A first impression is the last impression – If you fail to make a good first impression, then you are all set to come last in the race because you will never get a second chance.

This is what  I was taught during my schooling, colleges and even the same advice was passed on to me while taking up employment.

I believed this advice firmly and decided that I will always try to make a good first impression in order to succeed.

While this advice of making a good first impression pushed me to start my career with a bang , but the fact was I was not able to keep the momentum going.

I met with failures very soon and embraced frustration, found myself in clueless situation.

I was a teenager who jumped into information technology industry immediately after my college wrestling with keyboard and learning MS DOS and Word star (which were popular in those days) sitting in front of that monochrome monitors.

When I was trying to make a good first impression my job, I was forcing myself too much during the first few days of employment to make others think that I am the fastest learner and will do everything that was given to me. I was saying yes to every work coming on my way.

My bosses liked my super-charged attitude and  soon trusted me as a valuable player in the team. Their impression about me was that I had learned everything in a short period of time.

But, that image was short lived. I was no more a new employee and since I had set the benchmark high during my initial days (reason: to make a first impression), I was assigned multiple tasks and asked to complete all in stiff deadlines. Soon, my enthusiasm started coming down. Pressure was building up inside me to complete pending tasks.

I just couldn’t handle those. Advice of making a good first impression was working against me.

I failed. I couldn’t complete the tasks and ended up with silly mistakes. Because, I underestimated the value of time for learning the new system.

I thought I had understood everything (at least tried to show like that) .

The first impression thing screwed up everything. I failed miserably.

This was almost a decade back. Then, I was not aware how to progress in life. I didn’t know that the ultimate progress in life is learning things in correct way and implementing them in right way. What I was trying was to build a skyscraper with weak foundation.

Thanks to personal development, which opened my eye to my inner self.

When I took up a task of discovering myself and decided to fix myself, I started experiencing an exact opposite of what I was taught during schooling, colleges.

I realized that first impression is not the last impression. And judging the life based on a ‘first impression’ could bring me dangerous results. And allowing some one to judge me on my first impression would have the same effect too.

My experiences were not limited to my job or competitive areas, there were chunks of lessons in other areas of life such as buying habits, relationships and much more.

Lessons were pretty clear.

First impression is not the last impression.

You just need to be yourself , natural and practical.

Everything falls in the right place if you focus on creating a solid foundation.

Research is always accurate than trusting the hype.

I learned these lessons because I had reversed the popular belief called making a first impression.

Instead of trying hard to make a good first impression, I started involving in the new job as a brand new comer. I was humble, polite and hardworking. I started with smalls steps by putting my efforts into understanding each module of the job and slowly understanding the whole ecosystem of the work.

I was seeking information from seniors and thanked them for their inputs.I admitted my silly mistakes and corrected them immediately and kept going.

Surely, I was on the right path. I started getting more and more support and attention from seniors and the boss over the time. I didn’t focus on making a first impression, I just worked hard and focused on developing a strong knowledge base. I was slow but steady.What I was trying is to release my true potential.

A strong foundation was built.

Results were outstanding and I was appreciated for my contributions and that developed more confidence inside me. This is what I practice after those life changing lessons.

I hope you got the message in the above story.

So, don’t try hard for making a good first impression. You will be MISJUDGED. Because you look artificial when you try to make a good first impression. Instead, be natural, be hardworking and honest.

Nobody can (should) judge a person or a thing based on first impression

This is the core message I wanted to convey in this whole article.

Most of  first impressions are not real. They are either inaccurate, deceiving or fake.

Let’s look at your own daily life examples.

How many times you have seen a new person, and at first thought he looks like a baddy. However later after spending some time with him, you found that he is a humble and a good guy. A first impression about him was unreal.

How many times, you have bought a new phone by it’s first look and later found that it lacks some of the very important functionality? You would have surely surrendered yourself to aggressive marketing which would have created an urge inside you to get this new phone. A first impression of the gadget was worth a 5 star rating. But what you failed to notice is ,first impressions are some created to infuse a sense of urgency within you to buy the new gadget immediately whether you really need it or not. In the age of consumerism, you might have experienced this many times.

