selfimprovment

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: IF YOU WANT A BRIGHTER FUTURE, THEN INVEST IN IT… AND THIS IS ABOUT SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST MONEY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

In order to achieve longstanding happiness and success in life and to create the brighter future and the life you really, really want, you must be willing to make short-term sacrifices in order to create your most desired longer-term future – and anything and everything that might include for you (and others in your life). And this is about so much more than just money.

Do you want to live a long and healthy life so you can spend more quality time with those you love and appreciate, create memorable experiences, and live a life full of freedom, peace, and independence for the remaining years and decades of your life? Well, then you probably need to mindfully invest in yourself by engaging in fitness activities and making healthy lifestyle choices. Sure, it might seem a bit painful and time consuming right now, but like most investments, it will really pay off over the longer term.

Do you have a dream that you really want to achieve or a cause where you really want to make a difference? Well, then you probably need to mindfully invest by performing the research, gaining the skills, and defining and taking the steps needed to achieve that. Sure, it might seem a bit painful right now, in terms of all the time and effort you might have to put in but, again, like most investments, it will really pay off in the long run.

Are there people in your life you would like to strengthen your relationships with or have you a strong desire to create a future relationship with a special someone? Well, then you probably need to mindfully invest by creating the balance you need in life so that you can mindfully participate in those relationships and take steps towards creating new relationship(s). Sure, things might seem a bit distant and awkward right now, but if you take regular, consistent steps to participate more in the relationships which matter most to you and position yourself for creating new relationships then, again, like most investments, it can really pay off over the longer term.

Do you want to achieve a sense of financial freedom in your life? Well, then you probably need to mindfully invest by getting in the practice of automatically saving 20% of everything you earn, developing and living with a sense of financial discipline, and learning how to invest and manage your money. Sure, you might not be able to live that exciting, lavish lifestyle filled with luster, experiences, and adventure right now but, again, like most investments, it will really pay off over the long run.

Are there any life experiences you really want for yourself? Well, then you probably need to mindfully invest by defining and taking steps to achieve that. Sure, it might seem a bit painful right now, in terms of all the time and effort you might have to put in but, again, like most investments, it will really pay off over the longer term.

And the above are just five broad categories of investment kinds of examples. There are several others we could come up with.

Lastly, don’t forget about the cross effects. For example, if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, do you suppose that could affect your finances, your relationships in terms of your abilities to inspire and actively participate, and the energy you have available to put towards the dreams you desire to achieve, the life experiences you would like to have, or the causes you would like to make a difference in? You better believe it might.

So, invest in yourself and invest in your future. And start today. Get in the practice of making all of the small sacrifices needed today, tomorrow, and all along the way so that you can achieve the brighter future you really, really want.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books…/

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness #peace #investment #love #relationships

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: ALWAYS BE MINDFUL OF WHAT YOU EXPEND YOUR TIME AND ENERGY ON

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a Happiness/Success Tip which might be helpful to some of you out there: always being mindful of how you expend your time and energy. Focus on filling more of your life with that which makes you happy and inspires and fulfills you instead of focusing so much on that which does not. Because life isn’t short. We make it short by wasting time and energy.

So many people seem to get lost from time to time and forget the true purpose of their life is to be happy – and anything and everything that includes – for each and every one of them.

So, keep doing anything that makes you happy. And be mindful of anything which does not.

A lot of people seem to forget the latter – especially when they get consumed by negativity, bitterness, politics, conspiracy theories, and such. So, I wanted to provide a “friendly reminder” in case it might be helpful to some of you out there. Because your life is precious. And you’ll be a lot happier if you treat it that way.

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: FIND, FOLLOW, AND FOCUS INTENTLY ON YOUR BURNING WHY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

One of the keys to motivating yourself (and others) and making consistent and continual progress involves discovering what your burning WHY is and keeping it in clear focus over the weeks, months, years, and decades that follow – whether towards your life overall, for a specific goal or accomplishment, or some success you desire to achieve.

So, some of you might find, focus on, and follow a big, burning WHY in terms of your life overall for the long term if that creates enough motivation for you. Alternatively, you might find, focus on, and follow smaller, burning WHYs for right now in order to create motivation for each of your shorter term goals and such. Or you might use a combination of these approaches.

For example, in my own life, having the peace and freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, has been my life overall big, burning WHY for many years now and was enough to drive me to create and embody the financial and investing discipline and balance I needed to achieve that success. Some other person might have a smaller, burning WHY right now, which might involve spending a month in Paris a year from now. So, that smaller, burning WHY for the near term might motivate the individual to do whatever research, take the actions, and earn the money needed to achieve this goal. Someone else might have a smaller, burning WHY right now, in going hiking in the Rocky Mountains. So, that smaller, burning WHY for the near term might motivate this individual to engage in more fitness activities, eat healthier, and embrace healthier habits.

