What if you don’t? Do you feel like there’s literally never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything you want or even need to do? The following three tips will help you be more like that awesome overachiever you used to be so envious of.

Utilize Every Scheduling Tool In Your Arsenal

While it’s true that computers and smart phones can sometimes make for time wasting distractions (whoops—did you really just spend thirty minutes on Twitter?), they can actually help you manage your day better thanks to calendar applications. The best thing about digital calendars is that you can set pop-up or email reminders in them. If that reminder appears one day before your doctor’s appointment, you’ll be that much more likely to plan the rest of your day around it.

Whether it means waking up early so you can get in an extra hour at the office before the appointment, or making sure that you gather all the medical info you need to bring well before you have to rush out the door, reminders can help you save time and plan ahead. After all, doing things last minute can make you late and harried and throw off the remainder of your day.

Take Advantage Of Downtime

It’s true that we’re all busy, but it’s also true that we sometimes have a slow day. It’s important to take advantage of free time, particularly when it’s at work. If new projects and problems aren’t flying at you fast and furious, take the time to work on long term projects or put together a to-do list complete with ideas for solving problems you’ve been repeatedly encountering.

Downtime is also great for organizing things, whether that means making files and documents easier to find on your computer or cleaning out your closet so you can find clothing with ease. Doing this stuff now will help save you time on the busier days to come. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy some relaxation on slow days, too—it just means you should balance that relaxation with some easy-paced productiveness.

Multi-Task Whenever Possible

First thing’s first—multitasking will only help you out if you can do it well. That means that neither of the two things you’re doing simultaneously can suffer in quality as a result. For instance, driving and checking your emails on your smart phone is a bad idea, but checking those same emails while you’re waiting in a long, slow moving checkout line is fine.

Texting your spouse about tonight’s dinner while you’re sitting in an important meeting is both rude and distracting, but planning that dinner while you’re eating your lunch is fine.

This can also be a good way to fit in entertainment with obligations. Plan to run on the treadmill or lift weights while you’re watching your favorite TV show, listen to that new album you’ve been wanting to check out while you clean your place, or read a book while you ride the bus or train to work.

The key is to pair a somewhat mindless activity with something enjoyable or productive that you can easily accomplish simultaneously. That is practically the definition of maximizing your time.

Whether you took a class on it in college, or you’re just a big fan of the movie Billy Madison, you’ve probably heard the term “business ethics” before. Yet you may not realize that good business ethics can also help you with your personal growth. To understand how, you need to first gain a better understanding of business ethics.

Business or corporate ethics is a type of applied ethics which considers the many moral and ethical problems that can occur in the work environment, and helps workers handle those problems in the most morally sound way possible. It teaches people in the world of business to make decisions that help their company continue to be successful, but in a socially responsible manner.

This includes a wide range of issues, from fair trading practices, proper tax payment, and executive compensation, to human resource issues like workplace safety, discrimination, and employee harassment. It even involves marketing issues like truth in advertising and fair pricing. So what is the big takeaway from business ethics, and how can it apply to other areas of your life and help with personal growth?

What’s Really IMPORTANT?

Ultimately, the main point of business ethics is that, no matter how much money your company is raking in, you can’t consider your company to be legitimately successful unless you’re making that money in an ethical, honest manner. In other words, winning the game isn’t worth nearly as much if you cheated or hurt people on the way to your win.

What good are large profits if the public finds out you’ve been falsely advertising your products? How can you feel proud of your department’s great numbers if you watch your boss sexually harass your coworker and never speak up to HR? This is a concept that most definitely carries over into your everyday life. It’s just as important to hold yourself to a high moral code as it is to hold your company and coworkers to one.

This can be as simple as not cutting in line at the store, even if you’re in a hurry and see other people doing it. It can also be as complex as being honest with your significant other about a problem in your relationship, even if it means you might have a big argument over it.

The truth is that we can make our lives seemingly easier if we don’t speak up when something goes wrong, or if we sometimes cheat the system. Yet taking the easy, less-ethical route can take much of the joy out of accomplishing something. It can even replace that sense of joy or pride with guilt over the immoral manner in which said accomplishment was achieved.

Live More Ethically = Personal Growth

If you elect to live your life in a more ethical manner, you are taking a huge step toward furthering your personal growth. It won’t always be easy of course, and sometimes it can be difficult to tell what the truly ethical way to handle some situations is. After all, not every scenario we find ourselves in is a black and white situation.

However, making a commitment to yourself to always try your best to take the high road shows a degree of strength and a desire to better yourself. That can go a long way toward making you a better person, which is something to be proud of.

Often in life, it’s hard maintain a peace of mind. Things are constantly being asked of us. This can range from very benign requests, like a good friend inviting you to a party, to more troublesome ones, like your boss asking you to take on yet another project on top of an already overgrown workload. You don’t want to be the type of person who refuse everything, but you also can’t agree to everything that comes your way, or you’ll lose your sense of personal balance.

After all, no one can do it all. Veer too far in one way or the other, and your whole life will be thrown out of whack. That’s why it’s so important to be able to determine what things are important enough agree to and what things are unimportant enough to turn down. If you can get good enough at doing this, you’ll go a long way toward finding better personal balance.

Right about now, you’re probably thinking something along the lines of “easier said than done,” and it’s true that it won’t always be easy to decide whether or not to decline. You can take some steps to make it somewhat simpler, though. First and foremost, always remember that you’re not alone and you don’t have to handle everything yourself. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to figure out what can go undone and what can be delegated.

Your Home World

Are you exhausted from a crazy work week, but you feel like you can’t take a break to relax because your home is a mess? Go easy on yourself and only do the bare minimum—if you skip dusting every single piece of furniture for one week, no one else is going to notice. Better still, ask your spouse or a roommate if they can handle the cleaning. Maybe they won’t do as good of a job as you would, but sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice satisfying our own high standards for being able to take a break and let someone else handle things for a change.

Your Work World

The same thing goes for work—if you have too many projects on your plate, figure out which ones are the least complicated or important, and ask another coworker to help take on some of the other work. This kind of delegating is so important in the workplace. You can’t delegate everything, or you will look lazy and risk angering your coworkers and possibly getting fired. Yet you should delegate some work to others when you’ve got too much to handle.

Never be afraid to tell your boss that you can’t take on something new, as long as you have a big enough workload to back up your claim of being too busy. It’s important to also point out that you’re worried your work quality might suffer if you’re spread too thin—that shows your boss that you want to make sure you’re only turning out work that’s impeccable.

Your Social World

Sometimes you need to turn down some of those benign requests and offers, too, like the party invitation mentioned previously. Your friends will understand if you can’t make every single party or movie night. Sometimes you’re just too tired or too busy in other parts of your life. Just make sure that you’re there for the big stuff, like your best friends’ weddings and birthday parties, as long as you’re able to be in town for them.

If you’re there for your friends during the truly important events or the really tough times in their life, like when they need a shoulder to cry on after an awful breakup or death in the family, they won’t get their feelings hurt when you turn down an invite to girls’/guys’ night because you’ve worked a sixty hour week.

With friends and significant others, in fact, it can be a little easier to determine what demands a yes and what can be said no to—just ask yourself how you’d feel if the situation was reversed and they turned you down.

How To Determine “Yes” Or “No”

Ultimately, the best way to determine whether you should agree to something or not is to ask yourself whether it’s truly important. Will saying no jeopardize your job or your relationship with the person who is asking? If not, is it something that someone else can handle while you handle other, more important issues or projects?

Is it something that you can make up for later? For instance, if you turn down an invite to grab dinner with a friend this week, can you take them out to dinner the following week instead? If you can’t handle another project right now, can you assure your boss that you’ll take on the next project once your current project is completed in a few days?

Learn to ask yourself these sorts of questions before you reply to a request, and you’ll be far more likely to give the right answer. That means you’ll eliminate the unnecessary obligations in your life, have more time to focus on the important stuff, and end up leading a more balanced existence.

We’ve all had goals that we wanted to accomplish at one point or another. They might be something big, like going to graduate school or buying a house, or something adventurous, like spending a month traveling the globe. They can be long term goals like saving a certain amount of money to retire on, or short term goals, like losing ten pounds before swimsuit season arrives. Regardless of size, they’re meaningless without a plan to achieve them.

So just what turns something from an idea or vague future plan into a specific goal to work toward? First and foremost, you can’t just say “someday I’d like to learn a foreign language.” Instead, you have to put a timeline on it. That means deciding that you want to learn to speak Spanish within the next five years, and then figuring out when you need to start taking lessons in order to fulfill your goal within that time frame.

Be Specific

The key to setting goals is being as specific as possible, from setting a start and end date, to defining exactly what you want to do. Don’t just decide you want to move to a new city eventually; flesh the idea out and decide that you want to move to a specific location, like Portland, Oregon, within the next two years. Then write down your goal and come up with a plan to achieve it.

In order to achieve your main goal, you need to set up a plan containing mini-goals. For instance, if you want to lose twenty pounds within the next six months, set sub-goals along the way to lose four or five pounds per month. Then set a goal to research diet and workout plans over the next week.

