Knowledge For Men Archives

Preston Smiles has a large dedicated following on his YouTube channel and has been featured in LA Weekly, Los Angeles Magazine, and Origin magazine.

He is also a regular contributor toHuffington Post, The Daily Love, Good Guy Swag, and has appeared on top podcasts such as Lewis Howes's The School of Greatness and Addicted2Success.

He recently won Elixir Magazine's Millennial Mentor Award and is also one of the youngest members of ATL (Association of Transformational Leaders), founded by Jack Canfield.

"Love will find a way, everything else will find an excuse" ~ Preston Smiles

1. Love is a Verb

If you ever say that you love something or someone, then your actions should be a reflection of this sentiment.

Love is a verb.

If you love someone, then you are intentionally showing them your love through actions.

Whether you accomplish this by calling your family, taking your wife out on a date, spending time with your kids, or inviting your friends over for a dinner, you cannot love someone without expressing that love through your actions.

2. Your Internal World is Reflected in Your External World

If you are attracting the wrong people into your life, if you are struggling with your finances, or have any other sort of external "ailment" it is an indication of an incongruency or struggle that you are facing in your internal world.

It may be a sense of worthlessness, a lack of self-love, a belief that you are not good enough, or any number of things.

Whatever it is, you need to spend some time digging into your internal world, revisiting old wounds and current limiting beliefs before your external world will ever reach the level that you desire.

3. Surrender to the Universe

Stop trying to force the universe to do what you want and simply surrender.

The more that you are willing to accept life for what it is and surrender to the mysteries of the universe and the plans that God (or whatever power you believe in) have for you, the quicker your life will begin to fall into place.

4. Take Time to Be

One of the most important things that you can do to live a life of true purpose and love is to take time each day to simply be.

Don't have any sort of external goals or "to-dos" that you need to accomplish, simply sit with yourself and be.

Surrender to the mystery of your existence and the power of the universe. When you do this consistently, magical things happen.

5. Ask Yourself, "What Would Love Do?"

Whenever you are faced with a situation where you are tempted to get angry or act rashly, ask yourself "What would love do?"

Whenever someone cuts you off in traffic, whenever you have a fight with your girlfriend or wife, whenever your boss acts like a dick, ask yourself "How would love respond to them right now."

I can promise that if you approach life with this mentality, your whole world will change.

Dr. Chris Friesen, Ph.D. is a psychologist who has always been fascinated by what makes people successful.

He is a licensed clinical, forensic, and neuropsychologist that now primarily helps professional, national/Olympic, and up-and-coming elite athletes, as well as other high achievers such as professionals, entrepreneurs, executives, academics, and writers, achieve their personal and professional potential.

He is the author of "Achieve: Find Out Who You Are, What You Really Want, And How To Make It Happen"

"He who has a why can bear almost any how" ~Fredrich Nietzche

1. You Must Have a Strong Why

If you want to succeed in any area of life, you need to have a powerful why to back up your goals.

With a strong enough why, you can push through any challenge, overcome any obstacle, and succeed at any endeavor you set your mind to.

However, if you do not have a strong reason for achieving your goals, your hopes and dreams will be relegated to "someday" and never achieved.

2. You Have to Know Yourself

One of the most important aspects of success is self-knowledge.

If you do not understand what makes you tick and how you can operate at optimal levels, you will constantly be in an internal battle with yourself.

You need to have a deep understanding of your personality and your character so that you can design a lifestyle around yourself and how you work best instead of living a lifestyle designed someone else.

3. You Need to Know What You Value

Once you understand who you are in terms of your personality tendencies, the next step is to understand your values.

You can be highly invested in a career that is perfect for your personality but completely incongruent with your values and you will be miserable.

Take some time and figure out what is truly important to you.

Do you value family, freedom, financial success, happiness, or your social life?

Once you know what you value, your decision making will become automatic and you can easily understand what you need to do to live the most fulfilling life possible.

4. Your Personality is Not Set in Stone

Just because you have a certain personality type does not mean that you cannot make changes to live a life more congruent with your goals.

