Sample Content Preview

Excuses can be a detriment to anything we want to achieve. Everyone can come up with some excuse that sounds like a legitimate reason why something isn’t accomplished, but very rarely does the excuse justify why something isn’t done on time. In other words, the excuse can usually be overcome or worked around if the person is willing to do so, but oftentimes, the person is willing to let the excuse hinder his/her ability to get things done in a timely manner.

Especially for entrepreneurs, excuses can be a powerful force toward not achieving the success they want. After all, entrepreneurs are usually their own bosses; if something doesn’t get accomplished, they only have to answer to themselves for why an important task or project isn’t done on time. If the entrepreneur isn’t truthful to himself/herself and doesn’t hold himself/herself accountable, then the only real “punishment” or consequence to not getting the task or project done on time is that the business’s reputation, credibility, and profitability is negatively impacted. The entrepreneur himself/herself will not get fired, since he/she works for himself/herself anyway- there is no one to really fire unlike those in a 9-5 job.

Yet, if you allow excuses to rule your business and your life, you will not achieve the dream of having your own successful business, so it is imperative that you learn to overcome excuses and not let them stand in the way of your dream of having a successful, thriving business. You will learn five steps on how to overcome excuses below.

1. You Must Hold Yourself Accountable

As was alluded to above, when an entrepreneur fails to complete an important task or project on time, he/she only has to answer to himself/herself- there is no actual boss to answer to. As a result, the entrepreneur is not going to get fired; there is no real consequence outside of the business being negatively impacted, as well as the entrepreneur’s own reputation for getting things done in a timely manner.

This is where you need to hold yourself accountable for any missed deadlines for important tasks/projects or for tasks/projects that are not done as well as expected. You need to treat your business as a real business and hold yourself accountable for any missed deadlines and failures. After all, your business’ and your own reputation is on the line, and just as it is in the 9-5 world, first impressions matter a great deal in the online business world as well. If you mess up, it will take a great deal of effort and time to overcome that mistake, so hold yourself accountable for any missed deadlines or poor-quality work and ensure that no deadlines or poor-quality work occurs.

2. All Excuses Can Be Overcome

Excuses usually occur due to distractions. Distractions can be anything from noise made by spouses, children, pets, neighbors, etc. to being logged into social media accounts, email accounts, smartphones, etc. Usually, your attention will be diverted because of one of these instances.

Many people will get distracted by their social media accounts, wanting to see who posted what content to their newsfeed or who is the latest person who wants to become their friend on social media. You get sucked into looking at your social media account, and before you know it, 30 minutes or even 60 minutes has gone by without you getting any work done.

Obviously, you’re not going to have a thriving business if you allow distractions to rule your life and take away your work time. Thus, you need to learn to overcome the distractions and the associated excuses that prevent you from completing needed work in a timely fashion.

When it comes to social media, stay off of your accounts when you are working; only spend time on them when you are not working or during breaks. When it comes to noise caused by others, use earbuds or cotton balls to drown out the noise and to keep your focus on your work. Talk to those who are causing the noise and see if you can find a way to reduce or eliminate the noise.

Even when it comes to not knowing how to do a specific task necessary for your business, this type of excuse can be overcome as well. Look to YouTube and search for the task you are looking to complete to see if someone shows how exactly it is to be done, then follow along and do it. If necessary, ask someone in an online forum to assist you in doing the task or post an ad to an outsourcing website and hire an outsourcer to have it done.

The point is that EVERY excuse can be overcome if you are really committed and dedicated to building and maintaining a thriving business; it just takes some effort and focus to achieve the solution.

3. Focus On Your End Goal

To aid you in building and maintaining your business, focus on the end goal. Why are you building your business? What do you hope to gain out of it? How long do you want it to last? What do you want your legacy to be?

Do you want to ensure your family has a happy, safe, secure financial future? Do you want to change the world for the better? Do you want your business to last beyond your own lifetime on Earth? How do you want your life to be remembered after you are gone.

Really focus on these questions and see what answers come to mind. Even consider writing down those questions and answers on a piece of paper, in a journal, or in a .txt or .doc/.docx file. Review this every so often; if you have it on a piece of paper, tape it to your computer screen or have it right next to it so that’s it’s always there for you to read and review in the event you get distracted, frustrated, or thrown off track by excuses or distractions.

Reviewing the reasons why you want to build your own business and what you want to get out of it will give you the drive and desire to work past distractions, not allow excuses to dictate your actions, and allow you to complete the work you need to complete at a high level and in a timely fashion.

4. Take Care Of Yourself

Taking care of yourself is vital to ensuring you do the best-quality work you can do in a timely fashion. If you deprive yourself of eating well and sleeping well, you will not be as focused as you need to be in order to complete your work at a high level in a timely fashion. Instead, you’ll be fighting to stay awake and stay focused on your work.

If you’re constantly hungry, you’ll be distracted by your stomach and not be able to complete your work at a high level in a timely fashion. In addition, you may get worn down and even become ill because you aren’t getting enough nutrients and vitamins in your diet. If you become sick, say, with the cold or flu, you’ll have more of an excuse to stop working, which is exactly what you don’t want to do if at all possible. And, if you eat regular meals, you’ll have a greater chance of staying healthy.

Sample Content Preview

In order to achieve the best that we can out of life and to have our greatest successes, we need to find our inner greatness. This is where we achieve the most out of life possible and also experience the greatest satisfaction and joy from doing the tasks necessary to achieve the accomplishments we want to achieve. Finding our inner greatness is also the only way we can unleash our inner greatness.

Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to find and unleash our inner greatness, and many times, it’s often due to the fact that we are not willing to do what is necessary to find and unleash that inner greatness. Finding your inner greatness and unleashing it means that you have to know yourself inside and out in order to know what you truly excel at and what you truly enjoy. If you don’t know these aspects of yourself, the chances of finding and unleashing your inner greatness are slim to none.

Below, you will find five steps to take in order to help you to find and unleash your inner greatness.

1. Be Willing To Try New Tasks/Activities

One way for you to find and unleash your inner greatness is to be willing to take on new activities and challenges. Many people shy away from new activities and challenges because they are afraid of making mistakes, getting ridiculed by others because they make such mistakes, and just don’t want to feel uncomfortable or awkward by taking on such activities and challenges. However, by shying away from such activities and challenges, you are actually hindering your ability to find your inner greatness and achieving your best possible potential.

