photo credit: sjsharktank

“I could do it if I really wanted to” is one of the oldest and most overused excuses for not getting off your butt and going after something you would very much like to do.

I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I could start learning how to speak japanese, if I really wanted to.

I could become self employed… if I really wanted to.

I do agree that some degree of will power is necessary in order to gets started at doing something.

However relying on it completely to achieve your goals is not generally the most effective approach.

The reason for this is that as humans, we have this natural tendency to feel doubt at some stage towards pursuing your goal.

Why will power is overrated

Trying to pursue a goal while relying solely on will power is like trying to climb a cliff wall without a rope or safety harness. The moment you get tired, or in this case feel doubt, there’s a high chance you’re going to let go and fall straight back to the bottom.

If you don’t need to rely solely on your will power, then don’t.

Unless you are a person who believes 200% that you will definitely succeed, relying solely on your will power to help you overcome a challenge you have never faced before is a recipe for failure.

Will power is not constant like a flash light that shines at the same brightness all the time. It has moments when it dims, which makes the path ahead that much harder to see.

This is when alot of people are likely to give up, and when that happens, you lose.

Why mentors are important

A mentor or a coach is a person who has already reached the destination you want to reach. This means that they know the path and have 100% confidence on how to get to where you want to go.

Many times people will treat life challenges like school exams. You have to rely completely on yourself and you can’t cheat by referring to the answers.

Well guess what? Having a coach is like having a cheat sheet during an exam.

Anytime you feel stuck or need help with a problem, you refer to them.

Anytime you reach an obstacle you feel like you can’t cross, your coach will be there to show you how to cross it and to push you to keep moving forward to the next milestone.

Coaches and mentors are important because they take the guess work out of achieving your goals.

They already know the path, all you need to do is pay attention to what they are telling you to do.

Even if your flash light runs out of batteries and you’ve lost sight of your goal, you can put your arm on their shoulder and they will lead the way.

Mentors and coaches are there to make sure you don’t stop short before reaching your goals, so if you’re really serious about succeeding, get one.

Related posts:

1. My 2 Step Process To Achieving 9-to-5 Freedom
2. What Losing Weight Can Teach Us About Succeeding At Online Business

In Part 1 of the DIY website series, I talked about some things to consider when choosing a domain name for your website.

In Part 2, I’ll walk you through the process of how to check and register a domain name with 1and1.com.

Now the reason I recommend using 1and1.com is because I believe in keeping things neat and tidy.

With 1and1, you can store your domain names in a separate location other than on your webhost.

This means that even if you get another webhost in future, you’ll be able to keep track of all your domain names.

A good analogy would be writing the name of your shop on a sign which you then hang above your shop as opposed to painting the name of your shop right on the shop wall.

If you ever change shop venue, you can just take down the shop sign and hang it at the new location. It makes things easier in the long run.

Check to see if the name you chose is available

The first thing you want to do is to see if the domain name you have chosen is available. Do this using the tool available on the 1and1 homepage.

If the domain name you entered is not available, the following screen will appear.

If the domain name you have entered is available, the following screen will appear.

Once you have decided on a domain name and have checked that it is available, select continue as shown above to go through the domain registration process.

Register your domain name

After you select continue, you will see a window as shown below.

Select the continue button under the option shown in the image above. The reason you’re choosing the most basic option is because you won’t be hosting your website with 1and1 and this option does not incur any reoccurring fees (except for the yearly payment to keep your domain name. The first domain you register is usually free).

Purchase additional domain names offer

In the next screen you will be asked to purchase all the other various extensions to your domain name to protect your brand.

You can always do this later so ignore this for now and select “No thanks, continue without selection” as shown in the image above.

Extra security sales offer

In the next screen you’ll be asked if you want extra security. If you haven’t gotten it by now, the idea is to just say no to every sales offer made until you reach the part where you need to pay for your domain name.

Like in the previous screen, select “No thank you, continue order”

Review Order

Next you will be asked to review your order. At the time of this tutorial, 1and1 are offering your first domain name for free, so you shouldn’t be charged anything.

Select continue to go to the next screen.

Country Selection

On this screen you will be asked to select your country. If it is not listed, select the drop down list and select your country from there.

Once you have done that, select continue to go to the next screen.

Contact Details

On this screen you will be required to enter your personal details. At the bottom of the screen just above where it says continue, you will be given the option of registering your details privately or publicly.

If you register your domain privately, people will not be able to see the personal information you have entered on this screen if they do a whois search on your website.

