70 Days...

Wow, I'm nearing the home stretch now, and feeling really good. Let's jump right into it the breakdown of the past 10 days...

1. PhilosophersNotes: I feel like I should be getting paid for talking about these awesome tools. PhilosophersNotes are perfect for me. I love to gather wisdom as I am continually learning, and trying to improve my life in every aspect I can. But, with two young boys and 3 businesses it is so hard to find the time to do so. That's were these wisdom packed 20min. audio summaries of some of the most valuable books ever written come in. Seriously check these things out if you'd like to feel better, and do more with your life than you previously have. Who wouldnt want to do that?

Here are the books I covered this week:

The Places That Scare You - Pema Chodron
Positive Addiction - William Glasser
The Power of Decision - Raymond Charles Barker
The Power of Full Engagement - Jim Loehr/Tony Schwartz
The Power of Intention - Wayne Dyer
The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Your Supermind - Vernon Howard
Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
The Psychology of Winning - Denis Waitley

Here are my 6 favorite quotes from the past 10 days:

“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard

“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser

“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz

“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard

“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle

***More Super-Awesome Quotes follow at the end of this posting, see below.


2. Jump Attack: I just finished up with the 2nd Phase of the program and now get another week off, which is well needed rest. I'm feeling stronger with every workout and foresee this last phase being really intense and elevating...literally. :-)


3. Nutrition, Eating Well and my Commitments: I have been going strong with the plant based (Vegan) diet and feeling great. I am toning up, although I have lost zero pounds. I'm certain I've converted old fat to new muscle, but won't know how much until I test my body fat at programs end. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, I thought eating only plants that grow from the earth would have me dropping a lot of weight, but I'm glad that I have thrived and been able to convert fat to muscle and stay the same weight. I've still stayed clear of any and all Sweets, Sodas, Alcohol, Toxins, etc. I'm still really looking forward to that big piece of Cossetta's Cheese Pizza in St. Paul, however, in about 30 more days. :-)


Thanks for being you and doing all you do. Losta love, and I'll see you in 10 more days...

:-)


***Here are the rest of the Super-Awesome Quotes:

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.” – Vernon Howard

“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.” – Vernon Howard

“How on earth can another’s thought harm you? It is your thought about his thought that harms. Change *your* thought.” - Vernon Howard

“Rebel against everything within yourself that you feel is artificial. Become what you are!” - Vernon Howard

“Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self-observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. This is so important that I urge you to memorize and reflect upon the following summary: Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.” – Vernon Howard

“Use this secret for developing receptivity: Learn to love situations which make you uncomfortable. That is the only way you can learn to be comfortable everywhere.” - Vernon Howard

“Human beings live the way they CHOOSE, not the way they WANT. A vast difference lies between the two.” - Vernon Howard

“No one can tell you what is right for you except for yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another. The only true, honest and enriching authority is the internal authority of your own Supermind.” – Vernon Howard

“If it takes apparent misfortune to turn us into true philosophers and doers of good to receive good, then apparent misfortune is our greatest fortune.” – Vernon Howard

“To be real is to be spiritual. A cat is normal because no one has fixed him with a neurotic notion that he should be a tiger. A man loses neurosis when he is what he is.” – Vernon Howard

“At the start of your quest, wisdom is a flash, not a glow.” - Vernon Howard

“No one can enjoy a truth for which he is unprepared, any more than an ape can appreciate a harp.” - Vernon Howard

“Please don’t go around trying to save the world. You have all you can do to save yourself.” - Vernon Howard

“Creative striving for a goal that is important to you as a result of your own deep-felt needs, aspirations and talents (and not the symbols which the ‘Joneses’ expect you to display) brings happiness as well as success because you will be functioning as you were meant to function. Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is ‘built that way’ he is not happy unless he is functioning the way he was made to function—as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other.” - Maxwell Maltz

“Every human being has been literally ‘engineered for success’ by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself.” - Maxwell Maltz

“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.” – Maxwell Maltz

“Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.” – Maxwell Maltz

“Imagine how you would feel if you were already the sort of personality you want to be. If you have been shy and timid, see yourself moving among people with ease and poise—and feeling good because of it. If you have been fearful and anxious in certain situations—see yourself acting calmly and deliberately, acting with confidence and courage—and feling expansive and confident because you are.” “This exercise builds new ‘memories’ or stored data into your mid-brain and central nervous system. It builds a new image of self. After practicing it for a time, you will be surprised to find yourself ‘acting differently,’ more or less automatically and spontaneously—‘without trying.’” – Maxwell Maltz

“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other. The word ‘habit’ originally meant a garment or clothing… Our habits are literally garments worn by our personalities. They are not accidental, or happenstance. We have them because they fit us. They are consistent with our self-image and our entire personality pattern. When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better habits, our self-image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern.” – Maxwell Maltz

“We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms. We are built that way. When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which ‘means something’ to us, we are apt to ‘go around in circles,’ feel ‘lost’ and find life itself ‘aimless,’ and ‘purposeless.’ We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for.” – Maxwell Maltz

“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It is no wonder you feel shaky.” – Maxwell Maltz

“The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Simply define your goal or end result. Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly. Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an accomplished fact. Then you are acting spontaneously and creatively. Then you are using the powers of your subconscious mind. Then your internal machinery is geared for success: To guide you in making the correct muscular motions and adjustments; To supply you with creative ideas, and to do whatever else is necessary in order to make the goal an accomplished fact.” – Maxwell Maltz

“Take inventory of your good reasons for self-esteem today. Write down what your ‘BAG’ is. Blessings—who and what you are thankful for. Accomplishments—what you have done that you’re proud of so far. Goals—what your dreams and ambitions are.” – Denis Waitley

“Every winner I have ever met knows where he or she is going day by day … every day. Winners are goal oriented. They set and get what they want—consistently. They are self-directed on the road to fulfillment. Fulfillment or success has been defined as the progressive realization of goals that are worthy of the individual. The ‘human’ system is goal-seeking by design and, using a very basic analogy, may be compared to a homing torpedo system or an automatic pilot. Set your target and this self-activated system, constantly monitoring feedback signals from the target area and adjusting course setting in its own navigational guidance computer, makes every correction necessary to stay on target and score a hit. Programmed incompletely, non-specifically or aimed at a target too far out of range, the ‘homing torpedo’ will wander erratically around until its propulsion system fails or self-destructs. And so it is with each individual human system in life.” – Denis Waitley

“One of the best ways to develop adaptability to the stresses of life is to view them as normal. Earl Nightingale tells of his visit with his son recently to the Great Barrier Reef which stretches nearly 1800 miles from New Guinea to Australia. Noticing that the coral polyps on the inside of the reef, where the sea was tranquil and quiet in the lagoon, appeared pale and lifeless… while the coral on the outside of the reef, subject to the surge of the tide and power of the waves, were bright and vibrant with splendid colors and flowing growth… Earl Nightingale asked why this was so. ‘It’s very simple,’ came the reply, ‘the coral on the lagoon-side dies rapidly with no challenge for growth and survival… while the coral facing the surge and power of the open sea, thrives and multiplies because it is challenged and tested every day. And so it is with every living organism on earth.’” – Denis Waitley

“Since they fail to plan, they are planning to fail by default.” - Denis Waitley

“The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is an attitude of personal optimism and enthusiasm.” – Denis Waitley

“Concentrate all your energy and intensity, without distraction, on the successful completion of your current project. Finish what you start.” – Denis Waitley

