1.

WRITE A DIARY

We all tend to recap what has happened to us during the day or in certain
moments and situations. One of the biggest advantages we obtain from keeping a
diary is the fact that doing so consciously increases mental and emotional
awareness of performed actions, and it turns out to be a great tool to look through
facts, reactions, and mindfully staying at your way.

Writing a diary yields many other benefits, among the most important ones, the
following can be mentioned:

- If you write often and you turn it into one of your habits, this can help you to raise
your self-esteem and make you feel better. The main existing difference of
discussing it with someone, who you may have known and you feel confident
towards, lies in the fact that writing is a way of expressing what you actually feel
and think, without the need of changing or softening your opinion due to fear of
being judged or making a bad impression. It is an excellent way of bringing out
your true SELF so it behaves whatever the way it likes.

- After going through a hard or an emotionally tough day, there is nothing better
that sitting down and writing it all to untangle what might have stayed tangled
and, most of all, to connect with ourselves and make clear our own emotions.
Writing may be the chance to reflect, vent and express your more intimate
feelings.

- You might use writing as an exhaust valve for tensions you put up with or those
new tensions acquired during the day. This is your own therapy to cut back weight
and loads to the “backpack” you always carry. Worries and problems troubling you
tend to be a big mess inside your mind, taking up a wide space, mixing one with
each other and continuously repeating themselves without letting you to think
clearly. They even take up space, time, and resources to important things. There is
no other way but to start writing about them, noticing the importance they actually
have and realizing how to start working in them the best way.

- Writing a diary has also creative advantages. Regular writing habits may help
processing and communicating accurately complex ideas; learning important
information by heart and brainstorming new ideas.

- Writing a diary helps you to get along with your subconscious mind, where your
real self lives. It is unfeasible to succeed at first, but by keeping the habit, you
will find out that, while writing your diary, answers with no chance of connecting
by analyzing will come. As a matter of fact, writing a diary has nothing to do with
thinking, but with flowing. By surprising answers and paragraphs showing off
ideas (with no idea about where they come from), you will know you have
interacted with your subconscious mind.

TIPS
Pick a notebook or use your diary in this app to do this exercise, either if you just
want to maintain a chronicle of your life or planning your dreams. Even if you
want to plot strategy of your goals, or all the options above, you’ll be unleashing
many mental resources by writing what has happened in your day and you will
easily make clear the goals to attain. There is no need to begin with the famous
“Dear diary” or stuff like that. Just write what you want and what comes to your
mind at the very moment of writing.

Look for a moment where nobody disturbs you, an hour and a place you pick and
where you feel comfortable at.
We suggest you to do so at the end of the day or before sleeping. Commit to write
at least once a day, with no concern about script, style, or orthography. Do not
worry! Your brief won’t be tested for coherence when you finish it.

2. WRITTEN GRATITUDE

During our day, many good and not so good things happen, but in a great part of
our day, things we take for granted happen. At the end of the day, placing a quick
reminder of things you are thankful of is important, as this helps you to focus on
what is good behind everything. Besides that, you acknowledge how good and
good things happen constantly to you as well!

When you are a thankful person, your mind focuses on what you have and what
you receive, not in what you lack of. This simple fact helps you to be a happier,
gladder and more optimistic person. Your positive emotions grow, your energy
increases and your self-esteem is even bigger because you realize about all the
good things happening to you right now. If you devote a moment of your day to be
thankful about good things occurring in your life, your emotional state stays at the
positive side or changes towards it, your good mood and happiness increase and
can modify your own attitude towards life. Gratitude helps us the same way to
offset propensity we have as individuals to negativity, as, just by focusing on
positive events, we tend to repeat this behavior.

The habit of thankfulness to all the good moments happening to us or in our lives,
brings on multiple benefits to our wellness, such as:
- Reduction of harmful symptoms we have, like headaches, coughing, nausea or any
general pain.

- Reinforcement of our immunological system, either if you are a healthy person or you
are being affected by any sickness.

- Reduction of stress, anxiety, blood pressure and depression, as well as anger and
resentment.

- Being thankful benefits those surrounding you as well. How many times and how often
we have felt flattered when another person thanks us for something? How many times we
have felt treasured at our job or at home, and that our ideas are important and
considered? That is the point: a thankful person is not only happier, but it spreads around
that emotion in every moment they thank other people.

An attitude of thankfulness has the power of turning hardships into opportunities,

problems into solutions and loss into wins. And the best part is that any person can
increase its well-being sensation and create positive social effects just by being thankful
every day.

TIPS
Simply look around and write what you are thankful for: family, partner, children, parents,
friends, the ability of walking, having a great job, living in the house you have, even for
dining your favorite food, or the flowers you have in your garden. Write the first thing in
your mind (great things or nothing extraordinary might have happened), just thank with
all your heart and allow that feeling to touch you and to fill in your soul. Life is like an
echo: it gets what it gives and reaps what it sows.

Allow yourself to make a dairy list of at least five things of your day you thank for. Writing
them helps your brain to connect with emotion and to increase your sense of fullness and
confidence in life.

3. MEDITATION

Meditation helps us having our own inner time and space, improving our
emotional, mental and physical condition, regardless of the type of meditation we
choose to practice. By doing so, ability of concentration and sensation of wellness
are all increased, and our immunological and circulatory systems are
strengthened. Meditation stimulates self-healing the same way, it provides us an
increase in consciousness and creativity; it whips up and bolsters up brain zones
assigned to happiness and joy, and it increases I.Q. Below, some other main
benefits are mentioned:

- It eases anxiety. Overcoming tension is one of the main benefits of constant practice
of meditation, as tension is the root of many mind and body ills and malfunctions.

- Optimal blood pressure. Diverse studies confirm that meditation decreases blood
pressure.

- Less cardiovascular illness risk. Scientific researches have shown that meditation
helps people with several cardiovascular diseases.

- It helps in treatment of alcoholism. Diverse scientific studies demonstrated that

effect of meditation in reduction of alcohol consumption helps it to be 1.5-8 times bigger
than that of the other programs.
- Hyperactivity treatment. It improves brain function indexes associated to symptoms
related to hyperactivity.

- Improvement of good relationships. Correlation of dairy meditation practice and

harmonious and healthy relationships has been observed both at home and at work
environments.

You’ll be noticing it little by little, but you’ll clearly improve clearly and
continuously by practicing it every day!

TIPS:

Some good advices to follow in your meditation are:

- A good moment to meditate is before waking up or sleeping, although meditation is a

habit which can be performed in any moment of the day.

- Prepare a hall in your house, the garden or any other wide place where you have
certain intimacy. Make sure it is a clean place, with few things, with a good air flow,
inspiring you calm and serenity.

- While you start paying attention to the chosen technique, several thoughts will appear
at your mind, specially at the beginning. Let them come, like river flow. Just observe
them and let them go. The important thing is not to get distract with any one.

- Sound is one of the simplest ways to go into meditative state. If you find breathing or
any other method uncomfortable, annoying, boring or demanding much willpower, try
to put some music inspiring you and introducing you to concentration.

4. CHECK OUT YOUR EGO

It is said that every head is a world, and in several times —sometimes by accident
— we can just believe that only our vision, our way of being, our opinion or our
direction we take is the right one. By doing that we can be making a negative
impact in our team, the environment where we work at, and all our relationships
in life in general. That’s why it’s important that we constantly give a review to our
perspective, attitude and energy, as well as to watch out the effect of the
aforementioned on the rest of the world and performing changes when needed:
something allowing us to work and communicate more harmoniously.

When a person has an exacerbated ego, they normally find difficult to concentrate
intimately and successfully with others. They struggle to understand an ego that is not
theirs. This happens because ego looks forward to satisfy its own needs and motivations,
losing track of outer world. Standing on ego means stay centered on oneself, which is
somehow harmful if we consider that human beings are social beings and being self-
referential all time doesn’t help.

You can try knowing what kind of ego you have so you can work with it. Check this list
and find out which type you identify yourself to:
Know-it-all: they always think of being right, love advising about everything, they
always have an opinion despite not knowing what it is being talked about, and believe it
has an answer for everything. They just cannot be quiet.

Voracious: they love being in the spotlight and don’t like being unnoticed. They love
doing anything to stand out.

Interrupter: their need of self-reference is so strong it keeps constantly interrupting.

They never let others to end speaking.

Envious: they just don’t stand other victories and successes. They constantly degrade
those who are above it.

Renowned: they want applause, appreciation and awe in everything they do. They
always want to be the best. They often tell others: “I warned you”, “I knew it”, “I told
you”.

Rider: they use what other people say in their own favor. They take advantages of
information of others for their own sake. They harness what other people say to structure
their own arguments. They are copycats and ousters.

Deaf: they don’t like to listen, and normally speak to themselves. They usually pretend to
listen.

Deceitful: The clever ego. They find their way to twist, deceive, lie or justify so things
always end up in their favor

Proud: That competitive and arguing ego which never likes losing.

TIPS:

Consider thinking you are at the other side of the action you are doing or putting
into the other person’s shoes. What would you change or modify to be more
inclusive?

