Day 18. No pressure day

Don't pressure yourself much. You are not supposed to write every day and not everything you write is supposed to be perfect.

Yesterday I spent most of my time filming and editing youtube video. I ve been busy with editing since this morning. I managed to film an hour long video and i think it demands at least 3 days work to finish the editing process.

I think it is not that productive to put so much pressure on yourself. In order for the creativity to flow your mind sometimes needs space to be able to think. If you constantly pure things to it to think and work about it never gets the chance to reveal the true genius.

So today is a no pressure day. I will do my tasks the way I want to do them. Even this blog post is not meant to give you a life changing lesson as I ve been trying before. It is not to be smart, educated or even include a fancy photo. I will be enjoying my life today. So do you...

See you tomorrow.

Day 17: Searching for my calling...

I had a nightmare last night. It felt like something was telling me that I did not belong to where I am right now and I have to do something about it. I was searching and searching, yet not able to find that calling. What is that thing that will lead me towards the direction I should go? What was that voice trying to tell me to do? It was a nightmare because it felt empty inside for a while even after I woke up. There was that intense feeling of worrying and fear that what if I die, will I be able to say that I had a full-filled life? doing what I truly love and passionate about?...

The thing is that, most of us live our lives always thinking that there will be a better tomorrow. One day I will do this, one day I will do that, one day I will be happy.. I am scared that those eternal one days will never end and I will wake up 60 years old still waiting for that one day but this time my retirement and I will regret that I have spent my youth by being simply too scared. 

This is not to say you should quit your job and chase after the dreams that don't exist. First, you have to spend enough time to figure out it actually is and start working on it. I am a proponent of rationalism above all. Taking extreme risks might not always end up like in movies. If you haven't figured out your dream yet chances are very high of you ending up wasting your time at home watching youtube videos and doing nothing productive until you run out all your savings. Instead I would recommend a more calculated approach, which is  to work on finding what you live and doing that with whatever time you have until the income from your passion exceeds your 9-5. 

Back to the nightmare... I felt like a search engine. Searching searching searching and not finding. Maybe it was a sign that I am keeping myself too busy with nonsense? Cmon GRE, Reading, GYM, and Blog post a day? What are they going to give me in the long run? Am I in the right track? I mean they are good habits and all. But it feels like they are no where close to the One thing that will give me the 80% of the results that I am looking for to build my future. I have to find that one thing...

Its highly possible that I am still under the effect of that nightmare. If so, just ignore this post and see you tomorrow ;) 

Day 16: New Mantra, Positive affirmations, Napoleon Hill

How often do you do positive affirmations? Do you think they are effective? I think they might be useful when you align them with your goals. If thoughts, intention and focus matter that much, then creating the right mindset is equally important as well.

I have been trying to repeat this mantra that I learned from Mark Fishers "Instant Millionaire". It says "I become better each day, everywhere and in everything I do". This mantra instantly reminds me that there are only 2 possible outcomes in every situations.

They are: 1) You either Succeed or 2) You learn.  Its a very healthy approach as it allows you to take things easier and not fall pray to your mind created imagining reality of making things more difficult than they actually are. You don't have to fight or react to every problem and situation. The surprising fact is sometimes when you let go the situation it resolves itself and after a while you realize that it was not that big of a deal as I thought it was. So it is important to shift your focus from the fighter mode to the mode of learning, improving and becoming better from every situation.

I quickly want to go through the achievement formula here. The first step to succeed in any venture is to set clear goals. I would like to remind you quickly about the SMART goals formula:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

Example: You want to start gym and get in good shape that you've been dreaming of for a while. It would be ineffective if you say: "I go to gym because I want to get in shape."
You have to be specific. "My goal is to loose fat or gain muscle weight?"
Be measurable: "My goal is to loose/gain 10 kg of fat or 10 kg of muscle?
Time bound: "My goal is to loose 10kg fat gain 10 kg of muscle in 3 month"
Achievable: Dont set impossible goals. You cant put on 50 kg muscle in a month.
Relevant: You goals should be aligned with your greater goal, ambition and life purpose. It has to lead you somewhere.

Once you set a goal you can use hills formula. GOALS+Burning Desire+Faith. I think Faith is equally important. One has to believe that he will achieve his goal before he gets there. In other words "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

I will keep this letter short. Just dont forget to do the mantra. "Each day I become better everywhere and in everything I do."

Day 15. Half way through. Should you share your goals with others?

Day 15. Half way through. 15 more days to accomplish what I've set with all the four challenges.

Should I be talking about my goals and ambitions with others? I have been thinking of this question for a while now. When I was reading Napoleon Hill I remember he mentioned in his book Think and Grow Rich that it is not recommended to talk about your goals with others. However I never fully understood why? Why would Napoleon Hill being the person who always emphasized the importance of words, positive attitude and optimism while interacting with others, says that you shouldn't share your goals. If the thought are the things that shapes our reality, don't we make those thoughts stronger and give it more chance to realize while we speak about them?

Well, I thought for a very long about it until the answer came to me... Whole my life I loved setting goals and sharing them people around me in the hope that it will inspire them to take action as well, and to pick some insights from them as well. By the way, don't get me wrong I am not talking about the common belief that don't share your goals because people are evil and they will conspire against they know what you plan. That is a very negative and unhealthy mindset to come from. The truth of the fact is that people are either too lazy to do anything or too busy of thinking about themselves to give a damn about your goals, not to say to spend time conspiring against you.

However, if you pay close attention, there is only two scenarios possible when you share your goals/ambitions with other and both of them are not in your favor.

