Hello everyone! It’s been a while since my last post on November 12th. For those of you who’ve been wondering why I suddenly stopped posting and whatever happened to Ken - well here’s the scoop:

Yes, I am still coaching, but I have shifted my focus in the area of personal growth towards public speaking and developing group workshops vs. doing strictly one on one coaching. I also began working a sales position in November to help supplement my income, a position that allows time in my schedule to both coach and begin a public speaking career but leaves precious little time for writing articles and networking via the internet. I will still be posting the occasional article as time and inspiration permit, and I’ll be redoing some parts of the website in the coming months to reflect more of a focus on public speaking.

Best Regards,
Ken

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In a word, no.

On more than one occasion I have been asked that when one is faced with making a new decision in some major life area weather it is wise to rely most heavily upon the faculties of our senses or to seek and await clarification and guidance through meditation, prayer, or the receipt of intuitive hunches. I believe the answer is quite simple; seek out guidance through the means you are comfortable with, and then having done so choose the course of action that seems most appropriate to you regardless of weather or not you feel a strong pull one way or the other. Sitting around and stewing about not having a specific gut feeling or that God is not answering your prayers is a nothing but a copout, and the lack of a major intuitive response is NOT reason to stand pat and do nothing.

Your intuition is there to guide you along your chosen path, not to judge the rightness or wrongness of that path. That is your job. It is why you are here, to co-create. You are the center of your perspective of eternity and need not ask anyone but yourself what is the proper pathway. I belive you should consciously choose your desired outcomes and to then listen for and follow intuitive guidance for any cues that you may be on or off the course that you yourself have chosen.

Having made your decision, intend that circumstances will align along your path. Percieve the obstacles you encounter as learning and growth opportunities that can help lead you to better a future and greater personal growth, even though they may very well be a huge source of pain and discomfort at the time you encounter them. They are not necessarly there telling you to quit, they are not there because some outside entity put them there, and they are most decidedly not in your life to punish you.

You are here to co-create your own destiny, not to be passive and wait to be led. Hours, days, and months can tick away while you wait to have your destiny decided for you, rather than realizing that you are responsible for creating it yourself. There is no one else in the Universe outside yourself whose job it is to bestow upon you your specific marching orders in life, and that is their really cool part about being alive. We get to choose and create!

If you are struggling with a decision such as this, I encourage you to stand up, decide for yourself once and for all who and what you choose to be, and to follow that vision with blinding, unerring passion. If it involves massive change in your life, of course you will have to consider how your new path will affect the lives of others around you before embarking on an immediate 180, if indeed a complete 180 is what is required. Choose the path that love would choose without subjugating your deepest inner passions, trust and follow your intuition, and watch with amazement as doors begin to open and synchronicities begin to manifest.

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Remember the old saying that happiness is having “someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for”? Not only is this great advice, it also happens to be a great foundation for maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Today I’m going to share with you 9 foundational areas that I believe are key to living a life that is emotionally, physically, and spiritually healthy. Of course there can be as many “foundational areas” of balanced living as there are authors willing to write about the subject, but this compilation is my own and since this is my blog I have the benefit of being able to share my list with you.

Have a clear purpose

Weather you believe your greater purpose lies in your work, your family, your spiritual path, you relation to the world at large or any combination thereof, it is important for you to believe that you are contributing and making progress towards something that is of great significance to you. Without a clear sense of what you’re aiming for or the ability to press on and produce what you determine to be meaningful results, it is very easy to become frustrated with life and fall into states of disillusionment and discouragement.

Maintain a healthy lifestyle

I’m talking about diet and exercise here, and yes I do believe they are very important. You don’t have to go to any wild extremes, but taking care of the body you live in will go a long way towards helping you feel energized, happy, and alive. Personally, I practice yoga 2-3 times a week along with bicycling and deep breathing exercises. I also skip the fast food drive thru’s and enjoy a diet high in veggies and low in saturated fats. While I don’t consider myself a health nut (though my girlfriend sometimes thinks otherwise), just these few simple things help me maintain my 6′4″ frame at a trim 180 despite having passed my 40th b-day a few years back.

Be willing to let go

of the need to be right.
of the fear of failing.
of the need for approval.
of the need for someone’s affection or attention.

It took me a while to get this concept, but since I began to grasp it life has gotten better and better. External references of validation are nice and can be the icing upon the cake, but true happiness lies in not needing or caring about the way you are perceived. When you get to the point in life that you are willing to be true to yourself and unashamedly express your authenticity, you will probably be surprised at how much less you fail, how you no longer care about being “right”, how you in will fact garner more approval, and how you somehow manage to attract the attention of those who mean the most to you.

Love somebody

It has been said rather simply that love IS. That we are all one and love is the one common element, the God force behind all creation. How true. Love is who we are at our deepest levels, and the ability to express that love freely and openly without condition is the mark of an emotionally healthy individual.

Live in the present

Ok, you’ve heard this one a million times so I’ll spare you the many tired clichés, but in return I want you to promise me that you’ll dedicate yourself to spending one day acting like this is actually true. Put your circumstances aside, forget about your plans, and just BE. Go somewhere nice, with somebody nice if you can , and spend the entire day immersing yourself in what is. Then come back and post a comment letting me know how it went, even if you had a flat tire or your dog bit you while you were falling down the stairs backwards while carrying out the trash.

Consider your connection to a higher Source

It doesn’t matter to me personally weather you subscribe to the recorded teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi or anyone else. If you do, I’m sure that you realize there are many other people who also subscribe to those same teachings yet maintain differences of doctrine regarding what these individuals taught and exactly how one should live as a result. The important concept here is the commonality. All of the world’s religions seem to recognize that we all share a connection to a higher Source and that our lives have an inherent sense of meaning. Connecting to that Source can make life a fuller, richer, and more rewarding experince.

Remain grateful

As I said in my previous post, we live in an orderly Universe where like attracts like and thoughts become things. Feelings of gratitude tend to produce the conditions for gratitude, while feeling ungrateful increases the likelihood of whatever it is you’re ungrateful about being present both now and in the future. What sort of things can you think of right now to be grateful for? How about blessings in disguise? Have you ever resisted a change of events only to later become grateful for what came to pass?

