Are you ready for 2014?

Our view while goal setting at the W Singapore

Let me ask you again. Are you ready for 2014? Many of you are probably asking yourselves at this point, “Am I ready for what?”  This is the most common reaction I get when I ask people if they are ready for the next year.  Most people never even think to plan for their life.  People plan for grocery shopping.  People plan what they are going to do over the weekend.  People plan for what they are going to have for dinner.  People plan what outfit they are going to wear. But rarely do people plan for their LIFE.  They prioritize a television show or a party over the time, energy, and focus it takes to plan the life they want to live. 

A few weeks ago, my friends and I spent the weekend at a beautiful hotel overlooking the water and spent 13 hours designing and strategizing our lives for 2014.  We set goals. We set plans. We created strategies to see our goals come to fruition.  It was a powerful weekend.  It began with a review of our goals from 2013.  We celebrated victories and confronted challenges that we faced.  We explored the 12 domains of our life and programmed our minds to work on these areas on a regular basis.  We refined or recreated our personal affirmation statement.  We designed everyday incantations to feed our minds.  We did a guided goal setting session where we dreamed and wrote down everything we would love to learn, create, be, do, and have in all of the areas of our life and boiled the list down to 10-15 things that we would focus all of our attention on in 2014.  We created our intellectual board of trustees that would “advise” us in all of the domains of our life.  We expanded on each goal with vision casting and strategies to see that these things come to fruition.  It was an empowering, inspiring, and challenging weekend. 

So I ask again, “Are you ready for 2014?”  Do not leave your life up to chance.  It breaks my heart to see so many people going through the motions of life without ever really fully living.  Are there things you would love to do that you have yet to do? If you are anything like me, you have plenty of those things!  There is so much to experience.  There is so much of an impact we can have on the lives around us.  In the vastness of our universe’s time continuum we are but a tiny speck.  What do you plan to do, have, and create in this short time we have?  What kind of a legacy do you want to leave? When you are 90 years old sitting on the balcony with a cup of tea looking back on your life, what do you want to see and remember? Do you want to be known for clocking in and out of work on time or do you want to be remembered for truly living a life worth living? 

You will face challenges along the way.  You will have doors slammed in your face.  You will run into walls and stumble upon boulders.  In doing so, new doors will open.  People will show up in your life to help you climb those walls and move those boulders.  It is in times of our greatest challenges and adversities that life’s greatest gifts are revealed to us.  We do not get to experience those gifts if we stay where we are.  Dare to be great.  Dare to experience more, see more, and love more.  Dare to step on the edge of your comfort zone and discover a life worth truly living.  

Love,

Matt

It is never too late!

Marina Bay, Singapore

What will it take for you to feel like you're really happy? Have you even thought about it before or are you just plugging along on the hamster wheel that is life? I am an observer of people. I love to watch people, study people, read people, and see what really makes people tick. I look around and see people who are really happy and fulfilled and others who say the only good thing about Monday is that it is only five more days until the weekend. You get the point right? I see people that handcuff themselves to a job they hate or a relationship they feel miserable in for decades or even a lifetime. I also see people who are chasing their dreams. I choose to surround myself with people that inspire me. One of my close friends is giving up an extraordinary income and a great job to chase his dream of traveling around the world. I have another close friend who just opened up his own chiropractic practice from scratch with an amazing amount of hard work and determination to transform his community. I have another close friend who is expanding his practice by leaps and bounds while keeping in great shape and building a great new marriage. I have another close friend who gave up his chiropractic practice in a foreign country making a great income to move to a place to start over because he saw more potential for fulfillment and enjoyment in his life. All of these individuals have taken huge risks in their life and have been rewarded immensely in the process. I, for one, gave up a great job near my family and sold everything and moved to the other side of the world with nothing but a couple of bags and a huge desire to create.


Unfortunately, I also see people miserable in their lives. I observe people who are broke, unhappy, and unfulfilled. I see people who are in a job they hate, making money that they can barely survive on, and going home to a relationship they do not feel fulfilled in, and a mirror they don't feel comfortable looking in. It breaks my heart to see people living like that. They just keep walking on the hamster wheel hoping for something to come along and save them from their life, or even worse, giving up all hope and giving in to a life they don't enjoy.

The reality is that many of us fall somewhere in between the "I have everything figured out and am living my dream life" and "I hate my life and I am living a miserable existence." From what I observe, we are much farther away from the first one than many of us would like to be. We get comfortable. We get complacent. We just give up. We give up on a life we would love for the life we have. We budget rather than create abundance. We settle rather than explore. We accept mediocrity rather than chase greatness.

Would you like to travel more? It really isn't as expensive as you might think if you do it right. Would you like to start a blog or a website about your passion? Do it. It's free! Would you like to start that new business you have always dreamed about? When it's your passion, it doesn't feel much like work. Would you like to learn to dance or speak a foreign language? Fei chang hao! Would you like to live in a foreign country, move to Hawaii, or even relocate to the other side of town? If the will or desire is strong enough, you can make it happen.

Learn to become a child and dream again. Dream big dreams and place massive action behind those dreams. Maybe you have a family and can't uproot your whole life just yet, you still can learn to dance, speak a foreign language, start a blog, take a trip to a really cool location, and the list goes on. Get out there and chase your dreams. You can thank me for it later.

Love,
Matt

Do you need to clean up your life?

Anyone that knows me knows I do not have a great reputation for having organized personal spaces.  Sure, the main area of my office and home look great, but it isn’t uncommon for my room, desk, personal office, closet, and even my computer to look like a tornado has hit it.  Living in a city, I do not have a car anymore, but when I had a car, it was usually a mess as well.  I just never placed a high value on keeping those things clean.  After all very few people were going to see those places and the ones that did, I was close enough with to not really care if they thought I was messy or not.  I remember the first time a few years back I heard a professional speaker illustrate his distaste for messiness because of how it carries over into all areas of life.  He stated, “Watch out for a messy car. A messy car equals messy panties.”  That analogy, while crude and tasteless, holds tremendous value and truth.  How you are in one area of your life reflects all areas of your life.  Living one area of your life exceptionally does not give you permission to be a mess in another area.  Living an exceptional life requires a commitment to all areas of life. Life is not a zero sum game. 

