The world is getting better

Here is a really great article/blog that I’m re-blogging – awesome stuff that is very necessary to consider each day….I agree with the opinion about the news and about the world…..

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From: “Peter Diamandis” <peter@diamandis.com>
Date: June 27, 2016

When I published Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think in February 2012, I included about 80 charts in the back of the book showing very strong evidence that the world is getting better.

Over the last five years, this trend has continued and accelerated.

This blog includes additional “Evidence for Abundance” that you can share with friends and family to change their mindset.

We truly are living in the most exciting time to be alive.

By the way, if you have additional ‘Evidence for Abundance’ (Charts, Data, etc.) that you’ve encountered, please email them to me at data@diamandis.com.

Why This is Important

Before I share the new “data” with you, it’s essential that you understand why this matters.

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by negative news from every angle. If you turn on CNN (what I call the Crisis News Network), you’ll predominantly hear about death, terrorism, airplane crashes, bombings, financial crisis and political scandal.

I think of the news as a drug pusher, and negative news as their drug.

There’s a reason for this.

We humans are wired to pay 10x more attention to negative news than positive news.

Being able to rapidly notice and pay attention to negative news (like a predator or a dangerous fire) was an evolutionary advantage to keep you alive on the savannahs of Africa millions of years ago.

Today, we still pay more attention to negative news, and the news media knows this. They take advantage of it to drive our eyeballs to their advertisers. Typically, good news networks fail as businesses.

It’s not that the news media is lying — it’s just not a balanced view of what’s going on in the world.

AND because your mindset matters A LOT, my purpose with my work and with this blog is to share with you the data supporting the positive side of the equation and to give you insight to some fundamental truths about where humanity really is going…

The truth is, driven by advances in exponential technologies, things are getting much better around the world at an accelerating rate.

NOTE: This is not to say that there aren’t major issues we still face, like climate crisis, religious radicalism, terrorism, and so on. It’s just that we forget and romanticize the world in centuries past — and life back then was short and brutal.

My personal mission, and that of XPRIZE and Singularity University, is to help build a “bridge to abundance”: a world in which we are able to meet the basic needs of every man, woman and child.

So, now, let’s look at 10 new charts.

For more, I encourage you to read my book Abundance: the Future is Better than you Think, or apply to join me at Abundance 360 here.

More Evidence for Abundance

Below are 10 powerful charts illustrating the positive developments we’ve made in recent years.

1. Living in Absolute Poverty (1981-2011)

Declining rates of absolute poverty (Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser)

Absolute poverty is defined as living on less than $1.25/day. Over the last 30 years, the share of the global population living in absolute poverty has declined from 53% to under 17%.

While there is still room for improvement (especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia), the quality of life in every region above has been steadily improving and will continue to do so. Over the next 20 years, we have the ability to extinguish absolute poverty on Earth.

2. Child Labor is on the Decline (2000-2020)

Child Labor on the decline (Source: International Labor Organization)

This chart depicts the actual and projected changes in the number of children (in millions) in hazardous work conditions and performing child labor between 2000 and 2020.

As you can see, in the last 16 years, the number of children in these conditions has been reduced by more than 50%. As we head to a world of low-cost robotics, where such machines can operate far faster, far cheaper and around the clock, the basic rationale for child labor will completely disappear, and it will drop to zero.

3. Income Spent on Food

Income spent on food (Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Expenditure Series)

This chart shows the percent per capita of disposable income spent on food in the U.S. from 1960 to 2012.

If you focus on the blue line, ‘Food at home,’ you can see that over the last 50 years, the percent of our disposable income spent on food has dropped by more than 50 percent, from 14% to less than 6%.

This is largely a function of better food production technology, distribution processes and policies that have reduced the cost of food. We’re demonetizing food rapidly.

4. Infant Mortality Rates

Infant Mortality Rate (Source: Devpolicy, UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Est. 2013)

This chart depicts global under-five-years-old mortality rates between 1990 and 2012 based on the number of deaths per 1,000 live births.

In the last 25 years, under-five mortality rates have dropped by 50%. Infant mortality rates and neonatal mortality rates have also dropped significantly.

And this is just in the last 25 years. If you looked at the last 100 years, which I talk about in Abundance, the improvements have been staggering.

5. Annual Cases of Guinea Worm

Guinea worm cases (Source: GiveWell, Carter Center)

Guinea worm is a nasty parasite that used to affect over 3.5 million people only 30 years ago. Today, thanks to advances in medical technologies, research and therapeutics, the parasite has almost been eradicated. In 2008, there were just 4,647 cases.

I’m sharing the chart above because it represents humanity’s growing ability to address and cure diseases that have plagued us for ages. Expect that through technologies such as gene drive/CRISPR-Cas9 and other genomic technologies, we will rapidly begin to eliminate dozens or hundreds of similar plagues.

