Years ago, when I was in college, I was sitting in one of the little desks on the first day, nervous and not knowing what to expect. A woman walked in and sat next to me and smiled. She was in her mid-seventies, and as we struck up a conversation, she explained that a few years previous, she had lost her husband and decided to go to college. It was something she had wanted to do her entire life and never had. It was her belief that it is never too late for anything. I loved this idea and I loved her attitude.
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BEGIN AGAIN.
I once worked for a dentist. He was 35, had made some good decisions, and was in the process of buying the oldest and most established dental practice in Gilbert, AZ. He was a great guy with five children and an incredible wife. He told me that when he was in dental school that there were some students with him there in their 50’s. He explained that they had grown tired and bored of their jobs, their pay, and their fields of practice as lawyers and doctors, and even though they would only have 10 working years left in them by the time they graduated, some of them would make more money in those 10 years than they had their entire lives before that. He told me, and he also believed, that it’s never too late.
It’s never too late for anything. It’s especially never too late to work towards self-improvement. DAILY Self-Development is the key to a more fulfilling life. It’s not too late to work on becoming a better father or mother. It’s not too late to work on becoming a better husband or wife. It’s not too late to learn how to improve relationships and connections with others. It’s not too late to start over, alter a few daily practices, and create a more beautiful life. You may be in a spot where you are feeling hopeless, devastated, destroyed, and like life is over. There is hope. You are not alone. It is never too late to create a new mindset, then project this inner world into the physical, virtual matrix within which we all reside.
The truth is, I believe, that the beauty and joy we experience in this life ALL comes from within.
Jim Rohn speaks of a 75-year-old man. He explained to the man that he is in a very fortunate position because he has the opportunity to put the knowledge, experience, and everything he has learned in the previous 75 years into his 76th year, and make it the most beautiful year of his life, so far. What a year that is going to be! What a great perspective.
It’s never too late. So it is with each of us! We can choose to take all of the wisdom, knowledge, experiences, and information that we have amassed throughout our entire lives, so far, and act upon it this next year, in order to create the best year of our life!
It’s never too late to get stronger, wiser, and better. That starts with a new or improved mindset. When we get this right, everything else in life will fall into it’s rightful place, or out of our lives entirely, just like it is supposed to, according to our focus, and where we place our attention, most of the time.
It is the quality of our mindset and beliefs which will dictate the quality of our feelings, which then determines the quality of our actions, and it is the quality of our actions which will determine the quality of our lives.
Today I will remind myself that it is never too late to change, improve, grow, progress, and expand. By continuously and consistently working on Personal Development, I know I will be working towards becoming a consistently better version of myself-IT IS ABOUT PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION. This won’t only benefit me, but everyone around me, as well. I will remember that as I consistently do my best, my best will consistently become better.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
Our squad of summer interns reminds me of a question a I get asked a lot: “How do I find a mentor?”
I have a pretty straightforward process for getting close to someone you can learn from and it goes like this: identify the person that is living your ideal life. Emphasis on the word ideal because that’s where people fall on their face: they don’t pick someone who is living a life that actually excites them. Instead, they just go for whoever is near them.
Once you identify the right person, tell them the following magic words: “I’m going to work for you for free for 90 days. I’ll work harder AND smarter than anyone you’ve ever met. At the end of that time, if you’d rather pay me than lose me than pay me and I’ll stay on staff. If not, we shake hands, part ways and that’s the end of it.”
AND THEN…
Here’s the key: actually deliver on that promise in the most aggressive way possible. There’s nothing that is above you. If they ask you to take out the trash, take it out better than it’s ever been taken out before. Get to understand their business better than anyone else in the company.
Anticipate their needs (this is huge). Put more effort in and learn faster than anyone. Come in over-prepared so you can over deliver. In short, set the bar ridiculously high and surpass all expectations. Make it your mission in life to win people over by delivering a crushing amount of value.
To execute on all of the above, have the following in mind:
Extreme attentiveness
Inexhaustible willingness to work
Zero complaining
Be enthusiastic
Be super positive
That’s exactly what I did when I first started working at Awareness Technologies. They hired me as a copywriter, but I poured myself into it. And when we started Quest I would always take the worst job, never complain and always creating a positive and upbeat work environment.
At one point I was waking up in the middle of the night with my hands cramping closed, but even then I just laughed at it, because by focusing on how much fun I was having, I was able to set the tone so that everyone else could enjoy themselves even though we were all busting our asses. Creating positive energy that others can feed off is one of the surest ways to ingratiate yourself to a new team.
It’s about going in, identifying the problems that the business faces, putting in a metric ton of work, having a rad attitude that gets other people excited, and doing whatever is needed, even if you think it’s below you.
If you make that offer to 10-15 people, at least one of them will likely say yes (if not more). And if you perform like I detailed you will begin earning a reputation that will open more doors than you can imagine.
