How to Find and Stay in the LQ Zone: What is your Major Definite Purpose?

How to Find and Stay in the LQ Zone: What is your Major Definite Purpose?

Aloha!

In our quest to figure out how to stay in the LQ Zone, (Life Quality Zone) that magical place where we have harmony in all aspects of our lives, where we have life fulfilling balance…where we are “in the ZONE”, the “LQ ZONE”, having clarity of purpose can help a lot.

It is always challenging to get into the LQ Zone and then even more challenging to stay in the LQ Zone.

One negative thought, one hurtful criticism, one minor injury can easily cast us out of the LQ Zone….

So how to combat these negative thoughts, hurtful criticisms or minor injuries?  We can simply ignore them…or we can remember what our main purpose in our life is…as Napoleon Hill, the pioneering author of the science of success wrote in Think and Grow Rich, we need to know our Major Definite Purpose….what is the main goal in our life?

The Major Definite Purpose needs to be something which you can get passionate about…something which, when you are cast out of the LQ Zone, you can review in your mind and suddenly that negative thought, hurtful criticism or minor injury seems….well…totally minor and not worth thinking about.

Thinking about your Major Definite Purpose makes you excited about life again, about moving forward to achieving your goals, putting you in the mindset that all life’s challenges are simply presenting you opportunities of equal or greater value IF you are actively looking for them.

Major Definite Purposes will evolve during your life stages. And there will be many other goals or “purposes” which are a subset of the Major Definite Purpose.

For example, when I was building businesses in Japan, my Major Definite Purpose was to help improve relations between Japanese and Americans.  I did that by setting up a private school chain where American teachers taught English as well as American culture to Japanese students, and in turn the teachers learned Japanese and about Japanese culture.

I continued to do this when I returned to the United States to co-found SakeOne, a premium sake brewery which introduced Americans to the joys of premium chilled sake and Japanese culture…

Moving to Hilo, Hawaii in 2002, my Major Definite Purpose changed to helping people become LQ Business owners on Hawaii Island. This led to setting up a business brokerage business which helps people become LQ Business owners on Hawaii Island.

Now, 10 years later, my Major Definite Purpose is to help people find and stay in their LQ Zone…to learn how to create their own LQ Zone, a magical place where they have harmony in all aspects of their lives…

Having a Major Definite Purpose will give you “clarity of purpose”, it will give you “clarity about what actions to take in your life” and help you find and stay in the LQ Zone.

Do you have a Major Definite Purpose in your life?  If not, I would suggest reading the recently revised “Think and Grow Rich, Revised and Updated for the 21^st Century” by Napoleon Hill.

I have read it many times…and it was a required text for my University of Hilo Hawaii Business 101 classes.  A quick but profound read.  Written in 1937 it guides you to how to create the Major Definite Purpose in your life so that you can have clarity of purpose.

Once you have that clarity of purpose, it is AMAZING how quickly you attract the resources to help you attain that purpose.  But you have to let “the force” as well as people you meet know what your goal is so that they can help you achieve it.

I recently wanted to get better clarity of purpose in my life and found that by rereading Think and Grow Rich it instantly helped me better see my way in life…it gave me much better clarity of purpose…

And it definitely helps keep me in the LQ Zone!

With Aloha; Grif Frost, living in the LQ Zone most of the time, Papaikou, Hawaii

The LQ Zone: Enjoy the Quest

The LQ Zone: Enjoy the Quest

Aloha!

A new word popped up in my LQ Vocabulary as I prepared for the Ted Talk….LQ Zone.

As I played with finding “harmony in your life”, “balance in your life”….it naturally evolved to be called the “LQ Zone”.

Memories began to resurface from my many talks with mentors who had high LQ.  I remember them counseling me to be in a state of true happiness by focusing on the “Quest”, the “Journey” to be in the LQ Zone as opposed to believing I could be truly happy if I was actually in the LQ Zone.

Even though I live a high LQ life, I am amazed at how easily I can be knocked out of the LQ Zone…just one simple negative thought, one criticism or one small injury can come out of left field and blow me out of the LQ Zone.

