1919 – 1933 THE COMPETING FORCES OF NATIONALISM AND GLOBALIST COMMUNISM


1919

UNKNOWN ADOLF HITLER SPARKS A MOVEMENT

When Adolf Hitler joins the German Workers Party (DAP) in 1919, he becomes
only the 7th member of the nationalist group. The now 30-year old, self-educated
artist from Austria has little money and no political connections. But his oratorical,
organizational, and marketing talents propel him to leadership of the tiny band of
brothers. Hitler’s mesmerizing beer-hall speeches stop onlookers in their tracks. He
denounces the Versailles Treaty, the occupation, the ‘November Criminals’, the
Marxists, the Press, and the international bankers.
DAP membership then grows rapidly, recruiting unemployed young men and
disgruntled ex-soldiers betrayed during the war. Hitler appeals to veterans because he
himself was a front-line soldier, twice decorated for serious injuries sustained,
and twice more for conspicuous bravery on the battlefield.
To draw recruits away from both the rival “right” Nationalist and “left” Socialist
Parties, Hitler simply adds ‘National’ and ‘Socialist’ to the Party’s name, making it
NSDAP. (They never called themselves “Nazis”!). To draw people away from the
Reds, Hitler also uses red flags, with a symbol of the ancient Aryans of Asia.

Adolf Hitler: A talented painter with a dream to save Germany.

Hitler designed the NSDAP flag. The “swastika” was a symbol of the ancient

Aryan peoples who came from Asia and settled in Europe.

FEBRUARY 8, 1920

WINSTON CHURCHILL WARNS OF A WORLDWIDE JEWISH COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY

Lord of the Admiralty and Lusitania war criminal Winston Churchill is a supporter
of Zionism (Jewish state in Palestine), but opposed to Jewish Communism. Although

both movements trace back to the same Rothschild Crime Family, they sometimes
appear – to this day- to operate at cross-purposes, and in conflict with each other.
In an editorial appearing in the Illustrated Sunday Herald entitled, ‘Zionism vs
Bolshevism’, Churchill argues that Jews should support Zionism as an alternative to
Communism; missing the fact that both movements emanate from the same source.
The future Prime Minister rails against “the schemes of the International Jews”:
“This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Weishaupt to those
of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa
Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this worldwide
conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on
the basis of arrested development, envious malevolence, and impossible
equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster,
has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the
French Revolution……It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement
during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary
personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have
gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become the
undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”

1921 – 22

‘WAR COMMUNISM’ STARVES 10 MILLION TO DEATH!
Lenin’s oppression of the Russian people breaks their strength and will to resist. The
Famine of 1921 is partly due to the folly of central economic planning, as well as to a
A deliberate effort to kill off any Russians still not willing to support the Red takeover.
The Communists ran the money-printing presses to finance their civil war and welfare schemes. When inflation follows, they impose price controls, causing farmers
to lose money by farming. Compounding the shortage is the Red seizure of seeds.
The horrific famine is then used to selectively feed those regions submissive to the
Reds, and starve out those loyal to the Whites.
Starving Russians and Ukrainians resort to eating grass, or even cannibalizing the
dead. The horror escalates when Lenin deliberately blocks foreign relief efforts.
When the death toll reaches 10 million, Lenin finally allows relief. Were it not for the
mostly American aid, the death toll for Lenin’s cruelty would have doubled.

JULY, 1921

NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHES SOVIET CLAIM THAT 6 MILLION JEWS FACE EXTERMINATION BY ‘WHITE’ COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES

Told you, a recurrent theme

1922

THE REDS WIN THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR / THE ‘SOVIET UNION’ (U.S.S.R.) IS FORMALLY ESTABLISHED

At the conclusion of the Red Terror, Red Famine, and Red-White Civil War in 1922,
Lenin and Trotsky formally establish the Soviet Union with its capital city
in Moscow. The former Russian Empire is now also known as the USSR (Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics).
The Communist giant spans Eurasia. Of its multi-ethnic “republics” the Russian
republic is by far the largest and most populated. The well-known criminal brutality
of the Soviets shocks the world, as do the Communist declarations to overthrow all
other nations. For these reasons, three consecutive Republican Presidents (Harding,
Coolidge, Hoover), will refuse to diplomatically recognize the Soviet Union.

OCTOBER, 1922

‘THE MARCH ON ROME’ / BENITO MUSSOLINI’S FASCISTS
SAVE ITALY FROM THE COMMUNISTS & LIBERALS
The global economic Depression that follows World War I gives the Reds and
socialists an opportunity to agitate in post war Italy. Benito Mussolini and his Fascist
Party decide to act before the “democratic” Reds can get any stronger.
In October of ’22, Mussolini declares before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in
Naples: “Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy.” Fascist “Black- shirts” capture the strategic points of Italy. Mussolini then leads a March of 30,000
men on the Capital City of Rome. On October 28, a sympathetic King Victor
Emmanuel III – whose father had been murdered by a Red in 1900 – .grants political
power to Mussolini. Mussolini is supported by veterans and the business class.
The corrupt left-wing political parties are eventually shut down. Under “Il Duce’s”
rule, the pro-business Fascist Party takes control and restores order to Italy. Fascism
combines an honest and sound monetary system with a mix of free enterprise
and state regulated corporatism.

JANUARY 11, 1923

FRANCE INVADES GERMANY’S RUHR REGION AFTER GERMANY IS LATE ON EXTORTION PAYMENTS

More than four years have passed since Germany’s complete and total surrender at the
end of The Great War. The poor & hunger-stricken German nation is now
having difficulty in making the massive reparations extortion payments imposed by
The Treaty of Versailles. Having already destroyed the value of Germany’s currency,
the Allies now demand to be paid in timber and coal. Extortionist allied troops move
in for a “shakedown.”
In a further humiliation of an already occupied Germany (Rhineland), 60,000 troops
from Belgium, France, and the French African colonies expand the occupation into
the defenseless Ruhr (an industrial region of Germany). While German children go hungry, the Allies collect their stolen loot of physical German commodities. Machine
gun posts are set up in the streets as Allied troops take food and supplies from
German shopkeepers. Other than stage passive demonstrations, there is nothing the
disarmed, humiliated, and hungry German people can do about the French abuse.

1923

GERMAN SUPER-INFLATION WIPES OUT THE MIDDLE CLASS
With Allied troops occupying the Ruhr, and the German Mark losing its value to
inflation, Germany in ’22-23 goes through a horrific hyperinflation. The socialist
Weimer Government and the Warburg/Rothschild Central Bank resort to massively
expanding the money supply, mostly to cover the crushing debt imposed by the
Versailles Treaty, but also to keep the Weimar Republic’s welfare state afloat.
The life savings of the German people is wiped out as prices double every 2 days for
20 straight months! Workers are paid daily, so that they may go food shopping
before prices double again. Many Germans refer to their devalued money as
“Judefetzen”, (Jewish confetti).
This leads to more chaos and another attempt by the Communists to stage a
revolution. As they had during the war, the Marxist Trade Unions call for strikes at a
time when Germany is most vulnerable. To pacify the striking workers, the Weimar /
Reichsbank complex pumps even more paper debt money into the economy.

NOVEMBER 8, 1923

‘THE BEER HALL PUTSCH’ / HITLER ATTEMPTS A COUP IN BAVARIAN CITY OF MUNICH

Righteous anger is boiling over the hyper-inflation and the new French-Belgian
occupation. Hitler decides that the time is right to seize power from the local
government in Munich. Hoping that war veterans will join the revolt and move
against the national government in Berlin, Hitler uses a rally in a Munich ‘Beer Hall’
to launch a coup.
The local uprising, or “putsch”, is ignited by Hitler’s moving speech, but fails to
sustain itself as troops open fire on the nationalist rebels, killing 16 of them. Hitler
and others are arrested and tried for treason. At his trial, Hitler uses the occasion to
spread his ideas, which are then published in the newspapers. The judge is
impressed, and issues a lenient sentence for the rebels. Though the Munich coup has
failed, the legend of the great orator grows, attracting new followers by the day.
Membership in Hitler’s NSDAP tops 20,000 by year’s end.

JANUARY 21, 1924

LENIN DIES / PSYCHO JOSEPH STALIN TAKES OVER THE USSR
When Lenin dies in 1924, Joseph Stalin, Secretary of the Communist Party Central
Committee, skillfully outmaneuvers Red Army leader Lev Trotsky to take leadership
of the USSR. Stalin will eventually expel Trotsky from the Party, then from the
USSR itself. Finally, he will have his Marxist rival axed through his brain by a Soviet
agent in Mexico.
Stalin’s brutality instills fear not only in the enslaved people of the Soviet Union, but
also in the hearts of fellow Communists that the paranoid Stalin believes may
challenge his leadership. The egomaniac renames a city after himself (Stalingrad),
and erects statues of his likeness in town squares. From time to time, Stalin will
“purge” many of his own Red comrades, as well as wives. He dumps his first wife,
and drives his second, (as well as one of his sons) to suicide.
In years to come, Stalin’s chilling crimes against humanity will make Lenin’s Red
Terror and Red Famine seem like minor infractions by comparison.

