I was listening to 'Thou Shall Prosper' by Rabbi Daniel Lapin on a drive back home today, and he spoke of an interesting thing he's observed in how our subconscious works. 

He said that your subconscious puts things together faster than your conscious brain does. Sometimes certain children seem very accident prone when everyone around them doing the same thing doesn't get into scrapes. He says that this is often because they don't get a lot of discipline in their lives, and they get to act however they want. Their subconscious sees this and steps in as the parent and allows for mistakes to be made as a punishment. 

When you get into a rut or hitting a limit of some sort that doesn't seem to make sense, it's often your mind that puts the barriers in place, not the real world. Most of the perceived limits are just that, limits we put up in our subconscious that tell us it's not possible to overcome them. Digging down into the deeper reasons why you aren't moving forward will help you better evaluate why your subconscious wants to put up the barriers. 

Key takeaways:

1) Our subconscious tells us what's possible

2) Our minds are often the most limiting factor before getting ahead

3) Dive down into deep reasons as to why you're putting barriers for yourself

Lately, I've been in somewhat of a lower mood than I normally am, and I'm finding my brain is constantly trying to find problems with what I've got and worked toward!

I forgot to consider what kind of content I am putting in my head that's affecting my emotions. I've heard this primarily from Brendon Burchard when he speaks about being aware of what you listen to and read and that it can even affect you several days after the event. 

I did a quick evaluation of the past few days and I've discovered that I have done something different, and that was listening to some new pop music which had a really nice beat and rhythm, but lyrics weren't very good. I've noticed that my subconscious reads things I don't even consciously pick up, so I normally tune out the words and enjoy the music. However, my background brain hears those lyrics and carefully reads them to file into emotions I should be feeling. So an upbeat song with a dark story lasts long past the end of the song. I get the benefits of getting jazzed up by the music, but the dark story gets turned around in my subconscious and then tells me how I should feel. 

I'm still trying to find the right playlist of songs with that upbeat rhythm to them, without dark or depressing stories behind it. I've enjoyed listening to some of Disney music as it's typically got a hopeful background to it! I also enjoy music in other languages, as I get the pop beat's benefits, without understanding the bad lyrics. Another big thing I enjoy listening to is music sung by young people. My favorite group is called 'One Voice Children's Choir.' It's an amazing group with an amazingly hopeful and energetic take on some of my favorite songs; it's an absolute pleasure to listen to them!

Key takeaways:

1) What you listen to will influence your emotions, even days later

2) Even when you mentally tune out bad or dark content, your subconscious picks it up

3) Try to find a playlist of hopeful and energetic songs, even pop in other languages!

I'm going to be totally honest and say I've been dreading making another one of these videos. I'm so close to my goal of 100, and yet I am utterly un-motivated!

While I was thinking through what I'd talk about today, I suddenly realized I completely missed the point of making the videos in the first place! 

I'm unfortunately one for starting many projects and not finishing them, and I've always wondered why I do this. I always get started with excitement and am extremely motivated, but as it becomes a normal part of my day, I begin losing interest in it. Doing each video, I am always attempting to do something a bit better and putting my full effort into them even when I don't feel up to it. 

I think part of the reason is how young I am and my desire for instant gratification, but I think another bigger reason is that I'm missing the point of beginning it at all!

I started these videos with a hazy purpose but knew that it would be valuable, unsure why or what the primary reason was. I'm certain that public speaking will have some major part in my future, so I want to get an early start not to waste time later on. 

A secondary reason was to have a way to share what I am constantly thinking about. I hate to admit this, but I've always felt somewhat misunderstood; being only 17, this sounds like the typical thing someone of my age would say, and I've got no arguments to combat that. I am constantly viewing myself as different and have different reasons behind doing what I do. I'm not even sure what reasons I have behind the things I focus my efforts on, to be completely honest. 

But above all else, the biggest reason was to enjoy the process of growth; I am getting too caught up in the details of learning that I'm not letting myself enjoy the whole journey! 

Key takeaways:

1) I lose motivation when it becomes normal and normally does not fulfill instant gratification

2) I am unclear on the purpose of my projects, and so my excitement dies shortly after my motivation

3) My purpose was to improve my public speaking, share my thoughts, and most of all, enjoy the learning process!

Brendon Burchard talks about how to create enduring happiness.

