There are over 1,000 different smartphone apps for businesses, and it can be difficult to weed through which ones offer the best tools and resources that can help your business grow. To help make your search easier, here’s a look at some of the best apps to download to your iPhone or smartphone that can help you see your business grow.

Freshbooks App

No business can thrive without the ability to bill and collect money from clients and vendors. The Freshbooks app gives businesses the ability to create invoices right on their smartphone. Invoices generated on your smartphone can be sent directly to the client or vendor’s email or fax machine for faster, simpler billing. Faster billing procedures can help you see your business’ client base and finances grow.

MetroFax App

The MetroFax iPhone app has just released and is a great addition to any business that is looking to grow and expand. MetroFax offers you the ability to send and receive faxes from your iPhone. This business tool offers you the chance to network and expand your business, without having to worry about missing an order or important fax from a client.

LinkedIn App

Networking is a great way to help your business grow and expand. With the LinkedIn app, you can network with prospective clients, business partners and vendors with just a few touches of your iPhone or Android smartphone screen. You’ll be able to network anywhere, at any time with this valuable business app.

Evernote App

There’s a lot of work behind growing and expanding a business. Between the various to-do tasks, emails being sent back and forth, and meetings you need to attend it can get very hectic. Everything from screenshots, websites, notes, emails and lists are saved and retrievable from your smartphone with the Evernote app. With the help of this business app, you’ll be able to organize all the information you need to help your business grow.

Dimewise App

Part of helping a business grow is knowing exactly where the business’ finances are going and what is bring brought in. The Dimewise app can help you track and record all business purchases right on your smartphone. You can even compare the information to your bank account and assess whether or not you are spending the business’ funds in a way that will help promote growth. With the help of this app and the ability to organizing your business’ finances, you’ll be able to prepare your business for expansion and growth by gaining the assets to you need to make it possible.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to see a business grow. With the help of the five business apps listed above, you’ll gain access to various tools and resources you need to expand your business.

The invention of paper did wonders for mankind’s organizational skills. With the invention of papyrus, a thousand things became possible for the Egyptians: hieroglyphic shopping lists (goats, bread, and charcoal eyeliner), ‘Things-to-Avoid’ lists (asps, crocodiles, and King Tut on a bad day) and even ‘Things-to-Be-Buried-With’ lists (gold, wives, and servants for the afterlife).

Thanks to the modern digital age, our old pen-and-paper ways have become a thing of the past. Technology has made everything quicker, simpler and more streamlined. From smartphones to iPads, software to apps, we humans have upgraded our antiquated Post-It and notepad ways and upgraded to digital solutions like Metrofax online faxing services google calendar. Here are some of the best digital evolutions that surpass pen-and-paper solutions.

Post-It Notes

The Old Way: 30 yellow sticky notes with scribbled reminders stuck to your wall…not to mention the additional 20 fallen sticky notes on the floor.

The Digital Way: StickyNote

Take those sticky notes from your physical desktop and put them on your virtual one. StickyNote lets you create 3D virtual stickies, perfect for quick notes or information you want to keep easily accessible. You can also attach files or links and send your stickies in emails. Attach a note to one particular window or give your notes expiration dates to prevent clutter.

Filing Cabinet

The Old Way: Messy files crammed in a cabinet that you really, truly, honestly plan to alphabetize. One of these days.

The Digital Way: Evernote

Here’s the perfect digital way to store all your information. Type notes directly into Evernote or clip web pages to save for later. Take a picture of your handwritten notes or a boardroom whiteboard. Evernote can search through any text – even the handwritten text from your pictures.

Leave a voice memo or snap a photo of your confirmation numbers and boarding information. Then sort all your saved info for easy searching and categorization, so you can take your digital filing cabinet anywhere you go.

The Bulletin Board

The Old Way: You’ve got too many clippings – wine labels, upcoming movies, delivery takeout menus – and not enough thumb tacks.

