Steps to Your Most Empowered Self

Steps to Your Most Empowered Self

   March 04, 2018       Hardik Gandhi

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“I think luck falls on not just the brave but also the ones who believe they belong there.” — Novak Djokovic, winner of 12 Grand Slams.

To be brave, means to have courage. To have courage, means to have confidence. And confidence means to have belief in yourself. It’s not those who can get the laws of the universe to bend around them, it’s those who believe, deep down, in the possibility for their lives, in the ultimate possible fate for their life which seems so close and clear in their heart.

So how do you get there? To see so clearly the ultimate possibility of your life when you live in courage and not fear?

You get there by empowering your authentic self.

By getting to know who and what you are, what beliefs come from your heart, and what beliefs you inherited, were taught, or created to protect yourself from being uncomfortable. And to do that, we need a mediator. One who can hear our story, reflect back to us what we say and what we believe so we can view our own mental stories outside our heads and through someone else’s eyes.

It’s only then that you can begin to feel the difference between what is true in your heart, in your most divine expression of who you are, versus who you try to become for approval, acceptance and love. You get distance from the stories and they become less powerful, so the weight over your heart can be lifted and you can begin to let out the truth it has to tell.

And, we are so scared of our best selves. It’s like, why even dig deeper, we aren’t even sure if we’ll actually follow the directive of what we discover.

It’s overwhelming. It’s work. It’s memories and fears… revisited. So, we turn away, close the browser and never start. We continue on, as is, living in a fog telling ourselves we’re found.

And whatever you decide, you will live that fate. You will live the fate you believe belongs to you.

If you decide to open the box, lift the weight, do the digging, you’ll find a whole new world opens up. You’ll find joy, light, hope, peace, aspiration and inspiration to become your best self. You’ll get a glimpse behind the curtain to the ultimate possibility of your life.

It feels so good to live in truth. To feel at home in who and what you are. To arrive at a deep knowing of your authentic self and why you’re here — your service in this lifetime — and when you follow this, to inspire others to do the same.

You begin to change the world as we know it. You step into something bigger, something meant to be, and you unlock the keys to your ultimate potential… and all of humanity’s.

A switch is flipped. The journey to your best life begins, and the tape on repeat finally stops. All energy forcing that tape to play over and over, to hide what your heart knew, now goes toward your growth, your expansion and your arrival as your authentic self.

Nothing is easy. This isn’t either. But it’s so fucking freeing. You show up in the world feeling grounded and bound to your future by your truth. It’s like any struggle comes with a promise for better. Whereas the struggle when you’re just stuck in your small self ends in more small-self living.

One bad day, one bad week, doesn’t sway you. You know it is part of the journey, and you know what lies on the other side.

I’ve found a simple way to start down the path, and there are three steps. I call it The Empowerment Formula. And it isn’t complex. And I’ve come to believe that if you can simply say yes to starting, to the possibility that’s on the other end, then you can absolutely change your life for the better. No matter what life situation you are in now.

And the best part, following this formula gives you clarity in everything you do and helps you course-correct with conviction. Yes! You can finally take Mom off speed-dial. We’ve got you.

Now, I despise any sort of quick-fix promise. This isn’t that. This is a promise of simplicity. What it takes to live with clarity, purpose and fulfillment isn’t complicated, but getting to the yes — and then getting to the heart of what is deep-down you — sometimes can be. And, in my opinion, it’s not a journey to be taken alone. It’s one that requires some outside eyes to reflect that which we don’t see. Coaches being the best partner, an unbiased third party, trained to guide you through the process gently and not let any shortcuts compromise the truth-finding experience.

So here it is, the three-part formula for living your best life:

• Deeply know who you are: Core Values
• Understand why you’re here: Mission and Purpose
• Become self-aware of what’s holding you back: Find a Way Through Your Shit

Ta-da! That’s it. No, really, once you know what you need in your life to feel happy and fulfilled (core values) and get a deeper sense of what you want to create with your life (your mission and purpose for being), a plan, a vision, an outlook forms in your head. Your world begins to open up to what your life can be… and then when the doubt, fear, and disbelief start to fog your best-life vision — and for some of us this happens in seconds so we barely get to bask in the glory that is our ideal life vision — you work on the limiting beliefs, the why not, or why me? It’s like the moment you get to see your dream in front of you, your fearful self kicks in the fog, so you keep your eyes behind the curtain. And that’s when the coach is at their best, when they remind you of what you believe as your authentic, truthful self. They help you empower yourself through reflection, juxtaposition, mirroring. And soon enough, you’ll begin doing it for yourself. You’ll learn how to be your own coach — the greatest gift you can give yourself is the lifelong mental framework taught by a great coach.

But often the hardest part is becoming the person who believes you deserve it. The part when you must find a way through the shit that holds you back. It doesn’t go away, but what you can do, within weeks, is identify a way THROUGH it. As Collective Gain coach Kim Rowe says, “All we need to get through a great big pile of limiting-belief shit is one little door, one belief that we can hold on to that will carry us through to the other side.”

And then, when you find your way through, when you disembark from your own limiting self and step into your “I got this and ain’t no one gonna stop me now” self, you have something to hold on to. You have the lifeline that leads you out the cave: 1) the reassurance that there is a way out, 2) a map to where you’re headed and 3) the confidence in knowing that that line will lead you there, period, you just need to follow it.

Okay, so now what. You get it. You want to give it a go… Here comes the call to action. Why? Because our mission is to help people become their best self, and to do that, requires their participation.

