The 5 Most Important Lessons From How To Win Friends & Influence People (Book Review).

Today I want to share with you the 5 most impactful points from How To Win Friends And Influence People.  After reading the book a second time through, I had approximately 40+ different key lessons marked in this book and narrowed the most important lessons down to 5 points that will change your life for the better.

Appreciation.

Carnegie states that "One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation."  This struck as the first big lesson to me while reading the book.

Think of how easy it is to see when someone messes up, and notice that individuals flaws.  But on the flip-side, how often do you notice when those same people around you do something great?  On top of that, how often are you appreciating their success?

Appreciation is something most people neglect in their lives that is dramatically holding them back when it comes to influencing people.

The first thing you MUST start doing is focussing on when those around you do something well and giving them appreciation for it, instead of being focussed on something they did wrong.

Look at the other persons point of view.

I have talked on this same subject in the past, but I feel I must continue to say it, not just as a reminder to you but also as a reminder to myself.  It seems as if everyone has trouble putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

We are all mostly consumed with how we feel rather than looking at the other persons point of view.  The second you get out of your own mind and feel for someone else it will be much easier for the 2 of you to connect on a deeper level.

Of all 5 lessons on this blog, this one will probably be the hardest to learn because it is always easier to see things from our own perspective rather than someone else's.

Make the other person feel important.

In the book one of the main points that really stuck out to me was to make the other person feel important.  Dale Carnegie states something that Andrew Carnegie did when he, and George Pullman "were battling each other for supremacy in the railroad sleeping car business."

Carnegie had decided to try to work together with Pullman and merge their interests, instead of working against each other.  But what got Pullman to give Carnegie a chance on the merge, wasn't only that Carnegie wanted to work together with him, but by the fact that Carnegie was going to name their company "The Pullman Palace Car Company".

Who wouldn't want someone to name something of great importance after themselves?  Wouldn't you feel important if someone was to do this for you?

I cannot express how important this point is for the relationships with people that you care about.  You don't have to do something as big as naming a company after someone else, but you could do something as small as giving someone a surprise gift to show them that they are important to you and have importance in your life.

End hatred with love.

"Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love" - Buddha

Today many of us, when presented with an argument with someone will try to argue back, which in turn only escalates the situation.  We can argue and scream and yell all we want but usually all that will do is make matters worse.

If you are trying to get your point across by arguing with someone else, they will never want to see your point of view.  Carnegie states that you could be 100% in the right about the situation but if you argue and argue, the other person will still never want to connect with your point of view.

Instead if you start to first put yourself in his or her shoes and sympathize with him or her, then they will be more likely to start to see where you are coming from and may even agree with you completely in the end.


Change "but" to "and".

This last lesson from the book is one of the biggest takeaways I have found out of all the books I have read so far in my life.

Carnegie says "that many people offer their criticism with a sincere phrase followed by the word 'but' and ending with a critical statement."

As an example he uses what parents might say to change a child's careless attitude toward his studies.

"We're really proud of you, Johnnie, for raising your grades this term.  But if you had worked harder on your algebra, then the results would have been better."

Instead if they were to say, "We're really proud of you, Johnnie, for raising your grades this term, and by continuing the same conscientious efforts next term, your algebra grade can be up with all the others."  How do you think Johnnie would feel?

By giving a complement followed by the word "but" it is kind of a slap in the face to the person we are talking to.

The example with Johnnie will be able to work for everyone because every single person likes to feel encouraged when they do something good in their life. The encouragement with the word "and"  will then lead to that person continuing to believe in themselves, and will help them to know that they are improving.

Closing thoughts.

I hope you gained massive value from the 5 most important lessons from How To Win Friends & Influence People!  This book is by far one of the must read books if you are someone who wants to get better at interacting with the people around you.

If you have read the book already, be sure to comment a lesson that I may have left out that you found to be impactful in your life.

If you haven't read the book yet, which of these lessons stuck out the most to you, and how will you implement that lesson in your life today?

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

If you would like to get your very own copy of the book, or if someone you know would love this book as a Christmas gift, click the link below!

The Importance Of Always Testing New Things In Life.

Today I wanted to share with you the idea of always testing the waters in your life.

What made me think of this topic today, was how I decided to start to implement compound exercises and workouts into my routine again.

In the past, I have noticed that by doing compound exercises it worked great for strength gain, but not muscle mass.  Now after about 6 months of only doing a few compound exercises per week, I am going back and testing the waters of focusing mostly on compound exercises and seeing if they are going to work better for me while bulking and bodybuilding.

The real topic of this blog isn't about me and going back to compound exercises, but rather about how testing different things in your life can be beneficial to your personal growth.

Maybe there are things in your life that you have tried before that haven't worked, but now that you have grown these same things that didn't work in the past might be extremely beneficial to you where you are now in life.

How can testing new things positively impact your life?

