What are you grateful for?

If you're finding it hard to come up with something, it's okay. When times are tough, it can be difficult to adopt an attitude of gratitude.

No matter what you're going through in life, gratitude can make you a happier person.

Research shows that focusing on what you are grateful for releases dopamine and serotonin into your body, both of which are feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain.

Do you want some helpful tips for how to you can find the silver lining, even when everything sucks? Keep reading!

Watch the video below:

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Gratitude can transform your life.

Gratitude is a state of mind that arises when you focus on and give thanks for the good. In effect, gratitude equates with abundance. I have found gratitude to be one of the most spiritual emotions. If practiced regularly, gratitude can transform difficult times into opportunities for growth and expansion.

Dr. Joe Dispenza explained gratitude best when he said, “… Instead of going on autopilot, a person experiencing gratitude will pause in the present moment, really feel the expansiveness of the emotion and follow it with a kind word or thought.”

We live in a world that praises achievement, so much so that we are conditioned to believe that, the more we have, the more successful we will be. As a result, people become addicted to attracting more things into their lives without stopping to appreciate what they already have.

Don't get me wrong… being an ambitious person is great. However, if you don't stop and smell the roses, what is the point of achieving more? In my experience, taking time to appreciate the meaningful things in life trumps any materialistic possession. When it comes to gratitude, it's easy to feel happy and joyful when life is going well. However, it's a lot harder to pull upon gratitude when everything sucks.

Life isn't always fair.

The Coronavirus pandemic proves this point. It has changed the world as we know it. The economy has taken a massive hit. People have lost their jobs and are fearful for their futures. Even worse, many are mourning the deaths of loved ones who have lost their lives to the virus. Uncertainty has become the new norm.

Even in the toughest of times, like the one we are currently facing, I believe that it's possible to find gratitude. Gratitude is a state of mind that focuses on growth and possibility. It has the power to bring hope to the darkest of days.

A powerful example of this is what you're seeing in cities around the world right now. At 7 pm every night, people open their windows or go on their balconies and cheer as a way of giving thanks to the nurses and doctors who are fighting the Coronavirus. It may not feel like it, but these simple acts of gratitude bring comfort and healing to everyone involved.

Gratitude is one of the most important rituals that I practice. In my experience, if you consistently practice gratitude every day, you naturally become a happier and more positive person. Anything that you want to achieve in life requires daily discipline and practice.

By choosing to focus on what is good in your life, you will grow stronger in the face of adversity.

However, before you practice gratitude it's important to reflect upon how you act and speak daily. Do you use language consistent with gratitude? Or do you find yourself consistently harping about the injustices we’re facing and complaining about the hardships in your life?

If your daily thoughts and actions are disempowering, adopting an attitude of gratitude will be near impossible. Only once you know your default way of being, will you feel empowered to change your life. If you don't already have one, I encourage you to create a morning ritual that is focused on gratitude and positivity.

Look for the good and give thanks for everything in your life. I like to do a 2-minute gratitude meditation every day. All it requires that you do is stop, close your eyes, put your hands over your heart and focus on your breath. You can do this at any point during the day. Tune in and feel the love and strength of your heart.

Take a deep breath in and out and ask yourself, “In this moment, what is something that I am grateful for?” Trust whatever comes up. This simple practice allows you to connect to your heart intelligence, which is your seat of intuition and all-knowing. Whereas your mind will try to analyze everything, your heart will guide you towards the truth. In turn, you will experience more joy, love, and fulfillment. Where there is love there cannot be fear.

This is how to become grateful when everything sucks.

Albert Einstein once said, “There are two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.” The choice is yours. What are you grateful for? Make it a priority to practice gratitude every day. It has the power to change your life.

Do you want access to 21 powerful morning rituals that will help you master your physical, mental, and emotional well-being? CLICK HERE to get instant access to my FREE Morning Ritual Habits cheatsheet!

Writing in my gratitude journal every day has changed my life.

Gratitude is a powerful emotion. Reflecting and writing down what you are are grateful for primes your brain for joy and happiness.

Studies suggest that writing in a gratitude journal three times per week might have a greater impact on our happiness than just journaling every day.

Ready to discover how you can start a gratitude journal and attract more abundance, love, and peace into your life?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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What are you grateful for?

If you're struggling to come up with something, it's highly likely that you need a gratitude journal. However, there's a deeper reason for why gratitude isn't at the forefront of many people's minds. By nature, our brains are wired for negative thinking. Research shows that negative events have a greater impact on our brains than positive ones do, otherwise referred to by psychologists as “the negativity bias.”

It's a lot easier to focus on what we don't have than what we do have. Unfortunately, this default mode of thinking causes a lot of pain and suffering. Instead of dwelling upon what is missing in your life, what would happen if you took a few minutes every day to document what you're thankful for?

