Leisure is one of those luxuries that’s best in small portions. When it’s all there is to life, it’s as boring as being locked in jail. Leisure presents a terrible quandary for people with money. Either they don’t have enough of it because they’re always working, or they don’t work at all and are drowning in it.

All of us, to some extent, create fairy tales about how good life must be for wealthy people, because we get vicarious pleasure from it, and because we think we might someday strike it rich. One of the tales we tell ourselves is that wealth and leisure are a comfortable, complementary pair. Science shows that that’s usually not true.

The vast majority of millionaires in America are self-made, and one of the primary ways they gain their wealth is by sacrificing their leisure and freedom. I’ve met hundreds of these people, and they almost all work extremely hard - probably even harder than you do. Next time you walk through the first-class cabin on an airplane, check out how many of the passengers have their faces buried in paperwork or laptops. Is that your idea of leisure? Most of these people don’t feel free; they feel frazzled.

All too often, people become financially successful by just following money - engaging in high paying jobs they don’t really like. They may look free, but they feel like prisoners. When happy people choose their jobs, they don’t follow money - they follow their passions. When they do this, they tend not to worry too much about money, even if they’re relatively poor, because they know they won’t have to suffer to make more of it.

Ironically, people who follow their hearts often end up with plenty of money, because they usually become highly proficient at their work and they enjoy working long hours. Loving your job is the ultimate freedom. It means, in effect, that you never have to work—you just play hard and collect your check. You can’t beat that for leisure.

Some people, though, are rich without having to work. They inherit money, marry someone who’s rich, win the lottery, or make their fortune early in life. It looks as if they’ve got it made. But science clearly shows that these people have happiness levels that are only very slightly higher than average. Usually, having a lot of money and no obligations feels good for only a short time. Boredom soon sets in, along with a feeling of worthlessness. Too much leisure is oppressive, a void that’s impossible to fill.

Someone cuts you off. Do you holler?

The last parking slot is taken. Do you scream?

The boss fires you. Did you jump the building?

If you said yes to any, I’m sorry to say, you’re a weakling. You simply react to events instead of choosing your own response.

The real movers and shakers chose proactively. The decide on positive behaviours that serve them well. In other words, they choose to be the cause of events. Not the effects.

Here are some tips you can use to rule your reality.

1) Before you react to something, ask yourself: does this serve me well?

2) Take the initiative. If you know you’ll be fired, resign.

3) Pretend you have just 30 minutes to live. How’d you do it?

4) Take ten seconds before acting on something. This prevents brash moves

5) When you’ve made your decision, don’t look back. Be consistent! Remember: never excuse your decisions. It’s your right!

If you are like many people attempting to live your dreams and become successful, you may find that addictive behaviors may get in the way or prevent your success altogether. Addictions by definition are self-destructive. They erode self-esteem and cause gradual health problems, and impairments in social, occupational, physical, emotional, or spiritual functioning. Our society condones addictions. So much of the social fabric of everything we do involves the acceptance of addictive thinking and behavior that we have become almost unaware of it.

If you may have a problem achieving your goals because of an addition of sorts, then the following list of possible addictive hindrances may help you identify your personal demons and eliminate them totally from your life:

Immediate gratification: All addictions produce instant gratification. You feel better as a result of your involvement with the substance or process in which you indulge. It is enjoyable to experience the altered state (at least temporarily).

Simplistic thinking: You believe that “it” will make everything all right. You believe that “it” is something that is capable of inducing positive psychological, emotional, and physical states, as well as relieving negative ones.

Distorted priorities: Your priorities become distorted, and you become consumed and obsessed with your addiction as the most important thing in life, above and beyond everything else.

Skewed perspective: Your perspective becomes skewed and inaccurate. You are unable to perceive reality accurately. You begin to see people and situations as exaggerations of what they normally are.

Symptoms of withdrawal: As soon as you are deprived of the substance or the process, adverse consequences appear immediately. You experience unpleasant physiological, psychological, and/or emotional symptoms. You experience trauma at the thought or reality of separating from your addiction.

