My journey to truly live started three years ago. Things were rough at home and they were even worse at work. Things got so bad at work that I knew I had to move on to something better but what……

I remember that year so well, I would have daily arguments with myself. One day I was convinced I was living a “good enough” life, the next day I wanted to change. This went on for months. Then came that day when I said enough was enough, I’m changing my life!

Have you ever had a moment like that? Can you relate to the emotions?

It’s almost like a high. You’re super excited, you finally feel like things are coming together. You’re on cloud nine and that’s where I was at. I went around telling anyone who would listen that I was quitting this job that I hated, that I was losing weight and that I was going to be President!

This excitement, this commitment lasted for two weeks, that little honeymoon period. After that two weeks the excitement and commitment started to fade very quickly. After those two weeks, I started making every excuse in the book to settle in life.

I don’t know what the time period has been or maybe will be for you but rest assured that there will come a point where your excitement and commitment to live out your dreams will be tested. 

This is the make it or break point for most people, me included. After I started making excuses it was another whole year before I even started thinking about my dreams. I could have saved a lot of time and helped a lot more people if I would have just known this one tip that I want to share with you today.

I made a short video giving you the one tip I wish I had three years ago:

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I want to take a small break from our series on How to Start and Market a Profitable Online Business to talk about something that has been on my heart and mind as we come to the end of this year.

Every where we look we’re hearing about New Year’s resolutions and goal-setting for the coming year (that’s if the world doesn’t end today) (He He). If you’re reading this then I guess someone was wrong.

From the time period of me being seventeen years old until last year the only goal I had was to get at least six hours of sleep a night, seriously. At seventeen my parents said if I didn’t obey their rules I had to leave, so I left. I lived on friends couches and cars for a while until I met my wife.

I met her and we were married three months later and got our own place. So from seventeen on I was a “working man” sometimes working two or three jobs to pay the bills. The idea of setting goals and changing my life/chasing my dreams was the last thing on my mind, it wasn’t even on my mind at all.

Last year I said enough was enough, I had to come up with a game plan to change. By chance I had come across Zen Habits and really liked how Leo wrote. As I was reading his blog I ran across a post about NOT setting goals and I thought I would give that strategy a try.

Now here I am at the end of a full year of trying this strategy and the one thing I realize is that everybody has to find what works best for them. I accomplished some amazing things this year but to be perfectly honest with you and myself, not half as much as I could have if I had set goals for myself. (more…)

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about me, I’m a neat freak. If you ask my wife she would tell you that I’m almost to the point of being obsessive, compulsive. When I get home from work everyday, I usually have the house to myself for a few hours, right away I go to town cleaning the house.

This is why we are sacrificing now

Recently I was completing my second book and also blogging a lot more, ideally I like to have all my writing done before everyone gets home. When the family gets home it can be a little chaotic and hard to concentrate, so that couple of hours are ideal to write. With the cleaning, it was taking away the best time for me to write.

As you might already know, our family is moving to Hawaii next year (http://excitingfamilyjourney.com/) and thinking about it while I was cleaning made me think about a few things: when we move to Hawaii we only plan on taking the clothes on our back, so we’re selling everything. Also, when we go to Hawaii we want to be supported by our online business, so time is running out to get this thing really going.

These thoughts made me realize that I have to stop looking at the short-term and focus on what we’re trying to do long-term. This is what I mean: instead of coming home and using that time to clean, I need to be writing. When the wife and kids come home, we could all clean together, this way they have something to do when they tell me they’re bored. I had to see the bigger picture and use that time of peace and quite to get things written. (more…)

When was the last time you read a good book? Can’t remember? THAT’S A PROBLEM!

There are a lot of things that are free these days and not all of them are good. Some of these “free” things will drain you of your time and your mind (TV) and are designed to market to you to take your money. First, don’t fall for any of these traps (that’s a goal this year, right?) take advantage of the best free resource out there (ok, second best, water is first): READING.

Want to hear a little secret? They are entire libraries full of free books that hold enough information on any subject you can think of to make you a genius. In these days of TV and the Internet, we have completely forgotten about reading, it’s a lost art. I hope not for you. If you haven’t been a reader in the past, why not start.

