Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of ChrisGuillebeau.com.

Imagine a life where all your time is spent on the things you want to do.

Imagine giving your greatest attention to a project you create yourself, instead of working as a cog in a machine that exists to make other people rich.

Imagine handing a letter to your boss that reads, “Dear Boss, I’m writing to let you know that your services are no longer required. Thanks for everything, but I’ll be doing things my own way now.”

Imagine that today is your final day of working for anyone other than yourself. What if—very soon, not in some distant, undefined future—you prepare for work by firing up a laptop in your home office, walking into a storefront you’ve opened, phoning a client who trusts you for helpful advice, or otherwise doing what you want instead of what someone tells you to do?

All over the world, and in many different ways, thousands of people are doing exactly that. They are rewriting the rules of work, becoming their own bosses, and creating a new future.

Some of these unexpected entrepreneurs found their freedom through online communities, creating digital goods that were sold for a fair price. Others took to opening retail storefronts in actual neighborhoods—a yarn shop in Portland, a coffee bar in South Carolina.

Some were natural-born entrepreneurs, determined to go it alone from a young age. But most were ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds, who transitioned to a new career after growing disillusioned with the world of traditional work.

They all did it by pursuing two twin concepts: freedom and value.

Freedom is what we’re all looking for, and value is the way to achieve it. The magic formula of skills + usefulness is how you change the world.

When you value freedom above other things, you’ll make different choices. Your priorities will shift. You’ll have more time for your family and more time for the hobbies you enjoy.

When you focus on helping others, connecting your work to their needs, that’s when value is created.

This is what it came down to for all of these people, and that’s how it can work for you too. No special skills, not a lot of money, but the willingness to imagine.

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Chris Guillebeau is the author of The $100 Startup, a new book that chronicles the rise of unexpected entrepreneurs and provides a blueprint for creating your own freedom. You can also read his free blog at ChrisGuillebeau.com. 

You have a deadline coming up. It might be for a blog post, an article, or even a book. Unfortunately you have that dreaded disease of what they call writer’s block. You have a topic, but you have no idea about how to present it.

No worries. Writing doesn’t have to be hard. Writing is really just about applying a template and filling in the blanks. Here are 10 great ways that you can apply to just about any topic and get your writing done quickly and easily.

1. How-To Tutorial

This is the classic “how-to” tutorial. It is organized in a systematic, step-by-step approach to accomplishing a task. The steps are most commonly organized in chronological order (i.e. Step One is…, Step Two is…, etc.). These are generally known as “systems”, “formulas”, “checklists” or “blueprints”.

2. Frequently Asked Questions.

Another style is what I call “frequently asked questions”. In this model, you would take 10-20 of the most asked questions about a particular topic and answer them in your content. This is one of the easiest writings to create because outlining is simple due to the Q&A style:

1. List the question.
2. Answer it.

3. Interview

Moving from questions that you answer to questions that someone else answers is another way to write. An “interview” is, not surprisingly, a series of questions that you pose to one or more qualified experts to create your content. (Reasons why experts would do this for you include:  free publicity for their web site or business, rights to the completed report or paid compensation.)

4. List

Another writing template is what I’ve labeled the “list”. It is simply a listing of ways, strategies, tips, secrets, tactics, techniques, habits, exercises, principles, etc. with a detailed description of each entry to the list.

5. Case Study

Next is the “case study” model. This would consist of you profiling different successful examples of accomplishing a common task. In other words, you’d show how several different people (including or not including yourself) have achieved the desired result. The great thing about this style of writing is the variety of different methods people use in attaining similar results. Your readers will likely “connect” with one or more of the examples and get a sense of motivation and empowerment to reach their goal as well. Bottom line:  you’ve got a satisfied reader.

6. Resource Directory

Next is the “resource directory”. With this you include a group of related entries of resources (usually indexed categorically and then alphabetically), along with their contact information such as web site, phone number and or mailing/physical address. You might think of a campground directory or a listing of hotels that a certain niche might enjoy.

7. Idea Generators

Up next we have the “idea generators.” This particular style of template is a best described as “a series of prompts to help the reader brainstorm ideas”.

Here are a few different examples:

• Idea Prompts for Fiction Writers
• 75 Starter Questions for Small Group Discussion
• 97 Winning Ad Headlines For Your Sales Letter Swipe File
• 101 Best Prayer Starters For New Christians
• 101 Fill-In-The-Blank Internet Auction Templates
• The Ultimate Book of Ideas for Home-Schoolers

8. The First Year

Up next is what I’ve labeled “the first year”. In this kind of template, you’d walk a newcomer through the first 12 months of a particular endeavor. What beginner standing on the threshold of something completely new to them wouldn’t want the wisdom of what to expect and how to successfully navigate through the foundation period?

You could chronicle the first year with a calendar of milestones and guideposts, pitfalls to avoid, shortcuts to take and so forth. Some examples are:

• The First Year of Parenting
• The First Year of Home-schooling
• The First Year of College
• The First Year of Internet Business
• The First Year of Life After Loss of Loved One
• The First Year of Teaching
• The First Year of Youth Ministry
• The First Year of Living With M.S.

9. Niche Business

One of the biggest mistakes that most “Internet marketers” make is trying to create information products to sell to other Internet marketers. It’s a cycle that just loops over and over again. Fortunately for you, while everyone else is competing with each other, you have an opportunity to teach “niches” how to market.  Instead of selling marketing information to other marketers, teach niche business owners how to market.  All business owners, regardless of what their business is, need more customers.

Note: What’s interesting about this “kind” of small report is the fact that you can make a few changes and “niche it” for numerous different topics (i.e. “Bookstore Owner’s Guide to Marketing”, “Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Marketing”, “Hair Salon Owner’s Guide to Marketing”, etc.).

Some examples are:

• The Christian Bookstore Owner’s Guide To Marketing
• The Pet Store Owner’s Guide To Marketing
• The Personal Trainer’s Guide To Getting More Clients
• How To Quickly And Easily Get More Real Estate Referrals
• A Crash Course In Free Publicity For Independent Singers
• A 10-Day Plan For Promoting Your Craft Show

10.  The Bridge

I’ve labeled this kind of writing “the bridge”. The idea is to combine two unrelated topics into one small report.  Think of it this way: there are universal wants and needs (i.e. To lose weight and get in shape) that are applicable to virtually all markets. Most people want to make more money, be successful, live happily, have great relationships, etc. These are universal pursuits. The idea here is to bring those universal pursuits into the arena of your specific field of interest or expertise.

Some examples are:

• Time Management For Single Parents
• The Internet Marketer’s Diet
• The Educator’s Guide to Becoming A High-Paid Public Speaker
• Success Secrets For Small Business Owners
• The Home-Schoolers Guide To Working At Home

Remember writing is like anything else. You don’t have to get it perfect, just get it started. Use these ideas and you are off to a good start!