Unfortunately, while that comment stuck with me, it never made an impact on me enough to stimulate a lasting change.  Why? Simple.  Because I associated more pain with taking the time to file papers on my desk than the eye-sore of a messy desk.  I associated more pain with the time to straighten up my room than I did to the clutter that it had on my life.  I knew that all that clutter was creating blockages in my life, even if it was only metaphorically although I am sure it had physical manifestations as well, but it did not create enough of an emotional impact for me to change it.  The truth is that I do not enjoy the mess and the clutter.  I just did a really good job ignoring it.  I finally decided I needed to “clean up my life.” So I did things like I do when I commit to anything. I went all out and did not just put a few papers away.  I went into just about every nook and cranny and straightened everything out, even the stuff that is hidden.  I still have a few things to clean up but almost all of my personal spaces, even my computer, have gone through major transformations in the last couple of weeks. 

Here is the really cool thing.  Although I did not have an ulterior motive in “cleaning up my life,” it has positively carried over into other areas of my life.  Literally, the moment I decided to start cleaning up, the practice improved.  More people started referring friends and family in for care.  More people have been renewing their commitment to chiropractic care and the improvement in their health. There has been more synergy between the staff in the office.  My quality of sleep has improved.  When you clean up ANY area of your life, it affects EVERY area of your life. 

What are you waiting for? Pick up mop and start cleaning!

Love,

Matt

My 100 page Lifebook...

Working on my Lifebook in Chiang Mai, Thailand

For the past 3 months, my mastermind group has dedicated ourselves to working on our Lifebook.  It is a program we broke up into 12 weekly sections where we visioneer our ideal life. Not in a “wishful thinking” type of way but more in a “this is what I am going to create” type of way.  In the end my Lifebook is over 100 pages of pictures, visions, and strategies for creating my dream life.  It is meant for inspiration but there is also the pragmatic side of strategizing its attainment.  As I was completing my last section, it was asking to create my life 5 years from now.  Where would I be physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, and financially?  What would I have created and what am I going to create? What would my life look like? That is when the doubt started to kick in.  That is when I started to dream up some magnificent dreams, but my rational side would start to say, “That is not possible” and “You are not good enough.” I have a dream to speak to crowds of thousands all over the world inspiring them to live the life of their dreams.  My negative voice would tell me, “I do not have what it takes.  Do you really think you are as good as Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, and Mark Victor Hansen?” I want to create products that people could use in the comfort of their own home and computer to create and manifest amazing things in their life? My negative voice kicks in and asks “Do you really think you are as good as Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, and Jeff Bezos?” I want to create a foundation that serves underprivileged communities and families, helps them get back on their feet, and gives children a head start in life, but my negative voice asks, “Do you really think you are going to be powerful enough and influential enough to do that?”  I want to travel all around the world for months at a time or even years, but my negative voice asks, “Is that really practical? Will you really have the time?” 

We all have this negative voice.  We all have this voice that tells us we aren’t good enough; we aren’t powerful enough; and we aren’t smart enough.  We have this voice that likes to tell us to play small and play it safe.  This little voice is our ego afraid of failing; afraid of becoming bruised; afraid of being damaged.  This little voice knows if it can just convince us to play small, we will never have to worry about failing.  The reality is that if I listened to this voice I never would’ve moved across the world, built the practice of my dreams, and traveled to some of the most exotic locations around the world.  The truth is if I let that little voice run my life I never would’ve left the comfort of my hometown and explored the vast and unknown of the world.  From time to time that voice continues to creep its way back and what I realize is that my vision, my passion, my circle of influence, and my intention must be louder than that little voice.  That little voice is never going to disappear so we all have to learn how to create a relationship with it and use it like the dim light of the moon.  It doesn’t guide us where we need to go but it does provide us with the light to be aware of our surroundings.  It provides just enough protection to not be dangerous, but we certainly shouldn’t be directed by it.

I remember very distinctly when I was getting ready to graduate from chiropractic school, living in China with barely enough money to eat, and writing out my dreams in a little red journal.  I was laughing at the absurdity of what I said I was going to create in the next 5 years.  I thought it was almost silly that I thought I could create something like that in such a sort amount of time.  That was the little voice rearing its head again.  But I figured it couldn’t hurt to dream!  I just went through that journal the other day, almost exactly 5 years later than when I wrote it and was blown away by how much of those things actually came true; some of which I far exceeded.

As I sit here now laughing with disbelief at my next 5-year goals, I can’t help but wonder “What if?” What if this is just the beginning? What if that little voice doesn’t know what it is talking about? What if I am powerful beyond what I ever imagined? 

And the question I would love for you to ask yourself is “What if you are too?”

Love,

Matt 

Adventures in Paradise

There is an interesting paradox about life whereas the quieter the outside becomes, the louder the inside becomes.  After finishing an amazing 3 days in the office serving hundreds of people, seeing more lives transform than I can possibly count and doing 2 talks in the office on chiropractic, innate intelligence, and living a life of full expression, I find myself sitting on the beach on the beautiful island of Tioman, Malaysia. I'm looking out at the turquoise water under the clear blue skies with the jungle behind me and a great cup of coffee in hand. Life is great, if it wasn't for the pesky voice in the back of my head.  You see, anyone that knows me knows I have one speed and that is full throttle.  A huge step in the personal growth process has been learning to relax and enjoy the moment; to realize that not doing anything is sometimes the best thing I can do for myself.  When I first arrived at the resort, my first thought was "What should I do now? I should go for a swim, grab lunch, do a bit of reading, go out for a snorkel, work out, and then and then and then."  Why? Because my belief system has always been that doing nothing is a waste of time; that doing nothing is for lazy people; that doing nothing is unproductive and a poor use of time. Also, and probably the most unsettling feeling, is that doing nothing means I need to start to listen to the little voice inside of me. So when I got here and realized there really is not much to do, there are very few people around, and the only internet is in one section of the resort, I got a little freaked out. Thank goodness that moment of craziness only lasted for a few minutes because now instead of driving myself crazy with keeping busy, I can begin to do the real work and just be present and hang out with myself.  I can begin to go through the process of enjoying the solitude, meditation, nothingness, and giving up the expectation that I need to expect anything at all for a couple of days. Sometimes the most beautiful plan is that of having no plan.  That can be a pretty powerful plan in and of itself.

