The Art of Focus

***********************At the age of twenty-six, I fill my days with activities I enjoy, I have created a
sizeable income pursuing my life’s work, and I have attained a degree of freedom that other millionaires
of the world would die for. Some of them have said this to my face.

This did not come in an instant, of course. It took a decade of failures, minor successes, feeling hopeless
and lost, with a nagging voice in the back of my mind whispering, “It’s possible . . . you don’t have to end
up like the rest.” This self-taught path brought me to success much faster than the traditional route
would have, without the money cap. Everywhere you turn, there are distractions that lead you further
away from who you are and who you want to become. Processed food is dangled in front of your face
like you are a lab rat. People with misaligned goals flood you with invitations to test how important your
own are.

Our souls are being sucked out of us from fluorescent-lit cubicles. We have no sense of meaning and
little drive to pursue our life’s work. We stick to short-term goals just to free up enough space for us to
return to the activities that are killing us, not in an absolutely physical manner, but a holistic one. Mind,
body, spirit, and business under the lens of your life’s work.

***********************With the advancements in technology, medicine, and decentralization,

anybody can build wealth,

leverage, and an overwhelming sense of satisfaction in life. All they need to do is learn how to focus in
this beautiful black hole of distractions.

***********************Your mind is a set of complex systems, like a supercomputer. Even though I

do not believe this is a metaphor that can explain the full complexity of consciousness, it helps illustrate
a point. Like how a computer can slow down when you have too many tasks, tabs, apps, or other
programs running, so can your mind. When your attention is split, or your focus is fragmented, suffering
increases in potentiality.

Using Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

***********************Organizations that fail to apply AI will inevitably fall behind rivals that do.
Industry leaders such as Alibaba Group, Amazon, Baidu, Facebook and Google view AI as essential to
future business success. They use AI as the cornerstone of every new business strategy. Furthermore,
Gartner client inquiries about AI have increased by 500 per cent from 2015 to 2017.

The three most often-cited application categories are all related to customer interactions:

One in three of the organizations Gartner surveyed said they will link AI to customer engagement
applications.

Three in 10 said they will integrate AI to call centre service and support.

One in four said they will integrate it to digital marketing.

***********************For the time being, the human touch and ability to interact with visitors is
irreplaceable; however, organizations need to start preparing for a future filled with actroids, robots and
AI as technology continues to develop rapidly.

***********************We are years away from a time when the machine will ask ‘why we are
doing this?’ Whenever you set an AI up on a task, it will follow its core program or instructions. It is not
just because the computing power isn’t there. We may need to start writing software in a completely
different way, which means going back 100 years and starting again, which, may or may not be possible.
Robots, currently, are just glorified tools such as power drills or figures. We are nowhere near any sort
of self-awareness or consciousness; for that we are talking 40 years or more.

There’s a tendency in anybody’s brain to concentrate on the hyperbole. But the reality is that in the past
five years, we have made almost no progress. We have better sensors, better hardware, electronics have
moved on a great deal, but we have made zero progress when it comes to developing artificial
intelligence in this sector.

The problem is we still have absolutely no idea how our brains work, so we are in the dark. Consider the
start-ups with their new amazing tech. Fifty per cent of the time, these claims do not even materialize
even in a period of five years after spending billions on it.

***********************AI technologies are changing rapidly, so businesses should consider having a

platform that enables them to rapidly exploit these technologies rather than having lots of point
solutions.

***********************Next, we turn our attention to a us restaurant chain as we hear from sherif

mityas, chief experience officer, tgi fridays:

From my perspective AI is really the fourth industrial revolution. It is going to transform how we think,
what we do and how we interact; from our perspective internally as an organization, as well as
externally with our guests. I know there is a lot of discussion, fear and hype around how AI is going to be
the end of the worker, but I don’t believe that. I believe that AI is going to help individuals be better at
what they do. AI should be thought of as augmented intelligence. It really transforms because we have
limited bandwidth as individuals. We can only take in so much; we can only look at so much and
everyone wants us to focus. When you focus on something, you are better at it. When you become too
broad and too scattered, by definition you are usually not deep enough and detailed enough to make
the right decision at the right time. So, by providing this augmented intelligence, with this digital
assistant, you are automating those things that should be automated (Figure 5.1). You are allowing an
individual to see what the next best decision is at the right time; that’s the value. It’s allowing that all
the way up from the CEO of a board, to a doctor and other similar highly skilled positions, right down to
a server at a restaurant. It’s the ability to have a different, more meaningful, more efficient and effective
interaction and work output, because you have the help and the help happens to be a machine.

***********************To me there are two pieces of AI. There is the AI that can automate things
and create efficiency; they can do a lot of things to make things faster but to me that is only half the
story. If we only use AI in that regard, we are missing the true capabilities, which is how do you create
better interaction or loyalty with your end consumers because you know more. You can personalize the
experience and differentiate for them. That creates loyalty, that creates frequency, and that
differentiates you.

Some people will be freaked by this; there is no question. With all the dialogue about sharing of data
and how we are using our data, we have found that if you are upfront with the consumer and tell them,
yes, I’m collecting your data, but here is how I’m going to use it. I’m going to use it because I think you
will want your favorite drink to be at the bar when you walk in. I think you’d want me to fill your cart
every Tuesday because I know its soccer night and you want to pick up food for the family. So if I can do
something to make it easier or more convenient or more personal, we actually get guests saying yes, let
me opt in. Yes, I want to give you this data so that you can give me something more valued back in
return.

***********************It’s almost coming full circle. We started with phones that we spoke to, and
then we went to phones that we use our thumbs on. Now we are going back to devices where we talk to
them again. It’s amazing because the next generation is growing up just talking to things, and that’s how
they think now. That’s how they operate. People are not going to think of them as robots, or AI and
machines. It’s literally like part of the conversation, and it’s natural to have these conversations with
things around us. We are going to be talking to our cars; we’re going to be talking to refrigerators. It’s
going to be part of our normal day. But it’s not going to be this Terminator robot taking over the world.

***********************In the retail space, Novak believes that once someone in the industry does
something broader and bigger than the others, the rest will just follow.

Novak believes that marketing is crucial when it comes to AI’s success in the retail arena: ‘A lot of people
think AI is first and foremost about making things and processes cheaper. That should be a side effect.
The first thing marketers should consider is making customers happy and more satisfied. Do this and
they will love you’.

Major retailers are also putting technological solutions to the test:

***********************From a marketing perspective, Novak believes that the future is in image,

text and voice recognition. But the key is how to deploy it in a business. With image recognition you can
learn how to execute in a store. AI can show where the mistakes are. Then people in the stores can
make the changes. But if 80 per cent of the stores are not executing it properly, then most likely it is too
difficult for them or there are other fundamental issues that need to be addressed. How to take great
ideas and turn them into something tangible and cost effective is not as easy as it sounds and requires
commitment and the collaboration of the whole board.

***********************Small, medium and large businesses all have one thing in common. They
want to get closer to their customers and understand their needs, and we feel like AI is going to get us
closer to that. Any product or service out there that has anything to do with AI is going to come back to
these core features. Knowing who you’re talking to, knowing who your AI is working with, and allowing
your AI to build a better contextual understanding of who your customer is.

***********************Ultimately, Duke believes AI is going to enable the restoration of truly

personal relationships with consumers:
Back in the door-knocking days, if you were selling cable TV, you could ask customers what they want to
watch. You could customize it. That… personal relationship with customers is a lost art. Ironically, it’s
going to take this new version of technology to return us to that.

That’ll be the magical gift of artificial intelligence. Not just a greater understanding of what customers
need today, but what they’re going to need tomorrow. The person that solves this problem will be on
top of the world, because that gets us back to what a real customer relationship used to be.

***********************History has repeatedly shown us, through automation, as people and

technologies advance, [that] there are new jobs being created rather than being destroyed. In the past
technology has always ended up creating more jobs because of the way automation works in practice. In
automating a particular task so that it can be done more quickly or cheaply, [this] leads to an increase in
the demand for human workers to do the other tasks around it that have not been automated, giving us
more time for creativity and innovation.

***********************Technology is neutral and doesn’t have feelings. There is no prejudice. There

is nothing; it’s just technology and what we make of it. We all have a fantastic opportunity to use this to
improve the environment, education, healthcare, driving safety, security in general etc. And of course if
we can make businesses more efficient and successful, I guess that is a step forward for everybody. That
is what we should focus on, and of course there will be changes and some jobs will be transformed and
some will be replaced. But this is the history of human evolution, so governments and the EU and so on
have a role to play there to help with this transition. But we should really not say ‘oh AI is scary, let’s
ignore it’; this is not going to help solve all of our current issues.

