March 31st, 2016 by KP

“Stay positive, about everything. Try to find & focus on the positives in any situation. A positive mindset will determine your happiness.”

“Whatever could have been or should have been, doesn’t matter. This moment is here and now for you to live.”

“Don’t ever regret meeting anyone in life, one day you will realize they taught you one of the most invaluable lessons in your life.”

“You can’t recycle wasted time.”

“Surround yourself with people on the same mission as you.”

March 30th, 2016 by KP

“Life passes by so fast. Whatever makes you happy, that’s what you should do.”

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Success is a very lonely road. Very few people are willing to endure the pain & the sacrifices to be successful. It’s an uphill battle, and along that road you’re not going to see too many friends. You’re going to see your shadow most often.” – Greg Plitt

“No expectations = No disappointments”

“Sometimes, we need to be hurt in order to grow. We must lose in order to gain. Sometimes, some lessons are best learned through pain.”

March 14th, 2016 by KP

“The universe is responding to who you believe you are.”

“You don’t get paid for keeping ideas, you get paid for making them happen.”

“Life is too precious & too short to sit around regretting lost opportunities. Get up and get going.”

“Stay strong when times get tough. Don’t get discouraged, keep fighting.”

“If it’s not going to benefit your future, don’t do it.”

“To be a great champion you must believe you’re the best. If you’re not, act like you are.”

“Life passes by so fast. Whatever makes you happy, that’s what you should do.”

March 12th, 2016 by KP

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” ― William Shakespeare

“So many people along the way,whatever it is you aspire to do,will tell you it can’t be done.But all it takes is imagination.You dream.You plan.You reach. There will be obstacles.There will be doubters.There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you,there are no limits.” – Michael Phelps

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.” – Zig Ziglar

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

“Nothing is either good, or bad, it just is.”

March 10th, 2016 by KP

“No regrets, just lessons learned.” – Jennifer Aniston

“Never compare yourself to someone else. The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.”

“Enjoy it. Because it’s happening.” – Stephen Chbosky

“Momentum in life comes from increased fluidity, a willingness to try more, to move in a less constricted fashion.” – Robert Greene

“Learn to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.” – Jim Rohn

“Don’t compare your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20.”

“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child

March 9th, 2016 by KP

“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise” – Frank Ocean

“1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.

2. When you become good at doing something you will enjoy it more.
3. When you enjoy doing something there is a good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it”

“The greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash. What happens in such a case is that you do not master the basics; you have no real vocabulary at your disposal, what you mistake for being creative and distinctive is more likely an imitation of other people’s styles, or personal rantings that do not really express anything.” – Robert Greene

“What must ultimately motivate you is the work itself and the process” – Robert Greene

“If we feel afraid, we tend to see more of the potential dangers in some action. If we feel particularly bold, we tend to ignore the potential risks. What you must do then is not only alter your mental perspective, but reverse your emotional one as well. For instance, if you are experiencing a lot of resistance and setbacks in your work, try to see this as in fact something that is quite positive and productive. These difficulties will make you tougher and more aware of the flaws you need to correct. In physical exercise, “Resistance is a way to make the body stronger”, and it is the same with the mind. Play a similar reversal on good fortune – seeing the potential dangers of becoming soft, addicted to attention, and so forth. These reversals will free up the imagination to see more possibilities, which will affect what you do. If you see setbacks as opportunities, you are more likely to make that a reality.” – Robert Greene

March 8th, 2016 by KP

“Priorities… Everyday we are faced with the fact that time is a certified depreciating asset. You will never be as young as you are right now. The window of opportunity to self generate success is closing at an alarming rate. Make choices that give you a return on your investment. Assets that appreciate even as time flies by with every wasted breath.. So grab some donuts and invest in your future, before that window of opportunity shuts on your ass.” – Joe Donnelly

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now.” – Hugh Laurie

“Angels… It happens like this. One day you meet someone and for some inexplicable reason, you feel more connected to this stranger than anyone else. Closer to them than your closest family. Perhaps this person carries within them an angel – one sent to you from higher purpose; to teach you an important lesson or to keep you safe during a perilous time. What you must do is trust in them – even if they come hand in hand with pain or suffering – the reason for their presence will become clear in due time. Though here is a word of warning – you may grow to love this person but remember they are not yours to keep. Their purpose isn’t to save you but to show you how to save yourself. And once this is fulfilled; the halo lifts & the angel leaves their body as the person exits your life. They will be a stranger to you once more.” – Lang Leav

“It’s so dark right now, I can’t see any light around me. That’s because the light is coming from you. You can’t see it but everyone else can.” – Lang Leav

“Every morning you have 2 choices: Continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up & chase them.”