Be generous

Generosity is one of the least understood and most important aspects of a balanced lifestyle. Everything in the Universe is energy, even our thoughts. Energy flows in an ordered and balanced way via the Law of Attraction, which simply states that like attracts like and that vibrations of energy tend to match up with each other. Stop the flow of generosity and generosity will stop flowing to you. Hording and believing in scarcity are the surest ways to experience lack and ensure that others aren’t normally generous with you. Gandhi says to “be the change that you want to see in the world” and Jesus said that “As ye give, so shall ye receive”.  I’d like to think they knew what they were talking about.

Keep growing

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Life is about expansion. It’s about coming into the fullness of who we are and continuing to discover and express that fullness openly and without fear. We never “get there” and we’re never done. We either continue the process of recreating ourselves into fuller and fuller representations of who we are, thereby increasing our happiness, our knowledge, and our ability to love and give; or we begin to diminish and withdraw into preconditioned patterns of behavior devoid of any possibility of growth that can lead to the atrophy of body, mind, and spirit.

I hope that reading this list was of some help to you. I do realize that it is rather limited in scope and that much more can and has been written on the subject, but by beginning with these steps I believe that many people can begin the process of attaining greater balance in their lives and thus begin to live life more abundantly.

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The stock market is going down and your investments
are going in the tank.

You’re physically sick and your body feels miserable.

Life has its ups and downs. When things are going great we’re supposed to feel good and when things go lousy we’re supposed
to feel bad, right? That seems to be the way most of us have
been conditioned to think.

Preconditioned Responses

Live in a bad economy = walk around feeling depressed.
Lose your home or job = walk around feeling miserable.
End a relationship = walk around feeling bad.
Becoming ill = feeling lousy and complaining about it.

First of all, I acknowledge that “bad” things can and do happen. All of the above have happened to or affected me personally at one point or another in my life (plus a lot of really good things too). Its all part of life!  One of the greatest life lessons we can learn is that the significance of events lie not in the events themselves but in our responses to them.

What is Stress?

What exactly is stress anyway ? Can you touch it or see it?  Nope.
Over time, stress is nothing more than your bodies reaction to your own thought processes. Sure, you may be able to point to things in your environment that you readily identify as being the source of your stress, such as an angry boss, rude co-worker, crying baby, your declining financial position or that looming deadline, but the stress you feel is actually your body’s response to your continued thoughts about those events and not the events themselves. If one person can hear that crying baby and not be driven crazy by the sound, or face financial uncertainty with a sense of gratitude and appreciation then you must realize that it is your choice of how to respond to events like these that either results in stress or allows you to live with a sense of comfort and inner peace.

Notice your Reaction, Choose your Response

I’m not saying that we as humans are above being affected by external stimuli. Not at all. In fact I believe we should acknowledge our initial responses to potentially stressful situations and learn from them what we can. Why are we feeling bad-is there something else we should be doing, or something else should have done differently? There may perfectly valid reasons for you to react stressfully in response to external events and you will want to acknowledge the presence of those feelings while learning whatever you can about the reasons they originated. Are they prompting you to change your behavior in similar situations in the future, or maybe reminding you that you made some regretful choices outside of your values? If so, acknowledge it as such and learn the lesson at hand. Then, realize that beyond the immediately of the situation lies your freedom of choice and the ability to free yourself from the destructive burdens of stress and maintaining a negative focus.

Remember, Like Attracts Like

After noticing your initial response to something you define as “stressful”, take a moment to step back and ask yourself if continuing to feel bad is likely to make the situation any better. After you’ve avoided the danger or learned the lesson, what is the continued benefit of feeling bad and staying in a stressful state? Is it because society dictates that when X happens you are supposed to feel Y and you fear that you’ll either be labeled inconsiderate or irresponsible if you don’t? Or maybe you are choosing to punish yourself to reinforce your distaste of the outcome and thus decrease the likelihood that you will ever do something like that again?

The Way Out of Stress

The way out of stress? Simply remember that we live in an orderly universe where like attracts like and that thoughts become things. Notice that in such a universe, continuing to feel thoughts of anger, despair, or anxiety aren’t likely to improve the way things are but rather will increase the likelihood of the stressful stimuli being present both now and in the future. Choosing to feel bad and staying in a low energy state will ultimately attract more of that which you seek to avoid. An acceptance of how things are and a sense of gratitude for the lessons learned will ultimately serve you better than living in denial and despair. By changing your thoughts you can break the cycle of negativity that causes and perpetuates stress and instead create for yourself a present and future in greater vibrational harmony with the type of life you choose to experience.

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Life purpose is first and foremost about being rather than doing.
As Wayne Dyer has said, “We are human beings, not human doings”.

Purpose has to do with realizing who we are and lining up our thoughts and actions with our connection to Universal Source (or God if you choose) and realizing that we are co-creators of our reality along with that Source. Our Source is unlimited, abundant, loving, and forever giving, and the more we line up our thoughts and actions with that Source the more we will experience the blessings of living a lifestyle abounding in prosperity, love and happiness.

Life purpose is about putting love and gratitude and passion into whatever you are doing right now.  It is also about accepting that right now is exactly perfect as it is for all the reasons that you and your Source co-created it. A key concept is to realize that you are not on any spiritual pathway because there is no “spiritual pathway”.  Spirituality has everything to do with who you are “being” in this moment as opposed to anything you may be “doing”. It is through being that we connect with our creative Source and seem to experience a pathway of continuous growth, when in reality we are simply reconnecting with that which we already are and always have been. An interesting post which expresses the idea that spirituality is more closely related to being rather than doing (via following a pathway) can be found
here at GoodLife Zen.

Since life is more about being than doing, your life purpose doesn’t necessarily have to have anything to do with your occupation. It can, it’s just that it doesn’t have to. It’s a matter choice, practicality, and personal passion. Occupations serve you best when they line up with your interests and values, and you will generally perform better and be happier in a position that you are passionate about. However, occupations are more about doing than being, while your connection with your life purpose (good, bad, or undefined) can and will shine through in whatever it is you happen to be doing.

I dare say that we all desire to experience more of the attributes of our divine nature such as abundance, love, joy, and contentment. These attributes are as much a part of our nature as they ever were and as they always will be. They define who we really are. Acting in accordance with this nature through a state of being is the surest, fastest, and easiest way to bring these attributes into your life and the lives of each person you touch, in whatever it is that you happen to be doing.

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OK, so you’re thinking of making a career change. Maybe even a radical change. You’re tired of doing what you’ve been doing and are eager to consider something new and different. Maybe even completely different. If so you’re definitely not alone. Boredom, frustration, and monotony are strong motivators, especially for those in or approaching their 40’s having been in the same field for well over a decade and knowing they have at least a couple of decades more in front of them should they decide to hunker down and stay put.

