Win the Morning. Win the Day (with Tim Ferriss) | Chase Jarvis RAW

The morning is the most important part of the day! What is your morning routine like?

The Importance of Constant Self-Improvement

Coach John Wooden challenged himself every day with constant self-improvement: Never be satisfied. Work constantly to improve. Perfection is a goal that can never be reached, but it must be the objective. The uphill climb is slow, but the downhill road is fast.

He believed that valid self-analysis is crucial for improvement. In order to improve a little each day, we must constantly be learning, and to do that, we must be observing constantly and stay open-minded.

A key component of Coach’s constant self-improvement program was how he worked with his assistant coaches. He encouraged them to challenge his ideas, thus creating the valid self-analysis he knew was critical to self-improvement.

In his book A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring with Don Yeager, Coach describes how Abraham Lincoln inspired his approach:

“An incredible example of Lincoln’s wisdom can be seen in the people with whom he chose to surround himself. I pride myself on having read just about every major book ever published about Abraham Lincoln, but the one that has affected me the most in recent years is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s exceptional text Team of Rivals. In this book, Goodwin examines in profound depth a well-documented but not widely discussed political decision: When Lincoln was elected to the presidency, he appointed a number of former political opponents to serve as his advisers and to fill various posts.

“By selecting men whom he knew disagreed with him or differed from his own platform, he assured himself, he would be confronted with legitimate challenges to his ideas, rather than finding himself in a pool of yes-men.

“Based on Lincoln’s example, I encouraged my assistant coaches to speak up with ideas that might differ from or even completely contradict my own. Those disagreements never got heated, but sometimes they were very intense. Just as I imagine Lincoln would have been, I was pleased when those challenges arose because it meant that my fellow coaches were as passionate about our team as I was. Nothing ruins a team more quickly than apathy.”

In Coach Wooden’s book Wooden on Leadership with Steve Jamison, Denny Crum, one of his former assistant coaches, describes working with Coach:

“Coach Wooden never thought he knew everything. In spite of the fact that he’d been winning championships every year—four or five of them when I got there as an assistant coach—he wanted to keep learning and improving as a coach and leader.

“When I came up with an idea, he would never tell me, ‘Well, this is the way we’ve always done it and we’re winning championships. So, no, I’m not changing.’ He was open to change. His approach was to listen; if he thought it made sense, try it. If it works, great. If not, move on. He was always searching for ways to improve.”

As Coach liked to say: A leader destined for success asks, "What can we do to improve?" A leader destined for failure says, “That’s the way it’s always been done.”

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Jack Canfield: The Success Principles

CLEARING CLUTTER INCREASES SUCCESS

Our physical spaces are filled with dozens of minor distractions and irritants, such as stacks of unread books, scuff marks on the wall, and closets filled with unused items. For most people, these things are like gnats - annoying, but generally insignificant and easily ignored. Rarely do we recognize them for what they really are - potent threats to our productivity, energy, concentration and peace of mind. 

For those of us committed to achieving greater success in our lives, a cluttered physical environment produces three negative consequences: 

1. You feel drained. If there are things to do everywhere you look, your mind constantly keeps thinking "I need to fix that." Eventually, you to feel drained, anxious, irritable, and overwhelmed. To cope, we have to put blinders on and overlook the distractions. 

2. Problems spiral out of control. We often overlook irritations for the short-term gain of being able to continue with our daily routine. The danger, however, is that some problems with grow worse with lack of attention. The chip in the windshield that could have been fixed in 30 minutes grows to a crack that requires replacement of the entire windshield. 

3. You miss important clues and ideas. It's impossible to selectively numb out your awareness, ignoring only the minor distractions in your physical space while paying close attention to everything else. This is perhaps the biggest danger for success-minded people. Our most powerful insights often manifest in gut feelings, fleeting thoughts and subtle cues. Numbing out to our cluttered physical environments makes us oblivious to these clues, as well. 

Physical Space Impacts Mental Space 

Seemingly small irritations and distractions also have a dramatic impact on our mental state. It's common for people who feel overwhelmed by their physical clutter to go into a state of resignation. When you have a sense that you can't control the little things - such as quickly finding a stapler when you need it - then it becomes easy to tell yourself that there's no way you can have the other, bigger things that you want, such as a better car, bigger house, prestigious job, or loving relationship. 

