Jumpstart Your Dream Life

6 Questions to Figure Out If You’re Living Up to Your Potential

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The older we get, the more our dreams fade away.

It’s a sad fact of life, if not a very real one. Early on, you have an entire slew of things you want to accomplish. Enthusiasm, energy and excitement pump through your veins as you picture yourself reaching those achievements.

Yet those feelings gradually die down with time. For some aspirations, you might have set the benchmark incredibly high and then failed to get where you thought you’d be. Maybe you talked yourself out of even trying.

And when you did accomplish something, it didn’t live up to your expectations. Reaching a goal wasn’t the be-all-end-all you anticipated. Afterward, there was a void as you thought, “What next?”

Eventually, it becomes exhausting to keep trying (and often failing). You stop resisting to the pressures of everyday life and succumb to the routine. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.

But it’s also dangerous.

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How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick

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It’s around this time New Year’s Resolutions start to slip.

Remember counting down to when the clock struck midnight? The second it happened, a burst of fireworks shot into the sky. They exploded into an array of colors, signaling the promises, hopes, and dreams of a new year to come.

But as January slowly crawls towards February, our enthusiasm from that moment wanes. The New Year, with its new hopes, turns into “maybe later”. We begin to back out of our aspirations.

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Why Are YouTubers So Rich?

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Making YouTube videos for a living is nice, isn’t it?

You hear about it all the time. Ads showing YouTube stars’ multi-million dollar mansions. Viral videos exploding with millions of views. People making full-time incomes from the comforts of their home.

Top YouTubers can make upwards of $10 million in a year. When you add up the advertising revenue, sponsorships, and endorsement deals, those figures go up even higher. Being a professional YouTuber sounds lucrative, doesn’t it?

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Give Thanks: Gratitude Makes You Happier, Healthier, and More Popular

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What does it mean to “give thanks?”

Well, it depends. It depends on who, where, when, and how.

If you were around in October 1621 at the Plimouth Plantation, you might have been part of the “First Thanksgiving”. Here, the Native Americans and Pilgrims came together to celebrate the first harvest in the New World.

The settlers had struggled the previous winter due to a lack of supplies and food. Many had starved or became ill and died as a result. Yet, a number survived. Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag tribe, had given the colonists food to get through their first winter.

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You Are Capable of Change, You Just Need Your Brain to Believe It Too

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Your brain becomes fossilized with age.

At least, that’s what they say.

In order to be classified as a fossil, a specimen usually has to be over 10,000 years old. When you consider this, comparing aged brains to fossils isn’t exactly a flattering metaphor. Fossils are hard, lifeless remains of what once was a thriving being – and that’s exactly what your brain becomes with time.

But it starts even earlier than that.

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The Beauty Behind Mosaics: Lessons On How to Create Lasting Work

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Recently, I stepped into a mosaic shop.

All sorts of mosaics were on display: historical scenes, religious symbols, buildings, animals, and replicas of well-known paintings. Some were glossy, while others were matte. Some were black and white, others vibrant.

But when I saw the mosaic making demonstration, one thing was clear: creating mosaics from scratch is hard. From inception to the final touches, a lot of thought, planning, and labor goes into creating each individual piece of work.

I had always wondered how mosaics were created, so it was interesting to see the process laid out (more on that later).

But first, where did mosaics come from?

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Do You Consume or Do You Create?

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When you gaze at a painting, are you the one admiring it or are you the one putting on the final touches?

When you watch a video, are you the one pointing and criticizing, or are you the one making the edits?

When you see what someone else did, do you wish you did that, or are you figuring out how to replicate the steps they took?

It’s easy to let things come to you, like a gust of wind that blows in your direction. It’s much more difficult to produce things. Anything you create and show to the outside world will get exposed to harsh elements, such as criticism, shame, and doubt.

Still, it is something you must do if you want to achieve anything.

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How to Thrive in an Environment that Doesn’t Support Your Goals

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You are the product of your environment.

The environment we live in influences, and in some ways, reflects who we are. Similar to how our bodies reflect the foods we eat, the places we visit and the people we meet reflect the way we think and believe.

Being raised in an inner-city neighborhood means you’ll likely live in the same neighborhood as an adult, while growing up in a middle-class area is a strong predictor of your future lifestyle. It’s difficult to escape the chains in which we are bound.

So how do you thrive in an environment that doesn’t support your goals?

The Count of Monte Cristo

In Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the protagonist Edmond Dantès is set up for a promising future. He’s soon to become captain of a ship, newly engaged, and popular amongst his peers. However, his perfect life is about to take a turn for the worse.

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5 Great Reads for October

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October evokes images of colorful leaves, dropping temperatures, and pumpkin spice lattes. But it’s also the perfect time to catch up on books that might have been too heavy for the summer.

Since Halloween is the biggest event of October, the question that comes to mind is: What does the word “scary” mean to you?

While we quickly think of ghouls, zombies, and vampires, scary can reach far beyond characters found in horror films. Maybe scary means being taken away from everything you know, or continuing on a path you don’t want to go down. Maybe scary is getting a visit from your landlady.

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Expand On What Works: How to Generate Multiple Income Streams From a Single Idea

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“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.” – Beatrix Potter

Since the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the Peter Rabbit series has sold over 150 million copies in dozens of languages. Countless children have grown up reading the charming adventures of Peter and his friends.

What many aren’t familiar with is the story behind the series.

Beatrix Potter was born in 1866 in London. She and her younger brother grew up under the influence of their artistic parents, who enjoyed nature and spent their summers in the countryside. The two siblings were surrounded by many pets, such as rabbits, mice, frogs, and lizards.

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