With many companies in the UK now encouraging their staff to work from home, and an ever- increasing likelihood of a lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, masses of employees will be working remotely.

Although to some working from home is a dream situation, it comes with its challenges, and one of the biggest is how to stay motivated when youre working alone and remotely.

Jordan Baker, CEO of Sanity Marketing who has worked with over 650 clients from the House of Commons to the Crowne Plaza Hotel chain, has revealed five ways to stay motivated while working from home.

READ MORE: Five benefits of remote working

Its easy when working from home to get comfortable wherever you please, whether its the sofa or your bed. But to increase productivity, its important to set up a home office or at least a set working desk to keep your mind work-focused and keep your work separate from other aspects of your home-life.

With no set starting or finishing time or public transport to catch, its easy to work too many hours or perhaps not enough hours. Setting a strict start time to your day and setting an alarm means you will be in a structured routine. Its also a good idea to have a dedicated finishing time so you dont work too many hours.

Particularly when working from home, its easy to fall victim to unhealthy snacking and sitting at your work desk for long periods of time. Ensure you take regular breaks and make healthy meals, and also incorporate exercise into your day, making sure youre not spending long, intense hours completing your work without moving.

READ MORE: How to make a good impression if you work from home

When youre wrapped up in completing your work, its easy to work all hours of the day without taking breaks. Its important to enjoy regular breaks in order to refresh the mind, and these can be in short, sharp bursts throughout the day. Its also important to stand up and move around to stretch your body out and be as comfortable as possible during your work.

Working from home can be lonely. Schedule some video calls with colleagues and contacts throughout the day. Some home-workers even work in chat-rooms with colleagues on in the background for that truly social office feel.

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Niall Horan is motivated by the "thought of failure".

The 26-year-old singer - who is poised to release his second solo album, 'Heartbreak Weather' - has revealed that the fear of failing has fuelled his passion for his new record.

Asked what his career has taught him about the idea of success and failure, Niall shared: "You can sit there and dwell on the idea of failure, you can let it really upset you but it's going to damage your songwriting, which means you will fail. Or you can grab it by the scruff of the neck!

"For this album I've written my best stuff, because I wasn't in the studio every day going, 'Oh, this is going to be a disaster.' The thought of failure drives me to want to outdo myself all the time and be as big as I can.

"I did exams when I was in school and I'd walk in and just go, 'Well, I've already failed this. Is there much point?' And I've walked out of exams after 20 minutes. But there are times when you have to tell yourself the opposite."

Despite the pressures of fame, Niall is determined to live "as a normal life" as possible.

He told Glamour UK magazine: "I'm generally not an overthinker, but if I say it's going to affect me in some way, I'll think about it for a long time and that'd be it for a couple of days. Then it'll just be gone, and I'll be like, 'What was that about?'

"Personally, I try to live as a normal life as I can. I think that's helped. I try and do real normal things - which I know sounds crazy - like I'll go on the bus or the tube or go to the shop.

"That was stuff that I couldn't do before, I'll just hang around with my mates and just be really Irish about it by being quite reserved and keeping myself to myself. I think having the normal life and having the friends that I have I think has been huge for me, big time."

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Niall Horan: I'm motivated by the thought of failure - Herald-Mail Media

Everyone needs a little encouragement from time to time, something that is on full display right here in this workout with a dog.

A clip of Magnus the therapy dog busting some killer moves with his owner has made the duo an exercise sensation on Instagram and Twitter. Magnus, you see, is a three-year-old Lab and certified therapy dog who clearly has a keen eye for subpar sit-ups and a take-no-prisoners attitude.

In the short video, Magnus spots his owner, rests atop him for some weighted pressups and just generally provides the most fitspirational company a gym-goer could dream of. Yes, Magnus even does the downward facing dog!

Magnus has collecting plenty of praise and admiration from the masses hopefully even the occasional doggie treat as a post-cardio snack because theres no excuse for skipping a set with mans best friend as a motivator. Personal training will never be the same again.

