These days, my work (which I love) fits around my life. Even as I type this I’m in a brand new city for the week and enjoying a new environment. If I had a boss to answer to, I would have begged for this time off and had to wait until next year to get the ‘time back’.

The reason I’m telling you this is because I’m working on a project to help all of you get to this same situation.

Around 4 months ago, as you may recall, I highlighted a case study I had created for my friends to help them make money online, just like I do. I wanted to mention it here as soon as it was finished, but I first needed to make sure that people were actually making money after following my steps. Additionally, I decided to wait for necessary feedback so that I could update the guide with answers to the common questions I received.

When people did start making money, I told you all about it.

Since announcing it here, the amount of support emails I have been getting would drive the average person insane. Thankfully, there’s no better feeling to me when someone says that they’re now making a healthy second income thanks to my guide. The only downside to some of the emails is that I keep receiving the same questions over and over (and over) again. I have been updating the guide to accommodate these, but most people have older versions and when they get stuck, I’m faced with another similar email.

Putting the case study aside for a second, I recently launched my Blogging Blueprint eBook which, as the name subtly suggests, is a guide to creating a successful blog. It has now been downloaded over 3,000 times and the response from you guys has been amazing. It’s great seeing all the new content that people are now able to put out on the web. I’ve even subscribed to some of the sites that have popped up thanks to the offering.

Yet, while both of these products are really helping people, I still feel like there is something missing.

Introducing Cloud Living…

“What Does ‘Cloud Living’ Mean?”

In all honesty, Cloud Living is just my fancy little way of saying ‘making money online’. Not just any amount of money though; I’m talking about more money than your current full-time income (that’s if you’re lucky enough to have a job in this economy).

The use of web services and computing online is often referred to as accessing ‘the cloud,’ and this term is what gave way to the name of this project. On that note, I also think that the term Cloud Living invokes images of freedom - the very thing you can achieve with this lifestyle.

After-all, anything is better than the images your mind creates when you hear about “making money online.” I can smell the snake oil already.

What Is It About?

I have been working on this project in part for months now, but only recently have I been putting the finishing touches on the release. I like to think of Cloud Living as an overall approach to making money, leaving the rat race, and being free. In my previous guides I have shared what I do but then just said “OK, goodbye, go do it.”

I don’t think this is the best approach.

Cloud Living is going to be an eBook and videos of everything I do to make money and basically include my philosophy behind this type of lifestyle. The methods to making money will not be different to what I have previously released, but this is going to be a more rounded version of what I offer. More specifically, it will include:

• An updated version of my case study based on all the feedback I have received
• A checklist guide for exactly what you need to do and the steps necessary
• Videos of the most advanced sections so you aren’t left confused
• A guide to product creation for both bloggers and minisite owners
• Time management tips and how I made thousands of dollars despite working 7 days per week in a normal job

Cloud Living is going to be the first ever premium (that means it costs money) product that I have released in almost a year of PluginID. Nobody will be under any obligation to buy anything and this site will continue to run as normal even if no one does.

In over 11 months since starting this site I have not asked anyone to purchase anything directly from me. I hope that shows my dedication to only putting out quality products that I think will genuinely help people.

Here’s Where you Come In

For those of you who are keen for a product like this, I have just two questions I would love answers to in the comments below:

• What would this guide need to contain to make it a worthy purchase for you
• What is it about previous guides (if you’ve read any) that you feel they lack in

Right now, the product is about 10 days away (solid, working all day, days) from completion but I will happily put that date back, if necessary, based on your responses here. I want to make sure this product really does dramatically help to change the life of anyone who purchases and takes action. If it doesn’t, then I have failed in my aim.

Who wants to join me in the Cloud Living revolution?

In the average person, our actions are a mix of both expression and impression. Expression simply being sharing your true feelings with the world and doing things for you. Impression being changing yourself and what you do in order to get other people to like you or think highly of you in some regard.

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For the first 18 years of my life, I was definitely stuck in impression mode. I would always react to the crowd and follow the trends whether it was music, fashion or hobbies. Quite simply, I rarely expressed what I wanted to do or be; I was always being someone I hoped other people would like or think more of.

When I was 17 I was featured on an Official Google Blog and referred to as ‘Dave Chambers’. This was the alias (which is completely random) I had given myself so that my friends and family couldn’t find out what I was up to online. I wasn’t doing anything dodgy; I simply didn’t want to face the potential judgements for following my passions.

Thankfully, I have moved far away from this mode. I wouldn’t say I’m completely ‘out of it,’ but I can’t even see the borders. Instead, I now spend my days expressing myself as much as possible. Some current examples of my expression include:

• Wearing the top of a sock on my wrist most days, just because I like the way it looks
• Putting my writing on-the-line on a daily basis with a website that has a picture of me and includes my full name
• Previously being obsessed with having the latest phone, and now owning one that features nothing more than a colour screen
• Only owning one item of clothing with a label, and that’s my trainers. This is not because I’m against big brands, it’s just that I don’t need the tag to feel valuable
• Joining a public speaking club not only to conquer my fears, but to share my message with another audience
• Having walked up to hundreds of women - completely sober - and said things like “Your hair is f*cking amazing” (this girl turned out to be quite famous and got me VIP in the club) or “I just came to say ‘Hi’ because you look adorable” or whatever I feel at the time. Not canned lines, just an expression of my thoughts out loud

In the last two years I have turned my life around 180 degrees and now I’m an expresser, not an impresser. And you know what; life becomes so much easier when this is the case. Life just begins to…flow. Before I get into that, I want to cover some examples of being someone who is simply self expressing rather than trying to impress.

Examples of Impression vs Expression

For those of you who are still unsure what I’m talking about or just want more clarity on the subject, the following examples (with their expression / impression counterparts) should help clear things up.

Always Buying the Latest Gadgets

Impression: Doing this because you want to be known as either rich or an early adopter. It may even be the case that you just want to have something that other people don’t.

Expression: Buying gadgets because they help you to do what you do more effectively. Buying them could even be that you just…want them (Key: whether people know you have them or not).

Chatting Up a Guy / Girl in a Bar

Impression: Doing it in order to validate your level of attractiveness or social skills. Also doing it just to show your friends your ‘abilities’ in this department.

Expression: Having a genuine interest in the guy or girl and simply showing how you feel by introducing yourself to them.

Choosing a Career / Income Path

Impression: Choosing to work in an industry where your parents want you to work or one which society deems as valuable. Pushing yourself down a road because there’s a lot of income potential.

Expression: Doing not only something you love, but something that you feel you can provide real value to people with. Something that allows you to really put yourself into your work, whatever it may be, and make a difference.

Expression As a Way of Making Money

By now you should have a clear grasp of what I mean when I speak about expression and impression. In this section we’re going to look at the angle of expressing yourself as a way to lead you to financial abundance.