First one is that not everyone is in the same emotional vibration as you. They may not understand, like, think positive, or give the right advise about goals. This may demotivate you from taking the action. The truth of the matter is that we all think we are experts in many things that we have no clue about. One wise thing I learned was "Whenever you plan to start a venture only seek advice from the Experts only. People who have done what you intend to do before you, from people who are at least 10-20 years ahead of you in that field. " Do not ask advice from your friends or family. On the best side you will be wasting your time convincing them that your goal is good. To sum up, when you share your goals with others you will either get discouraged or relieve unproven/invalid 'expert' opinions which will do more harm than good.

The second scenario is even worse. This is when you talk about your goals and your friends think its a Great Idea and they praise you for coming up with such a great plan and they encourage you  to pursue it and keep going. It sounds like something we need a lot, doesn't it? However, there is an insidious problem with it. The thing is that, when  you talk about your goals and get positive feedback from people your brain receives all the positive validation that it needs after achieving that goal before even taking any action towards that goal. It impacts your subconscious as well. Our brains can not distinguish reality from thought. By being praised by friends for the amazing plan your brain gets all the validation and thinks as if it has already achieved the desired outcome. The fake sense of accomplishment relaxes your brain and you don't feel that urge to take action or to hustle anymore. This creates the loop and is the major reason why some people end up coming with fabulous ideas and only talking about them without even realizing any single one of them. Goals demand hard work, concentration and constant action. To do this one should always stay hungry. Getting validated before achieving your goals will only hinder your Success. Therefore, Keep Your Goals to Yourself.

P.S. This must be my biggest realization today about why i started certain ventures and did not follow up. My mistake was sharing my goals with positive people around me who always encouraged and praised me for the brilliance of these plans. I got validated and therefore did not feel the same hunger anymore.

P.S.S. Share with me below in the comments if you whether you think its a good idea to talk about your goals or not and why..

Thank you for reading this letter and see you tomorrow! :)

Day 14: Consistency, The instant millionaire, The state of Flow

First 14 days have been an enjoyable hustle. With the new lifestyle of working on my goals, life became one pace faster. On the day 14 however, it does not seem as much hassle anymore. I feel like i am getting slowly into the state of flow.

For instance, going to the gym every day does not feel like work anymore. Some days I don't even remember that I went to the gym and trained that day. I mostly remember the strong waves of energy going through my body. The days I train I definitely have more energy. After a while when you look at the mirror you realize the most important thing, even more than training hard and killing yourself in the gym is CONSISTENCY. Even if you work out with 50% of the intensity the one who is more consistent, will always be better than the one with excellent workout regime but trains only few month.

Reading books has turned into a very enjoyable habit now. Every free moment I get I indulge into reading. Morning commute to work, evening commute from work, waiting for a friend in a coffee shop/restaurant, metro, taxis, buses, every chance I get I read. I realized that I've been wasting so much time doing nothing. I read using my ipad. With the help of Z-library I get to download almost all the books I want to. Its like a dream come true for me. You enter a huge bookstore and can buy any and as many books as you want and they all are for free. I think they well deserve a free advertisement on my blog. ;)

So, coming back to books. I've noticed that the motivation that books give you are more lasting than the once you get from video's, you-tube or podcasts. I am reading this book called the instant millionaire now and I think it may just get the right to be on my recommended top 5 book list. The concepts presented in the book are very similar to the ideas of Napoleon Hill. The author starts with explaining how our thoughts shape our reality. How by controlling what you feed your Subconscious mind and building the right self image you can achieve any goal. What I like about this book most, is the Story narrative of it. Unlike Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" which might get overwhelming without single narrative, Mark Fisher tells the story of a 30 years old young man who desires to make his way through life but doesn't really believe that he can ever become a millionaire. He finds a mentor and mentor teaches him how to think like a millionaire and become one. While reading the book, the writer puts the story and the words in a way that you feel like You are that young man who is being taught by the millionaire mentor how to change your life. I absolutely recommend reading it.

Everything seems like getting into its own place now. Before, I couldn't find time with all these challenges and felt the hustle hitting me. Now, however, I get to enjoy life more as these actions are turning into solid habits and I am doing most of them in the autopilot mode. Writing the blogposts every day was the hardest of all challenges. Don't get me wrong. It still is (compared to others) :)). However, it is way easier to concentrate and put words down now. Ideas are more flowing. I feel like I am not running after another thing anymore and I get more time to observe and enjoy what is happening around me this time with the stronger habits ruling my subconscious. I can feel that the state of Flow is very close...

Day 13: High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way- Book review

It is said that whatever you focus on, you tend to notice more. When I started reading this book, most of the ideas seemed like things I have thought about.

In his book, Brendon tries to find the answer to the question of "Why do some individuals and teams succeed more quickly than others and sustain that success over long term". He believes that with the right habits, anyone can dramatically increase their results and become a high performer in almost any field.

He indicates six habits of high performers and emphasizes the importance of improving your skills with each of them. These are:

1. Clarity
2. Energy
3. Necessity
4. Productivity
5. Influence
6. Courage

Anyone who wants to succeed has to have a clear idea of what he wants to do and where he wants to go. Fundamental questions that should be asked: Who am I? What do I value? What are my strength and weaknesses? What are my goals? What is my plan?

High performers know themselves but they don't get stuck there. They are more focused on sculpting themselves into stronger and more capable people. Ask yourself "If you could describe your ideal Self in the future, the person you are trying to become, how would you describe that self?" Once you figure that out do not wait for next week, next month or next year. Start Living Your best Self now. Have a vision beyond your Current circumstances. Imagine your best future self and start acting like that person today.

