Whether it is on the field of professional sport or in the Buddhist temple, you will find exponents of the art of mindfulness. Mindfulness – the exact opposite of mindlessness – is the only key you need to unlock a life of peace, calm and effortless success. Doesn’t matter what kind of success you have in mind, if you develop mindfulness, what most occupies your mind will come about – not through you simply wishing for it to happen (and doing, as some books suggest, nothing to bring it about yourself!) – but through the ongoing daily practice and development of mindfulness.

What is mindfulness? Well, for simplicity, let me start by telling you what it’s not! As I’ve already said, it’s the exact opposite of mindlessness. So what – surely few people are truly mindless! Alas, that is far from the case – seventy years psychological research proves beyond any doubt – and from a variety of different perspectives – that at least 96% of us, so-called “normal” people, live mindless lives, day in, day out. The research proves that “normal” people perform all their repetitive tasks (and all tasks become repetitive sooner or later) automatically, without paying them any attention whatsoever. The research proves that “normal” people only pay 1% attention to where they are and what they’re supposed to be doing, in the present moment – the only time and place either you or I have. The research proves that “normal” people only perceive what they expect to perceive and that anything beyond their field of expectation simply goes by unperceived. The research proves that the “normal” person’s life is controlled and created by their subconscious mind which is generally focused in their past.

I could go on – but I believe that the quick snapshot of “normal” people above proves beyond doubt that most of us go through each day mindlessly – the exact opposite of mindfully.

Mindfulness is simply being more attentive to the present moment, to what you are doing in the here and now, to what you are perceiving through your five senses. Your five senses represent the only “interface” you have with the outside world and are, as such, the cornerstone of your ability to be mindful. Unfortunately, normal people pay no attention to their five senses. Rather, when they receive sensory information (this is called cognition) they add their internal subconscious knowledge to that sensory information and perceive what they think is happening, not what is actually happening. This application of so-called stored knowledge to external sensory data is called recognition. We recognise what’s going on for what we think it is – not what it actually is – based on the focus of our subconscious mind (which, as we’ve already said, is focused in the past).

So, mindfulness is simply being more present (than the pathetic 1% presence of normal people) in the present moment. It is not being “single-minded” about what one wants to achieve. It is not being “focused” on one’s goals. It has nothing to do with believing (or not) in your abilities – it has nothing to do with positive thinking (which is simply more thinking that distances from the reality of the present moment) – it is simply being attentive to whatever it is you are doing, wherever it is you find yourself, whoever you find yourself with, in this present moment – and in every present moment.

And that is why so many of my clients get so frustrated when their efforts to develop their mindfulness become derailed. We are bound to be derailed regularly, every day. The cards are not stacked in our favour when it comes to living the mindful life. We have an adult lifetime of so-called normal behaviour – and that’s wilfully acting against our best efforts at mindfulness. We are surrounded by normality wherever we go – the easy temptation is to be normal too. Normal people are behaving mindlessly all around us – it is so difficult not to react along with them. And, so, we fall daily in our efforts to be more centred, more calm, more mindful. But none of this is relevant to mindfulness in the present moment. So what if I lost my head earlier in the day – it’s in the past. So what if I’ve had an awful morning where I got nothing done – it’s the afternoon , it’s now. So what if I am frustrated by my inability to be mindful in the moment – my frustration is the only thing that’s standing in my way to being mindful.

Why is mindfulness the only key you need to achieve effortless success? Mindfulness makes you abnormally present to the present moment – you have presence and presence is both impressive and impactful on those around you. Making an impression makes you more attractive – to the people and events that will lead you along the path towards success. But, most of all, mindfulness means that you will perceive what is actually going on – you will perceive the unexpected, the opportunities that normal people cannot perceive – and it is that level of awareness that will lead you to places that normal people cannot go – towards abnormal success.

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Blogs are all about opinion. They are now massively used, promoted, discussed and quoted. Some have become mainstream news outlets, checked every day. Blogging has become a new form of work for both trained and untrained “journalists”. I, as an educator, have even started using them as an educational tool in an online course I am teaching, and have all the students creating and maintaining their own blogs as part of their assignments.

But who is attempting to evaluate blogs for quality, accuracy, truth, consistency and all of the other components that are typically focused on by, for instance, editors of published journals or newspapers, or directors of television shows. Blogs are, in reality, a mix of all sorts of different media types, often presented in a multi-media fashion with video clips and a number of other enhancements.

And should we be trying to measure the quality of blogs anyway? After all, a blog is a derivation of literally a web-log. Early blogs were simply a series of postings in the form of a diary of activities posted on the internet for all to see. They have certainly rapidly developed as an information source since those first examples, and now often used to promote views held by individuals or organizations on almost any subject under the sun.