6. Teen Birth Rates in the United States

Teen birth rates (Source: Vox, Centers for Disease Control)

The chart above shows the dramatic decline in the number of teen (15 to 19 years old) birth rates in the United States since 1950. At its peak, 89.1 out of 1,000 teenage women were giving birth. Today, it’s dropped under 29 out of 1,000.

This is largely a function of the population becoming better educated, the cost of birth control being reduced and becoming more widely available, and cultural shifts in the United States.

7. Homicide Rates in Western Europe

Homicide rates in Europe (Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser & Manuel Eisner)

The chart above shows the number of homicides per 100,000 people per year in five Western European regions from 1300 to 2010.

As you can see, Western Europe used to be a very dangerous place to live. Over the last 700+ years, the number of homicides per 100,000 people has decreased to almost zero.

It is important to look back this far (700 years) because we humans lose perspective and tend to romanticize the past, but forget how violent life truly was in, say, the Middle Ages, or even just a couple of hundred years ago.

We have made dramatic and positive changes. On an evolutionary time scale, 700 years is NOTHING, and our progress as a species is impressive.

8. U.S. Violent Crime Rates, 1973 – 2010

U.S. violent crime rates (Source: Gallup, Bureau of Justice Statistics)

In light of the recent terrorist shooting in Orlando, and the school shootings in years past, it is sometimes easy to lose perspective.

The truth is, in aggregate, we’ve made significant progress in reducing violent crimes in the United States in the last 50 years.

As recent as the early 80s and mid-90s, there were over 50 violent crime victims per 1,000 individuals. Recently, this number has dropped threefold to 15 victims per 1,000 people.

We continue to make our country (and the world) a safer place to live.

9. Average Years of Education, 1820-2003

Average years of education (Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser)

I love this chart. In the last 200 years, the average number of ‘years of education’ received by people worldwide has increased dramatically.

In the U.S. in 1820, the average person received less than 2 years of education. These days, it’s closer to 21 years of education, a 10X improvement.

We are rapidly continuing the demonetization, dematerialization and democratization of education. Today, I’m very proud of the $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE as a major step in that direction.

Within the next 20 years, the best possible education on Earth will be delivered by an AI, for free — and the quality will be the same for the son or daughter of a billionaire as it is for the son or daughter of the poorest parents on the planet.

10. Global Literacy Rates

Global literacy rates (Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser)

Along those same lines, the extraordinary chart above shows how global literacy rates have increased from around 10% to close to 100% in the last 500 years.

This is both a function of technology democratizing access to education, as well as abundance giving us the freedom of time to learn.

Education and literacy is a core to my Abundance thesis – a better-educated world raises all tides.

Again, if you have other great examples of abundance (charts and data), please send them to me at data@diamandis.com.

We live in the most exciting time to be alive! Enjoy it.

Join Me

This is the sort of conversation we explore at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360.

The program is highly selective. If you’d like to be considered, apply here. Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

P.S. Every week I send out a “Tech Blog” like this one. If you want to sign up, go to Diamandis.com and sign up for this and Abundance Insider.

P.P.S. My dear friend Dan Sullivan and I have a podcast called Exponential Wisdom. Our conversations focus on the exponential technologies creating abundance, the human-technology collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Head here to listen and subscribe: a360.com/podcast

 

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Frey Freyday – Failure

(Frey Freyday is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

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Failure – [ˈfālyər] – omission of occurrence or performance; specifically :  a failing to perform a duty or expected action

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Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the Seed of an equivalent or a greater Benefit. – Napoleon Hill

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Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. Colin Powell
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It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Bill Gates
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Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt
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I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan
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It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. J. K. Rowling

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You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you. Maxwell Maltz
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WORD TO LIVE BY:

 

Failure-

When I ask someone what they mean when they say they’re afraid of failure, they typically reply, “Well, Jim, I’m afraid I might fail.” And so they don’t try anything. That certainly guarantees they won’t fail, right?

Many people use fear of failure as an excuse for not taking the necessary actions to develop new skills that will move them forward. What they don’t understand is that you can’t succeed until you fail first.

Remember back when you first learned to learn sports or ride a bike? We all fell down, we got bruised, skinned your knee. And we all then you got up, dusted ourselves off, and continued on until we fell off again. Ultimately we learned to ride a bike!

Falling didn’t stop you from trying, right? Did you ever hear of a kid who quit trying and never learned to ride a bike? Of course not. Failure was not an option.

Whether they realize it or not, people use fear of failure as an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.

There is a myth about successful people – it is that they never fail. In reality, the truth is successful people fail a lot more than unsuccessful people-but they don’t attach any meaning to it -Just like you didn’t when you fell off your bike learning to ride.

For successful people, failing doesn’t mean they are a failure. They know everyone has failures and missteps-and it’s how you handle them that matters. Let’s look at some examples, shall we?