The good news is that the same concept works in reverse. When you do recognize that you can control little things, such as the squeak every time you open your front door, you recognize that you can control the bigger things in life, too. Taking action to manage irritations, distractions and clutter builds your confidence in your ability to achieve success, regardless of form. 

3 Ways to Deal with Clutter 

There are three ways to change any environment: add something to it, take something out of it, or modify it in some form. 

Go through your environment and figure out what is irritating and distracting you. Ask yourself how it needs to be fixed. Then think about who you might be able to delegate all or part of the task to. One reason that to-do items accumulate is that we feel like we have to do all of the work ourselves. One of the key strategies for getting more done is to master the art of delegation. 

To help you move forward with this process, I've posted an "Irritations & Tolerations" worksheet on my blog. Use this tool to identify and create an action plan for handling your irritations and tolerations.

Next, scan your environment to identify elements that need to be removed completely, as well as items that can be brought in to increase the energy in your space. For example, you might find that removing the television or computer from your bedroom makes your sleeping space more relaxing and peaceful. On the other hand, you might find that adding a conference table to your office gives you an inviting place for creative work, while adding plants makes you feel calmer and connected to nature. 

Spotting "Good" Clutter 

Remember that all clutter is not bad. For many people, clutter is part of their creative process. 

When in the midst of creation - such as writing an article, developing a presentation, mapping out a business strategy or creating a product - they pull out resources like books, clippings, articles and notepads. More artistic types might fill their work spaces with tools of their particular trade. 

The litmus test to use in determining whether your clutter needs attention is how you feel. If you feel inspired, the clutter is serving you and contributing to your creative expression. If you feel contracted, drained, anxious or stressed, the clutter needs to be tamed. 

Environments control us, but it's important to recognize that as human beings, we are one of the few animals that can control their environments. 

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Jim Rohn: How to Gain Financial Freedom | Law of Attraction

You must spend money to make money!

Rohn: Do You Have a Plan for Your Life?

Work with your mind to figure out a positive self-direction.

When you are a person of character, you know who you are and where you want to go. You’ve already spent a great deal of time thinking about it. You’ve been working on the parts of your personality that will make you better—your attitude, your health, your time-management skills. You’ve been putting it all down on paper. And you’ve developed positive self-direction.

As you talk with yourself every day, how often do you ask, Is what I am doing today getting me closer to where I want to be tomorrow? Because here’s what you don’t want to ever do: kid yourself. Kid your neighbor and kid me and kid the marketplace if you want to, but don’t kid yourself. You can’t wait around with your fingers crossed hoping you’ll arrive at a good destination when you’re not even headed in the right direction. You say, Well maybe the wind will take me. There’s a chance, of course, but it’s about as likely as winning the lottery. You’ve got to take charge.

Ancient scripture says that hope, if it’s delayed long enough, can make the heart sick. You’ve got to ask yourself often, Am I performing the disciplines that are taking me in the direction that I want to go? I don’t want to delude myself and think I’m on the way to financial success when there’s not a prayer. I don’t want to delude myself into thinking there’s someone else who will take care of it. Nobody else is going to take care of it. Nobody else is going to take care of me.

What if all of your negative-thinking relatives turned positive? What would that do for your fortune and your future? Not much. If prices came down a little, what would that do for your sophistication and your culture? Not much. If the economy gets a little better, what would that do for you? Not much.

If you don’t make plans of your own, you’ll fit into someone else’s plans. And what do you think they have planned for you? Not much. Most people wake up every morning counting on this “not-much” list. And that’s all they have: not much. Not much hope. Not much promise. Not much progress. They’re driving what they don’t want to drive, living where they don’t want to live, doing what they don’t want to do.

Forget the thief waiting in the alley to snatch your purse. What about the thief in your mind? He is tempting you to become lazy, not stimulated by thoughts and questions. Don’t become a victim of yourself. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is this the direction that I want for my life?
• Is this someone else’s direction?
• Is it a goal that has been ingrained in me since my childhood?
• Is it my parents’, my spouse’s, my boss’s or my children’s?
• Is it mine?

Ask yourself these questions. Get into the debate of your inner mind.

• What am I doing that works?
• What am I doing that doesn’t work?

