What Needs to be Done to Live a Happier Life in 2016?

Let me start off by stating 2016 may have just been the toughest start to a year ever in my life.  I had it pretty easy up until about a month ago.  But something in my personal life happened and it hit me, I told myself "Brian, you need to work harder and smarter to live the good life, it isn't just handed to you."  And the truth is it isn't handed to any of us.  We all have to earn the life we want to live.  Over the last 5 or so days I started practicing drop shipping on eBay, for the first couple days I only posted one item a day as I was getting used to posting, yesterday I upped the ante and posted twice, today 3 times just to prove to myself I could do it.

I took a big step last year reading 37 books, this year I hope to read at least 40, but what have some of these books taught me since last year?  I've learned how to be happier even under stress in my life.  My favorite ways to cope with the stress or anxieties I do have are to let it out if I can but then to just relax and if its something I can't change then to not let it bug me as much, even though the stress is still there I try to focus my mind on developing myself and sharing my message to my lovely readers and those around me.  I know that no matter how much I complain it won't change the situation, so why not put some time toward myself?  One of my other favorites I've adopted is meditation, I talk about this a lot, but thats because its something that truly helps.  Sitting or laying down in one place for even just the 10 minutes I do right now can be hard for me especially if something is bothering me, but by taking deep breathes and listening to the voice or sounds on the video I become calm and present in the moment.

It really is easy now for me to be happy even if I am feeling down just for practicing abundance like I talked about in my last blog post.  We often take for granted everything we do have, like our arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouths ect.  Having this abundance and gratitude mindset is always something that has helped me, because I realize even if I'm having a bad day where everything goes wrong, theres always something I have that I may usually take for granted.
In 2015 I started making a list of daily things to accomplish and also a list of what I would eat everyday.  First off let me state how much the list of goals for the day helped me and how it can help you.  I would write down what I would need to do for the day and the time I would need to go to bed. Most days my goals would look something like (Go to work, Read 50 pages, Meditate for at least 10 minutes, Work on or post to blog, Go to gym and what area of the body I would work on that day and the exercises I would have to do, then go to bed at or before 11:30, as I wake up at 8:50 I am able to get over 8 hours of sleep.)  Making a daily goals list was a big motivator for me and would help me see my accomplishments.  If you would like to implement this in your life, which I highly recommend, I would start off with 3 goals for about a week until you gain momentum then add more goals throughout the weeks, if you are feeling ambitious start out with 5!  Some days I would write a reminder at the top of the page before I would even write down my daily goals, something like " make the best of today".  All I would need was something simple to read that motivated me before I tackled each goal some days. 
Final thoughts
To make 2016 the best year, even if you are going through challenges, which most of us are, take down at least one of these tips to start off the year.  I would recommend writing down the list of daily goals, because thats what really helped get me to the next level in my life and I know it'll help you as well.

Go out, live life to the fullest,
Brian

What I Learned About Having the Abundance Mindset.

I used to think many things were in scarcity that are really in abundance, lets start with working out and eating healthier.  My thoughts on this used to be that people who have muscles or eat good healthy foods are "genetically different" or had more will power than me.  This all changed when I learned about seeing things in abundance, I can't quite remember where I learned the abundance mindset from, but I remember hearing money is in abundance, and thought "how can I implement this into aspects of my life?" so I started noticing the cars I see daily (as I am a car nerd this was very easy and fun) and still do this exercise everyday.  I mainly payed attention to high end luxury cars (cars over $70,000)  Jaguars, Range Rovers, Mercedes S class's, Tesla's, Rolls Royce's, Bentley's even up to a Bugatti and many more.  The most common cars I noticed are Range Rovers, S class Mercedes, and brand new Escalades.  Seeing these as common cars triggered my abundance mindset, seeing these cars practically everywhere made me think of abundance in working out.  Although I am a hard gainer and still do have small muscles, myself I have noticed a difference in muscle growth.

It crazy how simple and easy it was for me to manifest something that I thought was only for people with good genetics.  If you are into muscle growth or losing fat just walk into a gym and see all the people where you want to be, chances are is there are many more people that are where you want to be right now than you knew about, you just have to take a closer look around you.  Being a hard gainer it takes me literally FOREVER to put on muscle, but practicing abundance really motivated me to push myself and work toward where I want to be and with everyday in the gym I get one step closer to the muscle size I want.  A bonus for hard gainers like me, you might have to train 5x as much as someone with better genetics than you, it might take someone else 3 years when it takes you 15 years of going consistently, but the change you see over time gives you even more motivation.  The will to see others have it easier than you, and you still don't give up is true dedication and strength.  

