Let’s admit it, procrastination is a real thing and it is something that everyone will fall into at some point in their lives.
I love writing these articles, and it is such a great and satisfying moment when I get to hit the “Publish” button or when I receive DMs from people appreciating my work. But sometimes I also really struggle to break through my procrastinating state, sit down and start to write.
I also love taking care of my skin, but getting up from the sofa at bed time thinking that I need to go through my multi-steps skincare routine is very daunting, especially when the only thing you want to do is to get in your bed and sleep.
It is totally normal and natural, we are not machines. Our motivation and drive to do stuff is the bio-product of different concentrations of hormones like Dopamine and Serotonine.
Before I jump into the steps that you need to take to break through procrastination and getting things done, we should understand how a mind of a procrastinator works. There is an awesome TED talk by Tim Urban that actually explains extremely well. It is called “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator“, I will link the video down below. In a nutshell, he explains how in our brain there is this instant-gratification monkey that will distract us from getting stuff done and it glues us in the procrastination limbo. The only thing that this monkey is scared of is the Panic Monster, which usually kicks in the day before a deadline, and it makes the instant-gratification monkey run away, leaving the critical-thinking part of us taking control and getting things done.
So here are my top tips to JUST START:
Stand up, let’s do it
As simple as it sounds, just standing up and saying “OK, let’s do it” will break that procrastination cycle you are chained to. It will ignite the intention of actually doing something productive and will switch your brain to work mode.
5 minutes rule
There are times when it is extremely hard to find the motivation to get things done. And it is totally OK to be in those moments. In those moments there is one technique that really works for me: I tell myself that I am going to do this task for only 5 minutes and sometimes I even set the alarm clock. I also tell my self that at the end of these 5 minutes I can also go back to my procrastination mode, but I never do. The reality is that, once I start, I actually end up liking what I am doing and these 5 minutes become 20 minutes, 1 hour or more. I actually end up wishing I had more time for it and that I started earlier instead of procrastinating. If you don’t feel like continuing after these 5 minutes it is totally OK, at least you had 5 minutes worth of work done.
This technique was created in the 1980s by the Italian entrepreneur Francesco Cirillo. This is a time-management principle that tries to break down your work day in a 25 minutes slot referred to as pomodoro – from the Italian “tomato” – which refers to nothing else but a tomato shaped kitchen timer that Francesco Cirillo used to keep track of these 25 minutes.
The algorithm of this principle goes as it follows:
Decide on the task to be done
Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
Work on the task.
End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes) and then return to step 2 otherwise continue to step 6.
After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.
I can’t stress enough how important and beneficial this practice is. If you have been reading my previous articles about productivity and time management you will actually notice that this is a recurrent topic and a technique that I actually like to use for many different reasons. Breaking big tasks into small tasks will trick our monkey brain to see it as something that won’t take too much time. Also, it makes your tasks more measurable so that you can keep track of your progress.
When I first started to write this blog I was afraid that I couldn’t keep up with that, not wanting to have the commitment to write one article every single week. But, once I started to publish the articles and having positive feedbacks for this blog, I feel like there are people that every Monday they will refresh my blog page expecting a new article to read. Also, during the week I do have people asking me what my next article will be about and I roughly tell them a general topic even though I have no idea what I am going to write about. This creates a sense of accountability that motivates me to sit down and write these articles.
Thomas Edison used to announce to the press about his projects he was working on, when in reality he didn’t even started. This used to motivate him to go home and work hard to meet the expectations that he created himself.
This sounds a bit like a self-inflicted commitment and punishment, but when I really want to do something and I know that I am going to procrastinate once I am at home, I try to talk to as many people as I can to build this accountability. I also often set some deadlines asking people to watch out for that day to see my final project I am building this momentum on. This sets up some external expectationsadding that extra healthy pressure that will motivate you do get things done. This also creates a reputation that you will need to live up to.
Rewarding yourself for your work is important and it doesn’t have to be anything special. For me is to call my family whilst having a nice cup of coffee when I deep clean the house every Sunday, or having a nice ice-cream for working 3 hours straight on a coding project, or a glass of wine after seeing 30 patients in one day.
Now stop reading and move your a*s
Now that I have given you all the tools, tips and tricks to get started, pick one or more of the above, get you a*s off the sofa and start!
Being outside in the sun makes us happy, it gives us vitamin D and it makes us look nice by giving us a nice tan. It also gives us freckles, moles, dark spots, burns, accelerates skin aging, creates wrinkles, disrupts collagen, and it is a well known risk factor for skin cancer.
As any other thing in life moderation is the key, and sun exposure is no exception. There are only two ways to avoid the damaging effects of the sun: you can either avoid it, or be exposed to it sensibly by protecting yourself with a sunscreen. Actually the truth is way more bitter than this: no single method of sun defense can protect you perfectly.
This is the perfect time of the year to talk about sunscreen, even though you should apply it whenever your skin is exposed to the sun, regardless of the time of the year.
But there is a problem, if you go to the pharmacy, supermarket, or even worse online, you will be inundated by the plethora of sunscreens you can choose from, coming in different bottles, different brands, different colors, different ingredients, different types, different prices and different SPFs.