(Photo credit: Man Using Laptop with Lightbulb via Shutterstock)

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For 20 years, Michael Martel was a Green Beret in the US Army. He now works with people to put Special Forces like effectiveness into their lives and businesses.  Go to Achieve The Green Beret Way and learn about his book Get ER Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity and other tools for achieving outstanding results.

This post was written by Tom Ewer, who is now a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com! For those of you who aren’t business owners, you may dream of one day being in charge. Being a full time entrepreneur is an ambition for many, but as with most things in life, the fantasy can actually be a terrible reality. If your aim is simply to “own a business”, you could be in for a nasty shock. What you should consider perhaps more thoroughly is why you want what you think you want; and by extension, whether or not you actually do.

Pressure

There are plenty of business owners out there who feel utterly overwhelmed by their work. A job can be beneficial for many reasons – security potentially being one of them. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs wrestle with cashflow issues on a consistent basis. “Just getting by” on a modest salary is one thing – not knowing whether you will be able to get by from one month to the next is something else altogether. Related: The Tradeoffs Of Owning Your Own Business Vs Working A Day Job Don’t get me wrong – I am not anti-entrepreneurship. Far from it in fact – I quit my job at the end of last year. I took risks, which I would like to think were carefully calculated. But simply owning a business does not represent a cure-all. Your quality of life, and that of your family’s, is far more important than anything. Full time entrepreneurship does not guarantee a better quality of life – in fact, it could promote an opposite effect.

It’s All a Matter of Perspective

I do not intend to climb up on a soap box and preach here. I am no “self-help guru”, nor do I consider myself a kind of expert on fulfillment. But I can talk to you about my own experience in setting goals, hitting them, realizing that it wasn’t what I really wanted, and completely re-assessing my outlook on life. Related: What Type Of Entrepreneur Do You Want To Be? The simple fact is that a lot of people are driven (often subconsciously) by goals that will not ultimately result in their happiness. If you assess what you truly want from life, as opposed to what you think you want, you might be surprised. It is amazing how much a change of perspective can affect your attitude towards every facet of living. I always wanted money. I used to think that success was defined by your wage. This attitude seems to permeate through the western culture. Keeping up with the Joneses, working hard for a better future, and so on. But eventually, I discovered that it wasn’t what I wanted at all.

Defining a Better Goal

The epiphanic moment came for me when I began to understand that time is by far the most valuable commodity we have. Money is a means to an end – it can be earned in abundance, or not. Either outcome does not determine whether or not you will actually be happy. The simplest explanation of what makes you happy is essentially how you spend your time. If you work 70 hour weeks and earn an enormous amount of money, but you hate your job and have no free time to spend your earnings, do you consider yourself successful? I wouldn’t envy that person, nor want his or her life. I originally wanted to work for myself so that I could earn more money. Now that I do work for myself, I love it because I have control over my time. I can work more hours and earn more money, and vice versa. I can work to increase my income per hour worked. On a daily basis, I can decide what I want to do with my time.

A Balancing Act

The key is in living for the present, as well as the future. One extreme says that you could be hit by a bus tomorrow, so you should live each day as if it were your last. The other extreme says that you should work hard now for a better tomorrow. In my opinion, a balance should be struck in the middle. When it comes to my definition of success, I consider there to be four key considerations:

1. Am I earning more than my outgoings?
2. Are my earnings on an upwards trend?
3. Am I happy with my future prospects?
4. Am I happy with my day-to-day living?

When I am setting goals, I ask myself the above four questions. There is nothing wrong with choosing to do less than eight hours work a day because you are happy with how much you are earning. It is not lazy or unambitious. It simply reflects that you are confident in knowing what you want from life. Owning a business may allow you to satisfactorily answer the above questions, but it is not necessarily the end game – more a means to an end.

What About You?

At this point, I am happy with my earnings as long as they continue on an upwards trend. But what about you – how do you strike an effective balance between living for now and for the future? How do you recognize that sweet spot? Let us know in the comments section!

Keith Tarrier / Shutterstock.com

Numerous sources have quoted the phrase “ring of fire” to describe the current solar eclipse and as much as we tried, we couldn’t find a more perfect way to depict the stunning marvel that shifted the energies of our planet just a few nights ago.

Though constantly referred to as a solar eclipse, this kind of solar event is correctly known as an annular eclipse, exceptional for the fact that the dark moon’s diameter appears smaller than the disk of the sun, leaving an annulus of light around the edges, or in other words – you guessed it – a ring of fire.

And as Earth spun to let the eclipse “travel” around us, it was like the sun and the moon joined forces to give us a solar Mexican wave. It was a big deal for the United States (the actual eclipse, not said Mexican wave resemblance), as this was the first time since 1994 that they were able to view an annular eclipse.

Also, over in China and Japan people braced for the moment, ready to launch their street parties.

But something else also tickled our brains about this historical event. No, it wasn’t that it confused animals into preparing for sleep or that it cast the weirdest shadow on Earth’s surfaces, but that according to ancient Mayan beliefs, May 20^th 2012 was already signaled out as a great cosmic event!

They celebrated the annular eclipse not just for the alignment of the sun, the moon and the Earth, but also Pleiades, an open star cluster located in the constellation of Taurus, as well as Alcyone, the biggest star of that cluster, which the ancient Mayans also referred to as their central sun.

For the first time in 26,000 years, this rare occurrence marked a spectacular opportunity for new beginnings. “It’s a time of new beginning. Energy can shift on a dime.  With the right use of intention, we can make good use of this portal for perceptual shift to take place in our old ways of thinking – about our self, our world, the past, the future,” says astrologer Patricia Liles.

If you didn’t get chance to witness the annular eclipse last Sunday, below is a video we’ve found featuring some incredible sightings across Asia.

Did you feel a different energy shift around you during the annular eclipse? If the event indeed marked an opportunity for new beginnings and a change in the way you think, how would this affect your life? Inspire us!

Do you ever feel like you haven’t loved or been loved enough in your life, and you desire more? Do you ever think, “When I find my true love then I’ll be complete?” Or perhaps you are already in a long-term relationship and you’d like it to be more loving?

As long as you search for love outside of yourself, you will never find it.

When it comes to love, people often think of ways to give and receive it by involving another person. But love has nothing to do with someone else at all. If you think love is what you want, you’ll be searching for it your whole life. That’s like searching for the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s just not there.

Love is inside of you. It is your birthright.

No matter how hard you try, you just won’t find ever lasting love anywhere else but within. You can’t earn it or perform for it. Love is not what you want. Love is what you are. This is a very important distinction.

If you think love is what you want, you’ll spend your life searching for it. But if you know love is what you are, you’ll spend your life sharing it. By sharing love you will find what the searching would have never given you. So awaken and reconnect with your love within.

