My Top 17 Posts of 2009!

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I can’t believe it’s the end of 2009 already. Last year, I did a post with all of your favorites so I figured I’d keep the tradition going.

This has been a very thrilling year for many reasons but mostly because of the birth of my nephew, Landon. He is a pure joy.

Professional wise was exciting as well! MBT continues to grow steadily. Although MBT has only been open for 3 years now (not much to compare to) I know if we were able to grow this past year, we’re well poised for future growth.

MBT was also featured on a number of very popular blogs as well as Good Morning America. For not having a PR person and relying strictly on word of mouth, I’m delighted with our progress.

Anyway, here are your favorite posts based on comments, tweets and mostly emails.

Let’s get to it!

1. Creating anticipating will help your happiness and productivity! I explore how creating short term incentives can boost your productivity and happiness.

2. Have too many passions? Some people are lucky and have more than one passion. How do you know which one to go after? I explore that in this post.

3. Inspiration and motivation are very different. I believe if you’re not highly motivated, inspiration might be exactly what you need.

4. Does being vulnerable in a relationship actually lead to the demise of the relationship? We’re intrigued by the unknown. I think there’s big paradox at play here.

5. Get rich quick schemes and lose 30 pounds in 3 day plans don’t exist! If it seems too good to be true, it is! This type of short term thinking really holds you back.

6. I’m a jokester at heart. I love a good prank. I also love some good banter. A great litmus test for how close you are with someone is how much you can tease one another.

7. Do we marry our parents? I’m convinced that who we are attracted to is determined by our relationship with our parents and how they treat us.

8. Do dumb people really exist? I argue that dumb people don’t exist. They are just disguised as people who really don’t care about what they’re doing.

9. I wonder if how much we gamble in love correlates to how much we gamble in life in general.

10. This is one of the most personal posts I’ve written. My mom celebrated her 60th birthday this year. She means the world to me. Between that, and my sister becoming a mom, I’ve become extremely nostalgic.

11. In this post, I explore why I’ll probably never write a bestselling diet book. 10 % of USA Today bestsellers are diet books. People truly enjoy buying diet books because it provides an instant boost of hope. It’s like buying a lottery ticket. We buy the ticket for the feeling we get between when we pay the $1 and when we find out we lost.

12. Is your ego getting in your way? Oh man! How egos get in the way in so many little and big ways. How many times a day are you actually just defending your ego? Think about that for a second.

13. How to get and give advice. What kind of advice do you really want? Ask yourself this before you ask for advice.

14. The worst word in the English language. So many people think the answer to all of their problems is more: more things, more money, more toys, etc. I absolutely disagree! What we really want is closer than we think.

15. Maturity. This is a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about. What makes someone mature? Does having shit happen to you make you more mature?

16. Entrepreneurship is not all it’s cracked up to be. So many people believe starting a business is the solution to their problems. Starting a business should be something you have to do! Not something you want to do.

17. The interior decorator problem. Knowing what you want is the key to getting it. So many people have no idea what they want. I explore ways to help you figure out what it is you might want.

As always, thank you for reading my blog!

I have a lot of fun (and hopefully interesting) posts planned for 2010.

Have a happy, healthy and fit New Year and I’ll see you in 2010 ready to go!

The Happiness Project – Why Happiness is Cool and Why You Should Buy the Book (Plus a Fun Chance to Win the Book!)

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I did it all for the happiness!

Almost 3 years ago, I quit my full time job to pursue my passions of health and fitness, writing and helping people and married it with entrepreneurship to make myself happier.

It worked! (In fact, helping people get the body they want never gets old!)

However, one of the most worrisome sentiments I hear from clients, is that for some reason, many feel guilty pursuing their health and fitness goals. They feel as though it’s selfish and self-centered as they should be focused on their spouse and/or kids.

As I practice a very holistic approach with my clients, I learn about other areas of their life too. Sadly, many feel the same way about pursuing other interests as well.

When there is disconnect between our desires and actions, unhappiness ensues. And if we’re unhappy, we’ll be way more likely to eat emotionally.

However, for many people, being out of shape is what is making them unhappy! And even after having identified the problem, many people still feel guilty for making time to exercise and to prepare healthy meals.

Here’s why Gretchen Rubin’s, The Happiness Project is so important: She has made it cool to pursue your happiness! If it’s going to make you happy, you should invest in yourself because…

One of her 4 splendid truths is: One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself. (That’s worth reading again. Don’t let the simplicity of it mask its brilliance.)

Gretchen eloquently encourages us to pursue our own happiness project as she has done so herself. I’ve been a huge fan of her blog for more 2 years now!

Why?

