The Number One Way You Can Improve Yourself Today
One of the things I am constantly trying to do in my life is improve. There are many ways to do this in each area I want to improve. If I want to lose weight, lose fat, and/or gain muscle, I know I can lift weights, do cardio, and change my diet accordingly. If I want to have more relationships I put myself in social situations and push myself to meet new people and social circles, or even just build upon the relationships I already have in my life. If I want more money, I have to either work harder or work smarter in some way to increase my income. I made these all sound very simple, and the truth is that they are not that simple. There are small steps, tactics, methods, and techniques to doing each that can very well make the process successful or not. The one way I most improve my life in anything that I undertake to do is this: READ.
If you are not reading regularly, then start. Education, and more importantly, self-education is the number one way to ensuring success or improvement in any area of your life. I have purchased and borrowed books, read blogs, looked at internet forums, and talked to people better than myself to improve in all 3 of these areas and that is how I continue to approach each one every day. I have always done this to some extent throughout my life, but I remember having an epiphany about it a while back. It came while (no surprise) I was reading!
I was reading Mark Cuban’s blog and he listed reading as possibly the biggest key to his success. He said that he thought that since every book and magazine out there was just sitting there for anyone to pick up that everyone would have all of this information and it would be worthless. But then he noticed that no one consumed the amount of information he did, and that he could compile it and come up with brilliant ideas for his business and his life. He said he still averages around 3 hours of reading time a day. I realized at that time I read a lot and that the more I read, the more valuable ideas I got. If I read AND implemented what I learned, then I got even more.
It really takes a lot of effort for some people to admit to themselves that they need to improve something in their life and sometimes twice as much to actually getting around to doing something about it. Taking the time and effort to actually get a book or do a Google search on a subject and read up on how you can improve is that first big step. If you really want to fix that nagging issue in your life, here are a few pointers:
1. Make a list of things that you are unhappy with or would like to improve. Identify which one irks you the most and make a conscious decision to get that area of your life handled and under control.
2. Begin your search: ask some friends who have conquered a similar problem, do an internet search, go to the bookstore, or drop in at the library. Find out the best book or books to read and get some information on how to improve yourself in that particular area. Buy or borrow.
3. Actually READ! Read all at once or a chapter a day, whichever you are comfortable with. If you get good ideas (which tends to happen when you’re reading), write them down and go over them at your leisure.
4. Develop a plan to implement. This could be a diet/workout regimen, a social calendar with missions to meet new people, or a plan to get a raise/start your own business.
5. Implement the plan and make observations. Experiment a little bit. Notice what works and what doesn’t and start phasing out what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to ask someone you trust for help if you need it. If you don’t have anyone, consider getting a mentor.
6. Continue to read and feed yourself good information and come up with ideas for what you are trying to accomplish. More knowledge can only give you new perspective on your quest.
So go out, pick up a good book, and take action to making things better for yourself. It’s your life and you only get one, so make it count!
An AMAZING free resource with MASSIVE VALUE
Eben Pagan aka David DeAngelo is giving away some EXTREMELY high quality videos at his new blog in promotion of his information publishing/marketing mentoring program. I have learned so much just from these videos that has helped me in my quest for knowledge in this business. If you are interested go watch them all at:
He has started taking applications for the program and I believe that its running through the end of this week. The year-long program is a bit pricey for anybody at roughly $10k for the platinum and $5k for the gold but this guy really has the goods and if I could afford I would take the program in a heartbeat. It’s definitely a program I want to be involved with in the future as I learn more and gain success in this business. Check it out. Even if you don’t use it for a business, the value you can gain from these videos is fantastic.