In this economy, companies are looking for that person that stands out from everyone else, reading can help with that. Think about this, you’re in an interview talking about different things, how impressed would the interviewer be if you were knowledgable about whatever subject interested him?

• Want to learn a new language? Read about it.
• Want to learn about a specific company and what they do? Read about it.
• Want to learn about setting up a website for a new business? Read about it.
• All these things can only help you get a better job, move ahead in your current job, or start a new business. (more…)

How many times have you been talking to someone and used the phrase: “I’m going to…”, what?

We’re all guilty of this and there’s nothing wrong with it as long as you take action!

It makes us feel good about not doing what we should be doing:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told people I was going to do this and that, I would see them a few weeks later and they would ask me about it, you know how it goes right? There would be that awkward stumbling around, fumbling for an excuse, I would then quickly try to change the subject! Now be honest, have you ever been in a similar situation? We plan on doing different things in our lives, we tell others about them, one way or another we never take action on those things. We even use this line as an excuse: “I was going to lose weight but my legs feel too sore to work out”. If we want to succeed, we have to stop using this as an excuse and take action!

Be honest with yourself:

The only way to break the cycle of making excuses is to realize what we’re doing and change it. You might be lying to yourself right now thinking that even though you haven’t done that certain task, you’re still working on it. Really? When was the last time you even thought about it? Be honest about it, don’t beat yourself up though. We all make mistakes, we all make excuses, we all fall down. The difference between the good and the great is that the great know that every time they fall, they’ll get up afterwards. Do you get up or do you like to sit on the ground and cry?

Think before you speak:

The best way for all of us to not get caught up in the “I’m going to” game is to think about what we want to do before we tell people. It’s good to have goals and dreams, we need them. Instead of telling your friends what you’re going to do, tell them: these are my goals and dreams, and then get to work on them, take action. Next time you see your friends, instead of having an awkward conversation, you can say I have done, this, this and this, giving them specific results. Isn’t this a better way to handle things? (more…)

At one point or another we all want to change our life, we just can’t figure out how to go about it!

Give up or move ahead?

Are you happy with everything in your life right not? I’m guessing not, but is it a fair question? Some will say that you can never be truly happy with everything in your life but I say HOG WASH!

Believe it or not, there are people who are truly happy with every aspect of their lives, I’ve met some on them. Did they discover some magically book somewhere that teaches the secret’s to happiness? I submit to you that you can be truly happy with everything in your life if you develop the right attitude!

Those people who are truly happy still have different things that they work on to approve but they have a different attitude than you or I. If there are things in your life that you aren’t happy with and want to change, here are six ways to help you change those things:

• Make sure you truly want to change those things: You may be at a job that you like and have never had an issue with but one day or one week, everything you could think of goes wrong. Your boss is constantly yelling at you that week, you messed up three tasks, your coworkers are driving you bonkers (AAHH)! All of this may happen and you might think: “I really want to quit and change jobs!”, but do you really? You can have a bad week at a job you like, you just have to realize it’s a bad week. If you made a change to a different job because of a bad week, you might ruin the rest of your life! What about a certain way you parented your kids? What if you firmly believed in spanking but then decided to make a change and use the grounding method? Your kids could see this and have a field day and you may have “lost” them. Do you really want to change these certain things in you life or are you just going through a rough patch?
• Identify the things you truly want to change and take action: So you have taken a little time and made sure you weren’t just going through a rough patch. Now you have an idea of what you want to change, take the first step. You don’t have to change overnight, you just have to move forward. If you want to lose weight this year, you don’t have to do it in a week but the first step might be to sign up for a gym membership. How about taking a walk that day? Those are the first steps and that’s what you need to do once you’ve identified area’s you want to change! Be very specific! (more…)

We all know enough about procrastination to write a whole book, am I right? We know that we put things off and we know what the end result of that is. If we know so much about it, why do we keep doing it?

Maybe we don’t know as much as we think and there might be a few lessons we all could learn together. So what makes me qualified to write this post? If I don’t say so myself I’m an expert in procrastination, I think I have the equivalent of a PhD. I’m learning and want to share a few thoughts that have helped me battle this syndrome every day.

