Temptation and how to resist it. Hieromonk Dorotheos (Baranov): “There is no need to be afraid of temptations, they are a bitter but useful medicine for us. Leave the cave

Who said that only books can be useful for business?

"Wall Street"

The cult film Wall Street depicts the lives of young broker Bud Fox and charismatic ruthless investor Gordon Gekko. Desperate for success, Fox bows down to Gekko, whose motto is "Greed is good."

Fox is seduced by Gekko's luxurious lifestyle and becomes embroiled in a web of insider trading. This film is a kind of warning that shows how the pursuit of power can push a person onto the path of crime. It is easy to give in to the temptation of money, but you should never sell your self for the sake of wealth and ambition.

"Office space"

This film shows the difficulties, frustrations and absurdity of office life. "Office Space" satirically depicts the mind-numbing and monotonous life of office plankton, but at the same time reminds us that every person can change their destiny.

Don't let work's boring corporate culture and petty bureaucracy rob you of the joys of life. You need to separate your career and personal life and choose effective and positive bosses. This comedy shows that unhappy employees are of little use, and toxic leaders and poor management can cause irreparable damage to the work environment. In short, life is too short to spend it huddled in a cubicle.

"Erin Brockovich"

"Erin Brockovich" is based on real events a film that tells the story of the life of a single mother who cunningly gets a job at a law firm. She begins to investigate a case that eventually develops into a class action lawsuit against a huge corporation. During the investigation, she learns shocking facts and overcomes many obstacles.

Against all odds, Brockovich helps injured people obtain the largest compensation ever awarded by a court. "Erin Brockovich" is a film about a determined woman, showing how important it is to have your own opinion and not be afraid to stand up for what you believe in. This picture inspires many business women who are trying to succeed in a corporate world where almost all power belongs to men.

"Godfather"

The Godfather is considered one of the best films of all time. Essentially, this is the story of how a small family business, in the face of fierce competition, becomes a large and powerful New York organization.

Looking at how Vito Corleone provides services to people and helps them solve their problems, we understand that building relationships and making useful connections plays an important role in any business. The Godfather teaches you how to strategize competition, enter into alliances, organize and diversify their activities.

"Joy"

In business you always have to be prepared to fight on several fronts, and the better you are doing, the more people they want to trip you up and snatch a piece for themselves. That's one of the many lessons this biopic of New York City single mother-turned-millionaire Joy Mangano teaches us in the 1990s.

She invented the Miracle Mop, a self-squeezing miracle mop that required less effort when cleaning than conventional mops. "Joy" shows various difficulties, which Mangano encountered when she opened her own business. This picture teaches that to survive and succeed you need to believe in yourself, your product and your business.

"The Americans"

Succeeding in the dangerous Chicago real estate market often requires lying, cheating, and stealing. The Americans is a film about four real estate agents whose careers are threatened when their new boss announces a competition that will leave only the top two in the company.

This film shows the ugly underbelly of the sales industry, showing us the lies, betrayals and frauds that people go to in order to survive in this business. He teaches how not to manage a sales department and that hard work, the results of which are never completely satisfactory to the boss, eventually pushes a person to the path of crime. A highly competitive and aggressive work environment can bring out the worst in you and your colleagues.

"The Pursuit of Happyness"

This inspiring film is based on the true story of single father Chris Gardner, who took an unpaid internship at a brokerage firm while simultaneously becoming homeless. Thanks to his willpower, Gardner overcomes all difficulties after his wife leaves him and the IRS takes the lion's share of his income. Gardner tries to sell densitometers and lives in homeless shelters while undergoing an intensive six-month internship, hoping to earn permanent place work.

The Pursuit of Happyness shows how dedication and hard work, coupled with unwavering self-belief and a willingness to do whatever it takes to overcome your circumstances, can turn your dreams into reality.

"Steve Jobs"

This film shows key points from the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which led him to success, and impartially captures the personal and professional qualities of this man. There are quite a few feature films and documentaries about Jobs, but this 2015 film is probably the best of them all. In it we see Jobs' behavior hidden from prying eyes during the launch of three important products his company.