You need to look upon new activities and challenges as learning experiences. This means you need to look upon mistakes as learning tools, not events or situations that you need to fear or dread. Most people can tolerate making mistakes; it’s when they make the same type of mistake over and over again that really infuriates people. By recognizing the type of mistake you make the first time and knowing what caused it and what actions to take to avoid that mistake, you will be improving your skill set and unleashing your true inner greatness.

2. Do Not Fear Of Making Mistakes

You need to adopt the mindset of not being afraid of making mistakes; too many people in our world today hold themselves back because they don’t want a mistake. Many times, this is because our work culture emphasizes perfection. While avoiding mistakes is understandable and even encouraged, most reasonable people know that mistakes do happen from time to time- they are unavoidable, but they can help you to grow and become better if you learn to identify what the mistake was, how and why it occurred, and how you can take actions to prevent the mistake from occurring again.

Additionally, you need to realize that you can overcome most mistakes; they aren’t that serious to where they will do any serious harm that can be overcome. Many people dread making one because they will do such serious harm that their reputations and careers will be jeopardized because of making a mistake. Learning to improve yourself by experiencing mistakes will actually benefit you in the long run, plus it will help you to grow as an individual and achieve the inner greatness you want to achieve. It will help you to become the best person you can possibly be and make the greatest impact on our world, plus enable you to achieve all of the accomplishments you want to achieve in your life.

You need to see making mistakes as a learning experience, one where you are not afraid to make a mistake. Recall that making the same type of mistake over and over again is frowned upon, so you need to learn why you made a specific type of mistake the first time and do all you can to avoid it in the future, but making a specific type of mistake the first time should be seen as a learning experience that helps you to grow as an individual and to boost your skill set and your self-confidence in your own abilities.

In fact, making mistakes and rebounding from them is a good way to test your character, grow your skills, and strengthen you in terms of being able to bounce back from something that doesn’t go as planned. Life is often full of these moments; the best way to handle these situations and to fulfill your greatest potential is being able to bounce back from life’s challenges as quickly as possible and getting back on the path the achieving your inner greatness as soon as possible. Experiencing mistakes and growing from them is a key way to help you develop the skill set to bounce back from life’s challenges as quickly as possible.

3. Learn From Your Successes

To help you find and unleash your inner greatness, you need to learn from the successes you’ve had in your life. You need to reflect on the fact that you have dealt with challenging situations in the past to where you needed to employ your skills, abilities, and resolve to overcome them, and that you did it to where there was a successful resolution. This reflection will remind you that you have the skill set needed to handle life’s challenges in a way where you can find success and your inner greatness, as well as achieve your greatest potential and the accomplishments you wish to achieve.

Additionally, reflecting on those successes will enable you to review the skills you have gained and see if any of those skills can aid you in overcoming the challenge you are currently facing. Chances are high that at least some of those skills can aid you in overcoming the current challenge you are facing. By reviewing the situations you’ve faced and the skills you’ve learned and employed to overcome those situations, you will have more self-confidence to tackle the challenge that now faces you and help you to find and unleash your inner greatness.

4. Learn From Your Failures

Learning from your failures is as important, and in some ways, even more important than learning from your successes. The key reasons why learning from your failures is important to helping you grow as an individual and unleashing your true greatness are because you learn of your weaknesses and what you struggle to do well. You learn what you need to do better in order to have fewer failures in the future. You also learn how to rebound from such disappointments and what skills you employed to help you recover from and overcome those failures.

Failures can serve to teach us our weaknesses, as well as humility. If we constantly have successes and do virtually everything well, we may start to become arrogant and self-righteous in our actions, thinking we can do no wrong and that everything we do will turn out well and even great. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way, and just when we think we have life all figured out, a “curveball” will come in the form of an unexpected challenge or situation that we are not ready to handle, and disaster strikes. It can be the unexpected loss of a family member, it can be the unexpected loss of a business client, or it can even be the unexpected loss of a game of friendly competition.

When we fail at something, we need to recognize it as an opportunity for us to grow and to improve, not at something we should fear and not something we should resent. We will not succeed and excel at everything; no one does. How we handle the failures we experience will tell us much about our personality, our character, our skill set, and where our true greatness lies, as well as how we can unleash that inner greatness to achieve our dreams/accomplishments we want to achieve, plus improve our world.

5. Have Confidence In Your Abilities

One of the biggest problems for people to unleash their inner greatness is that they lack the confidence in their own abilities to do so. You need to be confident in your own abilities in order to achieve your greatest potential; only you, yourself, have the power to achieve your greatest potential, as no one else has the ability to do it and achieve it for you. Therefore, you have to learn to have confidence in your own abilities to truly unleash the inner greatness within you.

This is a key reason why you have to be willing to try new tasks and activities; you have to gain confidence in your own abilities to handle situations and challenges. You will not always have other people to rely on in specific situations, and as mentioned above, only you have the capability to determine what your inner greatness is and unleash it upon the world.

Sample Content Preview

Internet Marketing for Busy People:

How to Gain MASSIVE Exposure for Your Business or Site in Just a Few Minutes a Day!

Internet marketing is a set of techniques and strategies that a site or business owner can use in order to increase the visibility of their brand. Essentially, this means creating more links, building a following on social media and getting links to the top of Google.

The net result is that it is easier for people who might be interested in your content for find your website and more people around the net will have heard of your brand and be familiar with it. That means more traffic to your website and more people buying your products or signing up for your services.

Internet marketing is so powerful in fact that many people will do the marketing first and then come up with the business model second! In other words, they might focus on generating lots of traffic and lots of attention for a website or a web page and then think about how they’re going to profit from that web page (normally by selling a product or by displaying adverts).

Of course, businesses will use this the other way around – they already have a product or service they are selling and they just need to get more eyes on what they’re offering. Internet marketing allows them to do this and when everything goes smoothly, a business can expect to see a massive increase in turnover and profits.

The only problem? Internet marketing takes time and money. Whether you’re looking to create your own blog as a hobby in the evenings, or you’re interested in gaining more attention for your existing business… internet marketing requires you to understand a lot of complicated terms and processes and then invest lots of time into making them work for you.

This is a problem if you’re a busy person – if your business is already taking up all of your working time and you don’t feel like dedicating your spare time to more work…

Search engine optimization is certainly not something you can learn on your lunch break and you need more than a few hours a week to build a social media following… right?

Not necessarily! In this report, you’re going to learn how you can cut right to the chase with the most effective and straightforward internet marketing strategies available.

Search Engine Optimization in Minutes a Day

One of the aspects of internet marketing you’ve probably heard the most about, is ‘search engine optimization’. But what does this term mean precisely? More importantly, how can you implement an effective social media strategy in a few minutes a week?