In the early ’80s, a young singer left an abusive household in Indiana and hitchhiked to L.A., armed only with his music and an attitude. Over the next couple of years, he spent his days crashing in a rundown apartment and his nights playing with a long string of bands that never got a big break.

But unlike the legions of would-be rockers who threw in the towel, Axl Rose never wavered from exactly what he wanted. He was on a mission. “Going into Guns N’ Roses, there wasn’t a number two [backup plan],” says the legendary front man. “At that time I was going to make it in a band, and it was all the way or bust.”

Nothing can stop a man or woman with a vision. And rockers aren’t the only ones who know this. I recently read an article on a website called Horsesmouth.com by Jim Rohrbach.

It is a great article. The author there recommends that you ‘Make persistence your mantra’

He goes onto say “While the world was using candles and whale oil for light in 1878, an inventor in Menlo Park, N.J., was determined to find a better way. Inventors had been pursuing a light bulb since early in the 19th century, but it was Thomas Edison and his team that worked persistently until they came up with a usable incandescent bulb. Painstakingly testing filaments made from an endless variety of materials from wires to animal hairs, Edison finally developed a carbonized bamboo filament that could burn some 600 hours by 1880. (And by 1882, Edison had established the Edison Electrical Light Company and was providing New York City with electricity to power his invention.)

“I have not failed,” Edison famously said of his lengthy pursuit of a practical prototype. “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Imagine if Edison had said, “Gee, I’d like to find the right filament for the light bulb, but I’m afraid I won’t, so never mind-I don’t want to look foolish.” We’d be reviewing client statements with candles right now! Of course, Edison went on not only to invent the light bulb but to garner more than 1,000 patents for his many world­changing inventions (including-did you know?-the stock ticker).

Persistence, Edison knew well, is a powerful key to defeating the specter of failure.

(-horsesmouth.com – by Jim Rohrbach)

What is our fear?

For me, I know that, especially in the past (and even occasionally today) I am too concerned with what family, friends, peers, and teachers say about what I attempt to do.  Many people are afraid of our peers and family input.

Jim Rohrbach also pointed out in his article that “fear of failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy: when you say you can’t do something, you’re selling this idea to yourself.”

The measure of a person is not how well they start, but how well they finish. Anyone can start. Following through and finishing is another story altogether. Bottom line: it takes far more fortitude to finish something than it does to start it, especially as an entrepreneur.

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Frey Freyday was actually born out of something I created called “Words To Live By” (WTLB). Going forward, I will now not only share the quotes, as you may be used to receiving, but also a related (WTLB). In 1999, when we had our first daughter, I was contemplating how I would raise my new beautiful child, and I was thinking about how I can best educate her and my other children about values, morals, and other key thoughts about life. School offers education. Religion offers some values and morals. Parents offer most of it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally.
So I created a (WTLB) book, like a dictionary, which lists things like honesty, love, persistence, etc. with a definition that I created, with my wife’s input. I then turned it into a workbook with one word per page and space below for notes. For years we would discuss with my two daughters and they would draw pictures and make notes in the blank space. I may share some of those images with you. As they got older, they were less inclined to draw and more open to quotes and references from adults, hence where Frey Freyday came from..

 

Frey Freyday – Excuses

(Frey Freyday is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

Excuse – \ik-ˈskyüz – to try to remove blame from

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I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse. Florence Nightingale
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Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Henry Ward Beecher
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An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded. Pope John Paul II
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Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant. Tony Robbins
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An excuse becomes an obstacle in your journey to success when it is made in place of your best effort or when it is used as the object of the blame. Bo Bennett
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Most people don’t have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims. Carlos Santana
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You’ll ultimately realize that there are no excuses worth defending, ever, even if they’ve always been part of your life—and the joy of releasing them will resonate throughout your very being. Wayne Dyer

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One of life’s fundamental truths states, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ As kids we get used to asking for things, but somehow we lose this ability in adulthood. We come up with all sorts of excuses and reasons to avoid any possibility of criticism or rejection. Jack Canfield
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WORD TO LIVE BY: (not live by)

EXCUSES- a phony reason not to get out there and succeed.

Did you ever notice that when you’re at a family get together, or some other social event where you’re with friends or people that you know really well, you can sometimes notice others making excuses?

While we can always learn from watching others, if we are honest and brave, we can evaluate and look at ourselves – – my point is this:

We ALL use Fear as an Excuse!

I was at a nice picnic this weekend and a few of the ladies were there and just full of fear for so many things and they were talking about many things in their lives that they just didn’t want to do or “just couldn’t”.

At first I got a little judgmental and thought “Tsk!”, then I stopped myself. I tried to look at them and see what I didn’t like – and what it was in me.

I saw how I use Fear as an excuse. Recently I’ve had various opportunities in my career and with real estate. In the past I had a bad real estate experience, so I chose to pass on this opportunity. Looking back, it wasn’t a great decision to pass like I did – I at least needed to spend more time researching – but my fears about the past clouded my current-day decision.

