J.M. became a millionaire in the early eighties and today he is a billionaire. We used to get together just to talk and had long hours of conversation. One day I asked him:
'How did you succeed with your business?'
'I played my cards, I took the risk and I won', he answered.
'And having so much money how do you know who are your real friends?'
'There are many who come to me by interest', he said, 'and I know it. I'm just aware of it when I deal with them, my real friends are few, the ones I really cherish.'

The tale of the wise man and the cities

A wise man was sitting at the door of the city and many people came to him to hear his answers and sayings. One day a group of travelers came to him to ask questions.
'How is this city? Are its people kind? Is this a prosperous and safe place to live?'


'I will answer your question', said the wise man, 'but first just tell me: how is the city where you come from?'

'The city where we come from is a nice place', they said, 'its people are kind and the whether is sunny. We can buy and sell our goods with safety and there is music and songs in the air.'

'And so it is in this city, so it is', the wise man said.


Later on another group of people came to him seeking his wisdom.
'How is this city?', they asked. 'Are its people kind? Is this a prosperous and safe place to live?'

'How is the city you come from?', the wise man said.

'The city we come from is gray and its people are unkind. It is a cold place to live and we don't feel safe there.'

'And so it is in this city, so it is', the wise man said.

I lived in a horrible city and I didn't know about it

Image courtesy of [koratmember] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

As you can see the wise man gave two different answers to the same question, this is because sometimes we don't see things as they are but as we are.
The first time I met my millionaire friend I was very young and I lived in a city where its people were not kind, but he never told me about it.

Well, things were fantastic for me at the time because I was experiencing freedom and meeting people that are connected to me for the rest of my life.
The thing is: I didn't know that it was a horrible city and to me it was a wonderful place, and it was!
30 years later I keep the sweet memories in my mind of a city by the seashore, surrounded by wonderful forests, where everybody said 'Hi' to a very young woman, a stranger whom they've adopted so well.

Information uses people attention. An over dose of information creates poor attention and the need to share this attention between all the many sources that use it.

Over information is a distraction strategy. In an over informed world it is easier to get people's tolerance towards injustice or violence. Once the mind get used to watching all kinds of atrocities, the brain won't react as much as it should and it just let go without resistance.

But the worst effect of all is that over information causes a lack of attention and dispersion from the things that do really interest you.

Unplug from television

And unplug from latest news, we are bombarded with news, but we don't need to watch it all to keep up. We are also bombarded with ads and violence in films. This over dose of information has two main effects:

• Distraction
• Consumerism

Small children are plugged into television too early, then television takes the place of imagination and just playing.

Do you have negative thoughts?

Then try this:

• Unplug from rage and violence in films.
• Unplug from tv horror and sadness programs.
• Start your day always with a thanking thought.
• Embrace your family and loved ones more.
• Watch your conversations with yourself and others.

Watch out if most of the time television takes the place of conversation, or conversation is about television most of the time.

How do you use the Internet

Another instrument of over information is the Internet, there are millions of people now connected through computers and smartphones every where. We are in a new era of communication and this is really good because it gives you wonderful opportunities to play, make money and create, more than ever before. So this freedom of information is really wonderful!

On the other side we are also victims of over information if we don't have the right habits. If we are hooked to the Internet while we eat, travel of enjoy holidays. Or if we need to read emails ten times a day.
It is better to be in real nature rather than watch a Youtube video on wild life, it is better to go and drink a coffee with a friend than like his picture 10 times in Facebook.
Most of information on the Internet is free and we think it is always true, "I read this and this on a web site the other day and watched the videos so it must be true".
There is an over dose of reading and watching videos on the Internet, if you do that too much what happens? Distraction and dispersion take place and you miss so many good things!
It all depends on how you use the Internet.

Overcome over information by enjoying your own life more

All those news, films and ads are the stories of others, do you realize? They are taking away the time to live your own life.
All those disasters or stories are not your own: you should care about your own things and enjoy your own life more, so don't forget that over information is living the life of others.
There are people who write history and there are people who read history. So be the master of your life ans write your own history now.
Enjoy, there is so much to be thankful for and so much to do. But you need to feed your spirit from the right sources which is all that is positive, beautiful, makes your life easier and brings you joy. Think about that.
Spread good feelings and positive thinking around you and it will come back to you ten fold.
Let go of every weight, specially those who are not even yours, and that will make your whole life better and make you step into higher ground.

Do you want better results? Do you want to walk on higher ground? Here comes the time to take the risk and change to get your whole life better.

It also means to let go and change your way of thinking and I would say that that's the hardest part of it: to let go, because we hold on to the past to the things we used to do even if there are other things that work better.

Why you are not willing to take the risk?

It is natural to resist to changes because when we change things seem to us as if we were walking on slippery ground.
When it comes to major swifts it is good to look inside yourself to check the deep reasons why you want better things in your life.
Look inside and ask yourself, am I willing to live this way for the next five years?

There is no way back

Photo [arztsamui]www.freedigitalphotos.net

Once you've committed to change you've burned the bridge and there is no way back
because you are focusing on the present and looking to the past only to thank for it and learn from it.
Once you've crossed over that bridge you feel lighter and more free, and happier!

There is always something you can do

Taking the risk is to be willing to change what is necessary to go to a higher level.
If you are convinced, you will find something to do about it, you can take the next step, even if it is a small one, to write the lines of a new chapter.
Are you willing to take the risk to be happy today?

