How are you making decisions in your life? Every day is an endless stream of decisions and choices. From simple things like, "What we do when we wake up in the morning?", or "What we are going to wear out?". To the difficult things like, "Are we going to stay at this job?", or "How we are we going to deal with this relationship?". Each option taken, road traveled, and person met reinforces our perceptions who we are. Despite this, the question we rarely ask ourselves is, how are we making those choices? By whose standards and what values are we allowing the course of our lives to be directed? Are we in control or is someone else?   “It is said that this manifesto is more than a theory, that it was an incitement. Every idea is an incitement.” - Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr.     We all try to make the best decisions we can with the information we have available. When faced with a question that is too hard, it’s easy to take actions that go against the values we hold most important and true to ourselves. This results in acting opposingly to our values, leading to a catastrophic string of events. First, we begin to question little choices. The infinite number of inconsequential things we decide every day. It's easy to find little things to regret if your brain is tuned into trying. Slowly your confidence is being torn down, until your brain starts associating all the small decisions and regrets to a bigger one. If there's no correction this pattern spreads to as many areas of your life as you let it.  Eventually, your motivation is hit hard because without confidence in your decisions you're best course of action will be to play it safe. Ultimately the death of any productivity isn't far behind. It's a terrible cycle that can remove any control you feel over your life. If this sounds like you, a manifesto can help take it back! What is a manifesto? A manifesto is the physical declaration of values and intents that are important to us. They summarize how we measure and so make all the big and little decisions that shape our lives. At it’s a core it’s purpose is to help us focus on what’s important and what’s honest. A manifesto acts as a compass to your personal true north! Why have a manifesto? What if... no matter what happens in life, you could feel confident in every decision you make? What if… you could feel proud of how you handle every situation, no matter how bad it was? This is the power of a manifesto! This simple tool gives us the power to assess any decision laid at our feet, large or small. It's direct, immediate, and in alignment with our values. The truth is failing anything is difficult on the mind. Yet, the impact of any failure is way less intense when we act in a way that is true to ourselves and our values. Even achievements come with a price if the choices that lead to the win goes against our values. They can often feel cheap, undeserved, or even guilt-inducing. In this way the results only matter if the way you achieved them, good or bad. If acting against your values creates a waterfall of negative emotions, regardless of the results. Then acting in alignment with your values can create a fountain of positive emotion, regardless of the results. How to Build a Manifesto A manifesto should be filled with phrases that have deep meaning for you and summarize values you hold true. The more important the value a phrase represents, to you, the more visible it should be. If there are particular values you want to have, but struggle to maintain. Those can also be valuable to highlight in some way. You can find inspiration for a manifesto almost anywhere. It could be a favorite quote from a book, a famous line from one of your favorite movies. It could be a song lyric or something a relative used to say to you. The more concise and the more deeply it resonates with you. The more powerful your manifesto will be. There's lots of value looking at what a role model uses in their manifesto. Even if they don't call it that, anything that guides their decision making, that is a phrase or idea they conjure up when they are challenged. It is a part of their manifesto. As with any other habits, or strategies if their manifesto speaks to you. Make them manifesto your own and utilize the powerful ideals that made them successful! How to Use the Manifesto A manifesto is meant to be seen! It’s meant to inspire you, so the first thing you want to do is find a place in your home or office where you go often, either to work, to think, or where you clear your head. It should be high traffic and high visibility area. Many businesses will place these at entrances or down main halls to the snack room. Take stock of your day and the places you visit the most (high traffic) and rate your level of need for inspiration or motivation when there (high visibility). The only wrong place you can put it is somewhere you only see it once or twice a day. Where it’s just another decoration that fades into the background. Finally, you have to use your manifesto! Remember that each decision counts, how you do anything is how you do everything. Once you have a manifesto you believe in, use it to guide your choices and actions. If you find that something doesn't serve you the way you thought it would- mix it up! Don't expect that a manifesto will last your entire life and never change, be flexible, adjust to your changing needs and wants. Just always be honest with yourself! BestSelf.co Manifesto- Assessment See how a Manifesto can inspire you with our Quiz! Let the BestSelf.co Manifesto serve you up some motivation right now! powered by Typeform

