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Why You Can’t Stay Disciplined No Matter What You Try

Motivation is a great thing, but you can't rely on those all of a sudden moments when you feel explosive energy for no reason whatsoever...
Why You Can't Stay Disciplined No Matter What You Try

Many people get triggered by motivation. You read that one quote that hits you right in the chest and you feel like you are going to rule the world. Two minutes later the motivation is gone like it was never there.

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Motivation is a great thing, but you can’t rely on those all of a sudden moments when you feel explosive energy for no reason whatsoever.

I’ve personally had terrible moments when I felt like the whole world is crushing down on me. The other day I was so happy and energized that I finished my YouTube video just to see that the recording on my phone was not set on. I had to re-do half of the video and when I finished it for the second time I noticed that someone called me in the middle of my second recording and canceled my recording time. In those moments, all the motivational and inspirational quotes won’t mean a thing to me. I had to re-do the video for the third time (on an airplane mode this time) and finally get it done.

When things are not going your way, motivation is like a can. You see it in the street, you kick it, and you forget about it in the next 2 seconds. So motivation is a great thing, but relying on motivation and hope you will go through the obstacles with ease is not a smart choice. And honestly, I think this is a major obstacle why most people can’t seem to complete a task to the end. They rely on motivation to be their partner in crime when in reality they seek for discipline.

Now discipline is the thing we all want, but can can’t seem to stick to it and this time we will dig, like really dig into discipline and explain why you can’t stay disciplined and how to fix it.

Discipline is the key to your success in everything

As I was explaining in the previous article, I was lacking perseverance when it came to relationship, work, or simply organizing a trip with my friends to another city.

I was really struggling to find it in me to push things to the end. Strangely enough, one of the things that really pushed me out of that comfort was taking stone cold shower. And while it looks like I was getting prepared for jail, what I really did was pushing myself to be more disciplined in the face of discomfort. Because what we lack is perseverance in the face of hardship. When you have to do the project and you have a deadline, you don’t search for inspirational quotes on google, or pray that motivation suddenly hits you. What you really do is sit on your computer and do the project. Motivation is that one friend that runs away and leaves you dry when things get uncomfortable.

But discipline is not something that can suddenly hit you, and you can’t find it on Goole, well maybe just the definition. But real discipline is more of an emotional battle. And what I really found strange was that discipline is way more connected with pain that most people realize.

If discipline is to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience, then what we really do is run away from pain or punishment. When you take our code of behaviour what we do is either chase some form of pleasure or run away from pain or fear.

This being said our discipline is our ability to follow our principles and punishing/rewarding ourselves if we don’t.

I’ve noticed that when I don’t do the tasks I have for the day, I usually get a little angry or frustrated because I know I am the one to blame for not using my time wisely. I use pain or frustration as my punishment for not being disciplined. And as strange as it sounds I just realized this!

There was a really good example when Tony Robbins took his kids accompanied by a police officer (a friend of his) to one of those creepy houses filled with homeless junkies. He showed his kid or kids (I don’t know if he was with one of his kids or both of them) what they are going to end like if they use drugs. They were so shocked by the scene they saw that they created an enormous fear of drugs. He knew exactly what he was doing and because of this, every time his kids see drugs they immediately recall the scene in that creepy house, even years after.

I was seeking ways to stay disciplined and found self-punishment to work really good for me and I think self-punishment is the key to many disciplined people.

However, these 2 factors really contribute to becoming disciplined person in the long run.

1. Awareness of SELF

We just started hosting on a radio show with my friend Danny on self-improvement, relationship, toxic people and everything related to creating the best self-aware version of ourselves. It’s called Life 2.0 but sadly it’s hosted in our language and not many people speak Macedonian.

The point is that whenever we speak, say, about toxic people we get comments like “wow I had no idea I was feeling so depressed because of my friends” or “I never knew that staying in toxic company can make me depressed”. Most people lack self-awareness. They really have no idea about them because they are focused on the external things. They waste their time reading about fashion or politics and they have no connection to politics, fashion, or the time when Tom Brady looked absolutely wasted during Bucs Super Bowl boat parade.

When I sat down to meditate I truly saw what kind of person I was. I had 0 insight about me before that. Like I was left on autopilot since the day I was born and I let everyone around me carve me into whatever they wanted.

When I sat down in those 10 minutes, I felt that I am really not the person I want to be. My mind was shifting between thoughts like crazy. I was like “wow I can’t believe he said that to me, and I always thought he was my friend, what if this week is Friday the 13th? Will they play that one movie they play every year with Jason? Every thought I had was completely unrelated with the next one. My mind was shifting gears, themes and thoughts like crazy. Was this really me when I wasn’t meditating? I was terrified of the feeling that I wasn’t the person I wanted to be. And I kept on meditating every single day, at least for 10 minutes. I was calming my thoughts and slowly started to get my thought pattern in order.

After months I was able to partially control my own thoughts. At least I was aware of the thoughts I have and slowly started to re-brand myself and become the person I want to become.

Self-awareness is crucial when it comes to discipline, because you start to have an idea what kind of person you are and where is your aim for the future. Without knowing yourself and being able to get behind the wheel of your brain, you simply can’t stay disciplined.

Whenever you get angry, nervous or anxious, just breathe and really try to navigate yourself. What comes in your mind, why do you think the way you think, what or who hurt you. In moments of anxiety and anger you will start to have shorter breaths which signals your brain to start that alarming phase of stress. Just by taking deep breaths and focusing on your breath instead of the crazy show in your mind, you will immediately feel calmer. After a minute you will take full control and neutralize those stressful emotions.

Self-awareness is a must if we want to push ourselves forward and to do that we need discipline. But discipline doesn’t go without…

2. Vision or AIM

Once you start to be self-aware of your state and what kind of person you truly are, you need to have AIM because if you don’t know where you are going, you will probably get there.

It’s like going to get the bag from your room and halfway there you forget why you where going to the room. You get back, sit on the couch and “THE BAG!” you were going to get the bag.

Discipline works perfect when you know why you are doing what you are doing. When you have a goal and plan, discipline becomes easier to attain. You can be disciplined without a vision, but what’s the point really? And discipline without vision will probably get cracked and eventually stop.

What helped me was sitting at home with a pen and paper. Really, just sit there and think: why do I do what I do? Like I prefer to hang out with friends more than sit at home and work. Why do I do that? OR I want to have a lot of money. Why do I want to? And suddenly after all these answers, which are really, again, awareness of self, will penetrate something that will shock you: most of the things you do are just because you are trying to be better in the eyes of someone else. For example, if you want to be rich, you truly chase that because your girlfriend dumped you and you want to show it to her face that you are better human being. Like you can even start to play the guitar and be famous, but the truth is that you play only because you want to be famous so more people can be around you because you are lonely person.

These were just examples. You can even play the guitar because you father played the guitar and he was your hero. That’s an amazing reason to start playing the guitar, but for most of the things we do (at least for me) I did them because I wanted to be better human being not because of myself, but because of other people around me, which I honestly didn’t even like in the first place.

Doing this exercise really opened my eyes to another dimension. I started to realize that my standards and priorities were all mixed up. I would rather go out and have some fun getting wasted every day, than sit at home and create a business that I truly love.

It kind of opened my eyes to the things I want to attain. It gave me a vision, an aim to chase and find ways to make it happen.

Honestly one of the reasons I started this channel is because I was truly facing hardship on my own. My mother passed away (divorced from my father) and I was left alone to make a person out of myself when I was 18 years old. And I truly had rough time struggling every single day. I was a spoiled kid, but when that happened my stepfather did something terrible (which was really the best thing looking back at it now) he told me, either you will create an incredible person out of yourself, or you are going to end up a chump like all the friends around you. And the he told me “no more money for you kid.” I felt like the whole world came crushing down on me. After trial and error, I can proudly say that I am far better person than I was and I still work every day to become better.

I will share my journey and hopefully help some of you guys that are really struggling. I will be here with you in those moments when everything looks like it’s going wrong and give you part of my digital energy to make you feel better and move on on your journey with discipline and vision.

I hope this article hit some of you guys right in the chest and you are now a few atoms better than you were before. All I am asking in return is for you to subscribe on my YouTube channel so together we can help the channel spread so more people get a helping hand when they need it most.

Also, make sure to watch this video of me taking a stone cold shower next!

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Emotional Health Science & Psychology

I Took Cold Showers For 6 Years. Here’s What Happened

I Took Cold Showers For 6 Years. Here's What Happened
I Took Cold Showers For 6 Years. Here's What Happened

Hey champs! I know you are having a great day today because we can prove all over again that our internal power can solve any problem. Seriously, no matter what happens, you CAN decide that you’re going to have a great time.

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If somebody like Viktor Frankl can be locked up in Auschwitz and come out of that an experience finding joy in the middle of Auschwitz then human beings have a capacity they’ve undersold themselves on.

We have this stubborn opinion that the outside world determines how we feel. If you think that your family, your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or friends should BEHAVE in a certain way for you to be happy, you have already given up on happiness.