At the end of the 90 day period, if you’re crushing it but they still can’t afford to pay you, at least you gained knowledge and connections. And that, my friends, is FAR more valuable than money. Money is a one-off gain. Knowledge and connections will can be monetized over and over if you know how to leverage them.
Until next time, my friends, be legendary.
– Tom
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TOM AND HIS MISSION VISIT HIS WEB SITE:
We all know pain and suffering. For some of us it has become a constant companion in life. Many of us suffer from anxiety, sadness, depression, hopelessness, or because of outer, physical ailments.
Suffering constantly changes, and can eventually end through an up-leveling of mindset, beliefs, perspectives, and repetitious, constant, consistency in focus and thinking.
Happiness is simply the absence of unhappiness. Ending personal suffering has everything to do with the stories we tell ourselves, the WAYS we tell our stories, our consistent choices of focus, and the meanings and definitions we assign to all of it.
We can replace and displace our suffering through focusing NO LONGER on memories of the past painful moments we choose to continuously relive in our minds, and instead redirect ALL of our energy and attention on what we DO want more of in our lives, and then DOING THE WORK NECESSARY to make THAT happen.
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH OUR THOUGHTS. Thoughts create our feelings. Our consistent feelings dictate our consistent actions, interactions, and reactions. Our consistent actions, interactions, and reaction dictate our eventual results and outcomes. These become our HABITS. This process repeats itself according to what we choose to focus on, until the day we drop these bodies and leave this human life behind.
The habit of gratitude, first thing in the morning, then periodically throughout the day, allows us to see things progressively more beautifully, over time, until ALL WE CAN SEE is beauty.
WE ARE CREATORS. We are NOT victims to our feelings. We are victims of our POOR THINKING HABITS.
It is what we think about things and how we choose to define them, and which meanings we decide to attach to everything, that dictates how we FEEL about things.
The quality of our thinking determines the exact mixtures of chemicals and hormones INSTANTLY injected into our blood stream with each and every thought. Within TWO pumps of the heart, that mixture travels in the blood stream to anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 MILES of the vascular system throughout our entire body. The quality of our thinking dictates the quality of how we feel, and HOW WE FEEL IS HOW WE CREATE.
If we HABITUALLY only allow high-quality thinking and only high quality content to occupy the space and energy within us, ONLY healing hormones and chemicals will be created.
Suffering devolves with a change or improvement in perspective, mindset, and action. This is an incredibly effective, helpful strategy.
For YEARS I chose to listen to the inner voice my brain and poor thinking habits resulted in. Eventually, I adopted the habit of listening to HOURS of content, each and every day, in order to intentionally reprogram my subconscious mind and the inner voice we all have. It has proven to be a HIGHLY effective strategy.
When my inner voice falls back into old patterns and ways of being, and becomes progressively more critical, judge-mental, unaccepting, or unloving, and I can no longer trust what it is saying, I turn on a podcast or book I have previously selected for just such a moment and drown out the incessant, negative voice within.
When our focus shifts from the source of our suffering to an important way to contribute, help, and add value to self (personal progress) or others, the suffering subsides, and eventually disappears. Having a WHY we get up each day, and a WHY to work incredibly hard, and a WHY or an important PURPOSE to do everything we are doing, can quickly enhance our reasons for living. Because ENERGY FLOWS WHERE ATTENTION GOES, when we focus upon our BIG REASONS WHY, instead of the source of our pain and suffering-which re-manifests and perpetuates our suffering, which is usually a only memory or a thought, miracles begin to happen. HEALING occurs.
HEALING IS JUST A THOUGHT AWAY.
MY big reasons why, and my purpose that I turned to and focused upon, which kept be from committing murder or suicide during the darkest times of my life, which was a 15-year, pharmaceutical-induced, Doctor-recommended, horribly debilitating, dis-empowering, hopeless time period, were my three sons.
Once I shifted all of my focus from my painful moments and self-induced suffering to raising my sons well, and leaving a legacy behind that they would be proud of, I began to have the need and desire to create, instead of destroy. I no longer had the desire to allow my addiction to my suffering, bitterness, anguish, darkness, victimhood, and self-pity to continue. I was then empowered to experience an awareness and clarity I needed and wanted all along to create something better for my children, and for the generations to come.
When our purpose becomes learning how to heal ourselves, then empowering those around us to heal themselves, the ripple effects are endless, as EVERYTHING AFFECTS EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE AFFECTS EVERYONE.
When I stopped taking the medications in 2014 that the Doctors made me to believe I HAD to take, MY BIG REASONS, or my 3 sons, REALLY empowered me to awaken and do more.
When our purpose becomes the empowering of another person, the shift from pain to meaning quickly becomes apparent and obvious. The better off, more healed, and the more filled with love WE are, the more capable we are of contributing to and loving others.
The better we love ourselves, the better we can love others. The more accepting we are of ourselves, the more capable we become of accepting others.
When we have a purpose GREATER THAN OURSELVES, we cease to wallow in our self-pity, suffering, and misery. This purpose can take us out of our minds to thinking and doing things OTHER than misery, self-pity, self-hatred, self-unacceptance, and self-loathing, and then we begin to heal.
