The Samotivation Podcast

Today (December 22nd) is my birthday and I have prepared a special podcast to celebrate it.
We’ll look at the mindset that made Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent, 50 cent. The whole 9 yards and everything that took him from desperation, poverty and drug dealing at the age of 12 in the gang violence plagued streets of Jamaica, Queens, New York to the world famous and successful rapper, songwriter, TV producer, actor and entrepreneur that he is today. A man that is living proof that you can make something big out of yourself, no matter where you come from, what your circumstances are or how challenging they may seem at the time. That you are capable of becoming something great regardless of the difficulties, the desperation, marginalization, racism, and even in the case of 50 being shot 9 times and no matter how many people keep telling you can’t do it and why it won’t work out.

Happy New Year, Samotivation! I have a feeling that the year ahead is gonna be an amazing one. My Sami sense is tingling (2 points if you got the Spiderman reference). This episode is about how to make this years new resolution's a reality. Samotivation style.

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Today’s episode is on money, moo-lah, ca-ching.<br />
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We’ll look at how to manage money through the Richest Man in Babylon, one of the most famous and favorite books among the banking and finance elite. Although the book was published in 1926, its lessons hold true almost a century later. <br />
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The reason I made this episode is because I feel like there is a lack of information on money. The educational system does a really bad job when it comes to financial literacy. There are all types of classes on Economics, Finance, Accounting, Business Management, Marketing and so on. <br />
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Endless money-related classes and not a single class taught us how to actually manage our finances. <br />
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What do I do when I get my salary? How much of it should I save? How do I invest it to make more? How do I accumulate wealth? All questions that the educational system refuses to answer. Could be that this is done on purpose so people do not think for themselves and remain poor? It’s possible.<br />
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Financial literacy skills are indispensable.<br />
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We live on an economic planet. And we are reminded of that fact every single second of every single day. Every time you go to the supermarket, gas station, shoe store, hospital (God forbid), school, restaurant, you are reminded of that fact. Money matters. In fact, it is super important. But despite all this, as Grant Cardone says, people don’t know how to make it, how to save it or how to multiply it. <br />
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To this day, it baffles me how many friends, do not know how to manage their money. <br />
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They spend recklessly on stuff they don’t need to impress people who don’t matter. <br />
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They get their salary and within a few weeks they are back to being broke and penniless yet again, just like they were the previous month...and the month before that.. and the month before that. <br />
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And they have to resort to borrowing money not because they are unemployed and living off savings (or ran out of them. I’ve been there before), but because they are recklessly spending money. They max out their credit cards and borrow money yet again to pay off their debt, creating a vicious cycle, where every cent earned is spent on repaying last month’s debt.<br />
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What can you learn from the richest man in Babylon?<br />
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8,000 years ago, Babylon was one of the richest civilizations on the planet and with this book you’ll learn the basics of saving, managing and multiplying money through a collection of parables, set in ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Babylon through the Orientalist worldview of an American guy. <br />
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Orientalism:<br />
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According to Edward Said, who coined the term in his book of the same name “Orientalism”, it is the idea that Western identity, culture and society is superior to Eastern identity, culture and society. It also highlights the notion that the West (referred to as the Occident) forms its own identity in stark contrast to the East (referred to as the Orient). The Occident is basically everything that the Orient is not, which is not white, Christian or superior. It involves exotifying the Orient and at the same time labeling it as backwards, uncivilized and dangerous. Orientalism provided a convenient rationalization of European colonization conquests based on a self-serving idea in which the East is inferior and therefore in need of Western intervention or rescue.<br />
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Example sentence: The Richest Man in Babylon is one of the most Orientalist books ever written. But it is a great book to start off your financial liter...

