Friday, June 22, 2012

10 Questions That Create Success

Want help focusing on what really matters? Ask yourself these on a daily basis.

Pictures of dead presidents have never made anybody happy. And how can you be successful if you're not happy? And buying things with that all money isn't much better. A new car, for instance, might tickle your fancy for a day or two–but pride of ownership is temporary.Think that success means making lots of money? Think again.

Real success comes from the quality of your relationships and the emotions that you experience each day. That's where these 10 questions come in.

Ask them at the end of each day and I absolutely guarantee that you'll become more successful. Here they are:

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?

2. Have I done something today that improved the world?

3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?

4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?

5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?

6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?

7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?

8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?

9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?

10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

Here's the thing. The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your results.

These questions force you to focus on what's really important. Take heed of them and rest of your life—especially your work—will quickly fall into place.

How to Be Happy at Work

If you're unhappy at work--or anywhere else, for that matter--it's because you've made yourself unhappy. There's an easy way to change that.

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Let me start off with a little story.

I once knew a saleswoman–young, divorced–who got a diagnosis of breast cancer. She had to work and raise two kids while fighting the cancer. Even so, she managed to be happy at work, noticeably happier than her co-workers. In fact, she not only won her battle with cancer but subsequently became one of the top salespeople at Bristol Myers.

She was not, as it happens, naturally cheerful. Quite the contrary. When she started full-time work, she was frequently depressed. But she turned it around, using the techniques I'm going to provide you in this column.

That saleswoman once told me: When you're unhappy, it's because you've decided to be unhappy.

Maybe it wasn't a conscious decision; maybe it crept up on you while you weren't looking–but it was a decision nonetheless. And that's good news, because you can decide instead to be happy. You just need to understand how and why you make the decisions.

What Are Your Rules?

Happiness and unhappiness (in work and in life) result entirely from the rules in your head that you use to evaluate events. Those rules determine what's worth focusing on, and how you react to what you focus on.

Many people have rules that make it very difficult for them to happy and very easy for them to be miserable.

I once worked with a sales guy who was always angry at the people he worked with. The moment anything didn't go the way he thought it should go, he'd be screaming in somebody's face. He was making everyone around him miserable–but just as importantly, he was making himself miserable, because just about anything set him off.

For this guy, the everyday nonsense that goes on in every workplace was not just important, but crazy-making important.

I once asked him what made him happy. His answer: "The only thing that makes this !$%$#! job worthwhile is when I win a $1 million account." I asked him how often that happened. His response: "About once a year."

In other words, this guy had internal rules that guaranteed he'd be miserable on a day-to-day basis, but only happy once a year.

One of the other sales guys at that firm had the exact opposite set of rules. His philosophy was "every day above ground is a good day." When he encountered setbacks, he shrugged them off–because, according to his internal rules, they just weren't that important. When I asked him what made him miserable, his answer was: "Not much." When I pressed him for a real answer, he said: "When somebody I love dies."

In other words, the second sales guy had rules that made it easy for him to be happy but difficult to be miserable.

I'd like to be able to write that Mr. Positivity regularly outsold Mr. Negativity, but in fact their sales results were similar. Even so, I think Mr. Negativity was a loser, because he lived each day in a state of misery. His colleague was always happy. He was winning at life. He was happy at work.

Make Yourself Happier: 3 Steps

The saleswoman who had breast cancer was happy, too, and this is the method she used to make herself happy:

1. Document Your Current Rules

Set aside a half-hour of alone time and, being as honest as you can, write down the answers to these two questions:

What has to happen for me to be happy?
What has to happen for me to be unhappy?

Now examine those rules. Have you made it easier to miserable than to be happy? If so, your plan is probably working.

2. Create a Better Set of Rules

Using your imagination, create and record a new set of rules that would make it easy for you to be happy and difficult to be miserable. Examples:

"I enjoy seeing the people I work with each day."
"I really hate it when natural disasters destroy my home."

Don't worry whether or not these new rules seem "realistic"–that's not the point. All internal rules are arbitrary, anyway. Just write rules that would make you happier if you really believed them.

3. Post the New Rules Where You'll See Them

When you've completed your set of "new" rules, print out them out and post copies in three places: your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, and the side of your computer screen. Leave them up, even after you've memorized them.

Having those new rules visible when you're doing other things gradually re-programs your mind to believe the new rules. You will be happy at work. It's really that simple.

Oh, and by the way ... That saleswoman? She was my mother.

Positive Thinking: 7 Easy Ways to Improve a Bad Day

Don't let a bad morning ruin your entire day. Use these mental tricks to change your momentum.

shutterstock images

Today's Editor's Picks

Had a lousy morning? Things looking grim?

Not to worry. The rest of your day need not be a disaster. It can in fact become one of your best, providing you take these simple steps:

1. Remember that the past does not equal the future.

There is no such thing as a "run of bad luck." The reason people believe such nonsense is that the human brain creates patterns out of random events and remembers the events that fit the pattern.