As a manager, how many times , you wrote off a new employee thinking that he is  ineffective because he failed to make a good first impression? You later surprised to see that he is doing quite amazing in some other team. First impression of the new employee again deceived you.

You can’t judge anyone based on their first impression because you are ignoring a simple truth that human behavior is complex.

This truth not only applies to human behavior but extends itself to other areas of our life as well.

The worst thing that can happen to people is they might get married to a wrong person if they judge him/her based on the first impression.

I hope you can imagine the consequences.

What is the right way to judge a person/situation/stuff then?

 

You need to have patience and thankfully, there are plenty of resources available for research.

You need to analyze the pattern over the time, instead of judging a person/stuff/situation instantly based on the first impression.

In fact, it’s no more optional. You SHOULD adopt this habit right away if you want to make RIGHT choices and handle the situations in a better way.

Stay calm and observe the variations over the period of time.

I am sure , you will come to an obvious conclusion soon which is far accurate than the instant opinion which was created based on the first impression.

If you are a boss, don’t judge a new employee on day one or even within a week. He might be misjudged. Instead, give him a month. Extend your support to him and expose him to valuable information. Offer constructive feedback for his silly mistakes. Appreciate his small accomplishments. Soon, he might do wonders for you.

If you are tempted to buy that new gadget by seeing it’s first look on TV or internet, don’t rush to buy it immediately. Instead, hold yourself back and wait for user reviews and feedback. After going through reviews, if the gadget still excites you, go and pick it up. But if user reviews are all negative, do you still want to take the risk?

If you see a business offer coming on your way which is too good to resist and offered with unbelievable goodies, be patient and step back for allowing yourself to do some research. You might even later find that the business offer was nothing more than a scam.

If you are a software programmer and the code you just wrote works perfect in it’s first run (by it’s first impression). don’t hurry to celebrate. Instead, observe the code behavior in the whole ecosystem of the project. Test the code in various scenarios and see that how other modules respond to your code. By doing so, you will be a better programmer. Real programmer spends most of the time in testing, not in programming.

I am sure, above examples showed you the consequences of exercising  judgement by first impression.

I am not saying that first impressions are always false, but they surely need a second look.

Don’t worry. Life will give you a second chance. Observe, analyze and work hard.

A long lasting impression is what you should be aiming for, not for the temporary first impression.

Your turn

How about you? Have you ever judged some one by their first impression? Or have you ever been judged by some one based on your first impression? I am genuinely interested in hearing about your experiences. Tell your story in the comments.

Photo credit : free digital photos

Though being a design addict, I have always loved the clean , typography based designs when it comes to blogging.

Because if you want your audience to get engaged with your writing, you need to have a design that highlights content rather than flashy widgets. Minimalist themes are just right fit for a content based blog.

During my journey of blogging, I have come across many minimal WordPress themes which are great and do a great job in highlighting content.  I am using Coraline for planetnaveen.com with little customization done from my side.

In this article, I am providing links for 20 minimal (yet awesome) WordPress themes, so that you can kick start your blogging in 2012 with a clean and minimal design.

If you are already a blogger and looking for minimal WordPress themes, then just hang in here. Below are great collection of minimalist themes and most importantly, they are FREE !!!

1. ProtoType by ThemeHybrid

2. Outline by ThemeHybrid

3. Twenty Ten By AutoMattic

4. Picolight Theme

5. Admired Theme

6. Evolve by Theme4Press

7. Precisio by Theme4press

8. Shadows by WPExplorer

9. Simply Delicious by mmminimal

10. Minimal Expert by WPExplorer

11. Bueono by Woo Themes

12. NeoClassical Theme by Chris Pearson

13. Structure Theme by ThemeHybrid

14. Life Collage by ThemeHybrid

15. Zen Habits Theme By Leo Babuta

16. Modernist Theme

17. Fungus by DynamicWP.net

18. BonPress by WPZoom

19. CopyBlogger Theme by Chris Pearson

20. Coraline theme by Automattic

I hope you liked this collection. Let me know if you could use them your blog/website by dropping a comment below

Photo credit : freedigitalphotos.net

 Dear readers,

I am not doing well since winter has gifted me and my family a horrible cold and I am sneezing more than I type.

