How to Make More Money (Meaningfully)

Provide some value through services and products and your character. Learn more than others and get out there and do it. Figure out how to offer more value than the next person. Fantastic advice from Brendon Burchard.

The Path To Success Is A Very Lonely Road

By Tony Fahkry

Journaling.

Yes, this simple daily habit will make you become a better person, because the simplest habits are ones that produce the greatest results.

It is the compound effect journaling offers that often goes unnoticed.

Journaling has many unexpected benefits, one of which is improved mental and emotional wellbeing.

Many people ruminate on problems that gnaw at them, sometimes for decades.

Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor suggests that the average lifespan of an emotion to move through the nervous system is one and a half minutes. This releases the burden of clinging to our emotional attachments longer than required.

This daily habit helps you to make peace with toxic emotions and transform them into healthy ones. Otherwise, they remain 'stuck' in your nervous system instead of moving through you.

The simple act of writing in your journal on a daily basis helps you to be mindful of the present moment, instead of being caught up in the past or future.

"All clutter and stress seem to be found on the surface, on the level of thinking and emotions," affirms Peter Francis Dziuban in: Simply Notice: Clear Awareness Is the Key To Happiness, Love and Freedom.

Mindfulness is a way to attain clarity as to what really matters. You become attuned to your emotions instead of allowing them to control you.

I recall listening to the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle state that anytime you are emotionally agitated for no reason, you are recollecting unresolved memories and creating a Pain body experience.

Similarly, Colette Baron Reid writes in Uncharted: The Journey Through Uncertainty to Infinite Possibility: "Memories are emotions intertwined with thoughts, and those can become lodged not just in your brain but in your body too."

Journaling is the act of making sense of those memories by transferring them onto paper, otherwise they lead to conditions such as T.M.S. (Tension Myositis Syndrome), according to Dr. John Sarno.

Repressed emotions resulting from psychological stress are stored in the body and may inhibit muscle and/or organ function if left untreated.

Writing your thoughts on paper is a form of emotional freedom. There are moments in our lives where we must bite our tongue with family, friends and co-workers for obvious reasons.

We cannot express our feelings, so we stow them away hoping they don't resurface down the road. This is the psychological pain point many people experience later in life.

The key is to allow your emotions to move through you using a method Dr. Daniel Siegel outlines in his book Mindsight. He suggests you name and tame the emotions you experience rather than be overwhelmed by them.

Journaling helps identify the troubling emotions by writing them as "I feel angry" instead of "I am angry." The latter is a limited self-definition since, "I feel angry" implies the ability to acknowledge a feeling, without being overwhelmed by it.

"Just by bringing greater attention to the part of your body where strong emotions or physical pain linger, you are loosening each layer of cellular memory to assist in another moment of healing," affirms Matt Kahn.

I suggest exploring your thoughts on paper as the last thing at night after a complete day. In Zen teaching, meditation is thought to help wipe away the day's stressors by witnessing our thoughts through the eyes of equanimity.

Journaling purges you of mental stressors. It is the process of becoming intimate with your thoughts instead of allowing them to occupy space in your mind.

You become attentive to your mental landscape instead of letting runaway thoughts impose on your freedom.

This simple daily habit will make you become a better person, because you are aware of your thoughts and won't be overcome by them.

Committing your thoughts to paper invites you to calmly witness them with a clear awareness rather than an agitated mind.

Tibetan meditation master Orgyen Chowang explains in Our Pristine Mind: A Practical Guide to Unconditional Happiness: "You must first relax the mind and then observe it with patience and perseverance. It is that simple."

Journaling is the act of coming home to yourself and loving the person whose thoughts appear on the page.

What we see and perceive in our waking life results from the mind adding judgement and commentary, like morning fog.

Writing your thoughts downloads them onto paper and liberates you of the need to process them any more than you need to.

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Why One Is Greater Than Zero

Great message from Gary Vee. You never know who could watch, read or listen something of yours that could lead to something great:)

Hard Work & Patience - A Gary Vaynerchuk Original Film

Great message from Gary Vee. Very inspiring story this guy has.

Change Your Attitude to Change Your Life

By Camille Goscicki    

Have you ever known a time in your life when a bad attitude helped you with what you were dealing with? How about someone else you've known who walked around with that cloud over their head, expecting life to rain on them at any moment? Did their bad attitude fight off the storm? 

Personally, I can't think of any time in my past when my bad attitude solved any problem or concern I was facing. If anything, the attitude I carried brought on more misery, and a lack of clear thought that could have helped me make things better.