QUOTE TO REMEMBER:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian historian and literary figure

AUGUST, 1924

THE DAWES PLAN / ZIONIST BANKERS REFINANCE GERMANY’S DEBT

In 1924, are financing of Germany’s reparations debt, as well as Allied debt to the US
Treasury (which in turn is indebted to the Fed) is worked out. The terms are still
harsh, but the German economy and currency are temporarily stabilized. In 5 years
the Dawes plan will also fail, and be replaced by the Young Plan. The reality of the
Dawes Plan, named after US Vice President Charles Dawes, is that Dawes himself
has little to do with it. It was the Zionist-Globalist bankers imposing the new plan.
Former UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George reveals:
“The international bankers dictated the Dawes reparations settlement. The
protocol, which was signed between the allies and Germany, is the triumph of the
international financier. Agreement would never have been reached without the
brutal intervention of the international bankers. They swept statesman,
politicians, and journalists aside, and issued their orders with the imperiousness of
absolute Monarchs, who knew there was no appeal from their ruthless decrees.
The Dawes report was fashioned by the Money Kings.”

1925

HITLER PUBLISHES ‘MEIN KAMPF’

During his imprisonment of 1924, Hitler had dictated ‘Mein Kampf’ (My Struggle).
His close associate Rudolf Hess, imprisoned with Hitler, typed out the dictation for
the book, which was published in 1925. In it, Hitler places the blame for Germany’s
sorry condition upon a Global conspiracy of Marxists and Finance Capitalists.
According to Hitler, this global conspiracy for world government, directed by Jewish
bankers, engineered Germany’s loss of The Great War, the Russian Revolution, the
Versailles Treaty, and the resulting hyperinflation that devastated Germany. He
accuses the elite Marxist Jews of Germany of controlling newspapers and banking,
fomenting wars, and corrupting the art, culture and morality of Europe.
Mein Kampf combines elements of a political manifesto and an autobiography along
with discussions of history, philosophy, and economics. Originally written for the
followers of National Socialism, Mein Kampf quickly grows in popularity, making
Hitler a wealthy man.

1926

ZIONIST DAVID SARNOFF ESTABLISHES NBC RADIO
David Sarnoff was born in a small Jewish village in Tsarist Russia and immigrated
to New York in 1900. At the age of 15, he joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph
Company of America, starting a 60-year career in electronic communications.
By 1919, Sarnoff is General Manager of RCA radio. In 1926, Sarnoff’s RCA forms
NBC, the first major broadcast network in the U.S. Sarnoff is instrumental in building
the AM broadcasting radio business which became the preeminent public radio
standard for the majority of the 20th century. During World War II, he will serve
under General Eisenhower as a “Communications Consultant” (psychological
warfare). Sarnoff, who had no military experience, would be awarded the rank of
Brigadier General.
When television in America is born under the name of the National Broadcast
Corporation, the first TV show aired at the New York World’s Fair and was
introduced by Sarnoff himself. Leadership of RCA-NBC eventually passes down

to Sarnoff’s eldest son, Robert Sarnoff, one of the husbands of Felicia Schiff-
Warburg of the two famous banking families. Franklin Roosevelt Jr. (son of FDR)

was also an ex-husband of Felicia Schiff-Warburg.
The Sarnoff Family will control RCA-NBC TV for more than 60 years.

APRIL, 1927

CIVIL WAR IN CHINA / MAO’s REDS vs CHIANG’s NATIONALISTS

A major civil war breaks out in China between the governing Kuomintang (KMT or

Chinese nationalist Party) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). The anti-
Communist Chiang Kai Shek leads the KMT. The Red guerillas are led by Mao Tse

Tung, who himself is supported by Comintern boss Joe Stalin. This bloody civil war
will eventually blend into the Asian theater of World War II vs Japan, and finally end
with Communist victory in 1949.

1928

STALIN SEIZES THE LAST OF RUSSIA’S FARMS / RESISTERS ARE KILLED

As part of Stalin’s first “5 Year Plan”, the small farmers of the Soviet Union are
forced into a collectivization scheme. The government, not the market, now controls
output and sets prices. Land, livestock, and equipment become property of “the people” (the State). Reluctant farmers (kulaks) are smeared in the Soviet press as
“greedy” “capitalists.” Those who continue to resist the state’s directives are
murdered or imprisoned.
Thousands of private farmers are killed, but the really massive death tolls will occur
during the famine of the early 1930’s. Like all centrally planned economic schemes,
in which “intellectuals” think they know better than the actual farmer, Stalin’s
collectivization, and other “5-Year Plans”, yield only low living standards for the
Soviet people.

OCTOBER, 1929

THE FEDERAL RESERVE CRASHES THE STOCK MARKET / ENGINEERS ‘THE GREAT DEPRESSION’

In the late 1920’s, the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy of “easy
money” had made it profitable for investors to borrow money at artificially low
interest rates, and then purchase stocks with the money. Like two con men working
a ‘mark’, the Zionist Fed pumps out credit while the Zionist press hypes the
Stock Market “rally”. As surely as night follows day, a massive bubble is inflated. In 1929, the Fed suddenly hit the brakes on the money supply with a “tight money”
policy. When the adjustment to the Fed’s bubble occurs, the Stock Market collapses.
Investors big and small are ruined. Instead of loosening up the money supply to
enable debtors to pay down old debt, the Fed tightens even more. The sudden
shortage of currency creates a tidal wave of bankruptcies across the U.S., as debtors
cannot get their hands on enough money to pay off old loans. The well connected
then swoop in to buy up assets at bargain prices.
The press, the Reds, and the idiot liberals will blame “capitalism” and Republican
policies for the coming worldwide Great Depression, while deceitfully ignoring the
deliberate role of Warburg/Rothschild Federal Reserve.

SEPTEMBER, 1930

HITLER’S NSDAP BECOMES 2ND LARGEST PARTY IN GERMANY
The worldwide Great Depression hits debt-heavy Germany especially hard as loans
from U.S. banks dry up. The people had already been worn out by the Versailles
reparations, the unjust war guilt, the 1920’s inflation, and chronic unemployment.
There is a real fear among many that a hungry Germany may yet fall to Communism.
As a result, the NSDAP makes its first major electoral breakthrough. Hitler’s party
wins 6 million votes (18% of vote), increasing its number of seats in the Reichstag (German parliament) from 12, to 107. NSDAP is now second only to the 143 seats
held by Germany’s socialist party, the Social Democrats. The Communist Party also
gains 23 seats, raising its Reichstag representation to 77 Reds in the Reichstag, plus
any secret members posing as Social Democrats.

General Leon Degrelle on the education of Adolf Hilter

“Hitler was self-taught and he made no attempt to hide
the fact. The smug conceit of intellectuals, their shiny
ideas packaged like so many flashlight batteries,
irritated him at times. His own knowledge he had
acquired through selective and unremitting study, and
he knew far more than thousands of diploma-decorated
academics.
I don’t think anyone ever read as much as he did. He
normally read one book every day, always first reading
the conclusion and the index in order to gauge the work’s interest for him. He had the
power to extract the essence of each book and then store it in his computer-like mind.
I have heard him talk about complicated scientific books with faultless precision,
even at the height of the war.
His intellectual curiosity was limitless. He was readily familiar with the writings of
the most diverse authors, and nothing was too complex for his comprehension. He
had a deep knowledge and understanding of Buddha, Confucius and Jesus Christ, as
well as Luther, Calvin, and Savonarola; of literary giants such as Dante, Schiller,
Belgian SS volunteer General Leon
Degrelle with Hitler Shakespeare and Goethe; and analytical writers such as Renan and Gobineau, Chamberlain and Sorel.
He trained himself in philosophy by studying Aristotle and Plato. He could quote
entire paragraphs of Schopenhauer from memory, and for a long time carried a
pocket edition of Schopenhauer with him. Nietzsche taught him much about
willpower.
His thirst for knowledge was unquenchable. He spent hundreds of hours studying the
works of Tacitus and Mommsen, military strategists such as Clausewitz, and empire
builders such as Bismarck. Nothing escaped him: world history or the history of
civilizations, the study of the Bible and the Talmud, Thomistic philosophy and all the
masterpieces of Homer, Sophocles, Horace, Ovid, Titus Livius and Cicero. He knew
Julian the Apostate as if he had been his contemporary.
His knowledge also extended to mechanics. He knew how engines worked; he
understood the ballistics of various weapons; and he astonished the best medical
scientists with his knowledge of medicine and biology.
The universality of Hitler’s knowledge may surprise or displease those unaware of
it, but it is nonetheless a historical fact: Hitler was one of the most cultivated men of
this century. Many times more so than Churchill, an intellectual mediocrity; or than
Pierre Laval, who had a merely cursory knowledge of history; or than Roosevelt; or
Eisenhower, who never got beyond detective novels.”
Leon Degrelle (1993)

DECEMBER, 1931

SHOCK CLAIM OF 6 MILLION JEWS FACING STARVATION IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

How can this be?

1932

STALIN & KAGANOVICH ENGINEER ANOTHER FAMINE
The Holodomor (Ukrainian translation: Killing by hunger) was a man-made famine
occurring mainly, but not exclusively, in the Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union
during 1932-33. The famine was caused partly by the folly of Stalin’s latest economic
scheme, and partly due to a deliberate, strategic terror plan engineered by Stalin’s
powerful Jewish brother-in-law, Lazar Kaganovich.
Encyclopedia Britannica estimates 8 million people, 5 million of them Ukrainian,
were starved to death by the Stalin-Kaganovich famine. Some estimates run as high
as 10 million. The famine-genocide is aimed at stamping out anti-communist
resistance as well as starving anti-Red peasants in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Despite Soviet denials of the famine and a news blackout in most of the US
Zionist/Globalist press, the truth of the Holodomor was indeed known to the West.
Unlike Lenin’s terror famine of 1921, this time no outside assistance is permitted
into the Soviet Union. Millions die a slow death and people resort to cannibalism.
With this famine, Stalin and his henchmen destroy any remaining resistance to the
Red Revolution.

