Multiple Guilty Pleasures

Multiple Guilty Pleasures Multiple Guilty Pleasures brings back joy and happiness by showing that life does not have to be defined by efficiency, stress and guilt. It seems that nowadays multiple pleasures come with an excuse and a feeling of guilt. It is a crime not to be efficient and anyway you need a bulletproof justification to be allowed to enjoy your life. Everyone hates it but we all do it, don't we? This blog says there is no need to excuse enjoying life and to be 'guilty' - there are multiple pleasures! Let´s find and live them! It is a part of BrandBase in cooperation with Lund University School of Economics and Management (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-58344890-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');

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Laugh. Laugh as much as you can. Laugh until you cry. Cry until you laugh. Keep doing it even if people are passing you on the street saying, "I can't tell if that person is laughing or crying, but either way they seem crazy, let's walk faster." Emote. It's okay. It shows you are thinking and feeling.

Ellen DeGeneres, Seriously... I'm Kidding

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I am so fucking happy I could shit rainbows

a unicorn somewhere 

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The last pleasure of the day 

Everything has an end and here this project reaches its destination as well. But every end is a new beginning, so do not forget to turn the things which are leftinto something useful. Thanks to everyone who helped us and visited this blog. It really means a lot to us. Our team wishes all the best and do not forget to stay happy whatever others would think!

Image source

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7 tips to work smarter, not harder

People say that 80% of your results come from 20% of you effort. Thus you should focus more on those 20% and make it as best as possible. In order to do that it is necessary to work smarter, but not harder. You do not work 15 hours per day to achieve something significant, you should focus on tasks which are the most valuable without wasting too much of your energy.

Be conscious what are you doing and evaluate the impact of your tasks on yourself, your team and partners. There are some tips which will help you do this and of course, achieve more.

1. Start your day with a daily plan.

You should start your day by evaluating your tasks and making a plan what you have to do during the day. Be reasonable about your time and do not overestimate your power. By completing everything on time you will feel motivated and happy, however if you “to-do” list still have some tasks after the day – you will feel overwhelmed and anxious. So set you goals and reward yourself when you achieve them.

2. Don’t be afraid to say, “No.”

Doing many thing in a short period of time can develop your time management skills, however everything has limit. Too much stuff will make you overheated and you will become useless. Especially if you use your energy on small and unimportant tasks instead of focusing on the most important ones.

Everybody wants to be nice to co-workers but it is not possible to be nice to everyone. So it is important to learn to say “No” and chose to work only on those opportunities which are really interesting and will benefit your future. And of course, don’t forget your schedule before saying “yes” anyway. If you cannot deliver something on time, then your answer should be “No”.

Additionally, do not try to work when you are sick. You should be at home and rest, because that’s what sick people do. And it is reasonable, because you are unproductive and sickness will cause you many mistakes.

3. Eliminate multitasking from your routines

Your brain cannot focus on many tasks at the same time. And it takes time to switch between tasks as well. On average it takes about 25 minutes to resume a task after being interrupted until your brain starts working at its best. So do not overestimate yourself and focus on one task at the time.

Close all unnecessary browser tabs, put your phone away or any other element which could distract you. Too many tabs might not only distract you but also it makes it difficult to find information between them.

Additionally, do not let unimportant details to distract you. It is nice to make it perfect, however, done is better than perfect. Leave small thing at the very end. By minimizing the level of multitasking you can increase you productivity by 40%.

4. Finish the most important tasks first

You should start every day by identifying the most important tasks you have to complete and you should start by focusing on those. After you finish this you can devote yourself to other tasks without any pressure, because the most important thing just have been done.  

Some people say that you should start by doing small tasks first, but this usually leads to that you do not have enough energy to do the biggest ones afterwards.

5. Rest and have periodic breaks

Do not forget to get enough of sleep every night. You should get 7-8 hours of sleep every day. Of course, you can work for 12 hours every day but this will not be sustainable. Good sleep makes you more productive and helps you concentrate during the day.