Are you willing to take the risk to develop your skills?

You may know how to write or how to sing, organize events or have a sharp mind for mathematics, but you'll never know about it if you don't put your skills to the test.
You'll get the most satisfaction from having done your best with the talents you have. You know you've walked the extra mile and there will be only satisfaction left and smiles.

Taking the risk means accepting responsibility

This mean you accept success and failure and treat them in the same way.

Failure will help you to accept success and vice versa!

You will see that failure and success are like waves in the ocean, they always come in turn!

So you will get your part from it, but only if you sail your boat away.

To change a bad habit, overcome a behavior that does not suit you, or to adopt a different attitude you have to go through these 3 steps.

If you skip one you just wont make it. Whether if it is to achieve financial independence, become more efficient, learning to not to procrastinate, develop your leadership or make a significant change, you have to go through these key steps.
If you do not respect, it will be difficult to get to it .

The 3 steps to change anything you want in your life are simple:

1. Understand the mechanisms that trigger factors, difficulties and performance.
2. To have the desire to adopt a new behavior .
3. To be willing to make efforts .

Apply this to the domain of your choice and see that these are essential steps. You'll see that if you skip a step, it will be hard to make it.
For example if you want to stop procrastinating and you  "force " yourself you are going to burn because you do not understand what you are facing and you will misdirect your efforts.

If you want to negotiate your salary and you assume that you had a positive opinion of your job last year, you better go thorough these steps before.
To understand how a salary negotiation work, you'll have to change to get it and accept the efforts you have to do.

Step 1: Understand what is happening.

If I take the example of time management  we realize that what works well is illogical. It is often the opposite of the basic advice that everyone gives you .
They say that to be effective you must make a list of everything you have to do. The problem is to listen to people who know nothing about it. The other problem is that sometimes there are people who makes you believe that they know what they are talking about.
To overcome a problem you must understand the key mechanisms and especially those that apply to your situation .
But you do not you need to become an expert in time management to learn effectiveness, you just have to understand the mechanisms .
Triggers are situations or stimuli that cause the problem. For example, you are overwhelmed each time a new project comes. You lose patience when Tom is involved in a meeting, etc. .
These are signals.

Ask yourself the good questions to understand what's happening.

What are the consequences of my current behavior?
When a new project arrives and you feel overwhelmed you destroy the work in progress and your customers suffer.
When you lose patience you lose credibility in front of your team.
You 're committing self sabotage.
Then you have to understand the process with a more broader view .
What are the cognitive processes, behavior and what goes through your head when the problem is occurring? The goal is to "understand".

Step 2: Have the desire to change.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know it's obvious. Who would strive to change if it was not his desire? But how do you change? What is it that motivates the change?
Sometimes we force ourselves when the desire is not strong enough or because it comes from others and we are not really convinced of wanting to change.

Step 3 : Make efforts.

Yes, change will require an effort, that is evident. To make an effort is to commit yourself to take time and money if necessary. To make an effort is to consciously work on that behavior that needs to change.
It is not that you must exhaust yourself or get frustrated about it, but to be aware that there will be a time when you have firmly decided that things really must change and you feel ready to accept the transformation.
What will you do when you'll face the first challenges?

Leonardo da Vinci considered himself as an ignorant man because he had not learned Latin. All the books on science and knowledge of his time were written in Latin and the language of the universities was also Latin.
But he just had a basic education in school, he learned to read and write and some basic maths, nothing more.
If Leonardo da Vinci was an ignorant, how come he created so many fantastic things?
I would say because of these three reasons:

1. To ask the right questions and seek solutions.
2. To take action to end.
3. To write everything he did.

To ask the right questions and seek solutions

Leonardo da Vinci created a new way of thinking, he wanted to know how everything worked and find the answers based on good observation.

Here are some of the questions and answers of Leonardo:

Credit: Janaka Dharmasena (shutterstock)

Why in the distance the mountains are blue?

Until then, the artists of the time painted the distant mountains green or brown and only the sky could be blue when they painted a landscape.
Leonardo said, the blue color of the mountains is the reflection of the water vapor in the atmosphere in the distance. And so he was the first to paint the distant mountains in blue.

What are the proportions of the human body?

The man of Vitruvio drawing are a good examples of his study of these proportions.
You can read all about these proportions here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

What is the movement of water?

For Leonardo water movement looked the way hair grows, in spirals. He said that the movement of water is like the air movement, and that movement is the principle of nature.
His research on movement led him to very important inventions, such as gears and the endless screw, without which the industry and mechanics would not exist as we know them today.

How do birds fly?

To design his flying machines he observed the flight of birds and also the flight of a bird without wing flapping or just planning, hence the invention of what we now call a delta plane.

How does the human body work?

Studying the anatomy and the functioning of the heart he discovered how do the valves work inside the heart and how it directs the flow of blood in the body.
He performed autopsies and did detailed drawings of the inside of the human body. His writings could be classified as the first treaty on cardiology.

To take action to end

Experiencing, sketching, creating and manifesting were his constant passions. The most impressive is the perfectionism, the precision and how prolific his work is. His innovative spirit, the desire to go beyond to find the light like no one had done in painting, to find answers in the fields of engineering and mechanics.
The mixture of art and science in a perfect renaissance man. In those times a wise and instructed person knew about maths, art, literature, philosophy, engineering and sometimes medicine. That was a complete person. Today is the opposite, people are so specialized in one single subject that they do hardly get a global vision of things.