As an example, lets say you are currently working out and are noticing that you have hit a plateau.  Even though the routine you were using may have been beneficial to you in the past it isn't working right now in your life. 

By testing a new workout routine or program you will be able to test and find what type of routine is going to work best for you right now in your life.

Obviously this is just one example of how trying something new can benefit your life.  This concept can apply to pretty much any area of life to help you achieve the goals that you have set yourself to achieve.

As a bonus it also adds a sense of joy since you are trying something new and exiting.

Closing thoughts.

I hope you gained massive value from reading this short blog today.  I have noticed that testing the waters in our lives can have a huge impact on our personal growth in life, and can also affect how fast that personal growth can happen.

I recommend you use this strategy if you feel like you have hit a wall in certain areas of your life, and to switch things up.  Yes getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new can be scary at times, but it is required for your success.

3 Ways To Get Your Motivation Back.

Today I am feeling like sharing something that I deal with at least once a week and you may be dealing with as well.  This is the topic of not being motivated, or to be motivated to do something, but not knowing what that thing is that you should be doing.

Maybe on a day like this you are taking action on something, but it doesn't feel like enough, so you feel as if you are just hitting a brick wall all day and what you are doing is meaningless.

Over the past few weeks I have discovered some strategies that may work for you to make the best of these types of days!

Take a break day.

The first thing that usually always works for me on a day when I feel like I'm hitting a wall is by taking a day where I allow myself to not have to accomplish anything at all.  For whatever reason it seems as if this will allow you to take a breathe and relax for a bit, which will help you get reentered on your goals.

On days when I feel I need to take a break day I like to watch some TV, take a long walk, read, play games, do some photography, or meditate.  These activities may allow you to take a good breather and be ready for the next few days ahead of you and may even help you to not get burnt out as easily.

Know yourself.

Secondly knowing yourself and what works best for you is one of the most important things in determining what you should be doing on a day when you are feeling stuck.  Are you someone who needs that break day to just relax and take the day easy, or would working on your goals and pushing through that feeling work better for you?

Everyone is different and not everyone reading this will need to take that break day every once and while.

Knowing yourself in this situation is one of the best ways to get a clear mind on what you should do when you are feeling like you are hitting a brick wall.

Watch or read something inspiring.

Lastly what seems to work best for getting re-centered when you feel you are hitting a brick wall is to read or watch something that will inspire you.  The content that I have found that works best is by studying people that are where you want to be or that motivate you.  Watching videos about successful people and their life, will usually put me in a higher mind state pretty quickly.

This should be a huge factor in helping you feel motivated again because you will be surrounding yourself with someone playing at a higher level in life, which in turn will bring you up to their way of thinking.  I have also noticed that by learning from people who not only think big, but also do big things in life it will help us do the same and get re-aligned with why we are doing what we are doing!

Closing thoughts.

I wanted to write this blog today because everyone reading this has days where they feel stuck and unmotivated and it can really be aggravating when you are trying to get things done that will improve your life.  I have also been struggling with this a lot over the past few months and have found these 3 lessons to be what work best for me, and  I hope by applying them, they work wonders to your life as well!

Live your life to the fullest,
Brian

Celebrate Your Progress No Matter How Small.

The idea for this blog came about last weekend when I was doing some cleaning around the house and ended up finding one of those body tape measures that you use to wrap around different body parts to see if they are growing or shrinking.

Just for fun I decided I was going to see how much my arms and legs have grown since the last time I measured them (I believe 6 months - 1 year ago).  To my surprise I have put on a whole inch of muscle to my arms, growing from 11 inches to now 12 inches, and I believe about 2 inches of muscle on my legs.  Although I still have a long way to go to get where I want to be in terms of muscle mass I am very happy to see progress in my muscle growth.

What does this mean for you?

When you start out on your journey, most likely the only way for you is to go up.  Maybe right now, with whatever path you are on, you are looking up to being as good as the influencers in your area or you may even want to go beyond them!  But sometimes starting can be very scary and hard because you are so far from where you want to be.

But when you start to move towards where you want to be and reward yourself for every little success you have, you will be able to embrace your journey and have fun in the process of getting to where you want to be.

I love the analogy of the baby learning to walk.  When you were a baby learning how to walk, you fell down a countless number of times.  But you and your family never got mad when you fell.  Instead everyone was happy when you could get one step before falling, then 2 and 3 and so on!

If you treat yourself making progress toward your goal in this same way, you will notice how much easier it is to keep going and striving for success.

Closing thoughts.

What is it that you really want to do in life, but feel like you can't do because you aren't "good enough"?  The first step is to start, then over time you start to become alright at your skill, then good, then great, then hopefully you even become one of the best if not the best in your area.  But it all starts with making progress each day and rewarding yourself for your progress and achievements!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.5 in. Touchscreen Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB Review.