JULY & NOVEMBER, 1932

NSDAP SCORES BIG IN TWO ELECTIONS / BECOMES LARGEST PARTY IN REICHSTAG

German elections in 1932 are held under violent conditions. NSDAP “brown shirts”
clash in the streets with Red paramilitary. Hitler’s party scores major gains, winning 230 Reichstag seats. It is now the largest political body, but it is still not a majority in
the 608 member body.
Political deadlocks trigger another election in November: NSDAP: 196, Social
Democrats: 121, Communists: 100, Center Party: 70, and 9 minor parties split 100
seats. Germany’s chaotic politics are paralyzed and divided.
The brutal “austerity” policies of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning had shrunk the
economy by about 25%, but still did not prevent the German budget deficit from
growing. Unemployment tops 30% as desperate Germans commit suicide by the
10’s of 1000’s.
In addition to a Parliamentary Reichstag and a Chancellor, Germany has a President
with unique powers. President Paul von Hindenburg was a World War I Field
Marshall and is a national hero. Politically, he is a non-Party Independent. On the
basis of the NSDAP’s 196 seats, and in order to end the gridlock, Hitler asks
Hindenburg to appoint him as Chancellor. Hindenburg refuses Hitler’s request.

1866 – 1933

AN EPIDEMIC OF RED MURDER & TERROR

To better understand and appreciate the legitimate fear of Communist & Anarchist
revolutionaries (Reds) that affected many Germans and Europeans prior to World
War II, it is important to review the shocking record of high profile murders and acts
of terror that occurred in Europe and America during the preceding decades. It is equally important to understand that the fanatical Anarchist & Communist street
radicals (“Reds”), who carry out these bold attacks, are only the blind tools of the
NWO Globalists who fund and control their organizations.
1866: Unsuccessful assassination attempt made on German Chancellor Bismarck.
1874: A 2nd unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on Bismarck.
1878: (May) Unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on German Kaiser Wilhelm.
1878: (June) A 2nd unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on Kaiser Wilhelm.
1881: Tsar of Russia is assassinated after four previous attempts had failed.
1893: Mayor of Moscow is assassinated.
1884: Reds kill 8 policemen in Chicago.
1894: Prime Minister of France is assassinated.
1897: Prime Minister of Spain is assassinated.
1900: King of Italy is assassinated.
1901: U.S. President William McKinley is assassinated.
1905: Unsuccessful assassination attempt made on King and Queen Consort of Spain.
1905: Grand Duke of Russia is assassinated.
1908: King and Crown Prince of Portugal are assassinated.
1911: Prime Minister of Russia is assassinated.
1918: Tsar of Russia and his entire family are murdered.
1919: Reds bomb Wall Street in New York; 38 people killed.
1919: Private home of U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer is bombed.
1922: Unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on the President of France.
1932: Package bomb destroys home of U.S. Judge Webster Thayer, injuring his wife
1933: The Mayor of Chicago is assassinated.
1918-1933: The Soviet Union headed by former street-radicals Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin
et al, murders, tortures and imprisons scores of millions of innocent people. That’s
what happens when Red revolutionaries actually take over a government!

10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life

Stress is a major problem for many people — a hectic, stressful job, a chaotic home life, bills to worry about and bad habits such as unhealthy eating, drinking and smoking can lead to a mountain of stress.

If your life is full of stress, there are some simple things you can do to get to a more manageable level.

Now, your life will probably never be stress-free. That’s not desirable (even if it was possible) because stress is something that challenges you and helps you grow—when it’s at a reasonable level. But when stress gets too high, it causes you to be unhappy and unhealthy.

One of the keys to success is taking a realistic, gradual approach to change. How do you do it? One change at a time. Change one habit a month and gradually, over the course of a year or two, you will find you have made long-lasting changes to many things in your life.

Not all of these tips may work for you. Each person is different. Pick and choose the ones that you feel will be effective for you, and give them a try. One at a time.

  1. One thing at a time. This is the simplest and best way to start reducing your stress, and you can start today. Right now. Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Clear your desk of distractions. Pick something to work on. Need to write a report? Do only that. Remove distractions such as phones and email notifications while you’re working on that report. If you’re going to review email, do only that. This takes practice, and you’ll get urges to do other things. Just keep practicing and you’ll get better at it.
  2. Simplify your schedule. A hectic schedule is a major cause of high stress. Simplify by reducing the number of commitments in your life to the essentials. Learn to say no to the rest — and slowly get out of commitments that aren’t beneficial to you. Schedule only a few important things each day, and put space between them. Leave room for down time and fun.
  3. Get moving. Do something each day to be active — walk, hike, play a sport, go for a run, do yoga. It doesn’t have to be grueling to reduce stress. Just move. Have fun doing it.
  4. Develop one healthy habit this month. Other than getting active, improving your health overall will help with the stress. But do it one habit at a time. Eat fruits and veggies for snacks. Floss every day. Quit smoking. Cook a healthy dinner. Drink water instead of soda. One habit at a time.
  5. Do something calming. What do you enjoy that calms you down? For many people, it can be the “get moving” activity discussed above. But it could also be taking a nap, or a bath, or reading. Other people are calmed by housework or yard work. Some people like to meditate, or take a nature walk. Find your calming activity and try to do it each day.
  6. Simplify your finances. Finances can be a drain on your energy and a major stressor. If that’s true with you, find ways to simplify things. Automate savings and bill payments and debt payments. Spend less by shopping (at malls or online) much less. Find ways to have fun that don’t involve spending money.
  7. Have a blast! Have fun each day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Play with your kids — that can take your mind off everything and can be really hilarious. Play sports (with or without your kids). Board games are fun. Whatever you choose, be sure to laugh.
  8. Get creative. Throwing yourself into a creative activity is another great way to de-stress and to prevent stress. Consider writing, painting, woodworking, playing music, sketching, cooking or making pottery, interior design or building things.
  9. Declutter. Take 20 to 30 minutes and just go through a room, getting rid of stuff you don’t use or need anymore or find a better place for it. When you are done, you will have a nice, peaceful environment for work, play, and living. Do this a little at a time — make it one of your “fun activities.”
  10. Be early. Being late can be very stressful. Try to leave earlier by getting ready earlier, or by scheduling more space between events. Things always take longer than normal, so schedule some buffer time: extra time to get ready, to commute, to do errands before you need to be somewhere, to attend a meeting before another scheduled appointment. If you get somewhere early, it’s good to have some reading material. 

Huge Stone Spheres Discovered On Arctic Deserted Island

These large stone spheres in the Franz Josef archipelago leave scientists flummoxed.

Visitors to this cosmic landscape named the round rocks ‘footballs of the Gods’. The huge stone balls up to two metres in height are found on appropriately-named Champ island above the polar circle.

Perfectly spherical they are scattered all over this northern uninhabited outpost.

Information Items 7422

The barren 374 km2 (144 sq miles) island was never inhabited and scientists cannot agree how they were formed.

Inside Map 1
Inside Map 2
Mysterious Stone Spheres Arctic Island 12
Mysterious Stone Spheres Arctic Island 11
Mysterious Stone Spheres Arctic Island 10
Mysterious Stone Spheres Arctic Island 9
Inside Balls 1

Similar but smaller stone balls were found last year on Heiss island in the same archipelago.

On Heiss island ‘the spherulites look like round bullets or cannon balls. We found balls of different sizes, but none as big as at Champ island.’

Inside Balls 5
Inside Balls 13
Inside Flower

As previous reports have noted every geologist seems to have their own theory.

Austrian geologist Sepp Fridhubera claimed the rounded shapes of the rocks were formed underwater and they have an organic core in the centre.

Similar round stones were discovered in VolgogradCosta Rica (more pictures here), New Zealand, China, Bosnia, and South Africa. Another unexplained nature phenomenon in a remote area around the world.

6 Ways to Make Getting Up Early Work for You

To accomplish a big goal, such as launching a new business, writing a novel or starting an exercise regime, productivity experts will often suggest getting up early. You can get a lot done in a quiet house with no distractions or interruptions. While this is sound advice, it’s easier said than done.

“You might think getting up earlier is just a matter of discipline, but it actually takes much more than that,” says Julie Morgensterntime management expert and author of Never Check Email in the Morning (Touchstone; 2005). “The truth is, your entire ecosystem has been built around sleeping later.”

When you try to change your morning routine, several obstacles will stand in your way. It’s possible to overcome them, however; the key is to start the night before. Morgenstern offers six strategies to make getting up early work for you:

1. Change your mindset. Many people fight going to sleep because they want to get more done – they have separation anxiety from the day. But Morgenstern teaches her clients to think differently.

“Consider sleep the beginning of the next day,” she says, adding that this mind shift can change the way you look at sleep and make it exciting. “Sleep becomes an active element; you’re charging up your battery.”

2. Adjust your bedtime. Many of us are already sleep deprived, and stealing another hour of sleep will just set you up for failure. The only way to be successful is to go to bed earlier. Determine how many hours of sleep your body requires and count backwards from there.

“Getting up earlier requires a fundamental shift in your neuro-pathways,” she says. “While the change makes total sense to you the day before, actually doing it the next morning is hard work and requires you to break a lot of patterns.”

3. Adjust other nighttime activities. You’ll also have to adjust the time you eat dinner as well as after-dinner decompression activities, such as reading, says Morgenstern.

“You’re not being realistic if you say you’ll get up early but then don’t build everything else into your day” accordingly, she says. Also, eat dinner no less than two to three hours before bed, which is optimal for being able to fall asleep and sleep well.