Ultralearning
***********************Diana Fehsenfeld worked as a librarian for years in her native New Zealand.
Facing government cutbacks and rapid technologization of her field, she was worried that her
professional experience might not be enough to keep up. As a result, she undertook two ultralearning
projects, one to learn statistics and the programming language R

and another on data visualization. Those skills were in demand in her industry, and adding them to her
background as a librarian gave her the tools to go from bleak prospects to being indispensable.

***********************What differentiated de Montebello wasn’t that he thought he could go from

near-zero experience to the finalist for the World Championship in six months. Rather, it was his
obsessive work ethic. His goal wasn’t to reach some predetermined extreme but to see how far he could
go. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and embark on a path that will take you quite far. But even the failure
mode of ultralearning is usually that you will learn a skill fairly well. Even those who didn’t have such
dramatic results among the small group I spent time coaching, those who stuck with their project still
ended up learning a new skill they cared about. You may not compete in world championships or
completely switch careers, but as long as you stick with the process, you’re bound to learn something
new.

***********************Nothing You Don't Already Know: Remarkable Reminders About Meaning,

Purpose, and Self-Realization
***********************The word “decide” literally means “to cut off”. It’s about cutting off all other
options; chopping away what’s irrelevant. A firm decision is like a future set in stone. That’s why
visionaries are so powerful; they see a future as if it already exists, and they decide to make it happen.
Think about Steve Jobs who said, “We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people,
and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

So the point is, start with the vision in mind. Make it crystal clear where you want to go, or who you
want to be, and ask yourself if you’re willing to take responsibility for it. Decisions and responsibility go
hand in hand. Without responsibility there can be no decision. So find out what it is you want, and cut
off what's irrelevant.

***********************Henry Ford once said, ‘Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you
are right.’ To be able to get something done, we must believe it is possible, even when no one else does.
We must have faith in ourselves. We have to trust that we will find a way, even if we don’t yet know the
way.

Most people judge their ability to achieve something by looking at their current skills. We don’t have to
master every skill right now. If our goals require more of us than our current skills, we may have to work
on our skills instead of just lowering our aim.

People will say to you “you can’t do it”, but what they are really saying is “I would be too afraid to try
that, myself.” Don’t let others with limited views affect yours. If you believe beyond a doubt that you are
able to do the thing you are about to, then you are already half way there.

***********************Some people spend their lives trying to create the perfect conditions to live,
without really living.

Too many of us believe happiness is a future event. And before we arrive, we need more money first,
have a successful career, find a partner, settle down. And only then we will arrive at the destination of
happiness. But when we arrive, we will realize happiness isn’t there.

Happiness is not found at the finish line. There isn’t even a finish line. Life is not a race to be finished; it’s
a dance to be danced. And only if we allow ourselves to enjoy the dance, can we let happiness in.

One day your life will flash before your eyes and you don’t want to see a slide show of all the things that
turned out to be irrelevant in your life. Life is happening right now. We’ve got one shot. Taste the thrill
of life. Have the full experience.

***********************To live our lives trying to avoid mistakes is one of the biggest mistakes we
can make. Inspiring people make many mistakes. They take initiatives. They experiment. They do things
they’ve never done before, and they sometimes fail. Failure is a crucial part of life. It’s okay to make
mistakes as long as we learn from them. Inspiring people recognize their mistakes, admit them, fix them,
and learn from them.

They aim for excellence, not perfection. They accomplish, not because they don’t fail but because they
keep on trying. Ultimately, it’s not the mistakes that matter; it’s our ability to learn from them that really
matters.
***********************Our fear for the future is directly linked to our willingness and ability to deal
with the present. Everything we don’t face today, we postpone to the future. This is how our thoughts
about the future become terrifying.

Whatever we postpone, we someday have to face. And even worse, by putting things off, they grow in
size. If we learn to deal with whatever life throws at us in the present moment, we build a sense of
confidence and power. Every obstacle we overcome gives us more confidence. And the more confident
we become, the more we can deal with.

Now is always the right time to deal with life. Face it. Look life straight in the eye and just know that
there may be things that you don’t want to face, but there is nothing that you cannot face.

***********************One of our core needs is the need for recognition. As long as we don’t feel
recognized we experience some kind of fear that we are not enough. Social media owe a big part of their
success to the human craving for validation, and it seems like we have forgotten what it means to have
true confidence.

Confidence is not about looking strong and invulnerable. Confidence is about being who you truly are
with all your imperfections because you are not so concerned about what others think of you; you are
more concerned about what you think of yourself.

The insecure compete against other people, while the confident compete against themselves.

Being confident doesn’t mean we have to show everyone how good we are; it means that we know we
are enough without having the need to show off.

***********************Whenever we have to do something that we are afraid to do, we must

remember that the most courageous people are not those who are never afraid, but those who are not
afraid of feeling afraid.

We must learn to feel the fear without letting it hold us back. Fear is just a sensation in our body. We
can feel it, but we should not become it. We are not afraid. We feel afraid. Just let it come when it
comes, and let it go when it goes.

If we can train ourselves to feel the sensation of fear without trying to get rid of it, we will be able to
overcome it. Just witness your fear, allow it, and release it. See it as a friend that gives you useful signals,
but never make it your master.

***********************We shouldn’t do the things that are right to look good to others, we should
do them because it's the right thing to do. Stay true. At the end of the day, it's not so important what
others think of you; it's more important what you think of the person you see in the mirror. The more
you respect the person looking back at you, the more you are able to appreciate those around you.

***********************The greatest breakthroughs often arise from the deepest struggles. The
most enlightening art is often made in the darkest of times. The dirtiest roads often lead to the most
beautiful places.

Even entire organizations often need to experience a breakdown first before they have a breakthrough.
Sometimes the light cannot be seen unless it’s dark.
So whenever you go through hard times and you hit rock bottom, accept it. Don’t fight it. Instead, use it
as a foundation to build a better life. Never be a victim. Rock bottom is nothing more than a story we tell
ourselves. Reframe the story and move on. Life is not about what happens to us; life is about how we
bounce back.

The most beautiful lessons always hide under the dirt. Dig a little.

***********************We may eat healthy, we may exercise regularly, but without a sense of
purpose we may not live fully. Without an exciting reason for waking up in the morning, we will never
experience the amount of energy we have access to. Without strong intention, we become a slave to
our habits.

Ask yourself, ‘What is the difference I’m trying to make?’

The moment we discover our purpose is the moment we tap into an infinite source of energy. This is the
moment we realize we weren’t tired; we were just uninspired.

***********************In essence, the world itself is neutral to our well-being. It’s the way we
relate to the world and everything in it that determines our sense of well-being.

Many people think that social media make us depressed, or that money is the root of all evil. We also
tend to think that some people make us happy, and others make us unhappy.

But in reality, it’s the way we relate to things that matters. It’s not social media that makes us
depressed; it’s our relationship to it. It’s not money that makes us unhappy; it’s our relationship to it. It’s
not our partner that makes us happy; it’s our relationship to him or her. Instead of changing the world
around us, it may be better to change the way we relate to the world.

Invest in your relationships. Start with the relationship you have with yourself, for that will reflect itself
in all the other relationships you have.

***********************How often do people tell us to be more realistic? But what is that, “being
realistic”? History books are full of people who were called unrealistic for thinking they could build an
airplane or fly to the moon. Now we know who were really the unrealistic ones. Realistic is only a
perspective, a point of view. Sometimes the most realistic people are the ones we call unrealistic. We
call them blind. They don’t seem to see the obstacles on the path. They don’t see reality.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford

Sometimes, there are those rare people who are not focused on what is; they are focused on their
vision. They are able to see what is yet invisible to others. And that’s the point, to not just see clearly
what is, but rather to see clearly what is possible.

***********************Mastery is the key to satisfaction. To master something means to enjoy it. It

feels good to be good at something.

This may explain the joy of video games. The better we get, the more we enjoy it. Play is fun, and to be a
good player is even more fun. Some people can play video games for days in a row. However, the
question that usually arises after a while is, ‘What use is playing video games all day?’
It’s great to develop our talents and to become extremely good at something, but if we are unable to
use our talents for something meaningful, we may not experience lasting fulfillment. We experience a
sense of meaning when we do something that is beneficial to our own lives, but that sense of meaning
becomes even greater when it’s also beneficial to other people’s lives.

