The Michael Masterson Journal

Issue No. 23 - $1.91	Saturday, January 2, 2010
You've already set some significant goals for 2010. (You have, haven't you?) And today, I'm going to ask you to set one more: to become a better person. You are going to do that by making a commitment to... pay less attention to yourself and more attention to other people focus on opportunities, not problems listen first, talk later criticize only when your criticism is helpful never speak badly about anyone never complain about anything perform an act of kindness every day This will have a profound effect on your happiness. Nothing else you do will bring you peace of mind. Money won't. Success won't. Fame won't. The secret to substantial and enduring happiness has nothing to do with putting yourself first, nurturing your inner child, or any of the many other forms of narcissism so popular among today's pop psychologists. As someone who has spent too much time in the vain (and I do mean vain) pursuit of self-gratification, I am here to tell you that happiness and fulfillment in life is usually about doing less for yourself and more for others. This is not a revolutionary concept. It was, it seems to me, the essential message of Christ and Gandhi, to name just two. I'm probably not saying anything you don't already know. And you may be much further along than I am in making selflessness a permanent part of your life. Still, as I'm sure you've discovered, putting others first is a commitment that seems to require constant attention. And that is precisely why I am asking you -- as I am asking myself -- to renew that commitment now. When I think about the happy people I admire, they are invariably those who are always looking out for others. I'm not speaking of missionaries and professional humanitarians but of ordinary people who make it a habit to care about those around them. They are the people who ask you how you are doing and pay attention to your answer. They visit you when you are ill, and have kind words for you when you need them. They are ordinary people with the same problems that other ordinary people have -- yet, they don't ask you to pity them. When they see you limping because of an injured knee, they don't tell you about their aching back. They give you sympathy and recommend a helpful treatment. When everyone gets up from the holiday meal and rushes off to have an after-dinner drink or smoke, they linger with the host -- helping out by clearing the dishes or wiping off the table. They know the names of your children. They remember your birthday. They know how you take your coffee. And though they want you to be better and stronger and more successful than you are, they never give you the feeling that they are unsatisfied with what you are, in fact, right now. I am fortunate enough to be married to one of these people. My elder sister is the epitome of this type. And I have friends and even colleagues that fit the bill. I am always astonished by their goodness and humbled by their strength. They make me want to be, a little bit each year, a better man. Becoming a better person starts with trying to make the people in your immediate family happier. Your spouse and children, mother and father, aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews were not brought into this world to solve your problems. That's your job. Resolve to spend less time complaining to them and more time listening to their complaints. Smile when you see them. Give them the time and attention they need to share their dreams and ambitions with you. Give them the advice they want and shut up when they don't want any. Become the person they turn to when the chips are down. Learn to love their peccadilloes and encourage them to overcome their faults. Above all, be loyal to them. Be a reliable and steady resource for your business colleagues, too. Help them achieve their goals -- not because you want their support but simply because you want them to succeed. And do something for people you don't know -- a stranger you come upon, a foster child, or a sick or poor person who can benefit from your help. Spend money. Spend time. Most of all, spend your love. Make this outward focus a natural part of your daily life. Do it purposefully and deliberately until it becomes second nature to you. This is not the kind of goal one can achieve in a single year. It will be on my list next year. Perhaps it will be on your list too. I'm a strong believer in taking steps to turn back the hands of time. I am willing to die when I am 82, but I want to live with the energy and enthusiasm of a 25-year-old till then. In pursuit of this goal, I have read all the anti-aging literature I could get my hands on. I am reasonably knowledgeable about many of the studies that have been done. As a result, I've changed my eating and exercise habits. A big breakthrough came when I gave up weightlifting and aerobics. For many years, my body was screaming at me, trying to tell me that these unnatural forms of exercise were aging me prematurely. But I didn't listen. Then I met Dr. Al Sears. He talked to me about the science of aging and confirmed my body's message about weightlifting and aerobics. I gave them both up and took back 20 years of my life in a matter of months. These days, my exercise consists of yoga, PACE calisthenics, and submission wrestling. I spend only as much time I want with each, and I never, ever over-train. At nearly 60 years of age, this has put me in the best shape of my life. I'm gradually switching to a "native" diet. It consists of the kind of food our bodies were built for: free-range beef and chicken, wild-caught fish, organic vegetables and fruit. And I intend to do more walking and some meditation. But there are two methods for increasing longevity that I won't be trying. One is extreme calorie restriction. Substantial scientific research has suggested that we can live a lot longer by eating about a third of the calories that we are accustomed to. A doctor friend of mine has maintained an amazingly youthful body by limiting himself to 1,200 calories a day. He says he will live to 120. I tell him that when he visits my grave he should think about all the good meals I enjoyed that he never did. The other method is to inject snake venom into the bloodstream. I have a forty-year-old friend from England who looks 25 -- really looks 25. He's been treating himself this way for years and it seems to work. I'm not opposed to this method. I admire him for trying. But when he told me how he almost died when "the needle" slipped once, I decided to pass. I'm most optimistic about supplementation. I've read dozens of reports in the past few years about how supplementation can slow the aging process and restore vigor and strength to the body. Jon Herring, the editor of Total Health Breakthroughs, showed me one report by the Life Extension Foundation on resveratrol and pterostilbene with more than 60 scientific references. According to the report, "It's truly remarkable how closely these compounds can mimic the beneficial effects of calorie restriction on a molecular level." Resveratrol and pterostilbene can be found in blueberries and grapes, among other foods. But Jon's team has concentrated these two nutrients in a new formula that provides far more nutritional punch than a glass of juice or a cup of blueberries. It is a bright purple powder you mix with water. I have tried it and the taste is excellent. And it's nice to know I don't have to starve myself to increase my healthspan. If you're interested, Total Health Breakthroughs is offering the formula at a significant discount for a small number of initial testers. Click here to learn more. Getting a good night's sleep is critical to your physical, emotional, and mental health. But as you get older -- and this I can attest to -- it's harder to do. One big reason is that your body produces less melatonin as you age. Without enough of this natural hormone, you sleep fewer hours, get up more often during the night, and wake up earlier. For years, natural health doctors have been trying to solve this problem by recommending melatonin in pill form. But, they've discovered, taking it in a pill is inefficient. By the time it circulates through your gut (where it is digested) and works its way up to the sleep center of your brain, most of it has been destroyed. A much better way to ingest melatonin is by spraying it into your mouth. It's absorbed immediately into the bloodstream and is, therefore, much more potent when it reaches the brain. Dr. Sears has a formula for this. He calls it Native Rest. I first tried it last year and it worked very well. I keep it by my bed and take it with me when I travel. If you'd like to know more about it, go here. Speaking of sleep aids, here's another thing to consider. Do you know how much extra sleep the average sleeping pill will give you? 30 minutes? 1 hour? 2 hours? The answer might astonish you. The average, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health, is only 11 minutes! Along with the risk of addiction and side effects like brain fog and daytime drowsiness, that's another good reason to ditch the pills. For a free report from our sister publication, Total Health Breakthroughs, on how to put sleepless nights behind you once and for all, click here. Not everybody was a fan of Porter Stansberry's commentary in Early to Rise a couple of weeks ago criticizing the government for sabotaging entrepreneurs. "The Porter Stansberry article is vapid and one-sided," wrote Michael (a self-proclaimed "long, long time reader of ETR and big fan"). "Try running your business without streets paid for by the government. Try running your business without a court system that enforces contracts, all paid for by the government. I'm not saying he has no point, I'm just saying it's an incredibly un-nuanced presentation of the issue. "Try profiting from information content in a world where copyrights aren't enforced. Try selling products in a world where consumers can't trust you because no regulatory oversight gives them any confidence your products are safe. "The article is overtly political, which is something ETR usually does a good job of either avoiding or treating in a fair-minded way. Please don't run crap like that anymore." Thanks, Michael. I hear you. But think about it. There is zero chance that the government is going to get itself out of building roads (however badly and expensively) and dishing out justice (however imperfectly). We don't have to worry about that. What we do have to worry about -- as small-business people, professionals, and entrepreneurs -- is the cost of government regulations on commerce. They are huge, and the regulations are almost always unwieldy, unfair, and ultimately futile. There are better methods. In England, for example, advertising is pretty well controlled by a private group, the Advertising Standards Board, I think it's called. It doesn't do an especially good job in some respects. But it's not funded entirely by tax dollars. That limits its size and, therefore, the potential damage it can do. I prefer that sort of approach. As for intellectual copyright protection, that's pretty much gone now that the Internet exists. People rip off ETR content every day all over the world. We chase them when they do, but we don't waste too much time on it. We make our profits by building relationships with readers who want to come to the source, not to a freelance thief. Don't get me wrong. I believe the government should protect life and private property. I don't know what Porter's position is on that, but I'd be surprised if he disagreed. As an information publisher, I'm vexed more by government regulation than by Internet thieves. If I thought regulation could put a serious dent in bad business practices, I'd be in favor of it. But if you consider all the massive bad business that contributed to The Great Recession, I'd think you'd admit that most of it was legal. I believe the government should protect life and property, as I said. And that includes the environment. I'm all in favor of regulating against the abridgements of these rights and for the effective prosecution of wrongdoers. But so much of the commercial regulation we have has nothing to do with those genuine concerns. It has to do with creating barriers of entry against small businesses so that big businesses -- including the banks, brokerages, and insurance outfits that put us in this mess -- can keep on doing whatever they want. Anyway, I am grateful to Porter for stirring up the pot. I hope other ETR readers will give his article as much thought as you have. [Ed. Note: Michael Masterson welcomes your questions and comments. Send him a message at AskMichael@ETRFeedback.com.]
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