I used to do unsatisfying jobs and didn,t aspire to anything better. I never questioned what I was doing. I never questioned why I wasn,t free to do what I wanted. Nor why I wasn,t happy.
I was going to boring offices to do unfulfilling work, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Now, however, I,ve just got back from an eight-month vacation. I was travelling through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines whilst working on my online business.
How did I turn my life around? A long journey starts with a single step and my first step was a mindset shift.
Everything starts with an idea
I have written a book that will add more freedom and happiness to you life. It could change your life as well.
The book is about the almost instantaneous mindset shift I enjoyed that set me free to run my own business, travel the world and live on a permanent vacation.
Watch the thinker
Ask yourself if your thoughts are your own.
If you,ve spent any time, as I have, watching the thoughts appear in your mind, you will realize that they bubble up independently. Who knows where they came from. Maybe echoes from the collective human consciousness.
If you watch your thoughts you will also realize that they are incessant. This would be a random selection of my thinking every time I was going to work in the morning:
Did I remember to lock the door?/Oh, look at that bird!/Am I going to be late?/I wonder what I,ll have for dinner this evening/Does that girl at work like me?/At work they think I’m crap “¦
They never stop. Every one of us has this ongoing mental static – the whirring accompaniment to every waking second of our lives.
Not only are these thoughts not yours, they,re also doing you harm. Sometimes the continuous mental static in my head wouldn,t leave me alone. Sometimes my thoughts would turn on me:
- “When will I get a decent job?”
- “Why can,t I meet the love of my life?”
- “How am I going to pay my bills?”
- “What,s wrong with me?”
If any one of us started to speak our thoughts aloud, we,d get locked up pretty quick. Our thoughts can quite often be negatively judgmental to others as well as ourselves.
You know all the nasty things you say to yourself? Just imagine if you had a friend who said them to you. Would you stand for it? No, of course not.
The only way to kill this negative self-talk is to be the watcher of your thoughts. If you catch yourself thinking negatively, notice it, do NOT berate yourself, but calmly turn your attention to something else – for example, the present moment.
Meditation
The present moment is all we have. It’s the only time there is. The only time there ever has been or ever will be. Everything happens in the present moment. Everything that has happened and will ever happen will be in the present moment. And, meditation is quite simply non-judgmental present moment awareness.
Meditation was my starting point away from despair and dysfunction.
When I discovered meditation, I knew I had something special. I had something that I could always go back to. Something good that was always there for me. No one could take it away from me. Now, ten years later, it’s still there for me. I still go back to it. It still helps me.
Try it now! Wherever you are reading these words, whether you’re sitting down at your desk or standing up reading them on your phone. Close your eyes for a moment. And, with your eyes closed, notice the feeling of your feet on the floor, your clothes on your body or the air coming into and out of your nose.
Please, do it now!
Feel better? This is meditation. Concentration on the present moment.
You will lose concentration. You will find your mind wondering. When this happens, notice it, do NOT berate yourself, but calmly turn your attention back to the sensation of the air coming into and out of your nose.
Free your thoughts
If you’ve never meditated before then only do it for more a few minutes at first. However, as it becomes a daily habit, you’ll want to meditate for longer and longer periods.
You’ll enjoy moments of great relaxation as your ability to concentrate on the present improves.
Inside these moments, you’ll find great freedom. Inside these moments, where you are more deeply connected to yourself and the universe, you can create a better reality for yourself.
Affirmations
And when you’re deeply, deeply relaxed you will connect with yourself on a deeper and deeper level. You can make suggestions to yourself.
When you’re concentrating on yourself within meditation, you can feel the power in your body – the life force that is the oxygen enriching the blood and giving you energy. It feels good.
You can use this good feeling to good effect. You can make the affirmations you want to realize your dreams. These are my rules of affirmations:
- Affirm when you are feeling really good about yourself in a relaxed and powerful state
- Use in the present tense
- Feel the affirmation is already true
- Make the affirmation super-specific
- It,s better to affirm something that will help other people not just yourself
I find this a helpful and powerful practice. I regularly affirm that my business improves and that I help and inspire more people.
A difficult gestation period
This is my sixth Kindle book and, if you include all my e-books and video courses, this is my 22nd product (not including bundles). This has been the most difficult product that I,ve ever created!
Why? It,s a departure from my usual content. It’s firmly in the personal development niche and not about business.
I found it hard to delve back into the past to re-live some of the moments that I went through in my journey.
But it’s done now. 🙂
The book is live on Amazon now – grab yourself a copy!
The feedback has been great. This just shows the power of sharing your personal story.
“If you want to break free and live life on your terms, while doing work that makes a difference and adds value to other people’s lives. Then you should read this book” SA – verified purchase review.
It got up to #10,000 paid Kindle books on it’s initial launch and has so far gathered 11 Five-Star reviews on Amazon.com
I,m trying to get as many reviews as possible.
The Kindle book will be free from June 16th to 18th 2015. If you’re on my list you’ll get an email during this time to remind you. You can then download the Kindle for free and, if you have time, your review then will be a “Verified Purchase” review on Amazon – which is worth a lot.
And the Kindle will be then free again from July 2nd to 3rd 2015 with a BuckBooks $0.99 promo on July 6th 2015. It’s $0.99 at the moment but I’ll probably raise it to $2.99 after the initial launch phase is over.
I really hate doing this but please write me a review! You know how important reviews are on Amazon, as this book’s really important to me, I’d like to ask you to please consider writing a review on Amazon.
You can do it!
You can create a new mindset that is positive, creative and energetic.
After reading this book you will be able control your thoughts in order to concentrate on the most important things – your life, your loves, your calling.