The Digital Way: Springpad

Like Evernote, Springpad provides a way to sort through your information, only Springpad acts like an active organizer for all the things you’re interested in. Save a movie you want to see and Springpad will let you add it to your Netflix queue, buy it on Amazon, see its page on IMBD or buy movie tickets.

Add a favorite wine or a brand you’d like to try and you can see nearby prices, based on the web and your location. Search for a recipe and instantly add the ingredients to your Springpad shopping list.

The Calendar

The Old Way: You need one calendar. You receive four calendars for Christmas. You use none.

The Digital Way: Google Calendar

It’s hard to beat Google’s calendar offering. It’s easy to use, it lets you send emailed or text reminders and it syncs with something you use every day: your email. Easily share your calendar with your family so you and your spouse are always on the same page – or so you always know about your teen’s upcoming practices or rehearsals.

To-Do List

The Old Way: A never-ending list of scattered chores, errands, tasks and obligations…and you keep having to add “Find To-Do List” to the list.

The Digital Way: Zadachi

Zadachi lets you categorize your obligations with three easy time lines: incomplete, complete and overdue. Separate your tasks by folders or labels; for example, you can organize your list by type (chores, errands, work tasks) or by grouping (home, work, school etc.).

Got a whole list of tasks associated with one project? No problem: Zadachi lets you group tasks by project, so you can see how close you are to completion. Best of all, this app lets your phone do some of the work for you.

If one of your to-do items is ‘call Jill’, Zadachi searches your contacts for people named Jill. If you’ve got something like ‘find an office supply store’ on your list, you can use Yelp to find a local store via Zadachi.

Faxing

The Old Way: Cover sheets, faxes gone missing and frustrating machines that seem to be eternally out of toner.

The Digital Way: Metrofax

Why do businesses still ask you to fax things? Does anyone even have a fax machine anymore? Well, with Metrofax, all you need is an email account and internet access. Just email your document to your intended fax number (with Metrofax’s @ extension) and you’re all set.

Bills

The Old Way: A bill box stuffed with bills you can’t remember if you’ve paid…until the late payment charge comes in.

The Digital Way: Mint.com

This multi-award winning application is widely regarded as the best financial app out there. Mint.com lets you access all of your accounts (both bank and loan) so you’ve got all your financial information in one place – no more trying to remember multiple login information.

Mint automatically updates and categorizes your spending history so you can see exactly what you’ve spent on things like fast food, clothes, coffee shop purchases or gas. Budgeting is a snap, since Mint averages your spending habits and breaks down how much you spend on each category. Easily track your spending and see how much you’ve got left in your budget – or how much you’ve gone over.

Digitized Productivity

It’s incredible how far we’ve come since the days of the hieroglyphics. The way technology’s moving, we’ll soon have an app for even menial tasks like organizing your underwear drawer. It’s too bad the digital age didn’t come sooner. Adam could’ve text Eve about that apple.

Image Sources:

1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sOwqhSLXo4g/TSJIXIfPygI/AAAAAAAAAcI/PfuF3DWerk8/s1600/to+do+list.jpg
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-butler/5363022308/
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/5279251361/
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24oranges/2814122833/
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/5309672184/
6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/koalazymonkey/3596829214/
7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/reallynuts/3429125430/
8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60881556@N05/5566653522/

You may not look at your local airline ticket agent, hospital employee, or scammer who pretends Alka Seltzer is acid again. Alright, ixnay on the latter, but the point is that everyday people can be sneaky criminals. Here are five real-life stories of how they’ve done it.

The Sneaky Airline Agent

Airlines may be tacking on surprise fees, but that doesn’t stop most people from traveling. So former ticket agent, Michelle Johnson, based in San Jose, got it into her head to steal passengers’ credit card info.

She stole nearly half a million (over $480,000) spread around 350 cards between 2007 and 2010. She is being held on charges of grand theft, identity theft and possession of stolen property on $1 million bail. She was slick about it. Investigators never found any skimming equipment when they searched her airport station.

