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Introduction

Functional training is a way to exercise where everything you do in the workout mimics the moves of daily activities. The point is to achieve a fitter body by improving the ability to perform everyday activities.

Instead of targeting one specific muscle group, functional fitness engages multiple muscles, just as it happens when you try to reach for an overhead shelf or bend down to lift or put something on the floor.

What Can Functional Fitness Do For You?

Functional fitness can make your life so much easier. As the name states, functional fitness is fitness related to improving your functionality. These workouts don’t aim to enlarge your muscles or make you look bigger but strive to make your body function better.

All the moves you practice help adjust your muscles and bones to natural movements you perform during the day. Though they’ll definitely be more exaggerated than the real-time action, they help your body endure through the strain. With practice, the pressure applied to your muscles becomes less of a burden and your overall active performance improves.

Be wary of course, there is a right and wrong way to go about working out. If you don’t make your workout routine a daily or every other day habit, you’re not going to benefit from exercise at all. Experts even recommend that functional exercises change with age and ability.

For instance, a teen doesn’t need to think about getting up from a chair safely but that can be a concern for an older person. Likewise, someone with a disability may need a different functional focus than someone not challenged with disability.

Functional Fitness Moves

The exercise moves associated with functional fitness aren’t complicated at all. All the moves you’ll learn when it comes to functional fitness are those that you already practice in your everyday life.

For beginners, functional fitness is the best way to go to develop muscles and strength.

If you’re starting out from a very low position, and it’s your first time working out then there’s no pressure. Don't run into hard core workouts that grind you to the bone. Don’t jump right into lifting weights as you’re likely to just injure yourself.

Most fitness moves can be toned down to a low impact move so you don’t risk harming yourself. If you feel that something’s too hard for you, don’t be afraid to tone down your exercise. Find an easier move or work out for a shorter period of time.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of things though, don’t be afraid to push your limits a little further and try new moves. Add in more time and bring some weights into play. Working out more can only lead you in one direction and that’s forward. Once you’ve gotten a functional flow, make the most of it and try not to miss any days.

Given below are some general moves you’re going to find in all functional fitness routines, regardless of your level. These moves can be added to one another, they can be made either high or low impact and they all reap their own benefits on your body’s performance.

Exercise #1 – Squats

Squats help strengthen your thighs, knees and brace your ankle and feet balance. This move is standard and practiced in most workouts. When it comes to weightlifting, most weightlifters have a starting pose of a squat. Squats can also help strengthen your core since it compresses in this position.

A squat can be hard on your knees since most of the compression takes place here. If you’re not ready for a squat, you can always dive down half-way. You don’t have to go into a proper seated position if it’s too much of a burden on your knees.

The squat is interpreted in multiple moves when it comes to functional fitness. The following are some moves that include a squat.

Jump Squat

In this move, you jump onto a block laid in front of you. You start off this move by squatting and then lifting off the floor. Once you’ve jumped onto the block, you squat and then hop off. This move is best done when continuously repeated.

However, this is a considerably high impact exercise. If you feel you can’t do this, try only jumping from the block to the floor and back without the squat. Only try to do this move once you’re fully capable of doing a squat and you’re adjusted to jumping from the block to the floor and back.

Side-Turn Squat

With this squat, as you go down, turn to the left or right at a 90-degree turn so your whole core is shifted in one direction.

This squat helps strengthen your core while turning. This move can also be relatively higher impact if you’re starting out. If you can’t turn the whole way, then don’t strain yourself. Turn as far as you can and once you feel a burn in both your waist and side, you’ll know the move is working.

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Introduction

Much has been said about self-love and its importance in healing and integration. There are many ways to enhance self-love. Here are 5 simple tips that you can use to be kind to yourself and increase your levels of self-appreciation.

1. Write Down The Good Stuff

You have already accomplished so much in your life that you fail to take note of. Schools, weddings, buying a house, maybe even childbirth. You have also gone through funerals and injuries. But you do not give yourself credit for any of it, and there is no reason not to be proud of these experiences.

This is just the iceberg, and there is no way to write about all you have accomplished in writing. But you should try. Because it is only when you start to write down all that has happened to you and all that you appreciate that you come to understand how lucky you are. Gratitude and appreciation are just a mindset. Unless you develop these faculties, you are still going to search for more and more and more. And despite getting more and more, you are never going to be satisfied. The world is full of people seeking more and more, and it never works. What does work is being appreciative and grateful for what you have. Keep a gratitude journal close to your bedside.