At Collective Gain you can work 1:1 with a coach in your own 12-week intensive program that starts with who you are and ends with why you’re here… it’s the best way to uncover your truth. And it’s how I originally did it — to find my own truth. Go here to get matched with the right coach for you. We offer flat-rate introductory pricing to get you started.

Those located in or near Los Angeles (and those who can travel here) can join us for a one-day intensive workshop. On March 18, I will be hosting a one-day #LIVEYOURTRUTH Empowerment Event where you can experience the awakening of your own truth. We will do work on core values, mission/purpose and shifting your shit to find your doorway through. You will also get 1:1 and group support with some of LA’s most referred coaches — meet them, pick their brains.

Just don’t try this all on your own. Just like you can’t see your own ass, you can’t see all the shit and limiting beliefs that are keeping your dream far, far off… your lifeline buried. Begin with human-to-human support — it doesn’t feel intense, it feels liberating. To be heard, to see and discover together, what truth lies within. Coaches have the best jobs.

And if you want to still be an observer, that’s ok too. You can get content, tips and first access to events via our email newsletter or follow me here for the occasional Collective Gain company update.

It feels so good to deeply know who you are and to believe in the realization of your best self. It’s not something to be feared, it’s something to be embraced. And we’re here to help you, now, or when you’re ready.

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7 Questions to Bring Out the Best in People

7 Questions to Bring Out the Best in People

   March 03, 2018       Hardik Gandhi

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Based on 75-year-old Psychology Advice.

How much of yourself did you leave in the trunk of your car today?

A coworker retired this month. In his life, he started a charity, worked with under-privileged kids, wrote a novel, and raised a beautiful family.

That’s what he did outside of work. At work? He processed forms.

He led a great life. And he was a great man. Yet every day, he drove to work, and left that great part of himself in the trunk of his car.

So he could process forms.

This isn’t a unique story. People are amazing. They do tremendous things.

Talk to the people around you. They’re artists and poets. They’re coaches and leaders. They’re social workers and political advocates and lifelong learners.

They’re all these things and more. On their free time.

At work? At work, they process forms. They follow procedures. And they do what’s asked of them.

Except what’s asked of them isn’t that impressive. Not compared to what they’re capable of.

How do we change this? How do we encourage people to be their best selves at work?

How do we, to paraphrase Harry Davis of the University of Chicago, “make it so people don’t leave parts of themselves in the trunk of their car?”

And I think that maybe the answer lies in a 75 year-old psychology paper.

A Psychological Turning Point

Prior to 1943, the study of psychology focused on the mentally ill. It prioritized avoidance and correction.

In 1943, the practice changed. One psychologist issued a paper called A Theory of Human Motivation and forever altered psychology’s path. Instead of studying the mentally ill, he reviewed top performers. Instead of correcting problems, he offered opportunities for improvements.

He changed psychology from treating people as a “bag of symptoms” to focus on people’s potential for good, famously saying, “The new age which is already upon us is essentially the product of the turning inward to the self.”

The psychologist was Abraham Maslow. And he developed the famed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Often shown as a pyramid, it suggests people have multiple levels of needs, with higher level needs (self esteem and self-actualization) only becoming a priority after basic needs (safety and security) are met.

Maslow considered the lower levels of the pyramid to be “deficiency needs” as we’re typically motivated by their absence. Once gained to a sufficient level, their motivational power drops. And as we all know, once you have $45 million in the bank, going up to $46 million doesn’t bring a lot of added incentive.

In contrast, the top level, self-actualization, is a “growth need.” When we’re pursuing something for the sake of mastery, each gain fuels the desire for more. Each achievement brings more motivation as we strive to reach our full potential.

Which also drives people to do the amazing things they do.

The Traditional Bargain

“Our world no longer fairly compensates people who are cogs in a giant machine.” — Seth Godin, Linchpin

Most companies offer a bargain. They say, come here and follow our instructions. Do as we tell you. In return, we’ll take care of you.

We’ll give you money. We’ll give you security. We’ll even host company events so you can make friends.

And it’s safe. If you’re following our process, you’re not really risking yourself. Come take the safe deal. It comes with your very own cubicle.

It’s enticing. Well, maybe not the cubicle part. But the safety, the security, the belonging. Those are seductive. It’s difficult to look past those.

That’s why companies focus on them. And that’s also why the majority of people are disengaged at work. And why they leave so much of themselves in the trunk of their car.

Aim for the Higher Level

Where does your company focus? What bargains does it offer?

Are you only offering those lower level needs?

Make no mistake, people need fair, competitive wages. While a lot of people will tell you that money won’t make you happy, those people always seem to have enough.

People need stability. No one likes working under constant threat of layoff.

And people need belonging. As most people who work at conservative news programs know, it’s difficult to be happy working besides people you can’t respect.

These needs are important. They cannot be ignored.

But they are not enough. Not if we want people to bring their best selves to work.

As psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote, “If we design workplaces that permit people to find meaning in their work, we will be designing a human nature that values work.”

Lower level needs are the entrance fee. They’re the starting point. They need to be covered. But they’re not enough to motivate people to consistently bring their best selves to work.

Live the Questions

So how do we bring self-actualization into our jobs? How do we bring these amazing things out of people?

I don’t have the answers. And any that I offered would be too generic to apply to your specific situation.

But I do have questions. Questions that I’ve often asked other companies regarding this same issue. So ask yourself a couple. Or ask your own. And maybe they’ll help lead you to those answers.