If you register it publicly, I would recommend using a business address or PO Box instead of your home address if you would prefer not to have fans of your site show up at your door step.

Once you have entered all your details and selected a registration option, select continue to go to the next screen.

Password

On the following screen you will be prompted to enter a password and answer a short survey on how you heard about 1and1.

Do both and select continue to go to the next screen.

Select Payment method

Finally it’s time to pay for your order. Here you will be given the option to pay with either a credit card or with Paypal if you have an account.

If you select credit card, enter your credit card details and select continue as shown above to go to the next screen.

If you select Paypal, the screen will change to display the following screen.

Select the “Go to Paypal” button to proceed with payment via Paypal. You will automatically be redirected back to the appropriate page once you have completed this step.

Check out page

Here you get to do a final review of your purchase and will be asked to read the terms and conditions of your purchase.

Once you have read through the terms and conditions, check the box that states “I accept the terms and conditions of 1&1 and the terms and conditions for the registration of domain names”.

Once you have done that, select “Order Now” to complete your order.

Thank you page

On the thank you page you will be informed that your order details will be sent to the email address you entered earlier.

Be sure to check your email and to store your login information in a safe place.

With that, you have officially registered a domain name with 1and1.

What’s Next?

In the next post in this series, I’m going to show  you how to purchase web hosting with Just Host and how to point your domain name to them so you can install your wordpress website.

Related posts:

1. DIY Website Part 1: Rules for choosing a name for your website
2. Why everyone should start a website

photo credit: MrB-MMX

Recently I was trying to get a new project off the ground but for some reason I was procrastinating on it.

I had the time and the means but for some reason I just wasn’t doing anything about it.

At this stage most people would just assume that they are just lazy, however I’ve learned that this is usually never the case.

When I thought about the situation more, I realized that every time I thought about the project, my mind would drift towards 2 specific problems.

Even though I had identified the problems, they were fairly complex and took me several frustrating days to come up with solutions.

Once I’d solved them though, I was able to speed through the project without any major issues.

Your brain, as highly evolved as it is, is not designed to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously and I explain why below.

Why can’t I solve multiple complex problems simultaneously?

Complex problems require significant conscious attention and creative thinking. This is why when you try to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously, your brain goes into overwhelm.

Trying to solve multiple complex problems you’ve never dealt with before at once is like trying to listen to two separate conversations on separate topics simultaneously while coming up with intelligent responses to both. Very hard to do and extremely frustrating for everyone.

Projects all consists of multiple tasks, some of which do not have clear solutions.

As such, when you focus on a project as a whole, there is a high chance you will be attempting to focus on multiple problems with unclear solutions.

This is generally how people end up feeling overwhelmed when they think of big projects.

So how do I avoid procrastinating on projects that  feel overwhelming?

Whenever you are faced with a big project, it is best to break it down into its individual tasks.

From here, it is best never to multi-task when dealing with a complex problem within that project.

By doing that,  you are able to focus your full attention on coming up with solutions for that one problem. This then allows you to progress faster through the project.

By progressing faster, you will automatically feel more productive and this will motivate you to keep moving forward.

Aren’t convinced? Try this exercise

Think of something you have been procrastinating on, grab a piece of paper and start writing every single step you need to take in order to mark it down as complete.

You will find that while you are writing this list you will get stuck.

The reason you will get stuck is because you will be faced with an action item or multiple action items that require you to think hard in order to come up with a solution.

For instance, you may find that the reason you are procrastinating on asking your boss for a raise is because you are afraid that you will not know how to respond to his counter arguments for not giving you a raise.

Here you would need to focus all your energy and attention into figuring out how to solve that problem. Maybe you could role play. Perhaps you could take a class on negotiating. Maybe you could imagine your boss is a cute harmless kitty when you go in to see him/her.

Whatever the case may be, procrastination stems from your minds inability to automatically come up with a clear solution for a particular problem.

On a more positive note though, once you have devised a clear solution for the mental obstruction, your path towards your goal becomes much clearer and you are less likely to procrastinate.

When you’re trying to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious, you need to focus.

Otherwise you risk getting frustrated by your lack of progress which leads to procrastination and ultimately causes you to give up.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems
2. Step 6: Post-Office and potential problems
3. Exercise 6.1: Common teleworking problems and solutions

photo credit: rutlo

This is the first post in this series on how to build your own DIY website.

At the end of it, you should have enough information to know how to setup your very own good looking website quickly and easily.

