The Three Month Vacation Podcast

One of the unseen enemies of learning is dropout. Clients get into a course very excited to learn. Then they go off a cliff. They don't show up as often, if they show up at all. This dropout factor isn't a new problem. It has existed for hundreds of years, but it's only recently that we've understood how to get better results while spending less time. Let's find out how to quell and even get rid of the dropout factor once and for all.

We think procrastination means laziness. But often it's just the first step that feels impossible. How do you make your clients move ahead quickly and recommend you more often than ever before? Let's find out how this principle works.

IF you ask someone why they can't focus, they usually say they're very distracted. But are we really distracted? Or is it congestion, instead? Let's dig deeper into this slight nuance, because distraction may be a good thing after all.

How to Overcome Information Overload (And How To Do It Almost Overnight)

When clients look at us, me in particular, they see an almost unblemished trail of success. But you can't see the fear behind what we've been through. Yes, it's fear. Let's go into storyland and learn about the fear and possibly how to overcome it.

If you ask anybody, you will hear that things have gotten a lot worse. But is that the case? And do we have any control over what's happening around us? How do you stay calm even when things don't work for you? Let's find out in this episode

We sometimes believe we write for a client, or for a website. And that belief is true. Except, it's not true for most of the time. There comes a time when we go on a trip, a discovery of ourselves. We write for a completely different reason. Let's have a look, shall we?

Writing seems so laborious at times. We feel like giving up, but there's a reason why we write. Actually, many reasons.

We all seem to know how every day matters. However, what causes people to plateau suddently and how does every day activity help in avoiding that messy situation? Dig deeper into the very average concept of every day learning and you'll see it's anything but mundane.

I've now been writing articles for 25 years. And in those 25 years I've learned some things that you may not always find on a writing site, or even in any writing article. LIsten to this episode and you'll suddenly have a completely different view of how to go about writing your article.

We all want to be somehow perfect. It doesn't matter that we know it's not possible. In this podcast, we have four crazy arms of perfection brought to life by writer Keith Rhys. I wish I could have said it better, but Keith (alumni of the Article Writing Course) says it eloquently. You'll relate to these arms of perfection, no matter who you are or what you do.

If you feel overwhelmed and seem to get nothing much done, you're not alone. That's because many of us go around in circles. We never attain take-off speed and are doomed to circle the airport endlessly. Or are we? In this podcast, we will examine why top speed is so crucial and how to get to the point where you can fly on autopilot.

Do you sometimes think you have “shiny object syndrome”? Do you seem to hop from one thing to another, only to feel disappointed? What if you couldn't change your mind so often? That's what the “five-year” lease is all about. You somehow have to make it work. Let's find out how to use the “five-year” lease concept to your advantage.

This is back to back travel series. First it was Europe, now it's India. Enjoy the journey!

Imagine there are two computers. One computer is a standalone connected to nothing but the electrical supply. The second one is connected to a network of computers. Which of the two is likely to be more useful to you? A similar concept applies to learning. People with a greater database are almost always seen as “more talented”. A database is something we can control, and learning how to use it makes us more “talented”. Here's where you start on the journey.

This podcast is called the Three-Month Vacation, and yet we almost never cover vacation stories. Well, that's about to change. Here are some stories from India and also from Singapore and France. Allons-y!

How do you get clients? This is one question that repeats itself endlessly. You'd think the answer would be common knowledge by now, and it is. The answer lies in a concept called “groups”. We fail to understand the power of groups, and that's where the struggle begins. How do you use the power of groups? Let's find out.

“Hard work” has never been considered a problem. If anything, we're all told to work hard. How do you know when you've crossed the line from hard work to overwork? Surprisingly, the answer doesn't lie within ourselves. Here's how to use your family as an early warning system.

It's clearly impossible to avoid using a phone. Which is why software seems to come to the rescue. However, the way to avoid the phone (at least once a week) is simpler than you'd think. What's more, the habit grows. You start avoiding the phone more than you'd expect. How is it all done? Let's find out.

Podcasts, membership site, cartoons, photography, Whatsapp—the list goes on and on. And it's puzzling to clients how I (Sean) manage so much. Well, there are bound to be some principles. Here are just four of them, and we cover two of them in this first episode.

It's that time of the year when many of us travel. If it's even a short trip, we get jetlagged for days. How do you beat it? Here's a theory based on my “diaries”. Diaries? Yes, diaries. Let's find out.

It's normal to want to wait for the perfect moment to start a project. However, that's usually a mistake. A tiny, random project can be started right away. And in a little while, a whole decade or two decades pass. Find out how tiny, random projects make a huge difference.

At times, you simply can't think of an analogy, and you reach for something that's been used many times before. However, there's zero fun in using a tired analogy. How can you take this rather overused analogy and turn it into something with oomph? Let's find out.

The Power of Analogies (Part 2): How to use everyday life to create stunning analogies Probably the biggest mistake that most of us make is that we try to find analogies. We sit down at a desk and wrack our brains trying to find an analogy that's just right. Instead, we end up with analogies that have been used repeatedly by other people. Or analogy doesn't seem fresh—and certainly not memorable. Yet, there are dozens if not hundreds of analogies waiting for us round the corner. And by that I mean literally round the corner. It's a secret waiting for us in plain sight. Let's find out how to go about creating those analogies by the dozen!

When we sit down to write an article, or design a presentation, we tend to slip in an analogy. However, most of the analogies that we seem to come up with a "boring and tired". The reason why we struggle so much is because we're going about it the wrong way. And allergies – in general – should be written backwards. How do you write an analogy going backwards? That's what we'll find out in this episode.

We start on a learning journey and then we quickly get lost. Why is this the case? We might have systems in place, reminders that keep going off, but we still don't have a clear understanding of what will get us to a level of fluency. This level of fluency is called “base level of success”. Unless, you and I know the base level, we simply practice, and while we get better, we don't get very good at a skill. Well, it's about time.

When you go for a meal, you follow a sequence. When you are part of a wedding ceremony, there's also a sequence. Sequences allow us to follow a thread, but it also gives the client a clear pathway. In this episode we look at the power of sequences, how to implement one and why you may want to change your sequence as technology moves forward. Let's go!

The Internet has and will always be a great source of getting clients. However, if you notice, it's also a very crowded space. There's a place that's a lot less busy. It's called “the world offline”. Here's why you need to do some exploration away from your computer.

We continue on our two part series of why adults struggle with learning. And this time around, we have an unusual enemy. The enemy is “vocabulary”. How can that be the case?

We all believe that languages should be learned early, and we're not wrong. However, most adult learning is based on a school system that's boring and plainly illogical. Why do adults struggle so much? The short answer is that they don't learn like kids. The question is: what do kids do differently that makes learning so enduring? Let's find out.

In most cases, you can increase your prices by as much as 15% by moving from left to right. But what if you wanted to increase your prices by, say, 20%, instead. Well, then you move from right to left. What does all of this right, left, right mean? Well, listen to the podcast and it will make sense in a few minutes.

Giving a presentation is often nerve wracking. You know you need to relax but you are driving yourself up the wall. The usual way to solve the problem seems to be that you need to practise more. You practise, practise, and practise, but the stress won't go away. So what does reduce the pain? It's simpler than you'd think.

When we get into a learning situation, we're usually excited. Then, almost immediately we feel unsure. We stumble along, not keen to move ahead. What's happening in our brain? I'll tell you what: a pain map is being created. This pain map is because of a lack of good instructional design. How do we avoid creating this pain map for our kids and especially for our clients? Let's find out