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Ever since I started dating my beautiful girlfriend Sarah she has been stricken with very bad migraines. If any of you have experienced them you know that they can be sometimes unbearable. Well, imagine waking up with a headache every morning with the thought that your condition would never improve. This is what Sarah goes through on a daily basis.

Even though she suffers from this horrible condition, I sometimes have to remind her to keep her focus on what is good about her health. I tell her to look at the fact that she can walk, talk, breathe, drive etc.  

This is hard to focus on when you are always in pain but I am going to show you a few steps you can take to jump start your mind into positive thinking. Here we go!

Step 1 – Write Them Down 

The first thing you need to do to star appreciating what you have in life is write it down. Take about an hour out of your day and actually write down what is good about your life. This can be that you have a roof over your head, a car to drive, the ability to wake up every morning, good friends, water to drink, wonderful relatives, a nice dog, etc. What ever it may be, write it down. This allows you to physically see what good things you already have in your life. This is an important step so make sure you do not skip it or take it lightly.

Step 2 – Review Them Daily 

Make sure you schedule ten minutes out of every day to review the good things you have in your life. I like to do this in the morning so that the information is fresh in my mind for the rest of the day. Reviewing this list daily will push you miles ahead of the pessimistic people in this world. Remember that if at all possible, stay away from negative people. These people will only bring you down and keep you away from the happiness you deserve. Only by doing this will you be on your way to appreciating what you have.

Step 3 – Take Action 

After a few weeks of looking at what you have GOOD in your life, sit down and make a plan to improve on the things you might not be happy with. I know this sounds contrary to what I have been telling you but it is necessary for improvement. What I did was write down the habits or situations I have that I am not proud of. After that I picked five that I wanted to change and fix within one years time. For example, if you find yourself not having money or even wanting more of it, write down what you can do to fix it. Maybe you can get a new job, or even a better job. Maybe you can start a business or invent something. What ever it is make sure you take action. ACTION is the key!

 I guarantee that within a year’s time your situation will improve upon implementing this three step process. You might have more than five bad habits or five things you do not like about your life, that’s fine. Just make sure you do not over burden yourself. Take this one step at a time and break it into manageable chunks. This is the key and if you follow it I assure you a happier life. If you would like, leave a comment to let me know what you thought. Thank you and good luck!

I am going to keep this post short and simple: STRESS CAN KILL YOU! 

 I recently wrote a post like this about my grandfather titled, “Health: An Eye Opening Experience.” In this post I talked about how my grandfather was admitted to the hospital due to the clotting of his legs. I went on explaining how the bad decisions he made when he was younger ultimately led him to the bed he now occupies.  

This post is not much different from the last. It has the same type of results only with different problems. Instead of my grandfather it is now my grandmother. Besides her also having bad cholesterol it was now extreme stress that admitted her. Believe it or not this almost killed her a few days ago. As a matter of fact if she would not have went to the hospital when she did, and instead went to bed, the doctor told her she would have never woken up. 

It turns out that she got into a little scuffle with my sister and because of that almost ended her life. It seems almost surreal to me that something as simple as stress could kill you. If you think about it, people go through stress all the time. Have you ever had to get up in front of people and give a speech? Although I am fairly O.K. with it now, I used to stress out for weeks at the thought that I would have to give a speech. Other times we stress over getting a new job or more money. Can we ever be stress free?  

Actually we can be free of the BAD stress. In Dale Carnegies book titled “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” He explains all of these stress free techniques in complete detail. I feel the man is a genius and has some amazing tactics you can apply immediately to jump start your path to a stress free life.     

All I have to say is remember to think before you act. This may sound simple but the next time you want to jump over the table at someone because they have offended you, think of this: Stress Can Kill You. This is what I leave you with. I hope you pick his book up and start reading. Without it I probably would not be where I am today. Good luck!

