Simplicity

Simplicity is something that is odd to encounter these days. We are skeptical of it. We feel that it has to be more complicated than that. We get so caught up with the complication of the process that we forgot the simple reason behind it in the first place. For example, girls cannot simply have one pair of heels and guys cannot simply have one hat. No, we each have to have 40 so that we can find the perfect one for that occasion. Because we all know that if you wear the wrong pair of heels or the wrong hat then the members of the opposite sex will think you look horrible and not talk to you and you will live a life of desperation and aloneness. Let's get real though, many people want the same things. Every January 1st we roll out of bed and make the same ol' resolutions: lose weight, save money, find a new job, be a better wife/husband/mother/father/whatever, develop a superpower and save the world. But what happens? The complication of life gets in the way. That pizza just looks too good. That new corvette that I can't afford looks way too awesome and so on. We spend money on these diet programs, workout programs and equipment, and get-rich-quick schemes only to find out they are scams and never work the way they are advertised. So I want to take this time to cut through all the B.S. that you read and hear and give you some simple FACTS that we all know, but don't want to be true.

Physical Fitness

Fact: Diet and exercise 

WHAT! No it can't be that simple. You also need diet pills, lap band surgery, expensive meal programs, expensive workout equipment, and of course expensive workout clothes. Because we all know that you can't be fit unless you look good at the gym while you are doing it. 

Seriously people, its that simple. We all know what we need to do. Every single one of us. You have to stop eating crappy foods and exercise. If you forget everything else in the entire fitness community and just focus on these two things, I promise it will work. Every time. Its guaranteed. Ask any doctor or personal trainer. They will agree.

Financial Fitness

Fact: Stop buying stupid crap that you don't need using credit and save money

OMG NO! You have to build your credit because if you don't pay a bunch of money in interest to credit card companies then you won't be able to buy and house and you will live your entire life on the street and become a crack addict…

Look, we all want to be financially secure and maybe even wealthy and guess what, the scammers of the world know this better than anyone. It seems like every second we are getting the classic "Make x amount of money working from home and not doing anything" gig in a different flavor. It simply doesn't work that way. You have to be intentional which means actually paying attention to where the hell your money is going. Sometimes having to delay buying something until you actually have the money to buy it. Just take a second to think about what the U.S. would be like if everyone took this advice and used it. Just think about it.

Intellectual Fitness

Fact: Actually go to class and try to learn something

There seems to be an epidemic that has happened over the past 30 years or so. People seem to have this obsession with obtaining pieces of paper with their names on them. They go into tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars in debt to obtain them. After they receive them, they walk out into the world expecting jobs and money to be thrown at them like they are strippers. Only to be met by the reality that employers couldn't care less about what pieces of paper they have and they especially don't give a crap about who gave it to them. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am talking about college degrees.

I was one of those people in a way. I went thousands of dollars into debt to get my piece of paper too. But I realized early on that what employers care about is skills and knowledge, not the degree. And yes, to all my engineering brothers and sisters, they even don't care about your engineering degree. Now sure, some jobs you need to have the degree or certification to get the job. But we have somehow confused this with the idea that the degree is ALL you need to get the job. If you have a degree and didn't learn crap, then even if you get the job you won't keep it for very long. They WILL fire you for lack of knowledge. Don't think for a second that they won't.

So here is a thought, go to class and actually try to learn something about the subject. Forget grades and tests. Just try to learn the subject the absolute best you can. If you come in and hold that attitude, the grades and tests will mysteriously work themselves out. Trust me.

Quality Relationships

Fact: Stop being mean to people. Instead, try actually caring.

This is the modern version of "treat others how you want to be treated". Is it that difficult to grasp? If you are mean to other people they will in turn be mean back. If this happens over and over again you will earn the reputation of being a mean person and people won't want to be around you. I feel like everyone just has this obsession of being "right". Most people think it's more important to be right than it is to be understanding. I'm not telling you to let people walk all over you or be a coward, but there is a big difference between just straight up being a douche and not letting someone take advantage of you.

Here's the deal, if there is someone in your life that you can't find the capacity to care about then they probably shouldn't be in your life.

Career Success

Fact: Come in early, smile, and actually give a crap about your job

I know this is probably sealing the deal of you thinking that I am a lunatic, but stick with me for a second. Imagine what would happen if you actually, legitimately cared about what you did at your job. Do you think your boss would notice? Do you think you would do a better job in general? Do you think you would be light years ahead of your coworkers? If you said yes to all the of the above, you might actually be grasping this very taboo idea! 

Now I know what you are thinking. We've ALL muttered the exact same excuses when it comes to not caring about our jobs: my boss is horrible, they don't pay me enough, the hours suck, they actually expect me to do things, all my coworkers hate their job too, blah blah blah.

Let's cut the crap, you get almost exactly what you give in your career. If you don't care, don't try, and feel entitled to your paycheck, then you probably are miserable at work. Here's the bottom line much like above. If you can't find the capacity to care about your job then go do something else. For real.

Happiness

Fact: Stop putting yourself down and just be grateful for what you have

Isn't this what we are all looking for in one way or another? Almost everything we do in life is so that we can be happy in some sense. But how many people have ever taken the time to think about what actually makes them happy? I am guessing not many. All the things I have mentioned above ties into this one. So I want to take some time to explain this.