After you’ve finished your research, set mini-goals to workout at least four times a week, to eat more vegetables and less red meat, etc.

Of course, this works for pretty much any kind of goal you’re working toward. Once you’ve settled on a big goal, the initial stage should always involve setting smaller goals (or milestones) and doing research to help figure out how best to reach your goal.

Are you trying to save enough money to travel to Europe two summers from now? Research various savings accounts’ interest rates so that you can pick the highest-yielding option. Read travel guides and websites to get an idea of which cities you’ll want to visit and what hotels or hostels you want to stay in, how much airline tickets and rail fares will cost, etc. Then you can estimate the amount of money you’ll need to save to reach your goal. After the research is done, you can set mini goals to set aside a certain amount of your earnings every pay period in the savings account.

Ask For Help

Finally, never be afraid to ask for help and advice. Do you have a friend or relative who has achieved a goal similar to yours? Ask them for tips! This is especially worthwhile if your goal is life changing and involves something financial, like saving to retire or buy a house, or something related to career advancement or education, like learning a language, going back to grad school, or working toward a promotion or new job.

People who have been there before can give you helpful strategies for realizing your specific goal. So utilize all the information sources you can get your hands on, from your successful coworker or thrifty parents to the internet and your local library. Then draft up a plan and stick to it—you’ll be celebrating your achievements in no time.

In fact, the following are ten of the many ways that these practices can help you increase your inner strength. Yoga and meditation can:

Increase Your Physical Strength

Seeing and feeling the results of your yoga practice—from increased flexibility and muscular strength to having a leaner, more toned appearance—will make you feel strong on the inside, too. You’ll feel more confident in everything you do, because you look and feel great!

Teach You Patience, Even In Difficult Situations

When you’re holding a tough yoga pose or really need to scratch an itch while meditating, it can take tremendous patience not to move too soon. Increasing your patience in these instances will carry over to your ability to take a deep breath and remain patient during all those tough times when life keeps you waiting.

Help You To Better Understand Your Body

Yoga and meditation put you in touch with your body. Before you know it, you’ll realize that, say, tensing up your shoulders is your body’s way of saying that you’re getting too stressed out. Understanding cues like that can help you see when you’re starting to get stressed, angry, sad, etc., so you can better combat your negative feelings.

Get You More In Touch With Your Thoughts And Emotions

These practices, particularly meditation, can teach you to tune into your thoughts and feelings in a way that will help you better understand the “why” of your actions. Do you overeat when you’re stressed? Blow your top at the drop of a hat when you’re overworked? Some introspection can help you work toward changing these bad habits.

Give You Peace, Even On Difficult Days

If you can fit in a mere half hour of yoga or just ten minutes of meditation somewhere in your day, it can give you something relaxing to anticipate. Thinking about your impending “me time” can help get you through a miserable day at work or a rough patch in your personal life.

Bring More Balance To Your Life

Yoga and meditation do this both literally—through balancing postures like Tree Pose— and emotionally—through an increased ability to manage stress and unhappiness.

Teach You To Slow Down In A Fast Paced World

People are working longer hours and taking less vacation time thanks to the tough economy. Moms and dads are stretched thin between their careers, their parenting obligations, and just trying to find time for date night. Putting everything on hold for even a brief yoga class or meditation session is a great reminder that we all have to take time out for ourselves and just slow down.

Show You How Consistency And Determination Will Improve Your Life

Routinely practice yoga, and you’ll be able to lean further into every stretch as time progresses; routinely put in time toward achieving another goal in your life, and you’ll get closer and closer to realizing that goal.

Lift Your Mood

The exercise aspect of yoga and the relaxing practice of meditation can increase your endorphin levels, which helps to elevate your mood. Happier people are healthier people, which means you take fewer sick days from your job and are generally more of a go-getter. Not only will you find yourself accomplishing more, but your good mood will win over your friends, co-workers, and more—all things that lead to success.

Force You To Unplug And Focus On Yourself

You can’t check Facebook on your laptop while you’re in Downward-Facing Dog, and you can’t answer your cell phone while you’re meditating in a Half Lotus. Instead, yoga and meditation make you focus on yourself, your mind, and your body. Being more in touch with your self is a huge step toward developing increased inner strength.

You couldn’t keep it from happening, and, in fact, you couldn’t even see it coming. That’s why it’s important to develop strong stress management skills. If you can make good use of the techniques found here, you can greatly reduce your stress levels, no matter what the situation.

Breathe!

The first and perhaps easiest way to reduce your stress is to breathe. Yes, just breathe, but not as you would normally or thoughtlessly. As you feel yourself becoming stressed and anxious, pause and take a slow, deep breath inward. Then let it out just as slowly. Don’t think about anything else; just focus on the in and out of your breathing. It might even help to close your eyes when you do this. Roll your shoulders a few times to help relax them.

Try doing this for ten counts, thinking a number in your mind each time you breathe in and thinking the word “out” when you exhale (i.e. “one, out, two, out, three , out, etc.). The counting will take your mind off of everything else and bring your focus back to your body and your physical wellbeing.

What you may not even realize is that being mentally stressed out exacts physical stress on your body. Your shoulders and jaw may become tense, you may slump further and further forward at your desk, etc., without even being aware of it. Doing this simple breathing exercise forces you to relax your body, and that helps you to relax your mind. Understanding the physical signs of stress that present in your body when you’re stressed out, and then knowing how to properly address them, will help greatly with stress management.

Take A Break

Taking a brief break from whatever you’re doing can also be helpful. This doesn’t just apply to work, but can also apply to stressful problems in your personal life. Let’s say you’re in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year, and you’ve got a day full of cooking and dealing with guests on your plate. Try to find a few fifteen minute intervals to walk away from the insanity. Step outside for a quick walk around the block in between turkey basting intervals. Thirty minutes before your guests start showing up, sit down and read a chapter in a book or an article or two online.

Little breaks help refresh you. Anything that involves movement, like walking or stretching, gets the blood flowing and energizes you. Activities like reading or watching a few funny videos online will lift your spirits and take your mind off of the stressful situation at hand.

Listen To Music

Another thing that can help is listening to music, which can even be done while you’re in the midst of the stressful activity. Are you freaking out about having to write a big term paper or put together a report for work? Pop on a pair of headphones and listen to some of your favorite music while you work—you’re bound to feel more relaxed and happy as a result.

Ask For Help

Finally, never underestimate the power of asking for help, particularly when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Having a spouse play sous chef or assist you in cleaning before a dinner party can help you stick to your schedule, which prevents the added stress of being late. Enlisting a coworker to help with an overwhelming project can keep you from falling apart at work.

Have A Good Support Network

Plus, seeing your significant other, friends, coworkers, and/or family members come to the rescue for you is a wonderful reminder that you’re not alone in the world. There’s not much that’s more stressful than feeling like you have to solve all of your problems on your own. Leaning on your support system now and again can be a fantastic stress management technique.

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So can words be really good or bad?

We’re really, as society, very hypocritical on the subject. We always say “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” But really, that’s B.S. We teach people that curse words are bad. For example, you can’t drop an “F bomb” in church, or on YouTube. You can’t say “oh f*ck!” You can, of course, say “oh crap!” or “oh fudge!”

I mean, really, are we still trying to pretend there’s any difference here? Because there isn’t. The words, are of course, different, but the INTENTION is exactly the same. Both words have exactly the same emotions, thoughts and feelings behind them. In that respect, they’re completely identical, in terms of content that is.

If you use the “F word” and you’re angry, it’s bad. But if you use it during sex, it’s good. Heck, if you don’t look at your man and say “F me harder daddy!!” then it’s probably not going to be much fun for him. Same word, two completely different contexts, and very different levels of happiness!

We would argue that it it’s time to get rid of all the hypocrisy surrounding words.

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words can cause lingering damage that never really heals. It’s not just an issue of political correctness any more. In the old days, if someone called you names on the playground you had a fight. These days if someone does that you snap and grab an assault rifle.

Emotion and intention is the real issue in terms of language.

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”
– George Carlin, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

George Carlin is famous in large part due to his “seven ‘dirty’ words you can’t say on television” routine. The basis of said routine is the hypocrisy surrounding language, as if just the words themselves cause the damage.

Yet anyone who’s ever watched C-SPAN can see how our elected officials have taken curse-free hate-speech to the level of fine art. They never call each other any dirty word, yet what they say, if you actually take the time to listen to it, is far more offensive than any “F bomb”.

So going forward, be really of your speech patterns as well as your internal dialogue.

One interesting thing to do is simply take an inventory. For a week or so, write down every emotion you feel when you say something. Do this consistently and you can start to see a pattern. Are you always happy? Sad? Depressed? Overjoyed? You think you know, but do you really? Not until you see it all there in black and white. It’s kind of tedious to do, we admit, but just do it. You’ll be glad you did. We promise. Seriously. You believe us, right? Who wouldn’t trust these faces?

And don’t forget to check out our other articles and videos here on Today is Today Is That Day! TodayIsThatDay.com is your one stop shop for inspirational videos, quotes and articles! Everything you need to make the life of your dreams a reality! Thanks for reading!

