Keep these 10 tips in mind each day for a regular detox session.

1. Watch less TV: Watch less TV, if any. Your mind will be freer to concentrate on more important things than annoying commercials, celebrity gossip and superficial materialism.
2. Limit your online activity: It’s pretty much impossible not to log on to your e-mail accounts everyday, but limit the rest of your online activity, including going to fluff sites and playing online games. You’ll be more productive and will probably end up using the time you would have wasted on something more important and fulfilling.
3. Stop gossiping: Always thinking and spreading nasty thoughts about others brings your own mood and self-confidence down.
4. Use non-toxic cleaners: Using non-toxic home cleaners helps rid your home of unnatural substances that can be harmful to your health.
5. Quit smoking: Cigarettes contain over 4,000 different chemicals, including nicotine, tar, hydrogen cyanide and even arsenic, all of which are poison to your body.
6. Exercise: Exercising helps purify your mind and your body by releasing aggressive emotions and endorphins. Exercise also helps your body take in more oxygen and pump your blood faster.
7. Sleep better and longer: Learn valuable techniques for getting a more relaxing, effective sleep each night in order to let your body fully recuperate from the previous day.
8. Introduce organic produce into your diet: Fresh, organic fruits and veggies are free of toxins that harm your body and interfere with great taste.
9. Limit the number of pills you pop each day: If you have a chronic health condition, we’re not asking you to stop taking pills. But if you pop several pills every time you have a teensy headache, you’re putting way too many kidney-damaging chemicals into your system.
10. Breathe deeply: Breathing deeply increases the flow of oxygen into your body and relax your mind.

Physical Poisons

From alcohol and drugs to chemicals in your beauty products, make a concerted effort to rid your body of these poisons.

11. Limit alcohol consumption: While researchers have found that moderate consumption of red wine does have health benefits, drinking too much damages your liver, weakens your heart, and can make you feel tired and worn out, since it interferes with your sleep.
12. Drugs: Drugs are incredibly toxic to your body and your life, weakening the immune system, causing rifts with family and friends, ruining your career and taking a major toll on your body.
13. Go easy on makeup and beauty products: Consider using natural makeup and beauty products that are free of chemicals that can be harmful to your skin. Or, take a look at these tips to limiting the amount of makeup you put on each day without compromising your looks.
14. Give your hair a break: Hair dyes contain a lot of unhealthy chemicals that are bad for your hair and scalp but can also be damaging when you breathe them in every couple of weeks.
15. Try skin brushing: This detox strategy involves stimulating your skin in order to increase “its rate of elimination of toxic waste products, which decreases the demands placed on the kidneys.”
16. Consider a colon cleansing: Colon cleansings are believed to remove the body of parasites and other toxins that can interfere with digestion and general health.
17. Have sex: Having sex can give you energy, help you sleep better, reduces cholesterol, reduces stress, increases the flow of oxygen to your brain, and can even be a natural pain reliever.
18. Do a juice fast: Juice fasting is controversial, but it’s also a popular way to detox. Juice fasts are done with the goal of reducing animal products and cooked food products from your system in order to cleanse your body.
19. Hydrotherapy: This alternative health practice can be done at a spa, sauna or even in your shower. By alternating the temperature of the water, you can reduce inflammation, stimulate your body’s circulation and remove waste from body tissue.
20. Take herbs: There are a number of natural herbs that can be used for internal and external detox, like yucca root and licorice root, which are laxatives; milk thistle seed and dandelion which support the liver; pumpkin seed which expels parasites; and cranberry and witch hazel, which are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant herbs.

Social Poisons

Give your social behavior and expectations a real makeover by considering these detox tips.