Having a bad attitude affected my self-esteem, my decisions, and my choices in life. Negativity made me fear life and what was ahead of me in the future. Somehow, some way, my attitude changed, due to my marriage, the birth of my daughter; and the death of my only brother, among other life experiences.

I got to the point in life where I'd say to myself, "This isn't a dress rehearsal, kiddo. This is life. If you're going to live it, you might as well live it well." So I chose a new perspective. It worked for me. I'm not afraid of what lies ahead anymore, and I face life with an "active pessimist" attitude. I may complain, criticize and get ticked off about stuff that happens, but then I take action and do something about it (if I can). Sometimes there's nothing I can do except let the storm ride out.

I'm sure you've seen those people who constantly complain about getting older, who feed into the old-age stereotypes, and who use age as an excuse to let their bodies and minds go to waste. I've seen it myself, in people decades younger than me. What a terrible way to age!

Vital aging requires an empowered attitude.

I didn't just pull that belief off the top of my head. Aging experts and researchers have shown that a person's attitude affects their aging process. Many studies have shown that: 

• Older people who believe in positive aging stereotypes live longer than those who believed in negative stereotypes. 

• Older people with a positive attitude take better care of themselves, and may recover from illness/injury faster. 

• Older people who stay engaged in life (e.g., with lifelong learning) have a higher quality of life than those who don't. 

• Often, older people are happier than younger adults. (Face it, we know we have less time on this earth, so it's important to make the most of it!)

Why "get" older when you can "grow" older? When you reach the age of 40, or 50, let go of the "over the hill" thinking. Start climbing again. There are new hills to challenge you. Change your perspective. Let go of those stereotypes. Quit complaining. Make physical and mental fitness a priority. Fight ageism. Stay connected. Laugh out loud. Remain flexible. Keep learning. Take charge of your life.

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How to Embrace an Attitude of 'Hell Yeah' with Everything You Do

By Tony Fahkry  |   Submitted On May 26, 2017

How To Navigate Life

Given the many distractions that compete for our attention these days, it's not surprising people don't devote more time to what truly inspires them.

We have a habit of tuning out anything that is not urgent.

There was a time when a person was only contactable via a phone landline, with no answering machine.

Nowadays, I can reach you through email, text messaging, instant messaging, social media, and dare I say, call you on your mobile device. Yet, this has not improved our lives other than make us more available.

Being more available equates to having less time to focus on your priorities.

As a consequence, we say 'yes' to things that don't inspire us, but provide a sense of satisfaction of having undertaken the task.

What I'm proposing is that you adopt a hell yeah attitude towards tasks instead of, it will do for now.

The idea was first discussed by the American entrepreneur Derek Sivers. He outlined how he prefers to engage in pursuits he is passionate about, instead of those he's obligated to do.

"As we become more mature and enlightened adults, we come to realize that if an opportunity is presented to us and it does not gain a near 100-percent enthusiasm and commitment from us, then the reply must be a 100-percent no," affirms motivational author Brendon Burchard in his book The Motivation Manifesto.

What if you were to adopt a similar approach?

You may avoid doing so because saying 'no' to good enough projects, goals or relationships suffices to keep you motivated for the time being.

When you settle, you compromise your self-worth because you accept less than meaningful conditions. The basis is to move from being Parked to an mindset of hell yeah in everything you do.

Consider author Larry Weidel's perspective in Serial Winner: 5 Actions to Create Your Cycle of Success: "Winners know that if you don't figure out what you want, you'll get whatever life hands you."

Time Is A Precious Commodity

When you say 'no' to requests that are low priorities, you free up time to say 'yes' to areas that serve your highest good.

By embracing a hell yeah attitude, you focus attention on what really matters.

It's vital to explore your full potential because in those moments you experience deep flow states and awaken your greatest ability.

You may undertake meaningless tasks or commit to relationships that don't inspire you because you're fearful more opportunities will not show up later. So, you take what is available now, hoping it will occupy your time until something better comes along.

It's what you devote your time and attention to, that matters.

Time is a precious commodity which many people squander. Guard it with your life and choose opportunities that inspire you, rather than just being task-orientated.

"Position your daily actions so time is working for instead of against you. Because time will either promote you or expose you," writes author Jeff Olson in The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life.

Don't think you can get everything done because it's impossible. You are likely to wash over the activities without fully committing to the task.

The question arises, how will you know whether to undertake a project or say 'no'?

It's as simple as this: if you don't feel a spark of enthusiasm, it's unlikely you'll see it through to completion.

It is my experience, if something is difficult at the start and I'm lacking motivation, the idea will not succeed because I'm not bringing my whole self to it.

If you cannot say hell yeah, it's best say 'no'.