Interestingly, it is the source of our very pain and suffering that can point us in the direction of our BIG REASONS WHY. Once we are able to learn to navigate through our own pain and suffering, we begin to see how needless the suffering was, and we desire to help others to end THEIR suffering and heal, as well, not wanting to see others suffer as we have. When contributing to others in this way becomes our BIG REASON WHY, or our purpose in life, we start down a path of adding value to self and others that makes us much more valuable, and attractive, in the process.
In a way, being blessed with the knowledge, strength, emotional fortitude, and skills, that comes through and by our pain and suffering, is the Universes way of gifting us with what we NEED (certainly not always what we WANT) in order to KNOW better, DO better, and continuously expanding more into BEING more of what we were ALL ALONG – LOVE.
The more we grow through, the more opportunities we have to learn the things that others will need to know of, in order to more successfully and efficiently navigate through this life.
It takes time, consistency, and patience to change things like mindset and perspective. Daily routines are helpful. The actions we take will benefit us most. Our change in mindset and perspective and the knowledge we obtain must be converted into action or it is worthless.
WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT.
Today I will decide on ways I can change and improve my mindset and perspective. I will add something to my personal, daily routine, that is easy and effective, that will help me change and improve my mindset and perspective.
Marisa Peer, and the work she does, has helped IMMENSELY with my own healing process, which is a very personal, individual thing. I highly recommend putting her name into the YouTube search engine, and consistently listening to her content she has so generously given.
It is HIGHLY likely that NONE of us will EVER suffer as Victor Frankl did, along with his brothers and sisters, in the prison camps of World War II. To listen to his story, and learn some helpful insights on how to effectively deal with and eliminate suffering from the mind, put these words into the YouTube search engine, or simply buy his book, MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING:
Man’s search for meaning audiobook
Another excellent source of how to alleviate suffering comes from the book, SOLVE FOR HAPPINESS, written by Mo Gawdat. His mind is AMAZING, and the way he shares what he has learned about how to enjoy happiness, rather than experiencing never-ending suffering, is worth diving deeply into and researching.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
Generosity is an attitude of mind. If we follow through on our thoughts of giving and generosity with an action of giving and generosity, we start a beautiful cycle of events! The law of cause and effect comes into play.
Generosity can be cultivated and practiced. It comes from a perspective and a belief of abundance. Those of us who are living an existence with the belief that we live a life of lack are less generous. Fear controls our actions-fear of losing everything, fear of being taken advantage of, and fear of loss, which for many of us means fear of validation through things we own. Eventually, however, what we own ends up owning us.
Those of us with a belief that we are living a life of abundance tend to give more freely. Many times we fluctuate between the two, giving freely out of love, generosity, and abundance, or clutching and holding onto things tightly in fear of lack and loss.
The other thing that is so beautiful about the consistent practice of generosity, is that consistency creates a conversion and a convergence of circumstance. Generosity begets generosity. We attract what we put out, vibrationally. We become what we think about, and so as we think thoughts of abundance and generosity, we become more generous, emitting a vibrational frequency of light, love, and giving, and through giving, we open ourselves up to RECEIVE.
Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? Simply put, the butterfly effect is a concept that states that, “small causes can have larger effects.”
When we are more generous to others, they tend to be more generous in return, and they also tend to be more generous to others in their lives. In turn, the people they are generous towards tend to be more generous, as well, and on and on it goes! What energy we put out comes back to us.
The opposite is also true. Unkindness, anger, frustration, FEAR, negativity, etc. begets the same and starts the spread of it, like a virus, throughout our day and throughout our lives. The effects spread quickly and can be incredibly far reaching.
Today I will focus on spreading generosity, kindness, good energies, and love. I will remember that just like a smile or a laugh, generosity is contagious.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share any message which may empower someone you love or may care about. Through adding value to others, we become more valuable.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is everything!
Through pain and suffering comes greatness. Robin Sharma teaches, “Suffering is the price of greatness.” We eventually desire to end our suffering, and so we change, develop, acquire new skills, and grow in order to do so. Pain and suffering can be our greatest source in this life of blessings, personal greatness, motivation, momentum, and opportunities for skill acquisition, wisdom, experience, and healing. Personal Development is a natural bi-product of pain and suffering. WHEN we experience this period of personal development, is entirely up to US.
This life victimizes EVERY ONE OF US. How long we choose to remain a victim is OUR PERSONAL CHOICE.
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is a choice. Pain is usually caused by an outside source at one moment in time. It is something that happens TO us. Suffering is internal, something we do to ourselves, as we focus on and ruminate on that one moment in time of pain, thereby reliving the painful moment for as long as we choose to focus on it.
Many times, when things happen to us, they are actually happening FOR us. Looking back, I realize that if I look long and hard enough, EVERYTHING that has happened “TO” me, has actually benefited me in some way. Even the most devastating experiences of this life have taught me lessons, empowered me to grow, and motivated me to expand in ways I never would have, without those experiences being present in my life.