Reminds me of my CrossFit training experiences now. I have been religious about working out every morning for many years.  On my 54^th birthday I decided to add an additional 5 time per week workout at the local CrossFit gym here in Hilo. (www.crossfitbigisland.com)

I thought I was in pretty good shape but after my first CrossFit workout I understood I was actually relatively weak and had a huge amount of improvement I could make in my fitness level.

My mother Barbara, who at 75 walks daily 4.5 miles at a speed walkers pace had a similar experience when she joined the Masters/Seniors class at CrossFit this past month.

We both are now REALLY enjoying improving our fitness levels through our CrossFit training programs.

Being able to ward off negative thoughts, criticism or cope with minor injuries so we can stay in our LQ Zones involved continual evolvement in the way we strengthen our defenses so we are not so easily knocked out of the LQ Zone.

And I have found it to be a LOT of fun to both improve my fitness level as well as my ability to stay in the LQ Zone….it takes conscious thought and practice but it is definitely worth it.

Everyone will have a different definition of what their LQ Zone is…but for me it is:

1) Being in excellent (or improving) personal health

2) Having quality (or improving) relationships within my ohana

3) Business: being in a good financial (or improving) state doing something I absolutely LOVE not more than 20 hours per week.

True happiness can be found in the Quest to be in the LQ Zone…and if you follow this practice each and every day, enabling you to be able to stay in the LQ Zone longer and longer, this Quest will bring joy to you continuously in your daily Life.

With Aloha; Grif Frost,  Enjoying the Quest to be able to stay longer and longer each and every day in the LQ Zone here in Papaikou Hawaii

First Tedx Talks in Hawaii: My Ted Talk Transcript

Aloha! Six good “talks” given yesterday to the Tedx maximum allowed 100 invitees….professionally recorded by three cameras, the talk videos will be posted on the Tedx site in about 30 days…

Below is a transcript of my talk…

Grif Frost Tedx Waiakea Talk: 9/24/11 at the Palace Theater in Hilo

(entrance: take off crocs…go barefoot)

If you can answer “yes” to this question, please stand up…..

How many of you enjoy walking barefoot?

Living in Hawaii we get this opportunity more than most….

And why do we like walking barefoot?

I think it is because it “grounds” us…it brings us closer to nature…the power of the earth…the mana…encourages us to slow down and appreciate life…

Staying grounded is important to our LQ, our Life Quality, our happiness.

This was dramatically illustrated to me back in 1988…

I sold one of the 40+ small businesses I started in Japan to an up an coming billionaire in Tokyo during the pre-bubble period in 1998…

My entrepreneurial Japanese mother in law, who was both an investor and a mentor, went with me to Tokyo from our rural hometown in the far reaches of northern Honshu to finalize the deal…

We walked into the candy factory in central Tokyo whose acreage was appreciating so fast the banks were continually loaning money to the owner which he invested in real estate and direct trading on the stock exchange…

He was netting daily amounts like $14 million….

His huge president’s office had two enormous desks piled high with bundles of cash…he apologize to my mother in law saying he didn’t have time to put it in the safe…

My mother in law looked at me sideways with a glance which said to me “dumb American son in law, you should have asked for more”….

On the train ride back home my mother in law commented that the buyer of our business had lost touch with true reality, with his sense of “groundedness”…..

And she told me that to stay grounded I needed to get my hands “dirty” every day.

I could get my hands dirty by working in the garden every day like she did, or by doing laundry, or by taking walks in nature or….and this is my preferred method, “going barefoot” as much as possible….

Staying connected, Staying grounded, Go barefoot.

The up and coming billionaire is no longer with us. When the bubble burst in Japan in the early 1990’s, he lost his health, his family, his business and in the end committed suicide.

Very common case among many Japanese business owners, who were at the top of world financially and “thought” they had high LQ, Life Quality, True Happiness…

9 out of the 21 charter members in the Rotary Club I started in my hometown in Japan committed suicide…all business owners with a long record of success who lost touch with reality, with staying grounded…

After that experience I started talking with successful business owners about what defined a high LQ, Life Quality, True Happiness for them…

Three common denominators were:

1) Personal Health: staying healthy was their #1 priority

2) Ohana Relationships: having quality relationships with their family

3) Business: making money doing something they really enjoyed.

