“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover." –Mark Twain

“My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple. It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently” - Osho

How To Make Lemonade Out Of Lemonade

"It's all good, don't you get it?!"  That's what I told myself earlier today as we were rejected at the Indian Embassy here in Bangkok to get on our flights tomorrow because our visas were not going to get approved before we took off.

Damn.

Bad planning, bad researching, taking visa advice from people who didn't know what's up (similar to myself), and strick visa policies compared to most all other countries.  I thought in two days I would be in the middle of this picture celebrating the most colorful cultural celebration in the world called Holi, which is a Hindu holiday celebrated mostly in northern India.  And for those who know me, it's kind of a big deal.

You see me in the middle of this pic?
Yeah, I sure do.  But that will have to wait for next year

I must admit I feel good about the way I handled it.  Sure I got quite for long periods of time trying to figure a way around because this was the first time I was unable to get into a country when I wanted.  Reeeeeejecccctteeddddd!

You see, for those who know me, when I was much younger I would have freaked out and broke some stuff, but this time, no, no, no.  I spoke to the embassy officer with a patient and understanding voice and pleaded our case all while feeling a sense of inner peace. And then he calmly and peacefully told me I wasn't going to get in the country.  Easy for him to say!

As this was going on I hadn't even thought about the potential of leaving the airport where we were set to have our layover and turning it into another trip.  It was just pretty over as far as I was concerned.  As I pondered my friend Aaron came up with the Malaysia idea and other ideas started to unfold and smooth out on top of that.

BAM!

"Oh, easy for you to make the best out of not going to India and now going to Borneo or somewhere else amazing!"

Sure that's a good point and it did make it easier.  But at the same time I missed something I would have loved to be at and also lost a bunch of money at the same time.

But you see all that really isn't my point.

The point is these things happen to us every single day in one way or another.   The first time I noticed myself handle a situation well was when I was turning left into a parking lot and the guy in front of me wasn't turning left when he had the chance.  FREAK OUT TIME.  Wrong.  I stayed patient and understanding there must be something going on and when I looked left there was a young person crossing the crosswalk.

Dang it feels good to keep your cool when you would have looked like and felt like an IDIOT.  Now that's some real growth.

The lesson for me and how I learned how to make lemonade from lemonade is to just take it easy and accept what IS.  Then you can learn from it.   Do not take a small piece of the day and label it to be such an influence on your attitude for the entire day because it is so small and it may cloud your perception when other great things happen around you.  You see, when you finally lay down in bed at the end of the night, everything turns to lemonade again, which is exactly what it was when the day started.

Now enjoy a glass on me.

One Easy Tip on Being More Creative (Plus a Contest That Expires TONIGHT!)

So I was laying around the other day playing on my phone when the thought shot through my body:

"Quick checking the same stupid websites over and over, man!"  What a waste of time sometimes.  And even though I will not be immune from that, I found a great distraction, to well, a distraction.

I decided recently that I want to learn how to make more things in general so I decided that when I catch myself in that mode of checking the same websites over and over that I go to YouTube and do the following:

Type into the search box, "How to make" and then hit the space bar.  From there the search engine will start populating the rest of the sentence.  Something like, "How to make a cake" or "How to make pancakes" pops up.  If you like the cake option, it looks like you can make up to your girlfriend or wife for being such a dummy (I'm right, huh fellas?).  If you decide against those options, simply hit the space bar and type in a letter, like maybe the letter "g" and something like "How to make ginger ale" will populate.  I did this at home the other day and made some ginger ale for myself and some friends and it was delicious (and really quick, too).  Nothing in the letter "g" is doing it for you?  Choose another letter until you find something fun.

This was a little trick I devised to challenge myself to making more things and also test my creativity.  If I wanted I could have taken the ginger ale recipe and add a couple more ingredients like some herb and lime and make a homemade cocktail or tried something completely different.  Taking the next step just adds to the fun.

How far do you think you could take your creation?

Like the idea?  Learn how to make something new by the end of the day today (midnight tonight) and post the results in my Facebook comments.  Every person who enters by posting their results from their creation will get a handwritten letter in the mail from me from Thailand.

Have fun amigos!

P.S.  Here's the homemade ginger ale recipe in case you were wondering:

I'm 34 and in the Best Shape of my Life and Here's How the "Common Sense Diet" Can Quickly do the Same for You

You can start today and be in the best shape of your life before you know it.  What does it take?  Well, to be honest, a little common sense.  I started myself on what I call the "Common Sense Diet" almost exactly a year ago to the date, and at 34 years old I am in the best shape of my life.

The first MAJOR step that I took happened when I realized I couldn't keep weight off despite working out like crazy, so I told myself:

"STOP DRINKING COKE YOU DUMBASS!"

It has now been a year since I drank Coke.  That might sound like a small feat, but believe me, it is BIG because this is the first time since I was a kid that I can say this.

Two weeks after continuing my normal workout routine and stopping drinking soda, BAM!  All of a sudden I noticed that the hard-to-eliminate fat was slowly disappearing and I felt like I was in better shape than Richard Simmons ever promised in his Sweatin' to the Oldies classics.

Turn it UPPPPPP Richard!

