Colin R. Stuckert's Blog, page 25

Life Is Surfing: It’s About How You Surf The Waves

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
-Lou Holtz

This ratio basically means that it’s really how you respond to life that matters (in case that wasn’t obvious).

I think if the quote went like this, “Life is not what happens to you, but how you respond to it,” it would still work.

In fact, I think I’ve heard someone say that before.

Whatever. The message is the same.

At each point in your life, you have the power to determine the results you get.

Turn your worst situations into an exercise in patience and self-control.
Learn from your failures.
Use that “No” as a chance to work harder so the next time is a “Yes.”

Too many people try to predict the future. They think things should happen the way they want them to happen. Then, when they don’t, they stubbornly kick and scream and complain about their bad luck.

Isn’t that a little audacious? It’s actually a lot audacious.

Life happening to you is life doing you a favor. It is directing you, testing you, and turning you into the person you can, and should, be.

But you will only recognize it if you take on the right attitude.

You have to embrace life as the random, free-flowing, constantly changing thing that it is. Then you have to ride the wave the best you can. And if you fall off the board—you will plenty—you paddle right back out and catch the next wave.

Since we are on the surfing analogy, imagine this: A surfer misses a great wave, then paddles back to shore vowing to never surf again because he missed that one wave.

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it?

Well, such is the case when you are bitching and complaining. Why not paddle out and catch another wave?

There is always, always, always another wave. And most often, there’s a better wave.

Life is about how you surf the waves, not about the waves you get.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

P.S. I do more writing over at The Feeble Mind. If you enjoy essays on life, books, mindset, psychology and other areas of interest, you’ll enjoy The Feeble Mind.

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Don’t Try To Solve Life

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

-Soren Kierkegaard

This stuck a chord with me because I pride myself on being a problem solver.

I always look for the solution. The thing is, sometimes there isn’t a solution.

Sometimes a thing is meant to be just the way it is, with all its imperfections and impurities making it special. Sometimes life should be stressful, and a little sad.  Sometimes we shouldn’t get out way, and other items we should be rewarded for our hard work.

This is all part of the experience that is life.

I’m sure you would agree with me on this. The problem is, most people do everything they can to avoid these parts of life instead of embracing them for what they are: necessary.

The ironic thing is, when you actively try to avoid pain, you end up causing yourself more pain.

Isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think?

Taoism has a concept known as Wu wei, which literally means non-action or non-doing. It is the way of the pacifist who seeks reform not through violence by through non-reaction to violence.

What most people do’t realize is, inaction is a form of action. By choosing not to act, you are taking the action of not reacting.

This concept has many applications in life, many of which I’m reminded of from Robert Greene’s awesome book, The 48 Laws of Power.

In the chapter, “Disdain things you cannot have: Ignoring them in the best revenge,” Greene suggests that it’s often best to ignore people (or problems) as this removes their power. As he states, “What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement .”

Not reacting is, in many instances, immensely powerful for attaining your goal.

Sometimes the best offense is to do nothing. Yet most people struggle with this; they want to engage with their opponent or problem. All this does is throw fuel on the fire. It’s often best to bide your time and do nothing. Let the fire slowly die out. Many times people will come to their wits or your problem will take care of itself.

I did not intend to write about this topic when I started this piece, but that’s where it led me. But such is life: Sometimes we are best served to be flexible and go along with where life takes us. Experience the moment instead of trying to shape it to exactly how you want it to be.

Act through inaction. Do by not doing. Resist by not resisting. You might find that you get far better results.

Yours in a judgement-free world,

-Colin Stuckert

P.S. I do more writing over at The Feeble Mind. If you enjoy essays on life, books, mindset, psychology and other areas of interest, you’ll enjoy The Feeble Mind.

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Train Your Mind Via Your body

Animus: basic attitude or governing spirit – Latin for spirit, mind, courage

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear— not absence of fear. Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.”  

— Mark Twain

Check out my new blog. As of last week, I will be writing there and here.

Training your body to become fitter is a great thing. But this has been covered ad nauseam. What hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves is training your body to improve your mind. And this interests me very much.

There are countless ways your life can improve by having a stronger mind. Countless. But today I want to talk about only one: awareness. I’m talking about awareness of who you are, what you think and the “why” to what you do in this life.