What did she do with her loot? She almost uniformly would buy gift cards from stores like Safeway in California, Nevada and Washington. She would then use the gift cards to buy herself stuff from electronics stores, mostly. Some of the stuff she kept, the rest of the stuff she bought, she turned around on eBay. Not the most glamorous of crimes, but it was frighteningly effective for some time.

Portland Jetsetting Creepers

This heist was no Ocean’s Eleven, even if the criminals looked the part in Rolexes and expensive suits. The group numbered nearly twenty people. At the core was a trio, Antonio Lawrence, Gregory Zimmerman and ringleader Brian Maier.

From 2001 to 2007, the thieves targeted offices where petty cash would be on hand, or credit cards and account information could be had. This included the offices of lawyers, dentists, accountants, doctors and insurance agents, and they often snuck in after the end of business on Friday to do their dastardly work, cashing stolen checks over the weekend and slipping away before the offices in question got wise.

In Oregon, they targeted offices in Portland and towns in the Portland Metro Area like Tualatin, Tigard and Beaverton, but the Pacific Northwest wasn’t their only victim. Hawaii, Indiana and lots of places in between also fell prey.

What did these swaggering, well-dressed gents do with their over $688,000? Suits, pearls, guns and ammo, a computer, sports memorabilia, autographed sports gear, a flat screen TV and collectors’ stamps.

Reverse Theft in the UK

When most people think about their bank account information falling into the hands of criminals, they envision losing all their wordly monetary assets, coupled with irreparable damage to their credit. But what happens when a hacker actually puts money into your account?

That happened to a woman living in Darlington, UK (county Durham, northeast England). Amanda Fothergill got an unexpected call from a strange fellow who claimed that he had deposited £17,200 (roughly $29,000 USD). Understandably shocked, she took a look, and there it was.

In a bizarre twist mirroring the Nigerian 419 cash advance scam, the man called back roughly once a day for a while thereafter, trying to get her to transfer £14,000 to another account.

Needless to say, she alerted her bank and had her accounts frozen. She also told the man that the police were monitoring her line. He never called again, but neither did he try and get the money back.

Abbey Bank then decided that she was not actually a victim of potential fraud, but the instigator, so they closed her accounts. Irritating at best, detrimental at worst. But then they realized “they had made a mistake” in closing her accounts. We wonder, did the bank let her keep the £17,200?

The Diamond Dissolver

Lots of people forget common sense when confronted with a smooth, friendly and otherwise unassuming individual. Anthony Miller is such a guy. In Florida, he confronted a woman who was wearing a lavish $200,000 ring on her hand.

We aren’t sure how she fell for this, but when he plopped an antacid tablet into a glass of water and told her that it was acid, she was quick to give up the gold. He was later arrested and fitted with a GPS anklet, but he escaped by cutting off the anklet and gave cops the slip.

Later, in Michigan, he conned his way into an elderly woman’s house, posing as a utility worker. Utilizing the same antacid-as-acid ploy that he used in Florida, he proceeded to make off with the lady’s entire jewelry collection, spanning her 60-year marriage.

It’s this sort of blind trust that men like Miller take advantage of. People see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. Even so, practicing a little diligence by not openly trusting people you don’t know goes a long way.

The Inhospitable Hospital

This pair, based out of Denver, is guilty of identity theft, forgery, possession of instruments of forgery and, at least in hospital employee Dawn Philbin’s case, suspicion of identity theft. Along with friend Paul Simmons, Philbin singled out the records of certain patients – typically white males, and took down driver’s license numbers and hospital admission information (address, phone numbers, etc).

All told, 150 patients at the very least, were targeted, all emergency room entrants. Of course the hospital fired her when the thefts came to light, but prior to this, Simmons defaulted on his payments to a storage unit business, and when the contents of his garage were auctioned off, the records were discovered. D’oh!

Stealing from businesses or average citizens who don’t keep their info safe on Amazon or whatever is one thing, but stealing from people enduring the trauma and unease brought on by a visit to the ER is nothing short of cannabilistic.

However, major corporations and companies are also engaging in the open source development process. This process is known for its group collaboration efforts, with many different developers working on a single product or software. The end result is often much more successful than those with only a few developers working on a project.

