Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

5 Early Warning Signs of A Child With Mental Health Problems

5 Early Warning Signs of A Child With Mental Health Problems

5 Early Warning Signs of A Child With Mental Health Problems

, Staff Writer

March 14, 2018
Power Of Positivity

The CDC says that suicide can be a result of the ‘interaction of mental disorders and other factors’ and as such, suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents. But either as parents, guardians or teachers, there are some warning signs that can be indicative of mental health disorders and when caught early, some of these disorders can be treated and dealt with. According to WHO, children who get easily aggravated by school, or peer pressures might have an underlying mental health disorder. Often, children who are developing a mental disorder will make excuses not to go to school or study. While bullying is still the number one issue in schools these days, bullying has become a severe threat to a child’s mental health.

 Get your signed of Critical Mass: The Phenomenon of Next-Level Living!

Constant worry. Children who are constantly worried all the time might be indicative of an anxiety disorder. As one mother put it: ‘Ella was a worrier. Every morning, she worried that she wouldn’t make the bus on time, even though she hadn’t missed it once all year. And every afternoon, she worried that she wouldn’t get her favorite spot at the lunch table, or that she might have a pop quiz in science class and wouldn’t be prepared.’ At a young age children should be carefree and worry-free, so if a child is constantly displaying signs of anxiety it may be an anxiety disorder.

Mad In America
Toronto Carib

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, four of five adolescents in every classroom may be suffering from some form of a serious mental illness. Mental illness will then have an adverse effect on their academic careers and Columbia University states that mental health disorders can cause a lack of self-esteem, difficulty concentrating, poor performance in reading, writing and math, frequent absenteeism, repeating grades, and repeated disciplinary problems.

Lisa Raffoul

 

Posted on

My Top 10 Books on Personal Finance & Personal Development

My Top 10 Books on Personal Finance & Personal Development

My Top 10 Books on Personal Finance & Personal Development

 

My Top 10 Books on Personal Finance & Personal Development
My Top 10 Books on Personal Finance & Personal Development for the 30-Day Read & Run Challenge

 

Here are my top 10 books on personal finance & personal development for the 30-Day Read and Run Challenge. Hopefully, you have made the decision to participate in the 30-Day Read & Run challenge sponsored by The Visionetics Institute and Master Fitness 21. You are designed to function in harmony with yourself—mind, body, emotions, and spirit. This is what becoming one with yourself means — being in absolute equilibrium with the totality of who you are. When any part of you falls out of alignment with the rest of your existence, you will experience dis-ease, which is where the word disease comes from.

There is a wealth of pragmatic and empirical evidence that supports the fact that your mind directly impacts your body — something that is known as psychosomatics. It works the same way in reverse. Understanding this powerful dynamic makes it imperative that we do everything in our power to strengthen our minds and bodies. The 30-Day Read & Run challenge is designed to help you develop the habit of effectively training your mind and body to not only perform optimally but to operate in sync with one another, creating a synergistic force that has the capacity to accomplish anything you put your mind to.

The key is not only reading but reading things that will inspire, encourage and empower you. Your mental diet is just as important as your physical diet. Below you will find my top books in the areas of personal finance & wealth building, as well as personal development and personal empowerment.

I have literally read hundreds of books in each category and those on this list have had the greatest impact in shaping my life. I have learned that while the average person reads two to three books per year, highly successful people read three to four books per month. Well, it’s time for you to get started.

Personal Finance & Wealth-Building

  1. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
  2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  4. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
  5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
  6. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
  7. The Money Book for the Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman
  8. Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins
  9. Total Money Makeover Dave Ramsey
  10. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

I have read hundreds more, but these are the top ten that I still revisit to this very day. Some of them have been around forever and others are more recent, but all the books that I have read have certain things in common, which is also true for the list of personal growth books. One thing I learned is that there are many strategies and paths to wealth — some slow and others faster — but the mentality and psychology of wealth-building always trump the style of investing or the business strategy being used. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your psychology does not align itself with the strategy, you will consistently self-sabotage your efforts.

For instance, T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind goes straight to the heart of the matter when it comes to developing the capacity to build wealth — pointing out that wealth is the result of a mental state of mind.

“The vast Majority of people simply do not have the internal capacity to create and hold on to large amounts of money and the increased challenges that go with more money and success.” T. Harv Eker

Eker also points out that poor people make matters worse by programming their children to be poor — through presenting them with a worldview that makes wealth accumulation impossible. I see this all of the time. One such worldview is the one that supports the idea that the accumulation of things translates into wealth, creating youth who become consumer-minded instead of investor-minded. Consumerism is one of the most destructive forces there is when it comes to attempting to build wealth. Yes, you need to understand how to make money, but more importantly, you must understand what to do with the money you do have.

I know multitudinous poor people who are perpetually poor and yet they will not sacrifice even a little of what they believe are comforts and rights that they have earned for the sake of advancing themselves and their families to a point in which those same comforts would be second nature and no longer considered luxuries.

Many people remain in a state of poverty because they are determined to use the money they earn (regardless of the amount) to sustain their current lifestyle. In fact, any increases in earning potential are immediately spent on raising their current standard of living. The idea of temporarily lowering their standards in order to invest in their future never crosses their mind, and if someone mentions it, they immediately dismiss it or find some way to discredit the messenger. This is why the person who makes $30k a year and the person who makes $150k a year are both less than three months away from being homeless should they lose their current job.

Many people who have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki forget that his poor day (biological father) actually had a six-figure income and was the director of the board of education for the state of Hawaii. If you don’t get the mentality right, the amount of money you generate will not matter. Yes, you might get more toys, but at the end of the day, you will likely be passing on debt instead of an inheritance when you die.