Don’t worry! Antonello comes to rescue you, helping you to have a little bit more of understanding about the different ultraviolet rays, what to look out for when choosing a sunscreen, what to avoid, how to use it, and as usual, my favorite myth debunking.
Before I move on I need to highlight a very important concept: There is no gold standard rule to safely stay in the sun. Applying sunscreen is one of the many things you should be doing, but this is NOT the only thing you should be doing to protect yourself from the sun.
You are probably applying it in the wrong way anyway, so continue reading!
But first…. disclaimer time!
All medical-related content and media on the Antonello Vona Website is created and published online for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard the advice of a medical professional, or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the nearest hospital emergency department, or call the emergency services immediately. If you choose to rely on any information provided by Antonello Vona, you do so solely at your own risk.
External (outbound) links to other websites or educational material (e.g. pdf’s, websites…) that are not explicitly created by Antonello Vona are followed at your own risk. Under no circumstances is Antonello Vona responsible for the claims of third party websites or educational providers.
Ultraviolet Rays (UVR)
Before we jump into the core section of this article, it is important to shed some light on ultraviolet light as this is the agent we are protecting from when applying the sunscreen. Ultraviolet (UV) rays are electromagnetic radiation that come from the sun or man-made devices like sun-beds.
There are three types of UV rays:
UVA – Are the weakest form of UV rays. They penetrate into the deeper layer of the skin and are responsible for accelerated skin cell aging and indirect damage to cells’ DNA. They are responsible for long-term skin damage (like wrinkles), but they may play a role too in skin cancer.
UVB – They have a bit more of energy compared to the UVB. They are responsible for sunburns as they affect the outer layer of the skin (epidermis), as well as directly damaging cells’ DNA. They are thought to cause most types of skin cancers.
UVC – These types of UV rays are the strongest of the three, and because of their high energy they react with the ozone in the atmosphere and do not reach the ground. That’s why you probably never heard about them or read them on a sunscreen bottle because they do not cause skin cancer. However, these rays are often created by man-made tools like UV sanitizing bulbs to kills micro-organisms (in water, air, food, etc…).
UVA and UVB causes irreversible, cumulative damage to the skin cells. This means that if I go out in the sun today without a protection the UV rays will irreversibly damage my skin, and if I were to go on holiday in 5 years to the Maldives (I wish) and be out in the sun again with no protection, my skin will be irreversibly damaged and this will add up to the damage created by today’s unprotected sun exposure.
Are tanning sunbeds safe?
The short answer to this question is a big and loud: NO!
It is a very common misconception to think that tanning sunbeds are a valid alternative to the natural sun because it is safe(r) and that it can “prepare” the skin to the actual sun when you go in hot countries. The reality is that tanning sunbeds are more harmful than the sun itself, because 1 hour tanning session will expose you to 50% more UV rays than the midday sun. According to the BBC, it is estimated that 20 minutes on a sunbed is equivalent to four hours in the sun.
SPF
You have probably come across these three letters very often, especially when buying a sunscreen. Probably this is the only factor you take into account when choosing one, and probably you are also thinking “the higher the better”.
But what is it? SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and it is a relative measure of how long the sun screen you are applying will protect you from UVB. That’s right! SPF does not apply to UVA, but it only applies to UVB, hence protecting your skin from sunburns and cancer.
Let’s say you are applying a sunscreen of SPF 30, it means that the sunscreen will protect you from 30 times more the time it would usually take you to burn. If you would usually burn after 20 minutes in the sun and apply a sunscreen of SPF 30 it will protect you for 10 hours. But again, this only applies to UVB.
At this point you might think “Oh my God, this is great! I am going to buy the one with the highest SPF number that I can find so that I am more protected”. Well… No. I am afraid to tell you that this is not the case, and it is very complicated to explain why, but I will try to keep it nice and short.
A product with an SPF of 30 allows only the 3% of UVB to hit the skin, whereas a product with an SPF of 50 allows the 2% to hit the skin. It is only 1% difference.
However, there might be a false sense of security when choosing a product with a very high SPF. People tend to stay in the sun for much longer and forget about reapplying sunscreen often because they think they are more protected.
There is no sunscreen with astronomically high SPF that offer 100% protection!
UVA star system
So, we know what to look out for in terms of SPF and protection against the UVB. But how can we see whether a product protects us against UVA and how do we choose the best one?
If the UVB uses an SPF index, UVA uses a star system. You will notice that there is a star rating on the packaging that ranges from 0 to 5 indicating the amount of UVA radiation absorbed by the sunscreen in comparison to UVB. It essentially indicates a ratio between the protection afforded by the UVA protection and the UVB protection. If you see a product with low SPF and high UVA stars, it doesn’t mean that that particular product offers higher protection against UVA, but because the UVA/UVB ratio is about the same.
Sunscreens offering protection for both UVA and UVB are sometimes called “broad spectrum”.
According to the EU Recommendation, the marketed UVA protection should be at least a third of the labelled SPF. When this condition is satisfied you will see the UVA logo printed, which is “UVA” in a circle.