As you gaze across the horizon the grass may indeed appear greener elsewhere. It usually does, as familiarity breeds contempt and we are prone to disdain being held prisoners to mindless routines. Yet before you quit your high paying CEO position to take up painting yard gnomes to sell at art festivals there are a few questions worth stopping to consider. Those who neglect to do so will often experience failure and frustration, eventually returning to their previous careers as the only way they know how to bring in $$.

1. Are you considering a change of scenery or a whole new field?

If you desire to move in a completely new direction, stop and consider the reasons why. Be honest with yourself. Does your dislike with your current position have more to do with you and the way you conduct yourself and relate to others, or is your work environment in bona fide conflict with your values and passions?

2. What exactly is it that you are passionate about?

If you’re not sure, reading this post is a good place to start.

3. If no one else’s opinion mattered what would you be doing for a living? Why?

This is about authenticity and freeing yourself up from fears and judgments. It’s your life. Are you living it for yourself or for someone else?

4. How can your current network support your new endeavor?

People make things happen and there is no substitute for good networking. If you don’t know anybody in your new field, how will you compensate for this?

5. If choosing a new career field, do you have a solid action plan to transfer your current skill set into a money making position?

Be resourceful about the way your skills and experiences can transfer into a new endeavor. With clients, I utilize a technique referred to as “mapping across” to help people discover how past successes in one area of life can translate into useful recourses in seemingly unrelated areas.

6. If considering self employment, are you the right type of person to be self employed?

Do you make decisions quickly and change them slowly? Do you love to network? Are you willing to invest your savings and sweat equity into a startup operation without any ironclad guarantee of success? Are you a self starter? If not then working for someone else may be more appropriate. Self employment holds many benefits, but if you’re not cut out for it it’s far better to know so up front than to jump in blindly and later regret having pulled the trigger.

7. Do you have or are you willing to invest the time and $$ to acquire the proper credentials?

If you lack the required experience, credentials, or training, what plan do you have to compensate for this? How important are formal credentials? How else can you acquire relevant experience?

These are only a few of the basic questions to consider when contemplating a major shift in career direction. By taking the time to formulate clear, honest answers to questions like these early on in your decision making process, you can sidestep a lot of frustration and position yourself to make better decisions that will serve you well in your chosen career for years to come.

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You’re traveling along a lonely two lane country road in the early morning darkness. Headlights loom in the distance as another car approaches.

Its driver, inattentive or momentarily
distracted, suddenly veers into your path
seconds before impact. You’re going about 50 mph and the other driver probably a bit more
so there’s no time for anything but reaction. You quickly swerve to avoid the fatal catastrophe. Whoa - you made it! OK, you’re still alive, but what was that sound you just heard?

Shaken but otherwise unharmed you pull over onto the narrow shoulder and slowly emerge from your vehicle. Noticing the other driver’s tail lights fading into the distance, you realize that he/she is either completely oblivious or unconcerned regarding what just transpired. Inspecting your vehicle you spot a narrow paint covered gash about 10 inches long leading up to your now cracked tail light. Death has paid a close visit this morning but you will live to tell about it.

Perspective

Imagine this had actually happened to you as it recently did to a friend of mine. What meaning would you ascribe to this sequence of events? Would you experience feelings of relief? Anger? Gratitude? Mortality? Would the incident cause you to examine your life and reconsider your priorities, or would you simply shake it off as a close call and go about the rest of your day?

Our mental states and often times our reactions depend upon the meaning we assign to events that transpire in our lives. Given the above sequence of events, one can easily build up and justify frames of reference for feeling lucky, unlucky, blessed, cursed, angry, contemplative, or victimized. All that is required to do so is a change in perspective.

The simplest way of changing our response to any given situation is to change the perspective we choose from which to assign meaning. Purposeful living requires knowing what outcomes you are seeking and choosing the response(s) most suited to its accomplishment. Inflexibility of thought resulting from fixed perspectives can save time and eliminate the need for conscious thinking but often proves to be too limiting when striving to achieve optimal outcomes.

The next time you are faced with a challenging situation to which you assign a meaning that leaves you feeling unhappy, limited, or otherwise stuck, step back and consider some alternative viewpoints. Walk a mile in another’s shoes. Try on another pair for yourself. Several pairs if you have to. In doing so, you may decide to change the way you “frame” the event in your mind and uncover a more useful response.

That in a nutshell is what reframing is all about.

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Welcome to part 3, the final installment of my review of NLP Presuppositions.

Choice is Better Than No Choice

People will sometimes take a specific course of action that seems less than optimal because they don’t perceive any other viable options. “What else was I supposed to do”, “I just couldn’t help it”, or “I simply had no other choice” are things people often say to justify the actions they take. Having more options to choose from leads to making better decisions since you can then become more flexible and creative in achieving your outcomes than if you were operating from the perspective of little or no choice.

Mind and body are indivisible parts of the same system

You can quickly change your mental state by altering your physiology, and over time you can change your physiology by changing your predominant thoughts. Mind and body are inseparably linked and mutually influence each other.

People work perfectly. No one is “wrong” or “broken”

People achieve the results in their lives according to how they structure their experiences and the choices they make. Again, this is a presupposition that isn’t always true but is typically the most efficient platform to work from when seeking to make changes in one’s environment.

A person’s results in life make sense considering how they process information and organize their thoughts with the obvious exceptions being those who suffer from chemical imbalances in the brain or mental handicaps. The rest of us are all reaping the results of our beliefs and actions. If your outcomes are less than desirable, NLP methodology holds constant your self worth while seeking to uncover or recover beliefs and perceptions that when held as true will prove more useful in achieving your desired results.

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Welcome to part 2 of my review of NLP Presuppositions. If you missed part one, click here.

There is no failure, only feedback

All responses we get from our actions have value by providing us with the opportunity to learn from our experiences and use that feedback to make adjustments. The NLP concept of T.O.T.E. is like a mental software program that works to create successful outcomes based upon having fixed goals and variable means of achieving their outcomes. The acronym T.O.T.E. stands for (Test Operate Test Exit).

Once we decide upon an outcome, we set up a Test to determine how we will know when the outcome has been achieved. We then Operate within our environment by taking action to achieve the result, after which will again test to see if our outcome has been achieved. This takes place within a continuous loop until the Test is successful and we Exit the program having achieved our desired outcome. As long as the end goal remains unchanged, there is no failure absent giving up. Every experience along the journey is simply an opportunity to learn and come closer to achieving success as we have chosen to define it.

