From hackyourself.org. Part Two.

Surprise yourself. No — amaze yourself.

You don’t have to keep doing the things you hate. Why go home and beat yourself up for, say, not going over and saying a few words to someone you find really attractive? Can any damage they could do to you by rejecting you possibly be any worse than the damage you’re going to do to yourself for missing the chance?

Find the demon.

Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s the little voice in the back of your head that’s always whispering, “You can’t.” You know the demon. You may think you hate the demon, but you don’t. You love it. You let it own you. You do everything it says. Everytime there’s something you want, you consult the demon first, to see if it will say, “You can’t have that.”

What you don’t realize is that your demon doesn’t know anything. It’s an idiot. It’s nothing but a parrot, repeating back to you anything negative that it’s ever heard, anything that makes you hurt, makes you squirm. If a teacher once told you “You’ll never accomplish anything,” it was listening; it hoards words like that and repeats them back to you to watch you jump. It doesn’t know what it’s saying. It doesn’t care.

Exorcise yourself.

You can take me literally or not, as suits you. But do, please, the next time you hear that voice in your head, imagine it, visualize it, as something physical that you can get hold of; tear it out of you, feel its fingers weaken and lose their grip on your spine, and grind it to dust, to nothing, under your boot heel on your way out to dance in the streets.

You can. You think you can’t; but it’s telling you that. You can.

You don’t exist.

You just think you do.

We’re nothing but the stories we tell ourselves. We know in our hearts what kind of people we are, what we’re capable of, because we’ve told ourselves what kind of people we are. You’re a carefully-rehearsed list of weaknesses and strengths you’ve told yourself you have.

(Self-confidence, for example, is a particularly nebulous quality you can easily talk yourself out of having.)

You owe no allegiance to that self-image if it harms you. If you don’t like the story your life has become — tell yourself a better one.

The writing I’ve found on hackyourself.org. I really wish that i write this stuff myself, but i’m not. So, I just want to share it with you. Part One.

You can be happy. You can live the life you want to live. You can become the person you want to be.

This is what I’ve figured out so far.

Stop assigning blame. This is the first step. Stop assigning blame and leave the past behind you.

You know whose fault it is that your life isn’t perfect. Your boss. Your teachers. Your ex-lovers. The ones who hurt you, the ones who abused you, the ones who left you bleeding. Or even yourself. You know whose fault it is — you’ve been telling yourself your whole life. Knowing whose fault it is that your life sucks is an excellent way to absolve yourself of any reponsibility for taking your life into your own hands.

Forget about it. Let it go. The past isn’t real. “That was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.” If we’re not talking about something that is real and present and in your life right now, then it doesn’t matter. Nothing can be done about it. If nothing can be done about it, then don’t spend your energy dwelling on it — you have other things to do.

I may sound cruel, I may sound simplistic, I may sound like I’m saying you should just “get over it,” by suggesting that you should let go of your past. I’m sorry for that. But life won’t hold still and wait for you to lick your wounds. The race is still being run. Get up and keep moving. You can’t do anything about yesterday.

You can do something about tomorrow. And about the next day. Focus your energies there.

“I don’t have time to write.” “I can’t dance.” “I can’t talk to new people.” “I’m not attractive.”

I hear this all the time. I always hear the people around me sabotaging themselves, drawing lines and borders and boxes around themselves.

To which I say, make the time; dance; just talk to people; be attractive!

Yes, again, it’s simplistic of me to say that. But it’s simplistic of you to so easily say what you cannot do!

We’re excellent pattern-matchers. That’s what the human mind does — it’s a pattern-matching engine. So we look at ourselves, at our history, at our behaviors, and we draw straight lines between the points — we assume that just because we’ve done things a certain way in the past, we’ll always do them that way in the future. If we’ve failed before, we’ll always fail.

Screw that.

I like reading a lot. That’s why I really like tips to improve my reading. Some suggestions to improve my reading including :

Let your imagination get involved. Good readers get engrossed in their reading and let it trigger their imagination. Learn to enjoy your reading without asking too many questions or analyzing too much. It will just spoil the sensual enjoyment of the reading experience. You do not need to predict or analyze. Just enjoy and look forward to absorbing the information, ideas and thoughts expressed by the writer.

Yes, I sometimes have to read some materials that make me bored (like server’s manuals), and you can only use so much imagination for manuals. But, all in all, it’s a good thing to improve your reading ability.

7 Ways to improve your reading [Pickthebrain]

I always have some trouble criticize someone. Whether it’s too harsh or too soft, it’s just not working. But, I know that if it’s done properly will make someone change their behavior. Maybe the feedback sandwich is a good solution. Feedback sandwich means that you give a feedback between positive encouragement. Some tips :

Stay Positive: If you go into this with a positive attitude the exercise will have a positive outcome. Likewise, a negative attitude on your part will guarantee a futile result.

Practice: It’s a good idea to practice in front of a mirror - or better yet in front of another person - before you do this. You want the presentation to be smooth with a good flow.

Coach Regularly: If you make this a normal routine, you will get better and the individuals you are coaching will become less apprehensive about it. Don’t become obsessive about it, though, or you will lose both credibility and impact.

How to Give a Feedback Sandwich [via Wikihow]

So you’ve read all the self-help books that will guide you to success. You read one and forget the last book you read. Here’s a summary of what you’ve read from all self-help books, some including :

They look for and find opportunities where others see nothing.

They find a lesson while others only see a problem.

They are solution focused.

They consciously and methodically create their own success, while others hope success will find them.

They are fearful like everyone else, but they are not controlled or limited by fear.

They ask the right questions - the ones which put them in a productive, creative, positive mindset and emotional state.

They rarely complain (waste of energy). All complaining does is put the complainer in a negative and unproductive state.

Now, if only i can apply some of their qualities to my life.

Fifty Habits [via Lifehack]

If you want to convert any currency to Indonesia Dollar Rupiah (IDR) you can use simple Google search. Example

50000 JPY in IDR

You can do it both ways.

100000 IDR in EUR

And if you want to have another measurement and calculate it to IDR, such as BBM Price per Litre :

123 USD per Barrel in IDR per Litre

It’s a lot quicker way than to run Calculator on your Desktop, but I wonder where Google defines his Currency Rates.

Google Currency Features

Modern people need more time. If you are one of those people, then you should try this practical tips for saving your time. Some of them including

Plan Your Day. Do this religiously and you’ll be far more productive. Plan only as much as you can actually accomplish. Be realistic about time frames and do the most difficult and most important stuff first. Make a habit of doing this first thing when you wake up or at the end of the day.

Get Things Ready the Night Before. Prepare as much as you can to make mornings stress free. Set out clothes. Have bags packed and by the door. Make your lunch and have your breakfast chosen and partially prepared. Have a travel coffee mug ready. Put the coffee in the coffee maker.

Before you know it, you are saving more time everyday.

Spectacular and Practical Time Saving Tips [via DumbLittleMan]

You may know some of the tricks listed below, but it still nice to refresh your memory to do some quick calculation in your head. Some tricks such as the 11 tricks is very well known :

Take the original number and imagine a space between the two digits (in this example we will use 52:
5_2
Now add the two numbers together and put them in the middle:
5_(5+2)_2
That is it - you have the answer: 572.
If the numbers in the middle add up to a 2 digit number, just insert the second number and add 1 to the first:
9_(9+9)_9
(9+1)_8_9
10_8_9
1089 - It works every time.

But don’t forget to practice this tricks in your head, ok?

10 Easy Arithmetic Tricks [via Listverse]