Optimal Living

The Physics of Personal Development: Vol. 1 – Conservation of Energy

June 26, 2018 By Julian Kaufmann

Who are we?
What are we here for and how does all this work?

Those questions have perplexed us from the beginning of time, and we continue to theorize and explore, searching for answers. Although I think we are making progress in our understanding.

The scientific field that seeks to answer these questions and explain the universe is called physics. The word physics evolved from the Greek and can be translated as knowledge of nature.

Knowledge of nature and of our selves has tempted us since the Garden of Eden.

“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – Shakespeare

Saving lives through Physics

Physics provided me with a profession and imparted to me a fundamental understanding of energy that would serve me throughout my life. Physical and spiritual questions were answered.

Thanks to physics and my curiosity about how things work, I ultimately pursued electrical engineering in college and then embarked in a career in the energy field.

Before heading to college, my ambition was to be a rock-star and tour the country. We covered groups like Black Sabbath and AC/DC. It was loud and a lot of fun.

Ultimately I decided that I liked to eat and told my band mates of my departure to college, leaving the band without their bass player. We all make sacrifices, right?

Beyond a career, Physics gave me a framework and a logical perspective to explain the world.

Physics provides a scientific, mathematical explanation of how things work.

At its core physics provides a framework for analyzing and explaining the energy of the universe. Physicists study and develop new theories to offer new insights and models on how the world works. These theories are then tested and proven become laws.

One law to rule them all…

After a lifetime of observations and my academic pursuits, I have concluded that everything in our universe is a type of Energy.

But what is energy?

Energy can be defined as the ability to do work.

Our universe of energy and our ability to do work can be neatly summed up by THE LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY (LCE) which states that:
“For a closed system, energy cannot be created or destroyed but instead changes form.”

If you would like to learn more about how this law was formulated click here.

LCE is akin to a universal accounting system in which all of the inputs are accounted for, with any differences in energy inputs and outputs being accounted for by losses or conversions.

Energy efficiency is a measure of how much energy is converted into useful output after losses occur during that process. Efficiency is equal to the amount of energy that results from a process (energy output) divided by the amount of energy that went into the process (energy input).

To increase the efficiency of a process, we seek to reduce the energy amount of losses that occur during that process.

Personal development makes lives better.

Like Physics, the Field of Personal Development has its pioneers, and its theoretical practitioners and proponents. Personal development covers a broad range of processes and activities that seek to improve awareness and help people realize their potential.

At its core personal development and its advocates seek to help people work more efficiently and more effectively. That is, personal development encourages us to work on the right things and in the right way. Not to waste energy and effort, but to deliberately and selectively focus your power towards your goals.

Thoughts held in mind produce their own kind.

A core tenet of the personal development paradigm is that the quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. For example, If you think disempowering thoughts then you will experience a disempowered life. A few well-known personal development books with compelling titles include:
Think and Grow Rich – Napolean Hill
The Power of Positive Thinking – Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
As Man Thinketh – James Allen

Energy Flows Where Attention Goes.

This expression is a core element of the law of attraction from the popular book and movie The Secret.

Tony Robbins, the preeminent personal development pioneer, after substituting Focus for Attention invokes the commutative property refining the Secret’s not so secret expression yielding “Where Focus Goes Energy Flows.”

Tony “preaches” that your decisions make your destiny. And the act of deciding means that you are cutting off other possibilities. By eliminating the almost infinite possibilities available to us and instead focusing on our goals we can then take massive action towards realizing our objectives. You are focusing your efforts by cutting out extraneous outcomes.

A laser focuses light into a concentrated ray increasing its power. We do the same this as a laser when we eliminate distractions and focus our efforts.

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.” Tony Robbins

Life in the Lab

Life is like an experiment, and we are the scientists and subjects – trying different things and getting different results.

If you do not like what your life is producing for you. Then consider how you are utilizing your energy. After all, energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Maybe you are wasting more of it than you realize?