The point is not just to be good at something, it’s to be good for something.

***********************We live in a time of instant gratification. Our attention is being hijacked all
the time, as we constantly check our smartphones and crave shots of dopamine wherever we can get it.
We are modern day junkies, addicted to our screens.

Can you remember the last time you spent hours doing nothing without feeling the urge to do
something? Aspire to be that person again. Switch off your phone more often, or even better, do a
complete detox for a few days and see how it will change you for the better.

Develop patience. Learn to work on projects that bring you lasting fulfillment instead of instant
gratification. You can start today by asking yourself the question,

‘What is the most meaningful use of my time right now?’

***********************One of the most common ways we slow down our progress is by rushing the
process. We want everything right now. We seem to have lost our self-discipline, but what we have
really lost is our patience. Grass doesn’t grow faster by tugging on it. The best things in life don’t
manifest instantly. We seem to overestimate what we can do in a month and we underestimate what
we can do in a few years. We are in love with the result, but not the work - not knowing that it’s the
work that brings us fulfillment, not the result.

Take your time. Plant seeds. Give things their chance to grow. Keep moving, but don’t stress out.
Sometimes the best way to arrive on time is to stop running.

The more you focus on the results, the slower the process. The more you focus on the process, the
faster the results.

***********************We don’t achieve results by focusing on the scoreboard. We achieve results

by focusing on the right efforts.

For example, if we want to lose weight, we don’t lose weight by constantly weighing ourselves, or by
longing for the perfect body. We achieve results by consistently making improvements to our lifestyle.

If we only love the fruit, we may not be willing to take care of the tree, but if we love to take care of the
tree, we will most definitely reap the fruit.

The results we want tomorrow are manifested by the rituals we implement today. Focus on the rituals.
It’s all about the process. Take care of the small steps, and the results will eventually come.

***********************The pursuit of our dreams is never easy. It’s a road full of obstacles and full
of people who are trying to convince us that we are heading in the wrong direction. And still, we
continue because somewhere deep inside of us there’s a little voice that whispers, “Keep going”.
We will face setbacks, disappointments, doubts, and obstacles, and every time we overcome another
obstacle, we become stronger and more confident. The struggles that we decide to overcome develop
our strength.

And somewhere along the road we come to realize that it’s not just our dream we are realizing; it’s also
ourselves. What we have built has also built us.

Maybe it’s not about the dream; maybe it’s about who we become while we’re chasing it.

***********************If we solve people’s problems, we produce followers.

If we encourage people to solve their own problems, we produce leaders.

When we constantly solve people’s problems, they will eventually depend on us. It may be great for our
ego to have people depend on us, but it doesn’t really help those people. It’s much better for people if
they can depend on themselves.

Many people are afraid that others learn to do things better than them. It’s because many people are
insecure about themselves. Truly confident people are the most inspiring. They recognize their own
unique value, and therefore they easily recognize and praise the value in others. These people possess
one of the greatest gifts; the ability to inspire others to find their own gift.

***********************Inspiring people will never tell us we can’t realize our potential. Only people
who have given up on their own potential say that. People see reflected in others what exists in
themselves.

Inspiring people don't see in others what they can’t be; they see what they are capable of being. They
look at things in terms of potential. They are convinced that all of us can grow if we put our minds to it.
The truth is, if we decide to look for limits, we’ll see them everywhere. And if we decide to look for
potential, we'll see it everywhere, too. It’s all merely a matter of focus.

Surround yourself with people who acknowledge the limitless nature of your potential. Those rare
people who love to see you grow into the person you are capable of being. And don’t just look for such
people, be such a person. It will help you to inspire others and you will find that your attitude will attract
precisely the people you were looking for.

***********************Michael Jackson once said, “The greatest education in the world is watching
the masters at work.” Watching our heroes perform their craft can be extremely inspiring.

It doesn’t matter who these heroes are or what they do, but what matters is that they provide us with
an example of excellence. Their presence has the power to awaken parts in us that have been dormant.
They show us what we can be if we give it our best, every single day.

They make us dream bigger, aim higher, and push harder. And it’s not even them; it’s a part of ourselves
that we can see through them. A hero is someone who embodies a set of universal virtues. The point is
not to idolize the person, but to embody those same virtues.

Find yourself some role models, some people you look up to. People you can learn from. This is one of
the fastest ways to unlock your potential.
***********************Time is our most valuable possession. We cannot buy time. We cannot get
back lost time. We cannot even decide how much time we have; we can only decide what to do with the
time we are given. We are just a flash in time and it’s up to every individual to decide how to make the
best use of it.

A fulfilling way to spend our lives is to use it for something that will outlive it. It’s amazing to be part of
something bigger than ourselves, to create something that lives on long after we’re gone.

Use your time to leave behind something that is timeless. Leave a legacy. Not for the sake of being
remembered, but for the sake of leaving the world a bit better off as a result of your existence

Train Your Mind To Be Successful: Attract and get anything you want in life
***********************Ask yourself an important question: "If today was the last day of my life,
would I still doing what I'm about to do today?" This not an easy question, but this definitely helps you
to understand where you are in your life and where you want to be. If you find yourself saying "no"
several times in a week, then it is time to get busy and start changing something. You never know when
you will have the chance to do it next time.

***********************Journaling: If you don't take a few minutes of your time to chart the
direction of the day, how will you know if you are on the right path? Take at least 10 minutes in the
morning to check your goals of the day and to organize your free time. This will help you manage your
day more effectively and less stressfully. Use this journal to list what you are grateful for as well.
Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and many others had a journal and practiced journaling
every day to increase their imagination and to have a path to follow

***********************Avoid social media: Social media has its pros and cons. Unfortunately,
research has shown that social media causes anxiety, depression, loneliness, and it drives you to
distraction and procrastination. If you have a social media addiction, you should try to stay away from it
at least in the morning or the first hour after waking up. If you start your day checking your Instagram,
Facebook or Twitter, you will find bad news, you will be wondering why your crush hasn’t texted you yet
or why you haven’t reached a certain number of likes on Facebook or Instagram. On the other hand, we
know social media is used mostly to feed people’s egos and is something that produces dopamine. If you
feed your ego with social media first thing in the morning, there’s a chance it will continue to require
feeding throughout the day. If you start off your day with social media, there is a huge chance you will
spend more time on it. Instead, choose to grab a book and dedicate your morning time to feeding your
brain.

***********************Psychological tests show that happy people have some special quality that
enables them to have a better life. Happy people tend to be successful because of their way of thinking.
They find the good in the bad for every situation. They laugh at their problems like they are nothing and
make jokes about it. They do not complain, because they know there is always a solution. They are
willing to go through awkward, sad and embarrassing situations, and they enjoy and trust the process of
growing and becoming the better version of themselves.
***********************We have seen many people around us, living such a pitiful life due to their
negative thoughts and behaviors. Just think about that co-worker who is always hating on everyone for
no reason, that one who spends energy and time gossiping and giving a non-requested opinion about
other people’s life. There might be something wrong with them. The more energy you waste on
negative stuff, the more negative stuff you’ll get. The more positive energy you spend, the happier life
you’ll live.

***********************Do you want to be happy? Start acting happy: say what happy people say,
do and behave like them, change your perspective, practice positive thoughts and you will get amazing
results.It might seem difficult changing your mentality from negative to positive, but as a positive
individual, I guarantee you this exercise is life changing. In developing a positive mindset, there are
different ways an individual can explore to develop a positive mindset, but the first step is to dump
negative thoughts. Make a conscious effort to eliminate negative thoughts from your mind. If you fail to
drop negative thoughts from your mind, you will be unable to build a positive mindset and will never see
the positives within negative situations.

***********************Forgive yourself. Crying over things that didn't work out won’t change
anything. Try to forgive yourself and allow yourself to turn the page and move on. Think of failures as
opportunities. Sometimes, the most negative event of our life provides opportunities that otherwise
would have gone unnoticed. For example, losing your job could be a good opportunity to start your own
business, get back to studying or spend more time with your family. Successful people see failures as an
opportunity to grow.