4. Prepare for your morning activity. Sometimes what keeps us in bed isn’t fatigue, but the fact the morning task we’ve planned is overwhelming. To make these activities less daunting, prep the night before and organize your equipment. Set out your gym clothes, yoga mat or running shoes, if you’re planning to exercise. If you’re going to be on your computer, tidy your home office, and preprogram your coffee maker. 

“Starting something new can feel complicated,” says Morgenstern. “Take the time to prepare and you’ll increase your chances for success.”

5. Turn off electronics. At least 90 minutes before bed pull the plug on electronic activities, such as watching television, checking email or social media or reading on an e-reader.

“Science says it’s a source of energy and over-stimulates us,” she says. “It’s like drinking a Red Bull before bed – there’s no way you’ll fall asleep.”

She suggests replacing it with something relaxing, such as listening to music, drawing, or prepping meals for next day.

6. Create a pre-bedtime routine. Give yourself peace of mind and time to unwind by creating a calming pre-bedtime routine. For example, make a ritual of checking the windows and locks. Dim the lights and stretch. Or take a leisurely walk.

“This routine will help you fall asleep quickly and easily,” she says. “It will also significantly increase your chances of getting up in morning.”

The Two Things We All Want and Need Most

What are our deepest psychological needs?

What are the fundamental motivations that animate our lives, our deepest needs, the ultimate goals compelling our pursuits and desires? This is an old question in psychology, occasioning much debate.

In thinking about this question, it is useful to borrow a notion from evolutionary science, which distinguishes between proximal and ultimate causes. Proximal causes motivate behavior in the here and now. Ultimate causes are the underlying foundational forces that shape and direct our here-and-now attentions. So the proximal reason you find a woman attractive is her lush hair and smooth skin. But why are lush hair and smooth skin attractive? That’s an ultimate cause question. Proximally, you are excited by the newness of your purchase. But why is “new” exciting, ultimately?

Proximal causes are usually means to ultimate cause ends. In the examples above, lush hair and soft skin are a proxy for youth, which is a proxy for fertility, a winner in the evolutionary gene-spreading game. Novelty excites because new is change, and change requires adaptation if one wishes to survive and thrive; both danger (a predator looking to eat us up) and promise (prey we can catch and eat) lie in that which is new in the environment. Therefore tending to novelty is a winning strategy in the evolutionary game.

As you might have noticed, life is complicated. Thus, any outcome may have multiple, layered proximal and ultimate causes. The proximal causes of the sailboat gliding over the water include the fact that the wind catches the sail, and also that the sailor is proficient, and also that the boom is sturdy, etc. The ultimate causes may include the survival advantage conferred by our ability to get places fast over water, the benefits of territorial control and access to resources, our desire for an increased sense of security achieved through making something unknown known, etc.

Clearly, some ultimate motives are biological. We are biological systems and everything that is possible to us has to be biologically possible. Evolutionary psychology posits the survival and reproductive functions as the ultimate biological motivations. Reverse-engineer anything we do and you’ll find these motives at play underneath. There is truth and elegance to this claim. It’s quite easy to see how underneath all our varied efforts to distinguish ourselves, achieve, accrue fame or amass fortune, lie an effort to improve our access to resources, including protective ones (i.e. survive) and attract the attentions of quality mates (i.e. reproduce).

But human beings are not just the sum of their biological processes and structures. At least not in any way that’s interesting. We also have a characteristic human psychology, which is neither synonymous with nor reducible to biology. Reducing human behavior and experience to their biological functions provides an impoverished, not to say distorted, picture of humanity. It turns out that psychological motivations—perhaps in part because they are born of (and map onto) biological imperatives—are as enduring and fundamental (ultimate) as biological ones, at least insofar as one wants to understand people’s behavior and lived experience.

To wit, a thought experiment: Let’s say we brought a biblical figure—say, Moses—back to life right now. Despite easily passing for a Brooklyn hipster—sandals, beard and all, Moses would nevertheless be utterly perplexed at the sight of your iPhone. Yet he’d be quite familiar with your emotional and relational (that is, psychological) issues—family petulance, greed and lust, your conflict with your boss and rage at social injustice, etc. In other words, while our technology has changed dramatically from biblical times, our psychology has remained more or less the same. The proximal means by which we communicate have changed much; the ultimate need to communicate, not at all.

In psychology’s early days, human motivation was often attributed to inborn ‘instincts’—innate, fixed patterns of behavior that emerge fully formed in response to certain stimuli. Early theorists such as William James posited lists of human instincts including shyness, love, play, shame, anger, fear, etc. “Instinct leads,” said William James, “intelligence does but follow.” One problem with instinct theories is that they describe rather than explain motivation, and are tautological by nature (Q: Why am I doing x? A: because you have x instinct. Q: How do you know I have x instinct? A: Because you are doing x).

Given their limitations in advancing understanding and prediction, it’s no wonder that instinct theories soon gave way to drive theories. A drive can be defined as an excitatory state produced by an inner disturbance. In other words, when certain biological conditions are unmet (say, I haven’t eaten in a while), the body produces discomfort, which we are then motivated to eliminate (in this case, by eating).

Drive theories owed a debt to the work of Claude Bernard, a 19th century French physiologist who is considered the father of modern experimental physiology. Bernard discovered one of the fundamental principles of organic life, the concept of “homeostasis”—controlled stability of the internal milieu in the face of changing external conditions (think for example: body temperature), which he reasoned was, “the condition for free life.”

Freud, who developed the first influential drive theory in psychology, saw drives as internal forces that compel a movement toward restoring homeostasis. Freud believed that human behavior was motivated by two fundamental biologically-based drives, sex and aggression. These drives, appearing to us as “the psychical representative of the stimuli originating from within the organism” constitute, “the whole flux of our mental life and everything that finds expression in our thoughts.”

Clark Hull, an influential early 20th century American drive theorist, said it thus: “When survival is in jeopardy, the organism is in a state of need (when the biological requirements for survival are not being met) so the organism behaves in a fashion to reduce that need.” Hull believed that humans possessed four primary drives: hunger, thirst, sex and pain avoidance. 

But how does one find the behaviors that serve to effectively reduce the drive? Well, mostly we do so by trial and error, reward and punishment. In other words, we learn from experience how to respond effectively to disruptions in homeostasis.

This idea had by the 1950s worked its way into the behaviorist theory of BF Skinner, according to which we select from a repertoire of behaviors those that produce reinforcements. Skinner, however, had little patience for the notion of internal motivation. While recognizing the existence of inner drives, Skinner nevertheless argued that they did not explain behavior. Rather, the causes of behaviors earlier theorists had attributed to internal drives were actually environmental events, like deprivation and aversive stimulation, not internal states such as thirst or anger.

Drives, as de facto effects of deprivation and aversive conditions, are linked to the probability of certain behaviors, but in a corollary, not causal, manner. For Skinner, internal states like emotion and intention do exist within the brain, but as contingencies, not behavioral causes. 

Either way, both classic ‘push’ drive theories and the newer ‘pull’ behaviorist ideas, while useful in their focus on the interplay between our biological make up and the environment, proved wanting as explanations of complex human behavior. For example, why do some behaviors continue long after the biological needs from which they ostensibly emerged are satisfied? People, after all, eat when they are not hungry, and well past the point of satiation. Second, what’s reinforcing, or tension reducing, about a prisoner refusing to divulge secrets under conditions of continued torture?

It turns out that in terms of the human experience, internal psychological processes matter greatly. If you run over me with your car, I’d be interested to know whether you did so intentionally. The court would want to know, as would your friends, and mine, and God at the pearly gates.

The 1960’s, the emergence of the civil rights and human potential movements—and with them the humanist school in psychology—saw psychology’s attentions shift from a focus on drives to a consideration of psychological needs, defined as psychological conditions in which something is required or wanted. 

“Lists of drives will get us nowhere” wrote the prominent humanist theorist Abraham Maslow, opting instead to create his famous hierarchy of needs, in which biological needs must be adequately satisfied before we may pursue the higher, more delicate self-actualization needs. In Maslow’s words: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.”

The humanistic emphasis on identifying those parts of human experience that made us unique has also provided fertile grounds for the contemplation of the idea of meaning. The psychologist Victor Frankl famously wrote that searching for meaning is ‘‘the primary motivational force in man.” Existentialist psychologists such as Rollo May in particular spoke of the motivation to find meaning, to make sense of one’s existence, as a defining feature of humanity, separating it from all other living creatures. We are aware that we will die, and we are also aware that we are not dead now. So there is a space for us to be—but how? And what? “He who has a why to live for,” said Nietzsche, “can bear almost any how.” Indeed, research has shown that a sense of meaning predicts health and wellbeing. 

The interest in needs and goals has thus replaced the interest in instincts and drives, and, with psychology’s more recent turn toward the study of cognition, the discussion of what needs could be considered fundamental, or ‘ultimate,’ has expanded.

For example, the late Harvard psychologist David McClelland has proposed three such fundamental motivators: the need for achievement (N-Ach) is the extent to which an individual desires to perform difficult and challenging tasks successfully; the need for affiliation, (N-Affil) is the desire for harmonious relationships with other people; the need for power (N-Pow) is a desire for authority, to be in charge. 

Looking to integrate research findings on the dual roles of both extrinsic (pull) and intrinsic (push) motivations in shaping behavior, the psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan proposed the influential self-determination theory, according to which human beings are motivated by three basic, innate goals: competence, affiliation, and autonomy. Competence refers to a desire to control outcome, gain mastery, and become skilled. Affiliation refers to the desire to “interact with, be connected to, and experience caring for other people.” Autonomy concerns the urge to be causal agents and to act in harmony with our integrated self. 

The diverse work on motivation is not easy to summarize. Yet two threads appear (to me) to weave vividly through all or most of the theorizing in this area.