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Nearly a decade after his death, Jobs remains one of the most fascinating and iconic business leaders of the past century--and perhaps in all of history.

It was "very hard," Bouissoutold me when we talked afterward. "Steve, like Napoleon, had two faces. On one side he was a brilliant genius and a true misfit. And the other side, his lack of care and sensitivity for people, his disrespect and dictatorial behavior, were all real."

Here's the context, plus what it was like to work for Jobs, and how Bouissoulearned firsthand the unique way that Jobs could inspire and motivate employees.

Bouissou started at Apple in 1995, whileJobs was in exile, running NeXT. Ashe tells the story, he was an early advocate of e-commerce, and he wanted Apple to trysellingits products directly to consumers.

The idea fell flat when he pitched it to Apple's leadership. (In fairness, this was in the very early days of the consumer internet, when people could hardly imagine inputting a credit card number online.)

But then Apple bought NeXT, and when Jobs became CEO, he enthusiastically embraced the idea. As a result, Bouissou got his crash course in leadership, Steve Jobs-style.

Here's what he said he learned from the experience:

If you read no further, the most important thingBouissou learned from Jobs about leading people was the importance of always focusing on the right priorities.

"The first lesson was like, don't [just] focus but hyperfocus," he told me. "Think what really matters the most ... I think Steve had this unique ability, which I've never seen in anybody else. He exhibited an intense and obsessive focus."

Working on his e-commerce project, Bouissou said, the focus became largely about the user experience and the flow--all of which were new and relatively untried elsewhere at the time.

Bouissou technically had a boss between Jobs and himself, but he said Jobsdidn't seem to care about the organizational chart. He'd go around the bureaucracy constantly.

"Steve's way of managing people [was] that he basically goes over the boss and goes directly to you," Bouissou said. "So I had a number of interactions about the design of the online store, the user interface, the front end, and navigation. He was very involved and very picky and very on top of things."

I'm reminded here of a similar story I wrote last year, from when Jobs decided at the last minute in 2007 that he wanted real glass, not a plastic screen, on theiPhone. He got it done by skipping over all the development and sourcing specialists, and goingdirectly to the CEO of Gorilla Glass.

Having studied Jobsquite a bit,I found it interesting the degree to which Bouissou almost started to sound a bit like him as our interview went on.

This became most apparent when he talked about iteration and refining, so you can identify the one or two most important things to focus on. You do that, he says, on the basis ofhis time with Jobs, by trying big things and then stripping out the parts that turn out to be unimportant.

"Simplicity is hard," he said. "I think it takes many, many iterations to peel something to its core, to its most simple and most eloquent form of expression -- and really to its truth."

This is my favorite insight. It's about the ultimate reason for all that dedication to simplicity and focus. It should theoretically apply to just about any business.

"This is something I derived from working with Steve;it wasn't something that I've ever heard him say," Bouissou said. "But, if you think about it, what is the difference between Caterpillar, Farmers, Ford Motor Company, Krispy Kreme, or Pixar Animation Studios? All five companies are in the exact same business with the exact same goal and purpose, which is to manufacture and deliver delight."

With Jobs, he said, manufacturing delight was partially a matter of reacting to products and ideas with all five senses: How would they sound? How would they feel? Even, how would they smell?

The e-commerce project was a success, but Bouissou told me working for Jobs took a significant toll.

"You either stay married with me, or you marry Steve," his wife told him at once point. "I'm not going to go on like this."

By 1998, he'd moved on, but he found himself thinking about the experience.

Then, when Jobs died in 2011, he said, he went by the former CEO'shouse in Palo Alto, California, where he marveled at the array of "hundreds of artifacts and drawings and apples and poems and things" that people had left as a memorial.

"He was a remarkable man,"Bouissou said. "He was an exceptional man. I never met anybody like him."

