You are reading this post because you want to start running. Nice. Running is a great sport. The reason why I particularly like it is because of its simplicity. You don’t need to invest a whole lot of money in order to start running; there’s no need for a gym membership, or any expensive equipment. All you need is a body that can withstand the shocks that result from stamping your feet against the ground.

Now, I’m not certified to offer any kind of medical advice, so I’m only going to share what I’ve personally learned from running. (And I’m still a beginner.)

Although you can choose to run barefoot, I recommend that you get yourself a decent pair of running shoes just to avoid unnecessary injuries. Barefoot running requires conditioning and is not recommended for beginners. For a newbie it’s extremely important to start safe, because once you get injured it can take months to recover and get back in the game. Every person’s feet are different so you’ll have to do some research online or ask the store staff which type of shoe to buy.

When you have your gear in order, it’s time to start.

Don’t Exhaust Yourself

Did it ever happen to you that when you decided to try running—perhaps because you thought you were in poor shape—and got out the door, you found yourself 15 minutes later completely nauseated and about to throw up? It happened to me several times. But I can assure you that it doesn’t have to be that way at all.

No human is born a runner. If you’ve spent the last two years working a desk job with most of your exercise consisting of walking to the train station and back, even 10 minutes of running can make you feel like your lungs are about to burst.

Don’t start like that.

When you first start out, it’s important that you acknowledge what kind of physical shape you are in. Being thin doesn’t mean that you automatically possess high endurance. Endurance needs to be developed over time. If you haven’t run a single mile in the last six months, you need to start with humble objectives.

First, see if you can keep running for 5 minutes. (You’ll need a stopwatch.) And don’t start as if you were going for a 100m dash. That will only wear you out and make you nauseous like before. Start slow. Focus on finding a pace where you can run comfortably, and see if you can reach that 5-minute goal. If you really concentrate on maintaining comfort, you will be able to do it.

When you’ve completed your first goal, stop. Keep walking, and allow yourself to be proud of what you’ve just accomplished. Do you feel nauseated? Was it as bad as last time? Meditate on it. You were able to finish running without feeling like crap; and that’s how it’s supposed to be. Running should never make you feel sick. If it does, you’re exceeding your limits—and you should slow down.

Next time you go running, set yourself a new goal: try running comfortably for 10 minutes. Always be conscious of your speed, and keep it steady. If you start to feel signs of exhaustion, slow down, and readjust.

After each run, record the results, and jot down a few lines on your performance. Comment on how you felt during and after the workout.

Keep setting new challenges for yourself, but keep them realistic. It’s also fun to set a long-term goal (e.g. “complete 5K”) and see how you progress. If you can’t accomplish it in due time, don’t worry—keep working on it.

Just one important word of advice: Don’t strain your ankles and knees. It’s incredibly easy to damage your joints, so you should run short distances at the start, and make increments as your body becomes stronger. Whenever you feel even the slightest pain in your joints, stop, and give your body plenty of days recover. Never force yourself to finish that last mile.

If your purpose is to lose weight, try to let go of that thought for a moment, and instead focus on developing your technique and mentality. The weight-loss will take care of itself, but what’s more important is to acquire a positive taste for running. Don’t run because you want to lose weight, do it because it’s enjoyable and rewarding in itself.

As I mentioned in my last post on how to unclutter your desk, I’m addicted to workspaces. I can spend hours browsing through galleries (such as this) that display inspiring photos of office spaces. But this time I figured I could do something different, so I decided to set up a gallery myself.

The pictures aren’t ordered (i.e. ranked) in any particular way. They’re just there for your enjoyment!

Photo by Matthijs H


Photo by thinkdanijel

Photo by raw_reflex

Photo by Snecx

Photo by Nicholas Todd..

Photo by Haku1923

Photo by William Hook

Photo by psleda

Photo by Jóhannes G.

Photo by Ryan J. Nicholson

Photo by Jared Schmidt

Photo by humedini

Photo by indyphil

Photo by jasondevilla

Photo by Guille Avalos

Photo by Yves Huy Truong (YHT Designs)

Photo by tomas carrillo

Photo by CHRISSPdotCOM

Photo by rodrigo.haenggi

Photo by HighDynamic

Photo by Se▲n.

