5 Money Habits That Will Keep You Out Of Debt [Guest Post]

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This is a guest post from James Paul at Basic Finance Care.

Keeping yourself out of debt is not easy. Saving money might seem like a piece of cake but managing your debts requires a strategy and a workable plan.

You will find lots of things that attract you towards unnecessary expenses like recreational activities, impulse buys etc, and if you don’t have a control over it, then you might end up sliding into debt.

Money is the most important factor that controls our daily deal with the amenities of life. You need an adequate monetary income for your present and some savings for the future.

The main factor that plays a role to have a healthy balance between your monetary flows is money management, which will help to create a handful savings for your future.

Let us have a look at the 5 important finance planning tips that can bring a considerable change in your account balance at the end of the month:

  1. Create a Budget with goals but know your numbers as well!

Creating your own budget is an essential factor that will give you clarity to manage your finances.

So, how to create a budget?

A budget should be created based on your life goals and not numbers. This budget will play a vital role on deciding how much you need to save at the end of the month. Few points to ponder before you create a budget:

  • List down your life goals like buying a home or a car, a holiday plan etc.
  • Divide the goals based on priority as: short & long term goals.
  • Set a tentative (or if you the exact) amount with each category you listed in your goals

Now that you have a budget with a amount set for each category, you will have the exact figures to save on a monthly or yearly basis.

  1. The curse of credit card

Sounds a little weird? Many of the credit card holders have lost the peace of their life for the improper handling of credit cards. It is important to spend only the amount which you can pay-off in a month or two. Else, you will end up paying for huge interests.

Dos & Don’ts when it comes to credit cards:

  1. Optimize the usage of credit cards: You have to control your shopping habits and the usage of credit cards as well, rather use debit cards for all possible purchases.
  2. Go for cash: Try to use cash for all purchases so that you will have a track of your expenses.
  • Use when it calls for emergency: Use it when it is utmost necessary but before you swipe your credit card, think if you could pay off the amount within the first month.
  1. Beware of the interest rates: If you keep the amount unpaid for few months, it will destroy your budget with several additional interests and charges on unpaid amounts.
  2. Offers & deals: Watch out for the fake deals that might end you up in huge dues. Do not accept offers from every credit service provider and glance through every terms & conditions before you opt for one. There might be hidden clauses on interest rates and the dues which you will not notice and pay for it later.
  3. Groceries- Seasonal – Sale

These 3 words are interlinked for sure!  When it comes to buying groceries, keep in mind the two important terms:

  • Sale or special offers
  • Seasonal veggies & fruits

Try to grab as much offers and deals as possible. This will help you to save some extra money on your groceries. Go for seasonal fruits & veggies as it is both healthy and less expensive.

  1. Change is good!

Change is actually good but not that easy. You might be adapted towards the way you do things such as your shopping habits and if you are willing to change a few things, then you will see fruitful results. It is important to know in detail about your expenses and savings. This will give you an insight of where you can cut down your expenses and where to save more.

  1. Organize your bill payments

One key step to keep yourself out of debt is to organize your bills. You might be baffled that how can organizing your bill payments help to keep you out of debt. Actually, it does.

Organize your bill payments by listing as – paid, unpaid, to be paid urgently etc. It gives you a workable plan to manage your bill payments and thus keep you out of debts since you would have cleared all dues by following your plan.  You can even set a reminder in your cell phone or laptop to clear bills. There is an option of automatic payment which you can opt, for the regular bills.

When you pay your bills on time and you have some savings on a regular basis, it gives you a sense of accomplishment.  It all depends on you to manage your finances well to enjoy the positive outcome. Hope you will embrace these 5 money habits and keep a track of your payments & dues to keep yourself out of debt.

James Paul is a personal finance blogger who write at Basic Finance Care covering everything about personal finance management and frugal living.

Back Online: [Solved] How To Fix a Blank WP Admin Panel

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Sorry I couldn’t post new content on this blog because the admin panel randomly broke one day. Whenever I tried to access it to login, it only showed a blank page. I found the right solution and was able to get my WP admin panel back in working order! Yay 🙂

For my particular issue, it was one plugin that was causing the problem. I found which plugin it was and deleted it from the site.

If any of you ever have this issue check out this page for possible solutions: What to do when your wordpress admin panel is blank

Feels good to be back.