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Keefak habibeh?! It means "How are you, my dear!?" in a Lebanese Arabic accent. Get used to it. You are gonna hear it a lot at the beginning of every single video/podcast.<br />
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I'll do it tomorrow. I don't feel like it. Maybe another time. Not now etc.<br />
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Sound familiar? All of us procrastinate, but procrastination is not just putting things off for another time. It's consciously choosing to deprive ourselves of an opportunity to grow stronger and create a better life for ourselves. Procrastination, then is consciously choosing to sabotage your life and it comes in many forms, watching one more episode of Game of Thrones, when you should be studying, going on Instagram when you should be working on a paper, and coming up with a long list of excuses as to why you have not started something.<br />
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In today's episode, we look at how to approach procrastination when you don't feel like going to the gym (and go to the gym anyway, regardless of how you feel).<br />

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Have you ever talked yourself OUT of doing something you really wanted to do? I tried to do that to myself earlier. Not today though.<br />
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You don't have to have everything figured out before you start something. Just trust that your first step taken in the darkness will bring you closer to the light and where you want to be.<br />
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Imperfect action is always better than no action at all. I hope this video gives you the courage to face your excuses and do it anyway.<br />
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I finally decided to expand my podcast into YouTube. There are so many reasons why I shouldn't do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway (one of them being that I have no idea how to do this lol).<br />
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The videos will improve in the future as I get better at them. Any help/suggestions would be highly appreciated.<br />

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Edward Bernays. The guy who increased cigarette sales among American women (when females smoking was a taboo) by organizing a march with paid protestors and feminist groups labelling cigarettes as “torches of freedom” and a sign of female emancipation in 1929. And it worked. Cigarette sales skyrocketed among American women.<br />
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Today’s episode is about the media and Public Relations industry and the way they shape your perceptions about yourself and the world. You’re probably wondering, “Sami, what does any of this have to do with self-development?”<br />
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One of the 21st century’s biggest issues is the massive amount of information available to us. It’s fast. Instant. We basically have the entire world at our fingertips. <br />
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This episode will focus on one factor in particular. The media and advertising. And the way it shapes our worldview. <br />
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Today, we will take a look at the genius, yet diabolical, advertising schemes of Edward Bernays, the Father of Public Relations.<br />
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He is also the reason why we associate bacon and eggs as breakfast foods. Oh, I forgot to mention, he caused a CIA-supported overthrow of democratically-elected Communist Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman to protect the banana sales of the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita Brands International). By the end of this episode, you will go to any supermarket fruit section and remember Edward Bernays.<br />
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I hope that, after this episode, you begin to question your own biases and every bit of information that you take for granted without fact-checking. <br />
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FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS!<br />
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I love you, Samoti-nation!<br />
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SamiDisclaimer: Smoking sucks. It makes you smell bad. It makes your teeth yellow. Studies link it to cancer. Don't do it.<br />
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Waddup Samoti-nation!This is the Samotivation go-to-bed-better-than-you-woke-up podcast. <br />
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Well.. since today’s episode, the episodes will be coming out every single Saturday. I’ve been gone for a while, rebranding Samotivation and myself. A tactical retreat to come back stronger. And from now on things are only going to get better and better.<br />
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And just a note here: These episodes are for you, the Samoti-nation! Just as much as they are for me. Every time I do an episode, I learn more about the topic at hand and improve myself as I hope Samotivation improves yours. I am not an expert in these topics, but I am learning as much creating these episodes as much as you are listening to them. I hope this adds a new refreshing perspective to your life, lifestyle habits and uncovers the greatness that is dormantly waiting to be unlocked… by no one else but you.<br />
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Today’s episode is about sleep. I tried waking up at 4:30am and going to the gym straight after I woke up, emulating the habits of the world’s most successful people and the misleading early-bird-gets-the-worm crappy information on social media, about how you can only make it. The idea that if you emulate what the quote-on-quote successful/beautiful instagram filter lifestyle face and body people, then you will look like them, feel like them and have their lifestyle and bank account. Nothing could be farther from the truth, because everyone of us has our own unique road to take to the life that we want and while we can learn from these people, emulating them without asking ourselves if this is right for us is a flawed premise and downright wrong. Try it out for yourself and see if it works for you.<br />
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That lasted for 10 days, until I realized that the lack of sleep, coupled with my job where I sometimes work till 2am (yes 2am), and the every day heavy-weight lifting workout routine was not a recipe for success but one for failure. And I didn’t go to bed better than I woke up, I just woke up tired, pissed off and sleep deprived, making my workouts unproductive, I couldn’t lift as much weight as I did when I was getting a proper amount of sleep. Also, fun fact: muscle recovery and growth happens when you sleep, when human growth hormone (HGH), which increases muscle tissue growth and regulates the body’s metabolism. So basically, no sleep = human growth hormone = no muscles = no results.<br />
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I am one of those people, that is more creative and active during the night, when things are quiet than I am during the day. I get more work done at night than I do throughout the day, funny enough. My workouts are better during the afternoon or night than they are in the mornings. I can lift more and feel more refreshed after a workout in the afternoon/night than I do in the early mornings.<br />
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Other people, are more creative and active during the early morning. They get more work done. They feel good waking up early. Working out in the early morning, works out for them. See what I did there? Omg someone hand me a stand-up comedy award for this line.<br />
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Which one are you morning person or night owl?<br />
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Hope you enjoy today’s episode!<br />
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I love you, Samoti-nation!<br />
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XOXO,<br />
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Sami <br />

