What I Learned From Wearing the Same Outfit for 2 Weeks Part 2

According to internet sources, which are rarely wrong, American adults make 35,000 decisions a day: scrambled or over-easy, let the kids watch one more Octonauts or go to the pool, stop for gas here or nearer to day care? They tire us out. Psychologists like Baumeister are starting to understand the wear and tear they leave on our minds. Businesses know it, too. Levav found that by manipulating the order of choices to put the more expensive default options last when people had grown weary of making decisions, custom-suit stores and car companies could encourage customers to spend more. (“High-end rims? Sure, fine, whatever.”) Eliminating choice works, too: online mattress companies such as Casper and Tuft & Needle are disrupting the awful in-store mattress-buying process by offering one mattress. Buy it or don’t. Casper is on pace to earn $200 million in the next year.

In most cases, we stick with what we like. For instance, I decided to automate my coffee orders and discovered that apparently I did that four years ago. This is common: Chris Garrett, manager at my local coffee shop, says nearly all of his regulars have a single order, breaking only when they earn a reward, and even then they tend to order the same drink in a larger size or with an extra shot. Audrey Brinkley, a barista for just under a year, says customers aren’t inclined to venture out of their comfort zones unless pushed by a friend or seasonal menu updates. “They don’t think of changing their drinks until you put a new one in front of them.” This was interesting to learn, and terrible for my science. What good was intentional automation if I was already mostly automating?

I started looking for anything I could drop from my daily decisions. I determined that my kids and I would have the same breakfasts: scrambled eggs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a frosted brown sugar Pop-Tart. (Full disclosure: I’ve been eating the latter pretty much every morning for 30 years so that was no big deal.) To limit screwing around with music in my car, I packed a dozen CDs to cut down on my ability to fire up my phone and pick from every song ever recorded. I sought out low-hanging decision fruit: I parked in the same place at home and the store. I ran the same loop around my neighborhood. I settled in. I waited for the avalanche of crystal mental clarity.

Mixed Emotions

First: The good news. During the initial couple of days, a load came off of my shoulders—a light one, sure, but a load nonetheless. My wife works early shifts, so on mornings with coffee to be made, smoothies to blend, day cares to reach, Cubs scores to check and a clock supplying constant, low-level deadline pressure, every little bit of automation helped. I can’t say it revealed brilliant new horizons, but it trimmed the to-do list, which I always welcome.

What’s more, I grew accustomed to my uniform. It’s curious to have one, and I can’t deny the dullish 1984 vibe that surfaced from time to time. But there was also a vague calm to it. I could feel things becoming more efficient, less stressed—not a dramatic lifestyle upgrade, but extra bandwidth. The experiment was working! Life operated a little more smoothly. That lasted for a good four or five days before everything suddenly got super boring.

Turns out when you’re already automating much of your life, making it official can feel suffocating. Right around the beginning of the second week, I began to feel severe burnout regarding gray. I started to miss my other shirts (especially you, Guns N’ Roses). I felt less like the experiment was streamlining my decision process and more like it was eliminating choice. Eventually it felt like work. “Maybe dressing the same is restful for Zuckerberg, but you reacted against it,” says Levav (who, for the record, dresses each morning in whatever T-shirt is closest).

But I missed the point, he says: “The critical issue here isn’t wearing a gray shirt every day, but routinizing your behavior. It’s not about a specific routine, it’s about having a routine.” For me, too little choice was limiting; too much created a paradox wherein I required two days to buy a Brad Keselowski hat.

That said, drawing from a smaller, pre-established pool positively cut down on time and energy. My closet is a lot of blue and gray, sure, but I got to pick which blue and gray. Too little choice scrambles the system; too much oversaturates it. When my experiment ended, I went to the coffee shop in sandals and my GNR T-shirt and ordered an iced green tea, something I rarely drink. After all, some choice is good.

Jeff Vrabel

October 9, 2016

Fabulous

What I Learned From Wearing the Same Outfit for 2 Weeks PART 1

To learn about the curious malady known as “decision fatigue,” I was given a very simple assignment: Wear the same outfit and automate as many daily decisions as possible for two weeks and write about whether it gave me more mental clarity. That was it. Easy breezy. I jumped right in.

On Day 1, I picked out a crisp white shirt, got dressed, opened the front door and promptly spilled coffee all over myself. The first lesson of automating your wardrobe: Select dark fabrics.