I assure you, adopting this frame of mind will yield success and you needn't buy into the fear more opportunities won't become available. In fact, more quality prospects will emerge since you are careful what you give your attention to.

You should say 'yes' to tasks that excite you, that you are passionate about and to which you're likely to bring your best work.

Manage Your Time

"Pareto points us in a very clear direction: the majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do. Extraordinary results are disproportionately created by fewer actions than most realize," affirm authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan in The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.

There is little room for negotiation and no grey area when you pursue a hell yeah way of life. You commit to the task or relationship or not at all, in which case you walk away.

Similarly, it pays to know which areas you are saying hell yeah to. It may pose a challenge to apply this approach to every facet of life because of competing interests.

For example, your partner may want to visit his/her favourite restaurant and you don't feel the same way. In this scenario, diplomacy prevails to maintain a healthy relationship.

Embracing a hell yeah outlook will change your approach to life, in so far as developing a laser-like focus while managing your time. You concentrate your attention on high value areas that lead to happiness and fulfilment, with a better chance of success.

Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan remind us once again to choose what you give your attention to: "To achieve an extraordinary result you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands. This requires getting extremely out of balance in relation to all other work issues... "

Given the many events that compete for your attention, it's important to be discerning with your time.

You become inspired by your goals and projects, instead of expecting a situation will improve as you go along - it seldom does.

Larry Weidel reminds us to maintain our enthusiasm or risk it burning out: "When it comes to most of our ideas, our enthusiasm has a shelf life. We won't be inspired to go for it forever. If you can't decide what you're going to do with your energy and drive, it will peter out. Doubt will grow and overwhelm you."

Commit to life with passion and fervour, otherwise you will be pulled along by secondary tasks that are less desirable.

Life is too short and valuable to be pursuing goals that are not consistent with your greater self.

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Lessons From Netflix - You Have the Ability to Change Your World

By Kathleen C Olivieri  

Raising two daughters meant one thing in our house - we watched a LOT of "chick flick" movies. We watched movies such as Hairspray, The Holiday, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Titanic, Legally Blonde, and the list goes on and on. Most were for entertainment, but many movies had a hidden lesson that we talked about. Yes, there are "Lessons Learned" when watching movies!

The New Movie Theatre - Netflix

Now that my daughters have gone to college, my husband and I have forayed into the world of Netflix. So many series and movies to watch!

A friend on Facebook recommended a Turkish show, Kurt Seyit and Sura, which is a historical drama based on a true story.

To spare you the 42 hour-long episodes, the premise of the story is this: an officer of Turkish descent and a wealthy Russian heiress fall in love in the early 1900's. Seyit, the officer, survives the war, then takes Sura home to meet his family. They hate her because she is not Turkish. Seyit and Sura flee the Russian Revolution and settle in Istanbul. Through their adventures, their love is not enough to keep them together. Ultimately, Seyit and Sura never marry.

We loved this series! Not only were the costumes beautiful and historically appropriate, there were beautiful horses, interesting characters and the acting was spectacular.

What are the Lessons Learned from Seyit and Sura's Love Story?

Lesson 1: Personal Responsibility 

You must take responsibility for your life. We all want to be loved. Yet, ultimately, YOU are responsible for that love. YOU are responsible for getting love and keeping it.

How does this translate to your professional life? YOU are responsible for your career and professional happiness. If you want to progress in your career, invest in yourself! If you are not happy in your career, then take responsibility to make a change in yourself or your work situation.

Lesson 2: Perseverance

You must persevere through the good and the bad. The world will change and people will try to sabotage you.

Yet, YOU must be strong to persevere and NOT allow the world and people to have the power to sabotage you.

How does this translate to your professional life?

The world is changing around us. The jobs of yesterday may or may not be available tomorrow. For example, the retail industry has changed due to social commerce and online shopping. Many brick and mortar stores are closing. What does this mean for the people employed at these stores? What's next for them?

Will You Adapt in the Changing Economy?

I predict that many of the smart, savvy displaced people will turn social commerce and go into business for themselves - opening their own micro-enterprise using the very channel that pushed them away from a career they may have loved! You have the ability to change with the world! By the way, if you are interested in building your very own micro-enterprise, contact me and I can tell you how YOU can do this without moving or going back to school!

Conclusion

Unlike Seyit and Sura, my husband and I have been married for almost 28 years. There is no secret to relationship success other than personal responsibility and perseverance.

The same is true for our professional lives; there is so secret to success other than being responsible for your success and persevere when others have quit.

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This is How to Let Go of Being Attached to Situations in Life

By Tony Fahkry

"I have no idea of what tomorrow will bring, so I wish to prepare for it."

