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5 Boring Ways to Unleash Your Self-Expression
Do you feel like you are in a rut? Are your feelings, thoughts, and ideas being repressed or disregarded? The secret to releasing your inner creativity and potential may lie in self-expression. Throughout human history, it has been a vital endeavor to explore oneself....
Why Having a Strong Moral Compass Is Vital to Your Life
Many individuals claim to possess a clear understanding of right and wrong, and trust their intuition to make sound judgments. A strong moral compass is essential to life, but staying true to your values and beliefs can be challenging and leads to the following...
Unleash Your Creativity: Unlocking the Power of Self-Expression
For as long as I can recall, I have been troubled by the belief that I am devoid of creativity. While I am a writer, I am not the imaginative type who makes things up effortlessly. I am like a baker who is lost without the directions in a recipe, a percussionist who...
Rise and Shine: Unlocking the Benefits of the 5 AM Club
If you are a frequent listener to the Passion Struck podcast, you have likely heard me talk about my morning routine, which includes waking up at 5 a.m. daily. I do it to have a head start on the day and gain an extra edge in life. I find many benefits associated with...
Why You Need to Stop Chasing Perfection and Just Be Happy
“Good is the enemy of great” is a phrase made famous by Jim Collins that refers to settling for less after achieving some success instead of striving for more. Many misinterpret this to mean perfection is necessary, but this is not the case. This idea of being perfect...
5 Ways to Strengthen Your Psychological Immune System
Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation and felt like everything was going wrong? You’re not alone. Everyone experiences these moments, but what if we told you there is an inner superpower that can help turn things around? The psychological immune system...
4 Simple Ways You Can Stop Feeling Stuck
Are you feeling stuck? Do you feel like your life is passing by, and all of a sudden, it’s been years since you’ve made any meaningful progress in achieving your goals or dreams? You’re not alone. The truth is that many people get caught up in a cycle of negative...
The Value of Struggle for Your Growth
I receive many listener inquiries about pain, trauma, challenges, and struggles. Many of these questions revolve around the idea of being overwhelmed by pain or experiencing situations where pain and struggle are harmful rather than helpful. Others ask about the...
Why the World Needs Hope
Most people are familiar with the myth of Pandora’s box as the tale the ancient Greeks devised to justify the existence of evil in the world. Disease and plagues were “gifts” that Pandora cast down. Zeus fashioned her to torment people and extract revenge on...
Finish the Year Strong — 7 Tips on How to End the Year
The year 2022 has indeed been a year with its ups and downs. The war in Ukraine had detrimental effects on the global economy as well as food and energy shortages; climate change caused weather abnormalities, such as more significant storms, the outbreak of more...
5 Ways You Express True Holiday Spirit
Experiencing the holiday spirit is a special time of year for many people around the world. It offers a chance to celebrate, connect with loved ones, and reflect on the year that has passed. Decorations, parties, delicacies, gifts, and time with friends and family...
Overcome Victim Mentality: 7 Ways to Stop Playing the Victim
Life has its ups and downs for each one of us. Every day, bad things could happen to you or to others you know. However, some people insist that it was never their fault. As a result, they develop a victim mentality, where they feel they don’t have any control over...
Knowing When to Quit: Your Best Decision for Personal Growth
“Never give up!”, “Don’t quit!” “Keep on going” and Vince Lombardi’s famous quote, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win,” are all popular well-meaning statements made to challenge and encourage us to give our very best and persevere until we achieve success....
How to Control Your Anger: Unlock 8 Simple Steps
Anger is the sensation your brain gets when you feel you are shortchanged. Perhaps someone cuts in front of you in the checkout line, or a lazy work colleague takes credit for the work that you did. Or maybe someone you love has betrayed or wronged you. We all express...
Unlocking the Incredible Regenerative Power of Gratitude
Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States annually on the fourth Thursday in November. Today marks another of such days, and similar days are observed in several other countries worldwide. Beyond the aroma of roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and the many...
8 Ways to Become and Stay Motivated
As humans, we tend to naturally gravitate towards pleasurable things and follow the path of least resistance. Therefore, when we set a goal for ourselves — anything from landing our dream job, running a marathon, or starting a podcast — it is a big step toward...
What Does a Person of Courage Look Like?
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of forgiveness, and it had an unexpectedly strong response. It’s been a while since I got such an overwhelmingly positive reaction from people about a subject. This tells me that understanding how to forgive is a concern for...
9 Strategies to Protect Your Success and Maintain Growth
You desire to be successful. You long to achieve or surpass a goal or expectation you have set for yourself. It is a significant aim for anyone in life, and achieving it requires a lot of grit and intentional effort. But achieving success is only one side of the...
