When I was young, my grandmother used to make baked chicken legs. Trays of them! All with Open Pit BBQ sauce. She passed away many years ago. Since then, I found other chicken, and sauces I enjoy. Still, there was something that the thought of that chicken that took me back to being a kid.
Fast forward to last night. I was relaxing, watching the NFL draft. Margie, the love of my life, surprised me by making… you guessed it…baked chicken legs with Open Pit BBQ sauce! She even added some Mac and cheese to complete the memory. Did it ever take me back!
It is good to enjoy a meal, do a certain activity, or go a certain place to reconnect with those good memories. A second bonus of this delicious memory was the realization, and gratitude for, the fact that I have had 2 amazing women who are great Cooks in my life. Is there a memory you can connect with? Take some time to do so today!
If you make becoming the best version of yourself your goal, you will succeed in every area of your life. Let us take a second and think of this. If we become the best version of ourselves at work, that will make us one of the best employees. Become the best version of yourself in your friendship? Who wouldn’t want to have a friend who is the best listener, best conversationalist they can be?
This leads us to the area in which this succeeds the greatest. Being our best selves in our intimate relationship will catapult that relationship to new heights! It is my first advice to anyone having relationship trouble. Work harder on yourself than even on your relationship. Why? You will be bringing your best to the person you love. This will do one of two things. It will either impress them with your effort and improvement, which is what we hope. Even if the relationship ends, you will save yourself the worst emotion. That emotion is regret. There will be no “would have” or “should have”. You will know you brought the best of yourself to the relationship. You also will be setting yourself up the best for the future.
If you are overwhelmed and wondering where to start, just start with yourself. By improving yourself, you will be improving every area of your life. This one habit will improve every area of your life!
I recently returned from a week in the wonderful country of Jamaica. As soon as I got off the plane, I felt like a different person. Have you ever had this experience? As soon as your vacation begins, stress melts away and life just feels amazing. Whether that is driving to the mountains, flying to the tropics or any other destination. Ten years ago, I asked myself a question you may have pondered as well. “How can I carry this amazing feeling of vacation into the other 50 weeks a year that I am not on vacation?” I have spent every day since looking for the answer to the question, “How do we live like we are on vacation?” The first answers resulted in my book, A Happy Life for Busy People. It focuses on quick and simple ways to reduce stress and increase joy in your life. They all require very little effort and most can be done without spending a single cent.
As the years went by and I continued to learn more, I created my second book, Living the Dream. It took a deeper dive into how life works. How to create the relationship of your dreams. How to create a feeling of inner peace. How to better control your emotional state. How to better handle the challenges life throws at us all. How to develop a champions mindset. If any of this sounds like something you would like in your life, I suggest reading that book. To simplify this, I will put a link at the bottom where you can get all of my books. If you incorporate these tools and strategies, it will help you create a life that feels more like a vacation. Do not get me wrong, I certainly would not mind more tropical escapes with the love of my life, but every day with her seems like a dream come true. Why? We have both used the tools in this book to take our relationship to a higher level and continue to do so. We both are chasing our passion and focused on gratitude in our lives. Which leads us to the final point that will benefit you from reading my books.
With all of the self-improvement books on the market, why should you bother to pick up mine? Why did I even bother to write a book, never mind several, in a field that is already so saturated? Those are questions I get a lot. The answer is a simple one. These books were written based on two things. One, the wisdom of several very intelligent individuals. Some as far back as 500 B.C., some who are still alive today. The other is my own mistakes. That is what started my journey to begin with. My life was in a terrible state. In order to take control over my life and turn it around, I began to read. By ‘began to read’, I mean reading everything I could get my hands on. Here is what I learned. Many of the books told me that when I was in China, it was a good idea to speak Chinese, but they never taught me any of the vocabulary.
My book will not teach you how to speak Chinese. What I mean is that many books will give you practical theories, but not tell you simple ways to incorporate them. I tried the things that I read about. I recorded what worked and what did not. I tweaked them. In my books you will not only get the theory behind them, but step by step instructions on how to implement them in your own life. There are also funny personal stories of how they worked when I applied them.
If you want to change your life. If you want to start living the dream, or living like you are on vacation, I highly suggest picking up one or more of my books. Allow me to be of service to you. I put over two decades of both wins and loses, success and failure in these books. What works and what does not. It is my life’s mission to leave this world better than I found it, and that starts with you. If we can work together to take your life to a higher level, then the world, and more importantly your world, will be a little bit better. You can even share the tools with those you love and help them positively transform their lives. Whether you read my book or another, please never stop learning and improving yourself and your life. It is the best thing you can do to make the world a better place.
Multi-tasking… one of the biggest lies perpetuated to the masses. We may think 60,000 thoughts a day. We can only focus on one thing at a time. Don’t believe me? Try it. You may bounce back and forth quickly, but you will still only be able to focus on the one thing.
