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Happiness Tips

Are You Leaning Into Growth or Stepping Back into Safety?

safe1 “You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow

The Comfort Zone

The Comfort Zone is more than just an idea. It is a physical feeling for us all. We feel a particular way – call it comfortable – when we are in the comfort zone; and uncomfortable when we step outside of it. But here is the thing. The opposite of the comfort zone is not the uncomfortable zone. The opposite of the comfort zone is growth, opportunity, increased potential, deeper relationships, adventure, excitement, possibility, greater success, deeper happiness, etc.

The Discomfort Zone is not everything outside of the comfort zone. The discomfort zone is a little ring around the comfort zone that you need to pass through in order to get to the growth zone. The discomfort does not last forever. It dissipates when you move against it and through it. And when you do that, you arrive in the Growth Zone. Plus the other cool thing is that now the comfort zone expands out to meet you.

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Happiness Tips Videos

How to Get Out of A Funky Mood

funkyToday I (Carl) woke up a little bit flat…

I did my usual stretches in bed after I woke up. Then focused on what i wanted in my day. Followed by a big glass of water with a dash of apple cider vinegar (my morning alkaline and hydration fix). Then ablutions, which I will spare you from. Next was about 30 mins of meditation and still I was feeling uninspired. Also known as feeling like c-r-a-p (added the hyphens to slip past the company firewalls that don’t like swear words – what has the world come to???).

So then I did my energization exercises…still feeling like p-o-o-p.

Followed by some tapping (emotional freedom technique)…still not there.

And then I remembered one simple technique I teach others and that I picked up from Brain Johnson, who picked it up from someone else. And that is what I share in the video below.

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Goal Setting Tips Happiness Tips

The 6 Essential Steps to ELITE Goal Setting by Carl Massy

Blog-8Too often we get caught up in the questions of ‘how are we going to achieve our goals’ before we have completed the most fundamental and important steps – which are the things that will actually enable us to achieve our goal; but even more so, they will lead us to goals that will actually make us happy. Now there is a novel idea. Choosing goals that will actually make us happy – not stressed, not overwhelmed, not left thinking ‘is this it?’, but HAPPY. I like it!

Do you remember the newsletter where I wrote about goals being responsible for 50% of our happiness (Discover what 50% of the happiness equation depends on)? It makes sense doesn’t it. If we have no goals we flounder. If we have crap goes we are very likely to be unfulfilled and wonder if this is all there is. But if we have deeply meaningful goals then we are on the right track and will feel pretty damn good about ourselves and our lives.

So for me the two biggest things to nail in the whole goal setting and creating the life you want dealio is to figure out what your goal is, and then make sure you have really powerful reasons (and meaning) for why you want this goal.

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Happiness Tips Relationship

Did Charles Darwin have it right when he put Competition over Cooperation?

competitionLet’s kick this little Tip off with a quote and then I will suggest what I believe this means for us as individuals and our happiness, fulfillment and joy in life.

Greg Bradden tells us in his great book Deep Truth: Igniting the Memory of Our Origin, History, Destiny, and Fate; ‘According to prestigious journals such as Nature and New Scientist, cooperation always benefits individuals and society. In the April 2008 edition of New Scientist, Michael Le Page says this very clearly. He says, “What we see in the wild is not every animal for itself. . . . Cooperation is an incredibly successful survival strategy. When cooperation breaks down, the results can be disastrous.” Le Page is one member of the scientific community now sharing the new discoveries that show us the Darwinian idea, survival of the strongest, is not the rule of nature. It may happen sometimes, but it is not the rule. It is not the law that life is based on.’

Did Darwin have it right (or wrong)?

So the latest peer-reviewed scientific papers are suggesting that maybe Darwin didn’t have it entirely right. Maybe some species evolve by force (like the  old saying ‘survival of the fittest / strongest’ implies) but this is the exception and not necessarily true for humanity. The challenge is that the old saying and belief system associated with it, leads individuals, organizations and industries to believe that if they are not climbing for the top, often at the expense of the apparent ‘weak’, then they will not survive. It turns out that it is cooperation is the key to success and the fruitful evolution of us humans. And this applies at all levels.

