Let’s face it, times are tough for a lot of people in this economy. People are losing their jobs, homes and families in in some cases. Most people have the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel in bad situations, however this economy has even the more optimistic people feeling as if they were beat down to their knees. As your looking down the tunnel for a glimpse of hope you see a sign that says “The light has been temporarily turned off for failure to pay the electric bill”. Not only is the economy having an impact on peoples finances but the stress, in many cases, is carrying over and having an negative impact on individuals families and relationships. As the weight of the world is pressing on individuals shoulders I am seeing more and more people get the “why bother any more attitude.”

Well I have got news for everyone. You are definitely not in it alone, we will pull through this with time, things will eventually turn around and your life will eventually get back on track if you start taking action now. By action I mean taking the steps necessary mentally and physically to stay in the game. In these challenging times we always have to be focused on taking some chances, making some changes and always doing our personal best even when we feel as if it is not leading to progress. If we start getting that “what’s the point attitude”, which we all do from time to time, we need to stay true  to staying positive and snapping ourselves  out of  that destructive attitudes and feelings. Your happiness, success and quality of life is all directly correlated to well you can stay focused on continuously doing your personal best and pushing forward.

The time to be more diligent about always doing your personal best is when you start feeling a sense of hopelessness and an overiding sense that things aren’t going to pay off in the end for you. Trust me when I tell you, if you stay focused on your personal best, so much so that it becomes hard wired into your mind even when things seem tough great things will be in store for you. . More and more opportunities will start presenting themselves it’s just a matter of time.

In addition, when I speak of personal best I am not just referring to career or finance matters. I truly am speaking to everything that we do life. Most importantly we need to ensure we stay focused on our families and relationships. Keep in mind the amount of happiness and fulfillment that we receive in life is directly proportionate to the quality of  the relationships that we have in life.

Attached is a video / story  that I put together on an Olympic athlete that always focused on doing his personal best, regardless of the situation. Even when he could of played it safe and coasted he still pushed forward full throttle.

Stay positive, takes chances and get the life you deserve.

If you’re not quite sure how you’ll proceed, go ahead and get started anyway. The way to work out the details is to jump into the work.

Each moment that flows quickly into your life will flow out again just as quickly. While you have it, you can transform that moment into a lasting accomplishment.

Make a little bit of progress, again and again. Soon, you will have created great value.

You can do it, because you are alive and aware and willing to get where you wish to go. Whatever your situation, whatever your circumstance, you can make something positive and valuable out of it.

Choose now to make progress, and allow a positive momentum to take hold. Feel the joy of being the immensely creative person you can surely be.

Having a vague idea of where you want to go is not going to do you any good. Know exactly where you desire to be and you’re already well on your way there.

The dreams that are compelling are the dreams that will motivate you to take whatever action is necessary. And the most compelling dreams are the ones with rich and meaningful details.

The goals you will achieve are the goals you can fully describe. Give real life and substance to your goals and you’ll quickly begin to realize them.

You can choose any destination you wish for your life. So choose one that thrills you and compels you to be the best you can be.

Delight in the rich details of where you are headed. And you’ll work your way steadily there.

“It’s hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; but it’s even harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want. “ ~  Make sure you really know what you want in life and stay true to the things that you want most. It’s always easy to give up, the hardest thing is to have faith and keep holding in those moments your brain is telling you to let go. If the great things in life always came easy everyone would have them. Make your dreams a reality.

There is always one common denominator that people that are unsuccessful at over coming challenges has and that is negative self talk and question asking. While you may not be able to control every situation that life throws at you, what you can control is how you react to those challenges which puts you in a postion of greater control. When you react in a postive way to challenges you begin having better self talk and asking more empowering questions rather then negative, endless loop questions. Postive question give you a means to an end around solutions, where negative questions thrust you into a negative loop with no real answers. For example a negative endless loop question is: “Why does this always happen to me?”. Where an example of a positive question would be: “How can I turn this around?” One allows you to focus on solution, where the other your just focusing on the problem.

In addition to asking yourself postive / empowering questions when you run into issue you also need to make sure you are spending your time focused in the right things. Most people that are not able to overcome challenges are more focused on the problem then solutions.  A good rule of thumb is to spend about 20% of your time on the problem and understanding it better and 80% of your time focused on solutions appying energy that will solve the problem.

