3 things you need to know

Have you ever wondered how different our world would be if we had the ability to travel back in time?

I have always had this fantasy to travel back in time. Think of all the insight you would carry with you. Imagine if the internet came out in the 1800's or sooner.

Albert Einstein in his book Relativity explains how the present , future and past all exists simultaneously. In Steven Hawking's lectures he explains to us how black holes warp time and space. H.G. Wells with his novel The Time Machine in 1895 has moved the notion of time travel into the public imagination.

Yet as wondrous of theory time travel is, our exponential growth as a civilization began amongst many inventions and systems. The printing press allowed information to flow into the hands of middle and lower class people. Now think if those same people had the internet.

We thrive on information. We grow from information. We become more civil and less violent.

We may not have the ability to travel back in time however we can get into the minds of the geniuses who no longer walk this earth.

Reading allows us to see what they seen and to learn what wisdom they carried. We can also find very useful information through various blog sites, reddit/subreddits (a sharing platform for users who write on certain subjects, oh yes it is all categorized), quoara (ask a question and people from around the world will answer with their opinion). Google Scholar is an excellent source for academic essays.

Those are just some examples, there are many more platforms of which we share mass information. The key and not so easy task is filtering out all the noise and taking in what is useful.

Time is not on our side unfortunately, and useless information is a time waster.

You may think reading this post may be wasting your time. So let me give you a couple of takeaways that way you can leave feeling that you gained some insight of which you may or may not have had before reading this.

Useful App: Pandora. Keeps me on track with fewer distractions by being mindful of the time spent on each activity, thanks to Darius Foroux the founder of Procrastination Zero. I have been implanting this app and it has increased my productivity by 100%.

Useful Tip: Let the person talk. We are great at putting up a guard/wall and not revealing our vulnerability. You want to find out what holes there are in someone's story, let them talk. Compliment them, agree with them, and listen intently. When people become comfortable with you their guard goes down and they will tell you things unintentionally that they didn't want you knowing.

Useful Practice: Get uncomfortable. You think successful people who love what they do never seek uncomfortable circumstances? You are mistaken. Yes even the people who love their jobs and love what they do the only way they progress is by constantly putting themselves in uncomfortable positions. Comfort is a root cause of mediocracy.

Useful content always wins in this information saturated world.

Going back to the beginning of this post. How different would this world be if we traveled back in time. Our population would be 10x what it is now, maybe 100x. Our resources would become scarce, however I believe we would have already inhabited more than one plant outside this world/universe.

You can see how fast everything is moving now and imagine if this growth began centuries ago.

I hope you can see what I see.

I am no visionary. I am no historian. I am no writer. I am a businessman who loves to observe and put things into perspective. Who loves to question the norm/status quo. Who loves to read, write, give back and most importantly imagine.

You are thinking I should not be saying these stories, 'of what I am not', to myself because the stories we tell ourselves become the truth/reality in how we live our lives. More useful information for you. Understand the stories you tell yourself, they predetermine your destination.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Share it and like it if you found this useful. To be continued....

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Today is your last day

You are asking last day of what? Work? Activity? Rent? Relationship?

No.

Your last day of living.

This is a hypothetical assumption. What will you do today if you knew you had 24 hours left to live?

I know in my post Are you living a fulfilled life I had suggested for you to plan to do something that is on your bucket list sooner than later.

Today I want you to challenge your everyday thinking. Why?

To bring a new perspective and a unique insight to you and myself. One of which we tend to discount.

So how would your day go? Really think about it. I am not going to suggest to you or decide for you how you should live your last day instead I will tell you what I would do in hopes that it provides an idea to build upon.

I would wake up early. Write in my journal a list of things I am grateful for. Write the things I have learned the day before.

Have a cold shower, brush my teeth, and meditate for 20 minutes. Once that is done I would walk my dogs, eat some fruit. I would than read for about 30 minutes. After my reading session I will wake my girlfriend up, and tell her I love her.

So far this is how my mornings go most days when I don't have important meetings scheduled for when I wake up. Sometimes the time zone doesn't allow me to get this routine done because of the people I need to communicate with are in different time zones.

How are you doing so far? Have you laid out your morning plan yet?

I would then call all the people who I have not had great relationships with or are in dispute with and I would conjure, apologize and resolve any dispute no matter how big or small.

I would reach out to all my family that is local and out of country and explain to them how grateful I am for them to have been in my life.

My day can finish here and I would go in peace.

With the rest of the time spent I would read some more. Spend time with my girlfriend. Write, reach out to my partners and employees in my businesses and give them my last thoughts, and then on my last evening throw a party for everyone who knows me.

Invite them to share their thoughts and feelings about me.

I got this idea from Tuesdays With Morrey a living funeral. A man dying from ALS slowly deteriorating right in front of us. Gives us many life lessons. A very insightful novel as well you can watch the nightline video of his progression over a few months.

A living funeral were people come and say things about you as they would at a funeral except you acknowledge the things being said.

So how would you live your last day? Would you live it in gratitude? Would you live it in sorrow? Would you do the things you do everyday or would you do them differently?

The point of this is for you to become aware of how you are living now in the present and ask yourself, why do things have to change for you to live differently if you only had one day to live?

Live everyday as if it were your last

Take notice how I didn't say anything about going on social media, responding to emails, or doing anything that results in unproductive use of my time.

Your day will be different than mine.

Can this be applied to business? Before you commence work you should ask these 3 key questions.

Can someone do it better than you? Delegate.
Does it require your specific skills? Do it.
Can it wait for a later time? Reschedule it.

I learned this from Brian Tracy. He gives very useful advice for time management. This is what this post unravels. How you spend your time matters. Being mindful of it is all it takes for progression to take place.

On a side note, we will get back on track now. I know I have a few posts to catch up on. It is due to some unforeseen changes in devices as well as in my business. (I know this sounds vague but I will discuss it another time)

Changing my habits is something I will have to master. With due time it will only better me, my business, in turn you the audience.

Thank you for your patience and support and of course for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

If you aren't already reading this you can check out my redesigned website Karasingroup.com

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Are you born a good writer?

Get into the habit of writing, it will be a very useful skill in life and business.

This is an unusual post. Let me explain why.

I began writing this post last night at approximately 11:00 pm pacific time. I had a topic in mind, "Do you think writing is hereditary?" However there was just no way to get into the flow of writing the post. Ill give you a snippet of how it went. Then after ill get 'write' into the topic.

Ill keep it short since we all know our attention span is just not like it once was.

My strategy for writing these posts so far has been asking a question or making a statement with the purpose of making you think critically about it.

Giving you the research behind it, then put in my two cents. Leaving you with a take away to apply to your daily life and business.

I believe by giving you this snippet of what I wrote last night it will tie into this topic nicely.

Here is the snippet.

"So I am sitting here. I have a topic. I want to write about. Is writing hereditary?

However in my presence there are four gorgeous girls, loud music, and lots of food which is making it very distracting to write about writing.

Snapchat is taking over the living room. Selfies. I hear my name being called out to change the channel, get the music player out, take the spring rolls out of the oven.