He wrote everything he did

Thanks to the diary of Leonardo da Vinci the Codex Atlanticus along with the other Codex, in which he wrote three pages a day, today we can read about all these wonderful things .
Because he left a record of all his creations, ideas and new inventions, the Codex Atlanticus is undoubtedly one of the most important contributions to the advance of our world.

And if Leonardo da Vinci was an ignorant ... that's what he thought of himself.
And you, what do you think about it?

You know I’ve been thinking a lot lately about quitting my job and there are three things that I need to make clear to my self before I jump out:

1. To know real reasons why I'm quitting my job
2. To face my fears before I jump into the emptiness
3. To quit my job gracefully

The first thing was to tell my loved one that I wanted to quit my job and I was encouraged when I've heard the answer: I see that you stagnate. That was a confirmation and a relief too.

I also had a coffee with an ex-colleague wich quitted a year ago. He gave me real good counsel about how to quit a job and he was a sample of gracefulness all the time.
He told me to get a break as he did by negotiating with the boss to be able to quit the job with unemployment aid or unemployement benefits to which you are eligible right away if your employer laid you off for lack of work.
This is true here in Europe, the thing is that in my case there is no lack of work for me in my company.

1. To know real reasons why I'm quitting my job

I really pondered about this because it is better to know why you are quitting your job before you do it and not find out that you could have stayed when you are in the middle of the process. So I did this little exercise and asked myself:

• Do I see myself working here for the next five years?
• If so, could I progress, get promoted or get new knowledge and new experiences?

Well, the answers were negative and I feel my time's finished. I read once that people do not quit companies, but they quit other people. Leaders should stop managing people and just manage the work to do.

2. To face fear before jumping into the emptiness

The defy is about trusting in your capacity to raise funds in the future, to live and pay the bills and to have more than enough money left to enjoy life.
But fear is paralyzing, it just stops you from acting, it's telling you: you are here so cozy in your comfort zone, no need to stir up things, just quite everything down... hush, hush!
But let me tell you that if you don't act, nothing changes, nothing happens and water get darker and muddier and as the time passes by it becomes more difficult to make a move.

3. To quit my job gracefully

I planned my resignation meeting as I planned my first interview to get the job. I had meditated on every word I was going to say to make it really positive.
I explained that the main reason for leaving was the need of new technical challenge and new projects to enhance my experience as a programmer.
I'm also accomplishing and finishing tasks in the best possible way, I've never talked bad about any person, so I'm ready to quit gracefully, ready to start my new adventure.

When you feel good about yourself everything is easier. Your ideas flow freely and you have creativity.
It seems that creativity needs a good environment to grow, it seems to come when we are focused and we are in balance, when things go well.

But life presents swings, those times when we need to provide more resources, to put more into it and give more of ourselves to overcome obstacles and prove our worth.

How do you react when things do not go as you want?

As the old proverb says:

He who controls his spirit is stronger than he who takes a city.

And this is the biggest test of all: to look deep in the mirror and see what relationship do you have with yourself.

If you want to achieve great things then you've got to be able to act when you do not feel like it or when things are not going well.

• When you take care of yourself leading the conversations within yourself and knowing that to criticize or complain inside your mind is dangerous because the brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time, and you know you need all your capacities to seize the best opportunities.
• When you're leading yourself you have prepared the necessary actions to manage emergency situations.
• When you're leading yourself you accept the criticism and try to learn from it without anger, without turning back to crush the enemy, because you recognize that if you are criticized it is because you are impacting people.
• When you're leading yourself accept praise without ever troubling your sight, just give thanks and keep on going.
• When you're leading yourself you have a plan, you have goals and a vision to fulfill.
• You've got ideas that are out of the routine and do not allow the system to run your destiny. You behold this world as a wonderful place, a place full of mystery and beauty that moves, lives and experiences , rather than seeing it as na hostile and full of injustice place where you can only protest or complain.
• When you're leading yourself you've got the power of anticipation and believe in your ability to create your future because only you have full responsibility for your present, taking the necessary decisions about your life now.
• When you're leading yourself you are acting now, because you recognize the value of an opportunity.

Watch your thoughts, directs your intentions

Our mind "speaks" constantly, it's like a continuous stream of ideas - words that runs through our mental screen. We have to monitor the source of these ideas, whether it is television and newspapers and all the information circulating on the Internet, what do we tell to our brain ?

It is clear that we have to keep up with what is going on, but we must filter all that information and minimize the input to the essentials.

It is the only way to have enough room to listen to your inner voice, or intuition, which represents the true guide in your life.

If you allow the media and the Internet to take up all your space, then they will be your leader.

Intention

Intention are the first ideas that feed your brain when you are going to perform an act, that's why it is so important to monitor them.

And when you undertake something, examine your intention.

One idea is like a seed, is the first idea that drives you to take action. According to your intention, so will the result be.

As I wrote about saving for your financial freedom and the creation of an emergency fund in case of need, where you are creating a savings plan focused on the need, and that is precisely what you are attracting with this intention : the need, something that works against you.

Saving would be like loosing rather than save to create money.

In this case it is better to decide to save to invest or to save for a project, something you want and it will return to you.

It's like creating a blog, I created MoneyAndPersonalDevelopment.com to share all the information about financial freedom and encourage people to get out of economic problems.

Money coaches are in the trends now, and they will charge you many dollars for an hour of consultation, well, just start reading all this free information that will pave the way for you to learn to manage your money and achieve your goals.