However, that doesn’t stop me from wishing my dear readers a very happy new year

A Big Thank-you to you

Really, without your love and support, I wouldn’t be even thinking of writing and running this blog as I play two roles already in my life. One being a full time software programmer at office and other as a responsible family member (husband and father) at home.

Blogging has been a great friend to me. I am now attached to it and with my readers. My passion for writing is deepening by each passing day.

Thank you readers for reading my articles. I am not sure whether all of my articles helped you or not. But, I continue to share tips from my experiences.

Thanks to my email subscribers who opted in and follow my posts. I hope I never spammed you

Thanks to them who downloaded and read my eBook.

Thanks to those wonderful bloggers who hosted my guest posts.

Thanks to those who liked my facebook fan page.

Thanks to those who followed me on twitter.

And finally , thanks to YOU, who is reading this post, right this moment.

This blog is growing

I love to say this. This blog was started in March 2010. Since then, traffic is growing steadily, especially during 2011. To put rest to your curiosity, this blog gets about  1/10th of traffic what ThinkTraffic gets That transforms into about 3500 Page views a month roughly. planetnaveen.com has google pagerank of PR2 and alexa rank of 821206

So, I have a long way to go.

My favorite posts of the year (This includes the posts I wrote on other blogs as well)

The Incredible Benefits Of Saying No

21 Ways To Find Happiness in Simple Things

Release

Why Discovering Your True Passion Is So Important In My Life

Life 1.0

I am keeping this post short and wishing you again a very Happy and prosperous new year 2012.

I found a great new year desktop wallpaper which you can download here.

 

Dear readers,

I am excited to share few really wonderful and valuable eBooks for enriching your knowledge. They are absolutely free.

I have enriched my knowledge by reading most of them.

These books cover topics such as personal development, blogging tips , lifestyle.

Download these free eBooks and read them however you want (on PC, kindle, mobile or tablet).

Here are the 45 free downloadable eBooks.

1. Get More From Life – By Scott H Young
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here  and here

2. Focus – Leo Babauta
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

3. The Bold Living Guide – by Barrie Davenport
Category: Personal development
Download the book here

4. 92 Life Lessons – By Tiny Buddha
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here  (Check the right side of blog and enter your email to receive the eBook)

5. Value 101 – By Stuart Mills
Category: Personal development, interview series
Download the eBook here

6. Peace Love And Connection – By Tess Marshall
Category: Lifestyle development
Download the eBook here

7.  Seven Keys To Discover Your Passion – By Jonathan Mead
Category: Lifestyle development
Download the eBook here (You will also get 2 free guides as bonus)

8. Non verbal Website Intelligence – By DIYThemes
Category: Website intelligence
Download the eBook here

9. How To Live A Simple Life in 30 Days – By John Sherry
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here

10. eBooks The Smart Way- By Pat Fylnn
Category: eBook creating guide
Download the eBook here

11. Beginners Guide To SEO – By SEOMOZ
Category: Search Engine Optimization
Download the eBook here

12. Get Profitable Niche Ideas – By Glen Alsoop
Category: Niche website ideas
Download the eBook here (Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

13.  How I Grew My Subscribers To 10000 in 12 Months - By Glen Alsoop
Category: Blog traffic tips
Download the eBook here

14.  Make Money Blogging – By Daniel Scocco
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here (See at the end of article where you can enter your email to get the eBook)

15.  Empower Your Writing – By Farnoosh Brook
Category: Content Writing Tips
Download the eBook here

16. Personal Success Blue Print – By Peter James Sinclair
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here

17. Basic English Grammer – By Daily Writing Tips
Category: Content Writing
Download the eBook here

18. Keyword Research and Competition Analysis – By Tom Ewer
Category: Search Engine Optimization
Download the eBook here

19. Everything You Know About Traffic Is Wrong – By Martyn Chemberlin
Category: Content writing, blog traffic
Download the eBook here

20. Getting Results The Agile Way - By J.D.Meier
Category:Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

21. Impossible The Manifesto – By Joel Runyon
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

22. 8 Personal Development eBooks – By Celestine Chua from the personal excellence blog
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