Now I put something on T.V. to keep them entertained however since they are interested in what I put on for them to watch, I now myself am curious.

Distractions.

Do good writers write with these kind of distractions? I am sure they do, however the quality of their writing is poor.

Now I hear Etta Jones with 'At Last' playing. I love jazz. The best of vines is playing on T.V.

Very distracting.

App founders have mastered the best tools for our decreasing short attention span. 

I was hoping by starting out this way that I would get into the flow of writing. However tuning out this noise is proving to be a struggle. It is Saturday night eleven P.M. in the city of Vancouver. For me it is another night for great hustle.

It feels the same as when we surf the web or any social app, all the noise out there bombarding us and wanting to take away the one commodity of which we cannot reclaim, time.

Quite.

All the noise has seized, the girls are all getting ready to go out. Am I this dork sitting at home on his computer writing?

The flow is just not there, do I quit? Do I give up on tonight? Go read something useful and wake up early to take over the world.

I now switch over to Thought Catalog to read a post from Ryan Holiday. Usually I find good inspiration in reading other well thought out posts.

You want to get in my head? Let's do it. I am thinking about how much I suck right now being pulled from this post and thinking about the poor content I am about to publish on here.

Let's give you something useful if you haven't already left this post.

Now I hear the fan blowing, window is open, people yelling outside singing happy birthday. I just can't get into the groove. I will have to get back to this post when the flow comes to me. See you in 8 hours..."

Distraction. I am back now, what did you think of the snippet?

You can clearly see writing takes effort, time, commitment, and focus. It is not something that you are born with and that is genetically passed down.

Your experience, practice and the environment of which you are surrounded by can impact your talent, and your ability to become a great writer.

I believe people who are born gifted with dyslexia or other forms of cognitive obstacles will have a harder time writing versus the general population. That goes without saying.

However even if you are born with a 'disadvantage' your nurturing can determine your ability into becoming a good writer.

What is this post about?

Is it about being a good writer?

Is it about knowing how to write at all?

No.

My focus was to tackle whether or not good writing is nurtured or natured.

Some of you will disagree and I accept that. Every one has their own beliefs and arguments. This is mine.

I came up with this topic after a conversation I was having with my family. Unearthing my mom's ability to compose poems, and my grand fathers unique writing skills. What should be noted here is the amount of practice of which had come into effect.

I am not talking about simple school level practice. I am suggesting that you need to go beyond the school education and write on your own time. Well read books also contribute to your writing capabilities.

How do I know that "Good" writing is not hereditary? Because as I keep writing I keep getting better at composing and delivering my message to you.

Remember I am not doing this just for you, but more so for myself.

Conclusion

I believe writing is a skill that can be mastered. If it was hereditary why are we not seeing more siblings or children from prominent writers publish their work. 

We are all writers, some are better than others because they choose to build their skill to become better. Writing is a much needed skill in business because it is one of your avenues for communication.

When you are a good writer most times you are also a well spoken individual.

Good writing displays your wisdom and wealth of knowledge.

Emails, meetings, reports, seeking financial backing, sales and blogging are some examples of writing use in business.

If you cannot effectively communicate your message through a clear and concise manner in writing "they might wonder what else you failed to learn that might be useful."

Reference read:http://business.time.com, image by og-softskills.com

Have you found meaning in life?

What is more important to have more stuff or a meaningful life?

The latter we have the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Former we have the hustle, grind, and tenacity.

I bet you are thinking the latter makes sense, and it does you aren't wrong there. So let's examine how do you get to the latter.

How do we find meaning in life? Where does it come from? Why haven't we all found it? and who defines what meaning is?

For short answers: Having a purpose; Comes from within; We don't care to look for it; No one defines it for us but us.

Let's elaborate, I will still keep it short I promise.

Having a purpose

If you have never read the book by Viktor Frankil I highly recommend you do. Men's Search For Meaning, outlines one basic principle, Purpose. We can all ask ourselves how does a man imprisoned in a concentration camp during world war 2 find purpose and the meaning of life.

"It did not really matter what we excepted from life, but what life expected from us" Don't go searching for the meaning of life, instead take responsibility for the life you have and give your actions a purpose.

We all have a meaning under all circumstances, and we all have the freedom to choose to see that meaning.

Viktor suggest we have three ways to find this meaning that already exists. By creating work or doing a deed, experiencing something or encountering someone, or by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.

Look around you right now and ask yourself, "am I doing something that is for a greater purpose than my selfish reasoning?".

Comes from within

The choice is ours. Even if it comes from an external source we are still the ones who decide to give our life meaning.

We don't care to look for it

We get easily distracted, even more so now than ever before. Do you chase the shiny objects? I am sometimes guilty of this myself. An article in Medical Daily suggests with studies conducted that our attention span has gone from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, in the last decade alone, due to digital disruption.

How can we possibly find meaning or purpose in what we do when we are too busy checking what our friend's are doing on Facebook or Snapchat.

I am here to tell you that we can find it, not if but, when we look hard enough and put aside all the distractions.

Answering the question "Why?" can better help us understand the purpose to what we are doing or wanting to do. Ask "Why" more than once.

No one defines it for us but us

No one dreams for us, no one loves for us, no one is sad for us. So how could anyone define what our purpose is?

Okay so now we got that out of the way, let's ask ourselves this, does a person with less stuff have a more meaningful life?

How would you answer that question? (Email me) I think if a person has less stuff and is content, or happy, than I would say yes. However it doesn't take stuff to give you meaning or purpose.

"Neither money or power will give you the feeling you are looking for no matter how much or how little you have of them." Morrie Shwartz

So what if you could have both? More stuff and a meaningful life.

I believe once you have found your purpose or calling nothing else matters.

This post has come at a good point in my life because I struggle with this, more so lately. What really helps is the education and wealth of knowledge of better understanding this subject. Even writing these words has helped me reflect further into my own purpose.

To be truly honest with you I was after the fame and glory most of my life, I didn't care if life had meaning or not.

What became a tipping point for me to understand my purpose? An incident occurred 7 years ago at my 9-5 job at which point I had to reevaluate what I was going to continue to do. Risk my life for someone else, or risk failing by taking an opportunity at which I can be my own boss.

Now more than ever I believe I am doing the right things with the right people. To be less vague, I believe that the companies I have founded are my tools and education that I need to push myself into the next stage in business.

Also  in my personal life as well I am forced to look at how the present is unfolding and I am coming to a fork in the road where I need to make a choice.

The choice is always ours. If you don't understand, the best thing to do is to learn, and keep learning, and keep learning, and than teach.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

You can also find this article on the Karasingroup.com.

References from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning
Image by huffingtonpost.com

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We are hard wired to want what we cannot have.

I am going to be prejudice here so bare with me. Why do males have a hard time resisting the sight of a beautiful female?

What makes a female beautiful? Or I should be asking what are the societal norms of beauty?

I would like to explore these questions in depth.

On occasion when a pretty woman walks past a man, that man will stare. Some go as far as giving the up and down look, and some would go even further and stare when she has passed. The latter we will address as creeps.

Going beyond just being curious. Staring far too long, yes there is an appropriate time to stare, and staring with the wrong intentions.

