Shortform Books

J.L. Collins: How to Balance Your Investment Portfolio

Do you want to get into investing? What factors should you consider as you decide what to do with your investment money? How much risk should you incur? Two stages in your investing life determine the mix of assets in your portfolio: the wealth accumulation stage, and the wealth preservation stage. According to financial blogger J. L. Collins, if you are young, you should focus on accumulating wealth. When you are approaching the retirement age, you should focus on preserving it so you can continue to live on it. Once you’ve determined your investment stage and allocated the desired percentages

The 2 Ways to Create Interest: Mystery and Curiosity

How can you keep people’s attention once you have it? How can you create interest so people don’t tune you out? It’s one thing to grab attention. It’s another to keep it. You can create interest in two ways—by presenting a mystery or by generating curiosity. Read more to learn about these two ways of creating interest and keeping it.

Mindfulness Activities For Your Daily Life

It seems like everybody is talking about mindfulness these days, but what really is Mindfulness? Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present in the moment and aware of what you’re doing. And, as it turns out, the benefits of mindfulness are both mental and physical. Not only does practicing mindfulness reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, but it’s also been shown to improve your sleep, boost immune functions, assist in weight loss, and lower blood pressure. Additionally, practicing mindfulness is also known to increase your focus at work and school and to improve relationships. If one practice is known to

How to Manifest Your Dream Life: Visualize Success

How to Visualize Success and Achieve Your Goals

How do you visualize success? How will visualizing wealth lead to riches? The right way to visualize success is to have a precise idea of what you want to accomplish, accompanied by an unshakable conviction in your ability to achieve your goals. Visualizing success spurs your creativity, which propels you to develop ideas that lead to riches. Read on to learn more about the right way to visualize success.

Ronald A. Heifetz: Preparing for an Adaptive Change

What exactly is an adaptive change? Have you ever introduced a fundamental change to your organization’s processes? How did you communicate it to your team? According to change theorist Ronald A. Heifetz, an adaptive change is a change instituted in response to an “adaptive challenge”—an organizational problem that has no known solutions. Part of your job as an adaptive leader is to prepare people for the change, and the first step to this is to make sure that everyone has an accurate understanding of what the challenge entails and what change is about to come. In this article, we’ll look

How to Initiate Change and Get People Onboard

What can the fable Our Iceberg Is Melting teach you about initiating change? Why do so many people resist change? How can you kickstart change in your organization? In their fable about change, Kotter and Rathgeber discuss the difficulties of initiating change in a company. They discuss the difficulties of convincing others that major change is necessary and what to do when you encounter resistance. Keep reading for advice on how to initiate change in your company or personal life.

The Confidence Gap: Why Men Have More Self-Esteem

Why do women tend to be less confident than men? Can the confidence gap between genders be explained by genetic differences between males and females? While there are no genetic differences between men and women—the confidence-related gene variants are evenly distributed between genders—the sexes do have physiological differences in their brains, think in different ways, and have different amounts of relevant hormones. Some of these differences may explain the confidence gap between men and women. Here is what neuroscience has to say about the confidence gap between men and women.

The Humble Life of George Catlett Marshall

Who was George Catlett Marshall? How did Marshall’s humbleness and humility allow him to rise up the ranks? In his book The Road to Character, author David Brooks highlights George C. Marshall’s life because he displayed humbleness and self-sacrificing behaviors that are rarely seen today. Marshall advocated for others rather than himself and eventually ended up winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Continue below for a brief overview of George C. Marshall’s life.

Worship as a Lifestyle: The 4 Elements of Worship

What are the elements of worship that should be present whenever and however you worship God? How can you practice worship as a lifestyle? Worship is bringing pleasure to God and connecting with him relationally. Since we are to worship God at all times, worship can’t just be singing or showing up at a church service. Those are acts of worship. It’s important to understand the elements of worship that should be present in all acts of worship. Read more to learn about the four elements of worship.

The 5 Purposes in the Purpose-Driven Life

What are the five purposes in The Purpose-Driven Life? How do you keep them all in balance? The purpose-driven life is what God planned for you. When you live out his five purposes, you experience the abundant life he promised. Once you identify how you can live out each purpose, you must learn how to keep all of them in balance throughout your life. Keep reading to learn more about The Purpose-Driven Life.