Every morning and evening, write down just 3 things that you are happy about. It does not matter what is coming up or how the day went, you just have to write down 3 things in the gratitude journal. This will create a positive shift throughout the day. As you write down and look over all of the positive things that happened in your life, you will start to cultivate a mindset of appreciation. And as this happens, you start to appreciate life more, which will have a snowball effect. Make a habit of writing down all that you enjoy. It is one of the easiest and most effective strategies to cultivate self-love. You have far more to be joyful for than you believe, but you need to take the first step and remove yourself from a negative mindset.

If writing does not suit, you could also just remember some happy memories or keep a scrapbook full of nice pictures. It just has to be a repository of positive items or traits that you appreciate about yourself.

2. Eliminate the Trash

The fact of the matter is that you deserve better than what you are achieving right now. And you should not be in any way reluctant to get rid of things that are not serving you. Things that you need to eliminate will likely include the news, social media, technology, bad foods, alcohol, cigarettes, negative thoughts, and sloth in general.

But it goes further than this. You have to get out of a relationship that you are not fully committed to. While the idea of finding fulfilment from a partner alone is incredibly misguided, you should at least feel happy with your partner and be compatible. If not, be kind to yourself and find a different significant other.

Work is one place where you need to really make sure you are the right fit. If you are really unhappy in the role, then leaving might be the better option. Alternatively, you might want to save some cash and wait for an opportunity to make the switch. A toxic work environment can be very damaging to your self-esteem. There are many options available and if you really want the life of your dreams, you can have it.

The truth is that the best way to care of yourself involves eliminating many of the things that make you feel bad. Ensure that you are putting yourself first by removing the excess. This is a far more simple step than most people make it out to be. When you have finally quit your toxic job or relationship, the relief will be palpable. There are few, if any, who have said that quitting their job to go travel the world was a bad decision.

You will also have to eliminate limiting beliefs. These beliefs often stop you from really caring about yourself. You might believe that you are not a confident person or that you are always depressed or introverted. But these beliefs often come from a single past experience that you thought about a lot and repeated to yourself. When you adopt positive beliefs your enjoyment will truly start to unfold and you can unashamedly pamper yourself without any guilt or reluctance.

3. Take a Break: Be Happy Now

Every individual needs rest and relaxation. What this entails is unique to everyone. It could be sitting beside a fire and reading a book, going to the spa for a massage, or taking a walk in nature. Regardless, identify what you like to do and fit them into your daily life as much as possible. Because you deserve to do them frequently.

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Introduction

Getting out of a fixed mindset can be difficult. What happens over time is that people learn certain habits or patterns of beliefs that are tied into specific experiences that are often painful. These experiences compound until the person becomes convinced that life is just the way it is and you have to make the most of it.

In fact, you will find that many people have little personal mantras or ways of looking at the world. They might say that “life is a battleground” or “work hard play hard”. These idioms have little to do with the way that the world is and everything to do with the unique mindset of the individual. Either way, the person needs to adopt strategies that will help him or her out of a very fixed way of looking at the world.

What is a Fixed Mindset?

The most common example of a fixed mindset is in relation to money. People have certain ideas about what their time is actually worth. And what happens is that other people reflect this idea back to them. So the person who values his or her time at $15 an hour will apply for jobs that reinforce the idea that they are worth $15 an hour. And they will actually self-sabotage jobs that pay them $30 an hour because “they are not worth that”.

This phenomenon was documented in a book by entrepreneur and success coach Tim Ferris called The Four Hour Work Week. What he noticed was that competition was very difficult at the bottom and medium levels because everybody was fighting it out. But it actually gets very easy in the upper echelons of management, because they believe that are worth every penny even though they often do very little work. It can actually be easier to shoot for high-end jobs once you have the appropriate psychology compared to working your way up step by step.

This is a reflection of the esoteric principle that the whole universe is a product of the mind. What we believe internally is reflected back to us and we then proceed to believe that this reflection is actually the truth of existence. This has also been demonstrated in the scientific literature to a degree. In advertising, people only notice marketing materials that are relevant to them. Everything else is subconsciously filtered out, as the brain can only handle a limited amount of data. If we don’t change our perspective, we are going to keep seeing the same information and believing that it is the ‘truth’.

A fixed mindset can be loosely defined as a narrow and precise view of reality where we are sure about certain things. And they are only true because the fixed mindset person believes in them so strongly. How would somebody with a fixed mindset ever change the world with a revolutionary invention? It would not be possible. People of a fixed mindset observe the world as it is. People of a growth mindset create the world as they would like it to be. This is a huge difference.

What is a Growth Mindset?

