The Principles of Modern Musicianship

Life by design not default

Master Your Destiny

This is the home and the paradise you create for yourself.

Modern Musicianship is the biggest and most exciting journey of your life.

Become your True Self

This is the freedom to be your true self, and rid yourself from the false self and all the illusions of the ego self.

Become the greatest version and expression of yourself in the world and have transformative influence inspiring others.

The champions formula is Inspiration and motivation plus concentration plus consistency plus faith and determination.

Optimize for and build the factors for your success through inspiration and motivation plus concentration

Master the Fundamentals

The fundamentals of business, the fundamentals of personal development, the fundamentals of spirituality and energy management, the fundamentals of laws of success, the fundamentals of your craft, the fundamentals of your 4 powers what you think, feel, speak and do.

Play at the pro level – Become a professional

Learn the strategies

Obsess over the tactics – master the details

Play Full Out

Integrate the head, heart and hand and live from the soul.

Go the extra mile

Become outstanding – Set outstanding standards

Forward progress through consistent action

Preproduction is Key

For Modern Musicians this is one definite piece of the puzzle, unfortunately it is one that most people overlook. Planning and preparation. It’s about having a plan. And sticking to it.

Organized victory. That’s what you want. Failing to plan, is planning to fail. You won’t get there without a plan. Plans are the foundation of preproduction. With plans, visions and dreams turn into reality. The pathway to your paradise begins with a plan. Plans are the difference between success and failure most of the time. Traditional Musicians wing it, Modern Musicians start with a game plan.

Having a plan means that you sat down with clarity and focus and charted out where you were trying to go and then constructed the blueprints to get there. It doesn’t mean a 40 page business plan, though that doesn’t hurt. Having a plan is only good if you stick to it. So stick to it and start to see benefits of doing so. Think of your plan as your way of creating what you do want in life instead of creating what you don’t want in life. You need a plan for your content, your Content Strategy, you need a plan for your finances, for your marketing strategies and for your personal growth. Modern Musicians have a short term, a mid term and a long term game plan for their life. Modern Musicians have blueprints for every area of their life.

Success Habits

Success is built on success habits and a success consciousness. Success habits are your musts. In order for me to be successful as a writer I must write. Therefore it is a success habit for me. Therefore mon-fri usually the first thing in the day I do is I write.

Becoming a spiritual millionaire is about developing success habits that perpetuate a healthy mind body and soul.

These habits and practices are the recipe in your success. Apart of the structure and workflow systems you have for mastering your productivity.

Kaizen is a part of The Modern Musician lifestyle.

Kaizen is a philosophy of improvement that modern musicianship was built on. With gradual consistent micro progression you can improve in each area of your life through small but constant ongoing development and improvement.

It takes a while to get there, you have to build foundations across a variety of skills, habits and mindsets

You build a house from the foundation and then construct each floor and each room as you build out the blueprints.

It’s no different with becoming a spiritual millionaire. You have to define what that looks like for you but it’s likely centered around the spiritual practices that lead to spiritual liberation and spiritual mastery.

Getting inspiration from all media and the wisdom of the ages for 15 years led me down a virtuous cycle that led to founding music business liberation and modern musicianship.

Everything begins and ends in your mind

Modern Musicians master their identity, personality, character, beliefs, strengths and values – Transformational growth starts and ends with identity

It’s all a mindset.

Modern musicians achieve Success in all areas of their life. 8 Dimensions 3 categories.

Modern musicians create their heaven on earth through creating their paradise – liberating their music business and aligning and calibrating to their true self as well as harmonize the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious minds.

Modern Musicians Master their marketing

Connect to the universe through connecting to source

Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations, he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers. James Allen

Consistently align with your desires and tune into to your success channels by getting into the ready state

Attract who you want into your life through who you become.

Become autotellic through the flow protocol and the ready state

Self education is the foundation of complete learning and grassroots career development

Live an extraordinary life

Become outstanding

Don’t become a hack, develop skill and technique through practice and becoming.

Stay committed, stay focused and complete the mission.

Think big dream big

Consistent inspired action leading to massive action

Always improving your position and the level of value that you can deliver

Do what you love for those that love what you do

Fail forward faster – get started early

Study for the role you want to play in life

Leverage force multipliers

Modern Musicians have blueprints

Attitude and effort

The Modern Musician Lifestyle

Rewire your beliefs for success

Success starts and ends in the mind

Master your identity – Build an unstoppable self concept

Confidence comes from self mastery

Master your universe, starting with your inner os before it masters you Conscious, subconscious and superconscious harmony Creating your Owners Manual Master your identity Master your motivation Master your brand through creating content Master your narrative by telling your stories

Success conditioning is how you can condition yourself to unconditionally succeed in your life.

When we think about success conditioning we have to think about how to integrate the conditioning of many individual dimensions or areas of focus in order to prepare oneself for the success that they will achieve.

Strengthening and conditioning every area of your life with exercises that will help you grow exponentially.

Mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, social, intellectual, financial, career and recreational success conditioning

It’s really all about mastering the fundamentals

With an integrated training regimen

To make shifts in

How you think, feel, speak and act

Master your Content

Master your story Master your message with each piece of content Build a brand and find your voice through your content development

Master your productivity

Modern Musicians

Master the morning

First work priority

Workblocks and worksets

The Flow Protocol and The G-Code are the techniques to get you to where you are trying to go.