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Health: An Eye Opening Experience

I have finally completed my 21 Days to Discipline experiment. Well, it has been a little longer than 21 days but either way I have some great results to share with you. I have found a lot of new information about myself over that last month and in the following post I am going to explain it to you. I have tips that worked for me and some that didn’t. It’s up to you to decide what best fits your needs and how you want to approach your own 21 days to discipline. Here we go: 

What Didn’t Work 

1.) Too Much 

This is fairly easy for me to explain. If you want to succeed at this, DO NOT OVERWHELM YOURSELF. Simply start with small manageable goals. What I stated in the first post was that I was going to be doing ten things a day that were related to personal goals. I was also going to do three business related tasks. With a total of thirteen tasks to complete in a day it got a little tedious. For the first ten days I blew through it like it was nothing. After that I started to gradually work my way down to ten tasks. This made completing the goals a lot more manageable and I finished with quality work.  

2.) Wrong Time of Day

Another thing I noticed that didn’t work out for me was trying to complete some of my tasks at night. I am normally a morning person but life sometimes got in the way and I was forced to continue my goals later on in the afternoon. By this time I had some of the family home and my ability to concentrate was diminished. I soon found out that I had to get as much done as I could before 12:00 PM. By this time anyway my mind is getting tired and I just wanted to relax. By working hard though, and having my tasks done before lunch I was able to have some free time to read or study. I also had the satisfaction of knowing all of my daily tasks were complete.  This became win-win for me.  

What Did Work 

1.) One Free Elimination  

I made a rule for myself that stated I could miss ONE task and carry it onto the next day. I wrote about this in Part II but recently realized that this helped out more that I thought. Often time’s life gets in the way and we are forced to drop what we are doing. This is why this rule was created. For those times you might not be able to complete everything, feel free to drop it off onto the next day. Trust me, it’s a life saver.  

2.) A Rolling Stone Gathers no Moss  

Once you start working on your daily tasks, DO NOT STOP! Keep your concentration focused on getting your tasks done.  I have found that once I start working on the tasks I do not quit. I build momentum and it takes me to my ultimate goal of daily completion.  Keep this in mind when you are trying to talk your way out of working. Once you start you will find that you just keep going. This is important for everything that you do. Want to learn Spanish? How to play the piano? Read a book? Start and let everything else fall into place. If you don’t believe me then try it for yourself and see what you get. I guarantee you will not be upset with the results.   

So What Were Your Results Matt?  

Over the past 21 days I completed 171 tasks/goals. This to me is phenomenal. Before I started committing my goals on paper I probably completed an estimated three tasks a week. If you do the math, it comes out to about twelve tasks a month. That is around a 2000% increase in the amount of goals I completed over last month. And to think, my only secret was writing my daily goals down and being committed to finishing them.  So to our readers I say this, “Look at the proof.” If this does not prove to you that discipline can be learned in 21 days, then I do not know what will. Either way I know I am personally on the right track and wish the same for all of you. Remember to just start small and you will be amazed at how many tasks you can complete. If you had the chance, thank you for participating in this post. Please look forward to more measurable posts I will have on soon. Thank you!

Day 16

I know I said that I would comment on my progress every week or so but I found it more helpful to go through the motions before commenting. Here is what has happened so far:

I have missed a few goals.

During the last couple of weeks I have found that I CANNOT do everything. In my previous posts I said that I would do ten personal goals a day and three business goals a day. I would say on average I have done 98% of what I wrote in my planner. This is superb as far as I am concerned. Writing down ten things a day and getting eight of them done is a great job. Here are a few things that have made it a little easier for me to complete my daily goal list:

1.) Do not feel bad if you miss one or two goals during the day. You have to put this into perspective though. If you only have three goals a day you cannot blow two of them off, but you can do so if you have ten. This is something I have applied because I realize life happens. Sometimes there are things that get in the way and this is the reason I have made this rule for myself.

2.) If you miss a goal from the list you have today, apply it to tomorrow’s list. Just be aware that if you push a goal from today to tomorrow’s list, you have to complete it. You can no longer move it forward. It has been put off for a day already, do not procrastinate on it any longer. Off to step three.

3.) Make a letter system for your most important goals. For example, for your most important goal put an “A” in front of it, for the second a “B” and so on. Only do this A-C though. The reason for this is because once you add an A,B, or C to a goal you HAVE to complete it. This does not count for the one or two goals you can give up a day. Just remember that if it has a letter next to it, COMPLETE it. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it.

These three steps became more realistic to me once I practiced my own 21 days to discipline. I assure you that if you add these three rules to your 21 days of discipline, you will become a more productive disciplined person. Good Luck!