An overall theme among business owners with high LQ, and in fact everyone I talked with who had a high LQ, was the ability to enjoy living with less.  Sensible simplicity. Right sizing.  And being happy living a slower, more leisurely life.

Not needing the fancy house, fancy cars, fancy education for the kids, fancy vacations…

Being happy with living a more simple life, a slower life, close to nature.

And living this way also meant not having to work so hard to make money because now they could financially live with much less.

A final conclusion I drew from my talks with thousands of people during the past 20 years exploring how to create a high LQ, a superlative Life Quality, find true happiness is….

Finding balance, finding harmony in your life, the LQ Zone is NOT true happiness. The quest of finding balance, finding harmony, the LQ Zone in your life IS true happiness.

It’s the journey, the journey to find balance and harmony in your life, the LQ Zone which creates a high LQ, a superlative Life Quality…true happiness.

What is the easiest technique to being finding the LQ Zone, balance in your life, finding harmony in your life?

It is really a simple technique. But 99% of people who hear it don’t actually implement it on a regular basis. They may try it once or twice, get excited about the results but then gradually forget to keep implementing this very simple technique and allow the forces around us to take control of their lives again….

And then their LQ, which was rising takes a dramatically downward turn…

What is this simple LQ improving technique?

I call it the LQ 20/80 Rule….

And it takes no more than 10 minutes per day…

Let’s look at how you make money…your business.

Analyze which 20% of your money making activities generates 80% of your income…or if you are employed on a salary, which 20% of your activities at work generate 80% of your accomplishments…

Once you have completed that analysis I recommend eliminating the other 80% of your activities from your work life….

Whoa…a lot of business owners, employees rebel against that recommendation.

I mean how can I…that customer might get angry…my boss might not let me be more productive…

OK. OK.

If you can’t eliminate 80% of the activities that drag down your Business LQ, Business Life Quality…then perhaps you can do this…

This time determine the 20% of your business activities that are the least profitable, least productive or most difficult to deal with…

Now…ELIMINATE them from your business dealings and your business profits, business productivity and your LQ will dramatically improve.

Your Health:

Analyze which 20% of the foods you consume provide 80% of the positive nutritional benefits to your health.

Eliminate the other 80%.

Whoa…won’t do that? Gotta have that pizza on Friday…gotta have that third martini?

Well…OK. I can understand that…

So let’s analyze the 20% of the foods you consume which are the WORST for your health.

Eliminate them or at least enjoy them not quite so often.

People in your Life:

Analyze which 20% of the people in your life you get 80% of the pleasure from…

Eliminate…well we can’t eliminate them but we can keep them out of our lives.

Life will improve dramatically.

But Grif…I am married to…OK, OK…I can understand that. So….

Analyze which 20% of the people in your life give you the most stress…who you enjoy least.

Eliminate…no forget that….just don’t allow them access to your life. Or at least spend less time with them.

10 minutes per day. The LQ 20/80 Rule.

To sum up this Ted Talk…

To have a high LQ, a superlative Life Quality, True Happiness…

1) Focus on maintaining excellent personal health

2) Work hard on maintaining quality ohana relationships

3) Have a business, a way to make money, you can truly enjoy.

Which very likely will mean slowing down your business life, living with less, sensible simplicity.

But remember business comes AFTER personal health and ohana relationships.

Know that finding balance in life, harmony in life, the LQ Zone is an on-going challenge and that true happiness is the quest of trying to find that balance, that harmony in your life.

To help you find that balance, that harmony, practice the LQ 20/80 rule daily for 10 minutes…

And finally…Mahalo, thank you, stay grounded…GO BAREFOOT!

Aloha!

Ted Talks Today in Hilo

Aloha!

Today are the first Ted Talks held in Hawaii, under the name of Tedx Waiakea here in the Palace Theater in Hilo.

I am honored to be one of seven “talkers”. Will be giving a 15 minute talk about LQ and share a technique for everyone to dramatically improve their LQ now.

Will post the talk tomorrow.

To learn more visit  www.TedxWaiakea.com

With Aloha; Grif Frost  Living an LQ Life in Hilo, Hawaii

 

LQ Business & Dae Mul

LQ Business & Dae Mul

Dae Mul or as it is known in Japan, Lady President, is a 24 episode Korean political drama which you can watch on Hulu.

