Your Daily Cup Of Joe

In life we have to decide how much of life we really want. If you want more in life, that means you have to give up more of your life to get more. There are exceptions to the rule but for the majority of us, we need to decide what is enough. If you always want bigger and better things, there will always be bigger and better things to get but that requires more money and time. Then where are you going to get that money and time from?  Don't let other people's expectations tell you what you need in your life. You have to ask yourself, how much is enough. Remember when you win the rat race, in the end you're still a rat. So beware of your choices and what you're giving up to get those choices. Are you working in a job that you hate or working many hours but the trade off is losing time with your family? Time with you kids and spouse is something you can never get back again when it's over. So choose wise with the things you choose to pursue. Journal Prompts How will you know when you're going after too many things? How can you ensure that enough is sufficient and not too little?

A lot of success comes down to getting the easy stuff right like showing up for a meeting on time, having proper hygiene, being nice, having a great attitude, and having the correct grammar in your emails. This takes effort and time, but if you can't get the easy stuff done in front of someone, what makes you think that the other person will think you will get the hard stuff done right.  People will notice if you get the easy stuff done because not a lot of other people get the easy stuff done right. But you will get the easy stuff done because you have high standards for yourself and take pride in setting the example for others. You're making the world a better place with your action and eventually it will come back to you.  Journal Prompts What will happen to your life if you don't get the easy stuff right? What are some of the easy things that you need to do right? How would this set you apart from others?

We live in a competitive society and it shows. Back 30-40 years ago, if you had a college degree there was a high likelihood that you could get a really good job and be fine for the rest of your life. Now, a bachelor's degree is not enough to get you noticed in the economy and forces some people to spend more money and time on masters degrees and PhDs. You have to decide what path you want to take and what are the trade offs. If you don't want to get a higher education, then going in business or sales for yourself is a good way to make money. Both the academic and business path are going to be a lot of work, but it's what is necessary to set you apart from your competition. So don't wish it was easier, just wish you were better and the way you get better is start focusing on your skills.  On the path to greatness, there will be sacrifices. Saying no to going out with friends, a lower standard of living while you work towards your goals, and moments of loneliness because not many people are doing what you're doing, but you're a strong individual that can handle that because you trained for this moment. So keep wishing for harder moments periodically because it's what you need to stay focused and stay strong and when other people come at you, you'll be ready for it because you didn't wish it was easier. Journal Prompts If you constantly did hard things, while the majority of folks did easy things, how would this make you more prepared for life? What is an area that you wish was easier? How can training make it easier for you to do?

This is a trick question because you can't be an average person to become a Marine. For many Marines, they have people come up to them and say they thought about being a Marine but then they didn't do it. Us Marines like to roll our eyes because all you really had to do is say yes and show up. That's all it takes but Marines know they don't have an easy journey ahead of themselves. You know it's going to suck but a Marine once transformed is never the same again. Same thing with any other ambitious task that you have in front of you. If you want to start a family or a business, you just have to say yes and get started. You'll figure it out as you go. Whatever you want to accomplish in life, there is a path, some paths are going to be more difficult than others and that's okay. Average people don't want to go down that path because it's not average but average gets you average results. Journal Prompts What does average give you in this life time? How can you not be average with your life?

Life is constantly going to be more and more complicated as we get older as we add responsibilities to our plate. So we need to ensure that we are training our body and mind to handle that increase in responsibilities. So the only easy day should be yesterday. If today was easier than yesterday, then you're not training yourself hard enough. If you want to conquer your dreams and have a great life, you need to challenge yourself to get better every day. Even if the progress is incremental, you still did what was necessary.  If you have to take a day off, take a day off, but make sure you don't rest for too long because then it might be hard to start again. As people we constantly look for problems because we want to be challenged but sometimes we just keep the problem in front of us because then we don't have to address it, it is there as a scapegoat and go back to it when things didn't go our way. If you keep challenging yourself, then you can learn to overcome and go on to the next challenge. Remember, the only easy was yesterday and you're being transformed into a winner that can handle anything. Journal Prompts How can you take pride in knowing that the easy day was yesterday? How can you track your days so that you're doing something challenging every day?

If you want to live the good life, self-mastery over one's self is going to get you there. Once I started working on yourself by becoming physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually stronger, that's when you'll be able to start seeing real growth in your life. Once you establish this dominion over yourself, then you're free to live your best life.  Also, when you can't control yourself, how can you have influence on others? They won't take you seriously if you can't take care of yourself. There is nothing worse that having an incompetent person in charge of you and you should be a competent person yourself so you're not being a hypocrite. If you fail but are trying to be better, that's much better than failing because you didn't even try. So get working on yourself and enjoy the benefits of self-mastery. Journal Prompts What is the best way for you to gain dominion over yourself? How will you know when you have dominion over yourself?