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Book Happiness Tips

The Great Cholesterol Myth…and the $40+ Billion Industry

great-cholesterol-myth copyI don’t know how I found it, but I recently read The Great Cholesterol Myth by Bowden and Sinatra, and it was a little bit of a mind opener for me. So if you are taking any cholesterol lowering drugs (like Statin) or know of anyone else that is, I STRONGLY recommend an investment of $20 in this book; which could save $1000’s and some pretty nasty side effects from cholesterol lowering drugs. To make it easy for you, I will sum up the key points.

Caveat: If you are on cholesterol lowering drugs, read the book first and then make an informed decision, which will probably include educating your doctor along the way.

There are 5 big things I took away from this deeply researched book (written by a cardiologist and a PhD nutritionist). And I am sure you will be surprised to hear this, but the cholesterol lowering drug industry makes over $40 Billion a year! Seems to me like 40 billion reasons to keep telling their old story.

1. Cholesterol lowering drugs may not actually work

As it says on the book cover … ‘Why lowering your cholesterol won’t prevent heart disease’. There are millions of people taking cholesterol lowering drugs, but the rate of heart disease has not decreased. Hmmmm – something smells fishy to me.

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Growth Happiness Tips

5 Things You Must Do to Get to the Next Level

nextI don’t know about you, but I am not using 100% of my potential. I am not living life at the top level of Carl Massy. So I am speculating that maybe you too have a few levels to go to really get things shaking and moving in your life. The other thing about going to the next level is it is hard-wired into us. We have a very real need to grow in life. To step up to the next level. Therefore if we are not growing we are also likely to feel unfulfilled.   

So what are the best things you (and me) can do to take ourselves up to the next elusive level of happiness, health, vitality, success and fulfillment?

Let me share with you what I believe are the main things we all need to do to really tap into our inner greatness:

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Happiness Tips

Having stuff, doing stuff and increasing happiness.

doing I have decided to write this article backwards. What the heck does that mean, you may be asking? It is like this. I want to share a very important piece of information for your future Happiness (so you understand it intellectually). Then I will explain in detail the ‘why’ (so you get it emotionally). So here goes.

Research by social psychologists tells us buying an EXPERIENCE (such as a trip, concert, or great meal) will give us more HAPPINESS than buying a MATERIAL OBJECT (such as clothing, jewellery, or electronics).

Now before you think I am telling you to give everything away and head off to the nearest cave, let me assure you, it is about balance. It is also about return on investment (ROI). It is about spending that $100 on something that has the greatest Happiness ROI. In this case, the research tells us, the picnic with friends ($100 for snacks and drinks) will bring you more happiness than the $100 shiny new bracelet. Plus if you want to take it one notch higher, taking photos of the picnic, with friends, will lead to more feelings of happiness well after the event.

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Happiness Tips

Increasing the Power of your Mind by Carl Massy

stuffAs soon as I walked in I felt something messing with my Zen. I felt a little bit anxious or uptight or unable to fully relax and it took me a little while to figure it out, but when I did it reminded me how much our external environment can impact on and reflect our internal environment. Both in a positive and negative way. Now I cannot divulge where I was visiting or whose space  I was in (to protect the slightly innocent), but what I will be sharing is totally relevant for us all.

I remember reading a book last year about neuroscience – which for me is more fun than reading the latest gossip magazine – and the author was talking about the amount of brain power that is used up via distraction. Additionally they spoke about the mind’s amazingly sensitive ability to detect danger around us. In fact our brains are so sensitive to danger and threats to our safety that it is constantly monitoring the external environment for potential danger. And when that environment is a house or room or desk of disarray, it is constantly on high alert. Your minds attention is being pulled in numerous different directions – which doesn’t sound very relaxing to me.