By consciously creating a morning ritual that allows you to look for the good, you rewire your brain so that it starts working for you instead of against you. This is why I'm a big believer in the power of a gratitude journal. Journaling about what you're grateful for is a proactive way of conditioning your mind to focus on the good.

Gratitude is an integral part of my daily morning ritual.

Every day I write in The 5 Minute Journal. This journal is designed in such a way so that you to start and end each day with an attitude of gratitude. As part of this exercise, one of the questions that I ask myself is, “What am I grateful for?” When I'm reflecting upon what I'm grateful for, I take the time to feel a deep sense of appreciation for each of the things that I write down.

I would like to share with you 10 things that I'm grateful for today. 

1. God's unconditional love for me.

2. To share my life with Tatiana, my soulmate.

3. My body's immune system and relentless effort towards health and balance.

4. The mentors and role models that inspire and generously share their gifts with me.

5. To be able to live in a beautiful home in Panama.

6. The amazing friends that I get to experience fun things with.

7. My ability to travel the world.

8. The innovative geniuses of this world that create amazing technology that I get to benefit from, such as the Internet, my phone, and YouTube.

9. Access to clean water.

10. The chair that I'm sitting in right now.

I hope that I have inspired you to make a list of what you are grateful for. I encourage you to focus on the small things that we so often take for granted. Also, find different things to be grateful for each day.

If you have the desire to implement more empowering habits into your life, repetition is key. Adopting an attitude of gratitude is a great place to start. A grateful heart fosters a mindset of abundance which allows you to attract more of what you want into your life.

Are you ready to start a gratitude journal?

Make a conscious effect to appreciate and give thanks for each moment of your life. When you focus on the positive, you attract more joy, happiness, and love into your life. Albert Einstein said it best – “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Make gratitude a daily practice. If you do, I promise that it will transform every area of your life.

Do you want to know 21 powerful morning rituals that will give you more energy, excitement and joy? CLICK HERE to get instant access to my FREE morning ritual habits cheatsheet!

Patience is power. I believe patience is one of the most important skills that you can master in life.

If patience is so good for you, then why is exercising it so hard? Nobody likes to wait. We live in a culture of impatience, where instant gratification is the norm.

A research study found that YouTube videos begin losing viewers at a delay of two seconds, and every second of waiting after that marks a 5.8 percent increase in the number of people who leave. How's that for being impatient?

It's easy to think of a million and one reasons to be impatient because we have become accustomed to getting things done fast. However, I believe that the true measure of success in life is one's ability to practice patience.

Are you ready to learn 5 tips to help you become a more patient person?

Watch the video below where I talk about why your lack of patience is killing your results:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

Patience is a virtue that is possessed by few.

How patient do you think you are? On the whole, are you satisfied to let things proceed in their own time, way, or space? Or do you respond to people and situations with actions that are fueled by a desire to get things done quickly?

If you can relate to the latter, consider yourself a part of the majority. Given the fast-paced nature of the world today, it is understandable why so many people take the quickest and most self-satisfying route to the end zone. However, the problem with this choice is that it can lead to an unhappy life.

In the Western world, happiness is defined based on one's personal achievements. As a result, taking our time feels like a luxury that none of us can afford. We are constantly trying to race to the finish line, taking a short-term approach to everything that we do. As a result, we forget to enjoy the process because we are so obsessed with the final outcome.

I believe that the problem isn't impatience itself. Rather, it's how people react when they feel impatient. One of my favorite quotes on patience is by Joyce Meyer who said that “Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it's how we behave while we're waiting.”

What happens when our natural response is to be impatient?

We've all experienced impatience at some point in our lives. However, when it starts to become a normal response, it can wreak havoc on our personal and professional lives.

Impatience causes negative emotions — like frustration, irritation, and anger — which can elevate our stress levels. That, in turn, can impact our health. Research shows that repeated bouts of impatience stress your cardiovascular system, digestive system, immune system, and every other biological system you have, upsetting your health and happiness.

People have a skewed perception of what patience means. When we think of the word “patient” it is logical to assume that it is a passive state of being, one where nothing gets started or completed. This is far from true. On the contrary, patience requires your full attention and participation. This means that you are making an active choice to not react negatively when things take longer than expected.

Why is patience so important?

Practicing the art of patience counteracts negative emotions, allowing for a more proactive approach to life's unavoidable delays. Not only is patience an active endeavor, but it's also power born out of understanding. If we allow it to, it has the ability to free us from frustration, giving us the perspective to make the right decisions at the right time.

In her bestselling book, Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life, Dr. Judith Orloff says that patience has gotten a bad reputation for the wrong reasons. Having patience has come to mean that we are unreasonable. Her definition of patience is that it is “a re-attuning to intuition or a way to emotionally redeem your center in a world filled with frustration.”