21. Close or increase privacy settings on your online dating profile: Online dating companies can be extremely beneficial to some individuals, but posting photos and information about yourself online can attract unsavory characters who badger you with inappropriate messages.
22. Volunteer: Increase your social circle by volunteering. Doing something for the good of others is also a selfless act that is good for your conscience.
23. Reconcile with family and friends: Don’t let a grudge or a fight with friends affect your conscience or your mood. Reconcile with estranged family members and friends to give your social life a detox.
24. Stay in: If you’re always going out with friends, take a night to yourself and stay in. You can give your mind and body a rest from all of the external stimulations and social pressures by relaxing at home.
25. Go out: On the other hand, if you’re always at home, try to go out every once in a while and be social with the community around you. Even if you aren’t out for an organized event with friends, opening yourself up to spending time with other human beings canhelp you feel more relaxed.
26. De-stress at work: For some people, going to work means feeling stressed out as soon as they sit down as their desks. Learn to de-stress at work by staying organized and tuning out annoying or over demanding co-workers.
27. Learn to tune out: Tuning out gossipy friends, media messages and moody strangers will keep your mood elevated and your mind free from worry about everything going around you that you can’t control anyway.
28. Separate yourself from the pack: Don’t go along with everything everyone else is doing just because they say so. Separate yourself from the pack by doing what makes you feel right and the things that honors your life choices and long term goals.
29. Be responsible: Take responsibility for yourself and your actions, and you’ll find that you end up taking much better care of yourself, physically, emotionally and socially.
30. Smile: Smiling can help you focus on the positive and forget about negative thoughts and feelings that plague you.

Productivity Drainers

Mass e-mails, violent video games and even telemarketing calls are a real drain to your productivity and fill up your mind with useless garbage. Rid yourself of these poisons by taking a look at our list below.

31. Improve your focus: By keeping track of your time and setting goals throughout the day, you’ll be able to stay focused on the things that matter.
32. Unsubscribe to blog feeds: Clean out your inbox by unsubscribing to all the RSS feeds and newsletters that keep you away from your work and focused on unimportant things.
33. Eliminate distractions: Distractions can be poisonous to your schedule and your mindset, so turn off the TV, block certain websites and unplug the phone until you complete your to-do list.
34. Stay nourished: Hunger drains productivity and can negatively affect your metabolism if it’s been too long since your last meal.
35. Ignore “nasty people”: “Nasty people” drain productivity in the workplace, so try to tune out competitive co-workers, backstabbers and the office gossip to stay focused and keep your energy high.
36. Turn off the instant messenger: Unless you do business over instant message, sign off your account or create a new one just for work. Chatting with friends will keep you from your work, making you feel anxious and unprepared at the end of the day.
37. Violent computer games and video games: Playing violent computer or video games is not just a productivity drain: it also fuels your mind with overly aggressive images that can affect your perspective on real life.
38. Exercise your brain: Keep your brain sharp by doing simple mind exercises that can keep Alzheimer’s and dementia at bay.
39. Get a spam filter: Get a spam filter for your e-mail account so you don’t have to look at crass junk mail messages all day long.
40. Get an unlisted phone number: Keep your phone number out of the phone book and off of telemarketing lists so that you don’t have to stress yourself out over prank calls, sales calls and other annoying phone calls.

Meditation Tips

Meditation is an effective technique for ridding your mind and body of poisonous thoughts and energy drainers.

41. Follow a specific program: Play one of these meditation guides to help you focus and relax.
42. Meditate alone: Being along is an important strategy for effective meditation.
43. Eliminate external discomforts: Make sure the room is a comfortable temperature and the lighting is just right for your meditation.
44. Be patient: This tip will prevent you from getting too overwhelmed if you feel like meditation isn’t working at first.

Emotional and Mental Health

De-stress by opening up and acknowledging your feelings. These tips are also meant to boost your self-esteem and remove toxic thoughts that sabotage your emotional health.

45. Counseling: Talk to a counselor or psychologist regularly so that you can hear yourself work through your problems. Setting aside an hour each week also ensures that you make you time to address your feelings, instead of burying them until they manifest in an unhealthy way.
46. Be social: Getting out with friends or even going to a coffee shop will make you feel more connected to the community around you and can distract you from your own problems for a while.
47. Open up: Share your thoughts, goals and feelings with a friend or family member to purge yourself of anxiety, self-doubt, or any other negative emotions.
48. Self confidence: Give your self-confidence a boost and get rid of negative thoughts that harm your spirit and prevent you from doing the things that make you happy.
49. Set realistic goals: By setting realistic goals, you’re more likely to feel a sense of achievement and triumph as you complete each one.
50. Understand your body: To prevent poisonous thoughts and mental disorders like depression or anorexia/bulimia, get to know your body and your mind. Appreciate yourself for who you are and understand what triggers can set you off so that you can avoid feeling down.