A growth mindset is one which focuses on expansion at all times as opposed to trying to preserve the existing situation. While finances are the easiest and most obvious example to give, the concepts of both fixed and growth mindsets apply to relationships, health, creativity, spirituality, and personal happiness. Typically, people can apply a growth mindset to one area of their lives but fail to carry over this into others. But if you grow a company, you can grow a relationship or even spiritual success. You just have to take the same principals into a different field. The details will differ, but the foundational ideas for improvement will remain the same.

People with a growth mindset are not focused on the past or even with current difficulties. It’s not even that they look for ways to solve problems as such; they are focused on creative ways to grow that can completely bypass existing issues. It comes down to a question of focusing on lack or focusing on growth. This does not mean that you ignore things that need to get done. You will still attend to specific obligations. But they are less of a weight when your focus is on where you are going instead of where you happen to be.

From a Fixed to a Growth Focused Mindset

Going from a fixed to a growth mindset can take some work. This is because habits and psychological tendencies can be extremely entrenched in our psyche. So we have to adopt best practices in order to observe what is truly possible.

One of the best ways to gain a growth mindset is to observe how the other half live, the richest 1% of society. You will find that they do not pay any attention to what is commonly written on the internet about best financial practices. They are in the mindset of wealth and they constantly expect wealth to flow. However, for somebody who is used to watching every penny and budgeting all the time, it can be very difficult to accept this. Additionally, these people are usually born into wealth where they never picked up negative concepts surrounding financial acquisition. If you could manage to spent some time with wealthy people, there high-growth mindset will rub off on you. It’s an easier way to live.

Even if you do not have a privileged upbringing, you can still adopt this mentality. Habit and repetition are key to cementing a growth orientated mindset. So you could focus on growing your capital reserves significantly. Set a figure such as $10,000 and try to explore ways to increase your account. This will be a combination of cutting back on certain expenses, visualizing different flows of income and the pile getting bigger, and concentrating on ways to increase revenue in general. Either way, your focus has to be on your capital reserves getting bigger, not on being unable to afford things. Don’t try to justify your lack of growth - just focus on growth. Neither the universe nor other people care about your excuses. And you shouldn’t either.

Tools for Dealing With Limiting Beliefs

Everybody has certain fears and limiting beliefs that keep them stuck in negativity and distress. Some people just find it impossible to attract a partner, no matter what they do. Other people find it difficult to manifest money and material items, despite applying all the online techniques and turning their attention to the problem.

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What Kind of Toxins Would A Real Detox Program Remove?

There's a lot of common misconceptions about detoxification. If you have Instagram account, or a Twitter feed, or even a Facebook timeline, you probably have heard of detox. Maybe people have gone on a juice diet, maybe they have been juicing all sorts of fruits and vegetables.

It seems like everybody and his dog is going on the detox bandwagon. Unfortunately, just like "love," the more people use the word detox, the more confused everybody gets. It's as if two people are saying the word detox, but they are two totally different things.

Please understand that the reason why people are talking about detoxification. in the first place, is because it works. Most people need a detoxification program, but what complicates things is the fact that the things that we readily assume are toxins are the least of our worries.

There are many misconceptions floating around on Facebook about detoxification. First, most people look at it as simply physical in nature. They think that as long as you stay away from certain biochemical compounds, then you will be well on your way to better health.

They feel that as long as you avoid certain chemicals, then you will regain your health, and you will be happier, more content, and more fulfilled. Other people are even under the impression that detoxification necessarily means buying all sorts of products like food supplements, and certain detoxification programs, or even hiring the services of "gurus."

What if I told you that all of these are wrong? These are commonly held misconceptions, and I can see why people believe them. After all, there's a tremendous amount of money to be made in the whole concept of detoxification, but the problem is most people find themselves barking up the wrong tree.

People pay millions of dollars year after year, only to end up as depressed, stressed, and desperate as they began. If any of this sounds familiar, it should. This is precisely the kind of attitude we have when it comes to weight loss. Think about it, year after year, the global weight loss industry rakes in billions of dollars.

I'm not just talking about diet books, or weight-loss supplements. This applies across the board; I'm also talking about gym memberships, and all sorts of weight loss programs. The bottom line is people try these things, fail, and then they try another program again. It's like a treadmill; they go on and on and on, and billions of dollars are generated year after year.

Despite all of this seeming activity, nothing seems to change on the ground. People are still suffering from obesity. In fact, in the United States and Western Europe, there is an obesity epidemic. The same applies to the concept of detoxification. It's too easy to throw money at the problem, only to end up nowhere. Here's why, keep reading to find out why.

The real problem with detoxification is that people restrict it to physical things. What if this was the wrong idea? What if it turns out that we are barking up the wrong tree, or looking at the map wrong?