Till next time,

Phil

My Experience With a Psychic: Spiritual Guidance With An Unexpected Twist

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I picked up the phone and dialed the number that was listed. I had booked an appointment online, but it didn’t give me the full address of the location.

The phone rang and a woman answered… “Hello?”

She had some sort of accent that I couldn’t quite place.

Me: “Yes, I believe I had an appointment today at 11:30, and I wanted to get the address.”

Psychic: “Oh, really? (She sounded surprised.) Hold on let me check. What is your name?”

Me: “Phillip Kim”

Psychic: “Hmm… okay I may have had a glitch with the system because it didn’t show me anything here. What was your appointment for?”

Me: “It was for the 30 minute reading.”

Psychic: “Ah ok, how long will it take you to drive here?”

Me: “I think about 20 – 30 minutes.”

Psychic: “Ok great! Let me text you the address and I’ll see you here. You can take your time, don’t drive too fast now.”

Me: “Alright cool! I’ll head over there soon, bye.”

I hung up and thought to myself, “I wonder if she knows I have a tendency to drive too fast sometimes.”

My sister had told me she went to see this psychic and told me a little bit about her experience. It peaked my curiosity so a few weeks after she told me, I decided to book an appointment to see this psychic. The psychic’s name is Natalie and she had a warm inviting voice when I spoke with her on the phone. At this point I didn’t really have any expectations in mind, and just decided to go and see how it goes. I drove to the address I was given, and it lead me to a residential area. I realized that she did her readings from her home. Her home was located behind another home, and I walked the pathway to get to her front door.

In front of her door there was a small Buddha statue that was there to greet people. I went and rang the doorbell and waited for a minute. A woman answered the door, she was wearing glasses and had her hair tied in a bun. She was wearing a gray sweater and she had a little cast covering her hand and wrist.

Natalie: “Hello Phillip, welcome! Sorry I can’t shake your hand I have hurt my hand.”

Me: “Oh no worries, you must be Natalie.”

Natalie: “Yes, indeed I am. Why don’t you go ahead and step into that room over there. You can sit on the inside next to the window.”

She pointed to her right and there was a small room right next to the entrance.

Me: “Ok sure thing.”

I walked into the room and sat in the chair right under the window. There was a small table directly into front of it and another chair on the opposite side. Natalie sat down and we had a little small chat. She then went on to explain her process and what she does. Natalie went on to say, “I am not a fortune teller. I hate that word! What I do is I speak to people’s spiritual guides. Everyone has a spiritual guide you know.” She also said that our spiritual guides can only give us words of wisdom and tell us what we need to hear. Ultimately we have to be the ones who make the decisions and take the actions. Nothing is really set in stone. She told me if I didn’t have any questions for her we could go ahead and get started.

I said we could just dive right in and get started. Everything moved very quickly so I don’t remember every single thing she said. She did warn me that she would be speaking fast because of how quickly the information would come to her. She would look up at the empty space next to me as she said this is where the spiritual guide was and then she would look back and tell me what she was hearing. She said that I was a little lost as I was in a transitional phase. I mentioned that I was in the beginning stages of starting my new business. Natalie would speak rapidly and move her hands about in the air as she spoke. “I’m French, I speak with my hands it’s what we do.” She said as she noticed my eyes being drawn to the movement. “Ah.. so that’s where that accent is from”, I thought to myself. She also mentioned a lot of other little details about me that most people wouldn’t really know just from meeting me for the first time ever.

Unexpectedly, she went on to give me somewhat of a business coaching advice. It also caught me off guard when she mentioned she used to be in a corporate position in a managerial role. I had come here not knowing what to expect. I was thinking maybe I would get some type of spiritual advice of some sort. Instead I was getting sound business advice on things I needed to be doing. She said the guide had told her I needed a bit of a “kick in the ass”, to really get myself moving. I agreed that I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could and I laughed about that because it was true. I really did need a swift kick in the ass.

The session came quickly to an end. I was surprised by how fast it all went. She also went about 10 minutes over the scheduled time in order to finish what she had to say, which I really appreciated.

Over all, seeing a psychic isn’t really about them being able to see the future or things like that. In my case, it was more of her having a high level of intuition and being able to read my energy, and tap into the higher level of spiritual intelligence. Sorry to disappoint you, but Natalie was a seemingly normal looking woman and there was no “mystical” eerie presence around her.

It was a very interesting and pleasant experience. I felt like I heard a lot of what I needed to hear. I didn’t realize I would be getting so much business advice.