Now hang on, before you go accusing me of male-bashing, have a look at the facts. For more than two millennia nothing has changed – when a man creates his own empire, it’s perfectly acceptable for him to go out and bend things to suit him, and in fact he’s praised for it. “He never let anything stop him from his goals” is considered a compliment. But when a woman does the same thing, she’s called willful, a coldhearted bitch, or even worse.

Developing A Healthy Attitude Towards Achieving Your Dreams

Now, I’m not saying that women should go out there and act selfishly to prove a point. Of course not. But I do think that we could all use a healthier attitude toward achieving our dreams, and celebrating others when they embrace their abilities and make the most of what they can do.

If all of us, both men and women, could embrace the philosophy that there is enough in the universe to give everyone what they need, then we could let go of this archaic notion that women have to choose between being good little subservient wives and mothers, or having the word “feminist” thrown at them as an insult. As if there were no in betweens.

I’d like to offer a few suggestions about how you can promote yourself without fear of being perceived as a selfish bitch, without feeling like you’re doing something wrong by offering your talents to the world, and without worrying that you might offend all the wrong people and end up worse off than when you started.

Promote Yourself!

One: Remember that everything you see and experience externally is actually you projecting the stories you tell yourself onto others. It’s frustrating, but it’s also the key to turning your perceptions around. If you start healing your own beliefs and start telling yourself a new story, it’s surprising how soon the new story becomes true for you. No longer do you have to believe that men have opportunities that women don’t, or that self promotion is something only shameless attention whores do.

Two: Remember that you are the source. If you ask yourself who you think the source is of money, energy, or whatever else in yourself, and you believe the answer is outside yourself, then you definitely have some work to do on refocusing.

Three: Try testing out the new stories you’re creating for yourself. Promote yourself out loud and see what happens. Do people accuse you of shameless self promotion? And if they do, does the world stop spinning? Some people will love what you do, and some people will hate it, but remember that they’re all projecting their own internal stories, too. What they think about you generally has very little to do with you, so don’t take it personally. Sometimes there’s a process of “getting over it” that can sting a bit at first. It means you have to face your fears, in this case promoting yourself, and stare at it until it isn’t such a big deal anymore. It may seem uncomfortable in the beginning, but as with any other anxiety, the longer you immerse yourself in it, the less anxious you become. You’ll heal your own insecurities, and soon self promotion will be no big deal anymore!

It is hard to avoid the triggers for our bad food cravings – we all experience stress and boredom and mood swings. But remaining a slave to these bad food cravings is not inevitable. We have found a way to minimize or eliminate the bad food cravings all together. Best of all, we have given up nothing and do not feel as if we are depriving ourselves of anything.

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Start The Day Off Right

We’ve all heard the old stories about eating a good breakfast – but what does that really mean? The answer is different for each of us. Some people operate better when they eat some heavy carbs or protein in the morning and others, like Dan and I operate better when we start the morning off with juice and then gradually work our way up to the heavier foods as the day progresses. The important things is that what ever you put in your body in the morning, it should be healthy fuel for your body. A simple rule of thumb is to stick to food that is as close to nature as possible and pay attention to how you feel 20-30 minutes after you eat. If you feel sluggish and tired, that means that you either ate too much or it was the wrong type of food for your body.

You Do Not Have To Give Anything Up

One of the best ways we have found to start the day off right and eliminate bad food cravings later on?  We have a green juice or green smoothie for breakfast every single morning. That’s right. We invested in a juicing machine over a year ago and have been juicing ever since. We gave up nothing, but added healthful green foods through juicing. We did this every single morning and over the period of a few months, we just did not want to eat bad food any more. The best part: we didn’t intentionally plan on giving up our favorite bad food! Somehow, the effect of green juicing has reduced the craving for bad food. We just don’t seem to crave the ice cream and nachos anymore.  

Why Green Foods Reduce the Craving for Bad Foods

How can drinking a green juice or a green smoothie in the morning reduce the craving for bad food? We all know that green foods like spinach and kale are nutritionally dense. Juicing provides a huge amount of nutrients in one small delicious glass. It could be that the nutrients in green foods make us feel nutritionally satisfied. As a result, our bodies no longer constantly crave bad food for purposes of refueling. Starting off the day with a green juice or a green smoothie certainly seems to provide a steady source of energy over a longer period of time. We no longer experience the huge spikes in blood sugar levels followed by the devastating crash. As a result of drinking green foods, we have more energy to exercise and engage in the other projects we love. Drinking green foods helped us break the vicious cycle of desperate craving for bad food naturally and with very little effort.  Over time, the practice of juicing simply became a lifestyle habit that has made a huge positive difference in our lives.

You can click on “Resources” on our website for delicious recipes for green juice and green smoothies.

Try having a green juice or green smoothie every morning for 30 days and see how you feel! Let us know your experience with green foods.

Probably the most important consideration to remember when buying a juicer is that you are going to use your juicer every day or almost every day. Why? Because the enzyme activity in freshly extracted juice decreases very, very quickly. Ideally, it is best to drink your juice within 15 minutes of juicing. That way, you obtain the maximum vitamin, mineral and anti-oxidant properties that juicing can provide. Keeping in mind that you will want to use your juicer every day, here is a brief overview of what you want to look for when buying a juicer.

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Considerations When Buying A Juicer

The main consideration in buying a juicer is SIMPLE. Get something simple and convenient that you will actually use. The best juicer in the world will do you no good if it sits in the corner gathering dust. You do not want a juicer that is too complicated, cumbersome, or requires time-consuming clean-up. You are looking for ease of assembly, minimal chopping of fruits and vegetables, and easy clean-up. Make sure you buy a juicer that fits into your lifestyle – and fits into your kitchen.  A gargantuan juicer with dozens of parts that need to be scrubbed and oiled daily does not promote ease of use. Pick a juicer that can be disassembled easily and is dishwasher-safe. You will also want a juicer with a large enough mouth to accomodate fruits and vegetables.

Another consideration in choosing a juicer is noise level. Basically, the more powerful the motor, the more noisy a juicer will be.  Unless your goal is to wake up the entire household with your 6 a.m. juicing, choosing a less powerful juicer will probably more than adequately meet your juicing needs and your housemates will thank you for not turning their living space into what sounds like a demolition site.

Of course, price is an important consideration in buying a juicer. Prices of juicers vary widely – from under $100 to over $500 and higher – depending on the available features. To start out, choose a juicer that is affordable for you. And make sure you read the warranty! Warranties can range from a few months to a decade to a lifetime. You are looking for a long-lasting warranty that covers the entire machine.

Below are a few examples of some popluar juicers and their features to help give you an idea of what is on the market today:

Breville Juicer Juice Fountain

The Breville Juice Fountain Professional is the juicer we have used for about a year.  It is simple – easy to use and easy to clean. The juicer is designed to conserve counterspace. It has a large mouth that accomodates larger fruits and vegetables. We paid about $150 for our Breville Juicer Juice Fountain, but you can find one on the internet for $109 plus free shipping.  It has a powerful motor and comes with a one-year warranty.

Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Express

Jack LaLanne is perhaps the world’s most famous body builder. He is is over 95 years old and credits exercise and juicing as the key to his long life.  Jack LaLanne has been selling his juicers for years on television and on the internet. We found a “Buy One Get One Free” offer on his website: buy one Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Express for $89.97 and get the second free with additional shipping and handling. This juicer looks very compact and the motor is less powerful than the Breville juicer. The parts are dishwasher safe for easy cleanup. It comes with a 60-day money back guaranty. According to the website, the “whisper quiet” motor comes with a lifetime warranty.

Omega Vert

The Omega Vert has the highest price tag of the three juicers we looked at. At $349, the Omega Vert has an electric induction motor and fewer moving parts than most juicers. In theory, this means the motor is less likely to burn out than other juicers. The Omega Vert has been built the same way for the past several decades, seemingly attesting to its quality design. The Omega Vert has a self-cleaning feature using water that keeps the juicer from becoming clogged. It comes with a 10-year warranty on the blade parts.

A good way to check out a variety of juicers is to view instructional videos on the internet. This way you can compare different juicers side by side.

Again, the one we use is the Breville Juice Fountain Professional. It works fine and cleanup is easy, so we recommend it.

We all know we should eat more fruits and vegetables. But most people have neither the time nor the desire to eat plates and plates of fruits and vegetables everyday! 

Juicing is a simple way to get all the benefits from a variety of fruits and vegetables in one small, delicious glass.

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What Is Juicing?

Juicing is extracting the good stuff – the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and water – from plants using a juicing machine.  