Life is full of uncertainty… terrible things may happen. You may lose a family member, you probably will. A law may change that may result in your business being completely destroyed. Just look at how many businesses got destroyed because of this worldwide situation…. We can never know the outcome of the things we can’t control. But what we can control is how we act upon those changes…

I had a hard time believing in this 10 years ago. I thought people get born under a lucky star. Some can work endlessly and they might never “get lucky” and become rich, and some just go for a walk and find money on the street. Little did I know we are the creators of our destiny.

Watch Now: 5 Bad Habits That Destroy Your Confidence

Until now, you probably ask yourself: what all this has to do with cold showers?! Well, it has to do with everything BIG TIME, at least for me.

I have been looking at different Youtube videos, but never stumbled across some person who took cold showers for 6-7 years. So I decided to share my journey and the story behind the experience of taking stone cold showers for long period of time.

Cold showers are “trendy” right now, but they are not at all new. They have been practiced for thousands of years back and now science is confirming the stunning benefits, something they couldn’t do back then…

According to science, cold showers increase your circulation, helps reduce muscle soreness after intense workouts, may help you lose the extra pounds and give your skin and hair a healthy glow.

One great advocate of cold exposure is Wim Hoff, also known as The Iceman. He is a Dutch extreme athlete well-known for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures. He set Guinness World Records for swimming under ice and prolonged full-body contact with ice, and still holds the record for running a barefoot half marathon on ice and snow.

So yes, while taking a cold shower may be ballsy, there are people like Wim Hoff that have taken that a lot more serious than you and me.

I got into cold showers about 10 years ago, but that wasn’t something I used to do very frequent, just like I was about anything, whether it was a relationship, work, or going on a trip to another city. Everything I did was halfway done, and I couldn’t find it in me to keep on doing things till the end. It was a burden for me to finish things, except sport. I was stubborn as a bull when there was a competition, race, or simply a half marathon.

I have competitive spirit, but I wasn’t fully competitive when I was alone with myself. I knew I had to do something to make it work even when I am alone. So yes, that’s when I screwed up and got into the stressful life of cold showers.

You know when you do something and after a while it becomes easier as you do it? Well cold shower is definitely NOT one of those things.

Every time I get in the shower, it’s stressful. You know you are about to do something very uncomfortable that is going to last for few minutes. And if you live in the area where I live, cold shower is a STONE cold shower. So the uncomfortable feeling when the water hits your head and back doesn’t last for few seconds, but at least a minute, until your body fights off the uncomfortable feeling and you become used to it.. like you have a choice!

The reason why I started cold showers is because I was trying to be consistent with something uncomfortable. Not because I am masochist and I like to whip myself at home, but because I wanted to fight off my sissy mentality with a simple, but uncomfortable task evert single day: the stone cold shower.

To be honest, I didn’t start because I was thinking about all the health benefits confirmed by science that come with it, but I got into it because if you do something as radical as cold shower to positively stress your body and mind, the next thing you do will look and feel easier for you to finish.

In the beginning I wasn’t consistent, but one day I was fully commited to take stone cold shower every single day.

From that day everything I did was easier. I was trying to take the cold showers every morning as I wanted to do the most uncomfortable task first. But as time went by, I changed it after my exercise, because I was taking 2 cold showers every day, like one wasn’t enough already.

Since that day, my skin got amazing glow, I lost 5 pounds (and this is A LOT for me because I workout 5 times a week) and I was very energized and vigorous. One downside I’ve noticed (at least a downside for me) was that my hair was growing like crazy. I don’t know how a cold shower has to do with hair growth, but my hair got thicker and I had to go to the barber every 3 weeks instead of 4. If you are on a budget, DON’T TRY IT because your barber will profit from you.

There are many self-help coaches out there who preach cold showers to their students, and to be honest I highly recommend it to everyone. Not only because of the health benefits that come with it, but because of the psychological effect it has on you.

For some people it’s unimaginable to take cold showers. I asked some close relatives, they made it very clear that they would rather die than take a stone cold shower. So yes, for some people it’s very uncomfortable feeling to even THINK about doing it, but for others it’s a challenge that has to be taken.

Because let’s be honest: what does your day consist of today? Most people are drowning in the comfort zone, and it doesn’t seem to be a problem for them. They wake up, work because they MUST, come home and spend the rest of the day watching Netflix, eating unhealthy and never setting a foot in the gym. Don’t take this personally. I know you are probably NOT one of them, but I am speaking about the majority.

People LOVE being comfortable. And I don’t say you should fight with lions and live edgy lives every single day, but the comfort we have is killing every single thing about us being human beings. Humans had to survive day by day thousands of years ago, and they were physically active. Not by choice, but by necessity. And all of a sudden, John and Karen decide that they can live sedentary lifestyle, order food, watch Netflix, play video games and kill every aspect of humanity.

Apart from the gym, exercise, running, or simply pushing every boundary to build an outstanding business, we must have a backbone for these things. I always preach about the Wim Hoff breathing method, or a simple 10 minute meditation we can do every morning. These things gear up our brain every day so we can be resilient to the challenges we face every single day. Because the challenges that we call problems, are there all the time. We cannot avoid them. We can either be prepared to face them and overcome them, or we can wimp and whine about all the problems we have like the whole world is against us. The more we avoid the problems we must overcome, the more they will stress us out and affect our health and overall growth.

The cold shower reminds us that we have to be prepared for the uncomfortable even if that’s the last thing we want to do. And to be honest, cold showers did an immense job creating that resilience for me. I really speak to myself when I get in that shower that I am now killing the sissy mentality. I am honestly believing that I am killing every doubt and fear I have, and after that cold shower I can take the day head on.

CONSULT WITH A DOCTOR before taking stone cold showers.

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Your Dreams Are Useless, Unless You Do These 5 Things

Your Dreams Are Useless, Unless You Do These 5 Things
Here are 5 things that will make your dreams come true. Without them you will be wandering lost and aimless for the rest of your life.

Hey champs, my name is Nick and today we are going to discuss about something that HAS to be said. It may not be the thing you want to hear, but once you finish this article, you’ll be like (damn I think he is right). So let’s begin with a simple thought.

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Do you often imagine driving the perfect car of your dreams, or living in that big house with an endless view of your own forrest?

In Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why which I’ve read a while back, he writes that studies show that over 80 percent of Americans do not have their dream job. He notes that this is due to the fact that organizations are not really inspiring their employees. But I think that the biggest reason behind it is that people in those organizations don’t want to be there in the first place.

And here’s another very interesting study. Only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major!

Most people spend years learning and specializing in something which goes down the drain when they face real life employment. Just by knowing these 2 things, it’s getting a bit obvious why people dreams are getting useless. They work something they don’t want, and on top of that, it’s not even the thing they’ve learned in college. And let’s face it: you are stuck with it for 8 hours, 5 days a week. Whether you like it or not, it will impact your life in all sorts of ways. First it will destroy your balance, stress your more often than not, affect your health and you can even bring that negative energy at home with your loved ones.

So yes, if you are stuck with a job you hate for 8 hours a day, you can destroy your life in all sorts of ways. But this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that most people know what they should do to pursue their dreams, but never take that first step. And time is passing by in a blink of an eye. Before you know it, you are in debt to your neck and you must work, unless you want to be out on the street with your family.

Experience can teach you a lot. As a matter of fact, experience and failure are the two best cosmic teachers. Without getting frustrated because of our failed attempts, we can never discover the ways that work. It’s very rare to have only ONE happy and successful relationship for the rest of your life. You should probably screw up a few times before being in one that works. It’s impossible to be good at some sport without losing a match, just like it’s impossible to be successful without trying to find 1000 things that don’t work.

So without further due, here are 5 things that will make your dreams come true. Without them you will be wandering lost and aimless for the rest of your life. Not to mention that without them you’ll never be able to fulfill your dream life.

Before we begin, if you guys enjoy articles like these, make sure to do me a quick favor and Subscribe on my YouTube Channel and let me motivate the s*it out of you!

Thank you for doing that and let’s begin.

1. Screw up over and over again

This is the test that life throws at you. It will test you and test you, until you figure out why you’ve been doing it wrong the whole time.

Most of us don’t realize how important it is to fail. We usually take it as a defeat and never try to make it work afterwards. This can also be taken as an example for everything in life. Some people get so burned in the first relationship that they never try to commit in another one again.

We take the loss and defeat as final and keep it with us in everyday life. And in the long run this results in the wrong job, financial dependency, wrong relationship and bad marriage. All of this just because we were too afraid to keep on screwing it up until we learn ways that work.

Don’t be afraid to screw up, champs. The biggest lessons are learned when you keep on screwing up until you learn why you keep on screwing up, and what can you do to make it work.

Watch After: If Things Don’t Come Easy For You (Or At ALL!) This Is For You

2. Keep on trying until you become desperate

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J. K. Rowling

When you touch the concrete with your chin, when you have no option to go above that, you realize that there is an immense power in all of us. Touching that rock bottom made us realize that, because in those moments of despair we find the real inner power that we have, and is available to us at all times.

That is the moment when your mind opens to the next dimension of your capabilities. You remove time out of the equation and you work with full steam to get to the thing you want. No matter if it’s about starting a company, working on your project, or being desperate because of your last relationship.

The only thing you need to make sure is to NOT give into despair. Stay with in, feel it, no matter how painful it is. As a defense mechanism your mind will throw positive thoughts and ways to go through that situation. Focus on them more than the negative ones that keep on recurring.