The same thing with doing something. You may bounce back and forth between activities quickly, but you are still only doing one at any given moment. The more you spread yourself around the less you are actually puttinginto anything.
To conceptualize this concept, I picture a scale. You know those ones with a cup on either side. On one side would be the quantity of activities you are pursuing. On the other side, the quality you are bringing to each activity you are pursuing. It I’d an inverse relationship. Not only will you bring more quality by focusing on one activity at a time, but you will actually get more done in the long run! Next time you are tempted to multi-task,picture that scale with the 2 cups. Then ask yourself, “Am I looking to bring quality or quantity to the world?
We all have them. People who just seem not to like us for whatever reason. Sometimes these people seem to not like anyone. You hear them when you’re out, or maybe at the office. They are constantly highlighting everyone’s faults. How annoying is that?
You may be thinking that your life would be better without any of these people. The secret to an amazing life, however, is learning to use everything in life to our advantage. This includes negative emotions and situations, as we have discussed in the past. It also includes these negative people. How can we put them to work for us?
Listen to what your haters have to say about you. Often, it is blown up andexaggerated, but there may be a hint of truth in it. They may be pointing out a character flaw that your friends are too polite to mention. Here is another great idea that I often use. If I am trying to start a new habit such as eating healthy, or trying to stop a bad habit such as eating junk food, the first people I’ll tell are my enemies. Why? They will be ones who will watch you at every turn looking for you to mess up. That way they will be working for you by making sure you stick to your new self-improvement goals!
Next time you are tempted to be angeredby, or frustrated by, your haters, put them to work! Take an honest look in the mirror and see if their complaints have a ring of truth to them. Even if they don’t, it is a great reminder to speak good of everyone. Also, use them to help you stick to your goals. They will help you improve your life without even knowing!
Many people forget that the weekend is a great time to make progress on their life goals. Yes,I get it. You have just worked all week and want to relax,and you should. Still, if we hope to see any progress in life,we must take action.
I work 50 hours a week at my day job. I also DJ on Sunday. Guess how I feel a good deal of the time? If your answer was “What is tired Alex?” (mynod to the show jeopardy) you would be correct. Most nights I would love nothing more than to come home and collapse in the arms of the lady I love. If I did that, I might not be as physically tired, but I would have no spiritual satisfaction.
Although writing a blog every day and working on my fourth book, to say nothing of promoting both, takes time from an already busy schedule, it also provides satisfaction. Without the action I take, my life would feel unfulfilled. Actions give us a feeling of progress. That can lead to momentum. So write a page towards that novel you dreamt of creating. Start on that painting. Work on that business plan.
It is important to get rest, but make sure you are also taking action toward reaching your goals. It will give your life a sense of meaning and you a feeling of fulfillment.
Being happy. One thing we often put off. Make sure the work gets done, then we will be happy. Wait until this happens, or that happens then we will celebrate. This is some of the most backwards thinking we can have and why we find ourselves in the state we do today.
I like the thought above – “Be happy. You never know how much time you have left.”That is so true. How many celebrities can you think of who died young? How many people in your own life did not have as long as they may have thought?
There used to be a show on television called 1000 Ways to Die. It showed the unique and often ridiculous ways people met their demise. I never really considered how many ways there are to die. By the end of this show’s run they had shown 500. That’s still a lot. The point is, with all of these ways to take the last train out of town, we should be thrilled every day it leaves the station without us! We should not need a reason or a goal to achieve, to make us happy.
One of the great secrets of an amazing life is switching expectations for appreciation. Instead of chasing happiness this weekend, why don’t we try sitting still and appreciating it. Look around and find all of the beauty and things we can be grateful for. Even if that is just that we haven’t appeared on 1000 ways to die. Although, if we did, chances are we wouldn’t be able to watch our own episode.
There are many things to put off. Being happy is not one of them. When you get to the end of your life, do you want to regret not enjoying it? You may think you have time to fall in love with your life, but do you? Truth is, we don’t know. When I discovered that I needed open-heart surgery, I only had about 2 months to enjoy before that. You never know when life will surprise you with a challenge to did not see coming. If there is one thing to do today, that is to be happy.
We are all looking to use our money wisely these days. With the price of groceries and gas on the increase, every dollar counts. Yet, self-care is more important than ever. Stress seems to come at us from every corner. Turn on the television or look at your phone and there seems to be one stressful situation after another. We need to invest in ourselves and our mental well-being to thrive in today’s world. Any money spent on your own mental and spiritual care should not be viewed as an expenditure, but rather an investment.