The Importance of Forgiveness & 5 Powerful Ways to Forgive
We all make missteps. It’s part of human nature and seeing as no one is perfect, we’ve all likely been wronged at different points in our lives. These offenses can leave lasting impacts; therefore, it can be tough to say and truly mean the words “I forgive you.” That...
5 Ways to Overcome Your Digital Addiction
You are waiting for an elevator. The doors slide open, you enter, and they close. As the elevator begins its descent, you notice another person is in the elevator taking this ride with you. The silence soon grows uncomfortable. Pop quiz. What’s your go-to move? A)...
Learning How To Be Vulnerable & 5 Ways To Get There
In my Passion Struck podcast episode from last week, I explained why experiencing pain is the pathway to growth. In this article, I will build upon that episode by exploring how to be vulnerable and its relationship to overcoming the pain we experience. But, Let me...
Why Experiencing Pain is the Pathway to Growth
In the world of self-improvement, we often discuss “resiliency” as a barometer for mental performance. But, it wasn’t until I confronted some challenging experiences from my own life that I understood how much experiencing pain could be a doorway to growth. In...
What Are Cognitive Biases and 6 Ways to Minimize Them
Have you ever, with your best intentions, made a decision that turned out to be a poor or detrimental one? You probably have. We all have made choices at different points in our lives that, at the moment, seemed right but, in retrospect, were completely short of logic...
5 Steps to Change Your Perception to Create a Better Life
There is a simple and insightful psychological test where a glass is partially filled with water, and people are asked to describe the state of the glass. Some will describe it as half-full, while others will describe it as half-empty. This experiment aims to show how...
Does Free Will Really Exist?
For centuries, theologians and philosophers have debated one of the most central questions of human existence: whether or not we have free will. The question most commonly asked is: “Are our behaviors and actions predetermined, or do we have complete control over our...
How to Manage Time: The Wisdom of the Stoics
“Time is the currency of life” is a popular quote that emphasizes time’s importance. However, so few of us know how to manage time. American poet and biographer Carl Sandburg put it this way, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you...
9 Ways to Deal with Chronic Loneliness
As humans, we are social beings who have evolved to co-exist and interact with one another. As a species throughout history, we have survived and prospered by banding together for mutual assistance and protection. Just as bees evolved to need a hive, humans evolved to...
The Devastating Consequences of Excuses and 8 Ways to Stop Them
Life can be a complicated dance, and one thing is sure — we are all likely to make excuses for our mistakes along the way. That is because none of us is perfect. Sometimes we fall short and fail in our personal behavior, and the consequences of excuses reflect that....
How to Heal the Shattering Consequences of Abuse
Over the past several weeks, I have interviewed several guests on the Passion Struck podcast who have experienced the consequences of abuse and neglect. These include Kara Robinson Chamberlain, who was kidnapped by a serial killer and sexually assaulted, and...
Why You Fail to Take Responsibility for Your life
I am often asked, “Why do people fail to take responsibility for their actions?” As motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” This quote highlights the importance of taking charge of our habits or inadvertently allowing...
If You Want a Remarkable Life, You Need to Stop Chasing a Normal One
Famous ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This factual statement emphasizes the power and importance of the daily micro choices you make and the habits you form in...
Why It Is Perfectly Fine Just Being Mediocre
I want to lead you through an exercise that quickly gets to the core of your sense of legitimacy and well-being: throughout your childhood, did you experience a feeling that you were — on balance — OK with who you are? Or did you derive the idea that you needed to be...
Transforming the Mind and Body: 10 Benefits of Meditation
Life as we know it is full of many ups and downs. These challenges can cut across any sphere of everyday life, including social interactions, finances, health, and spirituality. What if I told you there was a better way to handle these situations? It is the benefits...
The Reverse Aging Effect: How to Live Longer and Stay Healthy
For millenniums, the quest for the fountain of youth and extending life has been a frequent topic of various myths, Hollywood movies, and parables worldwide. One of the earliest accounts was from Herodotus, a Greek historian, in the 5th century BC. He reported that in...
Unconditional Love: What It Means and 8 Ways to Find It
Unconditional love is a term that most of us don’t frankly understand. We live in a transactional world where people often offer love contingent on certain conditions, not because they genuinely care about those they give it to, but so they get something in return....
Six Ways to Benefit from the Importance of Patience
We all have goals, dreams, expectations, and aspirations that we strive for each day. The achievement of these things makes us feel whole, joyful, and fulfilled and gives us reasons to keep living, even when things get tough. But in achieving them, we often want to...
