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It all begins with a change in mindset! There is a tendency in every human to see the world outside in and not inside out. What that means is we always look at external circumstances, people and situations to blame anything and everything that doesn’t make us comfortable. We tend to be very tactical in our approach. Very often, we look a the news and people around and wonder how things are, the way they are. If we want to change the situation or results then WE need to change. You can expect the same result with the same behavior and habits. It is a function of your though process, habits built over a period of time. If you want a different result, create a different habit and that includes how you see the world, who you come across, where you spend your time. It all begins with a change in mindset!

It’s important to recognize failure, take ownership and make relevant changes in out daily habits to be on a better path. If the first thing you do is pick up your phone and start reading world news, texts, twitter. We will infinite amount of information enter our minds without any filter. Then sure, you can be an expert in world dynamics but remember the negativity that can come from it also will weigh on you and that too over a period of time. It’s always great “news” when there is a disaster, negative events in the world and you are bombarding yourself day in day out with that. Social media/news these day conditions you the way they want you to think. Now instead of picking that phone, if you woke up and spent time in nature, leveraging creativity, meditating, doing excercise, it will immensely benefit your mind and body to power through the day. Start with 10 mins and then have 4/5 min increments till you reach your desire goal.

Keep news/social media to a certain part of the day and for a finite time period with specific outcomes. Don’t waste your time reading the same news over and over again. You are not creating anything in your meaningful and special life.

There is no difference between a person who doesn’t read and the person who can’t. Most of the successful people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Barack Obama swear by the habit of gainly tremendous knowledge through reading. Educate yourself to open your mind to the world of possibilities. Learn something everyday either through a book, podcast or audio books. There is power in learning.

Contribute to the welfare of less privileged. There are 100s of millions of people in the world who can’t afford four square meals and are caught in the cycle of poverty. Internet has made good charities across the world accessible. Donate money, time to uplift the underprivileged. It helps you and helps them! $30 a month is not much for you but can be someone’s meal for entire month who can go hungry without that help.

We all have two ears and one mouth. There is a reason for that. Listen more than you talk. When you talk, you are saying something that you know already. When you listen, you are learning more. Keep phone, music everything away in the company of others and be attentive. It’s important to make our loved one feel important and grow the chain of happiness.

Practice positive mind frame, affirmation and look at the glass half full with the mind set on making it fuller!!

Well, there is upside to most of the things, including social media. Believe it or not!

In today’s age and time, we wake up with our phones and we sleep with our phones. We look at our partners and our kids less than we look at Leo Decaprio, Beyonce and Taylor Swift! We are more in tune with their lives, their days, likes and dislikes than our teen-agers. The constant flow of information doesn’t allow us to think for ourselves. We believe in what is fed to us without fact checking and it is fed to us to change our opinions, likes and dislikes. Apart from tuning our brain and shrinking it , it is also playing havoc on our eyes and our families and friends.

But there is an upside of having that phone and it’s plenty when you use it the right way. You can have immense knowledge of right things at the tip of your finger, you can create videos on the go and you can access “right” influencers every morning. Think about getting to know Tom Brady, Bill Gates, U2, Taylor Swift and Warren Buffet better!

Having phone with you and accessing it in a limited way can enrich your life. Instead of following people who sap you of positive energy, follow those who can help build creativity, wealth and knowledge. That can help you innovate, work harder. Following Leo Decaprio on instagrams will help you understand how he is focused and passionate about saving the planet. Following Brady can help instill the displine and rigor he follow.

Pick and choose the right people. Limit your time everyday to couple of hrs, make it into an asset in your life that you carry and not you are someone that the phone carries at its whims and fancies. Control the mind and the phone can be your friend!

How do you ensure you are successful in any job interview including AMAZON, GOOGLE, CISCO or Twitter etc. M

Most of the people worry about interview! Look at it this way, stress is not going to help you at all, in fact it will show in your response, cause tentativeness and come off non-confident. Now who is going to hire a person who is not confident who matter how well you know the subject!

Here is some of the best tips/tricks to pass “any” interview.

You can categorize everything interviewers look for in two words ” Domain knowledge” and “Attitude”

Know your subject very well. That’s called being a subject matter expertise or “SME”. No matter if its director, managerial or technical role. You need to be an expert in your domain and that comes with experience, education and learning!

Your attitude is paramount, is it all about yourself or are you a team player. How do you deal with difficult situations. Are you a problem solver , risk taker or do you blame everyone around you for failure but always take credit for success. How do you communicate ?