Until next time,

Phil

Why You Absolutely Need to Have Fun in Your Life Part 2

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“Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” – Michael Jordan

In part 1, I introduced the idea that you absolutely need to have fun in your life. I told a short story about me, and how I had lost sight of the fun in life.

Click here to read Part 1

As we start to get older, society starts to train us to become more serious. Adults get looked down upon for being too silly or playful. They say that’s only for kids. They tell you to grow up. They tell you to stop acting so immature. Without even realizing it, we start to center everything in our lives around being serious. You start putting on the serious face, and talk in a serious way. You start doing things in order to get people to take you “seriously”. It’s all just a lie. An illusion. Life shouldn’t be as serious as we make it seem. Sure, there is a time and place to be serious, but that time and place is very small. We shouldn’t be losing sight of the fun. After all, how can life be worth living if we can’t have any fun?

Having fun helps you increase your feelings of well-being, creativity, and productivity. You see, it pays to play. 1

What can you do to start having more fun? Do things that you genuinely enjoy. Be careful not to do something because society tells you it’s fun. Some of the things that you genuinely have fun doing might be something that most people think is boring or weird. That’s okay. Just do it because you really have fun doing it. Unless what you enjoy doing is beating old women or something like that. Don’t do that.

Life is largely a game. And, inside of this large game of life, there are thousands of mini games to play. Every single thing we do is just some kind of game we play with each other. At the end of the day, sometimes we need to take a step back and realize, fuck… it’s all not that serious really. It’s just a god damn game.

Watch this video. Just for fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6n9bCaxppA

3 Important Parts To An Effective Sales System: According to Patrick Bet David

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I watched a great video on Valuetainment that broke down three important parts to a sales system.

Let me break down the video and what it discusses.

In the world of business, sales is very important. It is the first thing you should focus on doing when you are starting out with your business. Sales is needed to continue to grow your business over the long run. Most businesses focus on the closing part of the sales process. There are two other parts of the process that typically gets brushed off to the side.

Here are the three important parts to an effective sales system: Finder, Closer, and Developer.

#1. The Finder

The finder introduces you to new markets. The finders are good at connecting with others and bringing people together. The finder focuses on networking, and getting through gatekeepers to the decision makers.

#2. The Closer

The closer typically follows a sales script and is confident in dealing and interacting with people. The closer interacts with the people that the finder brought to them, makes the offer, and closes the deals.

#3. The Developer

The developer follows up with the clients after the sale has been made. The developer will make sure the client is well taken care of and will continue to build and develop the relationship over time.

Do you have a good finder?

Most businesses may only be focused on having a good closer, but may neglect to build a system the incorporates the other two important parts. According to Patrick Bet David, he considers the finder to be the most important part of the system. The reasoning behind that is that closers and developers can be easily taught and trained. The finders on the other hand have a skill that is not easily taught or learned by others.

Watch the video here:

Are you in need of a good finder?

Zentrex Media uses a proprietary system to get warm leads for B2B companies, typically in the tech industry. Check us out at: http://zentrexmedia.com 

How Blockchain Will Impact Digital Advertising

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Blockchain

While blockchain is best known for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there are many other uses that are possible with blockchain. To simplify what blockchain is, it can be thought of as a large database that operates on a decentralized network. It essentially makes the data stored on the blockchain transparent and readily available to the public. Large amounts of data can be added onto without any issues with security. Once data is stored on a blockchain it cannot be changed or destroyed by any entity or person.

How does blockchain apply to digital advertising?

There some widespread problems that digital advertisers are familiar with. Some of these problems include ad fraud such as bot traffic. This eats away at advertising budgets and compromises the integrity of campaign data. There is also a huge lack of transparency with data and a lot of issues concerning brand safety.

The use of blockchain in digital advertising can help to tackle these issues with its open source appeal, and transparency. Also the fact that data can’t be altered has high appeal.

One such company tackling this issue through the use of blockchain is adChain. What adChain offers is the adChain Registry. This registry is a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain, which essentially whitelists legitimate publishers with real human audiences. 1

Blockchain is still a very new and developing technology. There are still issues around it especially concerning scalability. Although the technology is still in its infancy, there is a lot of interest around blockchain and many companies are investing millions of dollars towards the development of applications based on blockchain technology. Within the next 5 – 10 years we may witness some serious disruptions to digital advertising as a result of innovative blockchain applications.

 

  1. This information was gathered from the adChain whitepaper. ↩

How Bitcoin is Revolutionizing The World

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There has been a lot of talk and major news coverage about Bitcoin. The thing is, the media doesn’t do a good job covering this topic. There is a lot of confusion about what it is and why people should even pay attention to it. In this article, I will provide a brief introduction to Bitcoin. The topic is long and complicated so I can’t cover everything. This will just be a simplified explanation of what it is and how it is revolutionizing the world.

What is Bitcoin?

The simple answer is that it is a form of digital currency also known as cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was invented by an anonymous creator by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Some people say Satoshi is a collective group of several different people. No one knows for sure as Satoshi remains anonymous for good reason.

What is so great about this digital currency?

It is the first form of digital currency created without a centralized network. The sole purpose of its creation was for it to be a decentralized currency. That means no single entity can have full control over the production of the currency.

The way this is achieved is through a peer to peer network of computers known as nodes. These peers are also called miners. Miners use computer hardware and software to solve complicated algorithms. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are created and rewarded to Miners for solving these algorithms and verifying transactions. All miners have access to the entire ledger of verified transactions. They confirm transactions of Bitcoin that is sent from one address to another. All of these verified transactions are stored as a block of data in a ledger known as the blockchain.

The blockchain is a permanent ledger that has the entire history of all the verified transactions. Everything that is stored on the blockchain is permanent and can’t be altered in any way. The blockchain is the true innovation and beauty of Bitcoin. It makes it so the transactions are transparent and secure. No one has any control over the blockchain and therefore it can’t be manipulated and changed once the transactions are verified. This blockchain allows transactions to happen instantaneously and globally on a massive scale.

How is Bitcoin revolutionizing the world?

In reality it’s actually the blockchain that is revolutionizing the world, but Bitcoin is the initial creation that sparked this entire movement. Bitcoin gained a lot of attention and value when it was used on a massive scale in an online black market called the Silkroad. It was mainly used to purchase illicit drugs and other goods. This black market truly paved the way for utilizing Bitcoin the way it was intended. Transactions were fast, secure, and anonymous. Because of this, the Silkroad flourished and Bitcoin shot up in value. Once Bitcoin started to gain lots of attention and media coverage, hordes of people started to get involved as investors and day traders. An entire industry spawned from the ground up as a result of Bitcoin. In less than 10 years, the cryptocurrencies market cap went up over $160 billion USD!

Since the creation of Bitcoin, many people and organizations have utilized blockchain technology to create alternate cryptocurrencies also known as alt coins. It doesn’t stop there. People have realized that the blockchain technology can be applied to various massive industries. As such, there are many different organizations working on developing their own applications that will use the blockchain in very innovative ways.

For example, Ether another cryptocurrency has become highly popular. Some even speculate that it will overtake Bitcoin in market cap. The reason there is a lot of excitement around Ether is that it is based on its own blockchain called Ethereum. This unique blockchain serves as a platform for developers and there are other alt coins being developed around Ethereum. Ethereum can also validate something called smart contracts which has potential use for real estate, finance, and many other huge industries.

Bitcoin is here to stay

Bitcoin is not doomed to crash and burn as they say. The real value is the blockchain technology itself and it will truly change the world on a massive level. The industry is still very new and there is a very bright future ahead. If you think you are too late to join the party, you are sorely mistaken. Do your own research and don’t trust any single source of information. Many people are becoming wealthy from investing in the right cryptocurrencies. Don’t be one of those people who look back at this 20 or 30 years from now and regret not doing anything about it.

Wishing you all the best,

-Phil Kim

A Close Up Look: My 1 Year Personal Evaluation

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“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
– Maya Angelou

Typically, people would normally do a one year review towards the end of the year. I decided to do this one year review on my life in June because about one year ago, I decided to launch my own eCommerce store.

This is just a brief review into my life for the past year. In this review, I will evaluate my health, career, and personal growth.

In the year of 2016 I decided to make a serious commitment to my personal development. I have always kind of dabbled and read a few things about personal development, but I never made a serious commitment to it.

I really began to take it seriously when I stumbled onto a YouTube channel called Actualized.org 1. It is a channel about personal development, and self-actualization. Self-actualization can be thought of as the process or achievement of gaining one’s full potential.

If you would like to learn more about self-actualization, watch this video:

Inner Growth and Mental Health

One of the biggest things I did that created the momentum for my growth was quitting TV for the entire year. That means I watched zero TV shows both online, and on traditional television. I did still watch YouTube, movies, and random Internet video clips, but I did not watch any shows at all. The reason I did this was because I realized I was addicted to TV. There was a time in my life when I watched hours of shows every single day. Over the years, I have wasted thousands of hours binging on TV shows. Once I quit watching TV, I realized how much more energy and time I had. After the one year mark I did watch a few shows, but I no longer have the need to watch TV on a regular basis.

The next thing I did was to set a daily meditation habit. I decided I would meditate every single day for 30 days. Once I had achieved that goal, I decided to commit to making it a lifelong habit. Meditation really helped me a lot in the first few months of practice. I developed more control over my emotions, although I’m still far from perfect at it. I had a lot more clarity in my mind, and a stronger sense of self-discipline. Over the past few months though, I felt the benefits of meditation had gone away and I had even slipped backwards a bit. It was frustrating because I was still meditating every single day. In fact, for most days I would mediate for 50 minutes each day. I also knew that this period of being stuck on a plateau is normal. So because of that I just went through the motions of meditating daily even when I felt that it was doing nothing for me. The most important thing is the commitment to do it every single day for the rest of my life.

Currently, I am experimenting more with my meditation practice. I have cut my meditation time to just 20 minutes each day. I am also focusing on practicing mindfulness meditation, which requires more focus, and effort than what I was previously doing. This focus is more on quality than quantity. I plan to practice mindfulness meditation daily for at least one year.

The small changes I made in my habits allowed me to strengthen my self-discipline. I also developed a better level of awareness.

Career

In June 2016, I launched my very own eCommerce store. I took an online course which taught an eCommerce business model called drop shipping 2. Drop shipping is a method of order fulfillment which allows a store to sell items online without having to directly keep the items on hand.

I formed an official LLC in January 2017.

I built my store and ran my business while working a full-time job as a smart phone repair tech.

The first two months was the learning process. I was mainly learning by going through the course, and experimenting with the methods that were taught. I started to get the hang of things in the third month. By the fourth month I had a profitable business. In the fifth month I had earned a lot more than what my current job had paid me. The busiest shopping season was just around the corner and I wanted to scale my business as much as possible. I made the decision to quit my job and put in my two weeks notice.

A funny and bizarre thing happened. As soon as I left my job I had a huge loss in my drive. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I do know it was a combination of lots of little things. All these little things added up and I had a huge loss in my peak state. It was all downhill from there. I lost my most profitable campaigns. I could have easily maintained a certain level of daily sales, but I didn’t. I just kept slipping further and further away. I didn’t maintain a strict control of my finances and budget. I had a huge leak in my finances and I didn’t even realize it. Money was just pouring out of my accounts month after month. As of now, my business has dropped significantly in sales and has not been profitable for months. I am working harder than before, but in this digital landscape, the market moves FAST. It moves so damn fast that the methods that were working for me just 3 – 4 months ago no longer work. Now I am struggling to get sales and get the same type of momentum I had before. I just have to keep working at it until I have my next breakthrough.

I am now more motivated and determined than ever to succeed. Although I am teetering on the edge, I realized I don’t need to pressure myself to achieve massive results so quickly. I am focusing more on the long game now. This is a huge mindset shift for me, and I want to keep and maintain this mindset from now on.

Physical Health

In March 2017, I attended a Tony Robbins seminar called Unleash The Power Within. This was a 4 day action packed event that far surpassed what I thought it would be. The energy there was amazing and I took a lot of value out of it. Initially, I wanted to see if I could snap myself out of my downward spiral and get myself into the peak state again. What happened instead was that instead of focusing on my business and finances, I ended up focusing more on my physical health. Over the past 3 years I gained a lot of weight. It mostly happened when I was in a state of depression. I was eating a lot of junk food in large quantities to help me escape from reality. Since the seminar, I became more conscientious of my eating habits and the foods that I was eating. Although I don’t have perfectly healthy eating habits, I do make a lot healthier decisions now. I have also been exercising a lot more frequently. So far I have lost about 20 pounds in the past 3 months. My goal is to lose another 20 pounds by the end of the year.

Personal Growth

From March 2016 till June 2017, I had a very dynamic year. I overcame my compulsive TV watching. I started a daily meditation habit. I moved into a new place with my girlfriend. I quit my job and started a new business (which is currently failing miserably). I attended a Tony Robbins seminar, and got a lot of value from it. I lost 20 lbs of fat. I also feel that I have gotten closer to a friend I attended the seminar with.

I also learned a lot about human psychology. Ultimately it is all in the mind. Our psychology is what determines our success. I had to overcome a lot of poor money psychology to achieve a certain breakthrough. I still have a lot of room to grow though.

I am responsible for all the decisions I have made. Both good and bad. All of the decisions that I made are what led me to where I am now. It is a liberating feeling. Even though I made a LOT of poor decisions, I am the one who decided to do it. It wasn’t because I was doing something that someone had told me to do. I can’t point the finger at anyone and blame them for where I am. I put it all on myself. I love the fact that it is my responsibility to create the life I desire.

Moving Forward

I am going to continue with my eCommerce business and work on building it back up. I don’t know whether I can become successful doing this, but I at least want to try my very best. My main priority is to fix my financial situation. Rather than focus on just getting money, I would like to focus more on providing value. It will be tough to provide value through my current business model, but I will have to find a way.

By the end of this year I would like to lose another 20 lbs of fat. Exercising isn’t set as an automatic habit yet, but I am continuing to push myself to exercise regularly. I want to focus more on the long game now. I need to think more about where I want to be in the long run. What would it take for me to achieve my goals? What actions can I take daily that will get me closer to my goals?

Ultimately, I am pursuing self-actualization. I am also looking for my life purpose. I don’t feel like I have found it yet. I would like to provide more value to the world.

I am also focusing more on my need for growth, spirituality, and connection.

By this time next year, my goal is solve my money problems for good.

Resources and Mentions:

Wake The Fuck Up! You’re Asleep and You Don’t Even Realize It

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Glowing brain drawing with light particles around

Did you know that there are different levels of consciousness?

Most people know that there is the subconscious mind and the conscious mind. Most people don’t realize that there are other levels of consciousness commonly referred to as higher consciousness. Higher consciousness isn’t just some abstract concept made up by spiritual gurus. It’s something that can be achieved by anyone with some patience, dedication, and practice. Achieving higher consciousness isn’t just about going up another level. There are multiple levels of higher consciousness that you can gradually increase throughout your life.

The Different Levels

First, let’s talk about the subconscious mind. At this level, your mind is very low in awareness. The subconscious mind acts like a memory bank where all your memories are stored. Your emotions are also dictated by your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind then builds upon these memories and the emotions you felt at the time and creates a set of habits that you follow.

Your conscious mind is the level where you have a more rational thought process. You use the conscious mind to rationalize your decisions, opinions, and perspectives on life. You then create logical arguments for everything that you say and do. The thing is, our brains are really fucking good at deceiving us. You are actually making most of your decisions based on your emotions. Your brain tricks you into thinking that you have made a rational decision, but that is false.

As you progress through life, you might achieve higher levels of consciousness through your experiences and develop a better awareness of yourself, and life in general. Most people stop progressing at a certain point though, and that is when you might get stuck at that level for many years.

What is Higher Consciousness?

Think of higher consciousness as evolution of the mind. The world is constantly changing, and in order to survive you need to be able to adapt. With the current technological boom, the world is changing faster than ever. A lot of the jobs we currently have are being replaced by robots. If you want to ensure a better future for yourself and your family you need to adapt to the current world. It starts with making the changes within yourself.

Higher consciousness is when your mind becomes more aware of the present moment. Higher consciousness is recognizing the reality of things within yourself, society, and life in general.

You’re Not Really Awake

Most of the time, we go about our daily lives doing the same thing without thinking about why we do them. Maybe you sit on your couch after work every day and just watch TV. Maybe you go out with your friends every weekend drinking, and partying. This goes on for months, even years and you aren’t even aware of why you’re doing this. Life is full of noise and distraction. You’re constantly caught up with the latest celebrity gossip, or big media event. You’re always checking your social media accounts every day, constantly trying to find ways to distract your mind from silence.

What you don’t realize is that when you perform these habits, your conscious mind is operating at the lowest level of consciousness. You think that you are making the rational choice. If you knew the consequences of your actions, then you would know how harmful these actions were to you. Think about the daily things you do in your life. How much of it adds real value to your life? Most people spend about 80% of their time with bullshit. Only 20% of that time is being spent on things that add value. 1

With that being said, you can change how you spend your time, which will then change your life. You can do this by achieving higher levels of consciousness.

How to Wake The Fuck Up

In order to achieve higher levels of consciousness, you must first accept the fact that you have not been fully awake. You must be able to accept the truth that you have lived your life in a way that was not really in your control. You have lived your life in the way that society expects of you. You have blindly followed the media, and social norms in order to fit in. Once you accept this truth, you will be ready to step into a higher level of consciousness.

It starts with cutting out the distractions in your life. How much time do you spend watching TV everyday? Think about how much time you spend on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and the list goes on. All of these activities you do on a daily basis are nothing but mere distractions that prevent you from developing as a person.

Essentially, in order to wake up, you must unplug yourself from the matrix.

Unplugging yourself will probably be one of the most difficult things you do in life. Yet, if you want to live a more fulfilling and happy life it is very important that you do this. If you want to create success in all things that you do, then you absolutely have to cut all the bullshit from your life.

Stop spending so much time with the latest celebrity gossip, trends, keeping up with the Jones, drinking and partying excessively, and mindlessly feeding yourself with garbage entertainment.

Doing some of these activities isn’t bad if you can do it in moderation. The fact is that most people don’t do it in moderation. Most of our lives is centered around all of these distractions. Stop making it the focus of your life!

How To Meditate By Doing Nothing

meditate

Forget everything that you think you know about meditation. I recently discovered that there is a concept of meditation that is not widely discussed. Most people would probably dismiss this concept because they think it’s a waste of time. If you retain an open mind and actually try this out for yourself, you may be surprised at the results.

This concept is the act of doing nothing. Put yourself into a quiet space with zero distractions. You can lay down, or sit down just make sure you feel comfortable and relaxed. I prefer to minimize my distractions as much as possible by laying down in my bed, making the room as dark as possible, and eliminating noise.

You just sit or lie there doing nothing. Let your thoughts flow freely and wander around. Just be aware of the thoughts you are having, but don’t try to control them. Start off with 15 minutes a day and gradually increase it to an hour a day. You should be doing this every single day. During this time, do NOT check your phone, read, listen to music, or do anything for that matter. DO NOTHING. 2

Once you start doing this you will begin to notice how noisy it is in your head. Your mind will have a lot of monkey chatter at first. Just stick with this act of doing nothing long enough, and soon your thoughts will begin to change. You will start reflecting deeply on your past and present moments. You will start to realize your behaviors and start to notice things you hadn’t noticed before. At some point you will start thinking deeper thoughts about life and the world. Keep doing this, and your mind will start to evolve into a higher level of consciousness.

Achieving higher levels of consciousness is about awareness. You will be more aware of your behaviors, and the present moment. When you start becoming more aware, you will be able to make the changes you need to live your life in a positive and meaningful way.

Why You Absolutely Need to Have Fun in Your Life Part 1

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all_work_and_no_play_by_rosedale

When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to have fun. That’s all I cared about. I didn’t give a fuck about school or grades. I remember when I was in elementary school, when everything was so easy, I used to race home after school and rush through my homework. I didn’t even know if the answers were right or wrong. I just did it as quickly as possible just so I could go play outside. I used to love going outside, and just enjoying what life had to offer. That was when life seemed so exciting, and full of possibilities.

Fast forward to today. I’m currently 27 years old. I’m no where near where I thought I would be by now. I’ve been striving, struggling, and failing miserably for the past 6 years in multiple attempts to become a successful entrepreneur. I’ve been obsessed with the idea of being an entrepreneur. It started out with the idea of being an affiliate marketer living the easy lifestyle. Working at home in my boxers only an hour or two a day and making a lot of money while doing it. Now I’ve realized that it actually takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to get to a certain point in life. How naive, and ridiculous I was at that time. I clung onto that stupid idea though. That stupid idea sprung me into action. Although I have not succeeded yet, I have made a lot of progress along the way. The journey hasn’t been all sunshine and butterflies, but it’s something I’m starting to appreciate. This stupid idea I had evolved into an obsession with becoming a successful entrepreneur.

This obsession hasn’t been healthy though. In the beginning, what kept me going was the fun. I was doing this because I enjoyed it. I liked reading about the success stories, the methods to the madness, the constant feeling that I was progressing towards something great. Along the way, I let this obsession take a hold of me. I fantasized about a life where I would be traveling the world while making millions of dollars from multiple online ventures. I put so much pressure on myself to become a success, that I had forgotten about the fun. I became impatient, and was constantly chasing the next shiny object. It didn’t matter if I started to see some results in the work I was doing. If I saw something new or had an idea that promised to make me fast, easy money I was on it. I deluded myself into thinking there was a way to make fast, easy money and get rich over night. The short answer is: There isn’t.

Two years ago I became serious about my decision to become an affiliate marketer. I didn’t see any real growth until I decided to stick to one path, and one method. When I decided that I would commit myself and focus on doing this one thing, I started to see just what I was capable of doing. But the thing was, I wasn’t really having fun doing it. I had been struggling for so long to get to this point and the moment I had it, I just couldn’t hold onto it. I was actually making money from my campaign. I had hit a winning combination and finally had my first real successful campaign. I wasn’t making massive amounts of money, but I was making enough to see that this had the possibility of turning into something big. At the same exact moment a new shiny object entered into my life. This new shiny object was a girl.

I told myself I would never let anyone stop me from this path. I told myself I would never let anything get in my way. I was a man on a mission. But then, I met the sweetest girl with the warmest smile I had ever seen. Within a month after I first met her, she became my girlfriend. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I couldn’t focus on my work or do any of my daily routines. Essentially, my life became all fucked up even though I had just barely started to get it together. Love came around and knocked me down, knocked me down.

 

I had lost my edge, and my focus. I became soft and couldn’t take the hits. I managed to let my campaign run itself almost on auto pilot for the next 3 months. Then I finally started to make tweaks to my campaign and scale it bigger. I talked to the network owner I was doing business with and got a pay bump on my offer with the promise that I would increase the volume I was doing. I delivered on my promise and started to see my campaign grow again. I barely grew it for a week and a half when I ran into a new problem. The network didn’t want to pay me what I was owed. The advertiser didn’t like the quality of the leads that I was sending and because of that the network didn’t want to pay me. They might have thought I was sending them fraudulent traffic, but I wasn’t. I was buying from a premium traffic source and paid a pretty good amount to get it. When I didn’t get paid as I expected to I had to pause my campaign. I had to constantly bombard the network with emails, and tried to get a hold of the owner on the phone several times with no luck what so ever. This mother fucker was dodging my calls and being a piece of shit. I finally got through to the accountant a week or so later, and she said the owner agreed to pay me, but would have to deduct $500 from the amount because the advertiser had not paid them the full amount for my leads. I agreed to this because I needed the money and would take what I could get. I essentially had to call it quits at this point because my campaign was fucked, and I didn’t have enough money left to get any new campaigns going. I had bills to pay, and racked up a credit card debt of $12,000.

I got turned off from the industry and decided to take a break from it. Oh and get this, a few months after I had stopped running my campaign, the network owner kept contacting me and practically begged me to start running my campaign again. He said the leads just took some time to mature, but the advertiser ended up liking the quality I had sent and wanted me to send them more leads. I just couldn’t trust this guy though. I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or just making it up to scam me. I didn’t even bother to ask for the rest of my money because I didn’t really want anything more to do with this guy. I declined and said I just needed to take a break and didn’t have the finances to get back into the game.

One thing led to another and now I’m working at a job that gets me enough to scrape by. I’m grateful for the job, and don’t mind the work I do. I’m slowly gathering my energy and my resources together to start my journey again. What I realized is that I stopped having genuine fun in my day to day life. Sure I had a few fun moments here and there, but overall I wasn’t enjoying the things that I used to enjoy. For whatever reason I just kept doing it over and over again. I felt like I was in an endless cycle of drudgery. It just hit me that life had started to become a drag because I stopped having fun.

I have just made a decision to look for ways to have fun in my life again (Without being too reckless of course). The constant message that we hear from those successful entrepreneurs is this: Do what you love. Maybe there is a reason that they keep telling us to follow our passion. You might not make a penny doing the very thing that you love, but if you’re having fun, and it’s not hurting anyone, then why should you care if you’re making money or not? Just keep doing it because it’s fun and find other ways to make money to support yourself. If you keep doing the things that you love doing, eventually it may lead to something greater. If not, fuck it! Just keep having fun!

Stay tuned for part 2 where I elaborate more on the concept of why you absolutely need to have fun in your life.

Until then go live your life and kick some ass,

Phil