I wanted to make today's post for those of you that are looking into laptops that would be an ideal fit for work, travel, video editing etc.  The computer we will be talking about to is the Microsoft Surface laptop.  I share what I like about the computer and what I don't.  I don't want to just name off some pro's and con's but instead, I would like to give you a more personal honest review on the Microsoft Surface.

I have been using the computer for about 5 months now and thought it would be a great time to make a review about it.

Also not being the biggest computer geek, I will be making this review as simple as possible.  Because you are also probably only reading this to decide whether or not this computer is for you and you don't care about every little spec of the computer.


What I like about the Surface Laptop.

The design / quality: The Surface Laptop has one of the best designs out there in my opinion.  I have the cobalt blue laptop, which gives the computer a sleek, modern look/feel.  It is also very portable and lightweight.  When comparing it to my MacBook Pro (I have the 2015 MacBook) for the most part it feels like a more luxurious computer, and that is because of the alcantara keyboard.  Being a guy that loves luxury and exotic cars, it is very important that the products I invest in use high quality materials. Microsoft could've saved some money by just using a full metal casing for the whole laptop but instead they knew that using a high quality material would make their customers feel just that much more comfortable while typing which I think is a great touch to a laptop (plus the alcantara just feels extremely nice to touch!)

The battery life:  I notice that the battery life on this laptop is insane,  I can charge the computer about once a week or even every 2 weeks (depending on how much I use it and what I use it for)  And even in its highest performance mode with the brightness all the way up I don't even have to worry about the computer dying on me.

I usually only use the Surface for editing thumbnails, writing blogs, and watching YouTube, and every once and a while for video editing (which we'll talk on later).  Although editing video did drain battery faster than anything else it wasn't too dramatic on battery life.

Overall for what I use the Surface for battery life is great, and I am very happy with it!

The touch screen:  This is one thing that really surprised me when I started using the computer.  I never thought I would be including this in the blog, but for some reason or another I am really starting to love the touch screen.  Although it isn't my "go to" for most tasks, it is very useful for getting around the computer fast or scrolling through something I am reading.  It also seems to stay pretty clean even when I am using it a lot.

Currently I don't have the pen that Microsoft sells for its touch screen devices, although I think it would be a great investment for those of you that are photo editors, or work on art on your computer.  For now using my fingers with the touch screen works perfectly fine.  And although this isn't my favorite point about the computer, I am surprised at how much I actually use, and like this feature!

What I don't like about the Surface Laptop.

Video editing:  Although I am not the greatest video editor, I have had a few years of experience with using iMovie (the free video editing software on the MacBook Pro).  It is by no means the best video editing software out there but I find that it is very easy to use.

Now on the Surface, I have tried using Adobe Premier, and the free version Davinci Resolve, and for one reason or another they just didn't make sense to me.  Even the stock video editor on Windows isn't the best for editing video IMO.

This is the biggest complaint I have about the computer.  Obviously it is just personal preference, and you may enjoy editing videos on the Surface (especially if you are a professional video editor). 

The screen:  Although the screen isn't terrible by any means, and compared to most computers it is phenomenal, I noticed that when I would edit 4k video, it always looked sharper on my MacBook Pro. I know this isn't the biggest thing in the world to complain about, but I wanted to add this in the review to be honest about what I think of the screen and the computer as a whole.

Closing thoughts.

All around the Surface Laptop is a great computer.  I actually had a hard time coming up with the things I don't like about it.

For the money, you do get more bang for your buck than its main competitor (the MacBook Pro) but if you are going to start editing video, it may not be the best computer for you.

However if you want a great all around computer for everyday work and tasks, it would be the better choice IMO.

If this review was informative to you, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop sounds like a fit for you click the link below to go check the Surface out for yourself!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Healthy Bulking On $10 Per Day Challenge.

I want to start off this blog by stating that I am only going to do this challenge as a sort of experiment.  This is not really my normal challenge to try, but I thought it would be a fun experiment to see if I am able to gain muscle on about $10 per day.

Hopefully this will even act as motivation for you to start bodybuilding / bulking with whatever budget you currently have!

In this blog I also wanted to share with you a few different tips on making this $10 per day challenge easier for you each and every day.



This isn't a blog on living poor, or having a poor mindset.  I am doing this challenge to save money, but also as a way to discover more healthy, tasty, cheap foods / meals.

A little backstory.  This is something I don't talk about that much, but I love amazing foods.  This is great for making meals and eating well, but it can be quite pricey.  In fact I was spending a good chunk of my paycheck on food.  Which is good and bad, its good in the sense that I am able to invest in my body with some of the best food, its bad becase I was shelling out probably around $500+ per month alone of food.


Intermittent fasting.

The first tip that will help you the most is to start intermittent fasting.  If you have been following my blog or YouTube channel for a while, you know that I do intermittent fasting nearly everyday.  I usually am not that hungry until later in the day, so it works out perfect if you are someone who isn't hungry early in the morning like myself.  