Fact: Most of us are spiritually sick

The real reason why detoxification, for many people, fails to deliver its promised benefits is because we are treating the wrong condition. We are defining toxins in purely chemical or physical terms. We failed to see that the real issue of toxicity has to do with our spiritual state. Most of us are spiritually sick, precisely because we feel we don't have any purpose.

I'm telling you, that to-do list at work is not your life's purpose. I know it's very hard to believe, but it's true. Similarly, that reading syllabus for school, that is not your life's meaning. Aim higher, look somewhere else. The problem is when we define our lives based on our schedules, and based on our jobs, our titles, and societal expectations, the spiritual toxin gets stronger and stronger.

That sense of meaninglessness and purposelessness that eats away at you at the pit of your gut; gross. It becomes menacing. The worst part of all of this is we think that this is the most natural thing in the world. It's as if like you wake up one day and you realize that you're lost, but when you look around you, everybody is as lost as you. So what's the problem?

Well, just because everybody's sick, doesn't take away from the fact that you have to take responsibility for your own spiritual illness.

Fact: Most of us are under a tremendous amount of mental and emotional pressure

Starting in the Industrial Revolution, factory owners started porting workers on the clock. That's how they were able to milk as much productivity from workers as possible. Prior to this point, people were farmers. Just by looking at the sky, they know when to get up, when to eat, and when to sleep. In other words, they were naturally connected with the Earth and environmental cycles.

That has been broken by the Industrial Revolution. And now that we live in the post-industrial age of Facebook and social media, and mobile devices, it has gotten even worse. Now, people don't read anymore. When they look at their mobile devices, they scan, they look for keywords, they look for interesting pictures. Then and only then would they stop and possibly pay attention.

Whatever fragmentation the human mind went through, it has been multiplied billions of times thanks to social media and mobile devices. And believe me, it's going to get worse. It is no surprise that we are under tremendous amount of mental and emotional pressure. How can we not be? We've been fragmented. Our attention has been atomized. Our sense of identity and wholeness have been redefined.

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Introduction

Is your business utilizing the power of YouTube in your social media strategy? If you aren’t, then it’s high time that you do. Video promotion is become increasingly important for marketing a business in this digital age. It goes without saying that attaching a compelling image to your blog post will immediately increase the chances that it will be read and shared online. However, even these picture-perfect posts are being set aside in favor of video, a more passive form of information transmission. Even if you aren’t already utilizing YouTube, you may be wondering what else you can do to try and increase your fanbase, shares, and engagement.

When it comes to increasing awareness of your brand, there's something intrinsically authoritative about a brand that makes its own videos. Videos seem to lend more credence and validity in a way that blog posts and more traditional strategies of marketing just can't. This is especially true since 86 percent of modern consumers suffer from what is known as ‘banner blindness.' This means that if you want to reach your target audience, then you have to find a different way to advertise online. Creating your own videos and utilizing the power of YouTube can help to turn your business into an authority in your industry.

Video personalizes your brand in a way that images or the written word just can't. If you cast yourself in your videos, it will allow your audience to get a better sense of the person behind the business long before the video is over. Video can add a personal touch to your brand like no other medium.

Here are five ways you can build your brand authority with YouTube.

1. Take the Time to Understand Your YouTube Viewers

The only way that you will be able to build your brand's authority on YouTube is by making the kind of videos that your target audience wants to see. The only way that you will be able to create videos that will attract your target audience is if you thoroughly understand your viewers. To determine the kind of videos and content that your viewers want to see from your brand you have to brainstorm and decide on your ideal demographic. You need to know who your audience is, their age range, their interests, the kind of content they enjoy watching, and why that is tuning into other YouTube channels like yours.

You can start your brainstorming session by doing a search of relevant keywords to see what kind of videos appear in the searches. This will allow you to see what other types of videos are being made based on your niche. Look for videos that have a high view rate and check out their corresponding channels to see what their subscriber numbers are.

The more detailed you can get about who your target audience is, the more you can be sure that you've chosen the right approach with the videos that you are producing. If you want to build your authority on YouTube, then you have to make sure that you are providing the right kind of content to attract your target audience and encourage them to subscribe to your channel. You need to make sure that you take the time to clearly define your target audience before
you spend the effort in creating videos for your YouTube channel.

2. Make Compelling Videos

It's the same for blogging, as it is for Facebook, as it is for Twitter, as it is for YouTube, content is king. In fact, it is even more accurate when it comes to the videos that you create. The only way that you will be able to increase your following on YouTube and build your authority is if you have high-quality videos that spread across other social media platforms is by creating content that is worth sharing. This is where understanding your demographics becomes key.