Your personality is roughly 50% genetic and 50% experiential.

This means that if you expose yourself to the right situations you can change your psychology to work for you instead of against you.

An introvert can become an extrovert, an undisciplined person can become disciplined, someone who does not handle stress well can learn to become calm in intense situations.

You have to approach your personality intentionally and understand that you can make any change you want with enough time and effort.

5. You Need to Expose Yourself to Stress to Succeed

Life can be hard.

Whether you are relentlessly pursuing your goals or sitting back and watching your life fly by, you will still be exposed to stress and challenges.

However, this is a good thing!

The more difficult the life you live, the stronger you will become and the more you will be able to accomplish.

But you have to put yourself in situations that will stretch you and force you to adapt.

Get out of your comfort zone and be willing to face challenges you aren't sure you can overcome.

Ross Jeffries™ is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best-selling book, "The Game", RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve.

"Be interested in your outcome but invested in your skills. In a breakfast of bacon and eggs, the chicken is interested, the pig is invested."

1. If You Want Unfamiliar Results You Need Unfamiliar Action

Everyone knows the old quote from Albert Einstein that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results."

And yet so many of us continue with the same old actions while expecting new outcomes.

If you want unfamiliar results, you have to take unfamiliar actions.

You have to do things that you have never done to get results that you have never gotten.

And that is scary.

But it's the only way to achieve growth. So plug your nose and get ready for the plunge, but realize that you will come out on the other side better and stronger than ever before.

2. You Need to Upgrade Your Operating System

If you are struggling with dating, business, or health, the problem is not in the technique, it's in your operating system.

To achieve uncommon results in life, you need to upgrade yourself and improve the system that you are playing on.

You need to invest in yourself and change the limiting beliefs that are holding you back in life.

3. We are All Humans

Often times, men put women on these pedestals and place them on a platform above them.

But the simple truth is, we are all human.

We all came into this world naked and alone, and we will all leave this world in the same way.

When you approach life wearing these lenses, you see things as they really are.

No one is superior, no one is inferior, we are all the same and we are all headed for the same final destination.

4. Find Something You Are Passionate About

If you fell lost or feel like your life is boring and uninspiring, then you need to find something that you are passionate about.

Find something you love to do and simply do more of it.

It can be music, it can be boxing, it can be talking to girls, building a business, or anything else you want.

It's not important what you are pursuing, just that you are passionate about the pursuit.

5. You Don't Have Knowledge Until You Act

Without action, knowledge is simply information.

You do not have knowledge until you have applied the information that you have learned to achieve some sort of result.

In the world of business and dating, men run around with a lot of information, but very little knowledge.

They know all of the tactics and techniques to improve their dating lives and make millions of dollars, and yet they are still broke and single.

If you want to improve your life in a real and drastic way, then you need to start acting on information.

It is the only path to improvement.

Health Coach, Wellness Author, and Motivational Speaker Michael Tamez, experienced a 15-year health transformation. On his incredible adventure, Michael lost 105 pounds, lowered his blood pressure, and reversed sleep apnea and advanced gum disease. This was all accomplished naturally, without drugs or surgery.

Michael's journey was intensified when he lost 5 family members in the course of 18 months. All of these experiences combined led Michael to discover his true passion in life. He is dedicated to guiding, empowering, and sharing the knowledge and wisdom he has acquired over the course of his lifetime.

Drawing from this incredible health and life transformation, Michael published his award-winning book, Transformative Nutrition: The Ultimate Guide to Healthy and Balanced Living

"To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities" ~Bruce Lee

1. Most Health Problems are Not Physical

The majority of the health problems in the U.S. are not actually physical, they are mental and emotional.

Most people do not smoke, overeat, or lead sedentary lifestyles for purely physical reasons. It is normally because of something in their life that they have not addressed.

It could be a traumatic childhood, a broken relationship, death, or some other struggle you faced when you were younger.