I think the best way to understand happiness is to first understand what keeps us from it. I believe that jealously and greed are the exact polar opposite to happiness. I use greed here cautiously because, as of the past couple of years, greed has somehow almost become a synonym for wealthy. This is completely not true. What I mean by greed is basically never being satisfied with what you have. Let's use an example, think about the last time you got a new cell phone. When you first got it you we so excited! You probably played around with it all day and were pretty happy. Within weeks that euphoria has dissipated. A couple of months later you will be complaining of how slow it is. Then when they release a new version of the phone with, of course, a faster processor and better camera… because you were totally thinking that the pictures could be just ever so slightly better. You are now completely miserable with your phone and run out and buy the next greatest one and start the whole process over again. This is how we live most of our lives! Much like living paycheck to paycheck, we live euphoria to euphoria. Something always bigger and better comes along. Jealously of what someone else has (or better yet your perception of what they have) will slowly make you feel like what you have is inadequate. This spans to anything from cars to spouses. No wonder everyone can't find happiness!

So here is a novel idea, lets be grateful for what we have. Lets stop looking in the mirror every morning and picking out all the things we hate about ourselves and instead pick out some assets (women, I am mostly talking to you!). Lets stop thinking about the problems in our lives and start to think about the good things we have. If you are having trouble finding things to be grateful about then go volunteer at a homeless shelter. Go volunteer at a hospital. Go volunteer at an orphanage. See the pain and suffering that people are experiencing in other countries around the world. Think about how freaking lucky you are to even be alive on this planet. You can use the old Zig Zigler trick. You make a list of the things you are grateful for. Do you have your vision? Write that down. Do you have hands? Write that down. Are you able to walk? Write that down. Do you have a family that loves you? Write that down. And so on. After you are done you will have a long list of things that you are grateful for and suddenly you will feel a lot better. It's like…. magic, bro.

Now it is not a realistic expectation to live in some super happy fun land for your entire life and never experience other emotions. You need to feel other emotions. If a loved one dies, I don't expect to just be like "oh well at least I have other family!". Of course not. But I want to average out all my good and bad days to mostly have good days. It's real simple, the secret to happiness is really just being content with what you have. It's not complicated at all.

If It's So Simple, Then Why Doesn't Everyone Do It?

Well that really is the million dollar question, isn't it? We all know what to do. No one read that above and thought "omg! I have never heard of this before in my entire life!". It's supposed to be common sense. But then why doesn't everyone do it? Well the problem is that the IDEAS are simple but the EXECUTION is extremely, extremely difficult. Because you have to be intentional! You have to actually, consciously think about what you are doing. You can't just go do whatever feels good at the time. It doesn't happen overnight and, for a while, it is going to suck. Everyone wants to be fit would probably be happier and live longer. But does dieting and exercise make people happy in the moment? Hell no! If you say that you just really love dieting then you are kinda weird. It sucks to not be able just to eat whatever tastes good, but over time you know it will be worth it. Its like that with any of those above. If you want to obtain success in any of those areas then it is going to take discipline and hard work applied every single day over an extended period of time. It's not glamorous. It's generally not fun. But that is how things work. Freaking get over it.

Most people will read this and think "oh that is some great concepts" and move on with their lives as before. That is fine. It's like the old saying. You can lead a horse to water. You can explain to him how he needs to drink this water to live. You can show him statistics and articles about the benefits of the water. You can grab its head and shove it in the water and yell and scream at it to "drink the freaking water, you idiot!". But in the end you can't make the horse drink the water. For those of you who want something more out of life, who are just looking to be happy and are willing to learn. Try these ideas. Live them every day. Write them down and put them on your mirror. Read them out loud every day. I promise that eventually, you will be glad you did.

Don't Worry Baby, I Can Calculate That For You

Welcome back dear friends! I hope you have been enjoying the articles so far. This time we are going to dive into one of my favorite topics, mathematics. Nothing tickles my nerd fancy more than solving some fancy differential equation or doing some good integral or vector calculus. But as of the past year or so I have been really intrigued by a field that is awesomely impressive yet easy to learn at the same time. That would be the awe inspiring field of Lightning Calculation. Now before you write me off as some freak of nature that likes math just a little too much hear me out.

"Math so hard MF wanna derive me"

We've all heard of the human calculators before. They have been featured on many talk shows and have performed these feats for hundreds of years. Some notable characters you may recognize are Carl Friederich Gauss and Leonhard Euler. Or maybe you won't recognize them. Either way you have probably seen or heard of this before and chucked it up to the fact that they are "geniuses". To which for the most part I would definitely agree. But it turns out that some of these awesome feats are not limited to the naturally talented. Like most intellectual and athletic feats, it can be learned if you have the right method! I like to call this "a chance to make someone think you are a genius". So do you want to impress some people at the bar or at your next holiday party? Join me as we learn to blow people's minds, nerd style.

Magically Multiply By Eleven

Seriously ANYONE can do this one, but hardly no one knows how easy it is. You can easily multiply any two digit number by 11 faster than anyone can even punch the numbers in their calculator much less get it out of their pocket. Lets take 43 for this example. All you do is take the two numbers and add them together and put it in the middle of the two numbers. So for 43x11 the answer is simply 473. It looks like this:

43

     x 11

4+3= 7

Answer: 473

That's it! Lets try one that is a little more difficult like 85x11. Since 8+5 is greater than 10 we have the add the 1 to the 8. So the answer is 935. Here is what it looks like:

85

     x 11

8+5= 13

Answer: 935

That is about as hard as it gets! After you beat the calculator a couple of times they might challenge you with a 3 digit number. Not to worry! That can be easily done too. Lets take 314. Simply add 3+1 to get 4 and 1+4 to get 5 and put them in the middle to get 3454. That should get your audience nice and warm. The most fun has yet to come.

