Month: September 2022

TODAY IS THE DAY!!🥳

After months of work and hype, today is the day my third book, The Beat Goes On, is released to the masses. I will be hosting a book signing event locally at Urbal Tea if any of you would like to stop down. In addition to celebrating this fun moment in time, I would like to look back at how we got here, as well as look forward to what I hope to accomplish with this book.

Let us begin by looking at how we arrived at this book. I would like to remind everyone what my English teacher told me right before I graduated high school. She looked me in the eyes and said, “I hope to God you will never have a career in writing.” In her defense, I might have said the same thing at the time. I was not the best literary student. I still define myself as the author that keeps editors employed. This does, however, remind us that we should not allow others to define our paths in life. As well-meaning as they may be, nobody knows what is best for us except our own hearts and minds. If this memory would have occurred to me before I completed my first book, the self-doubt that comes with such a task may have overwhelmed me. I was also told by one of my customers at the post office that I should not hope to sell more than 12 copies. To date, that book has sold over 500 copies in several countries.

I would also like to talk about how this latest book is different. My first two books, which also includes Living the Dream, were sharing the secrets I have both learned and discovered in my 2 decades in the self-improvement field. They are instructional, and offer great tools and strategies to help all of us to live a more rewarding and positive life. As I was using those very strategies and improving my life, it was turned upside down. I underwent open-heart surgery and had a brief flirtation with death. This experience was both frightening and enlightening at the same time. It was suggested by the love of my life, Margie, that sharing this experience would not only help others, but do a great deal to keep my sanity during the months of anxiety leading up to the procedure, as well as the frustration of healing.

This latest book is not only the story of this portion of my life, but a reaffirming of what was taught in the first two books. If it were not for everything I had learned in the 46 years leading up to that moment, I would have never been able to make it through. I had a chance to not only share what I went through and calm the fears of those who may have to go through the same procedure, but to also share what tools and strategies I used and how. It is my hope this book will not only entertain you with the stories from the hospital and my life, but convey how important and all-encompassing working on yourself and your life can be. In my case, it actually saved my life. The same might be true for you. As I say in the book, and often in life, the time to learn how to swim is on the shore, not when the boat is sinking. Be prepared for when life throws you a challenge.

In closing, just remember to never let anyone define what you can or can’t do. I think Les Brown said it best when he offered, “Someone’s opinion of you does not have to be your reality.” Read that statement whenever you are experiencing doubt because of what some well-meaning person may have said. Also, remember that sharing your story will help both those who may go through the same thing as well as your own sanity as you make it through. Mostly, I want you to know the time to work on living an amazing life and becoming an amazing person is now. Life seldom, if ever, gives us a warning before it turns upside down. If you wait until then to strengthen your health, your relationships and your inner peace, it may be too late. You can find great secrets to do so in any of my books which are all available on Amazon. Just click the link below to be taken to my author page.

CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO MY AUTHOR PAGE😀

WHAT IS YOUR STRANGEST SECRET ?🤫

This recording The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale, has been one of the 3 items that changed my life the most. I must have listened to it thousands of times. Inside it does reveal a great tool to help you live an amazing life. I highly recommend you check it out. (There is a free audio on YouTube)

Today’s post is not about Earl’s Strangest Secret, but yours. I want to know what is the item of knowledge that had the biggest positive impact on your life?

SOMETIMES IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU – AND THAT’S OK

Have you ever had a day where you felt a little down on yourself? Maybe you looked in the mirror and didn’t like what you saw? Too many wrinkles? Too much…umm…You? Maybe you said something you regret and are now kicking yourself for it? Maybe you didn’t get a promotion or achieve a goal in the time you had set for yourself? Whatever the reason may be, you are just not feeling the best about yourself. It happens to the best of us. I once had a book signing and only 4 people showed up. Never mind months earlier I had one where 50+ people showed up, I left feeling like a failure. There are all times where we could use a boost in the self-esteem category.