In a recent post, I highlighted a concept I had put together about your followers filtering themselves. I said:

My philosophy is quite simple: keep doing what you’re doing, and people will happily filter themselves. If you stick to your values and certain friends don’t like that, they will naturally drift out of your life while you naturally attract other people. If you regularly write long blog posts then people who prefer short ones will naturally drift away while those who like more content will be drawn towards you.

Don’t always feel like you have to give yourself or your projects a label. Just keep doing whatever aligns with your beliefs and values, and the rest will handle itself.

Although you may like the sound of this idea, it’s not always good for business. For instance, as you know, I write much longer articles than most bloggers. This isn’t because I want to stand out or even imitate other people who use this method successfully, it’s simply because I feel it is the best way to get my message across. I would rather write one brilliant post that people can learn a lot from than 20 short ones with snippets of value here and there.

One thing you have to take into consideration is that I want to build this brand into a business. I make a substantial income from my other online activities, but it is PluginID which aligns more with my life purpose and it is something I would like to see succeed. If there was nobody interested in the way I express myself (long articles), then I would have no business. Fact.

Just because you feel like you’re being true to yourself and following your own values, it still doesn’t mean that people care about what you have to offer. In order to make money via self expression, you need to share your value in a way that people want it. I don’t believe that everyone just has one way of doing this. For example, if writing doesn’t work out for me, I could turn to public speaking, creating videos, or even making software for people in order to get my value out there.

Each is a very different format, but it is still a way for me to express myself and create value at the same time.

Examples of True Expression for Income

Although I like to mix my personal stories in with each post, it’s often a good idea to look at other people who are practicing what I preach.

• Gary Vaynerchuk - Gary and his family owned a wine business which was fairly successful in his local area. Due to his huge passion for wine, he started making videos reviewing all of the varieties out there. If you watch Gary, you will notice he is just so enthusiastic and so passionate about what he does and this really comes across. After a few years of going down this route, his wine company is a national leader and he has landed a 10-book publishing deal worth 7 figures.
• Chris Guillebeau - Chris’ story certainly lives up to the name of his site, The Art of Nonconformity. He has been self-employed all of his life, generating his income online. He is passionate about travel and is currently attempting to visit all 197 countries in the world (right now he’s visited over 110). His blog has become a rapid success and, in less than a year, is already making him a full-time income.
• Seth Godin - Anybody who authors a book puts themselves on the line for criticism. Even with the best-sellers at Amazon you can some negative reviews of them out there. I could have mentioned any author here, but Seth is one that I feel stretches the boundaries and does what he does in a way like no other. He really puts himself out there through his blog and book titles like “All Marketers are Liars” but offers insane value, and succeeds for doing so.
• Sean Platt - Sean may not be as well known as the above, but it does not mean he isn’t earning through self expression. He is one of the most talented writers I have ever come across in my life and I will be very surprised (and disappointed) if he does not write a best-selling novel in his lifetime. After years of failing to express his writing ability, he started a blog and writing business and has gained a strong and loyal audience for doing so.

All of these men have managed to express themselves in a way that is congruent with who they are and make money for doing so. Sure, their incomes probably vary a lot, but that is not the point. The point is that it is possible to make money through expression - just make sure your expressing something that people want.

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The Choice is Yours

It is completely up to you whether you want to lead a life of expression or impression. Leading a life of impression could also be phrased as living a life of reactivity. You constantly have to adjust what you do in every situation to try and keep other people happy and make sure they hold an image of you in their head that appeals to your ego. You have to remember who you are, to which person, and keep up with this image.

It’s tiring. If you want to live reactively then go ahead; although we both know there is a better way.

There is a popular quote by David Allen which goes “You can do anything, but not everything.” We can also tweak this quote around so that it applies to the current topic: “You can please anyone, but not everyone.” No matter what you do or how many people you have helped, there will be someone out there who is ready to put you down.

This is quite a sad realisation, but it doesn’t mean you have to let it affect you. Right now, I’m choosing the route of expression. I’m following my internal compass and expressing my internal state into the outside world. In a way, this makes life easier. On the other hand, it can also be difficult.

If you’re so used to holding back and keeping to yourself, it can be hard to turn that around and start expressing your value and doing what you want to do. In my own case, the process was gradual and it involved climbing many small steps to get where I wanted to be. This is not something that will happen overnight, but if you let it - it will happen.

Ultimately, I like to look at the idea of ‘expression not impression,’ as following your own path. Expression in this case is not about doing crazy things you wouldn’t otherwise do; it’s doing the things you want to do. Things that someone stuck in impression mode would not do because they’re worried about the reaction.

True self expression has made my life so much easier and so much more enjoyable. There will always be people that want to hate or hold you back this way, but there will also be people like that when you try to impress others as well. Luckily, the problem is with them, and nothing to do with you.

I will constantly try my best to lead by example - but more importantly - I want to lead the creation of more leaders.

The choice is yours…

It’s nice to see that I already have enough money for the trip, so now I’m working towards other expenses like purchasing a Macbook and my planned trips to India and Argentina. As you would expect, just thinking about the future is making me ridiculously excited (people say that, honest) and this excitement is actually the inspiration for this post.

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There is no ‘problem’ as such in getting excited about the future, but it is a bit like playing a broken record. We’re always getting excited about the future. We’re always looking for that quick fix to make us happy. I’m writing this on a Saturday night (I have lots of work to do) and I’m already thinking about spending time with my family tomorrow when we go out for Father’s day.

Just think about all the quick-fixes for happiness or entertainment we have in our lives that we wait for. This is just a short list but there are many more things that we commonly look forward to:

• Sex / Porn
• Holidays
• Meeting Friends
• Fridays
• Weddings
• Births (I’m going to be an Uncle soon)

There is nothing wrong with any of these, and nothing wrong with the nature of looking forward to things. I’m sure you all agree that it’s nice to know enjoyable events are coming up in our schedule. The thing is, once this event we’ve been looking forward to is upon us, we’re already on the lookout for the next one; the next high.

• Once the baby is born, we look forward to the Christening or Birthdays
• Once it’s Friday we can’t wait until Saturday to hit the beach
• Once we’re out with friends we’re excited about putting our photos on Facebook

If you look closely at your current life situation, you’ll probably be able to relate to the points above. If you’re ‘lucky,’ it’s also likely that you have some awesome event that just can’t come soon enough. Chances are though - just like the examples above - once it has arrived, your attention won’t be there to enjoy it.