People have all the resources necessary to make any desired change

This one can be hard to believe but still quite useful. An effective way of understanding this is that while everyone is considered to have all the available resources to achieve their outcomes, those resources might not currently be available in the context where they are needed. Consider a person who is able to function effectively at work with tact and diplomacy despite multiple conflicting demands and time constraints from bosses and co-workers, yet who looses their temper quickly and becomes impatient with their spouse or children at home. The appropriate behavioral resources exist but are not being applied in all areas that require it. A useful NLP strategy for bringing resources into the context where they are needed is a technique known as mapping across.

If one person can do something, other people can learn to do it

A core component of NLP is the concept of modeling. It is the belief that if one person can do something, it’s possible to study their techniques, attitudes, and kinesiology to develop a method to transfer that skill set to others. Of course physical limitations will come into play and this concept may not be true 100% of the time, but it provides a more useful structure for effecting change than assuming the contrary and has enabled many ordinary people to achieve spectacular results.

You cannot not communicate

Remember the old study that says that only about 7% of communication is the words we choose? If another human being can hear or see you, even if you are sitting still saying nothing you are still communicating. Posture, body language, tonality, facial expressions, breathing patterns, eye movements, and changes in skin tone are all ways in which we communicate our internal states and thus all are useful in understanding and relating to others.

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Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP has as its foundation a set of beliefs known as presuppositions. These beliefs form the basis of the many practical applications derived from NLP that are so incredibly useful in helping people achieve positive change in their lives. These beliefs are incorporated into NLP as presuppositions not because they are always true 100% of the time, but rather because holding the belief that they are true provides the most useful approach to understanding how people create and interpret the structure of their experience and ultimately make the choices they do.

Over the next few posts I will explore these presuppositions in order to help familiarize you with them. In doing so I hope to provide you with a better idea of exactly what NLP is and how it’s utilized to help people make positive changes in their lives.

The meaning of communication is the response it gets

From a practical standpoint, how your communication is received by the listener is more relevant than your intent. If you intend to communicate one thing but your listener receives a different message, it is up to YOU to adjust your communication until it is received in the manner that you intend. Relying upon the other person to figure out what you mean and complaining that they don’t “get it” takes all responsibility for the communication out of your hands and leaves you without any options of getting your message across. If the way you are trying to get your message across doesn’t work, try other ways of saying/demonstrating what you mean until you have successfully communicated your intended message.

The map is not the territory

What we view as reality is not ultimate reality. Objective experience is first filtered through our senses to the extent we are able to perceive it, then filtered through our belief systems, moods, opinions and experiences of others to construct in our minds “maps” of reality which we then file away to rely upon as the basis of our future experiences.

Map making is incredibly time saving when it helps us achieve the things we want in life, and just as effective in a negative way when we unintentionally create maps that limit choices and hold us back. No matter how accurate the map, it is still only a representation of the territory it strives to represent. By changing a your map to one that is either closer to objective experience or more useful in achieving the outcomes you desire (or both), your experience of reality and the outcomes you generate can be changed.

Every behavior has a positive intent

Given their models of reality and the perception of possible choices, people make the best choices for themselves to achieve the outcomes they desire. Even when a persons choices objectively seem self destructive, short sighted, hurtful, etc, they are selected by the individual as the best perceived option to meet their needs at the time the choice is made. Helping people perceive a greater range of available choices is a major aspect of NLP, since having a greater range of choice provides a better inventory of options from which exists the possibility of making better decisions.

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Hype: Defined as “extravagant or excessive promotion” and “exaggerated publicity; hoopla”

It’s official. Hurricane  Tropical Storm  the gentle shower & breeze that was Fay has spared Orlando, leaving nothing more than a few scattered leaves on the grass & some light rain. We survived. Not that there was ever much doubt, except if you happened to follow and believe what you heard from the local media in the days leading up to Fay.

Yes, hurricanes and slow moving tropical systems that dump a lot of rain are things to be taken seriously. I was living in Orlando when we were pummeled in August of 2004 by Hurricane Charlie, then soaked by Frances and Jeanne while our jaws were still hanging down and the debris was being cleaned up. Local roofers and tree cutters made small fortunes that year. I was without power for 3 days while some of my friends went up to two weeks without electricity.

Yet the fact remains that Fay was over hyped, as has every tropical system to come within about 300 miles of the Florida coastline since Charlie punched us in the gut and tore part of the roof off my house. Heck, somebody sneezes on a boat near the Cape Verde Islands between July and November and we’re bound to get a breaking newscast about just how powerful it was and what type of system may develop off the coast as a result.

Sitting with my son in a pizza shop the night Faye made landfall, we saw news forecasts of “4-8 inches of rain” and sustained winds from “50-60 miles per hour” for downtown Orlando.  Schools were closed.  The home page of the local newspaper’s website showed a series of 14 photos of the few people they could find in a Home Depot carrying out plywood or picking flashlights and gas cans off the shelves. Each local TV station featured breaking news reports regurgitating the info they obtained from the National Hurricane Center’s website, combining it with the usual local interest angles and fear mongering that newscasts seem to thrive upon. If you had just moved to town and didn’t know any better you would have thought the end of the world was coming.

Hype is a fact of life. You can choose to buy into it, become annoyed by it, or evaluate the evidence objectively for yourself and not give it any more thought than it is worth. Now that Fay’s gone and I’m looking out the window at a gentle mist falling through the air I figure it’s as good a time as any to take a closer look at hype and how it functions in our society.

The Threat of Danger Gets People’s Attention

Survival is our greatest concern both individually and as a species. It’s a great meme that gives us something to talk about. When something potentially dangerous appears on the horizon word will spread like wildfire and details often becomes exaggerated. We sometimes exaggerate to garner what we feel is sufficient attention. Danger makes people pay attention and is therefore something media outlets love because they necessarily thrive upon receiving attention as a condition of their continued existence.

CYA is a Necessity for Governments and Large Institutions

We live in a society eager where a small percentage of people see themselves as victims. Governments and large institutions have learned that victims like to point fingers and that victims with lawyers can be expensive. So the safe bet for school boards, large companies, and government offices is to err on the side of caution. If the newscast says 4-8 inches of rain and heavy winds, then of course they have to close the schools. It sure beats having the worst case forecast come true and not having taken any preventive measures against it.