We do measure and evaluate most written communications, and most media publications, and for many different reasons. We may want to demonstrate certain levels of quality and accuracy, to see if they have changed views of the subjects who read or watched them, to count what they have sold or promoted and demonstrate their effectiveness or to judge how to improve them for future editions. Alternatively we may want to measure usability or readability. But do we do this with blogs? Blogs are different from many other publications on the Internet, and are even less permanent than many other types of website environments. While most blogs do have an archiving process for past postings, all such archived postings can be changed, deleted, and otherwise altered retrospectively, so that the sense of permanency that the internet has with some content, simply doesn’t exist with blogs.

I have searched the web briefly for articles about blog evaluation, or blog measurement, and cannot find many that have made a serious attempt at this. Does this mean that this is not worthwhile doing? I doubt it. Does it mean that no-one is doing it. Again a negative answer, as I am sure they are. Does it mean that it is a hard and perhaps thankless task? Most certainly. Can any readers of this article find some good examples of blog evaluations? I hope they can.

The only form of “measurement” of blogs seems to be a popularity index, and there are many groups now focused on identifying the “top 10″ or the “top 100″ blogs in a certain area. But popularity is very different from quality, and it would be good to see some structured quality measures combined with the popularity counts. Some blogs do get widely quoted, and are “fact checked” by a range of groups, but this fact checking is really only about core content quoted on the blogs, and not about the quality of the blog more generally.

It does seem odd that blogs, which are now becoming a mainstream news source for many of us, and which we know are notoriously unreliable, are not being evaluated and are not being treated in the same way that other important new sources are treated.

My own area of interest is internet healthcare. It would not be too difficult to set up a measuring and evaluation process to use with blogs in that area, and this would seem to be a well worthwhile task. This is particularly important with respect to our current debate on healthcare reform, as blogs are taking a front row seat in the efforts of all sides to promote their views, yet there is little attempt to evaluate their quality or accuracy, and this leads to the potential for the rapid spread of misinformation.

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A fulfilling life is one of meaning, purpose and balance and the one thing that everybody strives for each and every day. It is living your life and enjoying every moment to the best of your ability and finding the happiness that is all around you. It is not only about materialistic things either. Those things can give the impression of a happy life but often you will find, that with no one to share it with and experiences to remember, all the money, cars and homes will not bring do we want it, it is how do we achieve it?

The secrets are as follows:

Secret #1 – An Optimistic Outlook

Optimism is a wonderful ingredient to a fulfilled life. Take a look at the good in each thing you see, hear and experience and you will immediately be given rewards in return. This isn’t always easy, but if you practice each and every day starting with the little things, it will eventually become a part of your life and remember to start with being grateful for what you already have.

Secret #2 – A Goal and Purpose in Life

Have a purpose in life and working towards that purpose is the secret to a happy life. We as human beings are programmed to set goals and using that skill to define our life purpose will put you on the road to a fulfilled life. If you examined some of the most successful people in the world, they would tell you that they know what they want, they know the price to pay for it and they make a habit at setting goals daily. Without goals you float thru life but with goals, you soar thru the air like an arrow with focus, power and heading straight towards your target.

Secret #3 – Take Charge of Your Life

You cannot change the past so take charge of your life and change your future. You have the power to master your own fate and orientate your life towards as positive and purposeful future. You just have to decide to do so. Stop blaming other for your problems and work towards freeing yourself of negative emotions: fear, self pity, shame and anger. The more responsibility you take for yourself and your actions, the more in charge of your life you will be.

Secret #4 – Live each day as it was your last

We operate 96% of our lives on autopilot. Doing the same actions we have done each day before. The secret to a fulfilled life is breaking out of those habits and finding opportunities to experience life everyday. When you expand your universe and venture out to other places, you open up the possibility for new experiences and new adventures. You cannot create new experiences sitting around waiting for something to happen. You need to change your environment in order to change your results. If you continue to do the same thing, each day in the same manner, you will always get the same results. Remove the routine of your life and try something new.

Secret #5 – Experiences in the 9 critical areas

The old Chinese masters identified 9 areas in your life that need to be tended to and nurtured in order to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life, they are as follows:

Spirituality, Helpful People and Travel Children, Creativity and Entertainment Wisdom, Self Knowledge and Calm Center of Good Fortune and Gratitude Marriage, Relationships and Partnerships Wealth, Prosperity and Self Worth Fame, Reputation and Social Life Health, Family and Community Career, Life Mission and Individuality Those that are fulfilled have addressed their needs in all of these areas. There is no defined formula or one size fits all approach to finding balance, those that are fulfilled have more positive experiences in many areas of their life rather than just focus on only one.

Secret # 6 – Good Health

Your body is your temple and to live a fulfilled life, you must experience good health so be sure to take care of yourself with proper diet, exercise and personal development. Taken care of yourself will energize you to take the necessary actions to reach all of your goals. You want to make sure you are feeding your body and feeding your mind each and every day to remain sharp, focused and motivated.

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