Tag: Shopping

REMEMBER YOUR TRACK RECORD.

Happiness mind-map
Happiness mind-map (Photo credit: EEPaul)

“On particularly rough days when I’m sure I can’t possibly endure, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100% and that’s pretty good”

I saw this quote on one of the many inspirational pages I subscribe to online. It sounds cute and rather tongue in cheek, but if you are reading this it happens to be true. It is very hard when you are in the emotional whirlwind of whatever situation seems to be giving you a hard time at the moment. Just last Saturday I faced some pretty tough life challenges and a new path was laid out before me. I found myself focusing on lack and negativity which for anyone who knows me is rather out of character. Still it is further proof even a man who writes a blog dedicated to living an amazing life and who has just released a book titled A Happy Life for Busy People still struggles. That is why I tell you it is so important to find new, fun and practical ways to add joy to your life and to approach life’s challenges with gusto and confidence. None of us are perfect. If I told you I am happy 100% of the time and nothing ever gets the best of me I would be lying to you and would not encourage you to follow a blog or read a book by anyone who is anything less than honest. What is important is a dedication to learn from our mistakes. To take something away from situations that get the best of us. In the moment it can often be hard and we can fail to find the diamond among the coal. This was me Thursday. So how do you make it easier to do? How can you be able to make a mistake and honestly ask yourself “What can I learn from this that will make me better in the future?” The quick answer is this – Practice. The more you get into this habit the easier it becomes. Now be warned, you will be greeted with the occasional “Nothing! Nothing is to be gained by this it sucks!” Even this is something you can learn from. To me it gave me something else new to work on within myself. Of course that list is wide and growing every day. I find the more I know, the more I have to learn. Still, I need to remember that I have made it through everything I have faced! Am I still sad for relationships that have ended? People who have passed away? Sure, but I made it through. So have you or you would not be reading this blog. Whether you are homeless in Brazil, or a rich business leader of an African nation, you have made it. You are here today. You are undefeated. The only way we lose is if we allow ourselves to stay defeated. So when you are tempted to give up, especially when it looks the worse remember so far nothing has stopped you! Oh sure things may have slowed you down, but you are still here and use that to prove to yourself you will still be here tomorrow!

THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME…

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If you love this blog please feel free to check out my brand new book now available A Happy Life for Busy People is now available online at Amazon.com. It is a great way to bring the power of positivity and a lot of the tools we explore here to those you care about this holiday season. It may also be a great gift for those you do not enjoy being around so much as it could help them change their attitudes around as well. So pick a copy up today it is as simple as clicking on the following link A Happy Life for Busy People

PUT TOGETHER A PUZZLE

Jigsaw Puzzle
Jigsaw Puzzle (Photo credit: Beedle Um Bum)

Life is like a puzzle work on understanding each piece and as you figure each piece out the bigger picture becomes clearer

This great piece of wisdom came out of a very late night discussion with a friend of mine. One of the most amusing things about us as humans is our inclination to decide what something means before we have all the information we need. I liken this to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Further more there are two ways to look at this. First, let us assume we have no idea what the picture we are trying to create looks like. this is a pretty accurate metaphor for how most of us approach situations in life. We begin a job, a friendship, a relationship or any new endeavor with a passive, wait and see attitude. Something to the effect of “let’s see how this job goes” or “is this relationship any good” Then often with only a few pieces of the puzzle put together we decide what the picture will be. Can you imagine putting the first ten pieces of a puzzle together and saying “this is a picture of a dolphin” just because you saw a little blue in the picture? That dolphin could turn into a shark, or a blue sports car. We must be sure we have enough pieces of the puzzle together before we can accurately decide what picture we are looking at. Even then a few pieces can change the pictures meaning greatly.

