What Are You Searching For?

I have not yet met anyone in my world travels who didn't want a little more inner peace. And, I have never encountered anyone who would trade a little money to rid themselves of their stress and worries.

So, is this what each of us is secretly or overtly searching for? Well, to be truthful I'm not sure. People who say they want less stress continue to pursue wealth, fame, power, position and more stuff. People who say they want to be happy often seem to sabotage this goal with poor choices, bad judgment and emotional immaturity. And people who say they want more inner peace still harbor old emotional baggage, replay old slights and hurts and let other people control their behaviors, attitudes, emotions and even their thoughts.

If we are truly searching for any or all the items listed above one would have to wonder whether we are just giving lip service to these goals, desires and dreams or if we really want them but just don't seem to know where to find them, how to achieve them or how to keep them.

I too have been guilty. I am just like you in that I would like a little more happiness and a little less stress yet when it comes to doing what is necessary I often fall short.

Sure, I have read all the books, hundreds and hundreds of them, attended the seminars, had personal coaches, spent hours and even weeks setting and planning my personal goals and dreams and spent more hours than I can remember praying and meditating and yet, here I sit from time to time, still questioning whether all this reading, study and searching is worthwhile.

During my years of study, research and searching I have come to a few conclusions.

1) Many of the people who supposedly have it figured out, don't. 

2) Many of the people who preach and teach this stuff to others and get paid handsomely to do so, don't have a clue. 

3) Some of the people who you would least expect to have the answers often do. 

4) Even many of the religious fanatics, diehards or steadfast believers in God still struggle with the same issues, questions and challenges as those who have never set foot in a church or Synagogue or read the Bible.

Why is this? Are we doomed as a species to just search and never find or discover the true meaning of our life or as the title says, why we are we here?

Humans have been asking for centuries; why am I here, where am I going and what am I supposed to do with my life while I am here?

One could get easily discouraged and feeling a little sorry for themselves spending years contemplating simple questions like these.

Have you ever asked yourself any of these searching questions whether in times of doubt or discouragement or happiness and contentment? Success or failure? 

Do you have any answers yet, or are you like most of us, that you just keep on trudging ahead through life one day at a time just earning, spending, working and playing?

Plus-You Can Now Join Our FREE Mastering Success Facebook Community at www.masteringsuccess.group

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7 Tips for a Successful Life

It is a sad fact of this life in its current form that has a staggeringly high percentage of the general population suffering from low self-esteem.

Some estimates have this figure at an astounding 85%!

Challenges of kicking bad habits or just a general low self belief can make this life hard - much harder than it has to be!

Keeping up the proper mindset to attract more abundance of what we want out of life is hard. Daily challenges continue and will always continue to hit us. The key lies in ensuring that we are adjusting our thoughts and processes during the day to ensure that we maintain the proper understanding and belief required to attract what we want in our lives and expel the negativity that will continuously try to enter our lives like a thief in the night.

Make no mistake, it is a dangerous thief. One that creeps into your life and makes itself at home. Worse than that, we actually start to believe what this nefarious creature whispers into our ears and end up with a life that we truly don't want, or need.

There are things that we can do to keep the beast at bay and vanquished. Below are some tips that I hope will help you.

1: Highway to the Danger Zone.

To build up your self-confidence you must get outside of that comfort zone. Each and every single day put yourself into a situation that makes you uncomfortable in some way. You will soon realise that you are more capable than what you currently think.

2: Compliments

Everyone loves to hear a compliment. Make sure that the compliment is legitimate and not forced. People can see through an unreal compliment and you will come across as sleazy, a liar or worse.

Handing out compliments to those who truly deserve one will come back to you ten-fold.

What's the worst that can happen? You make someone else's day a little brighter for it?

3: Expel The Positivity Thief

Pay CLOSE attention to your inner voice throughout the day. This sneaky little thief will squirm itself into your life if you don't pay attention.

Don't call yourself foolish, an idiot, stupid, fat or ugly. Boost your own self-esteem and improve your self-confidence by boosting your positive attitude to the fore. Catch that positivity thief and expel them into the nether regions where they belong!

4: Stake The Energy Vampires

You know the ones I'm talking about. People in your life that seem to suck the life right out of you!

Be wary and selective in who you let into your inner circle. Some of those that purport to be our closest allies are actually energy vampires. They appear to give you 'advice' that actually impedes you in achieving what you desire. They instill and plant the seeds of doubt that will feed the positivity thief. Inch by inch, step by step they will lead you to a path that is NOT of YOUR choosing.