Strengthening the mind through physical training promotes self-awareness. And you want self-awareness.

What I’ve notice in people that pursue elite fitness is a kind of “knowing” in their eyes. They view things differently than other people. It’s not arrogance, it’s a kind of aware confidence that comes from putting the body through intense physical treatment.

Training the body at elite levels changes more than just the body. That we can all agree on.

If we look at the processes that elicit growth in the human body, we see that it grows in proportion to the amount of stimuli it receives. The more intense physical training you can undergo, and adequately recover from, the more adaptation you will get. No one argues this.

So, if we all agree that the physical body adapts to external stressors this way, would it not make sense that the mind adapts the same way? The answer is yes. And I think this is the most underrated benefit of physical training.

Having a six-pack is great, but abs alone don’t amount to a happy or successful life. However, when you develop a stronger mind, you are strengthening the foundation that everything else in your life is built on.

Having a strong mindset creates awareness of oneself. It also increases one’s ability to endure stress in its many manifestations. This is a great asset for living a happy and successful life. As Tony Robbins said, “Everything in your external world started in your internal world.”

Starting to see the connection yet?

Everything you have ever done in your life has started as a thought, feeling or emotion inside your mind. Considering the fact that your brain is the engine that powers your every action, wound’t you be inclined to want to strengthen that mind to be the best it can be? Would you rather have a dinky 4-cylinder Corolla engine or a super-charged 12-cylinder Ferrari engine?

Embrace the mental side of your training. Start finding ways where you might be “holding yourself back” in your training (and life). The more you do this, the better you’ll get. This will carryover into other parts of your beyond just physical activities. When you develop awareness of yourself, you get better at recognizing the times when you could be doing better. That is powerful.

The next time you train your body, think about your mind. Instead of thinking about hard it is, eliminate those thoughts. Use positive self-talk and affirmations. Own your thoughts.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

P.S. I do more writing over at The Feeble Mind. If you enjoy essays on life as well as books, mindset, psychology and other areas of interest, you’ll enjoy The Feeble Mind.

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Why Your Comfort Zone is Making You Weak

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.”

― Tupac Shakur

It’s great to read quotes and motivational pieces like the one you are about to read. I’ve found that the more I do of both, the more my personality changes for the better; the more action I take and the happier I am in general.

That’s all good, but what if you aren’t into all the “self-help” and “motivational” stuff? Well, my point today will help those that aren’t into it (and for those that are, don’t worry, this will be useful for you as well).

The idea I’m going to share with you today is a simple and actionable concept that you can start implementing in your life today. Literally, the second you step back into the “real world,” you can take action on what I’m about to tell you.

The reason I read motivational self-help books and articles (and listen to podcasts) is because I want to condition my mind to abolish fear and to take action. I want to become the best person I can be, and action is how I do this.

The thing is, no one reads motivational content and instantly becomes a different person.

No one.

Becoming a better human being is a gradual and slow—sometimes painfully slow—process of mental conditioning and action-taking trial and error.

It’s the trial and error part that I want to talk about today.

Trial and error is the process of learning through action. It’s about doing things and using the feedback you get to improve.

The problem with trial and error for most of us is it’s unconscious: We do a little here, a little there, and over a long enough period of time, we may or may not improve, usually without thinking about it much.

The kind of trial and error that I’m talking about might seem trivial to you, such as striking up a conversation with a stranger in line for coffee, or speaking up at the meeting to share your opinion when you normally wouldn’t have. The thing is, it’s these little “trial and errors” that are the steps we take to grow. And they are more important than most people realize.

You and I have been implementing trial and error our entire lives. But we were doing most of it unconsciously. We weren’t using the technique to its full potential. This is my point today, and the thing I want you to change.

It’s time to start consciously practicing trial and error in your life.

There are many ways to do this, but in a nutshell it just means forcing yourself to be vulnerable and take risks as often as possible.

My Life

Lately in my life, there are a few things I’ve been working on. Here’s a couple:

Being extra friendly to the front desk guy at my building. In the past, I may have been more “reserved.”

(We now have a great rapport and he gets visiting friends free parking, which is normally $5.)

