It’s easy to complain about life instead of choosing to make it better.

But no matter how bad things can seem for you — bad times, bad economy, bad weather, bad kids or whatever — I’ll bet it’s amazing compared to what others are going through.

It’s all in the perspective.

For example, a devastating earthquake has just rocked the northeast coast of Japan, with a magnitude of 8.9. That’s the fifth strongest quake in the world since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Information Center.

You can see some photos of the destruction here.

With hundreds dead, buildings collapsed, cars smashed and boats swept off by tsunami waves, chances are the people of Japan are going through harder times than you right now… and as our Wealth Vault members heard this morning, I and the entire LWL team send our sincere condolences and genuine thoughts of strength.

As for you…

Happiness is a choice, and that fact is highlighted in a somewhat silly but powerful way in Bobby McFerrin’s old hit, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

Bobby turns 61 today, and to celebrate his birthday, I encourage you to watch the video, and think about how you can apply the message to your life:

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

If your child is entering college this year, it’s a huge milestone — for you and for him. This step represents your little bird growing up and leaving the nest, and that can bring mixed feelings of pride, joy, sadness and fear from both of you.

Of course, not everybody needs to go to college. There are tons of success stories out there of people who have accomplished great things without it.

But some kids learn a lot from the experience — maybe even more than they learn from their classes.

If she’s moving out for the first time, it may seem like there’s so much to do, and not enough time to accomplish it. To make matters worse, it’s easy to become confused about what, and how much, should be brought to the new residence.

Being prepared can make the transition easier, so to help you out I’ve prepared my checklist of Top 10 Dorm Essentials:

>>> CONTINUE READING Top 10 Dorm Essentials Checklist…

If you’re an internet marketer who does a lot of traveling, obviously you’re going to take your laptop with you most of the time. Hey, even if you’re going on vacation, you want to be able to check your email, and your Twitter feed, and your Facebook page, maybe send out an autoresponder message or two, and just generally make sure everything’s running smoothly while you’re gone, right?

Oh, wait… if you’re really organized, you can schedule a lot of that to happen automatically while you’re gone, and use your iPhone or BlackBerry or some other gadget to check your email, if you don’t have an assistant to do it.

But for me, I’m probably still going to want to take my laptop so I have the option of doing some work while I’m on the road.

So let’s talk about what you need to do to make that as painless and effective as possible.

>>> CONTINUE READING Travel Essentials for Marketers…

Today we unleashed our second LWL Worldwide Hidden Hero.

This time, you can experience the emotion and passion in what he does first hand…

Find out more about him here.

Keep Unwrapping The Mysteries of Life!

Today marks the launch of our LWL Worldwide Hidden Heroes series, with Hidden Hero #1…

Find out who he is, and what he does, here.

Keep Unwrapping The Mysteries of Life!

Isn’t it nice when people recognize the state of the economy and offer you something for free that they normally charge for?

Keith Wellman and Gary Ambrose are putting on one of their famous live seminars next weekend — and this time you pay nothing to attend. Zilch, zip, nada!

If you live in the Atlanta area, even better — you can stay at home and attend from there. If you have to travel, you’ll obviously need to pay for the hotel, but they’ve negotiated some rock-bottom rates for you there too.

If you’re in a hurry, you can see the Gateway to Wealth sign-up page here; if you’d like my insight and guidance on how to make this experience the best possible, then keep reading…

>>> CONTINUE READING If You’re Free Next Weekend… So Is This!…

This weekend, Barry and I met my parents for a little adventure — the Northern California coastline, the Southern Oregon coastline, and the Redwood forests.

Yes, that one little pocket of the world contains sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, and awe-inspiring trees, all within a few miles of each other.

Here’s Barry with my parents by the California beach…

And Dad’s taking my picture as I take theirs!

You’d never know it was North instead of South… this is the type of beautiful beach that you could find and enjoy in nearly any warm climate area in the world.

If you blindfolded someone and brought them here, they’d probably never guess where they were!

Then we moved further North up the coastline, where it turns rockier (and windier! Wow!) but just as beautiful.

This is me above the point where the sand and rocks meet… like teeny rocks that have been formed from what the big rocks once were.

Millions of years of history can be seen in a place like this — and it’s amazing that we get to experience it.

I like to imagine it 100 years ago. Did it look the same?

What about 1,000 years ago?

How many people have stood, just like me, above the beach with the wind whipping all around them?

Things like that make me stop and contemplate the world we live in, and the way it has unfolded over time.

