Category: My Articles

How To Develop A Warrior Mentality

My mom passed away from cancer about four years ago at the age of forty. It was the hardest day of my entire life. Being 18 years old at the time, I thought the world and God were against me.

I couldn’t understand why me and my family had to go through that pain. I refused to constantly be angry and depressed. That’s when my personal development journey began.

Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.

Mental strength comes from developing a mindset that enables you to face and overcome any challenge or adversity life throws at you.

You’re going to come across hard times at some point in your life. It’s quite impossible to predict when that’s going to be. The mind must be engineered to endure pain and find solutions at any moment.

To develop the mental toughness of a warrior you must learn and grow from pain, failure, setbacks, losses, challenges, roadblocks, and the hardest parts of your life.

Come to realize that you don’t have to be a victim anymore. You are the pilot of your life and have the ability to steer yourself in any direction you choose.

These strategies cultivate the mindset of a warrior:

1)Not Taking Things Personally

The tactic comes from a very inspiring book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. This is a very powerful insight when you begin to understand WHY you don’t have to be the victim.

People who don’t treat you with respect, compassion, empathy, understanding, love, kindness, and trust need it the most. The way you are treated is the karma of others, not yours.

Your karma is actually determined by the way you treat others.

Are you treating other people with understanding and compassion?

Don’t get stuck thinking that you aren’t going to change your behaviors until others do. You’ll be waiting the rest of your life.

To develop your mental toughness you must not worry or focus on the negative thoughts or opinions others may have about your goals and dreams.

It’s going to be your closest friends and family that have the most to say. That’s okay. It’s not all going to be positive but you must do what makes you happy.

The individuals who are stuck in their old thinking patterns do not have the awareness to understand how their attitude can negatively affect the decision making of others.

People are always going to have their own beliefs and opinions about everything.

Not taking things personally gives you your freedom back because you aren’t paralyzed by the fear others unconsciously instill into you.

2)Developing Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is having the ability to understand your own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Are they positive or negative? Are they helping you make progress in your life?

You can rewire your brain by identifying what your strengths and weaknesses are. This is the key to developing mental toughness.

Most people live their life on auto-pilot. This means they have no goals for themselves and their decisions are habitual without realizing that it’s holding them back from becoming the greatest version of themselves.

You must re-program your subconscious mind for positivity and growth.

The sub-conscious mind is that little voice in your head which has a major influence on the outcomes of your life. You should only be speaking good things to yourself.

Mentally strong people have an optimistic attitude. Instead of focusing on what you can’t change, start focusing on what can be different.

This is how you become the innovator of your own mind.

It’s being able to adapt to any kind of adversity or challenge you come across.

Mind innovators are able to find the answers they need to learn from their apparent failures. They are constantly getting better and better.

3)Embrace Failure

Failure=Feedback.

Without ever failing, you’d never know where you needed to improve or change.

The foundation of your mental strength will be based off your ability to overcome challenges and learn from failure.

People who are world class at their craft have failed more times then they have succeeded. Failing shows you what you need to do to not fail the next time. You can’t get discouraged for to long.

Ask yourself questions that make you think differently when you fail:

Is this worth getting discouraged over?

What is the lesson here? What can I learn from this challenge?

What can I do right now to make this situation better for myself?

Your mind will positively shift when you begin to interrupt your unhealthy thinking patterns. Self criticism is the number one killer of dreams.

Not everyone is going to believe in you but most people don’t believe in themselves. You must always believe in yourself.

Persistence and deliberate practice is going to be the key to becoming a mental warrior.

Fail forward because challenges are apart of the growing process. Once you grasp this concept, there isn’t going to be anything you can’t achieve.

Remember…

Not taking things personally will give freedom to go after any dream or goal you set for yourself. People always react to you based off their current reality, don’t take it personally.

Be more aware of the thoughts and emotions you have because they’re always trying to tell you something. Are your habits helping you become a better person?

Embracing failure is the only way to grow and improve. Learn from apparent failures and always try to focus on what you can do to get better. Life is to short to not take calculated risks.

How To Boost Your Productivity & Performance

Many of us are looking for the best strategies & tools to stay productive or a way to keep good habits because we are constantly distracted by the world around us. These distractions can become over whelming causing you to be more lazy and increase procrastination.