“Most people spend more time planning a party, studying the newspaper, or making a Christmas list, than they do in planning their lives.” – Denis Waitley

“The fear habit, the anger habit, the self-pity habit—all are strengthened and empowered when we continue to buy into them. The most compassionate thing we can do is to interrupt these habits.” – Pema Chodron

“Acknowledging that we are all churned up is the first and most difficult step in any practice. Without compassionate recognition that we are stuck, it’s impossible to liberate ourselves from confusion. ‘Doing something different’ is anything that interrupts our ancient habit of indulging in our emotions. We do anything to cut the strong tendency to spin out… Anything that’s non-habitual will do—even sing and dance or run around the block. We do anything that doesn’t reinforce our crippling habits. The third most difficult practice is to then remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.” – Pema Chodron

“A traditional analogy for the pain caused by the lord of form is of a mouse being caught in a trap because it can’t resist eating the cheese. The Dalai Lama offers an interesting twist to this analogy. He says that when he was a boy in Tibet he used to try to catch the mice, not because he wished to kill them, but because he wanted to outsmart them. He says that the mice in Tibet must be more clever than ordinary mice because he never succeeded in catching one. Instead they became his models of enlightened conduct. He felt that, unlike most of us, they had figured out that the best thing they could do for themselves was to refrain from the short-term pleasure of cheese in order to have the long-term pleasure of living. He encouraged us to follow their example.” – Pema Chodron

“This is the path we take in cultivating joy: learning not to armor our basic goodness, learning to appreciate what we have. Most of the time we don’t do this. Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle to nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden.” – Pema Chodron

“A warrior begins to take responsibility for the direction of her life. It’s as if we are lugging around unnecessary baggage. Our training encourages us to open the bags and look closely at what we are carrying. In doing this we begin to understand that much of it isn’t needed anymore.” – Pema Chodron

“Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.” - Pema Chödrön

“Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start.” - Pema Chödrön

“One begins identifying those factors which lead to happiness and those factors which lead to suffering. Having done this, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which lead to suffering and cultivating those which lead to happiness. That is the way.” – Dalai Lama

“Very few of us realize how much we choose the misery in our lives. Even when we do, we still go ahead with the disastrous choice because we are convinced that we don’t have the strength to choose better…I will first describe in detail how weakness is the cause of almost all the unfortunate choices we make. Then I will argue that anyone who wishes to become stronger seriously consider trying to become an addict.” – William Glasser

“…Positive addicts because, due to their addictions, they are almost always stronger than nonpositively addicted people who lead similar lives. With this added strength they live with more confidence, more creativity, and more happiness and usually in much better health.” – William Glasser

“Throughout almost the whole history of psychiatry it has been difficult for most psychiatrists to accept that depression is a choice.” – William Glasser

“Depression is a choice.” – William Glasser (Dr. Glasser’s approach is non-traditional. He does not believe in the concept of mental illness unless there is something organically wrong with the brain that can be confirmed by a pathologist.)

“Few doctors will say, ‘Look, your headaches are caused by inadequacy; take some aspirin and then go and find some more love and do something more worthwhile.’” – William Glasser

“Depression, no more than acting out, does not come from the outside. We don’t catch it like chicken pox. It is out of our weakness that we choose to be depressed because we have discovered that not making this choice is even more painful.” – William Glasser

“With the first choice, giving up, he relinquished responsibility, but with the second choice, depression, he is now shielded from his own inadequacy and able to turn to others.” - William Glasser

“No one is so inadequate that he cannot help himself to some degree. Not only can he, but he must; nothing else will work.” – William Glasser

“What they always seem to have that makes them strong is that no matter how many problems they face they rarely run out of options. Unlike the weak, who tend to give up and then choose symptoms to reduce their pain and perhaps later become addicted to get some pleasure in their lives, strong people never seem to be at the end of their rope. They almost never lock themselves into one pattern of thinking and behavior.” – William Glasser

“Unlike the weak, the strong neither give up nor are driven by pain into rash or stupid behavior. They don’t like pain any more than anyone else, but they are not willing to settle for short-term relief if it means reducing their options later. They don’t rob Peter to pay Paul, they face reality now.” – William Glasser

“You can not go beyond your own self-accepted image. As long as you underestimate yourself, you cannot succeed in life.” – Raymond Charles Barker

“Success and failure are results of the use of mind. Every success-motivated mind has been a decisive mind. Every failure-motivated mind has been an indecisive mind. Only the dreamer who acted with decision on his dream brought forth something new and valuable.” - Raymond Charles Barker

“Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move. Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers. That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding.” – Osho

“You cannot think and feel negatively over a period of time and have positive situations maintained in your experience. The Law of the Subconscious can only bear the kind of fruit based on the seed ideas you have given them. Jesus said you could not gather figs from thistles. Paul called this sowing and reaping. The Hermetic Teachings stated that what goes in must come out. All are saying the same thing.” – Raymond Charles Barker

“You are the result of your past decisions. You will become and experience the result of your present decisions. Join me in deciding on the side of greatness.” - Raymond Charles Barker

“All of this is already in you. The great use it. The non-great do not, so they remain the non-great. Decide upon some thing, situation, or condition that you want right now in your present life. Be definite in this decision. Do not limit your decision by investigating the probable reasons why it will never happen. That is the detour to nothing. All false speculations of defeat have to be ruled out of your consciousness. If they enter into the decision for even a fleeting moment, the decision is robbed of authority and the subconscious mind cannot act upon it. You do not need to know how the final result will come to pass. That is the function of the subconscious. It has ways and means that, if they were known, would stagger the intellect.” – Raymond Chalres Barker

“The more you watch your moods, attitudes, habits, and central ideas and stop all basic negatives from lingering in your area of attention, the richer and fuller your prosperity will be.” – Raymond Charles Barker

“We would be living in a grand Utopia today if every great idea that arose in men’s minds had been followed by decision and right action. Too many great ideas have been meditated upon and then discarded. Usually the thinker discards them for what seem to him to be plausible reasons. No great discovery in history has been based on plausible reasons. Automobiles were implausible in 1900. Radios were implausible in 1910. Transatlantic planes were implausible in 1920. Yet thinkers let such ideas arise in their consciousness out of the wellspring of the Infinite Intelligence. We should all be grateful that these thinkers decided to try the ideas they had. Every scientific mind has made the implausible plausible.” – Raymond Charles Barler

“Periods of recovery are likewise intrinsic to creativity and to intimate connection. Sounds become music in the spaces between notes, just as words are created by the spaces between letters. It is in the spaces between work that love, friendship, depth and dimension are nurtured. Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“Drinking water, we have found, is perhaps the most undervalued source of physical energy renewal. Unlike hunger, thirst is an inadequate barometer of need. By the time we feel thirsty, we may be long since dehydrated. A growing body of research suggests that drinking at least sixty-four ounces of water at intervals throughout the day serves performance in a range of important ways. Dehydrate a muscle by as little as 3 percent, for example, and it will lose 10 percent of its strength and 8 percent of its speed. Inadequate hydration also compromises concentration and coordination.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“Television, for example, is one of the primary means by which most people relax and recover. For the most part, however, watching television is the mental and emotional equivalent of eating junk food. It may provide a temporary form of recovery, but it is rarely nutritious and it is easy to consume too much. Researchers such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have found that prolonged television watching is actually correlated with increased anxiety and low-level depression.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“To be fully engaged emotionally requires celebrating what the Stoic philosophers called anacoluthia—the mutual entailment of the virtues. By this notion, no virtue is a virtue by itself. Rather, all virtues are entailed. Honesty without compassion, for example, becomes cruelty.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“In short, money may not buy happiness, but happiness may help you get rich.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“Creating positive rituals is the most powerful means we have found to effectively manage energy in the service of full engagement.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“The more scheduled and systematic these rituals became, the more renewal they provided.” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“Across cultures, religions and time itself, people have admired and aspired to the same universal values—among them integrity, generosity, courage, humility, compassion, loyalty, perseverance—while rejecting their opposites—deceit, greed, cowardice, arrogance, callousness, disloyalty and sloth. To begin to explore more deeply the values that are most compelling to you, we suggest that you set aside uninterrupted time to respond to the following questions: Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. Who are you at your best? What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?” - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer

“Act as if everything you desire is already here… treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.” – Wayne Dyer

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.” - Aldous Huxley

“It grows my fingernails, it beats my heart, it digest my food, it writes my books, and it does this for everyone and everything in the universe.” – Wayne Dyer

“Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them.” – Wayne Dyer

“The Wright brothers didn’t contemplate the staying on the ground of things. Alexander Graham Bell didn’t contemplate the noncommunication of things. Thomas Edison didn’t contemplate the darkness of things. In order to float an idea into your reality, you must be willing to do a somersault into the unconceivable and land on your feet, contemplating what you want instead of what you don’t have.” – Wayne Dyer

“God is an intelligible sphere—a sphere known to mind, not to the senses—whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere.” - Joseph Campbell

“Ramakrishna once said that if all you think of are your sins, then you are a sinner. And when I read that, I thought of my boyhood, going to confession on Saturdays, meditating on all the little sins that I had committed during the week. Now I think one should go and say, ‘Bless me, Father, for I have been great, these are the good things I have done this week.’ Identify your notion of yourself with the positive, rather than with the negative.” – Joseph Campbell

“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck to its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.” - Joseph Campbell

“Freud tells us to blame our parents for all the shortcomings of our life, Marx tells us to blame the upper class of our society. But the only one to blame is oneself.” - Joseph Campbell

“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” - Eckhart Tolle

“There is clearly an intelligence at work that is far greater than the mind. How can a single human cell measuring 1/1,000 of an inch across contain instructions within its DNA that would fill 1,000 books 600 pages each? The more we learn about the workings of the body, the more we realize just how vast is the intelligence at work within it and how little we know. When the mind reconnects with that, it becomes a most wonderful tool. It then serves something greater than itself.” – Eckhart Tolle

“Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.” – Eckhart Tolle

“I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes serious leakage of vital energy.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Watch out for any sign of unhappiness in yourself, in whatever form—it may be the awakening of the pain-body. This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship, and so on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state.” – Eckhart Tolle

“It is certainly true that, when you accept your resentment, moodiness, anger, and so on, you are no longer forced to act them out blindly, and you are less likely to project them onto others. But I wonder if you are not deceiving yourself. When you have been practicing acceptance for a while, as you have, there comes a point when you need to go on to the next stage, where those negative emotions are not created anymore. If you don’t, your ‘acceptance’ just becomes a mental label that allows your ego to continue to indulge in unhappiness and so strengthen your separation from other people, your surroundings, your here and now.” – Eckhart Tolle

“The present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not ‘this moment.’ Is this not a fact?” - Eckhart Tolle

“As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.” – Eckhart Tolle

60 Days...

As I sit down to write this it has just hit me...I have been making some serious progress and it feels really nice to know that I have put in so much hard work. I've got just over a month left on this 100 day program/commitment (before I start a new one) and Spring is on the horizon. Usually, as most Minnesotans, I am the least inspired and energized in the Winter, but this program has kept me motivated and focused on bigger things, and for that I am grateful.

Besides the other commitments in this program, during this 10-day segment, I've continued building my Photography Business, A Frame Forward. I researched, planned, designed, and then acquired everything necessary to have a really sweet portable studio, to get studio like results, in any environment. This program has given me the clarity, discipline and inspiration to turn my strong passion into a sustainable business, and I am grateful and enthusiastic as I head down this path.

Back to the Program...

1. PhilosophersNotes - This is well known as my favorite commitment and practice of the 100 day program. I get to sit down and really focus on amazing wisdom that has taken this collection of extremely driven individuals lifetimes to compile. There is so much inspiration and practical knowledge in these notes, it is one of the most valuable tools in life that I could imagine. You can download 3 of the notes for FREE at PhilosphersNotes to see what I mean. Take a second to do this, it will change your life and help bring you clarity, purpose and happiness.

Here are the books I covered the past 10 days:

Money, and the Law of Attraction - Esther & Jerry Hicks
The Monk who Sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma
Motivation and Personality - Abraham Maslow
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
The Now Habit - Neil Fiore
The Other 90% - Robert K. Cooper
Overachievement - John Eliot PhD.
The Path of Least Resistance - Robert Fritz
Pathways to Bliss - Joseph Campbell
Paulo Coelho (comprehensive) - Brian Johnson

Here are my Top-Three quotes from the past 10 days:

“The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it.” - Robin Sharma

“The dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness disappears altogether in healthy people because in principle every act is both selfish and unselfish.” - Abraham Maslow

“The years teach us much the days never knew.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

***I have attached more awesome quotes at the bottom of this post.


2. Jump Attack - I am now in the 3rd week, of the 2nd month of the program. I have been 100% committed this entire time, not skipping a beat even once. I'm feeling stronger and stronger with each workout and although I haven't exactly been "Air Jordan" yet, I have felt much stronger on the basketball court, especially a day or two after my intense workouts. I have two weeks before my next 'week-off rest period' where gains are more noticeable. Just as a carrot takes nearly 7 weeks to surface, I'll keep at it diligently, patiently and persistently, as I know there is much growth going on "underground" in my body and the "breakthrough" is near.


3. Nutrition - 60+ Days without Cheese! For those of you who know me well, you are most likely amazed at this feat. I've been a Vegetarian for 4+ years and have always wanted to experiment with a strictly plant based (Vegan) diet. I've done this as a personal challenge, a personal experiment and to expand my food horizon. I have stayed committed, but have to say I am looking forward to having a piece of Cossetta's Pizza after day 100. Until then I will remain committed and keep expanding my food horizon, experimenting and learning more recipes to share.


4. Yoga - Yoga has been inconsistent at best. I think once I complete the Jump Attack program I will be able to incorporate daily Yoga, without overdoing it with physical exercise.


5. Sweets, Refined Foods, Alcohol, Toxins, etc - No candy, dessert, sweets, etc! This is a big success for me as well. This is the longest I have ever gone without sweets in my life, as well as the cheese. This was a personal challenge as well as the elimination of some things I don't really need. I'll dabble in the occasional sweet after the program, maybe just to celebrate as a reward, but I will be making it a point not to partake in them, except in very rare occasions.

Glad to share, grateful for this time, and all we can do as human beings. Although I am only scratching the surface of my potential I am committed to keep digging and digging. If I can serve as a shovel for you, then I have done what I set out to do. Here's to digging deeper and deeper every day, into our own potential and all positive possibilities.

:-)

Check out the additional super-awesome Quotes below and I'll see you in 10 more days...

