ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 17

A cousin of mine was moaning that her daughter will probably take a gap year since she wants the “full college experience” and online classes do not offer the same level of joyous camaraderie. This made me ponder about the many important life lessons that college never teaches you.

We just launch our kids into the grown-up world with no clue about important topics like money, parenthood, office politics, and other crucial concepts expecting them to have picked it up by osmosis watching their parents. (Like we parents know everything!)

Why don’t we have a class called “adulting” before graduation?

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Travel Tips

Are you tired of the lockdown and craving to travel somewhere, anywhere? I know I am, but not enough to board a plane and head off yet. At the same time, using virtual “hikes” via Zoom or Google Maps does get old after a while. Instead, here are some alternatives to satisfy your travel wanderlust even during the lockdown.

1] Beauty Amid Urban Jungle.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Instead of daydreaming (with despair) about an exotic vacation in Hawaii or Europe, have you looked closely at your home city? …

ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 11

In business circles, there is a concept called the product maturity model using terms like growth, maturity, and decline to indicate how the business is progressing. Seasonality is everywhere — financial stock markets, farming, fashion trends. So why not in writing?

Based on my experience as a blogger, author, voracious reader, and mentor — here are the “writing seasons” that people typically fall into. This is empirical stuff only but it may provide you the motivation you need to write more and to improve your productivity.

Without further ado, the four seasons of writing:

Spring

#SethGodinDailyChallenge

I love the new layout and features on Medium.com — this is basically a jackpot for quality writers, irrespective of your following size or previous experiences with monetization!

I wrote about the “Hooked” model that product designers use, but Medium just took it to a whole new level! And this can potentially translate to big bucks for good writers.

This post is a breakdown of how writers can use the new features to get more reads, higher reading time, and eventually larger payouts.

The Hooked Model Background

The “Hooked” model is a concept from Nir Eyal’s book of the same name. I wrote about…

ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 29

There is NO Elevator to Success. You Have to Take the Stairs! — Zig Ziglar.

The internet loves amplifying rags-to-riches stories, one-hit wonders, child prodigies, and millionaire status teen social influencers. Unfortunately, those stories are rarer than a blue moon! Still, we persist in looking for shortcuts and have almost devalued the value of sheer hard work and persistence.

So here is a gentle reminder — there is no elevator to success; you have to take the long, scenic route via the stairs! Nothing beats the compound effect of good habits and persistent hard work.

Want to achieve your goals? Stop making excuses and start working on your goals. Even 10 minutes per day will do — getting started will be the hardest bit!

ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 28

Everybody, I know wants to earn more money, irrespective of whether they make $30,000 per annum or $300,000! On this platform alone you will find thousands of articles about money - how to earn from your articles, people making thousands via eccentric side hustles, how some teenager cracked the jackpot by gaming the algorithms that power social media platforms, blah, blah, blah…

Money cannot buy happiness, but a lack of it certainly leads to anguish and sorrow! Money is one of the most important things to live a happy life yet we are never taught this critical life skill. …

ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 27

“I spent 5 hours training the new guy on something that takes me 5 minutes to do…” groaned my friend.

This is the number one reason why delegation is so hard. If you are a (new) manager or parent, you know delegating tasks for the first time is like pulling teeth without anesthesia! I’ve been there, done that too, and pondered over this many times. This is what I concluded…

Why is Delegation So Hard?

1. Most companies do not have good, written documentation for team tasks. …

ILLUMINATION CHALLENGE 100 — DAY 27

Did you know pineapples grow in bushes, not trees?

I did not! I only found out while visiting the gorgeous fruit hothouse at Longwood Gardens (Pennsylvania) revealing my childhood as a stereotypical city brat. I found this image while scouring some of my old travel photobooks.

As the lockdown seems to extend into infinity (half of 2021 is almost over, sigh!) and travel plans remain curtailed or booked at astronomical prices, here is an easy way to stay safe while exploring the great outdoors!

A new type of travel adventure — Home Tourism!

Look up the tourist spots in your…