Pit stops

Set a vision

Set and achieve goals with a system

Stick to the plan

Play the GAME

Incremental and exponential growth

Operationalize your mission brand and business

Develop your stars

Leave a legacy

Master your sixth sense to master your dreams and desires

Alchemy – Master the process and become the vibrational match of the outcome

Set Big Goals

If you’re going to set yourself up for success in life, then you need to set some mighty meaningful goals for yourself. So as a starting point, the first and foremost thing to remember on the journey of personal success is a positive attitude towards everything. If you fail once, brush up your knees and get back out there. If you get rejected the first time, better yourself with a positive outlook, prove yourself instead of bringing yourself down with negativity. Tell yourself through every obstacle and hardship, ‘I did not come this far, to ONLY come this far’. No success is achieved overnight, no mountain is climbed without a few falls or two. If others can put up a fight to achieve personal success despite countless hardships, so can you.

Better To Aim High And Miss, Than To Aim Low And Achieve It’s always better to aim high, even if you don’t succeed at first. When you aim big, you dream big, and tell yourself that you stand a chance against all odds. The problem with setting lower standards is that the lower you set your aim, the more you confine yourself. You miss more chances and more of your abilities are left unknown. Likewise, more of your will goes without a test. Where you could achieve the stars, your low aim of never going that high will hold you back. No matter how many people look down on you and doubt your capability, it’s your own personal belief, unwavering resilience and ambitions that lead you to achieving your ultimate dream. But the moment you start to doubt yourself, the moment you decide you can’t aim higher for the fear of failure, is when your downfall begins. With a higher aim, you may miss at first, or, you may make it on your first try. Take your chances; a leap of faith in yourself. The higher you aim, the more you achieve. Even if you fall short of your goal, you won’t end up too far from it.

Just think of achieving a good score on a test. If you aim low at getting 50% mark on the test, you might be successful and achieve that. But that’s all it will be; an average and low achievement. If you aim higher at getting 90%, you may miss and hit an 80, which is still higher and so much better than the low set aim of a 50%. The same goes for all tests and trials life puts you through.

Set Purpose Driven Goals When setting goals, you need to think about how to achieve them, what you need to do to achieve them, and how much time you need to get there. But the real driving force that’ll actually make you sweat for any goal is WHY you need to achieve that goal. Why is it a priority? Why is it so important?

Setting goals is easy. Just think of drawing up a new year’s resolution. Everyone does that every year and has been doing it forever. So much so that it’s become a mere habit and nothing much else. But what people don’t do is pause to think over the goal and question “Why?” Inevitably, without this driving force they soon forget all about it. As such, it’s important to not merely set goals, but set purpose driven goals instead. For example, you may well be thinking of hitting the gym, working out and getting yourself in shape. With just this in mind, you set a goal in your new year’s resolution to work out every day. You do it the first day and the second, and then something comes up on the third. Then you end up skipping the fourth day because you lose the momentum and get lazier. In the end, you achieve nothing and set the same goal for next year’s resolution. On the other hand, an obese person on the verge of getting diabetes and a possible heart attack is told by the doctor he needs to work out and lose weight really soon if he still wants a chance at a healthy life, or maybe just life. This is his ‘Why’. This is why he won’t skip the third or fourth day no matter what comes up. This is why he will achieve his goal with more determination.

So through every hardship on your way when you are at the brink of giving up, you can tell yourself again and again WHY you cannot give up, WHY you must go on. Give Yourself A Timeframe To Work With Without setting a timeframe to achieve any particular goal, there will be no sense of urgency. The importance of getting anything done is great, but the importance of getting it done in time is even greater! Giving yourself a duration for a specific task will make you more productive in that short time than you would be without it. If you know the deadline for a task is 24 hours, you’ll make yourself attend to that task as a priority. You’ll utilise those 24 hours in the most effective way possible to complete the task on hand.

If you set a deadline of one week for the same task, not only will you waste the entire week and be less productive, you will also waste precious time that you could’ve used to complete other tasks as well. Having said that, the time frame has to be realistic and attainable. You need to be sure whether the goal is a short term goal or a long term one. Losing 10 kg in 3 days? Not possible, not attainable, even if you spend most of the hours of the 3 days in the gym.

The timeframe should not be based on some delusion. An understanding of the goal, the priority you’re willing to give it can help you decide better how much time you’ll allocate each day to get it done. If you have an essay due next week, and you keep delaying it or doing it in bits, paragraph to paragraph a day, it’ll get tiresome and boring. In the end, it might not even make a lot of sense. Plus, you’ll lose the sense of urgency that would make you more productive. But if you decide to do it in two days, you’ll utilise those two days much more effectively and will even have time for other goals once you finish with that essay. The less you linger on with the task at hand, the better.

Make Real Decisions Everyone has to make decisions in their daily life. While some of them are small, others are big and have a profound impact on your life. So, it’s very important to evaluate all aspects of an issue before coming to a decision. There are a few things that, if considered, can help you make good decisions that you won’t regret later in life. Make Smart Decisions Most people don’t realize the importance little decisions have in life. When you make a decision, it initiates events in your life that unfold into either something good or bad, depending on whether your decision was smart or not. You must make smart decisions. It often happens that we make decisions based on what others think or how a certain thing is “supposed” to be. The people around you have a huge impact on your decision making skills. Surround yourself with positive presence. There is no right way to make a smart decision. The process of making a smart decision varies from person to person. For some people, their gut plays a role in making the best decision. The first thought that they have is the best for them. If they overthink the issue, they end up blowing the problem out of proportion and making decisions that are unnecessary. But for others, thinking is an important part of decision making. They need to think about a problem and make sure they’ve got everything covered before they decide something. Whichever of the two you are, make sure to cover every aspect of the decision. If you make smart decisions, your life will be much better and easier. Most people suffer the consequences of decisions made poorly or in haste. Take your time and get to know the issue in depth. Once you are content with your decision, proceed to its application. Just don’t rush into making a decision. If you decide to move into a new house, make sure you ask yourself whether it helps you. Will you be paying more rent? Is this house close to your workplace? Is it too big or small for you? When you make a smart decision, you have no regrets later. Think everything through when you decide to move into this place. Otherwise, you’ll face with problems like transportation issues, extra expenditure on rent and waste or lack of space.