Photo by Salman S. Qadeer

Photo by kirky29

Photo by tree_haus

Photo by V . @ . g . 0 . $

Photo by kulpinski

Photo by nicksan00

Photo by Pahana Alo

Photo by theslack

Photo by Cain Novocaine

Photo by nathanmark.williamson

Photo by Nollie.

Do you have pictures of your (or someone else’s) workspace that you want to share? Post ‘em down below. Thanks!

Remember those guys in clubs that always keep standing against the wall, doing nothing but staring at the opposite wall? I used to be one of them. Not being able to dance was an insecurity issue for me, which is why I was never very fond of going to clubs. I thought I would look ridiculous doing something I had no idea about.

Sound familiar? I hope not, but if it does, read on.

To tell you the truth, I can’t dance even now, but I was able to leave the comfort of the wall, and join the action. And it required exactly that—getting out of my comfort zone.

When we’re insecure, we tend to develop all sorts of bizarre theories, or misconceptions.

1. I’m gonna look like a dork.
2. Girls are gonna laugh at me.
3. No one will want to dance with me.

If we go back a few years, those were my exact thoughts.

But when I could finally get over my phobia, I realized that all the theories I had been obsessing over were just utter nonsense. Just false beliefs fabricated by a naïve mind.

When I made the transition, I may have looked like a dork, but at least no one was laughing at me. In fact, not a single person was looking at what I was doing. People were just having fun and minding their own business. In the end, it became comfortable and quite enjoyable to move with the flow. Misconception 1 and 2 gone—bam!

I later noticed that most of the other guys dancing out there didn’t have any rhythmic talent or superior dancing ability at all. They were just mostly rocking left and right while swinging their arms rather unchoreographically, with the occasional drunk chap, of course, going all limbo and sh*t.

Probably the best way to get over your fears quickly is to go to a club with as many friends (both male and female) as possible. Having people whom you know around you helps you to get out of your comfort zone and take the first steps. You won’t feel as naked as you would if you were on a “hunting trip” with your best friend. Smile, and have fun with your friends.

And if you’re harboring the thought that no girl will want to dance with you, you’d be surprised how easy it is to start jamming with complete strangers. The thing is, if you’re just going to be leaning against the club wall with a Long Island Iced Tea secured at chest-level, and waiting for an angel to pick you up… sorry, ain’t gonna happen. Clubs don’t work like that—at least not anymore. People that want to dance go out onto the dance floor and start mingling. You’ll see groups of girls dancing as a unit, but there are always moments when you can blend in or catch outliers without interrupting the flow.

To dance with another girl, there’s only one simple solution: go up to her and engage. You don’t need to ask for permission. In fact, it’s better not to if dancing isn’t your ultimate goal, as you’d probably lose your chances the moment you started asking for approval. But that’s another blog post. People go to clubs to enjoy dancing. It would be a whole different story if you walked up to a girl in a grocery store and started rubbing your crotch against her butt.

In the beginning, going for the mark can feel like the worst thing in the world but the more girls you approach, the more comfortable it gets, and you’ll notice that they generally tend to enjoy being approached and danced with. Girls want to be noticed too, you know.

A good way to practice approaching other girls is to target ones that are adjacent to your own group. Instead of directly walking up to her, you should try to transition from your group over to her spot while staying in tune with the rhythm. If the girl seems uninterested or obnoxious, you’d better move away quickly because you wouldn’t want to waste time on a bitchy girl. It’s her loss anyway, not yours.

Approaching girls also leads to another misconception—that is, relating to angry boyfriends. But worry not: boyfriends are not going to kick your ass automatically if you accidentally try to dance with their girl. When you notice that you’re intruding on private property, you can always make a gesture of apology and move back to your own group. No harm done. Drunk boyfriends can be a burden but being polite and withdrawing quickly will usually do the trick. Never start arguing or fighting, because both of you will get thrown out.

Some tricks and techniques…

I understand that getting over one’s fears is a process that can take some serious effort. So, in order to triumph faster and with style, I’ve prepared some basic dance lessons for you. I recommend you start with the topmost video. Work on your dance moves at your own pace, and most importantly, experiment with them and have fun in the real environment. Try them out with your friends.