Squaring Them Fives

Now the earlier stuff might be easy to catch seeing how easy it was, but this is sure to shock them and you will be able to do it with ease. All you need to know is your multiplication tables through 10 by 10. Got it? Alright lets get down. Take a number like 85. Normally you would have no idea how to square (multiply the number by itself) without a calculator, but let me show you how easy it is. All you do is take the first number and multiply it by the next number higher. So that would be 8x9 which is 72. Then just smack a 25 at the end of that. So the answer is 7225. Here is what it looks like:

85

     x 85

8 x 9 = 72

5 x 5 =     25

Answer: 7225

 I suggest you squint your eyes and hold your head when performing this to give the illusion like you are actually having to do some serious work. Lets take 75. So 7x8 is 56 and then slap the 25 on there to make it 5625. It's really that easy. Why did no one ever teach us this in school? Some things will just never be known.

"Dude, stop with this madness! You're gonna make me piss my diaper."

Hyper Sum

So you've dazzled the audience with your skills so far. Here's a trick that can astonish even the most advanced audiences. You will need something to write with and something to write on for this one. You can use a bar napkin or something like that and whip out the pen you have on hand like a true math nerd. List out 10 blanks on the paper and label them 1 through 10 then have one more blank:

1             

2             

3             

4             

5             

6             

7             

8             

9             

10            

Now ask your volunteer to write two random one digit numbers in blanks 1 and 2 without you seeing what they are. Then ask them to sum those numbers and put that in blank 3. Then sum blanks 2 and 3 and put that sum in blank 4 and so on until you reach the end. Lets say our first numbers were 9 and 2. It would look like this:

1      9      

2      2      

3    11      

4     13     

5     24     

6     37     

7     61     

8     98     

9   159     

10    257    

Now that this is written have them calculate the sum off all the numbers and memorize it. Now you will tell them that you are going to calculate the sum of all the numbers in your head with only seeing this sheet for 2 seconds. Don't worry! I promise you will be able to do this like a champ.

When they show you the sheet, only memorize the number in blank 7 which in this case is 61. Now remember how easy it was to multiply two digit numbers by 11? Well that is all we need to do here. Multiply 61 by 11 which gives us 671 which is the sum of all ten numbers. You can spout this off in a matter of seconds leaving your audience in complete shock. As they inquire about how you got your skills, have a couple more drinks. If they are becoming doubtful that you are not the mathematical genius that you seem to be, hit them with this last trick.

Drop The Mic

Alright, so it's time to shut down the show. There are different ways to set this trick up but here is the simplest one. Have your volunteer multiply the number 1089 by any three digit number but not to tell you what the number is. Then you ask them how many digits the answer is. Lets say it was 6 digits. So you tell them to call out any 5 digits in any order they like and you will tell them the missing digit. Lets say the answer she had was 278,784 (which is 1089 x 256) and they call out 2, 4, 7, 8, and 8. Now the method behind this trick is that any number that is a multiple of 9 will have digits that sum to a multiple of 9. So 2+4+7+8+8 is 29 which is not a multiple of 9. Since we are missing one number we need to find the next multiple of 9 that is greater than 29 which would be 36. Subtract 29 from 36 to give you 7. Then you say "did you leave out a 7?" to which they will be astonished and you will be the reigning champ of the night! Drop the mic, brah!

Now I must warn you that there is a glitch in this trick. If the numbers they call out happen to add up to a multiple of 9 then you will have no way of determining whether the missing number is a 0 or a 9. So you simply cheat a little. Ask "you didn't leave out a zero, did you?" if they say yes then drop the mic. If not then just say "oh well you didn't leave out a one, two, three, or four, did you? Nor a five, six, seven, or eight. That is because you left out a nine." Glory!!

I mentioned that there are different ways to set up this trick. Let me name off a few:

• Have the volunteer randomly choose a six digit number, scramble its digits, then subtract the smaller six digit number from the larger one. The resulting number will be a multiple of 9. Then continue with the trick to find the missing digit.
• Have the volunteer randomly choose a four digit number, reverse the order of the digits, then subtract the smaller number from the larger. Multiply this number by a three digit number then continue
• Have the volunteer multiply one digit numbers randomly until they produce a number that is 7 digits long. This one is not "guaranteed" to be a multiple of 9 but the chances are very high that they used either a 9, two 3's, two 6's, or a 3 and a six when getting to the seven digit number. Then the resulting number would be a multiple of 9. Continue with the trick as before.

Hope you guys have fun impressing your friends and family with these easy math tricks and maybe even strengthen your math skills at the same time! It turns out that there are a ton more lightning calculation tricks you can learn with a little more practice. Check out this book by Arthur Benjamin called Secrets Of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide To Lightning Calculation And Amazing Math Tricks. This is an amazing book on lightning calculations (it is possible that I have read multiple books on this but I am not admitting anything...) and I strongly suggest that you get it if you are interested in learning more. Check out his TED talk here to see him perform some of these tricks live:

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html

Mind Hacking Your Way To A Better Future

Welcome back my friends! I hope you enjoyed the last articles on finances. But we are going to leave that for a bit and talk about another area in which I have great interest, the brain. More specifically, how to make your brain work for you. Ground breaking research over the last 15 years has changed everything we know about how the brain works and its implications on our lives. Here I am going to go into a truly revolutionary topic of brain research that can have tremendous impacts on your life. Now this is not going to be another boring, detail heavy, long word spouting article that would put any person to sleep unless you are some kind of super nerd like myself. This article should be a fun read and you might even learn some real science!

Emotional Biochemistry Just Doesn't Sound Intense Enough

All scientists and engineers seem to have this complex. We try to come up with the most "smart" sounding names for things so that people think we are smart. So the word they came up with to describe this field of science is... wait for it... psychoneuroimmunology. For real, that is what they call it. So a person that studies in the field is called a psychoneuroimmunologist. What kind of crap is that! I can barely even say that word and it just screams "you can't understand this" to almost every person that reads it so they just say "well never mind, lets read about the Kardashians". This subject began coming to light in the late 1980's but no one seems to know about it because we have coded it with science double talk. This is where I come in as your personal nerd talk decoder to give you the facts.