Carry Out Your Decisions People are always making decisions about the changes they want to bring in life but often end up ignoring them. You must carry out your decision. If you have strong willpower and you’re dedicated about something, you’ll surely be able to carry it out. For example, if you decide to join a book club in your local library, push yourself to do it as soon as possible. When you delay something, the chances of it never happening increase. Schedule a day to visit the library today and accomplish your task on that given day no matter what. A very common example in this regard is of smokers. There are so many people out there who want to quit smoking. They’ve searched everything and they’ve planned everything out but they fail to carry out their decision. If you keep postponing it, you’ll never be able to achieve it.
Why start tomorrow when you can do it today? You can quit smoking if you put your heart and mind to it. Just go cold turkey.

There are so many others who’ve done it. Read the stories of people online or join a help group so that you have the motivation you need. Interacting with people who have succeeded in carrying out their decisions will help you immensely. Don’t give up if you fail the first time. Learn from the mistakes you make in the first attempt. Ask yourself how you can succeed the next time? Remember that you can do it. Nothing or no one can stop you if you put your mind to something. Learn from your past mistakes, buckle up and act on it until it is done. It’s the first step that counts the most. Most people put off their important tasks to ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Next Week’ or even ‘Next Year’. In their mind, they even subconsciously tell themselves that they are not ready. But the truth to the matter is, we can never be 100% ready. In other words, they procrastinate. Remember that there is never a better time to start than now. Just take that first step and the road will lead on.

Don’t Look Back It’s not always easy to carry out your decisions. Sometimes, there will be hurdles along the way. If you want to quit smoking, you might be peer-pressured to derail from this decision. Or people around you could tell you that one smoke a day doesn’t do any harm. You need to remember why you started in the first place. Before you made this decision, you must’ve thought a lot about the health and social changes it’ll bring in your life. Every time you feel like you are derailing from your path, remember why you started the journey in the first place. You might even have to cut off things and people in order to carry out your decisions. Cut out people from your life who pressure you into smoking. It might be hard at first but you need to remember that these people are toxic for you. If someone’s bringing negativity in your life, why keep them close? Why did you decide to volunteer at a shelter? Because it made you content and you wanted to spend your time doing something good.

Don’t let laziness or lack of a proper schedule derail you from this decision. Don’t let your laziness stop you from doing things that are good for you. Sometimes, you make mistakes when you carry out a decision. Don’t let that stop you from continuing. Make amends and carry on.

So start making smart decisions and carry them out without stopping for anyone or anything. You’ll be thankful to yourself for the positive impact real decisions have on your life.

Consistency is Key

Consistency is the magic ingredient for success, be it personal betterment, business, academics or just the relationships with loved ones. Without consistency and the will to stay steadfast in what you are trying to achieve, only failure awaits. A child can never tie his shoelaces the very first try, he will only succeed when he tries again over and over till he finally figures it out the hundredth time. The same goes to adults, do you think anyone can play the piano flawlessly on their first attempt? The important thing is not to do it once, but to do it over and over again. To never stop until you achieve total mastery. Be Committed And Persevere Perseverance means having unwavering persistence in accomplishing anything no matter the difficulties and obstacles along the way. With perseverance, you can learn new skills, pass

the exams, close a deal, achieve financial and personal success, and even build a castle for your family. Just like solving a jigsaw puzzle, if the piece doesn’t fit, try another one, and then another one until it’s completed. Without it, the puzzle would be left incomplete. Similarly, all goals are left unachieved, all success unknown till one learns to stay committed and persevere. Push yourself to be patient and stay committed. Tell yourself why it’s important that you stay steadfast, remind yourself of why you must go on. Anyone can try once and give up, but only those who stay committed and persevere succeed in life. In being persistent towards achieving any goal in life, you learn from your failures. You learn what went wrong the first time. You learn how to overcome these obstacles rather than being paralyzed by them. Everything in life demands this commitment, from a successful career to a healthy relationship.

Have A Routine For Success

Having a routine is vital for success in general. Without proper division and allotment of time you give to a particular task every day, there is no way of achieving consistency. It should be such that your mind automatically rings a bell to remind what you must be doing at that particular hour. For instance, think of your daily skin regimen before bed. To have a routine would mean having dinner on time, cleaning up the kitchen next and then heading to the bedroom to follow up with your skin care routine. Without a routine, a change in the timing of one thing would lead to a change in the other. With a late dinner, you might end up too exhausted and miss out on your daily routine. We all know how that goes then, it’s missing out one day, then the next and so on. So everything needs a proper allocation of time. What time do you wake up? How long do you work out for? What time do you eat? How much time can you afford to give to your hobbies? Are you giving enough time to friends and family? All of this needs to be set in order to achieve success. Being consistent with a routine

maximises the benefits of all the hard work. In the long term, having a messed up routine will not only stand in your way of success but also mess up other aspects of life as well. Create Good Habits Being consistent leads to the development of good habits. Creating good habits ensures success in all areas of life. Doing something once in a while or when you get the time doesn’t get you anywhere near achieving your aims and aspirations. Instead, the keys to achieving any goals you set for are consistency and making quick decisions. This decision to do something every day is, in other words, your habits. The first thing to keep in mind for creating good habits is to choose discipline and your priority over your mood. ‘I’m not in the mood to study today, might as well binge-watch a series’. ‘I’m a bit upset to work out today, skipping one day should not hurt.’ We’ve all been there. We’ve all chosen the ‘mood’ over consistency, which has eventually led to a failure in developing good habits.