“I get to wake up every day and help serve more than a billion people. And I feel like I’m not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.” —Mark Zuckerberg

By “automating your wardrobe,” I mean following the fashion examples of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and others whose jobs demand a daily deluge of global-scale decision-making. The idea is simple: To preserve brain space for the big calls, cut back on the less significant ones, because the collective weight of your choices, layered over and over each other, creates what psychologists call decision fatigue. Officially, that’s the “deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision-making,” says Jonathan Levav, Ph.D., associate professor at Stanford University. Colloquially it means reaching 4 p.m. and no longer giving a damn about the logjam of problems in your inbox.

You can’t always control the flow of the big questions, but you can manage the small ones. Zuckerberg has a family and a Facebook, and he tends to both in simple gray crew-neck T-shirts. (On his first day back from paternity leave, he posted a photo of his gray-on-gray closet and asked what he should wear.) Jobs was too busy inventing the future to worry much about pattern-matching, so he stuck with jeans and black mock turtlenecks. In a July profile, The New York Times wrote that President Barack Obama—who wears only blue and gray suits—daydreamed about retiring to Hawaii to open a T-shirt shop that sold only one size (medium) and one color (white) with Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago and his former chief of staff. When he and Emanuel were faced with problems that had no conclusive answer, they’d turn to each other. “White,” Emanuel would say. “Medium,” Obama would shoot back.

“Making decisions uses the very same willpower that you use to say no to doughnuts, drugs or illicit sex,” Florida State professor Roy Baumeister, Ph.D., told The New York Times in 2011. “It’s the same willpower you use to be polite or to wait your turn or to drag yourself out of bed or to hold off going to the bathroom.” He explored this and more with John Tierney in their book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

Levav and two other researchers conducted a 2011 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found Israeli judges paroled prisoners who appeared early in the morning about 65 percent of the time, while those with late-afternoon appointments were paroled less than 10 percent of the time. The afternoon prisoners weren’t significantly different; they just showed up when the judges were tired and therefore making the lowest-maintenance calls.

Generally speaking, I have fewer problems than Obama, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Israeli judges and most people on earth. But I do have a wife, two energetic sons, a writing business and a daily grind. I also love making decisions in the most convoluted manner possible, which usually involves some combination of instinct, friend recommendations, Yelp suggestions, Amazon testimonials, random Google searches and several competing strains of obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Recently I took two days to decide which NASCAR hat to buy.) There is more data available to us now than ever before, and I do cannonball dives into it.

I was intrigued to see whether eliminating the tiny, wee decisions (Am I feeling the BLT or the tomato basil soup?) would truly free up hard-drive space for the big ones. I dug in and made a plan, and then I spilled coffee all over it.

Invisible Forces

First I needed a new outfit.

This proved tricky. Deciding what to wear on a garden-variety Tuesday is one thing; picking an outfit to which you’ll be chained for two weeks introduces several new layers of commitment.

I considered my needs. I work from home, so on many days my interactions are limited to baristas and the lunch crew at Amore Pizzeria. I don’t need anything fancy, but I do need adaptability—something suited for home and the coffee shop, lunches and interviews, school registration and playgrounds. I also needed something temperature-appropriate. (I wrote this during a murderous July heat wave that inflated temperatures in my Indiana hometown from Comfortable Low 80s to Surface of the Sun.) I also hoped to be reasonably stylish—nothing sleeveless, no bracelets and no concert T-shirts, although I did look preeeetty hard at my Guns N’ Roses shirt.

Once I started considering these questions, others began bubbling up faster than I could swat them away: Should I wear button-up shirts? Will I be too hot? Should I stick with short sleeves? Jeans or shorts? I don’t like wearing shorts. If I wear shorts, does that mean shoes or sandals? Am I a hard no on the Guns N’ Roses shirt?

Then it hit me: This was the exact sort of unending, superficial, time-killing decision-making I was assigned to avoid. Four minutes in and I was already slogging through an invisible decision swamp about my outfit when I had specific orders not to.

“Let’s add to the mix the extensive pressure on women to uphold a flawless appearance…. These black trousers and white blouses have become an important daily reminder that frankly, I’m in control.” —Matilda Kahl

I stopped it cold and went full Zuck: gray crew-neck T-shirt, jeans and a pair of Vans. It was versatile and inexpensive, and no one would notice if I coated myself in coffee. I stacked a week’s worth of outfits in my closet for easy morning access and did a hard reset.