"I have no idea why I am using a microscope, but it sure does make it look like I know what I am doing!"

I Think, Therefore I Change

Look up positive thinking on google. You will find a million billion (It's a real number, okay) articles on how to "think positively" and be happier and blah blah blah. But I think that all sounds really fake. Like we are just supposed to think positively just because it sounds good. I am a realist. I need to have some facts or justification that is based in reality and not in some "super happy spiritual fun land" in order for me to believe it. So this is what started the quest. Does thinking positively have any real, measurable change on yourself? Whether it be your success in your job, your personal life, or your physical state. It turns out there is so much more that your mind influences than I had ever imagined.

I believe the human brain is the single most powerful and amazing thing on the face of this planet. We have just began to scratch the surface of understanding what it is capable of. It turns out your brain can completely change your physical state and perform miracles that were previously thought impossible. This is where your Neuroendocrine system comes in. We all know that our muscles and tissue are interwoven with our nervous system. Nerves are one highway in which the brain takes in data and distributes commands. So when you want to flex them biceps on the beach with your bros to impress the ladies, the brain sends an electrical signal to the biceps to contract and it also sends signals to many different muscles in your face, mouth, lungs, and throat to utter the phrase "sup ladies, wanna touch these guns?" But one that is even more important and complicated is the role that biochemistry plays in the connection between the mind and the rest of the body.

Neuroendocrine System Explained

So before we dive into the implications that this system has, we need to understand a little bit about what is going on. Aside from electrical signals sent from the brain, almost all other means of communication between different parts of our body is through biochemical signals. These mostly come in the form of proteins (or hormones) through our neuroendocrine system. Proteins are just chains of different molecules that are known as amino acids. These proteins fold in all kinds of different confirmations and the science behind these molecules is intensely complicated. But what is important to you is what and how the proteins effect you. Each one of your cells has these things on the outside of them called receptor sites. The sites are only able to recognize one certain protein. Lets take dopamine for example. Dopamine, as you may have heard, is the protein that is produced when you are experiencing joy. All of your cells have multiple dopamine receptors that only recognize dopamine (and other molecules that have the same active sites). This relationship is similar to a key and lock. The protein is the key and the receptor is the lock. So when the protein and receptor(s) get together, they can actually change the physical state of the cell. This is what causes you to sweat when you are stressed or calls your white blood cells into action when you are sick or causes certain things to happen when your are "in the mood" that we won't go into detail about here...

"Babe, my mind is sending oxytocin to my cells to change their physiological state for you"
"... that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me!"

The Proverbial Mindf$@k

At this point you may be wondering "okay, what is so great about that?" If you are, then you are on the right track! It turns out that every emotion that we experience causes certain proteins to be produced in the brain and carried out through the rest of the body through the bloodstream. Whether it is joy, love, anger, fear, sadness, frustration, or anything else. But the especially bad ones are stress and sadness. All of these emotions cause proteins to be released and intercepted by hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of receptors on cells and changing you physical state across your body as a whole! But you shouldn't just take the word of some random dude on a blog site rambling. Lets take a look at some interesting studies that have been done to prove this point.

Stress And Depression Can Cause And Grow Some Types Of Cancer

Scientists at the State University of Londrina in Brazil published a paper on the effects of stress and depression on the development of certain cancerous tumors. They summarized some of their results in this very straight forward statement "Both stress and depression were associated with the decreased cytotoxic T-cell and natural killer cell activities affecting the processes of the immune surveillance of tumours, and the events that modulate the development and the accumulation of somatic mutations and genomic instability". So translated that means that the hormones that are associated with stress and depression inhibit your body's ability to fight cancer cells. Which pretty much sucks. But no worries, they recommend some treatment "Behavioral strategies, psychological, and psychopharmacotherapeutic interventions that enhance effective coping and reduce affective distress showed beneficial effects in cancer patients."Oh thanks doc, totally get it now. Basically this means do stuff to reduce stress and cope with depression. 

Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02646830500382102

Chinese People Know How To Chill Smart

When Americans think of meditation, you probably think of a bunch of Chinese monks sitting around with their legs crossed, hands out, and humming for no particular reason. Well it turns out that the Chinese have taken a liking to using meditation as a medical treatment and have performed some studies on it including this one. "80 Chinese undergraduates were randomly assigned to an experimental group (integrative body–mind training, IBMT) or to a control group (relaxation training) for 5 days of short-term training (20 min per day). Before training, no differences were found for behavioral, endocrine, and immune measures between the 2 groups. After 5 days of training, the IBMT group showed significantly greater improvement of performance in executive attention and positive mood, significantly reduced stress as measured by cortisol secretion following a stressful experience, and increased immunoreactivity compared to participants with the same amount of relaxation training." So meditation training had real measurable effects on the stress levels and immune system activity of the patients. No drugs or anything else. That alone proves the link between our mental and physical states.

Read more at: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/22/8865.full

"We need to meditate like this more often!"

Heal Faster, Fight Infections Better, Fight HIV...Pretty Much Become Wolverine

You heard me, bro! Stress and negative thoughts can lead you to heal slower, become susceptible to infectious diseases, like HIV and herpes, and cause you to age faster. Now there is a million different products that can treat all of these things but why not go to the source? Eliminate the negative thoughts and you can essentially become Wolverine and regrow limbs. Okay, maybe not that but you can dramatically increase your health by doing so. 

Read more at: http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/57/3/269.full.pdf+html

There are many many more articles about this subject. If you are interested in learning more about this subject then you can do a simple google search of "psychoneuroimmunology", which I will allow you to copy and paste instead of typing.