I like to think of patience as a habit. As many of you know, integrating any new habit into your life takes practice. Therefore, in order to master patience, we must exercise it. Although it takes time and effort to change conditioned habits, the great news is that it is possible to do.

Let's explore 5 tips to help you become a more patient person.

1. Acknowledge Your Triggers

We all have triggers – things that frustrate us and cause us to react in a negative way. Go inward and ask yourself, “What is the thing that I think about right before I feel like I'm going to lose my temper or go into a state of overwhelm?”

Oftentimes, our triggers originate from our childhood experiences.

• Someone rejecting you
• Someone not making time for you
• Someone not acknowledging your accomplishments

Once you know what your triggers are and where they came from, then you can do the work to heal them.

When you have a greater awareness of the things that make you impatient,  you will be better equipped to respond to them in a healthier way when they emerge. In the words of Edmund Burke, “Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

2. Practice Waiting

Making quick decisions feels good when we are doing them, but it doesn't usually end well. Any time we behave impulsively, the rational thinking part of our brain turns off and our emotions get the best of us. The next time that you feel yourself spiraling into a reactive mode, I encourage you to stop, pause, and think before you take action.

You may be thinking…“I don't have time to wait!” My response would be, this is exactly why you need to practice being patient. Doing so will allow you to more effectively manage stress instead of acting out. Furthermore, by training your brain to get into the habit of waiting, you will naturally become attuned to a more patient state of being.

Start with something small and then build it up over time. If you can chew your food more than twice before you rush out the door to go to work, you are making moves in the right direction.

3. Stop, Breathe & Chill Out

Life is so short, so why spend so much of it rushing, freaking out, or getting overwhelmed about the small stuff? Impatience feeds on these emotions. Let's face it, there's nothing positive that comes from living this way. Try a different approach, like chilling out.

When you begin to feel impatient, stop yourself, take a few deep breaths, and come back to the present moment. You always have control over your emotions. Did you know that you can choose to be calm when things aren't going your way? Doing so will make your personal and professional life flow a lot more smoothly.

I'm not saying that being hardworking is a bad thing. However, we all need time to hit the reset button from time to time so that we don't drain our energy reserves. As an entrepreneur, my patience is tested on a daily basis. From the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, I realized that if I didn't create a system that would help me stay more present, my business wouldn't be around for very long.

The mornings are my time to relax and nourish my mind, body, and soul. By engaging in activities like meditation, gratitude exercises, and reading, I am able to prime my mind for success so that I can walk into my day feeling grounded. By actively putting myself into this mindful state of living, every single day, patience is my friend.

4. Be Positive 

When things don't go as planned, what do you do? Do you dig your head into the sand or do you dust off your feet and carry on with your day? Patience comes down to one's perspective. Two people could experience the exact same thing but respond completely differently, based on their perception of something.

People often ask me, “Stefan, how can you be so happy all of the time?” My answer is always the same… I choose to be. You see, happiness is an inside job. It's something that you have to wake up and commit to feeling, every single day.

Life is full of highs and lows, but if we only dwell on the bad, we end up missing out on the good. I would rather adopt a positive attitude because I know that this going to allow me to master my emotions when things don't go my way. Having this perspective on life has enhanced my work, my friendships, and my relationship.

I know it can be annoying to hear sometimes, but try to think positively about everything that you do; not only will it help you be more patient, but it will also reduce your stress and make you a happier and healthier person. As the old adage says, “Good things come to those who wait.”

5. Practice Gratitude

I don't know about you, but the moment that I drop into gratitude, my thoughts automatically shift from lack to abundance. I believe that one of the best cures for impatience is gratitude. When we live from a place of lack, we constantly look for more things to fill us up. This is what creates a desire for instant gratification. Conversely, when we possess an attitude of gratitude, we don't feel the need to seek out more.

In the words of Ye Li, researcher and assistant professor at the University of California, “Discovering a way to reduce impatience with a simple gratitude exercise opens up tremendous possibilities for reducing a wide range of societal ills from impulse buying and insufficient saving to obesity and smoking.”

The next time you find yourself getting impatient, make a list of all of the things that you are grateful for. You will be surprised at how quickly your state can change. As Melody Beattie says, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.”

We could all do with a little more patience in our lives. When we take a step back, allow life to move through us, and let things happen in their own time, we experience a freedom that is unlike anything else. As life continues to speed up, we need to learn tools for how to slow down and find our own inner calm amidst the chaos. I encourage you to try out any of the above five tips when you find yourself getting impatient.

If you made it until the end of this blog post, thank you for your patience!

Never forget that patience isn’t about being stagnant and not doing anything. Rather, it's about moving forward, with intention and purpose. In the words of Fulton J. Sheen, “Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.”

How can you be more patient today?

Do you want to learn how you can master every area of your life? CLICK HERE to join my Life Mastery Accelerator program!