More Quotes:

“The most valuable skill that you could ever develop is the skill of directing your thoughts toward what you want—to be adept at quickly evaluating all situations and then quickly coming to the conclusion of what you most want—and then giving your undivided attention to that.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks

“You have to begin to tell the story of your life as you now want it to be and discontinue the tales of how it has been or of how it is.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks

“While your parents and teachers are, for the most part, well-meaning people, they are nevertheless more interested in your finding ways to please them than in your finding ways to please yourself. And so, in the process of socialization, almost all people in almost all societies lose their way because they are coaxed or coerced away from their own Guidance System.” - Esther & Jerry Hicks

“To liberate the potential of your mind, body and soul, you must first expand your imagination. You see, things are always created twice: first in the workshop of the mind and then, and only then, in reality. I call this process ‘blueprinting’ because anything you create in your outer world began as a simple blueprint in your inner world.” - Robin Sharma

“Suggesting you’re too busy to slow down and invest in yourself is like saying you’re too busy driving to stop for gas. - Robin Sharma

“Most people live—whether physically, intellectually or morally—in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon which we do not dream.” - William James

“Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate though daily practice, can achieve miracles. If you want to live life to the fullest, care for your thoughts as you would your most prized possessions. Work hard to remove all inner turbulence. The rewards will be abundant.” - Robin Sharma

“Remember, either you control your mind or your mind controls you.” - Robin Sharma

“Understand once and for all that your mind has magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life. If there is lack in your life it is because there is lack in your thoughts.” - Robin Sharma

“Every single person on the planet is a genius.” - Robin Sharma

“We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life, the instant you discover your higher purpose and then direct all your energies towards it.” - Robin Sharma

“Push yourself to do more and to experience more. Harness your energy to start expanding your dreams. Yes, expand your dreams. Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness. It’s your birthright.” - Robin Sharma

“Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.” - Robin Sharma

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” - Albert Eintstein

“There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers, even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.” - Abraham Maslow

“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.” - Abraham Maslow

“A significant portion of the earth’s population will soon recognize, if they haven’t already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die.” - Eckhart Tolle

“To recognize one’s own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.” - Eckhart Tolle

“How ‘spiritual’ you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions.” - Zen saying

“There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Love and do what you will” - St. Augustine

“When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.” - Eckhart Tolle

“Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate.” - Robert K. Cooper

“You’re only using about 10% of your potential.” - Robert K. Cooper

“Genius is childhood recaptured.” - Rene Dubos

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” - William Faulkner

“It takes great goals to lead us out of our everyday limits into accomplishing more than we ever thought we could or would.” - Robert K. Cooper

“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” - Grace Murray Hopper

“Deep within humans dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish them, that they never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize their lives if aroused and put into action.” - Orison Marden

“It is heartening to realize that although we may crave comfort and routine, we nourish the soul’s growth primarily through what is hard. As Darwin saw it, it’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change.” - Robert K. Cooper

“We are each given the chance to leave a unique imprint on the world. What will be yours? - Robert K. Cooper

“To be sure, great performers are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot more like a squirrel’s than like Einstein’s. Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.” - John Eliot

“Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.” - John Eliot

“Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves… They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, ‘The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that’s the day I quit.” - John Eliot

“Confidence is not a guarantee of success, but a pattern of thinking that will improve your likelihood of success, a tenacious search for ways to make things work.” - John Eliot

“Exceptional thinkers ignore their critics and go about their business making history.” - John Eliot

“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.” - John Eliot

“History, though, shows us that the people who end up changing the world—the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries—are always nuts, until they’re right, and then they’re geniuses.” - John Eliot

“The greatest leaders and statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders. They have been creators.” - Robert Fritz

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable… you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all you have left is a compromise… the human spirit will not invest itself in a compromise.” - Robert Fritz

“This one fundamental choice—to be the predominant creative force in your life—is a foundation for the entire orientation of the creative… From this choice the meaning of the word desire changes for you, from ‘idle wishes and hopes’ to ‘true vision of that which is the highest in human aspiration and vision.” - Robert Fritz

“Athletes and musicians may not enjoy practicing long hours, but they do so just the same: not out of duty, obligation, or any other form of self-manipulation, but because they are making secondary choices consistent with their primary choice to be able to perform music or excel in sports.” - Robert Fritz

“A primary choice is about some result you want in itself and for itself… It functions as the ultimate goal… A choice that helps you take a step toward your primary result is called a secondary choice.” - Robert Fritz

“There are something like 18 billion cells in the brain alone. There are no two brains alike; there are no two hands alike; there are no two human beings alike. You can take your instructions and your guidance from others, but you must find your own path.” - Joseph Campbell

“In a wonderful essay called ‘On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual,’ Schopenhauer points out that, once you have reached an advanced age, as I have, as you look back over your life, it can seem to have had a plot, as though composed by a novelist. Events that seemed entirely accidental or incidental turn out to have been central to the composition.” - Joseph Campbell

“Another astonishing way to look back is to pick up some diary entries or notes that you kept a long time ago. You’ll be astonished. Things you were convinced you had realized more recently will all be pinned down there. These are the driving themes of your life.” - Joseph Campbell

“The scientist knows that at any moment facts may be found that make the present theory obsolete; this is happening now constantly. It’s amusing. In a religious tradition, the older the doctrine, the truer it is held to be.” - Joseph Campbell

“This gets back to Krishna’s dictum: The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself.” - Joseph Campbell

“What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There’s nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth.” - Joseph Campbell

“Imagine our life as a novel, would I really want to keep reading this book or is it way to boring to even want to get to the next chapter?” - Tripp Lanier

“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth… And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho

“We all have the ability, we just don’t all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.” – Paulo Coelho

“The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” – Paulo Coelho

“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.” - Paulo Coelho

“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.” - Joseph Campbell

“Five years from now you’re gonna laugh at whatever’s stressing you out now, so why wait? - Tony Robbins

“As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, change your opinions now and then and be unashamedly contradictory.” - Paulo Coelho

“For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels.” - George Leonard

“Join with those who sing songs, tell stories, enjoy life, because happiness is contagious. Join those who walk with their heads high even when they have tears in their eyes. Avoid those who have never shed a tear.” - Paulo Coelho

:-)

50 Days...

Well, I'm over the halfway point and feeling really good. Commitments that initially seemed difficult at the onset of this undertaking, are now becoming normal, ritual, and habit. As Goethe said, "Everything is hard, before it is easy."

I officially started my Photography business, A Frame Forward, this past week and have been busier than ever. I feel more productive right now in my life than I ever have before, and I know that I have this program to thank for the extra boost in all around energy, clarity and commitment.

Here's the recap of my past 10 days...

1. PhilosophersNotes - I can't thank Brian Johnson enough for making these and sharing his passion, his diligent work, and knowledge with us. I wish everyone would take the time to sit down for 20 minutes and listen to his insightful, wisdom-packed summaries each and everyday. I am very grateful that I get to, as the wisdom is proving to be very enriching and life-changing.