Here is a look at some major corporations that have embraced this development philosophy with very successful results.

Procter & Gamble Co.

Imagine a world-renowned company changing the way it conducts its research and development processes. Procter & Gamble, one of the largest corporations in the world did just that. The company moved from a traditional research and development style to one that follows the open source strategy. Interestingly, Procter & Gamble calls this new strategy “connect and develop.” Following the lead of the open source initiative, the company is reaching out to the collective minds around the world. One of the goals of this new initiative is that 50 percent of the new products in development must come from sources outside of its own laboratories.

BMW

BMW Group embraces the open source development theory within its new car development projects. Team members, who can number in the hundreds, are gathered together from their home bases to work at BMW’s Research and Innovation Center. These team members include personnel from wide ranging departments including design, marketing, purchasing and others. These team members then collaborate, sometimes for as long as three years, to develop and create the new car’s prototype design. These sometimes disparate-thinking groups collaborate in an open source environment, trading and sharing ideas, all with the end goal of creating the very best new automobile design.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines recently gathered team members from across the company. These included employees in dispatch, operations, flight and crew members and others. This group was asked to come up with a set of changes that could be implemented to create changes in the airline’s operations.

Eventually the group came up with 109 ideas that were then presented to upper management. Tom Nealon, Southwest’s chief information officer stated that there was a diverse group of people working on this crucial project. He also indicated that because some group members asked questions that might seem rudimentary to others, the group actually had to do a much closer examination of their ideas and solutions. It made the group challenge themselves to look at the big picture from a different angle.

The idea of group collaboration has worked for many years with in the open source software community. Now more and more large and small corporations and companies are embracing this philosophy with some amazing results. By proof of these three examples, they are met with great success and acceptance.

By this time, most people realize that PowerPoint is a scourge — on our ability to communicate effectively, be remotely impressive or keep an audience awake.

If you haven’t received that memo, your PowerPoint presentation probably stinks. It’s loaded with data in small type, it goes on forever and you believe words that swoosh onto the screen are a substitute for being an interesting presenter.

Sorry to be so blunt, but over the last decade, I’ve worked with executives from the C-level down and 99% of those people use PowerPoint miserably.

The perfect analogy here is the costume wearing the character. Have you ever seen a kid wearing a thoroughly impressive scary costume? Although they remain shy, hiding behind their friends and barely speaking, they have a belief that their costume is making them scary.

Have you ever seen a suit wear a person? Great suit, fabulous accessories, perfect hair – but the person says little of substance and has less personality to back it up. It’s the same with PowerPoint – we believe that IT is the presentation, not us.

PowerPoint is a lot like email – a perfectly good tool, which should save us time and make our lives easier – but has become a monster. What are we doing wrong and how do we fix it?

There’s a lot of room to cover in this subject, but let’s start with four basic rules.

1. NEVER read your slides! – If you have to sit through one more person reading their slides out loud, believing that constitutes a presentation, aren’t you going to scream? Guess what? Most of your audience has probably completed the 4th grade. We can read! So give us something new – add to the bullet points with engaging stories, tell us the outcome of the study, remind us why this information is important, and who or what it may impact. Your part of the speech should NOT be on the slide. We don’t want to see the script, we want to see the performance.

2. Use pictures to illustrate points – one of the best slides I’ve ever seen was simply a photo of a pile of sawdust, with more sawdust falling from above to increase the pile. Todd Sattersten, www.toddsattersten.com, was discussing a rather complicated concept of writing, creating content, managing output, and using extra ideas in a way that could be marketed. No bullet points or statistics, yet I have clear recall of the concept, his 5-6 points, and his recommendations. All because his analogy and picture were so striking. Pictures really are worth a thousand words. In a study out of UCLA, it was found that after three days of bullet points on a PowerPoint slide, people only had 10 percent retention while visuals enjoyed 50 percent retention.