Being extra friendly and making a point to find out the name and have small conversations with the baristas at a few of my favorite coffee shops. 

(This can really change your coffee shop experience and I highly recommend it for many reasons.)

Opening conversations with people anytime I am in line or in a situation waiting. You know, the times when most people stare at their phones.

(I’ve meet numerous business contacts doing this and a few attractive females.)

As you can see, in each of these instances, I’m venturing outside my comfort zone. It would be much easier to stare at my phone and ignore the world around me in these instances (which is exactly what everyone else does).

In each instance, you also see the perks that taking these small actions bring. But that’s not the point, although they are nice bonuses.

The point is the conditioning. The point is improving confidence and removing fear and awkwardness.

Are there times where it’s uncomfortable and awkward? Absolutely, but the more I do it, the fewer these happen.

Good With People

I’ve long had a desire to become exceptionally “good with people.” I have a friend that is what’s many would call a “natural.” He can talk to anyone, anytime and people always like him. Really, it impresses the hell out of me. I regularly think of him as a model in my head of what I want to attain as far as my social skills go.

Not long ago, I was stuck in my own little world. I had my work, my business, my routine, my schedule, my group of friends, my relationship and my view of the world. I think work, especially life-consuming work, can have this effect. Combine this with the fact that I’m a bit of an introvert and I found that I was keeping so much to myself that I was coming off as a bit of a jerk to people that I didn’t know. The thing is, I’m not a jerk at all. I started to realize this more when friends would tell me that after they got to know me, they were actually surprised because I initially came off as so “intense” and “serious,” which is their nice way of saying they thought I was a jerk.

(I’m actually an ambivert, which is a mix of introvert and extrovert. But if you had to put it on a sale, I’d definitely lean more towards introversion.)

Obviously, coming off as a jerk is not good for making friends or business. So I decided I would make a conscious effort to constantly “put myself out there” and be extra friendly to people.

And guess what?

These small changes have literally changed my life.

I’m happier in general, and I’ve meet some seriously amazing people that I know will be lifelong friends. All by making a small, but conscious, effort in this particular area of my life.

In fact, reflecting on this now, I’m amazed by the effect.

So, what if you are already good in this department yet might want to improve in other areas? Well, it’s still the same process: You have to constantly try new things, out yourself out there and be vulnerable.

You have to go outside your comfort zone at the smallest possible levels as often as possible. The more you do this, the more you’ll raise the bar.

This reminds me of something I read about Navy Seal training. I forget what they call it, but the premise of the Seal’s training was to have them repeat the same dangerous situations over and over as a means to “desensitize” the soldiers to fear. This is the same concept that is applied when you take small risks in your life; it’s training meant to get you comfortable with things that you are not regularly comfortable with or that you avoid. The more you do it, the better you get.

The First

You’ve been taking action with new things your entire life. The thing is, you can do it more and better if you are more conscious of it.

The first time you do anything, you are unsure and uncomfortable, but you plow through until you become experienced—sometimes because you have to and sometimes because you want to.

The first kiss, job, relationship, round of golf, sexual experience, school presentation, school dance, etc., are usually nerve-racking experiences for us all. But we learn, we integrate, we get better. Eventually, they become just another thing.

We all understand this concept, but I don’t think that enough of us are applying this methodical approach to other parts of our lives where it would do good (like my example above).

Start today: Start noticing situations in your life where you can go outside your comfort zone. The more you do this—no matter how minor the circumstance—the better you will get at said activity. You’ll also get better at the skill of putting yourself outside of your comfort zone. Do this enough and you’ll become fearless in all walks of life.

You may not realize that you are actually afraid of having a conversation with a stranger, or in being vulnerable with others, but that’s usually what it is. It’s your Ego wanting to save itself from pain via embarrassment, shame or awkwardness. Unfortunately, most people are slaves to their Ego.

Conquer your fear, tame your Ego and become the best human being you can be; it all starts with taking action in the smallest areas of your life.

Be vulnerable, open and honest with yourself and the world around you and you have a template for mastering life.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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What Are You Trading For Dollars?

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”

-Jonathan Swift

I once read somewhere that having more money makes you more of the person you already are. So if you are generous, you will be generous when you have more money. And if you are selfish, you just end up being more selfish.

I think I believe this to be true.