3. The things you need to do are the things you avoid

If I knew this LONG time ago, I would’ve skipped years of struggle. I always knew what I should do, or at least give my best to try, but I was always avoiding that hardship.

When I say “the things you need to avoid”, I don’t mean about driving drunk or things you clearly need to avoid. I mean that deep down you kind of feel what’s right for you. You simply can’t explain it, but you know that you need to do it. And you cloud that step with justification. “But I already have a safe job” or “I should avoid that conversation with her”. Deeply, you truly know what to do, but you dim that gut feeling until it goes away. And you keep on doing it all the time until you have no gut feeling left. You settle with what you have.

All I am saying is that you shouldn’t avoid that gut feeling, the magical weapon that is guiding you through life.

4. Doing easy things is cowardice. That’s why 80% of the money are in the 20% of the people

Also known as the Pareto Principle, this rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.

What Is The 80 20 Rule?

It was named after it’s founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, back in 1895. He noticed that people in society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the “vital few,” or the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the “trivial many,” or the bottom 80 percent.

This connects with the previous points we just spoke about. If you avoid hardship and failure, you are going to be in the trivial many. This is due to the fact that most people avoid these things all over their life. And this is really interesting: we have a natural way of creating equilibrium between employees and employers. Eighty percent of the people don’t avoid hardship and don’t want to do uncomfortable. They will end up working for someone and have less influence and financial freedom. Most people will focus on doing 80% of the work which brings them 20% of the things. While the “vital few” will focus on doing 20% of the things, the uncomfortable, difficult and things their gut tells them to do.

Champs, I know you have what it takes to belong to the vital few. Just don’t avoid the 20% necessary things you need to do.

5. Success is not a choice. Success is your obligation

I stumble upon many people that say that “success” is not really important to them. And I am truly sick of hearing this all over again.

Success is not only having the skill to make money. It is the ability to get from point A to point B successfully.

This can be applied to anything. Relationships, work, hobbies, sports et cetera.

When you wrap around your head that success is your obligation, you won’t overthink too much. You don’t give yourself choices to wimp, wine, and justify. You take action to make it happen.

If you want to make ANYTHING work, sometimes you have to dive in the uncomfortable. And this is not your choice, it’s your obligation to do what’s uncomfortable. No matter the cost. The gap you leave between thinking and doing, in time becomes a crater. It grows more and more and becomes harder to jump over. Don’t let your inaction become a habit.

And again, this is not only about building your company. It’s about every sphere in your life: friendships, relationships, education or simply learning a new skill.

We all have a dream, champs, but many of us don’t do what’s uncomfortable to make it come to its fruition.

I’ve read in a book few years back, and this is really interesting, that the tiny animal that’s running in your home (this refers to the thing you avoid doing) grows to be a dragon that’ll press and choke you in a corner. The more you avoid important things, the more they choke and press you down. While this is not always the case, in translation this may refer to failed marriages, unemployment, being poor and homelessness.

Don’t let your own actions (or inactions) be the cause of your life of misery. There are things we just have no power over, like the weather, what people think, what people do, what people feel or say, just like we have no power over what happened in the past. What we have power is to take action in this moment, right now, and make our present and future be the best times of our lives. Fill your life with great moments, abundance and profoundness based on the things that you do daily.

Champs, thank you SO much for reading this entire article. You would truly help me spread this positive energy and help me help others in need by sharing this article and by Subscribing on my Youtube Channel.

Watch Now: 5 Bad Habits That Destroy Your Confidence

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Action Emotional Health

5 Bad Habits That Destroy Your Confidence

5 Bad Habits That DESTROY Your Confidence
Here are 5 things that silently destroy your confidence, make you mentally weaker and stop you from reaching the full potential of yourself.

Hey champs my name is Nick and today we are going to talk about the things that silently destroy your confidence, make you mentally weaker and stop you from reaching the full potential of yourself.

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Every human being, you me and the ones around us is made of characteristics, right? This is the thing that divides us and make us come together. For example: the close friends around you are a mix of what you are. When you sit down with them you talk about something you usually have a common interest.

For my circle of friends that was fitness, nutrition, exercise, hardcore motivation, success, movies and even aliens. We found ourselves discussing about these themes of conversation and share our opinion about it.

Everything you live through the day, like the meeting with your friends, your boyfriend, girlfriend, colleagues, or the job you are currently working, create your character. But not all people are the same, because not all people live the same life. That was kinda obvious.

Now, the real power we have is the power of choice. We have this amazing ability to choose to go and do whatever we like (of course this has to be in the borders of normal human behavior).

Sometimes I think that we have SO MUCH opportunities now, that it becomes a problem.

Just by Googling “how many job types are there in the world” I found that the first link says we have over 12.000 job descriptions. We have 12.000 options to choose from, so I would say that not being interested in something is just an excuse.

And we are facing choices every single day. Whether to wake up at 6AM, 9AM or 11:30AM. Should we eat 3 times a day or 5 times a day? Should we eat 100g of chocolate or avoid chocolate and eat an apple? These types of choices carve us in all that we are.

Some people will make poor choice for years that will result in being overweight, divorced, or simply not satisfied with all that they are. When you take the wide picture of our life, of everything that we are, it all boils down to the choices we make, whether those choices create better human beings out of us, or simply wasting our time.

Now, majority of people will always go with the easy options, which are the poor choices. And this is natural. They would rather watch Netflix for 5 hours straight than do something productive. Majority would rather eat that chocolate than drool over it, and take an apple instead. This natural equilibrium divides the successful and unsuccessful, the fit and fat, the poor and rich, just like the confident and uncertain people.

Now, today we will talk about the things we CAN do to raise our confidence. And yes, this will skyrocket your success, fitness and confidence to the next level.

1. Talking bad about other people

We’ve all done it. If I tell you I didn’t do it, that would be a lie. And if I tell you I won’t do it again, that would be a lie too. But this time, I notice when I do it. I observe it, and find something very irritating, but necessary to spike my confidence.

When you talk about other people, you are really just talking about yourself.

If you are telling someone about how your boss is being a jerk, in reality, you’re probably talking about your lack of patience and understanding.

If you’re gossiping to one friend about another friend, what you’re really doing is telling the one friend that he or she can’t trust you to do the same to them.

Whenever you speak ill about something or someone, it exposes your true self. And this can never be wrong, that’s the trick. Your weaknesses are very loud when you speak ill about others, and we both know that is very bad for your confidence.

I don’t think this behavior can be stopped. Sometimes unconsciously we will fall into a conversation and talk ill about someone/something. After all we are all human, but when we do, we can do few things about it. First we should observe the conversation and see why we speak bad about others. And when we do, we should discover the shortcomings behind the things we say. This is the only way to get the good out of gossip, and additionally, boost our confidence by applying necessary change to fix it.

2. Letting other people make decisions for you

Our life is based on the knowledge other people gave is. We are formed and created by the opinion of others. By our parents, friends, teachers, colleagues, bosses etc…

However, there comes a point in time when we take our life in our own hands and steer the wheel. I think this is the real puberty, not when we get the first facial hair. This is the time when girls become women, and boys become men. And some people never get over this phase because when they are fully formed and should go on their own, they don’t bat an eye to self-develop and continue educating themselves.

I agree that constructive criticism is important. We can learn from the mistakes other people see we do, that we are unable to see, but that’s all there is.

If you become a doctor because your family wants to, you are going to be a terrible doctor. This applies to anything other people want you to be.

You are you own singular person. No one can make the decisions you do. Even if you make a mistake, the best lessons I’ve learned are through making mistakes and failing. Make your own mistakes, take your failures as your own, and you will start to shift your life for the better in an instant. You will become more assertive because mistakes and failures are necessary, not optional. On the long run, this will make you more confident and resilient.

3. Maintaining toxic friendships and relationships

This has more to do with confidence than most people realize.

Here comes my favorite quote: “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” We must not take this lightly because if you surround yourself with the wrong people, they have the power to shatter your life and make you miserable. Confidence will be 100 miles away from you.

For a certain period, it’s okay to be alone. When you break the old pattern and distance yourself from toxic people it’s okay to be alone until the right people gravitate around you, and they will.

When I was 15 years old, I used to hang out with 16 people, every single day. My mother used to tell me: son, when you grow up IF you are lucky you’re going to have 2 close friends. At that time, I didn’t really understood that, but now I really DO. And this is because people change and they have different interests, hobbies, families and things they don’t really share in common with the same 16 people when they were young.

People and things change, and that is completely OK. The trick is not to be dragged by the people who don’t aspire to be better themselves, and try to pull you down with them. Don’t let your memories attach you to someone who’ll waste your time and drain the energy out of you.

Watch After: 5 Types Of Friends You Should Avoid Like The Plague

4. Living in the past

In simple terms, evolution wired our brains to remember bad things more to alert us when real danger comes in the future to keep us alive. Additionally, our brain focused on the negative so that we could clearly see the danger to fix it.

So, the past is not JUST the past, but it’s actual memory stored in the brain. It’s not as simple as “the past is the past just let it go.” It’s not something you let go of. It’s physical attachment stored in your brain as vital part of you. Your past has created you up to this point.