I don’t think anybody could say this better than Zen Buddhist, Thich Nhat Hanh:

In the United States, I have a close friend named Jim Forest.  When I first met him eight years ago, he was working with the Catholic Peace Fellowship.  Last winter, Jim came to visit.  I usually wash the dishes after we’ve finished the evening meal, before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else.  One night, Jim asked if he might do the dishes.  I said, “Go ahead, but if you wash the dishes you must know the way to wash them.” Jim replied, “Come on, you think I don’t know how to wash the dishes?” I answered, “There are two ways to wash the dishes.  The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.”  Jim was delighted and said, “I choose the second way–to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.”  From then on, Jim knew how to wash the dishes.  I transferred the “responsibility” to him for an entire week.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to  wash the dishes.”  What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either.  While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands.  Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

This Moment

This moment, right here, right now, wherever you are, is all that matters. This is it. I was reading ‘My Booky Wook’ recently which is the autobiography of British comedian, Russell Brand. In it he refers to the speeches that people tend to make when they receive an Oscar, Emmy, MOBO and so on. He points out that most people, when accepting awards, say things like “This means so much so me. My whole life has been leading up to this moment.”

Being the honest, no-nonsense comedian that he is, Russell points out that our whole lives have been leading up to every moment. Think about that: every single thing you’ve gone through in life, every high, every low and everything in between…it has led you to this moment. Everything that has happened in your life has led to this point.

I have already written an article about being present and living in the moment so I won’t go into that here. I do have a short story for you all though.

My Experience

There was a period of a few weeks around 3 months ago where I was trying to be in the moment as often as possible. Whether I was walking down the stairs, talking to a friend, writing a blog post or anything else, I would try to be fully present in that situation and not think about the past or the future.

There was one incident I will never forget, and that was while I was cleaning up in the kitchen (exciting, I know). I use my blender every single day, and while I was on this “being present binge,” really focused on cleaning it properly without thinking of somewhere else I could be or something else I could be doing.

It’s very hard to explain what I saw that day, but there was something about the water coming out of the tap that was just so…magical.

I’m sure this sounds very corny and surreal (or like I’m on drugs) but it was as if the water was alive. It ran so slowly, it glistened so brightly and even if just for a second - I thought it was a part of me. If I died today, there would be no doubt in my mind about marking that down as the most beautiful moment of my life.

If you can see that most of your life is spent reminiscing the past or awaiting the future, it’s not too late to change. I’m not going to end this post with an outline or action points of what you should do next. The message of this post is a lot less about doing and much more about being.

Instead, I want to end with a question that reiterates the title of this article: how much of life are you actually living?

If you’re like most people, the answer can probably be given with two words:- Not enough.

A common misconception people have about those who write on the subject of Personal Development is that their lives must be perfect. They must wake up at 6am, exercise daily, eat a balanced diet, remain positive in all situations and never judge people. That may be the case for some, but definitely not me.

I do have some habits I’m proud of, like trying to offer value on a daily basis, regularly going to the gym and attempting to make the most of life, but I’m far from perfect. And, right now, I actually have a fear that I can’t seem to shake. I’m afraid of looking back on life when I’m older and seeing nothing but reactivity and missed opportunities.

I’m afraid of lying on my death bed knowing full-well I didn’t make the most of this chance. This could be not letting people know how much I care about them, or simply taking the ‘easy’ route at every turn because I’m not willing to put the effort in.

I have been thinking about this fear for a while and wondering how I can eliminate it or make it go away. Luckily, I have realised this fear while I have the chance to change things around. If you’re in a similar situation, this applies to you as well.

The only thing I have found to rid myself of this worry, is to act in alignment with my core values and standards at all times. To give and do the best I can in every situation. That’s all any of us can do, right?

Sticking to Your Values

Throughout life you will probably come across a lot of conflicting advice. Your friends tell you to get out and have fun while your parents tell you to study in order to improve your grades. Then, as you grow older, you probably hear ideas about getting a steady job and raising a family while others preach the benefits of being your own boss and ‘going against the grain.’

With all this differentiating advice out there, it can be hard to know where to turn. My only recommendation in this instance is to rely on your instincts and stick to your own values at all times.

Personal Examples

My free eBook on blogging, which I launched last week, was ready for quite a while before I realised it. Instead of just rushing it out there, I took time to get feedback from those who were willing to help so that I could improve the offering.  Basically, I stuck to my core values of putting high quality information out there and not just any old rubbish.

Around a similar time, I was mentioned as one of the ‘top 10 productivity blogs‘ (which I really appreciate) by a blogger I respect. I received quite a lot of new subscribers for this, the only issue being that I rarely write about productivity. It is probably the least used category on this blog (besides health). At first I thought “Uh oh, now I’ll have to do more productivity posts or those guys will stop reading,” but, sticking to my values, that is not what I’ll do.

If writing a post on productivity is on my mind then I will write it. Otherwise, I’ll publish content that is on a similar theme to what I usually release. It would be very reactive if I were to change what I was writing just to keep a select group of people happy.

Steve Pavlina was one of the main reasons I started this site and is a big inspiration of mine when it comes to offering value. Based on this, it came as a nice surprise when a few people left comments saying “I used to read Steve Pavlina but he’s going downhill, I read your site now instead.”

After reading these comments - similar to the productivity ‘incident’ - I had thoughts along the lines of “Now I really have to up my game because people are expecting Steve Pavlina quality.” In reality, I shouldn’t change a thing. All I can control is whether I’m happy with what I put out to the world, not whether people like it.

3 Things I Want to Share

Quite simply, the message of this post is about living up to your own standards and disregarding your fears of whether you live up to those of others. If you disagree with that and think you should live to make your parents, friends or some ‘God’ happy then let’s just say that we have very different views.

I wanted to share three more examples of this idea which I feel really help to drive this point home.

1. Doing What You Want To Do (Video)

Myself and Alex often did what we wanted to do and one particular night in his favourite nightclub, Stones, was no exception. We entered the club which was fairly busy and had great music playing, but not one single person was dancing. We wanted to dance, so that’s exactly what we did.

Guys laughed and sneered, girls looked taken aback.

Yet, within 2 minutes, the dance floor was packed. People surrounded us and high fived us like they would receive money for doing so. Every guy wanted to be us and every girl wanted to be with us (yes, I know this sounds like a corny line from a movie, but it’s true).

The following video is a fairly good representation of that night. I’m not stupid; I’m pretty sure the following example involves drug use. Despite that, I still feel it is a great example of those who do / go for what they want and those who are only ready to follow when they don’t feel like they’ll be judged.

If you’re viewing this post in an RSS reader or in your Inbox, click through to watch this video (you owe it to yourself)!

2. Keeping the Guy in the Glass Happy

I have a feeling the following passage is quite well known but I only came upon it recently. I read about it in Steve Pavlina’s book and then it was also posted on Facebook by my friend Diggy. Everyone ought to read this as it not only sums out the main message in this blog post, but it will give you valuable ideas to consider.

This was written by Dale Wimbrow in 1934:

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

3. Your Followers Will Filter Themselves

A blog I enjoy reading, The Big Dreamer, wrote an interesting post recently. The post covered how the owner of the site, Mark, had never really defined who his ideal blog reader was, so he changed his headline to reflect that.