Positive Thinking Is Not Just A Poster Phrase

So after learning about all of these factors I realized that positive thinking is not just a nice thing for motivational speakers to say. It has real effects on your life as far as health goes. But I still don't like to use the phrase "Positive Thinking". It just sounds cheesy. I like to think of it as "Mind Hacking" because for me it takes a real conscious effort to change your thoughts from negative to positive, but when you can do that and eliminate stress you can accomplish almost anything. Want to start a new business? Mind hack that shizz and eliminate the stress and fear of failure. Want to talk to that super hot chick at the bar? Mind hack that shizz and eliminate the stress and fear of rejection. Remember that stress is all made up. It is not a real thing. You and you alone determine the amount of stress you have directly in your life and it has fundamentally nothing to do with the outside world. But eliminating stress from your life doesn't only help you think positively and be happier. It also has huge impacts on your cognitive and even physical performance!

You Can't Buy Talent, But You Can Mind Hack It

If you think of the world of professional sports there are many legends that seem to defy the boundaries of human abilities. But what separates the best of the best from the rest? Is it money? Fame? Muscles? Family? Turns out that people have done some real scientific research on this subject. The main thing that makes the Michael Jordan's and Shaun White's stand out is mental states of mind during performance.

http://www.dana.org/media/detail.aspx?id=39234

In the above article, brain researchers work with some of the top olympic athletes to determine what separates the Gold's from the rest. They come up with this profound discovery “When you are an elite athlete, one of the best in the world, the physical differences between you and your peers are very, very small.” says Scott Grafton, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Dana Foundation grantee, who studies action representation, or how the brain organizes movement into a goal-oriented action. “So what really determines success? The way athletes are approaching their sport at the cognitive level.” Essentially, the separation comes in the method they use to approach their craft. When athletes are about to enter a stage of peak performance (we refer to this as "The Zone") there are certain sets of brain waves that increase. These are the Alpha and Theta waves. Alpha waves are produced in states and intense focus. Theta waves are produced in states of extreme relaxation. So "the zone" is essentially the athlete being relaxed and completely focused on the task. Conscious thought shuts down and they just let it "flow." Next time you are playing a sport, try it out and see what happens! And if you want to measure your own brain waves, visit this site!

http://www.neurosky.com/Default.aspx

Hope you guys enjoyed this article and now realize how important your thoughts are on your health and wellbeing. Here are some articles to help you on your quest for Mind Hacking.

Stress Management

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm

http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/blissing-out-10-relaxation-techniques-reduce-stress-spot

http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/37-stress-management-tips/

Motivation

http://www.ziglar.com

http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/

PNI

https://www.pnirs.org/index.cfm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R9mD-iJZIg

The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer, And The Middle Class Gets Broker (Part 3: Budgeting Basics)

It seems that whenever a conversation turns to money people seem to duck and run. Here at Advice To Change Lives, we are trying to change that. We already know that money is very important, but more important than that is how you manage your money.

"No, not money talk!!"

Money management is something that should come right after not peeing your pants in public and learning to how to brush your teeth on the list of things that you should teach your kids at a young age. But the problem is that most grown adults don't know how to manage their own money much less teach their kids! And I don't know about you but "Money Management 101" or "Personal Finance" weren't classes that were offered in high school or in college. Instead I was required to learn important things like how to analyze poetry. Which, I can assure you, I use every day. So since school didn't teach us and our parents didn't teach us then we have to do this weird thing called "get off the couch and teach ourselves" for now. Not to worry though! I have summarized some really basic budgeting skills that are simple and easy to digest.

Budgeting Basics

Budgeting your money and setting up financial goals requires some of the most simple mathematics on the planet. Addition, subtraction, and maybe multiplication and division if you really want to live life on the edge. So why does the majority of America not budget and manage their money? Because it is not a question of difficulty but rather a question of willpower. So before you even think about how to budget you first need to answer the question "Why the hell would I need a budget?"

Budget Fo Stuntin'

So why the hell do you need a budget. I mean you have survived to this point, right? You might have a nice car or a big house and all was done without a budget so why even bother? Well the answer is really another question, do you really just want to "survive" financially? Imagine what you could do a large surplus of money every month. Would you give more to people in need? Could you take more vacations? Could you stunt harder on the weekends with your bros (that is a valid goal)?

"Lets budget for our mollies and sweat responsibly, woo!"

Dave Ramsey sums it up best, "budgeting is telling your money what to do rather than wondering where it went". It allows you to reach whatever financial goals you set. It relieves the stress of wondering if you are going to make your bills this month. You will know exactly how much money you have coming in and going out and exactly how long it will take you to get to get out of debt or to get that gold chain that hangs to yo dingalang (just ask 2 Chainz).

Three Mandatory Budget Categories

So now that you are all pumped up about budgetin fo stuntin, where do we begin? Well there is three things that you should get in the habit of doing with every dollar you earn if you want to make this work and become more wealthy and more awesome at the same time: Give, Spend, and Save.

Giving is probably the most fun thing you can do with your money. Ask any millionaire if they give and I guarantee you just about every single one of them does. "But Josh, they have tons of money. They should give! I will give when I become wealthy." I have used that same logic myself for a long time. The problem is that with that logic you will probably never become wealthy. The weird thing about giving is that the more you give the more you receive. So even if you make $7.50 an hour, giving a little bit of that money will not only make you more happy but will make you more wealthy!

Saving for your future is not something that you should hate. But I don't think it is something you should really get super excited about. It should just be what it is. You have to do. If you are young then the money you put in today will make the greatest impact on what you have later. So just do it. The standard recommendation of 10% off the top of every dollar you earn will work for now.