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Today we are talking about New Year’s resolutions and how to make this 2019 a very kick-ass one.<br />
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But first.<br />
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Compassion. The one thing that makes us human. The ability to show compassion for other people. The ability to treat others kindly is what defines us as people. Treat yourself and others kindly as you are making positive changes in your life. Everyone is going through some kind of battle that we might not be able to see because we are too preoccupied with our own battles. Remember. Compassion. Regardless of what you are going through.<br />
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Admission. I have approached this podcast from a wise-ass, preachy, know-it-all kind of way, as if I know everything and have all the answers. And nothing could be farther from the truth. I am not a perfect human being, I make mistakes, I have insecurities, trauma and a lot of things that I need to work on. I don't know everything. I don't have all the answers and I am learning just as much as you are from this podcast. Thank you for trusting me enough to value my opinions here though.<br />
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So, the podcast is going to take a different direction. As you are making changes and learning something from the podcast, so am I. And we can help each other learn and grow together, side-by-side. We will guide each other into becoming better people by holding hands, as opposed to one pointing in one direction and the other following. Let's make this a fun journey of self-discovery, where everyone grows including me.<br />
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And now..<br />
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Your life isn’t gonna change just because the digits on the calendar did.<br />
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There is more to the New Year than “New year, New you”. In less than a month, your resolutions will begin to fade into the background and you lose both interest and enthusiasm. Does this sound familiar? To me it does. It’s been me every single year for the most part.<br />
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You tell yourself that you will exercise more/quit smoking/becoming rich/control spending habits..<br />
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12 months later, you realize that you are nowhere close to those goals than you were at the beginning of the year. Still overweight/unhealthy and broke. So year after year, you keep on writing the same resolutions and last year’s resolutions become this year’s resolutions. That's happened quite often for me.<br />
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Not anymore. No longer.<br />
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Let me help you keep your resolution promises to yourself this 2019. In a few minutes I will show how to approach your resolutions so that they actually happen this time around! And together we make this 2019, an amazing one.<br />
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Let me help you make your new year’s resolutions ACTUALLY happen this year. Aren’t you sick of spending every New Year regretful and thinking about all the stuff that you could have done… but didn’t? Don’t you deserve to finally have the best year of your life? It’s time for you to make things happen and if you have not already.. then..<br />
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You are not alone.<br />
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According to the Statistic Brain Institute, 91% of resolutioners will fail on their resolutions during the upcoming year, while a mere 9% will be successful.<br />
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The question is.. which group do you want to be part of? The 91% or the 9%?<br />
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If you want to be like the 9% then don’t do what the 91% does. Forget what the majority of people do.<br />
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Ask anyone what their resolutions are and you will hear:<br />
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“I want to get fit.”<br />
“I want to get rich.”<br />
“I want to quit smoking.”<br />
“I want to be a better person.”<br />
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You WANT to do something. And it just stops at that. It’s too vague and it’s not specific enough.<br />
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To make your resolutions happen this year, follow this simple 4-step-formula Break your goals down into bite-sized chunks.<br />
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* Be Specific.<br />
Don’t be general (you ain’t a general in the army. Joke is lame af but it gets the point across well :D)<br />
e.