We have to realize that 2 plus 2 can be greater than four if you bring the right twos to the table. If you substitute your skills with a piece of paper and pencil instead of a computer, you won't be able to go as fast if you had a computer helping you out. With a computer you'll be able to get ten times the amount of work in an hour versus manually doing the calculations yourself. So when you look at your life, look for the 20% that will give you 80% of your results. Not everything holds the same value but the right combination can give you exponential value.  You can grow the pie to be larger and have more to eat if you get the right pieces together but you must understand how things work together in order to see this growth. This is why studying different fields of study is so useful because you can see how if you mix one idea with another, you can create something new that is really useful. So don't focus on the whole, focus on the parts that make up the whole and see what needs to be improved on. Journal Prompts How is focusing on the parts better than focusing on the whole? How can you make the sum of the parts greater than the sum in your life?

The way they train circus elephants is that as babies they put a heavy chain on the elephant's leg and then they pull and pull but can't break the chain. Eventually they just stop trying. Then what happens as an adult, only a rope is on the elephant's leg, which they easily could move but they accepted the victims mindset and will just let rope keep them locked up.  When you play the victim card, you're letting your past determine today. Just because something happened in the past doesn't mean all the new situations will end out the same way. A victim just stays in the invisible cage and says that they can't move. The best thing you can do is just keep taking action until you finally break through. It might take a long time but the day you quit is the day you become a victim and you might never escape it.  Journal Prompts Are there any invisible cages that are holding you back? How is your history creating this cage? What is the destiny you want to fulfil? How can you use today to help you get where you want to go?

The world is changing and we can't stop it. If we stay the same as a person, then that wave is going to crush us. The wave is likely not coming for a while but what you can do in the meantime is learn how to surf. There are a ton of skills that we can learn to become better people and help us become more resilient to adversity. You can hope that the wave doesn't come but it will come. You can't stop the world so enjoy what it gives you and learning how to surf can make the ride a lot more enjoyable.  Journal Prompts What was a change that happened in your life where you weren't prepared for it? How did this set you back? What are you doing to learn how to surf?

Winning the lottery could be one of the worst things that could happen to someone. Within a few years, 70 percent of them go broke. While losing a job, could be one of the greatest things that happens to someone. Now they are free to do what they really want and can choose a better life for themselves. That bitter trial was the kick in the butt that they needed to get started. For lottery winners, people just want to hang around them because they have money and will try to get them to spend down their money without worrying about their long term success.  We tend to learn more from the downsides than the upsides. So when you go through something bitter, just realize down the road, it could serve as something powerful to help you with your future self.  Journal Prompts What is a bitter trial that you have been through that was a blessing in disguise? What lessons were learned? Where have you learned your greatest lessons? From down or up moments? Why is it like this?

The next time you go to a river that you've already been to and step in it, realize that the river is not the same. It might look the same but sediment has changed under the water, the water is different, there might be new species in the river, and the temperature might be different. It will always be different. When you enter the river you won't be the same person either. You'll be older, have different thoughts, you might be physically different in some way, and you might be in a different relationship. You have to realize that you might look the same overall, you're never the same person. Every new experience that you have is changing you a tiny bit. The direction you go is dependent on the input that your body goes through. So we should never expect things to stay the same because they are always changing. They might look the same or very similar but we shouldn't be clinging onto the past because the past doesn't exist today. So enjoy the process of change and when you step into that river just enjoy the river as it is and don't worry about how it is not the same river as before.  Journal Prompts What would happen to your life if you try to keep everything the same? How can you ensure that you don't cling onto the past by trying to keep things the same?

The things we buy will eventually break or become obsolete but a memory can bring us a lifetime of happiness. Things will never stay the same but we can be happy that they happened. You don't have to spend a lot of money on things to have a good time, you just need to figure out how to have a good time. That usually means just being present in the moment and bringing energy to it.  If you build the right type of memories, you won't want to trade them for anything else in the world. They made you into the person you are today and it's something that can bring a smile to your face. And because that thing ended, now you have a great memory that you can draw on. In life, you should strive to have as many good memories as possible because when you're on your deathbed, those will be the last things you will take with you.  Journal Prompts How can you use being present and bring energy to create more great memories for yourself? How can you use gratitude to bring more smiles to your face when it comes to your memories?