That for me was a major tipping point.  I already had a workout routine that should do the trick, but I wasn't eating--and also in this case--drinking the right things.  Speaking of drinking, the next major breakthrough for me besides a couple little was juicing.  I am honestly not the biggest fan of eating vegetables raw, even when they are drenched in ranch sauce, BUT, when I throw those puppies in a blender, I am completely in LOVE.  I can feel the rush of all the pure vitamins soak in my body with delicious flavors and drench me with positive energy as they wash down.

What do you consume that is similar for you like soda was for me?  Figure it out, yo.  It's probably pretty obvious.

"You are what you eat."

Not a fan of this saying for some reason, but it's true.  There is a reason why all vegetables have such a vibrant color.  The reason being is that if you consume them, you will start to resemble them energetically and take on their shape in general.  You should feel light and have a bright and positive attitude once you are consistent with your consumption.  Now guess how you will feel if you eat a bunch of bacon, beef, pizza and drink soda?  Notice how most of those are dark and heavy?  Yeah, you get it now.  You'll be heavy and carry a lazy and a lower physical energy.

For me it was just tinkering and figuring out another way to consume the vegetables that made me feel good.  Even from there, some juices I didn't like, so I tried others.  F.Y.I.:  beets, carrots, apples, and ginger are an INSANELY good combo.

After tossing this "common sense" thing around for a while, I just happened to come across a podcast that is geared towards the creative entrepreneurs of the world called the Unmistakable Creative and I saw an interview about health the science of health, which isn't a typical topic on the show.  Turns out it was an interview with a neuroscience Ph.D author named Darya Rose who runs the incredible blog called Summer Tomato.  Her story is that she was on every diet in the world for 15 years until she started to put her scientific research into play and get the facts on eating healthy and controlling weight.  Her hypothesis?  It pained her to find out that all diets she spent 15 years trying are completely bogus because you succumb to the eventual burnout of will power.

Instead she recommends taking basic steps of eating healthy and being active. This type of thinking will help you lose weight, but in most cases it happens slowly.  So be PATIENT!

What else did her research find out?  In order to make these adjustments in your eating habits, you change, c'mon now, your HABITS!  I wrote and article months ago about the importance of habits and it feels good a Ph.D author feels the same way about habits and how they relate to your health.

Recap of how habits are formed:

1) There's a cue.  Example:  Billy comes over everyday at work for lunch.
2) There's an ACTION.  Example:  Billy LOVES pizza and you two go to Dominoes every day and CRUSH an extra large pizza.
3) There's a reward.  Example:  You pigged out on a delicious pizza and feel lazy and comfortable.

So what you could do to break this habit is eliminate Billy for meals and set a reward that if you eat a healthy meal that you actually like the taste of, you will buy yourself a little treat.  AND, if you do this for one week, you will buy a plane ticket to see your friend in Los Angeles.  You get the drift.

You see you where I'm going now?  Find triggers to create healthy habits (running shoes next to your bed, for example) and reward yourself for taking healthy action.

How I have used this method

I started a two-minute workout almost everyday about a year and half ago.  I started with 25 push ups and 100 sit-ups in the morning (and maybe even less).  Despite all this talk about patience, I must admit, this made a HUGE difference in just a week or two in my disposition and muscle tone.  Next thing I knew I could 80 straight push ups  and would still usually stick to the 100 sit-ups and go for a run sometimes after that.

Oh, and what was my cue for this workout habit change, you ask?  Whenever I started the shower I knew that if I took the shower I probably wouldn't workout afterwards.  So when I started the shower, I would jump into the next room and knockout the push ups and sit-ups.  Yeah I know this is a waste of water, but it literally takes two minutes and is SUPER healthy for me and I still do it to this day.

The reward:  a chocolate banana bread from down the street most of the time.

This was seriously LIFE CHANGING!

Raise your standards and do something about it.

One thing Darya didn't mention in her interview that I believe is valuable is the standards you set for yourself.  Tony Robbins mentioned this in regards to general lifestyle in an interview I watched recently and it makes all the sense in the world.  When I couldn't stand having those few extra pounds on my stomach to the point where I HAD to do something, my standards increased for myself and action was taken.

You gotta believe, man.

Charles Duhigg wrote in The Power of Habit how much BELIEF plays a factor in habit change.  You won't do it if you don't believe.  Tell yourself you will, stop listening to your stupid roommate who doesn't think you will either, and prove someone wrong today, including yourself.

Summary

In short:

-This isn't rocket science.  You don't have to eliminate ALL bad things, just make sense of it all and be mindful of what you're putting into your body.
-Form better eating habits and start SMALL (throw healthy snacks in your desk so you're not hungry when Billy comes around)
-Form better workout habits and start SMALL (remember, five push ups, or one push up, it doesn't matter just do SOMETHING)
-Raise your standards
-Believe

P.S.  Wanna hear the podcast with Darya?  Listen to the first 25 minutes for health related topics and the rest for business ideas. Here ya go:
http://unmistakablecreative.com/episodes/the-science-of-healthy-eating-with-darya-rose

P.P.S.  I believe in YOU.  Kick some ass today.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I've lost almost 300 games.  26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed.     --Michael Jordan