After all, how many million and billionaires spend every waking moment trying to get more millions and billions? Not all, but plenty.

At what point does enough become enough?

The idea of having billions of dollars and still spending every waking second working to make more, has always perplexed me. I mean, sure, if you love what you do, then that makes sense, but plenty still neglect their health, friends and family even after they have more money than they’ll ever need. To me, that’s absurd.

Whatever.

You and I probably can’t relate to the million/billionaire, but we can definite relate to the getting of money. I also bet that plenty of us have misconceptions, bad habits, and unanalyzed desires relating to money.

You don’t have to be a billionaire to pursue money in an unhealthy way. There are plenty of people that make far less than millions that trade their health, neglect their friends and family, and otherwise have a severe lack of priority when it comes to money and the answer to the question, “What’s the point of life?”

I’ve been plenty guilty of this myself. But I’m aware of it, and I’ve made it a habit to always set aside time to be social. Also, I’ve always made health (specifically, sleep and nutrition) my upmost priority. If my body isn’t right, my mind hasn’t a chance in hell. This is why (plus the fact that I want to live a long time) I take a health-first approach to life. (Further, I get way more done when I make my health numero uno. I’m happier, more productive and get more done in less time than when I’m feeling like shit.)

This is a suggestion to do some introspection into your beliefs, habits and lifestyle pertaining to money. As I’ve written about before, “Knowing Thyself” is paramount to living a good life. And part of knowing thyself is having a healthy agreement with your work and money.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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I’m Starting A Nonprofit

Update: I just laughed a Build a School Fundraiser through Pencils of Promise. To make a donation go here!

“Joel taught me that my assumptions about the nature of charity had been wrong. When we give handouts to those in poverty , we do them a disservice . We create a cruel cycle of dependence. After three days with Joel in his remote village, I left knowing that he now had tools to self-educate. By listening to that portable tape recorder each night, he would learn to speak a new language. More important, he could share his English skills with his family in the years ahead without relying on the assistance of others. My experience with Joel sparked a new curiosity within me. As I traveled on twelve-hour overnight buses through Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and several other countries during the next three months of backpacking, the pencils I handed to children allowed me to ask their parents what they would want most in the world if they could have anything as well. Though I expected to hear “less corrupt government,” “new roads,” or “a better job,” I was met with the same answer nearly every time: “An education for my child.” It was the same dream Joel had doggedly pursued and the same one Apu had before him.”

-Adam Braun, The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change

I’m starting a nonprofit.

I’ve had the idea to do a nonprofit for awhile now, but it was a recent book that spurred me to doing it now instead of later. The book is, “The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extradorinaiy Change.”

It’s a great read and I highly recommend it to everyone.

For awhile now, my idea for a nonprofit was to go to areas of need around the world and build outdoor playgrounds using recycled and cheap materials from the local community and local labor. My idea was to do start with one in the Philippines, which is where Rigel, our fill time virtual employee who works for The Training Box, lives.

Now, I plan to do this and much more.

Using the same methodology—and the 10% rule borrowed from the book above—I will be able to build schools, hospitals, wells, agriculture systems and much more. I also want to focus on getting books, pens, pencils and chalk to children to help them learn to read and write and create—again, inspired by the book above.

I will probably start out working with PoP to get the first project done, then, as I learn more, I’ll venture into my own projects through my organization.

I have yet to come up with a full plan and a name, but I have decided to partner the nonprofit with Wild Foods, my new food and supplement company. 15% of all profits will go directly into the nonprofit, with plans to commit more as both each grows and receives more support.

Something I’ve always believed in with philanthropy work is the idea of building self-sufficient systems that give those in need the ability to take care of themselves. PoP does this in which they require 10% of schools be funded by local community. This ensures that parents will be encouraged to send their kids, and that local officials will be invested in wanting the school to be staffed and maintained.

I was first introduced to this idea when I read,“Titan,” the biography of John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller donated enormous sums to various charities and organizations during his lifetime. He did have guidelines, however, for how the money was spent. He would not invest in any organization that was not self-sufficient, and he demanded that money be used resourcefully and to always be in an interest-bearing account.

This always stuck with me. I realized that just giving money wasn’t the answer. How the funds are used plays an important role in getting real results—which is why transparency and trust for a nonprofit are of paramount importance.

