The simpler we attack our lives, the more productive we will be. Is there anything more simple than a pen and paper? For some, the paper affects the thought process.

It’s all about personal opinion but here are a few places where you can store your thoughts:

• Moleskin or composition notebook – This paper is lined and can be easily bulleted.

• Google Notebook – The benefit of this is that it is free and you can do it while at your computer! You can make quick little logs.

• Binder – If you are looking to add notes in, either from a printed or new documents, you may want to go the route of the binder.

• Journal – This option is if you want to track your life with writing.

• Folder – Do you have a lot of loose papers? Stuff them in a folder and sort later. Although this is no efficient way to go through your life, they can be sorted at a later date.

After we have decided what paper to use, we have to move our decisions towards the places of how we are going to go about writing down our thoughts down. Sometimes the type of notebook we use will affect what choice we choose. We’ll call this book your “life book” from now on.

How do we get down to business?

Jotting down notes of your life takes patience, persistence, and determination. Just by understanding the concept of my post you’ll know this. If you constantly show an effort to take something out of the experience of writing down your life, you will benefit from it.

Your successes and failures, triumphs and defeats, will go into your life book. It’ll become an important aspect of your life, and later you will cherish it. Now it may seem like “that book” that sits and waits in the corner, but later it will play a major role in your life development.

If anything in your life takes place, let your notebook know about it. Don’t worry about what you write, just make sure you do write. The goal is to increase the significance of your book in your life and you can’t do that if you are lazy.

Planning and jotting down your thoughts are in the same category of time management. I have never been a planner. Whether it had to do with essay writing or party committees it just wasn’t my thing. Until blogging. I have always dismissed writing thoughts down, I mean, “Hey, my brain is smart enough. When I write something down it just seems like I waste of time.”  One month ago, I was thinking those previous thoughts. Now I’m thinking along the lines of, “If I forget to plan today, what am I going to do in three weeks when such and such post goes live?!?”

The brilliance of the notebook is that you don’t need to think while you are writing. Any thought in your head, jot down for future reference. Live by the saying “you never know.” Very easily could you be asked about what happened at work the previously day. Just find out by checking your notebook.

When writing in your notebook, don’t distract yourself. The last thing you want is to find yourself talking to a friend or watching television. You want to produce productiveness, not avoid it. Slap yourself into shape!

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Trudging through my thirteen years has been a difficult task to accomplish. I have taken a lot of things for granted and have made many mistakes but that won’t stop me from taking in every moment though.

Before you embrace, you have to recollect. It’s this time do you reminisce, daydream, and think about all those memories you have acquired over your years. Scratch your head for a second until the light bulb pops up over you. You are sure to have a toothless grin when that happens.

Does it upset me that I haven’t yet appreciated my life while taking in moments? No, not at all. Living life at it’s fullest is living with no regrets. I’ll remember moments that will change my life only because I followed some of these steps:

1. Relive old times with a friend

Plan a get together with someone from your high school, a lunch with someone from college or a date with someone from graduate school. You’ll find that the moments eventually come back to you. Those late nights, those early mornings will be poured back into your brain realizing how important it was to meet with that old acquaintance of yours. It’s a great feeling, one of the best in the world, to know that you will have that funny, happy, make-you-smile memory in your pocket, for the rest of your life.

2. Think about embracing the moment

When you make the effort to do something, getting it done seems so much easier. While you are in the overtime game, find one second to be thankful for where you are at that time. Not everyone gets to play when the spotlight is on them so take advantage of the opportunity and

3. Talk about it with family

Family might have different experiences than friends. The times when you were learning how to walk or singing a song to your little brother right after he was born. The more personal moments that even your best friend might not know.

4. Write down the moments you want to hold on to

My mom wrote a diary when she was pregnant on her progress as a mother. Later I found this journal and I cherish it today. It’s one of those tangible items you want to hold and kiss and hug and be so proud of your mother for being disciplined in her nine months. Just like my mom, you will appreciate later what you did. I still have some of my short stories from when I was nine years old and they are of such a horrible quality of writing that it often makes me laugh.

5. Read

Is it that simple? Yes. Reading brings out inner experiences and previous happenings. It is impossible to read without previous knowledgeable. We judge a books content on it’s connection to previous experiences, fantasies, and/or content. Past endeavors come back to us when we read and it sparks our knowledge in our brain. There are few negative outcomes of reading.

Even though I am new to this concept of “embracing the moment,” I find that with time remembering to embrace the moment will become easier. But who knows, only time will tell.

What moments do you embrace with pride? Are there any that you are thankful for? Any blog experiences that you will cherish for the rest of your life? How do you feel about the current blog design as opposed to the previous one?