However if you want to start intermittent fasting, then it will take a couple weeks to get used to if you have never done it before.  But if your goal is to eat cheaper on a daily basis and save money on food, then it will be well worth the effort.

Start to cook for yourself.

This is probably one of the hardest parts of eating cheap, but IMO it is the second most important.  Think about it, if you always eat out how much more money do you end up spending?  Most likely this number is going to be too much to count.

If your really want to eat cheap, eating out will not be worth it.  It may be convenient, but you also don't know every ingredient that they put in the food.  The great thing about cooking for yourself is that you can control what goes in your food.

But if you are like me, you love eating at Chipotle.  I admit Chipotle is one of my favorite places to eat, but I could easily spend between $9 and $12 on a bowl alone there.  Although Chipotle or other restaurants may be filling the money it costs isn't worth it if you are trying to eat on a budget. 

Using brown rice and an affordable source of protein.

Staying around $10 per day can be very hard to do for anyone.  We can get around this by eating healthy and cheap foods such as, chicken, beans, brown rice or white rice, cod, or pork.  By making a meal with a good source of protein along with brown rice, it will be easy to stay around that $2-3 mark per meal!

As I am writing this section I also remembered one food that is a very high source of protein and cheap.  Lentils, are a great way to eat healthy on a budget and are very filling.

makes you resourceful.

This challenge will also help you think outside the box.  I have been eating on $10 per day for a little over a week now, and I have noticed that I am not as much in a routine of eating all the same foods for every meal.  Although there is still some of the same things I eat,  there are many new cheaper foods I am trying that are healthy.


Create a safety net.

One of my biggest reason I am doing this challenge is because I was spending a ridiculous amount of my money on food.  Although I could still save some money, I noticed this to be a bad habit of mine.  I would literally buy great tasting health food just because I had the money to do it.  Although health is very important, I don't believe you should spend all your money on food.

I have been building a safety net over the last few months, but I know I can create this safety net much faster if I am able to stop spending so much money on food.  If you are spending most of your money on food, start to look at what foods you are eating on a daily basis that you could switch out for something cheaper.  As an example, for me it was chipotle, which I could just switch out with some brown rice and some kind of protein.  What is it for you?  What can you switch out and replace?

Closing thoughts.

I hope this has been a huge help to you, if you are having trouble saving money on food.  It is very hard for many people to not spend lots of money on food, and by making this choice to do this challenge you are breaking yourself out of the excessive spending habit!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

The Power Of The Language We Use.

Something that I have come across lately was how I was using my language to either uplift or degrade myself and others.


I realized that if I was truly going to start to grow and take massive action to get to where I want to be in my life I would have to change the way I talk.


I first started noticing myself using language such as "I can't" while working out when I was starting to get to a rep or weight that was "too hard" to lift. This in turn became true, by saying I can't do one more rep, I wasn't able to.


Rather, if I switched to saying to myself "I can" or "give it your best shot" I could usually lift the weight one time if not more, and worse case I would give it my best and end up doing a half rep.  Either way, I pushed and gave it that little extra effort which in turn made me feel better.


Another big game changer for me was in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, where the author says "Instead of saying to yourself 'I can't afford something', ask yourself 'how can I afford this?'"


So what does this mean for you?  I want you to start to notice where you are using language that isn't helping you become your best version.  Start to really dive deep into how it makes you feel on a daily basis, and how using this language is holding you back instead of helping you move forward?


Once we get used to using language against ourselves or others, it usually turns into a downward spiral from there.  We start to become attracted more and more to using this type of language.


But the oppposite is also true, if we use language that is empowering to ourselves and others we will start to notice an upward spiral.  Sure part of this is positive thinking, but 99% of this is because you are seeing yourself and others in a positive light.  By using positive language you will start to shift your brain to see all the ways that you can do great for yourself and others everyday.


You will no longer have to live life in a state of negativity.  Although the language you use won't get rid of all of your problems, it will help you get rid of some of your problems.


Before I end this I wanted to give you an exercise to try that will help you shift your language from negitive to positive first thing in the day.


Tomorrow when you wake up (if you are reading this when I publish this blog) it will be Monday morning.  I know, the day everyone dreads with a burning passion. 


I know that most likely every Monday you wake up, you probably say to yourself "oh great another Monday and week to get through.  Now what I you changed tou view and language on Monday just a little bit?  I'm not even saying you have to love Mondays, but what if there was something simple that could help you feel a little better about them?  Would you give it a try and see if it made not just your Monday, but week as well a little bit better?  You bet you would!


So here it is, (as a disclaimer this is something I have heard others say that are living great lives and something that really stuck with me since I heard it) what if tommorow when you wake up you say to yourself how greatful you are to be alive another day, not just that but another week!