2. Refuse to make self-fulfilling prophesies.

If you believe the rest of your day will be as challenging as what's already happened, then rest assured: You'll end up doing something (or saying) something that will make sure that your prediction comes true.

3. Get a sense of proportion.

Think about the big picture: Unless something life-changing has happened (like the death of a loved one), chances are that in two weeks, you'll have forgotten completely about whatever it was that has your shorts in a twist today.

4. Change your threshold for "good" and "bad."

Decide that a good day is any day that you're above ground. Similarly, decide that a bad day is when somebody steals your car and drives it into the ocean. Those types of definitions make it easy to be happy–and difficult to be sad.

5. Improve your body chemistry.

Your body and brain are in a feedback loop: A bad mood makes you tired, which makes your mood worse, and so forth. Interrupt the pattern by getting up and moving around. Take a walk or eat something healthy.

6. Focus on what's going well.

The primary reason you're convinced it's a bad day is that you're focusing on whatever went wrong. However, for everything going badly, there are probably dozens of things going well. Make list, and post it where it's visible.

7. Expect something wondrous.

Just as an attitude of doom and gloom makes you see more problems, facing the future with a sense of wonder makes you alive to all sorts of wonderful things that are going on, right now, everywhere around you.

Friday, June 15, 2012

TO DO List

	Creating A To-Do List

	By Ramona Creel

Feel free to use this tip sheet / checklist as you tackle your own ""do-it-yourself"" organizing projects. If you would like to REPRINT or DISTRIBUTEthis information, please click here for reprinting instructions.

6 REASONS TO KEEP A TO-DO LIST

can help you take control of your time
gives a one-glance look at everything you want to accomplish
minimizes mind-clutter by keeping track of odds and ends
improves your memory by writing everything down
frees up mental "RAM" by emptying your brain of trivial items
helps you prioritize your activities

BUILDING A MASTER TO-DO LIST

keep a notepad nearby so you can enter items as they occur to you
empty all of the to-do's in your head onto a piece of paper
don't worry about priority, importance, or time frame for completing
this is your "master to-do list"
don't try to tackle all the items on this list
you will build your "daily to-do list" from your master list

CATEGORIZING AND PRIORITIZING

break your master list into meaningful categories by activity
home maintenance, work, calls, errands, to buy, etc.
break large projects into smaller individual tasks
assign a letter code to each item on the list
"A" = must do; "B" = should do; "C" = could do
prioritize items in each category by letter ("A" then "B" then "C")

DAILY TO-DO LIST

limit your daily list to no more than 10 items you hope to complete
include no more than 2 large or difficult tasks
your daily list includes appointments and commitments to others
also include "A" items off of your master list
if you have time, fill in the gaps with some "B" and "C" items
leave room for urgent items that just pop up

DEVELOPING A NOT-TO-DO LIST

not every item on your to-do list has to be done
the key to productivity is awareness of how you spend your time
what you do, how long it takes, and what benefit you get
create a log tracking your activities for a week
evaluate the time investment time versus "payoff" for each activity
how much benefit or enjoyment are you getting from each activity?
keep high-payoff and enjoyable activities on your to-do list
ask yourself if low-payoff activities need to be done at all
if they do need to be done, do they have to be done by you?
if they need to be done by you, could they be simplified?

HOW TO TACKLE YOUR LIST

tasks should be completed in order of importance
unless they have a specific time frame (like a meeting or class)
is this the best possible use of your time at the exact moment?
your goal is to complete all of your "A" items first
then finish as many "B" and "C" items in the time available
be realistic about how much you can accomplish in a day
create an agenda for your daily task list
schedule times for completing specific activities whenever possible
if you didn't complete a task, you had too many items on your list
move unfinished items to another day and re-evaluate the priority

MAKING SURE YOUR ACTION ITEMS GET DONE

if you procrastinate, create artificial deadlines to finish early
know your work style (long stretches or short bursts)
understand your high and low energy periods
plan your to-do's accordingly
make liberal use of memory joggers -- alarms, sticky notes, etc.

OTHER ALTERNATIVES

get your family to take on household responsibilities from your list
ask a co-worker for assistance with routine business tasks
...and offer to help out the next time that co-worker needs a break!
make use of support staff (admin clerks, assistants, etc.)
outsource jobs to an independent contractor or freelancer
develop a local co-op for sharing time-consuming domestic chores
set up an informal chore swap with a neighbor

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Security pros: Knowing when it's time to move on (and how to do it)

By Dominic Vogel

May 29, 2012, 9:50 AM PDT

Takeaway: Dominic Vogel draws on his recent experience to offer advice on job-changing strategies to security pros and others in IT when you realize it’s time to recharge your career.

