| You are a smart, ambitious person. You've accomplished a great many things in your life. But I'll bet there are dreams locked away in your heart that want to be fulfilled. We all have buried dreams -- goals we once set and, for whatever reason, abandoned. If you ignore these dreams long enough, they disappear. But beneath the surface, they are still alive with potential. I have so damn many unrealized dreams. I want to paint beautiful paintings. I want to play the guitar and sing Spanish ballads. I want to own a literary magazine and start a school. I want to learn Portuguese and write a book of philosophical musings. I want to write and produce a stage play and another movie. My list goes on and on. What about you? Reviving even one of your abandoned dreams can make a wonderful difference in your life. So take a minute right now to identify some long-lost goal, and then picture yourself doing it. Does it still get you excited? If so, make a resolution to accomplish at least part of that goal this year -- as much as you can realistically accomplish in the next 12 months. And to give yourself the best possible chance of making this dream come true, consider getting a mentor -- someone with the experience and skills to help you come up with an effective, step-by-step plan. With our new Epiphany Alliance program, such help is available. Find out more about it here. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- The Greatest Dirty Little Secret of the Internet To make money as an entrepreneur, you've got to constantly scour the earth for high-quality, in-demand products. You could create new ones. But that can be expensive. Time-consuming. And after all the work... you might wind up with nothing. But a few of the Internet's top marketers have found a way around this problem. They don't spend time (or money) on products that may or may not sell. Instead, they pluck money makers from a reserve of pre-made products and sales promotions. A martial arts expert from Florida has turned this strategy into a small fortune. He estimates that one "pre-made product" made over $20,000 in one month... Another has gone on to pull in over $332,250. Discover how he found these money makers... And learn how you could use this secret to make anywhere from a few hundred bucks a month to a few hundred thousand bucks a year right here.
"The history of philosophy is not, like the history of the sciences, to be studied with the intellect alone. That which is receptive to us and that which impinges upon us from history is the reality of man's being, unfolding itself in thought." Karl Jaspers At the Roman Forum a few weeks ago, economist Mark Skousen -- dressed in a toga -- was delivering his "Persuasion vs. Force" talk to our group, when a passerby stopped to heckle him loudly. Skousen continued with his eloquent plea for freedom and tolerance unperturbed, asking only that the heckler hold his remarks until the end. Which was fitting... The Forum was one of the first places in ancient times where ordinary citizens had the right to stand up and publicly voice their opinions, even unpopular ones. Our group, which had been touring the Mediterranean as part of the "Cradle of Civilization" tour, endured the heckler because, as Freud noted, the first human to hurl an insult instead of a rock was the founder of civilization. Visiting these ancient ruins gave us a chance to reacquaint ourselves with Rome's history and one of its great philosophers, Marcus Aurelius. Marcus was Emperor of Rome for two decades before succumbing to the plague in 180 A.D. He was the most powerful man of his day, ruling an empire that stretched from Western Europe to the Middle East and Africa. During his reign, he defended Rome against barbarians, invading tribes, pestilence, and plague at every border. Yet, in those quiet moments of leisure when he was able to take off the mantle of Emperor, he also composed one of the world's great works of Stoic philosophy: his Meditations. The book is essentially an inner dialogue. Marcus wrote solely for himself, not posterity. His goal was to face up to the world, define the good life, and develop a manual for daily living. His words still resonate today. Here is just a sampling: - If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.
- Be like the jutting rock against which waves are constantly crashing, and all around it the frothing foam then settles back down. Say not "Oh, I am so unfortunate that this has happened to me." But rather "How fortunate I am that, even though this has happened to me, I continue uninjured, neither terrified by the present nor in fear of the future."
- Never consider anything to be beneficial to you which could ever compel you to violate your faith in yourself, to abandon your modesty, to hate anybody, to be overly suspicious, cursing, disingenuous, or to lust after anything which must be hidden behind walls or veils.
- Wisdom and right action are the same thing.
- Whenever you notice someone else going astray, immediately turn and examine how you yourself have gone astray, for example, esteeming money, pleasure, reputation, or something else, as if it were the highest good. Examine yourself in this way and you will quickly forget your anger.
- People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, and near the mountains, and you too are especially prone to desire such things. But this is a sign of ignorance, since you have the power to retire within yourself whenever you wish. For nowhere can a person retire more full of peace and free from care than into his own soul.
- Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you if you continue to be kind to him?
- The noblest way of taking revenge on others is by refusing to become like them.
- If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is wrong, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed.
- Someone else may ask: "How may I possess that?" But you should ask: "How may I not covet that?" Someone else asks: "How can I be rid of him?" But you: "How can I not wish to be rid of him?" Another: "How may I not lose my little child?" But you: "How may I not dread the loss of my child?" Turn your prayers around entirely, and see what happens.
