John Soforic

In a crisis, practice meditation.

By John Soforic on 03/24/2020

“Make daily focus a habit with a daily ritual.”

We control money by controlling ourselves. “Self-control,” said George Bernard Shaw, “is the quality that distinguishes the fittest to survive.”

We must continually fixate our thoughts on a target throughout life and then trust that everything will take care of itself. It’s knowing that the right plans and actions spring from a focused mind.

So why don’t we focus more? Because we haven’t made it a habit.

We can make focus a daily habit with a daily ritual.

This ritual I find most useful to lock in my daily focus is meditation. It’s a state of deliberate concentration in the morning and night. It’s mental control.

I sit in a sauna in my home. I think of nothing. I seek to avoid “words” or “images” in my mind. I “feel time” for 10 minutes. I sense the passage of time. It is a practice being in the NOW, HERE, THIS.

It’s present-time consciousness.

This daily practice helps to set up a state of mindfulness for the day.

It’s mindfulness practice for the rest of the day. I don’t think I can be mindful during my days without this ritual of mental practice.

And I need to live a life of mindfulness. It is the bedrock of an intentional way of being. Meditation is not an abstract practice. It is practice for the day.

When I’m doing it right, my mind is on the moment. Time slows down, and I seem to be in tune with the day. When I’m doing it wrong, I’m doing nothing to focus my mind. And left without self-control, the mind will tend toward a state of mindlessness.

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In a crisis, move your body!

By John Soforic on 03/23/2020

“A peak state helps you handle adversity.” – the Wealthy Gardener

Physical exertion improves your mind. It turns your worry into confidence and your fatigue into vitality. No other remedy does more for the spirit.

I had a friend who faced a midlife crisis so awful that he later admitted to me that he ONCE considered suicide.

He tried antidepressants, psychotherapy, religion- you name it. Nothing worked. Despite a loving family, he was miserable. He figured it must by his job, or his life condition. He felt overwhelmed and trapped.

But then he found his solution.

It turns out, he didn’t need a new career, but he did require a stronger on-going emotional state to keep up with the increasing demands of his life.

He joked about it later. “Everything was different since the day I decided to take care of my physical animal.” He focused on his body to strengthen his mind.

He told me that nothing in his world changed around him, but he changed himself in the world. He began every day with vigorous exercise. .

He started walking, jogging, and finally running. He set a goal to finish a half marathon and then he did it. He slowly restored his physical strength––and what followed was more mental energy, and spiritual vitality.

If your life is perfect, then you get a pass. But if you need a boost, if you feel inadequate to meet your challenges, if you feel doubtful over your ability to endure life’s trials, exercise may be the cure to unlock your full powers.

“I go for a face sweat,” said Steve Young, “as a minimum daily workout.” If sweating doesn’t appeal to you, then at least aim to stimulate deep breathing, go for a walk, or try daily yoga.

A peal state helps you handle adversity..

“I believe that when the body is strong,” Henry Rollins said, “the mind thinks strong thoughts.” Cicero told us, “It is exercise alone that restores the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.”

Beyond the obvious physical benefits, exercise provides clarity of mind, increased cognition, higher energy, quicker thinking, greater stress-handling capacity, more self-confidence, more poise, and steady composure in the face of stressful problems.

Arthur Dobrin said, “A good sweat, with the blood pounding through my body, makes me feel alive, revitalized. I gain a sense of mastery and assurance. I feel good about myself.”

“Sweat cleanses from the inside,” said George Sheehan. “It comes from places a shower will never reach.”

Of course, you don’t absolutely need to exercise. You can exist with less than full energy and still be productive. You can survive with less than your best thinking. You can operate from a position of weakness. In fact, you can even take comfort in knowing that you’re like most people.

But if you choose exercise to cultivate a daily peak state, your days in the world will be better . . . because you will be better in the world.

Buddha said, “To keep the body in good health is a duty—otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”

So what should you do? Why not try a 20-minute walk today. If promise you that when you’re 5 minutes into it, you’ll be glad you made time for it.

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See this message in a video.

In a crisis, how to keep the faith.

By John Soforic on 03/21/2020

When times are good, it is easy to be optimistic. When times are bad, we see who can keep the faith. We control thoughts, or we control nothing.

The essence of self-mastery is the clarity to know exactly what you want, the discipline to control your thoughts during your days, and the awareness to feel and be a successful person despite what’s happening all around you.

The question is how do you retain optimism in tough times? If you have not been tested in life, you won’t understand the question. If you have been tested by terrible adversities, you’ll know how it’s easy to lose your certainty.

