How to Have Peak Experiences.

     Everyone's had a birthday, so we all can relate to a peak experience in this way, no matter if your 5 or 50.  You wait all year to get to that one day of the year you spend with family and friends and have lots of fun at your party.  They are some of the greatest feelings in the world, your life is filled with working to achieve them.  Working toward something you really want to achieve makes life fun, worth living, and once you achieve your goal it makes you beyond happy.
     If you are just handed a sports car or given millions of dollars you have trouble cherishing all that went into earning that, since it was just given to you you have no concept of how to cherish it.  Now lets look on the other side where if you earn the sports car or money, you take deep appreciation for it.  You are likely not to drive real fast all the time and take care of the car.  For the money you are likely to reinvest in something or yourself to make your life better, rather than if you don't earn that money and blow it all on useless things like parties, expensive clothes, big TV's that will be out of date in 6 months to a year.
    Real peak experiences come from accomplishment.  Something you truly worked towards, whether its materialistic or not can bring joy as long as it is something you wanted to achieve in your life.  For myself I got away from a lot of junk foods and strive every day to become better at it.  I talk about this a lot in my posts and videos, but it is something I really do gain happiness from.  It is practically a 180 to go from eating fast food everyday to for the most part avoiding it and eating what I think is going to be best for my body.  I often talk about eating Mcdonalds 5 days a week and that is not an exaggeration.  I would literally eat that almost everyday, of course I barely knew how bad this was for me to do back then because all I thought about was the flavor of the food I consumed.  I remember almost everyday in the summer one year, I had to be 11 or 12, and every morning I would wake up and eat crackers with peanut butter.  Talk about unhealthy!  I was eating so many unhealthy carbs and peanut butter processed with sugars and hydrogenated oil just starting off each day.  Also during school I would always and I mean ALWAYS start off my day with Ovaltine and some days Olga bread as well before I would head off to school.  This clearly wouldn't help me get through the day as processed carbs tend to make us more tired.  And the Ovaltine which also included processed sugars.
     Working on my journey to a better, healthier diet is a very tough struggle at times but is well worth it and there are often better tasting foods that are good for you than the high processed junk food out there.  Although I still do eat some junk food or what I consider to be junk for me is very rare.  I have been able o feel easier breathing along with the food change which enables peak experiences in meditation at times.  I will find myself in a state of bliss some days during meditation if my breathing is good.  This is becoming more and more easy to achieve the more I meditate, but for now is still a rare experience, but I know without the change in my eating I would've never been able to achieve this.
Like I said earlier peak experiences will take a while to achieve and lots of work, but in the end it is worth it every time.  Our life is a journey, what we make of it is totally up to us.  If you want to have this amazing experiences you must be willing to do whatever it take to gain them in your life!

When to Give Up, Should You Give Up?

Giving up should be worst case.  Have your ever heard the phrase "Never give up"?  This can be used for whatever your goals are, and must be used, let me repeat that it MUST be used to achieve your goals.  Before I used to go from shiny object to shiny object only for making money "fast" but if it got too hard or wasn't working fast enough I would go to the next thing and repeat just to have the same thing happen again.  It's a terrible trap many people fall into.  A question I like to ask myself for doing things is "If I wasn't getting paid would I do this everyday"  If the answer is no then why do it? Now there is an exception but it shouldn't take you away from working toward what you want to achieve and that is a job or anything you can make money doing until you have saved enough to quit and go full time on what you want to truly do.  Many of us including myself need a source of income until we do start making money doing what we love, and many people have it way harder than I do, they have children, a house, a car to pay for, and they cannot let their chider starve.  If you are in a position where you have to rely on a job that does not mean give up on working toward what you want, still make time for it everyday, and there will be one day where it is achieved, just be sure to pour your heart out into it, find that reason to not give up no matter how much life throws at you!
If it truly is your dream you won't give up.  The second you know what it is that is your calling 1) you will not wanna stop doing it 2) you will never stop.  Giving up should only be for something that we get bored of which in turn means it is not your calling.  Most jobs no matter how much they pay will get boring or stressful, unless you actually love the job you do even if its not the most money, if you love doing it and if money weren't involved you would still do it then keep doing it, and never give it up or quit.
If its not your life purpose change focus to what is.  What do I mean by this?  If you do something and easily grow bored chances are you aren't meant to do it.  How could you do something your whole life you don't love doing?  It should simply be a waste of time and energy.  So if you are doing something you don't like to do then change it up to what you truly love doing!  Even if it's only a little bit a day or all day as long as you put focus into what you want to do and enjoy it then thats what matters.  When I used to try things just for the money I found quickly it was not something I liked doing.  Sure money is an awesome tool and I love money because it can surely be used for good.  But our main goal shouldn't be to just get money unless that truly is your motivator , which it can be a great one, and can help make you happy, but won't make u happy forever like following your true purpose will.  But for me I have the most fun sharing a story because I never know who it will impact in a positive way.  I love giving free value, and know in some way it'll come back to me in some way, but that is not the reason I do it,  I only do it because it makes me happy and I enjoy sharing what I am learning day to day.

