Success leaves clues! ... what are yours?

We have all been confronted with challenges and situations that have tested our model and way of living.  And somehow, we have overcome these situations.
What are the keys that we employed to unlock the treasure chest of our resources, and made it happen?
What are the core values that made you move forward and find a solution?
If you look into your heart, you will find again these keys, and keep them handy and ready to use when the next crisis or challenge comes.
Because, my friend, it will come.  As long as you are alive, you will be offered the gift of challenges, of possibilities to grow and experience a higher level of fulfillment.  It is up to you to take them.  Sometimes you will have an option, and sometimes not.  Next time, when the challenge arrives, remember to ask you this simple question:
What are the keys that served me in the past that I can use now to grow and find a solution?
All the answers are within you.  Go for them.

Sugar... the poors' drug

There are rich people and poor people, and people who move up and down between these two poles. Similarly, there are people rich in energy and vitality and people who struggle to move, who lack the energy to fully enjoy life. Which of these extreme cases you feel closer to, on a regular basis?

What would you give in exchange of multiplying your energy by a factor 10? How would your life be? What would you be able to accomplish, to enjoy, to feel with this energy?

It is so simple and rewarding and yet, so few people make a decision and a commitment to enjoy so much energy.

If you are committed to change whatever it takes to live in health and have plenty of energy to enjoy life at a higher level, you may find what follows useful.


If you are just curious about the post, I suggest that you rather spend your time doing something that really matters for you. You are always welcome to come back when you commit yourself to make a positive change in your life.

Most of the food we can currently buy are flooded with carbohydrates: bread, pasta, pizza, flours, potatoes,... and for many time it has been advertised that carbos are the preferred way to get energy, to be healthy and in a good shape. However, devoting some time to research on people that excel in energy and vitality will give you a completely different insight:

• They eat more veggies and salads, and less meat, fish, eggs and other protein sources
  
  
• They care about a balance in meals, and use creative combinations to enjoy their meals
  
  
• They keep the intake of carbos to a minimum, and increase the intake of healthy fats, i.e. seed oils, nuts, fish oils supplements among others

and, above all, they eliminate, obliterate, and send into a life-long exile all kinds of sugar!
(sugar, aspartame, ... there is a long list here...)


Sugar is added in many production processes as a food conserver and a flavoring. It is also one of the main ingredients in sweets, chocolate, desserts, ice-cream, and even bread. It is added to many commercial sauces, sodas, juices, and other beverages. And, on top of that, a culture has been created to "make our life sweeter" by indulging in added sugar to many recipes.


It has been demonstrated that sugar consumption is one of the main factors in developing diabetes and it is suspected to be an important factor in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In fact, what happens when you give some candies to child? It gets completely hyperactive and, after a shorter or longer period, depending on the amount of sweets, it gets down in energy. Of course, it will immediately ask us for more sweets. Where I wrote sweets and candies, you can also read bread, rice, potatoes, chips... a long list of carbos.


The truth is, when we favor carbos and intake sugar in our diet, we are adapting our metabolism to work on that fuel and we become completely dependent. It would be fine if the carbos were able to give us all the energy we need in a day and we were able to store them in our body, but this is not the case.


In order to store the carbos, our body transform them into fat. And then, since we keep eating carbos, our body is not promoted to use the fat, so we grow fat and we lack the energy we need. In order to burn the fat we need to eat fat and remove the carbos from our diet. Only then the metabolism is activated to swich into a fat burning mode. Just one more thing: fat has several advantages as fuel:

• It has more energy than carbos
  
• We have a much larger storage capacity and we can keep running on fat for days even without eating!
• Burning fat make us happier in many ways: we keep in good shape and emotionally by releasing endorphins
• Combining eating more healthy fats with exercise is spectacular, since the metabolism changes dramatically, the endorphins levels rise and keep high the whole day, enabling us to achieve higher goals and live more fulfilled at the same time
  

If you are committed to become rich in health and vitality, I challenge you to make a shift and remove all concentrated carbos and sugars from your diet for the next 2 weeks, increasing the intake of veggies, salads, and fruits and taking at least 2 liters of water outside your meals. If you are an overachiever, combine this diet with any form of physical exercise you want on a daily basis. For those of you who like running, I recommend you to read "Slow burn, burn fat faster by exercising slower" by Stu Mittleman.