The most frustrating, enraging thing I ever heard about suffering was this: “When you are truly tired of suffering, you will decide not to suffer anymore.” It was frustrating and enraging because I didn’t yet know how to simply stop suffering. When I realized it was as easy as shifting my focus, I became empowered, and started practicing presence, appreciating the now, and finding something to be grateful for in every moment, rather than being completely consumed in the painful moments and the hurtful memories of my past.
Pain and the things in this life that happens to us are all beyond our control. Our suffering comes from our beliefs and perceptions and what we choose to focus on. Suffering comes from the MEANINGS WE ATTACH to what is happening or has happened to us. Remaining attached to the meanings we assign to our suffering prolongs the suffering. Detaching ourselves from our stories and from our suffering ends it. Practicing presence, and remaining continuously in the present moment of now, tends to alleviate suffering. Re-framing our stories in a positive way allows us to redefine the meanings we attach to everything, and alters the internal chemical and hormonal structure and our inner environment, thereby allowing us to enjoy life rather than suffering through it.
When we realize and believe that everything is happening FOR us, not TO us, it all feels different, somehow.
Sometimes it seems impossible to control these internal things, but with time and consistent effort, practice, and improvements, we are able to control our level of suffering through controlling our habitual ways of thinking. It diminishes or it grows, depending ENTIRELY upon where we place our time, energy, attention, and focus. We have the ability to change what we think about EACH MOMENT. That is up to us. It is within our control, and THAT is OUR responsibility.
IT IS NOBODY ELSE’S JOB TO MAKE OUR LIFE BETTER.
We are all victimized in this world. The greatest, highest, most enlightened version of our self will eventually rise above the suffering and choose not to be a victim. Being victimized is not a choice. Whether or not we choose to remain victims is entirely up to us. It took me over 40 years to realize this, and choose to adopt this perspective and believe this as my truth. I remained in a victim state for far too long, and it is my hope that others learn from my mistakes.
It is more helpful than harmful for us all to be grateful for the external sources that push us into learning to control the internal world we constantly re-create through our thinking. The more beautiful we create our internal world to be, the more beautifully we project that internal environment into reality. As crazy and non-intuitive as it sounds, gratitude and appreciation for the pain in our life will grow our souls and help us more than hatred and resentment towards the pain, OR WHAT OR WHO WE PERCEIVE AS THE SOURCE of our pain. Others can help us out of a bad situation and rescue us from pain, but nobody can save us from our suffering. That is 100% our responsibility.
I love the idea of PRONOIA, or the teaching that the Universe was designed to conspire on our behalf. I have a theory that if we focus on Personal Development and Healing, The Universe will no longer be forcefully engaged to create situations within our lives for growth through pain and suffering. It could be that the shift in focus turns our minds entirely to this creative process, leaving no space for thoughts or focus on things like lack, pain, suffering, difficulties, and challenges. Or maybe it’s true, and The Universe leaves us alone to grow, evolve, and improve on our own, as long as we are actively engaged in this Personal Development and Healing Process, no longer having the programmed need to do it FOR us through pain.
The Universe was designed from the very beginning to constantly conspire on our behalf. ALL things that transpire are happening FOR us, not TO us. It is our perceptions and beliefs that make it so…WE create our physical reality, and it all starts with our thinking.
The quality of our thinking determines the exact mixtures of chemicals and hormones INSTANTLY injected into our blood stream with each and every thought. Within TWO pumps of the heart, that mixture travels in the blood stream to over 80,000 MILES of our vascular system throughout our entire body, causing us to feel certain ways and creating a magnetic energy around our bodies which pulsates outwards and away from us attracting all that is similarly magnetically charged, and appearing repulsive to all that is not. How incredible!
If we HABITUALLY only allow high quality thinking and only high quality content to occupy the space and energy within us, ONLY healing hormones and chemicals will be created. When we shrink from fear and expand into LOVE, we create a reality FILLED with nothing but “perfect days.”
BE LOVE. By doing so, it is all we will experience, attract, magnetically pull into our realm, and consistency re-create, by projecting our inner reality into physical existence.
Today I will examine the painful moments of my life, and realize the helpful changes and tools, which were acquired in order to end the suffering, even if the painful situations or circumstances continued. What were the things that helped me the most in my life in my own, personal, unique healing experience?
Finding OTHER WAYS OF BEING is an option for ALL of us. One of my favorite teachers on finding other ways of BEING, is Wayne Dyer. Plug his name into YouTube, and prepare for a full dose of enlightenment!
Mo Gawdat, the author of SOLVE FOR HAPPINESS, has created step by step practices and easy to comprehend ways to re-frame perspectives and see things in more beneficial ways. I highly recommend plugging his name into YouTube and listening to ANY and ALL content that he is included in.
Yet another individual that shares alternate ways of experiencing life is Ram Dass. Hie perspectives and eloquent ways he has shared so many teachings and practices have inspired me a great deal. There are over two hundred episodes featuring Ram Dass on the Be Here Now Network. Type ram dass be here now episode 1 and enjoy!