It also makes me enjoy the moment, even as I think fleetingly about other moments that have also been enjoyed in that very same spot.

After that we headed back south and went through the Redwood forests, on a small trail off the beaten path (literally — it’s just a dirt road), stopping every now and then to take a short hike into the huge trees.

This picture gives you some idea of the size of the giant Redwoods, as Barry walked behind the rest of us… but for some reason, none of the pictures we took really did them justice.

The awe-factor somehow seemed to go missing as soon as the 3-D world was captured on a 2-D photo.

This really makes me think about our significance (or rather, insignificance) in the vastness of the Universe.

It makes me appreciate everything we’ve created, everything we co-exist with, and everything that defines what we call home.

And of course, it makes me appreciate those I love that were there to experience it with me.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Barry and I spent yesterday, Leap Day (kind of an extra day, if you think about it) on our first major road trip… driving 6 hours from Oregon through California to Reno, Nevada.

It’s a beautiful trip, through the mountains and then the forests, and this picture is indicative of what we got to appreciate as we drove.

(Well… Barry drove, and I rode beside him, taking pictures!)

They say “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”… but what about what happens in Reno, further upstate?

Why is Reno called “The Biggest Little City in the World”?

Why is Vegas known for quickie weddings, while Reno is known for quickie divorces?

And why has Reno not grown to the size of Vegas all these years later?

There are a lot of things to ponder… but mostly I’m concentrating on enjoying the trip and being grateful for being able to share the experience (the natural beauty, the personal togetherness, the fun with friends and colleagues) with Barry.

The best things in life come when we’re grateful for what we already have, and appreciate every experience, big or small.

That includes the Biggest Little City in the World… or the Littlest Big City, or the Littlest Little City, or the beautiful mountains, the trees, the lakes, the oceans, or what-have-you.

Or just each other.

And another experience that I appreciated is when Barry won me a disco-purple sparkly Tasmanian Devil from a game at the Circus Circus casino.

He’s been promising to win me something at the fair for months, and Circus Circus has a gaming section that’s almost like a fair… so fair game (pun intended).

Purple is one of my very favorite colors, and Barry knew that — and specifically pointed out Taz before winning it.

Our first prize manifestation!

So it was a great opportunity to be goofy and have a little fun in this photo. How often do you get to pose with something that’s sparkly-purple pretty, but scary at the same time?

Anyhow… what happens in Reno stays in Reno… right?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

On Friday I wrote about a metaphorically “rainy” day in my life…

“Everyone wants happiness, no one wants pain, but you can’t make a rainbow without a little rain.”

So since you have to experience the downs before the ups — the rain before the rainbow — now, here’s the rainbow!

It’s a video that Barry made of just a bit of our life together… working, playing, loving and living (thanks to Lifehouse for the music that seems to fit so well!)

Everybody deserves a soul mate that can be their partner on this journey through life, whether it rains or shines.

If you’re looking for your own soul mate, you might also want to pay attention to the website at the end of the video… LoveUnwrapped.com

And now… Lights, Camera… Action!

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

I’m eating a sugar-free Twizzlers strawberry twist right now… the same brand of red licorice that used to be my absolute favorite when I was a kid.

I had to buy the package — in fact, I had to buy TWO packages — because it instantly manifested in front of my eyes.

Now in case you’re thinking, “poof, there it is!” when I talk about instant manifestation happening right before my eyes… that’s not how it works, and that’s not what happened.

It’s magical, but it’s not magic.

Editor’s Note — Added After Publication: In a humorously synchronistic event that completely jives with the vibe of this post, Barry was just reading this and said, “Hey, didn’t you know that 2 1/2 years ago, I ended my Manifesting Mindset e-book with a similar phrase?”

No, I didn’t know that… but what he wrote was “It’s Not Magic… But It Can Be Magical!”

When you see a magician make something appear before your eyes, it really didn’t. It just looks like it did, through an illusion. That “illusion” (and some illusions are more illusionary than others) is what we call magic.

But when you manifest something, and suddenly it’s in front of you, it’s not quite an illusion… except for the fact that, on a quantum physics level, all of reality is an illusion. But the thing you’re manifesting is as real as our reality allows it to be, hence the word “manifest”. It’s just that the experience, the way that real thing becomes part of your reality, is magical.

I know, it might seem like I’m talking in circles, or not making sense… or even a little loopy. Okay, so let me clarify.

Here’s the story of how it went down…

>>> CONTINUE READING The Power of Instant Manifestation…