Jeremy JohnsonHigher Learning For Success

This is part 2 in a series of posts about daily disciplines, inspired by Jim Rohn.

I woke up this morning to a sounding phone alarm ringing in my ear. I frantically grabbed for the phone, trying to shut the bloody thing off. Once I did, I looked at the clock. The good news was that it was 7:00 AM and time for me to get up. The problem, I had no energy to do so and fell back asleep.

Jim Rohn talked about daily disciplines. I decided to start with waking up early and preparing as the first one I’d get in the habit of doing. However, the scenario of turning the alarm off and falling back asleep leads me to believe that there is something missing. I believe it is the way I prepare for rest the night before.

The Inefficient Way To Prepare For Rest

I turn on around 10:00 PM. My mind races and I hop on the computer and get my mind worked up deep in thought and activity. By 11:30 PM, even if I’m tired, I find sleep hard to come by. The “turning on at 10:00 PM” routine is not working for me. I need to start turning off at 10:00 PM.

I believe that eliminating computer/tv activity after 10:00 PM and instead only allowing reading books after that time is the way I will prepare for the next day. By 10:00 PM, I should know exactly what I am going to do the next day. I can then focus on reading and preparing for rest and the excitement of tomorrow.

When I start turning on at 7:00 AM (or earlier) instead of 10:00 PM, I believe I’ll have mastered this discipline. I will master it by planning for tomorrow between 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM and reading from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM, for an hour.

The Daily Disciplines

• Daily Discipline - Exercise
• Daily Discipline - Healthy Eating
• Daily Discipline - Prepare For Rest
• A Few Daily Disciplines - Arise Early

Jim Rohn said it best when he reiterated what his mentor, Earl Schoff, told him would increase his fortune. “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” Jim says once he understood that, things really started to turn around for him. For those of you who don’t know, Jim Rohn was a major player in the success of Herbal Life weight loss supplements and an early pioneer in personal development.

There are questions that need answering to further clarify this statement:

• How do you work harder on yourself than you do on your job?
• Why should I work harder on myself than on my job?
• What will I get by working harder on myself than on my job?
• When will I gain the reward for working harder on myself than on my job?
• Who has worked harder on their self than on their job?

Let’s dig into these questions and find some answers. If we’re going to get something of value from this discussion, we are going to have to answer these questions and provide ways that you can use the answers to improve your life, current job situation – or even improve your own business.

Why should I work harder on myself than on my job?

If you are reading this, then I assume you are someone who wants to create. You want to create and finish your ideas. You’re looking for answers to help propel your ideas forward. This is a pretty good reason is it not? Let’s take that reason and see if we can add some weight to it.

I’ve had some success working harder on myself than on my job. First and foremost, I’ve found myself a much more capable employee at my full time job as a web developer. I’m starting to see things at my full time job I didn’t before. I’m finding myself getting involved in discussions more whereas before I just sat at my desk and pounded out code. I’m starting to see the company from a strategic and overview perspective. I am volunteering to do presentations. All of this is good.

From personal experience, I can tell you you will become a better problem solver. Working harder on yourself means gaining intelligence and leadership. It means understanding other people and events in the world. If this is true, then you can expect with diligence, you will begin solving problems at your work, and in your own business. This makes you valuable – much more valuable than someone who just clocks in and out from 9 to 5 each day at work.

Jim Rohn said it best, “We must all feel one of two pains: the pain of regret, or the pain of discipline. Discipline weighs ounces. Regret weighs tons.” Personally, I’ve felt the weight of regret. It’s not a fun or uplifting feeling. In the short term, it is much easier to not put in the hard work for a superior life. But the irony is that putting in the hard work now will lead to continued opportunity and fulfillment in life. Wealth, power, influence, and more become available to you as you work harder on yourself. Don’t believe me? Try it for 60 days after reading this article.