Published on: Mar 8, 2020

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Steve Jobs Knew How to Lead and Motivate Employees. Here's How He Did It - Inc.

Harvey Barnes has admitted his Leicester City teammates were out for revenge after they thrashed Aston Villa in front of the Sky cameras.

The former West Brom loanee netted a brace as the Foxes thumped Villa 4-0 on Monday night, to strengthen their top-four hopes.

Villa's defeat at the King Power came only weeks after they dumped their Midlands rivals out of the Carabao Cup in dramatic fashion.

Dean Smith's men weathered a storm across the two legs, before Trezeguet scored an injury time winner to send Villa to Wembley.

And Barnes has told LeicestershireLive that those results gave them added incentive to get a result this time around.

It was a big match in more than one way," Barnes said.

The last time we played them in the cup, we were gutted at how that went.

We wanted to get revenge for how the cup games went. It was a motivation point for us. We were all so disappointed. I think that was probably one of the lowest points of the season so far.

So it was going to be a big game and we knew that. It was a bit of a local derby as well.

Plus, we were going in on the back of a few poor results as well. We knew we needed to get that first win under our belts again.

So for us to bounce back the way we did was great. We knew we owed them one and that showed in our performance.

Barnes opened the scoring in bizarre fashion with Pepe Reina flying out of his goal only to miss the ball and man completely. The winger would then go on to calmly stroke the ball past the helpless Tyrone Mings.

This is your round up of all things Villa; the one-stop shop that will keep you updated on the latest goings on at the club and beyond.

Transfers, injuries, match-days and managers, weve got you covered.

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You can follow our Villa reporter Ashley Preece on Twitter, and his email address is ashley.preece@reachplc.com

On the goal, he said: It was about staying composed and hitting the target and obviously it found the net really well.

When you see the keeper coming out like that a lot of the time you want to try and lob him. But the way he came out I saw an opportunity to take it round him instead.

I was thinking: Dont clatter me here! But I thought I was always getting there first because there was a great weight on the ball from Marc [Albrighton]. I knew if I made that run Marc has that ball in him to just hit it down the line with great weight on it. As soon as I got it past the keeper it was a pretty open goal.

Then it was down to keeping my composure.

I found the right finish its always difficult for a defender running back to his own goal because hes got to sort his feet out. It was about getting power on the ball and hitting the target I dont think you can be too accurate in those circumstances. I hit the target and its crept in.

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'Owed them one' - West Brom favourite reveals added Aston Villa motivation - Birmingham Live

Sunil Bharti Mittal is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the third-largest mobile operator in the world in subscriber base, with presence in 18 countries.

Son of a politician from Punjab, Sunil Mittal is a first-generation entrepreneur who started Bharti Enterprises in 1976 at the age of 18. He started the company with an initial investment of Rs 20,000 that he borrowed from his father, and started manufacturing bicycles, before diversifying into other sectors. He entered the telecommunications industry in 1995.

Over the years, Sunil Mittal has won a number of awards and recognition. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, Indias third-highest civilian honour. And in 2016, he was elected as the Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce.

A self-made billionaire, Sunils net worth is estimated to be $9.7 billion as of March 12, 2020, according to Forbes.

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Sunil also owns Airtel Payments Bank, a niche bank which has 9.8 million active users as of September, 2019, in a joint venture with Kotak Mahindra Bank, which is controlled by billionaire Uday Kotak. Sunils son Kavin Bharti Mittal runs SoftBank-backed messaging service Hike, which is valued at $1.5 billion.

Here are some powerful quotes from the telecom tycoon to encourage aspiring and upcoming entrepreneurs.

All entrepreneurs make decisions. Some will go right, and some will not go that right.

You can choose to be very profitable very quickly if you don't want to grow.

You never wait for perfect positioning, because in business you don't have the time; especially if you're small, you can't do it.