Just as vital, the past can be very toxic. It is where all the traumas, bad and also good events happened. The bad memories can really impact our future and present because our brain can re-activate them and make us physically feel them thus affecting our mood for the worse.

The way we overcome the past is by learning the crucial lesson out of it. For example: if you got in a car accident while you were driving drunk, the lesson is that you should NEVER drive under the influence of alcohol again.

This goes the same with small minor past mistakes we do. If I try to do a successful marketing campaign on Facebook, I will certainly make mistakes that will result in unsuccessful campaign. In time, I will learn from the past mistakes and make campaign successful. And when you think about it, I WANT to have those mistakes stored, because they will help me make a successful campaign.

It also works to instantly replace your bad memory with a positive one. For example if a bad memory recurs when your mother yelled at you in front of your friends, you have all the power to shift that thought with a positive one. You can think of the crazy summer night you had with your friends. This will give you dopamine and change your initial thought with a positive one.

Long story short, USE your bad memories and past mistakes to be better version of yourself. No one becomes an expert in anything based only on positive experiences.

5. And the last one: talking negatively to yourself

I just spoke about the R.A.S on my latest TikTok video. This stands for Reticular Activating System and it’s part of your brain responsible for the things you notice. Let me give you an example: if you buy a new car, you will start to notice that car everywhere. The car was there before that, but now you see it because you are genuinely interested in that car. The A.R.S is responsible for that.

If you focus on the worst of things, like what happened to you in the past, or why you are not happy because you did this and that, you will feed your R.A.S with more similar situations for you to focus on, whether they happened or they are about to happen.

If you speak negatively of yourself, you will have negative experiences now and in the future, because subconsciously you focus on the situations that can make it worse.

It’s not a flip of a finger to make everything run smooth and positive for you. You have to change your entire daily routine, the things you do and think through the day. Do you exercise regularly? Do you eat healthy? Do you take cold showers? Do you meditate? Do you have a journal? Do you write your plans on a schedule?

Real confidence comes with experience. You can be confident without experience, but sooner or later you have to take that cape off you and see that you still have a ton of things to learn. It’s better to know that you don’t know, than to act like you know and prove yourself and everybody wrong halfway through.

It takes courage to be confident because we have to face adversities that majority of people will never do. Most men want to chase girls but have never ever talked to a random woman in a bar. We all want success but never bat an eye to take the first step, because to build your success you need confidence in making the right steps, and to do that you need courage to make the wrong ones and learn from them.

Categories
Action Emotional Health Science & Psychology Success

How To Stop Being Tired All The Time

Hey champs, my name is Nick and today we are going to talk about how to increase your energy (something that might look like science fiction to you now) but it’s not that complicated after all.

If you are feeling tired ALL THE TIME, this video AND smashing that like button is definitely for you! And if you really don’t want to feel tired, make sure to smash that Subscribe button too, because I have a lot of good news in the next videos for you.

First of all what is the difference between you and Jeff Bezos, or what is the difference between you and Elon Musk? We all have 24 hours and, we can all earn 180 billion dollars, and we can all move to Mars, right? Well, not really. The difference between you and them is that you are constantly tired and you can’t invent those rocket ships and generate billions of dollars in income.

These days there is a MASSIVE confusion between having energy and preserving energy. We watch Netflix all day and we spend massive amount of time on social media. When it’s time to stand up and complete an important task, bam…. we have no energy.

How come we are low on energy when we spend our whole morning AND evening doing nothing but laying in bed and basically preserving every atom of energy? And on top of that, we wake up each morning feeling like we’ve been hit by a truck.

Many things come into play when it comes to general fatigue and tiredness and this does not involve chronic fatigue syndrome and SEID which affects million of people in the US alone.

This involves general tiredness which mostly people feel by not having healthier habits and clear vision for their life.

There are many habits that MUST be changed before we get that booming energy which we are going to discuss later, but first let’s explain why you are feeling tired ALL. THE. FREAKING. TIME.

As people, we have a hard time understanding paradox, right? Like beginning of an end, or knowing that we know nothing. Same goes for energy: we have more energy, by doing more things! Let me explain.

If you have a clear vision of what you want to be in the future all you need to do is take action. But that is easier said than done, and thanks to science, we now know the harsh road.

If you haven’t heard about neuroplasticity, you’ve been missing out a lot.

The more you do something, the more you strengthen the bond between the physical action and your brain. This is called neuroplasticity, and it’s actually brilliant. The more you do something, the more it becomes ‘wired’ in your brain. So, let’s say, if you exercise every day you will get bound to it and it will get easier the more you do it. But this also means that if watch Netflix every day, the more you will do it. The choice is yours.

However, we didn’t say what this has to do with having more energy, but first let’s go back to evolution.

Long time ago our lifestyle involved of us moving almost constantly. We had to hunt for food, gather and do all the chores necessary in order to survive. All we should do now involves us picking up the phone, calling our favorite pizza company and getting the food on our doorstep in no time. No wonder why we are so lazy now…

Evolution has made human to move, almost necessary. We can only Google the detrimental health effects of leading a sedentary lifestyle and everything becomes clear as day. Ok, let me do you a favor by explaining just some of them:

  1. Weight gain. Weight brings it’s own nasty problems, so a sedentary lifestyle has obvious health risks like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. The more weight you gain the harder your heart has to work. Your heart is a muscle, and the less it works, the weaker it becomes.
  2. Loss of Flexibility. Blood doesn’t flow as freely through tight, bound muscles. Inflammation and pain rear their ugly heads as flexibility is lost. The more sitting you do, the more your hip flexors and low back become particularly tight. Your abs and glutes also become weaker.
  3. Lower Metabolism. A sedentary lifestyle means fewer calories burned. A lot of your body’s ability to break down fat simply shuts down.
  4. Osteoporosis. Here’s a not-so-obvious health risk. Your body and muscles are made to move. Your bones are made to bear the weight of movement to stay strong. A sedentary lifestyle or too sitting and inactivity can lead to osteoporosis.
  5. Increased Chances of Dementia, Depression, and Anxiety. The mind is more linked to the lack of moving than most realize, especially in the elderly. But you don’t have to become elderly before you feel the negative harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle on the mind.

Just by reading these scientific facts, it’s not hard to realize that we were made to MOVE, right? Our bodies work in perfect sync when we move, rather than when we lie down in bed and watch Netflix.

Even with the Neolithic Revolution or so-called the Agricultural Revolution, we still had to do a lot of physical work in order to grow the crops, protect them and stash them.

What happened that changed everything was the invention of the microchip, or to be more precise, the consequence of the microchip, which was the Digital Age. Of course, everything was done for all the right reasons, like not having to send out letters that would arrive in 2 weeks. But as a consequence of everything becoming so easy, we are taking many necessary things for granted, like exercise, food, or being spiritually fulfilled.

We made it pretty clear that we have to move for the body to function properly, and this in turn will give us MORE energy instead of making us tired.

When was the last time you felt that breeze of energy in the morning? That burst of alertness and agility? I can almost guess that it was some upcoming presentation, performance or you being happy like a little kid to do something you are really passionate about.

When we love the work, the relationship, the hobbies and all the tasks in our daily routine, we will have more energy, than doing something we hate. It’s only logical. Loving what we do gives us inspiration to turn that TV off, get our buttocks up, and take some form of physical action, like you pushing that Like button and Subscribing on my YouTube Channel.

By doing more, we have more energy… we covered that. But there are 2 more things we must do if we want to really delete that general tiredness that is slowly taking our time away, the only resource we cannot get back.

The second thing is nutrition

Your body is your temple. If you don’t take care of it, you are going to face tremendous health problems.

Sometimes I wonder how on Earth our bodies can process all those burgers and pizzas… not to mention all the booze. But when someone gets ill because of their own choices, everything becomes clear.

So what is really healthy nutrition?

Healthy diet is not about severe restriction and limitations, or depriving yourself of all the tasty things in the world. It’s about feeling truly alive, energized and great in every aspect.

And the thing is, it’s not very complicated. If you are one of those people who had WAYY to many opinions about what you should and shouldn’t eat, you are not alone, believe me. Some food “gurus” will tell you to eat something, while others will tell you the complete opposite.

The truth is that healthy diet consist of real food, instead of the processed junk food we are used to eat every day. Eating food that is as close as possible to the way nature made it can make a huge difference to the way you think, look, and feel. And you don’t have to deprive yourself of that junk food forever and ever…. you just have to pay attention to your overall diet. That’s why we invented cheat meals!

By using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create—and stick to—a tasty, varied, and nutritious diet that is as good for your mind as it is for your body.

While some extreme diets may suggest otherwise, we all need a balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals in our diets to sustain a healthy body. You don’t need to eliminate certain categories of food from your diet, but rather select the healthiest options from each category.

The last one is: Stay Physically Active

For some people this is the worst type of conversation. They run away from exercise like the plague. But exercise is really, REALLY vital to our well-being. Plus who doesn’t want that stunning summer body?

  • Exercise benefits every part of the body, including the mind. Exercising causes the body to make chemicals so-called endorphins that can help a person feel good. Exercise also help people sleep better, and yes, putting that phone down at night also helps you sleep better. Exercise can also help some people who have mild depression and low self-esteem. Plus, exercise can give people a real sense of accomplishment and pride at having achieved a goal — like beating an old time for a 5 mile run.
  • Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. Exercising regularly lowers a person’s risk of developing some diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Also, if you want that stunning hot body turning heads every summer, exercise will help you do that too.