My experience is in building businesses to be self-sufficient systems that create value and generate cash flow without my need to run the machine. This is why I think the for-profit business is the prefect catalyst for funding a nonprofit—and is my idea behind connecting the nonprofit to Wild Foods. As Wild Foods grows, so does the nonprofit. And what’s great about this marriage is the nonprofit won’t have to rely only on a constant supply of donors, which can be inconsistent. If I am able fully fund the nonprofit through the company, I have a self-sustaining organization that can do good no matter what. Then, any donations of fund-raising efforts can go fully into the projects, as they should.

This excites the hell out of me.

Of course, coming to this point in my life was not an easy or short path. We are all natural self-interested individuals that pursue the things we want in life. There’s nothing wrong with this, it is what it is. The problem I have with it is, we are groomed to believe that money, fame and power are the keys to happiness. So we grow up spending our entire lives going to school, building a business or starting a career so we can attain money, fame or power under the impression that these will make us happy.

Of course, this is sooooo flawed.

I’ve been thinking about these things for awhile now; probably 10 years or so since I’ve been working for myself. The more I think about money and success and life, the more I see the signs pointing to the fact that money isn’t the answer.

After moving to a new city where I know no one (Austin, TX), I’ve been doing even more thinking about life and what makes me happy. Here’s what I’ve come to realize….

1. My greatest pleasure in life is spending time with friends and family.

2. The second thing that brings me happiness is helping others.

3. Third on the list of what makes me happy is building things.

These are the main things that bring me fulfillment and happiness. If you look closely, you’ll see that hordes of money isn’t required for any of them. Now, that said, having the freedom to spend time doing these three things does cost money. But it doesn’t cost that much, which is my point and fundamental realization compared to what I thought when I was younger (that money was necessary to be happy). Plus, if I’m able to get paid while doing the three, then that’s a dream scenario.

That’s where the nonprofit comes in—and the for-profit that will be closely aligned with it.

By building a nonprofit I get to do all three things:  build an organization and build schools and hospitals and other things through that organization, spend time with friends and family while doing that building and help others.

Boom! Mind-blown.

I see this as a golden opportunity to do something great and live the life I want to life. I’ll be able to scratch my travel itch, be around amazing people, experience new cultures, and build things, all of which make me happy.

***

There are a few more things I want to say on these topics, so I’m going to say them. Thank you for spending your valued time to read about my story. I hope it inspires you to do something positive in your life!

First, I want to talk about the grass is greener syndrome. We all succumb to this dangerous pitfall from time to time. As human beings, we are slaves to our deceitful brains that can play all kinds of tricks on us, which ultimately sap our happiness and breed discontent. I’m going to show an example by sharing my story.

I don’t have a big family. Though I wish I did. I take my responsibility of building a family and continuing my name and legacy very seriously.

I don’t have a group of friends geographically located around me. Where I grew up, all my friends moved away while I was still there running my two businesses. This means that I have to travel around Florida to see my closest friends, which I don’t get to do as often as I’d like. For those of you that don’t have this problem, I will tell you that it sucks. Having a “tribe” of friends has been scientifically proven to be necessary for living a long, happy and healthy life.

This has been a major gap in my life, and one of the primary reasons I moved to Austin, TX—to build a tribe. The thing is, if I already had a tribe of friends, this wouldn’t be a problem for me, and as a result, I might fall into chasing other shinny things while taking for granted this aspect of my life. And this is exactly what many do.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: We always want what we don’t have. It’s the most common pitfalls that we fall into when pursuing happiness. It’s the reason that you see people that seemingly have everything yet make crazy and illogical mistakes like cheating on their spouse or having some other mid-life crisis that destroys their career and family life. Why is this so? Well, there are obviously many reasons but overall I would say that they failed to be grateful for what they had. Because they were so focused on what they didn’t have, they were inclined to find something else that they thought would be “better,” or that would fulfill them. Obviously this never works.

Tony Robbins has an answer for this problem and it’s called “Gratitude.” (I highly recommend his Personal Power program.) Since I’ve started incorporating more gratitude into my life (via a gratitude practice), I’ve noticed myself feeling much happier. I also think it’s helped me on my path to finding my purpose and what I want to do with my life—a la nonprofit and Wild Foods.