Does anyone really care about your mission?

Most employees don’t care about shareholder benefits. Or company returns or any other fancy financial data. People want to understand that their work is contributing toward a greater benefit. One that they’re proud to be a part of.

What are you doing to make people feel proud of their contribution? If you’re asking people to give their all, what do you expect them to give their all for?

Or as Simon Sinek wrote, “If the leader of the organization can’t clearly articulate WHY the organization exists in terms beyond its products or services, then how does he expect the employees to know WHY to come to work?”

Can you connect peoples’ short-term goals to their long-term goals?

Everyone’s happy to help with the short-term goals. Short-term goals support the company’s needs. Write this report. Ship this product. Turn this crank.

And most companies do encourage people to have long-term goals. They’re happy to ask employees where they want to be in five years. But few companies actively plan to make sure those short-term actions contribute towards peoples’ long-term goals. To ensure today’s assignment will benefit that five year vision.

Employees know when a company invests in their development. They appreciate the support. But more importantly, they’re able to let that growth compound. As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, through his work on Flow, described,

“When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. And once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again. This is the way the self grows.”

How frequently do you give people the opportunity to truly contribute?

Meaning comes from constant pursuit. It’s the focus of consistently building on yesterday’s progress that drives fulfillment and brings out our best efforts.

The great Lou Holtz once said “If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” Are you giving people the opportunity to do something big today?

Or as Bruce Lee wrote in his unfinished work, In My Own Process,

“The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task that taxes all of the individual’s power and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day.”

What problems do you trust people to solve?

Go to a grocery store. Bring an expired coupon. If a cashier refuses to accept it, complain to a manager. The manager then accepts it.

Most grocery stores instruct their cashiers not to accept expired coupons. But managers are instructed to honor them if people complain. Can you imagine a better way to show people that you they’re not trusted?

You hire people to be responsible. Let them be responsible. In the words of John J. Bernet, “Men are more important than tools. If you don’t believe so, put a good tool in the hands of a poor workman.”

How do you encourage employees to bring out their best ideas?

Standardization often gets a bad rap. We think of mindless factory workers soon to be replaced by machines. But standardization is also a benefit. It gives people guidance so they can reliably start from the best position.

The difference in mindless standardization and meaningful work is whether we’re empowering people to contribute their own ideas. Empowerment helps people contribute in their own unique way. When people are able to contribute their own unique value, they feel uniquely valued. Are we giving people that opportunity?

In the encouraging words of David Mamet, “Do not internalize the industrial model. You are not one of the myriad of interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if you’ve got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you’re learning to say it better.”

How do you encourage people to practice excellence daily?

One of my favorite parts of Disney World — other than the fact that everyone has to be nice to me — is that every detail is always covered. You’re left with little doubt that excellence is a daily practice.

In our love of simplicity, too often we sacrifice the depth that’s necessary to encourage excellence. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, “I would not give a fig for simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

Until we give people the opportunity to embrace excellence, simplicity is just a short-cut. And few people find meaning in short-cuts.

How do you encourage people to grow?

Are you asking enough of your people?

There’s a limit to the shear quantity of workload that people can support. I’m not suggesting you load people up until they have a mental breakdown.

But are you limiting your expectations to mere productivity? Are you only asking people to come in and punch the clock? Or are you challenging their ability to make that unique contribution?

As Michelangelo famously warned, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

The same logic applies to our expectations of others. We do them no favors by asking too little of them. We don’t build meaning by setting a low bar.

In the words of Kara Swisher, “Smart people like to be challenged and they like smart people challenging them.”

You’re smart. Challenge people. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Build Meaning. Start Now. Don’t Look Back.

“Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I could tell you that the world is changing. That there will be a time in the near future when companies that can’t bring out the best from every employee will lose their competitive edge and no longer be tenable. But you’ve likely already heard that. And I don’t really know if it’s true.

So instead I’ll just ask, what type of company do you want to be a part of? One where people bring their best selves through the door? Or one where they leave that part in the trunk of their car?

There’s plenty of opportunity for the latter. We just need to get started.

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Be Selfish, For Others

Be Selfish, For Others

   February 26, 2018       Rajni parmar

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Build It & Let It Break

Selfishness is not the enemy we make it out to be, more of a misinterpreted / misapplied concept that we just projected upon the world from a lifetime of romantic stories about the hero putting others first. Truth be told, if you truly are going to emphasis the greater good, serve others to your full potential and really live that life you need to put yourself first, for them.

The creators, thinkers and artisans of the world are selfish, in their obsessive focus one creating original work for or from no purpose but their own, incredible gifts to the world. Nature and evolution are fundamentally selfish, survival of the fittest and complete disregard for the persistence of species.

But what does it really mean to be selfish?

It means that you care. You care so much about what your doing, creating and shaping that you couldn’t bare to see yourself operate from anything less than an optimal capacity.

It means that your first priority is your energy and well-being, as an exponential multiplier of effects to others; that you consider your mind, body and soul as a distribution system for good, as a platform of positive energy production to create, inspire and impact for good. And that you live this every day honestly and authentically with a sense of virtue. Selfishness is INTENSE!

If you intend to do that, to follow through to your fullest potential, you need to operate from an optimal state, to best give all you have to offer. If you’re tired, undernourished and inactive you’re doing everyone a disservice by limiting your potential, presence, engagement and energy.