What are you working on, what decisions have you made, and what is your goal? Lastly, how are you working towards it – are you efficient in your pursuit?

Power Points:
If you want to focus your work more try incorporating the Pomodoro technique into your workday. During each Pomodoro (a block of time), you stay focused on one task only for a set amount of time, taking a short break and then resuming the focused activity until completion. You single-task.

Multi-tasking does not work. In fact, you lose productivity due to losses that occur due to task switching, making you less efficient.

If you want to do more with your energy and your life, take your power back by becoming a Prime Mover. Sign-Up and receive Julian’s Cleaning The Connection ebook and more life-enhancing resources.

A Recipe For Lowering Resistance

November 22, 2017 By Julian Kaufmann

“If you think you’re enlightened go spend a week with your family” Ram Dass

Tis the Season — don’t fight it! Lower your resistance and get more out of it!

My favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, is here and this heralds the many ends of year celebrations we can enjoy.

But despite the good cheer, goodwill towards others, and copious amounts of food and alcohol consumed from now until after the New Year, the holidays can also be a stressful time.

Beyond gorging and imbibing too much, spending too much time with estranged family or stranger relatives in crowded conditions may cause people to regress and act in ways they would rather not. We may fight with each other, try and force things to be something other than what they are. We resist what is, we struggle to make things conform to our ego rather than appreciating the beauty that is inherent.

Resistance steals energy away from us and our loved ones.

Luckily there is a recipe I developed that may help you thrive and not just survive this holiday season. We can lower resistance by adding more of the four Flowgates from my book Let Go, Let It Flow and these are:

Presence, Acceptance, Thankfulness, and Helping

Why these “ingredients” are important and how to cultivate these in your life is as follows:

Presence: How are you showing up, are you really here? Or are you fixated on some past wrong or are you worried about some future event? In either of these cases, your mind is elsewhere and you are diverting energy away from the present moment. To be fully present we must care for and attend to our bodies, minds, and spirit. Our physical well-being is the cornerstone of being present, so we need to be mindful of our sleep, diet and amount of exercise. Masking difficult emotions with too much food and drink does not change the reality of things. In fact, often this makes you suffer as a result. Peace and contentment are available to us at any time. We can connect more fully with our source by doing the following:
- Practice Box Breathing: My favorite breathing technique. Brings about a calming responses and allows your mind to focus on your breath
- Take a walk outside: Connect with mother nature and experience the immense living world that resides outside of your home. Get some sunlight and breath in the fresh air.
- Drink Plenty of Water: Our bodies are mostly water and we often we do not drink our recommended 8-12 cups of water per day.
Acceptance: Instead of wishing you were someplace else, embrace where you are and who you are with. Suspend your desire to judge – either yourself or others. Releasing the judging nature further frees us up to more fully experience the present moment. Notice emotions without reacting to them. A couple of techniques to cultivate Acceptance are:
- Journal – spend some time each day with a journal and just write whatever comes into your head.
- Name it – If you are experiencing an emotion, observe this to yourself as it is happening. Like watching a movie, your experience of emotion is putting on a show for you. Give it a name and then watch it fade away. It may come back for many sequels but likely not as strong a showing.
Thankfulness: Expressing gratitude can allow you to transcend an ordinary experience. Life is a gift and the fact that we are alive is cause for celebration. When we are grateful we can’t feel angry or scared. We are open and receiving to the flow of life. My mainstays for cultivating an attitude of gratitude are:
- 5-Minute Journal: A simple, well-designed app that allows you to record 3-things that you are grateful for – with entries in the morning and evening if you wish. A print version is also available but I prefer the app as my phone is usually with me.
- Blessings Before Dinner: Whether with family or not. I stop myself before eating and give thanks for the nourishment I am about to receive.
Helping: Suspending our ego and serving others is the ultimate flowgate. We lose our selves in thinking of others’ needs and then taking action. During the Holidays, instead of getting caught up in consuming and materialism, donate more of your money to worthwhile causes or better yet, volunteer say serving food at a homeless shelter. If you need help finding a worthwhile cause or want to be sure that your resources are being best utilized, here are some ideas:
- Donors Choose: Help make a difference to students by supporting their classroom needs. Helping the next generation is a great way to put your altruism into action and make the world better.
- Crowdrise: An online platform that leverages social networks. You can create and fund your own cause.
- Charity Navigator: A site that provides rankings and information on charities in terms of effectiveness and financial management.