There is a second, and I feel even more constructive way to go about putting the puzzle of any situation together. That is doing it exactly as most of us put a puzzle together. First we dump all the pieces on a table or wherever we happen to be putting this puzzle together. Next, we look at the picture on the box. We decide this is the end result we are going to come up with. A picture of an abandoned church in a thunderstorm or whatever it may be. Then we begin to rearrange and assemble all of the pieces of the puzzle until the picture becomes clear. Often referring back to the picture on the box and looking at the piece and how it fits into the puzzle. Sometimes it may take us hours, or even days to fully be able to assemble the puzzle but we keep trying different pieces in different places and do not give up until the puzzle is complete. Unless of course you are like me who starts enjoying a couple of glasses of wine and soon the rainstorm is inside the church. Seriously though, what would happen if we applied these same principles to our lives? We hold a picture of how we want a certain aspect of our lives to turn out. Say we desire for a relationship that has went sour to become filled with joy again. Well treat it like a puzzle. The relationship happy and healthy is the picture on the box. Begin by trying to put one or two pieces (efforts that seem to bring joy to the relationship) together. Notice if they fit (seem to be working) The more pieces (happy aspects of this relationship) we put together the closer we are to having the picture come into focus (the relationship healed and full of joy) I wouldn’t suggest my wine drinking tactic when it comes to this, however the results could be a disaster. This should work whether the picture you are putting together is a new job, a new partner or crafting a best-selling book. Just keep putting pieces together and pay attention if they fit and adjusting accordingly. I know I am excited to apply this idea to my own life!

DON’T BE BITTER, BE BETTER

“If you continuously compete with others you become bitter but if you continuously compete with yourself you become better”

This is a quote I came across somewhere online but it really struck me. So many of us want to be the best this, or the best that. This is good. Wanting to be better and improving is what keeps us growing and evolving. I personally always take pride in wanting to be the best bartender I can be. I am lucky enough to know several other amazing bartenders in my life. My friends Lisa, Matt, Shelly, Shilla and Alysa are downright amazing. I never look at them and compare myself though. One, they have their own styles and skill sets that differ than mine. That is not to say I will not ask them for advice or watch them and pick up a few things I could do to make my shift a little better. Still comparing myself to them, or even competing against them does not good at all. One it makes competition and enemies out of allies and friends. Plus, it is unfair and unproductive to ourselves. As I mentioned before they are different people and have different life stories and experiences. They also have different natural talents to build on and weaknesses to address. I must focus on what I do well and how I can use what I have experienced in life to learn and grow from. What does all of this have to do with you and your life situation? Plenty. Remember to harness true power in life you must not try to master others, or even master other situations. The greatest skill in life one can have is to master over your own thoughts and emotions. To conquer your doubts and face your fears head on. Sure you can learn from a friend and even ask them for help. In fact a true friend can be one of your greatest allies in bettering yourself. Just remember the struggle really does not exist without, but within. When you master yourself nobody else can control your emotions. Nobody else can stop you. So todays challenge is to begin to take a good hard look inside and see what you can do to improve yourself. Trust me, if your honest with yourself this can be a life-long pursuit and give you very little time to even worry about trying to improve others, which is not our job anyway. So let us begin on this daring and noble struggle. Let us all work on improving ourselves and becoming the best people we can be!

FROM A LITTLE BABY…

“A man is what he is from the time he is a little baby. It is just how long it take him to discover what that is”

-Bob Marley when asked how long he had been a Rastafarian

This is one of my favorite quotes from Mr. Marley. So how we discover what we truly are and why we are here? Certainly knowing those to facts can add great joy and power to your life. Does it involve hours of meditation and introspective contemplation? I sure hope not because I find it hard to sit still on a three-hour flight to Las Vegas. Actually it is a lot easier than one might think. A great way to get the answers to both of these life-altering questions is to pay attention to how you feel. When you are doing things that make you feel good you are accessing a part of you that is in some way a part of who your true self is. When a certain activity makes you feel good and you generally excel at it, that is a large indication that you are living some aspect of your life’s purpose. Again allow you to give me an example from my own life. At the post office when I helping people discover the best way to send that surprise romantic gift to their husband or wife I share in their excitement and feel good. When I am in back plugging in numbers to some report to record mail volume…not so much. When I am at the bar decorating for some event I am fairly excited, but when I am behind the bar and people are toasting each other, the music is making everybody dance I am far more excited! If the people in the bar happen to be lovely ladies I am even more…ok well you get the idea. What does that tell me? I probably would make a terrible accountant, but a pretty good entertainer of some fashion. It also speaks volumes to my appreciation for the beauty of the fairer sex, but again a topic for a different day. Even different aspects of something that gives me joy over all can tell me something. When I am writing a book designed to assist others in discovering the beauty and joy in their own lives I am excited and can’t wait to share it. When I am actually out there talking to people and hearing how some bit of information I am thrilled beyond belief. That tells me I enjoy personal interaction even more than the interaction of the written word, which I also enjoy. So this week try this same experiment on yourself. Take note of things you do in your life that bring joy and things that do not. Ask yourself what this is telling you about yourself. By the time you are done, you will be able to connect with that voice inside each one of us that is trying desperately to point us in the right direction to go with our lives! May all of your discoveries bring you joy and light my friends!