Routine Maintenance

When picking my official automated outfit, I realized an unsettling truth: I wear a lot of the same clothes anyway.

I’m a person of pleasant, arguably predictable, routine. I use one brand of toothpaste and shop at the same supermarket. I always order a burger with blue cheese and jalapeños at the local diner. We’ve made a 12-hour drive to visit family down South for years, and I find myself pulling into the same gas stations, grabbing to-go sandwiches at the same restaurants. Even my subconscious, it seems, is more comfortable with the familiar. I justify it as adhering to what I’m accustomed to, though the skeptical could say, “Try some different cheese, dude.” When I told friends about this assignment, they gave me a look that unmistakably said, “This will not be your most strenuous challenge of 2016.”

In all likelihood, you’re in a routine, too. “Most people have a fairly structured morning routine where they do the same things, eat the same foods,” Baumeister says. “The human mind is well set up to form habits and routines to conserve its energy.”

Wisdom from Les Brown

https://www.instagram.com/p/BM4WLMWARa5/?taken-by=thelesbrown

7 Must-Read Success Lessons from Les Brown:

1. Learn to Win
“There are winners, there are losers, and there are people who have not yet learned how to win.”
Know which battles you shouldn’t be trying to win.  Play to your strengths, there are some things that you will never succeed in, more importantly, there are some things that ONLY you can succeed in.
2. Plant a Tree
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
This Web site has almost 8,000 subscribers because several years ago, I decided to start a self-development Web site, with 1 subscriber, myself.
To sit in the shade you must first plant a tree.  Plant a tree today, though it be small, it’s latter end will be great.
3. Twice Every Day
“Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. Goals help you channel your energy into action.”
Place your goals in a place where you see them every day.  If you don’t see them, you will forget about them.  If you forget about them, it is self-evident that you will not achieve them.  Place your top three goals in a place where you will see them every day.
4. Stretch Yourself
“If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.”
To change your life, you must change the way you think.
In January of this year I listened to/read 27 books.  On January 31^st, I saw things very differently then I saw them on January 1^st – my consciousness had expanded.
Stretch yourself, challenge yourself; challenge the way you think, challenge what you eat, what you read, how you spend your time – you change by stretching yourself.
5. Get Your “But” Out the Way
“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.”
…But I’m too old, too young, I’ve waited too long, I’ve messed up too many times, I’m misunderstood.  Your path to success is being blocked by your “but.”  Why you’re saying how and why something can’t be done, there’s somebody out there doing it.  Get your “but” out the way!
6. Land on Your Back
“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.”
You may have been knocked down, you may be convinced that you won’t succeed, but if you can look up, you can get up.  Get up one more time!  You are not your past mistakes; you have within you the ability to succeed, so look up!
7. Change
“You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.”
At the end of the day, these are just cute quotes if you don’t decide to change.  You have to make a decision, you have to decide to maximize your potential.
Good is not good enough when you’re destined to be great.  Get up, look up, and succeed!



Source http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com/2013/03/7-must-read-success-lessons-from-les-brown/

More truth about fame and family

https://www.facebook.com/omeletocom/videos/10154273197939494/

Pay it forward

https://www.facebook.com/brightvibes/videos/530796687106975/

More inspiration from normal people.   Try paying for someones tea in a cafe for starters, the reward is so much more than the money spent.

Les Brown ► EVEN WHEN IT HURTS ►WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL SPEECH EVER By Les...

A breath of fresh air.

https://www.facebook.com/JayoGee/videos/10152537127257418/

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Gym Motivation - Motivational Speech

Fame and money are not everything

https://www.facebook.com/brightvibes/videos/530796687106975/
Take a look at these famous people sharing that fame and money don't make you happy.
Eric Clapton, Lady Gaga, Russell Brand and more.....

10 things successful people never do again

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.

Henry Cloud

June 24, 2014

WAKE UP - Motivational Video (this will wake you up!)

People doing good 1

https://www.facebook.com/kcci8/videos/10153887125405079/


Check this video out for some Sunday morning inspiration of people doing good things

A good life contains these 6 elements

Here's what we must ask constantly, "What, for me, would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list—a list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation.
So, what would constitute a good life? Jim Rohn has a short list:

1. Productivity.

You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. Yes, we must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity.
What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it—to try your hand to see what you can do.

