What were the 5 successes of your day?

Celebrating...

What the heck is it with people that they can't properly celebrate? Don't find enough reason to. Well, ok -- I'm not really talking about people in general, I'm talking about a recent version of myself.

And I wouldn't be surprised if you as well. Or at least many, many people who are not really finding enough reasons to celebrate every day.

I used to be one -- hard work, high goals, ambitions that always fly above me, close to the moon. So pardon being a little poetic here -- even when I was dancing on the clouds, the moon was still a far target to hit. So dancing on the clouds didn't really seem much of an occasion to celebrate.

Have you ever had this feeling? -- Others praise you and pat on your shoulder, but you just quietly think: "Well, it's not really that big deal. It's only the beginning!"

For a long time one of my leading values used to be -- and continues to be today -- IMPACT. But little did I realize that the definition of impact that I had in my head was secretly decreasing the impact that I was having with my life.

And left me internally unfulfilled.

Impact for me meant positively impacting lots and lots and lots and lots of people in my lifetime. And lots and lots and lots does not happen overnight, you know. All you get is 1, 2, 3 people a day, if you get lucky then a few hundred (or if you're working in internet marketing business then a few thousand). That's it.

According to my definition I wasn't really having the impact that I wanted and was feeling unfulfilled as a result. That internal dissatisfaction has been a motivating force for me a long time -- good that it has kept me going, but not necessarily a very healthy attitude and definitely not the only option of how to live your life.

So what I learned from MindValley teamretreat last weekend -- a teaching of Toni Robbins -- was one of the biggest aha-s I've had in past weeks. This has everything to do with redefining the rules that govern the values in your head. The value might stay the same, but you consciously choose a new definition.

An example -- if before I defined impact as having a positive impact on vast amount of people, then now I feel I'm having impact every time I'm honestly expressing my opinions, even writing a blog posting. See the huge difference -- I'm doing the same stuff as I was doing before, but end up feeling much more fulfilled and actually increase my impact as a result.

When you think about it -- celebrating small stuff is one of the fundamentals of strong life. A new habit that I picked up from T Harv Eker seminar has turned around the way I see my own successes. I've started to write down 5 of my successes every evening -- yes, only successes. This habit shifts my focus on my own success and after a while of practicing it I've started to see success in my everyday life automatically.

Really, you don't need much to feel successful -- but the more successful you feel, the more you attract actual success.

How to become financially free

I made a special video for my videoblog from T Harv Eker Millionaire Mind seminar. If you're interested in building a lifestyle of your dreams you might want to check it out. 

How about living your dream life?

Some articles get me so excited. They just HIT ME -- BOOM! Right between the eyes.

Because when I go out in the net with a clear question in my mind -- and I find an exactly right article with the right answer in it -- then I don't just feel interested. No, I feel absolutely thrilled and so excited that I'm jumping on my chair (boy, I should show more of my excitement in the office -- gotta look into that:).

And I want to share that article with you and  few reasons why this got my brain cells dancing samba.

So today my question was -- what's my dream lifestyle?

And I'm talking about living the life of your dreams. A conscious lifestyle design, choosing what you really want, what fits to your personality and what gets this unique YOU clicking like a tick-tack-bomb.

The thing is -- I grew up in a normal family. Mom and dad went to work, I went to school, took guitar and ceramics classes, played with my brother, fought with my sister, studied well, met my boyfriend, got married, graduated from uni. You know -- totally OK story, everybody does that...up to a certain point when I said: "Hey, my dreams are dragging me towards something different, gotta go!"

Where? Well, where the gut asked me to go, without a goal, really -- just to keep moving and keep growing.

So I ended up in all the crazy sizzly-wizzly-buzzly adventure that contained the colorful lifestyle in AIESEC, traveling all across the Europe, meeting new mentors, making friends who inspire the mind out of me, divorcing my husband (who became a superstar in Estonia later on -- people, never let a relationship hold you back from your true potential:) and ending up in Kuala Lumpur, the job of my dreams.

This is all good, constant moving makes the Universe go WOW -- but heck, gotta move to the next level. Enough of rambling towards my goals based on the gut feeling -- going with the flow and KNOWING where you want the flow to go sounds Pretty Sweet.

So now the question -- what's my dream lifestyle?

By now you realize that I can't exactly go back to my past experiences to find a good answer. I love my family tremendously and I'm getting tons of them -- but I don't have to choose the same lifestyle as my family and peers have chosen. And to choose a different one you gotta seek for different experiences.

My question -- how are the super successful people living? What's normal for them and out-of-the-box for me? Gotta learn that, baby -- so I can actually expand my dreams and start seeing what else is possible.

So with that question in mind I stumbled across this article that I mentioned in the beginning -- from the Wordpress founder who describes the way he works. And what a brilliant article that is for anyone seeking new ideas for a dream lifestyle! Not to copy-paste, but to find at least one new idea to stick on your vision board.