To get your started ensure you are using the 80% / 20% rule of problem solving as mentioned about in conjustion with good questions. Five great empowering questions that will help you solve any problem are as follows:

1. What is great about this problem? Or what could potentially be great about it?

2. What is not perfect yet?

3. What am I willing to do to make it the way I want?

4. What am I willing to no longer do to make it the way I want it?

5. How can I enjoy the process while I do what is necessary to make it the way I want?

By putting these practices to work in your every day life you will give yourself a tremendous amount of empowerment to get any problem solved. Please feel free to add to any of the above information and add your thoughts in the comment area below.

1. Ensure you prioritize and write down your daily to do’s and tasks the night before any given day. You have a limited amount of time each day so you have to prioritize your tasks in a way that you are able to accomplish the items that have the biggest impact to your personal and professional goals first. It is important that you work through your list of high priority tasks the night before you set out to accomplish them. By doing this your mind will actually work through that list of high priority tasks at a subconcious level while you sleep. This will give you additional momentum when you get started on them the following day.

2. Use positive self talk. Rather than saying “I have to get these tasks done” say “I want to get these tasks done” this small change can make a world of difference on how you are perceiving what you have to get done.

3. Always start with you biggest task first. The mistake that most people make is starting with their smallest tasks first. By getting your biggest task done first you you gain a huge sense of accomplishment and momentum that allows you to more easily accomplish the rest of your smaller tasks.

4. I consider this part very important in any process and that making it fun. Ask yourself how can do all of the tasks in a manner that allows you to enjoy the process and have fun doing it. Something as simple as a little music in the background can help out tremendously. Life is to short and to precious not to take advantage of and enjoy every moment. Take a moment and watch the attached video clip on how this group of people got more people to take the stairs then the escalator, which were side by side, just by adding the element of fun to the equation.

If you have any tips that have helped you break through the procrastination barrier please leave them in the comments section below. Live life with passion not regret. Chase your dreams and don’t let procrastination keep you from them.

I really, truly believe that if we as a society are running on the guiding principal that a one week vacation is truly going to meet our needs for freedom, joy, play and relaxation then we are all  screwed and doomed to a dark lonely future. After all shouldn’t life’s foundation be built on these needs and not taken like some occasional vitamin supplements that we know are important but we forget to take more often then not. So the real question is, deep down do we all want a band aid or the miracle cure that comes from deep in the rainforest that will make all our mental ailments go away for ever and give you the feelings of freedom, joy, play and relaxation each and every day. Well I have some good news for you, and the good news is that it isn’t an elixir from deep in the rain forest, that cure was already burned in a segment of the rain forest that was already trashed. It’s not even contained in some package that you can get for three easy payments of $19.95 from some late night infomercial, even though that would be some sweet deal for something of this magnitude. After all we are talking about life changing daily happiness, a life change that would make vacations not even necessary unless you really just wanted to take in new sites or meet up with friends and family members.  We are not talking small potatoes here folks.

There was an old saying that said “A loser seldom lives in the present, but instead destroys the present by focusing on past memories or future expectations”. As you look inside yourself and then look around at the people around you and how they live day to day I would say we have a tremendously large number of losers as compared to winners in this game called life. Have you really taken the time to appreciate all of the things around you in the present without letting your mind wander off to the past or future? It’s sometimes very hard to do because all of the conditioning we had growing up as we were made to feel bad about that bad grade in school or to focus on those future A’s if you want to go to college and get a scholarship. Where was the focus on the beauty and excitement of the present. The things we were taking in, how it was making us feel, how we were progressively becoming a bigger and better person as result of opening all of our senses up to what was happening in the present. Have you ever read a book to your child, if you have one,  and found your mind wondering to the incident that happened earlier at work or the fact that you have a bill coming up that you don’t know how you are going to pay.  Was it focused on how you were connecting with your child, how it was making them feel, how it was becoming a memory in their mind that they would one day cherish more then anything when you are long gone? Are you focused on the beauty of your partner at dinner and the words they are saying, feeling them, connecting with them or is you mind drifting to more tormenting things in the past or future? It’s not controlling our mind and vacationing in the present that allows those Zombies to creep in our windows and suck our brains, hearts and spirits. DAM you Zombies. Do you control your thoughts or do they control you,  making you long for that week vacation that when you get there to relax your mind just continues to wander any way. Even though it may be wandering in a nicer more exotic place with some alcohol applied, needless to says its still cycling to those things that drain you the most.

It’s time for a change, its time for all of us to lead the charge as Zombie Busters. Crush those dam zombies by taking time to stay focused on the present. It’s not an easy task, are you ready? It only comes as a result of conscious effort initially. Spend more conscious time finding the beauty and the good in the present. Connecting your heart and mind 100% with what is going on in the NOW. Not only will you gain a better sense of peace within yourself but you will find that others will more easily start connecting with you and want to come along on your journey as well. It’s time to say no to the Zombies and yes to taking control of your happiness.

