YOU KNOW THE WHY, HERE IS THE HOW

Last post we talked about why happiness is so  important. Now let us look at how to get there. Read the picture above. Here is what is says in a nutshell ‘Happiness is an inside job’. I would like to add a few words though. I would like to put forth that nobody can make you happy, or unhappy without your permission. When I first heard this my first reaction was “Well I can’t help how things make me feel?”. Guess what? You can! So how on earth do we do that? How when the person we gave our heart and soul to tells us “It’s not you it’s just me” can we not feel deflated? How when after we have gave our all someone tells us we are not good enough, can we keep our head held high and move forward?

One simple answer – meaning. I have wrote about this before but it is so important that it bears repeating. If you can not only know this in your mind, but get this in your soul it will make you unstoppable and life will be filled with so much joy you will wonder why you didn’t take time to learn this before. Sound like a big promise? Then I challenge you to do this and prove me wrong.

Here is what I am talking about. Everything that affects us emotionally is determined by the meaning we attach to it. If we can control what things mean to us, we can control how they make us feel. I will attempt to explain this somewhat complex subject in brief here. Ok, say the person we love leaves us. What does that mean? Look at the different reactions people have. I know a friend who recently found himself single. His reaction? He has been in the gym every day creating the best self he can. He is determined to show his former love what she is missing. I also worked with a man whose wife left him and a few days later he ended his life. Now this man had everything going for him. He was charming, smart and had a great sense of humor. What is the difference between the two? Meaning. The first gentleman took stock of where he was, saw his faults and decided to evolve and improve so that moment will have propelled him to be a better man. The second man decided life was over.

Now I hope you don’t find yourself in this situation anytime soon. Now is the time to start working on taking control of your emotions. First, take notes on what makes you happy and what does not. It is important to write them down as it creates a mind/body connection. Then ask yourself why you feel this way. In the case of negative emotions I am going to give you a magical question to ask yourself. Why is it a magical question? It will break your emotional pattern and free you up to remove a lot of those negative emotions. Here is the magical question – what else can this mean -. Perhaps this person who is treating you harshly has something going on in their life you don’t know about?  There is a story about a gentleman who was on a subway with a man and his children who were running around screaming and misbehaving. As the blocks went by this gentleman was getting more and more irritated with the lack of parental control this man was demonstrating. In fact as the children’s behavior got worse he just sat there staring into space. Finally the man couldn’t take anymore and said to the man “Don’t you think you should do something about your kids?”. The man looked up for the first time and responded “Yeah, I guess your right. We are just leaving their mom’s funeral and they don’t know how to act and to be honest neither do I”. Imagine how that man felt? It was the meaning he first attached. He was thinking “these kids are misbehaving” “They were not raised right” “This man is a bad parent”. The truth was far different. Now is this easy? absolutely not. In fact, when you have been hurt, it is very hard to ask what else can this mean? To find a positive and motivating purpose in even the worst situations is a life-long challenge that takes continued effort. In fact, even the most self-developed of us can still work on that. The man in the subway, was Stephen Covey a famous speaker, author and self-improvement guru. Next time you find yourself irritated or life throws you a challenge ask yourself “What else can this mean?”. Try to find as many positive possibilities as you can. Trust me, this will be challenging at first, but will get easier the more you do it.

Please share this post and help those you care about to live a more amazing life.

WHY THE HURRY?

One of the main questions i get asked doing my seminars is “why is happiness so important?”. Why not teach people how to make lots of money? When people are rich they are a lot happier right? Let me ask you this, when someone close to you passes away does your bank account matter? When you get your heart broke does how much you are worth matter? In response to this a lot of people tell me that everyone they know is healthy. Their love life is amazing and in fact they are pretty happy. Another group of people have this answer, “I’ll be happy when…”. The second half of that statement varies, but basically says that some outside circumstance determines your happiness.

Let’s tackle the first statement. If your life is going well, that is awesome! Take notes. That is what makes a successful life. What do I mean take notes? When life is working take notes. Pay attention to what is working for you. Same when life isn’t working. Take notes. That way you will have a recipe that works for your life. Why worry about happiness when you already have it? Simple, life is always changing. In fact, when you are happy is the perfect time to learn about and design your happiness. Our mind is clear, and we will be better prepared to face challenges when they come. If you and your friends planned a white water rafting trip would you wait to learn to swim until you fell out of the raft? Of course not. So learning to manage your emotional state, or to maintain a positive attitude is a skill that not only affects every area of our life, but will determine how much we enjoy the life we have.