One is the affiliation need, the need to belong. Human beings can survive and thrive only in well-organized groups, and so our search for belonging is foundational, and urgent. Many psychological theories (beyond those mentioned above) allude to this notion in varying forms.

For example, Freud’s brilliant contemporary Alfred Adler argued that our “social interest”—an orientation to live cooperatively with others, value the common good, show interest in the welfare of humankind, and empathically identify with others—was an innate and foundational component of our psychic architecture. A failure on the part of parents and schools to protect and nurture children’s innate social interest was, according to Adler, the source of much individual suffering and social turmoil.

John Bowlby’s influential attachment theory emphasizes the importance of healthy caregiver-child bonds—the so-called ‘secure attachment’—for later emotional health and adaptation. The seminal Russian developmental theorist Lev Vygotsky has written about how development entails a process of “apprenticeship in culture,” where more expert and competent individuals teach children through assisted (‘scaffolded’) interactions how to achieve social competence. More recently, psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, in arguing for the existence of a universal ‘need to belong,’ summarized their case thusly:

“People form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being…Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.”

A second dominant thread weaving through psychological theorizing and research on motivation is that individual human beings move invariably to develop a unique and coherent identity, a psychological sense of self to match the embodied physical self. In fact, the need to belong implicitly presupposes the existence of someone to do the belonging. When the Beatles sang, “all you need is love” they were correct insofar as implying that all love also needs a ‘you.’ 

The American psychologist Gordon Allport argued that it is this innate sense of individual coherence, agency, and continuity that allows us to wake up every morning with the deep certainty that we are the same person who went to sleep last night.

Deci and Ryan put it thusly: “all individuals have natural, innate, and constructive tendencies to develop an ever more elaborated and unified sense of self. That is, we assume people have a primary propensity to forge interconnections among aspects of their own psyches as well as with other individuals and groups in their social worlds.” 

It is true that the concept of self emerges in a social context. We define ourselves vis-a-vis other selves. Cultural norms and traditions heavily influence the kind of selves we construct. Yet it is also incontrovertibly true that there is a universal quality to the notion of self. Selfhood is recognized everywhere—everybody has a name—and many of its characteristics are common across cultures.

The individual body provides a universal framework. We are all embodied, and conscious of that fact. People everywhere develop an awareness of themselves as physically distinct and separable from others. We also share an awareness of our internal activity. “A purely disembodied human emotion,” wrote William James, “is a nonentity.”

We are aware of our stream of consciousness as manifested in thoughts and feelings and its common disruptions, as experienced in sleep and intoxication, for example. We are aware of the existence of a private realm of self, unknown to others. 

My (invariably) astute readers will note readily that these two motivations, while entwined, are also in some fundamental way at odds with each other. For one, group functioning requires cohesion and conformity, which in turn involve a reduction in personal individual autonomy. Likewise, the need to define and express a coherent and unique self in part entails differentiating from the crowd in some meaningful way. Individual caprice is often at odds with communal goals and standards. As Rollo May has written: “Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell.”

The developmental psychologist Erik Erikson has alluded to this inherent tension in his developmental theory. According to Erikson, we develop in a sequence of stages, each involving a distinctive psychosocial ‘crisis,’ the resolution of which may have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. Erikson saw these crises as “psycho-social” in that they pit the individual psychological needs against the needs of society. 

Yet I would argue that it is quite heuristically useful, and justified by much evidence, to think about human motivation on the psychological plain as the interplay of these two fundamental motivations: the ‘need to belong,’ to feel embraced and connected with other humans, loved, protected, accepted and understood, a member of a tribe; and the ‘need to be’—to define and assert a coherent, unique self. There is, it seems to me, a strong case to be made that all our consequential psychological machinations can be traced back to these two motives, our deepest needs: to belong somewhere and to be someone.

If we wish to go further with this model, we may imagine these two motives as dynamic continua: separation-connectedness, marking the ‘need to belong,’ and dependence-autonomy, representing the ‘need to be.’ Placed in a 2×2 table of the kind psychologists love, these categories yield four possible combinations:

Dependence + Connectedness, a state of affairs we may label ‘Infancy’

Dependence + Separation, a state of affairs we may label ‘Anxiety

Autonomy + Separation, which we may label ‘Identity’

Autonomy + Connectedness—let’s call this state ‘Intimacy

                                    Dependence                       Autonomy

Connectedness             Infancy                              Intimacy                             

Separation                     Anxiety                              Identity

These combinations describe, I think, with some elegance, the developmental path toward personality maturity, the journey of becoming.

The infant in the first years of life is both dependent entirely on others for survival and connected, as she posses no clear awareness of a separate self. As the child matures, she acquires an awareness of self that is distinct from others, yet remains thoroughly dependent on them, unfit for autonomous existence. Through adolescence and into young adulthood, one may reach autonomy (psychological, legal, geographical, financial, etc.). Yet, having left childhood and its ways of affiliating behind, must engage the search for adult connectivity—the partner(s), friends, and communal life that are chosen rather than assigned by birth. Later in adulthood, if all works well, one may get to be both genuinely connected (belonging somewhere) and confidently autonomous (being someone).

Multiple Researchers: Great Pyramid And Sphinx Are MUCH Older Than Previously Thought

The Great Pyramid and surrounding pyramids at the Giza complex are much older than 4500 years old, as Egyptologists claim. New research, conducted by scientists free to think outside of the box, agree that this figure isn’t right.

Egyptologists assert that markings made by a “work gang” in the Great Pyramid, allegedly from the fourth dynasty, cite Pharaoh Khufu. And this, to them, proves it was made during his time.

But this argument isn’t proven because stone, in this case limestone, cannot be carbon dated since it is not an organic material. There’s no concrete proof it was built during Khufu’s reign.

This means, from an epistemology perspective, the Khufu claim is more akin to accepted myth and academic doctrine, than substantiated fact.

Multiple Researchers Great Pyramid And Sphinx Are Much Older Than Previously Thought

Why does this matter?

There are multiple reasons why this is important ranging from understanding the complexities of this ancient civilization to reconstructing what we know as the story of humanity and how we evolved on the planet.

The lack of an evidence-based argument for the age of the pyramid leaves the door open for other researchers and those that have stepped up to the plate haven’t disappointed us.

Robert Schoch

Robert M. Schoch is a professor at the College of General Studies at Boston University. He claims that the Great Sphinx, which sits in front of the Great Pyramid complex at Giza is about 13,500 years old.

He cites water erosion patterns as proof some kind of major catastrophe took place in antiquity, wherein large volumes of water were washing over the plateau.

Sphinx Water Erosion

Egyptolosts assert that the Sphinx was built during Pharaoh Khafre’s reign (c. 2558–2532 BC), a few short decades after the date cited above. But Egyptologists reject Schoch’s research, which has been summarily ignored by academics.

However, no valid counter argument is provided.

A valid counter argument is important because, in the scientific process, claims need to be evidence-based. Schoch provides superior evidence for his age of the Sphinx, citing weather erosion on the Sphinx itself and surrounding rock face.

This means, if Egyptologists wanted to truly debunk his claims, they’d have to incorporate his evidence, namely by providing a better explanation as to why there are water erosion patterns.

This suggests Schoch’s numbers are the more accurate ones, at least until more evidence becomes available.

Although Schoch’s claim doesn’t directly relate to the age of the pyramids, it is believed that they were likely built by the same much more ancient civilization.

What could that civilization be? Some claim the legendary Atlantean civilization discussed by Plato.

View Robert Schoch’s Detailed Presentation at the Portal to Ascension Conference 2018 where he explains the science and geology behind the dating of the Sphinx

Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock is a journalist and author, who’s written several New York Times Best Sellers. He’s known for his exploration of ancient history.

In this instance, Hancock worked with Robert Bauval to bring forth the Orion Constellation Theory, which claims that the Great Pyramid Complex is almost a perfect match for the Orion Constellation. Given this, Hancock and Bauval both claim that these megaliths could be at least 12,000 years old.

Other researchers, such as Billy Carson from 4BiddenKnowledge date the Sphinx to an even earlier period 36,000 years ago claiming that Leo was the constellation that the Sphinx was facing and that it would not have been possible to build the Sphinx 13,500 years ago due to the conditions of the terrain since the planet was coming right out of an ice age.

View Billy Carson’s Presentation at the Portal to Ascension Conference 2018 HERE.

Younger Dryas Impact

Multiple researchers, including Hancock, cite the Younger Dryas impact theory as evidence some massive cataclysm changed the face of the earth some 12,000 years ago.

Additionally, mainstream research suggests the Sahara desert was flooded by monsoon rains about 10,000 ago. Could this be the source of the water erosion patterns mentioned by Schoch?

Legends of Atlantis

No discussion of the pyramids would be complete without mentioning Atlantis.

Atlantis is a legendary highly advanced civilization from antiquity, which some say could have been a global civilization.

Plato is the most widely cited source for this, mentioning Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias.

In that work, Solon, a poet and law maker, claims to have visited Neith, where priests he met there told him of historic accounts of Atlantis.

Solon is believed to be a real person. And so, while Plato’s dialogues are fictional, they are considered laden with true history.

Atlantis Discovered in the Bermuda Triangle: The Sunken City Features Giant Pyramids and Sphinxes

Atlantis, is so widely discussed by so many people, from academics and archeologists, to ufologists, spiritualists, and even mediums. While not every claim matches up, dozens share the same basic narrative.

The story is that Atlantis was a highly advanced global civilization that appeared around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.