Debate it all. Work with your mind to figure out the best possible direction for you. This is your self-direction.

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Dr. John DeMartini - The Gratitude Effect 1

Short and sweet but the point! Have you tried doing this and how did it feel?

Gratitude As The Power Of Healing…

When I was almost four years old, my mother told me as she was putting me to bed one night:

“Son before you go to sleep tonight make sure you count your blessings.”

Great truths are often hidden within such simple words.

Those who count their blessings, and those who are grateful, have more blessings and fulfillment in life. This is a simple principle, but it has the power to change your life and those you come in contact with.

A therapist will bring healing to anyone they come in contact with, if they work from  a space of love, gratitude, certainty and presence.

In fact anybody in the healing arts who applies these four things, will become a master healer. Anybody who goes to a healer with these principles, will experience a healing process. Any person seeking healing who has these four things, will heal.

Let me go into greater detail of how each of these four pillars contributes to healing.

1. The first pillar is love.

There is no greater healer on this planet than the feeling of love.

Love is the result of a heart that is open and not distorted by the emotions of lopsided perceptions.

Years ago I was the president of the Cancer Control Association in Houston, lecturing on what I believed to be the cause of cancer. Most of the things I lectured on then, is now mainstream, but at the time it was considered unorthodox.

Carl Simons advocated a technique where you visualized the leukocytes attacking and destroying the cancer cells. He wrote about its effect in helping cancer at the time. That was the paradigm he was in, and even that was a major jump forward in terms of understanding the mind’s power over the body.

Today however he says, “Instead of visualizing them attacking the cancer cells, imagine them loving the cancer cells and being grateful that they are bringing to your attention the issues in your life you haven’t loved.” Carl realized that everything serves the purpose of teaching love, thus everything in life is a lesson of love.

I define illness as the illusions of health and disease, and wellness as the synthesis.

Anything we see that is not loved, is our lie. It creates uncertainties or our desire to fix and change things – it’s a dissipation of energy which is called disease. Every emotion we have has its metaphysical manifestation in the body. The body’s manifestation is trying to wake us up to the lie that we are living.

2. The second pillar is gratitude

Gratitude is an absolute appreciation for life.

Just as with wealth you must have appreciation in order for it to grow, so too with your body.
If it’s not growing, it’s decaying and disease is simply a decay process. If we’re not appreciative, we can’t grow.

Gratitude and appreciation is an absolutely essential component of the growth and maintenance of a body.

In fact your body will give you symptoms and create disease to try to get you to appreciate it.

If you had only 24 hours to live, do you know what you would do?

You would go to the people you love and say to them: “I love you and I appreciate you. I am so grateful for everything you have contributed to my life.” When you’re down to the last moments of life you start prioritizing. The highest priority is love and gratitude.

There is no higher priority that any human being will have.

All of us are on spiritual missions, having a spiritual body inside a physical/metaphysical body, and that is here for the sole purpose of learning lessons of love and gratitude.

Everything we do in all the seven areas of life will be teaching us exactly that. To the degree we learn those lessons we will unfold our full potential both physically and metaphysically, and to the degree we don’t we sabotage that potential.

When you are grateful for life you open up the gateway of the heart. This love is always waiting there to eternally express itself in the form of light or illumination in our consciousness, which brings organization and order to human physiology. Science shows that love and appreciation organize and bring order to cell structures on a molecular level.

3. The third pillar is certainty

Certainty is a by-product of gratitude and love.

When you are certain, you don’t waver between past remembered guilts and future imagined fears. You are present, and hence the fourth pillar is presence.

4. The fourth pillar is presence

Love, gratitude, certainty, presence are the four cardinal pillars that specifically support the dome of healing.

And guess what? We all have the potential to be a healer.

In ancient times and cultures there existed individuals whose span of experience and study embraced broad scopes of knowledge. They were called philosophers. In our modern era specialists reign and the general man of letters educate future specialists, therefore true modern day philosophers rarely occur.

Dr. John Demartini is one of those rare and gifted individuals. His scope of experience and knowledge has encompassed the intricacies of cosmology, the mysteries of theology, and also the magical essence of clinical psychology and healing. He has researched the great classical writings of both the Orient and the Occident. Most noteworthy he synthesized the message of the great Masters of the past and present.