"For me, relationship is very important. I can lose money, but I cannot lose a relationship. The test is, at the end of a conversation or a negotiation, both must smile."

Technology is something we buy to sell to the customers. Ericsson, Nokia, and IBM do technology for a living, so let's give it to them because they know best. It has made the business model of Bharti very, very sustainable.

My first venture was to trade bicycle parts and hosiery yarn. The initial days proved to be difficult, and I earned very little from my business. But I kept at it. Each day, when I retired for the night, I told myself that money would come in the next day.

All competitors are fierce competitors; Vodafone is the worlds second largest company. We fight it each day. Idea Cellular is big and successful too. Competition is competition; we are used to it.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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10 powerful quotes by Sunil Bharti Mittal that will inspire and motivate entrepreneurs - YourStory

While social distancing has been adopted as a proactive measure to protect our physical health, its important to maintain social connections and look after our mental health, too. Here are some ways to care for yourself during times of uncertainty.

Important information regarding CAPS

As of Friday, Mar. 13 Counseling & Psychiatric Services (CAPS) will be operating on a reduced service schedule.

At this time CAPS will be providing walk-in services online. Please call 303-492-2277 to set up a walk-in appointment.

Additionally, CAPS will continue to provide individual therapy and psychiatric follow-up appointments online based on provider availability. At this time all groups and workshops are cancelled.

Due to licensure laws, all students receiving CAPS services must be present in the state of Colorado at the time of their appointment. Our staff will provide support and work to connect students who are out of state with local resources.

Given the sensitive nature of what we do, we are working diligently to provide the best services we can at this time. We appreciate your understanding and support. Please continue to check the CAPS website for updates as the situation evolves, or contact the CAPS office at 303-492-2277.

Routines give us structure. They also provide comfort and a level of predictability to our lives. Recent changes have disrupted many of our routines, but that doesnt mean we should let them go completely. Try to stick to routines that you enjoy or modify your routines to fit your new schedule. This can help you manage additional stress or anxiety that may come with major life changes.

For instance, if you usually get coffee with friends on the weekend, try to recreate a new variation of that routine. Consider taking your coffee to-go to enjoy the fresh air outside and get out of your room. If you are missing your friends, schedule a time to video chat with them like you normally would in person.

While many routines help us stay connected socially, they also play a role in our class schedules, homework and other school-related activities. If youre struggling to stay motivated or feel overwhelmed by the transition to online classes, try to create a new routine for yourself:

News cycles, social media and other outlets can sometimes bombard us with negative news. If you start to feel overwhelmed, consider taking a step back to focus on the good things that are happening, too.

One way to emphasize the positives is to practice gratitude. Grab a journal and start writing 3 things youre looking forward to each morning and 3 things youre grateful for each night. Gratitude can be as simple as getting your favorite cup of coffee or the warm weather. You can also download free gratitude journaling apps like Grateful (iOS) or Gratitude (iOS, Android).

Practicing mindfulness is another great way to focus on good in the moment. If youre feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed, try to tune in to yourself. Turn off all distractions and take 5 deep breaths. This will help your body calm down so you can focus on being present. Paying close attention to your senses can also help you feel more grounded.

If youre unsure where to begin, try out free mindfulness apps like Jour (iOS). This app can help you check in on your mood and practice mindfulness throughout the day. Smiling Mind (iOS, Android) is another good option that coaches you through a variety of 10-minute mindfulness activities each day.

Change impacts us all differently. We also process our emotions differently. While we may think we can handle things ourselves, asking for help is an important component of self-care because we cant always manage everything on our own.

Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) will continue to provide services to students on a reduced schedule. They will be providing walk-ins online through their telehealth platform. You can call 970-492-2277 to schedule a walk-in appointment. CAPS will also continue to see students for individual therapy and psychiatric follow-up appointments online based on provider availability. Therapy groups and workshops are not available at this time.