Types of Sunscreens
There are mainly two types of sunscreens: chemical and physical sunscreens. The former acts as an organic filter absorbing UV radiations creating a chemical reaction that expels them out from the skin under the form of infrared energy.
The latter contain minerals that literally reflect UV rays making them bounce back from the skin.
An easier way to understand these two different types is to think of chemical sunscreens as sponges, and physical sunscreens as mirrors.
You can also have a combination sunscreen, containing both chemical filters and physical blockers.
Physical/Mineral Sunscreen
Physical sunscreen contain zinc dioxide or titanium dioxide. They are highly effective against both UVA and UVB, and they work instantly as soon as they are applied on the skin. Additionally, these ingredients have been recently proven to be effective in blocking the visible light. Visible light is responsible for skin discoloration like melasma, dark spots, and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation – just to mention a few. So applying physical sunscreen can protect the skin against the visible light which is responsible for altered pigmentation in our skin.
Chemical/Organic Sunscreen
They contain a variety of “filters” that absorb the ultraviolet rays.
Unlike physical sunscreens, chemical sunscreens are not effective immediately after their application, but you would need to wait 20 minutes before getting exposed to the sun, and this is because they need tis amount of time to create a layer on your skin to protect you from the UV rays.
They work by absorbing ultraviolet rays and converting them into infrared energy expelled from the skin. They offer good protection against the UVB, but unfortunately they do not offer a great deal of protection against UVA. They are also not really reliable as they do degrade with time ad they also does not offer protection against visible light. So, if you are going for the chemical sunscreen, make sure it does cover you for UVA too.
Moreover, they can cause irritation to the skin, and this is not particularly indicated if you have skin conditions like acne, rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis, and eczema.
The good thing about chemical sunscreens is that they are cheaper when compared to the the physical ones.
How do I know if my sunscreen is chemical or physical?
Whilst there are a lot of ingredients that act as organic/chemical sunscreen, you can only find two ingredients that offer physical protection: Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Dioxide.
So, have a look at the ingredients list at the back and if you see either Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Dioxide then it is a physical or mineral sunscreen, if it doesn’t than it is a chemical sunscreen.
People only look at the big, fat number on the bottle to determine whether a sunscreen is good or not. By now you should know that sunscreen quality goes well beyond a high SPF number.
“Dr David Lim, dermatologist and researcher, reports that “a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 is good enough, anything above is either marketing or crap”, he then continues “what really matters is the amount applied and frequency, things that people often forget about.” The recommended amount is 5 grams – which equals to one teaspoon. “
Stick with an SPF between 30 and 50. Anything above might be misleading and overpromising.
Where should I apply my sunscreen?
Sunscreen should be applied in every exposed area of your body.
There are often missed areas I want you to be aware of, these include ears, behind the ears, around the eyes, nose, all around the neck, and upper chest. The ears are a very common site for sun-related skin cancers to grow, especially squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), so make sure to cover them too. For what concerns the neck, you will thank yourself in 30 years time for applying sunscreen today, as it will avoid looking like a turkey.
At this point it is superfluous to say that, if you are in shorts, sunscreen has to be applied on your legs and feet as well and, if you are topless, it should be applied all over the top half of your body.
If you are on a nudist beach, well… you should marinate your font and bac
How often should I apply my sunscreen?
Let’s start by saying that sunscreen should be an integral part of your daily skincare routine (you don’t need to apply in your night skincare routine), regardless of whether you are planning to spend time outdoor in the sun.
Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours if you are out in the sun, or sooner if you are doing activities that make you sweat. Also, it should be reapplied after swimming, and showering – You might say ” Dude, mine is water resistant”. Well, no doubt about that. But let me tell you, it does wash off. They can claim it to be water resistant as a cream, as it stays on you after you shower or swim, but is not thick enough to guarantee nor widespread enough to guarantee a solid protection.
Should I still wear sunscreen even though my make-up has it already?
Yes! This is because it is unlikely that you are going to be covering your entire face, ears, neck and upper chest with make-up, and these are critical areas that are often missed when applying sunscreen. You can apply your make as a follow up layer, but not as a stand-alone method for protecting yourself.
Sunscreen and environment
I have recently engaged in a very interesting conversation where I was told that sunscreen are toxic for the coral reef and the ocean in general.
As I was aware that certain skincare products (not only sunscreen) contain an ingredient called polyethylene, which is a derivate of plastic, and this cause harm to the marine life, since most of the times they are found in the form of micro-beads (like in the case of physical scrubs), that will eventually end up in the ocean and intoxicate the marine ecosystem.
However, upon further research, I cam across some claims that the ingredient Oxybenzone (found in chemical sunscreens) is responsible to bleach and damage the DNA of the coral reef. I must say though that I could not find and quality research paper that could back-up this claim.
But I came across this paper, where it talks about the measurements of this ingredient in the waters of Hawaii, but this was inconclusive and states:
“Overall, the impacts of oxybenzone and octinoxate to intact corals occur at much higher concentrations than this study found in seawater near coral reefs. Currently, there are only five studies that have looked at the toxicity of oxybenzone and/or octinoxate to corals, so much more research on the toxicity to corals is needed,” said Mitchelmore.
