Archives for June 2018

40 Summer Journaling Prompts that Will Take Your Mind Off Things

06.24.2018 by Marc Chernoff // 25 Comments

40 Summer Journaling Prompts that Will Take Your Mind Off Things

Don’t just think outside the box this summer…

Think like there is no box.

Ease your worried mind by tuning out the excess noise in your head for a little while every day. It’s summertime after all, and there’s no reason not to take your mind off (the wrong) things and find a little extra peace.

You know how you always turn down the volume on the radio when you need to a moment to think clearly?

The same is true for your life in general. The noise you need to cut out first? That’s the mental noise you hear all too often—the busy, worried thoughts screaming over your sanity.

Turning down the radio refocuses your mind and offers you peace and clarity when you need it most. You don’t really think about how or why this makes such a huge difference, you just know that it does.

Now it’s time to apply this same strategy to all the other noise in your life, starting with the noise in your head. And [Read more…]

One Insanely Popular Love Story that Breaks Too Many Hearts

06.17.2018 by Marc Chernoff // 35 Comments

One Insanely Popular Relationship Fantasy that Breaks Too Many Hearts

We make our relationships so much harder than they need to be. The difficulties started when conversations became texting, feelings became subliminal, sex became a game, the word “love” fell out of context, trust faded as honesty waned, insecurities became a way of living, jealously became a cyclical routine, being hurt started to feel natural… and running away from it all became our go-to solution. Let’s stop running! Let’s start working together to face these issues—to break the cycle, to communicate, to appreciate, to forgive, and to LOVE the people in our lives who deserve it.

How?

The first step is letting go of the heartbreaking cultural story—or fairy tale—of [Read more…]

3 Hard Perspective Shifts that Will Gradually Make Your Life 3 Times Easier

06.10.2018 by Angel Chernoff // 32 Comments

3 Hard Perspective Shifts that Will Gradually Make Your Life 3 Times Easier

I recently interviewed a motel housekeeper in Miami for a project I’m working on to support our New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy. “Do you like your job?” I asked her. To my surprise, she smiled from ear to ear and was breathless for a couple moments. She finally collected herself and said, “I can’t believe how much I love my job! I get to make dozens of our guests happy every day and feed my two beautiful children at the same time…”

Then, at that same motel 30 minutes later, I met a family of six in the lobby. They were just hanging out, sharing stories, laughing and taking turns reading excerpts from a book. Their joyous presence caught my attention, so I asked them where they were from. “Oh, we’re from here,” the father said. “Our house burned down last night, but miraculously all of us got out safely. And that makes this a pretty darn good day.”

Let these people’s stories be your wake-up call today.

Let them remind you that, to a great extent, we make our own life stories by our thoughts. The reality we ultimately create is a process of our daily thinking. And when we think better about our lives, we live better in spite of the obvious challenges we face along the way.

Thus, the goal isn’t to get rid of all our negative thoughts, feelings and life situations. That’s impossible. The goal is to change our perspective, so we can respond more effectively to them.

And that’s exactly what I want to discuss with you today: three perspective shifts that aren’t exactly easy to make, but worth every bit of effort and practice you can muster. Because, when we think better about our circumstances, we live better in spite of them

1. See your fantasies for what they are.

“A 10-year-old patient of mine will be undergoing her 14th surgery in [Read more…]

10 Truths to Keep You Going When Everything Goes Wrong

06.03.2018 by Marc Chernoff // 27 Comments

“Today, on my forty-seventh birthday, I reread the suicide note I wrote on my twenty-seventh birthday about two minutes before my girlfriend, Carol, showed up at my apartment and told me she was pregnant. Her words were honestly the only reason I didn’t follow through with it. Suddenly I felt I had something to live for, and I started making small positive changes one day at a time. It’s been a journey, but Carol is now my wife and we’ve been happily married for nineteen years. And my daughter, who is now a twenty-one-year-old university student pursuing a degree in medicine, has two younger brothers. I read my suicide note every year on the morning of my birthday as a reminder to be grateful—I am grateful I stopped waiting and started doing things daily that ultimately gave me a second chance at life.”

That’s a direct quote from a course student of ours that we’ve shared with permission in our new (New York Times bestselling) book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs. As Angel states in the book, “This student’s words remind us that sometimes we have to endure our very darkest moments in order to be reborn and rise again as a stronger, happier version of ourselves. Although circumstances and people will occasionally break you down to the lowest of lows, when you keep your mind focused on the positive, your heart open to love, and continue to put one foot in front of the other, you can recover the pieces, rebuild, and come back much stronger and happier than you ever would have been otherwise.”

Because here’s the reality: a tiny part of your life is decided by completely uncontrollable circumstances, while the vast majority of your life is decided by how you actively respond to them.

Whenever our students come to us feeling down about a life situation they can’t control, we typically start by [Read more…]