Business

  • Life, Mindset

    Toxic Things I Removed From My Life to Finally Be Happy

    A toxic workplace can be easily spotted: there is a boss who micromanages. Workmates who gossip. And unpaid overtime projects. Your dream job can turn into your worst nightmare. The solution– quit the job and move on. However, toxicity can be tricky to point out in real life. Because as you go through your usual activities, some appear to be working just fine. Until it fully takes away your happiness after a long time. Unlike work, you cannot quit life that easily. 

    They say you cannot spot a toxic environment when you are living in it. You can tell that your workplace is toxic because it is only a part of your life– a fraction of what you do daily. You can point out the red flags all you want and move on because you are not dedicating your entire self to it. The opposite happens when it comes to your actual life– your thoughts, habits, the things you do when no one is around. While outside forces can influence toxicity, it can come from the mind. And you will never know how toxic it can be until you reach your lowest point. 

    Admitting that life is becoming toxic is a tough process. But learning to recognize its triggers is one step to overcoming the struggle. To help you pinpoint what damages you, here are some of mine that I managed to deal with.

    Toxic Things I Removed From My Life to Finally Be Happy

    The Clutter

    Clutter is defined as something untidy or disorganized. While this applies to most physical items. It can also include mental and emotional baggage. And all of them heavily affect productivity. As this kind of burden piles up, it contributes to the creation of an external toxic environment. 

    At the beginning of my decluttering journey, I opted to deal with what I can control– physical clutter. You may think that a messy space has nothing to do with toxicity. But according to Dr. Kristen Fuller, MD, excessive physical clutter can entrap a person mentally and physically causing distress. It becomes an intoxicating environment that affects well-being. And in my experience, seeing everything all over the place draws attention, causing distraction and irritability in my surroundings. 

    Today, I have found myself finding peace in organizing things. A clean space brings me tranquility that allows me to focus on more important tasks, be productive in both life and work, and brings in more positive energy. To fully cleanse my surroundings, I also had to deal with clearing toxic relationships and shifting habits. Not only have those have taken a toll on my well-being, but they do not also support the growth I am aiming for. 

    Clearing the clutter may be as easy as “removing what does not spark joy.” But more often, it is harder than letting go of items. The clutter might have been staying there for a long time. And it took me a while to pinpoint what I need to let go of. But in letting go, I have found something better. 

    Self-doubt & Second Guessing

    A mind is a powerful tool. Think of anything you want and you can condition yourself to strive towards that goal. Align your thoughts, ideas, and plan our series of actions to make something happen. However, while it can be a powerful tool to succeed, it can also destroy you. 

    Whenever there is uncertainty on a task or a situation. It is normal to second guess. It is not always jumping off the bat, it is normal for humans to stop for a while and doubt their abilities. However, having this repetitive behavior can lead to serious consequences. This is one of the hardest challenges I faced. Because no matter how much I prepared for something, I beat myself up with doubt and too much second-guessing. And it always ends up in a pool of negative thoughts. 

    Learning to balance self-acceptance and improvement became my self-care process. It is about reminding myself that I can do it, while not ignoring the possibility that I still have to learn throughout the execution of a certain task. You have to train your mind to give credit to your preparation. If self-doubt comes from bad experiences in the past, recognize the triggers and practice overcoming those. Use the power of your mind to decide on what is going to happen. Balance things out and see what works better for you.

    Overworking

    Life is full of endless possibilities and you can be whoever you want to be. To achieve this, you start to develop a momentum of working hard to get what you want. May it be expensive possessions, gathering connections, or a huge career break. Your job will help you a lot to achieve it. 

    However, work is only a part of life. Overworking yourself can lead to serious health issues, develop negative habits, and can damage your overall lifestyle. No matter how important running a business or keeping your job is, work-life balance should be the priority. I have been through countless sleepless nights, neglecting self-care, and dedicating most of my time to my career. Seeing my progress was great, but it is becoming an unhealthy practice. According to several studies, overworking that leads to burnout can cause deteriorating mental health. Depression and anxiety have been its top effects along with a heightened risk of stroke and heart disease. 