There are 2 things that are not in abundance, our time and energy.  I'm guilty of taking both of these for granted, whether its Instagram, Facebook, or youtube.  After all its fun, but what I like to tell myself when wasting time on here when I catch myself doing it is "is this going to better my life for a few minutes of enjoyment now?"  this can be applied to anything, eating, watching TV, video games ect. and is really effective.  How often do we take the time we are given for granted?  We often promise ourselves to do the important things in our lives tomorrow, when in all reality tomorrow is never promised.  The second any of us start to realize this truth, though it may be harsh, we learn to really live life and enjoy the time we have on this beautiful planet.  Time may be limited but that doesn't mean it limits our abilities to achieve what we want to achieve.

Final Thoughts.
Keeping the abundance mindset in my life has helped me tremendously.  If you implement what I have talked about today into your life I know it can help you at least as much as it has helped me.  Also you can use this as a form of being grateful by seeing how abundant things are around you.  Go out start noticing things that you may have never thought to be in abundance.

Go out, live life to the fullest,
Brian

What is it Like Dealing with Social Anxiety.

I never really brought this up in any of my blog posts at all, but I am one of the shyest people you could ever meet.  I've dealt with social anxiety pretty much all my life even having trouble saying "hello" to neighbors sometime without getting anxious.  If you are like me you know many people can mistake being shy for being rude.  Myself I even have trouble holding conversations with family members, which may seem very weird, it is even to me because I love and care for my family and it should be easy for me to talk to them.  This right now is what I would like to grow on and do more is practice holding better conversations with those around me.
Dealing with this just like anything that you fear is a challenge in life but that's what this blog is here for, for me to over come my fears and to help you guys by showing you the best way to better yourself from my experiences.  Since I believe making small consistant steps is necessary for big change over time I am starting to try talking a lot more with people I know, because like I said before, I'm even kinda shy around family sometimes, but family can be easy to talk to if you are like me and need to talk more and be more social, over christmas I went to 3 parties with my family and spent as much time with everyone I could and tried pushing my limits on talking and having fun.  Sure at first it was a little scary because of my social anxiety but I know it's family and they won't judge and just wanna have a good time just like I do so why not talk?  It brought me closer to them and also got to learn about more of what goals and dreams they are working towards.  It was a good experience for everyone.
Having a good social life can result in finding amazing friends who are always there for you, finding a business partner, or mentors.  You never really know who could be walking past you, it could be someone who will help you grow in life, so you can say "hi" or let them fade away as they walk past you.  I was walking in the park a couple weeks ago, and as I was walking to it an older man (probably around 70) walked by and said hi to me so I said hi back.  Then I enter the park and a gentleman is walking out with his dog and says hi and I talk to him for a minute and find out there was a buck (male deer) in the park that was injured across the pond, which then I got an idea, I told myself the next person I see in the park I'll say hi to, because I knew I needed to be more social and push my comfort zone.  So I'm walking for a minute or 2 and see a couple around 50 walking their dog, so I stop and say hi and pet the dog and they show me the male deer across the pond and about their day then walk through the trail more and take pictures.  Just the simple act of saying hi to the couple
I pushed my comfort zone and got to talk to very nice people, that if I didn't just say hi to I would've just walked right past them and never had that experience.
Could you do something today to break out of social anxiety or any other anxiety that you have that may be holding you back?  Feel free to comment below!  Always strive to do your best, its a new year, a new start.  Have a happy New Years!

How I Read 37 Books This Year.