The benefits of juicing are almost too numerous to list. Below are just some great reasons to juice:

• Juicing at home is relatively cost-effective. Instead of paying over $4 for a small bottle of juice at a health food store, once you have purchased your juicer, you can juice your own healthful blends for just pennies a serving. 
• Juicing is an excellent way to get the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. The USDA currently recommends five cups of fruits and vegetables daily for a 2200 calorie diet (the average man’s diet), and four cups daily for a 1800 calorie diet (the average woman’s diet.) 
• Juicing enables you to obtain the vitamins, minerals and nutrients required for optimal health, vitality and functioning.  Fruits and vegetables have long been known to prevent and cure certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, allergies and certain mood disorders. 
• Eating freshly juiced raw fruits and vegetables allows you to digest and absorb a greater amount of beneficial nutrients. The juicing process breaks down cell walls for faster digestion, and  nutrients are not destroyed by heat or other processing. 
• Anti-oxidants contained in fruits and vegetables have an anti-aging effect for younger looking skin, hair and nails. 
• Eating a greater proportion of fruits and vegetables every day helps you lose those love handles and maintain a healthy weight.  
• Juicing is a fun and creative way to do something good for yourself and your family. You can go even greener by planting a garden and picking your favorite fresh and organic fruits and vegetables everyday!

Open Your Own Juice Bar Today

Literally hundreds of different fruit and vegetable juices are possible. In practice, the number and type of juice combinations are only limited by your own preferences. The one rule of thumb: only blend fruits with fruits and vegetables with vegetables. The exception to the rule is that you can blend apples with vegetables. Apples are sweet and taste great with vegetables. (Pushing an apple through the juicer also helps to push through a softer fruit or vegetable that may not have completely cleared the machine.)  You do want to thoroughly wash your hands and all fruits and vegetables prior to juicing. Remove any stems, pits and seeds. Orange rinds are nasty tasting, so remove those, too. Cut larger fruits and vegetables into chunks that your juicer can easily accomodate.   

A delicious tasting, simple base recipe is to juice one medium apple with two medium carrots. You can experiment with just about any fruit or vegetable you like. Green vegetables like kale and spinach can be bitter, so add those sparingly at first until you have acquired the taste. Parsley, garlic and ginger are more exotic flavors you can add when you’re feeling a little more daring. Keep watching our videos for some of our favorite juicing recipes. 

Try this experiment:  try juicing by drinking one glass of fresh juice a day for 30 days, and see how much better you feel! 

Important Note: you should consult with your doctor before embarking on your juicing journey.

Historically speaking,  ALL change has given humans  the opportunity to adapt and evolve  -  over tens of thousands of years  -  into who we are today. Sometimes the smallest, seemingly most insignificant changes have enabled humans to eventually make giant evolutionary leaps.

On both a collective and individual level, we create the change necessary to achieve our dreams. Yet even when change is desireable, we find that change is not always easy. . . .

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why Most People Fail To Achieve Their Dreams

Most people fail to achieve their dreams because their dreams are TOO BIG. Deciding to lose 50 pounds. Getting a college degree.  Owning a successful business. Those are all pretty tall orders.  Just thinking about the enormity of those big dreams can cause some people to psych themselves out. They see the entire mile of road stretched out in front of them. Their dream seems too far away, too distant to achieve. They become daunted and disheartened and give up before they start. Supersizing your dreams can have the unintended effect of preventing desireable change.

Inch By Inch Life Is A Cinch

Remember when you were young and just learning to ride a bicycle? You weren’t popping wheelies the first day! You probably started out riding a little red tricycle. Then, when you got your first Big Kid bike, you rode around with training wheels for a few months. After the training wheels came off, dad steadied your bike until you learned to balance on your own. Little by little, you gained the confidence and the skills to perform fancy tricks – like riding with no hands . . . .  Okay, maybe not. The point is, you eventually achieved your goal by taking small steps and practicing every day. The same principle you used as a child applies to achieving your dreams today. Take baby steps. Small, achievable steps in the direction of your dream are easy to make. For example, instead of telling yourself that you have to lose 50 pounds, begin your commitment to a healthy lifestyle by adding a salad before every meal. Take a single night class to start working toward your college degree. Get to know the business you want to eventually own by starting in an entry-level position and working your way up. Doing one little thing at a time can turn that Mount Everest into a bunny slope. The Bonus: when you succeed at small things, your confidence builds, making it even EASIER to change your life!

Rewire Your Brain

The only way to make these little changes stick is to rewire your brain. You need to untrain your brain from its old habits, and retrain your brain for change.  But remember, old habits die hard! The best method for rewiring your brain is to practice, practice, practice. Practice your little step in the direction of your dream every single day for 30 days. This is how long it takes for changes to become wired into your brain. And you have to be disciplined. The 30 days have to be consecutive. No Fair Cheating! If you skip a day, you short-circuit your attempts at rewiring your brain. Be patient with yourself and with the process. You can make a decision at the end of the 30 days whether to commit to this change, if you believe the change has been positive. Finally, try this Experiment:  Make one small positive change that brings you closer to your goal every 30 days. Do this for one year. At the end of the year, look back and see how much your life has changed for the better!

What one little thing are you going to change? Let us know!

Sadly, we forget about the most important person in the world. We forget about ouselves. We forget about Me. Before we know it, we have run out of steam. Life becomes a habit and a chore and not the joy it was meant to be.

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.  You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”  - Lucille Ball

Click here to view the embedded video.

Me Time

“Me Time” is the time you take to take care of yourself. It is the time you take to escape from the pressures of everyday life, to enjoy yourself, to make yourself whole. Ideally, Me Time is something you do everyday, maybe even several times a day. Me Time is anything that helps you relax and feel good about yourself. Me Time enables you to Love Yourself First.

Make Yourself Happy First

We all want our loved ones to be happy and to please our boss. But no one can give 100% if they are tired, worn out and overwhelmed. Me Time is so important because we cannot make others happy unless we are happy, first. Me Time recharges our battery and allows us to quietly focus our attention on what is really important. We become calm and centered and better able to deal with the everyday bumps along the road of life. As a result, we are able to give more of ourselves to others. Me Time is an investment in yourself, for yourself. And the dividends pay off big! The beneficiaries include our family, friends, co-workers and community at large. Have you ever noticed how when you smile at a stranger, their face lights up in a smile as well? People just seem to respond better to someone who is genuinely happy.

How To Take Care Of You

There are so many things you can do for yourself everyday to  make yourself happy. Enjoy a quiet cup of coffee in the morning before everyone else wakes up. Do some yoga stretches to improve your strength, flexibility and mental focus. Take a walk outside during lunch or go to the gym. Download music or audiobooks to enjoy during your commute. Meditate while gardening.  Play fetch with your favorite pooch. Once a month, you can splurge and treat yourself to something really special. Visit your local spa for a massage or a pedicure. If you enjoy the arts, purchase a season ticket for the symphony or a membership at the arts museum. Sports fans can do the same to cheer on their favorite team. If you’re saying to yourself right now “No, I really don’t have the time or the money to do something like that!,” remember that this as an investment in yourself. You are worth it!

What Me Time activity do you do to make yourself happy? Let us know!

Some people really do put their lives on hold, waiting to live the life of their dreams.  True happiness eludes them.  And so, some people discover, too late, that life has passed them by.  You can live the life of your dreams – not next year or in five years - but Today!

The amazing part is, living your dreams today does not require wealth, connections, or a genius IQ.  It’s fun, it’s free and it’s right here, right now!

“The best way to live the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams Today, in every little way that you possibly can.”
– Mike Dooley, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t Ruminate About The Past Or Dream Of The Perfect Future

Some people become mired in the past, thinking about regrets or missed opportunities.  They believe their dreams would have come true if only they had finished college or if only they had come from a wealthy family.  Others wait to really live their lives until they have achieved their goals.  They dream of how perfect life will be sometime in the future.  They believe they will be happy as soon as they buy that house, or as soon as they find Mr. Right.  Living in the past or idealizing the future only prevents you from living life in the present.  When you focus on the past or the future, you fail to enjoy the Now.  Forget the past and don’t worry about the future.  As Master Oogway once told Po, the panda, in Kung Fu Panda:

“Quit, don’t quit.  Noodles, don’t noodles. You are too concerned about what was and what will be.  There is a saying:  yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery,  but today is a gift.  That is why it is called the ‘present.’ “

Live Life In The Present

Enjoy life by living in the present.  Don’t wait to start enjoying your life  someday – Today is that Day!   Start living a part of your dreams now.  You can do this by doing little things everyday that make you feel as if you are already living your dream.  Enjoy a cup of coffee in that luxury hotel in which you’ve dreamed of staying.  Go to the dealership and sit in the Mercedes you want to buy.  Buy the outfit that makes you feel like a top executive.   Save money every day so that you can literally visualize your Financial Freedom.  When you start doing little things like this every day, you will feel as if you are presently living your dream.  You will begin to feel the abundance of living in the present.  You will feel the great feeling of gratitude for what you have now.   Living in the present will help you live the life of your dreams now.

Live Your Dreams Now

You don’t have to live your life thinking you would be happy “if only”  your dreams would come true.  When you visualize yourself living your dreams everyday and take every small step possible toward actualizing your dreams every single day, you will be living your dreams now.  You will enjoy the experience of staying in the luxury hotel.  You will feel as great as if you really owned that Mercedes.  You will feel as confident as a top executive.    You will watch your money grow and enjoy the feeling of Financial Freedom.  Living your dreams - now and everyday – is the best and quickest way to live the life of your dreams.  Give yourself the gift of the present by starting to live your dreams today.