    Learning to balance work and life may be challenging for workaholics. But your mental and physical health should not suffer as you go on your journey to success. I have learned that even prioritizing one too much can also be damaging. Overworking can cause issues that can prevent you from going to work. It reduces your fuel to your drive. Thus, balance is all there is left to do. Take time to rest, spend time outside, nourish your relationship with people, and take care of yourself. Because short-term success should cost you long-term problems.  

    Toxic Positivity

    During difficult times, staying positive is important to keep going– “look at the bright side of things,” they say. It can help you overcome challenges by focusing on the better aspect of the situation or shifting your attention to something more desirable. But, only looking at what comforts you can be toxic. 

    Tabitha Kirkland, psychologist and associate teaching professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Psychology, defined toxic positivity as a response that dismisses emotions instead of affirming them. It can stem from a place of discomfort and a lack of empathy. Toxic positivity is a “false reassurance” over a serious issue. While it can manifest in your response to other people’s challenges, you can unknowingly do it to yourself too. 

    Clinging on to positivity prevented me from recognizing my emotions. Looking at the “bright side,” caused me to suppress what I deemed as unwanted emotions (negativity). And that did not help in solving them. Which resulted in even more suppressed negative emotions. Now that I have learned better, every feeling and emotion should be acknowledged. According to some research, ignoring negative emotions makes people feel worse later on. Not only can it let you enjoy real happiness, but also completely let go of negativity.

    Define Your Happiness

    Marie Kondo always asks, “does it spark joy?” While this applies to organizing closets and only keeping what is important to you, it is a powerful principle towards achieving happiness. Toxicity can sometimes be comforting– but only to the point of getting used to it. I found myself being comfortable in a toxic situation just because it has been a norm for me. It is comfortable because I had no idea how much it affects my well-being and I do not have to change. But does it spark joy for me?– also no. 

    The only thing there is left to do is to change my views, habits, and how I treat myself. More than anyone, I know how I can find happiness. And from that, only I should know how to make it happen. 

    It’s up to you to decide on how to live your life. You can settle with a monotonous lifestyle, a comfortable one, or constantly live on the edge. What matters is to choose how you wish to live every day. When things do not look good, feel right, or cause you happiness, you have to take charge in abandoning it. Because you always deserve to live your life the way you want to. It took me enough courage to keep only those that sparked my joy. Discover what is yours and reclaim your peace and happiness.  

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  • Mindset

    5 Ways to Make Your Goals Happen

    Our brains are wired to get rewards. We adore the feeling of satisfaction even from the littlest things. And to get a spark of delight, we need to take action. Clear the clutter in your workspace and be productive for the day. Work on a project early to lessen stress in the future. Go out for a walk and clear your mind. The effort you put into a specific task allows you to get your desired results. 

    Simpler tasks are swiftly done– you can be spontaneous about it, have fun, and get that reward. But when it comes to more complicated ones that would make a huge impact on your life, being impulsive is not a good idea. It requires a process, more effort, and enough focus to achieve. 

    Edwin Locke’s Goal-setting theory of Motivation explains the link between goal setting and improved task performance. Locke believes that goals give direction to people and help them calculate the amount of effort required. This gives sense to the importance of goal setting and how it can guide you along the way. 

    Your goals are the blueprint for your aspirations. It can have a long-term effect, make huge changes, or become the reason for your life’s shift. But without a plan, you will be running like a headless chicken and achieve nothing at all. Here are ways to make your goals happen.

    5 Ways to Make Your Goals Happen

    1. Break it into Pieces: Write it Down

    When you start wanting to achieve something, making it a goal only allows you to look at its entirety– that is your endgame. It can make you feel inspired and excited to venture on a new journey. But it can also make you feel overwhelmed. Looking at the farthest point can shock you because you are not thinking about the details that can come your way.

    Writing down your goals is one step to start working on them. It may seem like extra work for some, but it would help you map out everything you need to do. Writing is believed to improve memory retention. While mostly associated with students taking notes, Neuropsychologists discovered its “generation effect.” This is where people better remember information they have written down or generated themselves; making you remember bits of your progress and the game plan, and be able to review it better. 