Search engine optimization essentially means that you are optimizing a site or a page for search engines. More specifically, it usually means that you are optimizing said site or page for Google (seeing as Google is the search engine that pretty much everyone uses…).

So how does this work? What is Google looking for?

This is defined by Google’s ‘algorithm’, which in turn is its calculation for deciding which content is ‘relevant’ for which searches. Too many people get bogged down by the details of Google’s algorithms and by trying to work out precisely how many links they need and what the best ‘anchor text’ is.

In short, people try to second guess the nature of Google in order to ‘game the system’. In fact, this is what a lot of people think that SEO actually means.

But this is not SEO. Or at least it’s not good SEO. Because if you try and guess what Google wants you to do and then fill your site with that specific type of content and build those kinds of links, that means that anyone can get their way to the top of Google by using the same techniques – even if the site that they are promoting is not high quality!

In other words, as soon as someone finds a loophole to get to the top of Google, Google is going to plug it.

Google does not want there to be a simple formula that bloggers and business owners can follow to get to the top. Google does not care about you! What Google cares about is its users and it wants to make sure that only the genuinely popular and genuinely high quality content gets to the top. That’s why Google has become increasingly good at assessing quality content – by looking at things like vocabulary and use of synonyms. It’s also why you see fewer and fewer of those pidgin English sites at the top of Google’s results pages.

So, what is good SEO? Simple: it is focussing on delivering high quality content for your users. If you do that, then your goals are aligned with Google’s own goals. If it doesn’t promote your site already, then future updates will make it more effective at identifying the genuinely high quality nature of your content.

So, write posts that are the right length for the topic you’re writing. Write posts that are filled with genuinely interesting tips. And write posts that are entertaining and well written. This will also mean that more people spend longer on your site (you will ‘reduce bounce rates’) and this is another very important sign for Google.

Better yet, if your content is genuinely good and interesting, then people will want to share it with other people, resulting in links being added to your site!

Now, writing high quality content does not take ‘a few minutes a day’ and this is going to be the most time consuming aspect of internet marketing. But if you want to get around that issue, then consider outsourcing the writing to a professional. Just make sure that you pay enough (you get what you pay for) and that you pick someone who is an expert in the given topic and who is genuinely passionate about it.

Link Building

The other part of SEO is link building. That means getting other sites to link to yours. This is also really important because it is actually the way that Google finds new content online – by following trails of links around the net!

What’s also important about link building is that Google treats each link like a testimonial. The underlying assumption here is that if thousands of people are linking to your site, then your site must be at least fairly good! What’s more, is that a link tells Google about the subject matter – because normally sites will link to other sites that are on the same subject.

Again though, the important tip here is not to try and game the system. The main way that people are guilty of doing this, is by trying to build as many links as they possibly can by buying them and trading them and while giving no thought to the quality of the site linking to them.

Google does not like this. As far as link building goes, Google’s stance has always been that quality trumps quantity. The aim should be to get links on sites that Google trusts as authority resources, not to build them on sites that no one has heard of!

So how do you know if Google trusts a site? Well, if a site has a .edu or.gov domain, then there is a higher-than-average chance that Google will trust it. Google also likes brands and Google likes the sites that have inbound links from these sites. In other words, it acts like a game of ‘degrees of separation’. If you can’t get a link from Harvard but you get a link from a site that has a link from Harvard, then this will be almost as good.

Another tip is to look for the links that are in Google’s news section – as all these are sites that Google trusts. If you can get a link from any of those, then it will be worth a lot.

So instead of wasting time sending unsolicited emails begging for links or offering to buy them, the best way to build links by far is simply to focus on getting links from the very highest quality sites.

The good news for you is that this is quicker. Focus on keeping your site top quality and then send an email a day to the best sites in your niche asking if they’d like to publish a guest post or work together in some way. You only need a couple of positive responses to completely change the game.

Sample Content Preview

The Amazon Affiliate’s Guide To Boosting Profits

Starting an online affiliate business represents a leap of faith for a lot of people. Not because it looks like something that is hard to do or understand, but because it is something that looks so easy that it seems impossible to not succeed at first glance.

But the truth is that doing online affiliate stuff is a unique way of not only turning a profit, but of making a good living. Many marketers are put off by the time that it takes them to drive their first few conversions and then convince themselves that low profit volumes are all there is for affiliates, yet many others have moderate success and keep their affiliate activity going.

The good news is that you can easily go from moderate to pro by introducing the Amazon Associates program into your affiliate marketing efforts and by applying the strategies that we are going to highlight in this guide, which we have designed so anyone can get onboard regardless of online business experience.

Defining A Specific Yet Broad Niche

What is the first thing that crosses your mind when you realize that you need to buy something? Let’s elaborate by revisiting a real-world scenario as our example, so let’s say that your 5 year old niece is coming home for a holiday and that you need to get her a gift.

What do you do about that? You go to the toy store downtown, or to the closest one to your house, or to the one that you know would offer you the best prices, or to the one where the staff knows you and are willing to give you the best, most honest advice about what to gift to your little niece.

There are two takeaways to pay attention to in that scenario. First, that you already know that you have to go to the toy store because that’s where they sell what you are looking for, preferably the one you are already familiar with, and second, that you are aware that you will need a little help with your purchase, even when you are already in purchase mode.

The same thing happens when you decide that you want to purchase a new car, or a new kitchen, or the newest high definition TV. You need a little help from an informed sales representative to make an informed purchase that you are not likely to regret later.

That is the exact same process of the affiliate marketer, who builds a website which serves as an informed middleman for people looking for information about products that they want to buy.

When the affiliate website successfully talks people into buying a product through its content, it earns the affiliate money.

And just like an electronics store would only sell electronics and hire someone who knows how to talk and sell electronics, an affiliate website needs to focus on a specific niche. An affiliate website promoting video games and bathtubs would look as bad as an electronics store selling novelty items.

The idea behind creating an affiliate website is, like we said, to talk people into buying products through affiliate links, but that doesn’t mean that you have to populate your affiliate website with all kinds of affiliate links spread throughout random content in the hopes that people will click through by chance.

The truth is that this strategy is doomed from the beginning because websites that talk about everything are exhausting to navigate. The best approach is to simply pick a product niche that you either like or have no problem writing about and then go from there.

Remember that you have to act as middleman between a buyer and the amazon marketplace, and as such you will need to make their purchasing decisions easier, so liking or knowing the products that you promote on your affiliate website will make it easier for you to recommend the products.