Observing these creeps in action, watching the creeps watch the female pass by, makes me question our sociology.

I am not sure why it bothers me so much. I suppose their motives bother me, that I have a beautiful girlfriend and that she has no choice but to renounce this behavior, or that I see we are primates and these are our true instincts.

That we are hard wired genetically and neurologically and we cannot escape this reality to love and be physically attracted to good looking females, to power and fame.

Of course what the person looks like on the inside can make the individual more attractive. However how do we know what their like on the inside when we don't know them?

Looks are always first to be judged. That the nature of the beast as shallow as it may sound. Would you be with someone who is not attractive?

Yes everyone has their own taste, just as the title of this post suggests, and everyone has their idea of what makes a person attractive. However there are some women that the masses find attractive.

Another shallow thought, I find it interesting to note that many times a woman that is not so attractive would be found attractive from further away. Why is that?

I believe it is because when they are beyond what the eye can fully analyze the mind makes its own judgement and adds/filters what it believes will make the woman more attractive if she was standing next to you. Our mind fills in the gaps of what is missing in the equation.

We need to take notice here to how the mind works.

So what makes a woman attractive?

Physical appearance, clothing, posture, confidence, grooming. All these play a big part in a woman's level of attractiveness.

That can also tell us a bit about the woman's character. Her discipline, organization, health. Although it paints a tiny picture of what goes on the inside we don't know everything judging by the looks.

So is an attractive woman a good person? Not always, she can be self absorbed, obsessed, imprudent.

Why is it one sided? Why do women get more stares then man do? Are women not hard wired like men? Do they not have as much interest?

I guess being a guy and observing the extremism that goes on in our society I hold a biased belief. We can all agree that a good looking person is well good looking. Once you get to know the person that will change your perception.

Ill end on this note. To be the best version of you, be a good person inside and out and you will be the ultimate catch. Women ignore the creeps, there will always be people who just have, to put it nicely, an unsophisticated mentality. Men be mindful of how you look at women.

Education is the ultimate guide to solving all of our societal blunders. The smarter we are the better people we become inside and out, that goes for everyone.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

Image copyright by tighgaphack.com

This is for you, Business owners.

Every good business has this in common: Customer Service.

It does not matter if you are in the service industry or if you are selling product, or if you are online or brick and mortar, you will be dealing with customers no matter what.

What is a business? You have something that another person wants or needs and you sell it to them.

Your best customers are the one's that come back, repeatable customers. Your second best are referral, the ones that come because you have given excellent customer service to your original consumer.

Let me sum it up for you if you don't want to continue reading this post in one sentence.

If you want to give great customer service and don't know how, think like a consumer, put yourself in their shoes and think how will they react to the interaction, and service or product.

We can end the post here, however I love to give examples, and go into more detail with you.

How do you get your first clients?

Word of mouth? Sure that is a good way. Advertise? Possibly. Now let me ask you this. What is your return on your investment (ROI)? How much does it cost you to build your customers and community?

Repeat customers bring your initial ROI down every time they come back. Referral customers cost you zero. To get to the zero sum game you must first understand your customer's needs, identify their main problem, and solve that problem by providing better service than your competitors.

Everything is about experience. Your repeat customers come back because they have experienced something good.

Let me step aside here and ask you, do you remember the last time you had a bad experience buying something? Than after regretting your purchase you never went back to the same store or called the same company back for a service. Most certainly you not only refrained from telling your friends and family to go there, but you also went out of your way to let them know how horrible this service was.

You love to let people know the good restaurants and nail salons to go to because you have had an awesome experience there and you wish to share it because you want people to experience what you have experienced.

What amazes me is that businesses still don't get that treating their customers with importance matters. Customers do not buy service or product, they buy emotion and experience.

Let me tell you about a terrible experience I had at a hotel. No this is not a review or a testimonial, this is me giving you an example about bad customer service. By the way every business should go out of their way to get testimonials, if possible, from every client that walks through their door.

We love our privacy. I felt violated when the hotel staff made an intrusion into my room without knocking or any warning simply to check up on me. It was absolutely unnecessary, and their concern was to see why I have not called the maid service for that particular day.

There was no excuse or apology made. It was something that they considered the norm. Not to mention that the privacy card was on the door.

On the contrary I have had some amazing experiences at hotels around the world. That make me want to give them a great review because I want others to share the same experience that I had.

The best way for a business to understand their level of customer service is by shortening the feedback loop. What is a feedback loop? It is the feedback you receive from the consumer, could be done by a review, survey, or just simply asking them after they have made their purchase how everything went.

Listen don't just hear what they have to say.

Yes there is a difference.

Listening requires for you to focus on what they say, how they say it, and why they are saying it. Intentionally understanding what the customer is talking about. Than taking action based on what was said. Hearing is non of those things.

Kaizen is a Japanese term for continues improvement. When you get feedback from the customer you want to apply and continuously improve your business to cater to their wants/needs. This is why it is important to receive the feedback immediately and not months later.

You definitely should not change your business based on what one or two customers say. You should however be able to understand what works and what doesn't work. If of course all the customers are complaining about the same thing, then you need to reevaluate your strategy, possibly your structure.

Sometimes it is difficult to see things within the company due to bias opinions, and that is were it is best to bring in and outside perspective. "If it's not broken, don't fix it. If you want to grow, then change you way of thinking."

One of the greatest thought leaders of our time "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them." Albert Einstein.

It is interesting to note that the customers that share their feedback on their own will are usually the ones that had an absolutely amazing experience or the ones that had a horrible experience that they wouldn't want their worst enemy's to experience.

Why is that?

It is because it stands out in our mind the most. We are social creatures and we love sharing our ideas, our feelings, and our experiences.

"Attract people with honey not vinegar"

Let me give you an example of a business that is growing exponentially because of the model and is about to over take the hotel industry in value. Air B and B is a community where buyers and consumers can interact and a service is exchanged; accommodation.

They are growing so fast not because they are an online platform, but because how they have built their community (more on this later). Their feedback loop allows for consumers and sellers to build trust among each other and among strangers.

"Treat every customer like they are the only customer you have."

I want to end it with a somewhat contradictory statement that I will elaborate on another time. The customer isn't always right.

Thank you for reading this post. To be continued....

Image copyright by cloudsoftwareprogram.org

You are a hypnotist and you don't even know it

When we say hypnotist we automatically assume a person
waving around a clock with a pendulum motion.
This is often not the case at all.

Most times people who joke they mean it.

Recently I moved to the city into an apartment. One of my good friends, whom I also consider a mentor, had said to me he would never see me again. He lives in the suburbs, and he was right.

At the time you don't take it seriously. Subconsciously it is programmed into their hard drive. The input that goes in eventually becomes the output that comes out.

So how does this work?

We are not able to consciously remember all of the information that is presented to us at any given time. We can process more information than what our conscious mind is capable of understanding.

So basically you have 3 stages of which the information gets stored. Before I get into that I want to also explain that we have 3 layers of which we process the information. I do not want to bore you with science and neurology of the details of every stage, and besides I am no expert.

I do have an understanding of how it generally works and it also relates to what I would like to convey in this post.