We can all learn a lot from the practice of solitude.  We can learn a lot from the practice of nothingness.  It is in the space of nothingness that everything exists.  It is in that deep place of nothingness and presence that creation exists.  It is in the deep place of nothingness that we are able to connect with ourselves and everyone around us.  I know this may seem very abstract and esoteric but I promise you there is nothing more concrete and directly applicable to our lives than this idea of nothingness.  Let me give you an example. Let's say you're looking at creating a relationship with someone. It can be anyone; a lover, friend, co-worker, or employee.  Each party enters with a "full glass." Each party has a set of expectations, wants, desires, and needs.  The biggest thing that can destroy any relationship is unmet expectations and the poor communication that usually goes along with that.  As we empty our glass and shed layers and layers of baggage and expectations, we open ourselves up to a greater possibility of connection.  What do you think is easier - meeting 17 expectations that are ingrained in a person's being, most of which they have no idea about or not having to meet any expectations and starting with an "empty glass" to create anything you want? What is going to set you up for a successful trip more - having the expectation that in order to be happy there has to be perfect weather, perfect food, perfect accommodations, and everything run perfectly on time or entering the trip with no expectations except that no matter what happens, you are going to make the best of it? If it rains, great. More time to read and write.  If it's sunny, great. More time to swim and enjoy the sun.

When we can begin to shed our expectations; when we can begin to drop our baggage from the past; when we can begin to empty our bucket of crap, we open ourselves up to a world of creation and manifestation.  We begin to create the feelings we want and not the feelings we are victim to.  We open ourselves up to finding the joy in the chaos as well as the calmness.  Time for me to go empty my cup, enjoy the calmness, and get off my computer so I can embrace the beauty all around me.

Love,

Matt

Journey back in time...

Hiking in Landmannalaugar, Iceland

Life is a lot like hiking a mountain range.  There are going to be peaks and there are going to be valleys.  I remember my first real hiking trip every.  It was also my first real trip overseas.  It was 6 years ago when I took a journey for two weeks to the “Land of Fire and Ice” – Iceland.  Iceland is a majestic country unlike anything I have ever seen before filled with enormous glaciers, beautiful waterfalls, and a unique landscape mixed with black volcanic lava fields, hot springs, glaciers, breath-taking waterfalls, green grass, rainbows, and gorgeous mountains.  My best friend, Matt and I, decided to do a 4-day trek which is listed as one of the top 3 treks in the world.  It was an approximately 60 km hike over varied terrain and altitude.  One day we were hiking over beautiful green landscape, rocks, and mountains.  The next day it was across the flat black sand desert.  The next day we were hiking on the glacier across snow and rocks.  The last day was a mix of canyons consisting of every color of the rainbow built into the walls, turquoise sulfur springs, towering black volcanic rocks jutting out of the ground, and we finished off the 4-day adventure relaxing in a natural hot spring. 

The days were a mix of emotions.  I started off the hike with spirits high and energized for the adventure.  After the first day, both of my hips locked up on me and I spent the whole next day practically waddling about 12-14 km.  It was a really tough day for me.  I was exhausted, especially seeing the expanse of the landscape we had to cover in front of us and the height of the climbs we had to make with a 40 lb back pack on our backs.  There were times I was frustrated I ever decided to do the hike and really wanted to stop (although that was not possible because there was no where to go).  There were times where my legs were screaming, my heart was pounding, and I just wanted to collapse, but I knew it was not an option so I kept moving.  Doesn’t this kind of remind you of life so far?  Then the climate would change for the better. We would get to a peak and have coffee and a snack over-looking one of the most beautiful and pristine landscapes in the world.  I would sit there basking in gratitude for this amazing, life-changing experience.  I met some of the most incredible people, including a guy we affectionately nicknamed “Super Dad,” who was a university professor taking his wife and 3 kids on this trip with him.  He carried all the supplies for everyone, was a PhD, pulled his mattress from the mountain hut we stayed in outside in the freezing cold under the stars, spent time surfing and kayaking the frigid waters of Scandinavia, among a plethora of other accolades that are too many to name.  We would spend one day bored hiking across the flat desert sand, but then spend the night in a hut amongst the snow capped mountains.  We would spend the entire time living off oatmeal and dehydrated vegetables and quinoa, and then were beyond grateful when a gentleman offered us a tomato and cheese sandwich at the end of our journey.  It was nothing special but by comparison it felt like a meal at a Michelin-star restaurant.  My friend, Matt, still talks about that sandwich to this day.  We also capped off a brutal 4-day trek relaxing for hours in a crystal clear natural hot spring that was so beautiful I couldn’t even dream something like that up.

The thing about life is that it is not really life if you are only hanging out in the valleys or balancing on the peaks. It would have been impossible to appreciate a tomato and cheese sandwich the way we did without living on oatmeal (which I still won’t eat to this day) and dehydrated food for 4 days.  The views from the snow-capped mountains and of the multicolored canyons would not have been as mesmerizing if we just saw them in a picture and did not labor through the hours of hiking to reach those places.  The hot spring at the end of the journey would not have seemed so sweet if I could just access it from my backyard.  In life, we need both the peaks and the valleys.  The valleys are great because that is where our character, emotions, values, and beliefs are tested and it is also where the most growth takes place.  The peaks show us how our hard work has paid off. 

We cannot deny or escape the fact that life is going to be a journey of peaks and valleys.  We are going to have trials and tribulations and we are going to have victories. We are going to be tested physically and emotionally and we are going to experience periods of intense joy.  A true sign of growth and evolution of the soul is to be able to navigate the peaks and valleys with gratitude, grace, peace, and love.  It is to be able to detach from the outcomes and the location of the journey and live in the moment.  It is to be able to clear your heart from hate and the mind from anxiety and from a place of centeredness ask, “Where is the joy in this moment?  Where is the gift?” It is when we can be as grateful for the valleys as the peaks; when we can be patiently peaceful in the valleys and patiently joyful at the peaks that we begin to become a true master of our life.  It is something that may take years to master.  I know that I am only at the beginning of this process and you may be too, but we all need to start somewhere.  What better place than here, and what better place than now? 

Love,

Matt

This one thing can change your life...