Once you have picked up a niche, go to Amazon.com and search for products in that niche that meet the following criteria: products that are low priced but that sell like hot cakes, and high priced items that are popular even when they don’t sell as much as lower priced products.

This is because you have to promote products that sell well enough as to leave you with a healthy amount of revenue at the end of the month. Try not to narrow down your offers too much because you will end up slowing down your profits.

To give you an example, let’s say that you decided to promote trendy, entertainment centric electronics. In that case, you will have to promote products that are lower priced but sell constantly such as newly released video games and higher priced equipment such as thousanddollar TV sets.

Yet if you decide to promote rare collector stuff only, you’ll be narrowing down your niche too much, so don’t do it unless you dedicate a separate section for that stuff on your website, or if you have an affiliate website that makes you enough money as to allow you to create a separate micro website dedicated to rare collector stuff.

Improving Your Affiliate Website (For Success)

Having a significantly functional and cool looking website is a must when it comes to any online affiliate website venture, and it is especially true for Amazon affiliates because having a nice, clean online presence is a requirement of the Amazon Associates program.

And having a functional, cool looking affiliate website doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive, at least not at the beginning. Because in the beginning you will ideally work with a cheap alternative that will allow you to focus on turning a profit while you grow your website without you having to drain your budget from day one.

This will give you plenty of room to save up money to invest in the future of your affiliate website as you grow, which can take you from one to five months. That said, there are two stages involved creating the ultimate Amazon Affiliate website.

The first stage is to simply create your Amazon Affiliate website without worrying about getting every bell and whistle. You need to simply have a website where you can insert your niche content and your affiliate links.

This first stage requires you to invest in two elements: hosting and domain. The cheapest alternative to web hosting is shared hosting. We recommend you to buy a shared hosting plan that you can pay on a monthly basis to a hosting service provider such as HostGator. Shared hosting plans can go as cheap as $4 a month, and they will work well enough in the beginning.

You will also have to buy a domain name for your website. Your domain name is simply your website address, and you can also buy your domain name from HostGator. Now, acquiring a domain name looks as simple as coming up with a name and selecting the cheapest domain extension available, but there are some rules to follow.

First, don’t be tempted to use “exact match” domains for your domain name. Exact match domains are domain names that are made up from a combination of the exact niche keywords that you will target on your website, such as selecting the “cheapelectronicreviews.com” as your domain name.

It doesn't only look lazy on your part, but it won’t help you to reach a top placement on search engine results. Lots of marketers use exact match domains for that reason, but the truth is that Google and other search engines caught on to that trend a few years ago and updated their search engine algorithms to ignore exact match domains for SEO.

So the best approach is to come up with a brandable name that isn’t an exact match of your target keywords. After you make up your mind about your domain name, you will have to select a domain name extension.

Sample Content Preview

Age Slower Report

How to Get More Out of Your Body and Mind Now and Into Old Age With 7 Incredibly Powerful Tips

You have two options.

Option one is that you don’t think at all about your health in the future. You live ‘for the now’ and you focus on making sure that you are having fun, enjoying life and not worrying about what tomorrow might bring.

You’ll have some fun in the short term sure, as you smoke, drink and sunbathe without sunblock. You’ll lie around the house relaxing as you watch your favorite show and you’ll try and earn and spend as much money as you can in true hedonistic fashion.

But then one day, you’ll get a call. It will be your old high school inviting you to a reunion. Sounds great you think!

And then you arrive and realize that you have aged worse than everyone else. You’re that person who looks tired, haggered, wrinkled and covered in sunspots. Your teeth look unhealthy and appear to be falling out and your body is sagging and wrinkled. You’ve got nothing exciting going for you and in all meaningful ways… you’re spent.

But there’s that other option. Option two is that you have fun now and enjoy life too – but while holding something back and doing a little work to fortify yourself for your future. You think about how you want life to be when you’re in your 40s, your 50s, your 70s and your 90s and you do what you can now to ensure the best possible outcome then.

And when you arrive at that reunion, the story is a little different. While other people will look worn down by life, you’ll look young, healthy and happy. You’ll be brimming with energy and you’ll have a look that’s mature, while still beaming with energy. ‘Glowing’ is not just for people in their teens!

If you’re single, then you’ll have the pick of all the highschool ‘hotties’ that everyone was after back then. Except that you’ll be out of their league now…
Don’t believe it’s possible? Then just consider celebrities like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Joana Lumley, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Anniston… These are examples of people who are past middle age – well past it in some cases – and who still look amazing.

Why? Because they’re celebrities of course. Their looks are their biggest assets and they have unlimited financial resources to invest in face creams, personal trainers and the best possible diets.

So yeah, they have an unfair advantage. But as we’ll see in a moment, it’s possible for you to keep up with them in terms of looks, health and attitude for much less. You just need to be willing to put in the time and the effort. They simply prove that lifestyle can make a massive difference. And once you uncover the secrets of that lifestyle, then you can look and feel amazing at any age too.

In this report, you’re going to discover some powerful ways you can make sure you look at feel great at any age and you’ll see that these are things that don’t necessarily have to mean spending thousands of dollars on face creams, or giving up your more enjoyable lifestyle…

1. Consume Anti-Oxidants

Okay, let’s start with a simple one: consuming antioxidants. An antioxidant is essentially a substance that is able to neutralize the effects of free radicals. Free radicals meanwhile are reactive molecules that roam the body and which cause damage to the cell walls whenever they come into contact with them. This is called ‘oxidation’ and while it is microscopic, it can add up over time in order to result in macroscopic (visible) changes. In other words, the cells become lined and wrinkled and this is actually enough to cause visible wrinkles on the skin when you’re older. Not good!

Worse is that these free radicals can eventually penetrate through the cell walls all the way deep into the nucleus. This is bad news because it can result in damage to the DNA, which in turn prevents that cell from operating as it should. When cells reproduce, they do so via a process called mitosis which means that the cell actually splits in half to create an exact equal copy.

In other words, the DNA damage now becomes repeated as well and that in turn can result in the growth and spread of cancerous tumors. In other words, antioxidants don’t just extend your youthful looks – they also extend your lifespan.

So how can you make sure you are getting enough antioxidants? One option is to consider the best sources of antioxidants – and that means berries in particular. Blueberries, raspberries etc. are all incredibly high in antioxidants and the best way to get these in your diet conveniently is with a smoothie. Swap your morning coffee at Starbucks for an Innocent smoothie and you’ll immediately extent your lifespan.