As you connect with the love inside, you will be able to share it with others.  Just by being the love, you will attract more love to you and create the love-filled life you desire.

Without feeling your own powerful love it is impossible to give love to others. So, how easy is it for you to connect to the love within yourself? It all begins with loving yourself.

Here are three things I’d like you to try this week to help you get started:

1. Do something loving for yourself every day. Ask yourself each day, “What do I desire?” and give it to yourself. Do for yourself what you wish others would do for you. Take care of yourself first. Romance yourself like you want to be romanced and fill your glass with your own love.

2. Find a quiet place and close your eyes. Take three deep breaths to ground yourself within. Now, connect with the feeling of love. Visualize someone you love such as your child, your best friend or even your pet. Or think of something you love doing, like a project you are passionate about, or an activity that makes you happy. This exercise will trigger the love that is already inside of you. Hold on to this feeling for as long as you can. Be that love.

3. Now for the hardest of the three exercises – hearing and convincing yourself that you love… well – you. Go to a mirror, look into your eyes (this may feel squeamish or uncomfortable but don’t shy away) and tell yourself, “I love you”. Feel this love for yourself as you say it and mean it.

These simple but effective exercises will help you connect with the love inside of you and be in a positive position to give and receive love.

Every relationship, including the one with yourself, is one of give and take. What goes up must come down. When you authentically feel loving, the universe matches that love. People naturally want to love you in return.

Begin the flow of love by feeling and giving love to yourself.

Have you mastered the art of appreciating and loving yourself? If yes, how have you managed to do this? Or are you trying to push past barriers and feel love for yourself?

 

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Cindy Prosor is an inner Feng Shui guide and certified inner-peace personal coach who works with those who are ready to discover and increase the experience of love, inner-peace and abundance in their lives through private sessions, group mentoring and coaching programs. She is also the founder of the website Opening Doors Within.

Vishen has developed a simple 7-minute exercise that can alter the next decade of your life. Don’t wait to transform your life, give the video a watch, start answering the 3 Most Important Questions and create your very own vision board at home. Watch the video to kick-start your life and realize your goals! Read More

There’s no question that the school of hard knocks can be, well, hard.

When life becomes tough, many of us stop chasing our dreams and retreat under a big ugly flannel security blanket. Let’s face it: we’re terrified of failure.

We’re afraid that we might not succeed, that our dreams are only pipe-dreams, that “reality” has to be hard because it is for every body else.

Though we enter the world with a sense of youthful optimism: excitement about opportunity, a willingness to risk it all, and a belief that everything will turn out our way (In one survey, 96% of 18-24 year-olds agreed with the statement, “I am very sure that someday I will get to where I want to be in life”).*

This is the time in life when we think that we can change rule the world.

And…then at least one of two things happens:

1. You fail at something on your first, second, and/or third try.
2. You spend too much time around uninspired people who view the world as a competitive place full of struggles, competition, and tears.

And…after a few years, when you haven’t miraculously reached your dreams, you start to get discouraged. You start thinking:

“Maybe they’re right.”

“Maybe I’m just being a lazy optimist. I should settle down and do what is expected of me.”

You do what you think is called, “growing up”.

I won’t sugar coat it, you’re becoming a coward.

In his book, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, Harvard psychology professor Tal Ben-Shahar writes:

“When we fail to attain a desire outcome, we often extrapolate from that experience the belief that we have no control over our lives or over certain parts of it. Such thinking leads to despair.”

Thus, overcoming this feeling of defeat is your ultimate goal.

To do so, you need one thing…and one thing only: Perseverance.

Here’s a true story about how this plays out in the real world…

When she was a child, my grandma knew that she wanted to become a chemist. She was of the first generation of an Italian immigrant family living in the Bronx. Her father died when she was two-years-old. Her mother wanted her to become a piano teacher.

In order to beat the odds, she had to work odd jobs for mean nuns, graduate high school at 16, and endure constant questioning from her mother: “when will you stop all of this nonsense?”

It was not okay for a woman to become a chemist, and the world tried to make sure that she knew it.

But instead of giving up, she persevered.

Instead of hanging around people who didn’t support her, she surrounded her self with likeminded scientists (like my grandfather, whom she met at Columba while earning their PhDs).

Her story inspires me every time I hear it.

The thing is, my grandmother never made excuses.

Some of the excuses we tell ourselves are:

1. I don’t know anyone who has done it before/ too many people are already trying.
2. I don’t have enough (money, power, skills, education, time)
3. If I was going to do it, I would have done it already.
4. I have too many responsibilities.
5. I am too old or young.
6. I will never be the best. Too many people are ahead of me.
7. It’s not the right time.

But, what if we simply rephrased these excuses into empowering beliefs?

1. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing, this is my dream.
2. I have more than enough resources to get started.
3. There’s no time like the present!
4. My number one priority is living passionately.
5. My age gives me a unique perspective, and is only a number.
6. There will always be someone to learn from.
7. It will never be perfect, so I might as well stop stalling and start now.

Can I get a “hellz yeah” for youthful optimism?

Look, I’m not saying that you should ignore the lessons that you’ve learned from your experiences. You’ve earned those. Instead, my suggestion is to learn learn to perfect your skills and become an even better person without losing that inspired-to-be-alive feeling.

Think you can do it?

I know you can.

Take action right now to write down the empowering phrases that will benefit you the most and put them somewhere where you will see them every day.

*Survey mentioned comes from Horbblower, M. (1997, June 9). Great Xpectations. Time, pp. 58-68.

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Courtney Johnston is a lifestyle writer and the creator of The Rule Breaker's Club, a slice of the web all about sticking it to the status quo. She has spent 2 years in Paris and is passionate about happiness and cheap wine (the two often go hand in hand). You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

While being Human is never easy, there are three functions we need to stay aware of to make our lives more effective and thereby happy. While life will always be hard work, keeping each function in mind goes a long way to empowering effectiveness. It is not as simple as it seems.

THOUGHTS: An effective life requires effective use of thoughts. Wherever thoughts come from, and this is not the place to debate biology and psychology, it is most useful to be aware as possible that you are both in control of your thoughts and not in control of them. No matter how sophisticated, or even enlightened you become, you will always have a steady stream of negative, what are really garbage thoughts, that need to be treated as such, and positive thoughts you want to hold onto, treasure and use.

FEELINGS: In general while feelings often seem, or can be a reaction to the external world, they ordinarily and most frequently follow thoughts. Effective use of feelings as our central source of available energy strengthens self-esteem, self-confidence and effective living. All feelings are incredible sources of energy, even paradoxically that, the more negative and painful they are the more energy they have locked up in them for use. But feelings come and and go, and you must feel them all, listen to what they are telling you, and then positive or negative, let them do their work and pass in order to access their energy.