• How are you using Fear to hold you back, consciously or unconsciously?
• What can you do to wipe out fear so you can make better decisions?

• What can you do to wipe out fear so that you can live your life?

• What kinds of questions can you ask yourself to change this habit?
• What kinds of things can you do to interrupt the pattern of fear?

Look at all of the times, the opportunities, the ‘stuff of life’ that you may have missed.

Could you be better off if you were less fearful? If you had less excuses?

In one way or another most of us have an excuse about some part of our lives. Maybe the excuse comes in the form of a limiting belief. Either way, we have them. Some excuses are on the surface – those that might think about consciously or those we say and share with others.

Other excuses are deep down – we may know about them or not – either way, we keep them hidden deep down and may use them to convince ourselves, right?

We have excuses about work, love, life, money, relationships, health….

These excuses can be a crutch. Sometimes we get comfortable with our excuses and with our life that we settle for something. We need to raise our standards and just let go of the excuses.

What are your deep excuses and beliefs? Be honest. It isn’t necessarily fun to think about but we need to do so.

Facing them and addressing them is a great step to take – right now.

First – honestly identify at least one ‘excuse’ – a deep secret one.

Second – write a question that forces your mind to think otherwise – FOR EXAMPLE: if you think that you’re too old, you could ask yourself a question something like, “How does my age, wisdom, and experience give me an edge? Why does my age, wisdom and experience help me achieve my goals? In what ways do my age, experience and wisdom help me in my life?” – THEN try to answer these – write down ways that your age helps you, benefits you, and find positive references, achievements and such from the past. Do this often.

Third – repeat, and make sure you’re being honest with yourself!

Frey Freyday was actually born out of something I created called “Words To Live By” (WTLB). Going forward, I will now not only share the quotes, as you may be used to receiving, but also a related (WTLB). In 1999, when we had our first daughter, I was contemplating how I would raise my new beautiful child, and I was thinking about how I can best educate her and my other children about values, morals, and other key thoughts about life. School offers education. Religion offers some values and morals. Parents offer most of it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally.
So I created a (WTLB) book, like a dictionary, which lists things like honesty, love, persistence, etc. with a definition that I created, with my wife’s input. I then turned it into a workbook with one word per page and space below for notes. For years we would discuss with my two daughters and they would draw pictures and make notes in the blank space. I may share some of those images with you. As they got older, they were less inclined to draw and more open to quotes and references from adults, hence where Frey Freyday came from..

Why Being “Too Busy” Is The Biggest Lie We’ve Been Told

Why Being “Too Busy” Is The Biggest Lie We’ve Been Told

by http://www.lifehack.org

Have you ever said to yourself, “I’m too busy”? “I’m too busy to meet this person…” “I’m too busy to take care of my health…” “I’m too busy to learn a language…” We take in a big sigh, and even lead ourselves to believe that being “too busy” is something worth celebrating. I’ve certainly been guilty of this many times over.

In a world of rapid change, infinite access, and countless distractions, our society has built a culture around celebrating “keeping busy”, for the sake of… well, keeping busy. But there’s a massive difference between activity and performance. We can be efficient in a lot of things in our lives, without ever being effective. 

Here’s why telling ourselves that we’re “too busy” can lead to a negative cycle.

We Reap What We Sow

Have you ever bought a new car, and suddenly you start to notice all the cars that are identical to the one you just bought? Or maybe you got a new dog, and you start paying attention to all the dogs that are walking across the sidewalk.

It’s not that the manufacturers of your car suddenly decided to release more models in your city, nor did the population of dogs hit a spike. It means that your Reticular Activating System is at work. Without boring you with the scientific details (TL;DR right?), your RAS is the automatic mechanism inside your brain that tells you what to pay attention to, and what not to. Think of it as a filter for the brain.

As bland as the name may sound, it’s an incredibly important part of our brain since it’s the gatekeeper that determines how we think – consciously or subconsciously. One of the greatest examples of the RAS at work is when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954, which was claimed to be impossible at the time. A year after he broke the record, over a dozen people also beat the record, including high school students.

The reason why we bring up RAS is because there’s two ways to control our brain:

1. Consciously: By purposefully setting goals, affirmations, and visualizing our goals, we can create a filter that enables our brain to focus on anything that will get us closer to our goals.
2. Sub-consciously: By telling ourselves “we don’t have time”, our brain is going to find every reason to justify why we don’t have time.

Since our brain will eventually believe whatever message we feed it, telling ourselves that we’re “too busy” only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Being Busy Is Not Being Productive

I would often find myself busy scrambling to finish my to-do list for the week. It’s only when I take a step back to reflect that I realize there were only 3 things on that list that made an actual impact to my end goals.