To help keep to the good habits you create, it’s a good idea to track your progress. This helps you know how beneficial the habit has been for you. The clearer you see the results, the more motivated you will be to persist until you succeed.

For example, if you have a goal set on your weight and how much you want to lose, keeping a record every week should help you see a clearer pattern of the good that is coming from your habit of exercise. When you see the actual figure on scale, you’ll get more enthusiastic and positive about your workout and how it turns out for you.

No results can be seen over night. Nothing is achieved in one go. Achievements take a long, persistent struggle. Success isn’t out of reach, it’s only difficult to reach. Through persistence, perseverance and commitment, success can be guaranteed. Consistency leads to the development of good habits, good habits lead to actions and that gets all the work done. Once you get used to the struggles and staying steadfast no matter what the difficulties are, no failures can set you back. They only make you stronger and more ambitious than ever to reach your goals.

Nothing is Impossible Everyone says that nothing is impossible. But do they actually believe it? If you really want everything to be possible, you have to start believing it. You’d be surprised by the power that belief has in life. You can make everything possible if you condition your mind to think so.

Condition Your Mind to Think Positive Optimism is an essential part of success in life. Once you condition your mind to think ‘’well and good’’, it’ll have a positive impact on all your decisions and thoughts.

Having a positive outlook on life is the first step to achieving success. You will never become a brilliant photographer if you keep telling yourself that it is impossible for you to capture something beautiful.

What do you need to do instead? You need to be positive and think positive. Keep telling yourself that you can do it. But don’t just say it, you have to mean it and feel the emotions coursing through your veins like it’s real! As human being, you will feel pessimistic from time to time. Don’t fight it, embrace that thought, take a deep breath and ask yourself: Is this thought or emotion empowering me or disempowering me? Practice this daily and eventually you will find yourself more inclined to have positive thoughts rather than the negative ones.

People like Michael Jordan and J. K. Rowling failed in their first attempts too. Did they give up? No. instead, they kept their minds positive and kept striving. Now, one of them is the most celebrated player in basketball while the other is creator of a literary masterpiece. If they told themselves that it is impossible for them to achieve something just because they failed the first time, would they have succeeded? Never.

Attitude is Key to Success

Your attitude matters a lot. If you’re not serious about something, you can’t expect to excel at it, can you? So, you’ve made your mind about learning to play the piano. To actually learn, you have to stay determined. There’s no going back once you’ve made your mind. Keep reminding yourself that you are only stopping once you’ve made it possible.

Don’t be lazy about something. If you have joined a piano class for learning, go to it regularly. Don’t miss a class just because you don’t feel like going or you’re too lazy to go. Tell yourself that missing even one day will put you behind. But bear in mind that it’s crucial to not listen to others blindly. People like to share their experiences, especially when they’ve failed in the past. Someone might tell you that you’ll never learn because they themselves didn’t manage to. If someone failed at something, that doesn’t mean you will too. Maybe they did not have the dedication or positive outlook. But as long as you possess the positivity and determination, you will succeed. Most importantly, have faith in yourself. When you wake up every day, tell yourself that it’s possible for you to do it. Remind yourself of all the challenges that you’ve already overcome and prepare for the ones you’re going to face. Think of a school or college. Everyone goes to the same place and have the same teachers, books and environment. So why is it that some of them manage to excel at studies while others don’t? They must be doing something extra that others aren’t. It’s their attitude that takes them forward. They work extremely hard and they don’t let anything stop them from getting what they want.

Learn to Take a Blow Life isn’t all cotton candy and unicorns. If you start a journey, you’re bound to face bumps along the road. You must be prepared for everything. Keep your disaster management plan ready so that you aren’t totally thrown off by any problem you face. Sometimes, one thing can ruin an entire day or week. Learn to look at the brighter picture and think of all the positive things that happened in that day. A good way to do is to keep a gratitude journal. Write down everything that you are grateful for. So, every time you are hit with failure or a hurdle, read the journal to feel better. Problems are there to teach you something. Every problem that you face along the way will help you polish your skills and nourish your personality. Don’t lose hope just because one thing didn’t go right. Learn from the mistakes you made and teach yourself how to do better next time. If you put your heart to a task, it can never be impossible. Always remember that there is no dead end. Sometimes, when you are trying to do something, it might not be possible to do it with the first method. Remember that as long as you are determined, there is always a way.

When you face roadblocks, simply change your direction and take relentless action. A very popular quote teaches us that nothing is impossible because the word itself says that ‘’I’m possible’’. Keep this in mind every time you face difficulties.

Also, surround yourself with positive environment and supportive peer groups. Use positive words when you define your life or purpose. Spend time with people who’ll always push you forward and encourage you rather than telling you to give up after the first blow. When you’ve learned how to channel your inner energy and keep your mind positive, you realize that nothing is impossible indeed. As you may know, it’s only impossible until it is done. So, do it and make it possible.

Be Accountable There comes a certain time in your life when you realize that now you are accountable for everything you do. The idea is quite daunting as accountability is needed in all spheres of life.

Take Responsibility The first step of being accountable is to take responsibility. Now, it might be a personal responsibility or one that affects others around you. For instance, if you’re the head of a family, you have to be accountable to them too. Or, if you’re leading an excursion tour, you have to be accountable to your tour group. Remember this: With great power, comes great responsibility.

So take full responsibility of your actions and don’t make excuses when something goes wrong. You need to realize that you’re in charge and therefore you should be held accountable. So always take responsibility of your actions. It’s easy to throw someone else under the bus for anything that goes wrong. But the mature thing to do is to take responsibility rather than make excuses. Say It Out Loud That You’ll Do It Positive affirmation is very important so it’s crucial to keep reminding yourself that you will do it. Sometimes, you get side- tracked by events or people but you mustn’t let this be permanent. You’re also accountable to yourself for your mission or goal in life. You have to determine what you want to do or achieve in life. Ask yourself what you’re good at or what you like. Base your goals and long-term plans on your capabilities, desires and strengths.