BEHAVIOR: Lastly, whether our lives are effective or not depends ultimately on our behavioral choices. Making effective behavioral choices however highly depends on our awareness and choice of thoughts and how we cope and adapt to the resultant feelings or feelings precipitated by external events. In all cases it deeply depends on the ultimate security we feel within ourself which comes from situations not fully in our control like physiology, external events, and most importantly the nature of our early experiences; but most important to know is that we can change the nature of our ongoing experiences.

This may all sound obvious or simple, but it is not. As you try to balance your life, it is important to remain aware that it is the looping between any two functions that causes most distress.This looping will put up massive resistance to adding awareness and use of a third function. This may be part of the etymology of the expression, “he’s loopy.” It may also be seen in the idea two’s company three’s a crowd; or expressed in the ‘oedipal conflict’, the pressure in a child competing with or trying to get between parents; or a parent colluding with a child consciously or unconsciously making a spouse the third; or a child out of control when they are metaphorically allowed to stand on the shoulders of one parent and thereby feel bigger than the other parent.

For instance, say you feel stuck and are not getting on with doing (behaving) what you need to do to live effectively like earning extra money. Your thoughts and feelings will loop and seem like a jungle you have to push through to get on with effective behavior. This may be called laziness by you or others, or take the forms of obsession, compulsion, or hoarding.

Or, if you are looping between thoughts and behavior cut off from your feelings except craving, the temptation to keep ‘doing’, including ‘doing nothing’, to become a ‘human doing’ instead of a ‘human being’, can seem like an overwhelming challenge to control. You think up your latest plan while rushing from ‘doing’ part of one thing, to ‘doing’ part of another. This is where addiction hides.

Or, lastly, if you are looping between feelings and behavior, the rush of feelings driving you to act ineffectively, or even insanely, can make it feel like you don’t even have a mind to think with. In the same way your out of control behavior scares you silly, floods your mind with feelings and completes the fixed loop. That is why this loop is often central to the saying: ‘he’s lost his mind.’

THE THREE FUNCTIONS IN RELATIONSHIPS: ‘ME’ and ‘NOT ME’.

In working to become highly aware of your own three functions you must assess how much of your functions are the ‘me’ that you want, and how much are really past patterns with parent(s), or parental patterns, or other authority figures you are automatically carrying on. This complexity of thoughts, feelings, and behavior make it difficult to know just what is ‘me’ and ‘not me’.

EXAMPLE of  ‘NOT ME’:

Your parent(s) dies or abandons you, therefore everyone is a jerk and will abandon you, you can never trust anyone, you’re scared, you’ll abandon your friends before you get hurt, even if your friend is by and large a thoughtful, loving person you feel you must be missing something, you’re getting out of there, you’re being smothered, you’re losing yourself, you don’t want to be the bad one so you set the scene so you’re abandoned like you know was going to happen anyway, no one really loves you, you’re just an add on, they’re big and powerful, you’re tiny and weak, they’re knowledgable, you’re stupid, and yet you must search for them endlessly and you find yourself automatically attracted to older or younger others, and so on.

The point here is to see how these thoughts, feelings and behavior that you mistakenly think of as ‘me’, are actually loops based on repeating and trying to complete transactions from your past. As long as you don’t work everyday to at least try and see where your functions are coming from, you will mistakenly think and feel that you have no chance of owning ‘me’, creating necessary internal security yourself and thereby making your own effective functional choices in relationships, and EQUALLY important, but often neglected, in your interests.

EXAMPLE OF ‘ME’:

Everyday things and people happen that hurt you and help you. Everyday you help or hurt yourself through what you do or don’t do. You watch the thoughts that continuously pass through your mind of criticism, judgment of self or other, of non-forgiveness, of craving, of greed, of superiority, of inferiority, of past traumas and loss, of situations that seem out of control, of every little thing that gets in your way and frustrates you, of violence, of sadness, of anger: and you LET THESE THOUGHTS GO. You watch carefully, observing your own mind, and you choose the thoughts that support and validate you. You put them in your personal bank account so you can see that they are there. They grow and create necessary internal security by earning interest everyday.

Feelings rush in and out of your body and mind and one minute you are in deep despair, the next minute you are panicking, and then for long periods you may feel at peace. You remind yourself repeatedly that whether its source is internal in your thoughts, or external in that someone didn’t hold the elevator door for you, feelings come and go. It is okay to feel whatever you are feeling. THEY WILL PASS.

You remind yourself in everything you do that I AM ME. It is my decision what I do regardless of what I, or others, think or feel; but as ‘ME’, I WILL BEHAVE EFFECTIVELY IN MY OWN, AND AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE OTHERS’, BEST INTEREST. And WHEN I, OR OTHERS, MAKE MISTAKES, AS I AND THEY WILL, I WILL FORGIVE AND START AGAIN. MISTAKES YOU REMIND YOURSELF ARE ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS FOR THE EFFECTIVE GROWTH OF THE STRENGTH OF ‘ME.’

Dr. Clark Falconer is a Guest Blogger for PickTheBrain. He is a practicing Psychiatrist from Vancouver, Canada and the author of the new, critically acclaimed book The Three Word Truth About Love And Being Well.

Photo credit: ‘Alpinist‘ by Big Stock

The demand for housing justice is bringing activists from different ideologies together to fight—and win—against foreclosures.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yes/most-recent-articles/~4/rrouQHKTzbg" height="1" width="1"/>

Do you find that when you’re pressed for time it becomes easier to skip a workout? Is it a hassle for you to drive to the gym before or after work? After reading this article you won’t feel this way again, no matter how busy your schedule. That’s because I will show you a great muscle building, calorie burning workout that only takes 15-20 minutes to complete. You can do it anywhere too, even your office or backyard.

The workouts are referred to as complexes by strength coaches. Despite the name, they are anything but complex with regard to the equipment, space, skill, or time they require to complete. Keep reading to learn what complexes are along with why and how to do them any time or place.

Complexes – 20 Minute Muscle Building Workouts

Basically speaking, complexes are 3 or more exercises done using the same barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell with no rest between each movement. The exercises you use typically alternate between upper and lower body in focus. They’re most often done while standing. When performed properly you will move fluidly from one exercise to the other.

Complexes are the brainchild of strength coach Istvan Javorek. He uses them to help athletes quickly build muscle and improve their overall fitness in the off-season. The results Coach Javorek reports speak for themselves. After 3-6 months of training this way men and women he coaches often gain more than 30 pounds and more than doubled their strength. People I train achieve similar results and often lose as much weight and body fat in as little time too.

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to do them or achieve similar results. Anyone can do complexes. If you’re willing to put forth maximum effort and make sure you eat enough protein to build muscle you too can achieve similar results.

The list below details the several benefits of complexes.