***********************Most people give up on their dreams when faced with difficulty and failure,
but if you can pull through the stormy waters, your dreams will give you a platform for growth and
success. Get rid of the judgment of those who consider it all impossible. Shake off the fear of appearing
deluded and the fear of failure. Failing is not a problem. It means that you have tried and having tried it
means living without regrets. I assure you, the last thing you will want to have on the verge of death,
when you will not have more time available, is an endless series of regrets. For example, children always
have inspirations and big goals. They want to be astronauts, singers, big entrepreneurs, musicians, etc.
They think that they can touch the sky; however, through years and repetitions of being exposed to
people who don’t think it’s possible, they adopt their program, ideologies and beliefs. Instead, they
settle for an average life and end up being unhappy. You can't know where certain thoughts and
emotions will take you. Maybe tomorrow, you will look back and realize that your great personal
revolution towards the happiness you managed to accomplish started with dreaming.

***********************Is it possible to expect a positive outcome if your start point is not sincere,
or if it is negative? In this vast Universe, we are all connected, and each of our actions affect others
constantly. This being said, if you intend to harm someone, or want someone to experience something
negative, you should know that the energy is like a boomerang and it finds its way back to you, bringing
you what you put out. This is what we call karma. Before you start visualizing, let go of anger, fear, and
selfishness. If you need to forgive someone, waste no time in extending forgiveness. Start with a white,
clean canvas. Let go of all your negative emotions, and let the Universe take care of it all for you. It
might not happen on your terms, but this should not be your concern. Free yourself from the harmful
energies. Focus on constructive and positive thoughts, focus only on your goals and how to achieve
them in the best way possible.
***********************If you can effectively practice visualization techniques, your brain will get in
the mood you want it to be. Everything starts with an idea. The greatest inventions were all once ideas
until someone had enough courage and self-belief to work on them and create them. Therefore, ideas
and imagination are important. Everything begins with a thought. When you have a clearer mindset, you
will see that finding solutions to existing or unexpected problems will become easier and less stressful.
When your brain starts operating on a higher frequency, you will see the world through different eyes.
Daydream and visualize just as long as it makes you feel good. The art of reflection and expression is not
entirely dependent upon intelligence and diligent planning. So, the ability to visualize has nothing to do
with how passionate you are and how you envision your goal.

***********************Without picturing yourself achieving your goals in the future, you cannot
create an action plan. Research shows that when a person imagines himself achieving his goals, it helps
him to follow the steps to reach them. The neurons in our brains never stop creating new connections. It
is important to pay attention to what we feed them. Visualization is a powerful technique that has been
used for decades by athletes, artists, politicians, and many successful businesspeople. When you ask
them, they will tell you that they visualized everything before it happened. You can listen to interviews
of successful people talking about how visualization helped them to get to where they are now. In fact,
there is a famous song by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars called “Billionaire.” This song is a great
example of what visualization is about. Actually, this is one of the songs Bruno Mars became famous
with. We call these people “visionaries”.

***********************The hardest part of coming to terms with the law of attraction and
everything it brings to the table is understanding, accepting, and acknowledging that each and every life
decision, either good or bad, was molded by you and you alone. Once you become one with this fact,
and you understand the grand key behind it, hope and courage takes the place of the previous doubt
and uncertainty. It might be overwhelming, but it eventually becomes great to know that you are free
from the cycle of fear that has planted your feet to the same spot for so long. You are exactly where you
are because of you. Once we get these unlimited possibilities that life has put at our feet, we can come
to understand that under this law, each individual is an artist. We paint pictures of the life we hope to
live, and then make moves to achieve them. If you don’t like the particular picture, change it. That is the
only mindset a person aiming for a success should have. I see life as a black canvas of possibilities to be
unlocked; every stroke of paint to come in contact with it is up to you. You are in control of what the
end product looks like. The law of attraction is that simple. All the laws of nature are flawless, and the
law of attraction is not left out. An important part of the law of attraction is that positivity attracts
positivity. Our thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, and actions are all connected, vibrate together,
and must be aligned to manifest anything we want. There are many ways to use the law of attraction
and to manifest: by scripting, visualization, affirmations, being positive, being grateful and believing.

***********************manifest and materialize your desires using this law: Gratitude. Being
grateful will help you to attract more. You’re telling the Universe you are really happy now with what
you already have, and you’re ready to receive more of that. Act as if. Let’s say you want to become the
CEO of a company. What would you be doing if you were that person? How would you feel every day?
Where would you be going? How would you be dressed? Start having those feelings of greatness. Create
your reality before it comes. Start acting and thinking like you are already that person. It doesn’t matter
if it feels awkward in the beginning. You are worthy. One of the most important things to attract is to
become worthy. See yourself as a someone rich on the inside and the outside. When you are rich and
fulfilled, you can influence those who surround you positively. When you see yourself as someone who
deserves a better life, the Universe will give you a better life. I remember I watched an interview of the
supermodel Naomi Campbell where she said, “I make a lot of money and I’m worth every cent.” This
now makes a lot of sense to me. This is a great example of how this works. Get in touch with what you
want to attract. If you’ve been dreaming about getting a brand-new car, go and check the prices, go and
take a test drive, and buy something for it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the money yet. Put that
intention out to the Universe. Be generous: Give what you want the most. Clean out your closet and give
away clothes you no longer want or fit in; don’t sell them. Help those in need. Give some money away to
your relatives and tip every person for their services. Don’t be scared of giving. The more you give, the
more you receive. Remember to give only what you can. Relax. Put that intention out. Think about what
you want to attract every day, but don’t get obsessed with it. Trust the Universe. It will come to you
sooner or later. Be in a state of receiving. Be sure you’ll get it, be confident about it. This works exactly
like when you order something from Amazon. You placed the order, paid for it and you are sure it is
coming your way.

***********************Make peace with the past: I have noticed that all the people who follow
self-esteem courses do not live in the present but always have one foot in the past, with regards to
regrets or remorse, or in a future full of many concerns. All this time spent mulling over something you
can't change doesn't make sense. I suggest you do something more useful: you cannot change the past,
but you can choose memories. It is called selective attention. It’s the capacity of the human being to
direct his mind towards a memory (emotion) rather than another. Have you ever been left by a
boyfriend, or been in a sad moment in your love life? From that moment, you will only see happy
couples in love holding hands. Perhaps you like a car, and from that moment, you only see that brand
and color on the street. It is not that those situations have suddenly increased, but your emotions have
simply directed your attention to these events, discarding many others. Technique: take a sheet and
write the most beautiful moments of your past, episodes where they complimented you for some of
your qualities, for an achieved goal or simply for your uniqueness. When you lose confidence in yourself,
go and read them all, see those moments again, and implement your list.

***********************Making a mistake is positive: To start believing in yourself, you must change

your perspective on what happens to you. There is no person in the world who does not make mistakes.
The difference is that there are those who make drama about it and those who don’t. Successful people
see mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow. It is very important to pay attention and to not repeat
old mistakes. Stop complaining about your mistake. Learn from it and do not repeat old patterns.
Advice: anticipate yourself in case you don’t get the result you were looking for. Have a "playful"
attitude. Remember that children do not complain because they cannot immediately walk; they are
ready to get up and try again thousands of times. Keep in mind that every change and every new
experience is linked to the iron law of the learning curve, which shows that at the beginning, everything
is difficult, but if you work hard, at the end it becomes easy. To grow in every field, you must inevitably
make mistakes, and it is okay. Enjoy the ride!

***********************Make a move: "I can’t but the others can." It's all in your head; stop
considering others as always superior. Don’t think about it too much. Stop overthinking and just do it.
The right time to do something doesn’t exist. The right time is when you make the decision to do it.
***********************The more in tune you become with your subconscious mind, the closer you
will get to success. For example, you might have an idea for writing a book that has been in the back of
your mind for years. With the adequate confidence and power of the subconscious mind, you can take
the next step and write that book, rather than just clinging to the dream. It is taking immediate action
on your ideas, which is a powerful key to success. Freeing ourselves from doubts and beliefs that are
self-limiting is the first step in unlocking the real power of the subconscious mind

***********************To truly utilize the power of the subconscious mind, you should get rid of all
the thoughts that are linked to negative emotions. This should be done by trying to avoid negative talks
and eliminating any feelings in our minds, which are associated with a negative state of mind. Negative
talk and thought patterns can have a harmful impact and often affect our minds significantly when
accompanied by negative emotions. Getting rid of these negative patterns or having a plan to counter
them is an essential step towards success. If you imagine your subconscious mind as a writer of your
thoughts, when you say things like, “My life is awful,” “My body is not perfect,” the subconscious mind
writes it down and makes you believe that all these things are true. Your subconscious mind doesn’t
know what is true and what is false; there is no difference whether you believe it or not. The brain
believes what you tell it the most, and what you tell it about you is what it is going to create. Therefore,
you should stop right here and question yourself, can you afford negative self-talk right now? The best
practice to reduce negative self-talk is the counter technique. For every negative thought that comes to
your mind, counter it with final positive thinking. For instance, if you have a significant presentation
coming up and your mind thinks, "I am going to embarrass myself. I’m a mess," you should immediately
counter it with, “I will do fantastic, and the audience will give me a standing ovation." This will counter
the negative thought, and maybe the outcome will weigh in your favor.

