Duncan Nugget #12: Paralyzed By Choice [VIDEO]

"I have so many things I could do that I don't know what I should do!"

Students and professionals say things like that all the time. I understand why.

In a famous research study, more people stopped to taste jams at a table with 24 flavors, but more people actually made a purchase at a table with 6 flavors.

Having too many choices exhausts your brain, stiffles creativity, and kills motivation because you end up feeling overwhelmed and develop a fear of making the wrong choice.

When it comes to dreams, goals, and aspirations, most people aren't suffering from a lack of choices, they're suffering from lack of ability to make a choice.

Successful people do their research, make a choice, and adjust based on the consequences. They refuse to be paralyzed by choice.

Million-Dollar Question:

How determined are you to avoid being paralyzed 

by the fear of making the wrong choice?

Duncan Nugget #202: Live Your Life [VIDEO]

A few years ago, I saw the following statement on a student's Facebook status:


"Oh I get it! The point of life is to live." 

As you can imagine, his status immediately generated a couple of sarcastic comments:

"omg"

"lol"

"AHAHA you hit the nail on the head didnt you?"

People were clowning him and I'm not sure if he was serious or not , but that is a profound statement: the point of life is to live.

A lot of people spend their whole life dying. Dying from stupidity. Dying of mediocrity. Dying of boredom. Dying of loneliness. And the list goes on. They do nothing. They just fade away and completely waste a precious gift.

Enjoy your life.

Do something awesome with your life.

LIVE your life. You deserve it.

Million-Dollar Question: 

Are you really living your life?

Duncan Nugget #26: Contagious [VIDEO]

There are few things more nerve-wracking than being stuck at work or on a plane next to someone who is constantly coughing.

You're sitting there thinking, "I better not get sick or I'm going to hurt somebody." 

When people are coughing like that it's easy to see that they might be contagious, but we are often unaware of the subtle ways that people are contagious.

The limbic system is the part of your brain that produces emotions. Scientists have discovered that it's an open-loop system. Which means the moods and attitudes of one person transmit signals that can alter the heart rate, hormone levels, sleep rhythms and immune functions inside the body of another person. And the person may not even realize what happened.

That's deep.

People are always contagious. 

Million-Dollar Question: 

What attitudes and moods are you and 

 the people you hang around infecting each other with?

4 Tips For Success In Your College Career

Q: I truly appreciate having the opportunity to listen to you speak. Next fall I will be attending the University of South Carolina and will be double majoring in International Business and Finance. I was wondering if you have any tips for what to expect in the college world, and how to continue striving for success in my college career.

-Nicholas C.

Colorado

Let's focus on some of the basics. It's simple stuff, but people always mess up on the basics.

Read more »

Duncan Nugget #211: The Deciding Factor

[VIDEO]
Exxon Mobile Corporation conducted a study that shows that price isn't always the main deciding factor for choosing a gas station. It's other things like cleanliness, brightness, and safety.

That's interesting because it shows that...

When someone makes a decision about you and what you have to offer, many times the deciding factor isn't what you think it is.

I've seen plenty of people get tripped up over this. If you are a parent, educator, or mentor whether or not someone heeds your advice is seldom based on common sense. The deciding factors are things like trust, respect, and authenticity.

When you're in an interview, seldom are your GPA and technical knowledge the deciding factors. It's often a matter of soft skills like leadership, communication, teamwork, and decision making.

Million-Dollar Question:

When making a choice about you 
and what you have to offer, 
what will be the deciding factor?

The Path To Success

[GRAPHIC]

Man...I wish I figured this out sooner.

The path to success looks like spaghetti.

The Economic Cost Of A Dropout

[VIDEO]
Teaching and inspiring opportunity youth to improve their socioeconomic and educational outcomes is a noble cause as well as an investment in the economic well-being of our country.

According to Henry M. Levin (William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education,  Teachers College, Columbia University) opportunity youth are young people that are not accumulating human capital in school or college nor accumulating labor market skills by working.

The short definition: opportunity youth are young dropouts who aren't working.

The average lifetime social burden cost of a 16-yr-old dropout is approximately $750,000. There are 6.7 million dropouts between the ages of 16-24 which means that the aggregate social burden cost of dropouts is a whopping $4.75 billion.

Million-Dollar Question:

What are you committed to doing to 

inspire opportunity youth?

Duncan Nugget #320: Squabbling Over Crumbs

[VIDEO]

Three birds were sitting on a branch. They were starving. A bakery truck passes by and off falls a loaf of bread. When the loaf hits the ground a piece of the crust breaks off into crumbs.

The birds swooped down and started squawking and squabbling over the crumbs. Feathers were flying and beaks were pecking. One bird even lost an eye, but it never dawned on these idiots that there was a whole loaf sitting nearby.

Unfortunately, people can be like that too. They squabble over pettiness, toxic relationships, and dead-end careers that are nothing but crumbs.

If you are starving for happiness and fulfillment it makes no sense to squabble over anything that keeps you focused on the crumbs of life.

Step back. Take a look around. There's a whole loaf sitting nearby.

Million-Dollar Question:

Are you squabbling over crumbs or 

striving for the whole loaf?

Were You Downloaded Or Born?

[CARTOON]

Source: St. Paul Marketing Team

New Trends In Education

There is some great info in this article: 8 Important Education Trends in Generation Z

But... I really wish some demographer or guru would come up with a better name than Generation Z. "Digital Natives" works, but it overlaps part of the Millennial Generation (Gen Y).

Duncan Nugget #42: The Coffee Bean

[VIDEO]

If people experience the exact same thing, why do they have different versions of reality?

I'll show you.

Initially, a coffee bean is green. Once harvested and roasted, it turns brown.

Next, someone grinds up a bunch of beans, puts the coffee grounds in a filter, runs hot water over them, and voila! Countless variations of coffee—cappucino, frappacino, black, or whatever—a perfect cup of coffee for whomever is drinking it.

Can anyone re-create the original coffee bean?

Of course not! Communication and reality work the same way.

You process reality through filters like your beliefs, values, and moods. You distort, delete, and generalize information to create the perfect cup of reality for you. Think about that.

Exceptional communicators learn to understand the filters that people use.

Million-Dollar Question:

When it comes to communication, 
can you take a coffee bean 
and make the perfect cup of coffee 

for you AND for others?