Finally, working harder on yourself will give you the skills to better contribute and lead. Someone might say, “I don’t want to lead.” That person has to decide for them self where they want to end up in life. Will the end be a plateau that has been traveled on for years? Or will the end be the peak of a mountain that has been continuously climbed. I imagine the feeling at both of these stages at the end of life will be drastically different from each other.

How do you work harder on yourself than you do on your job?

When tax season comes around, the IRS ‘audits’ people. This means they do a thorough examination of the income and taxes a given person or family filed to pay for the year. I’ve never been audited, but I can appreciate the process of doing a thorough examination. This is the essential first step for working harder on yourself than you do on your job.

Doing a thorough self examination. A truthful self examination is the key here. I can lie to myself and say things are ok, or they are not bad. The self examination should extract everything needing to be improved. This is not a positive self talk session. Focus very specifically on what you can improve and get it down. Digging a little deeper into reality I may come up with a self examination like this:

• Sometimes I don’t plan ahead enough.
• Sometimes I fail to exercise and eat right.
• Sometimes I waste time on activities that aren’t taking me where I want to go.
• Sometimes I don’t lead my family in the best way.
• Sometimes I am not as organized as I should be.
• Sometimes I just need to step back, relax, and soak life in.

This is simply, reality. But it does give me a clear indication of the areas I need to work hard on for myself. It seems that planning ahead and having a clear strategy is lacking at times. This is good to know. I can now take each of the areas I need to improve on and look for tools, resources, and techniques to remedy the problem. I can even get much more specific with each area up here, such as taking the first one and saying it like this:

Sometimes I don’t plan ahead enough. I often just jump right into something because I’m excited about it initially. As time goes on, I realize that I haven’t organized my thoughts and ideas enough and find myself playing catch up after the creation of what I am trying to do. It seems to be much more efficient to exactly know what needs to be done and then follow a plan to make it happen – rather than making it happen on the fly.

Here is a list of tools, techniques, and resources to work hard on yourself than on your job.

• Books
• Websites
• Audio listening programs
• Videos
• Getting involved
• Asking questions
• Interactive learning
• Study
• Facing fears
• Learning to lead others

What will I get by working harder on myself than on my job?

• Confidence
• Persuasion
• Increased problem solving
• Higher income potential

Confidence

Confidence is a measure of how capable you feel in a given situation. I know this from experience. When I was younger, I had to do a presentation in high school. I was so terrified of it that I felt as if my stomach were being sucked in by a black hole. Not only that, I prepared as little as possible in accordance with my philosophy of doing the absolute minimum to get by – at the time. This of course led to a horrible presentation. Now I realize practice and preparation are the keys to delivering a successful speech/presentation.

Persuasion

I know that many of you reading have good ideas. One of the challenges is relaying those ideas to one or more people and having them agree and even support/assist you with them. Generally when I try and talk to someone about my website here, they get glossy eyed. However, I’ve also talked to people about something they already like very much and created a conversation around that and the ability to persuade them sky rocketed. Persuasion comes through understanding people and the world around us. It gives clarity and the ability to speak at the level the person is at. This is one way to make progress – to sell a product or service to someone through persuasion.

Problem Solving

When I was younger, I hated the phrase, ‘problem solving’. I associated a lot of pain with it because problem solving involved extra work and I had a philosophy of doing the absolute minimum to get by in any situation. The problem with this is there are many who also think the same way. If you want to achieve success, you’ve got to rise up and be more than a ‘get by’ kind of person. Let me better illustrate this point now below.

Currently, there is a massive amount of oil spewing out in the Gulf coast. BP, an oil company, is responsible for the oil leak. When I hear most people talk about it, they say they are angry and that the oil is destroying the wildlife in the area. They say that we can go to outer space but not fix an oil leak. So what is wrong?