It’s great to feel busy, to feel needed, to get things done but that’s not a long term strategy, you’re going to burn out or be operating in less than optimal state and missing out on opportunity. You need regular sleep, recovery, alone time, nutrition, exercise, social contact and to put yourself and your well-being first in all these areas if you are to live up to our potential to help, serve and develop your gifts.

Serve yourself, so you can serve others.

Let It Break

Many a word hath been studied and spread emphasizing the utter failures and borderline uselessness of “goals” when compared the design and implementation of systems.

Goals are positions. Comfortable images we’ve created of future and past. We get so attached to these never-ending dreams of tomorrow, of what could be and what could have been. Goals drive and support our lust and seemingly obsessive cumplusion to collect, consume and feel emotional entitled to a sense of ownership. But I must digress…

Systems form habits, impact behavior, require continuous monitoring and active engagement. They deliver results and lead to outcomes we might not have previously been aware of. I’ve left some examples in the comments section for your delight. For now, here’s a system to think about…

Let It Break.

That’s it. Apply it to everything. Challenge integrity and purpose. Trust in natures selective survival and the strength and robustness of what we care about.

Curiously experiment and question everything. Remove the protective blanket and let your / our creations crumble as they may. Uncover it’s true strength, integrity and limitations. To find and stretch the threshold. Live, learn and evolve rather than just relying on luck and wishful thinking.

Seems a bit ridiculous. Well, how about assumptions without testing? Or pointing at imaginary future points based on past experiences and assuming their causality and purpose with little more than an intuitive feeling? We can do better, for ourselves and others. By setting the intention to design systems that not only survive but thrive when challenged. So when we let them break, they survive and even grow.

This is the posture of cultivating mental strength, resilience and robustness to the limitations of our knowledge systems and cultural constructs. Of learning to love the process and regularly expose ourselves to forces of change. To challenge assumptions and remove / adjust those that influence integrity.

So, forget goals. Let it be. Let it break. Design systems for the best things in life to not only survive but thrive; in service of ourselves and others.

More…

Oh, you’d like some examples. Sure, what do I have to lose…

“This year, I’m going to: lose twenty pounds, be happier, get smarter. How? By eating healthier and exercising. By enjoying the little things more, reading and listing to more intellectual things.”

Sure. Sounds great. But lacks anything of substance, sustainability or commitment.

Instead of goals, think systems. “I’m only going to buy fresh produce. I’m going to pay cash for anything with refined sugars, additives or preservative. That means two bills and hard bills. Annoying. And afterward, I’m going to think or write down who I feel about that 30-min later.”

“I’m going commit to exercise twice a week. Every time I miss, I’m going to give a stranger five-bucks. Maybe twenty if you really want to make a difference. And on days I don’t go, I’m going to walk 20-min or even park a couple blocks away from work for the walk.”

“I’m going to get 8-hours of sleep every other night, remove all screens from my bedroom and purposely leave a book or notepad on my night stand. I’m going to smile or laugh every time I see a mirror or walk under a doorway. It’s ridiculous but it works.

“I’m going talk or engage with someone every day and ask at least one question I already know the answer to as if I didn’t, just so I can get a better understand of how others see it.”

“I’m going to sign up and pre-pay for a random class or course or turn my notifications off and only answer emails at certain times of the day. Instead of news, blogs and social networks I’m going to read one long-form article or scholarly journal a week. Maybe even write something meaningful or make an effort to call or engage with someone I normally wouldn’t.”

“I’m going to read 10 pages every morning or evening before bed. I’m going to write four meaningful sentences or questions I’m pondering a day.”

These are pieces of systems. These actually might work. It’s up to you and the end of the day but making it easier and more automatic helps. And if they don’t, you’ll understand why and can adjust, iterate and make incremental changes in the general direction you seek to go.

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Junk Thoughts

“I’d rather be a motivated loser than a complacent winner. Losers learn, create action plans, make decision, adjust, chase. Winners just win, so boring.”

BEAUTY IN IGNORANCE

Suicide is unique to human beings. No other species harms themselves. Cows, live a perfectly still life, never a remote attempt to end life or any noticeable suffering they desire to end… what’s wrong with the human mind? For all our intelligence, it seems we can’t understand the beauty in ignorance.

THOUGHTS IN THE WIND

A thought is no different from a gust of wind or ripple in the water, it’s there, it intensifies and it leaves. Quite fascinating more in the behavior than of some arbitrary meaning that fits a character and story that we’re attaching it to or reaching to attach it do.”Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away.”

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Front page news exists because of the existence of a front page. There is a space, place and need for it, that we’ve created. Just as there are headlines because we created them, the need for them and expectation of them. Much of what we see is an outgrowth or remanence of what we wanted, created or had (all past tense) not what we actually seek and desire — that space has yet to be created and that’s what we are chasing, curious of and creating for.

FROM GARY V.

Learning “macro-patience” means playing the long game with macro goals and understanding that it will take decades to reach it. And along the way, you need to be fast, fail, learn, experience as much as possible while staying focused yet patient on your macro goals or pursuits. And really “pursuit” is the word, not goal, goal is arbitrary, you need to fall in the love with the process, by the results. Surrounding yourself with things and people you love doing and being around makes everything better and easier to achieve, because you enjoy it that much more.

THE MEANING OF LIFE

It seems the only time we ask or desire the answer to which is when we are ourselves feeling un-whole or nearing the end and from what I’ve studied of those in these situations meaning itself is relative and derived from quality of our relationships and connections to others and our environment that we’ve amassed over our time. Thus, meaning or purpose is to create meaning by enjoying the experience of relationships and connectedness. Have fun, and do it with others.