Me in Bali

The more and more that I study successful people, read books on success and personal development, and become an observant observer of my own habits and behaviors, the more I realize there are certain things that are unequivocally and uncompromisingly essential to living a brilliant life.  Is motivation important? Yes. Is discipline important? Absolutely. Is compassion, empathy, and communication important? Without a doubt they are.  Although all of these are important, none of these are made possible without the lynchpin that holds every piece together.  There is one thing that makes all of these possible and so much more.  I cannot overstate the importance of this trait.  I cannot drill enough the capacity of this skill to transform your life.  Without further ado, allow me to share this life-building, life-changing, and life-magnifying trait you. It is STATE MANAGEMENT.  The good old ability to manage your state at all times, in all situations, and in all circumstances can do more for your life than anything else you can master. It is also probably the single most difficult thing to master as well.  But as we talked about before, the truly magnificent things in life are not easy.  If the magnificent things in life were easy, everybody would be living magnificent lives but we know these kind of lives are far and few between. Why? Because they take work! And work is a dirty little word to most people but I’m digressing. We will leave that for an article on another day.

So what is state management?  State management is the ability to control, create, and express any emotion and any decision through volitional consciousness in any situation or circumstance. Huh? Let me break it down for you.  It is the power of choice.  It is the power to have full control over your life no matter what is going on.  It is the ability to choose love amidst the hate that is all around; to choose hope in times of challenge; to choose compassion when someone is verbally attacking us; to choose discipline in times of distraction; to choose inspiration when we are feeling weak and tired; to choose to serve in times of personal struggle; to see the gifts in life when everything seems to be against us; to choose to be powerful when we are feeling beat down; to choose patience in times of inner turmoil; to choose faith in times of adversity; and to choose loving words, thoughts, and deeds when it is so easy to go the other direction.

Unfortunately, many people are ruled by their emotions.  They are reactive rather than proactive.  They allow the emotion of the moment to dictate their next move rather than taking control of their life.  They have a Pavlovian conditioned response to any stimulus that enters their sphere.  Just like the dog that salivates when they hear the bell ring, most people react to what goes on around them rather than being in control of their lives.  A driver cuts you off? The road rage kicks in.  A spouse or partner pushes your button? You react, and most likely not from a loving place.  A rough day at work? You’re miserable and take it out on everyone around you. A boss or client yells at you? You get depressed, angry, or sad. Financial challenges, relationship issues, or overwhelmed with work? You get annoyed, obsessive, or feel helpless or paralyzed.  You see that slice of pizza or French fries? You have to have it.  Did you exercise today? Nope, just did not have the motivation. Have you started that new project or goal you have been meaning to get to? Not yet because you got caught up with television.  Did you open that book you know you need to read? Not enough time in the day and you are too tired.  You see, this list could go on forever!  Many of us are totally run by our emotions in all areas of our life.  We have very little ability to effectively manage our state.  I can’t begin to speak as though I have perfected this yet. I wish I did! The truth is that creating the ability to master my state has been something I have been working on for years and has proved to be a huge challenge. And yes, it has improved dramatically but I still have a long way to go before I would consider myself a guru in this area.

I have discovered firsthand how improving this area of my life has transformed myself as a person, a leader, a boss, a friend, a son, and my relationship with myself. It is something I know I will be committing the rest of my life to mastering and I still will only put a dent in the realm of what is possible in this area.  The beautiful thing is even a small dent is analogous to dropping a pebble in the middle of a still pond where small changes create a ripple effect that shakes the very foundation of who you are as a person and the people around you. It will transform you as a person and create a level of control in your life that so few people possess.  It will be exactly what you need to literally manifest the life you have always wanted.  I know of nothing more powerful and transformational in the world of personal development than this.  I hope you enjoy the ride.

Love,

Matt

Alone in Thailand

One of my mentors once told me, “Do something everyday that scares you.” While I try to make that axiom an everyday part of my life, it really rang true for me this weekend.  I am going to start at the end and then we can backtrack from there.  I have spent 2 beautiful days in majestic Northern Thailand trekking up to ancient temples, being blessed by monks, meditating in temples from the 1400s, hiking to waterfalls, and feeding, interacting, and even hugging the amazing Asian elephant in a beautiful sanctuary whose mission is rescuing damaged and abused elephants.  I have explored the city of Chiang Mai, ate some delicious local food, woke up every morning to birds chirping and a delicious cup of coffee, and staying in a cozy boutique hotel with the friendliest staff I have ever met.  As I sit here now at breakfast finishing my coffee and starting on a home brewed ginger tea, I am preparing to spend my day taking a Thai cooking class with a local family on their organic farm.  I am sure by now you are asking yourself, “I though he was going to talk about fears and stuff that is scary.  All that stuff sounds amazing!” And you would be right.  All of this has been amazing, however, I almost never took this trip.  You see, I am on this trip by myself.  Alone.  Just myself, my computer, and my thoughts.  And it was not due to lack of effort.  I tried to find someone to travel with, but for one reason or another, it all came down to a choice – take this trip by myself or not at all. 

I struggled with the choice for a while. I have been on some amazing holidays to all different places around the world – from backpacking Europe to five star chalets on the ocean in Borneo to religious trips to Israel to hotels on a cliff in Bali.  However, I have always been on these holidays with someone; someone to share these experiences with, to talk with, to explore with, and to reflect with.  Now I was confronted with a choice that scared me.  I was not scared about the safety from traveling alone; at least not in the physical sense of the word.  I was more scared of all the time I was going to be spending by myself, in silence and personal reflection.  Would I really enjoy my own company? Would feelings or emotions come up that were uncomfortable and unsettling? Would I realize I don’t enjoy my own company as much as I would like to think I would?  There would be no theorizing about how much fun or how enjoyable my company is.  I was going to have to experience the reality of it first hand, and it was a little bit scary.  The first day was a bit rough.  I had a somewhat unsettling feeling throughout the day, but instead of resisting it, I just accepted it.  I accepted it as an agent of change and the feeling of doing something new.  Once, I accepted it the feeling eased a bit.  I meditated in 2 different temples and the thing that really hit home for me were all of the statues of Buddha.  I studied the statues in both of the temples and every statue of Buddha had the same facial expressions – pure joy, bliss, presence, and peace.  I could genuinely feel and see the sense of nirvana on each of the Buddha’s faces.  It was the type of joy and peace that could be experienced through pain or pleasure.  It was the joy that comes with living and appreciating life for all that it has to offer.  While not easy, it is a lesson I have tried to carry with me throughout this short getaway.  I have a feeling it is a lesson I am going to practicing for the rest of my life.