Live Life With Passion Not Regret.

Just like you, I’m reflecting daily on my desire to develop a kick-ass attitude filled with positivity. Your income, success and fulfillment survives and thrives by the kick-ass attitude. Your life vampires – ego, emotional vices, hatred, despair and negativity dread to face your kick-ass attitude.

A Black Belt in Attitude

Have you ever ridden on a roller coaster? Do you remember the jolt of happiness you felt when the ride began? You were fearless, happy and immersed in the moment. Do you remember screaming later on? Or even shouting out loud? Your reality changed in the split second. You became a chicken from a ninja in matter of minutes. With the change of your reality, your attitude changed. All of these happened in matter of minutes. What you want to become with the kick-ass attitude is to learn not to change your inner reality when going gets tough.

Who is the most smashing champion of “Kick-Ass” attitude? No other name comes close to the greatness of Bruce Lee for that matter. In his short life, Bruce Lee has been remembered as the father of the modern day martial art. I’ve also stumbled upon his mastery of thoughts on the way of life – to think like a winner with the Kick-Ass attitude.

Bruce Lee’s black belt, kick-ass attitude acts as a shield to your inner reality of positivity and optimism. It’s a warrior that insures your thoughts from getting attacked by the evil of negativity. It’s a certification of mental steadfastness to wither the worst of outer reality to remain calm and confident with the mastery of focus – on what we can control and let go what we cannot.

1. Focus on what matters the most. ~

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee

What we become in life begins with the reality we create in our mind. Everything we do in our life is a reflection of what we feed our mind with. A healthy body is a reflection of a healthy diet. A healthy mind is a reflection of healthy thoughts. We waste priceless life energy by focusing our thoughts on things we cannot change – the economy, the gas price to name a few. We can certainly transform our lives by investing our priceless life energy into what we can change – by setting realistic goals that can be measured and by working hard until those goals become a reality. Work on one goal at a time and immersed yourself with best of your ability and most noble intentions. You’ll be amazed at uplifting and positive attitude of your own as a result.

2. Come out of “Me, Me, Me” shell ~

“Real living is living for others.” – Bruce Lee

It’s easy to get lost in the incessant desire to lock all of our thoughts into a “me” shell. Our desire for the more throws us into a never ending roller coaster ride of emotions of highs and lows in matter of a short time span. Sadly enough, our attitude is always a loyal servant to our egotistical desires. When we do something for others, we give freedom to our thoughts. Our thoughts grow with the food of positivity that we feed by making difference in some-one’s life. Life is an echo. What we do comes back to us. The more we give to others, the more we receive from the universe. Our attitude fires up with the higher self-worth and feeling of contentment that comes from within. The subtle yet the profound change begins to take place in our mind. We feel happy with enough and learn to let go our yearning for the more.

3. Control your mental chatter ~

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee

We have a formidable foe who never leaves us. He’s there when we are awake and never sleeps when we are at sleep. He talks to us constantly. He tells us how we shall program our mind. In fact, he is the chief programmer of our mind, a Chief Technical Officer of our life. He’s the invisible devil who chatters with our mind. When we drive and if a car comes close, he’s chatting madness. When we speak with a friend and if our friend disagrees with us, this devil chatters with our mind, “Hell with this guy, he is stupid.” He creates a fake reality in our mind about what we see and experience everyday. He’s in full control. You can squash this devil if you learn to free up your mind. Listen to others when they speak intently, bury emotions that sprung out of the mental chatter with a smile. You’ll soon become the master of your invisible foe. Your upbeat attitude will squash any mental chatter that tend to bore negative attitude.

4. Strive to live the life of values and transparency ~

“If you make an ass out of yourself, there will always be someone to ride you” – Bruce Lee

Our attitude is a selfless, loyal servant of our own desires. Our attitude grows with our own desire to live the values that we strive for in our life. Often those who succumb to the “me-centered” thoughts sell their values and transparency for the sake of achieving a life of possessions. What they forget in their pursuit of collecting those possessions is that they become possessed by the same possessions they brag most about. It’s easy to fool others but equally harder to fool our own inner consciousness. The road taken to shortcut the pathway to success ends up with the obstacles of major bumps from the diminished self value. A life of integrity and transparency leads to the longer yet pleasant journey to the peaks of success with picturesque view of your beautiful inner self. The choice is yours to make.