By opening up the 4-Flowgates we are simultaneously lowering our resistance. We allow life to flow more freely and we have more energy as a result.

Enjoy this season, love your family and friends and cherish the “small moments” that this wonderful time of the year affords us.

Wishing you and yours – Peace, Love, and Joy!

Resetting Your Clock After Spring Has Sprung

March 12, 2017 By Julian Kaufmann

Now that we have sprung forward, now what?

I love the changing of the seasons and nature’s awakening that occurs in the Spring, but I confess the clock resetting in response to Daylight Saving time can be disruptive to me. I struggle with the Springing forward ( setting the clocks ahead by one hour) because I am prone to not get enough sleep throughout the year as it is and this time change further steals an hour of sleep creating even more of a deficit for me. Given a choice, I would prefer to keep falling back an hour, but I am joking here mostly.

Daylight Saving time (“DST”) has its origins in allowing for more time for harvest when agriculture was a dominant force in the economy. The season of DST has been expanded, now from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November, to allow for more energy conservation since there is more sunlight available to us and we would not need to use as much electricity at our homes and business. It is debatable how effective these energy savings measures are but nevertheless, it is the law of the land at present.

While our economy and energy efficiency are worthwhile endeavors to justify the inconvenience of having to reset all our non-smart appliances that automatically synchronize themselves, it is important to note the negative effects of the changing of the clocks. In fact, Dr. Ilene Rosen of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine called the time change a “society-imposed jet lag.” Consider the following:

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that there is almost a10% increase in traffic accidents following the time change.
A similar increase in heart attacks was noted by the University of Alabama, Birmingham after springing forward.

Sleep is such a vital component for optimal functioning and I know when I am sleep deprived I tend to want to overindulge in caffeine and sweets, both of which only give you a short-term spike in energy and often leaving you feeling more depleted than you would feel otherwise.

So instead of gulping coffee or “energy” drinks throughout the day, here are some other things try to help the transition of time:

Go to bed earlier and get better rest:

Since you are getting up an hour earlier, to keep things balanced you should, in theory, go to bed an hour earlier. This, of course, is easier said than done. If you would like more information please click here to receive my e-book Cleaning the Connection which lists some products and tips to help you get a good night’s sleep. By clicking you will also receive access to other valuable resources.

Breathe Better

If you need a little pick me up, try the “Breath of Fire” technique. No this does not mean to eat some jalapenos, although that may wake you up. Breath Of Fire is a type of pranayama yoga that oxygenates your blood and can increase your energy. Youtube has a collection of videos that provide better instruction if you want to see how to do it. Tony Robbins morning “priming” routine includes a variation of the Breath Of Fire in which he pumps his arms down while performing the rapid breath. If you have ever seen Tony, you know that man has abundant energy so he must be on to something, right?

Meanwhile, enjoy the extra daylight and look for me to be napping under a budding tree.

Teamwork and Conversations

February 19, 2017 By Julian Kaufmann

It’s a Book!

I admit it that I am feeling like a proud papa right now, wanting to share my creation with the world.

After a very long gestation period Let Go Let It Flow will be released on April 7th.

If you would like to get an early version of the book and become a member of the launch team, please sign-up using the following link – Join the Let Go Let It Flow Launch Team.

I will be hosting a couple of live webinars including one on launch day as well as offering special bonus materials to those of you who sign up. Once the book goes live I only ask that you leave a review on Amazon. Thank you so much!