Organization Tips

Staying organized will elevate your mood and keep your surroundings clean and bacteria-free.

51. De-clutter: Clutter around your house and in your schedule can cause you to feel stressed, anxious and even unhealthy, if your clutter is really dirty.
52. Take out the trash frequently: This tip may seem like a given, but taking out the trash instantly removes poisons and waste from your surroundings.
53. Budget: Organize your budget to avoid overspending, debt, unpaid bills, unpaid taxes and other stress factors that could land you in serious trouble.
54. Schedule: Prevent scheduling conflicts, missed appointments, over bookings and running yourself ragged by maintaining a calendar or date book.
55. Get tech help: Use an online program like Tada Lists or Remember the Milk so that you don’t have to keep up with to-do lists floating around your car, office and home.

Simplify Your Life

By simplifying your life, you can have more time to concentrate on your health. From re-prioritizing your to-do lists to automating regular tasks like bill paying, consider downsizing in the following ways.

56. Just say no: Don’t agree to run every event, attend every meeting or go to every party. Saying no can free up valuable time for yourself and prevent you from over stimulating your mind.
57. Keep things in perspective: Instead of overreacting to every setback, keep things in perspective. Ask yourself if the problem at hand will matter in six days’ or six months’ time. Most of the time it won’t, and you can save yourself a lot of toxic worry.
58. Automate regular tasks: Set up an automatic bill pay or savings action so that you don’t have to waste time writing checks each month, and so you won’t fall behind on payments.
59. Take time out: Slow down every once in a while to give your mind and body a rest by taking a long weekend, going on a relaxing vacation or just making room in your schedule for an extra nap.
60. Cut back on communication: Don’t isolate yourself, but minimize the different communication platforms like Twitter, e-mail, Facebook and VoIP that you check each day to eliminate extra junk mail, distractions on welcome pages and useless messages.

Food and Diet

If you aren’t ready to start a full-on detox diet, introduce fresh, organic produce, fiber and plenty of water into your diet as a gentle and healthy way to rid your body of chemicals.

61. Fiber: Fiber cleanses your body and your digestive tract, so opt for foods like whole wheat bread, brown rice, broccoli, bran cereal, corn and other raw vegetables and fruits.
62. Vitamin C: Vitamin C is a great detox agent for cleansing the liver, as it produces glutathione. (Take vitamins in moderation)
63. Water: Water is one of the easiest and most effective ways to flush out your system. It’s also a good substitute for soda, alcoholic beverages and sugary juices when you’re thirsty.
64. Garlic: Garlic is a great ingredient for promoting good health, especially detox, as it is rich in antioxidants.
65. Organic foods: Incorporate organic foods, especially fruits and vegetables into your diet, since they are free of harmful pesticides and chemicals.
66. Locally grown food: For a more socially conscious move, buy locally grown food to support your community in a green way.
67. Ethical food: Ease your conscience by making sure your food was produced in an ethical way, from conditions of slaughterhouses to Fair Trade coffee growers and harvesters.
68. Blueberries: Blueberries are extremely high in antioxidants and keep your brain sharp.
69. Say no to junk food: Processed junk food full of unnatural sweeteners and chemicals pumps poison into your body, can cause you to become overweight, and negatively affects your heart health. Even diet junk-food is processed and unhealthy.
70. Raw food: Whether you live a completely raw food and product lifestyle, or you’d like to try a raw food detox diet, raw food can be an effective way to cleanse your body of animal products and processed ingredients.

Exercise and Sleep

Getting enough of the right kind of exercise and sleep purifies both your mind and your body.