Write something every day you could have done in another way respect to a
situation you consider negative or did not go as desired and try to modify it next
day.

5. ENGAGE YOURSELF INTO YOUR HEALTH

If you decided to download this app and you are reading these lines,
congratulations!!! That’s because you care about your health and you are giving
concrete steps to improve it. Keep on reading the following paragraphs to know
more about why this is important.

Nowadays, there is health crisis in many countries and many diseases attack big
population sectors due to years of poor diet, deficient posture, lack of physical
activity, negative thoughts, harmful emotions or bad habits in daily life. Health is
your responsibility; your life is your responsibility. Acknowledge and accept you
have been granted this power. No matter what you do in your life, it is vital for
you to learn about your body, as you only have one. It is important that you know
your way of eating, of how health state is improved, and specially of things that
happen to you and can improve you mentally and emotionally. Become
responsible and knowledgeable of what life has given to you, accept to bring out
the best. Remember it is suggested to work and involve all aspects: mind, feelings
and body.

Taking care of our health must be a priority during any life stage. This will help us to have
an excellent quality of life at all levels and ages.

Enjoying a good health state can be achieved from keeping up several good habits and
maintaining them preferably forever. To be healthy, one should:

 Follow a well-balanced, healthy diet.

 Exercise often.
 Avoid consumption of toxic or addictive substances, i.e. tobacco, alcohol or any
kind of drug.
 Give importance to taking care of health embraces psychology and emotions.
Having a positive attitude towards life, establishing healthy personal relationships,
limiting stress situations and enhancing optimism are all practices we must keep
an eye on, as they help us to improve our health.

It is up to us to achieve an optimal health state or living a life full of depression, fatigue,

decline, etc. otherwise. Don’t forget to take care of both your body and your mind, and
most of all, try to overcome all problems surrounding you.

TIPS:

- Set following physical and mental trainings, indicated in this app, as your
plan and your goal, to generate new habits in your life and maintaining or
improving your health. Changes will be noticed little by little as time goes
by.

- Read at least one further article per week about improving your health state
or your relationship with an illness or disease you have or you can prevent.

- It is strongly advised to listen carefully to your body. That often appearing

disease or pain is due to the fact that there is something your body wants to
say. Maybe it wants to tell you to turn stress down, to express something
you keep inside yourself or to tone down or to avoid something causing you
a bad feeling or emotion.

6. HONESTY AND COHERENCE

Honesty is one of the key values for every human being, since we can be clear
with ourselves and with everybody else. The process starts from the inside: if we
do not have inner clarity, then we just cannot have outer clarity. Truth and lie both
start inside. If we take advantage of intelligence, then why would we lie to
ourselves? Honesty and coherence benefit us significantly, as they allow us to
develop our personality with great inner and outer confidence, since our values
are for real, while we are entire. A basic definition would be: think, feel and do it
all towards the same direction.
When people don’t work on themselves to address coherently and honestly, their life has
no direction, their goals are not clear and feel a big existential void and everything barely
makes sense. If we frequently commit to do something and then we do another, it is easy
that guidelines propelling our life are failing and this attracts sickness and suffering.
There is no bigger distress than somebody who is not loyal to what he or she feels and
thinks.
Some further benefits we can find at being both honest and coherent are the following:

- Personal development. Being honest and acting as frankly as possible is vital if we

want to develop ourselves as better people. Honesty grants us stillness, well-being and
makes other people see us as a trustful person.

- Anxiety cutdown. Honest people are less likely to experience anxiety, as they always
have clear conscience.

- Honesty attraction. When you are honest, we attract to our life people considering
honesty as a key value as well.

- Reduction of some pains. People reducing tendency to daily lives are featured for
being healthy, less tense and, above all, to have less headaches, as well as sore throat.

- Social circle. An honest behavior generates good friends and a positive moral
acknowledgement to the others.

TIPS:

Truth opens all doors: express it with your family, with your peers and friends.
Invite those surrounding you to do so.

Remember all promises you have made ultimately. If there is one to be done, then
fulfill it. Never forget that promises are commitments.

If you made a mistake, acknowledge it to the others. You can mention: “The other
day I said something wrong”, and then raise the proper clarification.

Are you bothered by something at school, work or house? Are you treated by
someone in a way you don’t like? Speak it out right now. He who says the truth
conquers respect from others.
Reflect on how you can improve the way you have carried yourself in the last
days. In which aspects you need to be honest? How can you bring more
coherence as you think, feel, say and do?

7. PRACTICE PATIENCE

Patience is the ability a person has to tolerate or bear a determined situation

without suffering anxiety, nervousness, unrest or losing calm. Normally, patient
people do not get upset or troubled while waiting for somebody or someone, nor
they spoil their objectives or goals because of being anxious or frustrated. Being
impatient may arise automatically or mechanically from our unconscious – it is a
negative effect or result when wrongly perceiving fear of failing at what we are
doing, or fear of losing somebody or not achieving what we believe we need.

To improve our patience, we have to learn to think before acting or speaking, to

respond instead of reacting. Patient people treat everybody with more respect and
thoughtfulness; this attitude will come in return; they become more amiable
persons. Patient people know it and, in turn, they feel better with themselves,
more satisfied or fuller. Perfection doesn’t exist and patient people know it, they
handle better their mistakes considering them as learning, they do not set
unattainable ideas, they do not punish themselves if they fail at reaching any
goal. Likewise, they learn to forgive their own defects, they are willing to change
them and make it at their own pace, with no rush or pushing themselves too
much, preventing frustration and helplessness.

Practicing patience is very important, mainly because you will need it to reach any
goal in your personal, couple and professional life. When we work in ourselves,
our challenges and hardships, with others and with the world in general (with its
many changes and surprises), we are in contact with plenty of elements that can
help or affect us depending on the mood we choose to take them.

Maintaining this practice pays off the best for us, as it lets us see with greater clarity and
objectivity the following steps. You must consider there is an appropriate moment to
handle every issue. “Now” is not always the right moment, though. Problems are not
always solved every time immediately. Let the problems ripen enough. If we attack them
very early, what we do is to waste ourselves and other people. Sometimes, we worsen
them while we want to solve them.

Patience is achieved with repetition and discipline, correcting or avoiding negative

thoughts and fear, learning to enjoy daily life, being at “here and now”, which
causes stillness and calm.

TIPS:

Patience is both a practice and a choice. Try repeating this process three times a
day and whenever you feel impatient. Breath in deeply four seconds, hold air for
another four seconds. Finally, breath out four seconds and wait for another four
before breathing in again. Sometimes, repeating three times this breathing will
give you the needed space to make the best use of your mental and emotional
resources.

Write down every day five things that made you feel impatient and what was your
reaction to them. Here you will see more clearly what you need to work at and
you will know how the outcome will be by using patience.

Embrace the unexpected, don’t think over and over what you could do to prevent it.
Don’t even look into analysis of negative aspects of this situation, as it will make you
perceive them with much more severity and it will be more difficult of assuming and
solving. Think about how you can solve it and do it.

Keep calm when you are in a difficult, unpleasant or hard situation. Practice “count to
100” if needed before reacting negatively and ending up making the situation worse with
bad behavior and comments. Let’s remember that everything happens and there is
always a solution.
8. AFFIRMATIONS

Somehow, we are all affirming or denying chances in our head. We hold a

constant dialogue with ourselves that can boost or halt us. Hence the fact the
conscious use of this dialogue and positive reinforcement of what we need is a
very practical tool in your daily life.
An affirmation is anything you say or think. The problem is that most of the words we say
or think are negative and they do not carry on good experiences. Those negative words
and thoughts affect your goals in life, they block you and they do not let you progress.
The idea is substituting that little negative inner voice with another one with positive
affirmations. Positive affirmations are just sentences or short phrases that catch on our
unconscious for our benefit with their constant and conscious repetition. Such phrases
describe an event or a situation we wish it happens in our lives.

Repeating an affirmation several times a day daily demands an absolute concentration in

such thoughts, so they can become a reality. Remember to keep in mind that:

- They help fading mental patterns that could have been learnt during childhood or
teenage years.

- They make you happier. The more you choose having thoughts that make you feel fine,
the faster affirmations will work out. Therefore, it is wise to have happy thoughts.

- They shape up your future. They let you focus on what you want to see reflected in your
life, they go beyond reality of present and they shape up future through words you use in
present time.

Use of affirmation may strengthen your motivation, make you stay on the way and
avoid deviations, as well as to connect you with similar ideas and feelings, in
pursuit of your objective

TIPS:
Remember that affirmations do not achieve goals by themselves, but they can
help you and inspire you. Write or get affirmations of what you want to achieve
and put them at your reach – for instance, at the bathroom mirror, your closet,
etc. You can make your own affirmations considering the following:

A) Affirm what you wish in first person, using a positive language. Never use
negative or scarcity. For example: instead of saying “I won’t wake up late
again”, say “I wake up at a good time and full of energy everyday”.

B) Use the “present” tense so you can pass on things happening the time you
read them (don’t use past or future tenses, or infinitive). For example, instead
of stating “I’ll have a well-paid job”, state “I have a well-paid job”.