On every page, Marcus Aurelius shows extraordinary insight and humility, his words transcending the boundaries of time and place. No wonder his Meditations are among the best known and most widely read works of antiquity. The message is simple and direct, but powerful. He values inner strength, dignity, and self-respect. He reminds us that life can end at any moment, that the past and the future are inaccessible, that we are made better by confronting difficult conditions with resolution and courage, and that our most important goal is our own private quest for perfection. Over the past eighteen hundred years, his words have helped millions face up to the setbacks, cravings, triumphs, and disappointments that are the lot of every human life. Marcus Aurelius wastes no time on airy theories or speculations. The measure of a philosopher, he believed, was not his discourses but his way of living. As he writes in the Meditations, "Stop philosophizing about what a good man is and be one." [Ed. Note: Alex Green is the author of The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters, as well as the editor of "Spiritual Wealth," a free e-letter about the pursuit of the good life. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Need Help Actually Achieving Your Goals? - We write about goal setting in ETR all the time. But we can't personally coach you in goal-setting techniques. Bob Cox can. He's the creator of our Epiphany Alliance program. Not to mention a millionaire business consultant, record-setting pilot, and co-founder of the original home shopping channel. Find out how Bob can help you here...
What Matters Most in Achieving Your Goals
By Michael Masterson
A certain person I know has the gift of audacity. There is nothing I can think of that he is afraid to try. This trait has allowed him to succeed at a number of endeavors he has no natural talent for. He has learned how to box and wrestle, dance, write marketing copy, and make movies. I am much more impressed with him than I am with people who have great natural talents but never push themselves to do more than they can easily do. I've been watching him over the years, trying to figure out how he does what he does. And the only answer I can come up with is that, when confronted with a challenge, he takes action immediately and continues to plug away at it, even when he is clearly not the fastest horse out of the starting gate. His persistent, incremental forward motion eventually wins out. He is the incarnation of the tortoise that outdistances the hare. Consistently applied forward motion -- not thought, not spirit, not attitude -- is the most important factor in success. Today is the best day in your life to get moving.
How to Be Healthier, Fitter, Lither, Leaner, and Stronger in the New Year
By Michael Masterson
To live a full, productive, and happy life, you need a well-running machine of a body and a sharp mind. That's why I always put good health at the top of my goal list every year. You should too. Achieving good health is mostly a matter of developing two good habits: eating well and exercising sensibly. To help you come up with a regimen that works for you, here are some things to think about: - Eating well makes you feel great and look great. It also boosts your immune system, strengthens your muscles, limbers your joints, and puts energy in your stride.
- You don't need nearly as much strength training as you may have been led to believe. Most people can achieve all their strength goals with an hour of training per week.
- The most common health problem for Americans is obesity. Get your body fat measured. Ideally, it should be 12 percent to 16 percent for men, 15 percent to 20 percent for women.
- Mental and emotional vitality are just as important as physical strength, flexibility, stamina, and appearance. And they require the same two good habits: eating well and exercising sensibly.
The New Year is often personified as a baby wearing a diaper and a top hat -- but there's nothing new about it. Using a baby as a symbol of rebirth has its roots in ancient Greece and Egypt.
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Have you been setting your goals for 2010? If you've been taking advantage of Michael's advice this week, you have. And you've been writing them down. Now, we have a request. Keep us updated on your progress throughout the coming weeks and months. We want to hear about your successes... and we want to help you overcome your stumbling blocks. Keep in touch. And have a Happy New Year!
She's a Night Owl... but It Works for Her "I hate to break it to you, but night owls get just as much work done as early risers, though I do say that provisionally. It all depends on what you do for a living and your lifestyle. I am one of those night owls. The provisions are that I could not be a night owl if I had children, had an office job, or had a business that depended on a lot of live communication with clients. My day looks much the same as yours, just at different hours. I am a full-time artist, working at home. "There are three reasons why this works well for me. First, I simply tend to work better in the evening. My energy and concentration for painting are at their best then. Second, I need as few distractions as possible while at the easel. The evening is my quiet time -- when the phone rings less, there are seldom if any visitors, and all the other tasks and errands have been done. The third is flexibility. "As a creative person, I need to be able to adjust my schedule. Sometimes I am very inspired and on a roll, and will work late into the night. For instance, I painted till midnight last night. As a result, my day started a little later today, but I will still be able to put the same amount of time into the tasks at hand.
"I love my lifestyle and what I do, and wouldn't trade it for anything. As you can see, I get just as much, if not more, work done as any early bird, though it certainly would not work for most people. I am very blessed!"
Marie M. Vlasic
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The Language Perfectionist: The Cohort Retort
By Don Hauptman
From a U.S. Department of Justice news release: "The following morning, when the first employee of the day entered the bank,
Smith and his cohort, armed with handguns, confronted the employee and demanded
money contained in the bank's vault." It's common for an individual, especially one engaged in unsavory activities, to be described as a cohort of someone else. In this sense, the word is intended to mean an associate, companion, or accomplice. But the proper meaning of cohort is a group that shares a demographic characteristic: "Great Depression cohort" or "Generation X cohort," for example. Sociologists and statisticians frequently use such terms in their studies. It's also correct to say "a cohort of Stanford faculty members" or to use the word in reference to any other distinctive group. Notes Bryan Garner, in his useful style guide Garner's Modern American Usage: "This newer meaning [companion] has remained a rather informal one for this respectable word, which in formal writing should retain its older sense." But remember that even in informal contexts, as applied to an individual, cohort has acquired a pejorative connotation. No one ever says, "I'm headed for the big game with my best cohort." [Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
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