Hustler's Guide to the Galaxy Lucas Sommer

Happiness is often derived from your expectations. Have high hopes, high expectations and you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Outcomes are at times outside of your control, but your expectations are always within your control. If you want to be happy, lower your expectations. 

Humans think that they are better/stronger/faster than they really are - that is just our nature. This leads to a vicious cycle of most people over promising and underdelivering - you don't want to be one of those people. Instead, have realistic expectations of what your employees, investors, friends, family and most importantly you will  be able to deliver on. 

You are the master of your destiny and you shouldn't EXPECT the universe, an investor, a supplier, a friend or anyone else to simply give you what you expect or feel you deserve. It is  on you - don't expect any help. 

Only when you admit this cold hard truth will you award yourself the mental position necessary to move forward and be successful. 

We are all in marketing and we are all in sales. No matter what you do - professional or personally - you are working on marketing and sales in some capacity. Businesses, brands and politicians apply spin and it is a critical component to a successful communications strategy. If you want to win, apply spin to all your communication and watch the universe give you more of what you want. 

In 2002, a study by Robert Feldman. At the university of Massachusetts found that on average people told two to three lies. In every 10 minute conversation. 

That means you're lying all day, every day, all the time to everyone that you speak to.     And it doesn't feel like you're lying to people, but you're always stretching the truth. You're always telling a story. And that's just part of being human. 

It is your public relations campaign - and you should embrace it. 

People often get too hung up with "telling the truth" when instead they should be focused on maximizing wellbeing for the people around you. 

Successful people have excellent public relations skills and you should too. 

Being likable is a skill like any other, and it can be learned, practiced and mastered. It begins with stopping your own destructive thoughts, recognizing the lizard brain in yourself and taking an active role in your verbal communication and body language. 

As an active participant in your own thought stream, you can start to control the underlying messages you are sending to other humans. 

And once you recognize that all those other humans you are dealing with are the subject to the thoughts of their lizard brains, you can begin to manage the lizard brain to lizard brain communication going on subconsciously. 

Being focused is all about controlling your mind and tackling difficult problems in the present. You can't be focused on the future or worried about the past if you hope to overcome challenges today. 

Learning how to be mindful of your own thoughts is the first step in controlling them and staying focused on your goals. Your lizard brain is there to sabotage so recognizing this challenge by being focused 

Worry is just fear with an imagination. Don't bring past and future pain into the present by worrying. Learn how to recognize your destructive worried thoughts and what you can do about it.