 that covers goal-setting from every single angle. The mind doesn't work particularly well when it isn't effectively directed. If it doesn't know what it's going for, it will just grab what's near, what's available, what's easy, what's convenient. If you genuinely want to drive yourself forward, you need to set a stretch goal. I would say don't make those goals unrealistic to start off with. You know, saying if you're living in a bed-sit and saying, you know, I want to be a millionaire by next year, that could be a valid goal, but have some structure to that to back that up, the direction you're going to take, drill down in all your goal-setting. So you really know what approach it is, where you're going, what you want to have happen. If you do that, the likelihood of that goal coming true for you is far greater. And when I first read the manuscript of Change Directions, which was about three years ago, I said my goal was I want to write a book and a year and a half later, that had happened for me. So set a goal for everything important in your life. It can seem a bit of a challenge at times to have to sit down, go through that process, but if it's important enough, make it happen. Time management is another area that can help minimize or allow you to stay in control of your stress. And there's just some really simple tips up there. Make lists. I'd be pretty lost about a list. I'd make a list pretty much the last thing before I go to sleep at night. And when I get up first thing in the morning, I know, okay, that's number one, two, three, four, five. Other things may come up in the day and I might have to make some phone calls. I wasn't expecting to make and it froze it off a little bit. In general, I'm moving in the right direction and without that list, I wouldn't be as productive as I can be. Work efficiently and that goes back to that Laugh a Curve we saw earlier. Make sure you stay in your optimum state of energy and focus. And if you find yourself tipping over that, you're starting to look at those YouTube vids for too long and you're getting distracted from the work in hand that you're looking to do, take yourself away. Do something that's going to refresh you rather than drain more energy out of you. Always be decisive. If a decision doesn't need to be made, say, okay, it's out of here for now. That's not something I need to focus on. But in any decision that you do need to take action on, make it quick. And I'd rather make a hundred mistakes than sit there festering being concerned about a mistake I might potentially make. I'd rather clock out those mistakes and move forward in my life. And that makes things easier. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You know, if you need help, part of being strong is being able to open up and ask for that support, ask for that help. And I find when you do that, you are encouraging people into your life, you're encouraging energy into your life, things that will, again, lift you up and take you forward. Utilize dead time. Just make the most of the time you have available to you. If you're going to rest, if you're going to take it easy, say, I'm setting aside this time to rest now. And it's two hours. It's three hours. It's half an hour, whatever it is, and stick to that and then come back and get focused on what you're doing again. Prioritize, that goes back with writing lists, really. Focus on what is the first important priority, what is most important for me to be doing with my day to day, what is going to create the greatest change or the greatest move forward in my life. Take regular breaks. I think that you can work for between, it depends on the individual a little bit, but between 30 and 40 minutes in one shot, you can work really effectively for. After that point, it would be a good idea to take anything between a five and 10-minute break and then start another round, another cycle of 20 to 40 minutes of focused work. You'll get far more done than sitting there stewing, trying to come up with stuff when it's not flowing. Be prepared. Delegate. I'm a big fan of delegation. Whenever you've got roles, little bits and pieces that you know are not massive priorities to you, if you know people around you who can do that or that is their skill set, send that stuff over to them and have a reciprocal arrangement with them so they can hand over stuff that's more in line with what you do when it comes to that. Learn to multitask as well. It's a joke that guys don't multitask, but actually most of the guys I know are capable of multitasking. Have a few things on the go at any one time. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. We're going to move on now to more behavioral patterns. And how to approach interpersonal relationships. This is part of a much bigger course, but I'm just going to focus on the positive today rather than run you through the negative stances that some people can take, particularly when we're under stress or pressure. The assertive stance, which is the stance we're looking to take in our lives in general, means as an individual that you're fair and just in your interactions with other people. You know, you're not looking to get won over on people. If somebody's looking to abuse you, you put a halt to it very quickly. But in dealing with people who are reasonable people, always aim to be fair and just. Negotiate workable solutions with people around you rather than just bashing heads, find the common ground and see what you're able to get out of that relationship rather than just cutting it off before maybe you've necessarily extracted all the benefits you could have done from that relationship. There are times when you do need to be able to take personal decisions unaided by others, and that doesn't take away from the point I made about mentoring earlier. What it means is there's a lot of your life when you need to have that ability to make a quick decision. And as I said earlier again, I'd rather clock up mistakes and learn to be decisive in that process than hope for perfection and put off making decisions. Obviously avoid being fearful of expressing your personal needs and emotions. Some people can hold that stuff back, and what it's going to do is just eat and eat away inside of you until you're going to explode in some manner, whether it's physically or psychologically. The key thing to do is learn to become comfortable with expressing those feelings, those emotions, particularly with the people who are close to you in your life, the people who you consider important in your life. If situations, stressful situations of conflict do arise, learn to remain calm. Remember that breathing technique. Focus again in on your breathing. Stay in that state where you're not going to be the one who flies off the handle. You're actually going to be the one who can steer this situation in the direction that you want it to go in. Again, always that respect for others, even in those circumstances. A mindset that my mental passed on to me, which I really have found very beneficial,