23. How To Be Chosen One – By Amit Sodha
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

24. The Intuition Premier – By Angela Artemis
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

25. Get A Life That Doesn’t Suck – By Benny Hsu
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

26. Free Series Email Course – By Onibalusi
Category: Freelance Writing Guide
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

27. Info Product Idea Kit – By Tristan
Category: Guide on How To Come up With Great Idea eBooks and membership sites and more
Download the eBook here

28. Starting A Blog – By Peter Clemens
Category: Blogging advice foe beginners
Download the eBook here 

29. The Best Of Positive Provocations – By Zeenat Syal
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here 

 30. 101 Powerful Affirmations – Yee Shun Jian
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 31. Best Of Change Your Thoughts – Volume 1 and 2 – By Steven Aitchison
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 32. Your Guide To Creating A Powerful Life Vision – By Adrienne
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

33. 32 Most Powerful Conversion Triggers Of All Time – By Oliver Olsen
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 34. 279 days to overnight success- By Chris Guillebeau
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 35. Blog Profit Blue Print – By Yaro Starak
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

 36. 4 eBooks from Blogging Teacher – By Paul Cunningham
Category: -Email marketing, blog maintenance, WordPress plugins
Download the eBook here

 37. 101 Ways To Beat Bloggers Block – By Blogging Bookshelf
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

 38. 52 Headline Hacks – A Cheat Sheet For Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral – By Jon Morrow of Copy Blogger
Category: Content writing
Download the eBook here

 39. Self Love Stories Of Bloggers – By Evelyn Lim
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 40. The Authentic Dreaming Worksheet – By Danielle LaPorte
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

41. How To Create Our 1st Website - By Income Diary
Category: Website creation
Download the eBook here

 42. 7 Timeless Habits Of Happiness – By Henrik Edberg
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the left side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 43. The Guide To Being Human – By Justin Mazza
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 44. 8 Pillars Of Lasting Happiness- By Rahul Singh
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 45. The Five Secrets Of Happiness – By Fred Tracy
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

As a bonus, here is another inspiring eBook

Small Ways To Make A Big Difference – By Raam Dev
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

I hope you enjoyed this collection of free eBooks.

I have also created a PDF of above list which can be easily shared with others. Download the PDF here.

Follow me on Twitter to get updates or become fan on my facebook page. Be informed and receive up-to-date information. I don’t want you to miss the goodies

Photo Credit: pixtawan

You don’t need to do something extraordinary to deepen your connection with everlasting happiness and soak yourself in the beauty of life.

You just need to do a simple thing.

Release.

If you work for someone, don’t just work and deliver an ordinary result. Instead, razor sharpen your focus and release your true potential. Make the challenges look small. They are really no match to your intelligence. You will start seeing an amazing growth in your career graph.

If you are a creative writer, don’t just write. Instead, release your thoughts like a flow of water. Let them flow. Don’t hold any of them within you. You will be surprised to have a totally new perspective for your writing. Let an incredible masterpiece begin.

If you are a musician, stop composing that new song now. It’s not the best one, yet. Instead, close you eyes and release all vibrant tunes hidden inside your musical soul. Don’t let music become permutation and combination of few tunes. Instead, release everything. Touch the other tunes. Create a melody which yourself want to listen again and again. Be a versatile composer.

If you are a painter, don’t focus on colors. Instead focus on ideas. Release all your imaginations onto the canvas. Then, let a marvelous piece of art take birth from your imagination. After all, art is such a wonderful media for expressing your creativity. Why have you been limiting yourself so far?

Give your loved one, a warm hug and tell them how much you love them. Love needs to be expressed. Release your affection. Talk to your near and dear ones about how much they are important in your life.

You will be delighted to experience the real warm feeling of being with family.

How did you miss to release these emotions so far?

May be because, the person reading this post is not real you. You are lost somewhere in the overwhelming digital distractions. Or may be immersed yourself too much into an illusion of speedy life.

However, life need not be so fast that you miss to enjoy the prime moments of it. Aren’t the magical moments that are recipe for a wonderful life?

I know, there is real you inside.

You just need to release him.

I promise, your world will be never same.

Minimalism and minimalist lifestyles are getting widely adopted these days by many people.

And why not? After all, we are so much drowned in clutter that we either succumb to too much commitments or suffer from painful stress of not being able to live a happy life.