I found it fascinating for highlighting the importance of Life Quality (LQ) principles.

A young female television announcer to be and a young man who wants to become a prosecutor meet for the first time on a train on their way to their mutual job exams in Seoul.

Although they both suspect they are in love with each other, they dedicate the next 20 years of their lives to their careers.

The female television announcer ends up in politics and becomes a Congresswoman, a Governor and eventually Korea’s first female president.

The young man becomes the leading prosecutor for the Federal government’s political crimes division.

The amount of corruption in Korean politics portrayed by the program reminds me very much of my experience with Japanese politics. Lots of innovative ways politicians raise money to get around the legal spending limits on campaigns. I particularly liked the use of fine art sales method…

When the young lady completes her 5 year term as president of Korea, the young man quits his prosecutor job (in which he overworks, has a cerebral hemorrhage which he survives) and they both return to their home town in the country.

Finally they can get married and live together. He restarts his father’s beef broth stew restaurant (in learning the trade of making beef broth stew you start with buying a live young heifer) and it is an incredibly complicated cooking process.

Are they happy? Yes. They finally have time to improve their personal health (lots of bicycling, nature walks), spending time with the people they love (ohana relationships) and have an enjoyable business (I am sure it helps bring in customers that the former president of Korea is helping as a server in the restaurant).

But what struck me over and over again throughout the 24 one hour and 5 minute episodes is how people were much happier when they focused on LQ principles of 1) Take care of your personal health 2) Ohana relationships and 3) Have an enjoyable LQ Business to make money.

And when they and others in the program didn’t….well good things did not happen to them.

This is a Korean political drama with a lot of heart and well worth watching. Subtitled in English.

With Aloha;  Grif Frost, enjoying a bit of Korean television viewing thanks to the Internet, living an LQ life in Papaikou, Hawaii.

 

LQ Business & September 11th 2001

Life Quality Business & September 11^th, 2001

Two weeks before 911, I was meeting with the managers and staff of the Windows on the World restaurant on the top floor of the World Trade Center.

We were planning the first “Sake Summit” sponsored by the International Sake Institute of which I was chairman.

ISI had invited the top sake sommeliers from Japan and the top wine sommeliers in the U.S. to taste 50 sakes from around the world.

The Sake Summit was to be held on “Nihonshu no Hi” or “Sake Day” which is October 1^st.

The morning of 911, I received a call from my mother telling us to turn on the television. With horror we watched the second jet slam into the World Trade Center.

And for 25 days Noriko and I quit traveling. Actually rarely leaving our home in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Wake up call. An LQ Business wake up call.

I was at the top of my business game. I had just had my best financial year ever. We were living in a planned community called Orenco Station which had been voted #1 planned community the previous year. Life was good.

Or was it?

We were traveling 25 days of the month, thankfully usually together.

But the constant business travel was taking its toll on our health and our relationships.

Still a youthful 44 years old I felt that this is normal for a business owner…sacrifice for your business and your financial success and somehow make it up to your health and relationships later…

Seeing those twin towers come down on 911 definitely made us rethink our lives…I remember Noriko’s face with the tears streaming down her face questioning “why?” and of course both of us thinking of the wonderful people we had met at the Windows on the World just two weeks before 911….

And thinking we and our Sake Summit friends could have been there if the attacks had taken place on 10/01/01.

We made a decision. We decided to sell the house, sell our business interests and make the move not in 10 years but NOW to Hawaii Island.

We made the LQ Business decision. Personal health first. Ohana relationships second. Business activities third.

And now, 10 years after 911, we are living an LQ life in Hawaii. The best move decision we ever made…and that is after 37 moves on three continents.

PS: We did hold the Sake Summit on 5/1/02 in NYC on the top floor of a 51 story hotel overlooking Central Park. In our own small way a way to say “Kanpai” to the brave citizens of NYC who were devastated in the attacks and aftermath of 911.

The Difference Between Joy and Pleasure: Life Quality

Aloha! Gen Morita and his family were living a quiet life teaching people how to live a healthy life at their 200 year old thatched farm house/inn organic rice farm when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear melt down occurred.

In prior lives both Gen and his wife Yumi had been high flying entrepreneurs….Gen a Hollywood record producer and Yumi an international bond trader.