If you wake up in a state of gratitude tomorrow morning and every other Monday for that matter, how much better are your weeks going to be? By changing your language early in the morning it will help set the course for the rest of the day and week!


Closing thoughts.


I hope that this read has been extremely helpful for you in changing the way you speak in your daily life.  I know first hand that we can either speak in a empowering or disempowering way, and the language that you use will make a dramatic difference in how you live your life.  Whether it be for you achieving goals, or influencing others, the words you use on  daily basis are one of the most important things that will help you become the person that you want to be in life!

Live your life to the fullest,
Brian

Feeling Bad For Gaining Fat While Bulking.

If you have been following me over the past couple months you know that I have been working on bulking to gain as much muscle as I possibly can by the end of this year.  So far I am making pretty good progress on my muscle gains, but I have also been gaining some fat in my belly area.  Although I probably only gained a couple pounds of fat, I have kind of been feeling bad and discouraged because of it.  My goal is to be 135 pounds and lean (8-12% bodyfat) by December, so by gaining fat, I feel as if I will gain the muscle I want, but will have trouble dropping the fat that I need to drop.

Maybe you are experiencing a similar problem with your bulk.  I really wanted to make this blog to help and guide you if you are in the same boat.  So here are a couple tips that will help you along the way of your bulk!

Keep your focus on the end goal.

The first step in helping you is to focus on where you want to be instead of focusing on where you are right now.  If you want to be a certain weight, focus on that rather than focusing on where you are.  By focusing on where you want to be you will train your mind to visualize it and work on making it a reality.

This mindset will also help you not beat yourself up for where you are.  This is actually the biggest reason I am writing this blog right now.  For a couple weeks I was focusing on the fat I gained (although not much) and how it bugged me to be gaining fat while bulking.

As of last week I have shifted my mindset to focusing on my end goal, which is weighting 135 pounds and having8-12% bodyfat, rather than looking at the little bit of fat I did gain so far on my bulk.  And the weirdest thing happened since last week, I started to notice more muscle growth.

I know that may sound weird, but I know that by focusing on my end goal, I started to see myself getting stronger and my muscles growing faster.  I know the same will happen for you when you keep your eyes on your end goal!

Trust the process.

When bulking you will pretty much be guaranteed to gain fat.  The reason being, is that you are eating a surplus of calories, some calories going to muscle gain and others storing as bodyfat.  So the first tip is to not get so caught up in gaining a little bit of fat, as it is part of the process.  But also don't go overboard and eat so much food that you are only gaining fat.

By eating whatever is the right amount for you, realize that it is normal to gain muscle as well as a little bit of fat.  But you always have the ability to eat more or less depending on how much you are currently eating.

Once you get into a good flow of how much to eat on a daily basis, you can start to trust the process more.  By trusting in the process you will be able to be content with where you are and have a clear focus on where you are going!

Closing thoughts.

I hope that if you have been feeling discouraged or bad about gaining fat on a bulk, that reading this blog has gave you some useful advice.  These tips are really what have helped me and I know that as long as you apply these tips to your mindset that they will help you as well!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Feeling Lack Of Motivation? Try This Out.

Over the past couple weeks I have been lacking motivation like crazy.  I've even been unmotivated to go to the gym and workout the past couple weeks.  Usually I love working out but its just been feeling like more of a struggle than fun for me at times.

This being said I am still working out and pushing through this feeling of being unmotivated.  Deep down I think this lack of motivation is linked to things that I want to happen, not happening fast enough.

Today I wanted to share with you how I am learning to get myself motivated in hopes that it will help you be able to motivate yourself when you need motivation.

We all lack motivation.

No one is born motivated to do anything.  Chances are as a child you weren't motivated to try and walk.  Although you probably don't remember this, you most likely wanted to keep crawling around and doing what was familiar and easy for you.

Lack of motivation (IMO) stems from resisting something that you want to do that is a challenge for you.  For example you may want to start reading books, but haven't been much of a reader in the past, you buy a book for yourself but are still feeling unmotivated.  You may want to start reading and create a new habit, but you feel stuck as lack of motivation stops you from achieving your goal.

Its completely fine to lack motivation.  But how are you going to respond to this lack of motivation?  Are you going to let it stop you or fuel you?

What I have noticed is that even if you lack motivation, you still have the choice to push yourself, and reclaim

that motivation!  By doing this you will build momentum, as well as start to feel more inspired and motivated for the things that really matter for you.

Shift your mindset.

In my case I was thinking of working out only to gain muscle.  Which isn't bad, but I also wasn't as motivated lately just thinking that way.  I ended up starting to remember the reason behind why I am working out, and this was because (yes I do want to build muscle) I want to build muscle to help other hard gainers / skinny fat males do the same in the most effective way possible!

By thinking of how your goals will have value not only to you but also the world, you will be able to have more motivation for achieving the goals you have set for yourself.  There will be a bigger purpose behind each goal you set for yourself.