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For some it’s smoking, others it’s being lazy. Addictions have had the personality as being something you want to stay away from, for as long as possible.

How can being addicted to positive ideas and concepts be negative for you?

Addictions almost never take the form of a positive outcome. Even being addicted to work, school, or blogging can potentially be harmful to you. Ponder this for one second. One part of your life affects another. Think about it this way: while you are making the big bucks for your family, your family is sitting on the couch waiting for you to get home.
Maybe you like to drink alcohol. You know you can possibly be unfortunate in the future, but right now you aren’t seeing any affects or feeling any symptoms. To add to this your friends drink and you don’t want to say no. (For more information on saying no, visit here.) Guess what? You can not live life like this. It will not work out. Why should you stop? The affects will take some life changes to get used to. Before you know it you’ll be forty years old, ignoring the fact that you might not live this long, with some major problems that will include bad teeth, horrible hygiene, and stuck in a rehab center.

Even in my short thirteen years, I have been addicted to a ton of rubbish like Pokemon, a sports stock market, and baseball cards. Addictions have lead me to new ideas and introduced me to new places. I will never be able to say that I didn’t benefit from these hobbies but I do regret spending so much time on these things. My first mistake was putting school behind all of these things. Hopefully I can avoid this mistake with blogging.

What is holding you back from stopping your addiction?

First things first, if you are being lazy… stop! The only way you get a real result, is if you take a real test. By being lazy, you are giving yourself a zero percent chance to succeed.

Once you have told yourself honestly that you are not going to be lazy in this effort, you have to try different things. If I was an expert about stopping addictions I would be blogging about that. I don’t know what really works, but if you ask me you have to confront your addiction. Accept that you have an addiction: it’s the first hard step in the process.

The reason you haven’t stopped your addiction yet might be because it doesn’t affect the people around you. While that is entirely wrong, I can understand why some believe this. Addictions usually concrete an inner wall between you and whoever you talk to. The more time you spend smoking is going to be the less time you talk to your family. It’s a simple trade off that usually does not work well for the person with the addiction.

Do you think you are fine?

If you have a problem, you have a problem! There is absolutely no way around it, no “but”, “and”,  or “or” will stop you from having an addiction. The longer you go without thinking you have a problem, the father away it is from reaching your destination of sobriety.

Someone needed to give you a reality check. I said in the post The Winner that “Living life from the backseat unfortunately is not the way we can live our lives successfully.” By thinking you don’t have an addiction you are living your life from the backseat. Step up your performance. You are better than your addiction!

How can you be supportive of friends and family?

You probably wouldn’t enjoy being tormented by people you love because of your addiction. So do how you would like to be treated barring you were in this situation. You would love your children to be loving of you even in the worst times. If your friend or family member is not making a life change, hint (not too rudely, please) that they need to.

Addicts are not bad people, they just have made the wrong decisions. You don’t want to be the next person to make the wrong decision. The problem is schools and programs are devoted to making sure that you don’t have a problem with drugs, alcohol and smoking. What makes it even worse is that kids get suckered in by peer pressure and have to deal with there addiction because of others. Knowing that something could possibly be an addiction for you means that you shouldn’t even bother testing it out. If you have an addiction, knock it out today!

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One of the most common stress factors: lack of exercise. You might be saying one of the following things: “Should I be signing my kids up to the local sports program?” “Do I have to run every day in order to be more healthy?” “I don’t have the time to exercise, how can I fit this into my daily schedule?” I’m not telling you to give up your life to workout. I’m telling you to be more productive to exercise.

If you need to manage time better, and many do, wake up in the mornings before work. For instance, let’s say you wake up at seven o’clock normally. Don’t just wake up at five-thirty the next morning. It will stab your body in the heart and make you look like a fool when you go back to bed. Instead slowly decrease the time you wake up. Try to decreasing ten minutes every three days. Even though it is still a quick pace, I find that if you are motivated to wake up, you will.

The fact of the matter is, exercise is key to living a productive lifestyle. It will change your life more than you could ever imagine. Until you are apart of the phenomenon you will never understand the shared secret between people who exercise daily. It’s an automatic connection while meeting a new person. The shared bond of working out could result to a splendid conversation with a friend or a new date with someone you met at the gym.

You might be asking at this point: what are you qualifying to be exercise? Is it weights, running, biking, swimming, or basketball? For a simple answer: Exercise is something stresses the body’s muscles and asks it to grow. It’s imperative that you do try to get a little exercise in each day. It will result to nothing but good habits.