Why Life is a Journey Not a Destination
I love reading thriller novels. The stories usually have a complex plot with twists and turns that make you eager to know how the book will end. But if you just skip to the last chapter, you certainly lose the beauty and satisfaction of the story and do not fully...
What is the Importance of Our Daily Micro Choices?
Today, much emphasis is placed on our big decisions like having children, getting married, learning to drive, buying a house, getting divorced, and quitting a job. But the reality is that it’s all the thousands, if not tens of thousands — of micro choices that create...
What are 6 Proven Ways to Approach Emotional Healing?
If you found this article, you are likely in search of emotional healing. And, you are probably asking yourself, is it even possible. As I will explain, yes—emotional healing is a very real possibility if we take deliberate actions to tackle our pain instead of numbing it.
5 Key Ways to Create an Optimized and Healthy Brain
Have you ever wondered what it is in your physical body that enables you to comprehend the world in which you live and make everyday decisions? Are you curious about how you can generate thoughts and ideas that eventually translate into physical realities? Have you...
What Are the 7 Keys to Ultimate Self-Acceptance?
What if I proposed that I could provide you with more independence, more joy, more kindness, less fear, improved mental health, a growth mindset, and an increased sense of self-worth? Would you want it? What if I told you that all of this is possible, but the path to...
How to Unlearn Fear: Why Fears Are Not Just Passively Forgotten
A Japanese proverb states, “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” This proverb does a great job of illustrating that fears only exist in our minds and will only grow as much as we allow them to and the essential reason why we must unlearn fear. Fear is a...
What Is Learned Helplessness and How Do You Overcome It?
Do you know people who never seem to take action to change their negative situations for the better? For example, an alcoholic may repeatedly try and fail to quit drinking. Have you ever felt you had no promising future? Do you ever feel out of control and unable to...
What Does a Healthy and Balanced Life Mean to You?
I recently released an interview on Passion Struck with John R. Miles with the author Susan Cain where we discussed the importance of balancing joy and sorrow, bitter and sweet, and work and life. It got me thinking about what a healthy and balanced life really...
The Science of Learning: It’s Vital For Your Success
In order to learn anything, whether it is math, a foreign language, or how to dribble a soccer ball, you need to create and strengthen pathways in your brain. Think about the first time you tried to kick or throw a ball. Your first time doing it, you didn’t have a...
How Do You Create Success? Life Lessons From Barbara Corcoran
We hear the term success all the time, and it carries considerable weight today in society, both in how others perceive our success and how we define it for ourselves. Many people believe they create success by earning a degree, buying a house, a car, or a yacht. It...
The Power of Empathy is the Greatest Gift to Human Beings
According to former President Barack Obama, "The biggest problem we have in our society and the world right now is a lack of empathy. We are in great need of people being able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see the world through their eyes." The gap that...
What Are the 10 Keys to Building Healthy Esteem?
Famous Greek philosopher Epictetus once said, "It is not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters." At some point in our lives, we've all had times when we felt inadequate and imperfect about ourselves, whether due to a physical flaw, how we perceive...
Curiosity Is a Superpower — The Science and Traits of Curious People
A long time ago, there existed a small village named Naïve Hill. The inhabitants of this town were very conventional people who knew only to search around for wildly growing fruits, plants, and nuts, talk, and sleep. They all lived this basic lifestyle except one...
Why Your Peak Experiences Create a Rewarding Life
"I don't live to work; I work to live." Although this quote is attributed to Noel Gallager, I first heard this expression years before living in Spain. A Spanish friend told me that he observed this startling difference when comparing our two cultures and what...
Becoming Your Best Self is the Foundation for Everything
Over the years, I have come to a much deeper connection with myself. The most important relationship I can have is with myself—the one true constant in my life. Everything that happens in my life for good or bad occurs based on my self-reflection and becoming my best...
The Science of Creating Healthy Habits – How to Make Habits Stick
Kieran Behan was born in Hertfordshire, London, to parents who were of Irish descent. Ever since he could remember, Kieran loved everything about gymnastics, from the tumbling floor routines to the mental fortitude required to compete on the high bar. He lived for the...
Navigating Life With Joy as Your Compass
“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” - Joseph Campbell It was past 6:00 pm on a cold Michigan day, and Kristen Jane Anderson was trudging through the park, tugging at her knit gloves as she set out to end her own life. She was...
How to Teach Yourself Self Love
“In these bodies, we will live; in these bodies, we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” – Mumford & Sons. This line is one of the most potent lyrics the band has ever written, inspiring this article on self love. I love this lyric from...