So let’s talk about the key differences between being busy vs. being productive (effective):

• Busy people have many priorities, productive people have few big priorities.
• Busy people focus on action, productive people focus on clarity before taking action.
• Busy people multitask, productive people focus on one task at a time.
• Busy people react to emails immediately, productive people carve out a portion of the day to answer all of their emails at once.
• Busy people talk about how they’re “too busy”, productive people make time for what’s important.

Did you say “yes” to more of the busy category or the productive category?

The truth is, all of us have the time to do anything we want: spend time with family, learn a language, go to the gym, cook a healthy meal, etc. We just can’t do everything we want.

We should also consider the Pareto’s Law: In nearly anything we do in our lives, only ~20% of our inputs (i.e. activities, tasks, money, time) will deliver ~80% of our desired results.

This means that if you’re

• Learning a new language: focus on one solution that will give you 80% of your desired result (i.e. reaching conversation fluency)
• Building a business: focus on the few vital features that deliver 80% of satisfaction to your customers
• Getting in shape: focus on the few exercises that can workout 80% of your body

So how do we put this into action? A solution that has been working incredibly well for me is asking one simple question…

What’s Your ONE Thing?

In the bestselling book, The ONE Thing, Gary Keller describes it as “the ‘one thing’ you can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary.” You can apply this concept to your business life, personal life, physical health, finances, etc.

As simple as this exercise may sound, it’s one of the most difficult questions I ask myself. Essentially, you’re forcing yourself to say “no” to the good opportunities, so that you can make way for the opportunities that can change your life. Sometimes those lines are blurred, but by simply asking the right question: you can stop being “too busy”, and start being productive.

The Takeaway

Ask yourself: are you saying “yes” to too many things? If you are, it may be time to reprioritize your goals and activities. For the rest of the day (or week if you can), try approaching anything that comes at you by asking: is this my “ONE Thing?”

If the answer is “no”, then move on. Remember, saying “no” to the mediocre will open up the opportunity to say “yes” to the extraordinary.

For Orlando and other things…

“When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Our hearts are with humanity ‪#‎WeAreAllOne‬ ‪#‎Orlando‬ ‪#‎LGBT‬ ‪#‎Allies‬ ‪#‎LoveisLove‬‪#‎StopTheViolence‬

Frey Freyday – Thoughts

(Frey Freyday is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

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As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. -Henry David Thoreau

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What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past. -Sai Baba
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Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image. -Denis Waitley
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I’ve puzzled over the difficulty that students have with editing, and I think I’ve identified its source: It’s their self-talk. We all talk to ourselves, inside our heads. That’s what consciousness is. -Richard Rhodes
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. -Aristotle
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Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit.-James Allen

WORD TO LIVE BY:

 

Call it thoughts, psychology, self-talk, whatever – I’m referring to what goes on in each of our minds each and every day.

 

Mastering your mind, your habitual thoughts, the questions that you ask yourself, your vocabulary that you use – this is a fundamental element to living your best.

Many people have good intentions, but just can’t seem to overcome the negative thought patterns that overtake them and hold them back. Many people have a desire to improve, do better – but they just don’t know how or why.
I recently read something written by Brendon Burchard that helps here:

“So, let’s talk about how your thoughts are generated. According to psychologists, we have two systems of thought.

System 1 is our unconscious, immediate thoughts and impulses that arise automatically from the body. If you had fears and challenges in the past, and a similar situation arises, your body generates those fears and says, “We’ve been through this before. Stop what you’re doing, don’t take risks, let’s protect ourselves.”

These thoughts are automatic, but they often are not helpful.
It’s just your brain saying, “this is the easiest route we know.”

The reality is that the brain loves to optimize itself. It doesn’t like to have to do a lot of thinking. It just likes to say, “What do we already know? How can we apply it to this situation and stay super safe?”

Many of us are dominated by System 1.

System 2 is the hallmark of a more mature, conscious enlightened person. It’s the conscious dashboard on our mind that regulates our ability to directly work, control, generate, and create our own thoughts and behaviors in the moment, not relying too much on automatic responses.

The world’s most successful people have tapped into this dashboard. Even when they have automatic negative thoughts – and they certainly do — they know how to discipline their mind to transform them.

People have negative recurring thoughts and feelings in their life because they are giving the negative thoughts more attention than positive ones. In other words, the relative weight that they give those repetitive thoughts is quite high.

The downside of this is clear: if you keep obsessing about negative things, your mind will be conditioned to bring them up automatically.

But there is a bright side. We can use this same rule and apply it to our positive thoughts. Focus on positive thoughts over a period of time, and they get sealed in the brain. After you’ve given relative weight to these thoughts, the brain says, “that’s easy,”and automatically thinks about those positive things.

How do you make this switch?
First, place awareness on your thoughts.

Then, redirect your negative thoughts to positive ones using visualization. Give your thoughts a sensation, feeling the positive thoughts and outcomes in your body. Use repetition to encourage your mind to engrain them into your mind. With focus, we you create an entirely new thought paradigm.