I don’t deny that wildlife is getting affected. But I think it is naive to say that it is just some hole that should be plugged. It is a problem to pass around blame without taking the time to thoroughly examine the situation. As a problem solver, I’d hope that you are asking the following questions:

• What specifically created the oil leak?
• What specifically is the oil coming out of? Is it a tube, a pipe, a giant box – what exactly is it?
• How big is the opening the oil is coming out of?
• What kind of opening is it? Is it a circle, square, or a jagged shape?
• How fast is the oil coming out?
• How much pressure is the oil creating while coming out?
• How much of an area is being affected by the oil? Is this area changing because of the water moving in the ocean?
• How much wild life is being affected by the oil?
• How deep underwater is the oil leak? How much pressure is created by being that deep underwater?
• How much oil would spew out if the leak were never closed?
• How can we get world leaders and businesses to better work together and solve this oil leak crisis?
• Who are the experts needed to fix the oil leak?
• What is the complete cost to fix the oil leak for a given plan?

My first thought is to contain the leak with a dome ala the movie, “Monsters Inc”. What I mean is that one of the monsters in the movie had a sock stuck on his back from a child it was scaring. The monster was tackled, cleaned, and shaved. The sock was then isolated by taking a dome and drilling it into the ground around the sock. The sock was now contained and then a blast of electricity was shot in the dome, incinerating the sock. I’m suggesting a containment dome that is drilled into the earth over the leak. Of course this is merely my first thought and someone may have already thought of this and deemed it not a workable solution, not to mention there may be problems, such as an uneven surface and equipment in the way.

As a problem solver, you ask as many tough and detailed questions as possible. But you always have an end goal: solve the problem. You aren’t interested in blaming others. You aren’t interested in getting on a soap box and complaining. You ask the tough questions and then work to find answers. This is higher learning – deep level thinking for success, influence and creating value. I believe were someone to have the answers to these above questions, that they could sufficiently lead an effort to solve the oil leak problem in the gulf.

Look for opportunities at your place of employment (or your own business). I can guarantee you that the processes, procedures, hardware, software, and more are not working at full capacity. There is room for improvement if a problem solver can step in and create solutions. You’ll find yourself more capable by being a problem solver and this will lead you to make more progress and complete more of your own ideas in turn.

Higher income potential

Many people are cogs in a machine – they are working parts of a whole. They follow instructions to the tee every time and their capacity is limited. I know, I was once like this. At work, I clocked in work and clocked out, just happy to be done for the day. I looked forward to weekends with a passion. But by changing this way of thinking, I’ve been able to increase my salary every year since graduating college. I’m now having more opportunity than ever due to working on myself more than my job. Pretty interesting.

I’m serious about the income potential. I’m not making millions of dollars right now. But I started in my very early 20′s making $7.50 an hour. At my job now, I am over $40.00 an hour now (in a salaried position, taking the hourly equivalent at 8 hours a day). This is simply because my value to the market place has increased. The market place is the place where people and organizations are willing to pay people for the value they bring to them and their business.

When will I gain the reward for working harder on myself than on my job?

You can expect a steady increase over time. Beyond that, do not focus on what you will get or you will focus on the wrong thing. If you maintain a focus on increasing your value instead of what you get for that value, you will remain consistent. Your foundation will be stronger. If your foundation is financial reward, you will have a rickety foundation and not be able to maintain consistent growth over a long period of time.

I remember when I was in college. I would get jealous when I would hear how much professor’s or other people were making. I was doing work study – working at the college for $7.50 an hour. My focus was on money. I was jealous. As a consequence, I was stagnant in my growth because I focused on money alone. When I started investing in myself and taking the time to increase my skills and ability, my income proportionately increased.

Who has worked harder on their self than on their job?

There are plenty of people to look at as examples. Whether or not you agree with them is irrelevant – for they have shown the ability to greatly increase their fortunes. They are constantly learning and improving. They are (and have been) leaders in the world today.

• Jim Rohn
• Anthony Robbins
• Seth Godin
• Les Brown
• Robin Sharma
• Tim Ferris
• Gary Vaynerchuk

My hope for those of you reading is that you will take something and add it to your skills. That you will continue to seek to improve and add value. If you work full time, look for ways beyond your standard duties to help your company grow, add value, save money, and more.