By the end of this article I don’t expect you to know every single ingredient that is good and bad for you in a skincare product, it would just be impossible and even expert dermatologists don’t know all of them as there are hundreds of thousands out there. Instead, this article has more the purpose to educate you in how to get oriented in all those weird names, recognize if a product is as good as it says to be, what are the ingredients you should look out for and which ones to avoid, and most importantly to help you to be more of a mindful buyer.
Before I proceed I have to do the disclaimer thingy guys to protect my cheap as* for getting sued just in case you might read this article, which has a pure informative and educative purpose, as a medical advice – so:
Disclaimer:
All medical-related content and media on the Antonello Vona Website is created and published online for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard the advice of a medical professional, or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the nearest hospital emergency department, or call the emergency services immediately. If you choose to rely on any information provided by Antonello Vona, you do so solely at your own risk.
External (outbound) links to other websites or educational material (e.g. pdf’s, websites…) that are not explicitly created by Antonello Vona are followed at your own risk. Under no circumstances is Antonello Vona responsible for the claims of third party websites or educational providers.
OK, we can move on now.
As producers and pharmaceutical companies are not really legally required to list the concentration of each ingredient (at least for the non-medicated products) to protect their recipe, it might be a little bit difficult to determine at which concentration is a given ingredient. However, there are a few tricks that can help you to figure out if an ingredient is at a higher or stronger concentration than another ingredient.
Generally speaking, the ingredients in a skincare product are listed according to their concentration: the ones that appear at the very top of the list have a higher concentration and the more you progress through the list their concentration decreases – in fact, most commonly you will find Aqua (water) at the top of the list as it is the basic, and most abundant ingredient in all products.
Try to look at the first 7 ingredients, these will give you already some valuable information about the product: if there are ingredients at a higher concentration that you want to avoid, what active ingredients are there, or if there is an ingredient you know you are sensitive or allergic to.
Most products have an ingredient called Phenoxyethanol – this is used as a stabilizer and preservative that limits bacterial growth used in cosmetics (i.e. creams, soaps, and perfumes). The European Economic Community (EEC) Cosmetics Derivative and the Cosmetics Regulation of the European Union approved phenoxyethanol in concentrations up to 1%. This is a very important piece of information because we know that this ingredient can only be used up to 1%, and we also know that ingredients are listed according to their concentration gradient. So, anything above phenoxyethanol is likely to be more than 1% and all the ingredients below phenoxyethanol are more likely to be below 1%.
So, for example, let’s suppose you want to buy a skincare product with a good exfoliative active ingredient (i.e. Salcylic Acid or Glycolic Acid), you go to the supermarket or drugstore and find these two product that have these ingredients, let’s say you are looking for a product with Salicylic Acid:
Let’s say that both products launch the same message through their names “Salicylic Acid for good exfoliation and anti-blemishes”.
But when you turn the bottles over, and you read the ingredient list you see this:
Both Product 1 and Product 2 are very well known brands, and both have the same “Salicylic Acid” in the name of the product, and someone might even want to choose one product over the other for the loyalty they have towards a certain brand, but which one do you think it is more effective and less irritating to your skin?
Let’s take a closer look at both of them.
In Product 1, Salicylic acid is the 4th ingredient listed and it appears way before Phenoxyethabol, which means that its concentration is above 1%; in Product 2 it is the 11th of the list and it is listed after the phenoxyethanol, which tells us that it has a concentration of less than 1%.
Also, as you can see from the extensiveness of the ingredient list of both products, Product 2 has way more ingredients than Product 1, and those ingredients in excess (as you will learn later on in this article) can be extremely irritating to your skin as it has a bunch of stuff I usually run away from every time I see them listed (certain oil, fragrances, perfumes etc…).
If you haven’t figured that out yourself already, SPOILER ALERT! Product 1 is the one you might want to go for in this case.
So, which one do you think will be cheaper?
I love this example because it not only shows you how two different brands can claim to do the same thing, having the exact same ingredient, but one is way more superior than the other one once you look at the ingredient list, and it also debunks the myth that quality stuff are way more expensive than crap products. In this case Product 1 is a lot cheaper than Product 2.
I guess that by now I got your curiosity and you want to know what Product 1 is. Well, it is Paula’s Choice. Metti Link
Ingredients you might want to avoid
Some ingredients in skincare products can be really aggressive and irritating for your skin; some of them are really obvious, some others are less obvious. Since the purpose of this article is how to read a skincare product ingredient list and not “what to avoid in skincare products”, I will just concentrate on a few ingredients like fragrances and oils for now. So, here’s some ingredients you might want to be aware of and run away from should you see them on the top of the ingredient list:
Fragrances/perfume
We often associate the quality of a product by its smell, just like we do with food. I mean, if something smells so good that should be good for your skin to, right?
Wrong!