Practice 1. 

Spend your days more mindful. Brendon practiced passing through each day with the 3 word mantra that each day he spends he should LIVE, LOVE, and MATTER. This is a very useful practice that I may start incorporating into my lie. Be mindful, live fully and enjoy every moment of your day. Give Love and genuinely care for someone. Matter and make your presence a difference, positive impact for the lives of those around you. Ask yourself each day: Did I live fully today? Did I love? Did I matter?

Practice 2.

Identify three aspirational words that would describe your future self. 1. Describe how you have perceived yourself over the past several month (with your partner, at work, with friends in social situations and etc.) 2. Ask, Is that who I really see myself being in the future? How would my future self look, feel and behave differently in those situations? 3. If you could describe yourself in three aspirational words - words that sum up who you are at your best future self- what would those words be? Once you find those words write them down and remind yourself several times a day to start living by that.

Along with personal aspects of achievement Brendon emphasizes the importance of the social aspects as well. For instance he says that High performers regularly ask themselves a few primary before interacting with people. They ask questions like these:

How can I be a good person or a leader in this upcoming situation?
What will the other person need?
What kind of mood or tone I want to set.

What is apparent across all high performers is that they anticipate positive social interactions and they strive consciously and consistently to create them.

I haven't finished the book yet but I highly recommend anyone to start reading and practicing it. You will probably not get much from just reading. It would be way more helpful if u can take just 1 advice from each chapter and start practicing today...

All the best and see you tomorrow.

Day 12: Unf*ck Yourself: Get out of your Head and into Your Life -book review

Yesterday, I started this book titled "How to Unf*ck yourself" which resonated with me a lot. The author tries to show the way to wake you up for your true potential and get the most out of life.

The underlying idea of the book is based on the idea that 95% of our daily actions are controlled by our subconscious mind. The conscious decision that we make during the day are only 5%. Rest of the actions are done habitual and on autopilot mode. How many times have you returned back home without even realizing the way? How many times days weeks passed without you remembering any significant thing that happened?

"If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one's feelings by controlling one's thoughts or by changing the internalized sentences or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place."

The truth of the fact is that our subconscious mind controls us more way more than we know. The subconscious mind itself is governed by our thoughts. So the answer is if you are able to control your thoughts you will be able to control your life.

Weather you accept it or not we all have self talk. It is the voice in your head that constantly talks to you, assess the situation, judges you sometimes, take you back to the past and dreams you into the future. Depending on how positive or negative your self talk is determines how much in control you are.

The unf*ck yourself method is all about Training your brain for positive self talk and productivity habits. You can take control of your life by practicing conscious and decisive self talk. Just like we build any habit by repetitive action we can use strong assertive language over time to create lasting change in our lives.  Your mind can be trained into seeing opportunities in any situation rather than indulging into negative self criticism. Be conscious and diligent about the words you use.

How we talk and think about, and perceive our surroundings is the very foundation of our reality. One can create the reality they live by having the conversations with yourself and others. You can reframe your every day problems by relating to them as opportunities. They can become items in your life that you can use to educate and expand yourself.

Do not use the words "should" or "try". Do not use I am going to be or I will be instead use I am  or I embrace or I accept. ( Instead of saying I am going to be more productive say I embrace that I am more productive). Notice the difference between the words "I will be relentless" and "I am relentless". Try out assertive speaking in your daily life and catch yourself when you are using more general narrative kind of speaking.

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Therefore, guard accordingly, and take that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature" - Marcus Aurelius

The personal assertion "I am wired to win" will support you in realizing how truly powerful you and your mind are. Make a bucket plan of the powerful and right ideas to train your thoughts.

I know it is not that easy to control thoughts or to create the positive thought patterns especially for those who are used to negative self talk. There is only one shortcut to create the right thoughts and it is to take the right Action.

I am not what I think I am what I do. "We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions" -Aristotle. You change your life by doing, not thinking about doing. Doing is the quickest way to change your thoughts. Dont act on your thoughts. Act on whats in front of you. Change your life by changing your actions.

Top takeaways:

Do not complain. Take full responsibility over your life and circumstances. Never blame anyone or any situation for your failures or misfortune. Use assertive language in difficult situations such as "I got this" and ask yourself what can I learn from it. Think about how much stronger this difficulty or challenge will make you instead. 

Practice positive self talk. One way is to do a positivity challenge for a week. In fact, I just made up my mind. I am doing 7 day positivity challenge starting from today. The rules are simple. Consciously asses your self talk during the day and every time you find yourself indulged in a negative thought,  complaining or whining about any situation or any problem stop and re-frame that thought in your mind and speak out loud. Speak to yourself until you can clearly see the other perspective. When you speak to others do not use the weak language like I try, I should or I will instead use I am. Practice personal assertions such as I am wired to win. 

I like this challenge because you will be able to easily track how successful I am by reading my next blog post. See you tomorrow! ;) 

Day 11 What would I advise my younger self

It is currently 7:23 PM in the evening of Sunday. I am rushing through this blog post in order not to fail my daily challenge of posting a blog post a day. Sundays, I usually film, edit and publish a Youtube video and I just managed to finish todays video while I was out with my friends. It can be difficult to find a place with a solid wifi connection.

I will keep this blog post short as I shared most of what I am going to say in this letter in my Youtube video.

The single best I advice I would give to my Younger self is to focus on the Self Image instead of thinking about What to do or How to do things. Take your time to build the character of a self disciplined, motivated and hungry for life person.