***********************When your goal becomes an obsession, only then you can succeed.
Therefore, setting your subconscious mind on desires backed by strong emotions will allow you to
experience opportunities in life that are going to lead you to success. The best athletes in the world live
by this formula and control their subconscious minds because of their desire to become number one.
That is the reason they are winners. The will to do whatever it takes comes from hardwiring the
subconscious mind in thinking to do so. They are willing to do what it takes to achieve it.

You sent

***********************After you decide and achieve a clarity of mind, the next step in
reprogramming a subconscious mind includes commitment. Letting your subconscious mind drive you
and getting rid of any self-doubt or fear helps in achieving this milestone. Many people have a fear of
failure, a fear of rejection, and even a fear of success. We all have concerns that become the most
significant burdens that keep us from taking action. By doing nothing and not committing, you will
remain exactly where you are right now. You might not get any worse, but you will not get better either.
It is essential to accept that this fear will remain in the back of your mind all the time and might push
you away from commitment. It is the absence of determination and the lack of actions that negate your
chances of success. Negativity based on fear can poison everything you hold. We can learn to commit
and reprogram our brain to face this fear head-on. You should confront yourself: why are you afraid of
failure? Failure is an education. If you do not succeed at something, this does not mean you failed; it
means now you know this is not how it is supposed to work. Next time, you will handle the same
problem with a more disciplined approach. This is how we can reprogram our subconscious mind too.
Reprogramming it will lead to getting rid of any negative thoughts. If you think of this as building
muscles, you might see no change in day one and a lot of pain, but with time and commitment, it
becomes a habit and shows results.

***********************The most critical part of reprogramming your subconscious mind has some
flexibility. If you support a narrow field of vision, you will not be able to see all the possibilities and miss
the most important ones that can lead to unforeseen benefits. A person can never be in control, and life
never goes according to plan, that is a fact. Hence having a flexible approach towards everything,
learning from past mistakes, and using failure as a driving force will help you push in the right direction.
Working with this chain of thoughts is essential to complete the reprogramming of the subconscious
mind to unleash its true potential. As long as some progress is being made, you are on the right path.

***********************Learn to say no: You do not always have to say yes to everyone and
everything. Be realistic and focus on your priorities. Do not let others make you feel pangs of guilt when
you say no. Always refer to, you’re to-do-list to be sure you can comfortably take on a new task before
saying yes to it. This will help you shave off some unnecessary stress.

***********************Accept the uncertainty of life: Things will not always go as planned but that
is okay. Learn to accept the uncertainty of life and you will be saving yourself unnecessary frustrations
and bitterness.

***********************Talk nicely to yourself: Don’t listen to the negative things people say, such as
“You’re fat,” “You’re so stupid,” “You’re not worth it.” Think about yourself as a gem. Talk to yourself
how you talk to someone you love and appreciate, and cheer yourself up. Program your brain with
positive self-talk. Stop letting others reprogram your mind. Evoke positive statements about yourself: “I
am great, I am wonderful, I am amazing, I am smart, I am creative, I am courageous.”

***********************Are there people in your life who, simply by calling you, can bring tension,
stress, and disorder to your day? Are there "dream thieves" who tell you that your dreams are
impossible as they try to dissuade you from believing in your goals and pursuing them? Do you have
friends who are constantly trying to get you down to your standards? If so, then it's time to find new
friends and new people to hang out with and learn from. It's better if you spend some time alone rather
than spending it with people who hold you back with their victim mentality and their mediocre
standards.

***********************Make a conscious effort to surround yourself with positive people who are
able to value and uplift, people who believe in you, who encourage you to make your dreams come true
and applaud your victories. Surround yourself with people who think in terms of possibilities, winners,
and individuals with stimulation. Examine the priorities you've given yourself in life. This will inspire you
to spend more time with the "right people.”

***********************Remember that hanging out with the right people will take you to the place
you want to be. Don’t forget to avoid people from your past and people who have something negative
to say about you. Never listen to people who haven’t achieved what you want to and to people who
cannot dream big.

***********************It is well known that nowadays, this generation seeks for success without
working. They want easy stuff. People spend more time trying to look successful without being
successful. They look for instant gratification instead of working hard and getting a taste of success at
the end of the journey. We teach in schools that being in 5th place is okay. We give prizes to the
students just because and not for being great. That’s why most of your friends are not that successful.
All of them have average jobs and average lives. The truth is that being successful doesn’t happen
overnight. Having a business requires a lot of daily work. Improving your communication skills requires
daily practice. Getting rich won’t happen by tomorrow, unless you win the lottery, but that also requires
a lot of tries. Learning a new language requires daily practice as well. You want to get some abs? It might
take you months or years working on your physique and keeping a healthy diet. Doing small moves
every day is what takes us to the peak of the mountain. Consistency is the definition of hard work. Hard
work doesn’t mean difficult, but it means you have to put that work in progress on a daily basis. You
track and measure the progress until you find yourself getting amazing results. Your success may come
within months or even years. Just stay on track and enjoy the process of improving and learning. Success
will come by taking action consistently and progressing over time. Just look around you; pay attention
closely to those who are extremely successful. You can observe their daily progress and realize it is not
something glamorous; they do the things most people don’t and won’t do. They work very hard, they
wake up early, they work out, they learn, they read, they work and they do it over and over again. They
do whatever it takes to get to where they want to be. Success is progressive realization; you are
consistent and make incremental improvements every day. Trust and love the process.

***********************What is your relationship with humility? Have you already let it into your
life, or do you keep it at a distance? Are you constantly learning, or do you consider yourself Mr. Know-
It-All? Remember that being successful is not about how many degrees you possess. Many people didn’t
even finish school and they are great at what they do. Focus on learning skills, practice networking, and
learn from the best to become the best. Challenge yourself, read a book per week. Prepare yourself to
outstand from others, but never forget your roots and who you are. Keep your feet on the ground.

***********************As we transcend in the world from the spirit of abundance, we become a

liberating and enabling force in the lives of those with whom we socialize. We can help them see by the
example that we all live in a rich world and that they can also free themselves from a lack of
consciousness. We can all unite as a human race in a spirit of abundance and create new guides of
community and social organization, new lifestyles, and new approaches of relating, based on solidarity
rather than conflict. As envy, greed, and opposition flow from lack, so kindness, service, and
collaboration flow from a spirit of abundance. It is this spirit of abundance that can be our guide as we
start the journey to creating total abundance and prosperity in our lives. If you are expecting to receive,
give to others. Give away the clothes you don’t use anymore; don’t sell them. Tip everyone for their
service. Give money to your parents or family members and help other people sharing your knowledge
and experience.

***********************we are living in a generation when people spend more time pretending,
they are doing something relevant than actually doing it. It is better for some people to feel successful
than to be successful. You don’t always have to talk about what you are up to. You don’t need to post on
social media that you are working on something big. You don’t need to let others know about your grind
and your hustle. You don’t need the world’s approval. In reality, most of the people don’t really care
about your goals and projects because 80% of them don’t care about theirs either or they are just simply
busy with their lives.
***********************The first thing you should be doing is breaking out of that cocoon that the
natural human nature places us in. Once you decide that enough is enough, you have successfully
beaten the first stage. You must then decide to make a change. That is the start of breakthrough. Next,
develop the habit of working consistently in silence, while stuffing yourself with positive thoughts, which
is the simplest demand of the law of attraction. When you work hard in silence, you build a completely
different and better version of you; this “you” becomes an unstoppable force.

***********************Here are some tips to working hard in silence, so you eventually come out
with success that speaks for itself: You should always try to trigger yourself: triggering refers to when
you come in contact with something that reminds you about another thing that is related to it. In simple
words, it means coming in contact with an object that jolts your memory to another event/object.
Things like setting up reminders, e-mails and sticky notes to remind you about a particular task at hand
will go a long way in helping.