Are you ready to learn 3 ways that you can become a more proactive person? CLICK HERE to read the article that I wrote on Medium!

Don't ever underestimate the extraordinary power of beliefs.

Becoming aware of your core beliefs is the first step in achieving your goals and dreams in life. Research shows that most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior depend on the 95% of brain activity that is beyond our conscious awareness. These findings prove that our mind is a powerful tool.

The Law of Attraction states that you create your own reality, which is why it is so important to pay attention to what is happening in your inner world. In the words of Abraham Hicks, “That which you think in any moment, attracts unto itself other thoughts that are like it.”

Believing in yourself is the foundation for success. The beauty of choice is that you get to decide what you want to believe. It is your right as a human being. Are you ready to learn how you can leverage the extraordinary power of beliefs?

Watch the video below:

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This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

Are you ready to learn how you can leverage the extraordinary power of beliefs?

If it’s true that we create our reality, then why not believe in the best of everything? Unfortunately, this is where a lot of people get stuck.

They allow their limiting beliefs to sabotage their success. Here’s the thing – your limiting beliefs are all B.S. They don’t serve you. The beautiful thing is that you have the power to change them.

Whether your beliefs are based on reality or not doesn’t matter. All that matters is whether or not your beliefs empower or disempower you. Believing that you CAN do something is the name of the game, despite the fact that there may be surrounding evidence to suggest that it isn’t possible.

The extraordinary power of beliefs is best reflected in the many amazing things that we benefit from in today’s world. These things exist because people before us held the belief that they were possible.

Roger Bannister ran the 4-minute mile when there was no evidence to exist that it could be done. Mohammad Ali called himself the greatest before he achieved anything. Walt Disney ignored the 102 banks that told him that building Disney World was a bad idea. Thomas Eddison invented the lightbulb when everyone said that it wasn’t going to work.

These are just some of the many examples of people who possessed an unwavering belief in themselves, despite the opinions of others.

When I was in high school, I didn’t have any beliefs about myself because I had a really weak self-identity. As a result, I let my environment dictate how I felt and what I believed about myself and my abilities.

People would call me a loser or say that I was stupid. I believed it to be true.

In his book, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, Dr. Michael Shermer says that “We form our beliefs for a variety of subjective, personal, emotional, and psychological reasons in the context of environments created by family, friends, colleagues, culture, and society at large; after forming our beliefs we then defend, justify, and rationalize them with a host of intellectual reasons and rational explanations. 

I encourage you to start questioning your beliefs. Find the evidence for why they are true or false. This was a game changer moment for me. One day I stepped back and challenged myself by saying, “Where do these beliefs that I have come from?” Not surprisingly, realized that many of the beliefs that I held about myself were false.

Even though I was a very shy kid in high school, I made the choice that I was going to be confident. How did I do it? Through conditioning my mindset every day. I knew that if I shifted my belief system, my behaviors would follow.

People change their behaviors before their beliefs, and guess what happens? The behaviors don’t last.

Let me give you an example.

You can believe that you need to lose weight because your belief system tells you that you are fat. You can engage in the behaviors that promote weight loss, and you will lose some weight. However, if you still believe that you are fat, you will fall back into a negative cycle of self-sabotage, because “fat” is how you define yourself.

This is why it is so important to create empowering beliefs for yourself. Some of the ways that you can harness these uplifting thoughts are through exercises like, reciting positive affirmations, doing yoga, meditating, or engaging in spiritual study.

The extraordinary power of beliefs is seen in how you move throughout your everyday life. When you wake up in the morning, do you take time to condition your mindset for success, or do you roll out of bed, slam a coffee and run out the door?

I am a big believer in the power of morning rituals. I have been doing them since I was 17 years old. They have been the most effective way that I have been able to crush my limiting beliefs, transform my overall state of mind, and attract amazing things and people into my life.

If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone to believe in you?

Whatever you believe, you attract. You are creating your future with every single thought, whether you want to believe it or not. When you believe something to be true you will always look for ways to justify and support that belief.

If you want to change your life, you need to understand what your role is in the Law of Attraction. Let’s explore 4 ways that you can make the Law of Attraction work for you.

1. Practice Gratitude

Being grateful for what you already have is one of the most powerful ways to elevate your vibration and bring yourself into alignment with the energy of the Universe. It doesn’t matter how tough life is, there is always something that you can be grateful for.

When you focus on the good, that is what you will attract into your life.

Have you ever tried to accomplish anything when you feel down and out? It’s nearly impossible. Practicing gratitude on a daily basis allows you to fill your mind with positive thoughts. In turn, this energy helps you attract more of what it is that you want in life.

Gratitude literally speeds up the manifestation process. It sends a message out to the Universe that says, “I’m ready for miracles.”