So, what kind of content is worth sharing? As you probably already know, the most shareable content are the kinds of videos that are either extremely funny or that appeal on an emotional level in some way. While it can be controversial, these kinds of videos don't bring in the positive results in the say way as the heart-warming stories would. The last thing that you want to create is a boring video where you are standing in front of the camera with a potted plant and filing cabinet in the background, spouting out what makes your product better than all the others in a monotonous tone. No one is going to find that scenario exciting or funny, and they won't share the video which means that you won't be able to attract new followers or build your authority on YouTube.

Instead, you need to try and illustrate just how great your product is in a series of videos and make sure they are entertaining. You’ll need to find the style of videos that will work for your business, which means you’ll have to experiment with your videos until you find what works. Just make sure that the final style that you land on will either present your content in a funny or entertaining way, but ideally, you want to try to incorporate both into your videos.

3. Brand Your Channel Page

When it comes to building authority on YouTube, an easy way to do this is by making sure that your branding is consistent with your company website and across all social media platforms, including YouTube. You can customize your YouTube channel to be consistent with your business branding material by making sure that you are using the same colors, the same tone, and the same style on all your online marketing platforms. You also want to add your company logo to your page; you can either use it as your channel profile photo or include it in your channel banner. Either way, you want to make sure that your target audience can quickly identify your brand when they visit your channel.

An important thing for you to remember is that you will not be able to change the name of your channel once you have set it up on the platform. This means that you need to make sure that you choose the right name that will attract the right audience to your page. You can do this in the content planning stage before you even sign up for a YouTube business channel.

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Introduction

No matter how cool your business’ website is or how fantastic your product, you will never generate enough sales to build a viable business if you don’t get any traffic to your website. If you want your business to be successful, then you have to get the word out about your site and give people a compelling reason to visit it, or else your business won’t survive. The good news is, there are a lot of ways that you can effectively advertise your company’s site online and drive qualified traffic to your site, for free.

When it comes to the long-term traffic potential of the various marketing strategies, content marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) typically tend to provide you with the most significant return on investment. They tend to naturally lend themselves to compounding returns and virtually have no risk, as long as you can execute them correctly. However, there is one disadvantage to these strategies; they typically take some time to set up and even longer before you will start to see a positive return on your investment. Building momentum with your SEO strategy can take months or even years to see positive results for your efforts, and when you’re launching a new business, you don’t want to have to wait to generate traffic to your site.

Fortunately, there are a number of other ways that you can generate traffic fast without spending a fortune. While all of these options have both advantages and disadvantages, they have all been proven to create more traffic quickly, and the best part is they won't cost you a dime. With these five ways to generate free traffic, you’ll drive more qualified traffic to your site who are more likely to buy the products or service that you’re selling.

Use Viral Marketing Strategies

An excellent way to drive more traffic to your site is to use viral marketing strategies to motivate people to want to learn more about your product. Over the last several years, viral marketing messages have started to spread through the Internet like wildfire. If you're not entirely sure what viral marketing is, it's essential any type of advertising that's self-perpetuating, and that compels people to share it with others so that it quickly spreads through a community.

A perfect example of viral marketing on the Internet is the story of Hotmail. Hotmail was one of the very first free e-mail services to show up on the Internet. Within its first year and a half of operations, it managed to sign up an outstanding 12 million users. The way they accomplished this was quite simple. At the end of every email that was sent through the service, Hotmail included the following message: "Get your free, private e-mail at hotmail.com," which encouraged everybody who received an e-mail to head to the site and sign themselves up for the free service.

Large companies, like Hotmail, use viral marketing messages to help perpetuate brand awareness. This is often accomplished by creating animation clips or humorous videos that people are compelled to send to their friends for a laugh. Large corporations aren’t the only ones who have found success by employing viral marketing strategies. If you like to play with animation or video, you can adopt this strategy to generate more interest in your business. It’s important to keep in mind that it can be difficult to accurately track your return on investment with viral marketing because it is almost impossible to keep track of where the ad goes. Also, while viral marketing is great for generating a buzz around your company and products, it won’t always translate into immediate sales.

Employ Online Business Networking Communities

Over the last several years, more and more business network communities are popping up on the Internet. These online networks are similar to social media sites or dating sites but are used exclusively by entrepreneurs to find other like-minded businesspeople that they can build mutually beneficial business relationships with. These kinds of sites can provide you with an excellent opportunity to establish joint marketing ventures with other like-minded business owners.

Business networking communities can help you generate more traffic to your site by allowing their members to create personal profiles with links to their main company websites. Establishing links on business network sites can help to improve your site’s ranking on the major search engines like Google and Bing.

