8 Ways to Make Meditation Easy and Fun

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10 Simple Tips to Live Happy, Wild, and Free

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10 Ways to Turn Around a Bad Day in 10 Minutes Or Less

1. Listen to a favorite song and sing a long.

2. Take a shower.

3. Watch a funny YouTube video.

4. Pet an animal.

5. Give and get a hug.

6. Practice deep breathing.

7. Write about what’s bothering you and then write something you are grateful for.

8. Do some light bodyweight exercises.

9. Sign out of Facebook.

10. Walk barefoot in the grass.

10 Tips to Maintain Your Car's Value

1. It might seem obvious, but when it comes to maintaining the value of your vehicle, its important to avoid driving excessive miles. If you plan on taking a long road trip, opt for a rental car. The cost of the rental will probably be much less than the mileage overage charges you'll pay at the end of your lease or the potential depreciation in the value of your high mileage car at resale time.
2. Have your vehicle serviced on a regular basis and keep all records of maintenance and repair. Not only will routine car care help you avoid costly and unnecessary repairs, it also demonstrates to a potential buyer that you cared for and maintained the car properly and regularly during the time you owned the vehicle. Some prospective buyers might be willing to pay more for a car thats been routinely serviced.
3. Avoid excessive wear and tear. Treat your vehicle with respect to maintain its value over the long haul avoid extreme start-and-stop driving, over-towing (or towing more weight than is recommended in your owners manual), excessive speeds or driving your vehicle in areas where road conditions are poor.
4. Keep your car clean. Have it detailed on a regular basis inside and out and be sure to use a coat of wax to protect your vehicles paint surface from natures elements. Cleaning your car frequently will help maintain its value over time.
5. Store your car properly. If you live in an extremely cold or warm environment and you have the facility to store your car inside, do it. Excessive sun can fade the outer surfaces of your car, including paint, trim and moldings. Additionally, extremely cold temperatures and environmental conditions can wreak havoc on your cars internal engine components. By storing your car inside in a climate-controlled environment, you can help avoid costly and unnecessary repairs in the future.
6. Rust is the enemy. If you live in a cold climate with harsh winters, be sure to wash your vehicle often to remove salt deposits that can eventually lead to rust and whenever possible, have your car undercoated to avoid salt deposits from building up on the frame and the underside of the quarter panels and fenders.
7. If you own a classic car (or are thinking of buying one), treat it as an investment. Store it inside to avoid damage from outside elements and have the car serviced on a regular basis. Don't forget to check the fluids and replace worn hoses and belts. Although you may not drive your classic car many miles, it is important to maintain tire pressure and use time rather than miles as a measure to change your fluids. Classic cars are unique and require extra special care to maintain their value over time. It helps to consult a specialist who is aware of the special requirements that your car may need, and have the knowledge of where to locate the correct parts. At the end of the day, it might be beneficial for you to consult a classic car specialist or a certified mechanic to implement a routine service itinerary and schedule.
8. Don't treat your vehicle like a restaurant. Avoid eating and drinking inside your car and by all means, don't smoke. Spills, cigarette smoke and stains can ruin the inside appearance and smell of your car which can ultimately be a detriment to its resale value.
9. Avoid conditions that can damage the exterior finish of your car. Paint chips, gouges or fading can decrease a cars value. If your vehicles paint is less than ideal, consider having it painted prior to resale time and be sure to have a reputable paint expert or body shop perform the work. A nice looking exterior finish can increase a cars curb appeal and ultimately, its value.
10. Sure its important to maintain your vehicles value, but more importantly, be a smart car buyer from the get-go. 