Here are the links:
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YUY4WYM
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YUY4WYM
IN: http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00YUY4WYM
OZ: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00YUY4WYM
CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00YUY4WYM
Hi Rob,
As usual, you are one of the best writer. I love it when you always share your personal experience. That’s the only times I can really relate with you because the “I” word is the most powerful of all for connecting with others.
I meditate a lot. In fact, I’m doing meditation more than ever before. You’re right. The only moment we have is HERE and NOW. We can only look back and or plan for the future but all we got is the present. Any negative thoughts about ourselves should be discarded and replace it with positive ones. Sometimes, ourselves can be out worst enemy. Some people can put down themselves automatically. It should be reverse. We should think positive thoughts automatically. Not to be conceited. But have that reassurance and confidence always.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience. I appreciate it.
Angela
Thank you for your comment, again, Angela. I really appreciate you! I’m so glad this resonates with you. I quite agree we can stop the negative self-talk without being conceited. It’s perfectly possible to think well of yourself without being arrogant.
Hello Rob.
It is good that you have expressed such incredible thoughts. I am impressed. Reading your blog has become quite an experience. You talk about things I never expected. i came here to see how to make a web business, and I have got that. You have shown me that over the years, you do have a successful online business and you are taking advantage of this new and incredible life. I love that your life is a vacation, and eight month vacation. Wow. That is very nice. I am encouraged, and happy that this life exist for you and so many others. This is freedom. Well done. Now you are talking about freedom from another point of view. I must admit this is not what I expected, and it is a challenge for me to keep an open mind about this new thought but I am willing to give it a try. I can see why this was a difficult book to write. Still, I have always felt that you are a person who has his head on straight and has a great deal of common sense, who has been honest and open with me, someone whom I do admire and respect. Thank you Rob for all that you share, both personally and professionally. Thank you very much. So, now that you are back from your vacation, what’s next ?
All the best my friend. Enjoy life.
Hello Rene, thank you for your kind words. This blog is mostly about business but I do stray into personal development from time to time. People tell you to stick to one subject but I find that boring so I write about what I want to write about.
Nice post indeed,
Well I guess I have watched in lot of motivational videos that we are the reason for happiness or our mindset. If we clear our thought and think that we are happy then our path automatically redirect to a happiness destination.
Thanks
Thank you, Vicky. I’ve watched a lot and read a lot of motivational stuff. Yes, it’s all in our minds but changing habitual thinking and self talk can be tough. It’s definitely worth a try, though.
I think you are doing a great service to your audience with that book, especially for those who don’t really know where and how to start. If you are immersed in a negative self-talk no amount of technical how-to information will help you. You will simply talk yourself out of taking action.
You disclosed yourself to the “bare bones” in this book and I appreciate it very much. This is how self-help books should be written.
And, as usual, you ride the cutting edge trends (a puppy + begging 😀 )
I learn from the best – from people such as you, Michal. And Chandler Bolt gave me the idea for the puppy begging. In fact, most of what’s in the book is copied from somewhere else (and is given proper acknowledgment). But it is my take on it and it’s about what’s worked for me. You’re right, no amount of technical how-to information will help you if talk yourself out of taking action. Hopefully this may help someone. Thank you so much for your comment here and your review. Much appreciated.
This is really a great piece of content, Rob.
Loved the way you wrote it. Negative thoughts are the main culprits that prevents you from unlocking your true potential.
Unless you try something, you won’t know whether you are good at it or not and when you stay positive, you will take more calculated risks that will lead to success and more happiness.
Thanks for the article, once again. 🙂
It’s true and you’re right, Arbaz, the more positive you are the better you are at handling failure which will mean more success. Thank you for your comment.
Hey Rob,
I’m just finishing up reading 10% Happier so this is pretty timely.
Will give your a book a read next.
Cheers,
Joe
Hey Joe, if everyone who reads the book will be 10% happier at the end then that would make me happy! Let me know what you think about it.
Hi Rob,
I’ve been reading your blog and have read a couple of your books (all great stuff and very informative!). This post is a departure and I’m sure not easy for you but I hope was as rewarding for you to share as it is for us to read.
This resonates with me especially as I am about to take the leap into my first attempt at passive income and the subject in this post (of all things – it even surprised me when the words started coming!) is what I’ve managed to write quite a lot on. Get your thoughts in shape and your life follows. I’ve experienced it and its worthy of sharing with the world though not something I too would find easy to talk about.. I believe if its scares you a bit then it must be a good thing and worth jumping off the proverbial cliff for.
I am just deliberating whether to start a WordPress site and publish my stuff as articles on a blog or go straight into publishing it all as my first kindle eBook.
Hello Roger, thank you for the great comment. Yes, gurus tell you to niche down and not stray from your little subject but I’m pleased I made this little detour into the world of personal development.
Roger, you should definitely write great free blog posts as well as write great Kindles. Do both. Create great free content and it will make your paid stuff better (because it’ll make you a better writer) and it will build an audience for your paid stuff as well. 🙂
Hi Rob I’ve recently bought your book and read it. Quite different to your usual content but still very interesting and enjoyable. I’ve used the affirmation idea before via Suzie Pearl which has definitely helped me focus my mind on becoming more positive – and I like your take on it.
Your approach to help rather than to make lots of money is great. If the world had this approach I’m sure we’d all be much happier 😉
Hey Mark, thank you so much for getting and reading the book. Yes, a bit different from my usual stuff. But something I’m really passionate about.
I’d never heard of Suzie Pearl before but she looks interesting.
Affirmations take a long time to work but are great, in the meantime, however, meditation will have instantaneous positive benefits. 🙂
Hi Rob
This is my first visit on your site and am really feeling motivated now. Your content is awesome, I have bookmarked you already.
Regards
Dheeraj Yadav
Hey, glad you like it, Dheeraj. Hope you come back again.