21 Days to Discipline

21 Days to Discipline - Day 1

21 Days to Discipline - Day 2

21 Days to Discipline- The Results

This article may seem awful close to the previous post I did titled, “How to Deal With Difficult People.” Actually this is a post I feel I should write due to some experiences I have had over the past couple of days. Most people I know have friends or relatives that just seem to be going nowhere. Either they are not motivated or they feel that their purpose on this earth is meaningless. Little do they know that this is not the truth. Everyone and, I repeat everyone has a purpose on this world. Man was created for success and achievement, not to sit around and feel sorry for themselves.

Earlier this week Adam, Jim (A friend of ours) and I sat down and spoke with my mother. Since she was a younger girl her father degraded her and put her down. Everything from being fat to stupid was repeated to her several times while she was a child. As you can see this can be terrible for a young girl. Self esteem and confidence go right out the window. She feels that everything she does is wrong and there is no hope for her. Wrong again!

We all talked to her and gave her some advice on what she needed to do in order to get out of this mental slum. My mother including myself all have limitations. These limitations however are completely and honestly IN OUR HEADS. Maybe you have something you are afraid to try. Or maybe a relative started a business back in the day and because of their failure you are afraid the same thing will happen to you. Either way these F.E.A.R.’s are thoughts and HABITS that are in your head. No more, no less.

Below I have a few tips that the three of us gave to my mother in order to boost her confidence and get her on the right track. If you have a family member that is having trouble or if you feel that these might apply to you, feel free to use them, they work!

Note: What I have learned over the last couple years is that you cannot help everyone. Sometimes I even have to turn my own mother down when she needs help. People that always feel sorry for themselves and need attention will always come to the person they feel will give in the easiest. If they feel that they can ALWAYS ask you for money and you would never say No, guess what? YOU will get a phone call. If you start to notice this needy behavior without an improvement, stay away. Believe it or not you are hurting them more than helping them if you give them everything they want. So if you are someone dealing with a needy person and the problem persists, back away. Or if you are that needy person and you want some help, read on.

Step 1 – Your Social Group

There has been study after study of people and their social groups. I know you have heard the phrase “Birds of a Feather Flock Together?” Anyway, here is an example of what I mean. Say you are someone dealing with a drug problem and one day you finally realize you need help. You call a relative a thousand miles away and ask if you could come and stay with them for a few months while you get clean. A couple months go by and you are now sober and free from drugs. You decide to go home. Do you know that nine times out of ten if you go back to associating with your previous reference group (drug dealers, friends who do drugs, etc.) you will go back to your old habits? That is what we told my mother. If you want to be a millionaire then speak with someone that had done it. Simply put, you have to change who you associate with. Doing this will sky rocket your success to better habits.

Step 2 – Learn

Everything that is worth doing requires more knowledge. You have to indulge yourself in audio tapes and CD’s that preach success and wealth building habits. I have several books and tapes that teach these things. My collection of knowledge is probably my most prized possession. Buy book, meet people, and have fun with it. There are even several groups out there that you can join for what ever your interests might be. As a habit I read and or listen to something educational at least for an hour or two a day. This motivates me in the morning and push’s me into doing the best I can do.

Remember: Learning takes time. Do not think that something you read will have it’s effects right away. You have to apply and use it. If you do this you will be on your way.

Finally

Step 3 – Love Yourself

I have saved the best for last. If you do not love yourself first you will never progress. You have to realize that who you are is special and that hating what you look like and how your hair is styled is irrelevant to your success. You are a unique individual and realizing that alone will put you ahead of the crowd. Look at it this way. Zig Zigglar, a world renowned speaker and teacher says it best. You are worth millions and millions and possibly billions of dollars. Here is why he says that. Do you know that insurance companies have given people millions of dollars for loosing an eye while on the job? Do you know that some have been granted hundreds of millions of dollars for a leg, or an arm? Putting this in context shows that people have been awarded crazy amounts of money for their body parts. In essence what Zig says is true; you ARE worth millions and millions and possibly billions of dollars.

So apply these several tips in your own life or teach them to others. Either way they are true and will be until the end of time. So please, if you are having friend or family problems take these into consideration and see what you come up with. I guarantee that the results will amaze you!