They used advanced technology that we would regard as magic, such as free energy devices, portal technology, stargates, and spacecraft. Some even say that this civilization also colonized planets and moons in our solar system.

The common threads that relates to this discussion is when and how Atlantis fell. Almost all these alternative sources suggest that when Atlantis feel, the whole of the civilized world at the time went with it.

For thousands of years, humanity was effectively thrust back into the stone age. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Sumerian civilization burst onto the scene, complete with a financial system, legal system, agriculture, and fairly advanced technology at the time.

How is this possible?

Mainstream historians can’t answer this question. But anyone with common sense would likely agree that the Sumerian culture was likely influenced by a much older civilization.

Furthermore, would it not make sense that the erosion patterns on the Sphinx point to a time when water was more abundant? And that the Pyramids are most likely an artifact of a much older, advanced civilization?

If all of this isn’t enough to at least spark your curiosity, consider these incredible facts about the Great Pyramid.

There are over 2 million stone blocks in the Great Pyramid, weighing anywhere from 2 to 50 tones.

The Great Pyramid is aligned 0.067 degrees counterclockwise from perfect cardinal alignment of true north. Modern day buildings are not built with this level of precision.

The Great Pyramid is “earthquake proof” — the irregular blocks make an almost invincible structure.

The Great Pyramid is actually 8-sided, with such precision that, for decades, historians never noticed.

The Great Pyramid encodes fundamental mathematical constants like the pi and phi ratios.

The Great Pyramid, as Hancock and Buvaul assert, is an almost perfect reflection of the constellation of Orion.

The Great Pyramid can focus energy within its various chambers.

Last in this short list, a large void or cavity was recently detected inside the Great Pyramid.

These are just a few mysterious facts that leave modern-day scientists baffled.

Conclusion

Despite what mainstream media and academia contend, we know very little about arguably the most fascinating of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The philosophy of knowledge, epistemology, helps us sort fact from fiction. Using these tried and true tools of analysis, the very same tools at the heart of science, the accepted age of the Great Pyramid is highly suspect.

There’s more evidence to support Schoch’s claim than there is to confirm official dogma coming from Egyptologists.

The Most Successful Kids Have Parents Who Do These 9 Things

Much has been written about the attributes of high-achieving adults, and what makes them different from everyone else. But if you’re a parent, a more compelling question may be: “What can I do to make sure my kids succeed in life?” Here’s what researchers say.

Researchers have previous found that children of older parents tend to have fewer externalizing behavior problems than children of younger parents. But common traits are being discovered in successful adults that appears to affect the way we interact with our children.

1. Don’t Tell Them They Can Be Anything They Want.

According a survey of 400 teenagers, conducted by market research agency C+R Research, young Americans aren’t interested in doing the work that will need to be done in the years to come. Instead, they aspire to be musicians, athletes, or video game designers, even though these kinds of jobs only comprise 1 percent of American occupations.

In reality, jobs in health care or in construction trades will be golden in future decades. Why not steer them into well-paying professions in which there will be a huge shortage of workers?

2. Eat Dinner As a Family.

According to a nonprofit organization operating out of Harvard University, kids who eat with their families roughly five days a week exhibit lower levels of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, obesity, and depression. They also have higher grade-point averages, better vocabularies, and more self-esteem.

3. Enforce No-Screen Time.

Researchers have found that the brains of little kids can be permanently altered when they spend too much time using tablets and smartphones. Specifically, the development of certain abilities is impeded, including focus and attention, vocabulary, and social skills.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says children younger than 18 months should have no screen time at all, other than video-chatting. For kids ages two to five, it recommends limiting screen time to one hour a day.

For older kids, it’s a matter of making sure media doesn’t take the place of adequate sleep, exercise, and social interaction. The AAP also says parents should make the dinner table, the car, and bedrooms media-free zones.

Steve Jobs Didn’t Let His Kids Use iPads & You Shouldn’t Either

4. Work Outside The Home.

There are certainly familial benefits to having a stay-at-home mother, but researchers at Harvard Business School have found that when moms work outside the home, their daughters are more likely to be employed themselves, hold supervisory roles, and make more money than peers whose mothers did not have careers.

5. Make Them Work.

In a 2015 TED Talk, Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult and the former dean of freshman at Stanford University, cites the Harvard Grant Study, which found that the participants who achieved the greatest professional success did chores as a child.

blob:https://embed.ted.com/e47bca07-2029-4b20-a4c2-84635d8f9e5b

6. Delay Gratification.

The classic Marshmallow Experiment of 1972 involved placing a marshmallow in front of a young child, with the promise of a second marshmallow if he or she could refrain from eating the squishy blob while a researcher stepped out of the room for 15 minutes.

Follow-up studies over the next 40 years found that the children who were able to resist the temptation to eat the marshmallow grew up to be people with better social skills, higher test scores, and a lower incidence of substance abuse.

They also turned out to be less obese and better able to deal with stress. To help kids build this skill, train them to have habits that must be accomplished every day — even when they don’t feel like doing them.

“Top performers in every field — athletes, musicians, CEOs, artists — are all more consistent than their peers,” writes James Clear, an author and speaker who studies the habits of successful people. “They show up and deliver day after day while everyone else gets bogged down with the urgencies of daily life and fights a constant battle between procrastination and motivation.”

7. Read to Them.

Researchers at the New York University School of Medicine have found that babies whose parents read to them have better language, literacy, and early reading skills four years later before starting elementary school. And kids who like books when they’re little grow into people who read for fun later on, which has its own set of benefits.

That’s according to Dr. Alice Sullivan, who uses the British Cohort Study to track various aspects of 17,000 people in the U.K.

“We compared children from the same social backgrounds who achieved similar tested abilities at ages five and 10, and discovered that those who frequently read books at age 10 and more than once a week when they were 16 had higher test results than those who read less,” she writes for The Guardian.

“In other words, reading for pleasure was linked to greater intellectual progress, in vocabulary, spelling, and mathematics.”

8. Encourage Them To Travel.

The Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA) surveyed 1,432 U.S. teachers who credit international travel, in particular, with affecting students in a myriad of good ways:

• Desire to travel more (76%)
• Increased tolerance of other cultures and ethnicities (74%)
• Increased willingness to know/ learn/ explore (73%)
• Increased willingness to try different foods (70%)

• Increased independence, self-esteem, and confidence (69%)
• More intellectual curiosity (69%)
• Increased tolerance and respectfulness (66%)
• Better adaptability and sensitivity (66%)

• Being more outgoing (51%)
• Better self-expression (51%)
• Increased attractiveness to college admissions (42%)

If sending your son or daughter abroad or bringing them with you overseas isn’t feasible, take heart. The survey also asked teachers about domestic travel and found similar benefits for students.

9. Let Them Fail.

While it may seem counterintuitive, it’s one of the best things a parent can do. According to Dr. Stephanie O’Leary, a clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and author of Parenting in the Real World: The Rules Have Changed, failure is good for kids on several levels.

First, experiencing failure helps your child learn to cope, a skill that’s certainly needed in the real world. It also provides him or her with the life experience needed to relate to peers in a genuine way. Being challenged also instills the need for hard work and sustained efforts, and also demonstrates that these traits are valuable even without the blue ribbon, gold star, or top score.

Over time, children who have experienced defeat will build resilience and be more willing to attempt difficult tasks and activities because they are not afraid to fail. And, she says, rescuing your child sends the message that you don’t trust him or her.

“Your willingness to see your child struggle communicates that you believe they are capable and that they can handle any outcome, even a negative one,” she says.

THE HIDDEN LEGACY OF THE RUNIT DOME

The Dome
Marshall islands

Our government has not always acted in the most benevolent of ways in the past, particularly when dealing with smaller, vulnerable countries. I have always liked to think that most of these transgressions, though unacceptable, are at the very least acknowledged by following generations of leadership, and reparations are paid or apologies extended to affected groups. Yet a recent episode of Australia’s ABC TV series Foreign Correspondent, titled “The Dome”, exposes the lasting effects of U.S. Cold War nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, and puts a spotlight on our government’s decades of negligence and disregard for human and environmental well-being in the Pacific—all justified by the need for nuclear dominance.

The Marshall Islands, a scattering of over 1000 islands and islets halfway between Hawaii and Australia, was ground zero of U.S. nuclear testing after WW2— over 67 nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapons were detonated there between 1946-1958. The impacts of these tests on the Marshallese people remain tangible to this day: many were forced into permanent exile from their home islands, which remain uninhabitable due to high radiation levels, and elevated rates of cancer resulting from radioactive fallout continue to plague generations. The trauma from these experiences has been seared into the cultural memory of Marshallese society, and a sense of injustice persists through the generations. One of the episode’s poignant scenes shows schoolchildren singing together: “this is our land, gone are the days we live in fear, fear of bombs, guns, and nuclear [weapons]”.

Yet decades after the end of U.S.-led nuclear tests in its backyard, the Marshall Islands remain threatened by the equally irresponsible and immoral actions of the world’s biggest superpower. The episode brings us to an island called Runit in the Enewetok atoll. On the island, tons upon tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste sit hidden away under a huge concrete dome. As the episode uncovers, in order to quickly and cheaply dispose of the highly radioactive waste material from its years of testing, the U.S. military dumped the toxic material (including hundreds of chunks of Plutonium) into a crater from a test explosion on the island, hastily covered it with a layer of concrete— and simply left. U.S. officials claimed that “the dome” would hold for a century or more.

Over the years, time and nature have caught up to what was meant to be a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Built at sea-level over the porous atoll floor, the dome cannot stop seawater seeping in from below with the rise and fall of the tide, leaking potentially radioactive material into the surrounding waters. An even greater threat, cracks and wear on the concrete from years of weather and seawater erosion place the dome at risk of being blown open by a bad storm or typhoon, which would result in a widespread dispersion of nuclear waste across the Pacific. This fact has been acknowledged even by the U.S. government in recent years.