Wow, it’s amazing what can happen in a month… In this time, the I.P.W. has grown from a few websites to sixteen websites. I’ve had the privilege of connecting with so many new individuals in just a month and I want to share some of the new and great ones with you now (sorry to those of you who are old-timers on the list :)).

Jonathan Wells from Advanced Life Skills. Jonathan is a very experienced life coach. In fact, he sort of reminds me of my ‘future self’, the person I hope to become some day. I am proud to have him listed here as a resource for you to tap into.

Ben Lumley from 6 Aliens. Ben is a recent addition to the I.P.W. He is very much a student of personal development and has been tutored by Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, and more. Maybe not one-on-one, but I can tell Ben has been a student of their works. And you definitely cannot go wrong taking that path.

Evelyn Lim from Abundance Tapestry. Evelyn is awesome. She is more of a visual personal development guru. I LOVE her articles about vision boards. Putting into actual physical pictures what I want has been very helpful. I’m very happy to have found her and she is a great resource, particularly if you are more of a visual person.

Lana Kravtsova from Daring Clarity. Lana is a very clear person. If you are having trouble understanding what you want in life, I implore you to go visit and soak in the information like a sponge. She’s passionate about getting clarity in life and has been very responsive to the questions I have asked her.

Jen Smith from Reach Our Dreams. Jen is a life coach who is very passionate about helping people achieve their dreams. She writes about loving the work you do, cherishing the small things in life, and finding wisdom from Gandhi. Take some time and discover your dreams while visiting Jen’s website.

Evita Ochel from Evolving Beings. I had the privilege of speaking with Evita very recently. She has such a wonderful story. She has three websites, of which this one here is the focus on personal growth and improvement in a holistic and spiritual way, amongst the many other ways she describes it.

She is a terrific writer. She was a high school teacher making a steady income and she gave it all up to do her wonderful websites. She’s such a good example. I’m very impressed with the work she is doing on her three websites. What are you waiting for? Go check them out!

Ken Robert from Mildly Creative. I love the visual style of Ken on Mildly Creative. He focuses on leading a life of quiet inspiration. He is happy and if you are struggling finding happiness, you really need to get over to his website now and see a new perspective on life.

Therese Miu from Therese Miu. Therese is a recent acquaintance. She is a delight to listen to. She recently did a video on ‘heal the planet, heal yourself’. I promise that if you just listen to her videos, you’ll start to feel better from her immense amount of positive energy. I’ll make it easy for you, go check out her videos.

Kim Maglinti from Mindset Success Coaching. Kim is one awesome person. Her website focuses on helping those who are struggling finding ideas for their business, or who just want that extra edge in business. She uses personal growth as an essential ingredient for finding success. I’m happy to know Kim and read her words of wisdom.

Tara from Wise Living Blog. Tara is the guest-posting queen. She’s all over the internet! And this is a good thing because she is a kind and compassionate person. She loves poetry, modern dance, and personal growth. If you are into art or artists, you should go connect with her right now—and even if you are not, she’s well worth spending time studying and learning from.

Faye from Wisdom of Spirit. Last, but not least, we have Faye. I first found out about Faye when she commented on my website. I’m glad she did that because it helped me discover her website. She is a very spiritual person and in touch with many aspects of life that I think many can only dream of. Her focus is on spiritual awareness as a means for personal growth. Thanks, Faye, for commenting and for the work you do!

What a group of awesome people. Every website in the I.P.W. has something for you. They are all people getting out there and making a difference in adding value to the lives of other people in personal growth, personal development, inspiration, spirituality, and anything related to positive life change and progression.

image by thivierr

image by Marty.FM

You may be wondering why I have a picture of a pinball up above. Take a moment and visualize a pinball bouncing around. Often there is no set path it goes. The little clickers at the bottom ‘whack’ the pinball back up in hopes it hits a few things and scores more points. Sometimes the pinball gets through the middle and is lost. The goal of pinball is to score as many points as possible by hitting the ball back up over and over.