The Danger of Hype:

Remember Chicken little?  Whatever is consistently overblown (no pun intended) will eventually fail to gain an audience. This too is human nature. The answer? When you feel something is being hyped, take an objective look for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Don’t pass on the hype, and yet don’t let it bother you either. Just smile, remember how lucky you are to be alive and hearing about whatever impending doom is about to take place, and go about your day either taking the appropriate cautions or throwing caution to the wind (quite literately & pun intended).

I leave you with a little musical diddy from rapper Public Enemy, which you will probably enjoy if you like old school rap or think that it sounds like little kids slowly letting the air out of balloons at a birthday party if you don’t.  Don’t Believe the Hype!  Enjoy.

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Affirmations are tools used to align the focus of your unconscious mind with your conscious desires. Inside our heads mental chatter takes place almost continuously, and deciding to use affirmations is simply making a decision to take control of that chatter and turn it in your favor.

Some types of affirmations work better than others and some don’t work at all. The good news is that there are certain ways of structuring affirmations that do work and can mentally prepare you to experience significant positive changes in your life. Here are some helpful tips on how I believe that affirmations can be used successfully.

Begin by Accepting What Is

This is an essential concept in making any type of positive change. Repeating things like “I am outrageously wealthy” when you’re dead broke or saying to yourself that “I can be the world’s best jockey” when you’re 6’7” is only going to set off your internal BS meter and leave you with a nasty case of cognitive dissonance. Affirmations rooted in denial are as effective as putting a new dress on an old Billy Goat. Underneath the dress there’s still a goat and everybody knows it.

Choose the Right Frame

If the new idea you desire to cement into your mind is too far fetched from your current reality consider starting your affirmation with phrases like “I am becoming” or “I am choosing to”. This demonstrates to your unconscious mind both your commitment to and the intent of your ultimate outcome and avoids setting off your BS meter.

For example, you might want to choose the affirmation “Each new day I am choosing to eat a healthier diet” instead of “I am a healthy eater”. Doing so will make the occasional empty bucket of Ben & Jerry’s on the nightstand a bit easier to overlook.

You may also choose to affirm that “I am becoming more organized each and every day” instead of “I am an extremely organized person”, especially if you happen to be repeating it while shuffling your feet through a pile of dirty clothes on the floor of your bedroom.

The Great “I am”

Choose this powerful affirmation starter by itself without qualification when you are affirming something that already exists to some degree that you simply desire to reinforce. For example, if you are a decent public speaker and can present without fear or hesitation, an affirmation like “I am energetic and friendly when up on stage” won’t clash with your current reality and can help cement in place your desired way of thinking.

Effective Affirmations Contain Strong Emotions

This is absolutely key. Using affirmations without emotion is utterly useless even if you’ve followed all of the advice to this point. Your unconscious mind has a lot to remember and it is much easier for it to recall information that was filed away with strong emotions attached.

Every thought to this point in your life has been stored away in your unconscious mind, with more weight given to thoughts based on the emotions attached rather than the chronological order in which the events occurred. That’s why it’s easier to remember significant events from your childhood than what it was you had for dinner last Tuesday (unless it was really good).

Repetition is Necessary to Cement the Desired Concepts into Your Unconscious Mind

You mind often has to hear a new concept over and over again in order for it to sink in. Our minds are bombarded with thousands of ideas each day and the ones that are going to stick are the ones repeated often enough with significant emotion attached. I recommend that you develop a pattern of saying your most important affirmations first thing in the morning and then again just before you go to sleep.

Back up Affirmations with Action

Affirmations are great tools to prepare your mind towards the pathways of success. Practically, they can improve your focus and replace a lot of the limiting beliefs and junk that tends to hold you back. But they are of no use if not followed up with definite action.

Affirmations without action are like cars without wheels. You can have the best design in the world but you aren’t going to get anywhere. Once you obtain the belief system that allows you to succeed it’s time to hit the road and start making things happen.

Summary

If you are going to utilize affirmations to help facilitate change in your life you will want to phrase them properly, attach strong positive emotions to them, repeat them frequently. and begin the process of bringing your new beliefs into reality by taking definite measurable steps toward their achievement.

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“The emotions of faith, love, and sex are the most powerful of all the major emotions.”

       -Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich”

The Importance of Emotion:

When it comes to manifesting our desires nothing is more important than the emotion we place behind our beliefs. Emotion is the catalyst that combines with the vibrations of thought to produce potent results. According to Napoleon Hill, emotions give thoughts “vitality, life, and action”. Positive emotions empower thought towards positive results, negative emotions fuel destructive thoughts, and the lack of emotion behind one’s beliefs often results in stagnation and confusion.

Why Faith is the Strongest Emotion:

Faith is an unshakeable belief in the outcome you have set for yourself. It firmly sets your expectations and thus influences your actions. Thinking that you desire to be rich, for example, sets up a vibrational frequency for that to take place. Fully believing that it WILL happen puts additional energy behind the thought and gives it added power. Conversely, desiring to become rich but believing that you can’t negates the impact of your desire and will prevent it from ever coming to pass.

Napoleon Hill calls faith the element which “transforms the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the spiritual equivalent.” We live in a world where science, via quantum mechanics, is now telling us that perceptions do in fact create our reality. Thus it makes sense that having or lacking faith in our ability to bring forth our desires has a direct influence upon weather or not our desires will manifest. After all, what is faith but our impassioned perception of the way we believe things are going to turn out?

How to Build up Your Faith:

Our minds are constantly sending out vibrations, and the ones that have the greatest impact on our lives are the ones repeated the most and are infused with the most faith. Napoleon Hill’s recommendation is that we utilize repetition of thoughts infused with emotion via affirmations and autosuggestion. His reasoning is that our minds constantly attract vibrations that harmonize with our dominant thoughts. This is the true power behind synchronicity, serendipity, and the idea of there being no coincidences.

If affirmations are a key component of building up faith, how exactly does one go about creating effective affirmations? Some will even suggest that affirmations are useless, passé, and outdated. Continuing with this theme, my next post will focus on helpful tips for affirmations that work and the most beneficial ways to use them.

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Desire.   Somebody named a streetcar after it.  U2 created a song about it, and Napoleon Hill thought it was important enough that it topped his list of 13 “Keys to Success”.

Do you want to learn how to be rich, live abundantly, and achieve true happiness?  Too bad, because if so it probably isn’t going to happen to you. WANTING something to happen is mostly wishful thinking devoid of any power to achieve significant results.

