6 Easy Tips To Simplify Your Life

Is your day-to-day life full of stress and chaos?

Are you scrambling for a brief peaceful moment in the day just to relax? There is just too much each day to worry about, keep track off and deal with.

Everyday, we’re plagued with the trials and tribulations of life. We’re put to the test and forced to deliver. If we don’t, we disappoint someone, or worse, ourselves.

Amidst the chaos, it can be hard to find a peaceful moment. So then, what is the solution? It is quite simple – simplify your life.

We’ve compiled some of our best tips to help you simplify your life. We use these on a day-to-day basis and it grants us perspective and allows us some quiet in the chaos.

1) Believe in Yourself

You are your own worst critic. You are your own judge and jury. What you think about yourself directly affects how you feel and act.

Strive for a positive mindset. Look for the good in every person and every situation. Sometimes it’s hard to find. But the harder it is to find, the greater the reward.

However, at the same time, realize that you are just human. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself when you don’t accomplish a goal. There is no perfect person.

Instead, call it day and reset tomorrow. Every day is a new day to start believing in yourself again.

2) Be Grateful

Something we do on our worst days is a ‘Be Grateful’ list. We list all the things that we’re glad to have in lives. We usually aim for 10.

Sometimes it is hard to find things to be grateful for.

But, even through our worse times, there is always something. Dig deep and search. When we have a questionable day, we write down anything that comes to mind.

Here are a few for today. I’m Grateful for:

• The ability to breathe
• The ability to think and feel
• The sunshine that gives me energy and life
• Clean water

We often take for granted the simple things in life. These simple ‘gratefuls’ are often overlooked but they matter the most.

We don’t miss something until it is completely gone. We never know when we’ll lose the ability to breathe or think and feel the sunshine. So, let us cherish it while it’s still in our lives.

3) De-clutter Your Life

Naturally we are simple beings. We grew up knowing only the simple pleasures. It’s not until recently that the latest cellphones and biggest televisions consumed us.

Now, we’re consumed by physical trash. We’re surrounded by more and more clutter that prevents us from every feeling truly happy.

We start to attach our happiness to frivolous items that fade. As the item fades, our happiness fades along with it. Then. we purchase more clutter to attach and sustain our happiness.

In order to achieve some clarity in our lives, we must first de-clutter our space and then de-clutter our minds. We must shed the attachment to shiny items.

We must reduce, cut back and simplify. Throw away anything you haven’t used in the last 6 months.

You’ll start to realize that the less you have, the less you’ll want.

4) Use Everything in Moderation

One time I ate too many oranges (because they are good for you) and I got a sore throat for 2 weeks. Even vitamin c is bad is large doses.

Too much of anything – good or bad – will wear us down. Whether it’s work, socializing, eating, shopping or television, eventually it will take its toll on us.

Practice self-restraint and you will achieve some piece of mind. When we go overboard with anything, the consequences are always negative.

5) Limit Complaints

When were you on the tail end of a chronic complainer? No matter what seems to happen, this person has something to complain about. How did you feel hearing all of his/her complaints?

Complaints are always a negative reaction to a situation. Complainers are chronic negative people that can’t see the positive.

Limit your complaints, or better yet, avoid it all together. Try to avoid complaining for an entire day. When you catch yourself, stop and change the topic.

You can be one of two people: a problem person or a solution person. Are you going to whine about your issues or are you going to deal with or fix your problem?

6) Self-Reflection

Almost everyone has a few moments when they’re laying in bed at the end of the night. But how often do we get lost in our own thoughts.

Use these last moment of the night to reflect. Ask yourself questions about your day:

• Was I the best I could be today?
• Could I have helped someone more?
• Did I do something of importance or significance?

Spend some time today constructing your own meaningful questions. If you fail a question, strive for it the next day. Always aim to improve.

Aim to feel happier, be more fulfilled and grow endlessly.

Until next time, my beautiful readers,

Be bold, be free and love on.

HOW TO MASTER JEDI MIND CONTROL

Over the last couple of years I have become fascinated with the idea that everything in your life is a result of what goes on in your mind.

If there are two twins that are the exact same in every way, except that one is relentlessly positive and the other is endlessly negative, their lives would be completely different.