    When all is laid out, you should also know if your goals are realistic enough for your current situation. Sometimes, when people are too hyped up to a new interest, they tend to forget the rest of the details. How much work does it demand? Is this the perfect timing to do it? Is it realistic to pursue? These criteria can help you identify your goal’s features so you can plan  them out better: 

    • Frank L Smoll’s ABC of Goals
    • George T. Doran’s S.M.A.R.T. and 
    • S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals

    These three should display the characteristics of your goal. It can also eliminate other aspirations that may not fall into the criteria as they can appear ineffective. Preventing wasted effort and opportunities in the future. 

    As you go on, breaking your big goal into attainable pieces one at a time will help. Tracking your progress is also beneficial to see how far you have reached, which practices worked, or which should be ditched. Documentation can be a key to constant improvement. 

    2. Train your Mind and Body

    In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

    Getting riled up on a new adventure is not a great idea. When it comes to making your goals happen, preparation is key. Take time to sit down and identify your strengths and weaknesses that can affect your progress. 

    Training your mind is equal to making a change in your mindset. At this point, you are entering a new space. Rapid changes towards goal achievement may overwhelm you at some point. Mind conditioning allows you to modify your reaction towards something or shifting mental state to maximize your performance according to the situation. 

    Training your body, on the other hand, may include physical fitness. But most importantly, you need to enhance your skill set to get what you want. For every goal, list down your strengths that can contribute to its success and the weaknesses you may find. This way, you leverage what you can and further improve it along the process. Use it well to accomplish something little by little. 

    Your weaknesses do not define what you cannot do, but simply, identify where you should put more effort. Say, you want to be in an executive position in your chosen career, but you lack leadership skills. Knowing that it is a vital element to your goal, you should practice leading. Learn how to take initiative, stand for yourself and others, and know when to take control. Practicing the intricacies of your weakness can help you gain another strength. 

    Preparing your mind and body during the process improves your performance. There is also a higher chance of reaching your goals when you commit to making improvements about yourself. Try to practice or make it a habit– humans can make something a habit after doing it consistently for 21 days. Level up your game and consider this getting into the zone for a new version of yourself. 

    3. Practice Reflection

    Putting your heart and mind into doing something helps you stay consistent on moving forward. In your journey, you may find yourself constantly driving your way towards success. And you forget how to stop and smell some flowers. Sure, you are excited to get to the finish line. But how will you know if you are still on the right track?

    Reflection allows you to understand possibly underlying truths, see your progress, and analyze the situation. This is an important aspect of achieving your goals. Because It makes you aware of what’s currently happening so you can decide what comes next. According to the University of Edinburgh, under their reflection toolkit, they defined “reflective habits as a powerful tool in increasing your learning, development, and self-awareness based on your experiences. 

    Practicing reflection regularly helps you assess your progress and its pace. This can help you with decision-making or applying alterations to your actions. To do this, you can sit down and ask yourself questions. Is this skill good enough or do I need to improve? Am I satisfied with what I have achieved in a certain time frame? What should I do next? Should I stop this habit? 

    Consistent reflection increases your awareness, tracks your progress better, recognizes hindrances, identifies opportunities to leverage, and plans out your next moves that stem from realistic experiences. It can also address your expectations, fears, and a time to reward yourself. After all, it should not be a daunting process. You should be able to enjoy your journey.  

    4. Look Into Backups

    Your goal is your blueprint and writing them down is how you can do it, why do you need backups? The past few years proved that the most unexpected things can happen at any time. When it comes to your journey towards success, we are not taking any chances. A backup plan does not mean a different goal– that works too– but only a reroute to the finish line. 

    Consider backups as an aspect of preparation. No matter how dedicated you are, how all else are perfectly lined up, how sure you are with your plan, life can get in your way. There are a lot of internal and external factors that can affect your present actions. While there are more things you can control, those that are out of your hands can make a bigger impact. 

    Backups are simply another way to the end of the road. It is not getting in the way of positive thinking, rather, embracing an open mind in considering another perspective. While you curate your ultimate plan, have other options– even if it requires plan Z.

    5. Take your First Baby Steps

    What more can you do after planning and preparation than take action? 

    Since you have reached this far, it is about time to execute that plan with all your might. Do not be scared to take the first step. You are backed up by your knowledge and experiences. Also equipped with a blueprint you created yourself. You are ready to make your goal happen. 