Small actions can lead to great results. Just going to bed early, brushing your teeth, meal prepping, writing in a journal, and going for walks can lead to big breakthroughs in your life. The great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden would teach his players how to put on their socks because improperly worn socks would lead to blisters, and blisters would cause the player to play hurt or miss the game completely. So that small action can have huge implications if not done. A lot of breakthroughs come from small actions done over and over again. Don't focus on the big stuff, even though it is more exciting, focus on doing the little things right first. Turn those little actions into big wins for yourself. If you have enough sleep, then you'll be more prepared for your work day and do better work, which will help you land that promotion, which will give you more money to spend on your family and give them financial security. You have the ability to to turn the ripple into waves but you can't make the waves without the ripples.  Journal Prompts What are some ripples that can turn into waves for yourself? What are the waves? How can you be reminded to do the small actions on a daily basis?

If you look at your life, where are the parts where there are four lanes of traffic merging into one lane? If you ever sat in traffic before, you know lane mergers cause serious traffic. So you need to either expand the lanes or remove the cars from your road so you'll see more progress in your life. One major bottleneck is typing. If you're a slow typer, then it can take double the amount of work to get something done. When you have bottlenecks in your life, it gives you less time to do other things in life. To prevent this, look at your day and see what is slowing you down from getting your stuff done. This might come from having to do too many things and you can't concentrate. A great way to give yourself more time is to focus on less stuff and only do what is essential. This takes discipline but it will allow you to be able to live a life with more purpose and passion. Journal Prompts If you were able to get an extra two hours a day from alleviating your bottlenecks, how could you use this time to progress your life? What are some bottlenecks in your life that need to be removed? How can you eliminate them?

When you have too many chefs in the kitchen, then that can create problems. They all want to do things their way but there is not enough resources to get everything done their way. So then productivity goes down. So the best solution is for either the chefs to find or create their own kitchen or for a majority of them to accept different roles. This will make things more productive and decisions can be made faster.  If someone wants to go on and do their own thing, then that's fine. Don't hold any grudges because it will be the best for everyone involved. You can still do collaborations and bounce ideas off of each other. Just know what type of situation you're getting in and see if you need to be the leader or the follower. It's okay to be both at various parts of your life. Journal Prompts What happens when there are too many leaders on a project? What is the best way to delegate tasks in this type of situation? When do you know you need to be a leader or follower in a situation?

Complaining is something that is ineffective. It does nothing to move the ball forward. To stop complaining, you can either stop focusing on that issue or complain but then say you're going to do something about it and actually do it. That's what entrepreneurs do, they see problems, they make them their own, and then they go out and build the thing to fix the problem. This is how we see change in the world.  When you solely focus on complaining, you're draining all the energy from the room. People are going to feel less motivated and then the thing that needs to be fixed is not going to happen. If you stop complaining and start taking action, you'll be surprised how much more work you'll be able to get done in the day. To stop complaining, wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap yourself every time you catch yourself complaining. Eventually you'll get the hint to stop and start getting back to work.  Journal Prompts Can you go one day without complaining? Why or why not? How can you ensure that you don't complain and focus more on your energy on action?

If we want to fall down hard in life, a sure fire way is to let hubris, delusion, or your ego get out of control. It makes you think that everything is okay, when it really isn't. It can cause you to be in a relationship that is falling apart or stick with a project that is doomed for failure.  To get a more gentle fall, you need to be real about the situation and have an honest conversation with yourself about what needs to happen. Success can make you think that you're unstoppable and nothing can harm you but that's a dangerous position to be in. It can cause you to get complacent in your acts and then the foundation of your success will slowly get cracks in it, and the longer it goes unnoticed, then your world can collapse.  Journal Prompts How can your ego, hubris, and delusion sabotage your life? How can you have more realism and self-honesty within your life?

As people, we tend to make things worse in our heads than they actually are. We can give a presentation and we could develop an end of the world scenario if we don't perform well. You can ask someone out and they say no, but guess what, your life will continue onwards. At least you took a shot and the worst outcome was just a no, not a complete failure of your life. By writing down the things that could go wrong on a piece of paper, it can give you the opportunity to really analyze the situation and see if you're being rational or not. More times than not, you're being irrational with your thoughts. If you need to follow-up with someone, don't worry about sending out multiple emails to get their attention. Most of them are probably happy that you're following up. You're not going to spoil the relationship unless you're being a jerk in your responses. So when you think of a catastrophe scenario for things that haven't happened yet, the only person that you're really hurting is yourself and that's a self-inflicted wound. Journal Prompts What good does suffering do for your life? What is your antidote to suffering? How can you ensure that you don't suffer more in imagination than in reality?

If you want to do something, follow the three second rule. If you see someone you want to talk to, you count to three and then you proceed to go to that person. If you wait any longer than three seconds, you're likely not going to do it. After enough three second rule attempts, you'll be able to walk up to anybody. You can also use the three second rule when giving a presentation or to have a difficult conversation with someone. The idea is that you need to take action and sometimes we can have a little trouble getting started. So by giving us a rule, it allows us to follow through on what we want to do. The more you use this rule, the more action you will take, and the better life you will build because of that action. Journal Prompts How can you implement the three second rule into your life to do difficult tasks? What is a penalty you can give yourself if you fail to do the three second rule? 