71. Cardio: Besides being a major calorie-busting workout, a cardio routine is also good for anger management.
72. Yoga: Yoga is one of the most popular exercises for a de-stress, detox lifestyle because it eases the mind, decreases blood pressure, increases your respiratory efficiency, helps digestion, improves focus and posture, and helps you sleep better.
73. Pilates: Like yoga, pilates can boost energy and your immune system without requiring a sweat-inducing cardio workout.
74. Reduce your body fat: Besides looking more in shape, reducing your body fat, which is where a lot of toxins in your body are stored.
75. Swimming: The website The Natural Path describes swimming as a good exercise for detox, as it works out your muscles and heart but also “increases your breathing and your body temperature, thus aiding in your internal cleansing.” Try to swim in a pool with as less chlorine as possible, or in a natural body of water.
76. Sweat: Pick an exercise that makes you sweat, which cleanses some toxins from the surface of your body.
77. Exercise the right way: Make sure you’re following the routine or fitness plan exactly; otherwise, you might injure yourself.
78. Keep a regular sleeping schedule: This schedule should include a routine for preparing for bed and making yourself sleepy, as well as waking up at around the same time each morning.
79. Exercise for sleep: Maintaining an active lifestyle can wear your body out just enough to ensure a restful sleep.
80. Protect your sleep environment: Polluting your bedroom with TV, artificial light from your computer and work materials can interfere with your sleep.

Good Lifestyle Choices and Links

Make good lifestyle choices, by avoiding promiscuity, maintaining proper hygiene and considering a holistic or even macrobiotic lifestyle.

81. Go organic: An organic lifestyle rids your body and environment of pesticides and may also mean that you support local growers and more ethically produced foods and products.
82. Promiscuity: This bad habit increases your chances of catching an STD and feeling emotionally dragged down.
83. Holistic lifestyle: A holistic lifestyle gives equal attention to your mind, body and spirit, so that you monitor the health and toxicity of every part of yourself.
84. Macrobiotic lifestyle: A macrobiotic lifestyle “is a way of life based upon living in harmony with nature through a balanced whole foods diet, an active lifestyle, and respect for the natural environment,” according to CrescentLife.com. Get tips for living this way by following the link.
85. Go vegan: There are a host of benefits associated with a vegan lifestyle, like good nutrition, disease prevention, avoiding harmful processed ingredients, helping the environment and more.
86. Oral hygiene: Your oral hygiene affects your overall health, so make sure your floss and brush a few times daily.
87. Bathing: Wash off the dirt, chemicals and other toxins on your skin by bathing regularly.
88. Wash hands frequently: Avoid getting sick by washing your hands frequently, which kills germs and washes off other harmful bacteria.
89. Feng shui: The purpose of practicing feng shui is to balance out your elements and promote the free flow of energy, greatly reducing the toxicity and stress of any environment. Get easy-to-follow tips here.
90. Pranayama: This yoga breathing exercise maximizes the amount of oxygen that goes to your brain, controlling “Prana, or the vital life energy.”
91. Strategic massage: Get a massage that stimulates your digestive system and increases your body’s ability to eliminate waste.

Purifying Your Environment

This list features different ways that you can purify your environment and ensure that your home, office and commute are free of all kinds of pollutants.

92. Drive an eco-friendly car: An electric car is good for the environment and your health, since you won’t have to breathe in toxic fumes at the gas station.
93. Walk or bike to work: Another way to prevent inhalation of gas fumes is to walk or bike to work, if you can find a route that doesn’t involve riding behind other gas guzzling vehicles.
94. Grow a garden: Grow your own vegetables to cut back on pesticides and environmentally harmful packaging and delivery methods.
95. Make your own household cleaning products: There are a lot of recipes online for concocting your own supply of household cleaning products, free of dangerous chemicals and chlorine.
96. Composting: Recycle your waste and feed your garden by composting.
97. Keep plants indoors: Having plants indoors increases oxygen production and zaps up extra carbon dioxide, purifying your air.
98. Aromatherapy: Natural aromatherapy can be a great help to simple ailments and colds, and it’s also a good stress reliever.
99. Throw away pet waste: Clean out the cat’s litter box and pick up after your dog, even in the backyard, to prevent the spread of bacteria that can make you and your family sick.
100. Air quality: Make sure the air quality in your home or office is healthy by ventilating the rooms, changing out your air filters and using natural home furnishings and carpet.
101. Sustainability: Sustainable living is an ethical and practical way to live, as it saves you money on energy costs and is good for the environment. Get tips for living a sustainable, poison-free lifestyle here.

