The Top Three Tactics For Life Improvement

I have had a fascination with changing habits and creating motivation for over ten years now. I have spent countless hours reading and researching different ideologies of creating life changes. Focused Life, ultimately, is a program that I have assembled borrowing from several sources and I intend to use this program to help individuals who are recovering from addiction to increase their odds. I understand the importance of traditional rehabilitation and ideally a target client of this program would have already detoxed and spent at least a month in a traditional rehab. The Focused Life program is meant to supplement traditional rehabs and transition an individual in recovery from concentrating on drugs and not doing them to focusing on more general life change practices.

I am going to share some of the basic, universally accepted methods and tactics that are necessary in meeting your life change objectives. The following concepts work independently of one another. They are tactics to employ in your overall strategy to make the changes in your life that you desire.

If you have anything to add, disagree or just wanna say something, please feel free to comment below.

So, here are my top five fundamentals for making a lasting change.

1       Perception

      Your perception is the lens of personal biases that every individual has, through which they view their environment and the world.

Perception is under your control. You may have been raised to be a racist or violent, and your schema of the world will adhere to what you already think you know to be true. The subsequent behavior, attitudes and actions that are produced are entirely under your control. You get to choose whether or not you’ll continue to be a violent person.

The truth is that the notions which you believe in most, are usually not even your notions. They are a product of your experiences. You have been conditioned to think a certain way and that is why we have cultures in society; groups of people that act, think, believe and behave similarly. Ones thoughts stem from ones beliefs, and beliefs are completely constructed by your perceptions. If a view of the world around you no longer serves you, you can easily change it. You are in charge of what goes on in your head, and so often we give that control to others. Question everything that is deeply ingrained in your beliefs and you will find unchecked motives for action, irrational thoughts and baseless reasoning.

To be yourself, to be true to who you are it is imperative that you inventory your beliefs. If it makes sense, keep it. If not, you are not subject to any concept. Toss it.

If I were reading this, I’d be reeling to think of what my beliefs are. If you’re like me, in that respect, here is a bit of advice on rooting out illogical beliefs to allow your perception the space to make more sound assumptions and bring yourself closer to a place where you are not in constant conflict with the real world around you.

Don’t even try to list and label your beliefs while you inventory them. It’s an internal process that requires making a practice introverted observations. Instead, file this idea away, but keep it at the surface of your thoughts. Next time you are witnessing an event and you notice that you are judging right and wrong, turn that high powered perception of yours inward and assess the reasons that you are coming to the conclusions that are fresh in your mind. Be honest with yourself. That should go without saying, but we are odd creatures sometimes. Now, are the motivations that cause you to side with A or B born out of something you are knowledgeable about? Have you experienced, in your life, an event that would lead you to side with either.

To give you an example of how this conditioning has happened throughout your life, how you are going to handle it now and how to reverse the process; I’ll give you a classic and common scenario.

If you hear some politician saying that something is happening and this is why it’s an atrocity. You are listening to 100% spin. This is a professional influencer, negotiator and persuader that is speaking, so it’s often easy to identify with what that person is saying. She knows that 99.61% of viewers hold democracy as an unquestionable belief, but many don’t really even understand what it is or why it’s better than an alternative; or even what an alternative to democracy is. She is going to try to make her point synonymous with that ideal.

(I am not referring to any particular person because I used the pronoun, “she”. I always interchange gender specific pronouns, and I always start with female pronouns. I just realized this could be mistaken for a reference to only a couple of politicians currently in the nation’s spotlight.)

This has been going on your entire life. The media, ads, your family, your friends all have a level of influence over you, or not. It’s your choice.

2.       Positivity

Being optimistic is the fundamental building block of creating change and even having a better life. Positive thinking goes hand and hand with perception. It is perception. While this blog post is not intended for a centerpiece to your epic battle with depression, it works wonders for people who use complaining and pessimism as a social tool. Complaining is often a great way to strike up a conversation, but it is doing more damage than you know. Because of the nature of this post, I am going to leave my opinions, formed from my experiences, out of this. However, positive thinking is important for a number of reasons that aren’t just opinions.

Positive thinking is a part of every process, I’ve seen, to make major lasting changes to your life. Lucky you, it’s the easiest thing in the world to change. Actually, you can do this right now. But, first, let me tell you why it’s important.

There is a semi-recent popularization of a meta-science known as the Law of Attraction. This doctrine teaches that for some unknown reason, we can manifest whatever it is we focus on in our lives. We can create a wondrous life or a dismal existence, through happy thoughts. I personally believe in many aspects of Attraction, but it’s still a meta-science and I won’t feed you theory that no one even understands.