5 Steps to Practicing Optimism

We are all struck with hard situations, what we do in each of these situations are all based on how we choose to feel about the situation itself.  I know for me myself I can get all caught up in my head about why everything is going to go wring or is already going wrong.  Some of the things I will talk about I am working on myself already and progressing everyday to be as optimistic about every situation as much as possible.  The good thing for you guys that with me still struggling with some of these steps is that you will not get discouraged about not be optimistic right away.  So anyways lets get right into it.

1) Don't take things personally
Number one is defiantly my biggest challenge.  In the world it becomes so easy for us to take the smallest thing personally.  In reality the other person may just be doing something thats better for them and not knowing they are hurting you.  We have all been there, we had a plan to do something with someone or people, and then they cancel.  You start thinking "what did I do wrong?" when in reality that person may be sick or have something going on in their life, but we usually always feel like the victim.  For me it helps to just sit back relax and take a deep breathe and put myself in that persons shoes and see where they are coming form instead of only thinking my point of view.  Although I really struggle with this, when I take that small action it helps me not just feel how I feel but also see through the other persons eyes and instead of feeling mad or hurt I feel that I know they aren't doing anything board me which can put both parties in an optimistic headspace because we both see the good instead of the bad.

2) Everything happens for a reason
Many bad or terrifying things will happen in our life that we cannot control.  There is one thing we can do though, and that is knowing that the event happened for a reason even if it doesn't seem good right now, it will help shape us to grow.  You may be driving along and in a hurry to get home and you hit every red light and feel angry, but on your drive home you witness an accident that could've been you if one of those lights were to be green.  Maybe your low on money and are trying to do something big but feel that the lack of money is holding you back right now, but it could be a lesson for the rest of your life, or even be used to show later in life that you came from nothing to doing big things, and using that to help motivate others to do the same and help them realize they can to.  Just remember no matter where you are, whatever happens is the universe trying to push you toward what you are meant to be.
3) Mediation
I talk about meditation for a lot of things.  Having the ability to stare at a wall or close your eyes for a period of time and do nothing sounds boring and torturous at first.  We live in a fast paced world where we are all rushing to do everything, but many of us need to slow down and chill for even just a few minutes.  The rushing around is known to not be beneficial to our cardiovascular system, because rushing causes stress, we are known to rush to a job we don't like which will cause us stress, or rush to get somewhere even if we do like it but any bad traffic will do the same, cause us stress. So for me slowing down and taking some time to myself and just doing a mediation and telling myself "I am" statements throughout the mediation can help bring me back to center.
4) Don't care what others think
The biggest trap we can fall into which can bring us into pessimism is doing what everyone else wants us to do.  We live in a world where others opinion of us can shape how we feel about doing the things we truly love.  Your not gonna please everyone and you shouldn't try to.  Now I'm not saying to just not listen to others, because many times people want to help us learn something that can help our life.  If its something you know won't truly help you its best to do what you know truly will despite the opinion of others, and if you do try to please others all the time you won't do it and you'll ultimately be letting yourself down.  To be your true self you must care what you think of yourself, wha others think isn't who you are, only what you think of yourself is what matters.  Are you thinking of yourself as powerful or weak? A winner or loser?  These are thoughts only we can control, no one else.
5) Do what makes you happy
I am currently working a job I don't really see as useful where I am doing the same thing everyday and becomes boring and repetitive.  But for me writing, doing videos, and working out is much different, I seem to enjoy the process because I know I am doing good for people and influencing people while working on myself as well.  Even if I'm not making money doing it I still love the process and have fun with it, and truly brings me joy to share a message I find important.

What to do if You're Not Feeling Motivated (How to Become Motivated Again).