Unfortunately, most of the times what is good for the nose is not good for the skin and as pleasant as it can be to smell, fragrances and perfumes can be very bad for your skin, especially if your skin is very sensitive and delicate.
Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies are not legally obliged to list every single scented ingredient they use to make their product appealing by making it smell nice, all they need to do is to put “Fragrance/Perfume” in the ingredient list. No matter if that contains 1 or 100 scented crap to make it smell nice.
So, should you see it within the first ingredients, put that down! Its concentration is way too high to be applied on your face or sensitive skin.
This doesn’t mean that if I find an fragrance in a skincare product I really like (because it has a lot of good ingredients) I won’t buy it , as far as it is not listed within the first few ingredients, its concentration is not crazy high, and it does not contain other irritating ingredients, I will buy it. But whenever I have the choice to avoid them, I will.
Essential Oils
Unfortunately, most of the times what is good for the nose is not good for the skin. The nice smell is often given by essential oils, which are volatile essences extracted from pretty much everything that has a smell (i.e. flowers, fruit, and seeds) and these can contain many substances – the majority of which are damaging for the skin.
Some essential oils are good for the skin, as they contain antioxidant (like caffeic acid and rosemarinic acid) and they can also help to fight the topical troublemakers of the skin, acting as antibacterial (fighting bacteria) or antimycotic (fighting fungi/yeast).
You can arguably say that there are some research out there showing that certain amounts (such as 0.1%) of these oils are non-irritating, but these studies don’t really take into account that skincare products contain more than one essential oil, probably at greater concentrations than 0.1%, and these will add up to a higher risk of irritation.
Skin is very good at hiding when it’s being irritated. So, even if you don’t see a reaction, the damage is still occurring beneath skin’s surface, cumulatively leading to problems you will see later on. Irritation is pro-aging, the opposite of what most adults want from skincare.
So the essential oils you might want to avoid and well-known to be aggressive and trouble-makers for the skin are all the citrus oils, like lemon, mandarine, tangerine, grapefruit, etc.; mint oils such as balm mint, peppermint etc.; and camphor oil. Other oils you want to avoid are: oregano oil, ylang ylang oil, sage oil, jasmine oil, ginger oil, eucalyptus oil, lemongrass oil, rosemary oil, neroli oil, and could go on and on for ages. So, my best piece of advice is to avoid all skincare products containing fragrant plant oils and extracts.
How do you do it? Simple! Try to let your nose to the shopping first (the product should’t have any nice smell), and check the ingredients to spot any fragrances/perfume/scented oils in it.
Resources
I know this might sound very overwhelming, and it is. There are thousands of ingredients you have to be aware of, good ingredients and bad ingredients that be have as such at different concentrations. This is why I think it is fair to share with you some resource to go and reference to whenever you feel stuck.
My number one suggestion is Paula’s choice dictionary. This is a very useful and powerful resource that will help you out to determine if an ingredient is bad or good.
Another great resource you can use in INCIdecoder. This will let you put in the brand of the product you want to check, and it will spit out the ingredient list, color coding them, and telling you if they are known to be allergens/irritants or if they are good ingredients for you.
Ok let’s face it, failing is unpleasant! It makes us feel as we will never reach our goal, it will convince us that we are not good enough, or not as good as you believed, or not as good as other people believe.
We weigh failure in different ways and this depends upon many factors – the fear of disappointing ourselves, the fear of wasting the time, the fear to disappoint the ones we love, lowering the high expectations that our friends and family have from us, and fear of being criticized by others – just to mention a few.
Society has always made us believe that failing is bad, and that you will be defined by your failures when in reality it is part of the learning process and that’s what makes us climb faster on the learning curve. In a few words, failure helps us to thrive.
The only thing that there is between your failure and your goal is how you process and use failure at your advantage.
So when we fail we have two options: we can either be passive, starting to blame everyone, convincing ourselves that we are not good at it, and fueling the negative mindset that will lead you to fail in the future maybe with a different goal; or we can be proactive, process the failure in a healthy way, and be paradoxically positive about it because you have some material to work on and improve, realizing you are one step closer to success. So, here’s a list of what you can do do overcome failure and to make the best out of it.
Start with this very simple life lesson: failure does not exist.
The literal meaning of failure is “lack of success”. It’s not just a part of the learning process, but it is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the learning process. How did we actually learn to walk? by smashing our ass out countless times on the ground until we finally did it. Same thing when learning to cycle, or skate, or learning our mother-tongue, or learning a different language. The common denominator of our successes is the continuous failure from which we have learned.
Think of Thomas Edison – the guy thanks to whom we have light in hour houses – he was working on some models of light bulbs and he had to go through 10000 versions that failed before inventing the right one. During a press conference a journalist asked Edison “how did you feel about failing for 10000 times”, and he replied “I didn’t fail at all, I have only discovered 9999 ways of how not to build a light bulb”.
This mindset helps you to consider the lack of success as invaluable hints and opportunity to get better, and not as failures.
Identify why do you feel bad about failing.
Feeling bad when we fail is normal, but this should be due to the fact that we are not quite there with the results we were hoping for, and this phase is usually followed by an analytical phase where we try to understand what we have learned from it, and what could we have done better.