Another tip is to consider using ionized water. You can ionize your water using a water filter and what this will do is to increase the ORP or ‘Oxidation Reduction Potential’. All you need to know about that, is that the water is ionized via an electric current in order togain new electrons. This in turn alters the pH value of that water and reduces acidity. This increases hydration as well and many people say they can feel the beneficial effects in as little as 30 days.

Another useful tip is to look out for the ‘master antioxidant’, which is glutathione. Glutathione is a tripeptide made from three amino acids called cysteine, glutaminic acid and glycine. It is more powerful than any other antioxidant and has numerous important roles throughout the body – including the maintenance of other antioxidants like vitamin C and E. You can’t get glutathione from your diet directly but you can consume more of those three amino acids to encourage its production. Unfortunately cysteine is toxic when taken in supplement form, so instead try to get it by eating more dairy, fish, meat and cheese. For vegetarians, soybeans, spinach, pumpkin and kale will do the job.

Sample Content Preview

Content Marketing Report: A New Way to Think About Content That Will Transform Your Business

Content marketing has been the most important and powerful form of digital marketing for the last several years. According to market research, that is only set to continue as the savviest marketers and businesses are investing more than ever before into this practice.

So, what is content marketing and why is it such a big deal?

Essentially, content marketing means creating new content for your website or blog and then using this to grow your audience as well as build trust and authority.

The most obvious form of content marketing is written content. This will likely mean creating a blog post every week, every day or multiple times a day and then sharing it online through social media and other platforms.

This has many different benefits. On the one hand, content marketing is a perfect companion for SEO and social media marketing. Any SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) worth their salt, knows that Google runs on content. The very purpose of Google is to pair its visitors with the right entertainment and information. This is what we call content.

Thus, in order for Google to share your site with people, you need to ensure it is filled with content. Not only that, but you need to carefully utilize the right topics and search terms so that Google will know what your content is about and will be able to pair it with the right visitors.

Google is all about quality these days and if you can demonstrate that your site is a source for high quality information, then you’ll be much more likely to start gaining visibility in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

At the same time, content is also going to help you a great deal to promote yourself on social media. People will follow you on social media because they want to be informed and entertained. Thus, if you share interesting content on your site, you’ll be able to promote those posts on Facebook and Twitter and thereby give your users a reason to keep following you.

But true content marketing doesn’t mean using content as a way to boost your SEO and social media. Rather, true content marketing means thinking of content as an ends in itself rather than a means. After all, the whole reason that content can boost your SEO and social media is that content has inherent value. Content is what people go online for in the first place!

Therefore, if you add content to your site, you are adding value to your site. And when you add value to your site, you give your visitors more reason to keep coming back.

More to the point though, you also demonstrate to your readers that you have the ability to entertain and inform them and that way you build trust. Thinking about your content in this way is the best way to ensure that you make the very most from it. But in this report, you’re going to discover how to take it ever further…

How Does Content Marketing Work Psychologically?

Content marketing – when done correctly – should work over time to gradually convince visitors to your site to become long-term fans who are loyal to your brand and who are excited to buy pretty much anything that you recommend. But how do they make this journey and what is the precise role that content has to play in the transition?

At first, your content is going to work simply to increase your visibility and to help you get discovered on Google and on social media. As mentioned already, content is what people search for and the more of it you have on your site, the more likely you are to get visitors.

So, someone might search for a topic related to the subject that you write about and then they might see one of your links in the SERPs. Perhaps they click this link and get taken to your page. What do they find here?

Hopefully, they will read your blog post or article and they will enjoy it. But don’t think that you’ve made a fan overnight. In all likelihood, they won’t even look at the name of your site or remember where they were when they read your post. After all, most of us are in a hurry and the thing that your audience wants most of all is to get the information they need and then leave.

But over time, there’s a good chance that they might discover your page again – especially if they regularly read about the niche that you are writing in. If they are impressed again, then they might be more likely to start recognizing your page next time.

And if this happens a couple of times, they’ll probably make a note of your brand and they’ll remember that this is a site they can trust and that shares information in way that they find entertaining and engaging.

Now, if that user does a Google search and they see a selection of sites offering the information they’re looking for, they might actually gravitate towards your blog. In fact, if this keeps happening and you are able to build enough trust and authority, then your visitors may actually start to type in your site and to search for the content they want.

Eventually, they might bookmark the page. And eventually they might decide to check it regularly to see what new content is there!

Suddenly, you have a fan. You have someone who really enjoys what you have to offer and who trusts you as a creator.

Now, if you promote a product to them or mention something you’re working on, there’s a good chance they’ll be interested. All that free content demonstrated just how much knowledge you have and how much you care about providing value. As a result, when you charge for something, the reader will think that it must be good.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you have a site all about website design. You provide lots of useful information here about visual hierarchy, about using Illustrator and Photoshop, about coding and about security. All these things are written so well and in such an engaging manner that even people with no interest in web design become regular readers.

Now imagine you have a fan who reads that site every day and one day they need a web designed for them. Where are they going to look first? Who would be their ideal choice for a well-designed website?

You guessed it!

Earning the Right to Sell

Providing free content is not just the way you are going to offer value and build trust though: it is also how you earn the right to sell to your audience.

This is the entire notion behind a sales funnel. A sales funnel is a sequence of interactions with a visitor that has been meticulously set up by a creator. The aim is to take that visitor from being a stranger (a cold lead) to being someone who is ready to spend lots of money.

And while you might not like it, Thai Lopez is a perfect example of this!

If you’ve ever been on YouTube in the past year, then there’s a good chance you’ve encountered Thai Lopez. He is an internet marketer who has spent copious amounts on advertising on YouTube and who therefore manages to appear at the start of hundreds of videos.

Sample Content Preview

Boost Your Memory, Focus and Performance by Better Understanding Your Brain

Psychology is a fascinating subject for anyone who wants to learn more about themselves, about the way the world works and about how to have successful interactions with other people. Psychology is fascinating in this way because it provides us with effective models for understanding our thought processes and even what makes us human.

Psychology is used in this way to help us gain more insight as to the way our brains work and even to help treat and avoid mental illness.

But it can also be a fascinating tool for actually enhancing our capabilities. Once you understand how your brain works, then you can look for ways to get more out of it or even upgrade it. In this report, we’ll be taking a look at some of the different strategies that psychology reveals to us that can be used to hack the way our brains work and to get more out of them.

And if you can do that, then you can be happier, more productive, more focussed and even smarter.