Source: Megan Jones at www.nursingschools.net

Further reading

• 13 Tips For A Better Workout
• 31 Simple Ways To Prevent Cancer
• Join The Wellness Revolution

Chances are that you answered yes to all three questions. That’s life. Sometimes even after we put in our best effort and prayed hard, things just don’t go our way in the end. Every human being who has ever lived on this planet has had the same kind of experience. The rich, the poor, the successful, the not-so-successful, the good, the bad, the winners, the losers… they all went through the same journey. But what separates the winners and the losers is how they respond to it.

There are two different ways to respond to what had happened to you. You can choose to:

1. Live a life of deliberate creation; or
2. Live a life of chain reaction.

If you are not happy with your job, you can choose to react to it by complaining about it, feeling frustrated about it, getting annoyed by your managers or, worse still, being rude towards your customers. Even if you channel your reaction towards everything that happened to you at work, you’re still not changing the fact that you’re working at a job that you’re not happy about. As one thing leads to another, you will continue to wind down the negative spiral and making things even worse for you personally. On the other hand, you can choose to create a completely new situation by voicing out your concern to the right authority about your dissatisfaction, understanding the culture and adapting yourself to it or, better still, quit that job for one you’re happy about.

If you are unhappy in your marriage, don’t react towards your spouse as if everything is his/her fault. Create new experiences, new understanding, or perhaps a new relationship with each other!

Life itself is a creation. Every moment we are alive is an opportunity for new creation. Reacting to something is a complete waste of your time now for what you have done in the past. Most people who failed to achieve great success are those who react towards life, circumstances, events, people and basically everything around them. They let life push them around instead of pushing back and live life. That’s why they are the greatest complainers, whiners, blamers, justifiers, excuse makers, and they make almost all of those 55 famous alibis! Whenever you offer them a new opportunity to break free from their dissatisfaction, they will automatically think with their “but”.

Embrace the attitude of being in creation, not reaction. Create new possibilities for new outcomes. Life will continue to throw us challenges and alter our paths along the way. Keep creating. If you react to every event that life brings about, you will end up walking the path that was not designed by you, but by those events, circumstances, people and things that you don’t like. Being in reaction means you’re giving away your power of directing your own life; and you’re giving away that power to those events, circumstances, people and things that you don’t like. In short, you don’t own your life. They do. But if you embrace the attitude of being in creation instead, you will take all those challenges as stepping stones and continue stepping into the direction of your dream. Being in creation means you have control and power over how your life should be, will be and must be. In short, you own your own life.

“It is in your moment of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

—Anthony Robbins

Choose wisely how you would respond to life from now on. Make sharp decisions. Live life with passion!

Further reading

• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?
• Take Action!
• What I Saw At The Graveyard
• Dying Professor’s Last Lecture

During one of the forums I’ve spoken at, I brought the audience on a journey in search of their Genie.
Imagine this:

You receive a nicely typed brochure that promises the Genie’s existence. Find the Genie and you will have all your wishes come true. At first, you were a bit sceptical about the whole idea. But something inside you told you to keep the brochure. A few months passed, and you bump into a long-lost friend. He seems very excited and passionate about life and can’t wait to tell you everything about it. He tells you the secret: He found his Genie. As he continues to describe in minute details of his adventure, you get more excited about the whole idea of searching for Your Genie. You start to believe it now.

After due consideration, you finally jump up and say to yourself, “I’m gonna do this!” You start planning for the exciting adventure ahead of you, prepare to sail into the unknown. Some of your family, friends and relatives try to convince you that it is not “realistic”. They discourage you. They even laugh at you and make a joke out of you. Fortunately, your belief is so strong, it’s unshakable. So you go ahead and take risks.