     Have you ever gotten to the point where your willpower was depleted or you had not motivation to do what you need to do in your life?  It can be very tough and a huge struggle to see this goal and want to accomplish it.  In this blog I am going to talk about a very simple and easy way to gain motivation and willpower. I think you guys will find this useful and be able to apply it to your everyday lives.  So lets jump right into it!
          I'm sick as I'm writing this and this one thing is something that pushes me to do the things I have too even though its hard to do.  Being sick totally drains not just me but every single human being.  I don't get sick too much as eating a healthier diet has helped sickness come less to me.  But being sick I totally recognize how hard it can be to have motivation to do things.  I mean all we wanna do is to get rest, and rest isn't bad, when we are sick we need rest for sure, but this doesn't mean we can do some work even if its a very little work in the day.
     So what do I do to motivate me the last few days and this is what I am going to start doing from now on if I am feeling a lack of motivation to do something I really want to do.  So lets say you have a goal of the day and its to draw a picture, but today you just can't seem to have the energy to do it.  Very simple and very easy, draw for 5 minutes, if you continue drawing after the 5 minutes and enjoy the process you will have gained willpower and motivation to keep pursuing what you wanted to with the drawing.  If you can only handle 5 minutes that is perfectly ok, 5 minutes out of our day isn't much and you were working toward what you felt was your purpose and still took a step and made a commitment to yourself.
     Taking baby steps is the key to getting shit done, at least thats what has worked for me.  If I feel overwhelmed its gonna be hard to start much less complete the shit I need to.  So taking these baby steps is for me the best way to fully complete something and am always more likely to finish what I start, unlike having 100 different bigs things to do I have a few big things that I turn into small things that are accomplishable which in turn gives me the fuel to accomplish the full thing.
Closing thoughts.
     In this short blog post we went over a very simple and easy way to accomplish anything you want to.  I find for me at least this was easier to implement into my life and actually saved lots of time to do.  Doing this even helps me give more time to the most important things and spend some time, but just less on the things hat are important still but not the most important.  Please feel free to try what I shared here and tell me in the comments how it helped you!

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian     

How Changing Your Exercise Routine Helps You Grow Stronger.

     Have you ever hit a plateau in the gym?  We all do it, we do the same exercises in the same order overtime we go into the gym for a long time and get results for a while, but then after a few months your muscles start growing slower or not at all. Overtime you go into the gym do you do the same workouts in the same order every time.  In this blog post I will describe what has been working for me.  I also talked about this in an earlier blog post but will share this updated version for people who want to read it and the new viewers.
"How long should I stick to a routine?"
     I had my routine for a few months but knew it was time to switch it up recently and try something new since my muscles were getting used to the old way.  I'm not saying I won't ever go back to drop sets but for now I am doing high rep low weight exercises instead, the drop sets did work very well, but we always need to be challenging our muscles in new ways, just as we do our minds.  I stuck with this routine for 3-6 months which for me is when I usually notice I need to change up my exercises and routine.  Although everyone is different our muscles all will get used to doing the same thing overtime eventually.  If a routine is working very well for you definitely stick with it as long as you can.  A routine working well means you are increasing weight gradually every time you go into the gym.  With drop sets I was easily adding weight to most exercises doing the same amount of reps and every time.  Until I started to not increase after a few months for a couple weeks so then I knew it was time to try something knew.
     Like I said in the above paragraph I started doing high rep low weight workouts.  I do anywhere from 15-40 reps depending on the workout and how much weight I use.  When doing this routine I like to concentrate one arm or leg at a time if its arm or leg day.  Using both arms to do a preacher curl with a bar for example can result in one arm doing more of the work and building on more muscle than the other.  So for that exercise I would for example use a dumbbell in one hand do my set then switch hands to make sure both arms are doing the same amount of work.  To get back on topic, switching a routine can be very beneficial, but before switching to a whole new routine I highly recommend you switch up the order of the workouts you are doing in your current one if you are hitting plateau.
Keeping a weight log.
     Is keeping a weight log of your workouts really necessary?  The answer is a huge and I mean HUGE YESSSS!!!  keeping track of every workout is very crucial to improving in the gym.  Now this is something I struggled with and still sometimes do, but have been forming a habit over the last few weeks to keep the log in the notes on my iPhone.  Everyone is bringing their phone to the gym anyways so this is a way to proactively use it to benefit your workout experience and is very simple, but like any habit is hard to get into.  I used to just walk into the gym and do my workouts and keep track of my exercise weight mentally.  You can already tell how that went.  Lately I decided to take 2 seconds after each workout and record the weight I did for each exercise.  By typing the name of exercise or machine, then the weight I was lifting and how many reps I did.  I am now about 75% used to the habit and it has helped me tremendously.  Not only am I able to add a little weight to my workouts every time I go into the gym, but I am also noticing my progress and muscles grow faster.  

