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The 1 Lie All Millennial’s Believe

February 11, 2023/2 Comments/in Self Improvement /by VIBEcx

The 1 Lie All Millennial’s Believe (That Destroys Their Happiness)

Don’t get caught in the trap By Matthew Jones @M_tthewJones

Millennials grew up within unique circumstances. The technology that we use and take for granted today was newly developed. Things like the internet, cell phones, and email were just beginning to take off. Along with those technological advances came better marketing.

A study by Gallop found that 70 percent of Millennials are disengaged at work. None of these individuals identify with being involved in and enthusiastic about their job. And because other research studies indicate that contentment in one’s career is directly correlated with life satisfaction, it’s logical to assume that most Millennials are unhappy. Many Millennials are unhappy for one reason–they are influenced by a lie deeply embedded within American values.

The one lie all Millennials believe that keeps them unhappy is thinking that owning a material object will create a favorable effect.

Millennials have been brainwashed by advertising. In fact, one study found that up to 80 percent of students cannot tell the difference between advertising and a news story. And this is hardly their fault–the integrity of mainstream news organizations has plummeted over the years and marketing has far more tools to make impressions than it did in the past.

When people are convinced that material possessions can create positive change, they become lazy and complacent. They think that consuming more and more is the answer to all problems and uncomfortable feelings, resulting in a never-ending cycle of melancholy and mindless consumerism to temporarily assuage emotional voids.

So, what can you do?

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TED Talk – The Hidden Power of Smiling

January 14, 2023/in Body Language, Self Improvement /by VIBEcx

Body language, Smile, Smiling, Happiness, Power. Ron Gutman reviews a raft of studies about smiling, and reveals some surprising results. Did you know your smile can be a predictor of how long you’ll live — and that a simple smile has a measurable effect on your overall well-being? Prepare to flex a few facial muscles as you learn more about this evolutionarily contagious behavior.

Have you ever wondered why being around children, who smile so frequently, makes you smile very often? A recent study at Uppsala University in Sweden found that it’s very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles. You ask why? Because smiling is evolutionarily contagious, and it suppresses the control we usually have on our facial muscles. Mimicking a smile and experiencing it physically helps us understand whether our smile is fake or real, so we can understand the emotional state of the smiler.

Another aha! moment came from a 2010 Wayne State University research project that looked into pre-1950s baseball cards of Major League players. The researchers found that the span of a player’s smilecould actually predict the span of his life. Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, where players with beaming smiles lived an average of almost 80 years.

And unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling can help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and reduce overall blood pressure.

And if that’s not enough, smiling can actually make you look good in the eyes of others. A recent study at Penn State University found that when you smile, you don’t only appear to be more likable and courteous, but you actually appear to be more competent.

So whenever you want to look great and competent, reduce your stress or improve your marriage, or feel as if you just had a whole stack of high-quality chocolate without incurring the caloric cost, or as if you found 25 grand in a pocket of an old jacket you hadn’t worn for ages, or whenever you want to tap into a superpower that will help you and everyone around you live a longer, healthier, happier life, smile.

Watch Ron Gutman’s Ted Talk Here

Ron Gutman/Entrepreneur

Ron Gutman is the founder and CEO of HealthTap, free mobile and online apps for health info. He’s also the organizer of TEDxSiliconValley. As a graduate student at Stanford, Gutman organized and led a multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students from the schools of Engineering, Medicine, Business, Psychology and Law to conduct research in personalized health and to design ways to help people live healthier, happier lives. He is an angel investor and advisor to health and technology companies such as Rock Health and Harvard Medical School’s SMArt Initiative.

Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Personal Achievement

December 14, 2022/in Self Improvement /by VIBEcx

Trendy – Passion and Persistence Are Always In Style

January 6, 2022/in Self Improvement /by John Anderson

Trends, fads and fashions come and go, but passion and persistence are always in style. And you can quote me on that.

Written by John A. Anderson

Quality and substance will always eclipse fleeting fame and temporary trends. But we seem to be a society drenched in the drama of the day, and we are prone towards jumping on bandwagons.

Before I swim too far into the deep end of the philosophy pool, let me clarify that some trends are helpful—even healthful. Much has been accomplished in the name of redirecting negative trends. And, thank goodness for trendy pioneers who create or invent products that result in all manner of improvement. I wouldn’t call electricity a trend, but thank heaven for Ben Franklin’s little kite-flying stunt that seemed to start that ball rolling. From immunizations and vaccinations to seatbelts, Adidas, and even CrossFit, there are many healthcare pioneers who have recognized a need and forged a path in a healthy direction. So, to a certain extent, trends are good—but I wouldn’t say it’s “all good.”

Our eating habits have evolved over time. That’s good. But the evolution is clearly towards the trend of eating out. That’s statistically not good in terms of our waistlines. In fact, if you graph the dining dollars spent over the last 5 decades, you see that Americans spent $43 billion eating out in the 70’s, $120 billion in the 80’s, $239 in the 90’s, $380 billion in the 2000s, and over $683 billion last year. If you want an eerie correlative trend, go google obesity rates in America. Pretty identical. Fortunately, many restaurants are emerging that address this issue, and want to offer tasty, healthy fare—(shout-out and personal plug for CostaVida.com which is one of our health-focused favorites).

In order to start a healthy trend in your own life, you must figure out ‘why’ you want to change, and become focused and passionate towards that end, every day. I love the quote by John Maxwell,

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”

That’s so true. Forget fads and fashions, especially in terms of diet. Focus instead on your day-to-day routine—improving one thing at a time—and you’ll move forward in so many ways. And, one final thought about trends: never let contemporary, popular trends dictate your self-perception. Don’t waste one single day fretting over the comparison between you and the current fads. Attractiveness is truly from within, and in so many ways, you improve with age—flaws and all. All in all, life is about change, growth, learning, relationship development and personal improvement. Now those are trends I believe in.