He speaks about how we all break life into three major categories, past, present, and future when we view life. Really happy people look at the past with nostalgia and a positive outlook. They aren't living the past. Be it good or bad, it is in the past, and so learn how to view it with a positive outlook. 

When creating happiness in the present, he talks about two areas to achieve this. Connections, we all find our real fulfillment and joy in the connections we have with other people. We don't find true value from physical things, only from the meaningful relationships we build with those around us. So the more intentional we are about bringing more into those connections the happier we will be.

The second is building appreciation for what you have now and where you've come. We are amazingly blessed to be in the scenarios that we're in, and dwelling upon those things will build happiness. Take moments to feel the present and where you're at. 

Finally, the future. Truly happy people look at the future with not just optimism, but with enthusiasm. Looking to the future with excitement because there is some specific thing that is coming. Ask yourself what is coming along that you can get excited about and build anticipation for. This builds happiness because we are not only hopeful for the future but expectant of what it will yield from where we are going now.

Even if we don't get what we want from what we expect, we learn and grow!

Key takeaways:

1) Happiness comes from three major areas, past, present, and future

2) Look at your past with nostalgia and a positive outlook

3) Build closer connections and appreciation to create more happiness in the present

4) Look ahead to the future with enthusiasm for all it will bring. Not only optimism but specific instances

I absolutely love taking on short hyper-learning experience projects, where I spend 20-50 hours on a specific topic to drive forward my experience much faster and further intentionally.

I originally picked up this idea from Josh Kaufman's book 'The First 20 Hours' where he talks about picking up new skills with focused and intentional learning. You can become quite proficient in areas you've never worked on before within 20 hours if spent with full focus and energy in them!

One of these projects was to start a business; inception, marketing, manufacturing, creating a web store, and shipping to the customer. My initial intent was to do it all within 20 hours, and I recorded my time with a stopwatch. However, I significantly underestimated how much time it would really take, and I'm now at 40+ hours with a minimum of 15 more to finish the project.

The point of these intense learning experiences isn't to make money or become well known. It's to learn what it takes to start a business and behind the scenes. In this fashion, I will better understand what to do when I eventually start a business for profit. The tight time restrictions force me to only invest my time in the areas that provide the biggest results and not get too caught up in the details. 

I won't necessarily need to do all the work for my future business as I can outsource a lot of it. But understanding the terminology and the process behind it will help me find the right resources to follow. 

Key takeaways:

1) Hyper-intensive learning experiences with a tangible result can drive forward your understanding

2) Build a mini-course to expand your knowledge of what it would take in the real world

3) I won't necessarily need to know how to do everything down the line, I need to understand it

I've heard that to be a great leader, you must follow them, learn what they do, and simulate that. However, this isn't a good idea; you're following the result, not the blueprint. 

I love the analogy of building a house (I heard this originally from Rabbi Daniel Lapin.) If you're trying to build a house, you don't study a house and then build it; you study a blueprint and build it. The house is imperfect and requires in the moment changes to work with the situation. The blueprint is perfect, in a perfect scenario. You want to go to the source when following a plan or process, not its result. 

This is why I think trying to become the next Tony Robbins can't be achieved by doing exactly what they did; you aren't them; you are you. You grew up differently; you had different life experiences, and you will view things differently. You want to follow the 'perfect' plan behind the process of where he got where he is.

Understanding that you are you, and there is no one exactly like you, is the foundation for putting into action new ideas and getting success from them. There is no broad plan that works perfectly for everyone. It needs to be adapted. In the scenarios where there is a wide plan, it's often not the optimal one, but it gets the biggest results from the biggest group of people. This is why coaches are a thing; they guide you through your scenario and adapt to how you understand and work. 

Key takeaways:

1) Don't follow great results; follow the 'perfect plan' behind the results

2) You work differently from every other human

3) There is no perfect universal plan; it needs adaptation to work for you

Throughout my journey, I've come to realize the importance of tracking your performance.

Several months ago, I picked up my first high-performance journal put out by Brendon Burchard; this journal has you constantly reviewing your performance every single day with a few questions and rating systems. Through this process, I can quickly evaluate where my attention is going and realign it if necessary. It also helps me see how far I've come. 

I'll occasionally go back to look at what I worked on a few weeks or months past, and I shock myself at how far I'd come. I can also identify some of the same problems I dealt with then and do now and record how I felt and performed. This assists me in assessing the problems and coming to a solution. 

