"Careful Littles Ears What You Hear" This familiar line comes from the children’s song many of us learned in Sunday school. The moral is to be careful what we listen to because of how it affects us. Words from outside sources can have a corrupting influence on us. We must be cautious about our auditory intake. 

In a world where customs and beliefs are passed down from generation to generation, we often find ourselves at a crossroads. Do we follow the path paved by tradition, or do we dare to question, seeking the unvarnished truth beneath the surface?

So many people are in such a hurry to succeed that they eagerly take any shortcuts that come their way. In reality, shortcuts usually lead to disappointments rather than quicker success. The key to any long-term success is to take the necessary steps to steadily progress rather than skip any of them. This would be true whether the goals are financial health or relationship-related.

I’ve seen gullible people buy into the many ‘get rich quick’ or ‘lose weight fast’ schemes out there only to find out that none of them work except in relieving you of the money paid for such products or programs.

Is it enough to just read the Cliff Notes in Life? We discuss the choice between cliff notes and a deeper exploration depending on the context of specific situations. For routine, less critical matters cliff notes may suffice, but for important decisions, personal growth, or complex subjects, taking the time to dive deeper is usually more beneficial in the long run.

We all slip up once in a while and that's okay- it's part of being human. One skipped workout or day of bad eating is not going to stop you from reaching your goals. What is important is how you react. If you fall off track, follow these simple steps to get you back to reaching your goals.

Be kind to yourself. Acknowledge what went wrong and accept it without being harsh on yourself. Life happens and we miss workouts and act in ways that don't align with our goals but that don't have to completely derail us.

Don't wait for tomorrow or next week to come. There will always be the excuse of starting tomorrow, but don't let that stop you. Get back up and start today.

Set goals for yourself. Goals are personal to everyone so find what works for you. This could be walking for 10 minutes during your lunch break every day, walking your dog around the blog every night when you get home, or meeting up with a friend to go to your favorite workout class together.

Start small. Setting too high of goals from the get-go often makes us feel defeated. Start off by setting small goals and creating new goals over time. You may have a large overarching goal such as completing a marathon but start off with smaller, more achievable goals like running a 5k to begin.

The term was originally coined to describe a specific type of anxiety and cognitive stress experienced by people whose incomes are below the federal poverty threshold. In a 2017 experiment, researchers found that the distress over not having enough money or resources to get by had a negative effect on people’s mental state. But how? Well, ultimately, they suggested that someone’s hyper-fixation or worry over what they lack could lead to poor decision-making and higher stress.

But a scarcity mindset isn’t always about finances. It’s often applied to other parts of life, too. Who hasn’t stayed up all night wondering what could be improved in their life if they had A, B, or C? Continuous thinking like this can convince someone that their life is truly empty.

Every person is born with a unique set of talents that gives them a special ability to perform certain kinds of tasks easily and yet also make other tasks seem laborious. Knowing what you do best--what your strongest natural talents and abilities are and how you are “hard-wired”--and then finding the work that best fits those talents are fundamental to finding success and fulfillment. This is the basic groundwork of your Personal Vision and is the information you need at each of your career Turning Points as you start to decide what you will do with your life.

“A lot of people think we are creatures of habit but we’re not. We are creatures of the environment.”

The saying "you are a product of your environment" speaks volumes because if you associate yourself with people who don’t have the same drive and motivation to reach their goals, then the percentage of your reaching those goals goes down significantly because you will fall into the same mindset as them. When you associate yourself with people who have the competitive drive and motivation to reach goals as you do, then the likelihood of you reaching your goals goes up significantly.

The definition of toxic masculinity centers on these exaggerated versions of traditional, now archaic masculine traits.

These ideas around what a man should be forcing some people to accept a very narrow view of what it means to be masculine, which can be harmful to those who cannot adhere to these supposed standards.

Moving past toxic masculinity begins with redefining what it means to be a man. Each person should aspire to find a healthy definition of their own individuality and work towards achieving it.

Holding space for others to openly discuss their feelings about the issue may help people reshape their own definitions as well.

When everything has gone wrong, how do you start over?

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it can feel like everything is going wrong. Life just feels bad, maybe even to the point where you want to crawl into bed for the rest of eternity. A much better option, however, is to look for ways to fix your life, start fresh, and maybe even try something new.

Of course, that's easier said than done, especially when things are particularly horrible. Getting yourself out of a minor creative slump, for example, is way easier than picking yourself up after a bad breakup. And yet it can be done. Whether you just want to feel inspired, or you'd like to totally restart your life, it pretty much all starts in the same place.