Lesson: express gratitude.

The second thing that has led me on this path is what I do for a living, namely my businesses. I own two businesses that provide for my source of income. While they do require work, they don’t require what I called “scheduled work.” This means that I can work from anywhere in the world, anytime I want. The common buzzword for this is, “location independence.”

It’s always been my dream to make my income from the Internet in some way. I kind of do that now even though my businesses are brick and mortar business. Technology has given me the ability to live a lifestyle in which I can live in Austin, Texas, while still running businesses in Florida.

For those of you with a “scheduled work” type of job or career, this might sound like heaven to you. (Remember: we always want what we don’t have.) But let me tell you, it can be lonely and not always easy.

I miss having a “workplace” where I am around people. This might sound backwards to you, but it’s the truth. Of course, I have the Entrepreneur sickness where I have to work for myself, so a job is just out to the question, but being around people is a part of living a healthy life, as science and our ancestors have shown us.

The nonprofit will solve this problem in more ways than one. First, philanthropy will allow me to meet many successful, creative and intelligent people (which I want to do). Second, I will be able to build an organization with volunteers, and eventually, a full staff all working together to do great things. This is exactly the type of environment I want to be in.

When I think of making lost of money, and the countless (literally countless) number of people in Western society that live their entire lives completely for themselves, I feel sad. I see this as missing the point. I don’t think people choose this life, it just kind of happens as a byproduct of our society. But I think it is a live that is mostly unfulfilled. Listen, I’m not being judgmental. I’ve lived this life plenty myself. The standard of living in our society is very hard to maintain even when it’s our full-time focus. I totally get it. It’s Maslow hierarchy of needs: No human being has time or energy to spare helping others when they are struggling to put food on the table or pay rent. The problem is with those that continually chase hollow fulfillment and spend money in a way that they think will make them happy—like wasting money at clubs, drinking, going to bars, etc. It’s fine to do these things in moderation—I do myself—but what if you gave up one of these nights every week to volunteer or do something to help others? It doesn’t take much.

This is why the Pencils of Promise message is so inspiring—it shows us that through the Internet and crowdsourcing, anyone, regardless of financial means, can make a difference. The old ways of making millions of dollars and then donating it to select organizations is a thing of the past. Philanthropy can be an integral part of everyone’s life. You don’t have to quit your day job or fly across the world; You can volunteer your time, skills or dollars. You can help spread the word of causes you believe in. You can take one night out a week to make a difference. As PoP has proven, the effect that the individual can have in his or her spare time adds up to an enormous effect.

Now you have an idea of how I ended up at this point in my life and where I am headed. 2015 is going to be an exciting year, and I hope it will be for you as well!

I highly recommend the book by Adam Braun. Buy it here on Amazon. If you want to support them directly, go to the site: PenclsofPromise.org

If you want to support Wild Foods and the nonprofit soon to be formed, you can visit us here: WildFoods.co.

As always, I appreciate any feedback or comments. If you know anyone I should connect with in the Austin area, please let me know!

To a Better World,

-Colin Stuckert

P.S. I do more writing over at The Feeble Mind. If you enjoy essays on life, books, mindset, psychology and other areas of interest, you’ll enjoy The Feeble Mind.

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Read Biographies. Trust me. Read them.

“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.”

-James Russell Lowell

You should read biographies. I didn’t realize how useful these were until I started reading them.

Here are a few I recommend:

Screw it, Let’s Do it by Richard Branson
Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

I’m halfway through Delivering Happiness (which is an incredible book) and it was just last night as I was reading that I realized how amazingly powerful these few—and recently read—books have been for me.

I’ve always discounted biographies as a kind of “hero worship” or history-like recant of someone who had done some stuff in the past: I just never saw the value in reading them.

Man was I wrong.

I wish I had learned this sooner, but I’m at least glad I did now.

You want to get better at just about anything? Read biographies.

Now, to address the quote at the top… this might sound contradictory to my advice to read biographies considering Mr Lowell is suggesting that actually experiencing life is far more useful than reading or hearing about it from others.

And on that point, I agree with him.

The problem is, most people are resistant to taking action of any kind, especially when they don’t know what that action might look like.