Every single person has unconscious thoughts. But most of us have extreme power to overtake them. Even those with mental disorders can work with psychologists and therapists to re-condition their mind by allowing them a different way of attaching meaning to past incidents and, ultimately, to making healthier decisions in the Now.

No matter who you are or where you’ve been, you can use the power of the mind to direct itself into positive orientations, to make healthier decisions, and to enact healthier behaviors. This is personal power” – From: Brendon Burchard

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Frey Freyday was actually born out of something I created called “Words To Live By” (WTLB). Going forward, I will now not only share the quotes, as you may be used to receiving, but also a related (WTLB). In 1999, when we had our first daughter, I was contemplating how I would raise my new beautiful child, and I was thinking about how I can best educate her and my other children about values, morals, and other key thoughts about life. School offers education. Religion offers some values and morals. Parents offer most of it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally.
So I created a (WTLB) book, like a dictionary, which lists things like honesty, love, persistence, etc. with a definition that I created, with my wife’s input. I then turned it into a workbook with one word per page and space below for notes. For years we would discuss with my two daughters and they would draw pictures and make notes in the blank space. I may share some of those images with you. As they got older, they were less inclined to draw and more open to quotes and references from adults, hence where Frey Freyday came from..

Want to Be Unforgettable? Science Says Do This

From Inc.com

Believe it or not, researchers have found that up to 90 percent of the new information we receive–whether it’s in a one-on-one meeting with our boss, or in a large industry presentation or seminar, or any other means of communicating information–is forgotten. In other words, you can expect that 90 percent of what you say to someone else just isn’t going to stick.

If that’s the case–and science says it is–then what exactly can you do to become unforgettable? Fortunately, a lot.

According to Carmen Simon, a cognitive scientist and author of the book, Impossible to Ignore, “The mistake some people make when trying to influence others’ memory is that they overestimate the importance of goals and underestimate the impact of existing reflexes and habits.”

Here are 15 things you can do to ensure that you are unforgettable.

1. Context

Context is comprised of both the time and place where you provide information to someone else. Says Simon, “The more vivid the place and action at Point A, the more accurate and easier the recall at Point B.”

2. Cues

According to Simon, “Cues are reminders that help with recall, depending on how strongly they are related to the initial content, how many connections there are with other similar content, and how salient they are to draw attention at the time of remembering.”

3. Distinctiveness

You can make certain information distinctive simply by how you design or present it. If you present three slides in this order: text-graphic-text, the middle, graphic slide will stand out more than the middle, text slide in this sequence: text-text-text.

4. Emotion

When you tap into someone’s emotions, the information you are presenting is naturally going to be more memorable.

5. Facts

When you use facts–truths known by actual experience or observation–the information you present will be more memorable than information that is abstract or opinion based.

6. Familiarity

When your audience has some familiarity with the information you are presenting, it will be more memorable. Says Simon, “When analyzing a piece of content, ask, ‘Has my audience seen this before?’ ‘Does it easily hook into something they already know?'”

7. Motivation

The more motivated your audience feels by the information presented to them, the more likely they are to remember it. Simon says, “…the more we remember, the more motivated we are to do (or not do) something; and the more we do something, the better we remember.”

8. Novelty

When you provide your audience with something novel–something they haven’t before experienced–the information you present will be more memorable.

9. Quantity of information

The key to being memorable is to strike a balance between short and long content. Too short and the content won’t necessarily be memorable; too long, and you may put your audience to sleep.

10. Relevance

The more relevant the information is to your audience, the greater the probability that they will remember it.

11. Repetition

According to Carmen Simon, researchers have found that “…it takes the brain three impressions for something to be detected as repetitive and form a pattern.” The more you repeat your information, the more memorable it will be.

12. Self-generated content

Self-generated content–such as asking your audience questions, or inviting them to engage in a discussion–makes your information more memorable.

13. Sensory intensity

Activating your audience’s senses–sight, sound, touch, and so forth–will make your presentation more memorable.

14. Social aspects

Says Simon, “Social expectations amplify motivations and drive action, which also have an impact on what we remember.”

15. Surprise

When you present your audience with something suddenly or unexpectedly–a surprise–they will remember it. And they will remember you.

from http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/want-to-be-unforgettable-science-says-do-this.html

Frey Freyday – Communication

(Frey Freyday is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

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A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.-Mark Twain

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The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.-George Bernard Shaw

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Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.-Lao Tzu

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Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn’t listening.-Emma Thompson

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To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.-Tony Robbins

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Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.-Jim Rohn

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The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.-Peter Drucker

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Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.-Walt Disney

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First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.-Epictetus

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Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.-William Wordsworth

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Communication works for those who work at it.-John Powell

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It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it – Unknown

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Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.-George Carlin

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WORD TO LIVE BY:

Communication – \kə-ˌmyü-nə-ˈkā-shən\ – the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else

Recently I read in an article by Brendon Burchard that stated almost everything good that has come into your life happened because of how you communicate. On the flip side, it is also mostly true that every relationship that was ruined, every pitch that didn’t go well, or every opportunity to influence that fell flat, all came because of the way you communicate?