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share any message which may empower someone you love or may care about. Through adding value to others, we become more valuable.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is everything!
Success is many different things to each person. To me, it is continuously and consistently working towardsbeing wealthy and abundant in these areas of my life:
Physical
Emotional
Financial
Personal
Spiritual
Social/Communication
Educational
We all are blessed with the opportunity each day we wake up to find something that works well for us-and choosing to do it, practice it, and get better at it. I believe it is important for each of us to make a plan of our own success in each of these areas. Why? Progress equals happiness. When we stop progressing and working towards something to better ourselves, what happens?
It’s okay to be unhappy with the way things currently are. That gives us USEFUL INFORMATION and FEEDBACK, or data telling us we are not currently DOING what we truly WANT to, in order to create the results we WANT in our lives. Discontentment with current circumstances means CHANGE is a NECESSITY for us. It is JUST AS VALUABLE for us to know what we DON’T want, as it is to know what we DO want. Life experiences help us to decide upon these personal, unique-only-to-us lists.
Experiencing extreme contrasts empowers us to know what we DON’T want, and when we know what we don’t want, we more quickly decide on what we DO want.
I know that when I stop working towards something, or accomplished what I wanted to and think, “I’ve made it,” I become comfortable, complacent, lazy, then depressed as everything falls apart as a result of my complacency. It is my own personal recipe for disaster. Tension or pushback is NECESSARY for growth.
I love the quote by Pitbull: “It’s not about making it, guys. It’s about maintaining it.” Maintaining progress, and consistently growing and evolving, is where it’s at.
If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
It seems counter-intuitive, but when we focus on personal development, everything in life works out better! Our relationships with others become more fulfilling and incredible as we become even more attractive, our level of commitment as we build credibility through our consistency, our financial capabilities, and our abilities to contribute in EVERY area of life, improves, AS WE DO. Life changes for us as WE change. Life gets better for us as WE get better.
We do not have to DO more to BE more.We only have to DO more to HAVE, ENJOY, and EXPERIENCE more.
You will never BE more than you are right now.You are GOD, in disguise.You are PURE LIGHT, shining, projecting, and radiating brilliantly FROM THE INSIDE.You are CONSCIOUSNESS, perfectly and naturally expressing itself in the most beautiful way possible-AS YOU! You are divine and eternal. We ALL are.
I was once asked what MY definition of success was. I responded with,
SUCCESS IS A THOUGHT AWAY.
SO MANY wise men have taught over the centuries that we become what we think about. I believe,
WE ARE WHAT WE THINK WE ARE.
Another definition of success I love comes through The Mind Architect, Peter Crone:
A TRUE MEASURE OF SUCCESS IS THE ABILITY TO REMAIN AT PEACE WITHIN AMONGST THE TURMOIL AND CHAOS OF THIS WORLD.
If success is what we truly want, and successful is what we truly want to be, we will think successful thoughts, use successful wording when we speak, and exhibit our own ideas of successful behaviors and actions as we continuously acquire new ones to experiment with.
The beautiful thing about success, is it is uniquely personal, and each of us have our own idea of what success is for US. To be UNSUCCESSFUL is to live life trying to please others, or doing what THEY want us to do instead of what lights US up.
Truly successful people detach from the need to say and do what others want them to. They do not conform or act like others. They are originals, value individuality, know who they are, and detach themselves ENTIRELY from the opinions of others. AUTHENTICITY vibrates at an extremely high frequency and is how we attract success most quickly. Authentic people no longer need to be seen any certain way. They also detach from the need to CONTROL others and THEIR outcomes, focusing ONLY on SELF-recreation, in order to more fully optimize their OWN life experiences, consistently filling their cup through self care, and providing a limitless overflow in life that benefits EVERYONE around them.
Today I will make one, small, easy to accomplish goal in each of the above areas that will help me to grow and progress in some small way. Before I have accomplished that goal, I will make another one, remembering that continual progression will lead to my continual happiness. I will remember that IT IS ABOUT PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION, and I will keep a mind open to ALL things, while being attached to NO thing-not expectations, beliefs, desires, things, ideas, or opinions. I will not judge, criticize , or condemn. I will LET GO and LET BE.
The teachings of Jim Rohn are absolutely worth researching and implementing. I’ve made it a habit to listen to some of his content while preparing for the day, and it has empowered me to improve my live immensely.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
Mindset matters. Character counts. Our character comes from our repetitious thoughts, beliefs, and mindset. Our level of integrity we vibrate at consistently comes from consistently doing hard things, and always remembering to do what we said we would. When we are true to our words, and prove it through our consistent actions, we build credibility with ourselves and others. Our self-esteem expands, and our confidence grows. We become what we think about.