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Deepak Chopra Discusses "The Ultimate Happiness Prescription"

If only doctors could prescribe this instead of medications!! How do you feel about that?

Deepak Chopra: A Life of Fullfillment

On his 14th birthday, Deepak Chopra's father made a small, yet purposeful, gesture: He gave his son some novels by Sinclair Lewis and W. Somerset Maugham as a birthday gift.

Chopra's father was a doctor in their native India, and he wanted his son to become a doctor, too. Chopra, however, dreamed of becoming a writer. He ignored biology and chemistry in school. "The people I most admired were journalists and other writers who were friends of the family," he tells SUCCESS. "I had no interest in being a physician. But my father knew two things: that I had a fertile imagination and that those books were all about doctors and healers. At the age of 14, you're very pliable, so after reading them, I went to my father and said I wanted to be a physician."

Imagine the knowing smile on dad's face. Chopra went on to America to become a respected endocrinologist, a medical school professor and, eventually, one of the foremost proponents of mind-body medicine, or the combination of Western medical knowledge with ancient Eastern philosophies. He is also the author of more than 50 books, including Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul, in bookstores now. And today, when you consider that our cultureâ??s standard definition of success is money, fame and influence, Deepak Chopra indeed has collected them all.

But that last sentence cheapens his accomplishments. He didn't just become successful. He fulfilled his own definition of success. That's a far richer accomplishment. The fact that he fulfilled the fame/fortune/ power success trifecta along the way (what he calls the "restricted" definition of success) is almost a byproduct. "I define success as the following," Chopra says. "No. 1, the progressive realization of worthy goals. No. 2, the ability to love and have compassion. No. 3, to be in touch with the creative source inside you. And No. 4, to ultimately move from success to significance."

That last part is crucial. It's what creates people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett— people whose material success becomes great enough that they can concentrate on more humanistic and satisfying endeavors, or "significance," as Chopra says. Through that work, they become greater than their success, and ultimately, when they're alone, out of the spotlight, that's what drives them. "Material success by itself without significance to the common good ultimately is not fulfilling," says Chopra, and he speaks from experience.

In short, folks like Gates, Buffett and Deepak Chopra are not the type who think about making enough money to "retire by 40," or some other target age. They don't think about retiring at any age. They're at war with dissatisfaction, which keeps them fine-tuning their A-game and their long-term goals. Money is simply the byproduct of that process.

Now, Chopra warns, that's not to say that material success isn't exciting. "Oh, in the beginning it's very exciting," he says with a chuckle. "Though, over many years of soul-searching and observing people, I have discovered to my own amazement, actually, that being extremely wealthy is meaningless."

He cites a close friend of his, a multimillionaire, as proof. "This man's level of happiness or misery depends every evening on an e-mail that informs him what his net worth is, based on what the stock market did that day. What kind of life is that? He's a classic example of millions of dollars not making a person happy."

"Material success by itself without significance to the common good ultimately is not fulfilling."

So the secret is to forget all about money? Not at all. "Financial security is very important," says Chopra, for the freedom it allows. However, the secret to real success goes deeper. Don't pursue happiness, he says. Especially don't pursue excitement, like the kind provided by making and spending big numbers. Pursue excellence. Pursue fulfillment. And Chopra has done that by fulfilling not society's definition of success, but his own. It's real. It's meaningful. And the best part: It's all his.

"True wealth comes from creativity," he says. "Somehow, in modern society, wealth and money have become equated. Money is not wealth. Wealth in its true sense is success," as Chopra defines it for himself.

How does creativity impact success? Creativity is all about its root word: Create something of value that wasn't there before. Creativity is also freedom of thought directed toward your goals. Very few people embrace this, Chopra says. Oh, they talk a terrific game about life goals and potential business models and cool new ideas to increase income streams. But true creativity requires an open mind and curiosity, two phenomena that have become rare these days.

Why? Today, people don't have open minds. Many of us are closed off to even the slightest deviation in mindset, even though most people would probably consider themselves "creative" and "curious." They're liars, says Chopra, and two factors—the financial crisis and Sept. 11—prove it.