A large part of this web site is dedicated to personal development, and that because it is that something is related to the other: inner wealth is the first intention to manifesting abundance and balance in your life.

And you, what do you think ?

Finishing one thing at a time is a virtue, as you work kind of block by block towards the construction of a bigger building. I have a bunch of dear old projects and my "to do" list was growing too big.
There is only one way to get things done:

• Set your priorities
• Work on one thing at a time

I was kind of overwhelmed these last times and couldn't keep the pace with all so many wonderful things I've got in my mind willing to manifest in our real world, but I've just decided to:

1. Finish my first eBook (written in Spanish)
2. Go on to work on my web sites
3. Look for better professional opportunities

It took me nine months to write a 90 pages book, but it wasn't the only thing I was doing, so to set my priorities right I had to decide what was more important and leave the other things to finish them later.

Some times the most important things are the foundation of others, they kind of rely on it. Or they are just an important step for you to climb higher.

Multiprocessing things

But when your mind is really in a creative state, there is a kind of multiprocessing phenomena that takes

Image courtesy of [koratmember,] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

place, and when you are working on one idea in a very concentrated way there just: boom! another one pops up. Just because one idea acts as an inspiration for a new one.
 This is a real quality and a gift that we need to learn to handle and organize it. This takes real discipline at the very moment, because our human trend is to jump to the new rainbow and explore the new heaven right away.
What I usually do is to jot down quickly the sketch of the new idea or the basis of it, so I just can keep "calm" to work on my current one.
Because for the practical manifestation of what you've created you need to finish one thing at a time, once you've finished you can check it as "done", which will give you a great satisfaction.
But if you've got too many open fronts, too many activities going on at the same time your efforts will be dissolved and you'll be less effective and you will end up with nothing in your hands.
Personal power is taking action and responsibility and only by finishing one thing at a time you will get things done.
And you, how do you manage things?

A physics professor calls a colleague about a problem with a student who has just had an examination.

The teacher wants to give a zero to the student, but the student thinks he deserves full marks.

So the other teacher has to be the referee and decide on the problem.

And here's the examination’s question: How can you calculate the height of a building with a barometer?

And the answer given by the student was:

- "You tie a string to the barometer and glide it gently to the ground, then calculate the length of the string, that gives the building height."

This solution gave a perfect answer, but it was not the answer the physics professor expected, so they decided to give him a second chance and agreed to allow him 6 minutes more to find the correct solution using his knowledge of physics.

And the 5 minutes passed by ...

But the student had not yet written anything!

One teacher asks:

- You don't know the answer, do you want to leave?

And the student replies:

- On the contrary, I have many answers to this problem, I'm just trying to choose the best one.

And finally responds:

- You put the barometer on the roof and let it fall down while measuring the time it takes to hit the ground with a stopwatch. Then using the formula: x = gt  / 2, this is the height of the building.

But this wasn't either the answer the physics teacher expected, but the teacher that acted as a referee decided to give the student the maximum score.

After the examination was over, the referee professor called the student and asked him:

- You told me you had several solutions to solve this problem. Could you give me another one?

- And the student quickly replied:

- If, for example, you put the barometer outside in a sunny day, then calculate the height of the barometer, the length of the shadow casted by it and the length of the shadow casted by the building. After a simple rule of proportion we find the height of the building.

- Very good! - Replied the teacher, what were the other answers?

- We climb upstairs with the barometer while we mark the height of the barometer on the wall from bottom to top. At the end we count the number of marks to get the height of the building measured with the height of barometer unit.

And then he gave other answers:

- You can also tie the barometer to a string and swing it like a pendulum. Then you can determine the value of g at the floor level and at the roof level. Then you can calculate the height of the building from the difference in g.

And finally he said:

- There are many other ways to solve this problem. The simplest way may be to get down to the basement and knock on the door of the janitor's house and tell him: this wonderful barometer will be yours if you tell me the height of this building.

Finally the teacher asked if he knew the answer to the other teacher expected of him and admitted that yes, but that he was tired of teachers trying to teach him how to think.

This is a true story, that of Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics in 1922 ...

What can we learn from this story?

Obviously, we can draw many lessons from it, but for me the most important thing is to always seek alternative solutions to a problem! Our education teaches us that usually there is only one solution to a problem, the famous dogma of mathematics ... but it is wrong!

We live in times where we need more imagination (and more action), as the sources of income, the more you have, the more security you’ll get. Here are some more solutions that will likely help you to live in prosperity and ignore the crisis ...

The idea is to get out of your comfort zone and try new things ... If you're like everyone else, you will have the same results as everyone else ...

And you, what lessons do you take from this story?

How can you create the life you want?

Leap forward

The biggest leap forward you can make is learning by integrating and then applying your knowledge.

Because you can read a thousand books and even write another thousand ones, but they are nothing if those concepts don't live inside yourself.

To apply these new ideas in order to live a richer life you need to free your potential just by telling yourself that you can do more, much more to achieve a higher level.
You must remove the blocks that hinder you from progressing in life and go beyond your limits.

Money

The other important subject is money and I am not talking about being frugal or saving money, all that will help you only to a certain extent. I am talking about making more money and creating different sources of income. Start an independent business and work for yourself and think about your own projects.

Making money is so much more exciting than figuring out how to save it. It is so much more encouraging to make 100 or 1000 dollars extra by month than to reduce your expenses by 10%!