Just like the first step in overcoming addiction is to admit that you have a problem, the first step in overcoming health issues is to admit that you have baggage you have not dealt with.

2. To Lead a Balanced and Healthy Life You Need to Ask the Right Questions

Tony Robbins says that the quality of your life is based on the quality of the questions that you ask yourself.

If you are facing health struggles, you need to ask yourself these three questions to truly uncover the root cause of the issues in your life.

1) What Are You Holding On To?

What happened in your life that you are still angry, depressed, or frustrated with? What are you really holding onto that is holding you back.

2) What is Life trying to Teach You?

How can you reframe the thing that you are holding onto into something good? What is life trying to teach you through that struggle.

3) How Can I Move On?

What steps do you need to take to move on with your life? Who do you need to forgive, what needs to be said, who needs to be removed from your life?

3. You Are Not Your Experiences

So often, whenever we face something difficult in life, we are tempted to identify with that struggle or trauma.

You are NOT your experience.

There is more to you than the abuse, more to you than the breakup, more to you than the failure, more to you than any damn thing that has happened in your life.

Your experiences are a part of your life, but they are not your life.

Never forget that.

4. You Need to Express Your Emotion

As men, society has taught us to repress our emotions, this is one of the reasons for so much of the pain going on in the U.S. today.

You have to express your emotions.

You have to let things go and get them out of your body.

It doesn't matter how you express your emotions, just that you express them.

Life can be difficult, but it is more difficult whenever you hide your feelings from the world and try and pretend that you are not in pain.

5. Create Your Own Opportunities

To hell with circumstances.

Make your own opportunities.

We live in one of the greatest times to be alive in human history. Now more than ever before, you have the chance to make yourself and your life into whatever you want it to be.

Quit bitching about the cards you were dealt and start playing the hand until you win the game.

Elliot S. Weissbluth is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HighTower. His commitment to disrupting the industry in favor of transparency and integrity has driven HighTower's growth since he founded the company in 2007 in the midst of the financial crisis.

The business model he pioneered combines the fiduciary standard for financial advisors with an open-source platform where providers of the industry's top products and solutions compete for HighTower clients' business.

Elliot Weissbluth and HighTower continue to challenge the status quo by bringing transformative ideas and transparent solutions to financial services.

"There is no shortcut to the top" ~Ed Viesturs

1. Ignorance Can be Your Biggest Advantage

Whenever you are getting started in business ignorance and naivety can actually be one of your greatest advantages.

For some people, they do not realize just how difficult business can be and would never get started if they did.

For others, being ignorant about the market and the "right way" to do things allows them to come up with creative solutions to problems that experienced veterans would never have thought of.

Do not see your ignorance as a curse, see it as a blessing. It may very well be the only reason that you succeed.

2. The Key to Managing Stress is Finding the Right Outlets

Life is stressful, business is stressful, and entrepreneurship is really stressful.

If you do not learn how to effectively manage your stressors, you will end up burned out and overwhelmed, utterly unable to continue on the path to success.

You have to learn to effectively mitigate and manage stress through positive outlets or risk failure due to overwhelm.

Whether you enjoy painting, extreme sports, music, time with friends, or just sitting down with a good book, figure out the things that give you energy and recharge your batteries and make time for them every day.

3. Financial Health is Just as Important as Physical Health

You will often hear leaders in the personal development sphere say the phrase "If you don't have your health, you don't have anything" and while this is true, if you do not have financial health, every other area of your life will suffer.

If you are living in a state of financial disease your health, relationships, and spiritual life will suffer, there is no way around it.

One of the predominant reasons for the astronomically high divorce rate in the U.S. is financial stress between spouses.

One of the reasons for the health epidemic is the inability for low-income individuals to afford healthy foods and a reasonable quality of life.

One of the reasons that so few people live the lives of their dreams is because they are too busy trying to survive to figure out what their passions are.

You have to master your physical health, because, without it, everything else in your life will deteriorate.

4. Don't Mistake Achievement and Fulfillment

While financial health is extremely important, do not ever mistake financial achievement (or any other kind of achievement) for fulfillment.