Any career or vocation benefits from good communication; healthcare, sales, auto mechanic, manufacturer, artist, education, management, whatever. Do you want a surgeon that doesn’t communicate (or listen) well? If your mechanic has poor communication skills, that might not work out well. Today, schools are helping students learn and improve their ‘soft skills’, also called emotional intelligence, as part of a necessary set of abilities that all students need as they move on to college and career.

We discount our communication skills because it is something we do every single day. It doesn’t matter how smart or skilled someone is, if they can’t communicate effectively, it doesn’t matter.

And with a lack of attention comes a lack of progress. Communication is a skill that needs ongoing attention and improvement. We can learn new things and reinforce good habits. By being aware and focused on good communication, we won’t just be going through the motions, we can communicate in effective, memorable, striking ways so that we connect better with those around us.

One of the best ways to communicate better is to see the situation, issue or circumstances from the other person’s point of view. If you make the message about them, from their point of view, it will carry a lot more weight. Ask ‘how do they perceive this?’ and ‘what’s really important to them now?’.  Remember that emotion is a big part of communication; infuse your message with the right emotions and it will work better. Don’t just communicate, communicate better.

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Frey Freyday was actually born out of something I created called “Words To Live By” (WTLB). Going forward, I will now not only share the quotes, as you may be used to receiving, but also a related (WTLB). In 1999, when we had our first daughter, I was contemplating how I would raise my new beautiful child, and I was thinking about how I can best educate her and my other children about values, morals, and other key thoughts about life. School offers education. Religion offers some values and morals. Parents offer most of it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally.
So I created a (WTLB) book, like a dictionary, which lists things like honesty, love, persistence, etc. with a definition that I created, with my wife’s input. I then turned it into a workbook with one word per page and space below for notes. For years we would discuss with my two daughters and they would draw pictures and make notes in the blank space. I may share some of those images with you. As they got older, they were less inclined to draw and more open to quotes and references from adults, hence where Frey Freyday came from..

Bonus: Communication tips from PETER DIAMANDIS:

How Should We Communicate?

We are social animals, and we communicate A LOT through the intonations of our voice and our facial features.

Basic rules:

If there’s something critical to communicate – close a deal, raise capital, tell someone you love them or want to break up – do it in person.

If you can’t meet in person, then do it by Skype (or Beam, see below).

If you can’t do it by Skype, then do it by phone.

Everything else (today) is basically inadequate for anything really important. That being said, if you have to email, see below.

Where Will Technology Help in the Future?

The good news is that technology under development leapfrogs the current technology in place, and will create a more meaningful and intimate level of communications.

In the decade ahead, there are three key areas that will drive meaning capabilities:

Telepresence/Beam: While Skype is okay, it’s static and limiting. If you follow my work, you’ve heard me speak about Suitable Technologies and their Beam telepresence robot. Some call it Skype on Wheels, but it is much more. I have 15 Beams across all of my companies and one of them at home. Telepresence robots like the Beam (and its future derivatives) are the next best thing to being face to face. It really gives you the ability to move around and participate, as if you were there in the flesh. Even better, in the very near future this technology is going to give you superpowers. You will have the ability to pull up details on your screen about the person to whom you’re speaking. But it could get even stranger. Imagine having the ability to use the sensors on your robot to measure the heart rate and pupillary reaction of the person you’re speaking to during a negotiation. Technologies like the Beam will expand our sensory experience when we communicate.

Virtual Worlds: The next step in technology-enabled communication comes when we’re able to skip meeting in person, and instead meet inside of a high-resolution virtual world. A world in which two individuals can have their near-perfect avatars have conversations and interactions not possible in the real world. In these virtual worlds, the avatar’s facial features mirror your exact facial features using the same technology James Cameron pioneered in his moving Avatar. This is the direction companies like Philip Rosedale’s High Fidelity is taking us.

Brain-Computer Interface: The ultimate form of communications will materialize in the following decade, as we develop Brain Computer Interface (BCI) — the ability to connect mind-to-computer and computer-to-mind. This will enable the most intimate level of communication conceivable, whereby you have the ability to understand a person’s most personal thoughts and feelings.

 

This Is What Will Happen When You Eat Breakfast After An Hour Of Waking

 

Eating breakfast within an hour of waking seems to be common sense, but some of us might do it after a commute to the office or even after arriving at the office.  Or we may be part of the 10-30% of people who skip breakfast entirely.

We all have our excuses why we don’t eat breakfast immediately after waking.  We may be pressed for time or we’re just not hungry.  But the benefits of eating breakfast within the first hour of waking are really great. If you can do so, every day it’d be a productive and happy one.