I’m a big fan of DIY for one simple reason. If I run into problems, I know how to solve them myself. I like to have as much control as possible when it comes to running my site.

I’m also a major advocate of simplicity. If you don’t need to do more, then don’t. Sometimes good enough, is good enough.

Let’s Get Started

Alright then, jumping right into it, the first thing you want to do is to choose a name for your website.

While you can choose any name you want really, there are a few factors you may want to consider to help make your site more memorable and easily found through search engines online.

I will discuss these factors in the post below.

Rule 1: Make it catchy, easy to remember and easy to spell

If you decide to name your website after a certain Icelandic volcano that erupted recently, chances are not many people are going to be able to remember how to say let alone spell your web address.

If you think about sites like Google, or Yahoo or Facebook, these names are easy to remember and easy to spell.

If you’re going for a brand name that doesn’t really mean anything on its own ( Like Nike, Microsoft or Adidas) , I recommend not letting it have more than 2 to 3 syllables and to keep it as short and as easy to spell as possible.

If you’re going for a name that uses common easy to spell words (like vegetariancookingclass.com or dogtrainingmastery.com), that’s fine as long as you know that the people you are targeting won’t have a problem remembering or spelling your site name.

You want the name to be catchy, easy to remember and easy to spell for your target audience.

Rule 2: Use keywords or key phrases in your website name when possible

Keywords are words that people would use if they were interested in finding your content.

Key phrases are usually a combination of a keyword and a few other words. This is what people will usually type into search engines when they are looking for specific information.

For example, if you wanted to find sites on learning japanese, you wouldn’t just type “japanese” into Google.

You would probably type “Learn Japanese” or “How to speak Japanese” or ” Online Japanese Lessons”. These are all key phrases.

If you haven’t already figured it out, the primary keyword here is “Japanese” and the secondary keywords are words related to learning.

Keywords and phrases improve the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your website

Knowing what words your target audience will use when searching for the information you offer is very important.

Having keywords in your website name help improve its search engine rank which can help improve the chances of your site showing up when the keywords are searched.

You wouldn’t use the word “Spanish” in your site name if you were trying to attract people interested in learning japanese.

Keywords and phrases grab the attention of your target audience

Having a website name that contains at least a primary keyword is also more likely to get the attention of your target audience than a website name that didn’t.

For instance, compare “JohnDoe.com vs JapanesewithJohn.com”.

Who would you pick if you were interested in learning japanese?

Rule 3: When in doubt, use a “.com”

While you don’t have to do this, the reason I recommend it is because “.com” is easily the most popular ending for website addresses.

It makes it easier for people to remember your site name and  also helps your site be found globally  in the search engines.

The only exception to this rule is if your target audience is primarily the people in a specific country.

In cases like these, you may want to have your country’s web address extension so that your website is given priority in the search engines.

This means that websites with the Australian extension (.com.au) are more likely to be shown first if you ran a search through the Australian Google search.

This is a great idea if you own a local business in that country and only cater locally.

In other cases though,  stick with a “.com” to maximize the global reach of your site and to make the web address easy to remember.

Take Action

So now that you have some guidelines, it’s time to take action.

Using the guidelines above, brainstorm some names that you would like for your site.

In the next post, I’m going to show you how to check to see if your name is available and how to register it.

Related posts:

1. DIY Website Part 2: Checking and registering your domain name with 1and1
2. Why everyone should start a website
3. Why I believe sincerity and passion is more important than SEO

photo credit: rachaelvoorhees

If you don’t already have a website, you really should think about starting one.

Why? Well, I’ll give you a few reasons:

1. They are really cheap to setup
2. They are very simple to setup (once you know how)
3. A website is the foundation for starting an online business or service

To give you an analogy, setting up a website is like buying a piece of real estate that you can do anything you want with.

You can create a place where you journal your thoughts, a place to display your art or if you’re entrepreneurial, a place to start a business and earn some money.

In the internet age, knowing how to setup and run a simple website should be as essential as knowing how to read, write and count.

Why should everyone know how to setup a website?

Everyone should have this skill because a website gives you a reach that spans the entire globe.

Through your website, you can write content that touches the life of someone in a completely different country.

Through your website, you can sell products and services to people as far as the reach of the internet.

Through your website, you can share your wacky ideas, connect with people and realize you are not alone.

