Written by Ivan Staroversky | 15 May 2010

I just finished reading a book by Brian Tracy titled Something for Nothing: The All-Consuming Desire that Turns the American Dream into a Social Nightmare

I took some notes from this book and would like to share with you The Responsibility Pledge.

See if you can read and sign it.

The Responsibility Pledge

“I accept complete responsibility for myself, my life, my family, my financial situation and everything that happens to me.

I am a completely free, proud, self-reliant individual. I look to myself for the answers to my questions and the solutions to my problems. I am a complete optimist. I look for the good in every situation. I seek the valuable lesson in every setback or obstacle. I think about my goals most of the time. I focus on the solution rather than the problem.

I am not a victim. I refuse to complain, condemn or criticize. If I am not happy with a situation, I take action to change it. I blame no one for anything.

I recognize that there is a fair and full price that must be paid for anything worthwhile. I do not try to get something for nothing. I refuse to accept something for nothing and I do not support any person, process or policy that attempts to give me or anyone else anything to which I or they are not justly entitled to as the result of hard work and sacrifice.

I am a successful, happy person. I am grateful for my life and my opportunities. I believe that everything in the universe is conspiring to make me happier, healthier and more prosperous.

I have an attitude of gratitude toward everyone and everything.”

_________________________  Signed

How do you feel as you read over this Pledge? 

Are you hesitant or eager to sign your name at the bottom? 

How you think and feel when you read this Pledge to yourself will tell you a lot about your philosophy of life.

How others react and respond when you show this Pledge to them will tell you a lot about how they think and feel, as well.

Written by Ivan Staroversky | 25 February 2010

1. What do you want to have?

The majority of people have very little idea about what it is that they want. However, they do know that what they currently have is not what they want to have. If you were to stop and put aside what it is that you don't want and only focus on what you want, what would it be? In general, there are two kinds of motivation - away from and towards to. In order for you to be motivated away from or towards to something, you have to be aware of something that will motivate you. If there is nothing to be aware of, then there is no motion.

What is it that you want to have?

Most people have very little idea about what it is they want.  However, they’re sure that what they currently have in their life  is not what they want. So, for a moment focus on what it is you DO want, rather than the idea of what you don’t.

In general, there are two kinds of motivation – the negative – away from something, and the positive – toward what you desire.  It takes a motivator either way – whether it’s something you want to  avoid or something you desire.  Without these motivators, nothing would happen.

Most people find themselves focusing on what they don’t want as a motivator to move away from it.  The problem is, the more they focus on it the more they will eventually return to it.  If you keep on moving away from something without clearly defining what you do want, you’ll eventually wind up with more of what you don’t want!

2. What do you have to do to get what you want to have?

Knowing what you want is different from getting what you want! This doesn’t mean you should sit at home and visualize your successful future all day long but it does mean knowing what you have to DO or STOP DOING to get it.

3. What do you need to know or do in order to achieve your goals?

Once you have decided on what you want to accomplish, do you know how to achieve your goals?  Often people lack certain knowledge or skills they need to fulfill a goal.  Maybe you need to read a manual or a book, complete a course, watch an instructional video or do some research.  Be sure you’ve done your homework before you invest time, energy and money.

3. What do you need to know in order to be able to do?

You now know what you need to do but do you know how to do it? Sometime people lack certain knowledge or skills that they need in order to be able to do something. Maybe you need to read a manual or a book, finish a course, watch a video or do a research. Be sure that you know what you are doing before you will invest your time, energy or money into it.

4. Whom do you need to get into contact with in order to achieve your goals?

Your goal is to establish contacts with people who will help you to know how  or to do that which will help you to get what you want to have. It can be a long or a quick process, but other people will often have resources or knowledge that will help you. Who and where do you have to meet or associate with?

5. Whom do I need to lose contact with?

Do you often get a phone call from Bob or meet with Susan who constantly tell you how bad things are? Do you often act as a caring person for others and you listen to them for hours only to feel bad yourself at the end? Perhaps it’s time to lose contact with people who constantly waste your time and energy. Limit yourself so that you will only talk to these people on Christmas and their birthday. Minimize the amount of time you spend with people who are not moving anywhere in life.