    Before you get too excited, keep in mind that taking baby steps will be more beneficial. Just like breaking your goals into pieces, your actions should also be small. It is about incorporating gradual yet consistent changes in your routine. Do your first task now, do another two for tomorrow, and so on. This is also the time to reward yourself before a bigger reward of goal achievement. 

    This practice can help you go through the process smoothly. And spark excitement as you progress. After all, this journey should be fun right?

    Final Words

    Goal setting is a great way to own your aspirations. But more than the aim, crafting your way through it is more important for your development. As you go along in this journey, you will discover a lot more about yourself. How do you respond to certain situations? How do you plan something out? Your mindset, skillset, etc. It may even remind you that you are capable of gaining a better understanding of yourself. 

    Taking action towards something you desire can overall improve your character. In times that you may feel lost along the way, take a look back at this guide. Continue with planning and revising your blueprint. And soon, find yourself at the finish line– even holding bonus prizes.  

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  • Branding, Social Media

    Practical Branding Tips for Instagram

    Branding makes your business stand out. From your logo, theme, and the entirety of your brand’s appeal– branding allows you to be distinguished among your competitors. 

    According to Instagram, as of early 2021, there are already more than 200 million business accounts on the platform. It ranges from the biggest corporations to thriving small businesses. With this huge number, the competition is already tough. But knowing how to make smart moves will give your brand the edge.

    Instagram branding is both challenging and fun for most businesses. While it allows you to channel your personality and creativity, it requires strategic planning. Curating your IG profile and bio are essential steps for great branding. But here’s how you can do better.

    Set Your Goals Straight

    Before starting anything else, you should clearly define your goals. It can save you time and effort on planning, but it also utilizes your resources. 

    Your IG branding goals should align with your business’s current status– may it be directed towards brand awareness, scaling, or customer acquisition. You can use these goals to plan your next steps in curating your account. 

    For this process, you can follow the SMART goal setting. It guides your objective to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Using this can give you a clearer view of your vision and a realistic action plan for your brand.

    Craft the Perfect Bio 

    The first few steps are about your brand’s basic information in setting up your account. Your name, display photo, and a 150-character bio should be utilized well. 

    Your name and profile photo are the most recognized parts of your account. And you want your followers to remember it well. Use the right profile picture– a unique representation of your brand. When it comes to IG handles (usernames), it should most likely be the same as your company’s name or a shortened version of it. This allows your audience to identify you even outside social media.

    Under your displayed full name is the IG bio. With a 150-character limit, you can put as much information about your brand as possible. You can include your brand description, services, and links to your website. Make sure to write a copy that perfectly describes your brand and is engaging enough to attract prospects. Also, take advantage of that free space and use it to display your seasonal offers or featured products.

    Develop a Theme and Stick with It

    IG is a visual platform, and you should use it to your advantage. This can be your creative space to showcase your brand’s personality and aesthetic. It includes a similar look and feels in terms of content, a consistent tone in captions, and the overall look of your IG feed. 

    First, your content may vary according to your offers and branding goals. Creating your strategy will help in a more consistent posting. You can create a content calendar, use tools to schedule posts, and even repurpose content from your website.

    IG captions help provide context to your posts. It can also include questions, polls, and other engaging content. Make sure to set a tone that matches your brand’s personality. Your captions can be informative, creative, or interesting– or maybe all of it simultaneously.

    Next is visual appeal—the theme, colors, and even letter fonts matter. Be consistent with the ‘feels’ you’re trying to show your audience. Stick with a pleasing color palette that matches your brand. 

    Lastly, take advantage of the Instagram feed. The grid format gives you a chance to create specific patterns, mix and match colors, or section them according to the year’s season. The possibilities are endless. You can also draw inspiration from other brands that you follow. But keep in mind to stick to your branding guide.

    Utilize IG’s Features and Tools

    Instagram has many built-in features that you shouldn’t sleep on. Aside from the built-in editing tools to improve your photos and videos, other features can enhance brand visibility when used well. 

    You can create a branded hashtag specific to your account to have your own space. Using this on your posts can improve brand recall. Encouraging your followers to use it can help you track your engagement and enhance your visibility. Along with this, you can also use popular hashtags to appear to a broader audience. 