I Have To Admit…

I don’t quite know my purpose at times. Ever felt this way? I bounce around with ideas thinking, “Maybe I’ll try that.” Or, “I’ll give that a try and see how it goes.” And often I feel like the pinball, bouncing around in the machine with no rhyme or reason to what I am doing. It can be a devastating and piercing blow to action when this is happening. Sometimes I wonder, “Am I really doing what I am supposed to be doing?”

It’s difficult, isn’t it? Trying to find the exact path to take in your life. I know this all to well. As a young man in middle school, around the age of 13, I thought for sure that I’d make computer games the rest of my life. As I entered high school and began to play basketball, I thought, “Maybe I’ll play in the NBA, that sure would be great!” Still further life went along and none of these two things came to pass. Coming home from a two year service mission in Ireland, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. So I figured I’d do what everyone else was doing.

Going to college

I went to college because it seemed to be the logical step after high school and my service mission. And other people had done it, so I didn’t feel to non-conformist by making this leap. Any of you ever experienced that? Did you go to college just because people in your family did? Or did you do it because your parents made you? Or did you do it just to get out of the house? Or did you go to college at all? And then I got to college and didn’t know what to study. Ever experienced this frustration before?

So you just try something. In my case, I tried ‘Computer Science’, which involved programming and creating software for computers. Sometimes you just try something when you want to proceed don’t you? You sample it. “Maybe this will be good,” you ask. As the pinball bounces around randomly, I have done the same. You just bounce around and see what ‘sticks’.

If you went to college, what did you study? Why did you choose to study what you did? Were you certain of yourself at that time?

Life after college

I like to call this the limbo years. Sure I was married and had an awesome wife. But I just went one day to the next. I woke up without a plan or real idea of what I wanted to have my life be like. Sure I worked jobs as a web developer and did stuff. But I don’t recall much of my life in my 20′s. And I think that is because I didn’t have any meaningful purpose set out. It was just one big long run of get up, work, come home, watch TV/play on the computer – and then rinse and repeat the next day.

Maybe many of you had an ‘awakening’ at some point in your life. I’ve found that most of the people I’ve seen online doing wonderful things had some moment in their life where they had had enough of the way things were. Whether it was a job, a marriage, a situation, someting, there was a moment of being discontented enough that it prompted a major shift. For me, this was sitting down at the computer over a year ago, playing the computer game, “World of Warcraft”.

I had had it. I was just mindlessly wandering around in the game, seeing so many others doing the same, and realized that my life was slipping through my fingers. The opportunities to gain in knowledge and skill were fluttering away. I was being a dis-service to my family by wasting hours and hours on the game each and every day. And so I quit it, right then and there and stopped. This I believe is the path to purpose. A moment of being so disturbed, that the purpose is then sought out.

Finding true purpose

I’ve met some extraordinary people here on the web. Many of them seem clear on their purpose. I am more clear now, but a definite purpose is something I am still defining. Sure, I want to help people and make a difference in the world. Doesn’t everyone really? This is where I am getting specific. What will be the vehicle for making a difference. What am I good at? What can I bring enough value to to make an impact to you who are reading this right now? This website is the start of my purpose. Who knows what form it will take 5 years from now. But I am seeking and getting specific. If you are struggling with your purpose, get specific. What are you good at, or what do you want to be good at so that you can contribute to other’s through it?

I’m not sure purpose can be fully discovered at any given moment. Life changes. Events happen. But the best description you can create for your purpose is what creates action. Look at a bee on a flower. Look at the sun giving nutrients to plants. Look at water giving life. Look at anything in life and a purpose is not too far off. A chair for sitting, a pool for swimming, a pencil for writing. Your purpose will give you meaning AND ACTION. Because you know what you are supposed to be doing. If your purpose is not defined, life will find one for you – and it will generally be something you are not happy doing. Why not be proactive and spend time each morning contemplating your existence!