This is where biographies come in. They show you what others have done and build a kind of fearlessness in you that says, “If they did it, so can I” (or, at the very least: “If they did it, I’ll at least try”).

I’ve always been bold and not quite risk-averse. This is probably from my poker playing days when I would win or lose thousands of dollars in a single day. But even before poker I always had a sense of confidence—and a burning desire—to learn and try new things. This has helped me in business and personal development my entire life.

And this is probably why I’m so impressed by the effect that these few biographies have had on me: they’ve spurred me to doing even more outside of my comfort zone.

I won’t get into specifics, but each book has made me realize the kind of extremes that people go through to accomplish great things. It’s too often that only the successes are celebrated and the failures so often ignored. It’s just not that glamorous when you tell people that you built a successful company after risking every last dime and selling your condo for half of what you paid for it just so you could make payroll for a couple months. People don’t want to hear how you lived in debt, slept on the floor in the office, borrowed money from your grandma after she took a 2nd mortgage out on her house, and so on.

People want the result and the belief that it won’t be too hard to get that result.

I’ve digressed…

For me, reading biographies are going to end up being a game-changer. For you, I know they will at least have a positive effect because, at the very least, they will make you a more knowledgeable and interesting person.

To put my advice in the simplest way possible, I want you to remember this easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide for doing more in your life:

Read biographies
Use the motivation and inspiration you garner to take action
Learn from the action
Repeat

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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Live Without

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are a lot of things I could write about from this quote. I could talk about being in the present, about how you can’t change the past so you should accept it, and a million or so variants on each of these.

Instead, I want yod to read that quote 3 times again. Then I want you to set a timer for 3 minutes to sit and think about it. You can keep your eyes on the quote so you don’t get distracted—this will be a practice in mindfulness.

During those 3 minutes, think about how you, at times, spend time worrying about the past or future. Try to think of specific times in which you do this. Remind yourself that it is wasted energy and causes stress.

Say this to yourself, “The past is gone. The only thing I can change about it are my thoughts.”

Now, commit to yourself that you are going to change your thoughts. Say, “I will be conscious of my thoughts and try to make them better.”

Ok, go ahead with the 3 minutes (do at least 1 if 3 sounds like an eternity).

***

At every point of your life, during any given moment, you can focus on the negative, on what you haven’t done, or you can focus on the positive, on what you are going to do.

Choose the latter and all your dreams will come true. Choose the former and you’ll forever be miserable.

Your brain wants to be negative, it wants to focus on the negative–it’s called negativtiy bias. There are many reasons for this, but we won’t go into those. Don’t beat yourself up if you find your doing this, just get working on fixing it.

Right now, after you finish reading this, focus on what you are going to do tomorrow to get better and make progress on what needs improving. Then, at the end of the day tomorrow, think about the things that went well. Be grateful for what went well and don’t waste a second thinking about the things that didn’t go well.

Make your every day like this.

Follow this template and you will see profoundly positive changes in your life. Really.

Disclaimer: You just read only a few hundred words about an idea that can literally change your life. I don’t want you to miss it just becuase the ideas and words used are simple. Never discount the power of simple. It’s often the most powerful things in the universe that are the simplest.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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Is Life Passing You By?

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”

― John Greenleaf Whittier, Maud Muller – Pamphlet

No matter how much I learn, how much I write, and how much I can give advice or preach to others, I will always be imperfect.

And so will you.

I think about death often. I think about the shortness of life often. I think about seconds and minutes and hours as they go by, often analyzing how I am spending my time. Buy not matter how much of this I do, I still struggle with motivation and with being in the moment. My mind is too often 3 or 6 months in the future.

And let me tell you, this is no way to live life.

I know this. I am aware of it, which is a start.

I realize how backwards my ambitious and motivated tendencies are when you analyze them. I work hard so I can enjoy life in the future, and so I can buy the safety, comfort and luxury that success provides. The problem is, what about now?

Am I only able to enjoy life when I’ve reached X dollars or X accomplishments?

The fact is, I am giving up parts of life in exchange for other part of life. And a huge problem with this is the later parts that I’m trying to “trade up” for, are not guaranteed to come or come the way I want them. But such is the paradox of success and accomplishment.