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You Make Or Break Your Life Between 5-7 AM

You Make Or Break Your Life Between 5-7 AM

   February 18, 2018       Hardik Gandhi

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While serving a humanitarian and ecclesiastical mission at the age of 20, I learned potentially the most important lesson of my life.

How you spend your morning determines your success in life.

How you spend your morning determines who you will become.

How you spend your morning determines whether you become world-class at something, or remain merely average.

How you spend your morning is the difference between making tens of millions of dollars and making less than 100 grand.

How you spend your morning determines how well you:

• think
• strategize
• prioritize
• spend your time
• choose your friends
• choose your lover
• choose your career
• perform in your work
• influence the world

I didn’t understand how important my morning was at the beginning of my mission. But it quickly became very apparent.

As a missionary, the first several hours of the day are dedicated to getting ready, studying, and planning.

After a few months in “the mission field,” I noticed that most missionaries dragged themselves out of bed, and dragged themselves through their studies.

My experience was different. For the first time in my life, I experienced the power of learning. I felt the nourishment of feeding my mind and soul. To quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.:

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

I started waking up earlier than prescribed to read more and more. Rather than reading one hour each morning as recommended, I was reading three or four.

Within six months, it became apparent that my thinking and teaching abilities were accelerating at rocket speed. I began to stand out as a missionary.

The following quote by Jeffrey Holland became crystal clear to me:

“I frequently say to missionaries in the field, ‘You make or break your mission every morning of your life. You tell me how those morning hours go until you are on the street in your mission, whatever time it is; you tell me how those hours go, and I will tell you how your day will go, I will tell you how your month will go, I will tell you how your year will go and how your mission and your life will go.’”

You Make Or Break Your Life Between 5 and 7 AM

“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.” — Richard Whately

If you lose an hour in your morning, you’ll spend your whole day looking for it.

If you spend your day looking for the most important time you’ve lost, you’ll be spending your whole life on a lower-level path than you could have had.

If you don’t prioritize and maximize your morning hours, you’ll always be left wondering what your life could have been.

You’ll never know what you could have had.

You’ll never watch yourself accelerate and advance at rates that are possible, but seem impossible.

You’ll always settle for less in your choices, relationships, eating, environment, income, and life.

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Given the fact that most people reading this article operate on a 9–5ish schedule, the hours before 9AM are significant.

Moreover, many people reading this article have kids and other responsibilities that are immediately pressing upon them, usually around 7AM.

If you start your day at 7AM, you’ve already lost the most important hours of your day. You’ve already lost your chance to radically separate yourself — intellectually, emotionally, spiritually — from the masses.

When you upgrade yourself intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, you’re enabled to see the world from a more elevated plane. You’re empowered to deal with the difficult and challenging emotions required for growth and evolution. You quickly learn how to work with people, solve problems, and create an amazing lifestyle where you’re making great money.

What Do You Do Between 5 and 7 AM?

If you could give yourself two hours, every morning, solely dedicated to learning, thinking, planning, meditating, praying, and writing in your journal, your life would change.

These are the best things you could do with your morning time.

How a person spends the hours of 5 to 7 AM are a pretty clear indicator of how successful they’ll be. Is this always the case? Of course not. Are there certain circumstances, such as people who work night shifts, when these exact hours don’t apply? Sure.

But for most people, the hours of 5 to 7AM make or break their entire life.

How do you spend the hours of 5 to 7?

Do you spend half of that time sleeping?

Do you sleep the entire duration?

Do you spend that time working out?

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How you start something is very important. Prevention is far better than rehabilitation. Starting right is much easier than correcting course.

Consequently, how you start your day is extremely important. It is indeed possible to correct your course mid-way through the day, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t often happen. Momentum — good or bad — is hard to reverse.

Waking up at 5AM isn’t enough, then, if you wake up at that time and you start yourself down a non-optimal path.

First things should come first.

Some things are good, other things are better, and other things are best.

Given that your morning hours are your most important, you shouldn’t dedicate those golden hours to activities which are merely “good.” As Jim Collins has said, “Good is the enemy of great.” Similarly, Dallin Oaks has said, “We should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best.”

Every person has 24 hours per day.

However, what each person does with those 24 hours determines who they become and what they do.

How you spend your 24 hours is the difference between making tens of millions of dollars and living paycheck to paycheck.

How you spend your 24 hours is the difference between being happy and being miserable.

There are endless choices you could make. Endless activities you could engage in. Endless people you could surround yourself with. Endless goals you could pursue.

John Maxwell has written, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”

Most choices are bad choices.

Most activities are unimportant.

There are a lot of things which are “good.” But those activities should NOT come first thing in the morning.

Research confirms the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is most active and readily creative immediately following sleep. Your mind is clearest in the morning. Your energy is highest.

A lot of people wake up first thing and head to the gym. This is certainly a good activity — it will wake you up and get you moving.

But fitness is not the most optimal thing you could do in the morning. Research confirms that you workout better with food in your system. Your workouts will be far more productive and powerful if you do them in the late morning or early afternoon, as opposed to first thing in the morning. Lunch-break work out.

If you’ve already accomplished more in your morning than most people do in a month, you’ll be SO PUMPED to workout. You’ll push yourself so much harder. You’ll feel so much more fulfilled. You’ll feel so good it will feel like beating the system — which is actually what you’re doing when you live on your own terms.