Your brain works by using the principle of associative memory - neurons that fire together, wire together. Every time you see, hear or feel something, the brain interprets the signal by referring to your long term memory to try to find to find related information. Your long term memory consists of a neural network. Specific parts of this network are stimulated when you experience or remember something. For example, do you ever get an unpleasant feeling when you see someone bleeding from a paper cut ? Your brain interprets what it perceives by stimulating the neurons associated with the paper cut. Those neurons are further connected to pain which also gets triggered. Thus you get an uncomfortable feeling only by watching someone else get a paper cut.

Every time you hear or see something negative, sad or unpleasant, your brain triggers associated memories and experience. The more you talk or hear about negative things, the more you stimulate the negative connections of your neural. Neurons that fire together, wire together. The more you do this the stronger the neural connection becomes and the easier it becomes for your brain to recreate negative feelings. Your environment is constantly programming you.

Written by Ivan Staroversky | 20 January 2010

photo by Will Lion

Every day we are bombarded with huge load of information, some of which is important, some is urgent and some is just time wasting. The complexity of our world is constantly increasing, but the adaptation of our brain is lagging behind. Video, Audio, Books, eBooks, Documents, Documentaries, Presentations, Audio Books, Seminars, Webinars… So much information and not enough time to go through everything.

The problem is not with information overload. The Problem is in lack of content filters. 

I work and study in the field of psychology. I have to know what happens in the world, what happens locally and what happens inside people's minds. I have to know a lot about great many things.

People often ask me - how do you keep up with all the information out there? The answer is - I don't. I constantly update and adjust my content filters so that I can process relevant, useful and applicable information. I will share some of the tools and techniques that I use to filter and work with information.

•    Apple MacBook Pro 13
•    iPhone 3GS
•    Plain paper notepad
•    4 Color Pen with pencil built in - 5 in one
•    Various online services and software detailed below

There are a lot of interesting videos out there. However, there is just not enough time to sit at the computer all day and watch videos. I mention a computer and not TV. I do not have cable in my house for the past 7 years. Back when I was in high school, one of my teachers mentioned that he does not watch TV at all. The first time I heard it, I thought that there was something wrong with him. When I asked him why he did not watch TV, he explained he has more time for the important things like family, reading, exercising and a lot of other things that television took away from people. Today, I can say that he was 100% right. As someone who specializes in the field of psychology and knowing some inside information about how television works, it is better to stay away from it.

Video material can be placed into these categories: movies, documentaries, lectures, seminars, entertainment and other.

1) If the movie is highly rated and recommended, I dedicate my full attention to it by either going to a movie theater or watching it at home on a large screen. There are not that many movies out there which are worth doing this.

2) Casual good movie can be watched on my laptop when I travel.

My resources:

• www.imdb.com - The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.
• www.jinni.com - Get personal recommendations, watch wherever you choose.
• www.joblo.com - The number one source of movie trailers and teasers on the Internet.

Jinni is also a website that I use as my notepad for movies that I would like to watch someday.

Documentaries - unless the movie has a great video quality and beautiful scenery, I watch it on my iPhone. Most documentaries are about information rather than viewing experience. In order to save time I convert documentaries to MP4 format compatible with iPhone 3GS. I watch them when I commute. If needed, I take notes on iPhone itself or in my notepad.

The program I use for video conversion on mac is Wondershare iPhone Video Converter available for both Mac and Windows. It is simple and does the conversation with just a few mouse clicks.

 I also use iTunes to organize my media. Syncing is great.

Lectures and seminars - There are many great lectures and seminars, but there is one common thing about them - usually there is not much to look at. Most lectures, seminars and even TV shows can be converted to audio only.

Steps to follow:

1. Collect your videos into one folder (this can be done over time).
2. When ready, use video to audio converter to batch convert them all.
3. Sync with your media player.

Sometimes lectures can get boring but still contain useful information, the iPhone has a handy feature - “2x” double the speed of the audio file. Resume playback is another feature I love on my iPhone.

Online videos - YouTube is an amazing resource for educational material if used properly. One can either waste time on YouTube or become smarter. YouTube is not the only website with educational and useful information, there are many other websites.

List of Educational Websites

Tools for downloading videos:

• Easy YouTube Video Downloader extension for Firefox
• KickYouTube - simplest solutions for downloading YouTube videos.
• 3outube - most easy way to download Youtube video
• For any other website with videos I use DownloadHelper Firefox extension - the easy way to Web videos. One click and the video goes into iTunes library.

