're book smart...

Educational Tutor For parents wanting the peace of mind that their child is receiving the proper education, extracurricular tutoring can be the preferred method of extending educational training beyond public school. There is one main requirement for starting this type of instruction business: You must be an expert in the field in which you intend to teach or tutor. Beyond that, this business is very simple to start. It can be operated on a mobile basis by going to the client or from your home office with the client coming to you. Building a customer and referral base for this type of business can be accomplished by joining community business associations and parent teacher associations. Networking and self-promotion are probably the best marketing strategies. Tutoring is a competitive industry and to gain the upper hand requires explanation and disclosure of credentials firsthand.

If you've got a head for numbers...

Bookkeeper Every business needs a bookkeeper to pay the bills, send out invoices, reconcile bank statements, and handle all those record-keeping tasks that send most of us running the other way. If you're a whiz with figures and you like the satisfaction of putting things in order, you can earn a tidy sum and help fellow small-business owners as a part-time bookkeeper. You'll need to stay abreast of current tax rules and regulations, and you'll want a computer, printer and accounting software--with a laptop, you can even travel to clients' offices. Send brochures to local businesses, place ads in your local newspaper, and be sure to have a business card at the ready for word-of-mouth opportunities.

From Entrepreneur

The Best Look for a Leader

What exactly does it mean to look like a leader?

There is, of course, the notion that you should dress for success. But are there other ways to inspire confidence in your leadership abilities? 

According to new research, it could be as simple as taking care of yourself.

A Dutch-led study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience finds that people mostly ignore facial features that might make someone look smart. But they overwhelmingly prefer people who look healthy.

The researchers came to that conclusion by having study participants view pictures of the same man with digital adjustments that made him appear more or less intelligent and more or less healthy. (The nature of these digital tweaks wasn't explained.) Participants were asked which man in the pictures would do the best job as CEO of a company. According to the results, more than two-thirds of participants chose the man with the healthier complexion as the most powerful leader. 

Lead researcher Dr. Brian Spisak explained the findings as follows: 

Here we show that it always pays for aspiring leaders to look healthy, which explains why politicians and executives often put great effort, time, and money in their appearance. If you want to be chosen for a leadership position, looking intelligent is an optional extra under context-specific situations whereas the appearance of health appears to be important in a more context-general way across a variety of situations. 

Meanwhile, the study authors concluded that "attractiveness is in part driven by cues to health, and healthy leaders are likely to be exceptionally important when disease threatens the viability of the group."  

Moral of the story? Take care of yourself before you take care of business. That means get enough sleep, exercise, and a well-rounded diet. Employees can tell when you're burned out. 

From Inc. Magazine

The 3 Decisions That Will Change Your Financial Life

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.

Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the point of achievement if your life has no balance?

For nearly four decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet. I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of small businesses.   

Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.

If you make these decisions unconsciously, you'll end up like majority of people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today. 

Decision 1: Carefully choose what to focus on.

At every moment, millions of things compete for your attention. You can focus on things that are happening right here and now or on what you want to create in the future. Or you can focus on the past.

Where focus goes, energy flows. What you focus on and your pattern for doing so shapes your entire life. 

Which area do you tend to focus on more: what you have or what’s missing from your life?

I’m sure you think about both sides of this coin. But if you examine your habitual thoughts, what do you tend to spend most of your time dwelling on? 

Rather than focusing on what you don’t have and begrudging those who are better off than you financially, perhaps you should acknowledge that you have much to be grateful for and some of it has nothing to do with money. You can be grateful for your health, family, friends, opportunities and mind.

Developing a habit of appreciating what you have can create a new level of emotional well-being and wealth. But the real question is, do you take time to deeply feel grateful with your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where the joy, happiness and fulfillment can be found. 

Consider a second pattern of focus that affects the quality of your life: Do you tend to focus more on what you can control or what you can’t?

If you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll have more stress in life. You can influence many aspects of your life but you usually can’t control them. 

When you adopt this pattern of focus, your brain has to make another decision:  

Decision 2: Figure out, What does this all mean?

Ultimately, how you feel about your life has nothing to do with the events in it or with your financial condition or what has (or hasn't) happened to you. The quality of your life is controlled by the meaning you give these things.

Most of the time you may be unaware of the effect of your unconscious mind in assigning meaning to life’s events. 

When something happens that disrupts your life (a car accident, a health issue, a job loss), do you tend to think that this is the end or the beginning?

If someone confronts you, is that person insulting you, coaching you or truly caring for you?

Does a devastating problem mean that God is punishing you or challenging you? Or is it possible that this problem is a gift from God? 

Your life takes on whatever meaning you give it. With each meaning comes a unique feeling or emotion and the quality of your life involves where you live emotionally. 

I always ask during my seminars, “How many of you know someone who is on antidepressants and still depressed?” Typically 85 percent to 90 percent of those assembled raise their hands.

How is this possible? The drugs should make people feel better. It's true that antidepressants do come with labels warning that suicidal thoughts are a possible side effect.

But no matter how much a person drugs himself, if he constantly focuses on what he can’t control in life and what’s missing, he won't find it hard to despair. If he adds to that a meaning like “life is not worth living,” that's an emotional cocktail that no antidepressant can consistently overcome. 

Yet if that same person can arrive at a new meaning, a reason to live or a belief that all this was meant to be, then he will be stronger than anything that ever happened to him.

When people shift their habitual focus and meanings, there’s no limit on what life can become. A change of focus and a shift in meaning can literally alter someone's biochemistry in minutes. 

So take control and always remember: Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely. Find an empowering meaning in any event, and wealth in its deepest sense will be yours today. 

Once you create a meaning in your mind, it creates an emotion, and that emotion leads to a state for making your third decision:

Decision 3: What will you do?  

The actions you take are powerfully shaped by the emotional state you're in. If you're angry, you're going to behave quite differently than if you're feeling playful or outrageous. 

If you want to shape your actions, the fastest way is to change what you focus on and shift the meaning to be something more empowering.

Two people who are angry will behave differently. Some pull back. Others push through.

Some individuals express anger quietly. Others do so loudly or violently. Yet others suppress it only to look for a passive-aggressive opportunity to regain the upper hand or even exact revenge.  

Where do these patterns come from? People tend to model their behavior on those they respect, enjoy and love.

The people who frustrated or angered you? You often reject their approaches.

Yet far too often you may find yourself falling back into patterns you witnessed over and over again in your youth and were displeased by. 

It’s very useful for you to become aware of your patterns when you are frustrated, angry or sad or feel lonely. You can’t change your patterns if you’re not aware of them.

Now that you’re aware of the power of these three decisions, start looking for role models who are experiencing what you want out of life. I promise you that those who have passionate relationships have a totally different focus and arrive at totally different meanings for the challenges in relationships than people who are constantly bickering or fighting. 

It’s not rocket science. If you become aware of the differences in how people approach these three decisions, you’ll have a pathway to help you create a permanent positive change in any area of life. 

From Entrepreneur