These are the big 5 that I’ve ran into time and time again, hopefully this will prevent others from doing the same.

1. They Don’t Take Action.

Early on in my self-improvement journey, I would spend tons of time reading about how to change, but not much time actually applying what I learned. I was all talk and no walk. You should always be taking action, even if you’re scared and it means stepping far out of your comfort zone.

Action creates a feedback loop. All it takes is one small change to set off a chain reaction of new changes and steps towards your ideal lifestyle. Chances are, whatever you want to do probably doesn’t require much effort. The hard part is in the motivation and actually getting started.

Try committing to take at least one step toward your goal each day.

2. They Don’t Spend Time With The Right People.

Even though I was big into transforming myself, I still spent a lot of time with apathetic friends who didn’t really understand what I was doing. My biggest improvements started happening once I was surrounding myself with more influential, motivated people who were committed to living the life I was looking for as well. Basically, if a friend isn’t loyal and offering something to your life, just remember that you don’t owe anything to them and you shouldn’t let them drag you down.

Try and meet other motivated and inspiring people who can keep you on track and share their experience with you. A great way to meet people like this is through online groups like Meetup.com or by searching through events on Facebook.

3. They Don’t Measure Their Progress.

It took me a long time to get into a fitness routine that I stuck with long enough to see clear results. The reason for this was because I didn’t have any way to measure my progress. I would do my workouts and then expect to see some change. It doesn’t work like that (in fitness, or anywhere else). Unless you have a way of measuring change (no matter how small), it will be very difficult to find the motivation to keep going. Always be sure to write down the small incremental changes in whatever you’re trying to improve on.

For example:

• Measure your waist in addition to stepping on the scale.
• Make note of how many new people you’ve talked to this week.
• Write a list of everything you’ve accomplished today (try and outdo it tomorrow!)

4. They Aren’t Aware of Their Flaws.

This one is tricky. When you start making changes, it’s easy to get a little cocky and overestimate your improvement. After I changed my wardrobe around for the first time, I was convinced that I had style. I was wrong, but I wasn’t keeping my ego in check and still dressed poorly for a while before I re-evaluated everything. Stay humble and open your eyes to your flaws. They will always exist and you will always have room for improvement.

Be careful not to be too self-critical, though. There’s a middle path you should be walking. Be aware of your weaknesses and do your best to turn them into strengths, but don’t obsess. The harder you are on yourself, the less motivated you’ll be to actually take action.

5. They Fall Back Into Their Old Habits.

As the quote says, “old habits die hard”. The only way to replace your old habits and lifestyle is by constantly moving forward and refusing to give into the temptation of your old habits.

When you change your lifestyle, make a commitment to stay on track. Sometimes this means you have to provide an incentive for yourself (ex. if you go running every day this week, you can treat yourself to ice cream on Friday). Do everything you can to make it difficult (or impossible) to fall back into your old ways.

I hope that helps some of you guys who are looking to turn your lives around. Remember, making mistakes is part of the process! Don’t be discouraged when you find you find yourself taking one step forward and two steps back. Self improvement is like peeling an onion, each layer deeper you go will reveal more issues to tackle next!

The post 5 Big Mistakes People Make When Transforming Themselves appeared first on Hyprmind.

I like to take a very systematic and analytical approach to my lifestyle and productivity. When I’m coding, for example, and I see an example of something I’d like to implement, I first reverse engineer it and figure out how it works the way it does. Then I replicate that. Likewise, if I see a problem, I’ll figure out what’s causing it and remove it as quickly as possible.

Of course, using that systematic process in life is much easier said than done. It’s tempting to be lazy. Even though I feel guilty during periods of apathy, I can’t deny that it’s easier than motivating myself and sitting down to do my work.

But once “I’m wired in” and getting things done, I always find myself in a much happier state than I ever am during a lazy stretch.

I’ve paid attention to the key things that pull me away from my productive cycles or that help me push them further. For me, it comes down to these:

Get Rid of Distractions 

When I think back onto any heavily productive period in my life, I’ve noticed that my distractions are kept to a minimum.