In my home office, I’ve hung countless framed quotes on the walls. These are my favorite quotations to remind me of the best ideas I’ve every discovered. I call these my wall-hangers. A quote to me is an idea capsule. And so I’m surrounded by ideas. A phrase above my writing desk states: THIS ONE DAY. It reminds me of what’s most important in life.

What’s my motivation for these quotes in plain sight? The joke is that I’m so dumb I hang quotes in front of me so I’ll remember them. The truth is that I rely on these thoughts and ideas to hold me up during my difficult times.

I read and listen to people worthy of being read and being listened to. I do these things to keep my faith intact and to build my character.

So what should you do now during tough times?

Give your attention to that which empowers you. I’m not suggesting you put your head in the sand and ignore the reality of your life conditions.

I am suggesting you don’t let overwhelming problems claim your energy. Give your energy, and your attention, to empowering things.

In my own life, upward mobility has relied on my daily capacity to hold a clear goal in my mind and to believe I would achieve it despite all evidence to the contrary. Negative feelings and doubts arose during soul-crushing setbacks, of course, but my attention has always veered back to goals.

Focus on the things you want with calm assurance. And use this focused time to build your vision. The best thing about hard times is that they’ll open our mind to learning. When times are good, very few people are learning anything.

I wrote The Wealthy Gardener during three long years, and I wrote it for exactly times like these. It’s a book that empowers you. And it’s built on everything I learned in my personal struggle, and by studying the best of the best.

In that way, it’s not just my book. It’s a book of many lives and many lessons. I’d suggest you get the audio book and listen to it repeatedly.

It can help you use the wasted times of life when you drive, wait in lines, exercise, walk, and so on. These are the odd moments that usually amount to nothing. Start using them.

Self-mastery is controlling your internal state regardless of external conditions. It is mental transcendence. It is the stubborn command of thought, intention, and emotion.

“I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself,” said Pietro Aretino. We control thoughts, or we control nothing.

When times are bad, we see who can keep the faith.

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Be mindful in the storm.

By John Soforic on 03/18/2020

“Every achievement is a bird on the wing.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Mindfulness is useful during tough times due to concentration of thought and energy. A frazzled mind wears you out, but a focused mind stays strong.

What will you focus on today? The temptation for me is to focus on the sensational news. What’s happening today? What’s closing now? What’s happening in the stock market? What are people predicting?

In other words, I’m tempted to put all my attention on stuff that is outside of my control. It’s about the same as focusing on what you see inside this circle.

It’s like giving my daily attention to nothing, while I have things to do. The opposite of this is controlling your attention. It’s about being mindful.

I was drawn to mindfulness in my 30s to focus on one task at a time while also maintaining a state of calmness. Being mindful led to effective action.

And I was at my best when I was dialed in, turned on, focused deeply, and lost in each passing moment. Mindfulness of one task at a time—one thought, one action, one breath—is a form of absorption that tends to transcend suffering and generate our most sacred efforts.

“If you want to hit a bird on the wing,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself and, equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor: you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.”

When we are mindful, our eye is on the wing of the bird. And then miracles happen through inspirations due to immersed concentration.

This deep concentration on one task at a time is critical to daily productivity, but mindfulness will also prove to be a useful tool to maintain your steady direction and to connect you with your inner wisdom.

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Outlasting the Season

By John Soforic on 03/17/2020

“To see sunshine, weather the storm.”

In times of crisis, we must only outlast the season.

When you find yourself in a crisis, don’t forget the option of doing nothing. Be like a strong oak tree in a northern winter. The cold weather sweeps in for long months, the wind howls, the days get shorter, and the darkness grows longer.

The lifeless tree is frozen like a towering ice statue. In the worst of times, there is nothing to do but outlast the elements. The tree stands erect and takes it. It accepts and endures the pain. It does nothing. But the tree, frozen or not, survives until spring. It’s sometimes missing a branch, but it is alive.

During my worst financial adversity, when my situation was most grim, during the bleakest moments of the darkest months, one lesson stood above all the rest. I could lose my job, my income, my kids’ college funds, but no person or event had the power to take away my Inner Light. It was mine alone.

Inside each of us is a central, spiritual presence that we feel most when we are left with nothing else. This Inner Light was all I had at the time, and it helped me to endure and survive during this winter season of my life.

“If you want to see the sunshine,” Frank Lane said, “you have to weather the storm.” In the depths of winter, we must only outlast the season.

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