The Life in Your Years

Take care of yourself, eat right, exercise…and you’ll likely be around a lot longer. But nobody knows that.

We can’t get a guarantee on the years in your life, but you do have control of the life in your years.

Don’t go for security, go for adventure.  

Nobody makes it out alive.

Misusing your imagination

Worry is a misuse of your imagination. You are anticipating a bad outcome. By doing this, you increase the chances of it coming true exponentially.  

Instead, visualize a great outcome, in vivid detail. How it will look, and how you will feel when it happens. Feel it now.

Use your imagination to call ideal outcomes into being. You have more influence on what happens than you know. Live good things first before they come true, and they will come true more often than not.

Progress in 100 years

In 1917…

One hundred years ago, things looked a little bit different.

1. World Literacy Rates

– 1917: The world literacy rate was only 23%.

– Today: Depending on estimates, the world literacy rate is 86.1%.

2. Travel Time

– 1917: It took 5 days to get from London to New York; 3.5 months to travel from London to Australia.

– Today: A nonstop flight gets you from London to New York in a little over 8 hours, and you can fly from London to Australia in about a day, with just one stop.

3. Average Price of a U.S. House

– 1917: The average price of a U.S. house was $5,000. ($111,584.29 when adjusted for inflation)

– Today: As of 2010, the average price of a new home sold in the U.S. was $272,900.

4. Average Price of a Car in the U.S.

– 1917: The average price of a car in the U.S. was $400 ($8,926.74 when adjusted for inflation).

– Today: The average car price in the U.S. was $34,968 as of January 2017.

5. The First Boeing Aircraft

– 1917: A Boeing aircraft flew for the first time on June 15.

– Today: In 2015, there were almost 24,000 turboprop and regional aircraft, as well as wide body and narrow body jets, in service worldwide.

6. Telephones (Landlines vs. Cellphones)

– 1917: Only 8% of homes had a landline telephone.

– Today: Forget landlines! In the U.S., nearly 80% of the population has a smartphone (a supercomputer in their pockets). Nearly half of all American households now use only cellphones rather than older landlines. And as far as cost, today, you can Skype anywhere in the world for free over a WiFi network.

7. Traffic (Horses to Cars)

– 1917: In 1912, traffic counts in New York showed more cars than horses for the first time.

– Today: There were approximately 253 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads in 2015.

8. U.S. Population

– 1917: The U.S. population broke 100 million, and the global population reached 1.9 billion.

– Today: The U.S. population is 320 million, and the global population broke 7.5 billion this year.

9. Inventions and Technology

– 1917: The major tech invention in 1917? The toggle light switch.

– Today: The major tech invention of today? CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, which enables us to reprogram life as we know it. And we are making strides in AI, robotics, sensors, networks, synthetic biology, materials science, space exploration and more every day.

10. High School Graduation Rates

– 1917: Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.

– Today: Over 80% of all Americans graduated high school this past year.

11. Cost of Bread

– 1917: A loaf of bread was $0.07 ($1.50 when adjusted for inflation).

– Today: A loaf of bread costs $2.37.

12. Speed Limits

– 1917: The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

– Today: The maximum speed limit in most cities is about 70 mph.

Imagine the next 100 years! Or even the next 20!

Personal Energy Crisis

Over 150,000 people worldwide recently took a personal energy audit (the energyproject.com). The results: 74% are in a personal energy crisis.

Says the Energy Project – “People are working more hours, spending more time outside work tethered to a digital device, and taking less time to reflect, renew and prioritize. As a result, they are increasingly exhausted, overwhelmed, and disengaged. It’s not a sustainable way of working for individuals or for organizations.”

Physical energy is from diet, sleep and exercise. Many of us don’t eat well, and don’t get enough sleep and exercise, and by 5:00pm, we’re wiped out.

Spiritual energy is about having a meaning for why you do what you do. Many of us do things for the wrong reasons.

Emotional energy is about how you feel. Many of us developed beliefs in haste, and misuse our memory, thoughts and imaginations.

When we say we want to be healthy, what we really mean is we want energy – enough to do and experience all the things we want to.  

Is it time to look at what and why we are drained and make some changes?

Solar is now cheaper than coal

This year, one of the most important developments for humanity has been achieved. Solar electricity is cheaper than coal.

+ The Nanticoke Generating Station in Ontario, once North America’s largest coal plant, will be turned into a solar farm.

+ India is on track to deploying 100+ gigawatts of solar power by 2022.

+ Renewable energy investments amounted to 286 billion last year.

+ The UK is generating more power from solar than from coal for the first time in history.

+ China, choked with air pollution from coal plants, has decided to cancel 40 coal plant projects – even ones that were already under construction.

+ My new home will feature a 30KW solar array, spray foam and geothermal heating and cooling.

An inflection point indeed.

Is biography destiny?

Does what happened in your past equal your future?

Only if you locked in beliefs based on what happened. If you allow your self-image to be defined by the past, then you’ll stay on the same track with the same kind of life and results.

To break free of the trajectory your past is projecting, you’ll need to change your beliefs about what happened and why, and who you really are.

See yourself as the person you want to be in the future, and become that different person internally; then the past does not equal the future.

Memorized Emotions

When you think of that person, or that place, or that group, or that time…you feel it all over again.  

But it’s over. It has been over – yet you still feel the same way – and it’s eating you up.

You have memorized the emotion. You have anchored an emotional state to the event. The event is over, but you still feel it and relive it.

Time to realize it’s you now. Anchor a new emotional state to the memory and overwrite the one you associate with it now.

Do this – think about it again, and force yourself to smile. Sit up straight and smile, even though you don’t feel like smiling. Say confidently outloud, “It’s ok. You know what, it’s ok.” Think about it more. Bring back the details. Smile and say “It’s ok.” Smile bigger. Breathe. Envision it (them, what happened). Smile and say “It’s over, and it’s really ok.” Keep that smile.  

Do this a few times over a few days in a row.

Anchor a new emotion to the memory, and be a lighter soul.

The Beholder

Two people stand side by side and look out at the same world. 

One sees twice the gravity, and another sees flight.

What do you see?

The World is Your Looking Glass

Frown at it, and it will frown back.

Smile at it, and it will smile back.

Your world is your reflection.

Forgive and be happy

If you walk around being pissed off at somebody, or feeling like they victimized you, then it will affect your happiness.  

That is, your happiness will be conditional upon you not including these other people, because when you do you are not happy, but instead produce hate, anger or bitterness for them. Mostly these feelings are not received by them, but held by you.

Forgive and be happy.