Empower Your Emotional Triggers I don't know about you. I love it when we miraculously put together the perfect day and then life decides to get in the way.&nbsp; Well, not life, and maybe I don't love it, but occasionally something or someone will cross your path and cross your wires. I don't know anybody who doesn't get hit smack in the face with a situation that triggers a feeling deep inside their soul, stirs emotion, and results in a reaction or response that makes you say, "Why did I say that?" Of course, we are emotional creatures, so it makes sense that robust emotional responses are a thing for most of us. Still, a little common sense will tell you that it doesn't always serve us. It gets even worse when people sedate their emotions to protect themselves. Not only do they miss great opportunities, when they are triggered, it becomes an 8.0 earthquake. So, how do you deal with it? The way I handle it is to understand that triggers usually happen when I least expect them. Still, my Scott LOGIC tells me that once I experience the trigger and learn the lesson, a little discipline in my actions tends to smooth things out the next time.&nbsp; Here's what happens. When I get triggered, a feeling emerges inside of me. Like me, the problem is that most folks jump from a feeling to an emotional response before their mouth knows what's happening. A better way is to recognize the feeling, pause, review the emotional dialog running in your mind, and then allow your throughs to become your words.&nbsp; Life gets better when you have the discipline to recognize what you've learned from a previous trigger, audit your reactions, and deliver your response. Strangely, it becomes as if you were never triggered at all. Look, we live in a world filled with shoot-from-the-hip opportunities, many of them purposely put in front of us to get a response. Don't fall for it. Keep your mind on how you want to experience the world and stick with it. You'll be amazed how all the drama goes away.

Empower Your Emotional Triggers

Is The Universe Whispering to You? I’m not sure how you feel about the Universe and how things work in the world, but does the Universe whisper to you? Now, before I go on, you need to know that I can go pretty deep into the world of woo-woo in my beliefs. Still, the real-world dude in me makes me realize that while it may be fun to ride a unicorn to the coffee shop, I haven’t yet been able to request one from Uber.&nbsp; You may believe that your life is already planned for you or that you can ask for what you to manifest. One or both, you can’t deny that something is whispering directions to you all day long. Are you listening? While there are many ways people seek to receive messages of guidance as we make life decisions, my favorite has always been events the occur in triplicate. If something happens three times, I pay attention. Call me hard-headed, distracted, or set in my ways, but life has taught me that wisdom tends to come in whispers - usually when our thoughts are screaming in our head and drowning out our dreams. Now, let me be clear... A friend calling three times to go out on the town doesn’t count in my book. Snoozing your alarm clock three times isn’t a message from the Universe that you should sleep in more. The grocery store being out of your favorite chips three times is not a sign that you should go on a diet.&nbsp; All that is what they call the “stuff that happens while you’re alive.” So what counts?&nbsp; If I were to describe messages that resonate with me, it would be… 1) Seemingly random situations and people that happen in quick succession or at the same time.&nbsp; 2) They are different in their approach and appearance, yet each delivers a similar message. At first, it may seem disconnected, but in relation to the other messages, you begin to notice 3) The message you receive is likely something that has been on your mind, keeping you awake a night, and speaks to you. Even though you may not immediately recognize its impact, you find yourself slightly redirected in your search for answers. Your path altered. While this is undoubtedly only my description of how I know it when the Universe is ganging up on me, I have learned to allow space for a message to arrive. Whether I realize the impact or not, I have also known that it always motivates my decisions, choices, and future actions. In other words, things change with little effort.

Is The Universe Whispering to You?

Get Off The Fence And Get What You Want Okay, I'm feeling a little bit lazy today, so I'm going to cut to the chase and bestow upon you the secret to success you've been seeking.&nbsp; Are you ready? Success requires that you do the hard work. Bam! Hmm… I think I'll take my advice and rethink that lazy thing. I want to set a good example. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that if you want more, you will have to do something to get it. Still, we live in a world that makes it seem like it should be easier, and it's not. Success takes a lot of hard work - even if you don't see it. Successful YouTubers make it look easy - after thousands of hours of trial and error. Musicians are seemingly living their dream - after years of living in a tour bus and making pennies after their agents get paid. Even people who do nothing but accept the generosity of society to make their way are working hard at a life that you would never want. It doesn't matter what you want, good or bad, prosperous or not, happy or sad; it's going to take a lot of work to accomplish it. If you have a choice, and you do, why wouldn't you choose to work hard to bring goodness into your life? You become interested in making a change. The problem is, interest is only the beginning, and you never get beyond your fascination. You decide what change you would like to create and begin working hard to get it. Then, life gets in the way, and you stop.&nbsp; What's missing? Commitment. Life doesn't give guarantees, but you tend to get what you want when you commit and go all-in on your mission. That's just how it works. I'm interested in many things and work hard at making magic happen in my life, the lives of my family and friends, and even yours. Only a solid commitment to how I spend my decades on this planet allows that to happen. Whatever you do - get committed, and you'll see how things change.