If not for the need to focus our daily pursuits on earning an income and paying off the mortgage, I believe this life would be better spent focusing on other things such as:

• Spiritual cultivation – finding your true self, achieving a sense of balance and peace and helping others do the same
• Learning and exploration – pursuing intellectual and philosophical advancement while living harmoniously with people and our environment
• Being happy and excited about life – doing the things we love and that make us feel alive every single day

I’ve often been called a dreamer, but I don’t care. Being practical and fitting in is seriously boring.

If I was meant to be dull and boring, I would have been born a rock, or a tree or some other thing that doesn’t move, think or feel.

Anyway, as I was saying before diverting WAY off my point….. I believe everyone should have a website.

It is what  I consider the first major step to achieving complete freedom from a 9-to-5 job. And anyone serious about never needing to report to a boss, manager, team leader etc. ever again should get started on this path.

A website for me means freedom.

The freedom to express my thoughts and to build a means of earning a living without being tied down to another persons agenda.

In a way, starting a website is like buying a house while being an employee for me is like paying rent.

Instead of investing your human capital in generating income for someone else, start a website, build a business and invest in your own future wealth.

Obviously easier said than done, but it all starts with the first step, which is to invest in some of your own online real estate .

OK that sounds cool, but where do I start?

If you already have a website, have traffic, are making some money and living your dream life, then no worries, keep doing what you’re doing (thumbs up)

If however you’re stumped and don’t know where to start, stay tuned to the blog because in the coming weeks I’m going to teach you how to setup a decent looking website ( on your own) so you can get your business idea online quickly and cheaply.

Related posts:

1. DIY Website Part 1: Rules for choosing a name for your website
2. DIY Website Part 2: Checking and registering your domain name with 1and1
3. How to Determine Your Definite Major Purpose

photo credit: Igor ™

Who would’ve though that the day would come when someone would develop a search engine that was capable of pulling freelance and telecommuting job listings from across the web.

Well, apparently they have and it’s called Donanza.

How Do You Use It?

Like I said,  it is a search engine.

Basically what you do is enter a search term let’s say “Graphic Design” and search.

The search engine will then search through established sites and lesser known sites for projects that meet your search query.

How Do I Know The Projects Are Trustworthy?

Whether every single job they list is rock solid, I can’t say for certain.

What I can tell so far is that there are some pretty big names that are on board with this search engine, and that’s enough to get me to use it.

Also, the search engine has a filter function that allows you to filter projects according to the sites they were found on.

This is good if you’ve determined that there are sites that you simply do not want to get jobs from.

My advice would be to use Donanza to do a mass search across the web for opportunities, and when in doubt of a site, do your research.

To help you through the process, here is a list of a few websites that Donanza will search that I’ve green lighted as sites that are established and won’t screw you around when it comes to freelance projects they post:

• Elance.com
• oDesk.com
• RentACoder.com
• FreelanceSwitch.com
• 99Designs.com

So What Should I Do Now?

If you’re a freelancer or employee who wants an easier way to find freelance projects or a telecommuting job, you’re going to want to start using Donanza.

Related posts:

1. Register With Telecommuting Job Sites
2. OEB 9 | Plan B: Finding A Telecommuting or Part-Time Job
3. A freelance skill most people have but never think of

photo credit: thefixer

“The rose doesn’t need to say anything for me to know that it is beautiful”

There are times when conventional wisdom seems appropriate. There are also times when conventional wisdom just feels plain wrong.

It’s at times like these that your instinct is calling out to you to take a second look at the situation to see what’s wrong with the picture.

I’m going to use early high school dating as a means of elaborating more on this point.

When I was 13 years old, the conventional wisdom (for guys anyway) was that if you wanted to go out with a girl you had to impress her.

The accepted method at the time for doing this was to try and prove you were Alpha male by doing something to prove that you were better than all the other guys.

Methods ranged from buying gifts, to bullying nerds to demonstrations of athletic prowess.

These would usually get a girls attention to some degree, but not for very long.

As the years went by, more and more guys caught on that there was more to attracting girls than simply showing off.

As they learned their lessons and realized what worked and what didn’t, guys began to get smarter at the dating game.

I use dating as an example here because it’s a process that you can’t pack into a neat little package and expect to work with everyone.

It’s also something that every guy I know wants to do and as such, are intrinsically driven to do.

Some girls like nice guys, some girls don’t. Some girls like the shy quiet type, others like guys who are charismatic and outgoing.

Knowing if someone is genuinely attracted to you and building a good relationship requires some degree of instinctive awareness.

You can’t just follow a procedure in a book and trust that everything will be just dandy.