For an example if you want to start reading books just so you can learn more, it might fuel you for a while, but eventually you will need a bigger goal to start reading books.  Maybe you start to read books so you can someday know how to write an amazing book of your own to share with the world.

Closing thoughts.

I hope these tips helped you gain some motivation to achieve the goals you have for yourself, as well as helped you create a bigger purpose for your goals!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

A Small Nugget Of Wisdom From Awaken The Giant Within.

Today I wanted to make a short blog on a video I made last week.  I am writing this so that you can have a quick read on something that will tremendously improve your life!

A few weeks ago I was reading Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins and came across a paragraph or 2 that really struck me.  In short Tony was talking about how people flew in to Hawaii and got super excited to see the solar eclipse (which he described as a 4 minute shadow).



He asked the question, "If people got this excited to see the eclipse, why aren't people excited and happy to see the sun rise every morning?"

This is what really made this idea stand out to me.  Sure we may have bad days, but what if upon waking up, we realize how great of a day it already is.  What if the second you get out of bed you think of how grateful you are to be alive another day, rather than focusing on how you will get through "another day"?

A huge part about this is seeing more good than bad during the day.  Training you mind to focus on good rather than bad.  Which believe me is very challenging!

I like to become conscious of when I am thinking thoughts that aren't uplifting to my energy and the second I notice I change those thoughts of negativity to thoughts of gratitude or positivity.

By having gratitude for another day yourself, you will be able to wake up in at least a little bit better mood, which will help you focus on more good throughout the day!

Also aa a side note, if you have a day that you perceive as bad, start to shift your focus on "how can this circumstance help me?" rather than focusing on how the circumstance is bad.

Closing thoughts.

I hope that his quick read helped you have more excitement in your day, and gave you some insight on gratitude / making each day a little bit better!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

How You Can Manage Time In The Age Of Social Media.

Time management is something I believe almost everyone struggles with.  I struggle with it and you probably do as well, otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this right now.  If you are anything like me maybe you spend 30 minutes to an hour a day on Instagram getting lost in funny memes, pictures of cars, or nice houses.  I go on Instagram to find a picture to post, or to post my own picture, but a lot of the time one picture that has nothing to do with why I opened the app in the first place will take me to a bunch of other pictures, and afterwards I will find myself wondering why I wasted my time looking through those picture that brought me nowhere towards my vision.

If you feel the same way and you take those same actions like I do, then keep reading on!  I wish I could say I had perfect time management but I don't.  In the world today we have become so used to little dopamine spikes from texting and social media that it can be hard to put your phone down for 5 minutes or more.  Try it right now as you read this blog post.  Set your phone down a few feet away from you and just be here with me while you read this (unless you are reading this on your phone).  I am completely with you on this, it is hard, and I feel like looking at my phone right now.  But since I told you to put your phone down, I also have to put mine down for the whole time I write this to be fair and present with you right now.

What does being on the phone have to do with time management?  Do you ever notice that when you are working on something and you pull out your phone to text someone or open social media it takes your brain a minute or two to get focussed back on the task you were doing?  Why is this?  Well there are scientific reasons for it, but I would like to share my experience with you as a human being, not as some study that was done on 153.5 people.

If you are editing a video for example and picking up your phone every two minutes to respond to all your texts and go on social media, you are going to find that the video won't only take a longer time to edit, it will also turn out pretty mediocre.  You may be thinking "this is just multitasking, what does this have to do with time management?"  I would say multitasking has to do everything with time management.  It takes your brain at least 30 seconds to get back on task to editing that video each time after you answer a text.  So if it usually takes you 45 minutes to edit a video it would take you at least a hour if you are multitasking.

Even right now as I am writing this blog post I wanna pick up my phone and see if there are any messages, and check my Instagram.  But I know that wouldn't align with my goals and bigger vision at this time.  What it boils down to is to focus on one thing at a time and give it your full attention.

The next form of terrible time management that I see many people fall into including myself is spending too much time on time wasters.  This can be television, Youtube, Netflix, video games, and still Instagram, Facebook, and texting.  Most people will come home and manage their time horribly. They will sit down and spend a couple hours watching TV and that is the highlight of their day.  Maybe you relate maybe you don't.  If you are someone who relates to this type of behavior, like I do a few times a week as well when I feel like I have completed "enough", then what I would say to you is to reflect on your biggest goals and dreams in life.  What are they?  How does it feel in your mind to think of achieving these goals?   Just asking yourself these questions will usually bring you to not do these time wasters as much.  

These are probably the biggest time wasters today for most people.  We are conditioned that it is normal to spend your weekends just doing the same stuff that doesn't benefit you or lift you up higher.  The last thing I want for you is to be 80 years old and realize that you wasted too much time on a bunch of useless activity.

Closing thoughts

What did you get from this blog post?  How are you going to apply these lessons to your daily life to free up more time for your own goals, and become the greatest you that you can be?