Develop Self-Awareness

The foundation of our thoughts & emotions comes from how developed our self-awareness is. With a developed self-awareness we are better able to identify our strengths and weaknesses in life.

When we lack self-awareness it’s difficult to become successful in anything because if you don’t know what your weaknesses are, you couldn’t make progress.

The more conscious we become about our unhealthy behaviors we can start reverse engineering them to work in our favor. The most important project you’ll ever work on is yourself. If you don’t take the time to create the life you want then no one else will do it for you.

Goal Setting

The outcomes of your life are determined by the goals that you have set to get yourself there. When you don’t have a plan for where you want to go it becomes difficult to determine where you’ll end up in life.

Most of us don’t have any goals for how we want to live our lives & it becomes difficult to see the path to our success. Be smart and set up a map for your life so that way you if you get lost, you have the directions to get back on track.

By setting goals for yourself, your productivity will significantly increase because now your mind has a blueprint of where it needs to go. If you feel stuck or lost in your life, then it’s time to evaluate the goals you have. By frequently revisiting your goals, you can identify what you value most & make changes to them when necessary.

Prioritizing Your Time

The key to living a more productive life is prioritizing time to work on your important projects & goals. We all have busy lives but by blocking out 1–2 hours to work on your goals, you’re able to reach success much more efficiently.

This time is necessary if you’re going to become successful at anything in life. You will be dedicating 100% of your focus & concentration on the goals you’re trying to accomplish. This helps to reduce any distractions that can impacting to completing your goals.

It feels like you never have time for yourself when you fail to prioritize time to work on your passions. You must start owning your time & not allowing others to take it from you. The battle for your time starts when you wake up in the morning and blocking out time to be productive can be the secret sauce to your success.

Failing Forward

As we work towards our success and becoming a more productive human, there will be set backs or challenges we face. It’s important to understand that when we fail at something, you can always learn from it. Don’t just give up on yourself.

If people gave up every time they failed at something, the world would be a much different place. That is why you must embrace failure as an opportunity to improve yourself. If you give up every time life gets hard, then you may never reach your goals. This will lead you to feeling like you’re not making progress.

Great things come out of failure when you’re able to identify your weaknesses and learn from your mistakes. The most successful humans on earth have been able to adapt to obstacles — while most people consider set backs to be failures. You can overcome any challenge when you have a strong mindset to get through the rough parts of life.

Remembering You Will Die

Yes it is true, tomorrow isn’t promised & each day that goes by is one that you will never get back. When you grasp the reality & understanding that there is a time limit for your life, you’ll stop bullshitting yourself.

Time is your most valuable asset & the sooner you start to realize that, the faster you can begin to implement the strategies that will keep you productive. This realization keeps me on my toes because I don’t want to be 20 years down the road regretting the chances or risks I didn’t take.

That’s why every day you should be striving to become a better version of yourself & you should always be looking for a way to grow. All the time you spend on Netflix, T.V, Social media etc. could be used to greatly increase your overall productivity.

When you’re supposed to be productive, start paying closer attention to who or what is taking up your time. The more aware you become, the easier it is to direct your attention back to what’s more important in your life.

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How This 10 Minute Daily Habit Can Transform Your Life in 30 days

Practicing meditation for just 5–10 minutes in the morning before you start your day will transform your entire life.

I’ve been meditating consistently for about three years and the impact it has had on my overall quality of life has been remarkable. I’m a very emotional person which can be a weakness when I let my emotions get the best of me.

I have my own inner conflicts in which I need to overcome and meditation is the tool which helps me do that.

After losing my mom a few years ago from cancer it took a toll on me and I went to a dark place.

My mother was only 40 when she passed away — I was 18. It was now only me, my step dad, and two younger sisters. I refused to suffer and be depressed.

I literally remember looking up online — how can I be more positive? This is when I came across things like motivational videos, self-help books, journaling etc.

Coming across content that was specifically made to get my mind in a happier place was a very liberating experience. Meditation has been one of the best self-help tools I’ve leared and it has consistently had a direct impact on the way I experience day to day life.

I try to meditate every morning for at least 15 minutes. When I don’t meditate it can make my day much more challenging.