It’s hard to know what the right “dose” is. It’s hard to know if I am doing what I am destined to do or if I am just spinning my wheels because I’m appeasing my Ego or avoiding being vulnerable in other aspects of my life.

But then I think about security and I think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Then I think about my past. Maslow’s pyramid of needs goes like this, from the bottom: Physiological, Safety, Love/belonging, Esteem, Self-actualization (at the top).

Maslow’s believed that humans pursue these levels of the hierarchy in order. For example, if you don’t have food or water, each will invariably become your primary focus; you can’t worry about starting a business or getting a raise if your basic human needs are not met.

Once you have your basic needs meet—like water, food, shelter and physical safety—you will focus your attention on attaining the next level: love and belonging. After you acquire an adequate amount of love and belonging (whatever that means for you), you move to the next level—and so on up the pyramid until you get to the top: Self-actualization.

Self-actualization is defined as becoming the best you can be. There are usually bits of purpose and service, but everyone’s version of self-actualization is their own. Self-Actualization is the reason you hear of wealthy individuals giving back. Since these individuals have met all of the needs—security, social, esteem, physiological—they search for the next thing that is going to fulfill them, which usually ends up being some form of charity or service to others.

After thinking about self-actualization in my own life, I realize that one of my driving forces for acquiring “success” is to capture the whole that is Maslow’s pyramid. For example, I own a couple businesses but there is no guarantee they will last forever (which I’ve had to realize the hard no quite a few occasions), and this threatens my safety. I am also motivated to pursue esteem and self-actualization and success has a lot to do with each. The same goes for love/belonging: It gives me the resources to spend more time with the people I care about.

I’ve always had a need to be autonomous. This would fall in the “safety” category. I can’t stand the idea of putting my life or my family’s into the hands of a government, a business, or anything external outside of my control. I want to be in absolute control of my destiny.

And so, I try to balance the Now with the Future. I try to enjoy the journey and the destination. It’s not easy, but it is completely necessary.

However this makes you think about your life, pursue those thoughts and let it lead you where it may.

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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Control Your Mind or It Controls You

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”

― John Milton, Paradise Lost

You know what class they should have taught in school?

Mind Control.

Not mind control in the sense that you can use telepathy to control another human being, but control over one’s own mind.

Why does no one teach kids how to control their mind? Maybe because most adults—parents and teachers alike—don’t know much about controlling their own minds, let alone how to teach someone else how to control theirs.

I think that’s probably about right. (And who can blame them? We have learned more about the human brain in the last 15 years than the thousands before.)

Even still, there are many adults that don’t have control over their own mind. They float through life going from one pleasure-seeking activity to the next while trying to avoid anything difficult or uncomfortable. They are usually terrible with expressing their feelings and opinions. They feel entitled in all kinds of things in life. And they are, without realizing it, inherently discontent and unhappy.

Pffffft… who are you to be so judgmental?

I’m glad you asked. First, I’m not being judgmental; I’m being observationally objective. Second, until I grew up and started realizing these things, I lived life the same exact way: in a constant state of perpetual ignorance to who I am, what I want and what I think.

9I can speak on these things because I’ve been there. I also have to regularly find the tendencies that try to suck me back into my old ways of thinking.

You don’t have to get any of this to take a look around and see the problems that people face. The thing is, they are all rooted in the mind!

Why do so few talk about this stuff?!

Think about it: your entire life and being is nothing more than the perception that your brain interrupts for you.

Your life is exactly equal to the thoughts in your head. So if you can control the thoughts in your head, you can control your life.

Of course it sounds simpler than it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not doable. It’s completely doable. It just takes time and awareness.

Once you are aware of your brain and thoughts, you can continually get better at controlling them. I’ve written about how to do this many times before so go check out some of my other articles if you are interested. Or, start writing down ideas you have for how you might get better. Then start taking action on those ideas. This itself will start the ball rolling.

There are no hard and fast rules for learning how to control one’s mind, you just have to get in there and iterate and learn.

Failure to control your mind is failure to control your life. It really is.

Get in there and do work: control your mind instead of letting it control you like it does for 99.99% of people on the planet.

“Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.” -Deepak Chopra

Yours in Success,

-Colin Stuckert

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