2. Ask Empowering Questions

I believe that the Universe answers any question that we ask. The problem is that too many people ask disempowering questions that are based on limiting beliefs about themselves.

If we constantly self-sabotage and say things like, “Why me?”, guess what we are going to manifest? More victimhood behavior.

Instead, ask yourself open and empowering questions that come from a place of genuine curiosity and self-love. Our words can significantly affect our behavior.

One study showed that those who asked more empowering questions offered more solutions in their responses, placed more responsibility on themselves rather than on external factors, were more optimistic, and referred more to the future.

As someone once said, “Ask empowering questions to get empowering answers.”

Doing so will allow you to create new belief systems, where the possibilities of what you can achieve are never-ending. This is the best way to raise the quality of your beliefs.

3. Visualize Your Results

Visualization is one of the most powerful exercises that you can engage in if you want to manifest your dreams. A powerful manifestation tool is the creation of a vision board. When you start to visualize what it is that you want in your life, you begin to see the possibility of achieving it.

According to research using brain imagery, visualization works because neurons in our brains interpret imagery as equivalent to a real-life action. When we visualize an act, the brain generates an impulse that tells our neurons to “perform” the movement.

If you really want something, harness the power of your imagination and allow mental imagery to inspire and motivate you to take action to create your reality. The trick is to believe that you already have what it is that you desire.

4. Trust The Process

If you want to manifest anything in life, you need to trust the process. It's easy to overthink things and force the direction that we want our life to take. Be patient. Life is a journey.

If you are in a rush to reach your desired destination, it's going to be a painful experience getting there.

If you question why things aren't happening fast enough, it's your way of telling the Universe that you don't believe that it is working. Guess what happens? The Law of Attraction responds by sending you challenges that block your ability to move forward. What you resist, will persist.

The Universe always has your back, IF you allow it to. If you ever find that you are doubting the process, remind yourself that all is well and you are getting closer to achieving what it is that you desire.

Never underestimate the extraordinary power of beliefs.

The Law of Attraction is an amazing way to manifest your dream life.

In the words of Tony Robbins, “Humans have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”

Never forget that you are so much more than your limiting beliefs. They are just stories that hold you back from success in life.

There is no greater power than belief. Believe in yourself and your innate ability to do anything in this world. If you can believe it, you are already halfway there.

Do you want to discover how to master every area of your life? CLICK HERE to join my Life Mastery Accelerator program!

I would like to share with you 3 ways to start your day with self-love. Did you know that how you choose to spend the first hour of your day sets the tone for how the rest of your day unfolds?

It's easy to ignore your needs and jump into your massive to-do list, but if you don't take care of yourself first, you won't have the strength and motivation that you need in order to master your day.

A report, which examined 79 studies on the link between self-compassion and wellbeing found that people who are kinder to themselves also tend to be happier, proving that happiness is an inside job.

Having a positive and loving morning routine is a great way to nourish your mind, body, and soul. In the words of Louise Hay, “How you start your day is often how you live your life.” Are you ready to learn 3 ways to start your day with self-love?

Do you want to learn how you can create an empowering morning ritual? CLICK HERE to purchase my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

We have been conditioned by society to place more of an emphasis on other-love, instead of self-love. Unfortunately, this leads to a biased view of the self that has many people questioning their self-worth. It all comes down to treating yourself as if you would a good friend – with love, kindness, compassion, and respect.

The morning is your opportunity to spend quality time with yourself. Get to know who you are and what matters to you. When you do, you will have a more positive and healthy outlook on life, which in turn, will inspire others to do the same.

Here are 3 ways to start your day with self-love.

1. Start A Gratitude Journal 

Gratitude and self-love are one and the same. Taking a few minutes every morning to be grateful for who you are and what you have accomplished strengthens your self-esteem, allowing you to have more appreciation for yourself and your life.

 A great way for cultivating more gratitude in your life is to keep a gratitude journal. Write down 5 things that you are grateful for every day. 

Research shows that expressing gratitude improves mental, physical, and relational well-being. Train your brain to focus on the good, and start to notice how this simple mindfulness exercise transforms your life.

2. Recite Positive Affirmations

Affirmations are a great way to start your day off on a positive note. They give you the tools that you need in order to handle your day, with confidence and ease.

When you affirm to yourself how amazing and capable you are, you rewire your brain to focus on what is possible, thereby priming yourself for happiness and success. 

Studies show that affirmations can help improve problem-solving under stress, boost well-being, increase self-compassion, and support pro-social behaviors. What you say about yourself has a tremendous impact on the person that you become. Choose your words wisely.

3. Do A Self-Love Meditation

Life can be so overwhelming sometimes. Meditation can be a great way to calm our busy minds and take a deep breath. A study showed that engaging in a loving-kindness meditation, which is a technique used to increase feelings of warmth and caring for self and others, increases daily experiences of positive emotions over time.