How many times have you promised yourself that you are going to wake up early and gave up? How many times did u set a goal that you will start going to gym and failed to do so? How many times did you decide that you will start reading more, not waste time and take more action?

Bruce Lee once said "No one can be defeated unless he or she accepts the defeat". Some of us give up on life accepting the fact that they are lazy, tired, not confident, not smart or not successful enough. Confidence, Productivity and High Achievement all are skills that can be learnt. If you try hard enough all of these personality traits can be easily sculpted into you.

Do this exercise with me now: Take a peace of paper and a pen and write down the main characteristics of a person you would like to see yourself in future.

If you are Hungry for Success the first thing that you must do is to imagine the version of you who is already at that place where you want to get. Then do everything to own and incorporate the habits of that successful You into your daily life. This is called projecting the future before it actually happens...

This is the main reason I started doing these 30 day challenges. I am working on building the character of a highly disciplined person who keeps his promises to himself and always finishes what he started.

Our lives, our destiny and our future is in our own hands. The decisions that we make today determines who we become tomorrow. Do not give up on yourself. As long as you have the clear mental image of who you ought to be, you will be that person.

See you tomorrow!

Day 10: 30 day Challenges, Discipline and Self Image

Today I woke up at 11 AM feeling strong, energetic and motivated to work. Weekends feel so good after a long work week. 11 AM means that I had a really good night sleep, even thou, I went to bed at 3 AM I think I still made my 8 hours J. Woke up, showered, trained, had breakfast, finished the GRE prep and run out to Starbucks to get this blog post done.

Now, because I am currently doing 4 -30 day challenges (GYM, Blog Post, GRE, 1 hour reading) they take up about 50% of my free of work time of the day (I also have a 9–5 job). I even thought to start learning a new language for a while. But I think it might wait until I finish the first 30 days and decide to choose the new set of 4 -30 day challenges for next month.

The major reason I am doing them is because I believe in the long run creating the habit of sticking to things for longer period will benefit me immensely. To be completely honest, I think it was my weakest point for quite a while. I am usually pretty good at taking the first steps and I start really strong, then I slack of hereand there, until I make up some excuse and move to something completely different. Even though, most of my shifts were usually when I found something better and more useful, I think it can just be another trick that my brain plays and just another excuse to qualify myself.

That’s why it is really important for me to build the habit of taking continues action, create a strong willpower and be disciplined in the days I don’t feel it. I have realized that there are two main types of motivation: Extrinsic and Intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is something that is driven from outside world and you have no control over it. Let’s say, you watched an inspiring speech on YouTube and suddenly you feel motivated and pumped to start taking control in your hands, work hard and do something meaningful with your life. This usually lasts no longer than few days until you get back to feeling like a lazy dirt-bag again. :P

There is another type of motivation which is called intrinsic motivation. It comes from within yourself and is strongly connected with your Why, your internal values, belief systems and a greater goal. It is the Intrinsic Motivation (some call it motivation 2.0) that keeps us go for longer and gets us to the goal. It is possible to build the intrinsic motivation via strengthening the willpower, putting continues effort and being disciplined in the days you don’t feel like slacking off.

Most important thing is to remember that we are the set of Stories that we tell ourselves and the mental image that we build about us. If you tell yourself the story that you are someone who gives up too quick, lazy, unfit, not confident and not successful person you will remain as one forever. Certain positive external situations can change your state for only a short while but it won’t last and you will sooner or later return back to your default shitty state.

It is important to work equally as hard on the mental image about yourself. Every day you should tell yourself that “I am someone disciplined who continuously works on himself and who always follows up, finishes what he starts. I improve my skills to become more productive and confident person.” If your day is filled by thoughts of such and you put continues effort on becoming more disciplined, more skilled, and more productive person you will eventually raise your default state to a point of High Achievement. By then then even the negative external influences and situations will have less or no effect on who You know You are.

Day 9: Physics, International Relations, Quantum Reality- Is destiny fixed?

To what extent do we control our fate, our destiny? Destiny as a word- implies that its something out there and its fixed. Then, controlling it means having the ability to change that of what is fixed.What if there was more to this? What if things are not as fixed as we think they are?

 My current understanding about physics draws exactly this picture. There are two prominent schools of thought that explains the world in physics. One is Albert Einstein's school which explains the world of physics as fixed set of rules that always produces the same outcomes. Not only physics but almost all science is based on fixed set of rules with fixed set of outcomes because this way it is easier to be measure, track, prove or disprove and build predictions upon it. Another relatively new school of thought (almost a century now) is Quantum physics which opens a totally new perspectives to understand the universe we are living.

The major difference between Quantum and traditional physics is that quantum does not agree with the fixed rules of physics. According to quantum physics the same action does not always produce the same outcome. On the contrary, there are endless possibilities of outcomes that the same action can produce. I would like to build a comparison with the International Relations theories to better explain it to IR students.