• Always always research the company that you are interviewing for, nature of their business, their culture, they business drivers, competitors. That helps you immensely with your confidence and show strong Intent.

• Dress appropriately. Dressing up is always better than dressing down. Dressing up in Google, Twitter is different than Microsoft, Cisco, Intel. No shorts and tee shirts. Show up well!

• Always shake hands, know the name of the interviewer and make solid eye contact – Shows confidence.

• Go to Youttube, internet and reasearch around type of questions these companies ask.

• Its always about your domain knowledge, integrity, calculated risk taking, collaboration and aligning to company values and business principles. Important to know your strengths, weaknesses and also tough situations where you nagivated and lessons learnt.

• Companies always look for people who are willing to learn and innovate

• How do you lead, Inspire and communicate

• Are you a problem solver ?

• Do we create win win in conflicts ? How do you handle them ? Be ready to provide some examples.

• Never drag your answers. Be specific and focus on your accomplishments. We did this, we did that doesnt help, focus on my contributions. I developed this gadget, I grew our sales by doing this.

Soccer is the most popular sport with approx 3.5 billion fans worldwide and 250 million players across 195 countries around the world. The next most popular sports in the world are cricket (2.5 billion fans)- basketball (2.2 billion fans), and field hockey (2 billion).

Dallas cowboys are the most valued sports team in the world with $5.7B valuation, followed by NY Yankees and NY knicks. Barcelona and Real Madrid round up the top 5 with $4.76B and $4.75B valuation respectively.

Most touchdown passes in NFL history belong to Tom Brady with 626, Drew Brees is no. 2 with 571 and Peyton Manning rounds up top 3 with 539 passes.

Sachin Tendulkar of India holds the world record of 15, 921 runs in Test cricket followed by Australian Ricky Ponting at 13,378 followed by Jac Kallis of South Africa with 13, 289 runs.

Michael Jordon, the American Basketball Legend is the richest Athlete in the world with USD $2.2 billion net worth. Tiger Wood, the famous golfer is at number 5 with $800M. Lionel Messi, the Argentinian soccer star is at number 8 with $600M.

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world with $273.5 billion with Tesla. He is followed by Gautam Adani, India and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Warren Buffett, nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha” is greatest investors of all time. He is one of the top 10 richest people in the world with a net worth of $116.5 billion. He is the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), which owns over 60 companies, including Geico and Dairy Queen.2

George Lucas is the richest celebrity in the world 2022. He is the creator of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise.

Jamshetji Tata is the biggest donor/philanthropist in the world who has given away over $102 billion, he is followed by Bill Gates at $75.8billion followed by Oraclle of Omaha at $32.1billion

Antilia the residence of Industrialist Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai, India is most expensive, valued at USD $2.2B

Atherton 94027 in Silicon Valley, California is the most expensive zip code in the world.

Lover’s Deep Luxury Submarine, St.Lucia ($292,000.00 per night) the Lover’s Deep Luxury Submarine Hotel is the most expensive hotel in the world.

Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive. In 2009 Jamaican sprinter set the world record in the 100-meter sprint at 9.58 seconds.

Robert Wadlow is the tallest man on earth at 8’11 inches, Jyoti Amege, from India is the shortest at 2’11inches.

Over the last 65 years the global literacy rate increased by 4% every 5 years – from 42% in 1960 to 86% in 2015. 14% of world’s population can’t read/write and considered illiterate.

There are 5000 airlines in the world, with three largest fleets are all in US with American airlines topping the list followed by Delta and Southwest making it 3rd. Over 100,000 flights take off and land every day in the world.

World War II was a global war that spanned from 1939 to 1945. The war pitted the Allies and the Axis power in the deadliest war in history, and was responsible for the deaths of over 70 million people. Known for its genocidal campaign against the Jewish people, the war was also responsible for the deaths of more than 50 million civilians.

Avg person spends over 7 hours a day watching the screen, out of which 2 1/2 hrs is on social media

United states is the richest country in the world with $20 Trillion in GDP followed by China at $11.2 trillion followed by Japan at $9.8 trillion

11.1% or 860M people in the world live in extreme poverty, less than $1.90 per day. In US, 10.5% live in poverty.

The worlds population is 7.7 billion. China and India lead with 1.42 billion and 1.41 billion people with US population at 338million rounding up the top three.

There are over 7000 languages in the world, with top 3 being English, Mandarin ( China) and Hindi (India). Over 1,100 million speak English and Mandarin while Hindi is spoken by 625 million worldwide.