If you take the challenge, send me a comment sharing your experience and learning from these 2 weeks period!
I look forward to reading you!

Being vs Doing

Many times in my life I focussed only in what I had to do in order to achieve goals.  I planned, defined strategies, set deadlines & milestones, tracked my progress with graphs and diagrams... and you know what, when I finally achieved my goals I ended up with a feeling of dissatisfaction and questioning myself:  Is this all about?
I had focussed so much in steps, in to-do lists, in getting things done that I missed completely the point of what moved me in the first place to set myself that goal. According to Tony Robbins, there are two different skills that one has to develop in order to excell in life:

• The Science of Achievement, which focusses mainly on DOING things (or alternatively, taking action and getting things done)
• The Art of Fulfillment, which focusses mainly on BEING, on the emotional state and the values that are expressed by the goals you set for yourself.

Many people tend to unbalance both skills and this results into difficulties either moving towards their goals (excess of fulfillment / lack of achievement) or feeling their motivation sinking (not enough focus on the values behind their actions).

Think about an specific area of your life where you have set yourself a goal and you find yourself delaying taking action to make it real.  On a scale from 0 to 10, where do you feel you are with respect to what is needed to achieve that goal?
How would it be like to be at a level 10?  What would you feel?  What is so important for you to reach that goal and be at that level? Would it be more confortable for you to be at a lower level, let's say 9? If so, what do you gain from being at a lower level?
If your answers touch your core values, you will find a shift in your emotions.

Now, let's go to the challenging part:  what do you lose by staying at a lower level? Imagine yourself in 20 years from now.  How would your life be like living in the same lower level all these years?  Which things have you given up by choosing to stay in the same level?

Imagine for a moment that you have already achieved your goal and you are living at the level of 10.  How does it feel?  imagine yourself 20 years in the future, living all these years at that level.  How would your life be like? If you had to choose an image, what would this image be?

You got the picture of your values expressed at a level of 10.  Will you commit to vision this image at least once a day for the next 10 days? it will keep your motivation high and give you a sense of anticipation on what you are about to move towards.  This is focussing on BEING.
I challenge you to go beyond, and share your dream and this image with somebody you love and from whom you can expect respect from your vision. I challenge you to ask him/her to help you remained focussed, by communicating him/her by phone after 10 days that you visioned your dream and your image.

Now, my friend, the time is ready to take more action. This is a journey that starts, as always does, with a very first step.
What is the first step that you will do today to move towards realizing your dream? Are your ready to take this step or your prefer keeping living in your current level for the next 20 years?  I bet you are ready, I know you can do it, and my allucination is that you know it as well.
Do you commit yourself to tell your chosen one by tomorrow what you have done towards making your dream real?
If you do, Congratulations!! You took action and you are now one step closer to your goal.
Just keep DOING while focussing every single day on your vision, your BEING, and you will achieve whatever your goal is and enjoy the journey!

The Challenge to Step Up

Recently I had a conversation with one of my coaches about the challenge and rewards to step up in order to achieve your goals.
If you ever have to make a decision between two things you want to do... how would you choose?
What are your priorities? What does move you towards one option? What is your motivation for the other option?

As Harv Eker said in his Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, rich people ask themselves in this situation How can I get this AND that? whereas poor people wonder how to make a decision, where by "rich" I mean people living in abundance in all areas of their life.
By asking yourself this question, you are challenged to find a way, to leave your comfort zone and step up, creating solutions, breaking old habits and mental belief patterns and increasing your personal power to become whatever you want in your life.