Here are the books I covered this week:

Overview of Ken Wilber
Learned Optimism - Martin Seligman
Letters from a Stoic - Seneca
Love - Leo Buscaglia
Loving What Is - Byron Katie
The Magic of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz
The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe - Glenn Clark
Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl
Mastery - George Leonard
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Here are my favorite quotes to share from the past 10 days: (lots)

“A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.” - Seneca

"If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich.” - Seneca

“Away with the world’s opinion of you, it’s always unsettled and divided.” - Seneca

“You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.” - Seneca

“How much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honorable finally become, for you, the same.” - Seneca

“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.” - Seneca

“God is near you, is with you, is inside you.” - Seneca

“Man’s ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy, that he live in accordance with his own nature.” - Marcus Aurelius

“The worse a person is the less he feels it.” - Seneca

“A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation. You have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.” - Seneca

“Everything, a horse, a vine, is created for some duty. For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.” - Marcus Aurelius

“Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example, where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.” – Marcus Aurelius

“To live each day as though one’s last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing, here is the perfection of character.” - Marcus Aurelius

“Take it that you have died today, and your life’s story is ended, and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as an uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains, a dream you have cherished too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you choose you can retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Above all, he possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind , the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement and so continually renew yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion. It is easy in solitude to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“O world, I am in tune with every note of thy great harmony. For me nothing is early, nothing late, if it be timely for thee. O Nature, all that thy seasons yield is fruit for me.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Time is a river, the resistless flow of all created things. One thing no sooner comes in sight than it is hurried past and another is borne along, only to be swept away in its turn.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Cultivate these, then, for they are wholly within your power…sincerity and dignity, industriousness, and sobriety. Avoid grumbling, be frugal, considerate, and frank. Be temperate in manner and speech. Carry yourself with authority.” - Marcus Aurelius

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.” - Marcus Aurelius


“You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.” - Seneca

“This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.” - Rumi

“I realized that it’s insane to oppose it. When I argue with reality, I lose...but only 100% of the time.” – Byron Katie

“If I think that someone else is causing my problem, I’m insane.” – Byron Katie

“The greatest stock market you can invest in is yourself. Finding this truth is better than finding a gold mine.” – Byron Katie

“We never receive more than we can handle, and there is always just one thing to do.” – Byron Katie

“Everything happens for me, not to me.” – Byron Katie

“Here is the first step toward success. It’s a basic step. It can’t be avoided. Step One: Believe in yourself, believe you can succeed.” – David J. Schwartz

“The more successful the individual, the less inclined he is to make excuses.” - David J. Schwartz

“Go deep into your study of people, and you’ll discover unsuccessful people suffer a mind-deadening thought disease. We call this disease excusitis. Every failure has this disease in its advanced form. And most ‘average’ persons have at least a mild case of it.” - David J. Schwartz

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge

“Just enough sense to stick with something—a chore, task, project, until it’s completed pays off much better than idle intelligence, even if idle intelligence be of genius caliber.” - David J. Schwartz

“Stickability is 95% of ability.” - David J. Schwartz

“Fear of all kinds and sizes is a form of psychological infection. We can cure a mental infection the same way we cure a body infection—with specific, proved treatments. Condition yourself with this fact: all confidence is acquired, developed. No one is born with confidence. Those people around you who radiate confidence, who have conquered worry, who are at ease everywhere and all the time, acquired their confidence, every bit of it.” – David J. Schwartz

“Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear. Jot that down in your success rulebook right now. Action cures fear.” - David J. Schwartz

“To think confidently, act confidently. Act the way you want to feel.” - David J. Schwartz

“Motions are the precursors of emotions.” - David J. Schwartz

“You see things and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and I say ‘Why not?’ - George Bernard Shaw

“Be an experimental person. Break up fixed routines. Expose yourself to new restaurants, new books, new theatres, new friends. Take a different route to work someday, take a different vacation this year, do something new and different this weekend.” – David J. Schwartz

“The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.” - Linus Pauling

“Don’t let ideas escape. Write them down. Every day lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren’t nailed to paper. Carry a notebook or some small cards with you, when you get an idea, write it down. People with fertile, creative minds know a good idea may sprout any time, any place. Don’t let ideas escape, else you destroy the fruits of your thinking.” - David J. Schwartz

“We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action.” - David J. Schwartz

“Do you know your particular fears? And what do you usually do with them? You run away from them, don’t you, or invent ideas and images to cover them? But to run away from fear is only to increase it.” - Krishnamurti

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” - Frank Herbert

“I never let the thought of failure enter my mind. My knowledge of my unity with the Universal One and the fact that I must do this thing, and the inspired belief I should do it as a demonstration of my belief in man’s unlimited power, made me ignore the difficulties that lay in the way.” - Walter Russell

“The Life Triumphant is that which places what a man gives to the world in creative expression far ahead of that which he takes from it of the creation of others.” - Walter Russell

“I believe that every man has consummate genius within him. Some appear to have it more than others only because they are aware of it more than others are, and the awareness or unawareness of it is what makes each one of them into masters or holds them down to mediocrity. I believe that mediocrity is self-inflicted and that genius is self-bestowed.” – Walter Russell

“Mediocrity is self-inflicted. Genius is self-bestowed.” - Walter Russell

“Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” - Alexander Graham Bell

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” - Goethe

“Every successful man or great genius has three particular qualities in common. The most conspicuous of these is that they all produce a prodigious amount of work. The second is that they never know fatigue, and the third is that their minds grow more brilliant as they grow older, instead of less brilliant. Great men’s lives begin at forty, where the mediocre man’s life ends. The genius remains an ever-flowing fountain of creative achievement until the very last breath he draws.” – Walter Russell

“You can become a great creator or a little one as the intensity of your desire is little or great.” - Walter Russell

“If you are alone long enough to get thoroughly acquainted with yourself, you will hear whisperings from the universal source of all consciousness which will inspire you.” - Walter Russell

“Lock yourself up in your room or go out in the woods where you can be alone. When you are alone the universe talks to you in flashes of inspiration. You will find that you will suddenly know things which you never knew before. All knowledge exists in the "God-Mind" and is extended into this electrical universe of creative expression through desire. Knowledge is yours for the asking. You have but to plug into it.” - Walter Russell

“There should be no distasteful tasks in one’s life. If you just hate to do a thing, that hatred for it develops body-destructive toxins, and you become fatigued very soon. You must love anything you must do. Do it not only cheerfully, but also lovingly and the very best way you know how. That love of the work which you must do anyhow will vitalize your body and keep you from fatigue.” - Walter Russell

“A menial task which must be mine, that shall I glorify and make an art of it.” - Walter Russell

“I have had my share of what one calls defeat, in plenty. I have made and lost fortunes and seen great plans of mine topple through my own errors of judgment or through other causes. But I do not recognize these as defeats. They are but interesting experiences of life. They are valuable stepping-stones to success. Defeat is a condition which one must accept in order to give it reality. I refuse to give it reality by accepting it. In my philosophy I have written these words: Defeat I shall not know. It shall not touch me. I will meet it with true thinking. Resisting it will be my strengthening. But if, perchance, the day will give to me the bitter cup, it will sweeten in the drinking.” - Walter Russell

“Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is a result of experience, experience is often the result of bad judgment.” - Tony Robbins

“We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.” - George Leonard

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” -William James

“Could all of us reclaim lost hours of our lives by making everything, the commonplace along with the extraordinary, a part of our practice?” - George Leonard

“A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. There are limits, of course, and we do need healthful rest and relaxation, but for the most part we gain energy by using energy. It might well be that all of us possess enormous stores of potential energy, more than we could ever hope to use.” – George Leonard

“Much of the world’s depression and discontent can ultimately be traced to our unused energy, our untapped potential.” - George Leonard