A good article I came across…
I was messing around on Rich Jerk’s site and came across an old blog entry of his..As much drivel as this guy writes, I actually thought this post was pretty inspirational. Check it out:
There’s No Excuse
In today’s world, THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR BEING A PATHETIC LOSER. I qualify a “loser” as anyone who complains about their life, their job, or their financial situation. In 1999, I was definitely a loser. I had a negative $500 balance in my bank account (before overdrafts were tied to savings accounts), and blamed the world for my situation. Then someone with a lot of money told me something I’ll never forget: “You are where you want to be.” I thought to myself, “What is this mumbo jumbo crap?” I wanted to be rich, and I sure as hell wasn’t. He explained further….He told me If I REALLY wanted to be rich, I’d be doing whatever it takes to make that happen, even if it meant working ten times harder. Since I wasn’t really doing anything to GET rich, I obviously didn’t want to BE rich. Instead I was just WISHING I was rich. When I finally realized that, I knew what I had to do. And 6 years later, I’m a filthy rich multi-millionaire. And that is an epidemic in this world. Everyone wants something for nothing. Its easy to say you want to be rich while you’re sitting on your couch like a fat f%$#ing slob. But what are you doing to MAKE IT HAPPEN? If you’re a loser, that’s obviously what you WANT to be. Otherwise you’d be doing whatever it takes to STOP being a loser. When people find out I made my fortune online, aside from being disgustingly jealous, they say “Can you make me a website that will make me millions?”. I want to SLAP these people, and occasionally I do. If I create a website that will make anyone millions, it’s going to be for myself. I don’t work for ANYONE. I’ll tell someone HOW to make a website that will make them millions of dollars, but I won’t do it for them. And that’s exactly what I do in my ebook. Are the strategies in my book the ONLY ways to make money online? Of course not. Are they the EXACT strategies that worked for me? Absolutely.
So what do you do if you want to make money online, but don’t know sh#* about how to do it? YOU LEARN IT. So what if you don’t know HTML or how to build a website….learn it, or find a way to work around it. Pay someone else to do it, buy a software that does it for you, use my book. Whatever it takes. Just do it.
Remember the guy I mentioned above? He told me something else I’ll never forget. He said “You want money? Go get some.” At the time, I told him that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. As if I could just go get money if I simply wanted to. Then I kept thinking about what he said. After all, there must’ve been thousands of people in my position who later went on to become millionaires. And how did they do it? I knew they didn’t just sit around and wait for it. These people obviously decided that they COULD succeed, and started doing everything they could to make it happen….reading books, taking classes, talking to other successful people….whatever it was, they did SOMETHING. And thats exactly what I did. I got on several internet forums and just read all night long, day after day, month after month, and saw that many people were making a very good living through affiliate programs and more. And their websites and sales methods seemed very mediocre. I didn’t know anything about websites or marketing, but I knew I could do better. I HAD to do better. One guy I noticed had a credit repair website, selling an ebook about how to remove bad credit. That was something I knew A LOT about, as I had terrible credit. I bought his ebook, studied it, and then wrote one 10 times better. I paid a web designer $200 to make my ebook and design my website. Then I put an ad on Google. It made me $20k my first month. The rest is history.
Its up to you. Keep being a doormat, or wake the f#%* up and do something with your miserable life. Be jealous. Hate me all you want. I made more money while you were reading this than you made last week.
My Rich Jerk ebook has 6 years of my blood, sweat and tears in it (I cried once, big deal). And I used the info in it to become a pompous millionaire, and that’s all I ever wanted to be. So I’VE EARNED THE RIGHT to cuss at, yell at, harass, or belittle anyone who visits my website.
I AM BETTER THAN YOU. The question is, are you going to do anything about that? I doubt it.
RJ
Reading this I can relate to his situation at the time and I know that it takes a lot to try to make money in this game. This guy has done quite well for himself though. You can find the original post here or to check out the Rich Jerk book see the link below.
Rich Jerk ebook
Rich Jerk’s guide to internet marketing is interesting to say the least. The guy is exactly what he says he is. Some of his techniques could be called questionable by many. But the point is, he lays it all out on the line and holds nothing back. He says he’s going to describe exactly what he does to make money online and that’s what he does, no holds barred. I’ve read other reviews saying that all of this information is available online for free, but I challenge that claim. It may be stunningly obvious to internet marketers that have been around and played the game for a while, but what about the green newbies like myself? This information is very useful and there is also a section geared towards beginners. The time I saved by buying the book was worth not having to look everywhere on the internet for answers and possibly not finding any. I’ve already followed many of the techniques and I am setting up to do even more with Rich Jerk’s system in the near future. Anybody who’s looking to have a career in internet marketing can definitely gain something from this. I wouldn’t describe it as a perfect beginner’s guide. It IS more geared to someone with a little bit more experience, but it also wasn’t beyond my understanding. I had no trouble grasping the concepts and seeing the potential of the various techniques. A book I also bought which is probably the perfect BEGINNER’s guide to internet marketing is Holly Mann’s Honest Riches. I also got a lot from Holly’s book and I will do a review on it in the near future. But I feel like Rich Jerk is a perfect companion to Honest Riches and the two are an awesome starter set for any aspiring internet marketing entrepreneur.
Clark
