AlittleBetter.net

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Filtran

The most important factors for accomplishing anything are perseverance, discipline and time. Sometimes though that last part seems just out of reach. We know we should work out, and we know there are a lot of things we should do, but finding the  time and energy can be such a pain. So here is a full body workout that a martial arts instructor taught me. The actual workout takes about 10 minutes, but it skips out on the benefits of 5 minutes of stretching a day. I’m going to break this down into separate parts, and even give tips to make this step to living a healthier lifestyle easier for you. (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Tiago Ribeiro

This modern age is really amazing. We are able to learn more, teach faster, move faster, and do more in less time with less effort than ever before. Yet at the same time we are more stressed, less connected, and many of us are on information overload. I love this modern world, but at the same time all this technology, information, and colliding cultures does bring with it four great challenges: our beliefs, our boundaries, reflection, and action. We must as individuals and as a group learn to rise up to these challenges; not only must we rise up to these challenges for our own lives, but for the world we are making. (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Adrienne Wright

Last night I received an email telling me that one of my favorite people in the world had passed on that morning. Now this isn’t my  first time dealing with death. I’ve lost a friend in high school, my grandpa Larry, my uncle Ben, and now Jean Airoldi. The best way I know how to handle death is to take your favorite parts of someone and add them to yourself, that way you make sure that the best parts of someone will always live on. Jean had no shortage of life lessons to choose from. She had lived intelligently, successfully and dynamically. There is not a person I can think of that did not love being around Jean. So how did she become dear to so many people, and what lessons can we all learn from her? (more…)

This post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of h.koppdelaney

Everyone hates failing. We go through great pains to avoid falling flat on our face. No one wants to do the wrong thing. But there is one mistake in particular that is worse than all other mistakes combined. They are the surest way to make sure that all your potential accomplishments fail. These mistakes will hold you back more than any prejudice or financial problem. So what two mistakes could be so great that they could do so much damage? (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo courtesy of Tiago Ribeiro

No matter who you are, no matter how hard you try there will be times that you fail. Every successful person on the planet is intimately familiar with failure, but how do you know when its time to try again, or whether it is time to move on to a new project? How do you know when you’ve done enough, and what does that even mean? Enough for what?

There is a trap that people commonly fall into where none of the results they get are enough for them. When stuck in this trap you can become afraid of disappointing people or that you are not enough. This thought pattern is one of the surest ways to keep yourself from moving forward. So what mindset should be taken to get out of this trap, and how do you keep from falling in? (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Striatic

Have you ever been frozen where you don’t know what to do next because there is just so much to do? You might of felt sad and not known why. Or have you ever just stopped doing something that you wanted to achieve and not picked it up again. What about good habits. Have you let them slip, have you kept your New Year Resolutions? Doesn’t it drive you nuts when you don’t know how to start again? This is something that I have been going through for almost a month, and I’ve been trying to find a way out of it. The good news is that  it  is a lot simpler to get out of than I thought it would be. (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Sailor Coruscant

We frequently hear about the rising divorce rate, and unhappy marriages, but people still want familes. There is nothing wrong with this, but these stories can be quite discouraging. The hope of marriage lasting seems all but gone. Does this mean that there is nothing we could do to make a marriage more likely to last? Not at all.

In my story, I make it clear that it was the idea of kids like me that really motivated me to delve into self improvement. One of the factors that I really wanted to take care of was a happy marriage. Its not fun or wholesome to grow up in a family where the mother and father do not get along, and if there is no example of what proper love is for a child growing up what standard will they have to measure love by when they are adults? So I started asking anyone who I saw that appeared to have a happy marriage, and I still read everything I can find on relationships and marriage. This is what I’ve found so far. (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo Courtesy of Yoshiffles

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Soon we will all be going home to see our family members. We are going to sit eat and be merry. Until of course the topic changes to certain subjects. Politics, religion, money, and sexuality, you know the things that are intimately part of our lives. As soon as these topics are brought up there can be a number of reactions. Sometimes we just shy away from them. Sometimes we find the person who brought them up to be rude. Sometimes we participate in the discussion and get very upset.  Isn’t it curious though? The things that we most avoid talking about are often the things that effect our lives most directly. They are very personal, and very important, but we don’t talk about them.

Maybe its time to challenge this. (more…)

This Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of Panoramas

When I started my path for self-improvement the first thing I focused on was finances. I understood from experience that wanting money is not a point of greed. If you don’t have enough money to get by then you will not be able to see your family, and then you work and work and work, for the sake of people who you never get a chance to get to know. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t make this same mistake. Not that working for others is bad, nor is there anything wrong with hard work, but you should also be able to enjoy some fruits of your labor without feeling desparate.

Every media outlet we turn on now a days will tell us how bad the economy is, and how tight finances are in the entire world. I’d like to put some perspective on this. (more…)

Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of Pipitdapo

Today officially kicks off the Holiday Season. This is the season that is regarded as both one of the happiest times of the year, and as one of the most stressful. So this year I’d like to lay out some ground rules to make the holidays a little less stressful and a lot more fun.

Call a Cease Fire If there is someone in your family that you normally fight with this is not the time to fight with them. If you feel the need to get something out, than write it down, and save it for after the holidays. (more…)