Optimism is superior to pessimism obviously, right? This is always where someone interjects on how they have transcended this dichotomy, and are The Realist. Like I mentioned, don’t lie to yourself. I said it twice. We all get. Now, we’re all realists. But on the spectrum of optimism and pessimism, if it changes nothing else in your life, it changes your perception, which changes your beliefs and in this case changes moods, feelings and emotions. And those things change everything. Mastering those three things is the goal. Keep that goal in mind.

3.       Feelings and Emotions

For the purpose of this, and future, blog posts, we will look at emotions as a spectrum. Feelings are like notes, or keys on a piano. They can be mixed in harmony or dissonance. On one end of the emotion spectrum we have the desired emotion, which is Love and at the other end, the worst, fear. The reason that it is love and fear, is because we are envisioning a spectrum for life change, thus for motivation. Hate would be the natural opposite of love, in most schools of thought, but hate is a highly motivating feeling.

It’s such a shame that this has to be included in a self-mastery post. Emotional control is your God-given birthright. At some point, though, we all lose it. We give it to others. We give others the power to control us like puppets, by not owning our emotions. I can call your mother fat and in most cases own your behavior. I can at least get a rise out of you, by saying something offensive. I’m never more impressed than when I see someone defy the rules of humanity and behaving unpredictably well in situations that would ruin the next guys night. Getting offended at disrespect is human nature, right? I don’t think so.

Stephen R. Covey said that we are in control of our reactions. He had a clever play on the word responsibility. He taught that there is a gap between an action and an individual’s reaction. Inside this gap is where the maturity and responsibility of a person can be measured. You choose from the infinite possibilities what your response to stimuli might be. Mr. Covey said that a responsible person would be able-to-respond maturely and effectively. Take back your birthright. Be above the circumstances.

Change the thoughts you entertain and you change your perspective. Change your perspective and you change your beliefs. Change your beliefs and you get to change your destiny. 

How to keep up Momentum Part 2

How to beat YesterYou pt. 2

I lost it because of a silly reason. As I started gaining weight and muscles, I kept refining my workouts and taking my diet more and more seriously, because that’s what I wanted to do. The desired effect became more important than the interruption in fun, or bad taste it might cause. When you lose that perceived value of importance in your health, you will not diet, work out, jog or make any changes in your life. You can always live at a higher level. You have to choose to live down here. I hope we can go live up there together, because I used to and it’s awesome. As I took my appearance more seriously, I started anticipating seeing the reaction from my friends back home, because I had gained a third of my normal weight and packed it on and kept myself ripped, by dieting (the wrong diet, I didn’t know anything back then and still got the result from the zone) running and sit-ups.  

I went home and it was awesome. Everyone reacted just like I imagined, I had the best time and got positive attention, which I craved. That’s another story. I achieved my goal. When I went back to Ft. Bragg, I felt like I had accomplished the mission, so I didn’t return to the gym and in 4 or 5 months I lost all that mass I had worked for.  Don’t let life trick you like it did me. This is something you find the motivation to do and then once it’s a habit you never let it go. You may never get it again.

I’m on LinkedIn, let’s connect.

There is one way to make absolutely sure that you don’t lose it and its simple when you’re in a dedicated state. You must improve every day momentum. It’s how a snowball that is worried about the candle lit in its presence becomes an avalanche and the problems that used to plague you, are snuffed out before you even notice them. In the end, and it takes a while to realize this, because we are all people. You look at powerful person or even more a person who has contributed to mankind a great deal and hear clichés like, ”He puts his pants on one leg at a time, like me. But, those clichés are the cleverest weapon that the snowflakes have made. For some reason flakes tend to believe these clichés because they rhyme or perfectly fit in a metaphor. But, don’t be fooled on this one, you are a very powerful person already. The potential that you have would change the world. You can release it and start living to the fullest and enjoying life more immediately. The zone doesn’t’ come to you. You have to go there and stay.

Making a change last takes momentum. Every day you have to improve on the man or woman you were before. Every morning you have to gather your priorities by whatever methods and tools you like to use. And, every night you must measure your success and keep an open mind. Use what works dump what doesn’t. I hope that reading this has improved your life. Take something away from this and everything you do, read, everyone you talk to. Don’t waste your time and don’t let experiences be wasted on you. We are not in a competition against each other, but we are in competition against ourselves. Don’t ever let #Yesteryou beat you. Because we may all look the same. We all have arms, a head, legs, a torso, for the most part. We all are generally the same size in stature within a few feet. But, one day you will see that the ones that fought every minute of every day, they didn’t listen to the naysayers, they didn’t stick with the crowd, are avalanches compared to a snowball crying, melting because of a small problem  until the influence of the avalanche destroys the problem for the smaller now ball of snow.