“If you’re planning to embark on a master’s journey, you might find yourself bucking current trends in American life. Our hyped-up consumerist society is engaged, in fact, in an all out war on mastery.” - George Leonard

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Do what you say you are going to do, to yourself and others, again, and again, and again.” - George Leonard

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort but where he stands at times of challenge and discovery.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Carlos Castaneda

Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities. Always see them, for they’re always there.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“I don’t want to be saved, I want to be spent.” - Frtiz Perls

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” – Viktor Frankl

“Be not afraid of going slowly but only afraid of standing still.” - Chinese Proverb

“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue.” – Viktor Frankl

“Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America. Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success. You have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run, in the long-run, I say, success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.” – Viktor Frankl

“Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it.” - Buddha

“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the ‘why’ for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ‘how.’” - Viktor Frankl

“What is to give light must endure burning.” – Viktor Frankl

“Brother stand the pain Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal.” – Rumi

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw

“If he desired to know about automobiles, he would, without question, study diligently about automobiles. If his wife desired to be a gourmet cook, she’d certainly study the art of cooking, perhaps even attending a cooking class. Yet, it never seems as obvious to him that if he wants to live in love, he must spend at least as much time as the auto mechanic or the gourmet in studying love.” - Leo Buscaglia

“I would not want to form a partnership with an architect who has only a little knowledge of building or a broker who has a limited knowledge of the stock market. Still, we form what we hope to be permanent relationships in love with people who have hardly any knowledge of what love is.” - Leo Buscaglia

“What we think is less than what we know. What we know is less than what we love: What we love is so much less than what there is, and to this precise extent, we are much less than what we are.” - R.D. Laing

“To love others you must love yourself. You can only give to others what you have yourself.” - Leo Buscaglia

“It’s never too late to learn anything for which you have a potential. If you want to learn to love, then you must start the process of finding out what it is, what qualities make up a loving person and see how these are developed. Each person has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work. This does not mean pain. Love, especially, is learned best in wonder, in joy, in peace, in living.” - Leo Buscaglia

“To the extent to which you know yourself, and we are all more alike than different, you can know others. When you love yourself, you will love others. And to the depth and extent to which you can love yourself, only to that depth and extent will you be able to love others.” - Leo Buscaglia

“You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.” - Rumi

“One does not fall in or out of love. One grows in love.” - Leo Buscaglia

“We need not be afraid to touch, to feel, to show emotion. The easiest thing in the world is to be what you are, what you feel. The hardest thing to be is what other people want you to be.” - Leo Buscaglia

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” - Leo Buscaglia

“Birds never sing in caves.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.” - Herbert Otto

“For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one’s strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues. This much then, is clear...in all our conduct it is the MEAN that is to be commended.” - Aristotle

“A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe". A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison.” - Albert Einstein

“In the heart of Emptiness there is a mysterious impulse, mysterious because there is actually nothing in the heart of Emptiness, for there is nothing in Emptiness, period. Yet, there it is, this mysterious impulse, the impulse to create. To sing, to shine, to radiate, to send forth, reach out, and celebrate. To sing and shout and walk about, to effervesce and bubble over, this mysterious exuberance in the heart of Emptiness.” - Ken Wilber

"Think of the great yogis, saints, and sages—from Moses to Christ to Padmasambhava. They were not feeble-mannered milquetoasts, but fierce movers and shakers, from bullwhips in the Temple to subduing entire countries. They rattled the world on its own terms, not in some pie-in-the-sky piety. Many of them instigated massive social revolutions that have continued for thousands of years. And they did so, not because they avoided the physical, emotional, and mental dimensions of humanness, and the ego that is their vehicle, but because they engaged them with a drive and intensity that shook the world to its very foundations." - Ken Wilber

"The great yogis, saints, and sages accomplished so much precisely because they were not timid little toadies but great big egos, plugged into the dynamic Ground and Goal of the Kosmos itself, plugged into their own higher Self, alive to the pure Atman, the pure I-I, that is one with Brahman. They opened their mouths and the world trembled, fell to its knees, and confronted its radiant God. There is certainly a type of truth to the notion of transcending ego. It doesn’t mean destroy the ego, it means plug it into something bigger. Put bluntly, the ego is not an obstruction to Spirit, but a radiant manifestation of Spirit." - Ken Wilber


2. Jump Attack - I enjoyed my completion of the first of 3 phases of the program, which gave me one week of rest. My legs needed it and I enjoyed getting to play basketball with fresh, and stronger, legs. I started back into Phase 2 of the program which intensifies, as the weights increase. I've felt strong in my workouts and know I am getting closer to being able to dunk the basketball with every workout. I am looking forward to reaching that goal but more importantly in being an all-around better basketball player. I've always shot a high percentage from the field, and being more athletic will allow me to get in position to get off more, and better shots...and hopefully the occasional dunk too. I'm excited to keep at it, patiently, diligently, and persistently until I can report back with the good news. Soon...


3. Nutrition - I've been staying strong with my plant based diet and feeling really good. I have been enjoying my latest discovery of Seitan. It is really good and can be incorporated in a variety of dishes. I've experimented with a few new recipes this week, including a Tofu Taco and a Teriyaki Stir Fry meal. I love eating really well and feeling good because of it. I look at food in a different way. I see it more along the lines of nourishment and nutrition as opposed to fun and filling.


4. Yoga - I've still not been consistent with the Yoga. I've taken on a huge commitment with this program and I this is the one area that has suffered the most. I still do it, but not even close to the way I had hoped I could, which is daily and routinely upon wakening. Life's demands, work, kids, etc have kept me from being consistent. I'll keep getting it in whenever I can however.


5. Sweets and Refined Foods - Doing good and staying strong. This is the longest I have ever gone in my entire life without caving into my sweet tooth. It makes me feel good knowing that I have, with integrity, stayed with my commitment. It is empowering.


Thanks for listening, caring and being who you are. Best wishes with all your goals & dreams, and joy along the way to reaching them!

See you in 10 more days...

40 Days...

I am 40 days in and approaching the halfway point. I reached two milestones over the past 10 days. The first was completing phase 1 of my Jump Attack training program and the other was turning 31 years of age. It's funny, as I am getting older I am actually heading towards being in the best shape of my life. Things are starting to become habit more, and as John Dryden says, "We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." I'm trying to turn back the clock and build something I can be proud of and feel great while I'm doing it. And of course I'd love to be an inspiration to anyone else wanting to do the same.

Here is the rundown of the past 10 days by section.

1. PhilosophersNotes: I missed a couple days of notes and had to do multiple ones in a single day to catch up. I was really busy this past week and needed to get rest, so I had to postpone a few. I didn't like the feeling of straying away from my daily practice of listening, meditating, and journaling on an amazing, life-changing book summary every day. Nonetheless, I am caught up and back on track and have some awesome quotes to share.

Here are the books I covered this week:

The Gifted Adult - Mary Elaine Jacobsen
Happier - Tal Ben-Shahar
Happy for No Reason - Marci Shimoff
Harmonic Wealth - James Arthur Ray
The How of Happiness - Sonja Lyubomirsky
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci - Michael Gelb
Integrative Nutrition - Joshua Rosenthal
It's Not ABout the Money - Brent Kessel
A Joseph Campbell Companion - Joseph Campbell

Here is the list of quotes that stood out, to me, the most.