A lot of people working hard silently tend to forget the world around them, and they put everything into
what they hope to achieve. Let me tell you something, though: the mind needs time to recharge and to
be in good shape in order to be able to function properly. Yes, hard work is welcomed more than
anything, appreciated and necessary, but a simple day out with loved ones is important to keep the
mind relaxed. Plan an event, enjoy the event, and dwell in the accomplishment of seeing that event
becoming a success. Doing this will fill you with that momentum you need to focus and work without
stress.

Self-appreciation can never be proclaimed enough. In the whole world, there is nobody who wants you
to succeed more than you do, so learn to appreciate yourself and every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears
that you put into making that project become a reality. It is even more sensitive with a person working
silently. Why? Because you are the only one witnessing everything you are putting in, so when failure
and setbacks barge in, ready to tear you down, you have to be completely ready for it.

You should always be hard on yourself, and push yourself to achieve better things. Remember that you
are working silently, and you are the only push and support system you have. Silently filling your head
with the thought that you have accomplished a lot by hurdling through the easy things will leave you
unprepared for that success story. Your motivation and passions should keep you burning through the
hurdles and give you a greater sense of achievement in the long run.

Memory Manipulation: How to Train Your Brain to Think Faster, Concentrate

More, and Remember Anything (Learn Memory Improvement and Boost Your
Brain Power)
***********************it’s important that you keep your memory in its top shape. Keep in mind
that the brain is like a muscle, when you use it daily and exercise it, it will grow and become stronger.
However, if you fail to use it, especially when you grow older, your brain turns weak, which will make
learning and memorizing harder.

***********************Crosswords Puzzles or Sudoku

Go ahead and buy yourself a crossword puzzle or Sudoku book, or try ones that are free online. Make
this a routine in order to continually stimulate your brain, and at the same time increase your know-how
in general knowledge. An article from the website of the Alzheimer’s Association reports that there are
studies that say that keeping the brain active through activities such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku
can “increase the brain’s vitality and may build its reserves of brain cells and connections.”

***********************compare yourself with others

It’s sad how most people waste precious time comparing themselves and their situations with other
people. I mean why compare yourself with other people if you know there is not a single person in the
world that can do a better job of being you than you can?

Comparing yourself with other people often leads you to become judgmental of you and respectively
harboring negative thoughts. In comparison, there can never be a win. In fact, if you must compare
yourself, you can try using your past and present situation instead of basing the comparison on others.

Think of the sick in hospital, think of the disabled and many other less unfortunate in the society.
Instead of trying so hard to be someone else, start counting your blessings and you’ll realize that there is
no better person to want to emulate than yourself.

***********************You are not Perfect

It is true everyone wants to feel in complete control of everything around them. That’s a lot more like
trying to be a god or goddess. While you are not perfect, it would be timely to stop pursing perfection
and simply accept that the tides will not always sail the way you govern.

Sometimes things will happen unalarmed, sometimes they will get out of control so instead of draining
your energy on negative emotions, just accept that today things didn’t go as planned and look out to a
better dawn.

***********************Affirmations when feeling sad

I choose to be happy under all circumstances.

I am not allowing self-pity get in the way of my joy

It is during my greatest solitude that I am most fruitful

Self-pity is not an option, I choose to be happy

Affirmations when you’ve lost hope

I choose to see the good in everything around me

I refuse to give up; I am more than a conqueror

I may not clearly understand the situation, but there’s going to be a lot of good in the end.

I am a fighter; no mountain is too high for me.

***********************Keep yourself fully fueled and refuse to neglect yourself just because those
people close to you do. If you find yourself in an unfortunate situation of living with a toxic person,
invest quality time to rest and recuperation.

Don’t allow their influence to keep you up at night thinking and questioning whether it’s you doing
things all wrong. They simply have issues, period! So, are you going to allow them to succeed in driving
you crazy?

If you realize you cannot control what they do or how they react, then make sure to take care of
yourself by remaining self-centered, living positively and living healthy through regular exercise,
mindfulness, proper diet and prayer. Keep them agonizing on how you are able to diffuse all their
venom and keep it working out for you so impeccably!

***********************You can’t harbor hateful feelings- You see hating a toxic relative only pulls
you down to their very level. An eye for an eye will leave the entire world blind. So regardless of how
unforgivable and despicable someone becomes, never allow hate to build up in your heart.

When you start hating someone it becomes you digging two sorry graves, one for the offender and one
for you. In essence, the best revenge is when you choose to be the opposite of them by living well,
raising your head up high and creating bliss and peace in your life.

***********************Sometimes you’ve got no choice but to really let go- While you cannot be in
full control of how people impact on you, you can make the decision to not yield to them. With their
actions and opinions constantly invading your heart and you trying to find ways to make things work, it
reaches a point when enough becomes enough.

The world is not perfect and you won’t be the first to let go of some long-term relationships and bounds.
Don’t be afraid to let go and do what feels right and what makes you happy.

By the end of the day, life is too short to keep compromising your happiness and growth for people who
will never make the effort to meet your half-way the race.

***********************Start living in the present

Now you can choose how you want to live, react and approach life’s situations. Go ahead and create
positive affirmations to use every time you feel like the ghosts from your pasts are threatening to
surface!

Make positive statements like “I will trust a lot more and not be afraid to live my life to the fullest”.
When you start claiming good things, positive things, they in turn starts happening.

Search your current life situation and sure you must be able to identify something positive and one that
directly contradicts your past experience. Make this the silver lining in this dark cloud and use it to soar.

Finding the good both in your past and present helps reclaim your power where you become no longer
the victim but the master of your own destiny.

***********************Overcoming disappointments and heartbreaks

Regardless of the disappointments, hardships, adversities and pain you may have suffered in the past,
there is no reason to beat yourself up. The fact is that disappointments don’t discriminate unless you
allow them to, heartbreaks shakes you but they don’t cripple.

Say you missed out on that promotion; she turned down your marriage proposal, he cheated on you
with your best friend or you missed out on that defining auction. It is through tests and challenges,
disappointments and heartbreaks that we are able to savor the delicious taste of victory. The most
important thing to bear in mind is that getting up after a setback is not an option, it’s a definite
resolution.

***********************Failure is part of life

Sometimes we are faced with the hardest decisions to make, other times we are faced with the hardest
challenges to overcome. Regardless of how many blows we receive in life, we must remain positive
knowing that failure is an inevitable price while trying to accomplish something.

At one point in life, we all have experienced unexpected financial disasters. It could be that you lost your
job, a medical emergency or uninsured losses. In essence we must understand that it remains
impossible to predict your financial journey, financial success is never guaranteed.

The Greatest Successors once failed

Even the most successful investors got to suffer financial challenges from time to time. The point
therefore isn’t to invent a strategy that keeps you from falling, it’s having the drive to pick yourself up
and start all over.

The most compelling success stories tags along some mind-blowing hustles and setbacks which were
used as foundation to success.

So, are you facing financial challenges and setbacks, it feels like you have reached your dead end? Know
you are not alone and that there is hope to come out stronger than you started off.

***********************Accept reality- So things are what they are, stop wallowing in unnecessary
despair and accept the odds. It is devastating okay, totally crushing and a complete bummer, okay! The
most important thing here now is that it’s in the past, it’s done. Instead of wasting your energy resisting
a futile fact, bounce from this past and start making progressive steps forward.

***********************Correction and adjustment

You’ve already fallen down, picked yourself up and shaken off the dust. You’ve learnt from past mistakes
so it’s quite unlikely there will be a repeat of the same. While a wise person knows that perfection is
impossible, he knows too that correction is desirable and timely.

Often, you realize that your first plan isn’t always your best plan so don’t even waste your effort trying
to stick to plan A to the latter. Adjusting your approach along the way helps achieve your goals more
efficiently and effectively.

***********************Let go and just get immersed in the moment. Writing on positive

experiences helps override any possible negative thinking and also acts as a reminder that there is still
so much good in this world.
***********************Charity work

Being in a position to help someone in need helps bring out the best in you. It could be a friend, relative,
neighbor or a complete stranger that needs help.

Again, volunteering to work in a retirement or children’s home brings forth a new approach to life.
Instead of sulking in your misery, you are able to find more than 1000 reasons to smile and keep going
regardless of the blows that life throws at you.