As you handle your life and prepare for your adventure into the future, you realise that there are sacrifices you need to make. Tough decisions. You stop for a moment and think again. “Should I go ahead?” You hear a lot of noises in your head—that try to tell you otherwise. Those are the voices of the fearful, logical, rational and “realistic” you. But then you focus hard to find that little voice within you. That ever so gentle and calming voice, that is finally heard, “This is it. Go for it.” That’s your voice of courage, instinct and inspiration. And you decide to make those sacrifices, because you know they are just short-term.

So you set sail towards the most important journey of your life, in search of your turning point in life. It isn’t an easy journey.

Two years have passed, and you are still searching for that magical moment. You know it’s not going to be an easy journey. At this point in time, you start imagining what would those critics have said about you should you quit and turn back now. That very thought angers you and thrusts you forward. This time, not only you have belief, but you have conviction. You tell yourself, “Let’s see who will have the last laugh.” And you put up a broad smile, and move ahead into the unknown. You are extremely hopeful.

Now you are enjoying your journey and find excitement in exploring the unknown. You love your new adventure! You scream on top of your lungs, “Life is so amazing when I don’t play it safe! Woohooo!” As you start to enjoy your journey, you enjoy new challenges too, knowing that they are stepping stones towards your ultimate destination. You persist through all the challenges ahead of you.

Five years and eight months later, you have arrived. This is it. You stand there in amazement, staring at the magical lamp in front of you. Speechless. Tears of joy are rolling along your cheek towards your broadest smile ever. Congratulations! You’ve made it!

Whatever your Genie in life is—whether it’s financial freedom, quality relationship, your dream job, dream house, dream car, dream lifestyle, health freedom or time freedom—if you want what you desire in life, these are the 5 crucial steps you must take:

Believe in the long-term promises

Dare to risk losing face & looking stupid

Willing to make short-term sacrifices

Be hopeful at all times

Persist through challenges

Remember, winners have commitment. Losers want convenience. If you want to win in life, you must commit to do whatever it takes in spite of inconveniences.

Believe… and you shall achieve.

Further reading

• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?
• What I Saw At The Graveyard
• Take Action!
• The Magic Of Thinking Big
• You Deserve A Second Chance

Making New Year’s resolutions have become a traditional routine that people do at the end of every year. But how often did we have a resolution that lasts through 3 months into the new year?

Here’s an Easy, Effective and Enriching way to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks like super glue! This kind of New Year’s resolution has “width” and “depth” built into it, and it will empower you to take actions all year long.

Watch this short video that shows you how.

Further reading

• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?
• Take Action!
• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Do It Anyway
• Do You Think With Your BUT?

Life is the best teacher of all. Most of the time, life does not talk to you. It just sort of pushes you around. Each push is life saying, “Wake up. There’s something I want you to learn.” If you learn life’s lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue to push you around.

People do two things. Some just let life push them around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it’s life that’s pushing. Life pushes all of us around. Some give up. Others fight. A few learn the lesson and move on. They welcome life pushing them around. To these few people, it means they need and want to learn something. They learn and move on. Most quit, and a few will fight.

If you learn this lesson, you will grow into a wise, wealthy and happy young man. If you don’t, you will spend your life blaming a job, low pay or your boss for your problems. You’ll live life hoping for that big break that will solve all your money problems.

Or if you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you’re that kind of person, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for some event that never happens. Then, you die a boring old man. You’ll have lots of friends who really like you because you were such a nice hard-working guy. You spent a life playing it safe, doing the right things. But the truth is, you let life push you into submission. Deep down you were terrified of taking risks. You really wanted to win, but the fear of losing was greater than the excitement of winning. Deep inside, you and only you will know you didn’t go for it. You chose to play it safe.

—Rich Dad teaching Robert Kiyosaki his first lesson

Source: Rich Dad Poor Dad

Further reading

• Our Time On Earth
• What I Saw At The Graveyard
• Do You Have The Power To Own Your Own Life?
• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Here’s a song that tells this message clearly:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Further reading

• Do You Have The Power To Own Your Own Life?
• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• How To Make A New Year’s Resolution That LASTS!
• Do You Think With Your BUT?
• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?