Take a few minutes every day to engage in a mindfulness practice that allows you to be present and connect with yourself. From this place, self-love flows freely.

These are 3 ways to start your day with self-love. Commit to integrating these self-love elements into your morning routine, and watch your life transform for the better. In the words of Robert Morley, “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” Self-love is not selfish. Rather, it is a priority, and you deserve it.

Do you want to learn how you can create an empowering morning ritual? CLICK HERE to purchase my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

I want to share with you 5 brutal truths about life no one wants to admit. It’s a lot easier to be ignorant to the realities of life.

However, the more time that we spend pretending that truths aren’t a part of our reality, the more time that we waste not living in alignment with our true selves.

Is ignorance bliss? Absolutely not. The fact of the matter is that if we want to grow and expand, we need to be honest with ourselves. We need to be willing to open our minds, and see the world through a different lens.

These 5 brutal truths about life that no one wants to admit will remind you of what is important and will empower you to take control of your life.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “When you know better, you do better.”

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Do you want to learn how to create an empowering morning ritual? CLICK HERE to join my course, Morning Ritual Mastery!

Here are 5 truths about life no one wants to admit:

1. You can’t make everyone happy

This is a battle that you will never win. No matter how hard that you try, there are people out there that you just can’t make happy. The sooner that you can accept this, the freer that you will be.

You need to accept the fact that most people just don't desire to be happy because they are attached to their current state of living. They don't want to give up their stories, excuses, and limitations of why they CAN be happy. According to research, thinking pessimistically is a staple in the depressed person’s cognitive structure.

Not only can you not make everyone happy, but not everyone is going to like you. There is always going to be someone that will criticize and judge you, based on how you look, how you sound, and how you live your life.

The most successful people throughout history have critics. I’m not for everyone, and that’s OK. The sooner that you accept this fact, the sooner you will not be affected by negative people. All that really matters in life is what you think about YOU. 

2. You will never be perfect

No matter how hard you try, you will never be perfect. So many of us hold ourselves to such a high standard, that it ends up creating a lot of suffering.

You need to recognize that it’s OK to make mistakes in life. Everyone has bad days. The earlier that you can embrace that you aren’t perfect, the happier that you will be.

A lot of people are held back in their lives because they become paralyzed by the fear that they will fail at the very things that they want to accomplish. As a result, they never take action.

If you consider yourself to be a perfectionist, it is critical that you break the loop and shift your mindset. It can take away from your most important asset, which is time, leaving you feeling mentally exhausted. 

Instead of focusing on perfectionism, go for ‘good enough.’ Do the best that you can with the tools that you have. If you wait for conditions to be perfect before you start anything, you will never start.

3. Nothing in the external world makes you happy

Material possessions will never make you happy in life. All that they will do is provide you with short-term pleasure and gratification. Researchers have a term for it – it’s called, “retail therapy.”

Happiness is an inside job; it is something that we create each moment of our lives. You could be happy right now, simply by focusing on what you are grateful for. 

This is why I believe in the power of morning rituals. Spend time every morning focusing on the things that nourish your mind, body, and soul.

4. One day, you will die

A lot of people are afraid of the idea of death, but what if it wasn’t as scary as you think? It all comes down to your beliefs.

Rather than fear it, I think that death is empowering. I don’t fear it because my belief is that our spirit carries on after we leave our physical body.

We are on this planet for a limited amount of time. It's a sobering fact, but it’s true. We live our lives pretending that the end is never going to come. When you embrace the concept of death, it empowers you to cherish life even more.

This is best reflected in one of my favorite quotes by Michael Landon Jr. that reads, “Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”

Research has indicated that the East Asian yin and yang philosophy of death – where life can’t exist without death – allows individuals to use death as a reminder to enjoy life.

The reality is that we will all meet the same fate as one another, so while we are on this earth we need to seize every moment and live it to the fullest. In the words of Giovanni Falcone, “He who doesn’t fear death only dies once.”

5. Time is the most valuable asset

Time is the most valuable asset that you have. Second by second, you are given the opportunity to become the person that you desire to be. How do you use your time?

Spend your time doing things that bring meaning to your life and that make you come alive inside. The moment that I realized how important this was, I stopped wasting time on things that didn’t matter. Every day I focus on making sure that everything that I do has a purpose behind it.

The reality is that time is depreciating. We can't get more of it, which is why we need to spend it wisely. Don't spend ANY time doing anything that isn't bringing you closer towards the person that you desire to be.

I hope these 5 brutal truths about life no one wants to admit have opened your eyes and offered a different perspective. Don’t let these truths hold you back. Rather, let them empower you to take action and create your reality, on your terms.

Do you want to learn how to create an empowering morning ritual? CLICK HERE to join my course, Morning Ritual Mastery!