When they got their “aha” moment Gen became a natural health teacher and Yumi became an environmental activist…including being a vocal anti-nuclear power  lecturer.

To have a nuclear melt down occur near their home is in one sense a bit ironic…understanding the health risks to their two young children they quickly abandoned their farm and flew to Okinawa and then on to Hawaii Island which they are now calling home.

I had the good fortune to meet them and become friends. Gen is teaching me about Harmonic Healing, a natural approach to good health which is so essential for a high LQ.

Here is his explanation about the difference between Joy and Pleasure:

Aloha Grif,

OK. Let’s have a brief review on that issue because it is the most important

part of the fundamental concept I wish to share for our learning.

All of our physical and mental/nervous activities are automatically controlled

in a state of optimum balance, such as digestion, breathing, blood and lymph

circulation, immune work and so on. We’re not doing these activities consciously.

That’s the law of nature and all the living beings on earth are thriving following

it. That we call is joy of life. It is essentially true that living is joy.

Except we, the humans who suffer in various ways .

Why?

Because we tend to violate this universal law of life.

In the course of our evolution history, we have developed such an enormous

computer system called a brain, mainly its thinking section, a cerebral cortex.

This powerful brain dominates our daily thinking and daily activities

constantly telling what to do, which way to go, what to eat, which multivitamins

to take and so on.

The problem is that this brain does not recognize the laws of life.

Remember the case of smoking?

Smoking will bring a kind of an exciting sensation to smoker’s brain, that

actually is nothing but a paralyzing effect by dangerous nicotine ingredient

in the smoke, which can be described as “high” or “trance” state and

surely makes smokers feeling good.

But the rest of their body except the brain will react adversely because

of course most of the ingredients in cigarette’s smoke are quite toxic.

Then how come the smokers can keep enjoying smoking?

Once the brain has got paralyzed or put into sleep (drugged), it can no longer

receive alarm signals from smoker’s lungs or the rest of his/her body which

are suffering in pain from those toxic substances in the smoke.

But the brain rather enjoys this sensation which dominates his/her consciousness,and furthermore remembers this high sensation feeling, eventually reaching out for that repeatedly, which we call addiction.

As said earlier, because the brain controls our most of conscious activities

this will become a habit.

So there are two kinds of comfort in this regard.

One is total comfort which brings every cell of the whole body

relaxation, balance, which we call joy.

The other is a partial comfort which brings only a cerebral cortex/brain

a temporal good feeling sensation but the rest of the body rejects, which we call

pleasure.

We define those as real comfort and false comfort.

So the false comfort is pleasure. We find so many aspects of it in our modern, high-technology,consumerism civilization today. And they are constantly promoted by the industries and authorities claiming our goal of life is attaining them as much as possible.

We can easily name those false comforts such as alcohols, sugar, drugs, sodas and so on which last endlessly. In addition to those, we can include wealth, titles, social statuses, and all kinds of luxury life styles.

All of these would surely give you pleasure which most of us pursue in our life.

But at the same time, the rest of our body except our cerebral cortex is seeking

for a ultimate balance, real comfort – joy.

This very deviation between those two different courses in life creates

stresses, which are essentially tensions eventually resulting in various

kinds of distortions.

Those distortions are the very causes of sickness.

Well, I wish I have given you an enough explanation.

I will then discuss and show the practical modalities of the Harmonics Healing

when we have a time next.

Mahalo,

Gen

Board Memberships: LQ Business & The American Dream

LQ Business & The American Dream: Board Memberships

Aloha!

At one time in my career I was on the boards of 39 different organizations….I now am on the board of one organization.

Do the number of organizations I belong to have an impact on my LQ?

ABSOLUTELY.

As one get’s more and more successful in business it seems that it becomes easier and easier to say “yes” to joining the board of an organization which allows you to “do good”.

Or makes you think you are “doing good”.

Same goes with memberships. Being a member of many different organizations.

Ever notice how every organization you join, suddenly wants you to do more and more because you, as a business owner, are a “doer”?

At the time I was on the board of 39 different boards I owned businesses in Japan. As an American in Japan I was told I absolutely needed to be on these various boards for my business to be successful.

Pretty soon 95% of my time was spent on the boards and 5% on my business.