Make a mission statement for yourself. Write it down somewhere so that you can read it every day. One tip is to set your phone’s wallpaper with inspirational quotes so that you can look at them every day and be inspired every time you pick up your phone. If you’re someone with a knack for writing, write down your goals. Make sure write in a place where you can see it every day. That way, you will be constantly reminded of your daily goals rather than being distracted by other things.

Or, if you have supportive peers, get feedback from them. Ask them to evaluate your efforts and how you can improve. This will help remind you that you can do better. Also, it will give you an insight into how others perceive your efforts. Be Honest Just as accountability is important, so is honesty. It’s very important to be honest about the results. Whether you’re working alone or in a team, you have to stay honest about the outcome of your efforts. Success only becomes possible when you own up to your mistakes. While they can be cumbersome, mistakes are also valuable learning opportunities. If you’ve done something wrong, own it. Ask yourself why it happened and what you can do to make it right? If you totally ignore it or lie about it to yourself and others, how can you ever hope to rectify it?

Plus, when you’re not honest with yourself, you’ll always have a constant feeling of dissatisfaction. Your conscience won’t let you forget it. So, wouldn’t it be better to just admit it?
Also, be honest about the goals you set. Be realistic. Holding yourself accountable for your actions is also a reality check to set goals that are attainable. Realism is essential when setting goals. Say, you want to save money for a car and you tell yourself that you will do it in a year’s time. Now, you need to be real about it. Do you have enough income coming in every month that you can save some of it for buying a car? Are you ready to cut out some expenses so that you can save? Will you be able to manage it in a year or do you need more time? If you think your goals are realistic, proceed with them. Then, if you fail to buy a car in twelve months, don’t make excuses or blame something else for it. Ask yourself why you weren’t able to do it. Maybe you set the wrong time frame or misspent the money that you could have saved on unnecessary things. Be fully honest with yourself about the results of your personal quest or teamwork. A good way to prevent disappointment or unpleasant situations is to have a Plan B so that you can fix things later. Being accountable can be a frightening thought because no one likes to be judged especially for something that someone else did. But if you follow the right strategy and put in the effort, you’ll be able to master the art of accountability.

Live in the Moment Living in the moment means to be fully aware and mindful of the present moment. It may involve some effort on your part as it means not dwelling unnecessarily on the past, or being overly anxious about the future. To live in the moment is to seize the moment you are in, living it to the fullest, experiencing it without letting the past or the future distract you. In fact, living in the moment means acknowledging that “someday” will never come. If anything, it’s already here. It’s right now, so don’t put off your goals just because it’s not the right time, or you lack of funds. You can still work for your goals despite these setbacks. The time may never be right unless you’re prepared for it. So prepare right now. This presents the entire idea of living in the now, and not just ‘living’ it, but realizing the importance of it, giving it the emotions and thought that it rightfully demands. Focusing on what you have now, focusing on the task at hand now, and focusing on all that you can thank today for. Be Present And Mindful Being present in the now and being mindful of the very moment you’re living in allows you to make it even more valuable and meaningful. Instead of pondering over the past or worrying over the future, make the most of the present. If your goal is to spend more quality time with your family, then do so. Say you’re in a family gathering, but instead of giving family the attention they deserve in the moment, your eyes are glued to the phone screen, your ear not paying attention to what the person sitting next to you is saying. You nod your head every once in a while without paying any attention to the conversation. Even when the phone is put aside, the mind still remains occupied with it. This will ultimately lead to failure in nurturing close relationships with your closed ones.

The precious few hours you finally spare for family time all go to waste. And you have with no clue when you’ll be able to spare some time for them again. Instead, seize the moment. Live it and be mindful of it. Make the most out of the opportunity at hand, not letting distractions take away what you have now. Feel the moment, and embrace it. Unless you learn to be present and mindful of the moment, you won’t be able to give it all your best. A first date, a late night call with your best friend, a walk with your dad. We do it all, but we don’t give it our all. We’re incomplete when all these moments slip through our fingers. Just because we were too busy being in so many places, states and moments in time to be actually present. We were too distracted to be present in the moment as a whole.

Meditate If you find yourself caving in to distractions easily, consider meditation. Meditation can be very helpful in learning how to live in the moment. It’s a practice that helps find inner peace and acceptance, both of which are essential for being mindful of the present moment.

It’s also a great way to relax so that you’re able to let go of all the stress, anxiety and thoughts of the past or future that haunt you. Unless you’re truly relaxed, there is no living in the moment because the present gets over-shadowed by the past or the future. Meditation techniques are preferably practiced in a serene, calm natural environment. Think of times or places like early morning, near a lake or in a field, where there are no beeping phones, or honking cars; just the consistent melodic sound of water and the birds chirping. Meditation would require you to focus on these, slowly tugging away at all the thoughts that had occupied your mind. It teaches you to live that very moment to the fullest, to be able to sense and appreciate it fully. Even breathing during meditation has a significant effect. Deep and relaxing breaths help you feel like you are taking in positive energy and getting rid of negativity burdening your mind. With a couple of deep breaths, you can feel the relaxation and inner peace. Take your time and appreciate those moments of peaceful solitude. Making a daily habit of meditation will help you stay calm and focused on the present moments throughout the day.