Now that we know the benefits, WHAT DO WE DO?? Join the gym, go for a run…. what? I personally used to exercise in the gym and then I started kick-boxing… so that seems to be working pretty well for me for the last 14 years. Also, calisthenics, running and hiking seem to be working out pretty well too.

When it comes to health, I would suggest you to go for a run or join the local gym and start from there. I truly hope you can find yourself in some sport because it will prolong your life, give you more energy and simply make you look stunning hot.

Final words

Just because we didn’t mention drinking water, getting enough sunlight and sleep we should avoid them. I just think the ones we mentioned are far more easily forgotten than the rest, and we should be reminded of them every once in a while.

Being tired most of the time is really blocking you from achieving many wonderful things in your life. With a little shift of perspective and mental effort, we can all change our lives, live better, and help this world be a better place.

I read a very interesting quote the other day in a book about nutrition and health. It explained that the lifespan expands all the time, but that doesn’t mean that people live more quality lives now. We can prolong our lives with pills and medications, but it’s really about the quality in the years. I am not saying we should all die young and happy. I am saying that by doing these things we wouldn’t need the pills and medications to live long and happy life.

Categories
Emotional Health

5 Types Of Friends You Should Avoid Like The Plague

5 Types Of Friends You Should Avoid Like The Plague
5 Types Of Friends You Should Avoid Like The Plague

Here are 5 types of friends you should avoid at all cost!

I believe we are all special. We are all destined to be something. Too bad some people are destined to be douchebags!

Jokes aside, we are all unique and special human beings, and if you are like me, I believe we all have some purpose here to fulfil. But it doesn’t come to us in a dream. We all have to do things in the physical reality and discover it. Switch jobs, fail, be broken, be sad, be unhappy, be happy, be fulfilled… it’s not all rainbows and sunshine’s on the road to self-discovery.

As a matter of fact, the hardest and most frustrating things in my life were poverty, broken heart, sadness, grief… those moments of void and despair were crucial in creating the destiny I want to fulfill.

Of course, these emotions were born in me mostly by the relationships I had with my friends, family and partners. Everything that happened taught me a very valuable lesson, and as I said, mostly by the things that were making me feel worse.

Just by saying this, it doesn’t mean that we should aim to meet backstabbing friends and partners. All that happened until now was a lesson, no matter how emotionally striking it was.

From this moment on, we decide to make a swift and ultimate change. This is not only crucial change for personal gain, but for professional gain too! The change is very simple: toss out the people that don’t fit, and greet the people that fit. But how do we know who fits in our perfect picture?

Some say that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. If you take a closer look on your surrounding, the 5 people you spend the most time with is the mix that you are. Now, it doesn’t necessarily has to be 5 people because your parents, teachers and colleagues that have influence on you, but the biggest role play the people you are mostly with.

Taking a look around you should answer this question very easy. And it makes sense: why would spend most of your time with people who don’t have anything in common with you? You don’t.

When I personally hit the rock bottom financially and emotionally, I made enormous change in my life.

The first step I took was that I put myself in quarantine (before it was cool) and took a break from all the people I was surrounded with. This gave me new and fresh perspective on the things I had to change if I wanted to be in a better place in the future.

This may’ve been one of the most challenging steps I took. I was feeling like the loneliest person on the planet. Like the last man on Earth.

The seconds step was self-improvement, the dedication to improve myself on personal and professional level. In those “A-HA” moments when I spend all my time working and reading made me the person I am today: helping myself by helping you champs be better.

Without taking the first step, I wouldn’t be able to change myself by jumping straight to the second step. Because whether we like it or not, if those 5 people around you don’t aspire to be better, they will weight you down. There is no avoiding that.

Knowing all this, how do we know what types of friends to avoid?

Here are 5 types of friends you should avoid like the plague.

If any of the people below is in your list of friends, you should get rid of them in an instant:

1. The Envy

It’s completely normal to compete. That’s how we got so far up to this point in humanity. But competing and envying are 2 different things, and it took me 28 years to figure this out.

After the dreadful period when I hit rock bottom, I was dedicated to succeed. I was reading every self-improvement book that I put my hands on, just to be constantly motivated. Years after I made a huge chunk of money, but that came with consequences, especially from those around me.

Most people don’t like to see you doing better than them. When they can’t do anything to change that, they will openly (or secretly) envy your achievements. However, if you pay attention to their actions, it’s mostly visible, no matter how secret they think it is.

Now don’t get me wrong. What other people think is NONE of your concern, but if you share your personal time with those people, it’s a problem you have to solve.

You don’t want negative energy cloud above your head, right? Then it’s best to cut the cords with these types of friends and keep on growing personally and professionally.

Watch After: 9 Things You Should Delete From Your Life Immediately

2. The Pessimist (Definitely The Types of Friends You Should Avoid)

They say that a pessimist is an optimist with experience, but that is FAR away from the truth.

If we stumble upon 10 failed attempts and give up, then we are a failure, rather than an optimist with experience. Either we are doing something wrong, or we don’t have the experience to do the task successfully.

Now, some people never go over this point. They tend to look everything 100 times and find something wrong with it. It is really all about perspective. If you don’t have the perspective to see the good outcome of some deeds, then you will be a pessimist.

In 2010 Billionaire Mark Cuban turned down the opportunity to invest in Uber when it was worth only $2 million. He told that “it is high risk, medium reward,” investment.

I don’t say he is pessimist, far from that. But he didn’t have the perspective to look in the future with optimism and make a lot more money off his investment. I bet he learned the lesson.

But some people, especially those around you may never learn the lesson from failed attempts. If you throw a business idea, they don’t say that “it’s interesting”. They immediately say about the bad outcomes if all the bad things happen. This could be the same for any idea you might have. They simply have no positive compass for the future and they always find what’s wrong about it.

If you purposefully spend time with these types of people, it’s time to cut them and move on because these are the types of friends you should avoid.

3. The Gossip Star

All of the problems in the world would disappear if we talked to each other instead of talk about each other.

Ohhh… you already know for who is this about, right? His face is in front of you as we speak.

The golden rule about this is as follows: if your friend gossips with you about another friend, I can bet 100$ right now that they are gossiping with them about you. From all of the examples in my life, this is 100% true and it happened all over again.

Not only they may say false things about someone they have no idea about, but they will drag you down with them to speak ill and waste your time. Gossiping about other people has no benefit at ALL.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. Do I need to say more?

If you surround yourself with people that gossip, then you are distancing yourself even further from the things that will make you truly happy and fulfilled.

I don’t need to remind you that you should avoid these types of friends.

4. The One Who’s Always Complaining

We all have at least one who always complains. There’s always traffic, there’s always something terrible happening on the workplace, there’s always something wrong with the weather. They hate Mondays and even waking up every morning. To them it feels like nothing is good in the world.

Complaining will never give solution to the problem. It only explains the problem, but doesn’t give solution to it.

If you have traffic, you can either start earlier, or take a different road. If something terrible happens in your workplace, you can either change your job, or try to solve the problem. And yes, the weather is the weather and you can’t change it. So start accepting the things you can’t change.

When you surround with Negative Nancies (sorry Nancy) we tend to see the worse perspective on things. If you remember, we already said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. If you want to spend time with people who complain for each grain in the sand, then you are going to become one.

5. The Victim (Definitely the types of friends you should avoid)

Do you have that one person who always happens to be affected by the inevitable consequences? Yep, I have one too!

If there is one thing I’ve learned so far is that our life is the product of our own actions. If something bad happens and has nothing to do with our actions, then it’s time to learn the lesson and move on.

Life is not happening to us, life is happening for us. How we swallow the things and put the knowledge in the physical reality is how our life is going to unfold.

If you force yourself to think that everything bad happens because you exist, you are going to suffer through your entire existence.

The biggest power we possess as humans is the power of choice, and we have HUGE spectrum of choices today. If your choice is to surround yourself with people who feel like victims, don’t be surprised when you have victim mentality.

If you have these types of people in your close friend and even family, it’s time to pause and reflect, or minimize the time you spend with them.

Final Words

I cannot say that I am perfect. Sometimes, I feel like a victim, or sometimes I complain without being aware of that, but I am good at noticing when I do, because I know that either of those things won’t make me better human being.

I think that we can all grow with the right people around us. If you still haven’t found the right people, have the faith that you will. Your path will reveal great people who are even better than you, and give you the knowledge and skills to go beside them or even surpass them.

Don’t let your childhood memories keep you with people who stall your growth. Have the courage to move on and find better people who will push you to do better on personal and professional level.

Watch Now: Mentally Strong People Never Do These 6 Things

Categories
Emotional Health Science & Psychology

How Stress Affects Your Body And Health According To Science

How Stress Affects Your Body And Health According To Science
Stress, stress, stress.... stress everywhere! If you knew before how stress affects your body and health, you would never stress ever again.

If you knew before how stress affects your body and health, you would never stress over trivial things, ever again!

Stress, stress, stress…. stress everywhere! As we set foot in the Information Age, our stress has increased tenfold.