Spending a certain amount of every dollar you make is equally as important as the other two. Have you ever tried or know someone who has tried some super intense diet to lose weight? Like "No Carbs!" or whatever else is out there. How long did that work for? Probably not very long. Because that kind of intensity can not be sustained for a long period of time. Then when they get off of the diet they go hog wild and probably gain more weight than they lost. Trying to budget without spending is like trying to diet without a cheat day. It will just never be sustained for a long period of time. You need to be able to spend some of the money that you worked so hard to get! You just have to put a cap on it.

"We lost 100 pounds on zero carb diets! Then we remembered pizza, soda, and ranch are awesome"

Budgeting Mechanics

So now that we understand why and what we are doing, it is time to do it. This is how I got started on my budget. I use a system I like to call....

The Young Whipper Snapper

"Well guys, the gig is up. Time to find a real job."

Lets face it, electronics have taken over our lives. The days of having reading material in bathrooms is over. We just whip out our smartphones and angry bird away. Which can bring about other issues... ew. Turns out there are some actual smart things you can do with your smart phone like manage your money!

There is an awesome FREE app called Mint.com which goes along with this website: https://www.mint.com. The basic idea is that the website accesses your bank account, credit card account, or any other account that you have and stores all the info in one place. So when I use my debit card, the transaction is automatically imported and categorized. You can change the category of any transaction at any time and then look at real time spending reports to see where your money is really going. The best thing is that you can set up your own budget so that you can track how much you are spending in each category over the month. Here are some steps to get started.

1. Go through you last month's bank statement and categorize all of your transactions and keep a running tally. You can lump them into general categories like groceries, eating out, rent/bills, alcohol, etc. This can be a scary time because you might not really want to know how bad you've managed your money but you will have to get past that if you ever want to succeed financially.
2. Take your totals of all of those categories and subtract it from your monthly income. If your total is negative then be happy that you have caught this in time! If the number is positive then you might just need to rebalance your budget. You might find that some things you were buying were adding up and those items don't really do you any good.
3. Once you have that, sign up for your Mint account and load the online login information for all the accounts that you own.
4. Use the budgeting tool in Mint to set up a more detailed budget of your expenses and financial goals, not spending just yet. Do things like split eating out, groceries, mollies, you get the idea. Make sure you are putting aside money for giving and long term savings before the dollars even hit your checking account. I suggest creating totally different accounts for those things.
5. Create a separate line in your budget for spending. I like to call this the "Get Rowdy" fund. You can come up with your own names for this fund too and leave them in the comments section below. The point of this fund is to spend it on yourself every month. The rule is you have to spend ALL of it every month. You can't save it. If you are saving up for something then put it as a financial goal and budget for it. This is for basically spoiling yourself. It doesn't matter how much is in there just as long as you spend all of it. Whether it is a crazy night on the town with your homies or you walk up in the massage parlor and slam your money on the counter and say "give me the two hottest girls you got and I want to hot rocks and mud bath and that crap you put on people's faces". You are going feel like Birdman but at the same time you know that all of your finances are taken care of. This way you get all of that "I need to spend money to be cool" out of your system while still being responsible.

That is just one of many different budgeting systems that can be used and you can always come up with your own. Most likely the system that one person uses will not be the best one for other people. But like anything else, the principles stay the same. Tell your money what to do instead of wonder where it went. 

Here are some other really good resources on money management and budgeting:

http://www.daveramsey.com/

http://ideas.thenest.com/money-advice/getting-out-of-debt/slideshows/budgeting-help.aspx

http://www.investopedia.com/university/budgeting/

https://www.manilla.com

Well that ends off this series on finances! I hope you guys have enjoyed it and have taken some stuff away that you can use in your own life. Stay tuned for more awesome stuff and remember to go to the link on your right for the Facebook page and give it a "like".

The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer, And The Middle Class Gets Broker (Part 2: Mindsets)

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the first part of this series. We went over some really bad debts and how they effect your life. This time we are going to talk about something that is much more important, our minds. More importantly, our mindsets.

Our minds are the most important resource that we have at our disposal. It is the lens in which we view the world. In that sense, people have found over the years that what separates wealthy people from poor and middle class people is not fate, not inheritance, not skin color, not country of origin, not even fancy cars and big houses (if you have read the first part you should be catching on). The main thing that separates wealthy people from the poor and middle class is their mindsets. Essentially they view the same world that you view but with a different lens. A lens that makes them earn, and most importantly, keep large amounts of wealth. Now none of these things that I talk about did I come up with myself. most of these were in a fantastic book that I read called Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. I strongly suggest you either listen or read this book. It has changed my life for sure. But I will make an attempt to combine that information with other sources and present it here. But first, I must start with a story because, lets face it, everyone loves stories.

I grew up in a fairly upscale suburb in Houston. Many people talked a lot of crap about it, but really it was a pretty awesome place to grow up. This place had a lot of people that engaged in different activities whether it was soccer, football, swim teams, and various school groups and clubs. Pretty much for every single one of these things fundraising is an important and necessary part of that. Whether it was for uniforms, equipment, or travel expenses. So you would always see them doing car washes or bakes sales or selling coupon books and many other things. I never thought much of it until I moved to downtown Houston when I went to UH. I lived in a part of Houston called the Museum District which was a very awkward mix of upscale living with poverty housing. The part I lived in was only a couple of blocks from the Third Ward which was a notorious crime ridden and poor part of town. It was at the busy intersection of Southmore and Almeda that I saw something over and over again that shocked and aggravated me.