So the traditional theories of IR (Liberalism and realism, Marxism) have a certain understanding and set of rules about the states, human behavior and world system. These theories are considered scientific because they can be proved/disproved, measured and therefore some events can be predicted using them. The modern theories of IR, however, i.e. the Constructivist School opens new possibilities as is distorts the fixed set of rules that traditionalists present. That is why traditionalists do not accept them as science because it takes away the tools of measurement and prediction from their hands. This school of thought claims that the observer of international relations his beliefs thoughts and ideas can equally shape the sytem as other more prominent actors do such as states international organisations and classes. According to them the observers are the actors of international relations system as well. System is not somewhere out there, we are part of it and in fact we create the system. For example, after the end of the cold war Francis Fukuyama wrote the book called "The end of history and the last man"- with this he shared the idea that the world of the conflicts and competition has come to an end. The world of the Globalization and the rule of single superpower will bring peace and harmony. The state borders will dissolve and eventually one world one state will emerge. However, Samuel Huntington with his book Clash of Civilizations brought about a totally different perspective to the understanding of conflicts. He claimed that the conflicts will move on to another phase on a civilizations level. Different ideas, groups, religions, traditions will fight over survival. According to the constructivists both of these approaches could be true which at first does not make sense because they both were contradicting each other. However, it is argued that they both can be valid depending on the lenses you are looking at the world. The observer on its own can shape the reality he is living in as both Francis Fukuyamu and Samuel Huntington did by writing their books and spreading their worldview. In their reality and in the reality of thousands the world they view was the reality. Therefore, Ideas and thought are as equal actors of the International Relations System as the states and organisations.

Now lets come back to the Quantum physics. The main difference of the quantum physics is that in traditional physics if you take an atom it can behave either as a particle or a wave. Quantum says it can be both. The next stage is if you take that wave it can move either clockwise or counter clockwise, up or down. Then you make an experiment and you observe it. The outcome lets say is that it moves clockwise or up. So the result should always be same clockwise or up. (traditional) However, when  You observe it for the second time you see a different result. Third time a different result and so on. The possibilities in quantum world are endless and they cannot be measured. The answer is similar with IR theories. It is the relations of the atom with the observer that changes its movement direction or the behavior every-time. It is wrong to assume that the observer is outside the quantum field where the atom exists. In fact we both are the quantum field. We are also composed of atoms and by watching the atom move we influences its movement. We the observers are part of the quantum world as well and we are made of atoms, particles and waves.

The theory says that the movement is always different because we are different every time we make the experiment. But What does it have to do with destiny you would ask?

The Quantum theory goes deeper to argue that we are being that exist in the metaphysical realm and in fact there are multiple universes/ realities that exist at the same time. During our lifetime we shift from one reality to another which is slightly different from the previous or the following one. The reason why the observer can impact the movement of the atom is because he is located in the different coordinate every-time he observes the atom.  So the interaction of the atom is different every-time. Therefore the outcome is always different.

To sum up, destiny is not something that is fixed and that is out there. There are infinite number of destinies that exist at the same time. We and our destinies are not two separate entities. We are composed and interact with each other as the atom and the observer. Whats more to this our belief systems, set of rules that we impose on ourselves have the power to shape our reality i.e destiny. So maybe we can in fact control our destiny??

Sorry for slightly confusing post. There were just thoughts that were flying over my head this morning. For deeper insight regarding the theories presented in this post i would hightly recommend to read Sean Carrols new book called "Something Deeply Hidden"

Day 8 Finding my Why?

Sharing what you write has turned into another form of pressure for me. At first, it all was  just meant to be a blog post by me and for me with no readers. However, first few posts I shared on social media has gotten some attention. I believe I even have some daily readers now.. It contradicts the initial reasoning behind these letters. Now that I know people are reading it I have this pressure to make it sensible, appealing, understandable and possibly in a way that it will positively influence someone else's life. I know that some of my readers are just curious, others get inspired and I bet some are confused with the set of ideas presented here. One thing is for sure, that this blog is not about me by me and for me anymore. You have stolen it...

It's not always bad pressure thou. Being able to put your thoughts and ideas out there share your self with the world demands huge courage. That was probably the reason why I am attracted to YouTube-ing so much. Overcoming any kind of fear does help one grow on another pace. The ability to be open, completely honest and feel no fear while sharing yourself with the world has always been something that I admired.

Yesterday I read this book titled "Finding Your Why" by Simon Sinek. This book is written to help the readers to rediscover their Life Purpose and find the trigger that drives them to move forward.

We all know what we do. Some of us know how we do, but only a few know why we do things. He believes that anyone who finds his/her Why and lives by that why will have a more fulfilled life. You can find their why by going deep inside, questioning the core beliefs and taking a hard look at yourself. A good example is to take your life's work and ask yourself Why am I doing it. When you find the answer, create a why statement with the following format TO ____ SO THAT ____ and dig deeper until you find the real why.

I applied this technique and once again rediscovered what my why truly is. I have known it for years now. I bet you know it too and when you rediscover, it will feel very familiar. The reason behind my work and actions, even today while I am writing this blog-post, what truly motivates me, is the ability to help others and to see how I managed to change someones life to a positive direction. This has happened to me several times and man those were the moments that I felt truly happy and complete. There are so many young people out there who are lost, going through difficult times in life and seeking for answers about them and the world around them. Neither friends nor the family can provide these answers. I know this for sure because I used to be one of them. I was lucky to have a mentor who guided me through my toughest times back then without asking anything in return. And I want to repay that favor by being that person to those who need that someone to help them find their answers and discover their path...

Day 7: New Habits, Slacking off vs Persistence and Discipline: How to follow through

In the morning of Day 7 my daily challenges started to get to me. I currently have four things that I am supposed to do every day for 30 days

1. Revise 50 GRE words
2. Write a blog article
3. Gym/Train
4. Read for 1 hour

This morning, thoughts of not following through, slacking off slowly wanted to creep in. I tried to be mindful and observe them. "They were saying. Maybe not today. You don't have to keep writing every day. What is the point? Write whenever you are feeling to. U will have to stop eventually. Soon u will be on a work trip and not even have the chance to write during that day, how are you even planning to keep this going and etc..." Mindfulness practice teaches the importance of distancing your Self from the thoughts. They are just thoughts and that's what they do. They come and go. First and foremost rule is thoughts are not You. You are different to the thoughts that you may have. Try to watch them as an alien observer. So, that is what I did... I observed them.