Joshua from The Minimalists beautifully explains why he doesn’t own a television. Raamdev wrote an awesome essay about his plan of traveling 3 countries with $3000 in his pocket.

LJ Earnest discusses how eliminating choice will help you to get more done

Did you see what’s happening?

We need drive backwards to actually move forward in the right lane.

It doesn’t matter what speed you are going in life, however , what matters is , where are you going?

Reducing unwanted clutter from life and detaching ourselves from unwanted burdens makes us feel light and reclaim the time for doing what we really love.

Having said the above, I want to know your views or definition about minimalism.

According to you, what is minimalism or minimalist lifestyle? And in what ways , becoming a minimalist can benefit your life.

If you ask me the same question , which I love to answer -

Minimalism according to me is , deliberately detaching myself  from attractive options and involuntary participation which make my life unnecessarily busy. Because when I am less busy, I create something of really good quality.

Note that I have used the word deliberately here in above sentence. Because without deliberate efforts, it’s not going to be easy to become a minimalist.

Back to my original question. What is minimalism according to you.  I want to know.

Write your thoughts, ideas in the comment section and let’s start an interesting conversation.

I am so excited to tell you that I have launched my new blog on blogging advice. It is called Expert Blog Tips

Lot’s of interesting stuff will be available there as I progress my writing there. Right now, you will find few articles and an awesome offer if you are blogger or website owner. I will design your blog header image for Free.

That’s right.

I am keeping this post short. Please go and check it out and let me know what you think about it.

An illusion called stable Life

If we ask people what’s the life they want to live, most people would vote for a stable life.

People want a life without problems. A life which sails smoothly all the way.A life in which everything happens exactly as they had planned.

They want a safe life. In other(their) words, a stable life.

If I ask the same question to a new college pass out, what he want to do after studies ? He generally says, he wants to do job and within 5 years he will become stable in career. He wants buy his own home after 7 years. He will even go to an extent that he may become a manager after 10 years. He can also predict what he will do after retirement.

I say. Wow!!!.

He predicted the next 20 years. Not bad.

This is not just true with college pass outs. This is the same answer we get if we ask the folks who are in their mid-careers.

Mind you, I am not at all saying that opting for a stable life is wrong. If you are fine with it, you can skip the rest of this article. But if you are not, then read further because I am going to discuss something extraordinary. And this article is for you.

Now, first of all , what’s a stable life? How do you define a stable life?

Is it your job that makes your life stable?

Is it your control over money that makes your life stable?

Is it your capability of earning  a constant income?

Is it all of the above?

What if any one of these go wrong? Suddenly you are unstable. Isn’t it true?

You see, people often follow other people: whether in studies or career. They believe, it’s the education that determines their success at life. They focus on marks , grades and ranks.

Even in career, they (blindly) follow others. They will do what others did. They buy homes because others did. They fall in debt trap because others fell (but didn’t warn them).

Even after getting the job, people think that the they will be in the job forever. They plan their next 5 years, 10 years and 20 years keeping job as center-point.

Now, can you tell me what’s going to happen next year or next week or even tomorrow or even next moment?

You can’t predict what’s going to happen the very next moment with you. Why? Because you are going to face it now. You would be proved wrong if you predict something else. That’s the point.

So, most of the 5 years, 10 year and 20 years plans never work. Because they are just plans. In most of the cases they never happen.

You are much bigger than your plans

I want you to realize that you are actually much bigger than your plans.

You are much more intelligent than you thought. You can do amazing things which you never thought.

How?

Just stop living like a robot. And you will start experiencing the incredible things life has to offer.

Who is judging your capabilities anyways?

Why do you think you can never create something awesome?

Why do you decide that you can’t start your own product?

Why do you rule yourself out?

Who is judging you?

It’s none other than your self limitation judging you.

Time to break the wall of self limitation. Come out of fear.

I have a great news for you

Despite your decision to live a stable life, you still have opportunities to create something amazing in your spare time.

How?

Look within.

Think about your strengths. What are you strong at?

Do you specialize in something?

Do you have deep knowledge of something from which others can benefit?

What are you passionate about? Discover your true passion.

Can you create something out of your strengths or passion?