In my next article, I will introduce a very unique website to you. The owner of it has a detailed interview that you can go through to really see what your purpose in life is. I will be going through the interview and answering the questions. I’ve said it before and will say it again. There are extraordinary people here on the Internet doing wonderful things with their websites. So much passion and intelligence in one place. It’s a lot to take in! But what a wonderful thing it is. If you haven’t already, take a look at the I.P.W.. There are super people there worth listening to!

The next article is ready and you can read my interview here.

My friends: What is your purpose? Are you still trying to figure that purpose out? What are the ways in which you will use your purpose in life to contribute to others?

This is a simple and FREE ebook for you! Its purpose is to help you make the connection between physical movements of your body and the visualizations you create in your mind. There is a powerful link created when intense and physical movements with heightened emotions are combined with the visualization of the things you want most.

What you can expect to find

• Understand that you are creative and have dreams/ideas.
• See that sometimes you let ‘LIFE’ get in the way.
• Learn ways to move your body to alter its biochemistry and create strong bonds between your brain and what you visualize.
• Pictures for easy understanding of each movement.
• Get very specific in the areas of your life you can create more joy in.

Please feel free to share this e-book with anyone you wish! It is free and should only be given away freely. All I ask is that you explain where you got the e-book from with a link back to this page. May you find the same value from this e-book that I receive from following the guidance contained in it. Thank you!

image by thivierr

There are every day folks doing awesome things in their lives. I want to share them with you so you can see it is possible. These are people who have inspired me in the month of March, 2010, and I hope that you will spend some time on their websites. See the evidence that progression of dreams and aspirations can be a reality!

Mary from ‘Guitar Chics’ – Mary talked about growing up as a nerd and concern for her son. She says don’t wait to invite people into your world, especially the nerdy kids at school – great advice Mary! Hope to see you around some more and thanks for commenting!

Sam from ‘Financial Samurai’ – Sam has been an inspiration for me with his leadership in creating the ‘Yakezie Club’ – a group of now over 40 personal finance blogs that are bonding together and moving forward with great strength. If you need financial advice, look no further than the Yakezie club, seriously – they have it all covered! This is how I got the idea to bond together people doing personal growth/inspirational websites.

Ryan from ‘Planting Dollars’ – I first saw Ryan from a YouTube video by Lisa Irby (the create a website guru) and have been impressed with his dedication and success and only in his early 20s. If you want good information on entrepreneurship and financial freedom, Ryan is your man.

Valerie Mondesir from ‘Insightfull Blog’ – I had an online interview with her (look for it in a couple days here). She is an awesome woman and she was the first person I found who I wanted to add to the ‘Inspirational People on the Web’ group. She writes about introspective personal growth with a dash of sometimes nerdy humor (great tag line). I really like her straightforward approach and her wide range of topics. She is both smart and funny – go check her site out.

Jarrod Clark from ‘Optimistic Journey’ – He relates solving a Rubix cube to overcoming a challenge or obstacle before you that you do not know how to presently solve. He writes about faith and spiritual matters and does a great job providing inspiring information.

Also, welcome to Patrick Stoeckmann from ‘Unwrap Your Mind’ and Colby Williams from ‘Personal Development Kung Fu’. Both have great messages and are worth spending time on. Patrick is more on the spiritual and mental side, and Colby is more on the passion and change side. One thing I am doing is finding those folks who I believe have a good message and are making positive change in their life. Some don’t even know I have added them here :), but nevertheless, I welcome them.

Finally, Real Estate Guide 2 Succe$$ – I found this website via Ryan at Planting Dollars (his site is up above) and have been nothing but impressed with Ronnie Adams and Vance Poindexter. Ronnie has beein doing real estate for about 15 years now. They give honest and upfront information, along with videos and podcasts. They are great and have really helped me and increased my confidence for the time I will invest in real estate.

