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Jan 07

6 Ways to Be More Attractive (PART II)

By Ryan Avery Motivation 2 Comments

So, by now you know why you should be more attractive and the benefits attractiveness gets you in the business world, but what are ways to be more attractive? Some of us might need a few tips on how we can make ourselves feel and look more attractive (inside and out) so we can get paid more than our peers, have more people trust us, and increase our confidence!

Here are 6 ways to be more attractive:

1) Clothes: Get clothes that fit you and don’t look ratty. I am not asking you to buy a Burberry shirt and tie. Go to Macy’s, Express or Calvin Klein and get clothes that make you feel more attractive. Find deals! I just did a rehaul on my entire closet at Express and spent less than $500 for a new wardrobe!

2) Smile: The benefits of smiling are endless! Smiles boost your immune system, they are contagious, they relieve stress for you and others who see you, and the list goes on! Smiling makes you more attractive. We all can smile a little more!

3) Posture: From TED sensation Amy Cuddy to writer Jeff Grabmeir, the power of your posture can determine the level of your confidence. Confident people are more attractive! Sit up straight; walk with your shoulders back. Where are your eyes and hands when you are talking with people? Fix your posture right now and instantly see an increase in your attractiveness level!

4) Haircut: Do you have a Donald Trump or Miley Cyrus haircut or do you have a haircut that matches your style, profession, and attractiveness level? One of the best $50 investments you can make is going to a real hairstylist who can tell you what would look best on that beautiful brain of yours and more importantly what product you should be using! It took me five years to realize my hair does not do well with gel, and I am a pomade guy!

5) Breath: There is nothing that shoots your attractiveness level down faster than talking to someone with bad breath! I mean get a Tic-Tac; they are $0.99 USD for a pack of 100! Constantly be checking your breath and doing what it takes to make that tongue squeaky clean!

6) Body/Mind: Take care of your physical and mental health. We only have one body and brain. You don’t need Channing Tatum abs, the mind of Buddha or Angelina Jolie body parts; all you need is to feel and look healthy. That is for both sides of the spectrum from too thin or too wide. Hundreds of healthy and challenge workouts are readily available. Recipes abound which are easily made and packed with flavor and goodness for our insides. I may or may not use Nike Training Club for Women (don’t judge) and I enjoy any recipe that I can do in our crock pot!

Anyone can do the above six things. They will make you look and feel more attractive starting now! I am not asking you to inject your lips with collagen, slather on makeup, or drink only protein shakes!

Again, feeling and looking attractive is 90% how you feel about your attractiveness and portraying that feeling to the world.

Show them what you are made of and how attractive you really are and see how much more fun you’ll have! As always…

Dream BIG,
Ryan

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Dec 12

Love0

Ryan Avery: 12 Photos for 12/12

By Ryan Avery Motivation 4 Comments

Several of us are getting together to go through all of our photos this year and selecting twelve photos that highlight the best, worst, happiest, saddest, coolest, most adventurous, or most terrifying moments of our year! Here are my #12x12x12 and looking forward to seeing yours! Remember to use the #12x12x12 on social media so we can see your 12 photos!

Photo 1 – Completing the 2013-2014 North American Tour: I learned so many lessons, met so many fantastic people and visited 50 cities in North America with my wife! We lived in hotels for half the year and it was more than difficult to pack for three months at a time but it was worth every minute! Thank you to everyone who came to one of our workshops. Remember, don’t wait for things to happen, make things happen!

Photo 2 – Taking my family to Alaska: The thing I look forward to is spoiling the people who have taken care of me! My mom and dad have always wanted to go to Alaska and after Chelsea and I got on our feet this year we decided to take our family on a 7-Day cruise to say thank you for all they have done for us! We laughed, ate way too much cruise food, went whale watching, played cards and took home a life-time full of memories! I can’t wait to take them on another trip soon!

Photo 3 – Starting the 31 Days of Kindness Challenge with you: This was for sure a highlight of my year! One day I posted this idea on my personal Facebook page and 48 hours later I had over 500 people sign up and jump onboard. We shared photos with our #31DaysofKindess hashtag and together we did more good than most people do in a lifetime! We will do this again next year and make it even bigger, better and spread kindness around the world together! Thank you to everyone who joined in this year!