And If you like the instructional videos, don’t forget to check out the complete Club Dance for Men Level 1 DVD set.

Click for more instructional dance videos for men!

I just came back from a trip to Egypt, but while I was staying in the hotel I noticed how infuriating it is to jot down notes on my iPhone with a single index finger. (I always try to take as little luggage as possible so I didn’t have a laptop or even a physical journal with me.)

Typing on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is definitely faster than on a numeric pad where you have to press a button multiple times to get the desired letter. But the problem with single-finger typing on the iPhone is the fact that you have to move your finger strenuously from one side of the virtual keyboard to the other. Not only does this waste time, it also makes you frustrated because you’re limited to a single finger.

We didn’t have this problem with older phones. With my first cell phone (Nokia 5110) I always used two thumbs to compose messages. It was slow but more comfortable because I could emply both hands simultaneously. If you try this on your iPhone, however, you’ll notice that the virtual keyboard is too small for using your thumbs.

This is why you should hold your iPhone horizontally.

As you know, the horizontal mode flips the screen sideways and brings up a significantly larger model of the virtual keyboard.

When you hold your iPhone horizontally, you are holding it like a video game controller. This allows you to control the left part of the virtual keyboard with your left thumb, and the right side with your right thumb, respectively. Unlike when holding your phone in the vertical position, you no longer have to alternate between two different parts of the virtual keyboard with a single finger. The work is now divided.

As your iPhone typing skills improve, using your two thumbs cooperatively also allows you to perform key combos where (when appropriate) you bring your two thumbs to one side of the keyboard and hit two or more keys in rapid succession. This should give you a nice speed boost.

Examples

How would you use the above method to type the following words: what, have, of, but, number (which are some of the 100 most commonly used words in the English language).

• what Bring your thumbs to the left and alternate with your thumbs: left, right, left, right.
• have Again, you’ll notice that we’re going to be focusing on the left part of the virtual keyboard. Right, left, right, left.
• of Position your thumbs on both sides, then tap: right, left.
• but Middle: Left, right, left.
• number Right, right, right, left, left, left.

First, try typing the words in vertical mode and then try the same while holding your iPhone horizontally. Feel the difference.

If you’re already good at touch-typing, you’ll notice that typing faster and more comfortably on an iPhone is all about focus. When you have a rough picture in your mind about how your thumbs are supposed to maneuver when typing a certain word, you automatically focus on a specific part of the virtual keyboard where you’ll be performing most of the keystrokes. For example, when typing the word through you’re focusing—more or less—on the right side, without really shifting your focus to the left side at all (the leftmost key being r). If you’re familiar with the keyboard layout you’re using, you’ll be doing mad key combos in no time.

So whenever you need to use iPhone’s virtual keyboard to write stuff, make it a habit to flip the device horizontally. I believe the same techniques would also apply to any other smartphone with a touchscreen display. Let your muscle memory handle the typing.

I’ve been examining this topic for quite some time, but I can’t seem to find any concrete evidence on quick success. I think it’s because there is no such thing as quick success.

Success can mean a lot of things: money, fame, skill, getting a girlfriend, passing an exam, or crushing your enemies in battle. I don’t like to get too philosophical on the matter, so I usually simply refer to success as the fulfillment of one’s desire. Today, we’re going to be talking about success in the form of making money.

You’ve probably come across sales copy on the Internet that supposedly guarantees a quick buck if you follow the advice in their guidebook—something along the lines of “I will show you how to make $2000 a day using this simple blueprint. Get it now for just $47!” The thing is, the blueprint itself probably works flawlessly. The only problem is how to really follow it.

Blunders from the past.

I’ve bought two money-making ebooks on the Internet, and I can tell you that I’m never going to dish out money on another one. Let me tell you why.