Jobs could be dismissive of those closest to him and often controlled even the most minor details of his presentations. Before achieving success, he suffered heavy defeats and made terrible mistakes. Yet entrepreneurs who watch this film will undoubtedly be inspired by the example of a man who remained true to himself and his vision, even when faced with serious difficulties and critical arrows in his direction.

"Social media"

« Social media» show how it works cruel world startups and how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook. As the film's trailer says, "You can't make 500 million friends without making one enemy," and that theme runs throughout the film, as Zuckerberg faces lawsuits and tries to find investors.

Zuckerberg must always be flexible and develop his product to meet the needs and desires of users. He also learns the hard way how important it is to have a properly drafted contract. This movie can teach aspiring entrepreneurs a lot, including that it's not who came up with the idea that matters, but who implements it. However, the main lesson is probably that if you want to rank higher, you have to push someone down.

"Catch Me If You Can"

Catch Me If You Can is a movie based on a true story that every entrepreneur needs to watch. Main character Frank Abagnale is a fraudster who made millions of dollars before his 19th birthday and successfully posed as a pilot, doctor, lawyer and history professor. Leaving the criminal side of Abagnale's activities out of the picture, we will find in this film a lot of things that will be useful to any aspiring entrepreneur.

Abagnale knew how to turn bad situations into new opportunities for himself. He achieved exceptional success under very difficult conditions. The film also highlights such important topics for an entrepreneur as creative solution problems, perseverance, personal selling techniques and finding financing.

"Jerry Maguire"

This is the story of Jerry Maguire - a man who, having made a successful career, became disillusioned with the soulless corporate business. When he begins to criticize management's decisions, he loses everything he has achieved up to that point. He is fired from his job, and all but one fickle client turn their backs on him.

Maguire must figure out what things are truly important to him and is trying to rebuild his life. At the end of the film, it is shown that the desire to go your own way and change something in your life for the better will be rewarded.

"Aviator"

Howard Hughes was a man with big ideas and big ambitions, until it all ended in disaster. The Aviator chronicles Hughes' early life from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, when he was a film director and aviator. The manic obsession with detail that distinguished Hughes from his competitors ultimately led him to a sad ending.

Suffering from undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, Hughes gradually descends into madness, but still manages to muster the strength to defend himself from the attacks. Despite warning signs, foreshadowing a bad end to this story, aspiring entrepreneurs can take inspiration from Hughes's energy and ability to maintain presence of mind.

"Short Game"

"The Short" tells the story of a group of investors and fund managers on Wall Street who foresaw the collapse of the overheated US market and the global economic crisis and were able to profit from it.

Entrepreneurs and anyone who has ever invested money in the stock market can take away a lot from this movie. useful lessons: It is important to understand what you are investing your money in, trust your intuition and never follow someone else's advice without being fully aware of what you are getting into.

Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen. The best about crypto and personal finance, exclusives and a little lifestyle.

There are a great many ways to deal with stress: you can compensate for moral damage with tons of sweets, immerse yourself in computer games or simply pretend that everything that happens does not concern you. The trouble is that this will not solve the problem. If you really want to learn how to manage your anxiety, read the article and put its advice into practice.

There are two types of people in the world: some know that they can influence the course of events, while others believe that everything around them happens by itself. Participants in the first group understand that life and career are entirely in their own hands. own hands, and there are simply no other ways to achieve what you want. Representatives of the second category behave exactly like Forrest Gump: they sit and wait for the bus to take them somewhere.

University of Florida psychologist Tim Judge has shown that people who are confident and feel in control of their lives end up being more successful at almost every activity. Such study participants—let's call them “responsible”—not only performed their professional duties better and mastered new tasks faster, but also had an annual income that was 50–150% higher than that of their colleagues.