“There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on”. – Zayn Malik

September 12th, 2012 by KP

Been a while since posting on here.

So my sister just forwarded this article on Zen Habits to me – The Habit of Starting, and it sparked a few thoughts in my head of thought processes I’ve been doing lately.

I think the biggest thing for taking action, or starting & creating a new habit is all in your mind. For me, it’s making either the pleasure or pain of the result if you do or don’t take action as intense as possible. When we take action it’s almost always because we’re either moving towards pleasure or away from pain, so making the feeling of pleasure of the result if you do take action, or making the feeling of pain if you don’t take action, so damn intense that you can’t help but take action. Make yourself think & visualize circumstances that would cause pain such as “If I eat XYZ”, or “If I don’t get up & exercise right now, then I will continue to be unhappy with myself physically & mentally” and then for pleasure like “If I eat ABC”, or “If I get up & exercise right now, then I will achieve a disciplined mind & body I am proud of.” You just need to make the feelings of pleasures & pains as intense as possible when you visualize them in order to have no other choice than actually to crave taking action.

Like in the article, the reason we don’t take action is because we’re comfortable. Our comfort zones keep us standing still, comfort is the death of growth, and if we’re not growing we’re dying. So if comfort = no action, then discomfort = action. Using the visual & mental intensity to create emotions of pleasure & pain is a good way to reverse that comfort feeling that so often makes us sit still & not progress, so that it becomes more uncomfortable to actually not take the right action.

Another default I like to do when about to make a decision, whether it’s something I’m about to eat / drink, something I’m about to do etc. is weigh up the short term consequences and the long term consequences of each choice. Example: I’m hungry and want to eat something. A fast food snack tastes good in the short term, but isn’t healthy, will no doubt make me crash in 30 mins, as well as cause me to be out of shape if I continue to snack on fast foods. A salad or spending 5 mins prepping a healthier meal for example might not taste as good in the short term, but it’s better for me nutritionally, will give me sustained energy rather than a quick 30 min burst then crash, and will aid me in achieving a healthy body & mind long term.

Looking at things like this and taking a moment of conscious thought before making a decision rather than responding to the decision unconsciously (unconscious decisions are almost always made using emotion rather than logic) may seem like nothing if you don’t do it “one time”, but that “one time” of taking action is the first step in either creating a good or bad habit. I still to this day haven’t found once instance where the long-term benefits don’t out-weigh the short-term benefits. It just takes a few seconds of conscious thought to make a rational decision rather than an emotional one. The frontal cortex in our brain is the only piece of hardware our bodies have that enable us to make rational, logical decisions rather than emotional ones, and it is that evolutionary frontal cortex that separates us from the animal kingdom where all act based on emotion. When we become slaves to our emotions, we are essentially backtracking in to primal form.

It’s in our moments of decision where our destiny is shaped, so every time you need to make a conscious decision, whether it be that you’re hungry & about to decide what you eat, take a step back and weigh up the short & long term consequences of your actions. With discipline comes reward.

“We are creatures of habit, which means we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore, is not and act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

Feels good to get writing on here again.

KP

August 6th, 2011 by KP

Key 5: Play the Edge

Comfort is the enemy of the artist. If you find yourself doing something where you are comfortable, then you are doing something wrong. What comfort means, is that you’re not growing. Think of a time when you’ve been comfortable, were you growing? Was there an urge to want to grow & progress? What about a time where you were very uncomfortable, and you felt pain in an area, what about then, now was there an urge to grow & progress.

The areas we feel pain are almost always the areas that we are weak in. And that’s why we feel pain.

You have to want to expose yourself, and face down your ugly truths. That’s what can stop you from being a big star, so don’t be afraid to expose yourself.

We are pretty much all incompetent at everything we do. Someone’s fame is just because they became very interested in something and ended up taking it much further than anyone sane would ever have done.

The person who is best prepared is the person that practiced the most.

When you put fear & hope next to each other, which one overpowers the other. It should be neither. Instead, it should be fear vs. courage. But what is courage? Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that something is more important than your fear. Ask yourself, is this more important than any fear?

Let go of your insignificant existence, to embrace something that when you walk in to a room people turn their heads & say “Damn there’s (me)”. All of a sudden, your existence effects the whole.