Money is not the goal in itself, but it is what serves to measure your economic success.

Self efficacy

It is impossible to live a rich life if it is not effective in the sense that you use your talents to produce value. Instead of letting the pressure of urgency and adrenaline for the last minute to push you. You are the actor and the conductor who sets the pace. Being effective is not a recommendation in our time, it is essential to navigate and succeed while having fun doing it.

If you've ever tried to set your goals, you know what I mean. It is complex to formulate correctly the objective and to make sure that it is really is a goal. And then it is complex to not procrastinate and consistently work on it.

Everyone wants to improve their lives. Some a part of it and some others would change everything from start. However fear is always the hindering element and you might find yourself submerged in a long period of dissatisfaction.

But in your career to financial freedom, what may be the biggest fear?

Fear of losing what you have

I would rather say this the other way around:

It is what we own what stops us, now that we've managed to reach a certain comfort zone where we already have material goods and known situations, for example:

•     Money.
•     Lifestyle.
•     Routine.
•     Social status and power.
•     Relationships.
•     Precious objects.
•     Comfort.

And if it's really like that then the game is over, because you are valuing what you have now more than you could have.


The thing is simple: if you do not want to change things, then why you are not satisfied?

And is really that blocking that in many situations we cling to the conditions or privileges previously gained. So many prefer to see the company go down rather than considering the situation and change things.

I'm not saying that you have to be starting new things all the time and there is a time to reap what you have sown. To rework on what you started and build upon.

Are you ready to lose or to regret not having tried at all?

Have you ever approached to the girl or guy you like, but do not dare to say anything. Why? What's prevented you from speaking?

Maybe the fear of losing the image you have of yourself. Or the fear of losing the image others have of you. And you did nothing (except imagine all the possible negative scenarios why shouldn't work) and there was a wonderful opportunity just for you.

So instead of listening to the frequency of fear, maybe you can hear the frequency of regret in a good way to motivate yourself and act.

The difference between living life to the full and being a complete fool

I'm not saying you have to throw everything out the window and go crazy constantly. Trying to live life to the full does not mean acting without consideration and thinking about your steps.

I'm talking about grabbing opportunities. Be prepared, have a light heart and be ready to go through the door.

Most fears are things that never happen, without any foundation.

And most of all we must not be naive, but daring when it comes to.

The best way to successfully integrate the changes is to anticipate consequences and make small experiences and tests, investigate and give you time to mature.

Regret not having tried is one thing, regret a past situation is another.

    Between doing and not doing, choose to do it, at least you will have the experience.

    Alejandro Jodorowsky.

And if you listened to what your heart tells you, and your heart tells you to not change anything, then do not change it, but it is just not healthy to regret about it.

Otherwise, explore. You never know what you will find!

Many people think that if they put all their intelligence and all their efforts, and take seriously the objectives and values ​​of the company and engage fully into the action they will achieve exceptional results.
Well, this is true and this strategy will allow them to earn more money or get a promotion, but that takes a lot of energy.

They are giving themselves more and more to their work making business life their only system beliefs.
Business life values ​​are taking the place of human values ​​and the place of family life, which is degraded.

Then negative stress begins to appear and exhaustion, health problems and a feeling of being burned-out.
Their mental and emotional system pay the price of the endless rat race.

But, did they ever wonder if life is just about that?

All that effort, years of study and preparation just to find themselves working more and more.

But who will be by their side on their deathbed? The boss? The co-workers? The customers? I think they won't give a damn!

When the working atmosphere it’s your only atmosphere

Image courtesy: [D. Castillo Dominici] /
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work environment is amazing, everyone follows the norms of the business rules that may be established or adopted by the main behavior tribe.
For example, everyone decides that the coffee machine should be in a certain place and no other. Or that no one should have plants  (or that they should have them), or that every body accepts that nobody actually says what he thinks to preserve the "good atmosphere".

In the tribe there are favorites and black sheep and when something interesting happens, a wedding or a trip, everyone open their ears to be informed.

If something less interesting happens, like somebody getting sick or somebody is quitting the company, they listen a moment and then close all their ears so that nothing will disturb the routine and good atmosphere.

There may also be a great teams who complete major projects with a great symbiosis, people who understand well each other and enjoy work.

But in fact, all this is of little importance. What is truly important is that these things occupy most of your thoughts.

You wake up thinking about what happens in your tribe work? Do you go to sleep planning meetings and work projects, wondering if you'd reach the monthly goals?

Change your attitude

You might think about changing jobs to end this situation, but frankly I don’t  think this is the solution, because you will put into practice the same schemes again and fall into the same routines.

The only solution is to change your attitude towards work now and put it in its proper place.

If you receive criticism, listen and correct things. If you get praised for something you’ve done well, say thanks and pass onto something else.

In any case, just put work in its right place. You will be much more effective and creative being calm and balanced, looking at things from the good perspective.
There you can find the answer to your questions, the real path to success, the path that maybe you were expecting to see from a long time ago.

To change our behavior when setting up to work is just to change the way we approach to a work day, the way we make our decisions and how we treat our tasks.

If you want to change your life, your location, your income or increase your quality of life, then it is inevitable to talk about efficiency.

We can change things just to reduce stress, organize tasks by priority and learn to not leave things for later,not to procrastinate.

Effectiveness and money

They have one thing in common and that is  that in order to improve your finances and your productivity you need behavioral changes. But the word "change" creates this kind of resistance:

•      I've always managed well.
•      I do not want to work without stop.
•      Now I have too many responsibilities.