FINDING THE SECRET TO LIFE IN JUNK MAIL!

I must say again that one of the best side effects of dedicating my life to the secrets of discovering new ways to uncover joy is the ability to turn things that annoy most people daily into moments of inspiration! As fortune would have it for those of you reading it, you can use my experience to quickly turn things in your life from bringing you stress and annoyance to moments of joy and inspiration. Today’s example…junk mail. We all get it. I see piles of it being recycled at the post office daily. catalogs, advertisements, coupons, charity requests. So how can all of these pieces of paper that keep our mailboxes warm deliver any sort of inspiration? Anyone who follows this blog on a fairly regular basis knows that I am a fan of the law of attraction. It often intertwines with the secret to happiness. For those of you not familiar with the law of attraction in a nutshell it is the theory that like attracts like and that our thoughts go a good way into establishing our reality. So what does all of this metaphysical theory have to do with the add for the local automotive repair shop? It provides us a great reminder of this law and its power. It also gives us a great insight into where we place our focus. Still confused? Let me provide you with a personal example in hopes to tie all of this together. One day I had ordered some energy vitamins from this website geared towards men’s products. Soon there after interesting ads starting showing up in my mailbox. Ads for adventure vacations. Ads for vitamins to give you a little extra energy in the bedroom, even a few letters from ladies who were apparently a little lonely but would gladly be my friend for a small fee. It was obvious, the vitamin site had sold my address. It struck me how this was a great parallel to the law of attraction. When you focus your thoughts in a certain kind of subject matter it is like ordering a product from a catalog. The universe soon starts sending you products similar in fashion. Thinking of how much weight you are gaining and staying upset about it? Perhaps the button may pop off your pants. A shirt you just wore that was shrunk in the dryer fits too tight and must be given away. You weigh to much for the children’s ride at the carnival. What is the power in all of this? It works the opposite way as well. When you start focusing on how grateful you are for a certain friend and all the wonderful things they do for you, you may very well start meeting people of a similar nature or your friends may start to go out of their way to do kind things for you. It also is a great way to shed a light on where are focus is. In the ‘recommended pages’ on my Facebook page which is the equivalent to online junk mail I am an receiving requests for pages with positive quotes, marketing advice, advice for authors. It shows me where my focus is. So next time you pull heaps of junk mail out of your mailbox, ask yourself this important question “What can I learn from this?” and “how can I use this junk to inspire me?” Now, I even have an idea for telemarketers…but I will save that for another day! Have a great weekend my friends!

KEEP MOTIVATED…DAILY PART THREE!

Really? You are going to tell us there is even a third way to effortlessly have motivation handed to us on a silver platter? You bet I am! So we have a calendar daily, we check our email daily. What is one other thing we do on a daily basis? Ok, before you get to far off the subject or share things with me I do not want to know, let me just give you the answer I am looking for. Check our phones. A majority of the people reading this blog have smart phones. I am even told some of you read this blog on your smart phone. Besides complimenting you are your great choices let me tell you that you are knocking on the door to even more inspiration that you know. In addition to the amazing and sometimes even entertaining secret2anamazinglife.com website you are now reading there are lots of other great things you can receive on your phone. I find it funny a great deal of you probably have the game angry birds on your phone, but no inspirational apps. Yes, such a thing really does exist. Imagine waking up to a beautiful quote and picture first thing in the morning? Would that change your outlook on the day? Would it make the morning commute a little easier to take? It would certainly plant the seed of something great to think about as the boss is yelling at you in the middle of the day. Just don’t let him catch you looking at it or the situation could become very un inspirational. The point here is this, there are lots of apps one can find simply by checking out your phone’s browser. Some I found looking right now are ‘inspirational picture quotes’, ‘inspirational quotes to live by’ and ‘inspirational bible verses’. Now do understand I do not endorse any specific one of these. They just happen to be the first three that came up when I typed in the word inspiration into my app browser on my phone. just another tool that can feed you motivation with little or no effort on your part. For those of you without a smart phone, do not fear, the former two posts will provide you some good alternatives. So one time a day put down the angry bird and pick up some inspiration.