You can.If you try and take the first step.

Because, you are no more a robot. Congratulations for reaching this stage.

Create something – You in action, now

Take a paper and list down all the topics you’re knowledgeable. Also, mark few topics which really excite you.

Can you create something out of it? You can, just join the missing links.

Let me tell you a small example of mine. When I accepted my first website development project (which was for a temple), I didn’t even know what is HTML. I took it up because, I wanted to learn web development in real time. I wanted a challenging assignment. I spent time in learning, applying and finally launched the site. It has been 4 years now, that website is pretty popular and brought me lots of recognition.

Since then, I have created many sites and blogs including the one you are reading now.

Who knows, I may create something new tomorrow or may come up with a book or a software tool. I don’t know. And I love this uncertainty. It makes my life interesting.

Coming back to you.

If you love teaching – You can create an online teaching website where you deliver virtual lessons with help of technology.

Do you love singing? Why don’t you launch your own music album?

Are you a great writer? Why don’t you start a blog?

Are you a full time software employee? Why don’t you create new application which automates lots of things and breaks the routine working process at your office?

You can develop an iPhone app, an android app.

Think crazy ideas and see whether you can implement one of those.

If you don’t specialize any of the above, don’t worry. You can still create something new.

” Need is not always mother of all inventions. Sometimes you need to create the need “

Destroy the Robot within you

Destroy the robot within you called self limitation. That’s what holding you back from creation, achievement, fame.

Stability is just an illusion. It holds you back from growing. It ties your hands with fake limitations. It masks your immense potential.

Instead of running behind stability – Think, experiment, explore and create.

Try something new.

Think about an idea and see whether it can make your life. If it can’t, think another idea.

You are human, who can breathe, smell, smile and most importantly, create.

You are not programmed. You have real intelligence.

You are not a Robot. Stop living like one.

Create something. Be awesome.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated – Confucius

Isn’t it true? In our quest for success and happiness, we surround ourselves with so much clutter that, our focus gets easily distracted, efforts will be scattered and results will be mediocre.

So, it has become really important for all of us to eliminate unwanted distractions and focus on what we really want to achieve. When you live an uncluttered life, you will have more time, peace of mind and more happiness.

I decided to list some of the amazing blogs which teach you how minimalism can enable you to live a more happier, content life and achieve want you want. They educate you how to simplify your life and  guide you to get more with less.

So without much delay, presenting you some of the best blogs on minimalism and simplicity. They are in no particular order.

1.The Minimalists

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus write essays about minimalism and living a meaningful life.

Recommended articles:

• Why I quit my 6 Figure Job
• Why I don’t own a television

2.Raam Dev

Raam Dev writes essays and journals about creativity, abundance. He explores human nature, our growing planetary social responsibility and our place in the cosmos.

Recommended articles:

• The Circle of Life
• The Lifestyle of a minimalist digital nomad

3. Zen Habits

Leo Babauta is well known for his principles for simple living. He has authored many books on simplicity which are extremely popular.

Recommended articles:

• Create Time To Change Your Life
• 8 Ways Doing Less Can Transform Your Work and Life

4. Miss Minimalist

Francine Jay inspires us to live a beautiful life with less stuff. Check this blog out.

Recommended articles:

• The Minimalist Wardrobe (aka, the 10 item wardrobe)

5. Every Day Minimalist

Living with less, but only with best. That’s what the tagline of this blog reads. How awesome. Check the awesome articles written by Serena.

Recommended articles:

• What does Minimalism Really Mean
• Why Do We Buy to make ourselves Happy

6. Unclutterer

Unclutterer is the blog about getting and staying organized.

Recommended articles:

• A Nice Little Home Out of A Garbage Can

7. Becoming Minimalist

Joshua Becker writes about simplifying your life.

Recommended articles:

• 18 Darn Good Reasons To Get the TV out of The Bedroom

8. Be More With Less

Be more with less is a blog about simplifying your life and really living.

Recommended articles:

• How Simplicity Encourages Creativity
• The One thing standing between you and simplicity

9. Minimalist Packrat

 

Tanja Hoaglnd and Patrick Ray writes amazing articles on Minimalism.