Practice Gratitude Gratitude and living in the moment go hand in hand. Without living in the moment you can’t be grateful for the little things that make life worth living. A witty answer, a hilarious joke, that first bite of a delicious steak, the patter of rain against your window, the giggle of your child when he sees you. If you’re not mentally present and mindful of these little things that make every moment of life precious, you can never be grateful. How can you know the worth and value of these things if you’re too lost in the past or worries of the future to live such moments? When you live in the now, you experience each moment completely, and you learn to appreciate it. Be happy with what you have now. With the contentment that where you are, who you are with, what you are doing, is everything. The realization that what is in your hands right now is the best. Without thinking “hey, it would be better if…” or “this is good but…”Learn to be grateful of what you have without any ifs or buts. Don’t waste away what you have by thinking of something you once had and lost, or by wishing of something you may never have. Be grateful of what your ‘NOW’ comprises of.

Constantly letting the past distract you keeps you tied to it, restricting you from making the most of the present. And constantly thinking of the future will not serve you. The past and the future are not in your control. But you have control over the present moment, so live the moment, make every second count. As the present is what shapes the future. Measuring your success by what you have now is so much more than imagining what it could’ve been or could be.

Be Adventurous Being adventurous is to experience something different from the norm, something exciting and maybe even risky. For every individual, the meaning of the word ‘adventure’ differs greatly. For some it may just be staying up late and out past the curfew, and for others it could be skydiving, climbing Mount Everest, learn scuba- diving, etc. Everyone has different kinds of meaning attached to the word ‘Adventurous’. Being adventurous and challenging yourself is what shapes your character and forms new memories, which makes this life worthwhile. Without adventure the daily grind of life slowly strips away excitement and experiences that are important for the growth of a person. Adventures contribute in keeping relationships from getting dull.

Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone Your comfort zone can be a very small, confined space. In this small space, all things are familiar to you. There are no new experiences here, no new lessons to learn and no challenges. Stepping out of your comfort zone means trying new things that you’re not comfortable or familiar with. Try doing things that you haven’t done before or never thought you’d ever do. Push yourself to get new experiences, to get some excitement in life. Confining yourself to the comfort zone will never allow you to grow as a person. Instead, it’ll make you that person in a gathering who has no stories to tell. It’ll make you that person no one invites to hang out anymore because you’re not open to trying new things. And not to mention that it’ll definitely stand in the way of achieving any success. It does not mean that you need to transform everything about you over night. Rather, it is something you need to do for yourself once in a while. You can never enjoy doing the same things over and over. A little adrenaline rush never did any harm. Without stepping out of your comfort zone and being adventurous, you’ll one day look back at life and see nothing but a plateau. Adventures and things we do for excitement are the ‘highs’ in life. The best and most joyful moments can never be experienced in that small confined place we call ‘comfort zone’.

The fear of unknown and unfamiliar can make it hard to do so. But once you learn to take little steps out of the comfort zone, you realize how the benefits far exceed the fears. And only after this will you be able to take big leaps out of the comfort zone and be adventurous. It’ll help you learn more about yourself, about your strengths and weaknesses.

Be Open Minded And Learn From Experiences To enrich life with adventures, it’s important to be open-minded and to learn from experiences. To be open minded is to accept that there are things you don’t know about, and also things that you could be wrong about. It means to be open to the idea of changing your thoughts, opinions and perceptions from new experiences and being open to new challenges, and ideas.

For example, a narrow minded person will always respond with a ‘no’, when asked to join in anything exciting. A pessimist would not only refuse, but also go on to explain all the things that could possibly go wrong. An open minded person, on the other hand, would be open to not only hearing about new ideas but also trying out something new and adventurous. It is the same as one ordering the same thing from the menu every time compared to one trying out new items and cuisines. The latter will have far better experiences, some good and some bad.

Every time you experience something new, there is always a new lesson to be learnt. Just as a traveler learns about the hospitality of people in particular place, the different foods to try out there, or the problems to be wary of. On the contrary, someone who is too afraid to invest their time, energy and money on travelling and getting out of the comforts of home will gain nothing in life. Prioritizing Adventure Over Convenience And Safety However, this doesn’t mean you risk your safety and security for an adventure. It doesn’t mean putting your life or the life of others at stake. What it means instead, is that you need to let yourself out of the shell that makes you feel safe and at ease. To prioritize adventure over convenience would mean that you’re willing to go that extra mile to bring some excitement to your life. It’s similar to what happens to a child with overly-protective parents; For instance, a kid who isn’t allowed to make friends freely, must only follow the rules set by his parents, not allowed to eat sweets, kept on tightly controlled schedules and so on.

Compare him to a child whose parents are willing to let their child try new things, make new friends and learn from his own experiences. The personalities of these two will be totally opposite. The former will always ‘play by the rules’, never learn to be independent, and never have the self-confidence to step out for an adventure. But the latter would know well that life is all about taking chances and learning from the outcomes, enjoying life through the adventure of it all. When you compare the two, growth and success are almost always contrasted with comfort and safety. Whereas growth leads to learning, creating, doing, resisting and failing; comfort leads to stability, pleasure, protection and safety. But growth can’t happen if you choose comfort over learning. And success demands growing, overcoming obstacles, maybe even failing but then getting up and trying again. So you can’t continue to keep clinging to the “easy” and avoiding what’s “challenging” if you want to be successful at anything.

