It’s not just you. Ask everyone else but life, in general, has become more challenging. Unlike in the past, it has become even more difficult to succeed in life. Add the current economic, financial, and personal challenges brought about by the COVID 19 pandemic and you can imagine how significantly harder it is to succeed in life these days.
“Success” means many different things to many different people. It could be being rich. It could be getting married happily ever after and have beautiful kids. Or it could be as simple as treating people with more kindness and respect.
But one thing that defines “success” for everyone is the ability to accomplish goals. Be it losing 30 pounds in during the pandemic quarantine situation or finding a new job after being laid off due to the COVID 19 economic downturn, succeeding means accomplishing goals.
Some goals are harder to accomplish than others. Most of the time, the most important goals are those that are hardest to accomplish. Often times, people need to change certain aspects of their personality, character, or abilities in order to level up and accomplish their most significant objectives.
The First Thing That Needs to Change
In Charles Duhigg’s bestselling book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, he cited a very interesting study on losing weight without dieting and exercising. Well, at least not at first.
He cited a study on various approaches to weight loss conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The study involved 1,600 clinically obese people and they were simply asked to focus on food journaling, i.e., writing down every single food or drink they ate or drink at least for one day every week.
In the beginning, the participants found it very difficult to consistently list down the foods they ate because they’d forget to bring their food journals. Over time though, they became used to journaling every day and it became a habit.
Then something very interesting started to happen. As they continued food journaling, they started to look at their journal entries. As they did, they started to see their unconscious eating patterns. For the first time, their eyes were opened to how poorly they were eating!
After seeing how poor their dietary habits were for the first time, the participants started to make automatic changes to their diets. Some would anticipate – based on their journal entries – that they’d be very hungry at a certain time of the day and bring a piece of fruit or other healthy snacks to ensure they get their fill without resorting to high-calorie junk foods. Others started to plan their daily menus to eat healthier kinds of foods in healthier portions.
What’s even more astonishing is the fact that the participants changed their dietary habits on their own. The researchers didn’t tell them what to change. They simply asked them to make food journaling a habit.
After six months of participating in the study, the participants lost weight. But those who journaled what they ate every day ended up losing twice more weight than those who journaled less frequently or didn’t journal at all.
What happened there? What made the participants want to change their dietary habits on their own and more importantly, stick to those new healthy eating habits that lead to their weight loss? Here’s what one of the successful participants said about food journaling:
“After a while, the journal got inside my head. I started thinking about meals differently. It gave me a system for thinking about food without becoming depressed.”
What really happened? They saw their relationship with food in a totally different light. The change in their perspective on food was what happened.
Conquer Your Perspectives, Conquer Yourself
A perspective is our point of view, attitude toward, or way of considering something. How we see things often dictate how we feel and act toward them. Our perspectives dictate our experiences.
Take for example the great inventor Thomas Edison. Before finally getting the first working version of the light bulb, he failed 1,000 experiments.
For most people, failing at something 3 times is more than enough reason to look at what they’re doing as either a failure or an impossibility. But thankfully, Thomas Edison isn’t most people.
When asked how he felt about those 1,000 failed experiments, he simply said that those experiments weren’t failed ones but 1,000 steps that were needed to successfully create a working version of the light bulb.
Because he didn’t look at those failed experiments as such, he didn’t get discouraged. It may have even pushed him to continue, knowing he’s at least 1 step closer to successfully creating a working light bulb.
His perspective (the way he saw) on his experiments (his experience) determined his feelings and actions, both of which led to the successful creation of the light bulb.
FirstPective Matters to a Life Well-Lived
Our ability to think and act accordingly in response to our circumstances, situations, and experiences is highly dependent on our existing mindsets. And what shapes them is our perspective. That’s why the first step towards changing ourselves is changing our perspective. With healthy perspectives, we can have healthy mindsets that can help us create the best version of ourselves.
Why FirstPective? It’s because we first need to develop healthy perspectives on life before doing anything else to change ourselves and our personal situations and circumstances. Our habits and behaviors are but reflections of the state of our minds and hearts.