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*YAWNS!* <br />
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Merry Christmas and happy holidays wherever you are listening to this podcast from!<br />
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Waddup, Samotination! How YOU doin’!?<br />
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This is the Samotivation go-to-bed-better-than-you-woke-up podcast! and.. as you can tell from my sleepy energy-less start to this post, today's episode is about sleeeeeeppppp and we have a medical expert on, who will walk us through, how you can get better sleep, feel better rested and fresh in the morning (as opposed to groggy, unrested and in potato mode).<br />
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Also!? Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci slept only a total of 2 hours of sleep every day? Or that Nikola Tesla only 3 hours a day? Absolutely crazy! Which is why I have my friend on today to tell us whether this is sustainable over the long term? Or is it downright crazy and dangerous?<br />
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Sleep is such an important thing.. and you only realize it when you don’t have it! When you are out late and then you have work the next day… and then you wake up like… arghhh I don’t wanna go to work.. and you pull the covers over your face.. and throw your phone across the room, when the alarm goes off..<br />
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I have heard many people say, I wish I didn’t have to sleep. Sleep is such a waste of time.. and it CAN feel like that sometimes.. if you have a high pressure, time-intensive job, if you are a college student, if you work in the medical/PR field/24h restaurant business if you are starting your own business then.. it can definitely feel like sleep is a waste of time.<br />
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Imagine how many things you would be able to accomplish if you did not sleep so much. How many things you can do if you could just keep on working without the need to rest and get some shut eye.<br />
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That's what today's episode is about! Enjoy and happy holidays!<br />
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With Respect,<br />
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Sami<br />