8 Words of Success Words and language are unique to human beings only. They’re like superpower which you can either use for the good or the bad. Unfortunately, people don’t often realise the impact words can have. Whether it’s the expression of love, the instructions on a manual or the speech of a captain just before a game, the words we use can change the outlook on everything. In fact, words probably linger longer in our memories than actual faces or whole events. So it’s wise not to underestimate what words can do for yourself and for others. Beliefs Are Shaped From The Words You Use Has someone ever passed a remark that makes you insecure? Things like “you have a funny smile”, “you have a big nose”, “you have really bad breath”, scarring you with insecurities with yourself. As a result, you subconsciously learn to smile with a hand over your mouth. Or get nervous speaking to someone to close to your face. That’s how words mold your beliefs. That is how words from others change what you think of yourselves. The same goes for compliments. It’s surprising how a few words of appreciation can make you believe more in yourself. A simple “this color looks so good on you” will sub-consciously always make you look for that color. Or words of appreciation from a teacher or mentor will encourage you to work harder and improve. This is exactly how words factor into success and failure. A common example of this what you hear from a doctor. Be it a serious disease or an aesthetically-related problem, patients hang on to every word that the doctor tells them religiously. If the doctor speaks kindly and reassures the patient time and again that there is hope and high chances for recovery, the patient will feel eased and better right away. If the doctor doesn’t give any such reassurance and just hands over a prescription, the patient will stay restless and unsure about his treatment.

Mind Your Vocabulary The words you use can pave your way to success, or downfall. Come to think of it, speakers make a living out of it. Be it a religious speaker, a motivational speaker or a teacher. They all use their vocabulary to their best in order to convey things better to you, in order to improve your understanding of a concept and leave an impact on you.

When sitting through a job interview, you’re basically being assessed how you speak. The qualifications are all there on the resume, but the ability to communicate only comes through words. A candidate who sounds more convincing and capable has a higher chance of securing the job, even if others are more qualified. The right words are not only more convincing, but will also be an indicator of how well read you are. Even in relationships, the choice of words can either save a relationship, or break one. With the right words, you can be more expressive of your feelings (good or bad) so that the other person knows exactly how you feel. It keeps things from getting boring and monotonous. Learn to use other expressions to tell them how you feel, to boost their confidence, and to give them encouragement. Use More “I can” Rather Than “I can’t” These are words that are entirely related to you. They can either make you or break you. Read a new recipe that seems yummy but too complicated? Was your answer “I can’t do this”?

Notice what you negative self-talk without even trying. Do you think that you can succeed in anything if your words betrayed you from the very beginning? So be aware of your self-talk consciously or subconsciously. What you put behind the word ‘I’ or ‘I am’ will impact your beliefs greatly. The more self-defeating words you use, the more opportunities in life you’ll miss out on. The ratio of often you use ‘I can’ or ‘I can’t’ can bring much more success and positivity in your life. ‘I can’ will symbolize all the risks you’re willing to take, all the new things you’re willing to try, all the chances you take, the faith you have in yourself, the limits that you establish for yourself and how much you’re willing to push yourself to achieve what you want. “I can’t”, on the other hand, symbolizes the exact opposite. It is all the chances you missed, the times you refused to see if you could push past an obstacle, the opportunities that you didn’t let yourself avail and basically failure without even a single try! Try making your choice of words positive using ‘I can’ – So that you can reprogram your subconscious mind to believe things about yourself, your potential and your aspirations. Because what you believe about yourself can have a real impact on the outcome of events.

It is in your own control which of these words you use for yourself.

Be a Lifelong Learner Learning is not limited to how many school and college years you’ve had. Instead, it’s a constant, ongoing process of evolution. One that involves acknowledging that you don’t know everything. It’s an important factor in shaping your personality, introducing new concepts and ideas to you and helping you educate yourself without any limitations. The worst thing you could do to yourself is insist that you already know everything. But choosing to evolve isn’t always easy. Evolving means mastering success by continuously becoming a better version of your current self. It also implies that you’re humble enough to accept correction and improvement. Page | 65 Embrace Learning And Constant Improvement In order to become the best version of yourself you need to implement this rule in your life. Accept the fact that no information you have is already complete and there could be more to know about it. Be open to more knowledge and facts instead of being rigid and deciding that what you already know is final and enough. Not being open to constant improvements and knowledge would make you think, ‘I’ve already passed that, I don’t need to waste any time reading this’. On the other hand, you can approach new things as a lifelong learner, in which you’ll learn and gain so much more and improve as an overall human being. While at school, our parents or teachers forced us to study and learn whatever is in the curriculum. After that, you are on your own and learning becomes a self-motivated task. It’s a personal choice you make every day that doesn’t necessarily imply to studies alone. Instead, it implies to the overall education you have. You could learn from a documentary that is completely unrelated to your career. You could learn how to milk cows from a relative who owns a farm. Or you could learn how to make jam from your grandmother. The point is just to learn, from anywhere, about anything.

Never stopping learning There are so many reasons why you should never stop learning, and not one logical reason why you shouldn’t. The struggle and desire to learn all your life can shape your personality for the better. Everyone knows that one person in their circle who’s charismatic and interesting to talk to. Someone who genuinely has something to contribute to conversations instead of mere opinions. Someone who has knowledge and stories to share with everybody. Such are lifelong learners.

When someone decides to never stop learning, they also decide to be more independent, useful and hence, successful. Learning also makes you more influential. It makes people consider your opinion and take whatever you say seriously because they you know your stuff based on facts rather than intuition. The ability to learn and adapt is the key to achieving success in any field. You need to be constantly upgrading your knowledge every day to stay at the top of your chosen field.

In your chosen field of commitment, always engage in maintenance learning to keep you on track and stops you from falling behind. If you need to groom yourself further, you get into some growth learning. This type of learning expands the mind by teaching your skills you didn’t have before. And finally, there’s something called shock learning, which contradicts something that you knew before. For the most part, this can potentially be the most beneficial type of learning as you first have to unlearn something that you already knew before. Then you have to relearn the new information which gives you new insight into an old situation. Unfortunately, most people choose to ignore this in favor of past information and sabotage their own success. You must never be afraid of change.