Look closely at those around you. If it appears that they are literally sucking the life out of you then they most likely are. You know what you need to do, no need for me to spell it out here.

5: Be Grateful

Make time each and every day to list things that you have to be grateful for.

Take time to record each positive step in the right direction. The end goal is that much closer for each and every step in the right direction taken.

Feel good for those small steps, you are on the path that YOU HAVE chosen for yourself.

This will provide further positive momentum and self-confidence to take the next step. Very soon you will be able to look back at the path and be totally amazed by how far you have come.

Be grateful for these steps and don't fear to compliment yourself on each! You are moving in the right direction, whatever direction that may be for you and you deserve to complimented!

6: Ask!

This one seems to be a no-brainer but I'm constantly amazed at how this simple one is overlooked so often.

Ask for what you want. The worst thing that can happen is you get a NO, which will be the outcome if you don't ask!

7. Be An Active Listener.

People love to talk about themselves. It seems to be an ingrained thing in this life as it currently stands. The best 'conversationalists' that I have come across in life are those that actually do more listening than talking.

Our perceptions on what others want to hear are very often skewed and incorrect. Actively listen to these people and you will be amazed by the amount of doors that will open up for you. Doors that you probably weren't even aware existed.

Being an active listener is a skill that needs to be worked on. Catch yourself from interjecting your thoughts while the other person is still talking. Don't fidget with that pen. Make eye contact.

Make the talker understand that they hold your full attention and that you are paying attention.

There's no doubt that you will have read or heard the above tips numerous times. Pick and choose the ones that you can implement now. I have no doubt that your self-esteem and self-confidence will pick up and you will have no boundaries. This is the point that your life becomes truly that - YOURS.

Have you applied these tips in your life?

Share your story about how some of these tips have helped change your life. 

I would love to hear them!

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Motivation - How to Get Motivated and Stay That Way

Getting excited about something new is human nature. Starting a new job. Opening up a new business. A new relationship. Your first day of working out. Starting meal prep. Anything new is exciting until it's not new anymore. Once you learn all the nuances of your new job, it's not exciting anymore. There's nothing fun about losing money for a few months in your new business, in fact, it's discouraging. Discovering all of your significant other's annoying quirks may make you reconsider building the relationship. Getting up at 5:00 am to go to the gym after you've been up late taking care of your sick child is difficult. Pushing through and maintaining enthusiasm about whatever it is will keep you on track.

You've made the first step. You got started. Some don't even make it that far because of fear. Congratulate yourself for making it over that hurdle. Now you find that you aren't as excited as you were in the beginning. You aren't as productive. You don't greet your customers with as much bravado as before. How do you keep up that excitement of the "new"?

Look around. Take an inventory of your life. Losing steam is the first step toward giving up. If you give up you will never realize your goals. Remember all the people cheering you on. Remember everyone who invested in you. Be it time, money, or simply encouragement. Can you handle disappointing them all if you chose not to succeed? Success is a choice we make everyday. It doesn't just happen. We choose it.

It's easy to stay excited when things are going well. The key to success is to stay excited when things are difficult. Things happen. There will be bad days at work. You will miss deadlines. Promotions will pass you by. You will have difficulties with customers. You will argue with your spouse. You will miss days at the gym. You will feel the guilt of cheating your diet. You will get rejected and face an obstacle or even failure. Know that failures are temporary only when you keep moving and continue to take action.

Maintaining enthusiasm about your project is the key to making your dreams come true. Take action everyday as if it is your first day. Keep visual reminders of what you are working toward. Keep a daily routine that promotes positive thoughts. Doing these things will allow you to stay excited about everything even when things get tough.

Be enthusiastic everyday. Don't let obstacles discourage you. Just continue. Keep visual reminders of what the results of your actions can yield to stay excited. Choose to excitement and you will stay excited.

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20 Life Lessons Learned in 20 Years of Life

The first 20 years of our lives are crazy.

We grow from helpless little babies to educated adults with a heavy degree of responsibility. Within these first 20 years are hundreds of first experiences, pains, growths, laughs, wonders, that slowly begin to shape our lives for the future, and there are many life lessons learned along the way.

The mindset that people begin to create for themselves during these years can waver greatly, and either push them towards what they want, or gradually away from it. As humans we are most susceptible to drastic changes, which begs the point of this article.