My knowledge about creating new habits says that if you do a certain action continuously for long enough it turns into a habit and your brain starts performing that action effortlessly in an autopilot mode. That is the main reason why I have been doing these 30 day challenges, to add new effective habits to my arsenal and to get rid of old and bad habits. To live a more productive life and to have the control over my future.


I knew if I stick to it for long enough it will get easier and once 30 days are finished I will have less pressure on myself. My main question was how to Follow through thou? As always I reverted to reading...

I found this great book called "Finish What You Start." - by Peter Hollins at Z-library and downloaded to my iPad immediately. I think this is one of my most handy habits. Whenever I have a question or a problem I go find a book or several books on subject and devour them.

Peter Hollins formula for Following Through is composed of four elements: 1. Focus 2. Self-discipline 3. Action 4. Persistence. I drew a road map of the application of these four elements to my life.

First- Focus. I  make sure that every day i remind myself my goals. Every morning first thing i open my notebook and write down the 4 things i should do.

Second, I make sure to follow through with the help of will power even on the days i don't feel it. it is especially important with gym and training. some days you are just to sore to train or you are tired. It is absolutely a must to train on those days even if its a light workout as well.

Third, I have experienced this with blog posts. Some days my mind went black until the very moment I started typing. As soon as you do some kind of action though After a while u see that the momentum builds up and thoughts appear out of no where. That's why I always say its important to take action even if you don't have a clear plan of what you are going to do. In fact you shouldn't have.

Fourth- be persistent. I associate this one with Patience mostly. I am not the most patient person. I love seeing the outcome and the result of my work. When its easier I am the type of the person that doesn't need much time to decide and take action. I would say following through is the hardest for me. I guess for everyone also. I am a killer of short-term projects. However marathons seem harder. Sometimes you need to be patient and take your time just to keep going even if you move slowly move toward your destination.

By the end of this article, I am very much pumped to keep going and to add new habits to my life. As long as this formula works this means that I can pretty much do anything with my life as long as I am persistent enough to stick with it.

Day 6. Stop Chasing things instead focus on Being. Law of attraction

Yesterday, I finally managed to stay the whole evening at home after I came back from work. It is very relaxing to explore my introverted sides from time to time. I indulged in reading after having dinner. Then I realized something very profound...

All my life I have been chasing something... As I wrote yesterday it always felt that I constantly needed to get somewhere, always something missing, always something not enough.

I have been running after things whole my life, be it new achievements, wealth or success in general. I realized that the more I chase these things the further they seem to get away from me.

Don't get me wrong this does not mean that I am complaining about my achievements. Quite the contrary, I consider myself very fortunate to have reached almost all the goals that I have set. I am a firm believer that "You will never achieve your dreams if you don't dare to dream". However, its important to draw the fine line between wanting something and chasing something. Chasing has the very dangerous element of neediness in it. When you chase something it says that you feel you are incomplete, you are not good enough because you don' have it and therefore you chase it. And when you chase it it runs away from you...

What can be done?  Law of attraction says you should focus on Being instead of becoming. The mindset shift I experienced was that, instead of going after certain things I can just be...
Whenever I have a goal, instead of thinking how to get to that point where I am not or become the person who I am not, I should ask what is preventing me to be in that position right now? Shockingly most of the answers are Nothing. Its all in our minds. Therefore, Success is not a point to get to, it is a state of mind, its a feeling.

Ask yourself what is preventing me from feeling successful/confident/smart/wealthy now? If the answer is nothing. Set your mindset to the tone and to the frequency of that of success and all that you want will come to you effortless...

Day 5. The day of appreciation, working on the list of habits that I want to build

Day of appreciation: I have always been someone driven by progress. Productivity and achievements are the two things that keep me going. The days of doing nothing bring me down to a point of depression. I have never been satisfied with life. It always feels like I need to get somewhere and I don't have enough time. The train is moving and I might be late and miss it. With this kind of mentality its very difficult to stop and observe the beauty around you and to appreciate what you already have and what you truly love. It can seem to be simple things, but taking the moment appreciating your family, your friends, the house you live in, the food you eat, the work you do can bring another form of joy to your life. So it is really good sometimes to stop the hassle and take a moment to be grateful for just for what you have and give back to the world that has given you this beautiful opportunity to grow and work on yourself to feel safe and appreciate all that you are surrounded with... I did it today and it felt very peaceful.

Now let's get back to work :). I recently wrote the list of the habits that I want to create. The top 2 on my list are reading more and writing daily. They both have this fascinating magical effect of boosting creativity and unlocking way more about the world you live in.

I am trying to read more of biography style books about the lives of people who's traits I 'd like to incorporate to myself. This little trick I learned from Napoleon Hill and John D. Rockefeller. According to them, the fastest way to achievement is through self-image first and if you try hard enough you can build any image of your self. If you can think, imagine, dream, walk, work like the person you want to become then you will inevitably get to that goal. I am currently reading 2 books. One biography about Jacke Chan called Never grow up and one financial literature by the infamous Dave Ramsey called Total Money Makeover. Books unlock the opportunity to see the world through the lenses of the author and 100X more effective if this author is the ones that you'd like to become or learn from. It is the fastest way to access someone's mind.