Recommended articles:

• The Minimalist Take on Clothing
• 5 simple ways to downsize your book collections

10. Minimalism Defined

A Blog about minimalist lifestyle.

Recommended articles:

• Turning my back on a $80,000 job
• What to do when you live with non minimalists

11. Simple Productivity

L J Earnest writes about new ways to be productive and simplify life.

Recommended articles:

• Eliminating choices to get more done
• Clutter and Productivity: Your computer desktop

12 .Rowdy Kittens

Rowdy Kittens is a blog about shedding unnecessary stuff to focus on what matters, like spending time with friends and family.

Recommended articles:

• Why we are building a little tiny house
• Why I ditched my cell phone

13. 365 Less Things

Very interesting and enjoyable blog where author Colleen writes about de-cluttering life.

Recommended articles:

• Break a bad habit
• What holds you back from declutterring

14. Minimal Student

Jessica Dang is a photographer and guitarist and writes about simplicity. She aims to live fearlessly, constantly learning and exploring what it means to be human.

Recommended articles:

• Why minimalism brings happiness
• 10 minimalist reasons to start cycling today

15. Mnmlst

Leo babuta’s blog on minimalism. I don’t think Leo needs another introduction

Recommended articles:

• Live more, need less
• Letting go of fake needs

16. Zen Family Habits

Zen Family Habits is a celebration of all things family. It’s about living simply and with presence of mind. It’s about cultivating healthy, meaningful, relationships with loved ones.

Recommended articles:

• 8 Things people never tell you about having kids
• 43 simple ways to simply your life

17. Momentum Gathering

Katie Tallo is a mother, wife, writer, director, artist, fitness lover, vegetarian, motivator and momentum gatherer. Her mission is to seek out simple, soulful ways to live, eat, move, create and flow with life.

Recommended articles:

• A Simple guide to remembering who you are
• Reflect, Rethink and Cherish: How to transform your time

18. Simple Rabbit

Simple Rabbit shares articles, advice, hacks and tips for achieving an awesome life through minimalism

Recommended articles:

• Confidence in sunshine
• Your inner feeling of bliss

19. Small Simple Life

Small Simple Life is a blog about simplicity.

Recommended articles:

• Top 5 Simple Ideas on how to make new habits a lasting change
• Top 5 small, simple opportunities for a little more energy and zest for life

20. The Minimalist Path

Recommended articles:

• Simple and critical action to save your life in 21st century

I hope you enjoyed this list of some of the best blogs on simplicity and minimalism.

See you in next post.

Follow me on twitter to get updates.

Hi dear reader,

Hope you are doing great. Just wanted to let you know that I have guest posted an article titled The Incredible Benefits Of Saying No on one of the amazing personal development blog unlockthedoor.net run by Stuart Mills.

‘The Incredible Benefits Of Saying No’ – tells you about how we are overloading ourselves by saying ‘Yes’ to everything that comes our way. It also explores the scenarios where a ‘Yes’ has actually led to a ‘no. It guides you to optimize your time for your passions and prioritizes your commitments. It helps you to live a stress-free life.

Check this article out. It’s well received by wonderful audience of unlockthedoor.net.

Go and join the amazing discussion happening over there

Here is the link again : The Incredible Benefits of Saying No

“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

‘Wait’, is an uncomfortable word for most of us. We are conditioned by the fast paced modern world to expect quick results, swift decisions, and fast resolutions and so on….

Actually, there is nothing wrong in this. After all, computers were invented to do quickly what humans were not able to do. Cars were invented to run faster and make life easier. Airplanes were invented to fly at unimaginable pace to take you from one part of the world to another.

With the beautiful examples of above, let me come to the essence of this article.

Most of us feel and believe that everything should happen quickly. We strive to make sure that things happen fast and any delay is intolerable. Proactivity is taught everywhere in schools and colleges to combat waiting period. We are told not to wait. We are told to hurry. We are conditioned to be aggressive.

However, sometimes we don’t see the progress for our efforts and become depressed. We feel disheartened about the result of something. We fill ourselves with negative thoughts and start losing hope.

Why?

Because, we lack an amazing principle, a game changing truth that most of us overlook, hate and feel uncomfortable.

Patience.