    Instagram live is another feature that you can use to increase engagement among your followers. It encourages first-hand interaction with your brand, which can help with building a better connection. You can also use this to show the company’s behind-the-scenes happenings or teasers for your future offers. It allows your audience to know you and your brand better.

    Schedule and Publish Quality Content

    Publishing content regularly increases your brand visibility. Part of IG’s algorithm is increasing your visibility on the accounts that regularly interact with you and those that post consistently. But posting alone will not work. As a brand, you should provide value to your audience.

    There’s no fail in giving valuable content to your audience. It makes your brand a reliable source of information in your chosen field/industry. Having this kind of credibility encourages your followers to trust your brand. To consistently appear in their feed, you have to post regularly or, if possible, within a schedule. 

    It will help if you plan and schedule your content. Social media is not the only thing you will do. And even if you hired a social media manager, scheduling gives you more leverage in the coming days. It can also save you energy in curating your content, as you can do it ahead of time. You can do more important things while ensuring you can still provide quality content.

    Leverage trends and be social

    Social media users are always driven by following trends. It’s a way of staying in touch with the digital world and keeping users updated with profound changes. 

    Use this opportunity to stay in touch with your audience and see what they like. Keeping your brand updated to the latest trends shows that you care about what they are into at the moment. Participate in challenges, use relevant templates, and you can eventually create your own.

    Final Words

    Starting as a social site, Instagram grew and developed the potential for business platforms. It allows businesses and customers an improved interactive experience. Creating a cohesive Instagram presence shouldn’t be as hard. It is a strategic process that can be fun, too! Choosing realistic and practical steps in branding can help you turn your vision into reality in no time. Start channeling your creativity and watch your brand shine.

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  • Freelancing

    How Coworking Spaces Change the Way Work Happens

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    As the trends in the workforce evolve, there seems to be something special about freelancing and coworking that ties them together in such innovative ways. Gone are the days when working at a corporate office or at home are two different choices because now, you can have the best of both worlds in a coworking space – but with a little social distancing.

    Coworking spaces are built in a flexible environment that cultivates community, diversity, productivity, and scalability for professionals to work independently together. Over the last few years, coworking didn’t just change the way work happens but there’s a significant link to how professionals thrive in coworking spaces.

    The Rise of Coworking Spaces

    Studies show that more than 30% of today’s workforce is comprised of freelancers or independent professionals. According to experts, this number is expected to rise by 2020. With this increase comes the need to open more co-working spaces worldwide that plays an important role in how and where freelance professionals could work. As this industry grows, there’s a chance that many small businesses could use coworking as a competitive advantage in their respective locations. 

    But the real question lies on how these independent professionals could leverage coworking as a norm in their chosen career path, and which coworking space offer the best workspace flexibility options that remote workers search for. To start with, here are some of the benefits of coworking space that helps every freelancer thrive in the biz.

    Five Benefits of Coworking Spaces

    Coworking spaces have easily become an attractive option for remote workers, same goes for freelancers and entrepreneurs. The main reason could be that coworkers find an essential value in being part of a diver community of likeminded people – because sometimes, working alone sucks. But before searching for a coworking membership that works best for you, keep in mind these five benefits:

    1. Community

      Taking the first spot is the community. Working alone as a freelancer or an entrepreneur could be difficult because at some point, you may lose your sense of community. But with co-working spaces, you are given a chance to work independently without being alone. Coworking spaces may even introduce you to potential connections allowing you to rub shoulders with other business owners or like-minded professionals. To cut it short, nothing beats the power of a network that you can leverage for your future endeavors.

    2. Productivity

      Imagine working in an environment that’s free from the stuffiness of traditional office space and is built with a structure of the comforts of your home. Perfect, right? Who wouldn’t want to work there all day and smash deadlines like a pro? This is how coworking spaces are created—to boost your optimal productivity. There are no administrative tasks or operating costs to worry about—only you, focusing on work. Plus, being surrounded by hardworking professionals gives an extra push to motivate yourself. There are also other amenities provided that could help increase productivity.

    3. Flexibility

      Coworking spaces offer various membership options and payment plans. Since many small business owners and freelancers can’t commit to lease offices because of the hefty price tag, they opt to choose coworking spaces. Members are free to go from daily, weekly, to monthly—whatever the situation calls for as freelancers often have flexible working hours.