1. Weight loss, looks

The first is the most common reason to exercise. The only problem is the motivation, or lack thereof, to continue and keep off the weight once your program has finished. Most of the time weight piles up after a long period of time because you are not committed to make a life change. Eventually the person will tell themselves they need a life change. A change in what food they eat or the things they do in their spare time will probably end up with a better body.

2. Quit an addiction

Although we will cover this topic later in the “Health” series, I think it’s important to mention it here first. Many people are looking to make a life change in their daily habits. It could be anywhere from biting their nails to drugs or alcohol. As a way to end an old habit, they need to replace it with a new one. By starting up running, they will try to end smoking. Addictions are bad parts of the living cycle and will continue to be that until we completely get rid of the negative ones.

3. Be productive with your time

The general goal behind this blog is to do this. Working out is a great way to do start being more productive with your life. It’s one of the first steps you want to take to becoming a more efficient human being. Exercise will make you utilize your brain and your well being and for that reason alone, I suggest you get right to the weights or treadmill.

4. Find new music

What tunes pumps you up? Is it rock, rap, instrumental, jazz or even classical music? Find some more music in your favorite genre and start running or lifting weights. It’s really as simplistic as that. Later, once you get hooked on your exercise you will have to check out StrongLifts or Runners World or [put site for your exercise] for form, but for now just get out there and motivate yourself with music.

5. Feel better about yourself

By doing physical activity daily, you’ll start to see that you will feel better about yourself. Your self-esteem, weight loss and productivity will all go in the right direction. How can this be possible when you have been struggling and grinding out hard hours to find yourself? The problem? You never have exercised.

6. Develop new skills

Exercising provokes getting stronger and smarter. The enjoyable part of working out is this: it’s your choice, it can be your upper body strength, your legs, or abs. You’ll be impressed quickly with your own growth and soon you’ll be doing twice the reps or double the miles in a short time with motivation.

7. Tell your friends

I can’t honestly say I know many people who haven’t shown off about working out. There is nothing wrong with it either. If you have poured your heart into a task to accomplish it, you have every right to not just brag, but also to encourage your friends, family, peers, etc. to do the same.

I’m opening the door, you have to step through it. Exercise has been underplayed for years. It’s really much more important than skimming through the television or eating another fast food meal. Remember: to always be proud of your work, to develop new aspects of your life and to devote your well being more toward being more productive.

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It is the goal of all human beings to live a less stressed life style. The day where they can shoe away responsibility and work is the day that is far off for most of us, but it doesn’t need to be.

If your getting under six hours of sleep a night consistently you may want to reconsider what you are doing wrong. It can be simple, like roaming the internet too long or it can complex, like pushing yourself too hard to work.

The main component of a healthy lifestyle is to recognize your positive habits and get rid of your negative ones. As a general rule, you want to stay away from sugar two hours before you go to sleep. While most of us are indulged by having a midnight snack, those who are disciplined enough will go to their bed.

It is paining to hear about the troubling nights sleep someone had because they hit the pillow too late. It’s an absurd thought to think that we have not programmed in our head that sleep is a necessity.

1. Stop procrastination

When your wondering why you have wasted most of your evening while you were talking to a friend, you must have asked to yourself how you were going to kick this time waster known as procrastination. It’s the habit that appears so much in the American lifestyle. Whether it is your kids needing your attention or a “must take” phone call, you have to learn that what ever your doing is not as important as what you should be doing. If you are on the computer, turn off the internet. If your writing, clear your workplace. Adjust to your surroundings.

The concept is simple: the more time you procrastinate, the less sleep you attain. The less sleep you attain, the more tired you will be in the morning. It’s your choice: Less sleep, more tired or more sleep, less tired. The former will result in ill happenings and wrongdoings whereas the latter will bring forth more energy for the day ahead.

2. Play relaxing music

Music is an art that not only dictates our attitude, but also our personality. The type of music you play reflects on your mind and what it wants to do. The reason the iHome (by Apple) is such an effective product is because it shifts the gears in your mind from the second you wake up. When you go to sleep, however, you want to hear calm, soothing music like Jack Johnson and John Mayor.

3. Create a to-do list

This is related to stopping procrastination. If you are going to stop procrastinating you have to have a plan for what you’re going to do. Put a deadline on each item you have to get completed. For every day, week, or month that you successfully do tasks for, reward yourself. Something like a fancy dinner at one of your favorite restaurants or taking yourself to a concert you really wanted to see. To-do lists aren’t just for grocery shopping, they can be for managing your sleep as well! If you are looking for an online to-do list check out Remember the Milk.