The 3 stages of storage are:

Sensory Memory, the shortest term memory storage acquired through the different senses within a very short amount of time. Remembering what something looks like by looking at it for a very brief moment. 

Short-Term Memory, Remembering and processing information at the same time, can usually hold up to 7 items at a time. To understand my next sentence you are holding the last sentence in your short term memory.

Long-Term Memory, Being able to recall information that has been stored for longer periods of time and that can be easily accessible when going through the process of retrieving it.

The 3 layers of processing this information are:

Conscious: Begins in our fore brain, it is our superego, spiritual awareness.

Subconscious: Mid brain, our ego, mental awareness, social growth.

Unconscious: Behind brain, our ID, Basic level growth, Physical awareness.

Why am I explaining all this technical jargon?

By being able to better understand this we can become more mindful of our input/output of information.

What you focus on is what you will process consciously, everything else gets processed subconsciously and unconsciously. We cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. Even though some of us may think we are great at multitasking. We are actually switching focus from one task to the next.

When my friend suggested that we wouldn't see each other, it came from his conscious state, he than stored it into the long term memory, and he trained his mind to believe that it is truth.

When this happens the mind will do everything it can to work for that statement. Meaning the story that he tells himself and myself creates a barrier between us.

We are all hypnotists. I subtly tell someone something and when they don't acknowledge the information, it then moves into their sensory memory. They act on it without even realizing it.

Let me give you a personal example of this.

My girlfriend would say "I hope you carry the spray on you at all times when you walk the dogs." I would then brush that statement of saying "I always do". Two things happen here, first she programmed me to always remember to bring the spray whenever I am ready to walk the dogs, second I program myself to always remember that.

Be careful of how you say something, more importantly what you say. Saying things like "Don't forget to..." or "Don't do that..." You are storing the negatives in both yours and the other person's memory.

How?

Our conscious mind has a filter, fortunately and unfortunately our unconsciousness and subconscious minds have no filter.

What goes in, goes in and becomes a part of you.

What I find very interesting is the amount of information that we are able to store. The more difficult part is retrieving that information.

Cal Newport and Scott Young have been able to distinguish the research behind how to successfully store information into the long-term memory and to retrieve it as needed.

The brief run down of it is this. Forget your basic studying techniques and become unconventional with them. Meaning involve your other senses in your study habits.

So what does this all mean for you?

Be mindful. Of what you do, what you say, who you say it to. What you watch, what you listen to. This all shapes you to become well....you guessed it, YOU.

Credit resource to Human-memory.net, Dr Francis Vala, Image copyright by minddisorders.com

Are you living a fulfilled life?

There is one thing that is certain in life, and that is death. We all know the end will come, it is unavoidable. Having this information smack right at our face why do we choose to live life to the fullest only when we know that we have been diagnosed with a terminal illness?

Why are we not living life now, in this very present moment?

Fear.

We are afraid to live life, we are afraid to get uncomfortable. We are terrified of taking risks because we have been nurtured to take the safe route.

Life isn't as safe as we make it out to be. Any day you can walk out and get hit by a car. You are more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash. Some cities in the world are so dangerous that the average age of living is 35 years old.

Yes overall we have increased our average life span compared to our ancestral. However we have more viruses and diseases that are likely to kill us even if we take every precaution possible.

We spend endless amounts of money on research, yet we cannot come close to finding cures for these terminals illnesses. We send aid to other countries and yet we cannot restore them.

Mother nature is unpredictable and at any moment we can get struck by an earth quake and a tsunami and lose all our belonging if not our lives as well.

When an asteroids impacts this planet what do we do than? It is all over. There is no saving each other from mother nature. This has happened before, why couldn't it happen again?

Wow that was awfully pessimistic, yet realistic start to the post wouldn't you say. Did that put you in a great mood or what?

Not everyone is living in fear. Many people are living life on their own terms, how they presume life should be lived. Our calculated predictions thanks to technology allow us to be more certain for causes that are beyond our control.

We have come along way in bio research and are able to reconstruct living organisms. Bring to life extinct organisms. Play with the genome sequence to alter the genes in living beings.

Where am I leading you to? If you haven't figured it out, than let me lay it out for you.

Live life like tomorrow is your last day. You shouldn't have to be diagnosed with critical illness to have a new perspective on life. Spare any argument or conflict you have with anyone. Do things you have always wanted to.

I am not saying you should go out right this moment and do the wildest thing you want to do. What I am saying is don't leave it too late for when you are no longer able to do the thing you wanted to the most.

It is a process and we hear about people doing all sorts of adventuress stuff. Let me contradict myself here. If for you living life means reading and staying at home and working your 9-5 job. Than that is absolutely awesome. You are living life.

But if you are complaining you are not doing something you want, than what are you waiting for? What is holding you back?

Here is a simple list of things to consider when you want to get something done.

1. Write down 5 things you really want to do, that if you were gone tomorrow you would go in peace not thinking "I wish I have done this..."
2. Pick 1 of those 5 things you chose, could be the hardest to accomplish or easiest either way you would feel great at having done so
3. Write out the very first step you need to take to begin the journey. Doesn't matter how small the step is. Even if it is simply just writing something down, brainstorming, or scheduling an appointment to talk about it. Simply start.
4. Do not miss the opportunity to start. After you have written what you wanted to do, and your first step towards achieving it, break down the end goal into many obstacles.

          What you thought it was going to be easy? Yes there will be obstacles, and many of them. Turn           those obstacles into the path of which will guide you through the process of achievement.
     
      5. Now you have laid out your end goal, the first step, the obstacles you may encounter along                 the way. You are asking whats next? Set yourself deadlines for every tiny step that you will need           to get to eventually get to your end result, and have someone else hold you accountable to                   achieve those deadlines.
          
          When you are held accountable you are more likely get it done. It is a psychological practice,             meaning that when you are held accountable for your actions you will take them more seriously           because you will feel responsible by letting others down even though  it is your own goal. We             always strive to be our best selves. We also are more likely to seek the help needed to                           accomplish what we set out to do.

How do you figure out which steps you need to take? Work back words from your end goal. Reverse engineer it. So lets say for example you want to go sky diving.

1. Start by writing it down.
2. Make an appointment in your calendar of the day you will call around to find the best pricing in your area for sky diving, check their reviews.
3. You will need to book a day off, so do research as to what day will work in your schedule, and no "someday" is not a day on your calendar. Find out what you will need to prepare before the day arrives.
4. Call a friend and ask them to join you, or give them the task of checking in with you to make sure the day is booked for when you will go, and the things you need to bring are prepared before the day.
5. Do it.

Even when you start the process you will feel a sense of accomplishment

"Start and you are half way there."

What am I doing to live life?

When I choose to do something, I make sure that I ask myself these two things. Do I find fulfilment in what I am about to do? Will this make me happier?

Because tomorrow could be my last day.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

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How can you become an influencer?

How does one become an influencer? Hard consistent work, that's the simple truth. By offering value, sharing it for free, you begin to build your pillars.

Why would people want to listen to you or become your follower? Because you have something to offer them. Sometimes things go viral, when you release information at the right moment in time, however this happens rarely.