Visualization approaches can also be used to personify your big or small burning WHYs to motivate progress such as the following:

(1) Positive Visualization Approach. This is primarily a positive oriented motivational approach personifying your WHY(s). This essentially involves visualizing the person you greatly aspire to become, the ideal life you would greatly desire to live, or the highest success you greatly desire to achieve and collecting reminders of these – whether reflective of your life overall or your shorter term goals and such. By developing a positive means in which to visualize success and proceeding to visualize, or remind yourself of, this success on a regular basis, progress can be made towards achieving this success.

(2) Negative Visualization Approach. This is primarily a fear oriented motivational approach personifying your WHY(s) from the opposite end of the spectrum. This essentially involves visualizing the person you would most not like to become, the life that you would most not like to live, or the failures and other experiences you would most not like to have and collecting reminders of these – whether reflective of your life overall or your shorter term goals and such. For example, images of a homeless person suffering the effects of a prolonged addiction problem or a character in a movie who played such a role might serve this purpose. Another approach might be collecting reminders of those you love and appreciate who might be greatly affected by your nonsuccess. By developing a negative means in which to provide reminders of your life fears and the negative implications and consequences of nonsuccess, these can help to provide the strength and the motivation to resist or avoid these. And many studies have shown that pain can serve as a powerful motivational force since human beings tend to be “wired” towards avoiding pain/suffering and being risk averse.

(3)  Combined Positive/Negative Visualization Approach. This approach essentially involves two contrasting visualizations: One which represents the positive aspects (item 1 above) and another which represents the negative aspects (item 2 above).

Each of these approaches can help motivate success and improve progress. And the key to this progress and success hinges on finding, following, and focusing on your burning WHY(s) over the weeks, months, years, and decades to follow – whether in life overall, for a specific goal or accomplishment, or some success you desire to achieve. So, do this for yourself (and others) if you can.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: MAINTAIN A SENSE OF OPENNESS, OBJECTIVITY, AND FLEXIBITY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a Happiness/Success Tip on maintaining a sense of openness, objectivity, and flexibility throughout the days, months, years, and decades of your life. The human quality of consistency is overrated. Ways to learn and grow and evolve as a person include being open to new information and ideas and making adjustments along the way. This is an intelligent way to live and you’ll be much happier and more successful in life if you do.

So, get in the practice of embracing openness, objectivity, and flexibility and releasing close-mindedness, subjectivity, and rigidity. And don’t worry so much about maintaining a sense of consistency. Things change and you must adapt to these changes all along the way.

What a wonderful world we could all live in and share if we each lived in this fashion.

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/

#joy #love #gratitude #appreciation #selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness

HAPPINESS TIP ON LIVING SIMPLY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a Happiness Tip on living simply.

What should you do with your life?

Enjoy it, smile a lot, and be happy.

Simply explore and experience anything and everything in life which might create these happy kinds of things for you.

It’s that simple.

You’re welcome! 🙂

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/

#joy #love #gratitude #appreciation #selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness

HAPPINESS TIP: ALWAYS LEAD WITH A SMILE AND HAPPY THOUGHTS TOWARDS OTHERS

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a simple Happiness Tip guaranteed to bring immediate and sustained joy throughout the days, weeks, and years of your life… Every time you come in contact with someone, lead with a smile and the thought: “I wish you much happiness and hope you find many reasons to laugh and smile today.” And mean it. You can also bring people in your life to mind (past and present) and do the same.

Observe how wonderful it makes you feel every time you do this – and do it often. What a wonderful world we could all share if we all did this. A world filled with joy and loving-kindness instead of judgment and negativity.

So, do this for yourself (and others) each and every day and smile a little more. 🙂

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/

#joy #love #gratitude #appreciation #selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: MAKE SELF-CARE AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY A PRIORITY

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Self-care is often the most overlooked – but most important – first step to getting yourself into a positive place and feeling good. Most people feel much better within days or weeks just doing this on a regular, consistent basis. So, focus on this first: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/how-to-defeat…/

Also, the most powerful realization you can have is that you are creating the negativity and unhappiness you are experiencing. But that’s actually good news. Because if you are creating this, then you can do something to make things better.

Simply ask yourself “How am I creating this unhappiness and negativity?” Next ask, “What can I do to move in a positive direction?” Then do it.

I can’t tell you how many people I have helped throughout this pandemic just by focusing on the above. So, if you are going through a difficult time, give this a try. I guarantee that it will make a huge difference.

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/

#joy #love #gratitude #appreciation #selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness

HAPPINESS TIP: FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU DON’T

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a Happiness Tip which might be helpful for some of you out there: Get in the practice of focusing on what you want, or would like to happen, instead of what you don’t.

The primary reason so many people feel so negative for so much of the time is that they fill their minds with thoughts of what they do not want.

Thoughts of one thing we do not want, often spawns other thoughts of things we do not want, which spawns still other thoughts of things we do not want, and so on. And this process can continue until our thoughts pull us in multiple, conflicting, negative directions and we become overwhelmed, drained of energy, and even paralyzed by our fears and negativities.