3. 10/24 – This ratio means that you should never have more than 10 words per slide, never smaller than 24-point type. Ok, start shouting all of you in data-driven industries. People really get nasty over this ratio, “I have important data to cover! My leadership expects me to show them all the numbers!” Yes, you are right. Your data is very important. But tiny type numbs the brain, and the correct place for data is in a handout. Your slides should be clean, simple, and be a backdrop to YOU. This point is the lead-in to rule #4…

4. You are the presentation, not the PowerPoint – The point of standing up in front of people is to let them know that YOU are the expert. You know your material and you are the one telling the story. If your technology should fail – or as one executive found when trying to enter the Pentagon, “Your laptop is not allowed inside, Sir.” – you can still present without the visual cues. Numbers and statistics tell a story. So tell the story showing a simple bell curve rather than cluttering the graph with numbers and tiny type. I repeat, PowerPoint is your backdrop – you are the show.

When considering how to create the greatest impact, first try using devices such as storytelling, music or pictures. Then, only if you really need it, should you consider PowerPoint. There is far more impact in surprise, expertise and good ideas than there is in another predictable presentation. And one more thing – leave the lights up. It’s more important the audience see your face than every detail of your slide. Besides, you don’t want to give them an invitation to nap.

Karen Hough is the Founder and CEO of ImprovEdge and the Author of “The Improvisation Edge: Secrets to Building Trust and Radical Collaboration at Work” published by Berrett-Koehler, www.ImprovEdge.com/book. She speaks internationally and writes on negotiation, leadership, sales, and presenting with impact, and is the recipient of the Athena Award for outstanding woman-owned business.

Honda announced a recall of almost 700,000 cars, most of them in Asia, after finding a faulty spring in the engine valve train that could cause engine stalling. In the US, the 2009-10 Fit is affected. From the BBC:

Some of the carmaker’s Fit, Freed and City compact car models are affected – though no accidents have been reported. At least 72 complaints had been filed in Honda’s home country of Japan, with 29 elsewhere the firm said. The spring had been placed incorrectly in a small box inside the engine, a spokesman added.

The recall includes 167,000 vehicles in Japan, 156,000 in China, and 233,000 in the rest of Asia, Honda said. About 122,000 cars were being recalled in North America it added.

CNNMoney adds:

The company said the lost-motion springs, which are compressed by rocker arms in normal engine use, may bend or break over time, resulting in abnormal noise and potentially causing engine damage or stalling.

Go to Honda’s recall website to find out if and how this affects you.

After six months of negotiations, French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis has picked up Genzyme, which specializes in the treatment of rare diseases, for roughly $20 billion. FiercePharma’s Tracy Staton sums up the deal:

The two companies have finally agreed to a price–$74 per share, plus contingent value rights–that amounts to $20.1 billion in cash up front. At least one analyst called it a win-win deal. And if that’s the case, it’s because of the CVR approach, which “was an extremely important tool to bridge differences in value,” Sanofi chief Chris Viehbacher (photo) said on a conference call.

The CVRs could be worth as much as $14 each, provided Genzyme and its experimental multiple sclerosis drug meet every target. Genzyme shareholders are due $1 per CVR if the company meets certain production targets for its rare disease drugs, which ran short after manufacturing troubles shuttered a key plant.

More on CVRs here.

The Financial Times explains Sanofi and Genzyme’s motivations:

The deal will help the French pharma group to strengthen its product range as it faces a series of patent expiries on existing so-called blockbusters. At the same time, the FT notes in a separate report, the deal will provide “an exit for Genzyme investors”:

The company has developed a profitable niche in selling high-priced treatments for “orphan diseases” that affect a small number of patients globally, but has suffered setbacks partly triggered by manufacturing problems and supply shortfalls that depressed its share price.

Forbes’ Matthew Herper has more on the strategy and challenges associated with the deal:

The Genzyme acquisition is really a bet that in the future drug companies will need stable businesses like vaccines and consumer health that are insulated from the sudden drops of sales that happen with traditional small molecule drugs in the U.S. market. Generic versions of biotech drugs like the ones Genzyme sells are never going to create this kind of sudden competition.