So, let’s start with a little history lesson…

A Brief History of Your Brain

The study of psychology really began with Sigmund Freud and psychodynamic theory. Of course there was interest in the subject before then, but Freud pretty much brought us the first approach to therapy, the first ‘talking cures’ and the first attempt to really dissect why we think and behave the way we do.

Psychodynamic theory was highly popular and influential at the time but it has since fallen out of vogue. The central concept was that we have unconscious thoughts (not ‘subconscious’, which is a misnomer) and motives. We might do something for reasons that we are unaware of.

These unconscious thoughts often came from suppressed (hidden) aspects of our personality like the Id, or from buried traumas deep in our past. The purpose of psychoanalysis was to talk through these issues and to help patients come to terms with every aspect of their personality, to prevent them coming out in destructive ways (i.e. creating psychoses).

The problem was that Freud linked almost every issue back to sex. Not only that, but there was no real evidence for the existence of ‘suppressed’ memories or desires. The biggest sin of all is that psychodynamics are completely unfalsifiable. They can’t be disproven, meaning they can’t be subjected to the scientific method.

So, perhaps in a backlash to this, we got behaviorism. Behaviorism looked at the subjective human experience as being an entirely learned one, accomplished through conditioning. Conditioning and reinforcement meant that the brain would learn to associate two things if they consistently occurred together. So, if you consistently experienced being punched every time someone gave you a grape, you’d learn to cringe at the sight of grapes.

The most famous experiment demonstrating how classical conditioning could work, was Pavlov’s dog experiment. Here, he managed to train dogs to drool at the sound of a bell.

So how might complex human behavior arise from such a basic premise? It would occur through layering these different experiences on top of each other. As infants, we might reach blindly and find that something gets passed to us. In doing so, we learn to associate reaching with reward and learn the basis for communication. Further interactions with caregivers and others might help us to develop more complex patterns of behavior and communication.

Likewise, we could learn to walk simply by repeatedly stumbling and falling. We thereby learn to fear certain sensations and to gravitate toward others.

Behaviorists admitted that a particularly traumatic single event could much more rapidly increase this learning process. So, a phobia might be learned either by repeat reinforcement to create an association between a stimulus and a negative consequence, or it might be learned through one traumatic event. But the fact remains that it was learned and the behaviorist approach to treating this condition would be to help the patient ‘unlearn’ that link through ‘re-association’ or ‘disassociation’.

Behaviorism is an appealing theory because it is simple (satisfying the rules of ‘Occam’s Razor’) and because it provides tangible results that are easy to repeat. But there is a fair bit missing. Behaviorism boils all of the h uman experience to simple learned behaviors, learned through nothing but repetition. This suggests that there is nothing more to a human than the ability to simply rote learn skills and behaviors. That our awareness is an illusion or a mere emergent property. And that our personalities are completely malleable.

Most of us would object and say that we have some kind of internal experience. And behaviorism would need something to that effect if it was going to explain why someone might have a phobia of a snake without ever seeing a snake, or how factors like our memories or context would impact on our behavior.

Enter cognitive psychology, or to use its full title, cognitive behavioral psychology. This school of thought takes behaviorism and then it layers on top a ‘cognitive’ element – an inner experience. In other words, it explains that our thoughts and that our emotions can actually end up influencing our perception of events and also creating new associations of their own.

So, if you continually tell yourself you are going to get laughed at if you try speaking in public, then you can actually cause yourself to learn to fear public speaking… even without actually having a bad experience of any kind!

CBT might approach a phobia by using reassociation methods then, but it would also look at the cognitive element – by looking at how someone might think about a stimulus or a situation (using mindfulness) and then teaching them to deconstruct those beliefs and to assume more constructive and helpful narratives. This can also be useful for addressing things like depression, low confidence and more.

CBT is incredibly powerful because it has been shown to get tangible results without even requiring one-to-one meetings between a therapist and a patient. They can accomplish wonders themselves simply by following written instructions!

The Biological Element

Alongside all of this development was increasing understanding of the human brain and how it operated in a physical sense.

With Darwin’s theory of evolution came an evolutionary perspective on psychology – the understanding that all behavior must have evolved and must therefore be adaptive to our survival. This is very apparent when it comes to our motivation and our desire for food, sex and shelter but even more complex behaviors can be seen as directly aiding our survival or being a by-product of an adaptive trait.

If you’ve read the full book then you will know by now about neurons and neurotransmitters. The connectome (web of neurons) and brain plasticity can be seen as perfect physical representations of behaviorism in action. Neurons that fire together, wire together. So when Pavlov repeatedly rang that bell while serving up food, the dogs learned to associate the bell with food because they created new neuronal connections.

And we can even explain how some interactions might more rapidly lead to those connections forming – because highly traumatic, exciting or subjectively important events will trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and cortisol and these strengthen new connections and increase their likelihood of forming in the first place.

We can also explain how you might learn by watching (called vicarious reinforcement) – thanks to the role of ‘mirror neurons’ which fire when we see something else happening.

But what is the biological basis of cognitive psychology? What is actually happening in the brain when you visualize? Or when you ruminate?

The fascinating thing that we now know, is that you actually cause areas of your brain to light up as though you were engaging in that activity. If you visualize going running, then your brain lights up as though you are running. Thus you can actually trigger reinforcement through your ruminations and your thoughts. You can thereby learn and even alter your personality, simply by changing the course and the nature of your thoughts. And therein lies our power to heal ourselves and to hack our brains for even greater cognition.

An even more exciting theory that explains this further is something called ‘embodied cognition’.

Embodied cognition effectively explains how we think, how we understand language and what makes us human.

So, let’s imagine you’re reading something in English. Of course, you understand this text, but what does it mean to understand text? What does it mean to interpret information?

Psychologists once explained this away by making the assumption that language or thought would be translated into some kind of ‘base’ code for the brain, some kind of innate language that the brain understood. They gave this the name mentalese, but made no attempt to explain what this might look like or how it might work.

Embodied cognition however suggests that this essentially amounts to visualization. So, when you read something, you light up areas in your brain to experience what is being said. So, if you read a story, you picture the characters. If someone explains a concept to you, then you use your experience of the world to build a representation of it – by simulating that thing happening in your mind’s eye.

Even something abstract like math is only possible for us to understand because we have interacted with the world around us and because we have experience of counting objects, of visualizing quantities. In fact, some people with synaesthesia will even see visual representations of numbers as they perform the math. And it should come as no surprise that the maths areas of our brain are situated closely to those associated with movement and spatial awareness.