• Complexes are convenient. You don’t have to deal with the hassle of changing weights or moving from one piece of equipment to another.
• Complexes save you time. Since you rest so little and don’t have to change equipment or machines each workout only takes 15-20 minutes.
• Complexes don’t require much equipment. All you need to perform this workout is a dumbbell or kettlebell.
• Complexes don’t require a lot of room. You can do this workout in a spare room of your house or backyard.
• Complexes improve your overall fitness. This workout won’t simply make you bigger or stronger. Doing them regularly will help you build muscle, increase your strength, and even increase your flexibility.

The 20 Minute Workout Explained

The exercises in this complex workout are: 1 arm snatches, squats, and shoulder press. Performing a complex with these exercises trains practically every muscle in your body. Your legs, core (abs/lower back), upper back, and shoulders get an especially good workout. You’ll even feel it in your biceps and triceps. My arms got significantly bigger after doing this complex 2-3 times a week for a month. I wasn’t doing any exercises for my arms like curls or triceps push downs either.

Below are descriptions for each exercise. I recommend learning how to do each exercise by itself first. Once you have the movement mastered you can do them as a complex.

1 Arm Snatch

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand with your palm facing away from you. The weight should be between your legs.
2. Bend your knees and waist as if you are performing a kettlebell swing. The weight should swing back and between your legs.
3. Once the weight has swung between your legs, pull it forward explosively. Push from your heels onto your toes. Keep your arm straight and extended throughout the movement. You should be on your toes as the weight approaches chest height.
4. Driving with your hips, pull the weight up until your arm is fully extended and you’re holding the weight above your head.
5. Lower the weight to shoulder height and prepare to perform the squat segment of the complex.

Kettlebell Squat

1. Stand holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at shoulder height. Your feet should still be apart at shoulder width.
2. Perform a squat by bending your knees and moving your but back. Your weight should be over your heels.
3. Continue to squat down until your thighs are parallel with the ground. Your heels should never come off the ground.
4. Return to the standing position. Push up from your heels.
5. You’ll finish in the same position from which you started this portion of the exercise. You’re now ready to perform the 1 arm shoulder press.

1 Arm Shoulder Press

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at shoulder height. If you’re using a kettlebell it will rest against the back of your hand.
2. Tighten your abs, breath in and press the weight overhead until your arm is completely extended.
3. Lower the weight back to the starting position of the exercise.
4. Return the weight to the starting position of the 1 arm snatch.

Sets, Reps and Rest Periods

Begin with 5 sets of 3 repetitions per arm for each exercise. Add 1 repetition per set every other workout until you can do 5 sets of 8 reps. Once you have achieved this goal you can decrease the amount of rest you take between complexes to make them more challenging and further improve your fitness.

When you can easily do 5 sets of 8 reps with 60 seconds or less rest between each complex it’s time to move only more challenging variations. This can include performing reverse lunges instead of squats and holding the weight overhead as you perform the squatting segment of the exercise. You can also add an additional movement such as the kettlebell swing to the complex.

When You Should Do This 20 Minute Workout

You can do this workout about as often as you like. Doing it 3-5 days a week is most effective.

Another way to add it to your overall workout routine is to perform it on your days off from the gym. This is a great way to consistently train and improve your overall fitness. When doing it with this goal in mind, perform 3-5 sets of 5 reps with a weight you can actually perform 10 reps with so you don’t train too heavy and compromise your ability to recover before your next workout.

On days I have a little more time to train, I like to do this complex as the first exercise of my workout. Then, all I have to do is perform 3-5 sets of plyometric push ups, pull ups, and farmer’s walks and I’m done. I’ll have trained every major muscle group in my body in about 30 minutes tops.

Conclusion

You now have a great workout that enables you to get in a great total body workout in very little time. Since it only requires 1 piece of equipment it’s super convenient too. Even if you are stuck in your office all day long, take a dumbbell or kettlebell to work with you and perform a couple of sets on during a break. Before you know it you’ll find you’re getting results faster than you ever thought possible.

(Photo credit: Workout Time via Shutterstock)

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Curt is the founder of Stayfitcentral.com, a website which features reviews, guides, and other information to help people buy the right nutritional supplements and fitness products for their specific needs. Curt has published numerous fitness, nutrition, and health related articles online at leading online publications including: eDiets, iVillage, and Askmen.

There are nine success factors that you must know in order to start moving forward in life.  Each one of these success factors has been proven to be critical in the achievement of the best life possible for any given person. By systematically implementing one or more of these success factors into your life, you can put your foot on the accelerator of your own career and achieve the best life for yourself.

1. Education

The first of the nine success factors is education. In our society, the highest paid people are those who know more than the average. They know more of the critical facts, ideas and information than the average person in their field. As a result, they can make a more valuable contribution in a knowledge based society and live the best life possible. They are valued more, respected more and ultimately paid more money and promoted more often.

The rule is that, “to earn more, you must learn more.” If you want to increase your level of income and achieve the best life for yourself, you must increase your level of intellectual capital and thereby the value of the knowledge component in what you are doing.

2. Skill

The second of the nine success factors that you can use to achieve the best life possible is simply “Skill.” Your level of ability in your field will determine the quality and quantity of your results. The better you get at what you do, the easier it is for you to start moving forward to get a particular level of results.

As you increase your skill, through study and experience, you get better and better at doing the small things that increase the speed and predictability of your results.

3. Contacts

The third success factor for moving forward and achieving the best life is by developing an ever widening circle of contacts. You will find that every major change in your life is accompanied by a person or persons who either opens or closes doors for you. The possibility of the best life for you will be determined by the number of people who know you and like you and who are willing to help you.

In order to broaden your network of contacts, you must network continually, at every opportunity. There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of people you know and how successful you are.

4. Money

One of the most important of the success factors, is “money.” Having money in the bank gives you greater freedom and the ability to take advantage of opportunities when they come along. If you are broke, or in debt, you have very few options open to you.

One of the most important things I ever learned in life is that you are only as free as your options. If you have no options, you have no freedom. If you are stuck in a dead-end job that you cannot leave because you have no money set aside, you have put a brake on your potential. You are locked in place and have no option for moving forward. You can end up spinning your wheels and losing months and years of your time by the very fact that you have no choice but to accept whatever is being handed to you.

5. Good Work Habits

The fifth of the success factors that enables you to get far more done in a shorter period of time is simply “good work habits.” Your ability to increase your ROTI, or “Return on Time Invested” can enable you to accomplish vastly more in a shorter period of time than another person who is disorganized and sloppy.

Developing good work habits requires that you think before acting. You make a list and set priorities on the list before you begin. Good work habits require that you consider the likely consequences, positive or negative of what you are doing.