2. Good friends.

Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world, so don't deny yourself the time to develop it. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit.
Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. I lost one of my dearest friends when he was 53—heart attack. As one of my very special friends, I used to say that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly, and, if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a real friend—somebody who would come and get you.

And we've all got casual friends, friends who, if you called them, they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me and we'll have a party."
You’ve got to have both real friends and casual friends.

3. Your culture.

Language, music, ceremonies, traditions, dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. The uniqueness of all of us, when blended together, brings vitality, energy, power, influence, and rightness to the world.

4. Spirituality.

It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach—don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature because it's what makes us who we are, different from dogs, cats, birds and mice.

5. Don't miss anything.

My parents taught me not to miss anything, not the game, the performance, the movie, the dance. Just before my father died at 93, if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church—he was somewhere every night.
Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can.
Live a vital life. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well, it will show in your face; it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.

6. Your family and the inner circle.

Invest in them, and they'll invest in you. Inspire them, and they'll inspire you. Take care of the details with your inner circle.
When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers at a little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho.
When I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but I'd call Papa. I'd say, "Papa, I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear. I'd say, "Papa, last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean?" Now everybody knew the story. And giving my father that special day only took five or 10 minutes.
If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body, he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with your inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity.
The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest: one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love.
So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.

Jim Rohn

September 9, 2014

7 Ways to Bounce Back After a Mistake

Most mistakes aren’t as bad as they seem. Take a deep breath and keep moving forward.

YEC

November 16, 2016

Mistakes—especially the ones that make us cringe long after they’ve happened—can make us feel as if we’ve taken one step forward only to take 20 steps backward. We can cripple ourselves analyzing why we made the mistake, our mind tricking us into thinking it’s irreversible, that we can’t move past this.
But good news: You can. So many mistakes are never as bad as they seem.

We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council how they deal with mistakes and how they learn to move past them to do better in the future. Here’s what they had to say.

Related: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes

1. Think about why you made the mistake.

When I make a mistake, I assess the mental and emotional state that led up to the decision. In some cases, I realize that I made the decision out of fear. If that’s the case, I dive into what generated that fear and build a mental model around the emotion. I take the time to reflect on it with the hope that I’ll recognize that emotion in the future and prevent it from affecting my day.

—Andrew Thomas, SkyBell Doorbell

2. Regroup.

Mistakes are inevitable. They happen to everyone. When I make a mistake, I use it as a time to reflect and regroup. Depending on what’s going on, it might mean stepping away from my desk for lunch, taking a day off or scheduling a vacation. The time away gives me an opportunity to let go of my initial emotion and start thinking about what I can do differently next time to achieve different results.

—Amber Anderson, MORE

3. Don’t let emotions get in the way.

I believe the key is not letting emotion get in the way. Problems are often much bigger in our minds than they are in reality. Instead of wallowing on the mistake you’ve made, focus on what you can do to correct the issue. You will begin to feel better when you start doing things to address the issue and feel like you are back in control.

—Matthew Paulson, MarketBeat.com (American Consumer News, LLC)

4. Move on.

Unless the mistake is catastrophic, I’m normally just focused on the next task in the queue (which might be fixing the mistake). After a lot of catastrophic-seeming mistakes, I’ve come to realize that few mistakes are irreversible.

—Hongwei Liu, mappedin

5. Look for a positive outcome.

Mistakes are going to happen and we cannot live life in fear of mistakes. When mistakes do happen, it’s important to think about why that mistake happened and learn how to avoid making it again. It’s also important to find a positive outcome that came from making that mistake. Bouncing back is hard, but you bounce back with more experience than before.

—Shalyn Dever, Chatter Buzz

6. Make it right.

I cannot “bounce back” without righting the wrong—at least as much as possible. This means going to the person who was affected by my mistake and owning it. It also means, where appropriate, owning the mistake publicly as well.

—Kevin Conner, WireSeek

7. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The worst mistake in business (and in life) is one that you’re repeating. Don’t repeat the same mistake twice; make sure to not only learn from your mistakes but implement processes and have discussions with your team to ensure they don’t happen again. Also, don’t dwell on it; we all make mistakes. Positive thinking goes a long way.

—Anshey Bhatia, Verbal+Visual

The Storm

TED Talks: ‘8 Secrets of Success’

TED

  |  

November 16, 2016

Richard St. John, marketer and success analyst, has dedicated several years to researching the nuts and bolts of achievement. It all started with one big question: What leads to success? It came from a neighboring passenger during a flight to a TED conference, and at the time he didn’t have a good answer.