Mark mentioned a common idea that many people tend to follow:

I know this is a stupid mistake because it is only common sense to carefully define your target audience (the right people) if you’re trying to build a following. OK, I’ve come to my senses now.

No disrespect to him at all, but I disagree with this idea. When you are doing market research you need to define your audience but apart from that, your audience will define you themselves. The idea he mentioned is used by the creators of newspapers, magazines, blogs and in far more examples than I could possible cover. It’s even an idea we use in relationships; we try to define ourselves to keep certain people happy in our lives.

My philosophy is quite simple: keep doing what you’re doing, and people will happily filter themselves. If you stick to your values and certain friends don’t like that, they will naturally drift out of your life while you naturally attract other people. If you regularly write long blog posts then people who prefer short ones will naturally drift away while those who like more content will be drawn towards you.

Don’t always feel like you have to give yourself or your projects a label. Just keep doing whatever aligns with your beliefs and values, and the rest will handle itself.

I know this post was a bit of a monster, but I really, really enjoyed writing it and therefore, that is why it is a monster. I write a lot less regularly than most sites, but I always try to pack my content with real value. Quite simply, I’m trying to stick to my own values and not letting society or other influences sway my ideas. This is a concept that, from now on, I will attempt to follow throughout my life.

On that note, I would love to hear what you think about this post in the comments!

For the last few weeks I have been working hard on a blogging eBook which, I’m very happy to announce, is now available to download. This isn’t your typical blogging guide, it includes solid advice but also has quite a few personal stories amidst its 69 pages of free content.

To top it all off, I don’t even want your email in order to send you a copy. In fact, for those of you who can’t wait to give it a look, you can click here to get your free copy right now (opens as a PDF).

Click Here To Download Your Free Copy (Opens as PDF)

The Idea Behind the Project

I get a lot of emails from my friends and readers about blogging. People want to know which plugins I recommend, how I grew this site so quickly or how much money I make and that kind of thing. I do my best to respond to every email I get, but answering questions on a topic that I don’t even write about is quite time consuming. Therefore, I decided it would be a good idea to put all my answers in one place.

I wouldn’t say that PluginID has experienced some insane growth, but the site doesn’t turn one year old until the end of next month and I’m quite pleased with the current situation. I decided to put together this eBook for two types of people. If you already blog, then there are tips to increase your traffic through quality content, through search, and through social media. If you’ve never built a blog but are interested in starting one, you’ll also learn everything you need to know.

Quite simply, this eBook has been put together to fill a need I thought was sorely desired on the web.

The Three Sections

The eBook is split into three parts, each one is quite different to the next and they all offer great value. They are:

Part One: My Story - As the name suggests, this section of the eBook gives you my background into blogging. I like to think it isn’t all boring and soppy and actually includes some great lessons. More specifically, it covers:

• The story of how my blogging adventures started
• How I made over $20,000 in 4 months from one blog
• Why I quit college and how it paid off for me
• How blogging enabled me to land my dream job

Part Two: Your Story - This section takes the attention away from me and puts it right on you. If you already run a blog and want to know how to increase traffic, this section is perfect. Perhaps most importantly though, if you have never run a blog and want the exact steps to know how, you’ll find everything here (with lots of screenshots).

I really haven’t held back in this section. I want everyone who has had an interest in starting a blog or already run one to be able to follow this guide and turn your desire for a successful blog into reality.

Part Three: My Secrets - As you will see I’ve written, it was important for me to ensure that this wasn’t just another blogging eBook. While I don’t think there are any out there with this kind of information completely free, I still wanted to be that signal which cuts through all the noise.

Including in this section is:

• How I rank on the first page of Google for ‘Personal Development’
• Why my site will keep growing, even when I stop blogging
• How I focus my energy more effectively on increasing subscribers

If you like the sound of the eBook, then click the link below to get your free copy.

Click Here To Download Your Free Copy (Opens as PDF)

Already Blog? Here’s Another Freebie

If you already run a blog (or start one very soon thanks to this guide) then I have another bonus available, completely free. All you have to do is download a copy of the eBook and post a review about it on your own blog. The only requirement is that you must link back to this post so your readers can pick up a copy if they wish.

In return, I will include a backlink to your site from my other blog which has a Google PR of 4 and over 2,000 feed subscribers. Not a bad deal, eh? Depending on how many people do this, you may be one of only a few links and receive quite a nice influx of traffic. To qualify, simply write your blog post and then email me the link when it is live.

Special Thanks

I have put a ton of work into ensuring this guide would offer real, practical value, but I knew it wouldn’t be perfect. Therefore, I enlisted the help of some beta testers who received an early copy in return for giving me some advice on how I could improve the offering.

On that note, I want to say thanks to Haider, Victoria, Carla, Ivan, Tony, Armen, Dan, Al and Carla M (link?)

Thanks also go out to all 3,150 of you or so who I wanted to write this eBook for. I really hope that you all enjoy it. I would love to hear what you think of the guide in the comments!

Since finishing the challenge, I’ve really “upped my game” and my productivity is still through the roof. Due to the success I have experienced in this area, I’ve streamlined my operations and brought together all my positive, productive ideas, for maximum results.

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In this post I want to get quite personal and share with you all the positive habits and ideas that I have implemented into my life in order to get more done. They aren’t as drastic as completely eliminating all time-wasters from your life, but they have been highly effective and I am loving the consequences.

My only request is that you don’t view the following ideas as some chore or forced action. Instead, adopt a fresh perspective, and even see if any of these might work well in your own schedule. Not only have the following ideas helped me to become much more productive, they’ve helped me enjoy what I do so much more as well.

The Five Ideas

The following items can each be used independently to bring about positive change, but to take things to the next level I am currently using them all at once. I certainly don’t think this is overkill and I actually view each idea as important and as helpful as the next.

1. Do the Hardest Task First

It was thanks to the book Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina that I realised I tend to try and ease myself into the day. What I mean is that I would check my emails, monitor my income statistics, check website stats, and then force myself to get onto the important items on my to do list.

I now see that I was using the first few tasks in my day as a cushion in order to protect myself from the real work that I had to do. When this is the case, we spend much longer than necessary on the simpler, more enjoyable tasks because we know the thing we’re putting off is just around the corner.

Now, the first thing I do when I wake up is work on the task I know I don’t want to do or at least the task that is the most important. It is a real struggle but as soon as I get moving then things start to flow nicely.

I much prefer having a day that starts with a small hurdle and continues to get easier, rather than a day I know is going to get progressively more demanding.

2. Process Email Once Per Day

Because my whole business revolves around the internet, spending time sending and responding to emails is a large part of my day. That being said, I know I was giving far more attention to this aspect of my routine than it deserves. It wouldn’t be rare for me to check my email at least 10 times in a day.

