As I’m sure you know, there were a series of terrorist attacks
in Paris last Friday night.
Seven young men armed with guns and bombs took the lives of over
100 people, including their own.
We don’t know much about the terrorists…their ages, where they
grew up, how they grew up, etc.
But we do know that they were young men.
Now, I’m not a psychologist, terrorist expert, geopolitical
analyst, or anything of the sort—so I’m not qualified to speak on
why these men chose to spend there one and only life destroying the
lives of innocent people while taking their own in the process.
But there are some lessons I DO believe I can share with you
about this tragedy:

Life is short and can be taken from you in an
instant.

I first learned this lesson when my mother died in a car
accident when I was 14. Then it was reinforced with the murder of
my brother and the suicide of my sister.
Maybe you’ve lost someone in your life like I have.
Or maybe you haven’t lost anyone.
But my point is that life can change in a heartbeat.
So all those things you want to do but have been putting them
off because you feel like there’s plenty of time?
You may not have as much time as you think. Take action
today--even if it’s just starting a workout plan or eating better
or even showing more appreciation of the people around you, telling
your family and friends how much you love them.
If you’ve got other goals in mind, fine. Just take action TODAY
with something that you’ve been postponed because you’re “too
busy”.
My action is writing you this email and doing a special
episode.
What can you take action on today? Do it.

Don’t let your mind get hijacked by the
media

20 years ago, there were no social media sites like Facebook or
Twitter. And no one had cell phones with cameras to capture and
share moments like what we see now with the Paris attacks as well
as other tragedies.
But in this day and age, we’re hit hard and fast with images,
reports and even videos so we feel like we are there experiencing
the fear, anger, sadness, rage, etc even though we’re thousands of
miles away.
In addition to that, are we told EVERYTHING that’s happening in
the world by the media? Or are certain events cherry-picked? Here’s
a quote in an article from Psychology Today:

“Is the media negative? Media studies show that bad news far
outweighs good news by as much as seventeen negative news reports
for every one good news report. Why? The answer may lie in the work
of evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists.  Humans
seek out news of dramatic, negative events. These experts say that
our brains evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment
where anything novel or dramatic had to be attended to immediately
for survival. So while we no longer defend ourselves against
saber-toothed tigers, our brains have not caught up.”
If there is a bias in the news, it’s because we respond to
certain information like Pavlov’s dogs salivating at the sound of a
bell. The Media is made by man, but our biologically hardwired
“negativity bias” makes us respond to news of threats and
forgetting all the other events that are happening. How many other
tragedies occurred in the past week that you didn’t care
about—either because you weren’t informed about them or they didn’t
go viral?
What happened in Paris was a tragedy. And I’m saddened and
angered just like every other person who values life and the
freedom to enjoy it without worrying about whether mad men with
guns and bombs will attack you.
But I don’t want you to get depressed about it either. Or too
afraid to go out and continuing to enjoy life.
“Loretta Garziano Breuning, author of Meet Your Happy
Chemicals says that “profound anxiety” results from following
the daily news because of its predominant focus on negativity. She
argues “news appeals to your minds’ quest for survival-relevant
information, but it doesn’t’ necessarily meet that need. It
squanders your attention on generalized threat signals that you
can’t really act on.”
Be aware of what