Spring is a time for growth and re-birth. It is an ideal time to reflect on your career. There was a time when most people worked for the same company their entire working lives. Given the current supply-demand mismatch in the information security job market (more open positions than qualified candidates), you may be hindering your long-term career growth by staying at the same company, hoping to be rewarded for your loyalty. You need to take active ownership and responsibility for your career, and need to be re-assessing your skills and career goals on a regular basis. A good rule of thumb is to think about shifting roles every three to five years (any more frequent and you may get labelled as a job hopper). I am not advocating switching companies but rather changing roles (you may need to leave your current employer in order to achieve that, however.) I recently went through this experience for the first time (having worked three years for the only company I’ve worked for since graduating from university). To help other infosec pros who find themselves in a similar situation, I would like to share some of my thoughts on the events that transpired leading up to my final day:

Realize when it is time to move on

If you feel that you have stopped learning to the point that your skills are regressing, it is likely time to move on. Having the self-awareness to realize that your career has stalled is imperative to long-term success. Unfortunately, once you get all cozy and comfortable, you’ve likely reached that glass ceiling and need to seek new opportunities and challenges.

Revitalizing the resume

The goal of the resume and cover letter is to land an interview. Making it past the gauntlet that is human resources is a daunting but not impossible task. In order to make your resume standout, list five key strengths near the top of the page, or include a personal branding message. When listing your work accomplishments try and include some quantifiable numbers. These seemingly insignificant changes can be effective in getting your resume noticed. See TechRepublic’s Career Management blog for some great resume tips like these recent ones:

Beyond online job sites: Get involved with local security community

By only checking online job sites, you limit yourself to a smaller pool of opportunities. Being an active member of the security community (regularly attending conferences or membership in security associations such as ISACA or ISSA) allows you to leverage your network more effectively. The best job is often the one that is not widely advertised.

Seek out a recruiter — a trusted adviser

I must confess that I once lumped recruiters in the same category as used car-salesmen, real-estate agents, politicians, and tax collectors. I could not have been more wrong. A great recruiter can serve not only as an adviser but can offer organizational insight into the companies to which you are applying. I was very fortunate to meet a terrific recruiter who provided invaluable guidance, and who I will consult on my future career moves. A trusted recruiter is like a trusted mechanic, they are hard to find, but when you find one, they will serve you in good stead throughout your career. There are countless recruiting firms to choose from, so some research may be needed beforehand (See “How to find a good recruiter in your area.”)

Apply, rinse, and repeat

Do not shy away from applying to positions because there is something in that job description that doesn’t appeal to you, or that you do not possess all the qualifications that are listed. Most job descriptions are written by someone in HR that has little understanding or knowledge of the intricacies and nuances that are required to work in information security. Nearly all the job postings online are formed from generic templates that do not necessarily reflect the skill nor the duties that the role requires. Do not be afraid to apply; after all nothing ventured is nothing gained.

Giving two-week notice

This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I have the utmost respect and admiration for my former manger and mentor (he was the only one who was willing to give a fresh graduate the chance to work in the security field). Be sincere and heartfelt when delivering the news. Explain that you will do everything required to make the transition as smooth as possible. Most managers will be happy for you and realize that constant change is part of the modern business landscape.

Transition planning

It would be unprofessional to leave your co-workers and manager dangling without properly transitioning your duties. Fully documenting your “organizational knowledge” and processes/procedures that you follow for your day-to-day duties will make it much easier for your successors to continue your work with minimal trouble.

Saying goodbye

Hopefully, you will be leaving on good terms. The IT community (especially the IT security community) in some areas is very small, so it would be prudent to garner reference letters and LinkedIn recommendations. Be sure to exchange personal contact information as well. Former co-workers and mentors can serve as sounding boards when you come across new problems and challenges. In today’s inter-connected world with applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, keeping in professional contact has never been easier.

Hit the ground running

Ask as many questions as you can and meet as many of your new coworkers as possible. Don’t just restrict yourself to people in your department. The best way to learn about the ins-and-outs of the business is by talking to with those out in the “trenches.” As a security professional, this is a great way to learn about critical business processes and to get a chance to view security in a business context.

Leaving your coworkers and friends can be a very difficult experience. What is important are the relationships forged, and the experience and the skills gained over the course of your employment. Take the time to reflect on what you did well as well as areas for improvement. In IT (and especially security) we need to embrace and manage change as it is part of our daily working lives. I am eager for the changes and new experiences that await me in my new role. That being said, I wish to extend a sincere thank you to my former colleagues for their mentoring over the years, and for giving this kid a chance to work in information security when no one else would.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

android - important points

first of all RelativeLayout ignores layout_gravity. Then you need to know that

gravity means "apply gravity to the content of this view"

whereas

layout_gravity means "apply gravity to this view within its parent."

So on a TextView, gravity will align the text within the bounds of the TextView whereas layout_gravity will align the TextView within the bounds of its parent.

MATCH_PARENT, which means the view wants to be as big as its parent (minus padding)
WRAP_CONTENT, which means that the view wants to be just big enough to enclose its content (plus padding).

A TableLayout can specify certain columns as shrinkable or stretchable

by calling setColumnShrinkable() or setColumnStretchable(). If marked as shrinkable, the column width can be shrunk to fit the table into its parent object. If marked as stretchable, it can expand in width to fit any extra space. The total width of the table is defined by its parent container.