Your workout should be a mental break — a way to break up your day. The physical and mental can push each other upward. Once you workout, you give your mind a rest and allow your subconscious to synthesize and organize all the work you’ve done throughout your morning.

Indeed, stepping away after several hours of hard thinking is where you’ll get your best insights. Don’t waste those epic insights by working out first thing in the morning! Instead, workout during the afternoon and get even more insights WHILE YOU’RE working out as a byproduct of the thinking and mental work you’ve done that morning.

Another benefit of working out later in the day is that it does energize you — and thus you can add a couple extra hours of good mental energy that you won’t get if you exercise first thing in the morning.

So What Should You Do First Thing In The Morning?

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want to quickly set yourself apart in life, you should make it your first priority to read lots of really good books. If you spend 1–2 hours per morning reading, you’d read 50–100 books per year. Do this for 5–10 years, and as they say, you’ll become an “overnight success.”

In our incredible age of information and technology, it’s never been easier to access information. Of course, it’s also never been more distracting.

There are many REALLY REALLY good books. There are also MILLIONS of books that aren’t that great.

The quality of books you read matters. To quote Ryan Holiday, “If you read what everyone else reads, you’ll think like everyone else thinks.”

Some books are classics for a reason.

Some books have shaped culture for a reason.

Some books are continually recommended by people who have achieved wealth and success for a reason.

And when you start really reading, you’ll be guided by the books themselves. The right books will pop-up and stir your heart. You’ll intuitively know — I need to read that book, which will then lead you to the next book and the next.

You’ll begin making important connections that other people haven’t made.

You’ll be able to shape culture yourself.

You’ll be able to make influential change — first in your own life, then in your family, then in your circle of friends, then in your work and community, and eventually, you’ll be able to influence and shape the whole world.

Reading isn’t enough though.

You need to spend plenty of time thinking, meditating, praying if so inclined, and writing in your journal.

Rather than just reading for 1–2 hours straight, it’s good to shift between reading, thinking, and writing down your insights. Listening to audiobooks makes this process even easier.

While either listening or reading, it’s good to allow spaces of time to really think about what you’re learning, and to measure what you’re learning against your current worldview, priorities, and goals.

Hopefully, if you’re open to learning, you’ll allow what you’re reading to alter and enhance your current mental model. You’ll allow your learning to hone and improve your current priorities, goals, choices, and daily behaviors.

Thus, while you’re learning, it’s good to ponder and think about the goals you’re currently pursuing. Writing your goals down in the morning, and emotionally visualizing their completion is powerful. It’s awe-inspiring and humbling to read old journal entries and realize that many of your former goals have since been attained and accomplished.

While listening to or reading powerful information — your mind will be primed to get lots of really good ideas. Especially if you’ve developed skills in meditation, thinking, and prayer.

While listening/reading, you’ll get lots of REALLY GOOD ideas about how you can better accomplish your goals. Ideas will come to your mind about how you can better help the people in your network accomplish their goals.

You’ll want to immediately act on these ideas. The longer you hesitate, the more likely you will be to forget about your key insight. The longer you wait, the less power your idea will have.

When a brilliant idea sparks, start writing. Don’t just put it on the back-burner. Follow the idea and see where it takes you.

It’s usually the idea after the idea that really matters. But most people take their ideas for granted, or they just continue their reading.

No.

When you get a core insight, pause and reflect. Pull out your journal and begin connecting that idea with your most pressing goals and priorities and relationships. Quickly, another connection will be made. A deeper insight will present itself. Eventually, you’ll stumble upon something very practical. Something you’ll need to act on immediately.

That “something” may be a conversation you need to have. It may be an article you need to write that morning. It may be something you can do for someone to dramatically move the needle.

You need THAT insight. The one that leads to immediate action and makes immediate impact on what you’re trying to do.

This is how you make quantum leaps, day-by-day, in your progression. When you’re getting powerful insights that improve how you live, your life changes. That’s why learning every day is so important.

If you read good books every morning, visualize and strategize your goals, and write your insights in your journal, you’ll have an amazing life.

You’ll become a highly creative person.

You’ll be a brilliant decision maker and strategist.

You’ll become financially successful.

You’ll learn from your mistakes, and not continue the same unhealthy patterns.

You’ll elevate yourself while most people continue small lives of regret.

What do you do between the hours of 5–7AM?

Join The 5AM Club!

If you haven’t yet joined the 5AM club, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s the equivalent of me telling you how good a certain chocolate cake is. You can only really know if you taste the cake yourself.

You won’t know how motivating, clarifying, and empowering it is until you experience it yourself. Your identity and personality are shaped by your behavior. Change your choices, change your life.

Will waking up early sometimes suck?

Absolutely.

But if it doesn’t suck, it’s not worth doing. Robert Greene explains in his book, Mastery, that you can learn to love this internal resistance. In his words, “You find a kind of perverse pleasure in moving past the pain this might bring.”

And if you immediately put yourself in a different environment- the fog and tiredness will go away within 5 minutes.

Drink a huge cup of water and go somewhere you can be alone. Throw your shoes on. Wake yourself up and deal with the few moments of pain in order to unlock a life most people could never imagine.

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Becoming, Attracting And Creating, According to Buddha

Becoming, Attracting And Creating, According to Buddha

   February 15, 2018       Hardik Gandhi

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Buddha needs no introduction. He’s the main figure of one of the most practiced religion in the world. Everyone has at least heard of him.

But I’m going to say that right away: this is NOT a post about religion. I do not pretend to understand buddhism, or any other religion for that matter.