DESIRE is self generating, self sustaining, and often referred to in such terms as burning, passionate, unbending, fervent, and all consuming. Desire succeeds where wanting fails because it refuses to rely on anything external or to accept excuses. It creates and attracts its own opportunities without regard to circumstance.

Some of the key ways in which WANTING and DESIRING are different:

Wanting will not survive minor inconveniences and other demands upon your time.

Desire will.

Wanting will not carry you past those difficult moments when the prospect of success seems remote.

Desire will.

Wanting will not embolden you to press on when everyone you know is telling you to give up.

Desire will.

Wanting will not attract the necessary circumstances and people into your life to help you achieve your goals.

Desire will.

Well then, if desire is the key it can do everything, right?  Nope.

There are a few select things wanting can do that desire won’t help you with:

Wanting can exist within the safety and security of your comfort zone.

Desire can’t.

Wanting is willing to accept excuses when things don’t turn out the way you would like.

Desire won’t.

Wanting gives into fears and peer pressure in order to fit in and avoid stretching your limits.

Desire doesn’t.

Napoleon Hill taught that to achieve big goals and dreams you must first learn to develop and maintain a burning desire for their achievement. Wanting is never enough. The object of your desire must be clear in your mind, and you must focus upon it with regularity.  Do that and you will have taken the first step from living a life of “want” to living a life infused with the power of DESIRE to make your dreams come true.

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Before The Secret became a huge commercial success, Napoleon Hill had it all figured out.

Around the year 1908 journalist Napoleon Hill was both challenged and given an opportunity by Andrew Carnegie to spend twenty years of his life interviewing the most successful, brilliant, and influential minds of the day without any offer of monetary compensation. He accepted the challenge, and among the people went on to study were notable businessmen and inventors Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Teddy Roosevelt, John Wanamaner, Charles Schwab, Wilbur Wright, and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.

Napoleon’s goal was to uncover the key common elements that underpinned extraordinary success and to share this knowledge with the rest of the world. The results of his efforts were published in 1937 in his bestselling book Think and Grow Rich.

Far from a dusty old relic, the topics he wrote about would many years later become a cornerstone of the new age, manifest your destiny movement. For example, the title of chapter one is “Thoughts are Things”, and the book’s opening notes mention the phrase “the secret” sixteen times, not including the occasions when he refers to the concept as “Carnegie’s secret”, or “this secret”.

Yet despite the sale of almost 20 million copies, most of the book’s concepts never became mainstream, so when a number of his ideas were re-introduced in the 21st century in conjunction with “The Secret’s” books and DVD’s, much of the content was thought revolutionary when in fact it was almost a century old!  Actually, the key ideas that Napoleon documented and “The Secret” re-introduced are timeless in nature and have benefited humanity for countless centuries. The first step in successful utilization of this knowledge begins with awareness.

In the video clip below he recounts how Andrew Carnegie shared with him the life changing idea that:

“everyone comes to the earth plane blessed with the privilege of controlling his mind power and directing it to whatever ends he may choose.”

He also touches on the concepts of gratitude, choice, and ultimate personal responsibility. Check it out:

Did you actually watch it? I know, I know, seven minutes is an eternity in internet time!  Over the next few postings I will go through some of Mr. Hill’s work in more detail because I find it fascinating and because I believe that his ideas are both powerful and relevant. Many people, myself included, can benefit by becoming better acquainted with the priceless knowledge that he captured.  Stay tuned!

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Let’s see, I just finished reading Eckhart Tolle’s first book, but now he’s got a new one that’s a big hit on Oprah…gotta make time for that one. Yesterday I finished listening to an audio series by Deepak, but there’s the one from Anthony Robbins that been gathering dust on my shelf, mocking me every time I walk by without popping it into the DVD player. Then there’s those books I ordered from Amazon last month on linguistics and psychotherapy, the articles I NEED to write for my own site and all of those really insightful RSS feeds I haven’t gotten to yet but that I know I REALLY NEED to read. After all, I pared down my subscription feeds to a mere eight so that I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed anymore. But gosh, I’m so far behind and I NEED TO catch up. Maybe I’ll block out a couple of hours a day until I am able to feel as though I’m all caught up. After all, all of this stuff is supposed to make me smarter, happier, and just an overall better person. But man, there’s so much to do…

S T O P !!!

Personal development is supposed to be fun. After all, if it sucked so bad there wouldn’t be so many of us pursuing it. Face it, you have to get the grass cut and do laundry and at least slow down for red lights, but are your neighbors going to complain to the homeowners board if you’re not up on the latest in present moment awareness or if you haven’t reframed all of your limiting beliefs? The fact is that so many of us are engaged in the ongoing process of personal development because of the incredible rewards it offers. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun.

Personal development is the journey of continuing to learn and grow as a person alongside whatever else happens to occupy your day. Unless of course you’ve made it your full time endeavor to assist others with their own personal growth. Then it pretty much is what you do. If so, you certainly don’t want a client or a subscriber knowing more than you about the latest and hottest success guru, do you? Or worse yet, have some smarty pants commenter on your blog point out something insightful that you yourself weren’t capable of thinking of. God forbid!!!

Personal Development is supposed to be fun!

Even when you are doing it for a living. Especially when you are doing it for a living. Who cares if somebody knows more than you about the latest emotional healing technique, soul reading method, dowsing procedure, or the hottest author from Oprah? What a blessing if this is so! It means that somebody else has already put in the effort to acquire the knowledge and all you have to do is learn from them as they share the best of what they’ve come to know. Often this beats the heck out of starting from nowhere by yourself and trying to achieve the same level of understanding. That’s less work for you and more time to play Halo3.

Personal development is not a race, and we are not judged objectively by our friends, relatives, coworkers, fellow bloggers, or anyone else I can think of. Subjectively, people can and will judge the hell out of you, but why should you care?  Setting your internal compass to the widely scattered courses charted by the opinions of others is guaranteed to get you nowhere in particular and feeling a whole lot less than authentic as you try to keep making corrections to the course of public perception.

Truth is, there is no objective outside source of how you are growing personally because personal growth happens from the inside out. YOU are in charge of discovering your own unique purpose, deciding weather you are going to live to it or not, and interpreting what every experience you have means to YOU along the way.