I would like to share 3 benefits of minimalism that extend to all areas of life. Through life's ups and downs, it is important that we remember to take the time to enjoy the simple things in life. We need to be grateful for what we have, and focus on finding meaning in our lives.

Life is meant to be enjoyed, not filled with stress and frustration. Minimalism is a state of being, a simple approach to life, that can help us do more with less.  In the words of Vernon Howard, “You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.”

That is why I wanted to invite Will Chou, the founder of Will You Laugh, a self-development blog that focuses on the secrets to success, to write a guest post to talk about 3 benefits of minimalism that extend to all areas of life.

Take it away, Will!

When I first discovered minimalism, I was a mess of a person and I thought it was stupid. But everything has changed now.  To explain my change of opinion, we have to go back to the beginning. When I first discovered minimalism, I really wanted to travel the world for a living.

At the time, I was disillusioned with my career paths and confused about my future. I was struggling to find work I could enjoy and the job opportunities that I was offered, sucked. To put it simply, like many Millennials, I had chosen a tough college major that I loved (pre-med Biology) but realized too late that it wasn’t my passion (after graduation).

My days of despair led me to seek escapism on the Internet. I discovered a large group of online bloggers that had a huge following and who called themselves, “travel hackers.”

Essentially, they would travel to exotic places for a living and make their living by “hacking life.” They were able to achieve a level of financial freedom that most people would envy. At first, I wasn't sold on this whole idea of minimalism, but that soon changed. Today, I want to share with you the three benefits of minimalism that extend to all areas of life:

1. You Will Stay Organized and Clean

I had always been a messy person. Despite my best efforts to stay clean, my room would quickly morph into a mess of junk. To put it simply, the more items you have, the more opportunity it is for it to make you feel and appear messy.

When you only have a couple of items on your desk, it’s never going to look that messy no matter how long you delay cleaning it up. It’s shocking how few people understand or use this habit. Nowadays, I have applied this minimalist philosophy to every area of my life.

2. You Will Achieve More By Working Less

A lot of people make the mistake of approaching their daily to-do list with a reactive state of mind. They take on too many tasks on a daily basis, many of which are unimportant. When they look back at what they have accomplished, they are surprised by their lack of progress.

A solution is a form of minimalism called essentialism. The concept is simple. Focus on one to three tasks per day. Make sure they are the most important tasks that will make the biggest impact on the accomplishment of your goals. If you do this right, you will realize that you’re doing less work but getting more results by prioritizing and cutting out the unnecessary.

3. You Feel Happier and Less Stressed

Not so long ago, I was frustrated with my progress, both professionally and personally. I didn’t have quality friends, I wasn't earning much, and I was lost and without direction in my dating life.

It was confusing because I had always worked super hard in school and “done the right things.” After doing a lot of research on success, happy people, and the science of happiness, I came up with a simple mantra that has helped me a lot. It goes something like, “As long as I have air, water, food, a healthy mind, and a healthy body, I am happy.”

This mantra reminds me to lead a simple, happy life. By living this philosophy, I have become a much happier, more relaxed, and lighter person.

I Am Not A Minimalist And I Don’t Want You To Be. 

Wait, what? After all, I have said, I’m now revealing that I’m not a minimalist, I don’t intend to be one. Why? I can't say that I would be happy with living a lifestyle of extreme minimalism, and that’s OK. What I love about some minimalist influencers out there is that they’re not telling you to become a minimalist.

Rather, they are encouraging that you adopt the minimalist practices that work for you. That’s where I stand. I will be rich one day and I will buy expensive experiences, but the items and services I do buy will be fewer than the average person, and they will be focused on memorable experiences, rather than a desire to hold onto possession.

It’s important not to swing from one extreme perspective (“Everything you buy has value so you should hoard it.”) to the other (“Nothing has value so get rid of it all.”). The truth lies closer to the middle.

Will has spent thousands of hours studying the world's most successful people and shares his findings on his self-development blog, Will You Laugh. Get his free gift made especially for Project Life Mastery readers by CLICKING HERE!

Are you someone that is stuck in the past? If so, it’s time to live in the now! This is the secret to a happier future.

We live in a world of distractions. We are bombarded with millions of things that take us away from the present moment, and thus diminish our ability to practice stillness.

Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace once said that, “We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, de-coherence.” The good news is that you have the power to change.

Many people find themselves either obsessing about the future or dwelling in the past. This is a recipe for pain and suffering. Anything that has occurred in your life up to this point in time is ancient history. Your past does not determine or dictate your future in any way unless you allow it to.

What many of us forget is that our ability to create the future of our dreams hinges on our ability to enjoy the present moment. Don’t worry about tomorrow. It’s time to live in the now!

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

(iTunes Podcast Coming Soon)

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The world is ever-changing, and if you want to succeed you have to change with it. There is no way of knowing what your life will look like 50 years from now.