They could encounter the exact same scenarios and obstacles but they would perceive them in different ways. The positive person would see them as a chance to grow, and the negative person would see them as evidence that you can never succeed.

With this in mind I am convinced that learning to skew your mind towards the positive and the useful is the best way to completely transform your life.

Here are the three steps to learning to control your mind like a Jedi.

1) Observe your thoughts.

In order to start controlling the endless chatter in your mind you first have to get rid of the idea that you are your thoughts.

We tend to think that the chatter in our mind is who we are and that is it, but that is just a part of who you are. You are your whole body from top to bottom and your entire subconscious, not just your conscious thoughts.

Now what you need to do is to step back from your thoughts and observe them. Start keeping track of when you are thinking negatively. The next time you find yourself upset, step back for a second and think “Wow, I have a lot of negative thoughts right now.”

Doing this will help you catch yourself in these useless reflexive thought cycles. Nothing good comes from beating yourself up or feeling sorry for yourself so the more you start to catch yourself, the quicker you can implement my next step.

2) Cancel your negative thoughts.

Now that you are starting to keep an eye on what you are thinking instead of just letting the chatter go on, you can start to pull yourself out of these habitual thought patterns.

Your brain doesn’t like using a lot of energy, so if you are a person who naturally reacts negatively, your mind will jump to that first because it is easy. Doing something outside of the norm requires conscious effort, something your brain would rather avoid.
Yeah, thanks evolution, we really appreciate that…

My favourite way to pull myself out of my bad habitual thought cycles is to use an “interrupt mantra.”

An interrupt mantra is something that you start repeating over and over once you realize that you are in one of these cycles. It will replace your useless thoughts with the exact opposite and more useful thoughts.

If you are someone who has problems with procrastination, once you realize that you are thinking “Man, I hate doing this work, I just want to relax and watch some Netflix” you have to switch to your interrupt mantra. It could be something like “I am energized and ready to take on anything. I’ll conquer this project with ease and energy to spare.”

Repeat that as many times in a row as you have to and after a while of canceling your negative thoughts, your mind will start to reflexively jump to the positive and more useful thoughts.

It only makes sense that your procrastination will naturally shrink when your reflexive thoughts are that of being energized and ready to conquer the obstacles ahead of you.

Interrupt mantras can work for any negative thoughts. If you have negative thoughts about your confidence interrupt them with “I am an amazing and confident person. I am going to start giving myself the credit I deserve.”

If you have problems with willpower interrupt those thoughts by saying “I have tons of willpower to spare. I am a strong person who can beat any temptation with ease.”

Rinse and repeat as many times as needed whether it be ten, twenty, or thirty times in a row.

3) Meditation.

This step isn’t required, but it will make the whole process ten times easier. When I started meditating I didn’t realize just how impactful it would be. I also didn’t realize how many of my favourite celebrities and great thinkers meditated.

Everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger, to Katy Perry, to Oprah Winfrey and more credit meditation as a key part of their success and ability to stay balanced.

We could discuss meditation for hours, the spiritual aspects, the physical effects it has on the brain over time or even just the calming effect it can create instantly. But for now there is one plus side to meditation that I want to share with you.

It allows you to step back from your thoughts.

With the type of meditation I do the point is to focus on your breath so intensely that your thoughts cease. Now, during meditation you are sure to have thoughts pop into your head. In this case you just allow them to surface without analyzing them, and then get back to focusing on your breathing. If you get an itch on your leg, you feel it, but then immediately bring your attention back to your breath.

This will train you to be able to have a thought or emotion surface without allowing it to pull you into its rabbit hole. This way when something happens in your daily life that aggravates you, instead of stewing over it for hours and ruining your whole day you can step back and say “is this really a useful thing to focus on? Do these thought patterns improve my life in any way shape or form, or do they just serve to steal energy and happiness from me?”

Armed with this ability to step back and question these reflexive thoughts, you can truly start to control your mind and use it for your own self improvement.

A quote that has been repeated by many of the great minds of the world, and is very close to my heart is: “The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”

This quote perfectly explains the two different relationships you can have with your mind.

Either you control it, or it controls you. The decision is yours.

With love
Steven Farquharson, 2HelpfulGuys

The 3 Rules For A Good Life

What is a good life? Without getting too philosophical, I think a good life is only based on a few rules.