Let’s face it, we live at a time when our daily lives are filled with noise and tons of things ready to pull us away from the work we should be doing. Many integral parts of our lives are just glorified distractions (facebook, youtube, etc.)

I’m no exception. I’ve spent my fair share of hours mindlessly browsing the web, researching something or clicking through youtube videos.

Ultimately, the only way to overcome distractions is to just have a lot of willpower and avoid it altogether. When I wake up in the morning, I try and start my day with something productive or motivating. That way, I’m off on the right foot.

Of course, I can’t be in that position all the time. Once I become consciously aware that I’m wasting time, I immediately close out any of my distractions and get right to work. It’s like flipping a switch and, even though it can be hard to do initially, you just have to remember it’s necessary.

If you need a little extra boost, K9 Web Protection and SelfControl are applications that will help you block distracting websites, making it easier to keep yourself on track.

Don’t Burn Yourself Out — Ride the Wave!

It’s impossible to be performing at a peak level all the time, but with the correct approach, you can easily make sure your peak periods stretch out over longer lengths of time.

One of the best ways to ensure this is to not burn yourself out. I always remember to take a break in-between projects or after long stretches of work. If you don’t take breaks, you’ll just overwork yourself and end up losing that motivation.

I like to reward myself during my breaks, but only if I’ve done the work to earn the rest. For example, if I finish work for a specific client, I’ll let myself watch a movie I’ve been waiting to see.

Take Advantage of Silence or “Downtime”

This goes along with the distractions, but I think it’s important enough to have it’s own section.

People tend to get most of their work done in the early morning or late at night. There’s a reason for this: it’s quiet and people probably won’t be bothering them as much. Everyone’s asleep.

I try to wake up early every morning and take advantage of the quiet environment. I usually work through things much faster before noon.

You should also take advantage of the fact that most people are resting during your (potential) peak hours. This gives you an edge on the competition.

Have Multiple Projects Going On

This has been a major one for me. In addition to any professional work I’m doing, I always have several side projects going on at any given time.

Sometimes they’re just fun ways to pursue my hobbies and try new things and other times they’re legitimate speculative projects that might turn into bigger things.

Regardless, these projects are what really make me want to wake up in the morning and get right to work. Even if things are rough professionally, I know I’ve always got my side projects to keep me entertained.

Don’t Idle

I never feel as bad as when I’m just sitting around, idly doing nothing. I try and avoid falling into this trap as much as I can, but it will happen to everyone, inevitably.

The problems is that once you start idling, apathy comes easily. You’ll be more inclined to do what you’ve been doing most of the time.

So, for example, if you’ve been working out every day for the past 6 months, you’re more inclined to work out tomorrow than someone who’s still new to an exercise plan.

When you idle for long periods of time, it becomes your normal state. You don’t want this. Keep yourself in a productive mindset and try to always have something going on.

That’s about it. You’ll probably have your own special patterns and habits during cycles of productivity, so be aware of those.

It feels good to perform at your optimal level. There’s a unique high that comes with accomplishment and doing work that you can be proud of. Give it a try

The post Performing At Your Peak Level appeared first on Hyprmind.

The bottom line is that there will always be reasons for you to not take action. When you’re jumping out of your comfort zone, your brain will scramble to find reasons to keep you where you are. Fortunately, there are just as many reasons for why you should be taking action right now and diving right in.

You have to take risks if you want great rewards!

No matter how prepared you are, you will never be prepared enough to avoid the inevitable problems you’ll run into along the way. A lot of guys will try to wear the perfect outfit, or come up with the perfect opening line to say to a girl. The truth is that, there is no “perfect outfit” or “perfect line”. Socializing is just about having fun, making mistakes and being natural. You can’t be natural if you spend all of your time trying to rehearse one line. Same with style. It’s all about self-expression and experimentation. If you’re busy trying to create one great outfit, you’re missing out on tons of opportunities to experiment with not-so-good outfits until you gain the experience and knowledge to dress yourself properly. Taking action means you will make mistakes. It also means that you will improve and gain reference experiences to help you become a more confident and capable person in the future.