What do you do everyday to live your dreams?  Let us know!

Yesterday morning, however, was different. Gratitude was replaced by anxiety as I counted up my sleep and decided it was enough. I stopped only briefly to ask my husband in passing whether he’d slept well. In retrospect, I was feeding the wrong wolf, but there I went, wandering further in the wrong direction.

I started worrying about time, and specifically lack of it. Check-in for our flight was at 8:00, it was now nearly 6:30, and I stood in my pajamas wondering if the weather was going to be a problem. Heavy rains were just starting, and were scheduled to get even heavier. As I started getting ready, I pictured every kind of weather-related plane disaster imaginable.

Is Anxiety Controlling You?

When we got to the airport, there were no delays, which I thought was a good sign. In the plane, I was glad to find a place to stow my bag, and then the anxiety started creeping back into my thoughts. Get out of the aisle, you’re in the way, the chances of you and David dying together in a plane crash are infinitesimal. The thought comforted me in an odd way. I went further with my theories: I’ve known two people who died on planes, so the chances of it happening to me as well are pretty much non-existent. But there’s always terrorism. Could any of these people be carrying a weapon?

I had to step in and intervene in this line of thought. The way I was going, toward total insanity and paranoia, was neither helpful nor enjoyable. I reminded myself that every time I’ve ever taken a flight, I do this same thing – I look for ways that things could end in death, and guess what? I’m still alive.

I decided to lay down the law with myself. I could either spend the rest of my life avoiding flying and worrying about terrorists, or I could just accept the great Divine that is God, and that I have a purpose on the earth that I am here to fulfill. When that mission is over, it’s over, and no amount of anxiety or stress is going to affect that. Admitting that to myself, hearing that truth in my head, allowed me to relax and enjoy the rest of the journey.

Overcoming Anxiety And Fear

This is a far cry from how I was in earlier years, not even able to venture out of my house, much less get on an airplane. Without medication, it was a certainly a struggle to heal my anxiety disorder, but now, on the plane, I could enjoy the luxury of feeling pleased with how far I’ve come.

I’d like to take a moment to tell another old story. There was a Shaman who, on the night of each full moon, would sit with the village children and recount the story of the white wolf and the dark wolf. These were two wolves who had been adversaries since the dawn of time. The white wolf thrives on truth, kindness, and love. The dark wolf, on the other hand, gains his strength from hatred, fear, and lies. The two wolves would battle again and again, and each time the children heard the story, they would ask which wolf wins in the end. The shaman’s answer was simple: “The wolf that wins is the one you feed!” And so it is.

You don’t need to look any further than the almost universal desire that people have for more money in order to see this concept in action. People jump through all manner of hoops in order to gain financial freedom, but even if they had a mountain of money in front of them, if they didn’t do anything with it, then it would just be a useless pile of paper.

It is not what we GET in life that matters, because life is handing us new opportunities every single day. Rather, it is what we DO with those opportunities that will ensure not only our long-term success, but our day-to-day happiness as well.

The Dream Job

Every person has their own rendition of what their “dream job” is, so what would you do if you actually attained it?

• Would you just show up for work every day, but not do any actual work?
• Would you stop working towards future success and advancements?
• Would you ignore opportunities to demonstrate the skills or experience that you used to get the job to begin with?

A “dream job” without a corresponding effort on your part to show that you are worthy of that job is nothing more than an opportunity for you to end up standing in the soup line.

The Dream Body

Yep, we’ve all pictured it in our heads at one time or another, right? Those firm muscles, tight curves, and sculpted features are things that most people give thought to, and for some people, it is an on-going quest that lasts for decades. What would you do if you got your “dream body,” though?

• Would you start eating junk food like it was going out of style?
• Would you stop exercising effectively and on a very consistent basis?
• Would you pick up every unhealthy habit that you could get your hands on?

A “dream body” is made up of both the mental and the physical work that it takes to get that body to begin with. If you stop doing that work, then your “dream body” will once again become nothing but a far off goal that you can’t quite get your hands on.

The Dream Relationship

Who hasn’t dreamed of their “soul mate” at one time or another, or at least dreamed of the guy or girl that would keep them satisfied on an emotional or physical level? That “dream relationship,” however, is not something that can be won, but then just ignored.

• If you are a certain person in the beginning of a happy relationship, do you honestly think that relationship will stay happy if you start acting like a different person?
• If you have certain goals or dreams that are shared by your significant other, but your goals or dreams change, is it your significant other’s fault when the relationship starts to crumble?
• If you are a family man or woman, but suddenly you decide to recapture your college glory days of keg parties and panty raids, do you honestly think that is going to fly?

A relationship – by definition – is made up of 2 people harmoniously sharing their life experiences. If one person changes drastically from how they were in the beginning of the relationship, the possibility that the other person will change enough to balance things out is minimal at best.

The moral of the story here is that the attainment of success – no matter how thrilling – is simply a moment in time when you realize that you have won. After that moment has passed, it is time for you to step up to the plate and consistently prove that you are worthy of that success.

Back on June 16, 2008 I wrote the post The Winds of Change will sometimes Ruffle your Sails, and in that post I made the public commitment that I would find a way to move to the east coast of Florida within 60 days in order to start a new business. We signed the lease on our beach-side condo 32 days later!

We did not pull off such an impressive accomplishment by just sitting around hoping that it would happen, however. There were tangible, “real world” factors that went into our success, and there were intangible, impossible to predict factors as well. The point of this post is for you to realize that success does not come from sitting around wishing for it, but neither does it only come from working hard.

Success is most often a potent combination of your own efforts, as well as factors that you couldn’t possibly predict in advance.

Tangible Success Factors

As I indicated back in my original post when I stated my intention to move to the beach within 60 days, there were “real world” products and services that I offered up in order to make that happen. Despite my iron-clad belief that I would manifest whatever circumstances were necessary in order to achieve my goal, I still didn’t just sit around waiting for the success wagon to pull up in front of my house. I went out there and chased the success wagon down!

I knew that coming up with additional funding was going to be critical to moving to a coastal area, and at the beginning of the journey (barely 1 month ago!), neither myself nor my girlfriend had any additional money outside of what our monthly bills were costing us.

So, rather than sitting around waiting for the success genie to drop a free ride into my lap, I actively went out and worked towards my goals:

• I offered products – My own electronic products from 2 years of personal development work continue to be a source of value for all who have purchased them, and I leveraged that in order to help facilitate this move.
• I offered services – Although I have no interest in a career as a blog developer, I do have skills with WordPress, so I offered those skills as a way to help other people out. 3 people took me up on it, to the tune of over $500 towards the cause. (Maija Karin Photography, Privateer Nation, Power Sharing)
• I offered discount memberships – My Personal Development Partners site continues to be a source of inspiration and networking for the members, and also a store house of a ton of great self improvement and personal development information. The lifetime membership option there was taken advantage of by 3 of the members of the site. (Gia, Dr. Hal, and Jeniffer Karas)
• I did manual labor – Just because I’m a computer whiz doesn’t mean that I can’t get out there and work my butt off. I helped people move, I pulled weeds, I planted trees – heck, I almost got sun stroke one day. I kept my goal in mind, however, and I didn’t let a bit of back-breaking work frighten me away from my goal!
• I sold things from my past that were not going to serve my future – Like most people, I had a ton of crap that I was holding onto, but never using. None of those things had anything to do with the business or the life that I want on the coast, so I just sold them on Craigslist. Not only am I free and clear from those things that I associate with my past, but now we don’t have to move them, either!

You should note 2 very important things about the list of activities that I engaged in to facilitate this move:

1. I did not stick to any “one” thing as the solution to coming up with more money. I kept my options open and I took action in many different directions at once.
2. I did not limit my options by “classifying” myself. I did everything from skilled technical work, to inspirational and empowering writing, to manual labor. Each and every one of those activities brought income to the equation.

Intangible Success Factors

Despite the success of the “real world” efforts that I listed above, the intangible efforts were just as important to my success. There were things that were part of my success that I could not possibly have foreseen, and that was the result of 3 radically important things that I did every single day during the manifestation of my desires:

1. I visualized what I wanted - Every morning, every night, and sometimes even during the day, I kept a picture in my mind of what I would see once I was living at the beach. Did it work? The condo that we signed a lease on is literally 300 steps from the sand. I could walk from my door to the sand with my eyes closed.
2. I kept a sense of expectation – There were plenty of times over the last month or so that doubt wanted to creep in, but I never let it get a foot hold. I kept the attitude every single day not that it MIGHT happen, but that it definitely WOULD happen.
3. I stayed focused on a specific goal – In the beginning, we actually had about a 20-mile stretch of beach that we were willing to live near as long as the house itself was close enough to the sand. After an entire day of looking at properties and making phone calls, however, we decided that it had to be either Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach, FL, which are collectively only about 8 miles of sand. Within 3 days of making the rock-solid decision that it had to be Cocoa or the Cape, we found our place 300 steps from the beach in Cape Canaveral.