What would you stand up and speak for? These TED talks are some of the most mesmerizing and entertaining from the stage. They also express incredible ideas that can have a lasting impact on how we see the world and how we live our lives. These talks show us the art behind the absurd, the possibility of what you can do if you believe in yourself. How changing perceptions opens us up to possibilities that help us grow, understand, and even forgive.   From personal identity to assumptions we make about people, and even our inspirations. Hetain Patel and Yuyu Rau show us we are not so easy to categorize. We are a made by those who came before us, the experiences we have, and the aspirations of what we want to be. The journey can be absurd, as we change and as we grow. The encounters with different people, with different viewpoints, become who we are. The mistakes we make are not something we do, but a part of who we are. Serving us as an integral stage in our journey to become our most honest selves. Grab your Journal! Check your assumptions, particularly if they create a viewpoint that closes you off. When you find yourself pushing something away write down what you’re thinking. Ask yourself why you are thinking that way. Is this way of thinking serving you, or creating a wall that’s blocking you from an opportunity to grow? Do this and see where this newfound openness to experience takes you. See how expanding yourself makes things that might have seemed impossible before, easier. See how new insights and perspectives can make an old weakness into a new strength.   We can often underestimate small things. We can even criticize or diminish what doesn't seem to have a place of importance in the wider realm of society. Black shows us embracing your passion, no matter how inconsequential it might seem, is critical to finding fulfillment. Passion meaning the acceptance of what puts a smile on your face, of what makes the troubles of the world fall away. Maybe you were told you could never get a job doing something. Maybe you were made fun of because you liked it. Maybe you pursued it, achieved, but didn't get the recognition you were hoping for. All this back and forth distracts from what's important about doing something you love, no matter how small or ridiculous it might seem. What is important is that you love it and when you do it you are more yourself than any other time. Grab your Journal! Write down a list of things you love to do. It doesn't matter how small or inconsequential they might seem. It doesn't matter if you can get paid to do it, it only matters if you love to do it. Pick one thing. The thing you love to do the most on your list, then schedule some time for yourself wherever you can. Then do that thing, every day. No matter what. Do this for you and see how embracing doing something you love regardless of others. Gives you a stronger sense of control and a level of fulfillment that only comes from inside yourself.   We have an incredible need to be assured in our perceptions of what's around us. Apollo Robbins challenges us by exploiting perception and teaching us a valuable lesson. He shows what we can miss if we allow what we think we know to control how we see the world. The need to feel like our perceptions are infallible comes from a desire to protect ourselves. Whether that's because it provides us a sense of safety in the world around us, or that it gives us confidence what we are doing is right. We need our perceptions to be right because that is our model of the world. Unfortunately, being assured in this way comes at a cost. An inability to see opportunities that are right in front of you. This happens because perceptions come with filters. It's a core piece of how they function. So much that if we aren't paying attention, we could be taken advantage of and lose out on what's most important to us. Our perception is our focus. When we focus on something unimportant to us, our perception filter takes over. We start to see everything in the way we've set our perception to view it. Visual perception, mental perception, it works the same. How are your perceptions serving you, or hurting you? Are you losing out on what's important because you're focused on something unimportant? Grab your Journal! Take a look at your goals and your daily schedule. How are you spending your time? Why are you spending it that way? Are you accomplishing what you want, or is something distracting you? Are other things taking priority, or does the goal not feel important? Check your perceptions, for the reasons you've written down. Ask yourself one powerful question as many times as you need to- Why do you think that?   