"Your current level of results, your appearances, are nothing more than the residual outcome of your past thoughts, feelings, and actions." - James Arthur Ray

"Integrity, from the same root as the word integrated, comes when a persons words and behaviors match up. True integrity, the true test of character, is to live what you say is important to you, even when you don't feel like it. To live your values above and beyond your moods." - James Arthur Ray

"It's easier to have courage and trust the process when you feel you are making headway. Mastery is not persistence when you see a light at the end of the tunnel. True mastery is persistence when you don't yet see the light." - James Arthur Ray

"Energy goes where attention flows." - James Arthur Ray

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he's imagined, he will be met with a success unexpected in common hours." - Henry David Thoreau

"Our self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other." - Maxwell Maltz

"There's surely no point in being a person of vision unless we have the will to act. Daydreams and inklings about taking our personal mission statement seriously must be translated into action or be lost in the dust of, could have, but didn't." - Mary Elaine Jacobsen

"The difference between a creative person and a creative producer is hard work." - Mary Elaine Jacobsen

"50% of our happiness set point (level) comes from genetics, 10% from circumstances, and 40% from our habitual thoughts, feelings, words, and actions." - Sonja Lyubomirsky

"Becoming lastingly happier demands making some permanent changes that require effort and commitment every day of your life. Pursuing happiness takes work, but consider that this happiness work may be the most rewarding work you'll ever do." - Sonja Lyubomirsky

"We found that the happiest people take pleasure in other peoples success and show concern in the face of others failures. A completely different portrait, however, has emerged of a typically unhappy person. Namely as someone who is deflated rather than delighted about his peers accomplishments and triumphs, and who is relieved rather than sympathetic in the face of his peers failures and undoings." - Sonja Lyubomirsky

"People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person and you will find a project." - Sonja Lyubomirsky

"When you come to a roadblock, take a detour." - Mary Elaine Jacobsen

"In the end, the only people who fail are those who don't try." - David Viscott

"Life shrinks and expands in proportion to ones courage." - Anais Nin

"Incremental change is better than ambitious failure. Success feeds on itself." - Tony Schwartz

"Helping ones self and helping others are inextricably intertwined. The more we help others, the happier we become, and the happier we become, the more inclined we are to help others." - Tal Ben-Shahar

"Our brains are Velcro for negativity and Teflon for positivity." - Rich Hanson

"You can either bend with the inevitable sleet storms of life or you can resist them and break." - Dale Carnegie

"Balance is not a noun, it is a verb. Balancing." - Osho

"Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind. Yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately." - Plato

"You do not get stomach ulcers from what you eat, you get stomach ulcers from what's eating you." - Joseph Montague

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." - Thomas Carlyle

"Knowledge isn't power until it is applied." - Dale Carnegie

"The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not." - George Bernard Shaw

"Get busy, keep busy. It's the cheapest kind of medicine on this earth, and one of the best." - Dale Carnegie

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

"Every man is damn fool for at least 5 minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding that limit." - Albert Hubbard

"Great minds ask great questions." - Michael Gelb

"This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room or a certain hour or so a day where you don't know what was in the newspapers this morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you might find that nothing happens there, but if you have a sacerd place and use it, something eventually will happen." - Joseph Campbell

"Neuroscientists estimate that your unconscious database outweighs the conscious on an order of 10,000,000 to 1. This database is the source of your creative potential. In other words, a part of you is much smarter that you are. The wisest people regularly consult that smartest part. You can too, by making space for incubation." - Michael Gelb

"I never tire of being useful." - Leonardo da Vinci

"Just as iron rusts from disuse, and stagnant water putrefies, or when cold turns to ice, so our intellect wastes unless it is kept in use.” - Leonardo da Vinci

"Genius is made, not born." - Michael Gelb

"The very best are those who balance analysis and intuition, seriousness and play, planning and improvisation, arte (art) and scienzia (science)." - Michael Gelb

"We are free when we move from a focus on getting love, abundance, peace and freedom to being love, abundance, peace and freedom." - Brent Kessel

"Though outer wealth rarely leads to inner wealth, inner wealth often leads to outer wealth." - Brent Kessel

"Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we first seek the kingdom of God, the rest will be given." - Mother Theresa

"We get what we think we deserve." - Brent Kessel

"Now that all your worry has proven such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job?" - Hafez

"60% of Americans are overweight. Overweight people now outnumber undernourished people. Americans consume, on average, 100 pounds of sugar each year and only 8 pounds of Broccoli." - Joshua Rosenthal

"Health is a vehicle, not a destination." - Joshua Rosenthal

Here are the 12 keys to Joshua Rosenthal's "Integrative Nutrition"

1. Drink more water
2. Practice Cooking
3. Increase Whole Grains
4. Increase Sweet Vegetables
5. Increase dark leafy Greens
6. Experiment with Protein
7. Eat less meat, dairy, sugar, artificials, toxins, tobacco and alcohol.
8. Develop easy and reliable habits to nurture the body
9. Have healthy relathionships that support you.
10. Find physical activity you enjoy and do it regualry.
11. Find work you love or a way to love the work you have.
12. Develop a Spiritual practice.

"Primary food is more than what is on your plate. Healthy relathionships, regular physical activity, a fulfilling career, and a spiritual practice can fill your soul and satisfy your hunger for life. When primary foo is balanced and satiating your life feeds you, making what you eat secondary." - Joshua Rosenthal

Joshua Rosenthal's 90-10 Diet: "90% of the time you eat what is healthy for you, and 10% of the time you eat whatever you feel like eating."

"Add years to your life and life to your years." - Dan Millman on exercise

"So that's what destiny is, simply the fulfillment of the potentialities of the energies in our own system." - Joseph Campbell

"Follow your Bliss." - Joseph Campbell

"Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be." - Joseph Campbell

"The old skin has to be shed before the new one will come." - Joseph Campbell

"What you don't experience positively, you will experience negatively." - Joseph Campbell

"If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is inside you, what you don't' bring forth will destroy you." - Jesus

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell


2. Jump Attack: Completing the first phase of Jump Attack brings me to a well needed week off from training, as prescribed by the program. I've been working really hard and feel accomplished to have established a good base and rhythm to my workouts through the first phase. I'm getting stronger for sure. I'm looking forward to playing basketball with 'fresh' legs for the first time in a while, and also a chance to gauge any gains in strength, quickness and jumping ability. Next week the program intensifies further so I will enjoy giving my body (legs) the rest and recuperation they will need for the next phase.


3. Nutrition: I've been staying strong on the plant based diet and feeling great. I came up with a couple new recipes to add to my collection by the end of the 100 days. The latest was a Hickory Smoked Tofu Stir Fry that is awesome. As for any results of my diet, my weight has stayed the same, surprisingly, having eliminated sugars, lots of fats and many calories daily. I'm pretty sure I am turning that old fat into new muscle from the workouts. But I've also been getting less aerobic cardio as I am not able to play basketball as much due to my legs needing more rest. This could be why I am not dropping weight like I thought might happen. Losing weight was never really my goal but I did think it could happen pretty fast on a strictly plant based diet. We'll find out what the results are at the end of the 100 days when I re-test my body fat.


4. Yoga: Yoga, Yoga, Yoga I am still having a hard time making a regular practice of you. I get it in, in small increments, usually post workout to get a good stretch. I have still not made it a daily routine practice but will keep it front and center until I can make it happen. I think I need to go non-negotiable with it, so there is not a choice. Just do it, right? No ifs, ands, or buts...