Unforeseen Circumstances

My visualizing, my sense of expectation, and the laser-focus on exactly what I wanted brought things into the equation that I could not possibly have foreseen:

• Advertisers that I had never even heard of before purchased ad space here at Today is that Day and also at Fitness Destinations. That was all bonus money for the housing fund.
• Visitors to this site purchased affiliate products that have been advertised here for almost a year, yet had not had any new sales in many months. My commission on those sales went straight into the housing fund.
• Some very generous readers who are also fellow bloggers made donations to the cause, and they know who they are, so I will just take this opportunity to thank them again! Each of the people who donate
  d are also paying members over at PDP, so their continued generosity was a welcome and unexpected gift.
• The person who owns the condo that we are moving into (thanks again, Renee!!) had the old tenant moving out the same day that we went to look at it, and she agreed that if we were willing to clean the place up, she wouldn’t charge us a deposit. We signed the lease with nothing but the 1st month’s rent. How often does THAT happen anymore???

There were numerous other “synchronicities” that came into play as far as people helping us out, giving us guidance, or helping to keep us on track, and that in itself could be an entire wonderful story. I’ll stop there, because by now you should get the point that the unforeseen circumstances were just as much a part of this success as the “real world” efforts that were made.

The moral to this entire, joyous success story is that not only did I get what I wanted, but that I got it through a combination of both tangible and intangible success factors. If you have been putting all of your faith in one system or the other, why don’t you try combining BOTH?

You might be shocked and amazed at the incredible results that you bring into your life!

By the way, if you are curious about the health and fitness business that is going to be one of the results of this success story, be sure to check out my profile over at Bob Doyle’s 45-day Boundless Living Challenge. I’ll be discussing the entire journey and all of the awesome business details over there!

p.s. – I need to go pack, paint, and do maintenance on the house that we are moving out of and renting, so I’ll be “off the grid” for awhile. Look for the next post here at Today is that Day to be typed up from the beach!

You don’t have to try very hard these days to hear people complaining about the economy, about gas prices, about the housing market, about terrorism, about health care, about schools and teenage angst, blah, blah, blah. There is a never-ending stream of things to complain about, and as long as people continue to complain, those issues will continue to exist.

Imagine what would happen, though, if one by one, people started seeing things in a more positive light, and started to see, talk about, and focus on the positive aspects of the state of the world. There is a positive spin that can be put on anything – IF, and ONLY if – you look at the situation from the right point of view. Naysayers will claim that there is nothing positive about negative circumstances, and as long as they continue to look with eyes like that, they will always find a way to prove themselves right. For everyone else, however, turn your attention to the GOOD that comes out of even the worst circumstances, and you may start to realize that all is not lost – despite what the doomsday people would have us believe.

Global Warming – Global warming is indeed a potentially huge negative circumstance. However, if the phenomenon would never have surfaced, we would have continued to blindly go on polluting the environment and the earth, and no one would have known anything about it until it was too late.

I see global warming as a welcome wake up call that we need to get off our butts and start taking care of the Earth. I also see global warming as a welcome wake up call to people (myself included) who previously didn’t spend enough time appreciating the value and the beauty of nature. When you are in danger of losing something, you suddenly realize how valuable it is.

Terrorism – Did you realize that in the U.S., until the 9/11 incidents with the twin towers in NYC, that terrorism had been relegated to being “yesterday’s news,” and that – with full respect to any previous victims of terrorism – it had all but fallen out of view of anyone but the security agencies charged with protecting the U.S. borders? Terrorism has become such an issue today because people keep focusing on how BAD it is.

Do you know what I see when I think of terrorism? I see a much-needed reminder about how wonderful it is to live in the countries whose governments protect us from those types of threats. I see reminders about how each day should be lived to the fullest. I see examples of extreme religious beliefs that remind me of how fortunate I am to live in a country where I can practice any religion (or lack thereof) that I choose to practice. Am I happy about terrorism? No, of course not. However, I AM happy to be safe and alive, and to be reminded that each day is a gift.

High Gas Prices – Hovering near or above $4.00 per gallon of gasoline in the United States, a lot of people would say that this is a real problem, and a lot more people would agree with them. After all, our entire social and career culture is based on people getting back and forth to work and play areas.

Do you know what I see when I look at the price of gas? I see opportunities for us to explore and develop alternative technologies that we should have been exploring and developing a long time ago. I see people getting more exercise by walking or riding bicycles more often. I see people staying in and becoming part of their communities more, rather than thinking that happiness is always just another car ride away. I see people coming together as metropolitan communities via increased use of public transportation, and an increased awareness of what life is like for people who weren’t driving cars before gas prices sky-rocketed. In short, I see high gas prices as a positive change in the global culture, not the “evil” that many people seem to think it is.

Health Care – It doesn’t take long to find a group of people who are willing to complain about the health care system, the price of medications, and a lack of affordable coverage. Those issues, however, are not in debate. The fact that they exist simply is what it is. How the majority of people LOOK at the health care issues is what will determine the long-term positive or negative state of the health care industry.

When I think of “negative” health care issues, I see an opportunity for people to realize the need to do what they should have been doing all along – taking better care of themselves! From both a mental and a physical standpoint, any given person has a HUGE amount of power over their level of health and fitness. If rising health care costs are what it takes to wake those people up, get them to step away from the table, to take up exercising, and to realize the power that their minds and their attitudes have over their health, then I think that is just glorious.

Schools and Generational Issues – What’s wrong with kids today? They are disrespectful, unmotivated, victim mentality-oriented, overweight, unhealthy, prone to inappropriate sexual acts, and just generally screwed up. We’ll all be lucky if the Earth sees another 20 years with those kids at the helm. And it is no wonder that these kids are so messed up, what with the school budget cuts, and the rampant violence that fills our school system these days.

I wish that my slightly tongue-in-cheek description of the state of today’s youth and educational system was just a joke, but it’s not. However, the problem isn’t with the kids or with the educational system, it is with the parents. I don’t see the teenagers riddled with issues such as those described above, but rather an opportunity for people to WAKE UP and realize that child-rearing starts at home. I see a chance for today’s misguided parents to realize that making babies is about creating a new generation, not about flopping around in the sheets and then figuring out how to pay for and manage the result that comes out 9 months later. I don’t see a problem – I see an opportunity.

I could go on and on with examples just like those listed above, but by now the point should be crystal clear:

You can look at life in the worst possible light, or you can look at life with eyes that see opportunities for advancement and growth.

One of those views leads to a world full of negativity, hatred, and destruction, while the other point of view will create a world that is actually worth living in. Personally, I choose the latter…

The idea was originally hatched by Maria Gajewski of Never the Same River Twice, and then several of the other PDP members came on board to create a ton of value, yet give it all away at no cost whatsoever.

Patricia Schiavone of Attracting the Best wrote a chapter in the book, and also helped Maria pull the whole thing together, Maria herself also contributed a chapter, and additional chapters were contributed by:

• Ellie Walsh of Living the Law of Attraction
• Lexi Sundell of Energies of Creation
• Aaron Potts (that’s me!) of Today is that Day

Considering that today’s world can be full of chaos, uncertainty, and even fear, finding Inner Peace is a goal worth working towards, and the chapters contained in this eBook offer some valuable insight into how to do exactly that.

Grab your free copy by simply clicking right here, or clicking the beautiful inner peace graphic, compliments of Gabriella Fabbri.

The creation of this eBook marks the first collaborative effort by the members of Personal Development Partners, and it represents a mere fraction of what is possible when like-minded people come together for a common cause.

If you would like to become a part of a community where all of the members share the desire to learn, to teach, or to network for both professional and personal growth, then join PDP today and become a part of a group that is going places, rather than just watching the world roll past.

Membership at Personal Development Partners is free, or you can take advantage of a huge amount of additional value by becoming a Premium member, or even taking on one of the valuable, but limited, Thought Leader positions.

Now is the time to join, though, because at the end of June, the lifetime membership options will be coming down. The lifetime memberships give you unlimited access to all of the perks and benefits of PDP membership, yet without a monthly membership fee, so grab those lifetime memberships before June is over.

Many thanks to all of the PDP members, and a special thanks to those who were involved in bringing the valuable Secrets to Inner Peace eBook into reality!

If you knew for a fact that there was a God or a Goddess of unlimited power inside of you right now, wouldn’t it be great to learn how to access their limitless abilities? Well, you do have a God or a Goddess inside of you, and gaining access to that power is very much within the reach of each and every mere mortal.

Accessing your Divine power requires a conscious effort, however. You don’t just stumble upon the thoughts, feelings, and actions that re-work the fabric of your own personal space-time continuum. If you want to change your stars (tip of the hat to A Knight’s Tale), then follow these steps for invoking your personal development power!

Decide

Your ability to part seas and walk on water means exactly nothing until you decide that you want to part seas and walk on water.