When it comes to becoming wealthy, there are two ways to become wealthy. To get everything you want or to be satisfied with what you have. Either one is a choice and that's fine but you have to realize that one is going to be easier to obtain. In the pursuit of more stuff, it can be a bottomless pit if you allow it. It's important to be ambitious and want to do more but if you choose to go the minimalist path, that's okay as well. You just have to be aware of your choice.  If you choose the path of getting more, just make sure those things are really going to make you happy, and the thing you're doing to obtain those extra things is not killing you. Pursuing more can cost your relationships and your health. Both are bad to lose and heartbreaking when it happens. The best way to live is to be satisfied with where you are in life and with your progress. So enjoy the moment and make sure you're doing things that make you better.  Journal Prompts How is enough for you? How do you know this is the amount? What are some reminders that can remind you when you're pursuing more than you should be going after?

When it comes to doing something new, you're creating new connections in your brain. But the thing is, it's kind of like walking to the mailbox with six feet of snow between your front door and the mailbox that is 30 ft away. So when you make that first trip and back, it's going to be difficult because the path hasn't been made yet. Then it's going to snow a little the next day but the trip is going to be easier than the first day. The faster you take more trips to the mailbox and back, the faster the path will be clear. When we try new things, it's going to be difficult because we haven't created the clear path yet. So every time you take action, you are going to connect new wires in your brain and the path is going to become more efficient for your brain to do it. So keep taking action and eventually it will feel effortless to do.  Journal Prompts What is something that needs to feel more effortless in doing? What actions can you take to help you turn those things into something that is easy to do? How can you ensure that you stick to your thing until it becomes effortless?

There is nothing worse than spending tons of time and money on something and then you find out that it was all for nothing. When you're working on something new and you have a timeline, most of the time, it's just best to come out with something that just barely works. Then when you start getting feedback, then that is when you can start removing or adding stuff that people actually want. If you look at the first Iphone, it didn't even have a cut and paste option, but it was sent out anyways.  When you're giving a presentation, you can give too much information on a subject and it will cause people to get lost. So you need to find the balance between too much and too little. Time is something we shouldn't waste, so make sure you do the minimal viable product to get the thing out and take it from there.  Journal Prompts Are you putting too much energy into your projects? How do you know what will be the right balance? How can you use feedback to help you modify your projects?

One of the keys to overcoming any obstacle in your life is to look at the obstacle as objective as possible. Try to take out the emotion where you start getting all angry or you panic and can't think. When you do this, then you're adding more challenges to the situation and if you make a mountain out of a molehill, what was an easy hike, now turns into a hike that you might not be able to do.  To prevent this, take the fly on the wall approach. Where you're looking at your body acting in the moment from the perspective of a fly. This can help you realize if you're acting irrational in the situation because you're able to view the situation from more angles. If you realize that your poor attitude is causing the situation to get worse, then you're able to get past the obstacle faster. Making things worse than necessary is not a good strategy to live a good life, so don't do it. Journal Prompts How can you use the fly on the wall approach to see if you're acting poorly in a situation? How can you maintain the right mindset so you don't make things more difficult than necessary?

A lot of things can go wrong if you misunderstand someone. It makes for a great comedy but it's not fun in real life most of the time. It can cost you a lot of money or reputation if there is miscommunication. A NASA spaceship exploded in the air because one group did their measurements in inches while the other group did their measurements using the metric system.  To prevent these types of miscommunications, we want to avoid using vague words and do check-in to make sure that things are going in the right direction. No one can read our minds and we can't read the minds of others, so we want to make sure we're not acting so. A miscommunication is an avoidable mistake but it requires us to be aware that a miscommunication can happen. If we are aware that it is a possibility, then we can ask the questions to make sure everything is clear.  Journal Prompts How can a misunderstanding affect your life for the worse? What questions can you ask so that there are no misunderstandings in your relationships?

It's okay to be wrong since no one is perfect. The wrong thing to do is be wrong and then continue to be wrong after you realize that you're wrong. To be successful in life you have to be willing to be wrong because that's how you can discover new things in life. Being wrong can expose you to new outcomes in life and help show you the right path that you should be on. It isn't even rational to strive to be perfect because to be perfect is to be inhuman. If you're wrong, you're wrong, and that's okay. Just admit to yourself that you made a mistake and correct your actions. This will make you a good person, and in life we should strive to be good people. Journal Prompts What is the worst thing about being wrong? Is this the most fatal thing you can do? How can you be more okay with being wrong?