Wouldn’t it be nice to invest in your well-being and stress reduction and not have to spend anything at all? A lot of us are on Amazon.com quite often. Who can blame you. There are plenty of good deals, and as we mentioned, saving money is good for all of us. There is one thing you can find on Amazon that will not cost you a thing, but help you reduce your stress, increase your joy and help you become the best version of yourself. That is the Living the Dream with Neil Panosian podcast. All you have to do is search my name, Neil Panosian, on Amazon. You will see all three books of mine. Great investments in themselves. I promise you the value you will gain will far outweigh what you spend to get them. There is one item you can get today, no money out of pocket, that will bring you both entertainment as well as useful life strategies. That is my podcast. As you can see from the picture above, it is 100% free. You can be listening as soon as you finish reading this blog. Don’t worry, I won’t keep you much longer.
Here is a brief description of what you will find inside that podcast. I must add that it will also include items from my third book as well. You can improve your life starting today. You do not have to spend a single thing and all you have to do is push play and listen. You can get to this podcast, as mentioned, by searching Neil Panosian on Amazon.com. You can also click on the link below. I highly suggest subscribing to the podcast so you will be the first to hear the new episodes as they are released. I will leave a link you can click on at the bottom of this post as well. I look forward to being able to serve you and your life on my podcast and will look forward to your feedback. Subscribe now as season two is just about to begin!
One of the first reasons I was brought into the world of self-improvement was the man above, Tony Robbins. Like millions of others, I saw his infomercial at 3a.m. and ordered the product “Get the Edge”. Those CDs transformed my life. Not only for the content and strategies contained within, but because they influenced and motivated me to share what I learned with others. Not only did I improve my life, but by becoming a blog writer, author and life coach, I was able to positively influence the lives of others. I am still a big fan of Tony Robbins. I refer back to some of his work as a good reminder of some of the core principles that began my journey.
Then there was my fitness journey. Still a very active, and often up and down, journey. One of the main influences to get me moving was the man above, Greg Plitt. Not so much for a desire to have a physique like him. Although, that would be a bonus. His knowledge of fitness, both the physical and mental aspects, were a great boost. In addition, he has great motivational videos that both reinforced what Mr. Robbins said, as well as introducing some new and powerful concepts. The more videos I watched, the more I learned. Then, I learned a very interesting fact – he was dead. He met an unfortunate demise while filming a video. I had been learning for months from a man that I did not even realize was no longer with us. I still watch some of his videos to get me into the gym and to educate on several fitness and nutrition aspects.
That leads us to this man. Probably, one of, if not thee, greatest influence on my writing and personal development career. His name is Earl Nightingale. His message, The Strangest Secret, is something I have listened to thousands of times. His strategies for success are straight forward and filled with common sense. He was one of only 100 survivors on the U.S.S. Arizona when it was bombed in Pearl Harbor. He owned his own insurance company. He had his own radio program. He earned the first gold record for a spoken word recording and went on to launch the self-improvement recording industry. The company named after him, Nightingale-Conant, has many great products to help you improve your life. He also reminds me a bit of my grandfather, but I digress. He passed away in 1989.
The point of this message today is that every day I learn from people who have passed away. The only reason that I can do so is that they shared their story before they did. That is why it is so vital to share the talent you have inside of you. Your greatest moment may come long after you are gone. Our lives on this planet are finite, our influence on it does not have to be. Read that last line again slowly. How many authors, artists, musicians and others were only truly appreciated after they were gone? There is a day that we are born, and a day that we will die. Most self-improvement is focused on the moments between. That is for good reason. I put forth that we should also think about the influence we will have after we are gone. What you leave behind could save the life of someone who is not born yet. What you leave behind could change the world for your great-grandchildren. Do not let your influence die with you. Share your story today. Whether that is a video on YouTube, writing a book, or sharing a blog. That could be recording your music, sharing your artwork or a million other ways to express yourself. Do not keep it inside you. Tomorrow is never promised.
If you saw your friend putting all of his money in this machine, what would you do? You watch him take dollars out of his pocket and feed the machine, press a button and then get frustrated when nothing happens. Would you stop him? Would you point out how putting hard-earned money into a machine that is “out of order” is not only a waste, but a rather stupid course of action?
If you are a good friend I hope you would. Would you put your money in that machine? I’m guessing you are thinking to yourself, “no way! I work way too hard for my money to do something so stupid!” You would be right to think so.
What about your time, emotional and mental health? How many people, places and things do we keep investing our time, money and physical, mental and emotional health in even though they are “out of order”? It may not be so obvious because they don’t have a sign on them, but we know they are there. You keep lending money to that friend who can never hold down a job. You keep listening to your friend that just spreads negativity and gossip. You continue to go to that job that is sucking the joy out of your soul.
Think of your life and how many out of order machines you are feeding. The scary part is that it is not money you are losing. Although, that can be part of it as in the case of our friend who can’t hold down the job. No, you are losing something far more precious. You are losing time. You are putting part of your life in an “out of order life vending macine”! Stop doing that. Think of your life and what things might be wasting your time and energy.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 