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Waddup Samotination!?<br />
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How YOU doin’!?<br />
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As promised, to make up for the podcast episode that I missed the week before, here is an exclusive podcast episode for you of an Indian phone scammer trying to pull a fast one on me.. little did he know that in the end, I pulled a fast one on him. Just for context, Jack Johnson is a popular singer, actor and surfer. He has a really catchy song called “You and Your Heart”, make sure you listen to it before you listen to this podcast. BTW! If the audio is not clear in the podcast, you can check out the subtitled YouTube video of the full call below! TURN ON SUBS!<br />
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Love you, Samotination!<br />
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With Respect,<br />
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Sami <br />
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Waddup Samotination (my own term for everyone that forms the Samotivation family, my fans and listeners!)<br />
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Grant Cardone says that “Your network determines your net-worth”, which basically means that the people that you choose to surround yourself with will determine whether you are the prince or the pauper in all senses of those words.<br />
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The prince and the pauper analogy goes far beyond financial capabilities and the stacks (or slacks *lack of stacks*) of cash that you have in your wallet/bank account/covert off-shore bank accounts (if you are a corrupt politician). <br />
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For simplification purposes, let’s assume that the prince has an abundance of everything, not just financial wealth, but wealth and abundance in every area of his life: his health, his relationships and his life overall. He leads a happy and fulfilling life. And he is surrounded by other wealthy people, who live in a similar prosperous environment like he does.<br />
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And now let’s go to the pauper. The pauper has a dearth of everything, he only sees lack around him, in his wealth, his relationships, his health is not at its best (because he is always worrying about having something to eat and his is surrounded by other poor people, who like him live in very unfortunate and inhumane circumstances.<br />
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Let’s make something clear. I am not saying that money necessarily brings you happiness. Though I believe it is better to have money (an abundance of money) and be unhappy, than a lack of it and be unhappy. The great American motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar said “Money won't make you happy... but everybody wants to find out for themselves.” Very good point, Zig! <br />
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Damn right, money won’t make you happy. I live in the richest country in the world and I have seen some of the most wealthy, yet unhappy people, as well as some of the poorest, yet happiest people I have ever seen. And then you have the people in between, the grey area, making good money and depending on their attitude towards life, they are either happy or unhappy. <br />
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Here’s a question: why do we have to choose between having an abundance of wealth and happiness? Why can’t we have both? Why can’t I be happy, healthy AND rich!? That sounds pretty damn good to me!<br />
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The Samotivation Podcast is about having abundance in each and every area of your life!<br />
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Anyway, ignore that shameless self-promotion! Let’s go back to the point.<br />
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The people you choose to surround yourself with determine the quality of your life and what you have (or don’t have). I don’t mean that by necessarily putting yourself in the company of rich people, you too will come rich. Or that if you are surrounded by happy people, you too will become happy, but if you are able to surround yourself with people, who you can learn from: how to become rich, how to become happy, how to live a more meaningful existence, how to get good at karate.<br />
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I really enjoyed making this episode and I KNOW that you will enjoy listening to it!<br />
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I LOVE YOU, SAMOTINATION!<br />
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Love,<br />
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Sami

Bullying is a very important topic and one we believe should be addressed more. In this LIVE video podcast, we talked about our experiences with bullying in school, why bullies bully others, how to respond to a bully and mental health and wellbeing as a whole. Enjoy!<br />
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You can listen to the audio podcast or see the LIVE video for yourself today. Part 1 and 2 below!<br />
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Part 1:<br />
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Part 2:<br />

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Thank God it’s Friday! OMG weekend. FRIYAY! TGIF!!<br />
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Let’s add other acronym to the above. STFU PLS.<br />
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BS.<br />
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WHAT BS!<br />
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Allow us to take an empirical approach to breaking down the TGIF mentality. Ready for an experiment? Did you put your protective goggles and gloves on? This could be some highly explosive and flammable stuff we are dealing with right now! We might have to apply water to the burned area here.<br />
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I hate 3/4 of my life!<br />
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Let’s assume you work from Monday to Friday and get two days off. This is how a typical week looks like to an average Joe or Joette:<br />
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Monday - Back to work after the weekend :(<br />
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Tuesday - After Monday :(<br />
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Wednesday - Hump day. Getting closer to Friday, but still :(<br />
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Thursday - One day before Friday :I<br />
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Friday - TGIF! Last day of the week OMG! :)<br />
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Saturday - Weekend :)<br />
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Sunday - Still weekend :) but not for long! Back to work tomorrow, so… :(<br />
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Note: You can shuffle these around depending on where you are in the world. In Qatar, the equivalent of a Friday in America is a Thursday and the equivalent of an American Sunday is a Saturday. Same same as they say in Qatar!<br />
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So after my comprehensive research and mathematical calculations (I failed Calculus in uni and withdrew the second time around btw! :D), we discover that you hate 5/7 days of your life each week and only enjoy 2 (the weekend).<br />
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So that means that you spend about ¾ of your life in anticipation of a third. In other words, you hate the majority of your life! You hate your job, your career, your university and where you are in life. That’s even sadder than the above week breakdown. Now is the time to apply water to the burned area :(<br />
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You have to earn the right to say TGIF. If you worked your ass off that week and gave it your all then you can say TGIF. But for the most part, looking back at the week that passed we all know that we could have done so much more than we did. So none of us have earned the right to say TGIF. I include myself in that equation.<br />
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2) You do the minimum, yet expect the maximum.<br />
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Minimum effort = maximum results? That’s not how it works and you don’t need an A in calculus to understand this mathematical and logical fallacy (said the guy who failed Calculus). You expect to do the minimum with as little effort as possible and want to reap massive rewards. It sounds great when you think about it? But we both know that this is not how things work. If you want amazing results then you have to put as much effort into what you are doing as possible. 10X FTW! Imagine planting a seed that needs a liter of water every day (okay. It’s an exaggerated amount. A liter will probably kill the plant, but let’s assume that it needs a liter of water every day. Hey. Listen. I ain’t Old MacDonald. I don’t have a farm). So back to our seed, it needs a liter of water every day to grow into a beautiful tree with little birdies chirping on it. However, the TGIF mentality whispers into your ear seductively: “Hey… How YOU doin’? This is TGIF… Did you miss me? How about just watering the plant with as little effort as possible. Just use that 250ml cola bottle over there. That’s all you need!” <br />
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Do this for 5 years and your little seed, has turned into a raisin that was probably eaten by a squirrel or rat and now turned into organic compost :( Speaking of shitty situations btw…<br />
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3) TGIF gave me diarrhea<br />
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By TGIF, I mean the restaurant, as well as the mentality. Yes, I got food poisoning from TGI Fridays, as did 2 of my friends. Both the restaurant and the mentality gave me diarrhea. Physical and mental diarrhea. I was not satisfied with the quality, nor the quantity of my output (this sentence h...