I simply believe that inspiration can be found anywhere, wether it’s your environment, your friends, your family, your experiences, your beliefs, etc. It doesn’t matter. There are good lessons to learn from everywhere.

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“What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.” — Buddha

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What you think, you become

What do you think of yourself?

Do you act according to this belief?

How did you get there?

Work backwards in your thinking. Start from where you are now, and rewind a year. Did you become what you thought?

I’m quite different from what I was 6 months ago. I had good ideas of what I wanted to become. At least on a broad scale.

I have become it, and a little more.

BUT!

Thinking without action doesn’t make you become. Neither does acting without thinking.

As I wrote in You Are, Or Will Become What You Do:

Most of us want to be more than what we currently are. Yet we do nothing to make it happen.

Plan your days, at least one day in advance (Think). Be precise with time. Execute consistently (Do).

Before you know it, you’ll have become the things you have been thinking and doing.

What you feel, you attract

We are SO emotionally influenced by our surroundings.

Everyone is happy at a party.

Everyone is sad at a funeral.

If you’re negative, you’ll attract negativity. If you’re positive, you’ll attract positivity.

I’m a positive guy. Especially outwardly. The truth is, I fake it sometimes. And it’s a hack I propose to you.

When something negative happens to you, force yourself to think positively, however hard that may be. Your brain will need convincing. Act it out long enough and you’ll convince it.

Here’s a quote I really like from Conor McGregor:

“At the end of the day, you’ve gotta feel some way. So why not feel unbeatable? Why not feel untouchable?” — Conor McGregor

When I feel unstoppable, people around me catch my vibe.

I un-intentionally started a fitness group at the co-working space I worked from. I just wanted to be more fit, so I thought, and acted. I started doing push-ups.

People laughed. People judged. People got curious. People joined.

I started a movement, simply because I felt I was unstoppable at fitness.

What you imagine, you create

Reflexion is an incredibly powerful tool to motivate you to act and create whatever it is you want to create.

In our busy day-to-day routine, we rarely take the time to reflect. Reflect on ourselves, reflect on our day, reflect on our environment, reflect on our future.

We don’t take the time to let our imagination run wild through reflexion, or deep thinking.

Lately, I’ve picked up Meditation and Journaling as some of the 3 skills I learn every month.

My mind has never been so clear. With the fog gone, I am free to imagine anything.

By doing this consciously, I can write all my ideas that pass by. Good or bad. Sometimes, from bad ideas stem great ideas. It’s a process.

Let your imagination run wild. There are no boundaries. No impossible.

If you let yourself think something is impossible, it will be.

If you let yourself imagine the path to success, you will create that path.

Conclusion

Become: Thinking without action doesn’t make you become. Neither does acting without thinking.

Attract: If you’re negative, you’ll attract negativity. If you’re positive, you’ll attract positivity.

Create: If you let yourself think something is impossible, it will be.

Think and Become. Feel and Attract. Imagine and Create.

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How to Write Compelling Articles That Get Read and Shared

How to Write Compelling Articles That Get Read and Shared

   February 06, 2018       Hardik Gandhi

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Photo by Burst

5 steps I’ve followed to craft trending Medium articles

Recently, I was talking to a friend who was feeling disappointed with her blog posts. She’d publish a post, and all she’d hear were crickets. Even after promoting her posts, hardly anyone was commenting or sharing her articles.

Most of us writers know what that feels like.

When I began my blog a few years ago, I set out to write blog posts that would inspire and help fellow writers. But after spending days crafting a post, I would only receive a handful of comments.

Many of those comments were positive, though, and they encouraged me to keep going. Still, I felt a little discouraged. I wanted my posts to reach more readers.

After a while, it occurred to me that maybe the problem wasn’t with my content but with the way I was presenting it. So I decided to study the rules of copywriting and read every article I could get my hands on about how to write powerful blog posts.

As I started implementing what I was learning, my posts began receiving more and more comments and shares (one even went viral on StumbleUpon). I republished my posts on Medium, and many have become trending articles in numerous publications. And my email list grew from 200 to over 2,000 subscribers in just a year.

In this post, I’m boiling down into five steps everything I’ve learned about writing articles for the web.

Please note: This isn’t a guide to writing viral posts. Rather, this is a guide to writing compelling articles that will resonate with your readers and add value to their lives.

1. Craft a Strong Headline

Imagine you’re browsing through the newly released books at a bookstore. You don’t have enough time to stop to look at every single book. Most likely, you’ll only pick up a book if it has an intriguing title and cover design.

The same is true of blog posts. People’s social media feeds are flooded with a constant stream of articles and online content. In order to make yours stand out, you have to have an attention-grabbing headline: something that offers value to the reader in exchange for their time.

David Ogilvy, known as The Father of Advertising, is said to have stated,

“The headlines that work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.”

A benefit could be anything from entertaining someone to teaching someone to inspiring someone to helping someone solve a problem.

Take for example my top three posts from 2016:

• How to Keep a Writing Notebook: A Peek into the Notebooks of Famous Writers & Thinkers
• 5 Rules for Writing Well: C. S. Lewis’s Letter to a Young Writer
• 15 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers

Each of these headlines states a clear benefit to the reader.

As you write your blog post headlines, keep the 4 U’s of headline writing in mind:

1. Unique
2. Ultra-specific
3. Urgent
4. Useful

Usually, you won’t be able to cover all four of those U’s, but if you include at least one or two you should be able to come up with a strong headline. List posts perform well because they are ultra-specific, and how-to posts do well because they are useful.

