One way your ego interferes in a career path is by convincing you that running your own business gives you control of your own destiny. This feeling is, as with many ego-driven feelings, a bit misguided. The desire to control your destiny may actually be your ego trying to protect you from rejection. It tells you that if you aren’t working for someone else, or applying to work for someone else, they can’t fire you, and they can’t prevent you from getting hired or getting a raise. They can’t reject your work (i.e. have control over you) if you aren’t working for them in the first place.

This ignores the reality that if you own your own business, you are controlled not by a few people, but rather by many; these people being customers . It is much worse to get rejected by everyone in the United States—306 million potential customers that don’t want to buy your products or services—than a few prospective employers that don’t want to hire you. The ego doesn’t understand that it is much easier to reach and sell yourself as a prospective employee to potential employers a few times in your life, than reach your target customers and keep selling your goods and services to them each and every day.

Your ego doesn’t understand this because the potential rejection with employers is direct, versus indirect rejection with customers. If you reach out to an employer to be hired or to your boss for a raise, or if you get fired, you take it personally. If you are rejected by potential customers, at least some of the time, you don’t even know that you are being rejected—you have never made a true initial connection to be able to be really offended by the indirect rejection in the first place. If you are directly rejected by a customer or potential customer, you can hide behind the corporate entity so that you don’t take it personally (or at least your ego leads you to believe you won’t). Let’s be honest, if you can’t woo your boss into a raise, or woo a prospective employer to hire you, how can you woo your employees to perform at top levels or woo customers to patronize your business? If you don’t have those skills in one arena, you aren’t going to have them in the other. Whatever rejection you are running from will be exacerbated by a factor of at least a hundred when you are on your own and your money is on the line.

Another thing that your ego does is guide you to try to impress other people. They call it “keeping up with the Joneses,” or more accurately these days, “outdoing the Joneses.” Your ego tells you that if you are feeling down about your career or other things, starting your own business can give you a spark or even the beginnings of an exciting life. You may think it sounds sexy and gives you stature to be a CEO, owner, and entrepreneur of “Youco.” You can tell everyone that you are the HBIC or the BMOC, and that makes you feel good and powerful.

Productive people have daily routines that help them succeed. Success begins and ends with both mental and physical well-being. Health is heavily dependent on nighttime routines. Here are the things that many successful people do before turning in for the night.

1. Review the Day

Before going to bed, think about the day, asking yourself if the things you did had meaning. Consider how your actions have positively contributed to your life and the world. Review your goals to make sure they line up with your how you’re spending your time. By using time-tracking software during the day, you can better review how you spent your time.

2. Write Down Your Thoughts

By writing down your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions, you can analyze where things went wrong. Writing also helps you improve your communications skills. Overall, writing down your thoughts will help you think clearly, eliminate negative self-talk, and notice your most dominant emotions. By journaling, you may uncover something that you haven’t been giving enough attention. In a pinch, use your smartphone’s built-in note taker app.

3. Read

Heavy readers make great leaders. For example, Bill Gates reads for one hour each night, choosing from a variety of topics. A lot of the world’s most successful people are big readers, fitting in at least 10 minutes every night. As if you needed more motivation to pick up a book, readers also improve their brain’s long-term health. Reading on the go? Invest in a tablet and carry your books in one device.

4. Set the Next Morning’s Priorities

Since so many things take place every day, it’s easy to lose focus. Every evening before bed, look over your schedule and plan for the next day. Make a list of the things that have to get done, assigning each task a priority. Don’t list more than five things that have to be done the next day. The next day, you’ll be less stressed, better prepared, and more confident. For every minute you spend planning, you save yourself 10 minutes in execution. Use Evernote to keep your daily schedule on all of your devices.

5. Spend Time With Family

In order to stay connected with the people in your life, you have to make time for them, plan and simple. When things in your life are hectic, this is the perfect time to treat your family like a priority.

6. Get Things Done

Successful, productive people utilize their talents, skills, knowledge, and energy to get things done, including the things they have to do, not just the things they’re good at. Squeeze the most you can out of the 24 hours you have available.

7. Detox, Digitally

By disconnecting from your busy work life, you can relax, care for your body, and soothe your soul. Each night, put your phone in a different room, turn off the television, and spend some time unplugged. Your health will improve and your energy will skyrocket. Plus, you’ll make time for those other activities you’ve been neglecting.

8. Get Outside

In order to be refreshed enough to handle your wild work life, get outside and experience nature. The great outdoors is restorative, fun, and exciting. There’s no better way to unwind after a stressful day than heading outside.

9. Meditate

Several successful people, including Tim Ferriss and Oprah, meditate before bed. Set aside ten minutes before bed to meditate, letting your thoughts flow. The next day, you’ll be more focused and productive. Plus, you’ll be relaxed enough after your meditation to easily fall asleep.

If possible, develop these nine habits to increase productivity and become more successful!

Managing a dispute between two employees is one thing, but the real challenge comes when you’re one of the irritated parties in a conflict. Emotions can get the best of anyone. If you can take a step back and assess the situation, you’ll come out with even the most unreasonable person ready to move on and find a solution. To turn a seemingly hopeless impasse into a chance to strengthen team mentality, follow these tips.