Get Off The Fence And Get What You Want

Stoic Happiness I'm a fan of Stoic Philosophy. While it may be over 2,000 years old, its practicality is still useful. These rules to live by will help you have a happier life: 1. If you're going to learn and succeed, be humble. There is always someone smarter, more successful, and wiser. &nbsp; 2. Find the right scene. Choose your friends and situations. If you want to rise in life, you can't allow yourself to be held down by others. 3. Protect your time. Seneca said, "We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers." Life is short. 4. Never do anything out of habit. Always think about how you can do things better and always question yourself.&nbsp; 5. Keep it simple — do your job. Approach every task as if it were your last because it very well could be.&nbsp; 6. Adapt and learn from failure. Using your success to justify complacency is common. It's also easy, which is why most people do it. You can do more and be better. 7. Live below your means. The more you need to work to maintain your needs, the less you will enjoy what you have. Everything in life comes down to keeping things simple and mastering the basics. That's how you get the success you deserve.

Stoic Happiness

Leaders Look For Conflict I admit the title, "Leaders Look For Conflict," might a little over-the-top. But I know that you want to be a better leader. I also know that you hate and don't want anything to do with conflict - especially since I can hear you saying — "Why can't we all get along?" I get it. Saying the word "No" is hard enough. Saying "Yes" when others agree or disagree with your choice can be more difficult. "Why can't we all get along?" The answer is that we can. However, the truth is that conflict will always happen whenever more than two people get together. Especially when there is a common goal, and everyone is on the same page. Conflict will always play a role in your success. What? We're on the same page, agree with each other, want the same result, and there's still conflict? "Why can't we all get along?" It's not that. It's just that no matter how positive your project is, everybody has a different idea of how to reach the outcome. Everybody has a different right way and wrong way. As a leader, when you approach conflict as a simple "Y" in the road of progress, things change. It becomes a decision that is part of the process and leads to the outcome everybody desires. Leaders, Managers, heck, Mom's and Dad's - anybody responsible for moving forward eventually learns to accept conflict. Leaders don't get emotionally fired up, yell and scream, or freak out in some other creative way. Conflict is another step in the process. The faster you can accept conflict, the sooner you can resolve the obstacle and reach your goal. Everybody will respect and appreciate you. They will also remember you for helping all involved achieve success.

Leaders Look For Conflict

Relative Time Management In my entire life, I've always found it interesting that there never seems to be enough time in the day. Still, most days, everything seems to get done. If it doesn't, the world didn't come to an end, and I survived to check off another item from my to-do list tomorrow. I know I'm not the first human on the planet to face the problem of time, but I do think I'm one of those smartypants people that have figured out how our time works in real life. And it was 180 degrees from what I felt that time was all about. Pay attention now. How you look at time is about to change. First, when you run as fast as possible to get things done, time moves quicker, and less gets done. Even worse, with every minute filled, there is never enough time to do the things that make your heart sing. If you're like me, that will eventually lead you to sabotage your list so you can do something fun for yourself. It's a never-ending cycle. On the other hand, when you slow down, hold space for yourself, and focus on results relevant to your goals, time slows down, and you get more done. Not only that, you magically find yourself with lots of free time that you need to fill. Finally, a chance to read a book, binge on Netflix or hang out with family and friends. The choice is yours. Of course, if you've ever studied Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, this sounds familiar. As he determined—time is relative. In other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.&nbsp; So, what is your frame of reference? In our case, I'm not asking whether you are moving fast or slow; I want to know if you are focused on the essential things in life that matter to you? Everything else disappears when you do, times slow down, and you enjoy your day like you were born to do.

Relative Time Management

Painting Your Way to Success My wife and I are settling into our new home, and she has assigned herself the job of painting every inch in the house. Not because we couldn’t hire somebody to do the job. Strangely, it’s because she loves to paint.&nbsp; I’ll admit that I’ve felt a little guilty leaving her with a rolling brush and a couple of gallons while I find something more interesting to do - which is pretty much anything. Still, last weekend I offered to join the painting party and speed up progress in the largest and most challenging room, she accepted my offer, and off we went. If I haven’t made it clear, I don’t love painting. The only thing more painful for me is listening to a boring conversation I’ve heard a thousand times before. Still, brush in hand, I began my journey that day while sharing my philosophy with my wife.&nbsp; That’s what she gets for locking herself in a room with me and a paintbrush. While it played out over a couple of hours, here’s what I said — I’m okay with painting. I am. In fact, I see every situation in life, like painting a huge and complex room. You know, a room with lots of windows, corners, and trim. One that requires physical contortions to reach every inch that you would never do in real life. If you want to get the job done. Heck, if you want to get anything done, you keep painting. Keep painting. Keep painting. Keep painting. As long as you keep painting, you’ll eventually be finished and get what you want. If you stop, not only is your room going to be a mess, you don’t get what you want. So, whatever you are painting in your life, keep rolling until it’s done. No grind. No hustle and no glamour or drama. Just painting.&nbsp;

