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Creating the mentality to succeed is a daily challenge….. No wait, it’s a daily blessing. How I view anything is how I view everything. I want to say that life is easy, but truth be told,  I haven’t yet been able to flip that internal mental switch just yet. (But I will, my future and my family depends on it). Today’s thought is about how I have felt lately (generally speaking). Some might picture it like a roller coaster, but to me it’s kinda more like one Houdini trick after another with no specific ending to the show. I have specific moments of joy, and many specific moments of fester, anger, and annoyance. But…. Overall, I have been working almost daily at trying to have positive habits to entice, germinate, and grow success in each day of my life. Have I finished Apt #1 @ the 4plex? No not yet. Have I made large financial gains yet? No. Again, not yet. Have I been able to financially transition laterally into doing just real estate? Again…. No. Do I still carry debt? Definitely Yes. But do I feel happier about my life? Honestly, I’m not exactly sure. But I can at least tell that I am working on it.

I know this much for sure……that for the last few days I have been able to smile more than not smile. Quick side thought….Hmmmmmmm? Maybe it’s because whenever I watch the news, I see Trump on TV and he always has such a long drawn out face or even that horrible downward frown. Personally I just don’t get it, or maybe I just don’t want to EVER get it, but for him to be worth so many billions of dollars, and even pay top dollar to dye his hair, dye his skin color, and even pump stuff under his skin to make his face look younger and yet after all that work, all that laborious effort, and all that money, for him to show so much outward disdain for life in general, is just something I don’t ever want to be like.

And if it’s not just Trump, then maybe it’s those little things that I am trying to always remember to do. Those daily add ins, those little daily practices that will hopefully become lifetime habits. I just gotta say, It’s not easy, and it feels like many times I forget the important fundamentals. They somehow get pushed to the side from all the other millions of important things or people in my life or my business life that clamber for my attention. And it even feels like forever that I have been working on habituating some of these daily practices, ie: The gratitude journal , which I still haven’t solidified on a daily basis, but I haven’t totally given up on it yet either. (even that feeling of like “I might give up on it” MUST change). Then there is the 6 phase meditation that I have done at least once every 2.5 days. And I have even brought back the Eric Thomas a few times. And recently I have been trying to add in the nightly wins diary. (Write down 3 wins every night before bed) And something that I have been feeling that needs to change is what I watch on TV before bed. I come from the oldschool days of when TV actually had programming. And if you didn’t get to see it at the time of programming then you had to wait until next year or buy it on VHS. But now that everything is on the internet, now that everything is on demand, it can be watched at anytime. So it just doesn’t give me any “animo” to want to see anything specific on TV. So now I spend my time watching the news. Something that I should definitely spend less time watching.

So what have I tried to do recently to change this bad, bad, TV habit? Oddly enough as you already know…. bad habits are hard to break, and it didn’t even feel good when I actually grabbed my remote and switched the channel. So what did I do??? What did I decide to land myself on? Well….I decided to put my TV on Youtube and watch something motivational. And before I took the motivational route, I first tried to watch something science based (since I like science) or fictional, but that didn’t quite make me feel as good as I wanted. I have even tried some comedy, but now a days its just really hard to make me laugh. I can only assume it’s a growing spurt from liking smut style comedy to a more intellectual comedy. Currently I think I’m stuck in between them both. idk. But what I settled on is motivational stuff. But not just any motivational stuff, but knowledge based information motivation that can help me to strengthen my mind to keep from being pushed into disappointment when the challenges become too tough. For example. I’ve watched a few Tom Bilyeu episodes, and recently I watch a few Genius Network videos. I particularly enjoy the ones with Peter Diamondis, and even the ones with Tony Robbins. There was a particular Genius Network video with Peter and Tony on at the same time. It is totally worth watching. I’ve seen it twice. And towards the end Tony said something that I must incorporate into my life. I kinda’ do it now, but not quite in the exact way that he forms it. And for any of us who are familiar with working out or has had a personally trainer… The biggest thing you learn is that form is everything!!! He talked about his own form of the 6 phase meditation. Now, he didn’t call it a 6 phase meditation. Instead, and I can’t remember the exact name he gave it, but it was something like the 10 minute morning prime. or “Prime” something. idk. Either way he talked about having gratitude in the morning. You can’t be grateful and angry at the same time. He talked about how he mentally worked his vision of giving gratitude and how he mentally touched all those in his closest inner circle and then slowly worked around to everyone in his outer circle and beyond.

He went into great step by step detail on how he does his daily prime but sadly, the composition of it all currently slips me. But this will eventually be remedied. But so yeah, my point, watching videos like this was helpful to getting my day started. You know when I think about it, I remember watching a lot of Wayne Dyer (And I mean, I watched a lot of Wayne Dyer). And in one of his videos, “The Power Of Intention”. I must have watched this particular video at least 20 times or more. He talked about the importance of utilizing the last 5 minutes before bed. He said that the last 5 minutes before bed will determine not only how you sleep, but that it is also the catalyst for how you subconsciously program yourself for the coming morning/day. It’s so weird, because now as I just take a few moments to reflect back on what he said, I can now see how far and deep I was trenched in negativity. I mean…. Man, I can still feel it. But funny or ironic as it may be,……is that now I can feel it….. NOW I can feel the negativity. I swear….life, my surroundings, my challenges, they all did a number on me. Science says that it takes at least 3 months to create and invoke a new positive habit. But for me it has taken at least the better part of 3 years. or maybe longer. I can’t even remember when I first started watching all of those Wayne Dyer videos. Can you believe it, all that time spent in negativity. All those beautiful days wasted. All those hours where I could have focused my mind on creativity, focused my mind on resourcefulness.

In my younger years I could see how I wanted to break out of my circle of negativity. I remember loving music so much that I would focus on it and fall into it like a cool crystal blue ocean on a hot summer day. So much that I used it as a way to find happiness. I remember trying to become an artist. I want to say that I failed at it, but the truth is that I didn’t fail, I just didn’t do enough to become successful in the way I thought I wanted. But yea, those moments were positive. But the last 15 years have been a bit more than a struggle. But that’s ok. Like Jim Rohn once said, After the Winter comes the Spring. And I just gotta say, It’s been a long Winter. But no worries, I’m on a mission. As my friend Stanley once said….”I’m not playing checkers, I’m playing chess”. (Love ya Stan. Till we meet again my friend.)

Wish me luck.

Max.