6. Positive Mental Attitude

The sixth success factor for your career and life is to reduce the amount of time that it takes you to achieve your goals is by developing a “positive mental attitude.” A positive mental attitude is very much a decision that you make. Remember, you become what you do. If you engage in the same activities that positive, confident, optimistic people engage in, you will eventually become one of them and live your best life possible.

Anyone can remain positive when things are going well. It is your ability to look for the good in every situation that you see positive and start moving forward in life.

7. Positive Image

The seventh of the success factors you can incorporate into your lifestyle, and one that can help you achieve the best life for yourself, is the development of a positive image. People judge you by the way you look on the outside, by the way you appear. The fact is that you judge everyone else by the way they look on the outside, as well. Taking time to present an attractive image in your person, your clothing, your grooming and your accessories can have an inordinate impact on the doors that open for you and the people who are willing to help you start moving forward in your life.

8. Creativity

Creativity is another wonderful way to start moving forward in life and to increase the speed at which you achieve your goals. Creativity is something that requires that you continually look for better, faster, easier, cheaper ways to get the job done. Remember, one good idea is all you need to start a fortune.

9. Character

Perhaps the most important of the success factors to accelerating your life is your character. Self-discipline combined with honesty will open countless doors to you. Trust is the foundation of all relationships. When people know you and believe in you and are convinced that they can trust you to keep your word and do what you say you will do, they will feel that they are far more likely to get the things they want through you, to get the things they want, faster, sooner, easier and with greater certainty.

Thank you for reading this article on moving forward and living the best life possible. Do you know of any other success factors that can help accelerate your life and career? Please share your thoughts and comment below!

Lifehack has been expanding its number of posts per week over the past few months, and we’re looking to add more and more to the site to enhance the overall reader experience. Today marks another of these enhancements — the first being Lifehack Deals — as we are pleased to announce the launch of Lifehack Apps, a destination where you can discover apps that fall into what we talk about here at Lifehack.

What is Lifehack Apps?

Powered by Appstores, Lifehack Apps features apps from all of the major platforms sorted into categories that are based on our blog post categories (Productivity, Money, Management, Technology, Lifestyle and Communication). Lifehack Apps can be viewed in a variety of ways, as you can look at apps based on rating, price, popularity and more. Each app entry will feature a description, and as the store continues to populate, we will be adding editorial reviews as well. Lifehack Apps allows us to conduct more reviews for apps within a portal dedicated to just that — allowing us to focus on using the Lifehack blog for articles that aren’t so much review-based. Whenever we touch on an app, it will bring you — the reader — to Lifehack Apps so that you can read a more comprehensive entry on the app itself. You’ll get a better sense of what the app is about, our thoughts on it (as well as the thoughts of other readers), and be able to decide whether it is right for you.

Lifehack Apps will also be curated by our editors so that we can offer the best experience possible. That means you’ll get the lowdown on all kinds of apps that fit in with what we do here at Lifehack, and you’ll be able to add you own two cents with the commenting system that Appstores serves up at the portal. That makes our Lifehack Apps portal not only a great place to discover apps, but a place where you can discuss those discoveries as well.

We’re just getting started with Lifehack Apps as there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. We’re sorting through the various apps already mentioned and fine-tuning the experience in the process. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below. And remember — this is just another of the ways we’re looking to enhance the Lifehack experience for you, our readers. Let us know how we’re doing…and thanks for reading!

(Photo credit: Apps via Shutterstock)

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Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.

Today is the day we reflect on the lives of one billion people around the world who go through great struggle on a daily basis just to afford a single meal. It’s World Hunger Day, and while we urge you to read on and find out more about the fight against poverty, let’s also take a moment to also appreciate our lives as we learn to understand how to help the poor and the hungry better.

Let World Hunger Day be an eye opener for you to focus on your global neighbors who have no access to food, to encourage a more positive relationship with food and to appreciate your lives better through the choices you make with food.

It’s no longer just about feeding the hungry

Hunger is not just due to lack of food. Many factors also contribute to the situation, including harmful economic systems, lack of resources, unequal income distribution in specific countries, political conflict, and even climate change; droughts and floods that damage crops and agriculture have become a critical, snowballing cause of hunger and poverty.

Just how bad is it?

The reality is, one seventh of the world’s population live in extreme hunger and poverty, barely existing on less than US$1.30 a day. 578 million of that population resides in Asia and the Pacific. 25,000 people die every day to this global crisis, and 10% of them are caused by famine. These figures may seem like mere statistics and it may be hard to imagine this scale of widespread famine but don’t let that prevent you from feeling empathetic to the needs of your global neighbors.

How do I help?

The World Hunger organization recommends understanding and learning about hunger and poverty before taking action, which can be done in three key forms: influencing public policy, contributing financially and working directly with poor people.

The Hunger Project in the UK uses funds raised to implement sustainable means to educate and help the poor gain skills, meet basic health needs and participate in decisions that affect their community – get inspired on how you can contribute by checking out the video below for ideas on how to host your own fundraising events.

Every contribution, no matter how tiny, will make a difference. Imagine how happy and hopeful a simple meal could make someone feel and this can be applied to an elderly neighbor who can’t get around much these days, your local soup kitchen or hungry mouths in another city, country or continent :)

If you know of any organizations or campaigns fighting against hunger and poverty, or have more fundraising ideas to share with us, we’d love to find out about them below!

The glass half-empty or glass half-full predicament continues; are people instinctively more prone to being optimistic about the future, or are they more realistic?

According to neuroscientist Tali Sharot, humans are naturally more optimistic than realistic, but are oblivious to the fact.

Within most of us is a rooted ideology called the “Optimism Bias”, a belief that the future will be better than the past or present. But while the optimistic attitude has a sugar-glazed sweetness about it, perhaps there’s some danger to leaving it switched on at all times.

Optimism Bias explains our tendency to overestimate our likelihood of experiencing positive events while underestimating the likelihood of facing bad ones. For instance, we could overestimate the amount of profit our business would rake in, the kind of colleges our kids could get into or even the amount of sights we could cram into a short holiday itinerary. However this overestimation is not necessarily so bad; high expectations and private optimism drives home more success and well-being, as Tali explains.

But when it comes to our chances of getting cancer, getting into a road accident or even falling sick after eating expired bread (true story, this one), though presented with facts and statistics supporting such probabilities, we are almost certain that we won’t be “one of them”.

“We’re optimistic about ourselves, we’re optimistic about our kids, we’re optimistic about our families, but we’re not so optimistic about the guy sitting next to us,” revealed Tali in her TED talk below.

Hope isn’t rational, so why are humans wired for it? What is it about our brains that make us overestimate the positive? These were also some of the questions based in Tali’s research and book The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain, which also became a TIME magazine cover story in 2011.

Watch this interesting 15-minute video as Tali explores the fascinating science behind optimists and realists, the positive and negative effects of optimism, the secret pleasure behind anticipating an event and the importance of how an event is interpreted by our optimistic or realistic brains.