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Reading Books vs Audiobooks. (Pro's and Con's)

For a little over 3 years now I have really gotten into learning from people that are where I want to be in life.  Whether it be through books, audiobooks, youtube, or even courses learning from people who are high achievers, and winners in life is something that has made a huge impact on my life.  It helps your mindset to take a shift from the normal life most people live to the prosperous life that these high achievers live.  It shows you ways you can work to get to their level.  Although I still have a long way to go to be at my highest level in life, the mindset that I have is that I can always learn from others.

Today I wanted to share with you the difference in books and audiobooks.  I hope this will help you learn which form of reading works best for you so you can accelerate the learning process in your life.

Regular Books

Let us start off talking about good old regular books.  The reasons I like reading an actual book that you can hold in your hand is because if you want to mark something that you want to go back to in the future, it is very simple and easy to do, you just circle or underline what stood out to you and mark the page and you are all set.  You will know exactly where you want to go when you re-read the book the next time around or when you want to go and look over the things you found useful in the book before.

Another reason I prefer books is that if the book has an exercise to complete it is much easier.  Lets say the author has an exercise for you to write down a few specific things you learned throughout each chapter.  In an audiobook it would be 100 times harder to go back and listen to the chapter to find the answer.  In a regular book you can flip through and find the exact location the answer would be in.

This even applies to if the book has an exercise about helping you come up with a plan for your life.  In a regular book there is usually already a spot for you to brainstorm and write down your plan.  This will save you time and energy compared to if you are listening to an audiobook.

Why is this?  If you are reading / listening to an audiobook with an exercise in it, you will have to pull out a piece of paper and write down the exercise question and then answer them, which can cause you to be more likely not to do the exercise in the first place since you would have to exert "way" too much energy compared to a regular book.



Audiobooks

With all that being said audiobooks have tremendous benefits as well that regular books don't have!

Audiobooks are actually what I now prefer.  I used to love reading regular books, and yes from regular books it is easier to learn from, since taking down notes is super easy and simple.  However with a regular book I cannot read it while I'm driving, in the shower, cooking, or whatever I'm doing.

With a regular book you literally have to sit down in a quiet environment and read it.  With an audiobook, on the other hand you can listen while you are doing almost anything.

If you have a long daily commute to work audiobooks are even better for your life.  Music is awesome and can be fun to listen to in the car.  But every once and a while (about half the time I drive) I like to listen to an audiobook. The reason being is like I said music can be fun, but why not feed your brain while you are waiting in traffic?

Closing Thoughts 


There is a time and a place for books as well as audiobooks.  To use them both in combination is a great idea.

What I mean here is that both books and audiobooks are great, but if you are driving on a road trip you can't just pull out a book and start reading without putting your life and others in danger. but you can connect your phone to your radio and put on an audiobook.

On the other hand if you are in a quiet or peaceful environment reading an actual book can be very relaxing and feel great to do!

Really audiobooks are great for when you are on the move or super busy.  They are great time savers but if you want to learn better and retain more information I would recommend actually reading books.

Like I said both have their benefits in different situations.  From what you have read above what sounds like a better fit for you, reading books or listening to audiobooks?

If you want to take your life to the next level check out some of my recommended books below and get a copy of your own!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

5 Things You MUST Stop Doing Right Now To Take Your Life To The Next Level.

In today's blog I want to share with you 5 things you are doing in life that are keeping you from moving forward.  Being able to make a mindset shift and stop doing these 5 nasty habits will help you make the first step in taking your life to the next level!

Eating junk food on a regular basis.

If you are new to the Ganifit blog you may not know about my backround.  Until I was about 15-16 years old I mostly ate junk food every single day. I rarely drank any water (only sugary pop) and usually ate tons of processed foods.

At the time I didn't really notice what these foods were doing to my body, but I saw myself gaining some fat and I was not happy with how I looked.

Although I wasn't severely overweight I still had a little gut and some man boobs.  I was lucky enough to start to become conscious of what I was eating around the age of 16. Although my bad habits didn't change instantly, over time they got better (and still are as I learn more and more about nutrition).

From my personal experience I noticed no benefit from eating these foods except the instant gratification I got from the taste of these foods.  I have multiple cavities from drinking so much pop, eating ice cream, and other sugary foods as a kid.

Now whenever I go and eat some kind of junk food, I notice I feel completely different from when I am eating food that fuels my body.

I feel tired and unmotivated (especially if I eat white bread or processed carbs.  When I was eating processed carbs all the time, I never noticed how it really made me feel.  It took me changing my eating habits to notice how eating a burger or pizza really makes me feel afterwards.

Although there are times I eat junk food, I keep it to a minimum because it dramatically will affect
my health and productivity if I eat junk everyday.

This is also the reason most people will eat lunch and come back to work more tired than before.