Most of the things we fear about life-altering decisions aren’t even legitimate. Chances are, if you have a computer and you’re reading this blog, then you are pretty well-off. Most of the “problems” people like us have on a day-to-day basis are very small in the grand scheme of things. You won’t die because you choose to quit your job and start your own business. The worst thing that could possibly happen is that your business ultimately fails and you gain a lot of valuable learning experience and a cool story to tell.

Life isn’t that scary. If we spend most of our time fearing the consequences of pursuing our dreams then we’ll never be able to get anywhere or achieve anything.

If you wanted to learn how to ride a bike, you probably knew that you had to fall a few times before you learned how everything worked. No amount of “theory” or preparation could have prevented that. The same goes for any other decision you’re making in every day life.

All of your decisions in life are equally weighted. There’s no single decision that’s more important than another. We assign our own level of importance to things. This is both good and bad. It’s good because it means that you have the freedom to pursue whatever you want whenever you want. It’s bad because it means you have to take total responsibility of your life.

The biggest problem that people face when making decisions is that they want a safety net to catch them if anything bad goes wrong. Sometimes there will be a safety net, and that’s great. But, most of the time, there won’t be anything there to catch you. You’ll just have to trust your instincts and do it.

Did you ever think back on your childhood and remember a slide on the playground that was really huge and scary? Chances are, if you went back to that slide today, you’d start laughing because of how tiny and inviting it seems.

The seemingly daunting decisions that you have to make today will be the things you look back on twenty years from now and laugh about.

And remember, no matter what you do, you’ll always wonder what the other choice would have been like. It’s only natural to be curious, so don’t worry about making the “wrong choice”. There is no such thing. It’s all about chasing the dreams that you want to realize and making the choices that will help you do that.

What decisions have you been putting off?

The post Screw It, Let’s Do It: The Importance of Taking Action appeared first on Hyprmind.

Even with my sometimes neglectful attitude towards meditation, I can’t deny it’s usefulness and practicality. Especially in a world where so much of our time is spent staring at a screen and being fed new information constantly from a variety of outlets.

Meditation is helpful. That should come as no surprise.

Meditation is also simple. Sit down, close your eyes and try not to think about anything.

Those are the two main reasons why I haven’t covered meditation in a post on this blog. There is an immense amount of resources online on both the benefits of meditation and on how to meditate. I don’t think we need any more of them.

However, I’d like to talk about a favorite meditation technique that I rarely see discussed. It probably has a more proper name, but I’ll just call it an ‘externally focused meditation’.

The basic idea is this: instead of going inward as you normally would for a meditation, focus your energies on something external.

I like to pick a small object (tiny sculpture, tennis ball, dollar bill) and set my timer for 5 – 10 minutes. During that time, I’ll focus intensely on whatever object I picked. I examine each and every detail of the object, making sure I could visualize the entire thing upon closing my eyes (imperfections, subtle details and all).

The interesting thing about this exercise is that usually when I think I’ve seen every detail of whatever I’m looking at, I find something new and it amazes me. Even the tiniest objects have an incredible amount of character that we don’t usually take the time to appreciate. It’s really pretty neat.

But that’s only one side of the practice. In addition to the insight you’ll gain about tiny objects, you also get an enhanced appreciation of the rest of the world, and this is where it gets really cool.

After I finish one of these external meditations, as soon as I look up, I begin to notice the subtle details in everything. I’m seeing folds on books that I would have never paid any attention to, or intricate shadows being cast by a nearby lamp. It’s almost like my vision and analytical skills were upgraded.

Of course, this doesn’t last forever, but it’s almost like having a super power for the first few minutes.

Now, if intense external focus and examination of details in the physical world can create an almost super-human feeling, just think about what intense internal focus can do for your mind.

This is the beauty of meditation.

The post External Meditations appeared first on Hyprmind.