If you are that guy that complains about things that everyone faces, don’t feel bad, most of us have been there. Make that today’s improvement. Make it a point to accept traffic and not yell at the guy that accidentally cuts you off. He can’t hear you, your passengers can, even if it’s only you. Don’t ruin your own afternoon for his sake and a small problem. Remember to always be grateful, it changes the way your subconscious operates. And, it leads you to an abundant life.

These changes are small, but they can make a large difference in the end.

Please comment. We haven’t been writing engaging content in place of what we think is important and lessons from the

Focused Life Coursework, meshed together. I want this to reach as many people as possible and the only way it goes out

to more people is if you read this and it sucks, you comment and let me know. I can handle it, let me have it

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Keeping Up Your Momentum

Keeping your Momentum from Motivation

How to Beat YesterYou Part I of II 

Acquiring the motivation to get up an hour early so you can do something you initially perceive to be unpleasant is your goal. You want a better look, better health and more energy. That is a noble goal worth the hour loss of sleep. This is probably one of the most common habits that people want to start. It tops my list. I mentioned in earlier posts that I have been in "the zone" before, and let it go. I learned a lesson with that: it’s much easier to retain it than to regain it. 

With that said, in this post we are assuming you have it. You are in the zone and you move from your center. You make decisions and don’t fumble around second-guessing yourself. When you need to work out, there is no debate in your mind about whether you should or shouldn’t. The pros and cons have already been hashed out and you’ve made this a habit.

The lawyer in head that represents instant gratification, might as well be a public defender. She doesn’t care enough to argue any longer. She has been shushed and the real you, the part that represents your place in humanity has beaten down the primal urges to do what you feel like, eat what tastes the best and follow the laws of inertia, the same way a lump of coal does. If you are experiencing these things, you can be sure you are in “The Zone”.

You do not want to take risks in losing this state of being. The quality of your life experience is largely based on your ability to control your self, if not totally based on this.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who have no problem reaching this state of being. For me it takes motivation, self-denial, mental and emotional fortitude, timing and a little bit of luck. I’m sure this is different for everyone. Twice I have felt like I was in the zone and there is nothing better. It is worth any price, and the above tag is not very expensive.

Its value comes from…well, every aspect of your life. Like we mentioned up top, you look better, have more energy, you’re healthier and decision making and self-confidence are positively affected. But, I will tell you what it felt like for me and then I will tell you how I lost these states. And, I will give you the one word that is key to staying in this state. It’s already all up in this blog post, so you may have already guessed it. It’s no secret of the ages. It’s the rule that applies to us all who want to improve each day in every way.

When I was twenty and again when I was twenty-six, I was in the zone and I knew it. My friends and I called it super-dedication mode. I thought it was just applied to my working out, but in any way imaginable my life was better. The first time I was dumb kid and only held on to this until an approaching leave from the Army was completed. I started in February working out and denying myself certain things as a fast for God. It was an important factor in attaining the desired state, but I didn’t know that at the time. I lost it as quick as I got it though. I didn’t know how much I was losing when I let it slip away.

I got much more attention from the opposite sex because anyone looks 10x better than when they aren’t. I was treated differently by everyone. My superiors in the military and peers treated me with more respect. I’ve talked with a lot of people about this particular phenomenon, and almost every person says the reason is because the one treating me with respect sees that I was a responsible person and thus the higher level of respect. I believe that it is much more 

emotionally driven than intellectually. I think it is a caveman thing. I felt fantastic every day. I have had anxiety issues especially during the end of my term in the military and after, but I had no anxiety when I was keeping myself up. I was happy. To be direct and not mention every little thing that was improved, I’ll shorten the description. The laws of nature bent to my will, just a little. Good things happened to me and I was grateful which made more good things happen if only in my mind.

 See ya tomorrow comment and bookmark

3 Steps to Move Toward Financial Sustainability

Lets’ go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way first. I am not a lawyer, I haven’t passed the Series 7, not a banker, not even a wealthy person. Do not substitute this information for that of a Certified Finance Pro.

This is a simplified way to help those who are about changing their lives for the better, to get started and move forward from these three first steps.

They call it the “Rat Race”…

Rich people, that is. I think Robert Kiyosaki, coined the term in his bestseller, “Rich Dad / Poor Dad“Rich Dad / Poor Dad”. The grind of making just enough to cover your bills and stretch your paycheck through the week. It’s uncomfortable, but most American’s do it. In fact, most Americans live here. 6 of 10 baby boomers have less than a thousand dollars saved for emergencies. This place sucks, so we want to elevate to the next level. Lucky, for you, it’s easy…not that you couldn't otherwise handle it….

Step   1.