C) Feel any emotion while saying your affirmations (joy, happiness, enthusiasm,
inspiration, pride, etc.)

“I love being a successful person at business”

"I have health and the body I like and I feel satisfied”
“I’m a loved, amiable person, valued by my family and friends”

Generally, the shorter and the simpler affirmations are, the more accurate they work.

9. SMILE

If we allow the day and/or situations influence constantly on our emotional state,
we might be levelling out and limiting our creativity and well-being. For this
reason, it is important to constantly connect with joy and enthusiasm, as both
have an overly positive effect in your health, life and relationships you create.
When smiling, even when there’s no reason to do so, signals are sent to our brain
to make us feel better. Smiling and cheering up your mind brings us pleasure, but
it also makes us swifter and more creative. A happy mind tends to be an
optimistic mind as well, and it connects with possibility and confidence frequency,
essential to the successful way.

Neurotransmitters, a.k.a. endorphins, are released when smiling. Those

neurotransmitters are activated through movements of facial muscles, which are
read by the brain. Endorphins are responsible of making us feel happy and helping
us lower stress levels as well. Even faking a smile works, as brain does not tell
apart what is real or fake, and it reads the position of facial muscles the same
way, something known as “facial feedback hypothesis” – the more we stimulate
our brain to release that chemical substance, the happier and the more relaxed
we feel.

Laughing or smiling helps you too the following ways:

- It lets you sleep better, as your emotional state will improve and help you to relax.
- A smile improve your relationships with others.
- You keep youth for more time, both physical and mental.
- It helps at your job. Making things positively contributes to make them better.
- It’s contagious, as you call everybody over to smile.
- You dramatically improve your physical appeal, mainly for you and, consequently, for
the others.
- It helps you to appreciate small details of life and to experience them intensely.
- A smile brings positive things to your life. It’s like a magnet, both for people and for non-
material stuff: luck, joy, good news, etc.
- You start the day positively.
- It helps you to relax. Drawbacks day after day become less hard.
- It eases you to live longer. An optimistic, joyful, winning character is crucial to increase
life.
- It helps your immunological system to work better.
TIPS:

a) Start the day smiling and commit to smile at least 15 times a day. When
smiling, you send signals to your brain to change your emotional state! Smile
more often to your neighbors, relatives, workmates or friends.

b) Make in your dairy entries of changes you are perceiving when you decide to
cheer up and to be enthusiastic.

c) Look for doing or seeing something that makes you happy every 45 or 90
minutes – a quote, a video or a mini audio that keep your mind happy. Once we
start to look for all funny, uplifting things consciously, we will be in tune with them
and more willing to take part in moments of spontaneous laughter.

d) Spend more time with friends and relatives that make you feel great.
Surrounding ourselves with optimistic, happy, fun loving people will dig our
positive side up. We will catch their joy and positivism unconsciously and we will
eventually copy their behavior patterns.

10. ELIMINATE ENERGY DRAINERS

Many people and things supply us energy or cheer up; however, many of them
take them away. In your way to success, you should take care about the quality of
your thoughts, opinions, ideas, practices, food and people you make room in your
life to, as well as the quality of what you give to your familiar circle, friendships,
job and partner. If you notice some of the things mentioned below constantly
repeat themselves in your life, reflect and you will be able to realize maybe they
are draining energy without your awareness or, even, you are taking it out from
someone else:

- Gossip. Crossing that line of the simple comment or opinion to sticking in that
hearsay is simple, human and can happen every day; however, this is something
that silently wears us away. And that gossip can be found at the coffee machine
of the office or also at our social networks.
- Always trying to memorize everything. Many people force their mind to retain
and amass tasks to be done. This generates an enormous energy waste that
could be easily solved using an app, a notebook or a paper agenda.

- Surrounding ourselves with negative people. Those are toxic, harmful people,
who discourage instead of motivating, who destroy instead of building, who stay
instead of going ahead, who criticize instead of looking for alternatives. And
mainly who rub off and discourage you. Being with those people has a high price.

- Being close to people who constantly complain. Being upset or mad because of
bad news or situation happening to us is natural and human, and expressing it is
good, but just once. Sticking to the complaint is a futile act – it does not fix the
problem. Above all, keeping on making it known every moment and to anybody
we meet spends a considerable amount of energy.

These attitudes and others make a bubble, so making sure of both doing the best
and receiving the same are better. Sometimes there is no other choice but to be in
contact with a specific person or situation at the work or social circle, so your task
is to maintain high energy, in order to avoid uncomfortable situations or a
downward tendency, no matter how much energy is taken away.

TIPS:

- Pick five things giving you good energy and cheering you up this week. Write on
your dairy the results.

- Think about five things that take down or bring down your energy and choose to
take out or play down contact with them in your normal day from now on.

- Avoid being an energy drainer yourself and make clear what you gave positive to
the world today.

- Let people who only want to share complaints, problems, terrible stories, fear
and judgement of others go. If someone wants a trash can, they won’t find it in
your mind, though.

- Face situations that do not bring you something good at life. It might be some
upset with a friend, your partner or a relative. Maybe it is a task you haven’t
accomplished. All “to do” take many energies. We encourage you to tackle them
and take them out of your way as soon as possible.

11. OFFLINE LIFE

New technologies can have a great educational and communicative potential; however,
its improper and abusive use might have important negative consequences for every
human. People affected by this addiction are characterized for failing at controlling its
use.
Depending on the use of technological resources by every person, these can be an end
rather than a means to an end, yielding on important negative consequences interfering
in your normal life. Among them, there are:

- Chance of suffering anxiety, crankiness and even physical discomfort in case of not
using the device that generates addiction.
- Impairment or less time dedicated to interpersonal relationships or other leisure
activities.
- Less study time, which can bring poor academic or professional results.
- More behaviors related to aggressiveness.

While technology can help us, its use might harm us. If your time, your life level
and accuracy are not improved, then think about it – something may be wrong.
Consider that nowadays we are full of one, two or even three alarms, reminders,
notifications, warnings, messages, calls, conferences, mails, pending stuff and a
huge amount of entertainment and games. Unfortunately, if we do not know how
to deal with it and control it, then this does not always increase our productivity,
nor it allows us to set a private calm space.

Saying so, setting hours per week to be offline from any digital element is
important. Have a rest out of cellphone, consoles, computer, tablets, and
television, and take a time off for you.

TIPS:

Choose more convenient days and moments for you to be offline from technology
and keep your word at doing it. It can be one hour, three or even an entire
weekend. Registering the time spent offline with a clock or a chronometer is
strongly advised.

Please do not sleep with your cellphone aside. When resting, many leave the cellphone as
near as possible and they check their social networks for a long time. Leaving the
cellphone in other place is advised, and even better if it can be turned off, so there is no
temptation to grab the device or being interrupted during sleep by all arriving
notifications.

Sometimes, it’s important to turn off mobile data or Wi-Fi of your smartphone so you can
rest a little bit of social networks that normally make you waste time. Getting away of
technology for a moment is always good to get involved in other activities.

Leave aside your cellphone at gathering. Currently, when people attend gatherings,
parties or lunches, observing them without leaving cellphone and chatting less is normal.
That is why talking to mates, friends or relatives being at your side and ignoring the
device is essential.

12. CELEBRATE YOUR SMALL WINS

We all have achieved diverse wins. Staying alive and carrying on are victories!
Unfortunately, we don’t realize that, as we overlook small things. Small victories
build bigger ones, however. Acknowledging and celebrating small personal wins is
a way of admitting we can achieve positive things, despite complicated situations.
We normally dream of someday being able of achieving those big wins everybody
recognizes and turn people into celebrities. However, there is no way to attain
those level without previous escalation to the top, step by step. That is why
recognizing those small wins make foundation of bigger achievement important.

Every step we eventually give brings us closer to our goal, but this is rather a
personal perception, and everybody knows how much they have moved forward
and how much they have still left. Acknowledging wins is as way to keep
motivation with a positive attitude, willing to walk their own way, despite being
long and upwards. Those small wins might seem negligible, but they can be the
difference between keeping your spirit to bigger achievements or getting stuck
with the feeling of not having achieved something.

You will probably ask yourself “How can I identify those small wins worth
acknowledgment that I have done?”. Well, you might try asking yourself the
following questions: a) What I just did, was it difficult or impossible some time
ago? b) Did I have to make a further effort or did I break out of my comfort zone
to finish this? c) Is this something I would like to remember and to talk about to
someone else? If the answer for something you did or achieve was “Yes”, it is
certainly something worth recognizing and, why not, celebrating!

Keeping this in mind, remembering small victories every day is worthy. You can do
it in a special part of your dairy or other place. Keeping a register is important,
however. Remember we all are champions, as we deal with obstacles and we
defeat them over and over. You have already done that before and keeping them
in mind is important as well. Winning and growing up is important, as soon as you
remember you have everything to make it.

TIPS:

- When winning small, indulge yourself. What do you really like? Flowers, a book, a
party day?

- Give yourself a night or a day to celebrate your bigger achievement. People will
actually note it. Make sure to choose what, where, when and who you want to be
with. You have the right to feel proud of your wins.

