Personal Development, Personal Freedom, Better Lifestyle, More Results
From the category archives:
Leverage yourself to change your world (and others). (Photo: alicepopkorn) Hey there. I’m writing this from LAX airport in Los Angeles. I just finished a seminar by Eben Pagan. It was the GURU Business Plan. Eben charges $4997 to attend this seminar. I got in free. Almond Butter! It was about managing self and doing [...]
Ah, with being apart only grows fondness.
Hi there, it has been a while since I posted yes? We’ll I’m back now!
A lot of things have been happening; I’m sure everyone’s world didn’t stop for me being gone and if it did, that is cool!
Currently I’m temporarily in wine country while I wait for my braces to be taken off (in two weeks!) and we’ll see where I end up. My priorities shift based on what my priorities are.
In March I had upper jaw surgery. They literally broke my jaw and moved it to a good position. I’ve had preparation for over a year now for this surgery (who would go out and pay to have their jaw broken). Now I have 4 metal screw/plates type things holding my jaw up, my muscle will grow on top of them.
It is really fun to have the jaw wired shut, drinking only protein drinks and other liquids. Thanks to everyone who cared for me while my jaw was annihilated, I appreciate it.
I’m working out two times a week, using a weightlifting guide I found on Tim Ferris’s Blog and it works great for me.
I’m eating a whole lot more healthy as well now, only “whole” foods. I didn’t say organic, I said “whole.” I’ve eaten well since I read the book The Abs Diet, though I’ve gone even further with it. I’ve learned from many different places at the same time that our bodies are our temples, I will sacrifice short term pleasure of sweet fattening, greasy, yucky food for long term “feel great” living. I really love this Organic Food Bar too.
I canceled my Shoemoney System account, the program is just way too slow and basic and videos thrown up on the fly. The other reason I really didn’t enjoy the program is because I think there were more than 500 students in the first round of sign ups. Jeremy said it would be only open to 500 students though many other marketers advertised it after it was closed before he “opened” the doors again. The program just lacks enough guidance for some things he shows and most new videos were thrown together a few days before they were [...]
Posted on May 21st 2010.
Take responsibility today for good.
About 99% of the people I have met in my life took less than 51% responsibility in their life. Meaning most of these people blamed something else for their good fortune or bad fortune.
Of the 1% I’ve met who decided to take 100% responsibility in their lives, they were usually ambitious and very enlightening to be around.
The reason is because this 1% decided every action in their lives determines their future and everything about themselves.
They are always moving forward attempting to be better then yesterday. I admired these people and decided to take the step for myself about 4 years ago.
There are many benefits for taking 100% responsibility, while there are also costs [...]
Posted on February 18th 2010.
Changing the world is easier done than said.
This is a series of posts about changing your world. How do you change your world? Easier DONE than said (challenge yourself to believe this phrase instead of the normal “easier said than done”).
In the later posts in the series, I will elaborate on the main details below.
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One of my favorite phrases comes from a video game, Xenosaga I (which I recommend if you like Role Playing Games).
“Perception and pain are one in the same.”
The “current” main enemy says this as he blows his head off with a weapon, and grows it back. The main characters watch in this event with disgust.
If we think about these words, it says we don’t all feel the same pain and we don’t all see the same things. Our idea of how much a punch hurts can mean something completely different to a martial arts fighter or [...]
Posted on February 16th 2010.
Be happy! Sometimes great events just happen.
I resigned from my job one month ago during this recession.
My income has not been as stable and some expenses have popped up. I recently went on a 2,000 mile drive to do the following things in the new state, Texas:
$187.00 Register my car
$34.00 Get a new license
~$445.00 Set residency in a new state for tax purposes (I’ll write about why this is great for a traveler in another post)
Apply for a Sales Permit
$879.00 Apply my Limited Liability Company as a Foreign Entity
Luckily the business related items (even the drive) is an expense for my business. I’m able to write off my mileage and not pay taxes on business expenses. This is one reason why a majority of millionaires in the book Millionaire Next Door, are business owners. This is one reason why I recommend starting a business as well. Many of these business owners mix business travel with personal so it is a business expense.
Being an employee doesn’t allow this freedom or tax advantage.
Many of my friends work as independent contractors as Search Engine Evaluators (google this if you want to apply to these jobs). There are thousands of people around the world earning a good wage telling search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc if certain search content is good. In the United States, they making [...]
Posted on Feburary 2nd 2010.
Don’t kick yourself into bad habits.
Do you want to be a superstar? Would you enjoy accomplishing so much in your life?