From a religion perspective, Christianity is followed by 2.382billion, Islam followers at 1.907billion, Secular/agnostic at 1.193 billion and Hinduism by 1.161 billion

On an avg we sleep 33 years in our lifespans, out of which we spend about 7 years trying to sleep.

Global average life expectancy of 72.6 years. Min in Africa at 63 years to Max in Europe 79 years. Asia has avg life expectancy at 73 years and Americas with 76 years.

There are total of 195 countries in the world. Out of which 152 are developing countries with a current population of around 6.69 bn. At 85.33%, this is a considerable proportion of the world’s population. Rest are developed.

Sometimes, our heads won’t stop thinking about something.

Our thoughts will spin around and around, not willing to let go, obsessing. It might be about another person, a big event coming up, or about ourselves. It might be overthinking a decision, big or small.

There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a human thing to do, to overthink or obsess about something we’re worried or frustrated about. It’s a sign that we’re feeling fear and uncertainty, and our brains are trying to solve it.

I’ll share a process for that briefly here:

Sometimes, though, it can be liberating to let go of that kind of thinking. It can lead to better sleep, peace of mind, and a simplicity of living. So how can we do that?

1. Notice. Often when we’re caught up in a loop or overthinking, we aren’t aware of it. It seems like the right thing to do, to keep thinking about this thing that’s worrying us. But to break out of the loop, we have to notice we’re in it. What signs have you noticed will point out to you that you’re in a loop? For many people, it’s a rising amount of anxiety or worry, an inability to sleep, an inability to focus. For others, it might be a desire to lash out at someone, or to plan or otherwise get control. The key is just to notice you’re in it.
2. Turn toward the underlying fear. Once you’ve noticed, the magic trick is to look beyond the thing you think needs to be solved … to the fear underneath. It’s like not looking at the hand the magician is trying to direct your attention to, but to their other hand that is hiding the coin. Don’t look at the object of your thoughts or the problem you need to solve … but the fear that’s having you want to obsess and overthink. What are you feeling right now, in your body?
3. Be with the fear. Before we let go of the overthinking, we have to be with the feeling of fear that’s in our body. Otherwise it’s like trying to calm a freaked out child by ignoring them. What if instead we could be with the fear and relax with it, so it can relax? Can you feel the fear, as sensation, and stay with it? Can you breathe deeply and slowly, so you can slow your heartbeat and relax with the fear? Can you bring curiosity towards it? If it’s challenging, you might think of it as being with your heart.
4. Ask what’s needed. Ask what your fear could use right now — some compassion, some music, a nice cup of tea, journaling or a walk? Then ask what’s needed in the situation you’re overthinking — what’s the simplest thing that you could do here, what’s the simplest way you could speak from the heart? Then trust that, breathe, and move to the present moment.
5. Turn toward something right in front of you. What’s something right in front of you that you could focus on? For me, it might be the light in the room, nature, another person. Or it might be answering an email or writing a blog post. Something simple, right in front of me. I trust that what I’ve chosen from the heart will suffice, and then I focus on something in the here and now.

This isn’t about getting this perfect, or never overthinking or obsessing. I still get caught up in loops all the time. But I accept that as a part of my humanity, and love the fear that’s creating it. Then I practice.

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”

~Seneca

BY LEO BABAUTA

We could use a daily contemplation on how limited our time is in this life. Most of us avoid thinking about it, or get worked up or sad when we think about it. But it’s a powerful contemplation.

Today I’d like to share a series of brief contemplations on the shortness of life, that I find valuable.

1:

We could ignore the very limited nature of this life, and take it for granted, and find ourselves at the end of our lives with regret that we didn’t use it more wisely.

Or we could wake up to the brief time we have here, and decide to make the most of it. 

If I’d known the last visit from my dad would have been his last, I would have cherished those days even more. Remembering this, I can make the most of the days I have left with people I care about — including myself.

2:

We could fret about the limited nature of our lives, get sad or fall apart about it. We do that because we believe it should be some other way. But that’s just another way to take for granted what we’ve been given.

Instead, we could fully appreciate this limited gift. When someone hands you an incredibly valuable gift, do you ask them why there’s so little of it? Or do you rejoice at what you’ve been given?

Could we appreciate every single day as a valuable, powerful, joyous gift?

3:

Often we use up the current day worrying about or dreaming about upcoming days. And so we miss out on the day that’s here right now.

That’s like thinking about future meals, while you’re eating your current meal. You can’t enjoy the meal you’re eating now.

What if we could savor the day we’re currently living?