Pay yourself first. That doesn't really make much sense, but it is the single most effective change you can make in your life, and like most everything discussed here, you can do it now, today.  All you do is take about 10% to 15% of your profit, income, whatever and put it in your account, not to be messed with,

Paying yourself first means that you take a predetermined amount, let’s try 10% for now, until we get to some personal finance basic statements. I think that almost all of us could cut a latte, cigarettes, or anything out of your life to cover the price of your savings needs. Better yet, don’t cut it out (unless it’s cigarettes or the like), but find a creative way to increase your income. The point of these posts, ultimately, are to get you to see that there isn’t anything that you aren’t capable of doing. It’s not bullshit. With a positive/realistic outlook on life, yourself and your abilities, it’s true what they tell you in kindergarten.

So, right now, make the change. That’s the beauty of change; you can do it instantly if you don’t fight yourself about it, and it adds up to dollars.  Speaking of which, that reminds me of……

Step 2.

Use the power of compounding, tax-free interest. This isn’t a tax-avoidance blurb, but we can go over some of the basic vehicles in which to drive you tax-free moulah around in. This is where you will want to do some research on your own. Don’t just any-many-Moe a bank, and do what their guru says. She/he is not obligated to have your best interests in mind. Needless, then, to say; he/she most certainly does not. He or she can be a wealth of consulting knowledge once you can sift through the crap. Remember, banks are the ones that rocked our economy, so hard that everyone in the world felt it about seven years ago. It seemed like misconduct, even control fraud to me, but no one was arrested but me that day. If I had been smart, and went to school in Boston, for Finance, then I would have been compounding interest instead of good time.

The way to make the most of this is to use a Traditional or Roth IRA, educational savings plan like a 529 plan, for your kids’ college money, even life insurance policies can be a good way to grow your cash garden without having to worry about weeds.

Make sure you put away a month of income, at least, in a money market account or the stock market, only taking very little, if any risks at all with this. This is your emergency fund and the cornerstone of a good healthy portfolio. This money cannot be tax deferred, by nature, because you may need it quickly and tax-advantaged accounts like your 401k, are penalized if you dip into the cookie jar earlier than agreed.

A 401k is an IRA that is contributed to by both you and your employer. An IRA is a retirement fund and you can own anything (almost) in your IRA. This part is tricky, often, Talk to a pro. I think the only thing that you aren’t allowed to have is collectible wine, because you might drink it.

A 529 plan is one of the educational savings plans that grows un-taxed, while, normally, your child grows up and then it is used for college tuition, books, computers, Beats by Dre (It’s true), rent during school and even a vehicle. The best part is, this is not calculated by the Pell Grantors. If you have a kid, head to Fidelity or your least hated financial institution and drop a couple of Jacksons on your IRA, Life Insurance Policy and/or that 529 plan for little Billy. Oh, and if Bill Jr.uses that dough on college expenses for real, like Beats by Dre, he may not pay taxes on the back-end either. You cannot beat that.

Briefly, if you have a high deductible health insurance policy, you can open a tax—free savings account, known eloquently as a Health Savings Account (HSA), this is not an exhaustive list, but I thought I’d throw that weirdo in just to show you that there are many tax-advantaged accounts and processes. Please, educate yourself further, after taking these first two steps and manifesting them in your life. This is a zero-sum game that we are all playing. There is foreclosure built into the fractal banking system and Modern Money Mechanics. It is overwhelming, but you’ll adapt or someone will be eating your lunch. It’s a dirty game, yawl. I shouldn't even be telling you this, I should want you to lose….Relax, I’m only joking. I want to see as many people rise up and fight smarter to even the playing fields. The game is fixed, but only as long as we allow ourselves to not be educated about said game.

That is why Rule 3, should be Rule One, applies to every aspect of your life and is under your responsibility 100%. [ABC] Always Be Clowning’, Oh wait that was my old motto. 
My new one doesn't need a catchy acronym and it is a good thing, no matter who you’d like to ask. Improve yourself daily. Learn and compound ideas. Help those around you understand, and seek help for what you don’t understand. The truth is that once a human accumulates an unimaginably vast fortune, hundreds of millions or billions, often she is a slave to the money in a whole new way. The object is to keep her from being so stressed out, by participating in your in own financial planning. The pros won’t always steer you in the right direction. Good intentioned layman, won’t either. I hope you take this to heart and out of your next paycheck, take 10%, walk inside your bank and add it to your IRA, find resources that will help you understand how to handle your money.

--Money makes a great servant, but a horrible master. —    -----whose quote is that?

Resources:
www.yahoo.com/finance, 

www.google.com/finance, 

www.bloomberg.com, 

www.fidelity.com  My Favorite