Sample Content Preview

Introduction

Veganism is a concept that deals with abstaining from the consumption of animal-based products such as milk, eggs and meat. Vegans follow a strict vegetarian diet minus dairy products. Vegans are only allowed to consume vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

Now you might think that this does not sound like an ideal diet for athletes to follow, as most of them rely on animal protein like meats and eggs to develop a strong body. However, the world of veganism can offer several superfoods that are not only great to develop a strong body but also capable of increasing an athlete’s vitality.

If you are a vegan athlete, then you have come to the right place, as we will look at 7 such superfoods that can be incorporated into your daily diet.

Let’s begin!

Chapter 1: Berries

Kick-starting the list of vegan superfoods are berries! Berries happen to be one of the most recommended foods for athletes and for good reason. Berries can offer the body several benefits that are highlighted as shown below:

Muscle recovery

Berries are credited for increasing muscle recovery. This means that they help in reducing the time taken by your body to recover from muscle tears and soreness. According to an experiment conducted on athletes, where they were given blueberry smoothies before their workout, they were able to recover better from muscle soreness 60 hours after their session.

Oxidative stress

The same experiment also found that berries greatly reduced oxidative stress as blood samples drawn 60 hours post workout showed less cell damage. An athlete releases more free radicals into the body after a workout session. Berries, being rich in antioxidants, have the power of reversing oxidative damage to a large extent. This is quite important when it comes to maintaining not just muscle health but overall wellness.

Fat cell development

Berries help in inhibiting fat cell development. Fat cells need to be controlled in order to prevent fat deposits from accumulating in the body. As per studies conducted on mice, those that chewed on polyphenols- a nutrient present in berries- saw a 73% decrease in their lipids. This goes to show that berries can truly help in curbing fat deposits in the body.

Metabolic syndrome

Berries are said to help in the fight against metabolic syndrome. This syndrome can induce reduced metabolism, inflammation, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance etc. Those who are unable to exercise long hours will see a marked improvement in their stamina after consuming berries.

Here are some berries to add to your daily diet.

- Acai berry

Being rich in antioxidant properties, Acai berries are great for athletes. Most athletes suffer from immense pain after a workout session owing to the buildup of lactic acid. Berries help in cutting down on this acid thereby reducing the pain.

- Blueberries

Blueberries are said to be the king of berries and are a must for all athletes to include in their diet. Blueberries come with extreme anti-oxidant content and a chemical known as Lactate dehydrogenase that helps in reducing oxidative damage. This, in turn, helps in enhancing muscle health and help athletes’ recover faster from muscle tears and soreness.

- Goji berries

Goji berries help in increasing cellular respiration. This means that your cells will have more oxygen before and after a workout thereby enabling better performance. These berries also contain Lactate dehydrogenase, thereby making them a must have in your diet.

As you can see, nibbling on a few berries before and after your workout can help in increasing your athletic performance to a large extent.

Sample Content Preview

5 Rituals To Happiness And Fulfillment

What’s life without happiness and fulfillment? It’s like living a life without meaning or purpose. When was the last time you feel that you are living your life to the fullest? Are you still desperately trying to figure out how to do that? If that is the case, you are not alone. Unfortunately, many people have been living their life without experiencing what life has to offer.

Regardless of your business, career, life or relationship, it is crucial to develop several essential habits to stay happy and achieve a sense of fulfillment in life. Adapting to a change in lifestyle and following habitul routine is fundamental in order to achieve happiness and fulfillment in the long run. Habit formation is not easy but as long as you maintain consistency in everything you do, you will eventually succeed.

I have done many researches and noticed the consistent patterns that happy and successful people follow. They practice daily habits which keep them motivated and leads to higher productivity, happiness and fulfillment. There are 5 essential habits discussed below that can help you to effortlessly achieve happiness and fulfillment in life.
Essential Habit #1 : Make Exercise A Regular Habit

One of the most essential habits that leads to happiness and fulfillment is exercising regularly. It does not necessarily have to be heavy weightlifting or running a marathon. This is about doing lightly arduous activity to oxygenate your blood and strengthen the endorphins in your body. Regardless of what kind of exercise you do, you will benefit from it as long as you do it regularly.

Make a schedule for exercise and commit to it no matter how busy you are. Aim for an hour of exercise at least 5 days a week to achieve optimum results. However, there is a strong likelihood of you sticking to something you enjoy doing more. You’re not limited to working out at the gym or strapping on jogging shoes. Therefore, allow yourself to look for something you enjoy doing which better suit your lifestyle and preferences. For instance, you could participate in a dance class, shooting basketball hoops, walking in nature, swimming laps at the pool, joining a community sports league, playing tennis, jogging with your dog, hiking, riding a bike, or doing yoga in the park. If you are having a hard time thinking of activities you enjoy, recall back to when you were a kid. What sports or games did you enjoy playing?

Exercise isn’t just beneficial for the body. It has a powerful positive impact on both physical and mental well-being. Besides, exercise also releases dopaminine, oxytocin and serotonin into the system, resulting in an almost euphoric effect without having to consume any drugs. Once you have started this habit, you will feel more motivated, more mental clarity as well as be more emotionally sound. People who exercise regularly tend to be happier across the board. Also, they tend to be less stresssed, angry, anxious and depressed. In addition, exercise doesn’t just help you maintain your health and attractiveness. Studies have shown that it acts as antidepressants which keeps you happy.

Based on research, exercising physically is simply mind-boggling; how physical exercise brings positive impacts to both physical and mental health. It’s known to be as powerful as the most effecitve psychiatric medication in the absence of side effects. Researchers believe that physical exercise can protect bodies against some of the illness that can hit people in their later lives which include cognitive decline but it can also help stave off feelings of depression and anxiety to individuals of different age groups. When dealing with patients suffering from attention-deficit disorder or depression, doing physical exercise is highly recommended by most psychologists as it works wonders. As stated by the NEF report, “we do not have to do plenty of them, even as minimal as running 3 separate 30-minute sessions a week or brisk walking could be beneficial”. However, in general, the longer and more intense the physical activity is, the better the impact on health. But as the NEF report has pointed out, even a single exercise session of 10 minutes or less can have a positive effect on one’s mental health. However, one study found that habit formation takes an average time of 66 days to solidify but may happen anywhere between 18 to 254 days. Therefore, do not get discouraged if you feel lethargic or demotivated to exercise at first as you are going to take time to develop the habit to exercise.