A good way to moderate and overcome negative thinking cycles such as this is to mindfully practice turning attention away from negative thoughts and towards more positive ones. For example, if you find yourself playing the what if game, you might substitute positive what ifs in place of the negative what ifs. That is, you would choose happier thoughts. In this manner you would be able to transform your thoughts from fear, anxiety, and negativity to something more positive.

For example, instead of telling yourself, “What if everything goes wrong?” you might tell yourself, “What if everything goes right?” Or, instead of telling yourself “I can’t,” you might tell yourself, “I can and I will.” Or, instead of telling yourself, “I will never get through this,” you might tell yourself, “I will get through this because I’m much stronger and more resilient than I’m giving myself credit for.” Or, instead of telling yourself “I’m going to look stupid in front of everyone, because I am such a lousy presenter,” you might tell yourself, “this will be a new and interesting experience for me. I am going to get up there and do a wonderful job. People might even applaud and want to talk to me after my presentation.” And so on.

The point is to figure out what you do want, instead of what you do not want, and to focus your attention on that. Whenever we visualize positivity and success by focusing our attention on what we want, instead of that which we do not want, it will energize us, drive us to perform exceptionally well, and create a more positive outcome (of which no small part can come from the power and help we might receive in response from the universe and spiritual world). And that can really help us get through the more difficult challenges we experience in life.

Several years ago, in Orlando, Florida, I once saw a billboard outside of an organic and environmentally safe products store which I just loved. It read, “If anything can go well, it will.” What a wonderful way to look at life. Just saying these words to ourselves can make us feel happy, peaceful, and optimistic. Believing these words in our daily approach to living can make us feel wonderful and help us to moderate and overcome our stresses, fears, and negativities. What do you really want right now in your life? Focus on that and live freely knowing that if anything can go well it will.

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/

#joy #love #gratitude #appreciation #selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness

HAPPINESS/SUCCESS TIP: GET IN THE PRACTICE OF ENGAGING IN PRODUCTIVE INTERACTIONS WITH OTHERS INSTEAD OF NONPRODUCTIVE ONES

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a Happiness/Success Tip which can be helpful not only in your work, but also in your life outside of work: Get in the practice of engaging in productive interactions with others instead of nonproductive ones. This involves not only verbal discussions but also communications via social media and other forms of communication.

A good first step in doing this involves evaluating the interactional/conversational environment before engaging to ensure the setting is constructive and that it’s a convenient time for everyone involved. The only productive interactions/conversations to have with people are those which are done in good faith in which each of the parties are feeling positive and are interested, curious, open, truly want to listen, and desire to explore, investigate, gather information, learn something new, improve relationships, or gain a different perspective or a new understanding.

Engaging in interactions/conversations with argumentative people or those who are emotionally charged, not feeling their best, or enjoy provoking emotional responses are usually not very productive. So, in those situations, it is probably better to wait until the circumstances are such that they can be productive. Otherwise, they can just create a lot of negative energy without accomplishing much.

Always take a soft approach, be respectful, and ask permission of those you wish to interact or converse with. So, instead of saying something like: “We need to talk now!” and cornering or invading a person’s space and using the time as an emotional dumping ground, ask something like:”Can we talk about ‘X’,” or “Is now a good time to talk?” If the interaction/conversation involves sharing worries or fears, do so without blaming those you are having the discussion with.

The above are some of the reasons that self-care is so very important so that you always show up presenting your “best self.” And here’s a post I wrote about this: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/how-to-defeat…/

The above ideas were formulated from an inspirational podcast I listened to today on the Good Life Project which featured Alex Jamieson and Bob Grower as guests: https://www.goodlifeproject.com/…/alex-jamieson-bob…/

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #relationships

HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS TIP: EMPLOY CRITICAL THINKING BEFORE REACTING AND COMMUNICATING

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.


Let’s talk about a key element missing in today’s social media based communications: Critical Thinking. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the news media is biased and shapes stories based on selective information and indicators which offer the most compelling presentations possible. Because that’s what captures audience attention and is the primary metric of success for the news media. So, it’s always a worthwhile exercise to ponder what information is being conveniently left out and what information might cause you to draw the opposite conclusion or no conclusion at all. And performing an objective analysis and evaluation of issues in order to form judgments BEFORE COMMUNICATING is the actual definition of critical thinking.

So, it boggles my mind when I see people getting excited about and having heated emotional discourses on information (or misinformation for that matter) based on news media sources or even worse – based on frivolous non-sources like social media posts and such. It’s such a waste of time and energy for everyone involved.

So, do everyone a favor (including yourself) by being open to ideas and employing the basic concepts of critical thinking BEFORE REACTING OR COMMUNICATING and supporting your ideas with good sources and your credentials where appropriate. If you do, your communications will offer something of value and you will be valued as a source instead of as a crazed hysteric throwing random hissy fits (even though the latter might be a bit more entertaining). So, please keep this in mind.

And, lastly, always remember: just because you believe something doesn’t make it true.

This and other happiness tips and topics are provided throughout my self-help, happiness, and investment oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/


#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #peace #mindfulness