Aim for More Personal and Fewer Digital Interactions

If a fight starts between employees through chat, email, or other electronic means, it’s best to not resolve it that way. Getting people to meet in person is better and can dissolve the previous conflict instantly. Once the people meet in person, they realize that neither person is in fact too angry to meet, which is a big sign of effort to understand each other.

You may wonder, then, what to do if you can’t arrange a physical meeting, either because of practical reasons or anger. In that case, find a new format for communication that is as personal as possible. A scheduled phone call, an online chat, and other private options give people a similar sense of being together in person.

Recognize Potential Misunderstandings

Misunderstandings that stem from inadequate communication can be a real pain in the workplace. When it’s just one person misunderstanding another, the listener usually makes note of it, the speaker clarifies, and things get back on track. Many verbal conflicts between employees happen because both people misunderstood each other.

If you’re frustrated with someone, then see it within that framework. Remember that the person you’re interacting with has chosen to behave the way that feels most prudent to him. Chances are he doesn’t purposely intend to incite your anger. Directly ask the person to clarify their message, and tell him how you perceived it.

Don’t Refer to Authority Immediately

If the conflict is still is a moderately small stage, don’t make it officially a big deal by alerting a boss or manager to the situation. There is always a chance that this will backfire when both parties do so. Letting a superior in on the situation can either help or hurt, but it’s a roll of the dice. Some coworkers respond poorly to the idea that they’ve been told on and will perceive the tattler as a threat to their job.

Each workplace is different, so if someone has a masters in conflict resolution and a good reputation for intervening in conflicts without escalating them, go ahead and see them privately. Don’t tell them to jump in, but ask what the best course of action is.

In a perfect world, people wouldn’t get into arguments, and if they did, they could solve them together every time. If you are aware of a difficult employee situation, or if you’re in one, you have to be adaptable and figure out the details. Only then can you set up the right interaction to make amends.

Do you ever wonder how it is possible when you go to the grocery store for two or three items you end up coming home with a full cart?  Well, I’ll tell you how. Grocery stores market to us hard and they know what they are doing!  They spend countless dollars trying to reel us in on spur of the moment purchases and they aren’t half bad at it.  A great way to test our self-control and discipline is to walk into the grocery store and walk out with only the items we have on our list.  Ha! Unlikely, right?

Well, it may not be as unlikely as you thought!  All you need is a well thought out plan of attack and a way to prevent you from sporadically purchasing unnecessary items. Follow these 6 steps and maybe you will be able to thwart those marketers.

1. Make a list and check it twice! Before I enter a grocery store I always make a list. Now, I cannot say that I don’t deviate sometimes and acquire random items in my cart that shouldn’t be there.  BUT, for the most part, the list keeps me on track.  When you make your list be sure to check your fridge and pantry so as not to double up on items you may not have known you had.  Trust me, I’ve done this plenty of times.

2. Listen to your Mother and DON’T shop when you’re hungry! You’ve heard this probably since you were a kid.  Make sure your belly is full before attempting to grocery shop.  The wise old adage is true.  If you are the type to get hungry come prepared.  Bring a bottle of water with you and a protein bar!  It fends the hunger off and it also saves you from spending extra cash on unneeded and unhealthy treats.

3. Keep clear of the end caps! Those items are often displayed prettily, but their price is far from pretty.  They lure you in and want to take you and your cash with them!  Pretend you have blinders on and keep to your list.  You WILL thwart those supermarket ploys!

4. Live life on the edge. By the edge I mean the edge of the supermarket.  All the junk is typically within the aisles and deeper in the store.   All the stuff you and I shouldn’t be eating anyway.  You know the stuff I’m referring to, the processed, no good for you, sugar, wheat and high fructose corn syrup items that your grandma would roll over in her grave if she knew existed.  Stick with the fresh produce and meats.  You can’t go wrong and you will most certainly save money!

5. Don’t grab the first item you see if you do venture into the forbidden aisles. Companies pay big bucks to place their products at eye level.  Go for the cheaper brands that are toward the bottom of the shelves.  They will save you money and I guarantee their taste won’t differ too much.  Note: some of the inexpensive brands DO taste differently than the name brand, so this can take some trial and error.  Sometimes buying cheaper can really sacrifice the flavor and quality.  But that is rare.

6. Shop your own pantry and fridge! I have done this many times before a big trip because we didn’t want to come back to spoiled food.  It is amazing how much money you save and how much you don’t waste when you do this.  Did you know that, according to Businessweek, Americans waste 40% of the food we buy?   Often we think we need groceries, but in fact, we just haven’t been creative with the ones we already have on hand!  If you’re like me and want to avoid the grocery store like the plague (and save money), then try this method!  Get your kids and family involved and come up with something creative for dinner.

I hope these tips help you to avoid the pitfalls of grocery shopping.  Perhaps if we employ these tips more frequently we can dumbfound those marketers!  Happy shopping!