Trust the Process – You’re Going to Be Okay

BY Brett

Oftentimes, I write a lot of these blog posts as a way to remind myself of certain truths to living that I’ve neglected or have forgotten as I’ve moved forward in life.

This isn’t one of them. This is a post made purely to help you – because I know of the things that you might be going through right now, or might be going through in the future.

This isn’t a post that I want to go viral (actually, I never really care if my posts do go viral), nor do I care if a billion people on the internet read it and link back to me.

My goal? To help one person out. That’s it.

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4 Reasons to Be Your Own Hero

BY Brett

“Be your own hero, it’s cheaper than a movie ticket.” – Douglas Horton

In personal development, there is one thing and one thing only that you can do in order to truly liberate yourself and raise your standard of living – and in case you hadn’t guessed it from the title of this post and the quote above, it is to become the hero of your life.

Becoming a hero – choosing to act like one instead of sliding on your spidey suit under your work clothes every day and hoping your secret identity doesn’t get revealed – covers all of the bases of personal development in one fell swoop. It makes you perform better in every aspect of your life while making life a lot less banal. Being a hero – even a superhero – is a lot more fun than just being Normal Norman or Mediocre Marty.

Instead, life suddenly becomes an adventure, complete with evil villains, risky missions, trusty sidekicks,...

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Make An Impact – Do Things That Matter

BY Brett

Do you feel like you’re treading water – always doing things, always busy, but never getting anything of true value done? If you’re starting to stagnate, a period where the quality of everything you’re doing suffers and you’re starting to feel a bit down on life, what you’re missing is impact.

We live in a culture that equates business with value. If you’re busy doing something, or if you work insanely long hours, then you must be doing something right; conversely, if you only work 20 hours per week, you’re “lazy” and aren’t working hard enough to do your part in the economy.

Neither is true. As has been harped on so many times – you don’t need more hours, you need smarter hours. For those of you who are familiar with Pareto’s principle – 20% of your efforts bring 80% of your returns – you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

However, I want to expand...

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The 4 Fundamentals of Your Development

BY Brett

If you read any blog long enough (including this one), you’ll see many of the same themes and ideas pop up again and again.

“You are enough”.

Self-trust.

Taking risks and learning from them.

Being authentic.

Facing your fears.

Make yourself into the person you want to be.

You can see where this is going – many of the ideas we use here in the personal development community are actually just different takes on the various fundamental ideas that form the core of self improvement. This is with good reason – the more we concentrate on the fundamentals, the more improvement we’ll see. The fundamentals are called “fundamentals” for a good reason – they form the base upon all other ideas are formed. If you don’t have the fundamentals down, more “advanced” things, like worrying about your possessions or your job, will be worthless.

Conversely,...

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Why You Are No Better Than Anyone Else

BY Brett

When you’re as focused on self-development and improving your life as I am, inevitably, you’re going to start developing a bit of a big ego and a superiority complex. What happens is, since you’re taking on new habits and mannerisms to improve your life and feel happy within yourself, you begin to look down on others for not doing the same. You start to think that you’re “earning” your happiness and feelings of superiority because you’ve learned to be in the moment, to treat yourself right, to get your relationships sorted out, and everything else that I’ll write about here on PluginID. You start thinking something along the lines of this:

“Hey, I’m putting the work in to improve every day, I’m facing my fears and conquering them, and I’m going out and chasing my dreams – while everyone else is just asleep and not even in control of their lives. They’re totally unaware how fear controls their lives,...

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Today Is Your Funeral

BY Brett

You could die ten minutes from now and not even know it.

Of course, you probably won’t, but realize this: there will be a point in your life where you’ll be strolling along, driving somewhere, or laying fast asleep, and you will die 10 minutes from then. It’ll come out of nowhere. And the book will be closed on your life.

That moment could come in a week, a month, or in 40 years. You don’t get to choose which one of them it is – unless, of course, you’re planning on committing suicide, but I don’t think that’s a route anyone should even consider.

One day, you’re going to die, and life as you know it will end forever. The world you know now will all vanish. I don’t want to get into the metaphysics of dying, since that ends up falling under religion, and no discussion of where we go after we die ever ends well.

On the day you die, the world will end. Nonexistence...

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You’re A Ferrari – Treat Yourself Like One

BY Brett

Too often, we treat ourselves poorly. We beat ourselves up over simple mistakes, we indulge in unhealthy foods, we don’t get enough sleep, and we work too much while not giving ourselves enough time to enjoy life. Simply put – this is disrespecting ourselves. When we do this, we are setting up a dynamic that allows us to treat ourselves badly, like a feudal landlord or old Southern planter would to his peasants and slaves, respectively.

However, we know that we’re of much higher value than a lowly serf. In fact, we’re of such high value that I like to say that we are the equivalent of a Ferrari – a work of amazing craftsmanship and performance. In order to treat yourself like you’re high value, you have to understand that you are high value.

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Enough Acting: Embrace Your Vulnerability

BY Brett

I’m sick of all the acting that I (and the rest of humanity) do.

I’m sick of the shells that we put up. I’m sick of the pretending, the posturing, and the placating.

I’m sick of people hiding from who they really are and what they really feel because of what other people may think of them.

I’m guilty of all this, and more. We all are. It’s high time that we stopped pretending to be someone and to just start being real again.

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The Letting Go Challenge: Are You In?

BY Brett

One of the concepts that revolutionized my life was living in the moment. Heavily influenced by Eckhart Tolle’s the Power of Now, I made it my mission to immerse myself in the Now as much as possible.

Unfortunately, I hit roadblock after roadblock. As it turns out, thinking about being present actually hurts your ability to be present and in the moment. The only times that I’d ever be able to be in the moment were the times when I was meditating, and even then it became difficult to just let myself fall into the moment. I grew frustrated, and began to feel like, while living in the Now was an awesome concept, it was actually an ideal that no one, not even Eckhart Tolle, could ever reach. The idea of living a life of “no-mind” was impossible, to me.

And, as of right now – it still is an impossibility, but I’m going to try to change that.

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The Challenges Never Stop

BY Brett

I got into this process of self-improvement because I never wanted to have a bad day again. I wanted to create a utopia – in my mind – so the world could never hurt me in any way. I wanted a state of permanent happiness, of endless joy, and was willing to do all the studying it took of philosophy and psychology in order to make it happen.

You know what?

I got to the point where I was happy – but I realized there is no escape from the pain, sadness, and exhaustion that is so common in our world. None. No matter what happens, even if you become “enlightened” (and I’m certainly not), there will always be trials in our life that test our courage, strength, and resilience. They will push us to our limits, they will hurt us, and we’ll have to fight through them every time.

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