For over a week now, I have been processing email just once per day, and this has helped me dramatically. I have came to realise that the reason I would check email so compulsively is because I was using it to procrastinate before I would get onto the next task. I was using email as a way to feel busy, just for the sake of being busy.

This surprised me when I really thought about it, but I have never had an email yet that would have urgently required me to respond. Therefore if an email comes in just after my daily check, it’s fine if I just respond to it the next day.

3. Adopt a Numbers Based Schedule

A numbers based schedule (shown on the image below) is something that I only adopted at the beginning of this month, but already seeing great results with. Although this may seem slightly robotic, I like to plan as many aspects of my day as possible. In my ideal world I would just have a daily checklist of things to do without thought, then cross them off and, in time, enjoy my rewards.

In my line of work I’m required to be creative, and constantly try new things, so sadly the above ideal is not an option. Instead, I have tried to schedule myself a daily task system simply based on numbers. At the top of a sheet of paper on my wall, I have 30 boxes which each represent a day. Every box has a series of numbers in it, so for example the first day on the sheet which is Monday, June 1st, I have the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 written inside the box.

Below these boxes, I have a key to signify what each item means. The numbers 1 and 2 refer to a protein shake I take, 4 refers to the gym, 7 refers to my motivation document (the next point) and so on. Certain items only appear a few times a week, such as the Gym (4) only shows on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The basic premise is this: if I can cross of all items on that list on a daily basis, I will get a lot closer to achieving my goals. This keeps me as efficient as possible, and I stay motivated by aiming to cross off all the numbers at the end of each day.

This is the desk where I spend most of my day. You can see my poor DIY skills with the extra bit of “floating wood” I added on the right to give me some more room.

4. Read My Goals and Get Emotional

When I started my own 21 day challenge which involved visualisation, I set about trying to improve parts of my self image (which has been proven to dictate our behaviours and actions). The original idea was taken from the book, Psycho Cybernetics, which was written by Maxwell Maltz and has sold over 40 million copies to date.

One thing I added to the challenge that wasn’t part of the book was to make it clear to myself that I’m going to die one day.

Although that sounds quite negative, it actually had a very positive impact on my life. Whenever I was stressing over the smallest things, or worried about how an event might work out, I would instantly remember - “I am going to die.” Subsequent thoughts concluded that life is too short to worry about irrelevant situations, and sure enough, my anxiety disappeared and I stopped worrying.

I believe that because I bombarded myself with the fact that I’m going to die every day for three weeks, my mind would remind me of it whenever it seemed relevant. Therefore, I decided to use this same principle in order to help me stay focused on my goals.

I created a new document in Penzu (which I recently discovered, and is amazing) which listed 4 items relating to each of my three goal areas: health, wealth and PluginID.

Each morning I take a few minutes to go over all of the items on my list, and I get emotional about them. I don’t mean that I sit there and cry my eyes out, no. Instead, I imagine how amazing life would be if I can achieve these goals, I link achieving them to very positive emotions. This basically tells my brain this is what I want to focus on.

As I hoped, I am constantly being reminded of my goals and I’m also being flooded with new ideas on how I can accomplish them. This happens because our sub conscious constantly processes the things we focus on - so if I give a clear input, I end up with lots of solutions I can output.

5. Have Visible Affirmations

Being completely honest, I have never been one to believe in affirmations and in fact, I’m not even sure if this idea uses affirmations in the way they are usually defined. As you can see on the picture above, I have printed out 2 pieces of paper with 4 things items written on them in large font.

They are:

• I make $15,000 per month
• I work hard and provide value
• I work on one task at a time
• I make the most of this opportunity

I know that this is working very well for me because whenever I want to stop a task half-way through and move onto something else (like writing a blog post) then I’m instantly reminded that I should only work on one task at a time.

The reason I have a monetary value in there is because I want to get it into my head that this is the type of income I can generate on a monthly basis. This is a huge step up from what I have been able to earn even just a few months ago, but I’m hovering around this figure now and I want to keep it as a constant goal.

I stumbled upon this idea thanks to a video which involved a video tour of Steve Pavlina’s house and I’m definitely seeing the benefits. This is basically very similar to the last point in that it helps keep these things running over in your mind and it’s also nice to have them in front of me at all times when I’m sitting at my laptop.

There we have it, five ideas that I currently implement into my life to help me get things done and most of all, enjoy what I do. I don’t see this as putting constraints on myself or making my routine robotic, I actually enjoy pushing myself and revel in the accomplishments for doing so.

If you have your own productivity habits or ideas, I would love to hear them in the comments.

I took drastic action and was very critical about the areas of life that waste my time. I cut things out of my schedule that are very habitual and things that sometimes feel like a necessity. The challenge is now over and today I’m sharing the results - if any of you joined me on the day I posted about it, you should also be finished your challenge by now.

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The reason I decided to set myself this pure self-discipline challenge is because I realise that I have been slipping in areas of my life. My business and finances are going well but if I’m being totally honest, things could be going a lot better.

A lot has been going on around me recently and quite a few events have really forced me to put life into perspective. Because of this, I want to start taking responsibility for my actions and more specifically, the results. In essence, I don’t want to take my opportunity on earth for granted, and it is only me who can make sure that doesn’t happen.

The challenge was something I decided to do in order to push my limits and definitely think it has been a success. Before I share my overall thoughts and what I’ve realised thanks to it, I want to look at each area I have worked on and how I think I handled the discipline.

Individual Commentary

I eliminated five main things from my life. Some things were a lot harder to remove from my schedule than others, but they each tempted me to slip up during the 7 days. Here is what I stopped and how their absence during my week-long challenge affected me (in the order I originally wrote them).

No Twitter, Facebook or Instant Messaging

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had to use MSN Messenger every single day to talk to the freelancers I hire in order to track the progress of the projects they were working on. Once their jobs were completed however, I had no need for MSN, yet I would still be using it to chat to friends and ex-colleagues fairly often.

The same goes for Twitter and Facebook. They don’t really have a need or purpose in my life right now but I use them regularly. This won’t make sense for people who don’t use either site but whenever something cool happened in my life (everyday, obviously ;) ) I would instantly think of Tweeting it or updating my status on Facebook.

I honestly think this a bit pathetic and it is certainly not how I want to live my life. As far as cutting these things out goes, I strangely had no problems eliminating them from my daily life. I definitely won’t return to them as often as before. My only concern with this is that some people sent me multiple messages on Facebook because they thought I was ignoring them.

No TV

I spent over a year in South Africa and in that time I watched less than 30 minutes of Television. I also watch no more than an hour of TV per day in the UK, despite the fact that I’m working from home, so I didn’t think this area would pose any problems.

I was so serious about this challenge that I said no to going to the pub and watching my football team (Newcastle United) play their last game of the season. It worked out as a small blessing in disguise - my team lost and they ended up being relegated.