We all have feelings that scare us.  We all have experiences in life that scare us.  We all have things that push us back into our cocoon of the known and away from the freedom of the unknown.  New experiences whether it is relationships, traveling, or just sitting quietly in meditation and being aware of the thoughts in our head, it all can be quite scary.  Unfortunately, the only place we find growth; the only place we find freedom; the only place we truly find a life worth living is in doing things that scare us.  The only way to manifest the greatest versions of our self is to continuously grow and contribute.  This weekend was certainly a weekend of growth for me, and hopefully through this writing, I have been able to contribute to your life in some small way.

Love,

Matt

PS This was one of my favorite moments of the trip.  A beautiful, gentle elephant named Maebualoy who was rescued from the streets of Bangkok after years of working as a street beggar and finally getting hit by a car.  He was the only one sweet enough to feed directly in his mouth and I got the opportunity to bath him down at the river.

Have you found your purpose?

Do you ever find yourself struggling with the fact that you don't have life figured out yet? Do you ever question what your purpose is or what you want to do with the rest of your life? Do you ever find yourself questioning why you can't seem to find the right relationship, the right career, or you just keep finding yourself asking questions about life whose answers seem to be quite elusive?  If you answered yes to any of these, you are not alone.  If you've answered no to all of these, then get your head out from under the rock you've been living under.  Those people who are on this journey we call life are all about asking these questions that challenge us, frustrate us at times, yet provide us with invaluable insight to take our lives to new levels.  It is in the questions, not the answers that we find life's most valuable learning experiences.

I have been reading a very powerful book lately called The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. In the most recent chapter he challenged the readers that it is in the times of questioning our purpose and vision that we discover the most powerful answers.  Just like the thought of losing a relationship makes us love that person more or the thought or act of losing our health makes us value and appreciate our health more, the thought of losing or questioning our very purpose makes us want to define, refine, or re-invent our purpose even more.  We can use that very questioning to paralyze us or propel us to action.

I have been questioning my future more and more lately.  There are things I question about where I see myself in 5-10 years; whether or not I will be married, whether or not a family is in the cards for me, where I see myself settling down, and the list goes on and on.  I am learning to embrace rather than reject these questions.  I use these questions to bring more clarity rather than more confusion, and more peace in my life rather than more inner turmoil.  The keys to creating this are found in creating a level of faith in the future, fulfillment in the moment, and an undying determination and discipline to digger deeper into my heart, head, and soul to manifest a more profound level of self-actualization. I read to expand my knowledge. I meditate to connect with deeper levels of myself. I engage in profound conversations with intelligent individuals to confront and challenge my values and ideals. I work on my Lifebook to clarify exactly what I want in life. I write in order to clarify the ideas I have in my head.

The bad news is creating an extraordinary life takes an extraordinary effort. The good news is that the rewards that you receive from putting in an extraordinary effort are exponential. Begin to question your beliefs more. Begin to question your purpose more. Begin to question your values more. Because it is within the questions that the answers to living an extraordinary life are found.

Love,
Matt

13 Virtues for Life

As we “grow” through life, every moment is an opportunity to re-invent ourselves and re-commit ourselves to our ultimate calling.  As I sit in front of my computer on a quiet Sunday morning, I am reflecting on what a great week it was.  Why was it great? Because I chose it to be so.  It was packed week that consisted of 12-14 hour days, busy days in the office, physical, mental, and professional trainings, late nights and early mornings, reading, writing, and lots of preparation.  To many people that sounds miserable; for me, I call it my life.  In a world distraught with so much distraction, it is easy to stray off the path you have chosen for yourself.  It is easy to get caught up with the insignificant and the mundane.  It is easy to gravitate away from the things that matter most into a land of just “existing.”  It is up to each one of us to clearly define exactly what we want to stand for.  I love the variation of this quote made by Rosa Parks. “Stand for something or you will fall for anything.  Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” What do you want to create in your life? Do you want to stand for peace, harmony, and fulfillment? Do you want to stand for prosperity, contribution, and integrity? What do you want?

I recently discovered that Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a noted polymath, author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat, and USA’s first millionaire, developed and lived his life by 13 specific virtues.  It governed and lead him in everything he did.  It was his roadmap to success.  I figured if it was good enough for Benjamin Franklin, it was good enough for me so I decided to write down the 13 virtues for which I would dedicate my life to following and pair each one with a motto. I would like to share them with you:

1) Integrity – “My word is my word is my word.”

2) Peace – “I express serenity and centeredness from my core in every situation.”

3) Authenticity – “I am who I say I am.”

4) Love – “I radiate love to all of humanity.”

5) Sincerity – “I speak with authenticity and compassion.”

6) Empathy – “I have the ability to feel what others feel.”

7) Charisma – “I am fully present and I connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.”

8) Joy – “I live with a zest for life.”

9) Prosperity – “I attract abundance everywhere I go and in everything I do.”

10) Faith – “I believe in a high power that guides me in everything I do.”

11) Movement – “I move naturally, consistently, and constantly.”

12) Courage – “My life is dedicated to growth, learning, and being the best I can be.”

13) Excellence – “I look for ways to contribute as much value as possible to people’s lives.”

Living a fulfilled life takes work.  It takes energy.  It takes focus and determination.  It takes doing what so few people are willing to do.  Success also leaves clues.  Are you expanding your awareness and increasing your focus to pick up on those clues? Model and mirror your behaviors and actions from the people you admire but always remember to make it your own.  Spend time everyday working on yourself.  Be clear with exactly what you want to manifest and create in your life.  Don’t leave your life up to chance. Begin today creating the life you would love to live and never look back.

Love,

Matt

Let go. Connect more.

If someone were to ask, “Matt, if there was one thing that someone could do transform their life, what would that be?” Let me preface this with the fact that if you really want to live an extraordinary life, there are many things you need to do, however, there are certain things which give you a much bigger “bang for your buck.”  One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that of connection – connection with myself and connection with others.  We spend so much time “connecting” to computers, cell phones, iPads, and Wifi hotspots, we have essentially lost the ability to connect with ourselves and the people around us.  In the past, there was little technology so people were actually forced to talk to each other.  Imagine that! If they did not want to talk to anybody, their only choice was to seek within and have an internal dialogue with themselves.  How terrible that would be! Now, we trade meditation and observing our thoughts for Facebook and Youtube.  We trade connecting and learning from the people around us for Candy Crush and Angry Birds.  Time with friends is spent staring at a phone and family time is traded for computer games and e-mail.  Opportunities to connect with people have never been greater yet we have never been more distracted and disconnected.

