Entrepreneurship in 2015. By Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary is someone I have discovered recently, and he has opened my eyes to the new philosophy of online marketing. He definitely is someone to follow in the fields of entrepreneurship and social media marketing today.

Here is a recent video with him:

Momentum - make tremendous changes in your life with little effort

Just wanted to share with you a very interesting concept that I have discovered: momentum. 

In order to change anything in your life, you don't need to do any big changes. Not at all. You just need momentum. And then the change happens by itself. 

This is the opposite to a shock therapy. It's a slow but permanent therapy. Let me explain with an example. 

Example goal: Let's say I want to start exercising (doing sports) every day.

Obstacles: sometimes I am not in the mood. Sometimes I am running late somewhere, and don't have the time. Sometimes I feel sick. 

Guess what: none of these excuses matter any more. Because what I care about is not whether I exercise hard or not. What I care about is creating a habit, and getting a momentum going. 

Here is how I do it:

Day 1: I think about doing it. Select a time of the day (for example, before my first meal) to do the exercising

Day 2: I start eating, but my brain remembers the promise that I will do something before my first meal. So I stop eating. Stand up. And stretch. That's it. That's it for the first day. 

Day 3: I stretch again before my first meal, and perhaps do a sit-up.

Day 4: I do two situps.

Day 5: I do two pushups. And two situps.

And so on, and on. This is so easy once you start with just a stretch....  With something that does not require any brainpower or willpower. 

It is amazing what happens when you get the momentum going. You don't want to stop. :)

And over the time of several months (or maybe even years), your entire brain structure changes, and your habits start to become permanent. 

Just wanted to share this with you. Hope that helps in some way, if you ever want to begin a journey towards something that currently seems daunting. 

Meditation did not cure my depression. But something else did.

I love meditation. It is good for a lot of things. Like getting rid of daily stress. And stopping you from passing judgement on other people, from beating up of oneself, and from worrying too much about the future.

However, it does not easily heal a person who has a tendency to be depressed (like myself). Meditation helps you accept depression as a natural and passing emotion. But it does not prevent these emotions from coming back, unless you change your patterns / rituals.

After a lot of trial and error, I discovered other "tools" / rituals that were finally making a permanent difference in the way I feel (and therefore in my quality of life). And this is my recipe for it:

Physiology:
1) Hard physical exercise first thing in the morning
2) Eating healthy
3) Taking notice and adjusting my physiology: walking with head up straight, taking very deep breaths, and with a slight smile on my face.

Focus:
1) On my way to work - thinking about what I am grateful for in my life (including for all the mistakes that I have made)
2) Doing incantations when I walk (watch Tony Robbins YouTube videos on incantations to pick up some good examples for chanting)
3) "Feeding my mind" (watching videos by thought leaders and life coaches every morning before work)
4) Calling at least one friend (or a family member) I haven't talked to in a long time over lunch
5) Having at least 30 minutes each day to connect to yourself (e.g. playing music, dancing, or simply thinking about what I truly want in life and imagining myself actually living that life already)
6) Generosity / love. Just doing a small thing to help someone (even a stranger on the street, a friend, or a loved one)

Progress:
1) I challenge myself to make progress in each of these areas above every day. And therefore when I go to sleep or when I wake up, I feel excited about the prospect of making progress the next day.