I “slipped up” once on the last day of the challenge because I wanted to watch the finals of Britain’s Got Talent which is a very popular TV show over here. Besides that one incident I managed to stick to this successfully and again, didn’t find it too difficult.

No Waking Up Late or Staying Out Until 2-3 am

The staying out late part of this caused me a bit of a problem. On Friday I went out with my friends to Town for most of the day and then hit up a few nightclubs. In order to really push myself, I ended up leaving them at 12 and took a taxi home. Of course, I just told them I was tired and not on a self-discipline challenge.

I think the latest I woke up was 10:30am and the earliest about 6am. My average was about 9am which is fairly good seeing as I can set my own hours. This part of the challenge also made my days feel much longer and helped me to get a lot more done.

No Sex or Anything Related

This was not as bad as I thought it would be, but definitely the item I found giving me the most temptations. I don’t want to be stereotypical but I also think it is much harder for me as a 20 year old male than any other age or gender combination.

I didn’t tell my female “friends” (I don’t do girlfriends, long story) about this and literally just cut off all communication. I knew if I was in touch with them this would be almost impossible so I disappeared off the radar for a week.

If I was going to fail on any item of my challenge then this definitely would have been it. I did manage to pass this as well and I’m going to spend the next 7 days making up for it.

No Email or Website Stats Checking

I run an internet based business so these are fairly important to my success. That being said, I knew that I could go a week without checking my email and things would not crumble in my absence. On the first day of the challenge, I turned on my PC and just caught myself about to open up my inboxes (I have five) but managed to stop. This was not deliberate and purely habitual.

After that, I decided to remove most of my bookmarks so that I couldn’t accidentally slip-up and ruin my challenge (which, if you can’t tell already, I took very seriously). I didn’t find it difficult not to check my website stats which is quite strange as I usually check them multiple times per day using real-time analytics.

OVERALL

In all honesty, this was a lot easier than I thought it would be. As I expected, the last few days were much harder than the first two or three, probably because my motivation was dying down and I knew the end was in sight.

One of the realisations I am going to share below did help to make this a lot easier. What I’m really happy about is the fact that I have completed more work in these last 7 days than I have in the last 3 weeks. I have finished a new eBook for another audience, written about 10 blog posts, set-up two new websites and finished some tasks that I have been putting off.

It’s great to see how much you can get done when you really put your mind to something.

Two Realisations

When I stated what I hope to get out of this self-discipline challenge, there were three items on my list. The first was that I want to test myself and push my own limits. The second was that I wanted to dedicate more time to productive activities and the third was simply curiosity as to how I would react after the challenge and what I would learn.

I definitely succeeded in the first two items on my list, I pushed myself hard and I had a very productive week. As far as my reaction goes, I think I need a bit more time to see if I slip into old habits. I am happy to say that this challenge led me to two excellent realisations that I would probably never have had otherwise.

They are…

1. It’s Only Hard When You’re Free

I noticed that every time I wanted to check my email, call my friends or do something related to another item on my list, I was free. What I mean by that is that I had nothing else going on, nothing else was taking up my attention.

It was only when I let my mind wander and wonder “what now?” that it was so easy to procrastinate and want to break my own rules. My solution for this was, quite simply, to keep myself busy. When I start writing I literally get so absorbed in it that I forget about anything else and minutes can quickly turn into hours. When I’m writing a blog post I don’t care about the TV, my emails or anything else; I just focus on what I’m doing.

This immersion that I experienced is also one of the reasons that we love TV and Sex so much. We get so absorbed by them and stay so focused in the moment that everything else just fades away. If you can keep yourself busy, with anything, then the likeliness to slip up decreases and you’ll find that procrastination disappears naturally.

2. Focus on the Tasks’ End Result, Not Something Else

When you’re looking to improve your self image using visualization, it’s good to focus on the end result and let your brain worry about the rest. As far as motivation goes, I’ve also realised that focusing on the end result can really spur you into action.

A few weeks ago, when I noticed my productivity was slipping, I created a video for myself. The idea of the video was for it to show all the things I could enjoy after the months of hard work I have in store before I start travelling. It had pictures of my friends, my family, and my dream car which transitioned into each other while the song “High” by the Lighthouse family played in the background.

I watched this video every single day for weeks. It didn’t help, nothing changed.

I used the free time I had gained from waking up earlier in this 7 day challenge to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. His writing made me realise that everything I have achieved in my life has been because I had a real desire to do so. And, all of the things I’ve quit shortly after starting, didn’t really matter to me that much.

Therefore, I looked at how I could build this burning desire for the projects I’m working on and, although I rarely recommend it, I appealed to my ego. I created a video about the things I was working on and where I want them to go, rather than my life without them in it.

The result? I no longer see procrastination as something I need to work on avoiding. Instead I have a strong focus to make my projects successful and useful. It is this desire I have built to succeed with them which makes me want to spend time on them. Once this was the case, procrastination just seemed to disappear on its own.

I can see that this idea is going to help me massively throughout life.

All in all, this has been a massively successful challenge for me and one I won’t hesitate to do again if I feel it is necessary. I would love to hear from all of you who have followed along on how it went or is going for you. If you are interested in trying it out, make sure you check the original post.

What I’m going to share with you today is a guide that my best (real life) friends have used to add hundreds of dollars per month to their income. Online strangers have used this guide to feed their families and anyone who follows it can apply the steps to help them leave the rat race.

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My Quick, Personal Story

I have been looking for ways to make money for as long as I can remember. For some reason, probably the child in me, I have always had this feeling that I will become a millionaire (not that this really matters to me). I remember building my first website when I was 15 about computer tips; I added a link to Paypal so that people could pay me and the idea was that I would give them access to my other articles.

I sat back and waited to get rich. I told all my friends and family that I would never need a job because I had found my income solution. Of course, nothing happened. Nobody came to the site and even if they did, the awful design would have probably turned them away.

Over the next 4 years I honed my skills, I got my name out there and I (or should I say, my website) was featured in the book DJ’ing for Dummies. I was also featured on 9 of the top 100 blogs in the world according to Technorati; all of this happening before I even had the idea to build PluginID.

In those 4 years I built so many disastrous websites that it would be nothing short of embarrassing to go back over my list and see what I created. Yet, through trial and a lot of error, I was able to quit my day job in January of this year.

The job that I quit, by the way, was a dream job for me. A job that I had quit college for and moved across the world for. Still, no matter how amazing a job may seem, I still don’t think anything can beat being your own boss.

How Did I Do It?

In order to land my dream job, I have already shared the principles that took me from an average Joe to an expert in my industry. Quitting my job to work for myself is something completely different though. It would be obvious for me to share principles such as “work hard”, “stay positive” and “don’t give up” but that still doesn’t help you achieve a boss-free life. You need to be motivated and you need to know what you’re going to do to provide you with an income.