The first one was a guide on how to earn a lot of gold quickly in an online game called Ultima Online (yes, I used to spend a lot of time in virtual dungeons fighting dragons and cyclopses when I was in high school). The method? Well, after submitting a $20 payment through PayPal, I received an unprofessionally laid out HTML file describing two methods: (1) buying in-game houses and selling them at a higher price, and (2) gambling. The first method was actually pretty good but it also assumed that the gamer already has enough gold to buy a house. Then there was the second method, but I don’t think it requires any further commenting. And yes, I know I got scammed. Crap.

Some years later I got interested in Internet marketing and ended up paying, if I remember correctly, $19.95 for an online money-making blueprint. This guide was actually really good, and it offered step-by-step instructions on how to earn money by building an email list using incentives to get people to subscribe. Very good advice. But I just don’t think it was right to include the word ‘quick’ in the product name. Overall, it’s a functional blueprint that’s being used by hundreds of successful Internet marketers, but you would need to put a lot of time and effort into it if you ever wanted to get any returns on your investment. (Tip: You can get the same advice for free from websites such as the WarriorForum and ClickNewz.)

Time and effort.

That’s the thing. There are many many good guides out there for you to profit from (among all the crap created by scammers), but you’ll have a hard time finding something that doesn’t require effort. And usually effort requires time as well. This is why the phrase “quick success” gets rather meaningless when reality stabs us in the kidneys. As far as I know, gambling is the closest thing to making a quick buck, but that’s only possible if you’re lucky. I don’t know much about professional poker, but at least to my knowledge, you don’t become a professional poker player overnight—you need time and effort.

Time and effort.

Over the years I’ve come to believe that it’s like a universal principle. I first learned about the formula success = hard work + time when I started practicing kung fu (even the word kung fu itself loosely translates to hard work); and since then, resulting from what I’ve learned from other people’s success as well as from my own experience, I’ve held on to the theory that there’s no other way to achieve success than through time and effort. So here at Self-Learner, too, the underlying concepts that we cover stem from the universal formula success = hard work + time. And that’s probably why I talk so much about kung fu.

As you know, as residents of the World Wide Web we are constantly asked to reveal our email addresses when submitting registration forms, downloading digital products, signing up for newsletters, etc. Email is an effective way to transmit information, but when the bad guys find your address, your mailbox is in danger of becoming a source of enduring stress and headaches. That’s what happened to my old email address.

I created my previous email address in 2002 (and kept using it until last winter). But at that time, little did I care about the pests scuttling across the Web. I used to have a personal website for publishing random articles like game guides and computer tips. And although I never attracted many readers, swarms of email crawlers were apparently always kind enough to show pity and peruse the whole website for my contact information.

You see, I was ignorant and had published my email address as plain (hyperlink) text. That made it effortless for the dark ninjas to collect it for their master’s evil marketing purposes. Since then I started attracting torrents of spam. And after eight years I had so much trouble every day sifting through all the spam to find the legitimate emails that I had to change my email address.

So…

Rule #1: Never publish your email address on the Web. No text, no hyperlinks, and not even images if possible as email crawlers have grown smart enough to interpret pixels. If you have a website, you should install a contact form so that you can keep your email address hidden.

You should also be careful what services you sign up for. While most (good-natured) services don’t send you promotions and newsletters without your consent, the less sophisticated ones can turn out spammy. Some websites even sign you up for their newsletter without ever asking you, and try to make unsubscribing a laborious (if not impossible) task.

To guard against illegitimate services it’s useful to have a secondary email address just for these “shady” websites. If you’re like me and don’t like checking multiple email addresses individually, you can forward everything to your primary inbox, and delete the secondary address when the first spam waves hit your mailbox.

Rule #2: Create a secondary email for (suspicious) online registrations. And once you deem a service legit, you can replace the secondary address with your primary one. Remember that you don’t usually need to worry about respected websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Distribute your email address selectively and keep it hidden whenever possible. These two principles have kept my mailbox spam-free since I changed my address. It only takes a single misstep to blow it so be careful at all times. Good luck!

Next, I would be happy to hear your tips on how to keep our mailboxes spam-free. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!

I’ll be honest: I never got an iPhone because I wanted to make phone calls with it. The device is more like a compact toolbox that I can use for looking up words, messaging people on Facebook, reading articles, listening to music, and jotting down notes. I’ve had my iPhone for nearly a year now, and everything has worked flawlessly. Its physical design is beautiful, the interface is simple and intuitive, the performance is smooth, and the App Store is full of gems. So today, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite apps that I frequently use.