4:

It’s not the case that life is “short” – this is a kind of judgment, because we want more. But life is also not unlimited. It’s a limited resource, but we don’t need to complain about its shortness.

This is like an actor who finally gets a chance to go on stage and spends the time moaning that he only gets one scene. Hey bozo! Make the most of your one scene! Make an impact with what you have.

5:

Do we want to spend the limited time we have putting our noses to the grindstone and trying to do what we think we should do? Do we want to spend it feeling dull?

What if we could live a life full of wonder, joy, love, fully alive?

Do we want to spend the hour we have at the playground trying to rigidly make sure we’re doing the merry-go-round correctly, or do we want to have a raucous good time?

6:

Do we want to spend this limited time on earth constantly worried about ourselves, doing things right, what people are thinking about us, whether we’re being loved or respected? This is like watching a glorious sunset worrying about whether it’s lighting you just right for your selfie.

What if we could forget for a bit about how we look, how we are coming across, whether we’re OK … and instead fully loved the breathtaking sunset in front of us?

Even more … what would it be like to love all of it, all the other beings, all of it … ourselves included?

7:

When we have struggles in our lives, we think that something’s wrong, that we shouldn’t be struggling. And these struggles can seem like something we have to get through before we can finally start living the life we want.

What if the struggles were a part of the point of this limited time we have living? The struggles are what form us, what cause growth and learning, that have us grow into our full selves. The struggles aren’t a thing we have to get through … they’re a big part of the thing itself.

Could we view this life as a crucible that helps forge us, that helps uncover who we really are? And embrace the struggles as a beautiful place of learning and wonder?

8:

We might wonder what is the meaning of this short life, what’s the point of it all? It’s almost like we’re hoping someone will reveal the meaning of things to us — here’s what it’s all about, take some notes. It our tendency to look for answers from outside of ourselves.

What if we were the creators of meaning in our own lives? What if there was no one to tell us the meaning, and there would be no meaning until we created it ourselves? This is a willingness to take full responsibility for our lives that can always be stepped into, in any moment.

It’s like sitting in front of an empty stage, waiting and hoping to be entertained with something meaningful. Let’s jump on the stage, and create the meaningful play ourselves!

9:

When we contemplate the shortness of life, and become fully appreciative of the wonder of this brief time we’ve been given … life can take on a poignant quality. And this is beautiful.

The Japanese have a term, “mono no aware,” that speaks to this impermanent, ephemeral nature to all things. It’s so sweet, tinged with some sadness, because everything we care about is beautiful and fleeting. This fleetingness only makes things more precious.

If you had a delicious treat in unlimited quantities, you might take it for granted. But if you knew that you could only taste this for a short time, that it would soon be gone, you might taste the sweetness of the treat with more vividness. More joy. More wonder.

10:

What do you feel called to do with this precious day?

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

~Mary Oliver

The Summer Day

So much of our difficulties can be entangled with our sense of self worth — from whether we take care of ourselves with good habits to how we are in relationships to how much confidence we have at work.

Think about your biggest difficulties (other than problems at a national or global level) … how many of them could be resolved if you had an unshakable confidence in your self-worth? If you felt whole, complete, and incredibly worthy?

You could create and put your creation out into the world with confidence, and even market it to others.

You could launch a business or venture, create an organization to serve others, teach something you care about.

You could speak confidently in public, put your ideas out there, stand for yourself. You could set boundaries, express your needs, take care of yourself.

This all comes from a strong sense of self-worth.

But we are taught from a young age to get our sense of self-worth externally:

• Praise or validation from others
• Likes and comments to validate us on social media
• Accomplishments, awards, rewards
• Success, wealth, a nice house, nice things
• Nice clothes, things that make us feel attractive or cool
• Sex, attracting a mate, interest or attention from others
• People wanting to spend time with us, showing an interest in us

And so on. The problem with this kind of external validation of our worth is that it is fleeting. Sometimes we’ll get it and feel good about ourselves, and many times we won’t get it and will feel discouraged, rejected, miserable. And then we’ll seek more of the external validation, because that’s what we know to do when we need to feel better about ourselves.

So … what can we do? We can seek to find our self-worth from within.