Most of the time when I pull up to the stoplight I see the homeless people there begging for money, but sometimes I saw a different sight. It was a little league football team. All holding out there helmets while the dads sat back on some lawn chairs in the median. This is what poor people teach their kids. If you need money for uniforms, BEG ON THE SIDE OF THE STREET LIKE A FREAKING BUM!! I guarantee you that NO wealthy or middle class person would ever let their kids do this because they know that it takes WORK to make money. You can't just sit around and hold your hand out and expect someone to hand you an income. That is not how you become wealthy. That is how you stay poor. I REFUSE to give them money because I will not contribute to such poor education. If they want to stand on the street and sell water then I would buy one every time. I am not just going to hand them the money that I had to work for just because they want it. It turns out that what poor, middle class, and wealthy people teach their kids are vastly different. It all starts with their mindsets.

Wealthy Mindsets Vs. Poor Mindsets

The thing about mindsets is they are completely fabricated by you. They are not real. You can't go to the store and buy some wealthy mindsets. Anyone can change their mindset with a little hard work. Just being aware of the faults in your thinking are not enough to change them. Only determination and constant correction. Lets talk about a few REALLY important ones.

1. Poor People Always Claim To Be A Victim

I don't intend to make this blog be a political debate, but I've noticed something recently. I always see people on my Facebook and elsewhere complaining about the government and how it screws them and everyone else. But I've noticed something about these people. They are either unemployed or are very poor. They always seem to be the victim of some government law or some rogue cop that threw them in jail for "just breaking the law a little bit". You see the problem with being a victim is that if you think you are a victim then no amount of work or effort will get you out of the situation. You will just sit and cry until someone gives you something. Then when you run out you cry some more. This will never get you out of a situation. All situations that you face can be seen through different lenses. One sees "life happened to me and I just need life to stop happening to me so I can get ahead" the other sees "I created my life and I made a series of choices along the way that has brought me to this situation. I need to figure out where I messed up and make sure I don't do that again. In the mean time, I am gonna do whatever it takes to get ahead". Which lens do you think is going to get you closer to being wealthy? Eker summarizes this mindset into 3 categories: blame, justifying, and complaining. Lets look at each one.

Blame

How many times have you heard "oh well the economy is bad right now so I am having some trouble"? I bet a lot. And I would also be willing to bet that it is coming from someone who is poor or middle class. Do you see Warren Buffett on TV going "well the economy is bad right now so I decided to stop investing"? Hell no! Warren Buffett is still out there killing it! He is excited that the economy turned for the worse because he can buy stocks and real estate at MASSIVE discounts. Poor and middle class people spend so much energy looking for things to blame for their situations that they don't see any opportunities that arise. It is really something. They blame everything from the government to their manager to their spouse. The sad part is they are the only ones to blame. And until they realize this, they will never be able to change. So here is my challenge to you. Next time something bad happens to you, either financial or not, try to find the decisions that you made to bring you to that situation. Next time your spouse gets onto you for something say "Honey, I am sure there was a series of decisions that we made to bring us to this current situation. Maybe if we sat down together and figured it out we can avoid this in the future" then make sure you catch them as they pass out from shock. I promise that if you just quit blaming everyone for everything, it will change your life forever.

Justifying

We've all heard it at some point, "oh, money is not that important. Love is what really matters". I want you to try something. Next time your rent is due, go to your landlord and say "hey man, I know I said I would pay you but money isn't really that important. How about I just say something real nice to you and give you a hug instead." He will probably slap the crap out of you and then call security to drag you out of his office. Or go to the grocery store and say "I know I am supposed to give you money for these groceries but, you know, money really isn't that important. How about a high five instead?" Next thing you know you are getting thrown out of the store. Where is the love in that, right? Then you might blame the store and file a complaint because they hurt your feelings when threw you out.

Listen, anyone who says that money is not important doesn't have any. I promise you that a wealthy person will never say that money is not that important. Eker summed it up best, he said "money is extremely important in areas in which it works and extremely unimportant in areas which it doesn't." If you ever hear someone say that again, do them a favor and slap them as hard as you can.

Complaining

Complaining is the worst thing you can possibly do for yourself. Eker says it best when he says that "when you are complaining, you become a living, breathing crap magnet."Seriously, the more you complain the more bad stuff is going to come your way. Or maybe it is just that everything that happens to you will be viewed through your negative lens and will therefore be bad. Either way it is not helping you become wealthy or happy or anything else positive. So this is simple, shut the hell up! Next time you want to complain about something take out a piece of paper or open the little notes app on your phone and write down 5 things you are grateful for. Can't think of anything? Use the old Zig Zigler method. Look at your hand. Are you grateful that you have a hand? Then write that down. How about your foot? Your phone? Your finger? Your eyes? There we go. That is five things. After you have the five things written down, you probably won't feel like complaining anymore.

2. Rich People Manage Money, Poor People Spend Money

Have you ever had a job where you just seem to spend every dollar you earn even though you don't have any real expenses? That was me until my Junior year in college. In high school and college I had different jobs from grocery stores to mall jobs to summer camp counsoler. There was something I always had in common during this time, though. I almost never had more than $200 in my bank account and I would just spend all the money that I earned. I didn't even know what I spent it on other than it was just gone. So like most other Americans, I was always on the search for higher income. "oh if I just got a raise", "if I can just get a couple more dollars an hour", "if I could just earn more tips". That is what everyone is on the search for. The problem is that when they eventually get that extra boost they adjust their spending amount to account for it and then end up in the same situation. This is what Robert Kiyosaki calls the "Rat Race". You're stuck on the wheel trying to get the cheese and when you get the cheese you shove it all down your mouth at once and then run for the next piece. Pretty soon you're 55 years old and you don't have a dime to your name or are in debt. The point is that it is not about how much income you have or what your job title is. If you start to manage your money then you can start on your way to becoming wealthy. A janitor making 12k a year who manages their money and monitors their expenses could have more net worth than a doctor making 500k a year who has a negative net worth. In the book The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley makes an interesting discovery about the median salary of millionaires in America. The median salary for millionaires in America was $131,000. It turns out that only 8% of millionaires had a salary in the $500,000 to $999,999 range. That tells me that you don't have to have giant salaries to build wealth. If fact the results of the entire book can be summed up as "Rich people are good at managing their money".

