As a sports fanatic, whenever there is a Super Bowl, I usually pay most of my attention to the game. This year, the Super Bowl was in my hometown of Los Angeles.  I’m a Seahawks fan; so, the Rams are my rival.

I like music, but I never considered myself to be a music connoisseur. However, this year, I was excited to watch the halftime show.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s and being a West Coast kid, I enjoyed all the performers at the halftime show.  To make a long story short, the halftime show blew me away.  It was better than I could have ever imagined.

It blew any expectations out of the water.

This made me think about exceeding expectations.  In our own lives, others have expectations of us, and if you want to be amazing, your performance simply needs to exceed what others expect from you.  When you do this, others will notice and give you bigger and bigger opportunities.

Next, I always say that without the ordinary, you cannot be...

Most of the time, success happens when nobody is watching.  Nobody is judging.  Nobody is seeing what you are doing.  It’s up to you to do the activities that most people are not willing to do.  It’s up to you to stay motivated and stay on course.

I have been working on a writing project for a month and a half and at times it feels tedious-  because it is.  However, progress feels slow, but when I look back at the whole thing, I see that I have come far.  Progress can feel slow, but push through and keep doing the work.

Healthy encouragement is one of the most underestimated influences for our life journey. Thankfully, encouragement is everywhere if you know what to look for:

Family

We often rely on family for emotional support and advice. However, it is not true that those closest to us can always encourage us in the right way. Even the most heartfelt advice and encouragement from family will be colored by their own mindset, biases and flaws. They also have their own ways of dealing with challenges that may sound great to them, but simply do not apply to your own struggles. Without understanding this, we risk mistaking a shoulder to lean on with good advice and encouragement.

 I am blessed to have an amazing family. My parents made their family a true priority, supplying everything my sister and I needed. They never acted like my situation was an impediment and we even went to places like Santa Barbara and Disneyland. As I grew up, they supported my transition from a school for the...

Our lives flick from one conversation to another. Chats with friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances – it all matters. After all, the right conversation with the right person could be the difference between success and failure.

The thing is, when our goals change, we sometimes forget to start new conversations as well. Worse, when many people discuss their future goals, they do it with a passive aggressive or complaining tone. They gloomily imply that life is unfair, or they lack opportunities, and that’s why they’re unsuccessful. By comparison, listening to successful people can be intoxicating because they talk with a tone of empowerment and personal responsibility. The only complaint they have is that they didn’t act sooner.

When I was 20, I decided to go to USC. I wanted to meet people and have experiences. Burdened by my disabilities, I knew this was a big risk and my rationale sounded a bit foolish at the time. But it turned out my brain...

I usually like to kick off each New Year by writing about achieving your goals. Everyone has something to say about the dreaded “New Year’s Resolution,” but I want to go a different way.

This post will bring together five of my biggest ideas shared over the past few months. These ideas aren’t antagonistic to the garden-variety New Year’s Resolution concept. They are meant to be complimentary to the conventional wisdom and strengthen your mental foundation to maximize any decisions you make in 2022.

I picked these ideas because they reflect some of the best lessons I learned during my big and bold business moves this year. Top amongst them is that instead of making a wish list, I deployed the process of analyzing if I was ready to make real changes to my life. I’m happy to say this approach generated enormous value, so let’s dig into the details: 

1. Decision making. The building blocks of our lives are influenced by the quality of our...

For the last couple of months, I have been getting ready for some exciting, new changes in my business.  We are going to launch a new website and new programs next year. I decided to make some organizational changes so I can focus on something I love- creating content. 

In this, my last post of 2021, I want to share with you a few tactical ideas to start the new year right.  Instead of frantically setting goals around the first of the year, be intentional about your goals.  Traditionally, this is a time where people change their focus from being dedicated to working on their goals to enjoying the holidays.  However, instead of totally disengaging from your work, spend a little time just planning for next year.

This does not have to be a long process that takes hours and hours.  You don’t need a personal manifesto.  You don’t even need to break out spreadsheets.  Make it an enjoyable process.  Take time to journal for...

Every year at Thanksgiving, I write about gratitude. When I first started this trend, each post listed everything I was grateful for. But my understanding of gratitude has since evolved. I now believe gratitude is a guiding principle for success, not just a feel-good concept.

As time ticks by, I learn a bit more about my disability and how to navigate its many challenges. The world wants me to concentrate on all my challenges at the same time. After all, how can I ignore a disobedient hand, a speech impediment, needing help with daily activities, or any other challenge.  Just like people should not ignore chest pains, my car’s check engine light, the call from a schoolteacher, an awkward silence from someone I love and, I don’t know… a pandemic. But worrying about every negative thing is a rotten way to live. It diminishes my trust in others, creates unnecessary enemies and ultimately causes me to miss out on amazing opportunities.

Only by using gratitude as...

Successful people are easy to spot. In fact, the cheat-sheet method of achieving your goals is simply to focus on what successful people are doing and emulate their actions.

After all, successful people are always displaying their attitudes, habits and work ethic for all to see – if only we pay attention. On top of that, the libraries and internet are chock full of books, videos, blogs and other information about achieving success. If we are willing to do the work to learn, success is possible for everyone.

But the important point about a narrative is that it entirely in your mind, which means getting the right mindset is crucial to success.

Happy

Messages about what will make us happy bombard our brains every day from endless directions. And yet happiness can never come from external sources. Happiness is a personal journey that is always evolving, not a goal or something that can be found like a pebble on the beach. Happiness must be created and no...

When you hear the word “success,” where does your mind go?

For many, success is something that happens to a person, not what a person does. The first things that pops to mind when thinking about someone’s success is they must have had “raw talent,” “good connections” or “grew up in a better social environment.” This mindset may be partially correct, but it can also be used as a defense mechanism to explain away our own failure to work hard.

Everyone constructs their own narrative about success which is influenced by our peer groups, the encouragement we receive during our life and our own gut reactions when seeing the success of others. But the truth is, success is more often a result of hard work, discipline and cooperation than it is about luck (although luck does play a role).

The values we prioritize to reach that success can vary even between people aiming for the same goal. For example, a young salesperson might value...

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Every human action is a reaction to something else, so it’s important to find or maintain your own source of motivation and inspiration.

Unfortunately, motivation and inspiration can be a diminishing resource. What works on one day will slowly stop providing the same kick over time. Motivation comes and goes in waves. You might be raring to go in the morning, but an untimely work email can sap your energy. It’s understandable to blame outside factors in situations like this. Then again, it’s impossible to feel happy, motivated and inspired all the time. The goal instead must be to find motivation and inspiration no matter where you are and no matter how crappy the day is.

What Do Motivation And Inspiration Mean?

Let’s clarify these vague terms “motivation” and “inspiration” with a simple framework.

Motivation and inspiration come in two forms: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to...