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- “Come on, Sami! GET UP! ONE MORE!!! DON’T QUIT!” - says Sami’s Karate Sensei as Sami lies on the ground hyperventilating.<br />
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- “You can’t do it. You’ll never make it. Give up already. You are not as good as the others anyway. You are just a white belt noob. Who do you think you’re kidding, man?” - uninvited, Sami’s brain replies.<br />
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- “STFU! YES I CAN! WATCH ME! GET OUT OF MY WAY, BRAIN!” - Sami’s body feels like it’s going to give out soon and yet somehow manages to pull through and do the exercise/stretch/punch/kick through SHEER WILLPOWER.<br />
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Damn son. I didn’t know my brain could limit me and at the same time push me towards my goals. Powerful epiphany. Take some time to think about it.<br />
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You can use your brain in any way you want to. You can choose to let it limit you and make excuses or you can change your limiting beliefs, push through and tell friggin Obstacle Mountain to get out of the damn way, so you can achieve your goals.<br />
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A typical Karate session goes like this: me being exhausted, sweaty, hyperventilating and about to give up; to me doing it and surprising myself with how I was able to!<br />
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The benefits of Karate go far beyond the time you spend in the dojo. This is something I realized after a month of attending Karate classes. An hour of training does not just make you a better fighter and increase your flexibility, agility and strength; it makes you a stronger and more confident human being, i.e:<br />
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Karate (and other martial arts) make you a better person.<br />
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A bold claim to make, isn’t it?<br />
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Let me explain why.<br />
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Martial arts is more than just learning a few kicks, punches and throws. Martial arts is about bringing out the strength, power and confidence that lay dormant inside each and every one of us, and have been eager to come out and show you (and the world) how amazing and powerful you really are. Karate teaches pacifism. Not aggression.<br />
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Seems like a paradox, in it?!<br />
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Karate is a combat sport afterall. If executed with enough force, a karate punch or a kick could actually kill your opponent. So, karate gives you the ability to kill. However, with the ability to kill comes the responsibility to protect others (even those who try to hurt you).<br />
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If an attacker were to approach you with a knife or a gun, karate doesn’t teach you to hurt them, but to disarm them and disengage them from combat by knocking the murder weapon out of their hands and demobilizing them through a body lock, kick or punch so that you minimize harm to not only yourself but to them as well.<br />
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Which leads me to the first thing that I learned from Karate:<br />
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1) SELF-CONTROL<br />
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You might acquire superhuman strength, but that doesn’t make you powerful.<br />
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What determines a person’s strength is not their power, but their self-control and their ability to respond with the right amount of force (which could mean no force at all) in any given situation.<br />
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In the case of physical assault, sometimes a physical response is necessary to protect yourself. A good punch or knockout kick in the face is usually enough to disarm an attacker. Karate can teach you how to do that very well! :D<br />
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However, sometimes by avoiding a confrontation and not responding to taunts/slander you have already won the fight, i.e. you used less force than the person who tried to taunt you. Let them wear themselves out with all the BS they are throwing your way and saying about you. Remember that when they point a finger at you, they have four fingers pointing back at them. Everything they say and do will go back to them, call it karma, God, destiny whatever. Usually what they are saying about you is actually what they think about themselves.