20 Life Lessons Learned in 20 Years of Life


1) People’s actions are affected more by what they want to hear, rather than what they actually hear.

What I mean by this is that people act very rashly based on what they wanted to hear, rather than acting correctly on the things they actually hear. This is the case for many different scenarios, and causes people to take various actions towards things that push them in the wrong direction.

The reason for this is because as humans it’s natural for us to want things our own way. Which leads to us not taking in feedback correctly, or not being able to accept compliments sometimes when they’re given to us.


2) Being different is important. Trying to be someone else can destroy any unique talent that you have.

As people grow up, they want to fit in with others. They want to make new and cool friends to spend their time with, and as a result copying others becomes a natural thing for people to do, especially if they’ve been made fun of for doing something different before.

Being different is not a detriment. Being different is important in order to stand out and make sure you live your life doing what you love. This is the second of my 20 best life lessons learned within 20 years of life.

A lot of people think their search for happiness will be over once they ditch being different and start fitting in with everyone else. But the key to happiness is to do what you love no matter what, and learn to be proud of everything that makes you different.


3) Time can be both your best friend and worst enemy. How you use it is critical.

Time is something we think we have endless amounts of, in our early years of life in particular.

So the general pattern is that we spend a lot of time lounging around, not doing too much, just ‘chilling’, for the first half of our lives. Then for the second half we feel like there’s so much left that we still want to do, but we don’t have time for. Use your time wisely.

Time can also be our best friend because of the fact that it allows things to nurture. If you feel like you’re giving everything 100% but you’re still not heading upwards, give it time.


It apparently takes around 10,000 hours to become successful, but I think that’s a pretty loose definitive depending on what your definition of success is.


4) When you finish education, the talented start to get overtaken by the hardworking.

When we’re growing up, the majority of us will receive a fairly good education, and some brains will develop more quickly than others. Since we’re receiving the same education for the most part, it’s not difficult for talented people to stand out.

They may not be that hardworking, but their talented and with the same number of hours in the class room, they get pretty good results.

Although, when we finish education and get released into the big wide world of work, talent alone won’t make people a success unless there’s hard work accompanied with it. Hardworking people tend to overtake people who are just simply talented if they don’t put in the same amount of hard work.


5) Everybody has the capability of dreaming and achieving, but most people do not attempt to achieve what they dream.

Most people often think that they can happily dream about everything they want in life, but still believe it will never be achievable. And for this reason, some people never even attempt to achieve their dreams.

6) Anything ever worth achieving does not come easy. Hard work is the key to everything.

This is one of my most important life lessons learned in the past couple of years. Nowadays people are led astray so often by the promise of opportunities that give the same results, but are are quicker and easier to achieve.

“Get rich quick”, “20 minute abs”, they have it all.

These are false promises made to reel people in from the attractive guarantees. 90% of the people that purchase these books or programs fail to accomplish what the book promises, and the other 10% are not just relying solely those schemes to get what they want.


7) The majority of situations can be improved, if you’re willing to drop all the excuses you tell yourself first.

We all have excuses for something: “I don’t have time”, or “it’s impossible, it can’t be done”, but pretty much every excuse you tell yourself or hear from someone is not reality.

It’s a way of giving themselves a reason as to why they can’t do something, in order to clear their conscience. If you’re in a situation at the moment and you want it to change for the better, that can happen if you’re willing to drop every excuse you like to tell yourself.


8) Connecting with like-minded people is the quickest way to developing yourself into the person you want to be.

Jim Rohn says you become like the 5 people you hang out with most. The point is that hanging out with like-minded people is the best of developing yourself into the person you want to become, because they’re on the same journey as you and can share their knowledge.

Truly one of my best life lessons learned within the past year. Let go of the negative friends and hang around with like-minded people!


9) Never turn your back on people who have always supported you.

Loyal friends and family that love and support you, should always know how much you appreciate them. Considering that loyal friends are pretty hard to find nowadays, it’s stupid to neglect those that already support you.

10) The first 20 years of your life build the foundation for the rest.

As I briefly pointed out earlier, our lives for the first 20 years are crazy. The rapid growth and self-development we go through during this time is phenomenal, and whichever routes we choose to go down during this time can, more often than not, stick.

Not only because we’re more susceptible to things like peer pressure and other influences, but because our brains develop and adapt at a much quicker rate during this time than they do at adulthood.