Related: 12 Simple Habits That Set Ultra-Successful People Apart

Prompted by the question, he decided to conduct 500 interviews on the subject, pulling wisdom from successful TEDsters along the way. After absorbing as much as he could, St. John compiled eight powerful secrets of successful people. In this TED Talk, he shares those important success habits.

1. Passion

“Freeman Thomas says, ‘I'm driven by my passion.’ TEDsters do it for love; they don't do it for money.”

2. Work

“Rupert Murdoch said to me, ‘It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun.’ Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes!”

3. Get Good

“Alex Garden says, ‘To be successful, put your nose down in something and get damn good at it.’ There's no magic; it's practice, practice, practice.”

4. Push

David Gallo says, ‘Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've got to push, push, push.’ You've got to push through shyness and self-doubt.”

5. Support (aka moms)

“Frank Gehry said to me, ‘My mother pushed me.’ ”

6. Serve

“A lot of kids want to be millionaires. The first thing I say is: ‘OK, well you can't serve yourself; you've got to serve others something of value. Because that's the way people really get rich.’ "

7. Ideas

St. John says there’s no magical secret to coming up with ideas, only a process of thinking. A few simple exercises will do the trick, such as:

• Listening
• Observing
• Being curious
• Asking questions
• Solving problems
• Making connections

8. Persistence

“Persist! Joe Kraus says, ‘Persistence is the number one reason for our success.’ You've got to persist through failure.”

Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes | Richard St. John

Trials in Life Are for Our Benefit

Pain is a Part of Life

 

The most important thing we have to do with people is understand that pain is a part of life. Things won’t always
go
your way. You will have more disappointments than you will ever begin to imagine. You will have more disappointments than
victories. But eventually, if you stick with it, you will fail your way to success. So one of the first things I teach people
is to be thankful when things happen to you and begin to look for developing an appreciation for the possibilities.
I learned this important lesson when the home I purchased for my mother was foreclosed on. I neglected to do a title search
on the property and found out the previous owner owed over $50,000 on the home. And when I couldn’t come up with the
money, we had to pack up and go back to the roach-infested house that I just moved my mother out of in Liberty City, Fla.
I remember when I was unloading the truck and the neighbors were looking and they said to my mother, “What happened,
I thought your boy got you a home?” And she said, “He did, but he didn’t do a title search, so we lost it.”
And there I was defeated, crying, feeling stupid with my head hanging low. And when my mother saw me she came by the side
of the truck, put her hand on my chin and thrust my head up and said “Hold your head up. We still have each other.”
Even though we were going through what I thought was a tragic situation, she wasn’t focused on that. She was focused
on us still having each other and on looking at the possibilities ahead. Whatever you focus on the longest becomes the strongest.

Source

Les Brown

June 29, 2009

Badass

12 Habits of People Who Create Their Own Happiness. from the power of Positivity

Carpe Diem means seize the day in Latin. Today is unique and you may never get another one. Enjoy it while it lasts. Happiness has to be seized as well. Happiness doesn’t happen to you, it happens because of you. Other people can’t make you happy. You have to find and seize your own happiness. You have to seize it every day of your life.

Here are 12 steps to seizing your happiness everyday:

1. Choose To Be Happy

Happiness is a choice. It doesn’t happen by accident. You decide every day whether you are going to be happy. Nothing outside of yourself can change that unless you choose for it to. Be positive about yourself and your life. Don’t let issues or problems alter your happiness for that day. Treat everyday as a gift that you may not get tomorrow and make the most of it. Make everyday the best day of your life. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

3. Change Negative Thinking

We are our own worst critics sometimes. When our inner critic raises his head, push it back down and tell it to shut up and sit down. Beating yourself up does not solve the issues or complexities in your life, nor do they contribute to the solution. If anything, those negative thoughts hold you back and keep you from your happiness.

4. Forgive and Forget

Holding onto a grudge does nothing to fix a bad situation and only reminds you of the hurt. Holding onto a grudge just hurts you over and over again without actually changing the person who hurt you. Let it go and move on with your life. Stop dwelling on those old hurts and let them heal with time. Forgiveness is a sweet gift of freedom for yourself, and not necessarily for the other person.

