Knowledge For Men Archives

Jolie Dawn is an author, speaker, and wild visionary. Through her own journey of spirituality and self-discovery, along with thousands of hours of training, Jolie has discovered her innate ability to set people free from the confines of limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging habits, so they can create a life and business that truly thrives.

Jolie has fearlessly built her own platform to share her message through her popular Inner Goddess Unleashed Summit and also her retreats, online programs, and one-on-one programs. She has attained smashing success in guiding women through her signature process to help them remember their limitless potential so they can start taking immediate action on their dreams.

“You win just by playing”

1. Location is Important

One of the most important factors in your success is your location, both physical and social.

If you are living in a small town that is filled with fast food “restaurants”, bars, and walmarts, it is going to be much more difficult to stay healthy and fit and find a like minded community than if you are living in at the beach with yoga studios and juice bars on every corners.

If you are living in a retirement community full of baby boomers, you will find it difficult to find young entrepreneurs to share ideas with and create incredible businesses with. However, if you are living in a large, vibrant city, full of startups and entrepreneurs, you will find success comes much more easily.

If you set yourself up to live in a location that is conducive to your goals and you surround yourself with loving and supportive people who will push you and force you to grow, nothing can stop you!

2. Play the Host

Whenever you are struggling to find like minded individuals, or to find groups that you feel you fit into and want to be a part of; play the host. Invite as many people as you can to something you have put together and executed, especially individuals you respect and admire.

Start taking the initiative and creating and leading events locally to get those people together, not only will you meet great new people, but those people will respect you more because they will see you as the leader and creator of a group that they regularly enjoy attending.

3. Embrace Your Purpose More than Your Relationships

Your purpose ALWAYS comes before your relationships.

You were put on this earth to do amazing things, to create world changing movements, to help take people’s lives in a radically different direction. Your relationships are just a small part of that, they are not the whole.

No matter how amazing you think a woman is, she does not come before your purpose, and if she is a woman of character who loves and respects you as a man, she will never want to.

4. Take Care of and Follow Your Body

Your body is the key to everything. Take care of it and respect it, and you will live a full and joyful life. Disrespect it and treat it like a trash heap instead of a temple (or playground depending on your adventure levels) and you will feel the pain of your choices.

Fill your body with good food, good exercise, and good sleep and stay in tune with it through practices like yoga and meditation, and it will serve you throughout your life.

Take care of your body, it’s the only one you’ve got.

Jeff Spadafora is the Director of Global Coaching Services and Product Development for The Halftime Institute. He spent 20 years as a leadership and executive development consultant for Fortune 1000 companies such as Ford Motor Company, Sears & Roebuck, Compuware, Domino’s Pizza, Visteon, Northern Trust Bank, Helene Curtis, and Sky Chefs.

“As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of your life, the full potential of your soul will never emerge.”~Henry Van Dyke

1. Success Will Not Fulfill You

In today’s materialistic and ego driven society, we are incepted from birth with the idea that buying more stuff and achieving higher status will lead to joy and fulfillment. But as anyone who has ever been to the top will tell you, this is simply not true.

While it is true that achieving goals, improving your material comfort, and reaching new heights of social prestige will increase your momentary happiness, this path does not offer any sort of contentment or joy in the long term. It results in a never ending quest to recreate the dopamine high that is released every time that you hit a new tax bracket.

2. Giving  Yourself Away is the True Path to Gaining Everything

While living a life in pursuit of excess material wealth won’t lead to fulfillment, living a life in pursuit of generosity and impact, and legacy will.

If you truly wish to live a life of fulfillment and joy, not just momentary happiness and brief episodes of ecstasy, you must start by giving yourself to a cause bigger than yourself. You must find a passion and a calling that makes it difficult for you to stay in bed in the mornings because you are so excited about how you will get to change the world.

As cliche and trite as it may sound, finding a calling that is about a bigger picture than just yourself is the true path to success. Perhaps at this moment, you can’t find that calling or simply don’t know how you want to impact the world.

This is fine.

Start with simple things: Volunteer at a local habitat for humanity, give away 10-15% of your income to a cause you believe in, or even just call your grandparents from time to time. Find things to do that remind you that you are a small part of a whole, find things that let you serve and give without any expectations.

Give yourself away and you will gain everything.

3.You Need to Line Up your Core, Capacity, and Context 

Similar to the four pillars, the Three C’s are the essentials of life that must be in alignment for you to be living a “10” life.

Core:

This is who you are, what your mission is, and what you stand for. To have a well defined “core” (in the sense of success and fulfillment, not your abs), you must define your virtues, your beliefs, and your character traits that will remain unwavering no matter how strenuous the external circumstances become. (also called NUTS or Non-negotiable, unalterable terms by Wayne Levine) And you must also discover and be actively pursuing what you believe to be your calling and purpose in life.