Many times in our lives we have heard the word compromise, meaning by that that we cannot get always what we want. Although knowing your priorities is essential to achieve any goal, that doesn't mean that you can only achieve the first at the cost of all the others. Of course it is much easier that way, but if your goals are really meaningful to you, change your beliefs, imagine what would be to get all of them, how would you get there, and take massive action. I guarantee you that not only you will get there, but you will enjoy your way towards your goals as a constant improving and expanding adventure and, what matters most, you will be more prepared to achieve even more challenging goals in the future.

When we never find the right moment...

There are times in our life that we know what we want to achieve, what we want to become.
Some of these times, we even know what to do.
And yet we find ourselves letting time pass by, as if we were going to live forever.

What prevent us from taking action?
What consequences does it have for us to let time pass by without moving towards our goals?

We can always find the right answer to the first question, an answer that suit us to avoid taking action.  There are as many excuses as people in the world, so there will probably be one convenient for you as well.
In my case, the answer is usually FEAR.  Fear to be wrong in my choice of goals (lack of clarity), fear not to be corageous enough to go along the path that, I believe, would take me to my goal, fear not to be good enough to get where I want...

Now, the second question, that is really a powerful one.  If I don't take action, I never get my goal.  As Einstein said, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".
Can I live with that?

If the answer is yes, it was never something that I really wanted to be or get.  It was only something I would like to be or get without effort... like a dream.
If the answer is no, then it really matters to me to achieve this goal.  Why is it so important? What if I don't get it? What would I lose if I don't get it? Who would I become if I get it?
This gives me the clarity and the motivation to move towards my goals and take action continuously!

What happens if this is not enough?  If I find the motivation, and still I am frozen with my fear, how can I overcome it?  Let me tell you a secret... fear, to me is a good thing.  It means that I am feeling uncomfortable in my way to my goal, which means that the possibilities to grow and expand my personal power are as large as the fear I have.  Now, how to change fear into excitement?
Change your focus, dream about what you are about to become, see it as if it were already true.  Taste it.  Hear the things you will hear when you get there.  Use your imagination to feel the state you want to create into your reality.  It feels great, doesn't it?

Intensify your emotions, be really in this state, and take action from this state.  You are now a kid ready to get its birthday present, ready to open it.  You know it is ready for you.  You deserve it.  It is just a matter of some hours, or a little more time that you get it.  Take action from this state, the fear is gone, you are full of excitement, and your vision of your goal is travelling to your reality at full speed!

Goals from your soul

Many times we start writting a goal list.  And many times we don't follow through what it takes to achive them.
If we just dedicate a little less time to goal setting, and a bit more to feel what the goals really really REALLY mean for us, we will end up taking more action, getting momentum and achieving only those that are meaningful for us.


A friend of mine says "a human being always achieves what he/she wants.  If he/she doesn't achieve it, it means that he/she doesn't really want it".  I find this straight statement true in its core.
I invite you to take a moment to answer these questions from you heart:

What do you really want in your life now?


Why is it soooooo important for you to get it?


How would be your life if you get it?


How do you feel right now?


What are you ready to do in order to get what you want?


Which steps could you easily start with to move towards your goal right now?


Envision your life as if it were already true, take action, and start moving, full of clarity and energy, towards your goal.  It will be yours earlier than you thought!

Stand up! Go for it!

I have the fortune to share my life with my wonderful daughter.  When she started to walk, I saw that she kept falling down, once and again.  After some days, she managed to walk on her own and smiled proud to be able to run and hug me.
Many times in our life we start doing something new, and it doesn't work quite as we wanted.  Sometimes we feel frustrated.  We expected things to go smoothly from the beginning, and achive what we want immediately. If you are feeling like that right now, I want you to join in a journey... a journey to your past.
Remember when you were a child.
Remember what you felt anytime you discovered something new.
Bring back those feelings of curiosity, challenge, and desire.
Remember, you couldn't even walk at that time and you were already gazing that cup on the top of the table.
Bring back those feelings, look at your goal, and feel the same again.
Remember, you managed to walk, it is so natural now for you.
Become once more a child full of joy, love, and energy.
Stand up, keep trying, and go for it!