We can try to change our behaviors and habits but if we don’t change the underlying forces that cause them, it won’t be long before we revert back to them. For example:
- If we start doing the Keto diet (very little or no carbs) to lose weight but if we view it more as a necessary evil than a means by which to reduce obesity-related risks, we will eventually run out of will-power and revert back to whatever unhealthy diet we may be doing prior.
- We can try to improve our relationship with our spouses or kids by spending more time with them and less time at work. However, if we continue to see it as an inconvenience and have the perspective that work is still more important than family, we’ll probably be cranky when we’re with them. Instead of everybody enjoying time spent with family, everybody’ll be on edge and find such times stressful and burdensome. When that happens, our relationships with our families may worsen instead of improve.
- We can try to be “patient” with “pasaway” and irresponsible pedestrians and motorists when driving by keeping our mouths shut or choosing to “control” our temperamental reactions to them. But if we continue to see these people as our enemies on the road who are out to inconvenience or harm us, we’ll fail to sustain those behavioral changes and continue to experience road rage.
Change Your Lens, Change Your Life
In this book, I’ll share with you many different ways of changing perspectives on four of the most important areas of any person’s life: self-management, living with joy and compassion, personal relationships, and living with meaning and purpose.
What makes this book worth reading? Here’s what Ms. Earth 2015 Angelia Gabrena Ong, who has read and loved my book, says about it:
“Faith it ‘till you make it!” That’s my usual mantra but this book is also giving me life! It just screams positivity and bursts with life lessons teaching us to embrace every single process of our emotions from failure, struggles, and success. I live for positivity and that’s what got me this far: by always looking for the good and the brighter side of the things around me.
The book engages you to reflect on your life, on what you’ve already accomplished, and what you have yet to conquer in a way that’s already familiar to you. Reading through the pages, even when talking about pain and struggles, felt light. It’s as if you were talking to your best friend. And that’s what I love about it.
Aside from the good vibes and “HAHA Moments”, the book will also make you ponder on your current situation and answer questions you asked yourself like:
- “What have you been doing wrong that’s keeping you from achieving your goals?”
- What right steps have you already taken to receive so much blessings?
You’ll find something you can keep in your pocket as you go through every chapter.
The author’s (Dr. Errol Ybanez, Jr.) story for me was also a bonus. It was relatable and inspiring. Understanding what Doc Errol went through is understanding how he came about to write this book. I appreciate that the purpose was to give back.
For me, giving back also means empowering another soul, and that’s what makes this book beyond beautiful. It will inspire you to become a better version of yourself as it encourages you to MOGO (you’ll know what it means when you finally read the book) of the past so you can start anew and face the future with the hope that it always gets better no matter what.
This book will remind you that after all, you are God’s MAGNUM OPUS, which means you deserve a life well-lived and that FirstPective is what should always matter.”
Risk-Free Book Trial
I am confident you will enjoy and be encouraged by my book Firstpective Matters that I’m giving you a risk-free opportunity to read it. Click here to download a free copy of the book’s first 2 chapters.
Regardless if you buy the full version, you can keep the sample copy. If you decide to purchase the complete copy on or before 31 August 2020, I will give you 5 high-quality bonus e-books!
Your Bonuses
When you order your copy of FirstPective Matters to a Life Well-Lived, you will get 5 free e-books that can further help you in making important changes in four of the most important areas of your life: Personal success, personal finances, health and fitness, and personal relationships.
To claim these gifts:
- Buy the book ON OR BEFORE 31 August 2020 by clicking here; and
- Email us your proof of payment for the book at firstpectivematters@gmail.com or PM it via Facebook at and we’ll email you the 5 free e-books within 24 hours upon receipt of e-mail or PM.
So, get your copy of FirstPective Matters to a Life Well-Lived now and change your life by changing your perspective. And if you buy it BEFORE 31 August 2020, you’ll get the 5 high-quality e-books as bonuses.
Here’s to your life well-lived my friend! Cheers!
FirstPective Matters to a Life Well-Lived 