Each of us potentially is a genius. Each of us is unique in the entire universe. Never again will there be the chemical mixture that is me or you. We are all unique.

When so many pieces of the puzzle start falling in to place at the same time, and you start to achieve so many of your goals at the same time, and you’re also having fun doing it, you feel unstoppable. Almost like, what can’t I do? Not in a cocky way, but if you’re reaching your goals by doing something you love, then there’s no stopping anybody in that position.

I really believe, that a great deal of alcohol abuse, neurosis, unease, drug abuse, war, nervousness, crime, uncertainty, fear of failure, can all be attributed to the failure of developing our potential.

There’s nothing more tragic, than speaking to an elderly person and them saying –

“Looking back now, I realize that I wasted my life”
“I wish I did X”
“If only I had given X a shot”

It’s sad. But a lot of people don’t realise how short life is until the reality of time catches up with them. One thing you MUST confront, be comfortable with, and accept, is the one thing that is certain in life & that unifies every single one of us. We are all going to die. What you MUST do is think about that, realise it, and accept it. Not to live in fear because of it, but instead to face life with a new approach. A fearless approach. One where you realise time is running out with every second that goes by. You don’t scramble, instead you are patiently persistent, you chip away everyday at what you need to do, out of urgency to move as fast as possible, but not out of fear, but from a position of power & control over your conscious mind.

No longer do our emotions decide our actions. We now get clear on our goals, dreams, desires, & ambitions. The way to achieve these goals is relatively easy in theory, yet quite difficult in practice. The rules themselves are clear enough, and within everyone’s reach. But many forces, both within ourselves and in the environment, stand in the way. It is a little like trying to lose weight: everyone knows what it takes, everyone wants to do it, yet it is next to impossible for so many. The stakes here are higher, however.

It is not just a matter of losing a few extra pounds.

It is a matter of losing the chance to have a life worth living.

Developing our potential is a matter of upmost importance.

The Keys To Mastery & Success.

Mastery: Live it, don’t speak it.

KP

August 4th, 2011 by KP

Key 4: Visualize the Outcome

You want to make your goal real & present in the realm of your consciousness, in other words as if it’s already happened. As if it is reality now.

Think in the present, you don’t wish “I want to do this”, it just is. What do we really intend? A lot is mental, a lot is imaging.

99% of the progress & practice ends up being small small details. The small details that no one else sees but you. And they’re the finite details that build mastery of a craft.

Is consciousness real or not real? People say “that’s just in your mind”, but does your consciousness exist in the universe? Yes, and it is very powerful. Then the idea is to have this mesh between your consciousness & the material world.

I visualize as if it’s happening, now. I see it exactly the way I want it to go down. The way you visualize is very important, you can’t visualize from the point of view of ‘this is what you would like to have happen’, but from the viewpoint of it is already happening, it is a done deal, it is reality.

The more you are prepared, the “luckier” you’ll get. The harder you work, the “luckier” you’ll get.

People think luck is this magical fate outside of our control, just being “in the right place at the right time”. But luck isn’t being in the right place at the right time, “luck” or what people think is luck, is THE RIGHT PERSON being in the right place at the right time. And how do you become that “right person”? Practice, and preparation. Practice is the preparation. Michael Jordan wasn’t “lucky” to be noticed for his ability, the fact he had worked his ass off & practiced harder than anyone else, that when “he was in the right place at the right time” he was actually “the right person in the right place at the right time”. That’s what luck is. Not down to fate, but down to you being ready for an opportunity when it presents itself to you.

When some people don’t think I can do something, it very gently, yet very powerfully pisses me off. Please do bet against me. A bet against a champion is a bad bet, a champion shows who they truly are when they are tested.

Imagine a moment where you are on your death bed, and you think, “I could have been…”. Trying something and giving it your best, the pain of that weighs ounces, sometimes more often than not you are proud of yourself for giving it your best shot. But the weight of regret, that weighs tons. A life of pain and being able to go to my dearth bed and say “I pulled it off, I did it” is a lot more inspiring to me than to think of a life of no pain & going to my death bed and saying “I didn’t really try to achieve my dream or to give it my best shot”. That’s bad news.

As a musician, all you need is your imagination. And then you channel the inner stuff. Where you get lost in the moment, you don’t think, you just flow. You feel it.

Visualize as if your dream is reality, as if it is happening right now. If you believe it as reality, it won’t be long before the “mesh” between your consciousness and the material world happens.

KP