Do this and you'll find a host of perceptions that are automatic responses only serving to hold you back. You'll also find plenty of perceptions that do serve you in your pursuit of your goals. Associate the helpful perceptions with a goal, and remove them from your identity as a person. In this way, once you complete the goal your perception will go with it. Leaving room for your new goal and new perceptions that will continue to serve you. This will diminish false starts. Because when your intent and your perceptions are in sync, the ability to persist is the by-product. We each have our own unique challenges in life, but the mistake we make is putting too much importance on what does or doesn't define us. Derek Paravicini and Adam Ockelford show us incredible things are possible when we allow pure chance to lead us. When we open ourselves up to the incredible insights we can glean in support of each other amazing things happen. So many desires in life come with a prerequisite list of what's needed to achieve something. Patterns exist for a reason and it's not unreasonable to follow a pattern that lead to success once. It can lead to success again, but when we start to see that as the only way to achieve success. This is when we can miss the incredible. There's not one right way to live your life. There's not one right way to learn an instrument. There's not one right way to lose weight. There's not one right way to get a job. It's important that we research and understand the patterns that exists. We should have a list of possibilities for how to solve a problem. This is a foundation, a solid piece we put down to build on top of. The laws and rules we must adhere to if we want to build our own home. The thing to recognize is sometimes you don't have a solid flat ground to build on. There are slopes and waterways, but we can adjust, and what you can create once a foundation is set- is limitless. Grab your Journal! Challenge yourself to do something you have always said you can't do. It doesn't have to be huge, or life-altering. Maybe you think you could never solve a Rubik's cube. Go buy one, watch a video on youtube, and do it. Maybe you think you could never walk up to a complete stranger and say, hi. Go outside right now and ask a random person how their day is going. Look at your work, your life, your home. What are you not doing because everything isn't in the right place? Because you don't have the knowledge, skills, or the talent? Try it anyway, and see what happens!   Do this and you'll find that the little checkboxes see as must have, actually have no real significance to do it. Take that tiny bit of insight and apply it to your biggest problems. Throw out the checkbox that's keeping you from doing something important. Skip it, and see what happens. You never know what you are capable of until you try! The mistakes we make in life can hit hard. Some of us make huge mistakes and have to pay for them with our most precious resource- time. John Legend and James Cavitt show us the personification of what paying this kind of debt looks like. How we all come from different walks of life, but the punishment we inflict on ourselves is sometimes worse than any other. We all make mistakes, but no matter the size or impact they can still feel insurmountable if we let them. We punish ourselves without remorse particularly if we don't show others forgiveness. It's this self-inflicted punishment more than anything else that tears away our hope. It makes forgiveness seem impossible, and leads us down a path of one mistake after another. It's a cycle that leads us to decide mistakes are part of our identity. We become our worst mistakes, but the truth is we aren't those things. Whether it's your mistake or someone else's we have to learn to forgive others and so ourselves. There's no trick to this, there's no making the mistake go away. There's just accepting. Accept what you did, the effect it had, that it was a mistake, and it doesn't define you. It can feel like the mistake is the only thing that matters, but it isn't that it happened, it's what you do after. Grab your Journal! Whatever mistake you've made, that you've been punishing yourself for. It's time to forgive yourself. If what you've done lead to one mistake after another. It's time to forgive yourself, for everything. It's time to take the step forward and to decide to do better, right now! That doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. That doesn't mean that you won't make the same mistakes you've been making. It means you won't make them because you think you deserve it, or because you think it's who you are. Do this and little by little, then by a lot. You will start to do better. You will start to have more moments you can be proud of, than ashamed. Life won't seem so hard because you'll put down some of that weight from all the blame and guilt you've acquired. The burdens it feels like you have to carry, and instead of feeling tired, sad, and overwhelmed. You can reclaim the energy, perspective, and hope you need to pick yourself back up. Maybe even lift up a few others along the way. If you are going to give away your precious time as a punishment. Then use it to make a difference outside of yourself and not to knock yourself down.