To me, the most devastating word you can use to limit yourself from getting what you want is “but”.

Have you ever come across people who told you about a great idea they wanted to venture in, and you encouraged them to take action, only to hear them say without hesitation, “yeah, but…” followed by a string of reasons why it won’t work?

These are the people who think with their “but”.

Your “but” might be trying to protect you from danger at times. Unfortunately, more often than not, your “but” reacts too quickly and automatically kill your creativity. You need to be fully aware of what you are telling yourself internally and what you are saying out loud through your mouth. If you let your “but” wander around unchecked, it can ruin your life in the long-run.

Too many people with great talent have failed in life by letting their subconscious mind outsmart them, making them believe the 55 famous alibis are real.

So, how do you discipline your “but”? Here’s how. Put a thick rubber band on your left wrist. Every time you catch yourself limiting yourself from taking actions by thinking limiting, negative, unproductive thoughts or by saying “yeah, but…” you snap the rubber band hard. Ouch! The pain interrupts your thought pattern. This causes your mind to go blank for a split-second, and open to new suggestions. Then, ask yourself “how” can you achieve what you want instead of “but”.

“The worst thing a poor person says is, “I can’t afford it.” If you say that you can’t afford something, you become poor. You become your thoughts and your actions. By saying the words “I can’t afford it” your brain automatically stops working. By asking the question “How can I afford it?” your brain is put to work.”

—Robert Kiyosaki

Now, put on a thick rubber band and go “but” hunting for the next 30 days. Consciously replace your “but” with ideas on how you can achieve it in spite of, and you are on your way to stop thinking with your “but”.

Further reading

• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?
• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Take Action!
• How To Make A New Year’s Resolution That LASTS!
• Do It Anyway

Here are 13 ways to make your exercise routine a little easier.

1. Avoid the mirrors.
2. Create your own personal gym mix CDs or playlists, and listen to them as you work out.
3. Think of someone who irritates you.
4. Drink a bottle of water or juice on your way to the gym.
5. Think you can and you will.
6. Turn off the TV when exercising.
7. Work out with a friend.
8. Wear the right shoes for the right class.
9. Set a short-term workout goal.
10. Whenever you feel as if you’re out of steam, hire a trainer.
11. Change your routine every three to four weeks.
12. Work out during the least crowded hours.
13. Invent a competition with the person on the next treadmill.

Get the full details of 13 Tips for a Better Workout at Reader’s Digest.

Further reading

• 101 Tips To Remove The Poison From Your Body And Your Life
• Can Weight Gain Affect Sexual Response?
• Procrastination Killer…
• 11 Smart Ideas To Lose Weight
• Lose Weight To Prevent Osteoarthritis

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.”

—Anthony Robbins

Today, in one of my weekly trainings, I shared about the Pain-Pleasure Principle (PPP) that was popularised by Anthony Robbins. The PPP explains that all decisions and choices that we make in life are motivated by either:

• gaining the pleasure of; or
• avoiding the pain of not

making those decisions and choices.

Think about it. You’ve made the choice of getting into that job, relationship or business at some point in time. You did it probably because of the promises you saw in it. Or you probably did it because of the pain of not having it. Either way, you were motivated by the PPP.

In the training today, I asked the participants what were the motivating factors (pleasure) behind their reasons to want to achieve success in life. Most shouted out the promises of having more time and money freedom, the sense of achievement and the ability to leave a legacy for their generations to come. I then asked them about what were the pain of not achieving success. They shouted even louder this time. “Being looked down at”, “Being criticised”, “Tarnished reputation”, “Being broke”, “Feeling like a loser” etc. were just some of the most common reasons.

“People change only when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, or receive enough that they are able to.”

—John C. Maxwell

Personally, I believe that one of the ways to use pain and pleasure effectively is to:

1. list down in a piece of paper all the pleasure you will gain from making that decision or choice and taking the necessary actions; and
2. on another piece of paper, list down all the pain you will get for NOT taking the necessary actions and thus not having the results you desired.