How Your Environment Impacts Your Growth
Have you ever been in situations or places where you know deep within yourself that you could be achieving much more than you are but fail to do so because of the prevailing conditions of your environment and the people around you? Do you sometimes feel like things...
To Achieve Success You Must Overcome 7 Stages of Pain
Pain is the path to success. Yet, most people just want success in life without going through the hurdles we must face to achieve it. Success is like climbing a mountain with the different plateaus you cross along the way, which are met by unpredictable ups and downs....
Why Materialism Is Impacting Your Happiness and Success
Materialism and the desire to flaunt off material things have become a significant part of today's society. We see influencers all over social media who are promoting luxury products or services and telling their audience, "regardless of all the privileges I have, it...
5 Ways You Must Become Your Authentic Self
Do you ever feel like you are not you? Like you are not your authentic self? Maybe you are unhappy at work, in your marriage, or with the general direction your life is going. It is not uncommon that we one day wake up and realize that we are spending a tremendous...
6 Powerful Ways You Build Resilience In Your Life
Do you feel that your present is getting consumed by your past? That you are stuck. Feeling as though you were trapped on a ship lost at sea, surrounded by misfortune with no way to escape? You are not alone. A lot of people feel the same way and wonder how they can...
The Importance in Life of Being Resilient
I have recently been working on a final chapter for my upcoming book. It’s about the five transitions on the journey to becoming passion-struck. One of the characteristics of those who achieve the 4th or 5th level is being resilient. Resilience can often be obtained...
Is Hustle Culture Making You Miserable? (How Do You Break Free)
We are growing up in a society where we are taught from a very young age that the Hustle Culture is the pathway to success. Sayings like “Go Hard or Go Home,” “Good Things Happen to Those Who Hustle,” and “Hustle Beats Talent When Talent Doesn’t Hustle” are all too...
Six Ways Successful People Ask for Advice
Do you find seeking help at work or home repulsive? Do you have the feeling of inferiority when you ask for advice? You are not alone. The majority of people assume that asking for help symbolizes weakness. They don’t wish to feel dumb or seem needy. As Brené Brown...
7 Ways to Create Mental Strength
Do you have the mental strength to quickly bounce back from personal failures and setbacks, or is dealing with the harsh realities of life something you've always struggled with? Can you pick yourself back up and adapt to circumstances, or do you find yourself...
How Your Mental Health Impacts Your Relationships
Our mental health has a significant impact on the quality of our relationships. Just like every single other piece of your life, our mental health heavily affects our interactions with others and can lead to many relationship problems if not correctly cared for....
Why is Intellectual Humility Vital to Your Success?
Regardless of your self-identity, we envision a version of ourselves that is far different from how the world pictures us. In most cases, the way we see ourselves is glamorized into someone more intelligent, more decisive, and more liked than who we really are. And...
5 Ways Our Ego is Our Trap
I have written before about my time working as a Vice President (VP) for Lowe’s home improvement. When I started in that position, I worked as part of what I believed was a highly effective team of five VPs. Our group of five reported to the same Chief Information...
Why Do We Keep Playing Small?
I recently released an interview on the Passion Struck Podcast with Trav bell where we discussed the importance of creating and living our bucket list. During our conversation, he gave a quote about playing small that inspired this article. “How dare I play small. How...
The Bold Skill of Being Tactful
How often do we face situations in our career or life where we must present difficult information and do it in a way that preserves the relationship. That is why learning the skill of being tactful is so important to our personal success. Let me illustrate through a...
5 Conflict Resolution Strategies for Healthy Relationships
4 Steps to Perfecting the Art of Diplomacy
One of the most important things any person can learn is the art of diplomacy. This article will define the art of diplomacy, will provide 4 steps to perfecting, and different strategies to deploy it.
The Connection Between PTSD and Suicide Thoughts
Since we began the War on Terror, over 115,000 veterans have taken their own lives. Growing research demonstrates a connection between PTSD and suicide thoughts. The research also shows that service members and veterans who have PTSD are 13x more likely to attempt...
5 Signs You Are In a Toxic Relationship
American Historian Tara Westover said, “At some point, you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life.” It might sound harsh, but you do not have to hold onto a toxic relationship or friendship that you have outgrown. Humans are...
Good Morning Brave New Future, Welcome to the All Digital World
Consider the world around you and what do you see? Everything is being digitally enabled from the car you drive to the watch you wear on your wrist. Is this all-digital future for the better or worse?
Why Comfort Never Leads to Breakthrough Ideas
"Yes" is one of the most common words in the English language. And yet, many of us struggle to even utter it in response just when it matters the most. It's not for fear of the word itself, of course, it's a fear of the consequences of saying that word may bring. And,...