1. Dictionary.com. Free English-English dictionary and thesaurus with more than 275,000 definitions. Works offline. An Internet connection is needed for the audio pronunciation guide. Other dictionary apps cost a fortune.
2. Skype. Mobile Skype. If your phone plan includes unlimited Internet access, this app can save you a lot of money. Convince your family and friends to buy a smartphone with Skype support (an iPhone, that is) and you will never have to worry about phone bills again.
3. Facebook. Stay in touch with friends on the go. An app like this could be a potential replacement for SMS. But doesn’t this mean that you will be (even more) addicted to Facebook? Not necessarily. It’s a phone after all, for connecting with people, so why not maximize your connections? You have the freedom to turn it off when it’s not needed.
4. Evernote. When you want to copy the local bus timetable, grab your iPhone and take a photo of it and let Evernote analyze its contents. Evernote’s text recognition technology allows you to store data without ever having to type the information yourself.
5. Dropbox. Keep your files synced. Create a Dropbox account and you can access your files on your iPhone.
6. Photoshop Express. Adobe’s photo editing app for the iPhone. This is all you need for keeping your mobile album optimized.
7. Instapaper. Transform an online article into a neat electronic document for later reading. The free version is limited to 10 documents, but I’ve personally never had the need to pay for additional slots.
8. iTranslate. Google Translate on your iPhone. You might as well use the iPhone-optimized service in a browser, but iTranslate somehow feels snappier and more comfortable to use.

Which are your favorite apps for the iPhone? Share them in the comments below!

Today I’d like to link to seven posts related to Self-Learner that fall into several, simple categories. I’ve been for a long time a loyal RSS subscriber of ProBlogger, and this post idea comes directly from Darren Rowse’s recent 7 Link Challenge. Let’s get it started.

1. Your first post. I wrote my first post for Self-Learner on October 16, 2009, titled The First Step of a Self-Learner. The ideas expressed in that post are some of the core reasons as to why I decided to create this blog.
2. The post you enjoyed writing the most. The reason why I liked writing I Finished Decluttering My Room is because while I was writing it, I was at the same time recording how many material possessions I was able to let go of. I like to see things on paper (or screen), so writing things down made me appreciate the achievement even more.
3. A post which had a great discussion. I can’t really flaunt anything here, because the blog is still at an early stage. Why Studying on Your Own Is Better only had one comment, but I decided to choose it because of the great ideas expressed in it.
4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written. 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It on Zen Habits is one of my favorite blog posts of all time. Leo Babauta practically walks you through the steps and presents lucid reasons as to why getting up early is such a great habit. I haven’t linked to the post before, but the tips therein are some of the most effective practices that can double your productivity.
5. A post with a title that you are proud of. I’m proud of Don’t Let RSS Feeds Kill You because it was the first post where I used a powerful word. I’m not a promoter of violence (except in video games), so I thought at first if I should use a softer word instead of the brutal kill, but I think I made the right choice not to make it sound too wishy-washy.
6. A post that you wish more people had read. The view count for The Art of Slow Learning is among the lowest on Self-Learner. This is unfortunate because the tips I give in that post have been most effective in my own learning pursuits, so I’d be happy to hear if others have also had similar experiences. Besides, I really like the turtle photo in it.
7. Your most visited post ever. Although I now think the title is somewhat illogical, 44 Skills Every Successful Person Should Learn is, hands down, the most popular post here on Self-Learner. Well, I’m currently writing a free report based on it, but with a different title, so I’ll just let the original post remain as it is.

If you have taken (or will take) this challenge yourself, I’d be interested to check your post. Feel free to add your link in the space below.

When you let your ego handle the talking, it’s easy to start exaggerating and bragging. But it’s a huge mistake if you ever want to gain authority and credibility. This happens a lot when you’re still unknown and trying to impress someone. Remember your last date?