Photo 4 – The World Record Attempt with Speaker Leader Champion: With the help of 60+ day-of-event volunteers, family and friends all over the world, 16 local and global organizations and partners like McGraw-Hill and CSU, we came together to do something BIG! Our goal was to sign and sell 5,000 books in 12 hours. We sold 1,300 in nine hours. Although we did not reach the goal this time, we raised money for a good cause, showed the world what happens when people come together and helped more than 1,000 people be better leaders! We will break this world record one day and thank you to everyone who supported this attempt, we could not have done it without you! Always go for your BIG dreams, they are worth it and no one benefits from us being average! Even if you don’t make it on your first try, you learn, you get better and you try again!

Photo 5 – Getting our puppy: I mean look at this photo! Sugar (our dog) and Chelsea (my wife) bring so much joy to my life. I will have to say they have made it even harder for me to work from home now that I get stare downs like this! Sugar has been such a joy in our lives (she is even sitting right next to me as I type this article) and thank you mom and dad for saving her life and sending her our way!

Photo 6 – 17 speeches in 17 days in China: Thanks to D85 and D89 this was at the top of my speaking experience this year! It started out with me planning to give four speeches in China and two weeks before I arrived in China we had book events with Speaker Leader Champion, corporate speeches and even more trainings. When I found out it was 17 speeches in 17 days I thought, “Let’s do this!” They treated us so well, we experienced culture, tasted delicious foods and meet so many amazing people! We can’t wait to be back soon!

Photo 7 – Becoming Toastmaster of the Year in my home District (7): This award means a lot to me! District 7 has done so much for me over the years and they are like a second family! When they asked to do a group photo, I thought, “It’s time to beat Ellen’s tweet and make our own!” This one got about 400+ likes so we were only off by only a couple million! Thank you D7 for all you do and have done for me!

Photo 8 – Scuba diving with one year old whales: One of my hosts and meeting planners asked what I would like to do while I was in town and I usually look for places to scuba dive. Well, they gave me the best gift as they took me to a “Sea World” type place and let me scuba dive with whales in one of their aquariums. They gave me a full scuba tank and let me stay in as long as I wanted! It was an experience I will always remember!

Photo 9 – Becoming an approved Vistage Speaker: When I speak at Vistage groups I feel like it is where I am supposed to be! They are all professionals who have businesses and are looking for ways to improve themselves, their customers and their employees! I teach leaders how to use the power of storytelling to sell and motivate others. I am looking forward to speaking to several Vistage groups around the world, starting with four in January 2015! They are a great group of leaders and Garth… if you are reading this… thank you for taking the chance on me, I could’t have done it without you!

Photo 10 – 5th Honeymoon in Thailand: Chelsea and I received advice when we got married to take a honeymoon every year and I think that is some of the best marriage advice we received! This year we explored Thailand and sat on the beach, went scuba diving, played with baby monkeys and relaxed as we reflected on our relationship! If you are married, start planning to take a honeymoon every year to rejuvenate your relationship and reflect on what you like and how you want to improve it moving forward!

Photo 11 – Walking into the Convention Center I am speaking at and seeing myself on the billboard: I start walking to the venue where I am about to speak and look up and there I am! This was one of those “Oh, wow, I am a real speaker!” feelings and I had such a smile on my face I felt like I was an avid football fan and someone told me I just won Super Bowl tickets! Thank you Tim for making this happen and thank you to everyone who came out that night!

Photo 12 – Seeing my book sitting on my nightstand: Without Jeremey Donovan as my co-author, McGraw-Hill as our publisher and my awesome literary agent Jackie, this book would not have been possible! Writing a book was one of the most mentally exhausting challenges of my life with edits, re-writes, edits and more re-writes! Did I mention re-writes? But it was worth it as we created a resource that helps leaders become more influential leaders and succeed at work through the power of public speaking! I am so proud of this book. It has hit #1 on Amazon, been translated into four languages so far and I enjoy receiving emails from readers. But this photo was the one that stopped me in my tracks one night as I was getting ready for bed after a long trip back home I walked into my bedroom to find my book next to my nightstand! It was one of those moments where you get caught off-guard and no one knows why you are smiling other than you! For me, this photo says so much! Thank you to everyone who supports this book, learns from it and shares it with others! Please keep speaking and using your voice to make a difference! Our voices are the most powerful tools on the planet and if we learn how to master the art of communication, we can make a big impact while we are here!