This can be a lifetime exploration, but some places you might look:

• Notice the good in your heart
• Have compassion for yourself when you’re feeling difficulty
• Be curious about yourself
• Try to notice your determination, perseverance, commitment
• See if you can find your sense of play, joy, and wonder
• Appreciate how you appreciate things
• Spend time with yourself, and care about how you feel
• Give love to yourself and others, and appreciate the love that flows from you
• Pour yourself into one act, giving all of yourself, and appreciate that as well
• Keep coming back to a project or habit change effort, even when you fall off
• Journal, reflect, contemplate, meditate, find time for quietude and stillness
• Go on a meditation retreat and explore your inner self
• Find ways to explore bringing out your joy, divinity, play, curiosity, and more
• Notice the abundance of love that you have
• Find wonder at who you are in every moment

Some of these might be challenging — that’s OK! Notice how you respond to challenge, and find wonder in that as well. Keep exploring, keep bringing curiosity, keep bringing wonder and love.

What would it be like if you had an abundant sense of self-worth always available to you?

When we’re hit with uncertainty either suddenly or in large amounts, it can throw us off. We can get frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed, discouraged.

This is normal and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, it’s my belief that we can train ourselves to stay more balanced when things get chaotic, stay level-headed and calm, which allows us to become an oasis of sanity that others can rely on.

Let’s talk about how to train ourselves to stay more in balance when things get chaotic.

What Throws Us Off

When we get thrown off, it’s like the rug being pulled out from under us — it feels disconcerting, disorienting, uncomfortable. We don’t like the feeling.

At the core of this rug-pulling is uncertainty. We feel uncertainty and an uncomfortable disorienting feeling when:

• Someone criticizes us
• Someone acts in a way that we don’t like
• We have a lot to do and we aren’t sure if we can do it all
• Things aren’t going the way we hoped
• We don’t succeed at something
• We’re struggling with something
• And so on

Basically, all the things that frustrated, overwhelm, stress and discourage us, are things that cause uncertainty and the feeling of disorientation. We react in ways that are typical for us in particular: maybe you react in anger, maybe you start being harsh on yourself, maybe you shut down or hide.

The result of this is that we feel thrown off, and we can be super stressed or frustrated through a chaotic period in our lives.

How to Stay Balanced

In a sentence: be with everything in your experience, with an attitude of relaxed appreciation.

If you’re sitting outside on a beautiful day, you can be with that experience, and relax with it, fully appreciating it.

If you’re sitting in a rainstorm, you can be with that experience too, with relaxed appreciation.

If during your day you get thrown off and feel overwhelmed or frustrated, this isn’t a problem — be with that feeling, as you would with any experience. You can bring relaxed appreciation to the thunderstorm of your overwhelm or frustration.

If someone is criticizing you or acting in a way that would normally frustrate you, could you be with the experience of them doing that with relaxed appreciation?

If you’re stuck in traffic, or plowing through messages, or in a long meeting, can you be with that experience with relaxed appreciation?

Try it now. Be with this moment fully, with relaxed appreciation. It’s always available to you — it’s wonder at the miracle of this moment. It’s a willingness to be with all experience, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncertain.

It’s finding curiosity and love in each moment, and finding true appreciation for all of life.

How to Train

This won’t come naturally to most of us. So we can train.

Here’s what I recommend:

1. Keep this practice front of mind with some kind of mantra or reminder. I like to write it out on a note that I see often, and put it on my phone lockscreen, and have a couple reminders pop up.
2. No matter what is going on, see if you can find a moment of relaxed appreciation and being with the experience fully.
3. When you feel some kind of emotion, be with that fully, and see if you can bring relaxed appreciation.
4. When you get thrown off of this practice, be fully with the result of that.
5. Do a 2-minute review at the end of each day to see how it went. This will deepen your learning and help you remember to practice the next day.

That’s the training. What would it be like for you, to be more balanced when things get uncertain, chaotic, messy? To be fully with all of life, and to appreciate each moment for whatever it brings?

A lot of people I talk to are unhappy with their ability to get stuff done in their lives. They feel they’re wasting a lot of time, never really getting anything important done.What I like to play with is the idea of having a “powerfully effective day.”

It’s a big topic, probably worthy of a whole book, but in this post I’m going to lay down some of the key principles and tactics.

If you can follow these — imperfectly, and with practice — you’ll transform how effective you are in your life. These principles and tactics are simple and powerful, but they require your wholehearted devotion to them.

Let’s dive in..

Principle 1: Align Your Targets

You can’t be effective if you’re working on unimportant stuff. You have to work on the stuff that matters. But how do you know what matters?

The tactic is to pick 1-3 tasks a day that align with  your targets. Here’s how it works:

1. Set medium-term goals for yourself — 6 months to a year. What do you want to create in your life and in the world? These can be purpose work goals, personal goals, etc.
2. Set monthly targets that align with the long-term goals. Then weekly targets that align with the month. This requires a monthly review/planning session, and a weekly one. Set reminders.
3. Every day, pick 1-3 tasks that align with your weekly targets.