"Curiosity and open-mindedness mean being aware of what's going on in your world," he says. "What has happened in the last few years with our economic disaster is the result of not having full awareness of what's really happening around us. We were forced to do that after 9/11. Now we know more about the rest of the world, and we also see the context in which violence arises, in which power arises, in which ecological disasters occur."

You might ask, What does that have to do with fulfilling my potential? Well, being locked up in your own mindset means being locked out of the world around you. "Creativity, imagination, insight, intuition, conscious choice-making, love, compassion, understanding— these are the qualities of a core consciousness that we come with into the world as children," Chopra says. "But then we get programmed into the hypnosis of social conditioning, which says instant gratification is the way to be happy. That's sold to us every single day."

Chopra suggests several ways to break open more creativity and curiosity:

Adopt a growth mindset. Chopra says research over the past five years has shown that when adversity strikes, happier people tend to see creative opportunities, while unhappier people see, well, adversity. "It's programmed through childhood through a phenomenon called mirror neurons," he says. "If you saw people complaining all the time when you were a kid, that's what you do. Your neurons mirror the behavior." To change your mindset, step back and ask yourself, How can I turn this into an opportunity?

Engage the "unfriendlies." This is not the same as "sleeping with the enemy." It simply means make an effort to connect with those you have the least in common with, or even flat-out disagree with, and dissect their point of view until you understand its inherent value (it's there, alright). This, Chopra says, is the hallmark of the creative, curious, open mind. "There has been a lot of literature on emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and how they're all linked. We have a person who is now president who, on some level, knew all this. He bonded with America in a way that was amazing, despite the fact that his middle name is Hussein, and he transcends in many ways the definition of identity: Is he black? Is he white? And yet, he beat all the odds and became president."

Read. Such a simple concept, but a hallmark of learning that's, again, ignored by many (even with pride by some). But reading is what allowed Chopra to fulfill two life dreams. The boy who wanted to be a writer instead became a doctor... who has written more than 50 books. Indeed, you can fulfill multiple destinies. Chopra could not have done that without reading and more reading. To facilitate his addiction, he recently bought a Kindle. "I'm now traveling with the equivalent of 100 books, and I read them all simultaneously," he says. "Books have always influenced my life. I get a strange sense of joy boarding a plane knowing I'm carrying 100 books."

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A Wake up Call and the Future of Network Marketing

I love how Huge a part personal development has to play in the world of Network Marketing. It just shows you...business growth = personal growth and visa versa. There is no other way! It becomes more and more apparent every day!

A Wake Up Call and the Future of Network Marketing

I'm no global economist, so I don't make predictions on said subject matter.  However...I've been around the profession for quite a while...and the network marketing and direct selling world is wide open and poised for continued growth.

According to the WFDSA (World Federation of Direct Selling Associations)2015 Annual Report, the Direct Selling profession has had strong growth globally since our economic collapse that happened back in 2008.

As you can see on PAGE 13 of this report, the profession grew from $151.3 Billion in sales to $182.8 Billion between 2011 and 2014.

Forbes Magazine wrote an article in August of 2014, titled:
"Would you Join a Multi-Level Marketing Program for Retirement Income?"

That article is worth reading if you haven't done so already.

In my opinion, the future looks bright for the profession of direct selling.

We can all learn from what's been going on this week.  Let's level-up our training, teach people how to be professionals, and do things in a way where we develop competent and highly trained independent distributors.

Let's all use this as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Overnight, I have seen companies throughout our profession at the corporate level cleaning things up that needed cleaning.  WE...and I say WE, as distributors in the field (it's where I come from, and I will always be a distributor at heart), need to take the responsibility on of overseeing ourselves and others around us.

Let's all do a super job of promoting and perpetuating marketing practices that are respectable, truthful, and tell the "real" story of our profession.  If you want to make this profession YOURS for life, you'll take me up on that challenge.

Let's play clean out there.

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How to Be Way More Productive

"Lose an hour in the morning, chase it all day." --a Yiddish saying, author unknown, taught to me by Jason Fried

If you win the morning, you win the day. I'm not the first person to say that, but I think it's a good encapsulation of how to think about morning routines. It is setting up your entire day for positive momentum and fewer distractions.