In most cases, depression and sadness is a result of personal choices. These states are the chemical and hormonal residual effects of consistent, habitual patterns in our thinking resulting in feelings that match that level of thinking. Happiness works the exact same way. Our focus determines our reality. WE create our chemical and hormonal reality and our states of feeling through thought alone! Most people don’t like to hear this. I know I didn’t when this idea was first introduced to me. It pissed me off. It pointed out to me the seemingly obvious, that I immediately realized I should have already thought about all by myself, but didn’t, and I felt stupid because of it. I resented the person who brought it to my attention, calling me out and telling me I needed to accept personal responsibility for the fact that I literally created my life to be what it was. I’m incredibly grateful for people that do such things for me now, and consider them my closest allies.
Our sadness and depression is a part of the story that we choose to keep re-telling. It is a part of our story that we choose to identify ourselves by, think about every day, and keep telling ourselves and others. Most people suffering from depression and sadness don’t like to hear this, either. In my darkest times, my dad used to tell me, “You will be happy when you decide to be happy.” It made me so damn angry to hear this. I guess it angered me because it made it sound so easy. It wasn’t easy! It was quite a long, drawn out, difficult process to change my habitual thoughts, beliefs, and actions, and to wait for my outside world to catch up to the inner environment I had to work so hard to create. An interesting thing happened, however, after all that consistency and hard work. It became progressively easier, and then it became my new way of being.
Improving the quality of my life and escaping the clutches of that deep, dark depression, and the daily feeling of extreme sadness, was not easy, at first. It required me to change my mindset, beliefs, perspectives, and habits. I had to change the way I looked at and interacted with EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. That takes time. It takes consistency. It takes patience and a LOT of practice. It’s sometimes like planting seeds, and wanting to eat the fruit off of the tree immediately, not having the patience to wait for the seed to break apart, take root, and begin to grow, eventually producing fruit.
In a world where so many things take no time at all to acquire, and where differed gratification is no longer practiced, with distractions everywhere, a long, drawn out, difficult process is the last thing we want to think about or be a part of. The quality of our lives depends on it, however. The quality of our lives literally depends upon what we think about. Our thoughts are the seeds.
When I first heard the interview with Dr. Joe Dispenza, on the YouTube show called Impact Theory, I began to research this man’s story and his work. I watched many other interviews which he was featured in. I had many moments of clarity, and began to realize the power that each and every one of our repetitious, consistently practiced, habitual thoughts really do have on our actual physical reality.
Each day we wake up, we have the opportunity to re-wire our brains for success! Expressing gratitude is, in my opinion, the greatest and most effective way to do this.
Gratitude attracts more to be grateful for into our lives. Gratitude, when practiced consistently and habitually, will literally re-wire anyone’s brain to have a more optimistic, positive mind.
Gratitude can be a filter through which we see all things more beautifully. Gratitude is a magnet for miracles.
We will ALWAYS recognize and see more of what we focus on in our lives, and when all we focus on is what is going RIGHT in our lives, we are no longer focusing on what is going wrong. WHAT WE FOCUS ON, WE FEED. WHAT WE GIVE OUR ATTENTION TO, WE ENERGIZE.
Gratitude, practiced DAILY for years, as part of a daily routine, will literally empower us to live a much more beautiful existence. Practicing gratitude reprograms our minds to focus more on seeing and recognizing the positivity, abundance, joy, and the good that is already in our lives which we usually do not recognize or acknowledge.
A daily gratitude practice alters the gene expression within each cell of our bodies, allowing us to heal more quickly, fortifying our immune system, and improving the chemicals and hormones that are consistently coursing through our veins and reaching every part of our bodies, constantly.
In addition, the energy we put out into the Universe returns back to us. That which we focus on tends to manifest itself more prevalently in our lives. That which we focus on and think about all day long is literally attracted back to us, exponentially, allowing us to more effectively and efficiently project a progressively more beautiful personal reality into existence.
The more often we vibrate with gratitude, the more we will attract into our lives which is at that same vibrational frequency.
An optimistic, positive, and grateful mind, along with daily reminders and perspective-shifts, has served me well. It has helped me re-wire my brain to think about things differently than I used to. I used to be a negative-minded, pessimistic, gloom and doom, pity-party, miserable, excuse of a human being. I wasted so many years being bitter, sad, and depressed, hopeless, angry, and addicted to my misery. I was filled with expectations, which are simply premeditated resentments and was a way to quickly alienate myself from others through judgments, criticism, and constant expressions of disappointment. I have those years to make up for, and the only way I will be able to make up for that time is by sharing what I have learned with others, hopefully empowering them to save years of the bitterness, sadness, depression, hopelessness, anger, and addictions that I spent so much time on.
A painful moment that causes us pain only happens once, but when we choose to re-live that painful moment in our lives, suffering ensues, and the suffering will continue for as long as we choose to think of that one painful moment in time. When we stop focusing on that one thing that went wrong and start focusing on all the MANY thing going right, miracles begin to happen in our lives.