One key for making the deal work will be holding on to the expertise in Genzyme’s core rare disease drug business. Sanofi would be wise to walk in and offer all those employees raises, and focus any cost-cutting efforts on back office employees and those in other Genzyme businesses. This is the tough trick, here. Roche made all sorts of noise about preserving Genentech’s culture, but it is not at all clear that the company managed to do so.

Visa plans to buy PlaySpan, which makes software that lets users make purchases inside of apps and games, for $190 million. This is Visa’s second e-payments buy–it bought ecommerce payment company CyberSource last year–and increases its presence in the e-payments industry. TechCrunch has the story:

This is a big exit for PlaySpan, which has raised a total of $46 million in funding since its launch four years ago. PlaySpan has been growing like a weed, striking partnerships with a number of social network, gaming and media companies, including Viacom, Disney, Facebook, Ubisoft, and Sanrio. As virtual goods becomes a booming business, PlaySpan has reaped the benefits of technology and media companies looking to incorporate virtual goods into their platforms.

Visa says that ecommerce sales, which reached an estimated $948 billion, are a big growth area for the company. Approximately 45 percent of U.S. online spending takes place on Visa’s network today and for Visa’s fiscal first quarter 2011, the company reported 25 percent year-over-year growth in ecommerce payment volumes globally. Visa is going to use PlaySpan to capitalize on the growing digital goods market, which generated an estimated $25 billion in consumer spending globally in 2010 and is expected to reach $280 billion by 20143.

PlaySpan was started by a 12-year-old, according to TechCrunch. That’s some reward for the kid (and his dad, who is the CEO of the company).

Mobile is currently a huge part of Visa’s strategy. As the Visa blog notes:

The company is currently testing contactless payments methods in over 20 markets located in both developed and developing countries. Our collaboration with DeviceFidelity— transforming a phone into a payment device—has already been introduced at high volume retailers, such as fast food, taxis, drug stores throughout New York and other metropolitan areas, where speed matters. Outside of the U.S., mobile phones are accessible in ways that a traditional payment infrastructure can’t reach. Visa is moving on all fronts—creating new mobile services, acquiring technologies and platforms, and working with leaders in wireless —to ensure that Visa’s network plays a vital role in bringing secure, reliable and globally interoperable mobile payments to consumers everywhere.

I wonder whether Visa, if it gets a majority share of the mobile pay market, will find a way to game the market in its favor, the way it did with debit cards.

Match.com just found its own match by buying dating site OKCupid for $50 million. Mashable has more:

OkCupid, an increasingly popular site, generates most of its revenues through advertising (it’s mostly free to use — making it popular among members who are strapped for cash), and, according to a release, it has been the fastest growing dating site in the advertising-supported bracket this year. Therefore, we can see how it would be attractive to Match.com, which is — for its part — a paid service.

“We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com offer, creating a true complimentary relationship between our various business models,” says Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC.

My guess is that they’ll keep OKCupid free, since it’s a solid ad revenue earner, and put a concerted effort into luring users into Match.com.

One last question. Are you missing your life?

That’s what Joe Robinson is most concerned about. He claims most of us are stuck in a “performance identity.” We tie our self-worth to external factors, like how productive we are. As a result, we’re only motivated to do things when they have a measurable payoff, for example money, status, or recognition.

That’s no way to live, says Robinson. In his new book, Don’t Miss Your Life: Find More Joy and Fulfillment Now, he explores the costs of living in a performance-based mental trap. He shows readers the ingredients of a vital, passionate life. Then, step by step, he demonstrates how to leave the Calvinistic cubicle mentality and become a full participant in a life that you love.

In turn motivational, Zen, and instructional, Robinson’s unlikely self-help book teaches us how to cultivate “leisure skills” as a panacea to the digitally-collared life of an onlooker. He shows that play, rather than being the domain of slackers, has far-reaching benefits throughout our lives. If that sounds fun and relevant, read on.