Writing gives me creativity and more than anything helps me organize my thoughts. Don't get me wrong I am quite familiar with the practice of journaling. I have always been writing my goals, daily to-do lists, things I have learned, ideas, etc. to my notebooks for a very long time and I know that the benefits of doing so are immeasurable. However, writing things in the form of a blog post or a letter, more like the one to yourself, unlocks a new perspective.

My desk at home and my desk at work are always somehow messy even though I usually somehow end up finding the right things out of this mess. This is is probably a reflection of the disorder of my thoughts to the real world. Writing blog articles like this I feel like is a of organizing that mess on my table. The often I write, the clearer and more organized my thoughts become. I am a firm believer that "A man who has the control over his thoughts has the control over his life and destiny"...

I hope you find this useful and it inspires you to start your journey and create your movie of life. Comment below if you have any thoughts that you'd like to share with me. Cheers, and See you tomorrow!

Day 4. Back to filming Youtube videos with productivity series...

Saturday September 14. Woke up early and felt the urge to start doing what I have been procrastinating for a very long time. It was filming videos for YouTube.

As any positive action I needed to start the night before. So I started learning everything about something that I have never done before. It was Scripting Vidoes. I found out that it could save a lot of time if you at least had a rough idea on what your going to film about and I sat down wrote an outline what I planned to do the next day.

The new type of videos that I will be trying to post will be Vlogs where I will do my best to speak less and to show more because we all can imagine ourselves as the most productive dudes and gals out there when we talk. However, authentically showing what you are actually doing during the day is really hard. Its challenging in 2 ways. First, I never before realized that I am missing so many filmin making skills. I can't even make the basic transitions and no need to even mention about the editing part ( but I will learn eventually). Second, I would say the most important one, is how hard it is to stay focused on your tasks, life, trainings and film at the same time. Whenever I watch popular youtubers it seems so flowing, however, in fact it is a full time job and takes so much effort to film just few fragments that you may even skip while watching. :)

At first when I finished making the video, I understood that it wasnt the way I thought it would be and I was disappointed. I decided to give it some thought on what I want to do with youtube, weather to post it or not at all. I waited till Sunday, September 15 and the first thing in the morning that I woke up I jumped into editing for 4 hours and managed to create something that doesnt look that aweful. I guess I always suffered from a bit of self criticism. What I know for sure is nothing is supposed to be perfect. Sometimes its the imperfection that attracts as long as you dont stay satisfied and keep on working and improving each day... 

Practice is what makes thing perfect... I am just about to post Saturdays video. To get more comfortable with filming vlogs and lifestyle videos I am practicing making another one as I am finishing up this blog right now... Its all about challenges at these series where at the beginning of each video I share my to do list composed of 5 things and show you how I finish each of them. Check out the full video: https://youtu.be/OtnNBh-peRk

Finally, I would really appreciate if you could share your thoughts on how you think i could improve the qualities of the video and the content and what should i add to make it more interesting. Cheers and see you tomorrow! 

Day 3. Motivation, Napoleon Hill's Visualization technique and Rockefellers 12 Golden Rules of Riches

Day 3 of my blog-post a day challenge seems to go pretty well. In fact i am starting to enjoy it more and more every day. Writing builds some-sort of unexplainable creativity.

The mornings are usually the hardest. Somehow I wake up and need at least half an hour to get my head back together and feel inspired, motivated and turned on by life again. I heard no one hardly wakes up ready to kill it :). I have experienced this kind of motivation on several occasions. I call it my version of the flow. My goal is to create the lifestyle where each day I wake up with such an energy that I am absolutely inspired and motivated to crush the day...

I kept reading Napoleon Hill yesterday and I am trying to read a chapter a day from Think and Grow Rich and take out one small lesson each day that resonates with me. Yesterday it was the chapter on Auto-Suggestion.

Now, this chapter was very related to an understanding that I came to recently. Basically, one of the keys to achieving your goal is becoming the person you will one day be right away before you even get to the goal. Lets say, you want to be a Successful entrepreneur, business owner, millionaire, or pretty much achieve any goal you have set to yourself. The secret is, to Visualize yourself already there... With every action you take, with every thought or decision, think of what would your successful version do and act in accordance to that. Riches is not a material place to get to. I am sure most of you would agree that if you take away the material wealth from a truly successful person he will eventually get back to the place of riches he once was. It is right the opposite of why most lottery winners end up back with the 0 within few years. Its because success or riches is a state of mind more than anything else. So, the fastest way to achieve your goal is not to have a perfect plan made of Whats and Hows. It is learning and developing the habits/thoughts of the successful people and living in the condition of abundance and productivity that you aim to get to.

This morning before writing this post I read a fantastic article about Rockfeller. I summarised and took the following notes:

1. Do not work work with someone else. Work less for someone else. The one who works the whole day for someone else, he will never have the opportunity to make money for himself.

2. Save money and invest.

3. Start a business. If you don't have much money, you have to do business. If you don't have money at all, you should do business immediately. Right now!

4. Create Passive Income. The path to immense riches lies only through passive income -the income that comes to you independent from your efforts. Create a source of passive income and enjoy your life. Investing is a good option for this.

5. Make 50 000$ per month. Aim for making minimum $50 000 per month. You can make more but not less.

6. Socialize. Meet new people and network.  Money comes to you via other people. Unsocial people rarely become rich

7.  Surround yourself with Successful People. Poor surrounding will almost always drag you down to poorness. Surround yourself with the winners and optimistic people.