One group of people who gave the perception they never suffered this problem were old-school hip-hop artists. Before the music involved drugs, violence or demeaning women, it was mostly a “Look how cool I am” lyrical affair. There is actually something to be gained by this type of thinking. You do not have to put out an image that you are better than anyone else, but that you are an awesome person just the way you are. This is true. In every one of us, there is an amazing person. There are certain skills and things we do amazingly. I suggest we start to make a list of them. I do not advocate resting on your laurels and past victories, but visiting them to remind yourself the great stuff you are capable of is not a bad idea at all.

In reference to the music mentioned earlier as well as the picture of ‘The Rock’ that started this post, it would be beneficial to have such reminders placed around for you to see. The music can just be a playlist of songs that make you feel empowered. It can be rock, country, hip-hop or any other genre you enjoy. When you are feeling a little down on yourself or you act in a way that doesn’t exactly make you feel proud to be you, then look at these reminders, push play on your playlist and get out there to kick some butt!

The reason you want to keep your self-esteem high should be obvious. Are you more productive when you feel good about yourself or when you feel defeated? Are you better able to handle challenges when you feel empowered or disempowered? Guess when your health and immune system are more powerful? Any idea which time you are more likely to act in a kind and forgiving manner? Again, I must stress this should not be an attempt to be arrogant or ‘better than’. To be honest, those folks are usually covering up for a poor self-esteem. No, the idea is to get in touch with your inner bad ass, as the author Jen Sincero would say. You are awesome and you have a lot to bring to the world. It is important to have reminders of that. If you wait until you are feeling down to try to think of such things, you will find it near impossible. If you find gathering this list difficult, ask some friends and family why you are amazing. If it makes it easier, share why you think they are amazing in return.

USE THE LITTLE THINGS

Throughout the years I have started many habits that, at this point, almost unconsciously allow me to live a positive and amazing life. I encourage you to do the same. Yours will not be the same as mine, but that is the fun of it. There are little things that only you may know about, that will bring a smile to your face. The goal is to add so many to your life that on any given day you are doing several of them. I realize this may seem a bit vague, so allow me to give you a few of my personal examples and it may help you get the ball rolling.

Like many of the tools that I use and teach, many of these “Little things” came to me by accident. One of the first ones that I can remember doing involved working at the post office. One of the busiest times we had when I worked up front with the customers was tax filing time. Unlike the holiday season, when people usually have a little joy in their heart for what they are mailing, tax time has very little of that joy. One elderly lady was giving me a personal history of how the government took advantage of her. This may or may not have been exaggerated on her behalf. The government does a lot of strange things. Whether they focus on elderly women in the village of Greendale Wisconsin is hard to say. After listening to this our entire transaction, the time came to affix the postage. I looked in straight in the eye and asked with a serious expression, “Would you like to me use love stamps on this?” I thought this would be a fun and sarcastic form of silent protest. She, however, was not in on the joke. She suggested several suggestive drawings that I would not have guessed would come out of the mouth of an elderly woman. I mentioned this might lead to being audited and we left it at that. The idea of putting love stamps on bills seemed so ironic and silly, I started doing it. The few bills I mail now would get one.

Whether your “little things” involve throwing coins in a wishing well, or saying hello to a large statue of a rooster (things I may or may not admit to doing) you should find small things that bring you joy. In my first book, I mention I used to say hello to a heard of cows as I drove to the rural office I was postmaster of. Of course the cows did not understand me, but that was not the point. It was a “little thing” that I did that brought me joy. For myself, little things involving nature seemed to bring an extra amount of joy. You don’t have to do these out loud if you are worried about people questioning your sanity. At this point I am far from worrying about such a thing, so I say “Hello” to animals I meet, and have other fun actions that make me smile.

If you have enough of these in life, you are always doing something that makes you smile inside. Another thing that is almost guaranteed to work, is to make someone else smile. Even if they do not appreciate your attempts, knowing you did your best to bring a smile to the face of someone else will put a smile in your heart. It also has a funny way of coming back to you. In addition to finding the people you are nice to return the favor, people around you will begin to see how you treat others and this will begin to spread. Find your “little things” and start doing them today. If it brings you joy and does not harm others, do it as often as you can!