Some of the happiest people in the world only earn $25,000 a year, and some of the most miserable people on the planet are multimillionaires.

You have to shift your focus from achievement to fulfillment.

What makes you come alive, what do you enjoy doing, who do you enjoy being around?

You will only have fulfillment in your life when you can answer these questions honestly and base the rest of your life around them.

5. Go Experience Failure

Growing up, you were told that failure is bad. That it is evil. That it should be avoided.

But the truth is, failure is one of the most valuable tools you have if you wish to become successful.

Go out and fail faster than you have ever failed before. The more you fail, the more you learn, and the more successful you will ultimately become.

Ken Blanchard, PhD, is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world. He has co-authored 60 books, including Raving Fans and Gung Ho! (with Sheldon Bowles). His groundbreaking works have been translated into over 40 languages and their combined sales total more than 21 million copies.

In 2005 he was inducted into Amazon's Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time. The recipient of numerous leadership awards and honors, he is cofounder with his wife, Margie, of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, a leading international training and consulting firm.

"Don't ever use your position, great leaders and great because people love them and trust them, not because they have power" ~

1. Leadership is About Trust Not Power

If you want to be an effective leader, then operate based off of trust, not off of your power.

If you want people to follow you, don't demand that they follow you, get them to follow you because they trust you.

Leadership is based off of trust, and not off of power. You have to build your community of individuals who trust in you and trust your abilities before you will ever be an effective leader.

2. Don't Let Age Define You

Whether you are young or old, you have something to offer the world.

Never let your age determine your ambitions.

If you are young, then use that youth and energy to invest into growing yourself and your dream, if you are older, then use your wisdom to grow your dreams while paying it forward and helping someone else.

There is no time in life whenever you do not have a purpose, never let your age define you.

3. You Need to Keep Yourself Excited

No matter where you are in life, you need to keep yourself excited and stimulate, spiritually, physically, and mentally.

If you are not constantly pushing the envelope on your life and growing yourself in all areas you will live a more rich and fulfilling life.

4. Service is Essential to Fulfillment

You cannot truly live a full life unless you are serving others. Life is empty when it is lived for you.

You have to have some aspect of your life with an element of service. Whether this is starting a non profit, volunteering at your church or with a charity, or just giving 10% of your money to a good cause.

You need to remember that life is bigger than you and act like it.

5. If You Want Something to Go Well Get it Structured

If you want a marriage, business, or even your health to go well, it needs to be well structured.

You have to put systems into place that help you to operate from strengths, eliminate weaknesses, and get perspective on your blind spots. Only with the right systems in place will anything truly be successful.

Yuri Elkaim is a registered holistic nutritionist and renowned fitness expert. For more than 13 years, his honest and inspiring messages have helped more than 500,000 people worldwide enjoy more energy, lose weight, get in great shape, eat healthier, and have a much better understanding of their health.

A former pro soccer player who later acted as the strength and conditioning and nutrition coach for seven seasons at the University of Toronto, Yuri is now on a mission to transform the lives of more than 10 million people by 2018 and would love for you to be one of them.

"Be the change you want to see in the world" ~Ghandi

1. Drink Your Greens

One of the best things that you can do for your health is to start drinking green smoothies or juices.

Whenever you consume vegetables in liquid form, you are able to supercharge your body with vitamins and nutrients because your body is able to more easily absorb greater quantities of vegetables than you would if you ate them whole.

In addition to the obvious benefits of increased vitamin intake, green smoothies help to alkalize your blood which improves energy, reduces your chance of disease, and just makes you feel darn good.

2. JERF (Just Eat Real Food)

The health industry is full of conflicting advice on diet and nutrition, but at the end of the day, it comes down to this.

Just eat real food.

If it grew from the earth or can be hunted for meat, then you are probably good to go.

Stick to real food and let other people worry about the rest.

3. You Have to Reduce Inflammation

One of the biggest reasons for fatigue, health problems, and disease is chronic inflammation in the body.

Luckily, if you know what you are doing, you can drastically reduce inflammation and live a healthier and more vital life than you ever thought possible.

Simply by eating a whole food diet, eliminating junk food, and eating more plants and less animal protein, you will drastically cut back on inflammation and improve your health.

4. You Need to Eliminate As Much Stress as Possible

Stress causes your body to produce cortisol, which produces inflammation, which in turn produces more cortisol, resulting in a vicious cycle of stress and disease.

Sleep at least 6 hours a night, exercise only a few times a week, meditate, clean up your diet, and relax and your body will thank you.

5. Exercise in Moderation

Exercise is fantastic for you, however, it is a form of stress on the body, and the way that most people exercise is too much of a good thing.

If you really want to be healthy then you need to stay active, but limit stressful exercise like weight lifting and cardio to 3-4 times a week.

Aaron Anastasi is the founder and coach of the internationally recognized, Superior Singing Method, an online singing lesson program that grosses seven figures annually.

With over 10,000,000 views and 100,000 subscribers, Aaron has the #1 singing/life lesson channel on YouTube. He is also a prominent life coach for clients in industry-leading roles ranging from film directors to marine biologists to TEDx speakers.

"The inspiration you are waiting for, in order to start, is on the other side of starting"

1. You Have to Get Started

The hardest part of any endeavor, whether it is starting your business, losing 50 lbs. of fat, or marrying the girl of your dreams, is getting started.

Once you have built the momentum and gotten over the fear of failure and vulnerability, things will start to fall into place, but you have to get started!

So plug your nose, and jump into the cold water, years from now, you will look back and be glad that you did.

2. Don't Hold Your Happiness Hostage to Large Goals

Having huge, massive, earth shattering goals is admirable, but it can also be toxic.

You need to have your big goals; a million dollars a year in profit, a New York Times best-selling book, transformed body, or whatever it is, but you cannot allow those big goals to hold your happiness hostage.

Set out towards your dreams with smaller, more managable goals that will allow you to taste the joy of achievement without waiting 10-20 years, and reward yourself for every step you take towards your big goals.

Remember, like Hal Elrod says "Love the life you have, while you create the life of your dreams."

3. Your Beliefs Determine Your Reality

Nothing can sabotage you more quickly and more completely than limiting beliefs.

If you wake up every morning, believing that you are not good enough, that you will never achieve your goals, and that you are unworthy of success, then it is impossible to achieve your dreams.

You have to consciously and actively rewire your brain and your belief systems to serve you and your goals, because if you do not, your beliefs will rewire your life for the worse.

4. Your Rituals Create Your Results

Success is simple, but it is not easy.

If you want that great body, workout every day, count your calories, and sleep 8 hours a night.

If you want a million dollars in your bank account, start your business, set about each day intentionally building on the most important things, and hire experts to help you overcome your weaknesses.

If you want the beautiful wife and the white picket fence, then start getting involved in social activities, talk to more women, and take more risks in your dating life.

Success is nothing but the accumulation of small things done consistently over a log period of time.

5. Feedback Helps You Close the Gaps in Life

If you are not where you want to be in your life right now, then you need to sit down with people you trust and have honest and open conversations about where you are excelling and where you are falling short.

The feedback that you get from others (meaning people who have achieved what you want and who care for you) can give you the knowledge and encouragement you need to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Mike Dillard is an entrepreneur in Austin Texas. He built his first million-dollar business by the age of 27, teaching small business owners how to effectively market their products and services online using "attraction-marketing" strategies.

In 2010 he founded a financial education company in order to teach others how to achieve financial freedom through investment strategies commonly reserved for the wealthy.

Combined, his businesses have produced more than $50 Million in revenue without outside funding.

Today Mike dedicates his time to mentoring other entrepreneurs and developing technologies in the aeroponics industry that will give people around the world access to clean, healthy, organic food at a fraction of today's current prices.

He spends his free time pursuing his passion for auto racing, competing in the Baja 1000, Mint 400, and SCCA.

"Never never stop"

1. Success Comes from You

One of the fallacies that many wantrepreneurs make is that they think success will come from outside of them.

They think that if they find the right vehicle they will be successful but they never realize that the vehicle doesn't matter if the driver sucks.

You have to invest in yourself before you will ever see success in business. You have to master skill sets, understand your personality and how you function, and constantly educate yourself if you ever wish to be successful.

2. You Cannot Use Your Personality Type as an Excuse

Often times in business, entrepreneurs will use their personality type as a crutch.

They say things like "How can I get good at sales if I am an introvert" or "My personality just doesn't let me focus on one thing" or a whole host of other b.s. excuses.

If you want to succeed in entrepreneurship then wake up and realize that your personality type may be an obstacle but it is never a death sentence.

3. Making Money is Only the First Part of Wealth

Many people believe that once you make money you are set. But the truth is that making money is only the first part of the equation for wealth.

If you want to be wealthy you have to learn how to make, keep, and grow your income.

If you earn $1,000,000 a year but spend $1,250,000 then you are not wealthy, you are broke as a joke.

The things that make so many entrepreneurs great at making money, being comfortable with risks, quick decision making, and a "go big or go home" attitude is also what makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs to keep and grow their money.

To grow true wealth, you must temper yourself and learn to exercise the discipline necessary to make smart investment decisions that are not sexy, do not require a lot of risk, and are often base hits instead of home runs.

Entrepreneurship makes terrible financial decision

4. If You Want to be Respected Have Integrity

This applies to all areas of life, not just business.

If you want people to respect you, then be a man of your word, say what you mean and stop lying. Be real and honest with people, don't b.s. them because you are hoping for positive feedback.

Your word is how you are measured as a man, make sure that people see you as a man of integrity.

5. Build Your Life One Brick at a Time

Success in entrepreneurship rarely comes in fast spurts. It comes through building your business one brick at a time, a few bricks a day.

When you wake up each day, focus on 3-5 things that you need to accomplish that will grow your business. After several years of this daily ritual, you will be successful.

Like Charlie Monger said

"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts…. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day–if you live long enough–most people get what they deserve."

Miki Spies is a spiritual coach with powerful and easily applicable teachings. She is an amazing coach and transformational speaker with an enthusiastic message of manifestation.

"Being entirely honest with oneself is an important exercise." ~ Sigmund Freud

1. Great Sex is About Presence

Many men think that great sex is all about technique and stamina, but the truth is, while those may be important, great sex is about presence.

It is about showing up and giving your all, being fully focused and present in each moment.

Great sex is as much a mental and spiritual activity as it is physical.

2. Everything About You is Foreplay

Some men believe that foreplay, like sex, is all about what happens in the bedroom. However, foreplay starts the second that you lay eyes on a woman.

Everything about you is foreplay, from the way that you present yourself, to the interactions you have, to the presence that you show in your conversation.

3. Don't Regret a Damn Thing

Everything that has ever happened up until this very second made you who you are. Don't regret any of it.

The decisions you have made, both bad and good brought you to where you are today and will help to prepare you for what is to come in the future.

Embrace them, don't regret them. Don't waste time wishing to change things that cannot, and should not be changed.

4. Never Settle

If you ever feel that you are settling in a relationship, then you are doing yourself and your woman a disservice. You can never be truly happy when you feel that you are settling and it will affect every other area of your life.

Your work life, health, platonic relationships, and personal development will all stagnate whenever you have a women in your life who you are not passionate about and who does not push you to grow and become a better man.

Do yourself and your woman a favor and end things now.

5. Anticipation is the Key to Success

If you want to truly succeed and stand out with women, you have to learn to master the art of anticipation.

Women are used to men fawning over them, trying to get into their pants on the first date, and trying to escalate much too quickly.

Instead, learn to build the anticipation. Slow things down a little bit, exercise some restraint. Not only will you be able to make better decisions in your relationships, but women will respect and want you even more.

1. The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

https://spiesgirls.com

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