Was my business doing well? Nope.  Would it do better if I was more involved?  Yup.

So against my advisor’s recommendations I resigned from all the boards and focused on my businesses.

Did the businesses improve? Yes.  Did I miss being on the boards? No.

Did my LQ sky rocket? ABSOLUTELY.

A form of paying it forward to the community can be achieved by serving on the board of an organization you are passionate about.

One board. Not two. Not 39. One board.

I am now chairman of the board of The Traditional Chinese Medical College Hawaii, which is a small school awarding a 4 year Masters of Oriental Medicine which includes acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments.

I am passionate about this college because I see it as being the first defense in affordable healthcare for our community. When there is a health challenge which cannot be solved by TCM then definitely the patient should go to their M.D. and get specialized treatments to cure their health challenge.

But many times, the TCM approach can solve the health challenge and at a fraction of the cost of western medical practices.

So my LQ get’s a bump up by helping evolve a non-profit organization I feel passionately about while at the same time not over committing to other organizations so that my LQ is damaged.

My LQ advice? Be active in ONE non-profit organization where you can make a positive difference without over committing your available time.

With Aloha; Grif Frost, enjoying affordable TCM healthcare and an LQ Life in Papaikou, Hawaii Island.

Paying it Forward: LQ Business & The American Dream

LQ Business & The American Dream: Paying it Forward

One way to improve your LQ is to get in the mindset of welcoming opportunities to help others. i.e. Paying it Forward.

I have been blessed to have many wonderful mentors, incredibly successful business people, who have had this “paying it forward” mindset.

In some ways, I don’t think you can be truly successful unless you have this mindset.

Being in the “paying if forward” mindset allows you to tap into a force which strongly contributes to your happiness, your sense of harmony, your sense of oneness with the universe.

There are some caveat’s I would suggest though, on this “paying it forward” mindset.

First, only agree to “pay it forward” to people who WANT your help.

Second, only agree to continue “paying it forward” to people who APPRECIATE your help.

And if you are in the position of wanting someone to “pay if forward” to you, make sure to let them know you WANT their help and APPRECIATE their help.

 

With Aloha; Grif Frost, paying it forward to those who want my help and appreciate it…living the LQ Life in Papaikou, Hawaii Island

 

LQ Business & The American Dream: Staying Grounded

LQ Business & The American Dream: Staying Grounded

Aloha!

During the pre-bubble years in Japan, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I worked with a series of multi-millionaires and billionaires who lost touch with reality…they loss their sense of “groundedness”.

And in the end 9 out of my 10 clients committed suicide.

In one instance, I was selling one of my businesses (which I thought was dead) for $1 million plus a $1 million performance bonus to a third generation family business owner who owned land in Tokyo.

The bank officers would come to him daily, as his land value sky rocketed and beg to loan him millions of dollars.

He had his own direct stock trading screen on one of his two desks in a mammoth office where he would show me his daily net winnings…the day I remember best was when I saw the number was $14 million.

In riding with him in his limo we would stop at politician’s second homes in the mountains to drop off $1 million in cash as a “thank you” for inside trading information.

I would listen to him on his car phone flipping properties he had just bought minutes ago for a net of many millions.

On the day we received payment for selling our business to him I had my mother in law with me as she was a business mentor of mine and an investor in the business.

As we entered the office the buyer apologized for the millions of dollars (yen actually) in cash bundles on both desks saying he had not had the time to put them in his office safe yet.

My mother in law immediately said to me…hmmm…we should have sold the business for more as this guy has totally lost touch with reality. He has lost his groundedness.

After we received our cash payment and left the office I asked her how I could stay grounded.

She said “Grif, always get your hands dirty every day”.  For her that literally meant working in her garden before she went to the office to run her construction company and other ventures.

A well known serial entrepreneur who was on the Today show told me he kept grounded by “washing his own laundry”.

My favorite way to keep grounded is to get out and walk in nature each and every day…in particular to walk down to our nearby cove and stand in the sand as the ocean wavers wash over my feet and I express gratitude for an LQ Life.

How do you stay grounded every day?

With Aloha; Grif Frost, enjoying the ocean waves daily as part of my LQ Life in  Papaikou, Hawaii Island.