From my perspective, this crisis of a lack of human connection is not going to get any better.  Our distractions become even more plentiful everyday and take us away from the things that really change people’s lives like communication and relationships.  Interestingly, as the distractions become more abundant and human connection becomes even more rare, your ability to connect and effectively communicate is even more influential and impactful than ever before.  Imagine the surprise on someone’s face when someone actually listened to them.  Imagine the joy that would be created in the lives of your children if you put down the phone and laptop and gave them your undivided attention.  Imagine the fulfillment that would occur in a relationship if you created the connection and intensity that nothing else in the world mattered except that moment when you two are together.  Imagine the feeling your customers would have if you actually listened with an open mind and a compassionate heart with absolutely no judgment.  Imagine if you actually sat in silence for 10-15 minutes per day and just observed your own thoughts, how much you would learn about yourself.  How many of you sit for 10-15 minutes per day in complete silence journaling or meditating in order to cultivate a better relationship with yourself?  How many of you do that with your spouse, your friends, and your children?  In a world where people are so disconnected from everyone around them including themselves, could you imagine the impact that giving someone 100% of yourself, of your attention, of your compassion, of your empathy, and of your love for even just a few minutes would have on their day?  You would be giving someone the rarest commodity there is nowadays – connection. 

In order to connect with people on the highest level, you must first begin by connecting with yourself.  Sit in meditation, read, journal, take a day just for yourself, and even take a holiday alone.  This will allow you to communicate with the most important person in your life – yourself.  Also, the greatest thing you can do to connect with other people is to become genuinely interested in them.  Listen to them.  Pay attention to their needs, wants, and desires.  Every moment of everyday is an opportunity to connect with yourself and the people around you.  Let us both commit to distracting ourselves less and listening to our inner dialogue more; less talking and more listening; less taking and more giving; less emotional barriers and more opening of our heart; and less judging and more unconditional love.  Not only will this change your life, but it will create a ripple effect that will touch more lives than you could possibly imagine.  The beautiful thing is you can start now.  Just close your laptop, put away your phone, and shut off your iPad, and begin connecting. 

Love,

Matt 

Overcoming Obstacles

A powerful key to personal transformation is to make your life vision more powerful than any circumstance you may be facing in your life.  Let me share a story with you.  Yesterday was a big day in the office.  Saturday mornings are the busiest time in the practice where for 4 hours straight we are packed with couples, kids, and many 3 generation families all coming in to get adjusted together.  The music is up and the energy is great.  That day the energy was especially great because we had one of our quarterly workshops in the office on “Moving Well.”  As the office began to fill up with more and more with people, I couldn’t help but notice one of my patients, a beautiful woman in her 70s, coming to attend the talk.  She is a sweet and gentle woman who has just started care with me a couple of weeks ago.  It was inspiring for me to see her there because when most people are winding down and becoming less mobile, less energetic, and focusing less on improving their lives, there sits this woman in her 70s dedicating her Saturday afternoon to learn how to bring more energy, movement, and vitality into her life.  She was engaged throughout the entire workshop and even came up to me after and said how excited she was to move more.  She was going to start with sitting down in a chair and standing up from a chair multiple times per day and work to do full squats without any assistance from anyone else.  This is a beautiful person with a powerful vision for her life.  She was not going to let her current circumstance overshadow the vision she had for her life.  As the teacher that day, I quickly became the student. 

We all have circumstances in our life that trouble us.  We all have areas in our life that are not where we would love them to be.  It may be in dealing with relationships, finances, work, family, or our health.  Is your vision for your life more powerful than those circumstances or are you living as a victim to your circumstances?  Now the question we need to ask is, “How do we create an empowering vision for our life?”

1 Become vulnerable.  Be open to your emotions and the sensations you feel in your body on a regular basis.  Be open to what inspires you, what challenges you, what gets your skin crawling and blood boiling, what you enjoy doing, and who you do and don’t enjoy being with.  The first key to developing a life vision is as Socrates said, “Know thyself.”

2 Cutlivate and determine the way you want to feel about life.  Many people confuse this with goals.  Achieving goals do not necessarily make you happy. The only true way to happiness is to choose it! There is no inherent meaning in things and experiences except the meaning we give it.  Instead of wishing for a red Ferrari or brand new Rolex to make you happy, how about choosing happiness now? Wouldn’t it be better to live your life happy and attract the things you want as an expression of that happiness rather than basing your happiness on the accomplishment of things or experiences?  The person who finds as much happiness in the smile of a child as they would in winning a bright red, brand new Ferrari has the whole world in their hands. 

3 Create a plan and a strategy for your life. Let me give you an example. Let us say you take where you are right now and your ultimate goal is peace, happiness, joy, and fulfillment.  Happiness doesn’t pay the bills.  Happiness doesn’t provide for you and your family.  Happiness doesn’t let you travel around the world.  Happiness doesn’t allow you to serve your fellow man.  Happiness must be backed by a 4 letter dirty word – WORK.  This reminds me of a parable of a fellow who approached the door of a house with a magnificent garden full of fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers.  People traveled from all over to see the unbelievable beauty of this creation.  The fellow knocked on the door and the owner of the garden answered the door.  The fellow asked the owner how he had come to buy a piece of land with such a beautiful garden. The man replied, ”When I bought the land, it was only weeds and grass.  I had a vision and saw the potential of what could be created and set forth working everyday to make that vision a reality. G-d had provided me with a blank piece of land.  It was our partnership that created what you see before you.”

We are not defined by our circumstances.  We are defined by who we are and who we become in dealing with our circumstances.  Like the beautiful woman in my office, when you create a vision for your life that is more powerful than any circumstance you may face, you will find that everything is serving your evolution.  You will find that every circumstance is a stepping stone to your happiness.  Each stone, large and small, elevates you to new heights if you open yourself up to the lessons that every opportunity can provide you.  My beautiful patient has inspired me to never give up in the pursuit of the vision I have for my life.  My hope is she has done the same for you.

Love,

Matt

Would you love to always function at your peak?

