Emotions & Happiness

25 Mar

Posted at 21:32h in Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness, Simplicity by

discovering paradise

$1,000,000 in the bank isn't the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.

― Timothy Ferriss

Today I want to tell you a 250 word story that changed my view of the world. But first I have to let you in on a little secret...

How Average People Can Feel and Live Like Millionaires

This morning I woke up to what I've decided is the most breathtaking morning view of my life. I'm writing from the deck of a modest thatched roof bungalow  set over a small soft sandy beach cove on the Island of Koh Lanta, Thailand. The hotel, if you can call it that, is aptly named 'Relax Bay.' Yesterday we upgraded to a 'VIP' room with air conditioning (last night had no AC, which made for a tough 85-degree high humidity night…). It's the only room in this cove that is actually on the sand. We have a full view of the private turquoise bay from our deck, where a nice little hammock also hangs.

The remote office

The real kicker? This experience cost me nothing...

19 Feb

Posted at 23:53h in Communication & Rapport, Emotions & Happiness, Love & Relationships by

Create Immediate Trust with Anyone

The Magic of Creating Trust

To be honest, I've been a tad terrified to write this post for almost a week. Mainly because, after much convincing from some of our CWA graduates, I've agreed to publish one of the most embarrassing videos I've ever filmed (at end of this post). But today is not about me. It's about you. About being YOU. About us being US.

The Fastest Way to Kill Trust & Have a Miserable Life

Trust is the foundation of everything meaningful. It takes a lifetime to build and an instant to crush. Without it you have no business. You have no friendship. You have no marriage. You have, well...nothing. But every day so many people act in a way that's consistent with sabotaging any chance of creating the genuine trusting connections that make life matter. How, you ask?

28 Nov

Posted at 13:52h in Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy!, Love & Relationships by

live to see your children grow up

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

- Charles C. Noble

Many of us just got finished with possibly the most unhealthy (and fun) day of the year in an American's life - Thanksgiving. And we are all about to dive into the most unhealthy few weeks of everyone's year - the holidays. I couldn't imagine a better time to talk about the most powerful habit on the planet...

The One Habit That Will Get You Anything You Want

I believe health & fitness are the most powerful tools in the world. I guess I'm kind of fanatical when it comes to the body... Three weeks ago I attended a TEDxSF UCSF conference on Global Health. It's so mind blowing and encouraging to see how many bad ass, smart, talented and motivated people are tackling such a huge problem. Then two weeks ago I went on a run with world-champion ultra-runner Scott Jurek, author of the book Eat & Run, which was damn inspiring. In two weeks, I'll be running our second-annual Accidental Marathon with a few close buddies. It's why I attempt all kinds of fitness challenges like running an ultra-marathon in Tahoe, doing 31 days of Bikram hot yoga in a row, swimming from Alcatraz and across the Golden Gate Bridge and the 12-hour Goruck Challenge.

05 Jun

Posted at 18:34h in Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy! by

how to push limits goruck

"If we don't push you to your mental and physical edge, then we have failed you." - Goruck Challenge Cadre, June 2nd, 2012, 9:15 pm, on a cold and windy San Francisco night

The Testing (and Disproving) of Limits

The people who do work that matters, the Living Legends who impact the world, all have at least one trait in common. They push limits. And it's not some chore they force themselves to do every once in a while just to get where they want to go. Not even close. It's something they do daily, in one way or another, big or small.

It's a fundamental part of how they operate.

Last Saturday night around 9 pm I found myself standing in a dark wet field in San Francisco's Presidio. The air temperature was just under 50 degrees (before factoring in the 30-40 mph wind and blanket of myst typical of my lovely hometown). I was wearing a headlamp and a 47-pound backpack. Seven close friends were standing next to me, along with a couple LYL readers (who heard about the event through my Richard Branson fitness post). There were also about 80 more of us I'd yet to meet. Then, as if on queue, the sprinklers came on. The timing could not have been worse (or better, depending on who you asked)…

07 Mar

Posted at 13:15h in Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness by

i hate my job

"If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got."

-Mark Twain

Let's talk about why people keep doing work they hate.

By now I'm sure you know the terrifying stat: Over 80% of people don't enjoy their work and nearly 75% don't know their passion.  These two numbers kill me. But thanks to our work here at Live Your Legend, it's getting better by the day (congrats to so many of you who've made massive change - it's not easy, but I bet it was worth it)! But for the rest of the world, it's crazy to think that so many people are willing continue to act in a way that doesn't make them happy. And trust me, by now I feel like I've seen it all...yet I continue to be surprised.

28 Dec

Posted at 11:36h in Emotions & Happiness, Life on Your Terms Interviews by

Lori Deschene Tiny Buddha

"Happiness isn't getting everything you want. It's appreciating what you have and staying open to the limitless possibilities before you."

~Lori Deschene, author of Tiny Buddha

*Important note: Be sure to read to the end to have a chance to win a free copy of Lori Deschene's newest book: Tiny Buddha - Simple Wisdom for Life's Hard Questions. Take 20 seconds to tell us one of your hardest life questions in the comments and you'll be entered to win. If you're reading this in email, I suggest you click here to read it on the site to participate. *****

Creating Happiness

A few years ago a struggling writer and someone a tad bit lost in the world, decided she was going to take to the online world to see if she could both get some help and offer what help she could to others. She first started a simple Twitter account where she posted a quote a day. Something inspiring about happiness, purpose, embracing fear, love and all else. Just a few words a day. But she did it every day. Fast forward to today and that Twitter account now has over 241,000 followers. Her Facebook page has over 72,000 fans. It turned out she wasn't the only one struggling with these big topics. A couple years ago she also created a website and blog, called Tiny Buddha, as a place to write deeper articles to further explore our biggest challenges.

When you help people, interesting things happen...

Her site now serves as a virtual lighthouse for those of us (all of us, really) who need a little direction. There are hundreds of contributors (I've even been fortunate enough to write a few articles for her). And it's a damn bright lighthouse at that. Since the day Tiny Buddha went live, the site as received 8.5 million visits and 16 million page views. To put that into perspective, that is in the absolute top tier of all websites on the planet. People from every country in the world routinely visit the site, and her following is now over 300,000 people strong. The amazing thing is that none of this existed a few years ago. Before then no one had heard of Lori Deschene or Tiny Buddha.

26 Oct

Posted at 05:00h in Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness by

Dream Career

"With the right tools, anything's possible..."

As it turns out Live Your Legend is not the only website out there looking to help people do work they love (who would have thought?!). In fact, this site would not exist if it wasn't for many of the other sites out there that have inspired, taught and helped me along on my journey and my thinking. Live Your Legend is the sum of the sites, books, tools, experiments, case studies and people I've talked to over the years. That's how I found my passion. I've spent a ton of time digging through what I've found to be the very best resources in all of the internet for finding your dream career. This is meant to be your master resource. Bookmark it and come back as you see fit. In fact a number of the folks who run these sites are among the Expert Interviews and Case Studies as part of the How To Live Off Your Passion guide. The sites below are in no particular order aside from the fact that the first group of sites are run by people I know and who have personally inspired me. Then I've listed other highly ranked resources further down. These folks are all part of the revolution and I thank them for that. Together we are changing the world.

The Top 101 Online Resources for Finding Your Dream Job

Sites I've used and have inspired me:

1. PurposeFinder by Jullien Gordon Keynote speaker at over 60 college campuses around the country and implementing programs to help students find passion and purpose. Coach and author of 5 books on the topic. 2. She Creates Change by Suparna Bhasin Site, books and coaching service dedicated to women finding their passion and purpose. 3. Why University by Simon Sinek  Author of “Start With Why” and companion site for the book dedicated to finding meaning and purpose behind the work you do and how to use it to influence and change the world. 4. Job Hunter's Bible by Dick Bolles The companion site for 30 year+ best seller "What Color is Your Parachute".

05 Oct

Posted at 05:00h in Book Summaries, Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness by

Conquer Fear

"Ninety percent of life is just showing up."

~ Woody Allen

About a year ago I sat down for tea with a friend and mentor of mine, Mary Jaksch, co-founder of A-List Blogging Bootcamps and Good Life Zen. I was ecstatic. Thanks to what I had learned (and diligently applied) from her and Leo Baubauta via their friendship and their blogging club, my business had grown by nearly 1,300% in the previous nine months. I had arranged time to meet with Mary because I wanted to talk about what was next - my big plans for the year to come. This is something I routinely practice with all my models in any space that I'm passionate about improving. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I prefer to seek out the folks that can teach me how to roll the one that already works perfectly well. As we were chatting ideas and next steps, we got to talking about pitfalls and things to watch out for in the business. I wanted to make sure I didn't run into any easily-avoidable brick walls... Then Mary looked over to me and said, "Scott, there is one thing over all others that's the biggest risk to your online career at your stage. Do you know what it is?" I was all ears...

17 Aug

Posted at 05:00h in Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness by

 "Every man must know when it's time to move on."

-Unknown

How do you know when it's time to quit?

More than anything, when I talk to readers, clients and friends about their careers, the biggest challenge they face is figuring out when you know it's time to leave. For many, it's so hard to know when to jump or if you should at all. So much so, they get paralyzed.  Do you ever wonder if the work you're doing, the career you have, the way you spend 75% of every day, is worth your time? Ever curious if there's something else that would fire you up a bit more? Well I think I have the answer.

Let's start with a personal story.

Four years ago my wife quit her career in corporate PR to pursue her passion for yoga, fitness and nutrition. She went off and got certified to teach yoga, do personal training and started teaching folks about what to put into their bodies through her classes and blog (for the health nuts out there, you gotta check out here vegetarian/vegan cooking and recipe blog, Food-LifeBalance. I'm her dedicated taste tester and definitely not complaining ;)). She also recently got a sweet gig helping a fellow Living Legend and fitness fanatic manage a chain of workout studios. Last night we went out to celebrate (Congrats Chelsea!). As we drove she remembered back to her couple years in the PR industry. She vividly recalled that she always knew she never wanted to have her boss's life. It was nothing against her superiors (who were actually great people), but for whatever reason, she just never wanted to be in those shoes. Fast forward a couple years, and one massive career shift later, she noticed that from day one teaching at her new fitness studio, she found herself admiring her boss and the role she had - inspired by the responsibility she was given, the way she got to help people and her genuine excitement for what she was doing. Two years later my wife has just about that same role and it's appearing to be everything she imagined. She admired the work her boss did & the life she lived, and it inspired her to operate on an entirely new level. I can't say the results surprise me (of course I'm a tad biased), but this did get me thinking...

It turns out I have a sure fire way to figure out whether you should stay or go.