For students who are interested in self-help, there are a number of resources available online. CU Boulder offers SilverCloud, an online mental health resource for students struggling with stress, anxiety and depression. Students can complete activities and learn techniques for managing their mental health.

Students can also access online platforms like Happify. This free online program provides tools and activities to help you manage your thoughts and feelings. They also offer free apps for iOS and Android, so you can take your mental health care on the go.

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Right now, the world is in the midst of an outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19). The virus was first found in China back in December, but has since found itself in countries across the world, including the United States. The World Health Organization has officially declared this a global pandemic, and officials are warning everyone to avoid public gatherings, wash your hands, and avoid contact with others if you can help it.

For a lot of us, symptomatic or no, that means holing up in our homes, working remotely (if you are afforded that option), and self-quarantining until its safe to come out again. Social distancing is the key to avoiding the virus or, if you might have it, spreading it to others.This, of course, means many of us have a lot more time on our hands than we might normally. So what better time to work through our respective streaming queues?

As a public service, we here at Consequence of Sound have assembled a quick and dirty guide to the movies, TV shows, games, and videos we think will help you escape (or, in some cases, lean into) the chaos around us. So, wash your hands (20 seconds minimum!), grab your laptop, and read on.

Clint Worthington Senior Writer

Editors note: You can find a complete and updated list of the impacted cultural festivals, concerts and other cultural events here.

Were you shaken, maybe even stirred, to find out that the much-delayed No Time to Die was delayed yet again? Hold on to your martini because theres plenty of 007 to go around until it finally, hopefully, maybe drops in November. While not all of his world-renown adventures are available for streaming, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, and Netflix have several titles to revisit from the comforts of your disease-free couch.

Specifically, and in sequential order: On Her Majestys Secret Service (Amazon Prime), Moonraker (Amazon Prime), For Your Eyes Only (Amazon Prime), A View to a Kill (Amazon Prime), The Living Daylights (Amazon Prime), License to Kill (Amazon Prime), Goldeneye (Amazon Prime/Netflix), Tomorrow Never Dies (Amazon Prime/Netflix), The World Is Not Enough (Amazon Prime/Netflix), Die Another Day (Amazon Prime/Netflix),Casino Royale (HBO Go), and Quantum of Solace (HBO Go).

It can all be very confusing, so be sure to consult our franchise guide.

Michael Roffman

While news of Corona the beers demise at the hands of corona the virus are deeply exaggerated, Coronas most loyal son, Dominic Toretto, is feeling the heat. Among the many recent cinematic casualties of the coronavirus pandemic is Fast 9, which has delayed release by an entire year amid concerns over the virus effects on global stability. Still, until such time as you can see Dom and his familia enact #JusticeforHan, there are nine other films (and an animated TV show!) to tide you over until the gang meets again.

Itll take a bit of doing, though: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Tokyo Drift are all available on USAs streaming service (Hulu has an add-on); Fast Five (HBO), Fast & Furious 6 (FX), Furious 7 (FX); Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (HBO). Fast & Furious (confusingly, the fourth one) and The Fate of the Furious will all require rentals.

But, turn your eye to Netflix, and youll find the kid-geared CG animated series Fast & Furious: Spy Racersin which a government agency recruits a group of car-happy teens, led by Doms younger cousin *checks notes* Tony Toretto, to take down an evil car-based crime organization. If you really need your Fast fix until the ninth one comes out in 2021, thats an option?

Clint Worthington

Arguably the greatest hit to the entertainment industry has been the live scene. So many concerts and festivals have either been canceled or postponed over the past two weeks and its truly a stroll through Bummerville. Eventually, were going to get that itch for live music again (if we havent already), which is why itll be nice to put on a rock n roll movie every once and awhile. Sadly, a good number of the headliners ahem, Almost Famous, Control, This Is Spinal Tap, The Commitments, and Popstar will cost you a few bucks. However, there is a wide swath of music-fueled movies for your perusal; it just depends upon the depth of your roster of streaming networks.