Sadly, the Marshallese locals are not the only group to suffer from this negligence and mismanagement. The crew of U.S. soldiers who built the dome, told that they were finishing their deployments in a “tropical paradise”, were sent to Runit island without foreknowledge of the radioactive toxins on the island, or the nature of their mission. Working for months building the dome and filling it with the radioactive waste, they shockingly were not issued any manner of safety equipment. As a result, a large proportion of the crew have since developed medical complications such as cancers and reproductive issues, and many have died young. Yet the U.S. still refuses to acknowledge their maladies as resulting from radioactive exposure, and has provided no assistance in covering the staggering medical costs associated with treatment.

It is outrageous enough that generations of Marshallese people and an outfit of our own soldiers stationed there have had to suffer such injustices as forced relocation, medical complications due to radioactive exposure, and overt exploitation and silencing by the U.S. Yet the mess remains unaddressed, and the emerging Marshallese youth face even greater threats to their way of life. To them, the crater full of radioactive material is the least of their worries. Rising sea levels associated with climate change (caused largely by the negligence of the world’s wealthiest and most privileged nations, like the U.S.) may leave 75% of the islands inundated by 2100. This would decimate the local economy and wipe out a huge proportion of the country’s already limited agricultural land. It also greatly heightens the risk of widespread nuclear contamination occurring from leakage in the dome.

There is a telling lack of public knowledge and discourse around the U.S. legacy of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands in the United States. The American media has had little to say about either the history or future consequences of the Runit Dome. It seems that as long as the dome is not in our own backyard, we don’t care where it is or who it effects. To the Marshallese, it represents the connection between the Nuclear Age and the Climate Change Age, and puts on full display one of the biggest culprits of both: American apathy. Most didn’t know, act, or care enough to stop nuclear testing in the Pacific during the Cold War, just as many of us don’t know, act, or care enough to halt the cascading effects of climate change today. We must heed the lesson of Runit Dome— a lesson of injustice, negligence, and complicity— and prevent our planet’s future from being doomed by the same indifference. We must stay informed about these issues and others like it, and together hold our government accountable for its actions, keeping in mind how they affect our precious planet and all of its people.

12 Morning and Evening Routines That Will Set Up Each Day for Success

12 Morning and Evening Routines That Will Set Up Each Day for Success

You wake up an hour before work and rush to get ready. You shower at lightning speed and grab an energy bar and coffee before running out the door. Still, work leaves you feeling discombobulated and overwhelmed. Long before the week is over, you’re burned out and know you won’t hit this week’s goals.

How do you get out of this miserable rut? One word: Routines.

Morning and evening routines prime you for success. They help you achieve more, think clearly, and do work that actually matters. They keep you from stumbling through your day and make sure you get the most important things done.

All it takes is a bit of discipline, along with routines that will set you up for success. Here are the what and why of routines, along with 12 morning and evening routines you can implement to create more perfect days.

12 Morning and Evening Routines That Will Set Up Each Day for Success

The Science of Habits and Creating Routines

First, let’s define what routine means: A routine is a sequence of actions that you do repeatedly.

Brushing your teeth nightly and getting ready for bed is a routine. Waking up at 6:00 AM and exercising every morning is a routine. Purchasing a bagel and reading the news before you head to work every morning is a routine. Even eating chips while watching Netflix is a routine. They’re all actions that happen again and again, a rhythm in your daily life.

That doesn’t make them all good routines—they’re simply routines by virtue of being done regularly. Helpful or not, every routine is powerful.

Routines Create High Achievers

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”- Aristotle

In his book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Mason Currey writes about the habits, routines, and rituals of hundreds of artists, including Frederic Chopin, Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx, and Ernest Hemingway. Even though their routines varied wildly, each individual had steps they followed to put them in an optimal state of mind.

After studying the great artists, Currey came to this conclusion:

In the right hands, [a routine] can be a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of a range of limited resources: time (the most limited resource of all) as well as willpower, self-discipline, optimism. A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.

Productivity guru and experimenter extraordinaire Tim Ferris has five morning rituals to get him into a productive state of mind: making his bed, meditating, exercise, drinking tea, and journaling. Performance coach Tony Robbins also uses a morning routine, which includes a cold shower, breathing exercises, and meditation to prepare him for each day.

High achievers tend to find routines that work for them and then stick to them—it’s typically something they credit as a core to their success.

Habits vs. Routines vs. Rituals: Wondering what the difference is between habits, routines, and rituals? Habits are things that we do automatically–things like checking your email first thing in the morning or putting your keys in a specific spot when you get home. Routines are usually a collection of habits or actions you do on a regular basis to bring order to your day—checking your email, then writing your day’s to-do list, then checking your team’s project management tool as a way of getting the day started. Rituals are like routines. The main difference is the attitude behind the actions: Taking a walk everyday at lunch could be considered a routine if you think of it as something you need to do for your productivity. Or it could be a ritual if you think of it as a way to break out of the mundane and enjoy nature. While we’re focusing on habits and routines here, most routines could be turned into rituals with a change of perspective.

Routines Put Our Brains on Autopilot

But what makes the routines of high achievers so powerful? As it turns out, we’re creatures of habit and can use that to accomplish whatever we want. In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Charles Duhigg details how habits put our brains into an automatic state where little or no willpower is required.

It works like this:

  • Step 1: Something happens that serves as a cue to your brain, putting it into “automatic” mode. A simple example is waking up. When I wake up, my brain immediately knows that it’s time to turn on the coffee machine. This habit has been ingrained in my brain over years.
  • Step 2: Execute the routine. This is where I actually turn on the coffee machine, wait for it to brew, pour it into my favorite mug, sit in a chair by the kitchen window, and finally drink the coffee.
  • Step #3: Reap the rewards of the routine. The delicious flavor and high-octane caffeine reinforce the routine so that the next morning I repeat it again.
The habit loop

Making coffee is just one small routine, but the daily consistency of it helps keep me going. Imagine if other, more powerful tasks that can empower you to accomplish big things came as easy as making coffee?

This is the power of routines. The small repeated actions can have an exponential effect. By implementing routines in the morning and evening, you can prime yourself for maximum productivity each day.

Morning Routines to Help You Start the Day Off Right

Morning routines

If you win the morning, you win the day

Ferris’s and Robbins’s morning routines both include meditation, while the routines of many others include starting the day off with a fresh cup of coffee. Regardless of your morning schedule, here are some of the best ways to start your day and prepare for success.

Rise Early

There are exceptions, such as Winston Churchill who liked to say in bed until 11:00 AM, but many high achievers rise early in order to prepare for the day. In those early hours, they can execute their routines while the rest of the world is asleep.

Consider these examples:

  • Square CEO Jack Dorsey rises at 5:30 so that he can go for a six-mile jog.
  • Virgin Group founder Richard Branson wakes at 5:45 to exercise and eat a proper breakfast.
  • GM CEO Dan Akerson rises between 4:30 and 5:00 so he can talk to GE Asia.
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 4:30 so he can send emails and be at the gym by 5:00.

Even if they aren’t naturally morning larks–the opposite of night owls–they’ve trained themselves to wake up early for the many benefits an early rise can bring. Those include increased productivity with fewer distractions in the early morning, greater creativity because you can work when your mind is fresh, and less stress if you use that extra time for meditation or quiet contemplation.
It could make you happier, too: Researchers in one study found that morning-type individuals reported higher levels of positivity and well-being.

Tip: Even if you’re a night owl, you can train yourself to become a morning person by waking up 20 minutes earlier every day and soaking in some sunlight as soon as you wake.

Make Your Bed

If there’s one habit you should adopt to improve your life, it’s making your bed every day. That, at least, is the advice from Navy Seal Admiral William H. McCraven:

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.

Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

It’s all about the small things.

Recite Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements you can use to reframe how you think about yourself and the day to come. They are a way of visualizing the good things that will come to you that day and overcoming negative self-talk.

In his book The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM), Hal Elrod says:

When you actively design and write out your affirmations to be in alignment with what you want to accomplish and who you need to be to accomplish it—and commit to repeating them daily (ideally out loud)—they immediately make an impression on your subconscious mind. Your affirmations go to work to transform the way you think and feel so you can overcome your limiting beliefs and behaviors and replace them with those you need to succeed.

Some simple affirmations you could use are:

  • I will do great things today
  • I will make $XXX this year
  • I am a highly respected [insert occupation]
  • I am achieving [big goal]

Your aim is to affirm and visualize the things you want to happen. As you focus on these things, you begin to believe that you can and will achieve them, which then enables you to take action on them.

Although it might sound New-Age-y to some, affirmations are proven methods of self-improvement. As clinical psychologist Dr. Carmen Harra says. “Much like exercise, they raise the level of feel-good hormones and push our brains to form new clusters of ‘positive thought’ neurons.”

Get some exercise

Early exercise

There are few things more transformative than exercise. Exercising in the morning increases blood flow, releases endorphins, and strengthens your body. It prepares you for the coming day, increases your overall energy levels, and helps you remain in optimal health. Numerous studies have shown that exercise is key in fighting depression and anxiety, and a Finnish study suggested that exercise is even correlated with increased wealth.

Implementing a daily routine of exercise will prepare you for maximum success through the day. And it doesn’t even have to be a full gym workout to reap the benefits: A brisk walk in your neighborhood, a 7-minute workout, or a quick yoga session could get you going.