First you must educate yourself. The best is to learn and become an expert in one or two fields.

"They say if you are a jack of all trades, you are a master of non." Artis Hicks.

Learn, and continuously improve. It takes learning from experiences to build an internal database. No one knows it all but you can bring a ton of insight into things people don't know yet.

You will be received by people who don't understand as a genius and by people who know what your talking about as just an ordinary individual.

Don't get too fixed on the rewards you will gain by sharing your value, if that is your primary focus then you have lost and your climb to become an influencer just became that much harder. Fuck it. I am going to be bold and say that at this day and time where you can find any information you seek to find, you will not become an influencer if your putting a price on the value you have to offer.

Definition of influencers; a person or a group that has the ability to influence the behavior or opinions of others. They have developed a set of skills and talent and their able to share it through a megaphone with anyone who is willing to gain the wisdom.

I would love to become an influencer. However right there I am thinking about it all wrong, remember when I said 2 paragraphs ago not to worry about the reward, so this is where I check myself and get my focus back on track.

Educating myself by paying attention to my influencers, which I will get to in a moment, how they have impacted my life. Reading, writing, observing, living, working, there is no specific order to this, all are valuable in building the set of skills I need to be able to offer value to whoever wants to hear it.

Stepping to a side note here, an insight came to me last night. I thought to myself what do all these non-fiction personal advancement books I read have in common. The one thing they have in common is that every author regurgitates ideas in their own words that they find in various other books on the same subject.

They are no smarter than you are I. Same goes to every single person out there that is successful and that is an influencer. They are no better, they attained this wisdom by studying their field and working deliberately hard at understanding every pillar.

Let's examine the people who have influenced my life. I will give you the names and how they have influenced my life.

Will start with authors.

Simon Sinek; "Why" an age old principle shed to light by this amazing author. Understanding and applying the question I discover the core principle and it gave me revelations to my business, relationships, and practice.

Ryan Holiday; "Stoicism" I am not perfect and I can change the outcome by changing my reaction. Philosophy is a part of who we are, how we think about, and the kind of action we take in solving problems.

Stepping outside the authorship and going into my personal life. Will keep it short for the sake of this post. At the start of every mention it begins with My...

Parents; Discipline

Girlfriend; Weaknesses

Sister; Parenting

Mentors; Guidance

Who else?

Bill gates; The importance of charity

Warren Buffet; Timeless investment advice

Gary Vaynerchuk; Hard work

Richard Branson; Creativity, turning a disadvantage into leverage.

This is not a tribute, this is my foundation on which I build upon.

What is it that you love to do? Better yet what are you wishing you were doing besides what you are doing now?

If you answered these questions by saying that you are doing what you love and you don't wish to be doing anything else, as Gary Vaynerchuk would say "then you have won". When you do what you love this esteem is present in you. When this happens people trust and believe in you. When this happens you are able to become an influencer.

"Believe in yourself, so that others can believe in you too."

Of course we will always have that feeling that there is something we want to do that we have not done. There is nothing wrong in feeling this way. We have been hard wired to think like this. Thinking like this is living in the future mindset. What I ask is for you to live in the present.

Who influences you will change over time, this has happens to me, and I am sure it happens to you. How could it not? There will always be new and emerging influencers.

Last two things I want to say about influencers is, it is rare that influencers stop having an influence over people, this happens usually when they commit a crime or do something society deems immoral or unethical. The last thing I want to say about influencers is the ones who have passed away influence us still because of the major impact they have had on our lives and the world.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

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We learn when we are ready to learn.

It is a steady climb to the top, when you get there help someone else.

I was having a conversation yesterday and I was blunt in saying that I wish I knew what I have learned this past year, 20 years ago. Than I corrected myself and said I am glad I know what I know now instead of learning it ten years from now.

How do you look at things. Is the glass half full or is it half empty. How about appreciating that there is something in the glass at all.

We are fortunate enough to have the resources at our disposal. The sad truth is that many of us, well I can speak for myself, that I had no idea of these vast resources and how to utilize them.

Although I would consider myself as a forward thinker with a growth mindset. Some light was shed through this conversation that in fact in some aspects I am not. Let me elaborate on this further.

I have turned my back on a lot of activities that were misguiding me, and pulling me into a direction I felt had an abrupt end in sight.

Having a growth mindset means that I am open to any and all ideas and things, by me turning my back on things that I feel are of no use to me is having a fixed mindset. I need to keep an open mind.

Accepting and observing, not discounting and loathing. I don't need to say yes to those things I believe are not constructive, however what I should not be doing is judging.

Where am I going with all of this?

When you see someone younger than you accomplish more than you there are three ways you can react to that. Have resentment, feel sorry about your circumstances, and complain. Have passion, feel happy for that individual, and learn from their mastery. You can be indifferent about it.

The first statement is obviously negative, it will actually move you backwards. How? You close your mind to the possibility of learning and growing from the people who have achieved mastery. If you are not moving forward you are not moving anywhere. Staying still hinders your opportunity for improvement.

It ignites me when I see people who are younger achieve massive success, the Mark Zuckerbergs, Andrew Masons, and Ryan Holidays. It gives me more reason to go on a rapid growth. I don't find it unhealthy, I maintain a balance to some degree.

At first it wasn't like this and from that I can see the impact it had on my life. When I felt envious and resentful towards the high achievers, especially the younger ones, I lied to myself and told myself stories that would make me feel good about not having achieved the same or better. Blame was at my center focus.

This in turn put me at a standstill and I was not progressing at anything except for enjoying the meager things life has to offer. I did not want to learn, or improve, I was spiteful. Do I have regrets about this? No.

You are probably asking but Lev how could you not have any regrets, you wasted a third of your life. I would tell you this is not true. I have got to experience what most people have not (more on this another time). I lived life to the fullest without a care in the world.

Now I feel I am on a race to catch up on the valuable growth, the things I have not read or learned while I was on an escapade. "With education life becomes richer and more enjoyable." I am on 2x speed now. My life is centered around constant input. I ask myself "What am I doing now? How will it benefit me later?"

Who am I to judge how others live their lives. What I should judge is my own actions and how these actions will carry me forward by the day, hour, minute, well you get the point.

Where does your ambition come from?

If you can't see how others have done it how will you know if what you are doing is going to be worthy?

If what you are learning helps you in life, chances are it can help someone else.

Create content that matters, that people can relate to. Content that is transferable.

I want to end on this note. Embrace all those that have value doesn't matter what their age is. As long as their content improves your life. When your life is improved the people's lives around you also improve, especially the one's in your inner circle. The ones that are open to improvement.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

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What you should know about video gaming

Video games are insurmountable if you were born in the 1980's-present.

Popularity of video games was raging amongst all ages at the start of the 1980's when the first arcade games gained popularity, followed by the gaming consoles that were first introduced for home play.

Studies were conducted in 2015 by the entertainment software association into the computer and video game industry and they concluded that a total of 22 billion dollars was spent in 2014. The essential facts can be found here.

Creators, developers and artist push the gaming industry into rapidly increasing heights.