Overwhelming attachment: You are so dependent upon the addiction that you feel unable to function without it. A need/dependency relationship evolves between you and your addiction. You need it to be happy and your well-being is contingent on having it available to you.

Complete loss of power: You feel powerless to alter your situation. You have relinquished your power to something or someone outside yourself. The situation has become bigger than you are, and you are unable to affect a change. You are a slave to your addictions.

Binary thinking: You are a victim of binary thinking. You view situations as black or white, either/or, right or wrong, good or bad, on or off, wonderful or awful. Life is perceived as a zero sum game in which the pendulum swings between two polar opposites with no happy medium.

Public speaking is said to be rank higher in the global list of fears than - guess what? - death! Why? Beats me. I just know that when I stand before the audience and pretend I’m talking one on one with a single person. And you know what? I lose all fear in a second.

Do you want a standing ovation the next time you deliver your speech? Try the following

1) Focus on the crowd, not yourself. Think of entertaining them. Don’t imagine them criticizing you.

2) Walk around. A lot. Act like you’re just bantering at the water cooler. This loosens you up.

3) Crack jokes. Smile. They’ll smile back. And you create rapport.

4) Tell stories. Everyone loves a great story! Watch how their eyes stop glazing over.

5) Finally- encourage audience participation. Ask them questions. Throw them opinions. Banter. Debate. Keep it quick flowing!

Now I came across a cool blog with great tips on the subject. You’ll want to check this out:
Standing Ovations

Did you notice how some people are just so insanely happy? Sling all the insulting barbs you want or hurl impossible tasks their way and yet they keep on ticking. Blissfully. Happily.

And that makes you drip with envy all the more.

A small segment of the population come factory-built with a natural propensity for positive outlook. They’re hardwired with copious amounts of zest. This zest easily shields them from the buffets of life that normally faze the rest of us.

Recently scientists discovered how the naturally occuring-drug serotonin flows more generously in such individuals. Serotonin is magic. It’s a chemical produced in the amygdala and can give far more pleasure signals than cocaine or marijuana can. No wonder happy people are unstoppable! They’re simply cocooned in bliss that rose-tints the blight of the world!

Wouldn’t you love to experience their reality?

Try these three tips now!

1) Discover what you REALLY want and enjoy your passions. Is it drawing? Painting? Designing web pages or collecting toys? The more you do what you want, the faster you pump out serotonin and create an inner zest.

2) Give unconditional love and respect. Face it, connection with others creates that warm fuzzy feeling inside. That fuzzy feeling expands into unmitigated, explosive joy when done regularly. Imagine how unstoppable you’ll be when you feel loved- and are loved!

3) Take an inventory of your thoughts. The next time a depressing, critical or evil thought swims into view, ask yourself ‘Does this Serve Me Well?’ If it doesn’t, chuck it!

Fly high!

Most NLP practitioners tend to use hypnosis and NLP to coax people out of limiting beliefs- such as fear of public speaking. This gives NLP a “fixit” reputation. Got a problem? Here’s NLP. Go Fix.

Now here’s a respected Ph.D who uses it for more fun stuff. How fun? Get this: to create the oft impossible objective of 70% of males out there: the Big Orgasm.

Yep, You heard that right. Orgasm.

I just came across a recent blog post of his detailing how he easily creates the automatic Orgasmic Response in clients. Check out his hypnotic spiel:

with every number I say, your pussy gets more and mnore sensitive and you feel that erotic charge throughout your entire body so that with each number you become much much more aroused, perhaps even one hundred times more horny/aroused and when I reach the number one you explode in a wonderful orgasm . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . four . . . three . . . almost there . . . two . . . get ready . . . three . . . two . . . at the next number . . . one . . . boom” or some such

Woah. If you’re a woman, I can already imagine the quivers that must have started at your belly and crept down your…

Anyway. Let’s leave it G-rated shall we?

If you’re already excited (cmon admit it), you must visit Brian’s Blog. Brian David Philipps, Ph.D is one of the rare clinical psychiatrists who won’t bore you to death like most Dr.’s you’d know.

In the business world, relationships are an integral part of success or failure. Most people don’t know that when Thomas Edison’s laboratory and factory burned down, he was 67 years old and carried no insurance. Before the ashes were cold, Henry Ford handed Edison a check for $750,000 with the words “no interest” written on it. He also included a note saying that if Edison needed more, he would have it.

Many people were surprised by Ford’s generosity, but one reason he gave Edison the money probably went back to an incident that took place many years earlier. Edison was working on an electric car and had built batteries that made it viable to a point. He heard that a young man named Henry Ford was working on a gasoline engine, so he went to see him and asked him many questions. Ford answered those questions thoroughly and carefully. At the end of the interview, Edison said to Ford, “Young man, I think you’re on to something. I encourage you to continue in your pursuits.” Later, Ford said that these words of encouragement from the most highly respected inventor in the United States meant a great deal to him. He obviously continued in his pursuits. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a great difference between what a person intends to say and what a person may actually say. An implicit message is one in which communication is not plainly expressed. It is implied. Implicit messages can entangle the real or intended message.

Implicit, or unspoken, messages can cause others to feel frustrated, confused or angry. When you receive implicit or hidden messages in the communications of others, it can confuse future communication. That’s why it’s important to say what you mean and mean what you say. For example, the implicit message in the sentence, “My stomach is rumbling,” could translate into the explicit message, “I’m hungry. When are we going to eat?” Read the rest of this entry »

Recall the last basketball game you attended.

Where you the player or the spectator?

There’s a stark difference between the two.

Players live IN the game, experiencing an adrenaline rush and living every moment in constant focus, drive and passion. They make things happen, exerting consistent actions committed to a goal.

Despite the risk of winning or losing, players are fully alive.

The spectator, on the other hand, sits from the stands. He watches and observes. His pulse pounds mildly- after all he experiences triumph or defeat vicariously from his preferred team.

Now here’s the difference: spectatorship costs you big time. It costs you the actual experience of the game.

The player literally forgets the rest of the world- time dilates and contracts as he pours his soul into competitive action.

The spectator watches indifferently, cheering when hoops are burnt and jeering when fouls are called. The former definitely enjoys the moment far more.

Are YOU living life as a player or spectator?

One thing I’ve observed with many folks is that they go through life forever experiencing great accomplishments saying “Someday, I’ll do that” “Someday I’ll do what Bill Gates did” “Someday I’ll ask that great woman out.”

Someday.

Say “Someday” often enough and you’ll never get around to doing anything at all. You’ll forever be a spectator. Never a player.

Isn’t this shortchanging yourself?

Someday is a deadly mindset. It prevents you from fully taking responsibility for living your life. Someday eases your Soul out of the equation of life.

I dare you. Turn your “Somedays” into “TODAY”. You’ll attract the grandest opportunities into your life and breathe new life into your soul.

Today!

If you’re like me, you’d like building a financial empire that requires little input. That kicks out the 8 to 5 job in my list of desirable pursuits.

Hence, I divert 60% of my time to enhancing dozens of my websites. Web businesses are the lazy man’s Excalibur. They churn in $$$$ 24/7 even when you’re on vacation!

There’s a hitch. Only well ranked, highly optimized sites bring in the dough. If you’re ranking at less than PR3… I doubt you’d scrape by with the wealth you desire.

Now many webmasters would gladly pay $5000 to an SEO company to get their sites in the top ranks. I don’t. I turn to resources like CourtneyTuttle for a quickfix on how to be a PageRank Hero.

Check out their blog. You’ll find more articles on rank building and link baiting than a Hydra can shake a tentacle at.

If I were to pay them for the value of their free articles…. I’d say that $200,000 barely covers it.

Looking for wealth? Start at Courtneytuttle.com