Tim Judge's research found interesting feature responsible people: they do not lose their presence of mind even in the most difficult circumstances. Yes, they also feel uneasy, but the question is how they use their anxiety.
Those in charge know that the future depends entirely on themselves, so worry only fuels their fervor. Despair gives way to drive, and trepidation and fear are replaced by perseverance.
Whether the results of their long work have been crushed to smithereens or they have once again been denied a job, they are in no hurry to raise the white flag. Life can throw up any surprises, but responsible people only double and triple their efforts.

How it works

Responsible people outperform everyone else in terms of work efficiency because the ability to control emotions and remain calm even under extreme stress is directly related to performance. 90% of the most effective professionals have one important skill in common: they know how to manage their emotions.

In general, anxiety is an absolutely necessary feeling. It's hard to get down to business until we start to worry at least a little about it, that's how the human brain works. Our peak performance occurs with moderate levels of anxiety.

The trick is to manage stress and keep it within reason to achieve peak performance.

We know very well that constant experiences have serious consequences for our physical and mental health. So why is it so difficult for us to overcome anxiety and thereby improve our lives? Scientists from Yale University have found the answer.

Severe stress reduces volume gray matter in areas of the brain responsible for self-control. If you lose your composure, you also lose your ability to cope with anxiety.
In this state, you not only cannot protect yourself from getting into difficult situations, but you also create them yourself (for example, by reacting too violently to the words or actions of other people). Loss of self-control is especially dangerous when stress gets to you. physiological functions. It contributes to the development of hypertension and diabetes, leads to depression, obesity, and also reduces cognitive abilities. It turns out to be a vicious circle, where the increasing level of experiences brings a person to complete exhaustion.

What do we have to do

Step 1: Prepare for change

No one can ever have absolutely everything under control. Even the most responsible people in Judge's study sometimes find themselves unemployed and their businesses falling on hard times. The difference is that they are completely ready for change and know how to use what is happening to their advantage. You can learn this too.

Periodically make a list of important events that may happen in the near future. The goal here is not to predict all the changes you will encounter. This exercise improves your ability to face impending changes with grace. Even if the events on the list never become a reality, the practice of anticipating and preparing for changes in advance helps you believe that the future is truly in your hands.

Step 2: Focus on Opportunities

We all had it firmly drilled into our heads in our youth that life is unfair. This phrase is a voice of anxiety, despair and passive inaction. Even though sometimes we cannot prevent unpleasant events, we are always free to choose how to respond to them.

In the list from the first point, briefly write down everything possible options reactions to every event. You will be surprised at the arsenal of answers available for seemingly uncontrollable circumstances.

Step 3. Rewrite the script of your life

This is the most difficult thing - you will have to give up what you have been accustomed to a long time ago. Each of us has a certain behavior scenario in a given situation. So, if you want to manage your life yourself, you need to rewrite it.

Think about any difficulties you have faced. What then prevented you from turning the existing state of affairs to your advantage? Write down everything that happened, it will be a failure scenario. Now imagine how you would behave if this situation were to happen again. You wouldn't make a mistake this time, right? This is a scenario for responsible behavior that should replace the previous unsuccessful option. At any difficult situation Compare your thoughts at this moment with negative and positive scenarios. This will not only help you choose the right course of action, but will also change your way of thinking, and with it your life.

Step 4. Stop beating yourself up.

Timely refusal of soul-searching is an important step in the fight against stress and anxiety. The more often you dwell on negative thoughts, the more power you give them over you.

Most of our negative experiences are just thoughts, not facts.
As soon as you realize that you are starting to listen to the pessimistic predictions of your inner voice, immediately write down what you are thinking. By muting these sad arguments for at least a couple of minutes, you will be able to more rationally and sensibly assess the degree of their truth.

Do you find the words “never”, “worst” and “ever” in your thoughts? Rest assured, these are fantasies that have nothing to do with reality. If the thoughts in writing seem quite believable, have someone you trust read them. Let's see if he agrees with you or not.