I don’t doubt that many of these fine people will be mentioned again in the future. Why not join them in the pursuit of your dreams and aspirations. Why not share with me right now what your dreams and aspirations are. Let the world know that you are ready.

I’m excited to share with you my very first video. It’s about making change in your life right now. If you like pie, then the taste of this video should satisfy your appetite. You’ll be able to quickly examine your life and find the areas that you can ‘slice’ into and replace with meaningful, soul driven activities.

Learn what stops you from making any significant changes in your life. Find out why many talk about their ideas, but few take the time to do them. Learn how to be someone who achieves and makes time for the more important things in life, like exercise, and the soul driven activities that you know you want to do.

Do you have moments in life where you just put your head in your hands as if the entire world is against you? Do you feel like no matter what you try, you just keep getting beat down? What tests do you face in your life? Will you show the world just how great you are? If you know what you are capable of in your life then go out and get it and leave the excuses at the door. If you know what you have to do, don’t sell yourself short and put it off or make the same mistakes over and over again. You are truly powerful beyond measure.

I was inspired to increase my normal up and down the stairs walking workout for healing from my back surgery from 20 times to 100 times tonight. The vision in my head was how life decides to beat at us sometimes and consequently, this video was revealed to me. Sometimes it’s feeling the effects of getting older, or losing a job, going through a divorce, dealing with frustrations and your children, or having surgeries and other physical ailments. What are the hits you are taking? Will you take them and keep moving forward?

By the time I was doing my 50th trip down the stairs and then going right back up for number 51, my legs were burning. I thought that I should just stop right there and not overdo it. Then I thought about the value I need to add to what I’m doing and I got to 60. I thought about all the people I will help in my life and I got to 70. I thought about my wonderful wife and family and I got to 80. I thought about the great potential and worth inside of everyone who will read this and 90 was achieved.

By this time, I was coughing and reeling. I envisioned carefully what I am seeking. Each step was difficult. I reached 100 as one giant sweaty mess, breathing as if I’d just run a marathon. This was my first real workout since back surgery. Show the world how great you are. You will show the world how great you are if you just keep moving forward and making progress every day. May your days be filled with progress and fulfillment.

image by Dr Case

Feel deflated like that soccer ball? There is a very well thought out article entitled, “How to use expectation to your advantage” on Valerie’s Insightfull blog that can help you with that. It had such a good affect on me, that I wanted to elaborate on it in what I see in my own life.

The idea that a moment is all you need

What moment are you waiting for in your life? Are you wanting to just be happy, lose weight, have lots of money, have a good job, get along with your spouse, etc… These seem like some of the most common desires most people have. Money, in particular, seems to be this ever engulfing thing for people that they always want more of. What would happen to you if you all of a sudden had a suit case full of $200,000? What would you do with it? Do you even have a life plan for it? Or, are really just wishing for the moment to have it and nothing more?

If you’re finding yourself not taking action, or falling back into failing ways, you might be too focused on the end result. Life is all about the journey – one day at a time. It isn’t about conjuring up a massive result instantly. It never works that way! The magic is in small steps every day. I implore you, if you are indecisive, to examine what you are focusing on. I’m willing to bet you are thinking about achieving some major milestone – losing x amount of pounds, getting rid of all your debt, learning new skills for a better job, or what have you.

My journey with the P90X workout program

I made a goal to try the P90X extreme fitness program early in 2009. I knew I wanted to be toned, muscular, and looking good. The first few days of working out, I was really sick. But I just kept doing the workouts as best I could. I kept waking up day after day. And I only thought about the current day – what do I need to do today to get the results. And that was to watch the workout DVD of the day and finish it. It wasn’t trying to get six pack abs in one day or even a week.