You can run your titles through the Coschedule Headline Analyzer to see if there are ways to tweak them to make them more powerful.

Bonus Tip: Once you’ve come up with your headline, you should also choose a lead photo for your post that illustrates your headline in some way. This is the photo that will appear when your post is shared on social media (or in your readers’ Medium feeds) so make sure it is eye-catching.

Unsplash is a fantastic website where you can find beautiful, royalty free photos to use.

If you’re posting on Medium, I also recommend including a subtitle.

2. Open with an Irresistible Introduction

You’ve caught your reader’s attention with your headline, but does your post deliver what it promised?

The first paragraph of your blog post should draw your readers in and make them want to read more. This is where you lay out what they can expect in the rest of the blog post.

There are three elements of a powerful introduction:

1. The Hook
2. The Transition Section
3. The Thesis Statement

This is the same formula I used when writing introductions to college essays, and it is very effective for blog posts too.

In the hook, you grab your reader’s attention with a memorable story or fact or question. Usually, in the hook, I set up a problem that is facing the reader. Often I like to address the reader directly with a question. For example, “Does it ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day for everything that you want to accomplish?”

Next, I’ll transition into a story about a famous person or even a story about myself. In this transition section, I’ll dig a little deeper into the detrimental effects of the problem. Then, I’ll explain that I have found a way to solve the problem.

Finally, I present the thesis statement: a one-sentence summary of the post and how I will be helping the reader solve their problem. For example, “In today’s post, I’m looking at five different ways we can carve out time for writing even when it seems like there are no more hours left in our schedules.”

My examples are from a how-to post, but you can adapt this formula to any type of post that you are writing.

3. Follow the Story Structure of the Hero’s Journey

Stories add another dimension to our writing. This fascinating Infographic shows how the human brain is hardwired to respond to storytelling differently than other forms of writing.

You can use stories to illustrate your main points, and you can also use the elements of storytelling to structure your entire post.

When I write my posts, I follow the outline of the hero’s journey, a term coined by American scholar Joseph Campbell to describe one of the most common storylines in literature. Think of the plot of Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or The Odyssey.

Here’s the basic outline:

• A hero is called to go on an adventure to solve some kind of problem. (Every good story has some kind of conflict driving the plot forward.)
• She may be reluctant to accept the call but eventually realizes that if she doesn’t solve the problem, her life will spiral out of control.
• A mentor helps her prepare for the adventure.
• After facing a series of challenges, the story reaches its climax. Will the hero overcome the problem or not?
• The hero emerges victorious and returns home transformed.

How can you use this storyline to write your blog post?

Use the body of your post to take your readers on a journey. Your hero is your blog reader. You are the mentor. Share the steps you took to overcome a problem that the reader is facing. Then show the reader how they will be transformed once they implement those steps.

My post below shares eight more tips for writing powerful stories that will connect with your readers:

4. Make Your Post Easy to Read

Even if you write a wonderfully compelling or incredibly helpful post, people might still not stay around to read. Most people glance over a post quickly to see how long it is. Others are wary of click bait, not wanting to invest their time in something that won’t benefit them.

Here are three steps you can take to make your post more convincing to read:

1. Break your post up into short sections with subheadings

The subheadings give your reader an outline to follow, and the short sections make a long post much easier to digest.

However, you want to make sure that the subheading doesn’t give too much away or people won’t bother reading each section. Notice how each of my subheadings in this post are short teasers to what follows in the paragraph.

2. Use short paragraphs and sentences

Long blocks of text are intimidating to read, especially if you are reading on a mobile device. I try to write paragraphs that are no more than three to four sentences long.

3. Evaluate your post’s readability

I use Grammarly to catch any typos or grammar errors I might have made. And then I evaluate my post against a readability score.

A readability score tells you roughly what level of education someone would need in order to read your piece of text easily. It will help you write with a more conversational style. I try to write my posts as if I were talking to you in person over a cup of coffee in a café. Would you like another latte?

You can use this website to measure your text readability. Or if you have a self-hosted WordPress website, I recommend downloading the Yoast SEO plugin. It will help you optimize your content for the web and has a built-in readability analyzer.

Here are several more tips from Kurt Vonnegut on how to improve your writing:

5. End With a Call to Action

You’ve taken your readers on an incredible adventure. Now what should they do with that information they’ve just learned?

I usually title the conclusion of my blog post “The Takeaway”. It’s where you can emphasize the most important lessons of your post.

Next, give your readers a clear call to action to follow. Maybe you tell them to implement the steps they’ve read about in your post (stress the dangers if they do not take action).

Finally, you have a chance to build a relationship with your readers.

I like to end with a question and encourage readers to answer it in the comments. You could also create an additional resource to accompany your post that readers can download by signing up for your email list. (You can embed an email subscription form in your Medium post using Upscribe.)

And don’t forget to ask readers to share your post on social media if they enjoyed it. At the bottom of my Medium posts, I ask readers to click the heart if they found the article helpful.

The Takeaway (and a free checklist!)

No matter what kind of article you are writing (a how-to, a listicle, a personal narrative, a book review), you can use these steps to make your article more powerful and engaging. Adapt them to your style and your topic.

Ultimately, you want to keep your readers in mind. How will your post add value to their lives? Is there any way that you can dig deeper and add a unique perspective to your topic?

When you implement these five steps, you will transform your posts into content that will truly impact your readers. They will be eager to share and read more of your work.

Nicole Bianchi

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