Over the past decade, I've been able to ask hundreds of top performers about their morning habits and routines on my podcast and in private conversations. Personally, I've tried various routines throughout the years. These days, I try to do a few things: make my bed, meditate, hang upside down (that's another story for another time), and a couple other things. But I know my morning routine isn't done evolving and I'm not done learning how to set myself up for success by optimizing my morning routine. To that end, I decided to ask 100+ top-performing people across various industries about what they do when they wake up in the morning. The result of those interviews is my latest book, Tribe of Mentors. I was lucky to get answers from many personal heroes of mine. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller has written, starred in, directed, or produced more than 50 films, including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander, The Cable Guy, There's Something About Mary, theMeet the Parents trilogy, DodgeBall, Tropic Thunder, the Madagascar series, and the Night at the Museum trilogy. I was surprised when he told me this about his morning ritual:

"I like to dunk my head in a bucket of ice in the morning to wake me up. I don't think it actually is therapeutic but it is definitely invigorating and probably absurd looking."

2. Graham Duncan

Graham Duncan is the co-founder of East Rock Capital, an investment firm that manages $2 billion for a small number of families and their charitable foundations. Graham's routine also involves water, though the activity itself is more conventional than Ben Stiller's:

"I've begun swimming most mornings, and I find it often shifts my mindset for the rest of the day. Swimmers talk about the concept of 'water feel,' which is getting a grip in the water and pulling your body past that point instead of ripping your hand through the water, which moves you forward but is much less efficient, much less graceful. As David Foster Wallace points out in his speech, 'This Is Water,' much of life is water to us -- we are swimming in it and can't see it because we're either in a hurry or not awake to our context. When I stop to really feel the water before I pull, it shifts my way of being from thrashing toward the other end of the pool to a more effortless flow of working with the reality of where I am."

3. Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield has made a professional life in five different writing arenas -- advertising, screenwriting, fiction, narrative nonfiction, and self-help. He is the best-selling author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire, The Afghan Campaign, and The Lion's Gate, as well as the cult classics on creativity, The War of Art, Turning Pro, and Do the Work. When I asked Steven about his morning routine, he filled me in:

"I've always been a gym person and an early morning person. But a few years ago I got invited to train with T. R. Goodman at a place called Pro Camp. There's a 'system,' yeah, but basically what we do (and it's definitely a group thing, with three or four of us training together) is just work hard. I hate it but it's great. T. R. says, as we're leaving after working out, 'Nothing you face today will be harder than what you just did.'"

4. Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media. Tim also exercises in the morning, but that's not what's most interesting about his routine:

"Every morning, on my run, I try to take a picture of a flower and share it on Instagram. I was inspired to do this by a passage I read many years ago in a book by C. S. Lewis (I think it was The Great Divorce), in which a character, after death, only sees the flowers as blobs of color, and his spirit guide tells him, 'That's because you never really looked at them when you were alive.' As the line from Hamilton says, 'Look around. Look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now!'"

5. Mathew Fraser

Mathew Fraser won first place at the 2016 and 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games, earning him the title of "Fittest Man on Earth." He won the Rookie of the Year award at his first CrossFit Games in 2014 and placed second in 2014 and 2015. He's been a CrossFit athlete since 2012, after retiring from a career in weightlifting during which he was an Olympic hopeful. Perhaps counterintuitively given the examples we've seen so far, this highly successful competitive athlete's morning routine has nothing to do with working out:

"I usually make a list every morning while I'm drinking my coffee. I have a terrible habit of forgetting smaller things during the day, so I like to put them on paper before the day gets started and I become distracted. Having the list helps keep me calm and productive during the day."

6. Tim Urban

Tim Urban is the author of the blog "Wait But Why" and has become one of the Internet's most popular writers. Tim told me about what he does when he wakes up in the morning:

"I love waking up and working on the [New York Times crossword] puzzle in the morning -- in bed, while eating breakfast, on the subway, while standing in line at a coffee place, etc. But I have to be careful -- the later it gets in the week, the longer the puzzle takes me, and I often don't have the discipline to put down a hard puzzle until I finish it, which can bleed badly into my planned workday and make me hate myself. Or sometimes I'll open the app when I'm taking a five-minute work break, and then that turns it into an 82-minute work break and I again hate myself. So I now try to keep my puzzling to nighttime."