You can even choose to not have a purpose, not to grow, and not to listen to or read any anything from any of the gurus I mentioned previously. There’s no boss cracking a whip over your shoulder if you should fail to “get it”. The life you live is its own reward or punishment. You can just go out and have fun for the sake of having fun, and when you get tired enough of repeating certain experiences over and over you will eventually become self motivated enough to become interested in personal growth. It’s the ultimate in freedom of choice.

Here are Some Tips on Making Personal Development Fun Again:

1.  Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Seriously, just don’t.  There rest of us are too busy taking ourselves seriously and we demand that you focus on us instead of worrying about what we think about you. We’re not thinking about you…we’re too busy thinking about ourselves.

2.   Personal growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Real growth only happens when you interact with other people.

All the books and tapes don’t mean anything if you act like a sh*t towards the cashier, the waiter, or that customer service rep on the phone who isn’t personally responsible for the problem you’ve been experiencing. Measure your growth in the responses you generate from others and make it a point to have a good time while doing so. The smiles you get back will be plenty of reward, and you’ll find yourself smiling inside as well.

3.  Realize that trying to be the most knowledgeable person on all things self improvement is an impossibility and attempting to do so would be a huge pain in the ass.

There’s a huge ego investment in feeling like you have to know more than anybody else so that you don’t ever look foolish or be caught sounding ignorant. If you’re ever guilty simply refer back to #1 above.

And in Conclusion:

Live with authenticity. Be happy being yourself and work to change the things you don’t like along the way. It’s pretty much a never ending process so there’s no need to try and rush out and get it all done at once. Enjoy the process, and above all, be aware of how you show up and the way you treat others. Hey - didn’t some long haired guy with a beard and sandals say the same thing a couple thousand years ago?

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Have you ever experienced a time when it was difficult to visualize success?  A time when it seemed that hope was distant on the horizon and your immediate path was frustratingly unclear?  At that point you may have known what it was you wanted to achieve and yet had little idea about how to make it happen. When this occurs it’s very easy to lose your motivation and cease to make progress because you feel as though your efforts aren’t producing much anyhow, so why bother…?  Unchecked, negativity creeps in and all of a sudden you are not only confused but also discouraged. It can happen to the best of us, and when it does here are some ideas to help you regain your motivation and re-energize yourself:

Understand the importance of Perception

Everything in your world simply is and awaits your reaction. You are the one who provides the meaning. For example, imagine a couple sitting at a sidewalk cafe on a Saturday afternoon. They both see the same trees, the same grass, the same street and sidewalk, the same people sitting or walking nearby, are both breathing the same air, etc. They have been together for several years and share a common history. Should their emotions differ it is probably to the extent that they have different patterns of interpreting the world around them. If one has a way of filtering information through the lenses of what went wrong before or what may go wrong in the near future it will color their emotions accordingly. Conversely, if the other thinks hopefully about the future they will most likely experience an entirely different emotional state. Nothing about their present situation is any different except for their respective interpretations of it. Take charge of your emotions by realizing that circumstances have no power over you except that which you give them by the thoughts that you create to interpret them. Choose the ones that are most helpful to you and will bring you closest to achieving your goals.

Narrow Your Focus

If you’re like me it can be very easy to become distracted while multi-tasking. When I get bogged down, I find it much easier to focus my concentration on only one thing until I begin to have an effect on achieving what it is I desire. Making progress however small is gratifying when you are trying to pull yourself out of an emotional slump. Concentrate on one thing at a time and begin to see how you are indeed making a difference.

Stick With It

If the purpose you are striving towards is important enough to you, giving up just because the going is tough isn’t going to make you any happier. Sometimes it helps to project your thoughts forward a few years and ask yourself this question: “If I quit now, will I likely find myself at a similar junction again having to overcome this same obstacle again somewhere down the road?”  If so, decide to do whatever it takes to clear that hurdle now so that you won’t have to face it again.

Pace Yourself Emotionally

When you first embark on a new project or goal staying motivated is easy. You believe that you can do it, you are fired up, and nothing is going to slow you down. Until something does. Then something else does.
All of a sudden you’re off track and behind schedule and staying motivated isn’t as easy
as it was at the beginning. Going in with a more realistic expectation that there will be ups and downs, challenges and setbacks, and emotional peaks and valleys will help you to weather the course.

Understand there is order in chaos

If you have a plan to achieve something
and are dedicated to making it happen, there is a order in the chaos and that order is you.  Plans will change, the path you charted out at the beginning may prove next to worthless, yet if you stay focused upon the outcome and give consistent effort, solutions will appear that you could not have possibly conceived that will help transport you to your ultimate destination.

Eliminate Negative Self Talk

Negative self talk only serves to make you feel bad and rob you of your energy. If you catch yourself slipping, change gears and focus on appreciating all it is that you already have
and the things you have achieved.

Reclaim Your Sense of Humor

Not much seems funny when you lose your motivation and can’t seem to find your way. The best way to change this is by simply deciding to do so. Look for the humor in things large and small, even in taking yourself so seriously to begin with. With a little change of perspective, the world can seem like a whole lot nicer place and that goal of yours not quite so out of reach.

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Have you ever experienced a time when you felt down and out, a victim of life, and wondered how you were going to make it through another yet another hopeless day?  What if, in one of your deepest personal valleys, you were called upon to not only to immediately snap out of it but to utilize your personal power to help your company out of its biggest jam ever and the failure to do so might cost you your job?  Oh, and did I mention that all the while you were scared to death about the results of some important tests regarding your health?

Author Jon Gordon’s newest book, “The No Complaining Rule” is a fictional account of one woman’s response to this unique call to action. Her name is “Hope”, and though at first she appears to have lost most of it, through the process that Jon demonstrates she is able to overcome being a chronic complainer in time to heal both her company and herself.

In the book, Jon demonstrates the negative effects of mindless complaining and provides a solution to change the mindset of chronic complainers both in the home and in the workplace. One of my favorite quotes from the book is when Hope comes to realize personally and then share professionally that “the measure of our success will not be determined by how we act during the great times in our life but rather how we think and respond to the challenges of our most difficult moments”.

For anyone living or working with chronic complainers, and also for those who suspect that they themselves may be guilty of a little too much complaining , this book offers practical advice on how to overcome this negative, and as Jon shows, costly habit.  The “No Complaining Rule” will teach you how to spend less time and energy focusing on problems and provide you with practical tools to seek out solutions.