This was a fun exercise and a great way to reflect on your year. I hope you too take the #12x12x12 challenge with us. I am looking forward to seeing your photos! As always…

Dream BIG,
Ryan

Dec 10

Love0

The 12 Photo Challenge on 12/12

By Ryan Avery Motivation 2 Comments

Where has 2014 gone? I still can remember partying like it was 1999 as we shot off fire-works on the street in my hometown neighborhood in Houston, TX and thinking how crazy the world would be in ten years! Well, it is 15 years later and here we are!

So what better way to remember this year than taking a night and looking at all of your photos from 2014. All of them!

But here is the challenge! Go through all your photos and remember all your ups and downs, twists and turns, and lessons you learned along the way. Choose twelve photos that stand out for you the most–twelve photos that depict your year!

Pick these twelve photos and share them with us on Facebook on 12/12. Include the following information when you share your blog article or photo album:

NAME: 12 photos for 12/12
(Example: Ryan Avery: 12 photos for 12/12)

Here is text for the album or blog description:
Several of us are getting together to go through all of our photos this year and selecting twelve photos that highlight the best, worst, happiest, saddest, coolest, adventurous, or most terrifying moments of our year!

Here is the hashtag for the album and photos:
When sharing your photos or article on social media use: #12x12x12 so we can all follow each other and see what others post. Tell us about your year’s greatest lessons, stories, insights, sorrows, and triumphs! Let’s see how we can portray our year using twelve photos from the past twelve months!

I am looking forward to seeing your albums and seeing what photos you pick for 2014! As always…

Dream BIG,
Ryan

Dec 01

Love0

9 Reasons Why You Haven’t Accomplished That Goal of Yours

By Ryan Avery Motivation One Comment

So you have this goal! Well, kind of. You have this idea that you have for a goal or something that sounds really cool, but you haven’t accomplished it yet nor have you even told anyone about it because you are afraid that if you do, it might come true or you will fail along the way!

Look, no one benefits from us being average. So, step it up! It is time for you to go after that BIG dream or lofty goal of yours. Wouldn’t you rather fight for something you love doing than die doing something you hate?

We need you to accomplish your goals. We’ll all benefit. It is selfish of you not to go for it because the world is better when your story, your message, your ideas, products or services are shared!

So, if you are making excuses about why you can’t accomplish your goals I am here to tell you that there are nine reasons why you really haven’t accomplished them:

1) You don’t even know what you want. Your goal needs to be SMART. Make it very clear that you know exactly what you want. It is easier to get to a destination if you know where you are going rather than hoping you stumble across it along the way!

2) You haven’t written it down. If you are afraid to write it down, how are you going to get your body to do it? And you can’t just write it down; you need to post it up where you read it everyday!

3) You haven’t told people. Let people help you get to where you want to go. No successful person has ever accomplished anything of value without the help from others. People love to help other people. It is in our nature. They just need to be asked and informed about what it is you want to accomplish.

4) You have not committed to making your goal a priority. Goals have to be a daily priority. You have to stop saying things like “tomorrow” or “when I get this, I will then do XYZ.” Make it a priority!

5) You are afraid of failing. Failure sucks. It really does. It is embarrassing, it is hard, it makes me want to pull my hair out at times. But anytime I fail (which seems to be more often than I would like these days) I remind myself that I am creating a better story. The more failures you have, the better story you have. People love stories, so fail and fail often!

6) You are afraid of succeeding. I am not going to lie. This has been one of the things that has stopped me from accomplishing my dreams more than anything. I like my life and my lifestyle. To pursue your dream means changing your lifestyle. It can be scary. But, we can’t let who we are meant to be hold us back. We should focus on what value we can bring and how many others we can lift up along the way!

7) You think you don’t have the right resources. This is BS! Sorry, but if you are reading this right now that means you have access to the internet and that is the greatest resource of all time. You have the right resources; you just might not know how to use them correctly to get what you want!

8) You don’t know anyone else doing what you want to do. It isn’t easy being a trailblazer, to venture down a path that has never been walked upon. It isn’t easy creating something when you don’t know if it will work or if people will accept it. However, it is worth it because all the things we have were once created by someone like you starting down a new trail!

9) You haven’t started. My favorite quote from Jim Rohn is “You do not have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!” Too many people procrastinate. They don’t get anything done because they are afraid to get started. Start already. You are not supposed to know how to do it, you are supposed to know what you want to do. Learn along the way!

Go and accomplish those goals of yours! The world needs you to! As always…

Dream BIG,
Ryan