That leads us to the second answer. The “I’ll be happy when..” people. So you are waiting for the kids to go off to college and then you will be happy? You are waiting until you get that new promotion  and then you will be happy? What will you be doing in the meantime? Reacting to how life decides to treat you? What if that promotion never comes? What if someone close to you passes away? Not a pleasant thought, but it could happen. Then you find yourself saying “I wish I would have enjoyed life more with….”. Here is one other fact, we never know when our time is up. You could eat healthy, go to the gym everyday and life could take you out. So why put off enjoying life? Enjoy the journey. Begin today! Develop and feed your happiness. Life will begin to be so magical. It was John Lennon who said “life is what happens when we are busy making plans”. Do not let that be you. Do not be so focused on a destination you miss the journey. 90% of our time is spent in the journey. So how do we do that? Come back tomorrow and we will tackle that subject.

In the meantime please help me bring light to the world by sharing this blog post on your social media page and by telling your friends about secret2anamazinglife.com.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

There is a quote by Nelson Mandela that reads,

“You’re playing small does not serve the world.  Who are you not to be great”

This statement could not ring more true. How many of us know people who have enormous amount of talent, but fail to act on it out of fear of failure or even fear of success. 

I recall a recent conversation i had with a young man who was just finding his way in the world. He approached me and inquired as follows,  “being a life coach, what do you think i should do with my life?”. For years i asked myself the same question. The answer I believe has two parts to it.  

First, what can you do to bring the most to the world. Our world is always in need of help in many different areas. A sense of Contribution is one of the basic human spiritual needs. If you feel what you are doing does not matter you face two challenges. One, the ability to get up and do it when the weather is too cold, or too hot, or too wet. Perhaps when you have had too much the night before, or not enough. Two, if you feel what you do does not make a difference you lose your feeling of self worth. Your spirit begins to die. The “who cares if i don’t show up anyway”.

The second question we should ask ourselves when deciding our lot in life is what do we enjoy. If you are going to do something 40 hours a week (or more) it should be something you enjoy. Something that stirs our soul. When we are doing something we enjoy we tend to work harder and do a better job. 

When I tell people this they often find these two in conflict. I knew a man who really liked to paint. He told me painting brings me a sense of fulfillment, but i don’t think my paintings contribute anything to the world. What the world needs is people living their dreams. People of passion who are full of love for life. These people tend to be kinder and contribute more than those who are doing a job that they think is important but doesn’t speak to their soul. 

Ok, but what about making a living? Obviously that is important. I advise people to break down what needs their passion fills. In the case of the painter he should pursue a job that fuels his creativity while he markets his paintings. Sometimes we must begin our dreams as hobbies. 

So ask yourself those two questions. “What can i contribute?” And “what do i enjoy?”. Often what you enjoy will be the area on which can contribute the most. 

JUST ONE THING

Normally there is not a blog post on this site on Sunday, but it is new years day and i would love to help you get a jump on having an amazing 2017.

Today is a day traditionally a lot of us make resolutions. Usually, judging by the crowds at the gym, they usually last about a month or so. Why are resolutions so hard to keep? There are a million possible answers and it greatly depends on you. 

One of the dilemmas we face is in the enormity of some of the goals we set for ourselves. So here is a fun activity we can all try. It involves doing one simple thing, once a week. Kind of like replacing one of your meals with a salad once a week do try and begin to eat more healthy. Sometimes adding something small can be easier to stick with and can build a foundation to make bigger changes. Not to mention, this one is fun!

Ok he is the drill. Find a jar. It can be one you have laying around the house you decorate, or you can go to the home store and pick one out. Part of the fun is being creative.  Do what speaks to you. Now place the jar somewhere you will see regularly. Place by this jar a small stack of papers and a pen. Pick a day on which you can regularly depend. Be it Monday to start the week, Friday at the end or any of the other five. On that day write on one of the pieces of paper either something that made you happy or something you are grateful for that week. You can do both if you like. 

What you do with your jar is up to you. Some people read through it when they are having a bad day. Some pick days and open it and read them all. Some friends wait until the next December and look back at all the good they had that year. Any of these are great! You could even do them all. 

This is a simple, fun idea that only takes a couple of seconds once a week. Try it this year and see where it takes you. Maybe share the idea with a friend and design your jars together. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments below. 

BE THE CHANGE

Who doesn’t want to change the world? Who wouldn’t want the world to be a better place for everyone? Tall order right? How can we convince political rivals not to resort to bloodshed to solve their differences? How can we convince those whose hearts are filled with hate to replace it with love? In short, we can’t.

