Be like a coffee bean! I made this video based on a recent book I read by Jon Gordon and Damon West called The Coffee Bean.
This story has a very simple yet powerful message. In life, when you are given the choice to be a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean; always be a coffee bean.
View my video below to find out why…
Life can throw some major punches at us, and sometimes we get mentally stuck in the battle. But never forget that you are not a punching bag! Life is full of unexpected obstacles and sometimes we get hit hard and it hurts. It’s okay for us to feel the pain, but it is not okay for us to just sit there in the pain forever.
We are often told to follow our dreams, right?
But are your dreams really YOURS?
Many of us have been pursuing dreams. It could be in our careers, our finances, our relationships, etc. But sometimes the dreams that we’re pursuing are tings that we may like and wouldn’t mind having or doing, but they may not actually be things that we’re 100% passionate about.
This is a story that I’m sure many of you have already heard (and probably several versions of it), but it is such a beautiful message that it can’t hurt to hear it again.
Inspired by the real-life anecdote told by Loren Eiseley in The Underground Universe.
Many of us see yin and yang as being opposites (good and bad, hot and cold, happy and sad, etc), but the truth is that yin and yang are actually complements of one another.
If you think about it, hot and cold are simply the extremes of the full experience of what we call temperature. And if we didn’t have one, we wouldn’t have the other. They both play an essential role. How else would we create warm, if we didn’t have a little bit of both?
So just a little food for thought. Our world seems to be very divisive right now. We have become either boiling hot or freezing cold. Let’s try to remember the beauty of the warmth that we once experienced and never forget that it takes both, a little bit of hot and a little bit of cold to make it happen.
Here’s an awesome golden nugget that I learned from Tony Robbins and his wife, Sage. Are you guilty of placing labels on people?
I’m sure you all have heard the phrase that our mind is like a sponge; especially when we’re little kids.
You see, when we’re born our mind is a fresh new sponge ready to soak everything in. It’s thirsty to learn and it will pick up everything from its environment.
But here’s the thing, the sponge really has no control over what it picks up. It’s dependent on its surroundings. Sometimes a sponge can be used to wash a barely dirty dish, but other times a sponge is used to wash a huge pile of filthy and greasy pots and pans.
Eventually after consistent exposure to various elements the once thirsty pores and crevices of the sponge become full and they start to hold on to those various elements.
Do you see where I’m going here?
A lot of us have been carrying around certain elements in our mind since we were little kids. And it’s not our fault because we were simply sponges soaking in whatever the circumstances that we were exposed to.
But we’ve held on to some of these elements for so long that we started perceiving them as our truths. Emphasis on the word “perceive” because there are plenty of times that what we may see as our truth is in fact very far from the actual reality.
The beautiful thing is that our mind is resilient. And just like having to clean a dirty sponge, it may not be easy. But eventually if we keep rinsing the sponge and exposing it to new cleansing elements those dry and dirty pores soon start to release some of that dirt and they become free again.
Now, the sponge may never become perfectly clean as it once was, but we’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for progress. Progress is what counts.
So we may not have had control over what we were exposed to in the past, but have not doubt that we absolutely have control over what we decide to do now. So if you have been carrying some unwanted elements in your mind, now is the time to start rinsing that sponge!
And if you guys are parents or role models to little children, please keep this in mind. Be conscious about what you say and do when you’re around them. You will be very surprised with the amount of information that they consciously and subconsciously absorb without you even realizing it.
Here come those new year resolutions. Everybody is setting new goals envisioning their success, but why is it that the majority of these goals are very short lived?
This is Marcelo and I’m going to share with you something that most of us are doing that is automatically setting us up for failure.
Scientists have discovered that our thoughts can physically change our brain structure; how are brain is wired.
Our brain is changing every day, but unfortunately it’s not always for the better. We are bombarded with negativity and to top it all off, many of us have become experts at negative self talk. Add these all together and we have formed some horrible patterns in our head that do an excellent job at keeping us away from achieving our goals.
The good news is that we can absolutely change these patterns and rewire our brains.
Now keep in mind that our thoughts drive our emotions which then influence our behavior.
So right around New Years our self talk goes a little something like…
“This year I will lose weight.”
“This year I am going to make money.”
“This year I will improve my health.”
Now these things sound pretty damn positive and awesome, right?
Unfortunately, this is exactly where most of us are going wrong.
“This year I will lose weight.”
“This year I am going to make money.”
These are powerful statements, but they are only good enough to get us started, at best.
This self talk gets the wheel turning; it puts us into motion, but unfortunately it does not keep us in motion.
Let me show you how we can easily modify these statements to make them 100 times more effective.
But first let me preface this by saying that as humans we tend to procrastinate whenever possible; especially when we have to do things we don’t like.
So when we use the words “will” or “going to” we are talking about something in the future. We are already subconsciously granting ourselves a little leeway, a little wiggle room; which the procrastination side of us loves.
“Oh, I can do it tomorrow.”
And then tomorrow becomes the day after, the day after becomes next week, and so on and so on. And this is why by the end of the year most of us haven’t accomplished any of our goals; because we are still stuck in “I will” mode.
But what if we changed “I will” to “I am”?
So instead of saying, “This year I will lose weight.” Let’s say, “This year I am losing weight.”
Instead of saying, “This year I am going to make money.” Let’s say, “This year I am making money.”
Such a subtle change makes a big difference when it comes to breaking our old thought patterns and forming new ones where we don’t leave any room for procrastination.
Use assertive statements to put yourself in the action right now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. Drop your I wills, drop your I am going tos.
Start changing your self talk to the present, to in-the-moment.
Look at the difference between, “I will be happy.” And “I am happy.”
When you say, “I will be happy”, you are leaving room for sadness, for anger in the present.
But with “I am happy”, that’s it, there’s no room for anything other than happiness in the right now. You are not putting off happiness till tomorrow, you are taking care of it right now!
So start making these small yet powerful changes in your self talk, and see just how much better your 2021 is going to be!
It’s amazing how we can be careless with our choice of words. Too often we let our emotions do the talking and not realize the impact that our words have on others, especially those closest and dearest to us.
In just a few moments our words are so powerful that they can change someone’s life forever. Think before you speak!
Are you living a life based on feelings, or are you living a life based on purpose?
So what’s the difference?
Well there are some days where we feel like we can conquer the world! And there are other days where we feel like we can barely tie our own shoes. LOL
We all have our ups and downs. It’s normal; we’re human, but this is where we need to be conscious about what we’re doing.
Life can already be like a rollercoaster ride. And if we live our life based on our feelings, that rollercoaster ride is only going to get bumpier.
We go through many stages and goals in our life. From going to school when we’re kids to climbing the ladder in our careers as adults; and so many things in between.
There are going to be days when we feel like not going to school.
There are going to be days when we feel like not going to work.
There are going to be days when we feel like not exercising.
And I can go on and on, but my point is that there are simply going to be times when we feel like not giving it our all. When we feel like not giving it our best because the reality is that feelings change.
So if we live a life solely based on feelings, how are we suppose to accomplish our goals? Most likely we won’t. But if we live a life based on purpose; we now have something powerful. Something so powerful that every time we feel like not doing something, it is going to be that reminder that kicks us into gear. It is going to help us flick that switch, to kick those negative feelings to the curb and fill us up with those positive feelings again; ready to take action.
So stop living a life based on feelings.
Focus on your purpose and live your life based on that purpose!