Guess what? I finished the workout program – 90 days straight. And I continued to be highly active even after that. Currently I am recovering from lower back surgery and after that, I’m going to be right back to working out. So look below and see for yourself – this is the result of focusing one day at a time and not trying to do everything at once.

click to enlarge

My journey finishing my first book

I’m sharing the grand tale of writing my first book! And the tale is not completed yet. I am still finishing up editing and then going after a publisher! It’s funny you know – every day I had, putting in the hard work to finally get to a completed draft of my book. It was a Herculean effort! You’d of thunk Angels would come down and sing my praises after I finished. But after I finished the last sentence of the draft there was… silence. That’s the beauty of the journey! You finish one thing and another immediately begins. The magic is in the progression. In my case, now polishing the book and getting ready to find a publisher.

What are your sights set on?

What are the big dreams you have and how are they keeping you from making the progress you need to today? You aren’t going to solve everything at once. But you can make small strides each day that will add up to a great deal over time. I challenge you to focus on what you can do today to achieve your ultimate goals. One step at a time people – again, it’s all about the journey, for in the end, isn’t that what we will all remember about life?

What are you struggles each day that keep you from making progress? Do your big dreams overwhelm you and keep you from taking action day to day? If you are reading this, get ready to make today different than any other day through action.

There are many excellent people I’ve found on the web whose content, information, and videos have a great deal of value and inspiration to offer. But they are not getting the exposure and community they deserve. It is my great privilege to announce the ‘Inspirational People On The Web’ group.

The purpose of the group is the following:

• To build each other up and increase the visibility of the content provided on each person’s website.
• To collaborate with each other with useful dialog on each other’s websites building up community.
• To share new ideas and inspiration with each other, adding further quality to each person’s website.
• To increase the traffic and exposure via the Alexa ranking measure. This will require each member to simply sign up with Alexa and place some code on their website if they haven’t already.

Questions and answers

Hasn’t someone already done this?

There are lists out there of ‘top personal development’ blogs out there. But they are that – just lists. And they focus on the best and most well known. I’m taking a different approach. I want to find those that aren’t well known and help them realize their potential (including mine).

What is your ulterior motive for doing this?

I honestly want to increase the exposure of other people’s websites who share any kind of message related to inspiration, improving, or living a fuller life. Obviously I want this for myself as well. It’s a win-win situation as we all begin to collaborate with each other and share each other’s site visitors.

Ok, so how does it work then?

I will be contacting the owners of sites who I think share a wonderful message. Obviously sites like StevePavlina.com, Zenhabits.net, and SelfGrowth.com are giants – but does that rule them out? It does not. Still, to start, I will be focusing my efforts in contacting those whose websites are ranked above the 1,000,000 mark in Alexa.

I will begin adding websites where I find the creator’s inspirational, helpful, and/or fascinating and then add community to that website by promoting them here and adding relative and useful comments on their website. This will show that I’m not just out there for my own self interests.

Guest posting is highly encouraged

Guest posting not only gives you exposure on someone else’s website, but it also gives you a link back to your site. If you are the owner of a site that receives a guest post, you get added content that you didn’t have to write. It’s a win-win. How do you guest post? Read what an expert has to say about it.

Friendly competition for all

The rankings on the Inspirational People On The Web Page will be ordered by Alexa rank. This will push us all to do better. In addition to that, here is some advice to help improve the exposure and ranking of your website:

• Install the Alexa Toolbar.
• Stay consistent and write at least two times a week.
• Always inject your own unique personality into your writing.
• Setup Facebook and Twitter accounts and put them on your website.
• Put your Alexa ranking on your website.
• Guest post on other blogs in the group as much as time allows.
• Spend time commenting on other websites to add community.
• Make your site unique and have it stand out. Get a logo.

Am I the expert in all of this? Of course not. Have I even done all of these? Of course not. But this list is a start for everyone.

All right, so when is this going to get started?

As soon as I publish this post, it will begin. I will be placing a link in my main navigation called “Inspirational People On The Web” or “I.P.W.” for short, that will contain each site with the name, a brief description, and their Alexa ranking at the time they joined. If that ranking increases, then we are having some success. Updates coming soon.