What’s Inside

Each chapter of this well-written book launches with a story. Robinson describes an experience that makes someone, including himself, more alive. Each chapter covers research explaining why joy, fun or play are so essential to your health—and the costs of continuing to titrate your self-worth to external forces. You get exercises that help you launch your own pursuit of a better life, as well as a review of key concepts at the end of each chapter. Chapters are easy to read in bursts, which is helpful if you are short on time.

The introduction and first chapter introduce you to the physiological and psychological benefits of having fun. Joy comes from doing something fun for the sole reason that you like it or it challenges you. Such “direct experience” not only benefits your body, but increases your feelings of competence, independence, and social connectedness. While convincing you that you need more experience and play in your life, Robinson provides starting points on how to do it, beginning with re-owning your time.

Chapter 2 explores the habits that make so many of us stick to the overwork-errands-bills-TV-stress doldrums like flies on tape. We have an inner “performance identity” that tells us something is only worth doing when there’s an external payoff. Robinson explains why it’s important not to base your self-esteem on your productivity or external factors, and shares tips on getting unstuck by cultivating a “worth ethic.”

The next four chapters show you what you need to cultivate in order to build a life worth living. Your goal is to find something you feel passionate about. If you build that passion into a skill through time and effort, you will eventually reach an “optimal experience,” where you become completely engrossed in your activity of choice over longer and longer periods of time.

Robinson then explains how to reach that goal of optimal experience. When you find something that gives you a “glimmer” of passion (Robinson calls this foreplay), you want to make that passion last. To find something that, uh, arouses you in the first place, you need to try things now.

To want to take risks in the first place, you have to be motivated “without regard to payoff.” That’s what Robinson calls intrinsic motivation. If you’re risk-averse in general, Robinson shows you how to develop your “venture aptitude.” He tells you how to cultivate the right mindset and create the right kinds of goals to get you there.

Next, Robinson shares how to support yourself in the process of getting skilled at the thing you’re passionate about. He includes tips on motivating yourself and making steady, safe progress in your skill. He even illustrates the process in a Maslow-remniscent “fun pyramid” in Chapter 7.

You also learn how to stop being crippled by social comparisons. Robinson teaches you the value of eagerness, enthusiasm, positive self-talk, realistic self-appraisal, and intentional foolishness as tools to help you commit to practicing your passion. As your vitality and self-worth increase, you’ll get better at taking advantage of opportunities that augment your life.

The final chapter condenses the messages from previous chapters into an actionable 7-day plan to restructure your life.

Thoughts

Don’t Miss Your Life is a solid addition to the sheaf of books and blogs that have emerged on the topic of happiness in recent years. Robinson, a great writer with quips like “you can’t play hopscotch with a flow chart,” uses a practical, step-by-step template that anyone can follow to build a more fulfilling life. He demystifies the fulfilling life by breaking down what it looks like, why it (scientifically) matters, and how to build your own.

Robinson sold me on the case for leisure. (Disclaimer: In my case, he might have been preaching to the choir. I’ve valued the kind of experiential absorption he describes since I could walk, but haven’t ever been able to break it down the way he has.) Through exercises and suggestions, he made the techniques for attaining joy accessible. And, though I didn’t have time to test all of his concepts, I’m convinced they’re solid. Robinson clearly did his homework, as the many case studies, books, and individual stories sourced in the book show.

I did get a little lost towards the middle of the book, where I started to forget exactly what terms like “venture aptitude” and “intrinsic motivation” meant, and had to go back to refresh my memory. A glossary of these terms and their definitions would have been helpful. I also found the book a bit heavy on descriptions of samba, Robinson’s passion of choice. Towards the end, I caught myself thinking “not samba again!”

The concepts also took a while to crystallize in my mind. I’m still not sure I absorbed every one of Robinson’s many points. It’s the kind of book you keep around as a kind of reference/motivational tool and revisit as needed.

I think this book will benefit you most if you:

a) Feel like your life has become dull or bland, and need a way out of your rut
b) Are willing to make changes in order to improve your life
c) Aren’t in survival mode about job security or money

If that sounds like you, do pick up a copy of this relevant and timely read.

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this book.