8. Take Responsibility! Lack of responsibility makes you poor. Do not make excuses why you cannot start moving towards your goal right now. You don't have excuses. Take action now!

9. Study the biographies and the way of thinking of the richest people of the world. Listen and take advise from only successful people who have already achieved what you want to achieve not your friends or family.

10. Dream! Dreams are the most important thing in your life. A person starts to die when he stops dreaming. You must always have a dream, a vision and an ambition where you want to get in life.

11. Help others. Help people without expecting anything in return but help the ones that you truly want to help. Give back 10% of your income to charity.

12. Enjoy the life. Create business systems that will be working for you in the long run and enjoy the life and the money you made!
                                           

Hope you enjoyed it! Have a fantastic day and work on building your dreams!!

Day 2. Melancholy, Depression, Road To The Dream...Get Fucking Busy!

There is a really cool Russian YouTuber called Igor Voitenko whom I have been following closely recently. He is a pure example of someone who worked day in and day out chasing his dreams and achieved his goals. He started his own company called road to the dream few years ago and made a huge progress while documenting his journey from an ordinary waiter at McDonalds to an international fitness company owner. His videos are absolute source of motivation and inspiration and his energy is off the roof. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DFMwmTVwwSO2E5vs2GgQw.

It is not a secret to the people who know me in person that massive changes occurred in my life during the last couple of month. Ending marriage and going through a divorce is not something that one can easily handle. No matter how much in control you try to be over your emotions, thoughts and life as a whole it just gets to you every now and then. The triggering factor was when one of my exes reached out to me yesterday and started digging with curious and uncomfortable questions such as how did u meet your ex-wife, why did u get divorced, couldn't you have saved the marriage and etc. I tried to stay grounded and answer them rationally and honestly even though they were not the easiest questions as I still dont know the answer to some of them. So despite my self suggestion that these things dont get to me and me not showing a crack she managed to fuck up my mood eventually...

So what to do when these kind of things get to you? After-all thinking over and over and holding on to something what is now past will give you nothing but a meaningless pain. The thoughts of past and that something is missing in your life sidetrack you from your goals and massively undermine your productivity. When an emotion gets to you, be it hatred sadness or anything your brain is occupied with something that will give you nothing for the future. So I guess the real question here is how do you control your emotional state when for whatever reason you feel down, demotivated or sad?

The same night  I came across with Igor's video where he answers this exact question. What do you do when you feel down? - His response was very wise. It was three words "Get Fucking Busy". 

 He said "I dont fucking have time to feel depressed or demotivated" and truth of the matter is he is not the first one I heard it from. Most of the successful people repeat it that when you are busy enough chasing the dream that you truly desire then you wont make excuse of holding on to emotional baggage that you carry. Igor's words felt very relatable to me and I repeated the same words to myself "Get Fucking Busy Javid". I stood up went towards my whiteboard and started writing the things I could be working on to improve and build on the life i truly desire. Well it gave me immediately power to focus on the stuff that truly matters and take back control over my life and destiny again. Afteall the key to success must be lying in the movement. The law of inertia states that "objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects in rest stay in rest". So how about start some moving and build the momentum to get into that productive state of flow where doors of opportunity are awaiting for us! I truly believe that anyone can achieve their goals as long as they do it right. I ve got 2 more years to get where i want to get. The clock is ticking. Lets fucking move now!!

Day 1. Overcoming my biggest fear

I guess it is in all of us. We all fear exposing our selves to others, revealing our true selves scared to be judged by many...

I know I haven't been posting my fancy international relations articles for at least past 3 years. In fact I started this blog back when I was doing my bachelors degree at Baku State University. It looked good and all professional back then. Life conditions changed zillion times since.

I always had passion for teaching and impacting the lives of many. What made me the most happy was seeing with my own eyes how someones life changed because of something I gave him or her. For a certain period I did youtube videos, sharing my views on self improvement and personal development portraying all that fancy and cool young professor image. However, you probably already know that people share their best sides only. The real question is how much courage have we got to share the imperfection within us the true us? The struggle the challenge and million failures that we go through in order to achieve something... The thing is that I like setting goals, challenging myself and working on them. The truth is, however, I don't always succeed. I fail as many do million times before I complete just 1% of the goals I ve set. 

Never-less, today I decided start a new challenge which is to share 30 blogposts where I will write all about my day, what goes through my head, plans, aspirations, dreams and what I learned that day. The goal is to be as transparent as possible and tackle my main fear which is the imperfect me. The truth of the matter is that my days are not always exploding with productivity that ive been preaching and talking so loudly about. Quite contrary the past 2 weeks I ve been suffering with inactivity. Looking back, i am thinking that I am getting old... What I fear most is that I might event die without having the chance of living and building the life I want because I was afraid of doing, because I waited for the perfect moment and it never came...

It is the life without fear of expressing yourself that I dream of. The life where you dont fake a smile, pretend that you like everyone, where you are not afraid to speak loud enough without fearing that you might offend someone, where you dont wait for the perfect moment to start doing something but you go and grab it by the ear and so on. The only way to do so, is to eliminate the fear. One a time. The good thing is that I have hope and I know that if I start living my life as fulfilled as if its the last three month then I can and I will be able to break free of the self constraint that most of us are suffering from. Even though we may sometimes not even know about it. Who knows, maybe soon enough I will restart the Youtube as well (Thats the grand plan). Writing, however, is something that gives a different kind of joy and mental clarity when you do it properly. I already see a future building in front of my eyes where I publish a book alongside creating quality content on the Youtube platform. Thats it for today. Lets save something left for tomorrow... Cheers!