Well, who doesn’t want to be happier? One of the reasons why I am such a health and fitness fanatic is because in 4th grade I discovered how great exercising and eating right made me feel. This is why I’ve made this my life’s work.

To me, happiness and fitness equals one in the same. They go hand in hand.

However, we all know this! We all know the transformative potential of eating right and exercising.

A lack of knowledge (for the most part) isn’t the problem. The real problem is a lack of consistent action. Actually doing it!

Sadly, most people don’t want to change. Instead they rather read blogs and books and buy ridiculous exercise videos and contraptions that make them feel like they’re changing.

Let’s face it. If it were easy to change, people would do it! (It’s the accountability and the pushing and the coaching and the guidance and the inspiration and the daily expectations that help the change occur.)

However, there are many things we do (and don’t do) that affect our happiness significantly that don’t require all that much effort or change and Gretchen has extensively researched all of this for us.

I’ve read a few of her other books and she is maniacal with research. But, she has an incredible ability to synthesize complex ideas and readings into very bite size and juicy nuggets.

Rubin has proven to me, as I’m a long time follower; it is possible to change your life in many areas, without actually changing your life.

I must confess. Just writing that sentence makes me uneasy. Last night I was watching a ‘random’ person on an infomercial tout an exercise product that “was so easy, she didn’t feel like she was exercising!” Then I watched another one (I’m fascinated by them) with a woman preaching, “You can truly eat whatever you want and still lose weight!”

Finally, last Friday 20-20 had a segment about trick photography in the diet and weight loss industry which made me even sicker.

Sadly all of this makes people believe real change is possible without any real change. It’s not! If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten!

However, and I say this very carefully, Gretchen actually provides extremely actionable tips that don’t require all that much change. For example, an extra hour of sleep can do more for your happiness than a $60,000 raise!

The Happiness Project might be one of the few things you can read that changes your life – without really changing it.

So why do I care if you buy this book? Well, I truly and sincerely believe that if you read it, it’ll make you happier. And that’s exactly why I do what I do. Because I know that when you feel and look as good as you can, you’re more productive, confident, energized, and of course, happier!

And helping people become happier is sure one heck of a way to become happier yourself!

***If you’d like to win a copy of The Happiness Project tell me in the comments your happiest memory. I’ll pick the winner and I’ll mail you the book. We’ll make Sunday the 20th at 2 P.M EST the cut off. Check back here for updates!

[Update: Book Winner. Thanks for your comments. I enjoyed reading all of your happiest memories! Unfortunately, there can only be one winner and it was a very tough decision. I’m going to pick Michelle because I loved the simplicity of it and also that it was different from the other 3 entries. I wish I could send you all a book but I only have one copy. Michelle, if you can email me at GuruGilbert at yahoo dot com with your address, I’ll mail the book out to you tomorrow. Thanks, guys! 🙂 ]

Tiger Woods Business is Nobody’s Damn Business!

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Here’s the thing: Tiger Woods business isn’t anybody’s business! However, Tiger Woods wouldn’t be Tiger Woods, if no one cared about his business!

There in lies the juxtaposition so many celebrities face. “Just leave me alone. I want my privacy!” they plead.

Many professional athletes have sympathy for Woods, too.

NFL football player, Jason Taylor, of the Miami Dolphins was in the locker room and saw ESPN running a tease about Woods. He reached up and turned off the TV. “Nobody’s damned business,” Taylor said.

Do you really want people to not care about your business Tiger (or Jason)? The reason why athletes and celebrities get mega-endorsement deals is because so many people are so emotionally invested in them. So many people do care about them and their business.

If Tiger endorses Nike and uses their clubs (or gets them used on him) then I want to use them. If he puts his name on it, he must believe in it. And if he believes in it, it must be good enough for me the conventional thinking goes. If I love rapper 50 Cent then why shouldn’t I drink his Formula 50 beverage or buy Britney Spears perfume?

Growing up when I thought the NBA was a legitimate career option, I idolized Michael Jordan. I drank Gatorade, got his sneakers and wore Air Jordan clothes. I tried to look, dress and act like him when I played basketball because I wanted to be like him.

That’s why companies pay gazillions of dollars to celebrities. People emulate highly successful people. They buy and do what highly successful people tell them to do because they aspire to be like them.

Companies only spend the bazillions because it works. Want to know if an infomercial product is selling? If you keep seeing the commercial over and over it’s working!

No one cares about the worst players. And if no one cares about your business, no company is going to want you to endorse their products.

So embrace it Tiger. You certainly can’t fight it at this point!

Ironically, one of my post popular posts “Why you shouldn’t hit the snooze button ever again, according to Tiger Woods“, includes an interesting nugget from him.

He said, “The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that’s how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That’s the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.”