When it seems to us that a situation will last forever or, conversely, will never happen, these are just pranks of the brain, which likes to make mountains out of molehills and exaggerate the frequency and significance of this or that event. Defining a clear line between facts and speculation will help you break out of the vicious circle of anxiety and start moving to new heights.

Step 5: Be grateful

Taking time to recognize what you are grateful for in life or people is important not only because it is considered good manners. This behavior reduces anxiety and significantly reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Research from the University of California, Davis found that people who regularly expressed gratitude reported a noticeable improvement in their mood and increased energy.

The main thing to remember is that all-consuming anxiety and empowerment are mutually exclusive concepts. Whenever stress is killing your productivity, simply follow the five steps above to realize your power and regain control of the situation.

A psychological coach who has helped athletes win Olympic medals shares tips on how to achieve their goals. Goals, markers, breaking rules and other methods of success.

We already told you about Erik Bertrand Larsen, who served in the Norwegian Armed Forces for eight years and then achieved success as a psychological coach who helped athletes win Olympic medals.

His book “Without Self-Pity” was bought by every 20 people in the country. In it, Larssen talks about what “universality” helps to achieve success.

We've picked out five for you that we haven't talked about yet.

Forget about talent

Eric is sure one word should be forever crossed out from the list of terms that lead to success. Here it is: “talent”. "Talent is a word that shouldn't exist," he writes.

Anyone can become a genius if they practice a lot. You can make a genius out of your child, as Mike Agassi did, the father of Andre Agassi.

Mike was a very passionate person. He constantly trained his three older children with a tennis gun, and when the youngest, Andre, was born in 1970, he had already perfected his methods.

Little Andre had not a typewriter or animals hanging on a pinwheel above his crib, but a tennis ball. Since childhood, Mike “sharpened” the child’s attention to tennis balls.

When Andre began to walk, his father tied a tennis racket to his son's hand.

David Beckham has been training since childhood. Tiger Woods was brought, or rather brought, to the golf club before he was even a year old.

And there are thousands of such examples, so cross the word “talent” off the list of what you need to achieve success.

80% attention rule

What else you have to forget is balance. Did someone tell you that it exists?

Sorry, but this someone lied to you.

There is a comic analogy: supposedly our life consists of four burners: one is friends, the second is family, the third is health and the fourth is work. In order to succeed, one burner must be turned off.

In order to achieve outstanding success, you will have to turn off two.

Of course, this is irony, but initial stage you will still have to devote 80% of your attention to achieving the goal. No, not 30, and not 50, but 80 and not a percent less.

You have to come to terms with the idea that there is a balance. It is a myth.

But the truth is that there is simply a balance of power that suits you.

So which burners are you ready to turn off?

Learn the rules and break them

In order to invent something qualitatively new, you must first learn to follow the rules. Once you've learned them, feel free to break them and enjoy the process.

There are many examples in sports of how people who were not afraid to break the rules turned out to be pioneers.

For example, shot putter Patrick O'Brien won Olympic Games and set world records 17 times. In the early 1950s, he decided to take a risk and began to invent his own shot put technique.

Before him, no one had ever pushed a shot like this: he stood with his back to it, and then turned 180 degrees, creating momentum. It was thanks to this technique that O'Brien set 17 world records.

American Bill Koch was the first to decide to ride on one leg in the 80s, and this method became revolutionary. And the ski jumper from Sweden, Jan Boklev, came up with new way floating in the air. The conclusion is simple: rules are needed only as long as they do not hinder development.

And after that - violate and only violate.

Good goal

What's happened good goal? To determine your “native” goal, Eric suggests asking yourself this question: “If you met an almighty god and he said that in the next ten years you would get everything you dreamed of, what would you do next?”

In other words: “If you knew for sure that you would succeed, what would you do?” Answer this question honestly.

And then clarify the wording by asking yourself: “So who do I want to become? A tennis player from the TOP-50 list or a tennis player who tops the TOP-50 list.” As they say, feel the difference.

If you are just on the list, then there may be 49 other people ahead of you, and if you are the best, then there is no one ahead of you.