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We all know what people’s opinions are, but what the heck is a Zimbabwean Dollar? Let me explain.<br />
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The Zimbabwean Dollar is a currency used in Zimbabwe (Mind-blowing, I know!) up until 2009, when hyperinflation caused the currency to lose value so much, that it reached denominations of up to $100 trillion (that’s 100 with 12 zeros! I just learned that!) banknotes. At the time that same $100 trillion banknote was worth just USD 0.40, which made the Zimbabwean dollar one of the lowest valued currencies in the world, until it was eventually abandoned completely. At some point, Zimbabwe’s central bank could not even afford the paper on which to print these worthless trillion-dollar notes!<br />
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Now what is the connection between this valueless currency and people’s opinions? Well.. in many cases people’s opinions are just like the Zimbabwean dollar. There is so much of them, yet most of them are not worth much. And just like some currencies are worth more than other currencies, some opinions are worth more than other opinions.<br />
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It’s also a term that I’ve adopted to describe people, places and things that are average in nature, baseless and available everywhere (i.e. nothing extraordinary), in other words there are so much of them that they hold no value, significance or importance in my life.<br />
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Picture a cliche with two legs that can walk. Sometimes that cliche can take a human form or the form of an malicious opinion or judgement that is thrown at you out of envy and a desperate cry for help and attention.<br />
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These days, it seems like EVERYONE has an opinion on EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Every person is an expert on everything and anything (or claims to be so). In the age of social media, the human ego has been magnified to unimaginable proportions. Everyone thinks their opinion is valid and important (including myself ahahah). We have so much information available at our fingertips, we are bombarded with it everywhere from every angle, advertising, social media, family, friends, enemies, that random dude that I keep on seeing in the gym who always has to comment on my squat stance, and everybody else. Everybody claims to be an expert and sometimes it is so difficult to sift through all this junk information and find the information that is true and of value to us, the information that will make our goals possible.<br />
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Jesus said that the truth will set you free (not an exact quote from the Bible, so don’t quote me on it) and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentence even outside of the realm of religions and the divine. You don’t have to delve deep into any religion to understand the truth of that statement. So what isn’t the truth (what is the opposite of truth? Falsehood? OK. Falsehood.).<br />
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Falsehood and false information will enslave you and take your liberty away. False information about life, success, health, relationships and false information about you (gossip behind your back and unwanted opinions etc.) will make you a slave to society, silly social constructs and understandings of life and other people’s drama, BS and self-imposed limitations, that they are eagerly trying to impose on you. In other words, the world has a number of Zimbabwean Dollar printers who give you the wrong information and when you reach out your hand to take dat cash money (or opinion), you become a slave to it and other people’s BS.<br />
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Zimbabwean Dollar printers?! Who are they? Haters, doubters, naysayers (which sometimes includes the people who love you the most), self-proclaimed and self-appointed experts. Let’s take a recent example.<br />
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I learned that I “have an attitude problem” and that I “think I am better than everybody else”. What’s funny about comments like these is that they usually come from behind your back.