Efficiency and experience

Experience is not necessarily the time you spent performing certain tasks. Some people

"work forty years in the pharmacy and they don't even know where are aspirins."

And is it just the monotony that stagnates them brain. So a good experience depends on the intensity, frequency and variety of tasks performed.

Experience is what improves your quality of life.

How is it possible? For example, let's say if you finish your work at 5 in the afternoon instead of at 7, you can spend more time with your family or on other things that you enjoy doing.

Those who are inefficient miss a great opportunity

It is all about acting and remaining calm to not let the formula one crash, just because we are the pilots on the steering wheel.

It is not about running or going fast anymore, and there are cases of professional burnout increasing frequently.

Calm is the only way to regulate things, to enjoy them, to do them all and the key to success.

What do you think?

I'm sure you've already been in love. Or maybe you are. And at first everything seems to be beautiful and possible. You've got a positive energy that minimizes all obstacles and trials. You feel calm and happy.

This is simply because the magic of the wonderful meeting has filled your mind, and your spirit is full of satisfaction and joy.

So if we stay in love for our entire life, we would be happy and peaceful all the time.

Yes, except that this emotional love state does not last forever, even if we always love our loved one, that first time feeling eventually loses its power and influence and we become sensitive to situations again.

Extend love so it becomes a background emotion

But imagine that you've got, besides the love for your wife or husband, a good life, and that you're surrounded by good friends, and that your children are growing beautifully, that each week you practice your favorite activities, etc.. Then you can maintain this feeling of seamless happiness inside you.

These good things will saturate the brain with positive experiences to install this background emotion of joy to stay.

To do this, we will see four major areas to improve:

1. The activities related our body: walking in nature, practicing individual sports without competition, massage, sunbathing, swimming, body contact with other people, sexual activity, tenderness, good eating pleasures, etc. A long walk in nature or near water has the same physiological effects that antidepressant.

2. Activities and feelings related to relationships: Having pets, enjoying a family, and keeping a good professional and social lifestyle. Practicing team sports.

Productivity and repetitive tasks at work and the time spent in front of screens, reduces the number and quality of these informal activities where we have the pleasure of being together just for sharing.

• It is not the same to hug a friend and have a coffee together than to put a message on the his Facebook wall.
• It is not the same getting a phone call to learn that you're grandma, than to learn it out from the Facebook wall.
• It is not the same to see a sunrise on the mountains than to watch it on a video.

3. Activities and feelings related to the intellect: creativity and arts, learning and discovering, meditating, training, imagination to create new projects and philosophical aesthetical pleasures.

Repetitive daily tasks and handling only known results can cause the reduction of brain connections. Confronting things and trying to innovate strenghts our personality and stimulates our creative side.

4. Activities and feelings related to the spiritual: to enable human beings to rise above their condition, to understand the underlying mechanisms of the world, to connect with something that is bigger than oneself, to discover the meaning of existence, prayer, meditation. In our increasingly materialistic society, the importance given to these elements is mixed with suspected sectarian mechanisms.

However, spirituality is a hallmark of the human species in the animal world and is found in various forms in all peoples and latitudes.

The "recipe" is to create a world in which we should maximize this kind of activities and good emotions. To do this change can be difficult and may have to use som "surgery" (change of job, change of residence, change of husband ...). It is not always easy.

So, go slowly: when I start to not feel good, the right question is "How can I feel a little better here and now", so you can find your own answers right now what is good for us to evolve into good background emotions. This is one of the basic principles of emotional intelligence: to deal with the emotion, and then deal with the situation.

When we speak of emotions we have to understand them in two levels. The most obvious level is when emotions all come triggered by visible and detectable causes.

At this time there is a clear change in our thoughts and body feelings. Then we identify the emotion we are feeling and chose the response behavior.

For example, when I'm angry because the car before mine run very slowly I may:

1. Scream my head off to the driver and wait for the next red light stop to get out of my car and scream even more.
2. Criticize all the bad drivers who do not drive fast enough.
3. Put on good music on the radio and calm down and breathe quietly putting on a plastic smile.
4. Change my way and go to speed up.
5. Try to overtake the car in a more or less dangerous way, and so on.

For each emotion that is triggered by an external situation there is an infinite range of possible reactions, each reaction will have a different impact on what is going to happen (if I knock the driver, the impact is different than if I stay fresh and smiling) .

This is the same for internal triggers. For example, when I am anticipating a stressful situation (a job interview, for example), I feel anxiety, fear, or even a form of panic before the time of the interview, though at this moment I may be having coffee with my sweetie.

This is an anticipation mechanism. Again, from this knowledge you may have very different reactions to adapt yourself to the new challenge: putting things in the right perspective, prepare yourself and practice, seek a coach for training or read books on job interviews.

Deepest emotions

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What is it going to change the way we live and the way we handle each of these emotions?

There are many factors involved, but a very important one is background emotions. In some ways this is the emotional base of our well being.

We are not aware of these background emotions because the intensity of the emotion is low or medium on one side and on the other side because it is at such a deep level that we do not realize.

For example, people with sadness as background emotion are not even aware that most times they will react to situations automatically. If you tell them that the weather is wonderful, they will reply that it will not last.

 If you tell them that the new manager is very nice, they will talk to you about the good old days with the old Mr.. If you give them a new task, they immediately think that they will not be able to do it, etc..