The route you decide to take during this period can have a large effect on the rest of your life. How will you build your foundation?


11) To create something your truly proud of takes time. Your vision always has the potential to become reality.

Ever since I was a child, I was obsessed with creativity and design. Patterns, drawing, creating something that just kept on improving; that was what I craved.

To this day, I still look for ways I can create something I’m passionate about, and consistently improve it over time. Then look back at the original creation and realize just how terrible it was.

The point of this, is that your first idea or vision for something big may seem like the best it could ever be, but only time can reveal whether you were right or not. As time progresses, so does your knowledge and your creativity.

Ideas only get better over time.

12) Peer pressure is a test of your will. Strong will is essential for success.

One of the hardest life lessons learned, and hardest thing to overcome growing up, is peer pressure. What with people trying to fit in with others, and just be like everyone else, some find this impossible to avoid.

Back in high school, pretty much every one of my friends started smoking, and I was one of the only ones to not take it up. I would go outside with them whenever they went out for one, but I wouldn’t smoke with them.

I had no desire to instantly become popular by starting something that personally I wouldn’t get anything from.

The nature of this life lesson is that strong will is important for succeeding in life. Because whenever anybody tell you “no, it’s impossible, you should just give up”, and they try to put negative thoughts in your head; your will determines which side you end up on.


13) Anybody who sets out to make a big impact or go against the grain will receive some level of hate.

The thing with trying to have a big impact on the world, is that everybody is different and in a world of free speech, opinions will always be mixed.

The more publicity you start to receive for whatever it may be that you’re trying to accomplish, the more people that will possibly have something bad to say about it. It’s unavoidable. So don’t be afraid to go against the grain, and make a difference in the world.


14) Many people think they have the option to either live and die young or live elderly and die without truly living.

The two options people think they have in life is to either live and die young; meaning do whatever they want before they take up a boring job that they hate. Or to live elderly and die without truly living; meaning they work hard and become successful, but don’t have all the fun experiences they can whilst they’re young.

The options you have are the ones that you create for yourself. The majority of people will probably believe that they have to choose one of the above, but this isn’t the case. You can live your life however you want to live it.

15) Things aren’t just naturally attracted to you. It’s up to you to make the first move.

Naturally, we think that if we work hard and take care of ourselves, opportunities will present themselves. The fact is that opportunities only present themselves if you make the first move.

You should go up to that girl, you should contact that company, you should reach out to people, you should ask for training.

Waiting for opportunities to come to me is not a game I like to play. Number 15 is one the best life lessons learned in my life.

16) Trees can’t be chopped down without persistence. Only after so many hits in the same spot will it be brought down.

One of my favourite sayings that I once heard in an Eric Thomas speech, is that if you hit a tree with an axe a thousand times in a thousand different places, you won’t bring it down. But if you take that axe and you hit that tree a thousand times in the same spot, you’ll bring the tree down.

Persistence is the key to improvement. Whether it’s with a girl who you thinks playing hard to get, a business that can’t quite get off the ground, or a quest for building muscle mass that is going far slower than first expected. Persistence is the key.


17) It’s better to act and be embarrassed for five minutes, than to not act and be embarrassed for the rest of your life.

Back when I was in school, I was afraid of asking questions. I wouldn’t do it in case the question was stupid and people felt compelled to laugh at me.

But since then, I’ve realised that asking those questions would have helped me out a great deal, and it’s better to be embarrassed for 5 minutes and gain that knowledge, rather than never ask and be embarrassed by how little you know in the future.

18) You don’t have to follow the crowd just because it seems sensible.

The general pattern when leaving school is to go on to university or college, but it’s not a must. So many people are leaving uni with the same degrees, that when it comes to getting a job none of them stand out compared to a guy who’s had some incredible real life experience.

You don’t have to follow the crowd just because it seems like the most sensible thing to do. Remember, it’s good to be different.


19) The best form of learning is outside of school.

School education is a general form of learning that has to be applicable for every child. Nothing about it is tailored to what you want to do in life, and it doesn’t give you any in action training.

Going out of your way whilst in education and even after to progress your knowledge in subjects your passionate about, is something you absolutely must do. The education system can only get you so far.


20) Above all, never give up on what you believe is possible.

The last of the life lessons Learned in the past 20 years of my life, is to never give upon what you believe is possible. No matter how much you feel like you’re up against it, if you truly believe it’s possible, you can get it done.


Before you go, do you have any life lessons learned in recent years of your life you’d like to add?