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How many times have you come up with the perfect plan to do something and then end up doing nothing at all because you feel paralyzed?<br />
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I have done this many times. *Sam Smith in the background* And I am sure that I am not the onlyyy oneeee! Okay, bad joke. Nevermind, moving on.<br />
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Let’s take an example. You want to lose 5 kgs, so you decide to create a plan to follow:<br />
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* You hit up Uncle Google (that’s what we call Google in Bulgaria hahaha). Search: “Weight loss plans” and you get millions of hits with all types of workouts (Full body workouts/Aerobic/HIT/ Cross-training) and countless types of nutrition plans (Keto, Paleo, Vegan). It confuses the F out of you! So you spend time trying to figure out which plan is the best and which diet to choose. Research. Research. Research. You ask friends and family for their opinion. You do research on which diet to go with. Just thinking about this process makes me dizzy!<br />
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2. After countless hours of trying to figure out which workout to choose, you finally decide to go with a full body workout (because that’s what 50 Cent recommends in his book Formula 50. I tried it. Didn’t like it tbh) and you pick a vegan diet (NO CHICKEN!? How will I ever survive without chicken!?)<br />
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3. And now you try to get yourself motivated. So what do you do now? I’ll tell you what to do, Comrade! Go back to Uncle Google and Google images of models and athletes with 6 packs. And with the click of a button you have access to billions of photos of steroid-infused, plastic surgeried (gotta add that one to the dictionary :D ), photoshopped and airbrushed ‘beautiful people’, who you aspire to be and have the same body as. For bonus points, make one of these people your desktop wallpaper!<br />
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4. Now it’s time to find a gym. And again we go back to Google. You check the location, membership costs, instructors, equipment you need. This one is cheaper than that one, but that one has better equipment and this one is closer to my house and that one is closer to McDonalds and Burger King. That’s the one I want! Done!<br />
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5. You pick the gym. Now it’s time to get gym clothes. “Which mall should I go to?” - you ask yourself. “Which shop, should I go to?”. “Gym shorts or pants?” “Nike or Adidas?” (Answer. Adidas. Because a true Slav only wears Adidas. Adidas Slav ryeprezyent.)<br />
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6. Now it’s time to go to the gym! YESSS. You made it! Give yourself a pat on the back! And now you are thinking: “But I feel so demotivated and overwhlemed! I also lost the energy and enthusiasm that I had before making this plan. I’ll just wait for myself to feel motivated again. I’m sure I’ll feel ready tomorrow. Yeah that’s right, I’ll do it tomorrow.”<br />
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7. Tomorrow swings by.. yet you don’t swing by the gym! You are too busy waiting for the perfect moment, where the conditions are perfect and your perfect self feels ready and motivated enough.<br />
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8. Many tomorrow swing by. And guess what? Your goal of losing 5kgs also swings by and you gain 5 more kgs! You don’t feel ready so you delude yourself into believing that maybe your plan is not complete so you spend even more time perfecting the workout plan and your nutrition plan. You further waste time from taking action by seeking advice/guidance/validation from people. You forget why you wanted to lose the 5gs in the first place. And what ends up happening is….<br />
You never go to the gym.<br />
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You planned so much and did nothing. The perfect plan became the worst plan ever because it was not followed by action. However, the plan is not the problem. The problem is that by the time your plan is complete you continue to spend time on it. All of your energy goes into making a plan, as opposed to taking action and this exhausts you....

Sami, why didn't you release any new episodes!?? Because I needed some time to rethink Samotivation and what direction I want to take it in (and also because I've been traveling all over the place and carrying a half kilo mic is not the smartest thing to do!) But now... I am back.. STRONGER and BETTER than ever!<br />
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If you want to improve the quality of your life, staying committed is key. That's something that I have not been doing lately. This is why I have decided to release an unedited, unfiltered and unscripted 15 minute Samotivation Podcast episode EVERY. SINGLE. SUNDAY. Enjoy this new episode!<br />