KEEP MOTIVATED…DAILY! PART ONE

To paraphrase the late Zig Ziglar motivation expert and author, Motivation doesn’t last, neither does bathing that is why we must do it daily. So how to capture this? How can we work in motivation every single day with limited or no effort on our part? How can there be a reminder every single day to seed our mind to greatness and expand our compassion and our drive for success. The answer can be found on your wall, or on your desk, or on that table by the television. It is a great tool that is often overlooked. The day by day calendar. Whoever started this great idea was on to something. it is getting to be that time of year where calendar stores start popping up at your local mall. I strongly suggest paying a visit to one. For roughly the price of one dinner out you can be treated to daily motivation right in your home! They have calendars for all different angles. Trying to become more driven? They have calendars for people who are starting their own business. looking to create more peace and tranquility in your life? Try a zen calendar. The one I am currently using is ‘insight from the Dalai lama’ he is a man I greatly respect and his words give me a lot to think about as I go through my life. All I do to accomplish this is tear off a little piece of paper as I grab my daily cup of coffee. Think of whatever goal you are aspiring to, now imagine 365 powerful thoughts towards its creation. All of them already written and waiting for you with no effort on your behalf. how much closer to accomplishing your goal, whether it will be to be more relaxed, prosperous or enlightened if you could focus on it in a different manner 365 ways in a year. a great thing about these calendars you can tear off the sheet, which is roughly 4 inches by 4 inches and take it with you. fold it up and put it in your pocket/wallet/purse whatever. Then you can take it out and think about it several times a day. My aunt who either has far more ambition, time or both than myself even saved a few of her favorites and made a scrap-book of them. Thus, they can keep inspiring her for years to come. Now if I could only find that calendar with beautiful beaches, lovely island girls and motivational quotes I would be set. Seriously, stop by your local calendar store and take a look around, see what may work for you. Also there are nice little desk calendars and even wall calendars that can provide you with inspirational thoughts weekly or monthly. They are great for developing mantras and building on a single idea for a prolonged period of time. Recently my amazing friend Crystal gave me one and I love it! Not only do I enjoy the inspirational quotes, but I am always reminded of, and grateful for the amazing friend I have in her. So they also make wonderful gifts to inspire others.

WORK YOUR PASSION!

When I talk to people about living their passion a lot of them assume I am telling them to do it for a living. While it is true you can really make a career out of anything that is not what I am suggesting entirely. Though if you do happen to find yourself seeking a way to make a living your passion may not be a bad place to start. So you have discovered your passion. Either through the exercises we discussed yesterday or if you happen to be lucky like me you fall into it during a glass of Captain Morgan and a conversation with two beautiful and amazing friends. Either way, what now? here is my suggestion. Think of how you would most like to involve this passion in your life. Let us take the model train example. perhaps your goal is to have a large model train display you can work on in your spare time. write that down as your ultimate goal, now begin to work backwards. What would you need to do/have to make that happen. If your mind immediately goes to “a lot of money I do not have” you are not thinking positively on your passion. In this case, being that I know very little about model trains I will try to make my best guess. You would need large pieces of wood to set the tracks and buildings on. You would need the trains. How many? You would want buildings. What kind? Crossings? Develop a plan. make a list of all the things you would want and need. now perhaps a couple of hours a week you can work on slowly putting this together. Go window shopping at the hobby store to get ideas, make a list and draw a sketch of how you would like it to look. Say you would like to turn this into a career. you could write a book about your adventures in setting up your display or put together an online video series on how to set up model trains.