"You fear tomorrow - not realizing that yesterday is just as dangerous."

The delightful short tale by Anthony de Mello underscores the fact that our attachments to the past can be equally harmful.

We must release our hold of yesterday's concerns and bring our awareness to the present moment, if we desire to seek contentment.

It's a given that most people want to experience happiness and joy. There are many ways to achieve it and while some attain it, others don't. However, it is no less a central desire to seek fulfillment in our everyday life.

We want happiness to fill the cup when pain overflows. Yet the irony is we experience more pain and suffering than joy allows.

We attach our desires to people and situations, holding on tighter than we should. We stress about matters that impose upon our happiness and become discouraged.

Things don't always go as planned. People let us down. The road ahead gets bumpy.

Buddhist author Lama Surya Das writes in The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries: "As Mark Twain said, 'It's not what we don't know that gets us in trouble, but what we are sure we know'. We attach to one or more particular ways of seeing ourselves that, neither accurate nor helpful, entrap us in mind-forged forged manacles, self-limiting beliefs, and unfulfilling, misdirected behavior patterns and desires. We fall into living as we are not and lose who and what we actually are."

The Art of Detachment

Detachment means to disassociate yourself from intended outcomes. It requires letting go of fixed ideas how life should be.

If you commit yourself to getting what you want, you set yourself up for pain.

For example, if you base your day on your partner's mood or getting the next promotion at work, you allow outward conditions to dictate your feelings. You are trying to control your world instead of trusting the process of life.

"Normally we think we see reality, but what we see is our own subjective perceptions, filtered through all of our associations and desires, as well as through language and conditioning," states author Ezra Bayda in The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free from Complacency and Fear.

Let Go of Attachments

This requires practice, though it is possible to let go of attachments that no longer serve you.

You might ruminate on the past and hold on to things that don't matter anymore. What if you were to enjoy the richness of the present moment instead?

Make it a point to let go of anything that's not for your highest good, especially expectations.

Do you often worry about the future?

Do you base your feelings on whether you are moving forward in life?

Either way, make it a priority to let go of attachments by cherishing the depth of each moment. Move beyond your negative thoughts and allow life to be exactly as it is.

Letting go is grounded in the wakefulness of the present moment being perfect as it is. Whilst you expect things to be a certain way, detachment means to let go of these thoughts.

"When we see through our attachments by fully experiencing them, the result is freedom. When we can see and experience life without the filters of our judgments and demands, the result is appreciation and the quiet joy of being. When we see through our fears, the result is love," states Ezra Bayda.

Let Go of Expectations

Expectations set you up for disappointment. Whilst it's normal to receive respect and love from others, sometimes people don't return the respect or love you deserve. Happiness means acknowledging this, so you avoid hanging your hopes on people fulfilling your emotional needs.

If we are attached to life being a particular way, we are assured of being hurt when things do not follow as expected.

The solution, you ask?

Let go.

Consider psychotherapist David Richo's view in The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them: "We cannot take refuge in feeling good, because that cannot be sustained. What is sustained and sustaining is a yes to what is, 'taking the good with the bad'. This can only happen when we have no attachment to how things should be."

Let Go of Outcomes

Do you want to work toward your goals and dreams while letting go of outcomes?

Focus on pursuing what is meaningful and give it your undivided attention. People pursue what they consider will make them happy, yet remain miserable now.

To work towards a prosperous future, flow with the currents of life instead of being on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

Steady is the way.

Author Jan Frazier offers the following wisdom in The Freedom of Being: At Ease with What Is: "When you are free, you no longer experience attachment - to the roles you play, to possessions, to ideas, to the outcome of action, to the people you love. You are free of ferocious desire, of the driving 'need' to get (and keep) what you want."

Fulfillment Comes From Within

As much as we want to believe that success and happiness happen 'out there' - it simply isn't true.

Happiness and fulfillment emerge from within.

Ask those who are content what their secret is and many will tell you, they learned to simplify life and let go of attachments.

They loosened their grip and allowed life to serve them. They are grateful for the pleasant and unpleasant moments because both experiences contain the seeds of opportunity for growth.

They are unattached to how life should develop and trust every experience serves their highest good.

Think back to a time you released your attachments to something.

Maybe it was resentment or holding on to a particular point of view. As you let go, you no doubt felt relief and moved on.

That is the significance of letting go. You let go to move forward, instead of dragging the past behind with you.