Capacity:

This is how you are showing up in each area of your life, it’s about maximizing your potential. Are you staying in the best shape you can physically? Are you being the best husband, father, friend, son, or brother that you can relationally? Are you connected with whatever your definition of God is? (Or if you are an atheist, have you done your research and do you have peace about the question of God?)

Context:

This is where you are working towards your calling and purpose. Do you need to move jobs, cities, or countries? Do you need to stay where you are and simply work change how you are showing up?

Only you can answer these questions, and it is imperative that you take the time to do so lest you work your whole life away on something that you realize (too late) was never in line with your calling in the first place.

4. Busyness and Comfort are Your Two Greatest Enemies 

The two greatest enemies to success and fulfillment are not laziness or greed or ignorance, but busyness and comfort.

Busyness and comfort are malicious and sneak into your life slowly, without any obvious signs, but once they are in, they slowly and surely convince you that you are ok at your current level because there isn’t the pain necessary to elicit change.

When you are comfortable, it is difficult to find a real reason to change your lifestyle or pursue dreams, and when you are constantly busy, you never have the time to sit down and ask these questions in the first place.

Don’t allow busyness or comfort to rob you of your destiny. Take time to evaluate where you are in life with an open and unbiased mind. Go down the rabbit hole and it is likely that you will come out of the other side with a better understanding of yourself, your purpose, and the actions required to achieve it.

There is a billion dollar war on men that most of us don't even know is being fought. 

Today, I'm going to peel back the curtain and reveal the truth. 

I've been overwhelmed by the love and support of the community over the past few weeks after I announced some of the recent struggles I've been facing. 

Today, I want to give you a quick update on where I am and what the future holds for both myself and Knowledge for Men. 

Alex Dodd is also known as Ali Afshar and is an actor and producer, known for Three Kings (1999), Godzilla (1998) and The Siege (1998) and is also the founder/president of the world record holding auto racing team Easy Street Motorsports (ESX).

He is the creator of the exclusive ESX Super Vantage Aston Martin and ESX STI Subaru vehicles. Alex and his company ESX raced for Subaru of America for 7 years from 2001 through 2007 and won two NHRA National Championships in 2006 & 2007.

“You can sleep when you are dead”

1. Always be Hustling

You can sleep when you are dead, or as Newton put it “A body in motion tends to stay in motion.” Once you gain momentum, it is imperative that you keep hustling and keep grinding to ensure continued success.

While there is plenty of debate about the effects of sleep and success, if you want to be successful, you will lose sleep to achieve your goals. If you want to achieve great things, you have to be willing to lose sleep, put in the effort, and work ungodly hours for a certain amount of time. But it will be worth it.

2. Do What You Love

As cliche as it may sound, a life spent doing anything other than things you love, is a life of drudgery and pain. Why would you willingly subject yourself to daily work that you find dull and uninspiring just for an added 0 on your paycheck?

Do what you love and the money will follow (give that what you love is more than smoking weed and playing xbox). If you live your life doing things that light you up with a passion, you will never work a day in your life, and money and impact will be a natural byproduct.

Don’t waste your life with things you don’t love. Follow the advice of your middle school teacher and do what you love.

3. Use Your Passions Instead of Drugs and Alcohol

Shit happens. Welcome to the real world. When it does, many men are tempted to fall into drugs and alcohol to escape their problems instead of facing them head on. Instead of falling for this trap, dive headfirst into your passions and create a life centered around the things you love to help yourself heal and get through the hard times.

Bad things will happen, it’s up to you whether you allow them to destroy you and ruin your life with addiction, or whether you use it as a catalyst to create your best self.

4. Change the World with Kindness

The world is full of ass holes. It’s full of wannabes and windbags trying to seem important and putting others down in the process. Don’t be like them.

Life is short, love others, be kind and leave nothing on  the table because you never know when it is your time. You will never regret a life of passion, love, and kindness. Period.

This is the greatest lesson my father taught me in his passing. 

After losing one of my best friends and my father only two weeks apart, I almost quit. 

Everything...

San Diego. Knowledge for Men. Entrepreneurship. My life's work...my mission. 

I almost gave it all up. 

Here's why I didn't . 

Jason Hanson is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry a frequent writer for Combat Handguns magazine and Personal and Home Defense magazine and an NRA Certified Instructor

He is also skilled in: Personal Protection, Risk Assessment, Firearms, Security Operations, Private Investigations, Counter Terrorism, Vulnerability Assessment, Emergency Management.

Jason was born and raised in Northern Virginia and spent 6 years with the CIA. He then moved to Utah with his wife and children to start a security business and now runs Spy Escape and Evasion, training individuals on how to better protect themselves and their families. Jason is also the author of the new book Spy Secrets that Can Save Your Life.

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running”~Christopher McDougall

1. A Solid Morning Routine is Essential 

If you want to achieve success in any area of your life, a powerful morning routine is essential! Jason shared with us in his interview how having a morning “Power Hour” has helped him instill successful habits and stay on track for years.

Some of the best things to include in a morning routine are: Exercise, nutrition (green smoothie, or a healthy breakfast), meditation, goal setting, journaling and reading.

2. In Real Life Situations Try to Deflate, Not Confront 

In the real world, it’s better to prevent dangerous situations before they ever happen. Instead of trying to prepare to defend against an attacker, focus first on never getting attacked.

The basic rules of this, as shared by Jason are to

1. Always be aware of and in tune with your environment (get off of your cell phone) 2. Always keep your head up and make it known with your posture that you aren’t as easy target 3. Bonus: Get fit, the bigger you are and the more you look like you can handle yourself, the less likely you are to be targeted.

If you see someone following you or acting odd, don’t duck and run like hollywood, but turn and face them, make eye contact, and verbally make it clear that you are aware of what they are doing with an assertive “Can I help you?”

3. A Few Safety Pointers

Below are a few key safety pointers from Jason:

1. Whenever checking into a hotel, always ask for 2 keys. This makes it look like you have someone else joining you making you less of a target

2. Whenever possible always select a hotel room between the 3rd and 6th floor as these rooms are less likely to get robbed (since they are harder to escape from) but also leave you ample ability to leave in the event of an emergency.

3. When abroad, always ask the hotel about taxi services and be sure that you detail the route you want your driver to take prior to leaving with him so that you can make sure he is not taking you somewhere to rob or harm you, or simply so you know you aren’t being overcharged.

4. At home, make your home the last place people would want to rob. Put up security system warning signs on the walkway, in the back windows and in the front yard. Even if you don’t have a dog, leave a dog bowl outside to make it look like you do (really, who wants to tangle with a Mastiff), and if you can afford it, put cameras (or decoys) up. Basically take the rule of showing that you aren’t an easy target and apply it to your home.

4. Never Give Up

No matter how hard things get, never, ever, ever, ever give up. If you keep working you will see success. 10 years from now will come whether you give up or not, but your perseverance will determine whether it comes with you having achieved your goals or not.

This is what I learned. 

Martin Grunburg is the designer/inventor of Habit Factor® as well as the author of the international bestselling book sharing the same name. He has presented at TEDx in the United Arab Emirates, and his work has been featured in the world’s most popular productivity blogs such as Lifehacker.com and Mashable.com.

Prior to developing and authoring The Habit Factor, Martin has been a partner in C3 Networx, formerly Home2Office Computing Solutions, Inc. As founder/COO, he’s been nominated twice for the Entrepreneur of the Year award and has twice led his team to win the Better Business Bureau Award for Marketplace Ethics.

“If you want to find the secret of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration”~Nikola Tesla

1. Pressure = Force/Area

This basic scientific formula can actually offer incredible insights into the world of success and productivity.

For examples Parkinson’s Principle, which states that the pressure and speed of completion of a task will increase as the timeline decreases can be derived from this formula. Pressure (the importance of a project and how much effort you will put into it) is equal to force (the difficulty of the task) divided by area (the amount of time you have to complete a task)

For example, if I tell you that you have to complete a perfectly written 3,000 word article in the next 3 months or else you will lose all of your financial assets ….how much pressure would you feel? Despite the large financial cost, you would likely feel decidedly unperturbed.

Now what if I said that you have 3 hours?

You would move heaven and earth to get that article done!

This is actually a very powerful principle that you can leverage in your life to achieve results at a more rapid pace. By creating more impending deadlines and higher stakes, you will be forced to become more creative, find time to pursue your goals, and actually get the work done because of this positive pressure.

2. Pressure is a Neutral Tool

There has been significant research done on the affects of pressure on the human mind and body over the past years, and what Martin has found is that, despite what popular science says, pressure is neither good nor bad, it is merely a tool.

If unmanaged and unchecked, pressure can build up and cause all sorts of issues, like many other stressors. However, if used strategically to increase the efficiency with which tasks are completed and the speed of implementation, pressure can be a fantastic tool for massive productivity and results.

So in the end, pressure, like so many other things, is neutral. It is neither good nor bad. It is simply how you use it.

3. Pressure Creates Peace of Mind

Exposing yourself to intentional pressure can help create confidence, and peace of mind during stressful situations. The scientific formula for equilibrium is the equal offset of pressure. Navy SEALs go through thousands of hours and years of training before they enter into combat so that when the actual bullets are flying, and bombs are going off, they are already used to the pressure of the environment and able to respond with calm, swift confidence.

By properly planning, preparing, and practicing for any given situation, you increase your chances of success dramatically once you are actually under the pressure of game day. It’s like the old saying “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in war.”