- Talk about your achievements. The best way to cause your friends, colleagues or
relatives to pat on your back is through publication of your achievements in social
networks or telling it to someone close.

- Pick a special object when a great objective achieved, and you will remember
your success every time you use it.

Write down every day in your dairy or a notebook that inspires and motivates you
the following:
What was the small win I achieved today? Before going to bed, list everything you
achieved that day. Write down >10 things and you will be surprised of how many
were in your mind. Pick one and reflect about what chips in to your life, and how
proud you are about getting it. Ask yourself down: How did I improve my situation
and someone else’s? What hurdle I defeated, causing my strengthening today? In
what moment I could say what I felt and I though while being kind to do so?

13. USE MUSIC IN YOUR FAVOR

Nietzsche said: "Without music, life would be a mistake". Even if that is not
exactly this way, we can state music has a great impact on us, it sometimes can
make us melancholic for no reason or simply upset. On the other hand, sometimes
we tend to remember things through music to internally illustrate with elements
of our own story (so to say) the situation the song has to do with. We can also
create or recreate pains, frustrations and lamentations, not necessarily applicable
to our life in this moment, however. Unfortunately, this seems to be normal as it is
constantly done.

Avoiding painful, angry and violent music is advisable as it impacts your energy to
enjoy life. You should rather choose music that boosts you, gives you hope,
strength, courage, motivation and improves your performance. Listening to music
can improve your attitude and bring a positive mood – it sounds magical and
strange, but sometimes just listening to our favorite melody to bring a smile to
our face and seeing everything with a better perspective is enough. It also helps
when improving productivity levels at work or study, causing performance to be
more effective. There is no doubt a good tune would relieve the hard work you
have to do.

Furthermore, it is important to know that music promotes production of dopamine, the

substance in charge of generating a great feeling of well-being in our bodies and
concentration. It is excellent to reduce stress, so it helps us to have new perspectives and
not taking hasty decisions. Likewise, several studies demonstrate listening to nature and
calming sounds with relaxing music increases levels of serotonin and other positive
hormones for blood flow. Serotonin is a hormone, considered by many experts, as a
neurotransmitter that helps you to be happier, giving your body better mood, sleep and
learning abilities.

TIPS:

- Make playlists that inspire you in your daily life. Special playlists for your job, for
your workout routine, your study time, relaxation, meditation, etc. Consider
including instrumental music and nature sounds as well.

- Remember that what we have in mind and we keep on mentioning with emotion
is what we attract to our life. Then, avoid songs about violence, infidelities, spite,
etc.
- Preferably, have your own playlists – radio broadcasters might be a distraction if
you are doing more activities.

- Depending on the activity you are doing, creating a playlist that allows you to
listen to music up to 2 hours is preferred. When the last melody stops, it will
remind you that it’s time to take a rest.

- Choose motivational music boosting force and strength for your workout
routines, as it improves performance and helps high intensity gaps to be more
bearable.

14. PRACTICE FORGIVENESS

For some reason, the practice of forgiveness seems to be millenary and

considered in hundreds of cultures! Forgiveness is closely linked to human nature
and its ability to make changes to future created and to construed past.
Forgiveness is also a symbolic time travel that allows us to reconfigure perception
of what has happened and managing our energies with more wisdom. Regrets,
faults, angers, frustrations and resentment are burdens in your heart, becoming a
great self-imposed obstacle for your success and your goals. In this forgiveness
process both parts win, but it is well recognized that the part winning the most is
the one leaving the burden aside first. We invite you to do it and be the first one.

Holding on to anger is one of the heaviest and most disturbing feelings we could
have. As Buddha stated one: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with
the intent of throwing it at somebody else; you are the one who gets burned”.
After all, keeping resentment causes psychological pain, or even physical, more to
us, than to the one that hurt, and ironically, it binds us to that person deeper than
we would like.
The most important is to keep in mind that when we forgive, we are freeing ourselves
from our own slavery and the chains that leash us. We get rid of pain and resentment we
had as a heavy burden over our spine, giving path to freedom. Even when forgiving, we
finally end that chapter unfinished in the past. Forgiving means accepting what happened
and taking out what we learned, to give path to a deep unattachment, not only from facts
and accusations from the others, but from ourselves as well. Forgiveness is good to the
body, the mind, human relations and to find our role in the world. Some further benefits
when forgiving are the following:

- You will extend your life. Those people practicing forgiveness as part of their daily
habits are prone to live more years than those who only do it in outstanding
circumstances.

- You soothe your anger. When you regard forgiveness as a lifestyle, anger decreases
until it fades with the consequent change in your life quality.
- You will sleep better. Forgiveness is related to a good night rest. As a result, a better
life quality is developed.

TIPS:

- Forgiveness is hard to get, but not impossible. Change the thought of hate and upset for
the person or reason hurting you. Each moment, when it comes to your mind, avoid
spending your time in that and change it for a positive thought. In other words, you can
repeat to yourself as necessary a phrase like this: “I thank you for what you taught to
me, so I free you. May you be happy”. Remember that what you keep in your mind and
put forward is what you attract.

- It is worthy to consider that feeling is not enough; expressing what you felt and let it go
out is essential. This can be done by talking with a trustworthy person or either by
writing a letter to that person who hurt you, even if you do not deliver it, putting a chair
in front of you and talking to it as if it was the one who harmed you.

At the end of the day, we all make mistakes and we are not perfect. Either you
choose new departed ways or you want to have that person close again, you will
not bear something heavy or negative towards them. Therefore, you will
authentically have freed them from your system. Remember that forgiveness
benefits you, not the other person!

15. COME CLOSER TO NATURE

Apart from enjoying the landscape, nature has other benefits to your health in general: it
decreases pollution that impacts you, as well as asthma and allergy, it enhances your
positive thoughts, stimulates creativity and sociability and, even more important,
performing an outdoor activity decreases stress and mental fatigue. Some studies show
that people living in places with sights to nature tend to be more harmonious.

Be conscious that being in touch with nature is like the “plug” that we sometimes ask to
recharge not our electronic devices, but ourselves. It will be useful to chill out our body
and mind, and most of all, it will be useful to recharge ourselves with energy to continue
our hubbub and successfully end all our daily duties. We operate as a biological electric
circuit and, as every circuit, we might need cleaning and recharging our energy in some
occasions. That is why walking barefoot on earth, for example, allows us to discharge the
excess of polluted energy. Direct contact with earth, and even better with wet grass, will
lead us to systemic self-regulation.

There are nervous endings at the soles of feet and stimulating them on wet grass is very
healthy. Feet are always imprisoned in shoes, so freeing them produces immediately a
pleasant sensation.

On the other hand, our modern building systems have brought great advantages
to our life and development; however, implementing them (not always ideally)
has reduced our contact with natural areas. When being in contact with nature,
consider: you are part of nature, and nature lives inside you. It is not in fields,
mountains and flowers only, but in you: you are nature. Being in contact with
nature is like being in contact with yourself and taking care of it is, foremost,
taking care of yourself.
TIPS:

- Exploit every space in your life to be in contact with your inner nature. If you can
take a stroll, look at the flowers and sit next to a lake, that’s great! Otherwise, try
to have some plants or flowers, images of nature, high quality sounds where you
can hear a river, a sea, night sounds, etc. Your brain will be in tune with it.

- Embed something about nature to the architecture of your space, allow yourself
to be in contact with it and to take care about it. It is the most obvious thing, but
not the most common one actually.

- A mild exposure to solar light is suitable and healthy, as vitamin D is fabricated

in our body thanks to the action of ultraviolet rays (UVA). On the other hand,
contact with both sun and air improves capacities of body and balances the
emotional part.

- A exercise both stimulating for the body and relaxing for the mind is walking in
synchrony with breathing. A way to achieve so is breathing in at the first four
steps, hold in the air the next four steps without forcing it, and the next four steps
breathe out. Take one more step afterwards and repeat.

- A great way to be full of vitality is contact with nature. An easy way of verifying
it hugging to a tree at the same time you breathe in and out to absorb all the
strength of the trunk – an excellent technique to release tensions and to feel
yourself fulfilled.

16. VISUALIZE

We are constantly visualizing or thinking of images. This can either strengthen or

weaken you, whether it impels or connects you with your goal or pulls you away
from it. The principle is simple: we react physically or psychologically to any
image we set in our mind. Visualizing is a great tool as it brings you quality in
what you want to do, live or achieve. It will be useful in all areas of your life and it
is easy to perform, since we think daily.

We are interested of implementing positive visualization. It’s our imagination applied to

any aim we wish to achieve. It’s like when we dream awake: we imagine ourselves or we
project ourselves in a place we want to go, for instance: a mountain, a beach, another
country… Or like when we mentally thwart an event. For example: when we have to talk
at a meeting or a sport event, and we imagine it before it actually happens. This kind of
visualization helps us to achieve our goals: health, wealth, love relations or any field we
want to apply them.

Visualization is our entrance gate to a life full of abundance and blessings. With it, we can
attract virtually everything we wish to our lives. That is why we must be specific at
regarding what we wish and we want to achieve (Law of Attraction in action) and above
all, we must keep up positive thoughts. This way, we will only attract good things of life
and we will put aside doubts, fear and any negative thought blocking us and our energy.
You can practice these steps for a good visualization:

1. Choose an image which inspires you the most or projects what you want (love,
success, vacations, material things, etc.).
2. Pay attention for 30 seconds and then close your eyes, letting your imagination
materialize that image.
3. Visualize yourself being there or using what you want and feel that intensely.
4. Try feeling as you were remembering that very clearly, “as in a déjà-vu”.

TIPS:

- Select images of what you want and make a collage or a folder in your computer
where you can visualize them and have them together to make your
visualization exercises. Consider they will be more effective, if you practice them
24/7.

- For your manifestation to be effective, our emotional and mental state must be
relaxed. The more relaxed we are at the moment of visualization, the more
chances we will have to manifest.

- Emotions are our best ally. Projecting images in our mind per se is not enough if
we don’t bind them to a specific emotion. For example: don’t just imagine a new
job. Focus on feeing what is to have that job – visualize the details… how would
you feel at arriving to your new office with it?

- Repetition is key. The more you repeat visualization, the more effective it will be.
That is why careful must be taken when concentrating in our fears of worries:
you’ll eventually attract them constantly. Use that very power but to manifest
nice things in your life.

- Deepen into details. Spare… see every detail of that place, how you and those
surrounding you dress, how the weather is, what’s going on, if you smell
something or smile at something, what accessories there are, and so on.

17. ORGANIZE YOURSELF

Organization allows us to achieve certain goals or objectives more easily and

efficient. That is why when our things or deals are a mess, work is twice as
difficult and we generate unneeded mental confusion! Organization and order are
deeply related to your health and productivity, as they prevent stress and allow a
better use of your resources. Hence the benefit for your personal life, job and
finances.

What about more order in your house, office or documents? It would seem a
titanic task and that is easier said than done, right? Relax, take it easy. The goal is
not to have it all organized the same day, but instead, organizing two or three
things day after day so over the time, and when you notice it, your life, work and
leisure areas are even clearer and more organized. Keeping your spaces, life and
mind well organized is at your reach. By doing so, you are taking care about your
energy and your current and future success.

These are some other advantages you will get by being more organized:

- You increase your control and self-confidence. When successfully planning what
you do or expect, you will feel you keep it all under control. You do it over and
over and you’ll increase your confidence over time.

- Greater concentration and creativity. Accomplishing a greater concentration in

our daily activities is an important benefit of being organized. On the other hand,
our mind won’t be busy in next appointments, deadlines or any other thing
generating uncertainty and concern. Your mind will be free and prepared for
creation process.

- You will project a better image. The fact that you are organized will be perceived
from outside and you will convey more security with the other people. All our
social circle will notice the difference: our relatives, friends, clients, employees
and bosses.

- It decreases your stress. The more foreseeable and the more planned things are,
the lower the uncertainty about what will happen to us will be. If there’s
confidence about everything under control, we won’t worry so much about what
will happen. This means less diary stress in a nutshell.

- More spare time. If everything is well organized, then we won’t waste time in
those small events not considered previously. All that spare time will be used in
what actually generates us value. That time will be dedicated to our study, job or
simple using for entertainment.

TIPS:

- Define a place for each thing and get used to leave it there when having finished using
it.

- If you foul something, clean it immediately: why keeping it dirty for a time?

- Get a file cabinet where you can keep all your papers or documents not sorted out.

- If there are big things or spaces to sort out, then start by sorting out smaller areas. After
finishing one, continue with the following and so on.

- Review each thing by the joy it generates you. Keep every article than brings you joy
and don’t keep things with no meaning for you.

- Support yourself! Get yourself surrounded by someone to talk to or your favorite music
to do your task more enjoyable.
- Change the way of thinking about things taking your space. If something new comes in,
something old must come out. That is how you make sure you don’t amass unnecessary
things and energy flows.

18. BE THOROUGH
Thoroughness is keeping care in small details. Being thorough means being careful, even
with those things that sometimes seem to have no importance. It allows us a complete
assessment of things, not shallow but more complex or deeper. Many people tend to
leave loose ends, since they consider they have zero importance, they are not worthy
taking them into account or either dealing with them at proper time… Those small details
might make them stumble later.

Emphasis of doing well an activity, habitude of organizing tasks and projects, tendency of
thinking about things very carefully and commitment to always finish what is started – all
features of thoroughness – pay out well in many areas of life, some of them more
foreseeable, like study, and other ones astonishing, like health.

Being on time, scrupulous, diligent and detailed – in short, thorough – might benefit brain
health as well, according to another study from the Rush University Medical Center
(RUMC), in Chicago: those with a thorough life seems to be less prone to develop
Alzheimer disease, compared to people with lower levels of awareness and thoroughness.
A determined, thorough personality seems to have a protective effect over the brain,
developing neuron connections that can function as a reserve against mental decay.
Another study at the same facilities in New York concluded that thorough people aware of
details are less prone to chronic diseases. Polls showed that more organized, responsible,
scrupulous people measure more the consequences of their actions, thus being more
prudent when adopting behavior that could be a risk for health.

You can notice many things to detail or improve at your own environment and duties.
Either at home or at work, those details constantly appear, and the goal is to deal with
them according to the importance you assign them.

It is good to pay attention to this topic without being perfectionist, as it can

become a bigger problem and a cause of much unhappiness, as it is to be sloppy
or inconsiderate. Balance in attention to details is an important element for your
life as it allows you to make things better, live with more awareness of your
actions and have better results.

You will feel better and calmer after doing so!

TIPS:

- Once you have finished some activity, get used to review it twice. Is there
something you can improve? If so, do it. You will have the satisfaction and peace
of getting a job done and/or keeping things and deals in order.

- Be on time with undertaken appointments and commitments.

- With your partner… if we watch closer long-term relationship, we will see they
are between people with no “broken windows”, as they take care of life in
common. That is a way of showing day by day, that the feeling that brought
them together is still alive. Fix something as soon as possible if it is not solved
and look for details you have lost with your partner.

19. WRITE OUT YOUR PLAN

Not everything you want to have, achieve, or perform, needs a plan in life, but for
most things it’s the best. And that is right: the plan won’t be always followed, but
it does give a method and direction where to go to. In other words, writing out our
plans helps us to observe more clearly what we want to achieve as well as our
mind to find options and resources to do so. If we don’t set goals and a plan to
make them, we run the risk of coming to a standstill so one day we will ask
ourselves: What interesting thinks have I done in life? What else I should have
tried out? What important things have I gotten? Achieving has to do with learning
and living experiences we deserve.

All our goals and objectives are big and important, no matter how small they seem. The
fact of setting a specific goal and giving the first steps to achieve it generates a special
sensation of well-being and happiness! You feel a growing confidence in your own
capacities. Goals start with small steps that achieve our final prize or objective in life,
namely, switching jobs, improving health, a relationship, etc. It is not really about doing
big things, but to consciously make things we had not done before instead.

Consider making a plan on a sheet or device, following the next steps:

A) Set the MOST important goal you want to achieve this year – What do you
want? Are you willing to do everything needed to make it happen?
B) In order to achieve any long or medium-term goal, divide it into smaller steps during
the time you want to achieve it, so you keep going on clearly and boldly.
C) Your plan must be as flexible as possible. Then you must update and/or modify if
necessary.
D) Try to set a date for everything, either for your whole goal or for the small steps the
goal is made of.
E) Every now and then (weekly is advisable), review your monthly, quarterly, yearly, life-
long goals, so you don’t lose track and motivation of things you want to achieve. If you
get the job done properly, reward yourself.

TIPS:

Always begin with the longest objective, so everybody is inspired by you. You can
help yourself with the question: if I really want to achieve this, then what do I
need? Ideas will come to your mind in the coming months.

- Yearly plan. Define how do you want to be, what do you want to achieve, who do you
want to be surrounded with, etc., in your life this year.
- Bimonthly, quarterly, half-yearly plan, or as wished. Plan according to the term you see
the best to meet your annual goals. Divide those goals per month.

- Monthly plan. Now concentrate in the first month and divide those goals you want to
meet per week.

- Weekly plan. Next, concentrate in the first week and schedule what do you have to do to
meet your goals of that week, day by day.

- Daily plan. Finally, concentrate from first day and list the things you must do for your
day to be successful and you achieve what you aimed to.

20. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN

There are so many tricks to reach the goal/objective we have aimed to and one
very effective and very used is: “Don’t break the chain”. It is just a self-motivation
technique made popular by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who used it to force himself
to work in new jokes. The idea is to have a chronogram of activities or tasks and
stick to it no matter what. To start it up, you just need a calendar. If it is gorgeous
and nice, that’s fine! However, whichever you pick is enough.

If you have chosen a paper calendar, hang it in a place you can appreciate it,
either at the office or home. You can also choose another option of any digital
calendar you like, easy to reach as well. The important thing is that you can see it
every day. Pick a skill you want to learn or improve an activity you have difficult
times with, ranging things so diverse like: “Run 30 minutes every day”, “Do my
FIT360 training workout �” or “Read at least 10 minutes of my new book”, you
choose what you want to continue. Mark with an X the days you have done the
task, so your calendar is starting to be like this XXXXXX. In this way, you will be
doing a chain. After several days of doing so, your chain will grow every day, and
what is the goal? Not breaking the chain, of course, not missing an X in your
calendar. While your chain grows, you become more and more involved and
motivated. And from a psychological view, breaking the chain is harder.

What are the main benefits of “not breaking the chain”?

 It helps you to get into habits – You consistently get into habits, allowing you to
deal with pending tasks you don’t like to do every day.
 It is especially accurate to attend repetitive tasks that seem to “never end”, like
managing finances, supporting your clients or new ways of generating incomes.
 It tends to be more useful to get very long-term objectives, like those projects with
long death lines, as we normally become overconfident and procrastinate with
them.
 It is remarkably easy to use – It needs no kind of learning and you only need simple
tools, like an activity, a calendar and a marker.

Daily actions transform into habits. Just practice it and you’ll become an expert soon. If
you don’t break the chain, you’ll start to sport chances you wouldn’t have seen
otherwise. Small improvements quickly pill up into bigger progress, as quotidian action
gives you “compound interests”.
TIPS:

Choose the calendar you like, and you want to use:

1. Set a goal or objective.

2. Mark the days you are going to use to reach that goal.
3. Seek creation of your chain as a motivating tool.
4. Choose shape and color you want your chain to have (“X”,” ∞”,” ~”, blue, gold, etc.).

Track your progress one week. After completion, you will see that second week will
be easy to do! Same as the upcoming ones. You can make this chain thinking
about one or several activities in your day.

21. DONATE- HELP- ENGAGE

Being helpful is one of the greatest satisfaction we could have in life: how many
times receiving help has left us enthusiastic as well? Like human beings, we are
part of social circles that interact and benefit from each other. We have been
helped many times in life and giving and sowing something we have received so
far is also important. Helping is the most normal thing of world, and somebody
needs what you have to give. Definitely, no matter how unbelievable it is, you
have a skill that can benefit the others. All the economical, physical, mental,
emotional effort we do benefit not only us but also the others. In this way, you’ll
be creating a bigger sense of well-being for your life and for the rest of people.

Helping and supporting other enormously contributes to achieve full happiness. Practice
of good will in daily life generates big benefits to your own health and the mood of the
others. Some positive effects for our life we get when helping others are listed below:

- Your self-esteem and self-image are revitalized. The self-concept you had totally
changes, making you to see how much you are worth and what you are able to do.
- Negative cholesterol levels decrease.
- Depressions go away from your life, even getting rid of medication in some cases.
- You will live more time, as it has been demonstrated that death rate of those who help is
lower.
- You will notice you feel more energic and optimistic in your life. You will start to
appreciate more all that you have.
- Risk of suffering dementia will decrease 70%. It has been demonstrated that elder
people, who are more active and committed to everybody else, can remember better.
- Negative feelings decrease.
- Your immunological system improves, therefore moving yourself away from diseases.
Your body will become more resistant against possible infections.
- You become aware of other realities. You realize that those own problems that seem to
be so important… are not so big actually.
- You will become a more sociable person. You will see how your relationships with people
around you, relatives, friends or workmates dramatically improve. You will overcome
shyness or any other obstacle that blocked you.
- Your blood pressure will be more stable, contributing to a better heart health.
TIPS:

We all have something to give to other people in our own way and in our chances, with no
exception. Big actions are not essential, as everything counts and adds. The best way of
helping others is giving them part of our time, listening to them, being empathetic and
giving them our company, not only by giving money.

To feel the great benefits in our health, sharing at least two hours a week of our time with
the others is advisable. You’ll notice there is no other wonderful thing than helping the
others. At the same time, you help yourself. Though you think otherwise, you can give a
lot to the life of others.

Try helping actively and every day (if you can) somebody with money, teaching or
participation. Stay humble.

22. ORGANIZE YOUR EXPENSES

The world lives in a constant economic fluctuation, and the opportunity of
increasing or decreasing your wealth is always around the corner. For this reason,
it is important to help yourself with a better control and care of your resources, so
you will be protected from leaks, expenses and downfalls you can prevent.
Spending is not only about your economic resources but your mental, emotional
resources as well. The goal of organizing your expenses is also that you realize
WHEN and HOW you invest your energy, so you can use your resources more
favorably.

Duties and debts that generate us stress make us think often that all in this life is
about money and without it, life wouldn’t be possible. Moreover, this resource is
the origin of many problems and at once, happiness generated many times,
mainly when we improve somehow our life quality. Therefore, if we keep a
monthly control of our expenses spending an amount to diverse purposes, we will
see that we can have a portion for eventualities as we have set it.
Advices to manage better your money
- Learn more about finances: you can take lessons, watch seminars, read a book or
talking to masters of this topic, and you will learn more about how to manage better
your money.

- If you have debts, pay them as soon as possible: it is important that you don’t let them
pile up, as if you don’t pay them back in the very moment, interest rate and late interest
may treble original debts, ending with your payroll and causing health issues to you.

- Never spend more than you earn: you don’t need to know a lot about economy to know
that. It’s just a matter of logic: if you spend more than you receive, you find in a deficit
situation and you will never have a surplus to save.

- Cast off a small amount every moth: 10 % of your income to save it is advisable. It is
also important to take into account, to have an emergency fund that covers at least six
months of your monthly expenses if some eventuality happens in a moment.
TIPS:

- Analyze your current situation, what your incomes are, what your monthly expenses are.
Have them written and well organized.

- First of all, make an income budget with those received surely month after month. With
this in mind, you can determine which resources you have available.

- Then, make an account of your expenses. Include fixed costs like rental payment, phone
plan, public services, credits, etc. To that point, it would be valuable to analyze if in any
of them we can spend less. For instance, we look for a cheaper fee in some services.

- Next, we suggest regulating expenses, according to the priority each one has.

- Lastly, keeping a register of anything spent every day would be needed. This will help
you to have your expense under control and watch which ones would be able to be
avoided or saved.

- Write about your changes in expenses. You know that they would possible have
better results, but you are not doing them (you are your inner coach!)
- Write at least ten and decide to do two per week. Keep a register of your
progress.
- Aim at writing them always, because in this way your brain pursues more
resources to remember it.

23. MAKE WHAT YOU FIND DIFFICULT

The way to success regularly comes with certain hardships: coming out from our
comfort zone, doing new activities, pioneering through unknown territory.
Actually, anticipating those obstacles and preparing for them is convenient, as
when we start a highway trip, we go camping or to an event. An important point is
that you have the skill and practice to make things you find hard or you don’t like,
but you know they bring big benefit both for you and your goal.

The secret lies on the reward. Focus on the fact that if you do something you don’t like,
something good will happen at the end. In that way, your brain will associate those not so
pleasant tasks to something rewarding.

Practice the following advices, including some other habits explained in our app to relieve
doing your tasks:

- Reload your energy. When you finish that activity that is hard for you, reload your
mind and your body somehow. Thus, you will be able to prefer fulfilling the same activity
the next day. 20-minute mediation could be an alternative, while another could be using
your lunch time to be in contact with nature. You can also do 5-10-minute stretching
exercises at your office.

- Combine your activities with your hobbies. Many tasks you have to do are very
repetitive and mechanic, but you can reward yourself performing at the same time some
 hobby, for example, you can listen to your favorite music, or you can agree on with
some relative to have a lunch. Then, you can eat and have a good time while you do a
task.

- Set an earning. You can link a task you don’t like with a monetary payback. How?
Dedicating some money to something you find funny, for example, going to a concert.
Having a project and feeling you help by making it happen with every task you do turns
out to be more stimulating.

- Look for proper time. Don’t procrastinate until lunch time or last hour of day, as
you will be more tired, with not so much energy and you have it twice harder. This is one
of the main reasons why you have to get rid of it as soon as possible – you leave it and
when you reach the limit, you will be over tired and things will be worse.

- Use affirmations. In some occasions, we don’t enjoy doing certain things because we
think it is not our responsibility, but we feel constrained to do them. Preparing to do
required activities is a good idea. You can use affirmations to change your mood and the
way you perceive them (“I love doing my best in everything I do”, “I’m sure I can have
fun with that”).

TIPS:

- To avoid procrastination and boredom during task you’d rather avoid, remember that
you’ll gain after completion. “Why” on what we do is by far more motivating than
“what”.

- Challenge yourself to work more efficiently or quicker. Make it a game: this game could
be as silly or fun as you want, as soon as it motivates you to carry on. The point is to
keep your brain interested and to prevent boredom monotony.

- Modify the tasks you have. Could you organize what you have to do in another way?
When listing the least favorite tasks and finding new ways to do it, you will increase
your motivation.

24. INVEST IN YOURSELF

Money and resources constantly flow in our live. Sometimes as expenses and
preferably as investment. You are an investor, although you don’t know it, as not
only money is invested, but other resources as well, and even if you haven’t
realized that, there is a very important resource you have been investing during
your life: your time. Every day, life grants us 24 hours we can invest in what we
want, and you are the only person that decides where to invest your time. All our
actions are therefore an investment.

Investing in yourself is the investment with the best cost-benefit ratio you can do. With no
doubt, it’s by far better than acquiring shares from any company. There are definitely two
big advantages, compared to other ways of investment. The first one: all the benefits of
investing in oneself are lifelong, not temporal. All you live or learn today will be useful for
you forever. The second advantage: all benefits acquired pill up and exponentially grow.
This is not an operation like 5 + 5, but rather 5 × 5. Learning another language, for
example, will open many doors to you; these doors open other doors, and so on.

So, what are you investing your time in? It would be wonderful that you reflect for a
moment in what and how you invest your time every day. Are you investing enough in
yourself? If you keep investing the same way as now, what would be the advantages in 2-
3 years? The following steps are good advices for investing in yourself.

- Invest in how you project yourself. The fact that you have an appearance according
to your goals and your current situation can bring you an advantage over your close
mates, and make you immediately stand out, especially with people you meet for the
first time. And what’s more important: you help to increase your self-esteem, as you like
yourself and you feel well with yourself. If you feel LOVE towards yourself, you attract
more LOVE.

- Personal growth. Spend needed time to learn and specialize yourself in new things
through books, videos or podcasts, just to mention an example. If you wish to lead, you
need to learn more. If you wish to keep leading, you must keep learning even more.

- Health. Some good workout routines or physical activities make great difference that
benefits other areas of your life, like cutting off stress, which in turn dramatically affects
your health.

- Master a hobby you have passion for. Aside of the fact that those hobbies will
stimulate your brain, your body and your creativity, they are all incredible stress
catalyzers.

TIPS:

To adopt this habit and get its benefits, we recommend you to assign a
percentage of your monthly income and spend it in some of the more important
areas for this type of investment, namely: improvement of your image, expansion
of your mind, going inside your emotions and psyche, strengthening of your
health, standing out in your job, increasing your economic or technical knowledge,
outfit, general culture or leisure, vacations, rest, etc.

Choose the two areas that attire your attention and make a plan to invest in them.

You can spend at least 2 hours per week to that hobby you are eager to practice.

25. OPTIMISM

Being optimistic doesn’t mean being naïve, fool or simply imagining that just by
thinking positive thing will change. Being optimistic is recognizing (or wanting to
recognize) that we live in the best universe possible, that we can overcome
anything we are undergoing and that we can achieve what we have set by putting
our faculties (developed and to develop) into practice. By definition, optimism is
the fundamental key of success you have set, as it boosts you up, cheers you up
and encourages to look for ways of fulfilling what you have set – because it is
possible.

Positive people see all happenings as positive and as an evidence of other good things to
come. Furthermore, they not only believe in themselves, they also take more risks and
they create more positive events in their lives. They deal directly with problems instead
of running away, they put forward an action plan, they ask for help or advises from
others, and they focus on solutions. Optimism keeps a relationship with motivation and
perseverance. Optimistic people stay motivated and persist more, because they expect a
positive outcome and although they don’t get it, they can learn and grow from the
negative experience. Optimistic people focus on what to change and don’t waste time
thinking about what cannot be controlled to be different. They enjoy the present and look
on the future, leaving the past, with no waste of time in complaining over what had to be
done, or in mistakes that has no longer a solution. Optimistic people forgive themselves
and carry on.

If you practice looking at the positive side of things, you will not only be happier, but
healthier, you will live more positive experiences and you will be less stressed. Among
many further benefits from optimism, the following are:
- You increase your confidence and security. You adopt the feeling that everything will be
alright. Even when other people see all negative in a situation, you keep the hope that
everything happens in your favor.

- You get the skill of discerning the positive and the negative. You hold what is good and
you throw away what is bad at any situation.

- Instead of seeing a problem, you see a chance. You find benefits not seen by anyone.
You simply are certain that all the opportunities are everywhere, and you must take
advantage of them to grow as well.

- You keep a stable mood. You avoid developing any emotional disorder that can be a
problem or a difficult issue affecting other activities.

- You detailly analyze any situation or problem. You keep a positive attitude and an open
mind to find out solutions.
TIPS:
Self-esteem is the assessment you make of yourself globally. To know what to change in
order to achieve a style of positive, optimistic thought, you must firstly assess your way
of thinking. We all have an inner dialogue. The matter is whether optimistic or negative
thoughts, messages and phrases remain. Practice writing out in the dairy you use, either
from app or from your personal preference, during one week, all those not positive
thoughts and you will start realizing how frequently you do so. Challenge yourself
afterwards to find the positive point from each negative situation you are going through.

Acknowledge positive things in your daily life. For example, think about or write at least
three good things that happened to you, even if you had to sort out hardships. You must
take into account that positive, optimistic attitude is something stable. It is not about a
moment of happiness, but a global posture of a person towards the world.

26. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

If you have a plan, a goal, a dream to make come true or if you have a disease, a
problem or a difficulty, taking responsibility rather than acknowledging it is
important. Acknowledging is to say: “Yeah, this is mine”. But taking it is getting
the ball rolling. This and preparing yourself goes hand by hand, but they are yours
and come with yourself. You can consult the guide, the doctor and everybody who
knows about the topic you are working at, but just by you making things happen
will bring the results and the prize to claim after getting them.

How many times we haven’t thought and stated that other people are to blame of our
bad things? We think: “If only that person was like this”, “If only that person hadn’t said
so”, “If only he or she were more caring or punctilious”, “If only that person hadn’t done
that to me” … We are convinced that others are to blame of what affects us. Are we
taking responsibility of our own life in this way? No way!! Many people complain about
their partners or exes, their relatives, their bosses, government, their bad luck, their
friends. Are we actually taking responsibility of our experience in life? No way!! We play
our role of victims in life!

Those people having a high self-esteem take responsibility of their own life and have an
active role, rather than a passive one facing hardships. They look for alternatives to solve
rather than blaming themselves or putting blame on someone to fix their problems.
Besides that, they strive for achieving their goals at their own, without waiting for
someone to solve their life or answers to fall out from sky.

People who have taken responsibility of their own existence are more confident of
themselves and they are ready to face off life challenges. Consequently, they will be
more secure with themselves day by day. On the other hand, people with no responsibility
of their own actions feel victim of everybody else and they complain because of their bad
luck. To start living in a more responsible way, it is necessary to admit that nobody will
help us anytime we need something. Once we have accepted that the responsibility of
our life is within us, we will become more active and capable and, thus our self-esteem
will increase.

TIPS:

- Taking the responsibility means never blaming somebody of what one is, does, has or
feels. In order to have control of our life, we have to understand that we are what we
cause in our own head.

- Taking the responsibility means reflecting over what one wants in his life and act
according to it. First of all, we have to set our own goals in life and then, let’s work to
achieve them!
- If there is something in your life that seems not working out or “stuck”, reflect a good
moment about that and write out the causes why you think it is stuck. Later, analyze
each cause and write how can YOU solve it. Sometimes, it seems there is no other
choice but try and explore the different options.

- If you spend your time in a job or activity that doesn’t give you something, that has no
future for you, what blocks you to look for your actual passion? Who forced you to start
this task? If you have a love relationship where you don’t feel happy anymore, who
blocks you from moving away? Who keeps you in that relationship? If any part of your
life is controlled by other people it’s because you have chosen to pass on the control of
your life to those people.

- Taking responsibility means knowing how and where responsibility to change has not
been taken. Say it aloud: “There is no other people who can make me happy… BUT
ME!!”. You must analyze where the problem is and what you must try to solve it.

27. DON’T FILL UP WITH BAD NEWS

Be careful with fear, unneeded worry and morbidity of tragedies, economy and
misfortunes. “Don’t fill up” doesn’t mean to ignore things happening right now,
but that paying attention to everything that is going on is neither necessary nor
sane, let alone if everything seems to be negative, which is a big lie!

Charles Darwin talked about the topic. Our system prefers negative stimuli because they
alert us from possible dangers. However, this means that our perceptions tend to be
more influenced by bad news rather than good ones – when we create an impression of
somebody, we generally give greater weight to the negative traits than positive aspects.
In the same way, when we look for a good explanation to the things happening to us, we
spend more attention and energy to the good than to the bad. This trend is a matter of
evolution.

Build-up of negative informative news we receive harms our health. They cause us to be
more fearful, aggressive, and they decrease our creativity and capacity of reflection. If
you stop reading news or seeing the whole news break, you will feel happier, as
demonstrated. News are to the brain, as sugar is to the body: easy to intake and
pleasant, requires not much effort, but in the long run they will eventually harm us. They
apparently keep us informed, but “news” fill our brain with facts lacking of practical or
theoretical utility for our lives and we usually don’t care about that at all.

On the other hand, news activates constantly the limbic system of the brain.
Catastrophes announced at headlines or news break every day release high quantities of
glucocorticoids (cortisol), thus altering immune system and reducing the production of
growth hormone, which is in charge of regenerating the body. News can put a person with
a still life into a situation of chronical stress. High levels of glucocorticoids harm digestion,
decrease growth of skin, hair and bone cells, increase nervousness and make you to be
prone to infections.
Therefore, the most important thing to consider is that when we are in a pessimistic
mood, our tendency to negative is intensified; that is why negative attracts more
negative things. For that reason, you must take care of what you are feeding your mood
with: do you keep listening to bad news? Do you spend a lot of time watching images or
videos of injustices or abuses? Do you invest more time in reading bad news rather than
looking for positive information? Do you find hard to find what is good in what is wrong
that happens to you?

TIPS:

Spend more time to reach your goals, objectives and responsibilities first. As soon
as you have raised your energy for having met your goals and you have free time,
then you will be able to pick elements from the outside world that may be
interesting for you and motivate you. If not, keeping on work in your goals is not
recommended.

Try, mainly, not reading nor watching negative news or getting flooded with those not
giving anything to your life at night. This way, you will have a better rest and your brain
won’t go to sleep with pessimistic images and thoughts about bad events that happened.
You will be able to sleep with a better mood.

It is not about radically avoiding being informed, not even being unaware about what is
going on in the world, but not developing an addiction to information and MAINLY,
negative information, instead.

28. SELF-DISCIPLINE

Discipline is the ability of setting a minimum order, necessary to accurately

perform an activity. It requires persistence to get the desired results, supporting
eventualities this can provoke. Discipline is required at schools, offices, hospitals,
in all institutions. That is why schedules, terms, rules, penalizations, etc. are set.
On the other hand, self-discipline is the ability of setting oneself this order to
make things more efficiently, usefully, constantly, without quitting or waning
when trying.

Self-discipline allows you to stick to the way towards your objectives and believing
in yourself. It is intensely related to your will; therefore, it is reflected into your
actions and the strength that grows in you. Believe in it, no to the extent of
abiding by hard rules, but in committing yourself and being proactive in what you
want and for what you are willing to work. Discipline, through habits and routines,
gives you the ability of taking control and structure to your life. This the only thing
to help you progressing constantly towards any goal you set.

Once you are conscious about your ability to execute, with no doubt, what you think of
achieving what is on paper, you can be certain and confident that all you want to obtain
can be embodied by yourself.

In order to have more self-discipline, you must have:

- A “why”. This why doesn’t need to be motivating or filling you with illusion. It only has to
make sense for you. It can be a necessity, something that motivates you or making
somebody happy.

- Start by having discipline with small routines, choosing three to do every day: for
example, making the bed when you wake up, washing dishes after eating, using stairs
rather than elevator, drinking more water. Starting with those small changes in your
routines will give you more security and will motivate you.

- Don’t delay. Besides that, every time you delay these activities, the anxiety you have
with them will increase.

- Ease things. If you get everything required previously set, that will be easy for you: sport
clothing, diet food, neat office, putting notes or visual reminders.

- Prepare a counter-excuse for each excuse. It means that you have a plan B for every
“but” that comes to your mine: “It’s very cold outside”, “Then put on a jacket to jog”,
“I’m starting diet tomorrow”, “If you start it tomorrow, then you’ll feel more satisfied and
motivated to give the second step”.

TIPS:

The following points will help you to focus and have more discipline. Always keep
them in your mind:

- What do you want to achieve specifically?

- With all honesty, what reasons drive you to meet this goal?
- What are the distractors you must delete or control?
- How are you going to control distractors, so they don’t kill your goal?
- How would you organize your activities according to their importance?
- What kind of reports, graphics or methods are you going to make sure you are
making progress towards your objectives with?
- Try being fresh and with high energy when doing a task. The energy bar must be
at 60-100% to perform it properly and having that will power to yield properly and
to have that needed will power to overcome our negative thoughts.
- Remove or reduce the distractions for your activity (phone, internet, tablet,
email, etc.).

29. LET YOUR LANGUAGE BE POWER

Hack your unconscious mind by switching how you speak or how you express yourself.

Language is a powerful tool for communication and it has much more influence in our
lives than expected, but have you done just the opposite of what you wanted? Something
like: “I’m not falling, I’m not falling” and you end up falling, or “I won’t be wrong, I won’t
be wrong” and you blunder. Causes are rooted in that mysterious part of our brain known
as: the unconscious. What we have to consider is that when we say something
consciously, it might have effects in our unconscious.
Unconscious simply doesn’t know how to process negatives. If you say to yourself, “I
can’t be wrong”, “I’m not falling”, “I must not eat junk food”, unconscious will have
images about wrongness, falling and junk food (no matter if you like those things or not).
This doesn’t mean you’ll always blunder, fall or eat what you have in front of you, but
chances of this to happen dramatically increase.

Rephrasing is the best technique you can use for you language to be in your favor (i.e.
saying the same, but with different words), and expressing your desires in the affirmative
sense. Some examples to the aforementioned ideas would be: “I always do things well”,
“I walk boldly”, “I’ve decided to eat healthy stuff”. If you’re still not convinced by this,
think about the following: What is better, saying “I’m not a liar” or “I’m a person who
always says the truth”? “I’m trying not to be wrong” or “I’m doing my activities well”?

Something similar happens to another level, when we want to achieve something. “I don’t
want to be fat”, “I don’t want to have more debts”, “I don’t want to do my job wrongly”.
You will feel better and you’ll be on another way to meet your goal if you rephrase those
statements to something like “I want to get slim”, “I want to be creditworthy”, “I want to
do my job wonderfully”, just to give some examples.
As a complement for these ideas, the way we express ourselves is as if we had to
do but these things. Phrases starting with “have to” are so common to fall into
this category, to have this sensation of burden behind them and it’s worth to
check inside you whether you really want to or you have to, but you can change
your attitude towards this and choose and a better way to express it, so you show
power, authority and choice from your part.

TIPS:
- “I’ve chosen to _______”, “I would like to _______ “,” I’m going to _________”, “I
want to __________”, might mean a more conscious decision from your part until
doing any action. A language of power and authority about yourself is crucial for
your success.
- To set solid goals, they must be expressed in an affirmative way (“I want to lose weight”,
“I want to save money”), be specific (“I want to lose # pounds”, “I want to save #
bucks”) and terms must be set as well (“I want to lose # pounds in two months”, “I want
to save # bucks at the end of the year”).
- Remove using expressions, such as “I’m so silly”, “Now I’m a fool”, etc. If you repeat
frequently those phrases, you’ll unconsciously play that very role of “silly” or “fool”.
Repetition makes brain to get used to the idea that we are actually what we say over
and over.
- When you face off any complicated situation that is a challenge for you, the simplest
way to find out an exit is asking yourself “How can I…” or “How is this possible?”. This
way of communicating with yourself sends to your brain the encrypted message that
THERE IS A WAY OUT and consequently, your brain triggers mechanisms to do so.
30. SLEEP WELL

Sleeping poorly has terrible effects in your health, mood, and appearance, so
enough sleep is very important to let your mind and body repair themselves to
that optimal state. Sleep, like hydration, is a priority. Consider the main benefits
you get with a good sleep:
- It makes you healthier. Our immunization system uses sleep time to
regenerate, which allows us to cope with toxins and germs constantly defying
us.

- Sleeping makes your heart healthier. Heart strokes and attacks are more common
during early hours, this can be explained by the way sleep interacts with blood vessels.

- Concentration. Failure of sleeping enough affects our concentration the next day and
we’ll struggle to hold data. Researches state that when sleeping, brain cells can stop
and correct any damage suffered by day.

- It helps to lose weight. Lack of sleep makes fat cells to release less leptin, the hunger
avoiding hormone. In the same way, insomnia causes stomach to release more ghrelin
(hunger hormone). Both processes mean greater overweight due to a poor sleep.

- It decreases stress. Good sleep and rest at night both reduce stress levels, help you
to relax and you wake up with a better mood the next day.

- It reduces depression. When sleeping, the body relaxes, easing production of melanin
and serotonin. Both hormones cope with effects of adrenalin and cortisol (stress
hormones), helping us to be happier and emotionally stronger.
TIPS:

- Meditation before sleeping, listening to sounds of nature and drinking tea with
relaxing herbs are all natural, low-cost helps that can bring a great benefit to
have a better rest at night.

- Avoid anything with light at least 30 minutes before going to bed. Close curtains
or blinds and try having only soft lights at home. We suggest you to turn your
laptop, cellphone and television off at least 30 minutes before going to bed.

- Avoid oversleeping at weekends. If you need to win one night over, it’s better to
have a nap during day, instead of oversleeping the next night. This will allow you
to regain sleep without affecting your natural rhythm to sleep and wake up.

- Exercise strongly during day. Regular exercise also offset insomnia symptoms. It
might take some months of regular activity before experiencing complete effects
promoting sleep; however, be patient, enjoy it and focus on building a habit of
exercise or training.

- While nap is a good way of recovering missing sleep, if you still have problems to
fall/stay asleep at night, it will make things worse if used wrongly. It’s advisable
for you to limit it to 15-20 minutes in the afternoon.