There are too many rules in life. I’m told to stand up straight, act a certain way; don’t use the salad fork for the steak.

What do you mean?

A FORK IS A FORK!

Amidst all the criticisms how do you live a good life? To be honest, I don’t know. But, here’s where I start:

1) Laughter

Every single day, I insert a reason to laugh. As children we laugh about 300 times a day. As an adult, that number is reduced to a meager 7.

SEVEN.

How did we go from 300 to 7?

Did we cross some bridge of agony and now here we are: Mindless drones that wake up, go to work, participate in office gossip, watch Breaking Bad, and then sleep and die?

Laughter is really hard as an adult. It must be, right? Going from 300 to 7? There must have been some sort of life-changing traumatic event that occurred between childhood and adulthood.

We need to get back to our childhood roots. We need to laugh more. Start here:

Standup – Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K. Gabriel Iglesias

T.V. Shows – Blue Mountain State, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office

Movies– Anchorman, Happy Gilmore

YouTube – Our Own Gentlemen’s Corner (no list would be complete without it)

2) Be Grateful

Start your day with gratefulness. Before I get out of bed, every morning, I say ‘thank you.’ The simple-ness of living often gets taken for granted.

“But I’m drowning in debt. I have no friends. My family hates me.”

Even if it seems like you have nothing to be grateful for, there is always something. You can still breathe. You can still come up with ideas. You can still walk and eat and live.

In a previous post, I mentioned the importance of being grateful. You can check that out for more information.

3) Never go to bed angry

I seldom get angry, but when it happens I make sure to deal with it immediately. Address it with the other and with yourself.

Your ego will not let it escape your thoughts. Cast your ego away. Allow those angry thoughts to float away into the wind.

Ask yourself, ‘how much does this matter?’

More often than not, it doesn’t.

Ending the day with anger sets the tone for your next day. Those thoughts fester in your sleep and you wake up with them, fresh in your head. Those thoughts will weigh you down.

Apologize or let it go completely. It’s not worth wasting your life over any problem.

For me, I know everything will be fine if I follow these consistently. And maybe, I can laugh, be grateful for the advice and shrug it off the next time someone tells me that I’m using the wrong fork.

Be bold, be free, and love on.

How To Get ANY Job…Unconventionally.

Last Wednesday I accidentally got a job. I was going into this chocolate store and before I knew it, they were interviewing me. I wasn’t even slightly prepared.

I haven’t job ‘hunted’ in a while, but recently some of friends were complaining that no one was hiring.

Yet, they REALLY wanted me. They were trying to sell me the job! The whole thing was surreal. How did I do it? Not sure, but here’s what I came up with:

A) Confidence 

I feel like it all starts here. This is the determining factor for almost everything in life. You need to be confident when approaching your future employer. When I approached them, I remember saying, ‘I will be the best employee you’ve ever hired.’

People respond to confidence. So few people are confident, that when it’s demonstrated, it comes off as a shock.

A few tips to confidence: look at them in the eyes as you sell yourself. Acknowledge what they said and respond concisely. Use open body language (Google it).

Active conversation comes with confidence. When you are confident, you are attentive and sharp.

B) You are human and guess what… 

So are they. We are all the same mouth-breathing, pooping disgusting people with pretty little masks on.

Treat them as such. Do not place them above yourself. You may think that because you are asking for a job and they get to decide, that puts them above you.

Well, it doesn’t.

Before you approach them, remember that they’re just like you. Treat them as such. Treat them like you’re trying to befriend someone for the first time. Aim for that balance between playfulness and seriousness.

C) Be Yourself 

Even complete strangers can pick up on your façades. Your masks will only hurt you when you approach. Being your genuine self allows people to see your true personality.

And, if by some divine luck, you managed to snake past the interview wearing your mask; your co-workers will eventually see who you really are. Save yourself the embarrassment and be genuine.

D) Make Them Laugh 

In the dating world, the top quality that women look for in a man is ‘funny.’ Not rich, happy, or successful but funny. There has to be some validity to that.

The manager that you’re talking to also loves to laugh! So make him/her laugh. Swear if you must. What I said was, ‘excuse my language, but shitty customers are just that, shitty.’ They laughed.