When we have bad experiences or things don’t go our way, it’s easy to get upset and wish that you could wind back the clock and have things go your way. But, you have to ask yourself: what if things did go your way? Would you be any happier because of it?

Variety is the spice of life, as they say. All of our positive experiences in life would be meaningless without their negative counterparts.

By now, if things don’t go my way, I usually just shrug it off as a character building experience or (in the case of the tea), I just smile and think about how good things will be when they go the right way next time.

Some of the greatest bonding and most defining experiences in life can also come from bad experiences. I can think back to great memories of eating some terrible food with friends and laughing about it or getting lost somewhere and then having my whole day thrown off by a comedy of errors.

These are all things I can look back on now and smile about, even if they weren’t ideal when they happened. I couldn’t imagine life without some bumps in the road or a few dull moments to help the brighter ones shine even more.

Next time something doesn’t go your way, try and tackle it like this:

1) Disregard your negative experience and just focus all of your energy on the other positive ones around you. Even if everything seems to be crumbling, remember that the fact that you can even experience these things is amazing in and of itself.

2) Think into the future and smile at how great things will be when they finally do go the way you want. Think about how you’ll feel in a few years when you’re laughing about how ridiculous your bad experience was.

3) Move on. Never let the negative consume you. The more you dwell on something, the more power you supply it with. If I ever have a bad day, I just shrug it off and remember that I can’t change it. I have no choice but to move forward and have a better day tomorrow.

Bad things are going to happen. Such is the way of the world. Yin and yang, good and evil. There will always be polar opposites. Summer would not be so beautiful and warm if it weren’t for winter to oppose it. You would get bored of one single state. Be grateful for the sad things in life, you will always bounce back. The positive can’t exist without negative.

The post Embracing The Negative appeared first on Hyprmind.

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What you have to remember is that human’s are inherently social. We make progress through our connections with others. Despite the tough exterior we show the world, deep down we really want to interact.

While traveling, this became even more apparent. I noticed that some of the greatest connections I’ve made have been with people who I couldn’t talk to. When we take language out of the equation, we’re reduced to the purest levels of communication. To me, this is amazing. It’s a testament to the fact that across all barriers (physical or psychological), we’re all the same and connecting with someone in a foreign country is the same as connecting with someone in your hometown.

Be open

You have to be willing to make friends. If you don’t want to connect with people, they won’t be very interested in connecting with you either. Always be ready to strike up a conversation or talk to someone who approaches you. That guy standing next to you in line at the grocery store could be your best friend. You’ll never know if you don’t say “hello”.

Be polite

Always be respectful of other people. Sometimes there are many cultural differences standing between you and someone you want to meet. Be sure to observe these and, if you make a mistake, simply apologize and correct it. Never be rude to someone who you don’t know and never make assumptions. Just because stereotypes exist doesn’t mean they’re always true. Give people the benefit of the doubt and stay polite.

Ask for help & always give it in return

Asking for help (and helping others) is sometimes the easiest way to connect with people. By being a helpful person, you’ll be able to better someone else’s life and maybe even make a new friend. If you’re on the other side of the fence and need to ask for help, you never know what kind of people you’ll find. I’ve met several friends (and just some really genuine people) just by asking directions. Never underestimate the power of a helpful gesture.

Make an effort

If you want to make friends, you’ll have to make an effort. There’s no way to meet new people if you’re always by yourself and never talking to people. If I leave my house, I always make it a point to talk to someone new. Maybe I’ll meet a new friend, maybe I’ll just have an interesting conversation. Regardless of what happens, I’ll at least know that I put forth a conscious effort and I know that by doing that, I’m already setting myself apart from the vast majority of people out there.

Let others know they matter

If you do end up making new friends, always be sure to let those people know that you are grateful for their friendship. A little bit of honesty towards someone can go a long way. It makes people happy to know that they’ve made a difference in your life and are having a positive effect on you. Always let people know this.

So, there you have it. Making friends doesn’t have to be hard. Once you’ve put forth a little effort, it just becomes a habit to meet new people and make friends.