You never know when you're going to need to reach out to someone for some help. If you were an asshole to someone and then a couple days or weeks later, you reach out to them and ask for help, they're probably not going to help you. You can leave someone on cordial terms but if you're hostile about it then don't expect to be able to go back to that person.  If someone was a jerk to you, you probably wouldn't want to help them out in the future either.. People often don't change who they are and if they are a bridge burner, then they are most likely to do it again in the future. Be careful how you interact with other people because you don't know when you will be needing something from them in the future. You can raise the bridge if someone is not acting right, but give the other person an opportunity to lower it. Journal Prompts What would burning a bridge actually do for your life? How can you ensure that you don't burn bridges in your life?

When you look at things that you're not doing, what is holding you back from doing it? Do you think your reputation is going to take a hit because you will be seen as a failure or that things will go extremely wrong like bankruptcy? Even if you went through all these things, these are not fatal outcomes that you can't come back from. Going from eating steak dinners to beans and rice is still better for a lot of people on this planet and can be temporary if you take the right steps to get your life back on track. There is not much you can lose that won't make a difference in your life. You can live off of ramen noodles and sleep on an air mattress while you work on your goals. Going through these experiences can give you a perspective on life that will make a harder worker and one that shows more empathy. You only got one shot for living on this planet, so might as well take some chances with your life. Journal Prompts Are you playing it too safe with your life because you're afraid of losing something? Is this something that you should be really afraid of losing? How can you be more comfortable with losing things in your life?

Every time you hear a negative thing or say something negative, you need to say or do ten positive things. There is a lot of negativity out there in the world and that's why we need motivation in our lives to help us out. Listening to motivational YouTube videos and keeping a gratitude journal can give you the motivation you need for your day. Having that playlist can help jumpstart your day and help you focus on the right things.  Affirmations (positive self-talk) can also help keep your spirits high. If you tell yourself something like “I got this” and “I'm going to give it one more try” after each failed attempt, this can make the next attempt easier. The world is a tough place to live and we need to ensure that we have the right type of energy to stay afloat. So go find your motivation and keep making progress on your goals. Journal Prompts How would you rate your motivation levels right now? Is this enough to keep you going or do you need to make a change? How can you motivate yourself when times get tough?

A bad decision is usually better than making no decision at all. When you make a bad decision, you can learn what not to do and how to improve next time. When you don't make a decision, then you don't get that opportunity. We should still strive to avoid making bad decisions but sometimes you have to move forward with a decision rather than just sitting on your hands and not doing nothing because that can lead to disastrous results down the road. With France, Great Britain, and the US, they just sat on their hands while Adolf Hitler grew his empire, this turned out really bad for the world. It's hard to say what would've happened if they intervened earlier, but the world could have spared countless lives. When it comes to your life, sometimes you just have to make a decision to quit your job to focus on something else, or finally quit that bad relationship that you've been holding off on for a couple of months. There is going to be confusion for a little bit but it will force you to think about your next move and how to improve your life. The more decisions you can make to change, the more your life can change. Just make sure you quit the bad decisions as fast as possible and focus on the decisions that are making your life better.  Journal Prompts How can you be more decisive in your decisions? Are you making enough decisions to get or maintain your good life?

Society has pushed many people into a box that says they can't do something unless they received formal training. That's why you can't become a coach unless you get the right licenses or can't give certain presentations until you wait your turn in line.  For many things in life, you can skip the line if you do the right things. You don't need someone to give you permission to do something, you just need to give yourself the permission. You might fail at doing the thing you want to do, but you can always try again until you reach your goal. This is how the Wright brothers did it. They wanted to fly a plane and they accomplished their goal by focusing on one problem until they solved it before heading off to the next issue. Spending four years going to school to learn how to work is a lot of time and the learning can be done in your spare time as you research your answers. You can do a lot of your stuff on your own and speed up the learning process if you take responsibility for the outcome. Some things you do need to have the right certifications for but for a lot of things there are plenty of ways to fly with having to get a pilots licence.  Journal Prompts How can you skip the line for your goals? How would saving that time help you with other parts of your life?

In order for a bamboo nut to grow 80 feet in six weeks, it needs to be watered and fertilized for five years. At any time the water and fertilized process is stopped, the bamboo nut will die. Most people will see the 80 feet of bamboo growth but will quickly forget the five years worth of work that went into it.  With your life, you have to do the same thing. You have to constantly be working on yourself, if you work on yourself and do the right things to grow in today's environment, you will see exponential growth in your life eventually.  To work on a project, can take a long time to complete and what separates the success folks from the others, is that they just continued work on their craft and themselves. You can be living in a car like Steve Harvey for three years before you make your big break.  How bad do you want something? Are you willing to move back with your parents and give up a good salary so you can work on your dreams? If you do, you are going to have a lot of work in front of you and you just have to keep watering and fertilizing your talents so that one day you can actually grow. Journal Prompts How can you be patient like the bamboo nut on your major goals? How can you be more comfortable with taking a step back so that can focus more on your long term goals?