Are you an optimist or a realist? How do you maintain optimism in the face of reality? Share your thoughts with us below!

Last week, I read Steve Martin’s memoir of his time learning and doing stand-up comedy, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. I loved it.

It’s a terrific example of one of my favorite kinds of books: someone coming into his or her vocation. I love reading about why people become interested in particular subjects or skills, and how they master them.

Just in the last year, I’ve read several outstanding books of this type, such as E. O. Wilson’s Naturalist, Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One, Rosanne Cash’s Composed, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and Eugene Delacroix’s Journal.

Do you have any suggestions? I just can’t get enough of this kind of thing. Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn’t matter if I’m interested in the underlying subject. I’m not much interested in music, for example, but I loved reading about the experiences of these musicians. And I’m definitely not much interested in ants.

Odd sidenote: you never know when you’re going to get an insight into yourself and your own experience. Steve Martin made a passing observation which very helpful to me. He writes:

“I never experienced the sensation [of knocking knees] again, but I wonder if I would have preferred it to the chilly pre-show anxiety that I sometimes felt later in my performing career. This mild but persistent adrenal rush beginning days before important performances kept the pounds off and, I swear, kept colds away.”

I’m no Steve Martin, of course, and I never feel the chill for days, but I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in myself. I’m always, always cold, but about an hour before I give a talk that has me feeling nervous, I can actually feel my body temperature drop, in the space of a single minute. It’s as if someone has turned down my thermostat. I now bring a shawl with me, so I can wrap up beforehand. For some reason, it’s helpful to realize that other people experience this, as well.

Reading Steve Martin’s memoir reminded me of one of my favorite quotations, from G. K. Chesterton: “It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” Although Steve Martin’s comedy looks wild and crazy, it’s the product of a tremendous amount of serious thought, rehearsal, and experiment.

Have you ever felt at a loss when you needed to draw the line with someone?

Have you put yourself at a disadvantage when you failed to draw the line because you couldn’t think of a way to do it ?

Have you ever felt mistreated when someone drew a line to your disadvantage?

Setting boundaries is one of the most important parts of relationships. It is more important to satisfactory relationships that just about everything else, since without agreeable boundaries, most relationships cannot function well. The expression, “Good fences make good neighbors,” is true.

At the same time we all have had experience with poor boundaries, boundaries that are too loose or too strict, boundaries that are self-serving and boundaries that feel abusive.

So what can we do about this?

Step 1: Know Yourself And Your Needs

This first step in setting boundaries is to make an appointment with yourself. Make yourself comfortable with a notebook so that you can brainstorm your ideas.

You need to create a map in your mind that enables you to confidently respond to boundary conflicts. When you have that map in your mind, you will feel more relaxed and will be able to handle conflict in a way that works for you and the other person.

This is what you have to come to terms with:

1. What are my most important values? Being clear about your values helps you identify good compromises. Values are the core of your boundary strategy and what you most need to honor.
2. What are my most important priorities? It is easier to say yes or no, when you are honoring your most important priorities.
3. What is non-negotiable for me? Non-negotiable items are related to your values or conditions in your life like your health. It could be family time, diet requirements particularly if you are ill, or values related to doing harm to yourself or others.
4. What can I be somewhat flexible about? Scheduling issues typically fall in this category. An example: “I can work between 7AM-6PM but have to leave no later than 6PM to pick up my children.”
5. What can I always be flexible about? The answer could include family emergencies, activities that are important to a family member, where I jog, and where I live.
6. How do I typically handle trade-offs? Do they usually work for me or not? There is nothing wrong with making sacrifices, but if they are too frequent they can leave you feeling resentful.

When thinking about setting boundaries and making compromises, you are considering the totality of your values, your limits in terms of time and energy and your desire and ability to sacrifice. These are all important issues to understand. Getting a handle on them keeps you from making commitments in a soft moment when your time will not really allow it, causing you to neglect a more important priority.

Since boundary situations are often unique and complex, it is worth purchasing some books on the subject. Here are two that can help:

1. Boundaries: When to Say YES, When to Say NO, To Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and
2. Boundaries Where You End And I Begin: How To Recognize And Set Healthy Boundaries by Anne Katherine, M.A.

Step 2: Planning For Problem Situations

We all have difficult boundary situations. Some will involve a bossy person, a passive person or someone who has different values. Whatever the difficult boundary problems you face, you can help yourself a lot if you plan for them. These are some planning considerations:

1. Identify the boundary situations that are most difficult for you.
2. For each difficult situation imagine a time when a conflict was resolved poorly and one that was resolved to your satisfaction.
3. can you identify when conflict causes problems for you? For example: a passive person might sigh or complain as a way to get your attention and take care of their problems. If you give in to the pressure, you have taken on a problem that is not really yours to solve. Sometimes we do not see boundary issues for what they are because they come disguised as something else or because we like to be helpful.
4. Try to identify when you start to feel manipulated. Is it when someone is unhappy? or complaining? Is it when someone makes decisions for you? or has expectations that are never discussed or explicitly agreed to? Does someone take your things without asking? These situations usually exist because someone has successfully made themselves more important than you.
5. Identify when you are uncomfortable taking action. Is it when someone is very sarcastic, dismissive, or contemptuous? Is it when someone has power within your group or social approval for their behavior that makes them hard to challenge?
6. Identify whether the challenging situation is one that lends itself to the direct one-on-one approach or a longer perhaps more indirect strategy where you need to have a group on your side to effect change.
7. Identify when you need to treat yourself as important as everyone else.

Step 3: Develop Your Strategy

As a general rule, most people want good boundaries as much as you do. Most people are not looking for unnecessary problems.

If you respect others and treat their concerns as valid, they will likely do the same since reciprocity is an ancient rule in human relationships. Therefore when you are willing to listen the another person, it is common courtesy that do the same. It is not unreasonable to want to be listened to as well.

It also helps to be in a problem solving frame of mind. If you ask questions to find out where the other person has some flexibility you can then offer solutions in the form of suggestions, alternatives or even substitutes for what is being asked of you. Since not everyone understands boundaries, you may have to be a leader on finding an agreeable solution.

If I were to create a formula for a boundary setting process it would be:

1. Establish a positive intent. “I love how my blouse looks on you…”
2. State a concern. “That blouse was a gift and is important to me.”
3. Ask questions if necessary. “We need to figure out a holiday schedule. What is your situation and do you have any ideas?”
4. Ask for what you need in a way that respects the other person. “I like to help when I can but I need for you to ask if you want to borrow my things.”
5. Get agreement. “Does that work for you?”

Successful problem-solving is a combination of respect and creativity. When you combine both, your chances of a positive outcome increase.

Step 4: The Tough Cases

The first thing you have to do in tough cases is to give yourself permission to have the problem. If you feel bad about it you will be less effective in solving the problem.