Painting Your Way to Success

Get the Daily Boost with ZERO commercials and more coaching too! Go to  to get started. Have you ever wondered why some things and not others motivate you? The evolving Science of Motivation has your answer. In a nutshell, motivation is complicated and layered. If you didn’t already know that, you have felt it many times. But it all begins with 4 kinds of motivation: 1) Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of you, and you do it because you are compelled to - usually by someone else. 2) Intrinsic motivation is done for internal and personal reasons. This can be called your WHY. 3) Introjected motivation is similar. The difference is that if something is not done, you feel guilty.&nbsp; 4) Identified motivation is when you know something needs to be done but have not decided to do it yet. What kind do you have? &nbsp; All of them!&nbsp; All types of motivation can be in play at any time, and they can also overlap. However, when you discover your Intrinsic motivation - your WHY- you will find the momentum you seek.

What Kind of Motivation Do You Need?

Time Management That Focuses on YOU "I never have time to work on what's important to me!" I hear that every day from people all over the world. Every one of them is so busy attempting to master the latest productivity hack they end up spending most of their time running like a hamster on a wheel.&nbsp; Frankly, I was doing the same thing when my new business was sucking the life out of me and demanding all of my focus. One day, I realized my focus was in the wrong place. The problem was that I ran my day based on events on my calendar, and all of those red and green blocks were controlling my life. Without thinking, maybe to become more productive, I added more and more blocks to my day. While I got more done, I wasn't doing the things that were important to me. Out of pure frustration, I asked myself a question… "How do I want my calendar to look?" My honest answer was EMPTY! While it may sound like a silly goal, I have no interest in focusing on more colored calendar blocks, I want more time to do what is important to me. At that moment, I realized the secret I was looking for was hidden in plain sight - the space between events. Since then, I've seen the space on my calendar as 100% mine that I can use in any way I decide. When an event is scheduled, I interrupt my flow, deal with the event, and immediately get back to focusing on what is important to me. It's a small distinction that yields huge results.&nbsp; Now, to make this work, two things are required: 1) You must know what is important to you and have it at the forefront of your mind. Those goals become your primary focus and not a maybe/someday goal. 2) You must know what actions are relevant to getting the results that you desire. That's it.&nbsp; All that remains is for you to grab all the open space you can get and start having fun with your stuff instead of everybody else's stuff.

Time Management That Focuses on YOU

What do I want to be when I grow up?&nbsp; The first time you ask yourself that question is when you are very young - if you ever asked it act all. Frankly, somebody else usually asks you, and you probably didn't have an answer and just took off running with this thing called life.&nbsp; And then it happens — Forty or fifty years later, people start asking themselves that question again after a family and career. The lucky ones don't confine it until they retire; instead, they begin to question who they are right now. It can be a scary time. If you are looking for a change in your life, here are a few things to understand— You can't move forward by hanging on to what you have. Remember, you get more of what you focus on in your life. If you're focusing on what you are giving up, you'll get more of that. Instead, you must direct your focus into the unknown future and look for clues about what you will do. I call the process "Exploring Your Possibilities. Imagine if anything is possible and there is no limitation or consequence. There is no commitment required, and money doesn't matter. Time has no impact. None of that matters because, once you stumble upon what you want, you will have arrived, and everything will be forever different. How do you make this happen? The secret is to put the breaks on what you are doing while you seek new adventures. It will take time to find a good fit, so you'll have to ensure that you don't slide back into your old ways. No matter how comfortable it may feel to get back in your comfort zone, don't do it. Pump the brakes. Hold on to the space you've created. Explore your possibilities, and let life unfold in front of you. It may not happen overnight. Then again, maybe it will?

Exploring Your Possibilities

Need Motivation? The best daily motivation is The Daily Boost! Find what makes you happy, reduce your stress, get inspired, and master the life skills you need to balance your life and enjoy more success. Specializing in daily motivation to help you stay motivated, Scott Smith hosts The Daily Boost and brings a unique, straight talking style that is not only fun - but delivers amazing results! The Daily Boost has been iTunes top ranked self-help program since 2004 - give it a listen and see how good it makes you feel. New episodes every weekday.

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