​One of the secrets to a joyfully productive life:

Learn to become sensitive — often — to your state of being, throughout the day.

And if you catch yourself in a less-than-optimal state, do your energy reboot practice, right away, to re-enter a good state.

A simple way to gauge your state of being is to ask:

“Right now, am I in green, yellow, or red?”​

​Millions of people have tried the “Law Of Attraction” (popularized by “The Secret”) ... and no matter how hard they try, they don’t manifest those millions of dollars they envisioned.

If they go into debt to buy that fancy house or car, they usually regret the debt. Or that so-called “perfect” relationship they visualized, doesn’t end up working out.

Visualization is ineffective -- even detrimental -- when used only to imagine the ideal outcome.

​What are the most productive actions in your business?

​Checking off more items on your to-do list? Working longer hours? Getting another certification? Trying to make your website better?

Many such actions feel productive but don’t actually build your business. Besides having a "to do" list, you may want to define a TO-DROP list as well.

“On a daily basis, I go from task to task, event to event, responding to the world’s demands, reacting to urgencies, emails, and deadlines. I don’t have any ‘thinking time’… to reflect, to reconnect to my deeper purpose & motivation.”
​--a reader wrote.

If that describes you, then this post is for you…

​I’m about to launch a podcast. My audience suggested the playful name of “Business Tao with George Kao”.

Some were concerned that the podcast name might be cultural/religious appropriation. (Nevermind that I’m Chinese, and can pronounce Tao te Ching more accurately than most Western Taoist scholars, and that Taoism is characteristically unattached from definitions and who gets credit for what…)

Still, the question inspired me to dive back into studying Taoist philosophical principles. In this post, I’ll briefly share how a few such principles might apply to Authentic Business.