My Top 10 Personal Empowerment Books

Some books are transcendent — meaning that they offer guidance in more that one area of life. Therefore, you will find a couple of books from the finance book list on this list. You will also notice that my upcoming book, Critical Mass: The Phenomenon of Living Life at the Level of Your Design is in the number one spot. While the confidence I have in myself to help others achieve massive results in redesigning their futures plays a role in placing my book on this list, that is not the only reason its there. I believe the book is one of the most comprehensive resources on how to completely create the person you want to become in every area of life. It is my 20th book, and I leave no stone unturned. I take you through all of the disciplines, techniques, and steps I use with my clients. Whether you are looking to improve your performance in your marriage, grow your business exponentially, or increase your capacity to build wealth, you will find something in this book to help you.

The books that follow the number one spot are the books that have most emphatically impacted my life.

  1. Critical Mass: The Phenomenon of Living Life at the Level of Your Design
  2. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, M.D.
  3. The Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer
  4. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  5. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
  6. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vicent Peale
  7. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
  8. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
  9. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
  10. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Bonus listing:

  1. The Answer by John Assaraf & Murray Smith
  2. Awaken the Sleeping Giant by Tony Robbins
  3. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
  4. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
  5. Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
  6. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
  7. Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne W. Dyer

Super Bonus

  1. The Unseen Essential by James P. Gills (…an inspirational novel of the power of faith—an absolute must-read.)

I have read even more personal development books than books on finance. I have provided you with an additional eight books to get you off and to the races.

When I began studying the distinctions between people who were extremely successful and those who were not, I quickly learned that there were distinct patterns associated with success, and to my surprise, there were distinct patterns associated with failure. If you are a person who has struggled with mediocrity and perpetual failure, if you are able to identify the patterns that contribute to your struggles, disrupt them and replace them with patterns being used by people who are successful, you will experience a drastic change in your life and the results that you consistently get.

Nothing in life happens inside of a vacuum, the Law of Cause & Effect is always at play. Although the world around you may appear to be in absolute chaos, the truth is that underneath the surface is “absolute-order” that is governed by seven universal laws that govern all activity in the universe. When you gain an understanding of the seven universal laws, you will be able to better understand yourself and the world around you. You will learn that life has not been happening to you, but it has been responding to you — meaning that you are absolutely in control of your destiny.

One pattern of highly successful people that I quickly identified when I first begin to study them is that successful people read far more than people who perform poorly or those who are considered average. The average person reads approximately two to three books a year while highly successful people read about four books per month (an average of a book per week). You are probably saying that there is no way that you can read a book per week, and I will tell you that it is more than possible. There are techniques that will help you increase the speed at which you read as well tools to help you remain focused so that you retain more.

Between 2004 and 2011, I made the commitment to read 100 books per year (an idea I got from the revivalist, John Wesley). During that period, my lowest book count was 115 books. It is amazing what we have the capacity to do when we set our minds to it. Did I mention that I was pursuing my doctorate in systematic theology at the time? Your brain is like a physical muscle, the more you use it, the better it performs.

Hopefully, you have made the decision to participate in the 30-Day Read and Run challenge to initiate a cycle of change that will lead to astronomical growth is record-setting time. Remember, it all begins with making a decision and committing to seeing it through to the end. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

 

 

Posted on

“Priming” Setting Your Optimal State for Performance in Life!

"Priming" Setting Your Optimal State for Performance in Life!
"Priming" Setting Your Optimal State for Performance in Life!
“Priming” Setting Your Optimal State for Performance in Life!

 

“Priming” Setting Your Optimal State for Performance in Life!

There is no question that the manner in which you start your day will have a massive impact on your capacity to effectively navigate through the labyrinthine corridors of resistance that everyone must face. Fortunately, there is a way that you can ensure that you are at an optimal state each and every day — priming. In the world of neuro-psychology, priming refers to the techniques used to influence the implicit memory effect of the mind and brain in which exposure to a specific stimulus influences a later response to the same stimulus. This technique can be used in both, positive and negative ways.

While priming can be used to help improve memory, it can also be used to help a person set and sustain a desired state (Total state of existence — mind, soul, body, and spirit)

In the world of neuro-linguistic programming, we discover that the state we are in at any given moment will dictate how we interpret any given situation or event. The lower the state you are in, the more open you will be to the influence of negative situations and the more diminished your capacity to effectively respond to the event will become.

Priming is a practice that is designed to be used at the beginning of the day to help you set your state. When you are in an optimal state, there is no existence of anger, fear, anxiety, worry, bitterness, procrastination or any other negative state of mind. When you are functioning at an optimal state, you are in perfect equilibrium — mind, soul, body, and spirit.

Priming must become a daily ritual — something that you practice daily — in order for it to be consistently effective in your life. The truth is that we are all governed by rituals — the things we do and the things we think about the most. If you want to change your current situation, examine your current rituals and get rid of the ones that are supporting negative behaviors that are not conducive to the goals and desires you secretly aspire to.

You are not being held back due to any exogenous forces that are moving against you, you are living in the reality created by your daily rituals — the rituals that govern your behavior and your thoughts.

Everyone morning when I wake up the priming process begins with me awakening a heart and mind that is centered in gratitude. Gratitude has to be the foundation on which you build or your edifice will consistently crumble when it comes underneath the weight of pressure, difficulty, delay, frustration.

No matter what is going on in your life, there is a reason to be grateful, and once you find that thing for which you are grateful, embrace its meaning to your life. On the foundation, you then build an edifice constructed of positive and unlimited beliefs concerning what you are capable of and what you expect from life. God/The Universe will only meet you at the level of your expectations. If you want more out of life, you must raise your expectations. As Earl Nightingale, Bob Proctor, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Les Brown, Tony Robbins and others who have come before me have stated, “Life will pay whatever price you demand of it.” The problem is that you are not demanding much.