***********************Practicing Appreciation

Many are the times that something good happens in life and we end up perceiving it as norm. In fact,
many are the times that we miss the chance to be grateful for the good things in life and instead find
ourselves agonizing in the negatives and disappointing part of life. However, if you learn to see life as a
gift, then you will learn to appreciate those simple things like having a roof over your head or a plate of
food on your table.

***********************Promotion Plan

Daily tasks:

Be nice to coworkers

Help out

Don’t whine

Don’t complain

Don’t gossip

Be prepared

Come in half an hour early

Stay half an hour late

Get noticed by the boss and coworkers

Weekly tasks:

Finish tasks before deadline

Present your results

Do more than you are asked

Mention related accomplishments to boss

sell yourself

be dynamic at meeting
Monthly tasks:

Learn a new program, or skill

Ask for more duties

Be a team player

Brainstorm different approach, ideas, tips

At last, don’t talk about your goals and plans to anyone. You can never predict other people’s response
and reactions, which may hinder your feelings and motivation. Stay quiet and positive. Be flexible about
your plans. Remain alert and with both hands on your plans. If something goes wrong unexpectedly,
review the steps that led to the failure. Maybe there was a flaw in your plan you overlooked or
miscalculated. There’s always something you can do to repair the route to the goal, as they say: if
there’s will there’s a way.

Million Dollar Weekend

***********************Looking back on the early years of your life, it’s easy to think of “scary”
things that became not so scary as soon as you tried them. Remember the first time you tried to ride a
bike? Hold your breath underwater? Climb a tree? Walk? The messiness of such trial and error may
seem uncomfortable now, but the days when we weren’t afraid to leap into the mud and dirty up our
hands were when we learned the fastest (and had the most fun!).

Leaping is all that matters. The most courageous creators just leap more—in spite of their fear—and
successful creation eventually follows. If you trace back every big company to its beginning, it all started
with a leap into the unknown and a tiny little experiment:

Apple: Started as two guys who tried to build a computer kit that you can carry

Facebook: Started as a weekend project similar to Hot or Not for college students

Tesla: Started as a prototype of an electric car to convince car companies to go electric

Google: Started off as a research project

Airbnb: Started off in a weekend as a place to crash in someone’s living room during conferences

Khan Academy: Started off as a set of ten-minute videos Sal Khan created for his cousins

AppSumo: Started as a way to get a deal on software I liked

***********************Most people never pick up the phone, most people never ask. And that’s
what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You
gotta act. And you gotta be willing to fail.

—Steve Jobs

***********************Business is just a never-ending cycle of starting and trying new things, asking
whether people will pay for those things, and then trying it again based on what you’ve learned. If
you’re afraid to start or ask, you can’t experiment. And if you can’t experiment, you can’t do business.
This isn’t about willpower or self-discipline. No one is going to nag, scold, or intimidate you into starting
a business. My personal favorite way to approach starting a business is to have fun!

People do all kinds of scary things in the name of fun. Entrepreneurship is no exception. Make it fun and
you’ll overcome the fear.

So let’s have some fun! Business is an amazing opportunity to learn about yourself, play with ideas,
solve your own problems, help other people, and get paid all the while. Approaching it this way will free
up your imagination, make you less judgy and critical of yourself, and allow you to open yourself up to
the kind of playful experimentation I want you to practice.

***********************I was beginning to see that to live well as an entrepreneur, I just needed to
stop thinking so much and go get busy. That meant starting small, starting fast, and not worrying about
what I didn’t know.

I became an expert at taking leaps. Being unafraid to start new things meant that, unlike most people, I
was constantly conducting experiments in my personal and professional lives, in both big and small
ways. New industries. New hobbies. New technologies. New roles. New people. New side hustles. That’s
where I found my superpower, which taught me a lesson I want to pass on to you: focus above all else
on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner. That’s the wonderful thing about experimentation—
every experiment has within it the potential of unforeseen rewards that can change your life.

But first you’ve got to start.

***********************When most people decide they want to start a business, their first intuition
is to learn more—read a book, take a course, seek out advice—and then take action after having
carefully considered all the facts.

After all, there are a ton of top-rated MBA programs, $10 Udemy courses, free YouTube videos, and
entrepreneurship how-to books—so why wouldn’t you learn all you could? That’s got to be a whole lot
safer, and it probably makes you a lot less likely to fail, right?

Wrong.

Overthinking seems like the “smart” way to launch, but it’s far less effective. Super-successful people do
the opposite—they take action first, get real feedback, and learn from that, which is a million times
more valuable than any book or course. And quicker!

Most people: Overthink first, act later.

Every successful entrepreneur: Act first, figure it out later.

***********************my goal had a very specific number attached. And that focuses your mind on
what matters in business, which are the things most likely to bring you customers. Many struggles to
make their first dollar because they are so focused on how to make their first million. Focusing on an
attainable Freedom Number—even better, just dollar number one—will change the way you think:
What can YOU do in your business to make money this week? Today? Right now?
You may not need a grand purpose to start (though if you have one, awesome!), but it’s also true that if
you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything. The Freedom Number helps us not get lost in
abstraction or complexity; it reminds us the mechanics of business are simple.

***********************His pitch would be met with a rejection. And then another rejection.
Countless rejections. Rinse and repeat. Every. Damn. Day.

But then, invariably, inevitably, a hard-won success.

This particular day was glorious, though. Absolutely glorious. He sold two copiers in one day! So Dad said
let’s go celebrate and grab some burritos!

“Why you look so sad, Noah?” he said as we sat down to eat.

Although I should have been riding on the adrenaline of my dad’s glorious day, something felt wrong.
Despite his ultimate success, the process of getting there felt demoralizing and pointless.

I shook my head. “So many noes. No, no, no, no. All day. Doesn’t it make you want to quit?” I asked.

My dad replied with something that would change my life:

“Love rejections! Collect them like treasure! Set rejection goals. I shoot for a hundred rejections each
week, because if you work that hard to get so many noes, my little Noah’le, in them you will find a few
yeses, too.” Maybe that’s why he named me NO-ah, to remind me of this daily to keep going.

Love rejections?! Set rejection goals?!

My dad reframed rejection as something desirable—so you feel good when you get it. He was saying
aim for rejection! It was suddenly clear to me why my dad was never afraid to ask anyone anything—
and why he pushed for a hundred rejections a week: the upside of asking is unlimited and the downside
is minimal.

And he was right!

***********************Just a few months ago, I was trying to hire a designer. I was cold-emailing
people—and this is no joke—six to eight hours a day. This is basically getting rejected all day long. It
feels like being trapped in a bar where every woman I approach laughs in my face and walks off.

One email I got from an amazing designer I was trying to hire was so harsh I wanted to cry: “Ha Ha Ha.
You really think I would leave Google for your shitty company?!?”

That. Hurt. And it always will.

So how do I get through the fear and the sadness?

For one thing—and I do this often—I remind myself I’m going to die eventually and none of this really
matters. Seriously. And on top of that, would any of these people come to my funeral? No! Which is a
pretty effective way to lessen the impact their rejection has on my emotions.

***********************The average person faces one rejection and gives up. Blakely didn’t, and at
age forty-one became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the United States.
Now that’s a rejection résumé my father would appreciate. Remember, you could be eleven noes away
from making your first million, but if you stop at the tenth rejection, you will have failed.

The trick is to desensitize yourself to the pain by repeatedly exposing yourself to it. Embrace the
discomfort—actively seeking it out—and use it as your compass.

***********************My dream when I was in high school was to work at Microsoft. I wanted that
more than anything. And so during my junior year at UC Berkeley, I found a recruiter on campus looking
for developers, and I said to her, “I’m not an engineer, but I’m in business. Is there any type of internship
I could do to work at Microsoft for the summer?”

She said there wasn’t, but I followed up with her and kept asking. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. And after the
twelfth follow-up, she gave in: “Actually, we have an internship for businesspeople.” I don’t know if it
was created for me or not, but I like to think it was. It did lead to a fun lunch at Bill Gates’s house, a story
for another time.

At AppSumo.com, almost 50 percent of our sales come from our follow-up emails. Think about that.
What a great example that follow-ups are as powerful as your first touch point. Follow up on the things
you really want. I use followup.cc for email and Siri very often to remember follow-ups. You can also use
the Snooze feature in Google or just write it down!

***********************This is the most powerful tool I’ve ever seen for improving your Ask muscle,
and over ten thousand people have done it.

Here’s an exact script you can use:

You: Hi, how’s it going?

Them: Great, what would you like?

You: I’d like a skinny low-fat vanilla latte [my fav drink, or substitute your own].