Act accordingly: 24 Hour Party People (Starz), A Star is Born (HBO Go), Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure (Starz), Bill and Teds Bogus Journey (Vudu), The Blues Brothers (Starz),Bohemian Rhapsody (HBO Go), The Dirt (Netflix), The Doors (Amazon Prime), Inside Llewyn Davis (Amazon Prime), Josie and the Pussycats (Starz/Showtime/Amazon Prime), The Last Waltz (Amazon Prime), Purple Rain (Netflix), Ray (Starz), Rock N Roll High School (Cinemax), School of Rock (Showtime), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Netflix), Sing Street (Vudu), Singles (Vudu), Stop Making Sense (Amazon Prime/Vudu), Straight Outta Compton (FX Now), That Thing You Do (Cinemax), Waynes World (Amazon Prime/Hulu), Waynes World 2 (Amazon Prime/Hulu), Yesterday (HBO Go)

Of course, if youre in the mood for some non-fiction, you could tune into This Must Be the Gig or revisit the shows sprawling back catalogue. Host Lior Phillips has spoken to over dozens upon dozens of your favorite acts about their first concerts, worst shows, and so much more. Below, you can hear Liam Gallagher wax nostalgic about his experiences in the live scene and so much more.

Michael Roffman

We were so close to reuniting with the Abbots. Alas, well have to wait until Paramount and John Krasinski decide when its safe to return to theaters again. Fortunately, that gives us plenty of time to revisit the 2018 original, and Hulu is currently streaming A Quiet Place. Seeing how the whole thing revolves around a family hunkering down amidst a time of chaos, the nature of the story is all too fitting for current times. Even better, you wont have to worry about any crinkling, sniffing, or coughing while you watch. Below, you can extend the domestic nightmare with a great deep dive by The Horror Virgin. Michael Roffman

Right about now, living in a galaxy far, far away might not seem like too hazardous a proposition. That said, Star Wars is currently in a really interesting place, even if The Rise of Skywalker wasnt your cup of tea. We enjoyed it more than most, but if youre looking to revisit Episode IX to see if it really was as good/bad as you thought, nows as good a time as any as it drops digitally on Tuesday, March 17th.

But if you need some alternative Star Wars content in your life, the non-film legs of the franchise are stronger than ever. If youre feeling some lo-fi space Western energy, spin through the eight chapters of The Mandalorian on Disney+ again while sipping some bone broth.

Or if youve got a console fire up Jedi Fallen Order (PC/Xbox/PS4) and take out your frustrations on many hordes of hapless stormtroopers with your handy-dandy lightsaber. Burning Mans probably canceled too, so where else are you going to find a twink in a poncho twirling a glowstick?

Clint Worthington

What better time to indulge in the isolation and claustrophobia of The Overlook Hotel? Well, if you havent got around to either a.) seeing Mike Flanagans cruelly underrated Doctor Sleep or b.) its expansive three-and-a-half-hour directors cut, then you might want to check into Amazon Prime. The epic sequel to Stanley Kubricks The Shining is available to rent and the Doctor is a perfect guest to join your self-quarantine.

Though, if youre really thirsty for the Torrances, you could spend a whole day at the Overlook by also renting Kubricks 1980 masterpiece. Hell, go meta and make it a true-blue family occasion by grabbing the just-released Shining board game. Then, you can close out the night by hanging with The Losers Club, who recently covered Stephen Kings 2013 novel and Flanagans adaptation. Anything more and were concerned.

Michael Roffman

After being canceled and stowed away, The Hunt is ironically one of the few new films hitting theaters right now. As we outlined in our mildly positive review, Blumhouses tongue-in-cheek romp is a grisly rollercoaster reimagining of The Most Dangerous Game and chock full of thrills. So, if you need to escape your house, you could always take a risk and join Betty Gilpin at the cineplex. Just bring your Purell. Michael Roffman

For all you sadists out there, know that there are plenty of flicks with viral scares to keep you itching, squirming, and smiling? Whatever floats your boat. Now, were confident there are other films were glossing over here apologies if were not all racing to watch this stuff but weve gathered a number of the biggies. From 28 Days Later to The Crazies, Outbreak to Quarantine, youre in good company.

