Rather than just introduce myself and tell you who I am, what I love, and why I am here - I would like to share the top 5 things that most impacted my life to date. Here they are...

1. Today is the only thing you can control

How often have you told yourself "I'll do it tomorrow"? I was the WORST for doing this when I was suffering through university with anxiety. I'd put everything off and then the only thing that occupied my mind was the coming due date and how little I've actually done. Instead of letting this shitty mindset get the best of me, I picked up a book called "How to Stop Worrying & Start Living" by Dale Carnegie and read something that changed my life:

Yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well-lived makes yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope

By working to actualize your goals & develop yourself today, you've just made your tomorrow and your yesterday something that you're not ashamed of. Before reading this, I was ashamed. I was ashamed that I was lying to myself; I was ashamed because I knew how much better I could be. Don't do what I did and have a pity party - grab today by the balls and do what truly makes you happy.

2. Fake it till you make it; keep faking it until you become it

I went from having this super outgoing personality to being crippled with social anxiety. It was aggressively uncomfortable for me to go out and have conversations, conduct business presentations, apply for jobs, etc. This is when I decided to actively seek what makes me uncomfortable and pursued that.

I faked, I acted, and I pretended.

I faked being an outgoing dude. I acted as if I couldn't be bothered. I pretended that my back wasn't sweating profusely as I went outside of my comfort zone.

But, I did it. And because I did it, I became the person who I was pretending to be. I broke out of that social anxiety shell again and I was talking to everyone that I could. I became a blockchain financial analyst and am currently working for blockchain related companies (aka my dream jobs).

you have two options: take a step forward into success or take a step back into comfort. Do the former and be the person that you truly want to be.

3. What follows "I am" follows you

As I launched an E-commerce business for the second time, I was confident that I would succeed based on my last venture. However, as with most things in life, it didn't go smoothly. I spent thousands of dollars on advertising with less than a couple hundred dollars of revenue. I was failing. Every day that I saw the analytics, I told myself that I was a failure. I quit that website and entered a massive psychological slump.

What was the issue? The words "a failure" followed I am & failing is exactly what followed me.

What does your vocabulary sound like? "I'm an awesome guy with an awesome future" or "I'm a loser and I suck at everything"? Rid the negativity. Tell yourself multiple times a day that you're amazing, beautiful, intelligent, funny, or whatever it is you want to be.

Change your vocabulary; change your life.

4. Not planning is planning to fail

If I told you that I was going to be somewhere in the city (not telling you where exactly) and you had to find me, how frustrating would it be?

How about if I disclosed my location & gave you an exact address? Wouldn't that make your life 100x easier?

Planning is much like the example above. If you plan your goals and things that you want to accomplish in your life, you have an exact destination. Now if some of the roads are closed or there's heavy traffic in some parts, you can take a different road to that same place that you wanted to go.

5. You are what you eat, think, do, and say

There was a time in university when I ate like an idiot, thought, spoke, and acted like an idiot. This, in turn, made me...

you guessed it - an idiot.

We are an accumulation of the things we eat, say, think, and do. Use this to only read things that will make your life better. Only hang out with people that act in line with your goals. Only speak positively (negativity is a choice, and a shit one at that) about others. Eat healthily & live a balanced lifestyle. Do this, and you will be what you want to be.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really hope to get to know more of the community, so if you could leave a comment introducing yourself & sharing other things to add to this list I would love to hear it.

All the best,

Matt Concordia