17 ITEMS YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CARRY IN YOUR CAR

17 ITEMS YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CARRY IN YOUR CAR

Flashlight

Tire-pressure gauge

First-aid kit

Owner’s manual

Tire-changing tools

Warning triangles

Multi-tool

Fuses

Jumper cables

Tape – duct tape

Map or atlas

Paper towels

Spare key

Pail or bucket

Garbage bags

Gloves – leather work gloves

Old cellphone

Top 10 Healthy Tips

1. Take 10 deep breaths filling air from the diaphragm up and exhaling completely, whenever you feel stressed.
2. Drink 3 liters of good clean water everyday in addition to any other beverage you have
3. Eat something raw from the plant kingdom at every meal and make it the biggest part of the meal: vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains should be the bulk of what you eat.
4. Go to sleep at the same time and get up at same time 6-or-more days of the week. Get at least 8 hours of sleep daily.
5. Take a clinically validated, whole food based supplement.
6. Eat processed foods sparingly, less than once a week if possible.
7. Make breakfast and lunch your biggest meals, preferably between 10 am and 4 pm when your digestions is strongest. Try to eat these two meals at the same time each day; your digestive organs will get the benefit of expecting to go to work on a schedule. This helps tremendously with proper digestion and absorption of nutrients.
8. Get outside and move a little bit each day. Fresh air and deep breathing are far more important than getting a workout.
9. Start each day with a Green Drink.
10. Think good, healthy thoughts.

10 Simple Wealth Creation Strategies

Tip #1: Money is ALWAYS an inadequate motivator.

Until you realize that though – you’ll probably spin in circles trying to “get rich” and wondering why you’re never getting there. The thing with using money as a motivator is that it works in the short term but when things get hard it’s pretty easy to say “ah forget about the money – I’m ok with what I’ve got”.

To be truly motivated to push through the inevitable challenges you need to get clear on the real reason you’re doing what you’re doing.

Freedom to create my day was so important to me that it consumed most of my thoughts. Not being free slowly began to choke me, especially when freedoms I used to enjoy in my job slowly slipped away. I had a vivid picture of what I wanted my days to look like and that picture is what compelled me to quit my job years earlier than we had planned.

That burning need for control over my time and desire to be free was my motivator.

I quit my job not because we were at the point where we were financially ready for it. I quit my job because I could no longer stand to live my life the way it was a single day longer. I was ready to kick butt, get kicked, and get back up to kick butt again to make my dream of freedom a reality. I never considered going to find a new job – I set out to create the life I am living now. That was my motivator. Not money. For most parents, having more time to be with their children and be present for their family is a very compelling motivator. For others, it can be a more material desire at first (like a great home or a fun car or a family vacation), but it often evolves to something less tangible. It doesn’t matter what your motivator is, I just want you to know that if you’re using money or a goal like “get rich” to motivate yourself, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Tip #2: You can be right or you can be rich, but most of the time you can’t be both.

Dave is in a year long business mentoring program and I recently had the opportunity to eat dinner with many of his fellow mentees. The woman in the group who has arguably seen the biggest improvement in her business as a result of the mentoring told me her success secret:“I just do what I am told. That’s it.” She doesn’t waste time arguing why she has done it the way she has done it. She doesn’t resist the suggestions – she just follows the process and suggestions and she is getting amazing results. Very few people do that. Most people would rather be right. They’d rather explain why they think what they think or do what they do – even when they are paying five figures for a mentor.

Tip #3:Success and failure are not nouns. Let go of it. You are never going to be a success nor will you ever be a failure. You will succeed at some of the things you try just as you will likely fail at some of the things you try.

Tip #4:Return should not be measured in isolation. Where there is a return there is a risk. You MUST look at what you have to spend in terms of time, energy, and money AND what you are risking to get the return for it to make sense. (Want more on risk? I created a video on how to analyze risk in real estate deals a little while ago – you can check that out here).

Tip #5:The only place you can start is where you are right now.

Everyone wants to start at the front of the line but that’s not how the world works. Take the grocery store as an analogy. Do you ever struggle to pick a line at the grocery store – wanting to find the fastest one? Do you ever find yourself in the slowest line wishing you’d picked a different line? Do you ever switch lines? Most of the time when you switch lines you don’t get through the line any faster than if you’d just stayed in line. Once in awhile you do … but you’re always second guessing yourself for making the choice instead of entertaining yourself by reading the latest headlines on US Weekly. But you always get to the front of the line if you just pick one and get in, right? And sometimes another line opens up and you get to jump ahead a bit because you were already in line! The only real guarantee is that if you never get in line you never get to the front. Your life is like that too – so stop deciding which line to get in and just do it!

Tip #6: Master energy management not time management.

I know so many people who say time is their biggest obstacle to achieving their goals. Yet those same people can tell you all the latest on celebrities, tv shows and movies because they’ve collapsed in front of the tv for four hours at the end of each night. I’ve realized that time is not their issue – nor is it mine. It’s energy. I now structure my eating, exercising and work schedule as much as possible around using energy and then renewing energy. There’s too much to cover in this short section but simple things like getting more sleep, drinking more water, taking short walks, and cutting out sugar can add several hours of focused energy to your day. And what you can do in two goal focused hours is pretty astounding. I would argue that you can do more in two hours like that with high energy than most people do in an 8 – 10 hour work day.

Tip #7: The pursuit of perfection will paralyze you.

When you seek perfection you’ll freeze up and not be able to move forward. Focus instead on what is “good enough” and what you can do TODAY to move forward. We love the saying “sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity” which we heard first from Alex Mandossian. Keep moving forward – it’s not about perfection it’s about progress.

Tip #8: Every day is a good day unless you choose for it not to be.

This lesson is from my Grandma Broad. She always tells me that if it’s not a good day it’s my own fault. I used to find that a little annoying because if a teacher gave me a bad grade or my brother hit me I figured it was not my fault things went badly. I have come to realize that everything in my life comes down to choices. Often a decision I made caused something to happen to me – so I had control over it in the first place. Or, even if it wasn’t my decision, I have a choice as to whether I let it ruin my day or not. I am not a bottle of happiness every moment of every day but when I am grouchy I do know that I am choosing to be that way and being happy is as simple as choosing to be happy.

Tip #9: Create different problems for yourself.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who always complain about the same problem. I have a hard time understanding why they haven’t done something about it. They probably like having that problem secretly … they must! I have lots of problems too! I prefer to consider them challenges – but still. I have things that aren’t going well too. And every time I solve one problem I seem to create a new one … but that is ok for me as long as I am not dwelling on the same problem day in and day out.

Tip #10:Create more happy moments.

Make a list of the happiest moments in your life. You’ll realize that none of them (or very few of them) involved money. Usually they involved achieving something challenging for yourself, a great moment with friends or family, or an incredible experience of some kind. One of my happiest days in recent years was when I was with Dave in the Saskatchewan Pavilion of the 2010 Winter Olympics watching the Canada vs US mens hockey gold medal match. It was such an incredible experience. We didn’t know anybody else in the pavilion yet we all felt like friends. And when Canada won in overtime it was an explosion of joy heard all over Canada. I never felt more Canadian pride and joy before that moment. It was easily one of the happiest days of my life. That experience cost us less than $50.

Wealth is important but it’s not everything. Don’t get too hung up on it. Give yourself some room to just enjoy life. Figure out what moments made you really happy and strive to recreate those moments more often. When you stop focusing on money and focus more on happiness, somehow more money just seems to flow your way anyway.

It’s not that hard to make money. It really isn’t. Keeping it, growing it, and using it to it’s fullest potential to create a life you love is the more difficult part. These 10 things are all realizations, tips or strategies that have made a big impact on my life in the last two years in particular. Since leaving my job I’ve experienced bigger challenges in my life than I ever faced before (and I didn’t steer clear of challenges before … it’s just that independence is a whole different animal!), and bigger moments of job and achievement. It’s been a wild roller coaster ride of glee, fear, and excitement and every day the ride gets more and more rewarding. I wish the same for you.