Wild Western Blog

Success doesn't happen by accident. A wealth of psychological research has found the people who achieve most in life take the same deliberate steps to make sure they reach their goals. Sometimes it means minimizing the value of will power; other times it means dusting yourself off after defeat. Here are some of the psychological strategies the most successful people adopt in their daily lives. They maintain a "growth mindset." Flickr/woodleywonderworks In the 1960s, psychologist Carol Dweck came up with the idea for two different kinds of mindsets. She called them "growth mindsets" and "fixed mindsets." Growth mindsets give people the ability to see themselves as capable of change — notably, growth — while fixed mindsets cause people to view themselves as fully realized, or unchanging. Having a growth mindset leads to far higher achievement than having a fixed one, Dweck's research has found. ...

All it takes is a single tweet or text for some people to reveal their poor grasp of the English language. Homophones — words that sound alike but are spelled differently — can be particularly pesky. Regardless, you should never  choose incorrectly in these nine situations: 1. 'Your' vs. 'You're' "Your" is a possessive pronoun, while "you're" is a contraction of "you are." Example 1: You're pretty.  Example 2: Give me some of your whiskey. 2. 'It's' vs. 'Its' Normally, an apostrophe symbolizes possession, as in, "I took the dog's bone." But because apostrophes also replace omitted letters — as in "don't" — the "it's" vs. "its" decision gets complicated.  Use "its" as the possessive pronoun and "it's" for the shortened version of "it is." Example 1: The dog ch...

Thanksgiving is a time for family, overeating and if we’re lucky, giving thanks. Need some ideas? Here are 100 things to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving! For Saturdays that feel like Sundays and the moment we realize we still have another day in the weekend For fireplaces For cheerful people who remind us that happiness is a choice and make us want to choose it For the slanting late afternoon sunlight For the moment when a cheap bottle of wine starts to taste decent and someone proclaims “it’s growing on me!” For the warm, indescribable things we feel when we go on the first hike in a long time and realize that nature is just ... For the books that remind us how much we love reading  For new beginnings forced upon us that we hate at first but learn were exactly what we needed For new beginnings we courageously choose for ourselves For the tears we never would have shed had we not been so lucky to have loved the thing we lost For the memory of how good we used...

Write A To-Do List The best way to start your week is to take some time to anticipate the week ahead, and do what you can do to prepare for it. Even if it is just writing and queueing up emails to be sent first thing Monday, or thinking about how you want to approach a project in the coming week, it is time well spent to help a busy week go smoothly. If you have a lot to accomplish this week, write it all down to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Begin the list with your priorities and hardest deadlines, then refine to make it efficient. If you have a meeting in the same neighborhood as the dry cleaner, make sure to put that in your calendar so you can pick it up right after your meeting. Is the grocery store by your child’s school? Then swing by the grocery store before or after picking up your child. Being thoughtful with your schedule will make sure you get everything done when you need to, in the most efficient way possible. Prep Meals For The Week  ...

Do you ever feel like nobody takes you seriously at work? If so, you’re not alone. More than 50% of people don’t feel respected at work, according to a global survey of more than 20,000 employees by the Harvard Business Review . Maybe colleagues ignore your input in meetings. Perhaps they interrupt you or don’t include you in important decisions. It’s easy to blame that on a bad boss or a toxic work environment. In some cases, that’s even true. But if you really want to be taken more seriously at work, you should start by looking in the mirror and doing what you can to increase your influence. There are eight things you can do right now to increase your credibility, get people to take you more seriously, and ensure you get treated with the respect you deserve. 1. Don’t let your statements sound like questions. One of the most common things people do to undermine their credibility is end their sentences on a higher inflection than where they started. It’s c...

Whether you're a newly promoted manager or a longtime boss, it's important to come across as strong and competent in front of your employees. There really aren't many quick fixes when it comes to actually being a good boss.At a basic level, you simply need to treat people with respect and do your job to the best of your ability. However, there are a few tricks you can adopt if you'd like to appear more powerful (which, in certain cases, is half the battle). Business Insider recently spoke with Dr. Lillian Glass , a communications and body language expert and author of " Toxic People ." Glass shared a few tips on how bosses can appear more powerful using body language: 1. Straighten your posture Sitting up straight won't just make you look better in front of your employees. It'll actually boost your confidence — at least momentarily. As WGN TV previously reported , a 2016 Northwestern University stu...

A man with one hand in his pocket approaches a locked door and places his other hand on the doorknob. A second later, the deadbolt clicks open, as if by magic, and he lets himself in. A would-be burglar casing the house watches this sequence of events unfold. The next day, after the man has left for work, the burglar approaches the door and places his hand on it, expecting it to pop open. Instead, it stays stubbornly locked. It’s not outfitted with a typical “smart lock,” which uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to open when a paired phone or watch is nearby. It’s not reading his fingerprint, either. So what’s going on? A similar scenario recently unfolded in the University of Washington’s Networks and Mobile Systems Lab, where researches are experimenting with a new technology that sends passcodes through the human body. The technology uses touchpads and fingerprint readers to create signals that travel through skin—and, unlike wireless broadcasts, ...