You also need to give yourself permission to fail, because only then will you be loose enough to come up with solutions. Not everyone is cooperative and if you can accept that with good grace, it will help you to relax about conflict. It also helps to know that walking away from a conflict is sometimes necessary and not a sign of failure.

When you have a difficult or stubborn situation, it can help to come up with way to change the existing dynamic.

Here are some ideas:

1. Change the other person’s perception of your value so that you are perceived as important to the other party.
2. Change the social dynamic. You could refuse to interact when someone is unreasonable or use humor to loosen people up when they have dug in their heels. Charm works wonders.
3. If necessary, throw in the towel. You may have heard the story about the villagers who caught a monkey by putting peanuts inside a coconut shell. The monkey found and grabbed the peanuts in the shell. However, he could not hold on to the peanuts and run away from the villagers at the same time. All he had to do was let go and he would have escaped. Sometime letting go is the best way to solve a problem.

Step 5: Implementing Your Strategy

Your experience and comfort level should guide how you decide to implement your boundary implementation strategies. You can start with minor situations with people you know or a boundary that is very important to you.

Step 6: The Key

I believe that the key to setting boundaries and good relationships lies in being in a constructive frame of mind. When the people around you know that you see the good in them, they will be in a positive frame of mind when working with you.

It also helps to have a sense of humor and to be creative.

Good relationships are challenging because we are all both alike and different at the same time. Just making the effort to work on boundaries is something for you to feel proud of. You are creating a better world with each positive step. Every time you find positive interpersonal solutions you essentially help reduce some of the fear and unhappiness in the world. That is a great gift to yourself and others.

Photo Credit: Sourcecon.com

By Susan Ni Rahilly

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.” ~ D.T. Suzuki (author of “An Introduction to Zen Buddhism”)

Though it may seem counter-intuitive, emptiness, as in the sound of silence, can be exactly the element that fills our hearts and minds. Whether through meditation, yoga, or a quiet time spent in a garden, silence can heal the spirit from the onslaught of the daily barrage of sound, stimulation and demands.

Modern living requires a ceaseless cacophony of traffic, cell phone rings, email bleeps, buzzers and blares. The noise pollution that fills our daily lives can be washed away with a regular practice which restores wellbeing by stepping away from the stimulation, and its resulting emotions of anger, fear and anxiety, and allowing the spirit to heal.

The effect of noise on our bodies is one of stimulation, constant noise brings relentless stimulation. The physical response to noise can negatively affect many systems in our bodies: blood vessels constrict, adrenal glands work overtime, and the water we are made of vibrates. Many people find themselves exhausted before their day even begins because their bodies never truly rest.

In order to bring ourselves back to balance, we must create sacred moments as an antidote to the daily onslaught. Everyone will have a different recipe for silence that will calm their nerves and open the door to Bliss Nature.

The Zen practice of meditation teaches us to let go of thoughts and feelings, distractions and demands. Even a few minutes a day can greatly benefit peace of mind. Others may find a connection to nature by relaxing in a garden or at the beach, listening to the soothing rhythms of nature.

Yoga relaxes the body and releases toxins with simple, slow stretches. Each of these methods returns the self to a simple sense of being that lasts for hours beyond the minutes we spend in the space provided in their moments.

Unplugging” from the modern lifestyle can be the antidote to what ails your soul, so start looking for your form of emptiness and reap the rewards in as little as ten minutes a day.

Connect with Susan at www.suzenyoga.com

Greetings, friends and readers.

This week I’ll be in Milwaukee and Columbus, then flying over to London for the first international stop of the new tour.

I hope to see many of you on the road! Dates and schedule here.

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Previous Updates in this Series:

Convergence Skill Transformation Report from the Road

Today I want to share the most important lesson of The $100 Startup.

The central message of the book is that the skills (and the money) you already have are all you need. You don’t need an MBA. You don’t need to beg the bank for money. You don’t need to write a 60-page business plan that no one will ever read.

To start a business, you just need a product or service, a group of people willing to buy it, and a way to get paid. That’s it! Focus on these three things exclusively.

As quickly as possible, get the first sale. Aim to do this within 30 days of conceiving of your idea. Then, pursue a process of continuous improvement to tweak your way to the bank (more on this later).

There is no consulting school. If you want to help people with a specific problem, go ahead and set up shop. (See the Instant Consultant Plan.)

We become comfortable with change by taking action to change. (See this article and a lesson on bulldozers for more.)

One of my favorite stories from the book comes from Lexington, South Carolina. On my first book tour, 18 months ago, I stopped by the Jamestown Coffee Shop. It was a great place and reminded me a lot of some of my favorite shops in the Pacific Northwest…. which wasn’t surprising once I heard the story. Here’s some background on how Jamestown Coffee came to be:

From his home base in Seattle, James Kirk used to build and manage computer data centers around the country. But in an act of conviction that took less than six months from idea to execution, he packed up a 2006 Mustang and left Seattle for South Carolina, on a mission to start an authentic coffee shop in the land of biscuits and iced tea. Once he made the decision, he says, all other options were closed:

“There was one moment very early on where I realized, this is what I want to do, and this is what I am going to do. And that was that. Decision made. I’ll figure the rest out.”

As we’ll see, James later got serious about making a real plan, but the more important step was the decision to proceed. Ready or not, he was heading for a major change, and it couldn’t come soon enough. A few short months later, Jamestown Coffee opened for business in Lexington, South Carolina. James and his new staff had worked ten-hour days for several weeks to prepare for the opening. But there it was—a ribbon to be cut, the mayor on hand to welcome the business to the community, and a line of customers eager to sample the wares. The day had come at last, and there was no looking back.

Later in the book I discuss more about the coffee shop. Along the way, James made numerous adjustments. He did in fact do a fair amount of planning. But as noted, the most important thing was to go. Decision made.

Let James Kirk’s story serve as a reminder to you. It all begins with an active decision, followed by action. Will you make your own decision to act?

Lastly, a Note on Urgency

I write a lot about legacy projects, and what I believe is a core need to focus on what we’ll make with the our lives. The related theme to this is urgency, the need to seize the day and make our time count for something.

I’m on the road again now, meeting with fun people every night and hearing good stories of change.

It challenges me. I don’t get every talk right, and I’m tweaking as I go. There are a few things I wished I had done differently in setting up the tour.

But I made the decision, and I’m moving forward. Another day, another city. In the down time I work on other projects, always making a little progress at a time and thinking about the next thing. It’s fun, it’s worth it, and what else would I do? That’s right, nothing.

What decision to act can you make right now?

Tell us here.

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*It’s official: The $100 Startup is an Instant National Bestseller. Thanks for your support!

The Kindle version is now available in the U.S. and Canada, and the UK/Commonwealth version launches on Thursday, May 24.