Remembering back to the first gaming console that I was infatuated with was the nintendo. The graphics were shit, but it still grappled my attention, and monopolized much of my time. Then came the playstation.

I never had the pleasure of owning a gaming console at home. I am not sure why that was, but that didn't stop me from spending endless amounts of time at my friend's houses, as well as at home on the desktop.

Days would turn into nights, nights would turn into early mornings. We all go through phases in life, I guess between the ages of 10-15 I was hooked on video games.

The energy and fuel I had to play was impeccable. By the time I peeled myself of the computer in the early morning hours my mind was mush like roadkill on a busy highway.

My parents did what they could to put a stop to the irrational time spent playing on the computer. However I waited until my parents were snoring, I silently crept downstairs into the den and pursued my engagement until I would achieve a milestone in the game.

There was no stopping or getting tired. It was endurance that lasted far beyond my blood shot watery eyes from the beaming screen in the dark room.

I was obsessed. I felt compelled to complete the missions, when I did I felt a sense of pride, like I won the pulitzer prize. Even though the only thing won was my desolation.

There was no moderation for me at all, until I found resistance. The day I realized that winning in the virtual world did nothing for my social welfare I lost all interest in the gaming world and began to live my adventurous teenage years.

Well I think you get the point, now let me tell you what the experts say about gaming. As a matter of fact unless it becomes an obsession, as I have mentioned in my last post everything should be done in moderation, it is beneficial and you can obtain a host of skills.

Taken from the Huffington post, as well as Mark Manson, there has been many studies conducted by universities, that's right,  highly academic scholars found that video gaming can make you smarter, slow down your aging, improve reading for dyslexic children. It can be a pain reliever, improve eyesight, help stroke victims recover sooner, amongst other reasons.

I would have never thought I would say this, but playing video games gives the users insight, it also gives you the ability to be a canny strategizer. I am sure it matters which games you do play, and in my opinion what matters the most is the amount of time spent playing the games.

I am not going to sit here and be a hater, and a hypocrite and tell you don't play video games, instead I encourage playing video games, just do it wisely.

I suppose I can look at it in a positive light of my obsession and how much perseverance I had in gaming. It was a war of attrition. Me against the gaming industry.

Our lives revolve around video games whether we accept it or not. With new technology emerging such as virtual reality, the force behind this will be immense. It will go past the generation gap, and reach all demographics.

Even now younger children, much younger than the teenagers who were the primary consumers in the 80's and 90's, are encouraged to play games on tablets and different kinds of consoles, as a 'learning' stepping stone.

I never got into the violence of video games and it's effects, and I feel I left it out for a reason. I disagree that violence in video games makes people want to commit crime, I will leave it at that.

I do want to conclude that video games have changed the world, the perception of many, the cognitive skills especially in the younger generations. It will continue to evolve into something that is inimaginable.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, until we meet again. To be continued....

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The casino is a fool's paradise.

I was convinced I had mastered a system. Instead I fell prey to the persuasive power of attainment.

I have had good and bad experiences with gambling. Surprisingly enough the good experiences are the one's I considered distressing.

I am not here to tire you about the history of casino's because you could easily look that up on google and wikipedia if you truly are interested in learning about it. I am not.

So let me tell you about how I almost cracked the code....or so I thought.

It all began with me going to the casino, obviously, and I began placing bets on the roulette table. I had figured out through some statistical equations that this was the best odds of winning at the casino compared to the other games.

"Nobody that hangs around the casino long enough wins."

It felt strange going to the casino by myself so in the beginning it was a social pastime which we carried out with my friends. A newly built shiny casino was a 5 minute walking distance, later when I had moved it was a 5 minute driving distance from my residence.

It was an exciting time, as exciting as it can get for a 21 year old. Drinking, gambling, and socializing.

The rush was incredible when you won. Your heart pounds so loud you think the security guys watching the cameras would pick up on your evident euphoria. Nothing in the room mattered except for watching the ball drop on the number you are betting on. Everything seemed to go silent and still as if you are the only person standing in the room.

By the way roulette is the game were the Croupier (fancy term for the guy who is a roulette dealer) drops the ball and spins the wheel. You have a chance of the ball bouncing into a slot on the wheel with 36 numbers and 2 zeros (affecting the odds of 1/36) yes this is a Canadian version. I am not going to get into all the rules of the game, you can easily browse the internet and find it if you want.

After several wins I began to notice a pattern emerging. You may think this is good news, but it wasn't. Winning was terrible because what followed was a series of unavoidable episodes.

This was the turn of what I call enslavement. Greed was dominating my desire to continue on this path. The wins release surges of dopamine in my body, and at that stage addiction is comfortably endured.

"I want more" was the only thing that run through my mind. I was mentally subjected by my own loss of control.

What seemed like an ever growing pursuit, it was no holds barred. At the time my winnings escalated, where in fact for a 21 year old, I was earning thousands of dollars a night. Now when you see your friend doing so well you can't help but join in.

FOMO, fear of missing out was influencing my friend's judgments.

This is the method I used; I would look at the board and see a series of colored numbers then I would bet against the odds. Meaning if the color black came up 3 or 4 times I would bet red. I can laugh at this theory now, but believe me at the time I wasn't the only one swayed.

In fact I wanted to lose because every time I would double my bet and eventually walk away winning large sums.

Like all good things, winning came to an abrupt end. Did it stop there for me? No.

I guess you can call it a gambler's addiction. It was just the beginning for me. I decided that I had to recover my loss, go back, and bet larger sums.

That didn't work for me.

So I went to a different casino, again that didn't work for me either. Is it over? No it is not. I try another one, maybe I have better luck their. Maybe they are all against me.

This is the shallow thinking that was going on in my developing mind.

The saddest thing about all this is not the money that I eventually ended up losing, but the fact that I dragged one of my best friend's along for the ride. That hurt deeper than I could of imagined. To this day we joke about the day I convinced him to bet all his money.

The power of illusion. When something works for one person, others follow wanting it to work for them too.

Winning at anything can become an obsession. The ploy is to do everything in moderation.

"The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not on other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and wisdom." Plato.

After several consecutive loses I felt defeated, it was heart wrenching, yet liberating.

It was a break free moment where you look at your actions from a different perspective and you analyze how severe the problem could have been. It is this mindfulness of my losing that surmounted me to stop.

Emotionally draining it surprises me how serious this problem is amongst individuals who have no poise. The attachment to the fact that if they play one more game they will win it all back. This was my thinking too.

The fact of the matter is the casino always wins no matter what you do Sam 'Ace' Rothstein says it best, "The cardinal rule is to keep them playing, and to keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end we get it all."

There is a ton of myths about casino's, pumping oxygen in the air so people can stay awake longer, the truth is that it is the lights and sounds are what keeps your mind stimulated. It certainly would not be cost effective to pump out oxygen.

I am due a win, this is a gamblers fallacy a bet that you have 50 percent chance of winning should be won in 2 times.

My favorite, casino's rig their games, they watch from the 'eye in the sky' and are able to manipulate whether you win or lose. Well if they did that there would have been lawsuits filed against them, oh wait let me guess no one has proven it.