    4. Diversity

      Many coworking spaces have members and tenants who work for a wide range of businesses. This kind of environment gives professionals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with people from different industries. If anything, there is more collaboration and less direct competition in coworking spaces unlike in a traditional corporate office.

    5. Scalability

      Entrepreneurs or freelancers who run a business already have quite a few overhead costs. That is why coworking spaces offer flexible terms for business owners to eliminate those expenses. With coworking spaces, you don’t have to worry about utility bills or service charges. These places are well-equipped with tools that could help professionals and business owners alike.

    Shape the Future of Work

    What really makes coworking fun and innovative? Some research suggests that the combination of a conducive work environment and experience where a diverse group of workers shares energy and ideas are the main reasons why professionals thrive in coworking spaces.

    High levels of motivation seen in people who co-work is due to the fact that they can be more of themselves while at work. To sum up, coworking spaces shape the future of work because of its benefits for the workers. Professionals thrive when they have autonomy and are given their own space with enough support to reach their full potential.

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  • Books, Mindset

    3 Powerful Benefits of Reflective Thinking

    In a fast-paced society where reflective thinking is not top of mind, most people would instead act than think. Now, don’t get me wrong. We should all be a person of action. We should all enjoy seeing things accomplished. But at the same time, we should all become reflective thinkers and embrace the benefits of reflection.

    When I think about how EOS recommends scheduling a clarity break to its practitioners, I am reminded of this school of thought called reflective thinking. 

    A clarity break is a regularly scheduled appointment on your calendar with yourself. It’s up to you. But the doing of it is what matters. During this time, you should find a place to meet with yourself and take a journal with you. It could be any place where you can be alone and uninterrupted. Even EOS founder Gino Wickman finds a Starbucks near his home.

    Now, how does it tie with reflective thinking?

    The clarity break allows us to practice that. 

    As we go through this process, the goal is to reflect so that we might learn from our successes and mistakes, discover what we should try to repeat, and determine what to change for the benefit of the business. By mentally visiting past situations, we can think with greater understanding. More than ever, it helps us zero in on what truly matters.

    To top it off, here are the things clarity break and reflective thinking do to help us focus on the business:

    It Gives Us True Perspective

    According to Greek philosopher Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Carving out time for reflection helps us examine not just ourselves but the experiences that we had. When we practice reflective thinking, it leads us to put our experience into perspective and evaluate its timing. We might take some experiences for granted and fail to reflect on them unless prompted. But the clarity break allows us to process our experiences better, ask the right questions, and mine gold from our thinking.

    It Improves Decision-Making Skills

    Reflective thinking increases one’s confidence in decision-making, as per leadership guru John Maxwell. Even leaders have a moment of self-doubt. It comes from wondering whether a snap judgment made was the right thing or not. But having clarity from previous decisions could diffuse that doubt. 

    In reflective thinking, the goal is to create mental roadmaps to solve an issue so we won’t have to repeat going through the same process of finding a resolution again. Not only does it speed up thinking time and processing decisions, but it also gives us more confidence to approach conflict, and it strengthens our intuition.

    It Clarifies the Big Picture

    Setting aside time for reflection through a clarity break helps us see the big picture. When we engage in reflective thinking, we can put our ideas into a more accurate context. The clarity break encourages us to step back and spend time pondering what we have done and what could still be done to develop our organization. 

    Dick Biggs suggested a system to help us organize our thoughts on paper while reflecting on the bigger picture. He recommends creating three columns with the following: Year – Turning Point – Impact. In the EOS setting, this could very well translate to Quarter – Turning Point – Impact. Or I must say, Rocks – Significance – Action Point. Either way, this system could help us define our goals for the bigger picture during our time of reflection.

    How to embrace these lessons?

    Ultimately, engaging in reflective thinking provides the right perspective, counsel, insights, and direction we need for the future. It clears the path for growth and paves the way to accomplishing more goals, thus, clarity.

    When you are in a company run by EOS, clarity break is a privilege. It allows us to grab the opportunity to remove ourselves from distraction for short blocks of time. 

    Even if this type of privilege is unavailable, do not hesitate to spend time reflecting on your business or career growth. After all, nothing could firmly cement any learning like action.

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