But if there is something else that makes you feel bad when you fail that goes beyond what we have discussed above, try to pin point what it is. Ask yourself what you feel the way you feel, write it down if necessary.
Do you feel bad because you have let yourself down? because you think that all your effort came down to nothing? because you think you have disappointed people who believe in you? because you think that you have lowered the other people’s expectations?
Whatever your question is there is only one answer: you are not a machine and failing is normal.
Whatever it is try to get at the root of it, and address it first. Try to scrape-off from yourself the fear of being criticized and do what you do for yourself and for no-one else. Failing is normal, embrace it before it destroys you.
Fail Fast
The philosophy of “fail fast” is very well known, especially in the start up context. If “failing” is a synonym of “learning” (as it should be), the phrase “fail fast” can be translated into “learn fast”. The more you develop your tolerance for failure, the faster you can get over the initial emotional part, the faster you can learn, and the faster you can succeed.
Change
Whatever your strategy, method, or plan was, it led you to fail… it sounds harsh, but that’s what it is. There is no point in repeating what you did because you already know where it will lead you, so change your plan. Try to objectively analyze what you did and spot some flaws. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedbacks to whoever you think can help you, step out of your comfort zone and try new strategies.
Don’t compare yourself to anyone else
Everybody is different and everybody has their own strategies and their own methods. What works for them won’t necessarily work for you. Take a moment to think about it, how does comparing your weakness with someone else’s strengths going to help you? Do you really think they will size up? Comparing yourself to others takes up energy that you could use to actually improve yourself.
The only person you should try to be better than is who you were yesterday.
Although when we think of successful people we start to think at fame, wealth, and high social status, in its most simplistic form, success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. This is something that we have to keep in mind when we talk about success because we tend to wrongly label successful people by the numbers of figures in their bank account or Instagram followers. And yes, all the big names out there (Tesla, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc…) have both money and followers, the underlying common denominators that took them where they are are passion, hard work, sacrifice, time and patience.
We all see successful people as beautiful, tasty cakes, a product of a recipe that shaped them as such, and we want to follow the same recipe that made them successful. That’s why we get hooked up when we see “The 5 habits of Successful People”, because we hope that by literally and religiously following those steps we will become as successful in life as they are.
But the reality is, we can be successful in our own ways, without the freezing cold showers first thing in the morning, or waking up at 4:50am everyday, as we read and watch everywhere on the web.
Don’t Wake Up at stupid o’clock in the morning.
Why? Because if you are 28 years old and you have been having the same routine for the last 10 years waking up at 8:30 in the morning, it is highly unlikely that you will find the motivation to implement this in your routine for years on end. It might last from less than a week to 10 days and than it will start to fade off.
We have all read articles and watched inspiring Youtube videos where the first thing they mention is to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning (or similar times) in order to be a successful person in life.
I have tried several times over the years to implement this habit inside my routine, and I have systematically failed every single time because I am not a 5:00 am kind of person. If anything it led me to believe that I wasn’t made to be successful because of my failure to wake up at 5:00 am.
If you are a morning person and you naturally wake up early, well… good for you. If you are more of a late-morning person than guess what… it is totally fine and you won’t be less successful than the early bird.
There is an amazing book, which I highly recommend you to read/listen, called “Why We Sleep” by Dr Matthew Walker, a scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology. In his book, he states that there are two kinds of people: the early birds, people who naturally wake up early in the morning, and the night owls, people who go to bed late at night and wake up later in the morning. This reveals that our sleep schedule is not just a personal preference but there is an innate, biological predisposition that also has a genetic component. Early riser find their productivity peak in the morning whereas night owls find their productivity peak in the early afternoon and evenings. It is hard to be a night owl in a society that wants you to be an early riser, because they have to fight against their innate sleep timing in order to fit in, and this can heavily affect how you sleep, how you eat, your mood and health.
In summary, it is not waking up stupidly early that will make you successful, but what you will do from the time you open up your eyes and get out of bed.
Start with the end
Whatever is the project you are working on, try to start with the end. Having in mind what you want your final product to be like gives you the possibility to be a lot more efficient when you actually work to make it. This is because having your eyes fixed on your final product will help you to determine what tools and techniques you will need in order to achieve it. It also gives you the right positive mindset to start and work on it, because in that case we become goal oriented, and it will make less frustrating working on the tedious staff that we need to work on in order to achieve our goal.
Look forward to fail
To me this sentence is equal to “to look forward to learn”. Failing is unpleasant, and no one wants to. It gives a feeling of not being able to achieve something, and that we worked hard for nothing. The truth is that failing is a crucial part of the learning process, we get better and better each time we fail. The most vicious loop you can fall into is failing and do the same things that brought you to fail all over again. We have to be mindful every time we fail, process and acknowledge the failure and retrospectively look at our work spotting potential flaws and reflecting what we could have done better or differently. So, in essence, you either succeed or learn, you never truly fail.
Plan your day the night before
Planning your day the night before is an effective time-management skill that allows you to be more organized during the day.