There is just one thing that I can credit my success in this area: having a burning desire to leave the rat race.

That’s it. I had a strong passion to work for myself, to work my own hours and be in an industry where there are an abundance of people my age and even younger making 5 figures every single month. If you can get this drive to succeed in any area of your life, then the sky really is the limit.

It then helps to have an idea of what you want to do, but if you can grow your desire enough, you’ll literally start seeking out ideas and alternatives naturally.

My actual income, if you haven’t guessed already, all comes via the internet. I get funds wired to my bank account and regularly receive checks from companies like Google, Clickbank and others. I make money online, but I do feel a bit uneasy about helping others do the same. There is a good reason for that though…

The ‘Make Money Online’ Industry is a Scam

I had hesitated to write this post, simply because people telling others how to make money online is usually thought of as something slimy and unethical. It’s quite ironic that one of the best ways to make money online is to teach others how to make money online. This is why there are literally thousands of bloggers telling you how to do it, even though they don’t do it themselves.

The industry, in general, is very devious. Even when I started writing a genuine guide for my friends, they would always email me or message me on Facebook with the link to the latest fad asking if it would work. Even though I was putting together this no-nonsense guide for them, they were still curious about whether these “overnight riches” systems would help them succeed.

I mean, after-all, they have screenshots and video proof. (Sarcasm)

There are some good guides out there, but I have no doubt that they are in the minority. I have been in this industry for four years and rarely come across something I want to purchase or would recommend to others.

In general, the make money online industry is a scam.

My Guide Is Not

There were months in South Africa where I was making far more money working a couple of hours per week on my own projects than I was in my full-time job. One day a colleague was sitting next to me while I was showing them something on my laptop and I was literally getting a flood of new emails from Paypal, my payment processor.

The subject title’s read: “New payment received”, “New payment received”, “New payment received” - they just wouldn’t stop coming in. I had earned about $250 in the space of 10 minutes; even while I was working on my normal job. Of course, my colleague started asking me lots of questions and I promised them that one day I would write a guide on what I do.

I was slow on the uptake, but this guide was finally finished about three weeks ago. I didn’t want to post about it here until I knew it was complete and people made money…

…and trust me; people made money.

My guide was a hands-on case study of myself taking a brand new website from scratch, and laying down all the details of how I was going to make money with it.

In 30 days of the live case study, which includes videos, thousands of words and detailed images, I made $850.

I wasn’t the only one though, I received dozens of thank you emails from people who followed the guide and started making cash…

Click Here to Read My “$850 in 30 Days” Case Study

“Can I Trust You?”

My obvious response to that would be “Yes”, but I’m actually saying no. Don’t trust me. Instead, let the results and my guide speak for themselves. The guide in total comprises of 11 parts and it will take you around 2 hours to go through everything.

I reveal my website and the exact steps I take to make money online. I perform the same tactics that are shared in the guide across a large number of industries, and that is why I was able to quit my day job. This isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme; successful ones simply don’t exist. I do however, honestly believe that with around 4-5 hours of solid work, you can make your first $100 this month online.

This is all completely legitimate and the finer details are all explained on the site. At the bottom of each post there is a link to the next section and they all follow on from each other in the order they should be actioned. The maximum investment you will need to make is $5 per month for a host and maybe $9 (one-off payment) for a domain. If you already have hosting and a domain you want to use then you can follow the guide without having to make an investment.

And, just to clear a few things up:

• You do not need any technical skills, this is written for a complete beginner
• As long as you can edit a text file on your PC, you can follow this guide
• I put this guide together for my close friends, it wasn’t originally supposed to be promoted

If you have any questions about any part of the guide, please ask over on HQHow. I recommend that you start at part one and then follow along. You don’t have to take action, but I honestly believe this is one of the best guides on the internet for beginners, and it is absolutely free.

Click Here to Read My “$850 in 30 Days” Case Study

In my very last night in the country, I was hanging out with my “girlfriend” and one of my best friends who basically told me how jealous he was of my opportunity but how much he looked up to me even though I was 4 years younger. I remember saying to him before we said our goodbyes that “I really, really hope I make the most of my chance and don’t waste it or take things for granted.”

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I have been back in the UK for almost 4 months now and it is the first time in my life that I’ve really been able to get a solid run going of working for myself. In terms of whether or not I’ve made the most of those four months though…I’m really not sure. Maybe my uncertainty is the answer.

I’ve been able to launch 4 successful websites, PluginID has close to 100 posts (which is well over 100,000 words) and I have managed to grow this site from 700 subscribers to over 3,000. My income goal for June is a hefty $15,000 and if I make it I have promised to give it all away - $5,000 each to my brother and sister, and $5,000 to charity.

While things are looking good, I know things could be going much, much better. The last couple of weeks I have been getting up late, spending full days out with my friends and generally just procrastinating. I’m definitely my harshest critic, as I’m sure is the same with all of you reading this, but I’ve decided to make a drastic change.

7 Days of Self-Discipline

This is where the 7 day self-discipline challenge comes in. For the next 7 days, I’m going to literally cut out of my life all the things that aren’t necessary to my income / business success and see how well that works out for me in terms of difficulty and more importantly, productivity.

I didn’t want to say cutting out all the time-wasters in my life because some of the things most people would view as time-wasters may actually beneficial for me in the long run. For example, if I spend 30 minutes on Twitter or Facebook in a day, then that could be seen as 30 minutes of being unproductive. However, I know that my connections on Twitter and Facebook very often become new blog readers, so in a sense the time on those sites is productive.

Needless to say, for the next 7 days, I’m only going to focus on things that are very important to me. I’m going to get started on a new eBook which will help people build and grow their own blog like I’ve done here. I’m also going to continue to promote some of my lesser known websites and hopefully round up all the tasks that I have been putting off.

So, what am I going to be cutting out? Let’s see…

• No Twitter, Facebook or Instant Messaging
• No TV
• No waking up late or staying out until 2-3am
• No sex or anything related (yes, I’m taking this seriously ;)
• No email or website stats checking

The way I have set-up my internet business, I could work 5 hours per week and still maintain my current income. While email is usually a large part of what I do, I feel that I can safely cut it out for 7 days without disrupting too many of my operations.

It takes around 21 days to form a new habit, so I really don’t know what to expect after this challenge. 7 days is long enough in that it will be challenging, but not too long in that I will be neglecting areas of my life on a large scale.

Are You In?

I know something like this will be far too difficult and drastic for other people to do as well. The only reason I’m doing this challenge is because I have high standards for myself and large goals I want to reach. I want to be in a position where none of my close family have to work and that is only going to happen if I take responsibility for my actions.

That being said, you should not cut out things which you can’t cut out. For example, if I stop promoting my websites my income will dry up fairly quickly, so that is not something I would do. That would just be stupid.