The post How to Make Friends Wherever You Go appeared first on Hyprmind.

However, though it may not be hard to contact someone, it can be a little tough to get a response back or to ask for their help with something. Hopefully, having done this more than a few times, I can shed some light!

You, too, can mingle with fame!

First Contact

The first time you email someone, you want to keep it brief and to the point. Important people get a lot of email. They simply don’t have the time to read through your tome that essentially says the same things as all the other emails. It’s just not worth it.

Remember: brevity is the key to effective communication. Why say in 10 words what you can say in 3?

Your first email to someone should be very short. I’ll generally keep mine to a few sentences at most. The basic framework I use when sending out a first email is like this:

• Introduction
• Show that you’re familiar with them / small talk
• Ask a basic question / make an offer

That’s it. The point here isn’t to make a big request or get what you want. The point of the first email is just to establish a connection and open up the other person to future communication from you.

Don’t do this.

That’s better!

Generally, I’ll always try and offer something of value in the first email. This can be as simple as just offering up a basic service for free. For example, if I notice that an author might need a new website, I’ll offer to make them one for free. This is a powerful gesture and will set you apart from everyone else.

Of course, you can’t always offer something of value. The next best thing is to ask a basic question regarding their work or related to their personal opinion on something. You want to make the effort on their part very minimal.

It’s also a good idea to let it be known that they can ignore your email if they’re too busy. This is kind of counterintuitive, but it works. By saying that it’s okay for them not to respond, they’ll probably be more likely to.

Following up

If you do get a favorable response, the next step is to nurture that connection and build upon what you have. If you’re offering something of value and they accept, then you have a guaranteed line of communication for the time building. That will be enough to build a solid rapport with someone.

If not, then you should just follow up every now and then with another simple question or by sharing something. If I find something interesting that’s related to their field of work, I’ll shoot them an email about it. Keep this up for a bit before making any major requests. You want to be giving value here, not taking it.

Making a request

In general, I try and stay away from making huge requests from people. Most important people are busy — that’s the truth. I don’t want to bother them with insignificant things. I find that it’s best to just develop a basic relationship with someone and, that way, over time, if you need to ask for something, will be natural.

That being said, when you do make a request, you should follow some basic rules:

• Don’t be rude or pushy. No one is going to respond to that. Always be kind and make sure they know it’s okay for them to turn down your request if they can’t do it or are too busy.
• Make simple requests. The truth is that, the simpler a request is — the more likely it is to get done. Don’t make huge demands of people.
• Always offer something in return. Don’t be selfish. If someone is generous enough to help you out or give you something, the polite thing to do is to do the same for them. It doesn’t matter if this is a small offer or a big one. It’s the idea that you want to give back that counts.

Basically, when you make a request, always think about how YOU would respond to the request if you were in that situation. Modify your request accordingly.

That’s it. Not a whole lot to it. Just remember that famous people are just people. Talk to them as you would anyone else. Good luck reaching out!

The post How to Talk to Anyone (and Get a Response) appeared first on Hyprmind.

Ultimately, the article concluded that selfless acts were actually more likely to improve happiness and overall well-being.

When I think back on some of my happiest moments, I find that they’re almost always some time when I did something that went beyond myself or my own well-being. My highest points are usually when I make new friends, help someone out or share something with someone (whether it’s a place, some food or an experience).

Gift giving is a great way to bond and show appreciation

There are plenty of scientific explanations for why selfless acts make us happy, but I personally believe it has to do with the lasting effect of these kinds of acts. For example, if you buy a new car, you won’t necessarily be excited because you have a new car, but rather because you’ve finally acquired something that you wanted. That excitement will eventually fade and you’ll be looking for something else. On the other hand, when you help someone out, you will always have that feeling of knowing that you helped and made someone’s life just a little bit better. The same goes with experiences. If you share a really great experience with someone, you’re going through something together and you’ll always have a wonderful memory and your bond with the other person will grow.

Part of being human is being social and, in my opinion, it’s these shared social experiences that will create a unique kind of lasting happiness.