As I talked about before, I used to HATE reading.  Sitting in silence and focusing on a book instead of playing video games was hard for me, or even if I did read it used to be hard to do without getting too tired to focus on the book.  I don't exactly know what made me want to read all of a sudden, but I think the biggest motivator was that I figured out most successful people read everyday, and most millionaires read on average 30-50 books a year.  Myself  I read books on business and self help and autobiographies and biographies for the most part, because I love learning what the people who are where I want to be do in their everyday life, and its very cheap compared to seminars.  The only thing with a seminar is you are pushed more to do something that you payed to do, with a book even if it says to write down things like the food we eat everyday, we usually don't take action because theres not someone there to help us take action before we move on like in a digital seminar or regular seminar.  But the great thing about books is that if you choose to follow through with what they say to do, it will better you life for a really low price.
So how did I read 37 books this year?  It all started with how I saw people who read books lived, they all seemed more happy, positive, knowledgeable, more money, and seemed to love lifting people up.  Maybe you love money like most of us, you want to be financially independent and help your family and friends, or maybe you want more love in your life.  Myself I love helping people and would love to one day be financially independent helping millions of people at the same time.  So I looked into what kind of books people who are where I want to be are reading.  One of the first books I read that really got me into reading was "Money Master the Game" by Tony Robbins.  His writings are phenomenal and really there to help and uplift you. I also recently read "Awaken the Giant Within" and "Unlimited Power" which are both about lifting yourself up and doing things you thought were impossible, where Money Master the Game is more about how anyone of any age and any job can start a small or large investment and watch it grow over the years.  Beware if you wish to read any of these 3 books they may be a fun read and really get you into reading more, but the shortest one is 400 pages, so if you don't read that much right now I would recommend you start with a smaller book and work your way up.
I currently read about a book every week depending on the size of the book.  Right now I am reading usually 50 pages a day, sometimes more like 100+ if I feel like it or even 20 if I don't have much time, and even some days don't read a single page (usually only 1-2 days week).  I started light with my reading 10-25 pages a day but went up to 50 really fast because I knew I could push myself and read more.  So the question is, what kind of books would interest you?  Write down a few things you would like to read about and either go online or to your local bookstore and find that book, you never know what could change your life for the better!

How to Invest in Yourself for a Better Life.

Practicing making yourself better can be hard to do in the world we live in.  We are surrounded by a society where we are used to working for other people all day but never make any time to work for ourselves.  Many of us buy things to impress other rather than ourselves, the neighbor buys a new car, so what do we do, buy a better new car, this is called keeping up with the Jones's.  We may even do it without noticing, maybe one of your friends gets a game, so you might get the special edition version that comes with a "special" or "collectable" item just to show off and say you have it.  Do these really add any value to your life if you aren't already where you want to be in life?  No matter how much you know theres still things you can learn from others, let's start with books.
What would you say if I told you that you could have the knowledge of world leaders, billionaire business owners, spiritual leaders and many more right now?  My guess is you would want to know more about this, so I'm going to tell you.  The easiest and cheapest way to get knowledge from anyone you admire or would like to learn from is books.  Right now you have the power to go to the store and buy a book or even buy one from your computer!  Crazy world right?  You could buy a book this instant on any person or topic you want to learn from.  To name a few you can get biographies and autobiographies of the Founding Fathers, Sam Walton, (the man who founded Wal Mart) and Tony Robbins.  All these people do (or did) really big things in life and you can learn how they did what they did and how you can implement their strategies just buy spending around $20 for a book.  Thats cheaper than going out even just once a week to a nice restaurant, no I'm not saying don't treat yourself to good food once and a while, but a lot of us go out to eat everyday or multiple times a week when we could make a healthier cheaper meal for ourselves, and have more money not only to save but also to invest in ourselves.

If you are reading this blog post chances are you've heard of youtube, this can be one of the best places for free content and if you look for something, theres a huge chance someone has made a video to help you with what you're looking for.  If your passion is skating you can look up things on how to skate, if you want to learn how to meditate theres videos for that, videos for making websites, literally anything you would want to learn you can find for free.  The only downside of things being free is we are less likely to take action.  Although we invest our most valuable resource (time) into learning on youtube many of us won't take action on what we are learning unless we pay some kind of money for a course.
In courses the instructor can go way more in depth and interact with you and other people in the course.  This is amazing because everyone can share tips, ask questions, show their success, and work as a team.  Having someone there to teach you what to do every step of the way makes it so much easier to do what you say your going to do and do it right because they have been through it and know the proven steps that work.  Putting not only time but money helps ensure your going to follow through with the program, last I heard nobody would want to just throw out their money for something they wouldn't used follow through with.

Why you Must Find Yourself.