Good advice Donald Trump said: “You have to think anyway, so why not think big?” - says Trump.

Markers along the way

Larssen advises taking stock of your journey every month. This means constantly keeping your finger on the pulse and, without self-pity, throwing away everything that is no longer relevant to you.

How to take inventory? Very simple.

You need to ask yourself questions and spend enough time to answer them honestly. Ask yourself.

John Norcross, Jonathan Norcross and Christine Loberg - authors of the book "Pimp Yourself" - know exactly how to resist the tempting song of the sirens. They suggest starting with the following evidence-based methods:

Take a short break

Take several slow, deep breaths in and out. Reduce your physical cravings and calm your out-of-control thoughts. Relaxation will help you get through a lot of potential breakdowns.

Stop it

When you start to believe that what you want is what you need, tell yourself firmly that you are not a five-year-old child without will and self-discipline. When my patients try to convince me that they are helpless, I simply ask them: “Can you resist for a thousand dollars?” 99% answer: “Of course.” This proves that they have the necessary skills to resist. So tune your mind.

Say "Yes I can"

Remind yourself, in no uncertain terms, that you have successfully resisted many times before. Confirm your level of consistency.

Take a walk

Research shows that brisk walking reduces cravings. Slower, meditative walking works for some. Literally walk away from your urges.

Use a healthy opposite

During times of temptation and cravings, use healthy alternatives. What to buy new thing, look in your closet and think about what items you could give away. Instead of vegetating on the couch, get up and start taking active action. Instead of remaining angrily silent after a quarrel with your partner, start a calm, constructive conversation about the problem.

Come up with something stupid to distract yourself

Find a distracting activity that will completely occupy your hands and thoughts. For me it's the computer and the answers to email, for others, a puzzle, video game, or exercise might be a good distraction.

Encourage yourself

If you encounter cravings, encourage yourself to stay on track. Strengthen your resolve by rewarding consistency.


How to resist temptation?
For example, you noticed that you had gained a few extra pounds and decided to go on a diet. But you soon discover that it’s difficult for you to resist if something tasty comes into your field of vision - “And if I take a bite, I can’t stop?”
You scold yourself, you are ashamed of your weakness, but every time the situation repeats itself. What should I do?


It is indeed not easy to resist temptations of any kind, as many researchers have confirmed.
During the experiments, they exposed smokers, sweet tooths, dieters, and other categories of citizens to temptation.
Experiments have convincingly proven: the closer and more accessible the forbidden fruit, the greater the risk of succumbing to temptation.
Therefore, it is better to avoid situations where it will be difficult to resist. However, many people know in advance where and when they can give up.
And they even begin to feel remorse for possible weakness in advance. In advance! And these negative thoughts only increase the risk!
Professor Deborah McInnis conducted an interesting study, the results of which have implications not only for losing weight, but also for counteracting any habits that you want to break.
Deborah tested how people react to temptation under different circumstances.
She placed three groups of people in a room containing a delicious-looking chocolate cake and tools to cut it and eat it.
First group placed in the room were warned that if they ate the cake they would feel shame and guilt.
Second told to think about the pride they would feel if the cake was not eaten.
Third (control) group, was sent to a room without any instructions.
And do you know which group ate the most? Third group. They were not given any restrictions.
And who turned out to be the most persistent? The group that was told about pride.
Remember: Shame and guilt work much worse in resisting temptation than pride.
This also applies to how we raise children, how we set up and instruct them.
Shame and guilt consume energy, taking it away from our intention to resist temptation.
Pride, on the other hand, adds energy to us, energizes our willpower, helping us resist.

In life, we are often faced with the temptation to do something pleasant, but at the same time, as we know, unhealthy or unwise.
How can we overcome these temptations? Comparing the pleasure of giving in to temptation with the pleasure and pride we will experience by not doing so.
Positive thoughts, a picture of the future where you are slim and proud of yourself, will provide you with great support.
You will definitely succeed!