1) When I work on my laptop - soft ambient or chillout music with no words to make my work more pleasant.

2) Gym - working out with music is a must in my routine. A good set of trance music makes a great workout. I subscriber to Above and Beyond Trance podcast on iTunes. Other than that, I do not have time to listen to music. Unless of course I am at a concert :)


Audio Books - audio books, seminars, presentations and lectures are a big part of my life. I have been listening to Audio Books since high school. I listen to educational material when I walk, cook, clean my house or wait in line. When I move, I listen. When I stand, I read. It is incredible how much time people waste commuting and waiting in lines. All of this time can be converted into learning and development. Brian Tracy once said - “Your car can be a University on Wheels”. Go to www.apple.com/itunes/ and look at how many good audio books, podcast and free iTunes University courses are available.

iTunes is an irreplaceable software in my system as it allows me to organize and synchronize my media. One of the my favorite features of iTunes is the “Auto Delete” option which allows you to automatically delete the podcasts that you listened to.

Books - When I am at home, I read paperback books. I like them and still have a few of them that I want to go thought. Why do I say few ? Because most of the books that I want to read are available in digital format and I prefer to keep my place clean - less is more. At the moment I use stanza for iPhone. This is a great program which converts pdf files into epub ebook format and allows you to read all kinds of files on your iPhone. I waiting for a few more ebook readers to come out to see which one will be the best one. If the book is not available at your local library, get it in a digital format. As I am writing this post, Apple is one week away from presenting their new tablet/ebook reader.

One of my favorite services is ReadItLater - Save Web Pages to Read Later. Eliminate bookmarks clutter in your browser. There are so many web pages out there that I want to look though but do not have time to do so. This tool allows me to add a website to my ToRead list with just one click of a mouse. Later I can easily synchronize my iPhone with ReadItLater and read offline while I commute. Wikipedia is one of the most frequent websites that I read as it allows me to be informed about many topics.

1) Evernote - save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. I sue it to keep lists, account information such as flight reservation and confirmation numbers. I also use it as a capture tool on my iPhone. It is great to be able to have all my notes synced on my macbook and iPhone wherever I Go.

2) MindNode Pro is an elegant and simple-to-use mindmapping applications for the Macintosh that helps me visually structure ideas, organize, study and solve problems.

3) ReQall - is the best tool to integrate your memory with your life, helping you get more from life while improving your real memory. I use it to jott down my ideas, create daily to-do list and setup reminders. Works well and integrated with Evernote and Google Calendar.

In case you are wondering, I do not use an RSS reader as I have learned that RSS Readers greatly decrease your productivity. The number of unread items in your RSS reader and the feeling that you must read all these posts is not good for productivity.

Gmail - I am a long time Gmail user and out of all the email services that I tried, Gmail is simply the best one. I will not do a detailed description about it because there is just too much good stuff to say about it.

Google Calendar - syncs with my iPhone and iCal. All that I need is there.

Google Voice - gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail as easy as email, free US long distance, low rates on international calls. Much have been written about Google Voice on Lifehacker.com. I use Google Voice as my all in one number. I use it on my laptop and on my phone. It allows me to keep track of my phone calls, contacts and sms messages.

JotNot! - Digitizing the world's documents is the easiest way to convert your pictures of documents (whiteboards, presentations, blackboards, etc.

IFitness and RunKeeper for keeping track of my fitness.

I have mentioned most of the tools that help me to survive in the increasingly complex information world. The only constant is change and perhaps with time some of my strategies will change.

Written by Ivan Staroversky | 12 January 2010

The traditional approach to a health problem is usually a somatic approach. Somatic meaning the cells of the body and is based on physical symptoms. For example, you are driving a car and suddenly a warning lights begins to flash showing you that your car needs oil change. Your solution is to turn that light off and keep going.

This is a common approach of mainstream medicine, which usually deals with symptoms by using a pain killer or other type of medicine that deals with the symptom rather than the problem. If you decide to simply get rid of the warning light, for how long will you be able to drive and what are the consequences of not changing the oil ?

Psychosomatic means that a physical condition is caused or greatly influenced by psychological factors.