Instead of exploring your power to change the world around you, you have simply accepted what has been handed to you. Wake up in the morning and tell yourself that you are powerful beyond measure and that you have the capacity to create and sustain new realities by shifting your paradigm to embrace the new reality. Tell yourself that you are built for every challenge that you will face over the course of the day and that nothing you encounter will cause you to become shaken, frenetic, unglued, fearful, anxious or worried. Simply put, you are built for this. You, my friend, are a beast, now it is time to do what beasts do! ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

Click here to learn how to create a powerful paradigm shift quickly and permanently with the power of paradigms course!

Click here to learn how you can benefit from 1-on-1 Coaching!

Click here to learn how you can apply for acceptance into my 2018 Critical Mass Course!

Click here to get your copy of “Your Mind Is the Genesis of Your Destiny!

To book Dr. Wallace for speaking engagements, seminars, lectures and one-on-one counseling, email: LifeChange@rickwallacephd.link

Posted on

Never Underestimate the Physicality of Your Thoughts

Never Underestimate the Physicality of Your Thoughts

Never Underestimate the Physicality of Your Thoughts

 

Never Underestimate the Physicality of Your Thoughts

While most people are at least aware of the fact that their thoughts have the power to impact their lives, very few are aware to what extent. I often tell my clients at The Visionetics Institute that their thoughts have a physicality so powerful that they can move the universe.

Thoughts are so much more than mental ideas, they are the seeds of your destiny. Your current reality is the result of past thoughts that have simply manifested themselves in the third-dimension. So it is important to understand that your reality does not begin with what you can see an touch but with what you think. In fact, what you see and touch is the end-result, not the beginning.

Never underestimate the physicality of your thoughts. If you want to change your current reality, you have to change your thoughts and the limiting beliefs that are behind them. Everything in this universe is one form of energy or another. This is not a philosophical idea, it is physics. Everything in this universe is made of atoms and atoms are energy. What we know and understand about energy is the fact that like attracts like. So if you are emitting negative energy you will attract negativity. If you are emitting positive energy, you will attract to yourself positive things. The most consistent you become with your emittance of energy, the more consistent and stable your life will be.

Most people spend most of their time focusing on what they don’t want, never realizing that they are actually attracting that very reality to themselves. The better you become at establishing a clear vision and image of what you want, the more your thoughts will align themselves with your desires — producing the desired result.

Physicists have proven that human thoughts move matter — meaning your thoughts have the ability to shift the world around you in some rather extraordinary ways. So, what are you thinking right now? ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

Preorder your signed copy of Critical Mass at a discounted price and get the interactive digital copy FREE!

Learn how to create a powerful paradigm shift quickly and permanently with the power of paradigms course!

Learn how you can benefit from 1-on-1 Coaching:

1-On-1 Coaching

Learn how you can apply for acceptance into my 2018 Critical Mass Course:
https://rickwallacephd.link/critical-mass-life-empowerment-course-2017/

Get you copy of “Your Mind Is the Genesis of Your Destiny:
https://rickwallacephd.link/downloads/your-mind-is-the-genesis-of-your-destiny/

To book Dr. Wallace for speaking engagements, seminars, lectures and one-on-one counseling, email: LifeChange@rickwallacephd.link

Posted on

The Principles of Power & Performance

The Principles of Power & Performance

The Principles of Power & Performance

The Principles of Power & Performance

When people come to me for help, they have either experienced success at a high level and they are looking to take their game to a higher level or they are struggling to break free from a life of stagnancy and perpetual failure. I have come to realize that those who are in between success and failure are at the greatest risk of never achieving their full potential. Those who are in between success and failure, while they are not happy with where they are at, are not uncomfortable enough to take the action necessary to change it. They are still willing to wait for fate to deliver what they have the capacity to create.

I guess what I am getting at here is the fact that what you are about to read is for everyone, whether you are a successful business owner, struggling to keep your head above water in any area of life, or just doing okay in life.



What I want to share with you here are principles and practices that are at the core of the successes and achievements of some of the most influential people on the planet. There are several things that I communicate to all my clients, whether they have enrolled in my flagship program Critical Mass, or any of the other programs that I offer. One of the things I share is my simple definition of success because people tend to spend their entire lives attempting to achieve success based on someone else’s definition of what success is.

Defining Success

My definition of success is an adaptation of a definition given years ago by Earl Nightingale. I define success as the measurable progress of the pursuit of a worthy goal. Success is not only realized in the achieving of a particular goal but is experienced along the entire processor continuum leading to that achievement. Yes, I celebrate when I reach a goal for a very brief moment, but I also celebrate the smaller progressions that lead me to the achievement of the primary goal.

I guess what I am attempting to convey here is the fact that you will spend far more time moving toward a goal than you will living in the moment of achieving it. If the only time that you acknowledge and celebrate success is when a milestone is reached, you could literally be robbing yourself of valuable energy and self-encouragement through the acknowledgment and celebration of progress. I really believe that consistent progress is the true source of happiness. When you can see and experience moving toward something worthwhile, the feeling that you experience is quite empowering and elating.

Something else that I want to share about the idea of success is that it is all-encompassing. Success is not only defined by your bank account, but by your relationships, your level of peace and contentment, your ability to help and empower others. You can achieve success in every aspect of your life when you understand the principles of power and performance that I share with you.

Make a Decision & Commit to It

One of the most dangerous places to be in life is sitting between desire and commitment. I tell my clients all the time that you do not get what you want, you get who you are. So, if you are not getting what you want, you must take an introspective examination of yourself and determine what you must change to become the person who is capable of having what you say you want. The key to change, however, is that it requires a commitment that emerges from a decisive moment that demands that you move in a different direction and adopt a new way of thinking. You must decide to raise your standards and expectations for yourself. When you raise your standards, you will automatically lower your tolerance for excuses and mediocre engagement. You will be surprised at how much simply lowering your tolerance for excuses, from yourself and others, will empower you. You get what you tolerate.

One of the most powerful decisions that you can make and commit to is to control the state through which you engage each day of your life. Your state, which encompasses your complete state of existence, including emotions, psychology, posture, perspective, and expectations, determines how you interpret and define every event and situation you encounter. You will respond to every situation based on the state that you are in at that moment.

I choose to live my life in an optimal state or what Tony Robbins refers to as a peak or beautiful state, and the best time to set your state is when you start your day. When you are in an optimal state, you are functioning from a place of gratitude. I have learned that it is absolutely impossible to live in fear when gratitude is present. It is impossible to live in a state of anger when you are grateful. Anxiety, worry and all the other negative influencers that place you in a counterintuitive state cannot exist when you are functioning from a place of gratitude.

Exchange Expectation for Appreciation

While there is nothing inherently wrong with having expectations for yourself and others, when your expectations precede your ability to appreciate what you already have, it opens the floodgate of negative thoughts and everything flows downhill from there. It is when you exchange your expectation for appreciation that the lens through which you view life becomes clearer, your perspective becomes more balanced. It is through the conduit of appreciation that marriages flourish. You see, when you appreciate your spouse, you stop demanding and start encouraging them to be better in certain areas.

Having a heart of gratitude also guards against the development of a victim’s mentality. Gratitude does not allow you to feel sorry for yourself. It is not that gratitude stops the vicissitudes of life from rolling into your paradise, it simply allows you to view the disruption as an event and not make it a part of your constant reality.



Being in an optimal state does not mean that you do not become angry, sad, or frustrated, it simply means that you choose not to remain in those lower states. I have adopted a 60/90 rule for negative state occurrences in my own life. What this means is that when I get knocked off track by some unexpected disruption, I give myself 60 to 90 seconds to return to an optimal state.

Priming or Prepping for Optimal State

So, how do you set and reset your current state? You do it through a process called priming, which can be done in as little as 10 minutes each morning. I often speak about the fact that there are 86,400 seconds in a day and how you invest in those seconds will determine your future. Well, the 10 minutes that you spend priming could be the most important 600 seconds of your day, because it will determine how you engage every other moment.

There is no right way to prime, but I would suggest finding a quiet spot in the morning where you will not be interrupted, but if you are like me and have a family, it may be easier said than done. When you find that spot, put on your headset and play music that you find encouraging, empowering and calming. You might be surprised at how instrumental music can be in setting your emotional tone and overall state. Next time you are riding in your car pay attention to your mood shifts as the music on the radio changes. I tend to make my own playlists that allow me to keep a consistent state. Now, my playlists for the gym is different than my playlist before going to bed, because the aggressiveness I need in the gym will not serve me well when I am attempting to fall asleep at night.

Next, you will need to clear your mind of all negative thoughts. The best way to do this is by embracing a heart of gratitude. No matter where you are and what you are going through, there is a reason to be grateful, and you have to find that every morning before you start entertaining the things you are not happy with. If you don’t, you will be in a constant state of either anxiety, frustration, fear, bitterness, anger, etc. Gratitude frames your perception of reality. For me, it is easy because before I climb out of bed I look over and see God’s greatest gift in my wife.

When you achieve an optimal state at the beginning of your day, you are better equipped to engage any negative situations, but more importantly, you will create more opportunities for positive experiences. Living in an optimal state provides the capacity to take control of your environment instead of allowing your environment to control you. This is the point in which you discover that life is not happening to you, it is responding to you.

Follow Your Passion & Do What You Love

Have you ever noticed that when you are doing something you hate or find boring that time seems to stand still? Conversely, when you are doing something you are passionate about and love, time flies. When you are working in areas that serve your passion, time literally disappears. I experience this truth at its height when spending time with my wife and kids. When my wife and I take a day to ourselves, that day seems to fly by in what seems like seconds, and the moments that we are apart tend to linger. This idea of time is a mental one and it works in correlation with how you perceive what you are doing.

When I first meet a potential client who is working a job that they absolutely hate, I will often tell them that they are slowly committing spiritual suicide. Some might believe my assessment is exaggerated; however, you are actually designed to pursue what you are passionate about. It is where you will achieve the greatest success, the most fulfillment, and find the most contentment. One of the most diminishing forces in life is the act of doing something solely because you believe you have to.
If you have not yet discovered your passion, it is will be immersed in your purpose, which can be uncovered by examining the unique gifts and talents hidden in your design. Your design is indicative of your purpose. When you find that thing you would do for free and you decide to master it and use it to serve others, you will almost certainly be paid handsomely for it. There is nothing wrong with being paid for what you do for others as long as the value of what you give exceeds the value of what you are being paid.

Get Rid of Limiting Beliefs

One of the greatest impediments to success is limiting beliefs — beliefs that form the idea of what can and cannot be done. Even if you gain access to the most successful strategy for what you are attempting to achieve, if you have conflicting beliefs that are not in alignment with what you are trying to do, you will find a way to sabotage your own efforts. In fact, the more limiting the belief, the less likely you will invest the necessary effort to produce the desired result.

This simplest representation of the success formula looks something like this:

POTENTIAL (Including the confidence you have based on your perception of your potential)

 

 

 

 

ACTION/EFFORT Taken based on Potential (It takes massive effort to achieve massive results)

 

 

 

 

 

RESULTS (Your results will be in direct correspondence with your actions and effort)

 

 

 

 

 

REINFORCED BELIEF (The results you get will reinforce the initial belief and further impact future efforts)

Basically, if you believe that what you are after is possible, you will invest an unlimited amount of effort and energy into ensuring that you achieve your goal, and the amount of effort you invest will be reflected in your results. When you get the results you are looking for, it will reinforce your belief that you could, resulting in even greater effort in the future, producing greater results. Conversely, no one invests massive effort into something they do not believe will produce the desired result. While most people will at least try so that they can say they did, the effort they invest is minimal and the energy they emit while attempting the task will be low-frequency energy that produces low vibrations — attracting negative results.

Control Your Emotions & Execute Your Presence

Anyone who does not develop the capacity to control their emotions will be capricious in their actions — never achieving any form of consistency in performance. People driven by emotion are tossed about by the circumstances of life — never truly finding their footing. There are many ways to train yourself to control your emotions. The most powerful method of controlling your emotional state is the priming technique I mentioned earlier. I train my clients to use priming as part of their daily rituals or routines. Your life is a reflection of your current rituals — those things you do daily. If you are an avid reader, whatever you read consistently will be reflected in how you live your life. If you have a ritual of eating healthy and working out, it will be reflected in your health and your appearance. If you have a ritual of studying successful people, you will find yourself emulating those people. Priming must become a ritual if you want emotional consistency in your life.

Experience holistic health, fitness & healing with the VTX-12 Fitness and Wellness Program!

Other ways that you train your emotions is through breathing, posture, and motion. In fact, both posture and motion have the power to create emotion and immediately change your state. If you do not believe me. Try holding your head up and squaring your shoulders while maintaining a feeling of helplessness. You will either abandon the posture or abandon the sense of helplessness. It is the same thing with motion, get to moving. Go for a run or walk. Jump up and down. Turn on some music and dance. You will find that motion and posture demand an emotional response that is in alignment with the posture and motion. I teach these techniques to my clients and they are amazed at the power of posture and motion to completely turn their day around. In my upcoming book, Critical Mass, I go into detail explaining how to use motion and posture to achieve an optimal state.

Finally, you must execute your presence. What I mean by this is that your state will dictate the type of energy that you emit and the level of vibrations you are able to achieve. The higher the frequency, the higher the vibrations. The higher the vibrations you achieve the greater your power to achieve the phenomenal. When you are in an optimal state you will be able to execute your presence, or make your presence felt without effort. In other words, when you are functioning in an optimal state, you will literally be able to move the universe on your behalf. It all begins with your thinking and your beliefs and it plays out in every facet of your existence until it manifests itself in the third-dimension.

The only limits that you have on your life are the ones that you choose to accept with your mind. You possess the capacity to literally shift your world in your favor, but you must develop the right rituals to produce the results you desire. Remember, change starts the moment you make the decision and commit to raising the expectations you have for yourself. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

 

 

Posted on

8 Creative Ways to Fund Your Startup

8 Creative Ways to Fund Your Startup

8 Creative Ways to Fund Your Startup

8 Creative Ways to Fund Your Startup

8 Creative Ways to Fund Your Startup ~ I founded The Visionetics Institute to be a comprehensive mechanism with the capacity to assist people in converting their visions into reality. A significant part of reaching the heights of an expansive vision is achieved in your mind. I often tell my clients that having the best strategy in the world will have little benefit if your psychology does not align itself with your passion. Often, people know that there is something better out there for them, but they are still holding on to limiting beliefs that are associated with a paradigm that robs them of the confidence necessary to take the required actions to achieve what they so desperately desire.

It is these limiting beliefs that keep most people in a holding pattern wishing that things would change in their favor. The truth is that you cannot change the results you are getting without taking the necessary actions to change the cause. One of the seven universal laws that govern everything in this world is the Law of Cause and Effect, which states:

“Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause.” In accordance with this Law, every effect you see in your outside or physical world has a very specific cause which has its origin in your inner or mental world. This is the essence of thought power. Every one of your thoughts, words or actions sets a specific effect in motion which will come to materialize over time. To become the master of your destiny, you must master your mind for everything in your reality is a mental creation. Know that there is nothing like chance or luck. They are simply terms used by humanity in ignorance of this Law.”

While your success in life — whether in business, marriage, finance, social impact, etc. — will require that you have a cognizance of certain strategies and mechanisms, your thoughts remain the seeds of your destiny and that is where you must begin.

I have written and published 19 books, and I am currently writing my 20th. I have launched and brought to profitability 46 companies, and I have been actively involved in the success of countless others. I have lectured before a wide array of audiences on multitudinous topics ranging from success in business to epigenetics and its impact on the biological vulnerability to diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease — as well as its impact on the intergenerational transmission of trauma, as well as countless other accomplishments that will go unnamed here. So, does all of this mean that I have had advantages and opportunities that those who have not experienced this type of success have not had access to? Absolutely not. Opportunities and advantages are created through the processes of toil that is birthed from a belief that what you seek is possible. The only difference between me and someone who is struggling to achieve success is our mentality.

 



Fortunately, it is possible to rid the mind of limiting beliefs and to adopt a mindset that is conducive to massive success at any level. The only limits you have are those you accept as reality in your mind. When you step out of the box of limited expectations, you will find that the world will begin to bend to your will. The energy you emit because of your confidence and the actions you take because of it will literally cause the entire universe to conspire on your behalf to bring you the things you seek.

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, let’s get to the reason that you are here. Once you have straightened out your thinking, your aspirations to become an entrepreneur will lead you to one unavoidable challenge — the need to fund your business idea.

Whether you need capital for your initial rollout, product development, or your initial payroll expenses, you will have to find a way to generate the necessary capital. First, you should understand that money is only one form of capital, and while it is the most fluid form, it is not the only one. Many times, you can use your current skill set to barter for things you need, or you can use your most powerful form of capital, your mind.

Moving forward, I will be focusing on creative ways that you can acquire money as capital to fund your business idea outside of the traditional methods used for financing businesses.

There are multitudinous alternatives to traditional financing, but I am going to give you 8 that have a proven track record when effort and persistence are applied. One of the greatest skills that you can acquire in the world of business, or life in general, is the ability to think laterally or creatively — meaning you must be able to think outside of the box. The first matter is to develop a mindset in which you never say never.

Embrace a holistic approach to success with the VTX-12 Holistic Fitness Program!

It is important when you are attempting to use external funding sources to fund your startup, you must have a lucid perspicacity of the need to sell yourself more than you sell the business idea.

Following are 8 proven funding strategies that exist outside of the traditional funding structure.

  1. Personal Financing

While personal financing may not seem to be a creative funding idea, it is a necessary one. I am surprised at the number of people who come to me seeking advice on starting a business who have never considered the importance of saving to fund their own idea. As a rule, you will be hard-pressed to find a venture capitalist or a private business investor who will be willing to fund your idea if you do not have some skin in the game. The capital you have on hand when you approach lenders will be a testimony of how much you believe in yourself and it will represent the effort that you have invested into ensuring that your vision comes to fruition. With that being said, you should not give up if you do not have on-hand capital, but it should definitely be a part of your funding strategy. You will be surprised at how much you can save by setting aside a certain percentage of your current income for your business.

  1. Personal Credit Lines

In situations in which you may not qualify for a small business loan, you may qualify for a personal line of credit, which will be determined by your creditworthiness and your current income. It is possible to receive as much as $250,000 or more. Credit cards are often easier to obtain than personal lines of credit when your credit history does not support the line of credit approach. There are numerous startups that have been launched using this approach. Using either of these approaches will allow you to retain complete ownership and control of your company if you honor the obligation to make the minimum payments outlined in the conditions set out by the lender.

  1. Family and Friends

This funding method is sometimes referred to as tapping a hot source, primarily because your family is more likely to take a risk in funding your dreams without many of the requirements demanded by other investors, such as the proven success of an existing business, a formal business plan, a marketing analysis, revenue projections, etc. If you have a track record of success, your family will likely want to support your vision.
When entering into funding agreements with family and friends it will be paramount that you set forth all the conditions in writing to avoid confusion and conflict. The best way to position these type of agreements is by positioning them as a bridge loan or a promissory note, which will convert your business equity at a rate that will be determined by future investors.



  1. Peer-to-Peer Lending

While it is likely that you have never heard of peer-to-peer lending before, it has been around for years, and it is a viable alternative to traditional funding. It has proven successful for ethnic groups and small business groups that are willing to support similar ideas. When viewing this model in the context of a startup business, you will need to identify successful entrepreneurs who are willing to fund ideas like the one that inspired your business.

  1. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is one of my favorites and it has emerged as an increasing favorite among startups, primarily due to the power created by the rapid expansion of the internet. There is a wide range of online service providers that provide the capacity for you to set up a crowdfunding campaign in a matter of minutes.

The concept of crowdfunding to create funding for businesses is centuries old, but the rise of social media has somewhat contaminated the idea and now it is used to fund everything including social events, surgery for pets, honeymoons and more. Nevertheless, the initial use of this funding model was to support new business ideas. In fact, several years ago, the creators of the Veronica Mars movie appealed to the show’s fans via a crowdfunding campaign, and they raised the $3 million budget in under 24 hours.

  1. Microloans

There are many nonprofit organizations and private companies that offer aspiring entrepreneurs small loans that range up to $35,000 to support entrepreneurship for individuals who cannot qualify for conventional small business loans. Two of the most prolific microlenders are Patriot Express Loans and Small Office/Home Office Loans.

  1. Vendor Financing

While this does not necessarily work with every business model, if you need tangible products to get your business up and running, many distributors and manufacturers can be convinced to forego payment for their goods until after they have been sold, allowing you to build your inventory at no initial cost. Although no currency changes hands, you receive capital in the form of goods under the condition of paying the distributor or manufacturer once you sell the product.

  1. IRA Financing

Investment Retirement Account funds and 401(k)s are arguably the single most accessible alternative funding source available today for startups. You cannot use your own self-directed funds for your startup, but many others are willing and able to loan you money from theirs, for the right terms, if they believe in you and your cause.

Seed funding can sometimes be difficult to secure through more conventional means like angel funding or venture capital, primarily because these types of investors generally prefer the less-riskier approach of investing in a proven business model that has already built a customer base and generated revenue.

The list provided here is far from comprehensive, but it does give you a place to start. One of the most valuable assets you can obtain as a business owner is the ability to think laterally — outside of the box. The more creative you are in your approach to financing your businesses the more opportunities you will create for yourself. Do not allow yourself to be boxed in by conventional wisdom. Keep in mind that some of the most successful companies on the planet were created through creative funding mechanisms. ~ Rick Wallace, Phd., Psy.D.

Posted on

How To Quit Your Job (with romantic worst-case scenarios)

How To Quit Your Job

How To Quit Your Job (with romantic worst-case scenarios)

How To Quit Your Job

Let’s talk about how to quit your job and move into the life you really want to live! If you feel sick with the prospect of being an employee for the next 20 to 30 years of your life then I hope that what you will read will put you a minute closer to showing the teeth to the crazy idea of scheduling the best years of your life to a time when your body is frail.

Free beer on Fridays is not enough freedom. I always thought to be ‘successful’ meant having a permanent job, earning 40k, working for 7,5 hours a day and then spending the rest of your time in cool places doing the things you really ‘love’ doing. When I finally made it through the muddy and cold waters of internships and low-paid entry jobs and I got my first permanent job, I instantly realised how wrong I had been all along. I would not only do my 7.5 or 8 hours Mon to Fri but I would add a 2-hour commute plus another hour getting ready and planning for work.

Only this way I could deliver my work to the highest standards. Because any negative feedback at work would make me feel anxious for weeks or even months. But it didn’t end there. The roles I was doing were designed to continuously get me promoted to the next level, which was great in the sense that my companies cared about my career progress, but this meant I needed to work overtime to make sure I excelled on the long-feared wintery appraisal. Instead, watching others climb ahead of me would effectively make me feel like a loser. In this context, seeing my colleagues getting promoted while spending their weekends partying until dawn made me jealous. “I don’t have any energy for that, I am so wiped out during the weekend that all I want to do is stay at home quietly and do productive activities”

I used to say to myself. But wait, I was too tired to do anything productive! “I am investing my whole life for the benefit of somebody else and I don’t have enough time to do the things that really enrich me, like playing guitar and learning languages.” I thought, “Will this go on until I’m 65 or before (as long as I die before that age)?”

Reading the four-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss didn’t help, for it introduced the blueprint to create the freedom to design your lifestyle but didn’t really convince me to pursue it, which in turn made me more frustrated.

Life puts you where you belong unexpectedly. I met someone who had recently done what I wanted to do so badly. He wholeheartedly encouraged me to quit and follow my dream. I was almost convinced. A final kick by the most important person in my life put me straight in that meeting room handing over my notice and negotiating the end of my contract.

I felt the wings popping up from my back. The first thing I did was going on an amazing road trip to celebrate such a milestone in my life. I don’t go on a road-trip every day, but I still celebrate that decision EVERY SINGLE DAY. This post commemorates the first year of my life after-employment. I must say my 7 years of higher education (bachelors and two masters’ degrees) didn’t teach me half of what I have learnt in the past year. And I have been able to not only support myself but also…

  • Create a brand
  • Design a range of awesome service products
  • Deliver a talk to an audience of local entrepreneurs
  • Move to an amazing location in Spain on a protected natural dune.
  • Get a rescue dog
  • Learn how to sing to a ‘cringe-free’ level
  • Learn how to play two of the most difficult classical guitar pieces ever written
  • Have experienced life-affirming near death experiences while surfing
  • Fire a client (and loving the result)
  • Get married with the love of my life
  • Visit Thailand
  • Lose my fear to surfing
  • Join a martial arts club
  • Work one week in Berlin
  • Take two road trips to South of Spain
  • Visit Lithuania and work from there
  • Learn how to record and edit videos
  • Complete a 3-month coaching course that changed my life
  • Wake up whenever I want (early anyway)
  • Experiment with intermittent fasting regimes
  • Fully express myself with my family

I am not a millionaire nor I aspire to be one. I am something more powerful than that. I have seen what is possible when you commit yourself to living on your own terms, and I am fully committed to continuing optimising my lifestyle and thus reminding myself that the sky is the limit. I am so passionate about growing and consolidating my dream lifestyle that I will never stop. And I promise you, if I run out of money somewhere in the process, I will grab my guitar and busk on the streets rather than work on somebody else’s terms. Here is how you can get started (this is what worked for me):

 

If you are not exuding joy at your current job but think it somehow is the best thing you can get (as I did when I was in that position), you are wrong. The world has nothing but opportunities ready for you to take them. Are you ready to commit? Peru Buesa is the founder and digital strategist at Gozen Media, an agency determined to help innovative ideas and products reach far.

You’ve read How To Quit Your Job (with romantic worst-case scenarios), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

 

Posted on

Read The Internal Book You’ve Written with Your Life

Read The Internal Book You've Written with Your Life

Read The Internal Book You’ve Written with Your Life

 

Read The Internal Book You've Written with Your Life

Read the internal book that you have written with your life. One person who I admire and have a great deal of respect for is David Goggins. Those of you who know me will know why I admire and respect him. He lives life on his terms. One thing that David stresses is the importance of reading that internal book that you have written over the course of your life.

We live in a world that has no shortage of experts and gurus, including your’s truly, and there is no shortage of books and material prepared and presented by these experts. What David Goggins suggest is that more emphasis is placed on reading the book that we have written, and there is so much that can be gained from an experience like this.

There are multitudinous challenges associated with reading books written by others, with of the most emphatic being the proclivity to write off their successes to extraordinary talent, a silver spoon or luck. The truth is that success is not about how much talent you have; it is about how committed you are to go the distance.

If you have followed me for any time you know that one of my favorite quotes is from the movie, “Lawless.” In the movie, one of the younger Bondurant brothers has been beaten within an inch of his life by a crooked cop. His older brother asks him what is he going to do about it and he responds by telling his brother that he is not tough and violent like him. His brother’s response is priceless. He simply replies, “It is not the violence that sets a man apart, it is the distance he is willing to go.”

Toughness is the willingness to go the distance. When you read that internal book, you will find points in your life in which should not have survived or overcome, but you did, it is a reminder that you are built for the battle that you face. Read your book to not only learn what you are doing that you should be doing differently but also read your book to be reminded of the stock you are made of at the core of your existence. Go back in that book and find those moments when you were written off, but somehow you survived.

If you are like me, when you read your book, you will discover that you are not where you would like to be, but you are far more than you are currently giving yourself credit for. This does not mean that you should rest on your laurels, but you should use this knowledge as fuel for you confidence — understanding that you are built for everything that you will face in life. I don’t care how bad it gets, how dark it becomes, how many people turn against you — you are built for it! ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

 

To learn more about how you can work directly with Dr. Wallace, email LifeChange@rickwallacephd.link or visit our Elevation & Empowerment page!

 

Posted on

5 Steps to Defining A Successful Brand

There’s nothing like the thrill and excitement of discovering a new idea—a fresh concept, a cool product or a new line of business—that thing that’s going to take it to the next level. But wait…let’s not pop the champagne cork just yet.

Defining a brand is the first and most critical step to building a marketable business. Before we can effectively engage and retain customers, we must pause to evaluate who and what exactly our business stands for and what our customer experience should be. These essential components will help shape a solid brand that will be the muse of our marketing strategy.

The process isn’t always easy. There are five key steps to make before we can enjoy that crisp, sparkling glass of bubbly success.

Step 1:  Establish the vision.

Ask yourself ‘What’s the end-game?’ What is the dream for your brand? What do you want the legacy of your business to be? You must take time to weigh out how your product or service fits into that legacy and whether the two are aligned. Once you’ve made a full assessment, then you can make clear and concise statement of the long-term goal. The shorter and more precise the statement of your vision, the more clearly defined your brand will be.

Learn how to shift your paradigms to achieve a mindset that is conducive to massive success!

Step 2 :  Know the purpose and the promise.

Often times, the road to our vision is paved with purpose. The process of tapering your vision to a clear statement should have presented questions that may lead to answers about why your business really matters. Think about why you’ve created your business, the need it fulfills, and the impact your product or service can make. Your answers outline your business purpose.

Get 1-on-1 Life Master & Business Mastery Coaching with Dr. Rick Wallace!

 

Understand that a brand is, very simply put–a promise. It is also, how and whether or not you deliver on that promise to your audience. Once you’ve outlined your brand purpose, you must identify the values that uphold that purpose. Between those values and your product, stands a commitment you make to consumers. Add that commitment to your outline and lay out a strategy for how you plan to deliver.

Step 3:    Identify your market.

Most of the time we think we already know who our audience is. Our business may seem to serve a specific group or we may feel that our brand will appeal to everyone. However, once you have a clearer picture of your vision, purpose and promise, you may want to reevaluate who actually benefits from your concept.

So, let’s take the time to analyze your audience. Who are they? Where are they? What are their day-to-day behaviors? How much time do they spend online? What other brands do they like? These questions can go on and on, but the more you familiarize yourself with your market (and not just what you think you know) the better you can accurately tailor your brand to their needs.

Step 4:    Connect through your story.

Consumers are people—heck, businesses are people too. The way to connect with people is through people and relatable life experiences. This step presents yet another opportunity to examine the alignment of our vision, purpose, promise and now, our market.

Think about what led you to the realization of your business purpose. What are the personal experiences that led you to your business concept? Maybe it’s the similarities in the experience of others that prompted you to launch your brand.

Tell the story behind your brand and think of the voice of your business or product as you tell it. What does it sound like? Does it appeal to and connect with your market? Compose the brand story and fine-tune its voice until it rings true and is relatable to your target market.

Step 5:    Set your brand apart from the pack.

It is key to the success of any business, that its brand is distinguishable amongst others. That goes for the idea behind the concept as well as the look, feel and voice of the brand. We must work to stay ahead of trends and find creative ways to blend innovative traits into our brand. That doesn’t mean that your brand has to be complicated—often, simplicity stands out amongst the crowd—but it does mean your brand should be a breath of fresh air to your market.

Imitation is best form of flattery, but it can be deadly if you are the imitator. If you want any hope of competing at a legitimate level, stay away from logos, business names and packaging that looks similar to potential competitors. Instead, establish a visual identity that sets your brand apart and speaks to the brand you’ve developed throughout this process.

Specifying your area of business supports your effort to separate from the pack. This comes in handy when incorporating and trademarking as well. However, if I could add an honorary step to this process, it would be to allow room for expansion and growth in your brand. When you are distinguishing your brand from the rest, it is important to be clear and specific, but not so specific that you box yourself into a tight and limiting corner. If you’ve evaluated your current market, always consider the possibilities of opening your market at a later time, especially if it fits into your vision.

Building a successful brand is a beautiful art. I would venture to say it is a balancing act for the likes of a trapeze artist, but when carefully considering these key steps, you are certainly on your way. I can already feel the champagne bubbles tickling my nose.

What do you think are the defining components of a successful brand? Share your comments below. If you find this article helpful, share with your business-minded friends or colleagues.

 

Posted on

Life Will Pay Whatever Price You Demand of It!

Life Will Pay Whatever Price You Demand of It!

Life Will Pay Whatever Price You Demand of It!

Life Will Pay Whatever Price You Demand of It!

 

The one thing I can tell you with great certainty is that life will pay whatever price you demand of it. In the building of my core knowledge, I have studied all of those who have been able to have a massive impact on the lives of others, including the Dean of Success coaching, Earl Nightingale, as well as Zig Ziglar, Bob Proctor, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Eric Thomas, David Bayer, Les Brown and more. I have anatomized and dissected literary work like “The Alchemist,” “The Science of Getting Rich,” “Think & Grow Rich,” “Awakening the Sleeping Giant,” “As a Man Thinketh,” and so much more. What I can tell you is that life is not happening to you; it is responding to you.

Unlike any other species on this planet, you have the power to completely change your environment, your reality and the results that you are getting in life. I teach my clients that your mind is the genesis of your destiny and your thoughts are the seeds of your future fortune.

Not everyone is in the same situation, some people don’t even have a clue of what is possible for them — believing that poverty and suffering are their lots in life. Others know that there is something better, but they confused as to how to obtain it. There is so much noise being made with advice and instructions on how to get it that they simply become frustrated.

No matter who you are and where you start, your destiny is in your hands, and you either have what you need or the capacity to go out there and get it. You are the results of your thoughts and the limiting beliefs that they produce; if you want to produce something greater, you must change your thought patterns so that they positively impact your beliefs and expectations.

If you really want better, you must raise the expectations that you have for yourself in this life. You must raise the level of what you demand of yourself. Simply put, you have to raise your standards. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D. is the Founder and CEO of The
Visionetics Institute and he is one of the leading life strategist and
business strategist in the world. His extensive background in human behavior, conjoined with his vast and in-depth experience as a business owner, allows him to work with his clients, as a life coach, life strategist, business strategist and therapist on multitudinous levels.

The Warrior concept and the Warrior’s creed is a concept and
tool that Dr. Wallace uses to help strengthen the self-image of his clients while painting a portrait of what is possible when a person is able to create a paradigm shift in their lives.
Dr. Wallace has authored and published more than 18 books that
address everything from self-awareness, finance, relationships and more.

You can get some of his more popular books at Barnes &
Noble, including:

The Invisible Father: Reversing the Curse of a Fatherless Generation
Renewing Your Mind: The Dynamics of Transformation
When Your House is Not a Home
5 Steps to Financial Freedom
Your Mind is the Genesis of Your Destiny
Get your FREE “Warrior” phone & desktop backgrounds
Pre-order your copy of Born in Captivity: Psychopathology
as a Legacy of Slavery dropping July 2017

To book Dr. Wallace for speaking engagements, seminars, lectures and one-on-one counseling, email: LifeChange@rickwallacephd.link