I realize that this is where I’m supposed to share my life story in a nutshell—or at least offer the highlights, my biggest epiphanies, and my qualifications for writing about wisdom. Instead, I’ll put it simply: I hurt.

I hurt a lot, for a long time, and I caused it.

When I was younger, I carried around numerous victim stories to justify my negativity and misery. After years of suffering, I realized I truly was the cause—no one and nothing else made my life hard.

I was the one thinking undermining thoughts. I was the one drowning in overpowering emotions. I was the one dwelling on the past. I was the one who moved around all the time, hoping to escape myself. Eventually I realized that I was the only one who could change how I experienced the world.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy—that I’d have to let go of certain things and make certain choices over and over again. And so I do, in as many as moments as I can, knowing I will never be perfect—but finally accepting that’s okay.

I started tinybuddha.com as a community blog in the fall of 2009, after tweeting quotes through @tinybuddhafor more than a year. It’s a place where people of all ages share how they apply wisdom to everyday life—a space where people write authentically and sometimes vulnerably about the challenges we all face.

Though people often ask me about the numbers—the Twitter followers, the page views, and the unique visits—that’s not why I run Tiny Buddha. I do it because engaging in this way connects us on a meaningful level and allows us to make a positive difference in each other’s lives.

I run Tiny Buddha because I’m done hurting alone. The world’s a far brighter place when we choose instead to heal and thrive together.

Over the last several months I have grown to know author and literacy agent Bill Gladstone.   Bill a fascinating man, and  has a true passion for helping and serving people through great books, and connecting people for the greater good.  I recently interviewed Bill about one of his many co-authored book entitled ” Tapping the Source”

This book was written and co-authored with John Selby, Richard Greninger and Bill Gladstone and brings to light the works of Charles Haanel’s Master Key System combining short-form meditation techniques with new psychological insights assisting one in tapping their personal potential.

Charles Haanel never claimed to have invented the process of manifestation that he taught. In fact he often refers to classic sources in the Judeo-Christian heritage and Greek and Eastern traditions to highlight the ancient wisdom he’s drawing from and expanding upon.  But beyond classic parallels, his personal vision appears to be uniquely inspired with new psychological insights and remarkably clear elucidations of the core principles that drive our everyday lives:  ” What you and I desire, what everyone is seeking, is happiness and harmony.  If we can be truly happy, we shall have everything the workd can give. If we are happy ourselves, we can make others happy.”

The primary difference in the qualities of Haanel’s vision is that he’s not fixed on material possessions or giant bank accounts or a fleet of fancy cars in the garage.  Yes, he does fully support abundance, but he bases his teaching on the fact that what we really want deep down is to feel genuinely happy and in ongoing harmony with ourselves and the world.  He says “Harmony and happiness are states of consciousness, and do not depend upon possession of things.”

Haannel stated that ” creative power does not originate in the individual, but in the Universal, which is the source and foundation of all energy and substance; the individual is simply the channel for the distribution of this energy.” Haanel was not only a wise man, but very spiritually connected soul bringing awareness and light to the world.

If you want to learn more about Charles Haanel and Tapping the Source, please visit the Tapping the Source website by clicking here.  There is also a full featured DVD that is excellent and will provide you with insights from some of the greatest minds in the personal growth, spirituality and mastery  today.

Enjoy my interview with Bill Gladstone a wonderful author and compassionate man on a mission.  To learn more about Bill Gladstone please click here to be directed to his website.

Michael’s new introductory book called the One Minute To-Do List helps anyone who wants to quickly learn how to create a to-do that really works.

Michael’s time management and goal-setting book is Master Your Workday Now! a book that teaches anyone how to obtain Workday Mastery: the experience of chaos-free work, inspiring and attainable goals, and a career that is connected to who you really are. Techniques in this book can be used on paper or with varous software.

Michael has been called “The Efficiency Guru” by the Detroit News, and has been written up in the business magazines Fast Company and Investor’s Business Daily for his unique common-sense approach to e-mail control. He leads workshops and consults on task and e-mail management, and on workplace productivity. He has been a management consultant and technology professional for more than 20 years, and was a Vice President at Accenture, the large management consultancy. As a management and technology consultant with Accenture, he advised and managed programs and projects for clients such as eBay, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Applied Materials, UPS, Adecco, and others. Before Accenture, Michael led the technology department at U.S. Peace Corps. Michael also consults on program and project management best practices. Michael also led the creation of the Project Management Center of Excellence for AAA. Tens of thousands of people around the world turn to Michael’s books and trainings to help get control of their chaotic worklife. You can too.

When Michael states that he can help you quickly get your chaos completely under control he is absolutely correct.  In my interview with Michael we discuss how he recommends his clients approach their to-do lists into urgency zones.  The first zone is referred to as the “Critical Now“.  These are items that you know are absolutely due today.  What is making you nervous and needs to get completed.