Grab a mask and binge, baby, binge: Contagion (Cinemax), The Crazies (Tubi), Outbreak (Netflix), 28 Days Later (Hulu), Carriers (Netflix), Pontypool (Shudder), The Girl With All the Gifts (Hulu), Children of Men (Hulu), The Stand (Vudu), and Quarantine (Starz).

If you need a break from the screen, you could always actually read Stephen Kings The Stand. The similarities to now are a little jarring, but thats all part of the fun, right? And because the idea of a book club is currently out of the question, feel free to join The Losers Club, who devoted not one, not two, but five episodes to the epic tome.

Michael Roffman

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Coronavirus Self-Care: How to Quarantine With Movies and TV - Consequence of Sound

By Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite Harvard Staff Writer/The Harvard Gazette

The New York Public Library recently reported that Dale Carnegies 1936 bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People, was one of the librarys most requested books of all time. But despite the success of Carnegie and other self-help authors over the decades, scholars and literary authors often dismiss the genre as poorly written and commercial.

By contrast, literature has historically been framed by self-improvement advocates as an unproductive distraction for readers seeking personal growth. In a new book, The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature, Harvard Assistant Professor of EnglishBeth Blumtraces the historical relationship between ambivalent shelf-fellows of self-help and literature from the 19th century to the present, highlighting the different ways the two kinds of writing have influenced one another, and how readers have engaged with books as guides for becoming better people.

GAZETTE:Why did you choose this topic?

BLUM:The seeds of this project began when I was teaching a class called Reading for Life Advice: From Socrates to Self-Help. While teaching the class, I became really interested in the story of Samuel Smiles, who wrote the first book to be called Self-Help. The name was in circulation in other texts, but he published Self-Help in 1859, which was earlier than I thought the industry had started. The guide was written as a way to inspire working-class laborers to persevere to improve their conditions through self-education. The other point that interested me was the extent to which Smiles used literature in his manual. One of the great pieces of advice from Smiles is that you shouldnt waste your time reading novels or literature, but ironically there were quotations from literature throughout the book. The quotations were decontextualized and then reassembled in interesting ways. So already, in one of the first self-help books, you see a real reliance on literature and an invocation of literary authority, yet at the same time a denunciation of literature as escapist and a diversion. It stirred my interest in this dynamic and often rivalrous history between self-help and literature.

GAZETTE:Did you find that these connections remained an important part of self-help in the 20th century?

BLUM:The more I investigated, the more I realized that there was this really substantial history that hadnt been explored in literary scholarship: a history of self-help that went back further than I had thought, to include, for instance, the New Thought Philosophy movement of the 1920s, which is a fascinating mind-cure philosophy that emerged around the time of literary modernism. It was a direct precursor of todays positive thinking movement. All of these pamphlets were emerging in the 1920s arguing that you could use your mind to achieve anything you want in life through positive visualization, meditation, and repeating mantras.

I was also surprised to uncover examples of so-called serious authors who had had some encounter with self-help and were responding to it. One of the most striking examples is the case of Virginia Woolf, who had a famous feud with Arnold Bennett, an Edwardian novelist who was considered very stodgy. Woolf critiqued him for being realist, materialist, and boring. But Bennett was also a hugely popular early self-help author who wrote books like How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, Self and Self-Management, and Literary Taste: How to Form It. Woolf was aware of these books, so it became interesting for me to consider Mrs. Dalloway, which is a novel that famously takes place in a single day, alongside Arnold Bennetts How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. For an example of a similar yet reverse relationship that I discuss in the book, take famous advice columnist Dear Abbys vexed response to Miss Lonelyhearts, a 1933 short story by Nathanael West about an advice columnist suffering from a nervous breakdown. Thats a really intriguing case of self-help commenting on the limits and methods of fiction.