• 1. Make a list and stick to it I hate to write down a to do list; writing is too much work, right? However, by putting it down somewhere (paper or electronically) helps you see things a little more clearly and helps you get an organized place to start.
• 2. Don’t erase things off the list until there down I started step one and got everything written down (YEAH!) after this I noticed something. It seemed that when I was sleeping my to do list was in my dreams, when I was awake it would call to me. It would say “there are ten things on this list and you’ll never get them done”. So I would do a few things on the list and if something was on the list for more than a week, I would find some reason to delete it off of the list instead of completing the task (what a shame, right?). If you have thought out your list and know its stuff that needs to get done, don’t delete it, complete it!
• 3. Take each task one at a time We have been told that “great”people multi task, we are learning now that they lied to us. If you try to take on more than one task at a time, you’ll quickly get overwhelmed and start deleting stuff just to get it off your list. Do each task individually, this will also insure you’ll do your best work on your task.
• 4. Get things done Why have a list that just sits there for months on end. We all have busy lives now, so much to do. Don’t let that be an excuse, if you have a to do list, more than likely these are important things. I’ve learned in life that you always have to make time for the things that are important, so get your list knocked out!
• 5. Don’t be afraid to add to the list Human nature tells us that if we have a list of things to do that we have to clear off that list and keep it clean. This is not going to shock you, but more things that you have to get done will come up, so add them to your list. The goal is to have a real idea of what you need to do and things will always pop up from time to time!
• 6. Enjoy all your victories Eventually all of us will get good at this. We all will become organized people who write down and know the things we have to get done and we’ll do them. As we learn and grow and accomplish, I think its ok to look at what we’ve done and smile. Enjoy not procrastinating, just don’t get too cocky and become complacent!

 So think right now, what things in your life have you been putting off? Could you benefit from having it written down and tackling it one at a time? Here’s some brand new information (not really) if you don’t do those things they’re never going to go away! What? That’s right!

So what in your life have you been putting off? What are you going to do about it? Let us know in the comments:

Are you excited for the new year? I hope you are, it’s a fresh start and possible the beginning of the end of a job we hate. A new year means you have 365 days to accomplish all (or most) of your goals. If you’re going to have the best year of your life you have to come into the new year prepared. Do you have a game plan for this year? I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking, praying and writing down all my goals for 2012. As I’ve been planning I’ve gotten excited about all the opportunity if I can even accomplish half of these goals.

So that brings me to you, what are your plans for this year? If you need to a little help with planning for the year, here are a five things for you to consider and hopefully they help you out:

• Write down your goals: I’ve mentioned this already but it has to start somewhere. You don’t have to have a physical paper but even if it’s on your phone, you must have your goals laid out somewhere. Putting them down helps you see them clearly, see how they’ll fit into the overall plan, and give you some accountability. This is a must!
• Tell your close friends about your goals: Obviously this will help you to stay accountable. I’ve told things to my close group of friends in the past and they have asked me about them to the point where I was annoyed, the thing was that I really needed that! You may have some goals that you set just to feel good that you set them, telling your friend’s will be good motivation to make these more real!
• Be realistic with your goals: If one of your goals is to fly to the moon then you might be a little off. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want a new job? You know better than anyone what you can and can’t do, so think about those things and plan then out!
• BE SPECIFIC! This is probably one of the most important aspects. You want to lose weight? How much? If you want to lose fifty pounds, how will you do it? How about set a goal of ten pounds per month, in five months you’ve accomplished that goal. Doing it this way makes it very attainable and gives you a solid plan of attack.
• Don’t quit, no matter what: We know how new years resolutions work, right? By the second or third month we usually forget or have lost interest. DON’T DO THIS WITH YOUR GOALS FOR THIS YEAR! Have this year be different from every other year, don’t stop until your goals are all completed!

Beginnings are great so make sure you take full advantage of the start of this year. If you get on a roll and start knocking out your goals, don’t be afraid to add things to your list. The more you get done, then add, then get done, the closer you’ll be to accomplishing your dreams.

What are some goals you have for this year? Let us know in the comments: