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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Gratitude

Money is a Tool, Not a Goal

If your goal in life is always to have more money, you will never be satisfied. There will always be an urge to constantly chase money, which will only cause unnecessary stress and dissatisfaction. Conversely, if you view money as a tool to achieve what really matters in your life, you will start to focus on the things that bring you the utmost satisfaction.

In our consumer culture, we’ve been conditioned to believe that buying more stuff will lead to greater levels of happiness. In my experience, this is a horrible misconception. No matter how many possessions you own, there will never be enough. The richest people in the world “have it all” but many are still starving for happiness.

Here are 5 things that I believe you should be spending your money on:

1. Experiences

Material possessions may give you a temporary pleasure high, but they won’t lead to lasting happiness and fulfillment. Psychologists call this “hedonic adaptation.” In other words, the excitement of that new car or expensive purse that you buy will quickly fade. However, nobody can ever take away your life experiences.

It’s not until you’ve acquired everything that you realize that these things don’t enhance your life. The exotic cars that I’ve owned will never replace the travel experiences and memory-making with my kids. Money allows you to experience more.

 “Set a goal to become a millionaire, for the person it will make you to achieve it.”

– Jim Rohn

2. Health

Your mind and body are connected. What you put into your body affects your level of happiness. If you are eating junk food, how do you think you will feel? If you want to be successful in life, you need to make sure that your body is operating at the highest possible level.

Money allows you to invest more into your health. By having money I’ve been able to biohack my health. I invested in things like regular physicals and blood testing and better nutrition to optimize my health, energy and well-being.

3. Time

Time is a depreciating asset. You only have so much time, which is why you need to be mindful of how you are spending it and with whom. More money will buy you more time. It is possible that there are things that you are currently doing in your life that are making you unhappy that money can solve for you. This could be in the form of cooking, cleaning or bookkeeping. I encourage you to leverage other people so that you can focus more on what matters in your life and help them earn money for theirs.

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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Gratitude

Gratitude and the Law of Attraction

Befitting the month of Thanksgiving, I thought I would blog on gratitude. Daily habits of gratitude and appreciation are one of the highest emotional states you can experience. When you cultivate gratitude, you’re able to feel true joy and contentment, no matter what you have or don’t have in your life.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey

The Law of Attraction states that like attracts like, when you’re grateful for what you already have, you will naturally attract more for which you can be grateful. However, many people find that it requires great diligence to cultivate a persistent attitude of appreciation. That’s because we’ve been culturally conditioned by marketers to focus on what we don’t have, rather than appreciating what we’ve already received or achieved.

To help you combat this conditioning, here are 6 simple tips from my mentor and friend Jack Canfield on how to make gratitude – one of the most important habits of successful people – a natural daily habit, so you can attract more joy and abundance into your life all year long:

1. Take 7 minutes each morning to write down everything you appreciate in life

Starting your day this way primes you to be receptive and grateful for everything your day will bring. It also helps you cultivate an air of positivity that makes you naturally more attractive to other positive people – and inspires them to want to help you achieve your goals.

2. Make a conscious effort to appreciate at least 3 people every day

By letting people know how much you appreciate them, you increase their own sense of appreciation and self-worth and encourage them to pay this positive energy forward to other people.

While most people enjoy receiving verbal appreciation, written notes are also nice because they can be saved and re-read. (For ideas on expressing appreciation, grab your copy of The Success Principles and review Principle 53: Practice Uncommon Appreciation).

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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Time Management

Ideas to Make the Most of Your Extra Hour

Daylight saving time ends this coming weekend giving us our once a year 25 hour day. What will you do with the bonus time? Whether you are for or against daylight saving time, here are a few ideas on how you can maximize the value of your bonus hour for mind, body and spirit:

Mind

If you’re like me, you’re always trying to find the time to read and learn new things. I’ll listen to podcasts or audio books while I’m working out or commuting just to fit in a little extra know-how. Why not use this extra hour to read a chapter or two of that how-to book or relax by the fireplace with a glass of wine and that novel you bought last summer? If you’re a visual learner, YouTube your favorite topic and check out a webinar or two.

Body

Fall brings with it colder weather and less time outdoors for hiking, biking and other activities just when your body needs it most. But here’s the thing – winter might be the most important time of the year to exercise. It releases endorphins to combat the winter blues and it helps strengthen your immune system against the winter cold. Exercise also helps maintain healthy habits that won’t require drastic efforts to undo in the Spring and it keeps your brain sharp and helps you sleep better, too. Use your extra hour to hit the gym or, for those of you in warmer climates, go for it with a hike or trail ride Sunday afternoon.

“Why not use this extra hour to read a chapter or two of that how-to book or relax by the fireplace with a glass of wine and that novel you bought last summer?”

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Life Area: Physical  
Topic: Breakfast Nutrition

The Best Foods To Have For Breakfast

As many of you know, I start my day off with a green drink and a protein drink. My green drink is a blend of spinach, power greens, cucumbers, kale, celery, apples, pears, kiwis, lemons, and wheatgrass powder, which I juice every Saturday. I practice intermittent fasting so I try to eat only during the hours of 12pm-8pm so my green drink and protein drink are not only my early morning pick me up but they’re my only source of nutrients until noon. So, the next time you’re tempted to rush out the door in the morning without something to eat, consider this: skipping breakfast can set you up for overeating later in the day and even a small morning meal, on the other hand, can give you energy, satisfy your appetite, and set the stage for smart decisions all day long.

Here’s a look at some of Health.com‘s favorite breakfast foods, along with some tips for making them even healthier:

Oatmeal

You may have noticed a heart-shaped seal on your box of oatmeal recently. The seal’s there because oats contain beta-glucan, a type of fiber that’s been shown to help lower cholesterol when eaten regularly. Need another reason to dig in? Oats are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium.

Greek yogurt

This tangy, creamy yogurt is loaded with calcium and boasts plenty of protein—nearly twice as much as regular yogurt—to keep you feeling full throughout the morning. Your best bet: choose a plain, nonfat variety, and add some fruit to give it some sweetness and flavor (and a dose of added nutrition).

 “Studies suggest that eating blueberries regularly can help improve everything from memory and motor skills to blood pressure and metabolism.”

Grapefruit

Trying to lose weight? According to one study, eating half a grapefruit before each meal may help you slim down faster, thanks to the fruit’s fat-burning properties and its beneficial effect on blood sugar and insulin levels. Grapefruit is also hydrating, filling, and packed with immunity-boosting antioxidants. For a well-rounded breakfast, pair it with protein—such as yogurt or an egg. But check with your doctor first if you take any medications, as grapefruit and grapefruit juice can interfere with some prescription drugs.

Berry Blend: Blueberries, Strawberries, and Raspberries

Fresh or frozen, blueberries are a super-fruit packing a big antioxidant punch. Studies suggest that eating blueberries regularly can help improve everything from memory and motor skills to blood pressure and metabolism. One cup of strawberries contains your full recommended daily intake of vitamin C, along with high quantities of folic acid and fiber. Raspberries are the main berry source of ellagitannins, a type of antioxidant that is thought to have cancer-fighting properties. They’re also high in fiber (8 grams per cup), vitamin C, and vitamin K, which helps build strong bones.

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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Success Habits

Three Personal Development Habits All Successful People Practice

When you research the daily habits of successful people, you’ll find a range of daily habits, for example, from rising early to hit the gym to having a meditative start to your day and waiting to workout until the evening. There are a variety of formulas and preferences out there, so keep in mind that your job is to find the daily habits that work for you, your goals, your body and your life.

However, there are three habits I have come across that stand out and that I practice and know the results of first-hand. I will add these to my list of six that Brendon Burchard learned after his three-years of research for his recent book High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way which I wrote about in my blog post, The Role Luck Plays In Our Success.

1. Successful people spend time in introspection and self-discovery.

Successful people are self-aware on multiple levels. We know our physical selves: our bodies, our energy patterns, how much sleep is optimal, and so on. We have taken the time to learn what the best fuel is to eat, what exercise is best for us to do, and what physical environments are best for us to have at home and office to be most creative and productive, and we know the difference between those two states.

We know ourselves mentally: successful people know their priorities in life and know that all their decisions must start with an assessment of how that decision will serve our vision, mission and purpose.

We know ourselves spiritually: successful people seek enlightenment, they acknowledge a higher-power of some form, recognizing that all things are created and that everything we know of in our physical world was spawned from an idea and spoken into being whether by man or the creator of the universe. And, we try to stay spiritually centered whether through mediation, prayer or religious practices.

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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Perseverance in hard times

How Hitting Rock Bottom Will Make You Stronger

As you may have read in my blog post about my personal perfect storm, after a consistent rise to the pinnacle of success, the bottom fell out 8 years ago when my daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (she scans clean now), the financial markets meltdown hit my real estate development business hard, and I had a humongous love loss. A triple whammy. Maybe you’ve experienced similar, or God forbid, worse circumstances. Maybe your business has failed or you lost your job or maybe a relative or spouse died. For whatever reason, you found yourself in a place you never imagined–rock bottom, like me.

Well, let me remind you: when you face situations like that remember failure is not fatal and rock bottom is not forever, unless you make it so. There are very important lessons to learn when you’ve hit rock bottom. Here are some of the most important ones:

1. Your True Self shows up. When you’re down and out, you’re forced to confront yourself as you probably never have before. It’s when you’re at your most broken and weak that you can dig down through your vulnerabilities to the strength to stand strong. It is in loss and imperfection that you can see how perfectly human you are.

2. Choose stumbling blocks or stepping stones. Hitting rock bottom is a powerful reminder not to carry your mistakes around with you but to learn from them; use them as stepping stones, not stumbling blocks, on the way to your success.

3. What you thought you wanted may not be what you needed. Sometimes painful circumstances turn out to be the impetus of a new direction and months or years later you look back and see how they played an integral part in getting you where you ended up…a direction and destination you may not have chosen, but was much better than you envisioned.

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Life Area: Personal  
Topic: Mental Focus

Four Tactics To Help You Be Super Focused

You ever find yourself needing to be super focused to prepare for that special presentation or meet a crucial deadline? Well, if you’re like me that need surfaces often. I’ve written here before about Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, wherein he gives us beaucoup advice on achieving deep, focused work. Here are four tactics I use that may resonate with you in order to give them a try:

1. Use Time Blocking

At the beginning of each week, on either Sunday night or Monday morning, I plan out my week ahead using my Ideal Week Template as my guide (see offer below to download it FREE). I look at meetings and projects that must be completed and I estimate the number of hours I will need for each (if you find yourself underestimating completion time, double whatever you estimate when first doing this routine). Then I look at the week ahead (which already has time blocks for my regular occurring things like my power hours, meditation, and workouts) and I block out first committed appointments and meetings, and then these projects. Treat these focused project times just as you would a meeting with a board member or investor…you’re gonna make it happen!!

2. Eliminate Distractions

Isolate yourself in a quiet place or work from home to avoid those inevitable office distractions. Dress comfortably, make the room a comfortable temperate (69-72^o), eat some healthy food free of white flour, caffeine, and sugar so your blood sugar is balanced, and put on some low volume, low key music (personally, I turn on the Spa Radio channel on Pandora).

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At the beginning of each week, on either Sunday night or Monday morning, I plan out my week ahead.

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3. Set Mini Goals

As you’ve heard me mention here before, it’s best to take a big project and chunk it down to bite size tasks by reverse engineering the many steps to its completion. By that I mean break it down into smaller goals that are tasks that I can finish in, say, three hours. If you’re like me, you’ll get a rush just from checking the box of each smaller task!

4. Set a Timer and Take Breaks

We often get in the zone and reach burnout sooner than we could if we otherwise predetermine break times. The Pomodoro Method advocates 50 minute work spans followed by 10 minute breaks each hour. But each of us is unique and as self-aware individuals that make up my audience, I’m guessing you know your bodies and attention spans and can determine whether a 60 minute work span or a 90 minute work span works best for you before either a 10 minute or 15 minute break, etc.

The moral of this story is that mental focus takes intentional action. Try these tactics and see if they give you greater results.

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Download this FREE Resource, the Ideal Week template in either Excel or PDF formats to help you with your time blocking. Click here for an Ideal Week Sample to use as a guide.

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My mission is to inspire people and organizations to live their highest vision.

I am a Success Strategist and Master Coach. I provide transformational coaching and training for individuals and organizations to help you Grow Your Life and Build Your Business by getting clear and focused on what you want, why you want it, and how to create it. Learn more about me at SuccessSeriesLLC.com.

There is no better endorsement than that of a friend, so if you like what you’re reading or are using my many FREE resources, tell a friend to join the Tom Hart Success Series Community, to receive email notifications of new blog posts and Talk with Tom podcast episodes, learn of upcoming events, and other news, by visiting my website  and clicking on the offer to receive my FREE monthly resource by leaving their email address OR forward this to them and have them simply click here (we respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam and will never sell, rent, lease or give away your information to any third party).

Email List Redeux

MAY I PLEASE HAVE YOUR HELP AND IN RETURN GIVE YOU A GIFT FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE?

This past week we had a bit of a faux pas here at Success Series…you see, our email list was accidentally wiped and we need to recreate it by having you PLEASE OPT-IN AGAIN TO RECEIVE OUR EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS OF NEW BLOG POSTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, ETC. Our mailing list is our main form of communication to you, the Success Series Community.

Just look over to the right-hand column on this page and you’ll see an opt-in form to input your email address to be added to the list. In return you will receive a FREE download of my 2018 Success Planner or the 10 Basics of Personal Finance Worksheet. >>>>>>>>

OR SIMPLY CLICK HERE >>>>>>>>>>>

Thank you in advance for helping us recover this lost data.

Please share this post with your family and friends. 

My mission is to inspire people and organizations to live their highest vision.

I am a Success Strategist and Master Coach. I provide transformational coaching and training for individuals and organizations to help you Grow Your Life and Build Your Business by getting clear and focused on what you want, why you want it, and how to create it. Learn more about me at SuccessSeriesLLC.com.

There is no better endorsement than that of a friend, so if you like what you’re reading or are using my many FREE resources, tell a friend to join the Tom Hart Success Series Community, to receive email notifications of new blog posts and Talk with Tom podcast episodes, learn of upcoming events, and other news, by visiting my website  and clicking on the offer to receive my FREE monthly resource by leaving their email address OR forward this to them and have them simply click here (we respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam and will never sell, rent, lease or give away your information to any third party).

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Life Area: Personal

Topic: Negative Self-Talk

5 Ways to Turn Your Negative Self-Talk Into Positive Self-Talk

Whether you tell yourself, “I’m never going to be promoted,” or you constantly think, “People think I’m weird,” negative self-talk affects how you feel and how you behave. In fact, the conversations you have with yourself often turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For example, imagine someone who thinks, “I’m socially awkward and no one wants to talk to me.” To cope with their awkwardness, they avoid striking up conversations with people and limit their interactions. Consequently, people think the person is socially awkward and therefore that belief about themselves is confirmed.

I’m reminded of a story my mentor and friend, Coach John Wooden, told me years ago of a prospective recruit visiting UCLA and telling Coach that he felt the people in Los Angeles weren’t very friendly. To which Coach challenged the young recruit that maybe it was he that was being stand-offish and not being very friendly to those who greeted him.

Negative self-talk and having our own limiting beliefs is a universal problem. Read about how to transcend your limiting beliefs in this guest post [here] and listen to this Talk with Tom podcast episode to learn more. Over the years, I’ve coached countless people on changing their negative dialogue. And I’ve seen first-hand how developing a more productive inner dialogue helps individuals create a more optimistic outlook and create positive change.

So whether you call yourself names or you always talk yourself out of trying something new, here’s how to deal with negative thoughts in a healthy way:

1. Recognize Your Negative Thoughts

When you get an email from the boss that says, “I need to meet with you as soon as possible,” is your first thought that you’re about to be fired or do you think you must be getting a raise?

Many of your thoughts are automatic. They just pop into your head without any conscious effort.

So it’s important to take a second to evaluate your thoughts so you can recognize thoughts that are unrealistic, unproductive, or irrational.

2. Look for Evidence That Your Thought IS True

Just because you think something doesn’t make it true. In fact, most of your thoughts are more likely to be opinions rather than facts.

So ask yourself, “What’s the evidence that this IS true?” Sticking with the example of the email from the boss, what evidence do you have that you’re about to be fired?

Create a list of the evidence that supports your thoughts. Perhaps you called in sick for days in a row recently. Or maybe you missed a deadline on an important project a month earlier. List as many reasons as you can.

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Life Area: Personal

Topic: Growth Mindset

How To Cultivate A Growth Mindset

Download this FREE Resource on my Resources page – Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset – and you’ll learn the difference between the two mindsets. In this post I’ll take you inside my recently completed read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success authored by Stanford psychologist and researcher, Carol Dweck.  Dweck’s book was published to much fanfare in 2006, yet it is only in recent years that it achieved mainstream adoption, and came to my attention.

Dweck’s research includes a landmark study which found that children who are praised for their intelligence are more likely to choose future tasks that validate their perceived intelligence and make them look smart. Conversely, children who are praised for their effort are more likely to choose tasks that help them learn new things.

The first group have what Dweck calls a ‘fixed mindset’: they avoid challenges because they don’t want to jeopardize their reputation and, thus, their intellectual development stalls. The second group have a ‘growth mindset’: they thrive on challenges and they aren’t afraid to fail because they know they can try again, fail again and fail better.

“Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?” writes Dweck in Mindset. “Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you?”.

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Life Area: Professional

Topic: The Only 8 Slides Your Pitch Deck Needs

The Only 8 Slides Your Pitch Deck Needs

When I first meet with startup entrepreneurs, the most often asked question is some form of “How do we raise capital?”

It’s very wise of them to ask because in the end if you’re not well capitalized, you won’t last. Yet rarely do they know the steps to raising capital, let alone how to apply them. I tell them, VCs and other investors are investing in you as a person as much as they are investing in your company product or service. So, I tell them “be authentic”, “be open book”, “be vulnerable”. Let them get to know you and trust you. They need to do that long before they see your proforma, rate of return, or sales projections.

Often the first impression to such an audience is your presentation or “pitch deck”.  The reason I want to talk about pitch decks is simple: I see too many that are simply not good. What should be a short, powerful presentation to pique investor interest too frequently falls way short. Nothing I’m about to tell you about how to build the perfect pitch deck amounts to magic. It’s just simple fundamentals. So here’s how to do a pitch deck right, slide by simple slide:

Slide 1: Present your statement of purpose.

When I talk with a young entrepreneur, I always start by asking, “What’s your big idea?” What I’m looking for is a statement about who they are and what they do in a sentence so elemental and polished that the listeners “get it”. This statement is worth spending some time on, because it might just be the most important dozen words you ever write. It also needs to be a living statement that evolves and grows with your business, your market, and dependent on what matters to your investors. And … remember this, the first slide sets the tone, and you either grab them or lose them with this one.

Slide 2: Introduce your team.

Now, introduce them to you and your team. Let them get to know your team members’ professional backgrounds, why you’re each well-suited for the business, and how you all work together synergistically with complementary skill sets. And what are investors looking for in your team? Three things, really: that they’ve done it before, that they’re the best at what they do, and that they’re incredibly confident. Bring as many team members as you think helps your cause and show off the veritable tour de force of talent that’s going to give the room absolute confidence you can pull off everything you’re about to lay out.

Slide 3: Identify the problem.

If you’re pursuing the kind of big idea that matters to venture capitalists, you need to comprehensively and vividly identify the fundamental problem you’re solving. This accomplishes a couple of things. One, it demonstrates that you understand current market pressures and the macro trends that drive them. Second, it forces you to train a spotlight on what you’re aiming to tackle by ensuring it’s an actual problem in the world. If you can describe the problem better than your audience, chances are they will assume you have the solution.

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