As I was driving down the road last week enjoying the spring weather with the sunroof open and the windows down, I heard an advertisement on the radio about a specific state lottery ticket that was offering a pretty big prize. After painting a glowing picture of how amazing your life will be when you win the cash price, they wrapped things up by reading the disclaimer. You know this part, where the volume drops and the voice speeds up to the point you can barely understand what is being said. But I caught the final few words: “Actual chances of winning one in 4,480,447.” Now, relatively speaking, those are pretty good odds for a lottery, but I caught myself thinking, well, what about the 4,480,446 people who don’t win?

Which then got me thinking about how we can have the tendency to wait for something ‘big’ to come into our lives and make our dreams a reality and suddenly bring the results we have wanted for ourselves into being. But mostly,...

Getting started with anything is easier when we start our days well. Whether you’re bright-eyed and sun-shiney in the morning, or if those who live with you know to avoid you until you have some coffee in your system, these simple tips will have you waking up smiling at the sun and setting the stage for making great days.

Smile

Even if it looks more like a grimace that would terrify anyone who saw it, scientific research shows that the simple act of smiling, even if it’s forced, automatically tricks your brain into feeling better. When you turn that frown upside down, there is instant feedback to the brain that reinforces a feeling of joy. So even if you have to visualize your alarm clock flying across the room to get it done, choose to start your day with a smile.

Practice Gratitude

Being thankful is an instant game changer, and mornings before your feet even hit the ground are great for a gratitude practice.

Consider keeping a small gratitude journal next to your bed,...

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend more than 6 hours in trainings with publisher of Success Magazine and founder of the Insane Productivity program, Darren Hardy. This is a gentleman who, no doubt, has been able to accomplish some amazing things. And he's been able to do this by understanding what he wants to be good at and focusing his attention there.

In fact, Darren suggest that the number one skill to master to be your best, most productive, and most fulfilled in the 21st century is the skill of learning to control your attention.

Here are three simple things you can do this week to focus your attention:

Use Power Hours

Just a few weeks ago, we covered power hours in a great post you can read here. The idea of the power hour is to set aside time as sacred to be focused on your most important actions. This is a time to put the do not disturb sign on the door. Turn off calendars, email, social media and shut off your phones so that you can work uninterrupted. Put...

The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 on March 8^th, 2014 was a true tragedy and mystery. I do hope that by the time you are reading this, that mystery has been solved and the families affected either have their loved ones back or closure in knowing what happened.

But for me, in the hours, days, and weeks following the disappearance, a new tragedy emerged.

“Two oil slicks spotted in sea south of Vietnam.” And later, “Oil slicks not from missing airplane”

“Large debris spotted and believed to be from missing airliner.” (LARGE pieces of debris—up to 70 feet in size, just rolling in our oceans). And later, “Large debris spotted is not from missing aircraft.”

 “122 objects spotted in search for debris.” Once recovered, the debris was shown not to be associated with the missing plane.

“More debris spotted in search for missing aircraft.” Followed by, “Debris...

by
Amanda Sides

Almost every business can benefit from good writing. Whether you're emailing clients or creating content for your blog, being able to communicate in writing is a powerful tool to boost your business.

Not everyone likes to write, and not everyone is good at it. If that's you, you could consider outsourcing this critical task, or you could work on getting better at it. Here's how.

Read

As an entrepreneur, you're probably already reading quite a bit. Keep it up, and vary the material. Read the latest personal development books, novels, humor and satire columns, news articles, and your competitor's blog. Learn to recognize good writing, and take the time to identify what makes it good.

Write

Start keeping a journal. You can write about anything at all. Maybe start by writing letters to family members (knowing that you're not going to send them), recording the day's events, or detailing your goals and dreams. You could use a random topic or writing prompt and give yourself...

“But I don’t like green beans” my three-year old nephew recently complained to me as he eyed the healthy pile of the vegetable on his plate. “I can’t eat all those. That’s a lot,” he said.

After stifling down the nearly automatic responses rising up in me including, “But there are starving children in Africa!” and “You will clean your plate!" [said in my best drill sergeant voice], I thought to myself, “Yeah kid. I get it.”

I mean we’d all rather have crackers, or, you know, Krispy Kreme, but in this household, we are going for those 9+ servings of fruits and vegetables each day and in order for the little fellow to hit the target, he was going to have to eat some green beans. Trying to pull up a little empathy from the three-year old me who had to eat all sorts of foods I didn’t love, I took a look at his plate and realized that it probably did seem like an insurmountable pile of green beans to a...