It's sometimes difficult to get up the effort to sit down and journal at the end of the day, but I will want to know what I went through and my thought process in the future. It's a worthwhile investment and will allow me to understand better how to teach these same ideas and concepts to others going through the same. I am giving my future self a gift, and I find it quite amusing!

Key takeaways:

1) Journaling helps you evaluate your performance

2) Learning what you felt and acted will help you overcome challenges

3) Having a track record of what you've done will enable you to understand someone going through the same later on

Time management is a topic that's on my mind a lot; I'm always trying to optimize better how I spend my time to get the greatest value in the shortest period of time that I can. 

Something I've found helpful for this is the concept of 'block time,' which I heard first from Brendon Burchard. The basic idea is that you block your time into chunks and heavily focus on one area during that dedicated time. He suggests setting block time in one-hour segments and taking a break between them to let your mind rest and recompose. 

This means that you have to remove distractions from your surroundings, notifications, checking your phone, and people. Complete and intentional focus can yield double the productivity or more!

Right off the bat, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Spend less time on the same project, and interrupt our flow of thought to take a break? The longer we spend on a project, the more our minds get bored with the topic and start to float of thinking of other things, losing our intentional focus. Brendon Burchard found this typically happens after the 90-minute mark, so coming in early and forcing yourself to break the train of thought will pause your flow to recharge yourself, then come back with full focus for another hour. 

We work better when we are wholly focused on one topic and can get a lot of valuable work done with uninterrupted time blocks. I've found this works really well no matter what I'm working on, and forcing myself to take a break at the end of each hour is difficult but absolutely worth it for the focus you get after. 

Key takeaways:

1) Get more things done by setting your tasks in hour blocks

2) Taking a break during the flow will help you recharge and be focused more for a longer

3) It isn't easy to pull yourself away, but it is more productive in the long run

4) Complete intentional focus brings more value in less time

One of the things I have a lot of trouble with it, and I think it is pretty common among most people and that is picking up other people's problems.

Ray Edwards re-emphasized this in one of his episodes entitled 'optimizing life' and spoke about how we often take on problems faced by other people for no real reason. This is different from intentionally wanting to help someone with what they're going through and taking up headspace in something that you can't do anything about even if you wanted to. 

I think this problem makes up two big components that go hand-in-hand. Not wanting to miss an opportunity and want to help someone in need. From my personal experience, when someone comes to me asking for assistance on a project, my first instinct is to take it on. However, spending time on that means I have to say no to something else. This isn't a problem if I was going to sit and watch TV for a few hours, but it is if I was going to work on the skills that will help me get ahead in the long run. Even if the problem is related to what you do best, you have to weigh the cost. 

The thing I need to understand fully is that their problem is not mine. They will find a solution even if I don't provide it; I'm not the only answer. I've found when I take on someone's problem; I will spend huge amounts of time trying to solve it; this brings stress into areas of my life that I wouldn't have even considered at the outset. 

So learning to disconnect yourself from the problem and use dedicated, blocked out time to work on it will help you not let your life fall apart for this solution. 

Key takeaways:

1) Don't take on other people's problems

2) When you say yes to something, you say no to something else

3) You aren't the only solution

4) Use dedicated time when finding a solution. Don't let it bring you down.

I was listening to a podcast episode by Ray Edwards this morning on how to optimize your life, and one of the points he made really caught my attention.

He said, 'there is no simple answer to complex questions,' and I think he is absolutely right. Unfortunately, there seems to be an air of 'quick fixes' and 'life hacks' to overcome life's biggest challenges. But this isn't the case; if it was a big and complex challenge, it couldn't have a 'quick fix' as it would negate the meaning of a big life challenge. You can't cheat in life; there isn't a simple answer to getting fit and healthy; you can't hack your way into becoming wealthy. Granted, certain processes are better than others, but if the problem is worth tackling, the solution will require hard work. 

This is the parable of the man who decided to take a short-cut, only to find himself lost in the forest. The sooner he admits that he made a mistake and turns back, the sooner he will get on the right path. 

You're in it for the long-term, a quick fix will provide a temporary solution at best, but long-lasting change will require hard work.

Key takeaways:

1) There aren't simple answers to complex questions

2) There is no 'life hack' that is supposed to answer life's most challenging problems

3) The sooner you realize the short path isn't the right one, the sooner you can go back and take the right one

3) Short-term fixes will provide short-term solutions at best