Our background emotions are aligned with our psychic life and act as a filter to dampen or amplify the action triggers.

This process can be very deep inside if it were formed long time ago. If my background emotion is fear, I will filter all events through that fear to feed it and make it bigger.

It is the same thing when it comes to sadness or anger. Then it becomes a prison that inhibits creativity, commitment, change, and adaptation to external reality.

Background emotions work right when we can, at the present, be aware of the deep emotional mechanism which we are living so that we can change things right now.

Then we can choose how to get out of a situation by changing our reactions.

It is much simpler than all that: it is about working on background emotions as we work the land, to dye it with joy, satisfaction and pleasure, and internal or external triggers will have much less control over us and we can stay calm in spite of circumstances.

Manifest abundance in your life.

This morning on my way to work I was thinking: I have to write about respecting money, things like what do you do when you see a 10 cent coin on the floor? Do you bend over to pick it up? Will you lean down for 5 cents?

What if you are in the supermarket and you need 5 cents to pay for purchases? You can not get your groceries home unless you return a product.

And just as I was thinking about these ideas I saw on the ground a 20 euros bill, I took it right away without a second thought.
Of course it was there for me, a new 20 euros bill on which people had stepped on without even seeing it, so I picked it up and put it neatly in my wallet.

Image courtesy of [renjith krishnan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I took this simple fact as a manifestation of abundance.It is not the first time I find money on my way to work, some other times it have been 5 euros and coins too. I pick up everything and I always find money when I decide to change unexpectedly my usual path and cross a sidewalk or walk out of my usual way.

I have an innate impulse that leads me to break the routine, you see, maybe this is why I am seeking financial freedom.

Watch your language

Talking about how things are so bad is a habit that television and the media promote every day.
But you do not talk all the time of your needs and lack of money, not even to joke.
Every time you talk about scarcity and shortages think that you are creating a mental image of scarcity, which ultimately results in real lack in your life.

Speak only positively about your financial situation, if you haven't got money say that money is coming in this moment to you, that you are living the experience and that you will always have money when you need it.

This may at first seem like a lie to you but it is only to create new though habits.
You will soon get used to thinking in a much more positive way and will create a stream of abundance that will make money flow into your life.

Focus on prosperity

Attract to you the company of prosperous people, people who made it and have success. Sometimes that which we hate is what we want to be. And look for symbols of abundance and get rid of damaged or very old things at home.

Do not criticize an expensive product because you cannot not have it at the moment, it is better to buy less frequently and when you buy something it will be a symbol of quality and prosperity for you.

Our modern society is fascinating. You've never seen so many things to buy and so many things to sell, and how are we supposed to react to so much hype?

You can find all kinds of products with all kind of prices. It has never been so many offers, so many possibilities and so many temptations to go to the bank and borrow money.

It is believed that one of the causes of the problems in young people, who are demonstrating destructive rage, is because of ads and commercials. Now, if they are constantly flooded with slogans, images, posters, commercials and whatnot, how will they react?

The first thing they want when they get to work and get money is to buy all these objects: they too want to consume and possess things.

That works very well that brainwashing publicity, eh? Because they want to replace our need of belonging to a group, or a tribe as Set Godin would say, with the feeling of “belonging” to a brand, to push us more and more into consumerism.
And we all want our part, but what does that part mean for us? To work more to earn more to spend more?

Image courtesy of [renjith krishnan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The other day I heard a conversation between two women:
"Ah, this Saturday I went to this and that shop and you should see how I "burned" my credit card with all the purchases I made,"
- And the other woman replied,
"Ah, that is a good thing to do from time to time! "

Consumerism is the worst drug in our society. It's like eating when you are not hungry for fear of not having enough later.

If you become a victim of this kind of brainwashing situation you will have far fewer opportunities to reach your financial goals and moreover your financial freedom.

If you become a victim of commercials and consumerism you will not pay your debts but increase your debts.

You will not have savings projects nor buy financial assets to get passive income or whatever, because you will fall to the temptations that materialism sets in your way.

I have lots of debts and I am a victim of consumerism, what I can do?

Turn off your tv. Just to see what happens for awhile. Watch yourself and watch the others, you will be better off.

The cause of all this is only in our minds and the solution is linked to your ability to separate the powerful speech of commercials from your real life.

The next most important thing is to feed your mind with good things and turning the tv off is  a good start.

Start appreciating what you already have and then make inventory to see how far your lifestyle is linked to consumerism.

The difference between need and desire

Learn to differentiate between need and desire, many people confuse these two, and the more confused they are the more financial mistakes they make. We can say that need is all that is vital for you: food, shelter, clothes (and I'm not talking about dressing in Prada clothes unless you can afford it, of course), the rest is in the domain of desire .

The secret to stop being a victim of consumerism is to find a good balance between what you need and what you desire, if you can spend without counting because you have a cash reserve or savings, why not buy it if you can not afford it?
But if you have to ask for money to the bank to spend on these things, these credits are going to take you straight on the road to poverty.

And you, are you a victim of consumerism?

"And there is no greater waste than a man spend his entire life on the field planting corn to eat. Then one day his body does not respond anymore and he lies down waiting for death to come."

From Don Juan Teachings, Carlos Castaneda.

In his teachings Don Juan spoke constantly of the warrior and the hunter who must have an impeccable spirit accumulating personal power.

Then this personal power is used at the right time and with the right measure, without "abusing the world," that is, without taking more than you need.

