After another unexpected and seemingly unforced hiatus, I'm back. This week, I will detail how my current bout with severe depression took me off my game months ago and how I had to evaluate the situation to improve. I'm on the path to doing 'better' now, but not entirely out of the woods yet.

Inspired by a recent video produced by Mark Manson (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck), I explain why personal and development is flush with books on the subject that are all recycled ideas, why we worship these books, and what you need to start doing now to justify all the books you already own (and the ones in your queue to buy next).

You can watch Manson's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQB3viVFhPA&t=310s

There is a universal belief in personal development that you should limit your time spent with the 'wrong' people. This episode will help you gauge who those people are and if you could be one of those people.

I have used this five-point plan to set goals for over a decade, and I want to take this week's podcast time to share it with you:

-Take a calendar, and make a realistic sketch of your available free time and when it exists.

-Download all your hopes and dreams. No matter how outlandish and seemingly impossible, write it down (alongside the more realistic ones) if you'd like it to happen.

-Review and rate the goals on your list. Eliminate the goals you know are impossible and those you know you have little desire to follow. The most important potential goals should be at the top of the list. Determine how much time your top ten items will take to work on weekly.

-Go back to that calendar and review the open space you designated as free time for personal development use. Start with the first item and see if the time needed and the times you can realistically work on them will work. Go down the list until you find one goal that works.

-WORK ON THAT ONE GOAL UNTIL YOU SEE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT. Then, use this process to select a new goal to work on moving forward.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF OF THIS GUIDE HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4q9knwqny58mqdp/The%20Last%20Goal-Setting%20Solution%20You%20Will%20Ever%20Need%20To%20Learn.pdf?dl=0

There is pressure for good tidings and cheer to be the familiar feeling for all during the Christmas season. The reality is many are not feeling all that jolly. Some, in fact, are feeling a good level of pain right now. Guess what? That is valid, but not an excuse to bring others down.

It is cliché in the world of personal develop that books are important to growth. This episode will go over some of the benefits of reading and offers some suggestions to where you can find your books.

If you are interested in the Blinkist app, visit https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/c/2043256/707940/10732

This message is another way to state, ‘guard your free time wisely.’ It sounds like simple advice you’ve heard far too often, but give it a listen anyway.

Getting feedback is excellent. But the feedback you are getting is probably not very. Here is what you do to manage all the feedback you receive, for good or for ill.

Learning skills when you are unsure of the ‘proper’ steps to follow is an asset since you don’t know what you don’t know, and you don’t fear doing the things that others have cast off as the wrong things to do.

We as humans deal with too many daily issues that can not be simply resolved by throwing wads of cash at them. And then there are issues when throwing cash at them is the exact fix needed.

Every new person you meet is has lived a story they probably would like to tell, so be open at the beginning of the new possible relationship. But just like a terrible book or a boring streaming TV series, you are free to walk away if it is not working.