Why do people turn to literature for advice when there are so many other, more willing sources of guidance?

GAZETTE:How do you bring your findings on the relationship between self-help and literature into your teaching?

BLUM:One of my really popular classes is called How to Live: When Literature Meets Self-Help, where we read the contemporary novel and directly address questions like: Why do people turn to literature for advice when there are so many other, more willing sources of guidance? What is the relationship between the rise of commercial advice and the decline of religious authority? One assignment asks students to go to the Coop or the Harvard Book Store and look at the different ways self-help and literature are shelved, who is reading them, and to assess what the bookstore is trying to say about genre and audience by those different designs and displays. In all of my classes, I am interested in the question: How can a formal literary choice for example, stream of consciousness or narrative omniscience reflect an argument about how a person should live? Its a concern thats threaded throughout a lot of my teaching. Students are eager to think about the life relevance of literature, and this is a tendency that professional academic literary critics are ambivalent about, but in general it can be a great way of bringing a student into a text and inviting them to consider the way the literature theyre reading responds to and prepares us for the challenges of daily experience.

GAZETTE:What does the landscape of self-help look like today?

BLUM:Self-help operates in waves, so you have one trend and then a reaction to that trend. For a long time, the self-help model popularized by How to Win Friends and Influence People was focused on how to please other people, to say what they wanted to hear in order to get what you needed from them. Much of contemporary self-help is reacting against that other-directed philosophy and the burden it places on the individual. Examples of that style include books like Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero, and Drop the Ball: Achieving More By Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu. All these contemporary books take the anti-people-pleasing approach, advising people to learn to redirect their sense of self-worth away from other people and away from the workforce and toward a more inward, self-determined metric for contentment.

GAZETTE:Are others writing about these books?

BLUM:A lot of the extant scholarship on this topic focuses on its rather negative political implications, particularly the idea that individuals are responsible for their own well-being and happiness in a way that absolves institutions and governments of responsibility for supporting people and making conditions more equitable. These are important arguments to make, but part of what drew me to this project was the slightly more affirmative story that I saw in the history of people turning to self-help, not just because they were being manipulated or out of a sense of political helplessness, but because they were successful in using books to improve their conditions. To me thats a hopeful thing because it shows that theres a strong demand for that textual-advice relationship. Its one that professors of literature or the humanities can tap into in productive, socially responsive, and personally transformative ways.

This interview was edited for clarity and condensed for space.

(Reprinted with permission from the Harvard Gazette.)

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Self-help books, literature, and how they help us live - India New England

The risk to earnings is clearly high but Spectris has self-help levers and our analysis suggests that it is probably better placed than many peers"

Berenberg gave a leg up to () on Friday, upping its rating to hold from sell highlighting the mid-cap instrumentation and controls company's self-help levers and dividend attractions.

The German banks analysts also raised their target price for the FTSE 250-listed stock to 2,250p from 2,065p, with the shares currently trading at 2,366p, up 4,.6% on Thursdays close.

In a note to clients, Berenbergs analysts pointed out: These are unprecedented times and we continue to assess the pros, cons and sensitivities of the UK industrials that we cover.

While Spectriss 2019 results did little to alleviate several of our concerns, we believe it would be wrong to ignore the companys more diversified business model, balance-sheet strength, potential portfolio reshaping and clear commitment to return cash to shareholders in these uncertain times, they added.

The analysts concluded: The risk to earnings is clearly high but Spectris has self-help levers and our analysis suggests that it is probably better placed than many peers. With the 150p special dividend a further attraction, we upgrade to Hold.

See the article here:
Spectris upped to hold" by Berenberg, highlights self-help levers and dividend attractions - Proactive Investors UK