Need more motivation to get moving? Try tracking your activity automatically with Zapier, an app automation tool. With logs of your runs or workouts, you can see your progress and challenge yourself to keep at it.

12 Morning and Evening Routines That Will Set Up Each Day for Success

Eat a proper breakfast

The fuel you consume in the morning has a significant effect on your ongoing performance—and thus, it should be the best fuel possible.

Dietician Lisa De Fazio recommends staying away from high-sugar, high-fat breakfasts and instead suggests a healthier choice, perhaps:

  • Oatmeal
  • Low-fat breakfast sandwich
  • Smoothie
  • Fruit and yogurt parfait

Think good carbs and fiber plus some protein. Those foods will give you energy and satisfy your food cravings while setting the stage for good decisions all day.

Take a cold shower

This one may seem a little extreme, but many people swear by taking cold showers each morning. It’s similar to athletes who take ice baths, although slightly less frigid.

Why a cold shower? Because it can increase blood flow, burn away unhealthy fat, and release dopamine into the body. Like exercise, it kick starts your body.

This is why Tony Robbins plunges into 57 degree water every morning. He’s convinced that it is essential for maximum productivity.


These might seem like minor things–waking up early, making your bed, saying your affirmations, exercising, eating a good breakfast, and taking a cold shower–but taken together into one consistent routine you do every day, you’re well prepped to face anything that happens after. A morning routine takes the stress out of the start of the day and puts you on the best footing from the get-go.

Of course, customize your morning routine for your own preferences. The SAVERS graphic above from James Altucher’s article and podcast with Hal Elrod can help you remember a few other things you can add to your morning routine: silence, visualization, reading, and scribbling. For more inspiration, My Morning Routine offers 200+ examples of morning routines you can adapt and adopt for yourself.


Evening Routines That Set the Tone for the Next Day

Reading at night

The close of each day is just as important as the start. By implementing evening routines, you ready yourself for the next morning, recharge with a restful night, and minimize the resistance you encounter in getting things done.

Prepare goals for the next day

Determining your objectives for the coming day does two things. First, it allows you to identify your most important tasks in advance—before all the pressures of the day arrive on your doorstep. Ideally, the first few hours of each day should be spent conquering your most challenging task. This idea has been given various names, such as “eating the frog” and “slaying the dragon.”

Second, it allows your brain to begin thinking about those tasks as you fall asleep. In their book Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life, authors Jason Selk, Tom Bartow, and Rudy Matthew say:

Identifying daily priorities might seem like an obvious or insignificant step to take, but writing your most important tasks down the previous night turns your subconscious mind loose while you sleep and frees you from worrying about being unprepared. You’ll probably find that you wake up with great ideas related to the tasks or conversations that you hadn’t even considered!

Reflect on the day’s achievements

It can be easy to lose sight of victories after a long day. Taking just a few moments at the end of the day to reflect on and celebrate your wins puts things into the proper perspective and gives you encouragement for the coming day. It helps you overcome the discouragement that often comes with setbacks.

In addition to asking at the start of his day “What good shall I do this day?”, Benjamin Franklin asked every evening “What good have I done today?”.

Benjamin Frankline's routine

Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine

Zen Habits author Leo Babauta puts it this way:

If you reflect on the things you did right, on your successes, that allows you to celebrate every little success. It allows you to realize how much you’ve done right, the good things you’ve done in your life.

You can do this in a variety of ways, including jotting things down in a blank Moleskine notebook, a gratitude journal, or an app on your phone. You can automatically track your productivity with RescueTime and Zapier as well:

Clear your Head

Its easy to take your work to be, making it difficult to fall asleep as you mull over job-related problems. Clearing your head before sleep allows you to put aside the challenges of the day and ready your mind to shut down. There are numerous ways to do this, including:

  • Meditation
  • Light reading
  • Playing Tetris (for productivity!)
  • Watching a peaceful television show (The Walking Dead probably isn’t your best bet)
  • Doing a “brain dump” of all the thoughts in your head in a journal before you go to bed

Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne describes his disengagement this way:

For me, this is going for a 20-minute walk every evening at 9:30 p.m. This is a wind-down period, and allows me to evaluate the day’s work, think about the greater challenges, gradually stop thinking about work and reach a state of tiredness.

Your goal is to engage your mind in something completely non-work related.

Prepare for the next morning

In order to minimize the amount of thinking you need to do in the morning, take time to prepare things. Pick out the clothes you’ll wear, prepare the food you’ll eat, prep the coffeemaker, and organize any work related materials you need to bring. If you’ll be going to the gym, lay out your workout clothes and water.

The less time and mental energy you expend on inconsequential things, the more you’ll have for the things that matter.

Tidy up

Waking up to a messy home isn’t the most motivating way to start your day. Without regular sessions cleaning up and putting things away, you’ll find your place quickly in disarray.

Thankfully, spending just 10 to 20 minutes a night tidying up will help reduce stress in the mornings and help you avoid marathon cleaning sessions on the weekends. If there’s only one thing you do,clean and shine your sink. Like making your bed in the morning, this one task will give you a sense of accomplishment. Housekeeping guru FlyLady says:

This is your first household chore. Many of you can’t understand why I want you to empty your sink of your dirty dishes and clean and shine it when there is so much more to do. It is so simple; I want you to have a sense of accomplishment! […] When you get up the next morning, your sink will greet you, and a smile will come across your lovely face. I can’t be there to give you a big hug, but I know how good it feels to see yourself in your kitchen sink. […]

Go shine your sink!

Also, if you have children, you know the importance of setting up solid routines with them. They can help out too!

Practice proper sleep hygiene

Very few people practice proper sleep hygiene and their sleep suffers as a result. Generally speaking, you should:

It can be easy to minimize the importance of sleep, but it’s absolutely essential for optimum performance. In fact, sleep is so crucial that Arianna Huffington devoted an entire Ted Talk to it.


It can be really tough to build routines into your life. It takes intention and discipline. Sometimes it feels simpler to just get the day started and then after a long workday crash into bed.

But the good thing about routines and habits is that the more you do them, the easier they become. They become ingrained in your day to the point where you find it harder to not do them.

So stick with it. You may find it tedious at first, but you’ll find your days will flow much more smoothly when you’ve bookended them with quality morning and evening routines.


To create your morning and evening routines, you can write up a checklist that you can walk through every day until it becomes ingrained in you or set up a schedule, a la Ben Franklin. For example:

6 am: wake, make the bed, get coffee started
6:15: drink coffee and read the news
6:30: exercise
7: eat breakfast
7:15: shower
8-5: work
6: dinner
7:30: tidy up
8: time with family, TV, or other form of relaxation and entertainment
9:30: journalism or meditation
10: bedtime

What’s your daily routine like?

This 75-Year Harvard Study Found the 1 Secret to Leading a Fulfilling Life

Here’s some wisdom gleaned from one of the longest longitudinal studies ever conducted.

Prioritizing what’s important is challenging in today’s world. The split focus required to maintain a career and a home, not to mention a Facebook feed, can feel overwhelming.

Enter the science of what to prioritize, when.

For over 75 years, Harvard’s Grant and Glueck study has tracked the physical and emotional well-being of two populations: 456 poor men growing up in Boston from 1939 to 2014 (the Grant Study), and 268 male graduates from Harvard’s classes of 1939-1944 (the Glueck study).

Due to the length of the research period, this has required multiple generations of researchers. Since before WWII, they’ve diligently analyzed blood samples, conducted brain scans (once they became available), and pored over self-reported surveys, as well as actual interactions with these men, to compile the findings.

The conclusion? According to Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one thing surpasses all the rest in terms of importance:

“The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”

Not how much is in your 401(k). Not how many conferences you spoke at–or keynoted. Not how many blog posts you wrote or how many followers you had or how many tech companies you worked for or how much power you wielded there or how much you vested at each.

No, the biggest predictor of your happiness and fulfillment overall in life is, basically, love.

Specifically, the study demonstrates that having someone to rely on helps your nervous system relax, helps your brain stay healthier for longer, and reduces both emotional as well as physical pain.

The data is also very clear that those who feel lonely are more likely to see their physical health decline earlier and die younger.

“It’s not just the number of friends you have, and it’s not whether or not you’re in a committed relationship,” says Waldinger. “It’s the quality of your close relationships that matters.”

What that means is this: It doesn’t matter whether you have a huge group of friends and go out every weekend or if you’re in a “perfect” romantic relationship (as if those exist).

It’s the quality of the relationships –– how much vulnerability and depth exists within them; how safe you feel sharing with one another; the extent to which you can relax and be seen for who you truly are, and truly see another.

According to George Vaillant, the Harvard psychiatrist who directed the study from 1972 to 2004, there are two foundational elements to this: “One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.”

Thus, if you’ve found love (in the form of a relationship, let’s say) but you undergo a trauma like losing a job, losing a parent, or losing a child, and you don’t deal with that trauma, you could end up “coping” in a way that pushes love away.

This is a very good reminder to prioritize not only connection but your own capacity to process emotions and stress. If you’re struggling, get a good therapist. Join a support group. Invest in a workshop. Get a grief counselor. Take personal growth seriously so you are available for connection.

Because the data is clear that, in the end, you could have all the money you’ve ever wanted, a successful career, and be in good physical health, but without loving relationships, you won’t be happy.

The next time you’re scrolling through Facebook instead of being present at the table with your significant other, or you’re considering staying late at the office instead of getting together with your close friend, or you catch yourself working on a Saturday instead of going to the farmer’s market with your sister, consider making a different choice.

“Relationships are messy and they’re complicated,” acknowledges Waldinger. But he’s adamant in his research-backed assessment:

“The good life is built with good relationships.”