Instead, you should be smart but serious about the things you cut out. Identify the things that you could be wasting time or even the things that you do just because you don’t feel like doing your real tasks. This is for seven days and seven days only; I’m sure I will go back to a number of things after the 7 days are up. As should you.

Before you consider joining me, maybe you should look at what I hope to get out of this.

What I Want Out of This

I’m not doing these 7 days purely for the sake of it; I’m doing this for a number of reasons.

First of all, I want to push myself. I know for a fact I will struggle with this, especially the last two items on my list and that is why I’m doing it. I want to work on my own self-discipline and stop wasting time on things that don’t deserve or require the amount of time I’m giving them.

Secondly, I want more time and energy directed at productive activities. I’ve already stated I want to get started on a new eBook but I also have websites that deserve some more of my time and I want to write more great articles for you all over here at PluginID.

Finally, I’m interested in the results. After the 7 days I want to see whether I go back to the social media sites where I procrastinate, whether I still compulsively check email and whether I start going out till crazy hours of the morning with my friends.

If you’re joining me, I would love to hear from you in the comments. Note that I actually wrote this article on Saturday to start on Sunday so by the time you are reading this I should be on Day 4, but it’s never too late to start!

Link Love: I pride myself on being a blogger who actually interacts in the community so some link love goes out to Andrew, Adam, Sean, Lisis and Jonathan

A meeting at the club usually involves 4 people each giving an 8 minute speech and then 4 other members evaluating them. After that, everyone else who would like to speak is given a random topic which they have to speak about for 2 minutes.

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Being quite new to the club I had yet to make a longer speech, but my chance came when I was asked to put together a talk for the next meeting. Originally, I had written a speech about making goals and being able to achieve them; something I like to think I’ve been successful at. Within a few days I had put the whole thing together and just needed to start practicing it.

Around four days before the event, I was putting the finishing touches to my presentation and recording my efforts. It was at this time that I received a phone call to let me know that my gran, who had been in hospital for a few weeks, had sadly passed away.

It was at that moment that I decided to change the topic of my speech, aptly entitled: This is it. The meeting where I was supposed to give my talk ended up being cancelled so I never had the chance to present it. Therefore I’ve decided to share the talk with you all in this blog post in the hope that each of you can take something from it.

I have modified the speech slightly as text for a speech is quite different to text for a reader, but the main messages should still come across clearly.

Without further ado, here is the speech just after I had explained about my choice of topic…

I didn’t want to speak about death for 8 minutes; instead, I want to focus on problems - the things that usually seem so small in times of serious matters.

In order to talk about problems effectively, I decided to look at the three phases of time that our perceived problems come in: the past, the future, and the present.

The Past

Something highly obvious, but often forgotten about the past is that it is nothing more than a memory in your imagination. You can only ‘relive’ the past by thinking about it; you can’t go there, you can’t change it, and it will always be as it is.

Yet, while the past is nothing more than part of our imagination, it still has a strong hold on people in this present moment.

First of all, people define themselves by their past. Someone might say: “people made fun of me at school so I must be a loser now” or “I’ve never had a boyfriend or girlfriend so why should I be able to get one now” or even “I’ve had no lucky breaks come my way so why would that change”. We use the past to create limiting beliefs thinking that we can’t do such and such now because we’ve never done it before, and so on.

Secondly, we hold on to problems of the past. Some people who have had a hard childhood never seem be able to forget about the struggle that they’ve went through and it makes them miserable. Even something more recent, like having an argument with a colleague a few days ago, can still bring us down in this moment. This happens simply because we’re thinking about it and those thoughts can bring the exact same emotions as the actual event.

Thinking about the past or letting the past control our present isn’t the only thing that holds people back. There’s also the future.

The Future

If the past is nothing more than a memory of what has happened, then the future is nothing more than some projected thought of what might or should happen.

There are two aspects to ‘future’ thinking that people allow to control them and create problems in their lives. The first is that we worry about a possible event. When I had finished my speech I was getting worried about the possible reactions and how well it would go. I was comfortable and in my home, with nothing bad going on, yet there I was creating negative future projections and letting them bring my mood down in that moment. I was getting stressed at nothing more than mind made projections.

Secondly, we hope for salvation in the future. We tell ourselves that the future will bring happiness and wealth and fulfilment or anything else we desire. We use the future as some kind of scapegoat. Thinking that as soon as a certain event happens that we can be at peace or start enjoying life and being happy. We spend this moment now waiting for good things to happen in some other moment.

The Present

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If we cling to the problems of our past, and worry about what might be in the future, where do we find happiness and live problem free? That’s simple…this moment, right here, right now.

Before I get into that, I want to look at our tendency as humans to label and react to things. Without trying to cause too much controversy, my personal view is that every situation is completely neutral.

To help you understand that, let me ask you a question:

If a young girl gets hit by a car, is that positive, negative or neutral (neutral meaning it is what it is) ? The obvious response to that is that it’s negative, the girl should not get hit by the car, it just shouldn’t happen. Now what if the girl getting hit by a car allowed doctors to find a tumour that they would haven’t of otherwise found out about and managed to save her life. Is the car crash still negative, is it positive, or is it…what it is.

Regardless of your answers to that, what I’m getting at is that it’s completely up to you how you look at and react to things. You can see things negatively, which we tend to do, we can see things positively, or we can accept things as they are, and deal with the things we can deal with.

Even today, there are probably so many irrelevant little incidents that got each of us in a bad mood. The learner driver in front of you was going too slowly, your boss gave you a task to do that you didn’t like, your child made a mess when making breakfast and so on. We resist these things, we resent people and we constantly complain internally because we’ve already labelled the thing or person as ‘bad’.

Did you know, most car accidents aren’t caused by drivers who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Most car accidents are caused by drivers in emotionally charged states. For example, their football team may have just lost, they might have had an argument with their partner or something else that gets their adrenaline pumping before stepping into a car. They can’t let go of what has happened and be in the moment and instead hold onto their problems.

It is this kind of holding on to the past which causes fatal accidents.

Instead of holding on to incidents and let them control you, try to be here in the moment, as often as possible. Take in this situation, this moment, right now. You’re safe, you’re probably indoors and there are no problems you can have right now. You might think you had one 2 minutes ago, or you might think something will come up in 10 minutes, but right now, there are no problems. (See post for more info)

What eastern philosophy and spiritual teachers have been trying to tell us for a long time is pretty simple: now is all there ever is. Now is the only constant, it is never not now. I have practically eliminated “problems” from my life by trying to live in the moment as often as possible and not letting my thoughts bring me down.

Instead of holding onto problems of the past, instead of disregarding this moment because you think happiness is found in some perfect future - come back to this moment. Take in your environment, be in it, soak it all up. You’ll be surprised when you find peace and happiness in the most simple of situations.

Just like with my gran, we never know when our time is up. Make the most of this opportunity that we call life: this is it.