7. Marc Benioff

Marc Benioff is a philanthropist and chairman and CEO of Salesforce. Currently, he is one of only four entrepreneurs in history to have built an enterprise software company with more than $10 billion in annual revenue (the other three being Bill Gates of Microsoft, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Hasso Plattner of SAP). When I asked Marc about his morning routine, he touched on something I've been practicing myself for years:

"One of the best investments I ever made is in my meditation practice. I typically pray and meditate every morning for 30 to 60 minutes. I have also expanded my practice to teaching meditation at my synagogue. I've been meditating for more than 25 years, and I view it as a critical part of my success.

It's a skill that I have used when things have gone wrong in my life. When there are life challenges -- whether it was my father's death, health challenges with family members, extreme stress in Salesforce, or worry about the state of the world -- I could always find refuge and strength in my meditation and prayer practice. This is an investment that has paid off over and over again."

8. Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Whitney is the executive producer and, along with Michael Patrick King, co-creator of the Emmy-nominated CBS comedy 2 Broke Girls. She has headlined with comics including Sarah Silverman, Louis C.K., Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, and others. Her first one-hour standup special, Money Shot, premiered on Comedy Central in 2010 and was nominated for an American Comedy Award. Her second standup special, I Love You, debuted on Comedy Central in 2014, and her latest special, I'm Your Girlfriend, premiered on HBO in 2016. Whitney is the author of I'm Fine...And Other Lies. Here's how she starts her morning:

"Every morning I make myself write a gratitude list, regardless of how busy I am, or how much I don't want to. It can feel silly and redundant at times, but it's atrophied my negative thinking. It's built up the muscle that focuses on what's going well and how fortunate I am, which helps me be more productive, creative, and focused. It yields a type of mental freedom that's hard to explain. Negativity used to consume and exhaust me, so now I literally have more energy. It's so easy for perfectionists to focus on what's wrong, and finding flaws is a big part of my job, but in terms of the big picture, negative thinking was a serious obstacle to creativity. Also, white tattoos! I have little messages tattooed on my arms, but nobody can see them except me."

The word "routine" may sound boring, but I like to keep in mind a quote from W. H. Auden who once said "Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition." After looking at the routines of these brilliant, successful folks it's clear that they all work on their mind, body, or spirit first thing in the morning, and we should all take note of that.

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Tricks for Combatting Procrastination | Tim Ferriss

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How to Transform Your Life in 6 Minutes a Day

Oh, you’re busy? Weird, I thought it was just me.

No matter where you are in life at this moment, there is at least one thing that you and I have in common: We want to improve our lives and ourselves. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with us, but as human beings we’re born with a desire to continuously grow and improve. I believe it’s within all of us. Yet most people wake up each day and life pretty much stays the same.

If success and fulfillment were measured on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s safe to say that everyone would want to live every aspect of their lives at a Level 10.

Here’s the catch: To create the Level 10 life that you ultimately want, you must first dedicate time each day to becoming a Level 10 person who is capable of creating and sustaining that level of success.

But who has time for that, right? Luckily, there is a method to do it in as little as six minutes a day.

Enter the life SAVERS, a sequence that combines the six most effective personal development practices known to man. While someone could invest hours on these practices, it only takes one minute for each -- or six minutes total -- to see extraordinary results.

Just imagine if the first six minutes of every morning began like this:

Minute 1: S is for silence.

Instead of hitting the snooze button, and then rushing through your day feeling stressed and overwhelmed, invest your first minute in sitting in purposeful silence. Sit quietly, calm and peaceful and breathe deeply. Maybe you meditate. Center yourself and create an optimum state of mind that will lead you effectively through the rest of your day.

Maybe you say a prayer of gratitude and appreciate the moment. As you sit in silence, you quiet your mind, relax your body and allow your stress to melt away. You develop a deeper sense of clarity, purpose, and direction.

Minute 2: A is for Affirmations.

Pull out and read your page of affirmations -- written statements that remind you of your unlimited potential, your most important goals and the actions you must take today to achieve them. Reading over reminders of how capable you really are motivates you. Looking over which actions you must take, re-energizes you to focus on doing what’s necessary today to takeyour life to the next level.

Minute 3. V is for visualization.

Close your eyes and visualize what it will look like and feel like when you reach your goals. Seeing your ideal vision increases your belief that it’s possible and your desire to make it a reality.