The next zone is what Michael refers to as the “Opportunity Now“.  You  list in this section of the worksheet those tasks that though not urgently due now, you would work on now if you had the opportunity.  Included things that may be due tomorrow, or later this week, even as far out as ten (10) days.

Now for the last segment of the list entitled ” Over-the-Horizon List“. On this list you will write down anything that is on your mind that can wait ten (10) days or more for you to get to it.   These are items that are obviously your slow-burn items.  These things are not troubling you right now as being at all urgent.

Michael states that we tend to overload our lists.  The first rule deals with how many tasks, and the maximum you should have in each section. The number one cause of a failed to-do list, particularly those that are automated, is that the list gets to big and overwhelming.  Michael suggest that we keep the “Critical Now” list to five (5) or fewer items, the “Opportunity Now” list should be fewer than 20 items.

If you are into automated systems Michael recommends a great program that is cloud based called “ToodleDo“.  I have provided the link to their website.  I started using is right after our interview and I have found it to be quite useful.  It is also simple, so give it a try you have nothing to lose.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Michael Linenberger about his new book ” The One Minute To-Do List”.  Michael website is loaded with resources and forms you can download, so click here to be directed to his website.  If you would like to see Michael in action, then click here to watch a great YouTube video.

Successfully navigate life transitions
Start, build and grow their businesses
Improve personal and professional relationships
Develop self-care practices
Get organized and de-clutter
Find the work/life balance that works for them

In addition to her coaching practice, Sallie is an author,speaker and International Talk Radio Host, recently named an expert in her field by America’s Premier Experts.

Her radio show A Fresh Start with Sallie Felton has been bringing consciousness-raising topics to listeners worldwide for more than four years.

Sallie also co-hosts a second radio show with her husband, Conway Felton. Light at the End of the Tunnel is devoted to a topic that touches millions, but which people still hesitate to discuss in public forum: Depression.

Managing and living with depression is something Sallie and Conway have been doing throughout their over 30 years of marriage. As a result of the feedback Light at the End of the Tunnel has received, the two are now at work on a book on this important subject.

Click here to read what clients and radio show guests have to say about working with Sallie, or here for how to listen to Sallie’s shows.

It is the beginning of a New Year for everyone, and if you are like me it is time to do some house cleaning.  I have known Sallie Felton author of “Why Can’t I Get Rid of this Clutter” for sometime, what I did not know that she is known at the clutter coach.

In my interview with Sallie  about her new book “Why Can’t I Get Rid of This Clutter” she provides sound practical advice for anyone looking to find the top of their desk, to cleaning out all of that stuff that has been hanging around collecting dust and zapping our psychic energy.  As Sallie states in her book clutter show up in our lives in three ways–mentally, physically and emotionally. Each area plays an important role in our well-being and none of them stand alone.

Mental clutter show us and is a recipe for an over-stressed, over scheduled, and over exhausted and over stimulated self. Throw all of these request, demands and obligation into the blender, puree at hight speed and whats’ the result? Dis-ease. Mental, physical and emotional stress have to go somewhere and if we don’t find outlets for them, we’ll direct them inward.

Physical clutter is the one we think of when we hear the word.  It is all that VISIBLE stuff that piles up around us and take over our work and living space.  Physical clutter affects different people in different ways.  Spend a few moments thinking about how you react to it.  What happens when you take a good look at all the stuff?  Do you feel a pit from in your stomach?  Does it grate on your nerves.  No matter how you feel inside, the physical stuff interferes with our productivity, clarity of mind and focus.

Emotional clutter comes straight from the heart.  It includes the feelings surrounding past and present issues we haven’t yet processed, worked through, nurtured or release. Emotional clutter is judgment, expectation, unresolved conflicts and self-defeating behaviors, like perfectionism.

If you are starting your New Year off with physical, emotional, or mental clutter then you owe it to yourself to listen to this podcast with Sallie Felton.  I highly recommend her book as well you can get lots of tips from her website by clicking here.

You can see Sallie Felton in action at YouTube by clicking here or  Enjoy this great interview with a woman who can really help us all get our acts together.

A Universal Message. A subject-matter expert in business leadership and a frequent guest on news-talk shows around the country, Farber is a senior-level leadership coach and consultant who has worked with and spoken to a wide variety of public and private organizations in virtually every arena, from the tech sector to financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, entertainment, retail, and even the US government.