Moreover, plan something after work. Have a dinner with your friends or grab a beer, just to keep yourself motivated and positive during the day. Plan something you enjoy doing and it will be as a reward when you finish your tasks.

Additionally, it is impossible for your body to work constantly for 8 hours. You have to recharge your batteries during the day, thus it is important to have periodic breaks during the day. It allows your mind to refresh and regroup your thoughts. It is recommended that you should reward yourself with a 10 minute break every 50 minutes. Go for a walk, move around the office or have some coffee. After any physical activity you will feel refreshed when you come back and sit in your office chair.

6. Do not be afraid to ask for help and delegate your tasks

It is not mandatory to do everything by yourself, so do not be afraid to ask for help and you will be surprised how helpful your colleagues are.

7. Stop working at home

If you like to work even when you come back home, you should stop doing that immediately. Overload makes you less productive and it is not important to work as long as possible. Try to do everything smarter, look for shortcuts and ask for help. You should give yourself a time to enjoy free time and rest. Just switch your head and you will be surprised how productive you will be the next day.

Enjoyment should always be the goal. Work can be play.

So do not forget to reward yourself when you finish.

Sources

Buzzfeed

Inc

WikiHow

[cheersyourmotivation]

Fill Your Life With Experiences, Not Things. Have Stories To Tell, Not Stuff To Show.

Explore more motivational quotes from Cheers, Your Motivation.

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Are you really chasing your dream? (or just stuck with your selfishness?)

Today I watched a movie called “Wish I washere” from the director Zach Braff, which tells the story of a family dad (Aidan) that follows his dream of being an actor, but L.A. and the American dream seem a little bit harsh nowadays, wife paying the bills and no jobs for a middle aged actor with no good CV. However, I won’t make a movie review here and the only thing you need to know about the movie is that the main character pursues his dream of being an actor. (See movie trailer here)

As this blog is about inspiring and encouraging you to follow your own dreams, I couldn’t avoid talking about another side of following them and that is that sometimes this pursue can be a little bit selfish and affect the people who are around you. Let’s face it you’re not so special! I don’t want to sound rude, you’re in some way special, your mother wasn’t lying to you, but the thing is, you’re special to your parents, your family, your friends, your dog and so on…But not to the entire world. Just a few people are and the chances of you being these persons is so little that you would be upset if I put it in numbers.

Please, at this point, don’t give up on your dreams, just give them a realistic approach, fight for them, but face reality. In the movie Aidan who is around the mid 30’s has a nice family, but is passing through financial problems and he is not able to face it and keeps using his dream to avoid responsibilities. Things only start to change when his life starts to crumble down.

When there’s little left to Aidan and problems were flooding his life, after a sincere conversation with his wife he realises how much she gave up and how selfish he is because of him “chasing the dream”. So he starts to make a shift in the way he faces life and suddenly in the middle of chaos, he starts to find the answers he always looked for.

The movie can make us reflect about how realistic our dreams are. Are we chasing them in a healthy way? Or are we using them as an escape from reality? The only responsible ones for the fulfilment and happiness in our lives are our own selves and we will get stuck if we don’t make self-assessment of our actions and about the attitude when facing routines.

When I talk about self-assessment is looking at you through another point of view, get rid of your own beliefs and opinions for some minutes and challenge what you think is true. Self-assessment doesn’t mean a self-destruction session, is just an exercise of empathy where you can get insights about another ways to follow and stop the suffering.

Chasing your dreams may also means re-assessing them, making adjustments, planning and facing reality. Chasing the dream can really be an excuse for selfish behaviour that will only block your next steps. Learning from our mistakes and accepting that we are not special will clear the path for you to follow your dream, in a steady, aware, confident and emphatic way.

“Emphatize can I look through your eyes 

I'll find different paradigms 

And different minds never 

two of kind and it'll bring me back down to size again” 

(Shelter – Empathy)

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Become Happier! Spend Your Money Right.