The challenge of believing in your own beliefs

Growing up, there were times in my life when things just felt wrong.

Sometimes it gets hard to hold true to your ethics, especially if the whole world is telling you they’re wrong.

I’ll be honest, I’ve let myself slip at times, letting go of beliefs that I held true to myself and succumbing to peer pressure.

The pursuing results were usually worse than giving up my beliefs in the first place.

The reason for this being that, even if the whole world can’t see it, you know you’ve lied to yourself, and that sort of feeling hits you at the core of your being.

The journey to finding your true self can be a hard and lonely path at times.

Sometimes following your instincts means doing what people consider unpopular.

Sometimes it means letting go of friends who though were a bad influence, made you feel like you were connected to someone and weren’t alone.

Usually though, the path of following your heart, no matter how hard, leads you to a place where you feel inner peace, even if the world around you is in chaos.

This is where I believe true happiness lies, and the more I am true to myself, the more I feel it.

Your instincts keep you balanced on the path to your true self

When I close my eyes, I imagine myself as two distinct characters.

There is the me that just wants to feel, react and be passionate, and there is the me that wants to maintain control, structure and direction.

I find that I feel the most content when I am close to striking a balance between the two.

Not too much control that my spirit is broken and I lose touch with my feelings and not too much freedom that I become reckless and inconsiderate of others.

My instincts are the measuring tool that help me maintain harmony and gauge if I am straying too far towards either direction.

Learning to trust your instincts is like learning to trust your balance when riding a bike.

At first it can be hard and you might fall a few times at the start.

Over time though, your balance improves and soon you are riding the bicycle with ease.

Your instincts keep you centered and when mastered, allow you to direct your life and will without struggling.

This is what I believe it means to find your true self.

To be able to choose your own path and to follow it with ease and joy.

Related posts:

1. How to Make Your Company Really Trust You
2. TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution

photo credit: CJ Sorg

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be involved in a strongman training session being run by my chiropractors son.

I’m really new to this kind of training, but from what was explained to me, strongman training involves two things:

1. Progressive increases in weight and specific exercises to increase your functional full body strength.
2. The practice of explosive strength exercises that work your entire body, stimulate your nervous system and make you want to throw up or die

At the end of the two hour training session, I had the opportunity to experience the second one by dragging a weighted sled 50m across a muddy yard in the cold rain.

It was probably the most unpleasant thing I’ve done in awhile and half way through it, I was sure I was going to give up.

10m from the end, I could feel my thigh muscles burning from trying to drag 65kg of sled through mud.

I’m not much heavier than 65kg so I may as well have been dragging my own dead body and by that stage it felt like I was.

At the brink of exhaustion, the only word that was ringing in my head was “STOP”.

My body had had enough and it delivering the message to my fading consciousness.

Just as I was about to call it quits, I could hear voices around me.

It was the other participants and my trainer, urging me on to not give up and that I was almost there.

From hearing the word “STOP”, all I could hear now was “You can do it!”, “Don’t give up, you’re almost there!”.

My body felt terrible, but somehow just hearing and believing that there was a possibility of success, it found the strength to keep moving forward.

Eventually I made it past the finish line and I collapsed in a heap on the ground.

When the blood eventually made it’s way back to my brain, I felt a sense of pride in knowing I managed to push myself past my mental limit and take action.

In acknowledging that, I knew that I would never have been able to do it without the encouragement of my trainer and the rest of the group.

And To the Point of This Story

Sometimes we get bogged down by people who tell us that we cannot achieve something. Eventually if we hear this enough, we may start to believe it ourselves and it becomes our own limiting belief.

In saying that, the opposite is true as well. If someone tells us we can do something and they say it persistently enough, we may start to believe that we are capable of achieving something.

If you want to stop negative thinking and overcome limiting beliefs, you need to do two things:

1. Minimize the negative influence that is stopping you
2. Maximize the positive influence that makes you take action

For instance, if you have friends who are constantly putting you down, then you should make a mental note to not take their advice seriously or just avoid them altogether.

If you have teachers or mentors who makes you feel smart and capable, spend more time talking to them and learn to trust their advice.

One method I find extremely effective is to buy an audiobook that speaks directly to my limiting belief and explains to me systematically how to overcome it.

I will play this audiobook over and over and over again until the limiting belief has been completely overwritten.

By having an external voice constantly and repeatedly explaining the solution to me in a logical fashion, my subconscious mind has no choice but to let go of the limiting belief.

