Articles, Happiness, Inspiration, Philanthropy

Change the World & Make Yourself Naturally Happier with 1 Little Book

November 6, 2009 Terrah Lozano

Instead of waiting until you ‘have more time’ or ‘have more money’ you can do simple daily actions that help you change the world while also benefiting yourself with feeling happier every day.

How?

Shortly after writing my kindness article, Elliot and I stumbled upon a book to help each of us change the world called Change the World for Ten Bucks, which we purchased.

In my kindness article, I discussed the importance of practicing random acts of kindness to make a difference in the world. I also discussed how it benefits both the giver and recipient of kindness with raised serotonin levels, which naturally leads to feeling more happy.

So, let’s combine the two thoughts – By practicing random acts of kindness and the other simple actions discussed in the Change the World book, you can help change the world while also naturally feeling happier each day. (great concept, right?)

About the Book: Change the World for Ten Bucks

It was written by We Are What We Do, a nonprofit organization aiming to inspire every day people to change the world through simple actions. The book has 50 actions that are easy to do during a regular day.

I implement this book by doing one action item each day. The types of action items range from: Continue reading Change the World & Make Yourself Naturally Happier with 1 Little Book →

Education, Purpose, Reviews

Make Money Doing What You Love: Recommendation of Yaro Starak’s & Gideon Shalwick’s Products

November 3, 2009 Terrah & Elliot 4 Comments

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/denharsh/ / CC BY 2.0

Background Story:

Have you ever wondered how you can strike a balance between making a living and doing what you love using your passions and talents to serve others? (To symbolize this balance, we chose the photograph of money with Gandhi above.)

This was a question that we pondered prior to stumbling upon blogging and launching this site, InspirationTheRide.com.

Briefly, after a series of events (which Elliot mentioned in his article Expressing Gratitude, Embracing Uncertainty & Seizing the Day: Reflections on My Birthday), we accidentally stumbled upon the idea of blogging. During this period, we researched much information on the internet and in print. We searched Amazon.com for the best books and read reviews to see which ones would suit our purposes.

After much research, we purchased the items we actually recommend on our Blogging Resources page.

We read The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging which gives you a sense of purpose with blogging. We also read Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income for the making money aspect, which was a fine book in and of itself.

Finally, after reading these two books and actually seeing Yaro Starak’s products being advertised on Darren Rowse’s Problogger website, we decided to give it a go. We signed up for Yaro’s email newsletter as well as received copies of all of the free reports (Roadmap to Become a Blogger, Blog Profits Blueprint, and Membership Site Masterplan).

The free reports and the videos provided lots of quality information for free. And, the funny thing was that we had just happened to sign up for his email newsletter just as Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick were re-opening their Become-A-Blogger program.

We lucked out and got in.

The information they provided was great. Gideon’s videos walk you step-by-step through the process of learning how to use the WordPress blogging platform and adding all the extras to make your blog look professional to be able to make money.

Now, we’re not going to write an in-depth review of these products because that’s not what this site is about; however, what we will mention is the aspect of using these products to make money doing what you love. Before moving on, however, we did want to say that we like and recommend Yaro’s and Gideon’s products. (NOTE: this is not about a get-rich-quick scheme; anything worth doing takes lots of effort and hard work.)

So, how do you go about making money doing what you love?

Well, first you have to ask yourself (and answer) – what are your passions and talents? As the saying goes, if you love what you’re doing you never work a day in your life.

Have you always wanted to make a living by expressing your passions and talents? And if you don’t know what your passions and talents are, the easiest way to figure them out is to make a list of all the things you enjoy doing.

Can any of these interests translate into a product or service which you can make a living by teaching or helping others?

Do you like to write?
Do you have a great eye for photographs?
Do you love dogs?
Are you the best Italian cook you know?

The list can go on and on. Things that may seem to be a hobby for you could turn into a livelihood.

And, this is where Yaro Starak’s and Gideon Shalwick’s products come into play. They all help you take your passions and talents to create a product or service so that you can get paid to do what you love. Their free reports are all worth reading and reviewing. These reports go much more in depth on considering your passions and talents for using blogging and/or membership sites to make a living online.

The 3 products from Yaro Starak featuring 1 partnered with Gideon Shalwick…

Continue reading Make Money Doing What You Love: Recommendation of Yaro Starak’s & Gideon Shalwick’s Products →

Articles, Inspiration, Travel

An Awe-Inspiring Montage: 17 Breathtaking Photos of the Sun’s Magnificence

October 30, 2009 Terrah & Elliot 3 Comments

(Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano ‘Radiant Rio’ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words….

We have taken beautiful photographs of the sun in places in the U.S. and beyond and have gathered 17 of them here for your enjoyment. These photographs were taken after being awe-struck in each particular place. We hope the pictures provide 1000 awe-inspiring words to brighten your day and those you share it with.

Please be sure to share this post with others and help spread the word about www.InspirationTheRide.com by utilizing your favorite social media service found below.

Enjoy!

