Archives for February 2016

15 Mantras that Will Give You Strength (When You Need it Most)

02.28.2016 by Marc Chernoff // 50 Comments

15 Quick Reminders that Will Make You Feel Better About Today

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

“I finally learned a big lesson. I now know I can be beaten and broken. I’m not as tough and crafty as I thought. I see clearly now what was blind to me just yesterday morning. At this point, it’s the only good thing that came out of all of this. But in a way, it’s all I need. I know myself better today than I did yesterday, and know what I have to do.”

Those insightful lines come right out of a live chat conversation I had this morning with Cara, one of our newest course members (she gave me permission to share this with you). As you can tell, Cara had a tumultuous recent past, and she’s just beginning to strengthen her mindset and rise above what happened.

If you’re in a similar situation, or you simply feel like life has been tougher than usual lately, here are some mantras (that I personally use) to help you get your thinking back on track, so you can feel better about today and what must be done…

No matter what, you can always fight the battles of just today. It’s only when you add the infinite battles of yesterday and tomorrow that life gets overly complicated.
Never assume that you are stuck with the way things are right now. Life changes every single second, and so can you. [Read more…]

6 Stress-Reducing Rituals Successful People Live By

02.24.2016 by Angel Chernoff // 31 Comments

6 Stress-Reducing Rituals Successful People Live By

Take a deep breath. Nothing is as hectic as it seems. Nothing is worth weakening your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety and despair.

The mind can go either direction under stress – toward the positive or toward the negative: on or off. Think of it as a binary spectrum, where the opposite ends are unconsciousness at the negative end and presence at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by emotional strength and training.

Over the years, Marc and I have come across, studied and tested dozens of strategies that successful people employ when faced with stress, but in today’s video blog we want to tell you about six of the most effective strategies we’ve seen in action. A couple of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them, and having the discipline to actually do so in spite of your stress. Let’s take a look…

Video Blog Post:

Stress-Reducing Rituals (video transcript overview):

The ability to manage stress when you’re under pressure directly affects your overall performance in all walks of life. In fact, several scientific studies over the years have found that successful people, in various fields of study, are highly skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

There’s actually new research [Read more…]

One Thing You Should Remember About Doing One Thing at a Time

02.21.2016 by Marc Chernoff // 46 Comments

NOTE: This post has been updated with new information and republished here:

The Life-Changing Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

Photos by: Sean Hawley and Dave Gough

4 Unique Ways to Let Go and Get Over Failure

02.03.2016 by Marc Chernoff // 28 Comments

4 Unique Ways to Let Go and Get Over Failure

Your failure does not define you, your determination does. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, smarter than before.

It’s a feeling of heaviness deep within you. You try to ignore it, but you can’t. Dread and discouragement gradually seep into your thoughts. Sadness and guilt soon follow, until you are completely defeated.

I feel just like this when I fail.

It makes me want to curl up into a ball and cry. I feel lost and alone and I want to give up. I want to fall on my bed and bury my face in a pillow. But that doesn’t work, because the sinking feeling just follows me to sleep.

Failure is terribly painful on so many levels.

People get this idea about me, because I write and teach about success, happiness and mindful living, that I don’t ever slip up and fail miserably in these areas. But of course I’m human, so that’s not true. I fail at things much more than you might imagine, and certainly far more than I’d often like to admit.

At some point or another I fail at everything, just like you, and it feels just as horrible for me as it does for you or anyone else.

I feel letdown and guilty, and try to avoid thinking about it, and would rather hide it.

But deep down I know these negative reactions aren’t helpful. So I own up to what happened, learn a lesson or two, and then get back up and try again. The last part is the most important part – trying again…

I fail at eating healthy meals sometimes, but I try again.
I fail at making my scheduled workouts sometimes, but I make up for it by getting in the gym and working hard the next time.
I fail at loving myself sometimes, but I don’t give up on myself either, and so I try again.
I fail at being a great dad sometimes, especially when I get distracted with stressful business endeavors, but I keep trying, and oftentimes I invoke a fresh smile on my son’s face.
I even failed at writing the article you’re reading now. I made an initial attempt and scrapped it because it didn’t feel right. But I started again, and I’m done now.

When I try over and over again, I often succeed, eventually.

If there’s only one thing you take away from this post, let it be that trying again is always worth it. You get just about as many chances in life as you’re willing to give yourself.

Once you’ve got your mind wrapped around that simple principle, here are four unique (and proven) strategies for giving yourself another chance, by letting go and growing beyond your failures:

1. Be the watcher of your thoughts and emotions.

Instead of trying to change our thoughts every moment – via gratitude or deliberate forgiveness, for example – sometimes we simply need to [Read more…]