Them: Sure. That’ll be $3.50.

You: Can I get 10 percent off? [This is key: Make the statement clear, with a smile, and don’t say
anything afterwards.]

Them: What’s this for?

You: I’m taking a business course and this is one of the assignments. 🙂

A lot of you will try to make an excuse to avoid engaging with this challenge. “Oh, that’s just too basic, I
don’t want to be that guy.” “I don’t want to put the barista in an awkward position.” “I’ve already done
sales for five years.”

That’s the whole point of this challenge: to practice Asking (and getting rejected) rather than talking
yourself out of it. The worst-case scenario is really trivial. The barista says no and gives you a weird look?
The people behind you roll their eyes? It’s just a little bit of discomfort, but the upside is you feel strong
about yourself and realize how much more capable you are than you realized!

Here are a few people and their results after completing the Coffee Challenge:
Dieter S.: “I felt a lot more confident facing rejection, and it empowered me to successfully ask for
sponsorship money on my bike-riding side hustle.”

Jennifer Jones: “It was scary, and I was not looking forward to it. But I did it and grew. Honestly, I’m
insanely shy! So having to do things out of my comfort zone has helped me in all areas of my life and has
made me a better person overall.”

Jason Blake: “Not only did I learn that rejection doesn’t end your life, but I also learned to enjoy being
outside my comfort zone.”

Just do it! No overthinking; just action. Ask for 10 percent off your coffee. As I’ve seen in those that have
done it, getting that hit of Creator’s Courage will help you hit your rejection goals and unlock asking’s
unlimited upside.

***********************Before you even think about picking a business idea, make sure you have
easy access to the people you want to help. An easy way to do this is to think about where you have
easy access to a targeted group of people whom you really want to help—like, say, new moms in Austin,
cyclists, freelance writers, and taco obsessives (like me!).

The better you understand your target group, the better you can speak to them. The more specifically
you can speak to their problems, the better and easier you can sell (or test products).

Note how this process prioritizes communication with people, through starting (taking the first iteration
of your solution straight to customers) and asking (engaging them in a conversation to determine how
your solution can best fix their problem). Business creation should always be a conversation!

***********************You can have the absolute best idea in the world—or something that seems
like it—and end up not selling one single thing if there’s no demand.

You don’t want to be convincing people that they need your product. You don’t want to be begging
them to buy. What you want when you’re opening a taco restaurant is a starving crowd.

When I look back over my life, being involved in Tidal Wave Markets—big and growing and with massive
momentum—has been a huge part of my success, and it’s something I now prioritize when I think about
new businesses.

Facebook? Huge adoption of college students and the world wanting to connect online.

Mint? Huge market of people wanting a free finance tool to save and make more money.

Kickflip? Facebook and iPhone opened up their platforms for apps and games, leading to a huge surge
for game developers.

Gambit? With all the games that were launched, everyone needed payment options.

***********************Here’s a market opportunity exercise. Say you have a beard or love

someone who does. The problem: Beards are itchy! Before you spend months of tinkering to create the
world’s greatest beard oil, let’s figure out if you can really make a million dollars from this idea—see if
there’s a business here.

There are two key questions to answer to make sure it’s a million-dollar opportunity:
Is the overall market dying, flat, or growing? You want flat or ideally growing!

Is this a million-dollar opportunity? To figure that out, we have to know the number of potential
customers and the price of your product.

First, I would check to see if there are enough customers who’d want to buy your beard oil. Market size
is the single most important variable to quickly understanding the potential of any project.

I use Google Trends and Facebook Ads to answer those questions. They’re great tools that help me
evaluate the size and growth potential of my target market.

It’s possible that the tools will change, but the idea is to uncover the data that shows how big and
growing your market is by answering the following questions:

Is the market growing or dying? Search Google Trends for the term’s “beard” and “beard grooming” and
compare their search popularity to similar terms (for example, “haircuts,” “razors”) and how that’s
changed over the last few months and years. With Google Trends you are just looking to see how the
graphs are trending – ideally up and to the right.

***********************The solution to all the doubt that will inevitably creep up on you is to
commit to your first 100—whatever it is for you—with complete disregard for your results.

If you want to start a YouTube channel, publish 100 videos.

If you’re doing a newsletter, write 100 emails.

If you’re starting a new hobby like chess or guitar, practice for 100 days.

If you’re creating a business, directly pitch 100 customers.

Just focus on that first 100. Don’t worry about whether people are watching or liking or engaging or
buying or following—just put it out. For the first 100, it’s about your doing it, rather than anyone else’s
liking it.

Once that’s done, you can decide whether you want to give it up or not.

The lesson here is to do today what you need in order to reach your end goal. Step by step. Session by
session. Video by video and email by email. With each iteration, you keep improving, a little bit.

The Law of 100 is about the power of consistency—the only way to get to greatness.

***********************The point here is, you never know what’s going to work when it comes to
marketing. To find the thing that does work, what you need is a process of small experiments—based on
your BEST GUESS of what might work. It’s all about prioritizing tactics and ruthlessly testing them!

Daniel tried six different experiments in thirty days. He thought wholesaling would make 50 sales. Turns
out it made 200+. He thought eBay would do 30 units; turns out it did a whopping 0. So he modified his
plan to go wholesale and doubled down on that, since it made 90 percent of his sales.

Now let’s get a list of marketing strategies you can do. To do that you need to know:

Who is your ideal customer?

Where are they?

***********************The longer you retain customers, the more opportunity you have to earn
more revenue from them.

As well, every step of the way you can get feedback to make your product or service even better. Ask
your customers this: “What is one thing we can do today that will make you twice as happy with us?”

***********************2. Target Prefluencers

I always make an effort to connect with ambitious people BEFORE they make it. It’s so much easier to
connect with them, help each other, and build actual relationships.

I met Tim in 2007, before he was famous and was trying to promote this book that wasn’t out yet called
the 4-Hour Workweek. I met Ramit Sethi while he was still in college and had just started this blog
iwillteachyoutoberich.com, which was making $0. And since then we’ve all become good friends—and
they helped me in everything I’ve achieved. Remember, it’s not about where they are today as much as
where you think they are going: I still reach out to ambitious people all the time. A few years ago, I
contacted Harry Dry from Marketing Examples, a young kid from England. I loved what he was doing
with his newsletter, offering great marketing case studies and copywriting tips. I love connecting with
interesting people like him, and this relationship creates a great opportunity to help each other now and
in the future. Connect with no expectations.

***********************Here are three principles to help you find Prefluencers:

Who’s doing work you’re impressed by?

AND who doesn’t have a ton of attention and is likely to reply?

AND what can you do to help this person?

***********************The tests of your will and grit never stop. The doubts never quite disappear,
no matter how much you achieve. A dying father might seem like a rare, dramatic example, but in
moments large and small, your life is shaped by your willingness to face your fears. Remember, just keep
going no matter what.You have to define what success is for your life and not worry what others think.
Million Dollar Weekend empowers you to create the life YOU want to live. And you get fifty-two chances
to do it this year.

Achieving your dreams comes down to one question: How many times are you willing to get back up
after falling down? Entrepreneurship is nothing more than the ability to come up with ideas and the
courage to try them out.

To experiment, experiment, experiment. To fail, fail, fail. Until you succeed.

Just start. And then . . . start again.

What Game Are You Playing?

***********************I absorbed those messages and curated my life so that I would meet others’
expectations both at work and at home, and I tried to live what I had been taught to think of as a
successful life. I compared myself to others and often felt like a loser, especially when it seemed like
others were doing better than I was. And social media made it worse because someone is always doing
better—with a bigger house, a better body, a more exotic vacation.

After pushing myself hard to pursue the version of success that had been defined for me by others, I
realized that comparing myself to the people around me and living my life by others’ rules was
exhausting, frustrating, and causing a great deal of anxiety. It was not fulfilling, I was not experiencing
any internal calm, and, quite frankly, I was kind of dying inside from the grind.

I wanted to make changes, but it was really difficult, and I had no idea how to start

***********************Now, this is not to say that my life is always perfect or that everything is
always great. Things go up and down, like health and work and friendships and relationships. This is
normal and just a part of life. But because I’m focused on my own definition of success and not wasting
energy on things that are important to other people, I can manage the challenges that arise. I no longer
carry around the burden of others’ expectations.

When you are clear about your goal and you move with consistency toward it, you will reach it. Not
magically or mystically, but because of your hard work.