Your internal voice is a powerful thing and what it says to you will determine what you will choose to do and what you will choose not to do in this life.

If you don’t like the sound of that voice, find an external one that you do like and listen to it until your internal voice matches it.

This is why sports teams have pep talks before games and why parents should always tell their kids that they are capable of anything they can put their mind to.

Taking action is also very important, but it all starts with believing in what is possible.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 4.4: Dealing with Negative Self Talk
2. Exercise 4.2: Expressing Ideas Clearly to Overcome Resistance
3. How to Reduce Fear by Thinking Like a Freelancer

Click here to view the original talk on TED.com

Having spent the weekend in Melbourne visiting some friends and exploring the Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture exhibit at Federation Square, I was both inspired and keen to get back to creating new content for the site.

Following my usual routine of checking out what was new on TED, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sir Ken Robinson had presented a new talk.

For those of you that don’t know him, Sir Ken Robinson has been an advocate for encouraging creativity in schools and revamping the education system to help children discover and develop their natural gifts and talents in order to ultimately discover and pursue their passions.

This talk is a follow up from his first talk on TED back in 2006 which is also worth watching.

Related posts:

1. The Paradox Of Choice – A Talk by Barry Schwartz
2. [Video] Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
3. Exercise 4.4: Dealing with Negative Self Talk

photo credit: B. Ware

Do you find that you tend to feel mentally exhausted at the end of a long work day?

You get home, kick off your shoes and just want to relax for the rest of the evening.

That sounds fair you’d think, considering you just spent an entire day slouched in front of a computer screen or some other form of manual work.

Of course you need a break. Who wouldn’t?

The problem with feeling burnt out at the end of each day thought is that it leaves us with little mental capacity to focus our attention on other things that we should probably be focusing on more.

Things like our health or our relationships.

Can you think of times when you chose the vegetating on the sofa over heading to the gym for a workout because you were too tired?

Can you remember occassions when you decided to cancel a meeting with friends or family because you had a long day at work and weren’t in the mood to see anyone?

These seem like small things, but over time small things build up and before you know it you’re 61, overweight and have almost no social life.

Many people I know are stressed out and don’t spend time doing the things they used to enjoy because they believe they simply don’t have the time.

They’re tired and need a break. But the wheel keeps turning and if you don’t keep moving forward, your world could spin out of control.

That’s what I was brought up to believe anyway.

One day though I decided that I would prefer to risk having my world spin out of control than to keep running a race that I felt wasn’t leading me in the direction I wanted to go.

I decided the 9-to-5 work structure wasn’t for me and I quit going to work and became a telecommuter.

What happened next was hardly surprising.

When your brain isn’t forced to stay focused on doing a job you don’t always feel like doing for 8 hours straight everyday, a few things happen.

Firstly, your stress levels begin to drop. Secondly, your energy levels start going up. Thirdly, you immediately begin to feel happier.

Why I believe it is good to feel happy every day

So what’s the big deal with feeling happier?

Well, if you’ve ever been around someone who is genuinely happy, you will know that being around them somehow makes you feel good as well.

When you feel good, you want to do good things. You want to take care of your health, be social and generally do more things that make you feel better and happier.

When you are happier, you’re also in a better frame of mind to tackle negativity and stress.

You’re less likely to snap at people and you have a higher tendency to be patient and tolerant.

Imagine if more people were like this. Imagine if entire communities, societies and countries were like this.

Ok, I might be getting ahead of myself, but I hope you understand the point I’m trying to get to.

Improving society, making the world a better place, it all starts with the individual.

Yes, I’m talking about you, me and even the people who live next door.

While it is possible to be a decent caring person when you are under stress, being stressed, frustrated or just plain tired does make it harder to hold firm to your ethics and to always do what you believe is right.

In my opinion, the problems of the outside world can wait. What we really need to have is the time to reflect on ourselves so that we can change ourselves for the better.

Ask yourself, are you happy? Are you really satisfied with your life?

Because frankly if you’re not, its fairly unlikely that you’d feel driven to start doing anything significant to fix the world.

Find personal peace and happiness, live a life where you are content and from there figure out how you can share that happiness with the people around you.

Gradually but steadily, I believe we’ll be able to come to better answers to global issues as people become more aware and have more attention to spare in order to focus on bigger problems.

In time, we’d have an epidemic of stress free, happy people who want to make the world a better place.

I can’t say for certain what a world like that would be like, though I imagine it would be pretty good.

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