Erik Erikkson talked about (after the search for identity commences) four stages of identity development, diffused(haven’t started), foreclosed (prematurely defined), moratorium (still defining), and achieved (identity achievement). One of the biggest things preventing people from reaching identity achievement is “celebrity conglomerate syndrome” (CCS). Where you pick and choose bits and pieces of a celebrity’s personality or clothing or style or appearance to mimick and pile them onto yourself. The problem with this? You end up losing and burying yourself. Your strongest aspect — your identity — gets buried and that’s [...]
career
Validate Your Life offers executive coaching for career, relationships, health, and organization-productivity goals, aspirations and fulfillment. This category reflects articles bodaciously targeting career outcomes and goals, SEO, dealing with fans, money milestones, and how you stopped faking it and started making it! If you want to triple your income, expand your professional horizons, and/or just feel better about your job, you’re in the right category of the Validate Your Life Blog.
The Best Customer Service Qualities
I was asked in an interview what was the best example of customer service I had ever encountered. I had numerous examples but it became clear that three distinct qualities make the best customer service exchanges. In order of importance these essential qualities are: Enthusiasm — Enthusiasm is the number one invaluable quality to ideal customer service. Enthsiasm sells. Enthusiasm opens the door and creates the interface between you and the customer. It establishes the link and engages you with the customer and makes the product and or service interesting. [...]
Ford Tough
So I invested in 50 shares of Ford Today.Why would I do that?Have my investing strategies plummeted to “asinine”?Far from it.Ford could potentially lose $9 billion this year….and I buy?Yep, because I believe in executive confidence. They’ve got a new CEO Mulally that’s going to shift things around.You get a confident, savvy, efficient, CEO in the captain’s seat, and you can turn a sinking ship into a fully-equipped sea-worthy, cruisin’ vessel capable of major travel.Mulally’s the man to do that.He’s got experience with Boeing.And with a knack for getting people [...]
APR & APY
Calculating APR – An Example I finally understand my bloody accounting sheet for a radioshack card (like any credit card) that I used to purchase $500 worth of a GPS device, but don’t plan to use it anymore. I paid off the 500 (in cash, which was frightening) before the 90 no-charge period ended, so I accrued nor paid any extra charges and because of a 23.85% APR, I don’t plan to ever really use it (even to buy batteries, unless it’s an absolute emergency, but barely anything over $10, [...]
Chamelonizing is the opposite of Narcissism
Update July 2011: These banal and inaccurate generalizations have gotten incredibly lame and looking back on them I find them useless and inaccurate. Models do not have any more “good energy” than someone else aligned in their field. People that are aligned just look together. It’s slightly (greatly) mortifying that I actually “followed” the people mentioned in this post and took the time to evalulate (in quite detail) their personalities. Bollocks, so discombobulated then. Additionally, the post title, while catchy, makes zero sense. — It’s much easier to [...]
Honest Actors?
I’ve been catching up on some recent episodes of “Punk’d” and a definite pattern has been emerging that’st definitely counter-intuitive. The actors and actress being punk’d, duped, and tricked on the show, when put in the hotseat (saying they stole something, they did something they weren’t supposed to do) are always DEAD HONEST. Much more honest than the average joe would be. Interesting how people who professionally act and weara different characters for a living are the most direct, congruent and honest in reality. Wild stuff Update 2011, July [...]
What We’ll Bring You
2011, July 10: The radio interests are great and have perpetuated with audio blogs, but I sound fairly naive and lost in this post; leykis is an obese moron whose controversial and limbaugh is well another obese person. That said, Howard Stern has zero weight problems and I genuinely like voice work and radio-related things and have for the past 5 years from recordings in cars to podcasts to doing audio books. —– Okay, coming at you live from CA, this is NOT a book report. Rush limbaugh [...]
Graduating from Web Design
Update 2011, July 10: This post reflects possibly the starting point of at least a year long derailment and delusion where I was infected emotionally with the rubbish of california. I love web design and computers. It’s stuff I taught myself, find it relaxing to code at times, rewarding definitely, and most importantly, highly useful for web communicating and publishing and it’s just nifty. ————— I’m realizing web design is bit of a joke. Everyone can make there own pages these days. Plus it’s tedious as hell. So I’m deciding [...]
Exertion for its Own Sake
Runners, Bikers, Swimmers — we work for the sake of work. Work is our payment. The action of work is more important than any payment. When I move to Chicago after graduation college. I immediately joined a club, started running on trails, and started doing very intense work at a community service shelter. My entire life style was a full-time job basically, but without pay. I knew money would come if I needed it. The vital essentiality to my life was ensuring that I had that opportunity for work in [...]
The Heroic Spirit of Manhood and Peoplehood
On July 1934, the messages, inherent style, and defining parameters of American cinema dramatically changed. “Under duress at the urging of priests and politicians, Hollywood’s “Hays Office” established a Production Code, dubbed the Magna Charta of decency, that would forever, “systematically and scrupulously” regulate elements of film such as “sex, vice, violence, and moral meaning” (Doherty 1). While the post-Code era launched off what is known as the Golden Age of film, the pre-Code films exhibited a unique eccentricity. With an original unbridled salaciousness, moral creativity, and inventiveness, the pre-Code [...]
Action not Decision
The impassive process of decision-making generates the illusion of choice. Meaning that you can’t make decisions. No one ever makes decisions; people just take action. Action is the only way things ever get accomplished, initiated, and done. You finish things and start things by taking action not be deciding or making a decision. You generate initiative from commitment, not choice. Decisions are illusory. Action is reality. Just as no one is ever doing “nothing” (i.e. you’re always breathing, cells are reproducing, heart is pumping, even if you’re dead, you’re laying [...]
Archive Success and Delete the Accomplishment
One hindrance in furthering success for people is that they believe they have accomplished enough already. Donald Trump, Julia Roberts, and Michael Phelps could easily say that. Those three could wake up and say I’ve made enough money, I’ve acted in enough movies, or I’ve won enough swimming medals, respectively. But they don’t. Despite their tremendously gigantic accomplishments and achievemtns, there success continues to prosper. Trump, Roberts, and Phelps, like all successful people don’t let their accomplishments sever there future aspirations. Past accomplishments never legitimate retirement. Many people look at [...]
Identifying our Work
I’ve been shown the door a lot . However, quite often, I recognize the importance of understanding that I jump into situations that I don’t want to be a part of and will get booted from, in order to say that I tried that option. Why not just cut to the chase and create more certainty with what I do want to do? An answer is that I don’t know what I want to do, but I have some resourceful indicators. My brain never stops. It is constantly going when [...]
The Nature of “Real and Professional” Work
There exists a warped perception in nature of and pursuit of authentic work. Real and authentic work is always incredibly challenging and meaningful, but always appears simple, fun, and casual. The truly successful people have a very different definition of real, authentic work. The successful people pursue harder tasks more often, take up seemingly unattainable goals more frequently. The most distinguishing characteristic of a successful person is that they accomplish those daunting feats with the appearance of grace, ease, and fun. Look at Michael Jordan on the basketball court. He [...]
Genius: One Craziness, Hold the Insanity, To Go, Please
When Confucius wrote, “better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without,” he meant that attempting to thrive, with the potential for incurring a blemishing failure, is always superior to remaining impeccable and safe by never undertaking anything. Geniuses are people who always thrive because they undertake “enterprises of great pitch and moment” by using their own lunacy for creativity, while abandoning fear (Shakespeare 32). Everyone was always a diamond in the rough at one time or another. By polishing and adroitly seizing the right opportunities, one creates successful [...]