Finding your ambition may just be one of the hardest things to do if one simple key aspect isn't in play.  We spend thousands upon thousands of hours doing things that aren't in our best interest.  We go to our job and use our time and energy to make money.  The thought of this is crazy, we do something that in most cases we don't like doing using time (which you can never EVER get back) and energy (which is hard to get back) just for a paycheck, which last time I checked money is in significant abundance.  This doesn't mean just quit you job, I myself still work a job, and when I have the time to read, write my blog, or post to social media, it makes my time before and after work feel so much better and more like I'm playing the game called "life".

What do I mean?
In my search to finding myself I found my calling was to help people in any area of life that I can master, and help more people master that area of their life, whatever it may be.  Finding yourself in life means to have full confidence in what you are doing and not letting anything stop you from achieving what you want to achieve.  If you have already found your calling you know what I mean when I say Im playing the game called life.  We all love one game or another, but what if you could play a game everyday that lifts you up?  You probably sounds like I'm making this up, but literally everyday the time I'm looking forward to is when I get to become a better person myself, and help all of you reading this and viewing my social media.  I get a feeling better than playing any video game. Try it for yourself, you may just want to hold the door open for someone you don't know or tell some complete stranger to have a nice day who seems to look in a down mood, or you could want to find a way to get civilization on living mars, whatever helps you find yourself will make you happy and live the game called life.  If you have a job you will want to rush home to work on finding yourself right away, if you don't have a job you'll be able to wake up and get yourself out of bed effortlessly.
There are two things I love that Arnold Schwarzenegger said that are very simple, but many of us don't do these.  These two quotes are, "Don't listen to the naysayers" and "Give back" so simple yet so powerful.  We often tell family or friends we want to do something and they tell us its either stupid or that you could never do whatever it is you want to do.  This one is very funny to me, so many successful people were told this including John Lennon, one of the most influential musicians to ever live, his own aunt told him he would never make any money with a guitar, but he didn't let that stop him.  Giving back is always a good thing to do, whether its just something simple like helping a neighbor carry something in their house, or giving to charity, or giving a generous tip and not showing off about it, it always makes you feel better and more at peace with yourself, and it is simple things like that, that will make someones day.
To find yourself, be humble, confident, and find yourself more and more each and everyday!

Set Aside Quiet Time Every Day.

I was reading a book today called, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson.  I came across one of many chapters that hit me right away that I want to share with you guys.  The chapter is called "Set aside quiet time, every day".  I knew right after reading the title of the chapter that I needed to share his message in the chapter with more people.  How often are you setting aside time for yourself, even just 5 or 10 minutes?  Today we have so many distractions, Facebook, Instagram, texting, music, and many more things that may distract us from being at peace with the present moment and ourselves for even just a small part of the day.  Richard states in the chapter "Personally, when I set aside quiet time for myself, it makes the rest of my day seem manageable.  When I don't, I really notice the difference."  I have been practicing meditation for almost a year now pretty consistently, I do sometimes miss days, and on the days I do I really notice a difference.
Quiet time is useful on not just days where you are anxious but also on the days where you feel like you are on top of the world.  You can literally take a minute to just look outside and enjoy all the life in front of your eyes and the breathes of fresh air you can take, this will especially help on days where you are feeling down or depressed, but when you do this on a great day, it'll make it even better.  Just today we had the most amazing sky I've seen in a while, the sky has been cool the last couple weeks, but this sight just blew my mind.  Just taking a minute of my time to enjoy the view really helped bring me to the present moment as I stared at the sky with amazement.

My experience with taking quiet time.
Before about halfway through my senior year of high school I used to think of meditation as some silly thing only hippies would do.  I soon came to realize that almost everyone who had their life in line practiced setting time aside for them to relax without distraction, and adopted this technique.  Myself I am able to take a deep breath whenever I need to in any situation if I am feeling tense or stressed, and right away I feel more calm.  Give it a try right now, close your eyes, pause from reading this for about 10-20 seconds, take a deep breathe and inhale in for 3-6 seconds then hold for 4-5 seconds and exhale out for 5-7 seconds. Feel better?  I know after doing this exercise I always feel more calm and in the moment, and the best part it takes less than 30 seconds!
Quiet time is also always used when working out.  If you have ever worked out for any period of time you know that you need your quiet time (rest days) in order for muscle to grow, and not get overworked.  So if you already are working out consistently, you already have experience with making quiet time, all you have to do if you aren't already is set aside quiet time from all distractions and see how much better you feel, and how much better your life gets.