The farmer

The farmer is the consumer who works just to eat. In our modern world we are much like that: Working for a paycheck watching the hours pass by, just to pay the monthly bills.

As we always "hunger" for material things, we work to "eat" (buy more things) and accumulate more. And so we run all the time.
We complain that prices rise and taxes too, and that politicians are corrupt and how bad this world is.

We join all kinds of protest movements thinking that we are not like the other sheep. But we do not move a finger to give motivation to our everyday life and change. We do not like changes, change of territory, or change of customs.

Until one day the body does not respond anymore and we just wait for retirement to come.

The hunter

The hunter kills only when he is hungry (buys things only when needed) and has no schedules.

Image courtesy of [Poulsen Photo] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The hunter instinct moves him. He knows where ad when hi next victim will pass by (knows how to seize the best opportunities and take advantage of them).

The hunter travels light and buys few things, but they are valuable and useful things that help him to move forward.

He likes discovering new territories and finding new partners and friends, though there are not that much people were he is.

The hunter is not waiting for retirement to come, because he gets what he he wants when he needs it.
He already provides for the future knowing that his future wellbeing depends only on himself.

... The art of a hunter is becoming inaccessible. Being inaccessible means to touch as little as possible the world around you. And this does not mean hiding or walk with secrets. Nor does it mean that you can not deal with people ... A hunter does not have routines ...

... The life of a warrior can not possibly be cold and lonely and without feelings, because it is based on his affection, his devotion, his dedication to his beloved one: the Earth ...

... Feeling important makes one heavy, dumb and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid ...

... A warrior takes responsibility for his actions. Even the most trivial. An average man never takes responsibility for what he does ...

(More quotes from Don Juan)

And you, are you a farmer or a hunter?

Throughout this adventure of getting financial freedom is very important to consider your time management and personal effectiveness.
At the end of the day when you review all you've done, do you reach all the goals you had intended to reach?
You may have reached some, or all of them?
Let's see what may keeps you from being effective.

1. Watching TV.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles www.freedigitalphotos.net

Television is the number one cause of wasting time. Do you spend two hours a day in front of the TV screen?
Two hours a day of TV make 760 hours a year, about four months of work, ah!
Of course you can enjoy a good film or an interesting program every now and then, but when television fills in all your spare time you are putting your dream factory in the hands of the silly box.

2. People.

Social relations are necessary, but sometimes we have to analyze our relationships, especially at work, analyze the time you give to them not only in words but on thought too.
So ask yourself:

• What effect has this relationship on me? 
• Is it inspiring? 
• Am I wasting my time with someone who only seek all my attention? 
• What's in it for me?

The attention you pay certain people may be stealing the time from what really interests you and may be blocking your way and clouding your inspiration.

3. Transportation time

Every day I see in transport people hooked to smartphones or consecrating the first thoughts of the day reading the crappy free newspapers.
Our modern society is the victim of the phenomenon iPhone and other gadgets that engage you in social networking, another invention necessary for communication and very good, but you must limit the time you spend with it if you want to progress and move forward.
When you are in transport you can read something that will help you learn how to attain your goals.
In my case I write, I always carry over a notebook and pen and almost every article you read here I've started in a train, then the night I finish it with the computer.

4. Physical condition

At the end of the day you are exhausted, the week has been crazy and your menus are McDonnald based with zero physical activity.
But try something else for a week, try to eat healthy and exercise even just a fast walking for half an hour every day. Try to avoid stressful situations anticipating events.

5. Negativeness

The day begins with a troubled meeting with your boss and ends with troubled night discussing with your partner ..
Who can think of alternative projects, creative ideas and get anything constructive done in these conditions?
But you’ve got to think positive and move on. Stop discussions on problematic issues and goes to something else, take the problems as if they were your challenges and you a searcher for solutions.
Lighten your weight and keep on going on.

There are many people in crisis. They are far away from contact with nature and living in soulless cities.
People holds onto individualism, questioning themselves if it is useful to go to work everyday.
A life without values, without ideals and without goals generates a psychological disaster, but finding and making sense of your life will make you emerge and experience life differently.

Let's see how we can find support to make sense of your life.

Create

We come into this world to create and we all have this constant desire within us. It is the desire to invent, produce and give life to something. Creativity produces happiness, it is a feeling of fullness and an indicator that shows that we are on the right track.

Creativity can manifest itself in all its forms, not just in the artistic way but in every area of our lives, when we create a family, a business, a lifestyle, buildings, adventures, projects .. this is what excites us, this is what we all like.

But when you spend hours and hours in front of the screen, you let the TV think for you and taking the power over your dreams factory.

Contribute

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

According to Seth Godin humans are organized into tribes and we are living in the age of collaboration. We tend to to be part of something, to add value and render service for a better world.
So we can be useful when we are part of something bigger than ourselves and we are all united, eve if we don't see it.

But now, at the end of the industrial age, we need to communicate and collaborate more than ever.

Grow

Growth is learning all the time, work on your personal development  and what yesterday seemed impossible it is possible for you today.
Learn to control your emotions and gain a sense of peace independence from external circumstances.
Learning is acting, daring, innovating and improving.

The lack of meaning in life leads to a sense of existential emptiness, apathy or useless aggressivity . Because it's like your life was like a boat with no direction and that are external circumstances that control everything.

If you want to be different, listen to these counsels on how to make sense of your life.

Want to live a full life? Would you like to be satisfied and happy?

What do you think?