Essential Habit #2 : Wellness

Another important ritual of happiness and fulfillment is to develop wellness. Wellness means doing anything to enhance your body and overall health. For example, being engaged in any activities of self-pampering is of paramount importance for mental health and happiness. This could include one or a combination of the following: meditating, getting a hot bath, getting sufficient sleep, drinking plenty of water, taking your vitamins, eating food that are both nourishing and healthy, getting a massage and many more.

Happiness, vitality and emotional stability is directly affected when you’re sleep deprived. It is of paramount importance to get quality sleep every night in order to be productive, think creatively, and make wise decisions. Sleep scientists stated that the average person needs at least 7.5 – 9 hours every night. Apart from getting sufficient sleep, the practice of meditation is one of the most effective technique to live a happier life. Meditation is an effective ancient practice that helps us to control our mind and thoughts as well as enjoy living in the moment. In other words, meditation is a kind of exercise for the brain. When meditation is practiced regularly, part of the brain filled with negative thoughts, anxiety and depression is reduced whereas the other part of the brain filled with joy, fulfillment, and peace is increased. It also boosts parts of the brain responsible in controlling emotions and managing attention.

Furthermore, being mindful enables you to be more entirely involved in your surroundings and hence more aware and appreciative of everything. To meditate, its not necessary to be religious or even spiritual to reap its advantages. No pan flutes, chanting, or yoga pants are needed during meditation. Mindfulness meditation is a simple task which can be carried out by anyone, anywhere and anytime. It is not necessary to sit on a mountain and say a mantra in order to meditate.

To begin, there are a several mindfulness exercises for you to practice such as body scanning, walking meditation and mindful eating. Through body scanning, mindfulness is cultivated by paying attention on your different body parts. To do this, you should focus on your feet first and slowly move upwards like progressive muscle relaxation. Rather than relaxing and tensing your muscles, you should concentrate on the feelings obtained from every part of your body without judging them as either “pleasant” or “unpleasant”. Meditation should be made a habit or a daily ritual, as the poet John Dryden once said “We first make our habits and then our habits make us.” Meditation also does not need you to be in a sitting posture or still. Mindfulness in walking meditation includes focusing on every step you take – how you feel when your feet touches the ground, your flow of breath while you move, and when the wind blows against your face.

Sample Content Preview

Warrior Mindset Report: How to Cultivate a Warrior’s Mindset to Become Unstoppable in All Aspects of Your Life

What is the warrior mindset?

Simply, this is an approach to life that might resemble the approach we imagine a warrior would have taken. This is a way of conducting yourself, of approaching a problem and of looking after your mental and physical needs that requires a warrior’s grit and self-control. This is a way of life that has been largely forgotten in our modern society and which yet has more relevance than every before today. In this report, we are going to take a closer look at what is meant by the term ‘warrior mindset’ and we are going to prescribe the necessary training, steps and processes necessary to come closer to living life like a true warrior.

Defining the Warrior

The warrior is someone that is able to get what they want, accomplish great things and inspire others. This is someone that is strong in both body and mind and that is able to serve a higher purpose without giving in to their baser urges.

The warrior is not someone who fights and brawls and is about showing off their ego, but rather someone who exhibits incredible self control and restraint.

The warrior is in service of a cause that is greater than themselves – whether that means they have a shogun or a king, or it means they are working toward a career, toward changing the world or just looking after their family.

In service of this higher cause, the warrior is able to forego the needs and wants of their body. They are not slave to their baser impulses and desires but rather are able to forget the right path ahead.

The warrior doesn’t come home after a long day at work and crash out on the sofa while eating cake: they continue to train and hone their body, or they work toward their goals/providing for their family.

The warrior doesn’t blame others, let themselves go, get in a panic, stress themselves out… the warrior is stoic, calm and poised at all times.

The warrior simply takes the simplest path toward accomplishing the victory they need. They make sacrifices to build toward a better future for themselves and the ones they love.

The warrior is respected. They are leaders. They are heroes.

And this couldn’t be further from what many of us are today.

Many of us today are weak. Weak in our bodies because we have let ourselves become soft (thanks in no small part to all of the modern conveniences that surround us) and weak in our resolve because we are so used to getting what we want so quickly.

Many of us struggle to make simple decisions like what to eat for dinner, let alone making big decisions like what to with our careers.

Many of us are too cowardice to solve the problems we have, or to take big risks that might lead to a better future. Many of us will assign blame to others to avoid ‘getting into trouble’. We’ll make ourselves look better because we’re so concerned with the opinions of others.

Part of this is due to our domestication over time. Life simply has become too easy.

But a lot of it goes further than this. Many of us see sides to ourselves - impulsive, weak and demotivated sides – that are hard to live with.

You won’t get over this by simply wishing it were so. Your only option is to get tough. To make the decision to improve, to grow and to get stronger. To adopt the warrior mindset. To fight!

Discipline

It Starts With Decluttering

This might sound like a surprise but one of the first and best things you can do to start moving toward the warrior’s mindset is to declutter. Try reading the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo if you need inspiration.

Your objective is not to tidy though, but rather to throw out as much as you can. To start living with less.

The simple reason for this? Your stuff is making you weak.

Having lots of things means having more to lose. If you have a large house packed with beautiful items, then that means you’re going to need more money in order to afford those things. That means you’ll need a certain job. That means you’ll need to dedicate a certain amount of your time and energy to that job.

And it means that losing your job or having a big expense gives you a huge amount to lose.

When you have lots of stuff, you become spoiled. Having a TV with 5,000 channels means you become soft and accustomed to being entertained. You forget how to calm your mind and enjoy your own company.

Having a ‘Lazy Boy’ arm chair with reclining back and sixteen different massage settings means you’ll struggle to make do with a hard bed in a cold bedroom.

In other words, the more you get used to having lots, the harder it will become to live with less.

And that means you’ll struggle to make those hard choices. You’ll struggle to put your own comfort to one side while you focus on doing what’s right for your family or what’s necessary for your career.

Finally, having lots of stuff actually makes you less free. Not only does it clutter your mind and distract you, but it also means you could never just up and leave, or move home on a whim. Your own choices are now being dictated by all your ‘stuff’.

Even the simple fact that having more stuff means you have more stuff to clean and tidy, means you’ll have less time and energy to dedicate to the things that really matter to you.

I’m not saying that you need to throw out all your possessions and live your life as a monk. But learn to ‘need’ things less. Learn to stop spending money in places you don’t need it. And become less reliant on the things you have. Create a more minimal décor and a more minimal mindset and you will be more closely approaching the mentality of the warrior.