Multiple Ways To Become Happier Through Spending Your Money

Money still can´t buy you happiness, because happiness is not a like a good which you can pick out the shelf or put into your shopping cart. But spending money in the right way can lead you to a happier life. Happiness is a complex, distinct emotional state,which is, for the most of us, complicated to achieve and sustain.

In a study by Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia, Daniel Gilbert, Psychologist at Harvard University and Timothy Wilson from the University of Virginia, the authors show 8 principles to consider while spending your money. In their paper, “If money doesn´t make you happy, then you probably aren´t spending it right”, they are providing the reader with new insights about how to spend money in a way which increases happiness.

buy experiences, not just stuff

spend your money to benefit others, not only yourself

buy rather small pleasures

avoid paying for warranties or overpriced insurance

pay now, delay the consumption

think about side effects of a consumption

do not compare too much and too long

be aware and have a look on what makes others happy.

What This Exactly Means To Us

Do things with friends and your family, even if it´s not spectacular and maybe invite them, even it is only for a coffee. It will bring you pleasure.

Treat yourself with several smaller things, instead of fewer bigger presents. After some time, also a big, fancy car, is just a vehicle with four wheels, but it needs a lot of petrol.

Try not be be frightened about too many possible scenarios and don´t let the fear pull your money into insurances you´ll probably never need.

Think about what can be effected from a consumption. Maybe the possession is a time consuming thing or needs special maintenance and a tail of further investments occur. Stop comparing too long and too much - the time you spend to save some money, isn´t it worth it in most of the cases.

Finally, ask your friends and have a look what consumptions made your fellows you trust and like happy. Maybe you will benefit from a similar consumption.

How To Use These Tips In The Internet

Especially the online consumption overwhelms us with an endless amount of offers, personalized advertisements and special sale offers, only for us. This creation of pressure combined with a confusing range of goods on offer with a partially hidden intention in content makes it nowadays harder than ever to shop online with a good feeling. Annoying ads and campaigns, purportedly knowledge about users (the consumers) leads to a hike and seek between us and therefore mediums which use the internet and company´s marketers.

 Before I write about what marketers could learn from the new insights how spending money could make us happy, I want to present some of my thoughts to you, how to extend the former tips to become a happy online shopper.

only buy those things in the internet which you can´t buy in your town or in closer surrounding

don´t buy online to save a small amount of money, consider delivery costs and the pollution which comes along with that

be aware of your shopping behaviour and set yourself an appropriate time frame for the purchase

don´t follow blinking advertorials or banner, purchase forced and directed by others does not make you happy

make your own experiences

Thank you for reading, comment and share, if you like - (lk)

Picture source

[dryyoureyes-startbelieving]

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at be happy about every smile back

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Pleasure of the day 

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Less Sad! The New Truth About Money & Happiness

Money does not make you happy and cannot buy you happiness. It seems that these older statements are no longer true, at least not the first one if you focus on 1. spending money instead of keeping it and 2. having some concrete tips in mind to consider while spending money.

The relationship between money and happiness is examined quite a lot, but although there are studies that showed a positive correlation between money and happiness, the influence is much less than people think. (Not) surprisingly a recent research from the University of British Columbia done by Kostadin Kushlev, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Richard E. Lucas show that a high income means less daily sadness, but has no relevance on daily happiness. Sadness and happiness are two distinct emotional states, which means that a life with less sadness is not automatically a happier one.

What Financial Wealth Gives To Us

Financial safety is an important aim in our human life. It enables us to have a home and daily food. It pays our taxes, bills and other fix costs. It assures the fulfillment of our basic needs and these are good reasons, why we need financial safety. Therefore, it is pretty well understandable, why most of the people are striving for money. Robert Kenny (EdD), psychologist at Boston College, found in a study with extreme wealthy people, that financial wealth gives us the freedom not to think about how to pay the bills, but doesn´t create a continually state of happiness.