Having a list of things to do gives us the opportunity to waste less time in actually thinking what we need to do during the day. There is the temptation to be carried away by the enthusiasm of being productive the day after, and this takes us to write down way too many tasks on our list, probably even big tasks that require a lot of time and energy in order to give us the satisfaction to cross them out. So, there my be the risk that you will be left with way too many unchecked things in your list at the end of the day, and this can give you a feeling of “I haven’t done enough”. So here’s my suggestion, write down only a few tasks that you think are realistically achievable and estimate the right time you think you will need in order to complete them, and most importantly prioritize them. Leave the most challenging ones to the time of the day where you think you have your productivity peak, but off course this will then greatly depend on your work and life schedule.
Make your bed
Although I might sound like your mom now, this is a take-home message I have actually taken from the homonymous book “Make your bed” by William H. McRaven. It might sound like a simple task, and it certainly is, but making your bed as soon as you wake up will actually let you start the day with your first accomplishment, your brain will start to release endorphins because if there is one thing the brain loves is to have that feeling of accomplishment after completing a task this will accoany all the way through the night time when you go back to nicely done bed.
Prefer quality over quantity
This is quite self-explanatory, but preferring quality over quantity is better in the long term. Although preferring quantity can somehow gives a sense of satisfaction as we have a feeling that we achieved more (with little effort) and we have been very productive. But if you think at the meaning of the word productivity: “the effectiveness of productive effort”, you will soon realize that it is better to focus on three tasks and do them well, as opposed to doing ten tasks superficially and with the mindset of “I just want to get rid of this task so I can cross it out from my list”, with the risk of actually having to make them again in the future.
COVID-19. A virus, an epidemic, a pandemic, the beginning of an unprecedented period characterized by uncertainty, sadness, distancing, bereavement, job loss and negative economic impact.
If you are reading this, sit down, grab a cup of coffee and buckle up because I am taking you to an eye-opening journey that will cover everything you need to know about COVID-19
Today is Saturday the 13th of June 2020. Well, random sentence that might seem unrelated to this topic. But when we talk about these kind of stuff it is important to know when these information and statistics are given to you. All the information provided in this article are valid and up-to-date at the moment of writing this article. And that’s the beauty of science, what it might be true today it might not be true tomorrow, because the more time goes by the more we learn about this virus that could either agree or disagree to what we knew yesterday.
Coronavirus is a family of respiratory viruses responsible for some conditions in humans that can space from the common cold that you and I get every year to other respiratory syndromes. It is also very common in some animal species like bats. Its name comes from the characteristic crown-like spikes that it has on its surface.
Although the name of this pandemic has changed over the course of these months, the World Health Organization (WHO) has baptized this condition with the name of COVID-19: Co (Corona), Vi (Virus), D (disease), 19 (year 2019) because in December 2019 China identified a new strain of coronavirus which was never identified before in humans, and which was causing unusual types of pneumonias. It all seemed to start in Wuhan, in the province of Hubei.
Coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV2 – which one to use?
It all sounds pretty confusing and sometimes these words are (wrongly) used interchangeably to indicate the virus or the pandemic. So let’s get familiar with the terminology here: Coronavirus refers to the family of viruses (see above); SARS-CoV2 refers to the specific strain of the virus which is causing this pandemic, it is called SARS because it is genetically linked to the strain of virus that caused SARS in 2002; COVID-19 refers to the condition caused by the virus SARS-CoV2.
Where does it come from?
Despite all the conspiracy theories out there, to date the most accredited theory is that SARS-CoV2 started with the transmission from a bat to a pangolin (see picture below) and then passed on to humans. This happened in Wuhan, and more specifically in a ‘wet market’. Very rarely the strains of coronavirus affecting animals are directly transmissible to humans. But in certain cases the virus can mutate so much so to be transmissible to humans using other animals as vectors.
It is not a laboratory invention, it is what happens when you disturb nature and offer yourself as an alternative host for the virus that lives on wildlife animals.
This is not a new thing at all. In case you didn’t know many viruses that we know today come from animals and scenarios like the one we are living today happened over and over again in the past.
HIV – 1920
HIV crossed from chimps to humans in the 1920s in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was probably as a result of chimps carrying the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), a virus closely related to HIV, being hunted and eaten by local people. The virus was transmitted either by eating their meat, or with their blood getting into cuts and wounds on people in their course of hunting.
Ebola – 1976
Ebola virus was discovered near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Similarly to HIV, the most trusted theory is that the virus was passed on from bats to non-human primates and than passed to humans via direct contacts of blood or other bodily tissues.
SARS – 2002
For example, in 2002/2003 something very similar happened when a strain of coronavirus was passed on from bats to civets (animal found in tropical Asia and Africa) and then to humans. This gave rise to an epidemic called SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and it stared in China, specifically in the wet market of Foshan (southern China).
MERS – 2012
In this case a strain of coronavirus was passed on from bats to camels and than to humans. This gave rise to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome also knows as MERS. The outbreak happened in the the Saudi Arabia peninsula.
Why China?