In former times, 15.000 years ago, stress was mostly caused by something physical. People were under the pressure to find food and stay safe. In a way this is also mental stress, but the outcome is physical, and the stress is very different than the one today.

When you woke up this morning, you weren’t stressed about the food you are going to eat, nor about your safety of a lion attacking you on broad daylight. We now have so many choices of what we eat that the vast majority of choice is causing us stress. And yes, we now pay to see lions in cages!

Probably (and correct me if I am wrong) the first stress you had was a notification you received from your social platforms. Emails, Viber, Whatsapp, Facebook… you name it.

The stress we now have is mostly mental, rather than something that might happen in the physical reality. We have more made up stress caused by fear, rather than something that might put our life in real danger.

Mostly stress is caused by money, work and relationships. That is the global stress that vast majority of people fight over and over in their heads.

Now, I agree that these 3 things are really, REALLY important, but the stress is mostly caused by something that will never happen.

In the previous article, (that should pop right now in the right corner just above my head) looked into how many of the things we worry about turn out to be true in real life.

In the study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of the things they wrote down did not actually happen.

It turns out that 85 percent of what we worry about never happens, and with the 15 percent that does happen, 79 percent of people discovered that either:

a) they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or
b) the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning

This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is just a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

The stress we feel is just a made up story of something that will probably never happen in the future.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Some stress can be good, for example you pushing and motivating yourself to accomplish your goals and complete crucial tasks. But a lot of stress is bad, making you feel overwhelmed and ill. That’s because the negative effects of stress on immune function are significant.

How Stress Affects Your Body And Health

How Stress Affects Your Body And Health

No matter how many times we tell ourselves not to worry about trivial things, something always gets to us.

What happens is that we start creating endless loop of stories (that will probably never happen in real life) and then stress about the outcome of the fairy tales. This can cause serious health problems, according to science.

Think about your life. When life is good, life is not stressful, right? That’s because stress on your body and mind can press down your immune system. And why is that? Your body goes into overdrive so you can perform with full steam to tackle your stressors. This can cause the strength of your immunity to suffer.

So how stress affects your body?

The Basic Language of Stress

Learning some of the basics will give you a better understanding of your body’s natural responses. Here are the basics:

  • Stressor: Any stimulus that causes stress. There are two kinds of stressors: physical and psychological. Physical stressors are stress on the body. Psychological stressors are stress on the mind.
  • Hypothalamus: An important command center in the brain. This region is about the size of a penny and sits in the middle of the brain. It controls the activity of the pituitary gland and regulates hunger, thirst, sleep, body temperature, and many emotions.
  • Pituitary Gland: The master gland responsible for releasing most of the hormones in your body.
  • Adrenal Glands: Triangular glands that rest above the kidneys that are responsible for releasing cortisol.
  • Cortisol: The primary hormone released into the blood in response to stress.

How Your Body Handles Stressful “Situations”

How Stress Affects Your Body In Stressful "Situations"
How Stress Affects Your Body In Stressful “Situations”

Your body is a REALLY smart mechanism. It does miracles just to protect you from something that might hurt you. Like you pay attention to a strange looking fella next to you, your body pays attention to defend itself from external sources.

When you experience stress, your body has protocols. Without those protocols we wouldn’t be able to survive as species this long, especially when it comes to stress.

The protocol begins when a stressor comes along and puts pressure on your mind or your body.

The part of your brain that recognizes stress is called the hypothalamus. As soon as the hypothalamus recognizes a stressor, it delivers a swift message via neurons to a neighboring region of the brain called the pituitary gland. This gland registers signals from the hypothalamus and tells the adrenal glands ( just above your kidneys) to increase the amount of stress hormones circulating in the blood.

This is stress protocol 101, and the exact response pattern of your body every time it recognizes stress. But let’s go deeper and connect the dots between stress and immune function. It all boils down to your primary stress hormone—cortisol.

This crucial hormone does wonders by providing an energy boost during periods of stress. But the effects of cortisol are temporary. Once the stress wears off, so does the energy assistance.

Another way cortisol helps your body manage stress is by powering down any non-essential operations in the body. Unfortunately, stress hormone shuts down the immune system to conserve energy so it can run away from the threat, but this makes stressful periods the perfect time for germs to settle in.

This is so true and powerful that when surgeons transplant organs they give the patients stress hormones so they can lower their immune system. They do this because the body’s immune system may reject the new organ, and they lower it on purpose so the body can accept it.

Long story short, how stress affects your body is to your benefit, but not without consequences.

So what can we do to prevent stress from doing severe damage on our health?

Must Read After: How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, According To Science

How Can We Stop Stress From Doing Damage To Our Body And Health

How Can We Stop Stress From Doing Damage To Our Body And Health

What is happening today is that we are being fed with so much information spreading fear, especially with the global situation, that we are lowering our immune system on a global scale.

Just by knowing this fact we should pick the information we are fed very carefully and do everything we can in our power not to let our fear be fed by external factors.

Since information is the biggest cause of fear today, instead of real danger, we have 100% control of the things we stress about. After all, 85% of the things we stress and worry about NEVER HAPPEN, thanks to science confirming this.

Many of the serious health problems are psychosomatic, meaning that we are the main cause of the problem. External factors have big impact on our health, but we have the power of choice. We can literally be the hero we’ve been searching for.

I think the real problem is that we find it easier to point fingers and blame others as to why we fail. It’s easier to put our failure on his or her bill than to take full responsibility from the consequences of our actions.

If I tell you to do a backflip, and you end up hurting your leg, whos fault is it? Your fault, or mine?

It’s the same example with the major decisions. If your parents want you to be a doctor, and you hate every second of it, it’s not your parents fault if your life is miserable 10 years from now. Just like accepting the backflip was your decision, right? These are just examples. Don’t take them to heart.

As you grow you will be challenged with many things from external sources. Like your grandfather telling you to find a real job instead of the one on your computer, and you end up making 54.000$ one month. Or your friends talking behind your back about your “blogging” life.

If I look back and followed every advice from my friends and parents, I would’ve end up working a 9-5 job caged in a cubicle, miserable and unsatisfied with every second of my life. Don’t let someone else’s view on life affect how your life unfolds.

We all perceive life differently. The way you read this will affect you different than it will affect your brother, sister or friends. This means that no one can tell you how you can do something rather than yourself. Of course, they can give you an advice, but it’s up to you how you apply that advice in the physical reality. After all, I’ve learned the most valuable lessons from my failed attempts!

I think the real power is to take full responsibility over the things that affect our life. Only then we can truly learn the lesson and stop the same mistake from happening all over again like a loop.

Take precautions. Make yourself the main protagonist of your own life. And don’t forget how stress affects your body, because you can seriously harm your overall health and make irreversible damage.

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Action Emotional Health Science & Psychology Success

How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, According To Science

How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, According To Science
By the time you finish this article, you will have the scientific knowledge, backed by scientific research on how to stop worrying.

By the time you finish this article, you will have the scientific knowledge, backed by scientific research, on how to stop worrying, or at least to stop worrying about 85-97% of the things in your entire life.

Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.” Now there’s even a study that proves it. This study looked into how many of our made up stories never happen in the physical reality.

So How To Stop Worrying, According To Science?

A skeleton thinks how to stop worrying. Apparently it doesn’t work for him.

We worry way too often about each and every detail. Usually we worry about our diet, we worry about our health, we worry about making money, we worry about our physique, we worry if we are attractive or not, we worry about our partner, we worry about our parents and grandparents… we worry about each and every single thing we are unsure about.

Unlike the animals, we have the capacity to think about ourselves far into the future. Animals respond to life mostly on a moment-by-moment basis, but our ability to imagine the future allows us to behave in ways today that will have desired consequences later on. Now, don’t get me wrong, worrying is not all that bad. Self-awareness is essential for planning for the future, improving ourselves, and avoiding real danger in the future.

And yes, while thinking about the future is critical to our well-being, most of us think about the future far more than needed to manage our lives effectively. When we think too much about the future, we get distracted from our life in the present moment and what’s even worse, it fuels great deal of anxiety about things that will probably never happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, year and even decades from the present moment.

While animals fear when they face real danger, they don’t worry about what might happen in the future, nor they read articles on how to stop worrying.

If all the things we worry about happen, and we are prepared for them, it would be an absolute blessing to worry. But on the other side, if all the things we worry about happen, that would be living in hell!

Most of the things we worry about never happen, and if they do, we can solve them a lot better than we thought we can. Worrying about future problems rarely gets us prepared when it’s time to take action in the physical reality.

Yet the question remains: if worrying doesn’t do much good, but more damage, why do we keep worrying? Why do we wrap around the anxiety blanket and keep on trying to predict the future? There’s a great theory predicting the answer of these questions.

“How To Stop Worrying” Didn’t Exist 10000 Years Ago

“How To Stop Worrying” Wasn’t A Topic Of Discussion 10000 Years Ago

Leonard Martin, social psychologist at the University of Georgia suggests a great theory tackling the answer to the questions above.

Martin speculates that self-generated worry about what might happen in the future became a problem in the last 10,000 years or so. Before then, our prehistoric ancestors were able to think about what might happen in the future, but their hunting-gathering lifestyle did not evoke a great deal of unnecessary rumination about the future.