let me tell you a more personal example. When my two friends helped me realize that my passion was bringing joy to others and helping them see the beauty in themselves it became an obsession. Especially keeping in mind the words Alysa said about “To bad there are not more people like you” for a brief second I contemplated cloning until I realized I knew little or nothing about the science that goes into that. not to mention we might run into identity theft problems. Seriously though in short order I realized the obvious short-coming in my passion. If you did not come into my post office or bar, or I did not come to you how could I bring you joy? How could I assist you in discovering and appreciating the beauty that is inside of you. How could I help someone in Brazil as well as helping someone in Greenland? Then the idea of starting this blog came to me. You know you are living your passion when pieces fall into place. Shortly after making this decision I reconnected with another amazing friend Kristina. Not only did she know quite a bit about blogs she encouraged me to write a book as well. Since then there has been ideas for audio cd’s as well as online video series. Although I must confess I think my appearance lends itself better to the audio. The point here is I have never been more excited to wake up than I am now. I still work at the post office and the bar, but adding this passion to my life has added more joy, energy and enthusiasm to my life than I can hope for. So write down your goal and begin to work backwards. Work all the way back until you can start thinking of steps you can take today, right now to put you on the road to living your passion. Then take one! As my mentor Tony Robbins says, “never leave the sight of a goal without at least taking one action towards its fulfillment” Not only will it jumpstart your passion it will give you momentum! Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday!

FIND YOUR PASSION!

In past blogs I have discussed the importance of finding your passion and what a difference that will make in your life. I will discuss that very difference and how to accomplish it in tomorrow’s post, but for today let’s get started with step one. What exactly is your passion. If you were to ask most people what their passion is very few would even know. Fewer still are probably doing anything about it. Involving some kind of passion in our lives can add all sorts of wonderful things. joy quite simply of doing something you love. model trains? Airplanes? The study of quantum physics? Astrology? Everyone has a passion and should incorporate it into their lives. it also gives us something to look forward to during the work day, just try to stay focused or the boss may be displeased. It can supply us ideas for vacations. Extra income opportunities or places to spend our pocket-money that would bring us the most joy.

So the question still remains, how on earth do you discover your passion if you do not know what it is? Once you discover it how do you become passionate about it again. Then once you do, what then? The last part we will address in tomorrow’s post. To answer the first part let me tell you some ideas I heard in an interview with Peter Diamandis, author of the great book Abundance the Future is Better Than you Think Mr. Diamandis suggests thinking of what we enjoyed as a child. What did we love to do before we were convinced we couldn’t? Make a list of all of these. Did you want to be a race car driver? A fireman? President? list as many as you can. Now, the second one is more what I used, but if you combine them the results are even better. Think if someone gave you a billion dollars and said “change the world in any way you would like” what would you do with it? write down as many answers as you can for this one too. you should be able to see a pattern developing. Do all of your ideas involve adventure? Animals? helping people? Now you should be able to pick out a rough idea of your passion. write that down. Now how to feed that passion that we are so inspired we take action. Not just today, but consistently day after day. here is the way to do that. Begin to list why that certain thing excites you. Why is helping people something you are passionate about for example? This was brought to my attention by two amazing friends of mine Carmen and Alysa. I had begun trying to decipher my passion and my purpose in life. Reaching no life-altering revelations I decided to enjoy the benefits of a distilled beverage made from sugar cane, rum if you will. I went down to see my friend Alyssa where she works because not only do they have rum there, but Alysa’s smile can brighten your day so much you may be inspired. As luck would have it my amazing friend Carmen was there as well. The three of us struck up a conversation and Carmen mentioned she always felt happy when we got together. Alysa agreed and mentioned she wish there were more people like me. Let me tell you I was extremely flattered to be spoken so highly of by two amazing, not to mention beautiful women that it got me to thinking that I really did enjoy making people smile. Couple that with the experience I had at the meal program I mentioned in yesterday’s post. I decided that was my passion. Now what could I do with it. That we will discuss tomorrow. So play the fun game mentioned in today’s post. Use the tricks brought to us by Peter Diamandis. Discover that passion and get your desire for it red-hot. We’ll discuss what to do with that burning passion tomorrow!