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Having enough energy to get through the day is something that millions of people worldwide are desperately seeking. A Google search for the phrase “increase your energy” yields over 250,000 matches that cover a plethora of approaches as varied as the people who think them up. There are many people who lack sufficient energy to get through the day, as well as a great deal of well intentioned yet conflicting information on how to overcome this. Over the years, I have personally tried such things as:

deep breathing, adopting a vegetarian diet, eliminating caffeine, drinking more caffeine, eating small but frequent portions, eating a big breakfast, eating a small breakfast, taking natural vitamin supplements, taking afternoon naps, working with weights, bicycle riding, doing yoga, getting up early, getting up late, meditating, and many others.

No Magic Diet, No Specific Exercise Routine

The problem was that none of these activities nor any combination thereof gave me the type of energy boost I was looking for. Sure enough, over time I could see how some approaches worked better for me than others, but nothing proved to be the panacea I was looking for. Could so many people be wrong with all of the great ideas they were promoting to increase the amount of personal energy? Was there something I was missing? How come I still didn’t seem to have enough energy?

One day without searching for it, the solution hit me like a bolt of lightning. I realized that there was no magic remedy for a life filled with vibrant energy, or at least nothing that any vitamin pill or specific diet or exercise routine could provide.
The reason had nothing to do with physiology and everything to do with psychology.
It all boiled down to one word: Attitude.

Attitude is Key

If your attitude is positive and you have the general outlook of appreciating the things that occur in your life, you will usually have more than enough energy to get through the day. Yet if you have a negative outlook that focuses upon problems and what’s wrong with your life, you will typically find yourself dragging through the day without enough energy to get everything done. In fact, I’d venture to say that the person who goes about his day appreciating what he encounters and the people he meets can eat bon bons, smoke cigarettes, and have ½ a pig for lunch with fries and a coke and still have more energy than someone who is negative and worrisome and yet is otherwise healthy and a good steward of their body. The first person will probably die sooner due to a heart attack or some other health related malady, but they’ll probably enjoy their journey on this planet a lot more than the one who tries to do everything “right” and still chooses to walk around with a negative focus.

Appreciation Kills Stress

Why is this so?  It has to do with stress. Stress is the product of worry and frustration and robs us of significant amounts of energy. When we allow ourselves to “stress out” we burn up most of our energy on the tasks of feeling bad and worrying.

Appreciation is the opposite of stress, and the beauty of this solution is that it is practically impossible to feel appreciative and stressed at the same time. Try it. Think about something that would normally stress you out. Got it?  Good. Now think about someone or something that you are genuinely appreciative for and focus on that feeling for a moment. What happened to all that stress you were just holding onto?  If you are like most people it probably just disappeared!

In each moment we get to choose our thoughts, and the implications go far beyond the metaphysical notion that “thoughts become things”. Over time they do, but even more immediate is fact that our mental focus has the ability to either energize us or rob us of the energy required to create the types of lives that we desire. The best of intentions matter little when you’re plopped on the couch wishing you could somehow find the energy you need to push on.

Test for Yourself

If you desire to radically change the energy levels in your life, I encourage you to adopt the idea that changing your attitude tops the list. Try it out for yourself for one week and then come back and tell me if I’m wrong. If so, I’ll refund every penny you paid to read this wonderful article.

If you truly focus upon being appreciative and looking for the good in all situations, I believe that over the course of a week you will find that you have much more energy available and experience a significant reduction in stress. If not, email me and I’ll offer to sell you some magnetic bracelets specially blessed by my Cousin Louie, or maybe some special healing crystals recovered from the magical waters of the Fountain of Youth.

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Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing
in life is to keep your mind young.

Henry Ford

There is no better way to stay fit than to exercise, and “use it or lose it” is a reality that refers equally to body and mind. If you desire to think sharper, react quicker, and make better decisions you will have to keep exercising your mind to maintain it in good working order. Overall, this means spending less time engaged in passive activities and more time spent doing things that will stimulate the brain.

Some of the biggest time gobbling passive mind activities are pretty well known, such as spending too much time in front of the television, waiting for that guy in Nigeria with $8 million to bequeath to send you another email, or hoping your significant other will hang the roll of toilet paper the right way this time. Other more innocuous mind wasters include reflecting negatively upon your past, aimlessly surfing the net, and listening to political speeches in an election year. Actually that last one isn’t as bad as what usually follows, which is 3 or more talking heads explaining to us what the candidate who just spoke had to say. Have we really dumbed down that much as a society that we need to be told what the man in the suit just said; or are we simply too lazy to make the effort to interpret the obvious all by ourselves?

In keeping with Mr. Ford’s admonition, I’ve made a list of some of the tangible benefits of putting your mind to work on learning new things:

You may find something new to become passionate about.  Passion is a key to life, and discovering additional ways to uncork it can serve to juice up other, less inspired areas of your life.

Learning new things can make you more interesting.   Think the girls at the party still want to hear about your Dungeons and Dragons exploits; or that speaking in Klingon is somehow considered sexy? If you’re repertoire is old and stale, learning new things can help make your more social and enhance your appeal to others.

Learning keeps you alert.  You can’t run on autopilot when trying to master a new skill or venturing off into the unfamiliar. Breaking with routine to undertake new tasks instantly wakes up dormant areas of the brain that can be useful far beyond the task at hand.

Use it or lose it.  Your brain is a muscle like any other. It will atrophy without use.

So, if I’ve convinced you of the benefits of lifelong learning, you may be wondering what are some examples of the types of activities you should seek to incorporate. To get your mind jump started I have included a few rather simple ideas you may want to consider. The key is to pick out activities that you are not currently doing so that you can stimulate your mind in unfamiliar ways.   For example, you can:

1. Study a new language
2. Read a book
3. Take up a musical instrument
4. Start a blog
5. Play word games or puzzles
6. Play Sudoku
7. Choose to become more observant of the world around you
8. Write poetry
9. Take up dancing lessons
10. Travel to new places
12. Do things with your non-dominant hand
13. Try adopting the opposite point of view you normally take in arguments
14. Study martial arts
15. Paint, sculpt, or draw
16. Take a road trip
17. Go hiking in nature
18. Start a journal
19. Try a yoga class
20. Attend a live sporting event that you don’t know anything about.

There is really no end to a list like this. By simply making a commitment to exercise your mind and continuing to expose yourself to new ideas and concepts, you may be able to delay or even ward off the effects of the aging process on your brain. Your mental reaction time will improve, your focus will be sharper, you will become more interesting, life will begin to seem more vibrant, and you may even give up the urge to watch old Star Trek reruns or to hang the toilet paper roll backwards.

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