5. Sweets and Refined Foods: I have stayed strong keeping it pure and nutritional. I did, however, have a piece of Muddy Paw's Vegan Cheesecake that was unbelievable. My family got it for my 31st Birthday as I had mentioned I loved it, having it once at Galactic Pizza in Uptown. It is made out of Tofu so I guess it's not quite an empty dessert but dang it is good nonetheless. My family who usually would gag at the sound of the word 'Tofu' even loved it. My sweetheart Natalie, who is one of those not so suited for Tofu, said it is the best Cheesecake she has ever eaten. I'd have to agree.


Thanks for taking the time to read this, it says a lot about who you are, and is a confirmation that you, indeed, are on the path of positive progress as well. Either that or you are thinking what the hell is this guy up to, what an idiot. ;-) Either way, best regards.

See you again in 10 more days...

30 days...

Well, I've made it 30 days now and I'm starting to see and feel more noticeable changes. I'm feeling stronger, sharper and more and more empowered each day. 70 more days (or a lifetime) of continued growth ahead, but here's what I have to share from the past 10 days.

1. PhilosophersNotes: I continue to really enjoy my daily practice of listening, meditating and journaling on a great summary of a super-awesome book each day, that is packed full of wisdom. The past 10 days have brought me a bunch of sweet new ideas and quotes to share.

Here's a list of the Books I've covered this week:

The Dhammapada - Buddha
The Diamond Cutter - Geshe Michael Roache
Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman
The Enchiridion - Epictetus
Everyday Enlightenment - Dan Millman
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Focal Point - Brian Tracy
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
Living & Loving Workshops - Gay and Katie Hendricks

Here are some awesome quotes I gathered the past 10 days.

"Good habits are hard to develop and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to develop and hard to live with. The habits you have, and the habits that have you, will determine almost everything you achieve, or fail to achieve." - Brian Tracy

"Among the most important personal choices you can make is to accept complete responsibility for everything you are, and everything you will be. This is the great turning point in life. The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the superior person from the average person." - Brian Tracy

"You can dramatically improve the overall quality of your life far faster than you might think possible. All you need is the desire to change, the decision to take action, the discipline to practice the new behaviors you have chosen, and the determination to persist until you get the results you want." - Brian Tracy

"The great truths of life are simple. It is amazing how many problems both personal and social could be resolved if everyone decided to treat other people the way they would like to be treated. Listen to people the way you would like to be listened to. Sell your products and services the way you would like others to sell their products and services to you. Be courteous and respectful to other people just as you would like other people to be courteous and respectful to you. Be patient and understanding with people when they make mistakes just as you would like them to be patient ad understanding with you when you make mistakes." - Brian Tracy

"The goal of business and ancient Tibetan wisdom, and if fact all human endeavor, is to enrich ourselves. To achieve prosperity both outer and inner. We can enjoy this prosperity only if we maintain a high degree of physical and mental health. And over the lengths of our lives we must seek ways to make this prosperity meaningful in a larger sense. We should see that we have conducted ourselves and our business in a way that has had some lasting meaning, that left some good mark in our world." - Geshe Michael Roache

"For better or worse, intelligence can come to nothing when emotions hold sway." - Daniel Goleman

"Worries become self-fulfilling prophecies." - Daniel Goleman

"Do what you need to do despite of your feelings." - Dan Millman

"Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish, but wish the things that happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life." - Epictetus

"Accept, then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life." - Eckhart Tolle

"The universe has a pulse and rhythm of its own, and wants to carry you with it. So if you dance with spirit, just remember to let it lead." - Sonia Choquette

"Man's ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy, that he live in accordance with his own nature." - Seneca

"The ignorant are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt." - George Bernard Shaw

"Whatever form fear takes, your willingness to face it squarely will determine your fate in the high country of human potential." - Dan Millman

"The mind itself can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven." - John Milton

"Nothing has meaning outside that which we give it. Nothing has any absolute meaning because if it did, everyone would experience it exactly the same, all the time." - Geshe Michael Roache

"What's the best way to teach young children how to lead an ethical life? At that age, said his holiness, it doesnt matter what you tell them to do, they will watch and imitate you. They will do what you do, and so you are faced with the hardest task of all, to be ethical yourself." - Geshe Michael Roche

"Of all the people I know who are serving society, those who are making the greatest contributions and alleviating human ails and wants are those who have themselves in hand." - Melvin Seal(?)

"Everything is hard before it is easy." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"To have more, you must first be more. To achieve more in your outer world you must first go to work on your inner world, on developing yourself. There are no lasting shortcuts. There is no other way." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 4 of them sharpening my axe." - Abraham Lincoln

"Don't help me or serve me but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness my brothers, show me yours. Show me that it is possible. Show me your achievement and the knowledge will give me the courage for mine." - Ayn Rand

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors, try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

"You enter the forest at the darkest point where there is no path. Where there is a way or a path, it is someone else's path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else's way you are not going to realize your potential." - Joseph Campbell

"Don't pay attention to the critics, don't even ignore them." - Samuel Goldwyn

"The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them." - Ayn Rand

"Nothing other people do is because of you, it is because of themselves." - Don Miguel Ruiz

"The first step towards personal freedom is awareness. We need to be aware that we are not free, in order to be free. We need to be aware of what the problem is, in order to solve it." - Don Muguel Ruiz

"The worse a person is, the less he feels it." - Seneca

"The only one to blame is ones self." - Joseph Campbell

"Repetition makes the master." - Don Miguel Ruiz

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn

"Our life is shaped by our mind, we become what we think." - Buddha

"If you find no one to support you on your journey, walk alone." - Buddha

"If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart." - Buddha

"As a solid rock cannot be moved by the wind, the wise are not shaken by praise or blame" - Buddha

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole new stream of events issues from the decision raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen events, meeting and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's Couplets, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness had genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!" - W.H. Murray

"Work diligently, work patiently and persistently and you're bound to be successful." - SN Goenka


2. Jump Attack: I'm entering the fourth full week of the program and have been feeling stronger with each workout. I'm starting to feel a little 'pop' in my jumps. My feet feel strong and in control. It's amazing how when we put work on our bodies (and mind for that matter) they adapt and become stronger in relation to what we are trying to do with them. What an awesome tool. That being said, I foresee some serious gains of strength, flexibility and jumping elevation on the not-so-distant horizon. :-)


3. Nutrition: Still been eating really good, and feeling great. I've noticed that I need to eat a little more frequently, with my new diet and workout routines, but as long as I keep well fed I feel phenomenal, especially during my workouts. I'm starting to put together some recipes, ideas and a product list to share in the future. I'll post those up by the end of the 100 days.


4. Yoga: Still struggling with my consistent daily Yoga practice commitment, but I will not give up. I will just have to keep re-committing and figure out how to get it in each day. This is a lifelong goal anyways, not just a 100 day deal, so I will incorporate it eventually and make it habit. As soon as this post is done, I'm going to do some Yoga. What better time to start than now, right?


5. Sweets and Refined Foods: Seems this week has brought the odors and sights of tasty treats and cheesy foods into my awareness more frequently. They sure do look good but I haven't even come close to cheating. I am committed and it is not an option. The same mentality of 'non-negotiability' helped me quit smoking cigarettes over 10 years ago, and will continue to see me through for more of what I really want in the long run, not just right now.

Honored and blessed to share...see you in 10 more...