Another way you can use business networking communities to help drive more traffic to your site is to work with businesses that are relevant to yours and try to get mentioned on the sites that your target audience is likely to visit. Look for companies that are related to your but that aren't direct competitors. A great way to get your website mentioned by other businesses on their site is to offer to swap links with them. Make sure that you find sites that get a lot of traffic. Let them know that you'll put a link to their website on yours if they do the same for you. Not only will this generate a ton of traffic, but by having more links on other sites, you'll also increase your ranking on Google and other search engines.

If you decide to join one of the business networking communities, you want to be sure to partner with businesses that are complementary and relevant to your own business. The companies you choose to partner with should have audiences that fit within your target audience demographics, and who would be likely to visit your site and become your customer as well.

Give Away Free Content

You can quickly get the message out about your website by giving other businesses free content. This is one of the best ways to make sure that your company's site gets mentioned on other sites. Many owners of Internet businesses are more than happy to obtain quality information to put on their website or their own opt-in newsletters. Offering these other businesses some regularly updated content that has already been posted on your site can significantly benefit your business. When you provide free articles, advice columns, or product reviews to other companies, you'll not only be doing a favor for them, but you'll also significantly increase the exposure of your own website.

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Let's get one thing clear: If you are not living the life you deserve to live, you are dying. I know it sounds kinda harsh. I know it's definitely an extreme way to put things, but sometimes, if you are numb to certain realities, you need an extreme wake up call.

This is one of those. In fact, if you think about it, there's really not much difference between human beings and sharks as far as living is concerned. Like a shark, humans need to move forward or they start sinking. When sharks sink, they die.

The same applies to you. Now, please understand that if you're not pushing yourself to the limit or trying to live up to your fullest potential, it's not like you're going to die immediately. But something inside you starts to get weak, starts to get soft, starts to waste away and yes, eventually, parts of you die.

There are so many of us walking around with tombstones in our eyes because we did not live out our fullest potential. We're not living nowhere near the level that we're capable of performing at. This is why so many people feel stuck, frustrated and discouraged.

There are many reasons for this. But one of the biggest causes is low self-confidence. Here are 10 of the many ways low self-confidence keeps you from living the life of victory you could otherwise be living.

You may be thinking, “if an opportunity presented itself, why the world would I not take it?” it's one thing to think about things a certain way, it's another to actually behave a certain way. If you're completely honest with yourself or in any way, shape or form feeling stuck or frustrated with your life, you probably are the type of person to look a gift horse in the mouth.

In other words, you are aware that you are presented with an opportunity, but you're doubtful. You're skeptical. You're trying to figure out what the catch is. You do this with one opportunity after another and soon enough, the opportunities dry up.

Well, they're still around. The problem is you're not allowing yourself to see them because all you can see is the downside. You have such a low view of your ability to get things done regardless of the challenges that you set a very high bar for yourself as far as opportunities go.

In other words, you're looking for something that has absolutely no catch. I don't mean to be the person to break this to you, but the reason why opportunities are opportunities in the first place is because there is a risk to them.

The higher the risk, the higher the reward. Unfortunately, your low self-confidence has really reduced your tolerance for risk, uncertainty and the potential for loss that you fail to see opportunities. Even if they do present, you don't take them.

Even if you are very competent in certain areas of your life, it's very easy to give in to the temptation of coasting. I really can't say I blame you. If you do certain things very well and you produce certain results predictably, it's very easy to think that that's all you need.

It's very easy to think that the rewards that you're getting is enough for you and your needs and you really don't have to apply yourself any further. Believe it or not, this applies to almost everybody because the default standard, as far as the human condition is concerned, is to take the path of least resistance.

Laziness is actually a pretty shallow word for this. It's something deeper. With everything else being equal, if given a choice, we would rather take the easy way out. This is guaranteed. So, when you are presented with opportunities to coast, you instinctively take them.

Even if you're not given such opportunities, you try to coast anyway. After all, why beat yourself up unnecessarily, right? Here's the problem. The reason why you give in so easily is because you have low self-confidence in your ability to keep challenging your areas of competence.

The problem with coasting is you're not learning anything new. You're sticking to the narrow range of knowledge that you already have. Sure, you produce results with that narrow range, but it gets smaller and smaller as the world changes.

Soon enough, you would realize that what you know, as well as your capabilities, are simply not up to the job. That is the bitter “reward” of coasting through life. Sadly, low self-confidence pushes you down that slippery slope.

To get good at anything, you have to not only master a certain set of actions, but you have to constantly try to break things. You're trying to mix and match, slice and dice and try to come up with all sorts of combinations so you can step up your game.