Leading from experience. In 1989, after having run his own financial services company, Farber devoted his professional life to the field of leadership development and has been at it ever since. He was director of service programs at TMI, an international training consultancy, and then worked for 6 years as Vice President and Official Mouthpiece (that’s what it said on his business card) of The Tom Peters Company where he met several of his mentors including author/gurus Tom Peters, Jim Kouzes, and Terry Pearce. In 2000, Farber established his own company, Extreme Leadership, Inc, where he is president and CEO. He is also the co-founder of The Center for Social Profit Leadership, a non-profit organization formed to serve the leadership development needs of social entrepreneurs, and served as Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors of the world-renown, Up With People, a global leadership program for students from 18 to 29 years old.

Coaching and inspiring Extreme Leadership at all organizational levels is Steve’s passion, and he does so with a style that is part strategist, part social commentator and all energy.

I have known author Steve Farber for several years now, and this is my second podcast  with him. His new book entitled “The Radical Leap Re-Energized” is the subject of this interview The Radical Leap Re-Engerized is designed for those readers and leaders who do what they do because they love it,  and and they are in service to others.

Steve is extremely passionate about his work, and in this new book which is part non-fiction and part fiction Steve guides the reader to renew their excitement for what they do and encourage others to lead with passion.  What Steve refers to as the Radical Leap is associated with 1) cultivating love 2) generating energy 3) inspiring audacity and 4) providing proof.

Love is the ultimate motivation of the Extreme Leader: love of something or someone, love of a cause, love of a principle, love of the people you work with and the customers you serve, love of the future you and yours can create together, love of the business you conduct together ever day.  Without the calling and commitment of your heart, there’s no good reason for you to take a stand, to take a risk, or to do what it takes to change your world for the better.

Generate energy-the Extreme Leader is a generator, a powerful force for action, for progress, and an enthusiastic believer in people and in their capacity to do the awesome.    Steve asks ” what gets you out of bed and brings you to work?” If you are to be the generator, where does you juice come from?  In what well do you dip your cup to get the nourishment you need to meet the obstacles and challenges that you and your face every day.   So what generates energy–Love, Great Ideas, Noble Principles, Leaping Goals, Interesting Work, Exciting Challenges and a Compelling Vision.

Inspire Audacity- for the Extreme Leader, audacity is the bold and blatant disregard for normal constraints in order to change the world for the better.  Love-inspired audacity is courageous and fille with valor.  The Extreme Leader is audacious not to serve his or her own ego, but to serve the common good.  And to do so boldly and blatantly and let the naysayers be damned.

If you are a leader, and I am not just don’t referring to  someone in business.  Leaders are all around us, Mom’s, Dad’s, Sisters, Brothers we are all leaders.  Steve’s book will provide you the inspiration to lead with principle and integrity and to take the leap forward into a new way of perceiving your role as a leader.

I hope you enjoy my interview with author Steve Farber and for more information please visit his website by clicking here or you can watch some great video’s of him on YouTube by clicking here.

I’m a 29-year-old entrepreneur, coach and value investor obsessed with adventure, life experiments and learning. I also have a small problem listening to authority.

For the past 8 years I’ve run experiments on myself and others to better understand what lights us on fire. I noticed a process for making these discoveries and started helping others find the same through coaching, writing, documenting folks living their legends all over the world, and doing all kinds of wild adventures. It turns out to be pretty fulfilling work and pretty damn important.

now help people discover passion & purpose, explore dreams and do work they love. I do this here at Live Your Legend and through my value investment fund, Cumbre Capital Partners, modeled after the Buffett Partnership’s of the 50′s and 60′s.

I’ve had my share of soul-crushing jobs and believe me, there’s a better way.

The longer story…

Ten years ago my dad gave me a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute. After reading it two epiphanies hit:

1. Everyone deserves to do meaningful work that they’re actually good at.

2. In order to have a chance at finding it you have to dedicate yourself to learning, improving and experimenting with all kinds of stuff.

So my adventure began…

After university, I was rejected from my dream job, so I took the road less traveled to Spain to run with the bulls. My 7-week trip turned into a year, where I co-founded an English teaching company for businessmen, and lead tours through Morocco and Portugal on the weekends. Spaniards prioritized enjoyment over money and I realized life did not have to be lived the way it was in the States. Exploring, seeking meaningful adventure and limit testing quickly became a huge part of life.

I sold the business only to move back and fall into corporate hell, which I couldn’t stand a day over 7 months. I fired myself in search of something I could actually screw up.

I launched my first blog, ReadingForYourSuccess (which has since been replaced by LiveYourLegend) to document my experiences as I sought out work that mattered to me. I then stumbled on a preventive health care startup, BioIQ, with a product I actually cared about, and spent two years running their Market Validation team and learning what made a business tick.

Now I wanted something of my own that better leveraged my time, gave me balance, helped others and lit a fire in my belly. So I launched an investment partnershipthat recreated the way Warren Buffett managed investments for families in Omaha, Nebraska when he was 30 years old (I’m a life-time Warren Buffett fanatic).