As Jim Collins so famously stated, “Good is the enemy of great.”  Most of us do not have great lives because we have settled for good lives.  We do not have great relationships, bodies, finances, and peace of mind primarily because we live good, decent, or even mediocre lives.   There are so few truly successful people that live extraordinarily in all areas of life because that would take an extraordinary amount of work.  It would take the tenacity to get bruised, knocked down, and beat up and to choose to continue on the path.  It takes the mental capacity to be vulnerable and admit our struggles and challenges but continue to persevere anyway.  It takes the time, effort, and intense focus of creating a purpose and a standard of principles for our lives and become unwavering in our commitment to adhere to those principles.  It is easy to talk about integrity, character, goals, and standards, but it takes living on a completely different level to be able to devote our lives to actually living at that level.  It is not just for the chosen few or the outrageously talented.  It is for anybody who wants it bad enough to turn the “shoulds” in our life into “musts.”  I learned from Anthony Robbins that most people just “should” all over themselves.  “I know I should exercise.” Never going to happen! It needs to be a “must.” “I must exercise. I must meditate. I must eat healthy. I must learn and grow everyday.” It doesn’t take a long time to change your life.  All it takes is a decision!  It takes a decision to never again accept anything less than excellence.  It takes a decision to live your life in the realm of extraordinary, spectacular, amazing, and mind-blowing. 

We must monitor every thought, every feeling, and every action and ask ourselves if these are thoughts, feelings, and actions that the ideal image of ourselves would make or do.  If not, change it immediately.  The true masters are not perfect.  It only appears that way because the speed at which they transform a self-defeating thought or detrimental action is so fast it is imperceptible to normal people.  Living at this level begins with a choice to never again accept living at the level you are currently operating on, but that must be backed by a fortress-like drive and commitment to develop a masterful level of consciousness, self-awareness, and evaluation of everything that you do.

People that tell me they want to create a new standard for themselves say to me all the time things like “Well I am just not a morning person.  I don’t like waking up early.  I enjoy eating pizza too much.  I don’t want to work everyday. I just can’t get into that book.” And the list goes on and on.  Do you think I like waking up at 5:30 am on a Saturday?  Do you think I don’t crave pizza and French fries? Do you really think I am captivated by every book that I read?  Absolutely not.  I crave pizza just as much as the next person.  I enjoy sleeping in and being lazy all day and I am really good at it when given the chance to do so!  However, I have come to a point in my life where sleeping in is not as powerful as being the best I can be to serve my patients.  Eating pizza is not powerful enough to keep me from creating the body I have always dreamed about.  The benefit of reading personal finance, personal development, and spiritual books has far outweighed the drudge of sifting through some of the stuff that has many times put me to sleep before I finished reading even a single page. 

It hasn’t always been that way though.  There was a time when I would have laughed at you if you told me I’d ever wake up before 8 am.  There was a time when I literally had no control over the food I ate and I was a victim to my food vices.  There was a time when I only read fun, fiction novels because doing what was fun and interesting was more important to me than doing what I needed to do to transform my life.  If you are feeling stuck and you don’t know when or where to begin, the answer is now and with something.  Every great sage and master of this world began right where you are.  The difference is they decided that the path to enlightenment, success, and happiness was forged through hard work, commitment, and presence.  They made a choice that nothing was more powerful than the path that leads to magnificence.  When you finally make that decision, the universe will conjure everything you have ever dreamed about and the life you would love to live will manifest before your very eyes.

Love,

Matt

The book that changed my life...

As I turned the last page of the most inspiring and touching book I have ever read, my heart is touched in a way no other book has touched me.  In Left to Tell, by Immaculee Ilibagiza, illustrates the true story of a women who lived and kept her faith and love for god and humanity amidst the brutal and heart wrenching period of the Rwandan holocaust. The Rwandan holocaust is one of the most tragic events in the history of mankind where one million Tutsis were hunted and slaughtered with guns, grenades, and machetes in an effort to annihilate and erase an entire group of people from history in just three short months.  She survived while hiding in a three foot by four foot bathroom for 3 months with 7 other women on barely enough food to survive. She was hunted daily and many times found the killers just an arm's length away on the other side of the wall she was hiding behind ready to discover her at any moment. Both of her parents as well as all of her siblings were brutally murdered by the Hutu extremists, yet she still maintained her faith and love for god and even found forgiveness in her heart for the people who murdered her family.  Left to Tell is her story.

I was moved beyond words at the beauty and amazing heart that was so palpable it practically reached off the page and touched me.  She found a sense of peace and love in her heart through such great atrocities that many people can't even begin to fathom.  It is sometimes through our darkest hour and our greatest struggles that our faith, heart, and love is challenged.  It is through our trials and tribulations that we have the opportunity to give in to doubt, hate, and fear, or we can work on centering ourselves and connecting with a higher power.

 I hope that we never have to go through or experience anything even close to what Immaculee had to endure to test our faith, power to forgive, and love. However, we all have our own trials and tribulations to endure.  We all have things in our life that we need to put our faith in and trust that life is going to unfold exactly the way it is supposed to. I firmly believe that we have the capacity to live our life as though everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle. I firmly believe that it is possible to believe and be grateful that literally everything in our life happens for a reason and that reason is love. Everything serves us in strengthening our capacity to be grateful and to love.  I possess no where near the level of faith that I so admire in Immaculee but I commit myself to strengthening my resolve every single day.  

When we put our faith in a higher power, we are never alone on this journey.  When we forgive people who have wronged us in any way, we free ourselves from the shackles of hatred that block our true light from being expressed.  When we open our heart to all that life offers us with gratitude, we discover that every situation, painful and pleasurable, is serving us.  When we seek answers to life's most challenging questions with an open mind as well as an open heart, we can communicate with the part of our soul that is all knowing and all powerful.  We begin to communicate with God.

Love,

Matt

A message from Bali...

Smiling Buddah cafe

At this very moment, I am sitting in a beautiful cafe called Smiling Buddah, tucked back in an alcove of a pristine beach in east Bali, sipping a cup of herbal tea and eating a local organic dish made from the leaf of the blingbing tree, watching the sun glisten off the waves as they come crashing to the shore.  Interestingly, this is the same cafe Elizabeth Gilbert stayed at while she wrote her book, "Eat, Pray, Love." It is with this sense of peace, relaxation, and connection with nature that I am composed to write the next step in mastering the art of living called decisiveness. I would argue that decisiveness is one of the most powerful tools that any individual can do to not only creating a life of abundance, wealth, and success, but also a life of peace, harmony, and fulfillment.