I don't care what you do for a living. Maybe you're a lawyer or a doctor, an architect or an engineer, a chemist, janitor, farmer or domestic helper. It doesn't matter. If you want to be at the top of your game, you can't just focus on the things you already know. You can't just focus on the things that you have mastered and have grown comfortable with.

You have to push yourself to the limit. When you have low self-confidence, you think that challenging yourself to go to the next level is a hassle. You have such a low opinion of your ability to discover new things.

You focus on the discomfort and inconvenience involved that you lose sight of what you stand to gain.

It then all seems like it's just not worth it.

If you are suffering from low self-confidence, it's going to be very hard for you to overcome failures and disappointments. I'm telling you right now as you read this, you're already failing. There's already the possibility of disappointment.

The problem is not whether failures and disappointments happen in our lives. Spoiler alert. They happen all the time. The issue is what are you going to do about them?

Are you going to sit back and just brood over how you worked so hard and missed the mark? Are you going to continue to be disappointed with yourself that you felt that you gave your best, but came up short? Or are you going to try again and again until you get the job done?

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Introduction

When not adequately controlled, anxiety and panic attacks can be terrifying and dramatically alter your life. Often, anxiety attacks are so scary when they first appear that every detail of that first attack becomes permanently etched in their mind. If you're someone who suffers from anxiety attacks, you may be wondering if there is anything you can do to stop them in their tracks. When you can learn different techniques for preventing a panic attack, you can start to control them rather than them having control over you effectively.

Panic attacks cause the victim of the attack to experience a sudden and intense fear, even when there is no visible danger present or no identifiable trigger. This unfounded fear then triggers your body's emergency system to become activated and the physical fight-or-flight reactions to take over. This results in your body reacting as if it's under attack and it begins to fight for your life.

Anxiety and panic attacks can strike anyone, at any time without warning. This causes people to begin to fear when and where they might once again experience a panic attack. They no longer feel like they are in control of their body and they start to limit their daily activities because of it dramatically. When this vicious cycle is allowed to continue, your world will keep getting smaller and smaller until you prefer not to leave your house.

The symptoms of a panic attack tend to peak in a few minutes. While panic attacks usually tend to be brief, they can last for several hours in some people. Once the panic attack has subsided, you can feel exhausted, as if you just finished running a marathon, or climbing a mountain. The best thing that you can do is learning how to stop the panic attacks before they even start. Here are five proven effective techniques that can interrupt the cycle of anxiety attacks and stop them before they start.

1. Focus on Your Breathing

The single, most important thing that you need to know when you are suffering from a panic attack or general stress is how to breathe correctly. When we panic, our bodies naturally start to breathe incorrectly. Unfortunately, the more inefficient your breathing, the worse your fear becomes, and a vicious cycle of panic starts, leaving you feeling completely out of control.

As a general rule, if only your shoulders and chest are rising when you breathe in, you are breathing in a way that will significantly worsen your stress. That is why it is so important to make sure that when the breath, your abdomen is expanding with each breath in. When you are feeling anxious, this can end up feeling unnatural, and even like you are making things worse. It is essential that you continue doing it, no matter how uncomfortable you are feeling. When you breathe properly through your diaphragm, within minutes, your nervous system will begin to shift out of the sympathetic mode.

The other vital thing that you need to try to remember is that you should spend more time exhaling that you do inhaling.

Make sure that you are inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth. Again, you might feel uncomfortable and find it challenging to manage proper breathing when you are in the midst of an anxiety attack, but it is essential that you remain persistent. Some doctors even recommend making the "shhh" sound on your exhale because it naturally slows down your breathing.

2. Control Your Thoughts

Have you ever made a phone call and ended up being put on hold? There's the annoying elevator music, the waiting, and no one to talk to. The experience can have quite the sedative effect on your energy. When you are experiencing a panic attack, this is the kind of atmosphere that you want to try to cultivate in your mind. You need to try to put your anxious thoughts and panic on hold.

Various meditation techniques and anxiety reduction methods have the same effect on your anxious thoughts. If your particular anxiety is a result of your constant worrying or ruminating, the most important thing you can do to stop a panic attack is just to stop. Stop thinking. Stop talking to yourself internally.

When you are trying to control your thoughts, you may experience many other intrusive thoughts that make you feel like you are currently too panicked to have any control over your thoughts. However, being consistent is the key. Meditation experts will tell you that you need to keep bringing your mind back to the blankness every single time it starts to wander. This technique will also work when you are experiencing a panic attack. If you can bring your mind back to the present and pull it from the past or the future, you can effectively stop the panic attack in its tracks.