Something bad is going to happen to all of us. Some might have it worse than others but we are all going to go through something terrible. A tornado wrecked your home or a serious illness took down someone you love. One way to get over the pitfalls of lives is just to love them and accept them. If life gives you a tough thing to handle, it's because you're strong enough to handle it. Otherwise, who else do you want this unfortunate situation to happen to? The answer should be no one else, and just realize that it is your turn. Someone that wishes that this event happened to someone else is not being a good person and is having a victim's mindset. Both traits won't resolve the issue any faster and won't help the person grow to their full potential because they're trying to avoid responsibility. Don't run from responsibility, embrace it. Journal Prompts How can embracing responsibility help you grow to your full potential? How can you avoid having the victim's mindset that runs away from responsibilities?

The brain has two different parts for making decisions. The amygdala, which is responsible for quick decisions, like my hand is on a hot stove and I need to remove it. The Pre-frontal cortex is responsible for logical thinking, like what is 18 times 23124, which thanks to a calculator, is 416,232. To do that math, I can't just come with an answer right away.  We have to be aware that we have two different parts of the brain that make decisions. We can be in a heated argument with someone and our amygdala takes over and we say something that we regret. If we have the time to take a break and think about our words, then the conversation could not be as hostile Since we like to save energy on making decisions, our brain likes to develop rules of thumbs that we like to follow. If this thing happens, then we do this. This was very helpful back in the day when we were hunter gatherers. If we see a tiger, we run or attack. But in today's society, there are a lot more variables and if we make too quick of a decision, it can be very harmful to us. So slow things down and take time to make a decision but also don't fall into the trap of analysis paralysis either. Just beware of your habits so you can learn to make better choices with your life. Journal Prompts How can you ensure that you don't make too quick of a decision? How can you ensure that you don't take too long with your decisions?

Even though we have smartphones, social media, computers, and virtual reality headsets, and things are so much more different today than 25, 50, 100, 200 years ago, a lot of things have remained the same in terms of having curiosity, desire, seeking safety, and wanting acceptance. People are not robots, even though there are some that act like it.  There will always be people who strive for power and there will be people who will be self-conscious about their decisions. During the Roman Empire, they dealt with a lot of the same social issues that we deal with today.  So if you can understand people and why they do stuff, you will see that things don't really change. Journal Prompts How can you ensure that you don't lose focus of people and how they behave?  How can you use the principles of human nature to help you in today's environment?

There will be more information created over the next five years than the previous 500 years. The world is changing fast and we need to be prepared for it. We need to have more skills to help us think creatively and to be able to bounce back from adversity.  The worst thing we can do to prepare for this fast changing future is to stop trying and learning. Life won't be very forgiving if you follow this path so always focus a portion of your day on your development. The world is going to change and we have to accept it. Since it's changing so fast, we need to accept it even faster.  Journal Prompts What ways are you preparing for the future? How can you use information about what is going to change in the future to make yourself more successful?

If you read the book, "Freakanomics" they discuss how a lot of things we experience in the world have a hidden side to them. There are many things where we think we're doing good, but actually we're not doing good.  For example, take recycling, how often is it that the trash can with different slots, but slots for trash and recycling go into the same bin? Or if you don't clean out your yogurt cup and still recycle it, this causes damage to the recycling machines. So follow the rabbit hole and see if you're truly being a good person. If you love nature and you're constantly worrying about the environment but you travel all around the world, every week in a private plane. Are you doing everything you need to do to live within your principles.  To see how the sausage is made can be a rude awakening and that might change the way you think but you have to ask yourself, do you want to live a lie and feel important, or do you want to do important things and actually make a difference in the world.  Journal Prompts How do you know you're truly doing good with your actions? Are you taking any shortcuts in your actions like not cleaning out the yogurt cups? How can you improve in this area?

If you see something that isn't right, say something or even better, do something. If you see someone do something that needs to be corrected, don't go yelling at the person that they are wrong. Just be tactful and let them beware of their mistakes. If you become aggressive at someone, they might change their ways or they might dig deeper into that personality because they want to spite you. It's going to take more effort to go this route but it's going to be the best way to create permanent positive change. After you do it enough, it will become easier and easier to do. So if you see something, do something.  Journal Prompts How can you be more comfortable with calling things out? How can you life be better more mistakes were called out with compassion?