We launched in the heart of the 2008/2009 economic meltdown. Good thing my fire was lit, because it was a terrifying start. But looking back the timing couldn’t have been better. Working for someone else in the space never crossed my mind because the lack of balance, ethics and wide-spread greed disgusted me (they probably wouldn’t have hired me anyway).

Meanwhile my desire to learn and help people on a more personal level kept me up at night. I began teaching speed reading and writing and coaching on helping people find their freedom and do work they love. After 8 years of running experiments on myself and others to better understand what lights us on fire, I noticed a process for making these discoveries.

I soon became the go-to guy among friends and colleagues when they were tired of dreading waking up each morning. If they were in search of something more meaningful, I got a call.

I was pretty much the guy people grabbed when they wanted to quit and just needed a push. I loved it so I started helping others find the same through coaching, writing, documenting folks living their legends all over the world, and doing all kinds of wild adventures.

I began measuring success on whether I could help even one person. So far so good.

Things started to catch on and my blog reached the top 1% of websites. Turns out other people cared about this stuff too. I’ve since written for some pretty big blogs and websites and surrounded myself with uber passionate people (including a kettlebell workout with Tim Ferriss, some exchanges with Tony Robins & Seth Godin, long-distance running with Leo Babauta and tequila tasting with Keith Ferrazzi). It’s been an amazing ride.

Along the journey I also bought an engagement ring from Warren Buffett after receiving a personal letter from him (he owns a sweet jewelry store in Omaha) and married my college love of seven years. This is my greatest success to date. For those interested, our Croatian honeymoon was the best education I’ve had in years.

I now own my calendar and spend my time doing things I enjoy with people I love and respect. I couldn’t ask for more.

And in case that wasn’t enough detail…

I am fascinated with pushing physical and mental limits and sharing it with others. I especially love fitness challenges. Some of my recent experiments include swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco and then the length of the Golden Gate, trying out a vegan diet for a month (I’m now about 90% plants), gaining 10 lbs of muscle in 90 days with no supplements or meat, a few years of competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Summiting Mt. Shasta and Finishing an Ultra Marathonin my Vibram barefoot running shoes. I learn something new with every adventure – turns out to be the best way to learn who you are. There’s plenty more to come.

I love to learn and have completed multi-day courses in Karrass Effective Negotiating, Iris Speed Reading, Spirit Rock Meditation, Toastmasters Public Speaking, Strengths Finder 2.0, Social Media Marketing, A-List Blogging Bootcamps and Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within (UPW), Get the Edge, Relationship Mastery and Mastering Influence. I devote a couple weeks a year to this stuff and spend the rest of the year making it a part of my life. So far the biggest life impact has been Tony’s UPW.

I have attended university at the London School of Economics, Universidad de Sevilla

and University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). My Spanish is not as sharp as it used to be but I can still get by and I love the language! Usually the cab ride from the airport into town is all I need to get back into it…

I am fascinated with all that makes for a well-lived life including nutrition, health, fitness, relationship building, psychology, motivation, negotiating, rapport building, influence, time management, communication, speaking, stewardship, gratitude and lifelong education.

I spend my time between San Francisco, Santa Barbara and the rest of the world. My most recent journies took me to Chile, Argentina, Peru, Machu Picchu, Dubai and the beaches of Oman.

I love learning from new people, making connections, traveling, teaching and building things.

I’m dedicated to the road less traveled. If you’re here, I’m guessing you are too…

Tom’s client list represents a diverse group including: the New Otani Hotels of Japan, Union Bank, Isuzu North America, Giant Food Stores, the University of California, General Motors of Canada, the Alliance of American Insurers, Boston Public Schools, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, Minnesota Multi-Housing Association, Wells Fargo Bank, Employers Reinsurance Inc., Banklink, Group 4 Software, Sysco, Preferred Hotels, Blue Shield of California, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor, the California Department of Parks, INC. Magazine, MPI, ASAE, PCMA, and Bank of America.

Tom is the author of The Spirit of Service and Leadership Lessons I Learned on the Links: 72 Ways to Par the Course of Business and Life. He is the co-author of Customer-Focused Quality: What To Do on Monday Morning. His new book, 10,000 Days: The Rest of Your Life, The Best of Your Life is available on Amazon. Tom has written over forty articles for publications such as the San Diego Business Journal, The Los Angeles Business Journal, Quality Digest, and California Excellence.

Also, Tom is a recognized expert in the field of Self-Help and Personal Growth. He serves on the Board of Directors of The 10,000 Days Foundation and the American Consumer Council.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Maryland and completed the Fundraising Management certificate program at the University of San Diego. He resides near San Diego, CA.