WHAT IS YOUR STORY?😕

One of my favorite exercises to have people do is to write their own eulogy. I feel it helps people get clear, often for the first time in their lives, what kind of person they want to be remembered as. It also makes it pretty clear if there are on track to be remembered as that kind of person. Going forward, it gives them a pretty good set of self-enforced guidelines. If you know what kind of person you would like to be remembered as, are the actions you are taking going to lead to that? If not, change them. If so, do them more often. It makes life simple and helps steer the rudder of our ship of life, if you will.

There are many people who have an issue with this exercise, or in some cases flat out refuse to do it. They have a hard time getting past the death part. Les Brown said it best, that you can’t get out of life alive. He also said, “Most people die at 25, but don’t get buried until they are 65.” Death is a natural part of life, but I do not want someone’s fear of it to get in their way of success. It is just this thought that I was pondering, along with what the subject of my fifth book will be, when the answer to both questions came to me!

Let me ask you a question that I really want you to think about. If you were to write your autobiography, that is the story of your life, what would the title be? I have been encouraged to write one myself. The best title I could come up with is The Amazing Life of an Ordinary Man. I will explain that in a future post. What I want to plant in your mind is the seed of what story you will leave behind. Will it be one of someone who inspired others or who was only out for their own gain? Will it be of someone who gave or someone who was always looking to take? A “What is in it for me?” sort of attitude. Let me give a clue to those people. As Denzel Washington once said, “I have never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse.” You can’t take it with you. Think of the title of your story. How will it read? Even if you find yourself down and out at the moment, that can be where your story changes. How many of us like to go to a movie or read a book where the main character rises up from the ashes to achieve a level of greatness? The story wouldn’t be as good without the struggle.

Want to take this exercise a step further to help improve your life even more? Imagine someone else was writing your biography, what would they say? What would they title it? Notice how this will be different with each person you think of. If you want to be the best spouse you can be, imagine your better half is about to begin work writing your life story. You certainly would not want them to say you were an inattentive lover. You wouldn’t want to read that you were emotionally unavailable. You want to read how you made their heart sing. You want to read that you made them feel safe both physically and emotionally. Ok, if that is what you want to read, what actions can you take to make that the story? How about if your children were going to write your biography? What would they say about you? Are there ways you could improve that story? Take those actions now.

Think about your own autobiography. Is it what you want it to be so far? If not, what actions can you take to change that? I would start with this first. Then when you are comfortable that you are on track to live the story you would want to write, think of others. What would your spouse write? Your children? Your friends? What actions could you take to make their story one that would make you proud. This should be a fun and insightful exercise. I would love to hear about your experience.

SHARE YOUR STORY 📖

In the next two posts, we are going to look at ways of becoming immortal. Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with magic potions, the occult or some guy trying to sell you snake oil. In fact, I want you to sell me something. If there was one thing that I would love everybody in the world to do it is this – share your story. I used to say I think everyone should write a book, and that still holds true, but writing a book is not for the faint of heart. After three of them, just trust me on that. Fortunately, for all of us, there are so many avenues in which to tell you story, you don’t have to write a single thing. My most recent book is about my heart surgery, but when I wanted to tell my story about the first person in my community to get Covid-19, I used YouTube videos. Now, to reach more people, I have started a podcast. You also have social media and many other outlets.

Nothing frustrates me greater than to hear someone exclaim, “I don’t have a story to tell.” Everyone has a story to tell. When I inform them of this, I hear some replies that leave me speechless. As anyone who knows me personally, that takes some doing. I have heard people say things like, “I am just a server.” “There is nothing special about me.” “I am just a parent.” or “I am not succeeding really well in life.” Those last two really get me. You are just a parent? So you are just responsible for crafting another human life and raising a future generation? Yeah, no big deal. You are not doing so well in life? Despite what you may see on Facebook, how many people would you guess have areas of their lives they are not doing so well at?