What Problems Money Causes

For the most people in society, having less money causes problems. Mostly when our income cannot guarantee our basic needs. It is a common thinking that if we would have more money, everything would be easier. But this is a huge fallacy. Some things will be better, or easier, but other problems will raise. Extreme wealthy people have their own set of concern, as Kenny found in the research. “This research shows the rest of the world, who often think that if they just made one more bonus or sold one more item or got one more promotion, then their world and their family's world would be so much better, that this isn't necessarily true.” The example of super rich John Caudwell shows, that money is not a guarantee for a fulfilling and happy life. He made billions of dollars through mobile phone shops but has a family in turmoil with more than one individual tragedy.

What else comes along with possessing money is spending money. Often we feel guilty about, for either or both, earning a lot and spending money. Several tips and curings exists since a longer time, but new insights show, how we can spend money and increase our degree of happiness. One way is to spend money for others.

Prosocial Behaviour - Or Why Sharing Makes Us Happy

Spending money for others, instead of ourselves, enables us more pleasure and daily happiness. If it is a present to a beloved person, a coffee invitation to a good friend or a gift to a homeless, whatever it is, giving something to somebody else increases our happiness. Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, two authors and scientists, are talking from “Prosocial Behaviour”, which makes our daily routine a lot happier. Accordingly, Francis J. Flynn, Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business says, “Investing in others can make you feel healthier and wealthier, even if it means making yourself a little poorer.” 

In the next post, I will present 8 principles to consider while spending money, which could help us increasing our happiness. And I will adapt that onto internet shopping. 

Thanks and keep on reading - (lk)

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Why do we have to sustain our emotional hygiene?

Why does it happen so often that when we hurt our body we instantly know what to do, but when we get some psychological injuries, we haveno idea what to do. For example when 5 year old boy scratches his leg he knows that he has to put band aid on his cut that it doesn't become infected. But what do we know about our psychological health and emotional hygiene? Nothing actually. We spend more time maintaining our teeth healthy than we do our minds.

We suffer from psychological injuries almost every day for example how often do you suffer from failure, rejection or loneliness. They can become even more dangerous and hurt our psychological health if we ignore them. But actually we do. More often than physical injuries. "Oh, you're feeling depressed? Just shake it off; it's all in your head." How often do you hear something like this? But imagine if you would say that to somebody with broken leg: "Oh, just walk it off; it's all in your leg."

Thus, we must help ourselves when our mind becomes injured. For example, loneliness can affect our way of thinking and makes us think that other around us care less than they actually do. We feel miserable and we tend to make stupid decisions just because of that. And loneliness does not have to be that your sitting alone somewhere. You can still sit in a room full of people and subjectively think that you are lonely. This might reduce your self-confidence, make you feel bad, mislead you and help you miss opportunities.

Another psychological injury is failure. How do you react to it? Your mind usually convinces you that you are not able do something and you start to believe in it. Once you are convinced, it is very hard to change your mind. Thus you start to feel powerless and stop trying. In this way you lose your chance to use your potential. Most of the people behave in this way and this is one of the main reasons why people do not achieve what they could.

There are many studies which prove that when your self-confidence is low, your become more vulnerable to anxiety and stress. So it is important to recreate your self-esteem immediately after you failed or felt lonely. However most of the people start to ruminate. This is the moment when you start to remember other similar events when you felt in that way. Maybe your boss yelled at you or somebody made you look stupid in front of many people and you can’t stop replaying that scene in your head. So these thought make you feel even more miserable and even less self-confident, what is the unhealthiest thing you can do. This might lead you to serious psychological problems.

In situations like this you should behave in completely opposite way. Try to catch you unhealthy psychological habits and change them. Think about something else, especially about something what makes you feel good about yourself, however you have to do it consciously, because your head wants to think differently. Even a short distraction from negative thoughts can help you restore your self-esteem and help you survive the moment.

This is called emotional hygiene which people tend to forget about and focus more on physical injuries. By protecting your self-esteem and fighting rumination you will better handle your failures and remain positive. So keep your life happy and you will thrive. More about this in the video below:

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Pleasure of the day

Image source

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Pleasure of the day

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Accept who you are. Unless you're a serial killer.

