The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur blog recently featured 199 Ways To Be Happy Fast!

The most important component of success, is a successful attitude.  Duh!  And a successful attitude starts with being happy.  So, let’s get you happy fast.  No pictures, no be preamble, just 199 tips on how to get happy fast.  I mean really fast! Are you happy yet?

Take special note of #168, that one is mine.

Some of more hilarious ones include:

• 2. Dance On The Desk
• 37. A Gratitude Journal
• 50. Paint Your Face
• 84. Make Someone’s Day
• 88. Drop Negative People IMMEDIATELY
• 121. F*** MY LIFE (www.fmylife.com)
• 142. Open a Window and…
• 149. Get Laid…No Really
• 168. Watch the Muppets ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU)
• 171. Blow Bubbles
• 185. Act Like A Kid

If you ever need a pick-me-up, try some of those! (disclaimer – these tips are provided as informational only and are not recommended as medical advice nor are they necessarily the opinion on the author)

Did we miss anything?  What do you do when you need to get happy fast?

Reasons or Excuses?

In order to create success, we need to have a goal.  We need to have a clear picture of where we want to go.  If you’re reading this, I assume that you have one of those.

Once we have that clear picture of where we want to go, we have an important choice to make: Are you going to have a reason, or an excuse?

Finding excuses is easy… and the deceptive thing about excuses is that we usually label them as reasons we can’t.  But let’s be honest… anything that holds you back from making progress is an excuse.  By definition, and excuse is something that allows you to not move forward.  There are no reasons NOT to reach your dreams.  Only excuses.

If the dream you have is strong enough, it doesn’t matter how many excuses there are… you will only need ONE reason to make it happen.  Focus on the reason and nothing will hold you back.

What will you do today to overcome your excuses??

(For the latest news on this subject, check out: SocialMediaAdventure.com)

TOO MANY Friends?

“Do you really know ALL of your facebook friends? There’s NO WAY you have actually met all of those people!”

These are statements I hear often, and it’s understandable considering the fact that I have thousands of facebook & twitter connections. The comments come in many variations, but they are all implying the same thing… those thousands of friends? They aren’t REAL friends….

Rob Harter, co-pilot extraordinnaire

At first I felt guilty for having so many friends, and would have a hard time answering that question. But then, the revelation came. After being asked that question while on a recent road trip, my friend (and co-pilot) Rob Harter reminded me to look at the glass as ‘half full’. My response then became clear: “No, I haven’t met all of them personally… but imagine what a party it would be if I did!” Can you imagine what it would be like to have that many genuine friends? Or better yet, to have them all in the same place at the same time, celebrating our friendship?

And so began the experiment…

I decided to interact with my online friends in a way that I hadn’t attempted before. I sent an update to facebook & twitter accounts via text message, encouraging everyone to communicate with me while I travelled on the road trip. There was a problem though, I wasn’t online while I was driving across the country…

You Gave Out Your Cell Phone On Twitter???

Yes, I started posting my cell phone to facebook and twitter, encouraging people to get in touch with me. Honestly, it didn’t even cross my mind that it wasn’t ‘safe’…after all, these were my friends! And then, something happened, the responses came – FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD! (Canada, USA, Mexico, UK, Indonesia, etc) From people sharing directions when we were lost, to people sending funny jokes or words of encouragement while I was drowsy behind the wheel, there was a community effort and an outpouring of love like I hadn’t felt before.

But The Real Power Was Still To Come!

What I love about Social Media is that it is a steady evolution toward real relationships. Many have argued that technology distances us, but I am optimistic and extremely confident that the evolution of “Web 2.0” is leading us toward creating genuine, authentic and in-person relationships. In fact, I know it…it’s what I experienced.

In a short trip to Toronto, I made more genuine friends than I could have ever imagined. A few highlights include:

'random' friend finds in Starbucks

• Melissa, the ‘random’ friend that showed up at a London, Ontario Starbucks while I was checking my email… (Thanks for the tip!)
• Super Spiritual Girl, a twitter hero of mine! (Follow her for amazing insights and an exciting upcoming announcement)
• Veronica, the angel of a woman who created the video that I have watched near-daily for over a year. (Watch it on my blog if you haven’t already!)
• Cheri Najor, one of the most powerful professional speakers that I have ever witnessed in human form. In a simple bagel store, I was moved emotionally listening to her absolute passion for life and immense love for her son. (see www.kreativnrg.com)
• Many, many, more…  (Sorry I didn’t mention you all, You’ll be in future posts!)

The interesting thing about all of these people, though, is that we had connected online – through social media – and had never met in person. In fact, when we first made the online connection, I doubt that any of us imagined that we would ever meet, or even become great friends!

Now, I have a whole new perspective on life because of my new friends. They have all taught me something that I will carry with me forever.

I also have a new perspective on the internet, social media, and ‘web 2.0’. It isn’t just a fancy way to waste time or a powerful way to make money…it’s a way to promote peace, love and happiness.

What Now?

I am finishing up a book on the power of Social Media, and will use this road trip as a case study. I will include dozens of stories that I couldn’t include here. I will share more on the principles embodied in the social media revolution that will transform the way that businesses operate, and more importantly how we interact with each other as human beings.

I welcome all of your insights, messages, questions and feedback… I will keep you posted on the details and look forward to sharing it with you all, and the world!

UPDATE

The response has been SO POWERFUL from this trip, that I am excited to announce the Social Media Adventure a cross-continent summer trip to demonstrate the power that Social Media has to create genuine & profitable relationships!

Check it out at: www.SocialMediaAdventure.com

I’ve been pondering this question for a while, and I’d love your insight!

On one hand, we are taught to ‘know our outcome’ and move forward in faith to create the future we envision for ourselves.

On the other hand, though, we are taught in other places to live in the present moment, ‘take no thought for tomorrow’ and to remove any emotional attachment to a specific outcome (and thus disappointment).

I’d love to hear your thoughts… whether short or long, profound or simple, experience or theory.  Perhaps in the sharing of ideas we can all help each other grow.

What do you think?

Intrigued by the overwhelming chain of positive events in my life recently, a friend asked me the question: “are you a lucky person?” I answered by saying that I have a personal mantra that ‘only good things happen to me’ – which is an incredibly accurate definition of my life -but still, it got me thinking… Am I lucky?

See, I don’t believe in luck, at least not the way that most people perceive it. I don’t look at luck as just some positive coincidence that blesses our life by accident. At least not for me. In fact, it’s impossible… in Vegas, you can only hit the jackpot a certain number of times before casino security comes tapping your shoulder for cheating. Similarly, I have hit far too many jackpots in life to explain it by being ‘lucky’.

What Luck Really Is

I’ve heard some good definitions of luck that give a better insight to what luck really is:

• Laboring Under Correct Knowledge
• “When Preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca
• “Luck is believing you’re lucky.” – Tennessee Williams

These all give us good insight into why certain people will have good things happen in their lives more often than the average person.

It’s NOT Luck, Though, There’s More…

But those definitions don’t explain why ‘only good things happen to me’. Statistically, luck just doesn’t make the cut. Maybe Serendipity-On-Steroids would be a more appropriate definition than luck, but that still misses a critical element of the equation… me.

A Positive Attitude Only Goes So Far

The first response that I usually get from people when I explain that ‘only good things happen to me’ is that I am just a positive guy. This is true… I definitely fall into the category that most people would refer to as ‘the glass is half full’. Having this type of attitude allows me to see good where most people might overlook it, and thus be more ‘lucky’ by virtue of perception alone.

This is also the element of the equation that is in our control. You’ve heard it said that you can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it. This idea teaches the power of a positive attitude, and of taking responsibility in each situation, but I don’t buy it. Not at all. I don’t believe that “you can’t control what happens to you.”

It doesn’t explain the miracles….

You’ve probably heard the phrase that ‘faith precedes the miracle’. To most people, having a positive attitude is essentially the same as having faith that things will work out okay. But then why are there some many people with ‘faith’ that never experience the miracles… (please, spare me the cop out that it isn’t in God’s will, or it just isn’t in the cards… you were MEANT to live a powerful, miraculous life!)

The reason that people don’t see the miracles intended for them, is that faith is far more than a positive attitude. It’s far more than just believing in things that you can’t see. Faith, in its deepest understanding, is a principle of power. It’s a force that drives us to action…with a complete confidence (not merely a hope) in the outcome. Faith isn’t a mental assertion of a certain belief or particular perspective. It’s something spiritual…

That’s Where The Magic Comes In

Magic is really the product of faith… it’s what happens when we ACT by faith. Magic & Miracle are words we generally use to explain the unexplainable… but to those who take the action steps, the results are not only easily explained, they are often predictable, even calculated. Jesus wasn’t surprised when he walked on water, the Wright Brothers weren’t surprised when they made flight a reality and Edison wasn’t startled when he brought us the light bulb. As excited as each may have been when their respective miracle happened, they knew what the outcome was before they got there.

The missing piece, then, to enable you to live a magical life is action… think big thoughts, get clear pictures of the outcome, and then when the subtle feeling comes to your heard, TAKE ACTION! You don’t need to know how, and you don’t need to know all the steps… just listen to that faint voice that tells you there is a miracle waiting to happen and you’ll see magic every step along the way!

What will you do today to bring a miracle into your life?