There are two VERY important reasons you should share your story. The first is the lessons you can teach the world. Before you tell me that you are not a teacher, or even haven’t been very good at something, let me tell you that you are a teacher. If you have not been very successful in life up to this point. Maybe you have made a lot of mistakes, or you let one big mistake continue to haunt you, do you think there are lessons you could give others in those mistakes? Even if your story consists of “Don’t do all of the stupid stuff I did.” You could very well save someone else’s life by doing so. Think I am being overly dramatic? Maybe that person would not be as resilient as you and would not be able to make it through. People get hung up by things that may not bother us. Let us say you have accomplished some things in life. Do you think there is lessons in them as well? “If you want a good relationship like me do this….” (My advice would be to become an active listener and work on being the best version of yourself)

Second reason you should share your story is that there are a lot of other people just like you out there. Those people may be feeling alone in their struggles. If you think of yourself as just a parent, how many other parents are out there that could relate to your struggles? That is the point, sometimes we just need others to relate to. When I am with fellow authors, guess what we talk about? The struggles of writing! When athletes get together they talk about their sports. Now imagine if you could reach a wider audience. How many people do you think you could affect? If you are a server, would you enjoy reading stories of unique customer challenges other servers have went through? Of course you would! I can just imagine you reading it shaking your head and saying “I know what that is like!” How about a parent going through the struggle of the ‘terrible twos’? I am sure just reading a story about it could help lots of other parents.

Share your stories my friends. You never know who you will reach. You never know who you will connect with. You never know who you will help.

IT IS OK TO START OVER 😀

I know that most of you following this blog post are aware that I have started a podcast. Being that I had my own radio show for several years, and even my own television show for a short time, I thought it was a natural progression. What I allowed to get in my way was not being up to speed on the technology. I recall having coffee with my friend Nick and giving him the same excuses for the last couple of months. Being that Nick is a good friend, he looked me right in the eyes and called me out. “Isn’t this what you have been telling me four months now?” He was right. I needed to just jump in.

I still am figuring everything out. The podcasts are rough, but we already have 4 done. I am learning new things with each episode. You can see the email I received above. It is congratulating me on 10 plays. For someone who has a blog that has over 1700 posts and is followed in over 187 countries, this was a little humbling. After all, if I only got 10 views on my blog, I would be disappointed.

There are 2 things that I had to keep in mind. If I went back to 2012, when I began my blog, I believe I had 12 views the first 2 months. I was followed in one country…mine…by one person…my mom. To think I have over 32,000 followers now all across the globe. It has taken 10 years to get to that point. I had to remember to be patient. I also had to keep in mind my why for doing this podcast in the first place. The reason was to reach and help inspire many more people. In today’s world, there are plenty of people who would rather listen to a podcast for 30 minutes than read a blog for two. I should know, I live with one. There is nothing wrong with that. If I wanted to reach these people, I had to adapt. It would also allow me to reach people on a more personal level. Many have never heard my voice, or the inflection that adds to my writing.

I invite you to also check out my podcast at the link below. You will not only have another avenue to be inspired and learn tools and strategies to turn the life you have into the life you love, but may be able to do so at times that reading is not convenient. Check out and subscribe to the “Living the Dream with Neil Panosian” podcast at the link below. I would love your feedback as I continue to grow in this field as well.

CLICK HERE TO BE A PART OF THE “LIVING THE DREAM WITH NEIL PANOSIAN” PODCAST!😀

HOW THIS ALL WORKS- AUDIO VERSION

Have you heard about the Law of Attraction? Does it seem too good to be true? Does it sound like something from a science fiction movie? Does it sound too new age for you? You are not alone.

What if I were to tell you there was actual science behind why this does work? The Law of Attraction is real and it has to do with a part of the brain we use every day! Once I show you this powerful example and how you are already unwittingly putting it to use in your own life. With a few tweaks, you can take this part of your brain and consciously put it to work for you.

In my latest podcast episode we examine this phenomenon and tell you how to use it to start manifesting the kind of life you are dreaming of.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO PUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION TO WORK FOR YOU