Minute 4. E is for exercise.

Stand up and move your body for 60 seconds, long enough to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain. You could easily do a minute of jumping jacks, push-ups, or sit-ups. The point is that you raise your heart rate, generate energy and increase your ability to be alert and focused.

Minute 5. R is for reading.

Grab the self-help book you’re currently reading and read one page, maybe two. Learn a new idea, something you can incorporate into your day, which will improve your results at work or in your relationships. Discover something new that you can use to think better, feel better and live better.

Minute 6. S is for scribing.

Pull out your journal and take one minute to write down something you’re grateful for, something you’re proud of and the top one to three results that you’re committed to creating that day. In doing so, you create the clarity and motivation that you need to take action.

Start today.

How would you feel if that’s how you used the first six minutes of each day? How would the quality of your day -- and your life -- improve? We can all agree that investing a minimum of six minutes into becoming the person that we need to be to create the lives we truly want is not only reasonable. It’s an absolute must.

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6 Steps For Creating An Effective Morning Ritual - The Morning Miracle B...

I've started doing this and already I am feeling the benefits. What is your morning routine like?

7.1 Steps to Create Multiple Streams of Income

“Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand."
-- Robert G. Allen 

At age 25, I began planning my exit strategy to leave a lucrative career in sales to become an entrepreneur and pursue my passion: empowering people to maximize their potential and make significant improvements to their results.

While still in my sales position, I started my first business -- and my first additional stream of income -- serving as a life and business success coach. In the past nine years, using the exact formula below, I’ve been able to add nine additional streams of income. These have involved authoring books, speaking, private and group coaching and staging live events. 

For anyone who values financial security and ultimately desires financial freedom, creating at least one additional stream of income is no longer a luxury. It has become a necessity.

Diversifying your income stream is crucial to protect yourself and your family against the unavoidable ups and downs of economic and industry cycles. Because of the financial risks that come from relying on one source of income, such as a job or a business, consider creating at least one or more additional streams to generate cash flow.

Your additional income streams can be active, passive or a combination of the two. Some may pay you for doing something that you love (active), while others can provide income for you without your having to do much of anything at all (passive). You can diversify your income streams among different industries to protect you against major losses during downturns in one market and allow you to financially benefit from the upswings in another.

This truly is one of the not-so-obvious secrets of how the wealthy become -- and stay -- wealthy, which unfortunately isn’t taught to the masses. The good news is that it’s not magic. It’s not even complicated. Creating your next stream of income is a simple, step-by-step process, which you can arrange to start bringing you monthly income faster than you might realize is possible. 

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Miracle Morning Routine: Silence (Meditation)

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Finding Your Purpose…

Your purpose is inherent.

If you are unclear on what it is, it is waiting to be revealed from deep within your heart.

It is simply clouded over by your mind’s seven primary fears that block its realization and fullest expression.

To transcend these fears – kneel down at the side of your bed at the end of each day before going to sleep with a note pad and pen in hand.

Think about everything you can be grateful for from that day and make a list of experiences that you can truly be grateful for until you are so grateful a tear comes out of your eyes.

Then turn inward to your most authentic and powerful self – your soul – and ask:

• “What message do you have for me today?”
• “What action step am I to take to fulfill my life?”
• “What detail can you reveal about my life mission or vision?”

If you don’t receive a message immediately then go back and think more deeply about what you’re truly grateful for and then ask these questions again.

The voice on the inside

If you are truly grateful a vision or message will be immediate, loud and clear.

“When this voice and vision on the inside becomes louder and more profound than all opinions on the outside you have begun to master your life.”

Do these actions for at least thirty days until you no longer have to ask the question about what your mission or purpose is. You will then know with certainty.

Then add to this insight by thinking about what you know you would love to do and write it down.

Read and Refine

“Start with what you know with certainty and let what you know grow.”

Read it, refine it, read it, refine it, and keep reading it and refining it until it becomes crystal clear.

Find the Hero inside you

Also review all the heroes you have had in your life and look for what is common to them – they leave clues and review all the jobs or careers you have had and look for what is common – they also leave clues.

Add all this up and you will have a great idea or first draft of what your mission or purpose is.

The true you, has a profound contribution to offer the world. The true you, does not play small. The true you, is brilliant beyond compare.

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