Shared moments are some of the best

There’s also a much bigger picture outside of just improving your own personal well-being. By helping someone, you’re able to improve their life and increase the possibility that they’ll also do something similar.

The book Pay it Forward is based on this principle. The general idea is that if someone does something to help you, instead of paying them back in some way, you should instead make a promise to help someone else in the future. This does several things all at once:

1. Gives you a sense of accomplishment by helping someone else.
2. Helps others do the same thing.
3. Creates a ripple-effect of positivity.

The scale of something like this is massive. For example, if just one person reads this article and uses the “pay it forward” system, soon, several hundred people could all be helping people without even having read these ideas directly.

There are several ways you can share / give something back to people. Also, this doesn’t have to be strictly monetary. If you think outside the box, you can come up with some amazing creative ways to help people out and give back. In fact, the best gifts are often the ones that don’t involve money or material.

• Give an extra tip at a restaurant.
• Send a hand-written letter to someone.
• Share some food with a friend (or even better, a stranger!)

On reddit, there’s a section called “random acts of pizza” that’s devoted to helping people get pizza who don’t have the funds or resources to buy it themselves. It’s a strange idea, but also really amazing that there are thousands of people doing it!

So, who can you help out today?

The post The Act of Giving: Help Yourself Through Helping Others appeared first on Hyprmind.

Maybe you’re not getting enough sleep, maybe your job is draining all of your energy, or maybe you just need a boost. Powernaps are a great way to quickly reboost your energy levels and improve your mental clarity. You can even couple them with caffeine or supplements for added benefits.

Enter: the powernap

When I was in high school, one of the worst parts of the day was right around 12:00 PM. By that point I had already been working for several hours without a significant break and I found it tough to focus. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep in school but nowadays I try to make an afternoon nap part of my daily routine.

These are best right as you start to feel your energy/mental performance drop. For most people this is probably right around lunchtime, but each person is different.

If you work from home or are going to college, you’ll usually be able to sleep on your bed. If you’re at an office, this can be a little more difficult. Try bringing in a small pillow and something soft to sleep on into the office (I actually like sleeping on hard surfaces sometimes, but sleeping bags and yoga mats work great!)

Note: if you work in an office that won’t allow you to get some shut-eye, try talking to your boss and explaining that you want to take a 15-minute nap every day. Tell them that it’s recommended by your doctor or that you find yourself more productive afterwards. If they don’t understand, try and sneak away to a hidden part of the office where you won’t be found. After all, it’s only 15 – 20 minutes and it’s not going to put much of a dent in your day.

So, once you’ve gotten everything worked out and found a place where you can catch some Z’s then set a timer on your phone or watch and pass out!

If you find it tough to fall asleep in the middle of the day, try doing some deep breathing exercises before hand to help relax yourself. I also recommend getting some ear plugs or listening to white noise/binaural beats during your nap; these will help you remain free from distractions.

Now, if you’re looking for a little more of a boost for your powernaps, you can always make use of caffeine or supplements. If you’re going to make use of these, make sure that your caffeine sources are very pure (little/no sugar).

Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

- Black coffee, green tea, yerba mate
- Ginseng
- Ginkgo

You’ll do best to drink the caffeine/take the supplements a few minutes before you actually fall asleep. By the time you wake up (15 – 20 minutes later) you’ll feel refreshed, energized and ready to tackle the rest of the day!

Still not satisfied? Get a boost in the morning!

I don’t always do this, but it can be a neat little hack to help you wake up with some more clarity and energy.

Basically,

- Set your alarm for about 45 minutes before you actually want to wake up
- Go to the kitchen, take your morning vitamins/supplements and include something energizing (anything from the list above will do fine)
- Go back to sleep and set a safety timer (set for the actual time you want to wake up), just in case.
- Wake up at the normal time feeling energized!

I personally find this to be a little backwards since you have to wake up in order to have your caffeine/supplements, but some people swear by methods like this!

So, there you have it. Test this out and see how your energy levels look afterwards. I’m sure you’ll notice a difference!

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