Ellen DeGeneres, Seriously... I'm Kidding

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You do not exist if you are not online – Part 2

New Update Available: Identity 2.0 (Extended version) 

It is a well-established fact that in this day and age everybody needs to be online. Always. Whether it is a pleasure or not. Curing social media profiles become an obligation and sometimes even an addiction. I wanted to find an explanation for this phenomenon. Why do we have to be online at all times? And if we are not, does that mean we do not even exist? In part 1 we got to know the principle of the extended self in the digital era. Now we will find out how it affects our everyday life.

Photo credit https://potsoupforthesoul.files.wordpress.com

Downloading Identity 2.0 (Extended Version)

With the absence of our body “in cyberspace [we are free] to be whomever we wish” (Belk 2014). Every single one of us has various online self-representations, which are more or less accurate to our embodied identity. Hereby, “there is more transfer from the real into the virtual world than in reverse” (Yee, 2013 as cited in Belk 2014). While our imagination is usually unable to create a digital identity that is too different of our physical identity (Belk, 2013), it becomes easier to associate ourselves with attributes and objects that have a displayed meanings. Studies have shown that e.g. avatars, which are older, taller, stronger have an effect on our ‘real embodied personality’, as we feel wiser, more powerful, etc. And while for some of us our digital avatar is our guilty pleasure, the question is to whether it actually makes us happy or defines identity?

Through the internet, our re-embodiment selves have a greater reach but in return, they are harder to grasp (Belk, 2014). “What really matters is the psychological identification with these representations and their impact on our consciousness” (Streuer, 1992 as cited in Belk, 2014). In order to become completely integrated in the digital environment and our present relationships, we must gain a ‘state of flow’ when changing between different digital profiles and avatars (Belk, 2014). Just as we learn to extend our bodies with e.g. a pair of skis or a bike, we must develop the ability to feel embodied with our digital profile or avatar in order for it to become part of our extended self (Belk, 2014). Then the ”lines are blurred between what is an extension of the user, what is owned by the user, and what the user is doing versus what the avatar is doing… Today’s Gen Z (and younger) consumer does not make the distinction between being “online” and “offline” (Sheth & Solomon, 2014).

(c) Jules Engel

Installing Identity 2.0 (Extended Version) In conclusion, we will only be able to have an integrated identity that we can alter between the real world and our digital environment with ease and pleasure. If we can identify ourselves with each disembodiment, it does not matter that they have a certain role and represent a certain aspect of our identity, e.g. linkedin for career, whatsapp for texting, tumblr to blog etc., as long as all digital re-embodiments are coherent with our current identity. Even though the re-embodiment may differ to some extend from the body and may include objects with a displaced meaning, the identity must be somewhat authentic. With these requirements given, individuals are able to be “present” in one form or another at all times.

So do we even exist if we are not online? For me the answer is yes and no. Of course we will exist. In the physical world anyways. Choosing not to be online will not change our identity or existence. However, we need to be aware that even if we do not want to be online, our surrounding will. So not being online can mean that you are not 'present or available' for others' digital identities, which brings us back to another important factor: dependence and outside pressure. So for me it comes down to the same core principle: Choose yourself. And make yourself understood. If your surrounding accepts that you do not want to have an extended digital identity they will accept your existence offline. - JME

Sources:

Belk (2013). Extended Self in a Digital World. Retrieved 17.02.14 from http://ludwig.lub.lu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=90169610&site=eds-live&scope=site

Belk (2014). Digital consumption and the extended self. Retrieved 17.02.14 from http://www.tandfonline.com.ludwig.lub.lu.se/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2014.939217#.VOPHjS534RI Sheth & Solomon (2014). Extending the Extended Self in a Digital World. Retrieved 17.02.14 from http://ludwig.lub.lu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=94648704&site=eds-live&scope=site

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Pleasure of the day