When a magician goes to pull a rabbit out of a hat, do you think that he just waves his magic wand and says “Give me something furry!” or do you think he decides that he wants a rabbit, rather than, say, a weasel? Granted, those types of magic tricks are all illusion, but to even pull off that illusion, the magician still had to decide that he was going to wow the audience by pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Your unlimited power will bring you the unlimited ability to accomplish absolutely nothing unless you first decide what it is that you want to accomplish. Without a decision, your magic wand is nothing more than a fancy drink stirrer.

Commit

It would seem to go without saying that making a commitment to a given course of action is an integral part of bringing that course of action to life, but how many times have you or someone you know decided to do something, but then not followed through?

Commitments to ourselves or to others should not be taken lightly. When you truly commit to something, your attitude should immediately become Failure is NOT an option! If you leave yourself a safety net or a safe way out in case you are unable to fulfill your commitment, then you haven’t committed. If you feel the need to have a safety net or a safe way out, then you aren’t ready for that commitment, so don’t even bother trying.

Shout

How many people in your circle of influence know what your goals are, or what you are trying to accomplish? Your answer should be everybody! The basic business concept of “networking” works for a reason; because the more people who know what you are wanting to do, the better chance you have of getting it done.

If you want to have your house painted, but you don’t feel that you can afford it, shout it out! Tell your co-worker Suzie what you want, and what your concerns are. Suzie might not care, or be able to help you in some way, but that doesn’t mean that Suzie’s circle of influence won’t be able to help you. For all you know, Suzie is going to go home that day to find a flyer on her door that says “We do quality house painting for cheap!”

Now, imagine if you did that with every single person that you know. In fact, you want your house painted so badly that you keep on talking about it over and over again. Eventually, you are going to come across the resources that you need, and it is very likely that those resources will come from a direction that you could not possibly have imagined in advance.

Listen

What good is shouting for help if you don’t then listen to see if anyone responds?

Again, this very likely will not come in a direct form. You might just be strolling down the street and come across someone else who is getting their house painted, so you strike up a conversation with them. It turns out that their painters need another job as soon as possible, and they are willing to reduce their rates in order to get the work.

You might find out about a brand-new company that is offering discount services in order to get their name out in the community, or you might come across a retiree who loves to paint houses, and he would be happy to paint your house for a lot less than the current rates being charged by local companies.

The point is that the more you shout it out, the more you should pay attention to what happens afterwards. Also – be patient. This process is not always immediate, but it is always effective.

Expect

To get what you want, you have to expect to get what you want. Often, your attitude of expectation is enough to convince other people to help you out, even if they aren’t getting something in return!

Your stark confidence in the fact that you are going to attain your desires makes people say “Wow, this girl/guy has it all figured out.” When people have those types of thoughts, they are automatically drawn into your networking process, and they become a part of the solution.

I worked a gym once, and the Fitness Manager was not the most ethical health and fitness practitioner, but that didn’t stop him from making a huge paycheck because of his attitude of expectation. He would walk into a meeting with potential new gym members with an attitude of “You ARE joining this gym, and you ARE buying personal training!”. Before you knew it, people were signing on dotted lines and busting out their credit cards.

People are attracted to confidence and they listen to confident people. By keeping an attitude of expectation that you WILL be getting your way, you will inspire the world at large to make sure that is exactly what happens.

Believe

The belief that you will get what you want is similar to your expectation, but belief is at a higher level, and speaks more to the lifestyle that you’ll be leading once you get what you want, rather than just the expectation that you are going to get it.

• When you believe that you are going to be wealthy, you are already making plans for what to do with that money.
• When you believe that you are going to lose weight, you are already making plans for what kind of clothes you are going to wear, and how your lifestyle is going to change as a result of the weight loss.
• When you believe that you are going to find your soul-mate, you are already making plans for the things that you and him or her will do together, and how wonderful it will all be.

Belief is even more powerful than expectation because not
only are you expecting to get what you want, but you are already planning the next stage in the journey. Doing so further empowers you to do things like sticking to your commitment, shouting to more people, listening for more answers, and fully expecting to get whatever it is that you want.

Enjoy

What’s the point of all of this if you aren’t going to enjoy the journey, as well as the prizes along the way? If the tasks that are involved in you attaining your desires make you sad, confused, angry, or even just bored, then why are you doing them?

When your heart is 100% involved with attaining your desires, then the tasks along the way – although sometimes mundane – will still be done with joy and enthusiasm because you know for a fact that by doing those tasks, you will get what you want.

If your tasks do not fill you with joy and a sense of bountiful expectancy, then that is a big red flag that you may be on the wrong path. You may be working towards something that you feel you are supposed to be doing or that you are good at, but it isn’t something that you truly want for your life.

Your journey towards what you want to get out of life should be just as much fun as actually getting there. If you aren’t enjoying the ride, you might want to get off at the next stop and find a route that brings you as much joy as you expect the end result to bring you.

Do you see a pattern developing here? Every step that was just listed not only builds upon the previous steps, but it all culminates in the final step – Enjoy- which was the initial goal to begin with, wasn’t it?

Whatever it is that we are after in our lives, it is because we want joy and happiness. Yes, we may take part in tasks or actions that are not directly related to our own happiness, yet we take part in those tasks or actions because we choose to do so in order to attain whatever it is that we personally want.

It’s OK to be self-centered in life. Being self-centered means that you insist on living life on your terms, as opposed to being selfish, which means that you insist on OTHER people living life on your terms.

Be self-centered, Invoke your personal development power, and Create a wonderful life for yourself.

Do you see how each one of those words is a present-tense action? The present is the only time you will ever have. Please use it wisely.

No matter how easy, fast, or convenient any given method is for getting what we want out of life, there are a myriad of things that could jump directly in our way on the road to goal attainment. If we don’t have a back-up plan, then we are stuck staring directly at a road block, with nothing left to do but turn around and go home in defeat.

There is another option here, however, and it requires you to look at your goal from a more global perspective, rather than believing there is only one road that will get you to wherever it is that you want to go. Your path to success is NOT a permanent road. There is only one goal, but there are multiple ways to get there.

If you pin your entire hopes, dreams, and desires on one method, one set of circumstances, or one path, then your very happiness in life will be dependent on that one method, circumstance, or path.

It is important not to view that which stands in your way as your ‘enemy.’ It can often be your best friend, sending you on a detour that takes you around what could have been your biggest stumbling block.

- Neale Donald Walsch

It is certainly understandable that we tend to see things in black and white. A certain cause will result in a certain effect, and we were all taught as children that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Life does not deal in straight lines, however!

Picture the following scene to illustrate this concept in a real-world, 3-dimensional scenario:

You are standing on one side of a deep chasm, and you need to get to the other side. The chasm is very deep, and there is an old, rickety rope-bridge tied to trees on either side, and the whole thing looks pretty unstable.

You HAVE to get to the other side, though. What do you do?

Most 3-dimensional thinkers would say that they have no choice – it’s the rope-bridge or nothing. Why do they think that way? The rope-bridge is a straight line.

In truth, there are multiple ways to get across a chasm, but when I painted the scene earlier, you immediately assumed that you had limited resources. That is exactly what we do in life, which is why we tend to base all of our hopes for success on the results of any one plan of action.

There are unlimited ways for us to get what we want out of life (to get across our chasms), yet people tend to only see one path, or maybe a small handful of paths, and they ignore anything that they personally don’t see or don’t understand.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you think that your way is the only way that could possibly work, not only are you being radically short-sighted, but you’re being a bit ego-centric, too.

Who are you to say that whatever methods you personally come up with are the best methods for getting what you want?

• Logic and reason don’t always work
• Throwing caution to the wind doesn’t always work
• Asking others for advice doesn’t always work
• Getting educated/informed doesn’t always work
• Following the examples of others doesn’t always work

In fact, there is NOTHING that always works for every person. Each situation is different, and the outcome of each situation is different.

The phrase “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten” is a truth of our existence that most people believe in wholeheartedly, as well they should. Here’s the rub, though:

Someone else could come along and do what you have always done, but get completely different results.

You, on the other hand, need to change tactics.

• If you have been using logic and reason, then perhaps you need to get more esoteric: Meditation, visualization, affirmations, etc.
• If you have always flown by the seat of your pants, and that hasn’t worked, then get more “grounded” and try more traditional methods.
• If you have always followed the advice of others, but you still aren’t successful, then maybe you need new mentors, or maybe you should just look inside your own mind for your answers.
• If you have spent years getting educated/informed/experienced so that you could be successful, but you still aren’t, maybe it’s time to put the books down and start applying what you have learned.
• If you have followed the lead of successful people before you, but their methods aren’t working for you, why don’t you try coming up with your own methods?

The bottom line is that no matter what methods you have been using, if they haven’t worked yet, then they probably never will. Open up your mind to the possibility that your path to success may be so confusing, so convoluted, and so backwards and illogical that you could not possibly imagine it in advance.

Once you are in that open-minded state, you may very well be amazed at how clear things suddenly become.

What’s surprising, however, is that even though P90X is one of the most effective weight loss and fitness programs out there, the health and weight loss benefits are only part of what people get from using P90X. In addition, they get something that is not as measurable as weight loss and increased health, but just as important – they get empowerment.