So, when you are experiencing symptoms of an anxiety attack, think back to the last time you were on hold. Pretend that you are the phone operator and your mind is the customer who is refusing to be put on hold, and so what so many companies do to us and leave your panic on hold.

3. Relax Your Body

The tension in our muscles and body is linked directly to stress and anxiety. When a panic attack starts to set in, no matter where you are, you need to find the most comfortable and relaxing position you can find. For you this may be sitting in a chair, lying down, or standing up. Do whatever feels the most comfortable to you. It is essential that you avoid doing any strenuous activity that can increase your heart rate because this can end up making your panic attack worse.

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Habitually successful people are able to do this consistently

How many times have you talked to somebody you know who is very successful in their field? Chances are you would get one of two responses.

First is the stock response of hard work, paying your dues, making the right sacrifices and thinking long term. This is a perfectly and socially acceptable answer and it's quite common. It really is a way of drawing attention to the person's hard work, vision and willingness to take risks.

It also evokes images and themes from great American success stories. Obviously, one of the underlying principle of foundational ideas behind American success is that it is build on the foundation of hard work. So far, so good, right?

Here's the problem. There are tons of people who work hard and unfortunately, most of them don't achieve the success that your friend, mentor or community leader has managed to achieve. What gives?

On the other end of the equation are people who would tell you that their success is basically luck. Of course they would come up with different terminology. Maybe they would say it's destiny, faith, random events. They would like you to believe that they work hard, but things just happen at the right time and place with the right people to produce the right results.

What if I told you that both these explanations don't quite get it? I'm not doubting these people's sincerity, but if you want to truly get an understanding of how habitually successful people achieve the results that they get, you have to move from the standard explanation of hard work on one end and random luck on the other.

First of all, let's get one thing clear: Success is not random. There's nothing random about it at all. To achieve success in any kind of field, you have to have a target. This is called your goal. You have to focus on where you want your actions to lead you to.

You're not just moving around randomly and all of a sudden, you found yourself at the top. Sure, from time to time, that does happen. But in terms of everybody else, that's not a winning strategy. If anything, all that random actions only ensure that you stay where you are.

Success is not random. It requires pre-meditation, advanced planning and a big picture view. Please understand that since victory, regardless of how you define it, doesn't happen overnight. This means consistent effort. This means putting in the work and believing in your dreams despite the fact that you continue to fall flat on your face.

You must be able to do this even if other people around you are pointing their fingers and saying that you're crazy, stupid, dumb and there's no hope. They keep telling you to quit. You must be able to do this and to be able to do this consistently is not a product of luck.

You don't luck into consistent success. It just doesn't happen that way. Success is a habit. In fact, if you look at very successful people, it seems that they can't help but succeed. I know that sounds crazy to somebody who struggles. But they have reached that level.

Success is a habit but not in the way you think. A lot of people are thinking that it's a habit of finding yourself at the right place, at the right time, doing the right things with the right people to produce the right results. No. It's a habit of achieving a state of flow. This is the secret.

The good news is you have achieved your own personal state of flow before. You probably did not label it this way. You probably define it more in emotional terms. Maybe you're not even all that fully aware of it but everybody's capable of achieving a state of flow.

What exactly am I talking about? It's a mental and emotional state where you are able to stick to your goals and achieve them regardless of your circumstances. That's right. No matter how you feel, things fall into place.

For example, if you're supposed to write a midterm essay that is 20 pages long, as you already know, that takes quite a bit of work because you're going to have to start with a thesis and finding the right thesis takes quite a bit of time and effort.

There are, after all, many other competing thesis out there that go many different directions you could take. Once you have that, then you have to find the outline of how you're going to present that thesis. What position you're going to take. What arguments you're going to make.

Once you have that nail down, you're going to have to dissect it. How exactly are you going to prove that thesis? What parts are involved? You have to go through the pros and cons. You shouldn't just focus on the evidence that support your position. You also have to pay attention to the other side.

After all of this is in front of you, you have to massage all of these into a readable form that not only contains the points you're trying to make, but makes your points in a firm, clear and effective way. Talk about a tall order.

It's no surprise that a lot of college students struggle with this because it takes quite a bit of work and focus. When you achieve a state of flow, you blast through the whole process. You go from a confused idea of what your thesis is to zeroing in on a specific type of thesis and then going through so many different previous research to make sure that your particular thesis is unique enough.

That is a state of flow. What would have taken a painful investment of hours can be concluded within minutes or, at most, an hour or two. That's how you know you've achieved a state of flow. Similarly, when you're outlining your work, it's very easy to get lost in the jungle of details and before you know it, you get so discouraged and depressed that you just go out for a bite to eat and forget about your paper.