I'm working on mine now, can't believe it took me 25 years to consciously design one :D

What to do with your Sundays

One thing that's crystal clear for me is this -- in order to stay competitive you have to learn new stuff all the time. Though I'm still far from perfect in using my time, I have some nerdish habits that help me to move ahead.

Here's an honest pick of them:

• reading a book when I go to the toilet
  
• carrying a pocket-format book with me in my bag -- you never know when you have 5 spare minutes
• listening to TED-talks before I go to sleep
• listening to audio podcasts when I'm cooking
• adding all the good blogs in my Google Reader, sorting them under different categories such as Marketing, Personal Development, Spiritual Lessons etc and checking my Google Readers at least once a week
• throwing a few question about the project I'm working on to my co-workers on casual lunch breaks or 5-min breaks to get quick, innovative feedback

Any useful habits you have that help you to integrate learning naturally and easily into your everyday life?

Anyway as it was Sunday today, I spent several hours on learning new stuff. Here my reading list from today:

1. 10 Golden Lessons from Steve Jobs -- if you would read only one thing today, this would be it. Life lessons from a guy who changed the world with his bold vision and flawless execution
   
2. Copyblogger.com -- an excellent resource about how to persuade through a written word, lot of guest blog posting and tips on how to improve your communication skills
3. Penelope Trunk on career choice, blogging and life -- the author "gets naked" and shares some of the very private insights from her own life, yet remains universal. Human, smart and enjoyable
   
4. Brilliant marketer Seth Godin on his experiment of hiring brilliant people, building interesting brands and standing out as a blogger
5. Presentation ZEN: Making presentations in TED style -- a wonderful guide for everyone in making a meaningful presentation or preparing for your once-in-a-lifetime TED-talk
6. Alex Mandossian: Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity (and other useful stuff -- just watch out for the sales pitch in many of the interviews -- or learn how to do it yourself for your own business:)

I'd be glad if you'd share your own suggestions in the comments!

Make up your mind, baby!

It's always good to get clear on things -- any decision is better than no decision at all. Indecisiveness is like an ultimate pain formula -- it freezes you in a state where you don't really want to be until you start believing there's no other way.

That's one of the biggest b....t-stories people tell themselves, the story of having only one option. There are always more, reality is just our version out of countless of opportunities, merely a perception. You don't have to look far for proof -- just think of someone else experiencing the exact same situation and you already have a new version of the reality.

If you can't make a decision you're actually choosing the miserable state that you're trying to avoid. You're so afraid of the outcomes of your new decision that you refuse of any improvement at all, just freeze, hoping that someone else will make a decision for you.

And they will, no doubt about it. People make decision for us all the time -- and if you haven't made up your mind what's your own desired outcome you will pretty much follow any decision that comes to your way.

Well, here's the news -- I don't think anyone else knows where exactly you want to go. I don't think they spend so much time as yourself of thinking what would be your best interests.

So it pretty much leaves you the only choice to DECIDE. And not to allow other people to make a decision for you, unless you're convinced they overlap with your own plans.

Why I'm inspired to write all of this? Because heck -- sometimes the decision is a tough one, something you don't really want to do. And every cell in your body is vibrating against it, longing to linger on in the moment. But if you're smart you'll always consider the long-term consequences of your decisions -- what might seem to be good now, might lead you to a long-term misery in the long run.

Eating too much. Sleeping too long. Procrastinating a task.

Or spending time with people who just use you.

Get clear on what you want and just do it. You will definitely need the extra self esteem in the future.

I Want to Read a Book About You

Your life is an amazing story. If you would write a book about your TODAY it would be an amazing reading. It would take my breath away, guaranteed. Yes, I mean your real day -- so real that at first you don't even notice it happened. Your true desires, the very real questions, the simple human expressions -- everything visible, hidden and buried that makes you the miraculous being that you are.

Yes, I wish I could read that book of your today, I would be so inspired.

How many wonderful things are happening to you every day? Some are so outstanding that you're literally swept off your feet, if you allow, of course. Some become serious relationships, some turn into spiritual journeys, some remain short affairs that bring a smile upon your face every time you think about it. Some are your secret desires or your sweet victories in the battlefield against your darker side.

Life is made of these moments -- do you still get the vibe when you think about the life you're living?

Savor the moment, celebrate your success. And remember the beautiful details of your experiences, your story was never supposed to be a 2-dimension black-and-white-movie. Tell a story that your grandchildren would love to hear. Remember your first, second, third and fourth love with the same inspiration. Get all excited when remembering THAT job interview. Sense the special electricity when you got your first passport. Remember the longing for this special person -- with a smile for all that you learned.

Give value to all your experiences. Remember the colors. Stay human. No regrets. A beautiful, full, rich life.

Love every piece of it.

I'd really love to read the true story of your today.

This commercial I found from Peep's blog is a perfect match with what I've written today.