So here is my challenge to you, no matter how much money you have or make, put yourself on a written budget. That is it. That is all I challenge you to do. If you have 5 dollars then make sure you budget that five dollars. It doesn't matter what the amount is, just the action. If you do this then I can guarantee you that you will find that you have a lot more money than you think and that you are spending a lot of money on things that don't really make you that happy. In the next part I will focus more on money management methods. But for now you can visit this website for help:

http://www.daveramsey.com/specials/mytmmo-gazelle-budget/

3. Rich People Harness Fear, Poor People Are Paralyzed In Fear

If you've read the blog posts so far you have probably learned a little about my personal life. One thing you may or may not know is that I am pretty much a adrenaline junkie. This mostly comes in the form of my love for skateboarding. Many people look at skateboarders and think we are wasting our life away, but there is something that I have taken away from my skateboarding that the average american may never learn. That is the knowledge of how fear works and how it feels to conquer it. There is always a progression through certain stages no matter what the situation is. Lets talk them through.

1. The Idea

This is where you first think of your idea. For us skaters it might be that stair set or that rail or that bowl. You first see one of your friends or a pro do something on it and you think "man, I want to do that!" For most Americans, it is a business idea or a career or a job that you think you could do. An idea of a product you can make. This is a glorious moment. All these thoughts of what it would feel like to land that trick or succeed in that business start to well up inside of you and you begin to feel empowered. But then your mind retaliates back.

2. First Contact

Almost as soon as you begin to experience these feelings of empowerment and positivity, fear comes in and says "whoa man! who the hell do you think you are?!" It wells up inside of you and gives you that pit feeling in your stomach. For skaters, this generally happens when you take that roll up to the stair set or rail and just look down it. All the scenarios of how you could fall and hurt yourself start to play through your head. All the scenarios of how your business or idea is flawed and how you could lose this or lose that cloud all your thoughts. No matter how hard you try to get rid of these feelings they won't go away.

3. The Defining Moment

Then comes the most important stage. This is point where you make a conscious choice to let fear control you or you control fear. Most people will overwhelm themselves with excuses of why they can't do it. "I'm not as good as that pro", "I don't skate this type of stuff", "I don't have the right degree for that job", "I am not smart enough to do that". This is where the story ends for the average. The poor might even blame someone else for them not going for it and then cry about it to everyone until they get something. But the select few might take the next step. They walk back to beginning of the run up to those stairs. You brain goes into full panic mode. Stress hormones are released into your blood stream and you begin to sweat and shake. But then you utter a phrase that has been uttered in probably every instance before someone did something truly great.

4. "F@#k It"

All higher order brain processes shut down completely. You can't think about anything, good or bad. You just run, drop your board, and jump. Inevitably you will fall. You will almost always fall at the beginning. Whether it is that tre flip down the 10 stair or opening that store you have always wanted to open. Maybe 2 people show up at your grand opening. Maybe you kick your board out and do the classic tuck and roll which, I promise, is never as graceful as you imagine it being. But you might realize that the fall doesn't hurt as bad as you thought it would. It really doesn't matter how close you got. The only thing that matters is that you pick yourself, wipe the blood off on your shirt, fist bump the filmer, and exclaim to your friends the sentence that you will say at least 10 times before you actually land anything, "Alright, I'm gonna land this right here".

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 Over and Over And Over and Over Again

Every time you step back up to that stair set you have to make a conscious choice to go for it again or not. When you see your investment into starting your business dwindle down to nothing you have to decide to give up on it or to keep pushing back. To put more money, time, blood, sweat, and tears into it. Once you make the decision, you say "f@#k it" and go for it again. This will happen a number of times before the cycle is ended.

4. The Glory

Bloodied, tired, sweaty, and poor you stand in front of your endeavor for the last time. You drop your board and pop the most perfect tre flip you have ever done in your life, catch it with your front foot, and land it bolts. All of the sudden customers start to line up at your door and buy your products. You start to actually turn a profit and that profit continues to grow. This is when you are hooked forever. You have successfully hulk smashed fear's face off. You roll away from that trick with the greatest feeling that you will ever experience. It is the skater's high. Our drug the we are hooked on forever always trying to get another fix. It is why we take to the streets and grind handrails and jump down stairs. It is why you constantly take risks on coming up with new products or new business endeavors. Other people think we are crazy and have no concept of rational thought. But it is just that we understand what it is like to fight for something so hard and then achieve it. The same thing that any self made millionaire probably felt when they made their first million. We understand that fear is only an emotion that is fabricated in our mind. It can be controlled and focused to make you achieve what average people never will be able to.


Rich people harness the power of fear and don't let it stop them from going for what they want. Now this doesn't mean don't research and do your homework on what you want to start. Wealthy people always make informed decisions. If you aren't informed then your are simply gambling which is not going to make you wealthy. But rich people do not spend a large amount of time educating themselves. They do it in the shortest and most efficient way possible. Poor and middle class people just coast through their life petrified by fear and always thinking about the risk in everything and never look for the opportunities. Therefore they never see the opportunities and just stay exactly where they are. Here is a simple rule of thumb, if you aren't feeling any fear or reservation about what it will take for you to achieve your goals then you aren't dreaming big enough.


I hope you guys enjoyed this post! In the third installment in this series we will go into systems to manage your money and be on your way to becoming wealthy!

Recommended Books:

Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker
The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley
Start, John Acuff