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6 Strategies That Millionaires Use to Guarantee Success

Do you want to be a millionaire?

Sure you do! Who doesn’t?

We know that money can’t buy happiness, but in saying that, money is still useful. Money gives you the ability to continue doing what you love. The work that you are doing on a daily basis should be what you love doing. To be able to continue doing what you love, you need to be able to earn an income from doing it.

This is why I think money is actually really valuable and does have its place in happiness. The key is to earn that income from doing what you love, instead of earning that income stressing yourself out doing something you dislike.

This leads us to our first point below. In this post, I’ve distilled the 6 things that all millionaires do to ensure they succeed.



Millionaires Do What They Love

This is a key attribute of millionaires. You can become a millionaire from doing something you do not like, but you’ll never reach happiness. On the other hand, becoming a millionaire from doing what you love is what it’s all about… your whole journey will be wrapped in happiness.

The thing about doing what you love is that it’s not just a saying that you keep hearing over and over. It actually has a number of benefits.

Doing what you love will enhance your productivity, it will increase your motivation, it will enable you to be more focused and you will be more energised. This then has a flow on effect to all other areas of your life… that energy that you create within yourself will be fed to the world and those with a similar energy will be drawn to you.

I can’t stress it enough, but doing what you love and earning an income from something you are passionate about is fundamental to success, particularly if you want to be a millionaire.



Millionaires Set Goals

I’m surprised that most people do not actually set goals. I know a lot of people will think they have set a goal because they have a rough idea of an outcome in their head, but it’s not really a goal that has been worked through and really thought out. I sometimes continue to do this myself… and it’s pretty obvious when it happens because the goal is never achieved.

All millionaires set goals. They don’t just stumble onto success and their fortune (we’re talking self-made millionaires here). Millionaires have a clear vision for what it is that they want to achieve and how much they want to make.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t been seeing results like you thought you would, perhaps ask yourself whether your goal is really clear, written down and well thought-through.



Millionaires Make Themselves Accountable to Others

Millionaires surround themselves with supportive, engaging and energising people whom can keep them accountable.

Being accountable to others has been proven to be one of the most effective ways of staying on task and continuing to be productive.

Do you notice that when you have something in your diary, perhaps a meeting to attend, a social function to attend or an assignment that is due, that you become much more highly focused, disciplined and productive to ensure you are on time and delivering to your best abilities?

This is because you are accountable to someone else. It’s human nature that we do not want to let someone else down or to embarrass ourselves in anyway, hence why we show up and give it our all.

This is a core reason why I’m about to create a private community to keep each other accountable.

Surround yourself with a great team. Find a group or another person that can hold you accountable to your goals. Your success will be set to skyrocket.




Millionaires Take Massive Action

This is a pretty straight-forward one. Millionaires take action. In fact, millionaires take massive action.

When the above 3 elements are all present (doing what you love, clear vision and goal, being accountable to others) it’s hard not to take massive action.

The key thing is that if you do today what you have always done, then tomorrow you will get what you have always gotten. It’s about taking the steps in a new direction and moving towards your goal.

I really don’t want my articles on The Start of Happiness to become ‘shelf-help’. These articles I provide are to help you take action… so please, stay accountable to me and let me know that you’re going to take action on something that’s important to you.



Millionaires Get Coaching

Similar to staying accountable to others, millionaires get coaching.

Coaching is one of the most effective strategies for anyone looking to rapidly shorten their learning curve and accelerate their results. Millionaires love to learn and they love to test their limits. Coaching can be one of the best tools for helping them to do this.

I know from my own personal experience that the times I have been coached are the times that I have dramatically accelerated my learning and enhanced my results. There’s always a right time for coaching, and that time is always now.



Millionaires Invest in Their Own Education

Education is king when it comes to success in any area of life. Millionaires know this and millionaires realise the importance of investing in their own education to ensure they have the knowledge and capabilities to succeed.

As mentioned above, coaching is a great way of investing in education, however there are other avenues that millionaires also embrace when it comes to education such as books, courses or seminars.

Thinking about your own life, how do you invest in yourself? What (and who) are the sources of information you learn from? What new opportunities might there be to educate yourself and ensure you are successful in your pursuits?


Your Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on the 6 key things that millionaires do to ensure they succeed?

What strategies or behaviours do you think millionaires do to succeed?

What are you currently applying in your life?

Please, leave your comments below… I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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