What Stops You From Becoming A Lifelong Learner? Often times, we’re guilty of being not ‘open’ to learning new things. If someone tries to get our facts right, we end up getting in an argument because we’re too stubborn to admit that we could be wrong and the other person is actually doing us a favor. It’s important to remember that the most precious commodity in life is not money, but time. It can be a huge barrier to lifelong learning. In order to be a lifelong learner, you need to change your mindset and concepts about it. You need to make learning a priority. There are no rules, no boundaries. You need to embrace this journey and learn about anything, from anyone or anywhere. And it’s not only about pouring yourself into books, it’s about things you learn every day from those around you. It’s not confined to the walls of a lecture hall. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi.

Great thinkers, leaders and influencers have many things in common. Lifelong learning is one of them. In order to achieve personal success and also to be more valuable and useful to those around you, be a lifelong learner. Don’t confine your learning to years or places. Don’t confine to learn just from books. All experience that you come across can teach you important things, as long as you are open to learning. Always have a strong desire, a hunger for knowledge. Figure out your core reasons why you must commit yourself to become a lifelong learner, then write them down in your journal. Without a compelling reason, any habit will not stick. It could be for a better quality of life, for your loved ones, to become financially free, or even just to become a better version of you. Figure out your ‘Why’ and the ‘How’ will become easy.

There’s No Such Thing as Failure In life, you are bound to go through some ups and downs. A strong individual is someone who manages to pull through anything and everything. In order to win in life, you must understand that there is no such thing as failure.

Don’t Be Afraid of Rejection The idea of failure is different for everyone. For some people, the idea is quite daunting while for others, it’s just downright depressing and discouraging. Failure comes in different forms and means. But ultimately, it simply means that you lack of certain skills to succeed at that moment. But luckily, you have the power to learn new skills and strive for mastery. Rejection can be a huge blow if you’re not prepared for it. You must always be prepared for rejection because it will come your way at some point in life. Don’t be afraid of it and don’t refuse to accept that it has come your way. Instead, accept it and polish yourself to be better. If you’ve been rejected from a college or co-curricular program, ask yourself why it went wrong. Instead of being afraid of the idea, embrace it and use it to as a lesson to make new adjustments. Everyone develops a fear of failure as they grow older. As an infant, you learned how to walk through failure. You tried to get up but you fell down. But did you stop trying altogether? No. You went through a whole process of trial and error to learn how to walk perfectly. The same principle applies to your adult life. Sometimes, rejection hurts your self-esteem. But if you think of it as feedback rather than failure, wouldn’t things be much better? Treat your rejection as feedback and find ways to enhance yourself. Most importantly, don’t let the fear of rejection stop you from trying at all. At least, give something one or two attempts if not more. With the right amount of dedication, you will be able to achieve whatever you want.

Failures Are Stepping Stones For Success It’s quite a paradox that you have to fail in order to succeed. Yet, it makes a lot of sense. If you fail at something, that doesn’t make you a failure. It is a signal that simply tells your current approach does not produce the result that you want. By understanding this concept, instead of throwing in the towel, all you need to do is to make new adjustments and try again until you succeed. A world renowned example is of Thomas Edison performing about 10,000 experiments to come up with the perfect model for a light bulb. What kept him going on after his first or hundredth try failed? The determination to succeed. He didn’t treat the futile experiments as failures. Instead, he treated them as 10,000 new things that he had learned. There are many examples from history which show that failure is essential in the journey to success. You can’t really expect to learn something if your path is obstacle-free, can you? But when you fail, you see your mistakes and that gives you a chance to refine yourself. This is why all successful people are so refined in their ways and choices. They’ve learned from failures in life.

Michael Jordan, the famous basketball star, admits that he’s only successful because he failed over and over again. You might think that failure would only break your hopes and dim the light along the way. Yet, this isn’t entirely true. It just depends on your own beliefs and perspective. As Long As You Learn From The Experience, It’s A Success Failure is an amazing experience in its own way. When you fail, you learn new things about yourself. You learn a new way to cope with something and you discover your capabilities that never surfaced before. Just like that, you also learn new things about the task at hand. Learn to strive for progress and not for perfection. Understand that nothing can be perfect, and there will always be room for progress. One key belief that you should implement is this: “As long as I learn from my failures, then I have succeeded.” With this little hack, you can never fail! You only fail if you give up. As long as you keep trying, you’re not failing.

If your own failures seem overwhelming then learn from the experience of successful people. They have a habit of never giving up. Instead of gloating over their failures, they use them to their advantage and pave their way to success. They’ve all taught us that it’s okay to fall and that there’s no shame in that. Make this fall your strength and get up with more determination and a force that is unbeatable. Always remember, your failure isn’t a stop sign. It might be a sign for you to change your direction or be more focused on the one you are already heading to. But in no way is it a stop sign. If you stop, that’s when you fail. As long as you keep going on and becoming better, you’re succeeding. Never let others force you into believing that you are a failure. It’s your journey and you know how far you have come. You just need to learn from every experience and it’ll soon lead you to success. Everyone faces setbacks in life. But it’s people who experiment and persist that become successful later in life. You might’ve failed multiple times to keep your blog or website running. If you learn from each failure and rectify every mistake you made, you’ll have your passion fulfilled in no time. It’s only you who determines that you have failed. Not your circumstances neither the people around you. Not everyone gets to play easy in life. Hurdles are bound to come your way. But remember what Tony Robbin says, “There’s no such thing as failure. There are only results”.

Conclusion In the end, the formula to achieving success isn’t all that complicated. It’s within your grasp once you decide to go after it with everything you’ve got. By following these principles that help you solve problems, overcome frustrations, develop patience, boost self-esteem and improve yourself as a person, you can be sure that you will be successful in improving the overall quality of your life.