     I would like to share my new ab routine that I made, I know you guys will love it, especially if you love a challenge.  Depending how strong your abs are you can do 1-3 sets of this workout and/or rest instead of doing mountain climbers (MC).  I currently do 2 sets and the routine is straight forward.  Go back to back with each exercise 20 reps of each exercise including MC, then when you complete the round take a one minute rest and start over if you need to drink some water during the round feel free to as well, what matters is doing it and achieving what you want to achieve!  Summer is coming lets crack right into the exercise to help you form those abs for your summer body!
Reminder all are 20 reps!
1) Bicycles
2)MC
3) Iron butterflies 
4) MC
5) Leg raises (Lay on your back hold your legs straight up at a 90 degree angle and lift your butt)
6) MC
7) Roman twist
8) MC
9) Leg spreads (Hold your legs straight in front of you about 4-6 inches off the ground and spread then close and repeat)
1 minute rest.

4 Lessons I Learned From "How To Win Friends and Influence People".

Lesson 1 - Learning the art of empowerment instead of criticism.
     "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain-and most fools do.  But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving."  How many times have we criticized someone even for something they can't control, what does that say about us?  Everyone has their flaws but when we judge someone that means we are only noticing their flaws in us and feeling a sense of insecurity about it.  Something I learn was instead of to criticize, maybe next time I can look at how the person did something right, or how to help the person do the right thing next time, and help them improve instead of put them down and belittle them.  It's so easy to put someone down, because it makes us feel better about our selves and often it's the easy way to do things.  I mean if we don't put people down then we ourselves must have to work on improving ourselves as well and have the chance of making mistakes, which can involve pride and ego getting in the way.  Maybe next time I want to criticize, I can shift my focus on look at what I can learn from this person?

     Charles Schwab says "There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors.  I never criticize anyone.  I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault.  If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise."
This lesson is valuable to me because most of us are taught to just yell at someone to get our way instead of stating the good someone did and encouraging them to do better.  I like to think of it like this, if some random person walks up to you and tells you "you aren't a good writer" chances are you might get mad for a second but after a minute you'll just be like "whatever" toward it because they don't even know you, and move on with your day.  But on the flipside if a family member or friend says the same thing we can take it personally because they know us on a personal level.  Now if your family or friends think its bad instead of criticizing they can reframe and talk about how much better you were at writing than you were a month ago and how fast your writing is getting better and better.
     "One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation.  Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter when he or she brings home a good report card, and we fail to encourage our children when they first succeed in baking a cake or building a birdhouse.  Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest and approval."  Before we move on to Lesson 2 remember to always look for the good someone did!
Lesson 2 - People love talking about themselves.
     "You can make more friends in 2 months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."  This is something I wished I would've learned a long time ago.  It still affects me today, even though I work on it, it is a very hard habit to break out of.  From my experience I love talking about what I wanna do instead of hearing as much of what others want to do.  Even as the other person is talking at times I will notice I am thinking in my head what I am going to talk about next instead of how to respond to what they are gonna say and ask empowering questions about their topic to go more in depth.  Talking about the other persons topic makes them feel more important and will show your genuine interest in them.
Lesson 3 - Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
     I have always struggled with remembering someones name even a minute after they say it I can have some trouble remembering what they said it was.  In the book Carnegie states a technique used by Napoleon the third emperor of France and nephew of the great Napoleon   The technique?  If he didn't hear the name distinctly, he would say, "so sorry I didn't get the name clearly."  If the name was an unusual or unfamiliar name her would ask for the person to spell it for him.  At least for me this is important be many times I didn't quite get the name the person told me but I was too afraid to as them to repeat it and just kind of would guess a name.  This is one many people I know have trouble with and I feel my story easily connected with you guys.  
Lesson 4 - Don't fight fire with fire.
     the Buddha said "Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love."  There have been many times I have flipped out because someone got mad at me, So what is the first thing I do.  That's right, I get mad right back and start rage on both sides.  Not looking at what they want and what I want, and how to achieve peace for both sides, but instead only looking at what I want.  Showing hate towards hate (fire with fire) usually never works, usually we fight back because we don't want our ego hurt, but what is that worth, if all trying to win does makes our ego smaller?
     Going hand in hand with the ego is not telling people they are wrong.  Telling someone they are wrong only hurts them and will create tension.  Is red better than blue, are the Beatles better than the Rolling Stones?  If someone doesn't agree with you this doesn't mean they are wrong, even your biggest enemy could be right and have something to agree on that is the right thing.  In the book it is pointed out that Jesus said "Agree with thine adversary quickly"  Agreeing with an enemy on a certain point can bring comfort to their side and make them more likely to agree with your side as well.
Closing thoughts.
     Note that to me these are the most valuable lessons in the book, and what I see helping me the most.  If you want to purchase the book I highly recommend it, and will be one of the most important books you read, especially if you are and introvert like me.   I will have a link to amazon in my recommended resources page, if you would like to buy the book and support me that would be a real thanks.  I hope these lessons helped you and gave you a good guide and sense into some of the book.