When it comes to controlling people, the only person you can truly control is yourself. You can control your standards in life in terms of how clean you keep your environment, the quality of work you turn in, how nice you are to people, and always doing the right thing but that's because you know better so do you better. You know not doing the right thing will lower the standards for yourself and then you won't be able to live with yourself.  Since not everyone came from the same background from you, you should be forgiving of someone and teach them the lessons on how to have high standards and the best way to do that is to set the example by having high standards. People are going to let you down with their low standards but if you don't address the issue and be forgiving, then it's not going to change. Don't be a jerk when people mess up. Just express how you feel and give guidance on how to improve the situation. If they change, then awesome. If they don't change, then you might need to start hanging around other people and until they change their ways but remember to be forgiving and not hold any grudges. Journal Prompts How can you express your standards to those around you? How can you ensure that you're forgiving of others?

When you have a group, it is easy to follow whatever the group is already doing. They are comfortable with how things have been going, but being comfortable with what has always been done doesn't typically lead to long term success. This is why you should question things and see if it is really the best way to do something. This can be really uncomfortable because it can be everyone against you. But if you know something to be true and they are all following a lie, it's best for you to go against the group. This will lead to your long term success and they will be left behind.  To change the group, you have to be confident, know you stuff inside and out, and know how to persuade people to change their groupthink. It's okay to go with the group, but just make sure you know it's the right path to be on.  Journal Prompts What can happen to your life if you get trapped in the snares of group thinking? How can you avoid the snares of groupthink?

If you feel like you're not enjoying your life, it is typically because you're lacking these qualities in your life, control, autonomy, and creativity. Having control gives you the ability to know that you can change your situation. Autonomy is the ability to make decisions without having to answer to someone else. Creativity is the ability to come up with new solutions. There won't be a perfect solution that gives you all three 100% of the time but you can design your life to be pretty satisfied with the balance. In order to get all three of these things, you just need to be so good they can't ignore you. Once you reach this level with your life, then you will have more power to dictate your life. Instead of hoping things come your way, things will come to you and you'll be able to pick and choose what projects you want to work on. It takes time to build up to this level but the outcome is very desirable. Journal Prompts What would having control, autonomy, and creativity mean to your life? How can you become so good they can't ignore you in your niche?

Everything that you worked for or born with can be taken away in a flash. A bad business partner can steal all your money, an accidental can leave your body paralyzed, or mother nature can ruin your home. The only thing that outside sources can take away from you is your attitude of the circumstances. Thomas Edison lost his factory in a fire with all his patents and equipment. Instead of being upset, he woke up his family to watch the factory burn down, and said they would never see a fire that large again. Six months later his company was twice as profitable.  If everything was taken away from you today. The first thing you should do is to let go of what happened and focus on the next step you can take to get back where you want to go. Just get back to work and start picking up the pieces and eventually the thing will be put back together.  Journal Prompts How can you ensure your perceptions are ready for the next setback? Is your attitude in the right spot to handle the next set back? How can you ensure that it stays ready or gets where it needs to be?

When people tell you not do something it is either because they don't want to see you get hurt if things don't work out, they are putting their own beliefs and they can't see themselves doing the same, or they are a hater and they don't want you to succeed.  The key thing to know is that those people are not you and only you can determine your own potential in life. If you never took a chance in life, you would sit in front of a television on a couch all day. It's a safe environment but it's not a fulfilling life.  If we fail, which is very likely on the first couple of attempts, we can always get back up, dust ourselves off, learn from our mistakes, and try again. If you let other people get in your head and start doubting yourself, you'll never try again. If you really want to do something, do it and keep trying until you master it, but don't let others make you afraid of taking chances. Journal Prompts What will happen to your life if you let others make you afraid of taking chances? How can you ensure that you don't let others make you afraid of taking chances?

If you want to make it far in life, a real good strategy is to follow the philosophy, "Always be giving". So when you're interacting with people, figure out a way you can give them value. If you give enough value to the world, the world will pay it back to you. Just make sure you're giving value and not trash. When you're giving value, do not keep track of score. This will ensure that you become resentful and will stop giving to the world. The value you receive back might not happen right away but it will come back. Plus if everyone's goal was to give value to their environment, the world would be a much better place. So do you're part for giving value and start setting the example for others.   Journal Prompts How can you ensure that you don't keep track of the amount of value that you receive and give? What are ways you can give more value in your interactions with others?

By studying what success people have done, you can see that some of them came from simple backgrounds, but they went on to complete some amazing things, like Jose Hernandez who grew up as migrant produce picker and then went on to become an astronaut. The leap from that background to that career is a huge accomplishment, but the key thing is that he was able to do it and you can make huge leaps in your own life as well.  People have come from much worse backgrounds than you and are super successful. If they can do it then you definitely can do it, you just have to want it as bad as they did. The biggest thing about seeing people and hearing their stories is that they can give you hope to do so. Then after you hope you just need to have the same patience as them. Journal Prompts Who are a few people that you can borrow traits from that are successful? How can you use stories of others to motivate you to accomplish your goals?