4. Use a spreadsheet

Track the number of hours you sleep each night to come up with a general consensus on how you need to adjust your program. Don’t sell yourself short. If you’re not being honest with yourself the only person you are lying to is yourself.

Set up a three column Excel sheet, the first column for the date, the second for the approximate time of sleep, and the third for how well your sleep went. Although this task can seem difficult to keep up, once you get into a routine it becomes quite simplistic. You’ll know how to make the appropriate adjustments after a while to make sure you get your necessary sleep.  Keeping a log is motivation to do better.

5. Find a partner

Two brains are better than one. When you two people devote their energy to one task it usually gets done quicker and easier. When there is a marathon takes place, runners cheer for runners during the race. It is because they are each going through the same task. If they root each other on, it’s more likely they will succeed.

Most people understand, but can’t except, the fact that they need rest. It’s part of the mind to think that they can fight off sleep with vigor, but in actuality, they are quite wrong. Every person needs a time where it’s body can relax for a certain amount of time.

What is that certain amount of time? I have read that the amount of sleep one needs is like the equivalent to a shoe size. It’s different for everyone. Some can get a quality sleep out of just six hours of sleep, while some it takes ten hours to get the same result.

Rest is one of the single most important factors in a persons day to day life. It controls your social life, thinking ability, and physical presence. A lack of sleep is like more alcoholic consumption. The more you drink, the less knowledgeable you will be about your general surroundings. The less sleep you get, the more consequences will boil to the surface.

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The winner has the urge, the need, to take over a game or situation to make sure he or she makes the correct move. The winner is involved in a chess match with his opponent and thinks about his move three steps ahead. The winner doesn’t just play with his physical attributes, but with the mental aspect behind it. The winner doesn’t ever think that he can’t win and always feels the game isn’t over till the final blow has been met. The winner takes every loss as an another step toward winning.

In life, most of us have set out to be winners. We try to win, as if our life depends on it, and sometimes it does. Most of the time however we are just being competitive, a force that wills us to do our best against anyone we compete against. The force of being competitive is usually in most human beings’ blood, an unconscious feeling. When we react to a situation we process three solutions in our mind, we have to think which is the best solution, competing each answer to the next. We are competitive with ourselves even when we don’t know it.

How can we strive to win, or succeed?

The fact is, most of us are content with staying in our comfort zone. Living life from the backseat unfortunately is not the way we can live our lives successfully. We must ask ourselves if there is a way to demonstrate a skill, or attribute, that might help us to win. The single common quality found in winners, is leadership, but it’s really more than that (read on). The ability to take on a burden that’s not their own and put it on their shoulders. Not many people can do this with success making it such a difficult attribute to attain. Only those who are patient, well-minded and ready for the challenge of defeat are those who can be winners.

Trying to find our true selves is one of the hardest things to do as a person. When we do come into full connection with our intentions and mind processes, we can develop as a human being and start to grow. Of course, many don’t find who they really are until they are fifty, sixty, or even seventy years old, but the people who never understand who they are are left in the dumps, so to speak. They’ll search here and there without finding a passion or goal and these people end up losing out on the greatness and beauty of life (that conversation is for another day though).

How can becoming a winner help us?

Becoming a winner will take you to the next step and give you the: The confidence to attain new goals. The motivation to drive to new places. The ability to reach new heights. The willingness to accept new situations. The outlook on life to view every obstacle as a challenge, rather than a new problem. The awareness to think then act. The thankfulness to recognize those who stand above the crowd.

How can you help others to become winners?

The cliché is that winners are thought of as boastful people and while this is partially true, many people who succeed to the top are humble and appreciate the fact that the people below them are struggling.

One of the most legendary winners in the world of sports would probably be Brett Favre, the quarterback for the New York Jets. Favre succeeded in all three of the previous steps and will be known as a winner wherever he goes. He strived to be a winner, by putting up great season after good season, won a Super Bowl Championship, elevating his status, and finally he taught Aaron Rodgers, the current Green Bay Packer quarterback how to become a winner. People care about important people. Because of Brett’s heart-warming touchdown passes and his success teaching others, Brett is important. The media cares about him for being a superb person, the people care about him because he is a quality human being, and Eric Mangini, the New York Jets head coach, cares about him because he gets the job done on the field. When you do something with excellence and pride, you will be looked at like a winner from your peers.

If you haven’t yet noticed, I’ve broken down being a winner into three separate stages. The first being the “thinking” stage, how we can be a winner. The second is the “acting” stage, how becoming a winner will benefit us, and third is the “future” stage, how we can help others become winners. There is a formula that unites the greatest greats together because of their extraordinary ability to be the best.

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