But how will you sound when you’ve told someone that you’re a professional therapeutist and she finally realizes the truth—that you’re a bus driver, and your therapeutic expertise consists of reading Teach Yourself Zen Therapy in 21 Days (fictitious title) and half a dozen more volumes on health and zen. Don’t get me wrong; many teach-yourself courses out there are packed with valuable information that you can absorb for professional benefit. The problem is that you’re claiming to be someone you’re obviously not.

Stop Self-proclaiming

To avoid getting marked as a fraudster, you need to stop claiming that you’re an expert. Let others decide what you are. A good kung fu master will never proclaim himself as a master; the people who witness his profound teaching skills, form, or superiority in no-holds-barred battles decide if he is a master or still a beginner.

If you aren’t good at something, don’t be afraid to admit your weaknesses. People respect honesty, and if you’re brave enough to disclose your bad characteristics, it’ll make you look even stronger because they will know that you at least have the guts to reveal your weaknesses.

The Benefits of Honesty

In what ways is it then favorable to be honest? Let’s take a look at some of the most important aspects. (And, as always, I’d like to hear your ideas in the comments.)

• When you claim nothing, you don’t have to fear condemnation since you have nothing to prove.
• You will be remembered for your good deeds. If you call yourself a kung fu master, people will naturally expect you to possess supernatural abilities.
• You won’t be condemned (as harshly) when you blunder.
• People will evaluate you according to higher standards when you claim to be good at something. But if you proclaim nothing, they won’t have any false reference of you that would otherwise act against you.

Practice modesty and you don’t have to deal with the consequences of lying (because that’s what it is). Focus on improving yourself, and forget about letting others know about your knowledge and skills because they will notice eventually. When treading the path of humility, you will always be safe, and the world will look favorably upon you.

I hope you read my last Tuesday’s post on measuring true skill through improvisation, because today I will be sharing some tips on how to develop the ability to spontaneously apply your knowledge. To summarize, improvisation is the ability to take what you’ve learned in theory and put it into use with minimum effort. So to get started with improvisation, try to follow some of the following tips.

1. Incorporate the skill into your way of thinking. You must be able to think within the context of the skill. If you are an aspiring student of graphic design, you must learn to think like a graphic designer; no matter how much you love to play with colors, you should’t brush typography under the carpet.
2. Start improvising as soon as possible. It’s never too early to start training yourself in the art of spontaneous action. As soon as you’ve reached a point where you’re able to apply knowledge, don’t hesitate to do so—regardless of its unimportance.
3. Create your own routines. If you’re studying boxing, develop your own combinations that you feel comfortable to use. Dancers should similarly choreograph their own dance routines according to their taste. Be creative.
4. Focus on your favorite things. No one can master everything at once. No kung fu master can gain mastery over a hundred different forms (although many claim to have done so); so you should also to concentrate on perfecting no more than one or two forms. If you’re an apprentice web developer and enjoy designing shopping carts, focus on perfecting your shopping carts.
5. Ask your friend to request something. Then try to fulfill the request. See if you’re able to apply your knowledge in order to satisfy another person’s needs. This is particularly important if you’re intending to go professional with your skills.
6. Imitate the masters. Beginners should focus on imitating others. You can learn a lot just by imitating the masters. This is what apprenticeship is fundamentally about. As you progress, however, you should try to gradually liberate yourself and develop your own style.
7. Ask other people to evaluate you. Constructive feedback is always valuable, so you should seek it from other experts. Have other people point out which aspects to concentrate on polishing.
8. Don’t care about blundering. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process, so learn to accept them. The more mistakes you make, the better you know what things to improve upon.
9. Don’t be afraid to apply your skills. Beginners are terrified to put themselves out there because of potential negative criticism. But the reality is, the earlier you do so, the faster you develop. As I said, don’t be embarrassed to produce something insignificant—no novice carpenter can build a stable house from scratch.
10. Practice improvisation with a friend. Not only can you have more fun doing it, you will also be able to exchange tips and constructive feedback in a less serious atmosphere.

The key is to start improvising right now. Stop procrastinating and doubting your skills. Every one of us is green in the beginning, but the faster we start applying our knowledge, the faster we move toward mastery.

Please share your tips and comments below. Thanks!