But why COVID-19 originated in a market? And why in China? And why SARS started in China in 2002? And how could a bat infect a civet cat in the case of the SARS? and how could a bat infect a pangolin in the case of the COVID-19? And why are there tropical animals in China?
Let’s start by clarifying what wet markets are. Wet markets are types of market where live animals are butchered and sold. These animals include chicken, bats, goats, crocodiles, civet cats, pangolins, dogs, cats, koalas, snakes and rats (just to mention a few). These markets are scattered world-wide mainly in Africa, Saudi Arabia, South-East Asia and a few areas of Latin America. But the most well-known and powerful markets are in China, like the ones where SARS and COVID-19 originated from, Foshan and Wuhan wet markets respectively. These markets are well known for the variety of wildlife that they have, animals from all over the world with each one with its own potential to carry its virus to the market.
Animals are stack in little cages one on top of the other, making it possible for cross-contamination to happen with fecal material, blood and pus to drip on other species.
This condition creates the perfect “soup” for viruses and bacteria to thrive and to be transmitted to different animals and then to humans.
Nature didn’t really predict that a bat would be over a pangolin, or over a dog, or over a camel in an environment very close to humans.
The reason why all these animals are in the same market at the same time is because of a decision made by the Chinese government a few years ago.
In 1970 China was going through a very rough period, the communist regime had the control over the food production, and it was struggling to feed its 900 million people, 36 million of which died because of very little food resources. In 1978 the Chinese regime allowed private farming and many farmers did very well with swine and poultry meat, but small farmers could not still sustain themselves, and they started to hunt and sell wild animals.
China saw a very lucrative business with the trade of wildlife, and in 1988 the government approved the “wildlife protection law”, which stated that wildlife belonged to the government and it also encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife. These animals were than introduced to the wet market to make profit out of them.
Parallel to this activity, an illegal commerce was also developing, with the importation of endangered species like tigers, rhinos and pangolins to China and sold in the wet markets. These animals were used not only as food, but also as aphrodisiac ingredients mainly bought by rich people.
In 2000, the markets were full of a wide variety of wildlife and this brought to the SARS outbreak in 2002, originating from Foshan. Scientists found out that the virus shared the genetic material of civet cats, and the Chinese government was forced to shut the wet market banning the breeding of wildlife.
However, a few months after, China not only reopened the wet markets, but it legalized the breeding of 54 species of wildlife, including civet cats.
We all know the very similar story that led us to this situation today.
How does the virus attack the body
The virus spreads via respiratory droplets either directly (for example a person talking/sneezing very close to us) or indirectly (for example touching contaminated surfaces).
Once the virus enters into your body from either your eyes, nose or mouth it starts by attacking your upper respiratory system from your nasal mucosa to your throat, hence the temporary loss of smell, taste, as well as flu-like symptoms. According to the CDC, symptoms might appear 5-14 days after the exposure to the virus. When the virus reaches the lungs it deposits in the air sacs called alveoli, which are extremely important structures in your lungs where oxygen can get distributed into the body via your circulatory system. The immune system tries to fight off the virus, and this generates local inflammation. Depending on the severity of the infection, fluid and pus builds up in the air sacs and this generates bronchitis and pneumonia. At this point oxygen cannot reach the blood vessels and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) might happen. It may be required to place the patient on a ventilator to help supply the oxygen.
In critical cases, the combination of lack of oxygen to the rest of the body and this persistent infection can lead to organ failure that can potentially be fatal.
The mortality rate varies depending on the age group of the affected patients as well as the presence of underlying medical conditions (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, chronic respiratory illnesses, cancer, immunosuppressed patients, etc).
Symptoms
COVID-19 presents with the following symptoms
Coughing
Throat-ache
Fever
Muscular and joint pain
General feeling of being unwell
Shortness of breath
Congested or runny nose
Anosmia (loss of smell sensation);
Ageusia (loss of taste sensation);
Some people can be asymptomatic, which means that they present no symptoms at all and still be positive.
Testing
As a general rule, if you have been in contact with anyone with COVID-19 or have the symptoms discussed above, you have COVID-19 unless proved otherwise by reliable testing.
To date, two types of tests are available for COVID-19: viral tests, which tells you if you have a current infection; and antibody tests, which tells you if you have been previously exposed to the virus.
Treatment
To date, the only treatment available at the moment is supportive care (pain killers, fluids, ventilator etc…) but there is not a gold standard cure as such. However, there are several clinical trials out there that are tying to come up with a cure for it.
As of today, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved the emergency use authorisation for three drugs: hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine (anti-malaria drugs), remdesivir (anti-viral medication), and a drug used to sedate people on a ventilator.
A very promising and safe treatment seems to be the hyper-immune plasma transfusion. According to preliminary studies, transfusion of plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 appears to be safe for severely ill patients and may speed up recovery. Again, the level of evidence for this treatment method is very premature at the moment.
Vaccine
As of today, there is no vaccine against SARS-COV2. There are about 100 active projects worldwide that are working restlessly to develop an effective and safe vaccine. Some researchers are positive to deliver the vaccines within next year.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