For million of years, humans didn’t plan long-term to accumulate money, success, possessions, or simply self-improve themselves on personal and professional level. Our prehuman ancestors were focused on today, rather than weeks, months, or years ahead. Hunter-gatherers with little to no possessions at all didn’t plan for the future or long-term goals. They didn’t have a reason to think more than a day or two ahead.

But something happened that changed everything. When agricultural revolution or so-called Neolithic Revolution began 10.000 years ago, humans began to worry about the future. Unlike the hunter-gathers who mostly lived day-to-day lives, farmers must plan for planting, harvesting and storing the crops. Because so many things can ruin the crops, farmers began to think about the weather, pests, thieves, rodents and whatnot. Everything they can worry about just to protect their yield.

To make things worse, the new trend called “worrying” didn’t do much good to the farming community. No matter how well they planned or protected the crops from the predictable certainty, things like drought, infestation or even a stampede can destroy everything in a blink of an eye, leaving the farmers to starvation. No matter how many times they spent worrying and protecting the crops, everything could ramshackle like a house of card by things they couldn’t predict.

Many people say this transfer was crucial to humanity. For the first time we owned houses, supplies of food and livestock. Also, the agricultural era brought the division of labor and social roles. This in turn made us worry not only about our well-being, but the well-being of those who we depended upon.

If the theory by Leonard Martin is correct, the Neolithic Revolution brought a new set of psychological stresses because it switched from day-to-day living to worrying too much about things that could rarely be predicted.

Knowing This Is There A Way To Stop Worrying?!

Looking back 10000 years ago, we can hardly say things are getting better on the topic on how to stop worrying. Now we have a lot more things to worry about, especially since the introduction of The Information Age. We are being bombarded with so much information a day that it keeps us worried every minute of an hour. However, everything can be fixed if we have the right habits and tools, for which we’ll discuss at the end of this article.

Read After: 5 Things You Must Do To Uncover The Endless Potential That Is Slowly Dying In You

Montaigne’s quote that we mentioned in the beginning of this article made us laugh for five centuries, but worry is no joke.

The stressed caused by worrying generates serious health problems. The stress hormone that worrying throws into your brain is linked to heart disease, cancer, premature aging, family dysfunction, clinical depression, lowering your IQ, shrinking brain mass, and even making seniors more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Science tells us not to worry, and here’s the scientific research supporting my claim.

The study we mentioned in the beginning of this article, looked into how many of the things we worry about turn out to be true in real life.

In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of the things they wrote down did not actually happen.

It turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either:

a) could handle the difficulty better than expected, or
b) the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning

This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

Now that you know this, STOP WORRYING! Easier said than done, right? How to stop worrying is better question.

Just by thinking to stop worrying is not going to help you much.

We have to implement habits and basically change ourselves ENTIRELY to stop worrying and start living better life filled with happiness and great moments.

Imagine the perfect YOU, the perfect self. Don’t save anything for later, just imagine everything you ever want to be and achieve.

Now here comes the catch: what I am about to say is mind-blowing!

To become the person you want to be, you have to change everything about yourself in this moment. Everything you “think” about has to be changed. Everything you “do” has to be changed. Long story short, you shouldn’t be the person that you are right now. If you were the person that you should’ve been, you would have all those things already, right?!

Change doesn’t happen overnight, just like there is no such a thing as overnight success. Change happens with mental and physical effort. You cannot wish for it and snap your finger. It doesn’t work that way.

Here are 3 practical tips you can implement right now and start changing your mentality from farmer to hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

1. Take a pen and piece of paper and start writing

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

Ok, I have to admit. We are going to upgrade the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, since they didn’t have pen and paper, nor they planned for the future (stating the obvious).

Planning for the future is not the cause of worrying. Not knowing how the future unfolds is.

So here’s what we do. We take a pen and paper and start planning for the future.

I don’t personally know you, but I know that you, as all of us, have personal and professional goals that you want to attain.

There’s no precise guideline for this because what works for me might not work for you, but I will share my lookalike plan for the future on one of my goals.

YouTube Channel – I have 1M subscribers on YouTube by 202X year. I keep on publishing videos with enormous value without the need to get something in return.

My vision is making people’s lives better, and helping those who need help.

I publish at least 1 video a week and I will give my best in each and every video.

To be narrowed, I keep my channel strictly about self-improvement and I don’t steer clear of my vision at any cost.

I do research, assemble and write an article, and create that article in a YouTube video.

Here’s how one of my big goal looks like. Then I cut my big goal into smaller goals and do these things daily without skipping a single task.

For many people it works by only having one big goal, for example I will build a massive YouTube Channel by 2022. For me it works by cutting the big goals into smaller ones, and executing the same every day.

Once you start writing ideas will start flowing. Most of us are afraid to imagine and simply upgrade our capabilities to get that thing in the physical reality.

Start writing, have a clear plan about your future, and get to the next step, which is REALLY important.

Read Also: Mentally Strong People Never Do These 6 Things

2. Plan without action is just a wish

I don’t know if you noticed, but I never mentioned that “I will” do something in my plan. I wrote things down as I already do and own them. That way I don’t have space to wish. I give myself the pressure to do all that is necessary to have those things achieved.

After you create your plan on a piece of paper, you already have it in physical reality. It’s really important that you write your plan down, instead of typing it or remembering it, which is the worst type of planning.

When you write things out, you create spatial relations between each bit of information you’re recording. Handwriting activates parts of your brain involved in thinking and working memory, and allows you to store and manage information. The movement associated with the pen and your hand can help you encode and retain information long-term.

Since you have your plan ready, the next step is to start taking action. The difference between wishing and achieving something is your ability to execute your plan in real life.

There are many philosophies that will push you to take action, or things that will motivate you to get up on your a$s and start executing your plan. But here’s the trick: if you love what you do, if you have your plan written next to you, everything else is just an excuse. Taking action does not require you to solve math problems or unsolved mysteries. Taking action is a muscle, and you build it by pushing yourself to do more. Imagine wanting to bigger chest muscles. You will have to work out and push yourself to get those chest muscles pumped.

What we fail to realize is that we are not always going to feel happy about it. Just as I am writing this I was sick as f*ck. I have fever and I feel like throwing up any second, but you know what? No one gives a crap about that. I am going to write this article and finish it and if I need, I will end it by falling with my head on the keyboard. That’s how much I am dedicated to each bit of thing I do today.

You don’t have to go so harsh on yourself, but you do need to be harsh against your emotions. If you feel lazy or just not amused by your work, that’s just unacceptable. That’s the excuse you are making to avoid hardship.

It all boils down to the things you DO. Not the things you “think” you do, but the actual things you create in the physical reality.

Stop doing things because of others. Start beings selfish about yourself, especially when it comes to success. You are going to perish one day. As bad as it sounds, no one gets out alive anyway.

Is your current state your dream life, or you have a lot more to do to get there? If you don’t take action, your current state is going to get worse, because when we don’t improve we usually impair.

Final quote: “Take action! No one will do the work for you!”

3. Life is not a finish line. Life is a journey

Yes. I already said that things will end one day, so eventually life has to end, but that’s the mental oxymoron we are fighting. Why do we all have to think that everything has to have an end? Don’t keep on thinking that when you do “this” you will feel “that”. It just doesn’t work that way.

For example, most people think that when they have money they will be happy and solve all of their problems. I can tell you for a fact that if you work to make money just so you can be happy, then you are NEVER going to be happy when you(if you) make money.

This is because you tie your end goal (which is practically a finish line) to a thing that you hope will make you happy.

And then you keep asking yourself why you are worried. Of course you will be worried! You are chasing 75% cotton and 25% linen (that’s what the money is made of in the US) and hope they will make you happy! Where is the sense in that?

Yes, money can buy you freedom, pay your bills, and put food on your table. But money is not going to make you happy or fulfilled if you chase them for the sake of having them. You’ve got to have an endless vision, a journey behind your earnings. Otherwise they will burden you to the point where you are going to spend them just to be healthy again. You get my point?

Create goals from tiny, daily executions, that will allow you to climb to the medium and gigantic goals.

For example, by researching everyday, writing articles and filming YouTube videos I am going to build a YouTube Channel up to 1M subscribers in X years.

This sounds like a fairy tale now, but if I keep on doing it for X years, I will eventually get there.

However, if I don’t enjoy the journey, and if I do it only to get to 1M subscribers, although the chances are very low, I still might do it. But when I get there I will be more miserable than ever.

When you focus on the journey instead of the goal, you give yourself permission to be happy every second of the day. I am not saying you will be, because every grand goal requires you to go through tons of s*it, but you will hold the switch to end those undesirable emotions every second of the way.

So no, you life is not a sprint, your life is a marathon, and if you want to be happy and fulfilled most of the time, give yourself the permission to do so by going on a journey.

In these practical tips, we almost never mentioned how to stop worrying. I did that on purpose because by having a clear goal, followed by execution and going along a journey, you have nothing to worry about. You’ve had it all covered by yourself. You are no longer farming. You are gathering the fruits of your own creation.

Categories
Action Emotional Health

9 Things You Should Delete From Your Life Immediately

Some things take WAY too much of your energy and here are 9 things you should delete from your life immediately (pay attention to #9)
9 Things You Should Delete From Your Life Immediately

Some things take WAY too much of your energy and here are 9 things you should delete from your life immediately!