Workplace Adaptability: Winning The Future Talent War
It is becoming painfully apparent that we're on the cusp of a new reality that necessitates workplace adaptability. We are actively living with five unprecedented crises simultaneously facing us: a global pandemic, an economic calamity, the racial and social justice...
WITHOUT NOTICING, HERE’S HOW THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC FORCED YOU TO IMPROVE YOUR CHARACTER
As we now surpass 100,000 deaths nationally due to the global pandemic and now witness civil unrest occurring not just in America but also around the world, it is definetly a time for self-reflection. Each of those countless victims was for someone their loved one,...
THE WORLD IS FINALLY TAKING NOTICE OF BRAZIL’s HUMANITARIAN CRISIS. BUT IS IT TOO LATE?
Which would you rather? Go to work in a face-to-face setting with no physical protection against COVID-19 in an environment where it’s spreading like wildfire, or see your children go without food? If you thought the current situation in America was tough, that’s the...
THE GLOBAL DILEMMA OF FINDING THE RIGHT APPROACH TO EXITING LOCKDOWN
Countries all over the world have taken steps to "flatten the curve" of the coronavirus pandemic through restrictive lockdown measures over the last two months. At one point, those measures ensnared 3.9 billion citizens globally. With infection rates easing, attention...
WHY DOES THE WORLD CRAVE IRON MAN BUT NEEDS CAPTAIN AMERICA?
"The easiest person to deceive is one's own self," Edward Bulwer-Lytton once said. This analogy holds even more truth in our present 2020 crisis than it did when he penned it 150 years ago. For most of us, character development is one of life's most profound journeys,...
The Covid-19 Pandemic Will Alter Career Lives But Not in the Alarming Ways Many Predict
Forbes recently published an article by senior contributor Jack Ryan in which he describes how the Covid-19 Pandemic will change career lives in alarming ways for the foreseeable future. In it, he uses a couple of thousand words of predictions explaining how the...
Why Millennials Stand the Best Chance to Overcome Their Second Once-in-a-Lifetime Crisis
I have read far too many articles like these in The Atlantic, Business Insider, and Fortune from Millennial authors asserting the fact that their peers don't stand a chance as a result of the latest crisis impacting them. These authors are prematurely publishing...
50 Years Later: How the COVID-19 Crisis is the Reverse of the Apollo 13 Mission
When the two NASA astronauts, Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan, return to earth this week, it will mark 50 years since the very day the Apollo 13 mission, commanded by James Lovell, also landed back on earth. During Apollo 13 the Crisis Was In Space. Although...
The Overview Effect: Through the Lens of NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy
I was fortunate to interview Navy SEAL and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy for my upcoming book just days before he launches to the International Space Station to take Command of Expedition 63. In this discussion, Cassidy and I discuss the "overview effect" that many...
Navigating COVID-19 Through the Power of Perspective
It is truly amazing the impact COVID-19 is having on our daily lives. And, it is equally amazing what harnessing the power of perspective can alter in your life during times of crisis. Why is it Important to View COVID-19 Through the Power of Perspective? I am...
Is It Better to Burn Out than Fade Away?
If Kurt Cobain was alive, he would be 53 today. Ironically, I happened to hear Neil Young- “My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)” earlier in the day on Spotify. Neil Young penned the lyrics to the song in the late seventies during a period where he was questioning his own...
How Being Vulnerable Can Expand Your World
I find that some of my friends and colleagues struggle with the concept of “being vulnerable.” You’ve probably seen or witnessed the same yourself, either at home or within the workplace or even in someone famous like Nicki Manaj, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Adam Levine,...
The Power of Why: Why Knowing Your Why is Indispensable
It is easy in this world to concentrate on the day to day and forget about the power of why in our lives. Scanning the shelves at your local bookstore, it is all too easy to find titles that tell you to “focus on your ‘self'” and to “be you.” We are living in a world...
Life Lessons Learned from Running
For me, there’s nothing more liberating than going for a run. Somehow, the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other accompanied by nothing other than the sound of my shoes hitting the gravel path beneath me has the ability to free both my mind and soul....
What Makes Successful Problem Solvers Unique?
No matter how far back we stretch the timeline of our past, I believe we will never find a single day in history where successful problem solvers haven't been a part of moving evolution, individuals, and work forward. With the rise of the internet and it's globally...
Mustering the Power to Do Something Different
Today's business world has become extremely competitive, yet large and small businesses alike find it easy to stick with familiar ideas, procedures, and ways of doing business. Inertia kicks in. We follow unwritten rules or guidelines in our industry or sector because...
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