Without Struggle We Cannot Grow. (Our Mind Is Like A Muscles)

     We all know that training our muscles will grow them.  Many of us are so focussed on that but not whats to grow on the inside, our brain.  When I first started working our that's all I saw was having a better body would be making me a better person in some respect.  What I saw after I really started was that training my outer muscles made me want to train my inner muscles as well.  Without starting going to the gym, I would've never wanted to start training my brain.  The brain is just like a muscle, reading books can be very hard, along with mediation, but the struggle of it is always worth it and allows my mind to expand.
     What we spend our minds time on can really affect if it is growing, or not.  When I used to play video games all the time, my mind never really could grow because there was nothing I was really being taught from them.  Now I'm not hating on video games they can be very fun, but they also numb the brain at least for me.  I tend to lose track of time, and very easily lose track of what my priorities are.  For me they would help me be more on my toes, since I would play lots of call of duty or war games you would have to be constantly alert of things around you, so in that aspect it did help, but when I was in my gaming days thats all I could really focus on was the game.
     The gaming wasn't really challenging my mind to grow, because it was never really a challenge to turn on a system and start a game.  The things that have been a challenge have been getting myself to read 50 pages a day being a very slow reader and only being able to read word for word at first, and then teaching myself and watching videos on how to read faster and still comprehend everything.  Not only learning to read faster has been a struggle that helped my brain grow but the fact that almost every book I have read I found something else to learn from or do that can challenge me even more to become my greatest version.
     Not only reading has been a big impact in growing my brain to be able to think more and better, but also writing.  I often talk about how writing isn't my strong point, or wasn't in school, but since I've started writing for this blog it has gotten extremely better.  Even to the point where people around me say I do a good job compared to how I used to in school.  But how has it helped me expand my brain?  First off I'd say I've become a better thinker on thinking of what to talk about and spread to you guys.  But on the other hand it can also be hard to come up with what to write about, but those days are where eI challenge myself the most.  I not only have to come up with a topic but also have to write multiple paragraphs about it to try and share what I feel can help people around the world.  Those days are often the ones I feel like I can't do it but I find a way to push myself instead of telling myself I can't do it just because I feel like I have not energy or can't thing of something.  Even if the writing is bad to me, I'd rather do it than give up on myself and sell myself short, when I know I can say even one thing and help somebody even if its not my best writing.   SO pushing through those days of struggle is what makes me and everyone else grow, all it takes is that one step of struggle to improve yourself and you mind.  If you aren't challenging yourself you're not growing.  The challenges are supposed to be tough, but getting through them will make you stronger and wiser.
     Maybe a challenge is learning another language.  It is always a struggle and is very hard because we are accustom to speaking whatever language you speak.  And learning a language is like starting over from scratch.  But it has many benefits.  You can get a better job and connect with people of different countries easier just to name a couple.  I know it is a challenge for me, and over the past couple days I have been teaching myself to learn to say a phrase in French each day and also write it down.  I am deciding to start with French because it is an easier language to learn than something like Chinese, but is still a challenge for me and can help me in life, also for if I travel to a French speaking country.  Without training each day to learn one new phrase my mind will not go, just as if I skip the gym my muscles will not grow.

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian