Failure is the Line of Least Persistence

There likely will be setbacks and occasional self-doubts on the road to maximizing your charisma. You're going to need patience and persistence. But it's important to keep moving toward your goal.

I'm reminded of a friend who had a life-changing experience in a cross-country ski race in Minnesota. He had moved there not long before. In an enthusiastic, if not realistic, effort to adapt to the local culture, he bought some skis, practiced a bit, and entered an advanced competition. He took off like a flash at the sound of the starter's gun. But after the first quarter-mile in near-zero temperatures, he knew he was in over his head, hopelessly outclassed by other competitors swiftly gliding past him. He was soon alone in a frozen wilderness, and his thoughts turned gloomily to fatigue and defeat.

He had initially hoped to finish in a couple of hours. But as the cold seared his lungs and the exertion weakened his arms and legs, he all but gave up on his goal. If there had been a way to surrender, he would have. But being in deep snow in the middle of the woods, his only way out was to ski out. So he pushed aside the pain and pessimism, and kept skiing.

He imagined a lodge with a roaring fire that might be just around the bend-but wasn't. He imagined a rescue vehicle slicing through the drifts to pick him up-which didn't. He even imagined a helicopter dropping down to whisk him away-but, of course, that never materialized.

So on and on he skied until, at last, he came to a sign: FINISH LINE, 1/4 MILE. He couldn't believe it! Energized, he sprinted that last quarter mile and finished in a time not far from his original goal.

My friend often repeats that story, the winds more frigid and his muscles more aching with each retelling. It's become a part of his self-identity, and the memory of his endurance and ultimate triumph has gotten him through other of life's difficult scrapes and struggles. The moral, as he sees it, is that if you keep slogging ahead, refuse to give up, and stay as positive as you possibly can, you'll accomplish your goal, or something very close to it.

I could hardly argue with that. So even if you have trouble imagining success, keep moving along that snowy path in the woods. And before you know it, you'll have success beyond your imaginings.


Dr. Tony Alessandra helps companies build customers, relationships, and the bottom-line. Tony has a street-wise, college-smart perspective on business, having fought his way out of NYC to eventually realizing success as a graduate professor of marketing, entrepreneur, business author, and consultant. Dr. Alessandra earned his MBA from the University of Connecticut---and his PhD in marketing from Georgia State University. He was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame in 1985

We turn to  God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them

Charles C. West

The Book of Joy : Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.

Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-won wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity.   

The occasion was a big birthday. And it inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering?

Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet. From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. 

Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy to others. 

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.

We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.

The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.

During that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.

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To better see, the eyes  not expand they contract; these days are darker but a thousand fold the light they extract

Yossi Ghinsberg

Daily Routine Makeover - Morning Edition: Morning Tactics and Strategies To Get More Energized, Productive and Healthy All Day

Do you often feel unmotivated? 

Wake up with a feeling of anxiety that you should do many things but you lack of direction where to begin so you end up doing nothing? 

Do you feel that you do self-sabotage after you wake up by doing nothing productive and waste your day? 

If you respect only three tips of this book, I guarantee that your first wake up hours can become the best and most motivating part of your day!

Daily Routine Makeover –Morning Edition teaches you every method how to be productive and energetic when your day starts. 

This is an actionable book without any fake it ‘til you make it, brush your teeth or wake up at 5 am advice. 

It is a comprehensive psychology, biology and motivational manual that lets you know why are you an early bird or night owl, gives you the best practices how to bring out the most of them without overwhelming you with too many new habits. 

Daily Routine Makeover – Morning Edition has lots of real-life stories and examples, proven techniques of high-performers, and physiological explanations backed up by countless research studies, all of which will help you change your a mindset about the power of the first hours after waking up (be it 5 am or 11 am) with concrete and simple techniques. 

The 5 am magic doesn'’t apply to all of us and it'’s borderline terrible advice for most. 

During my endless months of nocturnal working, I developed special practices that don't require an early day start to boost your productivity and energy level to the sky. 

By consequently following these 3 simple steps I could leave my night-shift job, finish University and start to be a full-time writer. 

How will you become a productivity machine?

•Learn the 3 simple exercise I did to boost my spirits and productivity.•

Get familiar with 10 practices recommended by world leaders, high achievers, and top class artists. •

Understand why does your body function the way it does on a biological level.•

Learn to diminish the harm your body gets by nighttime, shift work or even jet lag.

And further ways to bring out the most of your day.

•The right way to use caffeine as a wake-up booster.•

How to eat nutritious food and lose weight.•

Simple steps to detect when you are the most productive during the day.•

Advice from a world class dietitian how to combine food to keep you energized all day – starting in the morning. 

Find out which of the 3+15 after wake-up habits could make the difference in your life.

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