A couple things happened:

  • Increased self-discipline: When I first started meditating I never thought I’d be able to quiet my mind. The key to becoming successful at anything is commitment to being consistent at whatever you’re trying to achieve. To become better at meditating I made sure to stick to a certain time and committed to at least 5–10 minutes every day. Self-discipline is developed by practicing a habit until it becomes routine. There are going to be days that aren’t going to be your best. Don’t allow negative self-talk to improvements paralyze you from making improving at the skills or habits you’d like to adopt.

  • Less Reactive: I’m not the friendliest person when I wake up in the morning but a morning meditation plays a massive role in the outcome of the rest of the day. I react better towards aggressive morning drivers, negative news or challenges that I face throughout the day. This is crucial for my self-improvement and I’m becoming more mindful of it the more I catch myself. Awareness is the key to any kind of health transformation.

  • More Optimistic: I used to always think the worst case scenario in every situation and I believed it was my reality. By practicing meditation, it opens you up to realizing that negative thoughts cause negative emotions and reactions. Your outlook on life becomes much more clear and positive. It’ll give you the confidence you need to keep moving forward when times are tough. Life is going to throw stuff at you but you’re going to have developed the attitude to overcome any set back you face.

  • Enhanced Self-awareness: Meditation was one of the best tools that helped me enhance my self-awareness. If you don’t understand why you have the thoughts you have or act the way you do, meditating can help you identify why that is. I’ve been able to develop a better understanding of my thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. I believe self-awareness is the foundation for understanding who you really are. Take the time to close your eyes and listen to the voice in your head.

Some of the world’s most successful people meditate routinely.

Tony Robbins, Ryan Blair, Gerard Adams, Arianna Huffington, Tom Bilyeu, Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes, Steve Jobs — just to name a few.

This small but very effective tactic will enhance every part of your life. The key to your success is getting 1% better each day and making progress.

Keep consistent at whatever goal you are trying to pursue and you will improve. Never forget the reason WHY you started in the first place.

What You Should NOT Spend Your Time On In Your Twenties (Or Ever)

About five years ago my life completely changed. My mom passed away from her battle to cancer and it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to go through. That event gave me a real perspective about what death was and how short life really is. I was 18 when she passed and it forced me to grow up and be self-reliant.

The first few months we’re painful because I thought losing a parent was something that I’d experience a lot later in life and I couldn’t understand “why” she died. I was looking for a logical answer. I accepted that the universe had a different plan for me and my family. Personal growth has helped me learn that.

I’ve been on the journey of self-discovery since that happened. It’s been full of challenges, growth, learning, and improvement. The best part is that no matter what happens to you in your life, you can overcome any setback. You must believe that life is happening for you and that greater things will happen.

I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to heal from that experience. I learned it’s a day in day out process. You must be patient with yourself and your growth. My attitude changed from “life is happening to me” to “life is happening for me.” The question changed to “What’s this trying to teach me?”

This journey has made me very self-aware. I’ve learned how to channel the energy from the pain and suffering I felt towards being a leader for my family, developing a growth mindset, being a relentless learner, and putting in tons of hours towards discovering what my purpose is. I will make my mom and family proud. They deserve the world and I’ll do my best to give that to them.

I believe my mission is to inspire and teach others how to embrace adversity and maximize their potential. Life’s to short to waste time on being average or events from our past we can’t change. Tomorrow isn’t promised and what you do today matters the most. Most of us are wandering aimlessly through life without intention or direction. We are the author of our own story.

We must take ownership of our lives. You can build a strong foundation in your twenties by avoiding these three things:

1)Toxic people

I remember the first time hearing “you are an average of the five people you spend the most time with” by Jim Rohn. It really made me think deeply about who I was spending time with and if they were fostering my growth or holding me back from it.

When you’re a negative person, you tend to attract those kinds of people into your life. Positive people hardly associate themselves with negative energy because it’s draining and it can subconsciously affect your attitude and behavior. Stay away from individuals who constantly complain, blame, judge and talk about others.

That kind of behavior is toxic and causes unwanted stress and anxiety because we’re focused on how others are acting rather than focusing on bettering ourselves and our own actions. Judging and criticizing others is pointless because it doesn’t help you grow at all. It will keep you stuck where you are.