I can go on and on the myths about casinos but then we would just lose focus from this post.

The moral of the story is that after having this pain inflicted and losing some money, fortunately not enough to put me and my friend in the poor house, I was able to regain self-control and now walk into a casino and actually enjoy the atmosphere, walk away, and not gamble at all.

There is no proven method, otherwise there would be no point of casinos existing. Some people are just really skilled and are able to convert it into a full time job, the masses unfortunately are not.

Remember the odds are always against you.

As always thank you for taking the time to read this post, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. To be continued....

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Conversations can lead to intelligent revelations

Having a conversation with a dear friend of mine led us to this topic.

Why do we call books that are nonfiction and are for the sole purpose of bettering your life "Self Help"? 

For myself and my friend there seems to be a negative connotation behind the "Self Help" phrase. Let me back this claim up with some academic research.

Sociologist Donald Black argued that what we call crime can be defined adversely from the point of view of the perpetrator the pursuit of justice. Hence the name Self-Help. Criminals justify the acts they commit based on their morality.

This mostly applied to the lower classes, as the elites and the middle classes pursued justice with the legal system. I found this useful and relatable information in The Better Angels Of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. The point of this novel is to explain how our society has become less violent over time.

How can we relate to having non-fictitious books of which we call self-help. Yet we can refer to the most heinous of acts self-help. I understand that words can have different meanings in different contexts, but let us rephrase the word self-help and give a positive substance to what it truly means to accumulate self-help.

For the betterment of our thinking let us rename self-help with Personal Advancement. I can't take all the credit for this since it was a collaborative effort (more on collaborative effort another time).

I dislike telling people I am reading self-help book because it makes it seem that I am broken, I need help, I am lost, and worse of all that I am in a predicament. On the contrary to this belief of self-help I am looking to learn, discover, and grow.

Personal Advancement is a way to truly explain your journey for improvement into the world of nonfiction publications.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this post. To be continued....

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What do you do for exercise?

Arm curls curved bar.

Exercise is fundamental for your physical and mental health.

Why?

Besides the fact that it helps you live longer and a healthier life it also reduces the risk of disease, boosts your energy, improves your mood, promotes better sleep, enhances your sexlife and a host of other benefits.

I believe everyone can benefit from exercise. I am not here to tell you what to do, how to do it, or even when you should do it. Because I feel everyone is unique in a sense that what works for me may not work for you, as well as the opposite may be true.

So let's begin by examining what I do in terms of exercise. I will give you my basic routine. Then I will explain to you how I feel afterwards and the benefits from this routine which has contributed to my life.

First let me give you a brief history of where it all began.

I joined the Steve Nash in 2003 and I am still a proud member of this gym. The reason I joined this gym is because I had worked out prior to this in my home with basic equipment starting when I was 15 years old, and I felt I surpassed the equipment weight after a few years.

In between 15 and 18 years of age I went to the community center occasionally to work out. I had always been physically active, as I had mentioned before playing competitively in sports. 

What I failed to mention is that I also swam in my moms swimming club when I was younger for a few years. Also when I was a bit older I trained in boxing just for physical conditioning.

Enough with me boring you with my history of being active, going to the gym is a big part of my life.

Basic Routine:

When I get to the gym I like to get my heart rate up so I will either jog to the gym (it is a five minute jog from my house to the gym currently), or I would get on the treadmill for five minutes. The reason I do this is so when I start lifting weights my body is less prone to injury.

After my warm up I begin with a body part already in mind. I separate my week into 5 body parts. Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms, and Legs. Every week I target these 5 body parts and if I miss a body part the week prior than I will make it up the next week.

I always switch my workouts. I try not to do the same 'machine' two weeks in a row. Meaning I do not do the same exercise for the body part two weeks in a row.

Recently I started to incorporate on going until failing. Meaning on my last sets I do as many repetitions as I can until I no longer can lift. This is best done with a exercising buddy/partner so you can get spotted.

Veering off topic. When I was 16 years old in high school we had a gym with weights. I was a teacher assistant to the physical education class to my younger peers. I layed down to do a bench press repetition and it is a weight I was comfortable doing at the time. For a strange reason my arm gave out, the barbell hit my chin and split it open. It happened so quickly that I did not realize the damage it has caused. This could all have been avoided if I had a spotter.

On a side note, if you don't understand what repetitions, sets, or a spotter are then let me explain. A repetition is how many times you do an exercise within a set. I usually do 4 sets of 8 repetitions for one exercise and I do about 5-7 exercises per body part. A spotter is someone who sits at the station and watches over while you exercise to make sure you do not injure yourself with the weights.

My breaks between each set are 30 seconds to 1 minute. My workout is between 30 minutes to 45 minutes long, and I go 3-5 days a week.

I incorporate ab exercise every other day at home. I find a 6-12 minute routine on youtube. They have some great ones to follow. It helps with motivation and willpower not having to come up with your own exercise (more on this another time). While I follow abs on youtube I put on a Ted Talk on T.V. 

Now let me explain how it makes me feel after working out.

The Benefits Of Feeling Good:

The sense of accomplishment is one of the feelings I get after working out among some other ones. I feel healthy. I have a sharper focus. I look good (being real not narcissistic). My self confidence is boosted. All those things I mentioned in my third paragraph of this post are exactly what goes on in my mind and body.

I had scheduled a volunteer opportunity and I had about 45 minutes until I had to go volunteer. My girlfriend voiced that I should do what makes me happy. I had a choice with the time crunch to either read, blog, respond to email, or work out. I chose the latter.

I chose working out because at that time working out was going to make me feel good for the rest of the day.

Rest days are crucial. That is when your body builds the actual muscle you are wanting to build. Repair happens when you don't exercise and more so when you sleep. I take powdered glutamine on days I feel I would be extra sore to minimize the pain. Glutamine is natural, it minimizes the breakdown of muscle and improves protein metabolism.

Now remember this works for me and you don't have to follow this. There are thousands of routines online that you can follow if you don't know where to start, and if you are a vet then I hope you are reading this after you have already worked out or on your rest day.

If you are not bored yet let me tell you where I learned to workout and who inspired me. I was inspired by people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities on T.V. I was also inspired by my cousin who now lives in Detroit.

Seeing how big these people were inspired me to be just like them. So I started following people at the gyms and learning by watching. I still do this to this day. When I see someone doing an exercise I feel is beneficial then I will copy it.

Everyone has learned from someone. It is very rare when someone comes up with something original. Usually it is when two ideas are combined together that make something unique (more on this in a future post).

All this working out talk is inspiring me to go work out. Time to hit the gym.

Thank you for taking your time to read this long post. To be continued....

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Time is obsolete when it comes to genuine relationships.

There are 3 concierge and 2 security guards that work for the building of which I live in. 1 of them went out of his way to become a part of our family.

Mark Sanborn who has written the novel Fred Factor explains it like this "Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be extraordinary". Here is a brief summary of this novel and we will continue with the post.

Fred was Mark's postman. He wasn't just any post man. He was one that loved his job so much that he went out of his way to do duties that were not in his job description.