So if you want to level up in life, changing your eating habits to healthier eating habits is the first step.  Not only will you be less at risk for major health problems, you will also have more energy to actually focus on improving your life!

Gossiping/judging others.

Judging others is one of the biggest things that holds so many people back in life when they are trying to get ahead.  Most people are stuck in the trap of gossiping or judging others because almost everyone is always doing it, which makes it easy for you to get sucked into.

I am currently working to overcome judging others and I wanted to share a couple ways that can help you stop judging as well.

One of the easiest ways that I have found to instantly change how you view other human beings is to start to realize that they are human just like you.  We all have faults and judging someone on their's doesn't change anything and you will end up feeling bad for it in the end.

When you start to see people as other humans just like you, you will realize that they are just doing the best they know how to in life.  Also realizing that each person has a family can help as well (think of how you would feel if someone judged your parents).  Would you want someone judging your family?  Probably not, so why would you judge someone else when they have a family just like you?

Another great way to stop judging others is to realize that no one else has to be your image of perfect.  I would often find myself judging someone for being overweight and thinking "why can't he or she just get into shape?"

Judging people for this reason made me realize that no one has to live the way I want them to live.  Judging them is not going to change anything either, so start to see where this person is doing good in life, or just simply wish them the best.  But don't go around judging someone just because they aren't how you want them to be.

Realize that you can only control yourself, not strangers, or even friends and family!


Living without any goals.

Without having anything to achieve or stand for in life you will constantly be bored, or even worse try to escape life in any way possible, through TV, video games, and even drugs in extreme cases.  Having a goal or purpose in your life will give you a sense of accomplishment each day that you work toward them.

Maybe you have been in the situation before where you had no goals.  How were your days planned out?  Did you have anything exciting or was it just the same old boring day on repeat?

I remember when I was in school, I would always wait to come home and play video games for hours on end.  Although sometime around the time I turned 16, I started to get more interested in building an online business.  The only problem was that I never wrote down my goals for at least another year.

This resulted in me still playing video games on a regular basis, as well as getting information overload on different types of online businesses but never taking any action.

If I didn't set goals for myself I would still most likely be sitting on the couch playing video games for hours every single day.

By setting big goals, as well as monthly goals, and even daily goals, I give myself a roadmap of where I want to go.  I give my life purpose.

By creating meaningful goals for yourself you will start to live a more worth while life and be on your way to taking your life to the next level!


Staying in a comfortable environment.

So many of us get comfortable where we are in life.  We work 9-5, come home watch TV, eat some junk food and repeat.  This becomes a normal process and what we get used to.  The days start to blur together and you are never challenging yourself.

Chances are you are surrounding yourself with people that make the same amount of money as you (or even less).  You never put yourself in situations where you are uncomfortable and thus never grow.

One of the biggest things in my life is getting to the gym and hitting a hard workout.  I know when I go in there that I am going to be one of the smallest people there.  This is a great challenge, I used to be insecure about having smaller muscles than others, but now I realize that I am being challenged.  I can stay home and cry that I don't have big muscle or I can go to the gym and be around people that have bigger muscles than I do and get motivation from that.  Yes it makes me uncomfortable, but I do it because it will help me grow.

What is it for you?  What areas of life can you start to be the least experienced in the room and challenge yourself?  If you can't get around people that challenge you, go on Youtube and search for people who are where you want to be and learn from them.  Yes it'll be uncomfortable, but it'll be worth it!

Watching TV on a daily basis.

I want to start this section off by saying that watching TV isn't always bad.  There is a time and a place for it and it can be a great way to relax.

Believe me, I used to be there, I would watch TV almost daily.  I love TV but I realized that it won't help me get to where I want to go if I watch it all the time.

Personally I have started to set a goal for myself to only watch TV 2 days per week.  And at the most on those days I will watch about 2 hours of TV.

So how can you start this new habit of watching less TV so you can have more time to upgrade your life?  This goes back to the section where I told you to have some big goals set for your life.  Without big goals you will usually just do whatever is easiest since you have no motivation to accomplish any goals in the first place.

Or maybe you use TV as an escape.  Maybe you are someone who likes to come home after a long day at the office and just watch TV till you go to sleep.  You watch it to numb yourself and forget about your long day.

Although this may feel great in the moment, it will only dig you deeper into the trap.  After a while a habit will be built to not have any ambition or goals.

To start out I would recommend that you keep track of how much you are currently watching TV for one week.  Then replace one hour of TV per day with a goal that you truly want to accomplish.  This way you are starting off slow and building a brand new habit that will help you get to the next level in your life!

Closing thoughts.

I truly hope that reading this gave you a TON of value and insight on how you can start to take your life to the next level.  This is all stuff I had to learn so far along my journey (and even still am in some cases).

I believe that these will really help you start to transform your life if you practice all of these tips on a daily basis.

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian