October, 2017 - Tahereh

How to Become Financially Independent

October 15, 2017 No Comments

Financially independent is someone who is making money based on their own resources. The good thing about being financially independent is that you can become one at any age. You have to be at least 15 or 16 to receive wages but you can be financially independent any time at any age.

First you need to know you have to bring value to the market. The bigger the value the bigger the income. You can always improve yourself and become more valuable. There is no limit to it. Having this in mind, it make sense why in a company one person gets $1000 in a month and another $4000 and another person $100,000. It is because they are different in the value they are bringing to the company.

There is always room to develop your skills. To learn more, and make yourself more valuable.

Look at your past and let it teach you. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your achievements. Try to change things that led you to failure and do the same things that led you to your current achievements.

Don’t hold your past as a burden. If there are things in it that bother you, I highly recommend get rid of those memories. Don’t let them come to your mind. Be in charge of what comes to your mind and don’t let your thoughts control you and your decisions. Nothing is worse than having no control over your body, mind, and time.

Learn from others. Ask questions. Find those that are in the same situation you want to be and ask them how they have got there. Observe, and listen. Be coachable. put your ego aside, observe, listen and learn. Learn as much as you can. Sometimes you don’t even need to contact that person. If you search their name their biography and so many videos and interviews come up. Listen to them. Believe in what they say and do it. As I said be coachable you can’t go far in life if you put your ego ahead of you.

Keep a journal. You can’t keep everything in your memory. Always have a journal with you. I personally use google docs. It is easier for me because I have access to it on my phone and I have my phone with me almost all the time except when I intentionally get break from it.

In google doc you can have different folders for different purposes. Write your ideas. Write whenever you hear something good. Write even the words you hear and inspire you. Put and keep everything in your journal. Write your daily goals. Put images as part of your vision board.

When setting goals break them down into small tasks and focus on them one at a time. Once it is done cross over that and feel the joy of achievement.

Set big goals. Don’t go for easy. Make it always a little hard. Goals are not there to be achieved. They are there for what they will make of you to achieve it. You’ll change, you’ll develop, and you’ll become more valuable when you set your goals higher than what you are. It is not what you get that makes you valuable, it is what you become.

Learn how to deal with money. This has to start from the first time we receive our first dollar. We should be taught on what to do with that dollar or we’ll waste it. Whatever we do with that one dollar will become our habit when we grow up.

Jim Rohn says you have to have the right philosophy. There are two philosophies. Philosophy of the poor: they spend their money and invest what is left. Philosophy of the rich: they invest their money and spend the rest.

Now what do we have to teach that child with a dollar in hand?

Never spend more than 70 cents. Whet to do with the 30 cents? 10 cents go to a charity. 10 cents go to a worthy project. Projects that you believe in. Next 10 cents is called Passive Capital. You let someone else use this 10 cents to make profit and they pay you for the use of it which is called interest. You can lend it to financial institutions, you can buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc..

So many great financial advisers talk about compound interest. It is interest over interest which over a sustained period of time will become huge. This can be a game changer for you. The sooner you start the sooner you’ll become financially independent.

Let’s teach our kids how they should spend their first dollar and make them ready to become financially independent in the future.

It is never too late for anyone to start spending their money wiser and use this technique to become financially independent. At the end what we really want is to feel good about ourselves and our future. In order to get that feeling we have to build it today.

Business

4 Techniques Navy Seals Use to deal with FEAR that you can too

October 10, 2017 No Comments

Fear is one important aspect of our lives. It keeps us alive and it also prevents us from moving forward. The Human Brain documentary shows that we can actually train our brain and have control over it. We can train our brain to be able to deal with fear so that we can still move, make rational decisions and don’t panic.

The history shows that mistakes are almost always associated with fear or panic. The best place to learn how to deal with fear is navy seals training where trainees are introduced to absolute chaos and struggle from the first day to train their mind and learn how they can minimize making mistakes by training their mind to handle fear.

Before getting into how Navy Seals deal with fear we should first learn how brain works and why we panic.

Brain weighs 3 pounds yet consumes 20% of the fuel that body receives to be able to function. The first part of the brain is called Brain Stem. This part is responsible to keep us alive. It is the part that is common between humans and other reptiles and mammals. This part of the brain is in charge of heart rate, digestion, blood pressure and almost anything else that keeps us alive and we do subconsciously on a day to day basis.

The next part above this is AMYGDALA which handles emotional reactions. Amygdala is as small as a finger nail and we have one in each part of our brain. One of the strongest emotions we have is fear and panic.

The Frontal Lobe is the conductor of our body. This is the part that makes us most human. Frontal Lobe is in charge of decision making, problem solving, and thinking.

The reason we freeze when we are in a fearful situation is that information gets to Amygdala twice as fast as it takes to get to the Frontal Lobe. Because of this reason when we feel fear we freeze and panic before being able to think and decide about a rational reaction.

Navy Seals training minimizes these delays by teaching accurate and fast reactions to fearful situations. Trainees will be faced with many struggles from the first day. They’ll learn how to react to these struggles so the delay in brain for problem solving won’t bother them anymore and won’t cause panic and freeze due to not having any clue on how to react to that specific situation.

The way brain communicates with body is through sending electrical signals through nerve cells to other parts of the body. These signals travel with a speed of 270 mph. When we are under extreme stress brain communicates in another way. Amygdala triggers a chain reaction that releases stress hormone to our blood and this hormone prepares our body to react to the situation.

This is when you feel fast breathing, faster heart rate, and blood pressure. This hormone also makes memory sharper, and our body less sensitive to pain.

So now that you know how brain dictates and how body reacts to fear let’s see how Navy Seals training helps trainees to deal with fear. Almost all failings through the training comes from this phase where trainees have to overcome their fear. Through this set of 4 techniques however they have reduced the amount of failures.

Goal Setting, Mental Rehearsal, Self Talk, and Arousal Control are 4 techniques used in the mental toughness program to control fear even in the most extreme situations.

Goal Setting: it is done by using the Frontal Lobe of the brain as this part is responsible for reasoning, and planning. Goal setting brings structure to the brain in chaos and keeps Amygdala in check. Goals should be broken down to small and very specific tasks. This way you bring the focus only to a small part of what you have to do instead of making your brain worry about what is going to happen next.

This way of setting goals is amazing if you want to achieve anything you want in life. Although it is good to have a big picture of the end result but you definitely have to break down that big picture into small sets of goals and bring your focus on only one goal until you finish it.

If you are confused on what to do today, pick only one thing and tell yourself I only need to finish this. And make that one goal your main goal and believe that this is the only thing you need to do to win. Now your brain won’t shift to other tasks and is not worried about what is going to happen next.

Mental Rehearsal or Visualization: this is where your imagination comes to help you. Visualize a situation and set of activities you do to handle that situation. Once visualizing make sure you visualize the perfect reaction you can have. This helps greatly with whatever you do in your real life.

I have personally tried this with my music lessons. When I had problem moving my hand smoothly to play a piece of music I closed my eyes and visualized playing that piece perfectly. I saw my hand and wrist moving in their best way to play the piece smooth without pauses. Once your brain picks the right reaction and sees the pictures you are imagining and learns how to move your hand then you will need way less time to perfectly play that piece of music. Visualization is as important as practicing whatever you do in life to train your brain and body.

Self-Talk: you have probably heard it many times that you are what you think about. Did you know you can actually rewrite brain signals that come from your brain to your body with what you think about and how you talk to yourself? An average person talks to herself between 300 to 1000 words. Why not making all these words positive when we know it impacts our brain and its ability to push us through hard times? If it is possible to overwrite the brains signals why don’t we use “I can do it” instead of “I can’t do it”? Why say negative words when we can say positive words and become stronger?

Frontal Lobe is always active. So it is easy to get in trap and have negative thoughts. It is easy to see a situation and think you can’t handle it because of lack of training, lack of strength, lack of support which ends up convincing you to give up. make sure you are always conscious about what you think and that you are always thinking positive pushing yourself to achieve more and get stronger.

Arousal Control: this is breathing technique. Slow breathing with long exhales mimics the body relaxation process. Once you practice breathing slow your body relaxes and more oxygen gets into your brain to think and come up with ideas.

These are 4 techniques that you need to combine in order to train your brain handle stressful and fearful situations and help you get through what it feels is impossible.

Business

Four Seasons of Life and Business

October 9, 2017 No Comments

We can learn many great lessons from life and nature. Jim Rohn teaches us a great lesson looking at the four seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Your life, business, or even your days will have winter. You may feel one or more seasons on a same day. Winter is when you feel under pressure. When you feel you can’t keep up with the amount of work you have to do. It is when things are harder for you. No one can say they haven’t experienced winter in their life. We can’t do anything to prevent it from coming. What you need to do is to be ready for your life’s and business winter time.

You need to know your plan when winter hits. When you run out of money. When ideas stop coming. When your hands are tight. When you don’t have energy. When you feel lonely.

Your brain needs to know how to handle winter before it comes. Otherwise, it gives you panic. This is even how navy seals are trained. There is a very small part in the brain that is in charge of our emotional reactions. This part of the brain receives information twice as fast as the frontal lob which is in charge of problem solving, reasoning and thinking.

So if you are not prepared beforehand, when you come across a problem your brain sends panic signals to your body and once you panic your mind freezes and you will have reactions that might cost you. That is why navy seals are trained in hard situations so that they will be ready to face hard situations in the battle field and real world.

How ready are you for your winters? If you want to make the right decisions you have to start planning now. You have to be ready. If you wake up in the morning and you see yourself tired without energy, that might be the winter of your day. If you don’t set a plan to what you have to do on those days to give you back your energy, you might end up lying down the whole day.

For some, it is reading few pages of a specific book. Some meditate. Some people go for a walk in nature. Whatever it is for you, you need to set it before those situations happen so you will be ready instead of giving up.

After winter, spring comes. This is where you are in your best situation. You have lots of opportunities. This is when you have to be active. You have to act fast as this season can pass quickly. Do as much work as you can. This is not the time to sleep.

After spring comes summer. Summer is when pests come around. This is when you have gained a lot in spring and feel the taste of success but you will get attacked. Are you ready for this season? You will be attacked no matter what you do as long as you are successful. Your ideas, works, projects will be attacked if they are performing well. You need to know this and be ready for it.

Fall is the harvest time. It is when you will see the results. The result of your actions. This is the time you have to enjoy for what you have achieved. And don’t be apologetic. You also have to take responsibility for what you haven’t achieved. This season is all about results that you can learn from and get ready for winter. Reflect on your actions and make adjustments.

Are you ready for the four seasons of your Life and Business?

Let’s plan now. When you see your business is not growing or it is going down, know that it is winter time. Go back to your plans and what you thought would help for this time of your business and apply them.

Do as much as you can during springs when you see opportunities.

Be prepared for summer and the feedback you will get from others. Get though this phase and don’t break.

Enjoy Fall and study the results. Plan and get ready for winter.

Business

Change your Life by Changing your Habits

October 4, 2017 No Comments

Take your life out of autopilot and win opportunities.

Look at your days. How many times are you doing things based on your decisions? How many times are you doing things based on your feelings?

It is very important to know, when, we are on autopilot throughout our days. We form our days based on either decisions or feelings. Feelings are based on our habits and past experiences.

Because of our habits we feel good or bad doing something. If you have a bad experience in the past doing a specific task, you would not feel motivated or feel good doing the same task today.

If you are in the habit of eating lots of sugar, not eating it will give you a bad feeling and eating it gives you pleasure. Now if you have to stop eating sugar and decide on reducing your sugar intake; guess what?! The first days and weeks you will feel miserable no matter how right your decision has been. After several months of not eating sugar you will form this new habit in you and now eating sugar will make you feel bad.

This simple example shows how many other things are in our life that we basically do just because we are used to doing them and it gives us sense of pleasure. But can we live life to the fullest if we only rely on our habits. Especially if those habits are formed based on our poor lifestyle routine.

If you want to make changes you have to take control of your life by making more decisions. Mel Robbins has a great techniue that teaches us how to bring your life out of habits and make it based on decisions.

We all know what is good and what we have to do. We all have that inner wisdom in us. But that sound in us is only active for few seconds. Then it vanishes by thoughts, excuses, and habits.

How can we make ourselves listen to our inner wisdom? This is where Mel Robbins introduces the 5 second technique when you have 5 seconds to make the decision. Whenever you are in a situation to make a decision see what comes to your head first then count 5 4 3 2 1 and then do it.

You can practice and see the miracle in this technique when it is hard to come out of bed in the mornings. Instead of hitting the snooze button count and jump out of bed.

When seeing a yummy cake on a table and you know you want to break the habit of eating sugar, count and look somewhere else. Make your decision and if you can, even throw it in the garbage.

The reason that you count and do the tasks is to prevent you from thinking. Your mind brings you your habits and reminds you of your past experiences just to protect you. It convinces you to not do anything different. Just to keep you on the safe side. But how can you make any changes to your life if you don’t change your habits?

After doing this technique for few months you will see how different your life has become because of the new habits you are forming which are based on your sound decisions.

You will enjoy waking up early, being on time for meetings, going to gym, reading more books, talking to friends, and spending your time wisely. And you will feel bad eating sugar, wasting your time in front of TV watching useless shows. And many more things that you used to do and were ruining your days but you were not noticing it because it was part of your habits and your mind made you feel good and safe with them.

Let’s change our life by changing our habits TODAY!

Business

How Do I Start My First Business?

October 2, 2017 No Comments

Starting your first business needs an idea with a unique mission and vision to set you apart from your competitors. And then a knowledgeable team. You would also need to introduce your business through ads, marketing, online presence, social media, etc…

These are all known facts. You know it, right? If you need to buy a product or if you need to book a session for a service, what would you do? You do some research, you’ll find someone you can trust, ask for recommendations and then book your session or buy the product.

As a business owner you need to be present where your consumer is looking for products or services like yours. You need to be part of the research when consumers are looking for information, and you need to be prepared to close the deal when they have made their mind. You need to also give a good service to make a happy client for yourself.

But these are all obvious and easy to apply. You can find tons of information online on how you can best present your business to your consumer.

But here is what I believe you need to start your first business.

You need right lifestyle habits. You need right mindset. You need many soft skills that would guide you through your business and hard times.

You can start as many businesses as you want in a day. But what makes your business successful is YOU. The motivation to wake up every day to start doing your tasks without having a boss to ask you be at work at 9 am sharp. You have to have discipline.

Let me tell you. Starting a business is piece of cake. Starting to make a businesswoman out of yourself is something that requires time and lots of efforts.

The good news is that it is doable. It is like an intense gym workout. During your workout session you may swear and feel the pain, and feel the sense of giving up. But once the workout is done you feel great. If you repeat these workouts and add to the intensity of the workouts you will grow stronger. Then there will come days that you still feel the pain but you don’t swear and you enjoy that pain throughout the workout. There will be days that you won’t be satisfied if your workout doesn’t bring pain out of your muscles. Once it is done you can’t wait for tomorrow to come and experience the same great feeling.

Being in business is like having these workouts every day. At the beginning you have to know that it is hard to make commitment. It is hard to get up without a boss over our head. It is hard to send emails when it is optional. It is hard to do tasks that don’t make you excited. It is hard to make people around you respect your time, just because you are in charge of it.

There will be dark days with no motivation and energy. There will be exciting days that you have to control your excitement. There will be days you feel defeated. There will be days when you feel no one understands you.

So what is needed to start your first business? It needs the right YOU. The first business requires a person who knows what is waiting for her. A person who knows it is not easy and she is not signing up for EASY.

It needs step by step plan that no matter how hard you feel the pressure you still go through it to make yourself stronger.

There will come days that you’ll get use to this pressure and you can’t live without it. Because you have seen how strong, knowledgeable and experienced you have become just by going through these pressures.

First business is like any first experience. It sounds exciting and makes you excited. You go through it and you see reality. You will hate the hard times and want to give up. But the right YOU pushes you through the hard times and you will see the beauties soon after. And this is when you see the signs of success. This is where you feel you want to do what you are doing every day. This is where you smile more often.

You start your first business with the right attitude.

You start your first business with a written plan.

You start anything in life by starting to work on yourself.

Teach yourself deciplin through daily workouts. Give yourself energy through adopting healthy habits. Manage your time by breaking down tasks and switching between them every one or two hours. Get help. Find mentors. Dedicate tasks. Read lots of books. Sleep at least 8 hours. Drink 8 glasses of water. Dress well. Make your bed. Clean your home and working environment. Think positive. Spend time only with positive and like minded people.

As I always say, make the success within you, and everything you touch becomes successful.