5. Set achievable goals ~

“As you think, so shall you become.” – Bruce Lee

A lousy attitude is an outer expression of our metal clutter. When we don’t have a clarity in life, when we don’t take time to develop a worthy purpose driven by achievable goals that we can monitor and measure, we tend to play the blame game – We tend to blame the world for our state of being, we blame our partner for every hiccup in our relationship, we blame our boss for not making more money.. You get the idea. We tend to focus our thoughts on the blemish desire to hold others accountable for our apathetic, loser attitude. The good news is that we can change all of that in matter of minutes. All we need to do is to understand the axiom of life - We are where we are is the culmination of our thoughts and actions thus far. That can be changed as easily as a sailor changes the navigation of his boat. Take control of your destiny. If you don’t, someone else will definitely be in charge for the better or worst of your fate yet to come.

6. Stay away from the influence of negativity ~

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee

Time is the most precious treasure we have. We can make more of other things in life but we cannot make more time. With our short journey on this earth, we shall always be mindful about spending our time with and for the positivity in our life. Our life constantly evolves. We grow up with friends and relatives who sometimes are negative. As much as we love them for their relationship with us, We shall never allow their toxic emotions to influence our thoughts. I keep a journal of my life with the events of the day that I can reflect upon to understand the subtle influence of negativity in my life. Without the awareness, negativity creeps into our mind with deftness of a robber to rob our passion and purpose. Be conscious about every conversation that you engage in with your friend or a family member and cut short those conversations of negativity swiftly to spend your time on the worthy causes of life – clarity and inner happiness.

Final Thought

Attitude is a choice. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can certainly control how we react to it. Bruce Lee believed in the life of offense with a “Kick-Ass” attitude of positivity. If we constantly work on -

~ Our consciousness to be aware of the thoughts we focus on

~ Strive to do something for others

~ Control our own metal chatter of negativity

~ Live the life of utmost values and transparency

~ Set achievable goals and work hard on them

~ Learn to stay away from our emotional vices

We will earn a diploma from the Bruce Lee’s Institute of “Kick-Ass” attitude.

1.) Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Too often, we place excess importance on potential problems. We all have a certain amount of energy so let’s apply it to creating extraordinary relationships, advancing our careers and meeting our goals INSTEAD of wasting that energy worrying. Take action on what you have control over and minimize risks for what you don’t. Then invest your energy wisely.

2.) In doing something for the first time, imagine that you have already done it in the past. Close your eyes, then vividly imagine you succeeding wildly at what you are really going to do for the first time. The mind does NOT know the difference between something VIVIDLY imagined and something real. Make it vivid by involving all 5 senses.

3.) Find someone who is already confident in that area and copy them. Model as many of their behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs for the context you want to be confident in as you can. How can you do this? Talk with them if you have access to them. If you don’t have access to them, get as much exposure to them as you can. This could be talking to people who know the person and/or buying their products if they have some.

4.) Use the “as-if” frame. I literally love this frame of mind. If you were confident, how would you be acting? How would you be moving? How would you be speaking? What would you be thinking? What would you tell yourself inside? By asking yourself these questions, you are literally forced to answer them by going into a confident state. You will then be acting “as-if” you are confident. Now just forget you are acting long enough and pretty soon you’ll develop it into a habit.

5.) Go into the future and ask if what you’re faced with is such a big deal. This might be a bit morbid and yet this works tremendously well. Imagine yourself on your deathbed looking back over your life. You are surrounded by your friends and family. You’re reviewing your life. Is what you’re faced with now even going to pop up? That’s highly unlikely. Keeping things in proper perspective really diminishes fear.

6.) Remember that you lose out on 100% of the opportunities that you never go for. To get what you want, ask for it. I fully believe that if I ask enough people for whatever I want, I can get it. This is not necessarily true and yet it’s a useful belief. As you think about your goals and what you are striving for, how effective would it be for you to believe that all the people out there want to help you if you only ask? Whether that is true or not in the “real world” does not matter. If you find that belief empowering, I invite you to adopt it as your own.

7.) Disarm the nagging, negative internal voice. That negative internal voice can keep anyone stopped. To disarm the internal voice, imagine a volume control and lower the volume. Or how about changing the internal voice to Mickey Mouse? Do you think you could take Mickey Mouse seriously if he were criticizing you? Change the voice to a clown voice. The point is to disarm the voice by altering the way it nags at you. If I hear my own voice nagging me, it stops me. If I hear a clown voice, I laugh and continue onward.