Fred did things that he did not have to do. He did things that he was not paid to do. He did things for one reason only and that is because he cared about every one of the people he served.

Everytime we came down the elevator with our dogs our concierge had genuine love to leave his desk approach us, kneel down, and give our dogs affection.

He did this every time without fail. So much so that our dogs got conditioned when we came down or back from a walk they were expecting him to come even when he wasn't on shift.

Why am I telling you all this?

Our concierge passed away after knowing him for 3 months and we decided to attend his memorial. We did not do it because we felt obligated, we did it because of how sincere and how much love he gave us.

The point of this story is this. It doesn't matter how long (quantity) you know a person for, what matters is the depth (quality) of the relationship. There may be people in your life whom you have known for years, this does not make a difference if they did not make a difference in your life.

There was a great deal of people that attended his memorial, and rightfully so. Our concierge was a Fred. Nice, humble, genuine giver who loved everyone he served.

This can be applied to everything including business. Build quality relationships with trust, authenticity, and without reciprocity. Don't give expecting something in return. Give because you want to give value to your audience.

Those relationships will last a lifetime and the ROI (return on investment) is impossible to determine because of all the doors that those people can potentially open for you.

"Doing the right thing is always right" Gary Vaynerchuk.

How many Fred's do you know that are in your life? How are they making a difference? Are you a Fred?

You can email me at lev@karasingroup.com with answers to these questions or with anything else that I can help you with.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. RIP beloved Duane. To be continued....

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Are you afraid of Succeeding or Failing?

                                         

Fear of doing something really good and then not being able to follow up.

Have you ever felt that you once have done something so great that nothing will ever come close to being as good.

Why do we feel the need to always do better?

For one it is a prime motivating factor. If we keep working on something and we keep failing most times it is so much harder to get up and go again. The more we fail at it the harder it is to start over.

This mental block will start to develop in our subconscious mind. We by nature find the easy route to everything we do. Why? Because it gives us instant pleasure.

It's one thing to get motivated to do something and another to keep that motivation going. The latter is something we can call grit, perseverance.

I had a friend of mine tell me he read such a great book that he is not going to pick up and read another book. For the simple reason that he is "worried" that he will never read another great book like the one he read.

Now most of us would think this is nonsensical. Since there are hundreds of thousands of books and yes some will be terrible, and on the contrary some will be so good, even better than the one he just read.

What is interesting to note here is that he knows that there are great or better books out there, better than the one he finished reading. However that the next book he reads he says the chances of it being as good are very slim, and he may be right.

It isn't easy coming across consistently good books.

So what should he do next? Never read another book again so he doesn't have to endure mental pain. No. He should screen the books he reads prior to commencing in reading them.

This post is not about my friend and his discontinuance of reading books, if you have noticed the underlying message in this post great. If not then let me tell you what it is.

We are always going to be faced with the fact that improvement will be a challenge. That the next stepping stone will never be easy to overcome. It never should be. What comes easy will never give us the opportunity to grow.

I say appreciate the challenge. When you come across something you think is so good or worked on a project you think cannot be topped. Set yourself the challenge to do better than you did.

The challenge on it's own is thinking you can do better. When you get passed this and it comes time to failing have a real hard look and see where improvement is needed. Sometime's it can be a few small steps that you have missed or taken at the wrong time that can make a difference in doing better than you did before.

Face the fear of your self doubt.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued...

Video copyright by complex news on youtube.

The revelation of my practice, part 2.

Do I have more to say about my practice? Yes I do.

Inspiration

Where does my inspiration stem from?

As I have said before I read a great deal, and it has changed my life. Reading gives me a wider understanding of the english language. Writing allows me to put forth that understanding into practice.

Reading has given me a different view of the world. Putting myself in the author's shoes and seeing how they think.

It is important to note however that "I don't give up my core beliefs or decisions because I read something different in a book" quote from Peter Aceto. Meaning that If I read something contradictory to my beliefs in books, they will not change my core values. It does however strengthen the values I already possess.

I feel I am going a bit of topic here.

I always need inspiration to write. Reading does that for me, even though I would read something on a completely different subject ideas are triggered in my mind and the flow of writing begins.

Mark Manson said it best "you often use memories of the emotions you had at one point in time for the basis of the decisions you make at another point in time". Basically everything get's stored into the subconscious and it rises based on different actions we take.

A great deal of my inspiration also stems from conversations. Conversations that I have with friends, family, strangers, and myself. I get motivated when I come across a topic that is debatable, contextual, or augment.

Experience, adventures, memories, and my awareness from the world also influence the topics I choose to write about.

Research goes hand in hand with many of the topics that I feel are necessary to interpret.

Action

Thesaurus has become my go to guide to compose appropriate conversation you and I have. Just this sentence alone I adopted 3 words from the thesaurus to revise the words I had chosen.

Everyone's writing style is diverse. Therefore not everyone will like my style of writing and I accept that. There will be people who do like my style of writing and I thank you (more on that below).

What I find intriguing is that the posts I think will generate the most views, actually don't and that posts that I don't love so much myself do.

It gives me a sense of appreciation that even though I put forth effort into every post some topics are just not things that my audience cares about, as my girlfriend would wisely say "each to their own".

I believe what I offer to you is pure honesty. I have not said anything that I have not experienced myself. I leave the bullshit behind and get right to the point. I don't need to write for the sake of making these posts extra long with a bunch of fillers. I hate fillers.

What I say I feel needs to be said and I end it at that. Why embellish? Now I know some of you won't like or agree with what I have to say, I applaud you for being you. My content may not make me look like a saint, but it is authentic and genuine.

It has taken me so long to compose this 2 part series posts because I wanted to give you, well....me.

Sometimes when I am just so overwhelmed with what I have to say I can't even believe the speed at which I can type. It surprises me. This sentence alone took me about 3 seconds to write, no exaggerations there, with 1 spelling error.

There are times when I stumble across topics, start writing the content erase it, then start all over again pondering how I can best get my message across.

When I complete my writing I feel it is the best that I have done up until that point. It should feel this way, and it probably is the best piece of writing I have done, until I write again and do better than my last piece. Progression.

Editing is not done right after I complete writing. I need time to renew so I give it a minimum of one hour, it can be a whole day before I edit the work. I do this to come with a fresh perspective. Otherwise when I edit right away I always come back and change things around after I publish the work. So I learn to give myself time.

Acknowledgments 

So this is me. This is how I compose. This is how I do what I love. Would I have ever thought I would be doing this in thirty years. Certainly not.

Now this may feel like the gratitude part that you would give after receiving an award, so here it goes.

When I hear from people who like reading my posts, it is a major boost to my self confidence and it encourages me to keep writing. So I want to give the biggest THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me on my journey.

Thank you to my best friend who has given me invaluable advice from a marketer's perspective. Using cliffhangers to keep the audience wanting more.

I want to thank all my critics as well because without you I would not be able to look at my work from a different point of view and improve to become more widely accepted and liked.

Thank you to all the writers and everyone that has these conversations with me that inspire me to write.

This sounds like an ending, but it is only the beginning. A beginning to something great.

To be continued....

Image copyright respectively by michaelvoll.com, deadline.com