Not very inspiring I know. It is the truth. We cannot change the minds and hearts of others. That is up to them. This blog is focused on things we CAN do though. So what can we do? How do we reach those souls who need it most? How can we change the world? It is actually easier than you think. The only way we can truly touch and reach each other is through love and compassion. The woman who is credited with the quote above, Mother Teresa, changed the world on a grand scale using both love and compassion.

The good news is you do not have to surrender your life and help those people in a third world country like she did. All we have to do is show love to those around us. This is not always easy, but it will pay rewards far beyond what we can imagine. Being a shining example of love and compassion to our family will provide them with a framework to do the same. My good friend Bart recently had his first child. Both he and his wife and very caring and compassionate people who genuinely care about the world around them. It does my soul good to know such parents are raising a member of the future generation who will bring the same to the world.

So what about those who do not have the luxury of having such parents? That is why it is important to be the best example we can for everyone we encounter. Let us do our best to remember in the coming year that a lot of people do not have the benefit of a loving and compassionate example to draw from. Perhaps they have not learned how to deal with anger, or how to understand those who are different from them. They might have even been raised and taught to be full of hate and judgment. In the face of such people we need to serve them and the world around us by being that example. That is not an easy task, especially when that anger or judgment is directed at us. By fighting our temptation to reflect the same emotions back, and by ‘killing’ their judgment and anger with our love, compassion and understanding we are indeed changing the world.

BE THE TEMPTATION 

Many of the questions I encounter in my work have to do with relationships and the stress that goes with them. Add to the fact that in addition to being a self-improvement author and motivational speaker I also have a very public and loving relationship people are inclined to ask me advice.

The picture above is obviously geared toward men, but would work the same way for either gender. Most of us focus on finding the right person. In reality if we are focusing on others we run the danger of losing ourselves. When you are becoming the best person you can be, the right person will naturally be attracted to you. If you are a person who enjoys reading or who would even like to, you may find your perfect match if you spend quality time in a bookstore or library. Wanting to get fit? Your soul mate may not be at an all you can eat buffet.

Here is another aspect of working on yourself. A quote I love and do my best to live by is one from the author and speaker Eric Thomas “You must be ready for the opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of the opportunity”. That opportunity may be the person of your dreams. If you are still dealing with your own issues, that person may not find it desirable to be with you. How many times have we found ourselves saying “I wish I would have not done/said that”. I think all of us, myself included have uttered that phrase a million times. If we are dealing with anger management problems, or emotional baggage from a past relationship it can make it very difficult, if not impossible to enter into a new, healthy relationship. I can safely say the success of my current relationship has as much to do with both parties working on bettering themselves as it does both parties working on the relationship.

Take being a better listener, problem solver, communicator or any other relationship skill. If you learn how to do these effectively your relationship whether the one you are currently in, or the one you will enter into in the future, stands a far more likely chance of being loving and successful. Even if only one partner has skills in any of these, it is easier to demonstrate them to the other. Both Margie and I have shared things with each other that we have learned trying to better ourselves. Those very things have went on to better the other as well as the relationship.

The good and the bad news? The bad news is working on ourselves is a never ending project. There will always be areas in which we can improve. The good news about that is it means our relationships, as well as our life will continue to get better as we continue to better ourselves. So if you want a better relationship, or a better life. The answer lies as close as the bathroom mirror. Ask yourself the empowering question “How can I become more?”

HURRY UP AND FAIL!

In the category of things that never made sense to me, but now have really changed the way I look at the world, I give you failure. Growing up with the guidance of well meaning people around me failure was a word that should attempt to be avoided. You didn’t want to fail because that meant you were no good. It meant you were not a success. As an adult I continued to look at failure in this light. It actually grew to be something I began to fear. I would do everything in my power to make sure I didn’t fail. That sadly included not trying things that were likely to end up in failure, at least at first.

If we look at our lives there are certain things we are naturally good at. I can usually get up and speak or give a toast with little or no problem. If you see me on the dance floor however, something would appear seriously wrong.

We naturally tend to pursue things that we have some basic skill in. For me writing and speaking are two of my more natural skills so I tend to do things that use those skills. Bartending and DJing use my speaking and relating skills. This website and my books use my writing skills (Notice I did not say grammar or editing skills). The reason we do this is our chance of failure is less likely and we naturally excel at them. This gives us a feeling of self confidence and accomplishment. That is great and I believe pursuing things you are passionate about will lead to great success.