Have you tried doing any of the below?

Did you ever tried to make a tree grow overnight?

Did you make rain to fall bit faster just because you like to see things faster?

Did you ever tried to breathe faster just because you like speed?

You did not. Nature has its own speed. It knows its rhythm. We never can speed up some things. And we should not. Some things happen in life on their own pace.

Making things happen is absolutely brilliant, but not all aspects life can be measured by the speed of your progress. Some are measured by quality of your progress and the direction of your journey.

To accomplish something tangible, concrete and satisfying, you need to have patience. Patience is a virtue. Indeed. Do your part, and have patience and faith. Things will progress. Don’t hurry by underestimating the background process which is running for you. You can’t see everything. You need not know everything. You will get what you want if you have patience and faith. I repeat again.

Just do your part, perform your role, contribute your efforts and wait.

Don’t panic. Don’t lose heart. Don’t curse yourself or anyone. Things will come your way because you have patience, faith and you are solid at heart.

Remember, life is connecting the dots and patience connects them. Don’t try to skip a dot. Every dot is beautiful. Waiting is one of such dots. While you wait, enjoy the silence, enjoy the lull. Anticipate the good and be ready for the outcome.

Next time, when you are stuck in uncertain situation or a confusing state of mind, just ask yourself. Have I done my part satisfactory?

If yes, then just wait.

“Ideas can be life changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea” – Jim Rohn.

Life is beautiful and actually most of the life’s challenges are simple. It’s we, who make them appear complicated by misunderstanding missing to see their details. If we pay attention to their details, we will discover that these challenges are actually simple and life can be easier. Life has so many wonderful things to offer us. It has success, fame and much more. It has hidden treasures. Life is beautiful. It’s just that we need to observe life’s details and discover the hidden treasures.

Unfortunately, most of the people don’t try to discover life. They just sail along with the life. They instead, create a layer of self limitation around them and try adjusting themselves to the situation.

They chase happiness but fail to recognize it when it is already in front of them. They live life in fear and their life lacks the most important ingredient of life, self satisfaction.

How can you discover the hidden treasure that life has to offer you then?
How can you be more productive at work?
How can you become rich?
How can you stay rich?
How can you accomplish more and live a content life?
How can you live a wonderful life?

Is there an answer for these questions? If so what is it then?

Answer for above questions lies in an idea. A winning idea is all it takes to unlock the hidden treasure that life has inside it. Once you unlock, magic begins and all treasure is yours. A winning idea can help us to realize our true potential. In fact just a bunch of powerful ideas can change our life.

What is an idea basically? How do we define and bring it into our life?

An idea can be a completely new concept for doing things or a new method of enhancing existing process. It can also be just a thought which acts as catalyst for other ideas. An idea can hit your mind in just a flash or it could be residing in your mind since decades. Your success or failure depends upon whether you implement that idea or not.

I have such 23 ideas written and organized into an eBook and explained the ideas chapter by chapter. eBook is short, yet easy on the eye with minimum graphics and printer friendly.

This book is all about couple of winning ideas. I tried to share few ideas which you can use,implement and experiment in your daily life and benefit. Most of the ideas are simple, achievable and amazing. Some ideas are innovative and some offer new way of doing existing things. In a nutshell, this book is all about achieving success and living a content life.

Below are the ideas that are discussed and explained in detail by chapter by chapter in the book.

1. Eliminate fear from your life

2.Discover your true passion: Let your passion enrich your life

3.Discover the potential of your talent and make your living life out of it

4.Have enthusiasm for learning new things

5.Learn effective communication

6.Create a habit of waking up early

7.Develop a habit of reading great books

8.Work when you are work

9.Relax

10.Don’t work for money

11.Meet and learn from people who run business of any form

12.Avoid getting trapped in debt

13.Honesty pays

14.Life is fast, its a myth. Take time to enjoy every moment of life

15.Remove stress from your life

16.Better late than never

17.Health is wealth

18.Visit museums and understand history

19.Donate

20.Experience happiness by creating something of your own

21.Develop a hobby and nurture it

22.Offer free service

23.Focus on 3 things: Learning, health and family

To get the eBook for free, you just need to provide your email address below and you will get the eBook sent to your email.