It’s a pretty simple system, not revolutionary, but what it means is that every day, you’re moving yourself closer to what matters most. Every day, you’re knocking out tasks that are meaningful and effective.

The daily, weekly and monthly sessions only have to take 5 minutes, once you get into the swing of it. The yearly or 6-month sessions might take a little longer, because you want to give some thought to what you really want.

Today, you can just set a monthly goal for yourself, and a weekly target that aligns with that goal. Then pick one task that will help you move toward that weekly target.

Principle 2: Create the Focus Habit

Once you know what you need to focus on, now it’s a matter of actually focusing. But this focus habit doesn’t only apply to the 1-3 tasks that move you toward your targets … if you use this habit everywhere, you’ll create a powerfully effective day. I use the task with email, messages, writing this very blog post, recording videos for my courses, reading books, and workouts.

Here’s how it works at a tactical level:

1. Pick one thing to focus on. This is a really important first step, because most people don’t ever do this.
2. Go fullscreen mode. Make this the only thing in your world. Devote yourself to this one task.

Those are the only steps. If you do this with everything you do, relentlessly, you will be powerfully effective. Especially if you’re doing 1-3 tasks a day that align with long-term targets.

Most people will ignore this tactic, but don’t. It’s the key to the whole simple system.

That said, don’t ignore the next section either!

Btw, I recently released version 2.0 of my Mindful Focus course, where we work on this very habit … it’s a bonus for members of my Fearless Living Academy. Sign up today for a huge library of powerful courses, a great community, and access to Mindful Focus 2.0.

Principle 3: Light Up Every Focus Session

Once you’re in the focus session for a particular task … you might have the tendency to try to get it over with. There’s a sense of doing what you’re “supposed” to do, doing a chore, maybe a sense of burden.

Who wants to do something like that? No wonder we procrastinate and go to distractions. That’s boring.

Instead, I suggest finding a way to light up the focus sessions. Make them come alive.

That means bringing a different, more alive approach to every task. Some ideas:

• Play — how could this be fun?
• Ease — how could this be easeful?
• Curiosity — how could you learn something as you do this?
• Wonder — how freaking amazing is life??
• Service — how is this serving people you care about?
• Love — how is this an expression of your love?
• Connection — how is this task connecting you to others?
• Creation — how can you bring the joy of creating something to this?

Other ideas: dance, music, spaciousness, peace, compassion, abundance.

Or come up with the approach that lights you up. Bring a sense of experimentation and curiosity to finding the approach(es) that work for you.

Principle 4: Create a Sense of Aliveness to Your Day

These principles/tactics are great for when you’re focusing on something … but our days are more than tasks. There is life that’s being lived, all day long.

So I find it important to not only focus on individual tasks … but on your experience of the whole day. A unifying approach to having a powerful day. And for me, that approach is wonder and aliveness.

Many people will ignore this because they don’t understand how it makes you more effective. We can’t let ourselves forget the power of feeling a sense of well-being, feeling inspired, feeling connected to others, and feeling connected to a sense of meaning. Do these things make us more effective?

So ask yourself:

1. Do you have a fundamental sense of well-being? If not, what would you need to do to get there? Sleep, movement, some whole foods, self-care and a little meditation?
2. Do you feel meaning and purpose in what you do? If not, how can you find the meaning in what you do, or shift to something that feels more meaningful?
3. How connected do you feel to others in your life that you care about? If that’s lacking, can you take steps to increase connection? Either way, can you feel more connection to others as you do your meaningful work?
4. How inspired and alive do you feel throughout the day? How could you bring more of that into your day, if it’s lacking?

For me, after making sure the first three things on this list are taken care of (my fundamentals) … I focus on the fourth item. This is where I can get the most return on my investment of effort. If you are lacking in the first three areas, focus on those first, because they’ll give you the most return. (Again, my Fearless Living Academy is what I’d recommend for that.)

How can we feel more inspired and alive during the day? For me, I play with these practices:

• Wonder — how can I see wonder in everything
• Curiosity — how can I learn something from every moment?
• Love — how can I bring love into everything I do?
• Aliveness — how can I feel lit up about my life?

These four things are my favorites. But I play with other things as well — adventure, play, expansiveness, joy. It’s all powerful!

How alive would you like to feel today? And how could that contribute to a powerfully effective day for you?