Practicing gratitude has helped me to seek out different things than I used to. Practicing gratitude has helped me to focus on different things than I used to. Practicing gratitude altered my mindset and has helped me to create a completely different inner environment-and eventually an outer reality to match it, which is much more enjoyable to live in than the dark, sad, pitiful existence I used to exist within. Now, I wake up each morning eager to get the day started, rather than wanting to die so that my self-perpetuated suffering will end.
Gratitude has been my greatest tool for positive change.
Consistency creates a conversion and a convergence of circumstances. Consistently practicing gratitude results in more to be grateful for.
WE are the authors and creators of our own, personal reality. WE choose what to focus on consistently.
I found this to be especially true after intentionally setting aside a certain time each day to practice gratitude. After years of consistent practice, life has become magical, especially when compared to the life I was living years ago. The seed was planted, and now the fruit is finally ready to eat.
Gratitude puts things in perspective.
We can choose to look around and see how much better we really do have it, in so many ways, than other people out there. Someone out there will always be experiencing a worse , personally-created reality than we are.
Someone out there is at this very moment wishing and praying for the life you are currently living, no matter how ugly, dark, bad, undesirable, and full of lack, you may think it is.
Today’s challenge for myself: Today I will take the time to write a list of every single thing I can think of to be grateful for. I will decide what it will take for me to make gratitude a part of my daily routine, if I haven’t already.
It has been taught that we are the compilation of the 5 people we spend the most time around and the books we read. I have found this to be true in my life. I have become VERY intentional about the people around me and the content I allow into my mind.
Mo Gawdat wrote a book called, SOLVE FOR HAPPINESS. I highly recommend plugging this man’s name into YouTube and listening to every bit of content created that he has been involved in.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
I love the story of the conversation I overheard at work. One guy says to the other, “It’s just the way I was raised!” That allowed him to be and do what he had always been and done. Then the other guy said, “Yeah, but do you really want to live the way you were raised?”
Do we really want to continue to do as we have always done, and be as we have always been? Are there even better ways to do and BE? Can we actively habituate the practice of ALWAYS UPGRADING?
If it is true that EVERYTHING is an inside job, and that we PROJECT into reality our thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives, how important it then becomes to ALWAYS BE UPGRADING!!!
Hearing this at work really got me thinking. When we were all being raised by (hopefully) loving, well-meaning parents, who had our best interest at heart, they were doing the very best they could with the experiences, wisdom, and knowledge they had at that time. If we think our parents (or who ever else may have raised us) haven’t grown, progressed, re-calibrated, adjusted, learned, expanded, and changed since that time, we are fooling ourselves. Decades later, after all they have learned and experienced, don’t you think they would have raised us in a completely different manner? If they knew then what they know now, and could go back in time and have another go at it, don’t you think that there is a possibility that they would do an even better job? I know I would be a totally different parent for my children if I could go back and do it all over again, knowing what I now know.
You see, the belief system we were taught while growing up is something we adopted and we’re conditioned and programmed with, and at a very early age. For some of us, the beliefs we STILL use to create our personal reality was crammed down our throats. We were literally being programmed, by everything and everyone around us. EVERYTHING is information, and our beliefs and perspectives are the filters through which we see all things and which gives us our perception on ALL things. The quality of our beliefs and perspectives determine the quality of our decisions and outcomes. They determine every definition and meaning we choose to assign to all that we interact and respond to. Our beliefs dictate our Self Image, and how we see ourselves determines how we create our LIVES, according to what we believe we DESERVE, or don’t deserve.
Our beliefs and perspectives are the filters through which we create our realities.
Very few of us fought this programming or questioned authority, and chose to believe different things and change our beliefs along the way. Some people, myself included, simply went with it, believed blindly and without question, conforming to the beliefs of the majority of the people we surrounded ourselves with.
We still may be living according to the same rules and beliefs we were raised with as small children, and that is perfectly fine, as long as we are 100% happy and pleased with the current results of our life experiences. If not, it may be a good time to optimize and improve upon our beliefs, or seek out new perspectives to replace the old ones, altogether, resulting in an alternate, possibly more enjoyable, personal reality.
It is the device installed in our brains called the RAS (Reticular Activation System) that ONLY ALLOWS IN THAT WHICH CONFORMS TO AND RECONFIRMS OUR CURRENT BELIEFS, and which will only allow us to expand as far as our beliefs will allow us.
Isn’t it time to take a good look at our beliefs and question all of them? I did something incredibly challenging and helpful: I made a list on one page titled, “Ineffective Beliefs-beliefs I perceived to be raised with that may be harming me or causing me pain without me even knowing it.” On another page, I wrote: “Effective Beliefs-beliefs I want to adopt and live by, which will benefit me and those around me, and empower me to create an even better life.” It’s been years, and I am still adding to this list. It has been the source of self-examination which has been healing, terrifyingly difficult, and hugely helpful. It isn’t an easy task and it isn’t supposed to be. It is, however, completely worth it!
I created a personal project called, THE GOODINTHEHEAD BELIEFS PROJECT. Google it to check it out.
Self-exploration leads to an opportunity for improvements.
”Knowledge is power. Knowledge about oneself is self-empowerment.”
UPGRADING BELIEFS RESULTS IN AN UPGRADED LIFE EXPERIENCE.
WE RENDER OUR REALITIES BY PROJECTING IT FROM WITHIN.
Today I will accept the challenge to question all of my beliefs. I will make two separate lists labeled, “Ineffective” and “Effective,” or “Helpful” and “Unhelpful,” or “Empowering” and “Disempowering,” and add to the lists as often as I can or feel I need to, or as often as I discover new beliefs I think will be empowering to me in my personal recreation process. I want to have and adopt beliefs which will be beneficial to myself and those around me. I will replace any harmful belief with one which is beneficial. I will always strive to be in a creative state, instead of a destructive one.
One of the most empowering interviews I have come across regarding our own, personal belief system, which introduced me to my all-time favorite book, MINDSET, by Carol Dweck, can be found on YouTube. Simply type, “Impact Theory Carol Dweck,” into the search engine.
The Universe was designed from the very beginning to constantly conspire on our behalf. ALL things that transpire are happening FOR us, not TO us. It is our perceptions and beliefs that make it so…WE create our physical reality, and it all starts with our thinking.
The quality of our thinking determines the exact mixtures of chemicals and hormones INSTANTLY injected into our blood stream with each and every thought. Within TWO pumps of the heart, that mixture travels in the blood stream to over 60,000 to 100,000 MILES of blood vessels throughout our entire body. AMAZING.
If we HABITUALLY only allow high quality thinking and only high quality content to occupy the space and energy within us, ONLY healing hormones and chemicals will be created. When we shrink from fear and expand into LOVE, we create a reality FILLED with nothing but “perfect days.”
BE LOVE. By doing so, it is all we will experience, attract, magnetically pull into our realm, and consistency re-create. We attract more of who we are.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
Goals are the PROOF that we have the capability to envision greatness for ourselves.
Knowledge must be converted to action or it is useless.
If knowledge from experiential learning leads to wisdom, it is a good thing. We are smarter, stronger, and better, and there is ALWAYS room for improvement, no matter who we are.
Life NEVER gets easier-WE JUST GET BETTER AT IT.
ACTION ALWAYS leads to improvement and opportunities. Actions produce results, which are feedback, information, and data that informs us how we can do better and recalibrate in real time. We are ALWAYS upgrading, but when we are a actually DOING things, we learn and upgrade more quickly, because of all the constant feedback.
If knowledge leads to action, we succeed. Through action, we create.
Goals prove that we have the capability to envision greatness for ourselves, but action ensures that greatness happens.
Today I will take action on the knowledge and wisdom I have obtained to achieve greatness. Through creating greatness and by practicing self-development, I know I will add value to my life and to the lives of those around me.
Mel Robbins and Lisa Nichols are great proponents for taking action. I highly recommend googling them, and checking out their incredible work on YouTube.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
Someone once posted a picture of a seed that had just broken apart, taken root, and was starting to sprout. The caption was something like, “To someone who has never before seen the process of growth, watching a seed begin to sprout would look like total destruction.”
How true, and how much like a seed our life can be! I related to this immediately. I went through a period in total darkness, buried by what seemed like tons of dirt, where my shell broke apart and I felt like I was completely destroyed. I thought it all would end, only to find out that I had taken root, had sprouted, and had started to grow! Things like the nutrition in the dirt, sunlight, and water were imperative to growth. I likened these things to helpful people, family members, content providers, and chosen mentors in my life, and exposure to new experiences and wisdom. Now, I am a small sapling, on my way to becoming a great, big fruit tree.
RESULTS DON’T LIE
I look all around me at all of the other seeds that have come apart and busted through the dirt towards growth, all around. I see all of the other saplings of different shapes and sizes. I am in the middle of, and a part of, a beautiful forest. I wonder in awe at the enormous trees which have been growing for centuries and have been baring and sharing their fruit. That fruit feeds so many, and the seeds left over from the fruit that falls from the trees, helps to create more trees all around it. All the while, birds and all kinds of other animals are carrying these seeds to all of the different lands and other parts of the world. The seeds of wisdom and healing are spreading, and so are the trees and the fruit these trees bare.
EVERYONE benefits from personal growth, and from the growth of others.
This entire process can be likened unto mindset. Some of us are seeds. Some of us are saplings. Others are enormous trees who have been baring and sharing fruit and spreading the fruit all over the world. Sometimes, these trees only see the immediate effects of the small forest they have created around them. They are completely unaware of the reach they have had indirectly through birds and other methods of seeds being scattered all over the world. These trees are completely unaware of the forests that have been created by the sharing of their seeds, all over the world.
Today I will be grateful for who I am and remember to focus on accomplishing my goals in order to become a big, beautiful fruit tree, so that I will be able to bare and share fruit. Today, I will thank someone who has helped me in my life who may not even realized that they have done so.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The goodinthehead Podcast can be found on YouTube. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