You see, every moment of everyday of our life we make choices whether we are aware of these choices or not.  Many of our choices are made subconsciously based on the programming that has been imbedded in our mind and very few of our choices are made consciously.  And unfortunately, many of the choices we make are based on fear and a lack mindset.  When we become conscious of our choices, and we make them with more regularity and more powerfully, we begin to manifest a life we would love.  Let me give you an example of a decision made consciously and powerfully.  I remember when I was a kid, all I wanted more than anything was to drive.  I didn't know how much money I needed or what I needed to study but I was willing to do whatever it took to be able to drive.  There wasn't even a doubt in my mind.  I sacrificed going out on Saturday nights with friends so I could work.  I woke up on Sunday and mowed lawns and pulled weeds in neighbors' lawns for years to save money for a car.  I didn't know if I would be able to afford car insurance or gas, but I also knew it didn't matter because I was willing to do whatever it took to make it happen.  I made a decision and there was no looking back.  Think about a time in your life when you bought your first car, first house, or had your first child. There was probably some sense of doubt behind your ability to be able to afford it, but your conviction far exceeded your doubt.

Now at this this point many people are wondering, "But what if I made a wrong decision? What if a make a decision and things don't work out?"  Then what I would do is give up and go back to living your life as a victim because you are the only one who makes decisions that don't work out. I'm kidding! We all make decisions that don't work out! I have made more decisions that didn't work out than I would ever care to count. These have resulted in failed relationships, investments, and injuries from exercise, some of which I am still working on to this very day. But do you want to know something all the people with the most amazing and successful lives know yet the majority of the population doesn't? The more decisions you make, the more you learn from those decisions whether or not it worked out, and then the fastest you make the next more powerful decision based on what you learned from the previous decisions, the more growth and joy you will experience in your life.  This is a lesson I am still learning.  Most people either do one of two things, they either make no decisions due to fear, or they make a decision that doesn't work out and they give up.  If you want more peace; if you want more love; if you want more abundance, it is all within your reach.  You just have to decide you are going to keep deciding until.  That is it... Until.  Not until you get tired.  Not until your feelings are hurt. Not until you feel beat up and annoyed.  You do it until.  You do it until you have the relationship of your dreams and you continue to make powerful choices to make it even better.  You do it until you have the career of your dreams and you continue to make powerful choices until it is better.  You do it until you have created an amazing life and you continue to make powerful choices.  Why? Because that's what successful people do.

I spoke earlier about a bad decision I made resulting in a failed investment. Allow me to expand on that story. I was 22 years old and worked most of my life at minimum wage jobs to save money for that car I wanted.  After I purchased that car, I continued to work weekends, after school, and summers, and over the next 6 years, I saved up quite a bit of money.  It was my first year in chiropractic school and I had an amazing investment opportunity open up for me. I didn't really know much about the investment, but it seemed like a great way to earn a substantial return on my money.  I literally put just about all of the money I had saved into this one investment, which in hindsight was probably not the best idea.  Fast forward a few years, the bottom dropped out of the economy and the entire project went bankrupt.  We lost all of our money.  Was this painful? Yes. But was it also a powerful and transformation experience for me? Absolutely.  I learned more about that "loss" than I ever could have gained financially if it worked out.  I've made much better decisions since then about what to do with my resources, time, and energy than I would never have been able to learn otherwise.  And does this mean I will never make a bad decision again? Probably not! But you know what? I will learn from that one too! 

Listen, life is not all about strawberry fields, daisies, and cute little bunnies.  Life is like a rose. It is inevitable that along the way you are going to get pricked, poked, and bleed, but if you keep going and not let that slow you down, you will experience the peace, joy, beauty, and amazing scent that only a rose can provide.  Decide what you want your life to stand for.  Decide who you want to be and what you want to create, and do not let anyone tell you your dreams aren't possible.  Don't let anyone take your dreams away from you.  Do you want that fairytale relationship? Go make it happen.  Do you want to travel around the world? Go for it.  Do you want that dream home or more of a sense of peace? I can't wait to see you create that.  Just make decision on want you want and keep going at it until it is exactly the way you want it.  Just like a child who would never giving up on her journey to learn to walk, may us all have the fortitude, unwavering determination, and decisiveness to apply that mentality to all areas of our life.  That would truly be a life worth living for.

Love,

Matt

Master the Art of Living - Become Outrageously Attractive

Have you ever been in the situation where someone walks into a room, and just by their presence, they shift the entire energy of the room?  How about the speaker who from the moment they open their mouth, they mesmerize the audience with their oratory skills?  How about the person whose charisma and sense of humor is so contagious you can’t help but feel amazing when you are in their presence no matter what kind of a day you are having? Leaders like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Anthony Robbins, Warren Bennis, Steve Jobs, and many others all possess this unique, yet incredibly powerful trait – they are undeniably and outrageously ATTRACTIVE human beings.  I am not referring to their attraction from a strictly physical perspective, but rather a metaphysical, emotional, and spiritual level.  Attractive people possess a level of confidence and self-esteem that seeps from their pores.  They know who they are, what they want, and what they are willing to do to share their message with the world.  Their presence is mesmerizing and they have a level of knowing of themselves that vibrates with every cell in their being. 

As Martin Luther King Jr said, “A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.”  This level of confidence and belief in an ideal is something most people would love to create in their life.  When you dedicate your life and your cause to something bigger than yourself, you will get beyond yourself and move mountains to get there.  You will wake up early, stay up late, skip meals, skip parties, put yourself in uncomfortable situations on a regular basis, and have a “do whatever it takes” attitude to become the person you want to be in order to create a lasting impact on the people around you.  Whether your vision is to be the best mother or father for your kids or to be the President/CEO of a Fortune 100 company, the characteristics are uniquely the same – you must be an attractive human being.  You do this by bringing an uncompromising commitment to being present, passionate, and loving in all that you do.  Attractive people don’t have the best bodies.  What they do have is the best hearts.  They have a heart for people.  They have a heart for transformation.  They have a heart for being a role model and living with integrity.  They have a heart for being better tomorrow than they are today.  They have a heart for service and leaving a legacy that will transform humanity, or at the very least, leave a loving legacy for their family and friends. 

Attractive people also have a love for learning and growing.  They have a love to develop themselves and their level of confidence, charisma, and communication so they can leave a deeper impact on the world.  As we walk forward on the path of life, the only thing we leave behind is our footprint.  What do you want your footprint to be?

Love,

Matt