1.  When you eat within one hour of waking your blood sugar and insulin levels become regulated and you kick-start your metabolism.

If you’re looking to lose weight or even maintain your weight eating breakfast within the first hour allows the body to immediately regulate insulin and blood sugar levels and kick-start your metabolism. When your blood sugar and insulin levels are regulated the body has the necessary energy resources to power you throughout your day.

When you sleep your metabolism naturally slows down because your body has fewer requirements. By eating breakfast within the first hour of waking you give your metabolism a jump start by initiating thermogenesis (the metabolic process of digesting and transporting food). To keep your metabolism running at full capacity you must eat frequent meals, beginning with eating breakfast within the first hour of waking.

2.  When you don’t eat breakfast within one hour of waking you may be more likely to eat low-nutrient, high-calorie foods out of hunger.

I’m sure you have experienced a time when you didn’t eat breakfast within the first hour of waking up and waited to eat until lunch time.  Most likely during lunch you consumed high-calorie and low-nutrient foods.  The benefit of eating breakfast within an hour of waking is that it helps you eat sensibly throughout your day.

When you eat breakfast within an hour of waking you ward off hunger pangs which in turn combats overeating throughout your day.

3.  Studies have found eating within one hour of waking improves your mood and cognition for the day.

Some research suggests eating within an hour of waking improves your mood by feeding your brain immediately.  Thus in turn, allows for improved clarity, memory and cognitive ability.

Think of skipping breakfast as running a car low on gas.  The car is low on energy and it doesn’t perform efficiently.  Food is fuel for your body. By fueling your body within an hour of waking it prevents you from feeling tired and irritable throughout your day.

Conclusion:

Eating within the first hour of waking can be hard. We may be strapped for time or not hungry at all.  But when you make the choice to eat breakfast within the first hour of waking you set your mind and body up for a successful and energetic day.

Neuroscientists Explain How Running Changes Our Brains And Affects Our Thinking

Neuroscientists Explain How Running Changes Our Brains And Affects Our Thinking

“Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance – you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet.” by Doris Brown Heritage. Are you familiar with this feeling? Do you gain insight into your emotional and physical self while you run? Do you enjoy the feeling of the wind against your face and the freedom of being outdoors alone with your thoughts? You may feel that after a good run your mind is clear and ready to absorb information. You can also find that your outlook is more positive after a run and that things that were troubling you no longer feel so bad. Well, your feelings have a scientific basis. Research conducted in the field of neuroscience shows the effects aerobic exercise have on cognitive clarity and emotional well-being.Neuroscientists Explain How Running Changes Our Brains And Affects Our Thinking

New Neurons Would Be Created

It used to be accepted that we were born with a certain amount of neurons and that by the time we became an adult no new neurons would be created. This however, has been proven to be incorrect. Through research on animals it has been discovered that new neurons are continually produced in the brain throughout our entire life. Karen Postal, president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology says that the only activity that is shown to trigger the birth of these new neurons is vigorous aerobic exercise. “If you are exercising so that you sweat – about 30 to 40 minutes – new brain cells are being born” says Postal. So sweating it out on the treadmill or out in the open is doing your brain a lot of good and helping it stay mentally healthy for years to come.

People Who Run Can Recover From Negative Emotions More Quickly

In a study by Emily Bernstein and Richard McNally it was found that aerobic exercise may help reduce negative emotions. Bernstein is a runner and she said “I notice in myself that I just feel better when I’m active”. She wanted to find out why this was the case and to know exactly the effect that exercise has on us. The study set out to look at the way exercise changes the way people react to their emotions. Participants were told to stretch or jog for 30 minutes and were then were shown a sad movie; the final scene of the 1979 film The Champ. The participants then reported their emotional responses. It was found that those who had run for 30 minutes recovered more quickly from their sad emotional experience than those who had just stretched.

Working Memory Would Be Enhanced

A recent study by Lin Li et al titled: “Acute Aerobic Exercise Increases Cortical Activity during Working Memory: A Functional MRI Study in Female College Students”  looks at the effect of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive function. Their study looked at the effect of a session of acute aerobic exercise on working memory. Fifteen young females participated in the study. There were scanned, after an acute exercise session, using a MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) while they performed a working memory task. It was found that the cortex and the left frontal hemisphere showed signs of improvement of control processes. From these findings the researchers noted that this indicates: “acute exercise could benefit working memory at a macro-neural level.” Thus, the study shows a connection between aerobic exercise and improvement in memory.

 Summation

Next time you are out for a run know that you are doing yourself a world of good. Not only are you aiding your brain on a neurological level you are also working to improve your emotional health. Your cognitive abilities such as memory will be improved and your outlook on life will probably be more positive. If you don’t already run, then you may want to take out those old running shoes and give them a try.

SOURCE http://www.lifehack.org/401389/neuroscientists-explain-how-running-changes-our-brain-and-affects-our-thinking