If you never put stress on your muscles by not working out, what is going to happen is that you're going to start losing muscle mass. You also need stress in order for your muscles to maintain themselves and to grow. So if you removed all the stress from your life, you won't be able to grow as a person.  Acute stress is needed but chronic stress should be avoided. A good ratio is that 20% to 30% of your life should have feelings of stress and the rest of your life should be stress free. If you go to work for 8 hours a day and you're stressed out for the entire period, then a change needs to happen. This type of living won't be good for you and will cause you to break down. Find ways that will challenge you and that's the stress you need in your life but there can be a point where you do too much too fast. So find the balance in your life and start growing. Journal Prompts What is the current ratio of stress in your life? What type of stress is it? Is this the right balance to help you grow? How can you ensure that you have the right type and balance of stress in your life?

Like Marilyn said, once they start taking time to think about you, you are already better than them. We can't please everyone and all we can do is just be the best person that we can be. People will attack the things for what they lack and are trying to bring us down to their level. You just have to ignore the haters and keep moving on with your life.  If you give them energy, they will get stronger. They are already talking about you and you already won, so don't give them an opportunity to get stronger by focusing your energy on them.  Journal Prompts How does giving your energy to an energy vampire help you out?  What are ways you can stop focusing on what other people think about you?

Once you start taking the easy way out, then begins the slippery slope down to mediocrity. Once you're in mediocrity, nothing significant grows there and opportunities will start to dry up into a desert. Once you're in a desert, there is no water, no food sources and then you'll perish away. So this is why we need to put effort into our work, and make sure we don't lick that lollipop.  When you suck as a person, you'll have weak relationships, bad personal finances, and always be complaining about your low paying job. This lifestyle truly sucks and can only be avoided by challenging yourself and putting your best effort into not being mediocre. Journal Prompts What does a sucky life look like for you? How does mediocrity play into having this life? What can you do so you don't take a like from the lollipop of mediocrity?

When it comes to trusting people in power, you want to make sure they are not abusing their power. This is why we need checks and balances to make sure people don't get taken advantage of. If you have an accountant, make sure you have a second accountant to review the books and do an audit so you don't end up losing all your money. Trust but verify is a quote that we should follow so we can ensure people are doing what they are supposed to do and avoiding the things they shouldn't be doing. Don't trust people blindly because when you get disappointed by your blind trust, you'll have no one to blame but yourself. So do your check-in and make sure you're working with someone that will take away your livelihood.  Journal Prompts How can you set up checks and balances for different parts of your life? How often should you verify those checks and balances? How is this sufficient?

Power can cause the ego to get out of hand. When people see folks who abuse their power, it causes them to lose faith in that organization and not to trust it any more. When an organization loses trust, it's going to create a very unstable situation. This then can cause a lot of damage down the road and things won't be able to grow to their full potential. It is very tempting to abuse your power because you're the one in charge and who really is going to challenge you. Not many. But the idea is that you don't want to be a hypocrite and lower the standard for others to follow. If people see that you can abuse your power, then others will think that is what it will take to progress with their own lives. So don't lower the standard and don't take advantage of your power.  Journal Prompts Have you seen an example of someone abusing their power? How does this make you feel about the person and organization? How can you ensure that you don't let power go to your head?

You indeed miss 100% of the shots you don't take, but you should also know what you are capable of so you don't take a bad shot that could hurt your reputation. Of course, you can ask someone for 100 million dollars to start up your food cart business that has no plan, but that request will just make the other person upset. A great way to know the range of your shot is through the briefcase technique. In a negotiation, you don't want the other person to feel unccertain and feel like they will be better off going with your request. So you being all the solutions to all the possible problems that could happen, where the person can't think of anything that could fail. The person knows your range because you properly presented it. There will be times when you test your range, and it won't work out. If it is done with precision and thought-fulness, then it's okay. If it's done with laziness and feeling entitled, then it's probably a shot you shouldn't take. Journal Prompts What are some things you can do to increase the range and accuracy of your shots? What can happen to your reputation if you take thw wrong shot out of your range?

If the only tool in your tool box is a hammer, then every problem will look like a nail. If you have to cut a piece of wood but all you have is a hammer, you're not going to be able cut a clean piece of wood and will just create more of a mess than if you did nothing. To prevent making things a mess in your life when you try to get a job done, you need to get skills or delegate that task to someone who has that skill. Delegating is also a skill so you need to add to your toolbox if you want to solve your problems cleanly.  When you're able to have a toolbox full of tools, you can complete any project and create a lot of great looking things. Having only one tool will make you less effective so don't over value one tool over another, because different jobs will require different tools. Journal Prompts Are you only using one tool to solve most of your problems? How do you know this is the case or not? What happens when you solve your problems only using one tool?