Speaking of speaking

Recently I was on Engel Jones’ podcast and you can listen to it here – 12-Minute Convos. Please leave a comment and support his mission. Engel interviewed 1000+ people in 3-months and has compiled some great stories.

Quote and Action for the week

“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.” – Hemmingway

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed Valentine’s day this past week. As we embark on this new week, I am going to embrace my romance of the unusual. Following Engel Jones’ example, I am going to try and create as many conversations with new people as I can, purposefully reaching out to those that I may not otherwise seek out.

Let me know how it goes and what you found!

Why I Did Not Drink To The New Year

January 1, 2017 By Julian Kaufmann

10970163 - drunken businessman after office christmas party — Too Much of A “Good” Thing Does Not Equal A Good Time

Cleaning the Connection

Happy 2017!

2016 was a tough year for many people and now that the year is in the history books we can begin anew. Today our resolutions go into effect. And many of us resolve to improve our lives by adopting a more healthy lifestyle including diet changes and perhaps more exercise. I know I do.

Hopefully, you don’t have a ringing in your head this morning from too much alcohol last night. If you are hungover, drink lots of water and consider how you feel right now compared to a more optimal way of being.

As for us, we had a quite night at home with family watching the ball drop in Times Square. In years gone by I could have been one of the drunken revelers that flashed across the screen. But last night I was sober, forgoing any alcohol and I woke up clear headed and ready to go. At 12:05 AM, I was sipping kombucha, not champagne. For the first five minutes of the new year, I was kissing and hugging!

For the past two (2) years, I have not had a drop of booze. This after a couple of decades of having on average at least several drinks per week.

What started out as a 100-day gong of giving up alcohol has become a way of life for me now. If you would like to learn more about gongs, please see Pedram Shojai’s Urban Monk for more information.

I am not preaching about the evils of alcoholic beverages and I do understand the social aspects of drinking. Truth be told, I enjoyed the taste of beer and loved sharing great food and wine with friends and family.

Beeing a teetotaller is a great way for me to practice detaching. One thing that helped me was that I found out I was allergic to wheat so I could not enjoy beer like I used to. Drinking beer was like a poison to my body. Once my favorite alcoholic beverage was eliminated from my menu, it made giving up the other types of booze that much easier.

Staying on the wagon of sobriety offers many benefits, including:

Better Sleep: Processing alcohol disrupts your sleep which is why you should not drink before going to bed. After giving up booze I don’t need to snooze in the morning. I wake up energized and ready to go, not bleary-eyed and slow.I found that the amount of sleep I needed to feel refreshed went down as well. Better quality sleep in less time!
Fewer calories: Each beer I would have was on average about 2oo calories, and I would typically have two. Add to that the “beer munchies” that would often follow, and I often found myself consuming an extra 1000+ calories a day.
Better Workouts In The Morning: It is hard to work out when you are hungover. As we previously stated alcohol negatively impacts your sleep. Waking up well rested allows you better performance in the morning.
More Money: Drinking is expensive. If you order drinks at a restaurant or bar, you can spend between $6-$15 per drink. Of course, this can get much higher once you start ordering fine wines. If you get a DUI as a result of drinking, this could cost you at least $10,000 or worse.
Less Regret: Alchohol lowers inhibitions, and many people have done things under the influence of alcohol they would never do sober. Keeping drinks from under your belt allows you to keep your wits better about you. Now that I don’t drink I can clearly see the inebriating effects of alcohol on others, and as a consequence, I am more resolved to maintain my composure and equanimity.

Ben Greenfield has an awesome site with a ton of helpful information on your body. He has a 2-part post that details the before and after effects of abstaining from alcohol for just 30-days. Please click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

We have the opportunity to live each day optimally. If you have not tried it already, I would encourage you to abstain from alcohol for 30-days and see how you feel. Please let me know how it goes. I’d love to get together with you for a cup of coffee.

Meanwhile For more resources and recommendations on how to get more out of your life, please check out my ebook – Cleaning the Connection

Namaste