That being said, do not let fear of failure stand in your way from exploring new things. Once you learn a new skill as we showed above in can translate into several other options. Realizing this can make enduring the initial failure can be a little easier. Failure is not an end,  but part of the journey. The quicker we do so, the quicker we can move on to developing our skills and becoming more proficient. Here is another little trick I find that works. If you can somehow use a skill you already have to learn a new skill it can make learning a lot less painful and a lot more fun. When I was learning how to become a DJ and my wonderful teacher, who happened to be the patient love of my life, was showing me all of the technical aspects (most of which I am still learning) I leaned heavily on the speaking part of the job because that is what I am naturally good at. It gave me a feeling of competence and a hope that I could one day be a great DJ like she is.

Takeaway today is don’t fear failure, embrace it. Do so quickly, because as soon as you get it out of the way you will be one step closer to success. Now if I could just find a way to link speaking and writing with dancing….

DON’T CONFUSE THE TWO

This is a tough one. When we are emotionally hurt it can leave a scar worse than a physical scar. Sometimes we even have a habit of dating the same kind of people who treat us poorly. If you couple that with the intense emotional pain that we feel it is so wonder our brains can link things together and come up with some pretty strange conclusions! We can believe all relationships cause pain. Of course we can look around and see proof that is not true. You can get hurt in most relationships, but if two people truly care about each other it becomes an opportunity for growth and becoming closer. The abusive, painful relationships are not relationships at all. There is no relating or respect, but instead more of a using. When we get hurt it may be difficult to realize that, but realize it we must or we prevent ourselves from experiencing all the wonderful things a healthy relationship can offer.

Not only relationships can be affected by this way of thinking. For example, I was bitten by the same type of dog on several occasions. Most dogs rather enjoy my company and I must confess I enjoy their company far more than some humans I have come across. Still the link to the physical pain and the fact is was the same breed and I am not the biggest fan of those particular dogs. That is a link I formed in my head. I could have developed the belief that all dogs were bad, or even lost my love for animals. Luckily I had many fun and not painful experiences before that so those never came to be.

So let us look at our beliefs and see how we came to develop them and if they have any validity. Perhaps we have drawn the wrong conclusions. Maybe in my case I happened across some bad dog owners? Perhaps I need to learn to modify my behavior around those types of dogs or learn more about them?

If ever we have beliefs that are absolute such as “All men are bad” “All people of this belief are bad” we need to really take a look at them more closely. Very rarely do things in this world fit in absolutes. Even gravity is known to work a little sketchy in certain parts of the world. Please share this blog post and website with those you car for.

START A FUNDRAISER

I like this saying because it can be rather profound. Of course there is several meanings i see in this picture. 

First, if we view our work as a fundraiser for our lives it can change our perception of our work. When you realize what your money allows you to do, even if it is just paying the bills, you slowly shift how you feel. Even though work will remain frustrating at times there begins to enter a feeling of gratitude. Sure we would all like to earn more money, but the fact we are earning some allows us to love in a climate controlled house with clean water whenever we need. It allows us to eat everyday. Sure we might want steak instead of fast food more often, but we rarely go to bed hungry. This puts us so far ahead of most of the world that even if we don’t have the fancy car, exotic vacation or other things we might desire we still have a lot to be grateful for. 

Second, perhaps we need to add to the fundraising aspect. If we set up a special savings account, or even a coffee can we contribute to designated for a fun special purpose it can motivate us when work is challenging. 

So this week set up that account (or fun bank) pick a fun purpose and start saving what you can, even change. Then notice all the bills you are able to pay thanks to your job. It may not seem like fun, but try to imagine life without them. 

We all serve a great purpose

Today a lot of us celebrate Christmas. If you are anything like me you are running around last minute looking for the perfect gift. Do you go wine? Gift cards? Coffee? There are a million different options! Still there is one perfect gift for any holiday.

That gift is the gift of help. Being the light in someone’s darkness. The gift of time, understanding and just listening are something that you can’t buy even if you are Bill Gates. It also makes you one of the most valuable people to have in anyone’s life. How valuable is a good friend who listens to you? To me I love gifts that people make and put their heart and soul in, but even better is the gift of time. Those wonderful souls who bring light to my world and make me smile are the gifts I treasure all year long.

So you want to make someone’s holiday? Call them up and ask how they’re doing. Give them time to really tell you. Shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk. Give your time and money to your favorite charity. Be someone who always brings a smile to a room when you walk in, and to the souls of all you know. Share a smile. Share an encouraging word. Share love and respect with all this holiday season. Thank you and feel free to share this blog.