Photo Copyright Elliot Lozano 'Expansive Coast' Newport Beach, California USA

Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano 'Sandia Silhouette' Sandia Mountains, NM USA

Photo Copyright Elliot Lozano 'Surreal' Pacific Beach, CA USA

Photo Copyright Elliot Lozano 'Shimmering Beauty of Fiji' Fijian Islands, Fiji

Continue reading An Awe-Inspiring Montage: 17 Breathtaking Photos of the Sun’s Magnificence →

Articles, Intention, Meditation, Vision

Create the Life You Desire: How to Make a Vision Binder and Intention List

October 16, 2009 Terrah Lozano 3 Comments

(Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano ‘Stone Road’ Gocek, Turkey)

In this article which is organized in three parts, I discuss the steps in creating a vision binder, intention list, and a regular manifestation practice to create the life you want.

Part 1: The process of creating the Vision Binder.

One of the greatest things you can do to imagine and create your ideal life is to create a vision board (or actually a vision binder as I will discuss!).

A vision board is essentially a canvas of images that remind you of the life you want for yourself. We first learned about this from watching The Secret and hearing John Assaraf talk about the importance of visualization.

Many great teachers explain how to do this. They tell you to create a large board you can look at and meditate to often that contains visual images of ideas and/or objects you want or desire in your life.

This all makes sense in theory but for us there were a couple logistical problems.

Problem #1

You are supposed to keep your desires to yourself or, at most, to yourself and your close partner/husband/friend. If you show your visions to others your ego becomes involved and that is exactly what you want to avoid. Having your ego involved means your goals are no longer about what you truly want; it becomes what you want to show other people you are or have.

For us, this meant that anytime we had people over (which we like to do often) we had to take our vision boards off the wall. To make matters worse we had two cork boards each, so four total (we have a big vision, lol). This was very cumbersome and you feel that you are blocking your visions by turning them backwards to hide them from others (and yourself).

This could be different if you have an extremely private bedroom in which there is no way anyone other than yourself and your partner would walk into your bedroom.

However, there are still exceptions to when people would still have to enter your bedroom such as maintenance people or friends/relatives that like tours of your home.

Problem #2

Once vision boards are filled they are filled and you are out of space, unless of course you add another board.

Solution: Vision Binder! Continue reading Create the Life You Desire: How to Make a Vision Binder and Intention List →

Articles, Change, Inspiration, Life Path, Purpose

Expressing Gratitude, Embracing Uncertainty & Seizing the Day: Reflections on My Birthday

October 6, 2009 Elliot Lozano 2 Comments

(Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano, ‘Sand Dune’ Jericoacoara, Brazil)

Expressing Gratitude

I am grateful for everything that has come into my life during these 27 years on this earth. Everything that has happened to me has shaped me into the person I have become and am becoming.

I am grateful to my wife, family, friends, and experiences.

And, most of all, I am grateful to becoming more aware of embracing uncertainty in life to be able to live my life as completely as I can. As Jack Canfield said in The Secret, “Imagine yourself driving from LA to NY at night. How would you do it? You would have your lights on and the road would be unfolding 200 yards at a time.”

Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano, 'Road to Jeri' Jericoacoara, Brazil

Embracing Uncertainty

Let’s think about this. You only see a small portion of the road for every 200 yards. You can’t see the entire way. So, at each 200 yards, you have to re-assess the situation. You have to see if there is ice up ahead, roadblocks, traffic stops, is your exit coming soon? Sometimes we all plan this down to the smallest detail. But sometimes it’s more enjoyable to just embrace uncertainty and allow things to pop up in life.

If you had asked me a few months back if I was going to be a writer/blogger, I wouldn’t have known. I honestly didn’t know a whole lot about blogging and becoming a writer was something I saw in the far future.

The path that led us to this juncture in our lives, to this blog and many other things, came from embarking on a spiritual quest and following our intuition.

A Story:

A few months ago my wife Terrah and I decided to make some changes in our lives and moved apartments. Shortly after our move was completed, Terrah got sick (which is unusual for her) and this slowed us down from working on what we had pre-determined were our plans. When she got sick, we took the signal to mean that the universe, God, Budda, Allah, Rah, Krishna, Higher Power (whatever you call it) had grander plans than we did for our lives.

The universe led us to the next feeling that acting on our original plans didn’t feel right with our Being, our gut, or our instincts (whatever you want to call it). So, I felt the need to read more about intention and manifesting in our lives.

This signal led me to finding and subsequently reading Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention. Subsequently finding this book after feeling this intuition could merely be called a coincidence. I don’t believe it was a coincidence because I believe everything happens for a reason. (And if you are reading this now and something pops out at you, will you take it as a coincidence and brush it off like Scrooge and say, “Bah Hum Bug”? or will you embrace your intuition and act?)

Anyhow, long story short, by embracing uncertainty and intuition and ACTING upon those feelings, the path of reading Power of Intention took me to discovering blogging. A series of seeming coincidences collided to produce the manifestation of my passions through writing and helping people.

For taking these steps, I am happier and more fulfilled doing what I love. Continue reading Expressing Gratitude, Embracing Uncertainty & Seizing the Day: Reflections on My Birthday →

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Yearly Archives: 2009