Ever since announcing the Million Dollar Body Challenge, and choosing P90X as one of the fitness programs the participants can use, I have been researching P90X extensively. The amount of data available about the program is nothing less than staggering, and here’s the best part:

It’s all good!

Normally, even a very popular book, video, program, etc., will have a fair amount of people who don’t think that much of it. With P90X, however, the only negative comment that I’ve heard is that it’s really hard! That is, of course, why it’s really effective.

I have read dozens of blog posts and articles, poured over the company literature, seen multiple videos about the product, and even talked to people in person, and no one has had anything bad to say about it.

So, that is all well and good, and if you haven’t already checked out P90X, I definitely recommend that you do. You can see 3 cool videos about it and get signed up for the Million Dollar Body challenge by going right here.

There is more than just health and fitness to be discussed, however – let’s talk about empowerment.

The Discipline to Win

The people who successfully complete the 90-day P90X program do it by, quite frankly (and literally), working their butts off for 90 days straight. P90X is not easy, and like any good fitness program, it includes both a structured exercise program and a structured nutrition plan.

The P90X graduates are all people who took control of their lives for 90 days straight and said, “I am going to do this. I will not back down, and I will not give up. I will stay focused on my goal of making it to day 90, and I will not allow myself to be distracted in any way from reaching my goal.”

Hmmm…that sounds a bit like the recipe for success in any endeavor, doesn’t it? The P90X grads, however, have an edge that most people don’t: They know that the system works.

They know that by staying disciplined and on track, that the results will be there. It isn’t hearsay to them, it isn’t a rumor, it isn’t some vague bit of personal development advice – it is a fact.

They know that by staying their course for 90 days, they can accomplish truly amazing things, remarkable things, measurable and noticeable things. They can accomplish things that not only make other people stand up and take notice, but more importantly, things that have empowered them to succeed in any endeavor in their lives.

Their success with P90X, although wonderful in its own right, is just a stepping stone to success in other areas because they now have confidence, and faith, and they understand the power of positive habits. By the sweat of their own brow, they have seen that they can accomplish something that was neither easy, nor short-lived.

They have learned perseverance and discipline; they know the taste of victory and they know it tastes so sweet because they earned it, they worked for it, and they deserve it.

Does all of this mean that you should run right out and buy P90X just so you can be like them? Unless you are in perfect physical condition already, sure that would be a great idea. However, even if you don’t, at least take the message of this blog post to heart:

Victory is sweet when you earn it, and you aren’t earning it if you are sitting well inside your comfort zone watching the world go by.

Is it all about the chiseled abs, the sculpted shoulders, or the beautiful legs? Nope! However, when you work hard enough to have chiseled abs, sculpted shoulders, or beautiful legs, you suddenly realize that there is nothing that you can’t do.

And that, friends and neighbors, is definitely something worth working for, wouldn’t you say?

WHAT’S NEXT?

Join the Million Dollar Body Challenge
Check out the P90x Extreme Training System®
Sign up for the free Today is that Day Newsletter
Discuss this post at Personal Development Partners
Get reminded of this wisdom with Offline Merchandise

This series will be published weekly and will be comprised of links to quality blog posts that have proven to be extraordinary in their ability to assist, inform, or empower the reader.

As you check out these quality links, be sure to help the authors out by adding their posts to Stumbleupon, Digg, or your favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

1) Ramblings from a Glass Half Full - In his post The Key Ingredient to Sustained Success? Calvin Had it Right, Terry Starbucker keeps us “in the know” with the most basic truth of how to succeed!

2) Jordan Cheng’s Success Journal – The post Why Most Successful People Are Renegades is so dead-on with what I’ve been telling my readers for a long time – success does NOT come from doing what everyone else does.

3) Martha Beck Blog – No one is a “slave” to their lives, yet many people act like they are. Martha’s post Do you really HAVE to do anything? includes a great method of finding what you want, and then CHOOSING to do that.

4) Scott H. Young – Awhile ago I wrote this post about when your environment changes, and Scott’s post Self-Improvement Tip: Ride the Wave of Moving Day does a great job of discussing that concept along with some tips on what precisely to do when the time comes for change.

5) How to be an Original – For those of us who use passwords all the time (and who doesn’t these days?), Lodewijk’s post Tweak your passwords to benefit from them lists some truly original ways to not just remember passwords, but to actually put them to good use!

6) Pick the Brain – If you are on the fence about whether action or desire are the keys to getting what you want, why not try both? In the post The Other Side of Productivity: Coincidences, Synchronicity, and Serendipity, check out a good discussion of the concepts.

7) That’s Fit – If you’ve been getting your motivation for health and fitness from magazines or the television, you probably think that you need to be in at least decent shape to get the ball rolling. That is, of course, total rubbish. Read Exercise is not only for the fit for more info.

Blog Carnivals that have recently included posts from Today is that Day:

Very much obliged to ImprovedLife for giving the Top Post award to the Today is that Day post 5 Not so Q.U.I.E.T. Methods of Personal Growth and Development in the Fifth Edition of the Carnival of Improving Life. Thanks a bunch!

Thanks as always to the authors who create content worth sharing, and to the readers who inspire us to do so!

Oh sure, most people make a “token” effort at improving their lives, yet how many people can honestly say that they gave it everything they had before they gave up and moved on to something else?

Our lives are replete with opportunities for us to “rise above,” and to excel in every conceivable manner, yet a lack of immediate gratification tends to knock us flat long before we ever even get up a full head of steam. We never even get the chance to quit trying to attain something because we never completely engaged in the process of making it happen to begin with!

Think about any area of your life where you are wanting to make improvements, and then think about how much of a true effort you are making in that regard. Give no thought to phrases such as “doing the best I can,” or “doing what I can with what I’ve got”. Release your reliance on phrases or concepts like those, as they only serve to give yourself permission to fail based on any given set of circumstance. Think more along the lines of what if your life actually depended on you being successful? Are you trying that hard? Honestly?

What’s your relationship status?

If you aren’t 100% happy with your relationship status, can you honestly say that you have tried every single thing in your arsenal?

• If you’re single, do you act in every way like the type of person that you want to have in your life, or do you wish for that “dream mate,” yet not consistently act in a manner that your dream mate would be attracted to?
• Do you go out of your way on a consistent basis to meet new people, or do you sit around at home thinking that you’ll magically come across that special someone?
• Do you have a winning, confident attitude that will naturally attract prospective mates to you, or do you sit around wallowing in your loneliness?

Even if you have been taking appropriate action in each of those areas, have you been doing so for the entire span of time that you’ve been looking for a new mate, or have you just acted in those ways when it was convenient for you?

• If you’re married or involved in a relationship that needs improvement, do you work on improving that relationship every single day, or do you think that the relationship will just heal itself?
• Do you go out of your way to do the things that will make your significant other happy, even without them doing things for you first?
• Are the needs of your significant other something that you tend to frequently, even if they don’t at first reciprocate those efforts?

Although it is possible that your present relationship will not work out even if you do all of those things, until you make a consistent effort to try, you’ll never know for sure what could have been.

What is your health status?

Are you one of those people who is constantly trying to lose weight or improve your health in some way, yet you keep not achieving your goals? There are very few health and fitness related improvements that can’t be achieved when you truly make a consistent effort, so why is it that you can’t ever seem to get there?

• Do you consistently follow the basic nutritional guidelines that we all know lead to good health, or do you eat in a manner that you know is not going to effectively get you to your goals?
• Is an effective exercise program part of your daily lifestyle, or do you let work, family, or personal obligations keep you from regularly working out?
• Do you seek out the knowledge that you need in order to power a long-term health and fitness plan, or do you hide behind your lack of understanding as an excuse?

In each of those examples, there are ways to succeed, and ways to fail, yet you can’t “quit” the health and fitness scene because it “didn’t work” unless you first make an honest and long-term effort to achieve success in that arena.

What is your financial status?

If you dream of financial freedom or comfort, it will require an on-going effort on your part to provide some sort of value that other people are willing to pay for. What value is it that you are providing that is supposed to ensure your financial abundance?

• If you work for yourself, do you make a daily effort to provide the best possible experience for your customers, including long-term relationship building, or do you just go after quick sales?
• Do you have systems in place for creating new or improved products and services, or do you sit around wondering why you don’t have enough customers?
• If you want to start a business, do you consistently learn about and study business models and opportunities, or do you maintain your status as an underpaid employee because you lack the knowledge to do your own thing?
• If you work for someone else, and you enjoy doing so, are you making continuing efforts to provide more value to your employer, or are you just waiting for your next raise?
• Do you have a long-term plan with that company that includes specific goals, or are you simply doing your job every day, and hoping for the best?

Regardless of what your financial or employment status is right now, there is some way that you can improve those circumstances. However, unless you consistently try to improve, no one else is going to do it for you.

All of the examples given above are meant to illustrate the exact same concept: If you don’t honestly try to improve, and if you don’t make those efforts consistently, and over the long-term, you never really tried at all.

You have nothing to “quit” because the effort needed for you to succeed was never put in place to begin with.