What lesson did you learn today? Every day we have countless experiences. The activities we engage in, people we talk to, and feelings we have are all opportunities for growth. These lessons can be hard to see, and even if we do see them, it can be hard to distill into a single actionable idea. Finding the deeper meaning can feel like the jurisdiction of deep thinkers, visionaries, authors, or philosophers. But the ability to glean insight, even from the most mundane situations, is something anyone can do. It doesn't require unparalleled creativity. All it takes is a properly inquisitive mindset and the right questions. "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein Preparing Your Mindset In order to glean insight from these questions, we need to be in a Skeptical Mindset. Meaning we should remove all bias, feelings, or preconceived notions from the picture. What we want to look for is what's objectively benefiting us or hindering us. What this means from a practical standpoint is that when we look at our day, the people in it, the events that occurred, and the feelings we have. Our instinctual and immediate responses should be promptly discarded. Why? Because this is our brain engaging in it's normal but least critical pattern response. These ideas are not newly formed, even if it feels like they in direct response to a current event. Newly formed ideas cannot happen until after we've engaged the brain after these automatic responses have been removed. So take a moment let your auto response engage, discard those conclusions, and you'll be ready to engage in our 10 questions. 10 Questions to Lessons Learned Select an event that occurred in your day. It doesn't matter what it is, good or bad, big or small. As you answer questions 2-10 below, always follow your response up with question. Is this what you want, and if not what can you do to make it more in line with what's desired? How did the event make you feel? What did you do in response to this feeling? Did you intentionally think about your response, or was it automatic? Did you have a goal or an intent going into the event? Were you successful or did something get in your way? What will you do now that the event is over? Will anything follow from this event? How often does this event occur? Can you do anything to make your desired result for this event more likely and repeatable? With the right mindset and these 10 questions, we can see past the filter our mind creates. We can start realizing the steps to take for improving our daily results and finally get what we really want. These questions aren't the only questions, they are just some you can use until you become practiced enough to develop your own. When you do, we would love to hear what your questions are!

There’s no way to sugarcoat the heartbreaking, stomach-dropping feeling we get when we fail at something big. Especially when it’s something we’re deeply passionate about. Something we believed in wholeheartedly. Something that we gave our time, sleep, money and souls for. What’s worse is living in an age where everyone seems to be boasting about their success. On Instagram, we see thousands of people who seem to be effortlessly moving from one successful project to the next, and doing so with ease. Failure can leave some people terrified to take another shot in the dark, and some never do. Their failure becomes the end. Despite how embarrassed and heartbroken you may feel, failure means you tried to create something bigger than yourself. Something that challenged you and pushed you to your limits. Maybe you just didn’t have what it took to pull it off this time. But you’re a hell of a lot closer than when you started. Photo Credit: Anthony Tran Failure isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning. You’ll recover, but it may take some time. We’ve faced some devastating failures in the past too. But we’ve found that doing at least one of these five things helped a lot in getting past it & moving on: 1.  Let it all out. When failure feels so big, it can be hard to share your thoughts and fears with those around you. You’re going to want time — time to step away from your project and sleep your days away. That’s fine and it’s OK to feel bad but you’ll also need time to vent. This is where journaling comes in. There’s something therapeutic about journaling. Write down everything on your mind: your fears, where you went wrong, what you hated, and what you loved. You’ll find that once you write everything down, you’ll start remembering the good parts: the things that you enjoyed doing, what you can’t give up doing despite the end of this project. Writing everything down will give you a clearer mind. It’ll help you better understand your train of thought, what the problems were and where you think you can go from here. 2. Exercise You’ll instinctively want to curl up and hide in your bed or on the sofa. Failure makes us feel stuck and paralyzed. We feel scared and powerless so we freeze up and stay still. But at some point, you’ll need to get up and move. This is why we need exercise more than ever during this time. Exercise boosts our mood and alleviate our anxiety. It’s a form of distraction we desperately need when we experience failure. As we push our body, exercise allows our mind to wander, to sift through our other options and come up with new ideas in an organic way. 3. Reflect on your failure Once you’ve vented in your journal and through exercise, you’ll find it easier to reflect on your failure. It’s important to reflect on what went wrong but not to dwell on it. If you’re dwelling, you’re going to interpret these mistakes as a personal failure which will lead to “self-doubt and stress [to] activate and strengthen your brain's involuntary, reactive neural networks. As these circuits become the automatic go-to networks, the brain is less successful in problem-solving and emotional control,” neurologist Judy Willis explains. In other words, you won’t be able to think clearly about your next plan. Don’t just reflect on your failure during this time but read about the failures of some of the most famous people in history to remind yourself that failure is part of the equation to success. Photo Credit: Neven Krcmarek 4. Make a plan. Focus on your future by setting up a new plan. You now know what went wrong before, so you’re better armed. Ask yourself what your goals are now. What you want to avoid doing. How you can make things better than before. Build a stronger skeletal framework, establish big goals and break everything down into smaller steps. 5.  Start small. The first few steps back into the game will have you feeling wary so start small. Tackle small goals first to earn those small wins and get stronger with each goal accomplished. Failure has armed you to take on a new challenge. What other option is there to getting back up again? Go through these 5 steps and we guarantee you won’t regret it. Because you know what’s worse than failure? It’s looking back on your life 20, 40, 50 years from now and knowing you gave up out of fear. Whether it’s the fear of failing again, looking pathetic in the eyes of others, or of standing out, it’s fear nonetheless. It’s hard to do something different. It really is. It can be lonely and frustrating at times, but ask yourself, do you want to be 80 years old, knowing that you have chosen to blend in with everybody else because you were too scared to fail again?

We’ve all heard of meditation. It’s when you’re supposed to sit really still and not think about anything for an appointed amount of time (easy right?), but is it worth it? How do we know if we’re even doing it properly? If you’re like us, you’re probably a bit skeptical. Why should I meditate? What’s the big deal? For us, meditation seemed to come up over and over again from people we trusted so we decided to find out once and for all. History of Meditation The practice of meditation (Latin for “to ponder”) has been around for over a thousand years, originating from India. In Hindu tradition, the Vedas (an ancient Indian scripture) discusses the importance of meditation for spiritual enlightenment. Religious scholars would read sacred text and use meditation as a period of thinking and reflection. It didn’t take long for Buddhists and Taoists in China to adopt the practice as well. Slowly, yet surely, other religions and parts of Europe caught on. With the influence of yoga spreading into the western world (which became popular in the 60’s), meditation became less about spiritual enlightenment and more about relaxation, inner focus, and self-improvement; until it evolved into the practice we’re all familiar with today. It’s noticeable that some of the most successful people in the world, such as Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and even Kobe Bryant, all practice the art of meditation. How Will Meditation Help My Body? Photo Credit: julie-smith.net There have been countless studies showing the health benefits of meditation. Not only does it help nurture you physically, but it also improves your mental health. According to an article in HeadSpace, meditation can help reduce: • Stress• Anxiety• Depression• Sleep• Relationships• Cognition The research was done in Belgium involving five schools with 400 students ranging from 13-20 years old. After six months, students reported reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. As for the physical benefits, a study done by Harvard University Medical School, Meditation also helps: • Lower blood pressure• Improved blood circulation• Lower heart rate• Less perspiration• Slower respiratory rate• Lower blood cortisol levels• More feelings of well-being Meditation focuses on the most important aspect of our bodies: breath. Without air, we cease to exist. When we meditate, we’re helping our mind and body come back to its center. All the distraction, cares, and worries are set aside and our minds can return to a sense of clarity and calmness. We’re giving our body, and more importantly, our mind, a chance to recharge and refuel before we jump back into the chaos of everyday life. How Will Meditation Help At Work? No one is safe from the stress of a busy work environment. From deadlines, to difficult bosses, to faulty computer systems, it can get pretty overwhelming pretty fast. So how do you bring yourself back to your center? Those who practice meditation, often bring their healthy habits into their workplace. When you find you’re getting overwhelmed or stressed out, step away from your desk and find a quiet spot to close your eyes and breathe. It’ll bring down your heart rate, balance your blood pressure, and clear your mind so you can focus again. According to Eoc Institute, meditation “can give many the opportunity to increase problem solving skills, and think creatively ‘outside the box’ instead of analyzing problems in the same, drab, and routinely predictable way you have always done”. Meditation is a tool to quiet your mind and calm your body. With it, you’ll be able to handle stressful situations and critical thinking opportunities with more ease and perform at a higher level. How to Meditate Photo Credit: julie-smith.net Now that you know where it came from, you’re ready to give it a try: • Select a time of day where you’ll be able to devote a few minutes to meditate without being disturbed.• Wear comfortable clothing• When you’re ready to begin, silence your cell phone and lie or sit in a comfortable position. (A popular meditation pose is the Lotus position where your legs are cross-legged and each foot is placed on opposing thighs with your hands lying open. If this is not comfortable for you, change positions. Being uncomfortable is distracting!)• Close your eyes• Breathe naturally.• As you inhale and exhale, focus your mind on the movement of your shoulders, your chest, and rib cage.• If your mind wanders, bring it back to your breathing.• Do this for just a few minutes and gradually increase it as you become more comfortable with meditation. Quieting your mind can seem like an impossible task, but with practice, you can master it. The late Steve Jobs was a big believer in meditation and we love this quote from his biography: “If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.” Once you’ve harnessed the power of calming your mind and relaxing your body, you’ll begin reaping the healthy benefits of this powerful practice. Conclusion We never recommend tools or practices we don’t try ourselves. Both Cathryn and I (Allen) practice meditation daily as part of our morning routines. Busy lifestyles are a part of life, but creating time for our mind to unwind makes our mornings better and our days more productive. Your stress won’t be erased the moment you begin to meditate, but you’ll be giving yourself the tools to handle and fend of stress better in the long run. While meditation is tough when you’re just starting out, eventually your mind will find a sense of calm among chaos. You’ll find that you’re calm in moments when you normally would panic. You’ll find that you’ll be able to think clearly and creatively to handle problems you would have found tough before. And when life just gets to be a bit too much, you have a tool to deal with it. Steal a quiet moment and meditate.

Exercise trends come and go before we have time to master the new workout. Yet, the one trend that never dies is exercise for success. When we’re focused on our goals we can find it difficult to do anything else. We could be focusing on our dream job, an important project or our start-up. When this happens, we can start believing that we don’t have the time. We could blame the deadlines or the fact that we don’t want to get distracted. What’s interesting is how some of the most successful people in the world make time for exercise. These are people who manage multi-million dollar corporations. This fact reinforces the importance of exercise for success. Moreover, it makes us question our time because if these people can find time to workout, then we can too. The health benefits we get to enjoy through exercise make a strong case. Yet, there are other reasons why exercise is essential, ones that can lead you to a successful career. Exercise leads to cognitive benefits A research study on the immediate benefits of exercise has shown how it leads to cognitive benefits. Some of these benefits include sharper memory and better concentration. Others include a higher sense of creativity and a faster approach to learning. A stronger mental stamina was also recorded. These qualities can only add to higher success when you are focusing on work. Exercise leads to more focus and alertness A study by Jim McKenna showed participants reporting better work performance after a workout. The participants showed higher mental alertness and a higher ability for time management. These benefits were a result of exercise increasing the blood flow to the brain. Thus, making the participants more aware. Exercise can lead to groundbreaking ideas It can be a powerful thing to let your mind wander. This is how Jack Dorsey came up with the idea of Twitter. Dorsey was in a playground with his mind at ease when he came up with the idea for his social media phenomenon. The physical activity of exercise can lead you to break new ground in your work. This is because your body is moving but your mind is left to wander from one thought to the other. Exercise can help you solve problems. It can even have you come up with an innovative solution that could lead you to a higher level of success. Exercise will change your mood Exercise releases endorphins. As it boosts your mood, exercise will give you the motivation to keep pushing even when you face difficult career roadblocks. A better mood can make you the ideal motivator in the workplace. Whether you are the boss or part of the team, you can be the one to raise spirits and keep up the momentum towards success. Moreover, exercise will ease tension in the face and in your muscles. It is a natural way to ease anxiety, stress and even mild depression. It is the way for you to avoid meltdowns, no matter how overwhelming the pressure gets. Exercise will give you more energy It sounds contradicting, we know. Nonetheless, exercise does give you a boost of energy. When you need all the time in the day to get closer to your goals, having energy isn’t only important, it’s essential. Some of the busiest, most successful people in the world exercise Barack Obama works out six days a week. Arianna Huffington does yoga and meditation. Vogue’s Anna Wintour plays tennis every morning. Richard Branson surfs, swims or plays tennis before work. These people, and many other successful figures, choose exercise, despite their busy days. They have realized that it’s not only essential for their health but also for their success. Exercise to achieve goals by focusing on mastery Let these successful people inspire you. Start looking at exercise as an investment for your success. This way, you can have a stronger reason to choose exercise even when you are busy. Focus on mastering the exercise. The Harvard Business Review reports how choosing to master goals during a workout will see you succeeding in your fitness regime. You can do this by hiring a coach. You can enroll in a class or by investing in the right equipment. When you achieve your exercise goals, then you already know that you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. This is the best affirmation you can hold on to, to achieve success in work and in life.