5. Be Grateful

No matter how little you have or how much you think your life sucks right now, there are always things to be grateful for. Find those things and embrace them like your life depended on it. Recognizing things in your life that are good, beneficial or that make you happy and accepting them will raise your happiness level. When you are grateful, you do not dwell on that which you lack but on that which you have in abundance.

6. Money Can’t Buy Happiness

Money can buy you pleasures but not happiness. Pleasure is temporary and does not fill that hole inside. No amount of money can replace true happiness and contentment. Chasing money is an endless race with no finish line. Focus less on what you can’t have and more on what you do have.

7. Build Friendships

Friendships are the bedrock of real happiness. They will lift you up when you can’t get up yourself. Together you all can achieve what none of you can achieve alone. Build on existing friendships and cultivate new ones. Find friends you can talk to and do things with. A single stick can be broken but a bundle of them cannot. Find strength and resilience together and you can never be broken.

8. Take Part in Meaningful Activities

Stop being a couch zombie and go do something worthwhile with your time. If it was your last day on Earth, would you really want to catch up on a television show? Go do something new, go find your own adventure. Go venture into nature and enjoy the beauty of this life.

9. Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

Social media only shows you the highly cherry-picked aspects of someone’s life. You never really get to see the nitty gritty of the daily grind. Stop comparing yourself to other people’s highlight reel. Go out there and make a highlight reel of your own. Go do things that make you feel happy not what you think other people will think is awesome.

10. Be Kind To Others

Be kind to others and they will be kind to you. Bring happiness to someone who needs it and you will find yourself sharing in their happiness. Happiness is contagious and you could be a carrier if you really wanted to be. So go spread some love. There is a rewarding feeling of gratitude when you do things for someone who doesn’t expect them.
Related article: 10 Things Happy People Do Differently

11. Enjoy Life’s Simple Pleasures

Find enjoyment in the simple things – a great sandwich, a beautiful sunset, a rainy day or a cold beer on a hot day. Take nothing for granted. Hot showers, a warm bed and a roof over your head are indescribable pleasures after you have been deprived of them for a while. Memories cannot be stolen; you will always have them with you, so go make some good memories to carry you through the rough times.

12. Create and Achieve Goals for Yourself

Set small achievable goals for yourself. Give yourself something to strive for, to get out of bed for or to simply make a boring chore a challenge. Achieving goals and accomplishing things make you happy. You have not wasted a day; you have achieved something that was undone before you did it. You made something happen. Every day, find something that makes you happy and make it happen.

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Accomplish more daily from Tony Robbins

Stop putting off your dreams – your life’s mission– because you don’t feel you have enough time. Become the most productive person you know. As Dale Carnegie said, “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” It may seem counter intuitive to spend time planning, when time feels scarce already. However, the time you spend planning will allow you to accomplish your work more efficiently and make your dreams a reality.
In order to maximize productivity “chunk” your to do list. Take your various action items and group them together, orienting them toward a common outcome and result. Simply put, chunking is the process of turning more into less!
Try this strategy for optimum results:

• Set aside an hour at the beginning of every week to just think and plan out your week.

• Write down what you accomplished in the previous week that you’re proud of. Write down what you were unable to accomplish.

• Prioritize what needs to be done this week. Find ways to be more efficient.

• Chunk those items together!

• Put away all your distractions and truly focus on how you can make your upcoming week more manageable.

• As soon as you complete a key task or objective, reward yourself!
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                  Got to be my favourite Einstein post.

                                 I guess that applies to how we treat ourselves too!!!!

Your words and thoughts have physical power - Will Smith

An incredible, focused and determined man.

Judy Garland quote

Comparing yourself to others ...... that way lies madness!
 

What is the difference between self-worth and self-esteem? John Dimartinin

What is the difference between self-worth and self-esteem?

Self-worth: Is more stable and longer lasting and is based upon how much you feel you ‘deserve’ something as a result of what you feel you have earned or contributed to the world. When deep inside you feel unworthy or you feel you don’t deserve this can be considered lower self-worth. Self-worth is more important to concentrate on and cultivate and is more mission driven. The Demartini Method raises true self-worth through quantum jumps.
Self-esteem: Is more immediate, situational and temperamental. It can change from moment to moment or hour to hour based on more superficial things such as how you look on a particular day or how you are dressed. Self-esteem is more fickle in its nature and is passion driven more. Pride and shame fluctuate.