The first list will be your source of motivation and willpower. Look into this list whenever you feel that you are about to breakdown or give up. These are your intentions—your very reasons for doing what you’re doing.

The second list will be your source of urgency. Look into this list whenever you feel like you’re not fast enough in achieving your results, or stagnant. Many people completely ignore this list because they fear being reminded of the things in this list so they can avoid taking actions and thus avoiding the responsibilities to make things happen. But we all know that we owe it to ourselves to create what we want in life, and no one else.

If it’s to be, it’s up to me.

You only have one life in this lifetime. Own it. Live it. Make it the best life you’ve ever had in this lifetime.

Further reading

• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Take Action!
• What I Saw At The Graveyard
• Do You Think With Your BUT?
• Dying Professor’s Last Lecture

When you have set the desired thermal range and the temperature in the room approaches the edge of your desired thermal range, the thermostat sends an electrical signal to the air-conditioner to turn it on or off. As the temperature in the room begins to change, the electrical signals continue to respond to the changes and keep the temperature within the desired range.

Eventually, the room temperature always remains at the thermal range you have set.

Your comfort zone works the same way too.

But instead of electrical signals, your internal performance regulator uses discomfort signals to keep you within your comfort zone. In fact, you have an internal psychological thermostat that regulates your level of performance in the world—and governs everything you do, want and have.

Think of your comfort zone as a prison—a large, self-created prison.

It consists of the collection of can’ts, don’ts, musts, must nots and other disempowering and limiting beliefs formed from all the negative thoughts and decisions you have accumulated and reinforced during your lifetime.

As your behaviour or performance begins to approach the edge of that zone, you begin to feel uncomfortable. To avoid the discomfort, you unconsciously pull yourself back into your comfort zone.

• Some people are comfortable as long as they have $1,000 in their savings account. Some are uncomfortable unless they have 6 months’ income put aside (say, $24,000). Still, some are comfortable with no savings at all plus a credit card debt of $25,000!
• Some people are comfortable with staying in a budget inn when they go travelling. Some are only comfortable with a 3-star hotel or above. Some are only comfortable staying in a 5-star or above.
• Some people are comfortable with long hair. Some are comfortable with short hair. There are also some who are totally uncomfortable with no hair!
• Some people are uncomfortable with being late, but we all know there are some who are totally comfortable with being late.

When you are not comfortable with the way things are, you will do something about it. You will request for a better arrangement, demand for a replacement, negotiate, bargain… anything. You will do something about it.

The fact that you have never done something about it shows that you have already conditioned yourself to be OK with what is. For so many times, we have sold ourselves short, tolerated with mediocrity in life, accepted a lower standard than what we deserve… convincing ourselves that “it’s OK”.

Here’s an example:

A salesperson had a goal to present his services to at least 3 prospects a day. If he upheld his thermostat at that level, he would be comfortable as long as he had presented to 3 people on any given day. If he had not presented to 3 people by evening, he would probably go meet people at night just to be comfortable with his goal. Likewise, if he had met 3 people in the morning, he would probably slack off for the entire day.

Let’s say he had a colleague, who didn’t stand firm on his thermostat and accepted mediocrity as his standard. He also had a goal to present to 3 people a day. One day, he was only able to meet 2 people by the end of the day. He then told himself, “It’s OK. 2 is better than none. It’s still not bad.” That moment, he had allowed himself to accept something less than he wanted to achieve. Soon, he would be comfortable with just meeting 2, 1 or no prospects on any given day. When he had been accustomed to that new but low standard for himself, it then becomes harder for him to reset his standard back to meeting 3 people a day as that would become uncomfortable for him for it is outside of his comfort zone.

Therefore, we must always be aware of the comfort zone we have unconsciously set for ourselves for all areas of our life. If you’re not happy with the way things are in your life, do something about it. Don’t let fear pin you down to inaction. Start doing something… anything. Just get up and get going. Just take action!

You only have one life.
Make it the best you’ve ever had.

Further reading

• How To Have All Your Wishes Come True
• Do Pain And Pleasure Use You?
• Take Action!
• What Is Your Life Metaphor?
• What I Saw At The Graveyard