However, what you can do is take the steps necessary in order to craft the vision for your life, in the here and now. That vision may change and evolve over time, and that is OK. The important thing is that you set goals for yourself and work hard to achieve them.

The problem is that a lot of people are afraid to make any decision at all, for fear that it will be the wrong one. Instead, they prefer to live in their comfort zone because it feels safe. But there is nothing safe about this zone.

We need to examine our fears and make friends with them. Sure, some choices that we make may lead to more painful life lessons, but nothing hurts more than living in fear.

Oftentimes, what you fear most is the one that will bring you closer to living in alignment with your vision, and inevitably, what will set you free. In the words of Pema Chodron, “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”

The best way to overcome fear is to adopt a growth mindset. These types of people thrive off of challenges and see failure not as evidence of their lack of intelligence, but rather as an opportunity for growth and expansion of their current strengths.

Growth and gratitude go hand in hand. By adopting an attitude of gratitude, we are able to move through life in a much more positive way, which contributes to greater happiness and fulfillment in all areas of life. When we are appreciative of what we already have and live in the now, it inspires us to grow and become more.

Oftentimes people get upset over the littlest things. Each day provides you with an opportunity to make new decisions and choices. If you take things for granted it means that you are too focused on yourself. Step outside of yourself and be more grateful for the blessings that already exist in your life. Live in the now!

The next time that you catch yourself in a negative spiral of complaining or expectation, step back and ask yourself, “In this moment, what am I am grateful for? How can I use this experience to better myself?”

What action will you take today in order to create the life that you desire? You have the choice of deciding who you want to be in this moment and what you want to create for your future.

Drop the past. The present moment is life itself. Live in the now! That is the secret to a happier future. In the words of Eckhart Tolle, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” Being present is the only way to enjoy life to the fullest.

Do you want to learn cutting-edge strategies for accelerating success and mastering every area of your life? CLICK HERE to join my Life Mastery Accelerator program!

Are you ready to learn 3 ways to stop worrying about anything and everything? CLICK HERE to read the article I wrote on Medium!

I want to share with you a simple 2 minute daily gratitude meditation, called the HeartMath Meditation Technique, that was developed by the Heart Math Institute (HMI).

HMI researches the heart-brain communication, and its relationship to managing stress, increasing coherence, and deepening our connection to self and others. It is founded on the belief that our hearts have their own intelligence.

Your heart was created long before before you even had a brain. Don’t get me wrong, the head is an amazing tool for setting goals, learning, and strategizing, but it falls short at providing us with gratitude and happiness.

If you want to lead a happy life, you need to experience positive emotions, like gratitude and joy. In the words of Paulo Coelho, “You will never be able to escape from your heart, so it is better to listen to what it has to say.” Are you ready to get out of your head and start listening to your heart?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Do you want to learn how to create a morning ritual that will allow you to live from your heart every day? CLICK HERE to purchase my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

I believe in the power of cultivating a daily morning ritual ritual that inspires us to live in our hearts, rather than our heads. HMI has created a technique called “The Freeze Frame” will allows you to do just that, and I would like to share with you how it works.

First and foremost, I want to be clear that you don’t need to wait for something bad to happen in your life in order to engage in this 2 minute gratitude meditation. I do this meditation every morning, and a few times throughout my day, in order to ensure that I am experiencing the positive emotions that I value most.

Whatever moment I’m in, I like to stop, close my eyes, put my hand on my heart, and focus on my breath. The breath is one of the fastest ways to get out of your head. Your mind may not be able to understand this process, and that is OK.

As you take a deep breath, feel the power and strength of your heart. Then ask yourself the question, “What is something that I am grateful for in this moment?” From this place, if you were to take a measurement of your brain, you would find that your head and heart are in-sync.

Then ask yourself, “What is the truth of this moment?” My truth is that I am an incredible force of energy in this universe, I am guided, and unconditionally loved. I am not life’s circumstances or what other people say.

Your truth doesn’t have to be logical, rational, or make sense for that matter. All that matters is that it resonates with your heart. Never forget that your heart has zero limits, whereas your head will always create stories and excuses.

The next time that you are experiencing a challenge in life, ask yourself, “What would my heart do?” There is no better compass that you can access. When you’ve finished having a conversation with your heart and you’ve tapped into your truth, give gratitude to the experience, and then open your eyes.

If you want to be happier, implement this 2 minute gratitude meditation into your morning ritual. Connect to the intuitive guidance of your heart’s intelligence. I know that when I do this exercise, the depth of emotions that I experience is indescribable. My entire being vibrates, it nourishes my spirit, and I feel more alive.

Trust your heart, because it is the essence of who you are. Aristotle said it best – “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” What is your heart telling you? Listen.

Do you want to learn how to create a morning ritual that will allow you to live from your heart every day? CLICK HERE to purchase my Morning Ritual Mastery course!