Category: Read

City Guides by Louis

Published on by BriAlys

Did you know Louis Vuitton is a writer? For a while now, the luxury brand has put out super expensive city guides that cover places like Milan, Paris, Shanghai – a total of 25 cities from around the world. It’s the kind of gift travelers would love to have in their collection but also the kind that most of us can’t (or don’t want) to afford.

Well, Louis Vuitton is making its city guides accessible to all via a mobile app (iOS only). 24 city guides are available for download @ $9.99 each. You can download Paris for FREE until December 31st if you want just give it a spin and see what it’s like. Check out the video below for a brief intro. Individual city videos are also available as a playlist (~3 minutes each in the designer’s YouTube channel). Enjoy!

Practice vs. Learning

Published on by BriAlys

51rhQVelq2L._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,BottomRight,13,73_AA300_I bought a new, amazing book from Audible.com (an Amazon company) for a whopping 99 cents, The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life.  I listened to the Introduction and Chapter 1 this morning while walking on the treadmill and I absolutely love it so far! Key themes so far include inner peace/happiness, self empowerment and learning to love the process – whatever you set out to do or be! You can download the Audible app from iTunes or Google Play and listen while on the go.

Lifehacker sums the book up this way:

  1. Learning Can Be a Crutch That Supports Inaction: In situations like this one, we often claim that we are preparing or researching the best method, but these rationalizations allow us to feel like we are moving forward when we are merely spinning our wheels. We make the mistake of being in motion rather than taking action. Learning is valuable until it becomes a form of procrastination.

  2. Practice Is Learning, But Learning Is Not Practice: Learning by itself can be valuable for you, but if you want to be valuable to others, then you have to express your knowledge in some way. Practice is the only way to make a meaningful contribution with your knowledge. 

  3. Practice Focuses Your Energy on the Process: The state of your life right now is a result of the habits and beliefs that you have been practicing each day. When you realize this and begin to direct your focus toward practicing better habits day-in and day-out, continual progress will be the logical outcome.

#ReadAnything

The Confidence Code

Published on by BriAlys

ConfidenceCode3DCover-web-readyI live for a non-fiction book recommendation! That’s exactly what I got this morning while planning a Women’s networking event with a co-worker. The book is called The Confidence Code, published in April of 2014 by Claire Shipman, a regular contributor to “Good Morning America” and Katty Kay, anchor for BBC World News America in Washington.

“Confidence. We know it when we see it or think we do. And we want it for ourselves. The authors deconstruct this essential, elusive, and misunderstood quality and offer a blueprint to bring more of it into our lives. Inspiring, insightful, and persuasive, The Confidence Code shows that by acting on our best instincts and by daring to be authentic, women can feel the transformative power of a life on confidence.”

88d7b06c16e8a149a250c64014b1594cI have not read this book (nor have I ever heard of it) but I 100% trust her reading taste! While discussing the book, she noted that she hates non-fiction (which this book is) but was able to easily get through it. That should be good news for those of you who may feel the same way. So watch (the video below) or purchase the book and start reading ~ I am!!

 

Here are a few more resources: Top 25 Books Corporate America is Reading: January 2015, SunTimes, Book Review on GoodReads, Center for Social Confidence

What’s in your Pocket?

Published on by BriAlys

imgresAs I peruse my Twitter feed, RSS reader, the Internet and other sites I read daily, there are often  many times when I think, “Oh, I’d really like to read this article but I don’t have time right now.” After thinking that what would you do next? Email it to yourself? (and further clutter your inbox). Or maybe add an event on the calendar and copy the URL in the notes section? (that was my practice for a while) The REAL question is how can I save the article to read it later. There are many options (like Evernote, see more here) but my favorite is Pocket.

It’s an app / software / tool that allows you to create a virtual “Folder” (stored in the cloud) of all those articles you want to read but don’t have time to read them when you first see it. So, when you find yourself sitting in the doctor’s office (waiting), or maybe even the hair salon waiting (my pet peeve, blank stare), you can open the app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device and ready away! If you see videos or images, you can save that, too! Happy Pocket-ing!

 

Get Started

Published on by BriAlys

Get Started. Do Something. Just Do It. Go! These are all things I heard multiple times this week: in church, at work, on blogs. Check out a few highlights from an article I read this morning discussing this very topic:

  • Many people spend their whole lives waiting to be ready. For us, ready often becomes more of an excuse than a prerequisite.

  • Figure out the Minimum Effective Dose (MED). It’s the smallest dose (of information, skills, knowledge) that will produce your desired outcome.

  • People who have achieved your goals can be catalysts to your learning. You can save time and learn from their mistakes. I say this all the time!

  • Improve your knowledge acquisition by asking “How?”, or “Can you give an example of that?” This will accelerate your learning and help with application.

  • Done is better than perfect!!!!

The concept of MED is fascinating. The author provides the following example, related to learning a new language: “A chinese scholar understands over 20,000 Chinese characters, but you only need to understand 1,000 [Chinese characters] to be literate. The most frequently used 200 characters will allow you to understand 40% of basic literature (enough to read signs, restaurant menus, and basic newspapers).”

For more information, check out the source for this article.