Long life is a short ride. Things happen so fast that we barely have the influence to change them. How we react to the changes, and the proactive choices that we make determines our future.

Many of us fall in emotional or physical traps. These traps prevent us from improving ourselves on personal and professional level. For example, if you focus on things that you don’t have, how will that turn out for you? Not so good, right?

However, there is a fix for these things, and it starts within ourselves.

Here are 9 things you should delete out of your life immediately:

1. DELETE FROM YOUR LIFE: WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE

Let’s expand what we just mentioned above.

Too many people focus on what they don’t have, right? I can even get myself caught in this trap too.

Bigger house, yacht, boats, exclusive vacations, more money… the list can go for days.

By focusing on things you don’t have you create a vortex for your energy. It is of vital importance to focus your energy on things you CAN do. No matter how small steps you take, each step will get you closer to the goal, even closer to the things you still don’t have.

Be grateful, truly grateful for what you have right now because what you have is SCIENCE FICTION for some people that don’t even have access to clean water.

2. DELETE FROM YOUR LIFE: FEAR OF FAILURE

Welcome failure, champs! Failure is the best teacher that will tutor you through life.

Too many people don’t do things because they are afraid to fail, and there can’t be growth without failure. Just like there can’t be happiness without sadness and joy without sorrow.

As a matter of fact, many people mistake fear with danger. The difference is pretty simple: if a lion charges at you, you have a real danger to be afraid. Many people confuse that it’s “dangerous” to go up on stage and speak, or ask some people for advice. Fear is just a made-up emotion we use to cave in and justify why we can’t do something.

3. DELETE FROM YOUR LIFE: SAFETY AND COMFORT

These things don’t exist. Period.

Yes, the feeling is warm and cozy when you wrap around a warm blanket at home. You can order whatever you want and you’ll get it on your doorstep in no time.

What we fail to realize is that one day we are going to die. If you are okay with dying without making big, positive impact to the world, your family and those around you, then risk-taking and excitement is not for you.

Must-Read: Nurse Revealed The Top 5 Regrets Of The Dying

4. DELETE FROM YOUR LIFE: TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS

Are you afraid of being alone? Let me break it to you: it’s x10 better to be alone then waste your time in toxic relationships.

This doesn’t include romantic relationships only. It includes friends, relatives and co-workers.

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. If you spend your time with 5 sh*tty friends, you will be the 6th.

Surround yourself with people that will support you. They don’t have to “adore” you and “compliment” you while they throw tons of s*it behind your back. Simply, they need to make you feel better when you leave their presence, not worse.

5. BEING AWARDED FOR EVERY TINY THING YOU DO

Don’t expect someone to tap your shoulder every time you do something. I was personally lonelier than a nomad! Seven years back, I started working online, completely alone! No one believed in me, people talked behind my back and my family was telling me to get a “real” job. If I waited for a tap on the shoulder, I would end up working 9-5 job that I hate.

Don’t let the support that you don’t receive make you forfeit from your dreams.

6. SHALLOW JUDGEMENTS

Everywhere I go people talk about other people. And what’s even worse is that those same people that gosip and FAR from perfect themselves. And when I say far I mean continents far!

Small minded people talk about other people, average minds discuss about events, and big minded people talk about ideas.

Don’t do it because everyone else does it. Change the conversation, start a positive narrative. Most people wouldn’t accept you because you don’t fill their empty mouth that feeds with shallow judgement. It’s okay to be alone for a while, until the right people gravitate in your life, and believe me… they will!

7. THE EXCUSES YOU HAVE BEEN FEEDING YOURSELF

People have a hard time accepting this, and you might be one of them too: you are the only one that should be blamed for your failures. Your childhood and your past do not define your future.

It is entirely true to say that we are carved by the events in our past, but it’s also true to say that your identity is ever changing! You have the wheel to steer your life in whatever direction you want.

If you focus on finding excuses instead of solutions, I will tell this straight to your face: you are going to end up as a failure and a miserable person.

Remember – when you point your finger at someone, there are 3 fingers pointing back at you.

8. THE END RESULT

I was stuck in this trap for a long time…

My previous mindset was that I thought that if I earned a number “say 12.000$ a month” that I made it! I can lie on the beach with an icy cold margarita next to me for the rest of my life. That was one of the biggest mistakes (and best teacher) that taught me that it’s very wrong to think in terms of end result.

Instead, we should acknowledge that what we do is never-ending! For people who chase comfort and safety this might be a little too much to handle, but I can assure you that if you see your life as a journey instead of an end goal, you will have an amazing shift of perspective for the better.

You won’t chase something that would end, but you would enjoy the course of events as they go.

9. PAST REGRETS

I read something the other day that really changed my life and you really need to pay attention to this: your past is your teacher, and it will never go away until you learn the lesson.

How mind-blowing is that!! I imagine this like an old person looking down at me repeats a sentence that I should engrave in my mind.

My mother passed away when I was 18 years old and that moment was really haunting me for a long time.

Fast forward years later, I finally realized that I am truly grateful to her for making me the person that I am today and that part of her will never die. It took me 10 years to finally realize that, and I feel so much relieved ever since. I only have gratefulness and appreciation for making me this stubborn dude that never wants to give up.

Don’t avoid your past, but look right through your painful memories and truly, from the bottom of your heart, try to learn the lesson that will help you out in the present and future.

I don’t want to remind you again, but if you are healthy and have a roof over your head, you are way ahead of most people in the entire world. Do not miss a single day appreciating that.

Read After: Mentally Strong People Never Do These 6 Things

Categories
Emotional Health Science & Psychology

Psychologists Reveal: Apply This 2-hour Rule and Your Life Will Change 180°

Psychologists Reveal: Apply This 2-hour Rule and Your Life Will Change 180°
Psychologists Reveal: Apply This 2-hour Rule and Your Life Will Change 180°

Throughout history, many individuals made a big difference in this world.

  • Mother Teresa – Charity worker who devoted life to serving the poor and destitute.
  • Charles Darwin – Credited with theory of evolution and natural selection.
  • Galileo Galilei – Scientist who made discoveries about the galaxy and stuck to his principles.
  • Albert Einstein – Scientist and peace advocate.
  • Dalai Lama – Spiritual leader of the Tibetans, helped popularise principles of Buddhism.

The list can go for miles, but let’s focus on what these people had in common to make that worldwide difference? Why are they different than us?

According to psychologists “Reflective Thinking” is one of the pillars of self-improvement, and that’s exactly what these people in the list above had in them that makes a distinction from the rest.

Psychologists Reveal: Apply This 2-hour Rule and Your Life Will Change 180°
Psychologists Reveal: Apply This 2-hour Rule and Your Life Will Change 180° Image source: MaxPixel

WHAT IS REFLECTIVE THINKING?

When things don’t turn out as we expected, or as we famously say “when the sh*t hits the fan” what’s the course of action that we take? The truth is that most people will easily find thousands of excuses instead of looking for solutions.

The secret of reflective thinking is looking the solution in you instead of looking it outside of you – in external factors.

I know that many will say that self-focus can be narcissistic and destructive force for us, but that’s not the case. As a matter of fact, psychological research shows that it is a critical component of positive change in life. A variety of theories on self-regulation emphasize that change requires two things: a goal, and an awareness of where ‘one’ currently is in order to assess the discrepancy between the two.

The conclusion is that if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up nowhere.

Reflective thinking offers solution through your eyes and perception.

THE 2-HOUR RULE

According to some experts, the 2 hour rule might be the solution to every problem.

Two hours might seem like a long span of time, but if you separate 2 hours a week, more or less you’ll have only 15-20 minutes a day.

So here’s how you perform it: when you get back home from work, remove all distractions. When I say all, I mean everything, including phones, tablets and noises. For this awesome exercise, you’ll need a pen and a paper.

Here are a few questions Zat Rana reflect on:

  • Am I excited to be doing what I’m doing or am I in aimless motion?
  • Are the trade-offs between work and my relationships well-balanced?
  • How can I speed up the process from where I am to where I want to go?
  • What big opportunities am I not pursuing that I potentially could?
  • What’s a small thing that will produce a disproportionate impact?
  • What could probably go wrong in the next 6 months of my life?

Zat Rana states on Business Insider:

“I can quite honestly say that this is the highest return activity in my life. It forces me to balance the short-term with the long-term. I catch problem before they become problems, and I’ve stumbled onto efficiencies and ideas that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise.

Interestingly enough, much of the value doesn’t come out of the routine questions, but from the time I have left after I run out of things to think about. It’s when I let my mind wander.

I’m not one for easy one-size-fits-all solutions, but this is an idea that I think can serve a lot of people well. We all think, of course, but not all of us do so deliberately and without distractions and guilt.

There is immense value in leaving time for that.”

BOTTOM LINE

If you are honest, how many trivial things did you do today, yesterday, and the week before that? If an average person spends 2 hours and 22 minutes a day on social networking, taking out 15-20 minutes a day to solve the biggest problems in your life is not much of an ask, right?!

Trust me. If you try this, solutions will flow like never before. Also, make sure that you write everything in the notebook (or paper) because once you have your thoughts in writing, magical things can happen! Just try this and see for yourself!

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