Swear only if you absolutely have to, but use the ‘excuse my language’ precursor. It seemed to work for me.

Laughter is the way to anyone’s heart. It’s proven. Look at all those dating sites.

E) Show Value 

The best question that is asked in all interviews is, ‘what can you bring to the table?’ I love this question because I can say literally say anything to win them over.

In this particular case, I said, ‘my knowledge.’

“Everyone you will ever meet, knows something you don’t” – Bill Nye

That reminds me that I know a lot of things that the employer doesn’t know. I can use my own knowledge to sell that. I used my knowledge of psychology to teach them something.

You know a lot of things that your future employer doesn’t know either. Use it. Teach them something. They will listen and they will love you.

F) Rules of the Game 

I don’t think there are any rules to this game. Too many people subscribe to the rules and let opportunities pass them by. We’re told to say certain things and act a certain way.

‘Sticky’ questions like ‘what do you pay’ and ‘what can you, as the employer, offer me’ are off the table for most. For me, they aren’t. When you ask the employer, what they have to offer YOU, it’s like their trying to sell you the job.

The roles are reversed. You’re really interviewing them, but they don’t know that.

I think rules are meant to be broken. These tips are all unconventional and this article has gone on too long. As a later point, I will make a part II. For now, go forth and get any YOU desire…unconventionally.

Be bold, be free, and love on.

 

The Purpose

When I was kid, I wanted to be a wrestler. I wasn’t a hardcore wrestling fan but the few times I watched it, it interested me. I wanted to fly off the top rope and elbow drop someone. I wanted to choke slam somebody. I wanted to power-bomb someone (A little part still wants to).

I was a violent kid.

My purpose changed multiple times. I wanted to be a pilot, engineer, firefighter, and police officer. I didn’t give up, but instead, I merely lost interest. Or maybe I wasn’t good at it, I’m not too sure.

“Whenever you leave behind a failure, you’re doing good. If you think everything you’ve done is great, you’re probably dumb.” -Louis C.K.

If you’re like me, maybe you haven’t discovered what you good at. The law of nature states that you have one thing that you can do better than everyone else. I think that is BS.

I think that it just takes time, dedication, and love. Purpose can be developed for nearly anything you want to achieve.

You don’t need a Singular Purpose 

When we are younger, we are told to eat breakfast, wash behind our ears, go to school and learn, sleep, and do it all over again. I internalized that. I thought that was my sole purpose. I continue to do it, even now, as I am stuck in the formal institution of university.

I think I got too wrapped up in one thing. I focused on one purpose too much and continued to lose interest. Here’s the problem: We don’t just have one passion or love in life.

The universe wants us to have fun doing more than one thing in life. That’s how you learn. You don’t need only one purpose in life. You have maybe 500 or so.

Divide your mental on energy on a number of different things. You don’t just have to pick one. But then, you say, “How will I ever be the best?”

The 1000-Hour Rule

This is extremely different from the 10,000-hour rule, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. It basically states that in order to be an expert at something, you must dedicate 10,000 hours of practice to master a field.

But 10,000 hours takes anywhere from 5-30 years of your life. I don’t have that much time to dedicate solely to one thing. Instead, practice the 1000 hour rule.

If you practice anything for 1000 hours and make sure its dedicated practice then you will still be among the best in the world. With the first 1000 hours, you experience a steep learning curve. The hours that follow is spent fine-tuning and honing the subtleties.

But here’s the thing. No one can tell the difference and no one cares. The experts appreciate the 10,000-hour man, but the general population cannot tell the difference in the subtleties. You can appear to be the best in world just by putting in 1000 hours.

As I got older, my purpose changed. Drifted to multiple other avenues and I tried my hand in different things. I wasn’t very good at any of them. Now, I am trying writing and being creative with YouTube.

I think I am pretty good at it. I am slowly chipping away at the 1,000 hours, slowing honing my craft. Maybe I will stop writing and being creative. Maybe I will pick up something completely different like wine tasting or Bee-Keeping and become the best at that.

Regardless of the craft, I choose, I know that there are others out there waiting for me to discover. I implore you, discover something you enjoy and pursue it. If you lose interest, that is okay. Find the other 499.