You should be concentrating on your personal growth, instead of worrying about the actions, thoughts, and beliefs of others. That just takes time and energy away from you discovering what your purpose is and who you really are. Ask yourself:

Do I judge and criticize the lives of other people?

Am I the one who’s bringing negative energy to my inner circle?

When my friends and family are being optimistic, does it bother me?

Who do I spend the most time with? Are they positive or negative?

Positive psychology backs up the notion that being a positive person has an effect on your success in each aspect of your life. Those who are positive and optimistic tend to get a lot further than their peers. They experience life at a deeper and more meaningful level.

Surround yourself with people who are positive, inspiring, empowering, and that encourages you to go after your dreams and become the greatest version of yourself. These individuals can show you the potential that already lives inside of you; you just have to activate it. Positivity and optimism always win.

2)A Negative Attitude

Having a negative attitude towards life really holds you back from becoming successful and discovering your passion or purpose. Being negative will block you from seeing opportunities and chances that can 10x your success.

Happy and successful people don’t like being around those who are negative because they make life seem bad and it doesn’t bring them any value. Life’s to short to dwell on the negative parts which are why we must be mindful of our own attitude and how it affects others. The way you speak to yourself matters most.

Ask yourself:

When I face an obstacle or setback, how do I react?

Do I think about more negative or positive stuff throughout the day?

What kind of person do I want to be, positive or negative?

Most of us are unaware of our negative beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors which determine our outlook and attitude towards life. We react before we think. If you’re someone who doesn’t think before they speak, then your emotions have control over you. Your beliefs of the world become your reality.

Self-awareness plays a major role in understanding your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors. Awareness gives you the ability to assess your situation and consciously choose the best outcome or solution. This can be developed by daily self-reflection and writing in a journal to keep track of how you’re doing.

The more you understand yourself, the less anxious stressed and frustrated you become. This occurs because you gain a deeper understanding of your life story, your values, your goals, your beliefs and what it takes to become the person you aspire to be. You gain clarity by developing a vision of a greater future.

3)Distractions

The first thing most of us do when we wake up and before we go to bed is to check our phones. Not only does that affect your sleep but it can make you more anxious and overwhelmed. We must be intentional each day in order for us to make progress towards a better future.

Start your day with gratitude and appreciation for at least five minutes. Checking your phone first thing when you wake up increases your chances of being stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed for the rest of the day. Try to think of three things, people, or experiences to be grateful for. To make this even more powerful, write it down.

Being intentional means being aware of your actions and thinking patterns. It’s being able to understand if what you’re doing at the moment is helping you achieve a goal or you’re just having fun. Achieving goals in this era can be difficult since there’s so much information and distractions out there.

Eliminate distractions by being honest with yourself. You need to ask yourself these questions:

How am I spending my free time?

Do I have any meaningful goals set for myself?

What areas of my life would I like to improve and succeed in?

Do I let procrastination and laziness get the best of me?

Am I currently working towards my vision or meaningful goals?

As you develop your inner world by feeding your mind valuable information and insights, you will start to notice the world around you changes. Discovering what your values and goals are in life will really help you aim towards a successful future. Less T.V, Netflix, and social media time are essential to making progress.

Don’t complain and blame others for not being successful or happy with your life, if you can’t sacrifice an hour or two a day to prioritize time to what’s really important. Happiness comes from having success in your physical health, mental health, relationships, career, and finances. Improve each day.

You should dedicate at least (1) hour to self-education. Listen to a podcast or audiobook, read a self-help book, read an inspiring article, watch educational Youtube videos, self-reflect on your goals and find a mentor. You should block out at least 30 minutes to an hour to work on your physical well-being. Having a strong body and an intelligent mind is the key to fulfillment

Blocking out an hour or two to work on your goals and your vision will be the difference between succeeding or not. If you don’t schedule the time to grow, then your time will be owned by other people and distractions which holds you back from making significant life improvement. No excuses, start today.

Remember…

Life is short. Spending time on negative people, thoughts, or past events can really hold us back from creating a successful future for ourselves. Your time and energy are the most valuable thing you own because you don’t get a refund on any of it.

Be mindful of where you spend your time, don’t get to distracted from your vision, and continue to focus on your growth. You always have two choices; struggle or progress. Use your twenties to figure out who you are and how you can serve the world.