If not, don’t read on, it won’t help. If so lets continue to good habits.
First lets talk about habits. From thefreedictionary.com,
“A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.”
What does this mean? We acquire habits sometimes without knowing it. There are both good and bad habits, lets learn how to establish good ones.
Step One
First step is to define what you think is good or bad. I won’t decide for you, it is something ultimately you will decide.
What is good to you? Working out 3-4 times a week? Being on time to work? Thinking positively? Do you think any of these items are impossible or difficult to get into a habit of doing? Good, lets use it to our advantage.
One of the great lessons I learned about good habits, they are usually done by people I find successful. Who do you know or who do you see as successful? What do they do which you find good? Can you do it, yes you can.
What is bad to you? Smoking a pack of cigarettes everyday? Thinking you’re not good enough? Being late to everything you attend? Do you think any of these items are impossible or difficult to get out of a habit of doing? Good, lets use it to our advantage.
One of the great lessons I learned about bad habits, they are usually done by people I find [...]
Posted on January 30th 2010.
Anti-social is the new social.
Have you seen a group of people typing away on their phones instead of talking?
I have. I use to be one of these people in fact. I had my blackberry (aka crackberry). Now seeing these people waste precious time they have with their friends to type away on their phones, allows me to value my time spent with others.
It isn’t just about being anti-social either. It is a big time waster to type away on these phones most of the time. I know a lot of people who use unproductive behavior as an excuse to not be productive. Do you find yourself tweaking with your new iPhone App instead of finishing that paper or making that sales call? Do you press on the iFart application and laugh in the corner?
I would find myself wasting time on my phone doing useless things like tweaking settings here and there instead of working. When hanging out with other people I would pull out my phone every few minutes to check email or other items. Now, with a few tweaks, I can focus on the important things in my life. Dinner and special time will be interrupted no more. To me as a Vagabond, these few steps allow me to focus on relationships more.
I’m actually planning to experiment life with no phone and only use Skype. Though I would actually want to keep a phone just to keep in touch [...]
Posted on January 26th 2010.
Life is relationships.
One of the main reasons I’ve chosen to vagabond around the world is to increase the quality of relationships in my life.
I was the opposite before, I use to not value relationships with people. Getting my job functions or business done came first. Now relationships is priority #1 in any situation. Business, personal, love, relationships with the person comes first.
I felt trapped where I was in my previous job, I would mostly only see the people I worked with. Of course only mostly being around those people was my fault. I always have the choice to go out and meet other people and I did go out and meet people.
From the beginning my choice to meet these new people outside work was always destructive. I went into these relationships subconsciously with the wrong mindset. Over time these relationships would deteriorate based upon [...]
Posted on January 21st 2010.
Our friends determine who we are.
When growing up, my mom would be concerned who my friends were. I thought my mom was just being nosy. I’m sure many people reading this had the same situation before.
If you have kids now, you are most likely concerned who their friends are.
The reason for the concern of friends? Sometimes we are not able to explain it without thinking about it, though to put it in words, we are who our friends are.
I’m not saying we’ll only be as good or as bad as our friends, though we’ll be very near their level. Rich people can have poor friends and poor people can have rich friends, though it usually doesn’t mix. If we want to make success inevitable, shouldn’t we associate with the people we want to be like?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
“We are who we are going to be for the rest of our lives after college or high school, except for two things, the people we meet and the books we read.”
I’m definitely going to repeat the important concepts a lot, to reinforce it into my head, and into yours.
I can tell you from my experiences, the friends I’ve had, and the friends my friends had, how similar they were to their friends. The friends who did drugs, their friends usually did drugs. The violent friends [...]
Posted on January 14th 2010.
Get what you want.
Since as humans, most of us get what we need, food, shelter, we desire even more. I’m sure most everyone has been to a point where you had a desire you wanted so much, it hurt. It could be that girl or boy you were in love with or that car, or that house, or that lifestyle.
There are many different ways to fulfill desires. One of my favorites is changing what YOU desire, instead of wanting the world to change your circumstances and giving you your desire. This is the guaranteed way to get what you desire as a vagabond. I’ll write more about this method later.
Though another favorite of mine is making the acquiring of desire inevitable. We will get what we want no matter what. By making it so we will get whatever we want because we set it up this way.
Here is an example a lot of guys or gals are able to relate to.
Your desire might be love. Maybe for a long time you haven’t had love in your life for whatever various reasons. Maybe you stayed home too long, subconsciously set yourself up for failure through your mindset when you met new people.
What if you started to go out and meet a lot of people in [...]
Posted on January 12th, 2010.