"When you are unattached, you have inner freedom. You have no investment in a particular outcome, and so you do what is necessary in the moment. You explore every option and are receptive to all new information. You do all that you know to do, and then trust, because you have no attachment to either the result or how the result is produced," affirms authors Charlene Belitz and Meg Lundstrom in The Power of Flow: Practical Ways to Transform Your Life with Meaningful Coincidence.

So, release your hold on tomorrow. Do not blemish the present moment with your attachments of how it should be.

If you are anxious about a particular matter, simply let it go. Drop it as though I were handing you a hot piece of coal.

Keep letting go until you get to a place of nothingness and have released all attachments and suffering.

Only then will you know true peace and joy in its entirety.

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HOW TO START | A Gary Vaynerchuk Original

Great video from Gary Vee. This is what its all about people. Starting, doing, taking action, getting off you're butt!!

HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK - Motivational Video

Another great motivational video for you to enjoy. How do the 1% think?

6 MINS FOR THE NEXT 60 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE - A RANT

VERY sensible and practical words from Gary V. VERY motivational!!!

10 Things Successful People Never Do Again

We all make mistakes but the people who thrive from their mistakes are the successful ones.

Henry Cloud

 

June 24, 2014

“Never go back.” What does that mean? From observations of successful people, clinical psychologist and author of Never Go Back: 10 Things You'll Never Do Again (Howard Books, June 2014), Dr. Henry Cloud has discovered certain “awakenings” that people have—in life and in business—that once they have them, they never go back to the old way of doing things. And when that happens, they are never the same. In short, they got it.

“Years ago, a bad business decision of mine led to an interesting discussion with my mentor,” Dr. Cloud says. “I had learned a valuable lesson the hard way, and he reassured me: ‘The good thing is once you learn that lesson, you never go back. You never do it again.’

“I wondered, what are the key awakenings that successful people go through that forever change how they do things, which propel them to succeed in business, relationships, and life? I began to study these awakenings, researching them over the years.”

Although life and business have many lessons to teach us, Dr. Cloud observed 10 “doorways” of learning that high performers go through, never to return again.

Successful people never again…

1. Return to what hasn’t worked.

Whether a job, or a broken relationship that was ended for a good reason, we should never go back to the same thing, expecting different results, without something being different.

2. Do anything that requires them to be someone they are not.

In everything we do, we have to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this? Am I suited for it? Does it fit me? Is it sustainable?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, you better have a very good reason to proceed.

3. Try to change another person.

When you realize that you cannot force someone into doing something, you give him or her freedom and allow them to experience the consequences. In doing so, you find your own freedom as well.

4. Believe they can please everyone.

Once you get that it truly is impossible to please everyone, you begin to live purposefully, trying to please the right people.

5. Choose short-term comfort over long-term benefit.

Once successful people know they want something that requires a painful, time-limited step, they do not mind the painful step because it gets them to a long-term benefit. Living out this principle is one of the most fundamental differences between successful and unsuccessful people, both personally and professionally.

6. Trust someone or something that appears flawless.

It’s natural for us to be drawn to things and people that appear "incredible." We love excellence and should always be looking for it. We should pursue people who are great at what they do, employees who are high performers, dates who are exceptional people, friends who have stellar character, and companies that excel. But when someone or something looks too good to be true, he, she, or it is. The world is imperfect. Period. No one and no thing is without flaw, and if they appear that way, hit pause.

7. Take their eyes off the big picture.

We function better emotionally and perform better in our lives when we can see the big picture. For successful people, no one event is ever the whole story. Winners remember that—each and every day.

8. Neglect to do due diligence.

No matter how good something looks on the outside, it is only by taking a deeper, diligent, and honest look that we will find out what we truly need to know: the reality that we owe ourselves.

9. Fail to ask why they are where they find themselves.

One of the biggest differences between successful people and others is that in love and in life, in relationships and in business, successful people always ask themselves, what part am I playing in this situation? Said another way, they do not see themselves only as victims, even when they are.

10. Forget that their inner life determines their outer success.

The good life sometimes has little to do with outside circumstances. We are happy and fulfilled mostly by who we are on the inside. Research validates that. And our internal lives largely contribute to producing many of our external circumstances.

And, the converse is true: people who are still trying to find success in various areas of life can almost always point to one or more of these patterns as a reason they are repeating the same mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes…even the most successful people out there. But, what achievers do better than others is recognize the patterns that are causing those mistakes and never repeat them again. In short, they learn from pain—their own and the pain of others.

A good thing to remember is this: pain is unavoidable, but repeating the same pain twice, when we could choose to learn and do something different, is certainly avoidable. I like to say, “we don’t need new ways to fail….the old ones are working just fine!” Our task, in business and in life, is to observe what they are, and never go back to doing them again.

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